(Admonition 34.) Those are to be admonished in one way who, though the faults be very small, yet frequently do what is unlawful; and in another way those who guard themselves from small sins, but sometimes are plunged into grave ones. Those are to be admonished who, though in the least matters, yet frequently transgress, that they should by no means consider of what kind, but how many, are the things they commit. For if, weighing them, they despise to fear their deeds, they ought to dread them when they count them. For the deep gulfs of rivers are filled by small but countless drops of rain. And that which the storm openly raging does, the bilge-water secretly increasing also accomplishes.
And small too are the wounds that break out on the limbs through the itch; but when their multitude occupies them innumerably, it kills the life of the body just as one grievous wound inflicted on the breast. Hence indeed it is written: 'He that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little' (Ecclus. XIX, 1). For he who neglects to weep for and to shun the least sins falls wholly from the state of righteousness, not indeed suddenly, but part by part. Those are to be admonished who frequently transgress in the least things, to consider anxiously that sometimes one sins worse in a small fault than in a greater one. For the greater a fault is, the more quickly it is recognized to be a fault, and so the more quickly it is amended; but the lesser, while it is deemed as though nothing, is the more perilously retained in use the more securely.
Hence it commonly comes to pass that the mind, accustomed to light evils, does not shudder even at grave ones, and, fortified through faults, arrives at a certain authority in wickedness; and it despises to be afraid in greater matters the more it has learned by not fearing to sin in the least. But on the contrary, those are to be admonished who guard themselves from small things, but sometimes are plunged into grave ones, to detect themselves anxiously; for while their heart is exalted over the least things they have kept, they are devoured by the very pit of their elation for the perpetrating of graver ones; and while outwardly they subdue small things to themselves, but inwardly swell up through empty glory, by the languor of pride they lay low even outwardly, through greater evils, the mind conquered within.
Those, therefore, are to be admonished who guard themselves from small things, but sometimes are plunged into grave ones, lest, where they think themselves to stand outwardly, there they fall inwardly, and lest, according to the retribution of the strict Judge, the elation of a lesser righteousness become the way to the pit of a graver fault. For those who, vainly elated, ascribe the keeping of the least good to their own powers, are justly forsaken and overwhelmed by greater faults; and by falling they learn that it was not their own that they stood, so that the immense evils may restrain the heart which the least goods exalt.
They are to be admonished to consider that both in graver faults they bind themselves with deep guilt, and yet very often in the small things they keep they sin worse; because in the former they do iniquitous deeds, while through the latter they pretend before men that they are not iniquitous. Whence it comes to pass that when they perpetrate greater evils, it is a matter of open iniquity before God; and when they keep small good things, it is a matter of feigned holiness before men. Hence it is that it is said to the Pharisees: 'Straining out a gnat, but swallowing a camel' (Matth. XXIII, 24). As if it were openly said: You discern the least evils, but devour the greater. Hence it is that they are again rebuked by the mouth of Truth when they hear: 'Ye tithe mint, and dill, and cummin;'
'and have left the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith' (Matth. XXIII, 23). For it is not to be heard carelessly that, while He said that the least things were tithed, He chose indeed the last of herbs, but yet sweet-smelling ones to mention; that He might plainly show that dissemblers, when they keep small things, seek to spread abroad from themselves the odour of a holy reputation; and although they neglect to fulfil the greatest matters, yet they observe those least things which far and wide give forth fragrance to human judgment. CHAPTER XXXIV. (Admonition 35.) Those are to be admonished in one way who do not even begin good things, and in another way those who in no wise complete the things they have begun.
For those who do not even begin good things must first not have built up for them the things they may wholesomely love, but rather have destroyed those things in which they wickedly busy themselves. For they do not follow the things they hear of but have not tried, unless they first detect how pernicious are the things they have experienced; for neither does he desire to be lifted up who does not even know that he has fallen, and he who does not feel the pain of a wound does not seek the remedies of health. First, therefore, must be shown how vain are the things they love, and then at length must be vigilantly intimated how useful are the things they pass over. First let them see the things to be fled which they love, and afterwards without difficulty let the things they flee be recognized as worthy to be loved.
For they the better receive things untried, if of things tried they truly learn whatever of discussion they hear. Then, therefore, with full desire they learn to seek true goods, when with sure judgment they have detected that they held false ones to no purpose. Let them hear, then, that present goods are both quick to pass away from delight, and yet, on their account, are destined to remain without passing away unto vengeance; because both now what one wills is withdrawn from the unwilling, and then what one grieves over is reserved for the unwilling unto punishment. And so let them be wholesomely terrified by the very things by which they are hurtfully delighted;
so that, while the stricken mind, beholding the deep losses of its ruin, detects that it has come to the precipice, it may call back its step behind it, and, dreading the things it had loved, may learn to love the things it despised. Hence it is that it is said to Jeremiah, sent to preaching: 'Behold, I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant' (Jer. I, 10). Because unless he first destroyed perverse things, he could not usefully build up right ones; unless he rooted out the thorns of vain love from the hearts of his hearers, he would plant in them the words of holy preaching in vain.
Hence it is that Peter first overthrew, that he might afterwards build up, when he by no means admonished the Jews what they should now do, but rebuked them concerning the things they had done, saying: 'Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as you also know: him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up, having loosed the sorrows of hell' (Acts II, 22-24); that indeed, being brought low by the knowledge of their cruelty, the more anxiously they sought the building up of holy preaching, the more usefully they might hear it. Whence also at once they answer: 'What shall we do, men and brethren?' To whom it is presently said:
'Do penance, and be baptized every one of you' (Acts II, 37, 38). These words of edification they would assuredly have despised, had they not first wholesomely found the ruin of their own destruction. Hence it is that Saul, when the light sent from heaven shone upon him, heard not now what he ought rightly to do, but what he had wickedly done. For when, cast down, he inquired, saying: 'Who art thou, Lord?' the reply is straightway given: 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest' (Acts IX, 4 ff.; XXII, 8 ff.). And when suddenly he added: 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' immediately is subjoined: 'Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do' (ibid.).
Behold, the Lord, speaking from heaven, reproves the deeds of His persecutor, and yet did not straightway show what things were to be done. Behold, the whole fabric of his elation had already collapsed, and after his ruin, humbled, he sought to be built up; and while his pride is destroyed, yet the words of edification are held back; namely, that the monstrous persecutor might lie long destroyed, and afterwards rise up the more solidly in good things, the more thoroughly he had first, overthrown, fallen from his former error. Those, therefore, who have as yet begun to do no good deeds are to be overthrown by the hand of correction from the rigidity of their former depravity, that they may afterwards be raised up to the state of right operation; because we also cut down high timber from the forest for this purpose, that we may raise it up into the roofs of a building;
but yet it is not straightway placed in the fabric, so that of course its vicious greenness may first be dried out, of which the more the moisture is boiled out in the lowest places, the more solidly is it raised to the highest. On the contrary, those are to be admonished who in the least degree complete the good things they have begun, that with cautious circumspection they may consider that, while they do not finish what they have proposed, they also pluck up the very things they had begun. For if that which seems fit to be carried out does not grow through anxious intention, even what had been well done decreases. For in this world the human soul is, as it were, after the manner of a ship ascending against the current of a river: it is by no means permitted to stay still in one place, because it slips back to the lowest unless it strives toward the highest.
If, therefore, the hand of the worker does not lift up the good things begun to their perfection, the very slackening of working fights against that which has been wrought. Hence it is that it is said through Solomon: 'He that is soft and dissolute in his work is the brother of him that wasteth his own works' (Prov. XVIII, 9). Because, namely, he who does not strictly follow up the good things begun imitates, by the dissoluteness of negligence, the hand of the destroyer. Hence it is said to the Church of Sardis by the angel: 'Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which were ready to die; for I find not thy works full before my God' (Apoc. III, 2). Because, therefore, his works had not been found full before his God, he foretold that the rest also, which had been done, were about to die.
For if that which is dead in us is not kindled to life, that also is extinguished which is held as though yet living. They are to be admonished to weigh that it might have been more tolerable not to have taken up the way of righteousness than, having taken it up, to turn back. For unless they looked behind, they would not languish with any torpor toward the study they had begun. Let them hear, then, what is written: 'It had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than, after having known it, to turn back' (II Peter II, 21). Let them hear what is written: 'I would thou wert cold or hot; but because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth' (Apoc. III, 15). For he is hot who both takes up and completes good studies;
but he is cold who does not even begin what ought to be completed. And just as one passes from cold through warmth to heat, so from heat through warmth one returns to cold. Whoever, therefore, having lost the cold of unbelief, lives, but by no means, the warmth being overcome, grows so as to be fervent, without doubt, in despairing of heat, while he lingers in a hurtful warmth, he acts so as to grow cold. But just as before warmth there is hope in the cold, so after cold the warmth is in despair. For he who is as yet in his sins does not lose the confidence of conversion; but he who has grown lukewarm after conversion has withdrawn even the hope which might have been of a sinner. Either to be hot, therefore, or cold is required of every man, lest, being lukewarm, he be vomited out;
namely, that either, being not yet converted, he may still afford hope of conversion concerning himself, or, being already converted, he may glow in the virtues; lest he be vomited out as lukewarm, who from the heat he had proposed returns through torpor to a hurtful cold.