Pride by humility, the sting of death by death Thou layest low. For Thou knowest how to do good things through the wicked, turning to aid that which was prepared to harm, judging it more powerful to turn injuries to usefulness than to cut away the causes of evils by the root. For how would the signs of Thy benefits be known, if the tokens of the adverse party were not also displayed? Thou therefore, Lord Jesus Christ, who wast so bent down for us that Thou didst deign to become man, suffer not to perish in us that which Thou hast in mercy decreed to assume. Our merit is Thy indulgence; grant what I may offer, keep what Thou mayest require, that Thou mayest be willing to crown what Thou bestowest. Conquer in us the envious power which so deceives that it delights, so delights that it destroys;
a sweet foe, a bitter friend. For Thou knowest how deadly the slippery serpent glides in, how with creeping scales it minutely assails the whole body, and, lest its coming be perceived, leaves no fixed footprint by its sprawling crawl. It envied, alas, peoples so great, when there were but two; and still it pursues, into temporal things, those whom by impious ambition it has made mortal. It entraps itself in that whereby it deceives others, and merits to be corrected by no end, because it must be condemned for the deception of all. Wherefore, lest the wicked destruction grow strong, let it not be able to exercise dominion over us, who never bestowed anything; but let Thy power possess us, which created us. Let it grieve that what it has made has perished, when it shall see us perish whom it desired.
O Lord, since in us there is nothing which Thou mightest reward, but in Thee there is ever what Thou mayest bestow, snatch me from myself and preserve me in Thee. Assail what I have made, and vindicate what Thou hast made. Then shall I be my own, if I shall have been Thine. A way without error, a truth without ambiguity, a life without end—grant me to hate harmful things and to love things profitable. In Thee let me set prosperity, to myself let me always apply adversity, that I may be wise as to how nothing I am without Thee. But of what sort I can be with Thee, let me come to know. Let me understand who I am, that I may have power to attain to that which I am not. For just as we did not begin to exist apart from Thee, so neither without Thee are we able profitably to be. All things no less incline to ruin that have been separated from the tenderness of Thy majesty. But to love Thee is to be saved; to fear Thee, to rejoice;
to find Thee, is to have grown; to lose Thee, is to perish. To serve Thee, finally, is nobler than to lay hold of the kingdoms of the world—and rightly, since from servants we are made sons, from impious men righteous, from captives we are rendered set free. Wherefore, against our sins let the defense of Thy mercy rise up, which by the testimony of its own name is given to the wretched; that, recompensed by a threefold condition, we may feel the Trinity propitious to us. We ask because Thou commandest, we knock because Thou enjoinest; and Thou dost rather wish to confer without end, who ever admonishest that Thou mayest be entreated. O height of tenderness, O unfathomed depth of clemency! Since no one can receive anything if Thou resistest, Thou dost testify that Thou canst suffer a kind of force from our prayers;
and rightly, since from the Judge we ask that we be not summoned to a penal judgment, and through the grace of the Lawgiver we hope to be rescued lest we be condemned by the constitution He has promulgated. To Thee, holy King, we confidently say: forgive our sins and remit our debts. Every creature praises Thee by the goodness of Thy work; we owe Thee that we exist, and we are bound also by being upheld by Thy daily gift. Let us rejoice from this too, O most glorious Lord, that we do not vainly ask for Thy benefits. Temper, O good Craftsman, the instrument of our body, that it may be fitted to the harmony of the mind, and let it neither be so strengthened that it grow proud, nor so weakened that it fail. Thou knowest the things that are truly moderate. So fill Thy vessels with prosperity that no capacity be afforded for adversity.
Let reason rule, let the flesh serve, since it can be brought to pass by Thee alone that Thou canst not be offended by the frailty of the body. But let these things, spoken according to our small measure and not according to the greatness of the matters themselves, suffice; since we have said even more than was demanded of us, and the kindly lights of the truthful Scriptures have briefly and cautiously taught such things. For they were able to speak of these matters without offense who, purified by the divine gift, merited to treat of themselves with a praiseworthy manner of life.