Doctrine and Exhortation

vanity of their own opinion, and boastfulness, love of money, and—the worst of all—pride—few indeed have cared to escape their assaults. ^A Thus, these have only a half-cleansing; or rather, they have remained impure in the greater and more sovereign part [of their soul]. They are like statues, which on the outside often shine with gold or bronze, but inside are filled with filth and every other base material.

II. Let us, therefore, be eager to be cleansed from these obscure vices and passions even more. And let this not escape us, brothers: how our enemy the devil, using many and various devices, attempts to deceive ^B us, and under the pretext of good, prepares us to fall into evil. For instance, he suggests the practice of hospitality, and that we should joyfully receive the brothers who visit us, and eat and drink at the same table with them. His motive is the good of charity; then, by degrees, creeping in and enticing us, he secretly draws us to serve our belly; and thence we are defiled to the point of nausea by lusts, pleasures, and immodesty. Again, to others he suggests almsgiving and kindness, and benevolence toward the needy, ^C and through this occasion he kindles in them a love of money, and rouses them to the frenzy of avarice. To others, acting as a tempter, he sows the benefit of the many as a snare, and causes them to abandon their solitude as if it were useless; and to converse with the worldly crowd; and sometimes he even persuades them to do this unwarily with women, as if they had already attained to a state of impassibility, and thus he shows these wretches to be passionate and lovers of pleasure. Leaving others undisturbed, and deceiving them into thinking they are not susceptible to any of the passions, ^D he puffed them up with pride, and thus easily overthrew them. Sometimes indeed, by granting a truce to the war and abstaining from battle, he induces those especially who had recently girded themselves for the struggles of the religious life to be secure and free from】 care, and thus, having cast them into sloth and caused them to neglect their labors, he suddenly attacks them as weak and unarmed, and moves, mingles, and stirs up in them a surge of ten thousand thoughts; indeed, he often plunges them into the deep of vices. To others again, he persuades them to have confidence in themselves, as if they had already attained a greater measure, and so he induces them to accept the thoughts of others and to hear the confessions of their passions and struggles; because they have not yet properly cleansed their own passions and vices, he first, in a passionate manner, instills in their minds the memories and images of what they have heard, and then miserably precipitates them into the defilements of the flesh. Since, therefore, the assaults of the tempter are so varied, manifold, and hard to detect, there will be great need for us to be cautious and vigilant, and to have our mind intent on the care of what is good; so that, being enlightened by Him, we may not, through ignorance, use what is evil as if it were good, nor may we fall into harmful things unawares, but let us be watchful and sober, examining from where, when, and how he makes his assaults, and let us not fall into any of them through lack of attention.

...mur; nor let us fall into harmful and blind states of soul; but let us be vigilant and sober, carefully considering from where, when, and how he attacks, and let us not stumble in any way whatsoever through the absence of presence of mind and through sloth.

THE APOPHTHEGMS OF ABBA ARSENIUS

ARSENIUS THE MONK TO THE TEMPTING LAWYER

^A A snare for a snare, O lawyer, and a trap for the trap you set! Do you see how you have fallen into the very pit you dug against Christ? Wherefore let your own law interrogate you in the place of Christ, so that we may know whether it was as to God or as to a mere man that you laid those treacherous snares. If it was as to God, then you are surely frustrated; for God cannot be circumvented by the guile of those who lay snares: Him whom, by a stronger necessity, you ought to love with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. But if it was as to a mere man, even then such a temptation will be no less unjust, since the law commands you to love your neighbor as yourself. And truly, who would wish to tempt himself with the crafty entanglements of words, so as to deliver himself up to death afterward? Do you not see that while you are knotting a snare for your neighbor, you are being bound by the same punishment? Do you not see that those who devise evil for their neighbors pay a sevenfold penalty for their malice? ^B On the contrary, Christ, out of the meekness and patience of his soul, omitting the necessity of doing or thinking good, commends the agreement of speech, in order to remove fear lest we ever experience [the need for] a retraction of false speech: "So," he says, "do, and you shall live." So consider every neighbor who is in danger, in need, or in whatever circumstances he may be situated.

But he who is not corrected either by the mandates of the law, or by the precepts of the Savior himself, or even by his own conscience, but acts like some poisonous serpent, sensing that his head is being struck by the blows of the law, he moves his venomous tongue and brings into the light all the malice that is the mother of death. For, he says, wishing to justify himself—that is, thinking himself to be righteous above all others, and [considering] no one