屬靈講道集 第 1 章 第 9/36 段

This man, then, being glorified and invited to prayer gatherings, would take from the food set before him and give it to his servant boy, and his mind was in such a state as though he had never heard the word of God.

Another gave his body over to persecutions and was hung up, was interrogated under torture, then was thrown into prison.

A woman of the canonical order ministered to him in faith, who, having made a habit of it in the prison, † fell into fornication.

Behold, the rich man who sold his possessions — how he fell; and likewise the one who gave his body up in martyrdom.

And yet another, a prudent ascetic, who lived with me in the house and prayed together with me, was so rich in grace that, praying near me, he was pierced with compunction, so that I myself was astonished.

For grace boiled up within him, and the gift of healings was given to him, and he not only drove away demons, but also, through the laying on of hands, healed those bound hand and foot and those suffering grievous afflictions.

Then, growing negligent, and being glorified by the world and taking pleasure together with them, he became puffed up and fell into the innermost and deepest recesses of sin.

Behold, even the one who had gifts of healing fell.

Do you see how, before coming to the measures of love, they fall?

For he who has attained to love is bound and made drunk; this one has been plunged under and is a captive unto another age, that of the divine and heavenly nature.

"What are the things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and have not entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him?" Answer.

In that time, the great and righteous kings and the prophets knew, in their own days, that the Redeemer was coming; but that he would suffer and be crucified and blood would be poured out upon the cross, this they neither knew nor heard, nor did it enter into their heart; nor that there is a baptism of fire and of the Holy Spirit, and that in the church bread and wine would be offered as an antitype of his flesh and his blood, and that those who partake of the visible bread eat the spiritual flesh, and that the apostles and the Christians would receive the Paraclete and be clothed with power from on high and be filled with divinity, and that the souls of the saints would be commingled with the Holy Spirit.

This the kings and the prophets did not know, nor did it enter into their heart.

But now Christians are enriched in a different way and are swallowed up into the Godhead, yet the servants of God are under fear and trembling, while having consolation and joy.

Under what fear and trembling are they? Answer.

Lest they fail in anything, lest they give way — just as if someone possessing treasures were traveling through places infested with robbers: he indeed rejoices because of the wealth and the treasure, but he is in fear lest robbers should come and plunder him, since he is carrying untold wealth, and carrying, as it were, his very lifeblood in his hands.

So are the Christians.

For behold, in outward things we have all renounced the world, and are strangers and possessionless and deprived of fleshly fellowship; well then, behold the body lying prostrate in prayer — the brethren ought to say:

Does the mind then agree with the body? For just as, for the most part, craftsmen and shop-owners have their body bound to their craft, and likewise their mind night and day, so also you, examine yourself: having your body as a stranger to the world, do you also have your mind estranged from this age, and are you not still wandering off into the world?

For indeed every worldly person, whether soldier or merchant, wherever he keeps his body, there he also keeps his mind bound, and there is his treasure.

For where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.

So then, toward what treasure is your mind directed? Is it wholly and entirely toward God? But if it is not, you ought to tell me what the hindrance is.

Or are you ignorant that there are evil spirits? For Satan and the demons hold the mind in their grip and entangle the soul so as to trip it up.

The devil of many forms, having cunning devices and manifold snares and great variety, holds fast the pastures of the soul and its thoughts, and does not let one pray rightly and draw near to God.

since this very nature is communicable with the spirits of wickedness, and likewise with angels and with the Holy Spirit;

it is a temple of Satan, and yet, if it wills, it becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Are you a temple or dwelling-place of God, or of the devil? With which treasure is the heart filled — with grace, or with Satan? Just as, if a house were filled with stench and dung, it must be cleansed and adorned and filled there with every fragrance and treasure;

so also it is necessary that, in Satan's place, the Holy Spirit should dwell and find rest in the souls of Christians.

However, no one who has heard the word just once has thereby already become part of the good portion.

For if, as soon as he heard, he immediately became part of the good portion, he would no longer have struggles nor seasons of warfare, but would merely hear without any labor and come into rest and perfect measures.

But the reality is not so.

For by saying this, you take away the will of man, and you deny that the warfare and the opposing power wrestle against the mind.

But this is what we say: that he who hears the word of God comes into compunction, and after this, when grace withdraws by dispensation for man's benefit, he comes into exercise and the discipline of warfare, and wages struggle and contest against Satan, and after much running and contest he then carries off the prizes of victory and becomes a Christian.

For if anyone, merely by hearing, without labor, became good, then even the theater-folk and the harlots would all long to depart into the kingdom and life.

But no one is granted to obtain this without labor and this contest, since the way is narrow and afflicted, and one must travel through this rough way and endure and be afflicted, and so enter into life.

For if it were possible to succeed without labor, Christianity would no longer be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, nor would there any longer be faith and unbelief.

So then you make this man immutable with regard to the good, and you do not admit that he is of a mutable and changeable nature;

but he is changeable both toward evil and toward good.

For to the one who is able to turn to either direction, the law is given — that is, to the one who has the power to wage war against the opposing power.

For to a fixed/bound nature there will be no law.

For neither the sun, nor the heaven, nor the earth have had a law legislated for them, since created things are of a fixed nature;

wherefore they are subject neither to honor nor to punishment.

For honor and glory are prepared for the one who turns toward the good.

And again, Gehenna and punishment are prepared for this same mutable nature, which is able to flee from evil and incline toward the good and the right-hand portion.

But if you do not say that he is of a mutable nature, then you do not make the good man worthy of praise.

For he who is good by nature is not worthy of praise, even though he is desirable.

For he is worthy of praise who, by his own diligence, with struggle and wrestling, has chosen the good out of his own free will.

Just as if there were a battle-line of the Persians and a battle-line of the Romans, and from each side the two foremost young men, equal in strength, went out to wrestle, so the opposing power and the mind have an equilibrium against one another and equal strength.

Satan has the power to urge and to flatter the soul toward his own will, and the soul has the power to speak against him and to obey him in nothing.

For both powers, that of evil and that of good, are persuasive, and not compulsory.

And to such a choice divine power is given, and one is able, while wrestling, to receive weapons from heaven, and through that weapon to uproot and conquer sin.

For the soul is able to speak against sin, but to uproot it and conquer it, without God, it is not able.

But those who say that sin is like a noble giant, and the soul like a little child, speak wrongly.

For if things really were thus alike—sin like a giant and the soul like a child—then the Lawgiver would be unjust in commanding man to wage war against Satan.

The foundation of the way, and the way itself, have been prepared otherwise; yet men wish to travel by trackless paths, and do not know that they are turning aside from the straight way.

and to travel the way of life in meekness; and through these things one can acquire righteousness within oneself.

And by "righteousness" we mean the Lord himself.

The commandments of the Lord are like milestones standing set up, and signs of the royal road, leading those who travel it to the heavenly city.

Blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

This is what he said it means to be a Christian.

But if someone does not travel on this way, he walks a trackless path and has made use of a bad foundation.

How can one be poor in spirit, especially when he perceives in himself that he has been changed and has progressed and has come into a knowledge and growth which he did not have before? Answer:

As long as one is still acquiring everything and progressing, he is not poor in spirit, but has a high opinion of himself.

But when he comes into such understanding and progress, grace itself teaches him to be poor in spirit.

But what is the meaning of being poor in spirit? Answer:

It is for one who is righteous and chosen of God not to consider himself of worth, but to regard his own soul as unworthy and despised, and as one who knows nothing and possesses nothing.

And this becomes, as it were, natural and fixed in the mind of the man.

I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Those, then, who wish to be fellow-heirs of these and fellow-citizens of the heavenly city, and to be glorified together with them, ought to have this humility, and not to suppose that they are anything in themselves, but to have a contrite heart.

For even though grace works differently in each of the Christians, and there is great diversity, nevertheless all belong to one city;

being of one soul, of one tongue, they recognize one another.

Just as there are many members in one body, but one soul moving in them all, so also one Spirit works in all differently, yet they are of one city, of one tongue.

For all the righteous have traveled the narrow and afflicted way, being persecuted, ill-treated, wearing goatskins, in caves and in the holes of the earth.

Even to this present hour we hunger, and thirst, and go naked, and are reproached, and have no fixed dwelling.

Of these, some were beheaded, others were crucified, and others were stoned to death in various ways.

But the Master himself of the prophets and apostles, as though forgetting his divine glory, traveled this way, becoming an example for us through insults: they placed a crown of thorns upon his head, they brought spittings, buffetings, the cross.

If God traveled this way, showing you an example, you too ought to become an imitator of him.

For indeed the apostles and prophets traveled thus, and we too, if we wish to be built up upon the foundation of the Lord and the apostles, ought to become imitators of them.

For the apostle Paul says in the Holy Spirit:

Be imitators of me, brothers, as I also am of Christ.

But if you love the glory of men, and wish to be worshiped, and seek rest, you have turned aside from the way of the Lord.

For you must be crucified together with him who was crucified, be buried together with him who suffered, so that you may thus be glorified together with him who was glorified.

For it is necessary that the bride suffer together with the bridegroom, and thus become a partner and fellow-heir with the bridegroom.

For it is not possible for anyone, without sufferings and the rough way, and the narrow and afflicted way, to enter into the city of the saints, and to find rest, and to reign together with Christ the King unto the endless ages.

Christians ought not to occupy their mind only with prayer, but also with each of the good works;

gluttony, wrath, pride, deceit, and many other things that follow upon these.

Those who diligently strive, in these few things, to resist each of the passions, to turn away from them, to hate them, to be nobly angered against their own will—these gain thousands; on account of these things, then, those who progress make progress.

If one determines in his mind to fight against the aforementioned passions, the Lord immediately takes hold of him.

He who goes down into battle ought to have a courageous soul, and then he immediately succeeds, decisively or swiftly.

He says that the weapon which ought to be given to the fighting man must in every way be noble, so as to trample down all pleasures; and such a man's weapon is suited to the passions. By this way you ought to travel, turning away from love of money, glory, gluttony, idleness, hatred, and vainglory; such a man's weapon is required.

Then he enters into the city of the saints.

If we knew that honor is given in such proportion, according to the measure of each one, we would not grow weary; if we knew that we must thus hand ourselves over to death, we would not spare ourselves, nor would we permit our mind to occupy itself with this present age and grow slack toward the passions.

See, O soul, where you stand: with the heavenly Bridegroom Christ, or with Satan, who wishes to destroy the race of men.

The body of man is the temple of God, and if anyone corrupts it, the Lord will destroy him who corrupted it.

And the heart of man is the altar of the Holy Spirit; and if the altar is not pure and holy, free from lust and hatred and wrath and anger, the Lord abandons the altar and departs.

Together with the temple of the Lord let us also sanctify the altar, that our lamp may shine and we may enter into his bridal chamber.

It is good for us to sanctify the outward man, so that the Lord may not destroy us on the day of judgment.

But it is also good to sanctify the altar together with the temple, that we may enter into his bridal chamber and see him.

For he who sanctifies only the outward man is but a freedman, and cannot inherit the kingdom;

the children of God inherit the kingdom.

Let lust and wickedness be taken away from us, that we may enter into the bridal chamber.

If we have lust, or hatred, or arrogance, it is from the evil one; these are weapons of darkness, and in that darkness the bridal chamber does not appear, and no one can enter into it in darkness.

Let us turn away from our heart the darkness that is in it, that our lamp may shine and we may enter into the bridal chamber.

Let us seek continually the Bridegroom and his face, that our lamp may appear and we may enter into the bridal chamber.

In us are the fruits of love from a pure heart; these are the weapons of the Lord, which is the lamp.

By this lamp we see the bridal chamber of that Bridegroom; and if he himself, who is lamp and light, does not shine in our hearts and illumine us with his light, we cannot enter into the bridal chamber and see him.

Let us cast out the fruits of Satan from our heart, that our lamp may shine, and by it we may see the Bridegroom with the eyes of our heart.

The evil one shows us a common and unclean light... and thus we see that the evil one is common and unclean.

Let us therefore cleanse ourselves from the uncleanness of the evil one, so that, coming to be in the lamp, we may see all men as pure.

Let our darkness, then, be illumined by the light of the Savior, that we may see every man as pure, even the one who is not pure.

Let us wash away our darkness with tears, and wipe it clean with prayers and with love toward all, that we may see everyone as pure.

To the pure all things are pure, and holy, even those which are not holy.

For his heart has been washed, and his lamp has shone in the light that has shone within him.

If the feet of our heart are stained with envy, or hatred, or wrath, or anger, with these we cannot enter into the bridal chamber, and we will remain outside.

The Lord will send his light into us, and will comfort us with his love and with his humility toward all.

If we wipe clean the feet of our heart with humility, and are at peace with all, and do good to all, our darkness will flee before the light of our lamp, and in it the bridal chamber of the Bridegroom will be seen; and even without our knocking, it will open of itself, and he will come to meet us and bring us into its midst.

By love and by humility let us enter into the bridal chamber, and with a pure heart let us see the Bridegroom.

If the lips of our heart speak arrogance and say to this one:

"Let him not come near my garments, for he is a common and unclean and lawless man"—in speaking thus, the Bridegroom does not allow that arrogant one to enter, nor will he glorify him; and he cannot enter into the bridal chamber together with that humble one.

Let us humble ourselves before all, and be at peace with all, that we may see that Bridegroom, whose form is precious and humble.

If the lips of our heart speak good things about everyone, by these things let us glorify the Lord of glory with the light.

If the mouth and the lips of our heart are filled with these good things, then in it the bridal chamber of the Bridegroom is seen, and he opens the door to us, and comes to meet us.

Let us not know wickedness, so that our lamp may be kindled and we may enter into the bridal chamber and see the bridegroom.

If the hand of our heart is stained with the evils with which the enemy wrestles in the darkness, it cannot open the door of the bridal chamber; and unless it is washed clean by tears and by love toward all, you cannot open the door of the bridal chamber and enter into the bridal chamber to the bridegroom.

Let us cleanse our heart with the tears of prayer, so that we may open the door of the bridal chamber and enter into it.

If someone's heart has become rotten with desire, the evil one alters the heart, and he himself darkens the eyes of the heart with impurity and extinguishes the lamp of its light.

And if he does not wash the eyes of his heart clean from desire, he remains in darkness and is deprived of the light.

Let our heart be virgin and pure and holy, so that we may see him whose heart is virgin and holy.

But if someone humbles himself before all and loves all and does good, the Lord will shine in his heart and will illumine him, and by that lamp of light he will go forth to the bridal chamber, and he will enter, and he will see the bridegroom, and he will dine together with him, and the bridegroom will dine together with him.

Let our heart be turned toward all, so that with our pure heart we may see the bridegroom.

But if someone exalts himself against another who is on the earth, and hates someone who is in it, the evil one darkens his heart in darkness, and by that lamp of darkness he cannot gaze upon that light of the bridegroom, nor upon the glory of all his saints. Let our heart be virgin and holy, so that we may see the bridegroom, whose heart is virgin and holy.

Fasting and vigil and self-exile are good things, but these are still only the summit of a good way of life; yet the order of Christians is more interior than these, and one ought not to place one's confidence in these.

But it causes a person to suppose that his mind has been purified, and thereafter it leads the person into the conceit that...

And after this, when a person supposes that he is free and grows careless, then wickedness comes upon him in the manner of a robber, lying in ambush, and it tempts him and drags him down to the lowest parts of the earth.

For if men of twenty years, being robbers or soldiers, know how to use stratagems against their enemies, and lie in wait, and set an ambush, and take the enemies from behind, and surrounding them, kill them all together, how much more does wickedness — being of so many thousands of years, and having as its very work how it may destroy souls — know how to make an ambush in the heart and, for certain seasons, not to act, so that it may bring the soul into the conceit of perfection? But the foundation of Christianity is this: that whatever acts of righteousness a person may do, he should not rest content in them nor consider them great, but that he should be poor in spirit; and if he becomes a partaker of grace, he should not suppose that he has attained, nor think that he is something, nor begin to teach; but that, being in a good way of life — fasting, living as a stranger, keeping vigil, praying — being a partaker of grace, he should not consider himself to be anything, but should hold himself in contempt and not consider his soul precious; but especially then, when the beginning of grace comes to him, he should have labor, thirst, and hunger, so that he may not be satiated, nor consider himself righteous or rich in grace, but that he may be mourning and weeping.

In the way that there might be a mother who has an only-begotten son and raises him, and when he becomes a man and it happens that he dies, then however many there are who try to comfort the mother, they rather stir up her mourning all the more, and she is inconsolable.

So must the Christian also weep for his own fall, so that he may have mourning without ceasing and unceasing tears.

Above all, that he may have a broken heart.

And just as there might be a royal house, the palace of a king, having many apartments and various courtyards and many vestibules, many chambers and bedrooms, and inner rooms where the king dwells, and where his purple robes and his treasures are stored...

then let the one who enters into the outer courtyards or apartments not suppose that he has already entered into the inner rooms, where the glory of the king is, and the purple robes, and the treasures.

So it is also in the spiritual realm.

Let those who fast, and those who keep vigil, or sing psalms, or pray, not suppose that they have already entered into the rest; here they still are entering only into the vestibules and the courtyards, not into the place where the purple robes and the treasures are.

For into that place they have not yet entered.

Therefore the brothers ought not to take confidence in their outward manner of life and say, 'We are somebody.'

But even if someone becomes a partaker of grace, he ought not to suppose that he has attained, or that he has become nearest to the king.

For he is still only moving about in the outer rooms.

Each one, therefore, ought to search out whether he has found the treasure in the earthen vessel, whether he has put on the purple robe of the Spirit, whether he has seen Christ the King and been given rest.

It has a certain depth and many members, and thereafter sin, having entered in, took possession of all its members and the pastures of the heart.

Then, when the person seeks earnestly, grace comes to him and takes possession of, perhaps, two members of the soul.

So the inexperienced person, being comforted by grace, supposes that grace, having now come, has already taken possession of all the members of the soul, and that sin has been uprooted.

But the greater part is still held by sin, and only one part by grace, and he is deceived by stealth and does not know it.

For grace is often at work unceasingly, in the way that the eye is always fixed in the body; and sin is present too, stealthily deceiving the mind, and the person lacking discernment, as though he had already attained, thinks something of himself and is puffed up as though he had been set free.

But the reality is not so.

As I said before, Satan makes an ambush, not acting for certain seasons, so as to cause the person to suppose that he is now pure and perfect.

Does the one who plants a vineyard immediately receive grapes, or produce wine? And has the one who sows the seeds in the earth already reaped and received fruits without labor? And can the child that is born immediately come to be a perfect man? Or has the recruit serving as a soldier already become an officer? For he must first labor and enter into war, and win the prizes of victory, and be crowned; and has the one betrothed to take a wife already had union with her before the betrothal? It is not so.

Good, therefore, are non-possession and psalmody and fasting and vigil, and the receiving of God's grace.

He has not yet even begun, as he ought, to dig and lay the foundation; and being in these things, as one already blameless outwardly and a partaker of grace, does such a person then think highly of himself and consider his soul precious? Look upon Jesus — from what glory, being Son of God and God, to what sufferings and dishonor and cross he descended.

Because of this humility, therefore, he was highly exalted, seated at the right hand of the Father.

And the serpent, from the beginning, sowed in Adam a haughtiness, saying that he would become as God; and because of this arrogance, see to what dishonor the race of Adam descended.

But I seek a man poor in spirit, and I do not find one.

Just as there might be someone rich, having treasures in his house, and yet, as one in need and poor, he asks of everyone.

So are Christians: having grace richly toward God, yet they are poor in spirit, and they are as those who have nothing.

To give an illustration: there are a hundred pounds of gold which one ought to acquire.

So having received five pounds, he became satisfied.

And there are some who, to give a figure, have ten ounces of grace, and they make it out to be a hundred, boasting; and there are often those who have five ounces of sin, and they make it out to be half an ounce.

This happens to them either out of ignorance, because being deceived by stealth within the very grace itself, they do not perceive it, or they do it out of vainglory, being ashamed to say that evil is at work in them.

For they already proclaim themselves perfect; but a person ought to do what is right — to speak indeed of the things of grace, but also to confess the working of sin.

For such a one lies when he says, 'I have a clean conscience.'

For the reality is not such that, as soon as grace visits, the person immediately becomes pure.

For he is handed over to the enemies and to trials for training and discipline, in the way that Job also was in his trial.

For evil cooperates with the good, though not with good intent.

But the Christian, though he has five ounces of sin, ought to say, 'I have twenty, and I am wholly filled with wickedness'; and though he has, to give a figure, twenty ounces of good, he ought to say, 'I have half an ounce.' But if, out of vainglory, he is ashamed to say this, let him at least speak the truth, and confess both the working of sin and the working of grace — that both parts are present together in him.

So then, as I said before concerning the soul, that it has depth, let us make use of an illustration, describing its members.

Just as there might be a sun, and from it many rays; or as there might be a tall tree, having boughs and branches; or as there might be a great city, having many neighborhoods; or as there might be a province, having homelands under itself...

So is the intellective essence, the immortal soul — a precious beauty beyond all created things, the image and likeness of God.

Thereafter grace comes and shines upon two rays of the soul, or, out of the whole tree, upon two boughs, or, out of the whole city, upon two neighborhoods, or, out of the whole province, upon two homelands.