約伯倫理 第 86 章

In the same place. — And rising up early, he offered holocausts for every one of them. 48. A holocaust of prayer is to be offered for the purifying of each of the virtues. — For we rise up early when, bathed in the light of compunction, we forsake the night of our humanity and open the eyes of the mind to the rays of the true light. And we offer a holocaust for each of the sons when, for each single virtue, we sacrifice to the Lord the victim of our prayer: lest wisdom exalt us; lest understanding, while it runs subtly, go astray; lest counsel, while it multiplies itself, confound; lest fortitude, while it lends confidence, hurl us headlong; lest knowledge, while it knows and loves not, puff us up; lest piety, while it bends itself aside from rectitude, twist us awry;

lest fear, while it trembles more than is just, plunge us into the pit of despair. When, therefore, for each single virtue, that it may be pure, we pour out prayers to the Lord, what else do we do but offer a holocaust for each according to the number of the sons? For a holocaust is called something wholly burnt. To offer a holocaust, therefore, is to kindle the whole mind with the fire of compunction, so that upon the altar of love the heart may burn, and may as it were consume the defilements of thought as the sins of its own offspring. 49. [Old numbering XXXVI.] He does not offer this who does not bridle his inner motions. — But these things they know not how to do, save those who, before their thoughts come forth to action, carefully looking round upon their inner motions, bridle them;

these things they know not how to do, save those who have learned to fortify the mind with manly guard. Whence Ishbosheth is rightly said to have been slain by an unlooked-for death—he who, as sacred Scripture testifies, kept not a doorkeeper (masculine) in his house, but a doorkeeper (feminine), saying: The sons of Rimmon the Berothite, Rechab and Baanah, came in the heat of the day into the house of Ishbosheth, who was sleeping upon his bed at noon. And they entered the house; and the doorkeeper of the house, who was cleansing wheat, fell asleep. Taking ears of wheat, they entered secretly, and struck him in the groin (2 Kings 4:5). The doorkeeper cleanses wheat when the mind's guard, by discerning, separates the virtues from the vices. And if she falls asleep, she admits the plotters to the death of her own lord;

because when the vigilance of discernment ceases, it opens a way for the malignant spirits to slay the soul. They who enter carry off the ears of wheat, because straightway they take away the germs of good thoughts. And they strike him in the groin, because they slay the virtue of the heart by the delight of the flesh. For to strike in the groin is to pierce through the life of the mind by the delight of the flesh. But that Ishbosheth would by no means have succumbed to this death, had he not set a soft guard—that is, a woman—at the entrance of the house, that is, at the approach to the mind. For a strong and manly sense ought to be set at the doors of the heart, one whom neither the sleep of negligence may oppress, nor the error of ignorance deceive. Whence too he was fitly called Ishbosheth, who, having a woman for guard, is stripped bare before the hostile swords.

For Ishbosheth means 'man of confusion.' Now a man of confusion is one who is not fortified by a strong guard of the mind; because, while he supposes himself to be practicing the virtues, the vices creeping in slay him unawares. The approach to the mind, therefore, must be fortified with all virtue, lest at any time the ambushing enemies penetrate it through the crevice of a neglected thought. Hence Solomon says: With all watchfulness keep thy heart, for out of it life proceeds (Prov. 4:23). It is fitting, therefore, that the virtues which we practice we should above all weigh from the origin of the intention, lest they proceed from an evil source, even though the things they display be right. Whence here also it is rightly added: