5.12.13 and 34.2.1 1.8 (CCL 38.25 and 319). The reference is no doubt pri-
TRACTATE 10
On John 2.12-21
N THE PSALM YOU HEARD the moaning of the poor whose members suffer tribulations throughout the i^^^^l whole earth even to the ends of the world. Strive hard, my brothers, to be among these members and of these members; for all tribulation will pass. Woe to those who rejoice! ' The truth says, "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted."^ God was made man. What will man be, for whose sake God was made man? Let this hope console us in every tribulation and temptation of this life. For the enemy does not stop persecuting; and if he does not rage openly, he acts with deception. For what does he do?"^ "And over and above their anger they acted treacherously."^ From this he is called the lion and the serpent.
(2) But what is said to Christ? "And you shall trample down the lion and the serpent."^ The lion because of his open danger, the serpent because of his concealed deception. The serpent drove Adam out of paradise; the very same one, as a lion, persecuted the Church, as Peter says, "Because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour."^ Let the devil not seem to you to have lost his rage; when he flatters, then he must be feared the more.
(3) But amid all these ambushes and temptations of his, what shall ve do except what we heard there: "But as for me,
1. Cf. Lk 6.25 2. Mt 5.5 (NAB 5.4).
3. Several codices have "say" instead of "do." 4. Augustine here apparently conflates Ps 5.1 1 and Ps 34. 20; see En in Ps 5.12.13 and 34.2.1 1.8 (CCL 38.25 and 319). The reference is no doubt primarily to Ps 34 which is the Psalm read for this day and which is referred to several other times in this Tractate.