Etymologies & Works 23

Here begins the Third Book. I. On the scourges of God. The subtlety of the divine wisdom, just as inwardly, like a witness, it searches out consciences, so outwardly it inflicts punishments; that the testimony of the prophet may be true, that He Himself is both witness and judge. Have mercy, O Lord, on wretched Isidore, who does what is unworthy and suffers what is deserved, sinning continually and daily enduring Thy scourges. Ordered is the mercy of God, which first here amends a man from sins through scourges, and afterward frees him from eternal punishment. For the elect of God is worn down by the sorrows of this life, that he may gain the more perfect things of the life to come.

By no means does God spare the offender, since He either strikes the sinner with a temporal scourge for cleansing, or leaves him to be punished by eternal judgment, or man himself punishes in himself by repenting what he wickedly committed. And for this reason it is that God does not spare the offender. To the righteous man temporal scourges profit toward eternal joys; therefore the righteous ought to rejoice in punishments, and the impious ought to fear amid prosperity. God withdraws neither from the righteous nor from the reprobate His mercy and His justice. For both He judges the good here through affliction, and there rewards them through mercy; and He rewards the wicked here through temporal clemency, and there punishes them through eternal justice.

For in this life God spares the impious and yet does not spare the elect; in that life He will spare the elect, yet will not spare the wicked. Dangerous is the security of the wicked in this life, and tranquil is the sorrow of the good. For the wicked man, after death, is led away to be tormented; but the righteous man, after his labor, sleeps secure. Not only concerning bodily sufferings, but also concerning spiritual ones, it must be understood, that the more each man endures scourges whether in body or in mind, the more he may hope to be rewarded at the end. Often, by God's hidden judgment, the reprobate are in this world beyond the correction of the scourge; and while they seem to have committed many damnable things, yet, despised by God, they are struck by no rod of amendment.

He who is loved by God is corrected the more by the scourge if he has sinned, as the prophet Amos says: You only have I known out of all the nations of the earth; therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities. For whom the Lord loves He corrects, and scourges every son whom He receives. It is exceedingly necessary that the righteous man in this life be both tempted by vices and beaten by the scourge, so that, while he is assailed by vices, he may not grow proud of his virtues, and while he is worn down by grief of mind or of flesh, he may be drawn back from the love of the world. But the righteous man ought to be tried, yet by the trial of the wound, not by the trial of luxury.

God deals more harshly with His elect in this life, so that, while they are struck by the stronger goads of the scourge, no delights of the present life may charm them, but they may unceasingly long for the heavenly homeland, where a sure rest is awaited. The elect are proved by the adversity of this life, so that, according to Peter, judgment may begin at the house of God, while in this life God chastises His elect with the scourge of judgment. II. On the twofold striking. Twofold is the divine striking: one for a good end, whereby we are struck in the flesh that we may be amended; the other whereby we are wounded in conscience out of love, that we may love God more ardently. In a twofold manner God looks either toward pardon or toward vengeance. Toward pardon, as with Peter;

toward vengeance, as when He testifies that He will go down and see the deeds of the Sodomites. In a threefold manner God strikes whom He wills: that is, the reprobate unto damnation, those elect whom He sees going astray unto purgation, and the righteous for the propagation of the glory of their merits. For in the first manner Egypt was struck unto damnation; in the second manner the poor Lazarus unto purgation; in the third manner Job was struck unto proving. A man is often scourged by God before sin, that he may not be evil, as Paul, who, at the instigation of an angel of Satan, endured the goads of the flesh. He is scourged also after sin, that he may be corrected, like that man in the apostle who was delivered to Satan unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved.

Yet even he who does not know why he is beaten does not justly murmur. For God often scourges the righteous man for this reason, that he may not fall by growing proud of his righteousness. In this life God strives so much the more to spare, the more He scourges by waiting; but some He corrects by striking, of whom He says: I rebuke and chastise those whom I love; others He punishes by striking, whom He beholds sinning incorrigibly, and whom He now strikes not as a father under discipline strikes his sons, but with strict damnation, as an adversary strikes his enemies. Of whom He says: I have struck you with the scourge of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement. And again: Why do you cry to me over your affliction? Your grief is incurable. Whence let each one hasten, and fear lest his life be struck together with his guilt.

For the scourge then washes away guilt, when it has changed the life. For in him whose ways it does not change, it does not expiate his actions. Every divine striking is either a cleansing of the present life or the beginning of the punishment that follows. For to some, scourges begin from this life and endure into the eternal striking. Whence through Moses the Lord says: A fire is kindled in my anger, and it shall burn even to hell beneath. It is commonly said by some: God does not judge twice for the same thing; who nevertheless do not attend to that which is written elsewhere: Jesus, freeing the people from the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

For although one guilt is not struck twice, yet one striking is understood, which, begun here, is completed there, so that in those who are in no way corrected, the striking of the preceding scourges is the beginning of the torments that follow. Hence it is that in the Psalm it is written: Let them be covered, as with a double cloak, with their own confusion. For the diploid is a double garment, with which those are figuratively clothed who are condemned both with temporal punishment and with eternal. Whence also Jeremiah: Affliction upon affliction, that is, a twofold damnation, both here and in the age to come. And the same in another place: And crush them with a double crushing, that is, a twofold punishment, namely the present and the future.

For some, by God's secret judgment, it is ill here, well there, namely so that while they are corrected by being chastised here, they may be freed from eternal damnation. But for some it is well here, ill there, as it befell that rich man who, conspicuous here for the splendor of his power, after death was delivered to be tormented in the fires of Gehenna. Further, for some it is ill both here and there, because, unwilling to be corrected, they both begin to be scourged in this life and are damned in the eternal striking. Some are plunged into so great a depth of despair that they cannot be amended even by scourges. Of whom the Lord rightly says through the prophet: In vain have I struck your children; they have not received discipline.

Often the righteous man laments and does not know whether he suffers the present scourges for all his sins, or for one only, and he does not know what that guilt is for which he has deserved to suffer such punishments, and because of that very uncertainty he is chiefly caught up in grief. Although the present scourges absolve the righteous man from his sins, yet he is still troubled by fear of vengeance, lest the blows that press upon him should not suffice to purge his faults. And so, while he suffers present things and dreads future ones, in a certain manner, as the prophet says, he receives double for his sins. III. On the infirmity of the flesh. There are some men of such a quality that they cannot be corrected unless they have seen others scourged;

and thus they make progress by comparison with the evil, while they fear that that may befall them in which they see others perish. Seeing that some are unwilling to be corrected by their own will, God touches them with the goads of adversities. Some also, foreseeing that they can sin much, He scourges unto salvation with an infirmity of the body, that they may not sin, so that it is more useful for them to be broken by weaknesses unto salvation than to remain unharmed unto damnation. The visitation of God is neither always taken for good, nor always for evil. For it is taken for good, as is that: Visit us in Thy salvation. But for evil, according to that: In the time of their visitation they shall perish.

From three causes do infirmities of the body occur: that is, from sin, from temptation, and from the passion of intemperance; but to this last alone can human medicine bring aid, while to those others only the mercy of divine compassion. For those who are stronger and healthy, it is useful for them to be sick and not to sin, lest, through the vigor of health, they be defiled by unlawful desires of covetousness and of luxury. The hardness that presses upon the mind, and is not felt, is usefully changed into the flesh, that it may be felt and, once understood, amended. For the wounds of the flesh are more quickly felt than those of the soul; therefore those who err are more quickly corrected through a scourge of the flesh.

This indeed the scales of unbelief on Paul's eyes indicate, which, when they were changed by rebuke in the eyes of the flesh, straightway the hardness of his mind was dissolved. There is a ruinous health which leads a man to disobedience. There is also a wholesome infirmity which, through divine correction, breaks the mind from hardness. The languor of the soul, that is, the infirmity of sins, is ruinous; of which also the apostle says: Who is weak, and I am not inflamed? For the same apostle approves that infirmity of the flesh is useful, saying: When I am weak, then am I stronger. IV. On the endurance of divine correction. The sinful man ought not to murmur under the scourges of God, because he is chiefly amended by this, that he is corrected.

But each one then bears more lightly what he suffers, if he has examined his own evils, for which a just retribution is inflicted upon him. Let him who suffers ill learn not to murmur, even if he does not know why he suffers evils; and through this let him judge that he suffers justly, in that he is judged by Him whose judgments are never unjust. He who endures scourges and murmurs against God accuses the justice of the Judge; but he who acknowledges that he suffers what he endures from a just Judge, even if he does not know why he suffers, through this is already justified, in that he both accuses himself and praises the justice of God.

When from prosperous circumstances the righteous man furnishes useful examples to men, it is necessary that he be again touched also by adversities, in order that his patience may be proved, so that once more those who recognized his temperance in prosperity may take from him proofs of fortitude. He who is tormented by the passions of the soul at the ambush of the adversary should not therefore believe that he who suffers such things is estranged from Christ; but rather let him esteem that through this he is commendable to God, if, while he suffers these things, he praises God rather than accuses Him. For great profit, by divine judgment, the mind of the righteous man is agitated by various trials of the passions.

For which, if he gives thanks to God and reckons that he is worthy of such things because of his own guilt, then what he endures from suffering will be reckoned to him in place of virtues, since he both acknowledges the divine justice and understands his own guilt. V. On the temptations of the devil. By many trials of calamities the mind of the righteous man is assailed in this life; whence he desires to be utterly torn from this world, that he may both be free from hardships and find there a fixed security. Between those punishments which the righteous man suffers in the body, and those which he endures in the mind through the deceit of the devil, there is a great difference. For he bears more grievously those he inwardly bewails than those he outwardly endures. For these he avoids both by place and by time; those he can avoid neither by place nor by time.

The devil does not tempt the elect more than the will of God permits. And by tempting, he serves the advancement of the saints. Even though unwilling, the devil nevertheless serves the benefit of the saints, when he does not deceive them by his temptations but rather instructs them. For the temptations which he stirs up unto human destruction, Christ sometimes turns, with wholesome benefit, unto the exercise of virtues. The snares and cunning of the devil, although they are spread out here and there, seeking whom they may devour, yet do not go forth from the divine power, so that they cannot harm as much as they maliciously strive to. For when could the virtue of the saints have endured so much, if the heavenly dispensation did not, by its pious governance, curb the wickedness of the demons?

And although the devil always desires to bring temptation upon the righteous, yet, if he has not received power from God, he can in no way attain what he craves. Whence every will of the devil is unjust, and yet, by God's permission, all his power is just. For of himself he unjustly craves to tempt whomsoever he will, but those who are to be tempted, and in the manner in which they are to be tempted, God justly permits to be tempted, and not otherwise. Whence also in the books of Kings it is written of the devil that an evil spirit of the Lord rushed upon Saul. Where it is justly asked: if of the Lord, why evil? if evil, why of the Lord? But in two words is comprehended both the just power of God and the unjust will of the devil.

For it is an evil spirit through its most wicked will, and the same is a spirit of the Lord through the most just power it has received. The devil is not the sender-in, but rather the kindler of vices. For he does not kindle the fuel of concupiscence anywhere except where he has first beheld the delights of a wicked thought; and if we spurn these from ourselves, without doubt he departs confounded, and straightway the darts of his concupiscence are broken, "and they lie despised and without light, those torches of his." The servant of God ought both to understand and to guard against the ambushes of the enemy alike; and so to remain simple in innocence of life, that yet it behooves him to be prudent along with simplicity.

He who does not mingle prudence with simplicity is, according to the prophet, a dove seduced, having no heart. But therefore a dove, because simple; therefore having no heart, because ignorant of prudence. Often the fraud of Satan is laid bare to the hearts of the saints, when, feigning himself under the appearance of a good angel of light, while he strives to deceive the elect, he is detected and despised. So too God makes His saints understand the words of deceitful teaching, so that they may inwardly recognize the diabolical error and carefully beware of it. The discernment of the saints ought to be so great that, endowed with reason, they may distinguish between good and evil, lest the devil deceive them through the appearance of good. For this is the inquiry of Joshua saying: Are you ours, or of our adversaries?

On account of this it is also said to Jeremiah: If you separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth. For then the saints judge rightly concerning themselves, when God makes them understand the deceitful enticements of the demons. Many are deceived by the devil and are ignorant that they have been deceived, as the testimony of the prophet Hosea declares: Strangers, he says, have devoured his strength, and he himself was ignorant of it. For by strangers the malign spirits are signified, who devour the virtues of the mind; but this the hearts of the negligent do not understand. As it were unarmed, the devil is conquered when he tries to deprave a man by open iniquity;

but he advances armed when, under the appearance of holiness and virtue, he destroys the things that are holy, when even he who is deceived does not perceive his own losses, but as though they were virtues, follows and loves the things which are vices. In the eyes of the carnal the devil is terrible; in the eyes of the elect his terror is worthless. By the unbelieving he is feared like a lion; by the strong in faith he is despised like a worm, and, shown for a moment, is repelled. He who does not receive the suggestions of the devil in no way passes over into his snares. For he is easily repelled in the ensuing deed, if his first enticements are rejected.

For the devil is a slippery serpent, whose head, that is, whose first suggestion, if it is not resisted, glides entirely into the inner parts of the heart while it is not felt. The beginnings of diabolical temptations are frail; but if they are not guarded against, but pass through use into habit, they grow strong at the last, so that they are conquered either never or with difficulty. Although in the whole of life the devil desires to make a man transgress, yet he strives all the more to deceive him at the end. Hence it is that in the beginning it was said to the serpent against the first-formed man: And you shall lie in wait for his heel, because assuredly the devil arranges to supplant at the last the man whom he does not deceive in the course of his past life.

Therefore, however righteous anyone may be, it is never necessary that he be secure in this life, but let him always beware in humility, and always, lest he fall at the end, let him be fearful and solicitous. The devil flatters his own followers, but against the servants of God he contrives contrary temptations, after the example of the Lord, who after His baptism suffered Himself to be tempted by the devil. The devil possesses all the saints not by holding them, but persecutes them by tempting. For because he does not reign within them, he fights against them from without. And he who has lost dominion within stirs up war without. Then the devil rages more fiercely against the one whom he possesses, when he knows that he is to be expelled from him by divine power.

Whence the unclean spirit then tore more grievously the boy in whom he dwelt, when he was compelled to go out from him at Christ's command. Which deed also looks to the words concerning Job, where at the last Behemoth draws his tail tight like a cedar. The devil presses more, with various temptations, against those who are able to profit others also by their usefulness, so that while they are hindered, those who are to be taught may not make progress. The malign spirits, without ceasing, tempt again to defile that which we desire to be cleansed within us. But the saints, with a foreseeing spirit, foreknow their ambushes, and whatever earthly thing they perceive in themselves they unceasingly drain away by holy works, so that they may be found pure from their inmost parts.

By the same allurement men are now deceived through the devil by which the first-formed were deceived in paradise. For with many deceptions of vices he swallows down the minds of the reprobate by assailing them. For now he deceives by promises; now he entices by transitory things as though they were necessary; now he even suggests that the very torments of hell are as it were light and transitory, in order that he may dissolve the hearts of the wretched into covetousness and wantonness, and lead them down with himself to Tartarus.

The devices of his machinations and the seeds of evil thoughts, which the devil pours into the hearts of men, so often entangle the mind, captured on every side, that from whatever side one tries to escape, he cannot go out without danger, just as if you were to swear to do a thing which, if you do it, you sin, and if you do not do it, you are guilty of perjury. In so great a peril of evil, therefore, that a way of escape may lie open, the lesser things are rather to be chosen, that the greater may be avoided. When the devil seeks to deceive anyone, he first observes the nature of each, and applies himself from that side from which he has perceived the man to be apt for sinning.

The devil tempts men from that side on which he sees them easily inclined to vices through an overflowing humor, so that, according to the mixture of the humor, he applies also the temptation. Read of Balaam, who, as a figure of the devil, perniciously advised setting snares against the people of God from that side from which he perceived them to be more easily about to fall. For he too who draws off water somewhere does not send it through another part except where he has directed its flow. Let no one deem that no fault which he endures from his own temperament; but as much as he is able, let him fight against that which he endures. For if one yields to the temperament, the temptation or the vice is in no way resisted.

For this reason the devil is called in the sacred writings Behemoth, that is, an animal, because he fell from the heavens down to the earth. For this reason he is called Leviathan, that is, a serpent from the waters, because he is tossed about in the sea of this world with rolling cunning. And he is named a bird for this reason, because through pride he is lifted up on high. And rightly is he called by these three names, because according to his desert he deserved the air as a bird for a prison; the earth, that he might be a brute animal; a serpent, that he might be tossed with insane fluctuation in the sea of this world. For from that which the devil works through his members, he obtains his names, so that whatever individuals do at his instigation, he himself is named from it. For whom does the devil not deceive? Whence he is an animal, that is, he tempts through the luxury of the flesh.

Whence he is a serpent, that is, the malice of covetousness and of doing harm. But whomever he does not deceive even thus, he lies in wait for. Whence he is a bird, that is, the ruin of pride. For on every side he prepares his wiles, until he finds a way by which he may deceive the unwary. It is one thing for the devil to enter into someone's mind, another to dwell there. For he enters even into the hearts of the saints while he insinuates evil suggestions; but he does not dwell in them, because he does not carry them over into his own body. But those who are in his body, these he inhabits, because they themselves are his temple. And if the devil creeps into the minds of the elect, yet he does not rest in them as in the hearts of the reprobate; for by the warmth of faith he is soon roused to go out from the elect.

Some, whom the devil had already devoured with greedy mouth, are again, by the hidden compassion of the divine judgment, snatched from his mouth and restored to salvation. For often many whom the ancient enemy has held sunk in the whirlpool of luxury, the divine power has, through repentance, drawn from his jaws. How does the prophet call the destruction of the good the choice food of the devil, when elsewhere it is written of him: He shall eat hay like an ox, except that in the eyes of God they are hay who, according to men, seem to be his choice food? And through this, those who perish from the number of the good, are, among men, the elect, but before God are hay. The devil is said to have already swallowed him whom he is seen already to have devoured by a completed crime.

But him whom he has not swallowed by the completion of a deed, but bites with the enticements of temptations that he may devour him, he still, as it were, chews in his jaw. Whence Paul too has the goads of the flesh by which he is humbled; he does not have the completion of sinning by which he might be swallowed. The mouth of the devil is his words. But his words are his hidden inspirations, by which, addressing the hearts of men, he burns them with hidden covetousness. Some, on account of their incorrigible iniquity, because they are not corrected of their own accord, are handed over to be vexed by unclean spirits, so that the demons may have power to seize them bodily, and, afflicted by their terrors, they may be humbled, may repent, and be saved, as the apostle also says, writing to the Corinthians:

To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. For it is useful that some who sin be bodily assigned to Satan, in order that they may be saved in soul, so that from the present correction they may fear the future judgment, and thereafter beware of offending. But some are assigned to the power of the demons for amendment; some, however, being despised, are delivered over to destruction alone. Never is the devil at leisure against a righteous man. For either he heaps up for him tribulations of the heart, or he stirs up sorrows of the body. Hence it is that the apostle says: There was given to me a goad of the flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me.

Often the force of the demons torments the mind of the righteous man with various pains of vexations, whence at times he is straitened even unto the anguish of despair. But for the soul that remains in the love of God, even such anguish itself profits toward merit. For whether in mind or in body, through the instigation of the unclean spirits, the righteous man suffers any adversity whatsoever, he certainly suffers it by God's permission. And if he humbly refers this very thing to the glory of God, and says what Job said for the suffering of the body: If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why should we not receive evil things? — this man is not separated from God, but joined to Him, however grievous the anguish by which he is tortured.

The righteous man suffers many adversities in the soul at the instigation of the demons, but by such trials he cannot perish from eternal life, because the merciful Lord does not reckon unto the damnation of guilt that which he who suffers bears unwillingly, by the permission of His majesty. For we sin there, where we turn aside by covetousness or by will; but where we are violently constrained, even if it is not a crime or a disgrace, yet the misery stands in place of disgrace and crime. But he who praises God for the misery inflicted, without doubt is free from the crimes committed. VI. On the temptations of dreams.

For the most part demons, meeting men at night, throw the human senses into confusion through visions, so as to make people fearful and timid; and often, in the despair of their sins, they trouble the mind of the converted through sleep, threatening the dread torments of hell. Sometimes, however, assailing human bodies even by open attack, they beat them; yet this happens by God's permission, for the punishment of the wicked and for the glory of endurance in the righteous. For the most part the unclean spirits delude, as they sleep, those whom they observe to lie sunk in the love of the world, deceiving them with a certain empty prosperity of hope. But certain others, whom they perceive to dread some adversity, they shake while sleeping with an empty terror.

And thus, assailing the hearts of the wretched with various delusions, now they soothe them with empty prosperity, now they terrify them with vain dread. Those who are conscious of no faults, or of but few, either never or rarely are wearied by nocturnal terrors; but resting in tranquil sleep, they sometimes even behold and see through their slumber certain hidden and mystical things. But those who have defiled their hearts with graver vices, deluded by the terror of conscience, gaze upon fearful sights. For a deceiving image mocks the minds of the wretched with diverse images, and those whom it has dragged into vices while waking, it wearies while sleeping, so that it never allows them to rest secure.

Sometimes too the unclean spirits attempt to terrify even the minds of the elect with the horrid images of dreams, and those whom they tempt while waking with vices but do not overcome, they fiercely assail while sleeping. Yet the saints, even if for a moment they be moved by such visions, soon, upon awaking, despise the emptiness of the delusions, and at once turn their attention back to God. The kinds of dreams are diverse. For some arise from fullness or from emptiness of the stomach, which are also known by experience. But some arise from one's own thought; for often what we think of by day, we recognize again at night. Some visions, however, are wrought by the delusion of unclean spirits, as Solomon attests:

'Dreams,' he says, 'and vain delusions have caused many to err.' Moreover, some dreams occur in a righteous manner, that is, by the mystery of heavenly revelation, as we read in the Law concerning Joseph the son of Jacob, who by a dream is foretold to be set above his brothers; or as in the Gospel concerning Joseph the spouse of Mary, who is admonished by a dream to flee with the child into Egypt. Sometimes too there come mingled visions, that is, from thought together with delusion, and likewise from thought and revelation, as Daniel says: 'Thou, O king,' he says, 'didst begin to think upon thy bed what should come to pass hereafter; and he who revealeth mysteries showed thee the things that are to come.'

For indeed those things upon which we stretch the sense of our thoughts are often revealed by a certain ecstasy of mind while we rest. Although some dreams are true, yet they must not easily be believed, because they arise from diverse qualities of imagination, and whence they come is rarely considered. Therefore faith is not so easily to be given to dreams, lest perchance Satan, transforming himself into an angel of light, deceive some unwary person and beguile him by some fraud of error. Sometimes indeed demons by deceptive fraud so delude certain curious and observant persons that certain dreams come to pass exactly as they are shown. For, in order to deceive in many things, they sometimes announce even true things.

But although they come to pass thus, they are to be despised, lest perchance they proceed from delusion, remembering the testimony of Scripture which says: 'If they shall say to you, and it come to pass, believe them not.' Dreams are like auguries, and those who heed them are truly known to practice augury. Those dreams are not true which the mind, thinking by day and night, imagines to itself; for minds sometimes fashion dreams for themselves. Often, while by sad remembrance we recall to ourselves former evils and the punishment of hell, imaginations of this kind of the mind, whether about past deeds committed or about future punishments, arise in the memory of the waking, and occur through visions and dreams, and shake the minds of those who ponder them.

For both come about by the force of memory, whether we be waking or sleeping. For by such a warning of the mind we are shaken even in our rest with horrible dread, and how grave are the things we have committed, and how hard the things we dread, we contemplate with the mind's gaze even in dreams. It is no sin when we are deluded against our will by nocturnal images; but there is sin if, before we are deluded, we are preoccupied by the affections of thought. For the images of lust which we have enacted in reality often appear to the mind of those sleeping, but harmlessly, if they occur without our desiring them.

He who is defiled by nocturnal delusion, although he perceive himself polluted apart from the remembrance of any shameful thoughts, nevertheless let him ascribe to the fault of his own guilt that he was thus tempted, and let him at once wipe away his uncleanness with weeping. VII. On Prayer. This is the remedy of him who is inflamed by the temptations of the vices: that as often as he is touched by any vice, so often he submit himself to prayer, because frequent prayer extinguishes the assault of the vices. We ought to fix our mind so perseveringly in praying and knocking, until, by a most strong intention, we overcome the importunate suggestions of carnal desires which clamor against our senses, and to persist so long, until by persisting we conquer.

For those who are negligent in their prayers are not even able to obtain from man himself what they wish. When anyone prays, he calls the Holy Spirit to himself. But when He has come, at once the temptations of the demons, which plunge themselves into human minds, unable to bear His presence, take flight. Prayer is of the heart, not of the lips. For God does not attend to the words of him who prays, but looks upon the heart of the one praying. And if the heart pray silently and the voice be still, though it be hidden from men, it cannot be hidden from God, who is present to the conscience. It is better, moreover, to pray in silence with the heart without the sound of the voice, than with words alone without the attention of the mind. Never is one to pray without a groan, for the recollection of sins begets sorrow.

For while we pray, we bring our guilt back to memory, and then we recognize ourselves the more to be guilty. Therefore, when we stand before God, we ought to groan and weep, remembering how grave are the crimes we have committed, and how dreadful the punishments of hell which we fear. Such as the mind offers itself in prayer, such let it keep itself after prayer. For prayer profits nothing if that be committed again for which pardon is already sought. For he without doubt receives the desired effect of his petition, who does not repeat by transgressing that which he asks by praying to be washed away. Our mind is heavenly, and then it contemplates God well in praying, when it is hindered by no earthly cares or errors. For by its own nature it is fit for good, but in what is alien to it, it is disturbed.

That prayer is pure into whose proper time the cares of the world do not intrude; but far from God is the soul that in prayer has been occupied with the thoughts of the world. Then, therefore, do we truly pray, when we think of nothing else. But very few there are who have such prayers. And although in some they may exist, yet it is difficult that they should always exist. The mind which before prayer, being empty of God, is occupied with unlawful thoughts, when it has come into prayer, at once the images of the things it lately thought of meet it, and block the approach of prayer, so that the mind cannot freely raise itself to heavenly desire.

Therefore the soul must first be purged, and separated from the thoughts of temporal things, so that the pure gaze of the heart may be directed to God truly and simply. For in truth we believe that divine gifts are then to be obtained, when with simple affection we stand before Him as we pray. In many ways the intention of prayer is interrupted, while through carelessness the vanities of the world thrust themselves into the mind of anyone praying. But then the more does the devil thrust the thoughts of worldly cares into human minds, when he has seen a man praying. In two ways prayer is hindered, so that one cannot obtain his requests: that is, if either one still commits evils, or if he does not forgive the one who trespasses against him what is owed.

When anyone has wiped away this twofold evil from himself, straightway secure he applies himself to the zeal of prayer, and freely raises his mind to those things which he desires to obtain by his prayers. He who is injured, let him not cease to pray for those who injure him; otherwise, according to the Lord's sentence, he sins who does not pray for his enemies. Just as no medicine profits in a wound if the iron still be in it, so the prayer of him profits nothing in whose mind grief still remains, or hatred abides in the breast. So great ought to be the affection of the one praying toward God, that he despair not of the effect of his petition. But we pray in vain, if we have not the confidence of hope.

Let each one therefore ask, as the Apostle says, in faith, doubting nothing; for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, which is driven by the wind and dispersed. Distrust of obtaining what is prayed for is born, if the soul yet feels itself to be engaged around the affection of sinning. For he cannot have sure confidence in prayer who is still slothful in the precepts of God, and delights in the recollections of sin. He who turns away from the precepts of God does not merit what he asks in prayer, nor does he obtain from Him the good which he requests, whose law he does not obey. For if we do what God commands, without doubt we obtain what we ask. For as it is written: 'He who turns away his ear that he may not hear the law, his prayer shall be an abomination.'

Both are of necessity mutually commended before God, that operation be strengthened by prayer, and prayer by work. Whence also Jeremiah says: 'Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God.' For he lifts up his heart with his hands who supports his prayer with work. For whoever prays and does not work, lifts up his heart and lifts not his hands. But whoever works and does not pray, lifts up his hands and lifts not his heart. But because it is necessary both to work and to pray, well is it said concerning both: 'Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God,' lest we be reproved in heart for the neglect of the commandments, while we strive to obtain our salvation either by prayer alone or by work alone.

After we have done a good work, let the tears of prayers be poured forth, that the humility of prayer may obtain the merit of the action. Culpably does he spread out his hands to God who boastfully displays his deeds by praying, as the Pharisee prayed boastfully in the temple, and wished to praise himself rather than God for his just works. The prayer of some is turned into sin, as is written of Judas the traitor. For he who prays boastfully, seeking human praise, not only does his prayer not blot out sin, but the very prayer is turned into sin. Just so the Jews or the heretics, who, although they may seem to fast and pray, yet their prayer profits them not unto the merit of purification, but is rather changed into sin.

Therefore sometimes the prayer of the elect is deferred in their afflictions, that the perversity of the impious may be increased. But when the righteous are heard for a time, it is done for the salvation of those who afflict them, so that, while these are aided by a temporal remedy, the eyes of the wicked may be opened to conversion. Whence also the fire was cold for the three youths, that Nebuchadnezzar might acknowledge the true God. As also the prophet says in the Psalms: 'Because of my enemies deliver me.' Accordingly the prayers of some are more slowly heard, so that, while they are deferred, being more strongly stirred up, they may be heaped up with greater rewards: after the example of the frosts and the holding back of the harvests, in which the more slowly the sown seeds come forth, so much the more abundantly do they grow to fruit.

As often as, praying, we are not quickly heard, let us set our own deeds before our eyes, so that this very thing, that we are deferred, may be reckoned to divine justice and to our own fault. Sometimes the fact that, praying perseveringly, we are not quickly heard, is for our benefit, not our adversity. For often God does not hear many according to their will, that He may hear them according to their salvation. Many who pray are not heard, God providing for them better things than they ask, as is wont to happen with little children, who, that they may not be beaten in school, entreat God. But the effect of their petition is not granted them, because such a hearing hinders their advancement. Not otherwise does it happen to certain of the elect: for they beseech God concerning some conveniences of this life, or adversities.

But divine Providence in no way heeds their desire in temporal matters, because it promises them better things for eternity. Prayer is more fittingly poured forth in private places, and more effectively obtains its aim, when it is uttered with God alone as witness. But it is proper to hypocrites to present themselves in prayer before those who see; whose fruit is not to please God, but to procure glory from men. Men are not heard by God in much speaking, as though they strove to bend Him by very many words. For it is not the manifold speech of the one praying that wins Him over, but the pure and sincere intention of prayer. It is good always to pray with the heart; it is good also to glorify God with the sound of the voice in spiritual hymns.

It is nothing to sing with the voice alone without the intention of the heart; but, as the Apostle says: 'Singing in your hearts,' that is, chanting not only with the voice but with the heart. Whence also elsewhere: 'I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind.' As we are governed by prayers, so we are delighted by the pursuit of the psalms. For the usefulness of psalm-singing consoles sad hearts, makes minds more gracious, delights the weary, arouses the sluggish, and invites sinners to lamentation. For although carnal hearts be hard, as soon as the sweetness of the psalm has sounded, it bends their soul to the affection of piety.

Although it be the divine words which are spoken there, and not the modulation of the voice, that ought to move a Christian, yet somehow by the modulation of the singer a greater compunction of heart is born. For many are found who, moved by the sweetness of song, bewail their crimes, and are the more bent to tears from that quarter whence the most delightful sweetness of the singer has sounded. Prayer is poured forth for the remedy of sins in the present life only; but the chanting of psalms shows forth the perpetual praise of God unto eternal glory, as it is written: 'Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, for ever and ever they shall praise thee.' Whoever performs the ministry of this work faithfully and with an attentive mind, is in a certain manner associated with the angels.

VIII. On Reading. By prayers we are cleansed, by readings we are instructed; both are good, if it be allowed; if it be not allowed, it is better to pray than to read. He who wishes always to be with God ought frequently to pray, and frequently to read. For when we pray, we ourselves speak with God; but when we read, God speaks with us. All progress proceeds from reading and meditation. For what we know not, we learn by reading; and what we have learned, we preserve by meditations. The reading of the Holy Scriptures confers a twofold gift, whether because it instructs the understanding of the mind, or because, having drawn man away from the vanities of the world, it leads him to the love of God.

For often, stirred by its word, we are withdrawn from the desire of worldly life, and, kindled in the love of wisdom, the vain hope of this mortality becomes cheap to us in proportion as, by reading, the eternal hope has shone forth more brightly. The study of reading is twofold: first, in what manner the Scriptures may be understood; second, with what usefulness or dignity they may be spoken. For each will first be ready to understand what he reads, and thereupon fit to set forth what he says. The diligent reader will be more ready to fulfill what he reads than to know it. For it is a lesser punishment not to know what you should seek, than not to fulfill the things you have come to know. For as by reading we long to know, so by knowing we ought to fulfill the right things we have learned.

The Law of God has both a reward and a punishment for those who read it. A reward in those who keep it by living well; but a punishment in those who despise it by living ill. Everyone who departs from the precepts of God in deed, as often as he can read or hear those same precepts of God, is confounded, reproved in his heart, because he is reminded of that which he does not do, and, his conscience being witness, is inwardly accused. Whence also the prophet David beseeches, saying: 'Then shall I not be confounded, when I look into all thy commandments.' For everyone is gravely confounded, when, either by reading or by hearing, he looks into the commandments of God which he despises by living. For he is reproved in heart, while he is taught by the meditation of the commandments, because he has not fulfilled in deed what he has learned by the divine command.

IX. On Constancy in Reading. No one can know the sense of Holy Scripture, except by familiarity with reading, as it is written: 'Love her, and she will exalt thee; thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou hast embraced her.' The more constant anyone is in the sacred discourses, the more abundant an understanding he takes from them; as the earth, which the more it is cultivated, so much the more abundantly does it bear fruit. The more a man ascends to any art, so much the more does that art itself descend to the man, as it is written in the Law: 'Moses ascended into the mountain, and the Lord descended.'

It is true concerning spiritual leisure, that he alone will search out the secrets of the divine commandments, who has called away his soul from the action of earthly care, and by diligent familiarity has clung to the Holy Scriptures. For as both a blind man and one who sees can indeed walk, but not with like freedom, since the blind man, going where he does not see, stumbles, but the seeing man avoids obstacles and knows whither he must go; so also he who is darkened by the cloud of earthly care, if he attempt to search out the mysteries of God, is not able, because through the mist of cares he does not see. Whereas he is able to accomplish just as much, who withdraws himself from the outward cares of the world, and fixes his whole self on the meditation of the Scriptures.

Some have the talent of understanding, but neglect the study of reading; and what they might have come to know by reading, they despise by neglecting. But some have the love of knowing, but are hindered by slowness of understanding; who nevertheless, by constant reading, come to know what the talented, through laziness, have not known. He who is slow of talent, though not by nature, yet by constancy of reading increases it. For although there be dullness of understanding, yet frequent reading imparts understanding. As he who is slow to grasp, yet on account of the intention of good zeal receives a reward, so he who neglects the talent of understanding bestowed on him by God, is found guilty of condemnation, because he despises the gift which he received, and forsakes it through laziness.

Some by the judgment of God receive the gift of knowledge which they neglect, that they may be more harshly punished for the things committed to them. But the slower ones therefore find with difficulty what they desire to know, that for the greatest exertion of labor they may have the greatest reward of recompense. X. On Doctrine Without Grace. Doctrine without the aid of grace, although it be poured into the ears, never descends to the heart; outwardly indeed it resounds, but inwardly it profits nothing. But then does the word of God, poured into the ears, reach to the depths of the heart, when the grace of God inwardly touches the mind, that it may understand. For just as God enlightens some with the flame of His love, that they may have a life-giving wisdom, so He deserts some, cold and torpid, that they may persist without understanding.

Very many are lively in the acuteness of understanding, but are straitened by poverty of speech. But some are strong in both, because they have both the abundance of knowing and the efficacy of speaking. XI. On Proud Readers. Very many use the knowledge of the Scriptures they have received not for the glory of God, but for their own praise, while they are exalted by that very knowledge, and sin there where they ought to have cleansed their sins. The arrogant never attain by reading to perfect knowledge. For although they may appear wise on the surface, yet in the marrow they do not touch the secrets of truth, because they are hindered by the cloud of pride. For the proud always read, seek, and never find.

The inmost recesses of the divine Law lie open to the humble and to those who enter well toward God; but to the depraved and proud they are closed. For although the divine oracles be open to the arrogant in the reading, yet in the mystery they are closed and hidden. While the word of God is light to the faithful, to the reprobate and proud it in a certain manner grows dark; and whence those are enlightened, thence these are blinded. XII. On Carnal Readers and Heretics. By no means does he understand the Law who runs through the words of the Law carnally, but he who beholds it with the sense of inner understanding. For those who attend to the letter of the Law cannot penetrate its hidden things.

For many, by not understanding the Scriptures spiritually, nor rightly perceiving them, have fallen into heresy and have drifted away into many errors. In the faithful alone is the Law bound up, the Lord attesting through the prophet: 'Seal the testimony, seal the law among my disciples,' that neither a Jew may understand it, nor a heretic, because he is not a disciple of Christ; for they do not follow the unity of peace which Christ taught, concerning which the same Lord says: 'By this shall they know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.' The heretics do not perceive the Scriptures with sound sense, but draw them to the error of depraved understanding;

nor do they subject themselves to the meaning of the Scriptures, but perversely drag them to their own error. Teachers of errors so entangle their hearers by the arguments of fraud through depraved persuasions, that they involve them as it were in a labyrinth, from which they can scarcely get out. So great is the cunning of heretics that they mingle false things with true and evil with good, and for the most part insert the poison of their error among wholesome things, so that they may the more easily persuade the depravity of a perverse dogma under the appearance of truth. For the most part heretics write their sayings under the name of catholic teachers, so that what is read may be believed without doubt.

Sometimes too they insert their blasphemies with hidden guile into the books of our teachers, and corrupt the true doctrine by adulterating it, namely either by adding things that are impious, or by taking away things that are pious. The things that are read must be pondered cautiously and tested with cautious judgment, so that, according to the apostolic admonitions, we may both hold fast what is right and refute what stands contrary to the truth, and so be instructed in good things that we may remain unharmed by evil ones. XIII. On the Books of the Gentiles. Therefore the Christian is forbidden to read the fictions of the poets, because through the delights of empty fables they excite the mind to the incitements of lusts. For not only by offering incense is sacrifice made to demons, but also by receiving their sayings more willingly.

Some take more delight in meditating on the sayings of the Gentiles because of their swelling and ornate speech, than on Holy Scripture because of its humble diction. But what does it profit to advance in worldly doctrines, and to grow empty in the divine? To follow perishable fictions, and to disdain the heavenly mysteries? Such books therefore are to be shunned, and to be avoided for the love of the Holy Scriptures. The sayings of the Gentiles outwardly gleam with the eloquence of words, but inwardly remain empty of the wisdom of virtue; but the sacred oracles outwardly appear unpolished in words, yet inwardly they shine with the wisdom of mysteries. Whence also the Apostle says: 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels.'

For indeed the word of God has a hidden splendor of wisdom and truth stored up in the meanest little vessels of words. Therefore the holy books were written in simple speech, that men might be led to faith not in the wisdom of word, but in the demonstration of the Spirit. For if they had been produced by the subtlety of dialectical acuteness, or the eloquence of the rhetorical art, in no way would the faith of Christ be thought to consist in the power of God, but in the arguments of human eloquence; nor should we believe that anyone was summoned to faith by divine inspiration, but rather seduced by the cunning of words.

All secular doctrine, resounding with foaming words, and lifting itself up through the swelling of eloquence, has been emptied by the simple and humble Christian teaching, as it is written: 'Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?' To the fastidious and the loquacious the Holy Scriptures please less because of their simple speech; for compared with Gentile eloquence they seem to them unworthy. But if with a humble mind they attend to its mysteries, they at once perceive how exalted are the things which in them they despise. In reading, not the words but the truth is to be loved. But often a truthful simplicity is found, and a composed falsehood which entices a man by its errors and, through the ornaments of the tongue, scatters sweet snares.

The love of worldly knowledge does nothing else than exalt a man with praises. For the greater the studies of literature have been, the more the soul, puffed up with the pride of arrogance, swells with greater boastfulness. Whence also the psalm well says: 'Because I have not known learning, I will enter into the powers of the Lord.' To the simpler ones the paint of the grammatical art is not to be set forth. For common letters are better, because simpler, and pertaining only to the humility of the readers; but those others are worse, because they bring upon men a pernicious elation of mind. Grammarians are better than heretics; for the heretics offer men a draught of deadly juice by persuading them;

but the doctrine of grammarians can even profit unto life, when it has been taken up for better uses. XIV. On Conference. Since reading is useful for instruction, yet when conference is added it affords greater understanding; for it is better to confer than to read. Conference makes for teachableness; for by proposed questions the hesitation over matters is excluded, and often by objections the hidden truth is proved. For what is obscure or doubtful is quickly discerned by conferring. Figures are of much profit in conference. For things which are less noticed of themselves are easily grasped through the comparison of things. For often under another appearance the divine Scriptures intimate spiritual matters;

and unless by some evident demonstration, the hidden mysteries of the Law scarcely appear. As conference is wont to instruct, so contention destroys. For this, having abandoned the sense of truth, begets strife and, by fighting with words, even blasphemy against God. Thence come heresies and schism, by which faith is subverted, truth is corrupted, charity is torn asunder. The zeal of the contentious is contested not for truth but for the appetite of praise, and so great is the perversity in these, that they know not how to yield to truth, and strive to make void the very right doctrine. In the disputation of the faithful the artful subtlety of propositions is to be avoided, which spreads nets by crafty objections;

for so is the disputation of the depraved knotted up with crafty assertions, that they feign to be right the things which they perversely persuade. Reading needs the help of memory; but if this be naturally slower, yet by frequent meditation it is sharpened and by constancy of reading it is gathered together. Often a lengthy reading, on account of its length, blots out the memory of the reader. But if it be brief, and, the book having been set aside, the sentence be reviewed in the mind, then it is read without labor, and the things that have been read, being recollected, are least of all lost from the memory. Silent reading is more acceptable to the senses than reading aloud; for the understanding is more instructed when the voice of the reader is at rest and the tongue moves under silence.

For by prolonged reading both the body is wearied and the sharpness of the voice is dulled. XV. On contemplation and action. 15.1. The active life is innocence in good works, the contemplative is the beholding of things above; the former is common to many, but the latter to few. 15.2. The active life makes good use of the things of this world, but the contemplative life, renouncing the world, delights to live for God alone. 15.3a. He who first makes progress in the active life ascends rightly to contemplation. For he is deservedly raised up in the latter who is found useful in the former. 15.3b-4. Whoever still longs for temporal glory or carnal desire is barred from contemplation, so that, being set in the working of the active life, he may be purged.

For in the active life all vices must first be exhausted through the exercise of good work, so that in the contemplative life one may pass over, with a now pure keenness of mind, to the beholding of God. And although one newly converted may desire at once to ascend to contemplation, yet by reason he is compelled first to be occupied in the working of the active life. Take, then, an example of the active and contemplative life from Jacob: while he was set upon Rachel, that is, upon the vision of the first principle, which signifies contemplation, Leah, that is, the laborious life, was put beneath him, which represents the active life. 15.5. Just as one buried is cut off from every earthly business, so too he who is free for contemplation is turned away from every active occupation.

And just as those ascending from the active life are buried in the quiet of contemplation, so those withdrawing from the action of the world are received by the active life as though it buried them in itself; and by this the active life is the sepulchre of the worldly life, and the contemplative life the sepulchre of the active life. 15.6. Holy men, just as they go forth from the secret place of contemplation to the public arena of action, so again they return from the open ground of action to the secret of inmost contemplation, that within they may praise God, where they have received that whereby they labour outwardly for His glory. 15.7.

Just as it is the eagle's custom always to fix its eye upon the ray of the sun and not to turn away, except only for the sake of seizing food, so too the saints are at times turned back from contemplation to the active life, considering that those things above are so useful, that yet these lowly things are needful in some small measure for our want. 15.8. In the manner of the active life human intention advances perseveringly; but in contemplation it takes itself up again at intervals, because it is wearied by the length of contemplating. 15.9. The vision of the living creatures in Ezekiel, which went and did not return, pertains to the perseverance of the active life;

and again those living creatures which went and returned pertain to the measure of the contemplative life, in which, while anyone strains toward it, being beaten back by his own weakness he is turned aside; and again, with his intention renewed, he is once more raised up to those things from which he had come down. This cannot happen in the active life, from which, if anyone turn aside even for a little, he is at once caught by the excess of vices. 15.10. The right eye that gives offence, which the Lord commanded to be plucked out, is the contemplative life. The two eyes in the face are the active life and the contemplative in man.

He therefore who through contemplation teaches error, does better if he plucks out the eye of contemplation, keeping for himself the one gaze of the active life, so that it is more profitable for him to go to life through simple action, than through the error of contemplation to be cast into hell. 15.11. Often the mind is raised from the depths to the heights, and often, bowed down by the weight of the flesh, it is turned back from the heights to the lowest things. 15.12. Many God visits by His grace out of carnal things, and lifts them up to the summit of contemplation. And many, by a just judgement, He forsakes in their contemplation, and leaves them, fallen, in earthly works. XVI. On those who despise the world. 16.1.

The things that are dear to the lovers of the world, the saints flee as though they were harmful, and they rejoice more in the adversities of the world than they take delight in its prosperity. 16.2. They are strangers to God for whom this world prospers to every advantage. But to the servants of God all the things of this world are contrary, so that while they feel these adversities they may be the more ardently stirred to heavenly desire. 16.3. Great grace shines forth before God in him who has been despicable to this world. For truly it must be that he whom the world hates is loved by God. 16.4. Holy men are pilgrims and guests in this world; whence Peter too is reproved because he thought to make a tabernacle on the mountain, for the saints have no tabernacle in this world, whose fatherland and home is in heaven.

16.5. Holy men therefore desire to despise the world and to recall the motion of the mind to the things above, that there they may gather themselves again whence they flowed down, and may withdraw themselves from where they were scattered. 16.6. The just, who renounce riches and honours and the enticements of life, thereby mortify themselves from every earthly possession, that they may live for God; and so they trample upon the allurements of this world, that from the mortification of this life they may rise up the stronger to that other life. For all temporal things, like green herbs, wither and pass away, and therefore for the sake of eternal things, which never wither, the servant of God rightly despises these, because in them he sees no stability. 16.7.

He who, after the renunciation of the world, pants with holy desires for the heavenly fatherland, is raised up from this earthly intention as though lifted by certain wings, and he beholds through his groaning the place where he had fallen, and with great joy he strains toward where he has arrived. But he who, turned back from the rest of contemplation, falls into the cares of this world, if he returns to the memory of himself, straightway groans, and knows from the very difficulty of his labour how tranquil were the things he lost, and how confused are the things into which he has fallen. For what in this life is more laborious than to burn with earthly desires? Or what here is more secure than to desire nothing of this world?

For those who love this world are troubled by its turbulent cares and anxieties. But those who hate it and do not follow it, enjoying the tranquillity of inward quiet, already in some measure begin here to have the rest of that future peace which they there await. XVII. On the saints who separate themselves from fellowship with the world. 17.1. Holy men, renouncing the world from the very foundations, so die to this world that they delight to live for God alone; and the more they withdraw themselves from the manner of life of this world, the more, with the inward keenness of the mind, they contemplate the presence of God and the frequent company of the angelic society. 17.2. So depraved and manifest are the works of the wicked, that those who desire the heavenly fatherland flee not only their manners but also their fellowship.

Some indeed desire to be separated even bodily from the wicked, that they may not be entangled in their sins. Others, though not by bodily departure, yet withdraw from them by spiritual intention; and though they share a common way of life, yet they are set apart in heart or in work; and although God often protects the life of the elect in the midst of the carnal, yet it is exceedingly rare that anyone set amid the pleasures of the world should remain untainted from the vices, into which, even if he is not quickly entangled, he is nevertheless at some time drawn. For he who has been near to danger cannot long be safe. 17.3. The way without a stumbling-block is the life of the monk without the hindrance of cupidity and fear.