'Wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind, hope perfectly and soberly for the grace that is offered to you, as children of obedience, not conformed to the former lusts of your ignorance, but according to Him who called you, holy; and be yourselves holy in all your conversation, because it is written: You shall be holy, because I am holy.' Hence blessed David too says: 'Lord, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle? Or who shall rest on Your holy mountain? He who walks without spot and works righteousness'; and elsewhere: 'And I shall be immaculate with Him'; and elsewhere: 'Blessed are the immaculate in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord'; likewise in Solomon: 'The Lord loves holy hearts; and all the immaculate are acceptable to Him.'
Of these testimonies, some exhort those who are running, that they may run perfectly; others recall the very end toward which they strain by running. But to walk without spot is not absurdly said also of him who is not yet perfect, but who runs blamelessly toward that very perfection, being free from damnable crimes and not neglecting to cleanse the very venial sins themselves by almsgiving. For our entrance — that is, our journey by which we strive toward perfection — clean prayer cleanses; and prayer is clean where it is truly said: 'Forgive us, as we also forgive,' so that, while what is not imputed is not reprehended,
our course toward perfection may be held without reprehension — that is, without spot — in which perfection, when we shall have come to it, there will no longer be anything at all to be cleansed by pardon. Next, this man adduces testimonies by which he may show that the divine precepts are not burdensome. But who does not know that, since the general precept is love — for the end of the precept is love, and the fullness of the law is love — that is not burdensome which is done by loving, not by fearing? For they labor in the precepts of God who try to fulfill them by fearing; but perfect love casts out fear, and makes the burden of the precept light, not only not oppressing with the weight of heavy loads, but even lifting up in place of wings.
Yet, in order that this love may be had, even in such measure as can be had in the body of this death, the choice of our will is too little, unless the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord assist it; for it is poured out in our hearts — which must often be said — not through ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Nor for any other cause does Scripture recall that the divine precepts are not burdensome, except that the soul which feels them to be burdensome may understand that it has not yet received the strength by which the Lord's precepts may be such as they are commended to be — namely, light and sweet — and may pray with the groaning of the will, that it may obtain the gift of ease. For he who says: 'Let my heart be immaculate,' and:
'Direct my steps according to Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me,' and: 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth,' and: 'Lead us not into temptation,' and the rest of this kind, which it would be long to recount — this man surely prays that he may do the precepts of God, which, in order that they be done, would neither be commanded, if our will did nothing there, nor prayed for, if it alone sufficed. They are commended, therefore, as not burdensome, so that he to whom they are burdensome may understand that he has not yet received the gift by which they are not burdensome; nor may he suppose that he fulfills them when he does so in such a way that they are burdensome — for God loves a cheerful giver — nor yet, when he feels them to be burdensome, may he be broken by despair, but be compelled to seeking, asking, and knocking.
Let us hear, then, in these testimonies which he next set down, God commending His precepts as not burdensome. 'That the commandments of God,' he says, 'are not only not impossible, but not even burdensome. In Deuteronomy: And the Lord your God will turn to feast over you upon good things, as He feasted over your fathers, if you will hear the voice of the Lord your God, to keep and to do all His commandments and His statutes and His judgments which are written in the book of this law; if you turn to the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul. For this commandment, which I command you today, is not burdensome, nor far from you. It is not in heaven, that you should say:
'Who shall ascend into heaven and take it for us, that we may hear and do it? It is not beyond the sea, that you should say: Who shall cross the sea and take it for us, that we may hear and do it? For the word is very near you, in your mouth, in your heart, and in your hands to do it.' Likewise the Lord in the Gospel: 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls; for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.' Likewise in the epistle of Saint John: 'This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.'
Having heard these legal, evangelical, and apostolic testimonies, let us be built up unto grace, which those do not understand who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own, are not subject to the righteousness of God. For if they do not understand that passage from Deuteronomy in the way the Apostle Paul recalled it — namely, that with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, because the healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick — surely by this testimony of the apostle John, which he set down last for this argument, where he says: 'This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments';
And His commandments are not burdensome: they ought surely to be reminded that God's commandment is not burdensome to the love of God, which is poured out in our hearts only through the Holy Spirit, not through any choice of the human will; and by attributing more to that will than is proper, they are ignorant of the righteousness of God. Yet this love will be perfect only when all penal fear has withdrawn. After this he set forth the testimonies which are wont to be alleged against them, and did not resolve them, but by rehearsing them, as though they were contrary, he bound the questions more tightly. For he says: 'The testimonies of the Scriptures which are to be set on the opposite side against those who ignorantly suppose that they can, by the authority of the Scriptures, overthrow the freedom of the will or the possibility of not sinning.'
'For they are wont to object,' he says, 'that holy Job said: Who is clean from sin? not even an infant whose life upon the earth is of a single day.' Then, as though he answered this testimony with other testimonies, namely that Job himself said: For I, a righteous man and without complaint, am become a laughingstock — he does not understand that a man can be called righteous who has drawn very near to the perfection of righteousness, so that he has come close to it: which we do not deny that many have been able to attain even in this life, in which one lives by faith. This is confirmed also by that testimony which he consequently added, spoken by the same Job: Behold, I am near to my judgment, and I know that I shall be found righteous. For this is the judgment of which it is said elsewhere:
And He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. In short, he did not say 'I am there,' but 'I am near.' But if he wished that judgment of his to be understood not as the judgment by which he himself will judge, but as that by which he is to be judged at the end, then in that judgment all will be found righteous who do not say deceitfully: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For through this forgiveness they will be found righteous, and because they have blotted out by almsgiving those sins which they had here. Whence the Lord says: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you. In short, this shall be said to the righteous who are to go into the promised kingdom: For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat, and the rest of this kind.
But it is one thing to be without sin, which in this life is said of the Only-begotten alone; and another to be without complaint, which could be said of many righteous men even in this life, since there is a certain measure of good living, concerning which, even in this human intercourse, no just complaint can be made. For who justly complains of a man who wishes ill to no one, who faithfully counsels those he can, and who holds no lust of vengeance against anyone's injuries, so that he truthfully says: As we also forgive our debtors? And yet by that very fact — that he says truly: Forgive, as we also forgive — he declares that he is not without sin. Hence it is that he says: There was nothing unjust in my hands, but my prayer was pure.
For from this his prayer was pure, because he asked pardon not unjustly, since he truly granted it. And as to what he says of the Lord: For He has multiplied my afflictions without cause — he did not say 'He has inflicted none with cause,' but 'many without cause.' For his many afflictions were brought upon him not on account of his many sins, but for the testing of his patience. For on account of his sins — of which, as he confesses elsewhere, he was not free — he judges that he ought to have suffered fewer. Again, as to what he says: For I have kept His ways and have not turned aside from His commandments, nor will I depart — he keeps the ways of God who does not so stray as to abandon them, but by running in them makes progress, even though he sometimes, as being weak, stumbles or totters;
but he makes progress by diminishing his sins, until he arrives where he may be without sin. For he cannot make progress in that manner except by keeping His ways. But he turns aside from the commandments of the Lord and departs as an apostate — not the man who, even though he has sin, nevertheless does not abandon perseverance in struggling against it, until he arrives where no contention with death shall remain. In this conflict, therefore, we are clothed with that righteousness by which one here lives by faith, and with it, as it were, we are armored. We also take up judgment, which we exercise even against ourselves for our own sake, when by accusing our sins we condemn them. Whence it is written: The righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech. Hence likewise he says:
I was clothed with righteousness, and I put judgment about me as a cloak. For this garment too is wont to belong to war rather than to peace, where concupiscence is still being fought against, not where righteousness will be full without any enemy at all, the last enemy, death, being destroyed. But as to what the same holy Job says again: For my heart has not reproached me in all my life — then in this life, in which we live by faith, our heart does not reproach us, if that same faith, by which one believes in the heart unto righteousness, does not neglect to reproach our sin. Whence the Apostle says: For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I hate, that I do. For it is good not to lust, and this good the righteous man wills, who lives by faith;
and yet he does what he hates, because he lusts, although he does not go after his lusts: but if he were to do so, then he himself would truly have brought it about that he yields, that he consents, that he obeys the desire of sin. Then his heart reproaches him, because it reproaches him, not that sin of his which dwells in his members. But when he does not permit sin to reign in his mortal body so as to obey its desires, nor yields his members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, sin is indeed present in his members, but it does not reign, because its desires are not obeyed. And therefore, while he does what he does not will — that is, he does not will to lust, and yet lusts — he consents to the law, because it is good.
For he himself wills the very thing that the law wills, because he himself wills not to lust, and the law says: You shall not lust. In this, since he wills what the law also wills, he without doubt consents to the law; yet he lusts, because he is not without sin. But now it is no longer he himself who works it, but the sin that dwells in him. Therefore his heart does not reproach him in all his life — that is, in his faith — because the righteous lives by faith, and therefore his faith is his life. For he knows that no good dwells in his flesh, where sin dwells; but by not consenting to it he lives by faith, because he calls upon God to be helped as he fights against sin. And that it may be there no more at all, to will is present with him, but to perfect the good is not present with him.
'Not to do good' is not present with him, but 'to perfect it.' For in that he does not consent, he does good; and in that he hates his concupiscence, he does good; and in that he does not cease to give alms, he does good; and in that he forgives the one who sins against him, he does good; and in that he asks that his debts be forgiven him and truly says that he too forgives his debtors, and prays that he be not led into temptation but delivered from evil, he does good. Yet to perfect the good is not present with him — which will come to pass when that concupiscence which dwells in his members shall be no more.
Therefore his heart does not reproach him, when it reproaches the sin that dwells in his members, and it has no unbelief of his to reproach. Thus neither in his life — that is, in his faith — is he reproached by his heart, and yet he is convicted of not being without sin. This too Job confesses of himself, where he says: None of my sins was hidden from You. You have sealed up my iniquities in a bag, and have noted if I have transgressed anything unwillingly. Therefore, the testimonies which he set forth from the words of the holy man Job, we have shown, as we were able, how they are to be received. Yet he did not resolve what he proposed that the same Job had said: For who is clean from sin? not even an infant whose life upon the earth is of a single day.
'Again they are wont to propose,' he says, 'Every man is a liar.' Nor did he resolve this which was proposed by himself against himself; but by rehearsing other testimonies, as though contrary, he left the divine oracles in strife among those who do not understand Holy Scripture. For he says: 'To whom it must be answered that in the book of Numbers it is written: A truthful man; and of holy Job it is read thus: There was a man dwelling in the region of Ausitis by the name of Job, truthful, without crime, righteous, a worshipper of God, abstaining from every evil thing.' I wonder that he dared to set forth this testimony, where it is said: abstaining from every evil thing, since he would have this understood of every sin, whereas he had said above that sin is an evil act, not a thing.
Let him remember, then, that even if it be an act, it can be called a thing. But he abstains from every evil thing who never consents at all to the sin without which he is not, or, if he is at times pressed, is not overwhelmed; just as a stronger wrestler, even though he is at times gripped, does not for that reason lose his position of superiority. It is indeed read that a man is without crime, it is read that he is without complaint, but it is not read that he is without sin except the Son of Man, one and the same only Son of God. 'Likewise,' he says, 'in Job himself: And He held fast the marvel of a truthful man; likewise in Solomon concerning wisdom: Lying men will not be mindful of her; but truthful men shall be found in her; likewise in the Apocalypse: And in their mouth was found no lie;
they are without spot.' To these we also reply, admonishing how a man is to be called truthful through the grace and truth of God, who by himself is without doubt a liar. Whence it is said: Every man is a liar. This also is the meaning of that testimony concerning wisdom which he himself set forth: But truthful men shall be found in her — men who without doubt will be found to be liars not in her, but in themselves; just as it is: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. When he said 'darkness,' he did not add 'in the Lord'; but when he said 'light,' he certainly added 'in the Lord,' because in themselves they could not be light. So that he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. But those in the Apocalypse are for this reason called such,
namely that no lie was found in their mouth, is because they did not say that they had no sin. For if they were to say this, they would deceive themselves, and the truth would not be in them; and further, if the truth were not in them, a lie would be found in their mouth. But if, out of envy, being without sin, they were to say that they were not without sin, this very thing would be a lie, and it would be false that it was said: No lie was found in their mouth. Therefore they are without spot for this reason, because, just as they themselves forgave their debtors, so they, God forgiving them, were cleansed. Behold, we have expounded, as we were able, how the testimonies which he cited for his cause are to be received. But he himself — how is that to be received which is written: Every man is a liar?
He by no means resolved it, nor will he be able to resolve it unless the error be corrected by which he believes that a man, without the help of the grace of God, can be truthful through his own will alone. Thus he proposed the other question that follows, and did not resolve it; nay rather, he increased it and made it more difficult by proposing against himself a proven testimony: There is none that does good, there is not so much as one — and by adducing, as it were, contrary testimonies by which he might show that there are men who do good. This indeed he showed, but it is one thing not to do good, another not to be without sin, even if a man does many good things. Wherefore those testimonies which he set forth are not against that which is said, that in this life there is no man without sin.
But he himself did not show in what sense it was said: There is none that does good, there is not so much as one. For he says: 'Holy David said: Hope in the Lord, and do goodness.' This is a precept, not a deed. And this precept those did not indeed keep, 'of whom it was said: There is none that does good, there is not so much as one.' He also says that holy Tobit said: Fear not, my son; we have led a poor life, but we shall have many good things, if we fear God and depart from every sin and do well. Most truly then will a man have many good things, when he shall have departed from every sin; for then he will have no evils, so that he need not say: Deliver us from evil.
Although even now everyone who makes progress, progressing with right intention, departs from every sin, and becomes so much the more distant from it the nearer he is to the fullness and perfection of righteousness, because concupiscence itself — which is the sin dwelling in our flesh — even though it still remains in our mortal members, nevertheless does not cease to be diminished in those who make progress. It is therefore one thing to depart from every sin, which is now in the doing; another to have departed from every sin, which will be so in that perfection then. But nevertheless both he who has already departed and he who is still departing must not be denied to do good. In what sense, therefore, was it said:
There is none that does good, there is not so much as one — which he proposed and left unresolved — save that that Psalm blames a certain people, among whom there was not even one who did good, while they wish to remain sons of men and not to be sons of God, by whose grace a man becomes good so as to do good? For here we must take it of that good of which it says there: God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is any that understands or seeks after God. This good, then — namely to seek after God — there was none that did it, there was not so much as one, but among that kind of men which is predestined to destruction. For upon these the foreknowledge of God looked down and pronounced sentence.
'Likewise they say,' he says, 'that which the Saviour said: Why do you call Me good? None is good save God alone.' This proposition likewise he by no means resolved, but set over against it, as it were from the opposite side, other testimonies by which he might prove that there is also a good man. For he said that it must be answered by what the same Lord says elsewhere: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and again: Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the evil. 'And elsewhere it is written,' he says, 'Good things were created for the good from the beginning; and again: They who are good shall be inhabitants of the earth.' To this it must be so answered that this too may be understood, in what sense it was said: None is good save one, God.
Either because all things that are created, although God made them very good, yet compared to the Creator are not even good — compared to whom they even are not; for most exaltedly and in a certain proper manner He said of Himself: I am who I am. Thus it was said: None is good save one, God, in the same way as it was said of John: He was not that Light, although the Lord calls him a lamp, as also the disciples, to whom He said: You are the light of the world; no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel;
but in comparison with that Light which is the true Light that enlightens every man coming into this world, he was not that Light — or else because even the sons of God themselves, compared to themselves as they will be in that eternal perfection, are so good that as yet they are even evil. This I would not dare to say of them — for who would dare to call them evil whose Father is God? — unless the Lord Himself said: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! For when He said 'your Father,' He certainly showed that they were already sons of God, whom nevertheless He did not keep silent to be still evil.
He, however, did not resolve how both these are good and yet none is good save God alone. Whence that man was admonished, who had asked what good he might do, that he should seek Him by whose grace he might be good, for whom to be good is this very thing, to be, because being unchangeably good He cannot at all be evil. 'Likewise they say,' he says, 'Who shall glory that he has a chaste heart?' And to this he responded with many testimonies, wishing to show that there can be in a man a chaste heart; nor does he say how that is to be received which he proposed as said against himself: Who shall glory that he has a chaste heart? — lest the divine Scripture, in this testimony and in those by which he responds, seem to be adverse to itself.
But we, in reply to this, say that the words followed thus: Who shall glory that he has a chaste heart? because there went before: When the righteous King shall sit upon His throne. For with however great a righteousness a man is endowed, he ought to consider lest something in him which he himself does not see be found to be blameworthy, when the righteous King shall sit upon His throne, whose scrutiny sins cannot escape — not even those of which it is said: Who understands his faults? When, therefore, the righteous King shall sit upon His throne, who shall glory that he has a chaste heart, or who shall glory that he is clean from sin, unless perhaps those who wish to glory in their own righteousness, not in the mercy of the Judge Himself?
Nevertheless those things also are true which he subjoined in his reply: what the Saviour says in the Gospel: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; and what David says: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent of hands and pure in heart; and elsewhere: Do good, O Lord, to the good and to the upright in heart; likewise in Solomon: Good is the substance in which there is no sin in the conscience; likewise there: Turn away from sin and direct your hands, and cleanse your heart from every sin; likewise in the epistle of John: If our heart does not reproach us, we have confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we shall receive from Him.
For this is accomplished by the will, by believing, hoping, loving, chastising the body, giving alms, forgiving injuries, praying earnestly, and imploring strength to make progress, and truthfully saying: Forgive us, as we also forgive; and: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. By this precisely it is accomplished that the heart be cleansed and every sin be taken away, and that whatever the righteous Judge, when He shall sit upon His throne, shall find hidden and less cleansed, may be remitted by His mercy, so that by the sight of God the whole may be rendered sound and clean; for judgment is without mercy, but to him who has not shown mercy; but mercy exults over judgment. And if this were not so, what hope would there be?
Since, when the righteous King shall sit upon His throne, who shall glory that he has a chaste heart? or who shall glory that he is clean from sin? Then therefore, through His mercy, the righteous, fully and perfectly cleansed, shall shine forth in the kingdom of their Father as the sun; then fully and perfectly the Church shall be not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. For then also she shall be truly glorious. For when he did not merely say that He might present the Church to Himself not having spot or wrinkle, but added 'glorious,' he sufficiently signified when she shall be without spot and wrinkle or any such thing: then indeed, when she shall be glorious.
For not now, amid such great evils, amid such great scandals, amid so great a mingling of the worst of men, amid so great reproaches of the ungodly, is she to be called glorious, because kings serve her, where there is more perilous and greater temptation; but rather then shall she be glorious, when that shall come to pass which the same Apostle says: When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory. For since the Lord Himself, according to the form of a servant, through which as Mediator He joined Himself to the Church, was not glorified except by the glory of the resurrection — whence it was said: But the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified — how is His Church to be called glorious before her resurrection?
He therefore now cleanses her by the washing of water in the word, washing away past sins and driving from her the dominion of the evil angels; then, perfecting her healings, He makes her come forth into that glorious state without spot and wrinkle. For whom He predestined, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. In this mystery I think it was said: Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am consummated — that is, I am perfected. For He said this in the person of His body, which is the Church, putting 'days' for distinct and ordered periods of time, which He also signified in His own resurrection by the space of three days. But I think there is a difference between the upright in heart and the pure in heart.