反亞流神學文集 第 6 章 第 5/24 段

Let the virgin of Christ therefore compare herself to herself, and that she may attain to perfect health, she ought not to flatter herself over another's graver peril, but should take care to grieve over her own infirmity: with which that man grieved continually who said: 'I go mourning all the day long, for my soul is filled with illusions, and there is no health in my flesh' (Ps. 37:7-8). And to show that humility ought to be joined to this grief, he at once added following: 'I am bowed down, and am humbled exceedingly.' And to teach thoroughly that this was done by him from a desire of health, he added: 'I roared by reason of the groaning of my heart'; and: 'All my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee' (Ibid., 10).

But this man who said these things confesses that he was once exalted as though by the virtue of health, and in that he experienced the peril of a most grievous infirmity; for he says in another psalm: 'And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved' (Ps. 29:7). And because in saying this he had been forsaken by the help of divine grace, and had failed, troubled in his own infirmity, he goes on saying: 'Lord, by thy good will thou gavest strength to my beauty; thou didst turn away thy face from me, and I was troubled' (Ibid., 8). And to show that the help of divine grace, although already possessed, must be sought humbly without ceasing, he adds this also:

'Unto thee, O Lord, will I cry, and unto my God will I make supplication' (Ibid., 9). CHAPTER 21. But no one entreats and asks who does not recognize that he either has something less, or that what he has he can preserve only by his own strength. 33. Whosoever, therefore, both asks a benefit and craves help, it is necessary that he acknowledge both the evidence of his own weakness and of his need; and therefore our need asks that what it does not have be given to it, our weakness asks that what it has received be preserved for it. Need hears: 'For what hast thou that thou didst not receive?' (1 Cor. 4:7). And: 'A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven' (John 3:27). Weakness hears:

'Commit thy way unto the Lord, and hope in him, and he shall bring it to pass' (Ps. 36:5); it hears also from Virtue itself: 'Without me ye can do nothing' (John 15:5); it hears from the prophet: 'Except the Lord keep the city, they watch in vain that keep it' (Ps. 126:1). Let need therefore say to him who for our sakes became poor, though he was rich, that we through his poverty might be rich (2 Cor. 8:9); let it say, 'Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments' (Ps. 118:73); let weakness also say to him who was crucified for us through weakness, yet liveth by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4); and who was so made weak for our sins that he himself is ever the power of God and the wisdom of God; let it say:

'Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of the eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings, from the face of the wicked who have afflicted me' (Ps. 16:8-9). CHAPTER 22. The saints too in this life have afflictions of soul, on account of intruding thoughts. 34. Here the souls of all who are already justified and living by faith are grievously afflicted; nay, only those souls understand in what affliction they are placed, into whom the true light is infused, which lighteth every man that cometh into this world. For they see that, although by the gift of grace they are free from the contagion of evil works, they are nevertheless held captive by the variety of thoughts. For 'who shall glory that he hath a chaste heart? or who shall glory that he is clean from sins?' (Prov.

Prov. 20:9)? Let us attend to what a great and just man said: 'For in many things we all offend' (Jas. 3:2); and he who said: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us' (1 John 1:8); he too who delighted in the law of God after the inward man, but saw another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members, until the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord should deliver him, conscious of his own wretchedness, from the body of this death (Rom. 7:22-23ff.). 35.

From this law of sin, therefore, which is in our members, no strong man's virtue, no wise man's industry, but the grace of the Savior alone sets us free, which is given freely to none but the humble: 'For God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble' (Jas. 4:6). Nevertheless, this grace, as it is given to none but the humble, so a man cannot be humble unless it be given. For it is given that they may begin to be humble, and given that they may not cease to be humble. The grace of God, therefore, makes both that we be humble, and that we be able to persevere as humble. For he who was able to give what we did not have, is himself able to keep what we have received. CHAPTER 23. Precepts for holy virgins drawn from the Scriptures. 36.

Accordingly, that in you there may be true humility, which is the inner virginity of virginity, you are not ignorant how great a poverty of spirit ought to be in the sacred virgin, that she may deserve to receive the kingdom of heaven; how great meekness, that she may possess that land of the living in which David with full assurance trusted he would see the good things of the Lord (Ps. 26:13). With how great caution too the mournful joy of the present age is to be shunned by the virgin, for whom, ever awaiting in this life the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom, there should rather be mourning out of spiritual desire, that she may obtain the inmost and sure consolation. How great a hunger and thirst after righteousness the virgin of Christ ought to endure, that she may deserve to rejoice in the full satiety of eternal sweetness;

with what bowels of mercy she should also be clothed, that she may be able to find mercy in the sight of God; how great a zeal for cleansing the heart ought to be in the sacred virgin, that she may deserve with happy eyes to see that Bridegroom, fairer in form than the sons of men (Ps. 44:3), to whom the virginity of the flesh cannot attain, unless it be supported by a humble heart with the virtue of inner virginity. How great a virtue of peaceful quietness the virgin of Christ ought to possess, that, clad in spiritual arms, she may repress the wars of carnal desires. With such jewels does your Bridegroom desire you to be adorned and to delight, he who betrothed you to himself by faith, established you by hope, joined you by charity. CHAPTER 24. The grace of God goes before every good work in us.

The rich Bridegroom of virgins. How virginity is to be preserved. Conclusion. 37. Indeed, you would not have been spiritually wedded, by the truth of faith and the integrity of the flesh, to such a Bridegroom, unless, despising the vanity of the age, you had loved him; nor yet would you have been at all going to love him, unless you had been prevented by the free love of the Bridegroom. And I have said that you were prevented, not only by the love with which he loved you, but also by the love which he freely poured into you that you might love him. Therefore all whatever of holy love toward your Bridegroom that you have in yourself, you indeed have in yourself, but not from yourself.

The most rich Bridegroom received you poor; whatever of good you have in you, you have not from yourself, but from him, and whatever you do not yet have, you will then have, when the Bridegroom shall have given himself, who has already given by free bounty all the good things that you have. To him, therefore, humbly give thanks for what you have received, of him humbly ask for what is to be received. For you have such a rich Bridegroom that he neither lacks the things he has given, and abounds to bestow far better things than he has given. Consider these things always with humble compunction, and preserve the virginity which you have vowed to God, not only by integrity of the flesh, but also by humility of heart.

Always begging from him the keeping of your virginity and humility, who will not slumber nor sleep, keeping Israel (Ps. 120:4). 38. Behold, holy daughter, insofar as the Lord has granted, I have written to you a brief little book concerning virginity and humility; choosing rather to send you, who desire it, a few things, than to deny to the bride of the Lord the feeble office of my service. LETTER IV. TO PROBA. On prayer to God, and compunction of heart. To the lady most greatly venerable in Christ, and to be named with all honor, the handmaid of God, his daughter PROBA, FULGENTIUS, a servant of the servants of Christ, greeting in the Lord. CHAPTER 1. The humility of Proba to be imitated by all. 1.

I received your holiness's letter with all the joy of my heart, as one displaying by sure tokens not only the zeal of good work, but also the humility of your heart. Well, then, holy daughter, to the praise of God, you are not lifted up by the wind of pride over your good works, but you testify yourself weak and infirm for fulfilling the Lord's precepts. So ought everyone to feel who desires to be not a forgetful hearer of the word of God, but a doer of the work (Jas. 1:25); who looks to receive his reward not here from men, but from God in the day of recompense; who is not carried away in the present time by the vanity of empty glory, but is kindled by the holy fire of divine love. For this fire Christ came to send upon the earth (Luke

Luke 12:49), that he may burn up every seed of pride, and cast into the humbled heart the fervor of holy compunction. So it comes to pass that in our sins we truly accuse ourselves, and in our good works we praise God with true humility of heart; that we assign to him the things which his loving-kindness bestows on us, and impute to ourselves the things in which our infirmity provokes him. CHAPTER 2. Prayer and compunction of heart are to be begged from God, that he may infuse them. How God is the author of our good work. 2. And because he is frequently offended by us, it is necessary that he be appeased by frequent prayer and continual compunction of heart. For compunction of heart excites the affection of prayer, humble prayer merits divine help;

compunction of heart looks upon its own wounds, but prayer craves the remedy of healing. And who is sufficient for these things? For who could pray fittingly, unless the Physician himself infuse the beginning of spiritual desire? or who could persevere in prayer, unless God increase in us that which he has begun, nourish that which he has sown, and bring to the effect of perfection, by his following mercy, that which by his preceding mercy he freely bestowed on the unworthy? For thus can the merit of good work not perish from us, if God, the author and helper, be always glorified in the work. 3.

Nor let us think that he is to be reckoned the author of good work in such a way as if God, only at the very beginning of creation, so gave to human nature the faculty of good work, that, with his help withdrawn, nature by itself alone could will or do any good whatsoever; since man could not fulfill this even in the very first man by his own effort alone, when he had not yet been corrupted by sin. How then shall infirm nature be able, without the aid of the Physician, to repair its own soundness, which, while it was sound, was unable to keep its own soundness? 4. Let not earth and ashes therefore boast, that in his life he cast away his inmost parts; nor let the wounded man, over that which he deems sound in himself, exult as though sound;

but let him consider the putrefaction of his own wounds with the humility of a compunct heart, so that, crying out with the prophet: 'My wounds are corrupt and grown worse, because of my foolishness' (Ps. 37:6), he may be able to receive the remedy, not by his own merit, but by the free gift of divine loving-kindness. For what has a man that he did not receive? And if he received it, why does he glory, as if he had not received it? (1 Cor. 4:7). God alone, therefore, is able to give to all whom he will that whereby true salvation may be acquired; and therefore he alone is able to preserve in the receiver what he has given: 'For except the Lord keep the city, they watch in vain that keep it' (Ps. 126:1).

He therefore will not suffer the stealthy entrance of the most wicked plunderer, who shall not lack the help of the watchful Lord: for he himself will not slumber nor sleep, who keeps Israel (Ps. 121:4). CHAPTER 3. In this life we ought always to make progress. A man cannot of himself, apart from God's grace, work any good, nor even will it. 5. Now just as one who journeys toward his homeland always has, until he arrives, a place to walk, so also we, so long as, set in this mortal body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord, the present life is to us a way, in which we always have where we may make progress, until, God bringing us on, we may be able to arrive at that eternal homeland of blessed immortality.

It is therefore of great blessedness so to live in the present age that every faithful person may give heed to spiritual progress, yet may not ever proudly assign this to his own strength, but with humble heart may ask of God the continual keeping of the gift received, from whom flows not only the beginning, but also the perfection of all good will. 6. For neither can the preaching of the apostle James be nullified by any argumentation, when he says: 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights' (Jas. 1:17). Nor can any man, whether for thinking or for working any good whatsoever, be sufficient, unless he be helped by the free gift of divine assistance:

For it is God who works in his own both to will and to accomplish according to his good will (Phil. 2:13), as the Vessel of Election affirms; and by his teaching we have come to know that we are 'not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God' (2 Cor. 3:5). He therefore supplies us with every sufficiency of good, whose fullness is not diminished when he gives, who kindly bestows upon us every good that we may have it; and he himself remains full in himself without any diminution: a thing which neither the angelic nature can bestow, nor the human, and thus no created substance, however spiritual it be. For everything that has been created, just as it did not exist before it was created, so before it received it could not possess;

and just as it cannot subsist without the operation of him who made it, so it cannot will or do good, unless God deigns continually to help. For from him is the beginning of a good will; from him the capacity for good work; from him perseverance in a good manner of life; from him is given, in this present age, the true felicity of the heart, and in the future the felicity of eternal reward: so that those may be happy without end who are now humble without pretense, who do not seduce themselves with vain conceit, but behold the perils of the present life with fear and trembling; a life in which there can be no full security for the good, seeing that adversity more easily creeps in just when prosperity fraudulently displays itself. Chapter IV.

No one can escape the snares of the devil by himself, without the grace of God. — 7. There is no time in this life in which the enemy does not set a trap for men; and no one can escape his snares by his own powers, save him whom God has deigned to deliver by his grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore the Vessel of Election, when he felt himself taken captive in the law of sin, cried out, saying: 'Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom. 7:24). For this reason too the prophet proclaims that his feet are to be plucked from the snare, not by his own strength but by the divine gift, saying: 'My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare' (Ps.

24:15). And in another place, in the person of the saints whom the Lord has deigned to deliver from the snare of this world and to translate to eternal security and gladness, it is said thus: 'Our soul has escaped like a sparrow from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are delivered' (Ps. 123:7). Chapter V. No one is secure in this life. We must fight with prayer and contrition of heart. — 8. Nevertheless, that each one of us may recognize that his soul dwells amid the adversities and snares of the enemy, and may never grow numb in this world through a harmful security, the same prophet says: 'I go mourning all the day long; for my soul is filled with delusions, and there is no soundness in my flesh' (Ps. 37:7).

But what is it to go mourning all the day long, but to be saddened throughout the whole time of this life by the remembrance of sins? For in what is the soul filled with delusions, save when it is shaken by the frequent temptation of carnal desires? To which, even if it does not yield by consent, it grows faint with weariness. For although the Lord ever supplies to his own in the contest his aid, that they may not fail, yet our mortal nature, weighed down by the burden of its own weakness, is permitted to grow weary, so that when it finds in itself no support of virtue, it may quickly run to beg the help of the divine mercy. 9. Here, then, we conquer the adversary at that time, if we fight with tears, and prayers, and continual humility of heart.

For it is written that 'the prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and the Lord does not depart until he hears' (Sir. 35:21). Therefore the weeping of the humble is the mighty destruction of carnal concupiscence. The tears that come from the compunction of the heart both conquer the enemy and win for us the gift of triumphal gladness. 'For they that go forth and weep, sowing their seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them' (Ps. 125:5-6). How well, moreover, the holy prophet teaches that the seeds of good works are to be watered with a river of tears! For all seeds do not germinate unless they be watered; nor does fruit proceed from the seed if it be deprived of the help of waters.

Accordingly, we too, if we wish to reap the fruits of our seeds, let us not cease to water our seeds with tears, which are to be poured out more from the heart than from the body. For this reason it is said to us through the prophet, that we should rend our hearts and not our garments (Joel 2:13); which we can then do, namely when we remember that we ourselves frequently transgress, if not in deed, at least in thought. For 'the earthly habitation presses down the mind that ponders many things' (Wis. 9:15); and our earth does not cease to bring forth thorns and thistles for us (Gen. 3:17-18), nor can we come to eat our bread unless we have been worn out by the sweat of the brow and by toil. Chapter VI.

Our weariness in resisting concupiscence. What it is to dash the little one of Babylon against the rock. — 10. For we are wearied with sweat while we struggle against our own desires; in the conquering of which the difficulty of the contest is the greater, because the adversity of carnal concupiscence is generated for the fighting man not from outside, from another, but from within, from himself; and this brings weariness to human frailty as it is born, though it be conquered by the aid of divine power. 'For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to one another, so that we do not do the very things we would' (Gal. 5:17).

Hence it is that we are not yet wholly subject to God, because there arises from us that which resists the divine command. For although by the grace of God there is in us a good will which renders us humble to God, yet there is not lacking in us the springing-up of depraved desire, which makes us contumacious. 11. Through the grace of God, therefore, we are already in part subject to God; but through our own fault we are still in part not subject. On this account it is said to the Hebrews that not yet are all things subject to Christ; for thus he says: 'For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subject to him' (Heb. 2:8).

We are subject to God, therefore, in that, with him working in us, we delight in the law of God according to the inner man. But we are not yet subject in that we see another law in our members warring against the law of our mind, and taking us captive in the law of sin which is in our members (Rom. 7:22-23). We are subject to God, because by his compassion we are rescued from temptation; for to him we sing: 'By you I shall be rescued from temptation' (Ps. 17:30); but we are not yet wholly subject, because 'the life of man upon earth is a temptation' (Job 7:1). We are subject to God, inasmuch as he directs our steps according to his word, that no iniquity may have dominion over us (Ps. 118:133);

but we are not yet wholly subject, because 'in many things we all offend' (James 3:2). We are subject inasmuch as, by his gift, walking in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (2 Cor. 10:3); but we are not yet wholly subject, because although we have it from the gift of God that we serve the law of God with the mind, yet we have it from the remnants of sin that we serve the law of sin with the flesh. For which reason the Apostle says: 'So then, I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin' (Rom. 7:25). 12. For everyone who now lives justly indeed serves the law of sin with the flesh, while he feels carnal concupiscence born in himself; but with the mind he serves the law of God, because he does not consent to that same carnal concupiscence.

We serve the law of sin with the flesh, while the sons of Babylon, being born, disturb our soul; but we serve the law of God with the mind, when those same little ones of Babylon are dashed against the rock. For Babylon is interpreted 'confusion,' whose daughter is every carnal desire which the confusion of the heart generates. And as long as we are pilgrims in the body away from the Lord, this confusion keeps forcing its offspring upon us. For from that very confusion is born every depraved thought, which is then, while but a little one, dashed against the rock, when by the swift remembrance and the help of Christ it is overcome and trodden down. Chapter VII. We ought both to give thanks and to pour out continual prayers to God. — 13.

Therefore, although we have wherefore we ought to give thanks to God, because he has subjected us to himself by his free mercy, that we might be humble, yet we also have wherefore we ought to knock at the divine ears with continual prayers; for as long as we are in this mortal body, just as we cannot be without sin, so we are not yet able to render perfect humility to the divine commands. On this account thanks indeed are to be given to God, inasmuch as he grants us to work well, lest we prove ungrateful for his gifts; and prayer is to be offered that we may advance to better things, lest we fall into deadly pride, should we deem our manner of life perfect in every part. Chapter VIII. We must weep in this life, that we may live at rest in the other.

What blessedness there is in heaven. — 14. Accordingly, let us groan and weep before the Lord who made us (Ps. 94:6), that he may deliver us from the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of the world, which is not from the Father but is from the world (1 John 2:16), and may lead us to that subjection in which nothing in us resists from the state of mortality, but by the gift of immortality all whatsoever is in us becomes subject to God. For then there will be in us true, perfect, and lofty humility, when in neither our flesh nor our mind any depraved desire remains; when neither will the spirit be wearied by thoughts, nor the body worn out by labors:

there will be no anxiety of conflict, but perfect security of peace; there will be for us no want of righteousness, but a full satiety with delight. For there we shall be blessed with perfect exaltation, because we shall be perfectly subject to God in the humility of flesh and spirit. There love will not be less than our praise, nor praise inferior to love. For our praise will be full, because then in us there will be the perfect love of God and of neighbor. Then we shall praise and shall possess, then we shall possess and shall love, then we shall be satisfied with delight, and shall be delighted with satiety. Letter V. To Abbot Eugyppius. On charity and the love of it.

To the most blessed lord, most greatly venerable, and with all the affection of charity most desirable, the holy brother and fellow-presbyter Eugyppius, Fulgentius, a servant of the servants of Christ, greeting in the Lord. Would that, holy brother, so great a faculty seconded my eloquence, that I might find words sufficient to unfold the spiritual sweetness which I perceived from the reading of your letters; and while I wish this and cannot, I recognize that something wondrous has befallen me, seeing that the joy which I drew from your discourses cannot be unfolded in my discourses. For indeed what you wrote to me, after it was discovered and arranged by thought, you so committed to writing that either you wrote it with your own hand or dictated it to a scribe.

Whence, then, has it come to pass that my mouth cannot bring forth in dictation the delight which my heart conceived from the dictation of your mouth? What is this needy opulence or opulent neediness, that speech avails me the less, the more affection urges me on; and that what I speak because I am delighted, I speak less than I am delighted? What, I ask, is this which I wish to signify by speech and cannot? Assuredly it is something which is so signified by bodily speech and pen, yet is possessed not bodily but spiritually. 2. Charity, the first fruit of the spiritual gifts. — Now among the spiritual gifts the first fruit is charity. Whence not out of order did the Vessel of Election so place it: