x, Tunc vita putaturesse quæ mors est, et sub specie boni mala decipiunt, cum ad intelligentiae fraudem, dolo bonorum omnium virtus operitur. Nam divitia non secuturae post hominis mortem amantur. Honor fascium, qui per successorem exolescat ambitur: injuriam fecisse virtus est; aliena possidere potentia est; innocentem circum venire astutiæ est; non Christum sapere sapientiæ est; prophetam horrere eloquentiæ est: sic plena sunt omnia erronbus, sic inCasa per hominum mentes caligine, alium alio incursante, mundus involvitur, et ad hoc usque veritas obscuratur, ut mortis gremio jacuisse beatitudo dicatur. Quod ubi ille Deus, nos semper cogitans et Rostra, vidit per sapientiam niundi, qua sibi mundus collusor inlerpolatores invenerat, suam sapientiam inisse desertam; placuit etiam ei econtrario adversus astutiam veteratoris, sapientiae suæ de vitiis innumerabilibus uti, et scientiae altitudinem, quam nullus poterit investigare, sicuti est, et suam sapientiam stultitia velare, et vitam suam mortis quadam obscuritate celare, ut ad sapientiam pervenire non posset, qui in hoc saeculo opinionem stultitiae fugisset, et ad vitam ejus non accederet, qui non contemptum mortis habuisset. Namque sic Filium Salvatorem nostrum misit in hominem, id est Sapientiam suam carne vestivit, quod stultum est: viam suam pati crucem fecit, quod mors est.
10. Then what is death they would think to be life, and under the appearance of good, evils deceive, when to the fraud of understanding, by the deceit of all good things, virtue is covered over. For riches that will not follow after a man's death are loved. The honor of the fasces, which fades away through a successor, is sought after; to have done injury is virtue; to possess another's goods is power; to circumvent an innocent man is cunning; to be wise not according to Christ is wisdom; to dread the prophet is eloquence: thus all things are full of errors, thus with dark mist poured over the minds of men, one rushing upon another, the world is enveloped, and truth is obscured to such an extent that to have lain in the bosom of death is called blessedness. When that God, ever thinking of us and beholding, saw through the wisdom of the world—whereby the world, as his playmate, had found intercessors for itself—that his own wisdom had entered upon a deserted path, it pleased him also, on the contrary, against the cunning of the old deceiver, to use his wisdom drawn from countless vices, and to veil the height of knowledge, which no one will be able to investigate as it is, and to cover his wisdom with foolishness, and to hide his life under a certain darkness of death, so that he who in this world had fled the opinion of foolishness could not arrive at wisdom, and he who had not held death in contempt would not approach his life. For so he sent his Son, our Savior, into man—that is, he clothed his Wisdom in flesh, which is foolishness: he made his way to suffer the cross, which is death.
Sic adversus adversa destruxit, et per dissimiles ante saecula operationes ingenii artificis illius machinas elisit, ut partibus quibusdam salutaribus vestigiis, licet impressa, mortifera Ulius stigmata delerentur. Sed hoc studium, nisi concupierimus, quod quoniam stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus (I Cor. I), sapientiam ejus non tenebimus. Hanc autem mortem, quod crux est, nisi amaverimus, qnoniam quod infirmum est Dei, fortius est hominibus, vitam ejus non poterimus intrare. Quid igitur sequitur, nisi ut relicta sæculi et sapientia et vita, et stultos nos habcri patiamur, et mori nos cum Domino semper optemus? ut in spe adventus ejus, qui utriusque erit rei revelatio, partem aliquam habere mereamur. Tunc enim, scissis omnibus veiamentis, talia qualia sunt singula cuncta cernentur, id est stultitia mundialis falsae sapientiæ involucris denudata sistetur, et mors mentite beatiludinis deoperta velamine, hiante semper ore et paente in profundum gutture, vitalium inimica prodeur. Tunc et coelestis sapientia, quae sæculariter stultitia nominator, interposita altitudinem scientiæ Dei, Iine alicujus labore elurubrationis intrabit, eI vera vita nullis mortis teneris chscurata lucebit, per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, cui est honor in sxcula sceculorum. Amen.
Thus he destroyed the things that were against us, and by operations of the craftsman's genius unlike those of former ages he shattered the devices of that one, so that by certain saving traces, though impressed, the deadly brands of that man might be erased. But this zeal, unless we have desired it—which, since the foolishness of God is wiser than men (I Cor. 1), we shall not hold his wisdom. But this death, which is the cross, unless we have loved it—since what is weak in God is stronger than men—we shall not be able to enter his life. What then follows, except that, having abandoned both the wisdom and the life of the world, we allow ourselves to be held foolish and always desire to die with the Lord? so that in hope of his coming, which will be the revelation of both matters, we may deserve to have some part. For then, when all veils are torn apart, all things will be discerned such as each one is, that is, the foolishness of the world will be laid bare, stripped of the wrappings of false wisdom, and death, having been uncovered from the veil of a falsely named blessedness, with mouth ever gaping and throat yawning into the deep, will be brought forth as the enemy of the living. Then also heavenly wisdom, which is called foolishness in worldly terms, having set aside the height of the knowledge of God, will enter without the labor of any elucubration, and true life will shine, obscured by no shadows of death, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor for ever and ever. Amen.
150CAP, XVIII. — Vides, o fili, qua valetudine laborat animus suspecti, qui ista non cogitat. Corpusculo adhibui palpamenta, quod si negligerem, anima plus valeret, quæ tunc infirmatur, cum exterior roboratur. Sed istam quam dixi animam morbo stultitiæ vitiatam, orationum tuarum frequentatus sanet, cujus anima sæculi intemerata flagitiis potest aliis subvenire. Non enim æger salutis suæ a adhibere potesl medelam ægrotatione confossis, et anhelans attitudinem plagarum vulneribus non medetur alienis. Sanus qui sit certe curabit infirmum, oculatus cæcum per præcipitia non ducit. Tu itaque ut et sapiens Domino supplica, ut quod non sapui sapiam, et tuis suffragiisvelatquibusdam remediis me fac sanari. Reprehendat aliquis quod in 'alitum dolectabili disputatione processerim, ut meritorum meorum resipiscentiam non haberem, aut subito angustam Moysi cathedram indignus talium disputator ascenderim. Sed vere amore id egi tuo, non usurpatione mea. Nam ego dictum legeram peccatori, ne Domini audertt narrare justitias per os suum. Quod si contra inlerdictum pro tua dilectione præsumpsi, in eo tua gratia coMpensare dignabitur: ut litterulas, quæ ad plenum emendatæ non sant (sicut ipsis apicibus quibus exarantur apparet) tam facile ad publicum non perducas: etsi ego verecundus pro me esse non potui ut debui, vel tua modestia verecundiæ parcat meæ.
CHAPTER XVIII. You see, my son, with what sickness the mind of a suspicious man labors, who does not think of these things. I applied remedies to the poor little body; had I neglected it, the soul would have been of more worth, which is then weakened when the outer man is strengthened. But that soul, which I said was corrupted by the disease of folly, may the frequent [prayers] of your orations heal, whose soul, undefiled by the sins of the world, can come to the aid of others. For a sick man cannot apply the remedy of his own health to those pierced by sickness, and one gasping for breath does not heal the wounds of others' injuries by his own bearing. Let him who is sound surely care for the weak; the man with eyes does not lead the blind through precipices. Do you therefore, as one wise in the Lord, entreat Him, that I may be wise in what I have not been wise, and that by your intercessions or, as it were, by certain remedies you make me to be healed. Let someone reproach me that I proceeded in a delightful discussion of the learned, so that I had no repentance for my merits, or that unworthy as I am I suddenly ascended the narrow chair of Moses as a disputer of such matters. But truly I did this out of love for you, not out of my own presumption. For I had read that it was said to the sinner, that he should not dare to declare the Lord's righteousnesses through his own mouth. But if, contrary to the prohibition, I have presumed for the sake of your love, He will deign to compensate this in your grace: that you do not so easily bring before the public these little letters, which have not been fully corrected (as is apparent from the very strokes with which they are written); and even if I could not be modest for myself as I ought, at least let your modesty spare my shame.
Et quia de me habent quod male scriptæ sunt, de te habeant quod celentur. Vale, et nos in Domino dilige, in quo diligeris a nobis.
And because they have from me the fact that they were badly written, let them have from you the fact that they are concealed. Farewell, and love us in the Lord, in whom you are loved by us.