屬靈講道集 第 1 章 第 3/36 段

Let the soul, then, on the way of truth, consider whether it has drawn near to this sign.

For thus it advances and journeys on to the sign ahead.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

He does not pronounce blessed those who mourn over the departure of carnal relations — over parents or children or husband or wife — but rather the one who has come to understand whence he is, and that he has partaken of immortal life.

Having entered into the commandments of the Lord and walking in the way of truth, he has a struggle against the spiritual forces of wickedness.

And the soul mourns, lest, being defeated, it should die again; and thus it advances on the way.

It is in a state of mourning, not admitting the glory and exultation of this age, but looking ahead to the glory of the first man before the disobedience; and thus, being in mourning as to when it will attain that glory, it perseveres in this state until the Comforter comes, and it will be comforted by him.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Since, on account of disobedience, the soul by its own will gave the land of the heart to the adversary, and in a flattering manner serves sin as a slave, having no authority over its own substance and being unable of itself to drive out the adversary, it goes meekly to the lawgiver of the Spirit; and being scourged by the adversary and not obeying him, it looks toward the lawgiver, and through many afflictions it endures with long-suffering and perseveres, and awaits the time when the lawgiver, Christ, will inscribe the law of the Spirit upon the meek and quiet heart; then the adversary is driven out, and the soul recovers its own land.

Such meek ones the Savior pronounces blessed, and they inherit the land of the heart.

Such a heart glorifies with praise the lawgiver who delivers the poor and needy one from those who plunder him.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

The one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness does not grow listless, does not wander about, and his mind does not gaze about outside; but he attends to the word of truth, and, being established, grounded, and firm in faith, he awaits the Word, who is the bread of life.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."

The one who does not show mercy to himself cannot show mercy to another; but the one who abstains from the pleasures of this age advances along the way toward the dwelling place of the saints.

Such a soul proves to be merciful, and through its glorious manner of life shows mercy to its neighbor, becoming a pattern for him.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Such a heart perceives within itself both the first reasoning and the second; and though it is scourged by the second reasoning, it does not submit to it, but, being impelled by the first, it abandons the second. And thus the Word, seeing the soul's struggle, causes the illumination of the gospel to rise upon it, and drives away from it every evil apparition.

Then the soul is counted worthy to partake of the fruits of the tree of life, which is the word of truth.

Such a heart is counted worthy to become a temple of God and a dwelling place of the Spirit.

Such a heart awaits the glorious and heavenly treasure in earthen vessels.

Such a heart awaits Christ himself, the keeper of the treasure, and is clothed with the incorruptible garment of glory, and reclines at the incorruptible banquets with the perfect, and ministers in the church of the firstborn, and worships the Father in spirit and in truth.

Let us consider, brothers, each one his own heart — how far along the way it has traveled, and how great a distance still remains to the city — lest, thinking that we are walking on the way of truth, and taking note only of the outward dignified appearance, without peering into what is within, we should be found drawing near to the thicket and the wilderness, which is this present age — night and illusion to the soul.

The soul, therefore, must look ahead with its inner eyes, lest it be ensnared by the power of the adversary.

For just as animals are ensnared and hunted by hunters, and if even one limb is caught in a snare, the whole animal is brought down and torn apart by the hunters, so let us understand likewise concerning the soul, as the Spirit makes known to us through the prophet:

"They prepared a snare for my feet, and they bowed down my soul."

...which is a blazing fire.

Let us therefore remember him who said:

"Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

For the one who wishes to enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods does not cherish the bulk of the body, but is strengthened in spirit.

But how one must be strengthened, the apostle says:

"The wisdom of God is folly to men."

One must, therefore, first be humbled and become a stranger to this age.

For the prophet makes known to us:

"I beheld the Son of Man, and his appearance was without honor, more diminished than all the sons of men."

But the Word of God, having come and having become for us both a way and a gate to the city above, showed us, with a humble heart, to become fools in this present age.

For while he walks upon the earth, his citizenship exists in the heavens; and the wise man forces his way to become a citizen of the city above.

And thus, the Lord, seeing the labor and the struggle of the soul, that it has constrained itself in this present age, then he who said the following manifests himself in its heart:

"I will dwell in you and walk among you."

Then it receives power and strength, and binds the strong man, and plunders his goods, and carries off the spoils of the strong man — which are souls held fast by sin as fish in a net.

Such a soul is above scorpions and serpents, trampling upon the lion and the dragon; it treads upon the asp and the basilisk, and, entering into the lion's den, it takes captive its cubs, being possessed of great power.

O soul, precious vessel of God, who by your own will have procured for yourself disgrace and dishonor — you who, swallowed up by a dark cloud, have been brought down into the depths of the sea, mocked by serpents and devoured like a little fish — recognize where you are held, know from whence you came.

Behold, the true Word, coming like a casting-net, has drawn you up as a vessel of the great King.

Having been called a temple of God, you became a den of serpents.

Just as, then, a potter fashions a precious vessel for his own use, and a serpent enters into the vessel by crawling in, so know yourself likewise, O man: being a vessel of the great King and honored by him, having received free will, by your own choice you admitted the enemy, becoming a den of a serpent.

But God, being good and a benevolent Master, having shown great compassion toward his creature, came himself and redeemed it.

And just as the potter, by heating the vessel over burning coals of fire, causes the creature to come out, so also the Word of truth says to his creature:

"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I desire, if it is already kindled?"

When, then, the soul together with the body is set on fire by the Word, sin is consumed away.

For the soul, having received the Word, is wrought upon by the Word.

But the soul that is in listlessness is kept under guard by unbelief, and puts things off day after day, and does not receive the Word, having become distant from it, so that, because of its listlessness, it does not even hear the voice of God.

...having become so, and having fallen into self-conceit;

But self-conceit is a veil over the soul, and she cannot know herself.

O the loving-kindness of the great Master, who wills all men to be saved, and in many ways pricks the soul, that she may be awakened!

For just as a householder, having a vineyard, comes to hire a man for wages to bring him into the vineyard — and the vineyard is the commandments, and the Word, like a householder, calls the man for wages into the vineyard, that by working the commandments he may come to know himself — so too the soul, having taken up the commandments into the earth of the heart, works that earth, having in herself a good planting; and when the vineyard has shown forth much fruit, it spreads abroad amid the commandments, being overshadowed by them, so that it may not fail under the scorching heat — I mean, under the power of the adversary.

Then the soul, coming to be in great joy, eagerly awaits the householder, for when the Word will come and visit his planting flourishing in that land.

Then the householder rejoices over the one who worked the vineyard.

Then the soul rests in the Word.

Cast out, then, the hidden, unfruitful rock from the earth of the heart, and all the small stones; gather up the thorns and thistles, and do not grow slothful — for you do not labor alone;

for there is a divine power within you working together with you.

Do not, then, grow weary and slothful; hasten, that you may attain, that you may rest in the Word, and be called daughter of the Most High.

"Where are your children?" And what, he says, did she answer to my word? Blessed are those who run with unwearied zeal, for they, having attained, shall rest.

But woe to that soul who has not cared about the earth of the heart, and has not besought the householder to give her a hammer and iron bars, that she might cast out the hidden and unfruitful rock; nor has she cared about the small stones, so that the whole place remains thus untilled, wholly desolate.

So she puts it off day after day, and keeps only the outward form, not having gazed intently into herself, but is caught up in haughtiness and vainglory, in order to be seen by men.

Such a soul has received her reward in full.

But what will she do, when she departs from the body, when each soul shows forth her own vineyard to the Master? What shall that soul say, who has left her own land desolate and untilled, when she beholds other souls, that they have worked their own land and are now in great glory?

Their faces will shine like the sun.

When, then, that soul sees such glory belonging to other souls, then she will perceive that she was deceived by haughtiness and vainglory, beholding herself desolate, not having worked her own land.

If, then, that soul, while still in the body, perceives that she is being deceived by the spirits of wickedness, let her cry out to God with her whole heart, and let her say:

My soul is before you like a waterless land.

Hear me quickly, O Lord; my spirit has failed.

For he who humbles himself is in great power, as it is said:

A broken and humbled heart God will not despise, and again:

A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.

The broken and humbled heart, then, possesses great power to resist the spirits of wickedness and to seek out her own true being.

Blessed are those who walk with zeal in the commandments, for they shall attain to perfection.

For this reason the Lord was made manifest, that we might be persuaded of the truth; and he came down and went up, that we might follow him, becoming by dispensation what we are, so that we might become what he is.

And it has not entered into the heart of man.

Such a one has armed himself according to the apostolic word, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and the rest; and thus, in time of war, he reins in his own horse, that the horse may walk according to the footsteps of the mind;

but if, indulging its own senselessness, the horse seizes the one riding upon it, who is unarmed, and hurls him into the midst of the camp of the foreigners, then he is mocked by the foreigners, because the glorious soldier has been taken captive by them, and they deal with him according to their own law.

Since, then, the soul is mistress of the body, she has the body as it were her horse; the soul reins in the body and guides it, just as the Spirit guides her.

But if the soul is overtaken by the fleshly mind-set, she walks according to the practices of the flesh.

To such souls the Spirit gives command through the prophet:

Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.

For a soul carried away by the fleshly mind-set becomes a horse and a mule, and in her there is no understanding of love; for wherever there is jealousy and wrath, strife and haughtiness, in her there is no understanding of love.

As, then, we said before, a soul delighting in fleshly pleasures:

is truly seized by them, and finds herself in the midst of the camp of the spirits of wickedness, and is mocked by them and held in contempt.

No small contest, then, lies before us, brothers, to break through death and pass over into life.

The kingdom is within you — the rest, and the joy, and the gladness.

But within is also found the one who takes captive and makes war, which is death and the destruction of the soul.

Let not the soul, then, rest, until she has carefully buried the things that hold her captive.

Then pain, grief, and sighing fled away, because water had burst forth in the thirsty land, and the desert had become a multitude of waters.

For behold, he promised to fill the desert heart with living water, first through the prophet:

I will give water to those who thirst, to those who have walked in a waterless place — for because of the ancestral disobedience, the soul has come to be in great scorching heat.

But the Lord, having come according to our image and likeness, that he might make known to us the living water and quench the scorching heat of the soul in which she was held, says:

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give shall never thirst, forever.

For it will become in him a spring of water welling up.

It is no small thing, brothers, to seek out the apostle's command and to understand it.

If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him;

for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

How then might we understand the apostle's command? The same one says:

casting down reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

For just as a king — God, having built a city and a palace within it — placed hidden treasures in it, and handed it over to the steward, saying:

"All these I give you for authority; guard the city and what is in it.

But what I have revealed to you, take for food; and from that which you have been commanded not to eat, take heed lest you disobey.

But if not, you shall surely die.

Behold, my walls are high, and the gates have been made by my wisdom so that no one is able to open them, unless the authority to open and close has been given to you alone.

Do not, then, listen to the tyrant.

But if you do, you will be taken by him as a slave, and you will be doing his works." And having given these instructions, he departed from him.

And the tyrant, approaching the steward, said to him:

"Why do you not have authority over all the things that belong under this city? Receive me into the city and make use of my counsels, and you will be equal to the king." And the steward, hearing these things, disobeyed the king's commandment, and of his own will opened the gates of the city and received the tyrant and his army.

Then the steward's garment was stripped away, and he suddenly found himself naked.

For he was driven by the tyrant's army to do their works, carrying out what was commanded by their master.

The king, who has authority to do what he wills without fear, seeks out the steward:

"Where are you, to whom I entrusted my city? Why have you departed from me? What fault have you found in me? Were not all the things in the city under your authority? And why did you disobey my commandment and obey the tyrant? And now I see you subjected as his slave.

For you I founded a city, that you might reign together with me; but you departed from me, and now you see yourself naked and possessing nothing.

But if you wish to run back to your place and receive back your glory — just as you abandoned my commandments and carried out the decree of the rebel, so, abandoning the decree of the rebel whom you obeyed, turn back to me, doing my will.

Yet with much toil and in the sweat of your face you shall recover your wealth."

For having received it without labor, and not knowing toil, you thus lost it and gave up your inheritance... Let us, then, brothers, each recognize what we have lost, and take up the lament of the prophet:

for truly our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, and our houses to foreigners, because we disobeyed the commandment, carrying out our own wills and taking delight in filthy and earthly thoughts.

For the mind, having departed from the commandments, becomes occupied by the evil thoughts by which it is held captive, and lies engrossed in them.

The soul is, therefore, at a great distance from God, and we have truly become orphans, as though having no father.

Let him, then, who has travail of soul strive for this: to purge away evil thoughts and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; and thus, as he presses on to keep the temple of God unstained, he who made the promise and said comes:

"I will dwell in them and walk among them."

Then the soul receives back its own inheritance, and is accounted worthy to become a temple of God, having driven out the evil one and his host, and thereafter it reigns.

How God loved the soul and honored it, glorifying it in his own likeness and image, and yet it rejected him, provoking him to anger.

For just as a plant is planted, being a kind of image of a perfect tree, so also the soul was set as a plant in paradise, that it might grow and bear fruit; but through disobedience it departed from the commandment, and in a mind set on wickedness bore the fruit of sin.

Just as, then, by its own will it grew in wickedness, so again, by its own free will, it must remove the graft of wickedness, that it may be grafted back into its own olive tree, according to the apostolic word.

But if you wish to know that God likens the soul to a plant, consider what the prophet says—or rather the Spirit through the prophet—who, by the beatitude, turns the soul away from the counsel of the ungodly, and forbids it to stand in the way of sinners, and leads it in the law of the Spirit, that being occupied with the law night and day it may grow in the Spirit. Therefore he adds:

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, which shall yield its fruit in its season."

But concerning the soul that has walked in the way of the counsel of the ungodly, and likewise in the way of sin, he adds:

"Not so the ungodly, not so; but they are like chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth."

Know, therefore, the difference between the two kinds of souls.

For the soul that has come to be in toil and great struggle for the sake of the commandment—an inflow of the Spirit comes upon it, and thus, being in great power, it is transformed into that measure of stature which the Savior, when he came, showed forth.

But the sinful soul, taking delight in walking in the counsels of the ungodly and desiring to stand in the way of sinners—such a soul is carried away by the power of the adversary and is mocked in the air.

For all things are manifest to God, and he knows the ways of our hearts, and he understands the paths of our souls.

Let us not be lifted up like chaff by the power of the adversary; but rather, being united to the commandment, let us grow by the inflow of the Spirit, according to the plant already spoken of.

For just as a newborn infant is an image of a full-grown man, so also the soul is an image of him who made it.

And just as a child, growing bit by bit, knows the father only in part, but when it comes to maturity is instructed in the father's wisdom, and then the father fully recognizes the son and the son the father, and the father's treasure is revealed to the son—so also the soul was destined, before the disobedience, to progress and come to a perfect man; but through the disobedience the love that was after the image was also veiled.

Yet it retained some part of it; but it sank into a sea of ignorance and into a deep of forgetfulness, and was brought down into a mass of error, and came to rest at the gates of Hades.

So the soul was removed by a great distance from the commandment, and could neither be united to it nor come to know it. But God first, through the prophets, kept turning it back again to knowledge; and in the last of times, he who is incomprehensible and inconceivable, having neither beginning nor end, the blessed Trinity, the undivided counsel and boundless essence—this our God, unsearchable and indescribable, made himself into a commandment by dispensation for our sake, sending forth his very self.

The Son, then, having come from the Father, scattered the depth of ignorance, forgetfulness, and error, and burst open the gates of Hades that would not open, and entered in upon the soul that had gone astray, so that the soul, taking him as an example, might follow the commandment even unto the first image; that then, part by part, it might be united and blended with the commandment and become one thing with it; that from disobedience it might come to the love that is after the image, and from that image-love, through the commandment, might find the rest that is love never turning aside.

Behold, Jesus is baptized by John, sanctifying the waters, as it is written, and showing forth the forgiveness of transgressions for believing souls.

Then John testifies, saying, "I saw the Spirit of God coming upon Jesus himself."

But he who sends, and he who is sent, and he upon whom he was sent, are one.

By dispensation, then, as we have said before, he showed this for the sake of those who were to progress and come to a perfect man.

And being tempted by dispensation, even to the point of angelic ministration, he shows the freedom of the soul.

Then he showed forth reproaches and contempt, insults and blows, and interrogations by the rulers, even unto the cross.

As, then, the Savior suffered, let the soul take this to itself, that it may take heed:

how it must respond to those who reproach, hold in contempt, and crucify it, that it may become as one deaf and mute, not opening its mouth, just as he showed; and thus walking in the footsteps of him who showed the way, that it may discern beforehand the working and subtlety of wickedness, and, as though nails were fastened into it on a cross, may cry out with a mighty cry to him who is able to deliver it from death.

"Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and spare your servant from the sins of others."

"If they do not rule over me, then I shall be blameless, and I shall be cleansed from sin", that being cleansed it may become blameless.

Then it finds him who has subjected all things to himself; then the soul is blended with the commandment; then it is filled with wonder, and reigns, and finds rest.

It is no small thing, brethren, to come forth out of such matter, and to perceive the subtlety of wickedness, and to pass through it, that the soul may be blended together with the mind that has no beginning.

O love ineffable, and tender mercy, and compassions of the Master!

He likens himself to a bird, that the soul which is in error may take refuge beneath his wings; and the life-giving Word says:

...his wings, and he waits for the soul, watching for when it will come in and find rest beneath his wings.

For just as a bird is born a second time—first within a covering, and then, a second time, taken up beneath the wings—and while it is within the covering, the form, that is the nestling, is warmed by the heat, but when the covering is removed it remains beneath the wings of the mother until it grows to the measure of the stature of its mother, and so on, so that it may fly up into the sky and come to be above all the creeping things that wish to tear it apart and destroy it;

so also the soul, coming into the world, enters through the prophets into the workshop of righteousness and keeps the law; but when the life-giving Word comes, he teaches us to make our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

And he hints to us that we should come to be above the law; for he says:

"He who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him."

And in most things he is commanding us that we should enter beneath the wings of our mother (that is, into his commandments).

For the soul, being warmed by the Word and strengthened, sheds the covering and is reborn in the Spirit; and Christ, being unveiled to it, was blended with it as with a boundless fountain and a mind without beginning.

Know, then, O soul, whether you are beneath the wings of your mother, and do not go out from there, lest you be devoured by serpents.

For the Savior came to renew and give life to the soul, and to consume utterly that alien thing, which is a blind and nocturnal sowing, that he might display his own love and make it abound in the soul; that, having passed through the principalities and powers, it might mingle its fruitful light with the blessed light.

O wings outspread, O the tender compassion of the Father!

Concerning visible asceticism, and which good practice happens to be the greatest and first.

Know this, beloved, that all the virtues are bound to one another and hang from one another, like a certain spiritual chain, each one suspended from another.

Prayer depends on love, love on joy, joy on gentleness, gentleness on humility, humility on service, service on hope, hope on faith, faith on obedience, and obedience on simplicity.

Just as, on the opposite side, the evils too are bound one from another:

Hatred depends on wrath, wrath on pride, pride on vainglory, vainglory on unbelief, unbelief on hardness of heart, hardness of heart on negligence, negligence on slackness, slackness on carelessness, carelessness on listlessness, listlessness on impatience, impatience on love of pleasure; and the remaining members of wickedness hang from one another. So also, on the good side, the virtues are suspended from one another.

The chief point of all good zeal, and the crowning summit of right achievements, is perseverance in prayer, through which we are able, day by day, by asking of God, to acquire the remaining virtues as well.

Each one receives according to his own free choice, God giving to him.

But since some, not having heard the word as they ought, yet having heard from the gospel that if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to drink he has a reward, sell their possessions and free their slaves and perform the commandments, but do not seek to receive the Spirit in this world—living thus, do they not go into the kingdom of heaven? Answer:

This matter is a subtle one.

For some say there is one kingdom and one hell, but we say there are many degrees and distinctions and measures, and abundance both within the kingdom itself and within the punishment itself.

And just as there is one soul in all the members—both above in the brain and in the other members, and it moves the feet below—so also the Godhead encompasses all creatures, both the heavenly ones and those beneath the abyss, and is everywhere fulfilled throughout creation, and is also outside of creation, since it is immeasurable.

The Godhead, then, gives heed to humanity and administers them.

You have said that it gives heed to them, but you have not said that it works in them, or is discerned among them.

Distinguish for me here the sons of the kingdom, and mark off this degree.

For here the word that was put forth concerns all worldly people.

For some pray and do not know what they are asking; some fast; some stand at their service.

Do these have a reward? Answer:

Since God is a righteous judge, he renders to them their reward according to the measure of their faith, because what they do, they do out of fear of God; but these are not heirs, nor sons, nor kings.