CONFERENCE OF ABBOT SERAPION.
ON THE EIGHT PRINCIPAL FAULTS.
Complete Contents.
Other version available: text. [61K].
Our arrival at Abbot Serapion's cell, and inquiry
on the different kinds of faults and the way to overcome them.
IN that assembly of Ancients and Elders was a man named Serapion,[230] especially endowed with the grace of
discretion, whose Conference I think it is worth while to set down in
writing. For when we entreated him to discourse of the way to
overcome our faults, so that their origin and cause might be made
clearer to us, he thus began.
Abbot Serapion's enumeration of eight principal
faults.
THERE are eight principal faults which attack mankind; viz., first
gastrimargia, which means gluttony, secondly fornication, thirdly
philargyria, i.e., avarice or the love of money, fourthly anger,
fifthly dejection, sixthly acedia, i.e., listlessness or low spirits,
seventhly cenodoxia, i.e., boasting or vain glory; and eighthly
pride.
Of the two classes of faults and their fourfold
manner of acting on us.
OF these faults then there are two classes. For they are either
natural to us as gluttony, or arise outside of nature as covetousness.
But their manner of acting on us is fourfold. For some cannot be
consummated without an act on the part of the flesh, as gluttony and
fornication, while some can be completed without any bodily act, as
pride and vainglory. Some find the reasons for their being excited
outside us, as covetousness and anger; others are aroused by internal
feelings, as accidie[231] and
dejection.
A review of the passions of gluttony and
fornication and their remedies.
AND to make this clearer not only by a short discussion to the best of
my ability, but by Scripture proof as well, gluttony and fornication,
though they exist in us naturally (for sometimes they spring up
without any incitement from the mind, and simply at the motion and
allurement of the flesh) yet if they are to be consummated, must find
an external object, and thus take effect only through bodily acts.
For "every man is tempted of his own lust. Then lust when it has
conceived beareth sin, and sin when it is consummated begets
death."[232] For the first Adam
could not have fallen a victim to gluttony unless he had had material
food at hand, and had used it wrongly, nor could the second Adam be
tempted without the enticement of some object, when it was said to
Him: "If Thou art the Son of God, command that these stones be
made bread."[233] And it is
clear to everybody that fornication also is only completed by a bodily
act, as God says of this spirit to the blessed Job: "And his
force is in his loins, and his strength in the navel of his
belly."[234] And so these two
faults in particular, which are carried into effect by the aid of the
flesh, especially require bodily abstinence as well as spiritual care
of the soul; since the determination of the mind is not in itself
enough to resist their attacks (as is sometimes the case with anger or
gloominess or the other passions, which an effort of the mind alone
can overcome without any mortification of the flesh); but bodily
chastisement must be used as well, and be carried out by means of
fasting and vigils and acts of contrition; and to this must be added
change of scene, because since these sins are the results of faults of
both mind and body, so they can only be overcome by the united efforts
of both. And although the blessed Apostle says generally that all
faults are carnal, since he enumerates enmities and anger and heresies
among other works of the flesh,[235]
yet in order to cure them and to discover their nature more exactly we
make a twofold division of them: for we call some of them carnal, and
some spiritual. And those we call carnal, which specially have to do
with pampering the appetites of the flesh, and with which it is so
charmed and satisfied, that sometimes it excites the mind when at rest
and even drags it against its will to consent to its desire. Of which
the blessed Apostle says: "In which also we all walked in time
past in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and
of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath even as the
rest."[236] But we call those
spiritual which spring only from the impulse of the mind and not
merely contribute no pleasure to the flesh, but actually bring on it a
weakness that is harmful to it, and only feed a diseased mind with the
food of a most miserable pleasure. And therefore these need a single
medicine for the heart: but those which are carnal can only be cured,
as we said, by a double remedy. Whence it is extremely useful for
those who aspire to purity, to begin by withdrawing from themselves
the material which feeds these carnal passions, through which
opportunity for or recollection of these same desires can arise in a
soul that is still affected by the evil. For a complicated disease
needs a complicated remedy. For from the body the object and material
which would allure it must be withdrawn, for fear lest the lust should
endeavour to break out into act; and before the mind we should no less
carefully place diligent meditation on Scripture and watchful anxiety
and the withdrawal into solitude, lest it should give birth to desire
even in thought. But as regards other faults intercourse with our
fellows is no obstacle, or rather it is of the greatest possible use,
to those who truly desire to get rid of them, because in mixing with
others they more often meet with rebuke, and while they are more
frequently provoked the existence of the faults is made evident, and
so they are cured with speedy remedies.
How our Lord alone was tempted without sin.
AND so our Lord Jesus Christ, though declared by the Apostle's word to
have been tempted in all points like as we are, is yet said to have
been "without sin,"[237]
i.e., without the infection of this appetite, as He knew nothing of
incitements of carnal lust, with which we are sure to be troubled even
against our will and without our knowledge;[238] for the archangel thus describes the
manner of His conception: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: therefore that
which shall be born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of
God."[239]
Of the manner of the temptation in which our Lord
was attacked by the devil.
FOR it was right that He who was in possession of the perfect image
and likeness of God should be Himself tempted through those passions,
through which Adam also was tempted while he still retained the image
of God unbroken, that is, through gluttony, vainglory, pride; and not
through those in which he was by his own fault entangled and involved
after the transgression of the commandment, when the image and
likeness of God was marred. For it was gluttony through which he took
the fruit of the forbidden tree, vainglory through which it was said
"Your eyes shall be opened," and pride through which it was
said "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."[240] With these three sins then we read
that the Lord our Saviour was also tempted; with gluttony when the
devil said to Him: "Command these stones that they be made
bread:" with vainglory: "If Thou art the Son of God cast
Thyself down:" with pride, when he showed him all the kingdoms of
the world and the glory of them and said: "All this will I give
to Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me:"[241] in order that He might by His
example teach us how we ought to vanquish the tempter when we are
attacked on the same lines of temptation as He was. And so both the
former and the latter are spoken of as Adam; the one being the first
for destruction and death, and the other the first for resurrection
and life. Through the one the whole race of mankind is brought into
condemnation, through the other the whole race of mankind is set free.
The one was fashioned out of raw and unformed earth, the other was
born of the Virgin Mary. In His case then though it was fitting that
He should undergo temptation, yet it was not necessary that He should
fail under it. Nor could He who had vanquished gluttony be tempted by
fornication, which springs from superfluity and gluttony as its root,
with which even the first Adam would not have been destroyed unless
before its birth he had been deceived by the wiles of the devil and
fallen a victim to passion. And therefore the Son of God is not said
absolutely to have come "in the flesh of sin," but "in
the likeness of the flesh of sin," because though His was true
flesh and He ate and drank and slept, and truly received the prints of
the nails, there was in Him no true sin inherited from the fall, but
only what was something like it. For He had no experience of the
fiery darts of carnal lust, which in our case arise even against our
will, from the constitution of our natures, but He took upon Him
something like this, by sharing in our nature. For as He truly
fulfilled every function which belongs to us, and bore all human
infirmities, He has consequently been considered to have been subject
to this feeling also, that He might appear through these infirmities
to bear in His own flesh the state even of this fault and sin. Lastly
the devil only tempted Him to those sins, by which he had deceived the
first Adam, inferring that He as man would similarly be deceived in
other matters if he found that He was overcome by those temptations by
which he had overthrown His predecessor. But as he was overthrown in
the first encounter he was not able to bring upon Him the second
infirmity which had shot up as from the root of the first fault. For
he saw that He had not even admitted anything from which this
infirmity might take its rise, and it was idle to hope for the fruit
of sin from Him, as he saw that He in no sort of way received into
Himself seeds or roots of it. Yet according to Luke, who places last
that temptation in which he uses the words "If Thou art the Son
of God, cast Thyself down,"[242]
we can understand this of the feeling of pride, so that that earlier
one, which Matthew places third, in which, as Luke the evangelist
says, the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment
of time and promised them to Him, may be taken of the feeling of
covetousness, because after His victory over gluttony, he did not
venture to tempt Him to fornication, but passed on to covetousness,
which he knew to be the root of all evils,[243] and when again vanquished in this,
he did not dare attack Him with any of those sins which follow, which,
as he knew full well, spring from this as a root and source; and so he
passed on to the last passion; viz., pride, by which he knew that
those who are perfect and have overcome all other sins, can be
affected, and owing to which he remembered that he himself in his
character of Lucifer, and many others too, had fallen from their
heavenly estate, without temptation from any of the preceding
passions. In this order then which we have mentioned, which is the
one given by the evangelist Luke, there is an exact agreement between
the allurements and forms of the temptations by which that most crafty
foe attacked both the first and the second Adam. For to the one he
said "Your eyes shall be opened;" to the other "he
showed all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them." In
the one case he said "Ye shall be as gods;" in the other,
"If Thou art the Son of God."[244]
How vainglory and pride can be consummated without
any assistance from the body.
AND to go on in the order which we proposed, with our account of the
way in which the other passions act (our analysis of which was obliged
to be interrupted by this account of gluttony and of the Lord's
temptation) vainglory and pride can be consummated even without the
slightest assistance from the body. For in what way do those passions
need any action of the flesh, which bring ample destruction on the
soul they take captive simply by its assent and wish to gain praise
and glory from men? Or what act on the part of the body was there in
that pride of old in the case of the above mentioned Lucifer; as he
only conceived it in his heart and mind, as the prophet tells us:
"Who saidst in thine heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will set
my throne above the stars of God. I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds, I will be like the most High."[245] And just as he had no one to stir
him up to this pride, so his thoughts alone were the authors of the
sin when complete and of his eternal fall; especially as no exercise
of the dominion at which he aimed followed.
Of covetousness, which is something outside our
nature, and of the difference between it and those faults which are
natural to us.
COVETOUSNESS and anger, although they are not of the same character
(for the former is something outside our nature, while the latter
seems to have as it were its seed plot within us) yet they spring up
in the same way, as in most instances they find the reasons for their
being stirred in something outside of us. For often men who are still
rather weak complain that they have fallen into these sins through
irritation and the instigation of others, and are plunged headlong
into the passions of anger and covetousness by the provocation of
other people. But that covetousness is something outside our nature,
we can clearly see from this; viz., that it is proved not to have its
first starting point inside us, nor does it originate in what
contributes to keeping body and soul together, and to the existence of
life. For it is plain that nothing belongs to the actual needs and
necessities of our common life except our daily meat and drink: but
everything else, with whatever zeal and care we preserve it, is shown
to be something distinct from the wants of man by the needs of life
itself. And so this temptation, as being something outside our
nature, only attacks those monks who are but lukewarm and built on a
bad foundation, whereas those which are natural to us do not cease
from troubling even the best of monks and those who dwell in solitude.
And so far is this shown to be true, that we find that there are some
nations who are altogether free from this passion of covetousness,
because they have never by use and custom received into themselves
this fault and infirmity. And we believe that the old world before
the flood was for long ages ignorant of the madness of this desire.
And in the case of each one of us who makes his renunciation of the
world a thorough one, we know that it is extirpated without any
difficulty, if, that is, a man gives up all his property, and seeks
the monastic discipline in such a way as not to allow himself to keep
a single farthing. And we can find thousands of men to bear witness
to this, who in a single moment have given up all their property, and
have so thoroughly eradicated this passion as not to be in the
slightest degree troubled by it afterwards, though all their life long
they have to fight against gluttony, and cannot be safe from it
without striving with the utmost watchfulness of heart and bodily
abstinence.
How dejection and accidie generally arise without
any external provocation, as in the case of other faults.[246]
DEJECTION and accidie generally arise without any external
provocation, like those others of which we have been speaking: for we
are well aware that they often harass solitaries, and those who have
settled themselves in the desert without any intercourse with other
men, and this in the most distressing way. And the truth of this any
one who has lived in the desert and made trial of the conflicts of the
inner man, can easily prove by experience.
How six of these faults are related, and the two
which differ from them are akin to one another.
OF these eight faults then, although they are different in their
origin and in their way of affecting us, yet the six former; viz.,
gluttony, fornication, covetousness, anger, dejection, accidie, have a
sort of connexion with each other, and are, so to speak, linked
together in a chain, so that any excess of the one forms a starting
point for the next. For from superfluity of gluttony fornication is
sure to spring, and from fornication covetousness, from covetousness
anger, from anger, dejection, and from dejection, accidie. And so we
must fight against them in the same way, and with the same methods:
and having overcome one, we ought always to enter the lists against
the next. For a tall and spreading tree of a noxious kind will the
more easily be made to wither if the roots on which it depends have
first been laid bare or cut; and a pond of water which is dangerous
will be dried up at once if the spring and flowing channel which
produce it are carefully stopped up. Wherefore in order to overcome
accidie, you must first get the better of dejection: in order to get
rid of dejection, anger must first be expelled: in order to quell
anger, covetousness must be trampled under foot: in order to root out
covetousness, fornication must be checked: and in order to destroy
fornication, you must chastise the sin of gluttony. But the two
remaining faults; viz., vainglory and pride, are connected together in
a somewhat similar way as the others of which we have spoken, so that
the growth of the one makes a starting point for the other (for
superfluity of vainglory produces an incentive to pride); but they are
altogether different from the six former faults, and are not joined in
the same category with them, since not only is there no opportunity
given for them to spring up from these, but they are actually aroused
in an entirely different way and manner. For when these others have
been eradicated these latter flourish the more vigorously, and from
the death of the others they shoot forth and grow up all the stronger:
and therefore we are attacked by these two faults in quite a different
way. For we fall into each one of those six faults at the moment when
we have been overcome by the ones that went before them; but into
these two we are in danger of falling when we have proved victorious,
and above all after some splendid triumph. In the cases then of all
faults just as they spring up from the growth of those that go before
them, so are they eradicated by getting rid of the earlier ones. And
in this way in order that pride may be driven out vainglory must be
stifled, and so if we always overcome the earlier ones, the later ones
will be checked; and through the extermination of those that lead the
way, the rest of our passions will die down without difficulty. And
though these eight faults of which we have spoken are connected and
joined together in the way which we have shown, yet they may be more
exactly divided into four groups and sub-divisions. For to gluttony
fornication is linked by a special tie: to covetousness anger, to
dejection accidie, and to vainglory pride is closely allied.
Of the origin and character of each of these
faults.
AND now, to speak about each kind of fault separately: of gluttony
there are three sorts: (1) that which drives a monk to eat before the
proper and stated times; (2) that which cares about filling the belly
and gorging it with all kinds of food, and (3) that which is on the
lookout for dainties and delicacies. And these three sorts give a
monk no little trouble, unless he tries to free himself from all of
them with the same care and scrupulousness. For just as one should
never venture to break one's fast before the right time so we must
utterly avoid all greediness in eating, and the choice and dainty
preparation of our food: for from these three causes different but
extremely dangerous conditions of the soul arise. For from the first
there springs up dislike of the monastery, and thence there grows up
disgust and intolerance of the life there, and this is sure to be
soon followed by withdrawal and speedy departure from it. By the
second there are kindled the fiery darts of luxury and lasciviousness.
The third also weaves the entangling meshes of covetousness for the
nets of its prisoners, and ever hinders monks from following the
perfect self-abnegation of Christ. And when there are traces of this
passion in us we can recognize them by this; viz., if we are kept to
dine by one of the brethren we are not content to eat our food with
the relish which he has prepared and offers to us, but take the
unpardonable liberty of asking to have something else poured over it
or added to it, a thing which we should never do for three reasons:
(1) because the monastic mind ought always to be accustomed to
practise endurance and abstinence, and like the Apostle, to learn to
be content in whatever state he is.[247] For one who is upset by taking an
unsavoury morsel once and in a way, and who cannot even for a short
time overcome the delicacy of his appetite will never succeed in
curbing the secret and more important desires of the body; (2) because
it sometimes happens that at the time our host is out of that
particular thing which we ask for, and we make him feel ashamed of the
wants and bareness of his table, by exposing his poverty which he
would rather was only known to God; (3) because sometimes other people
do not care about the relish which we ask for, and so it turns out
that we are annoying most of them while intent on satisfying the
desires of our own palate. And on this account we must by all means
avoid such a liberty. Of fornication there are three sorts: (1) that
which is accomplished by sexual intercourse; (2) that which takes
place without touching a woman, for which we read that Onan the son of
the patriarch Judah was smitten by the Lord; and which is termed by
Scripture uncleanness: of which the Apostle says: "But I say to
the unmarried and to widows, that it is good for them if they abide
even as I. But if they do not contain let them marry: for it is
better to marry than to burn;"[248] (3) that which is conceived in heart
and mind, of which the Lord says in the gospel: "Whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery
with her in his heart."[249] And
these three kinds the blessed Apostle tells us must be stamped out in
one and the same way. "Mortify," says he, "your
members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, lust,
etc."[250] And again of two of
them he says to the Ephesians: "Let fornication and uncleanness
be not so much as named among you:" and once more: "But know
this that no fornicator or unclean person, or covetous person who is
an idolater hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of
God."[251] And just as these
three must be avoided by us with equal care, so they one and all shut
us out and exclude us equally from the kingdom of Christ. Of
covetousness there are three kinds: (1) That which hinders renunciants
from allowing themselves of be stripped of their goods and property;
(2) that which draws us to resume with excessive eagerness the
possession of those things which we have given away and distributed to
the poor; (3) that which leads a man to covet and procure what he
never previously possessed. Of anger there are three kinds: one which
rages within, which is called in Greek qumos;
another which breaks out in word and deed and action, which they term
orgh: of which the Apostle speaks, saying
"But now do ye lay aside all anger and indignation;"[252] the third, which is not like those
in boiling over and being done with in an hour, but which lasts for
days and long periods, which is called mhnis.
And all these three must be condemned by us with equal horror. Of
dejection there are two kinds: one, that which springs up when anger
has died down, or is the result of some loss we have incurred or of
some purpose which has been hindered and interfered with; the other,
that which comes from unreasonable anxiety of mind or from despair.
Of accidie there are two kinds: one of which sends those affected by
it to sleep; while the other makes them forsake their cell and flee
away. Of vainglory, although it takes various forms and shapes, and
is divided into different classes, yet there are two main kinds: (1)
when we are puffed up about carnal things and things visible, and (2)
when we are inflamed with the desire of vain praise for things
spiritual and unseen.
How vainglory may be useful to us.
BUT in one matter vainglory is found to be a useful thing for
beginners. I mean by those who are still troubled by carnal sins, as
for instance, if, when they are troubled by the spirit of fornication,
they formed an idea of the dignity of the priesthood, or of reputation
among all men, by which they may be thought saints and immaculate: and
so with these considerations they repell the unclean suggestions of
lust, as deeming them base and at least unworthy of their rank and
reputation; and so by means of a smaller evil they overcome a greater
one. For it is better for a man to be troubled by the sin of
vainglory than for him to fall into the desire for fornication, from
which he either cannot recover at all or only with great difficulty
after he has fallen. And this thought is admirably expressed by one
of the prophets speaking in the person of God, and saying: "For
My name's sake I will remove My wrath afar off: and with My praise I
will bridle thee lest thou shouldest perish,"[253] i.e., while you are enchained by the
praises of vainglory, you cannot possibly rush on into the depths of
hell, or plunge irrevocably into the commission of deadly sins. Nor
need we wonder that this passion has the power of checking anyone from
rushing into the sin of fornication, since it has been again and again
proved by many examples that when once a man has been affected by its
poison and plague, it makes him utterly indefatigable, so that he
scarcely feels a fast of even two or three days. And we have often
known some who are living in this desert, confessing that when their
home was in the monasteries of Syria they could without difficulty go
for five days without food, while now they are so overcome with hunger
even by the third hour, that they can scarcely keep on their daily
fast to the ninth hour. And on this subject there is a very neat
answer of Abbot Macarius[254] to one
who asked him why he was troubled with hunger as early as the third
hour in the desert, when in the monastery he had often scorned food
for a whole week, without feeling hungry. "Because," said
he, "here there is nobody to see your fast, and feed and support
you with his praise of you: but there you grew fat on the notice of
others and the food of vainglory." And of the way in which, as
we said, the sin of fornication is prevented by an attack of
vainglory, there is an excellent and significant figure in the book of
Kings, where, when the children of Israel had been taken captive by
Necho, King of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Assyria, came up and
brought them back from the borders of Egypt to their own country, not
indeed meaning to restore them to their former liberty and their
native land, but meaning to carry them off to his own land and to
transport them to a still more distant country than the land of Egypt
in which they had been prisoners. And this illustration exactly
applies to the case before us. For though there is less harm in
yielding to the sin of vainglory than to fornication, yet it is more
difficult to escape from the dominion of vainglory. For somehow or
other the prisoner who is carried off to a greater distance, will have
more difficulty in returning to his native land and the freedom of his
fathers, and the prophet's rebuke will be deservedly aimed at him:
"Wherefore art thou grown old in a strange country?[255] since a man is rightly said to have
grown old in a strange country, if he has not broken up the ground of
his faults. Of pride there are two kinds: (1) carnal, and (2)
spiritual, which is the worse. For it especially attacks those who
are seen to have made progress in some good qualities.
Of the different ways in which all these faults
assault us.
ALTHOUGH then these eight faults trouble all sorts of men, yet they do
not attack them all in the same way. For in one man the spirit of
fornication holds the chief place: wrath rides rough shod over
another: over another vainglory claims dominion: in an other pride
holds the field: and though it is clear that we are all attacked by
all of them, yet the difficulties come to each of us in very different
ways and manners.
Of the struggle into which we must enter against
our faults, when they attack us.
WHEREFORE we must enter the lists against these faults in such a way
that every one should discover his besetting sin, and direct his main
attack against it, directing all his care and watchfulness of mind to
guard against its assault, directing against it daily the weapons of
fasting, and at all times hurling against it the constant darts of
sighs and groanings from the heart, and employing against it the
labours of vigils and the meditation of the heart, and further pouring
forth to God constant tears and prayers and continually and expressly
praying to be delivered from its attack. For it is impossible for a
man to win a triumph over any kind of passion, unless he has first
clearly understood that he cannot possibly gain the victory in the
struggle with it by his own strength and efforts, although in order
that he may be rendered pure he must night and day persist in the
utmost care and watchfulness. And even when he feels that he has got
rid of this fault, he should still search the inmost recesses of his
heart with the same purpose, and single out the worst fault which he
can see among those still there, and bring all the forces of the
Spirit to bear against it in particular, and so by always overcoming
the stronger passions, he will gain a quick and easy victory over the
rest, because by a course of triumphs the soul is made more vigorous,
and the fact that the next conflict is with weaker passion insures him
a readier success in the struggle: as is generally the case with those
who are wont to face all kinds of wild beasts in the presence of the
kings of this world, out of consideration for the rewards--a kind of
spectacle which is generally called "pancarpus."[256] Such men, I say, direct their first
assault against whatever beasts they see to be the strongest and
fiercest, and when they have despatched these, then they can more
easily lay low the remaining ones, which are not so terrible and
powerful. So too, by always overcoming the stronger passions, as
weaker ones take their place, a perfect victory will be secured for us
without any risk. Nor need we imagine that if any one grapples with
one fault in particular, and seems too careless about guarding against
the attacks of others, he will be easily wounded by a sudden assault,
for this cannot possibly happen. For where a man is anxious to
cleanse his heart, and has steeled his heart's purpose against the
attack of any one fault, it is impossible for him not to have a
general dread of all other faults as well, and take similar care of
them. For if a man renders himself unworthy of the prize of purity by
contaminating himself with other faults, how can he possibly succeed
in gaining the victory over that one passion from which he is longing
to be freed? But when the main purpose of our heart has singled out
one passion as the special object of its attack, we shall pray about
it more earnestly, and with special anxiety and fervour shall entreat
that we may be more especially on our guard against it and so succeed
in gaining a speedy victory. For the giver of the law himself teaches
us that we ought to follow this plan in our conflicts and not to trust
in our own power; as he says: "Thou shalt not fear them because
the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, a God mighty and terrible:
He will consume these nations in thy sight by little and little and by
degrees. Thou wilt not be able to destroy them altogether: lest
perhaps the beasts of the earth should increase upon thee. But the
Lord thy God shall deliver them in thy sight; and shall slay them
until they be utterly destroyed."[257]
How we can do nothing against our faults without
the help of God, and how we should not be puffed up by victories over
them.
AND that we ought not to be puffed up by victories over them he
likewise charges us; saying, "Lest after thou hast eaten and art
filled, hast built goodly houses and dwelt in them, and shalt have
herds of oxen and flocks of sheep, and plenty of gold and of silver,
and of all things, thy heart be lifted up and thou remember not the
Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage; and was thy leader in the great and terrible
wilderness."[258] Solomon also
says in Proverbs: "When thine enemy shall fall be not glad, and
in his ruin be not lifted up, lest the Lord see and it displease Him,
and He turn away His wrath from him,"[259] i.e., lest He see thy pride of
heart, and cease from attacking him, and thou begin to be forsaken by
Him and so once more to be troubled by that passion which by God's
grace thou hadst previously overcome. For the prophet would not have
prayed in these words, "Deliver not up to beasts, O Lord, the
soul that confesseth to Thee,"[260] unless he had known that because of
their pride of heart some were given over again to those faults which
they had overcome, in order that they might be humbled. Wherefore it
is well for us both to be certified by actual experience, and also to
be instructed by countless passages of Scripture, that we cannot
possibly overcome such mighty foes in our own strength, and unless
supported by the aid of God alone; and that we ought always to refer
the whole of our victory each day to God Himself, as the Lord Himself
also gives us instruction by Moses on this very point: "Say not
in thine heart when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy
sight: For my righteousness hath the Lord brought me in to possess
this land, whereas these nations are destroyed for their wickedness.
For it is not for thy righteousness, and the uprightness of thine
heart, that thou shalt go in to possess their lands: but because they
have done wickedly they are destroyed at thy coming in."[261] I ask what could be said clearer in
opposition to that impious notion and impertinence of ours, in which
we want to ascribe everything that we do to our own free will and our
own exertions? "Say not," he tells us, "in thine
heart, when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy sight:
For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this
land." To those who have their eyes opened and their ears ready
to hearken does not this plainly say: When your struggle with carnal
faults has gone well for you, and you see that you are free from the
filth of them, and from the fashions of this world, do not be puffed
up by the success of the conflict and victory and ascribe it to your
own power and wisdom, nor fancy that you have gained the victory over
spiritual wickedness and carnal sins through your own exertions and
energy, and free will? For there is no doubt that in all this you
could not possibly have succeeded, unless you had been fortified and
protected by the help of the Lord.
Of the meaning of the seven nations of whose lands
Israel took possession, and the reason why they are sometimes spoken
of as "seven," and sometimes as "many."
THESE are the seven nations whose lands the Lord promised to give to
the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. And everything
which, as the Apostle says, happened to them "in a
figure"[262] we ought to take as
written for our correction. For so we read: "When the Lord thy
God shall have brought thee into the land, which thou art going in to
possess, and shall have destroyed many nations before thee, the
Hittite, and the Girgashites, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the
Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations much more
numerous than thou art and much stronger than thou: and the Lord thy
God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy
them."[263] And the reason that
they are said to be much more numerous, is that faults are many more
in number than virtues and so in the list of them the nations are
reckoned as seven in number, but when the attack upon them is spoken
of they are set down without their number being given, for thus we
read "And shall have destroyed many nations before thee."
For the race of carnal passions which springs from this sevenfold
incentive and root of sin, is more numerous than that of Israel. For
thence spring up murders, strifes, heresies, thefts, false witness,
blasphemy, surfeiting, drunkenness, back-biting, buffoonery, filthy
conversation, lies, perjury, foolish talking, scurrility,
restlessness, greediness, bitterness, clamour, wrath, contempt,
murmuring, temptation, despair, and many other faults, which it would
take too long to describe. And if we are inclined to think these
small matters, let us hear what the Apostle thought about them, and
what was his opinion of them: "Neither murmur ye," says he,
"as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the
destroyer:" and of temptation: "Neither let us tempt Christ
as some of them tempted and perished by the serpents."[264] Of backbiting: "Love not
backbiting lest thou be rooted out."[265] And of despair: "Who
despairing have given themselves up to lasciviousness unto the working
of all error, in uncleanness."[266] And that clamour is condemned as
well as anger and indignation and blasphemy, the words of the same
Apostle teach us as clearly as possible when he thus charges us:
"Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and
blasphemy be put away from you with all malice,"[267] and many more things like these.
And though these are far more numerous than the virtues are, yet if
those eight principal sins, from which we know that these naturally
proceed, are first overcome, all these at once sink down, and are
destroyed together with them with a lasting destruction. For from
gluttony proceed surfeiting and drunkenness. From fornication filthy
conversation, scurrility, buffoonery and foolish talking. From
covetousness, lying, deceit, theft, perjury, the desire of filthy
lucre, false witness, violence, inhumanity, and greed. From anger,
murders, clamour and indignation. From dejection, rancor, cowardice,
bitterness, despair. From accidie, laziness, sleepiness, rudeness,
restlessness, wandering about, instability both of mind and body,
chattering, inquisitiveness. From vainglory, contention, heresies,
boasting and confidence in novelties. From pride, contempt, envy,
disobedience, blasphemy, murmuring, backbiting. And that all these
plagues are stronger than we, we can tell very plainly from the way in
which they attack us. For the delight in carnal passions wars more
powerfully in our members than does the desire for virtue, which is
only gained with the greatest contrition of heart and body. But if
you will only gaze with the eyes of the spirit on those countless
hosts of our foes, which the Apostle enumerates where he says:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of this
darkness, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places,"[268] and this which we find of the
righteous man in the ninetieth Psalm: "A thousand shall fall
beside thee and ten thousand at thy right hand,"[269] then you will clearly see that they
are far more numerous and more powerful than are we, carnal and
earthly creatures as we are, while to them is given a substance which
is spiritual and incorporeal.
A question with regard to the comparison of
seven nations with eight faults.
GERMANUS: How then is it that there are eight faults which
assault us, when Moses reckons the nations opposed to the people of
Israel as seven, and how is it well for us to take possession
of the territory of our faults?
The answer how the number of eight nations
is made up in accordance with the eight faults.
SERAPION: Everybody is perfectly agreed that there are eight principal
faults which affect a monk. And all of them are not included in the
figure of the nations for this reason, because in Deuteronomy Moses,
or rather the Lord through him, was speaking to those who had already
gone forth from Egypt and been set free from one most powerful nation,
I mean that of the Egyptians. And we find that this figure holds good
also in our case, as when we have got clear of the snares of this
world we are found to be free from gluttony, i.e., the sin of the
belly and palate; and like them we have a conflict against these seven
remaining nations, without taking account at all of the one which has
been already overcome. And the land of this nation was not given to
Israel for a possession, but the command of the Lord ordained that
they should at once forsake it and go forth from it. And for this
cause our fasts ought to be made moderate, that there may be no need
for us through excessive abstinence, which results from weakness of
the flesh and infirmity, to return again to the land of Egypt, i.e.,
to our former greed and carnal lust which we forsook when we made our
renunciation of this world. And this has happened in a figure, in
those who after having gone forth into the desert of virtue again
hanker after the flesh pots over which they sat in Egypt.
The reason why one nation is to be forsaken, while
seven are commanded to be destroyed.
BUT the reason why that nation in which the children of Israel were
born, was bidden not to be utterly destroyed but only to have its land
forsaken, while it was commanded that these seven nations were to be
completely destroyed, is this: because however great may be the ardour
of spirit, inspired by which we have entered on the desert of virtues,
yet we cannot possibly free ourselves entirely from the neighbourhood
of gluttony or from its service and, so to speak, from daily
intercourse with it. For the liking for delicacies and dainties will
live on as something natural and innate in us, even though we take
pains to cut off all superfluous appetites and desires, which, as they
cannot be altogether destroyed, ought to be shunned and avoided. For
of these we read "Take no care for the flesh with its
desires."[270] While then we
still retain the feeling for this care, which we are bidden not
altogether to cut off, but to keep without its desires, it is clear
that we do not destroy the Egyptian nation but separate ourselves in a
sort of way from it, not thinking anything about luxuries and delicate
feasts, but, as the Apostle says, being "content with our daily
food and clothing."[271] And
this is commanded in a figure in the law, in this way: "Thou
shalt not abhor the Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his
land."[272] For necessary food
is not refused to the body without danger to it and sinfulness in the
soul. But of those seven troublesome faults we must in every possible
way root out the affections from the inmost recesses of our souls.
For of them we read: "Let all bitterness and anger and
indignation and clamour and blasphemy be put away from you with all
malice:" and again: "But fornication and all uncleanness
and covetousness let it not so much as be named among you, or
obscenity or foolish talking or scurrility."[273] We can then cut out the roots of
these faults which are grafted into our nature from without while we
cannot possibly cut off occasions of gluttony. For however far we
have advanced, we cannot help being what we were born. And that this
is so we can show not only from the lives of little people like
ourselves but from the lives and customs of all who have attained
perfection, who even when they have got rid of incentives to all other
passions, and are retiring to the desert with perfect fervour of
spirit and bodily abnegation, yet still cannot do without thought for
their daily meal and the preparation of their food from year to
year.
Of the nature of gluttony, which may be illustrated
by the simile of the eagle.
AN admirable illustration of this passion, with which a monk, however
spiritual and excellent, is sure to be hampered, is found in the
simile of the eagle. For this bird when in its flight on high it has
soared above the highest clouds, and has withdrawn itself from the
eyes of all mortals and from the face of the whole earth, is yet
compelled by the needs of the belly to drop down and descend to the
earth and feed upon carrion and dead bodies. And this clearly shows
that the spirit of gluttony cannot be altogether extirpated like all
other faults, nor be entirely destroyed like them, but that we can
only hold down and check by the power of the mind all incentives to it
and all superfluous appetites.
Of the lasting character of gluttony as described
to some philosophers.
FOR the nature of this fault was admirably expressed under cover of
the following puzzle by one of the Elders in a discussion with some
philosophers, who thought that they might chaff him like a country
bumpkin because of his Christian simplicity. "My father,"
said he, "left me in the clutches of a great many creditors. All
the others I have paid in full, and have freed myself from all their
pressing claims; but one I cannot satisfy even by a daily
payment." And when they could not see the meaning of the puzzle,
and urgently begged him to explain it: "I was," said he,
"in my natural condition, encompassed by a great many faults.
But when God inspired me with the longing to be free, I renounced this
world, and at the same time gave up all my property which I had
inherited from my father, and so I satisfied them all like pressing
creditors, and freed myself entirely from them. But I was never able
altogether to get rid of the incentives to gluttony. For though I
reduce the quantity of food which I take to the smallest possible
amount, yet I cannot avoid the force of its daily solicitations, but
must be perpetually `dunned' by it, and be making as it were
interminable payments by continually satisfying it, and pay never
ending toll at its demand." Then they declared that this man,
whom they had till now despised as a booby and a country bumpkin, had
thoroughly grasped the first principles of philosophy, i.e., training
in ethics, and they marvelled that he could by the light of nature
have learnt that which no schooling in this world could have taught
him, while they themselves with all their efforts and long course of
training had not learnt this. This is enough on gluttony in
particular. Now let us return to the discourse in which we had begun
to consider the general relation of our faults to each other.
How it was that God foretold to Abraham that Israel
would have to drive out ten nations.
WHEN the Lord was speaking with Abraham about the future (a point
which you did not ask about) we find that He did not enumerate seven
nations, but ten, whose land He promised to give to his seed.[274] And this number is plainly made up
by adding idolatry, and blasphemy, to whose dominion, before the
knowledge of God and the grace of Baptism, both the irreligious hosts
of the Gentiles and blasphemous ones of the Jews were subject, while
they dwelt in a spiritual Egypt. But when a man has made his
renunciation and come forth from thence, and having by God's grace
conquered gluttony, has come into the spiritual wilderness, then he is
free from the attacks of these three, and will only have to wage war
against those seven which Moses enumerates.
How it is useful for us to take possession of their
lands.
BUT the fact that we are bidden for our good to take possession of the
countries of those most wicked nations, may be understood in this way.
Each fault has its own especial corner in the heart, which it claims
for itself in the recesses of the soul, and drives out Israel, i.e.,
the contemplation of holy and heavenly things, and never ceases to
oppose them. For virtues cannot possibly live side by side with
faults. "For what participation hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? Or what fellowship hath light with
darkness?"[275] But as soon as
these faults have been overcome by the people of Israel, i.e., by
those virtues which war against them, then at once the place in our
heart which the spirit of concupiscence and fornication had occupied,
will be filled by chastity. That which wrath had held, will be
claimed by patience. That which had been occupied by a sorrow that
worketh death, will be taken by a godly sorrow and one full of joy.
That which had been wasted by accidie, will at once be tilled by
courage. That which pride had trodden down will be ennobled by
humility: and so when each of these faults has been expelled, their
places (that is the tendency towards them) will be filled by the
opposite virtues which are aptly termed the children of Israel, that
is, of the soul that seeth God:[276]
and when these have expelled all passions from the heart we may
believe that they have recovered their own possessions rather than
invaded those of others.
How the lands from which the Canaanites were
expelled, had been assigned to the seed of Shem.
FOR, as an ancient tradition tells us,[277] these same lands of the Canaanites
into which the children of Israel were brought, had been formerly
allotted to the children of Shem at the division of the world, and
afterward the descendants of Ham wickedly invading them with force and
violence took possession of them. And in this the righteous judgment
of God is shown, as He expelled from the land of others these who had
wrongfully taken possession of them, and restored to those others the
ancient property of their fathers which had been assigned to their
ancestors at the division of the world. And we can perfectly well see
that this figure holds good in our own case. For by nature God's will
assigned the possession of our heart not to vices but to virtues,
which, after the fall of Adam were driven out from their own country
by the sins which grew up, i.e., by the Canaanites; and so when by
God's grace they are by our efforts and labour restored again to it,
we may hold that they have not occupied the territory of another, but
rather have recovered their own country.
Different passages of Scripture on the meaning of
the eight faults.
AND in reference to these eight faults we also have the following in
the gospel: "But when the unclean spirit is gone out from a man,
he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none. Then he
saith, I will return to my house from whence I came out: and coming he
findeth it empty, swept, and garnished: then he goeth and taketh seven
other spirits worse than himself, and they enter in and dwell there:
and the last state of that man is made worse than the first."[278] Lo, just as in the former passages
we read of seven nations besides that of the Egyptians from which the
children of Israel had gone forth, so here too seven unclean spirits
are said to return beside that one which we first hear of as going
forth from the man. And of this sevenfold incentive of sins Solomon
gives the following account in Proverbs: "If thine enemy speak
loud to thee, do not agree to him because there are seven mischiefs in
his heart;"[279] i.e., if the
spirit of gluttony is overcome and begins to flatter you with having
humiliated it, asking in a sort of way that you would relax something
of the fervour with which you began, and yield to it something beyond
what the due limits of abstinence, and measure of strict severity
would allow, do not you be overcome by its submission, nor return in
fancied security from its assaults, as you seem to have become for a
time freed from carnal desires, to your previous state of carelessness
or former liking for good things. For through this the spirit whom
you have vanquished is saying "I will return to my house from
whence I came out," and forthwith the seven spirits of sins which
proceed from it will prove to you more injurious than that passion
which in the first instance you overcame, and will presently drag you
down to worse kinds of sins.
How when we have got the better of the passion of
gluttony we must take pains to gain all the other virtues.
WHEREFORE while we are practising fasting and abstinence, we must be
careful when we have got the better of the passion of gluttony never
to allow our mind to remain empty of the virtues of which we stand in
need; but we should the more earnestly fill the inmost recesses of our
heart with them for fear lest the spirit of concupiscence should
return and find us empty and void of them, and should not be content
to secure an entrance there for himself alone, but should bring in
with him into our heart this sevenfold incentive of sins and make our
last state worse than the first. For the soul which boasts that it
has renounced this world with the eight faults that hold sway over it,
will afterwards be fouler and more unclean and visited with severer
punishments, than it was when formerly it was at home in the world,
when it had taken upon itself neither the rules nor the name of monk.
For these seven spirits are said to be worse than the first which went
forth, for this reason; because the love of good things, i.e.,
gluttony would not be in itself harmful, were it not that it opened
the door to other passions; viz, to fornication, covetousness, anger,
dejection, and pride, which are clearly hurtful in themselves to the
soul, and domineering over it. And therefore a man will never be able
to gain perfect purity, if he hopes to secure it by means of
abstinence alone, i.e., bodily fasting, unless he knows that he ought
to practise it for this reason that when the flesh is brought low by
means of fasting, he may with greater ease enter the lists against
other faults, as the flesh has not been habituated to gluttony and
surfeiting.
That our battles are not fought with our faults in
the same order as that in which they stand in the list.
BUT you must know that our battles are not all fought in the same
order, because, as we mentioned that the attacks are not always made
on us in the same way, each one of us ought also to begin the battle
with due regard to the character of the attack which is especially
made on him so that one man will have to fight his first battle
against the fault which stands third on the list, another against that
which is fourth or fifth. And in proportion as faults hold sway over
us, and the character of their attack may demand, so we too ought to
regulate the order of our conflict, in such a way that the happy
result of a victory and triumph succeeding may insure our attainment
of purity of heart and complete perfection.
Thus far did Abbot Serapion discourse to us of the nature of the eight
principal faults, and so clearly did he expound the different sorts of
passions which are latent within us--the origin and connexion of
which, though we were daily tormented by them, we could never before
thoroughly understand and perceive--that we seemed almost to see them
spread out before our eyes as in a mirror.
Next
@
This document (last modifiedJanuary 22, 1997) from Believerscafe.com
Home | Bible versions | Bible Dictionary | Christian Classics | Christian Articles | Daily Devotions
Sister Projects: Wikichristian | WikiMD
BelieversCafe is a large collection of christian articles with over 40,000 pages
Our sponsors: 
