Works (CSEL) 6

Frequent is our discourse on fleeing this world—and would that the affection were as guarded and careful as the discourse is easy! But what is worse, the enticement of earthly cupidities often creeps in, and the overspreading of vanities seizes the mind, so that the very thing you strive to avoid, this you think upon and turn over in your soul. What it is hard for a man to guard against, it is impossible for him to put off. In short, the prophet testifies that this is rather a matter of vow than of accomplishment, when he says: 'Incline my heart unto your testimonies, and not unto covetousness.'

For our heart and our thoughts are not in our own power—thoughts which, overspreading unawares, confound the mind and the soul and drag them elsewhere than where you had purposed, call them back to worldly things, insert mundane things, force in pleasurable things, weave in enticing things, and at the very time when we prepare to lift up the mind, by the empty thoughts that are inserted we are for the most part cast down to earthly things. But who is so blessed that he always ascends in his heart? Yet how can this come to pass without divine aid? In no way at all. In short, the same Scripture says above: 'Blessed is the man whose help is from you, O Lord: ascents in his heart.'

Blessed indeed is he whom delight does not call back, whom pleasure does not bend down, who does not look back to lower things—which not even Lot's own wife was able to escape. Warned by which example, the Apostle, forgetting the things behind and reaching forth to the things before, hastened to the prize and earned to attain it, because he saw Christ before him, by whom he was called to the crown of righteousness. But he attained it who denied his very self to himself, that he might gain Christ. In short, he himself did not live, but Christ lived in him. For who, amid so many passions of this body, amid so many enticements of this world, can keep his footstep safe and undefiled?

The eye looked and turned aside the perception of the mind; the ear heard and bent its attention away; smell breathed in and hindered thought; the mouth tasted and brought back a crime; touch made contact and kindled fire. 'Death entered through the window,' said the prophet. Your window is your eye. If you should see a woman to lust after her, death has entered; if you should hear harlot-like words, death has entered; if luxury should seize your senses, death has penetrated. And therefore he who wishes to ascend, let him follow not the glad things of the world, not the pleasant, not the delightful, but the things full of grief and weeping; for it is better to go into the house of mourning than into the house of joy. In short, not even Adam would have descended from paradise, had he not been deceived by delight.

Beautifully therefore does David, who had experienced even those perilous sights of man, call him blessed whose every hope is in the name of God. For thus he does not look upon vanities and madnesses, if he ever fixes his gaze on Christ, ever beholds Christ with his inward eyes. Whence again, turned to him, he says: 'Turn away my eyes, that they may not see vanity.' Vanity is the circus, because it profits nothing; vain is the swiftness of horses, because it is deceitful unto salvation; vanity is the theater, vanity is every game. 'All is vanity,' said Ecclesiastes, of the things that are in this world. In short, he who wishes to be saved, let him ascend above the world, let him seek the word with God, let him flee this world, let him leave the lands;

For one cannot lay hold of that which is, and is forever, unless one first flees away from here. Hence the Lord too, wishing to draw near to God the Father, said to the apostles: 'Arise, let us go hence.' The Law also teaches you that the world must be fled and God must be followed. For what else does it teach when it says: 'You shall set apart for yourselves cities of refuge, and they shall be for you places of refuge, whither the manslayer may flee, everyone who strikes a soul unwillingly,' and further on: 'Six cities shall be for you as places of refuge. Three cities you shall give beyond the Jordan, and three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan'? Plainly, indeed, these refuges were appointed for those fleeing this charge of manslaughter; but let us consider more deeply. There are four things which warn us that the secrets of this lesson must be examined more profoundly.

The first: by what reason, out of those cities which fell to the Levites by lot as their portion, were six cities given as a refuge to those burdened with the charge of manslaughter, and why were the cities of the other tribes not also assigned to this office. The second: by what reason were they six in number; for this number seems prescribed not idly, neither of more nor of fewer cities. The third: why were three cities set beyond the Jordan and three in the region of Canaan, to serve as refuge for those who sinned. The fourth: why is there a counting and definition of the time included, within which the manslayer is to dwell in the city of refuge, until the great priest dies, and after the death of the great priest the manslayer returns to the city of his own dwelling.

Concerning each, then, we must speak, and resolve the questions in the order in which we have set them forth. And so, first, it must be explained why the cities of the Levites were given as a refuge. And it is plainly a fitting provision, because the Levites are fugitives from this world, so that they may please God, leaving their fatherland, parents, children, all kinship, that they may cleave to the one God. So too it was said to Abraham: 'Go forth from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house.' But perhaps you may say: he was not a Levite. Yet he had Levi in his loins, as we read written in the Letter to the Hebrews. And the Lord speaks to the Levites when he speaks with his disciples, that is, with the apostles, saying:

'If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'—although it has already been said to all: 'But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people unto adoption.' The fullness has come, the remnants have ceased. For Christ has called all; to all the going-forth lies open, that all may follow; to all the kingdom is set before them, and eternal life. Therefore he whose portion is God ought to care for nothing but God, lest he be hindered by the obligation of some other necessity. For whatever is devoted to other duties is plucked away from the worship of religion and from this our office. For this is the true flight of a priest: the renunciation of his household and a certain estrangement from those most dear, so that he who longs to serve God may deny himself to his own.

Rightly, then, did the sanction of the eternal Law commend the fleeing to the fleeing, so that those who have forgotten this world may receive those who, condemning their own sins and deeds, seek the forgetting of their former life, and desire to abolish the worldly things they have done. A fugitive, therefore, is the minister of God's holy altar. Whence the Lord, as it were the prince of priests, giving a pattern to the Levites in the Gospel, said: 'Who is my mother, or who are my brothers?' That is: I do not acknowledge a mother, I do not recognize brothers, I know not my kin. 'My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.' The minister, therefore, knows the word of God alone, since he knows those in whom the word of God works. And for this reason he is an exile from the world.

Fleeing the body, fleeing the passions, he renounces himself to all things, that he may remain alone, as Elijah said: 'And I am left alone.' Yet he was not alone, for Christ was with him. And the Lord himself was left alone, but, he says, 'I am not alone, for the Father is with me.' There is also this reason: that the Levites are ministers of God. And therefore their cities are by the Law assigned to manslayers who flee, because it is theirs by right to carry out the divine commands concerning those who have committed a mortal crime. The Church does not know how to publish its own laws as the state does: it knows how to make the priest obey the Lord's command. Hear the Levite saying: 'I have handed over such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Smitten therefore by the Levitical sword, let the sense of the flesh die in us, that our soul may live. For unless the sense of the flesh is slain, there can be no fruit of eternal life. Now the refuges of the six cities are these: the first city is the knowledge of the Word and the form of living after his image. For whoever has entered into that knowledge is safe from punishment, according to what the Lord also says: 'You are now clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.' And elsewhere: 'But this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.' This city, therefore, is as it were the mother-city, to which the other five cities of the Levites lie adjacent.

The second city is the consideration of the divine operation by which the world was created. The third city is the contemplation of the royal power and the eternal majesty. The fourth city is the beholding of the divine propitiation. The fifth city is the contemplation of the divine Law, which prescribes what is to be done. The sixth city likewise is that portion of the Law which lays down what is not to be done.

How great is the abundance of the divine mercy, how great the riches of his loving-kindness, that, considering the pursuits of individuals and the frailties of the human condition—by which we are led to fault even unwilling and resisting, and, overcome by enticements, frequently commit involuntary offenses—he should set before us diverse refuges, namely of six cities, so that by the same number whereby the world was formed, by that same number a remedy should be provided against the vices of the world and against the shipwrecks of this present age!

The first remedy, then, is that if a fault has crept upon a man of good purpose, he—without any delay, if he would have perfect security—should hasten to the very citadel of all things, where is the Word of God in that fatherly bosom, that is, in the secret and inmost recess of God, where is the fountain of wisdom, whence in place of death he may draw the immortal draught of eternal life.

The second remedy is that he who cannot foretaste the knowledge of that good, and is rather slow either in natural ability or in the apprehension of faith—since it is by a swift vigor of mind and keenness of intellect that one strives toward the heights of knowledge—should at least consider the works of the Lord, and from the things that have been made contemplate the author of so great a work; since from these good things which are in the constitution of this creation—'for they are very good,' as the Lord said—that highest and eternal Good is apprehended. What an order of things, what a discipline, what grace! Is not even a slow mind provoked by these to love its own author? For if we love our parents because they begot us, how much more ought we to love the Creator of our parents and our own Maker!

The creative power of God, therefore, though it is not seen, is yet estimated from its works, and his works betray the worker, so that he who is not comprehended may be understood. Whence the Lord also says: 'If you do not believe me, at least believe the works.' Good, therefore, is this city too as a refuge, which testifies to the grace of its builder and stirs up our affection, that we may be the more desirous of him who is seen to have bestowed upon us so great a beauty of this fabric. The third order is the contemplation of royal power, that we may be subject to the King, if we do not show reverence to him as to a parent.

For out of fear of the one presiding, he who is ungrateful for salvation often becomes obedient to authority, so that he who would not and could not acknowledge the grace of loving-kindness may acknowledge the necessity of sobriety. Necessity, therefore, corrects him whom loving-kindness ought to have summoned. These are the three cities beyond the Jordan given as a refuge for a more perfect prudence, that first we may flee fault by a leading of the mind that conforms us to the image of God. For so we were created, God saying: 'Let us make man after our image and likeness.' This, then, is the law of that first city. Then, if through the frailty of the flesh and the enticements of the world we cannot so form our mind, let us lift ourselves up by reverence for the Father's begetting and by devotion as offspring.

For love covers a multitude of sins. He, therefore, who has not been able to be after the image of God, let him be unto the fullness of love. That city excludes fault; this one absolves it. This, then, is the law of the second city: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.' But if again they are of a narrow and small mind, who cannot receive the abundance of love and its grace, you have the third city, that the dread of the divine power may make you sober and that fear may bend you. And this is the third law: 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'

These, then, are the chief virtues, and therefore set beyond the Jordan as belonging to the few, not to the many: that you may express the archetype as an image, that you may love the Father as a son, that you may worship the King as a subject. But those who shall have crossed the Jordan—for Jordan is interpreted 'their going down'—those, therefore, who shall have descended from those higher virtues to these lower things, that is, in whom integrity, love, humility have wavered, have refuges nearer to man which they may seek; so that those who are liable to offenses and bent by involuntary vices may hope that the Lord can be reconciled to them if they ask pardon, may hope that they can be corrected if they follow the precepts of the heavenly testaments, by which we are either formed unto innocence or recalled from fault.

These, then, are the cities within the Jordan that follow, that we may make God propitious to us, may follow what he commands, may avoid what he forbids. Let there be, therefore, an eager seeking of the divinity that is to be made propitious, an obedience to the precept that is to be followed, a wariness of the transgression that is forbidden; by which we may venerate the propitiatory mercy of God and his law-giving providence, either by obedience to his institutions or by turning away from his prohibitions. There remains the fourth point, which he speaks concerning the death of the high priest: that until that time the manslayer shall be in the city of refuge, until the great priest dies—in which, according to the letter, the interpretation sticks fast. First, the very flight is determined more by lot than by the equity of any examination; then, in like causes, the outcome is unequal;

for it could happen that, after the refuge of that manslayer, the great priest should die the very next day. But what sentence is this, under such uncertainty? Therefore, because the letter sticks fast, let us seek the spiritual things. Who is this great priest but the Son of God, the Word of God, whose advocacy on our behalf we have with the Father, who is without share in all offenses, whether voluntary or accidental, in whom subsist all things that are on earth and that are in heaven? For by the bond of the Word all things are bound together and are contained by his power and stand firm in him, since in him they were created, and in him dwells all the fullness. And therefore all things remain, because he does not allow those things to be dissolved which he himself has bound together, since they subsist by his will;

for he constrains and governs all things by his command as long as he wills, and binds them together by a natural concord. The Word of God lives, therefore, and lives especially in the souls of the godly, nor does the fullness of the Godhead ever die. For the everlasting Godhead and the eternal power of God never die. Yet he does indeed die to us, if he be separated from our soul—not that he is corrupted by death, but that our mind is loosed and stripped from union with him; for the true death is the separation of the Word and the soul. Then straightway the soul begins to lie open to voluntary sins. We have these kinds of virtues not adumbrated but expressly set forth in the Apostle when he says: 'So, as far as in me lies, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also who are at Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel;'

for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in him, that is, in him who has believed. And then he added: 'from faith to faith, as it is written: but the just shall live by faith.' In whom, then, is the righteousness of God revealed, but in him who is conformed to the image of the Son of God? You have the first precept, after the image of God. The second, because the invisible things of God are understood through the things that are made, that is, his everlasting power and divinity is known by his works. This is the creative power.

The third concerns imperial power, because the Word of God is royal and judicial and full of priestly righteousness, reserving the reward of good deeds and the requital of evil ones for those who shall come into his judgment, of whom the Apostle says: 'But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things.' And so he who has come to know the truth and righteousness of God ought not to do those things which are worthy of death. There follows the goodness of God, propitiatory indeed, of which he says: 'Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?' That is: it ought to lead you. It calls you, because God is good, that you may be able to hope for the pardon of your sins;

for he who is ready to forgive does not wish to take vengeance. He also wove in the legislation, that is, the law-giving, so that if anyone is loosened by the contemplation of the divine goodness and is provoked rather to negligence than to repentance, he may follow the law; since, as he says, 'whoever have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law, and whoever have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.' Now the law is twofold, natural and written: the natural in the heart, the written on tablets. All, therefore, are under a law, but the natural; yet it is not given to all that each be a law unto himself. But he is a law unto himself who does of his own accord the things of the law, and shows the work of the law written in his heart.

You have what the good things of the law are, which nevertheless we ought not only to know or to hear perfunctorily, but also to do; for it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. You have also come to know what the evil things are. First, nature itself is the teacher of good work. You know that you must not steal, and if your servant has committed a theft against you, you beat him; and if anyone has made designs upon your wife, you think he must be prosecuted. What, therefore, you reprove in others you yourself commit: you who preach that one must not steal, you steal; you who say that one must not commit adultery, you commit adultery. There followed also the law which was given through Moses, but through the law is the recognition of sin. You have received also what you should avoid, and yet you do those things which you know to be forbidden.

But what does the law work, except that the whole world should be made subject to God, since it was given not only to the Hebrew, but also called the stranger, for it did not exclude the proselyte? But because the law could stop the mouth of all and yet could not convert the mind, therefore the last remedy of that final city was owed, in which there should be a saving refuge, so that the death of the prince of priests might free us from all dread of death and strip us of fear. Who is he, but he of whom it was read: 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world'? Whom God has set forth as a propitiator through faith in his blood, for the showing forth of his righteousness. But understand that he himself is the great prince of priests. The Father swore concerning him, saying: 'You are a priest forever.'

Rightly 'forever,' because all the others, being temporal, are under sin, but this one has an inviolable priesthood. All are under death, but this one is ever living, since how could he himself perish who is able to save others? 'For such a one,' he says, 'befitted us.' The expression is correct, since indeed among those who exercised a choice of words and expressions, this kind is found, when someone says: 'a place more elevated than befitted the victors.' This I did not pass over without reason, that we may know that the Apostle uses words that are natural rather than common or according to art. 'Such a one, then,' he says, 'befitted us as prince, priest, just, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.'

This, then, is the Word, which, dwelling above the heavens, illumines all things. Whence he is read to be anointed by nature by God the Father, because the Word is light, which 'enlightened every man coming into this world.' This is the Word of God, in whom is the great priesthood, whose intelligible vestments Moses describes in that garment of the prince of priests—the Word which by his own power has clothed the world, and, as it were robed in it, shines forth in all things. He has clothed himself also with the kinship of the human race through the assumption of this body, saying to the Lord ....

and pouring out unspeakable love, giving himself to all by the Spirit and by the fullness of his Godhead, of whose fullness we have all received, that we may know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, and be filled unto all the fullness of God. For Christ is the head of all, from whom the whole body is brought forth and joined together by a mutual connection with itself, receiving its increase by the building up of love. This, then, is the Word, which is supereminent, which says to Moses in the building of that ark of the testimony: 'And you shall put into the ark the testimonies, whatsoever I shall give you, and you shall make the placing of the mercy-seat,' and further on:

'You shall place the mercy-seat upon the ark, from above, and you shall put in the testimonies which I shall give, and I will make myself known to you from there and speak with you from above'—that is: from there where it is above the heavens, where it is with the Father, from there I will speak to you. Let us draw near, therefore, supported by the suffrage of faith and lifted up by its oars to that throne of grace, fleeing this age and its contagion. And this is to flee: to abstain from sins, to take up the form of the virtues unto the likeness and image of God, to extend our powers to the imitation of God according to the measure of our possibility. For the perfect man is the image and glory of God. Whence the Lord also says: 'Be perfect, as also your Father who is in heaven is perfect.'

This, then, is to be like God: to have righteousness, to have wisdom, and to be perfect in virtue. For God is without sin, and therefore he who flees sin is after the image of God. There is no doubt, then, that he who abstains from sin flees. Whence the Apostle also cries out: 'Flee fornication.' For the enticements of sins pursue us, lust pursues us; but flee you, as from a raging mistress, who, if she lay hold of you, suffers you to rest neither by day nor by night, but harasses, burns, inflames. Flee avarice, lest it seize you within. Flee faithlessness, lest it entangle you in its nets. Whence the Lord also says: 'But when they persecute you in this city, flee into another.'

'Amen I say to you, you shall not finish the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes.' For although, on account of the weakness of the flesh, he seems to counsel us to flight, yet he flees better who flees worldly enticement, so as not to be held by anxiety for his riches, nor by the contemplation of treasure, nor by desire for this present life, but with a straight intention of soul hastens to the glory of the heavenly kingdom, presses on to the crown, and is not called back from the passion of his own body by regard for earthly things. Flight, therefore, is death, either celebrated or adumbrated. And perhaps it expresses those cities of lawful refuge, that we may flee to the heights of the virtues, which he elsewhere dispenses as rewards to the good investor, saying:

'Because you have been faithful in a little, you shall have authority over ten cities.' The Law knows six cities; but because he fulfilled the Law who could say, 'I came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it,' he grants a more perfect number of reward. Let us not, then, be ashamed to flee; for this flight is glorious—to flee from the face of sin. So Jacob fled at his mother's urging; for Rebecca said: 'Arise and flee into Mesopotamia.' So Moses also fled from the face of King Pharaoh, lest the royal court should defile him, lest power should ensnare him. And indeed he esteemed the reproach of Christ more precious than the riches of Egypt. So David also fled from the face of King Saul, from the face of Absalom. And indeed, fleeing, he added increases of godliness.

For he spared his treacherous foe and prayed for the safety of his parricidal son. So the people of the Hebrews fled, that their faith and life might open a way for them amid the waves. That flight was the path of innocence, the way of virtue, the taking up of godliness. I dare to say that Jonah too fled to Tarshish, not by flight of body, but by an ascent of mind, who ascended even to the likeness of Christ, so that he became a type of Christ. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, 'so,' he says, 'shall the Son of Man also be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.' For if he had not so fled, he would never have been heard from out of the belly of the whale. But if you doubt, let Rebecca teach you how blessed is the flight which Jacob undertook. Rebecca urged:

'Flee,' she said, 'into Mesopotamia.' And Isaac says: 'Arise, go into Mesopotamia, into the house of Bathuel.' In hymns or oracles, as has been written before us by many, Bathuel is called 'wisdom,' but in the Latin interpretation it signifies 'daughter of God.' Into the house of wisdom, therefore, Jacob is sent, and he is admonished to take a wife from the daughters of Laban, who dwelt in Charran, which signifies 'caverns,' in which is the appearance of the senses, which are as it were in caverns of the body: as sight in the eyes, hearing in the ears, smell in the nostrils, taste in the mouth. For he who delights in this world and exults in the pleasures of the body is subject to the passions of the senses and dwells and lodges among them.

Whence Rebecca also says that he must dwell with him a few days, not for a long time, lest he be tinged by bodily pleasures and be captured by the enticements of the world. But she persuades him to dwell there, that the one eager for discipline may learn the powers of the senses and, as it were, certain sites and regions of the flesh, that he may know himself and may come to know the vehemence of the flesh—what each thing is and for what cause it was created, and how each sense operates. 'Whoever,' it says, 'shall look upon a woman to lust after her.' The eye sees ill in this way. Let the eye, therefore, see and perform its own office, not be directed to a fall by the command of a slippery mind, so as to bring back a vice in place of a duty.

A brief time, therefore, is given for coming to know, or rather for testing, the senses, and perhaps the first beginnings of more tender youth; and straightway he is called back, lest he totter longer upon slippery ground and the inner traces of the soul be drowned in a certain divided flood of this body and of the world. But when he has either been tested, or has stood upon unstable and uncertain and moist soil, he is called back by his mother, patience or perseverance, who says: 'I will send for you and summon you thence,' that even there, on the slippery ground, you may find the safe harbor of wisdom, which will not let you toss as in a shipwreck, and that, having returned, you may know how to persevere in the worship of God, and may be in the assembly of the nations, signifying by his faith that the Church of the nations is to be gathered.

Instructed therefore by these disciplines of patience and perseverance, Jacob, having advanced, acquired for himself a union from wisdom, a partner of his purpose, rich with the dowry of prudence, with whom he might run through the times of his life without any offense. With the treasure of wisdom thus added, he established for himself a flock of varied sheep—but a rational flock, shining with the diversity of very many virtues. Whence he cut off also the boasting of his flesh, which the numbing of his thigh signifies, the sacred interpretation of the mystery being preserved.

By these virtues, therefore, as by certain steps, his mind ascended into heaven, and came to know the secrets of God, and was confirmed and filled, so that Laban, searching his house, found nothing empty in it, nothing void, no idols, no figure of vanity. For there was with him not an image but truth, not a figure of sloth but a solid form of righteousness and an intelligible expression of living virtue. And so Laban searched through his spiritual house and found no need; for it was full, not of figures, but of substantial works. But he could have found the foundations and the summits of the virtues, had he not brought with him the blindness of heart and the darkness of a treacherous mind.

And so, suffused with that blindness of wickedness, the Sodomites could by no means find the door of holy Lot's mind. For whence could an impious mind see either the going-out or the coming-in of a holy man? The Lord himself also says in the Gospel: 'For the prince of this world has come, and in me he has found nothing.' How could he find nothing in him in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt, and dwelt bodily, from whom power went out and healed all? How could he find nothing in the solidity of virtue, in the richness of wisdom, of understanding, of righteousness? You yourself said, O Lord: 'I am full'; you yourself said: 'Put your hand into my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing.' He who did not believe put in his hand and found you Lord and God.

Not empty, therefore, but blind and void is that prince of this world, who knows not how to discern anything but his own, knows not how to find anything but his own, knows not how to recognize the things that are Christ's. Or, if it be as very many have it, 'he found in me nothing,' that is: he will not find in me malice, because malice is nothing; he will not find one dead, because he is not dead. But how shall he find a dead thing in him who quickens the dead, and calls the things that are not as though they were? 'He will not find,' he says, 'sin in me,' who have taken away the sin of the world. For how has he nothing who has all things, and—what is more—has all things that the Father has, as he himself says: 'All things that the Father has are mine'?

Let us flee, therefore, from hence, where there is nothing, where all that is thought to be magnificent is empty, where even he who thinks himself to be something is nothing and is altogether not. 'I saw,' it says, 'the impious one exalted on high and lifted up above the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and behold, he was not.' And do you pass by, like David; pass by, like a good servant, that it may be said to you: 'Pass over, recline.' Pass by, like Moses, that you may see the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and may see a great sight. This is the great sight. But if you wish to see, loose the sandal from your feet, loose every bond of iniquity, loose the bonds of the world, leave behind the sandal, which is earthly. Therefore Jesus sent forth the apostles without sandal, without gold and silver, without money, lest they should carry earthly things with them.

For he who seeks the good is praised not for his sandal, but for the swiftness and beauty of his feet, as the Scripture says: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach peace, of those who preach good things!' Loose, therefore, the sandal from your feet, that they may be beautiful for preaching the gospel. He said 'loose,' not 'bind.' Loose, that you may pass over and find that the impious one whom you admired upon earth is nothing and can do nothing. Pass over, therefore, that is, flee from the lands where there is malice, where there is avarice. Therefore David says to you: 'Turn away from evil and do good.' To turn away is surely to flee; but evil is upon the earth, good is in heaven. Whence he also added: 'Seek peace and pursue it'; peace is in heaven. And so, coming from heaven, he said: 'Peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.'

Therefore, since evils must be fled and shunned, and evils are upon the earth, and upon the earth are iniquities, let us flee earthly things, lest iniquities lay hold of us. These laid hold even of holy David, as he himself testifies, saying: 'My iniquities have laid hold of me, and I could not see' (Ps. 39:13); for by the smoke of iniquity the eye of the soul is blinded, so that it cannot see the things that are bright. So, too, Laban could not see the good things of Jacob, and the prince of this world could not see the glory of Christ. But perhaps you may say: Why then was Jacob sent to Laban, if Laban is blameworthy? If we consider the name, in Latin he is called 'white' (candidus). Therefore Jacob is bidden to go forth to more splendid things. But because Laban was carnal, we understand the splendid things of this life rather than those better ones.

As though not yet perfect, he first goes to him in whose light he might for a season exult. But Laban had sons worse than himself, that is, a name more tolerable than his deeds. And therefore by his mother's counsel, by the divine oracle, and by the will of Jacob himself, a lover of discipline, Laban is forsaken and abandoned. But Rachel hid the holy images, that is, the Church or prudence; for the Church knows nothing of the empty notions and vain figures of idols, but knows the true substance of the Trinity. In short, she abolished the shadow and made manifest the splendor of glory. Let us therefore leave the shadow, we who seek the sun; let us abandon the smoke, we who follow the light. Smoke is iniquity, for as smoke is to the eyes, so is iniquity to those who practice it. The shadow is life;

for this life of ours upon the earth is a shadow, as Job said. And what is here but temptations? All our time is spent in anxiety, all our life in troubles. 'In the midst of snares you shall walk,' it says. And another complained that in the way wherein he walked, snares were stretched out for him, yet hidden. Lest he be caught and fall, he wished to flee like a sparrow, but the snare was not yet broken. 'Flight has perished from me,' he says. He had wings made heavy by that dark water in the clouds of the air, and perhaps he could not fly. In short, he sought to receive those wings, that he might fly away and find rest, as it is written: 'Who will give me wings like a dove, that I may fly and be at rest?' For where there is flight, there is rest. And so elsewhere he says:

'If you sleep in the midst of the lots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver' (Ps. 68:13). But perhaps you may say: How then does he here say that flight has perished from him, when above he had said: 'If I take my wings before the dawn'? Is this not a contradiction? By no means. For the struggles of the just are many. Does an athlete wrestle but once? How often, after many crowns, is he overcome in another contest! How often does one who has frequently conquered sometimes waver and hang in uncertainty! And often it happens that the strong contends with the strong and greater struggles arise, where there are greater proofs of his powers. Therefore David, when he sought flight to escape the adversary, did not find his own wings.

He wavered in a doubtful struggle; for indeed, when he has his wings in his power, the title of the psalm is 'unto the end' (in finem), that is, unto the perfection and consummation of victory. So, as a victor, he says: 'Lord, you have proved me and known me. You have known my sitting down and my rising up.' Rightly did he have the power of flying who had received the wings of resurrection; but here he is still in the cave, that is, in the flesh, in a certain den of this body, contending with king Saul, the son of hardness, and with the power of that intelligible prince who is not seen but understood. Whence the title of the psalm is 'of understanding,' which David, set in the flesh, nevertheless brought to a conclusion, and merited to conclude by his prayer.

In short, he began with the voice of prayer. Add to this that the former psalm is said to be spoken in the person of the Savior, this latter one in the person of David, who did not have victory in his own power but hoped for it from Christ. And yet he too, after he had stretched out his hands to God as it were the wings of his soul, and had taken refuge in the Lord and begged for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, by which he might know the way by which he could ascend, saw the heavens bowed down, that Christ might descend, and prayed that He would lift him up with His hand. Or perhaps for this reason he no longer sought his own wings, because, having become more perfect, he desired the hand of Christ.

Whoever therefore wishes to be lifted up by the hand of Christ, let him first fly away himself, let him have his own wings — he who flees the world has wings — and if he does not have his own (lest perhaps He alone have His own, who has the power of flying), if, I say, he does not have his own, let him receive them from Him who has them. Whoever therefore flees the world flies. 'Behold,' it says, 'I have gone far off in fleeing, and have abode in the wilderness' (Ps. 55:7). David therefore flew away like a night-raven in its dwelling, like a solitary sparrow upon the housetop. But if you refer it to Christ, He flew away in the suffering of His body, that under the shadow of His wings He might protect the peoples of the nations; He flew away in His divinity, He remained in His body and dwelt in the wilderness, that the children of the desolate might be more than of her who had a husband.

Let us therefore follow that body, that we too may rise again; for where the body is, there also are the eagles. He who cannot fly like an eagle, let him flit like a sparrow; he who cannot fly to heaven, let him fly to the mountains, let him first flee the valleys, which are quickly corrupted by moisture, and let him pass over to the mountains. Lot, the nephew of Abraham, passed over to Mount Zoar and was saved; but she who could not ascend, sinking back through womanly affection, lost her salvation. 'Draw near to the eternal mountains,' the Lord says through the prophet Micah; 'arise, depart from this place, for here is no rest for you because of uncleanness. You are corrupted with corruption, you have suffered persecution.' And the Lord says:

'Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains' (Matt. 24:16), where is Mount Zion and the city of peace, Jerusalem, built not of earthly but of living stones, and ten thousand of angels, the Church of the firstborn, the spirits of the perfect, the God of the just, who in His own blood has spoken better than Abel. For Abel cried out for vengeance, this one for pardon; the former accused his brother's sin, this one took away the sin of the world; the former betrayed the crime, this one covered it, according to that which is written: 'Blessed are they whose sins are covered.' But let him who flees flee swiftly, lest he be caught; let him swiftly plunder this world, as the Hebrew plundered Egypt. Let her who is in travail bring forth.

Lest, with the womb of the mind burdened and weighed down by iniquities, she be unable to flee; and let her flee not as one carrying a suckling, but as one unencumbered; not bearing an infant, but presenting one perfect in Christ. Let her flee not as one keeping holiday on the Sabbath, but as a laborer at his task; not as one barren in the cold, but as one rich in the harvest. For this reason it was said: 'Pray that your flight be not in winter or on the Sabbath.' Flight therefore is fruitful of virtues, not barren of merits.

This flight knows no chill of fear, no trembling of death, no shrinking of anxiety, no idleness of dissolution, no holidays of wantonness, no torpor of sloth; but it requires for the heavenly life a tireless traveler, a strenuous competitor for the kingdom above, a wealthy husbandman who gathers in his fruits and in gathering seizes them as plunder. For what else is asked of you, O man, but that you fear God, seek Him, walk after Him, and lay hold of His ways? 'Wherein,' it says, 'shall I lay hold of the Lord? Shall I lay hold of Him in burnt offerings?' Not by ten thousand goats, not by thousands of rams, not by the fruits of impiety is the Lord reconciled and sins redeemed, but in a good life is the grace of the Lord laid hold of.

'It has been declared to you, O man,' it says, 'what is good. Or what does the Lord require of you, other than that you do justice and love mercy and be ready to walk with your Lord?' (Micah 6:8). The Gospel therefore says to you: 'Arise, let us go hence.' The Law says to you: 'You shall walk after the Lord your God.' You have learned how you may flee from here: why do you delay? The Gospel says to you again: 'Brood of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come?' And He says this to those who were coming to the baptism of repentance. Therefore repentance is a good flight; the grace of God is a good flight, in which is the taking up of the one who flees; the wilderness is a good flight, to which Elijah, Elisha, and John the Baptist fled.

Elijah fled from the woman Jezebel, that is, from the outpouring of vanity, and fled to Mount Horeb, which signifies 'drying up,' that in it the carnal flux of vanity might be dried up and he might know God more fully. For he was at the torrent Cherith, which means 'knowledge,' where he might drink in the overflowing abundance of divine knowledge, thus fleeing the world so that he sought not even the food of this body except what the ministering birds brought him — although his food for the most part was not earthly. In short, for forty days he walked in the strength of the food he had received. Surely so great a prophet was not fleeing a woman, but this world; nor did he fear death, he who had offered himself to the One who sought his life, and who said to the Lord:

'Take my soul' (1 Kings 19:4), enduring weariness of this life, not from covetousness, but he was fleeing the worldly enticement, the contagion of a defiled manner of life, and the sacrileges of an impious and prevaricating nation. Solomon too, under the figure of that woman, sets forth the corruption of this world and teaches that the harlot's arts are to be shunned. This is the strange and adulterous woman, from whom he exhorts you to keep yourself, and not to incline your heart to the ways of the world, but to place it in the hand of the Lord, in whose hand is the heart of the king. For he who rules himself — which is worth more than to command others — has his heart in the hand of God, and God turns it whithersoever He wills. No wonder if He turns it to good, He who is of perfect goodness.

Let us therefore be in the hand of God, that we may seek the good, that good which is incorruptible and unchangeable, of which the prophet Amos says: 'Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord God Almighty shall be with you, as you have said: We have hated evils and loved good things.' Where therefore the good God is, there are the good things which David desired to see and believed that he would see, as he himself says: 'I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.' For those are the good things which abide forever, which cannot be corrupted by any change of time or age. Among those good things is he who has sought God and found Him. For where the heart of man is, there also is his treasure; for the Lord is not wont to deny a good gift to those who pray for it.

Therefore, since the Lord is good and is especially good to those who wait for Him, let us cleave to Him, let us be with Him with all our soul, with all our heart, with all our strength, that we may be in His light and may see His glory and enjoy the grace of the supernal delight. Let us therefore raise our minds to that good, and be in it, and live in it, and cleave to it — that good which is above every mind and every consideration, and enjoys perpetual peace and tranquility; for peace is above every mind and above every sense. This is the good which penetrates all things, and in it we all live and from it we all depend; but it itself has nothing above it, but is divine; for no one is good but God alone. What therefore is good is divine, and what is divine is good.

And therefore it is said: 'When you open your hand, all things shall be filled with goodness'; for through the goodness of God all things are deservedly bestowed upon us as good, things with which nothing of evil is mingled. These good things the Scripture promises to the faithful, saying: 'You shall eat the good things of the earth.' Let us therefore be like that good One, that we may obtain the things which are good — the good which is without iniquity and without guile and without harshness, with grace, with piety, with sincerity and benevolence, charity, justice. And so goodness, like a fruitful mother, embraces all the virtues. There is therefore no small reason why we ought to flee from here, that we may pass from evils to good things, from uncertain things to faithful and truth-filled things, from death to life. The Lord Himself also, by saying:

'I have set before you good and evil, life and death,' He showed that the good is life, but eternal life. For if this life is subject to the world and to its malignity, surely that life is good which is not corrupted nor changed, which is debased by no vice, which is acquired by virtue. Let us therefore flee the malice of this world, in which the very days, it says, are evil; and let us flee tirelessly. And so Isaiah cries out: 'Strengthen the slack hands and the feeble knees' — that is, strengthen not the knees of the body, but of the soul — that the step of the mind may be lifted up straight to the heights of heaven, that its course may be more steadfast, its life more mature, its grace more full, its prudence more circumspect.

For this is to flee: to know whither you are tending, to lift yourself up from the world, to lift yourself up from the body, lest again anyone vainly exalt himself, and with the puffed-up mind of his flesh they hold not the Head, and lest it be said of them: 'They fled, and saw not.' But this is to flee from here: to die to the elements of this world, to hide one's life in God, to shun corruptions, not to be defiled by lusts, to be ignorant of the things of this world — this world which lays upon us divers sorrows, empties us when it has filled us, and fills us when it has emptied us. And all these things are empty and void, in which there is no solid fruit. The rich man died and has nothing, because he is not rich toward God, and is therefore foolish; for wisdom is the worship of God, and to abstain from evils is discipline.

Who therefore would not flee the place of malice, the workshop of wickedness, which knows not how to perish? In short, not idly was the sign set upon Cain, lest anyone should kill him, that it might be signified that malice is not extinguished nor taken away from the earth. Cain feared lest he be killed, because he knew not how to flee. For malice is increased and heaped up by its very practice, and is without measure, without end, deciding all things by guile and fraud — malice which is betrayed by its own deeds and by the blood of those it slays, as Cain too was betrayed. And so malice dwells upon the earth and wanders here below; and therefore we pray that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven, that here too there may be innocence.

And so malice, since it has no place there above, here goes about, here rages and pours itself out, neither submerged in that worldwide flood, nor burned up in the Sodomite fire. In short, more grievously did it afterward sprout up in its seedbeds, even to the point of laying parricidal and sacrilegious hands upon the Author of salvation of all. The Law condemns the deed, but does not take away malice. The Lord Jesus Himself condemned sin, but deferred its author, that there might be one through whom the just might be proved. For since God did not make evil, and the wickedness of the devil sowed it, God deferred His vengeance, that the devil might be overcome by those very ones whom he had deceived. Therefore the deceived are exercised, that they may both pay the penalty of their pliability and take up the pursuit of virtue, the diligence of caution. Whence He says:

'Be wise as serpents' (Matt. 10:16). Why as serpents? That the enemy too may be despoiled of his own, and he who wished to strip others may lose what is his — not the venoms, but the gifts of nature. In short, that one is cast down when you ascend. For it is written: 'I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven.' Not 'lightning,' it says, but 'like lightning,' because he lost his own light which he had, before he wished to take away your light from you. But perhaps you may say what we read concerning the Savior: 'As the lightning that flashes from under heaven, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be.' Well here too 'like lightning,' because He is above the lightning. In short, lightning is from under heaven, but the true Light is above heaven. Therefore Satan is like lightning, because he lost what he had; but you have received back what you had lost.

For the sentence has not been loosed concerning him as it has concerning you; for the grace of Christ, which loosed you, bound him fast; for the curse directed against the serpent remains because of your deception. For thus it was said to him: 'Cursed are you above all the beasts of the earth.' For he is the common enemy of all, who was the foe of the good, and he is condemned on behalf of those whom he had not yet harmed, since he who harmed man, to whom all those things are subjected, harmed all things. For he loosed the common law, since he himself is subject, along with the rest, to man. Therefore by the common hatred and execration of all is his curse made heavy. But the kind of his condemnation is not death, but a lasting punishment. 'Upon your breast and belly,' it says, 'you shall walk.'

For the noxious conscience had to be pressed down and malice trodden under, and the fraudulent secret had as it were to be banished from the face of God; at the same time it is shown that the malice is earthly which bends back toward the earth. In short, He added: 'And you shall eat earth all the days of your life.' Indeed the nature of the serpent seems to be described by these words, but rather every vessel of malice is described, every serpent of wickedness, who casts himself down upon his belly and shuts up his venom within himself, and rolls it about within his breast, slippery in his thoughts and walking upon his own frauds, entangling himself in his own deceits, ever moving and stirring up his venoms, and when he plots, trampling down also his belly, that is, the seedbed of his own heart. Whence David beautifully says:

'The wicked are estranged from the womb; they have gone astray from the belly; they have spoken lies; their fury is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp that stops her ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmers and of the enchanter who is charmed by the wise.' For this reason also that seems beautifully said which we read in the prophetic book: 'My belly, my belly! I am in pain,' because there is malice where innocence ought to be, and that part labors the more which in us ought to be more tranquil, and it is trampled by the footprints of wickedness, goaded by claws, shaken by a certain advance and increase of wickedness — there where is the generative seed of eternal posterity.

Indeed this seems to be referred to the fact that he grieved that the sons he had created and taken up had perished; but much more to the fact that in his belly he did not have the seedbed of the Word. Therefore he calls his belly as it were most precious. For precious is the womb of the mind, in which the fruitful crop of counsels is wont to sprout from the seed of the Word, and certain members, as it were, of the whole life and of the virtues and disciplines are wont to be formed. But to return to our purpose: that God thought malice for the time being to be restrained rather than abolished, He says to the serpent: 'And I will put enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and the seed of the woman. She shall watch your head, and you her heel.' Where there are enmities, there is discord.

And there is a zeal for harming; where there is a zeal for harming, there malice is placed. Therefore there is discord between the serpent and the woman. Beneath the discord lies malice; therefore malice has not been removed. In short, it was reserved to the serpent that he should watch the heel of the woman and of her seed, whereby he might harm and pour in his venom. Let us therefore not walk in earthly things, and the serpent will not be able to harm us. Let us take up the evangelical sandal, by which the serpent's venom is shut out, his bite is blunted, that we may be shod with feet for the Gospel. And perhaps for this reason Moses is bidden to loose the sandal of his feet, that he might take up the sandal of the Gospel; or because the preaching of the Gospel was owed not to Moses, that is, not to the prophets, but to the apostles.

This is the sentence, as we said above, pronounced against the serpent. Let us also consider of what sort the sentence directed against man is. Cursed is that one who is the author of the fault, but not cursed is this one who was deceived by another's fraud; nevertheless, because he did not keep God's commandment, he is condemned to the labor of his works — the earth indeed is cursed, but in the works of the sinner — and he is cursed until he be resolved into earth. Therefore for this reason Jesus took flesh, that He might abolish the curse of sinful flesh, and He was made a curse for us, that blessing might swallow up the curse, integrity sin, pardon the sentence, life death. For He took upon Himself even death, that the sentence might be fulfilled and satisfaction made for what was judged:

the curse of sinful flesh, even unto death. Nothing therefore was done against the sentence of God, since the condition of the divine sentence was fulfilled; for the curse was unto death, and after death is grace. We are therefore dead to the world: why do we still make decisions about the world? We are dead with Christ: why do we still seek the deeds of this life? We carry about the death of Christ in our body, that the life of Christ also may be made manifest in us. Therefore we now live no longer that life of ours, but the life of Christ — a life of innocence, a life of chastity, a life of simplicity and of all the virtues. We have risen again with Christ; let us live in Him, let us ascend in Him, that the serpent may not be able to find on earth our heel, which it may wound.

Let us flee from here. You can flee in mind, even though you are retained in body. You can both be here and be present to the Lord, if your soul cleaves to Him, if you walk after Him in your thoughts, if you follow His ways by faith and not by sight, if you take refuge in Him. For He is a refuge and strength, to whom David says: 'In you have I taken refuge, and I have not been deceived.' Therefore, since God is a refuge, and God is in heaven and above the heavens, surely we must flee from here to there, where there is peace, where there is rest from works, where we may feast the great Sabbath, as Moses said: 'And the sabbaths of the land shall be food for you.' For to rest in God and to behold His delight is a banquet, full of joy and tranquility.

Shall we then who have fled to God return to the world? Shall we who are dead to sin seek out sins again? Shall we who have renounced the world and the use of it again cling fast in its mire? Let us flee from here, for the time is short. Hear how you may flee: 'And those who have wives, let them be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they wept not; and those who rejoice, as though they rejoiced 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 passes away.' Let not our works therefore pass away together with the passing fashion of the world, lest we ourselves also pass away; but let us abide in the truth. If we abide in Christ, we abide in the truth, and with Him we shall abide, and shall not pass away, but shall say:

'The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the name of the Lord' (Ps. 129:8). For those who pass away cannot say this, since those passing along the way did not say: 'The blessing of the Lord be upon you,' as the prophet said. And so, if we wish that our works do not pass away, let us not pass by the commandment of God, let us not pass by the diligence of seeking the Lord Jesus, of earning His grace. That woman did not pass Him by, who, having entered even into the house of the Pharisee in which Christ reclined, poured ointment upon His feet.

Let us not pass by the advancement of any discipline, as also the young Joseph did not pass it by, since he sought his brothers and hastened to that place where they were pasturing the sheep; and when he had learned that they were in Dothan, he proceeded thither. Now by that word 'Dothan' is signified a fitting failing, that is, a failing of vain opinions, not a moderate one, but a perfect and full one, in which there is the advancement of the soul. For the wise man, when he diminishes, adds; for worldly opinions fail, which are compared to weak women. Whence beautifully, to show that Sarah had come to advancement, that she might generate laughter and joy, it says: 'It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.'

Good therefore is the failing of lusts, the failing of vanity, since it is the addition of truth. Whence the holy one also says: 'My soul has fainted for your salvation.' For she was about to bring forth him whom God had granted and had also promised, about to bring forth joy and that sober drunkenness of gladness, about to bring forth a birth before the expected time by the swiftness of her wit, pregnant with wisdom. In short, you have also concerning the other Hebrew women that the Hebrew women bring forth before the midwives come, because the souls of the just do not wait for arts and disciplines for the sake of various inventions, nor do they seek aids for bringing forth, but pour forth their offspring of their own accord and anticipate the expectation.

Nor was Jacob less prompt in finding than in carrying out, to whom, when his mother had told him to bring food to his father, we see that kinds of definitions were at hand. For he both quickly found and testified that God was the author of his findings, in which both the palm of diligence and the abundance of native wit are signified. The first definition therefore is in invention. What is found is sought, and what is sought belongs to time, and what belongs to time belongs surely to diligence. But what anticipates the use of time, God infuses, God gives; what God gives belongs to nature, not to diligence. Native wit therefore is of the divine gift, and what is of the divine gift, this belongs to nature. Native wit therefore is of nature, invention of diligence: the one is without time, the other needs time.

And therefore the one is ready at the time, the other is investigated in the span of time; the one is above us, the other is referred to us. To the father therefore seeking the food of the word — for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God; such food Isaac sought, such food Peter hungered for when he saw the mysteries of the Gentile people who were to believe — Esau did not have ready at hand the food of a spiritual and swifter wit. While he hunts and seeks and prepares to offer a very hard and rustic discourse, Jacob anticipates him with swift invention and with a mild and almost homely response, ministering a sweet word with which he might soothe and delight him. Whence the father, marveling, says: 'What is this, that you have found so quickly, my son?' Jacob answered: