Here begins the second book. I. On wisdom. 1.1. Everyone who is wise according to God is blessed. The blessed life is the knowledge of the Godhead. The knowledge of the Godhead is the virtue of good work. The virtue of good work is the fruit of eternity. 1.2. He who is wise according to the world is foolish according to God. Whence also the prophet says: Every man is become foolish through his own knowledge. 1.3. The first pursuit of knowledge is to seek God, then integrity of life together with the work of innocence. 1.4. No one fully receives the wisdom of God, save he who strives to withdraw himself from all care of worldly actions. Whence also it is written: Write wisdom in the time of leisure, and he who is lessened in action shall himself receive it. 1.5.
It is a mark of no small understanding to have attained the citadel of knowing that one cannot penetrate the secrets of God. But then do we rightly know God, when we deny that we can perfectly know him. 1.6. Sometimes it is fitting to be ignorant of certain things. Yet no one is in greater fault than he who knows not God. 1.7. To seek out the truth belongs to many, but to find it belongs to few. Moreover, those things which are above the understanding of man ought not to be scrutinized. Whatever is above the intellect of man is not to be sought. Rather it must be kept in reserve for the divine counsel, so that this be believed to be justice which has pleased the divine will. For that cannot be unjust which is pleasing to a just Judge. 1.8. All wisdom consists in knowledge and opinion.
But the judgment that comes from knowledge is better than that which comes from opinion. For the one is true, the other doubtful. 1.9. It belongs to the heaping up of greater guilt for anyone to know what he ought to follow, and to be unwilling to follow what he knows. Whence the Lord also says: The servant who knew his lord's will, and did not things worthy of it, was beaten with many stripes; and James says: To him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin. 1.10. Simplicity together with sloth is called folly, but simplicity together with prudence is called wisdom. 1.11. It is useful both to know many things and to live rightly. But if we are not able to do both, it is better that we pursue the zeal of living well than of knowing many things. 1.12.
The knowledge of things does not pertain to the attaining of blessedness, nor is it a great thing to know many things, but it is a great thing to live blessedly. 1.13. To know all prudence profits nothing along with ignorance of God, and to be ignorant of the world does nothing to harm those who know God. But he knows perfectly who knows God first, and knows these other things not for his own sake but for God's sake. 1.14. It harms no one if through simplicity he thinks something unworthy concerning the elements, provided only he pronounces true things concerning God. For although a man may be unable to dispute about incorporeal and corporeal natures, yet a right life together with faith makes him blessed. II. On faith. 2.1. That one cannot attain to true blessedness except through faith;
and that he is blessed who both lives well by believing rightly, and by living well keeps right faith. 2.2. If God is believed in, he is deservedly invoked and sought; and thereby is he then perfectly praised, when he is also believed in. 2.3. Not only is that to be believed which we discern by the sense of the flesh, but rather still that which we behold by the understanding of the mind, that is, God: Without faith no one can please God; for everything that is not of faith is sin. 2.4. Faith is by no means to be wrung out by force, but is to be persuaded by reason and by examples. But those from whom it is violently exacted cannot persevere in it: as one says, by the example of a young tree, whose top if anyone violently bends down, again, when it is released, it at once returns to what it had been. 2.5.
Just as man, created with free choice, of his own accord turns aside from God, so by the proper conversion of his own mind he runs back to God by believing, so that both the liberty of choice may be recognized through his own will, and the benefit of grace through the received truth of faith. 2.6. God looks upon faith in the heart, where men cannot excuse themselves who feign with the mouth the profession of the truth, and retain in the heart the impiety of error. 2.7. Just as the faith which is held on the mouth and not believed in the heart profits nothing, so faith held in the heart shall profit nothing if it be not brought forth by the mouth. For concerning such faith the prophet thus rebukes certain ones, saying: Faith has perished, it is taken away out of their mouth. For the faith which is believed in the heart is brought forth unto salvation by the confession of the mouth.
2.8. That faith is empty without works, and he flatters himself in vain concerning faith alone who is not adorned with good works. 2.9. He who carries the cross ought to die to the world. For to bear the cross is to mortify oneself: to bear it and not to die is the pretense of hypocrites. 2.10. Those who have knowledge of God through faith yet are darkened in their works follow the example of Balaam, who, falling in his work, had open eyes through the faith of contemplation. 2.11. The carnal seek faith not for virtue of soul but for temporal advantage. Whence the Lord also says: You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves. 2.12.
The evil Christian, while he does not live according to the doctrine of the Gospel, easily loses, when temptation arises, even that very faith which he cultivates in word. 2.13. Many are Christians in faith only, but in work they dissent from Christian doctrine. Many also do not love the faith of Christ from the heart, but out of human dread they feign to hold it through hypocrisy, and those who cannot be openly evil are through fear feignedly reckoned good. 2.14. Lovers of the world sometimes fight for the faith, and indeed profit others; but they themselves, entangled in earthly love, do not seek the things of heaven, but defend the faith in word only. 2.15. Certain ones even persecute heretics for the faith, but through arrogance despise those who are within the Church.
They indeed refute the adversaries of the faith on the score of unbelief, but they oppress the faithful with the burden of pride. III. On charity. 3.1. Although some may seem to be partakers of faith and of holy works, yet because they are deprived of the charity of brotherly love, they have no increase of virtue. For as the Apostle says: If I deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. 3.2. Without the love of charity, although one may believe rightly, he cannot attain to blessedness, because so great is the virtue of charity that even prophecy and martyrdom without it are held to be nothing. 3.3. No reward is weighed against charity. For charity holds the primacy of all the virtues.
Whence charity is called by the Apostle the bond of perfection, in that all the virtues are bound together by its bond. 3.4. The love of God is compared to death, Solomon saying: Love is strong as death, for this reason: because just as death violently separates the soul from the body, so also the love of God violently sunders man from worldly and carnal love. 3.5. He who despises the precepts of God does not love God. For neither do we love a king, if we hold his laws in hatred. 3.6. The unity of charity must be kept with holy men, and the more anyone withdraws himself from the world, the more it is needful that he join himself to the fellowship of the good. 3.7a. Charity consists in the love of God and of neighbor.
He preserves in himself the love of God who is not divided from the charity of his neighbor. 3.7b. He who is cut off from brotherly fellowship is deprived of the participation in divine charity. Nor will he be able to love God who is known to err in the love of his neighbor. 3.7c. Christ is God and man: therefore he does not love the whole Christ who hates a man. 3.8. It belongs to the discernment of the good not to hate persons but faults, and not to spurn things rightly said as though false, but to approve them. 3.9. Those who are imperfect in the love of God often resolve to be separated from their vices; but, weighed down by the burden of vices, they roll back again to those vices which they desire to leave. IV. On hope. 4.1. Those who do not cease to do evil seek indulgence from God's mercy by a vain hope;
which they would rightly seek if they ceased from wicked action. 4.2. It is greatly to be feared that we neither persistently sin through hope of the pardon which God promises, nor, because he justly punishes sins, despair of pardon; but, both perils being avoided, let us both turn away from evil and hope for pardon from the mercy of God. For every just man shines with hope and with fear, because now hope raises him to joy, now the terror of hell consigns him to fear. V. On grace. 5.1. Sometimes, when we sin, God does not withdraw his gifts from us, that the human mind may rise up to the hope of divine propitiation. For he could not spurn one converted, whom he provokes by his benefits, though sinning, to return to himself. 5.2. That the confession of man is not of human strength;
for if God does not work in us the confession of good work, why is it said through the prophet: Confession and magnificence are his work? For from him are all good things bestowed on us, grace going before. For we have given no good work through which we might merit to receive the confession of faith. 5.3. The progress of man is the gift of God. Nor can anyone be corrected by himself, but by the Lord. For man has nothing good as his own, whose way is not his own, as the prophet testifies: I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not his own; neither is it in a man to walk and to direct his steps. 5.4. Let the defenders of free choice know that they can prevail in nothing unto the good by their own strength, unless they be sustained by the help of divine grace. Whence also through the prophet the Lord says:
Thy destruction, O Israel; only in me is thy help—as if he were saying, 「that thou perish by thy own desert; that thou be saved by my help.」 5.5a. The heavenly grace does not find man's merit that it may come, but after it has come it makes it, and coming to an unworthy mind, it makes in it the merit that it may reward, since it had found only what it might punish. For what did that thief merit of himself, who from the jaws of death ascended the cross, and from the cross entered paradise? Guilty indeed was he, and he came stained with a brother's blood, but by divine grace he is changed upon the cross. 5.5b. It must be known that our justice is in those things which we do rightly, and God's grace in that we merit it.
For this belongs both to God who gives and to man who receives, just as we also call it our bread, which nevertheless we ask to receive from God. 5.6. Spiritual grace is not distributed to all, but is given only to the elect: For faith is not of all men. Which, although very many receive it, yet they do not attain to the work of faith. 5.7. In the division of gifts, different men receive different gifts of God; yet not all things are granted to one, so that there may be, for the sake of the zeal of humility, something which one may admire in another. For that in Ezekiel the wings of the living creatures strike one against another, there are designated the virtues of the saints provoking one another with mutual affection, and instructing one another by alternate example. 5.8.
The gifts of graces are given, these to one, those to another, nor is it granted to one to have them in such a way that he does not have need of another. 5.9. It is not doubtful that it can come to pass that those whom certain persons surpass in excellence of virtues, being forestalled by God's sudden grace, may forestall those others by a shortcut of sanctity; and while they are last in conversion, they are suddenly made first in the summit of virtue. 5.10. When anyone receives some gift, let him not covet more than what he has merited, lest, while he attempts to seize the office of another member, he lose that which he had merited. For he disturbs the whole order of the body who, not content with his own office, snatches at another's. 5.11a. The wicked receive gifts unto condemnation, because they use them not for the praise of God, but for their own vanity. 5.11b.
They use good things ill who take up in evil uses those things which have been given them by God, such as talent, and the rest of God's gifts. 5.12. We rejoice in many gifts of God, which we recognize we have received from him. For that we are wise, that we are rich, that we are powerful, is not of another, but rather of the divine bounty. Let us therefore use the divine benefits in the best way, so that God may not repent of having given them, and it may be profitable for us to have received them. 5.13. God is said to take away from man some gift, which man did not have, that is, which he did not merit to receive. So also God is said to harden a man, not by working his hardness, but by not taking away that which he himself has nourished in himself.
In no other way is God also said to blind certain men, not that he himself works the same blindness in them, but that on account of their unprofitable deserts he himself does not take away their blindness from them. 5.14. To very many the gifts of God are given, but perseverance in the gift is not given. And hence it is that some have good beginnings of conversion, but are closed with an evil end. The elect, however, receive both the gift of conversion and receive also perseverance in the gift. This therefore is the cause why some both begin well and end well. VI. On predestination. 6.1. Predestination is twofold: either of the elect unto rest, or of the reprobate unto death.
Both are wrought by the divine judgment, so that he always makes the elect to follow things heavenly and inward, and always permits the reprobate to be delighted in things lowest and outward, by forsaking them. 6.2. Just as man is ignorant of the boundary of light and darkness, or what is the end of either thing, so he more fully knows not who before his own end is forestalled by the light of justice, or who is darkened by the shadows of sins even unto his own end, or who after the fall of darkness is converted and rises again unto the light. All these things lie open to God, but are hidden from man. 6.3. Although the conduct of the just in this life may be praiseworthy, yet it is uncertain to men unto what end they are predestined, but all things are reserved for the future examination. 6.4.
Wondrous is the disposition of the heavenly distribution, through which here the just man is further justified, the impious is further defiled; the evil man is sometimes turned to good, the good man is sometimes bent back to evil. One wishes to be good, and is not able; another wishes to be evil and is not permitted to perish; it is given to him who wishes to be good; another neither wishes it nor is it given to him to be good. This one is born in error and dies; that one endures unto the end in the good in which he began. So long does this one stand until he falls; that one, after living long in evil, is at the end saved and, being regarded, is converted. 6.5. The just man wishes to profit in good, and does not prevail; the evil man wishes to harm, and prevails; this one wishes to be free for God, and is hindered by the world; that one desires to be entangled in affairs and does not accomplish it.
6.6. The evil man lords it over the good, the good man is condemned in place of the impious, the impious is honored in place of the just. And in this so great obscurity man is not able to search out the divine disposition, and to ponder the hidden order of predestination. VII. On the converted. 7.1-2. The reward is not promised to those who begin, but is given to those who persevere, as it is written: He who shall have persevered unto the end, he shall be saved. — For then our conversion is pleasing to God, when we complete with a persevering end the good which we begin. For as it is written: Woe to them who have lost endurance, that is, who have not consummated the good work. 7.3. Concerning the indulgence of sins it must be known where, when, and to whom it is given. Where indeed, save within the Catholic Church?
When, save before the day of the coming departure? for behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation. To whom, save to the converted who through humility pass over to the imitation of little children? Of whom it is said: Of such is the kingdom of heaven. 7.4-5. No one can ponder how great is the weight of justice, or with how great a ray of splendor justice shines, unless one first, with the whole effort of the mind, be converted to God, so that by the very light with which he is illumined, he may both recognize his own foulness, and understand the light which he did not perceive with a blind heart. — But then can justice be understood to be unattainable, when anyone, being converted, has attempted to follow it, because light is not understood save when it is seen. 7.6.
The judgment which lies in man's power is the grace of conversion, through which we judge ourselves, when, weeping over our evils, we punish them, and cleave more firmly to the good which is from God in us. 7.7. The progress of each converted man is described as threefold, that is: first, of being corrected from evil; second, of doing good; third, of obtaining the reward of good work. For that which the prophet says: Loose the bundles that oppress, is the amendment of evil. But that which he adds: Break thy bread to the hungry, is the doing of good work. And in that which he subjoins: Then shall thy morning light break forth, is the recompense of good work;
therefore it profits not to do good, unless the evil have been corrected, nor will anyone be able to make progress unto the contemplation of God unless he first have been zealous to exercise himself in good works. 7.8. In many ways God terrifies men that they may be converted at least late, and thereupon may the more blush that they have been so long awaited that they might return. For now by threats, now by blows, now by revelations he shakes certain men, so that those who scorn to be converted by their own will may, being moved by terrors, be corrected. 7.9-10. Very many are converted to God from devotion of mind alone, but some are converted by compulsion of blows who from devotion were not being converted, according to the chapter of the psalm which says: With bit and bridle thou shalt bind fast their jaws, who do not draw near to thee.
— But very many, while they are not converted by devotion, are struck by the goads of the scourge; who yet do not even perceive under the lash so as to be in any degree corrected, like Egypt, which both suffered punishments and could not amend. For concerning such the prophet says: Thou hast struck them and they did not grieve; thou hast bruised them and they refused to receive discipline. 7.11. Certain secular men, swollen with elation of mind, having afterward been converted to God, follow Christ with religious obedience, and those who before swelled with worldly loftiness, afterward change that very elation into the zeal of humility. 7.12a.
There are certain ones who have already been converted in secret, whose conversion, because it does not go forth to public view, are still thought, in human estimation, to be such as they were; yet already in God's eyes they have risen up. 7.12b. Likewise certain ones are still seen by human judgment to stand, yet already in God's eyes they have fallen. 7.13. Many are reprobate among men, and elect before God; and likewise many are thought elect among men, and before God are reprobate, as Solomon teaches: I saw, he says, the impious buried, who, while they lived, were in a holy place, and were praised in the city as men of just works. Let no one therefore think himself elect, lest perhaps he already be reprobate before God. VIII. On the beginnings of the converted. 8.1.
The kind of conversion to God is threefold: of the beginning with sweetness, of the middle with labor, of perfection with rest. But nevertheless very often some begin from sweetness, others from the bitterness of temptations. 8.2. Let every converted person first begin from the weeping over sins, and so pass over to the desire of things heavenly. For first the vices which we have committed must be purged by tears, and then, with the purified keenness of the mind, let us contemplate that which we seek, so that, while beforehand by weeping the darkness of sin is wiped away from us, with the cleansed eyes of the heart the things heavenly may be freely beheld. 8.3. It is first necessary to be converted to God through fear, that by dread of the punishments to come the carnal enticements may be overcome. Then it behooves, fear being cast off, to pass over to the love of eternal life.
For perfect charity casts out fear; but he who fears has punishment, and is not perfect. Whence the Apostle also says: For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption; through which, namely, no longer does the punishment of sin oppress slaves, but the love of justice renders them free. 8.4. It is necessary for every converted person that after fear he ought to rise up to the love of God as a son, lest he always lie under fear as a slave. For then do we show the love of our conversion, if anew we love as a Father him whom before with a servile mind we truly dreaded as a Lord. 8.5. The beginnings of the converted must be cherished in gentle ways, lest, if they begin from harshness, being terrified they run back to their former lapses.
For he who instructs a converted person without gentleness knows how to exasperate rather than to correct. 8.6. Every converted person is first to be corrected from his work, but afterward from his thought, so that he may first restrain the wicked act, then the appetite and the fault, so that what no longer appears in work may by no means persist in thought. 8.7. Every new conversion still has a commingling of the former life: therefore that virtue ought by no means to go forth to the eyes of men, until the old manner of life be utterly rooted out from the soul. 8.8. Whosoever from a worse state has begun to be better, let him beware of being lifted up by the virtues received, lest through vainglory he fall more grievously than he lay before through the lapse of vices. IX. On the conflict of the converted. 9.1.
If any converted person desires straightway to trample down all the goads of the flesh, and strives to undertake the highest of the virtues, if perhaps he still endures some adversities from the troubles of the flesh, let him not be broken, because the dispenser of good things knows how to repress the vice of adversity by a succession of virtues. 9.2-3. Then does anyone more acknowledge himself to be burdened by the assault of vices, when he has drawn near to the knowledge of God; just as the people of Israel are pressed with a heavier burden by the Egyptian, when through Moses the divine knowledge is opened to them. — For vices before conversion have, as it were, peace in man; but when they are expelled, they rise up with sharper force. And those things become hostile to the converted which flatteringly favored the sinner;
and likewise those things become caressing to the converted which stood adverse to the sinner. 9.4. God's servant has many conflicts from the recollection of past works; and many, even after conversion and against their will, endure the movement of lust, which nevertheless they endure not unto condemnation, but unto probation, namely that they may always have, for the shaking off of sloth, an enemy whom they may resist, provided only they do not consent. Whence also let the servants of God know that they are indeed already cleansed from sins, but yet are still assailed by the interruption of shameful thoughts. 9.5. Before conversion goes the crowd of sins, after conversion follows the crowd of temptations; the former cast themselves in our way that we may not be converted to God, the latter thrust themselves upon us that we may not with the free eyes of the heart behold God:
the insolence of both tumults begets in us disturbance, and often by manifold deceit cuts off our intent. 9.6. It is useful for God's servant to be tempted after conversion, so that from the torpor of negligence he may, through the exercise of vices assailing him, prepare his mind for the virtues. X. On lax conversion. 10.1. Lax conversion leads many back into their former errors, and dissolves them by lukewarmness of living; therefore let every converted person shun the examples of these, lest, while thou beginnest the fear of God from lukewarmness, thou be again immersed in worldly errors. 10.2. The lukewarm in conversion does not perceive idle words and vain thoughts to be harmful;
but if he has awakened from the torpor of the mind, those things which he esteemed light he straightway dreads as though horrible and atrocious. 10.3. Fraud and slothfulness are to be feared in every good work. We commit fraud against God as often as, concerning our good work, we praise ourselves and not God. We act with slothfulness as often as through torpor we work languidly the things that are God's. 10.4. Every art of this world has zealous lovers, and men most prompt to carry it out; and this comes about because it has the present recompense of its work. But the art of the divine fear has very many followers who are languid, lukewarm, congealed by the inertia of sloth; but this comes about because their labor is deferred not for a present, but for a future recompense:
and therefore, while the recompense of reward does not straightway follow their labor, their hope being almost dissolved, they grow faint. Whence also a great glory is prepared for those who consummate the beginnings of the life of good conversion with a more solid increase, and are thereby prepared to be the more illustrious in earning the recompense, the more firmly they both begin and consummate the labors of the hard journey. 10.5. Certain ones in the first ardor of conversion gird themselves for the virtues; but as progress accedes, while they lean immoderately upon earthly things, they are darkened by the dust of base appetite. Whence the Lord also says concerning the good seeds:
But that which fell among thorns, these are they who hear the word of God, and by the care of the world, or by the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and it is made without fruit. 10.6. The newly converted ought by no means to be advanced in outward cares. For if they be entangled at once, like a little tree planted and not yet fixed by the root, they are alike shaken and dry up. 10.7. A change of place sometimes avails the converted for the salvation of the soul. For very often, when the place is changed, the disposition of the mind is also changed. For it is fitting to be plucked away even bodily from thence, where anyone has served enticements; for the place where anyone has lived wickedly presents to the mind's gaze that which he there either thought or did. XI. On the examples of the saints. 11.1-2.
For the conversion or correction of mortals, the examples of the good avail much. For, apart from the examples of the perfect, the ways of beginners cannot make progress toward living well. — The reprobate, however, do not attend to the documents of the good, that they might imitate them unto better things, but they set before themselves the examples of the evil, which they use unto the worse for the perversity of their own manners. 11.3. For this usefulness are written down the ruins and restorations of the saints, that they may make hope of human salvation, lest anyone after a lapse despair of pardon by repenting, while he beholds that the restoration of the saints was even after ruin. 11.4.
Let those given over to wickedness understand for what benefit the examples of the saints are set before them: namely, either that they may have those whom they should imitate unto their own restoration, or else that by comparison with them they may be punished the more harshly for their disobedience. God has set forth the virtues of the saints as an example to us, so that just as we may receive the rewards of righteousness through imitating them, so the torments for persevering in evil may be the graver. For if the divine precepts by which we are admonished were lacking to spur us on to good, the examples of the saints would suffice us in place of a law.
But on the contrary, since God both admonishes us by His precepts and sets before us in the lives of the saints examples of good works, there is now no excuse for guilt; for the law of God daily knocks at our ears, and the proofs of good deeds provoke the depths of our heart. And if we have often followed the examples of the wicked, why do we not imitate the worthy deeds of the saints, pleasing to God? And if we were apt to imitate the unrighteous unto evil, why are we slow to imitate the righteous unto good? God must be entreated that the virtues He has prepared for the saints unto a crown may be placed before us for our advancement, not for our punishment. And they will avail unto our advancement if we are willing to imitate so many examples of virtue.
Surely, if we have turned away from them rather than imitated them, they will be for our condemnation, because in reading them we have neglected to fulfill them. Many imitate the life of the saints and from another's character take the likeness of virtue, just as when some image is gazed upon and from its likeness a painted form is fashioned; and so he becomes like the image who lives according to the likeness of the image. He who imitates a holy man looks upon him as upon some model, and beholds himself in him as in a mirror, that he may add what he recognizes to be lacking in virtue. For a man considers himself less from himself alone, but while he regards another, he adds that light which was lacking.
It belongs now to perfect men to work righteousness not by imitating any of the saints, but by gazing upon Truth itself, to whose image they were made. This is what the Scripture indicates when it is written: Let us make man to our image and likeness; for by understanding the Godhead itself he imitates it, to whose likeness he was made. Such a one, then, is so great that he does not need a man to show him righteousness, but by contemplating righteousness itself he imitates it. Pursue the various virtues from the examples of the saints, by which a man is edified:
humility from Christ, devotion from Peter, love from John, obedience from Abraham, patience from Isaac, endurance from Jacob, chastity from Joseph, meekness from Moses, constancy from Joshua, kindness from Samuel, mercy from David, abstinence from Daniel; and thus with what labor, what moderation, with what intention or compunction the other deeds of the ancients were performed, the holy man considers by imitating them. XII. On compunction of heart. Compunction of heart is humility of mind with tears, arising from the remembrance of sin and the fear of judgment.
That is the more perfect affection of compunction in the converted, which drives from itself all the desires of carnal longings, and fixes its whole intent with all the zeal of the mind upon the contemplation of God. The compunction by which the soul of each of the elect is moved for God's sake is twofold: that is, either while it considers the evils of its own works, or while it sighs with longing for eternal life. There are four qualities of affections by which the mind of the righteous is pricked with wholesome weariness: that is, the memory of past crimes, the recollection of future punishments, the consideration of one's pilgrimage in the long span of this life, and the desire for the heavenly homeland, that it may attain to it as swiftly as possible.
When anyone is pricked to lamentation by the memory of his sins, let him know then that he is visited by the presence of God, when from what he recalls having committed he inwardly blushes, and by his own judgment already punishes himself through repenting. For Peter wept then, when Christ looked upon him. Whence also the psalm says: He looked, and the earth was moved and trembled. The steps of God into the heart of man are that inner power by which good desires arise that evils may be trodden down. When therefore these things take place in the heart of man, it must be known that God is then present to the human heart through grace; whence a man ought then all the more to sharpen himself unto compunction, when he senses God also working within.
To what height the mind of a righteous man is caught up from true compunction, and in what manner, weakened, it returns by the greatness of the light it has tasted—this only he can know who has already tasted something thereof. There are those who become their own accusers not from true compunction of heart, but only assign themselves to be sinners for this end: that from a feigned humility of confession they may find a reputation of holiness. XIII. On the confession of sins and penance. Each one begins to be righteous from the moment he has become his own accuser. But many, on the contrary, confess themselves sinners, and yet do not withdraw themselves from sin.
It is already a great part of righteousness for a man to know himself to be depraved, so that from the moment he acknowledges his own weakness he may the more humbly submit to the divine power. The righteous man judges himself rightly in this life, lest he be judged by God with perpetual condemnation. But each one then passes judgment upon himself when through worthy penance he condemns his own depraved deeds. The bitterness of penance causes the soul both to examine its own deeds more subtly, and by weeping to call to mind the gifts of God which it despised. But nothing is worse than to acknowledge one's fault and not to bewail it. Every sinner ought to have a twofold weeping in penance: either because through negligence he did not do the good, or because through boldness he perpetrated the evil.
For what he ought to have done he did not do, and he did what he ought not to have done. He does penance worthily who bewails his own guilt with lawful satisfaction, namely by condemning and lamenting what he has done, weeping over it the more profusely in proportion as he was the more prone in sinning. He does penance worthily who so laments past evils that he does not again commit those to be lamented. For he who bewails a sin and again commits the sin is like one who washes an unbaked brick: the more he washes it, the more mud he makes. However great a sinner and impious a man may be, if he turns to penance, he is believed able to obtain pardon.
For let no one doubt the goodness of God; rather, only the perversity of those who would receive it denies the indulgence granted to them. In this life the liberty of penance stands open to such a degree; but after death there is no leave for correction. Whence the Lord also says: I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; but the night comes when no one can work. Hence the prophet too says: Give glory to the Lord your God before it grows dark; that is, before eternal death comes upon you, while you are in this life, glorify God through penance. Even now in this age God's mercy comes to the aid of those who work penance. But in the age to come we no longer work, but render an account of our works.
By that very means the wicked are for the most part made worse, by which through God's patience they receive a space for amending; but that delay of living they use not for penance, but usurp for the boldness of sinning. And he passes from evil to worse who uses the time granted him for penance for the license of depraved action. Each one ought to hasten to God by repenting while he is able, lest, if he was unwilling while he could, when he wishes it too late he may not be able at all. Therefore the prophet says: Seek the Lord while he can be found; call upon him while he is near. And where can he be found, except in this life, in which also he is near to all who call upon him? For then he will already be far off, when he shall say: Go into eternal fire.
For now he is not seen, and he is near; then he will be seen, and he will not be near, because he both will be able to be seen, and will not be able to be found. If, while anyone is still able to sin, he repents and while living corrects his life from every crime, there is no doubt that dying he passes over to eternal rest. But he who, living wickedly, does penance in the peril of death—just as his condemnation is uncertain, so his remission is doubtful. He therefore who desires to be certain of indulgence at death, let him repent while sound, and while sound blot out the crimes he has committed. There are those who quickly promise security to penitents. To such it is well said through the prophet: They heal the contrition of the daughter of my people with disgrace, saying "peace" when there is no peace.
Therefore he heals contrition with disgrace who promises security to one who sins and does not lawfully repent. Whence there follows: They were confounded who committed abomination; that is, they were confounded not by repenting, but by paying the penalty. For a guilty man is confounded in one way before the judge while he is punished, and in another way he who, blushing at his evil deed, is corrected. For the one is confounded because he has been reproved; the other, because he remembers that he has done evil. Although through penance there is propitiation of sins, yet a man ought not to be without fear, because the satisfaction of penance is weighed by the divine judgment alone, not the human. Therefore, because the mercy of God is hidden, it is necessary to weep without ceasing.
For it is never fitting that a penitent should have security concerning his sins. For security breeds negligence, and negligence often leads the incautious back to the vices he had renounced. When through penance the vices have been expelled from a man, if perchance after this, with security intervening, any fault should creep in, immediately the former delights of the vices steal upon the mind more greedily, and beating upon the man drag him back more grievously into his accustomed deeds, so that his last state is worse than the first. XIV. On the despair of sinners. It is not through spaces of places, but through good or evil affection that one goes to God or departs from Him. For it is not by the step of the feet, but by the step of morals that we grow distant from or draw near to God.
To perpetrate some wickedness is the death of the soul; to despise penance and to remain in fault is to descend into hell after death. Therefore to sin pertains to death, but to despair is to descend into hell. Whence the Scripture also says: The impious, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises. Often the devil leads to despair those whom he sees turning to penance, struck down by the enormity of their crimes, so that, hope of pardon being taken away, he may drag into distrust those whom he could not hold persistently in fault. But the penitent ought to foresee the crafty snares of the enemy against him; and so let him fear the justice of God in such a way that nevertheless, though in great crimes, he may trust in His mercy.
God rejoices more over a soul that has despaired and at length been converted, than over one that was never lost. As over the prodigal son, who had been dead and revived, had been lost and was found, over whose return there is great joy of the father. Not otherwise before God and the angels is there more abundant joy over him who is delivered from peril, than over him who never knew the peril of sin. For as greatly as a thing lost brings grief, so much the more, if it be found, does it bring gladness. As in the Gospel that shepherd exults who, rejoicing, carries back on his shoulders the lost sheep now found. No one ought to despair of pardon, even if he is converted to penance near the end of life.
For God judges each one by his end, not by his past life. This indeed is taught also by the testimony of the law, that a man is justified by his last state, when God commanded that a sheep be offered in place of the firstborn of an ass—that is, the uncleanness of the former life is to be changed into the innocence of a good end. Whence also the tail is commanded to be offered in sacrifice, that is, the last things of life unto penance. Many, regarded by grace from above, return to God through penance in their last moments, and whatever evils they have done they purge with daily weeping, and exchange their evil deeds for good deeds; to whom justly all that they had transgressed is forgiven, because they themselves acknowledge by repenting what they did wickedly.
In a man's life the end is to be sought, since God regards not what sort we were before, but what sort we shall be about the end of life. XV. On those who are forsaken by God. When God forsakes, no one repents; when God regards, each one sees and bewails his own deeds, and considers whence he has fallen. But some are so despised by God that they cannot bewail their own evils, even if they wish to.
This is the counsel of the unclean spirits: that because it has been denied to them to return to righteousness after their transgression, they desire to bar the entrance of penance to men, lest these too should return to God, and they strive to have them as companions in perdition, pressing on with whatever frauds so that men may either be forsaken by God, or despair through the enormity of the scourge. One must groan continually, and, security set aside, one must mourn, lest by the secret and just judgment of God a man be forsaken and left to be destroyed in the power of demons. For truly, whom God forsakes, the demons take up. Despisers of the Lord's precept, as soon as they are turned away from God, are seized by malignant spirits, by whom they are also persuaded to do evil.
Hence is that prophetic saying: Darkness pursues the enemies of God—by which are understood the demons. Whence also it is read in the psalm: Sendings by evil angels. Certain of the reprobate are, by the hidden and most just judgment of God, driven back into the power of demons, as Isaiah testifies: He himself sent them the lot, and his hand divided it to them by measure; they shall possess it forever. Certain of the elect are permitted by divine justice to walk into the error of sin, yet by His mercy they are led back and again converted. For concerning such the Lord speaks through the prophet: And I forsook him, and I led him back, and I restored consolation.
Sometimes too God, returning, visits again with affliction the man He had forsaken, and through the lamentation of tears and the affliction of penance purges him from his sins, as Job says to God: Because of pride, you take me as a lioness, and returning you wondrously torment me. For God, returning, torments a man when He visits again with scourging the one He had forsaken while he was sinning. By our evil acts we ought by no means to provoke against ourselves the heavenly wrath the more; but rather, if by repenting we perform deeds worthy of God, we shall change His severity into clemency. For He who tolerates us while evil, without doubt clemently pardons us when converted.
For the fact that a time of penance is reserved for us, so that we are not at once overwhelmed by a sudden death, but a place of satisfaction is given us—all this proceeds from the clemency of God, that He may not cruelly condemn us, but patiently await us unto penance. XVI. On those who return to sin after tears. He is a mocker, not a penitent, who still does that of which he repents, and seems not to entreat God as one submissive, but to jeer at Him as one proud. A dog returned to its vomit is also the penitent to his sin. For many pour out tears unceasingly, and do not cease from sinning.
Some receive tears unto penance, yet have not the effect of penance, because through inconstancy of mind they now pour out tears at the remembrance of sin, but now, the habit reviving, they commit again the very things they had wept over. He who wishes both to bewail the past and to brood over worldly actions, such a one has no cleansing, since he still does what he might have to bewail by repenting. Isaiah says to sinners: Wash yourselves, be clean; therefore he is washed and clean who both bewails the past and does not again admit what must be wept over. He is washed and is not clean who bewails what he has done yet does not forsake it, and after tears returns to the things he had wept over.
So too elsewhere the divine word rebukes the soul that repents and again transgresses, saying: How exceedingly vile you have become, repeating your ways. Whoever therefore mourns his past faults, it is necessary that he keep this measure: that he so bewail what he has committed as not again to commit what must be bewailed. Woe is me, wretched Isidore, who both neglect to repent of things done in the past, and still commit things to be repented of! XVII. On sin. Sin is committed in two ways, that is, either by the force of desire, or by the fear of dread, while one either wishes to attain what he desires, or fears lest he incur what he dreads. In four ways sin is committed in the heart, and in four ways it is perpetrated in deed.
It is admitted in the heart by the suggestion of demons, the delight of the flesh, the consent of the mind, the defense of self-exaltation; it is committed in deed now secretly, now openly, now by habit, now by despair. By these degrees, then, sin is both committed in the heart and malice is perpetrated in deed. In three ways sin is done, that is, by ignorance, by weakness, by deliberation, but with a different peril of punishments. For by the manner of ignorance Eve sinned in paradise, as the Apostle says: The man was not seduced, but the woman being seduced was in the transgression. Therefore Eve sinned by ignorance, but Adam by deliberation, because not being seduced, but knowing and prudent, he sinned; for he who is seduced plainly does not know to what he consents.
But by weakness Peter transgressed, when at the dread of the questioning maidservant he denied Christ; whence also after the sin he wept most bitterly. It is graver for anyone to transgress by weakness than by ignorance, and graver to sin by deliberation than by weakness. For he sins by deliberation who does evil with zeal and deliberation of mind; but by weakness he who transgresses by chance or by sudden impulse. But those sin more wickedly and by deliberation who not only do not live well, but even, if they can, turn the well-living away from the truth. For there are those who sin ignorantly, and there are those who sin knowingly. There are also those who, for the excuse of ignorance, are unwilling to know, that they may be held less culpable;
yet these do not protect themselves, but rather deceive themselves. Not to know simply pertains to ignorance; but to have been unwilling to know pertains to obstinate pride. For to be unwilling to know the will of one's own Lord—what else is it than to be willing to despise the Lord through pride? Let no one therefore excuse himself on account of ignorance, because God judges not only those who turn back from knowledge of Him, but also those who did not know, as the same Lord testifies through the prophet: I will destroy, He says, men from the face of the earth, and those who turn away behind the back of the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord, nor inquired after Him. And the psalm says: Pour out your wrath upon the nations that have not known you. XVIII. On lighter sins.
Many can have a life without crime, but cannot have it without sin. For however greatly a man may shine with the brightness of righteousness in this age, yet he is never wholly free from the filth of sins, as the apostle John attests, who says: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. There are certain deeds similar to sins, but if they are done with a good intention, they are not sins: for instance, the exercise of power, if one takes vengeance on the guilty not from a desire of avenging himself, but rather from a zeal for correcting. Likewise there are light sins which are purged by beginners through daily satisfaction, which nevertheless are avoided by perfect men as though they were great crimes.
But what ought men to do about great crimes, when even the perfect mourn each light offense as though it were most grievous? Not only grave, but light sins are to be guarded against. For many light sins make one great one, just as immense rivers are wont to grow from small and tiny drops. For a multitude gathered into one produces an overflowing abundance. Sins that are light for beginners are reckoned grave for perfect men. For a sin is known to be so much the greater as he who sins is held to be the greater. For the heap of the fault grows according to the order of merits, and often what is pardoned in lesser men is imputed to greater ones. XIX. On graver sins.
By the experience of lesser sins greater sins are committed, so that those may be struck the more harshly for great crimes who were unwilling to be corrected in small ones. But by the divine judgment they fall into a worse guilt who despise to examine strictly their lesser deeds. Many rush from crime into crime who, having knowledge of God, neglect the fear of Him, and whom they know through knowledge, they do not venerate through action. And therefore they are blinded by the divine judgment to commit things deserving punishment, and to add unto the penalty of the committed offense a worse offense. Often one sin is the cause of another sin; which, when it is committed, another arises from it as its own offspring, just as lust is wont to be born from excessive gluttony of the belly.
But sin is admitted as the penalty of sin, when, according to the merit of each sin, God forsaking, one passes into another and worse sin, by which he who has committed it is defiled the more. Therefore the preceding sin is the cause of the following sin, but the following sin is the penalty of the preceding offense. Preceding sins, then, are the cause of the crimes that follow, so that those which follow may be the penalty of those that precede. The penalty of preceding sins is that very hardening which comes from divine justice. Hence it is that the prophet says: You have hardened our heart, that we should not fear you; for it is not while any are righteous that they are impelled by God to become evil; but while they are already evil, they are hardened that they may become worse, as the apostle also says:
Because they did not receive the truth of God, that they might be saved, God sent them a spirit of error. God therefore causes certain ones to sin, but ones in whom such sins have already preceded, so that by His just judgment they deserve to go into the worse. Such sins indeed, with other sins preceding, slide down into the penalty which the sins deserve. Certain sins come from the wrath of God, which are recompensed for the merit of other sins. Whence the prophet also says: Behold, you are angry and we have sinned; in these we have been always, as if he said: because we have always been in sins, you have been angry that we might sin the worse. For a prudent reader ought to know what it is to deserve the wrath of God, and what it is to provoke it.
For the wrath that is provoked is graver than that which is deserved. For we deserve it when we sin by ignorance; we provoke it when we know to do good, and are unwilling. Now, while we live, we can avoid the wrath of God. Let us fear therefore lest, when that terror of judgment comes, it can be felt but cannot be avoided. XX. On manifest and hidden sins. It is of greater guilt to sin openly than secretly. For he is doubly guilty who transgresses openly, because he both does and teaches. Of such Isaiah says: And they proclaimed their sins like Sodom, nor did they hide them. For many, sinning publicly, without any shame proclaim their disgraceful deeds, nor do they employ any shamefacedness for their crime.
For it is already some portion of righteousness for a man to hide his own iniquity, and to blush within himself over his own sins. To perpetrate a sin is a crime; to proclaim a sin is a clamor, of which also the apostle says: And let clamor be taken away from you, with all malice—that is, with the sins themselves. From this very fact that anyone hides the sin he does, it is already an indication of judgment, because one does not blush except from the guilt of conscience. Therefore from this very thing—that one blushes over his own deed—he already becomes a judge to himself. XXI. On the love of sin. It is one thing not to sin from love of the love of God, another thing from fear of punishment.
For he who does not sin from the love of the charity of God shudders at all evil, embracing the good of righteousness, nor does sin delight him, even if impunity for the crime be promised. But he who represses vices in himself only from the penalty of punishment, although he does not accomplish the work of sin, yet the will to sin lives in him; and what the law is known to forbid grieves him as unlawful. He therefore receives the reward of a good work who does it by loving righteousness, not he who guards it unwillingly only from the dread of punishments. Some both love sin and do it; some only love it and do not do it; but many only do it and do not love it. Some do not do sin and yet hate righteousness.
But he sins more grievously who not only loves sin but also does it, than he who does not do it and loves it; and sometimes more grievously he who loves and does not do it, than he who does it and hates it; it is most grievous not only to do, but also to love sin. For there are some who are immediately confounded when the wicked deed is done, and there are those who not only do not grieve at having done evil, but even glory in the evil deed itself. And so in comparison with the evil it becomes worse, when, congratulating themselves on their vices, they are exalted unto the worse. Of such Solomon says: Who rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the most wicked things. XXII. On the necessity of sinning. Sometimes the evil that we are, we are by necessity rather than by will.
But the necessity of evil must be turned into the will of good. Very many sin not by will, but by necessity alone, greatly dreading temporal want; and, while they flee the necessity of the present age, they are deprived of future goods. Likewise some commit sin by will, not by necessity, and are wicked, compelled by no want; but only wish to be evil gratuitously. For they do not love the very thing they seek, but delight only in the very malice of sin. XXIII. On the habit of sinning. It is better to guard against sin than to amend it. For we resist more easily the enemy by whom we have not yet been conquered, than him by whom we are recognized as already overcome and vanquished.
Every sin, before it is admitted, is dreaded the more. But however grave it may be, once it has come into habitual use, it is reckoned light, and is committed without any fear. By these kindlings, as by certain degrees, every sin grows strong: for a depraved thought begets delight; delight, consent; consent, action; action, habit; habit, necessity. And so, entangled by these bonds, a man is held bound by a certain chain of vices, so that he can by no means be torn away from it, unless divine grace seize the hand of the one lying prostrate. To admit a sin is to fall into a pit; but to make a habit of sinning is to narrow the mouth of the pit, so that he who has fallen cannot get out.
But sometimes God delivers even such, when He changes their despair into the conversion of liberty. For by His mercy sins are forgiven; by His protection it comes about that one does not go on into worse sinning. It is most wicked to sin, but worse to make a habit of sinning. From the one there is an easy rising again, from the other only with labor, while one struggles against the evil habit. The prophet asserts that the habit of doing evil is a recess into the depth, by the practice of which a man is held bound as by a certain law, so that even when he does not wish it, he admits sin. But to rise again quickly from a fall is not to go into the depth. The apostle speaks of the law of sin in our members;
This law is habit, which we conceive by sinning, and from which we do not depart when we wish, because we are now held fast by the bond of necessity through habit. The love of truth accomplishes much in a man, yet the flesh resists through the law of evil habit. But rightly does he exult boldly for a good conscience who mightily restrains within himself that which insolently assails him. One must beware of sinning frequently; for that very thing, whereby God for the most part works our salvation out of our evil, is as rare as it is wonderful. Therefore we must fear to be confident of being saved in this way, lest perchance, while we wait to be healed of our vices, we both multiply our vices and fail to attain salvation. Let us therefore strive either not to fall, or, being quickly converted, to rise again from our fall.
One must altogether beware of sinning; but if through human frailty sin has crept in, that which is felt to have been wickedly committed must be corrected at once. For a fault that is quickly recognized is quickly corrected; but a wound is more slowly healed which, when the members are already festering, is treated with remedies only long afterward. [The repetition of sin is graver, as when disease comes upon disease, as when rain falls upon rain.] Delay in sinning increases the enormity of the crime, whence also the prophet says: Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with a cart-rope. For he who is slow to turn to God draws iniquity like a cord. To draw iniquity is to prolong iniquity.
Whence also the psalm says: They have prolonged their iniquities; the Lord who is just shall cut asunder the necks of sinners. XXIV. On the remembrance of sin. It is good for a man always to set his own offenses before his eyes, according to the sentence of the psalm: And my sin is ever before me. For just as one ought not to recall the pleasure of sin, so it is ever necessary that each one call to mind his own sin in weeping over it. In the just man, the remembrance of sin produces weariness of soul. But those who are subject to lust and greed, with stubborn pride, even glory in the very work of sin itself. In the servant of God there ought to be so great a remembrance of sin that he always confesses with tears the things he has done. Whence also the psalm says:
I was turned in my anguish, while the thorn is fastened in; I made known my sin, and I said: I will declare against myself my unrighteousness to the Lord. For above he had said: Because I kept silence, that is, I did not confess, all my bones grew old, while I cried out all the day long. What then does he repent of having kept silence, save the confession of sins? Of what does he grieve to have cried out, save the defense of his evils? He therefore who stood forth as a defender of his own sins must needs, by repenting, accuse that which in pride he wickedly committed. XXV. On thought. The cause of sinning is twofold, namely of deed and of thought, of which the one is called iniquity, which is carried out in deed, the other unrighteousness, which is admitted in thought.
First, however, the action must be cut off, then the thought; first the wicked works, afterward the desires. Yet in turn both works proceed from thought, and thought is born from work. Although a man may refrain from an evil work, yet for the malice of wicked thought alone he will not be innocent. Whence also the Lord says through Isaiah: Take away, he says, the evil of your thoughts from before my eyes. For we offend not only by deeds but also by thoughts, if we take delight in them when they unlawfully occur to us. Just as the viper is torn apart and killed by the young placed within its womb, so our own thoughts, nourished within us, slay us, and when conceived inwardly, consume us with viperous venom, and destroy our soul with a cruel wound.
It is not within our choice to forestall the suggestions of wicked thought; but to let the thought lie in the soul belongs to our will. The former, therefore, is not reckoned to guilt, the latter is imputed as our own fault. For that unlawful thoughts occur is of the demons; to take pleasure in perverse thoughts is ours. It very often happens that the impure images of bodily things, which we have learned, are set before our minds, and we think of them against our will; and the more we strive to turn the mind's gaze away from them, the more they press themselves upon the soul, and creep in upon us with obscene stirrings. But this comes about by reason of the mortal condition which the first man merited as the penalty of his sin.
When each one is forestalled by divine illumination, at once he is beaten by the vexations of base thoughts. But the servant of God, by the judgment of the fear of God, casts their temptations away from himself, and by setting good thoughts against them, drives the base ones from himself. Great watchfulness must be applied to the guarding of the heart, because there is the origin of either good or evil; for, as it is written: Out of the heart come evil thoughts. And therefore, if we first resist the wicked thought, we do not fall into the lapse of the deed. It is not to be feared if good and evil come into the thought; but rather one should glory if the mind, by the understanding of reason, distinguishes evil from good.
Likewise it profits nothing that we distinguish between good and evil with a more prudent sense, unless by our work we either beware of the evil we have recognized, or do the good we have understood. XXVI. On conscience. The human condition, while it disturbs the mind with divers vices, even before the punishments of hell already suffers the punishments of conscience through the disordered appetite of the soul. A man may be able to flee all things except his own heart. For no one can depart from himself. For wherever he goes, the conscience of his own guilt does not forsake him. Although everyone who does evil may escape human judgments, yet he cannot escape the judgment of his own conscience.
For even if he conceals from others what he has done, yet he cannot conceal it from himself, who fully knows the evil he has committed to be evil. A twofold judgment therefore comes upon him, because both here he is punished by the guilt of his own conscience, and there he is condemned to everlasting punishment. For this is the meaning of: Deep calleth unto deep, in the voice of the waterfalls. For deep to call unto deep is to go from the judgment of one's own conscience to the judgment of everlasting damnation. In the voice of the waterfalls, that is, in the preaching of the saints. XXVII. On the intention of the mind. The eye of a man is the intention of his work. If therefore his intention is good, the work of his intention also is good.
Otherwise, of an evil intention, even if the work should appear good in its deeds, it is no longer good, since from its own intention it is either approved as good or rejected as unworthy. A good intention, therefore, is that which is for God's sake; but an evil one is that which is for earthly gain or vain glory. Those who do not perform a good work with a good intention are the more blinded by the very work through which they might have been enlightened. Let each one do the good work he does with a good intention, since for the sake of an evil intention we for the most part lose the good work we do, and are the less free from fault. Often things that appear good in the judgment of men are, at the examination of the most diligent and most acute Judge, uncovered as reprobate.
And therefore every holy man fears lest perchance the good he does, by reason of some intention of the soul, be reprobate in the eyes of God. XXVIII. On the senses of the flesh. Through the senses of the flesh the disease of the mind creeps in. Whence also the Lord says through the prophet: All the kindreds of the earth shall come from the north, and each one shall set his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. The kingdoms of the north are the vices, which set their seats in the gates when through the senses of the flesh they bring ruin upon the soul; and therefore in the very gates, that is, in the senses themselves, they reign. For we sin from no other source than by seeing, hearing, handling, tasting, and touching. Whence it is also said elsewhere: Death has entered through our windows; and elsewhere:
And strangers entered through her gates, and cast lots over Jerusalem. The strangers are indeed the unclean spirits, who, as through gates, so creep into the soul through the senses of the flesh, and overcome it by enticement. XXIX. On speech. While we do not avoid certain small words of the vices, we slide into a great crime of the tongue; and while we freely and without fear commit certain deeds that are not grave, we fall by the habit of sinning into more grievous and horrible crimes. Just as the folly of the talkative is for the most part reproved, so again the faults of those too silent are marked out. For the former, by loosing the tongue too much, flow away into the vice of levity; the latter, by keeping silence too much, grow torpid, away from usefulness.
The unlearned, just as they know not how to speak, so they cannot keep silence. Untutored in mind, talkative in mouth, they make noise with words, and say nothing in sense. Just as the crime of falsehood is greatly feared by those making progress, so idle words are shunned by perfect men. For as a certain one says: For an idle word an account is rendered, for an unjust word a penalty is paid. Vain speeches ought not to be in the mouth of a Christian. For just as good conversations correct evil morals, so wicked conversations corrupt good morals. A guard is set upon the mouth when a man confesses himself not just, but rather, which is more true, a sinner. He sets his hand upon his mouth who covers the excess of the tongue with good works.
He sets his hand upon his mouth who covers the faults of evil speech with the veil of good action. He who speaks the things that pertain to God, yet does them not, though he is useless to himself, nevertheless profits his hearers. Let those who long to be praised for wisdom heed the prophet who speaks: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent before your own selves. Rightly does he speak from a 'sentence' who perceives true wisdom by the taste of an inner savor. For 'sentence' is so called from 'perceiving' (sentire). And through this, the arrogant, who speak without humility, speak from mere knowledge, not from a 'sentence.' For he is wise who is wise rightly and according to God.
Teachers speak to their own reproach if their sayings, though wise, are nevertheless too eloquent. For wisdom shudders at the foamy pomp of words, and at the paint of worldly eloquence adorned with inflated speeches. Certain curious persons delight to hear whatever wise men, not that they may seek the truth from them, but that they may recognize the fluency of their speech, after the manner of the poets, who follow the composition of words rather than the sentence of truth. Fourfold is the manner of speaking, by which one must foresee what, to whom, when, and how something is to be uttered.
Likewise fourfold is the manner of speaking: either by perceiving well, something is well uttered; or by perceiving nothing, nothing is said; or by perceiving little, mere loquacity is displayed; or by perceiving excellently, what is understood is not elegantly uttered. Likewise fourfold is the manner of speaking, by which either good is spoken well, or evil ill, or good ill, or evil well. He indeed speaks good well who is seen humbly to announce those things which are right. He speaks evil ill who tries to persuade to some disgraceful act. He speaks good ill who is felt to preach anything right arrogantly. He speaks evil well who, by relating some vice, detests it, that men may be turned away from it.
He speaks well with the heart who does not feign charity. He speaks well with the mouth who announces the truth. He speaks well with deeds who builds up others by good examples. He speaks ill with the heart who inwardly ponders and thinks harmful thoughts. He speaks ill with the tongue who is scourged for the evil he does and murmurs. He speaks ill with deeds who, by living wickedly, forms others to act perversely by his examples. He speaks well once who reproves himself by repenting. He speaks well twice who, by living well, also instructs others. He speaks ill once who, after a fault, is quickly corrected. He speaks ill twice who both lives ill and teaches ill. Likewise he speaks ill twice who both thinks evil and reports the things he has thought evilly.
Likewise he speaks ill twice who both did not do the good he ought and admitted the evil he ought not. The evil return evil for good, and adverse things for the best. The good return good for evil, and prosperous things for adverse. Against the reviling of the tongue the fortitude of patience must be applied, so that the temptation of the word, which assails from without, being overcome by the virtue of endurance, may depart. Not everyone who suffers reproaches is just; but he who suffers innocently for the truth, he alone is just. Amid the reproaches of the tongue and the insults of men, by this remedy the mind of the just man is strengthened, that it may be all the more solidly fixed inwardly in God, the more it is despised outwardly by human senses.
He who with a tranquil mind brings forth the insults inflicted upon him opens the grief of his heart and easily casts out the venom that seethes in his soul. For open wounds of the mind quickly breathe out their poison; those shut up too much fester within. He who covers the pain of an injury with a closed breast, the more he presses down the tongue with silence, the more keenly he nourishes it within. Whence also, truly, a certain one of the pagan poets said: 'The more it is covered, the more the covered fire glows.' For a hidden languor is vehement and excessive, because 'a silent wound lives beneath the breast.' XXX. On lying. Liars bring it about that not even those who speak the truth are believed. For much falsehood often renders a man suspect even in the truth.
Often he who is about to speak falsehoods promises true things, so that, when he has first gained trust, he may make his hearers credulous as to the rest of his lies. To many, things that are false seem to be true, and therefore they speak not from God, but from their own falsehood. Sometimes falsehood is joined to truthful speech, and for the most part he who contrives falsehoods begins from truth. Often poisons lie hidden, smeared over with the honey of words, and the deceiver simulates the truth for so long until by deceiving he ensnares. Sometimes it is worse to premeditate a lie than to speak it; for sometimes an incautious person is wont to speak a lie from precipitancy, but he cannot premeditate one except by design.
He therefore is held to lie more grievously who lies from design than he who lies from mere precipitancy. Every lie is above all to be avoided, although sometimes there is a certain kind of lie of lighter fault, if anyone should lie for the salvation of men. But because it is written: The mouth that lies slays the soul; and, Thou shalt destroy those who speak a lie, this kind of lie also perfect men above all flee, so that neither is anyone's life defended through their deceit, nor do they harm their own soul while they strive to be of service to another's flesh; although we believe that this very kind of sin is most easily remitted. For if any fault is purged by a reward that follows, how much more easily is that wiped away which the reward itself accompanies.
Men lie about many things and feign many things for the praise of men; and so it comes about that both these perish by lying, and lead those whom they praise to the ruin of vain glory. Just as one who is well conscious of himself does not fear the reviling of another's tongue, so also he who is praised by another ought not to heed the error of another's praise; but rather let each one seek the testimony of his own conscience, to which he himself is more present than the one who praises him. For let each one prove his own work, as the Apostle says, and then each shall have glory in himself, that is, secretly in his own conscience, not openly in another's tongue.
The perfect, who are founded upon a deep root, even if by the blast of praise and blame they are somehow bent at times as by the impulse of winds, yet are not cast down at the foundations, but forthwith return to themselves by the firmness of the root. A good mind is conquered to evil neither by rewards nor by terrors. For the wicked mingle terror with flatteries, so that they may either deceive someone by delight, or break him by terrors. He who is praised is inserted into the love of his hearers, but only if he is praised truly and not feignedly, that is, if the things said of him are true. XXXI. On the oath. Just as he who does not speak cannot lie, so he cannot forswear himself who does not seek to swear.
Swearing therefore must be avoided, nor is it to be used except in sole necessity. It is not contrary to God's precept to swear, but while we make a practice of swearing, we incur the crime of perjury. Let him therefore never swear who fears to forswear himself. Many, while they speak, always delight to swear, though this only ought to be in the mouth: 'Yea, yea; nay, nay.' For whatsoever is more than 'yea' and 'nay' is of evil. Many, that they may deceive, forswear themselves, so that through the trust of an oath they may create trust in their word, and so by deceiving, while they forswear themselves and lie, they deceive the incautious man. Sometimes we are deceived, seduced also by false tears, and belief is given, while they weep, to those who were not to be believed.
For the most part we resolve to speak without an oath, but by the incredulity of those who do not believe what we say, we are compelled to swear, and by such necessity we make a habit of swearing. There are many slow to believe, who are not moved to faith in a word. But those grievously offend who compel those speaking to them to swear. By whatever art of words anyone swears, God nevertheless, who is the witness of conscience, takes it thus, just as he to whom it is sworn understands it. And doubly does he become guilty who both takes the name of God in vain and catches his neighbor by guile. An oath by which evil is incautiously promised is not to be kept, as if anyone should pledge to an adulteress the faith of remaining perpetually with her.
For it is more tolerable not to fulfill the oath than to remain in the disgrace of fornication. To swear is that providence of God which has determined not to overturn what is established. But the repentance of God is a change of things; while not to repent is not to revoke what is established, as is that: The Lord has sworn and it shall not repent him; that is, what he swore, he did not change. XXXII. On the vices. A man withdrawing from God is at once handed over to the power of the vices, so that, while he suffers hostile vices, by returning he may come to his senses whence he fell. And if the saints strive with every effort to overcome the vices and yet do not extinguish them, what do those do who not only do not hate the vices, but pursue them with all their love?
He flatters himself too tenderly who wishes to overcome the vices without labor, since he cannot without the violence of pain cut away the law of sin which he made for himself by serving the vices. He perfectly renounces a vice who avoids the occasion in the perpetrating of sin. For if you should wish just so much not to sin, and yet, when the occasion is given, you have sinned, you are to yourself both defendant and judge, who both condemn the things committed and commit the things condemned. But he is a defendant with himself as judge, who both accuses and perpetrates the vices. Certain vices, while they are not perfectly avoided, cause their own authors to relapse into them. For if one vice is strictly avoided and the others are neglected, the labor is vain.
For one cannot strongly persevere in the observance of a single virtue, in whose heart other vices hold dominion. Sometimes a man's own vices pursue him, because doubtless he who first, by willing, made them his companions, afterward feels them, even unwilling, as goads. Some do not fall into the error of the vices before they have first lost the eyes of inner reason, just as Samson was not bound to the engine of error by the Philistines before the light of his eyes had been extinguished. Certain men, while the reason of the mind is still vigorous, are overcome by the onset of the vices, and thus thereafter lose the intention of good works, just as the king of Babylon first slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and so afterward plucked out his eyes;
and through this, after the habit of many works and the destruction of good things, the very reason of some men also perishes. XXXIII. That from vices vices arise, and from virtues virtues. Thus sins are begotten from sin, so that, while small ones are not avoided, one advances into the greatest; and while things committed are defended and not lamented, one goes from disgrace to pride. Whence it comes about that he is guilty of a doubled crime who both admits wicked deeds through his will and defends them through the swelling of stubbornness. Thus vice is begotten by vice, just as virtue is conceived by virtue. For vice is begotten from vice, just as David, while he does not avoid adultery, perpetrated also homicide.
Likewise virtue is conceived by virtue, just as through the virtue of evangelical preaching the apostles merited the virtue of martyrdom. In the hearts of those who live in a worldly manner the vices succeed one another in turn, so that, when one has departed, another succeeds, according to the testimony of the prophet Joel who says: What the caterpillar has left, the locust has eaten; and what the locust has left, the cankerworm has eaten; and what the cankerworm has left, the mildew has eaten. For these things are gathered under the allegory of the vices, because there follows: Awake, ye drunkards, and weep. Sometimes one usefully sins in the least vices that greater ones may be more usefully avoided. Read Paul the Apostle permitting the lesser sins, lest the greater be perpetrated. But those vices are truly healed which are excluded by virtues, not by vices.
But certain hidden vices of some men then appear when they cease from other vices. XXXIV. On virtues ill used. Sometimes even virtues ill used beget vices out of themselves; which happens through the immoderate appetite of the soul, to which the gift it has merited does not suffice, unless from it it seek either praise or damnable gains. Sometimes virtues beget vices when at any time they are by no means relaxed opportunely, according to the time. And so it comes about that things which in a fitting place are virtues are in an unfitting place accounted vices, as if on account of the arrival of a brother the canonical fast should not be broken. Take therefore the discernment of virtues from Paul the Apostle, who did for a time what he altogether forbade to be done.
Likewise certain virtues, while they do not serve discernment, pass over into vices. For often justice, while it exceeds its measure, begets the savagery of cruelty; and excessive piety brings forth the dissolution of discipline; and the zeal of ardor, while it is more than is fitting, passes over into the vice of wrath; and much meekness begets the sluggishness of torpor. But the discernment of the prudent man skillfully looks ahead, lest he act a good thing intemperately and pass over from virtue into vice. Likewise among some, vice is begotten from virtue, when anyone glories in the merits of chastity and abstinence. For he too who bestows alms for the sake of vain glory makes a vice out of a virtue;
but also he who has arrogance from wisdom, and he who seeks a reward for justice, and he who turns some gift of God which he has merited to his own praise, or takes it up for evil uses, without doubt transfers virtue into vice. Men nourish vices out of virtues, by which they perish. Again God, by a most powerful art, forms virtues out of our vice, by which he may reform us from iniquity. XXXV. On simulated virtues. Certain vices display the appearance of virtues, and therefore they deceive their followers more perniciously because they cover themselves under the veil of virtues. For vices which at once appear contrary to virtues are quickly amended when they come into the open, on account of which their followers blush at such crimes.
But carnal men, for the most part through the insensibility of the mind, do not recognize as a culpable vice that which is seen to be worthy of condemnation. Likewise certain vices seem to be species of virtues, and yet they are not virtues. For sometimes under the pretext of justice cruelty is enacted, and that is thought to be a virtue which doubtless is a vice; just as slack sluggishness is believed to be meekness, and what indifferent negligence does is thought to be done by the indulgence of piety. Sometimes also the vice of prodigal effusion imitates the virtue of generosity, and gloomy tenacity imitates the virtue of thrift, and the vice of obstinacy is hidden under the virtue of constancy.
Likewise fear is concealed under the appearance of obedience, and is called the virtue of humility, which nevertheless is the vice of fear. But also the boldness of voice is taken for the liberty of truth, and the vice of laziness imitates the virtue of quiet. Furthermore the vice of restlessness wishes to call itself the virtue of solicitude, and the readiness of precipitancy is believed to be the fervor of good zeal, and the slowness of acting well is seen to be the delay of counsel, whereas the latter is a virtue, the former a vice. By such an example, therefore, the vices imitate the species of virtues, and thence some are confident that they are just, whence they are most of all reproved. A fitting example of the vices is taken from the likeness of a robber;
for just as a robber comes forth from ambush and joins himself to travelers, feigning himself a companion until he deceives the unwary, and when he suddenly bursts forth, the robber is shown manifest unto destruction, so the vices sometimes mingle themselves dangerously with the virtues until they seize all the efficacy of good work for their own uses, so that the soul which was pleasing to itself on account of its virtues beholds itself deceived by damnable vices. XXXVI. On the desire of virtues. We rise to virtues with difficulty; we slip down to vices without labor. For the latter are downhill, the former steep. For we endure great sweats that we may be able to ascend to heaven.
Just as those tending toward the summit of virtues do not begin from the highest, but from the modest, so that they may gradually reach the loftier things, so also those who slip down to vices do not begin at once from great crimes, but grow accustomed from modest ones, and thus rush headlong into the greatest. Just as little by little a man rushes from the least vices into the greatest, so from modest virtues he strives step by step toward those which are exalted. But he who strives to grasp the virtues in a disordered way is quickly imperiled. This is a cause in the nature of things, that whatever tends swiftly to advancement is without doubt swiftly ended, just as herbs, which perish all the more hastily the more swiftly they grow.
But on the contrary, trees founded upon a deep root therefore endure longer, because they come to their advancement gradually. It profits nothing, with evil mixed in, to do something good, but first one must refrain from evil, then exercise good. For the prophet indicates this when he says: Cease to act perversely, learn to do well. First the vices must be extirpated in a man, then the virtues implanted. For truth cannot cohere and be joined with falsehood, modesty with wantonness, faith with perfidy, chastity with lust. Certain are the highest virtues, but certain are middle. Faith, hope, and charity are the highest virtues. For by whomsoever they are held, they are assuredly held truly.
But the other virtues are middle, because they can be held both for profit and for ruin, if anyone should swell arrogantly over them—such as learning, fasting, chastity, knowledge, or temporal riches, with which indeed we can work both well and ill. Whoever from being worse has now begun to be better, let him beware of being lifted up over the virtues he has received, lest he fall more grievously through the virtues than he lay before from the fall of the vices. Him whom God justifies, lest he again exalt himself over his virtues, God grants certain gifts of virtues and withdraws certain others, so that, while the mind is lifted up over that which it has, it may again be humbled over that which it knows it by no means has.
Whosoever, inspired by the gift of heavenly grace, is raised to the virtues, if perchance by the hand of the governing God he is restrained by some adversity, lest he be lifted up over the virtues received, he ought not to be broken, because this very thing, that he is humbled by blows, to bear it with equanimity is without doubt of great virtue. XXXVII. On the battle of virtues against vices. Then do holy men more truly cleanse themselves from the filth of the vices, when against single vices single virtues are set by them. Sometimes vices contend with virtues unto profit, so that by the very struggle either the mind may be exercised, or the soul shaken from elation may be restrained. Against the assaults of the vices one must fight with contrary virtues.
Against luxury, purity of heart must be applied; against hatred, love must be made ready; against wrath, patience must be set forth. Furthermore, against fear the strength of confidence must be applied; against sluggishness the warfare of zeal; against sadness likewise joy, against sloth fortitude, against avarice generosity, against pride humility must be opposed. And thus the several virtues restrain the vices that arise against them, and by the strength of divine charity they extinguish the stirrings of temptation. Abstinence tames lust. For as much as the body is broken by fasting, so much is the mind called back from unlawful appetite. Against anger endurance does battle; anger indeed slays itself, but patience, by holding out, bears away the victory.
The hope of eternal joy overcomes the grief of sadness, and the sweetness of inward tranquility soothes the one whom a troubled mind afflicts through outward things. Against envy charity is made ready, and against the burnings of wrath the tranquility of gentleness is applied. The proud imitate the pride of the devil, against whom is set the humility of Christ, by which the lifted-up are brought low. Pride is the queen and mother of the seven chief vices, and these same seven chief vices bring forth from themselves many vices, because they are joined to one another by a certain kinship, so that one arises out of another.
Just as pride, the prince of the seven vices, subjects us to their powers, so Christ, full of sevenfold grace, rescues us from the dominion of the vices; and those whom pride hands over to sevenfold vice, He sets free by the gift of sevenfold grace. Concerning pride. Pride is worse than every vice, whether because it is taken up by the highest and foremost persons, or because it arises out of the work of justice and virtue, and its guilt is less felt. But the luxury of the flesh is notable to all, since it is at once and of itself base. And yet, when God weighs it, it is less than pride; but he who is held by pride and does not perceive it falls into the luxury of the flesh, so that, humbled by this, he may rise both from confusion and from pride.
Every sinner is proud, in that by doing forbidden things he holds the divine commandments in contempt. Rightly, therefore, pride is the beginning of every sin, because unless disobedience to the commandments of God has gone before, the guilt of transgression does not follow. All pride lies as low as it lifts itself up on high, and falls the more deeply the more loftily it is exalted. For he who is raised up through his own pride is bowed down through the justice of God. Those who are puffed up with pride are fed with wind; whence also the prophet says: 'The wind feeds all thy shepherds,' that is, the spirit of pride. Those who are proud of their own virtues are to be judged by the very works which they use in place of virtues, because they do a good thing not with a good will.
For truly, any virtue whatsoever without humility, and without charity, is reckoned among the vices. It was by the desert of pride that the devil fell from the heavenly blessedness. Those, therefore, who are lifted up on account of their virtues imitate the devil; and thereby they fall the more grievously, because they slip down from lofty heights. Pride, as it is the origin of all crimes, so it is the ruin of all virtues. For it is the first in sin, the last in the struggle. For either at the outset it lays the mind low through sin, or at the very end it casts it down from its virtues. Hence too it is the greatest of all sins, because it destroys the human mind both through the virtues and through the vices.
Pride falls in the very place where it is born, so that for the proud the guilt is not one thing and the penalty another, but the guilt itself is for them also the penalty. From pride is born arrogance, not from arrogance is pride born. For unless a hidden elation of the mind has gone before, the open boasting of praise does not follow. Thus, therefore, in guilt pride is set before arrogance, just as it is placed first in origin. Very often, for the correction of elation, by the providence of God some fall through some mischance, so that, rebuked by their own fall, they may be humbly wise, and may not seek to be praised for the gifts of God, but may praise the God from whom they received that for which they wish to be praised.
It is more profitable to slip by whatever vice of the arrogant, and to become humble before God after a fall, than to be proud through elation and to incur the graver damnation of ruin through pride. Concerning fornication. From the guilt of pride one very often passes into the abominable uncleanness of the flesh. For the one hangs upon the other; but just as through pride of mind one passes into the prostitution of lust, so through humility of mind the chastity of the flesh is kept safe. God, moreover, sometimes casts down the hidden pride of the mind through a manifest ruin of the flesh. The uncleanness of lust is born from the hidden pride of the soul, by the example of the first man, who, as soon as he swelled with pride against God, at once felt the lust of the flesh and covered his shameful parts.
Wherefore let each one impute to his own guilt the fact that he has fallen, as often as he is overcome by lust, because unless a hidden pride had gone before, the manifest ruin of lust would not have followed. Sometimes the Christian is assailed by the devil with a twofold vice, both secretly through elation and publicly through lust. But while one avoids lust, he falls into elation. Again, while he carelessly turns aside from elation, he falls slothfully into lust; and thus from the hidden vice of elation one passes into the open vice of lust, and from the open vice of lust one passes into the hidden vice of elation. But the servant of God, discerningly weighing both, so guards against lust that he does not run into elation, and so presses down elation that he does not release his mind into lust.
To the lustful and the proud the demons show themselves greater patrons; and while the malignant spirits serve men in the other vices, to these two they are joined with a greater familiarity, and wait upon them more fully according to their desire. It is chiefly by these two vices that the devil rules over the human race, that is, through pride of mind and luxury of the flesh. Whence the Lord speaks to Job concerning the devil, saying: 'He sleeps under the shadow, in the covert of the reed, in moist places.' For by the reed empty pride is signified, but by the moist places the luxury of the flesh is shown. For through these two vices the devil possesses the human race, either while he raises the mind into pride, or while through luxury he corrupts the flesh.
Many are subjected to luxury, and with obstinate pride they boast of the very work of luxury, and are thereby the more lifted up in the very thing for which they ought to have been humbled. By comparison an evil becomes worse, when not only are shameful deeds committed, but men, lost through the vanity of praise, are exalted over those very shameful deeds, as it is written: 'For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul.' For what is worse than for wretched men to rejoice in shameful deeds over which they ought rather to weep abundantly? Lust is then the more sought after, while it is looked upon. For as a certain wise man said: 'The first weapons of fornication are those of the eyes, the second those of words.' But he who is not captured by the eyes can resist the words. Nature suffices where the affection is still free.
He who bridles the delight of lustful suggestion does not pass over to consent to lust. For he quickly resists the deed who does not yield to the titillating delight. He is more harshly assailed who is tempted even to consent, though not to perpetration, than he who by mere suggestion, according to the condition of the flesh, is solicited by temptations. The goads of the flesh which were in Paul, stirred up by the angel of Satan, were from the law of sin, which dwells in the members of men by the necessity of lust. And while he struggles against it, resisting within himself, he is perfected, and from the weakness of the lustful titillation he receives the virtue of a glorious contest. Many contests are stirred up in the servants of God from their own flesh;
for although their intention is unshaken in the love of God, yet the mind endures inward battles from the flesh which it outwardly bears. But God, who permits these things for a testing, by His protecting grace does not desert His own. Therefore the elect sometimes fall through a carnal lapse, that they may be healed of the vice of pride by which they swell over their virtues; and those who become proud through the effects of their virtues are humbled by a vice of the flesh, that having fallen they may rise. Before adultery is accomplished in the deed, adultery already stands in the thought. For fornications must first be taken away from the heart, and not break forth into the deed. Hence it is that it is said through the prophet:
'Gird up your loins above your breasts,' that is, cut off in the heart the lusts which pertain to the loins, for the heart is above the breasts, not in the loins. The unbridled license of lust knows not how to keep a measure. For when the vicious soul has let itself loose in fulfilling fornication with the flesh running to luxury, it nonetheless passes to other unspeakable crimes at the demons' persuasion; and when it has immoderately overstepped the bounds of shame, it adds crime to crimes, and little by little advances to worse things. The uncertain lust of lovers, nay rather of madmen, is not so sweet as when it has been tasted; nor does fornication so delight when it is first committed, for repeated it brings a greater delight.
But now, if it has come into habitual practice, it becomes so much sweeter to the lost that it is difficult to be overcome. Whence also often, from the habit of sinning, we are drawn as it were captive to sin with a certain violence, and we feel our senses rebelling within us against right will. If the delight of fornication pleases the mind more than the love of chastity, sin still reigns in the man. Surely if the beauty of inward chastity delights more, then sins no longer reign, but justice reigns. For not only does sin reign in a man from committed fornication; but if he still takes delight in it and holds it in his mind, without doubt it reigns. Fornication of the flesh is adultery; fornication of the soul is the servitude of idols.
There is also a spiritual fornication, according to what the Lord says: 'Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' Every unclean pollution is called fornication, although each is prostituted by a different pleasure of baseness. For from the delight of fornicating various shameful deeds are begotten, by which the kingdom of God is closed and man is separated from God. Among the other seven vices, fornication is of the greatest wickedness, because through the uncleanness of the flesh it violates the temple of God, and taking away the members of Christ, it makes them members of a harlot. It is chiefly through the luxury of the flesh, more than through the other vices, that the human race is subjected to the devil.
For while he strives to pervert men enticed by various temptations, he suggests rather the desire of committing adultery, because he intends both sexes to be the more sick in this vice. The demons, knowing that chastity is the beauty of the soul, and that through it man is made equal to the angelic merits from which they themselves fell, being struck with the venom of envy, inject through the bodily senses the work and desire of lust, so that they may drag down the soul, cast down from heavenly things, and, boasting of what they have conquered, lead it with themselves to the depths of hell.
When by the impulse of demons the mind is driven to the delight of fornication, let the fear of divine judgment and the torments of the eternal burning be set before the eyes, because assuredly every pain is overcome by the dread of a graver punishment. For as a nail drives out a nail, so often the recollection of the fire of Gehenna shuts out the fire of luxury. Certain men, living luxuriously in youth, delight to become continent in old age, and then choose to serve chastity when lust disdains to have them as its slaves. By no means are those to be called continent in old age who lived luxuriously in youth. Such have no reward, because they had no struggle of labor.
For glory awaits those in whom there have been laborious struggles. Concerning continence. Continence is given by God, but ask and you shall receive. It is bestowed, moreover, when God is knocked upon with inward groaning. Virginity is preferred to marriage. For that is good, this is best. Marriage is permitted, virginity is only counseled, not commanded. But it is only counseled because it is exceedingly lofty. Virginity is a twofold good, because both in this world it loses the anxiety of the age, and in the future it receives the eternal reward of chastity. Virgins are happier in eternal life, as Isaiah testifies: 'Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs:
I will give them in my house and within my walls a place, and a name better than of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, which shall not perish.' Nor is there any doubt that those who persevere chaste and virgin are made equal to the angels of God. The beauty of chastity is to be loved. Its delight, once tasted, is found sweeter than that of the flesh. For chastity is the fruit of sweetness, the inviolate beauty of the saints. Chastity is the security of the mind, the health of the body; whence even some of the pagan athletes practiced perpetual abstinence from venery, lest they should break their strength by lust. For a luxurious life quickly weakens the flesh, and, once broken, swiftly leads it to old age. Every sin receives the healing of its wound through penance;
but virginity, if it slips away, is by no means restored. For although by repenting it receives the fruit of pardon, it nonetheless in no way recovers its former incorruption. A virgin in flesh but not in mind has no reward in the promise. Whence to the foolish virgins the Savior, coming in judgment, says: 'Amen I say to you, I know you not.' For where He, judging, shall find a corrupted mind, He will without doubt condemn the incorruption of the flesh. The incorruption of the flesh profits nothing where there is not the integrity of the mind, and it avails nothing to be clean in body for one who is polluted in mind. Many of the reprobate know not the contagion of carnal corruption;
who, as they are barren in body, so they remain sterile also in mind, void of the fruitfulness of good work. These would rightly rejoice in their virginity, if they did not serve other depraved works. He who professes himself continent, and yet is not withdrawn from other earthly desires, although the luxury of the flesh does not pollute him, is nonetheless stained by various workings of worldly conduct. Virgins glorying in their own merits are compared to hypocrites, who seek outwardly the glory of a good work which they ought to have kept humbly within their conscience. Such, therefore, do not attain to the heavenly promises, because they themselves take away from themselves the reward of virginity through the vice of elation.
For this is, in the Gospel, the virgins' not having oil in their vessels, that is, not keeping the testimony of good work within the conscience, but glorying in the face before men, not in the heart before God. The ruin of adultery is warded off by the prop of matrimony, and it is better to take a wife than to perish through the burning of lust. Certain men take delight in the honor of marriage not for the begetting of children, but seek it for a turbulent and lustful habit of the flesh, and thus they use a good thing badly. Vices are evil in themselves, but marriages and powers are indeed good in themselves; they become evil, however, through the things that surround them. For marriages are evil through that on account of which the apostle says: 'But he who is with a wife thinks of the things of the world';
'and on account of fornication let each one have his own wife.' So too powers become evil through elation, through oppression, and through the perversion of justice as well. For marriages do harm, and powers do harm, but through that which is placed beside them, not through themselves; by the example of a straight road, alongside which thorns grow, which springing up from the side do harm to those who walk on the straight road. Concerning cupidity. No one can undertake spiritual wars unless he has first tamed the cupidities of the flesh. The mind cannot be free to contemplate God, which gapes after the desires and cupidities of this world. For neither can the eye behold lofty things which the dust closes up.
Worse than every sin is avarice and the love of money. Whence also through Solomon it is said: 'Nothing is more wicked than to love money; for such a one makes his own soul venal, since in his life he has cast away his innermost being.' Cupidity is the material of all crimes. Whence also the apostle says: 'The root of all evils is cupidity, which some coveting have erred from the faith.' If, therefore, the root of crimes is cut down, the other offshoots of sins do not sprout. Many, for the sake of earthly cupidity, have even renounced the faith itself. For cupidity sold Christ.
For in very many the desire for others' goods is so great that they do not even fear to commit murder, like Ahab, who by the appetite of his cupidity glutted himself with the shedding of blood. Often the wicked both covet and attain the evils which they desire, in order that from the effect of an evil desire they may be the more grievously punished. But God does not let His elect go into the fulfillment of their evil desires, but turns their mind into grief for that which in the world they wickedly desire, so that by this experience they may come to their senses and return to God, from whom they had departed in mind. God, therefore, is against them by being favorable to them, when he who covets something temporally is not permitted to fulfill it.
But by the secret judgment of God it comes to pass that those perish more harshly whose cupidity the effect of action at once follows. Cupidity never knows how to be satisfied. 'For the miser always lacks,' and the more he acquires, the more he seeks; nor is he tormented only by the desire of increasing, but he is also afflicted by the fear of losing. Needy we are born into this life, needy we shall depart from life. If we believe the goods of this world to be perishable, why do we desire perishable things with so great a love? Very often the powerful are inflamed with so great a madness of cupidity that they exclude the poor from their own borders and do not permit them to dwell there. To whom it is rightly said through the prophet: 'Woe to you who join house to house, and couple field to field, even to the end of the place.
Shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?' Indeed the same prophet subsequently announces that hell, that is the devil, snatches such men to perdition, saying: 'Therefore hell has enlarged its soul and opened its mouth without any limit, and their strong ones and their lofty ones and their glorious ones shall go down to it.' Nor is it any wonder that in dying they are consigned to the fires of hell, who while living in no way extinguished the flame of their cupidity. Those who burn with the desire of cupidity are scorched by the blast of diabolical inspiration. For pride kindled the mind of Eve, that she might eat of the forbidden tree. Envy kindled the mind of Cain, that he might kill his brother. It kindled Solomon with the torches of luxury, so that, through the love of lust, he worshiped idols.
It kindled Ahab with cupidity, that he might join murder to avarice. By these inspirations, therefore, the devil depraves the hearts of men with hidden cupidities. Concerning gluttony. The first suggestion of concupiscence is that of bread; and if it is by no means yielded to, the various desires of gluttony are held in check. Whence Daniel says: 'I ate not the bread of desire,' that is, I did not fulfill the concupiscence of it. The first material of luxury is the satiety of bread. Whence also the prophet accuses Sodom on account of the satiety of bread, saying: 'This was the iniquity of Sodom: pride, satiety of bread, and abundance.'
For the Sodomites, taking bread immoderately, flowed away into the basenesses of shameful deeds, and thence, with pride accompanying, they deserved to be burned by the heavenly fires, from the moment they kept no measure of gluttony. It is useful to guard against gluttony and the concupiscence of foods. For what is so harmful as that the soul should serve the belly and the food, which are to be destroyed, as the apostle testifies, saying: 'But God will destroy both the one and the other'? Lust is next to the belly, as in place, so in vice. For where there is care of the belly, there also is that which is next to the things that are around the belly. For in the order of the members the genitals are joined to the belly, and while one of these is immoderately refreshed, the other is excited to luxury.
Not for luxury or for satiety, but only that the body may be sustained, is food to be used. For, as the philosophers argue, foods were invented to sustain the soul, not to corrupt it. Those who use food to excess, the more they feed the belly, so much the more do they dull the sense of the mind. For the Greeks said that from a gross belly a subtle sense cannot be begotten. For excessive satiety of the gullet dulls the edge of the mind and makes the wit grow blunt. The fires of lust increase with the fomentations of food; but the body which abstinence breaks, temptation does not burn up.
Whence also the three young men who abstained, the flame of the Babylonian fire, though it touched them, did not burn, because assuredly, even though the fire of carnal desires inflames the minds of those who abstain, it nonetheless does not burn them up as far as the consent of concupiscence or of the deed. Let the abundance of the feasting of that rich man who burned attend to his punishment, whose want in hell among the fires was as great as here his abundance of feasting had been. For in this age he refused to hunger and to thirst; therefore there, amid the flames, thirsting, he sought a drop of water and did not deserve it. It must be considered how vehemently gorging and sumptuous banquets are censured through the prophet, so that the Lord threatens that He will not relax this iniquity to those who willingly go after it.
For He says through Isaiah: 'Behold joy and gladness, killing calves and slaughtering rams, eating flesh and drinking wine; surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you, until you die!' Just as all carnal cupidities are cut back by abstinence, so all the virtues of the soul are destroyed by the vice of gluttony. Hence it is that the chief of the cooks overthrew the walls of Jerusalem, because the belly too, which is served by cooks, destroys the virtues of the soul. For no one can attain the perfection of the virtues unless he has first tamed the gluttony of the belly. No one can have dominion over the other vices unless he has first restrained the gluttony of the belly.
Nor can anyone easily drive out unclean spirits from himself except through abstinence from gluttony. For then the enemies who are outside us are more strongly overcome by us, when first the vices that are within us are extinguished. For in vain does he wage war outside who has danger within. Not the quality of foods, but the concupiscence of them is to be guarded against. For often more carefully prepared foods are tasted without the concupiscence of gluttony, and often abject and cheap ones are taken with the desire of eating. And so it comes to pass that the quality of foods is not at fault, but that is reckoned a vice which is tasted with desire. There are four kinds of distinctions in the appetite of gluttony, that is, what, when, how much, and how it is desired.
'What' pertains to the very thing that is desired. 'When,' if something is desired before the lawful time. 'How much,' indeed, refers to immoderation. 'How' is ascribed to the impatience of haste. No exactor is so importunate to a man as the belly, which fulfills its daily refreshment by the daily exaction of hunger. For with the other vices, although we are sometimes born, yet we sometimes do not die with them; but with this one we are both born, and with this one we die. Very often the pleasure of eating creeps in under the pretext of necessity, so that while it is thought to serve necessity, one serves the desire of pleasure; nor is it easily discerned whether what is taken is to be attributed to gluttony or to need. Concerning drunkenness.
Food begets surfeit, drink begets drunkenness. Drunkenness, moreover, begets the perturbation of the mind, the frenzy of the heart, the flame of lust. Drunkenness so alienates the mind that it knows not where it is. Whence even the evil which is committed through drunkenness is not felt. It is true that, according to the prophet, fornication and drunkenness take away the heart. For fornication, as Solomon says, infatuates the wise man. Drunkenness, as in the case of Lot, takes reason captive of its senses. Whence also in Proverbs it says: 'Let the powerful, who are prone to wrath, not drink wine, lest, when they have drunk, they forget wisdom.' To many it is a matter of praise to drink much and not be made drunk. Let these hear the prophet speaking against them:
'Woe to you who are mighty to drink wine, and strong men to mingle drunkenness.' Those given to much wine and living luxuriously, Isaiah thus reproves, saying: 'Woe to you who rise up early in the morning to pursue drunkenness and to drink until evening, that you may be inflamed with wine.' Of such it is said in another place: 'Woe to you, O city whose king is a boy, and whose princes eat in the morning.' For many, from morning until the setting of the sun, serve the pleasures of drunkenness and gluttony, and do not understand why they were born; but held by a beastly habit, they give themselves over the whole day only to luxury and feasting. The prophet Joel cries out to those who serve drunkenness, saying:
'Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, all you who drink wine in sweetness.' By which testimony he does not merely say, 'Weep, all you who drink wine,' as though it were altogether unlawful to drink, but he added, 'in sweetness,' which pertains to voluptuous and prodigal outpouring. For as much as suffices for necessity, the apostle teaches Timothy to drink, saying: 'Use a little wine.' Men are made drunk not only by wine, but also by the other kinds of drink, which are prepared in various ways. Whence also to the Nazarites, who sanctified themselves to the Lord, it was commanded not to drink wine and strong drink. For both overturn the state of the mind and make men drunk; both likewise equally beget the luxury of the flesh.
Certain continent men, just as they eat bread by weight, so also take water by measure, asserting that even abstinence from water befits the chastity of the flesh. Concerning abstinence. This is the perfect and reasonable fast: when our outer man fasts, the inner man prays. More easily does prayer penetrate heaven through fasting. For then a man, made spiritual, is joined to the angels and more freely united to God. Through fasting also the hidden things of the heavenly mysteries are revealed, and the secrets of the divine sacrament are laid open. For thus Daniel, by the angel's revealing, deserved to know the mysteries of the sacraments. For this virtue displays both the manifestations of the angels and their announcements.
Fasts are strong weapons against the temptations of the demons. For quickly they are vanquished through abstinence. Whence also our Lord and Savior forewarns us to overcome their assaults by fastings and prayers, saying: 'This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting.' For unclean spirits cast themselves in the more where they see more food and drink. The saints, as long as they dwell in the life of this age, carry their body dry with a longing for the heavenly dew. Whence also the psalm says: 'My soul has thirsted for you, and how manifoldly my flesh also.' For the flesh then thirsts for God when through fasting it abstains and grows dry. Abstinence both gives life and slays; it gives life to the soul, it kills the body.
Often abstinence is feigned, and fasts are performed through hypocrisy. For some men rend their own bodies with astonishing starvation, disfiguring their faces—as the Gospel says—that they may appear to men to be fasting. Their mouths grow pale, their bodies are worn away, they draw deep sighs from the heart, and even before death they hand themselves over to deadly torments; yet this wretched exercise of toil they pursue not for the love of God, but solely for the admiration of human praise. (44.6) Some abstain to an incredible degree, that they may appear holy to inquisitive men; but in such men this good of abstinence is to be reckoned not a virtue but a vice, because they make an evil use of what is good. (44.7)
Fasting and almsgiving love to be hidden, so that God alone, who beholds all things, may repay the merit of good works. For those who perform them for public display are in no way justified by God, because, according to the word of the Gospel, they have received their reward from men. Fasts, together with good works, are acceptable to God. But those who abstain from foods and yet act wickedly imitate the demons, who take no food and yet are ever engaged in evil. For that man abstains rightly from foods who also fasts from deeds of malice and from the ambitions of the world. Those who withdraw themselves from eating flesh out of a zeal for cursing it rather than by a vow of abstinence, these are the more to be cursed, because they reject a creature of God granted for human use.
For to the faithful nothing is judged defiled and nothing unclean, as the apostle Paul bears witness: To the pure all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are polluted. That fast is despised which at evening is restored by a filling with foods. For no abstinence is to be counted where a glutting of the belly has followed after. That fast is despised which at evening is compensated by delicacies, as the prophet Isaiah says: Behold, on the day of your fasting your own pleasure is found. For by pleasure delicacies are understood. For just as the exacting of a debt, and quarrels, and strife, and blows, so also delicacies are disapproved by the prophet in a fast.
For he ruminates upon feasting in his thoughts the whole day long, who prepares delicacies for himself at evening to satisfy his gluttony. Immoderate abstinence must not be applied to the body, lest, while the flesh is more heavily burdened by the weight of fasting, it should afterward neither do evil nor begin to do good, and that which is bound over that it may lack the practice of evil should at the same time, while it is pressed too hard, lose also the service of good. Therefore the substance of the flesh must be governed with careful discretion, namely that it be neither utterly extinguished nor immoderately relaxed. When too great a weakness of the flesh prevails, no one can attain to perfection; for however much love of holiness a man may have, he is nevertheless unable to carry out the merit of the work to whose intention he strives to devote himself with his heart.
Too great a debility of the body also breaks the powers of the soul, and makes the mind's faculty grow feeble, nor is it able to accomplish any good through its infirmity. "Nothing in excess"; for whatever is done with measure and moderation is wholesome, but whatever is beyond measure and excessive becomes ruinous and turns its own zeal into its opposite. In every work, therefore, one must keep measure and moderation. For everything that goes to excess is dangerous, just as water which, if it supplies too great rains, not only affords no use but even presents a danger. Here ends the Second Book.