Letter to George, Prefect of Africa 1 part 1/14

To the servant of God, the lord George, the all-praiseworthy eparch of Africa.

No one deprived of light in whatever way desires, I think, to enjoy a ray of the sun so much as we, all of us humble ones, who have been richly filled with your goodness and nobility, desire again to behold you present, and to enjoy your beauty;

[you who are] marked by the divine manner of your connate virtues, by which also we know you formerly, when dwelling among us, to have been nobly and greatly distinguished;

by which we were taught more clearly that virtue belongs to disposition, and not to rank;

and that the God-imitating quality belongs to attitude, and not to dignity.

For to those blessed ones such as yourselves, in whom the power of love toward God has been genuinely rooted in the depth of the soul, there has accrued also, without doubt, this: to remain constantly the same with regard to the good;

just as, indeed, to those who are fluttered by love for material things, there accrues a proneness easily to fall into a multitude of passions, and to be easily scattered.

For the lover of the Divine — since the Divine is one and alone, and impassible, and has, from eternity, absolutely nothing else of different essence contemplated together with it or additionally observed —

for none of the things that proceed from it attain to it;

clinging by disposition according to desire, he himself too is one, and alone, and impassible, by his unattached inclination toward the One,

There is also an indication of the page of the Patrologia, whenever the text derives from there.

having become one and alone, and unchangeable —

for if there is one and only thing desired by him, and this is, properly speaking, unchangeable, as being, on account of its natural infinity, immovable in essence;

for the immovable infinite has nowhere to be moved to;

therefore he too, being as it were a lover of the One, has fittingly become one, and alone, and unchangeable;

since he has made his disposition entirely unmoved from the One.

But he who, through ignorance of the better, has bound the love of his soul, by his own disposition, to material things — which are by nature changeable and alterable, and able to stand still nowhere at all — is of necessity changeable, and passible, and easily altered;

having the disposition of his soul co-moved and made passible along with things that are by nature moved and made subject to passion.

May, therefore, nothing among existing things, O my blessed lord, be able to displace you from this good and God-directed habit of yours, which keeps your disposition as a fellow-traveler toward God;

may time — disorderly changing along with itself the flux of material things — not alter the firmness of your disposition;

may not the threat of men, holding forth fear, dislodge the steadfastness of your good attitude;

may not the speech of flattering men, sweetening with its utterance the hearing of the soul, relax its vigor;

may not the desire for retaliation, arising from the possibility of perhaps [exercising it] against someone, altogether corrupt the gentleness of your character;

may not the desire for the glory of ruling diminish the longing of your love for the Divine.

For not ruling over men is not at all a deficiency of glory before God or before men;

but rather an increase of glory, in proportion as the soul is established free from every kind of external trouble and care, as my reasoning holds;

and everyone who piously discerns what is fitting will, I think, agree.

For every man who is truly virtuous and God-loving is self-sufficient unto himself for all happiness;

needing no external adornment at all in order to procure this [happiness].

For he who has made the manifestations of the divine properties, in his own life, into [his] marks of identification, possesses entirely the fullness of all good things;

through which it is naturally the case that exact assimilation to God comes to be present in men;

to which not even anything among things ranked after God, however great, when compared, can be set alongside.

And simply put: may neither sickness, nor health, nor wealth that drags one down, nor the poverty of perishable things, nor blame, nor praise, nor death, nor life, nor the present, nor the future, nor absolutely anything else among things that exist or come to be, be able to corrupt this philosophy that has nourished you and has advanced you to such renown before both God and men.

If we should entrust to God all things concerning ourselves;

and should altogether refrain from seeking anything of those things which we were not commanded to seek from God;

but should seek, with all diligence, everything that we were commanded to seek from God;

and as for those things which, after God, are under our own disposition and power, may we will them in every way, and strive to give them shape through the very deeds themselves;

but the things which, by every reckoning, do not require our consent for their coming to be or ceasing to be, may we yield entirely to God, with thanksgiving and faith, to guide wherever he wills and intends, in no way disputing at all against the principles of his providence and governance;

for which things the whole [course] is borne, unknowably, with ineffable wisdom, toward its own end, according to the foreknowledge of God;

even if, otherwise, and contrary to our hope, he should bring about the outcome of such matters.

For he is the most wise guardian and protector of our affairs, inasmuch as he has not acquired wisdom as something that befell him, but he himself, according to essence, both properly is and is called Wisdom.

Let us wish to keep genuinely one thing alone: to love him, as he said, with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and the neighbor as ourselves;

striving to devise every means to bring this divine commandment to fulfillment;

our aim being this: whatever dignity or rank, life and outward condition we may hold —

whether rulers or ruled, both wealthy and poor, both healthy and sick, and however otherwise disposed in body;

and concerning the rest, as many things as by their nature do not at all follow upon our will, let us not be anxious about them in the least.

For what is it to us, that which is not established by nature out of necessity, or by disposition out of our own willing?

And it is perhaps because the Word wishes us to consider this, that it has not given us, through divine commandment, any ordinance concerning this;

so that, by undertaking, contrary to nature, things that are not in our power, we might not blameworthily misuse the power of willing;

and lest we show it to be weak, as not possessing [power over] the things that can in no way be subject to it;

nor do violence to God, by thinking that the governance of providence belongs to ourselves — [that providence] which wisely employs the things not in our power for the chastisement of the evils that are in our power;

but for the increase and vigorous course of the good things that are in our power.

but let us believe that these things are, together with divine providence, also an achievement of our own disposition, in accordance with our will.

In our power, therefore — that I may sum it up, as it were, in a single definition — is everything that is comprised under the category of virtue, or conversely under the mode of vice, and that follows, according to our will, upon our disposition.

But not in our power is everything that does not have our free choice as the maker of its own existence;

and everything that exists by nature is free of both virtue and vice;

but by the use of those who possess it, it becomes this or that — or, to speak more properly, appears [as this or that].

Therefore let us will vehemently, and hold in great esteem, all the good things that are in our power alone, as being works of our free choice together with God, and being matters belonging to our disposition;

and thus we shall become obedient and well-reined colts of divine grace, receiving the Word mounted [upon us], who orders aright, in good sequence, our course of the virtues.

But as for the things not in our power — since they are not, in themselves, by nature, vice or virtue, but instruments of free choice, bringing into the open the hidden impulse of the principle that is in our power — let us not will them at all;

lest we corrupt, by misuse, the natural power of willing, [by] wishing to lay hold of things unmanageable, and things that cannot be accomplished by it.

But let us entrust these things to God, and let us receive with thanksgiving every change of times and circumstances, occurring for our benefit according to the saving will of God;

so that the good of virtue may be accomplished for us not only through the same circumstances, but likewise also through different ones, and, through irregular circumstances, evenly.

For no one ever falls from good hope, who yields and entrusts to God the governance and providence — which rests with him — over the things that are not in his own power.

And true is the Sage, who said somewhere among his own words:

"Look at the ancient generations, and see: who trusted in the Lord, and was put to shame?

Or who called upon him, and he overlooked him?"

Since these things stand in this manner, as the discourse, running along with truth, has shown;

and has clearly set forth the distinctive property of the things willable and not-willable, having distinguished by definition the things that are not to be confused with one another;

let us not, then, when our office is taken away from us, contend for it, as though enduring the deprivation of some good.

For rule does not at all follow us simply because we will it, since it lies far from the domain of what is up to us.

just as neither wealth nor health do, nor any of those things lying in the middle ground that are shaped by us toward virtue or vice.

Nor again, on the other hand, when it is given, should we reject it altogether as something evil, since it can perhaps be an instrument of virtue for those who love God—

and for offering all things to God with all diligence, in addition to all that is in their power, as well as the things not in their power which are conceded to happen to them by dispensation—for those who have so purposed.

For without these things we can become, and be, and remain, good and virtuous. For that which is not, by its own nature, either good or evil, we cannot regard as either to be desired or to be avoided.

or destitute of all virtue—the possession of these things is by no means necessary for us in any way whatsoever;

nor indeed is non-possession necessary for the generation and preservation of any good or evil.

Since indeed some, though deprived of power and wealth and health, acquired many treasures of eternal goods;

while others, on the contrary, though possessing power and wealth and health, have by their own disposition fallen away from all the divine goods.

Both the poor Lazarus and the rich man in his story bear witness to this.

The former, deprived of all material power, health, and abundance, received the blessed rest in the bosom of Abraham;

while the latter, though abounding to the utmost in these material things, was kept away from the holy ones by the chasm, and was condemned to have the punishing fire as his portion.

For it is not the work of wealth and health and power;

nor again, on the other hand, is virtue the work of the lot opposed to these, that it should undergo a change to the contrary, being altered together with circumstances;

but it is the work of a divine disposition, and of an intention wholly conformed to the good, fixed unchangeably according to God, and preserving its own unaltered sameness amid opposite circumstances.

And again, when it is taken away, let us not seek it, since we thereby lay down a great weight of dreadful burden, and since its removal reveals the purpose of Providence concerning us—Providence which benevolently administers what is beneficial for each.

'Do not seek to become a judge,' says the Wise One, 'lest you be unable to remove injustices;

lest you be overawed before the face of a powerful man, and thereby place a stumbling-block against your own uprightness;

and you sin against the multitude of the city, and cast yourself down among the crowd, and bind sin upon yourself twice over.'

Yet indeed, blessed one, even if you should wish to be judged by this standard too, you have fallen short of none among those of your rank.

For, as the same Wise One said, the eyes of the Lord looked upon you for good, and raised you up from your humiliation, and lifted up your head; and many marveled at you, and recount your virtues to peoples and nations.

Into all the earth has gone forth the sound of your right accomplishments, and to the ends of the inhabited world has come the fragrant diffusion of your virtues.

For you did not eat your bread alone, but generously shared it with orphans; and from their youth you reared them as a father, and from their mother's womb you guided them to righteousness.

You did not overlook the naked as they perished, without clothing them;

and all the powerless blessed you;

for you warmed their shoulders with the wool from the shearing of your lambs.

You did not set your gold as your dust, that is, for the enjoyment of your flesh;

but you sent all your wealth ahead into heaven, for the preparation of the goods of the soul.

You were not deceived by perishable wealth, nor did you set your heart upon it as it flows away.

You did not associate with buffoons, whose life is shame and whose existence is filled with stains.

Your foot did not hasten toward deceit;

nor did you rejoice at the downfall of enemies, and your heart said—

The earth did not groan against you;

for you did not eat its strength alone without paying honor, nor did you oppress the souls of its owners.

You withheld your hands from unjust gifts;

you rescued the poor from the hand of the powerful, and wept over every powerless person;

and seeing a man in distress, you groaned.

You helped the orphans who had no helper;

and the mouths of widows blessed you.

You became eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, and a father to the powerless.

And, to put it concisely, you feed the hungry, and give drink to the thirsty, and take in strangers, and clothe the naked, and visit the sick, and minister to those in prisons;

or rather, through all these things you are well-pleasing to God;

for whose sake you have judged it more glorious than all things to supply all these needs readily.

that is, the law of the commandments shines forth brilliantly upon you for all to see, through the practice of the virtues;

and by its light you walk in darkness;

that is, by the knowledge of the pious contemplation of beings, you pass unharmed through the deceit and ignorance of this age, hastening toward the unshadowed light.

For to you alone, beloved one, in truth, beyond all men, has it belonged neither to corrupt virtue by the weight of your rule, nor in any way to bow the law of Christ before gold;

but so to have enslaved your authority to virtue, that you are known—I say—from virtue and reason alone;

and to have become renowned everywhere to all, on account of the glory of your righteousness.

But if, avoiding as is fitting the hardship of the flesh, we think to procure for ourselves its ease through our authority, let us know that the ease of the flesh was invented for human life by the transgression of the divine commandment, and was introduced by man who preferred temporal things to eternal ones;

whereas the hardship of the flesh is the effect of keeping the divine commandment; and God, having for this reason become man, both demonstrated and legislated it through himself;

and we should know that the one is the cause of mankind's estrangement from paradise and the goods that are there;

while the other is the cause of the return into paradise, and of the ascent into the heavens;

and, what is indeed the most wonderful of all, the procurer of intimate kinship with God.

And for this reason, let us hold fast entirely to bodily hardship, as being an instrument of divine grace, not changing along with times and circumstances;

while let us utterly disregard the ease of the flesh, as something detestable, and as something that will altogether be dissolved, and will suffer its own fate, and does not overstep its own limits, as the divine mouth of Christ, Gregory, said;

and as productive of all the wounds of the soul;

so that we may become wholly God's, and God's alone, flashing forth the divine rays through all the movements, both of soul and of body—

and, simply put, may become capable of containing the whole God, and become wholly, throughout, gods by grace;

to such a degree that we might be reckoned, in every respect, to be another instance of him himself—

apart from identity with him according to essence;

for this is perfection: bearing in ourselves no mark whatsoever of this age;

lest on account of that mark some deprivation of the divine condition come upon us in any way, and we grieve bitterly over the blemish of our true completeness—

and yet find no means of correction any longer.

When this age of our deeds has passed away from us, nothing of present things remains at all as it now is, in form and condition; nothing of the things that are seen offers reliability or freedom from falling to those who possess them.

Nothing stands firm and durable, remaining unmoved for those who are conquered by it;

not glory, not wealth, not power, not health, not disgrace, not poverty, not slavery, not sickness, not beauty, not youth, not distinction, not deformity, not old age, not lowly birth;

all things pass away, all things wither, all human things vanish like a shadow, and every mass of human eminence is more easily dissipated than a bubble.

For, it says, every man is grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass;

the grass withered, and the flower fell.

For truly all human things have, according to potentiality, corruption bound together with generation;

and often, in some cases, corruption even precedes generation;

and it is observed through both;

and this Providence wisely contrives, so that the principle of things subject to alteration may become, for the confirmation of things eternal, a pedagogy.

All things change into one another, and each is overturned by each;

and through one another they ratify their own corruption rather than their generation.

Let us not, therefore, bind the incorruptible soul to things temporal;

nor let us weigh down the mind, dragging it down to earth by anxious care for material things, since it is by nature free from matter.

Let us, by reason, naturally distinguish from one another those things that never coincide with one another in essence;

and it is no toil at all for us to draw the soul — which is incomposite and can in no way admit dissolution of nature — away from attachment to the things that are perishing.

the error of the senses concerning sensible things —

I mean also confusion — so that we may flee the conflagration;

the punishment which, I say, in every case follows upon these things by fire.

Let us be saved unto the mountain — that is, unto the height of citizenship according to God — lest we be swept away together with them, we who have not yet been wholly removed from the senses, even though, like the blessed Lot, we may seem to be idle from evil, by not working together with the Sodomites in the like things;

that is, with the passions that come through the senses — the things suited to the passions.

Let us, as far as possible, run past the things that pass away, things which can in no way be held by us, having as their very nature a transient flux for their subsistence;

but there springs up for us only the evilly branded disposition of the soul with regard to them, on account of which every torment is destined to be stretched out against the condemned.

Let us readily give up all things, or let us make prior use of them for God through those in need — things whose deprivation naturally attends us by necessity.

Let us, by deliberate resolve, willingly relinquish those things which, by nature, of necessity, both release us and are released by us.

Let us not, through irrational attachment, make the soul — which by nature images its own Maker — captive to the things that come into being and pass away;

the soul which, after it has come into being, never receives an end of its existence, and is appointed always to seek God through all things, and to press on toward him.

Let us not wish to have what we are not able to hold;

nor indeed let us be attached to things that altogether pass away, as though they were eternal.

For the form of this age passes away, as the Saint has said:

"Heaven and earth will pass away," as the God of the Saint has said;

and let us receive the divine pronouncement without falsehood, and let us attain, by faith, the power of the word, and let us be assured, through clear demonstration, of the outcome of the things spoken.

For that whose parts are subject to corruptions and alterations — as one of our wise men said — of this the whole too is, clearly, [subject to the same], even though the time has not yet, in actual fact, arrived, in which these things, the whole, will be dissolved;

since indeed every man, from the things he suffers each day, naturally knows that he will die, even though death is not yet present through actual events.

Let us, therefore, belong to ourselves, and to God;

or rather, to God alone, and not at all to the flesh and the world.

Let us be prepared to call upon our God, according to what is written:

"Prepare, O Israel, to call upon your God";

that is, let us be cleansed of evil stains and defilements, casting off from ourselves, as far as possible, even the bare fantasies of the passions.

For thus, truly, is everyone prepared who wishes to be well prepared;

so that we may receive, through the virtues, as through certain divine colors, the exact assimilation to God.

For thus does he rightly call upon God, who is not ignorant of how one ought to call upon God;

for preparation is, to speak according to my own understanding, estrangement from the passions;

and invocation is the genuine appropriation to God through the virtues.

Or again, preparation is the brightness that comes to be, through the virtues, in those who are worthy;

and invocation is the reception, through true knowledge, of the deifying grace.

For thus we shall be able always to have our garments white, according to what is written:

that is, ways of life that are bright through the virtues;

possessing no evidence of darkness.

And our soul shall exult in God our Savior;

rejoicing both in the putting off of the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit;

and in the putting on of the temple that is created according to God in the Spirit.

For our God will clothe us with a garment of salvation, and a tunic of gladness;

that is, the habitual philosophical practice, according to character, through the virtues, and the unstumbling gnostic contemplation in the Spirit, so that we may also enjoy the primal goods of the future, divine and undefiled bridal chamber.

In all these things, let us carefully consider how we walk, and what we deliberate concerning ourselves;

knowing that many invisible witnesses stand by at the things done by us, not looking only at what appears, but peering into the very souls, and thoroughly examining the hidden things of the heart;

when all the creation of visible things, being shaken, is driven with unspeakable haste toward its own consummation;

and heaven and earth shall pass away with a rushing roar;

and the elements in between, being set ablaze, shall be dissolved;

and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and the things that follow upon these.

When thrones are set forth, and the Ancient of Days sits enthroned before them, and books are opened, containing the faithful and unfalsified records of our deeds and words and thoughts;

and thousand thousands of angels minister to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him;

and a fearful threat of blazing (burning) fire running everywhere, and encompassing all things round about, and melting the mountains like wax;

"For a river of fire," it says, "was flowing forth before him."

When Tartarus, and the vast and immeasurable pit, and the outer darkness, and the sleepless worm shall be manifested as present;

and upon these things fear stood suspended throughout all who were awaiting the outcome;

and angels of wrath, gleaming with punitive fire, seeing fire, and breathing fire, stand ready for every vengeance against every transgression.

And in addition to these, all creation, both earthly and heavenly — as much as is among the angels, and the powers above the angels, and as much as is among men — stands by with trembling, awaiting the fearful manifestation of the divine counsel;

before all of whom the deeds of us all shall be read out, and the exposure of hidden things shall take place;

so that all shall know one another's sins just as each one knows his own, reading without error the book of his own conscience.

"For I will reprove you," he says, "and I will set your sins before your face."

"Their own devices shall encompass them."

And behold, man and his work; and the judge who admits no false reckoning, having present with him the fearful and magnificent power of the heavenly ranks, sits enthroned on high, flashing forth all righteousness, and, by a true and just sentence, apportioning to each what is according to his worth;

to those, on the one hand, who stand at his right hand on account of their good deeds, graciously giving the kingdom of the heavens prepared from the foundation of the world;

but those who, because of the barrenness of good works, have obtained a standing on the left, he thrusts away with wrath into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Who shall endure that raging fire?

Who will not be terrified at the strange spectacle of that worm?

Who will be able to bear the swiftness and, together with it, the heaviness of that outer darkness?

Who will withstand Tartarus bellowing, and the abyss seething up together with it from its depths?

Who, being shaken, does not tremble before the sharp and grim glance of angels, and the downcast aspect of their countenance?

Who will not fear the most terrible of all evils — the turning-away of the face of God, who is by nature gentle, loving to mankind, and compassionate — with whom all creation joins in turning away from, and in abhorring, those who through a quarrelsome mind have impaled themselves upon so many evils, being justly indignant against them, since it is they themselves who have compelled the God who is by nature and alone loving to mankind to appear to them as such?

Who will endure the boundless shame of conscience that is to come at the disclosure of hidden things?

Who will be able to gauge the unceasing wailing, and that bitter and senseless tear, and the gnashing of teeth, and the wailing-cries of those oppressed in torments — or the pain of remorse that lies upon the very midst of their heart, and justly smolders the depth of their soul?

Who is able to declare the anguish that arises in them from not hoping for any appointed term of change, or an end to the punishment that lies upon them, nor awaiting any expectation of a return again to living well?

For that is the last and only judgment, and it is truly a fearful and just tribunal, and more just than it is fearful — and perhaps for this very reason more fearful, because it is also just;

and enclosing within itself all the ages, according to the just verdict of God.

Who, having considered the moanings and groans that are brought forth from the very midst of their heart, and that seize upon their marrow, and bitterly gnaw at their inward parts, will be able to remain free of tears?

Who could bear the lamentation and the wailing without pain and the dejection that attends it, and without pain at the words of remorse with which they are uttered — each of those being punished speaking to himself, and all speaking to all?

For then does each one truly become a knower of his own faults, when the realities appear bare before him, and free of every veil of deceit.

For you were calling us, and we would not obey you;

you offered us words, and we paid no heed, but made your counsels void;

and we did not attend to your words.

Therefore destruction has justly come upon us, and ruin, and tempest, and affliction, and siege;

and now we call upon you, and you do not listen;

we seek from you, and we do not find mercy;

for neither did we ourselves listen to your words;

nor did we show mercy to our neighbor.

For having hated wisdom, and not having chosen the fear of the Lord, nor having willed to heed the counsels of God, we reap such fruits of our own seeds, and are filled with our own folly.

For the deceit of this life blinded us, and we did not know the mysteries of God;

nor did we hope at all that there would be a reward for holiness.

And now, what has arrogance profited us, and what has wealth together with boastfulness contributed to us?

All those things have passed away like a shadow, and like a message running past, and like a ship passing through the surging water;