A Letter, or Short Treatise, on Instruction in the Faith

Indeed it is fitting that your prudence know this: that we speak and know these things about God, which either he himself willed to be known among men concerning himself, or those things to which man, by his permission, was permitted to draw near. Let man not seek him on earth, nor place him among fabricated things, lest he believe him like to any one: for true faith has always set forth God thus: Unbegotten, unmade, incomprehensible, inestimable, invisible, and impassible: And therefore the only true God, who has begotten certain things, has made, disposed, ordered, and adorned certain things. The best, the just commanding Judge. And therefore every man is without excuse who has not acknowledged his Maker in the time of acknowledgment, being about to have after his departure a just Judge: who shall not think that he converted himself in his own time, but from the past. These things it is right to believe concerning God. Whoever has believed these things abstains from all injustice.

Having done good and just things, he will have eternal rest in life.

That he has a Son: do not suppose that I mean he was begotten in the same way as men are procreated; but as it is fitting to believe concerning God, and that God has a Son born from himself indeed, not with his substance divided, nor the substance of his majesty divided; and thereby he might seem passible. Nor that the Word was brought forth from his mouth like our own, so as to consist of letters and syllables: nor that the Son of God is composite, and thereby held to be dissoluble. Nor made from nothing, as the rest of things were made, lest he be joined as like and equal to the others who were made 53; but as he himself knows who begets, and he himself who was begotten: the Lord himself saying in the gospel: No one knows the Father except the Son: nor does anyone know the Son except the Father. Likewise we read in the Scriptures: My mystery is mine: my mystery is mine.

And in truth it is fitting that that be hidden concerning that generation, at which no one was present: not even a single moment of time. For before the ages, and before anyone would dare to conjecture, the Son of God was born without times: which the Greek tongue calls Achronos; for he is always Son, because the Father is always: for it is impious to assign to God something afterward which he did not have before: since God is always perfect. So that even what was afterward fashioned on our account, was already with him, if not in substance, yet in full disposition: For he was not less able to make all things at once, but so that all things, ordered and disposed step by step, might serve according to their own rank and honor; and lest passive and null things, more ancient among themselves, should remain without honor.

For if that nativity which was assumed by the Son of God on our account is incomprehensible, not laid bare to mortals; how much more that one which is known to none but God the Father and himself alone? For the angel Gabriel speaks to Mary as the Evangelist testifies: The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you: and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. What is overshadowed is hidden: nor is it known to all. Therefore if this nativity, which is laid down on our account, is unknown to us: how much more that one which is far removed from us? And why do I say from us, and not from every heavenly creature? It suffices therefore that which we have seen, which the divinity willed us to know. Nor is knowledge to be extended further, lest each one be held as sacrilegious, whoever shall have gone beyond the permitted boundaries of knowledge.

We have received Christ therefore as the Son of God, from the beginning the true Wisdom (the power of God, and the wisdom of God); the Word, that is, reason, spirit (God is spirit), way, light, arm (the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been revealed?), strength, power, truth, bread, wine (I am the true vine), Life, Door, shepherd, and very many other things, which are on account of men: and all live in him: which each one will learn in the course of time as Scripture teaches.

If therefore we confess the Son of God as known: through him we know that God the Father founded both the visible and invisible ages: For it is not right to believe that he ceased to work from whom the world took the same beginning of its birth from his generation, nor is it to be believed that he ceased and stopped after the fashioning of the world: since the Lord speaks and says: "My Father works until now." Whoever assigns leisure to him either before, or rest to him afterward, does not know that he is untiring: and is ignorant that nothing has ever happened to him, but that he always: which the Greek tongue calls ἀναίτιον: and that in all things the perfect spirit always.

There are therefore very many things which he made through the Son, of which either only the names are known to us, or not even the names are known. For how many are the thrones? How many powers? How many dominions? How many principalities? How many spirits? How many angels? Things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. How great also do we suppose the glory among invisible things to be? We cannot even estimate it, since among the things that are with us everything is wonderful. For among all things even the world which we behold was made through the Son. And indeed he commanded the light, by which the rest would become visible, to be, and he made it; and he gave it the name day. To the darkness of night he added its name.

Then he showed the firmament, which would separate the waters, and willed it to be called heaven, lest earthly things be mingled with heavenly things by sight, but that there should be something to distinguish human and divine things. For matter had already been made from nothing; nor was there any delay in all these things: for when God the Father had commanded, the Son, who is power itself, took up the command without postponement: for together with the command the work also stood ready.

But since it greatly mattered to make the earthly things fruitful, and after divine things human things were lacking; he made man, who would not be wholly from heaven, nor yet be born again wholly from earth: for he formed the body from all the clay of the earth, intending to grant the spirit from heaven: and although all things were formed by the command of the Father with the Word in obedience, in the fashioning of man even the Father himself came as maker, so that the earth might not prescribe against immortality, if immortal hands were to constitute man. He also granted that man should bear the image of God upon earth, intending afterward to give the likeness, if the image were kept unharmed. Do not suppose that this outward form of man was made after the image. Far from it. For who would believe that God, after whose image man was made, has any part that does not hear, that does not see, that does not work all things?

For the outward form of man does not see on every side, does not hear on every side, is not powerful on every side. But God is wholly light, wholly eye, wholly ear, wholly a most powerful hand. Do the Scriptures therefore lie? Far from it. But that there is something interior in man, which is itself also called Man, the Apostle Paul instructs us, saying: Even if our outward Man is corrupted, yet the inward is renewed day by day. There is the one made after the image of God: whom we call νοῦν (that is, mind): who can be like God at that time when he is impassible: while he has been proved unshaken, while blessed and holy, and without end (without end, unto the end, or, if you will, without unfaithfulness, or in faith).

And he gave free will and a capable soul not without a law of living, lest, being great and free from law, he should be made equal to all living creatures: a threat was added after the law, so that if he kept the law he would come to eternity; if he did not keep it, he would bring death upon himself and lose salvation as well. Now the name of the man thus made is Adam.

But because in all animals both sexes had come forth for procreation: provision was also made for man, that a woman should be prepared for him likewise for the sake of generation: and she was made, as Scripture testifies: and she received the name Eve: whom the prescription of the same law separated neither from reward nor from punishment. But after God had seen all things perfected and adorned through his Word (that is, the Son); he delivered into man's own power all things that were with man. When Lucifer saw that all things had been delivered to man, he wretchedly envied man. (For it is free even for them not to sin, and lawful, if they keep the commandments, to remain in blessedness.) He persuaded them to transgress the law and commandments of God through the woman: so that man might become guilty of God's commandments and fall under the sentence. He was therefore cast out into this world: for in Paradise, while he had been without sin, he dwelt.

But because after the transgression he had begotten children, he led the entire race of men along with himself even unto death. Yet the good and the just would not be lacking: since indeed it was free even for those born afterward not to sin, and God did not cease to admonish daily. Then the divine goodness and the abundant paternal piety provided in many ways: first indeed through the righteous Patriarchs: then through Moses and the Prophets. But all these were dying in Adam. In the last times, lest the Devil should triumph altogether (for that is his name, after he envied man), and lest man, after the times of condemnation were fulfilled, should be held long in punishment against the mercy of God; he received the salvation which he merited by mercy alone. For God the almighty Father sent his Son Jesus Christ our God and Lord, through whom he had founded all things: not suffering even this to be done without him.

Nor was there anyone capable of bearing man patiently, or knowing how, or who could overcome the powers of this world and of these darknesses, or conquer death, unlock the underworld, utterly uproot and destroy the power and dominion of sin, except the Son of God, who had been a partner with the Father in the making of man, who could both conceal himself in man, and, as man mingled with God, accomplish and display mighty works: through him, our records of sins being blotted out, reconciled to God the Father and made sons of God, we might be able to draw near. The Son of God is therefore sent, and entered man secretly: not because he feared anyone, he who was Lord of all; but lest the Devil should fear to approach man who was mingled with God: and the Devil might seem less overthrown by man, if he were conquered without approach and without contest.

From a Virgin therefore, the Spirit of the Lord coming upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, the Nativity of Christ according to man was celebrated, and he passed through nearly all ages, so that nearly all might learn that God: that all these things had been foretold beforehand in the law and the Prophets, so that a wondrous event might not become incredible to all through its suddenness: and those of former times, to whom it did not fall to behold this with their eyes, if they hoped without doubt in the coming of him who was foretold, might be able to escape the contagion of eternal death. Thus therefore was so great and such a Son of God seen upon earth, as great and such as humanity could behold him.

For he who on the mountain, bestowing a vision of his majesty and goodness, showed himself to the Apostles, when his face shone with splendor, so that the power of the sun seemed to have gone forth, and he bore his garment so that it seemed whiter than snow; and yet the disciples, already instructed, already taught, already holy, could not endure the brightness of Jesus, namely of him who had still taken upon himself the vices and sins of all men to be healed. What if God so great had come to display his brightness and power to men? Perhaps all creation, too weak, would succumb and fall. But the Son of God had come to save. Thus therefore as man with a body taken, as God in power he taught as a master, persuaded as a brother, accomplished as God, chose as one who foreknows, healed as a physician, suffered with as one who is human.

And now, all things having been accomplished and completed which either the law or the Prophets had foretold, or the salvation of man required; at the last, through the death of man, the immortal one died, so that, mortality being taken away, he might bestow immortality upon men.

Hung therefore upon the wood, with the Jewish people crying out, among whom he had accomplished such great wonders, so that in him all the envy of the Devil might be overcome (God reigned from the wood), on which the envious one had deceived man, he hastened willingly to death, being about to be the death of death; for, the underworld being unlocked, and all those things which then prevailed in the underworld for the destruction and salvation of man being despised and trampled underfoot, he enlightened all the righteous and those hoping in him, and called them back to the upper world: showing to the Devil and the powers of this world and of these darknesses that their wickedness had availed nothing: that they themselves remained in punishments, while man, whom they had envied, was set free. Man therefore, triumphing with God, death now conquered, no longer mortal, escaped to the upper world. Thus therefore Christ Jesus our Lord suffered that he might rise; he rose, because he had already suffered.

Teaching this, namely, that whoever has joined himself to God may seem to die, but cannot perish. Yet it seemed too little done for the punishment of enemies, if, the enemy being destroyed, he had given life to man and had not added glory. And that a greater punishment might come upon the Devil and his angels, he brought man in triumph, bearing flesh now no longer to die, into heaven to be shown to the angels and holy powers, offering to God the Father the liberated man as a gift. Straightway he sent the Holy Spirit as his vicar in his place, whom he had promised to the disciples near to his passion, that he might be both a help and a sanctification to believing men. This is the order of our belief concerning Christ.

But since we have now made mention of the Holy Spirit, we shall say that one must believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom he would both inspire and sanctify all things that were afterward to come to pass, of his own substance. Yet the three are one, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Then one must believe that there is one baptism, by which men, purified and made sons of God, are sealed in faith; by which all the sins either of birth or of the old man's error are cleansed: in which not the filth of the body is put away: but the inquiry of a pure conscience is good toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After these things the order requires believing in the resurrection of the dead in the same flesh. For it is established, and it is not lawful to say otherwise, that God is both wise and foreknowing, and has chosen as one wise and foreknowing that man, once made, should exist eternally, rather than not exist. But if you think it better that he not exist, he had a shortcut before he made him. Now that man, who is made of body and soul, is eternal, the Scriptures teach us in many places: but I shall set down a few as examples. Solomon cries out saying: God founded man for immortality. Nor without reason is man forbidden after sin to approach the tree of life, lest he should live forever, that is, so that he might persist as immortal. Who? None other than man who had been made immortal by God, and the body did not receive immortality.

But I believe this will trouble the reader, that man was forbidden by God from the tree of life, not knowing that in this too provision was made for man: for he was already in transgression. Before therefore that death which was assigned by God to men as a remedy, and by which through the separation of body and soul the end and uprooting of sin is made, if he had approached the tree of life; because it would have been necessary that through participation in life he become eternal, in the immortal man it would have been necessary that sin remain perpetual. Therefore this too was wisely and usefully provided for man, that, the intervention of temporal dissolution being cut away, the true creature of God, evil being excluded, might be raised up to life. Man therefore is eternal. But why do we die in this world?

The reason has been set forth above: that man does not perish, but is separated: and that man does not take up the materials from which the body was fashioned: but is reserved for judgment at the day of resurrection. For it is not fitting that anything should be lacking to God as judge, since it is certain that the judgment of God is appointed after the end of this age. For this too must be intimated: and the whole man must be depicted: since all will be found either in virtue or in crime. And it is fitting that those who have done well according to his will should be rewarded, and the wicked destined to eternal punishments. Wherefore let us seek the lawful precepts and avoid what is contrary, so that by our obedience we may obtain the rewards.

Now therefore let us treat of the person. In the person two things are to be maintained: the Poor and the Rich. And indeed the rich of this world are to be commanded: Not to be high-minded, nor to trust in the uncertainty of their riches, but in the living God, who giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy for the fruit of good work: to be rich, but to be communicators in good deeds: to lay up for themselves a good treasure for the future: that they may lay hold on what a good life is. Then they ought to know that riches are not received and to be held for this purpose alone, that they may trust they have blessedness in these alone, or that they may make ill use of them. And let them not despise the poor, nor reckon riches as the instrument of malice or the tool of lust, nor think them delivered to them for their own sake, nor suppose they shall never lose them.

Finally let them know that they have been appointed by God as stewards of the grace of God; so that both in distribution their right or wrong will may be known: that they may know that through abundance, unless they shall have been wise, greater temptations have accrued to them. Let them learn to dispense riches. But let them distribute their means in comparison with immortality, that they may be like unto God: Merciful: let them not be judged as wasteful and squanderers of the Lord's property. And let them do these things confidently and with cheerfulness. For the Apostle Paul saith: God loveth a cheerful giver. Let them not think that what is paid out for the uses of the poor in contemplation of the commandments of God can be exhausted. Since both they were received from him, and are necessary: and he is wont to minister them usefully and to increase them. For how can temporal things be lacking, when for their sake, if they be well dispensed, eternal things are promised and prepared?

The Truth speaketh, who is Christ, saying: Whosoever shall have left for my sake house, or farm, or parents, or the rest: shall receive a hundredfold in this world; but in the world to come life eternal. And if some ascribe this to the time of persecution, I nevertheless hear our Lord admonishing thus, that for his sake at whatever time his commandment shall have been fulfilled unto any holy work whatsoever, the appointed reward shall not be wanting. Let us not be anxious. God taketh care for us. The Prophet crieth out saying (ore expressly): Both the poor and the rich I have made. And for all there is equal care with me. God taketh care: and does anyone fear lest his patrimony be diminished, whence it is dispensed at God's command? Let us rather fear lest, if we have been timid and barren and faithless in good works, we be judged needy and destitute.

Let us rather fear to be filled with sadness, because even of rich men of this sort the Gospel, though in the person of one, yet with reference to the whole class, relateth saying: But when he had heard, he went away sorrowful: because he had great possessions. Let him not fear lest he enter with difficulty into the kingdom of heaven. Let him rather be humble: let him be generous, that he may be judged the more blessed for this: if neither in this world nor in the world to come he shall feel want. Let him give to the poor, that he may lend to God: let him reckon God as his debtor. Let him know that mercy is set before sacrifices. He shall obtain glory and rest, if from those riches in which others are judged both corrupted and lost, he shall receive the crown of the fruit of justice and mercy.

But the Poor man is to be consoled in such a way that he may know that in poverty greater goods are to be considered for himself. And first indeed that it hath been usefully provided for him by God: that God, foreknowing, hath considered his weakness and hath established that he could not bear the burden and anxiety of riches. Then let him feel how many temptations and how many dangers he hath passed through under the name of poverty. But abundance is lacking, which is frequently contrary: yet to the riches of the soul one passes more quickly without impediment in poverty. Certainly let him consider from what evils he hath been free. He is free from envy, rivalry, snares, deceit, pride, contention, and those things which riches in the world are wont to stir up for a man; for by the flow of things and the abundance of plenty the soul is loosened, the vigour of the mind is broken, the strength of the body is enervated.

But in poverty there are no wanton banquets, no shameful drinkings: all things are sober, all things are strict, all things are humble: not abject, because they are full of pure conscience and virtue. He is not abundant in the goods of others: he is just. Not easily doth the rich man attain to the riches of the soul, that is, the virtues of this world. For he who saith that it is more difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, certainly understands that it is easier for a poor man. Lest he think himself, on account of poverty, to be a stranger to the care of God, the Prophet testifieth saying (ore expressly): Both the poor and the rich I have made: and for all there is equal care with me. For God is not a respecter of persons.

Nor doth he profess to bear care for him alone who is powerful in the riches of the world, but for all, and he sustaineth care for the poor: about to reward whomsoever he shall find either humble in riches or patient in poverty. A distribution as it were of the whole human body, and the ministry of each individual is sought. Let him consider that the body of man is indeed one body, but hath very many members. Are all the eye, or the foot, or the other members? But, as Paul the teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth saith: Upon those members which are more inferior we bestow greater honour. And just as the virtue of each member is shown in its own order and office, so in the body of the whole human race Poverty and Riches are placed as members; that the patience of the Poor and the humanity of the Rich may be proved by the judgment of God.

The poor man ought to exult and give thanks to God: because he hath been freed from many bonds of patrimony. In the day of trial he is not weighed down by the fetters of possessions; the disciple, more freely unencumbered by no bonds, followeth the Lord. Let not mercy also be lacking from him, as much as he is able, a just mercy toward the needy, because just as the rich man is made just by liberality, so the just poor man is made so by frugality, if he hath dispensed to those below him and to those who have not. Let him not fear lest he himself fail, when in the use of holy administration he hath a most ready will: nothing shall be lacking: the Spirit giveth strength through the Prophet: God doth not kill the soul of the just with hunger. And the Lord in the Gospel: Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Let him not desire to become rich in this world, lest he acquire many evils for himself, as the glorious Paul saith and admonisheth: Having therefore food and raiment: let us be content with these. But they that will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and many desires: which drown men in perdition. Rather, if he hath desired to believe with true faith and for the sake of salvation, let him choose and acquire for himself heavenly riches, which each one acquireth and taketh up by justice, and mercy, and other good acts. Eternal things are to be preferred to temporal, stable things to fleeting, things more secure to anxious ones, free things to dangerous, more glorious things to dishonourable. By these admonitions let both the Rich be tempered and the Poor be lifted up.

Now let speech be had concerning sex. That sex is male and female; that is, man and woman. And the man indeed, after those things which we have comprehended above, ought also to observe this along with all things for the instruction of a better life, that he love his Wife, as Christ loved the Church: that being of one mind in harmony they may rightly be able to do all things and to pray to God for all things, lifting up pure hands without anger and disputation: but let all things be done unto godly edification. Then to bear the bond of union with chaste and mutual continence; and to come together only when either the consideration of generation is present, or the time of prayer doth not call back. Now I reckon that prayer which is celebrated with every ministry of the sacraments and communion. For the rest there is supplication and adoration, confession, and intercession, and vow, all of which have their own times.

It becometh the man therefore to pray with head uncovered: not with long hair: Let his gait be simple, not ostentatious or affected; that he may present not only by word that he hath believed, but also by other things the appearance of his life. For it becometh every man to serve as a priest unto God. And he ought so to exhibit his conduct most purely both in catechism and also in lay life, that even if for a time he doth not discharge the priestly office and duty, yet by the likeness of his life he may be made equal to the priesthood. But the woman, let her learn to be obedient to her husband, even calling him lord: and indeed let her reverence all men; yet let her serve her own: Because the head of every woman is the man. Let her also know to live chastely with her husband: which he also shall do in all ways: so that he shall know no other woman besides his wife.

For she ought to know the times of coming together, and to abstain from union when it is the time of prayer, or when the woman suffereth, or when she shall have known herself to be within the times of purification after childbirth. For God hath not joined marriage unto unchastity, but that it might render service to generation. Let her learn to bring up children piously (f she have brought up children), to be modest, not quarrelsome, not given to wine, not proud toward her husband (Subject to husbands; and, neither to domineer over the man), even if she seem greater in patrimony: but also to go forth with modest gait, not with an adorned appearance: nor surrounded with gold or precious garment: not to be devoted to the curling of hair. But as becometh Christian women professing chastity not only in words but through good conduct. Let her know that she ought to be silent in the Church; for it is not fitting for them to speak.

That she ought to be obedient not only to elders and priests, but also to all the brethren. Nor to set herself before any man in consideration of sex: since even when she shall have fulfilled all things lawfully, she shall be perfected into a perfect man. Rather let her seek after virtue that shall obtain glory, not hindered by the weakness of sex, and by holiness and virtue of soul and all continence and devoted suffering let her be made equal to the most just men.

Now let speech concerning ages be taken in hand. And first indeed I think infancy is to be set aside in teaching, because either by the quality of the time or of the age it cannot sustain the word of the teacher. And for all those to whom, by defect of age, precepts cannot be given unto malice and natural innocence, the parents are to be constrained for their admonition: although as age advances the Church will not be wanting, nor will it cease in admonishing. But to boys this is first to be instilled, that they be absent at no time of hearing, because neither can all things be fully taught at once. Then that they join innocence to simplicity, lest they continue boyhood in the perseverance of malice. It is to be guarded and observed lest they be corrupted in other ages.

Let them add to natural goodness also the good and godly gift of faith, that always good, always holy, always innocent, always the work of God and not of nature, they may persevere through the tradition of belief. It is to be considered by them that they ought to remain chaste or modest, to come more frequently to the Church, because they are to be confirmed more frequently, admonished more frequently, for whom, on account of their still unstable age, the battle of the devil is to be more grievous. All things are to be observed by them with fear, and above all fornication is to be avoided, which hath the beginning of idolatry: and it is necessary that he who shall have followed the one shall know both. Therefore how is one understood to have believed and to have ceased from the Gentiles, if he recalls those things which the Gentiles practise?

Certainly let them be obedient not only to parents, but also to all who are greater in age, if however their admonitions and prayer shall bring no lawful impediment. Let them reckon that they have God as Father: they ought to keep his inheritance, which consisteth not in temporal but in eternal things. Nay even if God shall have foreseen it to be useful for them, he will also provide temporal things; especially when he shall have seen each one pursuing eternal things: his Son, our Lord, saying: Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Whence it shall be beyond doubt for none that an abundance of necessary things on earth shall not be lacking to those for whom heavenly things are being prepared.

Therefore because these things are to be hoped for from God, no one is to be obeyed: nay all are to be obeyed, because God willeth it: not because from him anything of temporal reward ought to be hoped for in return: but because we strive to fulfil also in these things the lawful commands of God. Finally these are to be congratulated, if at the first beginning of free will they shall have drawn near to God, comparing all their age to the good of faith: that not at a completed age in error, so as to be afterwards what they would grieve over; but that while still boys and innocent, they have drawn near to obtain not so much the pardon as the grace of God.

But young men are to be admonished in this manner, that if they have wives, they be taught to live chastely with their wives. Let them know that it is wicked to touch another's. In this he will give proof and evidence that he hath truly renounced his former life, if after he hath believed, there be a reformation of life for the better. For then he ceaseth to be a Gentile and beginneth to be a Christian, if keeping all things of the law carefully, he exhibit himself chaste and modest. But if they have not wives, they are to be constrained either to have them, or to contain themselves altogether, lest they think the same things lawful for them which they did before. They ought to know that they have renounced the Devil, not in words but in deeds. Let them be admonished and know that fornication and adultery are forbidden. That it is lawful to touch no woman except a wife, and her obtained in a godly manner.

And so either a wife is to be taken by them (et those who do not contain themselves marry), or continence is to be embraced. Certainly lest, being terrified, they defer faith, let them know that it is evil not to believe on account of uncleanness: that it is worse to be found unchaste after they have believed. It is to be considered by young men that in all their deeds they surpass their age, strong in soul and virtue: and before the interior man young; let them be placed among the elders in the judgment of God. It is also to be congratulated that not at every age completed, but in the very heat of their years and in the very adolescence of vices, they have renounced the Devil the author of wickedness and unclean deeds: and renewed let them exhibit themselves pure unto God in malice: In temptations young men; in counsels and thoughts grave as elders.

And I think all these are to be admonished that they obey all for God's sake: let them learn to rule their house well: if they have children, let them treat them piously, and instruct them in godly things: for these are the signs of our faith, if we have not only believed, but have also delivered to others what we have believed.

Let the soldiers of Christ know that they ought to be vigilant in peace and most steadfast in persecution. That they have given their name to military service, and hope for the gifts and pay of eternal life in such a way that, beyond the daily battles of peace which we wage against the Devil, whom we have renounced, we also keep in mind the fight and conflicts of persecution. The torments of the body are not to be feared; but the merits, or the promises, are to be considered. Captivity rather, and servitude under the enemy, and exile from the heavenly Fatherland, and the Judgment of God, and even the mockery of the enemy, and eternal death, and eternal torments are to be greatly feared. Let us consider that we are all mortal, and that it is necessary for us to die. How glorious and praiseworthy it is, if that which must necessarily be suffered is overcome in glory.

Every word must be fitted to the destruction of idolatry, and the crown of martyrdom must be praised, so that the soldier of Christ may advance armed in every way to overcome the enemy and repel his darts. He who preaches the Gospel, let him be asked what he does. If he is a soldier, or an official, or a Judge, let him exercise moderation. A rustic, let him not murmur. A townsman, let him not be crafty and scheming, and let him not employ his cleverness in evil matters. A merchant, let him not swear falsely. A farmer, let him not hoard grain. A craftsman, let him not deceive or defraud.

Now faith is, as the apostle Paul defines it, the Substance of things which we hope for, and the evidence of things which we do not see. One ought to believe and trust by faith that God is able both to fulfil the things He has promised, and to transfer his hope to the future. And then with full faith he will be able most easily to arrive at the things that have been promised. This sets before our eyes things invisible to us. Having entered upon this, we forsake all the works of the Devil, and of the powers of this world, and of these darknesses: we draw near to God with confidence. For it is necessary to believe and to hope for the things which God has commanded, when we renounce the things which the Devil had inserted.

Hope follows faith. And so let us speak of hope itself. Hope, therefore, is the expectation of all future things which we hold in faith: through which we are saved, as the apostle Paul writes: For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience. This contains within itself fear: not that fear, I say, which whoever lives in faith ought to forget and cast out; but that which is one of the spirits with which Jesus is filled, as Isaiah testifies: There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall ascend from his root, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him: that spirit which David sings of, saying: Fear the Lord, ye His just ones.

Whence also they are made blessed, as the same attests and says: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. He speaks of that fear which is chaste and pure. For the fear of the Lord is chaste, says David, it endureth for ever and ever. Therefore fear also is twofold, and one kind is to be sought and the other to be fled. The fear that is to be sought is therefore an admonition and a keeping of all things which we believe or hope for: for let us fear the Judgment, because we hope; and let us dread the Lord, because we believe Him to be that mighty Judge.

But since the fear of God is chaste, and chastity is a form of continence, we must now treat of continence and its virtues. Continence, moreover, is the restraining of all evil things that are to be desired. I added "evil" lest Judges think that this definition is common to both good and evil things. For he who holds himself back from good things is not rightly continent; but he who holds back from evil things is rightly so. But in all precepts there ought to be a twofold consideration and teaching. And I think this must be retained and observed in the rest, so that when you have treated one part, you know the contrary: and the very nature of things requires that when you have held to one part, you must of necessity abandon the other. We find indeed that evil things have no substance from the beginning; since disobedience, though not according to good, evil exists (Ecclesiastic. Xxxiii, 15). And these things, if they are nowhere compared with one another, the safeguard of good is preserved.

Continence, therefore, is to be taught and maintained in evil things. In good things, eagerness is to be required. David declares and teaches, saying: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord: in His commandments he shall delight exceedingly. Likewise he warns in another psalm that one must be continent in evil things and desirous of good things, saying thus: Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

It also pleases me to speak about the continent: for I see very many who are continent only with respect to the conjugal union, and in all the other parts of continence are worse than the worst pagans. For if you consider how very many of them are wrathful, and given to drunkenness, and insolent, and proud, and puffed up by the outward form of continence as it were, strikers, slanderers, covetous, swollen with pride, greatly pleased with themselves, you would judge rather that that very continence which they profess to have has supplied the tinder and flame and material for their crimes. Since indeed these things are to be cut away, in which we are daily rebuked, and then the virtue of continence is to be maintained all the more in all other vices: and for perfection, not the conjugal union is to be rejected, but chastity is to be preferred.

For when the apostle Paul admonished the Churches, he did not prescribe a uniform continence, but in what things it is to be sought and found, he admonished thus, saying: That she may be, he says, holy in body and spirit: defining that he is not continent who has not been proved most continent in both parts. Very many, or the majority, so burn with desire, as the outcome shows, that they are willing to endure every kind of punishment, or to sustain any sentence of the Church, rather than to depart from familiar companionship: not knowing that God, who foreknows, has said of such persons: Whosoever shall look upon a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. Such persons cannot excuse their fault on the ground that they have not directed their eyes toward concupiscence, when they lie together and under one roof, or sleep in one bed: Whence also when rebuked, they profess to do this spiritually, attaching to strangers the names of affections or of piety.

Certainly, since we also accept the substance of the Devil as spiritual, it must be added: but of spiritual wickedness and malice on account of the scandal of the Church and its ruin: since they cannot be torn from this either by persuasion, or by the prohibition of elders, or by fear of present sentence or of future Judgment: since even those whom lawful marriage has joined are more frequently separated by a trivial quarrel. What evil is this? What evil is this indivisible charity, that they cannot be separated from affection for one of alien blood? It is shameful to say what they are not ashamed to do. Certainly they are not even free from the kiss, which is the pledge and earnest of the serpent. Indeed when you have rebuked them, they straightway bring forth these words: that the integrity of their body can be proved; when the integrity of their mind is first required of them, although they cannot be fully examined even in the body.

For it is not permitted to men to know or lay bare the recesses of conscience, as Scripture says: Man seeth the face, but God seeth the heart. God alone beholds the inmost and secret things. But the voice of the Lord warning is manifest: By their fruits you shall know them. If you consider what their appearance is; with how troubled a brow, with how shameless a gaze they look; how much boldness in the face, how much assurance they carry, immodest in some their dress, and their gait affected with a profession of boastfulness. And the devotion, as it were, of this kind of profession proceeds to this end, that on account of the name of virginity, which alone they bear, they become objects of desire. Hence it is that they make themselves known, when they ought to have concealed themselves, exhibiting their service to God alone, from whom the reward of chastity is hoped for.

Therefore having entered the threshold of the house of God, they begin their prayers with head uncovered, interpreting the Apostle (their corrupters restraining them) as having decreed this concerning married women, not concerning virgins: not knowing that everywhere he calls males of any age Men; all females he designates by the appellation of Woman. I know that I have made a digression from the proposed treatise on continence; but necessarily: so that henceforth all persons of whatever sex, taught with full continence, may know both from what things they must abstain, and what things they ought to guard: or if in one kind, by whatever form of continence one shall have been an observer, and shall not wish when admonished to approach the others, let him not boast that he is in the number of the continent: lest he seem by his obstinacy to lose even that part in which he was congratulating himself.

Therefore he who is taught continence and wishes to approach it, ought not to seek continence in the body, or in one part of the body only, but in the whole movement of the soul he ought to acknowledge the observances of continence. For he who restrains anger is more continent than he who withdraws his tongue from abuse, from slander, from detraction, from lying, from perjury, and from the other evil affections of the tongue. He finally who restrains even thought itself from all wickedness, and denies it to all iniquity, is fully continent, and I compare him not with men, but recognize him as most like the holy Angels.

Now we must speak of patience and all its goods. Patience, therefore, is the bearing of all injuries and sufferings, and the enduring of all expectations without precipitation. Whoever has understood and possessed this, bears the heavy burdens of the contrary things of life; it contains all good things. It has hope as its sister. Although above I included that all good things are akin to one another. For it suffers willingly, because it hopes, and endures what is to be hoped for: for that is borne impatiently which is not hoped for: and when nothing is hoped for. But patience endures with every virtue what is recognized when hope perishes. But if the fruit of patience follows upon hope, this rejoices in faith as its mother, has God as its helm, has continence as a kindred relationship. Hence the just, while they work all things patiently, are made glorious witnesses of God, while they are found full of faith, while solicitous with the fear of God, while disciples of continence, while sons of hope with wisdom as their guide.

Then co-heirs of Christ, while they imitate Him even unto death (If indeed we suffer with Him, let us follow His footsteps) with the virtues of patience.

But let us now discourse on justice. Justice, therefore, is the most equitable distribution of individual things and persons: which whoever possesses, and to which whoever adheres, preserves his life rightly ordered and without disturbance; keeps equity in all things; knows what he owes to God; what he renders to the saints and to his equals; what he does not deny to the powers of this age; what he retains for himself; what belongs to his neighbor; what he grants or concedes to strangers. For it is just to worship and love God with the whole heart, and with the whole soul, and with the whole strength: to honor the saints and equals: to pay tribute to the powers: not to be proud, but rather meek and humble: to love neighbors as oneself (II Timoth. Iii, 2): not to pursue strangers and enemies with hatred, but to love them: to be subject to those who are prior or older in age.

For even the Lord, when He was Lord of all, was baptized by John, because John was prior to Him in the birth of men, and thus He declares that all justice is to be fulfilled. From this justice mercy is born, divine service is generated. Whoever is found in all these things, is not undeservedly said to abide in Christ: since all these things are Christ Himself. The glorious Paul informs and instructs us concerning Christ, saying: Who is made unto us by God justice, and sanctification, and redemption. In another place likewise: Who is mercy, peace, and love, which the Greeks call ἀγάπην; to which let us now make the transition, because it is the greatest among all the rest: thus the blessed Apostle declares: And now there remain these three, Faith, Hope, Love.

Love, therefore, is the bond of souls, chaste and sincere and without rivalry: Charity is the fulfillment of all commandments. This is the force of all precepts; whoever possesses it has everything; without it, one remains wicked and imperfect. And that your prudence may know how great charity is, let us read the Lord's answer in the Gospel, where, when asked, he says thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangs, and the Prophets. You see that in this alone all the heads of the law hang. Truly, whoever has this can already be called God and a son of God. Consider from this alone that you are made like unto God. He who loves God—does he hope? Does he fear? Does he trust? No: he only loves.

God, says Paul, when he had loved the world, sent his only Son in the likeness of sinful flesh: that he might condemn sin in the flesh through sin. Hence also Paul places it above all good things, saying: And if I shall have spoken with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not charity, I am nothing: and like sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I shall have prophecy, and shall know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I shall have faith, so as to move mountains; and if I shall distribute all my goods to feed the poor; and if I shall deliver my body to be burned, but have not charity, I am nothing. Charity is magnanimous. Charity is kind. Charity envieth not, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, is not provoked, is not confounded, seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in injustice: but rejoiceth in the truth. It beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things. Charity never faileth.

Therefore, whoever shall wish to find this, as it were, as a species, all the Scriptures must be unlocked for him: the whole law must be opened: all the Prophets must be made known: all the virtues of Christ, his acts, his commandments must be made known, and the doctrine of the Apostles must be thoroughly opened and taught. And although all the species which we have treated above are, in their full treatment, incomprehensible to men; much more so is that one in which all are consummated and hang: especially since John the Evangelist has forbidden us in his Epistle to dispute about it, when he teaches that it is both the Son of God and God the Father, saying thus: God is love. If one can speak of the whole God, one can also speak of love, which is God. Therefore, if it is sacrilege to dispute about God as much as is not lawful, to be silent is a religious act; and a different thing is to be thought concerning love.

For as much is to be said of it as of God; since God is love. Let each one therefore know himself; because if anyone has love within himself, he is a dwelling-place of God, because God, who is love, abides in him. It is now fitting to bring the end of the species to completion in the fullness of love and in the consummation of all good things, especially since all things have been reviewed: or if anything has been passed over, it may be seen to be enclosed in the fullness of the world.

I pray above all, with most sincere holiness, before your people, that your Holiness—to whom a more skilled and more holy way has been approved by God—may deign, in all things wherein my humble ability either passed over or was unable to explain more fully what was found, to correct, reform, and supply what is lacking: or if you shall have approved that the little work, begun at your request and completed with God's help, lacks nothing, that you hold me in remembrance in your holy prayers as well as in those of all the brethren: and let the rivals of my faith know that an account has been rendered, and let them acknowledge that it agrees with the Church, and let them rather receive the mystery, so that we may rejoice not only in having believed, but also in having been of some benefit to enemies and to believers alike.