On the Restoration of the Lapsed

But my mind is not permitted wholly to give itself over to lamentation or weeping, because I have cause to be angry against you. Behold, a brother went forth with us into battle against the common enemies, and was suddenly struck down by a fall: him you have judged not worthy even of the honor of burial, but have left him to be devoured by beasts and birds. Where is the mercy of the Christian religion, which our Master taught to be better than sacrifice? Behold, a brother lies struck by the enemy: he perhaps still gasps for breath; and you, because you return without wound, have not even attempted to bring consolation to that very wound. Do not be without fear, most blessed brothers: the enemy has struck down the stronger one, that afterward a swifter approach might be opened to him against the rest. Why, I ask, do you scorn the wounded man, or think him thus to be dead?

Better was the concubine of Saul, Rizpah the daughter, who kept guard over the bodies of the dead whom David had struck down for the vengeance of the Gibeonites, girded with sackcloth, that is, with haircloth, until water from heaven dropped upon them—that is, until the drop of heavenly mercy fell for their pardon. Better was that Judas Maccabeus, who believed that prayer ought to be made even for brothers who were dead, whom the stolen gifts of idols from the city of Jamnia had cast down.

Why, I ask, has our Physician set up in the caskets of his books so many kinds of remedies, if there is nothing among all his plasters by which the wound the enemy has inflicted can be healed? Was it so that something could lie hidden from the Arch-physician, to whom the skill of his own art would in no way provide? And if it please you, let us open the school of our Physician; and from the very beginning of the canon let us seek out the kinds of wounds and remedies.

Behold, at the very entrance of the school there meet us those two authors of carnal seed, who, struck by the poisoned tooth of the serpent, were not immediately condemned to the punishment of perpetual death; but, cast out from the delights of paradise, that is, from the freedom of the Church and from the communion of the sacred mystery, were therefore condemned for a time under the figure of mourning and tribulation, that they might be healed by the plaster of penance; and they were exiles from the tree of life, that is, from participation in Christ, until they should return to him through the flaming sword, that is, the fiery passion of martyrdom, or through the Cherubim of the Lord, which is interpreted "multitude of knowledge": concerning whom it is not now time to speak in detail. But what of that fratricide, upon whom the Lord commands a sign to be placed, lest he be slain by anyone? For he does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.

Nor far from these is that prince of the fathers, who first believed, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness; who, when his brother's son had been captured by a hostile legion, taking a band of his household servants, snatched him away; whom afterward, from the plague of Sodom, that is, from the judgment of Gehenna, having held converse with the divine majesty—that is, by the merits of his own prayer—he delivered. Do you also, then, take up a band of household servants, that is, by your own work and not another's, bring aid to your captive brother. Speak with the Lord, that is, pray to Christ, that the fire of the coming judgment may not burn him up.

Imitate the work of the patriarchs, who not only shuddered at the rape of their sister who had fallen into the hands of foreigners, but also avenged it. Ask, however, who were the avengers of the sin. Was it not Simeon and Levi? And you are of the tribe of Levi, who serve the ecclesiastical office. But Simeon is interpreted "hearing." Do you, then, who have been obedient to God, why do you cease to free or avenge the disobedient soul? Now the soul of your brother is your sister; and if you allow her to serve among foreigners, you will sin. But you say perhaps: this one who has fallen is a Levite; no medicine of remedy can be applied to him. You err, brother: return to the school of the Physician.

Behold, in the second place, that is, in the book of Exodus, where the wound and plague of the whole people is described, even the Levites are reported to have sinned; who are shown to have been the first to be corrected by the reproof of the lawgiver; and in them the crime of sin is not so much charged as their swift conversion is praised for the speed of their repentance. Our Lord also recalls this matter in Ezekiel, when he says of the Levites: Who went forth first from me, when Israel had erred. The high priest himself also, at the suggestion of the people, fashioned an idol: for whom Moses made prayer, that is, he was delivered by a brother's aid. But perhaps you say, most blessed one: as yet the Levites were not sanctified, nor was the high priest consecrated, when the crime of this evil was committed. I do not contradict the perspicacity which you have conceived from the volumes of Scripture.

Yet I might answer you thus, according to the apostolic sentence, by which he speaks to the Hebrews; that Levi, hidden in the loins of Abraham, gave tithes to Melchizedek, and received them. Or does Aaron himself seem to you to have been any less in priestly honor or rank, when he struck Egypt with horrendous signs, and going out by night with the people, celebrated the holy Passover? But we know that without a priest the Passover could not be celebrated.

But leaving these things aside, I wish to ask you: What was Aaron, when, struck by the venom of envy against Moses, with Miriam joined to him, he murmured? But perhaps you will say, envy is less than fornication. Read then the blessed Apostle, who says: Neither fornicators, nor envious, nor slanderers, nor covetous, nor detractors shall inherit the kingdom of God. Do you see how things equal and similar to one another are joined, which do not enter into the kingdoms of heaven? Consider what sentence of punishment envy deserves, by which the prophetess Miriam is struck with leprosy; and also avarice, for which Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, is condemned with a like lot. But you, who do not detest the avaricious, who do not shun the envious, who do not avoid the detractor and the extortioner, do you condemn to eternal death the fornicator who is returning as a brother for a time? Nor do we say this in order to loosen the reins of sinning.

Let whoever reads this take note that we speak not to the living, but console the dead. Then let him rise again; and you will see that we shall immediately hand him the verse of the Psalmist, who says: Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me. He shall receive the rod of correction, and the staff which can support the weak. Let us understand thus the saying of the Apostle, that neither the envious, nor fornicators, nor those coveting the goods of others shall possess the kingdom of God; that is, if the time of his calling should find someone in this vice; for elsewhere the Lord says: I will judge each one in his own ways. And the Apostle himself says: What sort of men they once were, matters nothing to me. In his epistle blessed John commands prayer to be made for a brother who does not have sin unto death, that is, who has not followed the evil of his sins even to the very end of his life.

Now as to what you had said above concerning the Levites, that they were not sanctified when they were defiled with sins: what does it seem to you concerning that which is written in the books of blessed Ezra, where, having returned from the Babylonian captivity, and the foundations of the Lord's temple having just been rebuilt, not only the common people, but even the priestly family, and that of Jeshua the high priest, is found mingled with foreign women, that is, with Syrians and Edomites and Moabites and Ammonites? Who nevertheless were all freed from that same sin, accepting the counsel of Ezra, and withdrawing from association with the foreign women. Whence you see that just as we are stained by the contagion of sin, so we are washed clean by its expulsion.

Let us not, I beg, most blessed one, overwhelm with stones of despair our brother, sunk in the depth of a pit under the power of the wicked prince. Let us imitate that Ethiopian, who freed the holy Jeremiah, sunk in a pit by a wicked king, by enlisting the help of thirty men, and lowering cloths and ropes to him. Behold, our brother is in a pit: let us enlist thirty men, that is, either the aid of the blessed Trinity, or, with labor of mind, of flesh and of spirit, let us free him who is sunk in the depth of the pit. Let us send him old rags: let us recall to his memory the examples of the ancients, who, having fallen through sin, were afterward brought back from the depths of evils through penance to the heights; which, when set before his eyes, he will not be able to despair.

A soldier who has been struck in the first battle is accustomed to fight more bravely in the second, and to rise up more fiercely against the one who struck him. Behold, we stand at the end of the age: battles of passions press upon us for the name of Christ. What wonder, if he whom the spear of fornication struck should prove victor in the contest of suffering? What if he should be victorious in martyrdom, who had been conquered by incontinence and lust? Did not that Nazirite, born by promise, do just this—he whom the blandishments of a woman had conquered to his own ruin; who afterward, at the end of his death, under the passion of martyrdom, is found to have laid low a greater army of enemies than before, when he had been a Nazirite, that is, unblemished?

For just as that priestly family descended from the kindred of Eli, to whom the Lord had sworn that none of them should stand before his face, because they had provoked the Lord with grievous sins: was not all that kindred reported slain by Saul on behalf of David? And what is this, if not a figure of martyrdom, that those whom the grievous crime of sin had entangled, death, inflicted for Christ, should set free? These are the sacred mysteries of the blessed volumes. Thus the Potter by no means allows his vessels to perish, who says that even those broken and dashed upon the stones he is able to make whole again.

Do not spurn, I beg, the fallen brother: he is the son of the barren Shunammite woman, that is, of the Church: he who died was born from a promise. For once the Lord promised and pledged his birth to Abraham a second time in the seed of Isaac; whose head was struck by the heat in the harvest, that is, the ruling part of his mind grew hot in the very flame of lustful hope. Let his mother run to Elisha; that is, let the Church mourn anxiously: for he will rise again, if we faithfully hope this from Christ. And you, most blessed one, in the case of the dead brother, imitate the work of Elisha: join hand to hands, feet to feet, mouth to mouth.

First, that you may have compassion on him who lies dead; nor, elated by the triumph of your own integrity, exalt yourself over him, or extend yourself beyond him, whom sudden death has seized; but imitate the Apostle, who says: I fear lest my God should humble me among you, and I should mourn many of those who have sinned before. Moreover, apply your eyes to his eyes, lest they wander further to his own destruction: his mouth, lest it converse in wicked things: his hands, lest they work adverse deeds: his feet, lest they wander into shameful places. And thus, when your members shall have been joined to his members for his guarding, he will no longer have opportunity to sin further, but will also grasp hope of rising again; so that he who died from the chill of sin may be called back to life by the warmth of consolation.

Remember, moreover, to cast everyone out from his sight: let no one see, let no one be present, nor let anyone presume for himself a view of him because of nearness. Why do I say “near”? Even if it be his own carnal mother, let not even her be given entry. For thus you know Elisha did in the case of the Shunammite's son, thus our Lord did in the case of the ruler's daughter, thus blessed Peter did in the case of the widow Dorcas. For a very secret and solitary place ought to be prepared for a man dead in sins, where nothing more may be admitted than the physician and the corpse.

Let us not, I beg, most blessed one, abandon a stricken brother, once pleasing to us, unarmed, whom the enemy has found. He lacked the breastplate of justice, the helmet of hope and salvation, and the sword of the spirit, with which the soldiers of Christ are armed. Let him be healed, I ask, because he still throbs with life; and let him return to the battle. Did not that outstanding and strong David, who in his youth overcame a giant of wondrous size, later fall, overcome by the foolish nakedness of a woman? Who, as soon as he recognized by the words of the prophet that he had sinned, immediately fled to the healing balm of repentance, and healed the scars of his crimes by the satisfaction of confession. But not even so did the enemy cease to assail him.

For afterward he persuaded him to sin also by numbering the people; and he almost slew him with the giant's weapon, had not Abishai, brother of Joab the commander of the army, freed him by interposing the protection of his help. Whence also, I believe, he himself says in Psalm LXXII: But my feet were almost moved. And elsewhere: Often have they fought against me from my youth. But you who say, Let there be no memory of him, because he slew himself with a base sin—inquire first, brother, whether he who fell was found in battle, or was wounded in his own house: for he certainly deserves more mercy whom the enemy struck in combat, than he whom a thief has stabbed while sleeping. I certainly saw that man stationed in battle: he fought with the shield of fasting against the enticements of gluttony: he fought with the breastplate of silence against the darts of detraction and the other weapons of cursing; but in that place where he thought himself more secure, he was struck.

For just as Asahel, that brother of Joab the commander of David's army, who is reported by Scripture to be swift as a deer—because, I believe, the purity of an undefiled body had granted him the gift of swiftness—is reported to have been struck in the loins with the point of a spear by Abner, whom he pursued. In which place of the body, I think there is no one who doubts that the vice of fornication is placed. Just as Abner himself is likewise reported to have been struck afterward in the groin by Joab his brother; because the form of fornication deserved to be slain nowhere else than in the groin. But does Asahel not receive the consolation of brothers, whom the whole army of David mourned so greatly? Or has he been blotted out of the book of life, that is, from the memory of the Lord's reading?

Thus Scripture does not forget, so much so that it even mentions the swiftness which he had before death, when it says: He was swift as a deer; that is, he who not only, by keenness of mind, avoided the snares of the enemy, but also proved himself a slayer of serpents, that is, of the adverse powers.

Remember, brother, that we are flesh: that sea (that is, the form of baptism) which blessed John says he saw in the Apocalypse, he described as being of glass; and therefore in us it is quickly endangered or broken. Slippery is the path of this world, bound by an icy iniquity: which, when the heat of concupiscence dissolves it in the middle, is easy for the fall and ruin of the wretched. Extend your hand to a fallen brother, who, confounded with the shame of sin, dares neither to raise himself up nor to lift his eyes. Fulfill the law of Moses: If your brother's ass shall have fallen under its burden—that is, the flesh conquered by sin—bend down, and humble yourself, and lift it up from its fall. Why do you blush to be joined to a sinful man? Look upon him who says: Be not overly righteous.

Our Master judges the man wounded by robbers worthy not only of care, but even restores him to his own stable and fold; and having given the innkeeper two denarii, that is, both Testaments of the divine canon, he promises him a greater reward, if by his diligence he restores the stricken man to his former state. Do you also, then, gather up the brother whom the robber devil has struck along with the crowd of his henchmen: assign him to the innkeeper, that is, to the blessed bishop, who, if he expends anything on him, will receive more from the Lord. But you say perhaps: That man was wounded; this one is dead. Well then, if you say he is dead, at least lay his bones beside those of Elisha. I do not want you to separate him far from the members of Christ, because he himself will blush at the company of better men, and will rise again to life.

Do not think it a small torment of amendment, if a sinner is admitted into the company of the blessed; because he feels their rewards to be his own torments. If someone is praised, he blushes: if someone is blamed, he recognizes himself. Placed amid these scourges of words, he always draws nearer to satisfaction and amendment.

Now truly, what sort of thing is that which we have heard said by certain people: that this woman or that man, who are partners in crime and sin, should be joined together as if in marriage and wedlock? Far be this from the speech of a Christian mouth. This is the suggestion of the serpent, that he should take up also the corpse of him whom he has slain. Is it not similar, if someone gravely struck gasps at the point of death; and some earthly physician, if he should chance to visit, because he suspects the man cannot live, urges that he be killed? It is without doubt similar to what is said: A brother or sister has been found gravely wounded by the dart of concupiscence: for this one a marriage in his crime is urged upon him; what else is being said, but that he should be killed, because he will not be able to live or escape from this wound? Do you not know, perhaps, what punishment awaits one who despairs?

When that messenger of Saul's death came to David, and reported to him that his enemy had been laid low; David, inquiring the cause of death, heard from him that the messenger himself had slain him with his own sword, adding and saying: Because I saw that from the blow of the wound inflicted upon him he was not going to live; whom David immediately condemned to death, since he had despaired that a man struck by enemies would live, and had slain him after the confidence of hope had been taken away. Rather, in the manner of David, let the garments of the heart and breast be rent: let a tearful voice be raised in lamentation: let the Israelite people, that is the people of the Church, be taught a lament, and let it say: Set up your stones upon your high places, and think upon your slain, how the mighty fell in battle.

Let this not be told in Gath, nor proclaimed in the streets of Ashkelon, lest perhaps the daughters of the foreigners rejoice, and the sons of the uncircumcised be gladdened; and the rest which is contained in the edict of that lament; and let it say, or speak: behold, it is forbidden that the fall or ruin of a brother be sown either within the borders of Gath, or within the bounds of Ashkelon, that is, into the knowledge of worldly people or men of the world. And have we suffered that not only the city which he inhabits, but even the whole world be filled with the report of his despair? Does not that Gospel saying also cohere with this precept, which says: If your brother sins against you, correct him alone; and if he shall hear you, you have gained him: but if he shall not hear you, take with you two or three witnesses, and the rest which the words of the precept contain.

You see, then, what it says: Lest the sons of the uncircumcised be gladdened. Wretched me, who know these things. For who are the sons of the uncircumcised, but the men of this world, living in the error of their sin and in their heathen state? These, then, are gladdened, when they hear of the fall of a soldier of Christ, or console themselves from his deed, saying: Behold him who was held up to us as a reproach by others: to whose example we were compelled to live; who, when he had emerged from a body like ours, yet, to our confusion, his life was said to be unlike ours. Would it not have been better not even to have begun what is good, than to fall so shamefully, or not to be able to complete what you had begun?

Not knowing, that in God's judgment the soul which is known to have willed the good and to have been undermined by the ambusher may perhaps have a greater excuse, than that soul which, rebellious against God, out of the despair of servile fear, has chosen rather to be bound to the yoke of captivity, than to experience the peril of combat. Is not a soldier excused before his king by his own wounds, and does not the wound of his scars often commend a vigorous warrior?

But setting these things aside, let the dead man be mourned, let the dead man be buried; that is, let his sin be concealed, partly by our labor, partly by the confusion of his own shame, and let it be removed from the midst. Let us, however, offer the linens of consolation and the ointments of heavenly hope: let him, however, contain himself within the tomb of his own secrecy, confounded by the shame of sin; there let him be torn by the worm of his own conscience, which may consume in him all the corruption of his sins, until he emits from himself no stench of shameful reputation. Did not blessed Tobias thus merit the pardon of heavenly mercy, granting burial to brothers dead in captivity? I believe, persuading and instilling repentance into those fallen under the dominion of the prince of the world. Let us also, then, cover his body according to what it deserves.

Behold, a prophet went out from Jerusalem, that is, from the house of the Lord, against Bethel, which was committing fornication away from the Lord, that is, the city of this world; to whom the Lord had commanded that he should taste neither food nor drink there. But he, being deceived by an iniquitous man through a false prophet, that is, through the spirit of fornication, fell into the power and lot of the lion, who goes about roaring, seeking whom he may devour. Who nevertheless stood beside his corpse, so that unless it were carried to the bosom and tomb of the Church, it would serve as food and fodder for him. But let us at least imitate the office of the false prophet; and let us entomb with due honor him whom the devil has struck. Christ is accustomed to raise the dead from such a tomb: only let us not leave his corpse to be devoured by beasts or birds, that is, by vices or by men of the world.

How, I ask, can we despair of the mercy of the Lord, who even rebukes Pharaoh, asking why he did not deign to repent at all, saying in the prophecy concerning Pharaoh: I have broken the arms of the king of Egypt; and he has not besought that health be given to him, and that strength be restored to him to grasp the sword.

That admirable Solomon, who deserved to be joined to the assistant of God, that is, to be coupled with Wisdom, fell into the embraces of foreign women; and, ensnared by the bond of lust, defiled himself also with the error of sacrilege, when he fashioned the image of Chemosh, the Moabite idol. But he who acknowledged his fault of error through the prophet, is he perchance an exile from heavenly mercy? But perhaps you may say: Nowhere in the canonical law is it written that he repented, nor that he obtained mercy. Hear then, brother. His repentance, which is not written in the public laws, some may perhaps say was acceptable for this reason, that he repented not before the face of the people, but in the secret of conscience, with God as witness.

But that he obtained pardon from this we know; because when he had been released from the body, Scripture records that he was buried among the bodies of the kings of Israel: which, however, we know was denied elsewhere to sinful kings, who remained to the end of their life in the perversity of their purpose; and therefore, because he deserved to be buried among just kings, he was not a stranger to pardon: yet he could not have merited that very pardon without repentance.

That congregation of Core, when for the rashness of its presumption it had been swallowed alive by the gaping of the earth, nevertheless its little altars, on which they had kindled strange fire, are commanded by the Lord to be laid round about the altar, for this reason, that they are said to have been sanctified: which we understand to be the souls of those men, who with presumed liberty had received the heat of adulterous flame; and therefore they are swallowed alive, but their little altars are forbidden to perish; just as the Apostle also says: I have delivered such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Consider then, brother, how few it is granted, that from the amphitheater of this world, where the fight is with beasts, that is, with vices, they should free their members unstained by the bite of sin. Which he who had experienced it said: Give not up to the beasts the souls that confess to thee.

But since it is now long that they have been conversing with you, we must beware lest our verbosity offend you. Wherefore we now turn our pen back to you, for whose sake we have said these things.

Why do you flee from me, brother? Why do you think yourself more fit for the company of worldly men? They perhaps laugh at your fault; I mourn, and if it should be necessary to die together, I would wish it. Why do you blush at our presence? Our case is alike, for I too am confounded with shame in your affair. The Ammonite king, as I see, shaved half the beard of David's soldiers, that is, of Christ's ministers, and cut their tunics off up to the groin: that is, he took away from them, in the shaving of half the beard, their manly appearance, and it is shown that he caused them to be made effeminate by the delightful razor of vices.

Now half your beard has been shaved, because by one vice, if you had done any good in the virtues of God, you have lost it: and you too have been shaved of half your beard, because if you are willing to labor for what remains of your life's time, it will grow back. He cut the tunics off up to the groin, when he revealed in the eyes of men the shameful deeds which he himself had persuaded them to. But there is hope even beyond this. Let us sit in Jericho until our beards grow: that is, let us be a reproach and disgrace to our betters and become an anathema of all, as it was for the Israelite people in Jericho, until the appearance of a beard, that is, the increase of virtues, is born in us. Believe me, that our King will grieve at the injury done, and will avenge us his soldiers, against whom the enemy has done these things to his own dishonor.

Our King David was absent for a little while from our sight; and so, conquered by our enemies, we broke that part of the field full of red lentil, which is the form of our modesty and delicate chastity. But now, since our King has opened before the eyes of our heart the remembrance of sin, let us stand, so that at least what remains, that is, the remaining time of our life, may be defended, that it may be saved. Let no one, I beg, persuade you, whoever he may be who says this to you, to turn this crime into marriage, and to call by the name of matrimony what is a crime. I do not wish you to provoke the offense of God, and multiply it. For if that which the enemy persuaded you to do furtively and with fear is called into blame, how will he merit pardon who, as though insulting God and his judgment, begins to vindicate it publicly for himself?

Imitate that Amnon, David's son, who, when he had burned with unlawful flame for the violation of his sister, afterward hated her more than he had before loved her; and for this deed was slain by his brother, because, having recognized the fault of his error, he did not remain in the crime, but vehemently hated the very matter of that sin. Whence we also suspect that David was not moved against him, because he quickly saw that he had received repentance; and that which had deceived him for the space of one hour, he immediately hated with impatience, and by the virtue of repentance broke its snares. But he who has been caught in the net of vices, and patiently yields to his enemies, that is, to the hunters, until he is even shut up in a cage, and there fattened for a long space of time for show; then above all he is to please the leading men of the world, when he shall have been killed.

Until you have escaped the mousetrap of fornication, do not believe yourself safe from the snares of drunkenness, through which you may fall into the wrath of an angry Absalom; for luxury and drunkenness have a certain kinship with one another in the birth of vices.

Lift up then your spirit, brother, raise the eyes which the shame of conscience has bowed down; nor let hostile despair shatter you. Behold, Absalom, who had killed his brother, through the intercession of friends obtains the king's pardon: so that he does not even despair of asking for the kiss of peace and the presence of the face of Christ. You too, then, humble yourself and be submissive before those whom you know to be friends of David, who was once your father, when you had not sinned, so that what you cannot obtain by yourself, you may merit through their intercession. And if perhaps they should be hard in hearing you, do not cease to entreat, in season and out of season; because Absalom merited through injury what he could not obtain through friendship; and what he did not merit for his deserts, he obtained through injury. Do you wish to know that often the saints intercede for sinners through the occasion of an injury?

That blessed one, one of the four, the head of confessors and martyrs, when he was being pressed with stones by a mad people, at the very departure of Israel from Egypt, that is, of the soul departing from the body, with bended knee, entreated the Father for sinners: following the example of our Master, who asked pardon for the people persecuting himself. See, you observe where the occasion of prayers arises from the injury and punishment of the saints. Nor do we say this so that you may merit the intercessions of the blessed through insult; but we give counsel, that if they have not dared to intercede for the greatness of your crime, then, suffering the injury of your opportunity, they may be more easily heard on behalf of him by whom they have been wronged. Set fire to the barley bordering you, which is in the field; for the tongue is fire, and the field is this world.

So whenever you begin to disparage the fruits of a good life, and say: behold what sort of men the saints are, who do not dare to pray for sinners: where is the daily wage of their work? Then, kindled by your tongue, the hope of the saints will be roused to confidence in intercession; because they will know that you have been driven to this necessity for your own profit, not fixed there by the vice of detraction: just as Absalom did not burn Joab's crop for this reason, that he wished to harm him as an enemy; but that he might at least in this way look upon the one detracting him, whom he had not heard when flattering; and thus might merit the presence of him who was near or a friend to Christ.

For the fruit of the saints, which according to men is in barley, may not unfittingly be understood; but that which is according to God may be reckoned in wheat; for there is no doubt that the saints sow both, according to the Apostle, providing good things not only before God, but also before men. And therefore Absalom set fire to the barley bordering him, that is, the manner of life which was conducted among men: but he could not reach that which is before God, because that the Father alone knew.

But perhaps you may say: Your persuasion requires a man quiet or secure; but I must daily dread a persecutor of the world, who wishes to avenge on me the disgrace of his kinswoman. If then you fear some such thing, behold, there are six cities of refuge, which, if it please you, enter. And if perhaps, for the guilt of your conscience, you dare not enter those which are in the land of promise, that is, in the Church; there is Bosor beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, which is interpreted "straitness"; that is, a small or modest cell of a monastery; and it will suit you very well, because it is of the lot of Reuben, who himself defiled his father's bed unlawfully.

There is also Ramoth, of the lot of Gad, which is interpreted "high death," or "vision of death." For truly repentance is to be called a high death; since with the members mortified man is led up to the heights of the heavens from which he had before fallen; or, in comparison with that humble death which generally threatens all flesh, this is reasonably called high; because it is much more noble to die through repentance, than to be dissolved by this common death. But if we wish to understand "vision of death," it can be thus understood; because when we are set in repentance, and place before our eyes the torments of gehenna and of hell, we see that very appearance of death, from which we are freed by the benefit of repentance. Only remember that you are to do penance in the city of the son of the handmaid; because Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin; and taking the form of a servant, you must humble yourself even unto death.

There is Golan in the borders of Manasseh, which is interpreted "rolling," that you may remember that you must roll yourself in sackcloth and ashes: and this in the borders of Manasseh, which is interpreted "forgetfulness," that, forgetting the things you have done before, you may stretch yourself toward what lies ahead. Dwell here, then, that through straitness, death, and rolling, you may escape the wrath of the persecutor and find hope of salvation. Then afterward, if you have done anything profitably in these, you will be able also to come to Kadesh in the land of promise, which is in Galilee, which is interpreted "holy"; that when in tribulation you have cast off the work of corruption, entrance may also be granted you to the holy Church; and into the lot of Naphtali, which is called "the vine let loose," that you may deserve to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's blood.

But let not the entrance to Hebron be closed to you either, which is interpreted "conjunction," or "marriage." For let your soul return to its husband, that is, to the Spirit of God, from whom it had been widowed for the time of its sins. And so you will also be able to enter the sixth city, Shechem, which our Joseph obtained as an inheritance, for which reason he was buried there: which is interpreted "shoulder," or "labor"; that you may show that through the labor of repentance you have been carried back from your error on the shoulders of Christ, and joined to the ninety-nine sheep, and made the hundredth, since Shechem itself is written to have been bought from foreigners for a hundred lambs.

But why, brother, does torpor still delight you as you lie prostrate? Rise, for the physician has come, who says that the putrefactions of sins are of a second order, and that after these the wound of the scar itself must be treated. Why do you shrink back? Why do you flee the cure? You who did not fear the spear of Goliath, which was weighted with the burden of six hundred shekels—why do you shrink from the little knives of the evangelical instrument? You who endured the fire of the enemy and its flames—why do you dread the fire of the Lord, that fire which He came to send upon the earth, which will consume the hay, and the stubble, and the wood? Cut off from yourself the rotten will of habit: burn your loins and your heart; condemn that hostile beauty of your body, by which you were either yourself deceived, or deceived others.

Let your emaciated limbs shudder with fasting, and become accustomed to wear as a covering the haircloth which you had defiled by a sordid manner of life; so that when you are pricked by its touch and roughness, you may always remember the goads of your sins. Moses fears your calf in you, by which you played the wanton in the wilderness; that is, let the discipline of the law and of fasting consume your flesh, so that it may be reduced to nothing and kept so. You have read, I believe: Be angry, and sin not. So you too be angry at your sins, that you may sin no more. Forestall the savage torments of avenging Gehenna, and be your own torturer; so that when he comes, the enemy may find nothing in you that he can punish. If the occasion of suffering should come, remember how you must fight in the presence of your King, so that you may be able to make amends for the fault of a deserter and fugitive.

But if perhaps the occasion for this happiness should be lacking, you yourself will be able to be your own persecutor; so that, as the Apostle said, you may establish yourself unto God through every kind of death. Enter the prison of your monastery; and seek out the darkness of solitude by which you may be called back to the light you have lost. Let hunger be to you instead of gluttony, and thirst instead of flame; so that by the hand of the executioner of your own will, through the punishment of abstinence, the framework of your ribs may be laid bare of flesh; and in place of the torment of fire, let the burning of harsh thirst consume the inner marrow of your bones. Let vigil be to you like the keeping of public watches; and as if bound by a chain of stiff iron, so constrained by a harder habit and law, await under the likeness of martyrdom the pardon of heavenly mercy. Come now, come now, why do you hesitate?

That ladder of Jacob from which you fell, while you wish to ascend, is still set in place and has not yet been taken away: and although in your fall you have bruised all your limbs, nevertheless try again to ascend: and until you come to that step from which you fell, keep yourself firmly and guard yourself; for although every ascent is slippery, yet that one quickly turns and casts down into the depths.

But perhaps you may say that in the manner of the Pharisees I am imposing heavy burdens upon the shoulders of men, while unwilling myself to touch them even with my finger. Behold, brother, since to us the license of swearing is forbidden, if you believe anything of my unhappy self, I promise, according to the mercy of the Lord, that I wish to be a partaker of this labor which I urge upon you: and your fellowship, being eager for your salvation, I not only press upon you, but even offer it to you: and if perhaps you are ashamed to come to us, send word; and I will hasten without delay to bring you. Let your fellowship shudder like Ruth from the field of Moab—that is, of a soul coming from drunkenness and fornication—one who seeks only her own things, and, ignorant of mercy, glories only in her Israelite stock.

But I, though I am not like Boaz, nevertheless desire your soul to be joined to me; nor let anyone accuse me of presumption, since it is lawful for me to raise up seed from the widow of my dead brother, lest I lose the paschal shoes and be made disinherited of Christ's passion; and, for the word of the bridegroom, made as it were blind, lest I receive the spittle of the fasting mouth which is cast upon the ground and trodden underfoot, until, having poured out seed, I go in to the widowed soul of the dead brother—that is, of one dead through despair; but having sought out an abundance of seed, having gathered together from the Scriptures a copiousness of words, let me be joined and made near to this widow, so that, having heard these things, she may be able without difficulty to conceive, and bring forth the spirit of salvation.

For I remember the words of the apostolic precept, where he says: Snatch some indeed out of the fire, but have mercy on those who doubt; and elsewhere: He who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save his soul from death. It is no small thing if we draw out even the extreme or uppermost tip of the ear from the lion's jaws: although I think the most blessed bishop, who in these same places with his priests assists at the divine altar, is doing nothing other than imitating the work of David; so that when a lion or a bear has snatched a sheep from the flock, he rises up against it, and having half-strangled its jaws, snatches the prey out of its throat; or like a good shepherd, calls back the wandering one, and binds up the bruised, and turns back the straying.

You, however, brother, should by no means acquiesce in a wicked and shameless marriage: do not insult her whose anger you would not be able to endure. Rather let her, who was made a partner in guilt with you by crime, return to her husband. Was it ever recorded that the sister of the patriarchs, after she sinned, was given in marriage? The lawgiver commanded that he who defiled another's wife should be stoned along with her; and therefore he does not permit marriage, but under the name of stones the harsh sentence corrects and amends the sin. Look at the prophet, who says: And I said, after you have played the harlot, return to me. Although the Assyrian king may have captured the vessels of the Lord's temple, yet let them return to the temple, lest unclean Babylon possess them forever.

Although the prince of the cooks—who prepares for his lord, that is, for the worldly prince, the food of our sins—may have set fire to the temple of the Lord through the flame of shameful concupiscence; yet let Zerubbabel come, that is, the spirit of wisdom, who has already understood that the power of women rules over evil men, and who trusts wholly in truth: let Ezra come, the library of the Law, and the memory of reading: let Naaman the Syrian come, the strength of confidence and the contemner of fear; who, for the restoration of his native prince's power, does not fear his might; and having set in place through each of the Jerusalem places, that is, the members of the body, the angelic and patriarchal virtues, so that the fallen parts may be rebuilt, and the rebuilt guarded, let him serve the building with one hand, and the guarding with the other; for Adam was placed in paradise to work and to guard.

Let then the enclosures of the gates be rebuilt through the figurative meanings of names. Let the Sheep Gate be rebuilt first, which we suppose to be hearing, by which we test whether the things that enter us from outside are good or evil; for faith comes by hearing. Let us do what the Apostle says: If you are in the faith, prove yourselves. Let the Fish Gate be rebuilt, that is, the ever-wandering nature of our sight, and, along the paths of the sea—that is, the ways of this world—the swift and fleeting glance of the eyes; for sight itself may be reckoned as a net: whatever it beholds, it immediately seizes; and having seized it, transmits it to the inner storerooms of the heart.

Let the gate at Anathoth be rebuilt, which is interpreted "answering sign": which we suppose to be the framework of the forehead, where we have received the sign of our salvation and of the Lord's holiness—which is the golden plate, where the high priest is commanded to receive the name of the Lord written, the tetragrammaton. Do you wish to know that we not unfittingly take the gate at Anathoth, which is interpreted "answering sign," for the framework of the forehead? The prophet joins to this gate the places of the perfumers, which through the figurative meanings of the names are said to have been rebuilt by others' virtues. But what are the places of the perfumers, if not those which are touched by the sanctification of chrism? There follows after this the Gate of Grain, which we suppose to be the office of the mouth and taste, through which the fruit of all seeds—that is, of the words of God—goes forth.

Let the Dung Gate also be rebuilt, which we suppose to be the entrance of the nostrils or of smell, through which shameful enticement deceived us, and we thought to be gain what were in fact dung. Let the Strong Gate also be rebuilt, which I believe to be the office of our hands or of touch; for we did not strongly hold what we held, and another took our crown. Let also the walls of the Pool be rebuilt, that is, the form of our baptism, and the broken defenses of the mystic fountain, which are the insignia of chastity; for, the wall of continence having been dissolved through lust, as though the barriers of the sacred water had been broken, we poured out and lost the wave of the fountain. This wall is therefore said to be rebuilt, that we may know how great is the mercy of the Lord, that even the periods of interrupted chastity can be restored and called back, through the power of continence, to the former likeness.

So do you also, through the names of the words and the figurative meanings of the places, understand that these things which are said to be rebuilt are the offices of the members.

Lest you imitate the work of the king of Babylon, so that you should believe you ought to drink the wine of destruction in the bowls of the Lord's temple, and this before your gods, Venus, Mars, and Mercury—that is, fornication, or avarice, or fury; for it is written: The fury of a man is without restraint, and elsewhere: Avarice, which is idolatry. For you cannot reckon avarice to consist only in money; since avarice is felt above all in lust, to which no limit is ever set. But since the bowls in the temple of the Lord are called virgins, the Prophet teaches us, saying: Wheat for the young men, and sweet-smelling wine for the virgins; and if the liquor of wine is poured into anyone, what else should it be called but a bowl?

I should indeed like to be taught by more learned men from what authority of the Scriptures a corrupted woman is advised to marry; since blessed David did not permit even his concubines, whom his son defiled by shameful union, afterward to marry or to have husbands. Did he not, providing for them a livelihood, keep them as widows to the end? David does not wish—that is, the Lord Christ does not wish—that in his sight his wife should be had by another man. Finally, that daughter of Saul whom he had lost for a time in the persecution, he afterward demanded to be given back and restored to him; and although she had even been joined to another, yet she is taken from him and assigned to the one whose she formerly was. You have defiled the wife of David: do not presume further upon this; but as he did who had taken her, weeping and mourning, give her back and restore her.

And perhaps he who is wiser than all beasts, that ancient counselor, has suggested to you that you could perform this penance which we urge upon you in your old age, and now satisfy the hunger of your desire under the name of marriage. But do not extinguish the evangelical spark with the moisture of vices, that spark which proceeds from that fire of the whole book, where he says: Fool, this night your soul shall be required of you. For if among those whose marriages are honorable, they cannot be long-lasting, how will they endure with you, where they are joined with crime? Let him come who says that this crime should be remedied by marriage, and that from the name of so great a sin a marriage should be called. For marriage is a name of religious import, since it was granted by God its author. Behold, the Apostle proclaims to honorable marriages: Having, as though not having. And who says, let the adulterer have, use, exercise it?

But I see to what he turns for his own defense; for it is written, he says, It is better to marry than to burn. This was said of a virgin, or a widow. This woman is no longer a virgin. Then she was burning, and she married: now let her be cooled, and live. She is not a virgin, because she is corrupted: she is not a widow, because her husband lives forever. To what purpose then do you urge marriage upon her? Do you wish to know what is the apostolic judgment on this error? He says in his Epistle: It is actually heard that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles; that someone should have his father's wife. Behold, something similar has happened. This young woman who sinned was the wife of the Father, of that Father who begot us in the word of truth.

Then, I believe, she was joined to him in marriage, when, after the example of Rebecca coming to Isaac from Mesopotamia, she received the veil with which her head was to be covered. Of this deed the Apostle says: I have delivered such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. Did he say, I have commanded that he marry her whom he had corrupted? But, I have delivered him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. For Satan is interpreted "adversary"; by which, I believe, he signifies that whatever is contrary to delights, whatever is contrary to the will, all this the flesh which sinned should feel, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But you too, brother, whoever it was that persuaded you of this, abhor it. For observe that in sacrifices cattle worn out with age are never slaughtered, but everywhere either a lamb, or a calf, or a he-goat, or a kid is offered up, that is, sins still tender, small, or moderate. In one place only, however, we read that Elijah offered a bull, but this only once. This was permitted to the Saviour alone, who slaughtered the inveterate sins of the whole people. But do not yet think that your sin is a tender kid. Believe me, it is a he-goat. Behold, through how many tracts of lands the report of your stench—that is, the reputation of your foul fame—has traveled. How then can that which stinks so much not be called a he-goat? The prophet calls him blessed who seizes the little ones of Babylon and dashes them against the rock. And do you wait until your enemy becomes a giant? But if you wish to know, he is already a giant.

For as soon as the sons of God desired the daughters of men, giants were born from that union: for the form of a giant is nothing other than sin grown excessively enormous and beyond the stature of other sins. And if perhaps there is someone who says that David took the woman he had committed adultery with into marriage as his own wife; the case is not similar: for she was the wife of a king, but the other was the wife of a soldier. He, being an earthly man, could be killed by the contrivance of a deceitful art; but this King is heavenly, whose wife has been corrupted and violated. The passion of death by no means draws near to him who is not temporal, but eternal. And yet David, when Uriah the Hittite was not present—though he was but his soldier, though but an earthly man—presumed to lie with Bathsheba.

Did he not attempt not only to press it upon her, but even to extort it, so that after the food and drink which he had craftily ordered to be served more abundantly, she might lie down in his own house and bed? How will you, an adulteress, claim for yourself intercourse while the husband lives and is present, and at the same time the King—what is greater than this—who is immortal and everlasting? But perhaps you will say: Once the cause of the adultery was known, her husband cast her down and repudiated her. You deceive yourself, brother, for through the Prophet He himself proclaims: Where is the bill of divorce of your mother, with which I put her away? And elsewhere: Shall not he that falls, rise again? Or he that turns away, shall he not return? Why then does my people not repent of its wickedness, and, held fast in their evil purpose, refuse to return to me?

Behold, the prophet, by command of the Lord, took a harlot to wife; and do you say that a soul is cast away by God to perdition? But neither do I oppose such a marriage, if you can bring forth from it such fruit as issued from Bathsheba and David—whom the Lord, through the prophet, named Jedidiah, that is, "in the word of the Lord," who among men was called Solomon, that is, "Peaceable," and held the principality of the whole world, that is, of the entire human race. Such a son is born of penitence: such do the groans and lamentations of mourners bring forth. Finally, blessed David himself, though in his youth he was caught with an adulteress, in his old age is found with a virgin; that we may understand that after sin a long chastity is an imitator of virginity.

But do you also imitate David, so that she whom you had as a companion in the vice of corruption, you may have as a partner in the labor of penitence: not that you should do penance while joined together, but that, separated from one another, you may be joined in doing one and the same work; because the still-smoking brand from the fire is quickly seized by the devouring flame.

Before all things, then, brother, let no hostile despair grow in you, because that faithless one asserts that the fallen cannot be restored; whereas the Lord says: All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men; but he who has sinned against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven. But I say that this very despairing of the Lord is to sin against the Spirit, since the Lord is Spirit, and therefore it is not forgiven him, because he has not believed that the Lord can restore to him what he has lost. For what is it that stands in our way concerning pardon? Our Lord is omnipotent: Is it impossible for the Omnipotent to blot out sin? Our Lord is good; for none is good but God alone. Can this defect fall upon that supreme and perfect goodness, that it should not hear one who entreats?

Come then, friend, arise; and though your fortune and substance have been lost amid the waves of the world, like a shipwrecked man cling to the one plank—that is, to the knowledge of the divine canon—which may bring you to the shore, where it is said: If his sons shall forsake my law, and shall not walk in my judgments: if they shall profane my statutes, and shall not keep my commandments: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes; but my mercy I will not take away from them, nor will I fail in my truth. Of whose sons is this said? Is it not of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the womb of the ecclesiastical font and the belly of the hidden and interwoven mystery brought forth; whom, once born, the cradle of the Cross received, and the breast of the Gospel suckled? Do you wish also to know that those baptized, not catechumens, are called sons?

Observe what He himself said to His Apostles: Now I will call you no longer servants, but sons. You too, then, if you know that you have been a son, that is, if you have had something apostolic in you, are not even so permitted to despair. But if you have always exercised the office of a servant, that is, of a sinner, let greater boldness be given you to rise up: because for one who falls from a lowly place, the ruin is lighter; and he who has always been engaged in error, and turns at some point to the right way of life, is weighed down by a lesser burden of wrath, than he who, after holy deeds, has lived shamefully, and has sewn an old patch onto a new garment. What too of that which He says to His Churches in the Apocalypse, which among the number of the faithful are likened to the sevenfold candlesticks under angelic guard?

Remember from whence you have fallen, and do penance, and do the first works: otherwise I come to you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of its place. And in the earlier part of the book he says that he saw a countless people, who in tribulation washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; of whom he says that the Lamb of God leads them to the fountains of life. This number, however, we understand to be that of penitents, because they were saved only through tribulation and lamentation.

You too, then, wash your robe in the fountain of tears: perhaps you will be able to imitate the fine linen of chastity. What if He should grant you purple, and you, for the sake of His name, pour out the blood of your own veins? Scarlet, too, may be abundant for you, if you blush for the things you formerly did. Nor will hyacinth be lacking to you, if you make your body livid with bruises, and reduce it to servitude. And so, with these colors, perhaps you may one day be able to be admitted into the tabernacle of the Lord. This, dearest brother, compelled by love and grief for you, I have attempted even beyond my strength and ability. You will incur a double punishment on the day of judgment, if, like deaf asps, you spurn the words of our enchantment; or if you think fit to despise either the word of one entreating, or the counsel of one admonishing, or the affection of one grieving.

May Jesus Christ, the Son of God, restore to you twofold the goods taken from you through the envy of the devil; and may you thus be reconciled to the Lord, that you may even deserve to intercede for us who are your friends, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.