CONFERENCE OF ABBOT THEODORE.[280]
ON THE DEATH OF THE SAINTS.
Complete Contents.
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Description of the wilderness, and the question
about the death of the saints.
IN the district of Palestine near the village of Tekoa which had the
honour of producing the prophet Amos,[281] there is a vast desert which
stretches far and wide as far as Arabia and the dead sea, into which
the streams of Jordan enter and are lost, and where are the ashes of
Sodom. In this district there lived for a long while monks of the
most perfect life and holiness, who were suddenly destroyed by an
incursion of Saracen robbers:[282]
whose bodies we knew were seized upon with the greatest veneration[283] both by the Bishops of the
neighbourhood and by the whole populace of Arabia, and deposited among
the relics of the martyrs, so that swarms of people from two towns
met, and made terrible war upon each other, and in their struggle
actually came to blows for the possession of the holy spoil, while
they strove among themselves with pious zeal as to which of them had
the better claim to bury them and keep their relics--the one party
boasting of their vicinity to the place of their abode, the other of
the fact that they were near the place of their birth. But we were
upset by this and being disturbed either on our own account or on
account of some of the brethren who were in no small degree
scandalized at it, inquired why men of such illustrious merits and of
so great virtues should be thus slain by robbers, and why the Lord
permitted such a crime to be committed against his servants, so as to
give up into the hands of wicked men those who were the admiration of
everybody: and so in our grief we came to the holy Theodore, a man who
excelled in practical common sense. For he was living in
Cellæ,[284] a place that lies
between Nitria and Scete, and is five miles distant from the
monasteries of Nitria, and cut off by eighty intervening miles of
desert from the wilderness of Scete where we were living. And when we
had made our complaint to him about the death of the men mentioned
above, and expressed our surprise at the great patience of God,
because He suffered men of such worth to be killed in this way, so
that those who ought to be able by the weight of their sanctity to
deliver others from trials of this kind, could not save themselves
from the hands of wicked men (and asked) why it was that God allowed
so great a crime to be committed against his servants, then the
blessed Theodore replied.
Abbot Theodore's answer to the question proposed to
him.
THIS question often exercises the minds of those who have not much
faith or knowledge, and imagine that the prizes and rewards of the
saints (which are not given in this world, but laid up for the future)
are bestowed in the short space of this mortal life. But we whose
hope in Christ is not only in this life, for fear lest, as the Apostle
says, we should be "of all men most miserable"[285] (because as we receive none of the
promises in this world we should for our unbelief lose them also in
that to come) ought not wrongly to follow their ideas, lest through
ignorance of the true real explanation, we should hesitate and tremble
and fail in temptation, if we find ourselves given up to such men; and
should ascribe to God injustice or carelessness about the affairs of
mankind--a thing which it is almost a sin to mention--because He does
not protect in their temptations men who are living an upright and
holy life, nor requite good men with good things and evil men with
evil things in this world; and so we should deserve to fall under the
condemnation of those whom the prophet Zephaniah rebukes, saying
"who say in their hearts the Lord will not do good, nor will He
do evil:"[286] or at least be
found among those of whom we are told that they blaspheme God with
such complaints as this: "Every one that doeth evil is good in
the sight of the Lord, and such please Him: for surely where is the
God of judgment?"[287] Adding
further that blasphemy which is described in the same way in what
follows: "He laboureth in vain that serveth God, and what profit
is it that we have kept His ordinances, and walked sorrowful before
the Lord? Wherefore now we call the proud happy, for they that work
wickedness are enriched, and they have tempted God, and are
preserved."[288] Wherefore that
we may avoid this ignorance which is the root and cause of this most
deadly error, we ought in the first place to know what is really good,
and what is bad, and so finally if we grasp the true scriptural
meaning of these words, and not the false popular one, we shall escape
being deceived by the errors of unbelievers.
Of the three kinds of things there are in the
world; viz., good, bad, and indifferent.
ALTOGETHER there are three kinds of things in the world; viz., good,
bad, and indifferent. And so we ought to know what is properly good,
and what is bad, and what is indifferent, that our faith may be
supported by true knowledge and stand firm in all temptations. We
must then believe that in things which are merely human there is no
real good except virtue of soul alone, which leads us with unfeigned
faith to things divine, and makes us constantly adhere to that
unchanging good. And on the other hand we ought not to call anything
bad, except sin alone, which separates us from the good God, and
unites us to the evil devil. But those things are indifferent which
can be appropriated to either side according to the fancy or wish of
their owner, as for instance riches, power, honour, bodily strength,
good health, beauty, life itself, and death, poverty, bodily
infirmities, injuries, and other things of the same sort, which can
contribute either to good or to evil as the character and fancy of
their owner directs. For riches are often serviceable for our good,
as the Apostle says, who charges "the rich of this world to be
ready to give, to distribute to the needy, to lay up in store for
themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that" by
this means "they may lay hold on the true life."[289] And according to the gospel they
are a good thing for those who "make to themselves friends of the
unrighteous mammon."[290] And
again, they can be drawn in the direction of what is bad when they are
amassed only for the sake of hoarding them or for a life of luxury,
and are not employed to meet the wants of the poor. And that power
also and honour and bodily strength and good health are indifferent
and available for either (good or bad) can easily be shown from the
fact that many of the Old Testament saints enjoyed all these things
and were in positions of great wealth and the highest honour, and
blessed with bodily strength, and yet are known to have been most
acceptable to God. And on the contrary those who have wrongfully
abused these things and perverted them for their own purposes are not
without good reason punished or destroyed, as the Book of Kings shows
us has often happened. And that even life and death are in themselves
indifferent the birth of S. John and of Judas proves. For in the case
of the one his life was so profitable to himself that we are told that
his birth brought joy to others also, as we read "And many shall
rejoice at his birth;"[291] but
of the life of the other it is said: "It were good for that man
if he had never been born."[292]
Further it is said of the death of John and of all saints "Right
dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints:"[293] but of that of Judas and men like
him "The death of the wicked is very evil."[294] And how useful bodily sickness
sometimes may be the blessing on Lazarus, the beggar who was full of
sores, shows us. For Scripture makes mention of no other good
qualities or deserts of his, but it was for this fact alone; viz.,
that he endured want and bodily sickness with the utmost patience,
that he was deemed worthy of the blessed lot of a place in Abraham's
bosom.[295] And with regard to want
and persecution and injuries which everybody thinks to be bad, how
useful and necessary they are is clearly proved by this fact; viz.,
that the saints not only never tried to avoid them, but actually
either sought them with all their powers or bravely endured them, and
thus became the friends of God, and obtained the reward of eternal
life, as the blessed Apostle chants: "For which cause I delight
myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am
strong, for power is made perfect in infirmity."[296] And therefore those who are exalted
with the greatest riches and honours and powers of this world, should
not be deemed to have secured their chief good out of them (for this
is shown to consist only in virtue) but only something indifferent,
because just as to good men who use them well and properly they will
be found to be useful and convenient (for they afford them
opportunities for good works and fruits which shall endure to eternal
life), so to those who wrongfully abuse their wealth, they are useless
and out of place, and furnish occasions of sin and death.
How evil cannot be forced on any one by another
against his will.
PRESERVING then these distinctions clear and fixed, and knowing that
there is nothing good except virtue alone, and nothing bad except sin
alone and separation from God, let us now carefully consider whether
God ever allows evil to be forced on his saints either by Himself or
by some one else. And you will certainly find that this never
happens. For another can never possibly force the evil of sin upon
anyone, who does not consent and who resists, but only on one who
admits it into himself through sloth and the corrupt desire of his
heart. Finally, when the devil having exhausted all his wicked
devices had tried to force upon the blessed Job this evil of sin, and
had not only stripped him of all his worldly goods, but also after
that terrible and utterly unlooked for calamity of bereavement through
the death of his seven children, had heaped upon him dreadful wounds
and intolerable tortures from the crown of his head to the sole of his
foot, he tried in vain to fasten on him the stain of sin, because he
remained steadfast through it all, never brought himself to consent to
blasphemy.
An objection, how God Himself can be said to create
evil.
GERMANUS: We often read in holy Scripture that God has created evil or
brought it upon men, as is this passage: "There is none beside
Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else: I form the light and
create darkness, I make peace, and create evil."[297] And again: "Shall there be
evil in a city which the Lord hath not done?"[298]
The answer to the question proposed.
THEODORE: Sometimes holy Scripture is wont by an improper use of terms
to use "evils" for "affliction;" not that these
are properly and in their nature evils, but because they are imagined
to be evils by those on whom they are brought for their good. For
when divine judgment is reasoning with men it must speak with the
language and feelings of men. For when a doctor for the sake of
health with good reason either cuts or cauterizes those who are
suffering from the inflammation of ulcers, it is considered an evil by
those who have to bear it. Nor are the spur and the whip pleasant to
a restive horse. Moreover all chastisement seems at the moment to be
a bitter thing to those who are chastised, as the Apostle says:
"Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring
with it joy but sorrow; but afterwards it will yield to them that are
exercised by it most peaceable fruits of righteousness," and
"whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth: for what son is there whom the father doth not
correct?"[299] And so evils are
sometimes wont to stand for afflictions, as where we read: "And
God repented of the evil which He had said that He would do to them
and He did it not."[300] And
again: "For Thou, Lord, are gracious and merciful, patient and
very merciful and ready to repent of the evil,"[301] i.e., of the sufferings and losses
which Thou art forced to bring upon us as the reward of our sins. And
another prophet, knowing that these are profitable to some men, and
certainly not through any jealousy of their safety, but with an eye to
their good, prays thus: "Add evils to them, O Lord, add evils to
the haughty ones of the earth;"[302] and the Lord Himself says "Lo,
I will bring evils upon them,"[303] i.e., sorrows, and losses, with
which they shall for the present be chastened for their soul's health,
and so shall be at length driven to return and hasten back to Me whom
in their prosperity they scorned. And so that these are originally
evil we cannot possibly assert: for to many they conduce to their good
and offer the occasions of eternal bliss, and therefore (to return to
the question raised) all those things, which are thought to be brought
upon us as evils by our enemies or by any other people, should not be
counted as evils, but as things indifferent. For in the end they will
not be what he thinks, who brought them upon us in his rage and fury,
but what he makes them who endures them. And so when death
has been brought upon a saint, we ought not to think that an evil has
happened to him but a thing indifferent; which is an evil to a wicked
man, while to the good it is rest and freedom from evils. "For
death is rest to a man whose way is hidden."[304] And so a good man does not suffer
any loss from it, because he suffers nothing strange, but by the crime
of an enemy he only receives (and not without the reward of eternal
life) that which would have happened to him in the course of nature,
and pays the debt of man's death, which must be paid by an inevitable
law, with the interest of a most fruitful passion, and the recompense
of a great reward.
A question whether the man who causes the death of
a good man is guilty, if the good man is the gainer by his death.
GERMANUS: Well then, if a good man does not only suffer no evil by
being killed, but actually gains a reward from his suffering, how can
we accuse the man who has done him no harm but good by killing him?
The answer to the foregoing question.
THEODORE: We are talking about the actual qualities of things good and
bad, and what we call indifferent; and not about the characters of the
men who do these things. Nor ought any bad or wicked man to go
unpunished because his evil deed was not able to do harm to a good
man. For the endurance and goodness of a righteous man are of no
profit to the man who is the cause of his death or suffering, but only
to him who patiently endures what is inflicted on him. And so the one
is justly punished for savage cruelty, because he meant to injure him,
while the other nevertheless suffers no evil, because in the goodness
of his heart he patiently endures his temptation and sufferings, and
so causes all those things, which were inflicted upon him with evil
intent, to turn out to his advantage, and to conduce to the bliss of
eternal life.
The case of Job who was tempted by the devil; and
of the Lord who was betrayed by Judas: and how prosperity as well as
adversity is advantageous to a good man.
FOR the patience of Job did not bring any gain to the devil, through
making him a better man by his temptations, but only to Job himself
who endured them bravely; nor was Judas granted freedom from eternal
punishment, because his act of betrayal contributed to the salvation
of mankind. For we must not regard the result of the deed, but the
purpose of the doer. Wherefore we should always cling to this
assertion; viz., that evil cannot be brought upon a man by another,
unless a man has admitted it by his sloth or feebleness of heart: as
the blessed Apostle confirms this opinion of ours in a verse of
Scripture: "But we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God."[305] But by
saying "All things work together for good," he includes
everything alike, not only things fortunate, but also those which seem
to be misfortunes: through which the Apostle tells us in another place
that he himself has passed, when he says: "By the armour of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left," i.e.,
"Through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good
report, as deceivers and yet true, as sorrowful but always rejoicing,
as needy and yet enriching many:"[306] All those things then which are
considered fortunate, and are called those "on the right
hand," which the holy Apostle designates by the terms honour and
good report; and those too which are counted misfortunes, which he
clearly means by dishonour and evil report, and which he describes as
"on the left hand," become to the perfect man "the
armour of righteousness," if when they are brought upon him, he
bears them bravely: because, as he fights with these, and uses those
very weapons with which he seems to be attacked, and is protected by
them as by bow and sword and stout shield against those who bring
these things upon him, he secures the advantage of his patience and
goodness, and obtains a grand triumph of steadfastness by means of
those very weapons of his enemies which are hurled against him to kill
him; and if only he is not elated by success or cast down by failure,
but ever marches straightforward on the king's highway, and does not
swerve from that state of tranquillity as it were to the right hand,
when joy overcomes him, nor let himself be driven so to speak to the
left hand, when misfortunes overwhelm him, and sorrow holds sway. For
"Much peace have they that love Thy law, and to them there is no
stumbling block."[307] But of
those who shift about according to the character and changes of the
several chances which happen to them, we read: "But a fool will
change like the moon."[308] For
just as it is said of men who are perfect and wise: "To them that
love God all things work together for good,"[309] so of those who are weak and foolish
it is declared that "everything is against a foolish
man,"[310] for he gets no profit
out of prosperity, nor does adversity make him any better. For it
requires as much goodness to bear sorrows bravely, as to be moderate
in prosperity: and it is quite certain that one who fails in one of
these, will not bear up under the other. But a man can be more easily
overcome by prosperity than by misfortunes: for these sometimes
restrain men against their will and make them humble and through most
salutary sorrow cause them to sin less, and make them better: while
prosperity puffs up the mind with soothing but most pernicious
flatteries and when men are secure in the prospect of their happiness
dashes them to the ground with a still greater destruction.
Of the excellence of the perfect man who is
figuratively spoken of as ambidextrous.
THOSE are they then who are figurately spoken of in holy Scripture as
amfoterodexion, i.e., ambidextrous, as Ehud is
described in the book of Judges "who used either hand as the
right[311] hand." And this power
we also can spiritually acquire, if by making a right and proper use
of those things which are fortunate, and which seem to be "on the
right hand," as well as of those which are unfortunate and as we
call it "on the left hand," we make them both belong to the
right side, so that whatever turns up proves in our case, to use the
words of the Apostle, "the armour of righteousness." For we
see that the inner man consists of two parts, and if I may be allowed
the expression, two hands, nor can any of the saints do without that
which we call the left hand: but by means of it the perfection of
virtue is shown, where a man by skilful use can turn both hands into
right hands. And in order to make our meaning clearer, the saint has
for his right hand his spiritual achievements, in which he is found
when with fervent spirit he gets the better of his desires and
passions, when he is free from all attacks of the devil, and without
any effort or difficulty rejects and cuts off all carnal sins, when he
is exalted above the earth and regards all things present and earthly
as light smoke or vain shadows, and scorns them as what is about to
vanish away, when with an overflowing heart he not only longs most
intensely for the future but actually sees it the more clearly, when
he is more effectually fed on spiritual contemplations, when he sees
heavenly mysteries more brightly laid open to him, when he pours forth
his prayers to God with greater purity and readiness, when he is so
inflamed with fervent of spirit as to pass with the utmost readiness
of soul to things invisible and eternal, so as scarcely to believe
that he any longer remains in the flesh. He has also a left hand,
when he is entangled in the toils of temptation, when he is inflamed
with the heat of desire for carnal lusts, when he is set on fire by
emotion towards rage and anger, when he is overcome by being puffed up
with pride or vainglory, when he is oppressed by a sorrow that worketh
death, when he is shaken to pieces by the contrivances and attacks of
accidie, and when he has lost all spiritual warmth, and grows
indifferent with a sort of lukewarmness and unreasonable grief so that
not only is he forsaken by good and kindling thoughts, but actually
Psalms, prayer, reading, and retirement in his cell all pall upon him,
and all virtuous exercises seem by an intolerable and horrible
loathing to have lost their savour. And when a monk is troubled in
this way, then he knows that he is attacked "on the left
hand." Anyone therefore who is not at all puffed up through the
aid of vainglory by any of those things on the right hand which we
have mentioned, and who struggles manfully against those on the left
hand, and does not yield to despair and give in, but rather on the
other hand seizes the armour of patience to practise himself in
virtue--this man can use both hands as right hands, and in each action
he proves triumphant and carries off the prize of victory from that
condition on the left hand as well as that on the right. Such, we
read, was the reward which the blessed Job obtained who was certainly
crowned (for a victory) on the right hand, when he was the father of
seven sons and walked as a rich and wealthy man, and yet offered daily
sacrifices to the Lord for their purification, in his anxiety that
they might prove acceptable and dear to God rather than to himself,
when his gates stood open to every stranger, when he was "feet to
lame and eyes to blind,"[312]
when the shoulders of the suffering were kept warm by the wool of his
sheep, when he was a father to orphans and a husband to widows, when
he did not even in his heart rejoice at the fall of his enemy. And
again it was the same man who with still greater virtue triumphed over
adversity on the left hand, when deprived in one moment of his seven
sons he was not as a father overcome with bitter grief but as a true
servant of God rejoiced in the will of his Creator. When instead of
being a wealthy man he became poor, naked instead of rich, pining away
instead of strong, despised and contemptible instead of famous and
honourable, and yet preserved his fortitude of mind unshaken, when,
lastly, bereft of all his wealth and substance he took up his abode on
the dunghill, and like some stern executioner of his own body scraped
with a potsherd the matter that broke out, and plunging his fingers
deep into his wounds dragged out on every side masses of worms from
his limbs. And in all this he never fell into despair and blasphemy,
nor murmured at all against his Creator. Moreover also so little was
he overcome by such a weight of bitter temptations that the cloak
which out of all his former property remained to cover his body, and
which alone could be saved from destruction by the devil because he
was clothed with it, he rent and cast off, and covered with it his
nakedness which he voluntarily endured, which the terrible robber had
brought upon him. The hair of his head too, which was the only thing
left untouched out of all the remains of his former glory, he shaved
and cast to his tormentor, and cutting off even that which his savage
foe had left to him he exulted over him and mocked him with that
celestial cry of his: "If we have received good at the hand of
the Lord, should we not also receive evil? Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and
the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done;
blessed be the name of the Lord."[313] I should also with good reason call
Joseph ambidextrous, as in prosperity he was very dear to his father,
affectionate to his brethren, acceptable to God; and in adversity was
chaste, and faithful to the Lord, in prison most kind to the
prisoners, forgetful of wrongs, generous to his enemies; and to his
brethren who were envious of him and as far as lay in their powers,
his murderers, he proved not only affectionate but actually
munificent. These men then and those who are like them are rightly
termed amfoterodexion, i.e., ambidextrous.
For they can use either hand as the right hand, and passing through
those things which the Apostle enumerates can fairly say:
"Through the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the
left, through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good
report etc." And of this right and left hand Solomon speaks as
follows in the Song of songs, in the person of the bride: "His
left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace
me."[314] And while this passage
shows that both are useful, yet it puts one under the head, because
misfortunes ought to be subject to the control of the heart, since
they are only useful for this; viz., to train us for a time and
discipline us for our salvation and make us perfect in te matter of
patience. But the right hand she hopes will ever cling to her to
cherish her and hold her fast in the blessed embrace of the
Bridegroom, and unite her to him indissolubly. We shall then be
ambidextrous, when neither abundance nor want affects us, and when the
former does not entice us to the luxury of a dangerous carelessness,
while the latter does not draw us to despair, and complaining; but
when, giving thanks to God in either case alike, we gain one and the
same advantage out of good and bad fortune. And such that truly
ambidextrous man, the teacher of the Gentiles, testifies that he
himself was, when he says: "For I have learnt in whatsoever state
I am, to be content therewith. I know both how to be brought low and
I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things in Him which strengtheneth me."[315]
Of the two kinds of trials, which come upon us in a
threefold way.
WELL then, though we say that trial is twofold, i.e., in prosperity
and in adversity, yet you must know that all men are tried in three
different ways. Often for their probation, sometimes for their
improvement, and m some cases because their sins deserve it. For
their probation indeed, as we read that the blessed Abraham and Job
and many of the saints endured countless tribulations; or this which
is said to the people in Deuteronomy by Moses: "And thou shalt
remember all the way through which the Lord thy God hath brought thee
for forty years through the desert, to afflict thee and to prove thee,
and that the things that were in thy heart might be made known,
whether thou wouldst keep His Commandments or no:"[316] and this which we find in the
Psalms: "I proved thee at the waters of strife."[317] To Job also: "Thinkest thou
that I have spoken for any other cause than that thou mightest be seen
to be righteous?"[318] But for
improvement, when God chastens his righteous ones for some small and
venial sins, or to raise them to a higher state of purity, and
delivers them over to various trials, that He may purge away all their
unclean thoughts, and, to use the prophet's word, the
"dross," which he sees to have collected in their secret
parts, and may thus transmit them like pure gold, to the judgment to
come, as He allows nothing to remain in them for the fire of judgment
to discover when hereafter it searches them with penal torments
according to this saying: "Many are the tribulations of the
righteous."[319] And: "My
son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord, neither be thou wearied
whilst thou art rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loveth He
chastiseth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. For what son
is there whom the father doth not correct? But if ye are without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not
sons."[320] And in the
Apocalypse: "Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten."[321] To whom under the figure of
Jerusalem the following words are spoken by Jeremiah, in the person of
God: "For I will utterly consume all the nations among which I
scattered thee: but I will not utterly consume thee: but I will
chastise thee in judgment, that thou mayest not seem to thyself
innocent."[322] And for this
life-giving cleansing David prays when he says: "Prove me, O
Lord, and try me; turn my reins and my heart."[323] Isaiah also, well knowing the value
of this trial, says "O Lord, correct us but with judgment: not in
Thine anger."[324] And again:
"I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for thou wast angry with me:
Thy wrath is turned away, and Thou hast comforted me."[325] But as a punishment for sins, the
blows of trial are inflicted, as where the Lord threatens that He will
send plagues upon the people of Israel: "I will send the teeth of
beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the
ground:"[326] and "In vain
have I struck your children: they have not received
correction."[327] In the Psalms
also: "Many are the scourges of the sinners:"[328] and in the gospel: "Behold thou
art made whole: now sin no more, lest a worse thing happen unto
thee."[329] We find, it is true,
a fourth way also in which we know on the authority of Scripture that
some sufferings are brought upon us simply for the manifestation of
the glory of God and His works, according to these words of the
gospel: "Neither did this man sin nor his parents, but that the
works of God might be manifested in him:"[330] and again: "This sickness is
not unto death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be
glorified by it."[331] There are
also other sorts of vengeance, with which some who have overpassed the
bounds of wickedness are smitten in this life, as we read that Dathan
and Abiram or Korah were punished, or above all, those of whom the
Apostle speaks: "Wherefore God gave them up to vile passions and
a reprobate mind:"[332] and this
must be counted worse than all other punishments. For of these the
Psalmist says: "They are not in the labours of men; neither shall
they be scourged like other men."[333] For they are not worthy of being
healed by the visitation of the Lord which gives life, and by plagues
in this world, as "in despair they have given themselves over to
lasciviousness, unto the working of all error unto
uncleanness,"[334] and as by
hardening their hearts, and by growing accustomed and used to sin they
have got beyond cleansing in this brief life and punishment in the
present world: men, who are thus reproved by the holy word of the
prophet: "I destroyed some of you, as God destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet
you returned not to Me, saith the Lord,"[335] and Jeremiah: "I have killed
and destroyed thy people, and yet they are not returned from their
ways."[336] And again:
"Thou hast smitten them and they have not grieved: Thou hast
bruised them and they refused to receive correction: they have made
their faces harder than the rock, they have refused to
return."[337] And the prophet
seeing that all the remedies of this life will have been applied in
vain for their healing, and already as it were despairing of their
life, declares: "The bellows have failed in the fire, the founder
hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed. Call
them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them."[338] And the Lord thus laments that to
no purpose has He applied this salutary cleansing by fire to those who
are hardened in their sins, in the person of Jerusalem crusted all
over with the rust of her sins, when He says: "set it empty upon
burning coals, that it may be hot, and the brass thereof may be
melted; and let the filth of it be melted in the midst thereof. Great
pains have been taken, and the great rust thereof is not gone out, no
not even by fire. Thy uncleanness is execrable: because I desired to
cleanse thee, and thou art not cleansed from thy filthiness."[339] Wherefore like a skilful physician,
who has tried all saving cures, and sees there is no remedy left which
can be applied to their disease, the Lord is in a manner overcome by
their iniquities and is obliged to desist from that kindly
chastisement of His, and so denounces them saying: "I will no
longer be angry with thee, and thy jealousy has departed from
thee."[340] But of others, whose
heart has not grown hard by continuance in sin, and who do not stand
in need of that most severe and (if I may so call it) caustic remedy,
but for whose salvation the instruction of the life-giving word is
sufficient--of them it is said: "I will improve them by hearing
of their suffering."[341] We are
well aware that there are other reasons also of the punishment and
vengeance which is inflicted on those who have sinned grievously--not
to expiate their crimes, nor wipe out the deserts of their sins, but
that the living may be put in fear and amend their lives. And these
we plainly see were inflicted on Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and Baasha
the son of Ahiah, and Ahab and Jezebel, when the Divine reproof thus
declares: "Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will cut down
thy posterity, and will kill of Ahab every male, and him that is shut
up and the last in Israel. And I will make thy house like the house of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of
Ahiah: for that which thou hast done to provoke Me to anger, and for
making Israel to sin. The dogs also shall eat Jezebel in the field of
Jezreel. If Ahab die in the city, the dogs shall eat him: but if he
die in the field the birds of the air shall eat him,"[342] and this which is threatened as the
greatest threat of all: "Thy dead body shall not be brought to
the sepulchre of thy fathers."[343] It was not that this short and
momentary punishment would suffice to purge away the blasphemous
inventions of him who first made the golden calves and led to the
lasting sin of the people, and their wicked separation from the
Lord,--or the countless and disgraceful profanities of those others,
but it was that by their example the fear of those punishments which
they dreaded might fall on others also, who, as they thought little of
the future or even disbelieved in it altogether, would only be moved
by consideration of things present; and that owing to this proof of
His severity they might acknowledge that there is no lack of care for
the affairs of men, and for their daily doings, in the majesty of God
on high, and so through that which they greatly feared might the more
clearly see in God the rewarder of all their deeds. We find, it is
true, that even for lighter faults some men have received the same
sentence of death in this world, as that with which those men were
punished who, as we said before, were the authors of a blasphemous
falling away: as happened in the case of the man who gathered sticks
on the Sabbath,[344] and in that of
Ananias and Sapphira, who through the sin of unbelief kept back some
portion of their goods: not that the guilt of their sins was equal,
but because they were the first found out in a new kind of
transgression, and so it was right that as they had given to others an
example of sin, so also they should give them an example of punishment
and of fear, that anyone, who should attempt to copy them, might know
that (even if his punishment were postponed in this life) he would be
punished in the same way that they were at the trial of the judgment
hereafter. And, since in our desire to run through the different
kinds of trials and punishments we seem to have wandered somewhat from
our subject, on which we were saying that the perfect man will always
remain steadfast in either kind of trial, now let us return to it once
more.
How the upright man ought to be like a stamp not of
wax but of hard steel.
AND so the mind of the upright man ought not to be like wax or any
other soft material which always yields to the shape of what presses
on it, and is stamped with its form and impress and keeps it until it
takes another shape by having another seal stamped upon it; and so it
results that it never retains its own form but is turned and twisted
about to correspond to whatever is pressed upon it. But he should
rather be like some stamp of hard steel, that the mind may always keep
its proper form and shape inviolate, and may stamp and imprint on
everything which occurs to it the marks of its own condition, while
upon it itself nothing that happens can leave any mark.
A question whether the mind can constantly continue
in one and the same condition.
GERMANUS: But can our mind constantly preserve its condition
unaltered, and always continue in the same state?
The answer to the point raised by the
questioner.
THEODORE: It is needful that one must either, as the Apostle says,
"be renewed in the spirit of the mind,"[345] and daily advance by "pressing
forward to those things which are before,"[346] or, if one neglects to do this, the
sure result will be to go back, and become worse and worse. And
therefore the mind cannot possibly remain in one and the same state.
Just as when a man, by pulling hard, is trying to force a boat against
the stream of a strong current he must either stem the rush of the
torrent by the force of his arms, and so mount to what is higher up,
or letting his hands slacken be whirled headlong down stream.
Wherefore it will be a clear proof of our failure if we find that we
have gained nothing more, nor should we doubt but that we have
altogether gone back, whenever we find that we have not advanced
upwards, because, as I said, the mind of man cannot possibly continue
in the same condition, nor so long as he is in the flesh will any of
the saints ever reach the height of all virtues, so that they continue
unalterable. For something must either be added to them or taken away
from them, and in no creature can there be such perfection, as not to
be subject to the feeling of change; as we read in the book of Job:
"What is man that he should be without spot, and he that is born
of a woman that he should appear just? Behold among His saints none
is unchangeable, and the heavens are not pure in His sight."[347] For we confess that God only is
unchangeable, who alone is thus addressed by the prayer of the holy
prophet "But Thou art the same,"[348] and who says of Himself "I am
God, and I change not,"[349]
because He alone is by nature always good, always full and perfect,
and one to whom nothing can ever be added, or from whom nothing can be
taken away. And so we ought always with incessant care and anxiety to
give ourselves up to the acquirement of virtue, and constantly to
occupy ourselves with the practice of it, lest, if we cease to go
forward, the result should immediately be a going back. For, as we
said, the mind cannot continue in one and the same condition, I mean
without receiving addition to or diminution of its good qualities.
For to fail to gain new ones, is to lose them, because when the desire
of making progress ceases, there the danger of going back is
present.
How one loses by going away from one's cell.
AND so we ought always to remain shut up in our cell. For whenever a
man has strayed from it and returns fresh to it and begins again to
live there he will be upset and disturbed. For if he has let it go he
cannot without difficulty and pains recover that fixed purpose of
mind, which he had gained when he remained in his cell; and as through
this he has gone back, he will not think anything of the advance which
he has missed, and which he would have secured if he had not allowed
himself to leave his cell, but he will rather congratulate himself if
he finds that he has regained that condition from which he fell away.
For just as time once lost and gone cannot any more be recovered, so
neither can those advantages which have been missed be restored: for
whatever earnest purpose of the mind there may be afterwards, it will
be the profit of the day then present, and the gain that belongs to
the time that then is, and will not make up for the gain that has been
once for all lost.
How even celestial powers above are capable of
change.
BUT that even the powers above are, as we said, subject to change is
shown by those who fell from their ranks through the fault of a
corrupt will. Wherefore we ought not to think that the nature of those
is unchangeable, who remain in the blessed condition in which they
were created, simply because they were not in like manner led astray
to choose the worse part. For it is one thing to have a nature
incapable of change, and another thing for a man through the efforts
of his virtue, and by guarding what is good through the grace of the
unchangeable God, to be kept from change. For everything that is
secured or preserved by care, can also be lost by carelessness. And
so we read: "Call no man blessed before his death,"[350] because so long as a man is still
engaged in the struggle, and if I may use the expression, still
wrestling--even though he generally conquers and carries off many
prizes of victory,--yet he can never be free from fear, and from the
suspicion of an uncertain issue. And therefore God alone is called
unchangeable and good, as His goodness is not the result of effort,
but a natural possession, and so He cannot be anything but good. No
virtue then can be acquired by man without the possibility of change,
but in order that when it once exists it may be continually preserved,
it must be watched over with the same care and diligence with which it
was acquired.
That no one is dashed to the ground by a sudden
fall.
BUT we must not imagine that anyone slips and comes to grief by a
sudden fall, but that he falls by a hopeless collapse either from
being deceived by beginning his training badly, or from the good
qualities of his soul failing through a long course of carelessness of
mind, and so his faults gaining ground upon him little by little. For
"loss goeth before destruction, and an evil thought before a
fall,"[351] just as no house ever
fails to the ground by a sudden collapse, but only when there is some
flaw of long standing in the foundation, or when by long continued
neglect of its inmates, what was at first only a little drip finds its
way through, and so the protecting walls are by degrees ruined, and in
consequence of long standing neglect the gap becomes larger, and break
away, and in time the drenching storm and rain pours in like a river:
for "by slothfulness a building is cast down, and through the
weakness of hands the house shall drop through."[352] And that the same thing happens
spiritually to the soul the same Solomon thus tells us in other words,
when he says: "water dripping drives a man out of the house on a
stormy day."[353] Elegantly then
does he compare carelessness of mind to a roof, and to tiles that have
not been looked after, through which in the first instance only very
slight drippings (so to speak) of the passions make their way to the
soul: but if these are not heeded, as being but small and trifling,
then the beams of virtues will decay and be carried away by a great
tempest of sins, through which "on a stormy day," i.e., in
the time of temptation, the devil's attack will assail us, and the
soul will be driven forth from the abode of virtue, in which, as long
as it preserved all watchful diligence, it had remained as in a house
that belonged to it.
And so when we had heard this, we were so immensely delighted with our
spiritual repast, that the mental pleasure with which we were filled
by this conference outweighed the sorrow which we had experienced
before from the death of the saints. For not only were we instructed
in things about which we had been puzzled, but we also learnt from the
raising of that question some things, which our understanding had been
too small for us to ask about.
Next
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