(Admonition 23.) In one way are the discordant to be admonished, and in another the peaceable. For the discordant are to be admonished to know most certainly that, however great the virtues in which they abound, they can in no wise become spiritual if they neglect to be united to their neighbours through concord. For it is written: 'But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace' (Gal. 5:22). He, therefore, who takes no care to keep peace, refuses to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Hence Paul says: 'Whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal?' (1 Cor. 3:3). Hence again he also says: 'Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God' (Heb. 12:14). Hence admonishing once more he says: 'Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:
one body and one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling' (Eph. 4:4). To the one hope of our calling, then, one in no wise attains, unless he run to it in unity with his neighbours. But often certain people, in proportion as they receive some gifts in a special way, thereby, by growing proud, lose the gift of concord which is greater; so that if perhaps one subdues the flesh above others by the restraint of gluttony, he despises to be in concord, through his abstinence, with those whom he surpasses. But let him who separates abstinence from concord weigh what the Psalmist admonishes; for he says: 'Praise him with timbrel and choir' (Ps. 150:4). For in the timbrel a dry and beaten skin resounds, but in the choir voices are joined in concord through fellowship.
Whoever, therefore, afflicts the body but deserts concord, praises God indeed with the timbrel, but does not praise Him in the choir. But often, while greater knowledge exalts some, it disjoins them from the fellowship of the rest, and, as it were, the more they are wise, the more they fall away from the virtue of concord. Let these, then, hear what Truth says by Herself: 'Have salt in yourselves, and have peace among you' (Mark 9:49). For salt without peace is not the gift of virtue, but the argument of damnation. For the better a man is wise, the worse he transgresses; and therefore he will deserve punishment without excuse, because, had he been willing, he could prudently have avoided sin. To such it is also rightly said by James:
'But if you have bitter zeal, and there be contentions in your hearts, glory not, and be not liars against the truth. For this is not wisdom descending from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish. But the wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable' (James 3:14, 15, 17). Chaste, namely, because it understands with purity; but peaceable, because through elation it in no wise disjoins itself from the fellowship of neighbours. The dissenting are to be admonished to know that so long as they are at discord with the charity of their neighbours, they offer to God no sacrifice of good work. For it is written:
'If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift' (Matt. 5:23-24). From which precept it is to be weighed how intolerable a fault is shown, when the sacrifice of such men is rejected. For since all evils are washed away by the good deeds that follow, let us weigh how great are the evils of discord, which, unless they be utterly extinguished, do not permit good to follow. The discordant are to be admonished that, if they turn away their ears from the commands of heaven, they open the eyes of the mind to consider the things that go on among the beasts;
for often birds of one and the same kind do not forsake one another in their social flying, and brute animals feed in herds. For if we look attentively, irrational nature, by being in concord with itself, shows how great an evil rational nature commits through discord, when the latter has lost through the intention of reason that which the former preserves by natural instinct. On the other hand, the peaceable are to be admonished lest, while they love the peace they possess more than is needful, they cease to aspire to attain the everlasting peace. For very often the tranquillity of things more gravely tempts the intention of minds; so that, because the things they hold are not troublesome, therefore the things that call them become less lovable; and while present things delight, eternal things are not sought after. Whence also through
Truth speaking by Herself, when She distinguished earthly peace from that which is above, and provoked the disciples from the present to that which was to come, said: 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you' (John 14:27). I leave, namely, the transitory; I give the abiding. If, then, the heart be fixed on that which is left behind, never is it come to that which is to be given. The present peace, therefore, is so to be held both that it ought to be loved and to be despised; lest, if it be loved immoderately, the mind of him who loves be taken captive in fault. Whence also the peaceable are to be admonished lest, while they too greatly desire human peace, they in no wise reprove the depraved ways of men; and, by consenting to the perverse, they disjoin themselves from the peace of their own Author;
lest, while they fear outward human quarrels, they be smitten with the sundering of the inward covenant. For what is transitory peace but a certain footprint of eternal peace? What, then, can be more senseless than to love the footprints impressed in the dust, but not to love Him by whom they were impressed? Hence David, while he bound himself wholly to the covenant of inward peace, testifies that he held no concord with the wicked, saying: 'Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee, and pined away because of thy enemies? I hated them with a perfect hatred, and they became enemies to me' (Ps. 138:21-22). For to hate the enemies of God with a perfect hatred is both to love what they are, and to rebuke what they do; to press upon the ways of the wicked, and to profit their life.
It is therefore to be weighed how great a fault it is that, when rebuke is at rest, peace is held with the very worst of men. Wherein so great a prophet offered this as it were for a sacrifice to God, that against himself, for the Lord's sake, he stirred up the enmities of the wicked. Hence it is that the tribe of Levi, taking up their swords and passing through the midst of the camp, because they would not spare the sinners to be smitten, is said to have consecrated their hands to God (Exod. 32:27 ff.). Hence Phinees, spurning the favour of the offending citizens, struck those consorting with the Midianites, and, being angry, appeased the wrath of the Lord (Num. 25:9). Hence Truth says by Herself: 'Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth. I came not to send peace, but the sword' (Matt. 10:34).
For when we are joined incautiously to the friendships of the wicked, we are bound by their faults. Whence Josaphat, who is extolled with so many praises for his former life, is reproved for the friendships of King Achab, whereby he well-nigh perished. To whom it is said by the Lord through the prophet: 'Thou helpest the ungodly, and thou art joined in friendship with them that hate the Lord; and therefore indeed thou didst deserve the wrath of the Lord, but good works are found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land of Judah' (2 Chron. 19:2-3). For from Him who is supremely upright, our life already differs in the very thing whereby it is in concord with the friendships of the perverse. The peaceable are to be admonished lest, if they leap forth to words of correction, they dread to disturb for themselves temporal peace.
And they are again to be admonished to hold inwardly with entire love the same peace which by the invective of the voice they outwardly disturb. Which both of these David shows himself to have providently observed, when he says: 'With them that hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they fought against me without cause' (Ps. 119:7). Behold, even while speaking he was fought against; and yet, though fought against, he was peaceable, because he neither ceased to reprehend the raging, nor neglected to love the reprehended. Hence too Paul says: 'If it be possible, as much as is in you, having peace with all men' (Rom. 12:18). For being about to exhort his disciples to have peace with all, he premised, saying: 'If it be possible,' and subjoined: 'As much as is in you.'
For it was difficult that, if they should rebuke ill deeds, they could have peace with all. But when temporal peace in the hearts of the perverse is confounded by our rebuke, it is necessary that it be preserved inviolate in our own heart. Rightly, then, he says: 'As much as is in you.' As if he indeed said: Because peace subsists from the consent of two parties, if it be expelled from those who are corrected, let it yet be held entire in your mind who correct. Whence the same disciple again admonishes, saying: 'If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and do not keep company with him, that he may be confounded' (2 Thess. 3:14). And straightway he added: 'Yet do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother' (ibid. 15).
As if he said: Dissolve outward peace with him, but preserve inward peace toward him in the marrow of your heart; so that your discord may so smite the mind of the sinner that peace may not depart, even when denied, from your hearts.