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against publishing the errors
of the brethren.
————————————
HOMILY.
Upon the not publishing the errors of the Brethren,
nor uttering imprecations upon enemies.
1. I account you happy
for the zeal, beloved, with which you flock into the Father’s
house. For from this zeal I have ground for feeling confidence
about your health also with respect to the soul; for indeed the
school of the Church is an admirable surgery—a surgery, not for
bodies, but for souls. For it is spiritual, and sets right, not
fleshly wounds, but errors of the mind,769
and of these errors and wounds the
medicine is the word. This medicine is compounded, not from the
herbs growing on the earth, but from the words proceeding from
heaven—this no hands of physicians, but tongues of preachers have
dispensed. On this account it lasts right through; and neither is
its virtue impaired by length of time, nor defeated by any strength
of diseases. For certainly the medicines of physicians have both
these defects; for while they are fresh they display their proper
strength, but when much time has passed; just as those bodies which
have grown old; they become weaker; and often too the difficult
character of maladies is wont to baffle them; since they are but
human. Whereas the divine medicine is not such as this; but after
much time has intervened, it still retains all its inherent virtue.
Ever since at least Moses was born (for from thence dates the
beginning of the Scripture) it has healed so many human beings; and
not only has it not lost its proper power, but neither has any
disease ever yet overcome it. This medicine it is not possible to
get by payment of silver; but he who has displayed sincerity of
purpose and disposition goes his way having it all. On account of
this both rich and poor alike obtain the benefit of this healing
process. For where there is a necessity to pay down money the man
of large means indeed shares the benefit; but the poor man often
has to go away deprived of the gain, since his income does not
suffice him for the making up of the medicine. But in this case,
since it is not possible to pay down silver coin, but it is needful
to display faith and a good purpose, he who has paid down these
with forwardness of mind, this is he who most reaps the advantage;
since indeed these are the price paid for the medicinal treatment.
And the rich and the poor man share the benefit alike; or rather it
is not alike that they share the benefit, but often the poor man
goes away in the enjoyment of more. What ever can be the reason? It
is because the rich man, possessed beforehand by many thoughts,
having the pride and puffed-up temper belonging to wealthiness;
living with carelessness and lazy ease as companions, receives the
medicine of the hearing of the Scriptures not with much attention,
nor with much earnestness; but the poor man, far removed from
delicate living and gluttony and indolence; spending all his time
in handicraft and honest labours; and gathering hence much
love of wisdom for the soul;
becomes thereby more attentive and free from slackness, and is wont
to give his mind with more accurate care to all that is said:
whence also, inasmuch as the price he has paid is higher, the
benefit which he departs having reaped is greater.
2. It is not as absolutely bringing an
accusation against those who are wealthy that I say all this; nor
as praising the poor without reference to circumstances: for
neither is wealth an evil, but the having made a bad use of wealth;
nor is poverty a virtue, but the having made a virtuous use of
poverty. That rich man who was in the time of Lazarus was
punished,770
| 770 ἐκολ€ζετο. The imperfect denotes the
continuous character of the punishment. So ἐπηνειτο
“had lasting praise.” “ἡ ‡ρετὴ œξις ἐπαινετή.
Aristotle Eth. | not because
he was rich, but because he was cruel and inhuman. And that poor
man who rested in the bosom of Abraham was praised, not because he
was poor, but because he had borne his poverty with
thankfulness.
For of things—(now attend carefully to this
saying; for it will avail to put into you sufficient religious
knowledge, and to cast out all unsound reasoning, and to bring
about your having your judgment right concerning the truth of
things)—well, of things some are by nature morally good, and
others the contrary; and others neither good nor evil, but they
occupy the intermediate position. A good thing piety is by nature,
impiety an evil thing; a good thing virtue, an evil thing
wickedness; but wealth and poverty in themselves are neither the
one nor the other; but from the will of those who use them they
become either the one or the other. For if thou hast used thy
wealth for purposes of philanthropy, the thing becomes to thee a
foundation of good; but if for rapine and grasping and insolence,
thou hast turned the use of it to the direct opposite; but for this
wealth is not chargeable, but he who has used his wealth for
insolence. So also we may say of poverty: if thou have borne it
nobly by giving thanks to the Master, what has been done becomes to
thee a cause and ground for receiving crowns; but if on account of
this thou blaspheme thy Creator, and accuse Him for His providence,
thou hast again used the thing to an evil purpose. But just as in
that case it is not wealth that is responsible for the avarice, but
the person who has made a bad use of wealth, so also here we are
not to lay the blame of the blasphemy on poverty, but on him who
did not choose to bear the thing in a sober spirit. For in every
case both the praise and the blame belong to our own will and
choice. Good is wealth, yet not absolutely, but to him only to whom
it is not sin; and again poverty is wicked, but not absolutely, but
only in the mouth of the impious, because he is discontented,
because he blasphemes, because he is indignant, because he accuses
Him who has made him.
3. Let us not therefore accuse riches, nor
revile poverty absolutely, but those who do not will771
| 771 'Εθ™λοντας. In its theological sense. “Θ™λημα σαρκός.” Not a classical,
but an ecclesiastical word (John i. 13). So our Lord, εἰ' τις θ™λει, has the will. | to use these
virtuously; for the things themselves lie in the middle. But as I
was saying (for it is good to return to the former subject), both
rich and poor enjoy the benefit of the medicines administered here
with the same boldness and freedom; and often the poor with more
earnestness. For the special excellence of the medicines is not
this only, that they heal souls, that their virtue is not destroyed
by length of time, that they are not worsted by any disease, that
the benefit is publicly offered gratuitously, that the healing
treatment is on a footing of equality both for rich and poor—but
they have another quality also not inferior to these good points.
Pray of what character is this? It is that we do not publicly
expose those who come to this surgery. For they who go off to the
surgeries of the outside world, have many who examine their wounds,
and unless the physician have first uncovered the sore, he does not
apply the dressing; but here not so, but seeing as we do
innumerable patients, we go through the medical treatment of them
in a latent manner. For not by dragging into publicity those who
have sinned do we thus noise abroad the sins committed by them; but
after putting forth our teaching, as common to all, we leave it
entirely to the conscience of the hearers; so that each may draw to
himself from what is said the suitable medicine for his own wound.
For there proceeds the word of doctrine from the tongue of the
speaker, containing accusation of wickedness, praise of virtue,
blame of lewdness, commendation of chasteness, censure of pride,
praise of gentleness, just as a medicine of varied and manifold
ingredients, compounded from every kind; and to take what is
applicable to himself and salutary is the part of each of the
hearers. The word then issues openly, and settling into the
conscience of each, secretly both affords the healing treatment
which comes from it, and before the malady has been divulged, has
often restored health.
4. You at all events heard yesterday how I extolled
the power of prayer, how I reproached those who pray with
listlessness; without having publicly exposed one of them. Those
then who were conscious to themselves of earnestness, accepted that
commendation of prayer,
and became still more earnest by the
praises, while those who were conscious to themselves of
listlessness, accepted on the other hand the rebuking, and put off
their carelessness. But neither these nor those do we know; and
this ignorance is serviceable to both—how, I now tell you. He who
has heard the commendations of prayer and is conscious to himself
of earnestness, were he to have many witnesses of the
commendations, would have lapsed towards pride; but, as it is, by
having secretly accepted the praise, he is removed from all
arrogance. On the other hand he who is conscious to himself of
listlessness, having heard the accusation, has become better from
the accusation, as having no one of men a witness of the rebuking;
and this was of no ordinary profit to him. For on account of the
being flurried at the opinion of the vulgar,772
| 772 οἱ πολλόι, as
opposed to οἱ
χαρι™ντες, those of culture and refinement. Arist.
Eth. | so long as we may think that we
escape notice in our wickedness, we exert ourselves to become
better; but when we have become notorious to all, and have lost the
consolation derived from the escaping notice, we grow more
shameless and remiss rather. And just as sores become more painful
by being unbandaged and frequently exposed to cold air, so also the
soul after having sinned, if in the presence of many it be rebuked
for what it has done amiss, grows thereby more shameless. In order
therefore that this might not take place, the word administered its
medicine to you covertly. And that you may understand773
| 773 A common sense of
μανθανω. “Μανθ€νεις;
οὐ μανθ€νω. Aristophanes; who
was a favorite author with Chrysostom. | that the
gain which this covert treatment has is great, hear what the Christ
says. “If thy brother have committed a fault against thee
convince him of it,” and he did not say “between him and the
whole town,” nor, “between thee and the whole people,”774
but “only
between thee and him.” Let the accusation, he says, be
unwitnessed to, in order that the change to amendment may be made
easy of digestion. A great good surely, the making the advice
unpublished. Sufficient is the conscience, sufficient that
incorruptible judge. It is not so much thou who rebukest him who
has done wrong as his own conscience (that accuser is the sharper),
nor dost thou do it with the more exact knowledge of the faults
committed. Add not therefore wound to wound by exposing him who has
done wrong; but administer for thyself the counsel unwitnessed.
This therefore we are doing now—the very thing that Paul also
did, framing the indictment against him who among the Corinthians
had sinned without citing of witnesses. And hear how. “On this
account,” he says, “brethren, I have applied these figures of
speech to myself and Apollos.” And yet not he himself nor Apollos
were they who had rent the people in schism and divided the Church;
but all the same he concealed the accusation, and just as by some
masks, by hiding the countenances of the defendants by his own and
Apollos’ names, he afforded them power to amend of that
wickedness. And again, “Lest in some way after I have come God
humble me, and I may have to mourn many of those who have before
sinned, and have not repented over the uncleanness and
lasciviousness which they had committed.”775
See how here also he indefinitely
mentions those who had sinned, in order that he might not, by
openly bringing the accusation, render the soul of those who had
sinned more shameless. Therefore, just as we administer our
reproofs with so much sparing of your feelings, so do ye also with
all seriousness receive the correction; and attend with carefulness
to what is said.
5. We discoursed to you yesterday about the
power which is in prayer. I pointed out776
| 776 ̓Εδειξα 'Ενδειξις. Lat. index (digitus) the
fore-finger. | how the devil then lies in wait,
deceiver that he is. For since he sees very great gain accruing to
us from prayer, then most he assails us, in order that he may
disable us from our defence;777
| 777 The idea seems to be that of making the accused
entirely forget the defence, such as used to be written for him by
some Attic orator. | that he may send us off home
empty-handed. And just as before magistrates, when the officers of
the court who are about the person of the magistrate have a hostile
feeling toward those who come before him, they by their staves
drive them away to a distance, preventing their coming near and
resorting to lamentation and so obtaining compassion; so also the
devil, when he has seen us coming to the judge, drives us away to a
distance, not by any staff, but through our own slackness. For he
knows, he knows clearly, that if they have come to him in a sober
spirit, and have told the sins committed, and have mourned with
their soul fervent, they will depart having received full
forgiveness; for God loves mankind; and on this account he is
beforehand with them, and debars them from access,778
| 778 žντευξις, an Aristotelic term. “τῆς πρὸς τούς πολλούς ἐντεύξεως,
the way of addressing a large body. | in order
that they may obtain no one of the things which they need. But the
soldiers of magistrates with violence scare away those who are
coming to them; but he with no compulsion, but by deceiving us, and
throwing us into security. On this account we are not deserving
even of allowance, since we voluntarily deprive ourselves of the
good things. Prayer with
earnestness is a light of the understanding
and soul—a light unquenchable and perpetual. On this account he
throws into our minds countless rubbish-heaps of imaginations; and
things which we never had imagined, these collecting together at
the very moment of prayer he pours down upon our souls. And just as
winds often rushing from an opposite quarter by a violent gust
extinguish a lamp’s flame as it is being lighted, so also the
devil, when he has seen the flame of our prayer being kindled,
blowing it on every side with the blasts of countless thoughts,
does not desist before and until he has quenched the light. But the
very thing which they who are kindling those lamps do, this let us
also do. And what do they do? When they see a violent wind coming,
by laying their finger upon the opening of the lamp they bar the
entrance against the wind. For so long as he assails from without
we shall be able to stand against him; but when we have opened to
him the doors of the mind, and have received the enemy inside;
after that we are no longer able to withstand even a little; but,
having on all sides completely extinguished the memory,779
| 779 Still continuing the simile of a wind. | just as a
smoking lamp, he allows our mouth to utter empty words. But just as
they put their finger upon the opening of the lamp, so let us lay
consideration upon our mind: let us close off from the wicked
spirit the entrance, in order that he may not quench our light of
prayer. Remember both those illustrations, both that of the
soldiers and the magistrate, and that respecting the lamp. For with
this purpose we adduce to you these illustrations; with which we
are conversant, in which we live, in order that, after we have
departed hence and have returned home, we may from things of
familiar occurrence receive a reminder of what has been
said.
6. Prayer is a strong piece of armour and a
great security. You heard yesterday how the three children,
fettered as they were, destroyed the power of the fire; how they
trampled down the blaze; how they overcame the furnace, and
conquered the operation of the element. Hear to-day again how the
noble and great Isaac overcame the nature itself of bodies through
prayer. They destroyed780
| 780
κατ™λυσαν, de-struo, to take to pieces, pull
down, a building. | the power of fire, this man to-day
loosed the bonds of incapacitated nature. And learn how he effected
this. “Isaac,” it says, “prayed781
concerning his wife, because she
was barren.” This has to-day been read to you; yesterday the
sermon was about prayer; and to-day again there is a demonstration
of the power of prayer. See how the grace of the Spirit has ordered
that what has been read to-day harmonises with what was said
yesterday. “Isaac,” it says, “prayed concerning Rebecca his
wife, because she was barren.” This first is worth inquiring
into, for what cause she was barren. She was of a life admirable
and replete with much chastity—both herself and her husband. We
cannot lay hold782
| 782 ἐπιλαβ™σθαι, as in wrestling. | of the life
of those just ones, and say that the barrenness was the work of
sin. And not only was she herself barren, but also his mother
Sarah, who had borne him; not only was his mother barren and his
wife, but also his daughter-in-law, the wife of Jacob, Rachel. What
is the meaning of this band of barren ones? All were righteous, all
living in virtue, all were witnessed to by God. For it was of them
that He said, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob.” Of the same persons Paul also thus speaks.
“For which cause God is not ashamed to call himself their
God.”783
Many are the
commendations of them in the New, many the praises of them in the
Old Testament. On all sides they were bright and illustrious, and
yet they all had barren wives, and continued in childlessness until
an advanced period. When therefore thou seest man and wife living
with virtue; when thou seest them beloved of God, caring for piety,
and yet suffering the malady of childlessness; do not suppose that
the childlessness is at all a retribution for sins. For many are
God’s reasons for the dispensation, and to us inexplicable; and
for all we must be heartily thankful, and think those only wretched
who live in wickedness; not those who do not possess children.
Often God does it expediently, though we know not the cause of
events. On this account in every case it is our duty to admire His
wisdom, and to glorify His unspeakable love of man.
7. Well,784
| 784 'Αλλ€. This adverb is not always
adversative. It is sometimes, as here, connective; denoting a
transition in treating the subject. Comp. Aristophanes
Acharn. 377–383. | this consideration indeed is able
to school us in moral character, but it is necessary also to state
the cause for which those women were barren. What then was the
cause? It was in order that when thou hast seen the Virgin bringing
forth our common Master, thou mightest not disbelieve. Wherefore
exercise thy mind in the womb of the barren; in order that when
thou hast seen the womb, disabled and bound as it is, being opened
to the bearing of children from the grace of God, thou mightest not
marvel at hearing that a virgin has brought forth. Or rather even
marvel and be astounded; but do not disbelieve the marvel. When the
Jew says to thee, “how did the virgin bear?” say to him “how
did she bear who was barren and
enfeebled by old age?” There were then two
hindrances, both the unseasonableness of her age and the
unserviceableness of nature; but in the case of the Virgin there
was one hindrance only, the not having shared in marriage. The
barren one therefore prepares the way for the virgin. And that thou
mayest learn that it was on this account that the barren ones had
anticipated it, in order that the Virgin’s childbirth might be
believed, hear the words of Gabriel which were addressed to
her—For when he had come and said to her, “thou shalt conceive
in the womb and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus;”
the Virgin was astonished and marvelled, and said, “how will this
be to me, since I know not a man.” What then said the Angel?
“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.” Seek not the sequence of
nature, he says, when that which takes place is above nature; look
not round for marriage and throes of child-birth, when the manner
of the birth is too grand for marriage. “And how will this be,”
she says, “since I know not a husband.” And verily on this
account shall this be, since thou knowest no husband. For didst
thou know a husband, thou wouldest not have been deemed worthy to
serve this ministry. So that, for the reason why thou disbelievest,
for this believe. And thou wouldest not have been deemed worthy to
serve this ministry, not because marriage is an evil; but because
virginity is superior; and right it was that the entry of the
Master should be more august than ours; for it was royal, and the
king enters through one more august. It was necessary that He
should both share as to birth, and be diverse from ours. Wherefore
both these things are managed.
For the being born from the womb is common in
respect to us, but the being born without marriage is a thing
greater than on a level with us. And the gestation and conception
in the belly belongs to human nature; but that the pregnancy should
take place without sexual intercourse is too august for human
nature.785
| 785 'Αυτὴ. The use of
‡υτὸς in the
nominative in this sense; ille, not ipse, seems to
have been introduced in the Alexandrian period of Greek literature.
“'Αυτόι γὰρ ὀυκ ἐισι θεοὶ,” LXX. | And for this
purpose both these things took place, in order that thou mayest
learn both the pre-eminence and the fellowship with thee of Him who
was born.
8. And pray consider the wisdom of all that
was done. Neither did the pre-eminence injure the likeness and
kinship to us, nor did the kinship to us dim the pre-eminence; but
both were displayed by all the circumstances; and the one had our
condition in its entirety, and the other what was diverse compared
with us. But just as I was saying, on this account the barren ones
went before, in order that the Virgin’s child-birth might be
believed, that she786
| 786 'Αυτὴ. The use of
‡υτὸς in the
nominative in this sense; ille, not ipse, seems to
have been introduced in the Alexandrian period of Greek literature.
“'Αυτόι γὰρ ὀυκ ἐισι θεοὶ,” LXX. | might be led by the hand to faith
in that promise and undertaking which she heard from the angel,
saying, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the miraculous
power787
| 787 The constant signification of δύναμις in the Gospels. | of the Most
High shall overshadow thee”—thus, he says, thou art able to
bear. Look not to the earth; it is from the heavens that the
operation will come. That which takes place is a grace of the
Spirit; pray inquire not about nature and laws of marriage. But
since those words were too high for her, he wills to afford also
another demonstration. But do thou, pray, observe how the barren
one leads her on the way to the belief in this. For since that
demonstration was too high for the Virgin’s intelligence, hear
how he brought down what he said to lower things also, leading her
by the hand by sensible facts. For “behold,” he says,
“Elizabeth thy kinswoman—she also has conceived a son in her
old age; and this month is the sixth to her who was called
barren.” Seest thou that the barren one was for the sake of the
Virgin? since with what object did he adduce to her the
child-bearing of her kinswoman? with what object did he say, “in
her old age?” with what object did he add, “who was called
barren?” It was by way of inducing her by all these things,
manifestly, to the believing the glad annunciation. For this cause
he spoke of both the age and the disabling effect of nature; for
this cause he awaited the time also which had elapsed from the
conception; for he did not tell to her the glad tidings immediately
from the beginning,788
| 788 Προοιμίων, lit.
the prelude, overture. Οἴμας Μοῦσ
ἐδίδαξε φίλησε δš φῦλον ‡οιδῶν, Hom.
Od. 481. | but awaited for a six-months period
to have passed to the barren one, in order that the puerperal
swelling might, for the rest, be a pledge of the pregnancy, and an
indisputable demonstration might arise of the conception. And pray
again look at the intelligence of Gabriel. For he neither reminded
her789
| 789 'Αυτῆς, lege δš αῦτήν. | of Sarah,
nor of Rebecca, nor of Rachel; and yet they also were barren, and
they had grown old, and that which took place was a marvel; but the
stories were ancient. Now things new and recent and occurring in
our generation are wont to induce us into the belief of marvels
more than those which are old. On this account having let those
women alone, that she should understand from her kinswoman
Elizabeth herself what was coming upon her, he brought it forward;
so as from her to lead her to her own—that most awful and august
childbirth. For the child-birth of the barren one lay between ours
and that of the Master less indeed than that of the Virgin, but
greater than ours. On
this account it was by Elizabeth lying between, just as by some
bridge, that he lifted up the mind of the Virgin from the travail
which is according to nature, to that which is above nature.
9. I did desire to say more, and to teach you other
reasons for which Rebecca, and Rachel, were barren; but the time
does not permit; urging on the discourse to the power of prayer.
For on this account indeed I have mooted all these points, that ye
might understand how the prayer of Isaac unbound the barrenness of
his wife; and that prayer for so long a time. “Isaac,” it says,
“continually prayed about Rebecca his wife, and God listened to
him.” For do not suppose that he invoked God and had immediately
been listened to; for he had spent much time in praying to God. And
if you desire to learn how much, I will tell you this too with
exactness. He had spent the number of twenty years in praying to
God. Whence is this manifest? from the sequence itself. For the
Scripture, desiring to point out the faith and the endurance and
the love of wisdom of that righteous man, did not break off and
leave untold even the time, but made it also clear to us, covertly
indeed, so as to rouse up our indolence; but nevertheless did not
allow it to be uncertain. Hear then how it covertly indicated to us
the time. “Now Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebecca, a
daughter of Bethuel the Syrian.” You hear how many years old he
was when he brought home his wife: “Forty years old,” it says,
“he was when he took Rebecca.” But since we have learnt how
many years old he was when he married his wife, let us learn also
when he after all became a father, and how many years old he was
then, when he begat Jacob; and we shall be able to see how long a
time his wife had remained barren; and that during all that time he
continued to pray to God. How many years old then was he when he
begat Jacob? “Jacob,” it says, “came forth laying hold with
his right hand of his brother’s heel: on this account he called
him Jacob, and him Esau. Now Isaac was sixty years old when he
begat them.” If therefore when he brought Rebecca home he was
forty years old, and when he begat the sons sixty, it is very plain
that his wife had remained barren for twenty years between, and
during all this time Isaac continued to pray to God.
10. After this do we not feel shame, and hide
our faces, at seeing that righteous man for twenty years
persevering790
| 790 Παραμ™νοντα,
waiting; as it were, like a beggar at the door. | and not
desisting; we ourselves after a first or second petition often
fainting and indignant? And yet he indeed had in large measure
liberty of speech towards God,791
| 791 π‡ρῥησίαν, a phrase of
courtly ceremonial; sometimes coupled with προσαγωγη, the antecedent ceremony of
introduction to a king’s presence. Xenphon, Cyrop. vii. 5,
45. Both occur in Virg. Æn. i. 520. “Postquam
introgressi, et coram data copia fandi.” The literal
translation of
παῤῥησἴα: coram = παρ€ “in the presence.” Comp. Chrysost.
Hom. II. in 2 Cor. of the catechumens standing outside the holy
rails, and not allowed to take part in the Lord’s Prayer.
“ὀυδ™πω
γὰρ παῤῥησίαν
κ™κτηνται.” | and all the same he felt no
discontent at the delay of the giving, but remained patient,
whereas we, laden with countless sins, living with an evil
conscience, displaying no good will towards the Master; if we are
not heard before having spoken, are bewildered, impatiently recoil,
desist from asking—on this account we always retire with empty
hands. Who has for twenty years besought God for one thing, as this
righteous man did? or rather who for twenty months only? Yesterday
I was saying that they are many who pray with slackness, and
yawning, and stretching themselves, and continually shifting their
attitude, and indulging in every carelessness in their
prayers—but to-day I have found also another damage attaching
itself to their prayers more destructive than that one. For many,
throwing themselves prostrate, and striking the ground with their
forehead, and pouring forth hot tears, and groaning bitterly from
the heart792
| 792 Literally “from below.” Comp. Virgil
Æn. i. 37; imoqœ trahens de pectore vocem. | and
stretching out their hands, and displaying much earnestness, employ
this warmth and forwardness against their own salvation. For it is
not on behalf of their own sins that they beseech God; nor are they
asking forgiveness of the offences committed by them; but they are
exerting this earnestness against their enemies entirely, doing
just the same thing as if one, after whetting his sword, were not
to use the weapon against his enemies, but to thrust it through his
own throat. So these also use their prayers not for the remission
of their own sins, but about revenge on their enemies; which is to
thrust the sword against themselves. This too the wicked one has
devised, in order that on all sides we may destroy ourselves, both
through slackness and through earnestness. For the one class by
their carelessness in their prayers exasperate God, by displaying
contempt through their slackness; and the others, when they display
earnestness, display the earnestness on the other hand against
their own salvation. “A certain person,” he (the devil) says,
“is slack: that is sufficient for me with a view to his obtaining
nothing; this man is earnest and thoroughly aroused; what then must
be done to accomplish the same result? I cannot slacken his
earnestness, nor throw him into carelessness; I will contrive his
destruction in the other
way. How so? I will manage that he use his earnestness for
transgressing the law:” (for the praying against one’s personal
enemies is a transgression of law). “He shall depart therefore
not only having gained nothing by his earnestness, but also having
endured the hurt which is greater than that caused through
slackness.” Such as these are the injuries of the devil: the one
sort he destroys through their remissness; and the other through
their earnestness itself, when it is shown not according to God’s
laws.
11. But it is also worth hearing the very
words of their prayer, and how the words are of a puerile mind; of
how infantile a soul. I am ashamed in truth when about to repeat
them; but it is absolutely necessary to repeat them, and to imitate
that coarse tongue. What then are the words? “Avenge me of my
enemies, show them that I too have God (on my side).” They do not
then learn, man, that we have God, when we are indignant and angry
and impatient; but when we are gentle and meek and subdued, and
practise all love of wisdom. So also God said, “Let your light
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father who is in the heavens.”793
Perceivest thou not that it is an
insult to God, the making a request to God against thine enemies?
And how is it an insult? one will say. Because He Himself said,
“pray for your enemies;” and brought in this divine law. When
therefore thou claimest that the legislator should relax his own
laws; and callest upon him to legislate in opposition to himself;
and supplicatest him who had forbidden thee to pray against thine
enemies to hear thee praying against thine enemies; thou art not
praying in doing this, nor calling upon him; but thou art insulting
the lawgiver, and acting with drunken violence towards him, who is
sure to give to thee the good things which result from prayer. And
how is it possible to be heard when praying, tell me, when thou
exasperatest him who is sure to hear? For by doing these things
thou art pushing thine own salvation into a pit, and art rushing
down a precipice, by striking thine enemy before the king’s
eyes.794
| 794 To strike any one within “the precincts of the
court” even has been made a capital offence. | For even if
thou doest not this with the hands, with thy words thou strikest
him, the thing which thou darest not do even in the case of thy
fellow-slaves. At least dare to do this in a ruler’s presence,
and though thou hast done countless public services, thou wilt
straightway surely be led away to execution. Then (I ask) in the
presence of a ruler dost thou not dare to insult thine equal, but
when doing this in God’s presence, tell me, dost thou not
shudder, nor fear when in the time of entreaty and prayer being so
savage and turning thyself into a wild beast; and displaying
greater want of feeling than he who demanded payment of the hundred
pence?795
For that
thou art more insolent than he, listen to the story itself. A
certain man owed ten thousand talents to his master; then, not
having (wherewith) to pay, he entreated him to be long-suffering,
in order that, his wife having been sold and his house and his
children, he might settle his master’s claim. And the master
seeing him lamenting had compassion on him, and remitted the ten
thousand talents. He having gone out and found another servant
owing him a hundred pence, seizing his throat demanded them with
great cruelty and inhumanity. The Master having heard this threw
him into the prison, and laid on him again the debt of the ten
thousand talents which he had before remitted; and he paid the
penalty of the cruelty shown towards his fellow-servant.
12. Now do thou consider in how much more
unfeeling and insensible in a way thou hast acted even than he,
praying against thine enemies. He did not beg his master to demand,
but he himself demanded, the hundred pence; whereas thou even
callest on the Master for this shameless and forbidden demand. And
he seized his fellow-servant’s throat not before his lord’s
eyes, but outside; while thou in the very moment of prayer,
standing in the King’s presence, doest this. And if he, for doing
this without either having urged his master to the demand, and
after going forth, met with no forgiveness; thou, both stirring up
the Master to (exacting) this forbidden payment, and doing this
before his eyes, what sort of penalty will thou have to pay? tell
me. But thy mind is inflamed by the memory of the enmity, and
swells, and thy heart rises,796
| 796 Possibly “stomach.” Comp. Thuc.
ii. 49, ὁπότε ἐς τὴν καρδίαν οτηρίξαι. Lat.
stomachor. A medical sense, and the metaphor here is medical
throughout. So “cardiacus.” Juvenal. | and when recurring in memory to him
who has caused pain, thou art unable to reduce the swelling of thy
thought. But set against this inflammation the memory resulting
from thine own sins committed the fear resulting from the
punishment to come. Recall to memory for how many things thou art
accountable to thy master, and that for all those things thou owest
Him satisfaction; and this fear will surely overcome that anger;
since indeed this is far more powerful than that passion. Recall
the memory of hell and punishment and vengeance during the time of
thy prayer; and thou wilt not be able even to receive thine enemy
into thy mind.797
| 797 Because it is filled with better thoughts. No room
for him. | Make thy
mind contrite, humble thy soul by the memory of the offences
committed by thee, and wrath will not be able even to trouble thee.
But the cause of all these evils is this, that we scrutinise the
sins of all others with great exactitude; while we let our own pass
with great remissness. Whereas we ought to do the contrary—to
keep our own faults unforgotten; but never even to admit a thought
of those of others. If we do this we shall both have God
propitious, and shall cease cherishing immortal anger against our
neighbours, and we shall never have any one as an enemy; and even
if we should have at any time we shall both quickly put an end to
his enmity, and should obtain speedy pardon for our own sins. For
just as he who treasures up the memory of wrong against his
neighbour does not permit the punishment upon his own sins to be
done away; so he who is clear of anger will speedily be clear of
sins also. For if we, wicked as we are and enslaved to passion, on
account of the commandment of God overlook all the faults committed
against us, much more will He who is a lover of mankind, and good,
and free from any passion, overlook our delinquencies, rendering to
us the recompense of our kindly spirit towards our neighbour in the
forgiveness of our own sins: which God grant that we may attain, by
the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is
the glory and the dominion, to the ages of the ages.
Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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