Blessed Diadochos: One Hundred Practical Texts on Spiritual Knowledge and Discernment

Blessed Diadochos: One Hundred Practical Texts on Spiritual Knowledge and Discernment

Of blessed Diadochos, bishop of Photiki in Epirus: one hundred practical texts on spiritual knowledge and discernment — on what knowledge must be attained for the perfection which the Lord has shown us, and on how each man, according to the parable of the Gospel, should be a rational seed bearing fruit.

1. Before all spiritual contemplation, brethren, let there go faith, hope and love, and greatest of all love. Faith and hope teach us to despise visible goods. But love, through the virtues, unites the soul itself with God, so that by the contemplation of spiritual things it may come to know the Invisible One.

2. By nature God alone is good; a man becomes good through diligence, when, striving after the good, he is changed into that which he is not. When the soul strives after the good, it will be in God to the degree that it wishes this and makes the effort. For it is said: «Be merciful, as your Father also is merciful» (Lk 6:36).

3. There is no evil in nature, and by nature no one is evil, and God created nothing evil. But when to the desire of the heart there is added the form of evil, then, though evil has no existence in nature, the desire becomes evil. When the struggler wishes to destroy it, let him train himself in the invocation of God’s name and guard himself against evil habit. The nature of good habit is stronger than that of evil, inasmuch as the good exists and evil does not. Evil exists only when it is committed.

4. All men are created in the image of God, and this is manifested in the noetic movements of the soul. But only those can become the likeness of God who with great love have subjected their freedom to God. For when we renounce ourselves, then we become like Him who reconciled us to Himself through love. And that man will not attain this reconciliation who does not conquer his own desire to care for the glory of this life.

5. Self-determination is the desire of the rational soul, which moves wherever the soul wishes. But let us direct it only towards the good, so that by good thoughts we may always drive out the remembrance of evil.

6. The light of true knowledge is the ability to distinguish good from evil. True knowledge is the straight road which brings the intellect to the Sun of righteousness, God, and leads it into the boundless spiritual illumination as one who with boldness seeks love. Therefore it is fitting, with an anger free of rancour, to attain what is righteous so as to shame the presumptuous. The impulse towards godliness conquers not by hatred but by reproof.

7. Spiritual discourse confirms spiritual perception, for such discourse comes from God through the action of love. Therefore our intellect remains untroubled amid the waves of theology. Nor does it then suffer from that poverty which brings grief, for it possesses as much contemplation as the action of love desires. It is good to be always diligent in that faith which through love leads to illumination. For there is nothing poorer than a thought which tries to care for the things of God without God.

8. It is by no means fitting for the unilluminated to pass over to spiritual visions, nor for the one whom the goodness of the All-Holy Spirit generously illumines to speak about it. Lack of illumination brings ignorance, and the abundance of grace does not permit speech. For then the soul, having drunk of the divine love, longs in silence to delight in the glory of God. It is fitting to speak of God when you stand midway between these two states. This measure gives the soul a certain understanding of the glorious words, while the abundance of grace nourishes the faith of the one who speaks in faith, so that the teacher may be the first to taste the fruit of knowledge through love. For it is said: «The labourer who works must be the first to partake of the fruits» (2 Tim 2:6).

9. All gifts are given by the Holy Spirit: wisdom, and knowledge, and everything divine. Each gift has its own particular action, and therefore «to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit» (1 Cor 12:8), as the Apostle testifies. Knowledge unites a man with God through experience, but it does not move the soul to speak of this. Therefore some who live the monastic life in the love of wisdom, although they experience the illumination of their perceptions, do not express it in divine words. Wisdom, which comes with illumination through the fear of God, is given to a few — and that rarely — and explains with love the working of contemplation. For contemplation illumines by its action, and wisdom by the word. Contemplation comes through prayer and great silence in complete freedom from care, while wisdom comes through the study of God’s words without vainglory, and most of all through the grace of God who gives.

10. When the incensive power of the soul rises up against the passions, one must know that the time for silence has come, for the hour of battle is at hand. But when a man sees that the battle has been stilled by prayer or by almsgiving, let him pass over to the divine words, binding the wings of the intellect with the bonds of humility. For he who does not greatly abase himself cannot speak of the greatness of God.

11. Spiritual discourse guards the soul from vainglory, ennobling all its members with the contemplation of light, and teaches it to despise the honours that come from men. It keeps the mind always free of fantasy, transforming it wholly, as it were, into love for God. But the discourse of worldly wisdom always calls a man to the love of glory: since it cannot give him the experience of the good, it endows him with a love of praise, for it is itself the invention of vainglorious men. Let us then rightly understand the promise of the divine word: when we abide in a silence free of grief, let us not waste time in conversation, but let us abide in the warm remembrance of God and in great vigilance.

12. He who loves himself cannot love God. But he who does not love himself, on account of the boundless riches of God’s love, loves God; and such a man never seeks his own glory but the glory of God. For he who loves himself seeks his own glory, while he who loves God, who created him, loves also the glory of God. It is proper to the intelligent and God-loving soul to seek God’s glory in all the commandments it fulfils, for it rejoices in its own humility. To God belongs glory because of His majesty, and to man humility. And we shall become kin to God when, like Saint John the Baptist, rejoicing in the Lord’s glory, we begin to say unceasingly: «He must increase, but I must decrease» (Jn 3:30).

13. I once saw a man who loved God alone and yet wept that he did not love Him as he wished to love. His soul had such an unceasing desire to glorify God within itself and to count itself as nothing. This man did not know his own descent nor who he was, and would not listen to words of praise. Out of his great desire for humility he did not see his own dignity, but served God as a lawful priest; and by his great love for God he diminished the memory of his own rank, plunging into the love of God and hiding praise from it in a spirit of humility. In his mind he held himself to be some worthless servant, a stranger to his own dignity, because he had come to love humility — which is fitting for us to do also, that is, to shun the honour and glory of worldly flattery for the sake of the boundless riches of the love of the Lord, who has truly loved us.

14. Him who loves God with the perception of the heart, God knows. In the measure that a man receives the love of God into the depth of his soul, in that measure he himself abides in God’s love. Therefore he does not cease from then on to seek diligently the illumination of the mind, until he feels that even his bones are exhausted. Then he no longer knows himself, but the love of God inflames and transforms him. Such a man still lives in this life and yet does not live, and in the life to come he abides imperfectly. He has not yet gone out of his body, and yet he goes out by love, by the soul’s movement towards God. He burns unceasingly in his heart with the fire of love out of need and out of desire, for he has gone out of his own love by the love of God. For it is said: «If we are beside ourselves, it is for God; and if we are of sound mind, it is for you» (2 Cor 5:13).

15. When a man begins richly to perceive the love of God, then he begins with spiritual perception to love his neighbour. This is that love of which Holy Scripture speaks; whereas fleshly love is destroyed very easily by some trifling cause, since it is not bound by spiritual perception. Therefore, even if someone troubles a soul in which God works together, the bond of love in it will not be destroyed. Warming itself with the warmth of God’s love, it turns at once back to the good and with great joy to the love of its neighbour, however grievously he may vex or harm it, for the sweetness of God destroys the bitterness of the quarrel.

16. No one, unless he fears God with the perception of the heart, will be able to love anyone with a whole heart that has been purified and softened by the action of fear, so that the soul may pass over into active love. And no one, as has been said, comes to the fear of God unless he is freed from all the cares of this life. When the intellect is in great silence and freedom from care, then the fear of God moves it, purifying it with great feeling from all earthly hardness, so as to lead it into the great love of God’s goodness. Therefore those who are being purified have fear and imperfect love, while those who have been purified have perfect love, and in them there is no longer fear, for it is said: «Perfect love casts out fear» (1 Jn 4:18). Both the one and the other are found only in the righteous, who accomplish the virtues through the action of the Holy Spirit. Therefore Scripture says in one place: «Fear the Lord, all you His saints» (Ps 33:10), and in another: «Love the Lord, all you His righteous ones» (Ps 30:24) — that we may understand that in the righteous who are being purified there is the fear of God together with imperfect love, while in those who have been purified there is perfect love; and in them there is no grief of any fear, but an unceasing burning and cleaving of the soul to God through the action of the Holy Spirit, as the psalm says: «My soul has cleaved to You, and Your right hand has upheld me» (Ps 62:9).

17. When there is a neglected and unwashed wound on the body, the medicine applied to it will have no effect; but when the wound is washed, the action of the medicine is felt and the wound begins to heal. So too the soul: so long as it lacks diligence and is covered with the leprosy of the love of pleasure, it cannot come to know the fear of God; though one speak to it unceasingly of God’s fearful judgment, it will disregard the words. But when it begins with great attentiveness to be purified, then, like some living and healing medicine, it comes to know the fear of God, which by the action of reproof will burn it with the fire of dispassion. Being purified thus little by little, it will attain complete purity. In the measure that love increases in it, in that measure fear diminishes, until it comes to perfect love, where there is no fear, as has been said, but dispassion wrought by the glory of God. Let us then acquire, for unceasing praise of praises, first the fear of God and then love, and let us attain the fullness of perfection in Christ.

18. Until the soul is freed from worldly care, it will not sincerely love God nor hate the devil as it ought. For it bears upon itself a heavy covering — the cares of this life. Amid cares the intellect cannot understand its own condemnation nor perceive within itself the incorruptible verdict. Therefore it is fitting to withdraw from everything.

19. Proper to the pure soul are speech without envy, zeal without malice, and unceasing care for the Lord’s glory. Then the intellect will also carefully weigh its own measure, abiding in its own thought as before a most righteous tribunal.

20. Faith without works and works without faith are alike empty; they are tested in the same way. It is fitting for him who has faith to bring his works to God. Faith would not have been reckoned as righteousness to our father Abraham had he not brought forth its fruit — his son (cf. Gen 17:16).

21. He who loves God and believes sincerely performs the works of faith in a holy manner. But he who merely believes and does not himself abide in love does not even have that faith which he thinks he has. He believes with a lightness of intellect, because the weight of love for worldly glory does not press upon him. Faith strengthened by love is the first foundation of the virtues.

22. He who investigates the depth of faith is tossed about; he who looks upon it with simplicity is at peace. Water is the forgetting of all evil, and therefore the depth of faith does not like to be looked upon with cunning thoughts. Let us swim in these waters with simplicity of thought, that we may thus reach the harbour of God’s will.

23. No one can truly love or believe unless he condemns himself. When our conscience troubles itself with reproofs, then it does not allow the intellect to perceive the fragrance of the goods beyond this world, and the intellect is at once divided by doubts. Knowing its earlier experience of faith, it warmly reaches out towards them, yet it can no longer receive them with love in the perception of the heart, because of the reproaches of conscience, as we have said. Nevertheless, having been purified by warm attentiveness and with much experience, let us begin with God what we desire.

24. The bodily senses draw us against our will towards visible goods. In the same way the movements of the intellect are directed towards invisible goods when the perception of the intellect tastes the divine goodness. For everyone desires what is akin to him. The soul, being bodiless, desires the heavenly goods above; the body, being dust, desires earthly pleasures. Let us then struggle to enter without deception into the experience of spiritual perception, which is higher than bodily perception, refining ourselves by labours.

25. That natural perception was one, the working of holy knowledge teaches us. It was divided into two workings through Adam’s transgression. But there is a second perception, a simple one, which comes from the power of the Holy Spirit, and not everyone can know it, but only those who have despised the manna of this life for the hope of the goods to come and by self-control have dried up the desire of all bodily senses. Only in them is the intellect, urged on by freedom from care, able to understand the ineffable divine goodness; and according to the measure of its attainment it then imparts its joy to the body also, rejoicing with a boundless word of the love of confession. «In the Lord my heart has hoped, and He has helped me; and my flesh has flourished, and of my own will I shall glorify Him» (Ps 27:7). Such joy for soul and body is an unerring reminder of the incorruptible life.

26. Those who struggle must keep their mind unshaken, so that the intellect may examine the thoughts that come to it, and lay up in the treasury of memory those that are good and sent by God, while casting out from the natural storehouses those that are rebellious and demonic. When the sea is calm even in its depths, fishermen can see every fish and no living creature can hide. But when a storm arises, the sea is churned up and hides what was visible while the calm lasted. Then the fishermen have nothing to do and none of their skill avails. It happens that the contemplative intellect suffers the same, especially when the depths of the soul are troubled by unrighteous anger.

27. Few are those who know well all their own transgressions, and few whose intellect is never torn away from the remembrance of God. Just so our bodily eyes, when they are healthy, see everything, even the gnats and flies that fly in the air. But when they are covered with a film, then, though they look at something large, they will scarcely see it, and something small they will not see at all. So too the soul: when by attentiveness it drives away the film that comes from love of the world, then it counts even its small falls as great and adds tears to tears in unceasing thanksgiving. For it is said: «The righteous shall give thanks to Your name» (Ps 139:14). But when it loves to dwell in worldly vanity, then, even if it commits something ruinous to itself and deserving of great torment, it scarcely notices it, and small transgressions it may not see at all. Often it even counts them a success and is not ashamed, wretched as it is, to defend them with words.

28. Only the Holy Spirit can purify the intellect. Unless He, the strong one, enters and takes captive and binds the plunderer, the intellect will not be delivered from captivity. Therefore it is fitting by all the virtues, and most of all by peace of soul, to keep the Holy Spirit within us, so that the lamp of knowledge may always be with us. When it shines unceasingly in the storehouses of the soul, not only are the bitter and dark demonic provocations made manifest to the intellect, but they are also greatly weakened, for that holy light exposes them. Therefore the Apostle says: «Do not quench the Spirit» (1 Thess 5:19), lest you lose His lamp. For when you do or ponder evil, by this you grieve the Holy Spirit. It cannot be said that He, who is ever-existent and life-giving, is quenched; but the grieving of Him, or the turning away from Him, makes the intellect feeble and darkened.

29. As we have already said, one perception is natural to the soul. And there are five senses which serve the needs of the body, as the All-Holy and man-loving Spirit of God teaches us. Through the turning of the intellect towards evil, which came about through disobedience, the perception of the soul was divided in two and is manifested through the movements of the soul. Therefore it inclines now towards the passionate part of the soul, where it delights in temporal goods, and now rejoices greatly in the soul’s rational and noetic movements, since our intellect, when it is chaste, desires to move towards the heavenly virtues. When we become accustomed not to be tempted by the riches of this world, then we shall be able to unite the earthly desires of the soul with its rational order, that is, with the union with the Holy Spirit who establishes this within us. For unless the Godhead actively illumines the storehouses of our heart, we shall not be able with undivided perception, that is, with the whole structure of the soul, to know the eternal goods.

30. The perception of the intellect is certainty in judgment. When we are healthy, we distinguish by our bodily taste what is savoury and what is not, and we desire what is savoury. So too our intellect: when it moves in good strength and in great freedom from care, it understands well what the divine consolation is, and never turns aside to the opposite consolation. As the body, receiving earthly pleasures, learns unerringly to distinguish them, so the intellect, when it walks above the mind of the flesh, can partake without deception of the consolation of the Holy Spirit. For it is said: «Taste and see that the Lord is good» (Ps 33:9). The intellect will remember the taste of what it has received through the action of unceasing love, and will have unerring experience in discernment, according to the Apostle’s words: «And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in perfect knowledge and in all discernment» (Phil 1:9).

31. When our intellect begins to feel the consolation of the Holy Spirit, then Satan too consoles the soul, appearing in some sweet feeling in the stillness of the night, when light sleep comes on. And when the intellect is found in the warm remembrance of God, holding the holy name of the Lord Jesus, and rises up against the deception as with a weapon, with that holy and glorious name, that flatterer departs — but for this he then kindles open warfare against the soul. Thus the intellect, coming to understand well the flatteries of the evil one, learns ever better to discern spiritual things.

32. Good consolation comes to the body that keeps vigil, and even when it falls asleep, if the soul in the warm remembrance of God cleaves to Him in love. The consolation of the flatterer comes when the struggler falls into light sleep — as we have already said — while not holding firmly to the remembrance of God. The first, coming from God, plainly wishes with great perception of the soul to console in love the strugglers of godliness. But the second, as it were, scatters the soul with the wind of delusion and, through bodily sleep, robs it of the experience of perception, even while the intellect keeps vigil in the remembrance of God. When the intellect frequently remembers the Lord Jesus, it will drive away that cloying breath of the enemy, rejoicing that the host is coming against it, for it holds in its right hand the weapon of grace and most praiseworthy experience.

33. When the soul begins, without doubt and without fantasy, to be inflamed with the love of God, drawing the body also after it into the depth of ineffable love — whether it keeps vigil or goes to its rest under the action of holy grace — then it understands nothing else, but knows only that what it longs for is the action of the Holy Spirit. It delights wholly in that ineffable sweetness and can understand nothing else, for it is glad with a certain unceasing joy. But when there stirs in the intellect some defilement, or some doubt, or when it must take up the holy name to drive away evil, then one must know that this consolation is from the tempter and these are only semblances of joy. Such joy is unsteady and uncertain, for it comes from the enemy, who wishes the soul to commit adultery. When the enemy sees that the intellect is becoming experienced in its perceptions, then with certain seemingly good consolations he stirs the soul, so that, delighting in that moist sweetness, it may not recognise that it has joined itself to the flatterer. By these signs we distinguish where the spirit of truth is and where the spirit of delusion. It is impossible for anyone either to experience the divine goodness in contemplation or to test in experience the demonic bitterness, until he is persuaded that grace has taken up its dwelling in the depth of his intellect and that the evil spirits do not nest in the members of his heart. Therefore the demons do not wish men to be persuaded of this, lest the intellect understand it and arm itself against them with the remembrance of God.

34. The natural love of the soul is one thing, and that which comes to it from the Holy Spirit is another. The first, when we wish it, moves moderately under the action of our own will. Therefore, when we do not hold it firmly, the evil spirits easily destroy it. But the second so inflames the soul with the love of God that then all the powers of the soul cleave with ineffable goodness to the divine longing, to the boundless simplicity of that state. The intellect then conceives, as it were, from the spiritual action and pours forth a fountain of love and unfeigned joy.

35. When oil is poured on stormy waves, the richness of the oil calms them. So too our soul, when it is filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, is quietened by sweetness and gladly allows itself to be overcome by Him, as Scripture says: «But be subject to God, O my soul!» (Ps 61:6) — to God, who overshadows it with His good and ineffable goodness. And then, however the demons may make war upon the soul, it remains free of anger, is not disturbed, and is filled with joy. But the struggler will not come to such a state nor remain in it unless he nourishes his soul unceasingly with the fear of God. The fear of the Lord Jesus brings to strugglers a certain purity: «The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever» (Ps 18:10).

36. Let no one, hearing of the perception of the intellect, expect that the glory of God will appear to him visibly. We have said that the soul, when it is purified, perceives the divine consolation in some ineffable way; but nothing appears to it visibly. «For we walk by faith, not by sight» (2 Cor 5:7), says blessed Paul. And if there should appear to some struggler either a light, or some fiery form, or a voice, let him never accept such a vision, for this is a plain deception of the enemy; many have suffered through it, having in their ignorance strayed from the true path. Let us know that, so long as we walk in this corruptible body, we are far from God, and therefore we cannot see either Him or the heavenly wonders.

37. The dreams which the love of God shows to the soul reveal to the soul how healthy it is. Therefore they do not change from one into another, do not frighten the soul, do not make it laugh, and do not suddenly sadden it. They draw near to the soul with great gentleness and fill it with spiritual gladness, so that, when the body awakens, the soul seeks the joy of the dream. With dreams that come from the demons the opposite is true. They are changeable and not free of disturbance, for they cannot long content themselves with what they have taken from their own delusion. They promise much and forbid still more, and often take on the appearance of soldiers, and sometimes flatter the soul, crying out loudly. The intellect, if it is watchful, recognises them and wakes the body; and sometimes, out of joy at having understood their flattery, it exposes them within the dream itself, and by this greatly angers them. Yet it also happens that good dreams do not bring joy to the soul, but a peculiar sorrow and a painless tear. Such dreams come to those who have attained great humility of mind.

38. We have said how to distinguish good dreams from bad, just as we ourselves have heard from experienced elders. But for us it will be a great virtue to pay no attention to any dream at all. For dreams are nothing else than the idols of flattering thoughts, or, to put it another way, the mockeries of demons. And if a vision should ever be sent to us from the goodness of God and we do not accept it, the much-loving Lord Jesus will not be angry at this, for He knows that we act so in order not to yield to demonic cunning. The way of distinguishing dreams mentioned above is correct, yet it happens that the soul may be defiled against its will in some unconscious enthusiasm — which happens, I think, to everyone — and then it loses right discernment and begins to believe bad dreams to be good.

39. Let the following story confirm what has been said. A master left his house and returned by night. Standing at the gate, he called to his servant; but the servant, not recognising his master well, did not open the gate to him. For he feared to be deceived by a likeness of voice, to let in a thief and so to lose the property entrusted to him. When day came, the master not only was not angry with him, but even praised him for fearing to be deceived even by his master’s voice and to lose something of the property.

40. There is no need to doubt that our intellect, under the perceptible action of the divine light, itself becomes light and begins to see much of that light which is within it. This always happens when the power of the soul gains mastery over the passions. But if some form appears to it — whether of light or of fire — this is the enemy’s snare. So too the divine Paul teaches, saying: «For Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light» (2 Cor 11:14). Let him who begins the ascetic life expect no visions, lest Satan find that soul ready for captivity. But let us strive with all perception and certainty of heart to love God, and this is to love with the whole soul, the whole heart and the whole mind. He who by God’s grace has attained this becomes, though he lives in the world, a stranger to the world.

41. One must know that obedience is the first commandment for all beginners, for it cuts off arrogance and gives birth to humility of mind. To those who hold to it, it becomes an entrance and a door to the love of God. Adam turned away from obedience and slid down to the depths of hell. But the Lord loved obedience and, in the providence of the Word, was obedient to the Father even to the cross and death (Phil 2:8), though He was in nothing less than the majesty of the Godhead — so that by His obedience He might wipe out the human transgressions committed through disobedience and lead into blessed and eternal life those who live in obedience. Those who fight against the arrogance of the devil must care most of all for obedience, and it, as a guide, will show us unerringly all the paths of virtue.

42. Self-control is the common name of all the virtues. Therefore he who practises self-control must always practise it. If even the smallest part of the human body is cut off, the whole man is maimed, though he has lost very little. So too when a man abandons a single virtue, he destroys the whole order, though he does not notice it. One must labour not only in the bodily virtues, but also in those which can purify our inner man. What profit is there if the body is kept virginal while the soul commits adultery, being seduced by the demons? Or how shall he be crowned who has abstained from filling his belly and from every bodily desire, but has not hastened to free himself from arrogance and the love of glory? Or he who has not borne even the smallest affliction, when the light of truth will weigh only those righteous deeds which have been performed in a spirit of humility?

43. The struggler must so hate all bodily desires that this hatred becomes habitual. And self-control in food must be kept in such a way that no one should ever regard any food as loathsome. This is a demonic design and it is accursed. We refuse foods not because they are evil — let no one think so. Avoiding many foods, we moderately wear down the inflamed members of our body. Moreover, let the food that remains be set aside for the poor, which is the mark of true love.

44. To eat and drink whatever is set before us, giving thanks to God, does not violate the rules of contemplation, for everything created is very good. But to abstain from sweet and rich foods is very wise and discerning. Yet we shall not be able willingly to refuse sweet foods until we have tasted the sweetness of God in knowledge and experience.

45. As the body weighed down with much food makes the intellect timid and sluggish, so the intellect worn out by excessive self-control makes the contemplative power of the soul feeble and averse to discourse. Food should be given to the body according to its condition: when it is healthy, to weary it a little; when it is sick, let it be moderately nourished. The struggler must not exhaust his body but, as far as he can, exercise it in ascetic labours, so that through bodily labours the soul may be purified.

46. When we are fasting and vainglory rises up against us, and brethren or some pilgrim arrive, and vainglory urges us not to break our rule of fasting, it is good then to abandon our fast and pass over to the ordinary taking of food. So we shall send away from us the demonic designs, and they will depart with wailing and weeping, and we shall fulfil the law of love and preserve the secret of self-control.

47. Fasting has its own value, but not before God. It supports the chastity of those who keep the fast. Therefore it is not fitting for strugglers of godliness to think highly of it, but only through faith in God to await the end of our purpose. Craftsmen do not praise their craft because they have good tools, but they finish a certain work, and it bears witness to their craftsmanship.

48. When the earth is watered with rain in due measure and pure seed is cast into it, it brings forth a great harvest; but when there is too much rain, it brings forth thorns and thistles. So too the earth of the heart: when we drink in measure, it shows its natural seed pure, sprouts what the Holy Spirit sows in it, and brings forth abundant fruit. But when we drink to excess, all its thoughts begin to sprout thorns and thistles.

49. When our intellect is plunged into the waves of drink, it not only sees passionately the images which the demons put before it in sleep, but also paints within itself certain unworthy pictures and is inflamed by its own fantasies. When the lustful members are inflamed by the warmth of wine, they show the intellect the shadows of passion as though they were delight. It is fitting therefore for us to be moderate in drink, so as to avoid the harm that comes from excess. When that delight is absent which kindles in the intellect the imagining of sin, the intellect remains free of fantasy and, better still, takes no delight in it.

50. He who wishes to humble the lustful parts of the body should neither drink nor himself prepare all those beverages which it is customary to drink before a meal, for after them much food is consumed. Not only are they harmful to the bodies of strugglers, but their very mixing troubles the God-bearing conscience. What is there that needs to be added to wine? Unless the adding of various sweet things is meant to lessen its strength.

51. Our Lord and Teacher of this holy life, Jesus Christ, was given vinegar to drink during His passion at the hands of those who served the devil’s command. It seems to me that by this He showed us how to pass through our own struggles. «It is not fitting, — He says — to drink pleasant drink or to eat dishes which push you towards sin; better to endure the bitter battle steadfastly». Recalling the hyssop, one may recall also the sponge, the better to picture the manner of our purification. The hyssop is a symbol of stern struggles, and the sponge a symbol of complete purification.

52. To go to the baths is neither sinful nor foolish. But it is better, for the sake of self-control, not to go, and this will be manly and chaste. Then our body will not be softened by the pleasantness of the water, and we shall not recall the inglorious sweat of Adam (Gen 3:19), nor shall we seek leaves to cover the second shame. This is especially good for those who have but lately come from wandering in the world and who must, without looking upon their own nakedness, join themselves to chastity.

53. It is by no means forbidden to call a physician to the sick. In human experience too there is skill, and this is why there are physicians among men. But we must place our hope of recovery not in them but in our true Saviour and Physician, Jesus Christ. I say this to those who struggle in communities or in cities, for through the trials that constantly befall them it is impossible for them, for love’s sake, to have unceasingly within them the working of faith; and also that they may not fall into vainglory and the devil’s temptation, since some of them declare before everyone that they need no physicians at all. But he who lives in solitude, in desert places, with two or three like-minded brethren, let him — when he falls ill — place all his faith in the Lord, who heals every sickness and every wound. Such a man has in his sufferings a sufficient consolation — the desert in the Lord — and therefore he never loses faith, for secretly and invisibly through patience he acquires virtue, having the desert as a good covering. It is for the sake of such as he that «God settles the solitary in a house» (Ps 67:7).

54. When we suffer bodily pain, we must know that our soul suffers also from the desires of the body. Therefore the soul, desiring earthly well-being, does not wish to leave the goods of this life; and it is a great misfortune for it when through sickness it cannot enjoy earthly pleasures. But when it accepts sickness and pain with grace, then it is not far from the borders of dispassion. Therefore it then awaits death as the cause of true life.

55. The soul has no wish at all to be parted from the body while something still holds it in this world; for all the bodily senses contradict faith, since they desire present goods, while faith promises the riches of goods to come. Therefore it is fitting for the struggler to remember neither spreading trees that give shade, nor springs of good water, nor gardens with fair flowers, nor splendid halls, nor high-ranking kinsfolk, nor solemn honours, but with thanksgiving to hold only to what is necessary. And he should look on this life as on some strange road, free from all indulgence of the body. When we thus limit our thought, we turn it thereby onto the track of eternal life.

56. Eve will be the first to tell us that eating harms contemplation, and that all the other senses darken the memory of the heart when we receive them without discernment. So long as she did not look with desire upon the forbidden tree (Gen 3:6), she remembered the divine command, and therefore divine care covered her like a wing, and she did not see her own nakedness. But when she looked upon the tree with passion and touched it with great desire and at last ate that fruit, which by its very taste urged her on, at once she found an inclination to bodily pleasures and, having lost her first covering, joined herself to the passions. Through the fruit, pleasant to the taste, she turned all her desires to present pleasures, adding to her own transgression that of Adam as well. Therefore it is not easy for the human intellect to remember God and His commandments. But let us, constantly gazing into the depth of the heart, with unceasing remembrance seek the Lord Jesus, paying no heed to this world, as though blind, and so pass through this life full of enticement. To truly spiritual love of wisdom it is proper to keep undistorted the gaze of constant care. Of this the much-experienced Job also teaches, saying: «My heart has walked after my eyes». And this is the mark of true self-control.

57. He who constantly enters into his own heart avoids all the beauties of this life, for he who walks in the spirit cannot know bodily desires. He who directs his gaze into the heart has virtue as his gatekeeper, and he forgets earthly citizenship and honours. Therefore even the demons’ snares are powerless against him, though the demons, urged on by worldly care, shoot their arrows straight at the natural windows.

58. When our soul begins to abandon the desires of earthly passions, then a certain spirit of listlessness comes upon it and does not let it either perform its service or desire the goods to come; and it also shows it this temporal life as immeasurably empty, as though there were in it no deed of virtue worth doing. It even disparages this knowledge as something that many already possess, or as something that brings us nothing perfect. Let us then flee this seething passion which creates listlessness. When we set our mind within narrow and very sorrowful bounds, so that it looks only towards the remembrance of God, then only will the intellect, having entered into its own warmth, be able to free itself from that irrational insensibility.

59. When by the remembrance of God we have closed all the exits of our intellect, it must be given some needful work. It is fitting to give it the words «Lord Jesus», so that it may repeat these alone. For it is said: «No one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit» (1 Cor 12:3). Let the intellect then always utter these words alone in its storehouses, and let it not turn instead to fantasies. All who unceasingly repeat this holy and glorious name in the depth of the heart will one day be able to see the light of their own intellect. The mind holds this holy name firmly in memory, and it burns up all the defilement that draws near to the soul through the senses. «For our God is a consuming fire» (Heb 12:29), consuming every evil. And at last the Lord calls the soul to the great love of His glory. When this glorious and much-beloved name holds the memory of the intellect in the warmth of the heart, then we shall grow accustomed to love His goodness and nothing will hinder us in this. For this is the pearl of great price, and he can acquire it who sells all his property. Having acquired it, he will rejoice ineffably.

60. The joy of beginners is one thing, and that of the perfect another. With the first joy fantasy is mingled, while the second has the strength of humility of mind. And midway between them are God-loving sorrow and the painless tear. «For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow» (Eccl 1:18). Therefore it is fitting first with the joy of the beginner to call the soul to its struggles, and to reproach it, and to learn all the rest through the truth of the Holy Spirit — about all the evil it has done and about that which it still does in its own conceit. «With reproofs for iniquity You have chastened man, and You have made his soul waste away like a spider’s web» (Ps 38:12) — that the soul, being tested by divine reproof as gold is tested in the furnace, may receive a joy without fantasy in the warm remembrance of God.

61. When the soul is troubled by anger, or disturbed by food, or thrown into confusion by fierce rage, the intellect cannot hold within itself the remembrance of God, however it may force itself to do so by every means. Darkened wholly by the fierce passions, it becomes a stranger to its own perceptions. Therefore desire can nowhere set its seal, so that the intellect may train itself unceasingly, for the memory becomes hard through the hardness of the passions. But when such working of the passions is absent, then, even if forgetfulness at times veils what is desired, the intellect at once returns to its own direction and takes up more firmly that much-loved and saving hunt. For it has grace itself, which trains together with it and cries out together with it: «Lord Jesus». So too a mother teaches her child to call its father and repeats the word together with it, until the child becomes used to calling its father clearly, without childish babbling. Therefore the Apostle says: «Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words» (Rom 8:26). And since we behave as infants with regard to prayer and the accomplishing of the virtues, therefore we need His help — so that, when our thoughts are held and made sweet by His sweetness, we may come with all our desire to the remembrance and love of our Lord and Father. «We who call upon God the Father learn to cry out unceasingly: Abba, Father», says the most wonderful Paul.

62. Wrath troubles the soul and throws it into confusion more than the other passions, and yet at times it brings it great profit. When wrath rises without confusion against someone dishonourable or shameless, that he may either be saved or be put to shame, gentleness is thereby increased in us; for in our thought we uphold the truth and the goodness of God, and, being fiercely angry at sin, we urge our own weakness towards courage, and most of all we forbid the very spirit of corruption. For when we are little angered, we grow wise with a deadly self-praise. It is not fitting for the intellect to be double-minded; and so the Lord acted, in order to teach us. Twice in the spirit He rebuked Hades, and He roused Himself and, not in confusion but as one who does whatever He wills, returned the soul of Lazarus to his body. It seems to me that God, who created us, gave to our nature a chaste wrath as a weapon of righteousness. Had Eve armed herself with it against the serpent, that sweetness of passion would not, it seems to me, have overcome her. Chaste wrath guards godliness, and therefore he for whom it serves as a measure will be more experienced than one whose intellect is never roused to anger. The intellect of the latter does not know human ways; but the former rides, like a struggler, upon the horses of virtue in the midst of the host of demons, in the fear of God guiding the team which Scripture calls the chariot of Israel when it tells of the ascent of Elijah into heaven. God taught the first Jews about the four virtues in very various ways, and therefore such a teacher of wisdom, courage and righteousness was taken up on a fiery chariot. It seems to me that the horses are his chaste virtues, when he was caught up in the breath of fire by the Spirit.

63. Let him who has learned holy knowledge and tasted the sweetness of God go to law with no one and bring no one to court, even if his very clothing be taken from him. For the righteousness of the princes of this age is overcome by the righteousness of God, since there is nothing that can be compared with the righteousness of God. And what is the difference between the children of God and the men of this age? Only this, that the righteousness of the latter is imperfect, and is therefore called human righteousness, while the righteousness of the former is divine. Therefore the Lord Jesus, when He was mocked, made no answer; when He was wronged, He did not resist the wrongdoers and endured in silence when His clothing was taken; more than this, He prayed to the Father for the salvation of those who did Him evil. Worldly men will not cease from going to law until they have taken their own with interest, and most of all when they demand the interest on a debt. Therefore their righteousness often becomes the cause of great unrighteousness.

64. I have heard certain reverent men say that we should not let anyone take from us what we need or what serves for the relief of the poor. And especially when we suffer this from Christians, lest we become a cause of sin for those who wrong us — although we should not bear a grudge. Such thinking is nothing else than the fulfilling of one’s own will with an irrational justification. If I abandon prayer and listen to my own heart and condemn those who wished to take something, little by little I shall begin to sit in the courts of law as well. From this it will be plain that what has been taken matters more to me than my own salvation — not to say than the commandments of the Saviour. And how shall I fulfil the Gospel’s command, which bids me demand nothing back from him who has taken something from me, if, in the Apostle’s words, I do not endure with joy the plundering of my goods? According to the commandment, he who has obtained what he wanted without going to law is not thereby freed from the sin of greed. For corruptible courts cannot determine the verdict of God’s incorruptible judgment. Therefore we must fulfil those laws for which we shall have to answer even against our will. Therefore it is good to endure oppression from those who wish to wrong us, and to pray for them, that through repentance the sin of greed may be forgiven them — and not that what was taken may be returned to us. This is what God’s righteousness wills: that we receive not the greed but the greedy man, whom repentance has freed from sin.

65. It is very good and profitable for us who have come to know the way of godliness to sell at once all that we have, to give away all our property according to the Lord’s commandment (Lk 12:33), and not to excuse ourselves by saying that we wish always to be giving alms, for by this we disobey the Saviour’s command. Through this we shall have, first, a good freedom from care, and through it an envy-free poverty which thinks itself above all unrighteousness and all litigation, so that we may not possess the thing which would kindle the fire of greed. Then the virtue of humility of mind will warm us more and will comfort us, naked as we are, in its own depths, and will embrace us as a mother takes her child in her arms and embraces it when, in its childish simplicity, it throws off its clothes and casts them far away, in its great guilelessness delighting more in nakedness than in bright garments. For it is said: «The Lord preserves the little ones; I was brought low, and He saved me» (Ps 114:5).

66. The Lord will ask of us how we gave alms. He will ask it of those who have something to give, not of those who have not. If I have something that I might distribute over long years, I shall give it away in a short time of my own free will through the fear of God. And when I have nothing, who will reproach me? But someone may say: from what then shall alms be given to the poor, who are used to being fed by them? Let such a man not grow used to despising God while justifying his own greed. God will not abandon His creation, as He ordered it from the beginning; for even before this or that man began to give alms, the poor were not deprived of food or shelter. It is good, having come to know the truth, to serve the poor and to cast away irrational reasoning and the pride that comes from wealth, and to hate one’s own desires — which means to find one’s own soul; not to rejoice that we are always giving alms, but to reproach ourselves that we do nothing good. So long as we have wealth, we are glad and rejoice in distributing it, thereby serving the divine command. But when we have given it all away, there comes upon us an immeasurable humility and contrition, as upon those who do nothing righteous. Therefore the soul returns to itself with great humility and contrition and acquires by intensified prayer, patience and humility of mind what it can no longer acquire by the distribution of alms. «The poor and needy shall praise Your name, O Lord» (Ps 73:21). God will not give the gift of the word to one who is not ready to renounce all that he has for the glory of God’s Gospel, so that in God-loving poverty the riches of God’s Kingdom may be proclaimed. This is explained by him who said: «You have prepared everything for the poor». And he added this also: «The Lord will give the word to those who proclaim the good news with great power» (Ps 67:11-12).

67. All the gifts of our God are very good, and from them comes every goodness; but nothing so inflames and moves our heart to the love of His goodness as theology. Its fruit is equal to the divine grace: it announces what lies ahead and bestows a gift on the soul. First it brings us to despise with joy all the desires of this life, for instead of corruptible desires it gives us the ineffable riches of the word of God; and further, with the fire of change it illumines our intellect and makes it akin to the ministering spirits. Having prepared ourselves well for this, beloved, let us desire this most beautiful and unseen virtue, which brings us all freedom from care and, in the radiance of ineffable light, nourishes the intellect with the word of God, God the Word. And, not to speak at length, it honours rational souls with the gift of prophecy and unites them inseparably into oneness. O wonder! This handmaid of the Bridegroom makes men also into God-seeing heralds, divinely singing the greatness of God.

68. Our intellect often finds it hard to train itself in prayer, because of the narrowness and concentration of the virtue of prayer. But it takes up theology with joy, because of the breadth and freedom of the divine words. Yet let us not give it licence to speak much or to be borne up beyond measure with joy, but let us give it more of prayer, and psalmody, and the reading of psalms, not neglecting the writings of men who love the word, from whose words their faith is evident. And let us not add our own words to the words of grace, nor allow ourselves to be drawn to vainglory and to take pleasure in it for the sake of great delight and much talking; and during contemplation let us keep the intellect free of all fantasy. And, to put it simply, let us act so that all its thoughts may be accompanied by tears. Resting in the time of silence and delighting in prayer more than in any sweetness, the intellect not only is free of all the things mentioned, but is renewed more and more, so as to come quickly and without labour to divine contemplation, and to attain discernment, and to arrive at great humility. Yet one must know that prayer is higher than all breadth. And it belongs to those experienced in every perception and assurance and filled with holy grace.

69. At the beginning grace illumines the soul with its own light, and often it overshadows the soul’s earlier struggles secretly with theological mysteries. Then it sets us, rejoicing, on the path of divine visions, which are called to the understanding out of ignorance, and in the struggle it keeps our understanding free of vainglory. It is fitting therefore that we should grieve in measure, as though abandoned, so that we may be more humbled and submit to the glory of the Lord; and that we should rejoice in due season, borne up by good hope. For as great sorrow casts the soul into hopelessness and despondency, so also great joy leads it to arrogance. I speak of those who are still infants in understanding: for them the middle ground between illumination and abandonment is temptation, and between sorrow and joy is hope. For it is said: «I waited patiently for the Lord, and He looked upon me» (Ps 39:2). And again: «When my sufferings multiplied, Your consolations gladdened my soul» (Ps 93:19).

70. When the doors of a bathhouse are often opened, all the heat within goes out. So too with the soul: when it wishes to speak much, even though all it says is good, it carries out its own memory through the door of the voice. Therefore it is deprived of the purest thoughts and speaks in disorder with whomever it meets, since the Holy Spirit, who keeps its thought free of fantasy, is no longer in it. Everything good always flees from much talking, as from the cause of all vanity and all fantasy. Therefore silence in due season is a good thing, for it is nothing else than the mother of wise thoughts.

71. The words of knowledge teach us that the passions attack the theological soul at the beginning, and most of all wrath and hatred. It suffers this not only through the demons that attack it, but also for the sake of its own progress. So long as the soul lives by the wisdom of this world, then, even though it sees someone trampling on the truth, it remains unmoved and untouched, for it is busy with its own desires and does not care for the truth. But when it rises above its own passions, since it despises present things and looks to the love of God, then it will not endure, even in sleep, to see the truth despised. It is angry with those who do evil, until it sees a godly thought subject to its dignity those who violate the truth. Therefore it hates the unrighteous and loves the righteous. The eye of the soul is not caught up in rapture unless by great self-control it has brought its veil, that is, the body, to great refinement. Yet a greater work, far greater than hatred of the unrighteous, is to weep over their insensibility. Though they be worthy of hatred, the intellect of a God-loving soul does not wish to be troubled by hatred; for when hatred is in the soul, contemplation is not.

72. The theologian, delighting and inflaming the soul with the words of God, comes near to the measure of dispassion in sufficient breadth. «The words of the Lord are pure words, silver refined in the fire, purified of earth» (Ps 11:7). But the knowing intellect knows the working of things from experience and becomes higher than the passions. And the theologian, when he becomes more humble, will receive the experience of knowledge. And the knowing intellect gradually partakes of the virtue of contemplation, if the discerning power of the soul remains sinless. It does not happen that each of them receives both gifts perfectly; let each, having one of the gifts, marvel at that in which the other surpasses him. Then humility of mind and zeal for the truth are multiplied in them. Therefore the Apostle says: «To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit» (1 Cor 12:8).

73. When the soul abounds in natural fruits, it will also sing more loudly and will wish to pray aloud. But when the Holy Spirit acts upon it, it will pray in the heart with all joy and gladness. After this there comes a joy accompanied by imagining, and after it a spiritual tear, and after all these a certain gladness that delights in imagining. When the voice is maintained, the memory remains warm and so arranges things that there are in the heart certain tearful and gentle thoughts. In this one can truly see how the seed of prayer is sown in the earth of the heart in the hope that the joy of harvest will come. Yet if a greater sorrow weighs upon us, then we must sing a little more loudly, cheering the soul with the joy of hope, until the heavy cloud of sorrow is dispersed by the wind of the voice.

74. When the soul comes to know itself, then out of itself it will bring forth warmth and a God-loving shame. It is not troubled by the sorrows of this life, and therefore love and humility come forth from it. Humility is given to those who seek God according to their strength. But this quickly changes, either because the senses take over the memory, or because nature and the lack of good works prevail. Therefore the Greek sages did not fully attain by self-control what they wished, for the eternal and all-true wisdom did not work in their intellect. But the warmth which the Holy Spirit brings into the heart is above all peaceful and unceasing; it calls all the powers of the soul to the love of God and, without going outside the heart, draws the whole man after it into a certain boundless love and joy. Those who understand it must attain to it itself. When nature exercises self-control and keeps vigil, this is a mark of natural love; but natural love cannot inflame nature to dispassion, as spiritual love does.

75. The air created for us is purified when a cold wind blows, for the nature of that wind is fine and pure; but when the south wind blows, the air becomes heavy, for this wind brings mist and drives clouds over all the earth. So too the soul: when the Holy Spirit breathes upon it with His breath, it is freed from all demonic mist; but when the spirit of flattery breathes upon it, it is wholly covered with the cloud of sin. We must with all our strength turn towards the purifying and life-giving breath of the All-Holy Spirit, that is, as the prophet Ezekiel saw in his vision, «a wind coming from the north» (Ezek 1:4), so that the contemplative power of our soul may always remain pure and that we may come without flattery to the divine visions in that light-bearing air which illumines those who see. And this is the light of true knowledge.

76. Some think that grace and sin, that is, the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit, are hidden together in the intellect of the baptised. Therefore they say that one spirit calls the intellect to good and the other to evil. But I have understood from the divine Scripture and from the very knowledge of the intellect that before holy baptism grace urges the soul to good from without, while evil nests in the very depths of the soul and tries to close all the true entrances of the intellect. But from the hour when we are born again, evil is outside and grace within. From this we see that before baptism deceit rules the soul, and after it, truth. Evil also acts upon the soul both before baptism and after, and even more so; but not together with grace — let no one think this. Through the weakness of the body it burns incense, as it were, before the intellect with the sweetness of irrational passions. This happens by God’s permission, so that a man, having passed through storms, fire and temptations, may learn, when he wishes, to receive the good; for it is said: «We went through fire and water, and You brought us out into a place of rest» (Ps 65:12).

77. Grace, as I have said, from the hour when we are baptised, hides itself in the very depth of the intellect, concealing its presence from the intellect’s own perception. But when a man begins with his whole heart to seek God, then grace turns to the soul with a certain ineffable word through the perception of the intellect and imparts to it some portion of its own goods; and then there arises in the soul the desire to acquire the other goods as well. He who wishes to keep what he has acquired must with great joy renounce all present goods, so as to buy that field where the treasure of eternal life is hidden. When a man renounces all the wealth of this life, then he finds the place where the grace of God is hidden. When the soul goes forward, then the gift of God’s grace shows the intellect its own goodness. Then the Lord allows the demons to trouble the soul more, so as to teach it to distinguish good from evil and to make it more humble, for it must be much ashamed when it comes to know what foulness the demonic thoughts bring.

78. The image of God is manifested in us through the spiritual movements of the soul, while the body is, as it were, its house. After Adam’s transgression not only were the features of the soul defiled, but our body too fell under corruption. For this reason the holy Word of God became incarnate and, as God, granted us the water of baptism for salvation and second birth, that we might be born of water through the action of the Holy and life-giving Spirit. In baptism we purify at once both soul and body, if with our whole heart we wish to come to God. Then the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and sin flees from us. For it is impossible, given the oneness and simplicity of the soul, that two persons should dwell in it, as some have thought. When the divine grace is present, which is joined by some incomprehensible love with the image of God through holy baptism, as in a marriage — which Scripture also confirms — where then would some evil one find room? For light does not consort with darkness. We believe therefore that the font of incorruption casts evil out of the storehouses of the intellect. But since we are zealous strugglers in sacred struggles, very various temptations attack us. And let us not wonder why after baptism there come to us thoughts both good and evil. The holy font washes from us the defilement of our transgressions, but it does not change the twofold nature of our will nor forbid the demons to attack us and to speak flattering words, so that by God’s power, having taken up the weapons of righteousness, we may guard what we did not guard in our natural state.

79. As I have said, holy baptism drives Satan out of the soul; but for the reasons already mentioned he is permitted to tempt the soul through the body. And the grace of God dwells in the very depth of the soul, that is, in the intellect. For it is said: «All the glory of the king’s daughter is within» (Ps 44:14) — and it is invisible to the demons. Therefore divine love flows out from the very depth of our heart when we warmly remember God. But the evil spirits enter through the bodily senses and nest there, working through the weakness of the body upon those who are still infants in soul. Therefore our intellect, as the Apostle says, always delights in the spiritual law, while the bodily senses incline towards pleasures (cf. Rom 7:18). Thus grace, through the perception of the intellect, gives ineffable joy to the body of those who have learnt contemplation. But the murderous demons, through the bodily senses, take the soul captive when they see that we walk faint-heartedly on the road of godliness, and by force they push it towards what it does not wish.

80. Those who say that two persons dwell in the hearts of the faithful, that is, grace and sin, appeal to the words of the Evangelist: «And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it» (Jn 1:5), and explain their opinion thus: the divine radiance will never be defiled by dwelling together with the evil one, even if the divine light draws near in the soul to the demonic darkness. Yet the words of the Gospel reprove those who reason so about Holy Scripture. For the Word of God is the true light, which was pleased to appear in the flesh to all creation and in His love for mankind kindled in us His own light of holy knowledge. But worldly wisdom did not comprehend the light of God, «because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God» (Rom 8:7); and so the Theologian spoke these words. And further this wonderful Evangelist explains, saying: «That was the true light which enlightens every man» — it says enlightens, not teaches and quickens — «He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to those who received Him He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name» (Jn 1:9-12). The most wise Paul also says: «Not that I have already attained the goal or am already perfect, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me» (Phil 3:12). Therefore the Evangelist is not speaking of Satan when he says that he did not comprehend the true light, for it is alien to him from the very beginning, but of men who hear of God’s wonders and power yet do not wish to draw near to the light of His knowledge because of their darkened heart; and so the Evangelist rebukes them with fitting words.

81. The word of knowledge teaches us that there are two kinds of evil spirits: some of them are finer, others coarser. The fine ones war against the soul, while the coarse ones take the body captive with certain refined delights. Therefore the demons war among themselves: those who fight against the soul with those who attack the body, though in all of them the desire to harm man is the same. When grace does not dwell in a man, then serpents begin to nest in the depth of the heart and do not let the soul so much as desire what is good. But when grace is hidden in the intellect, then they pass through the heart like dark clouds, touching the sinful passions and turning into various fantasies, in order thereby to trouble the memory of the intellect and to tear it away from converse with grace. When through the demons who trouble our soul we are kindled to the passions of the soul, and especially to arrogance, the mother of all passions, then let us consider the corruptibility of our body and cover with shame the height of our love of glory. The same must be done when the demons attack the body and inflame our heart with shameful desires. The mere remembrance of God’s name in sober memory can destroy the assaults of the evil spirits. And when the demons who act upon the soul begin, after this remembrance, to suggest to us thoughts about the boundless worthlessness of human nature and that it is worth nothing — and they love to do this so as to drive us to despair — then let him who wishes to outwit them remember the honour and glory of the Heavenly Kingdom, not forgetting also the bitter and dread judgment. By the remembrance of the Heavenly Kingdom let us console our sorrow, and by the remembrance of the Last Judgment let us restrain the impulses of our flesh.

82. The Lord teaches us in the Gospel that when Satan returns and finds the house — that is, the barren heart — cleaned and swept, then he will call the other seven spirits, and they will enter there and settle there, «and the last state of that man will be worse than the first» (cf. Lk 11:25-26). Therefore one must know that while the Holy Spirit dwells in us, Satan cannot enter the depths of the soul and remain there. The divine Paul teaches us to understand it in this way, for he himself saw the reason for this from experience, and therefore he says: «For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which is in my members» (Rom 7:22-23). And he adds: «There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death» (Rom 8:1-2). And in another place, to show how Satan attacks the soul through the body, he says: «Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the readiness of the Gospel of peace. Above all, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil one. Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God» (Eph 6:14-17). But captivity is one thing and struggle another. For the first means violent domination over someone, and the second a contest against an equal in strength. Therefore the Apostle says that the devil attacks Christ-loving souls with flaming arrows. When he cannot enter into battle and defeat a struggler who resists him, then he shoots arrows at him, so as to strike from afar the enemy who fights against him; for because of the coming of grace he can no longer, as before, inhabit the intellect of the struggler, and therefore he flies about with sweetness and settles in the body, in order to draw the soul down into the sloth of the body. From the words of the Apostle it may be understood that the divine light shines upon the struggler’s intellect, and therefore he serves the divine law and delights in it. The body, on the other hand, delights in cunning and willingly receives the tricks of those spirits, and therefore it is drawn to serve their cunning. And from this it is plain that God and the devil cannot dwell in the intellect at the same time. For how should I serve the law of God with my mind and the law of sin with my flesh, if my intellect did not fight with all its freedom against the demons, being sweetly enslaved by the goodness of grace? The body likes to receive the fragrance of irrational sweets, and this is why strugglers are permitted to be deceived by the evil spirits. «For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh» (Rom 7:18); and as though in the midst of a battle the struggles of those who resist sin are accomplished. The Apostle does not say of himself that the demons attack the intellect; rather, they try to sway the body with strong pleasures from agreeable sweets. This the righteous judgment of God permits, so that they may penetrate into the depths of the body even in those who do all they can to fight against sin; for self-righteous human reasoning is always subject to testing. When someone can, living in this life, mortify himself with labour, then he becomes wholly the house of the Holy Spirit. Such a one has been raised even before death; such was blessed Paul himself, and all those who have struggled perfectly and are struggling against sin.

83. The heart brings forth from itself thoughts both good and evil. Evil thoughts do not come from its nature, but because it has grown accustomed to evil through former delusions; and much that is evil begins in it through demonic bitterness. But since we know that all thoughts come from the heart, some have supposed that sin dwells in the intellect together with the Master. And so they recall that the Lord said: «What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles a man; for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries» (Mt 15:18-19). They do not know that our intellect has within it a fine perception by which it receives the thought suggested by the evil spirits, and we do not know how it passes it on to the soul and, besides the soul, to the body as well — which is very agreeable to the body, for the flesh greatly loves the caresses of delusion. Therefore we suppose that the thoughts suggested by the demons come from the heart; and we count them our own when we wish to delight in them, for which the Lord reproves us, as is plain from the words quoted. In the man who delights in the thoughts suggested to him by satanic cunning, and stores them in his heart, they take root and grow out of his own thinking.

84. The Lord says in the Gospel that the strong man cannot be driven from his house until one stronger than he comes, binds him and drives him out (cf. Mt 12:29). How then shall he who has been driven out with such shame enter again and dwell with the true master of the house, who orders everything in his house as he himself wills? When a king conquers his enemy, he will not allow him to settle in the royal palace: he will either kill him at once or hand him over to his soldiers for slow torments and a hard death.

85. If anyone thinks that we ponder both evil and good because both the Holy Spirit and the devil dwell in our intellect, let him know that this comes about because we have not yet «tasted and seen that the Lord is good» (Ps 33:9). At first, as I have said before, grace hides itself in the newly baptised, awaiting the proper disposition of the soul. But when a man turns wholly to the Lord, then by some ineffable perception grace reveals its presence to the heart and again awaits a response from the soul, allowing the demonic arrows to reach its deepest perception, so that the soul may begin to seek God with fervent disposition and humble devotion. And when it goes on to fulfil the commandments and unceasingly to call upon the Lord Jesus, then in the outer perceptions of the heart too the fire of holy grace will blaze up, burning the thorns of the human field. Therefore the demonic assaults withdraw somewhere far from that place, quietly stirring up the passions of the soul. But when a man fulfils all the virtues that belong to the struggle, and most of all complete non-possession, then his whole being will be illumined by the deepest contemplation, warming him with great love for God. Then the demonic arrows are quenched even outside bodily perception, for the breath of the Holy Spirit moves the heart to the winds of humility, which quench the arrows that the fire-bearing demon still casts into the air. Yet even to one who has attained this measure the Lord permits to fall under demonic malice and leaves his intellect unilluminated, so that our self-determination may not be wholly bound by the bonds of grace — not only that we may overcome sin by our struggles, but also because man must go forward in the spiritual life. For what we have learnt and what seems to us perfect is imperfect beside that richness in which God instructs us in the love of His goodness, even if someone, going forward, should be able to climb the whole ladder shown to Jacob in his dream.

86. The Lord Himself said that He «saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven» (Lk 10:18) — that the abominable one might not look into the dwelling of the holy angels. How then, if he is not permitted to associate with the good servants of God, could he dwell together with God in the human intellect? Some say that this happens by permission, but beyond this they say nothing. For even instructive permission does not deprive the soul of the divine light; grace only hides its presence, as I have said, by the working of its own greatness, so that the soul may experience the action of demonic bitterness and with all fear and humility seek help from God and understand more clearly the malice of its enemy. So too a mother, when her child does not obey her, lets it go from her arms for a while, so that it may be frightened by angry people or by some beasts and return to its mother with great fear and tears. But the permission that comes after a turning away hands the soul over to the demons, as though bound, since it does not wish to have God. But we are not children of fear — let this not be. We believe that we are the closest children of God’s grace, and that it nourishes us as with milk by small permissions and frequent consolations, so that, fed by its goodness, we may come «to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ» (Eph 4:13).

87. Instructive permission brings great sorrow and humility and a moderate timidity of soul, so that its glory-loving and insolent power may more easily come to humility. Then the fear of God will at once come upon the heart, and the tear of confession, and a great desire for good silence. But the permission that comes after a turning away from God fills the soul with hopelessness, listlessness, arrogance and anger. It is fitting for us who know both the one and the other permission by experience to come to God as the nature of the permission requires. In the first we must bring thanksgiving together with promises to Him who instructs our wayward disposition by depriving us of consolation, so that, like a good father, He may teach us to distinguish good from evil. In the second we must bring unceasing confession of transgressions and tears, and still more solitude, so that, adding labours to this, we may entreat God to look upon our hearts as before. Yet one must know that Satan too is permitted to make war upon the courage of the soul. In instructive permission grace, though it hides its working, invisibly hastens to help the soul, so that the enemies may think the soul has conquered them by itself.

88. If in winter a man stands in an open place facing east and stands so all day, the sun will warm him wholly in front, but his back will have no warmth at all, since the sun has not stood over his head. So it is at the beginning of the spiritual work: the heart is partly warmed by holy grace, and then the intellect begins to bring forth the fruits of spiritual understanding. Its visible powers remain in the body, reflecting, for not yet have all the parts of the heart been illumined by the deep knowledge of the holy light of grace. Some, not understanding this, have supposed that two persons contend in the intellect, and that therefore the soul at the same time ponders both good and evil — just as we said at the beginning that a man is at once both warmed and chilled. And since our intellect has entered into the twofold nature of vision, from then on it must, even against its will, bring forth at the same time both good and evil thoughts, especially in those who attain fine discernment. Though the intellect hastens to think only of what is good, it at once remembers something evil as well, for after Adam’s transgression the memory was divided into a twofold thought. But when we begin diligently to fulfil God’s commandments, then grace, illumining all our perceptions with deep knowledge, burns up like fire the sinful memories, making our hearts sweet in humility with unceasing love, and will teach us to care for spiritual things and not for bodily ones. This happens to those who draw near to perfection and unceasingly hold in their hearts the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.

89. Holy grace grants us through baptism, by which we are born again, two good things, of which the first immeasurably surpasses the second. The first is given at once: the washing away in the water of baptism of all our foul transgressions and the illumining of all the features of the soul which constitute the image of God. But the second waits to build together with us that which is the likeness of God. When our intellect with great knowledge enters into the grace of the Holy Spirit, one must know that grace then begins, as it were, to paint in the man the image and likeness of God. So too painters do: first they trace the outlines of a man in a single colour, and then lay colour upon colour, until the outlines come to resemble the one they are painting, down to the hair. So too the holy grace of God at first, through baptism, restores in a man the image of God such as he was honoured with before the transgression; but when it sees that with our whole soul we desire the likeness of God and stand naked and manfully arm ourselves for the struggles in order to attain it, then by one virtue it gives birth in our soul to another virtue, raises the appearance of the soul from glory to glory, and gives it the outlines of the likeness. Perception shows how the likeness is being reflected in us, but the perfection of the likeness is revealed in the illumination of grace. For the intellect receives every virtue through perception, having attained a certain measure and ineffable harmony; but spiritual love no one can acquire unless the Holy Spirit illumines him. Until the intellect receives the perfect likeness from the divine light, it may have all the virtues except perfect love. But when by virtue it becomes like God, so far as it is possible for man to become like God, then it will bear upon itself the likeness of divine love. When someone is painted, the skill of the artist can render in colour even a smile. So it is also when the divine grace paints in us the divine likeness and, adding the illumination of love, reveals the likeness of all-perfect beauty according to the image and likeness. No other virtue can give the soul dispassion, only love, for «love is the fulfilling of the law» (Rom 13:10). Therefore from day to day our inner man is renewed, experiencing love; with its help he ascends and attains the summit of perfection.

90. If we zealously desire the virtue of God, then at the beginning of our progress the All-Holy Spirit allows the soul to taste the sweetness of God with all its perceptions and with full assurance, so that the intellect may understand what reward there is for God-loving labours. But afterwards the Holy Spirit hides for a long time the life-giving riches of this gift, so that we, even when we attain all the virtues, may think of ourselves that we are nothing, since holy love has not yet become habitual to us. Then it also happens that the demon of hatred so afflicts the souls of strugglers that they come to hate even those who treat them with kindness; and even when they exchange greetings, they carry within them the ruinous working of hatred. Therefore the soul feels greater pain, since it remembers spiritual love and yet cannot attain it in its perceptions, for it lacks perfect labours. One must, as it were, force oneself to love, so as with full assurance to attain love in perception. No one who is in the body can acquire perfect love, save those saints who have come to torments and complete confession. He who has received perfect love is wholly changed and does not even need food. For who can desire the goods of this world when divine love nourishes him? Therefore the most wise Paul, that great vessel of knowledge, teaching us by his good news about the future food of the righteous, says: «For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit» (Rom 14:17) — and all this is the fruit of perfect love. Therefore those who draw near to perfection can often partake of it here. But no one can attain it completely until what is mortal is swallowed up by life.

91. One of those who felt an inexhaustible love for God told me: «Once I desired to know the love of God in my perceptions, and the good Lord granted me this with great perception. And I felt the working of love with such power that my soul with ineffable joy and love desired to go out of the body and depart to the Lord, so as not to see this temporal life». He who has felt such love in experience, even if someone should insult or vex him a thousand times, and even if something remains that causes him pain, is not angry, but rather cleaves to the one who vexes and wrongs him. He is indignant only with those who oppress the poor, and with those who, as Holy Scripture says, «speak unrighteousness against God» (Ps 74:6), or do some other evil thing. He who loves God more than himself, or rather does not love himself at all but God alone, does not defend his own honour, but honours only the righteousness of Him who has honoured him with eternal life. And he desires this not with some fleeting desire, but has it as a habit through great experience of God’s love. Moreover one must know that he in whom God awakens such love is, during the working of that love, higher than faith, for in the perception of the heart he holds Him whom through great love he honours by faith. Of this Saint Paul plainly tells us in these words: «And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love» (1 Cor 13:13). For he who, as I have said, holds God in the riches of love stands then far above his own faith, since he abides wholly in love.

92. The working of holy knowledge often makes us suffer when, being irritated, we vex someone and make him our enemy. Then it does not cease to torment our conscience until with many explanations we have brought the one we vexed back to his former disposition. And at the end of this comes contrition, when someone is angry with us without cause and makes us grieve over him and be anxious, since our idle talk may have become a stumbling block for him; and then the intellect is deprived of knowledge. Knowledge itself is rational love, and it does not allow the mind to expand to the divine visions until we have received with love the one who is angry with us without cause. But if he does not wish this, or goes away from our dwelling, we must remember him with kindness, not playing the hypocrite in our soul — and then in the depth of our heart we shall fulfil the law of love. Those who wish to have knowledge of God should picture kindly to themselves those who are angry with them. When this is so, our intellect will not only advance unerringly in theology, but will also with great boldness enter into the love of God, as we pass unhindered from a lower step to a higher one.

93. To those who are beginning to desire righteousness the road of godliness seems hard and exhausting; but this is not because it is truly such, but because it is natural to man from birth to live in the breadth of sweetness. Yet to him who has travelled half this road it seems sweet and joyful. Good habits subdue evil habits, and the irrational working of sweetness is wiped from the memory. Then the soul goes on with delight along the paths of the virtues. Therefore the Lord, leading us out onto the way of salvation, says: «Narrow is the gate and hard the road that leads to life, and few there are who find it» (Mt 7:14); and to those who are firmly resolved to keep His holy commandments He says: «For my yoke is easy and my burden is light» (Mt 11:30). It is fitting from the very beginning of the struggle to force ourselves to fulfil God’s holy commandments, so that the good Lord, seeing our purpose, our labour and our care for this, may send down upon us a most sweet willingness zealously to fulfil His commandments. For it is said: «Then the Lord gives desire». Then with great joy we shall do what is good, and then we shall truly understand that «God works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure» (Phil 2:13).

94. As a seal pressed upon wax that has not been warmed and softened cannot leave a clear impression, so a man who has not been tested by labours and infirmities cannot contain the seal of God’s virtue. Therefore the Lord says to the divine Paul: «My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness» (2 Cor 12:9). And the Apostle himself boasts, saying: «Therefore I will rather gladly boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me». And in the book of Proverbs it is written: «Whom God loves He chastens, as a father chastens a beloved son» (Prov 3:12). The Apostle calls weaknesses the enemies of the cross, who often befell him and all the saints of that time, so that they might not be proud before others, as he himself says, of the «abundance of the revelations» (2 Cor 12:7), but might abide, through humility and frequent humiliations, in the image of perfection and preserve the divine gift. But we now call weaknesses evil thoughts and the stirrings of the body. In those days, since the bodies of the saints who struggled against sin suffered mortal wounds and other afflictions, they were higher than the passions which through sin entered human nature. But now, since peace is multiplied for the Churches in the Lord, it is fitting that the souls of the strugglers of godliness should often be tempted by the stirrings of the body and by evil thoughts — and most of all those in whom contemplation works in every perception and with assurance, so as to rid them of all vainglory and arrogance; then they will be able, through great humility, to contain in their hearts, as has been said, the seal of divine beauty, according to the prophet’s words: «The light of Your face has been marked upon us, O Lord» (Ps 4:7). Therefore it is fitting for us with thanksgiving to endure such counsel of the Lord, and then frequent illnesses and the battle with demon-like thoughts will be reckoned to us as a second martyrdom. He who then spoke to the holy martyrs through lawless princes, that they might deny Christ and love the glory of this life, is the same who now troubles the servants of God, unceasingly repeating the same thing. He who then inflicted wounds on the bodies of the righteous and vexed honourable teachers through those who served the devil’s reasoning, is the same who now brings various passions upon the confessors of godliness, greatly vexing and wronging them — and most of all when with great power they help the wronged poor for the glory of the Lord. Therefore we must with all diligence and patience raise up before God the martyrdom of our conscience, for it is said: «I waited patiently for the Lord, and He looked upon me» (Ps 39:2).

95. Humility of mind is not easily gained by us. And since it is a great thing, it is given us only through great struggles. To those who partake of holy knowledge it comes in two ways: when a struggler of godliness has come to the middle of the spiritual struggle, then he thinks humbly of himself either through bodily infirmity, or through the assaults of those who war against the righteous, or through evil thoughts. But when holy grace illumines the intellect with great contemplation and assurance, then humility of mind becomes natural to the soul. Watered by divine grace, it cannot rise to the height of the love of glory and, though it unceasingly fulfils God’s commandments, it counts itself the least of all through its union with divine gentleness. The first humility of mind is often accompanied by sorrow and grief, and the second by joy with an all-wise diffidence. Therefore the first, as we have said, is given to those who are in the middle of the spiritual struggle, and the second is sent down to those who draw near to perfection. Therefore the first is often interrupted by the good things of this life, while the second, though all the kingdoms of the world were offered to it, is not afraid and feels no sinful arrows at all. He who is wholly spiritual has no need of bodily glory. It is fitting for the struggler to pass from the first humility of mind to the second. But until he has passed through the first and experienced the assault of the passions, grace will not soften our self-will nor grant us the riches of the second humility of mind.

96. Those who love the pleasures of the present life pass from thoughts to transgressions. Their undiscerning habits push them to translate all their passionate thoughts into lawless words and unworthy deeds. But those who are beginning the ascetic life pass from transgressions to evil thoughts, or to certain evil and harmful words. When the demons see them thus — complacently mocking others, or speaking of empty and needless matters, or laughing where they should not, or raging beyond measure, or desiring vain and empty glory — then they rise up against them with one accord. As their allies they take the men’s own love of glory and, penetrating through it as through some dark crack, they plunder the riches of the soul. He who wishes to be united with the multitude of the virtues must desire neither glory, nor long conversations, nor go out often, nor mock others — even if there is in them something worth mocking — nor speak much, even if all he says is good. Immoderate talkativeness scatters the intellect and not only makes it slothful for spiritual work, but also hands it over to the demon of listlessness. And he, having burdened it beyond measure, hands it over at last to the demons of sorrow and anger. Therefore it is fitting always to train the intellect in the keeping of the holy commandments and in the deep remembrance of Jesus, the Lord of glory. For it is said: «He who keeps the commandment shall know nothing evil» (Eccl 8:5) — that is, he will not resort to evil words or thoughts.

97. When the heart receives with a certain burning pain the shooting of the demons, so that the one who is assailed thinks he is suffering the shots alone, this means that the soul hates the passions, for it has begun to be purified. If it does not suffer pain at sinful shamelessness, it will not be able richly to rejoice in the righteousness of goodness. He who wishes to purify his heart should always inflame it with the remembrance of the Lord Jesus, training himself in this unceasingly and making it his constant work. For he who wishes to cast off his own rottenness cannot pray at one time and not pray at another. He must always strive in prayer to guard his intellect, even if he lives far from churches. He who wishes to purify gold, if he lets the fire in the furnace go out, thereby lets the gold harden. So too he who at one time remembers God and at another does not will lose through sloth what he seemed to have gained by prayer. It is proper to a man who loves the virtues to uproot by the constant remembrance of God the earthly reasoning of the heart, so that the fire of the good remembrance of the Lord Jesus may burn up all the evil that is in the soul, that the soul may enter with greater glory into its own natural radiance.

98. Dispassion consists not in not being assailed by the demons — for then, in the Apostle’s words, we should «have to go out of this world» (1 Cor 5:10) — but in not suffering defeat when the demons attack us. Armoured men are shot at by their enemies; they hear the noise of the shots and even see all the arrows, yet they suffer no wounds, for the arrows do not pierce their armour. Armoured men, fighting clad in iron, suffer no defeat; and we, when we arm ourselves with the weapons of holy light and the helmet of salvation, shall scatter the demonic hosts. We attain purity not when we do no evil, but when with good diligence we reject it with all our strength.

99. When the man of God is established, that is, has overcome all the passions, there remain two demons still to fight with him. One of them attacks the soul, urging it through great love of God to an immoderate zeal, as though the soul wished to surpass everyone in pleasing God; and the other rouses fleshly lust in the body. This happens to the body, first, because this lust is natural to it for the sake of procreation, and therefore it is not easy to overcome; and second, by God’s permission. When the Lord sees that one of the strugglers flourishes with the riches of the virtues, then He allows such a man to be defiled by this demon, so that he may feel himself worse than other men. The assault of the passion comes after the fulfilling of the commandments, or even precedes it, so that through the coming and working of the passion the soul may not become arrogant, however great its successes may be. But the first demon we overcome by great humility of mind and love, and the second by freedom from anger and the deep remembrance of death, so that, coming unceasingly to know the working of the Holy Spirit, we may stand in the Lord above these passions.

100. Those who have become partakers of holy contemplation will answer also for the involuntary wanderings of the intellect. As Job says: «You have marked also what I sinned involuntarily, and rightly so». If a man did not cease to remember God and to fulfil His holy commandments, he would fall neither into voluntary nor into involuntary sin. He should gladly bring to God the confession of involuntary sins, fulfilling the daily rule. For it is impossible for a man not to sin, and therefore we confess until our conscience, in tears of love, assures us of their forgiveness. For it is said: «If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness» (1 Jn 1:9). We must constantly guard the perception of confession, so that our conscience may not deceive itself, deciding that it has already confessed enough to God. God’s judgment is far more exacting than the judgment of our conscience, even if a man knows nothing evil against himself, as the wise Paul teaches, saying: «For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not thereby justified. It is the Lord who judges me» (1 Cor 4:4). When we confess imperfectly, at the departure of the soul from the body a certain incomprehensible fear will find us. We who love the Lord must pray that we may have no fear then. For whoever is found in fear will not pass freely by the princes of the abyss, since they will see in a soul that has fear an accomplice of their own malice. But if the soul is joyfully in the love of God, then at the time of its departure from the body it will be higher than all the dark powers and will be borne up by the angels of peace. Spiritual love gives it wings, as it were, having in this love the fulfilling of the law. Therefore, when the Lord comes with all the saints, those who with such boldness leave this life will be taken apart from all the rest. And those who fear a little at the hour of death remain among the multitude of men, as those who are under judgment — so that at the judgment their deeds may be tested and they may receive what is due to them from the good God and our King Jesus Christ. For He is the God of truth, and He holds for us who love Him the riches of the goodness of His Kingdom for ever and ever. Amen.