gulose, you who seek to care for your own gluttony, it is better A for you to cast hot coals into your stomach than the fryings of the rich and of princes. Always pour over yourself all the oil of mercy, and be observant of yourself in all things. Keep yourself from much talking: for this extinguishes in the heart the intellectual motions that sprout from God. Flee from lording it over others with the prelates of the Church, and with others, as from a bold lion. And in the public squares of those who are angry or fighting, do not pass through, so that your heart may not be filled with fury, and the darkness of error be given to your soul. Do not dwell with the proud, for thus the holy operation of the saints B is taken away from your soul, and it becomes a dwelling-place for all vices. If you keep these precepts, O man, and keep yourself in the meditation of God in truth, your soul will see light within itself and will not be darkened for ever: to Him be honor and glory unto the ages. Amen.
ISAAC THE SYRIAN. ON THOUGHTS.
(PETR. POSSIN. Thesaur. asc. 308.)C The motion of thoughts arises in man from four causes. First, from the natural will of the flesh; second, from the imagination of the things of the world introduced through the senses, which he hears and sees; third, from preconceptions and the calling of the soul which one has in the mind; fourth, from the assaults of the demons who war against us in all the passions through the four causes we have mentioned. On this account, a man cannot, as long as he is in this life of the flesh, until death, cease from having thoughts and war. For if it is possible, before the departure from this world and death, to be freed from one of these four causes, you judge. But if it is absurd to think that any such thing D is possible—since our nature is in need of these things—then the passions move in every one who bears a body, who has the will and the leading. And for this reason it is necessary for every person to be watchful; I do not say against one passion, nor two, but against many, as one who bears a body. For those who have conquered the passions through the virtues, even if they are troubled by thoughts and the assaults of the four causes, yet they are not overcome; but they have powers, and their mind is snatched up into the good and divine powers of Him who visits his soul at every hour; the soul and heart rejoice in the revelations, and he who gathers his contemplation within himself sees the light of the Spirit which has loathed distraction; he sees his Master within his own heart. He who wishes to see the Lord strives to purify his heart in the incessant memory of God; and thus in the brightness of his mind at every hour