But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
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Cyprian of Carthage
AD 258
Of this same thing in the Acts of the Apostles: "Why hath Satan filled thine heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Spirit, when thy estate was in thine own power? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God."
so that you would lie to the Holy Spirit:
Now if he believed that God can be deceived, he would think of Him irreverently, but if he believe that nothing is concealed from Him, either he despised His justice or he suppose that He looks with favor on deceit.
and be deceitful about the price of the land:
For Ananias became a thief of his own goods, secretly, as he thought, from all people and concealing his sin. (On Not Three Gods 25.333)
This history touches Bishops too, and very forcibly. And the wife of Ananias was privy to the thing done: therefore he examines her. But perhaps some one will say that he dealt very harshly with her. What do you mean? What harshness? If for gathering sticks a man is to be stoned, much rather ought he for sacrilege; for this money was become sacred. He that has chosen to sell his goods and distribute them, and then withdraws them, is guilty of sacrilege. But if he is sacrilegious, who resumes from his own, much more he who takes from what is not his own. And do not think that because the consequence is not now the same, the crime will go unpunished. Do you see that this is the charge brought against Ananias, that having made the money sacred, he afterwards secreted it? Couldest thou not, said Peter, after selling your land, use the proceeds as your own? Were you forbidden? Wherefore after you had promised it? See how at the very beginning, the devil made his attack; in the very midst of...
Observe even in this, a great miracle performed, greater far than the former. Whiles it remained, says he, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power?
why has Satan tempted your heart:
But can the devil put anything into our hearts? It seems he can, for a Psalm speaks of things "sent by evil angels" [Ps 77:49]. To explain this, we should note that what is in a person's thought and will is said to be in his heart. Understanding it the above way, there are two ways something can be put into our heart. First, directly; and in this way only one who has the power to move our will from within can put something into our heart. Only God can do this; But because the will is also moved by an external object, something apprehended as a good, it follows that anyone who brings to mind, or suggests that something is good is said to put something into our heart indirectly, by making us apprehend something as good, which in turn moves our will. This happens in two ways. By an external suggestion, and then one person can put something into another's heart; or by an interior suggestion, which is the way the devil puts something into our heart. For ou...
