I. True innocence is that which harms neither itself nor another, since whoever loves iniquity hates his own soul. And no one fails to sin against himself before sinning against another. II. Men are to be loved in such a way that their errors are not loved, for it is one thing to love what they were made, and another to hate what they do. III. There is no true eternity and true immortality except in the deity of the Trinity, for which to be is to be perpetual, because that nature, lacking a beginning and needing no increase, just as it admits no end, so it admits no mutability.
But creatures, even those to which God has given or will give eternity, are not entirely free of every kind of ending, since they are not beyond change, inasmuch as for them there is an ending, and a temporal beginning, and local motion, and that very change made for their own increase. IV. The patience of God, by which he spares the despised and the denied, and prefers the life of the sinner to his death, is an instruction toward repentance and an offering of correction; nor are any of his works devoid of mercy, since he provides for man both by indulgence and by the scourge. V. The divine goodness is therefore most angry in this present age precisely so that it may not be angry in the age to come, and it mercifully applies a temporal severity so as not justly to inflict an eternal vengeance.
VI. The confession of one who blesses God is true when the sound of the mouth is the same as that of the heart. But to speak well and to live ill is nothing else than to condemn oneself by one's own voice. VII. The love of God and of neighbor is the proper and special virtue of the devout and the holy, whereas the other virtues can be common to both good and evil men. VIII. Apostolic teaching is so wholesome and life-giving that, according to the capacity of those who use it, it leaves no one without a share in itself, because whether small or great, whether weak or strong, they have in it that by which they may be nourished and satisfied. IX. He who seeks God seeks joy. Let him therefore so seek that he may rejoice not in himself, but in the Lord.
For by drawing near to God, both its ignorance is enlightened and its weakness is strengthened, being given to it both the understanding by which it may see, and the love by which it may burn. X. Just as it is harmful to the body not to be able to take bodily food, so it is dangerous for the soul to loathe spiritual delights. XI. Never are they many who tend toward non-being. For what is so liable to fewness as that which is owed to perdition? XII. God does not desire the punishment of the guilty as though wishing to be sated with vengeance, but he decrees what is just with tranquility and disposes it with a right will, so that even the wicked may not be without order. XIII. He has a good understanding who rightly understands and does what must be done.
Otherwise such is understanding without works as is wisdom without fear, since it is written: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. XIV. A soul also has its rest in this life when it has been taken out from the death of unbelief, and abstains not only from the works of righteousness but from the doing of iniquity, so that, living to God and dead to the world, it may rest in the calm tranquility of humility and meekness. XV. Whoever rightly considers what he should vow to God and what vows he should pay, let him vow and render his very self. This is what is required, this is what is owed. Let the image of Caesar be rendered to Caesar, let the image of God be rendered to God.
But just as one must consider what you offer and to whom you offer, so also must one consider where you offer, since there is no place for the true sacrifice outside the catholic Church. XVI. There are two recompenses of justice, when either good things are rendered for good, or evil for evil. The third is the recompense of grace, when through regeneration evils are forgiven and good things are rendered. And thus it is made manifest that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. But that recompense of the impious, by which evils are rendered for good, God knows not — God who, unless he rendered good for evil, would have no one to whom he might render good for good.
XVII. Everyone who belongs to the heavenly city is a pilgrim of the world, and while he uses this temporal life, he lives in a foreign country, where, amid many enticing and many deceitful things, to know and to love God belongs to few — to those for whom the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes, so that they may be deceived neither in the love of God nor in the love of neighbor. XVIII. There is no one whose soul the corruptible body and earthly habitation do not weigh down. But one must strive that the desires of the flesh be overcome by the vigor of the spirit, and that the inner man, who always feels himself resisted, may always look to be helped by divine aid.
XIX. Narrow is the way that leads to life, and yet it is not run except by an enlarged heart, because the path of the virtues, by which the poor of Christ walk, is ample to the hope of the faithful, even if it is narrow to the vanity of the unbelieving. XX. With this affection and desire God is to be worshiped, that his very worship may be its own reward. For he who worships God in order to obtain something else rather than God himself does not worship God, but the thing which he longs to attain. XXI. To judge rashly concerning the hidden things of another's heart is a sin, and it is wrong to reproach by suspicion one whose works appear only good, since of those things which are unknown to man, God alone is the just judge, who is also the true beholder.
XXII. It is of the divine gift, both when we think rightly, and when we keep our feet from falsehood and injustice. For as often as we do good things, God works in us and with us, that we may work. XXIII. By the just judgment of God, power is for the most part given to sinners by which they may persecute his saints, so that those who are helped and led by the Spirit of God may become more illustrious through the exercises of their labors. XXIV. There is no true knowledge of the good unless it is grasped to this end, that it may be done. For he does not profitably meditate on the law of God who labors to hold in memory what he does not fulfill in action. XXV. He who loves the law of God proves that in wicked men he hates that which is against the law, not the men. XXVI. The mind cannot search out the commandments of God unless it is at peace.
In order, then, that a religious zeal may be exercised, the quarrels of the malicious must be driven away. XXVII. No one is so learned, no one so well-taught, that he does not need illumination from above. For no increases of divine goods are ever so sufficient that there does not always remain something which the rational mind desires both to understand and to perform. XXVIII. If we consider all men together, of whom some are saved by mercy and others are condemned by truth, all the ways of the Lord — that is, mercy and truth — are distinguished by their respective end. But if we look upon the saints alone, these ways are not distinguished.
For there truth is inseparable from mercy, and mercy from truth, because the blessedness of the saints is both of the gift of grace and of the recompense of justice. XXIX. It belongs to Christian perfection to be peaceable even with the enemies of peace, in hope of their correction, not in consent to their malice, so that even if they follow neither the example nor the exhortation of love, they may nevertheless have no grounds for which they ought to hate us. XXX. The Lord guards us from all evil, not so that we may suffer nothing adverse, but so that the soul may not be harmed by the adversities themselves. For when temptation is present, there occurs a certain entrance into that which assails us.
And when the temptation is consummated with a good end — that is, without wounding the soul — one passes out from the depth of temporal toil to eternal rest. XXXI. None ascend to the fellowship of the heavenly Jerusalem except those who profess with their whole heart that what they ascend is not of their own work but of the divine gift. XXXII. All who wish to live devoutly in Christ must of necessity suffer reproaches from the impious and from those unlike them, and be despised as foolish and senseless men who lose present goods and promise themselves things invisible and future. But this contempt and mockery will be turned back upon those very people, when both their abundance shall pass into want, and their pride into confusion.
XXXIII. The whole salvation of the faithful, the whole fortitude of patience, is to be referred to him who is wonderful in his saints, because unless the Lord were in them, human frailty would succumb to the fury of the impious. XXXIV. Just so, both rulers are to be borne by the people and masters by their servants, in such a way that, under the exercise of endurance, temporal things may be sustained and eternal things hoped for. For it increases the merits of virtue that one does not violate the resolve of religion. XXXV. Those who are right in heart do not complain about the precepts and ordinances of God, because it is just that all things be received with equanimity which he who will judge has willed to be borne. XXXVI. Every state of the holy edifice, just as it advances by God's working, so it stands firm by God's keeping.
Since the keeping of those set over us is then useful, when the Spirit of God presides over his people and deigns to guard not only the flocks but the shepherds themselves. XXXVII. The joys of the eternal city are eternal, and the perpetual infinity of the abiding days shall neither be altered nor fall away, because they shall possess an unchangeable peace, of all of whom the good shall be such as shall belong also to each one. XXXVIII. The law of Christ is the perfection of love, by which God and neighbor are loved, and through which it is said to the maker of the law: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For he well awaits the promise of God who carries out his commandments, nor does he hope in vain that his own sins shall be spared, who forgives those of others.
XXXIX. God commands nothing that may profit himself, but him to whom he commands. Therefore he is the true Lord, who has no need of a servant, and whom the servant needs. XL. That which is new in time is not new with God, who founded the times and possesses without time all the things which he distributes to their several times according to their variety. XLI. An immutable reason contains the disposition of mutable things, where, without time, those things are together which in time do not come to be together, because the times do not run together. XLII. Nothing is more wretched than the felicity of those who sin, by which a penal impunity is nourished, and an evil will is strengthened like an inner enemy. XLIII. The letter of the law, which teaches that one must not sin, if the life-giving Spirit be lacking, kills.
For it makes sin to be known rather than to be avoided, and therefore to be increased rather than diminished, because to evil concupiscence there is added even the transgression of the law. XLIV. The law was given that grace might be sought. Grace was given that the law might be fulfilled. For it was not unfulfilled through any fault of its own, but through the fault of the prudence of the flesh. Which fault was to be shown by the law, and to be healed by grace. XLV. God promises that which he himself does. For he does not himself promise and another do it — which is no longer to promise, but to predict. Therefore it is not of works, but of him who calls, lest it be of themselves, but of God, and the wage be reckoned not according to grace, but according to debt, and so grace would no longer be grace.
XLVI. Just as certain venial sins, without which this life is not lived, do not bar the righteous man from eternal life, so to the impious certain good works are of no profit toward eternal salvation, without which the life even of the most wicked man is hardly to be found. XLVII. When an evil will receives power to effect what it desires, this comes from the judgment of God, with whom there is no iniquity. For he punishes even in this way, and not therefore unjustly because secretly. Otherwise the wicked man does not know that he is being punished, except when, unwilling, he has felt by manifest punishment how great is the evil which he willingly perpetrated. XLVIII. All vices have force only in misdeeds; pride alone must be guarded against even in deeds rightly done.
XLIX. It matters very greatly what use is made either of those things which are prosperous, or of those which are called adverse. For the good man is neither lifted up by goods nor broken by evils. The evil man, however, is punished by an unhappiness of this kind precisely because he is corrupted by happiness. L. That death is not to be reckoned evil which a good life has preceded. For nothing makes death evil except that which follows death. And so we need not be much concerned, for those who must necessarily die, about what may befall them so that they die, but about whither they are compelled to go in dying. LI. Thus the sanctity of the body is not lost while the sanctity of the soul remains, even when the body is oppressed, just as the sanctity of the body is lost when the purity of the soul is violated, even when the body is untouched.
LII. He is rightly to be called the greater spirit who chooses rather to bear a toilsome life than to flee it, and to despise human judgment — especially that of the common crowd, which is for the most part wrapped in the darkness of error — before the light and purity of conscience. LIII. Whatever of evils is inflicted upon the just by unjust masters is not the punishment of a crime, but the testing of virtue. For the good man, even if he serves, is free; but the evil man, even if he reigns, is a slave — and not of one man, but, what is more grievous, of as many masters as he has vices. LIV. No one could rightly vow anything to the Lord unless he received from him the very thing he might vow. LV. Every substance which is not God is a creature, and that which is not a creature is God.
There is therefore no difference in the Deity of the Trinity, since that which is less than God is not God. LVI. God loves us such as we shall be by his gift, not such as we are by our own merit. LVII. The order of times is, in the eternal wisdom of God, without time, nor are there any new things with him who made the things that are to come. LVIII. The will of God is the first and supreme cause of all corporeal and spiritual motions. For nothing comes to be visibly and sensibly which is not either commanded or permitted from the invisible and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor, according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments, of graces and recompenses, in this most ample and immense commonwealth of the whole creation.
LIX. The proud devil led the proud man down to death. The humble Christ led the obedient man back to life. For just as the one, being lifted up, fell, and cast down him who consented, so the other, being humbled, rose, and raised up him who believed. LX. In spiritual things, when the lesser cleaves to the greater — as the creature to the Creator — the former becomes greater than it was, not the latter. And this is to be greater, which is to be better, because the creature cleaving to the Creator is made greater not by bulk but by virtue. LXI. The supereminence of the Deity exceeds the faculty not only of our customary speech but even of our understanding. For God is more truly thought than spoken, and more truly is than is thought.
But it is no small part of knowledge if, before we are able to know what God is, we can know what he is not. LXII. All the blessed have what they will, although not all who have what they will are forthwith blessed. But forthwith wretched are those who either do not have what they will, or have that which they do not rightly will. A right will, therefore, even though it has not attained what it desires, is nearer to blessedness than a perverse will, even if it has obtained what it desired. LXIII. It is a great misery of man to be without him, without whom he cannot be. For in him in whom he is, without doubt he is not without him. And yet, if he does not remember him, nor understand him, nor love him, he is not with him.
LXIV. The Divinity of the Word, equal to the Father, was made a partaker of our mortality — not of its own, but of ours — that we too might be made partakers of his divinity, not of our own, but of his. LXV. Hatred is perfect which lacks neither justice nor knowledge — that is, that you may neither hate men on account of their vices, nor love vices on account of men. Rightly, therefore, in evil men we hate wickedness and love the creature, so that neither is nature condemned on account of vice, nor vice loved on account of nature. LXVI. The fabrications of falsehood are difficult and laborious. But he who wishes to speak the truth does not labor. For the good are more at peace than the evil, and the words of the truthful are more free than the contrivances of the deceitful.
LXVII. Good are the depths of mysteries in the Holy Scriptures, which are veiled for this reason — lest they become cheap; are sought for this reason — that they may exercise; are opened for this reason — that they may feed. LXVIII. The Lord Jesus Christ, praying with a sweat of blood, was signifying that from his whole body, which is the Church, the sufferings of the martyrs would flow forth. LXIX. The unworthy man takes to himself the sacrament of godliness unto judgment. For it cannot go well with one who badly receives that which is good. LXX. He who praises God in the miracles of his benefits, let him praise him also in the terrors of his retributions. For he both allures and threatens. If he did not allure, there would be no exhortation; if he did not threaten, there would be no correction.
LXXI. The remedies of conversion to God must not be deferred by any delays, lest the time of correction perish through slowness. For he who promised pardon to the penitent did not pledge a tomorrow to the one who dissembles. LXXII. He is upright and rightly calls upon God who, in all the evils that he suffers, accuses himself and not God, and in the good things that he does, praises not himself but God. For just as God repels the one who defends his own sin, so he receives the one who confesses it. LXXIII. Wonderful is the fabric of the world, but more wonderful is its Maker. And he is ill-occupied with created things who departs from the Author. But if he cleaves to the One who is above, he will trample on lower things, lest what he has loved against nature be turned into punishment.
LXXIV. The rational soul, setting lower things before higher, cannot rule what it used to rule, because it would not be ruled by the One who ruled it. LXXV. The body of our flesh was an ornament to us. We sinned, and from it we received fetters, so that by the bonds of mortality the whole course of human actions might be hampered. LXXVI. He rightly sings psalms in praise of God whose works accord with his voice. For when the song is finished, the voice falls silent, but a life abiding in good deeds never falls silent from the glory of him whom it rejoices to have working within it. LXXVII. All things that are feared are reasonably avoided. God is to be feared in such a way that one flees from him to him. LXXVIII. As a preposterous security drives one into danger, so an ordered solicitude begets security.
LXXIX. Virginity of the flesh is an untouched body; virginity of the soul is an uncorrupted faith. LXXX. We shall be shown to have many superfluous things among our possessions, if we retain only the necessary ones. For to those who seek vain things nothing suffices, and he is in a manner a withholder of what belongs to others who uselessly holds what would profit the poor. LXXXI. As our ears are toward our voices, so are the ears of God toward our thoughts. But it cannot happen that good thoughts issue into evil works, since that is brought forth by action which is conceived in the heart. LXXXII. As the old song of the old man pertains to temporal things, so the new song of the new man pertains to eternal things. And thus each one sings as he lives.
And the new song is the song of the faith which works through love. LXXXIII. The true humility of the faithful is to be proud in nothing, to murmur at nothing, neither to be ungrateful nor querulous, but in all the judgments of God to give thanks to God and to praise God, all of whose works are either just or kind. LXXXIV. Exceedingly wretched is he who does not hope in God, and promises himself prosperous things from himself, since by that very fact that he seeks not the help of God, he has fallen away from all hope of true salvation. LXXXV. In great need are those who are rich in iniquity, not having the riches of righteousness and the treasures of wisdom. But those who serve the Lord acquire those goods which cannot perish. LXXXVI. It does not suffice to abstain from evil, unless what is good be done.
And it is too little to harm no one, unless you strive to profit many. LXXXVII. When a sinner sins, he is not therefore unseen by the Lord because the punishment of the wrongdoer is deferred. But it is decreed more grievously against him to whom even correction itself is denied. LXXXVIII. One does not approach the height of God except through humility. And the one who, being subject, draws near to him, the one who is lifted up departs far from him. LXXXIX. Just as sumptuous obsequies profit rich sinners nothing, so cheap burials, or none at all, do no harm to the holy poor. XC. He to whom Christ is joy can never be defrauded of his delights. For eternal is the exultation that rejoices in the eternal Good.
XCI. To God, who is everywhere, we are either far off or near, not by places, but by actions. For just as unlikeness separates, so imitation joins us to him. XCII. It belongs to human sickness to have in mortal flesh a delight in sinning. But the disciple and lover of the virtues ought not to grant peace to this concupiscence, but to declare war upon it. XCIII. Let it not frighten you, Christian, that the things believed are deferred. Though the promise be hidden, yet let prayer persevere in hope. Exercise yourself in works, grow in virtues. While the constancy of faith is being tested, the glory of the recompense is being increased. XCIV. Every season of evils is small. For what is so slight as that which tends to this end — that it may not be?
XCV. The capacity of love always grows, becoming greater by use and richer by generosity. XCVI. The impiety of the wicked must perish, either by its own judgment or by the sentence of God. For no iniquity endures to which either correction or condemnation puts an end. XCVII. He who cleaves to God and always does the will of God is never forsaken by his indweller. And if he suffers certain hard and adverse things, he is not abandoned, but proved. XCVIII. The whole rationale of righteousness is that evils be avoided and good things be done. The form of this observance is to be kept amid any adversities whatsoever, because this alone is never lost, which is expended upon the work of godliness. XCIX. Let present evils be borne, until the promised blessedness comes.
Let unbelievers be borne by the faithful, and let the uprooting of the tares that have sprung up among the wheat be deferred. However much the impious may rage, the cause of the just is the better even in this present time, who, the more fiercely they are assailed, the more gloriously are they crowned. C. A cry to God is the intention of the heart and the ardor of love, because what is always desired is always asked. But this is not hidden from God, since that which comes from him returns to him. CI. The confession of sin is good, if healing also follow. For what does it profit to uncover the wound and not apply the medicine? CII. From this life, which is wholly a temptation, even in the most exalted saints, that perfection is not attained beyond which there remains no further ascent.
CIII. While the course of the present life is being run, even if he greatly advances whose outer man is corrupted and whose inner man is renewed, it is nevertheless necessary that, since he is subject to the condition of death, he bear the labors of decay. CIV. Man is indeed the image of God. And he who walks by the ways of righteousness tends toward the likeness of his Author. And yet, while he lives in this life, he meets with the disturbances of vanity. CV. The first grace of the divine gift is that it instructs us unto the confession of our humility, and makes us acknowledge that, if we do any good, we can do it through him without whom we can do nothing. CVI. The whole life of unbelievers is sin, and nothing is good without the highest Good.
For where the recognition of eternal and unchangeable truth is lacking, the virtue is false, even amid the best morals. CVII. Just as the foundation of a corporeal building is at the bottom, so the foundation of a spiritual building is at the top. An earthly construction begins from the earth; a heavenly edifice grows from a heavenly beginning. CVIII. God is then said to remember when he acts, and then to forget when he does not act. For neither does forgetfulness fall upon God, since he is in no way changed, nor recollection, since he forgets nothing. CIX. They see the wondrous works of God to whom they are of profit. For what is not understood, or whence one does not profit, is not seen. CX. Let truth not take away mercy, nor let mercy hinder truth.
For if you judge for mercy against truth, or as it were with rigid truth forget mercy, you will not walk in the way of the Lord, in which mercy and truth have met each other. CXI. The temptation of Christ is the instruction of the Christian. For disciples ought to be imitators of their master — not in working miracles, which no one requires, but in keeping the humility and patience to which the Lord invited us by his own example. CXII. As the root of all evils is covetousness, so the root of all goods is charity. CXIII. The Christian's cause for rightly rejoicing is not the present age, but the age to come.
Temporal things are to be so used that they do not harm eternal ones; just as, on the road along which pilgrims walk, what pleases is that which leads to the homeland. 114. He keeps the Sabbath ill who rests from good works. Rest from iniquity, however, ought to be perpetual, since a good conscience makes the mind not restless but tranquil. 115. When you do good, do it with gladness; for if you do any good thing sorrowfully, the good is done from you rather than by you. 116. If the good do not pass over into the ways of the wicked, there is still a great division even among those who dwell together. It is therefore not men, who can be corrected by the example of better people, but the iniquity of men that must be fled. 117. God approves that innocence whereby a man becomes innocent not through fear of punishment, but through love of righteousness.
For he who does not sin out of fear, although he does no harm to the one he wishes to harm, yet does the greatest harm to himself; and though abstaining from the wicked deed, he is nonetheless guilty by his will alone. 118. Better is a humble confession amid evil deeds than a proud boasting amid good ones. 119. Through the malice of an evil man the good man is scourged, and through a servant a son is corrected. 120. As night does not extinguish the stars of heaven, so worldly iniquity does not darken the minds of the faithful who cling to the firmament of Holy Scripture. 121. For sinning, man has abundance from his own power; but for doing good he is not sufficient of himself unless he is justified by Him who alone is just. 122. Great is the labor of the good: to endure contrary ways of life; and whoever is not offended by them makes little progress.