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| Letter II
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Letter II.
1. If it were possible
to express tears and groans by means of writing I would have filled
the letter, which I now send to you, with them. Now I weep not
because you are anxious concerning your patrimony, but because you
have blotted out your name from the list of the brethren, because
you have trampled upon the covenant which you had made with Christ.
This is the reason why I shudder, this is the cause of my distress.
On this account do I fear and tremble, knowing that the rejection
of this covenant will bring great condemnation upon those who have
enlisted for this noble warfare, and owing to indolence have
deserted their proper rank. And that the punishment for such is
heavier than for others is manifest for this reason. For no one
would indite a private individual for shunning military service;
but when once a man has become a soldier, if he be caught deserting
the ranks, he runs a risk of suffering the most extreme penalty.
There is nothing strange, beloved Theodore, in a wrestler falling,
but in his remaining in a fallen condition; neither is it a
grievous thing for the warrior to be wounded, but to despair after
the blow has been struck, and to neglect the wound. No merchant,
having once suffered shipwreck, and lost his freight, desists from
sailing, but again crosses the sea and the billows, and the broad
ocean, and recovers his former wealth. We see athletes also who
after many falls have gained the wreath of victory; and often,
before now, a soldier who has once ran away has turned out a
champion, and prevailed over the enemy. Many also of those who have
denied Christ owing to
the pressure of torture, have fought again, and departed at last
with the crown of martyrdom upon their brows. But if each of these
had despaired after the first blow, he would not have reaped the
subsequent benefits. Even so now, beloved Theodore, because the
enemy has shaken thee a little from thy position, do not thou give
thyself an additional thrust into the pit, but stand up bravely,
and return speedily to the place from which thou hast departed, and
deem not this blow, lasting but for a little while, any reproach.
For if you saw a soldier returning wounded from war you would not
reproach him; for it is a reproach to cast away one’s arms, and
to hold aloof from the enemy; but as long as a man stands fighting,
even if he be wounded and retreat for a short time, no one is so
unfeeling or inexperienced in matters of war, as to find any fault
with him. Exemption from wounds is the lot of non-combatants; but
those who advance with much spirit against the enemy may sometimes
be wounded and fail; which is exactly what has now occurred in your
case; for suddenly, while you attempted to destroy the serpent you
were bitten. But take courage, you need a little vigilance, and
then not a trace of this wound will be left; or rather by the grace
of God thou wilt crush the head of the Evil One himself; nor let it
trouble thee that thou art soon impeded, even at the outset. For
the eye, the keen eye of the Evil One perceived the excellence of
thy soul, and guessed from many tokens that a brave adversary would
wax strong against him; for he expected that one who had promptly
attacked him with such great vehemence would easily overcome him,
if he persevered. Therefore he was diligent, and watchful, and
mightily stirred up against thee, or rather against his own head,
if thou wilt bravely stand thy ground. For who did not marvel at
thy quick, sincere, and fervent change to good? For delicacy of
food was disregarded, and costliness of raiment was despised, all
manner of parade was put down, and all the zeal for the wisdom of
this world was suddenly transferred to the divine oracles; whole
days were spent in reading, and whole nights in prayer; no mention
was made of thy family dignity, nor any thought taken of thy
wealth; but to clasp the knees and hasten to the feet of the
brethren thou didst recognize as something nobler than high birth.
These things irritated the Evil One, these things stirred him up to
more vehement strife; but yet he did not give a deadly blow. For if
after a long time, and continual fastings, and sleeping on the bare
ground and the rest of the discipline he overthrew you, even then
there was no need to despair; nevertheless one would have said that
the damage was great if defeat had taken place after many toils,
and labour, and victories; but inasmuch as he upset you as soon as
you had stripped for the contest with him, all that he accomplished
was to render you more eager to do battle with him. For that fell
pirate attacked thee just as thou wast sailing out of the harbor,
not when thou hadst returned from thy trading voyage, bringing a
full cargo. And as when one has attempted to stay a fierce lion,
and has only grazed his skin, he has done him no injury but only
stirred him up the more against himself, and rendered him more
confident and difficult to capture afterwards: even so the common
enemy of all has attempted to strike a deep blow, but has missed
it, and consequently made his antagonist more vigilant and wary for
the future.
2. For human nature is a slippery thing, quick
to be cheated, but quick also to recover from deceit and as it
speedily falls, so also does it readily rise. For even that blessed
man, I mean David the chosen king and prophet, after he had
accomplished many good deeds, betrayed himself to be a man, for
once he fell in love with a strange woman, nor did he stop there
but he committed adultery on account of his passion, and he
committed murder on account of his adultery; but he did not try to
inflict a third blow upon himself because he had already received
two such heavy ones, but immediately hastened to the physician, and
applied the remedies, fasting, tears, lamentation, constant prayer,
frequent confession of the sin; and so by these means he
propitiated God, insomuch that he was restored to his former
position, insomuch that after adultery and murder the memory of the
father was able to shield the idolatry of the son. For the son of
this David, Solomon by name, was caught by the same snare as his
father, and out of complaisance to women fell away from the God of
his fathers.307
Thou seest
how great an evil it is not to master pleasure, not to upset the
ruling principle in nature, and for a man to be the slave of women.
This same Solomon then, who was formerly righteous and wise but who
ran a risk of being deprived of all the kingdom on account of his
sin, God permitted to keep the sixth part of the government on
account of the renown of his father.308
Now if thy zeal had been concerned with worldly
eloquence, and then thou hadst given it up in despair, I should
have reminded thee of the law courts and the judgment seat and the
victories achieved there and the former
boldness of thy speech, and should have
exhorted thee to return to your labours in that behalf: but
inasmuch as our race is for heavenly things, and we take no account
of the things which are on earth, I put thee in remembrance of
another court of justice, and of that fearful and tremendous seat
of judgment; “for we must all be made manifest before the
judgment seat of Christ.”309
“And He will then sit as judge
who is now disregarded by thee. What shall we say then, let me ask
at that time? or what defence shall we make, if we continue to
disregard Him? What shall we say then? Shall we plead the anxieties
of business? Nay He has anticipated this by saying, “What shall
it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own
soul?”310
Or that we
have been deceived by others? But it did not help Adam in his
defence to screen himself behind his wife, and say “the woman
whom thou gavest me, she deceived me;”311
even as the serpent was no excuse
for the woman. Terrible, O beloved Theodore, is that tribunal, one
which needs no accusers and waits for no witnesses; for “all
things are naked and laid open to Him”312
who judges us, and we must submit
to give an account not of deeds only but also of thoughts; for that
judge is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.313
But perhaps
you will allege weakness of nature as the excuse, and inability to
bear the yoke. And what kind of defence is this, that you have not
strength to bear the easy yoke, that you are unable to carry the
light burden? Is recovery from fatigue a grievous and oppressive
thing? For it is to this that Christ calls us, saying, “Come unto
me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest; take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly in heart; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”314
For what can
be lighter I ask, than to be released from anxieties, and business,
and fears, and labors, and to stand outside the rough billows of
life, and dwell in a tranquil haven?
3. Which of all things in the world seems to
you most desirable and enviable? No doubt you will say government,
and wealth, and public reputation. And yet what is more wretched
than these things when they are compared with the liberty of
Christians. For the ruler is subjected to the wrath of the populace
and to the irrational impulses of the multitude, and to the fear of
higher rulers, and to anxieties on behalf of those who are ruled,
and the ruler of yesterday becomes a private citizen to-day; for
this present life in no wise differs from a stage, but just as
there, one man fills the position of a king, a second of a general,
and a third of a soldier, but when evening has come on the king is
no king, the ruler no ruler, and the general no general, even so
also in that day each man will receive his due reward not according
to the outward part which he has played but according to his works.
Well! is glory a precious thing which perishes like the power of
grass? or wealth, the possessors of which are pronounced unhappy?
“For woe” we read, “to the rich;”315
and again, “Woe unto them who
trust in their strength and boast themselves in the multitude of
their riches!”316
But the
Christian never becomes a private person after being a ruler, or a
poor man after being rich, or without honour after being held in
honour; but he abides rich even when he is poor, and is exalted
when he strives to humble himself; and from the rule which he
exercises no human being can depose him, but only one of those
rulers who are under the power of this world’s potentate of
darkness.
“Marriage is right,” you say; I also
assent to this. For “marriage,” we read, “is honourable and
the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will
judge;”317
but it is no
longer possible for thee to observe the right conditions of
marriage. For if he who has been attached to a heavenly bridegroom
deserts him, and joins himself to a wife the act is adultery, even
if you call it marriage ten thousand times over; or rather it is
worse than adultery in proportion as God is greater than man. Let
no one deceive thee saying: “God hath not forbidden to marry;”
I know this as well as you; He has not forbidden to marry, but He
has forbidden to commit adultery, may you be preserved from ever
engaging thyself in marriage! And why dost thou marvel if marriage
is judged as if it were adultery, when God is disregarded?
Slaughter has brought about righteousness, and mercy has been a
cause of condemnation more than
slaughter; because the latter has been
according to the mind of God but the former has been forbidden. It
was reckoned to Phinees for righteousness that he pierced to death
the woman who committed fornication, together with the
fornicator;318
but Samuel,
that saint of God although he wept and mourned and entreated for
whole nights, could not rescue Saul from the condemnation which God
issued against him, because he saved, contrary to the design of
God, the king of the alien tribes whom he ought to have slain.319
If then
mercy has been a cause of condemnation more than slaughter because
God was disobeyed, what wonder is it if marriage condemns more than
adultery when it involves the rejection of Christ? For, as I said
at the beginning, if you were a private person no one would indict
you for shunning to serve as a soldier; but now thou art no longer
thy own master, being engaged in the service of so great a king.
For if the wife hath not power over her own body, but the
husband,320
much more
they who live in Christ must be unable to have authority over their
body. He who is now despised, the same will then be our judge;
think ever on Him and the river of fire: “For a river of fire”
we read, “winds before His face;”321
for it is impossible for one who
has been delivered over by Him to the fire to expect any end of his
punishment. But the unseemly pleasures of this life no-wise differ
from shadows and dreams; for before the deed of sin is completed,
the conditions of pleasure are extinguished; and the punishments
for these have no limit. And the sweetness lasts for a little while
but the pain is everlasting.
Tell me, what is there stable in this world?
Wealth which often does not last even to the evening? Or glory?
Hear what a certain righteous man says: “My life is swifter than
a runner.”322
For as they
dash away before they stand still, even so does this glory take to
flight before it has fairly reached us. Nothing is more precious
than the soul; and even they who have gone to the extremity of
folly have not been ignorant of this; for “there is no equivalent
of the soul” is the saying of a heathen poet.323
I know that thou hast become much
weaker for the struggle with the Evil One; I know that thou art
standing in the very midst of the flame of pleasures; but if thou
wilt say to the enemy “We do not serve thy pleasures, and we do
not bow down to the root of all thy evils;” if thou wilt bend
thine eye upward, the Saviour will even now shake out the fire, and
will burn up those who have flung thee into it, and will send to
thee in the midst of the furnace a cloud, and dew, and a rustling
breeze, so that the fire may not lay hold of thy thought or thy
conscience. Only do not consume thyself with fire. For the arms and
engines of besiegers have often been unable to destroy the
fortification of cities, but the treachery of one or two of the
citizens dwelling inside has betrayed them to the enemy without any
trouble on his part. And now if none of thy thoughts within betray
thee, should the Evil One bring countless engines against thee from
without he will bring them in vain.
4. Thou hast by the grace of God many and
great men who sympathize with thy trouble, who encourage you to the
fight, who tremble for thy soul,—Valerius the holy man of God,
Florentius who is in every respect his brother, Porphyrius who is
wise with the wisdom of Christ, and many others. These are daily
mourning, and praying for you without ceasing; and they would have
obtained what they asked for, long ago, if only thou hadst been
willing to withdraw thyself a little space out of the hands of the
enemy. Now then is it not strange that, whilst others do not even
now despair of thy salvation, but are continually praying that they
may have their member restored to them, thou thyself, having once
fallen, art unwilling to get up again, and remainest prostrate, all
but crying aloud to the enemy: “Slay me, smite me, spare not?”
“Does he who falls not rise up again?”324
speaks the divine oracle. But thou
art striving against this and contradicting it; for if one who has
fallen despairs it is as much as to say that he who falls does not
rise up again. I entreat thee do not so great a wrong to thyself;
do not pour upon us such a flood of sorrow. I do not say at the
present time, when thou hast not yet completed thy twentieth year,
but even if, after achieving many things, and spending thy whole
life in Christ thou hadst, in extreme old age, experienced this
attack, even then it would not have been right to despair, but to
call to mind the robber who was justified on the cross, the
labourers who wrought about the eleventh hour, and received the
wages of the whole day. But as it is not well that those who have
fallen near the very extremity of life should abandon hope, if they
be sober minded, so on the other hand it is not safe to feed upon
this hope, and say, “Here for a while, I will enjoy the sweets of
life, but afterwards, when I have worked for a short time, I shall
receive the wages of the whole working time. For I recollect
hearing you often say, when many were exhorting you to frequent the
schools;325
| 325 i.e., schools of Pagan philosophy: probably
those over which Libanius presided in Antioch. | “But what
if I bring my life to a bad end in a short space of time, how shall
I depart to Him who has said ‘Delay not to turn to the Lord, nor
put off day after day?’”326
Recover this thought, and stand in
fear of the thief; for by this name Christ calls our departure
hence, because it comes upon us unawares. Consider the anxieties of
life which befall us, both those which are personal to ourselves,
and which are common to us with others, the fear of rulers, the
envy of citizens, the danger which
often hangs over us imperilling even life itself,
the labours, the distresses, the servile flatteries, such as are
unbecoming even to slaves if they be earnest minded men, the fruit
of our labours coming to an end in this world, a fact which is the
most distressing of all. It has been the lot indeed of many to miss
the enjoyment of the things for which they have laboured, and after
having consumed the prime of their manhood in labours and perils,
just when they hoped that they should receive their reward they
have departed taking nothing with them. For if, after undergoing
many dangers, and completing many campaigns, one will scarcely look
upon an earthly king with confidence, how will any one be able to
behold the heavenly king, if he has lived and fought for another
all his time.
5. Would you have me speak of the domestic
cares of wife, and children and slaves? It is an evil thing to wed
a very poor wife, or a very rich one; for the former is injurious
to the husband’s means, the latter to his authority and
independence. It is a grievous thing to have children, still more
grievous not to have any; for in the latter case marriage has been
to no purpose, in the former a bitter bondage has to be undergone.
If a child is sick, it is the occasion of no small fear; if he dies
an untimely death, there is inconsolable grief; and at every stage
of growth there are various anxieties on their account, and many
fears and toils. And what is one to say to the rascalities of
domestic slaves? Is this then life, Theodore, when one’s soul is
distracted in so many directions, when a man has to serve so many,
to live for so many, and never for himself? Now amongst us, O
friend, none of these things happen, I appeal to yourself as a
witness. For during that short time when you were willing to lift
your head above the waves of this world, you know what great
cheerfulness and gladness you enjoyed. For there is no man free,
save only he who lives for Christ. He stands superior to all
troubles, and if he does not choose to injure himself no one else
will be able to do this, but he is impregnable; he is not stung by
the loss of wealth; for he has learned that we “brought nothing
into this world, neither can we carry anything out;”327
he is not
caught by the longings of ambition or glory; for he has learned
that our citizenship is in heaven;328
no one annoys him by abuse, or
provokes him by blows; there is only one calamity for a Christian
which is, disobedience to God; but all the other things, such as
loss of property, exile, peril of life, he does not even reckon to
be a grievance at all. And that which all dread, departure hence to
the other world,—this is to him sweeter than life itself. For as
when one has climbed to the top of a cliff and gazes on the sea and
those who are sailing upon it, he sees some being washed by the
waves, others running upon hidden rocks, some hurrying in one
direction, others being driven in another, like prisoners, by the
force of the gale, many actually in the water, some of them using
their hands only in the place of a boat and a rudder, and many
drifting along upon a single plank, or some fragment of the vessel,
others floating dead, a scene of manifold and various disaster;
even so he who is engaged in the service of Christ drawing himself
out of the turmoil and stormy billows of life takes his seat upon
secure and lofty ground. For what position can be loftier or more
secure than that in which a man has only one anxiety, “How he
ought to please God?”329
Hast thou seen the shipwrecks,
Theodore, of those who sail upon this sea? Wherefore, I beseech
thee, avoid the deep water, avoid the stormy billows, and seize
some lofty spot where it is not possible to be captured. There is a
resurrection, there is a judgment, there is a terrible tribunal
which awaits us when we have gone out of this world; “we must all
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.”330
It is not in vain that we are
threatened with hell fire, it is not without purpose that such
great blessings have been prepared for us. The things of this life
are a shadow, and more naught even than a shadow, being full of
many fears, and many dangers, and extreme bondage. Do not then
deprive thyself both of that world, and of this, when you may gain
both, if you please. Now that they who live in Christ will gain the
things of this world Paul teaches us when he says: “But I spare
you;”331
and again
“But this I say for your profit.”332
Seest thou that even here he who
cares for the things of the Lord is superior to the man who has
married? It is not possible for one who has departed to the other
world to repent; no athlete, when he has quitted the lists, and the
spectators have dispersed, can contend again.
Be always thinking of these things, and break in
pieces the sharp sword of the Evil One, by means of which he
destroys many. And this is despair, which cuts off from hope those
who have been overthrown. This is the strong weapon of the enemy,
and the only way in which he holds down those who have been made
captives is by binding them with this chain, which, if we choose,
we shall speedily be able to break by the grace of God. I know that
I have exceeded the due measure of a
letter, but forgive me; for I am not
willingly in this condition, but have been constrained by my love
and sorrow, owing to which I forced myself to write this letter
also,333
| 333 This seems to imply a previous letter. | although
many would have prevented me. “Cease labouring in vain and sowing
upon rock” many have been saying to me. But I hearkened to none
of them. For there is hope I said to myself that, God willing, my
letter will accomplish something; but if that which we deprecate
should take place, we shall at least have the advantage of escaping
self reproach for keeping silence, and we shall not be worse than
sailors on the sea, who, when they behold men of their own craft
drifting on a plank, because their ship has been broken to pieces
by the winds and waves, take down their sails, and cast anchor, and
get into a boat and try to rescue the men, although strangers,
known to them only in consequence of their calamity. But if the
others were unwilling to be rescued no one would accuse those of
their destruction who attempted to save them. This is what we
offer; but we trust that by the grace of God you also will do your
part, and we shall again see you occupying an eminent place in the
flock of Christ. In answer to the prayers of the saints may we
speedily receive thee back, dear friend, sound in the true health.
If thou hast any regard for us, and hast not utterly cast us out of
thy memory, please vouchsafe a reply to our letter; for in so doing
thou wilt give us much pleasure.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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