Instructions & Apologetic Poem 2

PREFACE. Our first preface points out the way to the wanderer, and a good regard, when the end of the age has come, of becoming eternal, which ignorant hearts disbelieve. I likewise wandered for a long time, pursuing the shrines together with my parents, themselves ignorant; at last reading drew me away from there, from reading the law. I call the Lord to witness: I grieve for the throng of my fellow-citizens, who in ignorance go on perishing, seeking empty gods; for this cause, having been well taught, I instruct the ignorant in the truth. 1. THE INDIGNATION OF GOD. In the law the Lord of heaven, earth and sea commanded: Do not, he said, worship empty gods made by your hands of wood or gold, lest my indignation destroy you for these things.

The race before Moses, untaught, lingering without law and not knowing God, used to pray to dead kings, and to their images they made empty idols. When the Jews had been brought over from the land of Egypt, the Lord afterward imposed the law and commanded these things: that they should serve the Almighty himself alone, and not those others. Of the resurrection too one is taught in it, and of the blessed hope of living again in the age to come, if the empty idols be forsaken and not worshiped. 2. THE WORSHIP OF DEMONS. When God Almighty had adorned the nature of the world, he willed that this earth be visited by angels; but those, sent down, scorned its lawful order; so great was the beauty of women that it bent them. So that, defiled, they cannot return to heaven, being rebels they from that time uttered words against God.

Thereupon the Most High sent down his sentence upon them; from whose seed the Giants are said to have been born. By these were proven crafts upon the earth, and they taught how to dye wools and whatever is wrought, and those mortals set up the dead as images. But the Almighty, because they were of a wicked seed, did not decree that they be received back as departed from death. Whence now wandering they overturn many bodies; chiefly those whom today you worship and pray to as gods. 3. SATURN. And aged Saturn—if a god, when does a god grow old? Or if he was a god, why did he devour his children? Driven by terrors—but because he was not a god—he took the entrails of his children in monstrous frenzy. He was a king on earth, born on Mount Olympus, nor was he divine; thus did they say he was a god.

He came, helpless of mind, and swallowed a stone instead of his son: thus the god escaped, who is now called Jupiter. 4. JUPITER. This Jupiter, born on the island of Crete from Saturn, when he was grown, deprived his father of the kingdom. Thereupon he deceived the wives and sisters of nobles. Moreover that smith Pyracmon had made the scepters for him. In the beginning God made heaven, earth and sea; but this terrible one, born in middle time, came forth from a cave as a youth, secretly nursed. Consider the complaints: God is another, not that Jove. 5. CONCERNING THE THUNDERBOLT OF JOVE HIMSELF, HEAR! You say, O fools: Jove thunders, he himself hurls lightning. Even if childish years felt so, why do men of years say it? You were infants: surely you will not always be? To be busied with the immature, the practice of infancy does not grasp; the childish game has passed:

so let your hearts too withdraw; surely your counsels are owed to your character. As a fool, then, you believe that Jove thunders, born here on earth and nourished with goat's milk; therefore, if his father Saturn had devoured him, in those times, with him dead, who used to send the rain? Above all, is it to be believed that a god is born of a mortal father? Saturn grew old on earth and failed among them. No one prophesied beforehand that he would be born. Or, if he himself thunders, the law would have been laid down by him. The histories deceive, since he himself was a made being. But he reigned in Crete and failed there. The Almighty became to you the lover of Semele. Scarcely would he himself love likewise now, if that one were living. Impure ones you pray to and say are heavenly, born of a mortal seed from those Giants.

You hear and read that he was born on earth: how then did the corrupter well deserve to ascend to heaven? You say also that the Cyclopes made the thunderbolt for him. So an immortal had weapons from mortals! One guilty of so many crimes, a parricide of his own kin as well, by your authority you have raised on high. 6. CONCERNING THE SEPTIZONIUM AND THE STARS. By the circle of the zone your ignorance deceives you, in that perhaps you suppose Jove must be entreated. Saturn is said to be there, but a star, not he; he flees, expelled by Jove. Or shall Jove be believed to be in a star? Did he also handle the heavenly bodies of the pole and the sun's sower? He who made war on the Trojans loved a mortal bird. Or among the very stars shall Mars, who was caught with Venus herself, lord it as a god—an adulterous youth, in jealousy of a husband?

O too foolish, you who think that adulterers, born from the stars, rule, or govern the whole nature of the world! Themselves set among wounds and living under fate, obscene, frenzied, warriors, impious of life, and they made as many mortal sons: every one terrible, O fools, mighty in the seven-zoned heaven! If you worship the stars, worship also the twelve signs! Both the ram, the bull, the twins, and the grim lion, and then those that go among the fishes—you too will approve them. A law without law, your refuge, what it wishes shall prevail. It wishes to be wanton, it seeks to live without bridle. What you yourselves wish shall be, and you pray to both gods and goddesses. So I too worshiped, while I wandered, those whom now I blame. 7. CONCERNING THE SUN AND THE MOON. Concerning the Sun and the Moon, though they are present to us, you err;

as I did before, you think they must be entreated. They are indeed among the stars, but they do not run of their own accord; the Almighty, when first he founded all things, placed them there together with the stars on the fourth of the days. The ancient error... and indeed in the law he commanded that none should worship them. So many gods you pray to, who promise nothing of life, whose law is not on earth, nor are they themselves foretold. But a few empty priests seduce you, who say that the divinities profit one who is to die in some way. Come to the book of the law and learn the truth. 8. MERCURY. Let your Mercury be painted with his winged sandal and helmet and on his sole, feathered, and bare for the rest. I see a wondrous thing, a god flying with a little purse: run, you poor wretches, with the lap in which he flies, that he may pour out his little bag:

from then on be ready. Look at the painting: when from on high he shall toss you coins, then dance secure. Vain man, are you not mad, to worship gods painted on a board? If you do not know how to live rightly, go dwell with the beasts. 9. NEPTUNE. You make Neptune a god, born from Saturn, and he wields a trident, that he may be able to spear the fishes. He seems to be a god—prepare a fish-platter for him! Did he not himself, with Apollo, build up the walls for the Trojans? Whence was that poor mason made a god? Did he not beget the Cyclops, a monster? Was he not himself an adulterer too? He could not live by his own means, since he carried on the work of building. So he, once begotten, begot, who was long ago already dead. 10. APOLLO THE FALSE FORTUNE-TELLER. You make Apollo a lyre-player and a diviner.

First born of adultery on the island of Delos, afterward, when wages were offered, he followed building work; for King Laomedon of the Trojans he raised up the walls and hired himself out—he whom, deceived, you suppose to be a god. Love for Cassandra burned in his very bones; the maiden craftily mocked him, and the diviner is deceived; by the office of sacred boughs he was able to know her, the two-hearted one, for, rejected, the diviner departed thence. The maiden terrified him by the appearance which he ought to have had. She rather first should have loved the god. And so he began to love wanton Daphne. And yet he pursues her, while he wishes to violate the girl: the fool loves in vain, nor could he overtake her in the race. Or, if he was a god, he would have met her through the air: she came first beneath the roofs and the diviner was left behind.

The race of men deceives you, for these were wicked. From his first beginnings too he is reported to have pastured the flocks. While, in their set games, he was throwing the discus on high, he could not hold the one that slipped, and laid low his friend: that was the last day of his comrade Hyacinthus. If he was divine, he would have foreseen his friend's death. 11. FATHER LIBER, BACCHUS. You yourselves say that Father Liber was certainly twice begotten. Born in India of Jove and Proserpina, at first warring against the Titans with abundant bloodshed, he indeed expired like one of the mortals. Again, restored by his own breath in a second womb. This Semele perceives, again another paramour of Jove, from whose cut-open womb, with the mother nearly dead in childbirth, he is taken up and given to Nysus to be reared as a foster-child.

From this, twice-born, that one is called Dionysius, whose false religion is cultivated in vain. They too play the bacchant, such as they themselves now appear, or the lice-pickers of Minerva and of every conjurer. They conspire in evil, they make a prelude with feigned frenzy, that they may deceive the rest, who are about to say a divine power is present. To this one openly rude men, living like swine, transformed by the wine which he first pressed out, in their sport gave him honor. 12. THE UNCONQUERED. If the Unconquered, born from a rock, is held to be a god, then now I am silent; you, give the precedence concerning these things! The rock conquered the god—the creator of the rock must be sought. Moreover you still depict him to be a thief, when, if he were a god, he certainly did not live by theft.

He was certainly earthly and of a monstrous nature, and he was always turning others' oxen about in caves, just like that Cacus, son of Vulcan. 13. SILVANUS. Whence has Silvanus again appeared to be a god? Does he perhaps please you for this reason, because his pipe sings well? When, then, a household-god? For surely it was not wood. You bought a saleable lord, when you yourself are his master. Look, the wood fails! what is owed to him? Are you not ashamed, fool, to worship such little boards? Seek the one God, who says that one lives after death! Withdraw from those who have become victims of violent death.

14. HERCULES. Because Hercules crushed the monster of the Aventine mount, who was wont to steal the herds of Evander, the rustic mind of men, untaught also, when they wished to give thanks for the praise—in memory of the absent Thunderer—made for themselves altars to be rejoiced at. From that it spread, so that he is worshiped according to ancient custom. But this is not a god, although he was strong in arms. 15. CONCERNING THE GODS AND GODDESSES. You say there are gods who are manifestly bloody, and you say to ascribe to us the fates of nativity? Tell now, then, to whom sacred rites are first to be offered: between the two of them, untimely death wanders the ways. If the fates of nativity bestow, why do you pray to a god? You are deceived, vain one, who seek to pray to the Manes, and who call those whom they fabricate to be your lords.

Or you pray also to certain females, I know not what goddesses, Bellona and Nemesis, the goddesses Furina, Caelestis, the Virgin, and Venus, before whom your wives weaken themselves. There are besides other demons far from the shrines, which are not even counted yet and are carried on the neck, so that they cannot give an account of their own pestilence even to themselves. They ought rather to be carried out to the ends of the earth. 16. CONCERNING THEIR IMAGES. A few wicked, empty soothsayers delude you, while they seek to extricate their own life. They suborn for others out of themselves a falsehood under mysteries. Hence, pretending to be struck by some divine power, they chant majesty and weary themselves under a disguise.

You have often seen the Bellona-priests, with what crashing they enter into their wild excesses, while they seek to feign frenzies, or when they strike their backs with the sparing two-edged axe, while with their own teaching they discern that they heal by blood. Notice, when no divine powers compel them, that they themselves first compose themselves with sound mind; but they seek such devices in order to gather alms. From this see that all things are feigned. They overshadow the suppliant people, lest, about to perish, they should believe. The matter once proceeded in vain out of antiquity, that to the prophesier the things betrayed should be believed as false; but their majesty has spoken nothing. 17. CONCERNING AMMUDATES AND THE GREAT GOD. We have already said many things about the abominable superstition, and yet we pursue it, lest we be said to have passed anything over.

Ammudates, whom his worshipers used to worship after their fashion, was great to them, while there was gold in the temple. They used to lower their heads beneath the deity as though present. It came to the utmost, that Caesar carried off the gold: the deity fails, or flees, or passes into the fire. The author of this wickedness is established, who used to fashion the very thing. He seduced so many great men by falsely prophesying, and now he who used to be a diviner has fallen silent. For he used to burst forth with a voice as if of changed mind, as though the god of wood were speaking to him in his ear. Tell now yourselves, whether the deities are not false. From that prodigy, because he lost it, that prophet has forgotten to prophesy, who before was wont. These monsters are feigned for the god by wine-guzzlers, whose damnable audacity fashions deities.

For they were carried about, and another such image as well: now even he himself is silent, nor does anyone prophesy concerning him. O too foolish—but you wish to destroy your very selves. 18. TO THE VAIN WORSHIPERS OF NEMESIS. Is it not an ignominy for a prudent man to be seduced and to worship such a thing, or to call Diana wood? In the morning you trust in one man, drunken, raw, about to perish, who by craft falsely speaks what seems to him; he plays the very god, he demands entrails for himself. One detestable man defiles all the citizens, and has attached to himself like ones in a formed guild, with whom he fabricates a tale, to adorn the god. He himself does not know how to divine for himself, yet dares it for the rest. He raises him on his shoulders when he pleases, and sets him down when he pleases; he turns himself, whirling about with the forked wood, as if you should think him inspired by the deity of the wood.

You do not worship gods, whom these men falsely prophesy: you worship the priests themselves, fearing in vain. But if you are strong in heart, flee now the shrines of death. 19. THE TITANS. You say the Titans are your tutelary spirits; thus you invoke the Mute Goddesses, the Silent Ones, beneath your rooftop, so many Lares in little shrines, images made of titanium! For you worship, fools, men dead by an evil death, not reading their law; for they themselves do not speak. And do you dare to call gods things cast of bronze? You would rather melt them down into little vessels for yourselves. 20. TO THE MOUNTAIN-WORSHIPERS. You say the Mountains are gods, that they may have dominion in the field, you who are darkened by evil, swearing with an alien mind. For if your spirit were pure and your mind remained serene, you yourself ought to argue concerning them.

You are out of your mind, O man, if you think that these can save you, or rule, or diminish you, except in that you run down to the shrine. Seek rather the righteousness of the law than those things; it brings the help of salvation and says it is made eternal. For whatever you pursue in vain, you rejoice for a time; in a brief while you are glad, and afterward you wail in the depths: withdraw yourself from those, if you wish to rise again in Christ. 21. THE DULLNESS OF THE AGE. Alas, I grieve, citizens, that you are thus made dull by the world! One man runs out to the lots, another watches the birds, another wicked one inspects the shed blood of bleating beasts, and a cruel one desires to hear good responses—so many leaders and kings, where are they who consulted about life? Or what did it profit one to have known his own portents? Learn, I pray, the good, citizens; beware of images:

Seek you all, then, the law of the Almighty. So it pleased the Lord of lords in the heights, for our testing, that demons should wander in the world. ...To become heavenly are those who forsake their altars. Hence I do not care to argue this in a little book: the law teaches in the midst; I pray you, take counsel for yourselves! You have entered upon two ways: learn well the right one. 22. CONCERNING THOSE READY EVERYWHERE. While you serve the belly, you say you are innocent, and as it were make yourself ready everywhere, common to all. Woe to you, foolish man, you yourself look round for death, you seek to live without law after the barbarian fashion: with your own word you fix the axe in your own leg. You who feign to be simple, live simply with such a one. You believe you are living, while you crave to fill your belly.

You sit meanly in your house, crooked one, ready for feasts, and you shrink from the precepts of the supper. Or because you disbelieve that God judges the dead, do you perhaps make yourself the ruler of heaven in his place? You look to the belly, as though you were provident for it. You now appear profane, now holy. You come forth as a suppliant under the gaze of God, tyrant! You shall feel it in the fates, you who now empty the law. 23. TO THOSE LIVING BETWEEN THE TWO. Thinking to be free by living doubtfully between the two, stripped of the law, decrepit with luxury, you go ahead. So many wanton things, vain one, you look upon; why do you seek iniquities? And whatever things you have done, see that they remain from there for the dead one! Fool, you were not, and lo, you appear! Whence you have come forth you do not know, nor whence you are nourished.

You flee the most high God, who is kind to your life, and your Ruler, who would rather you should live; you turn your face about and give your back to God, you plunge yourself into darkness, while you think you tarry in the light. Why do you so often run to the synagogue, two-faced one? You go out from there, and again you seek the shrines; you wish to live between the two, but thence you will perish. Moreover you say: 'Who is there who has come back from death, that we should believe him, that there punishments are exacted?' These things are not so as you suppose them to be, malignant one! For it profits that one after death who lived rightly, but you, however, soon die, you are led into a malignant place; while those who believe in Christ are in a kindly place, and to whom that pleasantness clings, it caresses them.

But as for you, doubting ones living without the body, punishment raises you up to the face of the torturer, to cry out too late. 24. WHO MEDITATES? THEY WILL NOT BELIEVE. How long, foolish man, will you refuse to know Christ? You avoid the rich field and cast your seed on the barren. You seek to stay in the forest, where the robber lingers. Enter now at last, so often invited, into the hall: the harvest is ripe, the time is likewise ready; lo, now reap, if you do not afterward repent of it. Now, if you have nothing, gather; the vintage comes; the time for life is at hand for the believer in the time of death. The first law of God is the foundation of the latter law, and it designated you, that you might believe in the second law; nor any less did it designate those very ones and those wise from it themselves. Be now astonished and made ready in mouth to believe in Christ, for the Old Testament proclaims concerning him.

Now it is needful to believe only this: that the one who died in him can rise again and live for all time. Therefore, if anyone of you disbelieves that these things are to come, since the guilty one shall be conquered in the second death, I will sing in few words in this little book the things to come, for it can be known where the hope of life is to be placed. Yet I exhort you to believe in Christ as soon as possible. 25. TO THOSE WHO STRUGGLE AGAINST THE LAW OF CHRIST THE LIVING GOD. You spurn, unhappy one, the good of the heavenly discipline, and you rush into death, while you wish to wander without bridle. The luxuries and brief joys of the world destroy you, whence in hell you shall be tortured for all time. The joys are empty by which you are foolishly delighted. They do not restore you, who were once a man, when dead. Cannot thirty years now make you taught?

If, in your ignorance, you erred at first, look back on your gray hairs. Do you think now that you enjoy life here as a glad man? Injuries, lawsuits are there, and losses daily, wars or unspeakable things, frauds, thefts with bloodshed; the body is vexed with sores and groans, there is weeping, whether plague invades you or you are held by a long sickness, or you are bereft of children, or you bewail a lost little wife; the whole is destroyed, the heights of dignity fall down; you are scorched with poverty, doubly indeed if you grow faint: and do you call it life, where you tarry in a glassy life? Look now at last that this time is unprofitable; but in the future there is for you a hope of living without deceit. The little ones snatched away surely wished to live, but young men deprived of life perhaps to grow old, because that rich delicacy was preparing itself to be enjoyed;

and yet, unwilling, we leave all things to the world. I too was of a perverse race, lingering with twisted mind, and I supposed that the life of this age was present before us, and likewise judged death to be at hand as you do, that, when once the spirit had departed, the dead one had perished. But these things are not so; for the Maker and Author of the world sought out from the brother the brother who was slain: Wicked one, say, he said, where is your brother? He denied it. For the blood of your brother has cried out to me on high. You are tormented, I see, where you thought you would feel nothing, but that one shall live and hold the places on the right hand, he enjoys delights which you have lost, you abominable one! And when you have renewed the age, he too, having gone before, shall now be immortal; for you shall wail beneath the lower world.

God shall surely live, who made the dead to live, that he may render fitting rewards to the harmless and good, but to the raging and impious the savage nether-world. Begin to feel the judgments of God, you who are seduced! 26. FOOL, YOU DO NOT WHOLLY DIE TO GOD. Fool, you do not wholly perish, nor, being dead, do you escape your deeds, although you suppose you will feel nothing when dead. You are conquered, senseless one: God the founder of the world lives, whose statutes proclaim that they hold good for the dead. But you, while headlong you seek to live without God, judge the extinguished one to be in the fates, or believe it fated. God the Eternal has not so arranged it as you suppose, that the dead should be forgetful of their former deed. Now he has made for us the inexperienced receptacles of death, but after our ashes we shall behold those things. Rescue yourself, fool, who think you will not exist after the grave.

You have made your Ruler and your Lord to be able to do nothing. But death is not into emptiness, if you reconsider in your heart. You should know it is to be wished for, for too late you will feel him. You were the ruler of the flesh, the flesh certainly did not rule you; taken away from it, it is buried, that of your own. Rightly is mortal man separated from the flesh. Therefore mortal eyes will not be able to match it, so our abyss holds of the secrets of God. Give now therefore honor to God, while you, frail one, are dying, and believe that Christ renders you living out of the dead. You owe to render praises to the Almighty in the church. 27. THE JUST RISE UP. Justice and goodness, peace and true patience make one live after fate and be sought after concerning his deed: but a crafty mind, harmful, perfidious, depraved, raises itself on its own part and lingers with a savage mind.

Impious one, now listen, you who wish to profit from your evil deeds: Look at the earthly judges, who now torment the cruel with bodily punishments; either by the sword are torments prepared for their deserts, or to weep in a long imprisonment. And do you in the end hope to mock the heavenly God, the Ruler of the sky, through whom all things were made? You rage, you go mad, you disparage even now the name of God? Whence you shall not escape, for He will set the penalty after death. Now I would have you be wary, lest you come into the heat of fire. Hand yourself over now to Christ, that good deeds may follow you. (28. TO THE UNBELIEVING WICKED RICH MAN) You put it off, rich man, gazing too much upon all your goods, to which you still seek insatiably to add more. 'After all this,' you say, 'once dead, I do not hope to live.'

Ungrateful one to the most high God, who thus judge God to be such — He who brought you forth while you knew it not, and then nourished you; He Himself governs your meadows, He Himself your vineyards, He Himself your flocks of cattle and whatever you possess — yet to these things you have given no heed. Or do you perchance rule all things? He who made this heaven and earth and the salt seas has decreed to render us our very selves in a golden age; and now, if you believe, one lives in the secret things of God. Learn of God, fool, who wills you to be present immortal, that you may render Him thanks in the contest, everlasting. His own Law teaches it, but because you seek to wander, you disbelieve all things, and thence you shall go into Tartarus: soon you give up your soul, you are led where you will be sorry to be. But there a spiritual, eternal penalty is paid;

They are realms of sorrow forever, nor will you long endure in that place, then too late crying out there to Almighty God. (29. RICH MEN, BE HUMBLE) Learn, you who must die, to show kindness to all. In the midst of the people, why do you make yourself out to be a different sort? You go where you know not, and ignorant you depart from thence; impiously you behave, since you are thirsty with your very body. You, above your riches, lift yourself up too high into the heights, and you lead festive lives and do not regard the poor of your own accord, who are now subject to you, nor do you feed your own kindred. Alas, wretched ones! let men of modest means flee far away from you. 'The poor man has lived and is snuffed out,' you cry in your drunkenness. Soon you are driven by the Furies, since you perish yourself, a Charybdis. Undisciplined like cattle are you rich men: you give laws to others, but for yourselves you spare yourselves.

Put off, rich men, the men perverted by such great evils against God; let Him at any rate come to your aid, you who have now perhaps done your work. Be common with the least, while you have time; as the elm loves the vine, so do you love the little ones. Observe now the terrible Law against the wicked, but kindly and benign to the good; be barren of evil, be subject in prosperity; lift up hearts free of fraud, you rich, and take up hearts of peace. Expiate your evil with good deeds done before the Most High. (30. TO JUDGES WHO PLEASE THEMSELVES) Look upon the sayings of Solomon, all you judges, how with one word of his he disparages you all: 'Gifts and bribes corrupt all judges!' Thence it follows, 'You ever love too much the giver,' since, when a case is sought, the unjust cause carries off the victory.

'Innocent here am I, nor do I, a little one, accuse you; let Solomon take away the blasphemy, who cries out openly. But for you God is the belly and the rewards your laws.' This Paul the apostle suggests, not I, a flea. If place or time favours, or a person comes forth, be your own judge. Why are you now exalted thereby? You blaspheme, untaught one: by whose bounty you live, in such great frailty you never look back upon Him. Through rank and gain, greedy of fortune, you presume; there is no law for you at all, nor in your prosperity are you worthy ones. Though you dine on gold with the ever-piping crowd, if you have not adored the crucified Lord, you have perished. Both place and time and person are granted to you, now if nevertheless you believe; but if not, you shall fear on its account.

Temper yourself to Christ and bow your neck to Him: to this man honour remains and full assurance of things. When time now flatters you, be the more wary, not foreseeing the last things of your fate, which await you of necessity. Without Christ you could never be a partaker that you have even lived. (31. TO THOSE WHO PLEASE THEMSELVES) If place or time favours, or a person comes forth, be your own judge. Why are you now exalted thereby? You blaspheme, untaught one: by whose bounty you live, in such great frailty you never look back upon Him. Through rank and gain, greedy of fortune, you presume; there is no law for you at all, nor in your prosperity are you worthy ones. Though you dine on gold with the ever-piping crowd, if you have not adored the crucified Lord, you have perished. Both place and time and person are granted to you, now if nevertheless you believe;

but if not, you shall fear on its account. Temper yourself to Christ and bow your neck to Him: to this man honour remains and full assurance of things. When time now flatters you, be the more wary, not foreseeing the last things of your fate, which await you of necessity. Without Christ you could never be a partaker that you have even lived. (32. TO THE GENTILES) Race without a shepherd, fierce, now cease to wander. I too, who admonish you, was once the very same, ignorant and erring. Now therefore take up the likeness of your Lord, lift up your wild hearts and grow gentle apart: enter the stalls, you of the woods, come to the mangers, you bulls, safe from robbers, abiding beneath the King's roof. In the forest are wolves, therefore flee back beneath the cave. You wage war, you rave, and do not look to where you dwell.

Believe in the one God, where you, though dead, may be able to live; that you may rise even in the kingdom, since there is a resurrection for the just. (33. LIKEWISE TO THE IGNORANT GENTILES) The untamed heifer refuses to bear the yoke for labour, then delights to fill itself with rich little cabbages in the fields. And yet, though unwilling, it is tamed, equally useful, and being tamed becomes less fierce thereby; you race, you man, you my brother, do not be a beast of the wild, dig yourself out at last and reflect within yourself: you were not born a beast nor a brute, but a man; tame your own self, wise, and enter beneath the cave. You who follow idols — there is nothing but the vanity of the age. Frivolous hearts lead you on into the penal abyss. There gold, garments, silver you heap up in armfuls; there is dancing, then singing of love-songs instead of psalms. You think it to be life, where there are games — or do you look forward to such things:

You cast lots, ignorant one, for things extinguished, you seek golden trifles. Thence you shall not escape the plague, though you yourself divine. The grace which the Lord has sent upon the earth to be gathered, you do not seek it, but thus wander like a brute. After death the golden ages will come to you, if you believe rightly, that you may begin again to live immortal forever. This too is given you to know, what you were before: render yourself subject to God, who governs all things. (34. ACROSTIC: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U X Y Z) Adam, the first-formed, in order to escape God's precepts — the Devil was the preserver, out of envy of the creature. Whether he wrought us good or evil, the prince of our birth bestowed it; we die likewise through him, since he himself, departing from the divine, was made an exile from the Word. When six thousand years are finished, we shall be immortal.

When the fruit of the tree was tasted, death entered into the world: by this tree of death let us seek the tree of life to come. On the tree hangs life, bearing fruits — the precepts: Take now from the tree of life its fruits, you who believe. A law to be feared was given from the tree to the first man, whence death arose, the law of the beginning being neglected: Now stretch out your hand and take of the tree of life. The best law of the Lord proceeded following from the tree; the first law was lost; he tastes, whence it is permitted him, who adores forbidden gods, the evil joys of life. Spit out the taste; it will suffice to know what it was. If you wish truly to live, render yourselves to the second law, shun the worship of temples, the shrines of demons. Turn yourselves to Christ, and you shall be companions of God. Holy is the law of God, who says the dead shall live.

The Lord commanded that a hymn be offered to Himself alone; shun altogether the devilish law, every one of you. (35. ON THE FOLLY OF THE WICKED) Of the twofold tree I have spoken, whence death proceeded, and again whence, in turn, life proceeds in frequent measure. The King of eternity by the cross foreshadows the cruel, that they may not believe in Him. O fools, living in death! Cain slew the younger, being found wicked: thence are said to come the offspring of Noah, the Canaanites born. So the wicked race grew up in the world, which never changes its mind to believe in the cross of the Lord. It comes into error, and they say they live rightly. The law was on the tree first, and thence the second went before the terrible first law with peace. In their depraved boasting the wicked rushed savagely:

They are unwilling to acknowledge the Lord pierced with nails, into whose judgment, when He shall have come, there they shall discern Him. But the race of Abel now believes in the benign Christ. (36. WHO ARE THE FANATICAL JUDAIZERS?) What? You half a Jew, would you be half a heathen? Whence you shall not escape the judgment of Christ when dead. You yourself, blind, go astray and enter in among the blind, foolish one; therefore the blind man leads the blind back into the ditch. You go where you know not, and ignorant you depart from thence. Learners go to the learned, that the learned may withdraw; but you go to others, whence you can learn nothing. You go out before the doors, and thence you go to the idols also. Ask first, what is the precept in the Law; let them tell you whether it is commanded to adore gods. For it is ignored, on account of which we are chiefly:

But since they are guilty out of their very transgression, they tell nothing of God's precepts except marvels. Then nevertheless, blind, they lead you down with them into the ditch. There are funerals; it is too much to relate all about them — or, since I am hemmed in, I would drive a plow through narrow ground. The Almighty did not will them to understand the King; from so great a crime He Himself fled the bloodstained men. He delivered Himself to us under a new, superadded law; therefore now they bark against us with the deserted king. But if you suppose there is hope in them, ******** (37. TO THE JEWS) Wicked always and with hard neck you kick back, you are unwilling to be conquered: thus you shall be disinherited. Isaiah said that you are of a thickened heart. You look upon the law which Moses, enraged, dashed to pieces; and the same Lord gave him a second law.

In that law He placed hope, which you, erect, deride. So then, shall you not be unworthy of the heavenly kingdom? (38. LIKEWISE TO THE JEWS) Behold, Leah was a type of the synagogue, with eyes as weak as Jacob received her under a sign; and yet he served again for the lesser, the beloved one, a true mystery and a type of our Church. Look upon the saying of Rebecca, full of meaning, from heaven, whence you feign yourselves estranged, that you may not believe in Christ. Then approach the birth of Tamar's twins; turn your attention to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and to Abel the shepherd, the ancient, the spotless one who offered, who in his brother's savagery was slaughtered by his brother. So therefore receive the younger ones approved by Christ.

(39. AGAIN TO THE SAME) The unbelieving people is none but yours, you wicked, in so many places and so often reproved by the law of those who cry out. The Most High spurns your sabbaths and your new-moon feasts; He has wholly annulled all your things from the law, so that He who said to cast a stone for a stumbling-block among you would no longer make them perform the appointed sacrifices. If any of you wicked ones have not believed in death, another part of the law cries out: 'You shall behold thence Life hung upon the tree; nor did you believe in Him.' God Himself is life, He Himself hung for us, but you with hardened heart deride that same One. (40. ON THE TIME OF THE ANTICHRIST) Isaiah said: This man, who has shaken the world and as many kings, under whom the earth shall become a wasteland. Hear, since the prophet foretold concerning him;

I have said nothing of my own composition, but reading the law as I read. Then indeed the world is ended, when he shall appear and shall himself have overcome three rulers in the world. But when Nero shall have been raised up from the underworld, Elijah shall come first to seal the beloved; before which the King reigns under the end, and there is total constraint. In seven years the earth shall tremble on every side: but the middle time Elijah shall hold, the middle Nero. Then Babylon the harlot shall be reduced to ashes and embers; thence to Jerusalem the conquering Latin shall proceed, and shall then say: I am Christ, whom you ever pray to. And indeed the deceived first ones praise him, since the false prophet works many signs. ****** The Almighty grants that the spiritual one root him out.

Recapitulating the Scriptures from this, the Jews together cry out to the Most High that they have been deceived. (41. ON THE HIDDEN HOLY PEOPLE OF THE ALMIGHTY CHRIST, THE LIVING GOD) There sits a hidden people, the last, the holy, and indeed unknown to us where it abides. They live through nine and a half tribes themselves; two and a half tribes are these which belong to us. And Christ commanded the ancients to live by the law. Let us all now live, the new tradition of the law, as the law itself teaches! More openly I declare it to you. Two and a half tribes are left behind: why are two and a half tribes from those?

That they might be martyrs, when war is brought against His elect in the world; or surely that a chorus of holy prophets might rise up to that people, who should put a bridle upon them, whom the obscene horses trampled with loosened hoof, nor would it ever hold peace at hand. These are the tribes set apart, that the mysteries of Christ may all be fulfilled through them in the whole age. But they sprang from the crime of two brothers, under whose ill omen the deeds followed. Not deservedly were such bloodstained ones scattered? They come together again to the camps for the sake of the mysteries. Then they hasten to fulfill the things narrated by the law. Almighty Christ descends to His own elect, who were obscured to us for so great a time, made thousands; that is the true heavenly race.

There no one born before his father dies, nor do they feel pains in their bodies, as ulcers that arise. Resting on their bed they depart in ripe age, fulfilling all things of the law, and therefore they are protected. They are commanded to pass over to the Lord in those regions; for them He dries up the river, as before, once crossed over, and no less the Lord Himself goes forth with them. He has crossed over to our things; they come with the heavenly King. On their journey, what shall I say, by which God shall lead them out? The mountains sink down before them and fountains burst forth: the creation rejoices to see the heavenly people. Here, however, they hasten to defend their captured mother. But the wicked King, who holds her, when he hears of this, flees to the region of the north and gathers all his forces.

But when the tyrant shall dash himself against the army of God, his soldiers are laid low by heavenly terror; he himself is seized together with the unspeakable false prophet; by the Lord's decree they are delivered alive to Gehenna. From this, the chief men and leaders are commanded to serve. Then the saints shall enter to the ancient breasts of their mother, that those too may find refreshment, whom that evil one persuaded, and tormented with various punishments those who were to be believing toward him. The end has come, that the offences may be taken away from the world; the Lord shall begin to render judgment through fire. (42. ON THE END OF THIS AGE) The trumpet gives the sign from heaven, the lion being taken away, and suddenly there come darkness with the crash of the sky. The Lord lowers His eyes, that the earth may tremble, and now He cries aloud, that all in the world may hear:

'Behold, long have I kept silence, enduring your deeds for so great a time!' They cry out together, lamenting, too late they groan; there is wailing, weeping, nor is any space given to the wicked. What shall the mother do for the suckling infant, when she herself is burned? In the flame of fire the Lord shall judge the wicked: but the just the fire shall not touch — nay rather it shall lick them gently. Under one (fire) they tarry, but a part shall weep in the sentence. So great shall be the burning, that the very stones melt; in the thunderbolt the winds drive together, the heavenly wrath rages, so that, wherever the impious one flees, he is overtaken by the fire. There shall be no help nor nautical vessels. The flame, nonetheless, divides itself through the midst of the nation, preserving, that for a thousand years the saints may bear bodies. For thereafter, after a thousand years, they are delivered to Gehenna, and the structure of which they were made is burned together with it.

(43. ON THE FIRST RESURRECTION) From heaven there descends a city in the first resurrection. And what shall we relate of so great a heavenly structure? We rise again, we who were devoted to Him, and they shall then be incorrupt, living without death, but neither shall there be any sorrow nor groaning in that place. Those too shall come who under the Antichrist conquer in robust martyrdoms, and they themselves live the whole time, and receive good things, since they suffered evils, and they themselves, marrying, beget children through a thousand years. There all the revenues of the earth are gathered, since the earth, renewed without end, pours forth too abundantly. There no rain, no cold comes into the golden camps; no sieges, as now, nor plunderings. Nor does that city desire the light of a lamp:

From its own Author it shines, nor does night appear there. Through twelve thousand stadia it is broad, long, and so high; its root in the earth, but its head levels with heaven. Into the city before its gates the sun or moon shall give light. The wicked one, shut up in anguish, on account of the just who are to be nourished. But from a thousand years onward God carries all things. (44. ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT) Concerning the day of judgment, on account of the unbelievers, I add: Sent forth again, God's fire shall hold dominion; the earth gives a groan of all things, then in the last end, that then all the unbelieving nations in the earth — yet it shall avoid the camps of His own saints. In one flame the whole of nature is turned; the earth is burned from its depths and the mountains melt; of the sea nothing remains, it is conquered by the mighty fire, this heaven perishes and that earth is changed.

Another newness of heaven is fashioned, of an everlasting earth. Thence those who merit it are sent into the second death, but the just are placed within in dwellings. (45. TO THE CATECHUMENS) All you who believe in Christ, having forsaken idols, I admonish in few words for your salvation. If in the first times you did anything through error, having been ransomed for Christ, leave all things behind, and when you have come to know God, be a good recruit, approved, and let virginal modesty dwell with you in the Lamb. Let the mind keep watch for good things: take care that you do not sin as before; in your generative baptism alone are these things granted you. For if any catechumen sinning is marked with punishment, let that one live distinguished, but you do not delay without loss. The sum for you: avoid grave sins always.

(46. TO THE FAITHFUL) I admonish the faithful, brothers, not to bear up hatreds: impious hatreds toward the martyrs are reckoned unto the fire; the martyr is undone, whose confession is such; a law is given to the unjust man, that he may be able to bridle himself; thence, having been washed, you too ought likewise to keep free. Twice you sin against God, who prolong quarrels against your brother. Whence you shall not escape sin, pursuing the old ways. Once you are washed; surely you cannot be dipped anew? (47. FAITHFUL ONES, BEWARE OF EVIL) Let the birds and the beasts of the woods be deceived by baits: incautious is the nature of mind that has been handed to them, and they are deceived, following tricks or the bait, and they know not how to avoid evil nor are they held by law. A law is given to man, and a teaching of life to be read, from which he remembers, that he may be able to live warily, and the place of his own being, and to put away the things of death.

He gravely condemns himself who offends against the king: either he is bound in iron, or, cast down from honour in rank, or deprived of life, he loses what he ought to enjoy. Warned by the example, do not sin gravely, you who are translated by the laver; rather have charity, and the bait of the mousetrap, where death is, shun far off. Many are the martyrdoms which are without shedding of blood. Not to covet another's, to be willing to have martyrdom, to bridle the tongue, to render yourself humble you ought; not to do violence of your own accord, nor to return it when done — if you are a patient mind: understand that you are a martyr. (48. TO THE PENITENT) You have become a penitent: by nights and by days pray, yet do not depart far from your mother, and the Most High will be able to be merciful to you.

The shame of your fault will not thereby fall to nothing; in your guilt you ought openly to weep, you who have a deep wound — seek out the physician too — and yet in your sufferings you shall be able to soften your own losses. For indeed I will confess that I myself am one among you, and that I once long felt the terror of ruin. Therefore I admonish the wounded to walk more warily, to defile beard and hair in the dust of the earth, and to roll in sackcloth, and to ask of the Most High King that He come to your aid, lest perchance you perish from among the people. (49. THOSE WHO HAVE APOSTATIZED FROM GOD) When war, however, is waged, or the enemy floods in, he who shall be able to conquer or to lie hidden has great trophies; but unhappy shall he be who has been captured by them. He loses both fatherland and king, to whom it duly befell — he who would not fight for the fatherland nor for life.

He ought to have died rather than go under a barbarian king, and that servitude lie open to deliver to the enemies without law. If you, by proclaiming, die for your land, you have conquered; but if you give your hands unharmed, by the law you have perished. The enemy floods across the river; hide yourself in a hiding-place, or if he can enter without slaughter, do not cease. Render yourself safe on every side, and your own people too: you have conquered; and act watchfully, lest anyone fall into those snares. The king shall be infamous, if anyone reveals himself to the enemy. He who knows not how to conquer and runs forward to surrender himself, has won praise neither for himself nor for his fatherland, the fool; then he was unwilling to live, when life itself shall perish. Thereafter, if a needy or profane man flees from the enemy — like sounding brass, or like deaf asps — he ought sufficiently to pray and to hide himself as such.

(50. ON INFANTS) If the war of the enemy comes suddenly, flooding in, and before they could flee it seized the helpless little ones, they are not to be reproached, though they seem to be captives. Nor indeed do I excuse it: on account of their parents' sins perhaps they deserved it, and therefore God delivered them up. Nevertheless I exhort the adults to run back into the hall, and they are born as if anew from their mother's womb, fleeing the terrible nation, ever bloodstained, impious, unteachable, living a beastly life. For when another war must perchance be waged, he who shall be able to conquer, or at least already to know how to beware — S............................................ (51. DESERTERS) Deserters, then, are said to be of more than one kind:

There is one who is wicked, another who withdraws to a side, but nevertheless true judgments decide concerning both. Behold, one wars for Christ as for Caesar: one obeys. Seek the King's refuge, if you have been a delinquent; implore Him, prostrate before Him confess: He will grant all things, whose are also all our things. Restored to the camp, beware henceforth that you offend not. Do not wish to wander long, a soldier, through the dens of wild beasts. Let it be for you, instead of sinning, an immense deed to desist. (52. TO THE SOLDIERS OF CHRIST) When you have given your name to the soldiery, you are held by the bridle. Begin then therefore to dismiss your former deeds; shun luxuries, since toil presses upon arms; with all strength you must obey the King's command, if you wish to attain the last times joyful.

As a good soldier, ever look for those things to be enjoyed; do not flatter yourself, abandon idleness altogether; that you may daily stand ready before your appointed task, be solicitous, and at morning review the standards. When you see the war, draw near and take up the contest; this is the King's glory, to see a soldier ready. The King is present, as longed for; for the sake of your hope He fights; He prepares gifts, He, for the victory, takes up the chosen and consecrates each to be His own attendant. You, moreover, do not be sparing in what is given; rather be diligent, that He may render fame in exchange for death. (53. ON THE FUGITIVES) The souls of the damned rightly separate themselves; from Him who protects them, again they run back to their own.

The Canaanite root, the accursed seed, breaks forth, and in a servile race flees back under a barbarian king, whom the eternal flame shall torment on the appointed day. The profane one wishes to wander astray without discipline, to rove through the throats of the highways, loosed from law. Such men, then, whom no penalty has compelled — if they will not withdraw from idols, they ought to be spat out. (54. ON THE SEED OF THE TARES) Concerning the seed of the tares, which stand mingled in the Church: when the times are fulfilled, the harvest is separated from the fruit. The tare is born which the lord did not sow; every tare the husbandman gathers and separates it. The field is the law to us: he who shall have done good in it, to him indeed the Ruler Himself grants the true rest, where the tare is burned by fire. If therefore you have supposed, since they tarry under one (roof), you are mistaken:

I declare you barren ones to be Christians (only in name). The barren fig-tree, without fruit, was cursed at the word of the Lord, and at once it withered. You do not do works, you prepare no gift from your treasure: and do you thus suppose, you empty ones, that you may merit the Lord? (55. TO THE DISSEMBLER) You dissemble the law, made known with so great a proclamation, while the heavenly voice cries out in the present trumpet. If a prophet only had declaimed it into a cloud, the Lord's voice sent through him would surely suffice. In so many volumes of those who spoke forth, the Lord's voice proclaims; no one dismisses malice equally from the heart. You wish to seem good, and you seek to live by frauds. Why then did the law itself proceed with so great a labour? You abuse the Lord's commands, and you call yourself a son; if you shall be such, you trust in vain, I say.

The Almighty seeks for Himself meek sons to be, upright, good of heart, devoted to the divine law; but the unkind ones, you now know where He has plunged them. (56. WORLDLY THINGS ARE WHOLLY TO BE FLED) If certain teachers, while they await your gifts, or fear persons, relaxing each thing for you, — even so, I do not teach (thus), but am compelled to speak the truth. With the troop of the Evil one you proceed to vain spectacles, where Satan with crashing din contrives his wiles; you persuade yourself that it is allowed wherever it shall please. The offspring of the Most High, mingled with the sons of the Devil, you are unwilling to look back upon Him whom you renounced, the former things. In these very things you are again engaged: who shall profit you, the One? Or if, for the sake of weakness, you profanely waste what was given, foolishly — I........................................ Do not love the world nor its ambition:

So great is the voice of God, and to you it seems a light thing. You observe the command of man, and you shun God's; you trust in a gift, by which the teachers stop their mouths, that they be silent and not tell you the divine commands. If you should despise me speaking the truth, look to the Most High: whose son you were, to Him assign yourself as a client. If you, a faithful man, seek to live in heathen fashion, the joys of the world remove you from the grace of Christ; you who, undisciplined, presume that the light is allowed, and seek historical choruses and musical songs, nor do you care to unteach your offspring of such madness. While you suppose you are enjoying life, improvident you go astray. The Most High lives, and you shun His just precepts. (57. THAT A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO BE SUCH) Since the Lord says to eat bread in groaning, why do you now act thus, you who desire to live merry?

You seek to rescind the sentence of the Most High, sent down upon the first-formed man — see the bridle of the law go forth. If God almighty commanded us to live by the sweat (of our brow), you who make merry are therefore already a stranger to Him. The Scripture says the Lord was angry with the Jews: refreshed from food, the sons rose up to play. Now therefore why do we follow those who went forth of their own accord? Whence they perished, we ought to beware. The greatest part of you, given over to luxuries, obeys (them). You transgress the law, when you set yourself among musicians. The apostle cries out — nay rather God cries through him: 'Your license,' he says, 'ruins you in that very thing.' Be therefore such as Christ wills you to be: meek and cheerful in Him, but sorrowful toward the world. Run forth, labour, sweat, fight with sorrow;

Hope comes with labour, and the palm of victory is given. If you desire to refresh your soul, go to the martyrs! Await the rest of things to come, by the passing-over of death. (58. TO THE MATRONS OF THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD) Do you wish to be a Christian matron, while learning the ways of the world? You gird yourself with gold or with silken garb, you modest one; you send forth from your ears the terror of the law to the wind, you affect vain things, all from the Devil's pomp, you adorn at the mirror your curls bent back over the brow, and you even apply false medicaments to your cheeks, antimony in your pure eyes with perverse adornment, or you dye your hair, that it may be black all the time. God is the inspector, who penetrates each heart. For the rest, to the modest these things are not necessary. With clear and modest sense pierce through your breast;

The law of God testifies that such practices depart far; the woman who from the heart believes, approved by her husband — let it suffice for her to be (adorned) not with finery but with a good mind. Put on the garments which are fitting, only that you may shield off the cold or too much sun, that you may be approved as modest, and that among God's people you may show forth the gifts of your means. Tabitha, once most renowned, gives you a memory; lifeless she lay, raised up by the prayers of the widows. By giving she earned, not by adornments, to be lifted up thence. You good matrons, flee the comeliness of vanity: among loose women a harlot's adornment is fitting. Conquer the malignant one, you modest women of Christ, by giving show forth all your riches. [The holy woman of God shows forth her riches in her heart.

With a hymn-singing choir, and Christ being well-pleased, to serve, zealous in favour, offer to Christ a fragrant odour.] (59. ACROSTIC: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U X Y Z) You have heard the voice, you who wish to remain a Christian woman, how blessed Paul commanded you to ask. But heaven-speaking Isaiah, teacher and author, (for he detests those who follow the love of the world,) 'The exalted daughters of Zion,' he says, 'have fallen.' It is not lawful in God that a faithful Christian woman be adorned. In Gentile fashion do you seek to outstrip the holy things of God? These heralds of God condemn in the law, crying out that unjust are the women who adorn themselves in such a way.

You dye your hair, you smear your eyes with blackness, you wreathe your locks crescent-wise, bound up step by step over the brow, you medicate your cheek with a certain superinduced redness, and likewise earrings hang of heaviest weight, you bury your natural neck with gems and gold, you bind your palms, worthy of God, with an evil portent. Why should I mention garments, or the whole pomp of the Devil? You spurn the law, you prefer to please the world, you dance in the houses, instead of psalms you sing love-songs. Though you be chaste, the left hand does not cleanse you by your following (such ways): therefore Christ makes such of you equal with the Gentiles. The holy woman of God shows forth her riches in her heart. With a hymn-singing choir, and Christ being well-pleased, to serve, zealous in favour, offer to Christ a fragrant odour.

TO THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF GOD IN THE CHURCH. I am not righteous, brothers, raised up out of the sewer, nor do I exalt myself; but I grieve for you, because I see that out of so great a people not one is crowned in the contest. Surely, if a man does not fight himself, let him at least supply others with help. You scold the disaster, yet exultantly you busy yourselves with luxury! Your brother labors under arms against an opposing world, while you, relying on your riches, neither fight nor stand by the one who fights. ******** Upon such a one the whole Church depends, if he conquers. You see your brother fasting and warring with the enemy. You long for peace in the camp, while he wages war outside. Be merciful, that before all things you may be saved. Do you not regard the Lord, who cries out with so great a proclamation, who commands that food be provided even to enemies?

Therefore provide for the daily meals, which on every single day are taken together with the poor. You seek to feed, O fool, the one who in turn would feed you. Scarcely does that man obey me, who proposes that all be set in order. Daintily fed, with belly distended, you declaim, while your brother, oppressed by want, wastes away close beside you. What do you say of the Lord's Day? If you have not invited beforehand, call out from the crowd a poor man whom you may lead to your meal. In such deeds is your hope, refreshed out of your own substance. ON THE ZEAL OF COVETOUSNESS. While you covet, thereby you perish, while you burn with envy of your neighbor; you extinguish your very self when, driven on, you set yourself ablaze. You envy another, O grudging one, who profits from evil, and you long to be made equal to such great wealth. Thus the law does not regard it;

while you seek to lie heavy upon that wealth, you live wholly in suspense, in the burning of gains; and while you are guilty before yourself, condemning yourself as your own judge, the eyes' edge of the greedy is never satisfied. Now therefore, if you would believe and consider: vain is the desire to heap up too much riches while life lingers on so fragile a thread. Whence God cries out: O fool, this night you are summoned! Afterward ruin comes crashing down: whose then shall these treasures be? You fall into ruin striving after unjust gains, while the Lord supplies to each his daily portion conquered. Let another heap up: you, seek to live well, and God, weighing the heart, you act above all as conqueror. For I do not say that you should cast yourself into fear, when for your own day you keep watch, living without deceit. The bird perishes by the bait, or unwarily sticks fast to the lime. Judge for yourself that you must take very simple and great care.

Let others go to excess; you, look ever to the end. THE DAILY WARFARE. You long to wage war, O fool, as though wars were at rest! From the first-formed man down to the end, war is waged against us. Lust hurls you down: it is war, fight against it. Luxury persuades: 'misuse,' and you have conquered the war. Spare abundant wine, lest through it you go astray; restrain your tongue from cursing, by which you adore the Lord; check your fury, render yourself peaceable to all; beware of pressing down the lesser ones oppressed by miseries; only bring terror, but do no harm; lead yourselves by a straight and sincere path through this age; in your riches, make yourself common with the little ones; from your own labor give, clothe the naked: thus you conquer. Lay no snares, you who serve God: look to the beginning, whence the foe perishes through his envyings.

I am no teacher, but the law itself teaches by crying aloud. You utter words so many and vain, who in a single moment, idle, seek to win martyrdom for Christ. While you covet, thereby you perish, while you burn with envy of your neighbor; you extinguish your very self when, driven on, you set yourself ablaze. You envy another, O grudging one, who profits from evil, and you long to be made equal to such great wealth. Thus the law does not regard it; while you seek to lie heavy upon that wealth, you live wholly in suspense, in the burning of gains; and while you are guilty before yourself, condemning yourself as your own judge, the eyes' edge of the greedy is never satisfied. Now therefore, if you would believe and consider: vain is the desire to heap up too much riches while life lingers on so fragile a thread. Whence God cries out: O fool, this night you are summoned! Afterward ruin comes crashing down: whose then shall these treasures be?

The Lord supplies to each his daily portion conquered. Let another heap up: you, seek to live well, and God, weighing the heart, you act above all as conqueror. For I do not say that you should cast yourself into fear, when for your own day you keep watch, living without deceit. The bird perishes by the bait, or unwarily sticks fast to the lime. Judge for yourself that you must take very simple and great care. Let others go to excess; you, look ever to the end. THOSE WHO GIVE FROM ILL-GOTTEN GAINS. Why do you feign yourself good at another's wound, O wicked one? From what you bestow, another daily weeps. This you disbelieve, that the Lord sees: you are taught. 'The gifts of the unjust the Most High does not approve,' He says. You break in upon the wretched, once you have gained your positions.

One gives gifts in order to leave another destitute, or, if you have lent money at double interest of a hundred per cent, you wish to bestow from it, so as to cleanse yourself, as it were, of evil: the Almighty utterly refuses such works. You give from tears, in white array, while that other, blackened, oppressed by usuries, laments, made a beggar. Moreover, having gained the opportunity, the foe lays hold upon the prayers; for the present, you, the unjust, plunder the holy ones for a price. And again, if you wish to expiate yourself from the gain of merchandise, you strike against yourself, not another, I say, O unjust one. ON DECEITFUL PEACE. The appointed time has come for our people, peace in the city, and ruin together, while the age fawns upon the leaders. You hurl down the people, whom you yourselves have driven into schism: either make the law of the city, or depart from it.

You behold the straw clinging in our eyes, and in your own eyes you will not see the beam. A deceitful peace has come to you; persecution blazes. The wounds do not appear, and so you have fallen without slaughter, ********** Of you all, scarcely one has borne himself with caution. O to be nourished in evil unto the slaughter foretold! You praise a peace that is deceitful and unjust to you. Made soldiers of another, not of Christ, you have perished. TO THE READERS. I admonish certain readers only to learn, and to give material to the rest by the example of their living: to flee strife and to shun just as many quarrels, to press down terror, and never to be proud. Render also due obedience to your elders; make yourselves like to Christ, little sons, your Master; among the rustic plants, be as lilies in your good deeds.