He said to me: Take away from yourself every evil desire, and put on the good and reverent desire; for clothed with this desire you shall hate the evil desire and shall bridle it as you wish.
For the evil desire is wild and hardly tamed. For it is fearsome, and by its wildness it greatly consumes men; especially if a servant of God falls into it and is not understanding, he is dreadfully consumed by it; and it consumes such people, who do not have the garment of the good desire, but are entangled in this age. These, then, it delivers over to death.
What sort of works, I said, lord, are those of the evil desire that deliver men over to death? Make them known to me, that I may keep away from them. Hear, he said, by what works the evil desire puts to death the servants of God.
First of all is desire for another's wife or husband, and for the extravagance of wealth, and for many vain foods, and for drunken revels, and for many other foolish luxuries; for all luxury is foolish and empty to the servants of God.
These desires, then, are wicked, putting to death the servants of God; for this evil desire is a daughter of the devil. One must, then, keep away from the evil desires, that by keeping away you may live to God.
But you, put on the desire of righteousness, and having armed yourself with the fear of the Lord, resist them; for the fear of God dwells in the good desire. If the evil desire sees you armed with the fear of God and resisting it, it will flee far from you and will no longer appear to you, fearing your weapons.
You, then, having conquered and been crowned against it, come to the desire of righteousness, and delivering to it the victory which you received, serve it as it itself wishes. If you serve the good desire and submit yourself to it, you shall be able to have dominion over the evil desire and to subdue it as you wish.
I should like, I said, lord, to know in what ways I must serve the good desire. Hear, he said: work righteousness and virtue, truth and the fear of the Lord, faith and meekness, and whatever good things are like these. Working these you shall be a well-pleasing servant of God and shall live to him; and everyone who serves the good desire shall live to God.
So he completed the twelve commandments, and said to me: "You have these commandments; walk in them and exhort those who hear you, so that their repentance may be pure for the remaining days of their life.
Carry out diligently this ministry which I give you, and you will accomplish much; for you will find favor among those who are about to repent, and they will heed your words. For I will be with you, and I will compel them to obey you."
I said to him: "Lord, these commandments are great and good and glorious, and able to gladden the heart of the man who is able to keep them. But I do not know whether these commandments can be kept by a man, for they are exceedingly hard."
He answered and said to me: "If you set it before yourself that they can be kept, you will keep them easily and they will not be hard; but if it has already entered your heart that they cannot be kept by a man, you will not keep them.
And now I say to you: if you do not keep these commandments but neglect them, you will have no salvation, neither you nor your children nor your household, since you have already judged in yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by a man."
And he spoke these things to me very angrily, so that I was confounded and greatly afraid of him; for his appearance was so changed that a man could not endure his wrath.
But seeing me utterly troubled and confounded, he began to speak to me more gently and cheerfully, and said: "Foolish, senseless, and double-minded man, do you not perceive the glory of God, how great and mighty and wonderful it is, that he created the world for the sake of man, and subjected all his creation to man, and gave him all authority to rule over everything that is under heaven?
If then," he says, "man is lord of all the creatures of God and rules over all, can he not also master these commandments? Indeed," he says, "the man who has the Lord in his heart can master all and every one of these commandments.
But for those who have the Lord on their lips while their heart is hardened, and who are far from the Lord, to those these commandments are hard and impassable.
Set therefore your Lord in your heart, you who are empty and frivolous in the faith, and you will know that nothing is easier than these commandments, nor sweeter, nor more gentle.
Turn back, you who walk in the commandments of the devil—those that are difficult and bitter and savage and licentious—and do not fear the devil, for there is no power in him against you.
For I will be with you, the angel of repentance, who has mastery over him. The devil has only fear, but his fear has no force; do not fear him, then, and he will flee from you."
I said to him: "Lord, hear me in a few words." "Say," he says, "what you wish." "Man, Lord," I say, "is eager to keep the commandments of God, and there is no one who does not ask of the Lord that he may be strengthened in his commandments and be subject to them; but the devil is hard and oppresses them."
"He cannot," he says, "oppress the servants of God who hope in him with their whole heart. The devil can wrestle against them, but he cannot throw them down. If, then, you resist him, he will be defeated and flee from you in shame. But as many as are empty," he says, "fear the devil as though he had power.
When a man has filled a good many jars with fine wine, and among those jars a few are partly empty, he comes to the jars and does not examine the full ones, for he knows they are full; but he examines the partly empty ones, fearing lest they have turned sour. For empty jars quickly turn the wine to vinegar, and the pleasantness of the wine is lost.
So also the devil comes to all the servants of God to test them. As many as are full in the faith have stood firmly against him, and he departs from them, having no place to enter. Then he goes to the empty ones, and finding a place he enters into them, and works in them whatever he wishes, and they become his slaves.
But I say to you, I the angel of repentance: do not fear the devil. For I was sent," he says, "to be with you who repent with your whole heart, and to strengthen you in the faith.
Believe therefore in God, you who because of your sins have despaired of your life and add sin to sin and weigh down your life; for if you turn to the Lord with your whole heart and work righteousness for the remaining days of your life, and serve him rightly according to his will, he will bring healing to your former sins, and you will have power to master the works of the devil. As for the threat of the devil, do not fear it at all, for he is as feeble as the sinews of a dead man.
I said to him: "Lord, now I have been strengthened in all the ordinances of the Lord, because you are with me; and I know that you will shatter all the power of the devil, and we shall master him and prevail over all his works. And I hope, Lord, that I am able, by the strengthening of the Lord, to keep these commandments which you have commanded."
"You will keep them," he says, "if your heart becomes pure toward the Lord; and all will keep them, as many as cleanse their hearts from the vain desires of this present age, and they will live to God."