Sacra parallela recensiones secundum alphabeti

Instead of saying, he entered the contest, and one must wrestle naked, or rather not naked only, but also anointed. For being stripped makes the contestant untouched by the opponent; but the oil, even if one should ever be grasped, prepares one to slip out of the hold. And for this reason athletes strive to smear earth on their opponents, so that by roughening the smoothness of the oil with dust they may make them easy to grasp for holds. The earnest man is of few needs, a boundary between immortal and mortal nature, having neediness through a mortal body, but not having many needs through a soul that longs for immortality. TITLE 11. — Concerning students; and that they must come to their studies diligently and earnestly, and not run away from the labor of teaching, but ask questions and learn from those who know. "Ask your father, and he will announce to you; your elders, and they will tell you." "Son, let not evil counsel seize you, which abandons the teaching of youth." "To a fool who asks for wisdom, wisdom will be reckoned." "Receive instruction, and not silver, and knowledge above tested gold." "Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget, that it may give a crown of graces to your head." "Desire, and you will be instructed." "Son, give your heart to instruction." "Child, in your youth choose instruction, and as one plowing and sowing come to it, and wait for its good fruit. For having labored a little in its work, you will quickly eat of its produce. As rough is wisdom to the uneducated, and the fainthearted will not remain in it.

Search it out, and it will be made known to you, and when you have gained mastery of it, do not let it go. For at the last you will find its rest, and it will turn to joy for you. And its fetters will be for you a covering and a foundation of strength, and its collars a garment of glory. It is a golden ornament upon it. If you are willing, my child, you will be instructed, and if you give your soul, you will be understanding. To seek and to inquire for the sake of teaching is most effective. He who hungers and thirsts for knowledge, and to learn what he does not know, letting go of other cares, hastens to hear, and by night and by day keeps watch at the doors of the houses of the wise. To know that one is ignorant is a mark of wisdom, just as to know that one has done wrong is a mark of righteousness.

TITLE 12. — Concerning those who move about and pass from place to place. "There is no peace from affliction for him who goes out and him who comes in." "An evil life is from house to house; and wherever he sojourns, he will not open his mouth."

TITLE 13. — Concerning the hired worker, and those who withhold wages. "The wage of the hired worker shall not remain with you until morning." "You shall not wrong the wage of the poor and needy from among your brothers, or from among the strangers; you shall pay his wage on the same day.

The sun shall not go down upon him, because he is poor, and on him he has set his hope, and he shall not cry out against you to the Lord, and it shall be sin to you. The one building his house not with righteousness, and his upper rooms not with judgment, works for his neighbor for nothing, and their wages he will surely not repay. Shedding blood is the one who withholds the wage of a hired worker. Do not mistreat a servant who works in truth, nor a hired worker who gives his life. To the one who works, the wage is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt. Behold, the wage of the workers who reaped your fields, which has been withheld from you, cries out, and the cries of the harvesters have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

TITLE 14. — Concerning those who labor in vain.

He has labored for empty and vain wealth, from which he shall not taste. Surely every living man is troubled in vain. The one sowing worthless things shall reap evils; he shall accomplish the vanity of his works. Those who pursue vain things are lacking in understanding. All who do their own desires are vain, which shall not profit them. I said: I have labored in vain, for nothing, and for nothing I have given my strength. They have trusted in vain things, and speak empty things; for they conceive toil, and bring forth vain things, and weave the web of a spider. The one teaching a fool is like one gluing together a potsherd. One building, and one tearing down, what does he profit more than labors? One praying, and one cursing, whose voice will the Master hear? Carrying water in a sieve, and drawing into a pierced jar.

ELEMENT N.

TITLE 1. – On youth, and the new age. "How shall a younger man make his way straight? By guarding your words." "A young man with holy men, and his way is straight." "A good, poor, and wise servant is better than an old and foolish king." "Rejoice, young man, in the days of your youth, and let your heart do you good; and walk in the ways of your heart blamelessly." "Speak, young man, if there is need for you; but scarcely, if you are not asked." "I desire the younger women to marry, to bear children, to manage the household, to give no occasion to the adversary, for the sake of reproach. For already some have turned aside after Satan." By nature this is a weakness of the young, by levity of mind to think that the things hoped for are already present. For whenever they attain some stillness, or nighttime quiet, they fashion for themselves unsubstantial phantasms, carried by the ease of their thought toward everything. Supposing for themselves distinctions of life, brilliant marriages, a good education, deep old age, honors from all. Then, unable to stand firm anywhere in their reasonings, they are puffed up, and from their folly they seem to enjoy the things hoped for, as if already present and lying at their feet. He differs in no way from an infant in age, who is infantile in his mind. What is weaker than flesh that is easily affected, and youth that is carried about? Is someone still young? Let him be manly against the passions, and let him enjoy youth to this extent—not to suffer the things of the young, but indeed to practice an elder's prudence in a body at its prime. And he will rejoice in the victory more than those who are crowned at Olympia.

It is shameful for a young man to be weaker than an old man, and for an old man to be more foolish than a young man. Nevertheless, let him be all-wise in due season—this is indeed best—and let him be temperate even before his time. A gentle young man bears many things; but who will endure a fainthearted old man? In almost every matter, youth is a treacherous counselor, and one would not easily find anything worth earnest effort brought to success unless gray hairs were also taken into counsel for the deliberation. TITLE 2. – On the sick and the weak; and that one ought to visit them.

"He who stops his ears so as not to hear the weak, he himself will call out, and there will be no one to hear." "Do not hesitate to visit the sick; for by such things you will be loved." "Child, in your sicknesses do not look about you, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you." "Better is death than a bitter life, or an illness that persists." "I was sick, and you visited me." "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the one who is ill and will raise him up." "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." "Remember those who are sick, as being yourselves also in a body." A philosophic illness is better than unbridled prosperity. And even if you have nothing to bring to the sick man because of poverty, bring yourself in, and offer him the consolation that comes from words. I was sick, and you visited me. You have no money? But you have feet, and a mouth, and words. Enter, console, correct his despondency, make him more cheerful and more patient.

Do not be ashamed, O man, of your brothers. Are not such visitations sweeter than gardens and meadows and every banquet? For from meadows and gardens we carry home no good thing, but from banquets drunkenness and madness and countless evils. But from such visitations we shall gain good hopes, the thought of God, boldness from on high, gentleness of soul, not being distressed by any of the things that befall us, and the ability to philosophize easily amid all human affairs. Many of the rich demand services from the healthy, and demand them without pardon, but they take no care for the sick; rather, when illness falls upon her, the maidservant lies unvisited, cast upon the ground. The master does not attend to her, the mistress does not visit her. And if at some point the mistress must come near the servant, she does not visit her as one of the same race, but fixes her with a scowling look, addresses her with a harsh word, through the pomp of pride denying the kinship of nature. Do you not read the Scriptures? Do you not know what holy David says: Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hands of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God? Be moved to shame by the image; fear what is written; stand as a helper of the sick woman. The Savior was not in the beginning born a man, but was God the Only-begotten, yet nevertheless he endured to become a man for the sake of men; but you, being a man, reject one of the same race as though not

Do you deem it of equal honor? Do you refuse to sympathize with your own kind? And when a dumb animal is lame, you take care of it because of its need, but when your own servant, a rational animal, is sick, do you overlook it and not consider that he is rational? TITLE 3. — On being sober and taking thought for our own salvation. "Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved as a gazelle from snares, and as a bird from the trap." "As fish that are caught in the net, and as birds that are caught in the snare, so the sons of men are ensnared in an evil time, when it falls upon them suddenly." "Keep watch over the time, and attend closely, because you walk with your fall. Take heed lest you be led astray in your mind. Be watchful all your life long. Love the Lord, and call upon him for your salvation." "Take heed to yourself, lest you fall." "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." "I therefore run thus, not as uncertainly; thus I fight, not as one beating the air; but I buffet my body and bring it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself become a castaway." "Be sober, be watchful, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, steadfast in the faith." "But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." Walk always above the hidden snares, lest the sower of evils and the envious enemy mix the bitter seed of tares with the one who slumbers. Watch closely, lest you be robbed. Always pursue him in his secret wrestlings, lest you have need of the final purifications.

TITLE 4. – On the Newly Married.

"If a man has taken a wife recently, he shall not go out to war, and no matter shall be laid upon him. He shall be free; he shall sit in his house for one year, and he shall gladden the wife whom he has taken." "He who acquires a wife begins an acquisition." O my child, I give you this as a sending-forth gift. First reverence God, and after this your husband, the eye of your life, and the lord of your counsel and mind; love and desire him alone, and gladden your soul in him alone, if he loves you with more perfect desires. Do not have as much boldness as the desire of your husband gives you, but as much as is fitting. For there is satiety of all things. There is truly a satiety of all things, but love is insatiable; never, being a woman, strive for boldness toward a man. Do not put forward your lineage, do not lift up your brow for wealth, nor for wisdom. For wisdom must yield and be obedient to the laws of marriage. Yield to your husband when he is angry; help him when he is weary with gentle words and good counsels. The lion-tamer did not calm the lion's anger by strength, angering him in return with roaring breaths, but he subdues him by rubbing him with his hands and by flattering words. Do not reproach your husband with any loss, even if you are very angry, nor praise a friend who is not so to your husband, reproaching him deceitfully in parables of words. One must make joys and sorrows common, and again cares common; since this increases the household. Grieve a little with him who grieves. For to a grieving husband the wife is a calm harbor.

Let your shuttle be a matter of care to you, and the wool, and let your care be in the divine words. Do not be eager to carry your foot out of the doors, nor toward any civic pleasure; for this takes away freedom. Nor associate with women who have a haughty neck and a public face, nor with men with whom your husband is displeased.

[Give to those who see the blush,] having blind eyes, and eyebrows bent down to the earth.

TITLE 5. – On Fasting and Those Who Fast.

"If you fast for judgment and quarrels, and strike the humble with fists, why do you fast to me? Was it not such a fast that I chose, says the Lord? But loose every bond of injustice; untie the knots of violent contracts. Send forth the broken in release, and tear up every unjust document. Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the poor without shelter into your house. If you see the naked, clothe him, and from the members of your own seed you shall not overlook." "When you fast, do not become like the gloomy hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces, so that they may appear to men to be fasting. Amen I say to you, that they receive their reward. But you, when fasting, anoint your head, and wash your face, so that you may not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you in the open." True fasting is the estrangement from evils. – For satiety sets grace in the stomach; but fasting raises up profit to the soul. Be of good cheer, that a medicine destructive of sin has been given to you by the physician.

For just as worms that are brought to life in the inmost parts of children are destroyed by certain very pungent medicines, so fasting, entering into the soul, kills sin that lurks in the depths. Do not disfigure your face like the hypocrites. Be such as you are, do not fashion yourself into a gloomy appearance, hunting the glory that comes from seeming to be self-controlled. Neither is there profit when good deeds are trumpeted, nor any gain when fasting is publicized. For things done for display do not extend their fruit to the age to come, but come to an end in the praise of men. Therefore run eagerly and cheerfully to the gift of fasting. Fasting is an ancient gift, not growing old and aging, but ever renewed and flourishing again to its prime. The invention is not recent; it is a treasure of the fathers. Everything that excels in antiquity is worthy of reverence. Be moved to respect the gray hair of fasting. It is of the same age as humanity. Fasting was legislated in paradise. Adam received the first commandment: From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. And that, You shall not eat, is a legislation of fasting and self-control. If Eve had fasted from the tree, we would not need this fasting now. For those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. We have become sick through sin. Let us be healed through repentance. But repentance without fasting is idle. Cursed is the earth; it will bring forth thorns and thistles for you. You were commanded to be gloomy (for surely not to live in luxury); through fasting make your defense to God. But even the way of life in paradise is an image of fasting.

Because we did not fast, we fell out of paradise. Let us therefore fast, so that we may return to it. Do you not see Lazarus, how through fasting he entered into paradise? Do not imitate the disobedience of Eve; do not again accept the serpent as counselor, suggesting food out of sparing of the flesh; do not plead illness and weakness of body. For you are not telling these excuses to me, but to the one who knows. You cannot fast? Tell me, can you be filled and crush the body with the weight of the things you eat? And indeed, to the sick, I know that doctors prescribe not a variety of foods, but abstinence and want. How then, being able to do these things, do you plead that you cannot do those? What is easier for the stomach: to pass the night with plainness of diet, or to lie weighed down by abundance of foods—or rather, not even to lie, but to be turned over frequently, ruptured and groaning? We know Moses, through fasting, approaching the mountain; for he would not have dared, when the summit was smoking, nor would he have had courage to enter into the darkness, if he had not been armed with fasting. Through fasting he received the commandment, written by the finger of God on the tablets. Fasting gives birth to prophets, strengthens the mighty. Fasting makes lawgivers wise; a good safeguard of the soul, a safe companion for the body, a weapon for those who excel, a training ground for athletes. This repels temptations; this anoints for piety. Companion of sobriety, maker of chastity; it acts bravely in wars, in peace it keeps quiet. It sanctifies the Nazirite, it perfects priests.

For it is not possible to dare to undertake the sacred ministry without fasting, not only in the mystical worship, both now and true, but also in the typical worship offered according to the law. This made Elijah a spectator of the great wonder. For having purified his soul by a fast of forty days, he was thus deemed worthy to see in the cave in Horeb, as far as it is possible for a man to see the Lord. Fasting sends prayer up to heaven, becoming like a wing for it toward the upward journey. Fasting is the increase of households, the mother of health, the tutor of youth, the adornment of the elderly, a good companion for travelers, a safe housemate for those who dwell together. A husband does not suspect an plot against his marriage when he sees his wife living with fasts. A wife is not consumed by jealousies when she sees her husband accepting fasting. Who has diminished his own household by fasting? Count the things within today, and count them after this; nothing in the house is lacking because of fasting, nor does a single animal bewail death; nowhere is there blood, nowhere is a sentence pronounced by the inexorable belly against the animals; the cook's knife has ceased; the table is content with what comes of itself. The Sabbath was given to the Jews, he says, so that your beast of burden and your servant may rest. Let fasting become a rest from continual labors for the servants who serve throughout the whole year. Give your cook rest; give the table-server leisure; stop the hand of the cupbearer; let the house also be at peace for once from the countless tumults, and the smoke, and the steam, and those running up and down, and serving the belly as an inexorable mistress.

Fasting does not know the nature of a loan. The table of the one who fasts does not smell of interest; paternal interest does not hold the child of the one who fasts as an orphan, entwining itself like snakes. When one fasts, the complexion is modest, not blooming into shameless redness, but adorned with a sober pallor; the eye is gentle, the step restrained, the face thoughtful, not insulted by unrestrained laughter, moderation in speech, purity of heart. Fasting is the dignity of a city, the stability of the marketplace, the peace of households, the preservation of one's possessions. Do you wish to see its modesty? Compare this evening with tomorrow for me, and you will see the city changed from turmoil into a deep calm. True fasting is alienation from evils. Loose every bond of injustice. Forgive your neighbor the grief; forgive him the debts. Do not fast for judgments and fights; you do not eat meat, but you eat your brother; you abstain from wine, but you do not restrain insults; you wait for evening for partaking, but you spend the day in law courts. What profit is it to fast with the body, but to fill the soul with countless evils? Oil fattens the athlete, but fasting strengthens the ascetic of piety. So to the extent that you subtract from the flesh, to that extent make the soul shine with the good condition of spiritual health. For not by bodily labors, but by endurance of soul and patience toward afflictions, is the victory over invisible enemies won. Indeed, then, at all times fasting is beneficial to those who choose it.

For neither does the assault of demons dare to attempt anything against the one who fasts, but even the angels who guard our life remain more diligently with those who have been purified through fasting. They are angels who in each Church record those who fast. See that you are not penalized for a small pleasure of foods by the angel's record, and that you do not make yourself liable to the charge of desertion before the one who enlisted you. Are you rich? Do not insult fasting by deeming it unworthy to take it as a table companion, nor send it away from your house dishonored, set aside by pleasure, lest it denounce you before the lawgiver of fasts and bring upon you, from condemnation, a lack many times greater, either from bodily weakness or from some other gloomy circumstance. Let not the poor man mock fasting, since he has long had it as a housemate and companion of life. For women, just as breathing, so also fasting is proper by nature. Let children, like flourishing plants, be watered with the water of fasting. For the elderly, long familiarity with it makes the labor light. For labors practiced from long habit fall upon those who are trained in them with less pain. For travelers, fasting is a well-equipped fellow traveler. For just as luxury forces them to bear burdens, carrying around their indulgences, so fasting prepares them light and unencumbered. Therefore, when about to fast, do not look sullen in a Jewish way. Make your soul radiant in a Gospel way, not mourning the stomach's lack, but rejoicing in the soul's spiritual enjoyments.

You know that the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Since therefore these things are opposed to one another, let us take away the flesh's ease and increase the soul's strength, so that through fasting, having won the victory over the passions, we may bind on the crowns of self-control. Do not be sullen while fasting. For this reason you fast from foods, so that you may be nourished through the spirit; and for this reason you abstain from bodily foods, so that you may be filled with spiritual offerings. Fasting is a remedy that destroys sin, and a soothing poultice for the soul, softening it toward piety. And just as chronic ailments, when sprinkled with certain very sharp and very astringent substances, cast off the putrid part of the body and draw together the healing scar of the flesh, in the same way fasting, entering in as a most astringent remedy against the sin that smolders within and feeds on the soul, dries it up, thinning it little by little. Therefore, even if fasting is laborious, it is beneficial and easy of approach. Do not, then, fast while grieving, lest you lose your labor. For to the extent that fasting contracts the body, to that extent you are benefited by the fasting. Run back to the ways of life of the righteous, and you will find that they distinguished themselves chiefly through fasting. First Moses, having fasted, entered into the darkness and through fasting became a converser with God, having extended his fast for forty days. Through fasting he was appointed a lawgiver, and he ate neither bread nor drank water. While fasting, take thought for doing good.

For if one fasts and does not share bread with the poor, his fasting will be in vain. Many therefore fast with sackcloth and ashes and many tears, yet do not give a single obol to the hungry, making their fasting without reward, which God does not accept. Hear therefore what he says in Isaiah the prophet: Even if you bend your neck like a ring and spread sackcloth and ashes beneath you, not even so shall it be called fasting. But loose every bond of injustice and give bread to the hungry from your soul. Send forth the broken in release; dissolve the strangleholds of violent contracts; break your bread to the hungry, and bring the poor without shelter into your house. This is the fasting that God loves. For haircloth and ashes will profit you nothing while you fast. Feed the poor, so that he may bless you, and you will find it before your face at the departure of your soul. If, seeing the tears of the poor, you do not show mercy, how will God have mercy on you? Fasting is pure when, while you fast, the poor is fed from your own goods. We enjoy great benefit from fasting: an untroubled mind, calmness of thoughts, a gentle heart, a head free from pain, feet standing upright. You are distressed because your eyes are not

defiled, nor bloodshot, and your tongue does not lisp, and that your feet walk rightly? Great is fasting, and through it many have transcended human nature and have their conduct with the angels. Did not Daniel, through fasting, change the savagery of the lions into the gentleness of sheep? For after fasting seven days in the pit, he looked upon the enormous lions as doves. And observe for me his virtue, that he even taught the lions to fast. The saint was cast into the pit for the lions' meal, and he was found himself dining, since Habakkuk had been brought there by the command of the Lord, and the lions sat down with great philosophy. O the exceeding greatness of fasting! It muzzled the lions, it tore apart the dragon, it overthrew Bel, and it saved Susanna. The three youths, while fasting, trampled the furnace as though it were clay, and perceiving the flame as a dewy paradise, they remained unscorched, and they dissolved the king's threats as though a spider's web. Through fasting Moses, the great one among the prophets, received the law. For after fasting forty days, he stopped the wrath against the people. The Ninevites, by fasting three days, saved their populous city. Fasting is an imitation of the angels. Fasting led men up to the heavens and prepared them to live as citizens with the angels, and granted them rest with the martyrs. Let not drunkenness initiate you into fasting. There is no entrance into fasting through drunkenness; for neither is there entry into righteousness through greed, nor into temperance through licentiousness, nor, to speak summarily, into virtue through vice.

Another door concerning fasting. Drunkenness leads to licentiousness, but self-sufficiency leads to fasting; the athlete is trained beforehand, the one who fasts exercises self-control beforehand. Do not set aside the drunkenness of the five days beforehand as if you were defending yourself against the lawgiver. For you labor to no profit, crushing the body but not relieving its want. The storehouse is untrustworthy; you are drawing water into a pierced jar. No one who is about to bring a modest woman into his house by the laws of marriage first takes concubines and brings courtesans into his home. For the lawful wife does not endure to live together with corrupted women. Therefore, when the fast is expected, do not first bring in drunkenness, the common prostitute, the mother of shamelessness, the laughter-loving one, the maenad, the one easy to every indecency. For fasting and prayer will not enter a soul defiled by drunkenness. Fasting and prayer deliver from death; but righteousness is greater than both. Fasting knows how to make the poor man rich. For it does not allow spending beyond measure at the wrong time, providing self-sufficiency. It also knows how to make the rich man a steward of his own money. It is not abstinence from foods, but abstinence from offenses, that produces fasting. Let us love fasting, because it is the mother of chastity and the source of all philosophy. To be with fasting makes prayer more powerful. Now great chastity of thoughts is present; now the mind is awakened, and the soul looks around at things above; for this reason Scripture has yoked prayer together with fasting.

For then the melody sent up from the lyre is more pleasant and more approved, because the strings are not soaked through by the excess of drunkenness, but the reason is well-toned and the mind is awake. Let the soul, being sober, thus draw near to God and converse alone with the alone.

LETTER XI.

TITLE 1. — Concerning strange things, and those rarely found in certain persons. "The sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a savior, Aod, a man ambidextrous. After Aod arose Samegar, and he struck down six hundred men of the foreigners with the goad of the oxen, and he saved

Israel." "Sampson went down, and his father, and his mother, to Thamnatha, and they came as far as the vineyard; and behold, a whelp of a lion met him. And the Spirit of the Lord leaped upon him, and he tore it apart as a kid of goats, and there was nothing in his hands. And he did not report to his father and to his mother what he had done." "Sampson went, and he caught three hundred foxes, and he took torches, and he turned tail to tail, and he placed one torch between the two tails in the middle, and he tied them. And he set fire to the standing grain of the foreigners from the threshing floor to the standing ears, and as far as the vineyard and the olive tree." "Sampson said: With the jawbone of a donkey, wiping out I wiped them out; because with the jawbone of a donkey I struck down a thousand men. And he thirsted greatly, and he cried out to the Lord: You have prospered in the hand of your servant this great salvation; and now I am dying of thirst, and I shall fall into the hands of the uncircumcised.

And God opened the wound that was in his jaw, and waters came out of it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he lived. And he saw there a harlot woman, and went in to her, and it was reported to the Gazites, saying: Samson has come here. And they surrounded and lay in wait for him all night in the gate of the city. And they kept quiet all night, saying: When the dawn breaks, we will kill him. And Samson slept until midnight. And he rose in the middle of the night, and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city, with the two posts, and lifted them up with the bar, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the mountain, and set them there. Seven hundred men, chosen from all the people, all of them ambidextrous, slingers of stones at a hair, and not missing. Asahel swift of foot, as a gazelle in the field. All things are mingled in all things; and in the earth you will find water, and air and fire; then from stones fire leaps out. And from iron, which itself also has its origin from the earth, abundant fire is naturally wont to shine forth in rubbings. Which is also worthy of wonder, how fire existing in bodies lurks harmlessly, but when it is struck out upon things outside, it is destructive of those who keep it. And you might speak concerning the sea itself, how is the water congealed into salt? How is the precious stone, the coral, a plant of the sea, but when it is brought out into the air it is transformed to the hardness of stone? From where has nature put the costly pearl into the most worthless creature, the oyster?

For the treasures that kings desire are scattered along the beaches and shores and rough rocks, lying within the bodies of oysters. From where do the pearl-oysters nurture the golden fleece, which no one of the flower-dyers has imitated until now? From where do the purple-shells grant kings the royal purple, which also surpass the flowers of the meadows in their beauty of color? God made the great sea-monsters; they are not called great because they are larger than a shrimp or a maenid, but because they are likened in the bulk of their body to the greatest mountains—creatures that often present the appearance of islands. And if you hear that the largest of ships, carried with sails spread before the wind, are so easily stopped by the tiny fish, the remora, that it keeps them motionless for the longest time, as if rooted in the very deep, then you will marvel at the power of the Creator. They say that apes, whenever they give birth, gaze upon their offspring as upon statues, admiring their beauty; so fond of offspring is nature.

TITLE 2. — Concerning strange punishments brought by God and men. "They took the city, and killed the people in it, and razed the city, and sowed it with salt." "They ran after Adonibezek, and caught him; and they cut off the extremities of his feet and of his hands. And Adonibezek said: Seventy kings, with the extremities of their feet and of their hands cut off, were gathering [scraps] under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me." "David struck Rabbah and demolished it, and he brought out much spoil of the city exceedingly, and he brought out the people in it, and cut them with saws and iron axes. Thus David did to the cities of the sons of Ammon." The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he slaughtered all the rulers of Judah, and he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and the king of Babylon brought him, and bound him in a mill-house until the day that he died.

TITLE 3. — Concerning living abroad, and that the stranger is without boldness of speech. "The men of Sodom said to Lot: You came in to sojourn, and do you also judge?" "As a bird, when it is flown away from its own nest, so man is enslaved when he is estranged from his own places." "A man who has lived abroad has known many things. And again: He who has wandered multiplies cunning. I have seen many things in my wandering, and the understanding of my words is greater." LETTER O.

TITLE 1. — Concerning an oath, and that one must not abide by oaths given for evil and what is improper.

"Saul said to Jonathan: Tell me what you have done. And he told him, and said: I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff in my hand, and behold, do I die? And Saul said to him: May God do so to me, and add so much more, for you shall surely die today. And the people said to Saul: Shall he be put to death today who has wrought this great salvation in Israel? For God's mercy has been shown this day. And the people prayed concerning Jonathan, and he did not die." "The king said to Jeremiah: I have a word concerning the Jews who have fled to the Chaldeans, lest I give myself into their hands, and they mock me. And Jeremiah said: They will surely not deliver you up. Hear the word of the Lord, which I speak, and it will be better for you, and your soul shall live." "When Herod's birthday was being celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced, and pleased Herod; whence he swore with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

But she, having been prompted by her mother, says, "Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter," and she gave it to her. SCHOLION: It would have been better for Herod to transgress the oath he had given than to behead the prophet. TITLE 2. — Concerning orphans, and the poor, and widows. "You shall not mistreat any widow or orphan. But if you mistreat them with malice, and they cry out and appeal to me, I will surely hear their cry; and I will be angered with wrath, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children orphans." "The mouth of the widow blessed me. I helped the orphan who had no helper." "You shall not take a widow's garment as a pledge." "The father of orphans, and judge of widows." "Do not enter into the property of orphans. For the Lord who redeems them is mighty, and he will judge his judgment with you." "Because they wronged infants, they shall be slain." "Do not oppress the widow and the orphan, and the stranger, and the poor." "Become as a father to orphans, and instead of a husband to their mother, and you shall be as a son of the Most High." He will hear the supplication of one who is wronged. He will surely not overlook the entreaty of an orphan and a widow, if she pours out her speech. Shall not the tears of a widow fall upon her cheek,

And is there not an outcry against the one who brings them down? "Honor widows who are truly widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety toward their own household and to repay their forebears. For this is acceptable before God. But she who is truly a widow and left alone has set her hope on God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day; but she who lives in luxury, while living, is dead. Command these things, so that they may be blameless." "But refuse younger widows. For when they grow wanton against Christ, they wish to marry, having condemnation because they have set aside their first faith. And at the same time they learn to be idle, going about from house to house, not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, speaking things they ought not." "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their affliction." They say that the turtledove, once separated from its mate, no longer accepts union with another, but remains unpaired, by the memory of the one once joined to it refusing union with another. Let women hear, that the dignity of widowhood is preferable even among irrational creatures to the indecency of multiple marriages.

TITLE 3. — Concerning boundaries, and that one must not move them. "You shall not move your neighbor's boundaries, which your fathers set." "Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's boundary; and all the people shall say, Amen, amen." "The impious have transgressed a boundary." "Do not remove the eternal boundaries, which your fathers set." There are certain kinds of fish that are even worthy of imitation: how each of their kinds, having divided among themselves the region suited to them, do not encroach upon one another, but abide within their own boundaries. No geometer among them apportioned their dwellings; no walls are drawn around them; they are not separated by boundary markers. For this gulf feeds these kinds of fish, and that one others; and those that abound here are scarce elsewhere. No mountain rising with sharp peaks divides them; no river cuts off the crossing; but there is a certain law of nature, equally and justly, allotting their mode of life to all according to each one's need. But we are not such as this, when we move the eternal boundaries which our fathers set. We cut off land, we join house to house, so that we may take something from our neighbor. The sea monsters know the mode of life appointed them by nature—the sea that lies outside the boundaries of the inhabited world, resembling the greatest of mountains in size, as those who have seen them say—and they remain within their own boundaries, harming neither the islands nor the coastal regions. Thus, then, each kind, as in certain cities or villages, or ancient fatherlands, dwells in the parts of the sea assigned to them. TITLE 4. — Concerning the good way and the evil way.

And that one must avoid crooked things and crooked ways, and walk with the straight way. "If there is anything lawless in your hand, put it far from you. Thus your face will shine like pure water." "Those who forget the way of righteousness have grown weak among mortals." "The beginning of a good way is to do what is just. And these are more acceptable to God than the blood of sacrifices." "The Lord knows the ways on the right; but those on the left are twisted." "The one who makes his ways crooked will be dishonored." "To the crooked, God will send crooked ways." "Thorns and snares are in crooked ways; but the one who guards his own soul will keep away from them." "The one who walks righteously will be helped." "The ways of the righteous shine like light; they go before and give light until the day is established." "There is a way that seems right to men, but its end comes to the depths of Hades." "If they had walked in good paths, they would have found the paths of the righteous

…smooth." "The paths of life turn aside from evils." "Make straight paths for your feet; do not turn aside to the right, nor to the left." "Thus says the Lord: Stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the ways of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it. See which is the good way, and you will find rest for your souls." "Do not draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands." "Do not be sifted in every wind, and do not walk in every path." "Remove yourself from your transgression, and make your hands straight, and cleanse your hand from every sin." "Children of curses wandered from the way of truth, following the way of Balaam." "Having tested all things, hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil." Those who flee evil are praiseworthy not if they turn aside from sin once or twice, but if they are able to escape the experience of evil completely. For the beginning of the taking up of good things is the withdrawal from evil things. For, it says, "Turn aside from evil, and do good," wisely and skillfully leading into virtue, making the withdrawal from vice the beginning of good things. A small spark kindles a great flame. The bite of a viper has often destroyed. Seeing this, then, turn aside even from a small harm. It is small, but it comes to something greater. Spring of evils, do not gush forth, no, vain mind; and you, tongue, do not receive the mire; and you, hand, do not write the worse things; thus would the image remain incorrupt in us. Let us recognize the snares, and walk far from them. Let us recognize the cliffs, and not even come near them.

This will be for us the greatest ground of security: not only to flee from sins, but also from things that seem indeed to be indifferent, yet trip us up toward sin. The removal of evils is the beginning of salvation.

TITLE 5. — On a good name and a bad. "A good name is more desirable than great wealth; and good favor is above silver and gold." "A good name is better than good oil." "Take thought for your name, for it remains with you, or a thousand talents of treasure." "Favor is like a paradise in blessings." "The number of days of a good life, and a good name endures forever." "An evil name will inherit shame and reproach." "A graceless man is an untimely tale."

TITLE 6. — On conceit and seeming; and that being is better than seeming. For this is a hindrance to virtue.

"I saw a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and this too is vanity." "If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness. And again: The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain. Therefore let no one boast in men." "Do not be puffed up one against another. For who distinguishes you? What do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not receive it?" "If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Let each one test his own work, and then he will have his boast in himself alone, and not in the other. Better to think a good man bad, if indeed the worst thing is to have the reputation of being good—like a painted tomb that appears to men to be what it is not, reeking within of rotting corpses, but shining outside with unquenchable colors and pleasant paintings. Desire glory neither wholly nor exceedingly. For being is better than seeming. But if you are insatiable concerning this, do not hunt the vain glory, nor the fresh, nor the painted one. For what benefit is it to the ape to be called a lion? If someone took pains to transform an ape into a lion, would you not be ashamed at the sight? And what if the swan displayed itself to you for delight—what would you think? The crow, the most dishonored of all birds, having dyed itself with a white appearance, is much more ridiculous. It is easiest to deceive oneself and to think one is something when one is nothing, puffed up by empty glory. Conceit, as the saying of the ancients goes, is the cutting off of progress. For the one who is puffed up does not endure improvement. Conceit is by nature unclean. TITLE 7. —On wine, and its use. "Wine gladdens the heart of man." "Wine is reckless, and drunkenness is insolent; but every fool is entangled in such things." "Give wine to those in sorrow and to those in pain, that they may forget their poverty and remember their toils no more." "Wine and women will turn away the prudent." "Do not be bold in wine. For wine has destroyed many. Wine was created from the beginning for gladness, and not for drunkenness.

A gladness of the heart and a joy of the soul is wine drunk. Do not be drunk with wine, in which is profligacy. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities. Wine is the gift from God, given for the consolation of infirmity to those who are sober-minded. The best measure of the use of wine is the body's need. For wine strengthens the body, but the word of God strengthens the soul. When wine has been partaken of, griefs will depart, driven away like darkness by a whirlwind. TITLE 8. — Concerning eyes.

An eye that beholds beautiful things gladdens the heart. Let your eyes look rightly, and let your eyelids nod to just things. What has been created more evil than the eye? Therefore it shall weep before every face. An evil eye is envious over bread, and lacking at his own table. Lord Father, and God of my life, do not give me the lifting up of the eyes. Guard, remember, that an evil eye is a bad thing. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is simple, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark.

TITLE 9. — On reproach; and that one ought not to reproach. "Turn away from yourself reproachful words." "Do not fear the reproach of men, and do not be defeated by their contempt; for like a garment it will be eaten by time, and like wool it will be eaten by a moth." Do not fear because you were put to shame, nor be ashamed because you were reproached, for you will forget eternal shame, and the reproach of your widowhood you shall no longer remember. "Do not abhor a man, and do not reproach him in his own sight." "He who reproaches a friend will dissolve friendship." "Do not reproach a man who is turning away from sin. Remember that we are all under correction." "The reproach of children is a mother in dishonor." "Do not laugh at a man who is in the bitterness of his soul. For there is one who humbles and exalts." "These things are heavy for a man who has understanding: the rebuke of a household, and the reproach of a creditor." One safety: not to reproach fortunes. For fortune is common, and the future is unseen. By always speaking well of the worthy, and never speaking ill of the unworthy, we too shall obtain the glory and kingdom of God. To censure the blameless is a sin against God. Do not reproach anyone with misfortune; for nature is common, and what comes upon us is unclear; lest, caught by the same things, you be found self-condemned in your conscience. Neither does praise make a good man, nor does blame make a bad one. TITLE 10. — On the short-lived and the brief in time.

Blessed is the offspring of woman, short-lived." "He was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or a servant deceive his soul. Having been perfected in a little while, he fulfilled long times; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord; therefore he hastened out of the midst of wickedness."

TITLE 11. — On those who cherish oaths; and that one ought not to swear. "You shall not take the name of your God in vain. For the Lord will by no means cleanse the one who takes his name in vain." "You shall not swear by my name unjustly." "Do not swear by the living Lord." "Do not accustom your mouth to an oath, and do not become accustomed to naming the Holy One. For just as a servant examined will not be diminished by a bruise, so also the one who swears, and names the name of the Lord, will not be diminished by sin." "I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King, nor swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. But what is beyond these is from the evil one." "The one who has sworn by the altar swears by it, and by all things upon it. And the one who has sworn by the temple swears by it, and by the one who dwells in it. And the one who has sworn by heaven swears by the throne of God, and by the one seated upon it." "Before all things, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. But let your Yes be yes, and your No, no;

so that you may not fall under judgment." Swearing is not beneficial, but is also exceedingly harmful, and accursed, and abominable. Cease, then, from swearing; do not wish to accustom your own tongue to oaths. TITLE 12. — Concerning those who annul oaths and commit perjury. "The Lord said to me: What do you see? And I said: I see a flying sickle, twenty cubits in length and ten cubits in width. And he said to me: This shall enter into the house of the one who swears in my name falsely; and it shall destroy, and consume him." "Thus says the Lord: Do not love a false oath, for all these things I have hated, says the Lord." "I will bring against you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against those who swear in my name falsely." "They swore unjustly in deceit, despising holiness." "A man of many oaths shall be filled with lawlessness, and the scourge shall not depart from his house." "Much-swearing speech shall make hairs stand upright, and their contention is a stopping of the ears." He who confirms a lie through oaths gains perjury as a base merchandise of inhumanity. A sword does not pierce as the nature of an oath does; a blade does not slay as the blow of an oath does. He who has sworn, even if he seems to live, has already died, and has received the wound. And just as the one who has taken the rope, even before leaving the city and seeing the executioner standing by, has died as soon as he goes out the doors of the court, so also the one who has sworn falsely, even if he lives, has died. LETTER P.

TITLE 1. — On faith and piety toward God. "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." "Behold, godliness is wisdom." "The roots of the pious are in strongholds." "The righteous shall live by faith." "Lord, the God of Israel, from the ends of the earth we have heard wonders. There is hope for the pious, and they shall say: Woe to the weak." "The way of the pious is straight and prepared." "The pious have devised prudent counsel, and this counsel remains." "If there is one who does judgment and seeks faith, I will be merciful to him, says the Lord." "Piety is stronger than everything." "We shall not sin, knowing that we have been reckoned to you. For to know you is complete righteousness, and to know your power is the root of immortality. For neither did the crafty device of men deceive us." "Believe in the Lord, and abide in your labor, for it is easy in the eyes of the Lord suddenly to enrich a poor man. The blessing of the Lord is in the reward of the pious. The gift of the Lord remains with the pious." "Believe in him, and he will help you." "The narration of a pious man is wisdom at all times." "Keep company with a pious man." "Everyone who confesses in me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven." "Amen I say to you: if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." "Peter answered and said to him: Behold, we have left everything and followed you; what then will there be for us? And Jesus said to them:

Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life. Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be lifted up and cast into the sea, it shall be done; and whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But to as many as received him, he gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not judged; but the one who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God, and so on. I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me shall never hunger, and the one who believes in me shall never thirst. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture said, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly.

But this he said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. I have come as a light into this world, so that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light. He who believes in me, the works that I do, he also will do, and greater than these will he do. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed. What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, but righteousness which is from faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to a law of righteousness. Why? Because it was not from faith, but as from works. For they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, just as it is written: Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame. Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, except through faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by works; for by works of the law no flesh will be justified. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any power, but faith working through love. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For here the elders were testified to. Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he becomes a rewarder to those who seek him. Train yourself toward godliness. For bodily training is profitable for a little while;

But godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. By grace you are saved, and this not of yourselves; the gift of God; not of works, lest anyone should boast. Be a worker of godliness. For this will bring you up even into heaven, and will make your memory immortal and your good repute enduring among men. The honor shown to God who truly is, is surely in every way also an honor to the one who honors him. But the honor shown to a god who is not, is on the contrary also a dishonor to the one who honors him. Godliness must be cared for above all things; they call it the mother of the virtues, and they speak rightly. For this is the beginning and the end of all the virtues. God must be remembered rather than breathed. Let the one who rejects reject; let the one who transgresses the law transgress. We proclaim what we have seen. We will go up to a high mountain, keeping silence, not proclaiming. A praiseworthy war is better than a peace that separates from God. I know that sinful men have laid hands on the sick and healed them; but this happens in two ways: not only through the one by whom it is given, but also in relation to the one who receives. For if he receives without believing, he receives the grace neither from a righteous man nor from a sinner. For the one who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And again the Lord: According to your faith let it be done to you. You, believe in the one who comes to you in the name of the Lord, doubting nothing, and you will receive the grace; for it is God who works.

TITLE 2. — On spiritual progress.

"Brothers, I do not yet consider that I have attained. But one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the upward calling." "So I run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as one beating the air; but I buffet my body and bring it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself should be rejected." "Desire earnestly the greater gifts." "Seek the things that are above, not the things that are on the earth." Do not think it enough to appear better than the wicked, but grieve when you are defeated by the good. Do not weigh virtue with small scales. He who rightly cares for himself is cared for by God.

TITLE 3. — On things temporary and eternal; and that those who prefer the present to the things to come commit the greatest offenses.

"I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." "Upon their heads shall be rest, and exultation, and gladness. And pain, and sorrow, and sighing have fled away." "Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it; for narrow is the gate and straitened is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it." "The time is shortened; for the rest, brothers, let those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice; and those who use this world, as though not making full use of it. For the form of this world is passing away." "The momentary lightness of our affliction, beyond all measure, beyond all measure, works for us an eternal weight of glory;

...not looking at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. "If in this life only we have hoped, we are more pitiable than all." "We have no lasting city here, but we seek the one to come." "We await new heavens and a new earth and his promises, in which righteousness dwells." There are two ways opposed to one another: the one broad and spacious, the other narrow and constrained; and two guides, each attempting to turn people to himself. The one way of error has as its guide a deceitful and wicked demon, dragging those who follow him through pleasure to destruction;

but the rough and steep way has a good angel, leading those who follow through the labors of virtue to the blessed end. As long as each of us is a child, pursuing what is pleasant in the present, he takes no care for the future. But once he has become a man, after the full development of his thoughts, he seems, as it were, to see life being shaped for him toward virtue and vice; and frequently turning the eye of his soul toward each, he judges in parallel the things that belong to each. The life of sinners shows all the delights of the present age; but the life of the righteous reveals only the good things of the future. And the way of those who are saved, to the extent that it promises beautiful things to come, provides present things that are equally laborious; but the pleasant and dissolute life offers its enjoyment not as something expected later, but as already present.

Every soul, then, reels and wavers in its reasonings: when it considers eternal things, it chooses virtue; but when it looks to things present, preferring pleasure, here it sees the ease of the flesh, there the enslavement of the flesh; here drunkenness, there fasting; here unrestrained laughter, there abundant tears. Blessed, therefore, is the one who has not been turned aside by the bait of pleasure toward destruction, but through endurance awaits the hope of salvation. We define nothing among human things as great or extraordinary. For the good is not in things that pass away, but we have been called to a participation in eternal and true things. Do not prefer the most worthless to the most precious, and do not become wicked traders, preferring the corruptible life to the incorruptible and blessed life. I have set before your face life and death, good and evil, two natures opposed to each other. Weigh them on your own judgment. Balance them accurately: which is more profitable for you—to choose the temporary pleasure, and through it receive eternal death, or to choose hardship in the exercise of virtue and use this as the means to eternal life? Do not give everything to pleasure; give something also to the soul. And consider that you have two daughters: ease here, and life in the heavens. If you do not wish to give everything to the better one, at least divide equally between the dissolute child and the temperate one. Do not think the life here is exceedingly rich, and the other bare and clothed in rags.

Do not present the bride to the bridegroom unadorned and shapeless, lest he look upon her and turn away his face, and seeing her hate her, and renounce the union. We have lived a long time for the world; let us live henceforth also for ourselves. What is equal in value to the soul? What is of equal weight to the kingdom of heaven? Who is a more trustworthy counselor to you than God? Who is wiser than the wise? Who is more profitable than the good? Who is closer to you than your Creator? See that, in fleeing the narrow way that leads to salvation, you do not pursue the broad roomy way of sin. I fear lest, having walked the broad way to the end, you find the lodging-place in keeping with the road. Take heed to yourself: neither remain among mortal things as though you were immortal, nor despise eternal things as though they were passing away. Overlook the flesh, for it passes away. Care for the soul, a deathless thing. Do not attend to the flesh, O man, nor to its good; nor marvel at wealth, and glory, and power, nor at all that fulfills your temporary service. If temporary things are such beauties, of what sort are eternal things? And if the greatness of man exceeds the measure of the human mind, who among men will be able to trace out the nature of eternal things? To have one's zeal set on things that appear is proper to those who set no hope for themselves in the age to come. If bodily things are not procured for men without toil, but even bread and food need labors and sweats, and the necessity of nature drives out sluggishness, and the whip of need drives the clay toward unavoidable toil—who, hearing of life that endures forever, would not be stirred up to labors?

Who would not gladly labor for the kingdom of heaven? Who would not despise pain for the sake of boundless pleasure? Who would not ride over the surging waves of temptations, in order to arrive at the untroubled marketplace of the heavens? For labors are everywhere the providers of good things. False are the opinions of the foolish; false are the suppositions of the wrong-minded, who assign the blessedness of life to wealth, and freedom, and power; not knowing that one may see a slavery higher than all freedom, and a weakness firmer than all power, and discern a poverty more precious than all wealth. TITLE 4. — Concerning the providence of God; and that God provides for us. "Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and God has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her child? Or not have compassion on the offspring of her womb? But even if a woman should forget these things, yet I will not forget you, says the Lord." "I will comfort all the desolate places of Zion, and I will make them like the paradise of delight." "Thus says the Lord: I will seek the lost, and I will turn back the wandering; and I will bind up the broken, and I will strengthen the failing, and I will guard the strong, and I will feed it with judgment." "You love all things that exist, and you abhor nothing that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you hated it. And how would anything have endured, unless you had willed it? Or how would it have been preserved, if it had not been called by you? But you spare all things, O Master who loves souls. For your Holy Spirit is in all things." "God made the small and the great;

Likewise he provides for all things. "Men made the merchant ship for the desire of gain, but the craftsman built it by wisdom; and your providence, Father, steers it, since you gave a way even in the sea, and a safe path through the waves, showing that you are able to save from all things, even if one embarks without skill; but you will that the works of wisdom not be idle; for this reason men also entrust their lives to the smallest piece of wood, and having passed through the surge, they are saved on a raft." Every good that comes to us from divine power, we say to be the working of the grace that works all things. It is proper and truly fitting to God to be propitious, to show mercy, to save his own works, even if one is brought into danger of destruction. For from him, it says, is the propitiation. That all things both exist and are governed at once by the providence of God, the wise men of true piety declare. But if each of the things that come to be is moved in its own way according to kind—some by habit, some by nature, some by impulse and imagination, some by reason, and by their own judgment and choice, and others have come to be by reason—they established the varied and manifold order of the whole, the cause of all things having distributed to each kind of being its own and distinct constitution of nature. What parents are to their children in families, this a king is to a city, and God to the world. You do not know what is advantageous for you, man; often you ask for things harmful and dangerous; but he who cares more for your salvation does not attend to your request, but before your request he everywhere looks after what is advantageous for you.

For if fleshly fathers do not give all things to their children when they ask, not because they despise those who ask, but because they care for them more, much more does God, who loves them more and knows better than all what is beneficial for us, do so. The Creator, knowing the hidden things of all rational beings, provides for all things, not only from the dispositions and actions they have, but also from what he foreknows, leading them to improvement. God, having established all things by his goodness, provides for all things, not looking to the worthiness of those provided for, but to his own mercifulness and his readiness to bestow good things.

TITLE 5. On attachment and anxiety; and that one ought to be disposed without attachment toward things.

"I sleep, but my heart keeps watch." "Anxiety brings old age before its time." "Do not be anxious for your soul, what you shall eat, nor what you shall drink, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the soul more than food? And the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of heaven, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into storehouses, and your heavenly Father feeds them," and the rest. "The time is shortened. Henceforth, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as though they did not use it. For the form of this world is passing away." It belongs to a perfect soul to be free from anxiety, but to the impious, to be worn away by cares. For concerning the perfect soul it has been said that it is a lily in the midst of thorns.

This shows his freedom from care. But concerning those who have much care for the things of life, he says: The whole life of the ungodly is in care. One must manage possessions without attachment, and when something happens, not be indignant, nor be grieved, nor desire to acquire. For the Lord commands us to depart from passionate acquisition, and from all attachment. TITLE 6. — Concerning prophets who slew men and were well-pleasing to God. "Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said: Whoever is for God, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came to him, and he says to them: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Put each his own sword upon his thigh, and pass through and return, and kill each his brother, and each his neighbor, and his nearest. And the sons of Levi did as Moses spoke to them, and there fell from the people on that day three thousand men." "Phineas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, rose up from the midst of the assembly, and taking a spear in his hand, he pierced both through, the Israelite man and the woman through her womb; and the wrath ceased from the sons of Israel. And those who died were twenty-four thousand. And the Lord spoke to Moses: Phineas the son of Eleazar has stopped my anger; behold, I give him my covenant, a covenant of peace, and it shall be for him and for his seed after him, a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the sons of Israel." "Samuel said: Bring Agag the king of Amalek to me. And Agag came trembling.

And Samuel said: Just as your sword has bereaved women, so shall your mother be bereaved among women. And he slaughtered him before the Lord. Elijah said to the people: Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slaughtered them there. TITLE 7. — Concerning the foreknowledge of God; and that the hidden and unknown things of matters must be left to God.

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, to do all the words of this law. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and a God who prepares his designs. I know the deliberations of your spirit. Before I formed you from the womb of your mother, I sanctified you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, and said concerning him: Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. Nathanael says to him: From where do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him: Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered and said to him: Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.

TITLE 8. — Concerning prophets who rebuked kings with boldness. "Samuel said to Saul: You have been made to fail, because you did not keep the commandment which the Lord commanded you, and now your kingdom shall not stand." "It came to pass, when Ahijah heard the sound of feet, he said: Enter, wife of Jeroboam. I am a harsh messenger to you." "Ahab said to Elijah: Are you the one who is perverting Israel? And Elijah said: I am not perverting Israel, but you and your father's house, in that you forsake the Lord and go after the Baalim." "The Lord spoke to Elijah, and said: Go down, do not be afraid of their face. And Elijah arose, and went down with them; and Elijah said: Thus says the Lord: Because you sent messengers to seek in Baal the fly god of Ekron, it shall not be so. The bed on which you went up there, you shall not come down from it, for you shall surely die. And he died according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke through Elijah." "Elisha said to the king of Israel: What have I to do with you? Come to the prophets of your father and of your mother. And the king of Israel said: Has the Lord not called the three kings, to deliver them into the hands of Moab? And Elisha said: As the Lord of hosts lives, if I did not regard the face of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, if I looked toward you, and saw you—

TITLE 9. — Concerning choice and disposition; and that God examines the choice in all things.

"To those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose." "Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched how the crowds were casting bronze into the gifts of God; and the rich were casting in much. And a poor widow came and cast in two lepta, which is a quadrans. And Jesus, calling his disciples to him, said to them: Amen, I say to you, that this poor widow has cast in more than all those who cast into the treasury. For all cast in from their abundance; but she, from her want, cast in all that she had, her whole livelihood." "You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, that everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." We praise those who are good by choice, not those compelled by some necessity. For where the choice is ready, nothing hinders; let the eagerness be present, and there will be no obstacle. With the righteous judge, even for choosing the one thing that is needful, the allotted rewards are not to be despised. The deeds of the body are cut short by many things; but he who sins by purpose has his sin completed together with the swiftness of his thoughts. The most excellent and most philanthropic thing is that God measures the bestowal not by the worth of what is given, but by the power and disposition of the one who bears fruit. The Lord, who disciplines the soul, reckons as rich not the gift but the choice. A sacrifice to God is a good intention.

TITLE 10. — Concerning virginity, and chastity, and honorable marriage. "Adam said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her man. For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall be one flesh." "If my heart has followed after the wife of another man, if I have lain in wait at the doors of her house, then let my wife also be pleasing to another." "A wife is fitted to a man by the Lord." "Rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let the hind of friendship and the colt of graces converse with you; and let your own wife lead you at all times. For in her friendship, conducting yourself with her, you shall be multiplied many times over." "Do not forsake the wife of your youth." "Blessed is the undefiled barren woman, who has not known a bed in transgression; she shall have fruit in the visitation of souls." And again: "Virginity with virtue is better. For the remembrance of it is immortality, because it is known both by God and by men, and in the age to come it goes forth crowned, having won the contest of undefiled struggles." "He who faces pleasures head-on crowns his life." "The Pharisees came to him, testing him and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said to them, Have you not read that the one who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh?

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. They say to him, Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put her away? He says to them, Because of the hardness of your hearts he permitted you to put away your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery, and he who marries her that is put away commits adultery. His disciples say to him, If this is the case of the man with the woman, it is not expedient to marry. But he said to them, Not all receive this saying, but those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it. A woman is bound by the law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Concerning the things of which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of fornications let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to the wife the due affection. Likewise also the wife to the husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband; likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife. Do not deprive one another, unless by agreement for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer, and come together again, so that Satan does not tempt you because of your incontinency.

I say to the unmarried and to the widows: it is good for them if they remain as I also am. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn. To the married I give this charge, not I but the Lord: a wife is not to be separated from her husband. But if she is separated, let her remain unmarried, or let her be reconciled to her husband; and a husband is not to divorce his wife. Concerning the virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my judgment, as one who has been shown mercy by the Lord to be faithful. I think, then, that this is good because of the present necessity, that it is good for a man to be so. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you marry, you have not sinned, and if the virgin marries, she has not sinned. But such will have affliction in the flesh. And again: I want you to be free from anxiety. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. The woman who is unmarried and the one who is married. The unmarried woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but the married woman is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but for what is proper and devoted to the Lord without distraction. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the Church. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. The mind must, like a certain pilot, sit above the passions, and as it were embark upon the ship of the flesh,

And by experience turning his reasonings like a rudder, to trample bravely upon the waves, and remaining lofty and inaccessible to the passions, never to be infected anywhere by the bitterness of the passions as by some brine. One virtue belongs both to man and to woman, since creation is equally honored, so that the reward is also the same for both. Of whom the nature is one, the activities are the same; and of whom the work is equal, of these the reward is also the same. Husbands, love your wives, even if you come together for the partnership of marriage from beyond the borders of one another. Let the bond of nature, the yoke of blessing, be a union of those who are separated. The viper, the most savage of serpents, comes to mate with the sea moray, and signaling its presence by a hiss, calls it forth from the depths to the marital coupling. What does the argument intend for me? That even if the spouse is rough, even if savage in character, the yokefellow must bear it, and on no pretext accept to tear the union apart. Is he a striker? But he is a husband. Is he a drunkard? But he is united according to nature. Rough and disagreeable? But he is one's own member, and the most honored of members. Let the husband also hear the exhortation that is fitting. The viper vomits out its venom, out of reverence for the marriage; but will you not put away the harsh and inhuman part of your soul, out of reverence for the union? I would not pass over the case of Alexander, who, having taken the daughters of Darius captive, testified to possess a beauty that was wondrous, did not deign even to address them, judging it shameful that a man who had conquered men should be defeated by women. For this brings to the same point as that:

He who looks upon a woman with a view to pleasure, even if he does not accomplish the adultery in deed, yet in that he has admitted the desire into his soul, he is not released from the charge. Do not lay the yoke of virginity on anyone. For the possession is precarious and hard to guard when it comes about by necessity. Permit the young to marry before they are corrupted toward others. Virgin, be a virgin in ears, and in eyes, and in tongue; for sin is everywhere swift to run. The Lord blesses, not those who live altogether outside of passion—for it is not possible in a material life for the immaterial and wholly passionless life to be achieved—but those who are slow and sluggish toward the impulses of nature. For he does not legislate passionlessness absolutely for human nature, but that which is achieved through virtue. For that such an impulse should ever arise, the weakness often mingled with nature brings about even against the will. But that one should not be swept along like a winter torrent by the impulse of passion, but should stand manfully against such a disposition, and drive off the passion by reasonings—this is the work of virtue. Blessed, then, are those who are not quick to rush toward the passionate motions of the soul, but are restrained by reason, and in whom reason, like a bridle, checking the impulses, does not allow the soul to be carried away into disorder. Marriage is a pardon of passion. Nothing is so unworthy of a virgin as to be rich and to be clothed about with a multitude of possessions. It is a mockery to keep the organs of childbearing virgin, but not to keep the tongue; or to keep the tongue virgin, but not the sight, or the hearing, or the hands, but to play the harlot by pride and anger.

For it is necessary to keep all one's members and senses pure and sealed. What is forced is unpleasant and short-lived; but what is unforced has no satiety, but always flourishes with grace and longing. The corruption of virgins is spoken of not only as fornication, but also as giving in marriage before the proper time, when, so to speak, she is given unseasonably to a man, either by herself or by her parents. By much study and discipline, the violence and savagery of the passions are weakened. The charioteer of the passions does not let them go once he has subdued them; for this war always stands, as long as man is in life. TITLE 11. — On fornication, and adultery, and sodomy. "A man, whoever commits adultery with the wife of a man, let him be put to death, both the adulterer and the adulteress. A man, whoever lies with a male as with a woman, they have done an abomination; both shall be put to death. For they are guilty of death. A man, whoever lies with the wife of his father, he has uncovered the shame of his father; both shall be put to death. If a man takes a woman and her mother, it is lawlessness. They shall burn him and them with fire." "No one born of a prostitute shall enter into the Church of God." "If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, you shall kill both, and you shall remove the evil from Israel." "Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law; and all the people shall say, So be it, so be it." If any man takes a woman and lives with her, and lays pretextual words against her, and brings a wicked name upon her and says, I have taken this woman, and having come to her, I have not found virginity in her;

And the father of the girl and the mother shall bring out the tokens of the woman's virginity to the elders; and they shall take the man and discipline him and fine him a hundred shekels, and give them to the father of the young woman, because he brought out an evil name against a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife. He shall not be able to put her away all his days. But if the tokens of virginity are not found in the young woman, they shall bring her out to the doors of her father's house, and the men of the city shall stone her, and she shall die, because she wrought folly. If there be a young virgin betrothed to a man, and a man finding her in the city lie with her, you shall bring both out to the gate of that city, and they shall stone both with stones, and they shall die: the young woman, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he humbled his neighbor's wife. But if a man find in the field the girl who is betrothed, and having forced her lie with her, you shall kill the man who lay with her, and to the young woman you shall do nothing. It is no sin worthy of death for the young woman, for as if a man should rise up against his neighbor and murder his life, so is this matter; for he found her in the field; the young woman cried out, and there was none to help her. The eye of the adulterer watched for darkness, saying, No eye shall take notice of me. The fury of anger is unrestrainable, to defile a man's wife. For it is a fire burning from all its parts;

Wherever he enters, he has destroyed it from the roots. Unholy are prayers from the wage of a harlot. Let not desire for beauty overcome you, nor be caught by your own eyes, nor be carried off by the eyelids of fornication. The adulterer, through lack of understanding, procures destruction for his own soul; he endures pains and dishonors; his reproach shall not be blotted out forever. For the spirit of her husband is full of jealousy; he will not spare in the day of judgment; he will not exchange his enmity for any ransom, nor shall it be dissolved by many gifts. Be not much with another's wife, nor hold her in embraces that are not your own. He who shepherds harlots shall destroy wealth. Will anyone bind fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned? Or will anyone walk upon coals of fire, and his feet not be burned? So he who goes in to a married woman shall not be acquitted. Keep away from another's water, and do not drink from another's spring, so that you may live a long time, and years of life be added to you. The children of adulterers shall be unfinished, and the seed from an unlawful bed shall be destroyed. A numerous multitude of the ungodly shall not profit, and from bastard slips it shall not give root into depth, nor establish a sure foundation. Children born from unlawful sleeps are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their examination. A soul hot as burning fire shall not be quenched until it be swallowed up; so also the fornicating man in the body of his flesh. Where there is no wife, he shall groan, wandering. To a fornicating man every bread is sweet; he shall not labor until he dies. A man transgressing from his own bed, saying in his soul, Who sees me?

Darkness is all around me, and the walls cover me, and no one sees me; why should I be cautious? The Most High will surely not remember my sins. And the eyes of men are his fear, and he did not know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun. This man will be punished in the broad places of the city, and where he did not suspect, he will be caught. They will grow weak in their bodies from the abundance of fornication. With which of these shall I be propitiated toward you? Your sons have forsaken me, and they swore by those who are not gods, and I satisfied them, and they committed adultery, and they lodged in the houses of harlots. They became horses mad for females; each neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, says the Lord? Or shall my soul not take vengeance on such a nation? You have heard that it was said to the ancients, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. Let us not commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication and fell in one day, twenty-three thousand. Put to death your members that are upon the earth.

...sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. "But God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers." I am moved to weep over you, O man, whenever I consider that you prefer the works of shame to the great glory of God, and because of the sweetness of licentiousness you cling to sin and are hard to tear away from it. Pleasure is the devil's hook, drawing one to destruction. Pleasure is the mother of sin; pleasure is the nurse of the eternal worm, which for a time smooths over the one who enjoys it, but afterward makes its returns more bitter than gall. Evil desires, goading the soul to frenzy, cast it into uncontrolled and licentious impulses. If, then, you attend to yourself and remember that the present sweetness will come to a bitter end, and that the tickling now arising in our body from pleasure will itself generate the venomous worm that punishes us eternally in Gehenna, and that the burning of the flesh will become the mother of the eternal fire, immediately the pleasures will depart and be put to flight, and a wondrous calm will arise within around the soul, and a stillness, as when the clamor of licentious handmaidens is silenced by the presence of a modest mistress. There is a certain adultery of nature: the coupling of the viper and the sea moray. Let those, then, who plot against the marriages of others be taught what sort of reptile they resemble, and let the passions of the licentious be restrained, being disciplined by both terrestrial and marine lessons.

I know some who in their youth slipped into the passions of the flesh, and through the habit of evil remained in their sins even into old age, and just as those who wallow in the mire always smear the mud upon themselves, so these too each day besmear themselves with the shame that comes from pleasure. The spirit of fornication does not endure to stand still in a single act of dishonor, but at once companions of the same age are taken along with it—revels, and drunkenness, and shameful tales, a courtesan drinking with them, smiling at this one, provoking that one, and inflaming all toward her own sin. Pleasure is the great bait of evil, through which we are especially prone to fall into sin; by it every soul is dragged to death as by a hook, while he who is not entangled by it has through self-control overcome every nature of sins. A pure man does not share the wages of a prostitute. Wantonness is a terrible thing for the devising of evils. Pleasure, set forth as a kind of bait of every vice, easily draws the more greedy souls onto the hook of destruction. A brother was assailed unto fornication; and it happened that he was passing through a certain village of Egypt, and seeing the daughter of a certain priest of the idols, he loved her, and says to her father: Give her to me as a wife. And he answered and said: I cannot give her to you unless I learn from my god. And going to the demon, he said

To him: Behold, a certain monk came wanting my daughter—shall I give her to him? And the demon answered and said: If he denies his God, and his baptism, and the vow of the monk. And a priest came and said to the monk: Deny your God, and your baptism, and the vow of the monk. And he agreed, and immediately he saw a dove go out from his mouth and fly up into heaven. And the priest went to the demon and said: Behold, he has agreed to these three things. And the devil answered and said to him: Do not give him your daughter as a wife. For his God has not departed from him, but still helps him. And the priest came and said to the brother: I cannot give her to you. For God still helps you, and has not departed from you. It is good to flee bodily things. For when a man is near the bodily war, he is like a man standing over a very deep pit, and at whatever hour it seems good to his enemy, he easily throws him down. But if he keeps far away bodily, he is like a man at a distance from the pit, so that while the enemy drags him to throw him down, God sends him help. Do not say: How can I not commit fornication? I say to you, he says: How can you? Desire, he says, burns me up. But you have a wife; you have pleasure with safety. But I cannot restrain myself. These things are from negligence. For when I bring before you another who has no wife but is chaste, what defense do you have? He in the open sea did not endure shipwreck, and you in the harbor await the fall? You have a wife, and you commit fornication? Rather, you even commit adultery?

And how, he says, shall I get the better of the wound? Enjoy your wife, and I will enjoy my wife. Very well. Consider what the blessed Paul says: But because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, nor does the husband. If, then, a prostitute calls you, consider the saying by itself, and say: The husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. And write the saying on your face, and say to the prostitute: Why do you call me? My body is not mine, but my wife's. I do not dare to betray what belongs to another. Do you not dare to diminish her dowry, nor do you dare to squander her property, and do you dare to defile her body? Say that you do not touch it. For this is not mine, but belongs to another. For is the body not the prostitute's? I do not receive a prostitute's body. This is my wife's; fear Christ, and say that this body is a member of Christ, and our body is members of Christ. Let them hear and consider to what Christ raised it, and let them say: The wife does not have authority over her own body. Consider Paul's philosophy: what does he say? Since many are not continent, but have honorable and chaste wives, and contrary to what those men think, these women are continent; and their philosophy becomes an occasion of adultery for those men, for this reason he says: Let each man enjoy his own wife. And he is not ashamed, but enters and sits upon the marriage bed night and day, and holding the husband, and thus joining the wife, and cries out and shouts:

Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement. Are you practicing continence, and you do not wish to sleep with your husband? But he, not enjoying you, goes away and thereafter sins, and his sin is reckoned to your continence. Which is better? That he sleep with you, or with a prostitute? Your enjoyment is not forbidden, but hers is forbidden. If he sleeps with you, there is no charge; but if he sleeps with her, you have destroyed your members. So he sits, as I said, upon the marriage bed of husband and wife, and cries out: Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a time. Do you see that for this reason you took a wife, and you took a husband, so that you might be in agreement—and you wish to practice continence? Persuade your husband too, so that there may be two crowns, of chastity and of concord, and not of chastity and of war. For even if you practice continence, he is set aflame by desire. But Paul says, Do not commit fornication—and immediately he is stirred up and tossed like waves. Therefore do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement. For where there is peace, there also are all good things; where there is peace, chastity also shines. Where there is concord, continence is crowned. But where there is war, chastity too is cut off. Paul, the matchmaker of the whole world, is not ashamed to say: Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled. For his own Master came to a wedding, honoring marriage by his presence, and he brought gifts; for he turned water into wine. Run as far as you are able; when you grow weak, take intercourse as a remedy, so that Satan may not tempt you. Let each man therefore have his own wife.

For there are these three things: virginity, marriage, and fornication. Virginity is above, marriage in the middle, fornication below; virginity has a crown, marriage a moderate praise, fornication punishment and retribution. Consider therefore whether you are practicing continence, whether you are able to bear the weakness of the body; do not wish to ascend beyond your measure, lest you descend beyond your measure. Just as one who is about to dive enters only as far as he is able to come out, and when he enters he considers how far he is able to come out, so also you, practice self-control only to the extent that you are able to endure, lest by striving beyond your measure you fall away entirely. A woman's beauty is a very great snare; or rather not beauty, but the shameless look. For let us not slander things themselves, but ourselves and our own negligence. Nor let us say, Let there be no women, but let us say, Let there be no adulterers. Nothing is more foul-smelling than a soul full of passion. Pleasure, O man, resembles a dog. If you pursue it, it flees; if you feed it, it stays. Flee pleasure because of the affliction, lest the devil use your own limbs against you as arrows. Pleasure is the metropolis of evils. We have already often set forth the three highest divisions of fornication according to the Apostle: love of pleasure, love of money, idolatry. The same devil also suggests fierce lust. The same one, even after adultery has been committed, sometimes implants unbearable hatred, leading one by the hand not to good repentance but to murder. Hence some, after committing adultery, have often slain the adulteress with the sword. Not all demons are assigned the same practices, or such wicked ministries, by the devil.

For each has been entrusted with a different abominable and God-hating ministry. And these engrave thoughts of blasphemy on the hearts of men; those suggest shameful desires to the soul; and some are accustomed to stir up vainglory, envy, anger, and the like; others supply the material of thoughts to the heretics; others devote themselves to gluttony, drunkenness, and fornication. And other demons deceive and mock through dreams; others inject the pleasures of men into their bodies, and make all the members seethe and surge with lawlessness, and fill the senses with mist and gloom. And these cooperate and lend strength to sorcerers and poisoners and those who invoke them; those rather take pleasure with diviners, and run together with them, and spend their time with them. To speak simply, each order of demons has been allotted its own particular soul-harming ministry and occupation. A wicked provision for the passions is the frequent and particular company of women. He who does not avoid beautiful faces, but gazes on them with pleasure, is easily sunk beneath fornication. TITLE 12. – On experience and inexperience. "Saul clothed David with his mantle, and a bronze helmet around his head; and David girded his sword over his mantle, and he grew weary walking once and twice, because he was inexperienced. And David said to Saul: I shall not be able in these things, because I have not made trial." "In much time, wisdom.

But in a long life is knowledge. "Not many years make men wise, nor do old men know judgment." "If one desires much experience, he knows how to conjecture things ancient and things to come." "The crown of old men is much experience." "In great and in small do not be ignorant." The man of much experience will declare understanding; but he who has not been tried knows little. "A man of much experience will be put to shame before a face." "A man who has sojourned abroad has known many things; he who has wandered multiplies cunning. I have seen many things in my wandering, and more than my words, is my understanding." "He who has been taught a craft, and holds it firmly through long experience and study, and has his habit established, can henceforth act by himself according to the principles of knowledge laid up in him." "Perception is more active than every principle for experience." "What a man has not suffered, he would not even believe of another. But he who has suffered is more ready to assent." "Experience is the mother of understanding." "To each, experience becomes a teacher of safety." "Just as those who are inexperienced in lyre-playing must not touch the lyre, nor indeed those inexperienced in flute-playing the flutes, so neither must those who have not received the knowledge of matters touch them, even if they know how they are to be used throughout their whole life." "Every action of the knowledgeable and experienced man is success, but that of the ignorant man is failure." "Daily practice has little by little nourished experience.

TITLE 13. – On meekness and piety.

"He will guide the meek in judgment; he will teach the meek his ways." "But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." "When God arises in judgment, to save all the meek of the earth." "My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that they may sit down with me." "The Lord takes up the meek." "He will exalt the meek in salvation." "A meek-tempered man is a healer of the heart." "Better is a meek-tempered man with humility, than one who divides the spoils with insolence." "Blessed is the man who is in awe of all things through reverence. But the hard of heart shall fall into evils." "Child, carry out your works in meekness, and you shall be loved by an acceptable man." "Child, glorify your soul in meekness." "The Lord has cast down the roots of the nations, and has planted the meek in their place." "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." "Let no one despise you; remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey every good work, to be ready to blaspheme no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all meekness toward all men." I have need of meekness, in which the ruler of this age, the devil, is brought down. A young man who is meek endures many things. The gray hairs of old men are meekness; and their life is true knowledge. No one of the virtues is by nature so apt to give birth to wisdom as meekness.

TITLE 14. – On those who sin and blaspheme against God out of ignorance. "A man's folly corrupts his ways, but his heart blames God." Why do we blame the wretched man for everything, giving the enemy power over his life? Blame yourself, either wholly or for the greater part; the fire is from us, but the flame is from the Spirit. In short, if we attend to what happens with precision, no one deceives us. The devil indeed pushes, but he himself also works many evils, and we too work many against ourselves through our laziness.

TITLE 15. – On the reckless, and the shameless, and the irascible, and the hot-tempered, and the quick-tempered.

"Anger destroys a fool." "The sinners in their wrath overthrew the weak." "Wrath destroys the great and the mighty." "The impious man was not ashamed before the face of an honored man, nor does he know how to assign honor to such men." "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath." "Their wrath is after the likeness of the serpent." "A hot-tempered man is not comely." "Anger destroys even the wise. A hot-tempered man prepares quarrels." "The quick-tempered man acts without counsel." "Heavy is a stone, and hard to bear is sand; but the anger of a fool

…heavier than both." "Do not be a companion to a man of anger, and do not lodge with a wrathful friend, lest you learn his ways and take a snare for your own soul." "A man of anger digs up strife, but a wrathful man has dug out sins." "You shall not speak a word in anger out of your mouth." "The lips of a fool lead him into evils, but his bold mouth calls upon death." "The mouth of a fool crushes him, and his lips are a snare to his soul." "A shameless man shamelessly stands his ground face to face." "The north wind stirs up clouds, but a shameless face provokes the tongue. The hard-hearted man shall fall into evils." "Do not be quick in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools." "The look of a harlot has become yours; you have acted shamelessly toward all." "A daring soul shall be taken away." "An unjust anger cannot be justified, for the impulse of his anger is his fall." "Put away anger from your heart." "Zeal and anger diminish days." "Lord Almighty, the God of my salvation, do not deliver me to the soul of a shameless man." "Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment." "Be angry, and do not sin; let not the sun set upon your provocation, nor give place to the devil. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and blasphemy be taken away from you, with all wickedness." "The anger of a man does not work the righteousness of God." Woe to those who are drunk, not with wine. Anger is a drunkenness of the soul, making it senseless as wine does. Grief is also a drunkenness, sinking the mind deep. Consider for me the angry man, how he is drunk with the passion. He is not master of himself. He does not know himself.

…he does not know those present. As in a night battle he lays hold of everyone, stumbles against everyone, speaks without restraint, is hard to hold back, reviles, strikes, swears, shouts, bursts apart. Flee this drunkenness. Once the passion of anger has thrust reason aside and taken over the dominion of the soul, it turns the man utterly into a beast and does not even allow him to be a man, since he no longer has the help that comes from reason. For what venom is to venomous creatures, that anger becomes to those who are provoked. They rage like dogs; they dart like scorpions; they bite like snakes. Scripture too knows how to call those mastered by the passion by the names of beasts. Because of anger, tongues are unbridled and mouths have no gate, hands are unrestrained, there are insults, reproaches, accusations, blows, and all the other things that cannot even be counted. Because of anger even a sword is sharpened. Because of it, brothers have failed to recognize one another, and parents and children have forgotten nature; those who are angry fail to recognize themselves first, and then likewise all their own people. And just as torrents rushing toward the hollows sweep away whatever they meet, so the impulses of the angry, violent and unchecked, advance alike through all things. To those who are enraged, gray hair is not respected; not virtue of life, not kinship of family, not former favors, nor any other such thing is honored among them. Anger is a kind of short-lived madness. In wicked contests the victor is more wretched, because he departs having the greater share of the sin. Do not, then, become a fulfiller of an evil contribution, nor a worse payer of a wicked loan. He committed outrage; he was angered;

Stop the evil with silence. But you, having received his impulse into your own heart like a stream, imitate the winds, which by blowing back return what was brought. Do not use the enemy as a teacher, nor be zealous for what you hate, nor become like a mirror of the angry man, showing his form in yourself. Was he red? Were you not dyed crimson? His eyes bloodshot—but do yours look calm? His voice harsh—but yours gentle? Not even in the wilderness was an echo so reflected intact to the one who spoke, as in the case of revilers their insults rebound. Rather, the sound is returned the same, but the insult comes back with an addition. What is more foolish than anger? If you remain without anger, you have put the insulter to shame, demonstrating self-control by deed. Were you struck? So too was the Lord. Were you spat upon? But so too was our Master. For he did not turn his face away from the shame of spittings. Were you slandered? So too was the Judge. Did he tear your tunic? They also stripped your Lord and divided his garments. Transfer your wrath there, against the manslayer, the father of lies, the worker of sin. But have compassion on your brother, because if he persists in sin, he will be given over with the devil to eternal fire. Cease then from anger, and forsake wrath, that you may escape the experience of the wrath that is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Let us not, then, bring in so great an evil: weakness of soul, darkening of thoughts, alienation from God, ignorance of kinship with him, the beginning of war, a fullness of calamities, an evil demon begotten within our very souls, and, as it were, some shameless indweller occupying our inner parts beforehand and shutting off the passage to the Holy Spirit. For where enmities, strifes, rages, contentions, and rivalries produce unceasing tumults in souls, there the spirit of gentleness does not rest. Are you irascible? Restrain your anger. An irascible man, it says, is unseemly. Learn from the Scripture; let the Scripture become a mirror of your face. Learn there. For since the impious thought, having darkened you, does not allow you to consider how great a sin anger is, the Scripture says to you that an irascible man is unseemly. Has anger overpowered your thought and, out of rage, carried you away into unseemly words and harsh and fierce deeds? If you attend to yourself, you will restrain your anger like some disobedient and hard-to-manage colt, striking it with the blow of the word, as it were with a whip. How unseemly the irascible man is! He lays aside the human form and takes on the form of a beast. Consider for me the man in anger: his anger has boiled within him, and his eyes have changed; they are not the same eyes—he looks fire; his blood has rushed up; it has seethed around his heart; it has run up under the garments of his eyes. He has become bloodshot, giving way to the passion; it has altered his eyes. An irascible man is unseemly.

If you see an angry man grinding his teeth, consider that such a person resembles a pig, revealing the anger within through the friction of his teeth. If you see an angry man foaming at the mouth, uttering indistinct sounds in his heart; if you see an angry man forgetting his father, ignorant of his child's body, proceeding through all things without restraint, so as to satisfy his impulse, you see the shamefulness of the matter. Heal yourself by another's evil, lest you too receive his shamefulness. For an irascible man is not comely. Flee from dealings with him; for you must needs learn his ways. Did he say something insulting? Did he stir up the anger within you too? Just as the barking of a dog summons the uproar of another dog, so his voice has awakened the anger within you that was hitherto sleeping and at rest; and you have come to bark at each other. For what kind of things will they say to one another in mutual abuse, until their insults run out of arrows? Then, when they have slung every kind of abuse through the tongue, they proceed at last to defense by means of the hands. For anger stirs up strife, and strife abuse, and abuse blows, and blows wounds and murders. Bridle your anger, lest you fall outside your senses. Let your anger be only against the serpent, through whom you fell. Let us be pure from anger. For the Holy Spirit does not dwell where anger is. Anger is accursed. For nothing sound can come forth from where anger issues. Anger does not allow one to see other things, but as in a night battle it binds everything together—both eyes and ears—and leads one wherever it wishes.

Nothing so clouds the purity of the mind and the clarity of the understanding as disordered anger, borne along with great vehemence. It is the habit of most people, whenever they are overwhelmed by anger and grief, even if they cannot lay hold of those responsible for their sufferings, to vent their anger indiscriminately and suspiciously upon those who happen to fall in their way. Once a soul has been forced past the point of shame, it falls into insensibility, and neither yields to exhortation nor bends to threats. The passion of anger is tyrannical, and often drags away those who are not sober and leads them down to the pit of destruction. What beast is so cruel and untamed as a man prone to anger, tyrannized by unmingled wrath? What sea, when violent winds pour down upon it, is so broken against the rocks set within it? Or what serpent so bitter and venomous leaps fiercely upon those who approach it, as an unrestrained man, fierce and unbridled in his rages, giving the reins wholly to the passion as it were? What could be worse than anger? For it turns a man into a beast, making him shameful and implacable, unsociable and unholy, and disposing him to regard the greatest of goods as nothing. For what evil undertakings will he not touch, or what words will he refrain from, having an unquenchable flame within his mind and seething in his wrath? Being angry is limited among us to the point of stopping sins. For be angry, it says, and do not sin. And the precisely critical faculty must be set aside, as the Ecclesiast advises: Do not become overly righteous. And even if someone seems to be angry for a little while, nevertheless he does this overcome by passion, and he is foolish.

Do not accept self-control when gentleness is being pursued. For whoever abstains from foods or drinks but stirs up anger unreasonably is like a ship crossing the sea with a demon as its pilot.

TITLE 16. — On boldness of speech and authority; and whence the acquisition of these comes to us.

"Authority over words is given by the beginning of righteousness." "If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God, and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing before him." When the ruler himself becomes blameless in all things, then he will be able, with all the authority he wishes, both to punish and to release all those ranked under him. TITLE 17. — On a dignified manner of life, and orderly conduct, and good character, and obedience; and that when we live honorably God is glorified and served. "God appeared to Abraham and said to him: I am your God. Be well-pleasing before me, and become blameless." "You shall do what is good and pleasing before the Lord, so that it may go well with you." "Samuel said: Is a whole burnt offering and sacrifice as desirable to the Lord as hearing the voice of the Lord? Behold, hearing is better than sacrifice, and listening than the fat of rams." "Lord, who will dwell in your tabernacle?" "Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord? Or who will stand in his place," etc.

Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." "Blessed are those who are blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." "Let your eyes look straight ahead, and let your eyelids nod to what is right." "Provide what is good in the sight of God and men." "He who conducts himself blamelessly in righteousness will leave blessed children behind." "I will leave among you a gentle and humble people, and they will fear the face of the Lord, and they will not do injustice, nor will they speak vain things, and a deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth." "Who will declare to you that fire is burning? Who will declare to you the eternal place? He who walks in righteousness, who speaks the straight way, who hates lawlessness and injustice, and who shakes his hands free from bribes; who makes his ears heavy so as not to hear a judgment of blood; who shuts his eyes so as not to see injustice—this one will dwell in a lofty cave of a strong rock." "He will not oppress a man; he will restore the pledge of one who owes, and he has not committed robbery; he will give bread to the hungry and clothe the naked, and he will not give his silver at interest, and he will not take increase, and he will turn his hand away from injustice, he will execute just judgment between himself and his neighbor, and in my commandments

he walks, my statutes he has kept to do them; this one is righteous, he shall live by life, says the Lord." "Old age is honorable, not that which is long in time, nor is it measured by the number of years. But gray hairs are the understanding of men, and the age of old age is a blameless life." "You have heard that it was said to the ancients, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the evil one, but whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And to the one who wishes to judge you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also; and whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. To the one who asks you, give, and do not turn away the one who wishes to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies; bless those who curse you; do good to those who hate you, so that you may become sons of your Father who is in the heavens, because he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. "You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hidden when it is set on a mountain, nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the lampstand, and it shines for all who are in the house. So let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens." "Providing what is good before God and men." "As in the day, let us walk decently: not in revelries and drunkenness, not in beds and licentiousness, not in strife and jealousy.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires. Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Be blameless, both toward Jews and Greeks, and toward the Church of God. See carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of God is. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show his works out of his good conduct in gentleness. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, so that in the very thing in which they speak against you as evildoers, observing your good works, they may glorify God in the day of visitation. If you call upon the Father who judges impartially according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourning. It is not possible to live according to God without doing all things soberly and righteously. Good is the reward of well-doing. For men, praises are established by the increase of words; but for the righteous, the truth of their deeds suffices to show the surpassing excellence of their virtue. Learn, O man, be taught the gospel way of life: exactness of the eyes, restraint of the tongue, enslavement of the body, a humble mind, purity of thoughts, the putting away of anger; when compelled, love; when persecuted, endure; when reviled, entreat. I speak of nobility, not that which many suppose; away with it; it is not for us to admire this.

Nor philosophy that comes from myths and tombs, but the philosophy that piety characterizes, and character, and the ascent to the first good, from whence we came. Of this there is one proof of nobility. Not the one wise in word—this one is not wise to me—nor whoever has a well-turned tongue but an uneducated soul. Just as tombs, however fair and beautiful they are on the outside, rot with dead things within and cover over much foul odor; but whoever speaks little about virtue but shows much by what he does, and adds the trustworthiness of his word through his life. Better to me is beauty that is seen than that painted in word; and wealth that hands hold than what dreams fashion; and wisdom, not the wisdom made brilliant in word, but that tested through works—for good understanding is for all who do them, it says, not for those who proclaim them. Character writes the free man and the slave. The sum of all good things is this: that the name of God be glorified in my life.

In me, he says, let the name of your dominion that is invoked be sanctified, so that people may see the good works and glorify the Father who is in the heavens. A life is more powerful than a word, and a manner of living than words, and the demonstration through works than the teaching through words; not only did the wonders among the apostles draw believers, but before the wonders, their life did. We who fulfill a noetic and spiritual worship have been commanded to bring as a sweet-smelling odor every manner of gentleness, faith, hope, love, righteousness, self-control, obedience, and docility, unceasing doxologies, and the other virtues. For this is the most immaterial sacrifice, fitting for the immaterial and pure God, and the dedications of noetic good order, the manners of true well-being. In general, the Christian is a stranger to deserts, and to stillness, and to calm, and to peace. Not only a frugal way of life, but also speech must be practiced by the one who has taken up the true life. To be subject to betters is beneficial.

TITLE 18. – On a blameworthy manner of life, of disobedient and insubordinate scoundrels, and of those who have a reprehensible character.

If you walk contrary to me, I also will walk with you in contrary wrath, and I will strike you for your sins. He who thwarts the counsels of the crafty, so that their hands cannot accomplish the truth. The Lord will destroy all deceitful lips. Your mouth has abounded in wickedness, and your tongue has woven deceits. Men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue. From an unjust and deceitful man deliver me. A perverse heart devises evils; at every season such a man stirs up troubles for a city. Therefore his destruction comes suddenly, because he rejoices in all things that God hates. Perverse ways are an abomination to the Lord. Because they did not wish to attend to my counsels, but scoffed at my reproofs, therefore they shall eat the fruits of their own way, and be filled with their own desires. A foolish and lawless man walks crooked ways, and the same man winks with his eyes, signals with his foot, and teaches with nods of his fingers. The impious govern by treacheries; the words of the impious are deceitful. The deceitful man shall not attain his prey. The souls of the deceitful wander in sins, and for a deceitful son there shall be nothing good. The crooked man carries his destruction upon his own mouth.

A crooked man sends forth evils and separates friends. God will send crooked ways to the crooked. Thorns and snares are in crooked ways, but he who guards his own soul will keep away from them. He who walks in crooked ways will be entangled. This people draws near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they honor me, but their heart is far from me. To this people a heart has become disobedient and insubordinate. Thus says the Lord: Let him who hears me hear, and let him who is disobedient be disobedient, because it is a house that embitters. And you shall be to them like the sound of a sweet-voiced, well-tuned psaltery. They will hear the words, and they will certainly not obey them. Crooked thoughts separate from God. Wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil, for the holy spirit of wisdom will flee from deceit. The deceitful, the suspicious, the faithless, the malignant, the plotting, and the bold are the offspring of the evil and reprobate manner of life. By no means, then, let us bring upon ourselves so great an evil, producing weakness in souls, darkness of thoughts, alienation from God, ignorance of kinship with him, the beginning of war, a fullness of calamities, an evil demon begotten within our own souls, and, as it were, some indwelling

Shameless, occupying our inner parts beforehand and blocking the ascent to the Holy Spirit. For where there are enmities, strifes, angers, rivalries, contentiousnesses, producing unceasing tumults in souls, there the spirit of meekness does not rest. The fruitlessness of labors already undertaken blunts the zeal of the superior; since even a farmer, when his first seeds do not sprout, is more sluggish about casting seed again into the same fields a second time. In general, not to listen is the root of many and great evils. To run riot and to contradict has the demonstration of many evils, a sickness of faith, and a doubting of hope, and a swelling and pride of character. For no one disobeys unless he has first condemned the one who advises him. Nor indeed does he who believes the promises of God, having firm hope in them, ever shrink back from them, even if the things commanded are laborious. Contradiction displays the autocratic spirit, even if it occurs under the guise of humility. The varied and artful word, having much that is intricate and contrived, is fashioned in countless ways, and turns in untold turnings, being transformed to please those who encounter it. Flee the manifold and multiform manner. The serpent is manifold, and for this reason was condemned to crawl. A shameless look and a lifted neck, and continuous movement of the eyes, and a swaggering gait, and not blushing at any of the base things, are signs of a most shameful soul, which inscribes the invisible places of its own reproaches on the visible body. TITLE 19. – On remaining and those who remain.

And that they must preserve faith and goodwill toward those who have received them.

“Acquire faith with your neighbor, so that you may rejoice in his good things. In the time of affliction, remain with him, so that you may be a co-heir in his inheritance.” “Settle a stranger in, and he will pervert you in turmoil, and will alienate you from your own possessions.”

TITLE 20. — Concerning those who preside; and that they must preside with zeal. “The one who presides, with zeal.”

TITLE 21. Concerning the poor; and that one must not turn away from, despise, and reject the needy.

“God will hear the cry of the poor and the needy.” “The Lord became a refuge for the poor; he did not forget the cry of the needy. The poor will not be forgotten to the end; the endurance of the needy will not perish to the end. When the ungodly man acts proudly, the poor man is set on fire. The poor man has been left to you. You have heard the desire of the needy, O Lord.” “You have put to shame the counsel of the poor; but the Lord is his hope.” “The poor will eat and be filled.” “He will judge the poor of the people, and will save the sons of the needy.” “I know that the Lord will execute judgment for the poor, and justice for the needy.” “Poverty humbles a man.” “He who dishonors the poor man sins.” “A poor man does not withstand a threat.” “He who slanders the poor man provokes the one who made him.” “The poor man is left even by the friend he has.” “Glory goes before the humble.” “All the works of the humble are manifest before God.” “Everyone who hates a poor brother will also be far from friendship. A poor man who is righteous is better than a rich man who is a liar.” “Do not oppress the poor man;

For he is poor. Do not stretch yourself out beside a rich man when you are poor, but refrain in your own mind. Better is a poor man walking in truth than a rich man who is a liar. The wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heard. If you see extortion of the poor, and the constraint of judgment and justice in a land, do not marvel at the matter, for one high above the high will watch over it. The poor shall be fed by the Lord, and poor men shall rest in peace. The Lord has founded Zion, and through him the humble of the people shall be saved. The humble man stumbled, and they rebuked him besides. He uttered understanding, and no place was given to him. The poor man spoke, and they said, Who is this? The prayer of the humble passed through the clouds, and it shall not be set aside until the Most High visits. Better is the life of a poor man under the shelter of a roof than splendid feasts among strangers. It is not just to dishonor a poor man who is understanding. The wisdom of the humble man will lift up his head, and will seat him in the midst of the great. It is not poverty that is disgraceful, but not bearing poverty with good sense. Rejoice, O man, when you are poor, for the good things of Lazarus will succeed to you. Do not despair of yourself. Do not despair of yourself because of poverty, nor because nothing enviable is present with you in the present, cast away all good hope, but lift up your soul to the good things already accomplished for you by God, and to those laid up for later through promise. Poverty brings no shame. Poverty takes away boldness of speech.

In this one thing we poor differ from the rich: in freedom from care. We laugh at them as they lie awake, while we ourselves sleep; while they feast themselves and are anxious, we are without care and at ease. Are you poor? Do not be disheartened. For excessive dejection becomes a cause of sin, since grief drowns the mind and makes it dizzy with helplessness, and the want of resources in one's thoughts begets ingratitude. Does God not look upon your distress? God has food in his hands, and he delays the gift so that he may test your steadfastness. Poverty with truth is, for the sober-minded, more honorable than every enjoyment. Why will you be faint-hearted, O man, because you do not have a horse with silver bridle, but you have the sun running its swiftest course through the whole day, holding its torch to give you light? You do not have the gleam of silver and gold, but you have the moon shining upon you with its countless light. You have not mounted chariots glued with gold, but you have feet, a fitting vehicle, and one grown together with yourself. Why then do you count blessed those who possess men's purses and need others' feet for their journey? You do not sleep on an ivory bed, but you have one more precious than many ivory beds, and sweet rest upon it, and quick sleep, and one freed from care. You do not lie beneath a golden roof, but you have heaven gleaming around you with the ineffable beauties of the stars. Nothing is great to God that a poor man does not also give.

If anyone is poor, let him be rich in God, and let him laugh at those who have possessions, since they are always acquiring and always poor in their need of more, and always hungering so that they may thirst for more. Better is poverty with righteous acquisition, for it is also a disease compared to bad good health. Nothing is safer than a poor man. He has inclined toward God, and he looks only to him. It is terrible to be poor, but worse to prosper badly. The poor man does not fear change; and even if some crisis should befall him, he will bear it easily, having once trained himself to philosophize through want. But the rich man not only cannot endure any change, but even if he merely anticipates it, he becomes ridiculous, distraught, impatient, living a life harder than any death. And just as those who have been raised continually inland, if they merely come down to the harbor and step onto a boat, even before leaving the mouth of the harbor, are seasick, distraught, impatient, and everything seems to them to be spinning, possessed by a terrible darkness. But those who spend much time on the open sea are not disturbed even when shipwreck is expected, being able easily to swim and escape the impending danger; so it happens also with the rich and with the poor. The prosperous do not accept even an ordinary change with nobility, but are unable to endure, since they live continually in luxury. But the poor, having sailed across many waves and many shipwrecks

Having had experience, they remain unswerving toward all things, and they laugh at all storms. And this alone is wonderful, not that they bear changes easily, but that they are not quickly caught by them. For who would choose to give a matter to a poor man, intending to gain nothing from that man's poverty? Those who have philosophized with poverty draw near to God always. O how great is the dignity of poverty! It becomes the mask of God. God is hidden in poverty; and the poor man is the one who stretches out his hand, but God is the one who receives. A stranger and a poor man are God's eye-salve. The one who receives them will quickly see again.

TITLE 22. — Concerning children: that they ought to fear and honor their parents. "Honor your father, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." "Let each one fear his father and his mother." "Honor your father and your mother, in the manner that the Lord your God commanded you, that it may go well with you." "Son, keep the law of your father, and do not thrust away the ordinances of your mother. For you will receive a crown of graces on your head, and a golden collar on your neck." "Listen to the one who begot you, and do not despise her because your mother has grown old." "A wise son glorifies his father." "I set before them a jar and cups, and I said: Drink wine. And they said: We will certainly not drink wine, because Jonadab our father commanded us, saying: You and your sons shall certainly not drink wine forever.

And you shall not build houses, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall have no vineyard, because you shall dwell in tents all the days of your life, so that you may live many days upon the earth on which you sojourn. And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, so as not to drink wine all the days of our life, we and our wives, and our sons, and our daughters. Therefore thus says the Lord: Because the sons of Jonadab have heard the commandment of their father, to do as much as their father commanded them, a man of the sons of Jonadab shall never fail, standing before my face all the days of the earth. He who honors his father atones for sins, and he who glorifies his mother is as one storing up treasure. He who honors his father will be gladdened by his children, and in the day of his prayer he will be heard. He who glorifies his father will live long, and he who obeys the Lord will give rest to his mother, and he will serve as masters those who gave him birth. In deed and word honor your father and your mother, so that a blessing from them may come upon you. For a father's blessing establishes the houses of children; but a mother's curse uproots foundations. Child, support your father in old age, and even if he fails in understanding, have forgiveness, and do not dishonor him with all your strength. For almsgiving on behalf of a father will not be forgotten. With your whole heart glorify your father, and do not forget the pangs of your mother. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. For this is just.

Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you, and that you may be long-suffering upon the earth. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord and our God. The providence of storks toward their aged parents is sufficient to make our children lovers of their fathers, if they are willing to pay attention. For surely no one lacking in understanding would fail to judge it shameful to fall short in virtue of the most irrational of birds. For those birds, surrounding their father when he has lost his feathers from old age, shelter him with their own wings, and preparing food abundantly, they give what help they can even in flight, gently lifting him on either side with their wing. And this has become so renowned among all that some already call the repayment of benefits "antipelargosis" [stork-like return]. Grateful children demand great praises from their fathers. Do the good, because it is good to obey your father, even if nothing is to come of it for you.

This very thing is a reward: to show favor to one's father. It is necessary for children to yield to their fathers; but wherever the word concerning the truth advances, let God be honored, and let His concerns prevail, even over the natural power of affection. To repay equal thanks to one's parents is among the impossible things, for it is not possible to beget them in return. Honor your parents, for this is a divine and natural law. Blessed is he who gladdens his parents, like a field that gladdens those who toiled for the multiplication of what was sown. To obey one's fathers is pleasing to God. TITLE 23. — Concerning patricides and matricides, and all the evils that follow those who dishonor and disobey their own parents. "Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Whoever speaks evil of his father or his mother shall be put to death." "A man who does evil to his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He who speaks evil of his father and his mother is guilty." "If a man has a son who is disobedient and provoking, not obeying the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, and he does not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the council of elders of their city, saying: This son of ours is disobedient and provoking, and does not listen to our voice. And the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die." "Cursed is he who dishonors his father.

And all the people shall say, So be it, so be it. A disobedient son shall be in destruction. He who dishonors his father and thrusts away his mother shall be put to shame and shall be a reproach. For him who speaks evil of father and mother, a lamp shall be quenched, and the pupils of his eyes shall see darkness. An eye that mocks a father and dishonors the old age of a mother—may ravens from the ravines pluck it out, and may the young of eagles devour it. He who casts off father or mother and thinks he does not sin, this man is a partner of an impious man. As a blasphemer is he who forsakes his father, and cursed by the Lord is he who provokes his mother. Do not glory in the dishonor of your father. For the glory of men comes from the honor of their father. It is pitiable, instead of good fruit, to bring forth thorns, and instead of good hopes to give birth to griefs—that is, instead of glory and honor to render insult and dishonor to one's parents, and to appropriate the voice of the prophet that says, I waited for my vineyard to bring forth a grape, but it brought forth thorns.

TITLE 24. — On parents disciplining their own children and correcting them. For if they do not do this, they become guilty of their sins. "Eli was very old, and he heard what his sons were doing with the women who stood by the doors of the tabernacle of witness, and he did not admonish them. And the Lord said: I have not sworn thus to the house of Eli, that the iniquities of the house of Eli shall be atoned for by incense and by everlasting sacrifices?" "Discipline your son, and he will give you rest, and he will give peace to your soul." "He who spares the rod hates his son; but he who loves him disciplines him diligently." "Do not refrain from disciplining a child, for if you strike him with a rod, he shall surely not die. For you will strike him with a rod, but you will deliver his soul from death." "Blows and reproof give wisdom." "A righteous father rears his child well by disciplining him; and in a wise son his soul rejoices." "Discipline your son; for thus there is good hope." "Do you have children? Discipline them, and bend their neck from youth." "Scourges and discipline are wisdom at all times." "Discipline your son, and labor in him, so that you may not advance in his shamefulness." "He who loves his son will continue to give him blows." "He who teaches his son will provoke the enemy to envy, and before friends he will exult over him." "An unbroken horse comes out hard, and an unrestrained son comes out headlong. Humble your child, and he will astonish you. Do not laugh with him, lest you grieve together. Do not give him

Break his ribs while he is still a child." "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." It is a father's law to spare his children. Despicable is the man who has spared neither his own children nor his own household, yet undertakes to discipline strangers. Do not allow your son to associate with uneducated and insolent young men, to gather and eat with them every day, lest in the end, at the ruin of your child and at his shame, you be greatly pierced in your soul, and become liable to the mockery of your enemies. For the shameful deeds and wicked acts of children are customarily imputed to their parents.

TITLE 25. — On testing God, and that one must not test God.

"You shall not test the Lord your God." "The Lord God again spoke to Ahaz, saying: Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, in the depth or in the height. And Ahaz said: I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord." "Let us not test the Lord, as some of them tested him and were destroyed by the serpents.

TITLE 26. Concerning a multitude and the populace of a city. "You shall not be with the many for evil. You shall not join with the many to turn aside judgment." "You shall not obey a lawless nation." "Do not sin against the multitude of a city, and do not cast yourself down in a crowd." "My heart has been wary of three things: the slander of a city, the assembly of a crowd, and false accusation; all these are more grievous than death." Populaces love, even if for the present they restrain their anger, like fire lurking in the woods, or a stream held back by force—if it finds the occasion, to kindle and to burst forth.

TITLE 27. Concerning observation and omen-taking; and that we ought not to observe seasons or persons.

"He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who looks at the clouds will not reap." "You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear lest I have labored for you in vain." "Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath, which is a shadow of things to come." I know some who, being Christians, judaize, saying: "Today is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for me to do a kindness to anyone." The new moon comes; and likewise they heed the voices of birds, and observe auspicious words, to give someone bread. And again: "Today is Pascha, tomorrow a birthday, on the third day the beginning of sowing, and I cannot draw anything out of my house." All these things are Jewish. If someone does these things, he ought also to eat unleavened bread, and be circumcised, and live with Jews. And why do I speak about Sabbaths, and new moons, and Jewish matters? I know many who have baptism, and yet perform the deeds of heretics.

For after the setting of the sun they observe the giving of fire to a neighbor. Woe to those who do these things! All who carefully observe these things, having disobeyed God, do not obtain grace, since they have not received the Gospel, but have imitated the Jews and the heretics and have inherited their portion. For a Christian ought to observe none of these things: neither to watch days, and hours, and people, nor omens. Many, then, who work what is good, when Satan comes upon them and destroys it, do not attribute the cause to him, but say: "Such-and-such a man came and cast the evil eye on the work," attributing the cause to the man. The devil has been an envious one from the beginning and an enemy to men. If he sees a good work in a man, he envies it and strives to bring it to nothing; and since he is invisible, he always wages war against man by means of a pretext, so that when a man has done evil, he may attribute it to others who are not at fault. When, then, he sees a good ox drawing well in a wagon and praised by many, he comes and breaks it; and the man does not blame the devil who wrought the evil, but, prompted by him, curses and blasphemes against men. Likewise, someone went out on a journey and returned unsuccessful, and at once he says: "So-and-so met me as I was leaving, and for this reason I failed." And he does not blame the devil who wrought it, but the man who is not at fault, as one of evil eye. And see the working of a wicked runaway. Whatever man they are about to observe, this one he also works to meet them.

TITLE 28. — Concerning a deposit; and that one must keep it faithfully and in no way devise deceit for the deprivation of what has been deposited. If anyone gives silver or vessels to his neighbor to keep, and they are stolen from the man's house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double. But if the thief is not found, the master of the house shall come before God and swear concerning every loss. If anyone gives to his neighbor a beast of burden, or a calf, or a sheep, or cattle to keep, and it dies, or is crushed, or is taken captive, and no one sees it, there shall be an oath of God between both parties, and its master shall accept it, and he shall not pay. But if it is stolen from him, he shall pay its master; and if it is taken by wild beasts, he shall bring him to the prey, and he shall not pay. TITLE 29. — Concerning presbyters.

Many presbyters who are sinners offer, and God does not turn away, but by the Holy Spirit he sanctifies the gifts set forth. And the bread becomes the precious body of the Lord, and the cup the precious blood of the Lord. There are therefore some who suppose that they are doing something reasonable by not communing from them, not knowing that they are condemned the worse. For who are you who judge your ruler? Have you not heard the Apostle saying, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people? And again, Who are you who judge another's servant? He stands or falls to his own Lord. When did you learn that a sheep saved a shepherd, or that an accusation against a shepherd joins?

Just as the irrational sheep cannot sharpen its teeth against the shepherd, so neither does it befit the rational sheep to sharpen its tongue for accusation. You who are taught and guided by him have no authority to judge and reprove him, just as the Apostle said: Do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then praise will come to each one from God. He has authority to judge you; but the one who judges him is the Lord. And again: Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. You, render the honor and veneration that is owed, just as Paul commanded you, saying: Render to all their dues: to whom tribute is due, tribute; to whom honor is due, honor. Fulfill the things of the canon; bring the firstfruits of your firstborn to the Church, without busying yourself over their expenditure. But if you wish to judge—which is not permitted to you—enter into the treasury of your soul. Know the things of your conscience: whether you have not murdered, not committed adultery, not committed fornication, not coveted, not robbed, not reviled, not sworn falsely, not lied, and whether you have done nothing of the forbidden things; and even so it is not permitted you to judge your ruler. Rather, not even in this way; for the Lord loves the humble.

Let each one therefore watch his own deeds, not judging his neighbor. But if anyone, disregarding what has been said, sets his tongue to accusation of his neighbor, let him also expect to endure his own recompense swiftly. For whatever a man does to his neighbor, let him expect to receive the same himself, just as the Lord said: With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured back to you. Let each of you attend to his own works; let us be anxious about our own evils, and those things which we were not commanded to judge, let us not judge. Moreover, the priest also ought to be disposed toward the people, above all praying genuinely on their behalf with his whole heart. As the Lord said: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, helping those in necessity, comforting the sorrowful, turning back the one who has gone astray, consoling the poor, forgiving wrongs, forgetting the evils done against him. Since the prayer of one who bears a grudge is unacceptable to the Lord, while the wickedness remains in his heart. If you have not been reconciled with your neighbor, do not go to the altar. Remember the command of the Lord: If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar, and go, be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Do not bear a grudge; do not meditate deceit, so as not to humble some and exalt others; do not prefer the rich man by the first seat, and overlook the poor man, but keep equality toward all. Do not quickly accept an accusation.

Never judge from hearsay; for many accuse their neighbor out of envy and strife. And if you find the sinner with all exactness, do not immediately reprove him before everyone, lest you give him more occasion to feel shame before no one. For to be reproved before all possesses two evils. For those who are reproved acquire their sin with boldness. For until he is reproved, he both fears and is ashamed. But when he is reproved before all, he becomes more shameless. And those who are reproved, not bearing the shame, turn to worse things. Such is Satan. He suggests committing the sin, and through the sin to bring about the shame as well. Therefore, because of these snares of the enemy, the one entrusted with the flock of Christ ought to be gentle, and to seek with great caution; and if he finds the one who has sinned, let him not immediately cast him out of the Church, lest Satan seize him and make the man his own. For when a man is cast out of the Church, Satan immediately takes him, and until the presbyter receives him, he does not depart from him. For when a man is separated, he is found outside the boundaries of Christians. And for as long as he remains separated, in that world he is judged with the Greeks. Taking him aside therefore, rebuke him, encourage him, admonish him, not only once, but also twice and three times. And if he has listened to you, you have gained his soul, as the Scripture said: that he who turns a man from the error of his way will save a soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.