Works 1 part 2/5

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.