Pyrobolia, seu de ignitis Sathanae telis, commonefactio theologica

X. Ends o, cui O, for whom.

Both the Elect and the Reprobate are as it were Targets, toward which Satan aligns and directs his fiery Darts, and when the Lord permits, ejaculates them into them.

There is therefore no reason why any of the elect men should think himself exo belon outside the reach of the darts while he is a soldier in these lands. He who thinks he stands, let him see that he does not fall. 1 Cor. 10:12. Therefore Peter says most gravely: Resist the adversary firm through faith: knowing that the same afflictions are fulfilled by your brotherhood which is in the world. 1 Pet. 5:9.

What? Are the falls of the greatest men not a document that they have been attacked by fiery darts? Do not the most savage torments of Conscience attest the same?

But how little Satan spares the Reprobate, how cruelly he pins and consumes their hearts with fiery spikes, the most sad examples of those despairing show, such as Cain, Saul, Judas the traitor, and the like.

XI. Procatarctic Causes.

To speak in a word, the procatarctikai preliminary/antecedent causes are multiple. Often the memory of an old or recent fall brings and fixes a fiery Dart. David himself, at age fifty, said both things to Nathan: I HAVE SINNED AGAINST JEHOVAH. 2 Sam. 12:13. And, Do not remember the sins of my youth, and my transgressions: but according to your clemency, remember me: for your goodness' sake, Jehovah. Psalm 25:7. Often the conscience, of omission, of commission, of sayings or deeds in which reason and dignity were absent, is like a bow, by which a Dart is twisted against us. Sometimes sudden and aprosdoketa unexpected evils, or things which seem evil, such as troubles that interrupt a delicate life: Calumnies,