Jacob and the Happy Life

1. Pleasure and Pain as the Root of the Passions

Now the leaders, as it were, of the passions are the natural pleasure and pain, which the rest follow. For these two embrace all the rest, both of which are passions in fault not only of the body but also according to the soul. And because we have said that other passions lie beneath these, before pleasure there is desire, after pleasure there is gratification; before pain there is fear, after pain there is sadness. But agitation of soul is a passion common both to pleasure and to pain. I shall pass over the others—that is, pride, avarice, ambition, contention, envy—which are passions according to the soul: I shall pass over also the insatiable lust of devouring, and the outpouring of luxury and wantonness, vices which are bound to the body and operate according to it. And rightly does temperance most of all quench the ardor of these passions, which first tempers the mind by sobriety and moderation, and forms the mind; then also, by abstinence from delicacies, restrains the reins of bodily ferocity.

Therefore the Law cut back the license of foods, the abundance of feasts, not only that it might cut back luxury, but also that, by contemplation of the restraining precept, it might open the way for the treatment of reason, which might cut back the incitements of gluttony and the other desires, and restrain bodily passions and motions. Temperance, therefore, is the forerunner of correction, the mistress of discipline.

2. Jacob, Joseph, and the Discipline of Reason

Proceeding from this virtue, the holy Jacob received from his brother the birthright which he did not have; and being preferred by his brother's own assent, he taught for the future that the intemperate are cheap in their own judgment. Proceeding from this virtue also, Joseph both tamed the heat of youth, and, when his mind was tempted by adulterous allurements, fortified it by the inducement of right reason. In short, although he was strong and vigorous, yet he preferred to support himself by the treatment of reason, saying to his master's wife: If my master knows not anything in his house because of me, and has given all that he has into my hands, neither has anything been withheld from me except thee, who art his wife: how then shall I do this wicked thing, and sin before God? This, then, is the treatment of right reason which the Greeks call λογισμός, by which the mind, intent on wisdom, is made firm.

For beautiful is the reasoning, that he ought not to be ungrateful for his master's kindnesses, nor could the sin be hidden, which he would commit with God as witness, whom he could not escape.

3. Jacob's Rebuke of Simeon and Levi

Good, then, is reason, which for the most part strips away hostile feeling, and sets aside the grief of injury. In short, in battle it commonly softens the victor, delays the sword of the one about to strike, and snatches the suppliant from death; because just reason persuades one to spare the subjected. For as to excluding or mitigating the grief of injury, what better teacher is there than the patriarch Jacob, who, rebuking his own sons Simeon and Levi, said: Ye have made me hateful, so that I seem cruel? And indeed they had avenged their sister's injury, who, contrary to their fatherland's institutions, had been violated, her modesty outraged; nor could Jacob, the teacher of discipline, the guardian of modesty, approve the rape that had been committed: but he preferred that the insolent be restrained by reason, knowing that reason could temper indignation.

4. The Forbidden Fruit and the Loss of Paradise

Temperance, therefore, is that which cuts off desires. This God commanded the first men to hold, saying: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise you shall not eat, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And because it was not held, therefore the transgressors of this excellent virtue were made exiles from paradise, and deprived of immortality. This the Law teaches, and instills into the affections of all.

1. Scripture's Teaching of Wisdom and Discipline

Scripture testifies that the Lord teaches this virtue, and wisdom, and discipline. Concerning temperance, in the Law; concerning the others, in the book of Job, in which it is written: Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and discipline? And in the Gospel the Lord himself says: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart. And elsewhere he says to the disciples: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Whence, then, were they called disciples? Or what else did they learn from Christ except to work the precepts of the virtues? In short, David says: Come, children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Certainly the fear of God is among the number of the virtues; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, through which the form of pious doctrine is acquired, of which Paul says: But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which you were delivered: being then freed from sin, you have become servants of justice. Doctrine, therefore, brings it about that we can arrive at justice. Justice, therefore, can be acquired by learning. Let us, then, apply ourselves with zeal to the form of Gospel doctrine. The smallest zeal is often held for the greatest. For in zeal are all things, through which obedience is applied, which, inclining to either side, either adds fault or grace. This zeal, in the first Adam, drew us to death; this same, in the second Adam, called us to life.

2. The Will as Author of Sin, Not the Flesh

There is no reason for us to ascribe our own distress to anyone, save to our own will. No one is bound to fault, unless he has turned aside by his own will. Things which are inserted upon the unwilling do not bear the crime: only the ill-will of misdeeds follows voluntary commissions, which we would derive onto others. Christ chose for himself a voluntary soldier; the devil purchases for himself a voluntary slave. He possesses no one bound by the yoke of servitude, unless one has first sold himself to him by the coin of sins. Why do we accuse the flesh as if it were weak? Our members are weapons of iniquity, and weapons of justice. You saw a poor man receiving injury, you protected him; your members are weapons of piety, by which you vindicated the poor man from injury. You saw a needy man, you gave him gifts, your right hand drove death from your breast.

You saw one being led to death, you rescued him, because it is written: Rescue him that is led to death: your members are weapons of justice, if you have not allowed a man to perish unjustly. You saw a woman, you chastised your body, you mortified your lusts, you turned away and abandoned the wanton eyes of the harlot, your members are weapons of chastity. On the contrary, if your eye has seen a woman so as to lust after her, you have opened a wound, you have driven a dart into your own body, your members are weapons of sin. You saw the possession of orphans, and drove them from their fathers' seats, you moved the boundaries which your fathers set, your members are weapons of iniquity. It is the affection, then, not the flesh, that is the author of fault; the flesh is but the minister of the will. Let not, therefore, our own will sell us.

3. Servants of Sin or Servants of Justice

The Apostle cries out: Know you not that to whom you have presented yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto justice? Therefore if we serve either sin or justice, let us consider in which part the servitude is more tolerable, the fruit more abundant. But what fruit can there be in death? For the wages of sin is death; and therefore there is no fruit in it, but a loss of shame, since we blush at the things we have done. But to serve justice is liberty. For he who is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called being free is the servant of Christ. Both conditions are best, to be under Christ, under whom is both precious servitude and glorious liberty.

Precious servitude, as bought at the price of such great blood; glorious liberty, moreover, which no servitude of fault, no bonds of sins constrain, no burdens of disgraceful deeds, no commerce of crimes bind to the degenerate tie of servitude.

4. The Paradox of Freedom and Servitude in Christ

Learn humility, O man, recognize the force of apostolic teaching. If you call yourself a servant, you are a freedman; if you boast yourself free, you are a servant. For that one who has been redeemed as a servant has freedom, and this one who has been called as free—it is good for him to recognize that he is a servant of Christ, under whom servitude is safe and freedom is secure. Who asserts Paul to be, as it were, unskilled even in law itself? For he knew how to distinguish between a freedman and a free man; and therefore not perfunctorily, but properly, he said: For he who was called in the Lord as a servant is a freedman of the Lord; likewise he who was called free is a servant of Christ. For indeed we are all freedmen of Christ, no one is free. For all were born into servitude. Why do you assume the arrogance of freedom for a servile condition? Why do you usurp titles of nobility, you servile inheritance?

Do you not know that the guilt of Adam and Eve enslaved you to servitude? Do you not know that Christ redeemed you, not purchased you? You were redeemed not with gold, not with silver from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood of the Lamb, cries the apostle Peter. Therefore you have been redeemed by the Lord. You are a servant because you were created, you are a servant because you were redeemed, and you owe servitude both as to the Lord and as to the Redeemer. Nor should you think that freedmanship under Christ is inferior to freedom. It is equal in dignity, more excellent in protection, equal in grace, more cautious against falling, better shielded against pride. You have received freedom in such a way that you ought to remember your manumitter, that you should know that lawful obedience is to be rendered to your patron, lest freedom be revoked from an ingrate.

What could be more blessed than you, who reign under the Lord, and serve under a patron?

1. The Law's Exposure of Sin

What indeed is there that the Lord has not conferred upon you? He gave the Law, he exposed sin, he added grace. For the Law announced sin, but in a slippery condition it could not entirely restrain it. For I knew sin which I did not know. I knew that concupiscence is sin; and by this occasion of knowledge, the debts of sin were heaped up; because sin which before seemed dead through my ignorance, revived in me: but I died from the wound of sin; because the knowledge of guilt which seemed as though it would profit me, this harmed me, so that I knew what I could not avoid. For it exposed sin, and through the good of its own announcement it embittered the odiousness of sin itself. Thus sin became beyond measure in me, because it was heaped up by the declaration of the commandment. For guilt grows when it is exposed, and yet not avoided. How then is the commandment good, which is death to me?

Or how is it not death to me, that which, by demonstrating sin through the good of its own signification, wrought death in me? For it is certain that death came to me, when I recognized as sin what I do, just as the Lord himself says: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin.

2. The Law Compared to Medicine and Poison

Why then do you wonder if the Law is death to some, when even the Lord's saving advent, through which we are redeemed, is death? For the unfaithful man seeks death for himself out of grace; but the grace of the commandment remains. For just as the knowledge of poisonous potions is perfected for the discipline of medicine, so the divine commandment is for eternal life. But just as for one who misuses harmful potions, the knowledge of them turns to evil and danger, and the more he has known poisons, the more he understands himself to be in peril; so the form of the commandment is the author of death to those who wrongly interpret the Law, or who cannot avoid the sins that have been demonstrated and forbidden. Therefore just as an antidote is good, even if it is not good for the imprudent or intemperate person, so the commandment is good, even though it is not good for the intemperate. Therefore the commandment is good, though it be death to someone.

You have then the answer to the first proposition: that the commandment can be good, which is death to me—good by the nature of the salutary precept, death through the intemperance of the flesh.

3. The Conflict Between Flesh and Mind

And since we have said that the commandment which is death to me is good, let us now examine how it is not death to me, which, though it is lawful by good, has nevertheless wrought death in me. For thus the Apostle proposed: Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me through that which is good. Let us therefore look at each point. The commandment is indeed of the Law: and the Law is spiritual, whose grace I see, whose beauty I praise, whose form I proclaim, whose precept I admire: but because I am carnal, sold under sin, I am dragged unwilling into guilt. For guilt lords it over me as over a slave. And so I hate the crime, and I do it. The mind hates it, the flesh desires it; yet I am in both, I who consent to the Law with my mind, and with the flesh do what I do not wish.

Good therefore is the commandment to which I consent; and good is the mind which chooses what is good. Good for judging, but generally weak for resisting; because the appetite of the body fights against it, and drags it captive to the enticements of error.

4. Deliverance from the Body of Death through Christ

In this danger there is one remedy: that the grace of God might set free him whom the Law could not set free. For thus it is written: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so it comes about that although sin which was lying hidden—that is, my concupiscence which I did not think was sin—has wrought death in me, once it was exposed, and sin itself became exceeding sinful (for it was sin even though unknown, but by knowledge it was heaped up, and took on, as it were, an increase of error, and the form of the commandment passed into the nature of the offense)—nevertheless it is not death to me, for whom it is ready at hand to flee to Christ, through whom we are freed from every danger of death. The second proposition also is therefore resolved: that the commandment of the Law is not death to me, even though it works death.

For that we are troubled is of our frailty; that we escape is of Christ.

1. The Mind's Need for Christ Beyond the Law

Therefore, to return to the beginning of this discourse, the mind is good which has the exercise of reason, and attends to the disciplines of wisdom; but it has a grievous struggle with the body of death, and the enticement of the flesh frequently overcomes the reason of the mind. And therefore the Lord first gave the Law, to which the mind of man gave itself in order to obey, and began to serve it, so that it might be made subject: but the flesh was not subjected, because the wisdom of the flesh is not subject to the Law, and it resisted its precepts. For it could not obey virtue, being given over to desires and entangled in carnal allurements. Therefore we must labor to hold fast the grace of God. The mind, then, is good if it attends to reason; but it is little perfected unless it has the guidance of Christ.

For the Lord Jesus came, who nailed our passions to his cross, who forgave sins; by whose death we have been justified, so that the whole world might be cleansed by his blood. Indeed, in his death we have been baptized.

2. Dying and Rising with Christ

If then our sins are forgiven in his death, let the passions of our sins also die in his death, let them be held fastened with the nails of his cross. If we have died in his death, why are we called back again, as if alive, to the things that are worldly? What have we to do with the elements of this world? What with desires? What with luxury and wantonness, with which we have died with Christ? But if we have died in Christ, we have risen in Christ: let us then walk with Christ: with Christ let us seek the things that are above, not the things that are corruptible and earthly. Christ, rising from the dead, left the old man nailed to the cross, and raised up the new. Christ therefore died, that we too might die to sin, and rise to God. Our flesh has died; why then does it revive again to sin? Why does it obey sin again?

Why does sin reign again in those who are dead, since death is the end of sin? We have died in the flesh, we have been renewed in the spirit. Let us walk in the spirit, we who have received the Spirit of Christ. But if the Spirit of Christ is in us, then let our flesh be dead because of sin, but let the spirit live because of justification.

3. The Law's Shadow Gives Way to the Sun of Righteousness

Thus what was impossible for the Law is resolved, if we walk in the spirit, if we have buried the passions, if we do not loosen the cross of this body, if we do not rewrite the handwriting of sin which was blotted out on the cross of Christ, if we do not put on again the garment of the old man which we have taken off. For it is written in the Song of Songs: I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on again? I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them again? The members of the body are therefore put to death for us; why do their vices still sprout forth? Therefore the Law did not prevail, because it did not put the flesh to death; therefore it passed away like a shadow, because it did not give color; therefore it also overshadowed us from the sun of righteousness, because it heaped up crimes. Therefore it even did harm.

1. The Purpose and Limits of the Written Law

What need then was there for the Law to be promulgated, if it was not going to profit? We already had the law of nature; for each man was a law unto himself, having the work of the law written in his own heart. That we did not keep: why was another added, by whose works the flesh could not be justified? A bond was added, not a release; the recognition of sins was added, not their remission. We all sinned who could plead excuse through ignorance: the mouth of all was stopped.

2. Glorying in Redemption, Not in Righteousness

Yet it profited me: I began to confess what I was denying; I began to acknowledge my offense, and not to cover over my injustice; I began to declare against myself my injustice to the Lord, and you forgave the impieties of my heart. But this too profits me, that we are not justified by the works of the Law. I have therefore nothing whereby I might glory in my own works, nothing whereby I might boast; and therefore I will glory in Christ. I will not glory that I am righteous, but I will glory that I am redeemed. I will glory, not because I am empty of sins, but because my sins have been forgiven. I will not glory that I have profited, nor that anyone has profited me: but that Christ is advocate for me with the Father; but that the blood of Christ was shed for me. My guilt has been made the price of my redemption, through which Christ came to me. For my sake Christ tasted death. Guilt has proved more fruitful than innocence.

Innocence had made me arrogant, guilt rendered me subject.

3. Grace Abounding over Sin

You have, then, in what ways the giving of the Law profited you. But you say that through the Law sin abounded the more. But where sin abounded, grace also abounded the more. You have died to sin, O man: therefore the Law no longer harms. You rise again through grace; therefore the Law profited, because it obtained grace for you. You have also received the pledge of Christ's love; since he who died for you is an advocate for you, and reserves the reward of his own blood, and he who reconciled the sinner to the Father, much more commends the innocent, and protects the subject, he who took to himself the guilty.

4. Heirs of Christ and the Reward of Suffering

Being then a debtor of so great a benefit, will you not render your obedience? He made you an heir, he made you a co-heir; an heir of God, a co-heir of Christ; he poured into you the Spirit of adoption. Reckon these things, and apply them not so much to the bond of a debt as to the keeping of a gift received. You are a co-heir of Christ, if you suffer with him, if you die with him, if you are buried together with Christ. Take up his passions, that you may deserve to be above the passions along with him. See how he has forgiven you your former sins, so that he made nothing you have sinned able to harm you. See how he exhorts you, lest you lose what you have received. Brief is the goal of this labor, and the crown is a fruit that is perpetual; tolerable is the suffering, inestimable the reward. For what troubles you? Is it the lowliness of ignoble birth?

But there will be for you in the future a glorious nobility of devotion and faith. Is it a slender income, a narrower livelihood? But there will be for you the riches of eternal reward, in which you can lack nothing at all. Is it the loss of children? You shall receive everlasting ones, in place of those temporal ones you had taken up, and it shall be said of you: Blessed is he who has seed in Sion, and household in Jerusalem. The sufferings of this present time, Scripture tells you, are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.

5. The Blessed Life Proved by Adversity

Add too that the blessed life is not diminished by these adversities of worldly troubles or bodily sufferings, but rather proved by them. Add that it either does not feel losses of patrimony, or with a strong mind conceals the losses of kinsfolk, and swallows up sorrow. Add that he knows no shipwrecks who is always in the harbor of tranquility. What of this, that labor is common to you with all creation; because for your sake the world itself endures the bondage of corruption; because you have common fellowship with the saints in this labor and expectation? The sun acknowledges its own setting, the moon its waning, the stars their wandering lights grow dim, while the redemption of our whole body is awaited.

6. The Father's Gift of His Son for All

But you fear the uncertain windings of life, and the snares of the adversary, though you have the help of God, though you have such condescension from him, that he did not spare his own Son for you. Scripture has used a beautiful word to declare the pious purpose of God the Father toward you, who offered his Son to death. And yet the Son could not feel the bitterness of death. What belonged to the Father, he kept nothing back for himself: he offered it all for you; what belonged to the fulness of divinity, he himself lost nothing thereof, and yet redeemed you. Consider the paternal affection. As befits piety, he took upon himself, as it were, the danger of a Son about to die, he drank as it were the grief of bereavement; lest for you the fruit of redemption should be lost. So great was the Lord's zeal for your salvation, that he almost put himself at risk in order to win you.

He, for your sake, took upon himself our losses; that he might graft you into things divine, and consecrate you to things heavenly. Wonderfully too he added: He delivered him up for us all; to show that he loves all so much that he delivered up his most beloved Son for each one. For those, therefore, for whom he gave what is above all things, can it be that he has not given all things in him? For he who granted the author of all things kept nothing back.

7. Christ as Judge and Advocate for the Elect

There is nothing, then, which we should fear may be denied us: there is nothing in which we ought to persist in distrusting the divine munificence, whose abundance has been so long-lasting and continual; that he first predestined, then called; and those whom he called, these also he justified; and those whom he justified, these also he glorified. Will he be able to abandon those whom he has followed with such great benefits of his own, all the way to their rewards? Amid so many benefits of God, need any snares of the accuser be feared? But who would dare accuse those whom he sees chosen by the divine judgment? Can God the Father himself, who conferred these gifts, rescind his own gifts; and banish from the grace of paternal affection those whom he has taken up by adoption? But there is fear lest the judge be too severe. Consider what judge you have. Surely the Father has given Christ all judgment.

Will he then be able to condemn you, whom he redeemed from death, for whom he offered himself, whose life he knows to be the reward of his own death? Will he not say: What profit is there in my blood, if I condemn him whom I myself have saved? Moreover, you consider the judge, but you do not consider the advocate. Can he pronounce a harsher sentence, who does not cease to intercede, that the grace of paternal reconciliation may be bestowed upon us?

1. Charity Unquenched by Danger

But even if some grave things threaten, they ought by no means to separate us from Christ. Why should we not also endure hard and bitter things for him, who for us underwent things so unworthy? And therefore charity ought to be in us, such that we be recalled from Christ by no dangers. For it is written: Many waters shall not be able to quench charity, neither shall the floods overwhelm it; because the soul of the one who loves passes through the torrent. No tempest, no danger of the deep, no terror of death or of punishment diminishes the force of charity. For in these things we are proved, in these things is the blessed life, even if it be flooded with many dangers.

2. Blessedness in a Pure Conscience Not Bodily Delight

For the wise man is not broken by pains of the body, nor is he vexed by hardships: but he remains blessed even amid tribulations. For adverse things of the body neither diminish the office of the blessed life, nor take away anything from its sweetness; because the blessedness of life does not consist in bodily delight, but in a conscience pure from every stain of sin, and in the mind of him who knows that what is good, this delights, even if it be harsh; but what is unseemly, even if sweet, does not soothe. Therefore the cause of living well is not bodily delight, but prudence of mind: not the flesh which is subject to passion, but the mind which judges that nothing delights more than the honesty of counsels, and the beauty of works. This, then, is the interpreter of the blessed life. For prudence, or reason as arbiter of passion, is better than passion; and that which judges is more excellent than that which is subject to judgment.

For it cannot be that what is irrational is better according to reason. Therefore he who follows Jesus has in himself his own reward, and in his own affection reward and grace: even if he endures hard things, he is nevertheless blessed in his character, blessed even in the very dangers, as the Lord determined, saying: Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake.

3. The Perfect Life and the Waters of One's Own Well

The blessed life, then, exists among men, but namely among those in whom life has been made perfect. Now the perfect life is not this sensible one, but that rational life according to the exercise of reason and the vigor of the mind: in which there is not merely a portion of man, but a perfection which consists not so much in man's condition as in his operation. For this makes one blessed. To this man, then, what is good, except that which he himself has to himself, and this good is present to him, and will be for him the cause of future goods? Concerning this good Solomon said: Drink water from your own vessels, and from the springs of your own wells. Let your waters overflow from your own fountain; but let them run in your own streets. Let them be established for yourself alone, and let no stranger share in them with you. Let the fountain of your water be your own. Use, therefore, your inward good.

4. Seeking the One Necessary Good

The greatest testimony of this good is, that he who has it does not seek other things. For what would he seek, who despises lesser things? Let him cleave to that which is most excellent, as it is written: Let the hind of friendship, and the fawn of graces converse with you. Let friendship go before you, and be with you at all times. For good is the friendship of the virtues, and the charity of the highest good. That perfect man, therefore, seeks nothing else but the sole and glorious good. Whence he also says: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold the delight of the Lord. Do not despise him as narrow and needy, because he is content with the, as it were, solitary companionship of one good. Encompassed even by this friendship, he will be most abundant.

For such a man abounds unto blessedness and unto the possession of the good; and therefore he desires nothing else. For he expects nothing as new, who has all things. There is no good which he does not have; nor does he take delight in superfluities, but in necessary things, and that itself necessary not for himself but for the flesh that clings to him; and he indulges only what does not disagree with the purpose of the inner man, what makes the two one, and reconciles the inner man, along with the outer, to God, so that in both there may become one spirit.

5. The Perfect Man Unmoved by Grief

The man of this purpose, then, is neither diminished by losses, nor broken by adversities, nor hindered by obstacles, nor saddened by the loss of his own. For the instruction of this the Apostle says: But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep; that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope. For, comforted by faith in the resurrection and by the grace of the future reward, he does not receive sadness into that mind by which he cleaves to God, and rejoices in the pleasure of the divine excellence. Whatever grieves him in these things, is not grief according to God. And what is not according to God is full of foolishness. From the perfect man, therefore, is absent the sadness of this world which is not according to God, and every anxiety of bodily distress.

For to such a leading of the mind and of the substance is not reckoned the condition of the body, and a certain outward use of nature, since against the delights of the body, and the very frailty of nature, against bereavements, losses, and insults, the unconquered soul ought to preserve a uniform constancy; so that it may cleave the body itself and cast off the senses of the flesh, he who desires to hold the palm of blessedness, whose fruit is not to consist in a single portion, but in the fellowship of many, and if it can be, of all the virtues.

6. Blessedness Defined by Contempt Not Absence of Ills

The perfect man, then, does not know the discomforts of this body, or the adversities of the world, nor does he perceive them, he who carries a soul free from the fear that they might destroy him. For the more perfect life is not defined by the lack of these things: but by contempt for them. For if it were so defined, that the blessed life were that which could be found free and empty of such mishaps, then certainly, with such things occurring, no one could be defined as blessed. These things, therefore, are set aside, and only this is required in the estimation of the blessed life, that its definition be held not in other things, but in the possession of the true and the good; since he who has this spurns the rest, nor seeks it.

1. Whether the Wise Man Delights in Health

I ask now whether the wise man is delighted by health of body? We cannot deny that he is delighted according to nature, and would more willingly accept not being in pain than being in pain; unless perhaps for Christ's sake, for whom, if the cause demands, he readily accepts even weakness of body, and offers his whole body to death. Yet the same man, apart from a cause of faith and justice, if health is lacking, is not affected in mind, nor is he broken by bodily pain, since he can console himself with the perfection of the virtues.

2. Whether the Wise Man Delights in Children

I ask also whether he is delighted by children? Who would deny this? For it is not a hard and iron man that is sought, but a perfect one. Yet even if he loses his children, he is not therefore less blessed, because he is not therefore less perfect. For what is perfect is blessed. Indeed, if he endures adversities, such a man is generally accounted more perfect than if he abounded in prosperities: although neither the absence nor the presence of external advantages, or bodily joys, is wont to diminish or add anything to virtue. But to many it has been as much praise to have borne adversities bravely, as not to have fallen into them at all. But these things are estimated by appearance, not by weight.

3. The One Good Undiminished by Added Blessings

This is the deep truth, that the just man wills nothing except that sole and glorious good, intends this alone, reckons this the one thing among goods: he desires nothing else together with it, but always desires it alone, and is delighted by this; to which, if something else that delights him be added, such as the sweetness of children, that good is not thereby lost, but this is added to it. For added things do not diminish blessedness, which cannot be increased; because that which is full and inviolable remains, into which the soul has clothed itself, and into which it has inserted and poured itself. Perfect virtue remains always the same amid adversities and delights; neither do adversities diminish anything of its perfection, nor do delightful things add to its perfection. For what is it that he who has ascended to the summit should feel, either of loss or of advantage, concerning transient things?

4. The Just Man's Constancy Amid Captivity

Nor indeed, what is considered by most to be the most grievous thing, will he think himself wretched, if he himself, or his children, come into captivity. For he will not bear intolerably what nature has, or what seems good to the Lord. Finally the just man said: Good is the word which the Lord has spoken. And he said: Let there be peace and faith in my days. This just man, Hezekiah, certainly did not rejoice that the hardship of captivity had turned aside onto his sons: but he could not oppose the will of the Lord; and therefore he accepted his commands with equanimity, like a little servant. To this is added, that he could reckon that even in captivity the merit of virtue could stand out eminently.

For blessed Jeremiah was no less blessed in captivity, nor Daniel less, nor Ezra less, nor the blessed Ananias, Azariah, and Mishael less, than if they had not fallen into captivity; since they were led into captivity precisely that they might bring to the people, both present comfort in captivity, and hope of escaping captivity. For it belongs to the perfect man to sustain the common lot of nature by strength of soul, and to lead it to better things; and not to succumb to those things which seem to most terrible and fearful: but, like a brave soldier, to sustain the assaults of the gravest mischances, to undergo conflicts; and, like a provident helmsman, to steer the ship in a storm, and by meeting the rising waves, to avoid shipwreck rather by cutting through the waves than by avoiding them.

Such a man is not fearful in persecution, nor softer under torments, lest he exasperate the torturer: but like a strong athlete, who strikes back at the one striking him, if not with blows, certainly with the lash of speech; who despises torments dreadful to many, saying: Their wounds are become as the arrows of children; who, though he wrestle with the gravest pain, does not show himself wretched; but shows, as a lamp within a lantern, that even amid harsh storms and the heaviest winds his light shines, and the virtue of his soul cannot be extinguished. Such a man is not soft under injuries done to his own, nor anxious about the burial of his own body, for whom he knows heaven is owed: not one who abandons the civic people in captivity; but, like a stern judge, condemns the perfidy and errors of the unfaithful, as Daniel, who exposed the thefts of the priests, and refuted their superstitions, showing that they rested on no truth, but were shrouded in frauds.

Such a man, in short, is the perfect one, who wishes all to act well, and that no evil should befall anyone; and if it should happen against his will, he himself nevertheless loses nothing of his own blessedness.

5. Bodily Weakness No Impediment to Virtue

But perhaps someone may think that sickness and bodily weakness are an impediment to fulfilling the duty of perfection, on the ground that men cannot proceed to any works and deeds of the hands. But the just man will not feel these things to be an impediment to himself: nay rather he will even rebuke one who bewails them pitiably, and will accuse him as it were of cowardice, because he sets more store by the use of the body than by virtue of soul: because he desires the things which he is made to serve, when he has that whereby he can rather command others: because he groans in poverty, when he could be above the wealth of the world; for to the faithful man the whole world is a store of riches: because he bewails his lack of noble birth, when he ought to despise royal powers, and command the rich and the powerful.

For this is the life of the just man, who ought to reckon even the resources he has as common property; nay rather to distribute them to the needy, to dispense them to the poor, to cut back his own pleasures, to lessen expense, to apply the sparingness of temperance, to keep sobriety in prosperity, patience in adversity, endurance in pain, magnanimity in dangers, to know nothing of prayers for perpetual health, not to be shaken by the terror of imminent death, nor to think him more excellent to whom, according to nature, children, kinsfolk, health, joy, and abundance have overflowed, than him to whom these things have been lacking; the foot of nature in common calamities ought to console, and to rouse to constancy. And to weigh merits not by the external things of the age, but by the domestic possessions of virtue.

6. Equal Merit of Elijah and Moses, Elisha and David

Who would deny that this too is a mark of the just man: that he should fear nothing, dread nothing, save the loss of virtue, and should suppress the vain fears of others, which they entertain from anxiety about dangers, fear of death, weakness of body; that he should teach that it is far better to be dissolved from the body and to be with Christ; that he should show that works are not hindered by bodily infirmities, but are increased; and are commended not by splendor of lineage, or the support of kinsmen, or by riches, but by good disposition. For blessed Elijah was no less blessed than Moses; though the one was in need of food, clad in a cheap sheepskin, without children, without means, without a companion: the other a leader of the people, glad in offspring, girded with power—by a different kind they laid the foundation of an equal merit, as is declared in the Gospel, when they shone together with the Lord Jesus in the glory of the resurrection.

For it seems that he gave to these, as it were equal witnesses of his own glory, an equal reward. Nor was blessed Elisha less blessed than David, although the one was subject to kings, the other endowed with royal power, for they attained a not unequal grace of prophetic sanctification.

7. The Self-Sufficient Soul and the Simile of the Harp

For what is lacking to him who possesses that good, and has virtue always as his companion and partner? In what condition is he not most powerful? In what poverty is he not rich? In what obscurity of birth is he not illustrious? In what leisure is he not laborious? In what feebleness is he not vigorous? In what infirmity is he not strong? In what quiet of sleep is he idle, whom his own virtue does not forsake even while he rests? In what solitude is he not attended, whom the blessed life surrounds, whom grace clothes, whom the mantle of glory adorns? He is no less blessed at leisure than when he labors; no less glorious sleeping than waking; because he is no less safe and sound sleeping than when he is awake. But when can he seem to be idle, whose mind always works? And when is he alone, who is always with that good, of which the Prophet says: We shall be filled with the good things of thy house?

When is he abject, whose citizenship is in heaven? When is he not comely, who conforms himself to the likeness of that comeliness, and of the sole good; who, even if he is loosened in his limbs, yet raises himself up in mind? And just as one accustomed to play the harp, if he sees it scattered, its strings loosened and broken, and its use interrupted, casts it aside, and does not seek its measures, but soothes himself with his own voice: so also this man will allow the harp of his body to lie idle, will delight himself with his heart, will soothe himself with the remembrance of a good conscience, will lighten his burden with divine oracles and prophetic writings, holding that which is sweet and pleasant in his mind, embracing it with his understanding; to whom nothing sad can happen, since he always aspires, suffused with the divine presence.

In the preceding book we discussed the precepts of the virtues: in what follows let us use the examples of illustrious men, who, placed in the greatest dangers, did not lose the blessedness of life, but rather acquired it. Was not Jacob blessed even when he left his fatherland? Nay, plainly blessed, who undertook the hardships of exile, in order to soften his brother's wrath. For if he is blessed who avoids sin, certainly it cannot be denied that he is blessed who lightens another's fault, and averts a crime. And so he avoided a fratricide that was prepared, by voluntary exile, and by that deed sought safety for himself, and granted innocence to his brother. Deservedly, therefore, divine grace accompanied him everywhere, so that even while he slept he acquired the gift of the blessed life. For he saw the mysteries of things to come, and heard divine oracles.

A good laborer even in sleep, and rich in poverty, who by the office of a hired life procured both a patrimony and a marriage by the same service. The same man, an outstanding reconciler of brotherly affection, strove with gifts and services, to exclude all indignation, to turn away the pain of offense, showing that exile had not made him lesser, since he was able to bestow what he had not received.

1. The Blessed Man Defined from the Psalms

But I hasten too much toward lesser matters, and pass over the more useful things, when first it must be defined what the blessed man is. For it is written: Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of pestilence. By this the Scripture signifies that he is blessed who has restrained himself from the fellowship of the faithless (for this is impiety, not to recognize the author of life and, as it were, a certain parent of salvation, whether one remains in sin, or persists in luxury and wantonness); and that the same man, meditating in the law of the Lord day and night, shall be like a tree that will give its fruit in its season. The former are the merits of rewards, the latter is the reward of merits.

2. Jacob as the Field Blessed by the Lord

Which of these things, that pertain to the merit of blessedness, was lacking to holy Jacob, who was so far removed from the fellowship of the impious, that from him the faithful people took its name, being called Israel; because he looked upon God with the eyes of his inward mind, abstaining from sin, sober from the drunkenness of all luxury, so that he endured the hardships of labors, and disregarded the security of leisure? Was it not fitly and truly said of him, that he too will give fruit in his season, of whom it is written: Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field? For he was perfect in the full flower of the virtues, and breathed forth the grace of sacred blessing and heavenly blessedness.

For he is that field which the Lord blessed: not this earthly field, either rough with woods, or broken with torrents, or marshy with sluggish waters, or barren of grain, or useless for vines, or stony with barren gravel, or cleft and dry with drought, or soaked with blood, or uncultivated with briers and thorns: but that field, of which the Church says in the Canticles: I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the virtues and strengths of the field. For there is the field of which the Lord also says: And the beauty of the field is with me. In this field is found that grape, which, being pressed, poured forth blood, and washed the world. In this field is that fig tree, under which the saints will rest, refreshed by the sweetness of spiritual grace. In this field is that fruitful olive, flowing with the ointment of the Lord's peace. In this field the pomegranates flourish, which cover very many fruits under one protection of faith, and cherish them with a certain embrace of charity.

3. The Virtues of the Patriarch Jacob

These fruits, then, Jacob breathed forth, who followed God through dangers, and believed himself safe everywhere by his leading. For although the smell of the field is sweet and pleasant, because it is the smell of nature: yet in the holy Patriarch there breathed the grace of the virtues. How continent was his frugality, who did not demand the food prepared for himself, but yielded it without delay to his brother when he asked, from whom he received the primacy of the blessing! How dutiful toward his parents, that he deserved to be preferred to his elder brother by his mother's affection, and to be consecrated by the gift of his father's blessing! How religious, that he refused to harm his brother! How modest, that he feared to deceive his father! How respectful, that he could not refuse his mother what he was bidden!

1. Parental Favoritism and Esau's Threat of Fratricide

But neither must the parents be left without excuse in this, that they preferred the younger son to the elder. At the same time care must be taken lest anyone, while he intends to follow their example, should hold an unjust judgment among his children; so as to think one should be loved, the other set aside. For from this brotherly hatreds are stirred up, and from the growth of vile money a fratricidal crime is compounded. Let the same measure of affection nourish the offspring. Yet grant that affection may seize somewhat more for itself in regard to the more charming or more similar child; the form of justice ought to be equal toward all. More is conferred on the one loved, for whom the love of his brothers is sought: but more is taken away from him who is burdened with the envy of unjust preference.

Esau threatened that he would kill his brother, nor did brotherly kinship, nor reverence for parents, recall him from fratricidal fury; and he grieved that the blessing had been snatched from him, of which, in truth, he ought to have proved himself worthy by gentleness, not by crime.

2. Rebecca's Preference for the Just Son

But Rebecca too did not, as it were, prefer a son to a son, but the just to the unjust. For with a devout mother the mystery outweighed the pledge of nature: she did not so much prefer him to his brother, as offer him to the Lord, since she knew that he could keep the gift bestowed upon him; in which she also had regard for the other, whom she withdrew from divine offense; lest he be entangled in a graver guilt, if he lost the grace of the blessing received.

3. The Balanced Contest of Isaac and Rebecca's Love

Yet receive a good contest between the parents. Let the mother show affection, the father judgment. Let the mother incline toward the younger with tender devotion: let the father preserve the honor due to nature toward the elder. Let this one honor more, that one love more: while each fosters each, let not both conspire upon one, defrauding the other. Let there be equality amid diverse contests, and let an equal and like love and grace of the parents be conferred, by unequal pursuits, upon each; let the one make up for what the other diminishes. Thus with pious affection did the patriarch Isaac and holy Rebecca contend, so that they made neither one inferior, but both equal.

4. Jacob's Diligence and Gentleness Prevail

Yet he prevailed who was preferred by the oracle: diligence conquered slowness, gentleness conquered harshness. While the one sought his prey in the field by rough hunting, this one ministered to his devoted father foods of gentle manners, this one domestic grace, this one the sweet feasts of tender gentleness and piety. Whatever occurs pleases the mind more than whatever you would think should be offered by design. Jacob went to the sheep, and brought the offspring of innocence, or gifts of sacred prophecy; because the Patriarch believed no food to be sweeter than Christ, who was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb to the victim. This he judged a useful food, either for the common father, or for the people whose type he bore, because it was to be the remission of sins.

5. Esau's Robe as a Figure of the Old Testament

Therefore he received his brother's robe, because he excelled in aged wisdom: therefore the younger brother stripped off the elder brother, because he shone forth by the dignity of faith. Rebecca, as a type of the Church, brought forth this robe, and gave it to the younger son—the robe of the old Testament, the prophetic and priestly robe, that royal robe of David, the robe of Solomon, of Hezekiah, and of Josiah the kings—and gave it to the Christian people, who knew how to make use of the garment received; since the Jewish people had it without use, and knew not its own ornaments. This robe lay cast aside in shadow, neglected. For it was darkened by the shadowy gloom of impiety, nor could it be more widely unfolded in the narrow heart of the Jewish people. The Christian people put it on, and shone forth: they illuminated it with the brightness of their faith, and with the light of pious deeds.

Isaac recognized the familiar smell of his own kindred, he recognized the robe of the old Scripture, but did not recognize the voice of the old people; and therefore he knew it had been changed. For to this day the same robe remains, but the confession of the people's devotion has begun to be melodious; and rightly it was said: The voice indeed is the voice of Jacob: but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he smelled the smell of his garments. And perhaps this is because we are not justified by works, but by faith; since carnal weakness is an impediment to works, but the brightness of faith overshadows the error of deeds, which merits the pardon of sins.

1. The Church Foreshadowed Before the Synagogue

The blessing having been solemnized, afterward the elder brother arrived. By which it is shown that the kingdom of the Church, in predestination, was granted before that of the Synagogue: but that the Synagogue slipped in afterward, that sin might abound; and when sin had abounded, grace also might abound; and at the same time it might be made clear that the diligent soldier ought to be a candidate for the heavenly kingdom, so that he might snatch away the blessing and claim for himself the prerogative of his own commendation. Whence the younger son was not blamed by the father, but praised, since Isaac says: Thy brother came with guile, and took away thy blessing. For good is the guile where the plundering is blameless; and blameless is the plundering of piety, because from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

And the fathers, hastening, celebrated the passover, who ate the lamb in haste, without delay; and holy Joseph, by a devout contrivance of deceit, summoned and detained his brother Benjamin.

2. Why the Wiser Son Was Set Over the Elder

And yet he himself, by compelling, drew forth and obtained the blessing that he be blessed; but that blessing which agreed and was consistent with the former one, namely, that he should serve his brother. For indeed he who could not command and rule another ought to serve, that he might be ruled by the wiser one. For it was not the part of the holy Patriarch to consign his son to a degrading condition of servitude; but, as a good father, having two sons, one intemperate, the other prudent and sober, in order to provide for both, he set the sober one over the intemperate, and appointed the foolish one to obey the prudent; because the foolish man cannot be a voluntary disciple of virtue, nor persevere in its pursuit, since the fool changes like the moon: and deservedly he denied him the liberty of his own judgment, lest, like a ship on the waves without a pilot, he should drift; but he subjected him to his brother, according to what is written: For the imprudent serves the prudent.

Rightly, therefore, did he subject him, that by the rule of the one governing he might better his disposition. Therefore he says: By thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy brother. For piety is mistress of cruelty, and gentleness prevails over harsh impulses.

3. True Slavery and True Freedom of the Soul

Every one is a slave who does not have the authority of a pure conscience: whoever is broken by fear, or ensnared by pleasure, or led by desires, or exasperated by indignation, or cast down by grief, is a slave. For every passion is servile; since he who commits sin is the slave of sin, and, what is worse, is the slave of many; he who is subject to vices has bound himself to many masters, so that it is scarcely permitted him to escape from servitude. But he who is the arbiter of his own will, the judge of his own counsel, the interpreter of his own decision, who restrains the appetite of bodily passion, who does well what he does, and doing well, does rightly, and doing rightly, does it blamelessly and irreproachably, having power over his own acts; he indeed is free. For he who does all things prudently, and so lives as he wills, he alone is free. It is not chance condition that makes a slave, but shameful folly.

Finally, the prudent servant rules foolish masters, and skilled servants shall lend to their masters. What shall they lend? Not money, surely, but wisdom, as the Law says: Thou shalt lend to many nations: but thou shalt not borrow. For the Jew lent the oracles of the divine law to the proselyte. But because he himself could not see the mysteries of the Law, and did not know the oracles he possessed, he who lent the letter to the nations now borrows from these the grace of spiritual doctrine: and deservedly he is subjected to servitude; since he who borrows is a slave, as it were bound over to the interest of the creditor: but he who bestows the interest of pious doctrine, he is a prince, as the Law says: Thou shalt be a prince over many nations: but they shall not be princes over thee. For a prince is one who rules, who holds also the primacy of wisdom, which the Jewish people once possessed.

But since it could not keep what it taught, it must now learn what it knew not how to teach.

4. Isaac's Prophecy of the Two Peoples

This, then, is what the patriarch Isaac said: Thou shalt serve thy brother. And it shall be, when thou shalt have put down and loosed his yoke from thy neck, signifying that two peoples were to come to be, one the son of the handmaid, the other of the free woman (for the letter serves, but grace is free), and that the people who cling to the letter would be a slave for as long as it followed the interpreter of spiritual doctrine. Then too that shall come to pass which the Apostle says: That the remnant shall be saved according to the election of grace. Thou shalt serve, therefore, thy brother: but then thou shalt feel the profit of servitude, when thou shalt begin to obey thy brother willingly rather than under compulsion.

1. Rebecca's Counsel of Patience Against Esau's Wrath

Hence envy arose, and Esau threatened that after their father's death he would kill his brother. But should this happen, let us learn from Rebecca how provision is to be made, lest envy stir up wrath, and wrath rush headlong into parricide. Let Rebecca come, that is, let patience be brought in, the good guardian of innocence, and let her persuade us to yield place to anger. Let us withdraw somewhat further off, until with time indignation is softened, and forgetfulness of the offense creeps in. And so patience does not dread even exile, but takes it up readily; not so much to avoid danger to safety as to shun the incitement to crime. The devout mother also endures the absence of her most beloved son, meaning to bestow the more upon him whom she has wounded: providing for both, that she might keep the one free from danger, and the other unstained by crime.

2. True Virtue Seeks Only the Grace of God

We have heard what intemperance, drunk with bodily desires, has said; let us consider what true virtue does. It seeks nothing but the grace of God: it follows that one and highest good alone, is content with it alone, from whom we have received all things; but we ourselves confer nothing on him, because he needs nothing, as David says: I have said to the Lord: Thou art my God; for thou hast no need of my goods. For of what does he stand in need, who abounds in all things, and bestows all things upon us, and ministers everything without failing?

3. Jacob's Vision of Angels as a Sign of Christ

And Jacob set out, and slept, which is a sign of a quiet mind: and he saw the Angels of God ascending and descending, that is, he ministers all things without failing.

He foresaw Christ upon the earth, to whom a company of Angels descends and ascends, rendering service by their loving ministry to their own Lord.

4. Jacob at the Well and the Fountain of Life

And he came to a well, to drink from his own vessels, and from the springs of his own wells, and the waters overflowed to him from his own spring. For the fountain of life is in the hands of the just man.

5. Jacob's Service to Laban and the Diligence of Wisdom

And he came to Laban, and fed his sheep. Iniquity sits unaccompanied: wisdom does not neglect the office of ruling: it knows not how to be idle even among others' affairs, it knows not how to be an exile among strangers. For how is she an exile, who everywhere keeps her own right, and has in herself what she possesses?

6. The Mystical Meaning of Jacob's Rods

The just man enters as it were a hired servant; and he is a ruler who was gathering for himself, by the ministry of Gospel preaching, a flock shining with the splendor of many surpassing virtues; that to the sheep coming to drink he might set forth rods of storax, and of hazel, and of the plane tree that he had found, so that, conceiving desire for the prefigured mysteries of the most blessed Trinity, they might form offspring of a pious mind's conception in no wise degenerate in color. Good sheep, which brought forth births of good works not degenerate from the sacred faith. By the storax is signified incense and the evening sacrifice, which is offered to God the Father in the psalm. By the hazel rod the priestly office is offered to Christ. For this is the rod of Aaron which, being laid up, blossomed, by which the grace of priestly sanctification shone forth.

By the plane tree is signified the abundance of spiritual fruit; because to this tree the vine is joined, that by its joyful companionship it may pour itself forth into abundant offspring. Since indeed it is wont, together with the added grace of the Spirit, to give the gifts of the Lord's passion, and the remission of all sins.

1. Jacob's Wealth and the Pillar Anointed to God

By these means, as Scripture says, he became rich, nourishing for Christ an exceedingly good flock, which he ennobled with the badges of a glorious name by the title of faith and the variety of virtues. And so he did not seem to himself straitened, being rich in the wealth of faith, and by the sons of Laban he was called, as one most opulent, into envy, since he had heaped up his own flock by the addition of another's flock. And God said to him: Return to the land of thy father, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee, showing that nothing was lacking to him with whom the fullness of all things was present: that this alone abounds perfectly, in this all things consist, and to this all things are referred. Nothing superfluous is necessary to him to whom a faithful peace was at hand, by which he might reconcile things that had at first been at variance.

Nor is it a marvel that he had peace, who had set up a pillar and anointed it to God, which is the Church. For it is called the pillar and ground of the truth. He anoints it who pours out the ointment of faith upon Christ, of mercy upon the poor.

2. The Just Man Who Possesses Nothing of Another's

Now let us consider what sort of man the just man ought to be, if envy has arisen. First, that he should avoid it; for it is better to depart without strife than to remain with contention. Then, that he possess such things as he can carry away with him; so that in nothing he may be held liable by his adversary, but may say: Know if anything of thine is with me. And Laban searched, and found nothing of his own with Jacob. A great man, and truly blessed, who could lose nothing of his own, and possess nothing of another's, that is, have nothing too little, nothing superfluous. And so he is perfect to whom nothing is lacking: just, to whom nothing is left over. For this is to keep the measure of justice. How great a virtue is that whose fellowship gave gain, and imposed no loss? This is to be perfect, to give the most advantage to those adhering to oneself, and to bring no disadvantage.

3. The Soul's Garment of Virtue in Adam and Joseph

Finally, he who desired to do him harm could not send him away empty. For the wise man is never empty, always having about him the garment of prudence, who can say: I put on justice, and I clothed myself with judgment, as Job said. For these are the inner garments of the mind, which no one else can take away, except when he despoils someone by his own fault. Thus Adam, so despoiled, was found naked: but Joseph, even with his outer garment cast off, was not naked, since he kept intact the raiment of virtue. Never, therefore, is the wise man empty. For how is he empty who receives from the fullness of Christ, and keeps what he has received? How is he empty, whose soul is full, who guards the garments of grace received? This alone is to be feared, lest anyone lose the veil of innocence, lest the impious, having overstepped the bounds of justice by the pressure of sacrilegious persecution, snatch away the garment of the soul and mind.

Which does not easily happen, unless someone's own voice has first stripped him of righteousness. Whence David also says: If there is iniquity in my hands ... let me deservedly fall empty before my enemies: let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it.

4. The Peril of Burying One's Heart in Gold

No one, therefore, of your enemies can lay hold of your soul, unless it has first been made empty. Do not, then, fear those who can plunder treasures of gold and silver. These take nothing from you. For they take away what you did not have: they take away what you could not possess: they take away what did not adorn your soul, but burdened it: they take away what did not enrich your heart, but rather weighed it down. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be, as you have heard read today. Many shut in their gold with the bolts of their gates, but they do not even trust their own bars and locks: many employ watchmen, but they too are wont to fear the guards themselves even more: many brood over buried gold; their gold is under the earth, and their heart is under the earth. Beware, then, lest you too bury your heart, alive, in the earth. It is not, then, the thieves of that gold you should fear.

That money-lender is to be feared by you, who scrutinizes the substance of your soul, to see whether you have contracted the debts of some graver sin, who shuts up your heart in the ground alone, who buries your soul under that same sod with which you have covered your gold, who bends your mind down under the usury of hundredfold interest, and lays it in a heavy tomb, from which no one rises again. Follow holy Jacob, who neither possessed anything of others' vices, nor was empty and void of his own virtues, being filled with the fruit of righteousness. But these are moral matters.

5. Laban as a Figure of Satan Finding Nothing His Own

That mystical event, that Laban came to him—that is, "whitened"—because Satan too transforms himself into an angel of light, and began to seek back his own things from him. Jacob answered him: Know if there is anything of yours with me, that is, I have nothing of yours. See, therefore, if you recognize anything of your vices and crimes. I have taken away nothing of your frauds with me, nor do I have any partnership in your deceit; I have fled from all that is yours as from a contagion. And Laban searched, and found nothing of his own. How blessed is the man in whom the enemy found nothing that he could call his own; in whom the devil found nothing that he could recognize as his! This seemed impossible in a man, but he bore the type of him who says in the Gospel: The prince of this world is coming, and he will find nothing in me. For whatever belongs to the devil is nothing, since it can have no permanence or substance.

6. Leah and Rachel as Figures of Synagogue and Church

He himself, moreover, who was prefigured in Jacob is the Lord Jesus, a man of two marriages, that is, a certain partner of the Law and of grace, who loved the virgin Rachel first, and cherished with pious affection her who was predestined to be his bride. But because Leah, as it were the Law, slipped in beforehand, and crept in weaker of eye like the Synagogue, which could not see Christ because of the blindness of her mind, the grace of holy Rachel abounded all the more—she who was sought after that first marriage, and who already then, by the interpretation of her name, signified the future primacy of the Church. Blessed Rachel, who took away reproach by her childbearing; blessed Rachel, who hid away the objects of worship and the errors of the nations, who declared their idols to be full of uncleanness.

Let no one believe that the reverence due to a father's piety was injured because she sat while her father stood; since it is written: He who has loved father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Where the cause of religion was at stake, faith had to hold the seat of judgment, and perfidy had to stand as if accused.

1. The Camps of God and Jacob's Gifts to Esau

These things were proved to such a degree that, as holy Jacob set out, the angels of God met him. At last he saw the camps of God drawing near, and said: These are the camps of God. For divine protections are wont to attend the perfect and the faithful. But being perfect, he was thinking about reconciliation with his brother; so that he would invite him by humility, win him over by acts of service, and even thought to purchase him with gifts. And so he went to meet his brother with gifts, with his wives, and with his children; so that even if his brother himself were indignant, he might be bent by the dutiful offices of kinship.

2. The Sevenfold Worship and the Command to Forgive

And he worshipped seven times on the ground. What is the meaning of this? The Law says: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve; yet here he worships an intemperate man, wrathful, threatening the crime of fratricide. Or did he worship the earth, that earth stained with human blood, infused with the venom of serpents, or the barren unhappy gravel, or the earth bristling with hard and rough rocks? What too does it mean that he worshipped seven times? The solution would remain uncertain, unless there occurred to us that answer given to Peter asking in the Gospel: If my brother sins against me, how many times shall I forgive him, up to seven times? The Lord Jesus answered him: Not only seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

By this prophetic spirit, therefore, the holy Patriarch signifies, looking forward to him who was to come, who would command that pardon be granted to a brother not only seven times but even seventy times seven; so that Esau, meeting him, in contemplation of that future one, might forgive the wrong which he thought he had received from his brother, and although injured might return to grace; because for this reason the Lord Jesus was to take on flesh and come into the world, that he might grant us a manifold pardon of our sins.

3. The Peace and Tranquility of the Perfect Soul

Finally, about to seek concord from his brother, he slept in the camp. Perfect virtue has the tranquility and stability of rest: for this reason the Lord reserved this gift of his for the more perfect, saying: My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. For it belongs to the perfect not to be easily moved by worldly things, not to be troubled by fear, not to be disturbed by suspicion, not to be shaken by terror, not to be vexed by grief: but, as if on a most secure shore, to calm the mind unmoved in a trustworthy anchorage against the surging waves of worldly storms. This firmness Christ brought into Christian minds, bringing internal peace into the souls of the approved; so that our heart may not be troubled, nor our spirit disturbed. That this peace surpasses every mind the Apostle-teacher affirmed, saying: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The fruit of peace, therefore, is not to be disturbed in one's breast. Indeed the life of the just is quiet, but the unjust man is full of restlessness and disturbance. And so the impious man is afflicted more by his own suspicions than most men are by blows from others; and greater are the welts of wounds in his soul than in the bodies of those who are beaten by others.

4. Inward Peace Compared to the Peace of Empires

It is a great thing for someone to be tranquil within himself, and to agree with himself. Outward peace is sought either by the anxious foresight of an emperor, or by the hand of soldiers, or it yields to the favorable outcome of wars, or to some slaughter of barbarians, if they turn their weapons against themselves in a hostile movement. In that peace there is no virtue of ours, but only an outcome. Certainly the glory of that peace is referred to the emperor: the fruit of this peace is in us, which is in the minds of individuals, which is held by the affections. Of this peace the fruit is greater, by which the temptations of spiritual wickedness are repelled, than that by which hostile arms are repelled. That peace is more sublime which excludes the enticements of bodily passions and mitigates disturbances, than that which quiets barbarian incursions. For it is more to resist an enemy shut up within you than one who is far removed.

1. Jacob Wrestles with God as a Sign of Christ's Cross

And so Jacob, who had cleansed his heart of all rivalry, and bore a peaceable affection, after he had cast off all that was his, remained alone, and wrestled with God. For whoever disregards worldly things draws nearer to the image and likeness of God. For what is it to wrestle with God, but to take up the contest of virtue, and to engage with one who is superior, and to become a stronger imitator of God than others? And because his faith and devotion were unconquerable, the Lord revealed hidden mysteries to him, touching the breadth of his thigh; because from his lineage the Lord Jesus was to arise, born of a Virgin, who would be neither unequal nor inferior to God; whose cross was signified by the breadth of the astonished thigh, because, through the remission of sin poured out over the whole world, he would be salvation for all who, through the stupor and sleep of his own body, would grant resurrection to the dead.

Whence not undeservedly the sun rose for holy Jacob, for whose lineage the saving cross of the Lord shone forth: at the same time because the sun of righteousness rises for him who sees God; for he himself is the eternal light.

2. Jacob's Limp as a Figure of Israel's Unbelief

But Jacob limped because of his thigh: For this reason to this day the children of Israel do not eat the sinew. Would that they had eaten and believed! But because they were not going to do the will of God, therefore they did not eat. There are also those who understand it thus, that Jacob limped from one thigh because, of the two peoples flowing from his lineage, the future stupor of one people concerning the grace of faith was already then being declared. That people, therefore, is the one which limped through the stupor of unbelief.

3. Dinah's Violation and Jacob's Journey to Bethel

Finally, not long after such a revelation, when Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, had been violated by the son of a foreigner, her virginal modesty deflowered, her brothers, who did not understand the mystery, slew the foreigners out of zeal for vengeance—foreigners who were offering fellowship in the faith through the joining of lineage. But Jacob, who by moral gentleness loved clemency, or who by a mystical spirit foresaw the sacrament of the Church to be gathered from the nations, received that scene of accomplished vengeance unwillingly and with grief. Whence, as he prophesied the coming of the Lord Jesus, a divine answer was given to him: Arise, go up to the place of Bethel, that is, into the house of bread, where Christ was born, as the prophet Micah testified, saying: And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are not the least among the princes of Judah. For out of you shall come forth the prince of Israel, and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

Truly the house of bread, which is the house of Christ, who came to us as the saving bread from heaven; so that now no one may hunger, gaining for himself the food of immortality. There the Patriarch is commanded to dwell, there to build an altar to God who appeared to him. There he received the foreign gods, and hid them under the terebinth: there also Rachel was buried on the way to Ephrathah, that is, Bethlehem. There too Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb.

4. The Idols of the Nations Hidden at Bethel

How great are the mysteries, for there you have the Church of God, in which God appears, and speaks with his servants. There the idols of the nations are snatched away and hidden. For the faith of the Church has abolished all the observance of paganism. But why, I ask, did he hide them under the terebinth? Certainly that kind of tree is unfruitful. There, then, are the gods of the nations, where there is no fruit. There the earrings of the nations, which they gave to Jacob, are buried, so that they might now grow accustomed to hear a new tongue; that they might not know the old sound of unbelief, that their ears might grow deaf to sacrilege, and be cleansed for grace. Not without reason did holy Daniel there detect the false testimony against Susanna. For there perfidy still wished to fix its roots; but it could not remain hidden, because it was detected by a prophetic spirit.

And it was fitting that the error of the elder should oppose true confession there, so that he said her chastity was defiled where the idols of the nations lay buried. But the truth of the Church did not cover over perfidy, but hid it, and stopped up the ears of paganism.

5. Rachel's Burial as a Figure of Baptism

Fittingly too holy Rachel was buried there; because all who are baptized in Christ are buried together with Christ. For thus we are taught, as the Apostle says: For we were buried together with him through baptism into death; so that just as he rose from the dead, raised up by his own power, so we also might rise by his grace. Then, therefore, every error of the nations is truly hidden, when someone has been washed from vices; because our old man, having been fastened to the cross, no longer knows how to serve the old sin. Fittingly too a pillar is set up over the tomb of Rachel; because the Church is the pillar and foundation of truth.

1. The Blessed Old Age of Jacob

Jacob grew old; and already before that he had grown old in character: but in him there contended the untiring liveliness of youth and the tranquility of old age. For there is an old age green with grace, and a youth grey with counsel, of which Scripture says: For old age is venerable. And, The age of old age is a life unstained. Of this life was Jacob, who by good works anticipated the time of a long old age; so that he both gathered its fruit before the time, and did not fear its final days when the time came. Blessed indeed is even the young man who lives well: but blessed too is the old man who has lived well. For what the young man hopes for, the older man has attained: what the old man was, this the young man desires to be.

Certainly the young man is tossed by waves, with a longer course of the restless sea still remaining before him: but the old man is as if in a harbor, so is he in the anchorage of old age. Such, then, was Jacob, who held, with a safe and secure key of grace already closed and sealed, goods scarcely to be hoped for by the young. But what you possess is more valuable than what you still merely hope for. Jacob, then, was an old man, to whom the young, struck down by some storm of the time, would betake themselves as if to a harbor: while he himself, as if placed on the watchtower of this life, looked ahead with anxious care, and long beforehand foresaw remedies for uncertain matters.

2. Famine, Joseph's Return, and Jacob's Final Blessing

Finally, there was famine in the whole land, and see whether the old man, laid low, was not the first to hear what the lively young men did not know. He was the first to warn his sons that grain abounded in Egypt, and that they should set out there to buy what was necessary for their use. He also readily agreed to the counsels of the young men, so that he even sent his youngest son along with them. And when they reported to him that his son Joseph was alive, though his body was broken, yet with a lively vigor of soul, he did not wait for his son to come to him, but himself rather went to his son. For piety does not weigh out its measure by rank. Thus he felt no hindrances of weary old age when he set out. For piety lightened the labor.

But when, having gotten back his son, he had enjoyed the fruit of it, and some time had passed—seventeen years, to be precise, which, according to the longevity of that Patriarch, is a very small portion of time—he recognized that the end of his life was drawing near. He called his son Joseph, and, binding him as the future heir of his lineage, made him swear that he would not be buried in Egypt. And having received this pledge, when a little later he grew weak, and his son Joseph had come to him, as if his strength had been restored, he sat up on his bed, and blessed the twelve Patriarchs, and prophesied.

1. Jacob's Failing Sight and Prophetic Vision

Let some now say that Jacob was not blessed, when in the very days of his death he mingled almost more conversations with God than with men: not blessed when his eyes were burdened with old age, and he could not see. For to some blindness seems to be a grievous distress of calamity. But Jacob was blessed even then, because he discerned by the spirit what he could not discern by eyes and sight. He who was thought not to see present things, saw future things.

Indeed Joseph himself erred, when, having placed his elder son at Jacob's right hand, and his younger son at his left, that is, at Jacob's own left, so that the order of age might preserve the order of blessing; Jacob stretched out his right hand over the younger grandson, and his left over the elder grandson, and to his son, wishing to turn his father's right hand upon Manasseh the elder, he answered: I know, my son, I know, and he too shall become a people, and he too shall be exalted: but his younger brother shall be greater than he. And he added the reason for the preference, saying: His seed shall become a multitude of nations. To such a degree, though the sight of his body was impeded, did he see better, so as to teach one who could see that he had erred. For who sees better than he who sees Christ? Or who can say that he was impeded in his eyes, who saw the Church shining forth in Christ?

Is it not therefore clear that weakness cannot hinder blessedness? He, impeded in the function of his eyes, he, with the strength of his body wearied, leaving his body in the bed as though in a tomb, rose up into himself, and, far from others, gathering himself within himself, withdrew himself from things present, and was mingled with the future age of the last days. For thus it is written: I will announce to you, he says, the things that shall befall you in the last days.

2. Jacob's Blessedness Amid Bodily Weakness

What then was lacking to him, to whom God was present, who had said to him as he was about to set out: I will go down with you into Egypt: and I will bring you back forever? Nor was He absent, when the Holy Spirit was speaking in him. Who was as powerful in his own home, as this man in a foreign land? Who as abundant in plenty, as this man in famine? Who as strong in youth, as this man in old age? Who as active in business, as this man in leisure? Who as swift in the racecourse, as this man on his couch? Who as joyful in the flower of adolescence, as this man on the border of death? Who as rich in a kingdom, as this man in a foreign place? Indeed he blessed kings. Nor undeservedly was he not poor, who lacked nothing. He was not poor, who did not think himself poor. And who would call poor him whose company the whole world was not worthy of?

And therefore his citizenship was in heaven. But this man was very rich in the riches of simplicity and sincerity, adorned with a beauty of soul greater than that of the body, which does not know how to wither, unwearied in age, to whom it was permitted, whenever he wished, to go forth from that little hut of a body, and to penetrate the heights of paradise with the vigor of his mind, exulting in spirit, when he was giving his last instructions concerning the tomb. For he did not presume that he was to be enclosed in an earthly tomb, but to be received into a heavenly dwelling; and therefore he gave orders for the tomb as though for another's; but as for himself, being secure, he thought that death itself was immortality.

He seemed entangled in the hindrance of the body, and yet with wakeful affection he ran ahead into future times, saying of the persecutors of the Lord, who from the tribe of Simeon and Levi were to be the authors of wickedness: Into their counsel let my soul not come, and into their assembly let my inward parts not contend. Who indeed was as strong in virtue, as this man, valiant in infirmity, who said: Cursed be their fury, because it is proud and rash; and their anger, because it is hardened. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

3. The Blessing of Judah as a Song

Who indeed was as tuneful in songs, as this man in his utterances, who was heard throughout the whole world, who is heard through all peoples, through all ages? What sweet harmony, sounding forth the differences of seven notes, was as this man, who resounded with the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit? Who, though loosened in his limbs, yet lifting himself up in mind, and raising himself in spirit, looked down from his lofty mind upon the harmony of his body, like that of a lyre, destroyed by the dissolved framework of the limbs, and did not seek it, but allowed it to lie idle on the ground. But he himself soothed himself with an inward song, and delighted himself with prophetic melody, saying: Judah, your brothers shall praise you: your hand shall be upon the neck of your enemies: the sons of your father shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the shoot you have grown up to me: reclining you have slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp.

Who shall rouse him up? And further on: He shall wash his robe in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape. His eyes are cheerful from wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. What song is sweeter, what sound more pleasant, than the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the dead? This song holy David, that instrument of the divine voice, and interpreter of the Lord's word, sang upon a spiritual lyre. With these melodies of grace he soothed that sublime soul and mind. With this song he softened the hardships of this world, with this sound he made mild the harsh things of the age, with this psaltery he broke the terror of death, with this sweetness of strings he trampled underfoot the depths below.

4. The Blessings of Naphtali and Joseph

But let us hear also other things which the holy patriarch Jacob sounded forth with that admirable instrument of his mind: Naphtali is a spreading vine, putting forth beauty in its shoot. My son Joseph is grown great, my son is grown great, my son sought after with jealousy, my son more youthful, return to me. And further on: He has prevailed above the blessings of the abiding mountains, and the desires of the everlasting hills. What is sweeter than a blessing? What more pleasing than eternity? And these very words are a song, and in the words are the great rewards of desires, the summits of merits.

5. Joseph Foreshadows Christ's Passion and Return

What is sweeter than holy Joseph, who freed us from reproach by the mystery of the Lord's cross? For as Christ was made a curse, that he might dissolve the curse of the Law; and was made sin, that he might take away the sin of the world: so he was made a reproach, that he might take away the reproach of the Gentiles: but that reproach of Christ was reckoned more precious than the treasures of Egypt. And therefore Moses left the court of King Pharaoh, and chose the reproach of faith, for which reproach the seas divided themselves. He himself therefore is Naphtali, the vine wholly loosened throughout the world, that he might pour into all peoples the abundance of the spiritual cup. He himself is grown great, having a name above every name, who, because he offered himself unto death for all, therefore heard from the Father: Return to me. Jacob was speaking, and God was being heard.

He was blessing, and God was resounding, saying to the Son: Return to me, that is, after the passion return. Return to your seat, return with your trophy, return to me; that the dead may follow you as you rise again, and by your power and likewise by your example may rise again, that you may become the firstborn from the dead, that you may sit at the right hand of the Father. Whence also the Son said: Henceforth you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power of God.

6. The Blessedness of Prophets in Suffering and Death

Let someone deny that Jacob was blessed at the very last moment of his death, who was pouring forth divine oracles? Let him deny that Joseph was blessed in prison, where by the spirit of wisdom he interpreted the truth of the dreams he had heard, and revealed the sequence of things to come? Let him deny that Isaiah was blessed, when he was being sawn in two; that Jeremiah was blessed, when he was being sunk in the mire; that holy Daniel was blessed, when he stood undaunted among the lions, and a prophet, snatched up by an angel, brought him his meal? Not indeed on that account was he blessed, because he ate a meal not his own: but because by his own merits he shut the unfed mouths of the lions. And who would not call blessed the mother of the Maccabees, who added herself as an eighth to the deaths of her seven sons, unto the praise of a heavenly triumph?

1. Eleazar Refuses Antiochus's Enticements

Nor will I pass you by, Eleazar, priest as I am, addressing a priest, but needing to be helped by your prayers: who, a priest by lineage, learned in the Law, ripe in age, when you were brought before Antiochus the persecutor, could not be captured by his enticements, nor bent by rewards, nor broken by the bitterness of torments. Indeed he began with flatteries, because he judged that his torments could be overcome. I blush, he said, at your gray hairs, I revere your old age, I marvel at your prudence: why do you think you must abstain from good foods which nature bestows? Relax such obstinacy, awaken at last, while I still prefer to persuade you rather than to wrest it from you; lest, overcome by torments, you do what, invited by reason, you refuse. To this the old man replied: We, Antiochus, are not led by inclination, but held by reverence for the Law, which commands abstinence from swine's flesh.

You judge it a most beautiful creature; yet you cannot deny that temperance is better than pleasure, obedience to the law better than transgression. But if you think this a light matter, that we should eat swine's flesh: he who has despised the law in small things, how will he keep it in great things? Or if such a creature is precious, you do us wrong, when we are defrauded of that which is most beautiful. But our abstinence is a discipline of chastity. For we learn to cut off luxury, to conquer desires, to shut out lusts, to withstand the pleasures of the body. It is also an exercise of fortitude, not to yield to punishments for the sake of the Law. It is also a mark of justice and of prudence, that what we have chosen to follow through fear of God, we should preserve even with death set before us. Who imposes food upon children? But who would offer himself to be laughed at, so as to serve in this, and yet not be laughed at?

I am not so old that the fortitude of my mind does not grow young again in me.

2. The Death of Eleazar

And so, being hung up and beaten grievously on this side and that, and his aged limbs no longer able to bear the penalties of the blows, when the executioners and those who stretched him had grown weary, he was bent down to the ground, but bore an unbending mind. And someone, either pitying his advanced age, or wishing to entrap him with a stratagem, said: Only answer that you will eat; we will provide you exempt from that food. But he, crying out, said: By no means may it happen to me, that I become, as an old man, an incitement to youthful error, I who up to now have been a model of a wholesome institution. Shall I, by these mockeries, gain a little more life, and consign the labors of my whole life to the brief provision of old age? Old age ought to be a harbor, not a shipwreck of the earlier life.

I will not deny you, law of my fathers; I will not abjure you, holy institutions of the ancients; I will not discolor you, priestly fillets; I will not openly trouble you, gray hairs, with the dust of perfidy! What more? By dying under torments he became for the rest a teacher of perseverance, he who had been chosen as an example of infirmity. Blessed therefore is he, in whom torments could not conquer reason. Was he not blessed, who could, by strength of mind, be victor over punishments, and by the oarage of piety keep his passion entire amid such waves?

1. The Seven Brothers Defy the Tyrant

After him seven boys were set up with their mother. One may mock the tyrant, who, while cunningly thinking he must begin with the old man, chose a teacher by whom he might make the disciples stronger, whose almost boyish age he provoked to guilt with rewards, and drove to dread with terrors. But they, not degenerate under so great a leader, answer: Why do you despise or misjudge us as boys? But faith is gray-headed, discipline is strong. Try indeed, subject to whatever punishments you please these boyish bodies; you will not find boyish hearts: nor will the machines of torments be more powerful than the vigilant watch of lawful observance. Him whom old age conquered, boyhood, rival of old age, will overcome. We sons follow our father, disciples our teacher. Gather together the instruments of torment set before us: they bring, as they are seen, a meditation on patience, not a terror of infancy.

2. The Eldest Brother's Confession and Death

He ordered the eldest by birth to be chosen. But he, laughing, said: Rightly, you observe the order of nature. But why do you think the law of God is to be violated? And for the sake of piety indeed we are all eldest: but nevertheless I rejoice that it has begun with me. What do you seek, tyrant? I confess that we serve the most high God, and you teach us what we ought to do. If you with such stubbornness wish to wrest out the truth, why should we not think we ought to hold it with all our strength? What more? Various kinds of torments are applied. But piety conquered the fury of savagery: the soul was shut out, not religion.

3. The Second Brother's Spiritual Helmet

The second came forward, and, not degenerate, fulfilled his brother's office of pious confession. And when the skin of his head was being torn off, he replied: You take away indeed the skin, but I have a spiritual helmet, which you cannot take away. And truly no one can take away this helmet, as the Apostle afterward taught in the Church of the Lord: Because the head of the man is Christ. And we are members of him. Rightly did the boy foresee by the divine spirit this apostolic teaching. The savage beasts stripped the skin of his head, and raged with leopard-like ferocity. But he, growing faint, said: How sweet it is to die for religion, how pleasant is every bitterness of death for piety; for the reward of these labors remains! Yours, king, are the heavier torments: you are more grievously tormented by your own punishments; because you see yourself conquered in your power.

4. The Third Brother's Tongue Is Cut Out

And when this one had died, he ordered a third to be set before him. And when he both tried him partly with treachery, and partly desired to strike him with terror, he answered him: I will not do your will, I will not yield to your command. By that blessed passion of my brothers, and by their nobility, I will not deny our pious kinship. Apply whatever tortures you will, that by the harshness of the punishments you may the more press this point, so that you may receive greater proofs of our brotherhood. So he ordered his tongue to be cut out. But he cried out, saying: You are conquered, Antiochus, since you order the instrument of the voice to be cut off. You have confessed that you cannot answer reason, and you prove that our tongue's scourges are greater than your own blows.

For we do not fear your blows, but you cannot bear the scourges of our voice; yet these are the scourges of piety, and yours the scourges of perfidy; but even with the tongue removed, it will scourge you more heavily as it falls with its murmur. Do you think you will escape, Antiochus, if you tear out my voice? God hears even those who are silent, and hears them the more. Behold, I have opened my mouth, I have loosed my tongue; cut off the tongue, but you will not cut off constancy, you will not take away virtue, you will not blot out reason, you will not tear away the testimony of truth, you will not tear away the cry of the heart. If the tongue be cut off, the blood will cry out, and it will be said to you: The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me. For he hears the voice of blood who hears inward thoughts, though darkness cover them, and though the enclosures of walls surround them.

Let the impious man say that no witness stands by him: God searches all things, sees all things; nor is there any crime that can lie hidden from the judge of all, who knows all things before they happen. Why do we give words? Wounds are more eloquent: even if wounds are covered, even if the scar is hidden, faith is not hidden. Yet do not rejoice that by taking away the tongue you snatch away the confession of praise. We have already praised God enough with speech; now let us praise Him with suffering.

5. The Fourth Brother Bound to the Wheel

And when this one had perished, he ordered the fourth to be bound to a wheel, so that by its whirling all his members might be loosened. But when he was being terribly tortured, he said: You loosen the members of the body, but you add grace to the suffering, nor do you take away consolation from death. For there is a voice of thunder in the wheel, since in the good and unhindered course of this life a heavenly oracle resounds, just as it resounded in John and James, the sons of thunder. Therefore what they bring as ignorance, which I have read, I now recognize more clearly: that a wheel runs within a wheel, and is not hindered. For a smoothly-turning life, without any offense, moves through whatever suffering, and within these also a wheel runs. The Law runs within grace, and observance of the Law is within the course of divine mercy: for the more it is turned, the more it is proved.

It is better here to endure adversity from the impious, so that there we may be able to find consolation from the Lord. And this one, completing his course, gave up his spirit, and poured out his soul in victory.

6. The Fifth Brother Tried by Fire

When the fifth was brought forward, having first been beaten, he ordered fires to be applied to him, and flames to be set beneath. Blood flowed from his wounds, and from the dug-out sores, the shed blood itself quenched the very balls of flame. But amid the crackling of the fires he was heard saying: Thanks to you, Lord, that you have given us to say: We have passed through fire. And as elsewhere your same Prophet says: You have tried us with fire, as silver is tried with fire. I will stand before you as gold purged by the flame; and whatever guilt there was, the fire has burned it away. And so this one too, transfigured from corruption to incorruption, breathed out his life.

7. The Sixth Brother's Torments and Confession

Torments were applied to the sixth also. But he said: Do not wander in error in vain, and ascribe to your own power this which you exercise against us. This is the price of our sins, that we who have sinned should be punished. And thanks be to the Lord, that here double sins are exacted from us, so that there consolation may be brought to us. But thanks also to you, that you are so hard and merciless, that by such sufferings of ours the Lord, against whom we have sinned, may become propitious to our nation. We also lighten our hardship, while we delight in the sufferings of faith. And this one, torn apart by hard and bitter torments, was laid beside his brothers.

8. The Mother Exhorts Her Youngest Son

There remained the youngest of the brothers, and now Antiochus was ashamed that he had been so mocked by one of immature age. And so, desiring to ensnare him with deceits, he promised honors, riches, his own friendship, a share in his secrets. But indeed the pious mother admonished her son, saying to this one too, as to the others: I do not know how you entered my womb, nor did I give you spirit, nor did I form your members: but these are the gifts of almighty God. Antiochus, seeing the mother anxious, thought that she feared for his safety, and began to persuade her too, to call her son back from his purpose. But she, in her native voice, said to her son: You alone remain, my son, the sum of my prayers; you last closed my childbearing, do you last close my joys.

Have pity on me, who bore you in my womb through the course of so many months; do not in one moment confound my old age, do not tarnish the trophies of so many of your brothers, do not abandon their sacred company, do not desert their fellowship. These triumphs still await you. Look up to heaven, from which you drew your spirit, to the Father of all; look at the earth, which before ministered nourishment to you; look at your brothers, who seek a companion; look at your mother, who gave you milk; render the reward of pious blood; do not be torn from your brothers, do not be torn from your mother. Temporal are the riches which Antiochus promises, temporal the honors: eternal is the crown which is bestowed by almighty God. The Lord gave you to me as the lights of seven days; I have already closed the sixth day, and all the works were very good.

You owe it to me, my son, that in you I may rest on the seventh, as I labored in these six, as though now resting from the works of this age. And so the youth, springing forward, said: Why do you wait? And crying out much, that he could in no way be torn away from the fellowship of his brothers, whose deaths were far more blessed than the rule of kings, while he pressed the king with reproaches, he himself, tormented with bitter kinds of torture, finished the task of this life.

9. The Blessedness of the Mother of the Maccabees

Last of all, the mother was given over to death. Who would deny that she is blessed, who, as if fenced about with seven gifts, amid the bodies of her sons feels no assault of death? Who, I say, would doubt her blessedness, who, surrounded by seven towers, lifted up her head into the seat of paradise; who, girded with seven sons, brought a most sacred choir to God, not only with tuneful voices but also with sufferings, to sing praises to the Lord at the heavenly altars? How good a birth of faith, how safe this harbor of piety, how splendid a lamp of the Church, shining with sevenfold light, and in an eighth womb supplying oil to all the lights!

Of whom it is beautifully said: Give a portion to those seven, and indeed to those eight, because in either number they obtain a share of grace, nourished in the Law, crowned through grace, seven as it were in the sabbath, eight as it were in the Gospel, the pious mother being joined as a supplement to the suffering, who in such sons both conceived and brought forth the whole form of piety.

1. The Mother Urges Her Sons Toward Martyrdom

There come back to memory the words of the holy woman saying to her sons: I bore you, I poured the milk's essence into you, do not lose your nobility. Thus other mothers are wont to call their sons back from martyrdom, not to summon them to it. But she placed her maternal affection in this, that she urged upon her sons a life more everlasting than temporal. And so the pious mother watched the contests of her sons; and although she was shaken by the compassion of a mother's womb, yet by zeal for piety she suppressed her grief. And when Antiochus offered her the chance, since she could choose the safety of her sons, she preferred the danger: and, suppressing the groans of nature, she wished the punishments of her sons to be increased, so that death might draw nearer more quickly. We see the mother's prayers turned toward her sons; that she might leave none surviving, but win all as pious co-heirs of death.

2. The Brothers Encourage One Another to Die

But the sons were not lesser than such a parent, who exhorted one another, who said with one zeal, and with a certain sharpness of soul: Let us trample down the assault of hostile death. For then shall we live, when we have died. Let no one abandon the order of piety, let no one withdraw himself from the triumphal battle. We have devoted our souls not to man, but to almighty God: we serve in arms not for man, but for the author of all things. Such is this battle, that he conquers more gloriously who is more cruelly slain. And so no one feared, no one trembled, none out of so many brothers was more sluggish toward death: but all ran to death through bitter torments as if along the road to immortality; and the mother, seeing in harmony the ranks of her sons, as a pious soul offered up the members of her own body in her sons, and through their limbs seemed to herself to undergo the desired torments.

3. The Mother's Composure Amid Her Sons' Deaths

The sons fell, mangled by torments, the dead were rolled over upon the dead, bodies were rolled over bodies, heads were cut off over heads. The place was filled with the corpses of her sons; the mother did not weep, did not lament; she closed no one's eyes, nor shut the mouth of any dying son; she washed no wounds, knowing they were more glorious if they were seen disemboweled and caked together alike with dust and blood, such as those who return victorious from war are wont to be, such as those who bring back trophies from enemies are wont to be. She thought that no coverings should be thrown over them, no funeral rites carried out, unless she too took part in the company of that death. What cithara could give forth sweeter songs than the dying sons uttered amid such grave torments? For a groan of nature broke forth, even against their will.

You might have seen, along the row of the slain, corpses like the strings of a harp, you might have heard a seven-stringed psaltery resound with triumphant groans. Not thus did those seductive songs of the Sirens, as they say, draw in the listener: for they drew toward shipwreck, but these drew toward the victory of sacrifice. Nor did swan-songs so soothe ears and mind: for swans die by the lot of nature, but these were dying out of love of piety. Not thus do the hoarse murmurs of doves resound secretly in the grove, as the last words of the dying resounded with the utmost sweetness. Nor does the moon so shine among the stars, as the mother among her sons, both when she led them, as one who would illumine them, to martyrdom, and when, having embraced them as victors, she lay in the midst of her sons.

4. In Praise of the Mother's Unyielding Faith

O true mother, stronger than adamant, sweeter than honey, more fragrant than a flower! O indissoluble bond of piety! O truly, love strong as death, jealous devotion of devotion and faith strong as the netherworld! No floods of such great sufferings could shut out your charity, no rivers of such great bitterness could overwhelm it. As the ark in that flood of the world was borne unharmed across the spaces of the whole world: so you also, against the waves of such grievous sufferings, stood unmoved by piety, and though you could have chosen the safety of your sons, you refused.

5. In Praise of the Martyred Brothers

With what feeling shall I follow after you, pious pledges of a holy mother? With what brush of my speech shall I depict the likeness of your form and of your souls? You stood among the royal armies, by whom the whole world was subdued, whom even India, withdrawing into the remote recesses of the farthest sea, did not escape; and you alone, without warlike conflict, carried off victory over a proud king. They saw in you only the arms of piety: the tyrant paid the penalty, both because he could not conquer you, and because he was destroyed by a fierce death.