ADDENDA. JOHN OF KARPATHOS GREEK TEXT OF THE CHAPTERS TO THE MONKS ESTABLISHED IN INDIA.
(From the *Philocalia* of the Holy Niptic Fathers, Venice 1783, fol., p. 211. A biographical notice precedes, which follows:) Concerning our Father among the saints, John of Carpathios, the time in which he flourished, where he completed his ascetic struggles, and other matters concerning him, are obscure. Only these facts does Photius A testify concerning him (in his *Bibliotheca*, codex 201): “Photius holds, then (referring to Diadochos), that John of Carpathios is also of great merit, who gives this title to his work: *Consolatory Chapters to the Monks in India who have appealed to him*. He also completes it in one hundred chapters. In these, for the most part, he exhorts his readers in a fatherly way to persevere in difficulties and to show patience regarding the temptations that come upon them.”
OF OUR HOLY FATHER JOHN OF CARPATHIOS TO THE MONKS IN INDIA WHO WROTE TO HIM ONE HUNDRED CONSOLATORY CHAPTERS
Just as those beggars who bring spring flowers to kings on earth are not only often not turned away, but also frequently receive gifts in return, so I, commanded by you, having borrowed from somewhere a single hundred of good words and offering them to you who have your citizenship in heaven—might I be favorably received, and might I receive in return the gift of your prayers.
1. Inasmuch as the King of all is perpetual, B possessing neither beginning nor end to His kingdom, so it happens that the zeal of those who choose to labor for His sake and for the sake of the virtues is more profitable. For the honors of the present life, even if they are very bright, pass away entirely with the present life; but those which are awarded by God to the worthy, since they are given with incorruptibility, remain forever.
2. The blessed David, working out a hymn to God through all creation, made mention of the angels and of all the invisible powers, and he descended even to the earth, so that he did not exempt the wild beasts, nor the cattle, nor the birds, nor the creeping things; because he considered that it was his duty to worship Him who created them and to lead the hymn from these—as if desiring that all that was made by Him should pay the same tribute. And how then could a monk who shares in the kingdom with the gold of Ophir ever grow numb or hesitate in the face of psalmody?
3. Just as the fire encompassed the bush and did not burn it, so even those who have received the gift of C apathy, even if they bear about a body that is very heavy and very hot, the heat of the body does not disturb or corrupt the flesh or the mind. For the voice of the Lord cut off the flame of nature. Because the will of God and the Word separated those things which were united according to nature.
4. The moon, increasing and again waning, manifests the condition of man—now acting rightly, now sinning, and then, through repentance, returning to a virtuous life. The mind of the one who has stumbled has not, therefore, perished, as some among you think; just as the body of the moon did not diminish, but its light did. So a man recovers his inherent brightness again through repentance, just as the moon, after waning, clothes itself with light from itself. For “he who believes in Christ, even if he dies, shall live,” and “he shall know,” He says, “that I am the Lord who have spoken, and I will do it.”
5. If one should rise up against D you in your mind...
regarding the swarm of enemy provocations [or rather, shameful thoughts], and you yield and are defeated, know that you have been separated for a time from divine grace; whence you were also delivered into the hands of your fall, according to a just judgment. Therefore, struggle never to be abandoned by grace through negligence, not even for a moment of time. But if you are able, having become stronger than the slip, A to overcome the rampart of passionate thoughts and the successive filthy assaults of the enemy’s varied schemes, do not be ignorant of the gift given to you from above. For the Apostle says: “Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” accomplished such a trophy; and from the foul thoughts rising up against me, it lifted me up; and from an unjust man, that is to say the devil, and from the old man, it delivered me. Whence, having been lightened by the wing of the Spirit, and lifted above the body, I was able to fly away above the hunting demons, who draw the human mind through pleasure—which they bring forward while compelling and urging it violently. Therefore, He who led me out of the land of Egypt, that is, the death of the soul of this world, He, fighting for me with a secret hand, struck down Amalek and provided me with hope that the Lord will also exterminate the rest of the nations of unholy passions from our face; this God of ours will give wisdom and power. For some have received wisdom, but not also the power of the Spirit to defeat enemies; this One will lift up your head over your enemies, and will give you wings as of a dove, and you shall fly away and find rest in God; the Lord will make your arms like a bow of bronze, firm and swift, showing you to be strong against the adversary, and tripping up under you all those who have stood against you. Therefore, attribute to the Lord the grace of purity, because He did not enclose you in the hands of the desires of your flesh and blood, and of those pestilential and unclean spirits that busy themselves with them, but He secured you by His own right hand. Build for Him an altar, just as Moses did after routing Amalek. For this reason, I will confess and praise Thee, O Lord, and I will sing to Thy name, magnifying Thy powers, because Thou hast delivered my life from destruction, and snatched me from the snares and nets of the circumspect, multiform, and treacherous wickedness.
6. Small passions are fanned into flames for us, and are renewed, and raised up, and multiplied by the evil demons; but the visitations of the divine Word, and especially if they come about through the shedding of tears, put the passions to death, even if they happen to be chronic, and dissolve them; and little by little they turn the deadly sinful operations of the soul and body into non-existence. Only let us not grow weary of waiting upon the Lord through prayer and unyielding and shameless hope.
7. Why does Christ prepare praise from the mouth of the believers who are infants in wickedness? Or rather, B is it not so that through the hymnody He might abolish the enemy and the avenger who tyrannizes greatly? An enemy indeed of the virtues, but an avenger of wickedness—the devil. Therefore, let us also, praising the Master with simplicity of heart, crush and dissolve the enemy’s machinations. For “by the multitude of Thy glory Thou didst crush the wars and those standing against us who were warring against us.”
8. If anyone exists in the form of an untimeliness, the half is said to be consuming the things of the flesh now, and the other half in the age to come; for each one shall know the fruits of his own way.
9. The monk is duty-bound to choose the most beautiful fasting, and not to be deceived by the passions, and to cultivate great silence always.
10. The demons who hate our souls suggest things to some so as to bestow upon us some cold praise, and then they urge us to be elated by it; if, therefore, having become puffed up with conceit, we give place also to vainglory, our enemies no longer labor to take us captive.
11. Accept the one who mocks you rather than the one who praises you; for it is written that the former is nothing different from one who is cursed.
12. When you strive for the fasting virtue but fail in it on account of weakness, and have crushed your heart, turn to thanksgiving for the Provider and Judge of all; provided, however, that you show yourself to the Lord as always contrite, and are never elated by any man.
13. The enemy, knowing that prayer is both our champion and his own plotter, and wishing to tear us away from it, casts us into a desire for Greek words, from which we have even departed, and urges us to be occupied with this; to whom let us not be persuaded, lest, having been led astray from the axes of our own cultivation, instead of figs and grapes, we harvest thorns and thistles; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.
14. “I proclaim to you,” He says, “a great joy, which shall be to all the people,” not to one part of the people; and “let all the earth worship Thee, and let them sing to Thee”—for it is not right that it be only a part of the earth. Moreover, to sing is not for the downcast, but for those who are cheered. If, therefore, these things are so, let us by no means despair, but let us travel through the present life cheerful, taking thought of that joy and cheerfulness from Him; nevertheless, let us mix the cheerfulness with divine fear, just as he says: “Rejoice unto the Lord with trembling.” For indeed, they who were around Mary ran out from the tomb with fear and great joy; perhaps we too shall one day burst forth from the intelligible tomb with trembling and joy. For I wonder if one can be without fear, because no one is sinless, even if it were Moses or the Apostle Peter; but nevertheless, in such cases divine love having conquered, it casts out fear at the time of departure.
15. That if one who is passionate believes with his whole heart and with a soul that hungers, he receives the gift of dispassion, you have Scripture bearing witness: “For today,” He says, “you shall be with Me in Paradise”; and, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace,” O you of the most blessed...
dispassion; and other such things; and “in the seed the grape will ripen,” and “according to your faith, let it come to pass for you.”
16. Whenever we are disposed heavily toward the passions, and are troubled more severely by the demons with shameful thoughts, then let us be anchored all the more in our faith in the Lord, and let us make firmer our hope in the eternal goods that have been promised, of which our enemies strive, through envy, to deprive us and to alienate us. For if those goods were not indeed most great, the demons would not be inflamed with such envy against us, shooting thick arrows of filthy thoughts; and in this they believe they are fulfilling their own madness, and they think they are driving us to despair through their unbearable and excessive agitation.
17. Some define the most true knowledge as being action. Strive, therefore, all the more to manifest both faith and knowledge in your deeds; for the man who is puffed up by knowledge alone shall hear that they confess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him.
18. For the most part, during the season of feasts and holy gatherings—and especially when one is about to approach the mystical table—the demons strive to defile the ascetic with shameful fantasies and the stirrings of passion. But let them not even in this break or weaken one who has been accustomed to bear all things steadfastly and bravely; and let not the crooked, as though they were straight, boast against us.
19. The enemies defend themselves against [our] character and eagerness, bruising the soul with varied and unspeakable temptations. For if the crown is woven for you from many and unutterable afflictions, and the power of Christ is perfected in weaknesses, and the grace of the Spirit is accustomed to bloom in gloomier conditions—for “light has sprung up in darkness for the upright”—then let us hold fast to our boldness and the boast of our hope until the end, firm.
20. Nothing is so apt to cause virtue to disappear as levity, joking, and idle talk. And again, nothing so renews the soul grown old, and prepares it to draw near to God, as the fear of God, holy attentiveness, the ceaseless meditation on the words of God, the arming of oneself with prayer, and the pursuing of the profit of vigil.
21. It is most suitable at once, and profitable to the soul, to bear every affliction robustly—whether brought on by men or by demons—and to know precisely that we are debtors for the hardship, and to blame no one else, but only ourselves, continuously. For he who blames another for his own troubles has slipped from the just judgment of what is fitting.
22. There is a time when a man is moved from his right station, even if he happens to be zealous, when temptations abound, becoming displaced from his own rank because A His whole B being, as Scripture says, has been swallowed up by wisdom and skill; so that we might not be trusting in ourselves, and that Israel might not boast, saying, “My hand has saved me.” Instead, hope to be restored to your former beautiful state, after the evil one has fallen away from you by divine command and been driven off. He indeed urges one both to see and to hear everything with passion, and rushes one toward sin; by thickening the mind like a dense cloud, he causes even the flesh to experience an unspeakable weight and bulk, and he renders the innate reason—which was a simple and guileless thing, like that of newborn babes—manifold and overly experienced in every kind of sin, having poisoned and perverted it through instability.
23. Man is a great thing, growing inwardly and being magnified by virtues. But yet this great one fears sin as the elephant fears the mouse, lest, having preached to others, he himself should become a castaway.
24. Not only near the end of the world will the devil speak words against the Most High, as Daniel says; but even now, there are times when he sends into the heaven itself—through our thoughts—heavy blasphemies, and speaks evil against the Most High Himself, and His creatures, and the holy mysteries of Christ. But we, having stood upon the rock of knowledge, would not tremble at these things, nor would we marvel at the audacity of the wicked one. Using faith and a more fervent prayer, and having attained the help from above, we defend ourselves against the enemy.
25. The enemy comes against the soul that has departed from the body, fighting and reproaching with audacity, becoming a bitter and fearful accuser regarding those things in which it has transgressed. But one may see at that time the God-loving and most faithful soul—even if it was previously wounded many times by sins—not becoming terrified by his onslaughts and threats, but rather being braced in the Lord, winged with joy, taking courage from the holy powers that lead it, and being walled around with the light of faith. It cries back to the wicked devil with great boldness: “What have you to do with us, you who are estranged from God? What have you to do with us, you fugitive from the heavens and wicked slave? You do not have authority over us; for Christ, the Son of God, has authority over us and over all; to Him we have sinned, and to Him we shall give an account, having as our pledge of the mercy and salvation shown to us His precious Cross. But you, flee far from us, you destroyer; there is nothing for you to do with the servants of Christ.” As the soul says these things with courage, the devil at once turns his back, wailing with cries, having not been able to stand against the name of Christ. Being above, the soul is established, bruising the enemy, just as the bird called the “swift-winged” [bruises] the raven. And after this, it is carried by the holy angels, rejoicing, into the places...
A destined for it, according to its state.
26. That the zealous one is sometimes hindered from progressing by some small temptation through divine permission—let the *echeneis* (the “ship-holder,” a tiny fish) persuade you, which, by its mere touch, constrains a vessel laden with ten thousand things, and stops even that which had been moving forward. And remember, by all means, him who says: "I, the great Paul, both once and twice desired to come to you, but Satan hindered us." But do not be troubled by this; rather, struggle on through patience, and you will obtain grace.
27. He who is greatly prospering in virtues, if through sloth he deviates from what is proper, the sons of the wicked east, Amalek and especially B Midian, come up against him—the pleasure-loving power, along with their camels, that is to say, the passionate memories, of which there is no number; and they destroy all the produce of the land, that is, of the best action and habit. And then, finally, Israel becomes poor and greatly loses heart, and is compelled to cry out to the Lord. And thus, a good thought is sent from heaven, imitating Gideon, through great faith and humility. For he says, "My thousand is the weakest in Manasseh," so that, with three hundred weak men, he might stand in battle array against such great multitudes and set up trophies paradoxically against the adversaries through the alliance of grace.
28. You will not even be able to tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and the rest [of the verse], unless you have entreated God with many prayers, and have received protecting angels, who raise you up with their own hands and lift you above the muddy way of thinking.
29. Whenever someone who is boxing is defeated, let him by no means be downcast or weary, but, being raised up by the words of Isaiah, let him be of good cheer, chanting these things: “You have been strong, yet you are defeated, O evil demons; for even if you gain strength again, you shall be defeated again, and whatever counsel you may devise, the Lord shall scatter it, for God is with us—the God who raises up the broken and prepares our enemies to be cut down whenever we repent.”
30. ...tempted by temptations, but after these, such people are filled with great joy and sweet tears and divine thoughts, as much as they have cultivated pain and affliction in their hearts.
31. If Isaac, and the one once rushing, Esau, failed in their desire for the blessing, despite the mercy, blessing, and anointing in the spirit of God—not that which we ourselves wanted, but that which God, before we were fashioned, foreordained for service—let us by no means be troubled, nor let us envy, when we see certain brothers, beggarly C and least, advancing in virtue. You have heard even the Lord saying: “Give this man place,” so that he may recline higher. Let us rather admire the Judge in these things, who has judged wisely and ineffably: that one, the least and last, to take the lead and preside; us, on the other hand, [in the] last...
32. Never accept [a person] in your subjection saying to you, “Grant me time for virtue, to test this thing or that, and thus to succeed.” For he who says this clearly is fulfilling his own will and is violating the conditions of the best subjection.
33. The passions of the flesh and soul, as you see, will be obliterated by time and the divine nod, even if they have increased; but the mercy of Christ shall by no means be corrupted. For the mercy of the Lord [is] from this age and unto the coming age upon those who fear him.
34. Royal treasuries will be filled with gold, and the minds of true monks will be filled with knowledge.
35. There is a time when a teacher is given over to dishonor, undergoing temptations for the sake of those who have been spiritually benefited. For "We," he says, "are dishonored, and being dishonored by the thorn, and being weak; but you have become glorious and strong in Christ."
36. The fountain and cause of corruption through the flesh is the passionate thought; this, through repentance, he who has remained vigilant after the fall drives out from the soul. For you have done well to step over [it] rather, so that he who urged you to do this deed, the wicked and lawless thought, might be removed from your midst. Therefore, mourning is opposed to the spirit of corruption.
37. Who will announce to the one crushed in dishonor and the weakness of the virtues that he will see Jesus? Not only in the future, but already from now coming to him with power and great glory through dispassion? So as to say, according to Sarah—the soul that has aged in barrenness and, contrary to expectation, has borne a son of righteousness—that “God has made laughter for me,” that is, has granted me the greatest joy, to one who had been grieved for many years by the multiplicity of sufferings; or, as another interpreter rendered it, “God has made tenderness for me,” that is, “My youth was renewed like the eagle.” For having grown old formerly in sins and passions of dishonor, now I have been reborn, and I grow and am loosened, [I] who was previously hardened by matter. And I see the things in the world smoothly now, having recovered the natural simplicity and lack of complexity, my mind having been healed by the great compassion of God. And my flesh has become like that of the Syrian Naaman, like that of infants, because I have been washed in the Jordan of knowledge. And I am of one mode, by the grace of God cast off from the mind of the serpent and the [stiff] crowd of thoughts, which I had acquired contrary to nature before, full of experience and full of material thoughts of wickedness.
38. Imagine the Lord saying to you: “At a certain time I took away from you this and that gift, for which it seemed that your mind was finding assurance, and to be resting; but I have given you instead of them another in return...
and while you consider the things taken away, but do not consider the things given instead of them, you grow despondent and grieve, and are wounded by your sorrow; yet you yourself gladden me, being grieved by me. For I grieve you for your benefit, endeavoring rather to save, not to destroy, the son [whom I have considered as a son]. C
39. Consider it an order for yourself not to eat fish, and observe after this that the enemy urges you relentlessly toward the desire for fish; and you in turn likewise urge yourself toward the enjoyment of what you have willfully decided against, so that you may learn the things that have happened to Adam in a typological way. For he, having heard, "You shall not eat of this thing alone," ran with great desire precisely toward this, and only toward that which had been forbidden.
40. For God saves one through knowledge and another through integrity and guilelessness; for you ought to know that God will never reject the guileless man.
41. Those who employ prayer more vehemently, these are ravaged by fearful and savage temptations.
42. If you have chosen to put on dispassion, do not remain without concern, but exert yourself with all your might to attain it; for we groan, longing to have clothed ourselves with our habitation which is from heaven, so that it may be swallowed up, not only bodily after the completion of the age, but also even from here, intellectually, as a pledge, the mortal by life; for death has been swallowed up in victory. And all the Egyptians who oppress us, pursuing after us, will be swallowed up in the waves of the force sent down to us from heaven. D
43. If you forget the one who said, "I fear lest having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified," and, "He who thinks he stands, let him take heed lest he fall," and you, the spiritual man, watching yourself, fear that you too might be tempted; and if you forget the backsliding and lawlessness of Solomon after such great grace; and if you consign to oblivion the unexpected denial of the great Peter; take heart in your knowledge, and boast of your ascetic life, and pride yourself in the time of your long practice, and give place to pride. But do not by any means become careless, O brother, but fear all the more so long as you breathe, even if you have reached the number of the years of Moses, and pray saying, "O Lord, do not cast me off in the time of old age; when my strength fails, do not forsake me, O God my Savior; in You is my singing always."
44. The Lord says to you, as to Matthew, "Follow me." You, therefore, pursuing your much-desired Master with eagerness, if along the path of life you strike your foot against an impassioned stone, and you fall into sin unexpectedly, or even many times—muddy places being found where you did not wish—you have slipped and fallen; as often as it happens that you fall and crush the body, just as often, having arisen, pursue your own Lord with the same eagerness until you reach Him. Thus, in holy contemplation, I have appeared to you, to behold the power and glory that saves me, and in Your name, O Lord, I will lift up my hands, and I will find relief. And I shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my lips shall rejoice, singing to You; for it is a great thing to me that I have been named a Christian, just as the Lord says to me through Isaiah, that "It is a great thing for you to be called my servant."
45. The Scripture says in one place, "The Father will give good things to those who ask Him," and in another, "He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask." By these words we understand that the suppliants of God attain not only forgiveness of sins, but also the pouring out of heavenly gifts, being strengthened by such a mindset, that the Lord promises such good things not to the righteous, but to sinners. "For if you," He says, "being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" Ask, therefore, relentlessly and with an unwavering mind, even if you are lowly according to virtuous life, and very weak, and beyond that which you deserve, and you shall receive great things.
46. How might the unbeliever or the man of little faith be persuaded that an ant grows wings, and a worm in turn becomes a winged creature, and that many other things happen paradoxically in creation, so that even thus, having laid aside the sickness of unbelief and of hopelessness, he might eventually sprout wings and bloom like a tree with the most famous knowledge? "For I am," He says, "He who makes the dry wood bloom and brings to life dry bones."
47. In no way, for the sake of the body's need, should we seek to be wasted by anxieties, but with our whole soul let us trust in God, just as a certain good man once said: "Trust in the Lord, and you shall be trusted." And as the blessed Apostle Peter writes: "Be sober, and be watchful in prayers, and casting all your care upon God, for He cares for you." But if you still doubt and disbelieve that He cares at all about you for the sake of feeding you, look at the spider, and observe how much a man differs from a spider. I mean the spider, than which there is nothing weaker or more powerless. For this, having no possessions, nor making journeys across the sea, nor going to law, nor growing angry, nor possessing storehouses, leads its own life in complete gentleness, and temperance, and in extreme silence; and neither busying itself at all with the affairs of its neighbors, but doing only its own things, it uses in its own work a certain quiet and untroubled state, all but uttering a voice for those who are ambitious for laziness: that every man who wishes to be lazy, let him not wish to eat. And it is so silent that it surpasses Pythagoras, whom the Greeks admire above all philosophers because he trained them to exercise restraint of the tongue. Pythagoras, then, even if he did not speak to everyone, yet to those most dear to him...
he would speak in private from time to time, and often he would address oxen or eagles, uttering some nonsense and ravings. He abstained completely from wine and used only water. By this A supreme and utter silence, he surpassed the Pythagorean restraint of the tongue; and he spurned not only wine-drinking but also hydro-potation. In such a quiet and tranquil state, then, a lowly spider, which does not venture to walk outside anywhere, nor wander hither and thither whimsically, nor labor and toil endlessly—the Lord, who dwells on high and beholds the humble (for nothing is more humble than a spider), extending his providence even to it, sends it its daily food, arranging for the insects needed for its sustenance to fall into its webs.
μ’. But perhaps one of those enslaved to gluttony will say, "I eat a great deal, and because I am very expensive to maintain, I am forced to be entangled in the countless worldly busyness of life." But let even him look at the great whales, grazing in the Atlantic sea, fed abundantly by God, and never having experienced hunger. For each such beast swallows as much food as not even a populous city could expend in a day. "For all," he says, "wait for you to give them their food in due season." Is it not, then, God who feeds both the one who eats much and the one of small appetite? Having heard this, you too, who possess a plate and a spacious belly, entrust yourself from now on entirely to God and to faith; shaking off every distraction of the world and the anxious mind, and become no longer faithless, but faithful.
μθ’. If we wish in truth to please God, and to be joined in the most blessed friendship, let us present our mind naked to God, dragging along nothing of the present age, neither art, nor thought, nor sophism, nor excuse, even if we are educated in all the wisdom of the world. For the Divine recoils from those who approach it with a haughty manner, and who are fed by vainglory and are puffed up; for well have some of the interpreters used the word "feeding-trough" and "bellows" for such vain conceits.
ν’. How might we be able to overthrow the sin that has taken hold? Force is needed. For a man, he says, toils in labors and does violence to his own destruction, contending always to move upward toward the holiness of his own thoughts. And yet, it is not forbidden by the laws to loosen violence with violence. If, then, we bring to bear a violence of some zeal, even if very weak, and we wait for power to come upon us from on high B while we sit in Jerusalem, that is, in unceasing prayer and the other virtues, when will a strong violence come to us? For surely not a violence that works against our own strength, but a violence that cannot be described through fleshly lips, winning with great might, and battling against both the most wicked character and the malice of the demons, overcoming also the inclination of our souls toward the worse, and overcoming the unseemly movements of the body. "For there came," he says, "a sound from heaven as of a violent wind rushing," so that it might do violence to the wickedness that is always forcing us toward the worse.
να’. The enemy lies in wait like a lion in his fold, and hides for us traps and snares of impure and impious thoughts; but we too, if we do not fall asleep, shall be able to set and station traps and snares and arguments against him. For prayer and psalmody, vigilance and humility, service to our neighbor, and mercy, and thanksgiving, and the hearing of divine oracles become an ambush for the enemy, and a trap, and a pit, and scourges, and a noose, and snares.
νβ’. Having progressed very far in age, the inspired David, giving thanks to the God who chose him, says concerning the end of the blessing, that "Now your servant has found his heart to pray this prayer." This has been said so that we might learn that much struggle and time is needed in prayers, so that we might barely find a state of mind free from disturbance, a certain other heart-heaven, where Christ dwells, as the Apostle says: "Or do you not recognize that Jesus Christ dwells in you?"
νγ’. If Christ has become for us righteousness and wisdom, and so forth, it is clear that he is also rest. "Come to me," he says, "all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." It has been well said, then, that the Sabbath, that is, the rest, was made for man. For in Christ himself alone will the human race attain rest.
νδ’. Just as there is a cup of downfall and a bowl of wrath, so there is also a cup of infirmity, which the Lord, having taken from us at the proper time, gives into the hands of our enemies, so that from now on it is not we, but the demons, who suffer infirmity and fall.
νε’. As in external matters there are money-changers, weavers, bird-catchers, warriors, and craftsmen, so also in the internal mind, there are in the thoughts gamblers, sorcerers, pirates, hunters, associates, killers, and the like; and one must quickly lock them out through pious counter-argument and prayer, and especially the [wicked] associates, so that they may not hold communion in the holy place and defile the temple of God. C
νς’. Not only with the tongue is the Lord robbed for the sake of salvation, as with the thief crying out from the cross, but also with the mind. For "she said," it says, "in herself, the woman with the flow of blood: 'If I touch the fringe of his garments, I shall be saved.'" And the servant of Abraham, speaking to God about Rebecca in his mind. D
A LVII. This sin almost drives the repentant one, who gains a sense of its foulness and weight and madness, toward God; but to him who is unwilling to incline toward repentance, it does not drive him toward God, but rather, holding him to itself, it binds him with indissoluble chains, henceforth producing the desires of destruction more intensely and bitterly.
LVIII. Keep yourself from the drugs of Jezebel, of which the thoughts of pride and vainglory are the most prominent. B You will be able to overcome these by the grace of God, by despising the soul and treating it as worthless, and by casting yourself before the Lord, and calling upon Him to help you, and knowing that the gifts are heavenly, wherefore He says: "No one can receive anything, unless it has been given to him from heaven."
LIX. The law says: "And if there be those who have testified to him and he does not destroy him, he shall pay." There are times when a vainglorious thought leaps forward at a banquet, wishing to speak out of season. But the angelic thoughts witness to you to destroy the babbling and untimely thought. If, therefore, you do not destroy it with good silence, but allow it to come forth, having been puffed up by pride, then you will indeed pay the debt, having been handed over by justice either to a great sin, or to some heavy bodily pains, or to harsh collisions with brothers, or to the punishment in the age to come. For indeed, we shall render an account for an idle and vainglorious word because of our unlearnedness of tongue. Therefore, it is necessary to guard our tongue while sober.
LX. Those who are tempted in pleasures, and in angers, and in vainglory, and in the like, are said to be burned by the sun by day, and by the moon by night. Submit, therefore, to be covered by the dew-bearing cloud of God, so that you may escape the conflagration of the enemies.
LXI. Under no circumstances give boldness toward you to those who are champions of drunkenness and servants of a disordered table; nor to those wishing to speak to you with shamelessness, even though they might be gray-haired, or might have spent a long time in the solitary life, so that, according to the Scripture, "rottenness" may not cover you, and you be led away to those who are unclean and uncircumcised in heart.
LXII. First Peter is entrusted with the keys, then he is C permitted to fall into denial, so that his mind might be restrained by the fall. Therefore, you also, if you have received the key of knowledge and fall into various thoughts, be not astonished; but glorify our only wise Lord, who restrains by incidents the conceit rising up against higher knowledge; for temptations are a bridle, capable of restraining the human puffing up, by the providence of God.
LXIII. If the Lord often takes away good things from us, as he did the wealth of Job ("For the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away"), surely He will also take away from our hands the evils which the Eternal One has brought upon us. "For," he says, "good and evil are from the Lord," and He who has brought evils upon us, He Himself will bring upon us D the eternal joy with eternal glory. "For just as I watched," says the Lord, "to destroy and to do evil to you, so will I build up, and I will not tear down, and I will plant, and I will not uproot." Let the common proverb therefore be silent, which says: "Where it is ill, it is not well"; for the Lord who has changed things for the worse can certainly change these things again for the better unexpectedly.
LXIV. He who steps more fiercely and contentiously against the demons, whether through self-control, or through prayer, or through every virtue, will receive deeper wounds from them, until he is also reduced to despondency, beholding the answer of intellectual death in his own soul. So that he is forced to say: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" for I am compelled unwillingly to submit to the laws of the adversary.
LXV. It was not written without cause that some said to themselves: "Arise, and we will come upon a people trusting in hope, and at rest." And again: "Come, let us go up and converse with them in a crafty, intellectual tongue, and turn them away from the truth toward us." For the terrible demons are accustomed throughout all of life to sharpen the swords of temptations against those who have chosen the life of quiet, and to campaign more maniacally against those who are more pious and God-fearing, pushing them into sin in the very act, with unbearable wars, perhaps even thus being able to turn away those who are fought against from the faith in Christ, and from prayer, and from good hope. But we, as David says, "We will not depart from Thee, until Thou have pity on us, and they who swallow us up be far from us." We will not depart from Thee until Thou command those who tempt us to depart from us, and we be made alive through patience and firm apathy. Because the life of man is a place of pirates, and for a fixed time he is often prepared by the judge to fall under the feet of aliens; but it is characteristic of a high-minded and noble soul not to despair in calamities.
LXVI. If a demon is so strong as to be able, even against the will of man, to reshape him and carry him off toward his own inclination, having departed from the good state according to nature, how much more can an Angel, having received at the appointed time the command of God, turn the whole disposition of man toward the better? And if the all-chilling north wind had such power as to change the most tender nature of water into the hardness of stones, what would the most warm South wind do? If the air, being exceedingly chilled, makes all things yield to it and constructs (for who shall stand before His cold?), how would heat not change all things toward itself? For what shall stand before the face of heat? Let us, therefore, kindle the cold and black coal of our mind, sooner or later, to be hot.
A And to be light-like through the application of the most divine fire.
ξζ'. There is also, in the present state, a testimony and a sign set before our inner, hidden Joseph, for we are one: in accordance with which the intellect, having gone out of Egypt, departs from the passionate urges and from the most shameful slavery in the basket, and it hears a language which it did not previously know—no longer the filthy language of demons, which corrupts the correct mind, but the holy language of light-bearing angels, who reshape the intellect from the body to the incorporeal; a language that illuminates the soul which receives it.
ξη'. I have heard of certain brothers whose bodies were in unremitting sickness, and who, being unable to employ fasting, said to me: "How can we, without fasting, be delivered from the devil and the passions?" To these one must say that not only through abstinence from food, but also through the cry of the heart, you will be able to wear down and cast out both the evil things and the instigators of evil. "For they cried," he says, "to the Lord when they were afflicted, and He delivered them." And again it is written: "Out of the belly of Hades you heard the sound of my cry; and let my life rise up from corruption." Therefore, until iniquity—that is, the harassment of sin—passes, I shall cry, he says, to the most high God, so that by granting the greatest benefit, He may, by His own authority, cause the very assault of sin to vanish, and may wipe out the idols of the passionate mind, and show those "Athens" of ours, which we have filled with idols, to be devoid of idols. If, therefore, you have not received the gift of temperance, know that through prayer and hope the Lord is willing to be heard by you in your pleading. Having known, then, the judgment of the Master, do not be downcast at the weakness of your askesis; but rather provide work, having been freed from the enemy through prayer and grateful patience. If, therefore, the thoughts of weakness and of misery pursue you from the city of fasting, flee to the other; that is, to prayer and to thanksgiving.
ξθ'. Pharaoh says, supplicating: "Let God take away from me this death," and he was heard. Similarly, also, the demons, having besought the Lord that they not be sent into the abyss, obtained their request; by how much more will a Christian man be heard, when he asks to obtain freedom from intellectual death?
ο'. He who is illuminated and refreshed for a time by the divine grace, but after its withdrawal falls into wanderings and grumbles because of this, and does not take courage to call back that saving assurance through prayer, but instead is vexed, is like a beggar who has received alms from the palace and is displeased because he did not enter inside to dine with the king.
σα'. "Blessed are those who have not seen Me and have believed," as those are blessed who, when grace withdraws, find no consolation in themselves; but rather, seeing a lengthening of their afflictions and deep darkness, do not despair, but are strengthened by faith, in the belief that they see the Invisible, and endure bravely.
οβ'. The humility which is given from heaven to those who seek it, at the proper time, after many struggles, sorrow, and tears—in accordance with the grace of God—is stronger by far and greater than the humility which comes to those who have fallen from virtue; those who have been deemed worthy of this are truly perfect men, and unassailable.
ογ'. When the devil left the Lord, then the angels came and ministered to Him. One must know, therefore, that just as it is not recorded that the angels were present when He was being tempted, so also when we are tempted, at certain times, the angels of God withdraw not far away; then, after the departure of the tempters, they come to us, ministering divine thoughts, supports, illumination, contrition, consolation, patience, sweetness, and whatever saves, strengthens, and restores the weary soul. For it was said to Nathanael: "You shall see the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man"—that is, the ministry and assistance of the angels will be poured out upon the race of men in abundance.
οδ'. Remember that high priest, at whose right hand the devil stood, to oppose him in every right thought, and word, and deed, so that you might not be shaken by the things that occur.
οε'. It behooves the monk to know what weakness is, according to: "Have mercy on me, for I am weak"; and what apostasy from God is, which is a disease for the devil and his angels.
οζ'. In the way that the union of fire makes iron untouchable, so frequent prayers prepare the mind more strongly for the war of the enemy; for this reason, they strive with all their might to cause us sloth regarding the attendance of prayer, knowing that it is a rival to themselves, but a champion of the mind.
οζ'. David accepted the zeal of those who had marched out of Ziklag with him against the aliens, even if, having grown weak, they remained at the brook Besor. For, having returned to them after victory over the Barbarians, and having heard those who said that a portion of the spoils should not be given to those who had sat down at the brook out of exhaustion—and with those men ashamed and saying nothing—the most kind David defends them, saying that they sat by the gear keeping watch; therefore he awarded them an equal portion of that which was given to the brave and stout-hearted warriors. Consider, therefore, whether, in the case of some brother who has shown warmth at the beginning, but later has flagged for a little, the "gear of salvation" might be understood as faith and repentance, humility and weeping, patience and hope and long-suffering, and the rest; regarding which someone who is idle in his manner, having been seated...
and persevering in the expectation of Christ, happens—as is fitting—to possess some eternal gift.
[oη] 68. Some are called Levites and priests, those who have consecrated themselves wholly to God, both in action and in contemplation. But those are called "beasts of the Levites" who are not yet strong enough to walk in the footprints of the passions, yet who yearn for virtue and are eager for it as far as they are able, and who desire it continuously, even if they often fail because they have been unnerved by wickedness. But it is likely that, at the proper time, these too will receive the gift of apatheia, through the sheer philanthropy of God. For, "The Lord has heard the desire of the poor."
[oθ] 69. Often we notice and see the torments which the enemy brings upon us, whether openly or invisibly. However, the tortures and pains which he undergoes from us—when we occasionally bring our virtues to completion, or repent of our transgressions, or show long-suffering and patience in our falls, or pray and practice the rest of the exercises—for which he himself is galled, punished, mourns, and beats his breast—all these things we, by a divine dispensation, do not see, lest we become haughty. For He says, "It is just before God to repay with affliction those who afflict us."
[π] 70. If a withered trunk in the earth, and in rock, sprouts again at the scent of water, just like a new plant, it is likely that we too, being raised up by the power of the Holy Spirit, will sprout again into the incorruptibility we received by nature, and produce a harvest just like the new plant, even if we have fallen into the old man.
[πα] 71. To a soul that has renounced itself out of an excess of temptations and a swarm of sins, and is saying, "Our hope has perished, we have been divided," it has been said by God, who does not despair of our salvation: "You shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord." And to the soul that is perplexed as to how it shall be able to bring forth Christ through great virtues, it has been said: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you." But where the presence of the Holy Spirit is, do not thereafter seek the sequence and law of nature and habit; for the adorable and Holy Spirit is omnipotent, and He brings into being for you things that did not exist, so that you might be amazed. Yet He also now proves the mind, which was formerly conquered, to be a victor; for the Paraclete who comes from above to us out of compassion is above all things; for He sets you above all physical movements and demonic passions.
[πβ] 72. Strive to keep the luminosity in your governing faculty unblemished. If you begin to see with passion, the Lord has darkened you and sent forth a bridle for your face, "and the light of your eyes is not with you." But even if things are thus, do not grow weary, nor be dissolved, interceding with holy David: "Send forth your light and your truth to me, O you who make me gloomy, the salvation of my face and my God; for you shall send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth."
[πγ] 73. Blessed is he who eats and drinks insatiably prayers and psalms here, night and day, and strengthens himself with the glorious reading of the Scripture; for such a reception will provide for the soul an undiminished joy in the age to come.
[πδ] 74. Secure yourself with all your strength not to fall; for falling does not befit a strong athlete. But if it happens that you fall, immediately jump up and stand again for the good contest. And if this happens ten thousand times due to a withdrawal of grace, let that—that is, the rising—also happen ten thousand times, even up to your end. For it is written: "If a righteous man falls seven times"—that is, throughout his whole life—"he shall rise again." As long as you hold the weapon of the holy habit, with tears and supplication to God, count yourself among those who stand, even if you have fallen often; as long as you remain with the monks, like a brave soldier receiving wounds to your front, for which you will be praised the more, because you did not endure to give in or turn back even when struck. But if you turn away from the monks, you are thereafter struck in the back like a fugitive, a coward, a deserter, and one without boldness.
[πε] 75. It is worse to despair than to sin. For Judas, the traitor, was small-souled and inexperienced in battle, and because of this, the enemy surged upon him, he being in despair, and wrapped a noose around him. But Peter, the solid rock, though brought to a terrible fall, as one experienced in battle, was not shattered, nor did he despair in sorrow; but having jumped up, he brought forth most bitter tears from a crushed and humbled heart; and immediately our enemy, seeing these things—as if being burned in his eyes by the most violent flames—leaped away, fleeing far off and howling terribly.
[πς] 76. Against these three especially must the monk have an undeclared war: against gluttony, against vainglory, and against the love of money, which is idolatry.
[πζ] 77. A certain Israelite king overcame the nation of the Troglodytes and the other Barbarians with psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes, in the words and instruments of David. You too have barbarian Troglodytes—those who clothe demons in your senses, who punish your flesh through burning, and prepare you to look and hear with passion, to smell, to speak inappropriate words, to have eyes full of adultery, and to be confounded within and without according to Babylon. Be concerned, therefore, you also, with great faith, with psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes, to utterly exterminate the Troglodytes who produce evils.
[πη] 78. Just as the Lord wishes a man to be saved through a man, so too Satan hastens for a man to be lost through a man. Therefore, one must not attach himself to a man who is a despiser, malicious, and who does not guard his tongue, lest you go into punishment with him. For scarcely does one reach the salvation of the righteous. But if one associates with the wicked-doer without being on guard, just like a plague and leprosy...
A he will find a ready shipwreck. And who then will have mercy on the one who cheerfully approaches the dragon? Flee, therefore, from those who are uninstructed in speech, and from those who stir up strife, and from those who are troubled by inward and outward members.
89. Who is wise, and understanding, and desires to be called a friend of God, so that he may strive to present his soul to the Lord such as he received it from Him, pure and unwounded, and altogether blameless, and for this reason be crowned in the heavens and pronounced blessed by the angels? B This refers to the previous entry, where the Lord transformed the thief and brought him into paradise; but one unbecoming word barred Moses from the land of promise. Let us not, therefore, consider talkativeness to be a small sickness; for those who love to revile and are prattlers shut the kingdom of heaven against themselves. For a garrulous man, even if he be directed aright here, shall not be directed aright there; nay, rather he shall stumble and wicked things shall hunt him down to destruction. Well, therefore, did a certain wise man say that it is better to fall from a height to the ground than from the tongue. We must, therefore, believe James the Apostle writing: "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak."
91. So that we may not be tossed about, deceived by the senses concerning vanity, it is good to attend to the One who says: "Go, my people, enter into the chamber of your heart that is hidden from every sensible thought, that shrine without idols, which is illumined by dispassion and by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit; lock your door to all visible things, hide yourself for a little while—for all human life is brief—and after this," as He says, "until the wrath of the Lord passes." As another said, until iniquity passes. For the wrath of the Lord, and iniquity, are perhaps the demons, and the passions, and the sins; as Isaiah says to God: "Behold, You were angry, and we have sinned." But a person escapes this wrath by constantly attending to the heart in prayer, and by entering within the secret places of contention; "for draw," He says, "wisdom above the innermost parts." Because all the glory of the daughter of the king is from within. "I will toil, until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and into the mountain of inheritance," he says, "into the prepared dwelling-place, which you have prepared, O Lord, the sanctuary, which your hands have prepared."
C 92. He who truly desires to renounce the world should imitate the blessed prophet Elisha, leaving nothing for himself, and with much and fire-burning love toward God. Let him then distribute all that he possesses to the needy, and thus having borne the cross of the Lord, let him hasten by his resolve toward a voluntary death, which becomes the purveyor of eternal life.
93. When you reach the understanding that the Amorite is strong in you as an oak, beseech the Lord fervently, that He may dry up its fruit from above, that is, practical sin, and its roots from beneath, that is, unclean thoughts, and that the Lord may take away the Amorite from your presence.
94. One should not be surprised when you see those who are unable to be still mocking our stillness; rather, sing psalms over them, yet without bearing malice. And oppose to them your submission to God more vehemently, crying out in your psalmody: "Nevertheless, wait for God, O my soul; for instead of loving me, they were slandering me, but I was praying for my own healing and theirs."
95. Had a harsh wind not blown upon the sea, a wave would not have appeared; and had a demon not visited us, the soul would not be stormed by passions, nor would the body.
96. If you are always warming yourself with prayer and divine grace, the divine Scripture says to you, as to one clothed in the armor of light, that your garment is warm. For your enemies have put on shame like a mantle, and the darkness of Tartarus.
97. Do not hesitate to strike your breast, so that with such blows you may hew the hardened heart, and find the metal of the tax-collector's gold, and rejoice greatly over the hidden treasure.
98. Let the incense of prayers for higher things, of the holy meditation on the oracles of the Spirit, always be burned upon the altar of your soul.
99. If you are always zealous to be shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace, you will certainly build up both your own house and that of your neighbor; but if you are slothful, you shall be spat upon invisibly, and according to the law you shall inherit the name of him who was refused the sandal.
100. If, according to John, God is love, and he who loves abides in God, and God in him; but he who hates his neighbor is in the separation of love, it is clear that he causes hatred to exist. He, therefore, who hates his fellow-man exists in separation from God; since God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him; to whom be the glory and the power unto the ages. Amen.
OF THE SAME IN THE SAINTS OUR FATHER JOHN OF KARPATHOS. ASCETIC AND MOST CONSOLATORY DISCOURSE TO THE MONKS WHO SENT FORTH FROM INDIA, COMPLETING THE NUMBER OF ONE HUNDRED CHAPTERS.
A Do not ever wish, over a monk, to call a worldly man blessed, who has a wife and children, and is cheerful because he does many good deeds and performs acts of mercy abundantly, and is not tempted at all by the demons, imagining yourself to be inferior to him regarding the service of God; nor afflict yourself, as if you were perishing. For I do not say that you live without blame, while persisting as a monk, but even if you happen to be a very great sinner, the affliction of your soul and your hardship is more precious in the sight of God than the surpassing virtue of the man living in the world. Your great sorrow, your dejection, your sighs, your anxiety, your tears, the torment of your conscience, the perplexity of your thinking, the being condemned in your own mind, the lamentation, the mourning of the intellect, the howling of the heart, the contrition, the misery, the sadness, and the humiliation—all these things and such like, which often happen to those who are cast into the iron furnace of temptations, are more precious and more acceptable by far than the righteousness of the man of the world. Take heed, therefore, lest you fall under the reproach of the divine Scripture spoken as if on your behalf: "What have we profited, us suppliants who have gone before the Lord and ever abide in his house?" It is clear that every servant near to the master of the house, at times receives also lashes, and blows, and reproaches, and insults; but those who are outside are, for the time being, far from the stripes as strangers, or base-born, or neglected. "What then have we profited," it says, "when we fall into afflictions in soul and in body, we who are always praying and singing; whereas others, neither praying nor keeping vigil, rejoice and are glad, and prosper, and pass their lives cheerfully? And, as the prophet says, 'Behold, strangers' houses are being built up, and we treat strangers as blessed?'" And he adds, saying, "These things the servants of God uttered, if they possessed knowledge." But yet it is necessary to know that they suffer nothing strange when they are afflicted and variously grieved, enduring the things of their Master through many temptations. B For they heard Him saying in the Gospels: "Amen, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice." "But yet a little while, and I will visit you through the Paraclete, and I will drive away your dejection, and I will restore you with thoughts of heavenly life and rest, and with sweet tears, of which you were deprived for a few days while being tempted; and I will give you the breast of my grace, like a mother to a weeping infant, and I will empower you with the power from above, you who were weakened by being at war; and I will make sweet for you those who were embittered, as Jeremiah says in the Lamentations regarding your hidden state, O Jerusalem; but I will see you, and your heart will rejoice through the secret visitation, and your affliction will be changed into joy, and your joy no one will be able to take away." Let us not, therefore, be dim-sighted, nor fail to see, by calling the worldly more blessed than us; but knowing the difference between the genuine sons and the base-born, let us rather embrace the supposed misery and intense exhaustion of the monks, whose end issues into eternal life and into the unfading crown of the glory of the Lord.
Let us embrace, then, the hardship of the monks who are deemed sinners—that I may not say, the righteous—and the being cast aside in the house of God; that is, in the order of those serving Christ unceasingly; and not to dwell in the tents of sinners, or to associate with worldly people, even if they perform great deeds of justice. For He says to you: "O monk, your heavenly Father, who loves you greatly, even when He afflicts and exhausts you in various temptations, know well, O miserable monk, that as I spoke through the Prophet, 'I will be your teacher,' and I will meet you on the road to Egypt, using afflictions to train you, and your ways that are to be blamed I will hedge in with the thorns of My own providence, pricking you with unexpected calamities and hindering you, so that you do not necessarily carry into effect what you desire with your foolish heart. And I will hedge in the sea of your passions, with the gates of My own compassions; and I will be to you like a beast—in another text 'father' or 'panther'—consuming you with thoughts of reproach and condemnation and repentance in the realization of the things you have ignored. And all these painful things are the greatest grace of God." Not only a panther, but I will also be a sting to you, piercing you with thoughts of compunction and pains of the heart, and pain shall not cease from your house—that is, your soul and body—being well and profitably estranged to the truly sweet and honey-dropping punishments of God. But the end of the punishments and the pains, and the turmoil, and the shame, and the fears, and the despairs that are accustomed to befall those who propose to practice asceticism, the end of all these gloomy things is a heavenly joy, and an ineffable delight, and an unspeakable glory, and unceasing exultation. For because of this I afflicted you, He says, in order to feed you with the manna of knowledge, and I made you hunger, that I might do you good in the end.
C And you shall leap, O humble monks, like calves set free from bonds, from the passions of the flesh, and the temptations of the enemies. And then you shall trample the lawless demons, who now trample you; and they shall be as ashes under your feet. For if you are god-fearing and humble-minded, not being puffed up by vain conceit, nor rash, but contrite in heart, and considering yourself to be a worthless servant, and being broken in spirit—if you are such a humble-minded person, your fault, O monk, is more precious than the righteousness of the worldly, and your defilements are more necessary than the great cleansing of those who are occupied with the affairs of life. For what is it by which you are troubled? By all means, a stain has occurred; but observe a man whose hands have been smeared with pitch, yet who is cleansed by a little oil. Much more, then, are you able to be cleansed by the mercy of God. For just as it is not difficult for you to wash your garment, so it is much less difficult for the Lord to wash you from every stain, even if, as is expected, a temptation arises out of necessity every day. For when you say, "I have sinned against the Lord," the answer is given, "Your sins are forgiven; I am He who blots them out, and I will not remember them. For as far as the east is from the west, I have removed your sins from you; and as a father pities his sons, so I pity you." Only do not depart, nor leap away from Him who has chosen you for chanting and prayer, but cling to Him in all your life, whether through pure boldness or through god-fearing persistence and firm confession of Him, and He Himself will cleanse you by His own nod. For that which God cleanses by His own will, not even Peter, the great apostle, will be able to consider common or to condemn. For it was said to him, "What God has cleansed, do not you consider common." For if it is God who has justified us by His own philanthropy, who shall be the one who condemns us? For when we call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our conscience is easily cleansed; and nothing distinguishes between us, and the prophets, and the other saints. For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for the obtainment of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, that whether we are awake in virtues, or are asleep according to some circumstance, as is expected, in some failings, we may live together with Christ, looking up to Him with great sighs and lamenting unceasingly, and breathing Him in. Let us, therefore, put on the breastplate of faith, and let us take the helmet of the hope of salvation, so that the arrows of despair and hopelessness may not find a way in. But He Himself says, "I am angry when I see the worldly not being tempted at all, and I am sorely distressed; but know, beloved, that Satan has no need to tempt those who tempt themselves, and who are always dragged to the ground by worldly affairs." Know also this, that to those who are tempted, the prizes and crowns are stored up, D not for those who do not care about God, nor for the worldly who lie sluggishly and snore. But "I," He says, "am being tempted very much, and my loins are filled with mockeries, as the Prophet says; and there is misery, and bowing down, and there is no healing for the flesh, nor care for the bones." And yet, the great Physician of the sick is near, He who took upon Himself our infirmities, and by His bruise healed us and is healing us. He is present even now, applying saving medicines. For "I," He says, "who struck by abandonment, I also will heal." Do not fear, therefore; for when the wrath of My fury drizzles, I will heal again. For as a woman will not forget to have mercy on the offspring of her womb, so neither will I forget you, says the Lord. For if the bowels of a bird are poured out for her chicks, and she visits them every hour, and calls to them, and gives food to their mouth, much more are My mercies poured out upon My creatures; and much more are My bowels poured out upon you, and I visit you secretly, and I converse with you in the mind, and I put food into the intellect that is gaping like a small swallow. For I lavish upon you the food of the fear of the better, and food of heavenly desire, and food of consoling sighs, and food of contrition, and food of melody, and food of deeper knowledge, and food of certain divine mysteries. And if I, your Master and Father, lie while speaking these things to you, reprove me, and I will endure it. The Lord is always saying these things to us in our thoughts; but I know that I have exceeded the measure in writing so much; but you urged me to do this. We have expanded the discourse, for the strengthening of those who are in danger of falling from despondency; because there were found, as you wrote to me, among you in India, some of the brothers, contrary to expectation, greatly burdened by temptations, and rejecting both the life and the conduct of monks, saying that it is stifling and full of ten thousand dangers, and that they openly called the worldly blessed, but cursed the day on which they received the habit. For this reason I too was compelled to make the present discourse longer, and through simpler words, so that both the simple and the unlettered might be able to understand what is said. For this reason I have written much, so that for the future the monks might no longer call the worldly blessed, but only themselves, who without any contradiction are better than kings wearing diadems upon their heads, and more brilliant, and more glorious, as always attending to God. And I, having written these things, beseech your love to make mention of me in your prayers continuously, so that I, the wretched one, might be deemed worthy to have the present life defined in the best and good end by the grace of the Lord. May the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation, grant you eternal consolation, and a good hope, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might, for ever and ever. Amen.
ORDER OF THE CONTENTS WHICH ARE CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME
BASIL OF SELEUCIA. Notice. 9 Dedicatorial Epistle. 19 Preface of Claudius Dausqueius. 22 ORATIONS. 27 ORATION I. — On that: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 27 — II. On Adam. 38 — III. On the same Adam. 50 — IV. On Cain and Abel. 62 — V. On Noah. 75 — VI. On the same Noah. 83 — VII. On Abraham. 102 — VIII. On Joseph. 111 — IX. On Moses. 127 — X. On Elisha, and the Shunammite woman. 138 — XI. On Elijah. 147 — XII. On Jonah. 158 — XIII. On the same Jonah. 171 — XIV. On the history of David. 182 — XV. On David. 191 — XVI. On the same David. 203 — XVII. On the same. 215 — XVIII. On Herodias. 226 — XIX. On the Centurion. 235 — XX. On the Canaanite woman. 246 — XXI. On the lame man sitting at the Beautiful Gate. 251 — XXII. On that: The disciples were sailing together with Jesus, and behold a great tempest, etc. 263 — XXIII. On the one caught away. 270 — XXIV. On that: Tell these my two sons to sit, one at thy right hand, and one at thy left. 278 — XXV. On that: Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 287 — XXVI. On that: I am the good Shepherd. 299 — XXVII. On the Olympics. 307 — XXVIII. On that: Unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 313 — XXIX. On that: Come unto me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. 326 — XXX. On that: Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. 331 — XXXI. On that: Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. 338 — XXXII. On that: Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. 350 — XXXIII. On the five thousand men fed with five loaves. 359 — XXXIV. On that: Are you he that is to come, or look we for another? 366 — XXXV. On the Publican and Pharisee. 374 — XXXVI. On the two blind men of the Gospel. 383 — XXXVII. On the infants in Bethlehem taken away by Herod. 387 — XXXVIII. Demonstration against the Jews concerning the coming of the Savior. 399 — XXXIX. On the most holy Annunciation of the Mother of God. 426 — XL. On the Transfiguration of the Lord, and of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. 451 — XLI. Laudation of St. Stephen the protomartyr, and the finding of his precious body. 462
ON THE LIFE AND MIRACLES OF BLESSED THECLA THE VIRGIN AND MARTYR, TWO BOOKS. 471 Dedicatorial Epistle. 474 BOOK ONE. — Deeds and facts. 478 BOOK TWO. — Miracles. 562
EUTHALIUS THE DEACON Notice. 619 ELENCHUS OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 627 ELENCHUS OF THE SEVEN CATHOLIC EPISTLES. 666 ELENCHUS OF THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 694
JOHN OF CARPATHIOS Notice. 790 HORTATORY CHAPTERS TO THE MONKS IN INDIA. Latin col. 791, Greek col. 1837.
EUDOCIA, EMPRESS AUGUSTA. Notice. 827 POEM ON ST. CYPRIAN, TWO BOOKS. 831
ENEAS GAZEUS. Notice. 865 THEOPHRASTUS, OR A DIALOGUE ON THE IMMORTALITY OF SOULS AND THE RESURRECTION OF BODIES. 872
ZACHARIAS MITYLENES THE BISHOP. Notice. 1006 Second notice. 1008 DISPUTATION ON THE FABRICATION OF THE WORLD. 1011 DISPUTATION AGAINST CERTAIN MANICHEAN WRITINGS. 1113 HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS. 1146 Preface of Mai. 1146 Chap. I. — Of the death of Nestorius and of Dioscorus. 1149 Chap. II. — Of Proterius ordained in the place of Dioscorus of Alexandria. 1151 Chap. III. — Of Juvenal and Theodosius. 1151 Chap. IV. — Of Peter the Iberian. 1152 Chap. V. — Of the expulsion of Theodosius. 1153 Chap. VI. — Of the Amida besieged by the Persians. 1154 Chap. VII. — Of Solomon the monk. 1154 Chap. VIII. — Of the vision of John the Scholastic of Amida, regarding the reign of Anastasius. 1155 Chap. IX. — Of the redemption of Amida. 1158 Chap. X. — Of the founding of the city Dara. 1160 Chap. XI. — Of Marinus of Apamea. 1162 Chap. XII. — Of the eclipse of the sun. 1164 Chap. XIII. — Of Ariadne Augusta. 1165 Chap. XIV. — Of the death of Anastasius Augustus. 1165 Chap. XV. — Of the martyrdom of the holy confessors of Homerita. 1166 Chap. XVI. — Elegant prologue of the worthy memory of Holy Mara, Bishop of Amida, on the Gospel and the economy of the incarnate Christ. 1171 Chap. XVII. — Of matters accomplished under Justinian Augustus. 1173 Chap. XVIII. — From the epistle of Julian to Severus. 1176
GELASIUS CYZICENUS. Notice. 1179 Index of writers, bishops, heretics, etc., who are mentioned in the acts of the Nicene synod by Gelasius Cyzicenus. 1182 HISTORY OF THE NICENE COUNCIL. 1186 Admonition to the reader, from the Roman edition. 1186 FIRST BOOK. 1191 Chap. I. — With Emperor Constantius deceased, Constantine succeeded him. 1193 Chap. II. — The crimes and wickedness of Maxentius. 1199 Chap. III. — Of King Constantine, how he led the army against the tyrant Maxentius. 1202 Chap. IV. — Of the cross which appeared to Constantine in the sky. 1205 Chap. V. — Of the banner which Constantine made after the example of the cross seen by him in the sky. 1206 Chap. VI. — Of the victory which the pious Constantine reported over the impious Maxentius. 1206 Chap. VII. — Of Licinius sent by the pious Constantine against the tyrant who was in the East. 1207 Chap. VIII. — Of the madness of Maximin, the tyrant of the East. 1207