he suffered the extreme of anguish. But desire of
Christ conquered nature, and the thirst wherewith he thirsted for God
bedewed the heat of thirst for water.

Now the devil, being envious and full of hate for that which is
beautiful, unable to endure the sight of such steadfastness of purpose,
and glowing love towards God, raised up against Ioasaph many
temptations in the wilderness. He called to his remembrance his kingly
glory, and his magnificent body-guard, his friends, kinsfolk and
companions, and how the lives of all had depended on his life, and he
minded him of the other solaces of life. Then he would confront him
with the hardness of virtue, and the many sweats that she requireth,
with the weakness of his flesh, with his lack of practice in such
rigours, the long years to come, this present distress from thirst, his
want of any comfort, and the unendingness of his toils. In a word, he
raised a great dust-cloud of reasonings in his mind, exactly, I ween,
as it hath been recorded of the mighty Antony.

But, when the enemy saw himself too weak to shake that purpose (for
Ioasaph set Christ before his mind, and glowed with love of him, and
was well strengthened by hope, and steadfast in faith, and recked
nothing of the devil and his suggestions), then was the adversary
ashamed of having fallen in the first assault. So he came by another
road (for many are his paths of wickedness), and endeavoured to
overthrow and terrify Ioasaph by means of divers apparitions.
Sometimes he appeared to him in black, and such indeed he is: sometimes
with a drawn sword he leapt upon him, and threatened to strike, unless
he speedily turned back. At other times he assumed the shapes of all
manner of beasts, roaring and making a terrible din and bellowing; or
again he became a dragon, adder, or basilisk. But that fair and right
noble athlete kept his soul in quietness, for he had made the Most High
his refuge: and, being sober in mind, he laughed the evil one to scorn,
and said, "I know thee, deceiver, who thou art, which stiffest up this
trouble for me; which from the beginning didst devise mischief against
mankind, and art ever wicked, and never stintest to do hurt. How
becoming and right proper is thy habit, that thou shouldest take the
shape of beasts and of creeping things, and thus display thy bestial
and crooked nature, and thy venomous and hurtful purpose! Wherefore,
wretch, attempt the impossible? For ever since I disc