- 33 - On the other hand, as the measure of Divine aid increased, the assaults by the Powers of Evil were allowed to increase as well. • God does not allow anyone to be tempted beyond his strength. Children may not be as severely attacked by Evil as adults; shoulders able to bear only half a hundredweight must not be called upon to carry twice that amount. So, the celestial spirit that was to assume human form would not be exposed in childhood to the degree of evil influences with which it would have to contend as an adult. Only after it discovered its identity and the purpose to be served by its incarnation would hell be permitted to unleash its full strength. Then the life and death struggle would begin. That spirit as a mortal would have to fight defensively against Evil, which would try to induce it to abandon God. It had to be a battle that ended in the physical martyrdom of the incarnated celestial spirit, provided it remained steadfast unto death. • It is the recognized procedure of the Forces of Evil, when their light and intermediate artillery fail to reduce a fortress, to bring up their heaviest batteries in the shape of physical torture, and thus to try to compel surrender. For this they always find human instruments and helpers. If, in the face of the greatest torments of mind and body that the spirit could suffer as a mortal at the hands of the Powers of Hell and their human agents, it remained faithful and true to the last breath, then indeed it would have earned the greatest measure of Divine aid and strength which can be granted to any spirit. Armed with this Divine power it could, after its earthly death, wage an offensive battle against the Powers of Hell, which as a mortal it had been able to meet in defensive combat only. Its victory over Lucifer would then be assured, since the legions of heaven would be at its disposal. “It had to be a battle like that which had once raged in heaven when Michael and his legions overthrew Lucifer and his followers. This time, however, the battle was to be fought in hell, which the celestial redeeming spirit would invade, in order to overcome Lucifer on his own ground. Lucifer was not to be deprived of his sovereignty over the apostate spirits or to be condemned to utter impotence; the victor was only to curtail Lucifer’s previous authority, for theretofore he had exercised it not only over those who were with him at heart, but to an equal extent over others who had intentionally sided with him, it is true, but who now repented of their action and longed to be discharged from Satan’s foreign legion, in order that they might return to the kingdom of God. Through the victory of that high celestial spirit, Satan would be forced to release the penitent spirits from his despotism, retaining the right, however, to employ every means of temptation, as before, in order to bring about another change of heart in them and to bind them to himself anew. But no longer might he keep them under his sceptre by force as he had done in the past. He would be compelled, as it were, to pull back his border guards from the bridge built by the Redeemer, so that no spirit desiring to return to its homeland would be forcibly prevented from doing so. Should the Prince of Darkness consent to this limitation of his rights, which, as the vanquished one, he was compelled to do, and should this limitation be made explicit in the terms of the treaty of peace, its observance by Satan would thenceforth be obligatory, since God Himself was the
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