OUR HOLY FATHER JOHN OF DAMASCUS ON SACRED PARALLELS. (CONTINUATION.)
LETTER Θ. TITLE I. — On divine instruction.
Isa. xxiv, 16. — “My secret for me and mine.” A Matth. vii, 6. — “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you.” Luc. v, 37, 38. — “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” S. Basil. in Prov. — To cast the mysteries of salvation before anyone at all, and to admit all equally who are possessed of neither purity of life nor exact and certain doctrine of faith, is just the same as if one were to pour an unguent of great price into a filthy vessel. B The same. — How shall I declare the sweetness of honey to those who are ignorant of it? S. Greg. Naz. orat. De theol. — Let us speak mystically of mystical things, and holily of holy things; and let us not cast before profane ears those things which are by no means to be brought forth, nor let us permit that those who worship demons and cultivate obscene things and fables should seem to surpass us in the gravity of their conduct. Philo. — It is a sacrilege to explain holy mysteries to the profane.
TITLE II. — On sacrifices: and that God does not admit adulterated offerings.
Gen. iv, 6, 7. — “The Lord God said to Cain: Why have you become sad? And why has your countenance fallen? Is it not so, that if you offer aright, but do not divide aright, you have sinned? Be still. Unto you shall be his turning, and you shall rule over him.” C Levit. xxii, 22. — “All things which have a blemish in themselves, you shall not offer to the Lord; because they shall not be acceptable.”
Malachi 1:8, 9. — “And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto your governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept your person? says the Lord Almighty.”
Malachi 1:14. — “Cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, and makes a vow, and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing.”
Concerning divine oracles and that one ought to listen to them and meditate upon them.
Deuteronomy 11:18-20. — “Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them upon the door posts of your house, and upon your gates: that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land.”
Psalm 11:7. — “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times,” etc.
Psalm 17:31. — “The words of the Lord are tried in the fire,” etc.
Psalm 18:8. — “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”
Psalm 118:2-4. — “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches. How sweet are your words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I will rejoice at your word, as one that finds great spoil. Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Proverbs 6:23. — “The commandment of the law is a lamp, and light. To know the law is of a good understanding.” B
Proverbs 10:8. — “The wise in heart will receive commandments.”
Proverbs 30:5. — “Every word of God is pure.”
Ecclesiasticus 32:9. — “Let it be your delight to hear every word of God; and let not the parables of understanding escape you.” — 32:15. — “Give your mind to the commandments of the Lord, and meditate continually in his precepts.”
Ecclesiasticus 9:15. — “Let all your discourse be in the law of the Most High.” C
John 5:39. — “Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life.”
2 Timothy 3:16, 17. — “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” D
St. Basil, On Envy. — Since spiritual discourse overflows in the Church, and a pious heart gushes like a fountain from the gifts of the Spirit, receive with gladness the things that are spoken,
and harvest the fruit resulting from the benefit. For when the sun is shining, no one closes their eyes.
A "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable" (2 Tim. 3:16), and for this reason it was written by the Spirit, so that as in a common infirmary for souls, we may all—each of us—select the remedy for our own affliction. For the remedy, he says, "will suppress great sins" (Eccl. 10:4). In short, it is a common storehouse of good teachings, discovering what is appropriate for each person according to their diligence. For it heals the old wounds of souls, and brings rapid restoration to the newly wounded, and preserves the healthy. And, in all things, it removes the passions, as much as possible, which in various ways tyrannize souls in the life of men. What then could you not learn from it? Or rather, what virtue could you not acquire? From it, is there not the magnificence of fortitude? Is there not the precision of justice? Is there not the solemnity of temperance? Is there not the perfection of prudence? Is there not a way of repentance? Is there not a measure of patience? Is there not whatever good thing you could name? Here is contained the perfect theology, the prediction of the advent of Christ in the flesh, the threat of judgment, the hope of resurrection, the fear of torments, the promises of glory, the revelation of mysteries—all things, as in a great and common storehouse, are treasured up in divine Scripture. B
S. Greg. Thaumat. in laud. Origen. — The same power is needed for those who prophesy and for those who hear the prophets; and no one would understand a prophet unless the Spirit who inspired the prophet granted him the understanding of his words.
The sweetness of spiritual words is insatiable.
— When someone sets up a lifeless image of a child, or a friend, or a kinsman, he thinks that he who has departed is present to him, and through the lifeless image he imagines him in his mind. Much more do we enjoy the presence of the saints through the divine Scriptures, having the images not of their bodies, but of their souls; for the things said by them are images of their souls. — Just as it is not possible for land that is not watered, even if someone casts countless seeds, to bring forth ears of corn, so it is not possible for a soul not first watered by the Scriptures, even if someone pours out countless words, to show any fruit. — Beloved, nevertheless hold fast to the words themselves; for even the mere reading of the Scriptures sanctifies the soul. C And this will not be your only gain, but in time you will also derive more from the continuous reading, as your mind opens of its own accord. D
Ejusdem. Quod periculosum sit ad spectacula pergere. — If images of the body afford some comfort to those who behold them, how much more shall the images of divine Scripture do so? For it is impossible to see those ones everywhere, but they must be fixed in one place. But this one, wherever you go, there is nothing to prevent you from carrying it about.
A For when you have deposited it in the storerooms of the mind, wherever you may be, you will be able to behold it constantly and to reap great benefit from it.
We must occupy ourselves with the divine Scriptures. For just as wine, when drunk, puts an end to sorrow and changes the heart into joy, so too does spiritual wine change the soul into gladness.
And as the sea is open to all, and one swims, another trades, and another catches fish; and as the earth is common, and one travels, another plows, and another builds: in the same way, while Scripture is being read, one is helped toward faith, another toward morality, and from another, superstition is removed through the knowledge of the letters. Finally, the athlete, when he has recognized the Olympic B racecourse, undergoes training, struggles, and becomes victorious, having struck down and overcome his opponents and those who harass the path of knowledge.
TITLE IV. — Concerning divine mysteries.
John vi, 51-59. — "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living C Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as the fathers ate the manna and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."
I Cor. x, 21, 22. — "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"
I Cor. xi, 23-29. — "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body which is D broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner,
A eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord."
St. Chrysostom. — Moses says: "Sacrifice a lamb without blemish, and smear its blood upon the doors" (Exod. XII, 5-7). What are you saying? Can the blood of a creature lacking reason bring salvation to men endowed with reason? Yes, he says. Just as royal statues, although they lack soul and sense, yet save the creatures with souls and senses who take refuge in them—not because they are made of bronze, but because they are the image of the king—so too did that blood, which was without sense or soul, save men possessing souls; not because it was blood, but because it was a type of this blood. When the destroyer saw the blood smeared on the doors, he did not dare to leap upon them. Now, if the devil sees [in you] not blood of the body smeared on doors, but the blood of truth, the blood of the Christ-bearing temple, smeared upon the mouths of the faithful, will he not much more be restrained? For if the angel stood in awe when he saw the type, how much more will the devil flee when he sees the truth? That soldier pierced the side, and opened the wall of the holy temple; and I found the treasure, and received the wealth. Thus it happened concerning the Lamb. The Jews were slaughtering the sheep, and I harvested the sacrifice, from the side, namely, blood and water. — Just as a woman always nourishes the child she has borne with her own blood and milk, so does Christ constantly nourish those whom He has begotten with His own blood.
B What are you doing, O man? With Christ present, with angels standing by, with the table set forth, while your brothers are still being initiated into this mystery, do you yourself leave everything and flee? When you are invited to a meal, even if you are already satiated, you do not dare to depart before your friends while the rest are reclining; yet here, while the mysteries are being performed, while the sacred rite is still taking place, do you leave everything in the middle and depart? And what forgiveness do these things deserve? What defense? Do you wish me to say whose work they perform C who depart before the final Eucharist and do not offer the hymns of thanksgiving at the conclusion of the table? Perhaps what is about to be said is burdensome, but it is nonetheless necessary to say it because of the negligence of many. When Judas partook of the final supper on that last night, while all the others were reclining, he jumped up and went out. Those who jump up before the final prayer imitate him. If he had not gone out, he would not have become a traitor. If he had not left the disciples, he would not have perished. If he had not torn himself away from the flock, the wolf would not have found him and devoured him. If he had not separated himself from the Shepherd, he would not have become prey to wild beasts. D Because of this, he was with the Jews, but these [others] are with the Master; and "after singing a hymn," it says (Matt. XXVI, 30), "they went out immediately." You see that the final prayer after the sacrifice is according to that type. Let us reflect on these things; let us consider them. Let us fear the judgment that lies upon this.
A He imparts his own flesh to you, yet you do not even return the favor with words, nor do you give thanks for what you have received. Moreover, when you have partaken of bodily food and the table has been removed, you betake yourself to prayer; yet when you enjoy spiritual food, which surpasses every creature, both visible and invisible, being a man of lowly nature, do you not persist in offering thanks both in word and in deed? How are these things not worthy of the ultimate punishment? I say these things not so that you might be in an uproar and shout, but so that you might show the proper order. It is called Mysteries, and so it truly is. But where there are mysteries, there must also be deep silence. Therefore, with much compunction, with much good order, and with the reverence that becomes us, let us approach this holy sacrifice, so that we may draw to ourselves the greater benevolence of God, and, having purified our souls, thus be able to attain the eternal goods. B
TITLE V. — Concerning those who are in affliction, cares, and sorrow.
Job III, 20-21. — "Why is light given to those who are in bitterness, and life to the souls that are in sorrows, who desire death, but do not obtain it? Death is rest to a man."
Job VII, 13-15. — "You frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions. If I sleep, I say, 'When will it be day?' And if I arise, I say again, 'When will it be evening?' And I am full of sorrows."
Job XVII, 11-14. — "My days have passed in a murmuring. I called death to be my father."
Job XIX, 12. — "They have come together with one accord, the temptations against me."
Ibid. — "I have been forsaken by all; I have perished, and I have become homeless."
Job IX, 18. — "Now the lowest mock me. Now they admonish me in part, those whom I did not consider worthy to be with the dogs of my flocks."
Job XIX, 13-14. — "My brothers have departed from me. They have known strangers rather than me. My friends have become unmerciful. I called my servant, and he did not obey me. My mouth begged, and I supplicated my wife. Have pity on me, O friends, for the hand of the Lord is that which has touched me."
Job XXX, 27. — "My belly boiled, and I will not be silent."
Psal. VI, 6. — "I labored in my groaning; I will wash my bed every night."
Psal. XII, 1. — "How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me unto the end?" etc.
Psal. XVII, 4. — "The pangs of death encompassed me," etc.
Psal. XXI, 14. — "My heart has become like wax melting."
Psal. XXIV, 17. — "The tribulations of my heart have been multiplied," etc.
XLIII, 13. — "You have made us a reproach to our neighbors," etc. "You have humbled us in a place of evil," etc. "Our soul has been humbled to the dust," etc. Psal. LIV, 3. — "I was grieved in my meditation, and I was troubled," etc. Psal. LXVIII, 1. — "Save me, O God, for the waters have entered," etc. "They have been multiplied beyond the hairs," etc. "I have become a stranger to my brethren," etc. — 10. "It has become a reproach to me; and I have set," etc. "I am poor and sorrowful; your salvation," etc. Psal. LXXIX, 8. — "Let your mercies quickly anticipate us," etc. B Psal. LXXXVIII, 8. — "My soul has been filled with evils, and my life," etc. Psal. CVII, 39. — "They were diminished, and they were afflicted by tribulation," etc. Prov. XVII, 22. — "The bones of a sorrowful man are dried up." Prov. XXXI, 6, 7. — "Give strong drink to those who are in sorrow, and wine to those who are in pain, that they may forget their poverty, and remember their labors no more." Prov. XXV, 20. — "As the moth damages a garment, and a worm wood, so does the sorrow of a man damage his heart." Cant. V, 2. — "I sleep, and my heart watches." C Mich. VII, 1, 2. — "Woe is me, my soul, for I have become as one gathering stubble in the harvest, and as a grape-gleaning in the vintage, there being no cluster to eat of the first-fruits." Jon. I, 12. — "Jonas said to them: Take me up, and throw me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm, for I have known that this storm is on my account." Jon. II, 2. — "I cried in my tribulation." Jon. IV, 3. — "Master Lord, take my soul from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." Isa. XXVI, 16. — "Lord, in tribulation we have remembered you, in small tribulation is your instruction to us." Jerem. IV, 19. — "I feel pain in my belly, and the senses of my heart are agitated in me." D Jerem. IX, 1. — "Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? And I will bewail this people day and night." 539 Jerem. XV, 10. — "Woe is me, mother, as one whom you have borne, a man judged and disputing in all the earth? Neither have I profited, nor has anyone profited me. My strength has failed in those who curse me." Jerem. XX, 14. — "Cursed be the day in which I was born, in it; the day in which my mother bore me, let it not be desirable. Why did I come out from the womb to see labors
and sorrows, and my days were consumed in confusion?" Jerem. XXIII, 9. — "My heart is broken within me, all my bones have trembled: I am become as a man broken, and as a man overcome by the face of the Lord." Jerem. LI, 34. — "Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon has devoured me like a dragon; he has filled his belly with my food. My labors have cast me into Babylon." Baruch II, 18. — "The soul that is sad, and the soul that hungers, shall give glory and justice, O Lord." Baruch IV, 12, 13. — "Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, B deserted by many. Walk, my children, walk; for I have been left desolate. I have put off the robe of peace; I have put on sackcloth of supplication." Thren. I, 9, 20, 21. — "Behold, O Lord, my humiliation, for the enemy has been magnified. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, my belly is troubled, and my heart is turned within me. He has fed me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood. He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has fed me with ashes; he has kept my soul far from peace." Eccli. IV, 2. — "Do not provoke to anger a man in his anxiety. Do not further trouble a heart that is already irritated." Eccli. VII, 12. — "Do not mock a man in the bitterness of his soul; for there is one who humbles, and one who exalts." Eccli. XI, 29. — "The misery of an hour makes one forget C delights." Eccli. XXX, 12, 13. — "Better is death than a bitter life, and eternal rest than a lingering sickness. Give not up thy soul to grief, and cast grief far from thee. For grief has killed many, and there is no profit in it." Eccli. XXXVIII, 19. — "From grief comes death, and the grief of the heart will bow down strength. Do not give your heart to grief, but cast it away from you, mindful of the last things." Act. XIV, 21. — "Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven." II Cor. VII, 5, 6. — "When we were come to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we suffered tribulation on all sides: fightings without, D fears within. But God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus." II Cor. II, 1-3. — "I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. For if I grieve you, who is there that can make me glad, but he who is grieved by me? And I wrote this same thing to you, that when I came, I might not have sorrow upon sorrow from those of whom I ought to rejoice." S. Basil. in Psal. LXI. — God is wont to grant help out of the most grievous tribulation to those who seek Him. Are you struggling with disease? Be of steady mind. For whom the Lord loves, He chastises (Prov. III, 12). Are you suffering scorn for the sake of the name of God? Blessed are you, because your shame [shall be] unto…
changed into the glory of an angel. Let us therefore persuade ourselves, brethren, in the time of temptation not to turn to human hopes, nor to seek help from them, but to offer our supplications with tears and groans, and diligent prayer, and intense wakefulness. For he who scorns human help as vain receives help from the affliction. — The companionship of groans brings comfort to him who is suffering in sorrows. — Rebuke is burdensome to those whose soul is harmed by sorrow. — There is a time when even this, affliction, is a good medicine for salvation. — Affliction also makes kings humble.
Do not be too greatly bitten by painful things. For if we are less grieved, they are less painful. B S. Greg. Naz. in S. Basil. — Do not be greatly bitten by painful things. For the less sorrow we conceive from them, the less painful they are.
S. Chrysost. — For the troubles by which we are vexed, we either blot out sins, or, if we do not have so many sins, we receive more brilliant crowns. — If you desire to enter into the kingdom of heaven, invite affliction. For he who is not afflicted will in no wise enter, because the gate is narrow.
S. Nili. — He who presses himself in the narrow way, this man will also without doubt attain that divine breadth and rest in the heavenly courts. But he who expands himself in the present life through luxury, and drunkenness, and fading glory, will not enter, even if he should use force. C — The Lord has commanded you to call upon Him in the day of affliction. Therefore we must not hesitate, but in every time we must call upon God, and most especially in times of affliction, so that we may show to our enemies that we have not been swallowed up by circumstances, but look toward God with confidence.
Fifth is our contest against the spirit of sorrow, which darkens the soul from every spiritual contemplation and prevents it from every good work. For when this evil spirit encompasses the soul and darkens it completely, it does not allow it to perform prayers with readiness, nor to persist in the benefit of sacred readings. It does not suffer a man to be gentle and ready to mingle with his brethren. And it even creates D hatred toward the very promise of life. For this reason our one purpose is to fight the spiritual fight, and with all guard to keep our own hearts from the spirit of sorrow. For as a moth eats a garment, and a worm wood, so sorrow gnaws the soul of man, persuading it to turn away from every good encounter; and allowing it neither to receive counsel from genuine friends, nor permitting it to share a kind and peaceful answer, but having taken hold of the whole soul, it fills it with bitterness and unpleasantness. And further, it suggests to
us the thought that we should flee from those very people as if they were the authors of this sadness for us. This kind of sadness we ought to avoid just as we do fornication, 541 A greed for money, anger, and the remaining passions. Yet this is cured by prayer, by hope in God, and by the meditation on the divine Scriptures.
TIT. VI. — On death, and the state of those in Hades.
Job vii, 9. — "If a man goes down to Hades, he shall not ascend again, nor shall his place know him any more." Job x, 21. — "A land of darkness and gloom, a land of eternal darkness, where there is no light, and where it is not permitted to see the life of men." Ps. vi, 5. — "There is no one in death who remembers you," etc. Ps. xxix, 9. — "What profit is there in my blood, when I descend?" etc. Ps. lxxxvii, 11. — "Will anyone tell of your mercy in the grave?" etc. Ps. cxv, 17. — "The dead will not praise you, O Lord, nor all," etc. Eccli. xvii, 27. — "Who will praise the Most High in Hades? From the dead, as one who is not, confession perishes." Eccli. xli, 1-4. — "There is no accusation of life in Hades. O death, how bitter is your memory to a man who has peace in his possessions; to a man who is quiet, and whose ways are prosperous in everything, and who is still able to receive food! O death, how good is your judgment to a man who is needy and failing in strength, in extreme old age, and who is anxious about everything, and disbelieving, and has lost patience!" Prov. xxvii, 20. — "Hades and destruction are not filled." S. Basil. hom. *That God is not the author of evil*. — The evils that are in Hades do not have God as their author, but us ourselves. S. Chrysost. — Hades is a common lodging house, and a workshop of laments.
TIT. VII. — On the dead: and that we ought not to mourn for those who have departed.
Levit. xix, 28. — "You shall not make any cuttings on your flesh for the dead." II Reg. i, 26, 27. — "I am in distress for you, my brother Jonathan: you were very dear to me. Your love was wonderful to me, above the love of women." II Reg. xii, 20-23. — "David rose from the earth, and washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes, and entered the house of God, and worshipped Him. And he asked for bread to eat, and they set bread before him, and he ate. And his servants said to him: What is this word that you have done? You fasted and wept and kept watch while the child was yet alive; and
when he was dead, you arose, and ate bread and drank. And David said: While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said: Who knows if the Lord will have mercy on me, and the child will live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Shall I be able to bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. A
Sacra Parallela
"They spent their lives in good things, and in the rest of Hades they slept." [Job xxi, 13]
"There they rested, fatigued in body; unanimously the eternal ones did not hear the voice of the exactor. Small and great are there, and the servant fearing his lord." [Job iii, 18]
B "If a man dies, shall he live, having completed the days of his life?" [Job xiv, 14]
"You shall come to the grave, as ripe wheat harvested in its season." [Job v, 26]
"Death is a rest for a man." [Job xvii, 16]
"Let the blessing of him who is perishing come upon me." [Job xxix, 13]
"It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." [Eccli. vii, 2]
"For man has gone to his eternal house, and the mourners have surrounded him in the market-place." [Eccli. xii, 5]
"As he came out of his mother’s womb naked, he shall return as he came, and he shall take nothing from his labor, that he may go with it in his hand." [Eccle. v, 15]
"A good day of death is better than the day of his birth." [Eccle. vii, 1]
"Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long times; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord; therefore He hastened to take him out of the midst of wickedness." [Sap. iv, 13]
C "Do not fall short of those who weep, and mourn with those who mourn." [Eccli. vii, 32]
"Do not rejoice over the dead; remember that we all die." [Eccli. viii, 7]
"Music in mourning is an untimely narration. Weep over the dead; for the light has failed. Mourning for the dead is seven days." [Eccli. xxii, 6] [Eccli. xxxviii, 14, 15]
"Child, let fall tears for the dead, and make lamentation according to his merit for one day, and two for the sake of detraction; and be comforted because of your sorrow. For know that there is no return. For you will not benefit him, and you will injure yourself. For from sorrow comes death." [Eccli. xxxviii, 14, 15]
"When a man dies, he will inherit reptiles, and beasts, and worms." [Eccli. x, 11]
Neither to women nor to men is it permitted to indulge excessively in grief and tears, but only so far as to draw some sorrow from sad and grievous things, and to shed a little tear, and that quietly, neither boiling over, nor wailing, nor rending one’s tunic, nor casting dust D upon
A oneself, nor adopting any of those other disgraceful practices of those who are ignorant of human affairs. For it is the sign of a faint heart, one that has gathered no strength from hope in God, to collapse violently and break down at grievous events. For just as worms are bred mostly in the softest woods, so too do sorrows take root in the softer characters of men.
S. Chrysost. — Do not, therefore, look at that dead man, who has closed his eyes and lies voiceless, but look upon him rising again, and behold him as a partaker of an immortal and tremendous glory. But you seek his familiarity and the custom of his life, and for that reason you mourn, and groan, and weep? And how can you B maintain that this is not inconsistent? For if you have given your daughter in marriage, and then the husband takes her and departs to a far country, and continues to fare well, you do not consider what has happened to be a terrible thing, but you use the report of his prosperity to soothe your despondency. Here, however, when it is not a man, not a friend, not a relative who has taken him, but the Lord himself, is it right for us to be distressed and to lament? But how is it possible, you ask, for a man, being human, to abstain from weeping and lamenting? I do not say this, but I do away with the intensity of the despondency. For to be sorrowful is of nature, but to be so beyond measure is of madness, of diabolical operation, and of a womanish soul. Grieve, shed tears, but do not be overcome by discouragement, do not be vexed, do not be angry. Give thanks to Him who has taken him, so that you may adorn the departed and provide him with bright funeral rites. For if you are vexed or angry, you have insulted both him and the One who has taken him, and you have harmed yourself. But if you give thanks, you have both adorned him, and glorified the One who has taken him, and benefited yourself. Weep as your Lord wept for Lazarus, setting for us measures, and weights, and boundaries of sorrow, which it is not right to overstep. Thus, also, Paul said: "But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope" (I Thess. IV, 12). Be sorrowful, but not as a Gentile who has no hope at all of his own life, and who does not at all look to the coming C resurrection. Believe me, beloved, that I am ashamed when I pass through the marketplace and hear the choruses of immodest women, with plucked hair, lacerated cheeks, and arms cut open. What, then, will the Gentiles say against us? What? Are these not they who philosophize about the resurrection, yet in their deeds do the things of those who are in despair? For if they were confident that there is truly a resurrection of the dead, they would not lament in this way. Why do you weep so, tell me, for the departed? Was he wicked? Then for that very reason you ought to give thanks that he was snatched away sooner, before his character could be changed, and God took him away into a region where he henceforth dwells with security, and from which change D cannot even be suspected anymore. But was he young? And for that reason you ought to give thanks...
to the One who took him, because he called him more quickly to the life above. But was he an old man? And for that reason, praise the One who took him all the more, and give thanks again. Let us feel ashamed at the appearance of the funeral procession. For this reason, there are prayers, and psalms, and thanksgiving to God, so that you might not weep and lament, but rather that you might give thanks to God who took him. For in the way that all escort those who are being called to authority with much honor, so also [do we escort] this one with much honor, as one called to greater dignity, and honor, and manner of life. Death is rest, a release from the labors and cares of life. Do not be vexed, do not be exasperated, but give thanks to God. B St. Basil, Homily on the Martyr Julitta. Why have you not accustomed yourself to think mortal thoughts regarding a mortal, but rather received the death of your child as something unlooked-for? When the birth of your son was first announced to you, if someone had asked you what kind of thing had been born, what indeed would you have answered? Would you have said anything else, save that it is a human being that has been born? But if it is a human being, it is also mortal. Do you not see the sun rising, and again setting? The moon waxing, and then waning? The earth blossoming, and then drying up? What of the things around us stands firm? What has a nature that is motionless and unchangeable? Look up to heaven, and look at the earth; not even these things endure forever. For heaven and earth will pass away, He says, the stars will fall from heaven, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light (Matt. xxiv). What is surprising, then, if we too, being part of the world, partake in the lot of worldly things? C For the separation of habit is quite grievous even to the irrational creatures. And at that time I saw an ox at the manger shedding tears for his yoke-mate and fellow-yoke-fellow who had died, and it is possible to see the rest of the irrational creatures clinging strongly to companionship. But you have not learned thus, nor have you been taught. For it is not at all absurd to receive the beginning of friendship from long conversation and time-honored habit; but to lament a separation because of the association that has existed with us for the longest time is altogether irrational. For example, a wife fell to your lot as a partner in life, providing you with every pleasure while she lived; she was a creator of cheerfulness, a conciliator of joys, she increased pleasant things along with you, and in sad times she took away the greatest part of the troubles. But she was suddenly snatched away and is gone. Do not be savage at the affliction, nor say that what has happened is a chance occurrence of some kind, as if no governor were ordering the world; nor...
fall away from the bounds of piety. For since you two existed as one flesh, there is much pardon for you, who receive the dichotomy and the division of the union with pains; yet for this reason alone, it is not profitable for you to think of things that are not fitting, or to utter them. For consider that God, who fashioned us and gave us a soul, granted a private span of time to each soul, and fixed other limits for its departure. For He ordained one to remain longer in the presence of the flesh, while He decreed another to be released more quickly from the bonds of the body, according to the ineffable reasons of His wisdom and justice. As, therefore, those who are cast into prisons, some are locked up for a longer time in the misery of the dungeons, while others find a speedier release from their hardship: so also with souls, some are held longer in this life, while others for a shorter time, according to the proportion of each one's merit, with God our Creator governing and moderating the affairs of each of us wisely and deeply, and in a way that the human mind cannot grasp. Do you not hear David saying, "Bring my soul out of prison?" (Ps. CXLI, 10.) Did you not hear about the saint, that his soul was released? And what of Simeon? When he embraced our Lord, what voice did he utter? Was it not this: "Now dismiss your servant, Master?" (Luc. II, 29.) For to one who is hastening with a swift course toward the life above, staying with the body is more bitter than any torture or any prison. Do not, therefore, seek for the dispensations concerning souls to comply with your own pleasure; but concerning those who were united with you in life and thenceforth have been separated by death, consider this: that they are like travelers who are journeying along the same road and do not fall away from the bounds of piety. For since you were altogether...
Neither untimely deaths, nor any other misfortunes that happen unexpectedly, will ever terrify us if we are trained in the doctrine of piety. For example, I had a young son, the only successor of my lineage, a consolation of old age, the ornament of the family, the pride of his peers, the pillar of the house, living the sweetest part of his age: he has been snatched away by death and is gone, and has become earth and ashes, he who a little while ago, as he spoke, was listened to with pleasure, and offered a most pleasing spectacle to the eyes of his father. What then shall I do? Shall I tear my garment, and shall I allow myself to wallow on the ground, and to lament, and to be affected by some intolerable grief, and to show myself to those present like some child crying out and convulsing at the blows of the lash? Or, by paying attention to the necessity of what is taking place, that the law of death is inescapable, moving through every age alike, and dissolving all composite things in turn, shall I not be surprised at the occurrence? Shall I not suffer my mind to be overthrown as if struck down by unexpected blows, having been instructed long ago that being mortal, I had a mortal child, and that nothing human is secure, nor is it in its nature to remain forever with those who possess it? But even great cities...
which were adorned at that time by the splendor of their buildings, by the power of their inhabitants, and by the remaining abundance and wealth of the region, the forum, and the markets, now bear in their ruins alone the signs of their former magnificence. Furthermore, a ship that has frequently escaped the sea unscathed, has traversed the main six hundred times with rapid speed, and has carried countless goods for merchants, has been overwhelmed by a single gust of wind and taken from our midst. Armies, too, that have often defeated enemies in battle, once their prosperity has been overturned, have become a pitiable spectacle and a subject of discourse. Even entire nations and islands, B having advanced to great power and having erected many trophies on land and at sea, and having gathered much wealth from spoils, have in time been consumed or, having been taken captive, have exchanged their freedom for slavery. And, to sum it all up, you could call no evil, however great or unbearable, that human life does not have examples of.
C See D from the Homily of St. Chrysostom on I Thessalonians: You see in the Epistle to the Thessalonians how the Apostle writes concerning those who have fallen asleep—he did not say "concerning the dead"—*that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope* (I Thess. IV, 13). To lament, therefore, over those who have departed is the mark of those who have no hope. For a soul that knows nothing of the resurrection, but thinks that this death is immortal, is naturally crushed and mourns over those who have been lost, and grieves unbearably. But you who expect a resurrection, for what reason do you lament? It is for those who do not have hope to lament. Hearken, you women who are prone to mourning, you who give way uncontrollably to the passions of the soul, for you are acting after the manner of the Gentiles. But if it is heathen to grieve over those who have departed, then tell me, whose custom is it to beat the breast and tear the cheeks? Why do you mourn? If you believe that he will rise again, he has not perished. When, therefore, you lose a child in the flower of his youth, who is not yet able to do anything, why do you mourn? What are you seeking? "He was showing promise of fine hopes," she says, "and I was expecting that he would be my protector. For this reason I seek my husband, for this reason my son; and for this reason I beat my breast and mourn, not disbelieving in the resurrection, but having been left without my support, having lost my protector, my housemate, one who shared in all things, one who consoled me: these are the things I mourn. I know he will rise again, but I cannot bear the intervening separation. A great crowd of affairs presses upon me; I am exposed to any who wish to do me harm. These are the things that do not allow me to bear my widowhood with a calm mind." If you grieve for these reasons, why do you speak of second marriages? Do not love the husband more than God, and you will never sense widowhood. Why? Because you have as a protector Him who loves you more—the Immortal One. Who gave him to you, O woman? Was it not He? And who made you? Was it not He? Of how much anger are these things the...
A words? What did you have of such sort from your husband? For if he did even show some kindness, it was because he was receiving kindness from you. But in the case of God, you could not say any such thing. For God does not grant us blessings because He receives them from us; rather, being in need of nothing, He does good to the human race out of goodness alone. He promised you kingdoms, gave you immortal life, glory, and adoption, and made you a co-heir with the Only-Begotten. And you mourn your husband? What did he bestow of such a sort? He made his sun rise, gave rain, and nourishes you with the sustenance of the years. Woe to us for our great ingratitude! For this reason He takes away the husband, so that you might not seek him, when you ought to give thanks, when you ought to cast everything upon Him. For what is there that you obtained from your husband? Birth-pangs, and pains, and insults, and revilings, and often reproaches and grievances. Are these not the things that happen to you from husbands? But, you say, there were also other good things. What indeed are these? He adorned you with costly garments; he placed gold about your face; he made you B respected by all. This King also has garments, but not of that sort; there is a raiment that has gold for ornament. If you wish, clothe your soul. "But," you say, "he did not make me a person subject to contempt." What is so great about that? Yet widowhood does not allow you to become a subject of contempt to the demons. Then you controlled your servants, if indeed you controlled them at all; but now, in place of servants, you command incorporeal powers, principalities, and authorities, and indeed the Ruler of the world Himself. But are you anxious about how to raise the children who have been left behind? The Father of the orphans will take care of them. Who gave them to you, tell me? Do you not hear Him who says in the Gospels that "the life is more than food, and the body than clothing" (Luke XII, 23)? Do you see that our mourning arises from habit, C indeed from faithlessness? "But," you say, "are the children of a deceased father not brilliant?" Why, when they have God as their Father, are they not brilliant? How many can I show you who were raised by widows and became illustrious, and how many who were under fathers and became corrupted and perished? Do not look toward those who are girded with golden belts, nor those carried on horses, nor those shining in royal halls because of their fathers, nor those having as escorts and pedagogues. For these are perhaps the things that cause the widow to beat her breast concerning the orphans, when she thinks to herself: "Even this, my child, had his father still been living, would have enjoyed such great blessedness; but now he is in gloom and disgrace, and is worthy of no account." D Do not think these things, O woman, but open wide the gates of heaven; discern with your reason the kingdoms there. Look at the King seated there. It is possible, if you wish, to serve Him in the heavens; enroll yourself in that army. For those enrolled there are not carried on horses, but in clouds; they do not walk upon the earth, but are caught up into heaven; they do not have children as their guides, but the angels themselves; they have not stood before a mortal king, but before the immortal King of those who reign; they do not have a leathern girdle about their loins, but that ineffable glory, and
become more brilliant than those of kings. For in those royal palaces, not wealth, not nobility, not anything else but virtue is sought. You have been separated from your husband, but you have been joined to Christ. You do not have as a companion a fellow servant, but you have the Master. When you pray, do you not converse with God? When you read, you hear Him speaking to you. And what does He say to you? Words much gentler than those of any man. For a husband, even if he flatters, there is not much honor in it, for he is a fellow servant. When, therefore, the Master flatters his handmaid, then there is great healing. How, then, does He not heal us? Listen. B "Come to me," He says, "all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matt. xi, 28). And again through the prophet He cries out, saying: "Can a woman forget her offspring, the fruit of her womb? And if a woman should forget, yet I will not forget you, says the Lord" (Isa. xlix, 15). How much love these words carry! "Turn to me, and you shall be saved." What is sweeter than these words? Do you see the conversation of God with men? Endure, therefore, so that you may enjoy eternal blessings.
For was Job of an adamantine heart? Was his inward parts made of stone? His ten children perished in a brief moment of time, crushed by a single blow in the house of pleasure, at the time of enjoyment, when the devil shook the building upon them. He saw the table mingled with blood; he saw his children born at different times, but departed from life together. He did not wail; he did not tear his hair; he did not let out any base cry, but he uttered that famous and universally praised [saying] with boldness: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it came to pass; may the name of the Lord be blessed forever" (Job i, 21). Was this man unfeeling? And how, when he says about himself, "I wept for every wretch" (Job xxx, 25)?
D Have you been shamed? But look toward the glory laid up in the heavens through patience. Have you suffered loss? But gaze upon the heavenly wealth and the treasure which you have stored up for yourself through good deeds. Have you been cast out of your country? But you have the heavenly country, Jerusalem. Have you lost a child? But you have angels with whom you will dance around the throne of God, and you will be gladdened with eternal joy. By setting the expected blessings against present miseries in this way, you will preserve for yourself a state of mind free from grief and untroubled, to which the law of the Apostle invites us. Neither look upon the bright
A things of men as if they should bring boundless joy to your soul, nor let sorrows lower its pride through gloom and contraction.
St. Basil, *in mart. Jul.* — It is appropriate to be sad at the calamities of those who mourn. For only thus will you win over the souls of those who suffer, if you do not display a cheerful spirit in the midst of their bitter misfortunes, nor hold the sorrows of others in contempt. Yet it is not right to be affected by excessive grief along with those who mourn, nor to cry out and suffer with him who struggles against adverse fortune, or in other respects to imitate and follow one whom pain has darkened. For by doing so, you will increase the calamity rather than soften it.
*Ibid.* — He who wishes to raise up one who is lying down must by all means be on higher ground than the fallen one. But he who has fallen equally himself needs another to raise him up; yet it is right to be bitten by what happens and to be silently sad with those who mourn.
*Ibid.* — Why do we not entrust our assets to the prudent Lord, that He may manage them as He pleases, but instead, as though we were being stripped of our own property, we are furious, and we grieve for those who have departed this life as if they had been wronged?
*Ibid.* — Let us be pained that we delay in the tombs which we carry about; that, having been made gods, we die the death of sin, as human beings.
St. Greg. Naz., *Orat. in Caesar.* — How much longer shall we mourn the departed? Are we not hastening to the same dwelling? Are we not shortly to enter the same stone? Shall we not soon be the same dust? Such is our life, brothers; such is the play on earth: to be born when we were not, and, having been born, to melt away. C
St. Chrysost. — Do not begrudge the rest of your son, O man; but know that he who has died has migrated to a better joy and has journeyed to a superior region; and you have not lost your son, but have instead placed him in a secure abode. See to it, therefore, that you do not say: "I shall no longer be called father." For what is it, I ask, because the son remains, that you should cease to be called father? Have you lost your son? Have you suffered the loss of a child? Rather, you have gained him, and you have him more securely. For this reason, you are called father not only here, but also in heaven.
St. Nilus — Do not lament for the dead. For this journey is common, and blessed is he who goes before.
TITLE VIII. — On death, and the fear arising from it.
Gen. XII, 10–19. — "And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there. And he said to his wife: I know that you are a beautiful woman; it shall be, therefore, when the Egyptians see you, they will say: She is his wife, and they will kill me, but you they will spare. Say, therefore, I beseech you, that I am his sister, so that it may be well with me
and that my soul may live on your account. A And it came to pass when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians, seeing that the woman was very beautiful, praised her before Pharaoh, and they acted kindly toward Abram for her sake. And God beset Pharaoh with great and grievous afflictions, and his house, on account of Sarah, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh, calling Abram, said to him: "Why have you done this to me, and did not tell me that she is your wife? And I took her for myself as a wife; and behold your wife, and taking her, depart."
«Abraham sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said concerning his wife, that "She is my sister." For he was afraid to say, "She is my wife," lest the men of the city might kill him. Abimelech said to Abraham: "Why have you done this to me?" And Abraham said: "I said, perhaps there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me for her sake."» B Similarly, Isaac sojourned in Gerar, and spoke in like manner concerning Rebecca.
«David was afraid from the face of Achish, king of Gath, and he changed his countenance; and he was carried away, and fell down, and his spittle ran down upon his beard.»
«Jezebel sent to Elijah, and said: "May the gods do so to me, and may they add so, if tomorrow I do not set your soul like the soul of one of them." And he was afraid, and traveled a journey of forty days.» C
«Then the disciples, leaving Jesus, fled.»
It is inherent in every human being to fear death.
TITLE IX. — Concerning the Sea.
«By his power he stilled the sea, and by his wisdom he laid out its depth.» (Job xxvi, 12)
«I shut in the sea with gates, when it burst forth and was going out from its mother’s womb. I set a cloud as its clothing, and I wrapped it in mist as in swaddling bands. And I set boundaries, placing bars and gates, and I said to it: "Up to this point you shall come, and you shall not go beyond, but in yourself your waves shall be broken."» (Job xxxviii, 8–10)
«Gathering as into a bottle the waters of the sea,» and so forth. (Ps. xxxii, 7)
«Who troubles the depth of the sea,» and so forth. (Ps. lxiv, 7) D
«You confirmed the sea in your power, you crushed,» and so forth. (Ps. lxxiii, 14)
«This sea is great and spacious,» and so forth. (Ps. ciii, 23)
«Those who go down to the sea in ships,» and so forth. (Ps. cvi, 23)
«All the streams go into the sea, and the sea is not filled.» (Eccl. i, 7)
«When he gave the sea his determination, and the waters shall not pass beyond his commandment.» (Prov. viii, 27)
A Isa. XLIII, 16. — «The Lord who gives a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.» Jerem. v, 22, 23. — «Who placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, by an everlasting ordinance, and it shall not overpass it. And they shall be moved, and its waves shall roar, and they shall not overpass it. Who gave a sound in the sea, and quieted its waves; the Lord Almighty is his name.»
Sap. XIV, 2-5. — «That a ship might carry merchandise, men devised, and the craftsman built it by his wisdom. But thy providence, O Father, governs it: for thou hast given a way even in the sea, and a most sure path in the waters, showing that thou art able to save out of everything, even if a man go to sea without art. But thou willest not that the works of thy wisdom should be idle; and therefore men entrust their lives even to a little piece of wood, and passing through the waves on a raft have been saved.»
Eccli. XLIII, 16, 17. — «They that sail on the sea have told of the danger thereof, and by the hearing of our ears we admire it. And there are clear works and wonders, the habitation of every living thing, the creation of monsters.»
S. Basil. hom. 4 in Hexaem. — The sea, frequently driven into fury by the winds and rising to a very great height with its waves, as soon as it touches the shores, breaks its force into foam and returns. «Will you not fear me?» says the Lord, «who place the sand as a boundary for the sea?» With sand, which is the weakest of all things, the sea, which the violence of the winds makes intolerable, is restrained as if by a bridle.
Ibid. — Truly a pleasant spectacle is the whitening sea, when firm tranquility holds it; and pleasant also when, roughened by gentle breezes, it casts upon the eyes of those who look at it a purple or azure color; when it does not strike the neighboring land violently, but greets it as if with certain peaceful embraces.
Ibid. — The sea connects lands far distant from one another by its bond, providing free commerce for those who sail, and becomes a source of wealth for merchants, and easily repairs the necessities of life: providing an export for the surplus for those who are in abundance, and bestowing what is lacking upon those who are in need. C
S. Greg. Naz. orat. 2 Theol. — If I could not admire the magnitude of the sea, at least I would admire its gentleness, and how, although it is loose, it keeps itself within its own bounds. But if I could not admire its gentleness, I would certainly pursue its magnitude with admiration. Since, however, both are in it, let us praise its power in both. What compelled it? What bound it as if with certain chains? In what way does it rise and yet consist within its own limits, as if it feared the neighboring land? How does it receive all rivers, and yet itself remain the same through the abundance of its overflow? How is sand a boundary for it? How great a commandment did He surround the element with upon the face of the water? This is the bond of the liquid nature. And how does it lead the terrestrial traveler with a small piece of wood and with the wind; do you not marvel to see this? Does your mind not stand in awe, so that earth and sea may be bound by the D
A necessity of commerce for necessary uses, and for the sake of man they might come together, though by nature they are so greatly divided from each other?
S. Greg. Naz. orat. 1. — For what shall I say of the sea and the earth, which placidly intermingle, and kindly give and receive, and with great humanity nourish man, abundantly and generously supplying him with their own riches?
S. Chrysost. — *They that go down to the sea in ships, they have seen the works of the Lord in the deep* (Ps. CVI, 23, 24). What works? The sea swelling up to the clouds, the earth shining forth in the midst of the waters, the ship hanging from a lofty wave, now sliding down into the depths as if over precipices, and now again rising up as the wave lifts it as if from a sling.
Ejusd. — The sea, troubled from its lowest depths by the force of the winds and driven with great violence, does not pass over the boundaries of the sand. *For you set a boundary,* he says, *which it shall not pass.* But when a wave, rolling from the open sea, runs along and foams and hollows itself out, and roars, and is immediately broken back and curls itself, and curls over like one struggling upon its own head, it bows down in reverence and fear, and dissolves into itself, and does not cross the boundary of the sand. O the wonder! The great and terrible sea is walled in by sand—the Euripus of sand—and thin earth, downy and scattered here and there by the winds, becomes a curb to the raging waves, acting as a wall, and holding back and restraining the furious billows. B
Philon. — It is worth marveling at the sea, by whose benefit the regions of the earth exchange goods with one another, and both receive what they lack and send back that of which they have a surplus.
TIT. X. — Concerning daughters.
Num. xxx, 3-5. — "If a woman should make a vow, and bind herself by an oath, in the house of her father in her youth, and her father hears her vows, and the bonds which she has sworn against her soul, and her father keeps silent, all her vows shall stand, and they shall remain for her. But if her father repeatedly disallows all her vows and the bonds which she has sworn, they shall not stand; and the Lord will forgive her, because her father disallowed them."
"Have you daughters? Be concerned for their body, and do not show them a cheerful face. Give away your daughter, and you will have accomplished a great work, and give her to a man of understanding." C
"A daughter is a secret wakefulness to a father, and concern for her takes away sleep."
"Over an unruly daughter, establish a strong guard."
"A daughter becomes a loss."
A A prudent daughter shall bring an inheritance to her husband; and she that brings shame, becomes a sorrow to her father. An audacious one brings shame upon both father and husband, and shall be dishonored by both."
I Tim. v, 14. B "I will that the younger women marry, bear children, and be housewives."
TITLE XI. — That one should not trust anyone rashly.
Micah vii, 5, 6. "Do not believe friends, neither hope in leaders. Beware of her who sleeps in your bosom, that you disclose nothing to her, whatever you do. For the son dishonors the father, and the daughter rises up against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are they who are in his own house."
Jerem. ix, 4. "Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully; one will deride his brothers."
Eccli. viii, 21. "Do not do anything secret in the presence of a stranger: for you do not know what it will bring forth. Do not manifest your heart to every man, lest he reproach you."
Eccli. xxvii, 7. "Do not take counsel with him who lies in wait for you; and hide your counsel from those who envy you. Do not manifest your heart to every man."
TITLE XII. — Concerning harvest and vintage.
Lev. xix, 9, 10. "When you reap the harvests of your land, you shall not wholly reap the harvest of your field; and you shall not gather the gleanings of your harvest, and your vineyard you shall not wholly glean, neither shall you gather the scattered grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger."
TITLE XIII. — Concerning hunters.
Deut. xxii, 6, 7. "If you encounter a bird's nest in the way, on any tree, and the mother is brooding over the chicks or the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the children. You shall surely let the mother go, but the children you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may live long."
LETTER I.
TITLE I. — Concerning healings performed by the Lord and the prophets.
IV Kings v, 9, sqq. Naaman came with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. D And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh shall return to you, and you shall be cleansed." And Naaman was angry and said, "Behold, I said, he will come out to me and invoke the name of the Lord his God, and will lay his hand over the leprosy, and take it away from my flesh. Are not Arbana and Pharphar, the rivers of Damascus, better than the Jordan and all the waters of Israel? Shall I not go and wash in them, and be cleansed?" And his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you a great thing, would you not have done it? When he said to you, 'Wash and
A And Naaman went down and washed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God. 4 Kings xx, 4-6. "Isaiah was in the courtyard, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying: Return, and say to Hezekiah, the leader of the people: Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you on the third day, and you shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add fifteen years to your days, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of the Assyrians." Matthew viii, 1-5. "As he (Jesus) was coming down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came and worshipped him, saying: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And stretching out his hand, he touched him, saying: I will; be clean. And immediately he was cleansed." Ibid., 5-9. "When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him, beseeching him and saying: Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented. Jesus says to him: I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and said: Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; but only speak a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. And Jesus, hearing this, said to those who were following: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. And he said to the centurion: Go, and as you have believed, so let it be done to you." B Ibid., 14. "And when Jesus had come into Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law fever-stricken; and he touched her hand, and the fever left her." Matthew ix, 27-33. "As Jesus was passing by, two blind men followed him, crying out and saying: Have mercy on us, Son of David. Jesus says to them: Do you believe that I can do this? They say to him: Yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying: According to your faith be it done to you. And their eyes were opened. As they were going out, behold, they brought to him a man who was mute and possessed by a demon; and when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke." C Matthew xii, 9, 10. "When Jesus had passed from there, he came into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man having a withered hand. Then he says to the man: Stretch out your hand; and he stretched it out, and it was restored to health, just like the other." D Matthew xiv, 15, 16. "They brought to him all who were ill. And they besought him that they might touch only the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched him were saved." Matthew xv, 22, 23. "Behold, a Canaanite woman, having come out from those borders," and the rest. "And great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the mute,
A and the mute and the infirm. And they cast them at the feet of Jesus, and he healed them."
Matt. XVII, 14, 15. — "And there came to him a man kneeling down to him, and saying: Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatick, and often falls into the fire, and often into the water. And Jesus said: Bring him hither to me. And he rebuked him, and the devil went out of him."
Matt. XX, 30, 31. — "And behold two blind men sitting by the way side, cried out saying: Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And he called them, and said: What will ye that I should do to you? They say to him: Lord, that our eyes may be opened. And Jesus having compassion on them, touched their eyes, and they received sight."
John v, 2. — "And there was a certain man who had had his infirmity eight and thirty years: and Jesus saith to him: Wilt thou be made whole?" etc.
John IX, 6, 7. — "When he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay upon the eyes of the blind man, and said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe. He went therefore, and washed, and came seeing."
Luc. VIII, 41, 42. — "And behold there came a man named Jairus, and fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him to come into his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. And as he went, a woman who was in an issue of blood, touched behind the hem of his garment, and immediately the issue of her blood stopped."
Ibid. 49, 50. — "As he was yet speaking, there came one to the ruler of the synagogue, saying to him: Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the master. And coming into the house, and taking her by the hand, he cried out, saying: Maid, arise. And her spirit returned."
Luc. XIII, 11, 12. — "Behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years: and she was bowed together, B neither could she look upwards at all. And Jesus said to her: Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity. And immediately she was made straight."
Mark I, 24, 25. — "There was a man in an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying: Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? And Jesus threatened him, saying: Speak out, and go out of the man. And he went out of him."
Mark II, 3, 4. — "They come to him bringing one sick of the palsy, and they uncovered the roof, and let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: Thy sins are forgiven thee. Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk."
Mark V, 1-13. — "Jesus came into the country of the Gerasenes, and there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. And seeing Jesus afar off, he ran and adored him, and crying with a loud voice, said: What have I to do with thee, Jesus, C Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. And he asked him: What is thy name? And he saith to him: Legion is my name. And they besought him D
A, that he would not send them away out of the country. And there was there a herd of swine feeding; and the demons besought him, saying, “Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.” And Jesus allowed them. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and they were two thousand.
“And they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to lay his hand upon him. And he put his fingers into his ears, and he touched his tongue, and he was healed straightway.” [Mark VII, 34, 35]
“And they bring unto him a blind man, and he put his hands upon his eyes, and he looked up.” [Mark VIII, 22]
“Peter said: ‘Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ, walk.’ And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength, and he walked.” [Acts III, 6] B
“And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.” [Acts V, 13, 14]
“And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole,’ and he was healed straightway.” [Acts IX, 32-34]
“And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. And Paul said, ‘Stand upright on C thy feet,’ and he leaped and walked.” [Acts XIV, 8, 9]
“A certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, and she cried, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the most high God.’ But Paul said: ‘I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’” [Acts XVI, 16, 17]
“And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.” [Acts XXVIII, 8, 9]
TITLE II. — Concerning priestly things; and that it is not permitted for a layman to touch a sacred vessel.
“Uzzah reached forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him, and he died by the ark of God.” [II Kings VI, 6, 7] D
“David said: ‘None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the Lord chosen to minister unto Him for ever.’” [I Chron. XV, 2]
“And the priests stood against Uzziah the king, and said unto him: ‘It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed against the Lord, and it shall not be for thine honor from the Lord God.’ And Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense in the temple. And in the”
heat of his anger against the priests, leprosy arose in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord.
TIT. III. — Concerning suppliants: and that one ought to hear the petitions of those who entreat.
2 Reg. xix, 18, 19. — “Shimei the son of Gera fell down on his face before the king, as he was passing over the Jordan, and said: Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither remember A all the things which thy servant did perversely in the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem; for I have sinned. And the king said: Thou shalt not die. And he swore to him.”
3 Reg. xiii, 4, 5. — “Jeroboam stretched forth his hand, saying: Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he stretched forth against him, withered, and the altar was rent, and the fat was poured out which was upon it. And the king said to the man of God: Entreat the face of thy God, and let my hand be restored to me. And the man of God entreated, and restored the king’s hand to him, and it became as it was before.”
4 Reg. i, 13, 14. — “The third captain of fifty came to Elias, and bent his knees before Elias, and spoke to him, and said: O man of God, let my life and the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, and said: Go down with him, be not afraid. And Elias arose, and went down to the king.”
Job xxxvi, 19. — “May thy mind not decline of its own accord from supplication in the distress of the feeble.”
Eccli. iv, 4. — “Reject not the petition of the suppliant, and turn not away thy face from one who is in need.”
S. Greg. Naz. — How shameful it is that we should ask these things of you, and you not grant them! A request must be measured by the one from whom something is asked. For it is equally absurd to ask great things from one who is small, and small things from one who is great. The former is importunate; the latter implies a smallness of mind. Admit the suppliant, for whom the day offers its aid.
TIT. IV. — Concerning equality: and that things ought to be distributed to each according to his merit.
Psal. xvii, 25. — “With the holy thou shalt be holy, and with an innocent man thou shalt be innocent.”
Luc. xx, 25. — “Restore the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God.”
Rom. xiii, 7. — “Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; honor to whom honor; fear to whom fear.”
S. Cyrilli. — The arbiter of a contest does not D distribute his honors to the athletes simply and rashly, according to anyone’s whim: but rather distributes prizes in proportion to how well each has conducted himself. Equilibrium is the fountain of justice.
Philo. — To bestow equal things on unequals is the greatest injustice.
Josephus. — To do injury to no one, but to cultivate equity, is a potent strength. Whatever is devoid of equity is alien to charity.
TIT. V. — Of physicians and medicine.
A Job XIII, 4. — “You are unjust physicians, and all of you are healers of evil.” Eccli. XXXVIII, 1, 2. — “Honor the physician for the necessities of his price: for the Lord has created him. For from the Most High is healing, and he shall receive gifts from the king. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of the great he shall be praised. Give place to the physician: for God created him. He that sins in the sight of Him who made him, shall fall into the hands of the physician.”
S. Basil. — They who provide for bodies fortify those who are in health with suitable safeguards to prevent disease; but they do not lay their hand upon those who are already possessed by the affliction. — An unskilled physician, entering to the sick, instead of restoring them to health, takes away even that little remnant of strength which they have left. — Prudent physicians, when they offer more bitter medicines for the sick to swallow who are suffering from loathing, very often smear the cup with honey.
S. Chrysost. — It is my opinion that the physicians of old did not decree that the various instruments of the art should be publicly displayed rashly or without reason, but in order to make those who enjoy sound health more cautious, by showing them clearly how much [help] they will need if they conduct themselves intemperately.
Didymus. — We define a perfect physician as one who omits nothing of what pertains to the utility and healing of the sick. C
Philo. — A good physician would not wish to apply all the healthful things at once, in one day, to the sick person, knowing that he would cause harm rather than benefit; but, having measured out the times, he distributes the saving remedies, and by adding now one thing and now another, he gently restores him to health.
TIT. VI. — Of garments: and that neither men nor women ought to use sumptuous clothing.
Levit. VI, 10. — “The priest shall be clothed in a linen tunic, and he shall put linen breeches about his body.” Levit. XIX, 19. — “Expose a woven garment: and you shall not place anything adulterated upon yourself.” D Deut. XXII, 5, 6. — “A man’s equipment shall not be upon a woman, nor shall a man put on women’s clothing: because everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord. You shall not put on an adulterated garment, that there be wool and linen in it.” Eccle. IX, 8. — “At all times let your garments be white.” Eccli. XI, 4. — “In the clothing of garments do not glory.” Isa. III, 16-24. — “Thus says the Lord: For because the daughters of Sion were lifted up, and have walked with a stretched-out neck, and with the nodding of the eyes, and with the tread of the feet,
and while they drew along their tunics, and while they played with their feet: and the Lord shall humble the princesses, the daughters of Sion. And the Lord shall uncover their habit in that day. And the Lord shall take away the glory of their apparel, and their ornaments, and the networks, and the rings, and the bracelets, and the earrings, and the purple-bordered robes, and the wraps that are about the house, and the transparent Laconian garments, and the fine linen, and the hyacinthine, and the fine linen woven with gold and hyacinth, and the veils, and the golden accubitoria. And it shall be to thee instead of a sweet smell, dust; and instead of a girdle, thou shalt be girded with a rope; and instead of the ornament of the head, thou shalt have baldness; and instead of the purple-studded robe, thou shalt be girded with sackcloth. These shall be to thee instead of ornament.”
B 558 Matth. III, 5. — “John himself had his garment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins.”
S. Basil. Reg. fus. disp. art. 22. — Why we use garments, the Apostle shows us in this one word: “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content” (I Tim. VI, 8); as if we had need of covering alone, and not also of the variety and the pursuit of its elegance, lest we fall into forbidden luxury—to say nothing more severe. For these things were introduced later through empty and by no means necessary artifice. This the very first use of garments, which God gave to those in need, clearly shows. For God made for them tunics of skins, and clothed them. For the use of tunics of such a kind was sufficient for the covering of the obscene parts of the body. Since, however, another purpose also presents itself to us in garments, namely that C by their help we may gain warmth, for this reason the judgment regarding both matters must be weighed and examined, so that garments may both cover those parts of the body in which there is less decency, and may be a protection for us against the injuries of the air. — The use of a garment must be bounded by that inevitable necessity by which we are driven to it. But if there be an immoderate pursuit concerning them, this proceeds from the disease of avarice, or lust, or vainglory. — The goal of clothing should be but this one thing: that it provide a covering for the flesh, adapted both for winter and for summer.
S. Greg. Naz. — Let us not be effeminate in soft and trailing clothing, and that of which the most beautiful part is uselessness.
The same in laud. Gorg. — She did not employ gold worked by art for the sake of increasing her beauty: not yellow hair, shining both clearly and obscurely; D not the impostures of curls masking a decent head most foully; not the magnificence of a flowing and translucent vestment; not the splendor of stones, and the graces by which the neighboring air is colored, and shapes are illuminated; not the arts and deceptions of painters; not that cheap and low-priced beauty: but she left the fleeting grace of form to those who frequent theaters and public streets, and to whom it is a matter of shame and disgrace to blush.
To be delighted by elegant clothing is merely puerile, and has its pleasure set only in opinion, and mocks the eyes.
The acquisitions of necessary things do not have a harmful quality, but rather an immoderate quantity. — We must not cast away ointment in all respects, but we must use the unguent as a remedy and an aid.
TIT. VII. — Concerning equality; and that all are of the same rank before God.
A Sap. vi, 8. — “He made both small and great, and he has equal care for all.”
S. Greg. Naz. — For Christ, being King, does not wish to be a kind father to some, while showing himself severe toward others.
B S. Cyrilli. — There is no respect of persons with God, just as it is proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures (Rom. ii, 11); but whether a man be great and arrogant, and raised on high by wealth and worldly glory, he shall nevertheless receive an inglorious and unrewarded verdict if he be held bound by vices and crimes; or whether a man be small, and pass his life in poverty and obscurity, he shall be condemned to impurity unless he flourishes with the gifts of virtue.
LETTER K.
Concerning the judgments of God: and that one ought not to be distressed if the just are afflicted with calamities, while to the unjust all things succeed prosperously.
Job xl, 8. — “The Lord said to Job: Will you reject my judgment? Or do you think that I have spoken to you otherwise than so that you might appear just?”
C Job xxi, 7-9. — “Why do the impious live, and have they grown old even in riches? Their seed is according to the desire of their soul, and their children are before their eyes. Their houses are abundant, and there is no fear; there is no scourge from the Lord upon them. They remain as eternal sheep, and their children play, taking up the psaltery and the harp. They have finished their life in good things,” etc.
Psal. xxxv, 7. — “Your justice is as the mountains of God, and your judgments as a great abyss.”
Psal. xxxvi, 35, 36. — “Do not emulate one who prospers in his way, in a man who does injustice. I have seen the impious one superexalted and raised high as the cedars of Libanus; and I passed by, and behold, he was not.”
D Psal. lxxii, 2 and 12. — “My steps were almost poured out, because I was jealous,” etc. — “Behold, they are sinners and abundant in the world,” etc.
Psal. lxxiv, 8. — “God is judge: he humbles this one, and exalts that one.”
Prov. xxiii, 17. — “Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all the day.”
Prov. xiii, 22. — “The wealth of the impious is stored up for the just.”
Isa. xxix, 5-8. — “The wealth of the impious shall be as dust from a wheel, and as chaff that is caught up; and they shall be as a point. And the wealth of the nations shall be as one dreaming while sleeping, and they shall be in sleep drinking and
eating, and when they have risen, the dream is vain. And in the way that he who is thirsty dreams as though he were drinking, and when he has risen he is still thirsty, and his soul has hoped in vain, so shall be the wealth of all the nations.” A Jerem. XII, 1, 2.— “Righteous art thou, O Lord, that I may plead with thee; yet let me speak judgments unto thee. Why is it that the way of the wicked prospers? All they that deal very treacherously have prospered. Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root; they have brought forth children, and have made fruit. Thou art near to their mouth, and far from their reins.” Eccli. IX, 16.— “Envy not the glory of sinners.” Sap. XI, 5.— “By those things in which their enemies were punished, they, while they abounded, were gladdened.” B Rom. IX, 10-21.— “And Rebecca having conception by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, it was said unto her, That the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written: Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?” Rom. XI, 33.— “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” S. Basilii.— “Although the reasons for those things which are administered by God may escape us, yet in every way that which is administered by the wise One, and by Him by whom we are loved in return, ought to be received with an equal mind, even if it be otherwise burdensome.” Ejusd. in init. Prov.— “The justice which is brought upon us from heaven by the righteous Judge, since it has the power of correcting and rebuking, because of the height of those decrees which are hidden within it, can with great difficulty be perceived by human wit. For this, unless I am mistaken, is what he says: Thy justice as the mountains of God (Psal. XXXV, 7). C S. Greg. Naz.— “We are endowed with no skill whereby we may test the hidden judgments of God. Some, indeed, of the friends of God enjoy prosperity, while others, in no way worse than these, meet with adversity in their course. Who knows the reasons for these things, except Thou, O Word and Reason?” Ejusd. De am. paup.— “Who knows if he be punished on account of vice, while the other, again, is raised up as good and worthy of praise; and not, on the contrary, that he is exalted on account of wickedness, and the other is put to the test on account of virtue;
A but rather that one is raised higher so that he may fall more grievously, being permitted first to give vent to his own wickedness as if it were some disease, in order that he may be punished more justly; while the other is pressed by difficulties beyond the expectation of men, so that, having been tested like gold in a furnace, he may refine away whatever small amount of wickedness he may have possessed.
A cycle, brothers, belongs to human affairs, and God instructs us through opposites. Just as He has established all things wisely and bound them together, so does He wisely conduct all things, governing them by His inscrutable and unsearchable judgments. One must be persuaded of this alone: that all things are ordained for our benefit by God, but to seek the manner B of it no longer, nor to be distressed or despondent because we are ignorant of it. For it is neither possible to know these things, nor is it beneficial—the former because we are mortal, the latter because we would quickly be carried away into arrogance.
Some say: Why do the just suffer from weakness and poverty, while the unjust are strong and wealthy? Why is this, that the former might be crowned, and the latter punished forever?
You have asked why God has determined that this man, who is good, should be despondent and afflicted, and that another, who is very wicked, should be cheerful and wealthy; and why one succeeds in all things C and another fails in all; why this one is healthy whereas that one is ailing, and another man of good character is crushed by a demon, while the wicked man lives? Do not be over-curious about things beyond you; know only that all these things come to pass by the will and decree of the Most High. Do not, however, seek the exact reason. Paul, that great man, declared the judgments of God to be unsearchable. Therefore, it is impossible for anyone to trace the footsteps of the Lord and His counsels. For His judgments are a great abyss, as the Prophet says.
If someone, having set out, wishes to cross a river, and sees it roaring and flowing with fearful speed, and though no one else attempts to cross it, he nevertheless D goes in with a rash purpose in order to show himself as noble and strong, and dies in the river, his soul is judged along with the rash; because, seeing his own death, he disobeyed the Scripture, which says, "Do not strive against the current of a river" (Eccli. iv. 32). But if he sees the river flowing peacefully, not threatening death with roars but calm and easy, with many crossing it, and he enters to cross it, and through the permission of God Satan stirs up a wave, or he slips his foot and falls into the water and dies, his death shall be reckoned as a martyrdom. Furthermore, the hour of his
A death was present with him, but not in such a way that he should die in this manner. For the devil, seeing the hour of death, forestalls it and prepares the fall, so that the death may be ascribed to a snare. The same must also be said of those who are killed by wild beasts. For if someone leaves of his own accord to slaughter a beast, in order to show off his own strength, and the beast rises up and he is killed by it, his soul shall be reckoned among the imprudent and the rash. But if a beast should suddenly rush forth and tear a man to pieces, such a person has died a martyr's death; and this holds true whether one dies in the sea or on land.
TITLE II. — On detraction; and that detraction is a false speech uttered against someone.
Num. xii, 1 seqq. — "And Mary and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had taken; for he had taken an Ethiopian woman. And they said: Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it... And the Lord said to them: Hear my words: If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream. But it is not so with my servant Moses, who is most faithful in all my house: for I speak to him mouth to mouth, and plainly, and not by riddles and figures, and he seeth the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak evil of my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them... and behold, Mary appeared white as snow with a leprosy."
Psal. xxx, 18. — "Let deceitful lips be made dumb," etc.
Psal. xlix, 20. — "Sitting against thy brother," etc.
Psal. lxxvii, 19. — "They spoke ill of God, and they said," etc.
Psal. c, 5. — "Him who privily slandered his neighbour," etc.
Psal. c, 7. — "He that speaketh iniquitous things shall not prosper in my sight," etc.
Prov. xx, 13. — "Love not detraction, lest thou be cut off," etc.
Sap. i, 11. — "Keep yourselves therefore from murmuring, which profiteth nothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction: for an obscure speech shall not go into vain."
Jac. iv, 11-12. — "Detract not one another, my brethren. He that detracteth his brother, or he that judgeth his brother, detracteth the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge, that is able to destroy and to save."
Prov. xxx, 17. — "The eye that mocketh at his father, and that despiseth the labour of his mother, let the ravens of the brooks pick it out, and the young eagles eat it."
S. Basil. — Detraction is to babble something against an absent brother with the intent of slandering him, even if that which is said is otherwise true.
S. Chrysost. — If anyone pursues you with curses, if indeed he speaks the truth, see that you correct yourself; but if they are false, D turn them to laughter. If indeed you are conscious to yourself of the things said, be sober; but if you are not conscious of them, despise them.
[S. Chrysostom] — It is then that we ought to despise those who backbite us, when we ourselves provide no handles for them. Or rather, not even then, but [we should wait] until we are able to stop their mouths. For when the whole [matter] originates from us, all the fire turns upon our own head. — Not only they who backbite others, but also those who rashly provide causes for backbiting, are liable to the punishment established for slander. B
[Didymus] — He who wishes to punish another with some evil, first punishes himself in the same way.
[The Elder] — It is better to drink wine and eat meat than to devour the flesh of brethren through backbiting.
TITLE III. — On time; and that time must be redeemed, and everything must be said and done in its own time.
[Eccl. III, 1-8] — «To everything there is a time under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to seek, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to speak, and a time to keep silence. A time to love, and a time to hate. A time of war, and a time of peace.» C
[Osee X, 13] — «Why have you kept silence regarding impiety, and have reaped the injustices thereof?»
[Isa. L, 4] — «The Lord gives me a learned tongue, that I may know when I ought to speak a word.»
[Eccli. IV, 23] — «Observe the time, and flee from evil.» — [Eccli. VII, 5] — «Do not display your doctrine out of season.» — [28] — «Do not withhold a word in the time of salvation.»
[Eccli. XXIX, 7] — «A wise man will be silent until the time. A proverb will be rejected from the mouth of a fool: for he does not speak it in its own time.»
[Ephes. V, 15, 16] — «Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep. See therefore how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, for the days are evil. Therefore do not become unwise, but understand what the will of God is.» D
[Coloss. IV, 5, 6] — «In wisdom walk towards them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.»
[S. Greg. Naz.] — As long as the desire is vehement, seize what you desire. While the iron is hot, let it be strengthened by cold water: lest something come between and break the desire.
[S. Chrysost.] — Merely to speak freely, and of any person...
A is common; but to seize the business at the proper time and season, and to act with the fitting measure and discretion, this requires a very great and admirable soul.
Evagrius. — It is better to cast a stone in vain than a word.
Philo. — Speak what is necessary, and when it is necessary; and what is not necessary, you shall not hear. — The same. It is noble to spare time.
TITLE IV. — Concerning flatterers, parasites, and buffoons; and that one must avoid them.
Ps. LI, 6. — "God has scattered the bones of those who please men."
Prov. x, 23. — "As if in jest, the fool works evil."
Prov. xxvi, 22. — "The words of the crafty are soft: but they strike into the inmost parts of the belly."
Prov. xv, 15. — "The wise and prudent call those bad: but those who are sweet in speech shall be heard more."
Prov. xix, 6. — "Many pay court to faces of kings."
Eccl. vii, 4. — "Better is anger than laughter; for in B the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better." — 7. "As the sound of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools."
Isa. iii, 12. — "Those who call you blessed, they deceive you, and they disturb the path of your feet."
Isa. ix, 16, 14. — "And there shall be those who call this people blessed, leading them astray and being led astray, so that they may swallow them up. God will remove from Jerusalem head and tail, great and small, in one day, and those who admire faces."
Ezech. xiii, 18. — "Woe to those who stitch cushions under every elbow of the hand, and make veils under every head of age, that they may pervert souls; while they speak to a people hearing vain words."
Jerem. xlvi, 22. — "They have seduced thee, and thy men of peace have prevailed C against thee; they have gained strength against thee in the slipping of thy feet."
Eccli. xxxvii, 23. — "He who speaks sophistically is hateful: he is in need of everything. For grace has not been given to him from the Lord."
Galat. i, 10. — "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
Luc. vi, 25. — "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall weep."
Jude 16. — "These are murmurers, complaining, walking after their own desires; and their mouth speaks proud things; and they admire faces for the sake of advantage."
S. Basil. Ad adolesc. — Let us flee from flatteries and blandishments, and the D gain-seeking and wily nature of Archivocus' fox. For nothing is more grievous to those who think rightly than to live for glory and applause, and to look to things that are pleasing to the vulgar, and not to make right reason the guide of life.
A To be held by unbridled and irrepressible laughter is a sign of intemperance. For while it is not unseemly to reveal the expansion of a soul through a cheerful smile—only as far as to show what is written: *A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance* (Eccli. XIII, 31)—to burst into a guffaw with the voice and to convulse the body is not the mark of one who has a composed soul, nor of a man of integrity, nor of one who has self-control. For the most wise Solomon confirms the statement, that *the fool raises his voice in laughter, but a wise man will smile quietly* (Eccli. XXI, 23). A "people-pleaser" is one who does something according to the will or pleasure of some person, even if the action itself is worthy of disgrace.
B Let us not be delighted by the words of witty and mocking men, for that is what most tends to dissolve the tension of the soul. It is somehow in the nature of great powers that these servile flatteries tend to grow alongside them. Those who, because they lack an inherent good by which they might be known, establish themselves by means of the faults of others; and almost just as rust is the decay of grain, occurring within the grain itself, so too does flattery, by worming its way into friendship, become the ruin of friendship.
Laughter is worthy of those who think well, Every kind, though especially the lewd kind. Unruly laughter gathers even tears. It is better to have a grave character than one that is dissipated.
The one who pleases men might deservedly have the praises he gets from them as the power of his reward. But he shall receive absolutely nothing from God.
A glib mouth and a smooth manner of speaking provide amusement and praise for the sake of empty glory to wretched men who have a corrupted mind.
One must drive from our society those who mimic ridiculous men, or rather, ridiculous passions; the jesters must be cast out of our society. No one could have a flatterer as a friend. For flattery is a disease of friendship.
Most people are accustomed to cultivate the successes of rulers rather than the rulers themselves.
Do not accept those who entice and deceive you with praises. For the wise counsel that we should hate flatterers as those who cause great harm.
D *I saw the foolish, and I was consumed*, said the blessed David (Ps. CXVIII, 158). It was fitting, therefore, that you should rather be sorrowful and downcast at the thoughts of absurdity, which are the offspring of vipers of a neglected soul. And whereas you ought to dissolve your external eyes and your internal ones with tears, you now do the opposite, laughing, and convulsing, and, so to speak, at every hour rejoicing in the prancing of irrationality and ignorance; and confident, and trusting...
A in that name, you remain tranquil, because for a time you abstain from foods and are kept away from women. But this is not enough at all. For the demons are superior to you in this matter, in that they neither take any food at all, nor sleep. B
TIT. V. — On thieves.
Exod. xxii, 1. — « If anyone steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it, he shall restore five oxen for it. But if he is caught, he shall pay double. »
Deut. xxiv, 7. — « If a man is caught stealing a soul from among his brothers, that thief shall die. »
Exod. xxii, 2. — « If a thief is found in a breach, and being struck dies, it is not murder for him. »
Job xxx, 5, 6. — « Thieves have risen up against me, whose homes were in the holes of the rocks. »
Prov. xxix, 24. — « He who shares with a thief hates his own soul. »
Zachar. v, 5, 6. — « The Lord said to me: What do you see? And I said: I see a sickle twenty cubits in length and ten cubits in width. And he said to me: It will enter into the house of the thief, and it will settle in the midst of his house, and it will consume it. And every thief will be punished from thence unto death. »
Eccli. xxxvi, 28. — « Who will believe a nimble thief leaping from city to city? »
Ephes. iv, 28. — « Let the thief steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his own hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who is in need. »
S. Basil. — Graves and bitter are the nights of those who spend them in crimes. For both the fear of being caught, and the heat of lust, drive every rest from them. C
TIT. VI. — On cattle and their care.
Levit. xvii, 11. — « The soul of all flesh is its blood. »
Prov. xii, 10. — « A righteous man has compassion for the souls of his beasts. »
Eccli. vii, 24. — « Do you have cattle? Attend to them; and if they are useful to you, let them remain with you. »
TIT. VII. — On boasting and haughtiness; and that one ought not to boast or be exalted in any matter of this life.
I Reg. ii, 3. — « Do not boast, and do not speak high things in pride; and let not grandiloquence go out from your mouth. » D
Jerem. ix, 23. — « Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. »
Job xi, 4. — « Do not say, I am pure in my works, and blameless in his sight. »
Prov. iii, 5. — « Do not be exalted in wisdom. »
Prov. xxvii, 1. — « Do not boast of tomorrow; for you do not know what the coming day will bring forth. »
Eccli. xi, 4. — « In one’s clothing, do not ever boast, nor be exalted in the day of your honor. »
Eccli. vii, 11. — « Do not say: It is brought about by the multitude of my gifts,
and when I offer them to the most high God, I shall be accepted. » A
II Cor. x, 17. — « Let him who glories, glory in the Lord. For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends. »
Jac. i, 9. — « Let the humble brother glory in his exaltation; but the rich in his humiliation. »
I think much in God, but I measure myself, lest I perish in boasting. For when the enemy had once induced Adam, the forefather of our race, to imagine divine equality, he cast him out of paradise and thrust him down to the depths of hell.
TIT. VIII. — Concerning the beauty and elegance of the body.
I Reg. xvi, 12. — « David was ruddy, with beautiful eyes, and good to look upon by the Lord. » B
II Reg. xiv, 25. — « As Absalom, there was not a man in all Israel: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head, » etc.
Prov. xi, 22. — « As a gold ring in a swine's snout, so is a beautiful woman who is foolish. »
Eccli. xi, 2. — « Do not praise a man for his beauty. »
Eccli. xxvi, 22. — « A lamp shining upon the holy candlestick, a beautiful face upon a stable age. »
Eccli. xxxvi, 24. — « The beauty of a woman gladdens her husband’s face. »
S. Basil. — He who is today flourishing in body, and obese from luxury, possessing the elegance of color blooming from the peak of his youth, vigorous and firm, is the very same who will tomorrow be worthy of pity; for he is consumed by the length of time, or wasted away by disease. C
S. Greg. Naz. — If you are ugly in that which falls under the gaze, be beautiful in that which is removed from the sense of the eyes: not otherwise than a rose blooming within its bud.
TIT. IX. — Concerning those who boast and brag.
Prov. xii, 9. — « Better is a man who serves [others] in lowliness, than one who sets glory for himself and lacks bread. »
Prov. xiii, 7. — « There are those who boast of their riches, when they have nothing. »
Eccli. xviii, 33. — « Do not become a beggar by indulging in feasting on borrowed money, when you have nothing in your purse. For you will be an insidiator of your own life. » D
To boast of wealth or to be arrogant regarding one's birth, by which human honors are multiplied, all these things become a destruction of human life, and of honor, and of reproach.
S. Greg. Naz. — What beauty is this, if you have an ape in human form, foul and obscene, which wears its neck surrounded on all sides by golden chains? For this ornament has not changed the ridiculous and foolish figure. And what grace is there for an ass to carry heavy weights of gold? For the ass, however much it is laden with gold,
knows nothing but its braying. Nor does any grace or profit come from this, that someone should enclose leaden swords in silver scabbards, inasmuch as they bring no utility in battle. Such is the man when he is puffed up and glories in external things.
TIT. X. — Concerning superiors; and that one must by no means contend with superiors.
Job. — “An impious man is he who does not revere a person worthy of honor, nor knows how to render honor to such as these.” A
Eccli. viii, 1. — “Do not contend with a powerful man, lest you fall into his hands.”
Eccli. xiii, 3. — “Do not take up a weight above yourself, and do not associate with one stronger or richer than yourself. What will an earthenware pot communicate to a cauldron? For when they strike together, they will be broken.”
Eccli. vii, 7. — “Humble your head before a magnate.” — xxxii, 13. — “In the midst of magnates, do not exalt yourself.” — xxvii, 28. — “He who casts a stone on high, it shall fall upon his own head.”
Act. ix, 5. — “It is hard for you to kick against the goad.”
S. Basil. — Things are always well when the inferior are governed by the superior.
Philo. — It is most beneficial to be subject to the more excellent. — No one is so insane as, being a slave, to set himself against his master.
S. Greg. Naz. Orat. de bapt. — Do not judge the judges, you who have need of healing. For although one is higher or lower than another, all are nevertheless higher than you.
TIT. XI. — Concerning the judgment and justice of God: and that He distributes to each according to his desert, and does not accept the persons of men.
CDeut. x, 17. — “The Lord your God, He is the God of gods, and the Lord of lords; a great God, and mighty, and terrible, who does not regard persons, nor take gifts.”
Deut. xxxii, 43. — “God’s works are perfect, and all His ways are judgments. A faithful God, and there is no iniquity in Him. My hand will lay hold of judgment, and I will take vengeance, and I will render retribution to my enemies, and to those who hate me.”
1 Reg. ii, 10, sec. LXX. — “The Lord ascended into the heavens, and thundered. He judges the ends of the earth, for He is just.”
Job viii, 3. — “Will the Lord do injury when judging? Or will He who made all things pervert justice?” D
Job v, 13. — “He who captures the wise in their craftiness, and has made the counsel of the cunning of no effect.”
Psal. ix, 4. — “You sat upon the throne, You who judge justice.”
Psal. x, 7. — “A just Lord, and He has loved justices; His countenance has beheld uprightness.”
Psal. xviii, 2. — “The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves.”
Psal. xxxii, 5. — “The Lord loves mercy and judgment.”
A “Righteousness is the fullness of Thy right hand.” (Ps. XLVII, 11) “Righteousness and judgment are the preparation of Thy throne.” (Ps. XCVI, 2) “Judgment and righteousness in Jacob Thou hast made.” (Ps. XCVII, 4) “The Lord is righteous; He has cut the necks of sinners.” (Ps. CXXVIII, 4) “All the works of the Lord are with righteousness. The movement of the balance is righteousness from the Lord, and His works are righteous weights.” (Prov. XVI, 11) “Many pay court to the persons of princes, but from the Lord comes what is just.” (Prov. XIX, 6) “He who fashioned every breath, He knows all things, and will render to each according to his works.” (Prov. XXIV, 12) “The Lord of all shall not shrink from any person, nor will He stand in awe of anyone’s greatness.” B (Sap. VI, 8) — “From the Lord all things are just.” “Be strengthened, fear not; behold, our God shall render judgment.” (Isa. XXXV, 4) “The Lord of Sabaoth shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness.” (Isa. V, 16) “I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the nations. He shall not cry out, nor lift up His voice, nor shall it be heard abroad. A bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench, but in truth shall He bring forth judgment. He shall shine forth and shall not be broken, until He set judgment on the earth, and in His name shall the nations hope.” (Isa. XLII, 1-4) “I will judge your judgment, and I will deliver your sons; and they who oppress you shall eat their own flesh, and shall drink their own blood as new wine.” (Isa. XLIX, 25) “I am the Lord who speaks righteousness and announces C truth.” (Isa. XLV, 19) “All Thy judgments are truth, and judgments of truth hast Thou made.” (Dan. III, 27) “But Thou, being the master of strength, in tenderness judgest, and with much forbearance governest us. Being righteous, Thou orderest all things justly.” (Sap. XII, 18) “Thy judgments, O Lord, are great and inenarrable.” (Sap. XVII, 1) “For them indeed, as a father admonishing, Thou didst exhort; but them, as a harsh king, Thou didst examine and condemn.” (Sap. XII, 11) D “The Lord is judge, and there is no glory of man with Him; He will not receive any person.” (Eccli. XXXV, 12) “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebr. X, 31) “God does not receive the person of men.” (Gal. II, 6) “There is no respect of persons with Him.” (Ephes. VI, 9) “It is God who justifies: who is he that condemns?” (Rom. VIII, 33-34) “Neither is the mercy of God without judgment, nor is the judgment without mercy; but He is both merciful, and in a manner befitting those who are worthy
He distributes mercy; and when He judges, having regard for our weakness, He imposes judgment. A
S. Greg. Nyss. — The just judgment of God is assimilated to our own dispositions, and such as are the things we manifest, such also are those repaid to us by Him. For it is absolutely necessary that a man reap what he has sown, and it cannot be otherwise (Gal. vi, 8). For the sowing is the human will; and the harvest is the requital in accordance with the will. B Just as for all bodies created by God it is inherent that they should have a shadow, so also for God, who is just, it is consistent to assign to each according to his merit, both to those who have set themselves to cultivate virtue and to those who have preferred to embrace vice.
S. Chrysost. lib. Ad Theod. laps. cap. 5. — No good deed at all, however small it may be, will be neglected by the Judge. For if sins are examined with such precision that we must pay penalties even for words and thoughts, how much more will right actions, whether they be great or small, be reckoned? — There is one Judge of the dead and the living, who weighs the justice of each.
S. Basil. hom. 1 de David. et Saul. — When God pronounces sentence, no excuse remains for those who contradict. For that judgment is upright and incorrupt; since God, in rendering judgments, is moved neither by favor nor by hatred, but judges only the virtue of the soul. C
S. Cyrilli. — To give equal things to unequals is the greatest injustice.
S. Nili. — It happens indeed very often that men, led by envy, disparage what is good; but the heavenly theater judges matters incorruptibly, and the truth of the things that are done holds the decision of judgment.
TIT. XII. — Concerning a pure heart and conscience.
Prov. iv, 23. — “With all diligence keep thy heart, for out of it proceed the issues of life.” — “A precious possession is a pure man.” — XI, 12. — “Good counsel shall guard thee, and a holy thought shall preserve thee, that it may deliver thee from an evil way, and from a man speaking nothing faithful.” — “Let the heart of a man consider what is just, that his steps may be directed by the Lord.” — “As silver and gold are tried in the furnace, so are chosen hearts with the Lord.” — “The ways of life are the thoughts of a prudent man.” — XIII, 14. — “A prudent man shall be satisfied from his own thoughts.” — XXII, 11. — “The Lord loveth holy hearts: and all who are blameless are acceptable to Him.” — XI, 9. — “Walk in the ways of thy heart, and know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. And put away wrath from thy heart, and remove wickedness from thy flesh.” Eccli. xiv, 2. — “Blessed is he who his own soul hath not condemned.”
A “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matth. v, 8. — “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.” II Cor. i, 12. — “If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments.” I Joan. iii, 21.
First to be called blessed, is that which is pure in our understanding; since the counsel which is formed in the heart is the root of the actions which are performed through the body. S. Basil, in Psal. 1. — “The first thing to be judged blessed is the purity of our mind. For the counsel which is formed in the heart is the root of actions that are performed by the body.”
S. Greg. Naz. Tetrast. 7. B To God no gift is dearer than virtue. Though you offer all, you will offer nothing worthy. Offer that which the poor man too can give; The pure man abhors the hire of a harlot.
Those who are distinguished by a clear conscience are called sons of light and day. S. Greg. Nyss. — “Nothing is accustomed to bring us such pleasure as a mind well-conscious of itself, and good hope.”
S. Chrysost. — “An exulting conscience adorns the face itself, and waters the soul with strength and firmness. For not in vain has it been said by the wise man: A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance.” (Eccli. xiii, 26).
S. Clement. — “Abstinence from evil deeds does not make him just who is instructed in the faith; but the purity and sincerity of thoughts. Salvation is for those souls which are free from perturbations and shine with purity.”
Didymus. — “A pure mind, and pure speech, and a life immune from the stain of sin, is a true throne and temple of God.”
Evagrius. — “A pure heart is a harbor of contemplation.”
Joseph. De imp. rat. — “Thought does not root out the motions of the soul, but rather opposes them.”
TIT. XIII. — Concerning an evil conscience. C “Thou hast set at naught all them that depart from thy judgments; for their reasoning is unjust.” Psal. cxviii, 118.
“A perverse heart deviseth evils.” Prov. vi, 14. — “He that is of a hard heart shall not find good.” — xxvii, 21. — “The heart of the wicked seeketh evil.” — xvii, 11. — “He that is of a hard heart shall fall into mischief.” — xxviii, 14.
“They have heated their hearts like an oven.” Osee vii, 6. — “I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart.” — xiii, 8.
“How long shall thy thoughts lodge within thee?” Jerem. iv, 14.
“Your wickedness is upon you, and ye shall receive the sins of your thoughts.” Ezech. xxiii, 49.
“Froward thoughts separate from God.” Sap. i, 3. — “The ungodly shall be punished according to their own imaginations.” D — iii, 10.
they shall have correction. — xvi, 10. “When wickedness is timid, it bears witness to its condemnation; for a troubled conscience always presumes harsh things. For fear is nothing else than a betrayal of the helps of reason.” — iv, 20. “They shall come in the calculation of their sins as cowards, and their own thoughts shall convict them from the opposite.”
Eccli. xxvii, 5. — “As in the sifting of a sieve remain the refuse, so do the waste products of a man in his thought.” — iii, 26. “A hard heart shall be burdened with labors.”
Matth. xv, 17, 18. — “Whatever enters into the mouth goes into the belly, and is cast out into the drain. But the things which proceed from the mouth come out from the heart; and those things defile the man. For from the heart come out evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things which defile the man.”
S. Athanas. — When the mind turns itself away from the good, it is necessary that it should think of things contrary to it. For it cannot by any means act otherwise than by being in motion, since it is by nature easily moved.
He who has not been able to discern the snares of evil thoughts from the beginning, but has revealed their absurdity by the mutual comparison of their ends—that man has tied tail to tail, and placed a torch—that is, conviction—between them.
LITTERA Λ
TIT. I. — Concerning those who argue and dispute about the faith.
I Tim. vi, 3-6. — “If any man teaches otherwise, and does not consent to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but languishing about questions and contentions of words, from which arise envy, contentions, blasphemies, evil suspicions, conflicts of men who are corrupted in mind, and who are destitute of the truth, supposing godliness to be a gain.”
II Tim. ii, 23, 24. — “But avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing that they beget strifes. But the servant of the Lord must not wrangle, but be gentle toward all men.”
S. Basilii. — He who contradicts seems to make himself in some way like the vain talker.
S. Greg. Naz. — They are arguers and sophists, not theologians. — There is no pleasure for the faithful in babbling and verbal contentions. For even one adversary is enough. — It is the first wisdom to despise that wisdom which is situated in speech and verbal captiousness, and in adulterous and superfluous contentions.
S. Greg. Thaum., cap. 12 (1). — Let us not inquire into the Evangelical word with curiosity, nor [engage in] very dry and endless questions and word-battles.
NOTES. (1) In many Dissertations, I show that all these chapters which they attribute to the Thaumaturge are Apollinarian, or from some other Apollinarist. And this twelfth [chapter] of this heretic certainly presents art and deceit, which he is accustomed to use elsewhere, pretending that it is not right to dispute curiously concerning the mysteries of the faith.
A spreading, by which the plain and most straightforward teaching of the faith is rendered rough and thorny. Rather, let us not be overly curious about the work of God. Let us embrace peace, let us prefer concord, let us safeguard unity, let us cultivate love, through which the grace of God is conciliated. It is not for us to know how the Son of God became man. For this mystery is great, as it is written (Eph. 5:32); who shall declare his generation? because his life is taken from the earth (Isa. 53:8; Acts 8:33). But this must be persuaded to everyone, that the Son of God has truly become man according to the flesh, according to the Scriptures, and conversed with men (Baruch 3:38) according to the likeness of us, without sin; and that He died for us and rose again, as it is written; and that He has ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father, whence He shall come to judge both the dead and the living, as it is written. For we must beware that, while we clash with one another, some might disparage the teaching of the faith with insults, and that saying might come to pass: For your sake my name is blasphemed among the nations (Isa. 52:5).
Therefore, to inquire about God, if it tends not to strife but to discovery, is salvific.
Why do we fight with one another in vain? Why do we make war on one another, when we are commanded to love even those whom we hate? Why, leaving behind faith, do we quibble about the faith? He was born, but He was not born. He suffered, but He did not suffer. He rose, but He did not rise. Why do we go to law with the Redeemer? B Why do we demand an account of the Benefactor? Once He willed, and as He willed He appeared, and died, and rose, and is coming to judge the living and the dead.
It is better and more profitable to be an unlearned and simple person, and to draw near to God through love, than to appear learned and experienced, and to be found blasphemous toward one's own Master.
TITI. II. — Concerning reviling.
"Those who utter revilings are most foolish." Prov. 10:19. — "The glory of a man is to turn away from revilings; but every fool involves himself in them." Prov. 29:5. — "It is better to dwell on the corner of a roof, than with a contentious woman in a common house." Prov. 25:24.
"Before fire there is the vapor of a furnace and smoke; so also before bloodshed are revilings." Eccli. 22:27.
When a young child reviles you, you make the revilings a cause for laughter; and when someone who has lost his mind from madness utters words of dishonor, consider him rather pitiable than worthy of hatred. C
If someone wishes to accuse us, let us not be grieved that we hear evil, but that we rightly hear evil. D
For if we live in wickedness, even though there be no one to accuse us, we are of all men most miserable. But if we are careful of virtue, even if the whole world speaks evil, then we shall be all the more zealous. A
The Same. — If those who admit empty speech will not obtain pardon, what defense will they have who speak against others and revile them?
The Same. — If you think that the divine Apostle is to be obeyed when he explicitly cries out that revilers will in no wise obtain the kingdom of heaven, avoid chatter and the practice of simply disparaging, as it happens, those who do you no wrong.
S. Nilus. — You say that you are speaking in jest, not with the intention of hating, but as one making light and being carefree, and for this reason you cast insults upon innocent men in your cups? Then, while you jest and make light, endure the eternal punishment, and as you are being carefree, depart into that fire whose bitterness cannot be endured. B
The Same. — Let it not pain you, nor let you be tormented, when reproaches and curses are justly heaped upon you because of your sins; but rather, listen with a willing mind to the jibes that are cast.
TITLE III. — On famine, and on those who do not sell grain in time of need; and that many unlawful things are done by those suffering from famine.
IV Kings vi, 25-30. — “There was a famine in Samaria, so that an ass’s head was sold for fifty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. And the king of Israel was passing by on the wall. And a woman cried out to him, saying: Save me, O lord king. And he said: If the Lord does not save you, from where shall I save you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress? And the king said to her: What is with you? And she said: This woman said to me, Give your son, and let us eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we cooked my son, and ate him. And I said to her, Give your son on the second day, and we will eat him; and she hid him. And when the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his garments.” C
Prov. xi, 26. — “He that withholds grain, the people curse him. He who hoards grain, may he be left to the nations.” D
Joel i, 10-14. — “Lament, you priests, who minister at the altar, because the fields have been laid waste. Let the earth mourn, because the grain has been afflicted. The wine has dried up; the oil has dwindled; the farmers are confounded. Lament, O possessions, over the wheat and barley; the vintage has perished from the field. The vine is dried up, and the fig trees have dwindled; the pomegranate, and the palm, and the apple, and all the trees of the field have dried up; because the sons of men have confounded joy.”
Lam. ii, 11, 12, 20. — “My eyes have failed with tears, my bowels are troubled; my glory is poured out upon the earth, at the destruction of the daughter of my people, in the
A shedding of children, and infants in the streets of the city. They said to their mothers: Where is grain and wine? when they poured out their souls into the bosom of their mothers. See, O Lord, and consider: upon whom did you ever cause this to come? Shall women eat the fruit of their womb? The cook has made a gleaning. Shall infants who suck the breasts be slain?” Thren. iv, 10. — “The hands of merciful women have cooked their own children: they have become meat for them.” Jerem. xiv, 4, 5. — “For there was no rain upon the earth. The farmers were ashamed, and covered their heads. Even the hinds in the field calved, and left, because there was no grass. The wild asses stood on the cliffs; they snuffed up the wind like dragons. Their eyes failed, because there was no grass.” S. Basil. Hom. de avarit. — Do not at all expect a dearness of grain, so that you may open your storehouses. For he who increases the price of grain is an object of execration to the public. Do not, through the greed of hoarding gold, foster famine, nor B put off the common need for the sake of private wealth. Do not become a merchant of human calamities. Do not, for the sake of an opportunity to increase your riches, draw the wrath of God upon yourself; do not irritate the wounds of those who have been chastised by scourges. Do you look at your gold, but do not look at your brother? And do you recognize the imprint on a coin, and distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit, but are you utterly ignorant of a friend who is laboring under a lack of necessities? What then is the poor man to do? He turns his eyes subsequently toward his children, so that by bringing them into the marketplace, he may thereby find a consolation for death. Consider here the battle B between the necessity of famine and paternal affection. The one threatens a most miserable death, while nature pulls in the opposite direction, urging him to die with his children. And often having attempted it, and often having been checked, he finally gives in, forced by the inescapable pressure of necessity. And what does the father deliberate? By what means, [i.e., first], shall I sell? Whom will the corn-merchant gladly take? Shall I go to the firstborn? But I am moved by his birthright. Or to the younger? But I pity his age, which does not sense the calamities. C This one preserves the clear features of his parents; that one is suited for the studies of letters and learning. Woe to the helplessness! Who am I to become? With whom of these shall I clash? What kind of wild beast’s soul must I assume? How can I forget nature? If I hold on to all, I will watch them all consumed by the suffering; if I cast out one, with what eyes shall I look upon the rest, having already become suspected by them of treachery? How shall I inhabit my house, having brought childlessness upon myself? How shall I come to the table, which will have abundance from such a subsidy? And he, indeed, goes forth with countless tears to sell his dearest child: D yet does this calamity not bend you? Does no thought of nature enter your mind? But while famine crushes this wretched man, you, on the contrary, delay and procrastinate, making his calamity last longer for him.
A Famine is the chief of afflictions, the most miserable end of all types of death. For in other dangers, either the sharpness of the sword brings death swiftly, or the onset of fire extinguishes life at once. Famine, however, possesses a sluggish evil, drawing out the pain, a disease settled and lurking within, a death always present and always lingering. For the suffering caused by famine has often compelled many to overstep the bounds of nature, and to lay hands upon those of their own kin; and it compelled a mother to receive back into the womb the child whom she had brought forth from it. And this tragedy the Jewish history has dramatized.
B S. Greg. Naz. Orat. in plag. grand.—What will those say who purchase and sell grain? Who watch for the difficulties of the times so that they may trade, and make delicacies for themselves from the calamities of others, and acquire wealth—not like Joseph with the goods of the Egyptians, in a superior manner of stewardship; for he knew how to gather, and how to distribute grain well; but like unjust and wicked men, that they might acquire the means of others? They who say: *When will the month be past, that we may sell? And the sabbaths, that we may open our stores?* (Amos VIII, 5). They who corrupt what is just with double measures and weights, and have inclined the leaden measure of iniquity upon themselves.
Ejusd. in laud. Basil.—In famine nothing is more bitter than the cruelty and insatiable cupidity of the rich. C For they watch the seasons, and trade in scarcity, and cultivate the calamities, not hearing that *he who has mercy on the poor lends to the Lord*, and that anyone who hoards grain is cursed by the people; nor that there is nothing else promised to the humane, or threatened to the inhuman; but they are more insatiable than is necessary, and think wickedly, shutting up the bowels of God—to others their own, and to themselves—of which they have more need than others do. These are the grain merchants and tavern-keepers, who neither revere kinship, nor are grateful to God, by whose benefit they themselves live in abundance while others are pressed.
Joseph. lib. VI De bello Jud. cap. 20.—Necessity compelled them to grind everything with their teeth: and they brought to their mouths even those things which were not fit for the foulest of animals to eat. D They did not abstain even from their belts and shoes at the last, and, stripping off the leather from their shields, they chewed it.
Ibid. cap. 11.—A certain woman, with famine pervading her bowels, attacked nature herself: and having snatched her child, whom she was still nursing, "Wretched infant," she said, "in war, and famine, and sedition, for whom do I preserve you? Be you food for me, and for the seditious a fury, and for the future age a fable, which alone is wanting to the calamities of the Jews." While she said these things, she slays her son: then, having cooked the body, she eats one half of it, but preserves the rest, hidden away. Immediately the seditious arrived, and from the
A offensive odor they sensed, they threatened that they would slay her without delay unless she produced the food she had readied. But she, saying that she had kept a choice portion for them, uncovered the remains of her son. The men were immediately seized by horror and mental alienation, and stood frozen at such a sight. Then the woman said, It is my own legitimate son, and the deed is mine: eat; for I too have eaten. Do not be softer than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother. But if you are pious and turn away from my sacrifice, I have indeed eaten one half, and let the rest remain for me.
Joseph. ibid. ch. 20. — But of those who were perishing by famine in the city, an infinite multitude fell, and unspeakable calamities occurred. For in every house, if any shadow of food appeared anywhere, war broke out, and dearest ones engaged hand-to-hand against each other, snatching away the miserable provisions of the soul. There was no trust even towards the dying in their deprivation, but robbers searched even those who were breathing their last, lest anyone having food hidden in their bosom should be feigning death. But those struck by starvation, like rabid dogs, leaped forward and threw themselves against doors in the manner of drunkards, and through helplessness would go to the same houses two or three times in one hour. B
TIT. IV.—Concerning wicked men and those addicted to excess.
Eccl. XII, 6-10. — "Give to the pious, and do not receive the sinner. Do good to the humble, and do not give to the ungodly. Prohibit giving him bread, lest he become stronger than you; for you will find double the evil in all the good that you do for him. For the Most High also hates sinners, and will render punishment to the ungodly there."
Didymus. — Exercise care with greater and more ready zeal for those who have fallen into poverty for the sake of virtue and piety, or even those who through illness or some other event are struggling with penury, than for those who have become destitute of their property because of wickedness or luxury.
S. Nilus. — Do you dare, being a Christian, to behave altogether youthfully, and to be lascivious, and to give yourself to games? Do you dare altogether to dance and leap, and to move your feet and hands according to the pleasure of the devil? How can you associate and mingle with those who are truly Christians? D
Eusebius. — Within, the priest offers supplication to God for the salvation of the world, and outside games are being celebrated. Thus, indeed, the Israelites were also playing, and destruction came upon them. For while Moses was offering supplication to God on the mountain for them, the multitude, after having busied themselves with food and wine, rose up to play; and wrath came upon them, and twenty-four thousand fell in one day.
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LETTER M
TITLE I. — Concerning secrets, and those who disclose secrets.
Prov. xi, 13.—"He who reveals a secret walks deceitfully." Eccli. xix, 10.—"Have you heard a word? Let it die with you." Eccli. viii, 15.—"A cruel man is he who does not hoard words, and will not spare regarding affliction and chains." Eccli. viii, 21.—"Do not do anything hidden before a stranger; for you do not know what it will bring forth. Do not reveal your heart to every man." S. Chrysost. Orat. 3, On the Statues.—"He who safely and diligently contains what he has heard will live his life with great pleasure." Ibid.—"Have you heard a word? he says; let it die with you. Extinguish it, and bury it. Do not give it power in any way to go forth, nor to move at all. Cut off what has been said; consign it to oblivion, so that you may be like those who have not heard." Philo.—"Loquacious men, vomiting forth things which ought to be suppressed in silence, pour things unworthy of being heard into ears on account of the itching of their tongues."
TITLE II. — Concerning hatred of wickedness, and those things which are displeasing to God.
Job xxxv, 13.—"God does not wish to look upon wicked things; the Lord will not enter before them." Ps. v, 7.—"For you are not a God who wills iniquity. Nor will the wicked dwell beside you, nor will they remain, etc." — xxx, 7. "You have hated all who observe vanities in vain." — xliv, 8. "You loved justice, and hated iniquity." — lii, 6. "God has scattered the bones of those who please men; they are confounded, because God has despised them." — cxviii, 118. "You have despised all who depart from your judgments, because their thought is unjust." B Prov. xxii, 22.—"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; an unjust thought is an execration to the Lord." Prov. xvii, 15.—"He who judges the unjust man to be just, and the just man to be unjust, is unclean and execrable before the Lord." Prov. iii, 34.—"The Lord resists the proud." — xii, 22. "A perverse way is an abomination to the Lord." — xvi, 5. "Every one who is sublime in heart is unclean before the Lord." Isa. lxi, 8.—"I am the Lord loving justice, and hating rapine from iniquity." C Isa. x, 14 (cf. i, 14-15).—"You have become a satiety to me. I will no longer forgive your sins. And when you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you. And if you multiply prayer, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood." Eccli. x, 7.—"Pride is hateful before the Lord and men." "That which is sublime among men is an abomination before God." D
TITLE III. — Concerning repentance and confession.
Gen. xxxviii, 26.—"Judas said: Thamar is justified, for which cause
A Thamar, because I did not give Selom my son to her. And he did not continue to know her any more.
[II Kings XII, 11-13.] "Nathan said to David: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I raise up evil against you, and I shall take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor; because you did it secretly." And David said to Nathan: "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said: "The Lord has also put away your sin."
[III Kings XXI, 27-29.] "As Achaab was pricked in heart before the face of the Lord, and was walking weeping, and rent his garments, and girded sackcloth upon his body, and fasted. In the day that he struck Naboth, the Lord said to Elias: I will not bring the evil in the days of Achaab, because he was pricked in heart before my face, but in the days of his son I will bring the evil."
B [Prayer of Manasseh.] "You, Lord, according to the multitude of your goodness, have promised repentance and remission to sinners for salvation."
[Job XXXIII, 23.] "If there be a thousand death-dealing angels, not one of them shall harm him, if he understands in his heart to turn to the Lord."
[Job XI, 15.] "Strip off the filth, and you shall not fear, and you shall forget your labor; as a wave that has passed, and you shall not be afraid; and your prayer shall be as the morning star."
[Job XXII, 23-29.] "If you return and humble yourself before the Lord, and put away iniquity far from your dwelling, the Almighty shall be to you a helper against your enemies; and he shall render you pure as silver purified by fire, and there shall be light on your ways, C because you have humbled yourself."
[Job XXXVI, 11.] "If they be converted from iniquity, and hear, and serve, they shall finish their days in good things."
[Prov. XXVI, 26.] "A prudent man discovers his own sins in council."
[Osee VI, 1, 2.] "Come, and let us return to the Lord our God, for he has struck, and he will heal us; he who has struck will also cure us; he will heal us after two days, and in the third day we shall rise, and we shall live before him, and we shall know, and we shall follow on to know him."
[Joel II, 12, 13.] "Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in lamentation. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and full of mercy, and repents of the evil."
D [Zachar. I, 3.] "Turn to me, and I will turn to you, says the Lord Almighty."
[Isa. I, 16-20.] "Wash yourselves, and be clean; take away the wickednesses from your souls before my eyes. Cease from your wickednesses. Learn to do good; seek judgment, deliver the oppressed, judge the orphan, and justify the widow; and"
"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them as white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool. And if you be willing and hear me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you will not, A and will not hear me, the sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things." Isa. XIX, 22. — "They shall turn to the Lord, and he shall hear them, and shall heal them." "When you shall have turned, you shall weep, and then you shall be saved." Isa. XLIII, 25. — "I am he that blots out your iniquities, and they shall not be remembered. But do you remember. Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified." Isa. XLV, 21. — "I am God, and there is no other besides me. A just one B and a saviour, there is none besides me. Turn to me, and you shall be saved, all you who are from the ends of the earth." Isa. XLVI, 12. — "Hear me, you who have lost your heart, who are far from my justice. Draw near to my justice, and I will not delay the truth and the salvation which is from me." Isa. LV, 6, 7. — "Seek God, and when you have found him, call upon him; and when he draws near to you, let the wicked man forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his counsels, and turn to the Lord, and you shall obtain mercy, for he will abundantly pardon your sins." Isa. LXII, 7, 8. — "If you amend C and make Jerusalem a joy upon the earth, the Lord has sworn by his glory, and by the strength of his arm, that I will no longer give your corn and your food to your enemies, and the sons of strangers shall no longer drink your wine, for which you have laboured." Jerem. III, 10. — "Turn to me, O colony of Israel, says the Lord, and I will not be angry with you forever. Yet know your iniquity, that you have acted impiously against the Lord your God." Jerem. XVIII, 7. — "But at length I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, to take away and to destroy it; and if that nation shall turn from the evil I purposed to do to them." Jerem. XXVI, 3. — "Do not withhold the word; perhaps they will hear, and turn every man from his evil way, and I will cease from the evil D which I command to be done to them." Jerem. III, 12, 13. — "Turn to me, O colony of Israel, says the Lord, and I will not take my face away from you, for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever. Make your ways and your works better, and hear the voice of the Lord; and the Lord will refrain from the evils which he has spoken against you." Ezech. XVIII, 21-23. — "If the unjust man shall turn from all his injustices which he has done, and shall keep all my commandments, and shall do judgement and mercy, he has saved his soul. And he has seen, and has turned from all his impieties which he has done, he shall live in life, and shall not die. All
A his transgressions shall not be remembered; but he shall live in his justice. Do I desire the death of the sinner, says the Lord, more than that he should turn from his evil way, and live?
[Sap. XII, 19] — “You have made your children to be of good hope, for you give place for repentance for sins.”
[Eccli. IV, 3] — “Be not ashamed to confess your sins.”
[Eccli. V, 5-7] — “Concerning propitiation, be not without fear, to add sin upon sin. And say not: The mercy of the Lord is great; He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins. Do not delay to be converted to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day. For suddenly the wrath of the Lord shall come, and at the time of vengeance He will destroy you.”
[Eccli. XXI, 21] — “My son, have you sinned? Do not do so again, but pray for your former sins.”
[Matth. V, 5] — “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
[Matth. XI, 28-30] — “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet, and my burden light.”
[Matth. XXVI, 75] — “Peter remembered the word of Jesus which he had said to him: Before the cock crow, you will deny me thrice. And going forth, he wept bitterly.”
[Matth. IX, 12] — “They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. Go then and learn what this meaneth: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”
[Luc. XV, 8] — “What woman having ten drachmas, if she lose one drachma, does not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently?” [etc.]
[Luc. XV, 11-32] — “A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his substance. And not many days after, the younger son, gathering all together, went abroad into a far country: and there wasted his substance, living riotously. And after he had spent all, there came a mighty famine in that country; and he began to be in want. And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And returning to himself, he said: How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger! I will arise and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee: I am not now worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, D his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running, fell upon his neck and...
kissed him. And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants: Bring forth the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: he was lost, and is found. A
II Cor. vii, 10. — "For godly sorrow worketh penance steadfast unto salvation."
Jac. v, 16. — "Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much."
I Joan. i, 9. — "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity."
I Joan. ii, 1. — "My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ."
S. Basil. Hom. de jejun. — Have we been afflicted on account of our sins? Let us be cured by penance. But penance without fasting is empty and unfruitful.
Id. in illud, Attende tibi. — Pay attention to thyself, so that according to the proportion of the offense, thou mayest also receive the aid of medicine. Art thou bound by a great and grievous crime? Thou hast need of great penance, of most abundant tears, of sharp watchings, of constant fasting. Hast thou committed a light and tolerable sin? Do thou exhibit a like penance. B
Ejusd. — It would be desirable that we should not even touch evil. But let this be the second course of navigation, that after having tasted evil, we may immediately flee from it as from the bite of a serpent. If, hurried away by the sudden onset of the enemy, thou hast conceived an impious thought in thy mind, do not persist in the sin. But if this also has happened to thee, see that thou do not settle down in the vice.
Ejusd. in psal. xxxiii. — It is impossible for anyone to gird himself for virtue, unless he has first completely departed and emerged from vice.
Ejusd. ex can. Const. — If the multitude of God's mercies could be numbered, or the magnitude of His mercy measured, in comparison with the multitude and magnitude of sins, he who has committed sin might despair. But if these things can indeed be measured and counted, while no one can measure or count the mercy or the compassions of God: there is no reason why the sinner should lose heart, but [let him] recognize the mercy, and condemn his sins, for the forgiveness of which [forgiveness] is proposed in the blood of the Lord. C
Ejusdem, Epist. ad monach. laps. — If any hope of salvation remains for thee, brother; if even the smallest remembrance of God; if any desire for the good things to come; if any fear of the punishments which are stored up for the obstinate, wake up quickly, lift up thy eyes to heaven. D
A Come to your senses. Cease from your wickedness; shake off the drunkenness that has been poured upon you. Rise up against him who cast you down. Remember the mercy of God, that He heals with oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall to mind the words that have been written: Does he who falls not rise again, and does he who turns away not return? He who is struck is healed, he who is captured by wild beasts overcomes, he who confesses is not cast out; for God does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he should return and be saved. Do not, having fallen into a depth of evils, become contemptuous. It is a time of forbearance, a time of patience, a time of healing, a time of amendment. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Be quiet. Do not stand in the way of sinners, but jump back. For when you turn and groan, then you shall be saved. For there is health from struggles, and salvation from sweats; there is salvation, there is amendment. Take heart, do not despair. It is not a law that judges and condemns to death without mercy, but grace that governs, delaying the punishment, awaiting the amendment. The doors are not yet closed; the bridegroom is listening; sin does not rule.
B The tower of strength has not fallen, brother; the medicines for return have not been spoiled; the city of refuge has not been closed. Do not remain in the depth of evils. Do not hand yourself over to that murderer of men; for the Lord knows how to raise up those who have been crushed.
Let no one living in vice despair of himself, knowing that while husbandry changes the qualities of plants, the care of the soul according to virtue is able to overcome various kinds of illnesses.
It is not the change of evil that involves shame, but the retention of it that involves destruction. Do not be reluctant to confess your sin, so that you may escape the shame of that place by the shame of this; since this is part of the suffering of that place, and you will show that you have truly hated sin by setting it as an example and triumphing over it as something worthy of insult. — God is healed by no other thing as much as by suffering, and for tears His love of mankind is repaid. C
God rejoices in nothing so much as in the amendment and salvation of man.
Let us sow in tears, that we may reap in rejoicing. Let us become Ninevites, not Sodomites. Let us heal our wickedness, let us not be consumed by wickedness. Let us listen to Jonah preaching, let us not be overwhelmed by fire and brimstone.
If the anger of God were an emotion, one would rightly despair, as if no longer able to quench the flame which one had kindled through so many evils. But since the Divine is without emotion, even if He chastises, even if He punishes, He does not do so out of anger, but with love of mankind and D providential care.
*To another monk who had fallen.* — The tower of strength has not fallen, brother; the medicines of conversion are not corrupted; the city of refuge is not closed. Do not remain in the bottomless pit of evils. Do not accommodate yourself to that homicide; for the Lord knows how to raise up the crushed.
*From the same, Homily on the Hexaemeron.* — Let no one who lives in vice despair of his salvation; having this as a certainty, that just as the toil of the farmer changes the qualities of plants, so also the concern of one who is zealous for the virtue of the soul has the power to overcome any kind of disease.
*St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration on the Epiphany.* — It is not the rejection of vice and wickedness that is shameful, but the maintenance of it that is destructive.
*From the same, On Baptism.* — Do not be ashamed to confess your sin, so that you may escape the future shame through the present one. For the former is a part of the future misery. By this act, you will also manifest that you have sincerely hated sin, inasmuch as you have exposed it as if it were worthy of contempt, and have led it in a triumph. — By nothing is God so reconciled as by the affliction of the body, and mercy is usually repaid with tears.
*From the same, On the Holy Lights.* — God is delighted by nothing so much as by the correction and salvation of man.
*From the same, On the Great Plague.* — Let us sow in tears, that we may reap in exultation. Let us imitate the Ninevites, not the Sodomites. Let us cure vice, lest we perish with vice. Let us listen to Jonah preaching, lest we be overwhelmed by fire and sulphur.
*St. Chrysostom, To Theodore who had fallen, Book 1, Chapter 3.* — If the anger of God were some sort of perturbation, someone might rightly despair of his own salvation, as one unable to extinguish that flame already kindled by so many sins. But since God is removed from every perturbation
A of mind, we ought to be heartened and place our full trust in the power of repentance. Even if you do not show forth the whole of repentance, God does not pass over even the brief and short-lived version, but instead assigns a great reward even for this. Repentance is not judged by the quantity of time, but by the disposition of the soul. He who has repented of the terrible things he has done, even if he does not show forth a repentance worthy of his sins, will nevertheless receive the reward for this very act. When you sin, do not despair of yourself, but run at once to the resurrection. Do not say to yourself: "Woe is me, I am lost! I have committed fornication, I have committed adultery, I have committed murder." You have a harbor of salvation that drives away sin. For when I see such a man who has received wounds and is being torn apart, I immediately run to repentance, and I speak with boldness, pouring forth fountains of tears. Many times, both men and women have fallen into a grievous and incurable disease. Tears have been poured out, medicines have been consumed, medical art has been at a loss, beauty has withered, the body has been surrendered. This woman then goes about, saying: "Where shall I go? What shall I do? I have exhausted my wealth, I have summoned doctors, the medicines have been used up, the disease remains, the ulcer does not yield." It often happens that one of those who have come to visit the sick person says: "I too once fell into the same malady, and such-and-such a person B put a medicine on me and freed me from the disease." Then she implores him: "Show me the woman." Go to the alleyway, she says, and ask this person and that one; there is no need for trouble, no need for toil, nor is it necessary even to cross the threshold of the house; rather, you may receive the medicine while standing right here. Thus also David, while he was still of youthful age, possessed the mature fruit of virtue. C Samuel therefore came to Jesse, who was rich in the procreation of many children, holding the horn in which was the holy oil. And what does he say? "God sent me to make one of your sons king." Jesse, having heard the title of king, thinking that this dignity was fitting for the eldest, brings his firstborn into the middle. What then does the prophet say? "Move him aside," he says; "he is not the one accepted by God." He brings the second; nor is it he. The third, by no means; the fourth, the fifth; the band of sons was exhausted, and the one who was being sought was not found. He says to him: "Do you have another?" The father was ashamed. "I have one," he says, "a small, vile shepherd boy." D Thus, indeed, does man hold him of little account; but God crowns him. For man does not see as God sees. For man indeed looks upon the face, but God looks upon the heart. For he does not
A seek out the bulk of the body, but rather desires the nobility of the soul. God had not said to Samuel: "Go, and anoint David for me"—for fear that the same thing would happen to him as happened to Joseph; for just as his brothers, when they happened to learn that he would be king, laid traps for him, attacked him, and sold him, so he took care that they would not likewise perpetrate such things. Wherefore their ignorance brought him safety. The prophet stood anxious. "Give me one," he said, "one of your sons." The other said: "I have no one, except a small boy feeding the sheep." Man does not see as God will see. Where are those who boast in the beauty of form? Do not speak to me of the beauty of the body, but look at the beauty of the mind. For what is a beautiful woman, if not a whitewashed sepulcher? If she is not modest, even if she has beauty, she is a pit dug for others, a prepared poison. This is withered by sickness and is cut off by death; but the beauty of the soul remains immortal and stainless. And then it displays its own loveliness when the passions cease and the mind enters into tranquility. If, therefore, you see a man or a beautiful woman, do not admire them, since the oaks also are stretched out to a height, yet have no fruit; but the vine, dragged along the ground, has ripe fruit of clusters. What, then, do you desire? To have a vine, or an oak? It is clear that it is a vine. For the oak, standing on high, has for its nourishment the fruit of wild, irrational animals. What is more insignificant than a bee? What is better? A bee, or a peacock? Take away the peacock, and you have lost nothing; take away the bee, and many things are lacking. David therefore came; the oil is found, and he is anointed by the decree of God, but by the ministry of man. A horn was placed upon him, and it became for him instead of purple and a diadem. And he went forth possessing the kingdom, not armored with a breastplate, nor a shield, nor spears, but with the decree of God, which is more powerful than all things.
B This one, when the war was calling and circumstances were being thrown into confusion, and the barbarians were invading the Jews, went forth to see the battle array and the war, and he sees the barbarian challenging to single combat, and no one dared to leap forward or to go out. David, seeing the war glistening, and that the war was unbearable, and that the many were already struck with fear, says: "Who is this uncircumcised one, who has reviled the battle array of the living God?" And they say to him: "Whence comes this insolence in you?" But he: "I possess not insolence, but faith; not pride, but piety. I do not look at his size, but at the desolation of his soul. I do not see that the ship is great, but that it has no helmsman. I do not fear him, for he is an enemy of God. With what weapons do you boast, David?" "Not with carnal ones," he says, "but with spiritual; for our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual." Some, then, heard this and brought him to the king, who was sitting, struck with fear, trembling. And he says to him: "Why has the face of my lord fallen, and why in time of prosperity does he acknowledge bondage? Who is this? Shall I not go and cut off his head?" What then does the king say? "And how are you able? You are a small child, and he is a warrior from his youth." "Do not look," he says, "at those things which are seen, but at those things which are understood. What
then? When the king is B incredulous, he is constrained, therefore, to relate his achievements. "I was a small child," he says, "tending my father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and would take a sheep from the flock, I would go out after them and rescue it from their mouth, and I would strike the lion and the bear. And this man shall be like one of those beasts." And Saul said to David: "Go, and the Lord be with you." The king gave him armor, but he could not wear it, for God did not permit this—so that he might conquer naked, so that the armor might not share the victory of his noble deeds, and so that the king might not say, "The armor conquered." He casts off the armor, he puts on faith, he goes out naked, armored only with faith; he goes out a shepherd, and not a soldier. He casts a stone, the foreigner fell; not by the nature of the body, but by the power of faith he carried away the victory. He took his sword, cut off his head, and Scripture was fulfilled: "The sinner is snared in the works of his own hands" (Ps. IX, 17). C This, therefore, is such and so great a man, of whom God says: "I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart" (Ps. LXXXVIII, 21). Truly a glorious eulogy and a singular argument for virtue! This man, I say, who had overcome wild beasts, who had beheaded Goliath, who had strangled a lion, who had subdued a bear, who in youthful age displayed gray-headed wisdom; who was small in body, but great in heart; who in royal attire exhibited the austerity of monks (for he shone, not with gems, but with tears: "For I will wash," he said, "every night my bed; I will water my couch with my tears" (Ps. VI, 7))—this man of such virtue, who had drawn to himself spiritual grace; who had touched the celestial axis; who had divinely obtained help; who had ended wars: this man, finally, who had performed great and numberless exploits against the devil, after having cultivated modesty, meekness, and honesty, when he had obtained the kingdom, when he had subjected peoples to his empire and rule, at the hour of noon, rising from his bed after lunch, he was walking about. He saw, therefore, a woman bathing herself, endowed with an elegant figure—a woman bathing herself on a roof, the beautiful wife of a soldier. He saw, I say, and being struck by his eyes, he received a wound. Let those hear this who with curious eyes gaze upon the forms of others. Let those hear who burn with an insane love for spectacles: who say, "We watch, and we suffer no harm from this." David was wounded, and are you not harmed? D He was wounded, and am I to trust in your virtue? He who abounded in such great grace of the Spirit received a dart, and you deny that you are wounded? And yet he did not see a harlot, but a grave and modest woman; and not in a theater, but at home; but you see in the theater, where the very place itself punishes the soul. And you do not merely see, but you also hear wicked words, and you see harlot-like clothing and diabolical songs from every side; the mind is struck by the sight, from what you see; by the hearing, from what you hear; by the smell, from what you smell. So many chasms, so many destructions; and I am to be confident for you
corruptions, how can I believe that you are immune from the bites of wild beasts? For you are not stone, nor iron. You are a man, surrounded by the common weakness of nature. You hold fire, and are you not burned? Is that consistent with reason? Apply a lamp to hay; and then, if you can, deny that the hay is consumed. The same must be thought concerning our nature. He saw her, therefore, bathing; he was captivated by her beauty; he received the dart; he was wounded. The king sent for her; she came; the crime was committed, he satisfied his desire. He orders her to return to her own house. I am saying these things, and I bring the wounded man into our midst, so that you who stand around may see how he is being healed. For a surgeon healing has those standing around him, so that they may see how, by his art, he overcomes the disease. Much more, when the prophet is being treated, it behooves everyone to look, so that we may learn how we ought to be delivered from putrefaction and worms. Grave is the sin; the desire was satisfied; the sin was completed. There was no one who could cure. B The woman conceived. Until now, the king thought that his sin was unknown to her husband. For although he was a prophet, nevertheless his desire cast darkness over his mind. The woman conceived, came at a run to the king, and says: "O king, I am undone." He says: "What is the matter with you?" "I am pregnant," she says; "the fruit of sin has sprouted; I carry the accusation around in my womb; the evidence of the sin has increased; I have the proof from within. If my husband comes and sees, what am I to say?" Understand how great an evil sin is. The king fears the soldier. For no one is truly a slave, except the one who commits sin. He was wreathed with a diadem, and yet he feared the disgrace? Are you not king? Do you not have the power of the sword? "But I have committed a grave sin," he says. O mother of misfortune! O proof of dishonor! Do you see now how great an evil sin is? What then does the king do? He adds sin upon sin. Then Uriah, her husband, came from the war, and he entered to the king, and C he says to him: "How is it, Uriah? How is the war?" He says, "It is going well; we are victorious." The king heard that the soldier had conquered, while he himself had been defeated; the soldier had subjected the war, but he himself had been defeated by pleasure. Being in great distress, the king did not perceive the victory because of the shame of the defeat by which he himself had been defeated. He says to the soldier: "Go down to your house, and wash, and enjoy your meal and your wife." Why these things? So that he might cover the wound, and the child be thought to be born of him. But the sleepless eye did not allow it, taking care of the one who was wounded. What, then, does the soldier do? "And how," he says, "can I do this word? The Israelite people are in war, the commander-in-chief in the ranks, the ark of the covenant of the Lord in the camp, and shall I go to my house and intend to indulge in pleasures?"
A Since A it was no longer possible to hide what had been done, he writes a letter to the commander-in-chief, which ran as follows: "Set Uriah in the thick of the battle, so that he may be killed." And he entrusts the letter to him, and the injured man carried the sword against himself, and carried a letter full of blood. Then presently he stood in the battle, was slain, and died. Behold a second sin: murder became the fruit of adultery. I say these things for the sake of sinners, and those conscious of many evils of their own, so that upon hearing them they may not despair of their own salvation; for it is written: "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery" (Exod. xx, 13, 14). But he violated these two first commandments. Indeed, he committed adultery, and then killed the one he had wronged. A grave ulcer this, a huge wound. Since, therefore, Uriah went off to the war and was slain, the sin straightway sprang up, having been covered over. B Then, finally, Nathan went to him; a prophet goes to a prophet, even though David was a prophet. How then does he not heal himself? For just as doctors, when they are sick, have need of other doctors—for indeed, sickness impairs the art—so too here, that man was a prophet, and this man was a prophet. But that man was not lying in a bed, whereas this one was wallowing in vice. They say to him: "Nathan the prophet is outside." He says, "Let him enter." The prophet therefore entered, seeing him sitting with much splendor and royal pride. And what does he say? "I have a suit, listen to me." O the wisdom of the doctor! He entered carrying iron, so that he might cut the ulcer; but he does not show it to the patient, lest he flee the medicine, but hides it inside, not under a garment, but under the wrapping of a contrived narrative. For immediately upon entering, he did not say: "O wicked one! O profane one! O adulterer! O murderer!" He did not employ open rebuke, nor did he use a liberty of speech that was not at all painted, but he kept the iron hidden. "I have a suit," he says, "O king." The other says: "Come, explain what suit you have." Then he himself: "A certain man was in a city, opulent in riches and many herds. C Another was a poor man, who possessed nothing else except one ewe-lamb, which ate from his table, and drank from his cup, and slept in his bosom." Do you see how poverty is a cause of affection? For there is huge pride among the rich; but among the poor, the wife performs the office of maid and servant: and if she bears a son, she is both mother and nurse to him. But among the rich, the matter is otherwise. For when a woman has given birth to a boy, she hands him outside to be nursed, and pride breaks the power of maternal love. The mother brings forth, but is not the nurse. She is ashamed, she who has become a mother, to be a nurse. But the Lord is not so. For He both begot us, and He Himself became our nourisher. On that account, He even fed us with His own flesh in place of food, D and in place of drink, He gave us His own blood to drink. Then there came a certain stranger to the rich man. Who is this stranger? Licentious desire, that beastly thing. It came, and did not take from his own herds and flocks, but sending, dragged off that ewe-lamb, the one sleeping in the bosom of the poor man, and from the table...
of his, it was eating. What, then? The king was enraged. A For he thought he was judging another's case, and he proclaimed what was just with great brilliance. It was not fondness, that he might not speak the truth; but he was enraged, not intending to be, and he spoke the just thing. "By the sword," he says, "he shall die, and he shall restore the ewe-lamb fourfold." And he does not command according to the law; for the law does not command the thief to restore fourfold; for this man even transgressed the law. He cast his vote, therefore, and the judgment was settled. The prophet throws off the mask and says: "You are the man, O king." What, then, did he do? "I have sinned against the Lord." Do you see, even in his sickness, the nobility of his soul? For he did not say to him: "Wretched and miserable man, from whence do you come, and in whom do you trust, that you have entered with such boldness, and filled with madness and pride, wishing to rebuke a king so openly?" But what does the king say? "I have sinned against the Lord." What, then, does he [the prophet] do? "And the Lord has taken away your sin." Swift is repentance; swifter is forgiveness. B "State your iniquities first, that you may be justified," says the Scripture (Isa. I, 18). By your deeds you provoked God to anger; by your words, let there be repentance for you. I recount these things so that sinners may hear, and those who have fallen into sins. "I have sinned against the Lord," you say, "and He has taken away your sin." You indeed said, "By the sword he shall die," but you shall not die. You were taken by the love of a harlot, and you committed adultery; do you wish to repent? Do not add sin to sin.
For this reason God chose the first-fruits of sin, so that no one after this might despair of his own salvation. Are you impious? Think of the Magi. Are you a plunderer? Think of the toll-collector. Are you impure? Think of the harlot. Are you a murderer? Consider the thief. Are you a lawbreaker? Think of the blasphemer Paul, and after these things an evangelist: C first tares, and after these things wheat; first a wolf, and after these things a shepherd; first lead, and after these things gold; first a pirate and a raider, and after these things a pilot; first desolating the Church, and after these things taking charge of the Church; first cutting down the vines, and after these things becoming a planter; first destroying the temple, and at length building it up. You have seen extraordinary wickedness, you have seen virtue overcoming. You have seen the stubbornness of the servant. Do not say to me: "I am a blasphemer, I am a persecutor, I am impure." You have the examples of all. To whichever harbor it pleases you, flee. Do you wish to [find a home] in the New Testament? Do you wish to in the Old? In the New you have Paul, and in the Old you have David. Do not hesitate, do not delay. Have you sinned? Make yourself repent. A thousand times have you sinned? A thousand times repent. D I constantly apply these poultices of words, so that I may compress the swelling. For it does not escape me how prone the conscience is to desperation. The devil stands by, sharpening his swords, and using these words: "You have disgraced all your youth: all your life...
you have wasted previously; after that you plundered, were greedy, lied, perjured yourself, uttered blasphemies. What hope of salvation is there for you? You are lost; therefore, enjoy the present life." These are the devil's words; but mine are the opposite. Are you lost? But you can be saved. Have you committed adultery? But you can be released from it. Have you fallen? But you can arise. Is your repentance meager? But the Lord’s philanthropy is great. Have you committed murder? But repent, but change your mind. Have you committed adultery? But confess. Have you fallen? But arise. Have you inflicted wounds? But be healed. And as long as you breathe, even if you sin on your final day, upon that very bed on which you lie at the point of death, about to depart from this theater—then repent of the time. The narrowness of time does not constrain God's philanthropy. Do not say to me, "How and in what way, when I am burdened with sores and filled with wounds, can I confess on the last day?" You can, and very much so. Pray, perform almsgiving, leave something for the poor in your will. You are going away there, and your work remains here. Do not say to me, "How can I be saved?" Where God acts, do not demand reasons. When He is healing, do not despair. The physician stands by; he cuts, he burns, he applies a thousand medicines, and you do not say, "How are you healing?" but you submit to the art of your fellow servant; and will you not submit to the philanthropy of God? Do not say, "How?", but wonder. I ask you, therefore: how was the thief saved, who spent all his life in murders and the shedding of blood? He broke through walls, he plundered goods; he did not change his mind, he did not repent while he was upon the earth. He was condemned by men, and by God he was crowned. He was not lord of his own life, yet he became lord of a kingdom. He lost things here, and received things there. In what way, I would like you to say? By one single word. For what did he say? "Remember me, O Lord, in thy kingdom" (Luc. XXIII, 42). And that word was powerful. Not only was the word powerful, but the philanthropy of God, mixed with repentance, made the thief a citizen of paradise. How? I do not know; do not demand of me the manner of the remedy. You entreat the physician, "Only free me from my infirmity," yet you dare to say, "How is it that God is the one doing the work?" Tell me, how are adulterers, the effeminate, and pederasts, when they are caught, held in prisons, and yet are released by the mere nod of the emperor? The emperor is my fellow servant. And what of it? Although he wears purple, he has nothing more than my own essence. He is of the same condition as I am; and yet, at his single nod they are liberated, and by his brief letters the guilty party is absolved. No prefect resists, no prison guard opposes, no authority of laws stands in the way; but the dignity of the emperor becomes the release of the captive. And shall God, the master of angels and archangels, if He but nod, be unable to save? And indeed, when an emperor releases a man, he remits the punishment, not the sins; but God remits the sins. He says, "I do not wish for the adulterer to be an adulterer," and His word became a deed. "Let not the fornicator be a fornicator," and His word changed that man's mind and blunted the sin. And so that you may know, He said: "I will it: let the heaven be made," and
it came to be. "I will that the earth be made," and He brought it into existence from nothing. "I will that angels be made," and the choir of angels immediately rushed forth. A Since therefore the Word makes intellectual substances and bodies that did not exist out of nothing, can He not also resolve sins? For what is sin compared to the philanthropy of the Master? It is a spider's web; the wind has blown, and the spider's web is torn apart. God wills it, and is the sin not destroyed? I say these things not to make you more slothful, but to bring you to a faith of greater expectation and better hope. Never despair of a man, unless he be one who has despaired of himself. Consider, then, the prophet, who after the grace of the Spirit, after boldness towards God, after the multitude of his achievements, after such trophies, proclaims and says: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy" (Ps. L, 3). I have cast myself into the sea of the Master's philanthropy. And what do you wish, tell me? You heard the prophet saying: "The Lord has taken away my sin" (II Reg. XII, 13). Not only do I seek this; I seek my beauty, I seek my boldness. "According to the multitude of Thy mercies blot out my transgression" (Ps. L, 3). I seek even more, a greater brightness, a greater purity: "Wash me more thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin" (Ps. L, 4). Attend with precision to the word, and strain yourself; the mercy B of God is ineffable, impossible to be grasped, surpassing the mind, overcoming reason, but it also has need of things from us. Attend, I say: God shows mercy, but He does not show mercy simply; rather, He says: "Give also something yourself." I mean, you are full of ten thousand sins, you have burdens of transgressions; I wish to lighten them. Give also your hand. Not because I need you, but because I wish you also to contribute something to your salvation. C How then was the thief saved, and did he resolve so many sins? But not by mercy alone, but also by his own faith. "Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." What did God contribute to the salvation of that man? The remission of sins. What did the thief contribute to his own salvation? Faith. Of what kind? Great, high, reaching up to heaven. How do I say this? The Jews saw dead [men] being raised, demons being driven out, the sea being restrained, the earth giving forth [springs], a fish carrying a stater, a star leading the magi, the upper and lower creation acting as a bodyguard, and after these things they crucified Him. The thief, seeing none of these things, but rather Him being spat upon, insulted, did not take offense, D but confessed Him a King. See that he was not merely mercied, but he himself also contributed; for it is necessary for one receiving mercy himself to contribute to his own salvation. Again, the tax collector being a plunderer and greedy, how was he saved? Christ was present, and says to him: "Come,
follow me," and standing up he followed him (Matt. IX, 9). Just as the thief brought his word, so the tax collector provided his following. For just as with those who suffer from unfavorable health and incurable diseases, and who need expensive medicines, if a physician approaches and says to the sick man: "Many things are needed for the preparation of the medicine," and the sick man replies that he is poor and does not have them; the physician then says: "Provide this and that for me, and I will supply the rest myself"—in the same way, the Lord also says: "Give me confession, B tears, and repentance, and I will bestow the rest upon you from my own humanity." See what happens: if you remember your sin, God does not remember it. But if you forget it, God remembers it. For He says: "I am He who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them; but you, remember them" (Isa. XLIII, 25-26). Such were the saints: they forgot their good deeds but remembered their sins. Not as people now are accustomed to do, who forget their own scoundrelly acts, but if they have done anything worthy of praise, they bring it out into the middle, puffed up and boasting, hunting for praise from men. Did you do something good? Forget it, so that your Master might tell of it. Did you do something evil? Keep it in memory, so that your Master might forget it. Yield to your Master; for you do not recount your achievements as the Master recounts them. If you speak of them, you diminish them; but if your Master recounts them, He makes them greater. C But recount your sins yourself, that you may blot them out. But are you ashamed to confess, because you sinned? Recount them daily in your prayer. For I do not command you to expose them to some fellow servant who would reproach you; speak them to God who cures them. For does God not know them unless you tell Him? Does He desire to learn of them from you? He was present when you were committing them; He knew when you were doing them. You were performing them, and you were not ashamed to perform them. You were not afraid of the deeds themselves, yet you fear the words by which you become righteous? Speak them here, so that you may not have to speak them there; speak, and weep. Your sins are written in a book. Your tears are in place of a sponge: pour out tears, and these will be blotted out. Pour out tears, and the book will be found pure. D And that you may understand what the power of tears is, listen. Did the harlot pour out blood, and yet she wiped away her faults? But why do I mention a harlot, an impure woman? That pillar of the Church, that foundation of the faith, that head of the apostolic choir, I mean the blessed Peter; did he not deny Christ once, and a second, and a third time? Did he for that reason pour out blood? Nay, he sent forth fountains of tears, and he wept, and so he wiped away the stain of his sin. Do you not have a book at home in which you write your daily account? But have a book in your conscience, and write your daily sins there. What I mean is this: when you lie down on your bed, and no one is disturbing you, before you fall asleep, bring the book into the middle and reflect on your sins, saying to yourself: "Have I sinned today? In word? In deed?" This is what the prophet advises: "What you say in your hearts, be pricked in your beds" (Ps. IV, 5). In the day you do not lead a leisurely...
possible for you; but the fear of superiors, and conversations with companions, and business to be conducted, and the effort of raising children, the care of a wife, concern for providing meals, and six hundred other tasks distract you. But when you have cast yourself into bed as into a tranquil harbor, and there is no one to cause you trouble, say to your heart and to your soul: "We have wasted the day today, O soul. What good have we done, or what evil have we committed?" B And remember hell, that you may increase the good and remove the evil. If you are in bed, and [you] remember your sins, weep, and you are able to wipe them away in your bed. Entreat God, and thus dismiss your soul to sleep.
The excuse of sinners is this: "I am a sinner," he says, "and I cannot attend." Since you said you are a sinner, attend, that you may become righteous. Are you righteous? Attend, that you may not fall from righteousness. And what man is without sin, tell me? But for this reason there is the sacrifice and the Church; for this reason there is prayer and fasting. Since the soul has many wounds, and many remedies have been found for them, and an appropriate remedy has been prepared C for each of the wounds of the soul. You have the Church, the sacrifice being celebrated, the prayers of the Fathers, the provision of the Holy Spirit, the mention of the martyrs, the assembly of the saints, and many other such things able to recall you from sin to righteousness. You did not attend the prayer of the martyrs? And what excuse can you have, tell me? Did worldly care hold you? The crime is greater. You did not lend a small hour to God, so that you might receive an entire day? "I am a sinner," he says, "and I cannot." And because you are a sinner, for this reason enter. Do you not know that even they who minister at the altar, even they are shackled by sins? For they are clothed in flesh, and joined with blood, and bound by bones, and we ourselves who sit upon the throne and perform the duty of teaching are entangled in sins. D Yet we do not despair of the philanthropy of God, nor do we attribute any inhumanity to Him. For we are all human beings, fashioned from the same elements. We do not refuse the teaching, looking toward the philanthropy of God. And you, when you commit some sin, do not have so great a crime, for you are under a master and teacher. We, by how much we excel in dignity, by so much are we also liable to a greater crime. For the sin of a disciple is one thing, and that of a teacher is another. And this has come to pass according to the divine administration, that the priests themselves should also fall into sin; for if they had not sinned, nor were subject to the passions of life, they would have been inhumane toward others, and unforgiving. But for this reason also
God allowed those to whom He was to entrust the care of the Church and the people to fall into sin, so that because of their own lapses, they might show themselves more humane and accessible to others. For if they had not themselves sinned, nor been subject to sin, they would have given no forgiveness to those who sin, but, driven by an impulse of inhumanity, they would have cut everyone off from the Church.
That these things are so, and that I do not speak from mere conjecture, come, let us derive conviction from the history itself. Peter was about to receive the keys of B the kingdom of heaven; or rather, he had already been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and he was about to be entrusted with the multitude of the nations. For what does the Lord say to him? "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. xvi, 19). Now, Peter was of a sharp and severe temperament. If he had also possessed the quality of never sinning, what room would there have been for forgiveness for those whom he instructed? Therefore, divine grace saw to it that he should withdraw from God for a short time and fall into a sin, that by the things he himself suffered, he might become more humane toward others. And observe whom He permits C to fall into sin: Peter, that coryphaeus of the apostles, the unshaken foundation, the unbreakable rock, the bulwark of the Church, the tranquil harbor, the tower that does not totter; Peter, I say, he who said to Christ: "Even if I must die with You, I will not leave You" (Matt. xxvi, 35); Peter, who by divine revelation had confessed the truth: "You are the Son of the living God" (Matt. xvi, 16). This man, then, on that night in which Christ was betrayed, entered the house, and stood by the coals, and was warming himself. And a girl coming up said to him: "You also were with this man yesterday." But Peter said: "I do not know this man." O Peter, is this what you had promised? Did you not lately say: "Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You" (Matt. xxvi, 35)? And now you deny, and say, "I do not know the man"? Not yet have tortures or lashes been shown to you, but having heard only the words of a small girl, you hasten to deny? You deny, Peter: when not yet the rack, not yet blows, not yet whips, D not yet furies, not yet sharpened swords, not yet prefects, not yet threateners, not yet death impending or announced, not yet prisons and precipices and seas are to be feared—and yet you deny? And again the girl: "Truly you also were with Him." But he said to her: "I do not know this man." Who is this who addresses you, that you should deny immediately? No one who inflicts violence, but a woman; or rather, not even a woman, but a mere doorkeeper, cast aside, a captive, of no account. O strange occurrence! A girl defeated Peter; a girl approaching disturbed Peter's faith. Peter, who was a pillar, did not endure the threat of a girl, but she only spoke, and he was shaken. Whom have you seen, O...
A Peter, and you deny? A common girl, worthy of contempt, a doorkeeper; did you see her and deny? Yet nevertheless, a third time: "And you were with him?" In the same way he denied. And thus, looking upon him, Christ brought him to a remembrance of what had been said. He, understanding, began to weep and to repent of his sin. But yet, the Lover of mankind forgave his sin. For He saw, as God, that he had suffered something human. He fell into sin, in order that, considering his own transgression and the Master’s forgiveness, he might forgive others for the sake of humanity. For it was permitted that he—the one who was destined to be entrusted with the Church, the pillar of the Churches, the harbor of the faith, Peter the teacher of the world—should fall into sin, so that the forgiveness granted to him might become the ground of humanity for others. B And why have these things been said by me? Because we also, the priests, and those who sit upon the throne, are bound by sins. For this reason, the priesthood was not entrusted to an angel or an archangel, for they are sinless, lest they should suddenly strike the sinners of the people with thunderbolts; but a man, taken from among men, was entrusted with this throne, and he himself is bound by sin and pleasure, so that when he happens upon someone sinning, he may be more humane towards him out of his own transgressions. For if an angel were a priest, and he seized someone who had committed fornication, he would immediately destroy him, because he himself is not subject to this passion. If an angel had received the authority, he would not teach, but would immediately kill. For because he is a stranger to such a vice, he would grow angry against someone who had entangled himself in this crime. For this reason, then, the office of the priesthood is imposed upon a man who knows sins and experiences them in himself, so that he may forgive those who come to him, and the Church may not be despoiled through anger. C If there is any soul blackened by sin, let it not fear. Let it only repent. Even if it is at its last breath, and it is, as it were, towards the evening hour, let it not fear. Let it only repent with weeping. Imitate Hezekiah the king, who, having fallen ill, lay upon his bed; and having heard Isaiah saying to him, "Set your house in order; for you shall die, and shall not live" (IV Reg. xx, 1; Isa. xxxviii, 1), he turned to the wall, watered his bed with tears of repentance, and immediately received fifteen years of life. D Let no one despair of his own salvation. You are a publican? You can become an evangelist. You are a thief? You can steal paradise. You are a magus? You can worship the Master. There is no evil that is not dissolved by repentance. For this reason, God chose those who held the first place in wickedness, so that you might not in the end have an escape. Do not say to me, "I have perished"; and what—
A what remains now? You have a Physician superior to the disease. You have a Physician who accomplishes healing by his will alone, and who desires it. He brought you out of nothing; how much more can he raise up and restore you, being that you already exist and are distorted? Did he not first take dust from the earth and fashion man? How did he make flesh from earth? How nerves, how bones, how veins, how eyes, how eyelids, how eyebrows, how a tongue, how a chest, how hands, how feet, how all other things? Was not the earth the underlying material? Was it not one substance? Skill therefore entered in, and fashioned that varied creation. Can you explain the manner by which he cleanses sins? For just as fire falling upon thorns consumes the thorns, to a much greater degree the will of God consumes our transgressions, and roots them out, and makes the one who has sinned like unto him who has not sinned. Do not search for the manner; do not inquire too curiously into what is happening, but believe in the miracle. Have you committed many and great sins? And who is without sin? Let this be enough for you as a sacrifice: "Declare you your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Isa. XLIII, 26). Acknowledge your sin: and this will be the beginning of your correction. Become sad and sorrowful; see that you shed tears. For did the harlot pour forth anything else? They were tears, and yet she obtained the remission of her sins.
B Idem. — Weep before the time, that you may not weep there. Repent now while there is opportunity. Do not repent of your sins at that time when there is no time for repentance. Let us work what is good, while it is still in our power. If we lose money, we can recover it; but if we lose time, we have no ability to acquire another. A mad lover does not pine for his beloved as much as God pines for the soul that repents. For such is the philanthropy of the Master, that he turns away none of those who flee to him, but reaches out his hand to them.
There is no need of time for the one who desires to be saved; indeed, the thief was not saved through a lapse of time, but by believing only, he gained the inexhaustible treasure of the kingdom of heaven.
Do not cast away hope of salvation, nor depart from prayer: but approach, being a sinner, that you may glorify the Master, that you may give him the opportunity to demonstrate his own philanthropy in the forgiveness of your sins. For if you are afraid to approach, you have placed an obstacle to his goodness, and have hindered the abundance of his kindness, as far as it depended upon you.
He receives the lamentation of the penitent even very gladly, so that by this means they may resume their former splendor and adornment. And indeed it is much better and more profitable, before we stand at the tribunal of Christ, to be freed from crime, and to apply healing to those things which are to be brought against us, and to wash away the filth of every fault, before we fall into the punishments—
A and pay the penalty to the just Judge.
S. Athanas.—There is need of swift repentance; lest otherwise, while a man hesitates and weaves delays, time should procure for him a depraved habit toward impiety, and he himself, becoming reprobate in mind, should consider things above as below, and things below as above.
In whatever state I find you, I will judge you; and in every single thing the end of all cries out. Thus, even to him who has lived his life with the greatest zeal for virtue, but who, at the end, has slipped toward wickedness, all previous labors are of no profit, as one who has faltered at the denouement of the drama; but as for him who has first lived flagitiously and wickedly, but afterward has returned to a better mind, he requires much time and great precision to overcome his long-standing wicked manner of life through the repentance of the time that follows, just as those whose bodies have been weakened by a long illness have need of a strict regimen and greater attention of mind. B
S. Clement.—Perhaps those vices to which one has been habituated from a boy can indeed be cut off [even] suddenly: but this is accomplished with the power of God, and human beseeching, and the help of brothers, and sincere repentance, and constant meditation.
S. Clem. Alex. lib. 1 Paedag., cap. 9.—It is best indeed not to sin: but it is also good that those who have sinned should turn themselves to a better fruit. Just as it is most excellent to enjoy perpetual health, so it is also good to return to health after sickness.
Ejusd. Quis dives. salv. § 39.—True repentance consists in this, that one is not found again to be subject to the same crimes; but that he should root out from his soul those things for which he judged himself worthy of death. That is finally to be turned from sins, to make an end of sinning, and no longer to cast one’s eyes upon the things that are behind. C
Didymi.—The conception of sorrow for sins renders the mind of the penitent pure. God, receiving the virtue currently embraced, forgets the sins of old. That a person who has fallen should not rise again, but rather persist in sin, is the mark of a contemptuous and exceedingly foolish man. The impiety of those who have turned from impiety to piety, as it is a thing without place, is nowhere to be found. For it was not from the beginning, nor shall it be for ever and ever. The beginning of salvation is self-condemnation.
S. Nili.—God does not immediately inflict punishment upon those who sin; but he grants time for repenting, and for correcting and healing the error. No one has ever perished who has used the effective medicine of repentance. D
It is indeed a great thing never to admit of a fall; but if, by the sudden impulse of the enemy, a fall should sometimes occur, one must take refuge in the safer hope. For men are so constituted that they can be swayed toward contraries.
A Spiritual teaching is accustomed to shake off the smoke that is deposited in souls by vice. The demons desire us to perish; but when we repent, they are thwarted, and that Scripture is fulfilled which says: "The desire of the wicked shall perish" (Ps. cxii, 10). Wherever the spirit of repentance enters, there it is evident that the destruction of all sin occurs, and the overthrow of the pestilential demons. Great power for salvation resides in a good change of mind, which we should cultivate continuously, so that we may be saved and not perish. It is no small thing for the lowliest men to ascend even one step on the ladder of virtues, and thereby, by withdrawing from vice, to place themselves on high. B Approach with weeping, unafraid, to that heavenly Physician, Jesus, and having exposed all the wounds of your soul, implore His aid. For there is no wound or passion that Christ, our merciful God, cannot heal. Strive to destroy the worms of the mind through prayer, and fasting, and continuous vigils. Christ, the King and God, in no way turns away those who yearn for Him and groan from the depths of their heart, even if they happen to be burdened by many sins; but rather, He welcomes and cleanses them, and bestows the gift of adoption, and, as time progresses, makes them workers of virtues.
S. Chrysost. hom. 2 in psal. L. — He said: "Have mercy on me." Where there is mercy, there is no place for censure. Where there is mercy, a judge does not sit. Where there is mercy, accounts are not required. Where there is mercy, salvation is obtained without interrogation. Where there is mercy, there is no need for a defense. Seek only mercy: why do you compel me to render accounts? I ask only for mercy, salvation without examination. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy" (Ps. l, 1). You have said "great"; tell me also how great. I do not know. For that it is great, I know; but I cannot comprehend how great. The quantity of its magnitude escapes me. Indeed, it can neither be explained in speech nor grasped by the mind. I see the fruit of mercy is great. For if it were not very great, few would have been saved. "Therefore I do not desire," He says, "the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn and live" (Ezech. xviii, 32).
D The Same. — Since some complain that marriage, or military service, or trades, or servitude, or poverty, or certain other things are a hindrance to them from obtaining salvation, it pleases me this day to make this clear to you: that neither wealth, nor poverty, nor military service, nor commerce, nor marriage, nor children, nor trades, nor anything of the kind is an impediment to salvation. Jesus was invited to a wedding, and He went; but he even brought gifts. For He changed the water into wine. The Lord attended the wedding, and bestowed honor upon it; and do you insult it, and say that marriage is an impediment to salvation? Truly, nothing is an impediment to piety. Moses had a wife, and children; Elias was a virgin; and Moses brought down [manna] from heaven...
and Elias fire from heaven. Moses brought [the people] quails, and Elias bound the heavens with a word. Moses conversed A with God, and likewise Elias was deemed worthy of communion with God. Moses parted the sea and led the people through; Elias was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. Did virginity harm the latter? Was the former hindered by a wife? You have seen Elias the charioteer of the air; you have seen Moses the traveler of the sea: look now also at Peter, the pillar of the Church, for he too had a wife. And whence is it evident that he had a wife? We shall prove this from the testimony of the Gospel. For it says: "The Lord entered into [the house of] Peter’s mother-in-law, and she was sick, and He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose and served Him" (Mark I, 30, 31). You see that Peter also had a wife. Let no one B therefore make excuses, neither [by pleading] a wife, nor children, nor military service, nor trade, nor craft, nor servitude, nor wealth, nor poverty. For these are pretexts and clokes; these are the snares of the devil. You plead military service, and say that, "I am a soldier, and I cannot be saved." Was not the centurion a soldier? And he says to Jesus: "I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof, but speak the word, and my servant shall be healed" (Matth. VIII, 8). And Jesus wondered, and said: "Amen I say unto you, I have not found such great faith in Israel" (ibid. 9). Did his military service hinder him? But you have to say: "I am a craftsman." And Paul was such a one, but also a spoiler of the churches; and after these things he became a herald and an apostle. But what then? Are you rich? And Abraham was rich, and he believed in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. C But what else have you to say? "I am a slave"? Have you not read Paul writing to Philemon? "Onesimus, who was once useless to you, but now is useful both to me and to you in the Lord" (Philem. 16)? But [you say], "I am a king." And David also was a king, but when he sinned, and the prophet Nathan came to him and rebuked him for the sin which he had committed, he confessed his transgression, and said: "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan, having seen his swift repentance, says to him, "And the Lord has taken away your sin" (II Reg. XII, 13). For since the repentance was swift, the forgiveness was swifter. But you will say: "I am young." Look at Daniel, who muzzled lions, and tore the dragon asunder, and overthrew Bel, and condemned D the elders, and delivered Susanna. But what does he say? "I am incontinent and of a hot temperament." Look at Joseph, how he demonstrated great philosophy and embraced chastity; having torn his cloak, but not having torn his faith, he conquered the shamelessness of the Egyptian woman and did not satisfy her desire. But what then? "I am a widow"? Look at the Sidonian woman, who received Elias and ministered to him with bread and water. But you will say: "I am a harlot." Look at Rahab the harlot, who hid the spies with her, and saved her house. But you are poor? Look at Lazarus, that being in such great poverty, what great philosophy he demonstrated.
Do you love your children? Think also of Job. A Jesus, moreover, was invited to a wedding, and when he arrived, his mother said to him, "They have no wine." He said to her, "What is that to me and to you, woman? My hour has not yet come." And saying this, he said, "Fill the water jars with water." And they did as he commanded, and stretching out his hand, he turned the water into wine (John 2, 1 sqq.). But why did he say, "Fill the water jars with water"? Could he who by his word alone created the heaven and founded the earth and all that is in them; whose gaze dries up the abysses; whom all creatures, both celestial and terrestrial, tremble before and shudder at, not have filled the jars by his word? Yet he says, "Draw out water." He says this so that, if they should deny the miracle, their hands which drew the water and their shoulders which carried it might convict them. B And at the [raising of] Lazarus he did the same. When the sisters of Lazarus came saying that Lazarus was dead, Jesus said to them, "Where have you laid him?" They say to him, "Come and see." O new and marvelous things! You said, "Lazarus is dead," but now you say, "Where have you laid him?" Did you not beforehand announce his death to your disciples, and yet you do not know the place? But I speak this for the sake of the Jews, because they are ungrateful. For as he approached the tomb, he said to the Jews, "Take away the stone from the tomb." And they took it away. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." He came out bound in grave-cloths. C Is he, therefore, who removes mountains into the heart of the sea, unable by a word to roll away the stone? Could he who crushed the stings of death, who broke the gates of hell, not also be able to tear apart the bonds of his garments? Nay, he says to them, "Unbind him." For what reason? Certainly so that, if they were inclined to deny it, their hands and their eyes would convict them.
Of Eusebius.
D When a man has attained virtue through pious exercise and an upright way of life, and it is henceforth recognized by all that he is pious and fears God, if afterwards—which God forbid—he should fall into sin, this is a lapse. For he had ascended to the height of heaven and has fallen to the bottom of hell. But if, even having fallen, he does not despair of his salvation, nor rush into the abyss of destruction, but having emerged from it, covers the lapse of his sin through repentance, and does not allow his wicked designs to exercise dominion over him, he is restored to his former state. For he who has fallen, if he does not remain in his fall but rises and embraces repentance, returns again to the same status as if by a right of homecoming; just as another prophet also says: "If you turn and groan, then you shall be saved" (Isa. 30:15). And again another: "Return to me" (Jer. 3:7). Even if you have fallen and have been shattered by pleasure, do not despair of yourself, but rising, groan for the things you have done, and turn back to me through repentance, and I will correct your error. For I am the one who raises up those who are fallen...A We have heard the Lord saying: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). I lighten your burden. For I know that you are not able to bear the burden of the law, and for this reason I have descended, that I might bring in grace for you instead, that I might lighten the burden of your sins. Let no one excuse himself, whether he be a magician, or a tax collector, or a blasphemer, from approaching repentance; let no one be afraid. "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." The Lord says these things, and urges us; wherefore let us not be negligent.
Judas approaching kissed Jesus, saying: "Hail, Rabbi." But the Lord said to him, "For what purpose are you come?" (Matt. 26:49, 50). Do you ask for what purpose I have come? In order that I might give you a kiss. O fraudulent kiss, full of iniquity and destruction, and a provider of Gehenna! The harlot, having kissed the feet of Jesus, recalled her soul, and tore up the handwriting of her sins; but this man, having kissed Him, was erased from the book of life. O the wisdom of the woman! O the ignorance of the disciple! B When she was kissing the feet of the Lord, angels were rejoicing and preparing a crown; but when this man was kissing, demons were rejoicing and weaving the rope of his halter. O kiss full of vinegar and gall! "Hail, Rabbi." He indeed is in good spirit; but you, Judas, mourn, because you have been cast out from joy.
Jesus said to Mary: "Do not weep, but go and tell my brothers, and Peter, that I have risen from the dead; and behold, He goes before you into Galilee. There you shall see Him." C Do you see the compassion of the Lord? He mentioned no one else's name, except Peter's. Why? Because the others had not said, "Even if it is necessary for us to die with you, we will not deny you." But this man, having said this, denied me; and having gone outside, he wept bitterly. He is therefore about to be afraid to come into my presence, thinking that his sin has not been loosed; for this reason I said, "and to Peter," so that he might behold me without hesitation with the remaining disciples. Tell Peter: "By no means be afraid. For I have not removed you from the place of glory; I have not set you as inferior to the rest; I have not put you away from the place of my right hand; I have not given the keys of the kingdom of heaven to another. D Do not be afraid; for whatever you have bound upon the earth, shall be bound in the heavens."
Do not fear, Peter. I have not removed you from my throne; I have not diminished my grace from you. For what I promised, I will fulfill. Upon your rock-like faith I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. You shall shepherd my sheep, you shall feed my lambs; you shall stand at my right hand like a commander. Do not let it cast you into fear that you denied me. I have seen your tears, and I have forgiven you your sin. It would have been good also for Judas, who betrayed me, if he had repented and had not hanged himself. For I am the God of those who repent. For this reason I descended to the earth, that I might grant repentance to the world. I forgave such a multitude of sins to tax collectors and harlots, and to you
shall I not forgive one sin? I love those who repent. Remember that I wept over Judas, and did not wish him to perish. It would have been good for him, when he threw the silver into the temple, if he had repented and not hanged himself. But because he remained unrepentant, for this reason he is punished eternally. I saw your tears, and I forgave you your sin. To David, who had committed two evils, adultery and murder, I granted forgiveness and restored him to the ancient rank of prophecy; and shall I not forgive you, who for my sake left house, and wife, and boat, for a single sin? Do not fear, Peter; A I am He who said: "There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents" (Luc. xv, 7). I am He who said: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matth. xi, 28). It would have been good even for Judas if he had turned back to me, and not become entangled in the snare of the halter and destroyed himself. For I did not even curse him, but rather, just as with the others, I washed his feet and gave him bread, and I found no fault with him, so that in this way he might be brought to repentance; but he did not wish it. For this reason he is punished eternally. But you, having repented, do not fear to be seen by me among the others. B For this reason I left the ninety-nine sheep and ran to the one. I have not diminished the grace given to you, Peter, for even your shadow will bring healing to the infirm, and through you handkerchiefs and aprons will put demons to flight, and the touch of your hand will make the man lame from birth capable of running.
TIT. IV.—Concerning those who shrink from doing penance.
Prov. xxviii, 13.—"He who covers his iniquity shall not prosper."
Jerem. viii, 4, 5.—"Thus says the Lord: Shall he who falls not rise again? Or he who turns away, shall he not return? Why then has this people turned away with a shameless turning, and they have held fast to their own counsel, and have not wished to return?"
Jerem. v, 3.—"They have hardened their faces harder than a rock, and they have refused to return."
Eccli. v, 4.—"Say not: I have sinned, and what evil has happened to me? For the Lord is a patient repayer."
Eccli. xviii, 22.—"Delay not even until death to be justified."
Matth. v, 25, 26.—"Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way; lest the adversary deliver you to the judge, and you be cast into prison. Amen I say to you, you shall not go out from there until you pay the last farthing."
S. Basil.—If sin is good and useful, O man, keep it to the end. But if it is destructive to the one who commits it, why do you persist in deadly things? No one seeking to vomit bile, C from an evil and intemperate diet, brings on himself a greater quantity of it. It is worth the effort to cleanse that which is troublesome to the body, not to make the disease greater than the strength. The ship is manifest, up to what point the load
A can be borne; but if it is loaded beyond measure, it sinks. Beware, lest when you have committed sins greater than those which can be forgiven, you suffer shipwreck before the hoped-for harbors. Take care, lest while you heap up for yourself a multitude of evils in the hope of liberation and pardon, you are actually gathering up sin, and failing to obtain forgiveness.
Vice, when kept silent, is a hidden disease in the soul. As, therefore, we would not call him a benefactor who shuts up deadly things within the body, but rather him who brings them to light through pain and laceration, so that the mode of cure may be known through the manifestation of the suffering; so it is clear that to hide sin is to prepare death for the one who is sick. For, he says, the sting of death is sin. B
Take care, O man, that you do not at some time repent of evil counsels when there is no profit in repentance.
Since we have sinned in the body, when we set our members as slaves to sin for iniquity, let us make confession with our mouth, using that same organ for the dissolution of sin. Have you reviled? Bless. Have you engaged in covetousness? Pay back. Have you been drunken? Fast. Have you been arrogant? Be humbled. Have you envied? Provide comfort. Have you committed murder? Render witness, or things equivalent to martyrdom, afflicting the body through confession; and then, after confession, you are worthy to sing to God on the ten-stringed psaltery. C
It is not difficult to fall, but to lie fallen and not to rise, willfully doing evil and being sluggish, and by the thoughts of despair, to conceal the weakness of one's own will.
Many of those who sin say, "I am full of shame; how can I approach God? How can I beseech Him?"—suffering from a diabolical shyness. Are you without boldness? For this very reason, approach, so that you may acquire great boldness. For is it a man who is about to be reconciled to you? It is God, who desires to free you from sins more than you do yourself. You do not desire your own safety as much as He desires your salvation. D
A soul that has once tasted sin and remains unfeeling provides great increase to the disease. For just as a spark, if it manages to catch hold of anything, thereafter consumes everything; so the nature of sin, when it has laid hold of the reasonings of the soul, and there is no one to extinguish it, becomes henceforth more severe and difficult to overcome, rising up through the addition of subsequent sins to greater contempt. Thus, indeed, many who often fail to extinguish the flame at the beginning have ended up in great shipwreck. For sin, not having something to push forward into...
is like a horse that has broken its bridle and throws its rider headlong. A
*Justin.*—The soul is with difficulty recalled to those goods from which it has fallen, nor is it again easily extracted from the evils to which it has become accustomed.
*S. Nili.*—If, because of those things you have committed against the divine law, you had ever wished to be angry with yourself and to apply the medicine of repentance, we might perhaps have conceived good hope for your salvation. But since you have utterly despised the divine fear, and have spat upon the very faith in Christ, it would have been better for you never to have been born from the womb.
*S. Clement.*—It is the extreme of servitude to succumb to vices and to surrender; just as, indeed, to overcome these is, in the end, true liberty. B
*S. Cyrilli.*—I fear death, because it is bitter to me. I fear Gehenna, because it is eternal. I fear the fire, because it is never extinguished. I fear Tartarus, because it is devoid of warmth. I fear the darkness, because it is empty of light. I fear the worm, because it does not die. I fear the angels, because they are unmerciful. Woe is me, that I did not hear you crying out and saying: "O soul, put an end to these pollutions of yours, and to all those things of mine which are an abomination!" Woe to me, that I have corrupted your temple, and have grieved your Holy Spirit! Lord, your judgments are true; for a temporary enjoyment of sin I am tormented eternally; for the pleasure of the flesh I am delivered to the fire. Just is the judgment of God. I was instructed, and I did not pay attention. They testified against me, and I laughed. C You will use these or similar words, O man, if you are snatched from here before you repent of your sins. O man, either fear Gehenna or strive for the kingdom.
*Fratres*, what fear, horror, and anguish is it necessary for us to experience when the soul departs from the body! For a host and army of opposing powers is present against us; the princes, I say, of darkness, the rulers of the world of wickedness: principalities and powers, and like those in a lawsuit, they detain the soul, bringing against it all the sins it committed, whether knowingly or unknowingly, from its youth until the age at which it was taken. Therefore, they stand there to accuse it. In what trembling, then, do you think the soul is concerned, until its case is pronounced by the just Judge? But if it is discovered to have lived negligently, it will hear that D most terrible voice: "Let the impious one be taken away, that he may not see the glory of God" (Isa. xxvi, 10). Then "a day of wrath, a day of affliction and anguish, a day of darkness and gloom" will overtake it, and it will be given over to the outer and eternal fire, in which, having been condemned, it will be punished for infinite ages.
TIT. V. — Concerning the drunkards.
*III Reg.* xx, 16. — "The son of Ader was drinking, and he was intoxicated, he and the thirty-two kings, his allies, with him." He went out
A from the provinces, and Syria fled."
*Prov.* XXIII, 20. — "Be not a wine-drinker. For every drunkard and debauchee shall labor in poverty."
*Prov.* XXIII, 11. — "He who delights in drinking parties of wine, will leave ignominy in his strongholds."
*Prov.* XXIII, 29-32. — "To whom woe? To whom trouble? To whom disputing? To whom quarrels and idle talk? To whom bruises without cause? To whom are the eyes livid? Is it not to those who tarry in wine? Is it not to those who investigate where the drinking parties are? Do not be intoxicated with wine, but associate with just men. For if you give your eyes to flagons and cups, afterwards you will walk more naked than an open field."
*Eccli.* VII, 2. — "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of drinking."
*Joel* I, 5. — "Awaken, you who are drunk from wine, and weep, all you who drink wine unto drunkenness, because gladness and joy have been removed from your mouth."
*Isa.* V, 11. — "Woe to those who rise in the morning, and follow strong drink, who wait until evening. For wine will set them on fire. For with the lyre and the psaltery, and with timbrels and flutes they drink wine, but they do not look upon the works of God."
*Eccli.* XIX, 1. — "A drunken laborer will not be enriched."
*Eccli.* XXXI, 38. — "Much wine is bitterness of soul. Drunkenness multiplies the anger of a fool: it diminishes strength, and inflicts a wound."
*Eccli.* XXVI, 11. — "Great anger, a drunken woman." B
*Luc.* XXI, 34. — "Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be burdened with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come upon all those who sit upon the face of the earth."
*Rom.* XIII, 13. — "As in the day, let us walk honestly; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities."
*S. Basil. Hom. 2 de jejun.* — Let us flee drunkenness, that common harlot, the mother of impudence, the laughter-loving, the maddened, prone to every kind of intemperance. For in the soul upon which drunkenness has cast shadows, no good thing can exist. C
*Ejusd. Hom. de ebriet.* — Drunkenness is a voluntary demon, born in souls from pleasure. Drunkenness is the mother of vice, the adversary of virtue. It makes the brave man a coward, the modest man lewd. It knows no justice, it removes prudence from the midst; and just as water is hostile to fire, so does the immoderate use of wine extinguish reason. Wherefore I am reluctant to hold a discourse against drunkenness: not because it is some light evil that deserves to be ignored, but because our speech will have no utility. For since he who is intoxicated is affected by error of mind and darkness, he who rebukes him pours out words in vain D to one who does not listen. To whom, therefore, shall we speak, if he who is in need of admonition does not hear what is said, and the sober and watchful man needs no help from words, being pure from the passion? What then
shall I do with those who are present, when my speech brings no utility, and yet keeping silence is not without difficulty? Shall we abandon our concern? But carelessness is not without its danger. Shall I address my words to the drunken? But I am sounding into dead ears. By what part, O man, do you excel the brute beasts? Is it not by the gift of reason, through which, having received it from your Creator, you became ruler and lord of all creation? He, therefore, who deprives himself of reason through drunkenness, has been compared to senseless beasts and has become like them (Ps. xlviii, 13). Indeed, I would say that those who suffer from drunkenness are even more brutish and senseless than the cattle. For all B quadrupeds and wild beasts have certain and defined times at which they are moved to sexual intercourse; but those whose soul is gripped by drunkenness, and whose body is filled with a heat brought on contrary to nature, are impelled to impure and obscene embraces at every time and every hour. And this does not only produce senselessness in them, but by the perversion of their senses, it renders the drunken man worse than any beast. For what beast is so oblivious, and so hard of hearing, as the drunkard? Do they not fail to recognize their own families, and often run to strangers as if they were their own relatives? Do they not often leap over shadows as if they were ditches and chasms? And their ears are filled with noise and clamor, as if they were beside a surging sea; and the earth seems to stand upright, and the mountains to run in a circle. These men at one moment laugh incessantly, and at another are racked with pain and weep inconsolably. And now they are bold and fearless, now timorous and cowardly. To them sleep is heavy, and difficult to shake off, and terrifying, and truly a neighbor to death, and their waking moments are more senseless than sleep. For their life is like a dream; those who do not even have a garment, nor food for the morrow, in their drunkenness deem themselves kings, command armies, build cities, and distribute wealth. C With such fantasies and such great deceit does the wine fill their boiling hearts. Others are carried away into contrary passions. For they are destitute of all hope; sorrowful, pained, bathed in tears, fearful, and startled by every noise. He who is vexed by a demon is pitied by all; but he who is drunk, though he is in the same calamity, is not even deemed worthy of pity, as one who has a struggle with a demon which he has brought upon himself voluntarily.
D *Ibidem.* To whom woe? To whom tumult? To whom woes and babblings? To whom are there causeless wounds? To whom are the eyes livid? Is it not to those who tarry in wine, and look for where drinking parties take place? "Woe" is a mournful exclamation; now, those who are addicted to drunkenness are worthy of mourning, because drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. vi, 10). "Tumult" refers to the disturbance which wine brings to the mind and the thoughts. "Woes," likewise, because of the eructations and vapors which the pleasure of drinking moves. For these men, their feet are indeed bound, and their hands are bound by the
A chains of drunkenness. And so, before these afflictions, at the very time they are carousing, the same things happen to them as befall those who are phrenetic. For when the membranes of the brain are full of that soot which wine brings up as it evaporates, the head is affected with an intolerable pain; and since it cannot remain upright on the shoulders, it falls now to one side, now to the other, sliding into the vertebrae. But what need is there to recount these things to drunken men? For they suffer from dizziness brought on by the hangover, they doze, they yawn, they see through a mist, they feel nausea. For this reason, they do not hear the teachers crying into their ears: *Do not be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery* (Ephes. v, 18). From this come the tremors and the weaknesses, because their spirit is weighed down by the immoderation of the wine, and their nerves are relaxed; hence, a trembling arises in the entire mass of the body. Why do you bring upon yourself the curse of Cain, trembling and wandering about throughout all your life? How long wine? How long drunkenness? You are in such danger that you have mixed yourself with wine and rottenness from daily hangover, reeking of wine and of that which is B putrid and corrupted.
*From the same, Homily on Fasting.* A servant flees from a master who strikes him, but you remain with the wine that strikes your head every day. The best measure for the use of wine is the body's need. But if you exceed these limits, you will return the next day affected by a heaviness in the head, yawning, seized with vertigo, and smelling of rancid wine. Everything will seem to you to be spinning, everything to be stumbling.
*From the same.* Woe to those who make bad use of a good thing! Do not blame the wine, but those who drink beyond the measure. The sea is deep, but the diver descends only as far as he can return from. If he goes down beyond the measure, and no longer has the power to swim up, he is immediately drowned. The cause of this is not the sea, but the immoderate desire of the swimmer. In the same way, the matter holds for wine: for the wine is not at fault, but he who uses it beyond what is sufficient. C
*From the same, Homily on Drunkards.* It is a truly pitiable spectacle to the eyes of Christians when a man in the prime of age and with a vigorous body, illustrious in military rank, is carried home by the aid of others, as one who can neither rise up nor walk on his own feet. A man who ought to be a terror to his enemies becomes an occasion for laughter to the children in the market-place; he is laid low without a sword, he is struck down without an enemy. A man of military prowess, while in the very flower of his age, has been taken as a prey to wine, and is ready to suffer whatever the enemies wish. Drunkenness is an exile of reason, a waste of strength, a corruption, a premature old age, and a short-lived death. For what else are the drunken if not the idols of the D nations? They have eyes, and they do not see; they have ears, and they do not hear; their hands are paralyzed, their feet are deadened. Who has contrived these snares? Who has [wrought] these evils?
Who has mingled for you the medicine of fury? A O man, you have turned the banquet into a battle! You drive out the young men, led by the hand as if they were wounded in war. You have extinguished the vigor of youth with wine. And while you invite them to dinner as if they were friends, you cast them out as dead, having extinguished their life with wine. When they are thought to be sated with wine, then they begin to drink, and they drink after the manner of beasts. For as the drinking proceeds, there enters to them a certain youth, carrying a large phial of chilled wine, and standing in the midst, he distributes the wine among the guests through oblique pipes, so that they may be treated equally in fair shares, and that no one may surpass another in drinking. B Look down, I pray you, at your miserable belly, and you will recognize the capacity of the vessel that receives it, namely, that it has the concavity of a single palm. Do not look to the flagon to see when it is empty, but look to your own stomach, which has been full long since. Therefore, "woe to those who rise early to pursue drunkenness until the evening" (Isa. v, 11), and spend the whole day in drinking! For wine burns them up; since that heat which the flesh contracts from wine arouses the fiery darts of the enemy. Indeed, wine submerges the mind; but it excites perturbations and pleasures like a swarm of bees. For what chariot of horses is carried along so recklessly with the charioteer thrown out? Or what ship, with the helmsman removed, is tossed by the waves as chance may have it, in such a way that it is not safer than a drunken man? From evils of this kind it has come to pass that men and women, having formed common dances, and having C surrendered their souls to the wine-demon, wound one another with the stings of passions. There is laughter from both, obscene songs, and lascivious gestures inciting to wantonness. You laugh, tell me, when you ought to be shedding tears and groaning over what has happened. You sing the songs of a harlot, having cast aside the psalms and hymns which you were taught. You move your feet and leap madly, and lead dances indecorously, when on the contrary you ought to be bending your knees in adoration of the Divinity. Which should I lament more, the unwed maidens, or those who are bound by the yoke of matrimony? For the former return having lost their virginity, and the latter have not returned their chastity to their husbands. For although perhaps some may have escaped the sin in body, yet they have certainly received the defilement in their souls. Let this also be said of the males. He saw badly, and was D watched while doing so. "Whoever looks at a woman to desire her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matth. v, 28). If casual encounters hold so much danger for those who curiously gaze upon women, what then will those who go there on purpose—in order to see women behaving indecorously through drunkenness, composed for dissolution, and singing lascivious songs, which, even when merely heard, are able to stir up the entire goad of lust in the unchaste—what will they say, or what excuse will they have? Is it not that they looked for this very purpose, so that they might arouse their desires? Therefore they are guilty according to the inevitable judgment of the
A Lord for the sin of adultery. How shall Pentecost receive us, when Easter has been so insulted? Pentecost had the active and universally known visitation of the Holy Spirit; but you, having anticipated it, have made yourself a dwelling-place for the contrary spirit, and have become a temple of idols instead of becoming a temple of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You have drawn upon yourself the curse of the prophet, who said from the person of God: "I will turn your feasts into mourning" (Amos VIII, 10). How will you command your servants, when you yourselves serve foolish and harmful desires like slaves? How will you admonish your children, while you live a life without admonition and lacking in order? What then? Shall I leave you in these things? But I am afraid. Let fasting cure drunkenness; let a psalm cure obscene singing; let tears be the remedy for laughter; instead of dancing, let the knee be bent; instead of the clapping of hands, let the breast be beaten; instead of the adornment of clothing, let humility be taken up. Above all, let almsgiving redeem you from sin. For the ransom of a man is his own wealth, says Scripture (Prov. XIII, 8). B
Drunkenness does not receive the Lord; it drives away the Holy Spirit. For as smoke drives away bees, so does debauchery drive away spiritual gifts. Drunkenness is the beginning of godlessness, being a darkening of the ruling faculty, by which God is most of all naturally known. C
The Lord receives the one who fasts within the sacred precincts; but him who is addicted to drunkenness, He rejects as profane and unclean. For if you come tomorrow reeking of wine, and that rotten, how shall I account your debauchery as fasting? Do not count it that you are not drinking undiluted wine now, but consider that you are not pure from wine. Where shall I place you? Among the drunkards, or among those who fast? Drunkenness leaves you a person of doubtful status, like a slave. Immediately the first day of the fast will have to be struck from your account, since the remnants of drunkenness still cling to you. If you approach fasting as a drunkard, what gain will you have from this? For since drunkenness shuts you out of the kingdom, to what purpose would it henceforth be useful for you to fast? D
To those who live in drunkenness and licentiousness, the day is turned into the darkness of night, not because the sun is extinguished, but because their own sense is obscured by drunkenness.
Do you not know that he who insults the servants of God through drunkenness sins against Christ himself, and makes himself liable to eternal punishment?
He who attempts to admonish a drunkard, what profit will he eventually bring him?
If you obey the divine Apostle clearly crying out that the drunk will in no way attain the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor. VI, 10), flee from this accursed drunkenness.
TIT. VI — De ignavis et segnibus, socordibusque, et A contemptoribus.
*Prov.* vi, 6 seqq. — “Go to the ant, O sluggard, and emulate her, considering her ways, and become wiser than she; for, having no farmer, and having none to compel her, nor being under a master, she prepares her food in the summer, and in the harvest she makes a great store. Go to the bee, and learn that she is a worker: and how she performs her work as a noble thing, whose labors kings and private men apply to their health. She is desirable to all and glorious, although she is weak in strength. How long, O sluggard, will you lie down? And when will you rise from sleep? A little you sleep, a little you sit; a little you slumber, a little you fold your hands upon your chest. Then poverty comes to you like a good runner, and want like a bad traveler.”
*Prov.* xix, 15. — “An idle soul shall hunger.” “The slothful are in want of riches.” *Prov.* xx, 4. — “The sluggard, when reproached, is not ashamed: in the same way he who borrows grain in the harvest.” *Prov.* xxvi, 13. — “The sluggard says, There is a lion in the road; and there are murderers in the streets.” *Prov.* xxiii, 21. — “Every drowsy man shall be clothed in worn-out and ragged garments.” *Prov.* xxvi, 14. — “As a door turns upon its hinge, so does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard, hiding his hand in his bosom, cannot bring it to his mouth.” “The ways of the scorner are in destruction.” *Eccli.* x, 18. — “By slothfulness the roof shall be humbled, and through idleness of hands the house shall leak.” *Eccli.* iv, 29. — “Be not quick with your tongue, and slothful and remiss in your works.” *Eccli.* xxxiii, 30. — “Idleness has taught much evil.”
*Matth.* xxv, 24-30. — “Coming, he who had received the one talent, said: Lord, I know that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter; and being afraid, I went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours. But his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, if you knew that I am a hard man, reaping where I did not sow, and gathering where I did not scatter; you ought therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and coming, I would have received my own with usury. Take away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to every one that has shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that has not, that also which he seems to have shall be taken away from him. And cast the unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
*II Thess.* iii, 10-12. — “For when we were with you, this we testified to you: that if any man will not work, neither let him eat. For we hear that some among you walk disorderly, not
working, but busily prying. Now them that are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.” A
Idleness is the cause of wickedness. — This is a peculiar disease of an idle and slothful soul, to see dreams while the body is awake. B
Who, sitting or sleeping at home during the time of sowing, has filled his bosom with sheaves when the harvest has come? Who has harvested a vineyard he did not plant? Theirs are the fruits, whose are also the toils. The honors and the crowns belong to those who have labored. Who would crown him who has not descended into the arena against an adversary? Especially since, according to the Apostle, it is not enough to contend, unless one also contends lawfully (II Tim. ii, 5). Who is such an inept judge of a contest, that he would grant the same prizes to the victor and to him who has not contended at all? What general ever called those who did not even take part in the battle to a share of the spoils equal to those who have conquered? C
A good thing is not good when it is not done well.
TIT. VI. — Concerning hatred, and enmity, and dissension, and those who provoke battles.
“Scatter the nations that desire wars.” — Ps. lxvii, 31.
“And men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days.” — Ps. liv, 24.
“Who leave the straight paths, to walk in the ways of darkness. Who rejoice in wicked deeds, and delight in the perversity of evil.” — Prov. ii, 13.
“Where there enters insolence, there also is dishonor.” — Prov. xi, 2.
“The wicked does evil when he mingles justice.” — Prov. xv, 18.
“A wrathful man provokes quarrels.” — Prov. xvi, 28.
“A perverse man sends forth evils, and separates friends.” D — Prov. xvii, 19.
“Every wicked man stirs up contentions; but the Lord will send a merciless angel against him. One who loves sin delights in fights.” — Prov. xxv, 8.
“Do not rejoice, and do not rush into a fight quickly, that you may not repent in the end.” — Prov. xxvii, 17.
“Iron sharpens iron, and a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. One who kindles malice shall be destroyed by it.” — Isa. xxix, 21.
“They shall be destroyed who act unjustly by malice, and who make men sin by word.” — Jerem. iv, 22.
“Foolish children are they, and without understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have not learned.”
A Eccli. xxviii, 9. — “A sinful man will trouble his friends, and bring in debate in the midst of them that are in peace.” Eccli. xxii, 24. — “As the smoke of the chimney, so are also revilings before blood.” Eccli. xxviii, 8. — “Abstain from strife, and thou shalt diminish thy sins: for a rash man kindleth war, and a sinful man will trouble his friends.” Matth. xii, 25. — “Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” Matth. xxiv, 12. — “Because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.” Galat. v, 10. — “He that troubleth you, shall bear the judgment, whosoever he be.” Jac. iii, 16. — “Where envying and contention is, there is inconstancy, and every evil work.” B S. Basil. — “Charity hath failed, the root of the commandments.” — “In evil contests, he is more miserable who obtains the victory, because he departs having a greater portion of sin.” S. Greg. Naz. in tetr. 38 and 45. — “It is better to be rightly vanquished, than dangerously and wickedly to vanquish.” — “Know the bounds of enmity, but not of favor.”
TIT. VIII. — Concerning the repentance of God; and in what things the Creator repented.
Gen. vi, 5-7. — “And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, it repented Him that He had made man on the earth. And He said: I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts: for it repenteth Me that I have made them.” C 1 Reg. xv, 10, 11, 33. — “The word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: It repenteth Me that I have made Saul king: for he hath forsaken Me, and hath not executed My commandments. And Samuel was grieved, and he cried unto the Lord all night. And Samuel saw Saul no more till the day of his death. And the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.” Psal. cv, 44. — “And He saw them when they were in tribulation.” Jonae iii, 8-12. — “And man and beast were covered with sackcloth, and cried to the Lord with strength, and they turned every one from their evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying: Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive, and will turn away from His fierce anger, and we shall not perish? And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do to them, and He did it not.” D Jerem. xviii, 7-9. — “I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom to build up and plant: and if it shall do evil in My sight...and I repent of the good which I spoke to do to them.
TIT. IX. — Concerning Fraternal Hatred.
A Gen. xxxvii, 4-6. — "The brethren (of Joseph), seeing that his father loved him more than all his children, hated him, and spoke no peaceable word to him. And they said each one to his brother: Behold, that dreamer comes. Come, let us kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we shall say: A wicked beast has devoured him; and we shall see what his dreams will be."
B Judic. ix, 4-5. — "Abimelech hired men that were needy and vagabond, and they followed him. And he came into his father's house at Ephra, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerobaal, seventy men upon one stone: and there remained Joatham the younger son of Jerobaal, and he was hidden."
Judic. xi, 1 sqq. — "Jephthae the Galaadite was a man of great might, and he was the son of a harlot, who bore Galaad to Jephthae. And the wife of Galaad bore him sons, and the sons of the wife grew up, and cast out Jephthae, and said to him: You shall not inherit in the house of our father, because you are the son of another woman. And Jephthae fled from the face of his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered to Jephthae men that were needy, and they went out with him."
C Malach. ii, 10. — "Has not one God created us? Has not one father of all of us? Why do you forsake each one his brother?"
"Everyone who hates a poor brother is far from friendship."
Luc. xv, 25 sqq. — "His elder son was in the field; and as he was coming and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And they said to him: Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound. But he was indignant, and would not go in. His father therefore went out, and began to entreat him. And he answering, said to his father: Behold, for so many years I serve you, and I have never transgressed your commandment: and you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But after this your son came, who has devoured his substance with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf. But he said to him: Son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. But it was fitting to make merry and be glad, because this your brother was dead, and has come to life again; and was lost, and has been found."
D I Joan. iv, 20, 21. — "If any man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he sees not? Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer."
TITLE X. — On monks and their practice.
AProv. — "The Lord stores up salvation for those who act rightly; those who lead a solitary life on earth will rejoice." Eccli. II, 1. — "My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation; make your heart straight, and endure." Eccli. IX, 7. — "Do not look around in the streets of the city." Eccli. X, 14. — "In the midst of brothers, their leader is held in honor." Luc. XII, 32. — "Do not fear, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to give you the kingdom." Luc. IX, 62. — "No one who puts his hand to the plow, and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God." B 14 Luc. XIV, 28 ff. — "For which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is unable to finish it, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was unable to finish.' Or what king, going to engage in battle against another king, does not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, while he is yet far away, he sends an embassy and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, whoever among you does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple." Luc. XVI, 13, 14. — "No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Luc. XVIII, 29, 30. — "Amen I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, life everlasting." C I Cor. IX, 24, 25. — "Those who run in the stadium, all indeed run, but one receives the prize; so run that you may obtain it. And everyone who strives for the mastery exercises self-control in all things; they indeed to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one." I Cor. XV, 58. — "Beloved brothers, be stable and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Ephes. VI, 10-17. — "Brothers, be strengthened in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil; for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the D
evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. Above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
B II Tim. ii, 4. — “No soldier serving God entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please him who enlisted him. But even if one competes in an arena, he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully.”
II John 8. — “Watch yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may receive a full reward.”
St. Basil, *Hom. de grat. act.* — An excellent wrestler, once he has girded himself for the stadium of piety, must bear the blows of his opponents bravely, in the hope of that glory which is acquired through crowns. For even in the gymnastics, those who through the labors of the wrestling-school have become accustomed to the pain, are not constrained by the bitterness of the wounds, but rather advance against the enemy, disregarding the present labors due to the desire for victory and public proclamation.
*Idem, in Psalm. i.* — I would say that the exercise and worship of piety are very much like a ladder; that ladder, I mean, which blessed Jacob once saw: of which one part was indeed lowly and abject, but the other reached up to heaven itself. Therefore it is worth the effort that those who are being instructed to live according to the prescription of virtue should first plant their steps on the lowly rungs, and thus ascend to the next one in order, until they have reached the height capable of human nature through a progress consistent with reason. Just as, therefore, on the ladder the first ascent is the withdrawal from the earth, so also in the way of life that pleases God, the beginning of progress is the separation from evil.
D *In Reg. fus. disp.*, art. 5. — He who proposes to follow God must be freed from the chains of this life’s attachments. This is achieved by complete withdrawal and the forgetting of old habits. For unless we remove ourselves from carnal kinship and the custom of common life, and by the cultivation of virtue migrate, as it were, to another world, according to him who said, “Our commonwealth exists in the heavens” (Philippians iii, 20), it is impossible for us to attain what is proposed to us; that is, to be acceptable to God, especially when the Lord explicitly says, “Unless one renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke xiv, 33).
*Ibid.*, art. 6. — A soul that looks toward the multitude of lawless men has, first, no space to perceive its own sins and to crush itself through repentance for its faults; but by comparing itself with those who are worse, it gathers a certain opinion of its own virtue. Then, on account of the tumults and occupations which this life is accustomed to bring, it is pulled away from the memory of God, not only from rejoicing and being glad—
in God A is it deprived, but it also becomes accustomed to complete disregard and forgetting of His judgments. There could be no greater evil than this, nor any more destructive passion.
Renunciation is, as the discourse has shown, a loosening of the bonds of this material and fleeting life, and a migration toward the heavenly mode of living.
By continence, we do not mean an absolute abstinence from foods—for that is a certain violent dissolution of life—but rather that which occupies itself in macerating the affections.
Continence is the extinction of sins, the driving away of disturbances, the mortification of the body even to its own natural affections and desires; it is the beginning of the spiritual life, the advocate of heavenly goods, which destroys the sting of sin within itself.
It is not to be thought that piety is to be pursued in order to indulge in sloth and leisure, or that labor is to be shunned; but rather that it is the subject matter B for struggle, for greater labors, and for patience in tribulations.
Thus at length we become a temple of God, when the continuous memory of God is not interrupted by earthly cares, nor is the mind disturbed by unexpected trials; but the lover of God, fleeing from all things, withdraws to God; and casting far from himself those things which entice us to vice, he dwells in those pursuits which lead to virtue.
Health is obtained by labors, and salvation by sweats.
Possess nothing redundant, but casting off every burden Of this vain and evil life of labors here below, Prepare yourself swiftly for heaven, Having encased your precious soul with the Word. Let the flesh be mastered, and let it be well tamed.
Do you see these worthy men, homeless C and virtually without flesh or blood, and on this account drawing near to God; these unwashed-footed men who lie upon the ground; these who are lowly and exalted; these who move among men yet are exalted above men; these who are in bonds and yet free; these who are captured and yet cannot be captured? Those who have nothing in the world, and yet have all things above the world; those whose life is twofold, the one despised, the other diligently cultivated and sought after? These, I say, because of their mortification are immortal, because of their release are joined to God, are strangers to love [of creatures] and desire, and are seized by a divine love that is void of passion: D whose fountain is the Light, and whose splendors are these rays; whose are the angelic psalmodies, and the all-night vigil, and the soul’s departure to God, ravishing itself into heaven before death; whose it is to purify, and also to be purified; who acknowledge no measure to their ascent and deification.
It is necessary to practice and to exercise a life free from all reproach.
A It is proper to honor and meditate upon God, and to omit nothing of those things which are pleasing and acceptable to Him.
S. Athan. — It is an excellent thing to have a study of a pious and God-devoted life, with moderation and true conscience.
It behooves one who strives for continence to flee the crowds, so that he may have his mind undistracted and his heart untroubled; for there is much disturbance in the midst of crowds.
S. Clem. Alex. — *Quis div. sit salv.* — The kingdom of God is not for the sleeping and the slothful, but the violent take it by force (Matt. xi, 12). For this kind of violence is worthy of praise, namely, to offer violence to God and to extort life from Him. And when He sees Himself constrained by certain ones violently, or rather, steadfastly, He gives way and yields. For He rejoices in being overcome in such a manner.
S. Nili. — For do athletes contend wearing clothes? The law of the wrestling arena leads them naked into the stadium, whether it be heat or cold. But if any one of them rejects the stripping, he has also rejected the contest.
"The naked shall flee on that day." On account of this, the author of Proverbs said to the trainer: "Take away his garment." For he has passed over; that is, he has entered into the contest; and he must wrestle naked, or rather, not only naked, but also anointed. For indeed, being naked prevents the opponent from grasping the wrestler; as for the oil, even if it is caught at some time, it ensures that one slips out of the grip. And for this reason, B wrestlers strive to scatter dust over their opponents, so that by making the smoothness of the oil rough with the dust, they may be able to catch them.
Philonis. — A man who is studious of virtue needs few things, as one who is on the boundary between immortal and mortal nature. For he has the need for things because of his mortal body, but he needs only few things because of his soul, which is burning with the desire for immortality.
TITLE XI. — Concerning those who are learning; and that they ought to approach learning studiously and diligently, and not to shun the labor of instruction, but to ask and learn from those who are more skilled.
"Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will speak to you." (Deut. xxxii, 7)
"My son, let not evil counsel catch you, nor one that forsakes the instruction of youth." (Prov. ii, 16)
"To a fool who asks for wisdom, it will be reckoned as wisdom." (Prov. xvii, 28)
"Receive instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than tested gold." (Prov. viii, 10)
"Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget it, that it may give to your head a garland of graces." (Prov. iv, 5)
"Desire, and you shall be instructed." C
(Prov. iv, 13) "Son, give your heart to instruction." (Eccli. vi, 18-33) A "Son, from your youth receive instruction, and until you are gray-haired you shall find wisdom. As one who plows and who sows, come to her, and wait for her good fruits. For in working with her, having labored a little, you shall quickly eat of her produce. How harsh is wisdom to the unlearned, and the senseless will not remain in her! Search for her, and she will be manifested to you; and when you have become possessed of her, do not let her go. For in the end you shall find rest in her, and she shall turn into delight for you. And her fetters will be for you a protection of strength, and foundations of virtue, and her chains for a robe of glory. For the ornament of life is in her. Son, if you choose, you shall be instructed; and if you apply your soul, you shall be wise."
Philo: To seek and to inquire is a thing most useful for acquiring knowledge. B He who labors with hunger and thirst for knowledge, and strives to learn what he does not know, leaving aside all other cares, hastens to listen, and by night and by day keeps watch at the doors of the wise. That someone knows that he is ignorant is of wisdom; just as to know that one has acted unjustly is of justice.
TITLE XII. — Concerning vagrants, and those who willingly migrate from place to place.
(Zach. viii, 10) "To him who goes out and to him who comes in there shall be no peace from tribulation."
(Eccli. xxix, 24) "A wicked life of lodging from house to house; and where he shall lodge, he shall not act with confidence." C
TITLE XIII. — Concerning hirelings, and those who defraud hirelings.
(Levit. xix, 13) "The work of your hireling shall not remain with you until morning."
(Deut. xxiv, 14-15) "You shall not unjustly deny the wages of the needy and the poor from among your brothers, or from the proselytes: on that very day you shall pay him his wages. The sun shall not set upon it, because he is poor and has his hope in it; and he will not cry out against you to the Lord, and it will be a sin for you."
(Jerem. xxii, 13) "He who builds his house not with justice, and his upper chambers not in judgment, works for his neighbor for nothing, and does not pay him his wages." D
(Eccli. xxxiv, 27) "He sheds blood who defrauds the wages of his hireling."
(Eccli. vii, 22) "Do not injure a servant who works in truth, nor a hireling who gives his soul."
(Rom. iv, 4) "To him who works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt."
(Jac. v, 4) "Behold, the wages of the laborers who harvested your fields, which has been withheld by you, cries out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth."
TITLE XIV. — Concerning those who labor in vain.
A Job xx, 18. — "In vain has he labored, gathering riches, from which he shall not taste."
Psal. xxxviii, 12. — "Verily, every man living is vainly troubled."
Prov. xxii, 8. — "He who sows iniquity shall reap evils; he shall consume the vanity of his works."
"Those who pursue vain things are void of mind."
"All are vain who do things pleasing to themselves, which will profit them nothing."
Isa. xlix, 4. — "I said, I have labored in vain; I have given my strength for nothing."
B Isa. lix, 4. — "They trust in vanities and speak empty things; for they conceive sorrow and bring forth iniquity, and they weave the spider’s web."
Eccli. xxii, 7. — "He who teaches a fool glues together a potsherd."
Eccli. xxxiv, 28. — "One building and one pulling down, what profit do they have except labor? One praying and one cursing, whose voice will the Lord hear?"
St. Basil. — Carrying water with a sieve, and pouring it into a perforated jar.
LETTER N
TITLE I. — Concerning youth and the young age.
Psal. cxix, 9. — "Wherewith shall a youth correct his way? By keeping thy words."
C Prov. — "A youth with pious men, and his way is straight."
Eccli. iv, 13. — "Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king."
Eccli. xi, 9. — "Rejoice, O youth, in thy youth, and let thy heart be in good in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, immaculate."
Eccli. xxxii, 7. — "Speak, O youth, if there be need for thee; but with difficulty, if thou art not asked."
I Tim. v, 12. — "I will that the younger women marry, bring forth children, be managers of households, give no occasion to the adversary for the sake of reproach. For some are already turned back after Satan."
D St. Basil. — This malady is by nature inherent in the young, that from lightness of mind they think they already possess the things they hope for. For when they happen upon some tranquility or nighttime silence, they fashion for themselves unsubstantial phantasms, carried away by the ease of their minds toward everything. They imagine for themselves the splendor of life, brilliant weddings, good education, deep old age, and honors bestowed upon them by all. Then, being unable to set any limit to their thoughts, they swell up violently, and through their folly they seem to themselves to enjoy the hoped-for things as if they were already present and lying at their very feet.
A He who is childish in his thoughts does not differ at all in age from a young child. What is weaker than flesh living in delights, and a headlong youth? Is one still of a youthful age? Let him show himself as a man against vicious affections; and let him gain this benefit from his youth, that he does not suffer the things that are young, but rather cultivates an elder's prudence in a blooming and vigorous body. And he will rejoice more in this victory than those who are crowned in the Olympics. It is shameful for a young man to be weaker than an old man, and for an old man to be more foolish than a young man. Nevertheless, let the former be all-wise in his time, or rather, the best thing is to be prudent before one's time. A gentle young man endures many things; but who will endure a faint-hearted old man? B In every matter, for the most part, youth is a dangerous counselor, and one will not easily find anything of great importance successfully completed in which old age has not been taken into partnership for the sake of deliberation.
TIT. II. — Concerning those who labor under sickness and infirmity; and that it is necessary to visit them.
Prov. xxi, 13 — "He who shuts his ears so as not to hear the poor, he himself shall call out, and there will be no one to hear him." Eccli. vii, 39 — "Do not be reluctant to visit the sick: for by these things you will settle into love." Eccli. xxxviii, 9 — "Son, in your sickness do not look about, but pray to the Lord, and he himself will heal you." Eccli. xxx, 17 — "Better is death than a bitter life, or a persistent infirmity." Matth. xxv, 36 — "I was sick, and you visited me." Jac. v, 14 — "Is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the one who is laboring, and shall raise him up." Galat. vi, 2 — "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Hebr. xiii, 3 — "Remember those who are suffering, as though you yourselves were also in a body." S. Greg. Naz. — A philosophic sickness is better than unbridled prosperity when [it is] joined with wisdom. C Ejusd. — But if, because of poverty, you have nothing that you can give to the poor, offer yourself, and bring him the consolation of your words in place of a gift. "I was sick," he says, "and you did not visit me." Do you not have wealth? But you have feet, and a mouth, and words. Enter, console, banish the sorrow, and make the sick person more cheerful and more patient. S. Chrysost. — Do not be ashamed, O man, of your brothers. For such visitations are more pleasant than gardens, and meadows, and any banquets whatsoever. For from meadows and gardens we bring home nothing good; but from banquets indeed, drunkenness Dand madness, and countless evils. But from such visitations we gain blessed hopes, the notion of God, confidence from above, gentleness of soul, and not being dispirited by any of the things that befall us; and in all things human, we acquire a philosophical spirit.
B S. Chrysostom, Hom. in Centur. (Spuria. Montf. t. X.) — Most of the wealthy demand services from the healthy, and they demand them without any indulgence; but for the sick, they take no thought at all. Indeed, when a sickness befalls a maidservant, she lies neglected and cast upon the ground. The master heeds her not, nor does the mistress visit her. And if ever it is necessary for the mistress to approach the servant, she does not visit her as one born of the same kind, but looks upon her with a grim eye, and addresses her with harsh speech, since the nature of the swelling of pride infects her sense of kinship. Do you not read the Scriptures? Do you not know what the holy David says: "As the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hands of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God" (Ps. cxxiii, 2, 3)? Be moved by this comparison: fear what is written; bring help to the sick. The Savior was not born man from the beginning, but being the Only-begotten God, yet for the sake of men He endured to become man; and you, being a man, reject your fellow creature as if he were not your equal? Do you refuse to have sympathy for a nature of the same kind as your own? And when a brute animal is lame, you care for it for your own use; but when your servant, an animal endowed with reason, is sick, you overlook him and do not care that he is endowed with reason. C
TIT. III. — That we must be of a vigilant mind and care for our own salvation.
Prov. vi, 4. — "Give no sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber, that you may be saved as a doe from the snares, and as a bird from the trap."
Eccli. ix, 12. — "As fish are caught in a net, and as birds are caught in a snare, so are the sons of men caught in an evil time, when it falls upon them suddenly."
Eccli. xii, 10, 16. — "Keep the season, and watch carefully, for you walk with your own destruction. Take heed that you be not led astray by your thought. Be vigilant all your life. Love the Lord, and call upon Him for your salvation."
Eccli. xxix, 27. — "Take heed to yourself, that you do not fall."
I Cor. x, 12. — "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
I Cor. ix, 24. — "I therefore so run, not as in uncertainty; so I fight, not as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified." D
I Petr. v, 8. — "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith."
II Tim. iv, 5. — "But be watchful, endure hardship in all things; do the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry. As for the hidden snares, through all..."
A walk always above them; lest, while you nod, the sower of evils and the envious enemy mingle in bitter seed. From the same, Tetr. 59. Be diligent, beware of fraud. Make sure you have fought the constant battle, Lest you eventually stand in need of purifications.
Tit. IV. — Concerning the newly married.
Deut. xxiv, 5, 6. — "If a man has recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to battle, nor shall any business be imposed upon him. He shall be free; he shall remain in his house for one year and shall delight the wife whom he has taken." Eccli. — "He who takes a wife begins to grow rich." S. Greg. Naz. From his poem to Olympias. — My daughter, receive this gift from me. Reverence first God, and after Him your husband, the eye of your life and the master of your counsel and judgment. Love and desire him alone, and delight your soul in him alone, in proportion as he has embraced you with a more perfect love. Do not take as much boldness and freedom as your spouse’s affection offers you, but as much as honesty itself permits. For all things indeed bring satiety. And while satiety of all things occurs, love cannot be satiated. B Beware, since you are a woman, not to break out into manly boldness and liberty. Beware of casting your lineage in your husband’s face, beware of your wealth, beware of your wisdom. For wisdom consists in yielding to the laws of marriage and obeying them. Yield to your husband when he is angry; succor him when he is laboring with soft words and honest counsels. For the beast-tamer does not quell the lion’s rage with strength, by raging in turn against the spirit of the roaring beast, but he tames it greatly with a gentle hand and the soft sound of words. Never let it happen that you reproach your husband with any loss, even if you are greatly incited by anger. Beware also of this: do not praise anyone who is little friendly to your husband, provoking him with a crafty speech through comparisons. Have shared joys and sorrows with him; for this makes the home more prosperous. With your mourning husband, mourn somewhat yourself. For to a mourning husband the wife is the most accommodating harbor. Furthermore, let the shuttle and the wool be your care, and devote yourself to the meditation of holy matters. Do not strive to take your foot outside your threshold, nor go out to public games; for this shakes the liberal spirit. Do not use the company of those women who have a haughty neck, a face open to all, C nor those men who are displeasing to your husband. Do not blush before those who look at you, having eyes that are blind, and brows turned down to the ground.Tit. V. — Concerning fasting and those who fast.
Isa. lviii, 4-8. — "If you fast for judgments and quarrels, and strike the humble with your fists, why do you fast for me? Is this the fast that I have chosen, says the Lord? But looseevery bond of iniquity; A dissolve the obligations of violent contracts; send away the broken in remission, and tear up every unjust writing. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house. If you see the naked, cover him, and do not overlook those of your own seed."
Matth. vi, 16-18.—"When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, gloomy; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to be fasting. Amen I say to you, that they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you in public."
S. Basil. hom. 1 de jejun.—Verily, fasting is an aversion from sin. Gluttony B does not extend pleasure beyond the stomach, but fasting advances utility to the soul. Rejoice that a medicine has been given to you by the Physician, one that destroys sin. For just as those worms that are produced in the intestines of children are removed from the midst by certain very harsh medicines, in the same way does fasting, upon entering the soul, kill the iniquity that lies hidden in the depths. Do not disfigure your face like the hypocrites. Appear as you are; do not pretend to sadness in yourself, so that you may fish for glory out of the reputation for continence. For just as there is no utility in the beneficence that is proclaimed with the sounding of a trumpet, C so neither does any profit come from a publicized fast. For those things which are done out of a desire for ostentation do not extend their fruit to the future age, but end in the praise of men. And therefore, approach the benefit of fasting with a joyful heart. Fasting is an ancient gift, one that does not contract age or senility, but is always renewed, and throughout all time sprouts effectively and flourishes. It is no recent invention; it is the treasure of the fathers. Everything that excels in antiquity is worthy of veneration. Reverence the hoary age of fasting. It is coeval with the human race. Fasting was ordained by law in paradise. This is the first commandment that Adam received: "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat" (Gen. ii, 17). D This, "You shall not eat," is an edict of fasting and continence. If Eve had fasted from the tree, we would have no need of this fasting now. For "those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Luc. v, 31). We were afflicted through sin; let us be healed through repentance. But repentance without fasting is idle. "Cursed is the earth: it shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you" (Gen. iii, 17, 18). You have been commanded to groan (for you are not to indulge in luxuries); cleanse yourself for God through fasting. Indeed, even the very way of life that they held in paradise is an image of fasting. Since we did not fast, we fell from paradise. Let us fast, therefore, so that we may return to it. Do you not see Lazarus, how through fasting he entered into paradise? Do not imitate the disobedience of Eve; do not again...
A advise with the serpent, who, under the pretext of taking care of the flesh, introduces food. Do not plead bodily ill health or weakness. For you are not offering these excuses to me, but to Him who sees through them. You cannot fast? Tell me, I pray you, are you able to be satisfied and crush your body with the weight of what you have eaten? And yet, I happen to know that physicians prescribe not a variety of foods, but abstinence and scarcity to those who are in weak health. How, then, when you are able to do that, do you plead that you are unable to do this? Which is easier for the stomach: to pass the night with a frugal diet, or to lie burdened with a plethora of food—or rather, not even to lie still, but to toss B and turn incessantly, writhing and groaning? We know that Moses approached the mountain through the benefit of fasting; for he would not have dared to face the smoking summit, nor would he have had the courage to enter into the darkness, had he not been armed with fasting. Through fasting he received the law, written by the finger of God upon the tablets. Fasting gives birth to prophets, it strengthens the valiant. Fasting makes legislators wise; it is a good bulwark for the soul, a secure companion for the body, a weapon for those who excel in battle, a training for athletes. It repels temptations; it anoints the mind for piety. It is a partner of prudence, a parent of modesty. In war it performs a distinguished service, and in peace it brings quiet. It grants holiness to the Nazirite; it makes priests perfect. For it is not possible that anyone should dare to perform sacred rites without fasting; C not only in this mystical and true sacrifice, but also in that typical one which was offered according to the law. This made Elijah a spectator of a great miracle. For when he had purified his soul with fasting for forty days, he finally attained this: to see the Lord in the cave of Mount Horeb, as much as it is possible for a man to see Him.
S. Basil, ibid. — Fasting sends prayer up to heaven, becoming as it were wings for it toward the journey on high. Fasting is an enlargement of households, the mother of health, the guide of youth, the ornament of the aged, a helpful companion to travelers, and a safe housemate to those who live together. The husband does not suspect any plot against his marriage when he sees that fasting is familiar to his wife. The wife, in turn, is not consumed by jealousy when she sees that her husband embraces fasting. For who has ever lessened his household through fasting? D Count what you have in your house today, and count it again after this: nothing is missing from your house because of fasting, nor does a single animal lament death; nowhere is there blood, nowhere is there a sentence issued against living creatures by the inexorable belly; the culinary blade is at rest. The Sabbath was given to the Jews so that, says the Scripture (Deut. v, 14), your beast of burden and your servant might rest. Let fasting, therefore, be a rest from continuous toils for the servants who labor for you throughout the entire year. Refresh your cook; give a holiday to the banquet-setter; stay the hand of the cupbearer; let the house also rest at last from the
A countless disturbances, and from the smoke, and from the savory odors, and from those who run up and down, and who as though serving an inexorable mistress, the belly. Fasting knows nothing of the nature of debt. The table of the faster does not exhale usury; the orphans of the faster are not strangled by paternal interest, which coils about the neck like snakes. The complexion of one who fasts is venerable, not blossoming into a shameless flush, but adorned with a sober pallor; the eye is mild, the gait restrained, the face thoughtful, not disgraced by wanton laughter; there is symmetry of speech and purity of heart. Fasting is the decorum of a city, the stability of the marketplace, the peace of homes, the preservation of possessions. Do you wish to see its dignity? Compare for me today’s evening with tomorrow’s, and you will see the city transformed from turbulence into a profound calm. Confer, I ask, the present evening with the one to come, and behold the city turned to serene peace.
B S. Basil, ibid.—True fasting is an alienation from evils. “Dissolve the bond of iniquity.” Remit the vexation to your neighbor; forgive him his debts. Do not fast for the sake of judgments and strifes; you do not eat meat, but you eat your brother; you abstain from wine, but you do not hold back from insults; you wait until evening to partake of food, but you spend the day in courts of law. What use is it to fast in the body, while filling the soul with countless evils?
Hom. 2 De jejun.—Oil indeed keeps the athlete sleek, but fasting strengthens the one who cultivates piety. Therefore, the more you withdraw from the flesh, the more you cause the soul to shine with spiritual health. For it is not by bodily labors, but by the endurance of the soul, and by patience in bearing afflictions, that victory over invisible enemies is achieved. C Furthermore, fasting is useful at any time to those who embrace it. For neither do the assaults of demons dare to attack the one who fasts, but the angels, the guardians of our life, remain more diligently with those who have purified themselves through fasting.
Ibid.—There are angels who in every church record those who are fasting. See then that you do not, for the sake of a small pleasure of foods, incur this loss, that you are not recorded by the angel, and that you do not render yourself liable to a charge of desertion before Him who enlisted you as a soldier.
D Ibid.—Are you rich? Do not offer insult to fasting by disdaining to take it as a companion at your table, nor cast it out of your house as one dishonored, overcome by the pleasure of food, lest it report you to the Lawgiver of fasts, and bring upon you many times greater scarcity by way of condemnation, whether through bodily sickness or by some other grievous circumstance. Let the poor man not mock at fasting, as one who has long had it as a housemate and consort in life. For women, just as drawing breath, so too is fasting something familiar and consistent with nature. Let children, like the flourishing of plants, be irrigated by the water of fasting. For the elderly, long-standing familiarity makes the labor light. For labors [borne] from long habit
are less burdensome to the trained. For the wayfarer, fasting is a reliable companion. For just as luxury forces them to carry heavy luggage—as they gather the things they use for pleasure—so, on the contrary, fasting makes them light and nimble. When, therefore, you are about to fast, do not put on a gloomy face after the manner of the Jews; instead, according to the precept of the Gospel, show a cheerful mind, so that you do not lament the need of your belly, but rather rejoice in your soul in spiritual delights. You are not unaware that the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Since, therefore, these are opposed to each other, let us diminish the softness of the flesh and increase the strength of the soul, so that through fasting, having received the trophies of victory over the passions, we may be crowned with the wreaths of temperance.
B Fasting, do not be sad. You fast from food for this reason: that you may be fed by the Spirit; and for this reason you abstain from bodily viands, that you may be filled with spiritual gifts. Fasting is a medicine capable of destroying the power of sin, a soothing poultice for the soul, softening it toward piety. And just as long-standing bodily ailments, if they are treated with certain very sharp and highly astringent medicines, cast out that which has the power to corrupt and draw together the ulcerated part, in the same way does fasting penetrate to the sin that lies hidden within and feeds upon the soul, and by its astringent power gradually weakens and finally dries it up. Therefore, even if fasting is hard and laborious, it is nevertheless useful and offers easy access. Do not, therefore, fast with a gloomy mind, lest you lose the reward of your labor. For as much as fasting constricts your body, by so much do you gain greater utility from the fasting. Review the ways of life of the just, and you will find that for the most part they attained praise through the works of fasting. First, Moses, after fasting, entered into the darkness and by the benefit of fasting had discourse with God, having completed a forty-day fast. Through fasting he was proclaimed a lawgiver, and he neither ate bread nor drank water for forty days. C During your fasting, be mindful of acts of kindness. For the one who fasts but does not share bread with the needy, his fasting will be in vain. There are, indeed, many who fast with sackcloth and ashes and many tears, yet do not share even a single obolus with the hungry, thus making their fast bereft of reward, which God does not accept. Hear, then, what He says in the prophet Isaiah: "Even if you bow your neck like a hoop and lay sackcloth and ashes under you, not even so will it be called a fast. But loose every bond of unrighteousness and give bread from your soul to the hungry. Send forth those who are broken in forgiveness; loosen the knots of violent agreements. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house" (Isa. LVIII, 5-7). This is the fasting that God loves. For otherwise, your haircloth and ashes will profit you nothing while you fast. Satisfy the needy, that D your fast may be accepted by God.
And you shall find it before your face A at the departure of your soul. If you see the tears of the poor and do not have mercy, how will God have mercy on you? Pure fasting is when, while you fast, the poor man is satisfied from your own means. We derive great benefit from fasting: a tranquil mind, calmness of thoughts, a gentle heart, a head free from pain, and straight feet. Are you troubled that your eyes are not bloodshot, nor your tongue stammering, and that your feet walk straight? Great is fasting, and through it many have transcended human nature and maintain a way of life with the angels. Did not Daniel, through B fasting, change the ferocity of lions into the gentleness of sheep? For having fasted for seven days in the pit, he beheld the huge lions as though they were doves. And consider for me his virtue, that he even taught the lions to fast. The holy man was thrown into the pit to be a meal for the lions, but he was found feasting, since food had been brought to him by Habakkuk at the command of the Lord, while the lions sat by with great philosophic composure. O! the excellence of fasting! It muzzled the lions, pierced the dragon, destroyed Bel, and rescued Susanna. The three children, while fasting, trampled upon the furnace as if it were mud, and regarding the flame as a dewy paradise, they remained unburnt C and broke the king's threats like a spider's web. Through fasting, the great Moses among the prophets received the Law. For having fasted for forty days, he appeased the wrath against the people. Having fasted for three days, the Ninevites preserved their populous city. Fasting is an imitation of the angels. Fasting has raised men up to heaven and prepared them to live with the angels, and has granted them rest with the martyrs.
Do not let drunkenness lead you into fasting. There is no entrance into fasting through drunkenness; for one does not arrive at justice through greed, nor at chastity through debauchery, nor, to sum it up, at virtue through vice. There is another door to fasting. Drunkenness leads to insolence, but self-sufficiency to fasting; he who is going to compete exercises himself beforehand, and he who is going to fast practices continence beforehand. D Do not, as if taking revenge on the Lawgiver, store up in advance a five-day debauchery beforehand. For you labor to no purpose, wearing out the body without bringing any comfort or relief to your hunger. Your belly is a treacherous storehouse; you are pouring into a leaking jar.
No one, intending to bring a respectable woman into his home in valid marriage, would first take in concubines and harlots. For the legitimate wife will not endure to dwell with the corrupted. Do not, therefore, when a fast is approaching, introduce drunkenness first—that common harlot, that mother of shamelessness, that lover of laughter, that madwoman, that companion to all indecency.
curious, and inclined to every kind of obscenity. For neither fasting nor prayer can enter into a soul defiled by drunkenness.
S. Chrysost. hom. as above. — Fasting and prayer deliver from death; yet righteousness surpasses both of these. Fasting knows how to make the poor man rich. For it does not permit him to make untimely expenditures, nor to exceed the bounds of frugality. It knows also how to make the rich man a prudent administrator of his own wealth.
The same. — Fasting does not consist in abstinence from food, but in abstinence from offenses. Let us embrace fasting, for it is the mother of temperance and the fountain of all philosophy.
The same. — Fasting, when joined with prayer, makes the prayer more powerful. Now, there is present much moderation of the intellect; now, the mind is awakened, and the soul looks upon things above. For this reason, Scripture has yoked prayer to fasting. For then a melody more delightful and acceptable is sent up than from the lyre, because the strings are not sodden with the excess of drunkenness, but the intellect is well-strung and the mind is awakened. B A sober soul approaches God in this way, and speaks to Him alone with the Alone.
LITTERA Ξ.
TIT. I. — Concerning things strange, and things rarely found.
Judg. iii, 15, 31. — « The children of Israel cried unto the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a savior, Ehud, a man ambidextrous. After Ehud arose Shamgar, and he smote the foreigners, six hundred men, with an oxgoad: and he saved Israel. »
Judg. xiv, 5, 6. — « Samson went down, and his father and mother, to Timnath, and came even to the vineyard: and behold, a young lion met him. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he rent him as a kid of the goats, and there was nothing in his hands. And he told not his father or his mother what he had done. » C
Judg. xv, 4-6. — « And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand one in the midst between two tails, and tied it. And he burned the standing corn of the foreigners from the threshing-floor even to the standing corn, and even to the vineyard and the olive grove. »
Ibid. 16-18. — « Samson said: With the jawbone of an ass, I have utterly destroyed them: for with the jawbone of an ass I have smitten a thousand men. And he was sore athirst, and cried unto the Lord: Thou hast wrought this great salvation by the hand of Thy servant: and now I die for thirst, and shall fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. And God opened the hollow place that was in the jawbone, and there came waters out of it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he lived. » D
Judg. xvi, 1 seqq. — « And he saw there a woman, a harlot, and went in unto her. And it was told the Gazites, saying: Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all the night in the gate of the city. And they were quiet all the night, saying: In the morning, when it is day,
A we will kill him. And Samson slept until midnight. And he arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, with the two posts, and lifted them up with the bar, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain, and put them there." Judg. XX, 15. — "Six hundred chosen men out of all the people, all these were left-handed; they were slingers, casting stones to a hair's breadth, and not missing." II Reg. II, 18. — "Asahel was light of foot, as a wild roe in the field." S. Basil, Hom. I in Hexaem. — "All things are mixed in all things: thou wilt find both water, and air, and fire in the earth. Furthermore, fire leaps forth from stones; and from iron, which also itself derives its origin from the earth, abundant fire is wont to flash out by friction. This is also worthy of admiration, how it happens that fire, while it is within bodies, dwells harmlessly, but when it has come out, it consumes those things by which it was kept." B Ejusd. hom. 7 in Hexaem. — "Couldst thou explain concerning the sea itself, by what means water hardens into salt? By what reason is coral, that precious stone, a herb of the sea, but when it is brought out into the air, it hardens into the rigidity of a stone? Whence did nature insert a gem of great price into the oyster, a most worthless animal? For those things which the treasuries of kings covet, these are cast about by banks and shores and rugged rocks, adhering to the bodies of oysters. By what means does the *pinna* provide golden fleece, which no dyer has been able to imitate to this day? By what means do the shells grant the purple robe to emperors, which by the elegance of their color surpass even the flowers of the meadows?" C Ibid. — "God made great whales (Gen. I, 21). Not because they are larger than a prawn or a picarel are they called great, but because in the size and bulk of their body they equal the highest mountains; for they often provide the appearance of islands, when they happen to swim on the surface of the water. But if thou hearest how the remora, a small fish, so easily stops the largest ships when they are being carried by the wind with spread sails, so that it keeps them motionless for a long time, just as if they were fixed in the sea itself, then at last thou wilt admire the power of the Creator." Synes. — "They say that apes, when they have brought forth their offspring, gaze upon their young just as if they were statues, admiring their beauty. So great is the love of offspring implanted by nature."
TIT. II. — Concerning unusual punishments, both those brought about by God and those inflicted by men.
Judg. IX, 45. — "They took the city, and slew the people that were therein, and demolished the city, and sowed it with salt." Judg. I, 6, 7. — "They pursued after Adonibezek, and caught him; and they cut off the extremities of his feet and of his hands. And Adonibezek said: Seventy kings, with their feet and their hands D cut off, were gathering...(from the top of the column and the previous context) ...and from the extremities of their hands; they were gathering the scraps of food under my table: as I have done, so God has repaid me.”
I Chron. xx, 2, 3. — “And David struck Rabba, and destroyed it, and carried off very great spoils of the city. And the people that were in it he brought out, and he cut them with saws and with iron harrows. Thus did David to the cities of the children of Ammon.”
Jerem. lii, 10, 11. — “The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Sedecias before his eyes, and slaughtered all the princes of Juda; and he blinded the eyes of Sedecias, and bound him with fetters, and the king of Babylon led him away, and bound him in the mill-house until the day he died.”
TIT. III. — *Of pilgrimage, and that the pilgrim lacks confidence.*
Gen. xix, 2. — “The men of Sodom said to Lot: ‘You have come in to sojourn; shall you also judge?’”
Prov. xxvii, 8. — “As a bird when it flies from its nest, so is a man enslaved when he wanders from his own places.”
Eccli. xxxiv, 9. — “A man who has traveled much has known much. And again: ‘He who has wandered increases his craftiness. I have seen many things in my wandering, and my understanding surpasses my words.’”
LETTER O
TIT. I. — *Of swearing, and that pernicious and preposterous oaths should by no means be kept.*
I Reg. xiv, 43-45. — “Saul said to Jonathan: ‘Tell me what you have done.’ And Jonathan told him, and said: ‘Tasting I tasted a little honey with the tip of the rod that is in my hand, and behold, I die?’ And Saul said to him: ‘May God do these things to me, and may he add these things, that you shall surely die today.’ And the people said to Saul: ‘Shall he who has wrought this great salvation in Israel die today? For he has wrought the mercy of God this day.’ And the people prayed for Jonathan, and he did not die.”
Jerem. xxxviii, 19, 10. — “The king said to Jeremias: ‘I am anxious about the Jews who have fled to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hands, and they mock me.’ And Jeremias said: ‘They will not deliver you. Hear the word of the Lord which I speak, and it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live.’”
Matth. xiv, 6, 7. — “On Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and it pleased Herod, whence with an oath he promised to give her whatever she might ask of him. But she, having been instructed by her mother, said: ‘Give me here on a dish the head of John the Baptist.’ And he gave it to her.”
Schol. It was better for Herod to violate the oath he had sworn than to behead the prophet.
TIT. II. — *Of orphans, and the poor, and widows.*
Exod. xxii, 22, 23. — “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. But if you afflict them in any way, outcrying they...
shall cry to me, I will surely hear their cry; and I will be wrathful with fury, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children orphans.” A Job xxix, 12, 13. — “The mouth of the widow blessed me. I reached out and helped the orphan who had no helper.” Deut. xxiv, 17. — “You shall not take the widow’s garment as a pledge.” Psal. lxvii, 5. — “The father of orphans and judge of widows.” Prov. xxiii, 10. — “Do not enter into the possession of orphans. For the Lord who delivers them is mighty, and he will plead their case with you.” Prov. i, 32. — “Because they did injury to infants, they shall be killed.” Zach. vii, 10. — “Do not oppress the widow and the orphan, and the stranger and the poor.” B Eccli. iv, 10. — “Be as a father to orphans, and as a husband to their mother: and you shall be as the son of the Most High.” Eccli. xxxv, 17. — “He will hear the prayer of the orphan. He will not despise the supplication of the orphan and the widow, if she pours out her speech. Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek, and her cry over him who brings them down?” I Tim. v, 3-5. — “Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to govern their own house and to return due recompense to their parents. For this is acceptable before God. And she who is a widow indeed and desolate, hopes in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. These things charge, that they may be irreprehensible.” C Ibid. 13. — “But the younger widows avoid; for when they have become wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation, because they have made void their first faith. And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.” Jac. i, 27. — “Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their tribulation.” S. Basil, hom. in Hexaem. — “They say that the turtledove, separated once from her mate, can no longer be brought to have intimacy with another, but remains unmarried, and by memory of the one to whom she was once joined, rejects the partnership of another. Let women hear how even among animals, which lack reason, the honor of widowhood is preferred to the baseness of many marriages.” D TIT. III. — *Of boundaries, and that one must not move them.* Deut. xix, 14. — “You shall not move the boundaries of your neighbor, which your fathers have set.” Deut. xxvii, 17. — “Cursed is he who moves the boundaries of his neighbor; and all the people shall say: So be it, so be it.” Job xxiv, 2. — “The wicked have transgressed the boundary.”
A Prov. xxii, 28. — “Do not move the ancient boundaries which your fathers set.”
S. Basil. hom. 7 in Hexaem. — There are some things among fishes which it is fitting to imitate: namely, how each of their kinds, having obtained a region suitable to itself as if by distribution, does not intrude upon the others, but dwells within its own boundaries. No geometer has marked out dwellings among them; they are not circumscribed by walls, nor distinguished by boundaries. For this gulf nurtures these kinds of fish, and that one others; and those that abound here cannot be found in other places. No mountain protruding with sharp peaks divides them; no river intercepts their passage. But a certain law of nature exists, by which, justly and equitably as is useful to each, a place is assigned to all. But we are not like this, since we move B the ancient boundaries which our fathers set. We extend our fields, we join house to house, in order to steal something from our neighbor. The whales know the dwelling place assigned to them by nature, having occupied the sea separated from inhabited regions—which indeed are in no way inferior in size to the tallest mountains, as those who have seen them affirm—and yet they contain themselves within their own boundaries, neither causing harm to the islands nor to the coastal regions. Thus then, each kind, just like in cities or certain villages or ancient homelands, dwells in those parts of the sea which have been designated for them.
TITLE IV. — Concerning the good and evil way: and that one ought to avoid distorted business and oblique paths, and to proceed by a straight way.
CJob xi, 14. — “If there is anything iniquitous in your hand, put it far from you. Thus your face will shine like pure water.”
Job xxiv, 14. — “They who have forgotten the just way are weakened among men.”
Prov. xvi, 5. — “The beginning of a good way is to do just things. And they are more acceptable to God than the blood of sacrifices.”
“The Lord knows the ways that are on the right; but those on the left are perverse.”
Prov. xiv, 2. — “He who makes his ways oblique will be in dishonor.” D
Prov. xxi, 8. — “Upon those who are oblique, God will send oblique paths.”
Prov. xxii, 5. — “Thorns and snares are in oblique ways: but he who keeps his own soul will abstain from them.”
Prov. xxviii, 18. — “He who walks justly will receive aid.”
Prov. iv, 18. — “The paths of the just are like a shining light: they proceed and increase until the day is perfected.”
Prov. xvi, 25. — “There is a way which seems straight to men, but its end leads to the depths of hell.”
“If they had walked in good ways, they would have found the paths of the just smooth.” Prov. xi, 20. “Paths of life turn away from evils.” Prov. xvi, 17. “Make straight paths for your feet: do not decline to the right, nor to the left.” Prov. iv, 26. “Thus says the Lord: Stand upon the ways, and see, and ask for the paths of the Lord, and see what the good way is, and walk in it. See what the good way is, and you will find rest for your souls.” Prov. vi, 16, 17. “Do not draw destruction upon yourselves in the works of your hands.” Sap. i, 12. “Do not winnow with every wind, and do not walk in every path.” Eccli. v, 9. “Turn away from your wickedness, and make your hands straight, and cleanse your hands from every sin.” B Eccli. xxxviii, 10. “Children of cursing, they wandered from the way of truth, having followed the way of Balaam.” II Petr. ii, 15. “Test all things; hold fast what is good; abstain from every kind of evil.” I Thess. v, 20. Those who flee evil are not to be praised if they avoid sin once or twice, but if they have the power to escape the experience of evil entirely. For the beginning of the acquisition of the good is the withdrawal from evils. “Depart,” he says, “from evil, and do good;” wisely and skillfully introducing us to virtue, making the withdrawal from vice the beginning of good things. S. Basil. A spark ignites and a small one a great flame. The bite of a viper often destroys. Seeing this, therefore, flee even a small injury. It is small, indeed, but it grows into something greater. Fountain of evils, do not flow, O vain mind. But you, O tongue, do not receive the mire; But you, O hand, do not write the worse things; Thus the image of God might remain incorrupt in us. C S. Greg. Nazianz., tetrast. 13. Let us recognize the snares and walk far from them. Let us recognize the precipices, and let us not even draw near to them. This will be a cause of the greatest security for us, if we not only flee sins, but also those things which, while seeming to be neither good nor evil, trip us up toward sin. S. Chrysost. The departure from evils is the beginning of salvation. S. Clement.
TIT. V. — Concerning a good and an evil name.
“A good name is more desirable than great riches; and good grace is better than silver and gold.” Prov. xxii, 1. “A good name is better than precious ointment.” Eccli. vii, 2. “Have a care for a good name. For it will remain with you more than a thousand treasures of gold.” D Eccli. xli, 15. “Grace is like a paradise in blessings.” Eccli. xl, 17.A Eccli. xli, 16. — “The number of the days of a good life is full, and a good name remains for ever.” Eccli. vi, 2. — “An evil name shall inherit ignominy and reproach.” Eccli. xx, 19. — “An ungrateful man (that is, without grace) is an importunate fable.”
TITLE VI. — On opinion and estimation: and that it is better to be than to seem. For this is an impediment to virtue.
Eccli. vii, 16. — “I saw a just man perishing in his justice: and this itself is vanity.” I Cor. iii, 18-20. — “If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: He catcheth the wise in their craftiness. And again: The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men.” I Cor. iv, 6, 7. — “That one may not be puffed up against the other for another. For who distinguisheth thee? And what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” Galat. vi, 3, 4. — “For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is B nothing, he seduceth himself. But let every one prove his own work, and so he shall have glory in himself only, and not in another.” S. Greg. Naz. Poem. hexam. 1. — “It is better for him who is good to seem evil, than for him who is most wicked to be esteemed good: so that he who appears and is painted for men, is like a sepulcher, which within indeed stinks exceedingly with putrefying bones, but outwardly shines with lime and elegant paintings.” Idem. Tetrast. 24. — “I would not have you seek fame, neither all of it, nor too much. It is better to be good than to seem so. But if you are held by an insatiable desire for this thing, by no means pursue that which is vain, nor that which is new, or that which is painted. For what does it profit the ape, if he hears himself called a lion, or is so named?” Idem. — “If I should propose to you an ape transformed into the likeness of a lion, would you not be ashamed to see it? But if a swan were to come upon the stage for your amusement, what would you think? If a crow, the most contemptible of all birds, should smear itself with a C white color, would it not stir up much greater laughter at itself?” Idem. from the Apologues. — “It is easy to deceive oneself, and to imagine oneself to be something when one is nothing, swelling up with empty opinion.” S. Cyrill. — “Opinion, as the ancients said, is the cutting off of progress. For he who flatters himself with empty opinion does not sustain the growth of virtue. Opinion is something impure by nature.”TITLE VII. — On wine, and its use.
Psal. ciii, 15. — “Wine gladdeneth the heart of man.” Prov. xx, 1. — “Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness riotous: whosoever is delighted therewith shall not be wise.” D Prov. xxxi, 6. — “Give wine to those who are in sorrow, and to those who are in pain-A are, that they may forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.” Eccl. xix, 2. — “Wine and women will make wise men fall away.” Eccl. xxxi, 30. — “Show not thyself valiant in wine; for wine hath destroyed many. Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make them drunk. Wine drunk with moderation is the joy of the heart and the gladness of the soul.” Ephes. v, 18. — “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.” I Tim. v, 13. — “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.” Wine is a gift from God, granted for the solace of infirmity to those who are temperate. The best measure for the use of wine is the body's need. For wine strengthens the body, but the Word of God strengthens the soul. When wine has been consumed, sorrows will depart, driven away just as mist is driven by a whirlwind. B
TIT. VIII. — Concerning the eyes.
Prov. xv, 30. — “A seeing eye rejoiceth the heart.” Prov. iv, 25. — “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Eccl. xxxi, 15. — “What is created more wicked than an eye? Therefore it shall weep upon every face.” Eccl. xiv, 10. — “A wicked eye is envious of his bread, and he is deficient at his table.” C Eccl. xxiii, 4. — “O Lord, Father and God of my life, give me not the haughtiness of mine eyes.” Eccl. xxxi, 14. — “Take heed, and remember that an evil eye is a bad thing.” Matth. vi, 22, 23. — “The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.”
TIT. IX. — Concerning reproaches, and that one ought not to reproach anyone.
DProv. xxvii, 11. — “Remove from thee reproachful words.” Isa. li, 7. — “Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings; for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool.” Isa. liv, 4. — “Fear not; because thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy eternal confusion, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.” Eccl. xi, 2. — “Abhor not a man, and do not reproach him to his face.”
Eccl. xxii, 25. — “He that casteth a stone at birds, shall lessen them: and he that upbraideth his friend, breaketh friendship.” A
Eccl. viii, 6. — “Reproach not a man that turneth away from sin, remember that we are all worthy of reproof.”
Eccl. iii, 13. — “A disgrace to the children is a mother without honour.”
Eccl. vii, 12. — “Laugh not a man to scorn in the bitterness of his soul: for there is one that humbleth and exalteth.” A
Eccl. xxix, 35 (or xxix, 25). — “These things are grievous to a man of understanding: the chiding of a house, and reproaching of a lender.”
S. Greg. Nazian., tetrast. 27. — One final security is to reproach no one for their fortunes; for fortune is common, and the future is not to be foreseen. B
S. Irenaeus. — Blessing always those who are worthy, but never blessing the unworthy; in this way we too shall eventually attain the glory and kingdom of God.
Evagrius. — To find fault with him who is free from guilt is a sin against God.
Philo. — To no one should you cast up a calamity as a reproach (for nature is common, and the things that are to come are hidden): lest, being caught in the same things, you be found condemned by your own conscience. C
Didymus. — Neither does praise make a man good, nor does vituperation make him evil.
TITLE X. — Of those who live a short time.
Job xiv, 1. — “Blessed is he that is born of a woman, having but a short time to live.”
Sap. iv, 11-14. — “He was taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time: for his soul pleased God: therefore he hastened to bring him out of the midst of iniquities.” C
TITLE XI. — Of those who gladly swear; and that one ought to beware of swearing.
Exod. xx, 7. — “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.”
Levit. xix, 12. — “You shall not swear falsely by my name.”
Osee iv, 15. — “Swear not: The Lord liveth.” D
Eccl. xxiii, 9-11. — “Let not thy mouth be accustomed to swearing; for in it there are many falls. And let not the naming of God be usual in thy mouth. For as a slave daily questioned, will not fail to have a scar, so every one that sweareth and nameth, shall not be wholly pure from sin.”
Matth. v, 34-37. — “But I say to you not to swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God: nor by the earth, for it is his footstool: nor by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great King. Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay. And whatever is more than these is of the evil one. A
“He who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by all things upon it. And he who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by Him who sits upon it.”
“Above all things, my brethren, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor any other oath. But let your speech be, Yea, yea, and Nay, nay; so that you may not fall under judgment.”
It is not profitable to swear, but rather most harmful, and accursed, and abominable. Therefore, cease from swearing; do not desire to accustom your own tongue to oaths.
TIT. XII. — Concerning those who violate oaths and perjure themselves.
“The Lord said to me: What do you see? And I said: I see a flying sickle, twenty cubits in length and ten cubits in breadth. And He said to me: This shall enter into the house of the one who swears by my name falsely; and it shall break down, and consume it.” B
“Thus says the Lord: Do not love a false oath; for all these things I have hated, says the Lord.”
“I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against those who swear by my name falsely.”
“They swore unjustly in deceit, despising holiness.”
“A man given to many oaths shall be filled with iniquity, and a scourge shall not depart from his house.”
“Speech given to many oaths shall make the hair stand on end, and their wrangling is the stopping of ears.”
He who confirms a falsehood through oaths acquires the evil profit of inhumanity, namely, perjury. C
A sword does not sting as the nature of an oath does; a blade does not kill as the wound of an oath does. He who has sworn, even if he seems to enjoy life, has nevertheless already perished and received the wound; and just as he who has taken the rope, even before he departs from the city and sees the executioner standing by, dies as soon as he has passed through the doors of the tribunal; so also he who has sworn falsely, even if he lives, has already perished. D
LITTERA Γ. — Concerning faith and piety towards God.
“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
Job xxviii, 28. — “Behold, piety towards God is wisdom.” A
“The roots of the pious are in fortifications.”
Habac. ii, 4. — “The just shall live by faith.”
Isa. xxiv, 16. — “O Lord God of Israel, we have heard wonders from the ends of the earth. Hope is for the pious, and they shall say: Woe to the treacherous.”
Isa. xxvi, 7. — “The way of the pious has been straight and prepared.”
Isa. xxxii, 8. — “The pious have taken prudent counsel, and this counsel remains.”
Jerem. v, 1. — “If there is one who does judgment, and seeks faith, I will be propitious to him, says the Lord.”
Sap. x, 12. — “Piety is more powerful than all.”
Sap. xv, 2. — “We will not sin, knowing that we are reckoned as thine. For to know thee is complete justice, and to know thy power is the root of immortality. For the malicious craftiness of men has not led us into error.” B
Eccli. ii, 4, 5. — “Trust in the Lord, and abide in your labor. For it is easy in the eyes of the Lord to enrich a pauper suddenly. The blessing of the Lord is in the reward of the pious. The gift of the Lord remains with the pious.”
Eccli. ii, 6. — “Believe in him, and he shall recover you.”
Eccli. xxvii, 12. — “The narrative of a pious man is always wisdom.”
Eccli. xxxvii, 12. — “Be assiduous with a religious man.”
Matth. x, 32. — “Everyone who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.” C
Matth. xvii, 20. — “Amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible for you.”
Matth. xix, 27-31. — “Peter answering said to him: Behold, we have left all things, and followed thee: what therefore shall be for us? Jesus said to them: Amen I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you shall also sit on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.” D
Matth. xxi, 21, 22. — “Jesus answering said to them: Amen I say to you, if you have faith, and do not hesitate, not only shall you do [what was done] to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be lifted up, and be cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, you shall receive.”
Joan. i, 11, 12. — “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, he gave them power to become the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.”
Joan. iii, 16. — “God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth
A in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God,” and the rest. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall not hunger; and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” Joan. vii, 37, 38. — “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘Rivers of living water shall flow from his belly.’ Now this He said concerning the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Joan. xii, 46, 47. — “I have come as a light into this world, that everyone who believes B in Me may not remain in darkness. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” Joan. xiv, 12. — “He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do.” Joan. xx, 29. — “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.” Rom. ix, 30-33. — “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by works. For they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, as it is written: ‘Behold, I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal; and he who believes C in Him shall not be put to shame.’” Galat. ii, 16, 17. — “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the law; because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” Galat. v, 6. — “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision is of any avail, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works through love.” Hebr. xi, 1, 2, 6. — “Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a witness. Without faith it is impossible to please God. For the one who approaches God must believe that He exists, and that He becomes a rewarder to those who seek Him.” I Tim. iv, 7, 8. — “Exercise yourself unto godliness. For bodily exercise is of little profit; D but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” Ephes. ii, 8. — “By grace you have been saved, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, that no one may boast.” Be a worker of godliness. For this will both lift you up to heaven, and will prepare for you an immortal memory and lasting glory among men. The honor toward God who truly is, is altogether
A a source of honor for the one who gives it. But honor toward a god who does not exist is, conversely, a disgrace for the one who gives it.
Pietas must be sought above all else; they rightly call it the mother of all virtues, for it is the beginning and the end of all virtues.
We ought to remember God more often than we draw breath.
S. Greg. Naz. *On the Holy Spirit.* — Let him who rejects, reject; let him who acts wickedly, act wickedly. We speak of what we have seen, and we proclaim it. We shall ascend a high mountain, that we may be at peace, not that we may proclaim.
The same, *Orat. 1.* — A righteous war is better than a peace that separates us from God.
Of an uncertain author. — I know sinful men who laid hands upon the sick and freed them from their disease. But this happens in two ways: it is not only because of him through whom it is given, but also because of him who receives. For if he who receives lacks faith, he receives grace from neither the righteous man nor the sinner. For *he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward* (Matt. 10:41). And again the Lord says: *According to your faith let it be done to you* (Matt. 9:29). You, then, act in such a way that you have faith in him who comes to you in the name of the Lord, wavering in nothing, and you shall receive grace; for it is God who works.
TIT. II. — On spiritual progress.
Philipp. 3:13, 14. — B «Brethren, I do not consider that I have captured it. But one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the mark for the prize of the upward call of God.»
1 Cor. 9:26, 27. — «So I run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as one beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, lest perhaps after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.»
1 Cor. 12:31. — «Earnestly desire the higher gifts.»
Coloss. 3:1. — «Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.» (Noting variation: the Greek omits mention of Christ, Migne includes it in the Latin) «Seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth.»
S. Greg. Naz. — Do not pride yourself because you seem better than the wicked, but be rather C afflicted because you are surpassed by the good.
Do not weigh virtue on a small scale.
He who cares rightly for himself is cared for by God.
TIT. III. — On transitory and eternal things; and that those who prefer present things to future things commit the gravest sin.
Psal. 26:13. — «I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.»
Isa. 35:10. — «Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall gain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.»
Matth. 7:13, 14. — «Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to D destruction, and there are many who enter by it; but the gate is narrow, and»
A the way is straight which leads to life, and there are few who find it.»
I Cor. vii, 29, 30. — «The time is short; it remains, brethren, that those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who use this world as though they did not make full use of it. For the form of this world is passing away.»
II Cor. iv, 17, 18. — «For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.»
B I Cor. xv, 19. — «If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.»
Hebr. xiii, 14. — «For we have here no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.»
II Petr. iii, 13. — «Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.»
S. Basil, in Psal. 1. — There are two ways opposed to one another; the one broad and spacious, the other narrow and straitened; and there are two guides, each of which tries to turn us toward himself. And indeed the level and broad way has a fraudulent and pernicious guide, the devil, who through pleasure drags his followers to destruction; but the rugged and steep way has a good angel, who leads those who follow him through the toils of virtue to the blessed end. For as long as each of us is a child, pursuing the pleasantness of the present, he takes no thought for the future. C But when he has reached man's estate, and his notions have attained their maturity, then in a way he seems to live his life shaping himself toward virtue or vice; and repeatedly turning the eye of his soul toward both, he judges in balance the things that pertain to each. The life of sinners presents all the delights of the present age; but that of the righteous shows only the good things of the future age. And the way of those who are being saved, in proportion as it promises good things for the future, provides such laborious things in the present; but the pleasant and licentious life offers not pleasure to be expected hereafter, but already present. Therefore every soul is dizzy and wavers in its thoughts;とき when it considers the eternal, it chooses virtue; but when it looks toward the present, it prefers pleasure. Here it sees the indulgence of the flesh, there the enslavement of the flesh; here drunkenness, there fasting; here wanton laughter, there abundant tears. Blessed therefore is he who is not turned aside by the allurements of pleasure toward destruction, but D through patience awaits the hope of salvation.
Ejusd. Hom. de invid. — We deem nothing human to be great, nor something beyond nature. For the good is not in the things that pass away,
A but we are called to the participation of eternal and true goods.
Ejusd. Hom. in psal. cxv. — Do not prefer the most worthless of things to those of great price, nor be evil merchants, preferring a fleeting life to an immortal and blessed life.
Ejusd. — Before your face I have set life and death, evil and good, two natures contrary one to the other. Compare them within yourself: weigh accurately whether it is more profitable for you to embrace temporary pleasure, and for its sake to be punished with everlasting death, or to embrace the hardship which the pursuit of virtue produces, and by its aid attain eternal life.
Ejusd. — Do not bestow everything on pleasure; grant something also to the soul. Consider that you have two daughters: the pleasure of this life, and the heavenly life. If you do not wish to give everything to the better one, at least distribute an equal portion to the intemperate [daughter] and to the modest one. Do not deem the life here to be adorned with immoderate riches, while the other is naked and in rags. Do not present the bride to the bridegroom unkempt and deformed, B lest, on seeing her, He turn away His face, and having seen her, hate her, and refuse to be united with her.
Ejusd. — For a long time we have lived for the world; let us now live also for ourselves. What is equal to the soul? What is to be compared with the kingdom of heaven? Who is a more authoritative counselor for you than God? Who is wiser than that Wise One? Who is more useful than that Good One? Who is more closely related than the Creator?
Ejusd. — See that, while you flee the narrow ways leading to salvation, you do not pursue the broad way of sin. Fear lest, when you have traveled along the broad way even to the very last day of life, you find an inn consistent with that way.
Ejusd. Hom. in illud: Attende tibi. — Pay attention to yourself. Do not dwell on perishing things as if they were everlasting, nor despise eternal things as if they were fleeting. Spurn the flesh: for it wastes away. Be studious of the salvation of the soul, which is immortal.
Ibid. — Do not pay attention to the flesh, O man, nor consult its conveniences: do not admire riches, nor glory, nor power, nor all those things which satisfy only a temporary use for you.
Ejusd. — If temporal things are so excellent, what then are the eternal ones? And if the magnitude of the heavens exceeds the measure of the human mind, who then among mortals could search out the nature of eternal things?
S. Greg. Nyss. orat. 3 in beatit. — To bestow one's study on things which appear is proper to those who propose no hope of the future age for themselves.
S. Chrysost. — If those things which pertain to the body cannot be obtained by men without labors, but both bread and food require labors and sweat; and since the necessity of nature drives away laziness, and the scourge of necessity, without excuse, C
A should cast clay to labor; who, hearing of eternal life, would not be roused to labors? Who would not gladly sweat for the sake of the kingdom of heaven? Who would not despise pain for the sake of endless pleasure? Who would not endure the billows and tempests of temptations, so that he might arrive at the plunder-proof market of the heavens? For labors are everywhere the providers of good things.
False are the opinions of the foolish; false are the assumptions of those wrongly minded, who attribute blessedness in this life to wealth, and liberty, and power; ignorant that it is possible to see a slavery more lofty than any liberty, and an infirmity more firm than any power, and poverty more wealthy than any riches.
TIT. IV. — On the providence of God; and that God provides for human affairs.
Isa. XLIX, 14, 15. — “Sion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and God has forgotten me. Will a woman forget her child, or not have mercy on the offspring of her womb? But even if a woman were to forget these, yet I will not forget you, says the Lord.”
Isa. LI, 4. — “I will comfort all the desolate places of Sion, and I will make them as the paradise of delight.”
Ezech. XXXIV, 16, 17. — “Thus says the Lord: That which was lost I will seek, and that which had strayed I will bring back; and that which was broken I will bind up, and that which was failing I will strengthen, and the strong I will guard, and I will feed them with judgment.”
B Sap. XI, 25-27. — “You love all things that are, and loathe nothing of what you have made; for you would not have fashioned anything while hating it. But how could anything have remained, unless you had willed it? Or what would have been preserved, had it not been called by you? But you spare all things that are, O Lord, who love souls. For your holy spirit is in all things.”
Sap. VI, 8. — “God made both small and great; and He has an equal care for all.”
Sap. XIV, 2-6. — “Men made a ship for the sake of the desire for gain; but Wisdom, the craftsman, fashioned it. But your providence, Father, governs it: because you gave a way in the sea, C and a most secure path among the waves, showing that you are able to save from all things, even if one embarks without skill. But you will not have the works of wisdom be in vain; therefore, also, in a small piece of wood men trust their lives, and having traversed the wave, they were saved by a raft.”
Whatever good comes to us from divine power, we say is the operation of the grace that works all things.
It is proper and truly becoming to God to be propitious, to show mercy, and to save His own works, even if they are carried into the danger of destruction. For with Him, he says, is propitiation.
D That all things, in general, exist and are governed by the providence of God, the wise men of true piety…
A teach. But if one examines each thing specifically, some moved by habit, some by nature, some by impulse and imagination, and others by reason, individual judgment, and free choice, while others have come into being by reason, they establish the varied and manifold governing of the universe; for the Cause of all things has distributed to each kind of existing thing its own distinct and defined structure of nature.
Euseb. lib. VI Præp. Evang. cap. 14. Ex Phil. — What parents are to their children in relationships, this the king is to the state, and God is to the world.
S. Chrysost. — You do not know what is beneficial for you, O man; therefore you often ask for things that are harmful and dangerous. But He who cares more for your salvation than you do, does not attend to your request, but before your request, He everywhere looks to what is for your benefit. For if carnal fathers B do not grant everything to their children who ask, not because they despise those who ask, but because they care for them all the more, much more does God, who loves us even more vehemently, and knows our benefit more clearly than all others, do so.
Didymi. — That Craftsman of all things, since He knows the secrets of all those who use reason, provides for the whole; not only from those things by which they are affected and act, but He also leads them to improvement from those things which He foreknows.
Theotimi in Gen. — God, having fashioned all things out of His own goodness, takes care of all things: not looking at the dignity of those for whom He provides, but at His own mercy and the bestowing of good things.
TIT. V. — Concerning perverse affection and anxiety; and that we ought not to be perversely affected in any matter.
Cant. v, 2. — « I sleep, and my heart waketh. »
Eccli. xxx, 25. — « Before the time, old age brings anxiety. »
Matth. vi, 25-27. — « Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, nor what ye shall drink, nor for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feedeth them, » etc. C
1 Cor. vii, 29-31. — « The time is short. It remaineth, that those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who weep as though they wept not, and those who buy as though they possessed not, and those who use this world as though they used it not. For the fashion of this world passeth away. »
S. Nili. — It is the mark of a perfect soul to be without anxiety; but of an impious one, to be worn down by cares. For it is said of the perfect soul, that it is a lily in the midst of thorns. This furthermore signifies freedom from cares. Regarding
those who possess much concern for the things of this life, the Scripture says: "All the life of the impious is in solicitude" (Prov. iii, 33). A
St. Clem. Alex. — One must manage one's possessions without immoderate affection, and when some loss arises, one should not be angered, nor take it ill, nor burn with the desire for acquisition. For the Lord bids us refrain from excessive love of possessions and from every preposterous affection.
TIT. VI. — On prophets who committed slaughter and pleased God.
Exod. xxxii, 26-30. — "Moses stood at the gate of the camp, and said: If any one is for the Lord, let him join me. And all the sons of Levi came to him, and he says to them: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Put each one his sword upon his thigh, and pass through, and return, and kill each one his brother, and each one his neighbor, and the nearest one. And the B sons of Levi did as Moses spoke to them, and there fell of the people on that day three thousand men."
Num. xxv, 11-15. — "Phinees the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, rose up from the midst of the synagogue, and taking a poniard in his hand, pierced both through, the Israelite man and the woman through her womb; and the anger ceased from the sons of Israel. And those who died were twenty-four thousand. And the Lord spoke to Moses: Phinees the son of Eleazar has stilled my wrath: behold I give to him my covenant, a covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his seed after him, a covenant of an eternal priesthood, for that he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the sons of Israel." C
"Samuel said: Bring to me Agag, king of Amalec. And Agag came trembling. And Samuel said: As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be made childless among women. And he killed him before the Lord."
"Elias said to the people: Seize the prophets of Baal; let none escape from them. And they seized them; and Elias leads them down to the torrent of Cisson, and slaughtered them there." D
TIT. VII. — On the foreknowledge of God; and that hidden and secret things of events should be left to God.
Deut. xxix, 29. — "The hidden things [belong] to the Lord our God; but the manifest things [belong] to us and to our children forever, to do all the words of this law."
"The Lord is a God of knowledge, and God preparing inventions."
"I know the counsels of your spirit."
Jer. I, 5. — A "Before I formed thee in the womb, I sanctified thee, and set thee a prophet unto the nations." John I, 47-49. — "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him: Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael saith unto him: Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him: Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and said unto him: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel."
TITLE VIII. — On prophets who freely rebuked kings.
1 Reg. XIII, 13, 14. — "And Samuel said to Saul: Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee; and now thy kingdom shall not stand." 3 Reg. XIV, 6. — "And it was so, when Achia heard the sound of the feet, he said: Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam. I am a hard messenger to thee." B 3 Reg. XVIII, 17. — "And Achab said to Elias: Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And Elias said: I do not trouble Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the Lord, and have walked after Baalim." 4 Reg. I, 15-18. — "And the Lord spoke to Elias, and said: Go down, fear not before them. And Elias arose, and went down with them; and he said to them: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baal, the fly-god of Accaron, it shall not be so. The bed on which thou hast gone up, thou shalt not come down from it, for thou shalt surely die. And he died according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elias." 4 Reg. III, 13-15. — "And Eliseus said to the king of Israel: What have I to do with thee? Go to the prophets of thy father and thy mother. And the king of Israel said: Hath not the Lord called the three kings, to deliver them into the hands of Moab? And Eliseus said: As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the face of Josaphat the king of Juda, I would not look towards thee, nor see thee."TITLE IX. — On the will and affection of the mind; and that God examines the will in all things.
C Rom. VIII, 28. — "To them that love God all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called." Mark XII, 41 sqq. — "And Jesus sitting over against the treasury, beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there came one poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And calling his disciples together, Jesus saith to them: Amen I say to you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than all they that have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want cast in all she had, even her whole living." Matt. V, 27, 28. — "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not Dcommit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." A
640 S. Basil. — We praise those who are good by the inclination of their mind, not those who are restrained by some necessity. For where the will is ready, there is nothing to hinder; let the eagerness of mind be present, and nothing will be an impediment.
— Idem. — Before the just Judge, the rewards decreed for one who has even so much as proposed to do what is his duty are not to be despised.
— Theophylact. — The actions of the body are interrupted by many things; but he who sins by intention has his sin perfected by the very impulse of his thoughts. B
— S. Greg. Naz. — This is most beautiful and most humane: that God measures the gift not by the price of the offering, but by the strength and the affection of the mind of him who offers.
— S. Clem. — God, who instructs the soul, values not the gift, but the will.
— Sixtus. — A good will is a victim to God.
TIT. X. — Of virginity, and pudicity, and honest nuptials.
— Gen. II, 23, 24. — "And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Wherefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh." C
— Job XXXI, 9. — "If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, and if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door: let my wife be a harlot to another."
— Prov. XIX, 14. — "A woman is joined to a man by the Lord."
— Prov. V, 18, 19. — "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her ways always delight thee. For being in her love, thou shalt be one of many."
— Malach. II, 15. — "And thou shalt not despise the wife of thy youth." D
— Sap. III, 13; IV, 1. — "Blessed is the barren that is undefiled, who hath not known bed in sin: she shall have fruit in the visitation of souls." And again: "Better is virginity with virtue. For the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men, and in the world it triumphs, wearing a crown, having won the contest of undefiled struggles."
— Eccli. — "He that resisteth pleasures, shall crown his life."
— Matth. XIX, 3 seqq. — "And there came to him the Pharisees tempting him, and saying: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? But he"
A answering, said to them: "Have you not read, that he who made from the beginning, made them male and female? And he said: For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh? Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." They say to him: "Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away?" He saith to them: "Because of the hardness of your hearts he allowed you to put away your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery." His disciples say to him: "If the case of a man with his wife be so, it is not expedient to marry." Who said to them: "All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take."
I Cor. VII, 39. — "A woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die, she is at liberty: let her marry to whom she will; only in the Lord." B
Ibid. 1-5; 8-11; 25-28; 32-35. — "Now concerning the things whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render the debt to his wife: and the wife also in like manner to the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud not one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency. But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they so continue, even as I. But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be burnt. But to them that are married, not I, but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife. Now concerning virgins, C I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful. I think therefore that this is good for the present necessity, that it is good for a man so to be. Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. But if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned: nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh." And again: "But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife, is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided. The unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married thinketh on the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your profit: not to cast a snare upon you D
but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.” A “He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever hateth his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the Church.” A “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.”
One must keep the mind, like a pilot sitting above the passions, having embarked as it were upon the ship of the flesh, and with experience turning the reason like a rudder; to trample the waves bravely, and to remain on high, and being inaccessible to the passions, in no way to be filled with the bitterness of the passions, as one is with brine.
One virtue, both for man and woman, since their creation is also of equal honor, so that the reward is the same for both. If their nature is one, their operations are the same; and those whose work is equal, to them also the reward is the same.
Husbands, love your wives, even if you have come together for the partnership of marriage from distant lands. Let the bond of nature, the yoke of blessing, be a union of those who were separated. The viper, the most cruel of reptiles, comes to meet the sea-lamprey for the sake of mating, and by his hissing, signifying his presence, he calls her forth from the depths for the nuptial embrace. What is the meaning of my speech? That even if the husband be rough, even if he be wild in character, the wife must needs bear with him, and for no pretext admit of breaking the union. Is he a striker? Yet he is a husband. C Is he a drunkard? Yet he is united with you by nature. Is he rough and disagreeable? Yet he is your own member, and the most precious of members. Let the husband also hear the admonition proper to him. The viper, out of reverence for the marriage, vomits forth his poison: will you not be led by reverence for the union to cast off the cruelty and ferocity of your soul?
I would not pass over the story of Alexander, who, having taken the daughters of Darius captive, though they were testified to have of what marvelous beauty, did not even deign to see them, judging it shameful that one who had conquered men should be overcome by women. For this leads to the same point: Whoever has looked upon a woman to lust after her, even if he has not accomplished the adultery by an act, yet in that he has admitted the desire into his soul, he is not acquitted of the crime.
D “Lay the yoke of virginity upon no one. For it is a dangerous thing and difficult to keep, when by necessity...”
it comes to pass.” A Permit the young to marry before they are corrupted by others.
S. Greg. Naz. *On virginity.* O virgin, be a virgin in eyes, and ears, and tongue; for sin is easy for all to trip over.
S. Greg. Nyss. *Hom. on the Beatitudes.* The Lord blesses not those who live exempt from passion (for it is impossible in this corporeal life for us to lead a spiritual life without perturbations), but those who are slow and not easily moved by the impulses of nature. For He does not enjoin total apathy upon human nature, but that which is achieved through virtue. For the natural occurrence of such an impulse is often the result of the weakness conjoined to nature, which acts even against our will. But not to be carried away like a torrent by the impulse of passion, but rather to stand steadfast with a brave soul against such an affection and to repel the turbulent motion by reason; this is the work of virtue. Blessed, therefore, are those who are not prone to the turbulent agitations of the soul, but are composed in sense and mind; and for whom reason, like a bridle, restraining the impulses, does not allow the soul to be carried away into disorder. B
S. Chrysostom. — Marriage is an indulgence for passion. Nothing is so unworthy of a virgin as to be eager for riches and to be wrapped up in a multitude of affairs.
Meth. *From the Banquet of Virgins.* — It is a mockery to keep the organs of procreation chaste, but not the tongue; or to keep the tongue of the virgin, but not the sight, or the hearing, or the hands; but rather to play the harlot in pride and wrath. For it is necessary to keep all members and sense organs pure and sealed.
Theotimus, *On fasting.* — What is forced is troublesome and brief; but what is free admits of no loathing, but ever flourishes in grace and desire.
S. Clem. Alex. — The corruption and violation of virgins is called not only fornication, but also their premature giving away: that is, when they are married to a man before the marriageable age, whether by themselves C or by their parents.
Didymus. — By long-standing study and meditation, the strength and ferocity of the excited movements of the soul are weakened.
The same, *To a philosopher.* — For him who is the moderator of passions, when these have been subdued, not everything is immediately tranquil. For as long as a man lives, this war endures.
On fornication, and adultery, and unnatural lust.
Tit. XI. — Levit. xx, 10 seqq. — “The man who has committed adultery with the wife of another man, let him die the death, he who has committed adultery, and the adulteress. A man who has slept with a male with the intercourse of a woman, they have committed an abomination; let both die. D
A For they are guilty of death. "A man, if he sleeps with the wife of his father, he has uncovered the nakedness of his father; let both die the death. If a man takes a wife and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall burn him and them in fire."
"A spurious person shall not enter into the Church of God."
"If a man be found sleeping with a woman married to a husband, you shall kill both, and you shall remove the evil from Israel."
"Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law; and all the people shall say, So be it, so be it."
If anyone takes a wife and dwells with her, and lays pretexts against her, and brings upon her an evil name and says, "I have taken this woman, and having come near to her, I have not found in her virginity," then the father of the girl and her mother shall take and bring out the tokens of the woman's virginity to the elders. They shall take the man, and they shall punish him, and they shall fine him one hundred shekels, and they shall give them to the father of the young girl, because he brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel, and she shall be his wife. He shall not be able to send her away for all his time. But if the tokens of virginity are not found for the young girl, they shall bring her out to the doors of her father's house, and the men of the city shall stone her, and she shall die, because she committed folly. If a young girl virgin be betrothed to a man, and a man finds her in a city and sleeps with her, you shall lead both out to the gate of that city, and they shall stone both with stones, and they shall die: the young girl, because she did not cry out in the city; and the man, because he humbled the wife of his neighbor. But if a man in the open field finds the young girl who is betrothed, and having done violence, sleeps with her, you shall kill the man who B slept with her, and to the young girl you shall do nothing. There is no sin of death for the young girl, because just as if a man should rise up against his neighbor and kill his soul, so also is this matter; because he found her in the field; the young girl cried out, and there was no one helping her.
"The eye of an adulterer has watched for darkness, saying, 'No eye will discern me.'"
"The fury of wrath is unbearable, to defile a man's wife. For it is fire burning from all sides; and wherever it enters, it destroys from the roots."
"The vows of a harlot’s hire are not pure."
"Let not the desire of beauty overcome you, nor be ensnared by your eyes, nor be snatched away by the eyelids of fornication. The adulterer, for lack of understanding, procures destruction for his own soul; he bears pains C and disgraces; his reproach will not be blotted out forever. For the fury of her husband is filled with jealousy; he will not spare in the day of judgment; he will not...
accept any ransom for his hatred, nor will he be appeased by many gifts.» A
Prov. XI, 20. — «Be not frequent with a strange woman, nor hold fast by the embraces of one who is not thine.»
Prov. XXIX, 3. — «He who nourishes harlots will lose his wealth.»
Prov. VI, 27, 28. — «Shall any man tie fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned? Or shall any one walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he who goes in to a woman married to a husband will not be innocent.»
Prov. V, 18. — «Abstain from strange water, and drink not from a strange fountain, so that you may live for a long time, and years of life may be added to you.»
Sap. III, 16. — «The children of adulterers shall be in an incomplete state, and the seed from an unlawful bed shall be destroyed.»
Sap. IV, 3, 6. — «The multitude of the wicked of many kinds will not be useful, and from adulterous plantations it shall not give roots into the depth, nor establish a secure foundation. Children born of unlawful slumbers are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their examination.» B
Eccl. XXIII, 22. — «A hot soul, like a burning fire, will not be extinguished until it consumes: and the man who is a fornicator in the body of his flesh.»
Eccl. XXXVI, 27. — «Where there is no woman, he who wanders will groan.»
Eccl. XXIII, 24-27. — «To a fornicating man every bread is sweet; he will not cease until he dies. The man who transgresses his own bed, saying in his soul, Who sees me? Darkness surrounds me, and the walls cover me, and no one looks at me: what do I fear? The Most High will not remember my sins. And the eyes of men are his fear, and he did not know that the eyes of the Lord are many times brighter than the sun. This man shall be punished in the streets of the city, and where he did not think, he will be caught.» C
Nahum III, 3, 4. — «They will be weakened in their bodies because of the multitude of fornication.»
Jerem. V, 7-9. — «On what account shall I be propitious to you? Your children have forsaken me, and swore by those who are not gods; and I filled them, and they committed adultery, and they lodged in the houses of harlots. They became horses lusting after females; everyone neighed at his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit them for these things, says the Lord? Or shall my soul not avenge itself on such a nation?» D
Matth. V, 27, 28. — «You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, that everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.»
I Cor. VI, 18-20. — «Flee fornication. Every sin that a man may commit is outside the body; but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not
of them? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
A “Let us not commit fornication, as some of them committed, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.”
“Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
“But fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Tears come to me for you, O man, when I consider that you prefer the works of shame to the great glory of God, and because of licentiousness you are unable to tear yourself away from sin.
Pleasure is a hook of the devil drawing towards destruction. Pleasure is the mother of sin; pleasure is the nurse of the eternal worm, which for a time soothes the one who enjoys it, but afterwards produces the return of more bitter gall.
Evil desires, goading the soul, throw it into incontinent and licentious impulses.
If, therefore, you take heed to yourself and remember that present pleasure will end in a bitter conclusion, and that the tickling which now arises from pleasure in our body will generate the poisonous worm, punishing us eternally in Gehenna, and that the burning of the flesh will become B the mother of eternal fire, at once those pleasures will flee away, and a marvelous calm and peace will exist within the soul, just as the noise of licentious handmaidens is quieted by the presence of some wise mistress.
Adultery is a certain condition of nature, the coiling of the viper and the sea-eel. Let those, therefore, who plot against the marriages of others learn to what reptile they are similar, and let the licentious restrain their passions, being instructed by both land and sea examples.
I have known some who fell into the passions of the flesh in their youth and, because of the habit of evil, remained in their sins even until their gray hairs; and just as those who wallow in filth C ever heap the mud upon themselves, so also these contract each day the baseness born of pleasure.
The spirit of fornication does not endure to remain in one instance of shame, but immediately its peers are gathered—revellings, and drunkennesses, and shameful tales, a harlot drinking with them, smiling at this one, provoking that one, and inflaming everyone to her own sin.
Pleasure is the great bait of evil, through which we are most especially prone to sin; by which every soul, as if by a hook, is drawn towards death, D
A so that he who does not let himself be softened by it, by means of temperance, has thoroughly overcome every nature of sin.
S. Greg. Naz. Tetr. 7. The pure man abhors every reward of the harlot. Impurity is wondrously clever at devising evils.
Pleasure is indeed, as it were, a bait for all vice, which, being cast out, easily draws more gluttonous souls onto the hook of destruction.
*From the Elders.* A certain brother was assailed by the impulse of lust. It happened that he was passing through a certain town of Egypt, and, having seen the daughter of a certain priest of the idols, he was seized with love for her and asked her father to give her to him in marriage. The man replied that he could not give her to him unless he first consulted his god about the matter. Therefore, having gone to his demon, he said to him: “Behold, a certain monk has come to me asking for my daughter for marriage. Shall I give her to him?” And the demon, answering, said: “If he will abjure his God, and baptism, and the monastic profession, I permit it.” The priest, therefore, returned and said to the monk: “Abjure your God and baptism and the monastic profession.” The monk agreed, and immediately he saw a dove issuing from his mouth and flying up into heaven. Wherefore the priest went to the demon and said: “Behold, he has agreed to these three things.” C Then the devil, answering, said to him: “By no means give him your daughter as a wife. For his God has not departed from him, but still helps him.” Wherefore the priest returned and said to the monk: “I cannot give her to you. For God is still helping you, and has not entirely departed from you.”
It is good to flee from corporeal things. For when a man is near the corporeal war, he is like one who stands above a very deep pit, and whom his enemy, at whatever hour he pleases, can with no effort cast down to the depths. But if he removes himself far from corporeal things, he is not unlike one who is away from the pit, so that, while the enemy strives to drag him down, God sends him aid.
S. Chrysost. — Do not say: “How can I not fornicate?” Indeed, I will say: “How are you able to fornicate?” “Desire,” you say, “inflames me.” But you have a wife; you have pleasure free from danger. “But I cannot restrain myself.” These are words of sloth. For when I bring before you someone who, while being without a wife, yet cultivates chastity, what defense can you bring forward for the sake of your own purification? He did not endure shipwreck in the sea, and yet you perish in the harbor? You have a wife, and yet you fornicate, or even commit adultery? “And by what means,” you say, “can I overcome this wound?” Enjoy your wife, and I shall enjoy mine. Absolutely. Consider what the blessed Paul says: “Because of the
fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. The woman does not have authority over her own body, but the man; just as, in turn, the man does not have it, but the woman” (1 Cor. vii, 1-4). Therefore, if a harlot calls you, turn this word over in your mind and say: “The man does not have authority over his own body, but the woman.” And having inscribed this word upon your forehead, address that harlot thus: “Why do you call me? The body is not mine, but my wife’s. I cannot endure to betray what belongs to another.” You do not dare to diminish her dowry, nor do you dare to consume her possessions, and yet do you dare to defile her body? Say: “Beware, do not approach this.” For it is not mine, but another’s. Is the body the harlot’s? I do not accept the harlot’s body. This is my wife’s body. Fear Christ, and say: “This body is a member of Christ, and our bodies are members of Christ.” Let them hear and learn wherever Christ has brought this, and let them say: “The woman does not have authority over her own body.” B Consider the philosophy of Paul; what does he say? Because many cannot practice continence, yet they have honorable and modest wives, and they practice continence contrary to the wishes of those husbands—and this philosophy of theirs becomes for them an occasion for adultery—for this reason he says: “Let each man enjoy his own wife.” And he is not ashamed, but enters, and sits in the bed chamber by night and by day, and laying hold of the husband and the wife, he binds them together in this way, and cries out and shouts: “Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by agreement” (1 Cor. vii, 5). Do you practice continence, and do you not wish to sleep with your husband? He, because you deny him your company, departs and thenceforth commits sin, and his sin is reckoned to your continence. Which is better? That he sleep with you, or with a harlot? Your enjoyment is not forbidden, but hers is. If he sleeps with you, there is no transgression, but if he sleeps with her, you have destroyed your own members. He sits, therefore, as I said, in the bed chamber of the husband and the wife, and cries out: “Do not defraud one another, except by agreement for a time.” Do you see that for this reason you took a wife, and you took a husband, that you might be in agreement, and do you wish to practice continence? Persuade your husband too, that there might be two crowns, of modesty and of concord, and not one of modesty and war. For even if you practice continence, he is inflamed by desire. Paul says: “Do not commit fornication,” and immediately he is troubled and tossed by waves. “Do not, therefore, defraud one another, except by agreement.” For where there is peace, there also are all good things; where there is peace, modesty also shines. C Where there is concord, continence is crowned. But where there is war, modesty is cut off. Paul, the bridesman of the inhabited world, is not ashamed to say: “Marriage is honorable, and the bed is undefiled.” For its Lord was present at a marriage, honoring marriage by His own presence, and He brought gifts; for He transformed the water into wine. Run as fast as you can; whenever you grow weak, take the remedy of wedlock, so that Satan may not tempt you. “Let each one, therefore, have his own wife.” For there are three things, D
virginity, marriage, and fornication. Virginity holds the higher place, marriage the middle, and fornication the lowest: virginity has a crown, marriage a moderate praise, fornication has punishment and torment. A Observe, therefore, whether you are able to cultivate continence or to endure the infirmity of the body: and do not induce your mind to ascend beyond measure, lest you descend beyond measure. Just as a diver enters only as far as he can return from, and when he enters the water considers how much he is able to return from: so you too, be continent only as much as you are able to bear, lest by striving immoderately, you fall away from chastity altogether.
The same. The greatest snare is a woman’s beauty; or rather, not beauty itself, but an unchaste glance. For we do not merely accuse things, but rather ourselves and our own sloth. Let us not say, “Let there be no women,” but rather let us say, “Let there be no adulterers.”
Nothing is more loathsome than a soul given over to lust. Pleasure is like a dog, O man. If you drive it away, it flees; if you feed it, it remains. Flee from indulgence on account of the ensuing affliction. Take care that the devil does not use your limbs as weapons against you.
S. Clement, Book VII of the *Stromateis*. Pleasure is the metropolis of evils. S. Nilus. We have already often brought forward the three highest differences of fornication defined by the Apostle: love of pleasure, love of money, and idol worship. C
The same. The same devil also suggests a fierce and cruel love. The same one also, after he has driven someone to commit adultery, sometimes stirs up an intolerable hatred: not that it may lead to good repentance, but to heinous slaughter. Whence some, after committing adultery, have often killed with a sword the woman they had defiled.
The same. Not all demons are assigned the same pursuits or the same pernicious duties by the devil. For one is entrusted with one detestable and God-hated ministry, and another with another. For some engrave impious thoughts in the hearts of men. Others suggest obscene desires to the soul; and others are accustomed to stir up vainglory, envy, anger, and other things of that kind: others provide material for heretics to devise new schemes: others are occupied with gluttony, drunkenness, and lust. And again, others deceive and mock people through dreams; others instill pleasures into the bodies of men, and poverty. D
A They incite and cause the limbs to seethe and be disturbed with wicked lust, and they fill the senses with mist and darkness. Likewise, these latter ones work with and assist the incantators and sorcerers and those who invoke them; the former, however, are more delighted with seers, and run to them, and associate with them. To put it briefly, each class of demons has been allotted its own particular ministry and destructive business for the soul.
A bad contribution to the passions is the sight of women and frequent meetings with them. He is easily drowned in the waters of fornication who does not shun beautiful forms, but looks upon them with pleasure.
TITLE XII. — On experience and inexperience.
B 1 Kings xvii, 38, 39. — "Saul clothed David with his garment, and put a bronze helmet on his head: and David girded his sword over his garment. And he labored to walk once and twice, because he was not accustomed to it. And David said to Saul: I cannot go with these, for I have no experience."
Job xii, 12. — "In much time is wisdom; and in long life is knowledge."
Job xxxii, 9. — "Not the long-lived are wise, nor do the aged understand judgment."
Wisdom viii, 8. — "If one desires wide experience, he knows how to estimate the ancient and the future."
Ecclesiasticus xxv, 8. — "The crown of the aged is much experience." Ecclesiasticus v, 18. — "Be not ignorant in great or small matters."
Ecclesiasticus xxxiv, 9. — "He who has learned many things will tell of understanding; he who has not been tried knows few things."
Ecclesiasticus xxi, 25. — "A practiced man will not be ashamed in the presence (of others)."
Ecclesiasticus xxxiv, 9, 10. — "A man who has traveled, has known many things; he who has wandered, increases his cleverness. I have seen many things in my wandering, and my understanding was more than my words."
S. Basil, *On the Holy Spirit*, chap. 8. — "He who has learned an art, and holds it firmly through long experience and study, and has the habit deeply fixed, is able henceforth to work by himself C according to the principles of the art already stored up within his own mind."
Experience is more effective than any speech for the gathering of knowledge. What one has not suffered, he will not readily believe of another. But he who has felt it himself is more ready to agree.
S. Chrysostom. — Experience is the mother of prudence. Experience is the mother of certainty for everyone.
S. Clement, b. vi, *Stromata*. — "Just as those who have not learned to play the cithara ought not to touch the cithara; nor should those who do not know how to play the pipes touch the pipes D
and also know how they ought to use them throughout their whole life." Ibid. — "Every action of a learned and experienced person is successful; conversely, the action of every ignorant person is miserable." Joseph — "Daily study gradually nourishes experience."
TIT. XIII. — On mansuetude and piety.
Ps. xxv, 9. — "He will guide the meek in judgment; he will teach the meek his ways." A Ps. xxxvi, 11. — "But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." Ps. lxxv, 2. — "When God shall arise in judgment, to save all the meek of the earth." Ps. c, 6. — "My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that they may sit with me." Ps. cxlvi, 6. — "The Lord lifteth up the meek." Ps. cxlix, 41. — "He will exalt the meek in salvation." Prov. xiv, 30. — "A meek man is a physician of the heart." Ps. xvi, 19. — "Better is a meek man with humility, than he who divides spoils with arrogance." Ps. xxviii, 14. — "Blessed is the man who fears everything on account of reverence; but he who is hard of heart shall fall into evils." Eccli. iii, 17. — "My son, perform thy works in mansuetude; and thou shalt be beloved by an acceptable man." B Eccli. x, 31. — "My son, glorify thy soul in mansuetude." Eccli. x, 18. — "The Lord has overturned the roots of the nations and has planted the meek in their place." Matt. v, 4. — "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Tit. iii, 1-2. — "Let no man despise thee. Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, to obey a word, to be ready to every good work, to speak no evil of no man, not to be litigious, but gentle, showing all mansuetude to all men." St. Ignat. Epist. utraque ad Trallens. — "I have need of mansuetude, by which the prince of this world, the devil, is overturned." Evagrius. — "A young man who is meek suffers much." "The hoary hair of the old is mansuetude; and their life is true contemplation." C "No virtue is so accustomed to beget wisdom as gentleness."TIT. XIV. — On those who sin and blaspheme against God in ignorance.
Prov. xix, 3. — "The folly of a man corrupts his ways; and he blames God in his heart." St. Greg. Naz. Tetr. 52. Why do we always turn the blame upon the enemy, We who give free rein to our lust? D Blame yourself entirely, or at least the more; The fire is from us, but the flame is that of the Spirit.A S. Chrysost. — In all respects, if we give our attention to what is happening, no one deceives us. For the devil indeed pushes, but even he works many evils, and we also work many upon ourselves through our own sloth.
TIT. XV. — Regarding the rash, and the impudent, and those prone to anger, and the wrathful, and the short-tempered.
«Folly is destroyed by wrath.» «By wrath the sinners have overthrown the weak.» «Wrath destroys both the great and the powerful.» «The ungodly man has not respected the face of an honorable man, nor does he know how to render honor to such as these.» «Cease from wrath, and forsake anger.» «Their wrath is according to the likeness of a serpent.» «A wrathful man is not seemly.» «Wrath destroys even the prudent. A wrathful man prepares quarrels.» «A short-tempered man acts without counsel.» «A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but the wrath of a fool is heavier than both.» «Do not be a companion to a wrathful man, and do not associate with an angry man; lest you learn his ways, and take a snare for your soul.» «A wrathful man digs up strife; but an irascible man has dug up sins.» C «You shall not speak a word in wrath from your mouth.» «The lips of a fool lead him into evils; and his bold mouth calls upon death.» «The mouth of a fool is his destruction, and his lips are a snare to his soul.» «An impudent man persistently faces everything with impudence.» «A north wind stirs up clouds; but an impudent face excites the tongue. He who is hard of heart shall fall into evils.» «Do not be swift in your spirit to be angry, because wrath rests in the bosom of fools.» D «The countenance of a harlot has become yours; you have become shameless toward everyone.» «A bold soul shall be taken away.» «Unjust wrath cannot be justified. For the very momentum of his wrath is a ruin to him.» «Take away wrath from your heart.» «Zeal and wrath diminish days.» «O Lord Almighty, the God of my salvation, do not deliver me to the soul of an impudent man.»A Matthew 5:22. — «Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment.» Ephesians 4:26, 27. — «Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down upon your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let all bitterness and wrath and blasphemy be put away from you, with all malice.» James 1:20. — «The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God.»
St. Basil, Homily on Fasting. — Woe to those who are intoxicated, and not by wine. Anger is an intoxication of the soul, making it senseless just as wine does. Sadness, too, is an intoxication, submerging the mind.
Ibid. — Set before your mind someone who is angry, and how he contracts intoxication from this passion. He is not master of himself. He forgets himself and forgets those present. Just as in a midnight scuffle, he strikes everyone, offends everyone, speaks whatever comes to his mouth without exception; he can hardly be restrained, he rails, he strikes, he threatens, he swears, he breaks out. Flee this intoxication.
Ibid., Homily against Anger. — Once the passion of anger, having driven away reason, has seized the seat of the soul, it turns the man entirely into a beast and no longer allows him to be a man, as he lacks the protection of reason. For what venom is to poisonous creatures, such is the burning heat of anger to those who are provoked. They rave like dogs, they leap like scorpions, they bite like serpents. Scripture, too, knows how to call those who are held fast by this vice by the names of wild beasts. C
Ibid. — Because of anger, tongues are unbridled, mouths are without doors, and hands are insolent. From this come insults, reproaches, vituperations, blows, and so many other things that they cannot even be recounted. Because of anger the sword is sharpened, and the human hand does not hesitate to bring death to man. Because of anger brothers do not recognize one another, and parents and children forget the ties of nature. Those who seethe with anger first of all do not know themselves, and then they do not know all their kin and companions equally. And just as mountain torrents flowing toward hollow places sweep away whatever they encounter, so the vehement and untamable impulses of the angry rage through all things without discrimination. Neither hoary heads, nor the uprightness of a life, nor close kinship, nor favors already given move those who are driven by anger, nor is anything of this sort held in honor by them. Anger is a short-lived madness. D
Ibid. — In evil contests he who has won is the more miserable, since he departs bearing with him the greater part of the sin. Do not, therefore, be a collector of evil contributions, nor a more wicked creditor of an evil debt. Has someone provoked you with insults? Has he grown angry? Stop the evil with silence. But as for you, when you receive his impulse into your own heart like a stream, you imitate the winds, which, by blowing against one another, return what is thrown at them. Do not use your enemy as your teacher, nor imitate what you hate, nor become like a mirror of the angry man, showing his image in yourself. He is red, but were you not flushed? His eyes
are bloodshot; are yours serene? His voice is harsh; is yours gentle? Not even in the deserts does an echo rebound so exactly to the one who uttered it, as insults do when they turn back upon revilers. Nay, rather, the sound indeed is returned the same, but the insult returns with interest.
B S. Basil. ibid. — What is more insane than anger? For if you restrain your anger, you have affected your reviler with shame, having demonstrated modesty by your action. Have you been slapped? So was the Lord. Have you been spat upon? So was our Master. For he did not turn his face away from the ignominy of spit. Have you been slandered? So was the Judge himself. Did he tear your tunic? They stripped your Lord as well, and divided his garments among themselves.
Transfer your anger there, to that murderer, that father of lies, that worker of sin. But have pity on your brother, because if he persists in sin, he will be handed over to the eternal fire with the devil. Cease, therefore, from anger, and leave off wrath, lest it befall you to experience that wrath which is revealed from heaven against all impiety and injustice of men.
Ibid. — By no means, therefore, let us bring such great evil upon ourselves, a sickness of the soul, a darkening of reason, an alienation from God, an ignorance of our close relations, the beginning of war, a heap of calamities, a wicked demon begotten in our very souls; who, like some impudent lodger, having occupied the inner parts of our heart, excludes the approach of the Holy Spirit. For where enmities, contentions, wrath, cabals, and unsilenced clamors are stirred up in souls, there the spirit of meekness does not rest.
Are you irascible? Curb your anger. A man given to anger, he says, is not becoming. Let Scripture teach you; let it be like a mirror for your face. Learn there. For because wicked thought has shed such darkness upon you that you cannot consider what a great evil anger is, Scripture teaches you that an irascible man is not becoming.
Has anger overcome your reason, and does it carry you away, under the influence of rage, to shameful words and cruel, beastly actions? If you turn your attention to yourself, you will restrain your anger, just as one does an unruly and disobedient foal, by being sharply touched by the blow of reason, as if by a whip.
How shamefully the irascible man behaves! He strips off the human form and takes on the shape of a beast. Consider the angry man for me. Anger has boiled up in him, and his eyes are changed; they are not the same eyes, he sees fire; his blood has rushed up; it has boiled around his heart; it has surged up beneath the tunics of his eyes. He has become bloodshot...
A by the passion; he has altered his eyes. An irascible man is not seemly. If you see someone sharpening his teeth in anger, think that he is like a boar; as one who exhibits the inward fury by the grinding of his teeth. If you see one who suffers from irascibility, foaming, and uttering unintelligible things in his heart; if you see one who is irascible, forgetting his father, and failing to recognize the body of his child, walking heedlessly through all things in order to satisfy his impulse, you see the unseemliness of the thing. Heal yourself by another's evil, so that you do not take his unseemliness upon yourself. For an irascible man is not seemly. Flee his company; for you must needs learn from his ways. Has he uttered something insulting? He has also stirred up the anger within you. B Just as the barking of a dog calls forth the tumult of another dog, so his voice has stirred up the anger within you that was hitherto sleeping and at rest; and you have become barking at one another.
*Idem.* For what manner of reproaches do they cast at one another in return, until their insults as arrows are spent? Then, when they have slung every kind of reviling with their tongue, like a sling, they proceed at last to the vengeance of their hands. For anger stirs up a fight, a fight stirs up reproaches, reproaches lead to blows, and blows to wounds and death itself.
*S. Greg. Naz. in Iamb.* Let anger be bridled, lest you fall from your senses.
*Idem, hom. 43.* Let your anger be only against the serpent, through whom you fell. C
*S. Chrysost.* Let us strive to be free from anger. For the Holy Spirit does not dwell where anger has its seat.
*Idem.* Anger is detestable. For it is impossible that anything wholesome should come forth from whence anger emanates.
*Idem, hom. in Act.* Anger takes away the power of foresight, and just as in a nocturnal battle, with eyes and ears bound, it leads us wherever it pleases.
*Idem, De sacerd. lib. III, cap. 14.* Nothing so much defiles the purity of the mind and the perspicuity of reason as headlong anger, when it is carried along with great momentum.
*Idem, Orat. in S. Babyl.* Most mortals, when they are overwhelmed by anger and grief, even if they do not happen upon those by whom they were provoked, are wont to vent their anger rashly upon any who chance to come their way. D
*Idem, lib. II De sacerd. cap. 4.* Once the soul has been compelled to wipe away its sense of shame, it falls into insensibility; and it neither yields to counsels and admonitions, nor is it bent by threats.
The affection of anger is tyrannical, and often it seizes those who are not sufficiently vigilant, and drags them down to the very chasm of destruction.
A S. Cyril. — What beast is so savage and cruel as an angry man, oppressed by the tyranny of powerless furor? What sea, again, blown upon by the most violent winds, so breaks itself against the looming rocks? Or, in short, what savage and venomous reptile leaps so sharply upon those who draw near, as a man suffering from a vehement, keen, and unbridled anger, giving over, as it were, the whole reins to an affection of this kind?
What could be devised worse than anger? For it strips a man of his humanity, rendering him indecorous, implacable, devoid of all fellowship, and impious; and so affecting him that he esteems the greatest goods as nothing. For what evil enterprise will he not undertake, or from what malignant speech will he abstain, having an unquenchable flame burning within his breast, and stirring the coals of his temper? B
Dion. Alex. — In our case, anger is circumscribed by this limit: that it may proceed toward the suppression of sins. "Be angry, and do not sin" (Ps. IV, 5). We must also beware lest we present ourselves as overly severe judges, as Ecclesiastes (VII, 17) counsels: "Be not righteous overmuch."
Didymus. — However short a time one may appear to be angry, if he is overcome by the commotion of the soul, he is a fool.
Evagrius. — Do not test [your] continence where clemency is rejected. For whoever abstains from food and drink, yet irrationally stirs up anger, is not unlike a ship traversing the sea which has a demon for a pilot.
C TIT. XVI. — Of liberty and authority; and by what means these are acquired by us.
"Authority gives to words the beginning of justice." (Prov. XVI, 14: or rather, as generally understood, "The beginning of justice is to give authority to words.")
"If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing before Him." (I John III, 21, 22.)
"When the ruler himself becomes blameless to all, then he shall be able, with as much authority as he wishes, both to punish and to pardon all those placed under him." — S. Chrysost. lib. *De sacerd.*
TIT. XVII. — D Of an honest life and upright character, and of obedience; and that God is honored and worshipped by our living honestly.
"The Lord appeared to Abraham, and said to him: I am thy God. Be pleasing before me, and be blameless." (Gen. XVII, 1.)
"You shall do what is good and pleasing before the Lord, that it may go well with you." (Deut. VI, 18.)
"Samuel said: Does the Lord desire burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearkening better than the fat of rams." (I Reg. XV, 22.)
"Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle?" (Ps. XIV, 1.)
A Ps. XXIII, 3. — "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?" etc. Ps. XXXIII, 12. — "Come, children, hearken to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Ps. CXVIII, 1. — "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." Ps. IV, 25. — "Let thy eyes look right on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps." Ps. III, 4. — "Provide things honest in the sight of all men." Ps. XX, 7. — "He that walketh in his integrity in justice, shall leave behind him blessed children." Soph. III, 12. — "And I will leave in the midst of thee a people poor and humble, and they shall fear the name of the Lord, and shall do no iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth." Isa. XXXIII, 14-16. — "Who shall dwell with devouring fire? Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil. He shall dwell on high, his defence shall be the munitions of rocks." Ezech. XVIII, 16-18. — "And hath not oppressed any man, and hath not holden a pledge, nor hath taken away with violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment, and hath not lent upon usury, nor taken any increase, and hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and hath executed true judgment between man and man, and hath walked in my commandments, and kept my judgments, to do truth: he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God." Sap. IV, 8, 9. — "Venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is gray hairs, and a spotless life is old age." Matth. V, 38-45. — "You have heard that it hath been said: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other: and if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him. And whosoever will force thee one mile, go out with him other two. Give to him that asketh of thee, and to him that would borrow of thee turn not away. You have heard that it hath been said: Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust." Ibid. 14-16. — "You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men,"
A that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matt. V, 16).
"Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men." (Rom. XII, 17).
"Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." (Rom. XIII, 13, 14).
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God." (I Cor. X, 31, 32).
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, B but understanding what the will of the Lord is." (Ephes. V, 15, 16).
"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." (Jac. III, 13).
"Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." (I Petr. II, 12, 13).
"And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." (I Petr. I, 17).
It is not possible to live according to God, unless one does all things wisely and justly. (S. Sixtus).
Great is the reward of beneficence. (S. Basil, Homily on the Holy Martyrs of Gordium).
To men, indeed, praises are fashioned by the amplification of words; but for those who are adorned with justice, to demonstrate the exceeding greatness of their virtue, the truth of the deeds done by them is sufficient. (Idem, Homily on Holy Baptism).
Learn, O man, learn the evangelical way of life: the accuracy of the eyes, the restraint of the tongue, the subjection of the body, a humble mind, purity of thought, the extinction of anger. When thou art pressed, love; when thou art vexed, endure; when they revile thee, pray. (Idem).
I speak of nobility, not that which many think of—far from it; it is not for us to admire that—nor philosophy which comes from fables and tombs; C but that which piety and holy character and the ascent towards that primary Good, from whence we derive our origin, characterize. This is the one proof of true nobility. (S. Greg. Naz., Orat. 23).
Not he who is skilled in speech is wise in my eyes, nor he who has a garrulous tongue but an uninstructed mind. Such a one is like those tombs which, although outwardly D fair and beautiful, rot within with dead men's bones, and have much foul-
- odor covering them; but whoever speaks little of virtue, yet demonstrates much by what he does, adds credibility to his word through his life. Better for me is beauty that is seen with the eyes than that which is painted by speech; and the wealth that hands hold, than that which dreams fashion; and wisdom that is proven by deeds, than that which is brightened by speech; for good understanding is to all who perform them, he says, not to those who preach them. B 657 Idem. Tetr. 35. Living simply makes both servants and lords.
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 3 on the Lord's Prayer. — The head of all good things is that the name of God be glorified in my life. In me, he says, let the invoked name of your sovereign rule be sanctified, that men may see the good works and glorify the Father who is in heaven.
St. Chrysostom. — Life is more powerful than speech, and conduct than words; and the demonstration through deeds is [more powerful] than the instruction by words. In the time of the Apostles, it was not signs alone that drew men to faith, but before the signs, their life.
St. Cyril, Book X against Julian. — We, fulfilling an intellectual and spiritual sacrifice, are ordered to offer up for a sweet-smelling fragrance every manner of modesty and gentleness, faith, hope, charity, justice, self-control, obedience, and a tractable spirit, along with ceaseless doxologies and the other virtues. For this is a most immaterial sacrifice, befitting the immaterial and most pure God, and these are offerings of intellectual orderliness, the ways of true well-being. C
St. Clement of Alexandria. — In general, the Christian is a friend of solitude, and withdrawal, and tranquility, and peace. He who has embraced the true life must study not only frugality, but also the cultivation of reason.
Philo. — It is useful to be subject to one's betters.
TITLE XVIII. — Concerning the reprehensible life of those who are unwilling to obey, and who are stubborn and endowed with deceitful and wicked habits.
Leviticus XXVI, 23. — "If you walk crookedly toward me, I will also walk with you with a crooked fury, and I will strike you for your sins."
Job V, 12. — "Frustrating the counsels of the deceitful, and their hands shall not perform the truth." D
Psalm XI, 3. — "The Lord shall destroy all deceitful lips."
Psalm XLIX, 9. — "Your mouth has abounded in malice, and your tongue was weaving deceits."
Psalm LIV, 23. — "Men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days," etc.
Psalm XIX, 2. — "O Lord, deliver my soul from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue."
Psalm XLIV, 1. — "Deliver me from an unjust and deceitful man."
A "A perverse heart creates evils; at all times such a one stirs up disturbances in the city. Therefore his destruction comes suddenly, for he delights in all things which God hates." Prov. VI, 14. — "A perverse heart fabricates evils; in all time he who is of such a kind stirs up tumult in the city. Therefore, suddenly shall destruction come to him, because he takes pleasure in all things which God hates."
"An abomination to the Lord are perverse ways." Prov. XI, 20. — "An abomination to the Lord are perverse ways."
"Since they would not heed my counsels, and mocked my reproofs; therefore they shall eat the fruits of their own way, and shall be filled with their own desires." Prov. I, 30, 31. — "Because they would not acquiesce in my counsels, and mocked my reproofs. They shall eat, therefore, the fruits of their own way, and shall be filled with their own desire."
"A foolish and lawless man walks in perverse ways, but he himself nods with his eyes, signals with his foot, and teaches with the gestures of his fingers." Prov. VI, 12. — "A foolish and flagitious man walks in perverse ways. But he himself nods with his eyes, signifies with his foot, and instructs with the gestures of his fingers."
"The impious govern with deceits; the words of the impious are deceitful. A deceitful man shall not obtain his prey." Prov. XII, 5, 27. — "The impious govern with deceits; the words of the impious are deceitful. A deceitful man shall not obtain what he hunts." B
"The souls of the deceitful wander in sins, and to a deceitful son there shall be nothing good." Prov. XIII, 13. — "The souls of the deceitful wander in sins; and to a deceitful son there shall be nothing good."
"658 Prov. XVI, 27. — "A perverse man brings destruction upon himself. A perverse man sends out evils, and separates friends."
"To the perverse, God will send perverse ways." Prov. XXI, 8. — "To the perverse, God shall send perverse ways."
"Thorns and snares are in perverse ways; but he who guards his own soul shall abstain from them." Prov. XXII, 5. — "Thorns and snares are in perverse ways; but he who guards his soul shall abstain from them."
"He who walks in perverse ways shall be entangled." Prov. XXVIII, 18. — "He who walks in tortuous ways shall be entangled." C
"This people draws near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they honor me; but their heart is far from me." Isa. XXIX, 13. — "This people draws near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they honor me; but their heart is far from me."
"To this people has been given a disobedient and rebellious heart." Jerem. V, 23. — "To this people has been made a disobedient and rebellious heart."
"Thus says the Lord: He who hears me, let him hear; and he who disobeys, let him disobey, because it is a bitter house." Ezech. III, 27. — "Thus says the Lord: He who hears me, let him hear; and he who is disobedient, let him not obey, because it is an exasperating house."
"And you shall be to them as the voice of a psaltery, sweetly sounding and well-tuned. They will hear your words, and will not obey them." Ezech. XXXIII, 32. — "And you shall be to them as the voice of a psaltery, sweetly sounding and in tune. They shall hear your words, and shall not obey them." D
"Perverse thoughts separate from God. Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul. For the Holy Spirit of wisdom will flee from deceit." Sap. I, 3. — "Perverse thoughts separate from God. Into a malevolent soul wisdom will not enter. For the Holy Spirit of wisdom will flee from deceit."
Doubt, suspicion, unbelief, malice, the desire to waylay, and headlong rashness are the fruits of a bad and reprobate life. Let us by no means, therefore, bring upon ourselves such a great evil, which brings disease to our souls, the darkening of thoughts, alienation from God, ignorance of our neighbors, the beginning of war, a store of disasters, a wicked demon born in these souls of ours, and like some shameless lodger, taking possession of our interior parts, and closing the ascent to the Holy Spirit. For where there are enmities, disputes, raths, factions, and contentions causing clamorous disturbances in souls, there the spirit of gentleness does not rest. S. Basil. Hom. adv. irasc. — Versatility, suspicion, diffidence, and malice, the desire of waylaying, and headlong rashness, are the fruits of a bad and improvable life. Do not, therefore, bring upon ourselves such a great evil, which brings a disease to our minds, the darkening of the mind, alienation from God, ignorance of neighbors, the beginning of war, a heap of calamities, a wicked demon born in our minds, and like some shameless lodger, occupying our inner chambers, and shutting off the approach to the Holy Spirit. For indeed where enmities, contentions, anger, discords, and conflictings do not cease to excite clamorous tumults in minds, there the spirit of gentleness does not in the least rest.
A The fruitlessness of previous labors blunts the alacrity of the leader; for even a farmer, if his first seeds have not germinated, becomes slower to cast them a second time into the same fields.
In general, not to be a listener is the root of many great evils.
To rebel and resist is a proof of many evils, a disease of faith, a wavering of hope, and a swelling and arrogance of character. For no one shows himself contumacious unless he has first judged poorly of the person advising him. Nor, on the other hand, does he who has faith in the promises of God, and places firm trust in them, ever fail in spirits regarding them, however difficult and laborious the things commanded may be.
B Reluctance proves a certain imperious insolence and contumacy of mind, even if it happens under the guise of humility.
The varied and artificial word, having much entanglement and structure, assumes a thousand forms, and undergoes countless changes, transforming itself to court the favor of those who are present.
Flee from the diversity and multiplicity of way of life. The serpent is varied, and for this reason was condemned to crawl.
An impudent look and an erect neck, and the constant movement of the eyes, and a strutting gait, and the fact of not blushing at any base thing, C these are signs of a most foul soul, carving the obscure forms of its own shames into the visible body.
TIT. XIX. — Concerning perseverance and those who persevere: and that faith and benevolence must be kept toward those who have received us.
Eccli. XXII, 28, 29. — « Possess faith with your friend in his poverty, that you may also rejoice in his good things. In the time of his tribulation remain faithful to him, that you may also be a co-heir in his inheritance. »
« Receive a stranger into your house, and he will pervert you in a tumult, and will alienate you from your own goods. »
TIT. XX. — Concerning those who preside: and that they ought to preside with diligence.
Rom. XII, 8. — « He that ruleth, with carefulness. »
TIT. XXI. — Concerning the poor: and that one ought not to turn away from, despise, or loathe the indigent.
Job XXXIV, 28. — « God will hear the cry of the needy and the poor. »
Psal. IX, 10–13. — « The Lord is become a refuge for the poor. He has not forgotten the cry of the poor. The poor man shall not be forgotten to the end; the patience of the poor shall not perish forever. While the impious one acts proudly, the poor man is inflamed. To you is the poor man left. You have heard the desire of the poor, O Lord. » D
A « You have confounded the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his hope. » (Ps. XIII, 6) « The poor shall eat and shall be filled. » (Ps. XXI, 26) « He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor. » (Ps. LXXI, 4) « I have known that the Lord will do the judgment of the poor and the vengeance of the poor. » (Ps. CXXXIX, 12) « Poverty humbles a man. » (Prov. XVII, 4) « He who brings shame upon the poor sins. » (Prov. XIV, 21) « The poor man does not withstand threats. » (Prov. XIII, 8) « He who slanders the poor provokes his Maker to anger. » (Prov. XIV, 31) « The poor man is deserted even by his friend. » (Prov. XIX, 4) B « Glory goes before the humble. » « All the works of the poor are manifest before God. » « Everyone who hates a poor brother shall be far from friendship. A just poor man is better than a lying rich man. » (Prov. XIX, 7, 22) « Do no violence to the poor, for he is a poor man. » (Prov. XXII, 22) « Being poor, do not compare yourself with a wealthy man; but refrain from your own thought. » (Prov. XXIII, 4) « A just poor man walking in truth is better than a lying rich man. » (Prov. XIX, 22) C « The wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard. » (Eccli. IX, 16) « If you see the slandering of the poor, and the robbery of judgment and justice in the region, do not marvel at the matter, for a high one watches over a high one. » (Eccli. V, 8) « The poor will be fed by the Lord, and the poor men will rest in peace. The Lord has founded Sion, and by him the humble of the people will be saved. » (Isa. XIV, 30) « The humble man has slipped, and they have further reproached him. He spoke with understanding, and no place was given to him. A poor man spoke, and they said, "Who is this?" » (Eccli. XIII, 22) « The prayer of the humble man has pierced the clouds, and it will not be turned aside until the Most High looks down. » (Eccli. XXXV, 21) D « The life of a poor man under the shelter of the rafters is better than splendid banquets among strangers. » (Eccli. XXIX, 29) « It is not just to dishonor a sensible poor man. » (Eccli. X, 23) « The wisdom of the humble man shall exalt his head, and he shall make him sit in the midst of the great. » (Eccli. XI, 1) « Being poor is not a source of reproach, but not bearing one's poverty with equanimity is. » (St. Basil, Hom. on Anger.)
A When you are in need, O man, be merry of heart: for the good things of Lazarus await you. — Do not despair of yourself.
From the same, Homily on that text: “Take heed to thyself.” — Do not be discouraged in your soul because of poverty: nor, because you have nothing desirable at present, should you therefore cast away good hope; but lift up your soul to the good things that have already been bestowed upon you by God, and to those which are laid up for you hereafter through His promise.
From the same, Homily against usury. — Poverty brings no disgrace. — Poverty takes away confidence and freedom.
In this one thing we poor excel the rich, namely, in security: and because we laugh at those who spend a sleepless night, while we ourselves sleep; and [we laugh] at those who consume and waste themselves with cares, while we ourselves are without care and are comforted.
From the same, Homily spoken in famine and drought. — Are you poor? Do not on that account lose heart. For immoderate sadness becomes the cause of sin, since sorrow drowns the mind, and difficulty in affairs brings on dizziness, and lack of resources generates ingratitude toward the thoughts [of God]. For does not God see the distress in which you are? God holds the food in His hands, but in that mind of His He delays giving it, so that He may test the firmness of your soul. B
Truly, poverty, among those who are endowed with a sound mind, is more to be desired than any pleasure.
From the same, on that text: “Take heed to thyself.” — Why are you dejected, O man, because you do not have a horse adorned with a silver bridle? But you have the sun, which with its swiftest course illuminates the lamp for you throughout the entire day. You do not have the brightness of silver and gold? But you have the moon, which shines upon you with its own marvelous light. You are not carried in gold-covered chariots? But you have feet, a familiar vehicle, and one born with you. Why then do you pronounce those men blessed who possess a purse, yet need the feet of others for walking? You do not sleep on an ivory bed? But you have the ground, which is much more precious than ivory, and in it you have sweet rest, and swift sleep, and [a soul] empty of care. You do not lie under gilded ceilings? But you have the sky, glowing with the inexplicable beauty of the stars. C
S. Greg. Naz. Orat. on Baptism. — Nothing is considered great and ample before God, which a poor man cannot also give.
From the same, tetrastic 37. — If anyone is troubled by poverty, let him have God instead of riches, and let him laugh at the rich, who are always acquiring, yet are always in need, inasmuch as they need more; and they drink so that they may burn with a greater thirst.
Tetrastich 33: Better is poverty than wealth gained by wickedness, As a disease [is better] than health that is not to be praised. Nothing is more secure than the man who lacks wealth: For he holds all his hopes fixed in God. It is hard to be in want, but a bad conscience is worse. D
A
S. Chrysost. — The poor man does not fear change. And if some adversity does happen to occur, he will bear it easily, as one who has accustomed himself to philosophize through poverty. The rich man, on the other hand, not only cannot endure any change, but even if he only expects it, he makes himself ridiculous, failing in spirit, taking it indignantly, and living a life more bitter than any death. And just as those who have been raised in the inland regions, even if they only come down to the harbor and board a ship, before they have even exited the mouth of the harbor, become seasick, suffer fainting spells, labor under illness, and, beset by heavy darkness, think everything is spinning around—whereas, by contrast, those who have traveled many seas are not easily disturbed even when a shipwreck is imminent, for they are experienced in swimming and can escape the impending danger: so it happens also with the rich and the poor. The B wealthy do not accept even the slightest change nobly, but are impatient, as they have lived continuously in luxury. But the poor, having sailed across many waves and having gained experience of many shipwrecks, remain unmoved in the face of all things, and laugh at all the storms. And this is not only the only thing to be wondered at, that they bear changes easily, but that they do not even quickly fall into them. For who would choose to cause trouble for a poor man, since he is going to gain nothing from the other’s poverty? [Ecquis enim pauperi negotium facere in animum inducat, qui ab illius egestate nihil emolumenti sit percepturus?]
The same author. Homily on the widow who offered two mites. — Those who philosophize by enduring poverty always draw near to God. O what a dignity poverty has! It becomes as it were a mask of God. For God is hidden under poverty: and the poor man is the one extending his suppliant hand, but it is God who receives. C
Evagrius. — A stranger and a poor man are God’s eye-salve. Whoever receives them shall quickly recover his sight.
TIT. XXII. — Concerning children; that they ought to fear and honor their parents.
Exod. xx, 12. — « Honor your father, that it may be well with you, and that you may live long upon the earth. »
Levit. xix, 3. — « Let everyone fear his father and his mother. »
Deut. v, 16. — « Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that it may be well with you. »
Prov. i, 8. — « My son, guard the law of your father, and do not reject the precepts of your mother. For you shall receive a crown of graces upon your head, and a golden chain about your neck. » D
Prov. xxiii, 22. — « Hear your father, and do not despise when your mother has grown old. »
Malach. i, 6. — « A wise son glorifies his father. »
Jerem. xxxv, 5-10, 18, 19. — « And I set before them a pot of wine and cups; and I said, Drink wine. And they said, We will not drink wine: because Jonadab our father commanded us, saying, You shall not drink wine, you and your sons forever; and you shall not build houses, nor sow seed, and no vineyard shall be yours: but you shall dwell in tents all the days of your
life, that you may live many days upon the land where you dwell. And we have heard the voice of Jonadab, that we should not drink wine all the days of our life, we and our wives, and our sons, and our daughters. Therefore, thus says the Lord: Because the sons of Jonadab have heard the commandment of their father, to do all that their father commanded them, there shall not fail a man of the sons of Jonadab to stand before my face all the days of the earth. » A
Eccli. III, 3-15. — « He that honors his father atones for sins; and he that honors his mother is as one who lays up a treasure. He that honors his father shall have joy in his children, and in the day of his prayer he shall be heard. He that honors his father shall live a long life; and he that obeys the Lord shall give comfort to his mother, and shall serve those who begat him as his masters. In work and word honor your father and your mother, that a blessing may come upon you from them. For the blessing of the father strengthens the houses of children; but the curse of the mother roots up foundations. Son, support the old age of your father, and grieve him not in his life; and if he fail in understanding, have patience with him, and despise him not in all your strength. For the alms of the father shall not be forgotten. » B
Eccli. VII, 27. — « With all your heart honor your father, and forget not the groaning of your mother. »
Ephes. VI, 1, 2. — « Children, obey your parents in the Lord. For this is just. Honor your father and your mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth. »
« Children, obey your parents in all things. For this is well-pleasing to the Lord and our God. »
S. Basil. hom. 8 in Hexaem. — The care of storks for those who have grown old has sufficient weight to inflame our children with fatherly love, if they are willing to pay attention. For no one is so utterly lacking in prudence C as to think it shameful to be inferior in virtue to birds that are furthest removed from reason. For those [storks], surrounding their father when he has been stripped of his feathers by old age, cherish him with their own feathers, and, providing food abundantly, offer him such aid as they are able, even in flight, gently lifting him up on either side with their wings. And this is so celebrated in speech among all men, that some now call the equivalent return of benefits "stork-duty."
Ejusd. — Upright and candid children demand great praise from their parents.
S. Greg. Naz. Orat. de Bapt. — Do what is good, because it is good to obey a father, even if otherwise no profit is to return to you from it. For this very thing is a reward, to gratify one's father and to comply with him.
S. Cyrilli. — It is proper for children to yield to their parents. But where the discussion presses concerning the truth, let there be preferred D
A God, and let His interests prevail over A the power of natural affection.
Philonis. — It is impossible to render fair thanks to one’s parents. For one cannot in turn beget them.
Honor thy father. For this is a Divine and natural law.
Josephi. — Happy is he who delights his parents, no differently than an acre of land delights those who have labored to increase the fruits of the sown seeds.
To obey parents is pleasing to God.
TITLE XXIII. — Concerning parricides and matricides; and what evils follow those who despise their parents and do not comply with them.
Exod. xxi, 15. — “He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be put to death. He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall be put to death.”
Levit. xx, 9. — “Every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.” B
Deut. xxi, 18-20. — “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die.”
Deut. xxvii, 16. — “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.” C
Prov. — “A disobedient son shall be in destruction.”
Prov. xix, 26. — “He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach.”
Prov. xx, 20. — “Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.”
Prov. xxx, 17. — “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.”
Prov. xxiv, 24. — “He that casteth away his father or mother and thinketh he sinneth not, he is a companion of the impious man.” D
Eccli. iii, 18, 19. — “How bad is the fame of him who forsaketh his father, and cursed by the Lord is he who provoketh his mother to anger! Glory not in the dishonor of thy father; for thy father’s dishonor is no glory unto thee. For the glory of a man is from the honor of his father.”
Josephi. — It is a wretched thing instead of a bountiful harvest to produce thorns, and instead of joyful hopes to give birth to sorrows;
that is, to repay parents with insult and dishonor instead of glory and honor, and to take upon oneself the voice of the prophet which says: I looked that my vineyard should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns (Isa. v, 2). A
TIT. XXIV. — That parents ought to instruct and castigate their sons, and if they do not do this, they shall be partakers in their very crimes.
1 Kings ii, 22, 23. — “Now Heli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and that they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony: and he did not correct them. And the Lord said: Unless the iniquity of the house of Heli be expiated in victims and sacrifices for ever?” B
Prov. xxix, 17. — “Instruct thy son, and he shall refresh thee, and shall give delight to thy soul.”
Prov. xiii, 24. — “He that spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him beticketh him diligently.”
Prov. xxiii, 13. — “Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.”
Prov. xxix, 15. — “The rod and reprimand give wisdom.”
Prov. xxiii, 24. — “A just father bringeth up his children well; and in a wise son he shall be delighted in his soul.”
Prov. xix, 18. — “Instruct thy son: for so he is of good hope.”
Eccli. vii, 27. — “Hast thou children? instruct them, and bow down their neck from their childhood.”
Eccli. xxii, 6. — “Blows and instruction are wisdom at all times.”
Eccli. xxx, 13. — “Teach thy son, and work with him, that thou mayest not offend by his shame.”
Ibid. 1. — “He that loveth his son, frequenteth him with stripes.”
Ibid. 3. — “He that teacheth his son, shall provoke his enemy, and shall glory in him in the midst of his friends.”
Ibid. 8-10. — “A horse not broken becometh stubborn, and a child left to himself will become headstrong. Cocker thy child, and he shall make thee afraid: play with him, and he shall make thee sorrowful. Give him no liberty in his youth, and break his sides while he is a child.” C
Ephes. vi, 4. — “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, but educate them in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.”
S. Greg. Naz. — It is a paternal law to show indulgence to children. It is ridiculous for a man to neglect his own children, and to undertake to castigate those of others.
S. Nili. — Do not permit your son to have daily association with foolish and insolent youths, to gather with them, and to eat with them: lest otherwise, in the end, you be afflicted with great sorrow of soul on account of his destruction and infamy, and be exposed to the mockery of enemies. Since indeed the ruin and faults of children are wont to be ascribed to the parents. D
TITLE XXV. On divine temptation, and that one ought not to tempt God.
A "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." (Deut. vi, 16) "The Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying: Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, either in the deep or in the height above. And Ahaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord." (Isa. vii, 10-12) "Neither let us tempt the Lord, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents." (1 Cor. x, 9)TITLE XXVI. On the multitude and the populace of a city.
"You shall not be with many in malice; nor shall you join with many to decline judgment." (Exod. xxiii, 2) "You shall not obey a wicked nation." "Do not sin against the multitude of a city, and do not cast yourself down into a crowd." (Eccli. vii, 7) "My heart has feared for three things, and in the fourth my countenance was afraid: the slander of a city, and the gathering together of the crowd, and a false calumny, all more grievous than death." (Eccli. xxvi, 5)The common people, even if they restrain the impetus of their anger for the present, are accustomed to act no differently than fire lurking in fuel, or a flood restrained by force; if it finds an opportunity, it is wont to ignite and burst forth. B
TITLE XXVII. On observation and omens, and that we ought not to observe times or people.
"He who observes the wind shall not sow; and he who considers the clouds shall not reap." (Eccli. xi, 4) "You observe days and months and times and years! I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have laboured in vain among you." (Gal. iv, 10-11) "Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a festival day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come." (Coloss. ii, 16)I know some who, being Christians, yet act after the manner of the Jews, saying: "Today is the Sabbath, and it is not permitted for me to do a kindness to anyone." "The new moon is here," and in the same way they observe the chirping of birds and omens, and fear to distribute bread to anyone. And again: "Today is Pascha, tomorrow is a birthday, the day after is the beginning of sowing, and I cannot bring anything out of my house." All these things smack of Judaism. If anyone does these things, he ought also to eat unleavened bread, and be circumcised, and live with the Jews. C And why do I speak of Sabbaths and new moons and Jewish practices? I know many who, although they have been washed with the water of baptism, perform the superstitions of heretics. For they are wary of giving fire to a neighbor after sunset. Woe to those who do these things! All those who observe these things, having disobeyed God, are not under grace, as those who have not received the Gospel, but having imitated the Jews and the heretics, have inherited a portion with them. For a Christian ought to observe none of these things; he ought not to observe days,
A nor years, nor men, nor auguries. For many, when they embark on a good work, and Satan, arriving, has undermined it, do not attribute the cause to him, but say: "Such and such a man, having come upon me, has bewitched my work," attributing the cause to the man. The devil has been a sycophant and an enemy to men from the beginning. If he sees a good work in a man, he envies it, and struggles to render it void; and since he is invisible, he always fights the man through some pretext, so that when he has caused the evil, the man might attribute it to other, blameless people. When, therefore, he sees a good ox struggling well in a cart, and being praised by many, he approaches and breaks it; and the man does not blame the devil who worked the evil, but, having been seduced by him, he curses and blasphemes his fellow men. Similarly, someone went out on a journey, and returned without accomplishing anything, and he immediately says: "Such and such a person met me as I was departing, and for that reason I failed." And he does not blame the devil who worked the result, but accuses the innocent man of being evil-eyed. And look, I pray, at the craftiness of the wicked fugitive; the kind of person they were likely to notice, he makes him encounter them.
TIT. XXVIII. — Of deposits, and that it is necessary to guard them with the utmost zeal and fidelity, and by no means to contrive any fraud to the deprivation of the thing deposited.
Exod. XXII, 7-13. — "If anyone gives to his neighbor money or vessels to keep, and it should be stolen from the man's house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double. But if the thief is not found, the lord of the house shall approach before God, and shall swear concerning all that is lost. If anyone gives to his neighbor a beast of burden, or a calf, or a sheep, or cattle to keep, and it should die, or be broken, or taken by pillage, and no one sees this, an oath of God shall be between both, and his lord shall accept it, and he shall not pay. But if it be stolen from him, he shall pay to its lord; if it be taken by wild beasts, he shall lead it to the prey, and he shall not pay."
TIT. XXIX. — Of Presbyters.
Eusebius. — Many sinners, being presbyters, offer up the holy C sacrifices, and God does not turn away from them; D
but He sanctifies the gifts set forth through the Holy Spirit. And the bread becomes the precious Body of the Lord, and the cup, the precious Blood of the Lord. There are some, therefore, who suppose that they are doing a righteous thing by not participating from them, not knowing that they are thereby rendering themselves liable to a more serious judgment. For who are you who judge your master? Have you not heard the Apostle saying: "You shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people"? (Exod. XXII, 28). And again: "Who are you who judge another man's servant? To his own Lord he stands or falls" (Rom. XIV, 4). When have you ever seen a sheep bring salvation to its shepherd, or call its own shepherd to answer for a crime? Certainly, just as a brute beast cannot sharpen its teeth against its shepherd, so it is not fitting for a rational sheep to sharpen its tongue for accusation. You, who are taught and led by the hand by him, do not have the authority to judge or rebuke him; as the Apostle said: "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise from God." B He holds...
NOTE.
It could be determined whence it may be proven that a certain prelate of Alexandria by the name of Eusebius once existed, who does not appear in the lists of the pontiffs of this city. It does not escape me that other cities of the same name are found in the East, apart from the metropolis of Egypt. But what prevents me from defining this Eusebius, of whom we are now speaking, as the prelate of some Alexandrian city, are his three treatises, from which I understood that, due to the carelessness of copyists, it resulted that, because he had his discourses with a certain Alexander, when they should have written "to Alexander," they omitted the preposition and put "Eusebius, bishop of Alexandria." The first treatise exists in Latin in the last volume of the *Bibliotheca PP.* of Cologne and Lyons, and begins with these words: "On a certain day the commemorations of the saints are celebrated in the city. When Alexander approached Eusebius, the bishop, he said: Venerable Father, etc." The second is noted by Sylburg in the catalogue of Palatine-Vatican manuscripts, no. 63, with this inscription: C "Eusebius's sermon to Alexander on the holy Sunday after the conclusion of the sermon." Finally, I found a third in the Royal library, codex 1973, with this title: "Of Eusebius, bishop and monk, concerning the astronomers." And it thus begins: "Days not a few having passed, Alexander approaching, said to blessed Bishop Eusebius: Lord, I have heard from some that a man is born according to a star, and that as many stars as there are in heaven, so many men are on earth; and that when a man dies, his star also fails, and when a man is born, his star is added; since neither does birth fail, nor death. The blessed one began to say: O how much folly settles in evil men, and how grievously do those sin who say such things! And having refuted these, he adds: There are some who curse the stars when they are angry against someone, and say: Woe to your star, etc." These things are indeed contained in the *Parallelis Rupefucaldinis* letter p, title vii. Since the royal codex designates him merely as bishop and monk, one may conjecture from this that he was a pontiff of no certain see, but was consecrated bishop on account of his outstanding virtues, that he might be of service in various places wherever necessity required. We learn that many such bishops once existed in the parts of Syria, first of all from Sozomen, who, lib. VI, cap. 33 and 34, relates that the monks Lazarus, Barses, and Eulogius were created bishops, not of any cities, but for the sake of honor; and likewise Prapidius, who exercised the episcopal office in many villages. In the Life of Saint Sabas there is also frequent mention of John, bishop and hesychast, or solitary or monk. D He, however, was not an antistes of any city, but spent his whole life in monasteries. In the same Life of Saint Sabas also occurs a certain Eusebius, whom Cyril of Scythopolis, the author of this Life, calls Papa: "Epiphanius the patriarch (of Constantinople), Papa Eusebius, and Hypatius, bishop of Ephesus." Likewise: "Around this time came to Palestine Ephræmius, patriarch of Antioch, and Papa Eusebius, because of the expulsion of Paul, bishop of Alexandria." From these and other things which Cyril relates subsequently, it appears that this Eusebius had been endowed with episcopal authority, yet did not have a certain see: and I found the most learned Cotelerius favoring my opinion. But I would not dare to affirm that he was the author of those sermons, various fragments of which are cited in the *Parallels*.
A praise will be to each one from God (I Cor. IV, 5). With Him lies the power to pass judgment concerning you. But the One who judges Him is the Lord (Ibid. 4). And again: Judge not, that you be not judged (Matt. VII, 1). Return the honor and veneration that you owe, just as Paul admonishes you, saying: Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; honor to whom honor (Rom. XIII, 7). Fulfill what the rule demands. Offer the first-fruits of your harvest to the Church, without inquiring too curiously into how they are spent. But if you wish to judge—which is not permitted to you—enter into the storehouse of your soul. Know the things of your conscience: whether you have not committed murder, not committed adultery, not committed fornication, not been covetous, not robbed, not slandered, not perjured yourself, not lied; and if you have committed none of the forbidden things; and thus you are not permitted to judge your ruler. But rather, not even in this way. B For God loves the humble (Jas. IV, 6). Let everyone, therefore, look to his own actions, not judging his neighbor. But if anyone, disregarding these things that have been said, employs his tongue in the accusation of his neighbor, let him also expect to receive his own payment in exchange, and that speedily. For whatever anyone does to his neighbor, let him expect that he himself will receive the same in return, just as the Lord said: With what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you (Matt. VII, 2). Let each one of you pay attention to his own works; let us be concerned about our own faults, and let us not judge what we have not been commanded to judge. Yet the priest also ought to be disposed toward the people, before all else genuinely praying for them from his whole heart. As the Lord said: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John X, 11); thus let him bring aid to the one who labors, console the one who grieves, lead back the one who has wandered, C comfort the poor, be without malice, unmindful of the evils done against him. Since the prayer of one who bears a grudge is not acceptable before the Lord, with the malice remaining in his heart. If you are not reconciled to your neighbor, do not go to the altar. Remember the command of the Lord: If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go, be reconciled to your brother, and then coming offer your gift (Matt. V, 23, 24). Therefore, do not be held by the desire of avenging an injury; do not plot deceits, so that you might cast one down while lifting up another; do not prefer the rich man by the honor of the first seat, while you disregard the poor man, but preserve equality toward all. Do not quickly accept an accusation; never judge from mere hearing and rumor, for many, indeed, D out of envy and strife accuse their neighbor. But if, even with all exactness, you find one who is sinning, do not immediately expose him before everyone, so that you do not give him an occasion to have no shame at all. For being exposed before everyone brings two evils. For those who are exposed, having lost all shame...
through such an action, are turned toward worse things. A Such is Satan. He suggests the committing of sin, and because of sin he brings about shame. Therefore, because of these snares of the enemy, he who has been entrusted with the flock of Christ ought to be gentle and to inquire with much care; and if he finds one who has sinned, he should not immediately cast him out of the Church, lest Satan, having seized him, make the man his own. For when a man is cast out of the Church, Satan immediately takes him up, and until the presbyter receives him back, he does not depart from him. For when a man is excommunicated, he is found outside the boundaries of the Christians. And for as long a time as he remains excommunicated, in that world he is judged along with the Gentiles. Having taken him, therefore, in private, rebuke, exhort, and admonish him, not once only, but also twice and three times. And if he has listened to you, you have gained his soul, as the Scripture said: "He who turns a man from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and cover a multitude of sins" (cf. James v, 20). But if after three admonitions he disobeys and does not correct himself, cut him off from yourself; and with such a one do not even eat, until he corrects himself.
TITLE XXX. — Concerning refuge, and those who flee to holy places; and that it is necessary to bring aid to the innocent, but to dismiss the guilty.
"If any man should set upon his neighbor to kill him with guile, and he flees, you shall take him from my altar to be put to death" (Exod. xxi, 14).
"Do not deliver a servant into the hands of his master, lest he curse you, and you be destroyed" (Prov. xxx, 10).
S. Greg. Naz. orat. In S. Basil. — "It happened that a certain woman of noble birth was widowed, her husband having departed this life not long before. The assessor of the judge was using violence, dragging her against her will toward marriage. She, not having any way to escape the tyranny, forms a plan, which was not so much bold as it was prudent. She flees to the holy table, and makes God her protector against this injury. What then was required to be done, I do not say by the great Basil, and by one who is a legislator for all those of such caliber, but even by any other who is far inferior to him, provided he is a priest? What else was it necessary to do, except to shield her? Is it not to the mercy of God, and to the law which honors the altars [as]
that he should command her to extend her hand? Did he not seek to do nothing else before suffering what he did, which the man A in his inhumanity had contrived against her? Thus he treated with contumely both the holy table and the faith with which she was supplicating. "By no means," says the new judge, "but everyone must yield to my authority and Christians must become traitors to their own laws." He, indeed, was demanding that the suppliant be handed over, but he [the bishop] held her back with all his might. And therefore that man, goaded by fury, sent certain magistrates to search the holy man’s chambers, doing so more for the sake of insult than because any such thing was necessary. Nor content with that, he ordered the man himself to appear and speak in his own defense, as if he were someone accused of a capital crime. But Basil was present, while the other sat before the tribunal, swelling with rage and arrogance, and so forth.
S. Chrysost. Adv. Eutrop. — Why is it, most illustrious sir, that you take it so indignantly? Is it because he who waged perpetual war against the Church has fled to it for refuge? Nay, rather, for this very reason it is fitting to praise God, that he himself by his own deed has abrogated the letters and edicts by which he had obstructed and forbidden that asylum. Having finally learned what he had done, and having by his own sufferings rescinded his own law, he became a spectacle to the world. Hence, therefore, he emitted this silent voice, admonishing all with these words: Do not commit the same acts, so that you do not suffer the same things; and thus his calamity served to make him B discharge the office of a teacher.
Josephi. — If/a dead and lifeless image has this power, that because of the form which has been depicted and expressed upon it, it brings salvation to those who flee to it: how much more then ought the sacrosanct dwelling-place of God to cherish and protect those who have piously and lawfully fled to it and to its aid? For it is not right to break into these most inviolable places with tyrannical pride and insolence, and with a strong and bold hand to strive to drag away by force—as if from the very hands and bosom of God—those who have entered into a place of veneration. Nay rather, even if they have bound themselves with the crime of bloodshed, it is still fitting to give honor to Him who is worthy of all honor; or if not that, then at least to endeavor to take them in a holy and just manner, and not to seize them by one’s own hand, but rather through the ministers sent for that purpose.
TIT. XXXI. — Of a city filled with impiety.
Ps. LIV, 10. — "I beheld iniquity and strife in the city." Prov. XXVII, 12. — "In the places of the impious, men are consumed." Prov. C XVIII, 29. — "Impious men have set a city on fire." Prov. XXIX, 18. — "There shall be no interpreter for a wicked nation." Nahum III, 1. — "Woe to the city of blood, all full of lies and injustice." Sophon. II, 15, 16. — "Woe to the city given over to evils, that dwells in hope: that says in her heart: I am, and there will be none after me. How has she become a D desolation,
A a pasture for beasts? Everyone who passes by her shall hiss, and move his hands." Os. VI, 8. — "O city that works vanities!" Isa. X, 17. — "I will send my wrath upon an unjust nation." Isa. XXV, 2. — "City of the impious, thou shalt not be built for ever." Isa. I, 21. — "How has the faithful city Sion, full of judgment, become a harlot? Justice dwelt in her, but now murderers." Isa. XLVII, 8, 9. — "Hear these things, thou delicate one, who dwellest in confidence, who sayest in thy heart: I am, and there is none besides me. How has she become a desolation?" Jerem. VI, 6, 7. — "O deceitful city: all oppression is in her. As a cistern makes its water cold, so does her malice make her cold. Iniquity and misery shall be heard in her always." B Ezech. XXII, 5-7. — "They have cursed father and mother in thee; they have turned to the stranger in injustices; they have oppressed the orphan and the widow in thee; and they have despised my holy things. They have committed wickednesses in the midst of thee. Everyone has acted wickedly against his neighbor's wife. They took bribes in thee to shed blood; they took interest and increase in thee. But me they have forgotten, says the Lord."
There are cities that entertain the eyes C with the varied spectacles of wonder-workers from early dawn until evening, and furthermore with certain melodies, broken and utterly corrupt, which beget much lust in souls, which many hearing for a long time are not satisfied, and many call such crowds fortunate, because they have left behind market-trade, or the skills for living, and pass the time of life allotted to them in all sloth and pleasure; not knowing that an orchestra abounding in wanton spectacles is a common and public school of lewdness for those sitting together, and that the all-harmonious strains of the flutes and the harlot-songs, settling into the souls of the hearers, suggest nothing else but that all should behave dishonorably, or imitate the playing of the cithara-players and flute-players. Indeed, some of those who are mad for horses D even fight about horses in their dreams, re-harnessing chariots, changing charioteers, and in short, they do not desist at all in their nocturnal visions from their daytime madness.
One may see around the opposing horse-races those who love horses and love spectacles; they leap, they shout, they send dust to the sky, they sit as if holding the reins, they strike the air with their fingers as if with whips, they harness, they re-harness, being masters of nothing; they easily hand over to one another charioteers, horses, stables, generals. And who are these? Those
who are often destitute and needy, and who cannot even provide food for a single day.
B Those who fear the Lord await the Lord’s Day, so that they may offer up prayer to God and enjoy the body and blood of the Lord. But those who are slothful await the Lord’s Day so that, being idle from work, they may have leisure for evil things. And that I do not lie, the facts themselves bear witness. Go out into the street on another day, and you will find no one; go out on the Lord’s Day, and you will find some playing the cithara, others applauding, others sitting, and mocking their neighbors, and others wrestling. The herald calls to the church, and all are sluggish and procrastinate. The sound of a cithara or a flute pipes up, and all run as if winged; we behold the spectacles of the church; we see the Master Christ lying upon the table, the Seraphim singing the thrice-holy hymn, the Evangelical voices, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the prophets resounding, the hymn of the angels, the Alleluia, all things spiritual, all things worthy of salvation, all things conducive to the kingdom of heaven. These things he hears who enters the church. But what does he behold who runs to the theaters? Diabolical songs, dancing women, or, to speak more correctly, women agitated by the intemperance of a demon. For what does the dancing woman do? She shamelessly uncovers her head, which Paul commanded to be always covered. She twists her neck; she tosses her hair this way and that. These things are done by her exactly as by one possessed by a demon. The cithara player, moreover, like another demon, struggles with the wood. Such also was the banquet of Herod; the daughter of Herodias entered and danced, and she cut off the head of John the Baptist, and inherited the subterranean regions of Hades. Therefore, those who love dancing have their portion with her. Woe to those who play the cithara or work on the Lord’s Day! It was given for the rest of hirelings and slaves. For this is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it (Ps. CXVII, 24). The hireling enters your house, and places his shoulder beneath your works. He is crushed with sweat and toil, and you do not allow him even to catch his breath.
D
TIT. XXXII. — Concerning selling and buying.
Prov. — "Guard your ways by honest exchange." Ezech. VII, 12. — "Let not him who buys rejoice, and let not him who sells lament. For he who sells shall not return to him who has sold." Eccli. XXVII, 12. — "Between the seller and the buyer, sin shall abide."TIT. XXXIII. — Concerning divine chastisement, and those who bear it nobly.
Deut. VIII, 5. — "You shall know in your heart that, just as a man might chasten his son, so the Lord your God will chasten you." Deut. XXXII, 39. — "See, see, that I am, and there is no God"beside me. I will kill, and I will make to live; I will strike, and I will heal."
"The Lord kills and makes alive; he brings down to hell and brings back." 1 Reg. II, 6.
"Then Job arose, and tore his garments, and shaved the hair of his head, and falling to the ground he worshipped the Lord, and he said: Naked I came out of my mother's womb, naked also shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so it came to pass. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever." Job I, 20-22.
"Blessed is the man whom the Lord has reproved. And do not reject the admonition of the Almighty. For he causes pain, and again he restores; he has struck, and his hands will heal." A Job V, 17.
"Lay hold on instruction, lest the Lord be angry, and you perish." Psal. II, 12.
"Your instruction has corrected me to the end, and your instruction." Psal. XVII, 35.
"Anger is in his wrath, and life in his will." Psal. XXIX, 5.
"With rebukes you have disciplined man for iniquity." Psal. XXXVIII, 11.
"Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, O Lord." Psal. XCIII, 12.
"The Lord has severely disciplined me, and has not delivered me to death." Psal. CXVII, 18.
"It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your statutes." Psal. CXVIII, 71.
"My son, do not neglect the instruction of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; and he scourges every son whom he receives." B Prov. III, 12.
"He who receives instruction shall be in good things."
"Fear me, and receive instruction, and you shall not be destroyed from the eyes of the earth." Sophon. III, 7.
"When the indignation of my wrath shall have arisen, I will heal again." Isa. VI, 10.
"The instruction of the Lord opens my ears." Isa. L, 5.
"I have grieved him for a little while because of sin, and I have struck him, and turned my face away from him; and he was grieved, and walked sadly in the ways of his heart. I have seen his ways, and I have healed him, and I have comforted him, and I have given him true consolation." C Isa. LVII, 17, 18.
"Behold, I have sold you, not for silver; but I have plucked you out of the furnace of poverty for my sake." Isa. XLVIII, 10.
"Be instructed, O Jerusalem, by pain and scourge, lest my soul depart from you; lest I make you a desolate land, which shall not be inhabited." Jerem. VI, 7.
"Correct us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in anger, lest you make us few." D Jerem. X, 24.
Baruch v, 25. — "Children, be patient in the wrath that comes upon you." A Sap. xi, 26. — "You spare all, because they are yours, O Lord, you lover of souls." Sap. xii, 2, 22. — "And therefore you reprove those who err, little by little, and admonish them, and speak to them concerning the things wherein they sin, that, leaving their wickedness, they may believe in you, O Lord. When you give us instruction, you scourge our enemies in many ways, that we may ponder your goodness when we judge; and when we are judged, we may look for mercy." Eccli. xviii, 12. — "The mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh. He has mercy, and corrects, and instructs, and turns as a shepherd does his flock, and has mercy on those who receive instruction." Eccli. xxxii, 18. — "He who fears instruction shall find instruction." B Eccli. xvi, 12. — "Mercy and wrath are with him: according to his great mercy, so also is his correction." Hebr. xii, 5 seqq. — "My son, do not neglect the instruction of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he instructs; and he scourges every son whom he receives. Persevere in instruction; God offers himself to you as to sons. For what son is there whom the father does not instruct? But if you are without instruction, then you are bastards and not sons. Moreover, we have had fathers of our flesh for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? And they indeed for a few days instructed us according to their own will; but he for that which is useful, to receive his holiness. Now all instruction for the present indeed seems not to bring joy, but sorrow: but afterward it will yield the most peaceful fruit of justice to them who are exercised by it." C
S. Basil, hom. That God is not the author of evils. — The good Lord brings to each what is profitable for him. For he takes away wealth from those who use it badly, destroying the instrument of their injustice. He brings on disease, as it is better to be hampered in one's limbs than to have unrestrained impulses to sin. Moreover, deaths are brought on when those terms of life are fulfilled which he from the beginning, foreseeing the benefit of each of us, had appointed. Finally, pestilences, droughts, and floods are certain common plagues of cities and nations, which restrain the immoderate ferocity of vice. D As, therefore, a benevolent physician, even if he brings pains and torments to the body, fights against the disease and not against the patient, so also God is good, who provides for the salvation of all through the individual punishments of some. The diseases of cities and nations, droughts of the air, and sterility of the earth, and the harsher circumstances in the life of each, cut off the increase of wickedness. So that such evils
A divinely occur, whereby the origin of true evils is removed. For bodily afflictions and external hardships and annoyances are designed for the restraint of sin.
St. Basil, ibid. — Let us learn that God sends us blows for the sake of our conversion and for the casting off of negligence, not seeking to destroy, but eager to correct, just as good fathers do toward their slothful children; for they are angered and rise up against the young, not because they are eager to cause them any harm, but that they may recall them from childish carelessness and the sins of youth to care and diligence.
The flesh is stricken, that the soul may be healed. Sin is put to death, that we may live in righteousness.
Let us look upward, brothers, at every time B and in every circumstance, and let us display good hope; neither let us discard fear in prosperity, nor hope in adversity. Let us be mindful of the helmsman, both in the tranquility of the storm and in the storm itself. Let us not grow weary in afflictions, nor become evil servants, who praise the Master for bestowing benefits, but do not accept Him when He chastises; although at times disease is better than health, and a reminder is better than relief, and a visitation better than neglect, and chastisement better than pardon.
Prudent men, who are instructed by circumstances and are purified by fire like gold, say: "It is good for me that You have humbled me" (Ps. CXVIII, 71), since humility begets the knowledge of the statutes; and they reconcile themselves to the Benefactor through affliction. C Since a suffering soul is near to God.
It is necessary to accept everything that comes from God with thanksgiving.
Truly, a blow becomes instruction to those of sound mind, and frequently affliction is better than prosperity.
Nothing is more conducive to receiving benefits than suffering.
Affliction is the blossom of the blessings we expect. Therefore, let us pluck also the blossom for the sake of the fruit.
God does not act toward us out of anger, but does and performs everything for our benefit. The punishments brought upon us by God in the present life D cut away no small part of the torments to come. For through those sorrows by which we are afflicted here, we either expiate sins, or, if we do not have such sins, we receive more splendid crowns.
A The discipline that occurs from here lightens the judgment that comes after, although it is not an evil to be punished, but to become worthy of punishment. B It is necessary to be persuaded that nothing of what happens takes place without God; and that all things from Him are good, even if they be painful.
B *S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 15.*—Thou art good, but we have done iniquity. Thou art long-suffering, but we are worthy of stripes. We acknowledge Thy goodness, though we are foolish. We have been scourged for a few of the things wherein we have sinned. Thou art terrible, and who shall stand against Thee? Fear shall take hold of the mountains from Thee; who shall match Thee? If Thou shuttest heaven, who shall open it? And if Thou loosest the cataracts, who shall hold them back? It is easy in Thine eyes to make poor and to make rich, to kill and to make alive, to smite and to heal; and Thy will is a completed action. "Thou wast angry, and we sinned" (Isa. lxiv. 5), says someone of the ancients, confessing to God. But I, on the contrary, say: We have sinned, and Thou wast angry. Therefore we have become a reproach to our neighbors. Thou didst turn away Thy face, and we were filled with ignominy. But cease, O Lord; pardon, O Lord; be propitious, O Lord. Do not surrender us to the end because of our iniquities, nor teach others through our punishments, when it is possible for us to be corrected by the torments of others. Of whom? Of the nations that do not know Thee, and of the kingdoms that have not submitted to Thy power. But we are Thy people, O Lord, and the rod of Thine inheritance; C therefore, chastise us, but in kindness and not in Thy wrath, lest Thou make us few in number, and a scorn beyond all who dwell upon the earth.
*Ibid.*—I know the glistening sword, and the sword in heaven made drunk, slaughtering, bringing to nothing, bereaving children. I know also that bear, which is free from every perturbation of mind, and which, like a leopard, meets the Assyrians on the way; I know the shaking, and the agitation, and the bubbling over, and the breaking of the heart, and the dissolution of the knees, and such kinds of punishments as are inflicted upon the impious. Such are the punishments of the wicked, so that it is better to be chastised and purified now, than to be sent off to the torment there.
*Eusebii.*—God pursues those whom He holds as His own and beloved by chastising them in this life, if they happen to be in need of any punishment, so that by a temporary correction they might be able to escape the eternal torment in the general judgment. D
*Theotimi.*—It is not a grievous thing to suffer anything of the harsher sort, but to suffer it justly.
*Didymi.*—God does not send afflictions with a mind to take vengeance, but medically, and for the health of the soul.
God, who created this world, governing it by His own counsel, does all things for our benefit, even if the things that are brought upon us happen to be sad or troublesome.
A Even if the wrath of God is bitter and painful, yet, because it possesses a healing power, it raises those who have experienced it to what is good. Whomever God wishes to save, He strikes with fear; He shakes him in various ways and causes him grief, so that he may have no time to be stirred up toward pride, and that by the sufferings of others, men may be taught to be sober-minded.
Blessed is the nature that receives everything with a cheerful spirit and is not at all displeased by any events, but is well-pleased with what has happened, as having happened well and profitably. Philo.— Blessed is that nature which receives all things with a cheerful mind and bears no event of things with indignation, but acquiesces in them as if they were good and useful.
TITLE XXXIV. — On divine castigation, and those who reject it; and that those who are not chastised here are transmitted to eternal punishment.
Haggai 2:18.— “I smote you with blasting, and with mildew, and with hail in all the works of your hands; and you have not returned to Me, says the Lord.”
Jeremiah 5:3.— “O Lord, Your eyes are looking for faith. You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to return.”
Jeremiah 2:30.— “In vain have I stricken your children; they have not received instruction.”
St. Basil.— Do not let the same thing happen to you, O man, as happens to foolish children, who, when they have been rebuked by their masters, tear up their tablets; and when a father delays serving them food for their own benefit, they rend his garment or claw their mother’s face.
The same, from the Sermon on Fasting.— No one who despairs in spirit is crowned; no one who is sad sets up a trophy. Do not lose heart when medicine is applied to you; it is absurd not to rejoice over the health of the soul.
It is not difficult to be struck, but it is more difficult not to be made wise by the stroke.
Not suffering anything for one's sins while here becomes a provision for greater punishment there. And Paul, indicating this, said: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:31–32). For the sufferings here have the character of admonition; those there are of punishment.
Those who oft commit faults and are not punished ought to be afraid and terrified. For their punishment is increased by the lack of punishment.
When we enjoy prosperity while living in wickedness, D then we must be most pained. For while we are always sinning, we ought to be afraid, and especially when we suffer nothing terrible. For when God requires our penalties in parts, He makes the payment for them light for us.
Those who are completely filthy, pray that you may be punished rather than be forgiven. For forgiveness will easily overturn them, just as it does ships that have no ballast, but punishment will eventually correct them. Let us therefore beseech God, we who are convicted by the conscience of our own sins, to punish us rather than pass us by unpunished.
TITLE XXV. — On the divine chastisement which takes place for the sake of proving and examining virtue.
A Gen. XXII, 2, 3. — "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he said: Behold, here I am. And he said: Take thy only begotten son whom thou lovest, Isaac, and go into the high land, and offer him there for a holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."
Deut. VIII, 2, 3. — "And thou shalt remember all the way through which the Lord thy God hath brought thee for forty years through the desert, to afflict thee and to try thee, and that the things that were in thy heart might be made known, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. He afflicted thee with want, and gave thee manna to eat, which neither thou nor thy fathers knew, to show that not by bread alone doth man live, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God doth man live."
Deut. XIII, 3. — "The Lord your God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love the Lord your God."
Job XL, 8. — "Do you really make my judgment void? Or do you think that I have spoken to you for any other reason than that you may appear just?"
Psalm LXVI, 10-12. — "For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us by fire, as silver is tried. Thou hast brought us into the snare, thou hast laid afflictions upon our back: thou hast set men over our heads. We have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us out into a refreshment."
B James I, 12. — "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him."
S. Chrysost. — When Abraham heard this voice of his Creator, "Take thy son, and upon one of the mountains sacrifice him to me" (Gen. XXII, 2), he performed the task with great alacrity of soul. For he hid it from his wife Sarah, and he eluded his servants, and having taken only his little son, he ascended the mountain, not broken in spirit, nor laboring under sloth. Imagine what that blessed emotion was at that time, and what kind of inward feelings he was clothed with, when alone he conversed with his only son? For then the heart is warmed more intensely, and the fire of love burns more fiercely. What speech could express the strength of that old man's soul? By what means, indeed, did he bind his C hands and feet and place him upon the wood? And when he was already about to plunge the iron into the throat of the child, into the throat of the lad, the compassionate God sent a double voice, "Undo the child." How could it be that his hand did not grow numb? How were his nerves not shattered? How did he not collapse when looking upon the face of the child? Behold the fortitude of the old man. For he sacrificed his son, if not by his hand, certainly by his resolve, and he slaughtered him, if not in deed, at any rate in his intentions and readiness.
Didymus. — Not everyone who is sick is in the grip of disease because of sin. For there are some who are subjected to afflictions that their probity may shine forth, or for some other useful reason. D
TIT. XXXVI. — On perseverance, and that perseverance accomplishes its work.
A Isa. — Since the same occurrences happen to sinners and the righteous, it is not to be thought that all who fall into various adversities have undergone such misfortunes because of antecedent wickedness.
Eccli. — "A continuous drop hollows out a stone."
Luc. XI, 5-10. — "Which of you will have a friend, and will go to him at midnight, and say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within answering shall say: Do not trouble me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, if he will not give him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as much as he needs."
"There was a judge in a certain city, who feared not God, nor regarded man: and there was a widow in that city, and she came to him, saying: Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a long time. But afterwards he said within himself: Although I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow is B troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest continually coming she weary me." And the Lord said: "Hear what the judge of iniquity saith? And will not God revenge his elect who cry to him day and night: and will he have patience in their regard? I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them."
TIT. XXXVII. — On the faithful man: and that it is rare to find a faithful man.
Prov. XX, 6. — "To find a faithful man is a labor."
Prov. XXVIII, 20. — "A faithful man shall be much praised."
Truly it is rare to find one who possesses faithfulness together with prudence.
TIT. XXXVIII. — On those who trust in vain and empty things, and in the protections of men, and have not their hope in God.
Job XX. — "They shall be subject to shame who trust in cities and wealth."
Psal. LI, 8. — "The just shall see and shall fear," and the rest.
Prov. XI, 28. — "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall."
"The fool who trusts in himself is joined to the wicked."
Osee X, 13, 14. — "Because thou hast trusted in thy chariots, and in the multitude of thy strength, a destruction shall arise upon thy people, and all thy walled cities shall be destroyed, as Salman was destroyed in the day of battle, and the mother was dashed D upon her children."
"Thou didst take vengeance with thy power upon the leaders of sinners, who trusted in their arrogance."
¶Abd. 3. — "Woe to him who says in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?" Isa. xxx, 16. — "Your strength has become vain, and you would not listen; but you said, We will flee on horses." Jer. xvii, 5. — "Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord." Eccl. v, 2. — "Do not follow your soul and your strength, and do not say, Who will have dominion over me? For the Lord in judging will judge. Do not rejoice in your wealth."
Basil in Ps. lxi. — When someone thinks that strength and power are gained for himself from unjustly collected wealth, he is like a sick man who considers his healthy state to consist in the abundance of his disease.
The same, *In Reg. fus. disput.*, quæst. 42. — He who places his hope in himself is in danger of falling into this curse: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm" (Jer. xvii, 5). Scripture forbids anyone to have confidence in himself (IV Reg. xviii, 21, and elsewhere passim), B and indeed calls both a departure from God. And the end of both will be like the wild tamarisk that grows in the desert, and they shall not see good things.
He who walks upon his hands is impure. But he walks upon his hands who relies on his hands and places all his hope in them.
No one who lacks hope in God is of a rational nature, since only he who hopes well ought to be called a man. Therefore, by the law of contraries, he who has cast off hope is not a man at all.
LITTERA P. — On the Vague and Distracted.
Isa. lvi, 10-13. — "See that all are blinded, and have not known understanding. Therefore all these are dumb dogs, not able to bark. Dreamers in their bed, loving slumber. And they are impudent dogs, not knowing satiety; and they are wicked, and not knowing understanding; all have followed their own ways, each according to his own extent."
Sap. iv, 12. — "The inconstancy of desire perverts the mind without malice." "An erring son puts his mother to shame." C S. Basil. — This is a peculiar disease of the slothful and lazy soul, to see dreams while the body is awake.
LITTERA Σ. — On Mercy and Commiseration.
Prov. xxii, 9. — "He who is prone to mercy shall obtain mercy." Jer. ix, 1. — "Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes, and we will weep for this people day and night, for the slain of the daughter of my people?"
"Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful" (Matt. v, 48). A
St. Basil. — He who has shed warm tears for the sake of his neighbor’s salvation has healed himself, because he has mourned for the sake of his brother.
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. XVI. — To those who are in pain, the fellowship of sighing brings solace.
To him who suffers from adverse fortune, commiseration is a great remedy, which is brought from the heart, and to sympathize sincerely greatly relieves the calamity.
Great is the medicine received from those who sympathize, for those who are in pain.
To sympathize is sufficient for solace.
It befits us to show mercy toward calamities, not to hate them.
We have learned, being men, to be affected by human suffering.
TIT. II. — Concerning a moderate state.
"Eating much honey is not good" (Prov. xxv, 16).
"Be not righteous overmuch, and do not devise things beyond what is necessary, lest you be amazed; and do not act wickedly overmuch. And do not be hard, lest you die in your time" (Eccli. vii, 17, 18).
"Do not take a burden upon yourself beyond your capacity" (Eccli. xiii, 2).
"Do not become many teachers, brethren, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment. For we all offend in many things" (Jas. iii, 1). C
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. 26. — Let no one be wiser than is fitting, nor more equitable than the law, nor more splendid than the light, nor straighter than the rule, nor more elevated than the divine mandate.
Ibid. — Wisdom is also to know oneself, and not to be puffed up beyond measure, nor to suffer the same thing as the voices of a friend, which, if they are strained beyond measure, utterly fail.
Ibid. — Since these things have been explored by us, brethren, let us take care not to be sluggish toward the good, but be fervent in spirit (lest otherwise we fall asleep little by little unto death, or D while we sleep the enemy should sow evil seeds; for sloth is the companion of sleep), and let us not be over-heated, nor fall outside the royal road, falling into some error in any case, either needing a spur because of sloth, or a bridle because of fervor, so as not to be thrown down. Let us take what is useful from both: from the one, its gentleness; from the other, its zeal. And let us flee the vice of both: that is, the lethargic laziness of the former, and the rashness of the latter. By this method it will happen that we are neither unfruitful because of deficiency, nor in danger because of excess. For useless is sluggish and supine laziness, just as foolish is that sharp impetuosity that avoids good and honest actions and overflows, and seeks to make something more dextrous than the right.
It is better to offer what you can according to your ability than to fail entirely. For he who has not been able to do such things is not…
A in fault; but he who has not willed to do so is guilty of his failure, whether we are speaking of divine matters or of human ones.
Neither is it good to be slower than is right, nor more ardent: such that, either through excessive B facility you join yourself to all, or through rashness remove yourself from all. For, in equal measure, both idle sloth and lightness are alien to society. Every measure is best.
S. Chrysost. — Such is the wisdom of Christ, which allows us neither to strive less than is right, nor more, but everywhere preserves moderation and a middle course.
Let the labor of virtue be moderate, lest the transformation exceed its measure.
TIT. III. — Of wise and prudent men; and that they ought always to be ready to assist others.
Sap. VII, 13. — "I learned without guile, and I impart without envy. I do not hide her riches."
Sap. VI, 21. — "A multitude of the wise is the salvation of the world."
Eccli. XLI, 18. — "Better is he that hideth his folly, than he that hideth his wisdom."
Eccli. XX, 32. — "Wisdom that is hid, and a treasure that is not seen: what profit is in them both?"
Matth. X, 8. — "Freely have you received, freely give."
I Petr. III, 15, 16. — "Being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you: but with modesty and C fear, having a good conscience."
S. Basil, epist. 2. — There is a danger of betrayal if anyone, being asked about divine things by those who are endowed with the love of the Lord God, does not readily and promptly give an answer concerning God.
TIT. IV. — Of custom.
Sap. XIV, 16. — "An ungodly custom grown strong in time is kept as a law."
Eccli. XXIII, 20. — "A man accustomed to the words of reproach will not be corrected all the days of his life."
S. Basil. — Many, bound by ancient custom, do not recognize the filth and abomination of what is being done.
Idem, hom. in S. Julit. — To be separated from what one is accustomed to is burdensome even to brute animals. Indeed, I myself once saw an ox at the manger weeping because his fellow-laborer and yokemate had ceased to live. And other animals, too, which lack reason, most tightly cling to those things to which they are accustomed.
Idem, in psal. I. — To dwell sedulously and studiously in sins produces a certain habit in the souls which can with difficulty be removed. For an inveterate custom of the soul, and a study of vice that has been confirmed by long duration of time, can with difficulty or in no way be cured: since usage generally migrates into nature. D
⟩ A Association with the words of the wicked is a path leading to the deeds themselves. Custom, when confirmed by long duration of time, assumes the force of nature. Vices which have been strengthened by time require a certain amount of time for their correction. Custom, when confirmed for a long time, is regarded as law. It is not an easy matter to change what has been esteemed by custom and long time. B The custom of sinning always leads the soul that has fallen into it toward worse things. Terrible is the power of habit to hold onto itself and not permit the soul to rise up again to the former state of virtue. For a state (habitus) comes from custom; and from a state, nature is produced. But to shift and change nature is difficult. Maladies to which anyone has been accustomed for a very long time become, thereafter, difficult to correct, or even incorrigible. It is not easy to persuade a soul that is held captive by error to change its opinion. The sudden changes of all things into their opposites are most hazardous, especially when the faculties that are subject to us have been solidified by the duration of time.
TITLE V. — Concerning those who accept counsel.
C [Exod. XVIII, 14–23.] "Jethro, seeing all that Moses was doing for the people, says: 'What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand by you from morning until evening?' And Moses says to his father-in-law, 'Because the whole people comes to me to seek judgment from God. And when there is an altercation among them, they come to me, and I judge each one, and I instruct them in the commandments of God and his law.' The father-in-law of Moses said to him, 'You are not doing this matter rightly; you will be utterly consumed by an unbearable destruction, both you and all this people that is with you. This matter is too heavy for you; you will not be able to do it alone. Now, therefore, listen to me, and I will give you counsel, and God shall be with you. Look out from all the people for powerful, God-fearing, just men, who hate pride, and you shall set them over the people as commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, D commanders of fifties, and commanders of tens; they shall judge the people at all times. But the difficult matter they shall bring to you, while the small matters they shall judge themselves; and they will lighten the load for you, and they will share the burden with you. If you do this thing, and God empowers you, then you will be able to stand, and all this people will arrive at its place with peace.'"
"Saul said to the young man who was with him, 'Come, let us return.' And the young man said to him, 'Behold, there is a man of God in this city, a man held in honor, and all that he speaks will come to pass, and he will tell us our way.'"
"Nathan came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, saying, 'Have you not heard that Adonijah—"
the son of Geththi, has reigned, and our lord David does not know it? Now then, I will give you counsel, and you will save your life and the life of your son Solomon. Go, enter before King David, and you will say to him: "Did you not, O king, swear to your maidservant by the Lord God, saying that Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne?" For Adonijah has seized the kingdom. And while you are still speaking with the king, I also will enter after you and fulfill your word.' And Bathsheba entered before the king into the bedchamber," etc. A
Prov. xv, 31 [xvi, 2] — "He who hears the reproofs of life shall dwell in the midst of the wise."
Prov. XII, 15 — "The wise man listens to counsel."
Prov. xiii, 18 — "He who keeps reproofs shall be honored."
Prov. xv, 32 — "He who keeps reproofs loves his own soul."
Prov. xvi, 17 — "He who keeps reproofs shall be made wise."
Prov. xix, 25 — "If you rebuke a prudent man, you will find understanding."
S. Basil — It is not fitting to let the word of reproof stop in the heart; for this is only half the medicine. For while it is useful to show the sick person the magnitude of the disease, so that he may apply the proper care to compensate for the evil, to stop there and not lead him by the hand to health is nothing other than to leave the sick person abandoned to his infirmity. B
S. Greg. Naz. ex tetrast. 46 — The eye looks at other things, but does not see itself. Therefore, have a counselor in all things. For hand seeks hand, and foot seeks foot.
For it is characteristic of a man of noble spirit to take pleasure in the frankness of friends rather than in the flattery of enemies.
TIT. VI. — Concerning those who do not accept counsel and are annoyed at being reproved.
II Paral. xxi, 2, 3 — "David said to Joab and to the commanders of the army: 'Go, and count Israel.' And Joab said to the king: 'Why does my lord seek this? That it may not result in sin for Israel,' etc."
Schol. It should be noted that because David rejected the counsel, he lost seventy thousand men. D
Prov. ix, 8 — "Do not rebuke the wicked, lest they hate you."
Prov. xii, 1 — "Reproofs for the ungodly are welts for him."
"He who hates reproofs is a fool."
"He who rebukes the ungodly will bring a blemish upon himself."
Prov. xv, 10 — "Those who hate reproofs shall die shamefully. The undisciplined will not love those who rebuke him."
A "Say nothing into the ears of a fool, lest he scoff at your wise words." "They hated those who reprove in the gates." Isa. xxix, 21 — "They will make all those who reprove in the gates a stumbling block." Matt. xviii, 15-18 — "If your brother sins against you, go, reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the Church. And if he also refuses to hear the Church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector."
St. Basil. — A man who refuses to use the counsel of others is like a ship without a pilot. He who rejects the medicine brought to him by a brother fights against himself. St. Greg. Naz., orat. 15. — Every soul that rejects admonition is incurable. Idem, orat. 1. — O what stupidity! Or if there be any other name more appropriate for such a vice: those whom we ought to love as benefactors, we punish as if they were enemies, hating those who reprove in the gates, and loathing a holy word. And we think we shall fight the more effectively against those who are well-disposed toward us if we inflict as many evils as possible upon ourselves: being like those who, while it seems they are gnawing the flesh of others, are actually biting their own.
TITLE VII. — On emendation: and that we ought to be emended by the evils of others.
Deut. xix, 19. — "You shall remove the evil from your midst, that the rest who hear may fear." St. Greg. Naz., orat. 20. — It is fitting to be emended by the wounds of our neighbors: and through the evils of others to provide carefully for our own affairs. From the calamities of others, this benefit should be taken, that we might rightly look to our own affairs. St. Chrysost. — Be better, having been emended by the evils of others. Philo. — It is also useful to be instructed by the misfortunes of others. Idem. — Punishment often chastises and instructs those who sin: but if not them, then certainly those who are their neighbors. For the punishments of others convert many to a better way of life, because they fear lest they themselves should suffer.
TITLE VIII. — On industry and diligence: and that without the favor of God, all industry is useless.
Ps. xxxvi, 23. — "A man's steps are directed by the Lord." Ps. cxxvi, 1. — "Unless the Lord builds the house, they have labored in vain," etc. Prov. xx, 24. — "The steps of a man are directed by the Lord. But as for a mortal, how shall he understand his own ways?"
Prov. xxi, 31. — "A horse is prepared for the day of battle: but help is from the Lord." Jerem. x, 23. — "I know, O Lord, that man's way is not his own: neither is it in a man to walk, and direct his steps." Eccli. xi, 11, 12. — "There is a man that laboureth, and maketh haste, and is sorrowful, and is so much the more in want: and there is another that is slow, and wanteth help, and is very weak, and hath great poverty: yet the eye of God hath looked upon him for good, and he hath lifted him up from his low estate, and hath exalted his head, and many have wondered at him." Rom. ix, 16. — "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." S. Basil. in cap. i Isa. — Without God's indulgence, it is impossible for anyone to betake himself to an honorable course of life. B S. Chrysost. hom. 28. — To choose what is best, and to will it, and to strive for it, and to endure every labor, belongs to our own resolve: but to bring these things to an end, and not to allow them to slip away, and to arrive at the very goal of good works, belongs to the grace from above. For God has partitioned virtue with us, and He has not left the whole to us, lest we be puffed up with arrogance; nor again has He taken the whole upon Himself, lest we decline into sloth; but, leaving some small part to our own labors, He Himself performs and completes that which is greater. The beginning of every good action has its foundation in our own will: the outcome is from God. S. Clem. Alex. lib. Utrum. dives salv. sit. — God breathes together with our willing souls. But if promptitude fails, the spirit granted by God is also withdrawn. C Didym. — Nothing among mortals is truly useful and truly praiseworthy which has not been granted to them by God.
TIT. IX. — Of mundane wisdom.
Abdiæ 8. — "I will destroy the wise in Idumaea, saith the Lord." Isa. xxix, 24. — "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will reject the understanding of the prudent." Jerem. viii, 9. — "The wise men are confounded, and have been taken, because they have rejected the word of the Lord." Baruch iii, 23, 24. — "And the sons of Agar also that search after the wisdom that is upon the earth, the authors of fables, and searchers out of understanding: but the way of wisdom they have not known, neither have they remembered her paths." D Sap. xiii, 6, 8. — "They err seeking God, and willing to find him. For being conversant among his works, they search, and they are persuaded that the things are good which are seen. But yet they are not to be pardoned. For if they were able to know so much, as to make a judgment of the world, how did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof? But they are unhappy, and their hope is among the dead."A "It is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will reject the understanding of the prudent.' Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the searcher of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe." (I Cor. 1, 19-22)
"If you have bitter zeal and contention in your hearts, do not glory and lie against the truth. This is not wisdom, descending from above, but earthly, animal, and devilish. For where there is zeal and contention, there is instability and every wicked deed. But the wisdom that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, moderate, persuasive, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of justice is sown in peace for those who make peace." (Jac. III, 14-16)
Rhetoric and poetry, and the discovery of sophistries, have occupied many, whose subject matter is falsehood. For neither can poetry stand without the myth, nor rhetoric without the art of speaking, nor sophistry without fallacies. (S. Basil, Hom. in princ. Proverb.)
The abundance of the world’s wisdom will bring upon them an increase of grievous and bitter condemnation: for while they were sharp-sighted in vain things, they willingly became blinded in the investigation of the knowledge of the truth. (Ibid.)
B They are like the eyes of an owl, those who have concerned themselves with vain wisdom. For even as the former’s eyes are strong by night, but are dimmed when the sun shines; so the mind of these men is very sharp for the contemplation of vanity, but is darkened and blind toward the understanding of the true light. (Ibid., hom. in Hexaem.)
C Prime wisdom is to consider wisdom situated in words and in the subtleties of diction, and in painted and entirely unnecessary disputes, as nothing. And I would that it were granted to me to speak five words with understanding, rather than ten thousand in a tongue and the voice of a trumpet that gives an uncertain sound. This is the wisdom I praise; this I embrace, by which the ignoble have been glorified, and those who were despised have been preferred; and with which fishermen have netted the whole world with the bonds of the Gospel, having overcome the wisdom that is being brought to nothing by the finished and abridged word. For this one who is wise in words is not wise to me, nor is he who has a turning tongue but an uneducated soul; just as those graves which are outwardly fair and beautiful, but contain dead men within, and cover over great stench; but [I count as wise] rather he who speaks a few words about virtue, but demonstrates many things through the things he does, and adds the trustworthiness of his words through his life. Better to me is beauty contemplated as something painted by speech, and wealth that the hands possess, or that which dreams fashion, and wisdom not that which is brightened by words, but that which is tested through words. D Prudence—
for indeed it is good for those who practice it, not for those who proclaim it. A You who are concerned with words, do not place too much confidence in words, nor imagine yourselves to be wise in matters that are superfluous and beyond logic. O wise men and learned, how could you be called wise, when you do not possess the primary Word?
B It is possible sometimes to touch upon a foreign teaching for a short time for the sake of utility, and then to return immediately to one's own; for example, grammar is a foreign woman. It is advantageous to have commerce with her for a while, because of the skill and sharpness of reading; in the same way with rhetoric, because of the power and sequence of speech; and likewise with philosophy, because of the demonstrability of things that appear contradictory. But after this, having as it were begotten children C from the Egyptian Hagar, who is a handmaid of Sarah—who is free, and is Wisdom herself—let us return again to that Wisdom which has been with us from youth, and which is divinely granted, so that we may beget children from her as well; that is, no longer receiving sensible disciplines as from a handmaid, but receiving the prudence of wisdom as from a free and perfect mistress.
TITLE X. — Concerning scandals; and that one ought to flee from scandals.
Ps. XLIX, 19. — "Thy mouth hath abounded with malice." Sitting, etc. Ps. CXL, 9. — "Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me." Matth. XVIII, 7 seqq. — "Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come. But woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. And if thy hand, or thy foot, scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is good for thee to enter into life maimed or lame, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is good to thee having one eye to enter into life, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire." Luc. XVII, 1-3. — "The Lord said to his disciples: It is impossible that scandals should not come; but woe to him through whom they come. It is better for him that a millstone D should be tied about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones." I Cor. VIII, 9, 10. — "Take heed lest your liberty become a stumbling block to the weak. If meat scandalize my brother, I will never eat flesh, lest I should scandalize my brother." I Cor. X, 32, 33. — "Be without offence to the Jews, and to the Gentiles, and to the Church of God: as I also in all things please all men, not seeking that which is profitable to myself, but to many, that they may be saved. Be ye followers of me, as also I am of Christ."
A It is good neither to be sinning, nor to be suspected of putting a stumbling block or an obstacle before the many; since we know, even for those who offend one of the little ones, how inescapable and most grave is the punishment from Him who cannot lie.
TIT. XI. — Concerning carnal men.
The Lord God said: "My spirit shall not remain in these men, for that they are flesh. And their days shall be a hundred and twenty years."
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh. He that is of the earth, of the earth he is, and of the earth he speaketh."
"Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to another. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, B enmities, contentions, emulations, wrath, strifes, dissensions, sects, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God."
"Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God."
"They that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh; but they that are according to the spirit, mind the things that are of the spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. Now they who are in the flesh, cannot please God."
Carnal men cannot perform spiritual things, nor can spiritual men perform carnal things.
The carnal man, having a mind unexercised for contemplation, or rather bearing it buried in the mire of the wisdom of the flesh, C is unable to look up toward the spiritual light of truth.
Ignorant men and lovers of the world, not knowing the nature of the Good, deem those things blessed which are worth nothing—wealth, health, and splendor of life—of which nothing is good by its own nature, not only because it has an easy turning toward the contrary, but because it is not able to make those who possess them good. For who is righteous by reason of riches? Who is temperate by reason of health? Rather, on the contrary, each of these often becomes an aid toward sin for those who use them ill.
Who among those cast down in sin shall ascend into heaven? Who, still clothed in the earthly darkness and the D density of the flesh, shall clearly look upon the Whole Mind with his whole mind, and be mingled with those who are...
invisible, and with things that are not standing and seen? A For with difficulty would someone here, even among those who are thoroughly purified, behold an image of the Good, just as those who see the sun in the waters.
St. Nilus: They who neglect the soul, but take care of the body, are like a man who smears his eyes with mud and filth, but washes his own feet with clean water.
Didymus: Although all mortals have one and the same nature of the soul, and likewise one substance of the flesh, yet some are called carnal, others servants of sin, others free from sin; some are in the flesh, and others—though they have flesh—not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; others are living in Christ, yet dead to sin; others are living in sin, but dead to Christ. And again, others have obtained the names of irrational animals, whether tame or, conversely, wild and savage, according to the constitution of their characters.
TIT. XII. — On the scarcity and dearth of upright men
Ps. xi, 1: “Save me, O Lord, for the holy man has failed; for they have diminished,” etc. Ibid. 13: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is any one who understands, or who seeks after God.” Osee ix, 10: “I found Israel like a grape in the wilderness; and like a watchman in a fig tree in the early season.” B Mich. vii, 2: “Woe is me, for the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is no one who corrects among men.” Jerem. xlix, 7: “There is no wisdom in Theman: counsel has perished from the prudent; their wisdom has departed; their place has been deceived.” “The good is restrained and rare.”
TIT. XIII. — On a council; and that in a council, when a hearing is taking place, one ought not to converse.
Prov. xxii, 10: “Cast out the pestilent man from the council, and strife will go out with him. For when he sits in the council, he dishonors all.” C Prov. xv, 22, 23: “They despise considerations, who do not honor councils; but in the hearts of those who take counsel, counsel remains. The wicked man will not obey it, nor will he speak any opportune or good thing for the time.” Eccli. xxxii, 4-9: “When another is speaking, do not pour out many words. Where there is a hearing, do not pour out speech.”
TIT. XIV. — On those things which happen and befall beyond reason.
Eccli. xx, 9-11: “There is a prosperous journey for a man in evils; and there is a finding that turns into loss. There is a gift which will not be useful to you; and there is a diminishing for the sake of glory; and there is one who has lifted up his head from humiliation. D There is one who buys many things for a little price; and there is one who repays them sevenfold.”
Title XV. — On soldiers.
A Luc. III, 14, 15. — “But the soldiers also asked him, saying: And what shall we do? And he said to them: Do violence to no man; neither calumniate any man; and be content with your pay.”S. Greg. Naz. Orat. in Jul. exæq. — "Be content with your provisions, O soldiers, and do not demand anything beyond what has been appointed for you." The illustrious John commands these things to you along with us. What do I understand by "provisions"? The royal allowance, clearly, and the grants that, by the institution of the law, fall to those who hold office. But what is the excess, and from whom? I indeed hesitate to speak the blasphemy, but I know that you understand.
B A soldier ought not to search out anything beyond matters of military service, but should always remember that he has been appointed to guard the peace.
Title XVI. — On the company of upright men; and that one should by no means cling to wicked men. For one becomes like those with whom one is accustomed to associate.
C III Reg. X, 6-8. — “The Queen of Sheba said to King Solomon: The word is true which I heard in my own country concerning thy words and thy wisdom. And I did not believe those who told me, until I came myself, and saw it with my own eyes, and my eyes have seen it: and behold, half has not been told me. Thou hast added good things over all the fame that I have heard. Blessed are thy wives, blessed are these thy servants, who stand before thee always, and who hear all thy wisdom.”
IV Reg. II, 2-6, 9, 10. — “Elijah said to Elisha: Stay here, because the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel. And Elisha said: As the Lord lives, and as thy soul lives, I will not leave thee. And they went into Bethel: and the prophets who were in Bethel came to Elisha, and said to him: Do you know that today the Lord takes thy master from above thy head? And he said: I also know it; be silent. And Elijah said to Elisha: Stay here, because the Lord has sent me as far as Jericho. And he said: As the Lord lives, and as thy soul lives, I will not leave thee.” And after a little: “Elijah said to Elisha: Ask me what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha D said: Let the spirit that is in thee be double upon me. And he said: Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless if you see me, when I am taken from thee, it shall be so for thee: but if you do not see me, it shall not be.”
Schol. — Hence we are taught not to leave excellent men on any account, even if they themselves should wish it. For their company holds great profit. Witness is Elisha, who persevered with Elijah even to the end, and on that account obtained a double dignity.
“He that walks with the wise, shall be wise.” “Speak to righteous men.”
A Prov. xxii, 17. — “Incline your ear to the sayings of the wise.” Ibid. 6. — “An adolescent with a pious man, and his way shall be upright.” Eccli. vi, 14. — “If you see a man of understanding, rise up to him, and let your foot wear out the steps of his doors. Stand in the multitude of the elders, and if anyone is wise, cleave to him.” Eccli. viii, 9. — “Do not despise the discourse of the wise, and be conversant in their proverbs.” Eccli. ix, 22. — “Let righteous men be your dinner companions.” Eccli. xxxvii, 15. — “Be assiduous with a righteous man. Keep the commandments in your soul, and if you see anyone guarding them, bestow upon your soul understanding according to his soul, and if you stumble, he will grieve with you.” “Birds associate with their like.” S. Basil, Epist. 1. — Just as painters, when they paint images from images, constantly looking at the original, endeavor to transfer that form to their own work, so must he who strives to render himself perfect in all parts of virtue look B towards the lives of the saints, as if towards certain moving and active images and statues, and by imitation make that which is good in them his own. The same, Hom. 5 in Hexaem. — If you see a Gentile giving attention to temperance and the rest of the honesty of manners, increase your zeal and diligence all the more, so that you may be like a fruit-bearing fig tree, which gathers strength from the presence of wild ones, and, curbing its flux, nourishes its fruits with greater care. S. Greg. Naz., in Iamb. — Wear out the thresholds of the wise, but not of the rich.
TIT. XVII. — Concerning fellowship with evil men; and that one ought to flee the companies of the wicked as being agents of destruction.
Num. xvi, 21, 22. — “Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiron, and all the elders of Israel went with him. And he spoke to the assembly, saying, ‘Depart from the tents of these stubborn men, and touch nothing of all that belongs to them.’ And they departed from the assembly of Core, Dathan, and Abiron.” Deut. xiii, 4. — “You shall exterminate the evil from among yourselves.” Josue xxiii, 13. — “Destroy these nations from before your face, and they shall not be a snare and a scandal to you, and as nails in your heels, and as a stake in your eyes.” D I Reg. xv, 6. — “Saul said to the Cinite: Go and depart from the midst of the Amalecite, lest I involve you with them. And the Cinite departed, and Saul struck Amalec.” Job xxviii, 28. — “To abstain from evils is knowledge.” Ps. i, 1. — “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly.” Ps. xxv, 4. — “I have not sat with the council of vanity.”
“Protect me from the conspiracy of the wicked.” A Ps. lxiii, 2. — “Protect me from the assembly of the malignant.”
“You who love the Lord, hate evil.” Ps. xcvii, 10. — “You who love the Lord, hate evil.”
“My son, do not let ungodly men lead you astray, and do not walk in the way with them. Turn your foot away from their paths. For their feet run to evil.” Prov. i, 10. — “My son, do not let the impious entice you. Go not with them: turn your foot from their paths. For their feet run to evil.”
“Do not emulate the ways of lawless men; in whatsoever place they may encamp, do not go there. Turn away from them, and pass by. For they will not sleep unless they have done evil. Do not go into the ways of the ungodly, and do not seek the paths of the lawless.” Prov. iv, 14, 15. — “Do not become an emulator of the ways of the iniquitous: in the place where they have pitched camps, do not come thither. Turn away from them and pass by. For they sleep not, unless they have done evil. Do not walk in the ways of the impious: nor seek the paths of the unrighteous.”
“Thorns and snares are in crooked ways; but he that keeps his own soul shall be far from them.” Prov. xxii, 5. — “Thorns and snares are in perverse ways. He that keeps his soul, keeps himself far from them.”
“My son, do not emulate wicked men, and do not desire to be with them. For their heart meditates on deceits, and their lips speak of sorrows.” Prov. xxiv, 1. — “My son, do not emulate wicked men, and do not desire to be with them. For their heart meditates on lies, and their lips speak of labors.”
“Do not be a companion to an angry man; and do not dwell with a wrathful friend, lest you learn his ways, and take a snare for your soul.” Prov. xxii, 24. — “Do not be a companion to an angry man, nor dwell with a furious friend: lest perhaps you learn his ways, and take a snare for your soul.”
“Depart, depart, go out from there, and touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her, be separated, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” B Isa. lii, 11. — “Depart, depart, go out from there: and touch no unclean thing. Go out of the midst of her: be separated, you that carry the vessels of the Lord.”
“Keep yourself from the unjust, and you shall not be afraid, and trembling shall not approach you.” Isa. liv, 14. — “Depart from the unrighteous, and you shall not fear, and trembling shall not approach to you.”
“He that touches pitch shall be defiled, and he who has communion with a proud man shall be like him.” Eccli. xiii, 1. — “He that touches pitch, shall be defiled: and he that has communion with a proud man, shall be like him.”
“I beseech you, brothers, to mark those who cause divisions and stumbling blocks contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them. For such men do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth talk and blessing they deceive the hearts of the simple.” C Rom. xvi, 17-20. — “I beseech you, brothers, that you mark them who make dissensions and scandals contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they who are such, serve not Christ our Lord, but their own belly: and by pleasing speeches and good words, seduce the hearts of the innocent.”
“If any man called a brother be a fornicator, or a covetous man, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one do not even eat.” I Cor. v, 11. — “If any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or an avaricious person, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, do not so much as eat.”
“We command you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks inordinately, and not according to the tradition which they received from us.” D II Thess. iii, 6. — “We denounce to you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking inordinately, and not according to the tradition which they received of us.”
Harmful are associations with the wicked, since this is the law of friendship, that it is natural for those who are joined together to become like one another in character. For just as in disease-ridden places the air that is breathed in little by little stores up a hidden disease in those dwelling there, thus intimacy with the base inflicts great evils upon souls, even if the harm escapes immediate perception.
Those who are skilled in these matters say that the plague, when one…
has touched a person or an animal, spreads to everyone who approaches near. For such is the nature of this disease: that all contract the illness from one another. Such also are the workers of wickedness; for one transmits the disease to another, and they both become sick and perish together.
Flee the imitations of those who are condemned.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, *In Apol.* — It is easier to become a partaker of vice than to impart virtue; because it is also easier to contract a disease than to bestow health upon others.
The same, *Tetrastich* 17–48: B Close your ears with wax against base words, And the most effeminate strains of songs; Let them always stand open to honest speech. To hear, to speak, and to act are not far apart. Always prefer upright men to the wicked; For if you are frequently with the evil, you will surely be evil.
St. Athanasius — We must not only abstain from evil deeds, but we must also turn away from those who perpetrate them.
St. Cyril — It was forbidden for the Israelites to associate with the wicked, the Mosaic law having also decreed this. For it gave express orders that those who were sanctified should make haste to depart as soon as possible from the company of those whose life is depraved and impure.
St. Clement — Departure from the wicked is the salvation of the soul.
St. Basil, *In Ps. 1* — The Psalmist has proposed to us three things which we must avoid: namely, not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, not to stand in the way of sinners, and not to sit in the seat of the pestilent. C
*Ibid.* — "Do not sit in the seat of the pestilent" (Ps. 1:1). Weigh well in your mind whom he calls "pestilent": clearly those who transmit the disease of their own soul to others. Or do you not see how those fornicators who sit in the marketplace hold the modest and temperate up to ridicule, and narrate their own outrages, and their pursuits of darkness, and recount their shameful lusts as if they were some brilliant and strenuous exploits? These, indeed, are the pestilent, since they strive with persistent zeal to insinuate their own evil into everyone.
*Ibid.* — The spirit of fornication does not endure to keep its iniquity within one person, but others who are equal are brought in: revels, drunkenness, obscene tales, a harlot drinking with them, smiling at one, inciting another, and inflaming everyone with the desire for her own wickedness. Is this plague really small, or is the communication of the evil slight? D
St. Nilus — Let us flee the assemblies of unprofitable men and embrace solitude. For familiarity with wicked men brings destruction and weakens the state of the soul. For as those who move about in pestilential air cannot help but fall ill, so too those who dwell among men who have no discernment of virtue and vice contract their vice.
Josephus — The perverse morals of those who together...
A dwell produce discord and contentions: and although others may be of good disposition, they yet maintain the sentiment of benevolence.
Philo — The familiarities of fools are deadly, and the soul, even against its will, reflects the images of B their dementia.
TITLE XVIII. — Concerning wisdom, and erudition, and discernment.
Prov. 1, 20, 21. — « Wisdom is celebrated in the exits of the ways; she gives her voice freely in the squares; she preaches on the edges of the walls; she sits among the squares of the powerful; and she speaks confidently in the gates of the city. »
Prov. XVI, 20. — « He who is prudent in business is an inventor of good things. »
Prov. X, 13. — « He who brings forth wisdom from his lips strikes the heartless man with a rod. »
Prov. VII, 4. — « Make prudence familiar to yourself. »
Prov. III, 35, 38. — « The wise shall possess glory. Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the mortal who has found prudence. For the trading of it is better than treasures of gold and silver. It is more precious C than costly stones; no evil is set against it; and everything precious is not worthy of it. »
Prov. XVI, 17. — « The nests of prudence are better than silver. »
Prov. III, 17. — « Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are in peace. She is a tree of life to all who lay hold of her. »
Prov. IV, 5. — « Acquire wisdom, acquire discernment; do not forget, so that it may give to your head a crown of graces. »
Prov. VIII, 10, 11. — « Receive discipline; and not silver, and knowledge more than proven gold. For wisdom is better than costly stones; and everything precious is not worthy of it. »
Prov. IX, 12. — « Son, if you become wise, you will be wise for yourself and for your neighbor. »
Prov. VIII, 20. — « I walk in the ways of righteousness, and I move in the midst of the paths of righteousness, says D Wisdom. »
Prov. XII, 24. — « A wise man is a throne of perception. »
Prov. XXIV, 3. — « With wisdom a house is built, and with discernment it is restored. »
Prov. XXIX, 3. — « A father rejoices over a man who loves wisdom. »
Eccl. IV, 13. — « Better is a poor and wise boy than an old and foolish king. »
Baruch IV, 2. — « Go toward the splendor of wisdom, before the light thereof. »
Baruch III, 29, 30. — « Who has ascended into heaven and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who has crossed over the sea and found her? There is none who knows her way, nor anyone who considers
of it; but He who knows all things, knows it; He found it out by His own understanding.” A
Wis. vi, 13.—“Bright and unfading is wisdom, and it is easily seen by those who love it. A multitude of the wise is the salvation of the world.”
Wis. vii, 8, 9.—“I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with it: for all gold in its sight is a little sand. But all good things came to me together with it.”
Wis. ix, 4.—“Give me, O Lord, wisdom that sits by Thy throne.”
“The Lord Himself created wisdom, and He saw it, and numbered it.”
Wis. vii, 28.—“God loves nothing except him who dwells with wisdom. Malice does not prevail against wisdom.” B
Wis. viii, 5, 6.—“If riches are a desirable possession in life, what is richer than wisdom, which works all things? Its conversation has no bitterness, nor does its company have pain, but joy and gladness.”
Eccli. iv, 11-14.—“Wisdom has exalted its children. He who loves it loves life, and those who watch for it shall be filled with gladness. He who holds it fast will inherit life: and wherever he enters, the Lord blesses, and God loves those who love it. He who obeys it will judge the nations, and he who listens to it will dwell in confidence.”
Eccli. vi, 18.—“My son, in your youth choose instruction, and as one who plows and sows, come to it.”
Eccli. viii, 9.—“Do not despise the discourse of the wise, and be conversant in their proverbs.”
Eccli. ix, 21.—“Take counsel with the wise, and let your reasoning be with those who are prudent.” C
Eccli. xi, 1.—“Wisdom will exalt the head of one of low degree, and will seat him in the midst of the great.”
Eccli. xvi, 5.—“By one man of understanding a city will be inhabited.”
Eccli. xxiv, 27.—“My memory is sweeter than honey. He who listens to me will not be put to shame.”
Eccli. xxxvii, 26.—“A wise man will instruct his own people. A wise man will be filled with blessing, and all who see him shall call him blessed.”
Eccli. xxvi, 18.—“There is no exchange for a learned soul.” D
S. Basil, Hom. in princ. Proverb.—“Wisdom is the knowledge of divine and human things, and of the causes of these.”
“The end of philosophy, for him who professes the study of philosophy, is this: that as far as it is possible, he may attain to the likeness of God.”
S. Chrysost.—“We should not judge prudence by age.”
Didymus.—“The knowledge that one is ignorant of something belongs to wisdom; just as the knowledge that one has committed an injustice belongs to justice.”
It is of the same wisdom neither to be carried away toward the pleasant things that are indifferent, nor to be cast down toward those that are grievous. A
Philo. The wise man alone is free and a ruler, even if he has six hundred masters of his body. Every wise man is a friend of God. The same, *Lib. de Abrahamo*.—And indeed the wise man is the first of the human race, as a pilot in a ship, a governor in a city, a general in war, the soul in the body, the mind in the soul; and again, heaven in the world, and God in heaven. Wherefore the honorable and urbane man is and should be called senior, while every fool is younger and posterior, pursuing as he does the things of youth which ought to be placed in the last rank. To seek or to inquire is most useful for learning. B
TITLE XIX. — Of the Anguish and Distraction of Affairs.
“All the life of the impious is in anxiety.” (Job xv, 20.) “And again, to the sinner He has given distraction.” (Eccles. ii, 26.) “I find confusion and roving to be more bitter than death.” (Eccles. vii, 25.) “My son, let not your activities be about many things. If you multiply them, you will not be innocent.” (Eccli. xi, 10.) “He who pursues business deals will fall into judgments.” (Eccli. xxix, 27.) “A hard heart shall be burdened with sorrows.” (Eccli. iii, 29.) “A merchant is with difficulty freed from offense.” (Eccli. xxvi, 28.) C “He who presides over an alien dispute is like one who holds a dog by the tail.”
It is impossible for one to attain hope, labor, meditation on the things of God, and prayer among those things that distract the soul and produce worldly occupations. The same. Just as it is not possible for a dirty mirror to receive the images of forms, so neither is it possible for a soul that is fixed upon the cares of this life, and darkened by the passions that spring from the disposition of the flesh, to receive divine illuminations. The same, *Epist. 1*.—Just as an eye that is constantly being moved about, now being carried toward the sides, and now being turned rapidly up and down, is not able to see clearly the object set before it—but rather it is necessary for the sight to be fixed upon what is seen if it is to make the vision clear—so also it is impossible for the mind of man, being dragged about by countless worldly concerns, to gaze clearly upon the truth. D
Sailors and pilots do everything to cross the sea and arrive at the harbor. We, however, being middle-sea, strive to be tossed about continuously in the surges of worldly affairs, moving about in the marketplaces and in the tribunals.
A *Theotimi.* To a perturbed and anxious mind, neither any virtuous thought nor the grace of God enters.
It is the mark of a perfect soul to be free from anxiety, but of an impious one to be consumed by cares. For it is said of the perfect soul that it is a lily in the midst of thorns. This signifies tranquility of soul. For in the Gospel, the soul free from cares is designated by the lily. It does not toil, nor does it spin, and yet it is clothed in glory greater than Solomon's (Matt. vi, 28). But concerning those who expend much care on bodily things, Scripture says: "The whole life of the impious is in care" (Job xv, 20). For it is truly impious to stretch out the care of bodily things across one's entire life and to display no zeal for the things to come.
For which reason, those who were nourished in scarlet embrace dung-heaps, Jeremiah said in Lamentations (Lam. iv, 5). Indeed, when we rest in noble and ardent thoughts, we are nourished in scarlet. But when we wallow in earthly affairs, then we embrace dung-heaps. B
He who walks on all fours is unclean. Now, he proceeds on four feet who places his trust in sensible things and, by the occupation of these, entirely drags down his ruling faculty.
Just as those who are in chains walk with difficulty, so those who are entangled in this life cannot complete the course of virtue purely and fully.
TIT. XX. — Concerning those who frequently visit the houses of others.
*Prov.* xxiii, 27. — « A punctured jar is a strange house. »
*Prov.* xxi, 25. — « The foot of a fool is swift to house; but a man of experience will be ashamed of a face. » C
TIT. XXI. — Concerning good counsel and instruction.
*Prov.* i, 33. — « He who hears me shall dwell in hope, and shall be quiet, free from fear of all evil. »
*Prov.* iii, seqq. — « My son, do not forget my laws, but let your heart keep my words. For they will add to you length of days, and years of life, and peace. My son, do not let them slip; but keep my counsel and understanding, that it may be for your soul, and grace will be around your neck. There will be healing for your flesh, and care for your bones, so that you may walk confidently in peace all your ways, and your foot will not stumble. For if you sit, you will be without terror; and if you sleep, your sleep will be sweet, and you will not fear a sudden terror, nor the onset of the impious coming against you. For the Lord will be upon all your ways, and will establish your foot, that you may not be snared. » D
TIT. XXII. — Concerning evil counsel and instruction.
*Job* ii, seqq. — « But after a long time had passed, his wife said to Job: How long will you persist, saying: Behold, I wait for a little time still, expecting the hope of my salvation? Behold, your memory has perished from the earth. Your sons and daughters, the pains and travails of my womb, which I have labored for in vain with hardships. You, however,
A you sit on a dunghill, dwelling under the open sky. And I, a wanderer and a servant, going from place to place, and from house to house, awaiting the sun, that it may set, so that I may rest from the hardships and pains that now press upon me. But speak some word against the Lord, and die. But he, looking at her, said: You have spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the evil? »
*Prov. XVII, 4.* — « A wicked man will obey the tongues of the lawless. »
*Prov. I, 10 seqq.* — « My son, let not wicked counsel seize you. »
« My son, let not ungodly men lead you astray, nor consent. If they plead with you, saying: Come with us, share in blood, let us hide the just man in the earth unjustly; let us swallow him up B like Hades while he is living, and let us take away his memory from the earth; let us seize his precious possession, and let us fill our houses with spoils; cast your share among us, and let there be one common purse for all of us, and let there be one bag: my son, do not go on the way with them. Decline your foot from their paths. For not unjustly are nets spread for the winged. »
*Paral. XIX, 1-4.* — « And it happened after the king of the sons of Ammon died, that his son Annon reigned in his stead. And David said: I will show kindness to him, just as his father showed to me. David therefore sent to console him: and the princes of Ammon said to their lord: Does David send comforters to honor your father? Is it not rather to explore the city, and to spy it out? And he shaved the beards of the servants of David, and cut their garments in the middle, and sent them away. »
C *Schol.* Annon, having been persuaded by the lawless counsel of his servants, and having insulted those sent by David through the removal of their beards and garments, lost his country and his kingdom.
*II Reg. XIII, 3-5.* — « Amnon had a friend named Jonathan, very prudent, and he said to Amnon: Why are you so wasted? And Amnon said: I love my sister Thamar. And Jonathan said to him: Lie down upon your bed, and pretend to be ill; and your father will come to visit you, and you will say to him: Let Thamar my sister come, I pray, and let her stand before me, feeding me, and let her make food in my sight. »
*Schol.* The counsel of Jonathan was pestiferous D to Amnon. For his brother slew him.
*S. Basil.* — When we are commanded by anyone to do something contrary to the Lord’s commandment, and which makes it void or defiles it, then it is timely to say: "We must obey God rather than men (Act. V, 29);" keeping in mind that the Lord says: "They shall not follow a stranger, because they do not know the voice of strangers."
(John X, 5)." And that which the Apostle, for the sake of our caution, boldly pronounced in such a way that he censured even the angels themselves, using these words: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be anathema (Gal. I, 8)." From which we learn that, however dear or eminent he may be who forbids us, he must be anathema to everyone who is endowed with the love of God. A
TIT. XXIII. — Concerning circumspection [or yielding].
"For though I was free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ), that I might gain those who are without law. To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (1 Cor. IX, 20-24)."
"He who does not exert himself for his own house shall possess the winds (Prov. XI, 29)." B
TIT. XXIV. — Concerning the Holy Cross.
"You have given a sign to those who fear you, that they may flee from before the bow (Ps. LIX, 6)."
"They shall be manifest who seal the law, that they may not learn (Isa. VIII, 16)."
"The Lord said to the man who was clothed in the priestly garment: Give the sign upon the foreheads of the men who are groaning and grieving over all the injustices. And go through the midst of Jerusalem, and strike; do not spare, and do not have pity on old man or youth, or women and nursing infants: exterminate them all. But upon all those on whom is the sign, do not approach (Ezech. IX, 4-6)." C
If Christ suffered anything, He did not suffer it for His own sake, nor for the sake of His Father, but that He might procure salvation for the human race. And if you wish to know, most beloved, the power of the Cross, listen. The Cross is the hope of Christians; the Cross is the guide of the blind; the Cross is the way of the straying; the Cross is the staff of the lame; the Cross is the consolation of the poor; the Cross is the bridle of the rich; the Cross is the casting down of the proud; the Cross is a trophy against demons; the Cross is a victory over the devil; the Cross is the abundance of the needy; the Cross is the hope of the despairing; the Cross is the resurrection of the dead; the Cross is the helmsman of those who sail; D the Cross is the harbor for those who are tossed by the tempest; the Cross is a wall for those who are harassed by wars; the Cross is the father of orphans; the Cross is the protector of widows; the Cross is the judge of the unjust; the Cross is the refreshment of those who are oppressed; the Cross is the guardian of little ones; the Cross is light to those who sit in darkness; the Cross is the freedom of slaves; the Cross is the exercise and training of monks; the Cross is the purity of virgins; the Cross is the joy of priests; the Cross is the foundation of the Church; the Cross is the bread of the hungry; the Cross is the fountain of the thirsty; the Cross is the covering of the naked.
Since Satan first killed the first-formed man through the tree, for this reason the Lord, having clothed Himself in humanity, through the tree of the Cross made the devil to be trampled under the feet of man. For whoever possesses the sign of the Cross tramples upon his power. A If you are going into battle, and you see your enemy sharpening swords against you, do not bring anything of the sort with you, but keep the sign of the Cross in your heart and on your forehead, and advance against him, saying: "Some in chariots, and some in horses; but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God" (Ps. xix, 8). And you will see that all those things will vanish like chaff, but you will be roused and stand upright. For David predicted regarding the sign of the Cross, saying: "Thou hast given a sign to them that fear thee, that they may flee from the face of the bow" (Ps. lix, 6). What sign did He give us, if not the mystery of the Cross? By this sign, walls are broken down; enemies are mown down like grass; demons are put to flight; and all things are subjected to the wood of the Cross, through the power of Him who was crucified upon it. B
Letter T.
TIT. I. — On honor: and that we ought to honor one another.
"An ungodly man hath not reverenced the face of an honorable man, nor does he know how to show honor to such people." (Job xxxiv, 19). "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another." (Rom. xii, 10). "As the servants of God, honor all men." (I Pet. ii, 17). C
TIT. II. — On tax collectors.
What is a toll booth? Legalized plunder, violence exercised with boldness, injustice fortified by the patronage of law. What is a toll booth? A shameless sin; plunder that has no pretext, worse than robbery. A robber, even when stealing, feels shame; but this man, when plundering, does so with a hardened face.
TIT. III. — On the authors of tumults.
"A perverse heart deviseth mischief; at all times such a man stirs up tumults in the city. Therefore his destruction shall come suddenly, for he delights in all things which God hates." (Prov. vi, 14, 15). "Ungodly men have set a city on fire."
TIT. IV. — On order, status, and sequence; and that these must be kept everywhere.
"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called, brethren." (I Cor. vii, 20). Order is the mother of all things. D
TIT. V. — On those who are humble-minded.
"Abraham answered and said, Now I have begun" (Gen. xviii, 27).
A to speak to my Lord; but I am dust and ashes.” Exod. iv, 10. — “Moses said to the Lord: I beseech you, O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since you have spoken to your servant: I am slow of speech, and slow of tongue.” I Reg. xxv, 24, 25. — “Abigail said to David: Upon me, my lord, let this iniquity be. Let your handmaid, I pray, speak in your ears, and hear the words of your handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray, set his heart upon this wicked man; and folly is with him.” Abbot Isaiah, Sermon 20. — Humility consists in this: that a person considers himself a sinner and that he does nothing good before God. The work of humility is silence, and not to measure oneself against anyone, nor to contend. B To be submissive is to keep one’s eyes cast down, to have one’s own death before one’s eyes, to guard oneself against lying, not to engage in vain talk, not to resist a superior, not to insist on one’s own words, to bear reproach, to hate rest, to apply oneself to labors, and to keep the soul vigilant. Brother, strive to carry out these precepts diligently, lest otherwise your soul become a dwelling place for every corrupt affection. Labor with a vigilant mind in each of these, lest you render the whole course of your life empty and fruitless.
TIT. VI. — On the arts and their inventors.
Gen. iv, 20, 21. — “Ada bore Jabel. He was the father of those who dwell in tents, and of herdsmen. And the name of his brother was Jubal. He was the one who revealed the psaltery and the harp. Sella also bore Thobel, and he was a hammerer, a worker in bronze and iron.” Gen. x, 9. — “Chus begot Nembroth; he began to be a giant on the earth, a hunter before the Lord.” Didymus. — The equestrian contest was first devised by Enyliostes, the son of Neptune. That same equestrian contest with chariots Dipolis C discovered. For Oenomaus was the first himself to complete such a contest with four-horse chariots. Now, the structure of the hippodrome and the circus is ordered toward the governance of the world—that is to say, of heaven, earth, and sea. Indeed, they declared the twelve gates to be the twelve houses of the zodiacal circle D which governs the earth and the sea and the fleeting course of human life; and the floor of the circus to be the earth; and the Euripus to be the Mediterranean sea; the turn which is toward the gates, the east; and the one toward the wedge, the west; and the seven spaces, the motion and course of the stars of which the Great Bear consists. Moreover, King Romulus, in honor of the sun and the four elements subject to it, namely earth, sea, air, and fire, when he first discovered the race of chariots in Rome...having discovered, he accomplished in the land of the west, that is to say of Italy, by four-horsed chariots—which is to say, on the earth, and on the sea, and in the fire, and in the air. And Romulus bestowed upon these same four elements these names: to the earth, the green part, which is grassy; to the sea, which is for the waters, the blue part, as being cerulean; to the fire, the red part, as being ruddy; and to the air, as white, he bestowed the name of white. A
LITTERA Υ
TIT. I. — De homine contumelioso.
Job 11, 12. — « Eos qui insolentia efferebantur, humiliavit. »
Job XL, 11. — « Omnem arrogantem humilia. »
Prov. — « Malus cum contumelia facit mala. »
Prov. xv, 25. — « Contumeliosorum domos disturbat Dominus. »
Prov. VI, 17. — « Oculi contumeliosi lingua injusta. »
Prov. XI, 2. — « Quocunque introierit contumelia, illic etiam ignominia. »
Prov. XVI, 19. — « Melior est vir placidus cum humilitate, quam qui dividit spolia cum contumelia. »
Isa. x, 33. — « Qui insolentia sublimes sunt, conterentur et humiliabuntur. »
S. Basil. — Quemadmodum echo in locis soli- B tariis, integra rursus ad loquentem revertitur; sic etiam contumeliæ ad conviciatorem redeunt. Vel, ut rectius loquar, vox quidem ipsa integra redditur: at maledicentia cum fenore redit.
S. Cyrilli. — Quidquid turpe et inhonestum est, neque illis congruens, qui probis operibus student, hoc contumelia est.
TITLE II. — On the abstemious.
Eccli. LXXXI, 14. — « Omnes bibentes aquam, traditi sunt ad mortem: et electa Libani omnia bibentia aquam: ipsi quoque descenderunt cum eo in infernum. »
I Tim. V, 21. — « Modico vino utere propter stomachum tuum, et frequentes tuas infirmitates. »
S. Basil. hom. de jejun. — Nemo hausta aqua crapulam contraxit. Nullius unquam caput condoluit, aqua praegravatum. Nemo alienis pedibuss opus habuit bibendae aquae assuescens. Nullius pedes fasciis astricti sunt: nullius manus inutiles redditae.
S. Greg. Naz. — Bibere vis? tibi scatet aqua, perenne poculum, potio temulentiae expers, laetitia.
TITLE III. — On sleep and wakefulness.
Eccli. V, 11. — « Dulcis somnus servi, sive multum, sive parum edat. »
Eccli. XXXI, 24. — « Somnus sanitas in intestino moderato. Cura vigiliarum accerset dormitationem: et cogitatus illarum aufert somnum. »
Prov. XXIII, 21. — « A Vestietur laceris pannosisque omnis somnolentus. »
S. Basil. — Give thanks, O man, to Him who releases us even against our will from the continuity of our labors through the benefit of sleep, and restores the vigor of our strength after a brief rest.
S. Greg. Nyss. De opif. hom. cap. 13. — To be held by deep slumber, with limbs so relaxed that space is afforded for absurd imaginations, prepares a daily death for those who sleep in this way.
Ibid. — Sleep relaxes the tension of wakefulness; wakefulness then tensely draws tight the relaxed spirit again. Neither of these remains in a perpetual state; rather, each yields to the other in turn; thus, nature surely restores itself by alternating cycles, so that, obtaining each of these in rotation, it may willingly migrate from the one to the other. For to be constantly strained in activity causes a certain rupture and tearing of the excessively stretched parts, and conversely, the perpetual relaxation of the body causes that which is constituted to fall and dissolve. But to touch upon each moderately and at the right time strengthens nature for its preservation; for indeed, through constant migration to opposites, it refreshes itself in both. In this way, therefore, having obtained a body tightened by wakefulness, it generates a relaxation of this tension through sleep, while it refreshes the sensory faculties, which have been intermitted for a time. For timely remission is necessary for the preservation of the body.
S. Chrysost. — Sleep is nothing other than a short and daily C death.
TIT. IV. — Concerning hypocrisy, and simulation, and feigned piety; and concerning those who devise such things.
Job XXXVI, 13. — « Hypocrites in heart foster wrath; and let their soul die in youth. »
S. Basil. Hom. de invid. — Do you not see what a great evil hypocrisy is? And indeed, it itself is a fruit of envy. For duplicity of character arises among many mostly from envy: when, namely, holding hatred in the depths of their hearts, they show a surface painted over with love and benevolence; not unlike, indeed, to hidden reef-rocks, which, though covered by a little water, bring unforeseen evil upon the unwary.
S. Greg. Naz. Orat. de bapt. — Contrive nothing crafty, nothing cunning against your own salvation. For even if we deceive others, we shall certainly not be able to do the same to ourselves; wherefore, to play at the ruin of our own selves is most slippery and insane.
Idem. Carm. de reb. suis. — I would rather, while I strive for what is right, be held to be vicious, D Than, indulging in vice, to shine with the reputation of a just man, And to be a lying sepulchre to ignorant mortals, Which, although it encloses inside stinking bodies, Yet shines outside with lime and pleasant color.
A
S. Cyril. — He who studies to please men may indeed justly obtain their praises; but from God he shall certainly receive nothing at all.
Eusebius. — Many, one might say, have desired to occupy themselves with virtuous works. They have proposed to practice a holier mode of life, but have not been able to persist to the end. God has allowed them to perish for this reason, because for the sake of human favor they wear haircloth, go barefoot, and let their hair grow, displaying their achievements to men, wishing to be called holy, and to be worshipped by all as pious men. You see, therefore, their external appearance, and you think they do everything for the sake of God. But what their heart possesses, you are ignorant of. But God, who examines hearts and kidneys, knows their intent, and allows them to be forsaken and to fall, so that their counsels may become manifest. For those who enter upon a life of virtue for the sake of human favor, these are the ones who fall into error. But those who wish to practice rightly for God's sake are never forsaken by God, as the prophet said: "I have been young, and now am old; and I have not seen the righteous forsaken" (Ps. XXXVI, 25). For the righteous live forever, and their reward is with the Lord, and their expectation is with the Most High (Wis. V, 16). B Many monks, therefore, having been led astray, have turned to marriage, wrongly interpreting that saying of the Apostle: "If they do not restrain themselves, let them marry" (1 Cor. VII, 9). And they do not know that after the vows which have been made with God, it is no longer called marriage, but fornication. Let everyone, therefore, when he is able to bear the needs of the body, then at last take upon himself the yoke of discipline, and may he not fall into the subterranean depths of Hades. C
Title V. De filio sapiente.
Prov. X, 1. — "A wise son gladdens his father."
Prov. XVII, 21. — "A prudent son gladdens his mother."
Prov. V, 5, 4. — "The wise son is saved from heat. A disciplined son shall be wise."
Prov. XI, 19. — "A just son is born to life."
"Let your father and mother rejoice in you, and let her who bore you be glad."
Prov. XXIII, 25. — "A father is cheered by a man who loves wisdom."
Prov. IX, 12. — "My son, if you become wise for yourself, you shall be wise also for your neighbor."
Eccli. IV, 13. — "Better is a poor and wise boy than an old and foolish king."
The virtue of children is the glory of their fathers. D
Title VI. — On the foolish, wicked, and inept son.
Prov. — "To a deceitful son, there shall be nothing good."
Prov. XIV, 15. — "A foolish son brings grief to his mother. A lawless son becomes a scorching wind at harvest."
Prov. X, 10. — "A father is not gladdened by an undisciplined son."
Prov. XVII, 21. — "A foolish son mocks his mother." A Prov. XV, 20. — "A disobedient son shall be in destruction." Prov. XVII, 25. — "A foolish son is a provocation to his father, and grief to her that bore him." Prov. XXX, 1, 2. — "An evil generation curses its father, and does not bless its mother. An evil generation judges itself to be righteous. An evil generation has lofty eyes, and is lifted up by its eyelids." Eccli. XXII, 3. — "A father’s shame is an undisciplined son." Eccli. XLI, 9. — "The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with their seed there shall be continual reproach."
TIT. VII. — Concerning rain and showers; and that waters are drawn up from the earth into the heavens.
Job V, 10. — "Who gives rain upon the earth, who sends water upon the parts under the heavens." Psal. CXXXIV, 6. — "Everything that the Lord willed, he has done in heaven and on earth," etc. Amos V, 8. — "Who calls the water of the sea, and pours it out upon the face of the earth, the Lord God Almighty is his name."TIT. VIII. — Concerning health; and that it excels all things.
Eccli. XXX, 14. — "Better is a poor man who is healthy, than a rich man who is whipped in his body." S. Basil — Health and well-being are more excellent than any gold; and a firm and robust body is better than immense riches. S. Greg. Nyss. — Health is more delightful after having tasted the trial of ill health. Health is a common gift. Upon the arrival of health, pain is banished. B S. Clement. — It is indeed best always to enjoy perfect health: but it is also good to have recovered after sickness.TIT. IX. — Concerning suspicion; and that one must flee the occasions that generate evil suspicions.
II Cor. XI, 12. — "Give no occasion to them that seek occasion for suspicion." S. Ignat. — Let none of you have anything against his neighbor; do not give occasion to the Gentiles. Lest by the fault of a few foolish men, the multitude, which is endowed with divine virtue, be spoken against. CTIT. X. — Concerning promises and agreements; and that they ought to be fulfilled.
Num. — "The good thing that has gone forth from your mouth, do." Num. XXX, 2, 3. — "A man of the sons of Israel, if he vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath with a definition, or defines concerning his soul, he shall not profane his word: all things that have gone forth from his mouth, he shall perform." Deut. XXIII, 21. — "If you vow a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not be slow to repay it, D because the Lord your God seeking for it shall seekA from you; and there shall be sin in you. What has gone forth from your lips, keep, and do just as you vowed to your God, as you spoke with your mouth." Malach. II, 1. — "Cursed is he who had in his flock a male, and his vow is upon him, and he sacrifices weak things to the Lord." Eccli. V, 5. — "It is better not to vow, than to vow and not pay."
TIT. XI. — Regarding the proud, and the arrogant, and the boastful, and those studious of vainglory.
Levit. XXVI, 19. — "I will crush the arrogance of your pride." Num. XV, 30. — "The soul which shall do anything through pride, as well of the native-born as of the proselytes, B this one shall provoke God." Job VI, 24. — "The fear of the Lord shall fall upon you: and your boasting shall depart from you, like ash; but the body is of clay." Job XXIV, 23. — "When he has been weakened, let him not hope to be cured; but he shall fall by a great malady. For exaltation has afflicted many." Job XL, 11. — "Humble every arrogant person; extinguish the proud man: crush the impious suddenly, and fill his face with ignominy." Abd. 1, 4. — "If you are exalted as an eagle, and if you place your nest among the stars, thence I shall bring you down, says the Lord. Woe to him who says in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the earth?" Soph. III, 6. — "In destruction I have dragged down the proud: their corners I have laid waste." Isa. XIII, 11. — "I will destroy the injury of the wicked, C and I will humble the injury of the proud. And I will place the whole world..." Isa. X, 33. — "Behold, the sovereign Lord Sabaoth stirs up the glorious of the earth with force, and the lofty ones shall be crushed by arrogance, and the lofty shall fall by the sword." Evagrii. — It is a serious thing to think magnificently of oneself while doing small things; in every undertaking, indulging in reputation hinders the matter from being real. A proud thought shakes out virtue like a sieve. A spirit greedy for glory is a dry pit. A proud soul is an inn for robbers; and it hates the sound of knowledge. S. Nili. — Woe to the boaster: for when he has entered into the sepulcher, then he is taught who he might be. How do you seek the purity of the soul, D being held bound by the chains of pride? For you say that I desire to have a clean heart, and I find it full of dust and smoke. How is it possible, when fire is lurking in the straw and smoldering, for smoke not to be found and not to appear? I approve of you zealously pursuing benevolence, and pruning away the branches of greed; but I do not again approve, inasmuch as you take vainglory as a companion. For it is inconsistent to be free from one vice, and meanwhile to wish to serve and wait upon another passion.Opinion, as the view of the ancients holds, is the excision of progress; for he who feels arrogantly about himself does not brook correction. A Opinion is, by its nature, an impure thing.
TITLE XII. — On patience and long-suffering.
II Kings xvi, 11 — « David said: Let him alone to curse, for the Lord hath commanded him. If perhaps the Lord may look upon my humiliation, and render me good for this cursing. »
Psalm xxiv, 3 — « All that wait upon thee shall not be confounded. »
Psalm xxvii, 14 — « Do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord. »
Prov. xiv, 17-19 — « A wise man beareth much. A long-suffering man is great in prudence. » — « A long-suffering man shall appease contentions. »
Prov. xv, 18 — « A merciful man is long-suffering. »
Prov. xix, 11 — « I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. »
Micah vii, 9 — « The Lord is good to them that wait upon him in the day of tribulation. »
Nahum i, 7 — « If he make delay, wait for him: for coming he will come, and will not make delay. »
Soph. iii, 8 — « Wait for me, saith the Lord, in the day of my resurrection for a testimony: because my judgment is to the congregations of the Gentiles. »
Zach. vi, 14 — « It shall be a crown for them that wait, and for those useful to it. »
Isa. xxx, 18 — « Blessed are all they that abide in him. »
Isa. xl, 31 — « They that wait upon God shall change their strength, they shall take wings as eagles: they shall run, and shall not labor; they shall walk, and shall not faint. » C
Baruch iv, 25 — « My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you: for thy enemy hath persecuted thee, and thou shalt quickly see his destruction, and thou shalt get upon his neck. »
Lam. iii, 25 — « The Lord is good to them that wait for him. »
Eccli. i, 29, 30 — « A long-suffering man shall bear for a time, and afterwards joy shall be restored to him. For a time he shall hide his words, and the lips of many shall tell forth his wisdom. »
Eccli. ii, 1, 2 — « Son, when thou comest to the service of God, prepare thy soul for temptation. Humble thy heart, and endure; and make not haste in the time of trial. Cleave unto him, and depart not away, that thou mayest be increased in thy latter end. » D
Eccli. v, 13 — « In patience bring forth an answer. »
Matt. xxiv, 13 — « He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. »
Luke xxi, 19 — « In your patience you shall possess your souls. »
Acts vii, 58, 59 — « They stoned Stephen, who was calling upon God and saying: Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit. And having bent his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. »
A II Cor. vi, 4-8. — "In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, In chastity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, In the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armour of justice, on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour."
Hebr. x, 36, 37. — "For patience is necessary for you, that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little and a very little while, and he that is to come will come, and will not delay."
II Tim. ii, 11. — "A faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall live also with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he will also deny us."
B S. Chrysost. — Nothing conciliates veneration as much as bearing injuries with an equal mind. And never fear temptation. For if you have a mind prepared, affliction causes you no detriment. For just as the furnace does not harm gold, so tribulation does not destroy the brave man. What does the furnace do? It renders the gold pure. What does affliction accomplish for him who bears it? It renders his patience even more sublime.
S. Basil. Hom. in Gord. mart. — Exchanges of this kind are ours with our Lord: that for the scourges which are inflicted on our bodies, a shining garment may bloom forth; for dishonour, crowns; for prison and bonds, paradise; and for condemnation with evildoers, the fellowship of angels.
C S. Nilus. — Study patience, by which we know the martyrs to have been trained.
TITLE XIII. — Regarding those who do not endure, but labor under faint-heartedness.
"He that is faint-hearted is exceedingly foolish." (Prov. xiv, 29).
"A faint-hearted man, who shall bear?" (Prov. xviii, 14).
"Woe to you who have lost patience. And what will you do when the Lord shall visit?" (Eccli. ii, 16).
D S. Basil. — If you are angry against him who reviled you, you have confirmed his reproaches. For what is more foolish than anger? But if you remain free from anger, you have confounded him by whom you were insulted, displaying modesty by your deed.
Idem, Hom. de ira. — It is therefore worth the effort, by the recollection of the best examples, to restrain the manic and disordered movement of the soul; consider how the blessed David meekly endured the drunken frenzy of Shimei. For he did not give space for anger to be stirred, transferring his thought to God, since "The Lord," he says, "commanded Shimei to curse David" (II Kings xvi, 10). Whence it came to pass that, hearing, "Man of blood, and wicked man," he was not enraged at him, but humbled himself, as if the abuse were happening to him according to his desert. And these two things remove from yourself, neither
be indignant, but should rather humble yourself, as if you had been struck by insults you deserved. Furthermore, prune away these two things: that is, so conduct yourself that you do not consider any human being to be far inferior to you in dignity. A
St. Basil, Homily on Anger. — The Lord has shown us the way of patience both by His words and His examples. For these are His very words: *He who wishes to be first among you, shall be the last of all* (Matt. xx, 26-27), and He Himself bore with the one who struck Him calmly and without any agitation of soul. For He who is the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, who is worshiped by every intelligent creature, who upholds all things by the word of His power, did not cast the one who struck Him alive into hell (with the earth parting to swallow the impious man), but He warned and instructed him, saying: *If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?* (John xviii, 23). For if you accustom yourself, according to the Lord’s command, to be the last of all, you will never grow angry as if you had been unworthily insulted by a wrong. B
St. Nilus. — To seethe in spirit and to be unwilling to endure brings about great and varied calamities. It is folly to show oneself impatient and not at all strong in the various kinds of temptations. Let Job persuade you of this, addressing his wife with the words: *You have spoken as one of the foolish women* (Job ii, 10).
LETTER Φ
TITLE I. — On hospitality and brotherly love.
C Gen. xviii, 1-5. "God appeared to Abraham by the oak of Mamre, as he was sitting at the door of his tent at noon. And, lifting up his eyes, he saw, and behold three men stood over him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them, and bowed down to the ground, and said: Lord, if I have found favor before you, do not pass by your servant. Let water be fetched, and wash your feet, and cool yourselves under the tree; and I will fetch bread, and you shall eat, and after this you shall go on your way."
Gen. xix, 1-3. "The two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. And seeing them, Lot rose up to meet them, and bowed with his face to the ground, and said: Behold, lords, turn aside into your servant’s house, and lodge there, and wash your feet, and in the morning, rising up, you shall go on your way. And they said: No, but we shall lodge in the street. And he compelled them, and they turned in to him." D
Gen. xxiv, 30. — "Laban, having heard the words of his sister, came to the man, as he was standing by the camels near the spring. And he said to him: Come, enter, you blessed of the Lord; why do you stand outside?"
Exod. xxii, 21. — "You shall not wrong a stranger, nor shall you afflict him; for you were strangers in Egypt."
Lev. xix, 31. — "If a stranger should come to you in your land, you shall not afflict him; he shall be as a native among you."
A Judg. xix, 17-21. — "The old man said, 'Where are you going, and from where do you come?' And he said to him, 'We are passing from Bethlehem of Judah to the remote parts of the mount of Ephraim, and there is no man who gathers me into his house.' And the old man said, 'Be at peace; all that you lack is with me; only do not lodge in the street.' And he brought him into his house, and unloaded the donkeys, and threw fodder for his beasts, and they washed their feet, and they ate and drank."
Job xxxi, 32. — "A stranger did not lodge outside; my door was open to everyone who came."
Matt. x, 41. — "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward."
B Acts xxviii, 1-3, 7. — "When they had escaped, they learned that the island was called Melita. And the barbarians showed us no ordinary kindness. For having kindled a fire, they took us all in because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold. Now in the parts around that place, there were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days."
Heb. xiii, 1, 2. — "Let brotherly love continue; and do not neglect hospitality. For through this, some have unwittingly entertained angels."
Know yourself to be a stranger, and treat strangers with honor. Do not despise the stranger, since we too are strangers and sojourners. Let us become lovers of the brotherhood rather than lovers of self. Has a stranger approached, homeless and an exile? Receive through him the One who for your sake became a stranger, and even among His own.
C S. Chrysost. — When the prophet betook himself to the Sareptite widow; when the hungry stranger came to the hungry hostess, he renders the jar an ever-flowing spring of a handful of flour, not measuring the quantity of the gift, but repaying the reward in proportion to the readiness of her hospitality. For such are the ways of grace: it receives small things and bestows great things.
Evagrii. — A stranger and a poor man are God’s eye-salve; whoever receives them will quickly be granted the health of his eyes.
D Elijah came to Sarepta of Sidon, and saw a widow woman gathering wood; and what does he say? "Give me a little water that I may drink." But the widow, having gone, brought it to him, and Elijah drank. And he said to her, "Take also a morsel of bread for me, that I may eat." But she said, "The Lord lives, if I have anything save a handful of flour in the jar, and a little oil in the cruse, which we are about to make, and we shall eat, I and my children, and we shall die." What then does Elijah do? "Go," he says, "and make me a hearth-cake privately, and I shall eat; and so you shall do for your children, and they shall eat." What are you doing, Elijah? Is it bread you are seeking? Why privately?
Or are you not obliged to be grateful, that you might eat with the children? Do you wish to eat, and to strangle a crowd of children? But nevertheless, the widow was not troubled, nor did she say: "You are the one who brought about the famine, and have you come to be fed on the remnants of the famine?" Nor did she say: "You have left so much of the world, and have you come to me to destroy my children with hunger? You are the one who has become the cause of the famine, and you ask for food from me?" But like some Abrahamic woman, she went inside and did as Elijah had spoken. And it was possible to behold the widow as more hospitable even than Abraham himself. For he, indeed, while abounding in wealth, harbored angels, but she, offering up life and death alike, performed the duty of hospitality to the prophet. And it was possible to behold nature struggling, and yet carrying out the duty of hospitality. Do you see her inward parts reeling, and yet receiving the prophet? She prepared a grave for the whole crowd of her children. For as far as the widow's intent is concerned, they had reached the final day of their life. I do not fully know with what praises I should extol this widow. How did she disregard her children, and cultivate hospitality? How did nature itself not grow angry? How was her womb not altered? How were her entrails not broken and dissolved, seeing the whole crowd of her children about to perish from hunger? But she showed herself superior to all these things, and received the prophet as a guest. When, therefore, the prophet had received and eaten, he soon rendered her a return for it. The widow sowed hospitality, and straightway she reaped the wheat-ear flourishing with piety. For what does he say? "The Lord lives: the jar of flour shall not fail, and the cruse of oil shall not be diminished" (III Reg. XVII, 10-14). And so the right hand of the widow became a winepress, and her left hand a threshing floor, and the sheaves necessarily providing fruit, the prophet soon fed the widow. The house of the widow became a winepress and a threshing floor. B
TIT. II. — On the philanthropy, goodness, and patience of God: and that it is better to fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of men.
Exod. XXXIV, 6. — "The Lord thy God is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering, and of great mercy, and truthful, and just."
II Reg. XXIV, 11-14. — "The word of the Lord came to Gad the seer, saying: Go and speak to David, saying: Choose for yourself what shall happen, whether three years of famine in the land, or three months to flee from the face of the aliens, while they pursue you; or whether there shall be three days of death in the land. And David said to Gad: It is very narrow for me on every side, and these three things. I shall fall, I pray, into the hands of the Lord, because His mercies are very great. But into the hands of men I shall not fall. And God sent death in Israel, from the morning until the time of the meal; and there died of the people, from Dan even to Beersheba, seventy thousand men. And the angel stretched out his hand C over Jerusalem to destroy it. And D
the Lord was moved to compassion over the malice. And He said to the angel: It is enough, stay thy hand. A
"God is a righteous judge, and strong, and long-suffering." Ps. vii, 12.
"According to the multitude of His wrath He will not seek." Ps. ix, 30.
"Remember thy mercies, O Lord," — "How great is the multitude of thy kindness, O Lord." Ps. xxiv, 6, 30.
"The earth is full of thy mercy, O Lord." Ps. cxviii, 32.
"Thou shall save both man and beast, O Lord; as thou hast multiplied thy mercy." Ps. xxxv, 8.
"Thou, O Lord, art kind and gentle, and plenteous in mercy to all. Thou, O Lord my God, art compassionate and merciful." B Ps. lxxxv, 5, 15.
"The Lord is compassionate and merciful; long-suffering." Ps. cii, 8.
"The Lord is merciful and compassionate; He hath given food to those..." Ps. cx, 4.
"Who is a God like unto thee, taking away offenses, and passing over the iniquities of the remnant of thy inheritance. He hath not kept his wrath for a testimony, because He is a lover of mercy. He will Himself turn and have compassion upon us; He will sink our sins, and they shall be cast into the depths of the sea." Mich. vii, 18-20.
"The Lord is long-suffering, and His power is great." C Nahum i, 3.
"I have made, and I will bear. And I will take up, and will save you." Isa. xlvi, 4.
"I have been silent; shall I also for ever be silent and endure?" Isa. xlii, 14.
"I will not be angry with you for ever, nor shall the voice of injustice trample upon you." Isa. lvii, 16.
"I have stretched forth my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walk not in a good way, but after their own sins." Isa. lxv, 2.
"Thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and thou overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance. But thou sparest all, because all things are thine, O lover of souls. For thy holy Spirit is in all things." D Sap. xi, 25, 26.
"Thou, being master of power, judgest with tranquility, and with great sparing dost govern us. For it is possible for thee, whenever thou willest, to have power. Thou hast taught thy people by such works, that the just ought to be humane." Sap. xii, 18.
"Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men. For as is His greatness, so also is His mercy." Eccli. ii, 22.
"He maketh His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and raineth upon the just and the unjust." Matth. v, 45.
"If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" Matth. vii, 11.
A Luc. xxiii, 33, 34. — "Then they went to the place that is called Calvary, and there they crucified Jesus, and the robbers, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. But Jesus said: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." Jac. v, 11. — "The Lord is very merciful and compassionate." II Petr. iii, 15. — "Consider the long-suffering of the Lord as salvation." S. Basil. — But there is no doubt that He who is good distributes good things Himself. S. Greg. Naz. — While there are many things for which God is wondered at, there is nothing so proper to Him as to do good to all. The Divine knows how to construct many and wondrous ways of salvation by a new example, inclined as He is toward humaneness. B S. Greg. Nyss. — It is necessary that He who is good by nature be also a giver of good things. S. Chrysost. — No one would spare himself so much as God, in the first instance, acts so that we might not suffer any evil. Such is the divine leniency toward those who do not use it as they ought. It brings punishment to the very end, and just as it is beneficial for those who repent, so for the unyielding and the hard-hearted, it becomes a pretext for greater torments. Idem. — Although God foreknew our perversity, He never ceases to perform the things that are His own. For although we reject His warnings, He nonetheless exhibits a specimen of His own benevolence. And if we rush into greater vices, the fault for this must not be referred to Him who used patience and leniency (for He did not apply leniency so that we might perish, but that we might be saved), but to us who have brought injury upon His inexplicable humaneness. C Idem. Hom. in parab. decem. mill. talent. — For us men, to demand what is owed is wealth; but for God, to forgive it is wealth. And while we, when we receive money that is owed, are increased in resources, God, when He grants pardon for sins, then most greatly becomes rich. For the wealth of the goodness of God is the salvation of men, as Paul says: "Who is rich toward us, and toward all who call upon Him" (Rom. x, 12). Ibid. — We perceive the inexplicable humaneness and clemency of God from the memory of our own sins. S. Dionys. De div. nom. cap. 4. — That which is utterly devoid of good, never was, nor is, nor shall be, nor can be. S. Clement. — The justice of God is good, and His goodness is likewise just. Just as there is no light which does not enlighten, nor a moving thing which does not move, nor one who loves which does not love; nor D
A is it good, if it does not benefit and does not lead unto salvation. Violence is not in God: but a good will is always present with Him. — St. Irenaeus. Didymus. — God possesses mercy by nature and in accordance with His essence; however, that He should be angry is not a matter of nature for Him, but occurs on account of others. — Above all things which are observed in God, His essential goodness takes precedence. Philo. — It is a property of God indeed to extend good things, and to bestow them by forestalling, but not to bring about evil things easily. God does not take immediate vengeance upon those who sin, but grants time for the healing and correction of their failing.
TIT. III. — Of things that are part of nature.
Gen. 6, 5. — B “The thought of man is intent upon evil from his youth.” Prov. 14, 30. — “A rot of the bones is a sensitive heart.” Prov. 15, 15. — “At all times the eyes of men expect evils.” “Just as faces are not similar to faces, so neither are the hearts of men equal.” Isa. 1, 5. — “Every heart is mourning.” Eccli. 13, 19. — “Every animal loves its like, and a man will associate with his like.” Eccli. 19, 27. — “From the encounter of a face, the sensible man shall be known.” Eccli. 13, 31. — “The heart of a man changes his face, whether for good or for evil.” John 3, 20, 21. — “Every one who does wicked things hates the light, and does not come to the light, that his works may not be refuted. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested, because they have been wrought in God.” 2 Pet. 2, 19. — “By whom anyone is overcome, to him he is also enslaved.” We men are so constituted that we accept C whatever we have chosen of our own free will, even if it be laborious. When nature resists, all things are in vain. What a man has not suffered, he could not believe to be in another. But he who has suffered is the more ready to give consent. That which is ready to hand toward authority is idle toward desire. Nothing is so pleasant to men as to speak about the affairs of others. Many judge the lives of others by their own passions. The teachings of evil masters are evil; or, that I may speak more correctly, the husbandries of evil seeds are evil. A voluntary hardship is more precious than an involuntary pleasure. It is a custom for the majority of men, when they are taken by anger and grief, even if they do not DA receive the passions, to vent their anger simply and unexpectedly upon those they happen to encounter.
The intensity of others' misfortunes makes our own evils appear lesser, even if they are unbearable. It is not the nature of things said that habitually makes us savage, but the prejudice of enmity. B Many people pass judgment on others based on themselves; for instance, he who is perpetually drunk would not believe that any man practices continence. He who is addicted to prostitutes thinks that those who live modestly are also lewd. Again, he who seizes the property of others would not easily be persuaded that there are men who cast aside their own.
It is difficult to oppose nature. Philonis: Just as it is laborious to graft onto nature what is not natural, and to introduce it, so too it is difficult to change and restrain those things that are naturally ingrained. For it is said: When nature opposes, all things are empty.
TITLE IV. — Concerning rumor and fame: and that one ought not to give credence to everyone.
Prov. xv, 30. — "A good report fattens the bones." Eccli. xix, 4. — "He who is quick to believe is light of heart." 1 Joan. iv, 1. — "Beloved, do not believe every spirit." S. Chrysost. — Fame is often able to cast down and to raise up a soul, as well as to destroy one that does not exist. S. Clement. — One should not rashly provide an open ear to all who speak and write. Philonis. — Nothing is swifter than fame. C
TITLE V. — Concerning the industrious and the diligent: and that one must labor; for it brings profit.
Gen. iii, 13. — "In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread." Job xi, 12. — "From care and anxiety shall peace appear to you." Psal. ciii, 23. — "Man shall go out to his work and to his labor until the evening." Psal. cxxvii, 2. — "Because you shall eat the labors of your hands; you are blessed, and it shall be well with you." Prov. xx, 13. — "Open your eyes, and be filled with bread." Prov. vi, 11. — "If you are not slothful, your harvest will come like a spring, and your want shall desert you like a swift runner." D Prov. xxvii, 18. — "He who plants a fig tree shall eat of its fruit." Prov. x, 4. — "The hands of the strong make wealthy. He who gathers for himself with piety shall be multiplied." Prov. xxxi, 19. — "She extends her elbows to useful things, but her hands she reaches out to the spindle." And
again: "She strengthened her arms for work, and tasted that it is good to work." A
"Work your work before the time, and he will give your reward in his time." Eccli. li, 38.
"He who works in all things is better than he who is glorified and lacks bread." Eccli. x, 31.
"In all your works rise up, and do not be idle." Eccli. xxxi, 27.
"A man traveling to a far country called his own servants and delivered to them his goods; and to one he gave five talents," etc. Matth. xxv, 14.
"You yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my needs, and to those who are with me. I have shown you all things, that by so laboring it is necessary to support the weak. Remember the word of the Lord, how he said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" Act. xx, 34, 35. B
What good thing is easy? Who, while sleeping, has erected a trophy? Who, while living in luxury and being serenaded, has been adorned with the crowns of patience? No one who has not run has carried away the prize. Labors beget glory, and toils procure crowns.
Let us overcome with prudence him who blocks our paths to salvation. He caused idleness for us; let us arise for work. Let him deceive our hearts with empty promises; let us not be ignorant of his designs. For does he not suggest that we commit sin today, but put off the storing up of justice until tomorrow? C
Labors practiced through long custom fall more lightly upon those who are trained.
There is health from labors, and salvation from sweat.
If we flee the painful things of the flesh, we shall not see the good things of the just.
Let us labor a little, beloved, so that we may not fall away from the eternal goods.
For a short time the toil, and for an age of ages the rest.
Where there is more labor, there is greater pleasure.
He who possesses right reason does not hesitate to face labors, for the sake of the fruits that arise from labors. D
Everywhere, through difficulty and labors, it is natural for useful things to come to men.
Labors are the providers of goods everywhere.
The kingdom of God is not for the sleeping and the lazy, but the violent take it by force. For this alone is a good kind of violence, to use violence against God, and to snatch life from God. And He, knowing those who use violence, or rather, who hold fast firmly, grants it and gives in. For He rejoices in being overcome in such a manner.
It is absurd to pursue honors, and to flee the labors through which honors are wont to be obtained.
TITLE VI. — On the love of leadership; and that one should not rashly leap into positions of authority.
*Prov. xx, 21.* — "An inheritance gained in haste at the beginning will not be blessed in the end." A
*Eccli. vii, 4.* — "Do not seek from the Lord dominion, nor from the king a seat of honor."
*Eccli. xiii, 2.* — "Do not lift a burden above what you can bear."
TITLE VII. — On good friends.
*I Reg. xx, 17.* — "Jonathan made David swear again, because he loved him as his own soul."
*Ibid. 32-43.* — "Jonathan answered his father, and said: Why should David die? What has he done? And Saul caught up a spear at Jonathan to kill him. And Jonathan knew that it was determined by his father to kill David. And Jonathan rose up from the table in anger, and did not eat bread on the second day of the month. David rose up from Ergab, and fell upon his face, and worshipped Jonathan three times, and they kissed one another, until the great completion (of their grief). And Jonathan said to David: Go in peace, B and as we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying: The Lord shall be witness between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed forever. And David rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city."
*II Reg. i, 26.* — "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. You were very precious to me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women."
*Prov. xiv, 19, 20.* — "Wicked friends pay court at the doors of the just; friends will hate poor friends."
*Prov. iii, 29.* — "Do not devise evil against thy friend, who dwells beside thee and relies upon thee." C
*Prov. xvii, 9.* — "He that covers a transgression seeks friendship. Let a friend be with you at all times. But let brothers be useful in necessities; for it is for this that they are begotten."
*Prov. xxvii, 6-10.* — "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but voluntary are the kisses of an enemy. Do not forsake thy friend, or the friend of thy father. And into the house of thy brother do not enter when you are in misfortune. Better is a companion who is near, than a brother who dwells far away."
*Prov. xxv, 8, 9.* — "When your friend reproaches you, withdraw backwards; do not despise him, lest the friend reproach you, and your battle and your enmity will not cease, but will be to you like death." D
*Ecclesi. iv, 9-12.* — "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if the two fall, the one will raise up his companion. But woe to the one when he falls, and there is no second to raise him up. A triple-woven cord will not quickly be broken."
*Eccli. vi, 14-16.* — "A faithful friend is a strong shelter; and he who finds him, finds a treasure. There is no equivalent for a faithful friend, and no weighing of his beauty. A faithful friend is a medicine of life, and those who fear the Lord will find him."
A Eccl. IX, 14, 15. — "Do not forsake an old friend. For a new one is not like him. New wine; but if it has aged, you shall drink it with pleasure." "Before you die, do good to a friend, and according to your strength extend it, and give to him." "Lose your money for a brother and a friend." "Do not forget a friend in your soul." "I will not be ashamed to protect a friend, and I will not hide from his face, even if evils befall me on his account." There is no equivalent for a faithful friend among existing things, nor is there any weighing of his beauty. A faithful friend is a strong shelter and a fortified palace; a faithful friend is a living treasure. A faithful friend is a closed garden, a sealed fountain, opened and partaken of at the proper time. A faithful friend is a harbor of refreshment. B Friendship will bear all things, both suffering and listening. It is fitting that children, just as they are heirs of paternal goods, should also be heirs of friendship. When I say "friends," I mean the good and virtuous, and those bound to us by virtue. Let us make all things common, both sorrows and joys. For such is friendship. Things said by friends, even if they be insults, are bearable. S. Chrysost. — Things said by friends, even if they are insults, are to be endured. A fever is not accustomed to inflame the nature of the body as much as our souls are wont to be inflamed when we are separated from those we love. C S. Clement Alex. Strom. lib. II. — We are taught three kinds of friendship; and of these the first and best is that which arises from virtue. For the love that comes from reason is firm. The second and middle one is that which consists in mutual exchange; this is communal, reciprocal, and useful for life. For grateful friendship is common. The third and last one is that, which we say comes from habit, in relation to the gentiles [(1)]. I know, he says, that which is changeable according to pleasure, and prone to mutation. Therefore, one kind is the friendship of a philosopher, the second of a man, the third of a brute animal. Evagrii. — Pleasant is that friend who nourishes the soul. A genuine friend is one who shares in our calamities. A constant friend is worth the greatest wealth. He who is a friend according to God flows with milk and honey in his true words. D TIT. VIII. — Concerning table friends and the wicked. "Impious friends hate poor friends." "A lawless man attempts the friends, and leads them into paths that are not good."
NOTE. (1) These two words are missing in the edition. Read as "in relation to the gentiles." Soon "Rup." [reads] "they say it." Edition [reads] "the [word] that."
Prov. xviii, 1. — "He who wishes to separate himself from friends seeks excuses." A
Prov. xxv, 18. — "A club, and a sword, and a sharp-pointed arrow, is a man who bears false witness against his friend."
Prov. xxvii, 14. — "He who blesses a friend in the morning with a loud voice, does not differ from one who curses."
Mich. vii, 5. — "Do not believe in friends, nor hope in princes."
Eccli. vi, 8. — "There is a friend in his own time, and he will not abide in the day of tribulation. There is a friend, a companion at the table, and he will not remain in the day of affliction; and if you are humbled, he will be against you."
Eccli. xxxvii, 1. — "There is a friend who is a friend in name only." B
Eccli. vi, 7, 1. — "If you possess a friend, possess him in temptation, and do not trust him easily. Do not become an enemy instead of a friend."
Eccli. xxxvii, 4, 5. — "A comrade of a friend sings in joy, and in the time of tribulation he will be an adversary. A comrade sympathizes with a friend for the sake of his belly, but will take up a shield against war."
Eccli. xiii, 6-8. — "If you have [goods], he will live with you, and will drain you, and will not grieve himself. You were necessary to him, and he made you go astray, and he will smile at you, and will give you hope. He will speak to you, he will call good things to you, and will say: What is your need? And he will put you to shame with his foods, until he has drained you once or twice, and in the end he will mock you; and after these things he will see you, and will leave you, and will shake his head over you." C
Eccli. xxvii, 26, 27. — "In the sight of your eyes he will flatter with his mouth, and will admire your words, but in the end he will pervert his mouth, and will place a stumbling-block in your words. I have hated many things, and have not equaled them; and the Lord hates him."
Matth. xxiv, 12. — "Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many will grow cold."
S. Basil. — Those who are intemperate in mind, as long as food is in their mouths, offer praises, flatter, and admire beyond measure. If, however, the table is delayed even a little, those whom they previously worshipped as God Himself for the sake of pleasure, they attack with curses as if with stones. D
S. Chrysost. — Mutual trust has fled from them; friendship among them is bounded by the limits of the table; their greetings are full of suspicion.
Philo. — No one should call a flatterer a friend and companion. For flattery is the disease of friendship.
TIT. IX. — Regarding the munificent and liberal; and that munificence procures salvation.
I Reg. xxv, 23-25. — "Abigail saw David, and she dismounted, and sprang down from the ass. And she fell before David on her face upon the earth, and said: Upon me, my lord, let this iniquity be; let your handmaid speak, I beseech you, into your
ears, and hear the words of your handmaid. Let not my lord set his heart upon this pestilent man; for folly is with him. A
*— II Reg. xvi, 2-4.* — "And King David said to Siba: What is this to you? And Siba said: The donkeys are for the king's house to ride upon, and the bread for the servants to eat, and the wine for those who are faint to drink. And the king said to Siba: Behold, all that Memphibosthe had is yours. And Siba falling down worshipped, saying: I have found grace in your eyes, my lord king."
*Schol.* The offering of gifts to strangers transferred the master's property to the servant.
*IV Reg. xvi, 6-8.* — "Achaz sent messengers to the king of the Assyrians, saying: I am your servant and your son; come up, and save me from the hand of the king of Syria, and from the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen up against me. And Achaz took the silver and the gold that was found in his treasures, and sent gifts to the king; and the king of the Assyrians heard him, and went up to Damascus, and captured it, and slew Rhaasson." B
"A man's gift enlarges him, and makes him sit in the presence of princes." *Prov. xviii, 16.*
"A secret gift averts anger." *Prov. xxi, 14.*
"God loves a cheerful giver." *II Cor. ix, 7.*
"In every gift make your countenance cheerful." *Eccli. xxxv, 11.*
The graces of good works return upon those who give. *S. Basil.*
Beneficence gains glory: while stinginess is exposed to mockery and insults. *Idem.*
TIT. X. — Of those who are parsimonious and ungenerous, and that those who suffer from the disease of stinginess fall into perils.
C*Judic. viii, 5-17.* — "Gedeon said to the men of Sochoth: Give, I beseech you, bread for food to this people who is with me, because they are fainting. And behold, I am pursuing after Zebee and Salmana, kings of Madian. And the princes of Sochoth said: Is the hand of Zebee and Salmana now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army? And he said: Not so. Therefore, when the Lord has delivered Zebee and Salmana into my hand, I will thresh your flesh with the thorns of the desert. And he went up from thence to Phanuel, and spoke to them in the same manner. And the men of Phanuel answered him in the same way D that the men of Sochoth had answered him. And Gedeon said to the men of Phanuel: If I return in peace, I will destroy this tower. And Gedeon returned from the war, and seized a youth of the sons of Sochoth, and questioned him; and he wrote down for him its princes and its elders, seventy-seven men. And Gedeon came to the princes of Sochoth, and said: Behold Zebee and Salmana, for whom you reproached me, saying: Is the hand of Zebee and Salmana in your hand
that we should give bread to your weary men? And he took the ancients of the city, and thorns of the desert, and tore the men of Sochoth with them; and he tore down the tower of Phanuel, and killed the men of the city. »
I Reg. xxv, 10, 11 — « Nabal leapt up and answered the servants of David: Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? Today servants are multiplied who flee every man from his master; and I shall take my bread, and my wine, and my victims which I have prepared for them that shear my sheep, and I shall give them to men, whom I know not whence they are? »
Prov. xxi, 14 — « He that spareth gifts, excitethe a strong anger. »
Eccli. v, 12 — « There is a languor which I have seen under the sun, riches kept to the hurt of the owner thereof; and those riches shall perish in an evil temptation. »
Eccle. vi, 1, 2 — « There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is frequent among men: A man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and glory, and there is nothing lacking to his soul of all that he desireth; and God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it. »
Eccli. xi, 20 — « There is one that is enriched by his carefulness and his sparing, and this is the portion of his reward, and he shall die. »
Eccli. xiv, 4, 5 — « He that gathereth by his soul, gathereth for others; and in his goods others shall revel. He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good? My son, as much as thou hast, do good to thyself. »
Eccli. xxxi, 19 — « A city shall murmur at a most wicked man for his bread. »
On a querulous and fault-finding man.
Eccli. xix, 5 — « He that accuseth unjustly, shall not escape. »
Eccli. ii, 30 — « Strive not with a man in vain: lest he devise some evil against thee. »
On envy and emulation.
I Reg. xviii, 6-8 — « The B women came forth singing and dancing to meet David, and they said: Saul hath struck his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And the word was evil in the eyes of Saul, and he said: To David they have given ten thousands, and to me they have given a thousand. And Saul was eyeing David from that day forward. »
Prov. xxiii, 6, 7 — « Be not with an envious man, and desire not his meats. For as if a man were to swallow C a hair, so he eateth and drinketh. »
Prov. xxviii, 22 — « A man that maketh haste to be rich is an envious man, and he knoweth not that a merciful man shall take hold of him. »
Cant. viii, 6 — « Hard as hell is emulation. » D
A "I will not consort with one who wastes away with envy, for he does not partake in wisdom." "Envy of evil-doing obscures good things." "To an envious man, to what purpose is wealth?" "Zeal and anger diminish the days." "Hide your counsel from those who are envious." "There is no one more wicked than he who envies himself, and this is the retribution of his wickedness. And if he does good, he does it inadvertently, not willingly; and in the end, he manifests his wickedness." "Every sinner, and envious man, and double-tongued man, shall have dishonor." B "A pain of the heart and a sorrow of the heart, is a woman jealous of a woman." "Do not take counsel with one who keeps a watch on you." "Friend, I do you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?" "Where there is zeal and strife, there is instability and every evil thing."
Let us guard ourselves, brethren, against the passion of envy; let us not become partakers of the works of the adversary, and be found condemned to the same judgment. For if he who is puffed up falls into the judgment of the devil, how shall the envious man escape the punishment prepared for the devil? For no passion of envy is implanted more destructively in the souls of men. C For just as rust consumes iron, so envy consumes the soul that contains it. Or rather, just as they say that vipers, by eating away the womb that bore them, are brought forth, so envy is also of such a nature as to consume the soul that brings it forth. For envy is grief at someone else's prosperity. That is why anxieties and despondencies never leave the envious man. Has the neighbor's land yielded a good harvest? Is his house flourishing with all the comforts of life? Does he live in continual pleasure of soul? All these things are food for the disease and an addition to the pain for the envious man. Is someone brave and in good health? These things strike the envious man. Is another more pleasing in form? D This is another wound for the envious man. Does so-and-so excel the many in the endowments of the soul, and is he looked upon for his prudence and power of speech? He is envied. Does another grow rich, and does he display himself brilliantly in growth and in sharing with the needy, and is there much praise for him from those benefited? All these things are blows and wounds that strike the middle of his heart. And what is grievous about the disease is that he cannot even speak of it; but he bows his head, is downcast, and is distressed, and laments, and is destroyed by the evil. And when asked, he blushes to make public the passion of his calamity. For he cannot say: "I am envious, and the good things of my neighbor bitterly torment me, and I lament the cheerfulness of my brother, and I cannot bear the sight of other people's...
prosperity." In the depths of his being, he carries a disease that smolders inside his guts and consumes them. Therefore, he neither seeks out a physician for the malady nor can he think of a remedy to repel the sickness; but he waits for this one alleviation of his evil: if by chance he might see one of those he envies brought low by misfortune. Then, truly, he enters into a pact and becomes a friend, when he sees the one at whom his envy was raging shedding tears and mourning. He does not congratulate him when he is happy or cheerful, but joins him as a companion in tears when he is lamenting. If a son has departed this life, he praises him and honors him with countless eulogies—how handsome he was to behold, how excellent his character, how fittingly he was prepared for everything—though while the boy was still alive, he would not have bestowed upon him a single word of praise. But if he sees many people joining in the acclaim, he suddenly changes his mind and envies the departed. What, then, could be more pestilential than this disease? It is the blight of life, the corruption of nature, hatred of the gifts divinely bestowed upon us, and opposition to God. What drove the author of evil, the devil, to wage war against mankind? Was it not envy, through which he was clearly revealed as a fighter against God? Being grieved at God for such great generosity toward man, he took vengeance upon man because he could not prevail against God. It is evident that Cain acted in exactly the same way, that first disciple of the devil, who learned from him both envy and murder. What, then, did he do? He saw the honor granted by God, and was inflamed with jealousy; he killed the one who had been honored, in order to strike at the One who had bestowed the honor. For, being unable to wage war against God, he fell into fratricide. Let us flee, brothers, from the disease that is the teacher of opposition to God, the mother of murder, the confusion of nature, the ignorance of kinship, and a calamity most irrational. C Dogs become tame when fed, and lions are made tractable through kindness; but the envious are made only more savage by gentleness and soft words. What was the reason the Savior was subject to envy? It was certainly because of His miracles. And what were these miracles? The salvation of those in need. The hungry were fed, and He who fed them was fought against. The dead were raised, and He who imparted life was envied. Demons were cast out, and He who commanded them was plotted against. Lepers were cleansed, the lame walked, the deaf heard, and the blind received their sight, yet the Author of these benefits was driven into exile. Finally, they delivered the One who granted life to death; they scourged the Deliverer of mankind and condemned the Judge of the world. D A Scythian does not envy an Egyptian, but everyone envies his own countryman. And even within the same nation, envy is felt not toward those unknown to us, but toward those most familiar, especially neighbors and fellow craftsmen, and those who otherwise are kin,
A and again those of equal status, relatives, and brothers. Indeed, just as rust is the specific affliction of grain, so envy is a disease of friendship. The impulses of envy, while harming nothing of the person being envied, become wounds to the envious man himself. Who, when moved by pique, has ever diminished the good things of his neighbor? Yet he has consumed himself, wasting away in his sorrows.
Let us flee from this intolerable evil. It is a teaching of the serpent, an invention of demons, a sowing of the enemy, a pledge of punishment, a way to Gehenna, a deprivation of the kingdom. Some think that the envious also cast this disease upon others merely by their eyes. I, however, dismiss this story. But this is what I say: the haters of good, the demons, when they find wills suited to themselves, use every means to abuse them for that which they have proposed, so that they even use the eyes of the envious for this service of their own desire. Let us then flee from an intolerable evil, which is by nature a lesson of the demons. The envious also somehow manifest this in their very appearance. Their eye is dry and lusterless, their cheek dejected, their brow fallen, their soul confused by this passion, having no court of truth regarding matters; for they call the brave man rash, the temperate man hard and stupid, the just man cruel, the prudent man shifty. And they slander the magnificent man as profligate, the liberal man as a squanderer, and again, they accuse the man who manages his household well of being stingy and tight-fisted. In short, there is no form of virtue among them that lacks a name derived from the opposite vice B.
Envy is a peculiar evil of the devil, which cannot be spoken aloud and which admits of no medicine. He who suffers from a headache tells the physician of his headache, but he who envies—what can he say? That the good things of my brother cause me sorrow? This is indeed the truth, but everyone is ashamed to speak the words. Why do you groan? Is it for your own evil or for another's good? C We tame dogs by feeding them, but when we bestow benefits on the envious man, we render him yet more savage. For he does not rejoice at the good things he may receive, but is distressed by your prosperity. Do not, therefore, fall into the snare of the devil.
It is a fine thing to be envied, but a great shame to envy. Walk on high, and leave envy below.
What could be more pitiable than envious men? Though it is within their power to rejoice, and to gain some profit D from that joy, they choose instead to be distressed by the success of others,
suffering over the fame and glory of others, and besides this grief of theirs, summoning from God a punishment and an unbearable torture for themselves.
O envy, full of suffering! O envy, fire that is never quenched! O envy, destructive to the one who envies! For just as a worm destroys wood, so too does envy consume the envious person, while rendering the one who is envied more brilliant.
It is impossible to escape envy in times of prosperity.
There is nothing more wicked than to be bitten, shattered, and consumed by the happiness of another. There is nothing more grievous, nothing more miserable, than to contract the malady of envy and be consumed by jealousy and spite.
You say that you implore God with your whole heart to be liberated from lustful thoughts and passions; therefore, in the same way, with all your soul, strive to pray for that which is better, that you may be delivered from spite and envy; for you incline all the more toward this detestable passion.
TIT. XIII. On inordinate self-love; and that no one ought to pronounce himself righteous or to praise himself.
Prov. xxi, 2. — “Every man seems righteous to himself.”
Prov. xxvii, 2. — “Let thy neighbor praise thee, and not thy own mouth; a stranger, and not thy own lips.”
Prov. iii, 7. — “Be not wise in thy own conceits.”
Prov. xii, 15. — “The ways of fools are right in their own eyes.”
Isa. v, 21, 22. — “Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight! Who say: Depart from me, come not near me, for I am clean. Such is the smoke of my anger, a fire burning in it all the day.”
Isa. lxv, 6. — “Behold it is written before me, I will not be silent, but I will render and will repay into their bosom your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers, saith the Lord.”
II Cor. x, 18. — “For not he who commendeth himself is proved, but whom God commendeth.”
Rom. xii, 16. — “Be not wise in your own conceits.”
St. Greg. Naz. — We are all pious in this one respect, that we condemn the impiety of others, being lenient and kind judges of our own actions, but severe censors of those of others.
Isaiah the Abbot. — Those who do everything only for their own sake, these pursue self-love, which is the most grievous of all evils. This indeed brings about the result that one shrinks from society, association, and friendship, and acts unjustly and impiously. For nature did not fashion man as a solitary creature, but as one that is gregarious and partakes of common pastures; so that he should not live for himself alone, but also for mother, and father, and brothers, and wife, and children, B and other relatives, and friends, and fellow-townsmen, and fellow-tribesmen, and country, and...
tribesmen, and to all men; nay further, to the parts of the universe, and to the whole world, and much more so to God the Creator. For he who partakes of reason must be a lover of society, a lover of the world, and a lover of God, so that he may also be beloved of God.
Evagrius. — O, how one must beware of the blind love of self, to which all things are hateful!
LETTER X
A
TIT. I. — On God’s gifts and favors, and that they are bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon those who live honestly; and that those are unworthy of pardon who think they can acquire the grace of God with gifts and money.
John iii, 27. — « A man can receive nothing from himself, unless it be given him from heaven. »
Rom. xi, 29. — « The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. »
Act. viii, 18-20. — « When Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying: Give me also this power, that upon whomsoever I may lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said unto him: May thy money be with thee into perdition, because thou hast thought to acquire the gift of God with money. Thy heart is not right before God. »
Jas. i, 17, 18. — « Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, nor shadow of change. »
Didymus. — God, in caring for the salvation of those whom He adorns with benefits, sometimes does not immediately impart and pour out His gifts, and this for the sake of their own benefit: so that those who have trampled upon divine graces may not be rendered liable to a greater punishment, as they would be if they ignored their magnitude due to having obtained them easily and quickly.
What the Father bestows, with the Son serving and the Spirit providing, He does not bestow in a manner that the power of divine majesty suggests, but in a way that is conducive to those who receive.
C
TIT. II. — On those who rejoice in evil, and who welcome wicked things and scorn the righteous.
Ps. x, 2. — « They are taken hold of in the counsels which they imagine. »
Ps. xxxi, 18. — « Let lying lips be made dumb, which speak iniquity against the righteous, » and the rest.
Ps. xxxiv, 20. — « Those who hate the righteous shall do wrong. »
Ps. xxxvii, 22. — « They that bless the righteous shall inherit the earth. »
Prov. xvi, 21. — « They call the wise and the prudent evil. »
Prov. xxix, 10. — « Men of blood, partners, shall hate the holy one. »
Prov. xvii, 15. — « He who judges the righteous man as unrighteous, and the unrighteous as righteous, is unclean and abominable before the Lord. »
A Prov. xxiv, 24. — « He who says the ungodly is righteous, shall be cursed by peoples, and hated by nations. » Prov. ii, 14, 15. — « O you who rejoice in evils, and exult in perverse subversion; whose paths are crooked and the tracks of their wheels winding, to make you far from the straight way, and an alien from righteous judgment. » Prov. xvii, 19. — « A lover of sin delights in strifes. » Prov. xi, 27. — « He who seeks evils, they shall overtake him. » Prov. xv, 15. — « All the time the eyes of the evil look for evils. » Isa. iii, 9, 10. — « Woe to their soul, because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the righteous, because he is useless to us. Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their works. » Isa. v, 20. — « Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil: who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put the bitter for sweet, and the sweet for bitter. » Eccli. xxxi, 14. — « Son, in good things do not give a blemish. » Eccli. x, 26. — « It is not right to despise a wise poor man, nor fitting to glorify a sinful man. » S. Basil. in psal. lxii. — It is a betrayal of truth, and a custom leading to destruction, to approve those who study wickedness. B There are many who applaud wicked actions, and call the jester pleasant and witty; him who uses obscene words, urban; the bitter and irascible man, who cannot bear to be slighted in the least, they call spirited; the grasping and stingy man, like one who knows how to provide for his household, they praise as economical; the spendthrift and profligate, as liberal; the unchaste and lustful, as one who enjoys pleasure well and indulges his nature; and, to encompass the matter in one word, they define every kind of vice by the opposite virtue. Such men bless with their mouth, but in their heart, they curse. For by applauding with words, they bring down every curse upon their own life, and make themselves subject to eternal judgment by the things they approve. C Let us take heed to ourselves most diligently, lest we ever approve some ungodly man or speech that happens to be in our favor, and by our assent join ourselves to him. S. Chrysost. — Even if someone should wish to reproach us, let us not be tormented on that account—that we are ill-spoken of—but only if we are justly condemned. For if we live in wickedness and impurity, even if no one attacks us with curses, we are still the most miserable of all. But if we strive after virtue, even if the whole world speaks ill of us, we shall then be the most enviable of all. D Not only to emulate vice, but also to praise those who live in vice, brings a certain punishment, and not an ordinary one to us; and, if I may say something wondrous,
A a punishment more grievous than that of those who live in wickedness. For to praise those who sin is a much greater cause for sentencing than to sin itself. And most reasonably so: this calculation reflects a corrupted mind and will, and a soul suffering from an incurable disease. For he who praises wickedness denies himself the remedy of repentance, so that Paul rightly legislated that this is more atrocious than the other. For this reason, not only those who commit vile deeds but also those who applaud them, share in the same, or even more grievous, punishment.
To revile the blameless is a sin against God.
An increase of wickedness is not only to sin oneself, but also to favor others who are sinning. B
TIT. III. — On grave and nefarious deeds.
Gen. xxxv, 21, 22. — « And it came to pass when Israel drew near in that land, Ruben went and committed fornication with Balla, his father's concubine. And Israel heard, and it seemed evil before him. »
Gen. xxxviii, 9, 10. — « And Aunan, knowing that the seed would not be his, and it came to pass that when he went in to his brother's wife, he spilled it upon the ground, that he might not give seed to his brother. »
Judic. ix, 4-6. — « And Abimelech hired for himself empty and cowardly men; and they followed after him. And he came into his father's house in Euphrata, and he slew his brothers, the sons of Hierobaal, seventy men, upon one stone. And Jothan, the son of Hierobaal, the younger, remained, for he was hidden. »
Judic. xix, 25-30; xx, 3-8. — « And the man took his concubine, and brought her forth to them outside; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until morning, and they sent her away; and dawn ascended, and the woman came at daybreak, and fell at the doors of the gateway of the house where her husband was, until it grew light. And her husband rose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way. And his concubine C was lying near the doors, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said to her: Arise, and let us go. And she did not answer, for she was dead. And he took her up upon the beast, and he rose, and went away to his place. And the men coming asked, where had this wickedness been done? And the Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, answered, and said: I came to Gabaa of Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. And they rose against me upon the house by night, and they wished to kill me, and they humbled my concubine, and she died. And I held my concubine, and I cut her in pieces, and I sent her into every territory of the inheritance of the children of Israel. And behold, all you sons of Israel, give to yourselves a word and counsel. And all the people rose as one man, saying: There is not a man of us who shall go to his tent. » D
II Reg. xi, 1-4. — « The men of Jabis said to Naas the Ammonite: Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you. And Naas said to them: In this
covenant A will I make with you, that I may dig out your right eye, and put a reproach upon Israel. » They say to him: "Grant us seven days, and we will send messengers to every border of Israel: If there be no one to save us, we will come out to you." II Reg. xxii, 17. — « The king said to the couriers who stood by him: Come, and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand is with David, and because they knew that he was fleeing, and did not reveal it to my ear. » II Reg. xiii, 11-14. — « Amnon took hold of his sister, and said to her: Come, lie with me. And she said to him: Nay, my brother, do not commit this folly. But he did not listen to her, and he was stronger than she, and he humbled her and lay with her. And after this, Amnon hated her with a very great hatred. And Amnon said to her: Arise and go. And Thamar answered him: Nay, my B brother: for this injury, which you have done me by sending me away, is greater than the former. But Amnon would not listen to her voice. » Ibid. 27-29. — « Absalom made a feast, and charged his servants, saying: Observe, and when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and I say to you: Strike him, and kill him, do not fear. And the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as he had commanded them. » Prov. xxx, 21, 22. — « For three things the earth is moved, and the fourth it cannot bear: If a servant reign, and a fool be filled with food, and a handmaid if she cast out her mistress, and an odious woman if she have obtained a good husband. C »
TIT. IV. — Of the Christian Religion, and the Church of the Gentiles.
Osee ii, 23. — « I will call them my people that were not my people, and her beloved that was not beloved. » Isa. xxxv, 1. — « Be glad, O thirsty desert; let the desert rejoice and flower as a lily. And they shall flower, and shall be adorned with trees. » Isa. xliii, 20. — « I have given water in the desert, and rivers in the dry ground; to give drink to my chosen race, my people whom I have acquired, that they may tell of my virtues. » Isa. lxv, 1, 2. — « I appeared to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. I said: Behold I am here, to a nation D that did not call upon my name. » Isa. liv, 1. — « Rejoice, thou barren that dost not bear; break forth and cry, thou that dost not travail: for many more are the children of the desolate than of her that has a husband. » Isa. lxv, 15. — « A new name shall be called upon those who serve me, by which they shall be blessed upon the earth. For they shall bless the true God. » Isa. xliii, 21. — « My people, whom I have acquired to tell of my virtues, shall praise me. » I Petr. ii, 9-11. — « But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession, so that you may...
proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You who once were not a people, but now are the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. » A
I John iii, 2. — « Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. But we know that if He should be revealed, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. »
S. Ign. Epist. ad Polyc. — A Christian has no power over himself, but is at the disposal of God.
Irenae. (2) — The duty of a Christian is nothing else than to meditate on death.
S. Clem. Alex. lib. II Paedag. — The Christian is altogether a friend and familiar of quiet, tranquility, and peace. B
Evagrii. — Do not approve a Christian man by his habit, but by the disposition of his soul.
TIT. V. — That God is to be feared more than men.
Exod. i, 17. — « The midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, and they saved the male infants alive. »
Num. xxii, 18, 19. — « Balaam answered and said to the princes of Balac: If Balac were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I shall not be able to transgress the word of the Lord God, to do it small or great in my thoughts. » C
II Paral. xxv, 9, 10. — « Amasias said to the man of God: And what shall I do about the hundred talents which I gave to the army of Israel? And the man of God said: It is with the Lord to give you more than these. And Amasias separated the army that had come to him from Ephraim, that they might go to their own place. »
Schol. Since King Amasias had hired one hundred thousand of the Israelites at a price, and had given them one hundred talents of silver, the prophet of the Lord coming, said to him not to receive those hired for the alliance into war. And having disregarded the hundred talents, he obeyed God, and obedience brought him victory. D
Dan. xiii, 19-24. — « The elders said to Susanna: Behold, the doors of the garden are shut, and no one sees us, and we are in desire of you. Therefore, consent to us and lie with us. But if you will not, we will bear witness against you, that there was a young man with you, and for this reason you sent the maids away from you. And Susanna groaned and said: I am in straits on every side. For if I do this, it is death for me; but if I do not, I shall not escape your hands. It is better for me, without doing the deed, to fall into your hands, than to sin in the sight of the Lord. »
Dan. iii, 16, 17. — « The three youths answered the king, saying...
king, saying: "We have no need to answer thee regarding this word. For our God, whom we serve, is in heaven, and He is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of thy hands, O king." A
Matt. x, 28, 29. — "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
Acts v, 29. — "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."
Galat. i, 10. — "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
LETTER Ψ
TIT. I. — On falsehood and calumny.
Gen. xxxix, 14, 15. — "She called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice: and it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out." B
Levit. xix, 11. — "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another."
Deut. v, 20. — "Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour."
Deut. xix, 16-18. — "If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. And those which remain shall hear, and fear." C
III Reg. xxi, 12-14. — "They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died." D
Psal. v, 7. — "Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing."
Psal. xi, 4. — "The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips."
Psal. c, 7. — "He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight."
Prov. x, 4. — "He that getteth treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death."
Prov. xii, 22. — "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord."
A "He who works treasures with a lying tongue pursues vanity, and comes upon the snare of death." Prov. xxi, 6. "A lying tongue hates truth." Prov. xxvi, 28. "Remove far from me a vain word and a lie." Prov. xxx, 8. "A false witness shall perish." Prov. xxi, 28. "Be not a false witness against thy fellow citizen." Prov. xxiv, 28. "Slander disquiets a wise man, and destroys the heart of his strength." Eccli. vii, 8. "The mouth that lies kills the soul." Sap. i, 11. "Love no false oath: for all these things I have hated, says the Lord Almighty." Zach. viii, 17.
B "And the two elders arose in the midst of the people, and laid their hands upon the head of Susanna. And she weeping looked up to heaven. And the elders said: As we were walking in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids, and shut the doors of the garden, and sent away the maids. And a young man, who was hidden, came to her and lay with her. And the multitude believed the elders of the people and the judges, and they condemned her to death. But Susanna cried out with a loud voice and said: O eternal God, who art the knower of hidden things, thou knowest that they have borne false witness against me." Dan. xiii, 34-42.
"Plow not a lie against thy brother: neither do the like to thy friend. Do not wish to lie at all, for lying is not good." Eccli. vii, 13, 14.
"A wicked reproach in a man is a lie." C Eccli. xx, 26. "What can be made clean by the unclean? And from a liar what truth will there be?" Eccli. xxxiv, 4. "A thief is better than a man that is always lying: but both of them shall inherit destruction." Eccli. xx, 27. "A certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and defrauded of the price, his wife being privy thereunto." Act. v, 1. "All lying is not of the truth." I Joan. ii, 21. "Am I then become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" Galat. iv, 16. "Neither in legal disputes, nor in other actions, is a lie fit for those who have purposed to themselves to follow the straight and true path of life." S. Basil, Hom. de legend. gentil. lib. "The extreme limit of wickedness is a lie." Ejusd., De Spir. sancto, cap. 1. "Speech seems in a certain way, when once from the truth..." D
should it deviate, to be swept away into many dangerous absurdities. A
The falling away from the truth is a hallucination and blindness of the mind.
The truth is indeed one, while falsehood is manifold.
*S. Chrysost.*—Falsehood rises on high; mutual trust has taken flight; truth has left the earth; calumniators sell what is false, lying to their own mutual ruin; they have used up every type of oath, since they have come to know God in no other way than by swearing.
*Didymus.*—False opinions and judgments, as they proceed with countless lies, possess no single, identical account for their own teaching.
TIT. II. — Concerning Whisperers.
*Eccli.* xxi, 11.—"A whisperer defiles his own soul, and wheresoever he shall dwell, he shall be hated."
*Eccli.* xxviii, 15.—"A whisperer and a double-tongued man is accursed. For he has destroyed many that were at peace."
*Eccli.* v, 16.—"Be not called a whisperer, and be not ensnared by thy tongue." B
LETTER Ω (OMEGA)
Concerning the hour and day of death and our passing; and that it is necessary that we be prepared for it, and how one ought to depart from this life.
*Ps.* lxxxviii, 49.—"Who is the man that shall live, and shall not see death?"
*Prov.* xxiv, 27.—"Prepare thy works for the exit, and make thyself ready for the field."
*Eccle.* v, 14–16.—"As he came forth from his mother's womb naked, he shall return as he came, and he shall take nothing of his labor to take away in his hand. And this is a most grievous malady; as he came, so shall he go. What then is his abundance for which he labors for the wind? C And all his days he eats in darkness, and in mourning, and in much provocation, and in anger, and in sickness, and in madness."
*Zach.* 1, 5.—"Your fathers and the prophets, where are they? Shall they live for ever?"
*Wisd.* vii, 6.—"One is the entrance for all into life, and one is the exit."
*Eccli.* vii, 40.—"In all thy works remember thy last things, and thou shalt never sin."
*Eccli.* xiv, 12.—"Remember that death will not be slow, and the covenant of the infernal regions has not been revealed to thee."
*Eccli.* xxviii, 6.—"Remember thy last things, and cease to be an enemy."
*Eccli.* xli, 5–7.—"Fear not the judgment of death. Remember what things have been before thee, and what shall come after thee: this is the judgment given by the Lord to all flesh. And why dost thou refuse to follow the good pleasure of the Most High? Whether it be ten, whether a hundred, D or a thousand years: for there is no accusation of life in Hades."
A "At the end of a man is the uncovering of his works." (Eccl. xi, 29). "Watch, for you do not know the day nor the hour in which the Son of man comes." (Matth. xxv, 42). "Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and you yourselves like to men waiting for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he comes shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down, and passing will minister to them. And if he comes in the second watch, and if he comes in the third watch, and finds them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken through. Be you also ready, for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come." (Luc. xii, 35–40).
It behooves him who is beginning his life to have the end of life before his eyes. (S. Basil. Exhort. ad Bapt.)
Let no man deceive you with vain words (Ephes. v, 6). For a sudden destruction will come upon you, and your overthrow will be like a storm, when the means of living shall fail you; and distress and consolationless affliction will surround you on all sides, when physicians and kin despair of your salvation, when, held fast by thick and dry breathing, and an impetuous fever burning and consuming your inward parts, you groan from the depths of your heart, B and will find no one to share your sorrow. You shall utter something faint and feeble, but there shall be none to hear; and all that is spoken by you will be despised as raving. Perhaps a physician promises you a few hours, and you, for your innate love of life, do not despair of yourself—yet death stands by, and they press on to whom the business of taking you away has been given. Who then shall deliver you? God, whom you yourself have despised? But will He hear you then? You yourself do not hear Him now! Will He give you a term? For you have made good use of the time given! Is it God, whom you have yourself spurned? Yet perhaps He may then grant your prayers. He will grant you a space for amendment, O you who have—if indeed you have—used well the ears He granted you!
Deep night, and heavy disease, and the one who might help is nowhere to be found. He who is lying in wait for the inheritance is at hand, acting to direct everything to his own utility. Vainly does he labor, who studies to carry out plans and decrees. C Then, looking about this way and that, and seeing the peace which stands around you, you will then perceive your folly; then you will lament your mindlessness, that you stored up the commandment for such a time, when the tongue is loosened, and the hand is trembling, shaken by convulsions, so that you can signify what your will is by neither voice nor writing. (Ejusd. Hom. ad divites.)
The Lord teaches us not to neglect necessary things, but to be prepared ahead of time with the provisions of life, waiting in the preparation of the heart for the arrival of the Bridegroom. For the wise virgins, as it is written in the Holy Scriptures, because they had the oil in their lamps, entered in together with the Bridegroom; but the foolish, because D
they had not prepared themselves, were excluded from that joyful bridal chamber. A
From the same, Homily 9 on the Hexaemeron. — Will you not exert diligent effort for yourself, O man? Will you not store up for yourself in the present age the rest of the future, looking to the example of the ant, which in the summer gathers its winter food for itself? And not for the reason that the troubles of winter have not yet arrived does it idly spend its time, but with a certain inexorable zeal it stretches itself toward labor, until it has stored up sufficient provisions in its storehouses?
The soul is blessed that turns over no other concern in its mind, night and day, than how it may, on that great day when every creature shall stand before the tribunal of the Judge, render an account of the things done in life. For he who keeps that day and hour before his eyes, and who constantly meditates on what he shall bring B forward for the sake of his own purification at that tribunal, where no deception can be practiced, such a one will commit either no sins at all, or most certainly minimal ones; because sinning happens to us due to the absence of the divine fear. But when the clear expectation of the things required is present, that indwelling fear will give no opportunity to such persons to fall into thoughtless actions or imaginations.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. on St. Athanasius. — It is to no avail that someone repents when struggling at the final breath of life; at which time, for the tribunal of the other life, everyone is a just judge of his own affairs.
From the same, Orat. on Caesar. — I am led by the words of the wise to believe that every noble and God-beloved soul, when it has been loosed from the bonds of the body and departed from here, immediately perceives that good which awaits it; and having either purified or cast off—or by whatever word I might express it—that which was obscuring its mind with darkness, and contemplating [it], it is affected with a certain marvelous pleasure and rejoices, and having left behind this life as if it were some heavy prison, and having shaken off the shackles by which the wing of the mind was weighed down, it flies joyfully to its Lord, and already enjoys the blessedness stored up for it as if through an image. C
From the same, Orat. on Himself. — Await [your] dissolution as the appointed day of necessary liberty, and of a joyful and pleasant migration to another life; where no one is exhausted, nor old, but all are perfect in spiritual age.
From the same, Tetrastich 58. — Always be zealous for your own salvation; But especially toward the final day of [your] life. Old age has come, the herald proclaims exit: Let all be prepared; the Judge God is imminent. D
From the same, Monostich. — To gain life is to die each day.
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily on the Lord’s Prayer. — Who does not know the enigma of the Holy Scripture, saying that death has entered through the windows (Jer. ix, 21)? For the senses, through which the soul, revealing itself toward external things, perceives the things of its own will...
is taken, it catches what it wills; the Scripture has called these windows, so that, as the Word says, it prepares an entrance for death. A Be ready to endure hardships, and you will gain the greater part. B For men indeed think death is the end of punishments, but at the divine tribunal it is scarcely the beginning.
PARALLELA RUPEFUCALDINA (RUPERFUCALDINIAN PARALLELS)
After the Vatican Parallels, so that I may keep my pledged word, I append the Index of the older Ruperfucaldinian [Parallels], together with select testimonies from the books of the holy Fathers which have not yet been published to the public. Nor did I think that those long passages of Saint Justin should be omitted, which, since they were not published with the works of that same holy martyr (a), but separately by Petre Halloix, when he had received them from the same Ruperfucaldinian manuscript. Furthermore, I have indicated only those titles of the Parallels in which are found the excerpts of Irenaeus which the same Halloix likewise published separately; since indeed in the most recent editions of the works of this most holy doctor, the Oxford and the Parisian, they have been restored to their proper places by the most learned men, D. John Ernest Grabe, and the Very Reverend Father D. René Massuet, the Benedictine. Although Hoeschel in his annotations to the Bibliotheca of Photius, and Stephen le Moyne among his Varia Sacra, published a sufficiently ample fragment of the book *De Universo* against Plato, which was assigned to Josephus; I nevertheless record two entire pieces of that fragment as they lie in the aforementioned Parallels; from an examination of which my judgment concerning that work from which they were taken can be weighed more easily and conveniently. Titles that have asterisks prefixed to them in the index are absent from the Vatican Parallels. C
(a) These fragments, namely of the book on the resurrection, were later included by D. Prudentius Maranus in his edition of the Works of Justin. See our sixth volume, col. 1571-1591. EDIT. PATR.
INDEX OF CHAPTERS. Letter Alpha.
I. On the formation and structure of man, and whatever is reported about us in the Scriptures. II. * On man: that God created him endowed with free will, and set him over all earthly things. III. * On man: that he was fashioned by God through a divine gift to be incorruptible and immortal, with the divine commandment, that is, preserving this grace. IV. * On Adam: that he was most wise, and perspicacious, and a prophet, before he transgressed the law of God. V. On beneficence and benefactors. VI. * On the disobedient and insubordinate. VII. On rulers and subjects: that the failings of subjects are ascribed to the rulers, as happening because of their cause and negligence. VIII. On subjects: that subjects imitate the customs of their rulers. IX. * On subjects: that by the judgment of God, due to the wicked inclinations of subjects, pernicious rulers are appointed by God. X. * On rulers: that by imitating the Lord they ought to lead their subjects to virtue through good examples, and win for themselves the affection of the people. XI. * On rulers and prefects: that they ought to use frequent admonitions and testimonies toward the people, so that they may avert danger from themselves. XII. On anarchy: that it is pernicious and dangerous, and brings about confusion. XIII. * On upright men: that their governance and leadership are salutary to the state and the people. XIV. * On the rarity of good men: that it is dangerous to the world.
A XV. On the rarity of the divine word; and that those who do not obey its teaching are the cause thereof. B XVI. * On those who are unstable in mind and not firm in counsel. C XVII. * On things obscure and unknown to us: and that curiosity and imagination concerning these are profitless and full of vanity. D XVIII. On the messenger and the mediator of a reply. XIX. On a good message. XX. On an evil message. XXI. * On sins: and that our sins bring upon us and cause to happen the evils that come to us. XXII. On those who seek to please men, and who are of a feigned and deceitful mind. XXIII. On those who are self-complacent, and who commend themselves and applaud their own actions. XXIV. * On the defense of one's reply: that it is necessary to defend one's replies with prudence and in the name of the Lord, especially when our saving faith is at stake. For by entrusting to God the declarations of our replies, we gain the greatest glory for ourselves and for the truth as well. XXV. * On those who reply insolently. XXVI. * On those who pray: that in our prayer we should conform our petitions to God according to what pleases Him, and not according to what pleases us. For we do not know what is profitable for us. But He, as a good Father and one who knows all things, readily grants those things which are beneficial; but as for those things which bring harm, He grants nothing, however much He is entreated. XXVII. * On things that God abominates and rejects. XXVIII. On things that are impossible and difficult for us. XXIX. * On the marketplace, and the establishment of those who preside over it. XXX. * On things that are becoming and noble. XXXI. On things that are disagreeable and unseemly. XXXII. * On threatening: that the threats of God are to be feared, and that it is not right to hold one's own destruction in contempt. XXXIII. On useless and mutually opposed things. XXXIV. * On those who dishonor themselves. XXXV. On those who impiously assert that the world and the things within it are without providence. XXXVI. On untimely, vain, and thoughtless cursing. XXXVII. * On hearing: that one ought to be eager to listen to useful matters, but to flee from the words of the senseless. XXXVIII. * On those who craftily listen to the affairs of others. XXXIX. On those who speak vain, foolish, and obscene things. XL. On things that can neither be joined nor reconciled. XLI. On insatiable greed: and that we desire without limit to possess more. XLII. * On him who sins and errs: and that he ought to be ashamed and not speak against the one who rebukes him. XLIII. * On astrologers. XLIV. On the saints; and those who are praised for their deeds and their lot: and that God rests in the saints. XLV. On the remission of sins: and in how many ways the propitiation of offenses has been granted to us by God, who alone can forgive sins. XLVI. On anathema and separation: and in how many ways anathema is understood.
[MΖ'] XLVII. That the divine majesty can neither be avoided nor circumscribed; and that it holds all things in its grasp, and beholds all things, and nothing lies hidden from it. [MH'] XLVIII. That God—and His works—cannot be comprehended; and that we ought not to seek out or pry into things that are hidden and beyond what has been ordained for us. For finding these things is beyond our power and comprehension, as we are but human, and it is unprofitable. [MΘ'] XLIX. On love and fear toward God; and that they excel every good thing. [N'] L. Of those who do not love God, nor fear Him. [NA'] LI. On disputing against God; and that one ought not to gainsay Him, or plead one’s case against Him, or speak many words about Him. [NB'] LII. That the angels who sinned are also punished. [NΓ'] LIII. That God has appointed angels as our guardians. [NΔ'] LIV. On the sentence passed by God; and that it is not at all consistent with humanity to show indulgence against the commandments of God. [NE'] LV. On the renewal of visible things—namely, the heaven and the earth. [NϚ'] LVI. On the unstable and uncertain state of human affairs; and how the life of men is burdensome and full of sorrow. [NZ'] LVII. On being without sin; and that no one is without sin, save God alone. [NH'] LVIII. Of those who sin and imagine that they escape the notice of God. [NΘ'] LIX. On the curse pronounced by the Lord, and by the prophets, and by the apostles. [Σ'] LX. On charity, and peace, and concord, and peacemakers. [ΣA'] LXI. On truth and faithful testimony. [ΣB'] LXII. On sloth and anxiety of soul. [ΣΓ'] LXIII. On the unwise and the foolish. [ΣΔ'] LXIV. Of those who embrace evil things, and despise and disparage justice. [ΣE'] LXV. On the man of simple and harmless character. [ΣϚ'] LXVI. On good shame. [ΣZ'] LXVII. On evil shame. [ΣH'] LXVIII. On desperation; and that we ought not to despair of our own salvation. [ΣΘ'] LXIX. On freedom from business and quiet; and that living quietly fosters the knowledge of God. [O'] LXX. On firstfruits and tithes; that these ought to be offered to God. [OΔ'] LXXI. On coincidences and those who fall from one evil into another. [OB'] LXXII. On reward and retribution in the day of judgment; and that the things laid up for both are eternal and endless, whether they be good things or severe punishments. [OΓ'] LXXIII. On the reward of those who have lived well and according to the rule of virtue, in infinite happiness. [OΔ'] LXXIV. On the tremendous resurrection. [OE'] LXXV. On the holy, and uncreated, and coeternal, and consubstantial Trinity. [OϚ'] LXXVI. On the holy angels; and that they dwell in joyful happiness, ministering to the adorable Trinity. [OZ'] LXXVII. On heretics, and those who contend over the faith and raise disputes; and that one should not scrutinize syllables and words, but rather the mind and understanding of the dogmas; and that it is not permitted to disturb the oracles handed down by the Church.
Letter B.
[A'] I. On a king: that it is unprofitable for a king to go out to war, and that it is better [to do so] by means of mercenaries.A II. On the good and just king, and [the king] who hates the evil. III. On the king who is not very illustrious. IV. That one must pray for the king. V. On those who blaspheme and speak boastfully. VI. On the envious. VII. On violent and non-violent matters; and that whatever we accomplish by our own strength is pleasing to God. VIII. * On assistance and support provided to those who suffer wrongful accusation: that this is highly pleasing to God. IX. On the counsel of God: that it remains immovable, cannot be reached by men, and is inviolable. X. On the help of God: and that with God assisting, every ambush and assault of the enemy becomes weak, and the few overcome the many. XI. On baptism and the prophecy of the divine bath. XII. * On the constant and the inconstant man. XIII. On counsel: that one must perform all things with counsel and consideration. XIV. * On slow counsel and hesitation: and that which is done inconsiderately is harmful. XV. On food and the necessities of life. XVI. On the kingdom of heaven.
B
Littera G
I. On agriculture and farmers: that it is good to work. II. On smooth-talkers. III. * On laughter and ridiculous men. IV. On those who murmur and complain. V. * On a good generation. VI. * On a perverse and evil generation. VII. On those who change their opinion and accuse themselves. VIII. That it behooves one to know himself and to foresee his own strengths, and not to be arrogant. IX. On men endowed with knowledge: and what good things will follow them. X. On old men adorned with virtue and prudence. XI. On old men who live in foolishness and vice. XII. * On good parents: and that children must be educated with diligence and in a fitting manner. XIII. On parents who make little account of the education of their children. XIV. On women: that they must be subject to their own husbands. XV. On women: that it is not fitting for them to pray with an uncovered face. XVI. On women who bear a male or female child; and how many days they must abstain from entering the church of the Lord. XVII. On the strong, modest, and prudent woman. XVIII. On evil women, adulteresses, harlots, and those filled with every malice.
Littera D
I. * On testaments and heirs. II. On doctrine: and that to teach belongs not to everyone, but to the wise and educated. III. * On heretical teachers: and that they are to be fled. IV. On those who recount and teach vain things. V. * On those who agitate and plot evil things in their mind. VI. * On those who declare themselves to be righteous, and despise others.
C VII. On the timid, the duplicitous, the fickle, and the cowardly. D VIII. On litigious persons, and those who take up the quarrels of others. IX. On dinner and conviviality. X. * On the distinction between the most pleasant things, and their comparison. XI. On the distinction of states and morals, and the diversity of opinions. XII. On the correction of an evil life towards the good: that this is most pleasing and dear to God. This is achieved and perfected by the memory and detestation of one’s errors, and by ardently approaching those things which are praiseworthy and good. XIII. On discretion: that in every matter one ought to possess discretion and the fear of God. XIV. On the discernment and testing of morals, and the hidden inner life of a man. XV. On the acceptance of bribes. XVI. On seditious contagions: and that the commotions and dissensions of crowds are to be avoided and fled. XVII. On the slothful and idle, those given to luxury, the turbulent, and those who prepare their own destruction. XVIII. That one ought to foresee and consider the eventual outcome in all things: since all human matters are mutable and obscure. XIX. * On gifts and good endowments: that every good is from God. XX. On those who serve God: that one ought to honor and revere them, and provide what is necessary for them. XXI. On the righteous: that the Lord keeps them from temptations, and they spend many years in joy; and that they are loved by God, and the houses of the righteous are blessed. XXII. On the righteous, and the prayer made by them: that it is acceptable and precious before God. XXIII. On the righteous: and that they are despised and slandered by the unjust and impious. XXIV. * On the righteous: that their death is precious before God, and how their memory is held in honor. XXV. On those who honor righteous and good men. XXVI. On those who heap reproaches upon righteous and good men. XXVII. On justice and virtue. XXVIII. On the devil, or Satan, and the demons. XXIX. On the power of God. XXX. On the creation of the world: and that all things have been made by God, and nothing has been created by Him in vain or superfluously. XXXI. On the glorification of God: and that one ought to glorify and sanctify Him; and that he who does not do this becomes liable to judgment; and that God glorifies those who glorify Him. XXXII. On the difference between God and men: and that there is a great chasm between God and men, and regarding sin against God; and that one ought not to be distrustful of God regarding anything. For all things are possible to Him. XXXIII. On incredulity. XXXIV. On the double-tongued. XXXV. On incorruptible judges, and those who have clean hands. XXXVI. On judges who accept bribes, and who judge unjustly. XXXVII. On good masters. XXXVIII. * On evil masters. XXXIX. On good servants. XL. On evil servants. XLI. On the morose. XLII. On glory and honor: and that one ought not to bestow one's own glory upon another. XLIII. * On upright creditors. XLIV. * On dishonest creditors.
A XLV. On those who borrow: and that one ought to be grateful to one's creditors. XLVI. On those who borrow and are grateful.
Letter E
I. On the divine commandments: that they are saving and life-giving, and in all respects straight, and holy, and just. II. On those who do not keep the commandments of God. III. * On those who act prosperously in their works. IV. * On those for whom things go ill. V. On works and actions: that before every work, it is necessary to secure holiness for oneself through the remembrance of God and thanksgiving. B VI. On authority and power: that all rule is from the Lord. VII. On praises and encomia, and on those who delight in them: and that no one ought to be praised before he has been tested. VIII. * On abandonment: that to be stripped of the help and protection of God is more grievous than any calamity. IX. * On indigence and penury. X. On calamities sent upon us by the just judgment of God. XI. On vengeance and retribution for sins: that our most humane Lord will not punish our sins a second time if we have corrected ourselves. XII. * On accusation. XIII. * On covetousness: that it is by no means fitting to follow one's desires without judgment and examination, however good they may appear. For we are cajoled by these, as we are weaker toward those things which do not profit. XIV. * On the desires of holy men. C XV. On assistance: that it is good to bring aid to those in need. XVI. On beneficence, or an offering born of injustice: that it is unacceptable before God. XVII. * On those who lay hands upon one another. XVIII. * On the ingenious, the skillful, the experienced, and the well-learned. XIX. * On surety and a guarantor. XX. * On pledges. XXI. On enemies: that one ought not to remain implacable toward those who have stumbled, nor to rejoice at their misfortune and fall. XXII. * On continence. XXIII. On common business. D XXIV. On the reprover and rebuker: that such a one ought to offer reproof obscurely and not harshly, since such things are destructive: but rather to lead the responsible person toward better things with gentleness. XXV. On good and bad fortune. XXVI. * On those who are liable to death: and that no one dies for another: neither parents for children, nor children for parents. XXVII. On him who constructs an ambush for his neighbor: and that he himself will fall into the snare. XXVIII. On business affairs: and that constant occupations regarding worldly things confuse our life and deprive us of spiritual and eternal goods. XXIX. On dreams, divinations, and omens. XXX. On those who avenge themselves: that this is a sin. XXXI. * On voluntary and involuntary things, whether righteous deeds or sins, which are committed through both knowledge and ignorance. XXXII. * On thanksgiving toward God: that His benefits should not be consigned to oblivion. XXXIII. * On those who do not give thanks, but are ungrateful and unmindful. XXXIV. * On eunuchs and the unmarried.
A XXXV. On ventriloquists, and enchanters, and those who consult omens. XXXVI. On idols and idolaters. XXXVII. On happiness and blessedness: and that no one should be called blessed before his death. XXXVIII. On faith in God: that one ought to hope in God, and not in the protection of men; because no one who has hoped in God has been put to shame. XXXIX. On those who do not have hope and confidence in God, but trust in riches and in men. XL. On the Church of God, and the altar: and that one ought not to eat in church. XLI. * On the feast. XLII. On the blessing bestowed by God, and the prophets, and the apostles. XLIII. On prayer: what things are rightly accomplished for us through prayer. XLIV. On almsgiving and beneficence toward the poor. XLV. On those who do not give alms, but are devoted to avarice and injustice. XLVI. On contractors, and those who involve themselves in the lawsuits of others. XLVII. On good bishops, who keep the commandments of God. XLVIII. On evil bishops, who do not keep the commandments of God. XLIX. * On employers, or good overseers of works, and good laborers. L. * On wicked employers. B
Letter Zeta
I. That one ought to seek God and follow Him, and everything is to be done in His name. II. On brute animals, adorned with natural wisdom. III. On good zeal and best emulation. IV. On evil zeal and corrupt imitation. V. On just balances, weights, and measures. VI. On unjust balances, weights, and measures.
Letter Eta
I. On a good and festive day. II. On a hard and grievous day. III. On day and night. IV. * On the last day, and the Antichrist.
Letter Theta
I. On the bold and the courageous. II. * On the bold and the rash. III. * On those who are addicted to their own will and persuasion, and who please themselves: that this vice is grave. IV. On not trusting, nor confiding one's own affairs to everyone. V. On divine mystery. VI. On sacrifices; and that God does not accept corrupt sacrifices. VII. On divine oracles: that one ought to be diligent in listening to them. C VIII. On divine and Christian mysteries. IX. On the afflicted and the anxious, and on sadness. X. On death, and the state of the dead. XI. On those who die, and those who mourn; and that one ought not to mourn for those who have departed. XII. On death, and the fear arising from it. XIII. On the sea. XIV. On harvest and vintage. XV. On hunters. XVI. * On a chaste and well-behaved daughter. XVII. On an unchaste and uncultivated daughter.
Letter Iota
I. * On equality: that equality is of brotherly love. D
mother and nurse, both in spiritual and in carnal things. A II. On dress: that one ought not to use expensive clothing. III. On physicians and medicine. IV. On priestly equipment and things consecrated to God: that it is not permitted for a private person to touch a priestly vessel. V. On equality: that the status of rich and poor is equal before God. B Letter K. I. * On the world and the all-beautiful and diverse creation of it which came from God: that nothing in it, whether in visible or invisible things, originated or emerged spontaneously. II. On time: that there is a time for every thing. III. * On constancy and perseverance: that things sought with perseverance are brought to completion. IV. On the beauty and elegance of the body: that God does not take pleasure in these, but in the beauty of the soul. V. * On those who cultivate beauty: that the cultivation of bodily beauty is an abomination before the Lord, because it is harlot-like. C VI. On boasters and those who imagine themselves to be something. VII. On vainglory and pride: that the thing is harmful. For it is not fitting to ascribe to oneself deeds that have been rightly performed, but to God, the author and helper of good things, and to return thanks to Him. VIII. * On those who think evil and harbor wicked counsels. IX. * On the malicious. X. * On a sullen and gloomy face. XI. * On those who have noble characters and on the state of their dispositions. XII. * On those who have wicked characters and are ill-natured. XIII. On slander and detraction: that this vice is most grave, both for the one who suffers from it and for the one who participates in it. XIV. * On the deaf. D XV. On a pure heart and those who have a clear conscience. XVI. On an evil heart and those who have wicked intentions. XVII. On the wicked: that they ought to be suppressed as quickly as possible according to the rule of law, for the sake of the peace and good order of the people and the suppression of the evil. XVIII. * On those who contemptuously disregard the saving long-suffering of God toward us sinners. XIX. On a superior: that one ought not to contend against those who are superior. XX. * On not judging, condemning, and disapproving of one another, and not applying abuse. XXI. On thieves and those who associate with them. XXII. On dangers and crises: that one ought to decline and flee from their onslaughts. XXIII. On the inexplicable and unutterable judgments of God: and that one ought not to be indignant or bewildered because the just often suffer misfortune, while the unjust at times fare well in life. For the cause of such things is ineffable and known to God alone. XXIV. On the judgment and justice of God: that God distributes to each according to his merit, and does not show partiality. XXV. * On good and upright men. Letter L. I. On abuse. II. * On speech, and the praise and blame that arise from it.
III. On famine, and the necessity that it brings. IV. * On sadness, and on those who are sad and mourning. But it is not good to exceed measure.
Letter M. I. On drunkards and profligates. II. On those who are being taught: that one must diligently ask and learn those things that are profitable to the soul, and spiritual knowledge. III. * On those who dislike learning. IV. On secrets: that it is a fatal betrayal to divulge those things that are the secrets of friends. V. * On battle, and the things that occur in battles. VI. On those who bring to another state, and convert, those who are agitated, angry, and enraged. VII. On those who engage in divination, augury, and omens; and on the so-called gods, which is to say, abominations: that all these things are unlawful, censored, and forbidden by the holy Scripture, as are all things similar to them. VIII. On those who labor in vain and think vanity. IX. * On the change of things; and that nothing in life is permanent, but all things depend on the will and hand of God. X. On beatification: that no one should be called blessed before death. XI. On God’s hatred of wickedness, and of those who are displeasing to Him. XII. On the hatred of evil, and of those who turn away from abominable things. XIII. On repentance and confession. XIV. * On those who do not turn to repentance. XV. On brotherly hatred. XVI. On upright monks, and good superiors. XVII. * On monks who change their mind and return to vice. XVIII. On the idle, the slothful, the scornful, and the sluggish. XIX. On hatred and enmity, and those who join battle.
Letter N. I. * On young people adorned with discipline and prudence. II. * On young people living in folly and lack of understanding. III. * On young men and good rulers. IV. * On young men and evil rulers. V. * On the sick and infirm: that one must visit them. VI. On being vigilant, and caring for our own salvation; and that we live in a pirate-infested and dangerous life. VII. On the newly married. VIII. On fasting and continence.
Letter Ξ. I. On strangers and hospitality: and that the stranger is always without confidence.
Letter O. I. On the household and domestic state: and that it is not good to frequent the houses of others, and to listen to the affairs of others. II. * On good reproach according to God, and reproach for evil action; and that it is not at all becoming to attack with reproaches. III. On the good way. IV. On the evil way. V. * On those who are of similar habits, similar kind, and similar disposition. VI. On established boundaries.
A VII. On oaths and determinations that are not good: that one must not adhere to them. VIII. On those who love to swear; and that a vain oath should not be taken, nor should one swear at all. IX. On those who break oaths and swear falsely. X. * On poverty of life, lack of possessions, and self-sufficiency. XI. On orphans and widows. XII. On wine and its use. XIII. On opinion of self and pride of soul. XIV. On those who live a short life and those who live a long life. XV. On the eyes and sight. XVI. On a good and gracious name. XVII. On a name that is neither good nor gracious. XVIII. * That God is not the author of evils: and that evil is neither a being, nor naturally subsistent. XIX. * On the name of God.
Letter II.
I. On conduct that is blameless and pleasing to God. II. On chastisement from God, and on those who receive with gratitude and patience, and bear, the things that come upon them; for thus it is necessary to do. III. On those who do not receive the saving chastisement of God for their own amendment. IV. * On boldness of speech: and how it is possible for one to become a person of boldness. V. On offerings that are holy and acceptable, and those that are unholy and unacceptable. VI. On the tempting of God: and that God must not be tempted. VII. On temptations: that some arise from the outside to manifest the secret of our will; others arise from ourselves, and we ourselves are the authors of them, whether for our praise or our disgrace. VIII. * On those who are yielding and easily give way; that this is peaceful and profitable for souls. IX. On the obstinate, and those who do not allow themselves to yield even a little or to be overcome. X. On vicissitudes: that one must not resist vicissitudes, however powerful we may be, nor grow arrogant against those who rise up. For this brings no profit. XI. * On war and the laws of war; and that wars are stirred up against us by our own sins. XII. * On civil war. XIII. * On plunder and pillage. XIV. * On those who provoke and embitter. XV. On observation and augury. XVI. On good intent and firm purpose of mind, and an honest way of acting: that God desires, along with His own aid, a good intent regarding good works, for which He also fashioned us, so that as workers of good things we might be deemed worthy of honors from Him. XVII. On those who deceive and those who are deceived. XVIII. * On those who speak falsely. XIX. On forgers. XX. On a city filled with impiety and lawlessness. XXI. On those who are highly experienced and learned. XXII. * On a deposit. XXIII. On a faithful, like-minded man, and one privy to secrets: that he is rarely found. XXIV. On constancy, and those who persevere: that constancy performs its work; and that we must be disposed towards those who receive us not only with goodwill, but also with perseverance, and not admit anyone to the service of constancy rashly and without examination.
A XXV. On faith and piety toward God. XXVI. On those who violate piety and faith, and are irreligious toward God. XXVII. On wicked, impious, and sinful men. XXVIII. On wickedness, vice, and sin. XXIX. On gluttony, surfeit, and greed. XXX. On spiritual progress. XXXI. On temporal and eternal goods: that future things must be preferred to present ones. XXXII. On providence: that God takes care of us and provides for us. XXXIII. On zeal and anxiety: that one ought not to pursue things with excessive zeal. XXXIV. On prophets who slew men and were pleasing to God. XXXV. On prophets who rebuked kings with boldness. XXXVI. On God’s foreknowledge: and that hidden and obscure things should be left to God, since He alone knows them. XXXVII. On virginity, chastity, and honorable marriage. XXXVIII. On fornication, adultery, and unnatural lust. XXXIX. On danger and inexperience. XL. On gentleness and reverence. XLI. On the headstrong, imprudent, irascible, hot-tempered, and quick-to-anger. XLII. On the vicious conduct of the disobedient, the contumacious, the malicious, and the crafty. XLIII. On the poor and needy who bear the yoke of poverty nobly: and that one ought not to avoid or despise them. XLIV. On the ungrateful and blasphemous poor and needy. XLV. On children who honor their parents: and what good things follow those who obey them. XLVI. On children who are perfidious toward their fathers and mothers: and what evils follow those who are disobedient. XLVII. That parents ought to instruct their own children: for if they do not do this, they themselves will also be partakers of the sin that arises from them. XLVIII. On presbyters. XLIX. On sanctuary, and those who flee to holy places: that one ought to bring aid to the innocent, but drive away the guilty. L. On selling and buying. LI. On the will and disposition: and that God examines the will, for both good and evil. LII. On the discipline of God occurring by way of trial and testing. LIII. On rich men who live well and as is proper. LIV. On rich men who do not live well. LV. On one’s neighbor: that one ought to bear the burdens of one’s neighbor, and to assist him; and to rebuke with love whatever he may have perhaps done wrongly, and not to hold his faults in memory.
Letter P. I. On the slothful, the negligent, and the contemptuous. II. On the vagrant and the wandering.
Letter S. I. On relatives: that we ought to care for their guardianship generously. II. On behaving toward one another, and desiring unity. For that which is divided is quickly plotted against.
III. On those who commend themselves: that they labor in vain; for every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and has its firmness and purity from the divine decree. A IV. On carnal men, who are enslaved to carnal passions. V. On evil habit: and that it is possible to be weaned from evils, since evil does not depend upon nature, but upon the will. VI. On scandals: that we must take heed with all our might not to give an occasion of scandal to anyone. For the evil is ascribed to its author. VII. On gathering: that it is dangerous and harmful to assemble and communicate with an assembly of wicked and treacherous men. B VIII. On a good conscience, and those who are well-advised within themselves. IX. On an evil conscience, and those who condemn themselves. X. On those who are darkened by their own conscience. XI. On a counselor. C XII. On those who receive counsel and reproof; but one must know what sort of person the counselor is. XIII. On those who do not receive counsel and reproof. XIV. On those who are stiff-necked. XV. On dissimulators. D XVI. On a moderate state, and on that saying: Nothing in excess. XVII. On occurrences, and those things which happen to some unexpectedly; the knowledge of which is perhaps not open to us, but is known to God. XVIII. On indulgence and mutual compassion: that these are pleasing to the all-beneficent God, who stands in need of nothing. XIX. On wise and prudent men, and that they ought to be ready to be a help to all. XX. On erudition: and that we ought to be disciplined by the evils of others. XXI. On zeal: that every zeal and effort is useless if God is unwilling; and that the ways of men are directed by God, whether for good, or for the vengeance of enemies who behave themselves disorderly. XXII. Prophecies concerning the holy cross. XXIII. On the worldly wisdom of the prophet Isaiah. XXIV. On those things which happen and befall beyond expectation. XXV. On soldiers. XXVI. On the company of upright men: and that one ought to cling to the best men, and not to the wicked. For each man becomes like those with whom he dwells. XXVII. On the company of evil men: and that the societies of wicked men are to be avoided, as they bring forth destruction. XXVIII. On wisdom, and discipline, and intelligence, and prudence. XXIX. On those who are silent, and those who speak little: and that one ought not to answer before having heard the word.
Letter T
I. On those who are quick to speak and talkative. II. On honor: that we ought to show honor to others. III. On order and constitution. IV. On perfection: and that no one among men is altogether upright, and most perfect, and in need of nothing. V. On the blind. VI. On craftsmen: and who were the inventors of the arts.