Every man to whom there is a care to see God and to attain the heavenly kingdoms can easily understand that the necessities of the narrow and steep road pertain to the gaining of life, and that the hope of obtaining glory consists in labor. For there is nothing that labor does not surmount; if only the mind incline not, as is wont, to the other side. But it is settled that all difficulties meet him who delights in the force of that spacious error. Hear the Evangelist saying: 'How wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, and many there are who enter by it! How strait and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it!' (Matt. 7:13-14).
I do not doubt that it breeds despair in some set in the order of the heavenly warfare, that the approach of the steep road of the heavenly warfare is straitened. And truly, dearly beloved, it is not only steep, but even difficult and more than laborious to those tending toward the higher places. But to the unwilling slothful, and to the negligent who are preoccupied, without doubt the necessity of labor grows even over level ground. Yet however rough and difficult are the things set on high, do not doubt that they come out into the open field, if to those journeying no despair occur. Every work, therefore, dearly beloved, in which the zeal of human conduct keeps watch, requires voluntary service.
For it cannot be estimated how much difficulty grows, if the will deceive a man in the greatest necessity of things. Never does he well undertake the road of the steep mountain over whom despair holds dominion. But when can it come to pass that the body grows accustomed to labor, unless the will obey the one laboring? Look and see how quickly he springs back to the ground who mounts a horse in fear: or with what great straits he labors who unwillingly enters to sail the deep sea. The religion of the Christian name, into which we have been called, has taken up the office of free will; to which if anyone come unwilling, he adds burden to burden, and, the bodies being stripped of the old law, he imposes upon them the weight of a desperate life.
Hence it is that the gate of death receives many, because to those about to perish the difficulty of life always occurs. It is necessary, therefore, that he who has come to the way of liberty cut away whatever of unfaithfulness is in him, and heap up heavenly testimony by the zeal of voluntary service: lest a man, indebted to God for so many benefits, be found ungrateful in small offices. By the negligent and unskilled the service owed to God is perhaps judged burdensome, from this—that it admits no time of vacation. God has called every man not only to liberty, but has also established him in the highest dignity of things. But he imposes servitude upon himself who serves unwillingly. For if you accommodate service to the will, you will find yourself to be not a slave of God, but a son.
For thus says the prophet in the voice of the Lord: 'I will be to you a father, and you shall be to me sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty' (Jer. 31:9; 2 Cor. 6:18). Such, dearly beloved, is the servitude of our condition, that we should always praise our Lord in his works, and extol him in the brightness of his majesty with continual voice. But what beyond this does the power of an invisible, incomprehensible, inestimable glory need of the human? Or in what does it require bodily service, to which the choir of angels renders obedience? That is an intolerable servitude which the pride of tyrannical—that is, diabolical—dominion imposes, the injury of impious captivity:
but to render service willingly to a superior person pertains to office, not to servitude. Hear the prophet saying: 'I will sacrifice to you willingly, O Lord' (Ps. 54:8). Learn how great is the distance between bound and voluntary servitude. Never can it come to pass that he pass the day without offense, whom the negligence of bound servitude accuses. He who obeys his Lord by vow acquires grace; but he who serves unwillingly heaps up injury, as the prophet says: 'Cursed is the man who does the works of the Lord negligently' (Jer. 48:10).
If each of you consider the grace of the liberty bestowed, which our Christ granted to the faithful peoples through the regeneration of the vital laver and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he understands that God is not to be served idly, to whom, however much of honor or gift we daily render, we yet never pay what we owe. But when is it that he pays the debt, who is established as ransomed by the vicarious gift of punishment, unless perchance, for love of the Redeemer, he receive upon himself a like sentence of death or damnation? But while these things befall the strongest, let us at least, what alone we can, daily offer to our Christ the sacrifices of thanksgiving;
so that, if the merits of virtues commend others, the offices of voluntary servitude may at least make place of grace for us. Let us above all unburden our hearts of impious contagion, that we may be able to nourish the fruits of justice: for he who wishes to satisfy the heavenly commandments ought wholly to renounce earthly deeds. For as a man never serves well unwillingly, so neither does one preoccupied guard well the things committed to him. 'I will sacrifice to you willingly.' Not without cause does the prophet commend himself to the Lord with this voice. He knew that of necessity many serve with a doubting heart; and promise one thing with the mouth, dispose another in the secret of their breast. 'I will sacrifice to you willingly.' Though small, gifts by the vow of the offerer become great;
but benefits which have been extorted consume their author: so that in the end he always laments what he has bestowed, who has set up a banquet unwillingly. 'I will sacrifice to you willingly': that is, with a voluntary sacrifice. That you may daily present with joy the little gifts of your mouth to your Author, may compose his sacrifice of praise with the sweetness of words, and may devoutly hasten to the office of the work assigned. Hear the prophet saying: 'Make the free offerings of my mouth well-pleasing, O Lord' (Ps. 118:108). When, therefore, we come together to the church, dearly beloved, let the faith of truth, fortified by the aid of truth, above all possess the secrets of our breast: for God loves that which is pure and unspotted, not beset by falsehood, not taken up with perjuries, not feigned, not doubtful;
for these are the tokens of perfect uprightness: either the love of holiness, or the pursuits of discipline—that is, to present an unspotted victim in sacrifices, to have served the Lord with the whole mind faithfully. But this is the account of our service: that you always call to mind the benefits of our Christ, and, in whatever labor of religious faith you have advanced, ascribe it to the Author of your liberty. Among all things keep the precepts of justice, serve the one God, the honor of the Trinity nevertheless being preserved. Believe one faith, one baptism; confess that of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit there is one essence of brightness; and that neither by a divided will does any person either precede or reign; but believe that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one power, of one virtue.
Thus, therefore, it comes to pass that you, about to live forever, surmount that steep and narrow road; and that you undoubtedly obtain those things which in the heavenly portion have been promised to just labors, if you run through these steps of discipline, and dispose the times of your life under this law of living.