therefore you are admonished to cease from sinning. If you have fallen in the age of fuller youth, the advance of maturity ought to amend you. Therefore do not go off into more grievous sins, do not stand in lighter ones. You have this also said by the Lord in Isaiah: Go forth from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans; that is: even if you have entered into the confusion of vices, go forth. You ought not to have entered, but you did enter by the law of the flesh compelling you and taking you captive into the law of sin; go forth, depart even if late, strip off the grievous servitude. You could not but enter into sin through frailty; it is granted you to go forth from sin through sobriety. Go forth then from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans. Babylon is confusion, which keeps no order of the virtues; for it is with a mind confounded by enticements that we offend.
The Chaldeans are those who, with zeal for vain superstition, search out the courses of the stars and sow the errors of impious heathenism. Flee from these, lest they seize you, lest they entangle you in the heavy snare of captivity. Abraham was a Chaldean, but he fled from the Chaldeans, and that before the Law; you have already been born under the Law — flee from the ungodly. He cast off the inheritance of his fathers that he might possess that of faith; do you forsake the succession of the body and acquire the inheritance of devotion. But if you have not stood in sin, not even thus are you blessed; you still have something of which you ought to be rid.
Many are the enticements, many the turnings-away from virtue; grievous are the goads of pleasures, grievous the kindling of avarice, the lust for power, the ambition for honor, which, as with a kind of poison, contaminate the minds of men and certain souls with the pestilent decay of vices. This is the seat of pestilence, upon which the scribes and Pharisees sat, who lay grievous burdens upon men, but themselves will not move them with a finger. These seats the Savior cast out of the temple — the seats of those who boasted themselves of honor, who sought the primacy of dignities, of those who used the priesthood or the primacy of honor for gain, of those who, indulging the belly, in no way kept the due guard of continence. This is the true pestilence;
in short, the sons of Eli were sons of pestilence. In this seat, as it were, of the vices, Scripture forbids us to bend back our neck and recline the strength of the whole body. Mark therefore the distinctions. Blessed is he who has not stood in the way of sinners, and who has likewise not sat in the seat of pestilence. That the 'way' means the course of this life is beyond doubt, since Scripture itself says: In this way wherein I walked they have hidden a snare for me; and: Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way. For as long as we run the course of this life, we have a path along which we walk daily, until we arrive at the end; and even though we do not seem to go bodily, we are advancing.
For just as those who sleep in ships are borne by the winds into harbors, even though those at rest have no sense of sailing, yet the course urges them to the end and drives them on, unaware; so, as the span of our life flows away, each one is led by a hidden course to his own end. Hence it is said: Rise, you who sleep — for indeed you sleep, and your time is walking on — and see that, while you sleep long, your time does not pass by. Therefore, even though you sleep, let your heart keep watch; let your heart not be struck idle; if your heart be not idle, your times are not idle. You are on the way, O man; walk, that you may arrive, lest night overtake you on the way, lest the day of your life be consumed before you hasten the advance of virtue.
You are a wayfarer of this life; all things pass away, all things come to be behind you, all things on this way you behold and pass by. You have seen the loveliness of trees, the greenness of grass, the purity of fountains and whatever is of this kind, in which the eyes delight; it was pleasant to gaze; it delighted you to attend for a little while; while you attend, you have passed on. Again, while you walk, you have come upon a rocky and rugged road, the hollows of crags, the steeps of mountains, the thickets of forests: you wearied a little; again you have passed on. Such is this life, whose prosperous things do not abide nor are its adverse things long-lasting. Therefore, as one set on a journey, let neither favorable things exalt you nor adverse things break you, let neither applauded things delay you nor sorrowful things detain you. Hasten ever to the end, hasten that you may arrive;
yet choose the way before you run. There are two ways, one of the just, the other of sinners, one of equity, the other of iniquity, of which the prophet said: And see if there be a way of iniquity in me. Now not only is our life a way, but our very life is either the way of virtue or of iniquity. Beware therefore lest avarice set its steps within you and you become a way of crime; lest wickedness, lest lust, and you become a way of iniquity, worn down by the disgraceful deeds of those who travel it. It is permitted you to choose whom you follow, either the just or the unjust. The way of the just is narrower, that of the unjust broader; the former, of sobriety, narrower; this, of drunkenness, broader, that it may be able to receive the wavering; this has the enticements of this present age, that has the rewards of things to come.
In the latter the fruit is more immediate, in the former the hope is slower; for those things which are sweet do not defer to a long-continued expectation, but have a present enjoyment, whereas that which is serious is sought with toil, and is scarcely grasped by blessed thought — that which eye has not seen nor ear heard, which God has prepared for those who love Him. We are wont to believe with difficulty the things we do not see; and therefore the soul is restless and, hither and thither, as it were with certain eyes, carries about its thoughts. Then diverse appearances of things meet it and pour themselves upon it; if it strains toward things everlasting, it chooses virtue; if toward things present, it prefers pleasure. Grievous and unequal is the struggle against the delights of present things.
Here is the liberty of lusts, there the wrong of servitude — to do what you would not, and to abstain from the things you have desired; here a banquet, there a fast; here the intemperance of joys, there the perseverance of tears; here dancing, there prayer; here sweet songs, there grievous groans. It is indeed written: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools in the house of feasting. It is better to hear the rebuke of a wise man than a man hearing the song of fools; but few hear these things, fewer follow them. The sweetness of sin allures men more — which flows in for the present moment and fattens the disposition of the hearer — than the sadness of virtue, which wraps up the hope of faith, as it were, in a certain rind of bitter toil.
Blessed therefore and wondrous is he who, set in the choice of such ways, has not been bent aside by the enticements of pleasure, so as to set his step upon shallows and crooked places; to him it is not said: You who have forsaken the straight paths to go away into the ways of darkness. We have learned, therefore, what the way of sinners is, in which we are not to stand, as the prophet admonishes us, and as Ecclesiastes also teaches, who says: Do not stand in an evil word, that is: do not persist in evil words, and likewise in works to be condemned. How one is to stand in good things, the same holy prophet enjoins, saying: Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem. In Jerusalem one must stand; from Babylon one must flee. And to Moses it is said:
But you, stand with Me — he who fled from Egypt and, standing with the Lord, persevered. And in the Gospel, those who stood until the eleventh hour received equal wages with those who labored; and the virgins who had stood firm until the coming of the bridegroom were counted worthy to enter together to the wedding, while those who departed and afterwards returned are shut out by the authority of the Lord's sentence. We have learned, then, not to stand in the way of sinners, but to stand in the office of virtue, because it is written: But you stand by faith. Now let us consider what this means: And he has not sat in the seat of pestilence. And indeed we premise this, that it is not the simple sitting-together upon the kind of throne that is in common use which is censured — for what cause for blame would it have?
— but since the eyes of the Lord are ever upon the faithful of the earth, we ought to stand as those placed under the gaze of an emperor and set, as it were, in a certain ministry. The soldier stands ready for battle, he does not sit; the soldier in arms does not bend himself back, but rouses and lifts himself up. And therefore it is said to the soldiers of Christ: Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord. But on the contrary, iniquity sits upon a leaden talent, in that, fixed in sin, it cannot separate itself from it. For those grown old in error and zealously cleaving to disgraceful deeds are said to sit, who will not rise up nor hear Him who says: Rise up, after you have sat. Finally this same prophet elsewhere says: The princes sat and spoke against me.
Or are we ignorant that an inveterate habit of sinning has such force that it shuts out nature, which, though it be curable unto health, yet, when the passions are strengthened by time, is found incurable? Let us not therefore remain in vices, but let each one, even if he has fallen, leap out from his fault, as it is written concerning the harlot woman: Set not your eye upon her, but leap away, do not delay, leap away before the years of youth find you. But — and this is more grievous — once the flame of seething disgrace has been kindled in the bosom of the mind, it will quickly burn up the garments of its own body.
And as fire, leaping upon stubble, clings and remains until it consumes all that it has caught, so even a small spark of sin, if it be kindled by any fuel of vices, stirs up a great conflagration. Do not therefore stand in sin. Finally, you have set your footstep upon the abyss of fault; quickly take away your foot, lest defilement mount upon you above the sole, and, deceived by an easier slip, you settle down upon the mire. The first vices, therefore, must be guarded against, lest afterward they creep on into more and more grievous ones. For just as those who roll in mire are the more befouled the more they wallow, so he who has once besmeared himself with the mud of wickedness, unless he leaps swiftly out of it, draws over himself daily the more grievous filth of his own disgrace by his muddy way of living.
And so, by the heavy stench of that foul and disgraceful abyss, a certain pestilence of souls is contracted, and, the breathing of wholesome thoughts being corrupted, the pitiable plague of seething passions stalks abroad. Hence a deadly venom pours itself into the mind; hence sickness creeps over the body, languors over the soul. For an evil languor is the languor of error: all its days are in darkness and mourning and much wrath and languor and anger. For how can he sleep who keeps anxious guard over his gold, who dreads losses, who plots gains, who reckons interest, who counts his storehouses? An evil languor, therefore, which takes away the good repose of the mind.
An evil languor is luxury, lust, concupiscence, worldly delight, ambition, which quickly corrupts the health of sobriety. Finally, every corruption of this world is a pestilence. Touch it not therefore, defile not yourselves with it: it is a plague, it contaminates; it is a disease, it pollutes. Taste not the things which are all unto corruption by the very use of them, as the Apostle said, who also elsewhere cries out: Avarice is the root of all evils. It stirs up diseases, it brings in pains; finally, those who have coveted it have entangled themselves in many sorrows. This is the pestilence which for the most part makes men neither hot nor cold, but — which is worse than the hot and worse than the cold — lukewarm, so that they are spewed out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus, whom on account of grievous sins He has cast away.
This is that which stirs up the sicknesses not of a few but of all. Every head is in pain, every heart in sadness. From the feet even to the head of sinners there are sores. Every head is in pain, when those who are reckoned wise are tortured by the pain of avarice. For the sense of the wise is in his head; which may also be referred to those who are preeminent in the Church. Every heart is in sadness, when we relish the things that are carnal and bury the keen edge of our heart in bodily pleasures. Hence the Lord says to such a one that He has given them a heart of flesh.
From the feet even to the head creeps the dire plague of diseases, when they labor under contagion, when they suffer along with others — if anyone be cheated of the accomplishment of his lust, if he could not storm the chastity of a widow, or invade another's field — and all the sick mutually transfer their languors to one another. How often do old men groan that they cannot drink for long! How often do they grieve that they have ceased to consort with harlots, while they still have the will to do so! How often, amid the tales of drunkards, are virtues a reproach, sins a praise, honesty a mockery, continence a thing of laughter, mercy a vanity! These are the diseases which transfer their evils into many; from a few the corruption reaches to all.
They sit in councils disparaging the sober, belching their surfeit; they sit in taverns contending over drunkenness; among them a harlot full of wine, smiling on this one, inflaming that one, and kindling all with the ardor of lust. If a modest man pass by, he blushes, he is plucked at by each one; if a disgraceful man, he is praised by the mouth of all, and like a disease it passes into the souls of individuals; for he who is notorious in disgraceful deeds draws very many to the imitation of his error. And so, while they imitate another's sin, they make the evil their own. Do not sit among those whom the holy prophet fled; imitate him as he fled — assuredly not sitting — who says: I have not sat in the council of the malignant, and with those who do iniquity I will not enter.
By what reason did you flee them, David? Explain to us; point out these parts, that we too may flee them, lest we be infected by their contagion. They are corrupted, he says, and become abominable; there is none that does goodness, there is not even one. Generally, therefore, it can be referred to all the disgraceful; or finally in a special sense to the mockers of the good, whom Aquila called 'scoffers,' because these are truly diseases, who by mocking the good work very much error in souls and corrupt minds. How many things he has named, from which the blessed man ought to abstain! And he still adds others. But in the law of the Lord was his will, and in His law will he meditate day and night; that is: blessed is he who does these things by counsel, by reason, by prudence.
For even a little child can abstain from the things that have been said, not through virtue, but through the impossibility and ignorance of sinning; this can also belong to an irrational beast, which has no power of counsel, no sense of error. This therefore is the fourth, or that which follows, in which the definition of the blessed man is distinguished from the beast: that the wise man is subject to the law by will, not by necessity. For it makes the greatest difference, since in the will is the fruit of reward, in necessity the compliance of a stewardship. For so the Apostle taught us, saying: If I do this willingly, I have a reward; if unwillingly, a stewardship is entrusted to me. And the fitting order is that first you love the law, secondly that you meditate upon it.
He who loves does the commands of the law from will; he who fears observes them unwillingly. This discipline of teaching we have received also from the righteousness of God in the Law; for thus it is written: Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God; and you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart and in your soul; and you shall show them to your sons, and shall speak of them sitting, and on the journey, and at rest, and in waking; and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as ornaments before your eyes; and you shall write them upon the lintels of your dwellings and on your doors. And below:
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but that you love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways? Wisdom also says: Desire therefore my words, love them, and you shall have instruction. Bright is wisdom, and that which never fades, and easily is she seen by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. Lawfully, therefore, we are taught by the holy prophet to have the will in the law, and meditation according to the law. The will in the law is not only in zeal, but also in deed; the will is first, the working second. Finally, to the one who said to Him, If you will, you can make me clean, the Lord answered: I will; be clean — that He might show that in our works the will ought to go before.
Finally, the law seeks the willing, because the law of the Lord is blameless, converting the soul; but no one is converted except he who is converted by will. Now the willing man conceals and steals away even the sense of toil. And therefore he meditates in the law day and night, in which not so much a continual intentness of reading is required as an affection for keeping the law; for he meditates fully who is himself a law to himself, intent upon the work of the law written in his heart. Aquila, however, set down only the day, and not also the night; which he set down not so much as differing from the rest as referring it otherwise, since he who meditates on the law is always in the light and has no night.
For indeed, he whose works shine cannot at all walk in darkness, because his righteousness blazes forth like light. Let our life therefore meditate on the law, let our conversation meditate, let our deed meditate, let the understanding of the heavenly mysteries meditate. For the law is the pattern and shadow of heavenly things, the shadow of good things to come. Let him who recognizes in the Gospel the things he believes in the Law meditate in darkness and in day, that is, both when set in adversity and in prosperity; for the law commands that we love the Lord. He who loves ought, in every state of his, to keep the affection of an enduring charity. A father loves his son; he loves him even when he reproves him, he loves him even when he beats him with the rod; for he who spares his rod hates his son.
Us also the Lord chastises and loves. And so even when we commit things worthy of correction, He nevertheless loves, who also receives the one He has been offended by; for the Lord chastises every son whom He receives. And do you, when you are chastised, love, because you are chastised for this end, that you may be received. For what great thing is it if you love the Lord your God then, when all things abound for you, when you enjoy your wishes, when you rejoice in honors, means, and children? Even to a man from whom we have received a benefit we are wont to render thanks. Finally, when Job was praised by the heavenly judgment, the devil retorted this: it was no wonder at all if he were grateful to God, to whom so great an affluence of prosperous things lay ready; but then he would be proved, if he should lose all those things and still render the office of a pious worshiper.
This therefore is the first virtue: that you be not broken by adversities, nor exalted by prosperities. This the law teaches you: that in affliction you slacken not your intentness nor put on despair; that, now a victor, you say not, My virtue and my strength have given me these things, but that you know all things are to be ascribed to the divine mercy. Isaiah cries: He who is in straits shall not be confounded until the time. Drink this first. What is, 'Drink this first'? Let us set aside the mystical, let us pursue the moral things which the letter teaches. On account of grievous errors he says that grievous contritions and vexations of the people are to come, and it was fitting that these go before, so that mercy might follow. Drink therefore tribulation first; for through many tribulations it behooves us to enter into the kingdom of God.
Drink, that the sense of tribulation may be poured into the inward parts of your breast; drink, with the affection of one suffering, the grief of one mourning; for when, being converted, you have groaned, then you will reconcile to yourself the Lord whom you have offended. Drink therefore this first, that you may be in grief and in straits; gladness too quickly pours in error. The people, made fat and grown gross, rose up to play and departed from the Lord. It profits you to have a contrite heart; drink this first, that your sacrifice may be received by the Lord. Let the Apostle teach you what 'Drink this first' is — that is, the cup of tribulation; for tribulation works patience. There can be no patience unless tribulation has gone before;
tribulation, he says, works patience, and patience probation, and probation hope; and hope does not confound. Drink first tribulation, that afterward so many cups of virtues may be ministered to you. And that you may know that tribulation is drunk, you heard the prophet today saying: You have given us to drink the wine of compunction; and in the later parts he says: And you will give them drink in tears by measure. By measure he seeks the drink, not above measure, lest they be unable to bear it. Finally, with what good affection he prayed this, he proved by his own example, who mingled his own drink with weeping, that he might incline the Lord's mercy upon himself. Drink therefore this first, that you may drink also the second — for now is the time that we should insert the mystical things —;
drink first the Old Testament, that you may also drink the New Testament. Unless you first drink the former, you cannot drink the latter. Drink first that you may assuage your thirst, drink the second that you may draw a fullness of drinking. In the Old Testament is compunction, in the New is gladness. See how the Lord met the arts of the devil on behalf of His little servants. He by the food of deceit deceived one, that in the one he might circumvent all; but Jesus by the food of salvation redeemed all, that in all He might also restore him who had been deceived. He devised the golden cup of Babylon, that whoever drank the more might thirst the more, and, because the drink could not please, he enticed to the drinking by the price of gold. He gave to drink of his own wine, for which he required the support of metal;
but truly the Lord Jesus poured out water from the rock, and all drank. Those who drank in the figure were satisfied; those who drank in the truth were inebriated. A good inebriation, which pours in gladness, brings not confusion; a good inebriation, which steadies the gait of a sober mind; a good inebriation, which waters the gift of eternal life. Drink therefore this cup, of which the prophet said: And your cup which inebriates, how excellent it is! Nor let it move you that the cup of Babylon is golden, because you too drink the cup of wisdom, which is more precious than gold and silver. Drink therefore both cups, of the Old and the New Testament, because in both you drink Christ.
Drink Christ, because He is the vine; drink Christ, because He is the rock that gushed forth water; drink Christ, because He is the fountain of life; drink Christ, because He is the river whose surge gladdens the city of God; drink Christ, because He is peace; drink Christ, because out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water; drink Christ, that you may drink the blood by which you were redeemed; drink Christ, that you may drink His words. His word is the Old Testament, His word is the New Testament. Divine Scripture is drunk and divine Scripture is devoured, when the sap of the eternal Word descends into the veins of the mind and the strength of the soul; finally, man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Drink this word, but drink it in its order, first in the Old Testament; quickly act so that you may drink also in the New Testament. And as though He Himself hastens, He says: Galilee of the Gentiles and the parts of Judea, people who walked in darkness, see a great light; you who dwell in the region of death, light shall shine upon you. Drink therefore quickly, that a great light may shine forth upon you — a light not daily, not of the day, not of the sun, nor of the moon, but that which shuts out the shadow of death. For those who are in the shadow of death cannot at all see the light of the sun or of day. And as though to you inquiring whence so great a splendor, so great a grace should be, He answers:
Because a child is born to us, a son is given to us; a child, because He is sprung from a virgin; a son, because, born from God, He is the author of so great a light. A child is born to us — to us who believe, not to the Jews who did not believe; to us, not to heretics; to us, not to the Manicheans. He is born to us, because the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; He is born to us who took flesh from the virgin, because man was born of Mary. Flesh is born to us, the Word is given; that which is ours was born among us, that which is above us was bestowed upon us.
We have, as we think, run on far enough, yet not idly, that we might teach that even in tribulations we ought to love the Lord and not withdraw from Him, since tribulation often succeeds gladness, and gladness tribulation. Finally, he who is not broken by tribulation and follows the law is blessed. And he shall be like a tree which is planted beside the courses of waters, which shall give its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not fall off; and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. What is this blessedness, which is compared to the wood of a tree, unless we understand, in paradise, that place of the blessed, the tree of life brought forth from the earth in the midst of the other trees?
For among many trees which were fair to look upon and good for food, this tree too the earth brought forth, and it was in the midst of paradise, that the other trees might flourish by its greenness. What do we say this tree is, except that through which salvation came to us? And rightly did the earth bring it forth, because a virgin bore Him, who was earth according to the sentence of the Author which was spoken concerning her: You are earth, and into earth you shall go. Beautifully too it is read to be in the midst of the other trees — He who was in the midst of the apostles, His disciples; or because He was in the midst of the mind and heart, as He Himself says: There stands in the midst of you One whom you do not know; and elsewhere He says: But I am in the midst of you. Finally, concerning Him Solomon too said:
He is a tree of life to all who lay hold of him. Whoever, therefore, is blessed will be an imitator of the Lord Jesus, who is the tree of life, the tree of wisdom, planted in the womb of the Virgin by the will of the Father, by whom he is planted to abide forever, that he might give fruit in his season. For that planting could not wither, which had within itself the abiding richness of spiritual grace. And so Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. These are the streams of waters, of which he says in the Gospel: 'Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' But this he spoke of the Spirit, which those who were to believe in him were beginning to receive. There is also another tradition, that there are waters from which Jeremiah forbids us to drink, saying: