On the Flight from the World

1. The Law of the Cities of Refuge

The Law too teaches you that the world must be fled, and God followed. For what else does it teach, when it says: You shall appoint for yourselves cities of refuge, and they shall be refuges for you, to which every manslayer who has struck a soul unwillingly may flee? And below: Six cities shall be for refuges for you, three cities you shall give beyond the Jordan, and three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan? Openly indeed refuges have been set forth for those fleeing on account of this crime of manslaughter. But let us consider more deeply. There are four things which admonish us that the mysteries of this reading are to be looked into more profoundly. First, for what reason, out of these cities which fell by lot as the portion of the Levites, six cities were given as refuge to those laboring under the crime of manslaughter, and why not also the cities of the other tribes were assigned to this duty.

Second, for what reason the number six; for this number prescribed here does not seem to be idle, neither of more nor of fewer cities. Third, why three cities beyond the Jordan and three in the region of Canaan were appointed, which should be a refuge for those sinning. Fourth, why the reckoning and definition of time is included, within which the manslayer should dwell in the city of refuge, until the death of the high priest, and after the death of the high priest the manslayer should return to the city of his habitation. We must therefore speak of each of these, and in the order which we have proposed, resolve the questions raised.

2. The Levites as Fugitives from the World

Fittingly, therefore, the cities of the Levites given for refuge must first be explained. Suitably indeed it is seen to have been provided: because the Levites are fugitives from this world, that they may please God, leaving behind fatherland, parents, children, all kinship, that they may cleave to the one God. Wherefore it was said to Abraham also: Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and from the house of your father. But perhaps you may say: he was not a Levite. But he had Levi in his loins, as we read written to the Hebrews. And the Lord says to the Levites, when he speaks with his disciples, that is, with the apostles: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Although it has already been said to all: But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people unto adoption. The fullness has come, the remnants have ceased.

For Christ has called all, it is open to all indeed, that all should follow, to all the kingdom is set forth, and life eternal.

Therefore he whose portion is God ought to care for nothing except God, lest he be hindered by the burden of some other necessity. For whatever is bestowed upon other duties is taken away from the worship of religion and from this office of ours. For this is the true flight of the priest, the renunciation of household ties, and a certain estrangement from those most dear; that he who is eager to serve God should deny himself even to his own. Rightly, then, has the sanction of the eternal law commended the fugitive to the fugitive; that they who have forgotten this world should receive those who, condemning their sins and works, seek forgetfulness of their former life, and desire to blot out the worldly deeds which they have done. A fugitive, then, from his own kin is the minister of His sacred altar. Whence the Lord, as it were the prince of priests, giving the pattern to the Levites in the Gospel, said of himself: Who is my mother, or who are my brothers?

That is, I do not acknowledge mother, I do not recognize brothers, I know not kinsfolk. My mother and my brothers are they who hear the word of God, and do it. The minister, then, knows only the word of God, since he knows those in whom the Word of God works. And therefore he is an exile from the world, a fugitive from the body, a fugitive from the passions; he renounces all, that he may remain alone, as Elijah said: And I am left alone. But he was not alone with whom Christ was. And the Lord himself was left alone: But I am not, he says, alone, because the Father is with me.

3. The Levites' Authority over Those Who Sin

There is also this reason, that the Levites are ministers of God. And therefore their cities are assigned by the Law to manslayers fleeing, because it is their right to execute the divine commands regarding those who have committed a mortal crime. The Church knows not how to publish her own laws. She knows how to obey the command of the Lord's priest. Hear the Levite saying: I have delivered such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the sense of the flesh in us, then, struck by the Levitical sword, die, that our soul may live. For unless the sense of the flesh dies, there can be no fruit of eternal life.

4. The Six Cities of Refuge Explained

Now there are six cities of refuge, such that the first city is the knowledge of the Word, and a manner of living formed after His image. For whoever has entered upon that knowledge is safe from punishment, according as the Lord also says: Now you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. And elsewhere: Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. This, then, is the city as it were the metropolis, to which the other five cities of the Levites lie adjacent. The second city, the consideration of the divine working by which the world was created. The third city, the contemplation of royal power and eternal majesty. The fourth city, the contemplation of divine propitiation. The fifth city, the contemplation of the divine law, which prescribes what is to be done. The sixth city too, the portion of the law which prescribes what is not to be done.

How great is the abundance of divine mercy, how great the riches of His loving-kindness, that considering the pursuits and frailties of the human condition, by which we are led unwilling and reluctant into fault, and often, overcome by allurements, commit unwilling offenses, He sets before us various refuges, namely of six cities; that with the same number by which the world was formed, a remedy might be provided against worldly vices and the shipwrecks of this age.

5. The Remedies of Knowledge, Works, and Royal Power

The first remedy, then, is this: that if fault has crept in upon any man of good purpose, he, without any delay, if he wishes to have perfect security, should hasten to that very citadel of all things, where is the Word of God in that paternal bosom, that is, in the secret and inmost recess of God, where is the fountain of wisdom, whence in exchange for death he may draw the immortal drink of eternal life.

The second remedy is this: that he who cannot taste beforehand the knowledge of that good, and is somewhat slow either in wit or in the grasp of faith - since it is by the swift vigor of mind and keenness of intellect that one strives toward the heights of knowledge - should at least consider the works of the Lord, and from the things that have been made, contemplate the author of so great a work; since from these good things which exist in the constitution of this creature (for they are very good, as the Lord said), that supreme and eternal good is understood. What order of things is this? What discipline? What grace? Is not even a slow wit provoked by these to love its author? For if we love our parents, because they begot us, how much more ought we to love the creator of our parents, and the author of ourselves?

Therefore the operative power of God, though it is not seen, yet is estimated from its works, and the works betray the worker, so that He who is not comprehended may be understood. Whence the Lord also says: If you do not believe me, believe at least the works. Good, then, is this city also unto refuge, which testifies to the grace of its builder, and stirs our affection, that we may be more desirous of Him who seems to have bestowed upon us so great a beauty of this fabric. The third order is the contemplation of royal power, that we may be subject to the king, if we do not fail to render him honor as to a parent. For by fear of the one presiding, he who is ungrateful for salvation for the most part becomes obedient to power; that he may acknowledge the necessity of sobriety, who was unwilling and unable to acknowledge the grace of godliness. Necessity, then, corrects him whom godliness ought to have provoked.

6. The Three Cities of Image, Charity, and Fear

These are the three cities beyond the Jordan, given for refuge to more perfect prudence; that first we flee fault by the inducement of the soul, being conformed to the image of God. For thus we were created, God saying: Let us make man to our image and likeness. This, then, is the law of that first city. Then, if by the frailty of the flesh and the allurements of the world we cannot so form our mind, let us lighten sin by reverence for our paternal generation and by diligence as offspring. For charity covers a multitude of sins. He, then, who cannot be after the image of God, let him be after the fullness of charity. That city excludes fault, this one dissolves it. This, finally, is the law of the second city: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.

But if again they are of narrow and diminished spirit, who cannot receive the abundance and grace of charity, you have a third city; that the dread of divine power may make you sober, and fear may bend you. And this is the third law: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve. These, then, are the chief virtues, and therefore few, not many, are placed beyond the Jordan; that you may express, as it were an image, the archetype; that you may love, as a son, the father; that you may worship, as a subject, the king.

7. The Nearer Refuges for Those Who Have Fallen

But those who shall have crossed the Jordan—for the descent of the Jordan is what their crossing is called—those, then, who shall have descended from those higher virtues to these lower ones, that is, in whom integrity, charity, humility have wavered, have nearer refuges to seek, refuges closer to man; so that those who are liable to sins, and bent by involuntary vices, may hope that the Lord can be reconciled to them, if they seek pardon; may hope that they can be corrected, if they follow the precepts of the heavenly Testaments, by which we are either formed to innocence, or recalled from guilt. These, then, are the cities within the Jordan that follow, that we may propitiate God to ourselves, that we may follow what He commands, that we may avoid what He forbids.

Let there be, then, an eagerness to propitiate the Godhead, an obedience in following the precept, a caution against the forbidden transgression, by which we may venerate the propitiatory mercy of God, and the law-giving providence of His, either by compliance with what is instituted, or by avoidance of what is forbidden.

8. The Death of the High Priest as the Word

A fourth point remains, which he speaks concerning the death of the high priest: For until that time the manslayer shall be in the city of refuge, until the great priest dies. In this the interpretation according to the letter halts. First, the flight itself is determined more by lot than by the equity of any examination; then, in equal causes, an unequal outcome—for it could happen that, after the refuge of that manslayer, the great priest might die the following day. But what of a judgment that is under such uncertainty? Therefore, since the letter halts, let us seek the spiritual sense. Who is this great priest, but the Son of God, the Word of God, whose advocacy for us we have with the Father, who is exempt from all sins, both voluntary and accidental, in whom all things that are on earth and in heaven consist?

For all things are bound by the bond of the Word, and are contained by His power, and stand fast in Him; since in Him all things were created, and in Him all fullness dwells. And therefore all things remain, because He does not allow those things to be dissolved which He Himself has bound, since they consist in His will. For He constrains and rules by His command whatever He wills, and binds it by natural concord. The Word of God, therefore, lives, and lives especially in the souls of the pious, nor does the fullness of the Godhead ever die. For the everlasting Godhead never dies, nor the eternal power of God. Indeed, He dies for us, if He is separated from our soul—not that He is corrupted by death, but that our mind is dissolved and stripped of its union with Him. For the true death is the separation of the Word and the soul. Then straightway the soul begins to lie open to voluntary sins.

1. The Apostle's Testimony to These Virtues

We have these kinds of virtues, not shadowed forth, but expressed, in the Apostle, when he says: So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also who are at Rome. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes, to the Jew first, and to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in it, that is, in him who believes. Then he added: From faith to faith, as it is written: The just man lives by faith. In whom, then, is the righteousness of God revealed, but in him who is conformed to the image of the Son of God? You have the first precept, according to the image of God. The second, because His invisible things are understood through the things that are made, that is, His everlasting power and Godhead are known by His works—this is the operative virtue.

Third, concerning the imperial power, because the Word of God is royal, and judicial, and full of priestly justice, reserving for those who shall come into His judgment the recompense of good deeds and the retribution of evil ones, of which the Apostle says: But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things. And so he who has known the truth and righteousness of God ought not to do those things which are worthy of death. There follows the goodness of God, propitiatory indeed, of which he says: Do you despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering? Do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? That is, it ought to lead you. He provokes you, because God is good, so that you may be able to hope for the forgiveness of your sins. For He who is ready to forgive does not wish to avenge.

He has also appended the legislation, that is, the law-giving; so that if anyone, through contemplation of the divine goodness, becomes lax, and is provoked rather to negligence than to repentance, he may follow the law. Since, he says, as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.

2. The Natural and Written Law and Its Limits

But the law is twofold, natural and written. The natural is in the heart; the written is on tablets. All, therefore, are under the law, but the natural. Yet it is not for all that each should be a law unto himself. But he is a law unto himself who does of his own accord the things that are of the law, and shows the work of the law written in his own heart. You have what the good things of the law are; which, however, we ought not only to know or hear perfunctorily, but also to do. For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. You have also learned what things are evil. First, nature herself is the mistress of good work. You know that one must not steal, and if your servant steals from you, you beat him; and if anyone should attempt your wife, you think he ought to be prosecuted. What, then, you reprove in others, do you yourself commit?

You who preach that one must not steal, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? There followed also the law which was given through Moses. But through the law comes the knowledge of sin. You have also received what you should avoid, and do you do those things which you know to be forbidden? But what does the law accomplish, except that the whole world should become subject to God; since it was given not only to the Hebrew, but also called the stranger, and did not exclude the proselyte. But because the law was able to shut every mouth, but was not able to convert the mind, therefore that final remedy of that last city was owed, in which there might be a saving refuge; that the death of the prince of priests might free us from all dread of death, and strip us of fear.

3. Christ as the Eternal High Priest

Who is that, but He of whom it is read: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sin of the world [lacuna] Whom God has set forth as a propitiator, through faith in His blood, for the showing of His righteousness. But understand that He Himself is the great prince of priests. The Father swore concerning Him, saying: Thou art a priest for ever. Rightly forever, in that all others are temporal, under sin, but He has a priesthood that cannot be transgressed: all are under death, but He is ever living; since He who can save others—how could He Himself perish? For such, he says, was fitting for us. A correct expression. Since even among those who had a discernment of words and expressions, a like phrase is found, someone saying: A loftier place than was fitting for the victors. I have not passed over this so that we may know that the Apostle uses words natural rather than common, or according to art.

Such, then, he says, was fitting for us as prince, priest, just, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. This, therefore, is the Word, which, dwelling above the heavens, illuminates all things. Whence also He is read to have been anointed naturally by God the Father; because He is the true light, which illuminates every man coming into this world. This is the Word of God, in whom is the great priesthood, whose intelligible vestments Moses describes in that garment of the prince of priests, with which He clothes the world by His virtue, and, as if arrayed in it, shines forth in all things. For He put on the kinship of the human race through the assumption of this body, and unspeakable charity, pouring Himself into all by the Spirit and the fullness of His Godhead, of whose fullness we have all received; that we may know the surpassing charity of the knowledge of Christ, and be filled unto all the fullness of God.

For Christ is the head of all, from whom the whole body is drawn forth, and joined together by mutual connection, receiving its increase unto the building up of charity. This, therefore, is the Word that is pre-eminent, which He says to Moses in the building of that ark of the testimony: You shall put into the ark whatever testimonies I shall give you, and you shall make the placing of the propitiatory. And below: You shall place the propitiatory over the ark above, and you shall put in the testimonies which I shall give; and from there I will make myself known to you, and I will speak to you from above, that is, from there where He is above the heavens, where He is with the Father, from there I will speak to you.

1. The Call to Flee from Sin

Let us, therefore, approach, supported by the pledge of faith, and lifted up by its oars, to that seat of grace, fleeing this world and its contagion. Now this is to flee: to abstain from sins, to assume the form of the virtues after the likeness and image of God, to extend our powers to the imitation of God according to the measure of our capacity. For the perfect man is the image and glory of God. Whence also the Lord says: Be perfect, as your Father also who is in heaven is perfect. This, therefore, is to be like God: to have righteousness, to have wisdom, and to be perfect in virtue. For God is without sin. And therefore he who flees sin is according to the image of God. There is, then, no doubt that he who abstains from sin, flees. Whence the Apostle also cries out: Flee fornication.

For the enticements of sins pursue us, lust pursues us; but flee it as a raging mistress, who, if she seizes you, allows no rest by day or night, but harries, burns, sets on fire. Flee avarice, lest it seize you inwardly. Flee envy, which is accustomed to tear not only strangers but, much more, the one whom it has possessed. Flee treachery, lest it entangle you in its nets. Whence also the Lord says: But when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another. And if in that other they shall persecute you, flee into another. Amen I say to you, you shall not have finished all the cities of Israel, till the Son of man come.

For although He seems to counsel flight to us on account of the weakness of the flesh, yet he flees better who flees worldly enticement; so that he may not be held by anxiety for his riches, nor by contemplation of treasure, nor by desire of this life; but with the mind's intent directed straight, may hasten to the glory of the heavenly kingdom, may hurry toward the crown, and not be called back from the suffering of his body by the gaze of earthly things.

2. Flight as a Figure of Heavenly Reward

Flight, then, is death, either celebrated, or shadowed forth. And perhaps he expresses those cities of lawful refuge; that we might take refuge in the heights of the virtues, which the good money-lender elsewhere dispenses as rewards, saying: Because you have been faithful in a little, you shall have power over ten cities. The old law knew cities; but because He fulfilled the law, He who could say: I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, grants a more perfect number as recompense.

3. Biblical Examples of Righteous Flight

Let us not, then, be ashamed to flee. For this flight is glorious, to flee from the face of sin. Thus Jacob fled, at his mother's urging. For Rebecca said: Arise and flee into Mesopotamia. Thus also Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh the king, lest the royal court defile him, lest power ensnare him. Indeed, he judged the reproach of Christ more precious than the riches of Egypt. Thus also David fled from the face of King Saul, from the face of Absalom. And indeed, in fleeing, he added increase to his piety, since he both spared the one lying in wait, and prayed for the safety of the parricide. Thus also the people of the Hebrews fled, so that their faith and life might open a way for them amid the waves. That flight was a path of innocence, a road of virtue, an assumption of piety.

I dare to say, thus also Jonah fled to Tarshish, not by flight of the body, but by ascent of the mind, who rose even to the likeness of Christ, so that he became a type of Christ. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so, He says, shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. For if he had not thus fled, he would never have been heard from the whale's belly.

4. Jacob Sent to the House of Wisdom

But if you doubt, let Rebecca teach you how blessed was the flight which Jacob undertook. Rebecca urged it. And, she said, flee into Mesopotamia; Isaac says: Arise, go into Mesopotamia, into the house of Bathuel. In hymns or oracles, according to many (as has been written before us), Bathuel is called wisdom, but by the Latin interpretation it signifies daughter of God. Jacob, then, is sent into the house of wisdom, and is admonished to take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, who dwelt in Haran, which signifies caverns, in which is the species of the senses, which are as it were in the caverns of the body, as sight in the eyes, hearing in the ears, smell in the nostrils, taste in the mouth. For he who delights in this world and exults in the pleasures of the body is subject to the passions of the senses, and dwells and abides among them.

Wherefore Rebecca tells him to dwell with him but a few days, not a long time; lest he be colored by bodily pleasures, and be caught by the allurements of the world.

5. Learning the Discipline of the Senses

She persuades him, however, to dwell there, that he may learn more diligently the discipline of the sense of virtue, and as it were certain sites and regions of the flesh, that he may know himself, and understand the vehemence of the flesh, for what and for what cause he was created, and in what manner each sense operates. Whoever, it says, has looked upon a woman to lust after her. The eye that so looks does ill. Let the eye then see, and perform its own office, not be directed to a fall by the command of a slippery mind, so as to turn what is a function into a vice. A brief time, then, is given for knowing, or rather for testing, the senses, and perhaps the first beginnings of tender adolescence; and immediately he is called back, lest he waver too long upon the slippery ground, and the inner traces of the soul be submerged in a certain divided flood of this body and of the world.

But when he shall either have made trial, or have stood upon unstable and uncertain and moist ground, he is called back by his mother, patience or perseverance, who says: I will send to you, and fetch you from there; so that even there, on the slippery ground, you may find the safe harbor of wisdom, which will not allow you to be tossed as in a shipwreck, and, having returned, you may be known to persevere in the worship of God, and be in the assembly of the nations, signifying by his faith that the Church of the nations was to be gathered.

6. Jacob's Flock and the Search for Idols

Having been instructed, then, in these disciplines of patience and perseverance, Jacob, having set out, acquired for himself a union with wisdom as consort of his purpose, rich in the dowry of prudence, with whom he might pass through the seasons of life without any offense. Adding, then, the treasure of wisdom, he established for himself a flock of varied sheep: but that flock rational, shining with the diversity of very many virtues. Whence also the boasting of his flesh was cut down, which the numbness of the thigh signifies, the interpretation of the sacred mystery being preserved. By these virtues, therefore, as by certain steps, his mind ascended into heaven, and knew the secrets of God, and was confirmed and filled; so that Laban, searching his house, found nothing empty in him, nothing vacant, no idols, no image of vanity. For with him there was not an image, but the truth: not the effigy of idleness, but the solid form of justice, and the intelligible expression of true virtue.

And so Laban searched his spiritual house and found no images. For it was full, not of figures, but of business.

7. The Blindness of the Sodomites and the Prince of This World

He might have found, however, the foundations and summits of the virtues, had he not brought with him blindness of heart and the darkness of a faithless mind. Accordingly, the Sodomites, steeped in that blindness of wickedness, could by no means find the door of holy Lot. For how could an impious mind see either the going out or the coming in of a holy man? The Lord himself also says in the Gospel: For the prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me. How could he find nothing in him in whom the fullness of divinity dwelt, and dwelt bodily, from whom power went forth and healed all? How could he find nothing in the solidity of virtue, in the abundance of wisdom, of understanding, of justice? You yourself said, Lord: I am full; you yourself said: Put your hand into my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing. He who did not believe put in his hand, and found you both Lord and God.

Not you, therefore, are empty, but he, the blind and empty prince of this world, who knows how to discern and to find only his own things; the things that are Christ's he knows not how to recognize.

8. Christ's Sinlessness and Possession of All Things

Or if it be as many hold: He will find in me not nothing, that is, he will not find malice in me, because malice is nothing: he will not find death, because he is not dead. But how could he find death in him who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not as though they were? He will not find, it says, sin in me, who took away the sin of the world. For how does he have nothing, who has all things? And, what is more, he has all things which the Father has, as he himself says: All things that the Father has are mine.

1. Fleeing the World's Vanity and Loosing Earthly Ties

Let us flee, then, from this place, where there is nothing, where everything that is thought to be magnificent is empty, where even he who thinks himself to be something is nothing, and altogether is not. I have seen, it says, the wicked exalted and lifted up above the cedars of Libanus, and I passed by, and behold he was not. And do you pass by as David did, pass by as a good servant, that it may be said to you: Pass by, sit down. Pass by as Moses did, that you may see the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and see a great vision. This is the great vision, but if you wish to see it, loose the shoe from your feet, loose every bond of iniquity, loose the girdles of the world, leave behind the shoe which is earthly. For this reason Jesus sent forth the apostles without shoe, gold, or silver, lest they should carry earthly things with them.

For he who seeks the good is praised not for his shoe, but for the swiftness and beauty of his feet, as Scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of those who evangelize peace, who evangelize good things! Loose, then, the shoe of your feet, that they may be beautiful for evangelizing. Loose, it says, not bind. Loose, that you may pass by, and find that he whom you had marveled at on earth as wicked is nothing there, can do nothing. Pass by, then, that is, flee from the lands where malice is, where avarice is. Wherefore David says to you: Turn away from evil, and do good. To turn away is certainly to flee. But evil is on earth, good is in heaven. Whence he also adds: Seek peace, and follow it. Peace is in heaven. Finally, coming from heaven, he says: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you.

Therefore, since evils are to be fled and turned away from; and evils are on earth, iniquities are on earth: let us flee earthly things, lest iniquities seize us, which even seized holy David, as he himself testifies, saying: My iniquities have seized me, and I was not able to see; because by the smoke of iniquity the eye of the soul is blinded, so that it cannot see the things that are bright. So, then, Laban also could not see the goods of Jacob, nor could the prince of this world see the glory of Christ.

2. The Meaning of Jacob's Sojourn with Laban

But perhaps you may say: Why then was Jacob sent to Laban, if Laban is reprehensible? If we consider the name, it means "white" in Latin. Jacob, then, is bidden to go forth to more splendid things. But since he was carnal, we better understand more splendid things of this life. As one not yet perfect, he goes first to him, in whose presence he might for a time exult in his light. But he had sons worse than himself, that is, a name more tolerable than their deeds. And therefore, both by the counsel of his mother, and by divine oracle, and by the very will of the discipline of Jacob the lover, he is quickly forsaken and left behind.

3. Rachel's Hidden Images and the Church's True Substance

Now sacred Rachel hides the images, that is, the Church, or prudence, because the Church knows not empty ideas, nor the vain figures of images: but knows the true substance of the Trinity. In short, she abolished the shadow, she manifested the splendor of glory. Let us leave the shadow, then, we who seek the sun: let us forsake the smoke, we who follow the light. Smoke is iniquity; because as smoke is to the eyes, so are iniquities to the life that uses them. Shadow is life: for this our life on earth is a shadow, as Job said. What indeed is there here but temptations? All time is in anxiety, all life is in troubles. In the midst, it says, of snares we walk. And another, in the way in which he walked, complained of snares stretched out for him but hidden, lest, caught, he should fall. He wished to flee like a sparrow: but the snare was not yet broken. Flight, he says, has perished from me.

His wings were weighed down by that dark water in the clouds of the air, and perhaps he could not fly out. Finally he sought to receive those wings, that he might fly away and rest, as it is written: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away, and be at rest? For where the flight is, there is the rest. Finally, elsewhere he says: If you sleep among the midst of lots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver.

4. Resolving the Contradiction About David's Flight

But perhaps you may say: How then does he here say that flight has perished from him, who had said above: If I take my wings before the light? Is this not a contradiction? Far from it. For many are the contests of the just. Does the athlete wrestle but once? How many times, after many crowns, is he defeated in another contest! How often does he who had often conquered sometimes waver, and remain in uncertainty! And often it happens that a strong man meets a strong man, and greater contests arise, where there are greater proofs of strength. So David, when he sought flight, that he might escape his adversary, and did not find his wings, wavered in a doubtful contest. Since where he has his wings in his power, the title of the psalm is "unto the end", that is, unto the perfection and consummation of victory. Finally, as a victor he says: Lord, you have proved me and known me: you have known my sitting down and my rising up.

Rightly he had the faculty of flying, who had received the wings of the resurrection. But here he is still in the cave, that is, in the flesh, in a certain den of this body, contending with King Saul, son of hardness, and with the power of that intelligible prince, who is not seen, but understood. Whence also the title of the psalm is "Understanding", which nevertheless David, placed in the flesh, enclosed: but that he might enclose it, he deserved by praying. Finally, he began from the voice of prayer.

5. David's Prayer for the Hand of Christ

Add to this, that that psalm is said in the person of the Savior; this one in the person of David, who did not have victory in his own power, but hoped for it from Christ; and yet he himself, after he had spread out his hands to God, as it were the wings of his soul, and fled to the Lord, and asked for the leading of the Holy Spirit, whereby he might know the way by which he could ascend, saw the heavens bowed down, that Christ might descend, and asked that he might lift him up with his hand. Or perhaps he no longer sought his own wings for this reason, because, made more perfect, he desired the hand of Christ.

6. Borrowing Wings to Flee the World

Whoever, then, wishes to be lifted up by the hand of Christ, let him first fly out himself, let him have his own wings. Whoever flees the world, let him have wings; and if he does not have his own (lest perhaps he alone have his own who has the power of flying) if, I say, he does not have his own, let him receive from him who has. Whoever flees the world, then, flies: Behold, it says, I have gone far off in flight, and remained in the wilderness. David, then, flew away like the night raven in a dwelling, like the sparrow alone upon a housetop. But if you refer this to Christ, he flew away in the suffering of the body, that he might protect the peoples of the nations under the shadow of his wings. He flew away in his divinity, he remained in body, and dwelt in the desert; that the children of the desert might become more numerous than those of her who had a husband.

Let us follow, then, that body, that we too may rise again. For where the body is, there also are the eagles.

7. Fleeing to the Mountains for Refuge

Let him who cannot fly like an eagle, flutter like a sparrow. Let him who cannot fly to heaven, fly to the mountains; let him flee before the lowlands, which are quickly corrupted by moisture, and let him pass over to the mountains. Abraham's nephew crossed over to Mount Segor and was saved; but she who, being held back by womanly feeling, could not ascend, lost her salvation. Draw near to the eternal mountains, the Lord says through the prophet Micah: Arise, depart hence, for this is not your rest. Because of filthiness you have been corrupted with corruption, you have suffered persecution. And the Lord says: Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, where is Mount Sion, and the city of peace, Jerusalem, built not of earthly but of living stones, and the ten thousand angels, the Church of the firstborn, the spirits of the perfect, the God of the just, who has spoken better in his own blood than Abel.

For that one cried out for vengeance, this one for pardon; that one accused his brother's sin, this one remitted the sin of the world; that one betrayed the crime, this one covered it, according to what is written: Blessed are they whose sins are covered.

1. The Swiftness and Fruitfulness of True Flight

But let him who flees, flee swiftly, lest, being overtaken, he lack his own wings: for it is granted to others, needing wings not their own, that is, needing assistance given from above. Let him swiftly plunder this world, as the Hebrew plundered Egypt. Let him who is in labor, bring forth; lest, with the womb of his mind burdened and weighed down with iniquities, he be unable to flee: and let him flee not as one carrying a nursing infant, but as one unencumbered; not bearing a little one, but presenting one perfect in Christ; let him flee not as one at leisure on the sabbath, but as a workman at his task; not as a barren woman in the cold, but as one rich in the harvest. For it was said for this reason: Pray that your flight be not in winter, or on the sabbath. This flight, therefore, is fruitful in virtues, not barren of merits.

This flight knows not the cold of fear, the trembling of death, the contraction of anxiety, the idleness of dissolution, the holidays of wantonness, the sluggishness of slowness: but it requires for the heavenly life an untiring traveler, a strenuous competitor for the higher kingdom, a rich farmer, who gathers his fruits, and in gathering, seizes them.

2. What the Lord Requires of Man

For what else is required of you, O man, but that you fear the Lord, seek him, walk after him, hold fast to his ways? In what, he says, shall I grasp the Lord? If I grasp him in burnt offerings? Not in ten thousand kids, not in thousands of rams, not in the fruits of impiety is the Lord reconciled, and sins redeemed: but in the good life the grace of the Lord is grasped. It has been declared to you, man, he says, what is good, or what the Lord requires of you. What else, but that you do justice, and love mercy, and be ready to go with the Lord your God? The Gospel says to you therefore: Arise, let us go hence. The law says to you: You shall walk after the Lord your God. You have learned how to flee from here; why do you delay? The Gospel says to you again: Generation of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come?

And it says this to those who were coming to the baptism of repentance.

3. Elijah's Flight to the Desert

Therefore repentance is a good flight: the grace of God is a good flight, into which the fugitive is taken up: the desert is a good flight, to which Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist fled. Elijah fled the woman Jezebel, that is, the outpouring of vanity, and fled to Mount Horeb, which signifies drying up; that the carnal flow of vanity might be dried up in him, and that he might know God more fully. For he was at the torrent Chorrad, which means knowledge, where he might draw the abounding stream of divine knowledge, fleeing the world so completely that he did not even seek food for this body, except what the ministering birds had brought; although his food was for the most part not earthly. Finally, for forty days he walked in the strength of the food he had received. Surely so great a prophet was not fleeing a woman, but the world.

Or did he fear death, who had offered himself to one seeking him, and who said to the Lord: Take my soul, enduring weariness of this life, not desire of it? But he was fleeing worldly enticement, and the contagion of a spotted way of life, and the sacrileges of an impious and transgressing nation.

4. The Strange Woman and the Pursuit of Good

Solomon too, under the figure of that woman, sets forth the corruption of this world, and teaches that the arts of harlots are to be avoided. This is the strange and fornicating woman, from whom he exhorts you to guard yourself. Do not let your heart incline to the ways of the world, but place it in the hand of the Lord, in whose hand is the heart of the king. For he who rules himself, which is more than to command others, has his heart in the hand of God, and God turns it wherever he wills. It is no wonder if he who is of perfect goodness turns it to good. Let us therefore be in the hand of God, that we may seek that good, that incorruptible and unchangeable good, of which the prophet Amos says: Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord God almighty will be with you. How did you say: We have hated evil things, and loved good things?

Where therefore the good God is, there are good things, which David desired to see, and believed he would see, as he himself says: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. For those are good things which abide forever, which cannot be corrupted by the change of time or age.

5. Clinging to the Good That Is God

Among those good things is he who has sought God and found him. For where a man's heart is, there also is his treasure. For the Lord is not accustomed to deny the good gift to those who ask. Therefore, since the Lord is good, and is good especially to those who wait upon him, let us cling to him, let us be with him with our whole soul, with our whole heart, with all our strength; that we may be in his light, and see his glory, and enjoy the grace of supernal delight. Let us therefore raise up our minds to that good, and be in it, and live in it, and cling to it, which is above every mind and every consideration, and which enjoys perpetual peace and tranquillity. But peace is above every mind, and above every sense. This is the good which penetrates all things, and in it we all live, and from it we hang; but it has nothing above itself, but is divine; for none is good, but God alone.

Therefore what is good is divine; and what is divine is good. And therefore it is said: When you open your hand, all things shall be filled with goodness. For through the goodness of God all good things are rightly given to us, in which nothing evil is mixed. These good things Scripture promises to the faithful, saying: You shall eat the good things of the land. Let us therefore be like that good one, that we may obtain what is good. The good which is without iniquity, and without deceit, and without harshness, with grace, with piety, with sincerity, and benevolence, charity, and justice. And thus goodness, like a fruitful mother, embraces all the virtues.

1. Choosing Life Over Death

There is, therefore, no small cause why we ought to flee from here, that we may pass from evils to goods, from uncertain things to things faithful and full of truth, from death to life. The Lord himself also, by saying: I have set before you good and evil, life and death, showed that life is good, but life eternal. For if this life is subject to the world and its malignity, then surely that other life is good, which is not corrupted and changed, which degenerates by no vice, which is acquired by virtue. Let us therefore flee the wickedness of this world, in which, he says, the days themselves are evil; and let us flee without sluggishness.

And so Isaiah cries out: Strengthen the feeble hands, and the weak knees, that is, not the knees of the body, but of the soul, be strengthened; that the step of the mind, directed toward the heights of heaven, may be lifted up, so that its guidance may be more solid, its life more mature, its grace more full, its prudence more circumspect.

2. The Meaning of True Flight

For this is to flee: to know whither you are tending, to lighten oneself from the world, to lighten oneself from the body; lest one again vainly exalt himself, and, puffed up in the mind of his flesh, fail to hold the head, and it be said of such: They fled, and did not see. But this is to flee from here: to die to the elements of this world, to hide one's life in God, to turn aside from corruptions, not to be tainted by desires, not to know the things that belong to this world, which brings forth for us various sorrows; it empties, it fills, and having emptied, fills again. And all these things are empty and vain, in which there is no solid fruit. The rich man died, and has nothing; because he is not rich toward God: and therefore foolish, because wisdom is the worship of God, but to abstain from evils is discipline.

3. The Mark of Cain and the Persistence of Malice

Who then would not flee the place of malice, the workshop of wickedness, which knows not how to perish? Indeed, it was not without purpose that a sign was placed upon Cain, lest anyone should kill him; so that it might be signified that malice is not extinguished and taken away from the earth. Cain feared lest he be killed, because he did not know how to flee. For malice is increased and heaped up by its very exercise, and is without moderation, without end, deciding by deceit and fraud, which is betrayed by its own deeds and by the blood of those slain, just as Cain also was betrayed. Malice, then, moves about upon the earth, and wanders here; and therefore we pray that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven, that here too there may be innocence. Thus malice, since it no longer has a place there, roams here, rages here, and pours itself out, unswallowed by that worldwide flood, unburned by the fire of Sodom.

Indeed, it later sprouted more heavily in the seed-plots, laying even parricidal and sacrilegious hands upon the very author of the salvation of all. The law condemns the deed, it does not remove the malice. The Lord Jesus himself condemned sin, but deferred its author; that there might be one through whom the just might be tried. For since God did not make evil, but the wickedness of the devil brought it in, God deferred vengeance; that the devil might be conquered by those very ones whom he had deceived.

4. Serpentine Wisdom and Satan's Fall Like Lightning

Those who have been deceived are therefore put to trial, so that they may both pay the price of their easy compliance, and take up the pursuit of virtue, the diligence of caution. Whence he says: Be wise as serpents. Why as serpents? That he too may be despoiled of what is his own, and that he who wished to strip others may lose what belongs to himself—not poisons, but the merits of his nature. Finally, he is cast down when you rise up. For it is written: I saw Satan falling from heaven like lightning. Not lightning, he says, but like lightning; because he lost his own light, which he had before he wished to take away your light from you. But you might perhaps say that we also read of the Savior, that as lightning flashing forth from under heaven [lacuna] so shall also be the coming of the Son of man. Rightly here too, like lightning, because above lightning. For lightning is from under heaven; but the true light is above heaven.

Therefore Satan is like lightning, because he lost what he had; but you have received back what you had lost.

5. The Curse Pronounced on the Serpent

For the sentence is not resolved with regard to him as it is with regard to you. For the grace of Christ which released you, bound him fast. For the curse remains directed against the serpent because of your deception. For thus it was said to him: Cursed are you above all the cattle of the earth. For he is the common enemy of all, who was the foe of the good, and is condemned on behalf of those whom he had not yet harmed; since he who harmed man, to whom all those things are subject, harmed all things. For he broke the common law, by which he himself also is subjected to man along with the rest. Therefore his curse is burdened with the common hatred and execration of all. But the kind of condemnation is not death, but lasting punishment: Upon your breast, he says, and your belly you shall crawl.

For guilty conscience had to be pressed down, and malice brought forth, and the fraudulent secret, as it were, banished from the face of God: at the same time it is shown that malice is earthly, which bends back down to the earth. Finally he added: And you shall eat earth all the days of your life.

6. The Serpent as a Figure of Malice

By these things indeed the nature of the serpent seems to be described, but rather every vessel of malice is described, every serpent of wickedness, who casts himself down into his belly, and shuts up his poison within himself, and rolls it within, in his own breast, slippery in his own thoughts, and walking upon his own frauds, entangling himself in his own deceits, ever moving and stirring up his poisons when he thinks, trampling also upon his belly, that is, the seed-plot of his heart. Whence David beautifully says: Sinners are estranged from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly, they have spoken falsehoods. Their fury is after the likeness of a serpent, like that of the deaf asp that stops her ears, which will not hear the voice of enchanters; and of the sorcerer, when he is charmed by the wise.

For this reason too that saying seems beautifully put which we read in the prophetic book: My belly, my belly, I am pained; because there is malice where there ought to be innocence: and that part labors more which in us ought to be the more tranquil: and it is trampled by the footprints of wickedness, goaded by claws, shaken by a certain advance and increase of iniquity, where the generative seed-plot of eternal posterity is. This indeed seems to be referred to the fact that he grieved that the sons he had created and received had perished, but much more because he had no seed-plot of the Word in his belly. Therefore he calls it his belly, as though most precious. For precious is the womb of the mind, in which the fruitful crop of counsels is wont to sprout by the seed of the Word, and certain members of the whole of life and of virtues and disciplines are wont to be formed.

7. The Serpent's Enmity and the Gospel Shoe

But that we may return to our proposal, because God judged that malice was for the time to be restrained rather than abolished, he says to the serpent: And I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed. She shall watch thy head, and thou her heel. Where there are enmities, there is discord, and the zeal of doing harm: where the zeal of doing harm is, there malice is placed. Therefore under the discord between the serpent and the woman lies the malice of discord. Malice, then, has not been taken away. Finally it was reserved to the serpent to watch the heel of the woman and of her seed, whereby he might do harm, and pour in his poison. Let us therefore not walk in earthly things, and the serpent will not be able to harm us. Let us take up the evangelical shoe by which the serpent's poison is shut out, his bite blunted, that our feet may be shod with the Gospel.

And perhaps for this reason Moses is bidden to loose the shoe of his feet, that he might take up the shoe of the Gospel; or because it was owed not to Moses, that is, not to the prophets, but to the apostles, to preach the Gospel. That is the sentence pronounced against the serpent, which we spoke of above. Let us consider also what sort of sentence was directed against man.

8. Christ Bearing the Curse of Sinful Flesh

Cursed is he who is the author of the fault: but he who was deceived by another's fraud is not cursed; yet because he did not keep the command of God, he is condemned to the labor of his own works. The earth indeed is cursed, but in the works of the sinner; and it is cursed until it be resolved into earth. Therefore Jesus took on flesh, that he might abolish the curse of sinful flesh; and he was made a curse for us, that blessing might swallow up curse, integrity sin, indulgence the sentence, life death. For he also took on death, that the sentence might be fulfilled, that satisfaction might be made to the judgment: Curse of sinful flesh even unto death. Nothing therefore was done against the sentence of God, since the condition of the divine sentence has been fulfilled. For the curse extends unto death, but after death comes grace. We are therefore dead to the world, why do we still make decisions for the world?

We are dead with Christ, why do we still relate the acts of this life; that the life of Christ also may be manifested in us. Let us therefore no longer live that life of ours, but the life of Christ, a life of innocence, a life of chastity, a life of simplicity, and of all virtues. We have risen with Christ; let us live in him, let us ascend in him; that the serpent may not be able to find on earth our heel to wound.

1. Fleeing to God in Mind Though in Body

Let us flee from here. You can flee in mind, even if you are held back in body. You can be here, and yet be present to the Lord, if your soul cleave to him, if you walk after him in your thoughts, if you follow his ways by faith, not by sight, if you take refuge in him. For he is a refuge and strength, to whom David says: To thee I have fled for refuge, and I have not been deceived. Therefore since God is a refuge, and God is in heaven, and above the heavens: certainly one must flee from here to that place, where there is peace, where there is rest from works, where we may feast on the great sabbath, as Moses said: And the sabbaths of the land shall be for you meat. For it is a banquet, full of joy and tranquility, to rest in Christ, and to see his delight. We, then, who have fled for refuge to God, shall we return to the world?

We who have died to sin, shall we seek sins again? We who have renounced the world and its use, shall we again cling in its mire?

2. Using the World as Though Not Using It

Let us flee from here, for the time is short. Hear how you should flee: And let those who have wives be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though not weeping; and those who rejoice, as though not rejoicing; and those who buy, as though not possessing; and those who use this world, as though not using it. For the fashion of this world passes away. Let not our works, then, pass away along with the passing fashion of the world, lest we too pass away with it; but let us remain in the truth. If we remain in Christ, we remain in the truth, and we shall remain with him, and we shall not pass away, but we shall say: The blessing of the Lord be upon you, we have blessed you in the name of the Lord. For those who pass away cannot say this, since those passing along the way did not say: The blessing of the Lord be upon you, as the Prophet said.

And so, if we wish that our works not pass away, let us not let the commandments of God pass away, let us not let pass by the diligence of seeking the Lord Jesus, of earning his grace. That woman did not let him pass by, who, entering even into the house of the Pharisee where Christ was reclining, poured ointment upon his feet.

3. Joseph's Search and the Meaning of Dothaim

Let us not let pass by the advancement of any discipline, just as the young Joseph also did not let it pass by; for he sought his brothers, and hastened to the place where they were pasturing the sheep; and when he learned that they were in Dothaim, he went there. Now by that word Dothaim is signified a fitting failing—that is, no ordinary failing of vain opinions, but a perfect and full one—in which lies the soul's progress. For the wise man, when he diminishes, adds. For worldly opinions fail, which are compared to weak women. Whence it is beautifully said, to show that Sarah had come to such progress that she might bring forth laughter and joy: It had ceased, it says, to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Good, then, is the failing of desires, the failing of vanity; because it is an increase of truth. Whence holy David also says: My soul has fainted for thy salvation.

For she who had yielded was about to bring forth, and God had also promised it: she was to bring forth joy, and that sober intoxication of gladness: to bring forth before the time expected, by the swiftness of ready wit, a birth of wisdom. Finally, you have also concerning other Hebrew women, that the Hebrew women bring forth before the midwives come; because the souls of the just do not wait for arts and disciplines for the sake of kinds of invention, nor do they require the aids of begetting: but they pour forth their offspring spontaneously, and forestall expectation.

4. Jacob's Swiftness in Discovery and Diligence

No less swift to discover than to carry out was Jacob, to whom, when his mother told him to bring food to his father, we see that kinds of definitions were supplied. For he both quickly discovered, and testified God as the author of his discoveries, wherein both the palm of diligence and the fruitfulness of talent are signified. The first definition, then, is in discovery: what is discovered is sought; and what is sought belongs to time; what belongs to time surely belongs to diligence. But what forestalls the use of time, God pours in, God gives: and what God gives belongs to nature, not to diligence. Talent, then, is of divine gift: and what is of divine gift, this is of nature. Talent, then, is of nature, discovery of diligence: the one is without time, the other needs time. And so the one is present in time, the other is sought out over a span of time: the one is above us, the other pertains to us.

5. Isaac's Blessing on Jacob's Swift Answer

So then, when his father sought the food of the word (for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God: such food Isaac was seeking, such food Peter hungered for, when he saw the mysteries of the gentile people about to believe), Esau had no food of spiritual and quicker wit at hand. While the one hunts and searches, and prepares to offer a harsh and rustic speech, Jacob forestalls him by swift discovery, ministering a sweet word with a mild and almost domestic answer, whereby he might soothe and delight him. Whence the father, marveling, said: What is this that thou hast found so quickly, my son? Jacob answered: What the Lord thy God delivered into my hands. The first definition is in the question, the second in the answer. The father, then, finding all things full, whether of talent or of diligence, concluded with the consummation of a definition, saying: Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field, which the Lord has blessed.

For a field has both a natural talent of fertility, and the temporal diligence of cultivation, and rightly there is fullness in that in which neither is lacking. At the same time, in adding: Which the Lord has blessed, he seems to have preferred the grace of nature to the labor of cultivation. And Esau confirmed it, saying: Justly is his name called Jacob. For he has supplanted me now twice, and has taken away my birthright.

6. The Gift of Wit over the Labor of the Hunt

But perhaps you may say: In what did he delay, who was sent by his father to hunt? But consider that the father himself declared that he could not have ready what was spiritually being sought; and therefore, because he was lacking in wit, he demanded that the aid of diligence be added. He also warns of speed, who says: Take thy bow and arrow. Yet he also received the fruit of diligence, who acknowledged that the gift of wit is superior.

7. Wisdom's Bowl and the Contrast with Plato

Not without reason did he bring domestic food, who acquired for himself a union with wisdom from the domestic seed of his own kind. Good is diligence joined with wisdom, and discovery with natural talent. So then, holy Isaac, having ready at hand union with wisdom, was walking abroad in the field, or rather was being drawn away. Let us too first be joined to wisdom, and thus go forth into the field, desiring to seek and find. For many seek badly without wisdom. And therefore Cain, because he had not received prudence from God, sought badly, went forth badly into the field; Abel did well, who fulfilled the perfect duty of sacrifice. For good is the sacrifice of wisdom, good is the offering of faith, and every virtue. Finally, wisdom slew her victims, and mixed her wine in the bowl. And therefore, that she might give the foolish gentiles the drink of faith, she called them to her bowl, saying: Whosoever is foolish, let him turn in to me.

And to those lacking sense she said: Come, eat of my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you. From this bowl Plato thought it fitting to transfer into his own books, to whose drink he called souls: but he did not know how to satisfy them, since he ministered a drink not of faith but of unbelief.

1. Fleeing Like Harts to the Fountain of Life

Let us flee from here, then, as holy Jacob fled from his fatherland. For he knew that the true fatherland was above. Let us flee like harts to the fountains of waters: that fountain for which David thirsted, let our soul also thirst. What is that fountain? Hear him who says: For with thee is the fountain of life. To this fountain let the soul say: When shall I come and appear before thy face? For God is the fountain: but let him who desires this fountain pour out his soul upon himself; that he may leave nothing to the passion of the flesh, but that the soul may overflow everywhere.

2. Susanna's Flight from Temptation to God

Beautifully did Susanna pour it out, so that the fires of the body, the fears of death, the desires of life, could not steam up into it. The soul, poured out upon herself, quenched every carnal desire, every worldly ardor.

She could also have quenched the flames of the monstrous old men and shameless elders, had lust not overflowed in them. When calumny was pressed upon her by them, if she refused consent to adultery, Susanna groaned and said: Straits are upon me on every side. For if I do this, I shall perish by eternal death; but if I do not, I shall not escape your hands. Yet she judged it better to flee the crime rather than the danger. She wept, therefore, when the crime was cast upon her; she wept when they claimed for themselves judgment of an adulteress against one who was chaste and pure; not lamenting death, but the slander against her chastity. She wept for the injury done to religion, and poured out upon herself, not her body, but her soul. For she would have poured out her body, had she yielded to carnal men.

Then, when she was condemned to death, she cried out, as it were a judge over the accused, an arbiter over her calumniators; and by the authority of an innocent conscience she summoned to herself divine judgment in the case, not roused by fear of death, but by the lofty power of a censuring judgment. Susanna, therefore, fled the world, and entrusted herself to God, fleeing to that citadel of the eternal city which embraces the whole world, since all things are within God.

3. The Example of Paul's Flight in a Basket

Paul too fled, that he might escape by being let down through a window in a basket; for he knew that a triple cord of rope could not be broken: but he fled that he might preach the Gospel of the Lord throughout the whole world; and therefore he was caught up into paradise. Let us too flee through the window, hearing the precepts of the Lord, and keeping them with sober sight and chastity of eyes.

4. The Example of Lot's Flight from Sodom

Let us flee as Lot fled, fearing the crimes of Sodom more than its punishments. For he flees more devoutly, certainly, the contagion of sins, who shut his house against the Sodomites; nor, though dwelling among them, did he know those whose flagitious deeds he did not know, and whose reproaches he turned away from; nor, in fleeing, did he look back upon those whose ways of life he did not desire. He fled, then, as Lot fled, who renounces vices, disowns the ways of the inhabitants, who does not look back, who enters that higher city by the entrance of his own thoughts, and does not withdraw from it until the Prince of priests dies, who took away the sin of the world. He indeed died once; but he dies for each one who is baptized into the death of Christ; that we may be buried together with him, and rise together with him, and walk in the newness of his life.

5. Marks of a Well-Ordered Flight

You flee well, if your heart does not imitate the counsels of sinners, and their thoughts. You flee well, if your eye flees cups and bowls, lest it become lustful while it lingers over wine. You flee well, if your eye turns away from what is another's, so that your tongue may keep truth. You flee well, if you do not answer a fool according to his folly. You flee well, if you remove the step of your feet from the mouth of fools. For one is quickly led astray by evil guides: but if you wish to flee well, make your ways far from their words.

6. The Crucified Old Man and the New Creature

The Prince of priests died for you, was crucified for you, that you might cleave to his nails. For he took upon himself you in that flesh, and your sins; the handwriting of your offenses was fastened to that gibbet; that now you might owe nothing to the world, to which you have once renounced. And rightly you owe nothing, you who are able to say: For the world is crucified to me, and I to the world; so that now you need not fear death, if you bear Christ, in whom you can say: O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For indeed, when that old man of ours was fastened to the cross, sin was destroyed, the sting was blunted, guilt was emptied out; that we should no longer serve iniquities. For the old man has departed.

But now the old man is no longer in us: rather, there is a new creature, having in itself the likeness of Christ, in the likeness of whose death, being buried together with him, we have taken up the image of his life, we have received the wings of spiritual grace.

7. Fleeing the Wrath to Come

Fly, then, in such a way that it may be said of you: Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves with their young? So that your clouds may rain down righteousness, and your doves may bring forth simplicity. Sail in such a way as though crossing over the world, not wandering through it, like ships of Tarshish; that you may direct your course to intelligible harbors, and bring together the riches of the sea. Hasten in such a way that it may be said of you: They are made swifter than eagles. For you see that flight must be made from the wrath to come, which those will be able to escape who have set for themselves the hope of escaping through repentance, and have drawn in the faith of a future reconciliation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the kingdom from the ages, and now, and always, and unto all ages of ages. Amen.