On the Conflict of Vices and Virtues

First, Pride says to you—Indeed to many, nay to almost all: You are better in word, in knowledge, in honors and riches, and all carnal and spiritual gifts are at your disposal: therefore despise all men, show yourself superior to all.

Humility answers from the opposite side: Remember that you are earth, that you are rottenness and a worm, that even if you are something, unless you humble yourself as much as you are great, you utterly lose what you are. Are you higher than the first angel? Are you more splendid on earth than Lucifer in heaven? But if he fell from such great sublimity through pride, how will you, by being proud, ascend from the depths to heavenly loftiness? As long as you live here, you are held by that condition of which it is said through the Wise Man: For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation burdens the mind that thinks many things. How thickly we must suppose our clay to be wrapped in the darkness of pride on earth, if the star that used to rise in the morning could lose the spheres of its light in heaven? Hear, then, rather the light of truth saying: He who follows me does not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

But in what he himself was to be followed, he warned elsewhere, saying: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Hear, swelling of pride: hear again the Master of humility saying: Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted; and again: Upon whom does my spirit rest, but upon the humble and quiet one, and him that trembles at my words? Hear also what the Apostle says of that light of truth, who invites you to follow it. For he says: Who, though he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. If, therefore, the divine majesty lowers itself with such great humility, human weakness ought not to be proud in anything.

Vainglory says: Do the good that you are able to do: show to all the good that you do, that you may be called good by all, that you may be proclaimed holy and venerable by everyone, that you may be recognized as one chosen by God: so that no one may despise you, no one may look down on you: but let all pay to you the honor that is due.

The fear of the Lord answers: If you do some good, do it not for transitory but for eternal honors. Hide what you do, as far as you are able: but if you are not entirely able, let there at least be in your mind the will to conceal it, and then no iniquity of ostentation will be imputed to you. For it cannot be a crime that what you always wish to be kept hidden should sometimes become manifest. Thus, finally, you will seem to have fulfilled two sentences of the Redeemer that appear contrary to each other, in which it is said: When you do alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does: but let your alms be in secret: and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you; and: Let them see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Take great care lest that sentence apply to you which is spoken of hypocrites: All their works they do that they may be glorified by men.

Amen I say to you, they have received their reward—that is, only the praises of men, which they loved. Watch yourself, then, in all that you do, lest, struck by the elation of vainglory, you hear together with those who also boasted of the signs of miracles: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven: but fear, for it is written: The fear of the Lord is glory, and glorying, gladness and a crown of exultation. The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall give gladness and joy, and length of days. It shall go well with him that fears the Lord in his last days: and in the day of his death he shall be blessed. And further on: The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and its branches are length of days.

Pretense suggests: Since in secret you do nothing good, lest, once known by all, you be despised, feign outwardly what you do not wish to be within.

Religion answers from the opposite side: By no means do this at all, but rather strive to become good, which you are not. For to show yourself to men as upright when you are not—what else is that but damnation? Remember indeed what is said: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who cleanse that which is outside the cup and the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse that which is within the cup and the dish, that that also which is outside may become clean. And likewise that which is repeated with emphasis: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are like whitewashed sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful to men outwardly, but within are full of dead men's bones and of all filthiness: so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. And also that which is read written of wolves: They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Arrogance objects: What sort of person are you, that you should obey your superiors, that you should render service to your inferiors? It befits you rather than them to command: for they cannot be equal to you either in talent, or in diligence, or in strength. Obey, therefore, the command of God, and let there be no further care for you about anyone else. But blessed submission answers: If one must rightly obey the command of God, it is necessary also to be subject to human authority. For Christ the Lord says: He who hears you, hears me: and he who despises you, despises me: but he who despises me, despises him who sent me. But it is fitting (you will say) that this be so, only if the one who commands were such as he who commands through God ought to be; but since he is not such, obedience is not therefore owed to him. But the Apostle on the contrary says: There is no power but from God; and those that are, are ordained of God.

Therefore he who resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. Wherefore, since this ordination has been established by divine law, it is not to be obscured by human contrivances. What sort of persons those who command ought to be, then, is not to be judged by those who are subject. For the same Apostle continues: But they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation. And indeed to the first pastors of the Church the Lord himself says: You know that the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they that exercise power over them are called benefactors: but you shall not be so, but he that is greater among you, let him be as the servant of all: even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Finally, because he made clear that not all such would be of this kind, therefore, taking upon himself in the persons of the disciples the roles of all who are subject, he forewarned, saying: The Scribes and Pharisees have sat upon the seat of Moses: all things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do not, for they say and do not. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders, but with a finger of their own they will not move them.

Likewise Envy says: In what are you inferior to this one or that one? Why then are you not equal to them, or even superior? How much you are worth, which they are not worth! Therefore they ought not to be either superior to you, or even equal.

But fraternal love answers: If, O man, you suppose that you surpass others in virtues, you will keep yourself more safely in the lowest place than in the highest. For the fall is always worse from a great height. But if, as you assert, some are superior to you, others equal, how does this hurt you? How does it harm you? Take great care lest, while you envy others their place of loftiness, you imitate him of whom it is written: By the envy of the devil death entered into the world. For they imitate him who are of his party.

Hatred says: Far be it that you should love him who is contrary to you in all things, who disparages you, who insults you, who exasperates you with injuries, who reproaches you with your sins, who always hastens to go before you in words, in deeds, and in honors. For unless he envied you, he would by no means set himself before you in this way.

But sincere charity answers: Is it because the things you narrate are to be hated in man, that therefore the image of God in man is not to be loved? Nay rather, Christ, who while placed on the cross loved his enemies and prayed for them, before the torment of the cross admonished his disciples, saying: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and slander you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. This had also been said before through Solomon, for thus we read: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink, for by doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord will repay you with good things. To this saying the Apostle, out of the spirit of Christ whose mind he possessed, adds, saying: Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Against this, of those who are known to hate their brothers, it is said through John: He who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And again: He who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he goes, because darkness has blinded his eyes. But you say: It is enough for me to love those who love me. But the Lord says the contrary: If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even the publicans do this? What further, O man, can you object to this? Surely he who hates his brother remains in death, and he who loves, remains in God, and God in him. Vomit forth, therefore, all bitterness of gall, and by whatever means you can, take up the sweetness of charity. For nothing is sweeter than it, nothing more blessed in life, as it is written: Hatred stirs up strife, but friendship covers all those who do not strive.

Indeed it even strives to conform us to God: hence John the Evangelist, affirming this, says: God is charity. And the excellent preacher Paul: The charity of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Whence not undeservedly charity is said to cover the crimes of sins, as it is written: Charity covers all sins.

Detraction says: Who can bear, who can cover in silence, how many wicked things this man or that commits, unless perhaps one who consents?

But just rebuke answers: The evils of one's neighbor are neither to be kept silent nor consented to; but by brotherly charity the neighbor must be reproved to his face, not slandered secretly behind his back. But if it is objected by someone that he does not wish to rebuke his brother before his eyes, lest, exasperated, he not only fail to profit but rather take scandal from the correction, divine Scripture meets this, and in turn declares rather that detraction is the scandal, saying: Sitting, you spoke against your brother, and set a scandal against your mother's son. For he who understands that someone is detracting him takes greater scandal than one who perceives himself being rebuked. And because sometimes the errors of those who sin must be covered in silence, so that they may be corrected at a more suitable time, it is added: These things you did, and I was silent.

Then, lest detractors applaud themselves on account of this discreet silence—those who, while always preferring to detract secretly, never break forth into open correction—it is further added: You thought, iniquitously, that I would be like you. As if he said: It is iniquity to think that I should appear like a detractor, but for a time keeping silence, I await a fitting occasion for correction. Whence it is immediately added: I will rebuke you, and set your sins before your face, as if he said: Not in secret, as is your custom, but in the open, as is my concern, waiting for a fitting time for rebuke, I will accuse the sinner, and set his sins before his face. But you say: I do not hate, but love him whom, judging in secret in this way, I reprove. But the answer is: Rather you hate him more, and do not love him; hence you detract, and do not correct. How detestable, moreover, is detraction of one's neighbor, the divine sayings testify in many places.

Whence is that: Him who secretly detracted his neighbor, I persecuted; and that: He who detracts his brother, detracts the law; and also that of the apostle Paul: But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another.

Anger says: The things done against you are such that they surely cannot be borne with equanimity; indeed, to bear them patiently is a sin; and if they are not resisted with great exasperation, they will thereafter be heaped upon you without measure.

Patience answers: If the Passion of the Redeemer is recalled to memory, nothing is so hard that it cannot be borne with an even mind. For Christ (as Peter says) suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. The Lord himself also said to us: If they have called the head of the household Beelzebub, how much more those of his household? And in another place: If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. But how small are the things we suffer in comparison with his sufferings? For he endured reproaches, mockeries, insults, blows, spittle, scourges, the crown of thorns, and the cross; and we wretches (I speak to our confusion) are wearied by a single word, cast down by one utterance; nor do we ponder what is said: If we have died together, we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together. Wherefore the stings of anger must be blunted, and its condemnation feared.

Whence we read it written: For everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the council; and whoever says, Fool, shall be liable to the fire of hell. Yet there a remedy is suggested, when it is further added: If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. As if it were plainly said: Do not pour out even a silent prayer in your heart, unless you first bring the offended neighbor to gentleness of mind by making satisfaction. For our gift is our prayer; our altar is the heart. But he who takes care to do this (whenever anger has arisen between two without cause) will by no means incur the aforementioned condemnation. But there are many who do not forgive the sins of those who ask pardon of them.

Against these comes that saying of the Lord, in which it is said: If you do not forgive each one his brother from your hearts, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your sins. You say: There are many things he has committed against me, he has offended me often; and because, being younger, he provokes me with many injuries without cause, it does not suit me to forgive him so many faults. To this, not I, but the Lord answers. For when Peter said to him: How many times shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? And the Lord said to him: I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. But how many there are who are slow to release their own injuries, yet quicker to pardon God's! And it sometimes happens that, under pretext of avenging God's injuries, they angrily avenge their own.

What, finally, is to be said of those who are so blinded by the fervor of anger that they break forth even into words of cursing, except what the Apostle says: Neither the abusive nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God? This the apostle James also, exaggerating, detests, saying: No man can tame the tongue: a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless God and the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not so to be. Does a fountain send forth from the same opening both sweet and bitter? For this reason it is also said elsewhere: Death and life are in the hand of the tongue.

Harshness says: Are gentle words to be used with such stupid and senseless men, brutish as animals, and not rather the harshest, when they offend, so that they may learn to revere your dignity?

But gentleness answers: Not your persuasion in such a matter, but the precept of the apostle Paul is to be followed, who admonished his beloved disciple concerning this, saying: Do not rebuke an elder, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, young women as sisters, in all chastity. And again: The servant of the Lord, he says, must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, apt to teach, patient, correcting with modesty those who think differently. And again: Reprove, exhort, rebuke, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the evil of harshness is indeed pernicious, harms subjects, and profits less; indeed it often happens that those, exasperated, even scorn the correction of charity, and hurl the darts of contempt against wholesome words. This the Wise Man warns against, saying: He who rebukes a scoffer does injury to himself. But on the other hand, concerning him who profits by rebuke, he says: Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

Therefore it is written: Son, in your gentleness honor your soul; and the Apostle says: If a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness, and the same apostle, teaching bishops, says: That they show themselves gentle to all.

Pride says: You have God as witness in heaven; let it not be a concern to you what men on earth may suspect of you.

But humble self-abasement answers: No occasion for detraction should be given, no suspicion of whispering; but if there are detractors present, your deeds should be made manifest to them so that they may be corrected; or certainly, if they are absent, they should be passed over with humble avowal. For the Apostle admonishes that no occasion be given to the adversary for the sake of reviling. This he also condemned in those who, though enrolled under the Christian name, reclined at meals in idol-temples, and though they themselves reckoned the idol as nothing and took the things sacrificed as if innocent food, nevertheless through this act drew the weak consciences of their brothers to the wicked rites of idols. Hence he says: Be without offense to Jews and to Gentiles, and to the Church of God.

Sadness says: What do you have to rejoice about, when you suffer such great evils from your neighbor? Consider with what grief of mind all must be regarded who are engaged in so much bitterness of gall against you.

But spiritual joy answers: I know that sadness is twofold; indeed I have experienced two sadnesses of the heart: one, namely, which works salvation, the other which contrives ruin; one which draws to repentance, the other which leads to despair. You seem to recognize one of these, but the one that works death altogether. There is therefore no cause for grief in what you urge, but rather cause for rejoicing in what you do not yet understand. Whence the Lord, the everlasting giver of joy, said: When men persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you, lying because of me, rejoice in that day, and exult; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. Remember that the apostles, the summits of our religion, went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus. There should therefore be no place for grief in afflictions, since so great an abundance of joy follows upon them.

Torpor or laziness says: Do you always persist in continuous reading and long study of the Scriptures? You will incur ophthalmia or bleariness of the eyes. If you shed tears unceasingly, you will even lose the very light of your eyes. If, prolonging your vigils, you pay the debt of the psalms, you will fall into madness of the head. If you wear yourself out with daily labor, when will you rise up for spiritual work?

But diligence and untiring virtue answer: Why, O man, do you set before yourself such long spans of time to accomplish good things? Do you know whether you will live tomorrow? Nay, whether you will even complete one hour in this life? Or has it perhaps slipped your mind what the Savior says in the Gospel: Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour? Wherefore shake off the sluggishness of torpor, and always remember that the kingdom of heaven is seized not by the tepid, not by the soft, not by the slothful, but by the violent, and those who use force, as the Savior says, carry it off.

Restless wandering says: If you believe God is everywhere, why do you keep watch alone over one single place, where so many evils are perpetrated, and not rather pass on to others?

But Stability answers: If it is as you assert, since you confess that God is everywhere, then neither is this place to be abandoned, which you desire to flee: because God is in it too. But, you will say, I seek a better one, I find a better one. But I answer: Will you find a place better, or even as good, as that which the devil and his angel and man lost? Remember therefore that the first angel fell from heaven (for thus it is written: I was watching Satan fall like lightning from heaven), and the first man was expelled from paradise into the wretchedness of this age. Note that Lot, tested by the practice of evils, was holy among the Sodomites; but growing torpid in the security of the mountain, he became drunk and sinned with his daughters.

This weariness of wandering adds yet another aspect, since it draws back even some who persevere in their own discipline from spiritual things, or entangles them in earthly business, or busies them with the most worthless matters—acting against the saying of the Apostle, who says: No one serving as a soldier for God entangles himself in worldly affairs, that he may please him to whom he has proved himself; and again: Pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks.

Despair says: What and how great things you have committed against God and against your own soul, how grievous the crimes, how innumerable the offenses, and you have not yet changed your life for the better, nor corrected your conduct usefully up to now. For behold, as you see, you are still held bound by evil habit. You try to rise up, but weighed down by the burden of your sins you fall back. What then must you do, when certain condemnation impends over the past, and no amendment comes to your aid in the present, except not to forgo the pleasures of temporal things, since you are delayed in attaining the promises of the age to come.

If it is a question of capital offenses: behold David, guilty at once of adultery and homicide, is described as delivered by the Lord's mercy from the jaws of hell. Behold the most shameless Manasses, most impure and filthy of all sinners, returned through penitence from death to life. Behold the sinful woman in the city, defiled with the innumerable filth of her sins, running anxiously to the fountain of piety, and watering the Lord's footsteps with tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them, and anointing them with ointment, deserved to be washed clean entirely. In the end she heard: Your sins are forgiven you; and: Your faith has made you whole, go in peace. Behold Peter, bound by the chains of a threefold denial, loosened the knots of his fall with most bitter tears. Behold the thief, guilty of sedition and of the shedding of a brother's blood, liable to the condemnation of death, in one moment of time, with one word of confession, passed from the cross to paradise.

In the end it was said to him: Today you shall be with me in paradise. A most beautiful example indeed of conversion to be sought after. For the thief is released in pardon so quickly, that grace may appear more abundant than the prayer itself. Behold Saul, persecuting the Church of God, killing many for the name of Christ, and drenched almost wholly in the blood of holy martyrs, at last converted by the voice of the Lord, was made an apostle, and called a vessel of election. Where therefore so many and such great examples go before, let not evil conversations give place to despair, since it is already written: When the sinner shall be converted from his iniquity, and shall do judgment and justice, he shall live in them. And in another place: Do I desire the death of the wicked by my will, says the Lord, and not rather that he be converted from his evil way, and live?

But concerning conduct not yet changed for the better, what else should I answer, except that what one did not do yesterday, he should do today? Nor should he put off conversion from day to day, since he does not know if he even has one day for correction: and let him always, resisting evil habit, say for the gifts received from above, morning and evening: Behold, now I have begun, this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.

Covetousness says: Surely you are without fault in that you desire to have certain things, since you do not seek to multiply them, but fear to be in want: and what another retains wrongly, you yourself spend better.

These pleasant things of this age are procured by no one without danger or offense: because the more one has, the more one desires to have; and it comes about that one cannot find a limit to having, while he hastens to serve the innumerable cares of this age. For as Scripture says: He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver. This desire of having, ever drinking and ever thirsting, never filling its desire, how detestable it is Paul the apostle shows, saying: And covetousness, which is the service of idols. How harmful it is to the soul, and contrary to salvation, the same apostle explains, saying: Those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition. How detestable indeed the covetous man is, the Wise man himself declares when he says: Nothing is more unjust than the covetous man.

How harmful likewise is the heaping and accumulation of riches, holy James reveals, saying: Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl in your miseries which shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. Nor did our Redeemer wish to pass over in silence the evil of this execrable covetousness, explaining how deadly it is when he says: How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. And elsewhere: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

If therefore the covetousness of worldly things is set forth as so dangerous for all, how much more deadly will it be for those who are of the Lord's lot, who have renounced the world, who by habit and manner of life have already ceased to be worldly? Especially to these tend the words of the Redeemer, that the pernicious disease of avarice may be destroyed, when he says: Be not solicitous for your soul what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on. For all these things do the nations of the world seek. And elsewhere he adds: But seek first the kingdom of God, and his justice: and all these things shall be added unto you. O how blessed, O how secure, O how worthy of embrace is this sentence. For no one in this life is as secure as he who, seeking nothing but Christ, possesses him.

For all things that are judged necessary to man he is proven to have under this possession, as Paul, the wealthiest of poor men, said: As having nothing, and possessing all things. All things, he says, that is, not superfluous things, but the necessities of human life, as he himself confirms and explains elsewhere, when he says: Having food, and wherewith to be covered, with these let us be content. But perhaps you will say: For this reason it happens that those who are called to the lot of the Lord have more, so that they may be distributed better by them than by ordinary people to the poor of Christ. And to this I agree, but for those set over others, not for their subjects, whom especially that example of Lot's wife has taught, who, while going out from Sodom, looked back behind her, and was turned into a pillar of salt, and breathed out her spirit.

Whence also Christ declares that such a thing is to be guarded against, saying: No one putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Hence Peter says: It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. For that true proverb happens to them: The dog is turned to his own vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. This disease of avarice is indeed never better restrained than when the day of death is meditated upon without ceasing, when one considers what sort of thing man will shortly be in the tomb. This surely remained fixed in the memory of him who said: Man is rottenness, and the son of man a worm. This did not depart from the heart of him who taught: In all your works remember your last end, and you shall never sin.

What then, I ask, what then will preserved riches profit? Hear what holy Job says of them: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. Hear too what the Apostle says: We brought nothing into this world, and certainly we can carry nothing out.

Self-love says: If you give to the needy what you possess, whence will you be able to support yourself and those subject to you, without want or with dignity?

But the love of God answers: If you keep the apostle's measure in this matter, you will be able to accomplish both. Hence the same apostle himself says to the Corinthians: If the willingness is ready, it is accepted according to what one has, not according to what one has not. For it is not that others should have relief, and you tribulation, but by equality. In the present time let your abundance supply their want, that their abundance also may be a supplement to your want, that there may be equality—as it is written: He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Hence also righteous Tobias admonishes his beloved offspring, saying: According as you are able, give alms of that which you have; if you have but little, be not afraid to give alms according to that little. Hence too the Incarnate Truth teaches: But nevertheless, that which remains, give alms, and behold all things are clean unto you.

Hear also what is written: Judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy. Against which the prophet admonishes, saying: Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the poor and homeless into your house; if you see one naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh and blood. Remember what happened to the rich man clothed in purple, who was condemned not because he took what belonged to another, but because he did not give of his own to the needy poor man: and being placed in hell, he came to ask for the smallest things, he who here denied small things. Attend also to what the judge of heaven will say to those on the left: Depart, he says, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat, and the rest, which are terribly enumerated there.

Theft and fraud, though they have a different degree of expression, nevertheless say one and the same thing. For Theft says: If you do not take what belongs to another, you cannot be either rich or sufficient from your own. But Fraud says: If you hand over intact all that has been entrusted to you, and think that you should reserve not even a little for yourself, whence will you provide for your own needs, or please your friends and household?

But Simplicity answers to both: It is better to be poor and to be in want, pleasing no one by what is given, than to injure anyone by theft or fraud. For whoever unjustly seizes another's goods in any manner whatever, closes for himself the entrance to the heavenly kingdom. Whence Paul, the excellent preacher, rebukes certain persons, saying: But you do wrong and defraud, and that to your brethren. Do you not know that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? And among other things he adds: Neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God. Theft and fraud therefore exclude man from the kingdom of God, and are for that reason to be avoided altogether.

Deceit and lying likewise say one and the same thing. For deceit is done by cunning, but lying by a simple word. Deceit therefore says: To bring forth one example out of many, when you wish to mock someone by not giving, and weave delays in his asking, saying, I already have something that I can give you—concealing of course in your heart what you have, either in order to keep it for yourself, or in order to give it to another, if you are so inclined. Lying says: I simply do not have what you ask for (although he has it). Not therefore by artful cunning as does deceit, but by a simple word of denial, lying disappoints the one who asks.

But Truth answers to both: One ought to deceive no one, neither by artful cunning, nor by a simple word, because whoever lies, by whatever artful means, sins; for it is written: The mouth that lies kills the soul. Moreover it is said: And all liars shall have their part in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

The gluttony of the belly says: God created all things clean for eating, and does he who refuses to be satisfied with food do anything else than contradict the gift granted? But pure frailty and simple frugality answer: One of the things you say is true. For lest man perish of hunger, God created all things clean for eating: but lest he exceed the measure of eating, he commanded abstinence. For among its other evils Sodom perished by satiety, the Lord himself attesting, who speaks of Jerusalem through the prophet, saying: This is the iniquity of Sodom your sister, pride in the fulness of bread. Wherefore, just as a sick man approaches medicine, so ought each to approach the taking of food, seeking in it not pleasure but the satisfying of necessity. Hence truth admonished through the Gospel: Take heed, it says, to yourselves lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness.

But on the contrary, concerning the insatiable voracity of some, the Apostle says: For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things; and elsewhere: Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Finally, he wholly eludes this stain and gluttony of the belly, who in taking food not only keeps frugality—that is, always hungering, completes his refreshment—but also, apart from the necessity of the body and the reception of guests, despises more elaborate and delicious feasts at the same time.

Foolish gladness says: Why do you hide the joy of your mind within? Go forth glad in public: say something abroad whereby either you or your neighbors may laugh: make them glad with your gladness.

But wise joy, and moderated sorrow answer.

Whence comes to you so great a gladness? Have you by chance conquered the devil? Have you by chance escaped the punishments of hell? Have you by chance arrived from exile to your homeland? Have you by chance received any assurance concerning your election? Or has it perhaps slipped your mind that the Lord says: The world shall rejoice, but you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy? Or has it perhaps fallen from your mind that he says elsewhere: Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep? And what is said through holy Solomon: Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning taketh hold of the end of joy? And on the other hand what is taught through the Gospel: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted?

And again what is said through Solomon: For the just and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: and man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred, but all things are kept uncertain for the time to come. Suppress, therefore, empty gladness, because you have not yet escaped the penal misery. Is not he reckoned insane among men, who, shut up in the darkness of a prison, tries to rejoice?

Much speaking says: He shall not be held guilty of crime, who speaks many things, but good ones: but he who, though he speaks few things, is proved nevertheless to speak evil ones.

To whom prudent silence answers: What you say is true: but while many things seem to be brought forth, it often happens that speech begun from good things is turned aside into something depraved, holy Scripture itself declaring this very thing: For in the multitude of words there shall not want sin: but he that refraineth his lips is most wise. And even if crimes are avoided amid many words, can idle and useless ones be avoided, for which surely an account must be rendered in the future? A measure, therefore, must be kept in speaking, and sometimes even useful words must be spared, as the holy Psalmist is read to have done. For he says: I was dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things.

Luxury says: Why do you not now indulge yourself in pleasure, since you do not know what will follow you? You ought not to lose the time granted to you in your desires, because you do not know how quickly it may pass away. For if God had not wished man to be joined in the pleasure of the flesh, he certainly would not have made male and female in the very beginning of the human race.

But unstained chastity answers: I do not wish you to be ignorant of what you will receive after this life, for either reward or punishment awaits you. For if you have lived piously and chastely, you will rejoice without end in the other life: but if you have led this life impiously and luxuriously, you will be tormented with eternal fires in the other. Whence you ought to live all the more chastely and purely, the more quickly you say the time granted passes away, of which you say you are ignorant.

And as for what you claim, that in the beginning of the human race God made male and female for this purpose, that they should be joined by mutual embraces, you speak wholly the truth for some cases: but after the human race was propagated so far and wide, the license of marrying is left to some—that is, to those who have by no means professed virginity or widowed chastity—but it is forbidden to others, that is, to those who have determined to be virgins or continent. But fornication is granted with impunity to none. Do you perhaps not heed, or think to be despised, what the Apostle says to the wanton: Flee fornication? For every sin that a man doth, is without the body: but he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body. But if you reckon this to be lightly esteemed, hear whence you will afterward lament and groan forever. Neither fornicators (says the same Apostle), nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, shall possess the kingdom of God.

O how momentary is the delight of the flesh, how slippery the hour of intercourse, by which eternal life is lost. What profit, I ask, does it bring to the body, or what gain does it confer, that which so quickly leads the soul to hell?

Spiritual fornication says: Does he do anything damnable, who consents in his heart to lust, but does not proceed to the act of the desired lust? Certainly not: because sin, as the Apostle writes, when it is completed, brings forth death (Jacob. I).

But cleanness of heart answers: He sins altogether, who does not guard purity of heart and chastity of mind. For this reason the very author of cleanness says in the Gospel: Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. Whence also it is said through blessed Job: I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin. And what portion had God from above, and what inheritance had the Almighty from on high? For unless the consent of a wicked thought were displeasing to God, our author, it would by no means be said through Isaiah: Take away the evil of your devices from before my eyes, nor would it be said in the Gospel against the Pharisees: Why do you think evil in your hearts?

Nor would the apostle Paul write to the Romans: And their thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defending one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel by Jesus Christ.

Love of the world says: What can be more beautiful, more honorable, more charming, or more delightful, than what we behold daily in the present life?

O how marvelous is the vault of heaven in the pleasant air, in the light of the sun, in the waxing and waning of the moon, in the variety and course of the stars: how delightful is the earth in the flowers of the groves, in the sweetness of fruits, in the pleasantness of meadows and streams, in the luxuriant stalks of the crops, in the leaves of the vines and clusters full of shoots, in the shades of the forests and the green palms, in the courses of horses and dogs, in the leaping of stags and roe-deer, in the flights of hawks, in the feathers and necks of peacocks, doves, and turtledoves, in the painted walls and ceilings of houses, in the drums and songs of organs and all instruments, and in the charming looks of women, and their eyebrows and hair, eyes and cheeks, throat, lips, and hands, and other ornaments applied from without, namely gold and jewels set in necklaces, and other things of this kind, which the sense cannot now recall one by one.

But love of the heavenly homeland answers: If those things which are under heaven please you so much, why do not those which are in heaven delight you the more? If a prison is esteemed by you so highly, of what worth is the homeland, the city, and how great is it? If such are the things which pilgrims cultivate, of what sort are those which the children possess? If mortal and wretched men in this life are thus enriched, how are the immortal and blessed to be rewarded in the other? Wherefore the love of the present world, in which no one is so born as not to die, immediately withdraws, that the love of the future may succeed, in which all are so given life that thereafter they do not die: where no adversity troubles, no necessity distresses, no annoyance disturbs, but everlasting joy reigns. But you will ask what is there, where so great and such a blessedness abides.

No one can say otherwise, than that whatever is good, is there: and whatever is evil, is nowhere there. What, you say, is that good? Why do you ask me? It has been explained by the Prophet and the Apostle: Eye, they say, hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him. To this happiness, though established amid many riches of the world, David panted, when he said: For what have I in heaven: and besides thee what do I desire upon earth. He abounded in many royal banquets and other pleasures, and nonetheless cried out: I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear, and again: My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God: when shall I come and appear before the face of God? And again: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. Hence too the apostle Paul: Having a desire, he says, to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is far better.

These things having thus been run through, although I have omitted many things, yet, as it seems to me, I have briefly shown the strong camps of our enemy, by which he does not cease to attack those living piously in Christ. Behold, dearest brother, among my other occupations I have dictated and written this discourse for you in the nighttime hours, though with unrefined elegance: which, because I recognized it to exceed the measure of letters, I preferred rather to call a little book on the conflict of vices and virtues: in which, if you find anything edifying, you will also take care to hand it over to others to be read.