屬靈講道集 第 1 章 第 8/36 段

And it happens that the unlearned man is spiritually regenerated and is transformed into wisdom, and hidden mysteries are made known to him, even though he is unlearned by nature.

...piety, and God accepts him; yet the nature of his hardness remains, and God is well pleased with him.

Another is of good character, gentle, good; he gives himself to God, and God accepts him.

since the nature of the whole of Adam is mutable, toward the good and toward evil—receptive indeed of evil, but, if it wills, not compelled to bring it to completion.

Just as there is a little tablet that is written upon variously:

you willed, you wrote; again you erased—thus the tablet receives every kind of writing. So too the hard man gave his will to God, turned toward the good, and was accepted by God; and the gentle man turned toward the good, and was accepted by God—in this way, that God might show his own compassion; he accepts all, every purpose of will.

For indeed, into whatever city the apostles entered, they spent some time there, and healed some of those who were afflicted, but not others.

Likewise also, some of the dead they raised to life, but others they did not.

Now the apostles wished to raise all the dead to life and to bring all the afflicted to health, yet their will was not entirely fulfilled—for they were not permitted to do all that they wished.

Likewise also Paul, when he was seized by the ethnarch: if the grace present with him had so willed, he could have made the ethnarch turn to stone and the wall be torn apart—being a man who had the Comforter—yet the apostle is let down through a basket. And where then was the grace present with him? These things happened by divine economy: in some matters they were to perform signs and wonders, in others to be weak, so that in these the faith of believers and unbelievers might be distinguished, and the will and the free choice might be tested, and it might be made manifest, in the weaker matters, whether some were not scandalized.

For if the apostles had done all that they wished, they would have brought men to piety by a kind of compelling power through the signs, and thus free choice would have been abolished, and there would no longer be faith and unbelief.

For Christianity is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

However, what is written concerning Job is not a simple matter—how Satan asked to have him.

For he was not able, without permission, to do anything of himself.

But what does the devil say to the Lord?

"Give him into my hands—surely he will curse you to your face." So it is now too: it is the same Adam, and the same God, and the same Satan.

So then, as long as someone obtains the help of God and lives by grace and is eager, Satan begs to have him, and says to the Lord:

"Since you help him and support him, he serves you."

"Let him go, hand him over to me—surely he will curse you to your face." So then, while he still pleads for the soul, grace withdraws, and the soul is handed over to temptations.

Then the devil comes, bringing countless evils—despondency, despair, wicked reasonings—he afflicts, that he may weaken the soul and estrange it from hope in God.

But the prudent soul, though in the midst of evils and in affliction, does not despair, but says to itself: "Hold fast what you hold; whatever countless temptations he may bring upon you, hold fast, and say:"

"Even if I die, I will not let him go." And then, if the man endures to the end, the Lord begins to speak with Satan:

"You see how many evils and afflictions you have brought upon him, and yet he has not obeyed you, but serves me." Then the devil is put to shame and has nothing to say.

For indeed, in the case of Job, if Satan had known that, falling into temptations, Job would endure and not be overcome, he would not have asked for him, lest he be put to shame all the more. So also now, in the case of those who endure afflictions and temptations, Satan is put to shame and repents, since he gained nothing.

The Lord, then, begins to speak a word to him:

"Behold, I gave permission; behold, I handed him over to you; behold, I allowed you to tempt him."

"What were you able to accomplish? Did he not obey you?" Question:

Does Satan then know all our thoughts and reasonings? Answer:

Does he not know your thoughts, since he is of seven thousand years' standing? But we do not say that he knows, before testing a man, what the man intends to do.

For his testing is [only] a testing — he does not know whether the soul will obey or not obey, until the soul gives its will over to him as a slave.

Nor again do we say that the devil knows all thoughts and reflections.

As it were, suppose there is a tree with many branches — to speak by way of illustration, one can hold two or three branches, but cannot hold the rest — so too the soul has many members and many branches; accordingly there are some branches of thoughts and reflections which Satan holds, and there are other thoughts and reflections... which Satan cannot hold.

For in one part, the portion belonging to sin is stronger, welling up; but in another part, the man's own reasoning receives help and redemption from God, and speaks against evil.

And in one part he is held fast, while in another he has [his own] will, and comes fervently to God; and Satan knows and sees that this works against him, yet he cannot restrain the man from coming to God, since the man has the will to cry out to God.

He has natural fruits of loving and drawing near to God... of believing, of seeking to draw near.

For indeed, in visible things, the farmer works the land, but he still needs rain and showers from above.

For if it does not rain from above, the farmer profits nothing by working the land; so also in the spiritual realm, matters must be understood in terms of two agents.

Therefore man must, of his own free choice, cultivate his land and labor in it.

For God seeks man's toil and labor and work.

But if the heavenly cloud and the rain of grace do not appear from above, the farmer's toiling profits nothing.

And this is the mark of Christianity: however much one has labored and whatever righteous deeds one has performed, one ought to regard oneself as though one had done nothing.

Though fasting, I have not [truly] fasted; though praying, I have not [truly] prayed; though persevering in prayer, I have not [truly] persevered; I am still a beginner in ascetic practice and labor.

And though you are righteous before God, say:

"I am not righteous, nor do I labor; every day I am [only] beginning, I am a rejected man." But one ought to have, day by day, the hope and the joy and the expectation of the coming kingdom and redemption:

"If today I have not been redeemed, tomorrow... I shall be redeemed."

For indeed, the one who plants a vineyard, even before beginning the labor, has joy within himself and hope, and sketches out in his mind and reckons up the profits, though the wine has not yet come to be, and thus takes upon himself the toil.

For it is hope and expectation that make him labor eagerly, and meanwhile he scatters many expenses out of his household; so too the one who builds a house, and the one who farms, first spends much of his own resources because of the hope of future income.

And indeed, if one does not have before his eyes the joy and the hope that he is going to obtain redemption and life, he cannot endure the afflictions, nor take upon himself the burden and the narrow way.

For the hope and joy that abide with him make him labor eagerly and endure the afflictions.

But just as it is not easy for a firebrand to escape from the fire, so neither can the soul escape from the fire of death, except through much toil.

For the most part, Satan, under the pretext of good thoughts — namely that by this a man can please God — insinuates himself into the soul, and thus stealthily leads it astray into subtle and plausible-seeming notions; and being thus deceived, the man does not know how to discern, and so... he falls into the snare and destruction of the devil.

But the most crucial task for the athlete and the combatant is this: that one, entering into his own heart, wage war against Satan, and hate him, and deny his own soul, and be moved to anger and rebuke the desires present within, and set himself in opposition, and, wrestling against his own thoughts, fight against himself.

Outwardly you keep your body from corruption and fornication, but inwardly you commit adultery before God and fornicate in your thoughts — it profits nothing;

you have gained nothing by keeping your body a virgin.

As it were, suppose there is a young woman and a young man, and the latter flatters her deceitfully and corrupts her — then she becomes abhorrent to the bridegroom, since she has committed adultery; so too the incorporeal soul, having intercourse with the serpent lurking within — the evil spirit — fornicates away from God.

Everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart.

For there is fornication accomplished through the body, and there is fornication of the soul in communion with Satan.

For the soul itself is by nature communal, and is either sister of demons, or again of God and the angels; and so, if it commits adultery with Satan, it becomes useless to Christ, the heavenly bridegroom.

Question: Does Satan ever rest, so that a man is set free from the war; or, as long as he lives, does he have war? Answer:

Satan never rests from warring, as long as one lives in this age and bears the flesh.

But when the fiery darts of the devil are quenched, then indeed nothing harms the man any longer, even if Satan comes to wage war. For, to give an illustration, there is someone who is a friend of the king and has a lawsuit against an adversary;

when he has the king favorably disposed toward him as his own friend, one who helps him, and he manages to pass through all the ranks and grades and become a friend of the king, what further harm can he suffer from anyone? For it is plain to see that there are many who receive rations and gifts from the king, and serve him.

What loss do they suffer, when they procure and receive so much from the king? So too Christians: even if wars come for a time, yet they have taken up their dwelling in the Godhead, and have put on the power and rest from on high, and give no thought to the war.

For just as the Lord took up the body, leaving behind every rule and authority, so too Christians put on the Holy Spirit and are at rest.

And even if Satan comes and knocks from outside, yet these are armored within by the power of the Lord, and give no thought to Satan.

As there in the wilderness he tempted the Lord for forty days — what harm did that do him, that Satan approached the body from outside? For he was God incarnate.

So it is with Christians: even if they are tempted from outside, yet within they are filled with the Godhead, and are in no way wronged.

But these are the measures belonging to that state:

if one has attained to the perfect love of the Lord, and has arrived at the fullness of the Godhead.

But if one has obtained grace only in part, he still has war within.

At one hour he rests in prayer, at another hour he stands in affliction and war.

And since he is still an infant, the two aspects train him for the wars — both the light and the darkness, and the rest and the affliction well up within him.

They pray in rest, and again at another hour they are in tumult.

Do you not hear what the apostle says:

"Though I have all things, though I give up my body to be burned, and though I speak with the tongues of angels, but do not have love, I am nothing."

For these are [merely] exhortatory gifts, and those who stand only in them are infants, even if they are in the light.

For other brothers came to such measures and had gifts of healing and revelations of prophecy; and since they had not attained to perfect love, where the bond of perfection is, war came upon them, and, growing negligent, they fell.

But if one attains to love, he is thereafter bound and taken captive into grace.

But if one comes near to the measure of love by only a little, yet does not attain to being bound in that very love, such a one is under fear and under war... and under [the risk of] falling, and if he does not guard himself, Satan casts him down.

For thus have some gone astray.

For when grace came upon them, they supposed that they had attained perfection, and they said:

"We no longer have need [of anything]." But the Lord has neither end nor a point of being fully comprehended; and [true] Christians do not dare to say, "We have attained," but rather remain humbled, seeking night and day.

Learning, in visible things, is without end, and no one knows this except the scholar who has partly learned letters; so also here, no one knows that [this reality] is incomprehensible and immeasurable, except the one who has tasted it in part:

and it is from that very portion which they have tasted that they come to know their own weakness.

If someone who knows only a little learning goes to a village where there are unlettered folk, he is glorified by them as a scholar, since they are villagers who altogether do not know how to judge such things.

But this same person who knows only a little, if he goes to a city where there are orators and scholars, does not dare to appear before them or to speak;

for he is judged by the scholars to be a mere rustic.

Question: If a man is engaged in war, having the two aspects in his soul — that of sin and that of grace — and it happens that he departs from the world, to which of the two parts, being possessed by both, does he go? Answer:

Wherever the mind has its aim, and wherever it loves, there it also goes.

Only, if affliction and war come upon you, you must speak against it and hate it.

For the coming of the war is not up to you, but the hating of it is up to you.

And then the Lord sees your mind, that you are struggling and that you love the Lord with your whole soul; and it is not difficult for the Lord, in a single hour, to separate death from your soul, and to receive you into his bosom, and to snatch you into the light.

For he snatches you in the twinkling of an hour out of the mouth of darkness, and immediately transfers your soul into his kingdom.

For with God, all things are easy to accomplish in the twinkling of an hour, provided only that you have love toward him.

For God has need of man's labor, and man has need of God's labor, since the soul is joined in communion with the Godhead.

And as we have often said in the parable of the farmer: laboring and casting the seed into the ground, he must also await the rain from above; for if clouds do not appear and winds do not blow, the farmer's toil profits nothing.

For the seed lies bare [and exposed]. So take this up also with regard to spiritual matters.

If a man remains only in his own labor, and does not receive something foreign to his own nature, such labors cannot render fruits worthy of the Lord.

What, then, is the work of man? To renounce, to go out from the world, to persevere in prayer, to keep vigil, to love God and the brethren.

But if he remains in his own work alone and does not hope to receive anything else, and if the winds of the Holy Spirit do not breathe upon the soul, and if heavenly clouds do not appear and rain does not come down from heaven and water the soul, a man cannot bring forth fruits worthy of the Lord.

For it is written that the farmer, when he sees a branch bearing fruit, prunes it so that it may bring forth more, but the one not bearing fruit he uproots and gives over to be burned in fire.

Yet this is the part of man: whether he fasts or prays or does something good, that he ascribe his own works to God, saying this:

"If God had not empowered me, I would not have been able to fast, or to pray, or to go out from the world." And thus God, seeing your good will—that what you do by nature you ascribe to him—in turn grants you his own spiritual things, the divine and heavenly things, and gives you back your own things as well.

What, then, are the fruits of the Spirit? Exultation, gladness—

But since there are natural fruits resembling these—love, faith, prayer—distinguish for us how the natural ones are, and how those of the Holy Spirit are. Answer:

The things you do of your own are indeed good and acceptable to God, but they are not pure.

For instance, you love God, but your love is changeable;

God comes and gives you an unchangeable, heavenly love.

God gives you pure prayer in spirit and in truth.

Yet for the most part the earth of itself brings forth thorns, and the farmer digs, works diligently, sows seed, and the thorns, though not sown, spring up and multiply.

For after the transgression it was said:

"Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth for you."

Again the farmer labors upon the earth, digs up the thorns, yet they still multiply.

Take this in a spiritual sense.

For after the transgression the earth of the heart brings forth thorns and thistles; the farmer labors, toils, and still the thorns of the unclean spirits rise up.

Then the Spirit itself helps the weakness of men, and the Lord casts heavenly seed into that same earth and works it; and when the seed has fallen, the thistles and thorns spring up.

Again, man himself and the Lord work upon the soul, and still the evil and unclean spirits well up and spring up there, until harvest comes and grace increases and the thorns are withered by the heat of the sun.

For even if evil is present, it does not thereby lord it over the man, or have free range.

For the tares and thorns can choke the tender shoots, but once harvest arrives, after the fruits have dried and ripened, the tares do no harm to the wheat.

For indeed, if there happen to be thirty bushels of clean grain, and you mix into it as it were one measure of tares, what does it matter? For it is buried by the abundance of the wheat.

If God's gift and grace abound toward man, and he is rich toward the Lord, then even though evil is present to some small degree, it can do the man no harm, nor does it have any strength or free range against him.

For the whole coming and providence of the Lord came for this purpose: to call back what was lost, and to bring to life again what was dead, through the cross.

For he condemned death in the flesh.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin, so that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, and might set free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their life long.

You see, the coming of the Lord took place for the sake of those who were enslaved, subject to death, and made subordinate, that he might make them conquerors over death.

That man is a great and precious vessel before God.

Know, then, your own dignity and nobility, how precious you are, O man: brother of Christ, friend of the King, bride of the heavenly Bridegroom.

The one, then, who has been able to recognize the dignity of his own soul is able also to recognize the power and the mysteries of the Godhead;

since it is through the power of God that he perceives his own fall.

But just as he himself passed through sufferings and the cross, and so was glorified and sat down at the right hand, so must you also suffer with him and be crucified with him, and thus go forth and sit down together with him, and be joined to the body of Christ, and reign together with him always in that age—for if indeed you suffer with him, it is that you may also be glorified together with him.

For it is not right that the Bridegroom, who came for your sake, should suffer and be crucified, while the bride, for whose sake the Bridegroom came, wanders about aimlessly and remains dissipated.

For just as, among visible things, a harlot gives herself to everyone disorderly, so also the soul has given itself over to every demon for communion, and is corrupted by the spirits.

For there are those who have sin and evil by choice, and there are those who have it against their choice.

What, then, is it to have evil by choice, and what to have it against one's choice? Those who have evil by choice are those who give over their own will to wickedness, taking pleasure in it and being friendly with it,

and wage no war against it in their thoughts.

But those who have evil against their choice are those who have the opposing power warring in their members, according to the Apostle, and there is the misty power and the veil; but in their thoughts they do not agree, nor take pleasure, nor obey, but speak against it, act against it, resist it, and are angry with themselves;

these are far better and more honorable before God than those who, by their own choice, give over their will to wickedness and take pleasure in it.

It is as if there were a king who found a poor woman clothed in rags, and was not ashamed, but took away her filthy garments and washed away her filth, and adorned her with bright garments, and made her a partaker of the kingdom and of his table, and shared the banquet with her—so also the Lord found the soul wounded and stricken, and gave it healing medicine, and stripped from it the filthy garments and the shamefulness of wickedness, and clothed it with royal garments, heavenly garments of the Godhead, luminous and glorious, and set a crown upon it, and made it a partaker of the royal, heavenly table, unto joy and exultation.

It is as if there were a paradise with fruit-bearing trees there, all fragrant, and there are many delightful places there, all beautiful, and they are filled there with fragrance and rest, and whoever goes there rejoices, exults, and is at rest—so also do souls become in the Kingdom.

They are all wholly in joy and peace and gladness—kings, lords, and gods.

King of those who reign, and Lord of those who rule.

Christianity, then, is no ordinary thing.

For this mystery is great.

Know, then, your nobility—that you have been called to a royal dignity, a chosen race, a holy priesthood.

The mystery of Christianity, then, is foreign to this world.

For the visible glory of the king and his wealth are earthly, corruptible, and passing away, but that kingdom and that wealth are divine things, heavenly and glorious things, never to be dissolved.

For they reign together with the heavenly King in the heavenly Church;

for he himself is the firstborn from the dead, and they too are firstborn.

Consider, then, your own dignity.

Gabriel and Michael are spirits that exist within limits, and they minister to the saints.

"Are they not all," it says, "ministering spirits, sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?"

But Christians, though chosen and approved before God, are, in their own eyes, disapproved and rejected; and this is natural and fixed in them—to regard themselves as nothing.

Do they not know that they have acquired what they did not have, and have received something foreign to their nature, and are making progress? Answer:

I say to you, that they are approved, and are making progress, and have acquired what they did not have.

But such persons, being in discernment, are taught by grace itself to be so by nature—not to hold their own soul as precious.

Being, then, in progress, they are precious before God, but in their own eyes they are not.

They are making progress in the knowledge of God, and yet are as those who know nothing; and before God they are rich, but in their own eyes they are poor.

For just as the Lord, through humility, taking the form of a servant, conquered the devil, so from the beginning the serpent, through pride and self-conceit, overthrew Adam.

And even now that same serpent, lurking within the hearts, casts down and destroys the race of Christians through self-conceit.

...to condemn, and thus they fall down into the lower parts of the earth.

For that same serpent who cast Adam out through pride, who said, "You shall be as gods," he it is who suggests pride within the hearts;

"You have grown rich, you have no need to learn, you are blessed." But there are others, in worldly matters, who come into wealth and gain much produce, and these, having discernment, restrain themselves and do not boast or become puffed up, but remain the same;

for they know that after this income comes a season of scarcity for them.

And again, when they fall into loss and scarcity, they do not grieve, but remain the same;

for they know that abundance follows once again in its turn.

And, having been long trained in these things, they are not taken by surprise; neither are they puffed up in income and abundance, nor, if loss comes upon them, are they taken by surprise.

For the matter of Christianity is of this kind:

It is a true taste, food and drink; it is truly to eat and to drink through power and operation.

It is as if there were a spring, and if someone thirsty there begins to drink, but then in the meantime someone pulls him away and does not let him be satisfied as much as he wishes — thereafter he is inflamed all the more, having tasted the sweetest drink, because no one allowed him to be filled, and he seeks it all the more eagerly; so also with regard to the spiritual, one tastes and partakes of heavenly food, then in the meantime it withdraws and does not permit him to be filled.

The Lord knows the weakness of man, that he is quickly puffed up.

For this reason he withdraws and permits man to be exercised and afflicted.

For if you receive a little and no one can bear you, but you are already puffed up, how much more, if someone let you be filled, would no one be able to bear you.

But God, knowing your weakness, dispenses you into afflictions, so that you may become humble and more earnest in seeking God.

For indeed, in worldly terms, a man found a purse of gold, and out of frivolity began to proclaim:

"I found a purse, I am rich!" Then the one who had lost it heard of it by report, and got it back.

And again, another rich man, having gone off, grew arrogant and kicked over the traces; he began to insult everyone and to exalt himself over some, whereupon the king, hearing of it, confiscated his possessions.

So it is also with regard to the spiritual.

If some taste a little rest, they do not know how to manage it, but lose even that which they received;

for sin tempts them and darkens their mind.

"If I have all knowledge and all prophecy, and if I speak with the tongues of angels, but do not have love, am I nothing?" Answer.

We ought not to understand it in this way, that he is nothing; but rather, in comparison to that love which is perfect, these gifts are partial, and he who remains in these measures, if he grows negligent, it happens that he falls; but he who has love is incapable of falling.

But I tell you of men whom I myself have seen, who, having come into all the gifts and being partakers of the Spirit, yet not having attained to the perfect love, fell.

For a certain man of noble birth, having renounced the world, sold his possessions and freed his slaves, being prudent and understanding.

Thereafter he became renowned among all for his dignified life.

But this man, meanwhile, having formed a high opinion of himself and been puffed up, in the end fell into debaucheries and filthiness and countless evils.

Another gave his body over to persecution, and being a confessor, afterward, when peace came, he was released and became renowned — and his eyelids were damaged, because he had been tortured with smoke.