Whoever, then, withdrawn from all idle chatterings and mortified from all anger and anxiety and worldly care, shall have been content with only two small biscuits for his daily refreshment, and, with fullness of water withdrawn, shall have limited the repose of sleep to the space of three — or as others have determined, four — hours; and yet shall have believed that he will attain it not by the merit of these labours or of this continence, but by the mercy of the Lord (since without this faith all the effort of human toil is vain) — he shall recognize that the perfection of this is not impossible to him in no more than six months. Yet it is an evident sign of near purity to begin no longer to hope from the industry of one's own labour.
For if each one shall have conceived in truth that little verse: 'Unless the Lord build the house, they have laboured in vain that build it,' it follows that he neither be exalted over the merits of his own purity, understanding that he has attained it not by his own diligence but by the mercy of the Lord, nor be moved with harsh severity against others, knowing that human virtue is nothing if divine virtue does not aid it. Accordingly, for each of us fighting with all our strength against the spirit of fornication, the singular victory is to hope for no remedy from the merit of our own endeavour. Which faith, though it may seem easy and plain to all, yet is as difficultly possessed by beginners as the perfection of chastity itself.
For when even a small particle of purity has smiled upon them, immediately, with a certain elation subtly gliding into the secret places of their conscience, they flatter themselves, and, believing that they have attained it by the zeal of their own diligence, it must needs be that, stripped a little of that heavenly protection, they are oppressed for so long by those passions which the divine power had extinguished, until, with experience teaching them, they recognize that they cannot obtain the good of purity by their own strength and industry.
And that we may briefly conclude our discussion — worked out with long lucubration — concerning the end of fullest chastity, gathering into one all the things that have been copiously and scatteredly set forth: this is the consummation of chastity, that no delight of lust should touch the waking monk, that no illusion of dreams should deceive the sleeper; but that when, in one who sleeps, the commotion of the flesh has crept on only through the heedlessness of the lulled mind, then, just as it was aroused without any titillation of pleasure, so also it may be quieted without any itching of the body. These things concerning the end of chastity we have set forth, as far as we could, not with words but with experience as our teacher.
Which things, though I judge that they may perhaps be deemed impossible by the slothful and the negligent, yet I am certain that they will be recognized and likewise proved by the studious and spiritual. For there is as great a distance between man and man as those things toward which the intention of their minds tends are separated from one another — that is, either heaven from hell, or Christ from Belial — according to the sentence of the Lord and Saviour: 'If any man minister to me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister be'; and again: 'Where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.'
Thus far the blessed Chaeremon discoursed concerning the perfection of chastity, and concluded with such a discourse the admirable doctrine of most sublime purity, urging us — astonished and anxious — that, since the greater part of the night had now flowed away, we should give our limbs, for a little while, to repose, and by no means defraud them of the natural food of sleep, lest the mind also, languishing through the torpor of its body, should lose the vigour of holy intention. ON THE PROTECTION OF GOD. CHAPTERS. Preface. Question: why the merits of the virtues are not to be attributed to the industry of the labourer. Answer: that without the help of God not only the perfection of chastity, but nothing good at all can be accomplished. Objection: how the Gentiles are said to have possessed chastity without the grace of God.
A reply concerning the imaginary chastity of the philosophers. That without the grace of God we can carry through no diligent endeavours. Of the chief purpose of God and his daily providence. Of the grace of God and the freedom of the will. Of the strength of our good will and the grace of God. Of the weakness of free will. Whether the grace of God follows or precedes our good will. That good will is to be attributed neither always to grace nor always to man. That human efforts cannot make up for the grace of God. That God proves the strength of the human will by its own temptations. Of the manifold grace of the callings. Of the grace of God, in that it transcends the narrow bounds of human faith. Of the inscrutable dispensation of God.
The definition of the fathers, that the will is not sufficient for salvation. When, having taken a little sleep, we were returning for the morning synaxis and awaiting the old man, abba Germanus was troubled by a great scruple, because in the previous discussion—whose excellence had infused into us the highest longing for a chastity till then unknown to us—the blessed old man had, by the addition of a single sentence, made void the merit of human diligence, maintaining that a man, however he may strive with the utmost strength toward good fruit, nevertheless cannot become a partaker of the good unless he receives it solely by the bounty of the divine gift, and not by the zeal of his own labour.
So while we were turning over this question in astonishment, the blessed Chaeremon came forward, and when he perceived that we were murmuring something to one another, having gone through the solemn office of prayers and psalms more briefly than usual, he asked what was troubling us. Then Germanus said: As much as by the loftiness of that most excellent virtue which was disclosed in the nocturnal discussion we are almost, so to speak, shut out from believing it possible, so much does it seem absurd to us (be it said with your leave) if the wages of toil—that is, the perfection of chastity, which is won by the persistence of one's own sweat—should not be reckoned particularly to the diligence of the labourer.
For it is unfitting that, if for example we should see a farmer devote unremitting zeal to the tilling of the soil, we should not ascribe the fruit too to his effectiveness. Chaeremon: By this very example which you have set forth it is proved yet more clearly that the diligence of the labourer can accomplish nothing without the help of God.
For the farmer, even when he has expended all his efforts on cultivating the fields, will not at once be able to attribute the springing of the crops and the abundance of the harvest to his own diligence—which he has often found to be in vain—unless both the timely opportunity of rains and the calm serenity of the winter follow it; so that we have often seen fruits already grown and firmed to full ripeness snatched away, as it were, from the very hand of those who held them, and that ceaseless persistence of toil has conferred nothing on the labourers, because it was not guided by the Lord's aid.
As, therefore, the divine goodness does not bestow this abundance of crops on idle farmers who do not break up their fields with the frequent ploughshare, so night-long anxiety will not profit those who labour unless it be prospered by the Lord's mercy. Yet in this let no human pride in any way strive to make itself equal to the grace of God or to mingle with it, nor let it attempt through this to insert itself as a partner in the gifts of God, so as to reckon its own labour the author of the divine bounty and to boast that the yield of most plentiful crops has answered to the merits of its diligence.
For let him consider and weigh with truthful scrutiny that he could not have expended by his own strength even those very efforts which, bent on plenty, he exerted for the sake of his desire, unless the Lord's protection and mercy had strengthened him to carry out every work of the field—for his will and strength would have been ineffectual—unless too the divine clemency had granted the means of accomplishing it, which is sometimes cheated by excess of drought or of rains.
For since both the health of the oxen and the soundness of the body and the successful outcome of all works and deeds are granted by the Lord, one must pray that it not befall him, as it is written, that the heaven be brass and the earth iron, and that the cankerworm not devour the residue of the locust, and the caterpillar the residue of the cankerworm, and the blight consume the residue of the caterpillar. Nor does the labouring diligence of the farmer need the help of the Godhead in this only, but also that he turn aside unforeseen mishaps, by which, even if the field has been enriched with the desired fruitfulness of its produce, he will not only be frustrated in the vain expectation of his hope, but even be cheated of the abundance of fruits already gathered and stored, whether on the threshing-floor or in the barn. From which it is plainly gathered that not only of deeds,
but even the beginning of good thoughts, is from God, who both inspires in us the beginnings of a holy will and grants the strength and the opportunity of carrying out the things we rightly desire: for every good gift and every perfect endowment is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. He it is who both begins the things that are good, and carries them out, and consummates them in us, as the Apostle says: he who supplies seed to the sower will also supply bread to eat, and will multiply your seed and make the fruits of your righteousness increase. But it is ours humbly to follow the grace of God that daily draws us, or else, resisting it with a stiff neck and, as it is written, uncircumcised ears, we deserve to hear through Jeremiah:
Shall he who falls not rise again? or he who has turned away not return? Why then has this people of Jerusalem turned away with a contentious turning away? They have hardened their necks, they have refused to return. Germanus: Against this view, whose piety cannot be abruptly disapproved by us, there seems to stand that which tends to the destruction of free will.
For since we see many of the Gentiles—who assuredly do not merit the grace of divine help—shine with the virtues not only of frugality and patience but, what is more marvellous, even of chastity, how are these virtues to be believed to have been conferred on them by the gift of God, with the choice of free will taken captive, when in fact the followers of worldly wisdom, being utterly ignorant not only of the grace of God but even of the true God himself, are said—so far as we have learned either from the course of our reading or from the tradition of certain men—to have possessed the highest purity of chastity by the diligence of their own labour? Chaeremon:
It is pleasing to me that, while you are aflame with the highest love of coming to know the truth, you also put forward certain inept notions, by the objection of which the more approved and, so to speak, more thoroughly tested strength of the catholic faith may appear. For what wise man would use such contrary propositions as now to believe that the heavenly purity of chastity—which yesterday you were asserting could not be conferred through the grace of God on any mortal—was possessed even by the Gentiles by their own virtue? But since you set these things forth, doubtless (as has been said) out of zeal for exploring the truth, attend to what we hold concerning them.
First, it is by no means to be believed that the philosophers attained such chastity of soul as is required of us, to whom it is enjoined that not only fornication but not even uncleanness be so much as named among us. They had, however, a certain small measure, that is, a little portion of chastity—namely an abstinence of the flesh, so far only as to restrain lust from intercourse; but this inward and perpetual purity of mind and body they could not attain, I will not say in deed, but not even in thought. In fine, that most famous Socrates of theirs did not blush to profess this of himself, as they themselves celebrate. For when a certain physiognomist, gazing at him, had said:
'the eyes of a corruptor of boys'—that is, the eyes of a debaucher of youths—and his disciples, rushing upon the man, wished to avenge the insult offered to their master, he is said to have checked their indignation with this saying: 'Be still, my comrades: for I am indeed such, but I hold myself in check'—that is: Be quiet, O companions; for I am so, but I restrain myself. Most plainly, therefore, it is shown not only by our own assertion but also by their own confession, that only the consummation of unchastity, that is, the foulness of intercourse, was suppressed by them under violent constraint, but the desire and the delight of that passion was not shut out from their hearts. With what horror, then, must that saying of Diogenes be brought forward?
For a deed which the philosophers of this world were not ashamed to bring forward as something memorable can neither be spoken by us without shame nor be heard. For to a certain man who was being punished for the crime of adultery he is reported to have said: 'What is sold for nothing, buy not with death'—that is: what is sold gratis, do not purchase with death.
It is established, then, that they knew nothing of the virtue of true chastity which is demanded of us; and therefore it is quite certain that our circumcision, which is in the spirit, cannot be possessed except by the gift of God alone, and is present only in those who serve God with the whole contrition of their spirit. And therefore, although in many things—nay, in all—it can be shown that men always need the help of God, and that human frailty can accomplish nothing pertaining to salvation by itself alone, that is, without the help of God, yet in nothing is it shown more evidently than in the acquiring and keeping of chastity. For, that the discussion of the difficulty of its integrity may for a while be deferred, let us for the moment briefly treat of its instruments.
Who, I ask, however fervent in spirit, could of his own strength, upheld by no praise of men, endure either the squalor of solitude or of dry bread—I will not say the daily hunger, but the very satiety of it? Who could bear the perpetual thirst for water without the Lord's consolation, and cheat his human eyes of that sweet and delightful morning slumber, and by a continual rule confine all the refreshment of rest within the limits of four hours? Who could fulfil the unceasing persistence of reading, who the unremitting sedulity of work, seeking no advantage of present gain, without the grace of God?
And that we may make these very things more manifest, not only by the tested discipline of experience but also by sure signs and arguments: is it not so that in many things which we usefully desire to fulfil—when the full ardour of desire and a perfect will are not wanting—some intervening frailty makes void the vows we have conceived, and the accomplishment does not attend our purpose unless the strength to complete it be granted by the Lord's compassion? So that, though the multitude of those who faithfully long to cleave to the pursuit of the virtues is beyond number, you would nonetheless find the greatest rarity of those who prevail to accomplish or to endure these things.
Not to mention that not even then, when no infirmity whatever restrains us, is the whole faculty of carrying out what we wish subject to our own power. For neither the silence of retirement, nor the strictness of fasting, nor the persistence of reading do we retain at our own discretion even at that time when we are able to; but by certain occurring causes we are frequently, even most unwillingly, drawn back from wholesome practices, so that it becomes necessary for us to entreat from the Lord the abundance of place or of time in which we may be able to exercise these things.
And it is certain that what we are able to do does not suffice for us, unless the opportunity of accomplishing the things that are indeed possible for us be also granted by the Lord—concerning which the Apostle too says: since we wished to come to you, once and again, and Satan hindered us—so that sometimes we perceive that we are even usefully called away from these spiritual pursuits, in order that, while against our will the intention of our course is interrupted and we relax something to the infirmity of the flesh, we may even unwillingly be reserved for a wholesome perseverance. Concerning which dispensation of God the blessed Apostle says something similar: for which, he says, I thrice besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for strength is made perfect in weakness; and again:
For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. For the purpose of God—by which he had made man not that he should perish, but that he should live for ever—remains unmoved. And his kindness, when it has perceived some little spark of good will, however tiny, to have flashed forth in us, or which he himself has struck out as from the hard flint of our heart, cherishes and rouses it and, by his own inspiration, strengthens it, willing all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; since, he says, it is not the will before your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish; and again, God does not will, he says, that a soul should perish, but takes counsel, considering how he who is cast off may not utterly perish. For he is truthful,
and does not lie, when he declares with an oath: As I live, says the Lord God, I do not will the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his way and live. For he who has no will that one of these little ones should perish—how, without enormous sacrilege, is he to be supposed to will that not universally all, but only some, should be saved on behalf of all? Therefore whoever perish, perish against his will, since he daily cries out against each one of them: turn back from your most evil ways; and why will you die, O house of Israel? and again: how often would I have gathered your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! And: why, he says, has this people of Jerusalem turned away with a contentious turning away?
They have hardened their faces, they have refused to return. Christ's grace, then, is daily at hand, which, while it wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, calls all together without any exception, saying: Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. But if he calls not all universally, but only some, it follows that not all are burdened either with original or with actual sin, nor is that saying true: for all have sinned and need the glory of God, nor is death to be believed to have passed through all men. And insofar as all who perish, perish against the will of God, so let it not be said that God made even death itself, Scripture testifying thus:
for God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. And hence it is that often, while we ask for things contrary to our good in place of good ones, our prayer is either heard too late or not at all; and again, those things which we believe to be contrary the Lord, like a most kindly physician, deigns to bring even upon the most unwilling for their profit, and sometimes retards and recalls our pernicious dispositions and deadly attempts from their detestable effect, and draws back to salvation those who are hastening to death, and pulls out of the jaws of hell those who know it not. This care and providence of his toward us the divine word elegantly expressed through the prophet Hosea, under the figure of Jerusalem as a harlot tending with pernicious eagerness to the worship of idols.
For when she says: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my waters, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink—the divine condescension answers to her salvation, consulting not her will: Behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will wall her in with a fence, and she shall not find her paths; and she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them; and she shall say: I will return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now. And again it describes our stubborn refusals and contempts, whereby with rebellious spirit we scorn him as he invites us to wholesome returns, by this comparison: And I said, he says, you shall call me Father, and you shall not cease to walk after me.
But as a woman despises her lover, so has the house of Israel despised me, says the Lord. Quite fittingly: since he had likened Jerusalem to an adulteress departing from her spouse, he likened also the love and the perseverance of his own kindness to that of a man who is pining away for a woman.
For the tenderness and love of God, which he ever bestows upon the human race—in that he is so conquered by no injuries as to withdraw from the care of our salvation and be, as it were, overcome by our iniquities and recalled from his chief purpose—could be more fittingly expressed by no other comparison than by the example of a man loving a woman with the most ardent love, who, the more he feels himself neglected and despised by her, is the more inflamed with the ardour of a more vehement zeal toward her. Inseparably, therefore, divine protection is always present with us, and so great is the Creator's tenderness toward his creature that his providence not only accompanies it but even continually goes before it—which the prophet, having experienced it, most openly confesses, saying:
My God, his mercy shall go before me. He, when he has beheld in us some rising of good will, at once illumines it and strengthens it and spurs it on to salvation, granting increase to that which he himself has either planted or has seen to spring up from our effort. For even before they cry, he says, I will hear; while they are yet speaking, I will hear; and again: at the voice of your cry, as soon as he hears it, he will answer you. And he not only kindly inspires holy desires, but even prepares beforehand the occasions and the opportunity of good accomplishment, and shows to those who err the direction of the way of salvation.
Whence it is not easily discerned by human reason how the Lord both grants to those who ask, is found by those who seek, and opens to those who knock, and again is found by those who seek him not, appears openly among those who did not inquire for him, and all day long stretches out his hands to a people that does not believe in him and contradicts him; how he calls those who resist and are set far off, draws the unwilling to salvation, withdraws from those who desire to sin the means of fulfilling their will, and kindly opposes those who hasten to wickedness. But that it may be easily evident how the sum of salvation is granted to our free will—of which it is said:
If you are willing, and hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land—and how it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy; what too is that saying, that God will render to each one according to his works, and: it is God who works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will, and: this is not of yourselves, but the gift of God, not of works, that no one may boast? What too is that which is said: draw near to the Lord, and he will draw near to you, and what he says elsewhere: no one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him? What is that which is said: make straight courses for your feet, and direct your ways, and what is it that we say when praying: direct my way in your sight, and:
make my steps perfect in your paths, that my footsteps be not moved? What is that whereby we are again admonished: make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit? and what is that which is promised in turn: I will give them one heart, and a new spirit will I put within their bowels; and I will take away the heart of stone out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my precepts and keep my judgments? What is that which the Lord commands, saying: wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved, and what is it that the prophet asks the very same thing of the Lord, saying: create in me a clean heart, O God, and again: you shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow? What is that which is said to us: kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge, and what is that which is said of God:
who teaches man knowledge, and: the Lord gives light to the blind, or indeed that which we say when praying with the prophet: enlighten my eyes, that I never sleep in death—unless the meaning be that in all these things both the grace of God and the freedom of our will is declared, since man can sometimes even by his own motions be reached out toward the appetites of the virtues, yet always needs to be helped by the Lord? For neither does anyone enjoy health when he wills, nor is he freed from the disease of sickness according to the desire of his own will. But what does it profit to have coveted the grace of health, unless God, who grants the breath of life itself, also imparts the vigour of soundness?
But that the beginnings of good wills sometimes come forth even through the good of nature, which has been implanted by the beneficence of the Creator—though these, unless directed by the Lord, cannot attain to the consummation of the virtues—of this the Apostle is witness, saying: to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good I find not. For the divine Scripture confirms the freedom of our will, saying: with all watchfulness keep your heart; but the Apostle makes manifest its infirmity, saying: may the Lord keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The strength of free will David proclaims, saying:
I have inclined my heart to do your justifications; but its infirmity the same man likewise teaches, saying: incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Solomon too: may the Lord incline our hearts to himself, that we may walk in all his ways, and keep his commandments and his ceremonies and his judgments. The power of our will the psalmist points out, saying: restrain your tongue from evil, and your lips, that they speak no guile; its infirmity our own prayer attests, when we say: set, O Lord, a guard to my mouth, and a door of enclosure round my lips. The faculty of our will is declared by the Lord, when it is said: loose the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Sion;
its frailty the prophet chants, saying: the Lord looses those that are bound in fetters, and: you have broken my bonds; to you will I sacrifice a victim of praise. We hear in the Gospel the Lord calling us together, that through free will we may hasten to him: come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you; but its infirmity the same Lord attests, saying: no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. The Apostle points to our free will, saying: so run that you may obtain; but its infirmity John the Baptist testifies, when he says: a man can receive nothing of himself, unless it be given him from heaven. We are commanded to guard our souls carefully, the prophet saying: