Works 1

I. True innocence is that which harms neither itself nor another, since whoever loves iniquity hates his own soul. And no one fails to sin against himself before sinning against another. II. Men are to be loved in such a way that their errors are not loved, for it is one thing to love what they were made, and another to hate what they do. III. There is no true eternity and true immortality except in the deity of the Trinity, for which to be is to be perpetual, because that nature, lacking a beginning and needing no increase, just as it admits no end, so it admits no mutability.

But creatures, even those to which God has given or will give eternity, are not entirely free of every kind of ending, since they are not beyond change, inasmuch as for them there is an ending, and a temporal beginning, and local motion, and that very change made for their own increase. IV. The patience of God, by which he spares the despised and the denied, and prefers the life of the sinner to his death, is an instruction toward repentance and an offering of correction; nor are any of his works devoid of mercy, since he provides for man both by indulgence and by the scourge. V. The divine goodness is therefore most angry in this present age precisely so that it may not be angry in the age to come, and it mercifully applies a temporal severity so as not justly to inflict an eternal vengeance.

VI. The confession of one who blesses God is true when the sound of the mouth is the same as that of the heart. But to speak well and to live ill is nothing else than to condemn oneself by one's own voice. VII. The love of God and of neighbor is the proper and special virtue of the devout and the holy, whereas the other virtues can be common to both good and evil men. VIII. Apostolic teaching is so wholesome and life-giving that, according to the capacity of those who use it, it leaves no one without a share in itself, because whether small or great, whether weak or strong, they have in it that by which they may be nourished and satisfied. IX. He who seeks God seeks joy. Let him therefore so seek that he may rejoice not in himself, but in the Lord.

For by drawing near to God, both its ignorance is enlightened and its weakness is strengthened, being given to it both the understanding by which it may see, and the love by which it may burn. X. Just as it is harmful to the body not to be able to take bodily food, so it is dangerous for the soul to loathe spiritual delights. XI. Never are they many who tend toward non-being. For what is so liable to fewness as that which is owed to perdition? XII. God does not desire the punishment of the guilty as though wishing to be sated with vengeance, but he decrees what is just with tranquility and disposes it with a right will, so that even the wicked may not be without order. XIII. He has a good understanding who rightly understands and does what must be done.

Otherwise such is understanding without works as is wisdom without fear, since it is written: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. XIV. A soul also has its rest in this life when it has been taken out from the death of unbelief, and abstains not only from the works of righteousness but from the doing of iniquity, so that, living to God and dead to the world, it may rest in the calm tranquility of humility and meekness. XV. Whoever rightly considers what he should vow to God and what vows he should pay, let him vow and render his very self. This is what is required, this is what is owed. Let the image of Caesar be rendered to Caesar, let the image of God be rendered to God.

But just as one must consider what you offer and to whom you offer, so also must one consider where you offer, since there is no place for the true sacrifice outside the catholic Church. XVI. There are two recompenses of justice, when either good things are rendered for good, or evil for evil. The third is the recompense of grace, when through regeneration evils are forgiven and good things are rendered. And thus it is made manifest that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. But that recompense of the impious, by which evils are rendered for good, God knows not — God who, unless he rendered good for evil, would have no one to whom he might render good for good.

XVII. Everyone who belongs to the heavenly city is a pilgrim of the world, and while he uses this temporal life, he lives in a foreign country, where, amid many enticing and many deceitful things, to know and to love God belongs to few — to those for whom the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes, so that they may be deceived neither in the love of God nor in the love of neighbor. XVIII. There is no one whose soul the corruptible body and earthly habitation do not weigh down. But one must strive that the desires of the flesh be overcome by the vigor of the spirit, and that the inner man, who always feels himself resisted, may always look to be helped by divine aid.

XIX. Narrow is the way that leads to life, and yet it is not run except by an enlarged heart, because the path of the virtues, by which the poor of Christ walk, is ample to the hope of the faithful, even if it is narrow to the vanity of the unbelieving. XX. With this affection and desire God is to be worshiped, that his very worship may be its own reward. For he who worships God in order to obtain something else rather than God himself does not worship God, but the thing which he longs to attain. XXI. To judge rashly concerning the hidden things of another's heart is a sin, and it is wrong to reproach by suspicion one whose works appear only good, since of those things which are unknown to man, God alone is the just judge, who is also the true beholder.

XXII. It is of the divine gift, both when we think rightly, and when we keep our feet from falsehood and injustice. For as often as we do good things, God works in us and with us, that we may work. XXIII. By the just judgment of God, power is for the most part given to sinners by which they may persecute his saints, so that those who are helped and led by the Spirit of God may become more illustrious through the exercises of their labors. XXIV. There is no true knowledge of the good unless it is grasped to this end, that it may be done. For he does not profitably meditate on the law of God who labors to hold in memory what he does not fulfill in action. XXV. He who loves the law of God proves that in wicked men he hates that which is against the law, not the men. XXVI. The mind cannot search out the commandments of God unless it is at peace.

In order, then, that a religious zeal may be exercised, the quarrels of the malicious must be driven away. XXVII. No one is so learned, no one so well-taught, that he does not need illumination from above. For no increases of divine goods are ever so sufficient that there does not always remain something which the rational mind desires both to understand and to perform. XXVIII. If we consider all men together, of whom some are saved by mercy and others are condemned by truth, all the ways of the Lord — that is, mercy and truth — are distinguished by their respective end. But if we look upon the saints alone, these ways are not distinguished.

For there truth is inseparable from mercy, and mercy from truth, because the blessedness of the saints is both of the gift of grace and of the recompense of justice. XXIX. It belongs to Christian perfection to be peaceable even with the enemies of peace, in hope of their correction, not in consent to their malice, so that even if they follow neither the example nor the exhortation of love, they may nevertheless have no grounds for which they ought to hate us. XXX. The Lord guards us from all evil, not so that we may suffer nothing adverse, but so that the soul may not be harmed by the adversities themselves. For when temptation is present, there occurs a certain entrance into that which assails us.

And when the temptation is consummated with a good end — that is, without wounding the soul — one passes out from the depth of temporal toil to eternal rest. XXXI. None ascend to the fellowship of the heavenly Jerusalem except those who profess with their whole heart that what they ascend is not of their own work but of the divine gift. XXXII. All who wish to live devoutly in Christ must of necessity suffer reproaches from the impious and from those unlike them, and be despised as foolish and senseless men who lose present goods and promise themselves things invisible and future. But this contempt and mockery will be turned back upon those very people, when both their abundance shall pass into want, and their pride into confusion.

XXXIII. The whole salvation of the faithful, the whole fortitude of patience, is to be referred to him who is wonderful in his saints, because unless the Lord were in them, human frailty would succumb to the fury of the impious. XXXIV. Just so, both rulers are to be borne by the people and masters by their servants, in such a way that, under the exercise of endurance, temporal things may be sustained and eternal things hoped for. For it increases the merits of virtue that one does not violate the resolve of religion. XXXV. Those who are right in heart do not complain about the precepts and ordinances of God, because it is just that all things be received with equanimity which he who will judge has willed to be borne. XXXVI. Every state of the holy edifice, just as it advances by God's working, so it stands firm by God's keeping.

Since the keeping of those set over us is then useful, when the Spirit of God presides over his people and deigns to guard not only the flocks but the shepherds themselves. XXXVII. The joys of the eternal city are eternal, and the perpetual infinity of the abiding days shall neither be altered nor fall away, because they shall possess an unchangeable peace, of all of whom the good shall be such as shall belong also to each one. XXXVIII. The law of Christ is the perfection of love, by which God and neighbor are loved, and through which it is said to the maker of the law: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For he well awaits the promise of God who carries out his commandments, nor does he hope in vain that his own sins shall be spared, who forgives those of others.

XXXIX. God commands nothing that may profit himself, but him to whom he commands. Therefore he is the true Lord, who has no need of a servant, and whom the servant needs. XL. That which is new in time is not new with God, who founded the times and possesses without time all the things which he distributes to their several times according to their variety. XLI. An immutable reason contains the disposition of mutable things, where, without time, those things are together which in time do not come to be together, because the times do not run together. XLII. Nothing is more wretched than the felicity of those who sin, by which a penal impunity is nourished, and an evil will is strengthened like an inner enemy. XLIII. The letter of the law, which teaches that one must not sin, if the life-giving Spirit be lacking, kills.

For it makes sin to be known rather than to be avoided, and therefore to be increased rather than diminished, because to evil concupiscence there is added even the transgression of the law. XLIV. The law was given that grace might be sought. Grace was given that the law might be fulfilled. For it was not unfulfilled through any fault of its own, but through the fault of the prudence of the flesh. Which fault was to be shown by the law, and to be healed by grace. XLV. God promises that which he himself does. For he does not himself promise and another do it — which is no longer to promise, but to predict. Therefore it is not of works, but of him who calls, lest it be of themselves, but of God, and the wage be reckoned not according to grace, but according to debt, and so grace would no longer be grace.

XLVI. Just as certain venial sins, without which this life is not lived, do not bar the righteous man from eternal life, so to the impious certain good works are of no profit toward eternal salvation, without which the life even of the most wicked man is hardly to be found. XLVII. When an evil will receives power to effect what it desires, this comes from the judgment of God, with whom there is no iniquity. For he punishes even in this way, and not therefore unjustly because secretly. Otherwise the wicked man does not know that he is being punished, except when, unwilling, he has felt by manifest punishment how great is the evil which he willingly perpetrated. XLVIII. All vices have force only in misdeeds; pride alone must be guarded against even in deeds rightly done.

XLIX. It matters very greatly what use is made either of those things which are prosperous, or of those which are called adverse. For the good man is neither lifted up by goods nor broken by evils. The evil man, however, is punished by an unhappiness of this kind precisely because he is corrupted by happiness. L. That death is not to be reckoned evil which a good life has preceded. For nothing makes death evil except that which follows death. And so we need not be much concerned, for those who must necessarily die, about what may befall them so that they die, but about whither they are compelled to go in dying. LI. Thus the sanctity of the body is not lost while the sanctity of the soul remains, even when the body is oppressed, just as the sanctity of the body is lost when the purity of the soul is violated, even when the body is untouched.

LII. He is rightly to be called the greater spirit who chooses rather to bear a toilsome life than to flee it, and to despise human judgment — especially that of the common crowd, which is for the most part wrapped in the darkness of error — before the light and purity of conscience. LIII. Whatever of evils is inflicted upon the just by unjust masters is not the punishment of a crime, but the testing of virtue. For the good man, even if he serves, is free; but the evil man, even if he reigns, is a slave — and not of one man, but, what is more grievous, of as many masters as he has vices. LIV. No one could rightly vow anything to the Lord unless he received from him the very thing he might vow. LV. Every substance which is not God is a creature, and that which is not a creature is God.

There is therefore no difference in the Deity of the Trinity, since that which is less than God is not God. LVI. God loves us such as we shall be by his gift, not such as we are by our own merit. LVII. The order of times is, in the eternal wisdom of God, without time, nor are there any new things with him who made the things that are to come. LVIII. The will of God is the first and supreme cause of all corporeal and spiritual motions. For nothing comes to be visibly and sensibly which is not either commanded or permitted from the invisible and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor, according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments, of graces and recompenses, in this most ample and immense commonwealth of the whole creation.

LIX. The proud devil led the proud man down to death. The humble Christ led the obedient man back to life. For just as the one, being lifted up, fell, and cast down him who consented, so the other, being humbled, rose, and raised up him who believed. LX. In spiritual things, when the lesser cleaves to the greater — as the creature to the Creator — the former becomes greater than it was, not the latter. And this is to be greater, which is to be better, because the creature cleaving to the Creator is made greater not by bulk but by virtue. LXI. The supereminence of the Deity exceeds the faculty not only of our customary speech but even of our understanding. For God is more truly thought than spoken, and more truly is than is thought.

But it is no small part of knowledge if, before we are able to know what God is, we can know what he is not. LXII. All the blessed have what they will, although not all who have what they will are forthwith blessed. But forthwith wretched are those who either do not have what they will, or have that which they do not rightly will. A right will, therefore, even though it has not attained what it desires, is nearer to blessedness than a perverse will, even if it has obtained what it desired. LXIII. It is a great misery of man to be without him, without whom he cannot be. For in him in whom he is, without doubt he is not without him. And yet, if he does not remember him, nor understand him, nor love him, he is not with him.

LXIV. The Divinity of the Word, equal to the Father, was made a partaker of our mortality — not of its own, but of ours — that we too might be made partakers of his divinity, not of our own, but of his. LXV. Hatred is perfect which lacks neither justice nor knowledge — that is, that you may neither hate men on account of their vices, nor love vices on account of men. Rightly, therefore, in evil men we hate wickedness and love the creature, so that neither is nature condemned on account of vice, nor vice loved on account of nature. LXVI. The fabrications of falsehood are difficult and laborious. But he who wishes to speak the truth does not labor. For the good are more at peace than the evil, and the words of the truthful are more free than the contrivances of the deceitful.

LXVII. Good are the depths of mysteries in the Holy Scriptures, which are veiled for this reason — lest they become cheap; are sought for this reason — that they may exercise; are opened for this reason — that they may feed. LXVIII. The Lord Jesus Christ, praying with a sweat of blood, was signifying that from his whole body, which is the Church, the sufferings of the martyrs would flow forth. LXIX. The unworthy man takes to himself the sacrament of godliness unto judgment. For it cannot go well with one who badly receives that which is good. LXX. He who praises God in the miracles of his benefits, let him praise him also in the terrors of his retributions. For he both allures and threatens. If he did not allure, there would be no exhortation; if he did not threaten, there would be no correction.

LXXI. The remedies of conversion to God must not be deferred by any delays, lest the time of correction perish through slowness. For he who promised pardon to the penitent did not pledge a tomorrow to the one who dissembles. LXXII. He is upright and rightly calls upon God who, in all the evils that he suffers, accuses himself and not God, and in the good things that he does, praises not himself but God. For just as God repels the one who defends his own sin, so he receives the one who confesses it. LXXIII. Wonderful is the fabric of the world, but more wonderful is its Maker. And he is ill-occupied with created things who departs from the Author. But if he cleaves to the One who is above, he will trample on lower things, lest what he has loved against nature be turned into punishment.

LXXIV. The rational soul, setting lower things before higher, cannot rule what it used to rule, because it would not be ruled by the One who ruled it. LXXV. The body of our flesh was an ornament to us. We sinned, and from it we received fetters, so that by the bonds of mortality the whole course of human actions might be hampered. LXXVI. He rightly sings psalms in praise of God whose works accord with his voice. For when the song is finished, the voice falls silent, but a life abiding in good deeds never falls silent from the glory of him whom it rejoices to have working within it. LXXVII. All things that are feared are reasonably avoided. God is to be feared in such a way that one flees from him to him. LXXVIII. As a preposterous security drives one into danger, so an ordered solicitude begets security.

LXXIX. Virginity of the flesh is an untouched body; virginity of the soul is an uncorrupted faith. LXXX. We shall be shown to have many superfluous things among our possessions, if we retain only the necessary ones. For to those who seek vain things nothing suffices, and he is in a manner a withholder of what belongs to others who uselessly holds what would profit the poor. LXXXI. As our ears are toward our voices, so are the ears of God toward our thoughts. But it cannot happen that good thoughts issue into evil works, since that is brought forth by action which is conceived in the heart. LXXXII. As the old song of the old man pertains to temporal things, so the new song of the new man pertains to eternal things. And thus each one sings as he lives.

And the new song is the song of the faith which works through love. LXXXIII. The true humility of the faithful is to be proud in nothing, to murmur at nothing, neither to be ungrateful nor querulous, but in all the judgments of God to give thanks to God and to praise God, all of whose works are either just or kind. LXXXIV. Exceedingly wretched is he who does not hope in God, and promises himself prosperous things from himself, since by that very fact that he seeks not the help of God, he has fallen away from all hope of true salvation. LXXXV. In great need are those who are rich in iniquity, not having the riches of righteousness and the treasures of wisdom. But those who serve the Lord acquire those goods which cannot perish. LXXXVI. It does not suffice to abstain from evil, unless what is good be done.

And it is too little to harm no one, unless you strive to profit many. LXXXVII. When a sinner sins, he is not therefore unseen by the Lord because the punishment of the wrongdoer is deferred. But it is decreed more grievously against him to whom even correction itself is denied. LXXXVIII. One does not approach the height of God except through humility. And the one who, being subject, draws near to him, the one who is lifted up departs far from him. LXXXIX. Just as sumptuous obsequies profit rich sinners nothing, so cheap burials, or none at all, do no harm to the holy poor. XC. He to whom Christ is joy can never be defrauded of his delights. For eternal is the exultation that rejoices in the eternal Good.

XCI. To God, who is everywhere, we are either far off or near, not by places, but by actions. For just as unlikeness separates, so imitation joins us to him. XCII. It belongs to human sickness to have in mortal flesh a delight in sinning. But the disciple and lover of the virtues ought not to grant peace to this concupiscence, but to declare war upon it. XCIII. Let it not frighten you, Christian, that the things believed are deferred. Though the promise be hidden, yet let prayer persevere in hope. Exercise yourself in works, grow in virtues. While the constancy of faith is being tested, the glory of the recompense is being increased. XCIV. Every season of evils is small. For what is so slight as that which tends to this end — that it may not be?

XCV. The capacity of love always grows, becoming greater by use and richer by generosity. XCVI. The impiety of the wicked must perish, either by its own judgment or by the sentence of God. For no iniquity endures to which either correction or condemnation puts an end. XCVII. He who cleaves to God and always does the will of God is never forsaken by his indweller. And if he suffers certain hard and adverse things, he is not abandoned, but proved. XCVIII. The whole rationale of righteousness is that evils be avoided and good things be done. The form of this observance is to be kept amid any adversities whatsoever, because this alone is never lost, which is expended upon the work of godliness. XCIX. Let present evils be borne, until the promised blessedness comes.

Let unbelievers be borne by the faithful, and let the uprooting of the tares that have sprung up among the wheat be deferred. However much the impious may rage, the cause of the just is the better even in this present time, who, the more fiercely they are assailed, the more gloriously are they crowned. C. A cry to God is the intention of the heart and the ardor of love, because what is always desired is always asked. But this is not hidden from God, since that which comes from him returns to him. CI. The confession of sin is good, if healing also follow. For what does it profit to uncover the wound and not apply the medicine? CII. From this life, which is wholly a temptation, even in the most exalted saints, that perfection is not attained beyond which there remains no further ascent.

CIII. While the course of the present life is being run, even if he greatly advances whose outer man is corrupted and whose inner man is renewed, it is nevertheless necessary that, since he is subject to the condition of death, he bear the labors of decay. CIV. Man is indeed the image of God. And he who walks by the ways of righteousness tends toward the likeness of his Author. And yet, while he lives in this life, he meets with the disturbances of vanity. CV. The first grace of the divine gift is that it instructs us unto the confession of our humility, and makes us acknowledge that, if we do any good, we can do it through him without whom we can do nothing. CVI. The whole life of unbelievers is sin, and nothing is good without the highest Good.

For where the recognition of eternal and unchangeable truth is lacking, the virtue is false, even amid the best morals. CVII. Just as the foundation of a corporeal building is at the bottom, so the foundation of a spiritual building is at the top. An earthly construction begins from the earth; a heavenly edifice grows from a heavenly beginning. CVIII. God is then said to remember when he acts, and then to forget when he does not act. For neither does forgetfulness fall upon God, since he is in no way changed, nor recollection, since he forgets nothing. CIX. They see the wondrous works of God to whom they are of profit. For what is not understood, or whence one does not profit, is not seen. CX. Let truth not take away mercy, nor let mercy hinder truth.

For if you judge for mercy against truth, or as it were with rigid truth forget mercy, you will not walk in the way of the Lord, in which mercy and truth have met each other. CXI. The temptation of Christ is the instruction of the Christian. For disciples ought to be imitators of their master — not in working miracles, which no one requires, but in keeping the humility and patience to which the Lord invited us by his own example. CXII. As the root of all evils is covetousness, so the root of all goods is charity. CXIII. The Christian's cause for rightly rejoicing is not the present age, but the age to come.

Temporal things are to be so used that they do not harm eternal ones; just as, on the road along which pilgrims walk, what pleases is that which leads to the homeland. 114. He keeps the Sabbath ill who rests from good works. Rest from iniquity, however, ought to be perpetual, since a good conscience makes the mind not restless but tranquil. 115. When you do good, do it with gladness; for if you do any good thing sorrowfully, the good is done from you rather than by you. 116. If the good do not pass over into the ways of the wicked, there is still a great division even among those who dwell together. It is therefore not men, who can be corrected by the example of better people, but the iniquity of men that must be fled. 117. God approves that innocence whereby a man becomes innocent not through fear of punishment, but through love of righteousness.

For he who does not sin out of fear, although he does no harm to the one he wishes to harm, yet does the greatest harm to himself; and though abstaining from the wicked deed, he is nonetheless guilty by his will alone. 118. Better is a humble confession amid evil deeds than a proud boasting amid good ones. 119. Through the malice of an evil man the good man is scourged, and through a servant a son is corrected. 120. As night does not extinguish the stars of heaven, so worldly iniquity does not darken the minds of the faithful who cling to the firmament of Holy Scripture. 121. For sinning, man has abundance from his own power; but for doing good he is not sufficient of himself unless he is justified by Him who alone is just. 122. Great is the labor of the good: to endure contrary ways of life; and whoever is not offended by them makes little progress.

For another's iniquity torments the righteous man as much as he himself withdraws from his own. 123. One does not approach God or recede from Him by intervals of place, but likeness makes one near, unlikeness makes one far. And it is exceeding misery to be far from that Good which is everywhere. 124. With God, servitude is always free, for it is not necessity that serves Him but love. 125. He who therefore wishes that no man should have to be endured, because (as he supposes) he profits much, by this very thing—that he does not bear with others—shows rather that he does not profit. 126. All the good we have, we have from our Maker. But if there is in us anything that we ourselves have made, by it we shall be condemned; whereas if it is what God has made, by it we shall be crowned.

127. The Word of God, through whom all things were made, foreordained the time in which He would take flesh, but did not yield to time so as to be changed into flesh. For man drew near to God; God did not depart from Himself. 128. Faith opens the way to the understanding; unbelief closes it. 129. The vice by which man was first overcome, this is the last he conquers. For when he has overcome all sins, there remains the danger lest the mind, conscious of doing well, should glory in itself rather than in the Lord. 130. The end of cares is the fulfillment of desires. And each one strains and strives toward this: to attain that in which he delights. It is therefore the part of the wise to seek that which makes blessed, not to love that which deceives.

131. As there are two offices of medicine—one by which sickness is healed, the other by which health is preserved—so there are two gifts of grace: one which takes away the lust of the flesh, the other which makes the virtue of the soul persevere. 132. Man's labor cannot be brought to an end unless he loves that which cannot be taken from him. 133. It is impossible for iniquity to wound first the righteous man against whom it aims, before the unjust heart from which it proceeds. 134. A visible miracle calls to enlightenment, but an invisible one enlightens him who, being called, comes. Therefore he recounts all the wonders of God who, believing in things visible, makes the passage to understanding things invisible.

135. Better is the cause of those who flee from the devil pursuing them, than of those who follow him going before; for it is more profitable to have him as an enemy than as a prince. 136. All depraved desires are gates of hell, through which one passes into death. He submits to its dominion who rejoices that he has obtained, for his full enjoyment, what he ruinously craved. 137. The tongues of flatterers bind souls in their sins. For one delights to do those things in which not only is no reprover feared, but a praiser is even heard. 138. A mind ill-conscious to itself, while it seems to suffer no punishment, believes that God does not judge—whereas to abuse God's patience and not to understand the kindness of Him who spares is already a great condemnation.

139. In a creature that sins by its own choice, nature is prior to vice—a vice so contrary to nature that it can only harm nature. It would therefore not be a vice to withdraw from God, were it not rather fitting for the nature whose vice this is to be with God. 140. God would create none, whether of angels or of men, whom He foreknew would be evil, unless He likewise knew to what good uses He would turn them, and would thus adorn the order of the ages, like a most beautiful poem, even with certain antitheses. 141. There are three things especially that we needed to have made known to us concerning the condition of the creature: who made it, by what means He made it, why He made it.

"God said," it is written, "Let there be light, and there was light; and God saw the light, that it was good." If then we ask who made it, it is God. If by what means He made it: He spoke, and it was made. If why He made it: because it is good. There is no author more excellent than God, no art more effective than the Word of God, no better cause than that good should be created by the Good. 142. There is a love by which is loved even what ought not to be loved; and this love he hates in himself who cherishes that love by which is loved what ought to be loved. For both can be in one man. And this is good for man: that, the one increasing by which we live well, the other should diminish by which we live ill, until he is healed to perfection, and all our living is changed into good.

143. The good of the rational or intellectual creature, by which it is blessed, is none other than God. This it has not from itself, since it was created from nothing, but from Him by whom it was created. For having obtained this, it becomes blessed; having lost it, wretched. 144. Vice can be neither in the supreme Good, nor anywhere except in some good. Therefore good things alone can exist somewhere; evil things alone, nowhere. For natures—even those vitiated from the beginning of an evil will—insofar as they are vitiated are evil, but insofar as they are natures are good. 145. It is not lawful to believe that God is affected one way when at rest and another when working, since indeed He is not to be said to be affected, as though something came to be in His nature that was not before.

For he who is affected suffers, and everything that suffers is mutable. Therefore neither idle rest nor laborious industry is to be thought of in God, since He knows how to act while resting, and to rest while acting. And what in His works is said to be earlier or later refers not to the One who acts, but to the things made. For His will is eternal and unchangeable, nor is it varied by any alternation of counsel. In it is at once whatever, in things to be created or ordered, either went before or follows. 146. It is not permitted that anyone should believe or say any nature whatsoever, however small, to have any creator but God.

For even if angels, whether commanded or permitted, apply their working to things that are generated in the world, they are no more the creators of living things than farmers are of crops and trees. 147. Of the first death of the body it can be said that to the good it is good, to the evil evil. But the second death, without doubt, as it belongs to no good, so is it good to none. 148. Death, even of the godly, is the penalty of sin. Yet it is called good to them, because they use well those things which are to them an end of temporal evils and a passage to eternal life. For as injustice makes evil use not only of evil things but also of good ones, so justice makes good use not only of good things but also of evil ones.

149. Those who, even without having received the laver of regeneration, die for the confession of Christ—it avails them as much for the abolishing of sins as if they had been washed in the font of baptism. 150. When man lives according to himself, not according to God, he is like the devil; for he ought to have lived not according to the angel but according to God—as the angel too should have—so as to stand in the truth and speak truth from Him, not the lie from himself. Hence it is not in vain that every sin is said to be a lie, since one does not sin except by that will which is contrary to truth, that is, to God. 151. The diversity of human affection arises from the diversity of will.

If the will is depraved, the affection will be restless with perverse ways; but if it is right, the affection of man will be not only not blameworthy but even praiseworthy. 152. The choice of the will is then truly free, when it does not serve vices and sins. Such was given by God; which, once lost, cannot be restored except by Him who could give it. Whence the Truth says: "If the Son shall make you free, then shall you be truly free." 153. It is good to have the heart on high—yet not toward itself, which is pride, but toward God, which is obedience. But by desiring more he becomes less, who, while he trusts that he is sufficient for himself, falls away from Him who truly suffices for him. 154. The blessed life, if it is not loved, is not possessed; further, if it is loved, it is also possessed.

It must of necessity be loved more excellently than all other things, since for its sake whatever else is to be loved is to be loved. But because no one can be blessed unless he loves it as it deserves, it follows that he should will it to be eternal. For it will then be truly blessed when it has no end. 155. Not all the evil indeed make this progress, that they become good; yet no one is good except from being evil. 156. The citizens of the earthly city are begotten by a nature vitiated by sin—they are vessels of wrath. But the citizens of the heavenly homeland are begotten by grace, freeing nature from sin—they are vessels of mercy. 157. The wrath of God is not a perturbation in Him, but the judgment by which punishment is inflicted upon sin.

His thinking, and His re-thinking of things to be changed, is an unchangeable reason. For God does not, as a man does, repent of any of His own deeds, since His decision concerning absolutely all things is as fixed as His foreknowledge is certain. 158. The enemies of the Church, by whatever error they are blinded or by malice depraved: if they receive power to afflict bodily, they exercise her patience; if they oppose only by thinking evil, they exercise her wisdom; and that even enemies may be loved, they exercise her benevolence. For to those who love God, all things work together unto good. 159. The end of good is not that by which it is consumed so as to be no more, but that by which it is perfected so as to be full.

And the end of evil is not that by which it ceases to be, but that to which it leads by harming. Hence there is one supreme good and another supreme evil: the one for the sake of which all other goods are to be sought (but itself for its own sake); the other for the sake of which all other evils are to be shunned (but itself for its own sake). 160. There is a nature in which there is no evil, or in which there can even be no evil. But there cannot be a nature in which there is no good. 161. Better is equanimity of soul than health of body. And it is more fitting for the unjust to grieve in his punishment than to have rejoiced in his crime. 162. In the precept of charity man finds three things to love: God, himself, and his neighbor.

And because he does not err in self-love who loves God, it follows that he should counsel his neighbor to love God—the neighbor whom he is commanded to love as himself. 163. Domestic peace is the ordered concord, in the matter of commanding and obeying, among those who dwell together. For those who counsel command—as the husband the wife, parents children, masters servants. And those for whom counsel is given obey—as wives husbands, children parents, servants masters. But in the house of one living justly by faith and still a pilgrim from that City, even those who command serve those whom they seem to command; for it is not from lust of dominion, but from the duty of counseling—not from the pride of ruling, but from the kindness of providing.

164. The name and condition of servitude was begotten by guilt, not by nature. And the first cause of this subjection is sin, for as it is written: "Everyone who commits sin is a servant of sin." Whence his state is better who serves a man than who serves his own lust. 165. True heads of households counsel their subjects, as sons, to worship and gain favor with God, longing to come to the heavenly home where the office of commanding will not be necessary. Until that is reached, fathers ought rather to bear with the fact that they rule, than servants with the fact that they serve. 166. A higher position, without which a people cannot be ruled—even if it must be held and administered as is fitting—is nonetheless unbecomingly coveted.

Whence let the love of truth seek holy leisure; let the necessity of love undertake just business. 167. As that which makes the flesh live is not from the flesh but above the flesh, so that which makes the soul live blessedly is not from the soul but above the soul. For as the soul is the life of the flesh, so God is the blessed life of man. 168. Our righteousness, although it is true, on account of the true end of good to which it is referred, is yet so great in this life that it consists rather in the remission of sins than in the perfection of virtues. 169. As long as vices are resisted, there is no full peace; for both those which resist are subdued in a perilous battle, and those which have been conquered are not yet triumphed over in secure repose, but are still pressed under anxious command.

170. The first death drives the unwilling soul out of the body; the second holds the unwilling soul in the body. From both deaths there is held in common this: that the soul suffers from its own body what it does not will. 171. In the unknown causes of the divine works we know something not a little, when we know that the Almighty does not act without reason, even where the weak human mind cannot render the reason. 172. In vain does a man promise himself, after this body, what he neglected to acquire in this body. 173. No one does good unwillingly, even though what he does be good, because the spirit of fear profits nothing where there is not the spirit of charity. 174. As in the powers of human society a greater power is set over a lesser for obedience, so is God set over all.

175. Blessed is he who loves God, and a friend in God, and an enemy for God's sake. For he alone loses no dear one, to whom all are dear in Him who is never lost by one who does not let Him go. 176. It is manifest that those things are good which are corruptible—things which could not be corrupted either if they were supreme goods or if they were not goods at all: for if they were supreme goods they would be incorruptible, and if they were no goods, there would be nothing in them to be corrupted. 177. Since God, immutably good, made all creatures good, and no nature at all exists except as created by Him, there is no substance of evil; for that which does not have God as its author does not exist.

And so the vice of corruption is nothing other than the disordered desire or action of the will. 178. As to an unsound palate food is a punishment which is sweet to a sound one, and to ailing eyes the light is hateful in which sound sight rejoices, so the justice of God displeases the wicked—to whom, were they subjected to it, they would not be diminished. 179. The sickness of the rational soul is when, delighted with lower goods, it desires the higher in part and in part does not desire them. And therefore it is divided into two wills; and when there is one, it is not whole, and that is present to the one which is lacking to the other. 180. For a kindly man it should be too little not to stir up or increase the enmities of others by evil speech, unless he has also striven to extinguish them by good speech.

181. The blessed life is joy in the truth, which is God. But to many the truth is hateful, which they refuse to hear when it teaches; and being unwilling to be deceived, they wish their own lies to seem the truth. To whom it is justly recompensed, that the truth itself be not hidden from them, but they themselves be hidden from the truth. 182. No one loves what he endures, even if he loves to endure; for strong patience is one thing, secure happiness another, nor do the labor of battle and the blessedness of victory belong to the same time. 183. Therefore very often in discourse there is the abundant poverty of human understanding, because inquiry speaks more than discovery, and the petition is longer than the obtaining.

184. True is the eternity of God, who alone has immortality, since He is changed by no kind or motion, nor is He of a temporal will. For a will is not immortal which is now one thing and now another. 185. One must not despair concerning the wicked, but rather supplicate more earnestly for them, that they may become good; for the number of the saints has ever been increased out of the number of the ungodly. 186. Let him who seeks peace from God be at peace with himself, lest one thing be in the profession of his mouth and another in the secret of his heart. For it profits nothing for that to be in the heart which is true, if that be spoken with the voice which is false; for the truth must be both believed and spoken. 187. Let not a man complain when, in those things which he justly possesses, he suffers some adversities.

For through the bitterness of lower things he is taught to love better ones, lest the traveler, journeying to the homeland, should love the inn instead of his home. 188. He runs well to the remission of sins who is displeased with himself. For before a judge just and merciful, he who accuses himself excuses himself. 189. In the tranquility of peace the doctrine of wisdom must be grasped, which amid the whirlwinds of tribulations is hardly recognized. Nor are the helps easily found in adversity which were not sought in peace. 190. To the invisible altar of God, which the unjust does not approach, he comes who, here being justified, approaches this present altar. For he will find his life there who has here discerned his own cause.

191. Christ is the end of the law, in whom the law of righteousness is not consumed but fulfilled. For all perfection is in Him, beyond whom there is nothing to which the hope of faith and charity may extend itself. 192. No punishments are heavier than those of an evil conscience; in which, when God is not had, consolation is not found, and therefore the Deliverer must be invoked, so that he whom tribulation has driven to confession, confession may lead to pardon. 193. What is graver than the sin of a sick man—the killing of his physician? Yet when this is forgiven in baptism, what is not forgiven? 194. The hearer of the word ought to be like the animals which, because they chew the cud, are called clean—so that he be not slothful to ponder those things which he has received into the belly of his heart.

And when he hears, let him be like one eating; but when he calls to memory the things heard, let him be like one chewing the cud. 195. The rational soul is mistress of its own body. But it will not rule the lower well unless it has served the higher—God—with the whole subjection of charity. 196. As the earth awaits rain and light from heaven, so man ought to await mercy and truth from God. 197. The good sons of the Church should rejoice that in the discernment of them the divine justice is not deceived. But let them not rashly divide those gathered together, for it is theirs to wish to gather, the Lord's to separate. 198. He is lord of the things he possesses who is ensnared by no covetousness. For he who is bound by love of earthly things possesses not, but is possessed.

199. The inheritance in which we are joint-heirs with Christ is not diminished by the multitude of sons, nor made narrower by the great number of co-heirs. But it is as great for many as for few, as great for individuals as for all. 200. Felicity ought never to be secure, because prosperous things are more perilous to the soul than adverse things to the body. For prosperity first corrupts, that adversity may find something to break. 201. The first salvation is to turn away from sin; the second is not to despair of pardon. For he destroys himself forever who, before a merciful judge, does not have recourse to the remedies of penance. 202. The good are hidden, because their good is in secret.

For what they love is neither visible nor corporeal; and their merits are as much set in the hidden place as their rewards. 203. None of the good has an enemy except the evil one, who is permitted to exist for this end: that he may either be corrected, or the good man be exercised through him. Therefore one must pray for enemies, that either their conversion may be obtained, or the imitation of divine goodness be found in us. 204. The vigor of the Christian faith is roused at three times: evening, morning, and noon. For in the evening the Lord was on the cross, in the morning in the resurrection, at noon in the ascension. One pertains to the patience of Him who was slain, another to the life of Him who was raised again, the third to the glory of His majesty as He sits at the Father's right hand.

205. To this end men are agitated by tribulations: that the vessels of election may be emptied of wickedness and filled with grace. 206. A man can lose temporal goods unwillingly; but he never loses eternal ones except willingly. 207. Christ is the end of the faithful. When the runner's intention has reached Him, it has nothing that it can further find, but it has One in whom it ought to remain. 208. Better is the sorrow of one suffering injustice than the gladness of one doing injustice. 209. The mind must be recalled from things past which are recalled with a certain delight, lest, lust creeping in, we return in heart to Egypt. 210. It is good to be conquered by the truth. Let the truth, unto correction, overcome the willing; for it will overcome even the unwilling.

211. Sins, whether small or great, cannot be unpunished, since they are punished either by man repenting or by God judging. But the divine vengeance ceases if human conversion runs ahead. For God loves to spare those who confess, and not to judge those who judge themselves. 212. No wretched person is delivered from however great a misery, except him whom God's mercy goes before. 213. He who faithfully supplicates God for the necessities of this life is both mercifully heard and mercifully not heard. For the physician knows better than the sick what is useful for the weak. But if he asks that which God both commands and promises, what he begs will assuredly be done; for charity receives what truth prepares.

214. The advancement of the faithful does not come about without temptation. Nor does anyone become known to himself except by the test of trial; nor will he be crowned unless he has conquered; nor will he conquer unless he has fought. And who fights, except one who has an enemy and resists temptation? 215. Foolish is he who does not believe the announcements of the prophets concerning the few things that remain, when he sees so many fulfilled which were not yet, when they were foretold as to be fulfilled. 216. Those who worship idols are like those who in dreams see empty things. But if their soul awakens, it understands by whom it was made, and does not worship what it itself has made.

217. All the parts of our body, which when torn apart, or rotted, or even burned, are dissolved into certain ashes, cannot perish for God. For they pass into those elements of the world from which they were taken by that hand which holds all things. 218. Those who thirst for God ought to thirst with their whole substance—that is, both in soul and in flesh; for God gives His bread also to the soul, that is, the word of truth, and furnishes the flesh with what is necessary, since He feeds both who made both. 219. He who, idle and at rest, does not think of God—how, amid many acts and laborious business, will he be able to think of Him? Let the faithful man therefore meditate on the things of God when he is at leisure, and seek a store of doing well, lest he fail in action.

220. Feigned innocence is not innocence; feigned equity is not equity; rather sin is doubled, in which there is both iniquity and pretense. 221. A soul withdrawing from the light of righteousness, the more it seeks what it may find against righteousness, the more it is repelled from the light of truth, and is plunged into darkness. 222. Two loves make two cities in the whole world. Love of God makes Jerusalem; love of the age makes Babylon. Let each one therefore ask himself what he loves, and he will find of which he is a citizen. 223. Every precept of God is light to one who loves; nor is it for any other reason understood to be said:

"My burden is light"—except that He gives the Holy Spirit, through whom charity is poured out in our hearts, so that by loving we may do freely what he who does it through fear does servilely; nor is he a friend of the right, since he would prefer, if it could be done, that what is right were not commanded. 224. The fullness of the law is charity, because through charity the law is fulfilled, not through fear. For the commandments of righteousness are fulfilled to the degree that the spirit of grace assists. 225. There are no good works except those done through faith and love, because the one without the other bears the fruit of no virtue. 226. From what God formed him, Adam was changed—but for the worse, through his own iniquity.

From that which iniquity worked, the faithful are changed—but for the better, through the grace of God. That change, then, was of the first transgressor; this change is of the right hand of the Most High. 227. In the present life both temporal delights are sweet and temporal tribulations are bitter. But who would not drink the cup of tribulation, fearing the fire of Gehenna? And who would not despise the sweetness of the age, longing for the goods of eternal life? 228. In the divine Trinity there is so great a unity of substance that it holds equality and admits no plurality. 229. All things were made through the Word, and without Him was made nothing.

Since therefore all natures were made through the Word of God, iniquity was not made through Him, because iniquity is no substance. And sin is not a nature, but a vice of nature, desiring that which is not of its own order. 230. There was taken away from the devil, bound by his own iniquity, not what he had as his own, but what he had seized as another's. For in taking away the things that had perished from his great house, Christ did not commit theft but recovered theft. 231. Then does the depth of iniquity shut in a man, when he not only lies immersed in sins, but also, willing to defend them, loses the access of confession.

232. When God permits or causes us to be troubled by some tribulation, even then He is merciful, because, in stirring up faith and deferring His help, He does not deny aid but moves desire. 233. Christian rich men, if they are true Christians, are altogether poor, and in comparison with the heavenly goods which they hope for, they count all their gold as sand; for each one has his riches there where he has his delight. 234. The faith of Abraham is the seed of Abraham. Accordingly, those who belong to the likeness of his believing, they belong to the promise of the heirs. 235. Let no one of the faithful, however much he has advanced, say: "It is enough for me."

For he who shall say it has remained behind and stuck in the way before the end—he who has not persevered unto the end. 236. There is no place except in God, nor is there anywhere to flee from Him except to Him. He who wishes to escape Him offended, let him take refuge in Him appeased. 237. There are two lives: one of the body, the other of the soul. As the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of the soul. And just as, if the soul forsakes it, the body dies, so the soul dies if God forsakes it. 238. From whom man has it to be, with Him he has it to be well. 239. God perfectly and evidently showed how great a good obedience is, when He forbade man, set in paradise, from a thing that was not evil.

There obedience alone could hold the palm; disobedience alone fell into punishment. 240. Sometimes God instructs the good through the wicked, and through the temporal power of those to be condemned He exercises the discipline of those to be delivered. 241. With the mercy of God the confession of the penitent avails very much. The sinner by confessing makes Him propitious, whom by denying he does not make ignorant. 242. The virtue of the humble is not to glory in knowledge, since it is common to all. As the use of light, so is the participation of truth. 243. He is not without royal power who has learned to command his body reasonably. For truly he is a ruler of the earth who governs his own flesh by the laws of discipline.

244. As regards the works that are done outwardly, both he who fears punishment and he who loves justice do not act against the commandment. And therefore they are indeed alike in deed, but unlike in heart; similar in their action, dissimilar in their will. 245. A man worships that which he loves. Hence, because God is found to be greater and better than all things, He is to be loved above all, that He may be worshipped. 246. The heart is right with God when God is sought for God's own sake. 247. It springs from benevolence, not from malice, when the just man rejoices that vengeance has gone forth upon the wicked; for it is not the destruction of the sinner that pleases him—whom he wished to be corrected—but the justice of God, by which he knows that many can be converted.

248. He does not overcome evil with good who is good on the surface and evil in the depths, sparing in deed yet raging in heart, gentle in hand yet cruel in will. 249. To every good work love leads, and the fear of God. To every sin love leads, and the fear of the world. Therefore, in order that good may be laid hold of and evil shunned, one must discern what ought both to be loved and to be feared. 250. No misfortune breaks the man whom no prosperity corrupts. 251. The rich man who is such that he despises in himself whatever it is by which pride is wont to be puffed up, is poor before God. 252. The steps of ascent to God are the affections of piety. Your journey is your will. By loving you draw near, by neglecting you draw away.

Set upon the earth, you are joined to God if you love the things that are dear to God. 253. God, when something is wrongly asked of Him, is angry by granting it, and shows mercy by not granting it. 254. It is incredible that a man does not lie to avoid being caught, who lies in order to catch another. 255. Although everyone who lies wishes to conceal what is true, yet not everyone who wishes to conceal the truth lies. For very often we hide the truth not by deceiving but by being silent. For the Lord did not lie when He said: 'I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.' 256. In the first man it became plain what man's free will availed unto death; in the second, what God's help availed unto life. For the first man was nothing but man, but the second man was God and man.

Therefore sin came about by forsaking God; justice does not come about without God. 257. The letter of the law, which teaches that one must not sin, kills if the quickening Spirit is absent. For it makes sin to be known rather than avoided, and therefore to be increased rather than diminished, since to evil concupiscence is added even the transgression of the law. 258. If God's commandment is fulfilled out of fear of punishment, not out of love of justice, it is fulfilled in a servile manner, not in a free one. And therefore it is not truly fulfilled at all. For it is not good fruit which does not proceed from the root of charity. 259. The law of God is according to nature; and when men do the things of the law, they do them naturally, the vice being overcome which had taken away from nature the safeguard of the law.