What I am now about to say with great trembling, what you are now about to hear with awe — nay, to proclaim with awe — the angels are astonished at, the powers on high stand aghast, heaven does not contain it, the sun does not behold it, the earth does not bear it, the whole of creation cannot attain to it. What is a mortal breast before these things? What is the feeble mind of man before them? What are the narrow bounds of human sense before this? What is the breath of a human voice before these things? What is a human tongue, soon to fall silent, before this? Paul, when he had seen this invisibly, revealed it by not revealing it, saying: 'Neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him' (1 Corinthians 2:9).
When Isaiah had scarcely grasped this with his hearing — that man could still attain to it — he said, at the hearing: 'Lord, who has believed our report?' (Isaiah 53:1). When Jeremiah had conceived this by divine hearing, he endured the birth-pangs of heavenly perceptions, crying out: 'My belly, my belly! I am pained, and the senses of my heart are troubled' (Jeremiah 4:19). When Habakkuk was pleading this under the breath of the divine Spirit, he said: 'He kept me, and my belly trembled at the voice of the prayer of my lips, and trembling entered into my bones, and my strength was shaken beneath me' (Habakkuk 3:16). Lifted up by the power of God, he felt his own strength give way beneath him. It would take long to pursue the awe over this mystery and to number up the saints' amazement;
time does not permit me to be numbered in this awe, for the onrush of the heavenly birth cannot delay those being born. I say, then — and I summon you, still within the womb, with an inward voice; I forewarn you with provident exhortation — that before you see your mother, you should call upon this One's Father; before the caresses of your mother, you should stretch out and hasten to the Father's kingdom; before you come to your mother's breasts, you should reach the Father's bread. Let neither your mother's need nor the seasons of your age claim anything for themselves in you; but in you let all things answer and run to meet the divine Father, the whole heavenly Author. 'Our Father who art in heaven.'
This is what I trembled to utter, this is what the condition of its own servitude allowed neither any of the heavenly nor of the earthly beings to suspect — that so great an exchange could suddenly come to pass between heaven and earth, between flesh and God: that God should be turned into man, man into God, the Lord into a servant, the servant into a son, and that there should come to be, in an unspeakable manner, one and everlasting kinship of Divinity and humanity. And so great is the condescension of Divinity toward us, that the creature cannot know which it ought most to marvel at: whether that God laid Himself down to our servitude, or that He caught us up to the dignity of His own divinity.
Hence it is that man — who is even divinely adored — is now so inflamed with love for Him that, while still in the womb, he adopts himself as a son by your voice. O blessed are you, to whom it has been given to rule before being born, to reign before living, to come to the glory of God the Father before recognizing the lineage of your own lowliness! Happy the Church, the mother who looks upon you thus, who while remaining a virgin marvels to have begotten sons so great and in such a way. Of old this birth was foreshadowed by preceding examples. Hence it is that Jacob and Esau, twins in the womb, contend over the honor of primacy; they hold back the birth, nor do they desire to see the light before they conquer. Hence it is that John leaps for joy and runs to meet his Author before he proceeds from his mother's womb.
And human offspring thus serve God before they are known to their parents, before they live to the world. What wonder, then, if the Church confesses her divine seedlings, if God confesses His own progeny while still in the womb, to be already of the heavenly race: 'Our Father who art in heaven.' Astonishment arises: Christ calls His mother from the bosom of God the Father, and confesses her on earth; and man calls upon his Father from his mother's womb, and confesses Him in heaven: 'Our Father who art in heaven.' To what has grace suddenly advanced you, O man; to what has the heavenly grace snatched you, to what has the heavenly nature snatched you, that while still placed in flesh and on earth, you no longer knew flesh and earth, saying: 'Our Father who art in heaven'? Let him, therefore, who confesses and believes himself the son of so great a Father, answer his race by his life,
answer the Father in his conduct, and assert by mind and deed that he has attained a heavenly nature. 'Hallowed be Thy name.' Of Him whose race we have begun to be, of Him assuredly we are reckoned to be also the household. And therefore we ask that in us there may persevere the hallowing of that Name, the honor and prerogative of the Name which the loftiness of so great a Begetter has thus exalted. 'Thy kingdom come.' We ask this for Him to whom a kingdom is never lacking and never was lacking — nay, who is Himself His own kingdom, and contains within Himself the whole power of the kingdom. But since He wills that we come to the promised glory of His kingdom, He admonishes us to seek this with all our vows, and wills that we long for it with our whole minds.
For how rash is he who scrutinizes, how ignorant of his race is he who does not dare, who burns and pants when he strives toward the promised kingdom and presses on to the kingdom. 'Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.' Then indeed all is heaven; then the mind of God is one for all; then all are in Christ and Christ is in all, when all savor and do the will of God alone; then all are one — nay, one is all — when the one Spirit of God lives in all. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' As in the psalm: 'Blessed be the Lord day by day' (Psalm 67/68:20), so here 'Give us this day our daily bread' — by 'daily' we mean 'continual.' That is the continual bread which came down from heaven: 'I am the bread who came down from heaven.'
That bread, therefore, is of perfect blessedness. 'This day' — that is, to live even now, in the present, on the food of that bread, by whose perpetuity, which is 'daily,' we shall be fattened in the time to come. 'And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' From the breast of the suppliant a fountain of pardon flows, and to pardon flows back whatever of piety overflows, and pours it upon another; when he grants to himself only as much as he has forgiven another. 'Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.' A merciful man can do much, who contends with God over piety, when he desires that as much be given to him as he has given, as much be granted to him as he has granted. O man, let pardon be always in your breast, if you would not fear your sins.
'And lead us not into temptation.' These words need no interpretation, since temptation is the herald and bitter minister of the devil. But so long as one is confined in this frail body, he necessarily prays that neither may an entrance to temptation lie open against us, nor access be granted to the devil. 'But deliver us from evil': and may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself deliver us from evil and lead us to every good — He who lives and reigns as God now and always, through infinite ages of ages. Amen. The arms which the Lord has shown us against the wickedness of demons we ought surely to retain. 'This kind,' He says, 'is cast out by nothing except by prayer and fasting' (Matthew 17:20). When these are practiced with full faith, it is piety.
Now piety is profitable for all things, having the promise of the present life and of that which is to come (1 Timothy 4:8). Let us therefore examine profitably the fruits of prayer and of fasting, for these are the arms against wicked thoughts. Fasting purges the mind, uplifts the sense, subjects the flesh to the spirit. Fasting makes the heart contrite and humbled, which God does not despise. Fasting scatters the clouds of concupiscence, extinguishes the fires of lusts, and kindles the true light of chastity.
Fasting does not love verbosity, judges the superfluity of riches, spurns pride, commends humility, and grants to man to understand what he himself is — weak and frail; and while he understands himself feeble, he more fittingly seeks and receives the help of God's power — seeking it, moreover, through frequent prayers and supplications. Prayer, indeed, is the refreshment of fasts, and it summons the grace of the Holy Spirit. Prayer softens the hardness of the heart, tempers its austerity, and sweetens the fast. For just as without drink there is no full refreshment, so also fasting without prayer cannot perfectly nourish the soul. And what is prayer but the ascent of the soul from earthly things to heavenly, the seeking of things above, the desire of things invisible?
Let there depart the strife of worldly ways by which the human mind is daily oppressed. Prayer is a conjunction with the Holy Spirit — if only the mind be intent in prayer, as the prophet cries: 'My soul has thirsted for Thee, how manifoldly my flesh for Thee' (Psalm 62/63:2). And what is to be thirsted for, there follows: 'that I might see Thy power' (ibid. 3). Believe me: if the soul of human substance fully thirsts to see the full power of God, and does not, overcome by disgust, dissemble, it shall be filled with spiritual richness and fatness; and thirsting for that visitation of God, it will cry with its own perception in faith: 'My soul has clung after Thee, Thy right hand has upheld me' (ibid. 9). Fasting takes away sloth, removes carnal impediments from the mind.
But persevering prayer joins one to God, and thus, rejoicing, it glories to stand before the Lord. The soul clinging to the Lord begins to have security and freedom; it endures neither dread nor fears. And having received so great a patronage of the right hand of God, how can it be harmed by any power, as it is written, that no one snatches it out of the Father's hand (John 10:29)? This fasting affords, this prayer affords. It is the voice of the Lord, dearest brethren: 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you' (John 14:27). Being about to speak of peace, let us first see what are the benefits of peace. Peace is the serenity of the mind, the tranquillity of the soul, the simplicity of the heart, the bond of love, the fellowship of charity.
This it is that removes quarrels, checks wars, restrains angers, treads down the proud, loves the humble, calms the discordant, reconciles enemies, is pleasing to all. It seeks not what is another's, deems nothing its own; it teaches to love those whom it knows not how to hate. It knows not how to be exalted, knows not how to be puffed up. Let him, therefore, who has received it, hold it; let him who has lost it, seek it again; let him who has let it slip, search it out — since whoever is not found in it is disowned by the Father, disinherited by the Son, and no less made a stranger to the Holy Spirit. For he rejects the offered gift, who has scorned the good of the given law; nor will he be able to come to the inheritance of the Lord, who has refused to keep the testament. He cannot have concord with Christ, who has willed to be at discord with a Christian.
It is therefore the crime of obstinacy to scorn what is commanded, to refuse what is enjoined, to turn aside from what is ordered. What have you in common with discord, O Christian? Why do you love quarrels, which could not please the Author of peace? Why do you practice enmities, which not even he could escape who first devised them? For in the beginning, while the serpent stirred up enmities against the first-formed man, he is slain; while he envies man, he himself is laid low; while he desires to deceive Adam, he himself is first destroyed. Wherefore either embrace the charity of Christ, O Christian, or acknowledge yourself, by the likeness of your works, to be the equal of the author of discord.
That I may not too often venture to do this, shame and reverence forbid; but now that I should address Your Eminence by letter, the very reason of my office, and — unless I am mistaken — my regard toward yourself, persuade me. For I judged, when I heard that the reputation of Bishop Valerian was again being called into question, that it belonged not only to my part not to abandon the cause I had once undertaken, but that it also concerned the Holy Office and the Roman name that it should not overturn its former judgment and sentence concerning him. I think, moreover, that Your Eminence remembers —
nor could you have been ignorant, although you were then absent from the City, that when six years ago the same accuser was pressing the censure of those Homilies, the sacred tribunal, having heard and approved the defense of the Author which our letters contained, judged that nothing else was to be decreed except that I should prepare notes in a new edition, in which satisfaction should be made on both heads of the accusation — that is, concerning the title 'Saint,' which was imputed to him, and concerning the suspicion of Semipelagianism, of which he was charged. Both of these Father Theophilus Raynaudus has recently supplied in a little book published at Lyons for Valerian's vindication.
our Society's theologian [supplied them] so copiously and accurately, that I think the cause has been excellently served, in that by his own zeal and diligence he anticipated my labor in this matter — from which nothing of the sort could have been expected. But if nothing new has since been brought forward that would require a more severe sentence, I judge it not unworthy of Your Eminence's singular piety to provide that the decree of the Holy Office remain unmoved, and that the reputation of an author otherwise harmless and useful be preserved intact. In which matter, indeed, I trust there is the less to be feared — that I should seem an importunate intercessor — because, besides the common suffrage of the learned who thus far read Valerian with approval, I understand that Your Eminence Himself —
who are not wont to be pleased except by what is right — have at some time been delighted by his taste and savor. Paris, the sixteenth of August, 1633. I. There is one point concerning the name 'Saint,' which they deny befits this author. But it is established that this did not proceed from me, since many years ago, when his first homily 'On the Good of Discipline' was published in Germany — the others not yet having been found — the same title was prefixed, according to an ancient copy (as they informed me) of the monastery of St. Gall, in which the inscription is of this kind: 'The book of St. Valerian, bishop of Cimiez.' Whence, when I observed that he had not rashly been so styled by others, and had nothing certain to the contrary, I did not think that I ought, or could, take that title from him without a mark of censure.
至於這名號古時歸予瓦勒里安，究竟是因某種特殊的聖德聲譽，還是僅因主教的尊位——這既難以斷定，因為西米埃城被毀之後幾乎沒有任何記錄留存——那麼反過來，若此名號確實正當地屬於他，要從他身上取消它，所提出的半伯拉糾教義之嫌疑也是不足夠的；就是在那時，此教義尚未被教會的權威所定罪，因為我們看見迦西安（Cassian）與亞爾勒的希拉里（Hilary of Arles）——他們比別人更公開持守此教義——仍被稱為聖徒：前者由聖格里高利在第六卷第十二封書信中〔如此稱〕，後者在《羅馬殉道錄》中〔如此稱〕，並且二人在自己的族人中都以聖徒慣常的敬拜受尊崇。二、
Now whether this name was of old attributed to Valerian on account of a particular repute of sanctity, or merely on account of the dignity of a bishop — as it would be difficult to determine, since after the destruction of the city of Cimiez scarcely any records remain — so, conversely, for abrogating it from him, if it rightly belongs to him, the suspicion which is alleged of Semipelagian doctrine would not be sufficient; namely, at that very time when it had not yet been condemned by the authority of the Church, since we see that Cassian and Hilary of Arles, who professed this doctrine above others, are nonetheless called saints — the one by St. Gregory in the twelfth epistle of the sixth book, the other in the Roman Martyrology — and both are honored among their own people with the customary cult of the saints. II.
The other point concerns the charge of that doctrine, which they wish to be detected in certain passages of these Homilies. In this matter, indeed — besides the fact that there seems to be no such passage which it is not permitted to defend and to interpret in a better sense, as is the custom in this very kind of thing to explain Chrysostom and the other Fathers, both Greek and Latin — and the fact that Father
德奧斐盧斯神父在他為瓦勒里安辯護所寫的小書中，論證他毫無任何污點——此外還須注意：即便承認瓦勒里安與同世紀、同行省的其他高盧主教一同持守了同樣的教義，他們在第二次奧朗日會議（Second Council of Orange）之前也不能因此被算為異端；那會議定了那教義的罪，並在瓦勒里安之後六十多年由使徒座確認。再論瓦勒里安——縱使關於「聖」之名與稱號可能有爭議——也不能否認，他一生只要活著，就始終處於大公教會的和平與共融之中。此事的憑據就是聖
Theophilus, in the little book which he wrote in Valerian's defense, teaches that he is free from every stain — this besides must be observed: even granting that Valerian, together with other Gallican prelates who lived in the same century and in the same province, embraced the same doctrine, they nevertheless could not be reckoned heretics on this account before the Second Council of Orange, which condemned that doctrine and was confirmed by the Apostolic See more than sixty years after Valerian. Concerning Valerian again — that there may be controversy about the name and title of 'Saint' — it cannot be denied that he always stood, as long as he lived, in the peace and communion of the Catholic Church. Of which fact the fifty-second epistle of St.
Leo the Pope's fifty-second epistle written to him and to other bishops of Gaul, and another of these written to St. Leo. Likewise the Council of Riez, at which he was present and subscribed together with the rest. Then also the fact that honorable mention is made of him in the letter of convocation of the third Council of Arles, in which a settlement was reached concerning the concord between Faustus, abbot of the island of Lérins, and three neighboring bishops, one of whom was Valerian.
Moreover, these Homilies, twenty years ago, when they were first printed at Paris, were afterward reprinted in Germany and more than once at Lyons, and were read by all without offense and with profit, and they contain truly pious and religious doctrine, useful especially for establishing the invocation of the saints and the veneration of sacred relics. So much so that there was not lacking a man of great name who said and wrote that, when they were brought into Germany, it seemed to have been done by divine providence, that they should have been discovered precisely at this time to refute the heretics. Nor has it hitherto been heard among us that anyone, besides the Denouncer, has existed who did not approve their reading.
Many who are opposed to sound doctrine blame justice, and judge discipline to be tyranny, and assign reasonable chastisement to pride — whereas there is no tyranny except where something unjust is commanded, nor is there pride except where discipline is neglected. Discipline, indeed, is the mistress of religion, the mistress of true piety, which neither rebukes in order to wound, nor chastises in order to harm. In short, as anger corrects men, and as inflamed love guards them, so Solomon says: 'My son, do not faint under the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He rebukes; and He scourges every son whom He receives' (Proverbs 3:11-12). There is assuredly nothing which discipline does not either amend or make whole.
If any wise man lays hold of it, he neither loses the grace of friendships nor incurs the peril of damnation. Let no one think discipline unreasonable, under which he sees the counsel of Almighty God to stand — all things in heaven and beneath heaven having been composed by His working Word. For in the beginning of His work God made nothing before discipline. For when, with Wisdom assisting, He hung up the heaven, prepared the earth, enclosed the seas, and in their proper places and their proper times ordered the course of the sun and the orb of the moon, He established all things under discipline. And what would not be dark, what not disordered, what not held to be absurd, unless all the elements stood by established laws?
Is the course of the sun conducted without discipline? Though it fulfills untiringly the necessity of its daily journey, it nonetheless returns punctual in the morning to its office, and each day it shows itself in one region of heaven, about to survey the spaces of the earth. So great is the rational order of discipline, that within the bounds of the seasons prescribed by written law, the courses of the stars are driven in alternating turns with unwearied journey, so that neither does the moon flee from the time of its waning and eclipse, nor does the flame of daily light forsake the sun. Is it without discipline that the waves of so great a sea are confined by the lowly shore of the lands, and in its own bosom the wave, often stirred higher than a rampart by the winds, is enclosed? Assuredly, foolish nature would confound all things, unless the rational order of discipline governed the world.
We have set out to say these things, therefore, that you might learn to obey the evangelical precepts and to comply with the heavenly commandments. Now what may profit the rational soul, made to the image of God, a man can easily understand, when he sees even the elements serving the ordinances of discipline that were established by the will of God. Hear the prophet saying: 'Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling. Lay hold of discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way' (Psalm 2:11-12). Well in all matters does fear obey discipline; for by this very thing — that it knows how to beware of impending chances of dangers or the wrath of judges — it has obtained the power of preserving its own safety. What, then, would be chaste to the adulterer? What safe to the thief?
What would not be passable to the robber, who would not dread the hollows of the shores, the secret places of the woods? What would presumption not seize, unless discipline restrained the frenzy of minds under the fear of punishment? And unless an order of living had been established, nature would surely never set an end to sinning. There is nothing that gluttony would not urge, if discipline consented to gluttony. There is nothing that luxury would not squander, if discipline departed from you through love of vices. There is nothing that the mind would not seize in its greed of having and possessing, unless discipline condemned the vice of avarice. All vices lie prostrate under the fear of discipline. Now there is nothing in which faith would ever blush, if man would look to the future judgment of God and attend to the account he must render;
nor is there anything in which the avenging flame of crimes would rage, if with a view to discipline you either ponder what things are honorable, or chastise what things are shameful. Many, when the punishment of a robber is vindicated for the love of discipline for a crime committed, lay upon it the name of cruelty — when the sentence of the one judging serves just laws, and stretches out its hand not only to present but also to future things. 3. Why, then, would one believe that it is lawful for him to sin, if the judge did not prescribe discipline for shameless and impious deeds? Let us see what the law says: 'You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness' (Exodus 20:13-16). These are the disciplines of the law, which even the strictness of a secular sentence obeys;
by assailing base things, by cutting away criminal things. For Scripture adds: 'The judge is not set to be a terror to good work, but to evil' (Romans 13:3). So that it exacts even a substitute kind of penalty, when it says: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth' (Leviticus 24:20). But we can easily avoid that severity of the ancient sentence, if we ponder the flames of the judgment to come. And the Apostle Paul teaches absolutely that the arms of secular judgment can be despised, who says: 'If you would not fear the power, do what is good' (Romans 13:3). But these things are not to be treated idly.
For when the Apostle's teaching recalls these earthly powers, it insinuates into our senses the parts of the heavenly judgment. For when he teaches that one must serve the laws of the world, he necessarily admonishes man to beware for the times to come. 'If you would not,' he says, 'fear the power, do what is good.' This is to say: Would you not fear the judgment to come? 'Turn away from evil, and do good' (Psalm 36:27). Therefore we ought to beware of and overcome this first form of ordinance, which is void of the laws of the world, that we may be able to exclude from ourselves that prejudgment of the death to come;
because those whom this temporal punishment does not afflict, that eternal punishment pursues forever with the insatiable pain of torments. Let no one esteem that he has escaped the crime of homicide, whom the sentence of a corrupt secular judgment has acquitted as excused. Nor let him think the deed of adultery passed over, who, being caught, has escaped by a law of indulgence. Let no one, when he sees a sound right hand, judge that the punishments due by law to one guilty of falsehood have been remitted. When bodies are dead, crimes are preserved intact, unless they have first been purged before God by the intercession of tears; for hell awaits its guilty one, armed with the penalties owed. To the confusion rather of the present life, not to the absolution of the crime, does the authority of a secular sentence pertain.
Above all, then, we must ponder those torments where a man goes on living while his punishment endures, where the body lacks not its torture, nor the torturer his limbs to rack. Yet we can easily escape these things, if we hold fast the reins of discipline, as the Apostle says: 'If you would not fear the power, do good, and you shall have praise from it' (Rom. 13:3). What wise man would not gladly set his mind upon these good things of discipline, wherein a man can not only escape the punishment of crime, but also acquire the favor of praise? Hear the prophet saying: 'Take hold of discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way' (Ps. 2:12). In this passage, I think, that sentence pertains to those to whom discipline has not yet come;
those who still linger in devious ways, captive to the ancient error of superstition. For they are shown never to have lived under the law, who are admonished to lay hold of the pursuit of discipline. In this psalm it follows: 'Lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way.' Therefore, if the prophet declares those guilty to whom discipline never came, what must we judge of those whom discipline has forsaken? Between the deeds of both, the authority of the prophetic reading indicts as clearly the lesser fault—not to have reached discipline—than to have spurned the law of discipline. Behold, the prophet says: 'He who despises discipline hates his own soul' (Prov. 15:32). And truly, as he said, so it is.
For he is the foe and enemy of his own soul who, spurning the warnings of discipline, is taken up with diabolical services. Some say that discipline is established by laws too harsh. Let those wretched enough say such things, whom that devil, the author of death, invites to every crime; whose minds insatiable gluttony possesses, over whom drunkenness reigns, whom foul luxury holds captive, and from whom ungrateful pride never departs. But for those whose zeal is to keep faith with honorable continence, to serve humility and piety, the burden of discipline is sweet and the Lord's yoke is light, which weighs down none but the lost or those about to perish.
I blush to speak, to the shaming of human negligence, why among some men discipline profits so little, when we see that pastoral instruction does not perish even among dumb animals. Behold, let the docile spirits of horses teach us to keep the order of discipline, when, led round in a ring, they compose their limbs with winding steps, and consent to be so guided under the check of a single rein that both the manner of running and of standing is preserved under a certain ordering of laws. Thus those whom nature divides by number, the pursuit of discipline joins together. See how the strong bodies of oxen submit beneath the wagon: which so prepare their spirit to command that they naturally place their swollen necks beneath the light yoke.
Thus even those creatures that are born in wildness serve the ordinances of discipline. Whence I marvel at times that a man, in whom is wisdom and the understanding of prudence, everywhere neglects the precepts of discipline, when we see a dumb beast avoid faults, obey commands, serve orders, and so fit its spirit to every obedience that, when there is need, it meets armed legions and casts itself below against hostile weapons. Hear in this place the prophet saying: 'The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel has not known me' (Isa. 1:3). I fear to speak, lest that sentence strike our negligence: for he does not know the Lord who does not know the duty of his own condition.
I will indeed show how the Lord can be either found or known, if only there be the mind to see. If you would see the Lord, seek out the beggar, take in the stranger, visit the sick, run to the prison. If you would see God, loose the bonds of captivity, cut the knots of iniquity. Hear the Lord speak of this: 'I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me' (Matt. 25:35-36). I warn you, therefore, do not despise the naked, do not withdraw your hand from the blind, do not scorn him wrapped in rags. For in this garb the Lord was first found, when he was sought by the Magi.
And since we have made mention of the discipline under which the Christian faith flourishes, it is necessary that all the ornaments of life be brought to your ears, so that each one may understand that the reputation of conversion profits him little, unless in contempt of the world he has loved discipline. Therefore, let him whose zeal it is to worship Christ first receive the vestments of the heart and then of the body. Every life, then, of professed religion ought to feel the reputation of integrity, lest the crown of virtue that awaits it be smitten by the loss of modesty. Let integrity of body fortify the life, let uncontaminated faith guard integrity, so that, the benefit of both parts remaining, it may make the unspotted man to reign with Christ. But the whole account of our conversion consists in this alone: that we be good.
Above all, therefore, he who follows goodness must labor to be judged good. For although a man keep his body pure and unspotted, he brings a mangled life to God, whose deeds defame his countenance—though we know that a good conscience alone can suffice for good deeds. Yet how much better it is that he always think well of you, who often sickens with vain suspicions about your door. For it is naturally implanted in the common crowd always to judge ill of the good. But you who cultivate care for a good name, by your zeal acquire the favor of an untarnished opinion. Let our life, then, be so bright that it be known to all. Let integrity serve religion, modesty serve humility.
Whom the love of keeping integrity holds fast, let him above all not admit to himself the reputation of false error. It is indeed great and glorious, and to be proclaimed by every mouth even unto heaven, never to have given place to evil deeds; but it is far stronger never to have labored under false suspicions. For what does sobriety profit you, if you practice the vices of drunkenness? Who would not judge you drunk, if amid cups overflowing with wine you imitate the whirlings of dancers? Who will think you chaste, if he sees you mingled in the tales of harlots composed in theatrical speech, or speaking base things, or echoing what is dishonorable? I praise indeed the conscience of chastity in you, but I hate the harlot's converse.
In this place perhaps someone may say, 'A pure conscience suffices for me.' As far as innocence is concerned, it suffices for you alone. But it must be provided that by your easiness another sin not, and another's sin redound upon you, according to that which Scripture says: 'Woe to him through whom scandal comes' (Matt. 18:7). But although you clothe your body in precious silk and array your limbs in snowy fleece, you do not pass the day without a stain, if you touch the mouth of a burning brand. In every act of yours, therefore, let discipline accompany your life. If you would please Christ, labor that faith may aid your profession and reputation commend it. Let patience, companion of humility, go before you; let chastity, mistress of integrity, stand beside you:
let cupidity flee, let drunkenness blush, let luxury mourn its own acts, let pride depart confounded. Whoever, then, hastens to know God, under this order of discipline he shall be able to find our Christ. Many things indeed still remained, dearly beloved, which the account of discipline urged us to disclose; which for the time we have thought must be deferred, lest a long narration breed weariness in idle ears. Yet, lest we seem to have withheld anything in this work, we shall strive to discourse at a later time on those things that befit religious deeds.