THE SECOND CONFERENCE OF ABBOT JOSEPH.
ON MAKING PROMISES.
Complete Contents.
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Of the vigils which we endured.
WHEN then the previous Conference was ended, and the intervening
silence of night as well, as we had been conducted by the holy Abbot
Joseph to a separate cell for the sake of quiet, but had passed the
whole night without sleep (since owing to his words a fire was raging
in our hearts), we came forth from the cell and retired about a
hundred yards from it and sat down in a secluded spot. And so as an
opportunity was given by the shades of night for secret and familiar
converse together, as we sat there Abbot Germanus groaned heavily.
Of the anxiety of Abbot Germanus at the
recollection of our promise.
WHAT are we doing? said he. For we see that we are involved in a
great difficulty and are in an evil plight, as reason itself and the
life of the saints is effectually teaching us what is the best thing
for our progress in the spiritual life, and yet our promise given to
the Elders does not allow us to choose what is helpful. For we might,
by the examples of such great men, be formed for a more perfect life
and aim, were it not that the terms of our promise compelled us to
return at once to the monastery. But if we return thither, we shall
never get another chance of coming here again. But if we stay here
and choose to carry out our wishes, what becomes of the faith of the
oath which we are aware that we gave to our Elders promising a speedy
return; that we might be allowed to make a hasty round of the
monasteries and saints of this province? And when in this state of
tumult we could not make up our minds what we ought to decide on the
state of our salvation we simply testified by our groans the hard fate
of our condition, upbraiding the audacity of our impudence, and yet
hating the shame which was natural to us, weighed down by which we
could not in any other way resist the prayers of those who kept us
back against our profit and purpose, except by the promise of a speedy
return, as we wept indeed that we laboured under the fault of that
shame, of which it is said "There is a shame that bringeth
sin."[333]
My ideas on this subject.
THEN I replied: The counsel or rather the authority of the Elder to
whom we ought to refer our anxieties would make a short way out of our
difficulties, and whatever is decided by his verdict, may, like a
divine and heavenly reply, put an end to all our troubles. And we
need not have any doubt of what is given to us by the Lord through the
lips of this Elder, both for the sake of his merits and for our own
faith. For by His gift believers have often obtained saving counsel
from unworthy people, and unbelievers from saints, as the Lord grants
this either on account of the merit of those who answer, or on account
of the faith of those who ask advice. And so the holy Abbot Germanus
caught eagerly at these words as if I had uttered them not of myself
but at the prompting of the Lord, and when we had waited a little for
the coming of the Elder and the approaching hour of the nocturnal
service, after we had welcomed him with the usual greeting and
finished reciting the right number of Psalms and prayers, we sat down
again as usual on the same mats on which we had settled ourselves to
sleep.
Abbot Joseph's question and our answer on the
origin of our anxiety.
THEN the venerable Joseph saw that we were in rather low spirits, and,
guessing that this was not the case without reason, addressed us in
these words of the patriarch Joseph: "Why are your faces sad
today?"[334] to whom we answered:
We are not like those bond slaves of Pharaoh who have seen a dream and
there is none to interpret it, but I admit that we have passed a
sleepless night and there is no one to lighten the weight of our
troubles unless the Lord may remove them by your wisdom. Then he, who
recalled the excellence of the patriarch both by his merits and name,
said: Does not the cure of man's perplexities come from the Lord? Let
them be brought forward: for the Divine Compassion is able to give a
remedy for them by means of our advice according to your faith.
The explanation of Abbot Germanus why we wanted to
stay in Egypt, and were drawn back to Syria.
TO THIS GERMANUS: We used to think, said he, that we should go back to
our monastery abundantly filled not only with spiritual joy but also
with what is profitable by the sight of your holiness, and that after
our return we should follow, though with but a feeble rivalry, what we
had learnt from your teaching. For this our love for our Elders led
us to promise them, while we fancied that we could in some degree
follow in that monastery your sublime life and doctrine. Wherefore as
we thought that by this means all joy would be bestowed upon us, so on
the other hand we are overwhelmed with intolerable grief, as we find
that we cannot possibly obtain in this way what we know to be good for
us. On both sides then we are now hemmed in. For if we want to keep
our promise which we made in the presence of all the brethren in the
cave where our Lord Himself shone forth from His chamber in the
Virgin's womb,[335] and which He
Himself witnessed, we shall incur the greatest loss in our spiritual
life. But if we ignore our promise and stay in this district, and
choose to consider that oath of ours as of less importance than our
perfection, we are afraid of the awful dangers of falsehood and
perjury. But not even by this plan can we lighten our burdens; viz.,
by fulfilling the terms of our oath by a very hasty return, and then
coming back again as quickly as possible to these parts. For although
even a small delay is dangerous and hurtful for those who are aiming
at goodness and advance in spiritual things, yet still we would keep
our faith and promise, though by an unwilling return, were it not that
we felt sure that we should be so tightly bound down both by the
authority and also by the love of the Elders, that we should
henceforth have no opportunity at all to come back again to this
place.
Abbot Joseph's question whether we got more good in
Egypt than in Syria.
TO this the blessed Joseph, after a short silence: Are you sure, said
he, that you can get more profit in spiritual matters in this
country?
The answer on the difference of customs in the two
countries.
GERMANUS: Although we ought to be most grateful for the
teaching of those men who taught us from our youth up to attempt great
things, and, by giving us a taste of their excellence, implanted in
our hearts a splendid thirst for perfection, yet if any reliance is to
be placed on our judgment, we cannot draw any comparison between these
customs and those which we learnt there, so as to hold our tongues
about the inimitable purity of your life, which we believe is granted
to you not only owing to the concentration of your mind and aim, but
also owing to the aid and assistance of the place itself. Wherefore
we do not doubt that for the following of your grand perfection this
instruction which is given to us is not enough by itself, unless we
have also the help of the life, and a long course of instruction
somewhat dissolves the coldness of our heart by daily training.
How those who are perfect ought not to make any
promises absolutely, and whether decisions can be reversed without
sin.
JOSEPH: It is good indeed and right and altogether in accordance with
our profession, for us effectually to perform what we decided to do in
the case of any promise. Wherefore a monk ought not to make any
promise hastily, lest he may be forced to do what he incautiously
promised, or if he is kept back by consideration of a sounder view,
appear as a breaker of his promise. But because at the present moment
our purpose is to treat not so much of a state of health as of the
cure of sickness we must with salutary counsel consider not what you
ought to have done in the first instance, but how you can escape from
the rocks of this perilous shipwreck. When then no chains impede us
and no conditions restrict us, in the case of a comparison of good
things, if a choice is proposed, that which is most advantageous
should be preferred: but when some detriment and loss stands in the
way, in a comparison of things to our hurt, that should be sought
which exposes us to the smallest loss. Further, as your assertion
shows, when your heedless promise has brought you to this state that
in either case some serious loss and inconvenience must result to you,
the will in choosing should incline to that side which involves a loss
that is more tolerable, or can be more easily made up for by the
remedy of making amends. If then you think that you will get more
good for your spirit by staying here than what accrued to you from
your life in that monastery, and that the terms of your promise cannot
be fulfilled without the loss of great good, it is better for you to
undergo the loss from a falsehood and an unfulfilled promise (as it is
done once for all, and need not any longer be repeated or be the cause
of other sins) than for you to incur that loss, through which you say
that your state of life would become colder, and which would affect
you with a daily and unceasing injury. For a careless promise is
changed in such a way that it may be pardoned or indeed praised, if it
is turned into a better path, nor need we take it as a failure in
consistency, but as a correction of rashness, whenever a promise that
was faulty is corrected. And all this may be proved by most certain
witness from Scripture, that for many the fulfilment of their promise
has led to death, and on the other hand that for many it has been good
and profitable to have refused it.
How it is often better to break one's engagements
than to fulfil them.
AND both these points are very clearly shown by the cases of S. Peter
the Apostle and Herod. For the former, because he departed from his
expressed determination which he had as it were confirmed with an oath
saying "Thou shalt never wash my feet,"[336] gained an immortal partnership with
Christ, whereas he would certainly have been cut off from the grace of
this blessedness, if he had clung obstinately to his word. But the
latter, by clinging to the pledge of his ill-considered oath, became
the bloody murderer of the Lord's forerunner, and through the vain
fear of perjury plunged himself into condemnation and the punishment
of everlasting death. In everything then we must consider the end,
and must according to it direct our course and aim, and if when some
wiser counsel supervenes, we see it diverging to the worse part, it is
better to discard the unsuitable arrangement, and to come to a better
mind rather than to cling obstinately to our engagements and so become
involved in worse sins.
Our question about our fear of the oath which we
gave in the monastery in Syria.
GERMANUS: In so far as it concerns our desire, which we undertook to
carry out for the sake of spiritual profit, we were hoping to be
edified by continual intercourse with you. For if we were to return
to our monastery it is certain that we should not only fail of so
sublime a purpose, but that we should also suffer grievous loss from
the mediocrity of the manner of life there. But that command of the
gospel frightens us terribly: "Let your speech be yea, yea, nay,
nay: but whatsoever is more than these, is from the evil one."[337] For we hold that we cannot
compensate for transgressing so important a command by any
righteousness, nor can that finally turn out well which has once been
started with a bad beginning.
The answer that we must take into account the
purpose of the doer rather than the execution of the business.
JOSEPH: In every case, as we said, we must look not at the progress of
the work but at the intention of the worker, nor must we inquire to
begin with what a man has done, but with what purpose, so that we may
find that some have been condemned for those deeds from which good has
afterwards arisen, and on the other hand that some have arrived by
means of acts in themselves reprehensible at the height of
righteousness. And in the case of the former the good result of their
actions was of no avail to them as they took the matter in and with an
evil purpose, and wanted to bring about--not the good which actually
resulted, but something of the opposite character; nor was the bad
beginning injurious to the latter, as he put up with the necessity of
a blameworthy start; not out of disregard for God, or with the purpose
of doing wrong, but with an eye to a needful and holy end.
How a fortunate issue will be of no avail to evil
doers, while bad deeds will not injure good men.
AND that we may make these statements clear by instances from Holy
Scripture, what could be brought about that was more salutary and more
to the good of the whole world, than the saving remedy of the Lord's
Passion? And yet it was not only of no advantage, but was actually to
the disadvantage of the traitor by whose means it is shown to have
been brought about, so that it is absolutely said of him: "It
were good for that man if he had never been born."[338] For the fruits of his labour will
not be repaid to him according to the actual result, but according to
what he wanted to do, and believed that he would accomplish. And
again, what could there be more culpable than craft and deceit shown
even to a stranger, not to mention one's brother and father? And yet
the patriarch Jacob not only met with no condemnation or blame for
such things but was actually dowered with the everlasting heritage of
the blessing. And not without reason, for the last mentioned desired
the blessing destined for the first-born not out of a greedy desire
for present gain but because of his faith in everlasting
sanctification; while the former (Judas) delivered the Redeemer of all
to death, not for the sake of man's salvation, but from the sin of
covetousness. And therefore in each case the fruits of their action
are reckoned according to the intention of the mind and purpose of the
will, according to which the object of the one was not to work fraud,
nor was that of the other to work salvation. For justly is there
repayment to each man as the recompense of reward, for what he
conceived in the first instance in his mind, and not for what resulted
from it either well or badly, against the wish of the worker. And so
the most just Judge regarded him who ventured on such a falsehood as
excusable and indeed worthy of praise, because without it he could not
secure the blessing of the first-born; and that should not be reckoned
as a sin, which arose from desire of the blessing. Otherwise the
aforesaid patriarch would have been not only unfair to his brother,
but also a cheat of his father and a blasphemer, if there had been any
other way by which he could secure the gift of that blessing, and he
had preferred to follow this which would damage and injure his
brother. You see then that with God the inquiry is not into the
carrying out of the act, but into the purpose of the mind. With this
preparation then for a return to the question proposed (for which all
this has been premised) I want you first to tell me for what reason
you bound yourselves in the fetters of that promise.
Our answer as to the reason which demanded an oath
from us.
GERMANUS: The first reason, as we said, was that we were afraid of
vexing our Elders and resisting their orders; the second was that we
very foolishly believed that, if we had learnt from you anything
perfect or splendid to hear or look at, when we returned to the
monastery, we should be able to perform it.
The discourse of the Elder showing how the plan of
action may be changed without fault provided that one keeps to the
carrying out of a good intention.
JOSEPH: As we premised, the intent of the mind brings a man either
reward or condemnation, according to this passage: "Their
thoughts between themselves accusing or also defending one another, in
the day when God shall judge the secrets of men;" and this too:
"But I am coming to gather together their works and thoughts
together with all nations and tongues."[339] Wherefore it was, as I see, from a
desire for perfection that you bound yourselves with the chain of
these oaths, as you then thought that by this plan it could be gained,
while now that a riper judgment has supervened, you see that you
cannot by this means scale its heights. And so any departure from
that arrangement, which may seem to have happened, will be no
hindrance, if only no change in that first purpose follows. For a
change of instrument does not imply a desertion of the work, nor does
the choice of a shorter and more direct road argue laziness on the
path of the traveller. And so in this matter an improvement in a
short-sighted arrangement is not to be reckoned a breach of a
spiritual promise. For whatever is done out of the love of God and
desire for goodness, which has "promise of the life that now is
and of that which is to come,"[340] even though it may appear to
commence with a hard and adverse beginning, is most worthy, not only
of no blame, but actually of praise. And therefore the breaking of a
careless promise will be no hindrance, if in every case the end, i.e.,
the proposed aim at goodness, be maintained. For we do all for this
reason, that we may be able to show to God a clean heart, and if the
attainment of this is considered to be easier in this country the
alteration of the agreement extracted from you will be no hindrance to
you, if only the perfection of that purity for the sake of which your
promise was originally made, be the sooner secured according to the
Lord's will.
A question whether it can be without sin that our
knowledge affords to weak brethren an opportunity for lying.
GERMANUS: As far as the force of the words which have been reasonably
and carefully considered, is concerned, our scruple about our promise
would have easily been removed from us were it not that we were
terribly alarmed lest by this example an opportunity for lying might
be offered to certain weaker brethren, if they knew that the faith of
an agreement could be in any way lawfully broken, whereas this very
thing is forbidden in such vigorous and threatening terms by the
prophet when he says: "Thou shall destroy all those who utter a
lie;" and: "the mouth that speaketh a lie, shall slay the
soul."[341]
The answer that Scripture truth is not to be
altered on account of an offence given to the weak.
JOSEPH: Occasions and opportunities for destroying themselves cannot
possibly be wanting to those who are on the road to ruin, or rather
who are anxious to destroy themselves; nor are those passages of
Scripture to be rejected and altogether torn out of the volume, by
which the perversity of heretics is encouraged, or the unbelief of the
Jews increased, or the pride of heathen wisdom offended; but surely
they are to be piously believed, and firmly held, and preached
according to the rule of truth. And therefore we should not, because
of another's unbelief, reject the oikonomias, i.e., the
"economy" of the prophets and saints which Scripture
relates, lest while we are thinking that we ought to condescend to
their infirmities, we stain ourselves with the sin not only of lying
but of sacrilege. But, as we said, we ought to admit these according
to the letter, and explain how they were rightly done. But for those
who are wrongly disposed, the opening for lies will not be blocked up
by this means, if we are trying either altogether to deny or to
explain away by allegorical interpretations the truth of those things
which we are going to bring forward or have already brought forward.
For how will the authority of these passages injure them if their
corrupt will is alone sufficient to lead them to sin?
How the saints have profitably employed a lie like
hellebore.
AND so we ought to regard a lie and to employ it as if its nature were
that of hellebore; which is useful if taken when some deadly disease
is threatening, but if taken without being required by some great
danger is the cause of immediate death. For so also we read that holy
men and those most approved by God employed lying, so as not only to
incur no guilt of sin from it, but even to attain the greatest
goodness; and if deceit could confer glory on them, what on the other
hand would the truth have brought them but condemnation? Just as
Rahab, of whom Scripture gives a record not only of no good deed but
actually of unchastity, yet simply for the lie, by means of which she
preferred to hide the spies instead of betraying them, had it
vouchsafed to her to be joined with the people of God in everlasting
blessing. But if she had preferred to speak the truth and to regard
the safety of the citizens, there is no doubt that she and all her
house would not have escaped the coming destruction, nor would it have
been vouchsafed to her to be inserted in the progenitors of our Lord's
nativity,[342] and reckoned in the
list of the patriarchs, and through her descendants that followed, to
become the mother of the Saviour of all. Again Dalila, who to provide
for the safety of her fellow citizens betrayed the truth she had
discovered, obtained in exchange eternal destruction, and has left to
all men nothing but the memory of her sin. When then any grave danger
hangs on confession of the truth, then we must take to lying as a
refuge, yet in such a way as to be for our salvation troubled by the
guilt of a humbled conscience. But where there is no call of the
utmost necessity present, there a lie should be most carefully avoided
as if it were something deadly: just as we said of a cup of hellebore
which is indeed useful if it is only taken in the last resort when a
deadly and inevitable disease is threatening, while if it is taken
when the body is in a state of sound and rude health, its deadly
properties at once go to find out the vital parts. And this was
clearly shown of Rahab of Jericho, and the patriarch Jacob; the former
of whom could only escape death by means of this remedy, while the
latter could not secure the blessing of the first-born without it.
For God is not only the Judge and inspector of our words and actions,
but He also looks into their purpose and aim. And if He sees that
anything has been done or promised by some one for the sake of eternal
salvation and shows insight into Divine contemplation, even though it
may appear to men to be hard and unfair, yet He looks at the inner
goodness of the heart and regards the desire of the will rather than
the actual words spoken, because He must take into account the aim of
the work and the disposition of the doer, whereby, as was said above,
one man may be justified by means of a lie, while another may be
guilty of a sin of everlasting death by telling the truth. To which
end the patriarch Jacob also had regard when he was not afraid to
imitate the hairy appearance of his brother's body by wrapping himself
up in skins, and to his credit acquiesced in his mother's instigation
of a lie for this object. For he saw that in this way there would be
bestowed on him greater gains of blessing and righteousness than by
keeping to the path of simplicity: for he did not doubt that the stain
of this lie would at once be washed away by the flood of the paternal
blessing, and would speedily be dissolved like a little cloud by the
breath of the Holy Spirit; and that richer rewards of merit would be
bestowed on him by means of this dissimulation which he put on than by
means of the truth, which was natural to him.
An objection that only those men employed lies with
impunity, who lived under the law.
GERMANUS: It is no wonder that these schemes were properly employed in
the Old Testament, and that some holy men laudably or at any rate
venially told lies, as we see that many worse things were permitted to
them owing to the rude character of the times. For why should we
wonder that when the blessed David was fleeing from Saul, in answer to
the inquiry of Abimelech the priest who said: "Why art thou
alone, and is no man with thee?" he replied as follows: "The
king hath commanded me a business, and said, Let no man know the thing
for which thou art sent by me, for I have appointed my servants to
such and such a place;" and again: "Hast thou here at hand a
spear or a sword, for I brought not my own sword nor my own weapon
with me, for the king's business required haste;" or this, when
he was brought to Achish king of Gath, and feigned himself mad and
frantic, "and changed his countenance before them, and slipped
down between their hands; and stumbled against the doors of the gate
and his spittle ran down on his beard;"[343] when they were even allowed to enjoy
crowds of wives and concubines, and no sin was on this account imputed
to them, and when moreover they often shed the blood of their enemies
with their own hand, and this was thought not only worthy of no blame,
but actually praiseworthy? And all these things we see by the light
of the gospel are utterly forbidden, so that not one of them can be
done without great sin and guilt. And in the same way we hold that no
lie can be employed by any one, I will not say rightly, but not even
venially, however it may be covered with the colour of piety, as the
Lord says: "Let your speech be yea, yea, nay, nay: but whatsoever
is more than these is of the evil one;" and the Apostle also
agrees with this: "And lie not one to another."[344]
The answer, that leave to lie, which was not even
granted under the old Covenant, has rightly been taken by many.
JOSEPH: All liberty in the matter of wives and many concubines, as the
end of time is approaching and the multiplying of the human race
completed, ought rightly to be cut off by evangelical perfection, as
being no longer necessary. For up to the coming of Christ it was well
that the blessing of the original sentence should be in full vigour,
whereby it was said: "Increase and multiply, and fill the
earth."[345] And therefore it
was quite right that from the root of human fecundity which happily
flourished in the synagogue, in accordance with that dispensation of
the times, the buds of angelical virginity should spring, and the
fragrant flowers of continence be produced in the Church. But that
lying was even then condemned the text of the whole Old Testament
clearly shows, as it says: "Thou shall destroy all them that
speak lies;" and again: "The bread of lying is sweet to a
man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel;" and the
Giver of the law himself says: "Thou shalt avoid a lie."[346] But we said that it was then
properly employed as a last resort when some need or plan of salvation
was linked on to it, on account of which it ought not to be condemned.
As is the case, which you mentioned, of king David when in his flight
from the unjust persecution of Saul, to Abimelech the priest he used
lying words, not with the object of getting any gain nor with the
desire to injure anybody, but simply to save himself from that most
iniquitous persecution; inasmuch as he would not stain his hands with
the blood of the hostile king, so often delivered up to him by God; as
he said: "The Lord be merciful to me that I may do no such thing
to my master the Lord's anointed, as to lay my hand upon him, because
he is the Lord's anointed."[347]
And therefore these plans which we hear that holy men under the old
covenant adopted either from the will of God, or for the prefiguring
of spiritual mysteries or for the salvation of some people, we too
cannot refuse altogether, when necessity constrains us, as we see that
even apostles did not avoid them, where the consideration of something
profitable required them: which in the meanwhile we will for a time
postpone, while we first discuss those instances which we propose
still to bring forward from the Old Testament, and afterwards we shall
more suitably introduce them so as more readily to prove that good and
holy men, both in the Old and in the New Testament, were entirely at
one with each other in these contrivances. For what shall we say of
that pious fraud of Hushai to Absalom for the salvation of king David,
which though uttered with all appearance of good-will by the deceiver
and cheat, and opposed to the good of him who asked advice, is yet
commended by the authority of Holy Scripture, which says: "But by
the will of the Lord the profitable counsel of Ahithophel was defeated
that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom"?[348] Nor could that be blamed which was
done for the right side with a right purpose and pious intent, and was
planned for the salvation and victory of one whose piety was pleasing
to God, by a holy dissimulation. What too shall we say of the deed of
that woman, who received the men who had been sent to king David by
the aforesaid Hushai, and hid them in a well, and spread a cloth over
its mouth, and pretended that she was drying pearl-barley, and said
"They passed on after tasting a little water";[349] and by this invention saved them
from the hands of their pursuers? Wherefore answer me, I pray you, and
say what you would have done, if any similar situation had arisen for
you, living now under the gospel; would you prefer to hide them with a
similar falsehood, saying in the same way: "They passed on after
tasting a little water," and thus fulfil the command:
"Deliver those who are being led to death, and spare not to
redeem those who are being killed;"[350] or by speaking the truth, would you
have given up those in hiding to the men who would kill them? And
what then becomes of the Apostle's words: "Let no man seek his
own but the things of another:" and: "Love seeketh not her
own, but the things of others;" and of himself he says: "I
seek not mine own good but the good of many that they may be
saved"?[351] For if we seek our
own, and want obstinately to keep what is good for ourselves, we must
even in urgent cases of this sort speak the truth, and so become
guilty of the death of another: but if we prefer what is for another's
advantage to our own good, and satisfy the demands of the Apostle, we
shall certainly have to put up with the necessity of lying. And
therefore we shall not be able to keep a perfect heart of love, or to
seek, as Apostolic perfection requires, the things of others, unless
we relax a little in those things which concern the strictness and
perfection of our own lives, and choose to condescend with ready
affection to what is useful to others, and so with the Apostle become
weak to the weak, that we may be able to gain the weak.
How even Apostles thought that a lie was often
useful and the truth injurious.
INSTRUCTED by which examples, the blessed Apostle James also, and all
the chief princes of the primitive Church urged the Apostle Paul in
consequence of the weakness of feeble persons to condescend to a
fictitious arrangement and insisted on his purifying himself according
to the requirements of the law, and shaving his head and paying his
vows, as they thought that the present harm which would come from this
hypocrisy was of no account, but had regard rather to the gain which
would result from his still continued preaching. For the gain to the
Apostle Paul from his strictness would not have counterbalanced the
loss to all nations from his speedy death. And this would certainly
have been then incurred by the whole Church unless this good and
salutary hypocrisy had preserved him for the preaching of the Gospel.
For then we may rightly and pardonably acquiesce in the wrong of a
lie, when, as we said, a greater harm depends on telling the truth,
and when the good which results to us from speaking the truth cannot
counterbalance the harm which will be caused by it. And elsewhere the
blessed Apostle testifies in other words that he himself always
observed this disposition; for when he says: "To the Jews I
became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews; to those who were under
the law as being under the law, though not myself under the law, that
I might gain those who were under the law; to those who were without
law, I became as without law, though I was not without the law of God
but under the law of Christ, that I might gain those who were without
law; to the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I became
all things to all men, that I might save all;"[352] what does he show but that according
to the weakness and the capacity of those who were being instructed he
always lowered himself and relaxed something of the vigour of
perfection, and did not cling to what his own strict life might seem
to demand, but rather preferred that which the good of the weak might
require? And that we may trace these matters out more carefully and
recount one by one the glories of the good deeds of the Apostles, some
one may ask how the blessed Apostle can be proved to have suited
himself to all men in all things. When did he to the Jews become as a
Jew? Certainly in the case where, while he still kept in his inmost
heart the opinion which he had maintained to the Galatians saying:
"Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ
shall profit you nothing,"[353]
yet by circumcising Timothy he adopted a shadow as it were of Jewish
superstition. And again, where did he become to those under the law,
as under the law? There certainly where James and all the Elders of
the Church, fearing lest he might be attacked by the multitude of
Jewish believers, or rather of Judaizing Christians, who had received
the faith of Christ in such a way as still to be bound by the rites of
legal ceremonies, came to his rescue in his difficulty with this
counsel and advice, and said: "Thou seest, brother, how many
thousands there are among the Jews, who have believed, and they are
all zealots for the law. But they have heard of thee that thou
teachest those Jews who are among the Gentiles to depart from Moses,
saying that they ought not to circumcise their children;" and
below: "Do therefore this that we say unto thee: we have four men
who have a vow on them. These take and sanctify thyself with them and
bestow on them, that they may shave their heads; and all will know
that the things which they have heard of thee are false, but that thou
thyself also walkest keeping the law."[354] And so for the good of those who
were under the law, he trode under foot for a while the strict view
which he had expressed: "For I through the law am dead unto the
law that I may live unto God;"[355] and was driven to shave his head,
and be purified according to the law and pay his vows after the Mosaic
rites in the Temple. Do you ask also where for the good of those who
were utterly ignorant of the law of God, he himself became as if
without law? Read the introduction to his sermon at Athens where
heathen wickedness was flourishing: "As I passed by," he
says, "I saw your idols and an altar on which was written: To the
unknown God;" and when he had thus started from their
superstition, as if he himself also had been without law, under the
cloke of that profane inscription he introduced the faith of Christ,
saying: "What therefore ye ignorantly worship, that declare I
unto you." And after a little, as if he had known nothing
whatever of the Divine law, he chose to bring forward a verse of a
heathen poet rather than a saying of Moses or Christ, saying: "As
some also of your own poets have said: for we are also His
offspring." And when he had thus approached them with their own
authorities, which they could not reject, thus confirming the truth by
things false, he added and said: "Since then we are the offspring
of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like to gold or
silver or stone sculptured by the art and device of man."[356] But to the weak he became weak,
when, by way of permission, not of command, he allowed those who could
not contain themselves to return together again,[357] or when he fed the Corinthians with
milk and not with meat, and says that he was with them in weakness and
fear and much trembling.[358] But he
became all things to all men that he might save all, when he says:
"He that eateth let him not despise him that eateth not, and let
not him that eateth not judge him that eateth:" and: "He
that giveth his virgin in marriage doeth well, and he that giveth her
not in marriage doeth better;" and elsewhere: "Who,"
says he, "is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I
burn not?" and in this way he fulfilled what he had commanded the
Corinthians to do when he said: "Be ye without offence to Jews
and Greeks and the Church of Christ, as I also please all men in all
things, not seeking mine own profit but that of the many, that they
may be saved."[359] For it had
certainly been profitable not to circumcise Timothy, not to shave his
head, not to undergo Jewish purification, not to practice going
barefoot,[360] not to pay legal vows;
but he did all these things because he did not seek his own profit but
that of the many. And although this was done with the full
consideration of God, yet it was not free from dissimulation. For one
who through the law of Christ was dead to the law that he might live
to God, and who had made and treated that righteousness of the law in
which he had lived blameless, as dung, that he might gain Christ,
could not with true fervour of heart offer what belonged to the law;
nor is it right to believe that he who had said: "For if I again
rebuild what I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor,"[361] would himself fall into what he had
condemned. And to such an extent is account taken, not so much of the
actual thing which is done as of the disposition of the doer, that on
the other hand truth is sometimes found to have injured some, and a
lie to have done them good. For when Saul was grumbling to his
servants about David's flight, and saying: "Will the son of Jesse
give you all fields and vineyards, and make you all tribunes and
centurions: that all of you have conspired against me, and there is no
one to inform me," did Doeg the Edomite say anything but the
truth, when he told him: "I saw the son of Jesse in Nob, with
Abimelech the son of Ahitub the priest, who consulted the Lord for
him, and gave him victuals, and gave him also the sword of Goliath the
Philistine"?[362] For which true
story he deserved to be rooted up out of the land of the living, and
it is said of him by the prophet: "Wherefore God shall destroy
thee forever, and pluck thee up and tear thee out of thy tabernacle,
and thy root from the land of the living:"[363] He then for showing the truth is
forever plucked and rooted up out of that land in which the harlot
Rahab with her family is planted for her lie: just as also we remember
that Samson most injuriously betrayed to his wicked wife the truth
which he had hidden for a long time by a lie, and therefore the truth
so inconsiderately disclosed was the cause of his own deception,
because he had neglected to keep the command of the prophet:
"Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that sleepeth in thy
bosom."[364]
Whether secret abstinence ought to be made known,
without telling a lie about it, to those who ask, and whether what has
once been declined may be taken in hand.
AND to bring forward some instances from our unavoidable and almost
daily wants which with all our care we can never so guard against as
not to be driven to incur them whether with or against our will: what,
I ask you, is to be done when, while we are proposing to put off our
supper, a brother comes and asks us if we have had it: is our fast to
be concealed, and the good act of abstinence hidden, or is it to be
proclaimed by telling the truth? If we conceal it, to satisfy the
Lord's command which says: "Thou shalt not appear unto men to
fast but unto thy Father Who is in secret;" and again: "Let
not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth,"[365] we must at once tell a lie. If we
make manifest the good act of abstinence, the word of the gospel
rightly discourages us: "Verily I say unto you, they have their
reward."[366] But what if any
one has refused with determination a cup offered to him by some
brother, denying altogether that he will take what the other,
rejoicing at his arrival, begs and intreats him to receive? Is it
right that he should force himself to yield to his brother who goes on
his knees and bows himself to the ground, and who thinks that he can
only show his loving heart by this service, or should he obstinately
cling to his own word and intention?
An objection, that abstinence ought to be
concealed, but that things that have been declined should not be
received.
GERMANUS: In the former instance we think there can be no doubt that
it is better for our abstinence to be hidden than for it to be
displayed to the inquirers, and in cases of this sort we also admit
that a lie is unavoidable. But in the second there is no need for us
to tell a lie, first because we can refuse what is offered by the
service of a brother in such a way as to bind ourselves in no bond of
determination, and next because when we once refuse we can keep our
opinion unchanged.
The answer that obstinacy in this decision is
unreasonable.
JOSEPH: There is no doubt that these are the decisions of those
monasteries in which the infancy of your renunciation was, as you tell
us, trained, as their leaders are accustomed to prefer their own will
to their brother's supper, and most obstinately stick to what they
have once intended. But our Elders, to whose faith the signs of
Apostolical powers have borne witness, and who have treated everything
with judgment and discretion of spirit rather than with stiff
obstinacy of mind, have laid down that those men who give in to the
infirmities of others, receive much richer fruits than those who
persist in their determinations, and have declared that it is a better
deed to conceal abstinence, as was said, by this needful and humble
lie, rather than to display it with a proud show of truth.
How Abbot Piamun chose to hide his abstinence.
FINALLY Abbot Piamun[367] after
twenty-five years did not hesitate to receive some grapes and wine
offered to him by a certain brother, and at once preferred, against
his rule, to taste what was brought him rather than to display his
abstinence which was a secret from everybody. For if we would also
bear in mind what we remember that our Elders always did, who used to
conceal the marvels of their own good deeds, and their own acts, which
they were obliged to bring forward in Conference for the instruction
of the juniors, under cover of other persons, what else can we
consider them but an open lie? And O that we too had anything worthy
which we could bring forward for stirring up the faith of the juniors!
Certainly we should have no scruples in following their fictions of
that kind. For it is better under the colour of a figure like that to
tell a lie than for the sake of maintaining that unreasonable
truthfulness either hide in ill-advised silence what might be edifying
to the hearers, or run into the display of an objectionable vanity by
telling them truthfully in our own character. And the teacher of the
Gentiles clearly teaches us the same lesson by his teaching, as he
chose to bring forward the great revelations made to him, under the
character of some one else, saying: "I know a man in Christ,
whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth,
caught up even unto the third heaven: and I know such a man, that he
was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is
not lawful for man to utter."[368]
The evidence of Scripture on changes of
determination.
IT is impossible for us briefly to run through everything. For who
could count up almost all the patriarchs and numberless saints, some
of whom for the preservation of life, others out of desire for a
blessing, others out of pity, others to conceal some secret, others
out of zeal for God, others in searching for the truth, became, so to
speak, patrons of lying? And as all cannot be enumerated, so all
ought not to be altogether passed over. For piety forced the blessed
Joseph to raise a false charge against his brethren even with an oath
by the life of the king, saying: "Ye are spies: to see the
nakedness of the land are ye come;" and below: "send,"
says he, "one of you, and bring your brothers hither: but ye
shall be kept here until your words are made manifest whether ye speak
the truth or no: but if not, by the life of Pharaoh, ye are
spies."[369] For if he had not
out of pity alarmed them by this lie, he would not have been able to
see again his father and his brother, nor to preserve them in their
great danger of starvation, nor to free the conscience of his brethren
from the guilt of selling him. The act then of striking his brethren
with fear by means of a lie was not so reprehensible as was it a holy
and laudable act to urge his enemies and seekers to a salutary
penitence by means of a feigned danger. Finally when they were
weighed down by the odium of the very serious accusation, they were
conscience-stricken not at the charge falsely raised against them, but
at the thought of their earlier crime, and said to one another:
"We suffer this rightly because we sinned against our brother, in
that we saw the anguish of his soul when he asked us and we did not
hearken to him: wherefore all this trouble hath come upon us."[370] And this confession, we think,
expiated by most salutary humility their terrible sin not only against
their brother, against whom they had sinned with wicked cruelty, but
also against God. What about Solomon, who in his first judgment
manifested the gift of wisdom, which he had received of God, only by
making use of falsehood? For in order to get at the truth which was
hidden by the woman's lie, even he used the help of a lie most
cunningly invented, saying: "Bring me a sword and divide the
living child into two parts, and give the one half to the one and the
other half to the other." And when this pretended cruelty
stirred the heart of the true mother, but was received with approval
by her who was not the true mother, then at last by this most
sagacious discovery of the truth he pronounced the judgment which
every one has felt to have been inspired by God, saying: "Give
her the living child and slay it not: she is the mother of
it."[371] Further we are more
fully taught by other passages of Scripture as well that we neither
can nor should carry out everything which we determine either with
peace or disturbance of mind, as we often hear that holy men and
angels and even Almighty God Himself have changed what they had
decided upon. For the blessed David determined and confirmed it by an
oath, saying: "May God do so and add more to the foes of David if
I leave of all that belong unto Nabal until the morning a single
male." And presently when Abigail his wife interceded and
intreated for him, he gave up his threats, lightened the sentence, and
preferred to be regarded as a breaker of his word rather than to keep
his pledged oath by cruelly executing it, saying: "As the Lord
liveth, if thou hadst not quickly come to meet me there had not been
left to Nabal by the morning light a single male."[372] And as we do not hold that his
readiness to take a rash oath (which resulted from his anger and
disturbance of mind) ought to be copied by us, so we do think that the
pardon and revision of his determination is to be followed. The
"chosen vessel," in writing to the Corinthians, promises
unconditionally to return, saying: "But I will come to you when I
pass through Macedonia: for I will pass through Macedonia. But I will
stay or even pass the winter with you that you may conduct me
whithersoever I shall go. For I do not want only to see you in
passing: for I hope to stay with you for some time."[373] And this fact he remembers in the
Second Epistle, thus: "And in this confidence I was minded first
to come unto you, that ye might receive a second favour, and by you to
pass into Macedonia and again to come to you from Macedonia and by you
be conducted to Judæa." But a better plan suggested itself
and he plainly admits that he is not going to fulfil what he had
promised. "When then," says he, "I purposed this, did
I use light-mindedness? or the things that I think, do I think after
the flesh, that there should be with me yea, yea, and nay, nay?"
Lastly, he declares even with the affirmation of an oath, why it was
that he preferred to put on one side his pledged word rather than by
his presence to bring a burden and grief to his disciples: "But I
call God to witness against my soul that it was to spare you that I
came not as far as Corinth. For I determined this with myself that I
would not come unto you in sorrow."[374] Though when the angels had refused
to enter the house of Lot at Sodom, saying to him: "We will not
enter but will remain in the street," they were presently forced
by his prayers to change their determination, as Scripture subjoins:
"And Lot constrained them, and they turned in to him."[375] And certainly if they knew that they
would turn in to him, they refused his request with a sham excuse: but
if their excuse was a real one, then they are clearly shown to have
changed their mind. And certainly we hold that the Holy Spirit
inserted this in the sacred volume for no other reason but to teach us
by their examples that we ought not to cling obstinately to our own
determinations, but to subject them to our will, and so to keep our
judgment free from all the chains of law that it may be ready to
follow the call of good counsel in any direction, and may not delay or
refuse to pass without any delay to whatever a sound discretion may
find to be the better choice. And to rise to still higher instances,
when king Hezekiah was lying on his bed and afflicted with grievous
sickness the prophet Isaiah addressed him in the person of God, and
said: "Thus saith the Lord: set thine house in order for thou
shall die and not live. And Hezekiah," it says, "turned his
face to the wall and prayed to the Lord and said: I beseech thee, O
Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a
perfect heart, and how I have done what was right in Thy sight. And
Hezekiah wept sore." After which it was again said to him:
"Go, return, and speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Thus
saith the Lord God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I
have seen thy tears: and behold, I will add to thy days fifteen years:
and I will deliver thee out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians,
and I will defend this city for thy sake and for my servant David's
sake."[376] What can be clearer
than this proof that out of consideration for mercy and goodness the
Lord would rather break His word and instead of the pre-arranged limit
of death extend the life of him who prayed, for fifteen years, rather
than be found inexorable because of His unchangeable decree? In the
same way too the Divine sentence says to the men of Nineveh: "Yet
three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown;"[377] and presently this stern and abrupt
sentence is softened by their penitence and fasting, and is turned to
the side of mercy with goodness that is easy to be intreated. But if
any one maintains that the Lord had threatened the destruction of
their city (while He foreknew that they would be converted) for this
reason, that He might incite them to a salutary penitence, it follows
that those who are set over their brethren may, if need arises,
without any blame for telling lies, threaten those who need
improvement with severer treatment than they are really going to
inflict. But if one says that God revoked that severe sentence in
consideration of their penitence, according to what he says by
Ezekiel: "If I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: and he
becomes penitent for his sin, and doeth judgment and justice, he shall
surely live, he shall not die;"[378] we are similarly taught that we
ought not obstinately to stick to our determination, but that we
should with gentle pity soften down the threats which necessity called
forth. And that we may not fancy that the Lord granted this specially
to the Ninevites, He continually affirms by Jeremiah that He will do
the same in general towards all, and promises that without delay He
will change His sentence in accordance with our deserts; saying:
"I will suddenly speak against a nation and against a kingdom to
root out and to pull down and to destroy it. If that nation repent of
the evil, which I have spoken against it, I also will repent of the
evil which I thought to do to them. And I will suddenly speak of a
nation and a kingdom, to build up and to plant it. If it shall do
evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice: I will repent of the good
that I thought to do to it." To Ezekiel also: "Leave out
not a word, if so be they will hearken and be converted every one from
his evil way: that I may repent Me of the evil that I thought to do to
them for the wickedness of their doings."[379] And by these passages it is
declared that we ought not obstinately to stick to our decisions, but
to modify them with reason and judgment, and that better courses
should always be adopted and preferred, and that we should turn
without any delay to that course which is considered the more
profitable. For this above all that invaluable sentence teaches us,
because though each man's end is known beforehand to Him before his
birth, yet somehow He so orders all things by a plan and method for
all, and with regard to man's disposition, that He decides on
everything not by the mere exercise of His power, nor according to the
ineffable knowledge which His Prescience possesses, but according to
the present actions of men, and rejects or draws to Himself each one,
and daily either grants or withholds His grace. And that this is so
the election of Saul also shows us, of whose miserable end the
foreknowledge of God certainly could not be ignorant, and yet He chose
him out of so many thousands of Israel and anointed him king,
rewarding the then existing merits of his life, and not considering
the sin of his coming fall, so that after he became reprobate, God
complains almost in human terms and, with man's feelings, as if He
repented of his choice, saying: "It repenteth Me that I have
appointed Saul king: for he hath forsaken Me, and hath not performed
My words;" and again: "But Samuel was grieved for Saul
because the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over
Israel."[380] Finally this that
He afterwards executed, that the Lord also declares by the prophet
Ezekiel that He will by His daily judgment do with all men, saying:
"Yea, if I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live,
and he trusting in his righteousness commit iniquity: all his
righteousness shall be forgotten, and in his iniquity which he hath
committed, in the same he shall die. And if I shall say to the
wicked: Thou shalt surely die; and if he repent of his sin and do
judgment and righteousness, and if that wicked man restore the pledge
and render what he hath robbed, and walk in the commandments of life,
and do no righteous thing, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
None of his sins which he hath committed shall be imputed unto
him."[381] Finally, when the
Lord would for their speedy fall turn away His merciful countenance
from the people, whom He had chosen out of all nations, the giver of
the law interposes on their behalf and cries out: "I beseech
Thee, O Lord, this people have sinned a great sin; they have made for
themselves gods of gold; and now if Thou forgivest their sin, forgive
it; but if not, blot me out of Thy book which Thou hast written. To
whom the Lord answered: If any man hath sinned before Me, I will blot
him out of My book."[382] David
also, when complaining in prophetic spirit of Judas and the Lord's
persecutors, says: "Let them be blotted out of the book of the
living;" and because they did not deserve to come to saving
penitence because of the guilt of their great sin, he subjoins:
"And let them not be written among the righteous."[383] Finally in the case of Judas
himself the meaning of the prophetic curse was clearly fulfilled, for
when his deadly sin as completed, he killed himself by hanging, that
he might not after his name was blotted out be converted and repent
and deserve to be once more written among the righteous in heaven. We
must therefore not doubt that at the time when he was chosen by Christ
and obtained a place in the Apostolate, the name of Judas was written
in the book of the living, and that he heard as well as the rest the
words: "Rejoice not because the devils are subject unto you, but
rejoice because your names are written in heaven."[384] But because he was corrupted by the
plague of covetousness and had his name struck out from that heavenly
list, it is suitably said of him and of men like him by the prophet:
"O Lord, let all those that forsake Thee be confounded. Let them
that depart from Thee be written in the earth, because they have
forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters." And elsewhere:
"They shall not be in the counsel of My people, nor shall they be
written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they
enter into the land of Israel."[385]
How saintly men cannot be hard and obstinate.
NOR must we omit the value of that command because even if we have
bound ourselves by some oath under the influence of anger or some
other passion, (a thing which ought never to be done by a monk) still
the case for each side should be weighed by a thorough judgment of the
mind, and the course on which we have determined should be compared to
that which we are urged to adopt, and we should without hesitation
adopt that which on the occurrence of sounder considerations is
decided to be the best. For it is better to put our promise on one
side than to undergo the loss of something good and more desirable.
Finally we never remember that venerable and approved fathers were
hard and unyielding in decisions of this sort, but as wax under the
influence of heat, so they were modified by reason, and when sounder
counsels prevailed, did not hesitate to give in to the better side.
But those whom we have seen obstinately clinging to their
determinations we have always set down as unreasonable and wanting in
judgment.
A question whether the saying: "I have sworn
and am purposed" is opposed to the view given above.
GERMANUS: So far as this consideration is concerned which has been
clearly and fully treated of, a monk ought never to determine anything
for fear lest he turn out a breaker of his word or else obstinate.
And what then can we make of this saying of the Psalmist: "I have
sworn and am purposed to keep Thy righteous judgments"?[386] What is "to swear and
purpose" except to keep one's determinations fixedly?
The answer telling in what cases the determination
is to be kept fixedly, and in what cases it may be broken if need
be.
JOSEPH: We do not lay this down with regard to those fundamental
commands, without which our salvation cannot in any way exist, but
with regard to those which we can either relax or hold fast to without
endangering our state, as for instance, an unbroken and strict fast,
or total abstinence from wine or oil, or entire prohibition to leave
one's cell, or incessant attention to reading and meditation, all of
which can be practised at pleasure, without damage to our profession
and purpose, and, if need be, can be given up without blame. But we
must most resolutely make up our minds to observe those fundamental
commands, and not even, if need arise, to avoid death in their cause,
with regard to which we must immovably assert: "I have sworn and
am purposed." And this should be done for the preservation of
love, for which all things else should be disregarded lest the beauty
and perfection of its calm should suffer a stain. In the same way we
must swear for the purity of our chastity, and we ought to do the same
for faith, and sobriety and justice, to all of which we must cling
with unchangeable persistence, and to forsake which even for a little
is worthy of blame. But in the case of those bodily exercises, which
are said to be profitable for a little,[387] we must, as we said, decide in such
a way that, if there occurs any more decided opportunity for a good
act, which would lead us to relax them, we need not be bound by any
rule about them, but may give them up and freely adopt what is more
useful. For in the case of those bodily exercises, if they are dropped
for a time, there is no danger: but to have given up these others even
for a moment is deadly.
How we ought to do those things which are to be
kept secret.
YOU must also provide with the same care that if by chance some word
has slipped out of your mouth which you want to be a secret, no
injunction to secrecy may trouble the hearer. For it will be more
likely to be unheeded if it is let pass carelessly and simply, because
the brother, whoever he is, will not be tormented with such a
temptation to divulge it, as he will take it as something trivial
dropped in casual conversation, and as what is for this very reason of
less account, because it was not committed to the hearer's mind with a
strict injunction to silence. For even if you bind his faith by
exacting an oath from him, you need not doubt that it will very soon
be divulged; for a fiercer assault of the devil's power will be made
upon him, both to annoy and betray you, and to make him break his oath
as quickly as possible.
That no determination should be made on those
things which concern the needs of the common life.
AND therefore a monk ought not hastily to make any promise on those
things which merely concern bodily exercise, for fear lest he may stir
up the enemy still more to attack what he is keeping as it were under
the observance of the law, and so he may be more readily compelled to
break it. Since every one who lives under the grace of liberty, and
sets himself a law, thereby binds himself in a dangerous slavery, so
that if by chance necessity constrains him to do what he might have
ventured on lawfully, and indeed laudably and with thanksgiving, he is
forced to act as a transgressor, and to fall into sin: "for where
there is no law there is no transgression."[388]
By this instruction and the teaching of the blessed Joseph we were
confirmed as by a Divine oracle and made up our minds to stop in
Egypt. But though henceforward we were but a little anxious about our
promise, yet when seven years were over we were very glad to fulfil
it. For we hastened to our monastery, at a time when we were
confident of obtaining permission to return to the desert, and first
paid our respects properly to our Elders; next we revived the former
love in their minds as out of the ardour of their love they had not
been at all softened by our very frequent letters to satisfy them, and
in the last place, we entirely removed the sting of our broken promise
and returned to the recesses of the desert of Scete, as they
themselves forwarded us with joy.
This learning and doctrine of the illustrious fathers, our ignorance,
O holy brother, has to the best of its ability made plain to you. And
if perhaps our clumsy style has confused it instead of setting it in
order, I trust that the blame which our clumsiness deserves will not
interfere with the praise due to these grand men. Since it seemed to
us a safer course in the sight of our Judge to state even in unadorned
style this splendid doctrine rather than to hold our tongues about it,
since if he considers the grandeur of the thoughts, the fact that the
awkwardness of our style annoys him, need not be prejudicial to the
profit of the reader, and for our part we are more anxious about its
usefulness than its being praised. This at least I charge all those
into whose hand this little book may fall; viz., that they must know
that whatever in it pleases them belongs to the fathers, and whatever
they dislike is all our own.[389]
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