On the art of preaching

<1+> THE SUPREME MASTER ALAN, THE UNIVERSAL DOCTOR, ON THE ART
OF PREACHING, in which are suggested the best concepts for forming
sermons in almost every moral matter, now published for the first time

<2+> TO THE READER.

I had two manuscript copies of this Summa on parchment, from our Library at Dunes, one
written in the oldest characters, and filled with the most obscure abbreviations of words;
another, somewhat (as it appears) written by a more recent hand, and much larger than the
former, which I have therefore followed here; noting, however, in the margin the
discrepancies of words and sentences, by which it differs from one model to another. I have
added (for the benefit of the readers) the passages of the Holy Scriptures, to the individual
sentences which are brought out from the same here in the context.

<2+> THE SUM OF THE ART OF PREACHING.

<3+> AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

He saw Jacob's ladder reaching from earth to heaven, through which angels ascended and
descended (Genesis 28). The ladder is the march of the Catholic man, which is gathered
from the beginning of the faith, until the consummation of the perfect man. The first step in
this ladder is confession; the second, speech; thirdly, thanksgiving; the fourth, the perusal of
the Scriptures; fifthly, if any doubt occurs in the Scriptures, by a greater inquiry; the sixth,
the exposition of the Scriptures; seventh, preaching. A man, therefore, repenting of sin, must
first fix his foot on the first step of this ladder, by confessing his sin; secondly, to ascend the
second step, praying to the Lord that grace may be conferred upon him. The third step is
ascended, through thanksgiving for the contribution of grace. The ascent to the fourth
degree is made by the scrutiny of the Scriptures, in order to preserve the grace conferred;
for the Holy Scriptures teach how the grace given may be preserved. Consequently, the fifth
step occurs, when a doubt occurs, and the reader seeks an understanding from an elder. The
sixth step is ascended, when the reader expounds the Holy Scripture to others. He ascends
the seventh step, when he openly preaches what he has learned from the Scriptures. But
because of the other degrees, how or when one should ascend by them, he proposed a
different treatise; but concerning the preaching, what it should be, and whose, and to whom,
it should be proposed, and about whom, and how, and when, and where; because they have
been said by a few, we thought it worthy to compose a treatise on them for the benefit of
our neighbors. First, therefore, we must see what preaching is, and what it ought to be in
regard to the surface of the words, and the weight of the sentences, and how many of its
species there are. secondly, whose predication ought to be; thirdly, to whom it should be
proposed; fourthly, why; fifth, where

<3+> THE FIRST CHAPTER Of preaching. What it is and what it ought to be, etc.

It is preaching, a clear and public instruction of morals and faith, serving the information of
men, proceeding from the path of reason, and from the source of authority. The preaching
must be manifest, because it must be set forth in the manifest. Whence Christ said: What I
say to you in your ear, preach on the housetops (Matthew 10). For if the preaching were
hidden, it would be suspicious, and would seem to smack of heretical dogmas. For in their
sermons, heretics secretly preach, that they may more easily deceive others. It must be
public, because it is not to be proposed to one, but to many. For if it were proposed to one
person only, it would not be preaching, but teaching. For this is the difference between
preaching, and teaching, and prophecy, and preaching. but teaching is that which is done
either to one, or to many, for the learning of knowledge; prophecy is a warning that takes
place through the revelation of things to come; A sermon is a civil admonition, which is
done for the confirmation of the republic. By what is called preaching, the instruction of
morals and faith, two parts of theology are insinuated: the rational, which pursues the
knowledge of the divine; and moral, which promises the instruction of manners: for
preaching now instructs in divine things, now in manners; which is signified by angels
ascending and descending: for these angels are preachers, who then ascend when they
preach heavenly things; they descend, when they conform themselves to inferiors by
morals. By this which follows, serving the information of men, is signified the final cause, or
the usefulness of preaching. And since preaching must be supported by reasons, and
strengthened by authorities, it is consequently attached: from the path of reasons, and
proceeding from the source of authorities. For preaching in itself must not have sly words,
or childish words, or rhythmic melodies and consonances of meters, which are done rather
to soothe the ears than to instruct the mind, which preaching is theatrical and mimetic, and
therefore to be universally despised, it is said of such preaching from prophet: Your taverns
shall mix water with wine (Isa. 1). In that preaching there is water mixed with wine, in
which childish and scurrilous words are put, and in a way effeminate minds: for the
preaching should not shine with the harness of words, purple colors, nor should it be
thrown down with too many lifeless words, but a thinly blessed medium. Because, if it were
too pictorial, it would seem to have been thought out with too much effort, and rather to
have been worked out for the favor of men than for the benefit of their neighbors, and thus
would have moved the hearts of the audience less. Those who preach like this are compared
to the Pharisees, who widened their skirts and widened their phylacteries (Matthew 23).
But such preaching may be said to be suspicious, but not to be despised, but to be
supported. Wherefore the Apostle says: On whatever occasion Christ is preached, I rejoice
in this, and will rejoice (Phil. 1). They should not even interfere, for the greater praise of
Christ, because Christ is not less angry with false praise than with denied truth. Such is the
preaching of heretics, who set forth truths, and consequently interpose falsehoods, of which
it is said: Lamias stripped their mothers, they nursed their children (Thren. iv). Vampires
have the faces of virgins, but the feet of horses. The horse's feet do not split the hoof, but
firmly stick to the ground. By vampires, therefore, are meant heretics, who prefer the face of
a virgin, but conclude the sting of a scorpion. For first they propose truths, and
consequently they conclude falsities: indeed they have equine feet, because they are not
divided by the affections of the mind in the love of God and neighbor, but attach all their
affections to earthly pleasures. Such preaching must be completely rejected, because it is
vicious and destructive. But the preaching must have weight in the sentences, so that by the
power of the sentences it softens the hearts of the hearers, stirs up the mind, gives birth to
contrition, sprinkles with doctrines, thunders with threats, flatters with promises, and thus
the whole tends to the benefit of the neighbors. For there are some who make the end of
their preaching an earthly reward; but the preaching of these is costly. For such are rather
hirelings than preachers, and yet their preaching must be heard and supported. Hence the
Lord: Do what they say, but what they do, do not do (Matthew 23). Now there are three
kinds of preaching; one which is in the word, of which it is said: Go, preach the gospel to
every creature, etc. (Mark 16.) There is another in the writing, whence the Apostle says that
he preached to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 5), because he wrote letters to them. It is different in
fact, whence it is said: Every action of Christ is our instruction. But this should be the form
of preaching, so that the beginning is taken from theological authority, as if from its own
foundation: especially from the Gospels, Psalms, Epistles of Paul and the books of Solomon.
Because moral instruction is especially evident in these. From the sacred pages of other
books, therefore, authorities are to be taken, if they are necessary and useful for the
purpose. Consequently, the preacher must capture the benevolence of the hearers by his
own person through humility, and by the usefulness of the thing he proposes, saying that he
proposes to them the word of God, so that it may bear fruit in their minds, not for earthly
gain, but for their advancement and progress. not that he is excited by the empty clamors of
the people, not that he is soothed by a favorable breeze, not that he is flattered by theatrical
applause; but that their minds may be informed, and that they themselves ought not to
consider who is speaking, but what. For the roughness of the thorn is not to be considered
in the thorn, but the beauty of the rose, for honey is also found in a fragile reed, and the
flame is shaken from the stone. Consequently, he must show how useful it is to hear the
word of God, if it is put into practice. He must also promise that he will say a few useful
things; nor should he be drawn to this except by the love of the audience, nor should he
speak of himself as having greater knowledge or prudence, or a better life; but because
things are sometimes revealed to the younger, which are not to the older, and then the older
must be silent, and because sometimes the older do not want to preach, it is not surprising if
the younger sometimes stammer, because if the literate keep silent, the stones will speak or
cry out. Consequently, he must approach the exposition of the proposed authority, and bend
the whole to the instruction of the audience; nor should he set forth an authority too
obscure or difficult, lest the hearers should be disgusted with it, and thus listen less
attentively. Nor, in the exposition of authority, should he withdraw too quickly from his
purpose, lest he should at first diverge from the middle, or indeed from the middle. He must
also introduce other authorities to assert it, especially those that pertain to the purpose. He
may also, on occasion, intersperse the sayings of the Gentiles, just as the Apostle Paul
sometimes in his Epistles intersperses the authorities of the philosophers, because he will
have an elegant place 55 if he renders a clever conjunction of words new. He also
interjected moving words that softened minds and produced tears. But let the speech be
concise, so that the lengthiness does not breed disgust. But after the preacher has judged
that their hearts are softened, and that tears flow, and their countenances are humbled, he
must linger a little, but not too long; because as Lucretius says: "Nothing dries faster than
tears." In the end, however, he must use examples to prove what he intends, because he is
familiar with model teaching. For example:

<3+> CHAPTER II. Of the contempt of the world.

If the preacher wishes to invite his hearers to the contempt of the world, he should bring
this authority into the middle: Vanity of vanities, and all vanity, etc. (Eccl. 1.) For what
authority so insinuates the vanity of worldly things, and the baseness of men, that
everything is slippery, and nothing is stable, like this authority? According to this authority,
he must distinguish the threefold vanity of the world. For there is the vanity of
changeability, the vanity of curiosity, and the vanity of falsity. It is the vanity of mutability,
according to which all things naturally subjade to mutability; about which the Apostle:
Every creature is subject to vanity (Rom. 8). It is the vanity of curiosity, according to which a
man spends all his care in the worldly. Hence: The Lord destroys the thoughts of men
because they are vain (Psal. 93; 1 Cor. 3). Of which Persius the comic says: O cares of men, O
how vain in things! The vanity of falsity is the curiosity of lying; of which it is said: Each one
spoke in vain to his neighbor (Psal. 11). Thus the preacher must strengthen every division
which he proposes to the authorities, otherwise the whole division is swaying and slippery.
Consequently, he must show where there is vanity, where the vanity of vanities, where all
vanity, this is clear in all worldly things; because if riches approach a man, vanity, because
they quickly pass away; if they tarry, they take the man away from them, behold the vanity
of vanities; if they withdraw, all is in vain. In riches there is vanity of change, because they
pass away; the vanity of curiosity, since men spend all their care in them; the vanity of
falsehood, because instead of getting or keeping wealth, people spew lies. Where is greater
vanity than in riches, which, while guaranteeing happiness, take away the same, which
promise security, but induce fear? Where is greater fear than in the rich, who fear
everything lest they lose their wealth? they do not trust in their children, their wife's love is
suspect, they fear their elders, they abhor thieves; they dream untruths, they disbelieve the
truths. Where there is greater vanity than in riches, which guarantee satiety and give birth
to hunger, they bring drunkenness from thirst; which do not diminish desires, nay, they add
to desires; which do not fill the mind but drain it; which are full of I do not know with what
emptiness, and with what fullness they are empty? Where is vanity except in the honors
which favor this man in order to cast him down, and raise him in order to destroy him? they
hang on to this to push harder; in whom there is the vanity of vanities, because there is an
importunity in honor, a ghastly honor in a burden, and in them all vanities are utterly
withdrawn from man. There is vanity in worldly allurements, when they are first flattered;
the vanity of vanities when they are disgusted, and all vanity when we are led to death by
them. First they bewitch, secondly they sting, thirdly they kill. Similarly, there is falsity in
venial sin, falsity of falsities in mortal sin, and all falsity in stubbornness. Falsity in
punishment, falsity of falsities in guilt, all falsities in hell. Therefore, abhorring vanity, and
fearing falsity, let us run to the highest truth, that is, to God, in whom is the truth of truths,
through the solution of the promises; in whom is all truth, because he is all in all (1 Cor. 12)
saints. Having thus proved his contempt for the world by temporal behavior, he must prove
the same by the final cause, which consists in two things, namely, the attainment of
advantage and the avoidance of disadvantage. Contempt of the world is thus proved by the
attainment of advantage: O man, if you despise the world, you will have God, who is the
founder and lord of the world, as your reward. By the avoidance of inconvenience, the
contempt of the world can be proved in this way: O man, if you despise worldly and vain
things, fear will not shake you, hope will not weaken, sadness will not constrict, joy will not
dissolve: you will serve no one, you will be free, you will not fear the insult of adversity, you
will be serene there will be consciousness, you will peacefully await the coming of death; a
happy death, a happy expectation after death. But if you cling to worldly pleasures, lured by
earthly entanglements, your conscience will be troubled, death will be hated, and after
death you will be condemned to eternal punishment. What is your mind then, O man? when
in death itself demons will appear to you, terrible enemies, waiting to drag your soul into
hell; and those whom you had in life as flatterers, will you feel fierce in death? Where then
are your pets? where is the earthly friendship? where are the worldly pleasures? From
riches will follow eternal poverty, from honours, from pleasures perpetual bitterness. After
this, the preacher concludes his admonition in exemplary teaching, showing how the
ancient Fathers despised the world, and yet the world flourished then, when it withered in
their hearts; But now, when the world is in itself, it should not flourish in our hearts. but we
must flee from him that flees, and leave him that slips, lest we slip with the unstable, lest we
stumble with the mobile.

<3+> CHAPTER III. Of self-contempt.

But if the preacher intends to invite the hearers to his contempt, he should quote this
authority: Remember, my son, your last words, and you will not sin forever (Ecclesiastes 7).
Or this: I am a worm, and not a man (Psal. 21). Or at least this: A man born of a woman is
filled with many miseries (Job 14), etc. or similar, in which human misery is expressed. Thus
it must proceed: to remember the last of you, to remember the last of the world, to
remember the last of the day: the last of you, considering that your conception is a fault,
your birth a kind of punishment, your life a punishment, your necessity to die: that life is
absent from you, or guarantees its absence, but death insists, or threatens to insist.
Therefore, whence is a man proud, whose conception is a fault, the punishment of his birth,
the labor of his life, must necessarily die? O man, remember that you were fluid semen, how
you are a vessel of dung, how you will be food for worms. After death worms are born from
the tongue, so that the sin of the tongue is noted, roundworms from the stomach, so that the
sin of gluttony is signified. of the thorn of the scorpion, as the sin of lust is signified; of the
brain, the toad, so that the sin of pride is signified. You are therefore a man born of earth by
a worm; while you live with worms, because you are intent on earthly things; you will die of
worms, because you have been given food to worms. Remember, O man, that you are earth,
and you will go to earth; because you are ashes, you will return to ashes; for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return. Job said in your person: I said to the rottenness: You are my
father; My mother and my sister, worms (Job. 17). O man, remember the last of your beauty,
how all flesh is hay, and all its glory as a flower of hay (Isa. 40); because good form is fragile,
and the more it approaches years, the smaller it becomes, and is taken away by its own
space. To remember how death destroys it, the drawing of a single needle destroys it,
infirmity is demolished, the elderly are preyed upon. If you throw away your strength,
remember the last of your strength, how old age weakens it, infirmity weakens it, death
completely eradicates it. If you reject wisdom, listen to what the Lord says through Isaiah: I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the prudence of the prudent (Isa. 29; 1
Cor. 1). And elsewhere: The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God (1 Cor. 3).
Consider how knowledge inflates, charity builds (1 Cor. 8). How the philosophers, through
the things that were made, comprehended the invisible things of God, but because they
disappeared in their thoughts, they were delivered up to a reprobate sense (Rom. 1). If you
cast a race, remember the latest of each race, how: Every race of men rises from the same
birth. Because the condition of all being born is one, the conclusion of dying is one; since
nobility is better made than born; because the former is more general, the latter more
generous. The king's purple is not excluded from the rule of death; since death knocks
equally on the tops of kings and the huts of the poor. If you cast away riches and earthly
pleasures, consider that they are rather snares than friendships, to which you should rather
be suspended and timid than secure. Consider that you came out naked from your mother's
womb, and naked you will return there (Job 1). Learn to open your mother's house to
poverty, to hold pleasures under the yoke of reason, the fruit of earthly goods is superficial,
and the luster of light metals stands out on the surface; those are the richest, whose vein is
hidden in the depths, constantly answering more fully to the digger. Direct your mind to
these heavenly treasures, so that where your treasure is, there your heart may also be:
Therefore do not store up in earthly things, where thieves dig up and steal, but store up
treasures in heaven, which neither rust nor moth destroys (Matthew 6). Because, as Seneca
says: "These things in which the common people delight, have a thin and overflowing
pleasure; and whatever is the joy of the living, it lacks a foundation. Learn, then, and
trample on those things which shine outwardly, which are permitted to you by one or the
other. Aim for the true good, and rejoice in yours. Don't flaunt a distinguished attitude; for
what glory is there in the skins of sheep, and the dung of worms? What use is there to
prepare the mud of the body, to gild the dung of the flesh? therefore remember your last
things in the book of knowledge, that you may read yourself in the book of experience, that
you may find yourself in the book of conscience: that the book of knowledge written in code,
the book of experience written in the heart, may criticize you. In the book of science you
read: "Know thyself; "in the book of the experience of the law: "The flesh fights against the
spirit (Gal. 5); » in the book of the conscience of the law: Wings fly around assiduously, Sava
day of the soul. O man! look at yourself in the triple mirror, and you will not like yourself.
There is a triple mirror in which you must see yourself. The mirror of Scripture, the mirror
of nature, the mirror of creation. Examine your state in the mirror of the Scriptures, in the
mirror of creation you will see yourself miserable, in the mirror of your nature you will
consider yourself guilty. And in your nature there appears a threefold mirror, the mirror of
reason, of sensuality, and of the flesh. As the Philosopher says, there is a kind of mirror in
which the left appears to be the left, and the right appears to be the right. The right in this
mirror is the reason which dictates that the right should be desired, that is, the heavenly;
the left is to be avoided, that is, earthly. But there is another mirror, in which the right parts
appear to be left, and the left parts appear to be right. that is, the sensuality which dictates
that earthly things should be desired, and that heavenly things should be put off. There is
another mirror in which the face is seen reversed, this is the flesh, which reverses the whole
human nature. See yourself then in the mirror of reason, that you may obey it: see yourself
in the mirror of sensuality, that you may subject it to reason; see yourself in the mirror of
the flesh, so that you cast it down by chastising it, and so that you can defeat the carnal,
place yourself in threefold mirrors: first, in the mirrors of providence, that you may beware
of imminent dangers. Secondly, in the glasses of inspection, that you may beware of
opposite faults; keep to the middle, and you will be safest in the middle, for even nature is
friendly to mediocrity. Thirdly, in the spectacles of caution, lest vice should cover itself
under the cloak of virtue, for cruelty often lies justice, and leniency mercy; and thus through
the triple mirror you will arrive at the triple mirror, of pure conscience, of divine
contemplation, and of eternal life.

<3+> CHAPTER IV. Against the appetite.

If the preacher wants to invite the audience to the flight of gluttony, he can use this
authority: I chastise my body and reduce it to slavery (1 Cor. 9). Also: Let us live soberly and
justly and piously in this world (Tit. 2). The body, I say, must be chastised so that it serves
us, it must be indulged, not served; for he who serves the body must serve many, who fears
too much for it, who relates everything to it. He is cheap, he is honorable, to whom the body
is too dear. The Lord says in the Gospel: See that your hearts are not weighed down with
debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of this life (Luke 21). Paul also says: Do not get
drunk with wine, in which there is lasciviousness (Ephesians 5). Solomon also says: Wine is
a luxurious thing and drunkenness is riotous: whoever delights in these is not wise (Prov.
20). Jesus son of Sirach: A drunken laborer will not be rich. Wine and women cause the wise
to apostatize, and they rebuke the sensible (Ecclesiastes 19). A little wine is sufficient for a
wise and learned man; you will not suffer from it while sleeping, nor will you feel tired.
Wine drunk in moderation is health for body and soul (Ecclesiastes 31). Isidore says:
"Wherever there is satiety and drunkenness, there lust dominates." So you must behave
yourself, O man, so that you do not appear to live because of the body, but as if you could
live without a body, so that you could use yourself, and your best part, believe the flesh to
be a necessary thing rather than a great thing; from which perfunctory pleasures are born,
short, regrettable, and (unless they are moderated) immoderate, and on the contrary go
away. Chastise therefore the flesh, which is like a dog, a slave, or an animal. But the more
the servant is indulged in, the more leisure is dissolved; the more a dog is beaten, the more
it indulges in barking; the more the animal is fed, the more it kicks at its master. With what
earnestness, then, is gluttony to be avoided, which reduces the abode of the body, the
receptacle of the spirit and soul, to dung, and reduces the mass of our flesh to mud: which
inclines the soul, the true school of virtues, the rule of reason, the temple of the Deity, the
foundation of immortality, into the parade of vices, into crimes supper, into the mire of sin,
the theater of impurity. This is the gluttony, for which you are interested in causes, you
work in the camp, rich servants, pay their eyebrows, flatter their robes, soften their
conversation. Avoiding gluttony, then, do not serve meat; but indulge yourself; sustaining,
not nursing; rule, not raise. O man, do you know what gluttony is? Indeed, gluttony is the
tomb of the mind, a pile of dung, the source of lust, the mother of nausea. O man! instead of
gluttony the stomach would complain if it could speak, saying: O man, I demand what is of
necessity, I reject what is superfluous: do not give me what is a burden, but what is food for
the beggar; the demand which nature demands, which necessity demands, that which is
more, is from evil. For it is sufficient for the people, and for the rivers and the wax. O man,
what concern is there whence the manure is made, and whence the manure is increased?
consider your nature, look at the measure of your stomach. Do you know where physical
infirmities and mental alienations come from? certainly from the expenditure of food, from
the flood of drink, or from the flow. Where does fever come from, if not from gluttony?
Whence does the decaying disease come from, if not from dropsy? What is drunkenness, but
an alienation of the mind, a depredation of the virtues, an image of death, a similitude of
fury? Through drunkenness grows the pride of the insolent, the cruelty of the servant, the
malice of the envious. Drunkenness confuses words, distorts lights, degrades the wanderer,
causes stomach pains, distends the very bowels, makes the head dizzy; it expels the very
shame of the mind and the guard of the mouth, casts out the character of shame, breaks the
seal of chastity. This is the drunkenness by which whatever evil was hidden emerges, after
too much wine has taken possession of the mind; and just as the cask is broken when the
must is boiling, and what is in the wine emerges to the top; thus overflowing with
drunkenness, the secret that was hidden in the mind comes out from the bottom of the
heart to the top of the mouth; for just as wine flows from the stomach of the body to the
mouth, so from the stomach of the mind the secret spills out into words, so that, just as the
drunkard cannot hold back the wine, so he vomits the secret outward. This is one of the
daughters of idolatry, whose god is her belly (Phil. iii), who presents a lariat to Bacchus,
whence it can also be called bachelorhood, a fictitious term. For he is quite an idolater, who
prefers his belly to God, who worships Bacchus more than God, who rots in his dung, and
becomes dirty like an animal in its dung. O man, consider the rich man (Luke 16) who
feasted splendidly every day; consider from the opposite Lazarus, who was lying before his
door full of sores! A rich man rejoiced at a feast, and was consequently buried in hell; in life
he feasted splendidly, after life he thirsted for a drop of water; here poor, there rich, here
full of sores, there comforted by blessed hope. Consider, O man, how Adam lost paradise
through gluttony; Elijah ascended to heaven through abstinence; Noah bared his thighs
through his throat; Moses, through abstinence, earned the talks of God; Lot fell into incest
through drunkenness; David obtained a remedy through the abstinence of repentance. O
man, consult nature, she will tell you what should be the law of living. It is the law of nature
that you drive away hunger and thirst, for this it is not necessary to cross the seas, to follow
the camp, it is possible and appropriate what nature desires. Therefore, take up arms
against gluttony, defend yourself against filth. Take fasting medicines against the attacks of
such a disease, fasting from food, so that the flesh does not play; fasting from temporal
pleasure, lest the mind languish: fasting from sin, lest the mind be numb. With this threefold
fast we must chastise our beast, that is, our flesh, so that it does not raise its heel against us:
our beast must be corrected with the club, the heels, the bridle, and the goad. For if our flesh
wants to deviate into illegality, it must be restrained by the bridle of discretion, it must be
corrected by fasting as by certain spurs; it is to be punished by the police as by certain
clubs; the sting of fear is to be awakened.

<3+> CHAPTER V. Against luxury.

If the preacher wishes to instruct his hearers to flee from luxury, he can start from this
authority; flee from fornication. The Lord says in the Gospel: Let your loins be girded, and
the lamps burning in your hands (Luke 12). Paul says: God will judge fornicators and
adulterers (Hebrews 13). Solomon: A harlot's pit is deep; she lies in wait in the way like a
thief; whom he sees unwary he kills (Prov. 23) Jesus the son of Sirach: Do not give a woman
power over your soul, lest she enter into your power and be put to shame (Ecclesiastes 9).
Hieronymus: "Woe to him who then had the limit of luxury, when life. For chastity is
difficult to preserve among riches: a shining skin shows a dirty mind; and in silks and cloths
lust dominates. He that lusteth is dead alive, and he that is drunken is dead and buried.
Gregory: "While the belly is stretched out with satiety, the sting of lust is aroused." He who
restrains the pleasure of lustful suggestion does not pass to the consent of lust. If the
pleasure of fornication delights the mind more than the love of chastity, sin still reigns in
man. All unclean pollution is called fornication: it is better to die than to commit fornication;
it is better to die than to be stained with lust. Lust sinks a man into hell. Lust burns worse
when he finds himself idle; you are closer to a burning fire than to a young woman, since
you yourself are young. While material monsters are to be shunned and feared, much more
spiritual monsters are to be shunned and shunned. What is more monstrous is the monster
of lust, which wears on its head the face of a virgin and the image of pleasure, in the middle
a goat of fecund lust, at the end a wolf, preying on virtue. This is that pestilence which has a
familiar resemblance to hell. There are three things in hell: a stinking smell, a burning worm
of conscience, and a burning flame; thus lust grows by infamy, burns by conscience, burns
by concupiscence. This is a plague more harmful than any monster, which empties the
purse, enervates the body, intoxicates the mind, effeminates the state of mind, tarnishes the
spirit, destroys reputation, offends the neighbor, and loses God. This is that pestilence, in
which what pleases passes away quickly, what torments continues without end; whose
appetite is anxiety and vexation, acts of abomination and disgrace, the issue of remorse and
shame. In this pestilence, there are three things to be cursed, the ardor in the accession, the
labor in the execution, the stench in the execution. Behold, how cheap, full of the dregs of
luxury! the satiety of the hungry, the full delight of repentance, the momentary delight, the
eternal bitterness. This is a plague that hates the light, craves darkness, seeks cover, and
sets a watchman at the gate. This is the fly that destroys the sweetness of the perfume. the
place where it sits is infected. This is lust, which is the daughter of gluttony, a stench born of
the dung of the flesh, an odor born of the filth of the body. It feeds on unclean things and
delights in carnality. But the unguent is chastity, in which there are, as it were, aromatic
species, purity of mind, cleanliness of body, modesty in behavior, chastity in dress,
abstinence in food, modesty in speech. Lust corrupts this perfume, because it incestuously
corrupts the mind, tarnishes the body, relaxes behavior, effeminates behavior, increases
food, dissolves speech; and so lust conquers chastity with its weapons, which are: sight and
speech, contact and kisses, the deed. When at first lust entices a man to lust by sight, he
strives for chastity; secondly, he insults chastity by his speech; thirdly, by a kiss he spits in
the face of chastity; fourthly, he strikes chastity by touch; fifthly, he kills by deed. After the
manner of the Parthians, the battle against lust is to be met: so that, as the Parthians flee by
fleeing, they overcome by turning their backs; thus, by fleeing, lust must be fled, and by
retreating, it must be slaughtered. This is that pestilence, which includes those three by
which a man is driven from his home; namely, the smoke, the drip and the wife. The wife is
carnality, the fluidity of a drop of luxury, the smoke of infamy. These three drive the soul out
of the peace of the breast, from the serenity of the mind, from the tranquility of the heart. O
man! read in examples what the vice of luxury contributes, so that the action of others may
be your lesson. David through lust fell into murder; Ammon felt Absalom's sword through
incest; Daniel by chastity earned the understanding of dreams, Joseph by chastity the
primacy of Egypt, Jezebel felt the fall of death by being a harlot: the blessed Virgin earned
the birth of God by virginity. Do you want to avoid luxury? beware of gluttony, which is a
fuel for lust, a prelude to incest, a bridge to indecency, a prelude to incontinence. O man, this
is the luxury by which the imagination is numbed, the senses are dulled, the understanding
is darkened: nay, to say more, it turns a man into cattle; nay, by it man degenerates below
the cattle, when the cattle keep the times of lusting, you lust every hour; the cattle preserves
nature, you indulge in it; the cattle keep the unity of the pair, you run to the many.
<3+> CHAPTER VI. Against avarice

If the preacher wishes to incline the minds of his hearers to the flight of avarice and
cupidity, he takes the beginning of his discourse from that authority which says, "Avarice is
the servitude of idols" (Gal. 5); or from that which says that "three things are insatiable, but
the fourth which never says: It is enough (Prov. 30)" because: The more they drink, the
more thirsty they are for water. O pestilence, with which there is nothing better prepared
for deed, when it is inflamed with thirst for possession! because: Why do you not force the
mortal breasts, the sacred hunger of gold? (VIRG. Aen. III, 56.) While the rest are closed by
certain limits, greed is closed by no limit. The earth is limited by its limits, the water is
limited by its limits, the air is closed by its limits; heaven is bounded by its limits; greed is
not the only measure. O man! because of greed, many things are armed against you, many
things are complained about you, fortune, nature, your own flesh, charity, your neighbor,
the world, and God. Hear what Fortune says against you: O man, why do you seek my
intimacy? Why do you desire my kindness? if I give you riches, I give for this to take away,
for this I am generous to redeem; for this I flatter to torture more severely; to this I become
serene, as if the thunderbolt were more terrible. You who are safe, why do you seek trouble
with me? You who are on the plane, why do you aspire to my precipice? You who are in the
harbor, why do you long for my wreck? Hear what nature has to say against you! O man, I
gave birth to you without honors, return without honors; I gave birth to you without riches,
come to me without riches; you entered without worldly glory, you shall leave without it. O
man, do you seek to make your own what is another's? surely they are from thee, which
were not born with thee; they cannot be yours, they cannot be with you long or forever.
Consider the words of the philosopher: "It is an honest thing, a happy poverty." But she is
not poverty if she is happy. He who is well suited to poverty is rich; not he who has little, but
he who wants more, is poor. If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you
believe, you will never be rich. Nature wants little, but opinion is immense. Natural desires
are finite, arising from a false belief, where they have no end. For there is no limit to false
belief. Therefore withdraw yourself from the vain, and when you wish to know whether
they have a natural or blind desire, consider whether they can stand anywhere; if, having
advanced far, there always remains something further, it is unnatural. O how desirable is
honest poverty! Wealth has prevented many from doing well! poverty is convenient, it is
secure. If you want to serve God, you must either be poor or like the poor. Hear, man, what
your own flesh says against you! O man, why do you complain against me, what complaint
do you lay against me? do you call me the fuel of sin, the tyrant raging in the limbs, the
languor of nature, the spur of Satan? Why do you impute to me that you are afflicted with
avarice, and that you are relaxed with greed? I could lay down many complaints against you,
bring many reasons, when I lie without fuel, I languish without encouragement; you destroy
to lust, you arouse to avarice, you give me weapons with which to fight against you, you give
me instruments with which to contend; you incite me to strike, you invite me to be cruel.
Hear what charity says against you! O man, why do you enrich yourself with those whom
your neighbor needs? Why do you appropriate for yourself what should be shared with the
poor? why do you feed these moths and worms, with which the poor are to be fed? Do you
want to be an excellent trader, an excellent lender and a prudent hirer? Give what you
cannot keep, that you may gain what you cannot lose; give a little, that you may gain a
hundredfold; give another's possession, that you may obtain an eternal inheritance. Hear
what the neighbor will say against you: O man, why do you insult me, why do you plot my
death for my sake? why do you impose falsehoods, and comment on charges, to empty my
purse, to embezzle money? If you insult me, revenge will be taken from you in an instant; if
you have robbed me of money, you will first be robbed of yourself in soul; if you wound me
in body, you will first be wounded in mind. Hear what the elements say against you, and
especially the earth, your mother: Why do you insult your mother? Why do you bother me
with the plow, so that I may repay the loan a hundredfold, why do you bother my mother to
throw out the gold? Are not those things which I generously give you of your own free will
sufficient, unless you extort them by violence? the time will come when you will return to
your own birth, when I will receive you and close you in my bowels; when I will expose you
to the worms that you exposed me to with whips. Hear what the sea says against thee: O
man, why dost thou furrow me with ships, beat with oars, search my entrails with nets? No
wonder if I drown you, if I bring you to ruin, if I attack you with storms and various blows.
Hear what God says against you? What is it, O man, that you put your Creator behind the
creatures? do you prefer to him money, a creature of God, earth to heaven, heavenly
transitory, eternal transitory? consider that I produced you from clay, I formed you in my
image; consider what my hands have made you, they have shaped you all around. You
would be grateful for money to a man, are you ungrateful to me for life? If you are not
grateful for what is given, at least be grateful for what you give, so that if you are not moved
by what I have given, at least what I promise may move you. and if the hope of eternal life
does not move you, let the fear of hell move you. A man warned by these things avoids
covetousness, and does not set his mind on riches, because the authority says: As difficult as
it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, it is so difficult for those trusting in
money to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19). Paul also says: Desire is the root of all
evils. How some who desired went astray, and entered into many sorrows (1 Tim. 6).
Covetousness is of no avail to him in whom there is concupiscence. Greed is worse than
every sin, and the love of money. Hence the Lord in the Gospel: Beware of all covetousness
(Luke 12). And Paul: Every fornicator, or unclean, or covetous, has no inheritance in the
kingdom of God (Eph. 5). Also Solomon: The greedy is not filled with money (Ecclesiastes 5).
And: He who loves riches will not take the fruits of them (ibid.). Also Cyprian says: "A
greedy man is like hell." Someone also said: "A miser lacks what he has as much as what he
does not have." "Brothers, you are left with many things if you renounce your desires, for
God demands the heart, and does not weigh cloths.

<3+> CHAPTER VII. On the contrary, I would attack.

If the preacher wishes to defend a man against an attack, he uses these authorities. The lazy
will be stoned with cow dung (Ecclesiastes 22). Also: Arise, you who sleep, and Christ will
enlighten you (Ephesians 5). Also: "You who lie in the graves, arise and meet the judgment
of the Savior." "Seneca also says: "The greatest loss is that which occurs through negligence.
» From these, let the preacher proceed in this way: Dear brothers, see how the Scripture
protects us against laziness or laziness; this is the ace that withdraws the Christian's hand
from the plough, that with his wife Lot faces Sodom, that with Lot is afraid to climb the
mountain, that with Ruth does not want to return to the land of Bethlehem. This is the
apathy which makes the monk's vow to be lukewarm, by which he disgusts the rigor of the
cloistered order; which prefers to use more delicate food, and to recline in softer beds; to
attend fewer vigils, to use less or no silence. This is the apathy, which is afraid to undertake
great things, hates undertakings, to whom everything burdensome, everything difficult,
nothing light. This is what keeps the cleric from studying, excludes the cloistered from the
cloister, nurtures vices, shuts out virtues. For this gives birth to lust, nourishes gluttony,
sows strife, breeds strife. Whence the poet: The question is, Why did Aegisthus become an
adulterer? The reason is readily available: he was lazy. (OVID. 1 On the remedy of love.) To
such a lazy person it is said: Wake up you who sleep. He sleeps, I say, lazy, with the eyes of
his mind closed, who neither directs his vision to good things, nor opens his mind's eye to
see what is necessary. But while he bows down to earthly desires, he is placed in the sleep
of his mind, as if he dreams phantasms. There are three kinds of dreams. The first and
foremost is contemplation, by which man is raptured to see heavenly things. The second is
that of the imagination, by which the visible is imagined. And the third is laziness, by which
the fool dreams. Of the first it is said: The Lord cast sleep upon Adam (Gen. 2). Regarding the
second, it is said: God gave wisdom to Solomon in dreams (3 Kings 3). Of the third, it is said
against the lazy: Arise, you who sleep, etc. (Ephesians 5.) Through the first sleep man
becomes a god, through the second man becomes a spirit, through the third he becomes
cattle. In the first God appears, in the second the spirit, in the third the devil: Ishbosheth
was in this sleep at noon (2 Kings 4), when, as he was sleeping at the gate, the leaders of the
robbers entered and beheaded him as he slept. Ishboseth is a sleeping soul, lulled to sleep
by idleness; to kill it, the chiefs of robbers, that is, the demons, enter, because while the
scrutiny of reason guards the door of the mind with less foresight, the devil cunningly
enters through this door to kill the soul. But here sleep is introduced by torpor, by a
whisper, or by a slight breeze, by a shadow, or by excessive fatigue. For just as sleep is
ushered in by the light whisper of a spring or a gentle breeze, or by the sweetness of a
material song: so by the instinct of prosperity, as by a breath of gentle breeze, or by the
whisper of carnal pleasure, the mind is brought into the sleep of torpor. Even the shadow of
ignorance gives birth to this sleep; even the exhaustion of honest labor produces this sleep.
The Scripture cries out to him who sleeps: Arise, you who sleep (Ephesians 5). Rise, I say, by
the circumspection of reason, rise by the asperation of evil, rise by the operation of good;
and Christ will enlighten you (ibid.) For the night is gone, and the day is at hand. You,
therefore, who lie in the graves of negligence, whitened outwardly as to the outer surface of
righteousness, but inwardly stinking through the torpor of the mind, and dissolved into
worms through the multitude of wrong thoughts; arise from earth to heaven, from leisure to
exercise, from pernicious torpor to the business of virtue, and meet the judgment of the
Saviour. Listen to what the Bible says: The lazy will be stoned with cow dung (Ecclesiastes
22). The ox is the one who labors in the field of the Lord, who grinds the Holy Scripture with
his spiritual sense as with his teeth, and elicits spiritual intelligence from the Holy Scripture,
and passes it into the delight of the mind as if into his stomach. From this spiritual food the
literal surface is thrown out like dung, which sometimes tastes like heresy, which kills him
by torpor who is slow to understand the Scriptures. O man, what is it that the other
creatures indulge in the duties assigned to them, the sun completes its annual course, the
moon runs through its monthly vicissitudes, and the other stars perform the duties assigned
to them; , do you distort the image of God in you, living you die and dying live? At least let
the industry of the smallest and humbled animal move you to shame, that is, the caution of
the ant, which in the summer gathers with great care the grains on which it lives when the
austerity falls in the winter. Thus, in the present life, you should acquire the fruits of good
works, so that when the day of winter arrives, that is, on the day of judgment, you may have
the fruit of good works that will restore you to eternity. See, then, how destructive laziness
is! As long as David exercised himself in the military, he was not insulted by lust, but after
he settled in the palace, he suffered from adultery. As long as Samson fought with the
Philistines, he was not captured by the enemy, but while sleeping in Delilah's bosom, he was
blinded by the enemy. Solomon, working in the construction of the temple, did not feel the
loss of luxury, but when he took a break from work, he experienced an attack of
lasciviousness. This is the cowardice which offers a man defenseless to the devil, exposes
him naked to suggestion, weak to temptation. These things deprive man of the good
spiritual garments of the virtues. This calls the devil to battle, the flesh to lasciviousness, the
mouth to gluttony, the mind to negligence. Be therefore occupied with honest business, that
what you have lost in the past you may redeem in the future. Embrace every hour, make
every moment serve your own advantage, that you may at least offer to God the dregs of old
age, who have offered to the devil the flower of youth; that at least in old age you may
become a soldier of Christ, who in your youth was a servant of the devil.

<3+> CHAPTER VIII. Against envy.

Against envy, the preacher can fortify his hearers with these authorities; The Lord says in
the Gospel: Do not envy one another. Also Peter says: Laying down all malice, and all deceit,
and pretences, and deceits, and all envy (1 Pet. 2). Solomon says: Life of the flesh, health of
the heart; envy of rotten bones (Prov. 14) Also Augustine says: "Envy crushes all the
virtues." Surely he is an envious man, who, by envy, makes another's good his own. Isidore
says about the same thing: "From where the good person prospers, from there the evil
person or the envious one falls away." From the same other authority: "The envy of the devil
and death entered the world (Sap. 2) . » Also the poet: Laughter is absent, unless it is seen to
cause pain. Again: The envy of the Sicilians did not find the tyrant Major's cannon. (HORAT.
Ep. 1, 2, 5-8.) According to these authorities, the preacher should proceed as follows: You
have heard, dear brothers, how the Holy Scripture persecutes the pestilence of envy, how
the evil of bruises is cursed. Wherefore the pestilence of envy is to be avoided most of all,
which first vexes itself and infests its possessor; This is what grieves at another's
prosperity, and mourns at another's happiness, and rejoices at another's adversity. O vice,
despised by every vice, despised by every pestilence! that virtue annoys, happiness infests,
happiness torments, joy tortures! Whereas other vices have a certain perfunctory delight, a
shadow of joy, an image of happiness, this pestilence is a torture without relief, a disease
without remedy, labor without breathing, punishment without interpolation. This is a sin
which punishes itself, does not leave itself unpunished; at the same time it stains and
tortures, at the same time it punishes and vitiates; this is the worm which is born of manna;
this is the worm by which the ivy of Jonah (chap. iv) dries up; this is the fiery serpent by
which the children of Israel are pierced; this is the caterpillar by which the fruits of the
earth are eaten. We read that heavenly manna was given to the children of Israel (Exod. 16),
from which a multitude of worms sprang up when preserved: thus, from heavenly grace
bestowed upon the faithful, envy is occasionally born in the heart of the proud; and the
more the faithful is solidified in the manna of heavenly grace, the more the proud mind is
resolved into the worm of envy. We read that the worm born of the ivy, whose shadow
Jonah (chapter iv) was protected from the attack of heat, completely corroded the ivy; thus
envy, like a worm born from the luster of virtue, utterly corrodes the purity of conscience by
which a man must defend himself against the tide of vices; and the head of Jonah, that is, he
exposes the mind of man to the tides of vice. We read that the children of Israel were
wandering in the wilderness, and were bitten by fiery serpents (Num. 21); Thus the
cloistered exiles in the desert of this world, who ought to be the true children of Israel,
frequently suffer from envy, for this worm lives in ashes and sackcloth, and hiding in the
dust, stings until death. This is the moth which demolishes the purple of the virtues. This is
the rust that preys on the treasure of wisdom. This worm consumes the greenness of the
earth, because if any good work grows in man, it perishes. This is the pestilence which cast
the angel out of heaven, and banished man from paradise. These things struck the children
of Israel in the desert; these things he armed against Joseph's brothers; this pushed Daniel
into the lion's den; these finally fastened our head to the mansard of the cross. O man, what
gain is it to you if you envy, what gain if you lift? You open the trap, and you dig it, and you
yourself fall into the pit that you make? while you labor to hold others, you yourself are
held; while you deceive others, you deceive. O man, you attack nature, you defeat charity,
you trouble yourself, you err towards your neighbor, you offend God. When you ought to
rejoice in the joys of others, when you should sympathize with another's sorrows, when you
ought to read your misery in another's misery, know in yourself the condition of your
neighbor. Where does the bruise go! with which jealousy leaps! by which envy is carried!
Which breaks the bond of friendship, the glue of charity, the covenant of love, the law of
natural justice.

<3+> CHAPTER IX. Against anger.

If the preacher wants to arm a man against anger, he uses these authorities: Everyone who
is angry with his brother will be guilty of judgment (Matthew 5). And Paul said: Let not the
sun go down on your anger (Ephesians 4). And James: A man's anger does not work justice
(James 1). And Solomon: Fools immediately show their anger; but he who conceals his
anger is clever (Prov. 12). A passionate man provokes quarrels; he who is patient
moderates those raised (Prov. 15) . Anger rests in the bosom of a fool (Eccl. 7). Gregory:
"Who can endure a spirit easily provoked? And in the Psalm: Be angry and do not sin (Psal.
IV); the poet also says: Anger is a short fury, the mind of a king, who only watches,
commands; break this one, you control this one with chains. And Claudian: If you fear, if you
desire wrong, if you are led by anger, suffer the yoke of slavery. Here are the authorities
with which the Catholic must defend himself against wrath, as it were with spiritual
weapons. See, man, how fruitful is wrath of perverse offspring. From anger proceeds hatred.
For what is hatred but inveterate anger? From it is born murder, insults, detraction, injuries.
O man, if you are angry, if you hate your neighbor, you are contradicting yourself, who cry
out to the Lord in prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matthew 6).
On what front do you ask to be let go of your debts, who do not let go of the resentment of
your neighbor? Now there are three kinds of anger; a certain kind is born in the mind, but is
not led to outward anger; this is about which it is said: He who is angry with his brother is
guilty of judgment (Matthew 5). Because he who harbors anger inwardly conceives, will not
escape the judgment of eternal damnation. This anger is signified by the daughter of the
archsynagogue who died in the chamber. There is another wrath which goes as far as
general insults, which is more serious and nearer to hell, of which it is said: He who says to
his brother, racha, that is, utters general insults to him, will be guilty of the council (ibid.),
that is, he will be guilty of a more severe judgment . But this is signified by the widow's son
(Luke 7). Because when someone is provoked to an act of anger outside the mind, the soul is
carried outside the walls of the mind until the exercise of wrong activity. When, however, he
breaks out to the point of special wicked insults, he rages more severely. Of which it is said:
He that shall say to his brother, Foolish, shall be guilty of the fire of hell (Matthew 5).
Because the more grievous the insults, the more he who receives the insults corrupts him
with the stench of infamy. If anger arises in the mind, it must be restrained in an instant,
because little ones must be dashed to the rock before they grow up; to catch the foxes
before they devour the vineyard; and in the morning the firstborn must be killed; and the
Canaanite shall be driven out of the land of promise; and so let not the sun go down on your
anger (Ephesians 4). Because in this way we must be angry with the first movements, so
that we do not sin by consent. For it is human to rise in anger, but diabolical to persevere.
He is not ashamed to be angry, but not to fall into blame. O man, hear what the doctrine of
the heavenly Master says: If you offer your gift at the altar, and there you are reminded that
your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, etc. (Matthew 5). There you
have it, because if you wish to offer your material gift to the altar, you must first reconcile
yourself to your brother, if you hold a grudge in your heart; because the offering of external
service avails nothing, unless inward peace of mind is offered to God. Similarly, if you wish
to offer the sacrifice of good deeds on the altar of faith, first remove from your mind the
clouds of rancor. Because if your brother sins against you, you must not only forgive him
seven times, but seventy times seven (Matthew 18). Our head Jesus Christ, in the hour of his
passion, prayed for his persecutors, and Stephen, the first of the martyrs, interceded for his
stoners (Acts 7) ; and if we are not of this perfection to repay good for evil, let us at least
repay evil for evil with the least amount of evil. We must frequently recall that which is
suggested to us by the teaching of the Gospel parable, where we read of him whose debt
was forgiven by his master, and he did not want to forgive his debtor, and therefore he was
thrown into prison and forced to pay to the last quarter (Matthew 18 ) In the same way,
whoever does not forgive his neighbor's injuries, the high prosecutor will demand
punishments from him for each fault. When you hold a grudge in your heart, you do not
harm your enemy, but you lose yourself in your soul, and you punish yourself in your heart
by your grudge, while others oppose your desires. What is this malice? what revenge?
where, while you want to hold the enemy, are you held? while you want to strike the enemy,
do you kill yourself? Pay careful attention to that precept, understand it more carefully:
Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you (Matthew 5).

<3+> CHAPTER X. Against pride.

If the preacher intends to arouse his audience to flight from pride, he should use these
authorities: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled (Luke 14). Likewise: That which
is high among men is an abomination with God (Luke 16). Also Paul: Do not be wise, but
fear (Rom. 2). Also Jesus, the son of Sirach: The beginning of all sin is pride (Ecclesiastes 10).
Also: He put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted the lowly (Luke 1). Also Peter:
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5; James 4). O man, consider
what pride takes away, what humility the pupil of virtues brings. Pride made demons out of
angels; but humility makes men like holy angels. The pride of the heavenly nation is, and yet
it hides in ashes and sackcloth. Let the cloistered man not say with the Pharisee: I am not
like other men (Luke 18). But rather he cries out: I am a worm and not a man, the reproach
of men, and the abjection of the people (Psal. 21). If he is literate, he does not chant with the
Pharisee: Our lips are from us, who is our master (Ps. 11)? but rather he cried out with the
publican: God, be more merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18). O man, it is yours to place a place
in the bottom, it is dangerous to stand in the precipice, the Lord says to the humble: I am the
dew, and Israel will sprout like the lily (Hosea 14). The lily grows better in the valley than
on the mountain; because there it is more fertilized by irrigation, retains its greenness
longer, preserves its whiteness longer. Whence it is said: Lily of the valley (Cant. II) Thus he
who is the true Israel, truly seeing the Lord, planted in the valley of humility, fertilized by
the greater watering of heavenly grace, sprouts better spiritually. It retains more the luster
of charity, and the whiteness of innocence. "Therefore every one ought to be more humble
in his duty, in proportion as he perceives himself to be more obliged in regard to his duty.
For all works are deprived of merit, unless they are seasoned with the sweetness of
humility. For "he who gathers virtues without humility is like dust carried by the wind."
This is the humility that cries out: Let him who is greater be like a minister (Luke 22). And
elsewhere: The greater you are, the humbler you are in all things (Ecclesiastes 3). This is
what caused the Son of God to descend from the bosom of the Father into the womb of the
Virgin; This is what wraps him in cheap clothes, so that he may clothe us with the
ornaments of virtue. This is what circumcised him in the flesh, that he may circumcise us in
the mind. this is what permitted him to be scourged bodily, that he might deliver us from
the scourge of sin; this is what crowned our king with thorns, that he might crown us slaves
with roses of eternal bliss. O how unlike humility is pride! which cast Lucifer out of heaven,
deprived Adam of paradise, and transformed Nebuchadnezzar into a beast. This is pride,
which, while it raises itself above itself insolently, descends ruinously below itself. This is
that which, while it seeks itself outside itself, does not find itself within itself. This is what
makes a man special in general, and unique in the universe, solitary in public, and private in
society. This was the first thing that brought man down, and it is the last thing that throws
itself upon him when he returns to the Lord. When you have fought well, when you think
that everything has been conquered, what evil then presents itself, pride remains to be
conquered. This is what effeminates the attitude, sets the behavior outside the rule, through
which words flood, threats thunder, what is lacking is exaggerated, what is missing is
absent. This delivered the philosophers into a reprobate sense, blinded the Jew, destroys
the obstinate, casts down the exalted. This is signified by the north, when it is said: Arise,
north, and come, south (Cant. IV) . In the north he is an enemy to the flowers, he preys on
the grass, he binds the waters with frost; thus pride spoils the good, destroys the fruit of
work, binds the mind with the gel of perversity, of which it is said: All evil is spread from the
north (Jer. 1); for pride is the mother of all wickedness. It is also said of this: What do you
see, Jeremiah? I see a burning pot from the north (ibid.). This is the pot of the slaves of
pride, in which the children of darkness are boiled, the followers of honor, the hunters of
riches, who desire the first seats, who want to be greeted in the market, and to be called
rabbi by men. Nebuchadnezzar ignites this pot, that is, the devil, he provides the flame of his
pride, in this the proud is boiled, Egypt eats the decoction, that is, he draws an unclean spirit
into his body, consequently he went to hell. Pride is the wind that throws dust from the face
of the earth; because it expels the proud from the stability of eternal life. This is the swelling
that repels the infused cosmetics, because pride does not accept the grace offered. Now
there are four kinds of pride, which like four winds blow the whole world, because they
swell the worldly with swellings. Namely, arrogance, which ascribes to itself what it does
not have: insolence, which appropriates to itself what it owes to others; a boaster who
believes much about himself beyond the truth; defiance, which sets itself up in
preeminence. These are the four makers who rock the whole world and offer different
fantasies to people.

<3+> CHAPTER XI. On the contempt of worldly fear.

The preacher, wishing to invite his listeners to the contempt of worldly fear, and to the
desire of heavenly fear, uses these authorities: Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot
kill the soul, but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10) . In
the book of Wisdom we read: Fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12). Also
elsewhere: Blessed is he who is always fearful (Prov. 28). And again: The beginning of
wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Those who fear God will do well in the end, and they will be
blessed in the day of his defense (Ecclesiastes 1). Those who fear the Lord, keep his
commandments, and will have patience until his inspection (Ecclesiastes 2). And Jerome
said: There is no thing which so preserves us from sin as the fear of punishment, and the
love of God. And Gregory says: God is to be feared; there are no good things to be done.
From these authorities we must proceed as follows: O man, all worldly fear is specially to be
avoided: He who flees tribulations before they come, who exaggerates pain in torments,
who breeds adversity in prosperity, sadness and death in joy: who is the worst omen in
doubts, a liar in truths, abounding in falsities. No good helps the possessor unless the mind
is prepared for its loss. Therefore, against all that may happen, even the most powerful will
encourage you. The end of desires also leads to the remedies of fear, and as Seneca says:
"Hope follows fear." Providence, the greatest good of the human condition, has turned into
evil; the wild dangers they see flee when they can safely escape: we are tormented both by
the future and by the past. Many of our goods are harmful to us. For memory brings back
the torment of fear, providence anticipates, no one is miserable only with the present. O
man, conquer fear, conqueror of all; if you overcome him, adversity will be prosperous,
tribulation sweet, pain will be delightful. Oh man, do you want to flee from fear, put earthly
things behind? do not cling to earthly things, do not indulge in perishable things, if you love
earthly things, you are afraid to stumble, you are afraid to lose; if you want to overcome
fear, fear God. Thus art is deceived by art, so nail is beaten by nail. Fear God, do not be
afraid, do not serve God, and obey his commandments in your mind, this is every man, that
is, every man was made for this, that he may hold within himself all the power of God. Place
yourself, O man, between two millstones, the millstone of fear and of hope. So hope that the
mind does not become loose, so fear that the thought does not expand. O man, do not fear
the instant of death, and do not refuse the service of life! The latter gives the man just more
merit, the latter is a generous salary. Consider not how much you live, but how. It is not to
be cared for that you live long, but that you live well enough; to live a long time belongs to
the event, quite well to the mind. Life is long if it is full; but the mind is filled when it renders
itself full of virtues, and does not recoil from its own power. What will it profit him if he
spends eighty years in the torpor of inactivity? He did not live, but lingered in life, and did
not die late, but long. But he dies full of days, who weighs the old with the weight of virtue,
who prolongs his forced age by merits; for though his age is imperfect, yet his life is finished.
I beseech you, O man, that you may live in such a way that, just as you think that precious
things depend on chance, so you do not think that the span of life is in a pendulum. We
measure it in action, not in time. He would recover in good action what he had lost in the
flow. We do not suddenly throw ourselves into death, but we proceed minute by minute:
every day we die, every day we lose something of life. Let us make it so that as much as the
temporal life decreases, the eternal life increases as much. Let the loss of temporal life be an
increase of eternal life. Let us arm ourselves with patience for the course of life, for the
assault of death: for we are to warn and strengthen both, so that we neither love life too
much, nor fear the attack of death too much, but weigh both in the balance of reason; for it is
an otherwise ill-advised inclination of the mind to die, for some, weighed down by
indolence, wish to end disgust with death. It is not the adversity of worldly importunity that
should push one to death, but rather the ardor of divine charity, so that man does not set the
end of desire at the point of death, but rather, in the expenditure of eternal bliss.

<3+> CHAPTER XII. Of the hope of the heavenly, and the contempt of the earthly.

If the preacher wishes to invite his hearers to the hope of the heavenly, and to dissuade
them from the hope of the earthly, he must use the authorities which will lead them to this
hope, and withdraw their minds from that hope. For example: Cursed is the man who trusts
in man, and puts his arm in flesh (Jer. 17). Also: How difficult is it, trusting in money, to
enter the kingdom of heaven? (Mark X.) And elsewhere: It is good to hope in the Lord, than
to hope in princes (Psal. 167). Also: Cast your thoughts on the Lord, and he will nourish you
(Psal. 55). Again: Hope in the Lord, and do good (Psal. 36). From these authorities we must
proceed as follows: The hope of the earth tends to future wishes, and consumes joys before
they come. This corrodes the mind through excessive anxiety, because fear stifles hope, sells
future joys, and extends desire to infinity. O man, who leans on earthly things, trusting in
uncertainties, leaning on a reed staff, which is easily broken! therefore do not believe him
who is fragile and slippery, quickly falls and destroys you. Set your mind in the cloud of
adversity rather than in the clear of prosperity. If you place your hope in earthly prosperity,
it is deceptive and seductive; when you hold on, you will not find what you hoped for. You
will learn from the premonition that hope is not to be placed in the slippery: why do you
hope that you will not be able to obtain it for a long time, where you will not find what you
believe, where there is less pleasure in the experience? and not only will you not find in
them what you hoped for, but rather the fuel of guilt, the fuel of ruin, the disciple of the soul,
the leaven of righteousness. Instead, direct hope in tribulations, which, although outwardly
they pretend to be bitter, yet in the steadfast mind they give birth to the sweetness of
heavenly hope; nor shall he enjoy the fruit of patience with sweetness, who has not been the
point of tribulation with bitterness. For tribulation is a furnace that melts gold, a file that
refines iron, a whip that separates the wheat from the chaff. In this tribulation warfare,
patience is exercised, courage is exercised, constancy is strengthened, hope is invited to
heavenly things. Rather, therefore, the anchor of hope should be fixed in the harbor of
salvation, in the mercy of the Savior. For this hope does not confuse but restores,
illuminates, does not blind, where more is found than what is sought, or than hope can take;
where more is done than hope can understand; where hope does not consume joy, where a
wish does not diminish joy: for which reason a wish waits for nothing, where hope fixes its
pace. O how blessed is that heavenly hope, which fear does not attack, in which fear does
not prophesy falsehoods, where greed does not dream unheard of, but charity suffers all
things, believes all things, hopes all things (1 Cor. 13), to which the limit of reason invites to
believe or to hope . What fear is able to weaken the human mind, if it pleads with God for
heavenly hope? Wherein will the thunderbolts of tyrants, the precipitous fortunes, the
infirmities of the body, the noises of poverty, harm, if the mind is fenced with heavenly
hope? This is the hope that governs congregations; directs the actions This is what sets
depth in charity, so that we direct our actions towards God: this is what extends breadth in
charity, so that we extend it to the enemy. This is what prolongs the length of charity, so
that we may continue in it until the end of life. Between this and fear, as between two
millstones, the Christian must be sweet and gentle. Hence it is said in Deuteronomy (chapter
24): You shall not accept a higher or a lower millstone in lieu of a pledge. The higher mill is
hope; lower, fear; for it is not to be received without these. For he who hopes and does not
fear is negligent; But he who fears and does not hope is depressed.

<3+> CHAPTER XIII. On spiritual mourning.

With these authorities and reasons, one can invite one to spiritual mourning: Blessed are
those who mourn, for they themselves will be comforted (Matthew 5). And elsewhere: Woe
to you who laugh now, because you will mourn and weep (Luke 6). James says: Be
miserable and mourn and weep: Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy
into sorrow (James IV). Solomon says: It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the
house of rejoicing (Ecclesiastes 7). Gregory: "The presence of joys is followed by perpetual
lamentations." No one can rejoice here with the world, and there reign with God. » There
are three sorrows with which a man is bound to irrigate his mind; mourning for one's own
sin, mourning for another's, mourning for the delay of eternal bliss. The first mourning is for
oneself, the second for the neighbor, the third for God. Of the first it is said: Tears were my
bread day and night (Psal. 41). Of the second, it is said: Who is weak, and I am not weak?
who is offended, and I am not offended? (2 Cor. 11.) Jesus also wept with this cry over
Jerusalem, saying: Because if you knew it too! (Luke 19.) We read about the third weeping
in the Psalm: Over the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, etc. (Psal. 136.) These are
the tears of Jeremiah, with whom he laments the sin of the soul, laments the insult of misery
and the procrastination of the country. With the rains of these tears, man must irrigate the
soil of his mind, so that the fruits of good works, the various flowers of virtue, may be born.
These are the morning and evening showers; morning, that is, weeping for one's own sins,
by the irrigation of which the sprout of a good work rises in the mind; but after the sprout of
repentance has reached the ripeness of perfect justice, there must be a late rain, that is,
weeping for the procrastination of the country, so that we may reap the fruits of good works
more fittingly with such a season of lamentation. These are the waves of grace through
which the children of Israel passed as they ascended to the land of promise; for sinners,
coming out of the Egypt of their vices, first pass through the Red Sea, in which the enemies
are drowned, that is, they first undergo the waves of penitence, where the errors of their
vices are obliterated. Wherefore through weeping we must here sing the song of Moses,
saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified, he cast down the horse and the
rider into the sea (Exodus 15). For in consequence the children of Israel come to the stream
of Hernon, and the rocks are bowed down, when the faithful, placed in the desert of soul,
and rescued from the cares of the world, and seated on the throne of virtue, weep for the
sins of others, sympathize with their neighbors, judge the error of others as their own, and
thus the rocks are bowed down. At last the children of Israel arrive at the Jordan, and cross
over on dry foot, when the faithful, having been placed in the heap of perfection, having
been cleansed from the flux of carnal thoughts by the affections of the soul, enter into
lamentation, because of the waste of present misery. The first is a cry of repentance, the
second from compassion for one's neighbor, the third from personal compassion. O man, let
your mind be that book which Ezekiel saw (chapter 2), in which it was written: Woe,
lamentations and songs. So that, if you have been entangled in sin, you may turn to
repentance; so that, if the woe of mortal guilt precedes, the lamentation of penitence should
follow; nay, three lamentations: a lamentation for repentance, a lamentation for the
compassion of others, a lamentation for the procrastination of the country. O man, turn to
these groans. Embrace these pains, turn yourself away from other earthly pains. If fortune is
hostile to you, because of its enmity, do not increase your pain; He has nothing in you to
harm, unless you give him strength. Certainly, he will not harm you unless you harm
yourself, you have provided him with weapons if you are sorry. Why are you saddened by
the loss of those who, in the middle of pleasures, have cause for pain? which in the middle of
the peace have cause of dissension? which, when they should be the fuel of security, are
turned into fear? If you grieve for the death of a friend, grieve more for the danger of your
soul, since for the seclusion of this temporal life; if you weep for him, you should rather shed
the tears of your mind for him to God, than to cry outwardly to the world. If a natural
infirmity invites you to mourn, do not give yourself up to mourning. I do not prevent the
tears which necessity naturally expresses, which human weakness expels; because these
tears fall through elision, against our will. Many a time, saved by the authority of a wise
man, they shed tears for a friend, so that they lacked neither humanity nor dignity; for it is
permissible, if gravity is preserved, to obey nature; but although nature invites you to the
mourning of the soul, tears will not suffocate the soul, but in the midst of tears the soul,
constant and immovable, bears its misery, overcomes the heart of mourning, absorbs the
weakness of the mind, the spirit thins the flesh, the reason sensuality. If death threatens, do
not grieve, but prepare yourself for the instant of death by steadfastness of mind. Prepare
yourself in such a way that you cannot fear death; that you may begin to live after death,
who before death lived by dying. I do not say, however, that, defeated by laziness, you
should flee to death, because it is sometimes as shameful to flee to death as to flee from
death. Let the desire of eternal life invite you to death: let the desire of greater merit detain
you in life. Do not be dissolved by success, do not be suffocated by adversity. Do not be one
of those women whom Ezekiel saw (chapter 8) mourning for Adonis. By Adonis, who is read
to have been dead, and consequently a recycler, for whom the women seemed to mourn the
dead, and to rejoice over the recycler, is meant temporal prosperity, which ends in a
moment, and rises again for a moment, because it is always in flux, and never remains in the
same state. They mourn this dead, the women rejoice in this rebirth, that is to say,
effeminate men, who are always diverted to the game of fortune; those who mourn when
fortune mourns, rejoice when fortune rejoices. They have as many vicissitudes of mind as
there are varieties of fortune. It is not this temporal mourning that is to be embraced, but
the eternal that is to be carefully guarded against, where there will be weeping without
remission, pain without respite, labor without rest: where the whole soul will be in the
weeping of conscience, the whole body in the mourning of misery, because from the first
gate there will be a cry, from the second misery .

<3+> CHAPTER XIV. Of spiritual joy.

To spiritual joy, these authorities and reasons can invite a person: Rejoice in the Lord and
rejoice, you righteous (Psal. 31). Also: Rejoice because your names are written in heaven
(Luke 10). Also: We will rejoice and be glad in you (Isaiah 25). Also: Rejoice in the Lord
always, I say again: Rejoice (Philipp. IV). Also: Rejoice in God, all the earth, serve the Lord in
joy (Ps. 65). By these authorities we are reminded of the spiritual happiness of the mind,
which is not effected by the abundance of riches, not by the deceptive glory of the world, not
by the power of the world, not by the fruitfulness of children, not by the health of the body,
but by the purity of conscience, the purity of life. No misery interrupts this joy, no adversity
destroys this prosperity, no bitterness mixes with this sweetness. O happy joy of pure
consciousness! which expels the inner worm, liberates reason from the prison of pain,
cleanses the mind from impurity. This is a paradise of delights, planted with various trees of
good works, painted with various flowers of virtue, and watered by the fountain of heavenly
grace. This purity of consciousness is an image of eternal life, and a prelude to the heavenly
kingdom. Against this serenity of mind, the storm of fortune can do nothing: against these
defenses of the mind, the instruments of the world are of no avail. He who has a pure
conscience, rejoices in the midst of sorrows, laughs in the midst of lamentations, is happy in
adversity. This is the house of Solomon filled with various perfumes, because in the purity
of the heart the gifts of charisma smell sweet. This is the chamber of God, the palace of
Christ, the bed of the heavenly bridegroom. There the bride, that is the soul, rests with
Christ her bridegroom. There Rebecca met Isaac coming from the field. There Jacob delights
in the delicious embraces of Rachel. There Mary Magdalene offers Christ the most precious
perfumes. Oh, if so great is the happiness of a pure conscience, how great is the misery of a
careless mind? by which judgment no one is acquitted of guilt, where the mind is constantly
demolished by the worm of conscience. Where the wings constantly fly around, the wild day
of the soul. Where monsters meet, beasts of sin. Here is a book written by the devil, defaced
with terrible marks, there the paper is a mind conscious of evil; where the pen, the freedom
of the will, where the unforgiveness, the abnormality of sin. There, O man, you remember
most pitifully all that you wrote from an early age, by which you offended God, in which you
offended your neighbor, in which you harmed yourself. Oh damnable book, in which are not
written poems, but lamentations and woes. But now, O man, erase by confession what you
have written by a false expression; erase through transgression what you have written
through evil thinking; delete by satisfaction what you have written by wrong operation;
erase the book of a perverted conscience, lest reason read there where it condemns you, lest
the devil find there where he accuses you; lest God there see where he judges thee, that
thou mayest return to the spiritual joy of the mind, that thou mayest return to thyself, that
thou mayest turn to God.

<3+> CHAPTER XV. Of patience

If you want to inform your audience about patience, use these authorities: Patience has a
perfect work (James 4). Also: Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness'
sake (Matthew 5). Also: The doctrine of a man is recognized by patience (Prov. 19). And the
philosopher says: Patience is the highest of morals, this is by which the martyr overcomes
the living by dying, triumphs by suffering, finds sweetness in tribulation, rest in toil. He
draws out the honeycomb from the hide, and the honey from the vinegar; The shield of
patience breaks the arrows of insults, and the arrows of injury are driven out by virtue of
tolerance. There are four kinds of injuries which conquering patience conquers, and by
resisting them, overcomes them. The first is the injury of words, which patience either
absorbs by the calmness of silence, or softens by the softness of words. The second injury is
hatred, which patience remits, and instead of hatred it returns charity. The third is the
injury of things which patience overcomes, by a little contented journey. The fourth is the
injury to one's own body, which is repelled by the chastisement of the flesh. Many are read
that they had a shadow of patience, we read that many lied that they had perseverance in
order to achieve worldly prosperity. We marvel at certain animals which pass through the
midst of the fires without injury to the body; but we ought to marvel much more at those
who pass through iron and ruins and fires unscathed and unscathed in spirit. It is shameful
to yield to passion, it is more shameful to succumb to it: to struggle against it, if it is once
conquered, it will not repeat the quarrel. Increase your spirit, increase your strength, he is
not a strong or active man who avoids work; Patience, I say, must have a place in these
affairs, where it enters into the cause of the heavenly business; otherwise, you will tire
yourself continuously with dirty work. Therefore, if you see that the heavy ones insist, do
not turn your back, but retreat slowly to safety; it is easy to escape the stings of tribulations
through patience, it is easy to despise temporal goods through patience. What is worse than
to be worried about the very threshold of security? This is the reason that makes us
impatient, because we are empty of heavenly good. Now there are seven kinds of patience,
which are included in the seven petitions of the Sunday prayer. The first is, against the
insult of the world, against the desire of vain glory, against the desire of earthly labor,
against the net of lust; which is asked when it is said: Deliver us from evil (Matt. 6), as if the
believer were saying: grant patience against the evil of the world, against the insult of the
world. This same patience is spoken of when it is said in the catalog of the beatitudes:
Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5). For the first kind of patience consists in spiritual
poverty, which consists in the renunciation of external things, in the renunciation of natural
gifts, when a man does not swell for the natural endowments of the soul, in the renunciation
of those things which belong to the endowments of the body, such as strength, beauty, etc.
The second is patience against the attacks of the devil. What type of patience is required
when it is said: And lead us not into temptation (Matthew 6) . A man does not ask that he
not be tempted, but that he not be led into temptation; for one is tempted, and is not led into
temptation; as the righteous who resists the devil; he is tempted, and is led into temptation,
who, by sinning, is subject to evil; of this patience it is said: Blessed are the meek, etc.
(Matthew 5). For in this patience, the highest meekness manifests itself, that man does not
give consent to the malicious demon. The third is patience against the injuries of a neighbor,
when a man patiently endures insults; this is asked when it is said: Forgive us our debts, as
we also forgive our debtors (Matthew 6). Of the same it is said: Blessed are the merciful, etc.
(Matthew 5) For the spiritual effect of mercy is in the remission of injuries. The fourth kind
of patience is against the instance of natural poverty, when one bears with a constant spirit
of want the inconsistency. This is requested when it is said: Give us this day our daily bread
(Matthew 6). Who is this daily bread, but patience against poverty in the expense of this
life? For this is the patience which counts the little traveler as immense, which abundantly
nourishes the mind, although it does not fill the belly. This patience makes fasting fruitful;
he found flour in the millet, salmon in the goblin, pigment in the waters; of this it is said:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5). For patience, which
finds satisfaction in material fasting, thirsts and hungers for justice; and the more he abhors
material food, the more he craves spiritual food. The fifth patience is against the insult of the
flesh, when a man manfully restrains the insult of the flesh, and chastises the beast, so that
sensuality is served by reason, the flesh by the spirit, when the spirit holds sway over the
flesh, when reason holds the kingdom against the flesh. This kingdom is requested in the
Sunday prayer, when it is said Let your kingdom come (Matthew 6), that is, make sure that
just as all things obey you, so sensuality in us is equal to reason. That, as all things are
peaceful in your kingdom, so all things may be peaceful in the kingdom of our mind. Oh, how
to fear this duel between the flesh and the spirit, where the flesh is armed against the spirit,
the allurements of the senses, the delight of carnal pleasures. Behold the army of the flesh,
which soldiers in his camp, and comes to war with the flesh; the beauty of a thing that
deceives the sight, the flattery of a sound that seduces the hearing, the odors of things that
suspend the sense of smell, the flavor of food that entices the taste, the gentleness of a thing
that challenges the touch. Against this army patience arms the mind, which alone is able to
conquer these enemies, alone to end the dispute, alone to restore the exiled reason in its
own kingdom. This war is more than a civil one, and therefore more to be guarded against.
There is an external war between man and the devil, of which it is said: We do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world (Ephesians
6). There is a civil war between man and his neighbor, of which it is said: My mother's sons
fought against me (Cant. 1). There is a war more than civil, between the flesh and the spirit,
of which it is said: The flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5).
This war can be calmed by spiritual mourning, if one mourns the absence of the
bridegroom, if one weeps for the consequences of sin, if one grieves by abstaining from
carnal desire, if one mourns by ceasing from the love of the world. Of which mourning is
said: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5). The sixth is
patience against the miseries of the body, which are attended to in labor, fatigue, cold, heat,
hunger, and thirst. These wounds were inflicted by the robbers on the man descending from
Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10), that is, the demons of Hades who sinned, who descended
from Jerusalem of the heavenly vision to Jericho, that is, to the failure of our mortality. The
opposite of this is patience, when the mind overcomes the power of the disease in sickness,
giving thanks to God, and thus finds sanity of mind in the weakness of the flesh. when even
in labor the mind finds rest, referring the punishment to its due end, so that what are the
infirmities of the body may be the cosmetics of the mind. Against these miseries of the body,
patience is asked when it is said: Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth (Matt. 6),
that is, make it as it is in heaven, that is, in the human nature of Christ, at the nod of thy will,
thy patience was steadfast, against these the miseries of the flesh, so also on earth, that is, in
us earthly men, let there be patience against the infirmities of the body. Of this it is said:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God themselves (Matthew 5). By this
patience the eye of reason is cleansed, lest it fall into despair through weariness, or rush
into torpor through toil. But the seventh is patience against the scourges of God, which
examines the righteous, tries the servant, shows the son. This is requested when it is said:
Hallowed be thy name (Matthew 6). For by the fact that someone is suffering under the
scourges of God, the name of sonship is sanctified in him; and the more patiently he endures
the scourges of God, the more the paternal name is sanctified in him, because the Father
scourges, by punishment, every son whom he receives through patience (Heb. 12) . Of this
patience it is said: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God
(Matthew 5). For those who retain the peace of their hearts through patience while they are
scourged by the Father, are rightly proved to be the children of God. If, then, anyone desires
to be patient, let Job pay careful attention to patience, the end of Christ, the constancy of the
martyrs, and thus mock all worldly insults with the power of patience. As we read in the
book of Macrobius: "The impulses of the mind are to be bound with the bond of patience;
great is the glory of him who is increased by no praise, and diminished by no reproaches.
"Plato says about patience: "We must deal with pleasures, so that we are not protected
against them by flight or absence, but by vigor of mind and constant presence and moderate
use we protect continence and moderation, and with a warmed and at the same time
refreshed mind, if there is anything in it either of cold sadness, or Let us dilute it if it has
been a dull vehemence. Aristotle also said: "Who, having some human modesty,
congratulates himself on having pleasures in common with a donkey and an ass?" Similarly,
Socrates said that many people therefore want to live in order to eat and drink, not to drink
and eat in order to live. Gregory also says: "Do not impose on anyone what you cannot bear
yourself." And again Socrates: "It is wise to take care that it does not fall into the box, and if
someone falls by chance, to bear it with strength." For a strong man cannot be judged unless
he is also wise, for virtue without wisdom is thought to be dangerous rashness. Also
Socrates: "It is a good man's duty to know how to suffer, and not to do injury." Again, the
same: "Patience is the port of miseries." »

<3+> CHAPTER XVI. Of obedience.

By these authorities the hearers may be informed of patience: Christ became obedient unto
death for us, and the death of the cross (Philippians 2). Samuel also says: Obedience is
better than sacrifice (1 Kings 15). Also the Apostle: Servants, obey your superiors and
masters, not only the good and modest, but also the disciples (1 Pet. 2). And: He who resists
power resists the ordinance of God (Rom. 13). From these authorities we proceed: O man,
the Son of God became obedient for us even to the reproach of the gallows; do you not want
to obey the commandments of the Gospel? When an angel obeys God in everything, you who
are dust and ashes, do you contradict the commandment of God? The insensible obey God,
you who alone are endowed with reason, do you oppose the will of God? The sun does not
deviate from its path, the moon does not deviate from its path, the stars indulge in their
duties, at the beckoning of God, the field is beautified with flowers, the earth is watered by
the rains, the forest curls with leaves, the birds sing in the forest, thus all obey God; you
alone oppose his precepts! Consider, O man, that obedience is better than victims (1 Kings
15), because through victims another's flesh is sacrificed, but through obedience one's own
will is sacrificed. Therefore each one appeases God so much the more quickly, in so far as
the pride of his own will is restrained, he sacrifices himself to the sword of the
commandment. The sin of disobedience is called disobedience (ibid.), so that the virtue of
obedience may be shown from the opposite side. Solomon says about this obedience: A man
who obeys speaks of victories (Prov. 22). For while we humbly submit to the voice of others,
we overcome ourselves in our hearts. It must also be known that obedience must
sometimes have nothing of its own; for when a higher place is commanded, he empties the
power of obedience to himself, who longs for it with his own desire; Sometimes, however,
obedience must have something of its own, so that when insults and reproaches are
commanded, unless the soul desires these of its own accord, it diminishes the good of
obedience for itself, which descends unwillingly to this. Obedience must therefore have
something of its own in adversity, and again in prosperity, it must have nothing of its own.
Hence Moses humbly refuses the leadership of the people (Exodus 3). Paul boldly says: I am
not only ready to be bound in Jerusalem, but also to die (Acts 21). But we must be careful
not to err in obedience. Know, therefore, that true obedience is an honest deliberative mind,
the result of a just judgment with discretion. Behold, what companions ought obedience to
have: namely, justice, that what is commanded may be just; whence it is said: The effect of a
just judgment, 2o that what is deliberated may be honorable, as it was said: The honor of
the deliberater; 3o to proceed from discretion; whence it is added: With discretion. That
obedience, then, which is without discretion, is useless; that which is without honesty is
supine; because he who obeys in respectable things, from an excessive extension of
obedience, signifies pride of mind. But if it was not with justice, it is irregular, it is
anomalous. But it must be known that through obedience evil must never be done, but
sometimes the good that is being done must be interrupted. For there was not an evil tree in
the garden, which God forbade to happen, that by the merit of obedience man might grow
blessed; yet it was worthy to prevent him from doing good. It should be noted that it is said
there: Eat from every tree of the garden (Gen. 2), etc., for he who forbids his subjects from
one good thing, it is necessary for him to grant many things, lest the mind be repulsed by all,
and perish as if fasting. The four, therefore, accompany the reasonable: obedience,
discretion, honesty, justice, and humility. Now there are three kinds of regular obedience:
sufficient, by which one obeys his superior; perfect, by which he obeys his equal; abounding,
by which it serves the smaller. The first is as if positive, the second comparative, the third
superlative. The first is precept, the second supererogation, the third counsel; Christ
fulfilled these in himself, obeying the greater, he obeyed with the Father, inferior to him
according to humanity; and equal, when equal to the Father according to divinity; he obeyed
the younger, when he obeyed the mother. Further, there is a kind of obedience which is
direct, which is done in accordance with the end of duty and duty; as when we obey God
with a good intention. Another is right, but not direct, as when we obey God, but with an
inconsistent duty, such as the obedience which the Jew shows to God his Creator, but lacks
the form of duty, that is, the rule of charity and faith. Obedience is indirect, when we obey
the Creator with a view to human favor. But it is retrograde, when demons obey God.
Because thus they obey by doing what they do not want. The first is meritorious, the second
introductory, the third profitable, the fourth destructive. The first is efficient, the second,
doing; the third, deficient; the fourth, infecting O how efficacious is the rule of obedience,
which preserves harmony among the angels, which fosters peace in prisons, without which
neither the republic can stand, nor the smallest family can be governed. Which also suggests
the natural right of brutes; which he keeps as a law of inanimate things. To this are bound
the earthly to the heavenly, the divine to the human; this is the ladder by which the ascent
to heaven is made. Moreover, this obedience fosters humility, tests patience, and examines
meekness. Let him strive to embrace this barrier with the arms of charity, that he may pay
to God what is God's, and what is the neighbor's to his neighbor. This is obedience, which,
according to the rule of justice, renders to each what is his own: and as from obedience all
good proceeds, so from disobedience all evil arises. whereas, by sin, man despises obeying
his Creator.

<3+> CHAPTER XVII. Of perseverance.

Let these authorities remind anyone to persevere: He who perseveres to the end will be
saved (Matthew 10). Also elsewhere: If he continues knocking, I tell you, and if he will not
give him because he is his friend, because of his impiety, he will rise and give him as many
as he needs (Luke 11). And the apostle said: All run in the race, but one receives the victory
(1 Cor. 9). And: He who fights legitimately will be crowned (2 Tim. 2). It is also said
elsewhere that the Lord will judge the ends of the earth (Psal. 9). And: Where a tree falls,
whether to the east or to the north, there it will be (Eccl. 11). And elsewhere: "Einis, battle
does not crown." "Many strive great things, but fail in the way. Many leave Sodom, but
quickly look back. Many go out of Babylon, but die on the way, and do not reach the city of
eternal peace, the heavenly Jerusalem. Perseverance informs merit, colors the purpose of
good, rewards the runner, crowns the fighter. This leads to bravery, it leads to port, it gives
form to work, a rule to action. This is Joseph's coat of arms, at the end of his life; this is the
priestly tunic reaching down to the feet, this is the tail of the sacrifice which we are obliged
to offer to God. This is the heel of the good work which we must observe against the bite of
the serpent. This is the virtue which informs every good wish, with which martyrs are
praised, and virgins are crowned. This is what makes difficult things possible, and
overcomes every difficulty. This is a garment without wrinkle, a coat without spot. This is
what makes a good action uniform, a uniform virtue. And it should be noted that there is a
kind of perseverance like hay, which, like hay, grows green for a time, and withers in times
of adversity. These things come out like a flower, and are crushed, and flee like a shadow,
and never remain in the same state; but the final is perseverance which lasts until the end.
This is a living spring, a sealed garden, with which no stranger shares, which is always
flowing, always springing up. Let the faithful labor to have this, the cloistered to retain this,
the virgins to be formed by this, the widows to persevere in this. The devil sometimes
provokes a man to good, so as to elicit more serious evil from good. Against this attack of
the devil is perseverance, so that good beginnings may be concluded with a good end. For to
begin with a good thing, and to conclude with a bad end, is a monstrous thing to accomplish.
For that action is like a chimera, which has its beginning in reason, and its end in sensuality.
When it is treated like this: Jangit. A painter of a horse's neck with a human head And so he
introduces various feathers of unfruitfulness. There are some whose life makes a wonderful
monster, whose beginning is good, as if it were the head of a man, but in the middle it
descends into lust, displays the belly of a goat, at the end it deviates into rapacity, and has
the feet of a wolf. O man, what does it profit you to begin a good thing, and not conclude it
with a right end? It is better not to recognize the way of truth, than to go back after it has
been recognized (2 Pet. 2). By this inconstancy you are accused of levity, incur apostasy, and
postpone the stability of your mind. Seneca says: "It is a composed mind to be able to stand
and dwell in the good." » There is nothing so useful that it can be useful in transit.
Perseverance brings forth the good, brings the tender to maturity. He is not looking for a
childish mind, but an adult one: he is looking for mature manners, not tender or enormous.
If perseverance does not illuminate the whole of life, at least it concludes the final end of
perseverance. If you have offered the flower of youth to the devil, at least offer the dregs of
old age to Christ. In the evening the serenity of the day is praised, at the end of the state of
good work. See how much Judas fell from good, who did not continue in good. See what
Solomon lost through unsteadiness of mind, into what calamity Saul fell. We can infer how
much merit is persevering from the vice of the opposite of impenitence. For it is said of
impenitence, that the corruption of this sin is so great that it cannot undergo the humility of
asking for forgiveness. For this is a sin against the Holy Spirit, this is a sin leading to death,
of which John says: It is a sin leading to death, I do not say that anyone should pray for it (1
John 5). Now impunity is born of despair, or it arises from presumption, and as much as it is
in it, it either derogates from the justice of God, or detracts from his mercy. Happy
perseverance, therefore, which excludes impenitence, expels obstinacy, eliminates
contempt, conquers hardness.

<3+> CHAPTER XVIII. Of mercy

These authorities can invite a person to mercy: Blessed are the merciful, for they will
receive mercy (Matthew 5). I want mercy, and not sacrifice (Matthew 9:12). Also: Blessed is
the man who shows mercy and lends (Psal. 36). And James in the canonical Epistle: Mercy
exalts judgment (James 2). Also Solomon: Mercy and truth guard the king, and clemency
strengthens his throne (Prov. 20). And in the Gospel: All things whatsoever ye would that
men should do unto you, do ye unto them; this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7). O
man, if you carefully considered the mercy of God, you could have in you the form of mercy.
What made Christ incarnate, but mercy? what did he subject him to our misery, but his
clemency: this is the only way of man to God, and of God to man. O blessed way, which alone
acknowledges the communication of our salvation, which alone directs man to God, and
leads God to man! She alone is the mediator reconciling the opposites, uniting the
disjointed, balancing the disparate in a way, humbling God, exalting us, drawing him to the
bottom, raising us to the top; so, however, that his descent may not be rejected, and our
exaltation may not be proud but glorious. For mercy had great power, which alone could
draw God from heaven to earth, and bring man from exile to his country. O great bond of
mercy, by which God could be bound, and man, being bound, broke the chains of iniquity! O
man, if you considered your misery, you would find nothing but mercy in God's work
towards you. It is mercy if it sustains the sinner, if it scourges him to make amends, if he
frees him from sin, if he preserves him in righteousness: mercy is also if he punishes
eternally, because on this side merits, mercy if he rewards eternally, because he rewards
above merits. Nor is his justice diminished in this, because his justice demands the use of
mercy. For justice must always be accompanied by mercy, because the truth of justice is
turned into severity unless it is seasoned with the sweetness of mercy. Whence it is said:
that mercy and truth met each other, justice and peace kissed (Psal. 84) . For justice must
somehow kiss mercy, so that it does not depart from the path of mercy, and mercy does not
escape the line of justice. Hence it is said that judgment is upon the altar of mercy, because
justice sinks into the abyss of cruelty, unless it is relaxed by the grace of mercy. Mercy is the
sauce of justice, the medicine of judgment. Nor, however, should compassion be cut off for
misery or vulgarity, for as Seneca says: "It is as cruel to forgive all as it is to none." For
discipline or mercy is much destroyed, if one is kept without the other, but the latter must
be present to the rulers around the subjects, and mercy justly consoling, and discipline
punishing with piety. Let us consider how much Moses loved the people, for whose life he
begged to be destroyed, and how zealous for righteousness, when he had obtained
forgiveness, he said to the people: Let the man lay the sword upon his thigh, etc. (Exod. 32.)
Behold, he who seeks the life of men with his own death, has extinguished the life of a few
with the sword; inside with the fire of love, outside was kindled by the zeal of severity with
God. On both sides the strong ambassador pleaded the cause of the people with God by
prayers, and the cause of God with the people with swords. O man, seek mercy in your
neighbor, not with a view to fortune, but to a cause; not sickness of mind, but God's charity
will excite clemency; for there are many who are moved by the tears of the most guilty, who,
if permitted, would break the prison; who are not moved by charity, but by weakness of
mind. Let charity therefore return compassion to man, let equity punish the enormity of
vice. But we must study above all in works of mercy, to feed the hungry, to refresh the
thirsty, to clothe the naked, to receive the stranger, to comfort the orphan, to visit the sick.
These are the works of mercy, which the righteous will dispose of in judgment (Ps. 36),
which they will plead for him in the day of judgment. For only works of mercy will intercede
for man in the final cause; because judgment will be done without mercy to him who does
not show mercy (James 2). O man, recognize yourself in another's misery, read your own
misery in others. If you are just, you can fall; if you are rich, it is the gift of fortune, not of
nature. If you are healthy, infirmity either insists, or threatens to insist. If wise, man's
wisdom has no constancy. O man, if you deviate from the path of clemency, as much as is in
you, you disturb the fountain of mercy; you who have experienced in God the source of
mercy and piety, at least allow the stream of mercy to emanate towards your neighbor.
What will happen if your Savior is merciful and pious, and you are unmerciful to your
neighbor and austere? You have received mercy from the Lord, and you inflict malice on
your neighbor. You can read in the mercy of God what you ought to do, how you are able to
keep the rule of mercy. And certainly, you should rather embrace mercy than justice. For
every man must naturally be more applicable to mercy than to justice; because mercy
breeds love, justice breeds fear; because charity excludes fear, but love is more worthy of
fear. There are also many things that advise us to relax a little about justice; the weakness of
human nature, the usefulness of the matter, even the dignity of mercy, which exalts
judgment. Mercy, then, is born not from negligence, not from small-mindedness, not from
indiscretion, not from weakness of mind, but must be circumscribed in every way, so that it
may retain its proper, and not take away the debt of justice. Look, O man, on Joseph's mercy,
which has forgotten the injury of the brothers (Gen. 43). Read the grace of clemency in
David, who mourned the insanity of the persecutor's son (2 Kings 18). Set these and similar
examples to yourself if you want to follow the straight path of mercy. If you close the bowels
of those in need of mercy, you close the door of Christ's mercy to yourself. Indeed, mercy is
the key by which heaven is unlocked, which dissolves the debt. This is the gate of the Lord,
the righteous shall enter it. This is the mercy that illuminates the New Testament and
lessens the rigor of the Old Law. This is the tree that sweetens the waters of Marah (Exodus
15). With this salt Elisha destroyed the bitterness of the waters (4 Kings 2). With this meal
Elisha eradicated the death of the pot (4 Kings 4). The Samaritan pours this oil on the
wounded (Luke 10). Forgiveness not only makes a man honest, but also safe. The chief
ornament is clemency, and the surest light. This alone divides between the cruel and the
pious, between the king and the tyrant. A king is armed with mercy, a tyrant provokes
hatred with weapons. O man, where would you submit unless mercy came to your aid? If
God were to deal with you with strict justice, it would not be possible to devise a
punishment which would correspond to merits, punishments which would be equivalent to
crimes. Therefore attribute all things to God's mercy, and from the like you extend mercy to
your neighbor; do not be stingy in showing mercy, because you have experienced the
generosity of mercy in God.

<3+> CHAPTER XIX. Of justice

These authorities remind us of justice: Love justice, you who judge the earth (Wis. 1); also: I
have done judgment and justice, do not betray me, you have slandered me (Psal. 118) .
Again: Blessed is the man who dwells in wisdom, and who meditates on righteousness
(Ecclesiastes 14). Also: Judge the orphan and the lowly, so that man does not think to
magnify himself above the earth (Psal. 9). You must be careful, O man, that you look for
judgment, lest you provoke judgment with hatred, lest you inflame it with cruelty, lest you
be softened by the love of money, lest you fall back with fear. Let not the rich man's purple
move you, nor the poor man's sack; walk in the royal way, do not turn aside to the right,
softening judgment, nor to the left, exacerbating punishment. It is not cruelty to punish
guilt, but justice; it is not a tyrannical judgment, but a judgment of divine rectitude. But be
careful not to cast the speck out of another's eye in such a way that you do not see the beam
in your own eye. Nor would you like to reveal the fall of another so as to neglect your own
fall; nor do you take care of another's illness in such a way that you postpone the illness
yourself; and it will be said to you: Take care of yourself as a physician (Luke 4). Hear what
the Lord said to the Pharisees who accused adultery: He who is without sin, let him be the
first to cast a stone at her (John 8). If you judge another sinner as a sinner, you condemn
yourself. O man, on what front do you blame another, which you find more serious in
yourself? with what face do you judge your neighbor, when you know yourself to be judged
more severely? Justice befits a prince, circumcised from all vice, circumscribed by bounds of
duty, fenced in with wards: so that rectitude may accompany it, lest in judging it deviate
from what is right; discretion, lest it be exasperated by error; charity, that it may exercise
the sword of revenge, not with the rancor of hatred, but with the zeal of justice; he must use
mercy, lest justice escape into cruelty; deliberating, so that he may discuss or deliberate
with himself for a long time about the punishment. Whence Seneca says: "It is near that you
will gladly condemn those who are quick; he is close to unjustly punishing his subjects, who
too much; to rule moderately is commendable. "Nature convinces him that he is a king,
because we may know from other animals that nature presides over a king, such as bees, yet
nature did not want him to be cruel, nor to demand great constant revenge. He also
withdraws his zeal and leaves him unarmed, because, as Seneca says, bees are the most
furious and the most aggressive for the capture of the body, and they leave their stings in
the wound; the king himself is without a sting, being a model for great things. It should be a
shame not to draw morals from these animals, since the mind of men ought to be so much
more restrained, the more violently it can injure them. He who has been endowed with
justice, with Moses, will cross the sea of the world's vices reddened with the blood of the
world on a dry footing. This is the rod with which a rock, struck by a rock, emanates in a
flowing stream, which causes the stony hearts of subjects to overflow in rivers of virtue.
This is the fan by which the wheat is separated from the chaff, the furnace in which the
silver is separated from the dross, the sword by which the living is separated from the dead,
the iron by which the healthy is separated from the sick; because against the disease of sin,
a biting plaster must be applied, lest, unheeded, the excessive ravages of vices may
exuberant, and unpunished iniquity may recur in the increase of misdeeds. This is the
measure by which we must measure the punishments, weigh the merits. This is what gives
each one his right, while preserving the common good. For sometimes the penalty is relaxed
because of the offense of others; sometimes the punishment must be emphasized, so that it
may be a warning to others. This is the medicine of vices, the antidote of sins. This is the
sword which defends both sides of man; the body from external injuries, the soul from
internal troubles. This is the stone with which David smote Goliath, and delivered Israel
from slavery. This, without discretion, is a sword in the hand of a madman; this, without
power, is a sword in a contracted hand; this, without mercy, is a sword in the hand of a
tyrant. The exercise of justice must be held with the utmost discretion, so that we do not
judge from suspicion, but rather from righteousness. Condemn no one before judgment;
first try and judge; for not he who is accused, but he who is convicted, will be guilty.

<3+> CHAPTER XX. Of the love of God.

These authorities prefer the form of charity: Love the Lord God with all your heart and with
all your soul (Matthew 22). John says: God is charity, and he who abides in charity abides in
God; and God in him (1 John 4). Also Peter: Above all things, having mutual charity in
yourselves, because charity covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4). Also Paul: Charity is
patient, kind, etc. (1 Cor. 13.) Also Augustine: "Everything we do without charity, it does us
no good to do it, and we spend our efforts in vain, if we do not have the charity that is God."
Also Gregory: "So much more is the rust of sins consumed, as much as the sinner's heart is
burned with the fire of charity." From these, we must proceed as follows: Who is endowed
with Tullian eloquence, who is formed in all wisdom sufficient to express the praises of
charity and expound its virtues? This is the charity which teaches us to flee from
allurements, to trample on pleasures, to restrain the lust of the flesh, to despise honors, to
break illicit desires; lastly, to reject all the flatteries of the present life. The bridegroom
reminds us of this in the Canticles, saying: Set me as a signet upon your heart, set me as a
signet upon your arm; because love is as strong as death, rivalry as hard as hell (Cant. 8).
For death has extinguished the living, but hell spares not even the dead. Love, then, is like
death, because as it punishes the sense of the flesh, so it punishes the affection of carnal
concupiscence. The rivalry is as hard as hell, because those who are drawn within by the
desire for the eternal, not only reject the flattering externals, but indeed are forced to
endure adverse and harsh things in order to gain what they love. Charity consolidates the
other virtues by the protection of its perfection. Whoever plants himself in its root, does not
fail from its greenness, nor does it disappear from its fruits; because he does not lose his
effective work. Isidore also says of this: No reward is compensated without the love of
charity; no matter how much everyone believes rightly, he cannot reach happiness without
charity. Because the power of charity is so great that even prophecy and martyrdom are of
no avail without it. Charity holds the preeminence of all the virtues. Whence the bond of
perfection is called by the Apostle (Col. iii) because all his virtues are bound by a bond.
Therefore love God to be loved by him; and to be with him you will reach him more quickly,
for with love you will grasp, possess, and enjoy. This is the most excellent way, the supreme
way, directing crooked ways and showing straight ways. This is the charity which prevailed
so much in God, that it brought him from the seat of heavenly majesty to the lowest part of
our mortality; He wounded the impassive, he drew the immutable, he bound the
insurmountable, he made the mortal eternal. If charity could so much in God, how much, O
man, must it be able in yourself? If God suffered so much for man's sake, what will man
refuse to endure for God's sake? But let man be ashamed not to be subjected to charity,
which subjected to himself the author of the world! This does not rival it, it does not act
wrongly, but it uproots the root of vice from him in whom it dwells. Charity is the origin of
all virtues, it enlightens the mind, cleanses the conscience, rejoices the soul, and points to
God. The soul in which charity dwells, pride does not inflate, envy does not devastate, anger
does not dissipate, sadness does not torment evil, greed does not blind, gluttony does not
inflame, lust does not pollute. She is always chaste, always clean, always quiet, always kind.
Safe in adversity, temperate in prosperity. This is a spiritual cross, which everyone is bound
to bear, so that by removing this cross, he may follow in the footsteps of Christ; the height of
which is raised to God, the width extends to the enemy, the length to the limit of life, the
depth of the divine grace knows no bounds. This is the charity which is a shield to the
combatant, a reward to the triumphant; which is thus begun on the road, that it may be
consummated in the country. For there is a fire in Zion, and a furnace in Jerusalem (Isaiah
31). Charity gives birth to a created trinity; in which trinity God's love is like a Father, from
which proceeds the love by which man himself is loved as children by the father: indeed
from both proceeds the love of the neighbor, as the Holy Spirit from both. Likewise, there
are three distinctions in the one substance of charity, but they are different in their own
way. Be careful, then, man, if you would follow love, lest you be deceived by the shadow of
love; for it is the love of fortune that goes with prosperity. In this way the carnal man loves
God, when he has done him good. It is the love of nature with which every rational man
loves God. For as the blessed Augustine says: "No one's mind could ever hate God." It is the
love of grace, which alone has merit; by which God is loved so as to be regarded as a reward.
The first is failing, the second doing, the third completing. The first of the flesh, the second
of sensuality, the third of reason. The first of the false brother, the second of the humble
sinner, the third of the justified man. O man, consider how sweet is the love of God, how
impure is the love of this world! The love of God is the mother of all virtues, the love of the
world is the mother of all vices. With this love all things are imperfect, with him all things
are completed; through charity God is sought with all the heart, is sought above all things, is
found beyond all things, is loved more than all things; this is the fire which God has come to
send on earth (Luke 12) to burn up the rust of sins, to burn up the chaff of vices. Charity has
established its seat on high, which is not conquered by worldly fear, nor earthly love, carnal
hopes, or sadness of adversity. For who can trace its breadth, which extends even to the
enemy? Who can comprehend the height of it that rises up to God? Who could fathom the
depth which descends to the abyss of divine wisdom? Charity is God, and he who abides in
charity abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4). Listen, O man, and do not think it too little
if you have charity, listen, since charity is God, is it not too little to have God abiding in
oneself? It is indeed great to have charity in oneself, because God is charity. Only charity has
this privilege, that it may be called God, and indeed be, in such a way that it cannot belong to
any other. For since every virtue is the gift of God, none but charity alone has this, so that it
may be called not only the gift of God, but also God himself.

<3+> CHAPTER XXI. Of the love of one's neighbor.

Man is informed by these authorities to love his neighbor: Love your neighbor as yourself
(Matthew 22). Whatever you want men to do to you, do to them (Mark 12). Love your
enemies, do good to those who hate you (Matthew 7; Luke 6). Sixtus also says: "The
foundation and beginning of the worship of God is to love men." St. Gregory: "Charity is true,
if the friend is loved in God, and the enemy is loved for the sake of God." God himself is not
loved without his neighbor, nor is his neighbor without God. Again Bede: "Love is said to
bind two, God and man, or to unite each neighbor with another." For although the love of
God is greater in the dignity of charity, yet the love of neighbor is greater in operation,
because through love of neighbor we reach the love of God. O man, love your neighbor as
yourself; Do not let others envy the goods you wish for yourself; if you wish more for
yourself than others, you are envious; if others are greater than you, you are a fool. Consult
nature, she will teach you to love your neighbor as yourself. Indeed, she herself made all
things common, she made one birth for all, because every race of men descends from the
same birth. If you deny others what you want to happen to you, you attack nature, you
weaken common law. Do not impose on anyone what you cannot bear yourself; present to
others what you wish to be presented to yourself. How can you reproach your own nature
in another, who embraces the same in yourself? He loves every animal like himself, so every
man ought to love his neighbor. All flesh is joined to its own kind. The evangelical
Samaritan, although he was a stranger to the wounded, nevertheless cared for the sick, and
how can you not love your neighbor? Be therefore a friend to every neighbor in times of
persecution, and not only in times of prosperity; do not be a friend of the table or of fortune,
but of tribulation, that you may make his adversities yours by sympathizing, that you may
make his pain yours by sympathizing; make his suffering yours by sympathizing, which is a
greater charity than to lay down one's life for one's friends, and to extend charity to one's
enemies. These are wonderful things in the law of the Lord. Just as God had mercy on his
creatures, so have mercy on your neighbor's nature. How praiseworthy is the charity that
binds the neighbors, unites the different, reduces plurality to unity, reduces diversity to
identity? This is the discordant concord, the united plurality, the concordant discord, and
the conjoining variety. This is Christ's tunic woven from above all over (John 19). This is
Joseph's coat distinguished by the work of plumage (Gen. 37). This is the variety in which
we read the queen surrounded, of which it is said: The queen stood at your right hand in a
gilded garment, surrounded by variety (Psal. 44). It is said of this unity of charity: Behold,
how good and how delightful it is for brothers to dwell together! (ibid.) In one thing, not so
much as to the place as to the mind. For to dwell in one place, and not to be of one mind, is a
punishment and not a pleasure. This unity leads to the heavenly unity, of which it is said:
One thing I asked of the Lord, this I will require (Ps. 26), etc. This unity enriches man in his
neighbor, rejoices in the happiness of another, brings the good of the particular into the
common, enlarges the good of the other, not extinguishes it. Let Christians be ashamed of
not binding each other with the bond of charity, when we read that ethnic equals were
bound in friendship by the very bond of natural love! Since temporal love has united many
in friendship, will not heavenly love bind the faithful with the bond of charity? If frivolous
causes beget friendship in many, may not eternal rewards do the same? Oh, how much
sweetness there is in the true love of one's neighbor, which is not produced by human favor,
not by earthly comforts, not by human carnality, but only by charity! This is what Samuel
prays for Saul (1 Kings 15). This is what he pleads for the people to God in Moses (Gen. 32),
this is what he cries in David (II Kings 1) for Jonathan, for Jerusalem in Jeremiah. Surely he
deviates from the love of God who alienates himself from the love of his neighbor, because:
He who does not love the neighbor whom he sees, how can he love God whom he has not
seen? (1 John IV.) O man, do you not want your neighbor to love you for God's sake? love
him for your own sake. As the moral philosopher Seneca says: "If you want to be loved,
love." O happy love, which is not impelled by external causes, but innately in the form of the
highest good, is content with itself, lacking a bruise. Such love has its own love in itself, it is
not anxious; it is placed in a calm state, it does not flow through the toys. Oh, how delightful
it is to find yourself in another! It is torpor and negligence, to leave the practice of charity
obsolete, and not to have the exercise of the noblest virtue. It is glorious to be the artist of
true friendship which cleans away the dregs of superficial love. Have a friend, not to visit
the sick, not to feed the hungry, not to comfort the imprisoned, but to visit him in prison,
feed the hungry, feed the thirsty, welcome the wanderer. If you love your poor neighbor,
you give alms out of love alone, for the alms of the heart is much greater than of the body;
for charity suffices in almsgiving, without earthly substance. Even that which is given bodily
is not sufficient unless it is given with a kind heart. Hold therefore the order of charity. Love
God above all, yourself below, your neighbor next to you, the flesh below. Love your flesh,
not to serve it, but to discipline it, love it for good, not for the luxury of this world. You do
not follow her will, but you force her to follow yours. Like a good physician, take care of
what is weak, what is done, what is diseased; so that he may suffer for a time so that he may
rejoice for eternity, he may feel for a time the severity of medicine, so that he may obtain the
benefit of eternal health.

<3+> CHAPTER XXII. Of peace

The following authorities inform about peace: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you
(John 14). Again: Have peace among yourselves (Mark 9). Again: Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5). It is also said about
peace: Peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4). And: Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2). And Gregory: "If we have shown how great the
virtue of peace is, how diligently it must be worshiped by us, we know, etc.; And we
sufficiently understand the dignity of this virtue from the fact that our Lord and Redeemer
deigned to leave it to his disciples as a great gift, so that through it they might pacify their
companions in pacification. The law of nature therefore dictates this, and the elements, the
planets, and the rest of the insensible, are peacefully embraced with their arms. Now there
are three kinds of peace, the peace of time, the peace of the breast, and the peace of eternity.
The first is the shadow of peace; the second circumstance of peace; the third substance of
peace In the first place are the torches of peace; in the second the remnants of peace; in the
third, delicate fats. The first is imaginary, the second inviting, the third substantive. The first
peace consists in temporal prosperity, the second comes from tranquility of mind, the third
exists in the delight of heavenly life. The first peace is not to be sought, because it is illusory
and slippery and transitory, which when it is supposed to be held, flees. This is a woman's
weather, successful adversity, delicious bitterness, bitter sweetness. This peace begets a
cloud in serenity, a tumult in tranquility; it is caressed like a worldly breeze, then it rages
like the sea, now it is calm, then it immediately capsizes, and, as Seneca says, on the same
day when the boats have set sail, they are swallowed up. The princes have experienced
these pleasures of peace, the average have experienced them, and the poor have also
experienced them. He who hopes for this puts his foot on the slippery ground, places the
ship in the wreck, stands on the precipice, sows on the sandy ground. The second peace is
far more excellent than that which does not fear the slippery surface of peace, which does
not shudder at the cloud of fortune, which cleanses the mind from vices; which is not
demolished by the worm of conscience. The thunderbolts of princes cannot destroy it, nor
can the attacks of enemies exclude it. With this account alone is a man rich, with this
account alone is he wise, with this account he is safe in adversity, secure in dangers. This
makes man a son of God. The meeting of the virtues gives birth to this, the coming out of the
vices. It is said of this I will sleep and rest in peace in the same (Psal. 4). In this peace of
mind there is peaceful sleep, peaceful rest, true vision. He whose mind depends on external
goods does not have this peace. He who is not content with himself lacks such peace. He
who keeps peace in himself, keeps it with his neighbor. He cannot shut it up inside who does
not exercise it outside. But the peace of eternity is that which surpasses all peace, where
God is all in all, one all and all one will and one will not. Where the flesh does not rebel
against reason, where all the will of God submits itself to the will, where man has peace with
God, peace with himself. Where Simon the magician does not deceive, where the Pharisee
does not spread his phylacteries, where the Jew does not murmur, where Linus rejoices as
much in the good of Peter as in his own, where relative love, where vicarious affection;
where discord does not break the peace, where fraud does not cause divorces in peace,
where everything succeeds to the will, where nothing opposes the affection, where the will
is accompanied by the effect, where the effect does not precede the effect. He will not come
to this peace unless he has first ordered peace in his mind, unless he has first calmed the
tumult within himself: unless he has first excluded from himself the strife of carnal
thoughts, unless he has first established his ruler. The triple peace mentioned was once
sealed with various figures. By the rest which the children of Israel had in the land of
promise is signified the peace of time, because as that rest was sprinkled with various
adversities, so the peace of time is disturbed by many adversities. By the solemn Sabbath in
the old law is signified the peace of our conscience; for as men were smitten on the Sabbath
from the work of servitude, so in peace the breast should be smitten from the servitude of
sin. But by that rest which on the seventh day God rested from his work (Gen. 2), eternal
peace is signified, in which we must rest from all labor. The first peace is to be trodden on,
the second to be held, the third to be desired. If Cain had peace in his chest, he would not
have rushed at his brother (Gen. 4). If Absalom had kept peace of mind, he would not have
rushed at his father (2 Kings 15). If the peace of conscience had calmed Judas' mind, he
would not have fled to the snare (Matthew 27). Oh, how safely he sits on the throne, whose
tranquility of mind is flattered, how elegantly he spreads his bed, who arranges his mind in
the peace of his chest, how securely he lies on his bed, who arranges peace in his heart! In
this singularity a man must be until he passes away. In this tendency he should sleep and
rest.

<3+> CHAPTER XXIII. Of prudence.

If anyone wishes to learn about prudence, he should proceed in this way: Be wise as
serpents, and simple as doves (Matthew 10). Again: Wisdom overcomes malice (Wisdom 7).
And elsewhere: Blessed is the man who dwells in wisdom (Ecclesiastes 14). Also: A fool stirs
up quarrels, but a wise man moderates those that have been stirred up (Prov. 15). Seneca
says: "Whosoever desires to follow prudence, let him begin to live well under the guidance
of reason, and not determine the dignity of things from his opinion, but from their nature."
"Prudence is the discernment of good and evil things, and of both, with the flight of the evil
and the choice of the good." It is said both ways, because it is not enough to separate good
and evil from one another, but also good from one another, and evil likewise; and goods
from better and less goods; and evils from worse and less evils. It is not enough to discern,
unless the choice of good and the rejection of evil follow. Prudence teaches that things seem
to be good, and are not; and things which do not appear to be good and are. O man,
prudence teaches you not to marvel at the transitory things you possess, nor to think great
of what is fleeting. Prudence will teach you to dispose wisely of what you possess as
someone else's, and to let go fruitfully of what you cannot keep forever. If you embrace
prudence, you remain the same everywhere, you will suffer no loss, and as the variety of
things or times demands, so you will adapt yourself to the time, place, person, cause, and
you will not change yourself in some, but rather adapt in all; like the hand, which is the
same both when it is extended into the palm and when it is clenched into a fist. Prudence
does not want to be deceived, and cannot be deceived. Prudence praises sparingly,
reproaches sparingly; for in the same way excessive praise is reprehensible as immoderate
reproach; if indeed it is flattery, it is suspected of malice. Prudence bears witness to the
truth, not to friendship. When he promises with discretion, he hastens the promise, he
performs more fully than he had promised. Prudence is dispensed in three seasons, it
orders the present, foresees the future, remembers the past; for he who thinks nothing of
the past loses his life; he who does not premeditate anything about the future, goes into
everything carelessly. A prudent man lays before his mind both future evils and good things,
that he may endure them, and moderate them. He is not always in action, but sometimes he
refreshes his mind with a pause of rest. And rest itself is full of the pursuits of wisdom and
good thoughts; for a prudent man never languishes in idleness; A wise man is not moved by
the authority of the speaker, nor by the sublimity of his race, nor by what he says or does,
nor by how much, but by what he thinks. This he wishes and asks, which may be wished in
the presence of all. Nor does he impose himself on a higher ground, in which he is afraid
either when he stands, or when he descends he falls. Then he advocates healthy plans for
himself, when he alludes to the prosperity of life, the dignity of the world, then he holds
back his foot like a slippery one and stops; nor does he allow his pace to proceed
impetuously, but in a circumscribed manner. They belong to prudence, circumspection and
caution. Prudence measures the future according to the past; so that, if a prudent person
sees that someone has fallen into such a vice, on such an occasion, he measures his future
according to this, lest he fall into a similar sin on a similar occasion. Oh, how wise it is to
measure the future from the past! instances from previous events, from like things like
things, from signs that follow! To the same prudence belongs circumspection, which is
nothing else than the caution of opposite vices, by which we so avoid one vice that we do
not incur the opposite. For example: let us guard against covetousness so that we do not
indulge in extravagance, this virtue Solomon was persuading, saying: "Keep your heart with
all care" (Prov. 4). The watchman was about to say, "Forewarn all that if you close the locks
on this door, you should prevent access from another side." For there are many who so
escape the attack of one vice, that they slip into the net of another. For in such a way they
supply each other with vices, so that while one secretly escapes from one, the fugitive
retains another by vicarious vicissitudes. Caution belongs to the same prudence, by which
prudence discerns vices by preferring the appearance of virtues. Hence Isidore says: "The
vices of the virtues prefer appearance, whence they deceive their followers more
perniciously, because they cover themselves under the veil of virtue; for under the pretense
of justice cruelty is practiced, and meekness is believed to be indulged in laziness. From
these it is clear that the wise man is content with himself in order to live happily. Hence
Crispus says, "A wise man needs nothing," for he has the highest good in himself, and
therefore it is not necessary to look for the instruments of goodness from without. Within
the mind the highest good is worshiped, within it embraces the whole, because outwardly it
does not embrace form. For he begins to be subject to fortune, who seeks some portion of
goodness from without. But a prudent person limits all good within himself, and if he loses
all the good of fortune, he will cry out: All things are mine with me, that is, prudence, justice,
fortitude, temperance. He does not think that everything that can be redeemed is good.
Nothing is enough for the imprudent, but he is not content, he must not be left to himself. If
he does not need anything, he does not know how to use anything, but he needs everything.

<3+> CHAPTER XXIV. Of fortitude.

These authorities call for courage: "Be strong in war, and fight with the ancient serpent."
"Seneca says: "If you are magnanimous, you will never judge that an insult has been done to
you: you will say of an enemy: he did not harm me, but he had the intention of harming me.
Oh, what noble magnanimity, which, when it has an enemy in its power, judges revenge,
could have been able to avenge it. He judges to forgive the honest and highest kind of
revenge, he attacks no one by surprise, he attacks openly; he does not engage in conflict
unless he indicates it; adversities do not depress, successes do not exalt. The strong do not
crave dangers like a fool, nor fear like a coward. This is what made Vincent more powerful
while he was being tortured than he who was being tortured. O man, if you have acquired
this virtue, you will not fear the arrow of fortune; You will laugh at the gentle one, despise
the angry one. He who is strong is free, he does not serve fortune, not worldly variety. See
how great was the courage of the martyrs, who overcame the torments, who by their
magnanimity deceived the tyrants themselves, who were cast down in body, but not cast
down in mind; who did not turn their backs on adversity, but bravely resisted. But there is a
threefold fortitude: the fortitude of the white hypocrite, the fortitude of the philosopher, the
fortitude of the just. The first hunts for vain glory, but by hunting he earns the ignominy of
eternal damnation. In this way it attracts glory, which is not in glory. This is weakness
rather than magnanimity, weakness rather than health. This is what the heretics claim, this
is what the false brothers presume. The second is by which the philosophers despised the
fortune of the world, despised glory, despised riches, and abdicated human powers. But this
fortitude was insufficient for merit, impotent for the reward of life; because it lacked form,
that is charity, which is the form of all good affection. According to this fortitude it is said
that there was rigor in Cato, magnanimity in Socrates, contempt for the world in Diogenes.
But because this had no foundation of faith, hope did not raise it, charity did not complete it,
it lost the merit of virtue. But it is the fortitude of the just that makes God the end, the duty
does not omit the duty. It is this fortitude which despises death, which opens the house to
spiritual poverty, and compels pleasures to lie under the bridle of reason. There are three
kinds of accidental misfortunes: poverty, disease, and the violence of a tyrant. Courage is
strong against poverty, so that the mind is not broken, but it is larger inwardly, and the
more rich in the mind, the less it abounds in the things of fortune. Fortitude is strong against
the attack of disease; for these things he gives thanks to God in pain, he finds spiritual
delights in tribulation, so that diseases yield to the advantage of the mind rather than to the
loss of the body. Thus sickness brings medicine, infirmity health, sadness joy. The strength
of the tyrant conquers the violence, whose cruelty he enervates, he rejects prison, he does
not fear death. Man, your work is worthless unless the pillar of strength is strengthened. An
edifice of good operation is swaying, unless it rests on a pillar of strength: when this is
broken, the whole building collapses, and Samson, that is, a brave man, kills himself. This
equates adversity with success and success with adversity, so that no one is more exalted by
success than he is brought down by adversity. Prosperous judges the smoke, and as passing
foam, adverse as a fleeing mist. Magnanimity itself shows that weakness makes a man
powerful in tribulation, which has no strength of its own. Prudence is the queen of the other
cardinal virtues. In it they find a form, from it they require a mode; without it, what appears
to be virtue falls into folly, what appears to be good, slips into rashness. Prudence is what
teaches us what to think, what to do with what intention, how to bring it to an end. This
measures human strength, this sets goals for thoughts, this directs the movements of the
mind, the intuition of reason, this weighs the good, examines the bad? What good is religion,
if it does not receive wisdom, what is fasting, if it is not seasoned with the salt of wisdom.
Therefore, O man, before you undertake anything, consider in the mirror of prudence, the
manner of your action, read in the book of prudence what should be done and what should
be avoided. That book does not deceive, it does not deceive anyone, but all its opinions are
true and honest statements.

<3+> CHAPTER XXV. Of temperance or modesty.

The preacher should proceed in this way in the discourse on temperance, or modesty: Let
your modesty be known to all men, the Lord is near (Phil. 4). Likewise the Apostle: Let us
live soberly, justly, and godly in this age (Titus 2). Also: Following sobriety (ibid.) And
Hieronymus: "Moderate and moderate food is useful for the soul and the body." "The same
thing again: "All things are prepared for the virtue of self-control. St. Gregory: "The height of
the mind is the purity of the continent." » And elsewhere the poet: The medium of the
blessed. And: You will go in the safest place. Consider how much nature demands, not how
much gluttony covets. If you are content, you will reach the point where you are content
with yourself. For he who is sufficient for himself was born in pleasures. Impress a bit of
lust. Reject all that flattery and all that draw the mind to pleasure, eat satiety on this side,
drink drunkenness on this side, redeem your desires with a little because you need only
take care of this, so that they stop. Approach food, not pleasure: your palate will be
stimulated by hunger, not by taste. Never let poverty be unclean to you, nor frugality dirty,
nor simplicity neglected, nor frivolity languid; do not weep for your own, nor be surprised
by another's. If you love self-control, run away from shame before it happens. Keep your
words not bitter, but sweet. Be yourself a banisher of vices, but be not a curious scrutinizer
of others, nor a bitter rebuke, but a corrector without rebuke, so that you prevent hilarity by
admonition, and forgiveness of error is easily given. Do not exalt anyone above the limit,
and do not bring him down. Be a silent listener to those who speak. Answer easily to the
questioner, yield easily to the contender, and do not descend to insults and curses. If you
wish to be restrained, and observe the movements of mind and body, lest they be unseemly;
nor therefore despise them because they are hidden; for it matters nothing that no one sees
them, when you yourself see them. Be kind to a few, equal to all; a severer life than his
countenance, a merciful avenger, detesting cruelty, preferring a good reputation, yet not a
sower of empty glory; nay, a concealer of virtues, like others of vices, out of empty glory;
despiser of vain glory and honours; with which you will be endowed, not a bitter driver. Oh,
how rare a bird on earth, and white most like a raven, which holds the measure of this
mediocrity. Oh, how glorious is the power of temperance, which makes it a virtue to keep
the mean, lest there be a slip into what is diminished, or an excess into excess. This is the
spiritual circumcision, which cuts off the superfluous files of reason from the individual
senses. It is this to which Seneca, inviting him, says: "Let life be measured between good
manners and the public: he is great who uses clay as well as silver; nor is he inferior who
uses silver as well as earthenware. He said the same: "Let not the habit be dirty, nor shine
too much." There is virtue in mediocrity, not in contempt. O man, fasten yourself by the
limits of temperance, be careful not to be avaricious, nor dishonestly contract the mark of
extravagance; the other virtues are also to be measured by the rule of temperance. In
justice, moderation must be maintained, so that the reverence of its discipline is neither
debased by excessive community negligence, nor lost by more brutal cruelty the grace of
human love. This sets a measure in fortitude, so that he knows how to receive success and
not to desire adversity unwisely. These things order prudence, that it should not be wise
beyond what is due; but he should be wise to sobriety, and not become disgracefully
obsolete beyond the measure of inquiry. Temperance in all things adorns every substance
with good works, and informs the circumstances. In this way he measures times, places,
persons, and causes, so that he who walks near its limit may not suffer a fall in the
abruptness of this world and the precipitous precipice of temporal life. If any one be armed
with this, nothing can be done against him by the impulse of a bruise, the accumulation of a
drawing; the devil found nothing in him to accuse, nothing conscience to extirpate, nothing
the world to mock, nothing purging fire to cleanse.

<3+> CHAPTER XXVI. Against verboseness and vagaries of language.

If anyone seeks to avoid verbosity and unbridled wandering of the tongue, he should pay
careful attention to what follows. The Apostle said: Avoid foolish and base stories (1 Tim. 4).
Hieronymus says: "Spuriousness and lasciviousness, let them have no place in your
presence." Everything that does not edify the listeners is turned into a danger for the
listeners; For evil conversation corrupts good character (1 Cor. 15). Sixtus also says: "A foul
tongue is an indication of a bad mind: "Your tongue follows your sense, a word without
sense is a reproach. Augustine also says to Nepotianus: "It is your duty, dearest, not only to
keep your eyes chaste, but also your tongue: never move your body to lust, to jokes or
empty words, and never move your tongue." "Sixtus also says: "Vain speech is the index of a
vain conscience: As speech is shown, such a mind is also proved. O man, what will you be in
deeds, if you are found dissolute in words? It is no greater glory to speak a note than to be
idle in silence. He is a fool who does not first bring a word to the file of reason, which he
brings up to the tongue of his mouth. A man must first have a scrutiny of his words, before
he usurps the office of speaking. Be careful not to utter words in public, for your verbosity
will bring shame to the uninitiated, and indignation to the expert. The flow of the word
signifies the flow of the mind; and what a man is in his mind, the wordiness of his mouth
depicts. Verbosity turns a man into a clown, transforms him into a mime, casts him down
into a joker, and lowers the dignity of human nature. The tongue must be curbed, as James
says (chapter 3), which sets the wheel of our birth on fire. Now the wheel of our birth is the
present life, which, from the earliest age, revolves in manifold volubility. It is inflamed by
the mobility of the tongue in youth to jokes, in manhood to fraud, in old age to detractions.
That spark must be calmed so that it does not escape into flame; let not the shoot grow into
the forest; let not a drop swell the abundance of the torrent. It is better to restrain the
tongue than to seize the city, because it insults the former internally, the latter externally.
Here arms are taken up against you for your own sake, but there it is fought for a stranger.
However, it is the greatest shame and dejection that a single member cannot be restrained,
that a lowly one cannot subjugate a slave to himself. If the tongue is placed in the wet, it
stops by constancy; if he wants to go out, he must be restrained by restraint, the lock of
reason must be attached, the file of discretion must be circumcised. If a bit is imposed on a
horse so that it does not run away against the rider where there is only bodily danger, much
more must a bit be put on the tongue, through which danger threatens the soul. Better is
true simplicity than abundant eloquence: better is holy rusticity than sinful eloquence. He is
easily despised who is most frequently not called upon to be resolved into chatter.
Accustom yourself, therefore, to speak your tongue well; precious is the language which
knows how to construct words only about divine things; and the mouth is holy, from which
heavenly words are always uttered. Consider that you will give an account of every idle
word: But a word is idle (Matthew 12), as Gregory says, "which lacks either the benefit of
rectitude, or the reason of just necessity." Verbosity is a seed that does not bear fruit, an
infatuated salt that serves as a sauce for nothing, but rather makes the ground sterile
because it turns the audience into laughter. Do not, man, strive for a plurality of words, but
for a fruitful brevity of sentences, because, as Jerome says, striving for brevity, you need not
say more. And if you have chastity in mind, do not pollute it with dishonest talk, "show
yourself wise, not by talking and running away, but by keeping silent and sitting." » Garrulus
is never ashamed to speak, he does not consider what, but how much he says, he does not
measure the abundance of sentences but the abundance of words. Moderate speech is holy
reverence, immoderate speech is a mark of indecency. Some, in order to indulge in
verbosity, unwittingly point to the Scriptures, which they do not understand, and when they
have persuaded others, they assume the brow of the learned. In truth, chatter is to be
avoided, like poisonous animals, who infatuate others by their verbosity, and imprudently
belch things that are neither useful to themselves nor to others; and, as Hieronymus says:
"Some bear the most odious rumours, and say that they have heard what has come out of
their own lips." Some are talkative and chatty against others, but for themselves they are
tongue-tied and dumb. Verbosity is the mirror of the mind, and the chattering tongue is the
letter of the heart. Hear what the Gospel says: A good man brings forth good things from the
good treasure of his heart (Matthew 12). Solomon also says: Sin is not lacking in many
words, and he who controls his lips is most prudent (Prov. 10). He who guards his mouth
guards his soul; but he who is inconsiderate will feel evil (Prov. 13). A wise man will be
silent until the time, but a lascivious and imprudent or shameless man will not keep the
time. Also David said: A man with a tongue will not be ruled in the land (Ps. 138). And
Gregory: A man of tongues is ignorant, a wise man uses few words. Short talk makes
knowledge, much talk is foolishness. Listen at the beginning, speak last, the end has more
honor; the last word is better than the first.
<3+> CHAPTER XXVII. Against lying.

He who wishes to avoid the perdition of falsehood, should inform himself of these opinions;
it is read in the Gospel: You shall not bear false witness (Matthew 19). And Paul said:
Putting away falsehood, speak the truth each one to his neighbor (Eph. 4). Solomon also
says: He who lies is a fraudulent witness. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord: but
those who act faithfully are pleasing to him (Prov. 12). A lying mouth kills the soul (Wisdom
1). And David said: You will destroy all who speak lies (Psal. 5). Also Isidore says:
Everything that is inconsistent with the truth is iniquity. O man, how much you differ from
the highest truth, while you work with falsehoods! how do you think you will come to the
truth, if you are in words dissenting from the truth, I do not know with what conscience one
asks God in that language with which he belched a lie. There is no sin in which the
conscience is so troubled, and the mark of lying. Since every mortal sin alienates man from
the truth, there is no greater evil than lying, which derogates from the truth of nature. This
is the vice that comments on false evidence, fabricates flattery, discovers fraud, and
completes deceptions. Through this defect one speaks with heart and mouth, and diverges
in himself. He says with his mouth what he holds in his heart. Through this defect, the heart
contradicts the heart, the mouth meets the heart. This vice breeds heresy; it creates
schisms, generates suspicions, invents unheard rumors, colors scandals, cloaks to be
exposed, exposes to cover up. This assists in perjury, assists in dishonest actions, tends
against all things according to the natural law for the benefit of the neighbors, while also
attacking the truth itself. This contains in itself the rust of such malice, that it cannot be
excused by any reason. Natural piety does not pay this debt to midwives (Exod. 1); not in
the reasonable timidity of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9), not in Peter's error of mind (Matthew
26), not in Ananias' providence of necessity (Acts 5). There is no sin that so aspires to
deceit, tends to fraud, looks to deception, longs for betrayal, as the vice of lying, the crime of
falsehood. O children of men, how heavy-hearted are you that you love vanity and seek
falsehood (Ps. IV)? You are too willing to follow the vanity of our nature, who, even in word,
exchange the truth. But if the fault was only in the lie, there will be no lack of punishment in
the truth in the future; and he who is now false by lying, will in the future be true in hell.
You know that you imitate the devil through lies, the father of lies, who did not stand in the
truth, but fell through the vanity of pride. His children are those who depart from the truth.
His accomplices are those who indulge in falsities. O man, if there is falsity in your lie, the
truth will be in your fault. O pitiable effect of lying, which brings true punishment as a result
of a false statement. O what imprudence, O what folly, to bear the blows of eternal
punishment for a word of falsehood! How much it deviates from the duty of the tongue,
which is stained with the dirt of lies! A man of his own birth expresses the wheel when he
slips by the offense of falsity. O man, if you want to beware of lying words, turn your tongue
to the truth, turn away from the scurrility of words. A lie is a service which turns the whole
mass of speech into self-bitterness. It is a triple lie: a lie of vanity, a lie of falsehood, and a lie
of intention. Of the first it is said: Every man spoke vain things to his neighbor, etc. (Psal.
11.) Of the second it is said: Every man is a liar (Psal. 255). Regarding the third: You will
destroy all who speak lies (Psal. 5). First pitiable, second guilty, third abominable. First of
punishment, second of guilt, third of malice. The first innate, the second conceived, the third
developed.

<3+> CHAPTER XXVIII. Against withdrawal.

These authorities provide a remedy against withdrawals; Hieronymus says: "When some
deed is invented by a malefactor, the reputation of another is troubled." He said the same
thing: You cannot justly criticize others for what you do yourself; nor can you plead
pretense, when you yourself are held guilty. Also: Be careful not to have an itchy tongue or
ears, that is to say, don't bite others, or hear others bite. "Do not detract from anyone, and
do not consider yourself holy in it, if you tear others, if you wound others with your
detractions. This is not to make amends, but to satisfy your vice. » Also: It is inconsistent
with the body and the tongue to wander through the whole world. Be careful that while
criticizing faults, you incur the fault of detraction. Also: Complaining is the class of slaves,
and no matter how much they are troubled, it is less for them. for they do not consider what,
but how much is given, and they comfort their pain only by deductions. The same: "He who
often detracts from others offends many; it is shameful to tear apart those who are absent,
and to describe another's life; He is less eloquent than he who excuses himself by another's
error. "The detractor wears the image of a scorpion, because like a scorpion he prefers the
face of a virgin, and consequently sends out a sting, and inflicts a sharp wound from above;
thus the detractor puts forth favorable words in the face of men, and in secret concludes the
sting of detraction, and as if wounded by a superior, detracts from better ones. Oh man,
what do you think about yourself while you're shaking the arrow of withdrawal? The first
arrow returns to you, and the wound is inflicted on you before others. You do not want to
hide the enormity of your fact, who want to veil it by someone else's deduction. While you
detract from people, you make them suspicious, you make yourself odious to all, and those
whom you ought to befriend with honest words, you seek to make them enmity with the
poison of detraction. While you strive to corrupt others, you infect yourself more deeply;
and what you comment on others is false, you find the truth in yourself. Of detractors it is
said: Their throat is an open grave, etc. (Psal. 5, 13.) The sepulchre, whited on the outside,
holds the stench of a corpse within; thus the detractor, wanting to color his inner malice,
goes out into the bite of detraction. But by this rather the sepulchre is opened, and the
stench of inward malice comes forth. Detractors bear the image of dogs; who bark
indiscriminately and inflict bites on everyone. These are the ones who find a knot in the
sliver, a spot in the immaculate, a corner in the round, darkness in the bright. This is the
plague of hypocrites, the bite of the envious; that plague spares no one, increases guilt,
diminishes grace, errs against the neighbor, sins against the Holy Spirit. The Scribes and
Pharisees, thundering against this malignant plague, said: In Beelzebub, the prince of
demons, he casts out demons (Luke 12, Mark 3). And others cried out: You are a Samaritan,
and you have a demon (John 8). O man, what benefit is there in deduction? What is the use
of a bad tooth? As long as you believe that you are harming your neighbor, you approach his
honor more; because he is wont to be taken away from good things, and he has turned into
virtue the injury of a bruise. For the cursed tongue is disdained to practice malice in vices,
and it arms itself entirely to diminish the justice of its neighbor, and thus it polishes
another's reputation with the rust of its own detraction, and by its own mortification it
cleanses and exalts the glory of another. Detraction predicts envy, exposes the malignity of
the mind; and that which is inwardly unknown, vomits outwardly through the poison of
withdrawal. O man, if you argue with an argument in measure, rebuke as a precaution, not
that the neighbor may be offended, but that he may be corrected. Argue, not to cover up
your own deed, but to heal another's wound. Deductions belong to clowns, who flatter
themselves to embezzle money; those who defraud in order to stimulate the rich to make
largesse; who, by flattery, play harps in the ears of the mighty; those who weigh the praises
beside the gifts of the tables, who acquire by deductions what they cannot by virtues. The
tongue of these which hunts for food will be food for eternal fire; and that which attracts
gifts by withdrawal, the punishment of hell shall be withdrawn. Detraction is inimical to the
mother of the virtues, that is, to charity; which he flees from himself, who seals up his
neighbor by detraction, because the Holy Spirit escapes the figment of detraction, the lie
abhors reproof, the sin of detraction. He who offends the Holy Spirit hardly finds a place for
forgiveness, neither here nor in the future. O man, who art ashes and dust, on which
forehead, on which brow, permeated with the character of shame, dost thou dare to spew
the poison of detraction into the better, or to bear the judgment of the judge in a less evil, or
a little? If you judge your neighbor unjustly, you will be judged justly by a greater one:
instead of the judgment of detraction, you will feel the judgment of eternal damnation.

<3+> CHAPTER XXIX. An exhortation to prayer.

This is the doctrine of prayer: Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive
(Matthew 21). Pray for one another that you may be saved; for the constant supplication of
the just is worth much (James 5). The Lord is far from the wicked, and will hear the prayers
of the righteous (Prov. 15). Before prayer, prepare your soul, and do not be like a man who
tempts God (Eccl. 18). God will hear the supplication of the injured (Ecclesiastes 35). Son, do
not despise yourself in your weakness, but pray to God, and he will take care of you. Get up
from your bed, turn away from sin, and direct your hands, spend night and day in prayers
and readings, and when sleep has fallen from your eyes, then your senses will awaken in
prayer. As it is not proper for a soldier to go out to war without arms, so it is not proper for
any Christian to proceed without prayer. Hence Hieronymus: "Prayer is the weapon of one
coming out of the hospital." The more we are oppressed by the tumult of carnal thoughts,
the more fervently we must insist on prayer. It is better to pray with the silence of the heart,
than with words alone, without the insight of the mind; for the benefit of chanting comforts
the sadness of the heart. He must have such a passion for praying to God that he does not
despair of obtaining an effect from his prayers. We pray in vain if we do not have the
confidence of hope. He who turns away from the commandments of God will not deserve
what he asks for in prayer. Caesarius said: So we must devote ourselves to prayer and
reading, so that sometimes we can also exercise something with our hands. Just as
poisonous animals drive away stronger herbs or pigments, so clean speech drives away
dirty thoughts. Do not, O man, distort prayer by any circumstance; eternal desires, not
temporal ones. If you ask for earthly things, your speech lacks substance; if it is not from
charity, it lacks form: ask therefore piously that the prayer may be informed; persistently,
so that the intention is rooted; and those things which refer to eternal salvation, that they
may adhere to a stable foundation. Do not ask excessively, lest your prayer be turned into a
sin, like the prayer of Judas. Do not ask out of resentment, like the sons of Zebedee, who
asked Christ to send fire down from heaven to destroy the Samaritans (Luke 9). For these
did not demand it from a view of justice, but from the love of revenge. If you pray, exclude
from your mind the tumult of thoughts, close the door of your mind, enter the chamber of
your heart. When you pray to God, preserve the sweetness of your perfume, lest the dying
flies destroy the sweetness of the holy thyme (Eccl. 10); that is, be careful not to interfere in
your prayer with wrong thoughts, which destroy the merit of the prayer. If you offer the
sacrifice of prayer to God, drive the birds away from the sacrifice with Abraham (Gen. 15),
so that they do not lie in wait for the victims and infect them; for it is to be feared lest
impure thoughts spoil the sweetness of the proposed prayer. For there are many who have
God in their mouth and the devil in their mind; who praise God with their voice, but
blaspheme with their mind, and when the tongue is in hymns, the mind is in skates; and
what they admit with the mouth, they distrust in the heart. Such, as far as it is in them, mock
God, blaspheme the divine majesty, and, when they pray for the remission of the sins of the
tongue, do not hesitate to retain them in their minds. Nay, there are some who pollute the
mouth in prayer, and infect the soul. Of these Seneca says: Now how great is the madness of
men! They utter the most wretched vows to God, and if any one removes his ear, they will
cease: what men do not want to know, they tell God. "Live so with men, as if God sees, so
speak with God, as if men hear." O man, if you want to be heard, ask in a dignified manner,
so you will ask God to give what belongs to God. Now there is a certain dangerous prayer in
which we ask for evil, such as was the prayer of Judas the betrayer, because he asked for the
betrayal of the Saviour. Another profitable thing, by which temporal things are requested,
such as was the request of the sons of Zebedee, by which they asked that one should sit at
the right hand, and the other at the left of God, in his kingdom, which they believed would
reign temporarily (Matthew 20). There is another unfruitful one, by which someone
obstinately asks for eternal salvation, of which it is said: Not everyone who says to me, Lord,
Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7). There is another fruitful one in which
nothing is left out of contingencies, of which it is said: Whatever you ask the Father in my
name, it will be done for you (Mark 11, John 16). Where the deity of the name is meant
rather than the name of the deity. He truly asks in the name of Jesus, who asks with a
salutary intention, and for eternal salvation. This alone pleads before the judge, and he
speaks before the heavenly Prince. It is said of this in the Songs of Love: What is this that
ascends through the desert like a stick of smoke from the spices of myrrh and myrrh and all
the pigment powder? (Cant. iii.) For this truly ascends, which penetrates paradise and
ascends even to the throne of God. This is elegantly called a rod, and straight, because as a
rod is directed from straight to high, so a fruitful prayer is not bent towards the earthly, but
is directed inflexibly to the heavenly. And it is elegantly compared to smoke, because just as
smoke rising from a fire tends to a height, so a fruitful prayer arising from a chimney of
charity goes up to a height. It is also said to ascend elegantly through the desert, because the
mind through which such a prayer is poured out is separated from all the noise of wrong
thoughts. This is from the spices of myrrh and myrrh. This brings a fragrance, myrrh
bitterness. By frankincense, therefore, is signified the devotion of the mind; through myrrh,
the bitterness of repentance. Therefore, from the bitterness of repentance for sins, and the
fragrance of internal devotion, the perfume of prayer must be evident. Because whoever
desires to pray fruitfully, it is necessary that he repents of his sins, and reeks of mental
devotion by praying. And all the pigment powders. Christ is pigmentary, who illuminates his
virtues with different pigments, and becomes intoxicated as if by pigmentary nectar. The
whole of this pigmentary powder is a manifold virtue, of which we must make the ointment
of prayer.

<3+> CHAPTER 30 Of compunction, or contrition.

By these authorities one may be informed of remorse and contrition of heart; the prophet
said: "Rend your hearts and not your clothes" (Joel. 2). And John: Do penance, for the
kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 3.) And the Psalmist: A sacrifice to God the spirit has
contributed (Psal. 5). Also St. Augustine: "He who does not have remorse does not have
clean speech." And St. Isidore: "First the sins we have committed must be cleansed with
tears, and then with a cleansed mind we can contemplate what we seek." » Contrition of the
heart is humility of mind with tears, from the remembrance of sin, and love of judgment,
and fear of judgment. That is the more perfect effect of remorse, which repels from itself all
the affections of carnal desires, and fixes its intention with all the earnestness of its mind on
the contemplation of God. The soul of the elect is also affected by twin remorse, that is,
while it considers the evils of its works, or while it sighs with longing for eternal life. There
are four qualities of affections to which the mind of the righteous is healthfully composed.
The first is the memory of past events; the second, the consideration of his pilgrimage in
this life; the third, the remembrance of his punishments; fourthly, the longing for the
heavenly country, in so far as it is possible to reach it sooner. For the tears of penance are
counted with God as baptism. Love tears, and be as much inclined to lamentation as you
were to guilt Great sins require great lamentation: but blessed is he who has remorse
according to God. Repentance is the health of the soul, remorse is the remission of sins,
remorse is the second plan after the shipwreck, the second medicine after the remedy for
sin. Repentance is the spiritual wash of internal regeneration, without which baptism is not
valid for adults; without which, the body of Christ is taken to judgment; without which
confession is fruitless, without which satisfaction is empty. This is the water that cleanses
the mind, enriches the intention, irrigates the confession, and satisfies the soul. This is the
water which drowned the Egyptians, that is, it extinguished the first movements. This is a
spiritual flood, which kills all flesh, that is, it extinguishes all carnal thought. Now there is a
triple washing, baptism, penance and martyrdom. It is the first of the ingredients, the
second of those who return, the third of those who arrive. Of the first it is said: Wash
yourselves, be ye clean (Isa. 1). Of the second it is said: Wash me further from my iniquity
(Psal 5) Of the third: They washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb (Apoc. 7). The first
washing is represented by the sprinkling which was done in the Old Testament from living
waters; the second by the sprinkling of ashes; the third, by the blood of a red calf (Num. 19) .
For what is living water but baptism? What is the sprinkling of ashes, but the humility of
remorse, by which a man shows himself to be ashes, and sits in ashes and sackcloth? What is
the blood of the red calf, but martyrdom, reddened with blood, which had efficacy from the
passion of Christ? Thus, therefore, baptism is threefold: river baptism, which takes place in
water; the baptism of the spirit which takes place in repentance, by the grace of the Holy
Spirit; the baptism of blood, which takes place in the struggle of martyrdom. By the first
man is clothed with the first garment; by the second, the deformed is renewed; by the third,
the second is prepared. In the first, the old man is destroyed; in the second, the inner man is
renewed; in the third, the flesh dies. It is the first of all, the second of many, the third of a
few. O happy wash of penitence, which serves to cleanse as often as the human heart needs
cleansing. This is the herb of the heavenly washerman, with which he cleans the dirty
clothes of his people. This is the heavenly soda which, coming down from the dew of divine
grace, boiled by the sun of justice, wipes away the stains of sins. This is the lye in which the
head of the inner man, that is, the mind, is washed, springing from the worms of vice, which
is made of the ashes of humility and the water of remorse. This is the only consolation
against the ruins of men, which, vicarious for Christ's passion, brings a remedy against sins,
so that Christ is not forced to die as often as man slips into the abyss of sin. This is spiritual
circumcision, which takes place through the rock, Christ, through which the foreskin of the
flesh is cut off, that is, the lust for carnal impurity. If, then, you are wrecked in the abyss of
sin, cling to the tablets of brokenness, this excludes the wreck, this brings you to port. Enter
your consciousness, study it; first consider the state of your prudence; if the sight bends you
through concupiscence, if the throat through gluttony, if the hearing through an unnerving
melody, or the spontaneous hearing of withdrawal, and if the tongue is lame in speech, if the
sense of smell errs in the smell, if the touch errs in theft, if the step deviates from the plane;
if you find fault in these or in any of these, wash it away with a mark of remorse; according
to the amount of dirt, measure the amount of ablution; according to the magnitude of the
disease, use the measure of medicine; next to the excess of guilt, the weight of the progress
of revenge. But penitence is called from punishing, because the guilt which is punished by
crushing is obliterated; But the mother and origin of repentance is fear, which conceives
repentance and gives birth to contrition. Wherefore Isaiah: From thy fear, O Lord, we
conceived, and gave birth to the spirit of salvation (Isa. 26). Repentance, then, is to weep
past sins, and not to commit tears; for he who thus weeps for other things, so as to commit
others again, is still either ignorant of doing penance, or conceals it. For what does it profit
anyone if, for example, he weeps for the sins of lust, and still pants for the waves of avarice?
Isidore says: He is mocking and unrepentant, who still does what he repents of. nor does it
seem that the subject seeks God, but is proud to blaspheme. A dog returning to vomit (Prov.
26) is a penitent returning to sin. Many weep unceasingly, and do not cease to sin. I see that
some receive tears for penitence, and I see that they have no feeling of penitence, because
they shed tears through the righteousness of the mind, not from the remembrance of sin;
Here ended our most ancient model, with the word: Explicit. In another model, however, all
the following were subjoined.

<3+> CHAPTER XXXI. On the confession of sins.

Authorities: Confess your sins to one another (James 5). And elsewhere: I said: I will confess
my injustice against myself to the Lord (Psal. 31). Job also says: I will speak in the bitterness
of my soul (Job X). For he speaks in the bitterness of his soul, who confesses sin with his
mouth according to the brokenness of his heart. The apostle also says: With the heart it is
believed unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom.
10). In the Old Testament it was commanded that a man cured of leprosy should show
himself to the priest (Lev. 14). By which it is shown that the penitent, cured of spiritual
leprosy by contrition, is obliged to show himself to the priest by confession. You, therefore,
confess your sins that you may be absolved, accuse that you may be excused. If at present
you are not your own accuser, you will have three accusers on the day of judgment: God the
accuser and judge, conscience the accuser and punisher, the devil the accuser and punisher.
This is the difference between the judge of the sole and the pole: he who accuses himself
before the judge of the sole is considered guilty, but with the judge of the pole he who
confesses his sin is acquitted. With the judge alone, the report of the crime or the removal
takes place. For the guilty person who removes the crime from himself, or refers it to
another, is excused in a certain way, but he who attributes the crime to himself before the
judge of the pole, and neither refers it to another, nor ascribes the cause of the sin to fortune
or fate, is excused. Now there can be a fourfold confession, namely, a confession of
extortion, a confession of despair, a confession of contrition, and a confession of praise. It is
a confession of extortion, which in a certain way proceeds from extortion, such as that by
which the demons confessed the Son of God, saying: Jesus, son of the living God, why did
you come before the time to destroy us? (Matthew 8.) The confession of despair is that
which Judas confessed, saying: I have sinned by betraying righteous blood (Matthew 27),
and Cain: My iniquity is greater than to deserve forgiveness (Gen. 4). It is a confession of
repentance, which comes from repentance, of which James says: Confess your sins to one
another (James 5). It is a confession of praise, by which we confess the goodness of God,
saying: Confess to the Lord that he is good (Ps. 135), with which Christ also confessed,
saying: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matthew 11). Now the confession
of sin is twofold, one general, the other special. The general one, which takes place every
day in the morning and evening sacrifice, that is, in the completory, for the venial and
hidden; a special one which is done for mortals and manifest ones: to which the clergy are
bound every Sabbath, but the laity are bound to confess specially three times a year; that is
to say, at Christmas, at Easter, and at Pentecost. This was figured in the old law, by the fact
that the children of Israel were commanded to offer themselves to the Lord three times a
year in Jerusalem, and not empty. Thus we are commanded to offer ourselves to God three
times a year by confession in the spiritual Jerusalem, that is, in the Church, and not be
empty of good works. But nowadays it has prevailed, so that hardly a layman or cleric
confesses once a year, and while he confesses, it is to be feared that he may not confess,
rather to satisfy custom, than from brokenness of heart. Negligence keeps some from
confession, some shame, some wrong custom, some fear of being forced to give satisfaction;
some have the purpose of living in crime. These are the ranunculi, which, thrown into the
dog's mouth, render the dog dumb. It is asserted by some that Calamity is a frog living in
reeds, which, if thrown into a dog's mouth, renders the dog mute. A dog is an unclean
sinner, whose barking, or the sound of confession, is taken away by the aforesaid plagues,
like ranunculus thrown into a dog's mouth. These are the Allophyles who stopped
Abraham's well (Gen. 26). By Abraham's well is signified confession, from which the
believer draws water springing up to eternal life: the aforesaid plagues prevent this, lest a
man should draw the water of salvation from the well of confession. This is the cistern of
Bethlehem, which the Philistines besiege, from which David desires to drink (2 Kings 23);
because the believer, represented by David, desires the water of confession and salvation;
but the wedge of the Philistines, that is, the multitude of the aforesaid plagues, besieges it,
and prevents the faithful from being able to draw it. Now the confession must be universal,
not particular, so that confession is made of known sins in particular, and of unknown sins
in general; for it is of pious minds to consider fault where there is no fault, and to recognize
it by confession where it is not manifest, by recognition. Because as forgiveness is universal,
so must confession be universal; for the grace of the Holy Spirit knows not the slow troubles
of things; for whom he heals, he heals the whole. Three things must occur in order for the
confession to be true: namely, the breaking of the heart, the profession of the mouth, and
the satisfaction of the work. Wherefore, if any of these were lacking, it is not a confession,
but only an opening of the mouth: for a confession is a complicated proposition, and marks
three things. This is the way of three days through which we must go into the wilderness,
that is, to tend to the heavenly country, that we may sacrifice to our God.

<3+> CHAPTER 32 On repentance, or satisfaction.

Make fruits worthy of repentance (Matthew 3). And elsewhere it is said: Do penance, for the
kingdom of heaven is near (ibid.). And Job: I will do penance in embers and ashes (Job 47).
External repentance, therefore, had its beginning from Christ through preaching, from Job
as an example through satisfaction, from David through teaching and instruction, who says:
You alone have I sinned, etc. (Psa. 90). But the fruits of penance are remedies, prayers,
fasting, psalms, vigils, offerings, readings, almsgiving, and harshness of habit. Against the
disease of lust, prayers and fasting are medicines; prayers that God may moderate the fire of
concupiscence with the dew of heavenly grace; fasting, that they may punish the beast of
our flesh. This kind of demon is not cast out except by prayer and fasting. Psalms and
readings are effective against the sin of laziness, so that the mind is roused from torpor and
learns to repel idleness and pursue serious matters. Alms, too, is a remedy against avarice:
thinness of life against avarice; because, as Gregory testifies: "Opposites care for opposites."
Therefore, seven principal virtues are to be opposed to the seven principal vices. Against
pride, humility; against envy, charity; against anger, patience, long-suffering; against apathy,
cheerfulness of mind; against avarice, generosity; against crass, sobriety; against luxury,
chastity. As we sin three times, we must repent three times. Because we sin in thought;
against this disease let us use the remedy of brokenness; because with the mouth, let us use
the antidote of confession; because by work we oppose the medicine of satisfaction. Now
there is a twofold penance: one is momentary and transitory, the other is persevering and
permanent. The first is insufficient for the obliteration of sin, the second is sufficient for
remission. The first is imperfect, the second perfect. Isidore says of the first: "He who does
what he repents is a scoffer and does not repent." It is said of the perseverant that penance
should not end until death. For the sinner, through penance, must offer as many holocausts
of satisfaction from himself, as he had offered from himself to the devil for his vices; that our
flesh, which before brought forth the thorns and thistles of vice, may be extirpated through
penitence to the growth of virtues. And just as our sins are always to be kept in memory to
be blotted out, so penance is to be remembered; that penitence may give birth to memory,
memory may elicit pain. He must be placed in this purgatory fire at present, lest he be
peremptorily tortured in the flames of hell. It is a threefold fire, purgative, proving, and
peremptory; it is a purgatory, a satisfaction, a proving trial; peremptory, eternal damnation.
Of the first it is said: He will purify us in spirit and fire (Matthew 3). Of the second it is read:
You have examined us with fire (Psal. 16). Regarding the third: Go into eternal fire
(Matthew 25) Now there is a double purgatory fire, one on the way, that is, penance, the
other after life, that is, purgatory punishment. If we are cleansed in the first, we are freed in
the second and third; if we do not experience the first, we shall feel the second, nay (which
is more serious!) peremptory. The first purgatory excludes a double fire, that is, the second
purgatory and the eternal peremptory one. For the first purgatory is, as it were, the shadow
and image of the second; because, just as the shadow and image of material fire brings no
pain, but the material fire itself brings torment or ardor; so the fire of penance has nothing
of bitterness compared to the second purgatory. Because, as Augustine says, the
punishment of purgatory is much more severe than any temporal punishment. O man, the
patience of God invites you to repentance, power to fear, kindness to love. Consider how
much power there is to punish, how much patience to repent! see how pious he is, who
gives you room to repent. He no longer wants the death of the sinner, but that he be
converted and live (Ezek. 33) . And all this proceeds from his sweetness and love. Because
the Father chastises every son whom he receives (Heb. 12), or loves.

<3+> CHAPTER 33 Of almsgiving.

Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the needy and the homeless into your house
(Isa. 58). And elsewhere: Give alms, and all things are clean to you (Luke 11). Also: Give
yourself to everyone who asks (Luke 6). Also: Blessed is he who foresees the hand that will
perish. Also: If you see someone starving and do not help, you have killed. O man, alms is the
condiment of fasting, the ornament of prayer, the adornment of vigils, the sign of generosity,
and the special remedy for sin. To this Christ invites you, by the example of the poor, giving
all things, by the word preaching the works of mercy. From this, no poverty excuses you. If
you cannot give money, give a piece of bread; if you can't do that, at least have a drink of
cold water. If you cannot help your neighbor by deed, help him by word, or by interceding
for him, or instructing him. For alms is manifold, from the hand, giving to the poor; from
office, by ministering; by the tongue, instructing the neighbor, or interceding for him; from
the heart, sympathizing with the sinner, or forgiving injuries. Now some alms are ordered,
and some are unordered. They are ordered, which are formed by their circumstances;
disordered, which are deprived of the same. The circumstances of almsgiving are these:
Who, what, how much, to whom, where, when, why. Who, whether he be rich or poor, is
more acceptable to the alms of the poor than to the rich. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel
(Mark 12) that the poor woman who put two minutes into the treasury put more than the
rich who put in large sums. By whom is also meant whether he is just or unjust. For if a just
person gives alms, it is valid for both; But if the unjust give alms, it is good for him to escape
punishment, not to merit glory. By what means, it is insinuated that alms should be given
from one's own, not from another's. For it is not from theft or robbery that alms is properly
made; because, as the authority says: "To give alms from the substance of the poor, this is to
kill the son in the sight of the father" (Ecclesiastes 34). In so far as it is shown that not the
whole is to be distributed to one, but many are to be distributed in parts to many. By which
it is hinted that alms should be given to the poor rather than to the rich, to a kinsman or
kindred rather than to a stranger; rather to the householders of the faith than to the
disciples. Wherefore, to insinuate how much and to whom, it is said: He scattered, he gave to
the poor (Ps. 111), where, of course, in the open for the instruction of others, yet far
removed from all human praise. Wherefore the Lord said: Let your works shine before men,
that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5). When: in time of need.
Why: in view of God, not earthly gain, or human favor. Alms is the heavenly dew,
extinguishing the furnace of sin; which alone will allege before God, which alone will allege
for you before the district judge. For what will the blessed be praised by Christ at the
judgment? that they kept silent? no Because they were continent? not at all Because the
police were watching? not at all, but because they gave attention to alms. Alms bears the
similitude of oil, fasting of light. For as a light is extinguished by drawing oil, so fasting
without alms is deprived of the power of merit. He who refuses to give alms to the needy is
subject to the special and natural precept in which it is said, ``Whatever you want men to do
to you, do you to them'' (Matt. 7). Now there is a threefold almsgiving, cold, lukewarm, and
hot. It is cold, which is not done by the instinct of natural piety or the fervor of charity, but
only by human favor; it is lukewarm, which is done by the instinct of natural piety, as that
which is done to unbelievers by the movement of natural affection; but warm, which is done
by the heat of charity. The first deserves punishment, the second avoids it, the third
achieves glory. Almsgiving should be done not only for superfluities, but also for necessities.
Hence it was said: He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none (Luke 3).
Therefore he mentions a tunic, not a cloak, because a tunic is more necessary; to insinuate
that we are bound to give not only what is superfluous, but also what is necessary. This was
made clear in the blessed confessor Martinus, who, with the harshness of the time, gave to
the poor a portion of the shawl in which he was only clothed. There are some who give to
the poor what was scarcely to be exposed to swine, by whom they think that their sins have
been expunged; and this is, as it were, blasphemy against God, to honor unworthy gods, and
to offer heavenly pearls which are to be avoided by swine.

<3+> CHAPTER XXXIV. Of fasting.

The prophet warns (Joel. 2) that the penitents should fast, and weep, and mourn. And the
Lord said: When you fast, do not become sad like the hypocrites (Matthew 6). Gregory also
says that the sinner must also indulge in fasting, so that God may one day turn his heart to
repentance. Fasting soaks the flesh, elevates the soul, curbs the fuel of concupiscence, and
awakens reason. By fasting, Moses earned the conversation of God, Daniel the interpretation
of dreams, Elijah the support, Ninevites the forgiveness of sins. Christ gave us an example of
fasting, who fasted in the desert for forty days and forty nights (Matthew 4). However,
fasting of the body is not beneficial without fasting of the mind; otherwise it is deceptive
and deceptive. For what good is it, if the mouth fasts from food, while the tongue is
dissolved in lies? while the eye feasts in vain? Are the ears delighted in stories, the noses
idle in scents? Does the touch run on the plains, the hand in rapture, the foot out of the
ordinary way? The other senses fast with taste, so that those who were companions of
pleasures may be companions of passions. Now there is a multiple fast, a fast of habit, which
is not done from charity, but from habit alone, lest a man be seen to be sailing against the
public. He only succeeds in this, that he may avoid a wrong example, that he may not give
offense. It is a fast of avarice and covetousness, where the stomach is emptied so that the
pocket is filled, and this is destructive. It is a fast of infirmity, that health may follow; and
this is indifferent, because there is neither good nor evil. There is also a fast of gluttony and
gluttony, so that food may be taken more passionately: and this is the worst. It is fasting for
praise and appearance, which hypocrites use to obtain human praise: and this is evil. It is a
fast of want and necessity, by which the poor fast: and this is indifferent. It is a fasting of
compulsion, which many cloisters use; and that is insufficient. Leaving the rest, then, of the
fasts, we must aspire to that which is of charity: by which the body is chastised, the spirit
commands, and thus man lives as an angel. For by fasting a man becomes a spirit, by
moderate food a man; by surplus, cattle. But there are many circumstances of fasting, which
shape the fasting itself, namely: From whom, where, when, and why. For what is the use of
fasting from food, if what he loses in time he recovers in pleasure or in quantity? For at the
time of the meal the fasting person must use a moderate amount of food, in order to help his
neighbor in part, and in this way he afflicts himself in order to refresh his neighbor. It must
also be considered where the custom of the country is to be observed; as, If you were in
Rome, live in Roman fashion. Hence Augustine says: "When I am in Rome, I do not fast on
the Sabbath, but when I am in Milan, I fast." When, as on the appointed days, fasting takes
place. For there are certain days on which it is not necessary to fast, as on Sundays, and on
certain great festivals, on account of scandal. Wherefore, that in the sight of God it should be
done out of charity. There are as many different kinds of fasting as there are from carnal
abstinence. There is fasting in self-control, in abstinence, in humility, in meekness, in
exultation. Augustine says of fasting; Fasting praises you, not belching bowels. » Fasting is
good for the medicine of body and soul. For it preserves the body from disease, the soul
from sin. In this medicine, the heavenly philosophy agrees with the natural. For this
medicine cleanses both the stomach from the vice of sputum, and the soul from indignation.
If Adam had fasted in the garden after being forbidden to eat, he would not have been
condemned to exile (Gen. 3). If Esau had fasted from lentils, he would not have lost his
firstborn (Gen. 25). If Noah had fasted from wine, he would not have bared his thighs or his
shame (Gen, 2). Therefore, by fasting the body is purified in order to receive the Eucharist
sacramentally; spirit, to receive spiritually. This should be a prelude to the reception of the
Eucharist. Therefore let man despise material food in the present, lest in the future he
should feel the fire of hell. There are these three things which shape fasting, good intention,
the giving of alms, and the burning of charity. If the flesh desires delicious food, let man
consider, because it does not matter where the material of the manure comes from. If the
flesh wants to anticipate the hour of lunch, let it take refuge in the asylum of exercise, lest
idleness excite the appetite, and increase the appetite. O man, if you consider the ancient
fathers, who used only thin food twice or once a week, your fasting would seem to you to be
no or little. But, if you are not moved by the examples of the ancients, let at least be moved
by the childhood of blessed Nicholas, who only sucked the breasts once on Wednesdays or
Fridays. Let him be ashamed that he did not fast as an adult, while he sees that he fasted as a
child. The example of little children gives us confusion, while infants and children correct
us.

<3+> CHAPTER 35 Information to watch.

Blessed is that servant whom, when the Lord comes, he finds watching (Luke 22, Matthew
24). Also: If the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would of
course watch, etc. (ibid.) Also: Watch therefore, because you do not know at what hour your
Lord will come (Matthew 24). Again: Watch and pray, that you may not enter into
temptation (Matthew 26). And Solomon: Those who watch in the morning will find me
(Prov. 8). Christ invites us to vigils as an example, spending the night in prayer, watching
over our instruction. The material vigils are to be celebrated for the exercise of the body, to
exclude torpor, to avoid nocturnal illusions, to guard against the slippery passions of the
flesh; to give place to prayer, let the enemy be denied. For every believer must walk around
Solomon's bed like a mighty man (Cant. 3), and keep his sword on his thigh, because of the
fears of the night. Not only with material vigils, but also with spiritual ones should every
faithful provide for the Church of God, which is the bed of Solomon, that is of Christ, in
whom he rests, because it is his delight to be with the sons of men (Prov. 8). He must also
hold a sword on his thigh, that is to say as a sword of discretion, to restrain the movements
of the flesh and the attacks of the devil, which are to be avoided and feared most in the
darkness of this world. But spiritual vigils are more to be indulged in than material ones, so
that the mind of each one watches over his flock, that is, the emotions of the soul, lest the
lurking wolf, that is, the devil, force any movement to deviate from the right one. We must
watch that the thief, that is, the devil, does not enter the barrier of our chest through
lasciviousness, the chamber of the mind through laziness, and steal the clothing of the soul,
that is, the ornaments of the virtues. This invisible thief is sometimes a thief, when he rages
through the tyranny of princes: sometimes he infests us like a thief through a heretic; now
as a bird, when it is carried away by pride; now as a wasp, when he is deceived by lust; now
as a lion, when he rages with open ferocity; now as a dragon, when through secret
temptation. There are four parts of the night of sin; The first is said to be untimely, when
someone delights in wrong thinking. The second, contition, when men, that is to say,
rational movements, lie under the seduced will. The third, the song of the rooster, when the
will sounds in the work. Fourthly, the antelucan, when there is work in manifestation. For it
is not without reason that nocturnal vigils have been instituted, by which it is signified that
the night hymns should be raised in the middle of the night, so that even the latter may not
be freed from divine praise, and the material vigil may stir up the spiritual. Let a man be
ashamed to wait his vigils before the rising of the sun, and the cock to indulge in his songs in
the night, while he himself is freed from divine praises. O man, beware of the watchful staff,
lest he find thee asleep; beware of the thief lest he suffocate the torpor. A watch-rod, or a
watch-rod, is a rod by which a thief enters the house, and tries to see whether the master of
the house is asleep, or whether the family is asleep. For if the master of the household
sleeps, all that he finds shall be plundered; if he watches, he runs away. Spiritually, the staff
of the vigils is Christ, of whom Jeremiah says: I see the staff of the vigils (Jer. 2). This is the
one that tries by its own discretion whether the master of the household sleeps in his house,
that is, a man sleeps in his own self-control. If he finds him sleeping, he condemns him; if he
finds a watcher, he does not find in him where he can harm him. Similarly, the devil, who is
a spiritual thief, if he finds a man watching, he flees; if he is sleeping, he robs everything.
Because Ishboseth slept at noon, he was killed by robbers (2 Kings 4); Samson, having fallen
asleep, was taken by his enemies (Judg. 16) ; Sisara was slain by a woman while he was
sleeping (Judg. IV); Gideon killed the sleepy enemies (Judg. 7). Christ, in his imminent
passion, rebuked the sleeping disciples.

<3+> CHAPTER 36 An exhortation to learning.

So learn, as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow. Also the
Apostle: Read the books. And bring the books with you (2 Tim. 4). Likewise Seneca: "Life
without letters is death, and the burial of a living man." Also Hieronymus: "My head was
already sprinkled by the dog, and I saw no end to the study of learning." And elsewhere: "I
prefer to learn from others with shame, than to enter my own shamelessly." Reading
sharpens the senses, multiplies the understanding, prepares the spirit of learning, serves
the eloquence, warms the warmth of the mind, expels torpor, extinguishes the tissues of
lust, arouses the groaning of the heart, elicits tears, makes us close to God. Amorigraphus
says: If you take away idleness, Cupid's bow will perish (Ovid.) If you read, idleness escapes,
the devil finds you occupied Enter the wine-cellar (Cant. II), in which charity is ordered; that
is, read the Scriptures, study the sentences. For in this cell a man is so intoxicated that he is
rendered sober; and when you have read many things, set aside one specially for you, one
that you must ruminate, which will sit more in your heart, and which will be more pleasing
to the palate of your mind. If you approach a lesson, do not leave it for a moment, but stick
to it faithfully, and do not pass on to another as if disgusted; because, as Seneca says: "A
plant that is often transplanted does not recover; and the medicine, often changed, did not
reach the scar of the wound. And if at any time it happens that you are transferred from the
books of theology to the books of earthly philosophy, look, as you pass, whether you
perhaps find in them something that instructs the morals, that is proper to the Catholic
faith, so that those whom the Egyptians rob, the Hebrews may be enriched: and the gold
may be borrowed from the Egyptians, for the building tabernacles and timber for the
building of the temple. The riches of Hiran, king of Tyre, were lavished, and the children of
Israel drank from the wells of the Amorites. And from Goliath's own sword the same
hostility is resounded. And yet we must pass over into a foreign camp, that we may be spies
and strangers, not inhabitants. O man, read for this that you may understand, pay attention
to this that you read; because as the moral philosopher says: "To read and not understand is
to neglect." Consider the words of the philosopher Papilianus, who said: "If I were now to
keep one foot in the grave, I would still want to learn something." Nor should the elder
disdain to learn from the younger, because sometimes it is revealed to the younger that
which is not to the older. And the Apostle said: If it has been revealed to a minor, let the
major be silent (1 Cor. 14). Moses, expert in all the knowledge of the Egyptians, was not
afraid to take advice from Jethro the Gentile. And Solomon, to whom was given the treasure
of knowledge, was not disdained to hear wisdom from the queen of the south. For the water
descends through stone channels into the fields of spices. Plato, a gentile, having endured
many storms, descended into Egypt to read Genesis; and the Christian despises that which
is present, that which is laid down and prepared, that which he himself would instruct. For
the clerics of our time rather follow the schools of Antichrist than of Christ, and are more
devoted to gluttony than to gloss. they collect books rather than read books: they look more
willingly at Martha than at Mark; they prefer to read in Solomon, than in Solomon. It is not
until one: they all declined, together they became useless (Psal. 13). The school of Christ is
already deserted, which is engaged in two things, in life and doctrine; but true life is
despised, doctrine is buried. Once upon a time, even if the good life was not loved, learning
was nevertheless embraced; but there is already the greatest extortion, the greatest
obstinacy, the greatest alienation, when not only good manners are put aside, but also their
decorum, that is, doctrine, is despised. And if by chance one learns, the end does not refer to
God, but to earthly gain, or human favor; who in the lesson does not seek Christ, but money;
earth, not heaven. Such men deflower virgins, that is, they corrupt virginal knowledge,
because they prostitute them for profit, and as much as is in them, they infect them, and
what is worse, they are more monstrous than any monster! students of theology sell their
ears to hear, teachers buy them to expound their knowledge boastfully. Already the
theology is sold as a prostitute, and sits as a harlot in profit. In the past, teachers were held
in high esteem, but now they are rightly considered foolish and foolish. The question is not
what is in the closet of the mind, but what is in the treasury. Who are they who are
honored? the rich Who are those who are despised? doctors Who are those who attend the
palaces of kings? pecuniary Who are those excluded from the court? literate Now the family
of Croesus is honored, the family of Christ is despised. How glorious it is to read, how
fruitful it is to peruse the Scriptures, to search the mind of God, to investigate his
instruction! But every one must read in the triple book; in the book of creatures, that he
may find God; in the book of conscience, that he may know himself; in the book of Scripture,
to love his neighbor.

<3+> CHAPTER 37 Of hospitality.

Paul says: Do not forget hospitality (Hebrews 12). Likewise Peter: Hospital one another
without grumbling (1 Peter 4). And Isaiah: Bring the needy and the vagabond into your
house (Isa. 58). Hence Truth says: I was a guest, and you received me (Matthew 25). O man,
Christ cries out in his limbs at the door, asking for hospitality. Receive the stranger in the
land, that he may receive you rejoicing in the country. Because Abraham received angels
under the guise of guests, he deserved to be given a son (Gen. 18). Because Lot received the
angels as guests, he deserved to be saved from the burning of Sodom (Ibid. 19). The widow
who honored Elijah with the favor of hospitality, deserved the raising of her son (3 Kings,
17). On going to Emmaus, the disciples were enlightened by Christ's teaching, but through
the obedience of hospitality, they deserved to be enlightened more fully and perfectly by
him (Luke 24). O man, if you know that you are a stranger and a stranger in this world, if
you recognize the state of your pilgrimage, you will not deny hospitality to a stranger. For if
you exclude the poor of Christ from the roof, you exclude Christ himself from the hospitality
of your bosom. Hear what he says: What you did for one of the least of these, you did for me
(Matthew 25). But hospitality itself must be joyful, munificent, exhibiting humility, and
embracing generosity. For a great part of honorable hospitality is the serenity of the
countenance. Whence it was said: Above all things, the countenance of the good approach.
The munificence is also a part of hospitality, so that we do not accept the demand of the
defeated with disgust, but also anticipate the duty that has been advanced. For the example
of those who went to Emmaus is not only to invite guests, but to draw them. Humility is also
to be shown to guests, so that the grace of humility, which also completes all hospitality,
may be more acceptable to the obedience which it bestows. Let us therefore receive in a
stranger, him who has sojourned on earth for us from heaven; who came out of the country
for us, there stood a beggar on the road. O happy hospitality, which is presented to Christ in
the poor! O happy bed, in which Christ rests in the body! Happy table, at which man sits,
God in man! O man, among the Gentiles the laws of hospitality are kept, but among the
faithful they are broken. Brute animals rejoice in the coming of their kind, and show them in
a certain way the right of familiarity; but men inhibit the duty of humanity. Let Sidon be
ashamed, says the sea (Isa. 23), let the sea be ashamed to be helped by the rivers. Let the
rational be ashamed of being instructed by the irrational. The sun was shining, warmed by
the fireplace and the torches. But just as the believer is bound to present to Christ in his
members the duty of charity, so he himself is bound to serve Christ as a head in his spiritual
mind. Each one must invite Christ to the house of his mind with the inner cries of his heart,
and prepare a table for him in the house of his mind, with honest and clean thoughts, and
offer him the wine of charity. Thirdly, every believer in Christ must prepare a host, namely,
that he may receive the heavenly Eucharist, the spiritual Eucharist, the Sunday flesh. At the
arrival of such a guest, he cleanses the house of his own body; cleanse it from the dung of
luxury, from the dust of vain glory, from the mud of gluttony; that when he himself arrives,
he calmly deigns to rest there, as he says the same: I and the Father will come and make our
abode with him (John 14); lest the filthiness of the host offend the eyes of such a guest.

<3+> CHAPTER 38 That should be preaching only for the prelates.

It has been said what preaching is, what it should be like, and what it should be about; now
it remains to show whose predication ought to be. The preaching must be of the prelates,
and it must be proposed by them. For to these two belong doctrine and life: doctrine, that
they may instruct others; life, that they may set an example for others to live well. To signify
this, it is commanded that the mouth of the turtle in the sacrifice be reflected to the armpits
(Lev. 1). By the turtle, the simplicity of the preacher is represented; by the reflex to the
armpits, it is understood that the preacher must have in his work what he proposes in his
voice. The same thing is also represented by the curving of the pastoral staff, so that what he
preaches to others, he reflects in himself, by reason of good work. To insinuate these two
things, namely, prudence and a good life, it is said of the steward: Who do you think is a
faithful and prudent servant? etc. (Matthew 24) For the preacher must be faithful, in word
and deed; faithful in his word, lest he mix truths with falsehoods; faithful in his word, lest he
propose a word with a view to human favor; faithful in his word, not to sell preaching for
earthly profit; faithful in his word, lest his words contradict his works. Hence it is said of
false preachers: Our taverns mix water with wine. For those who preach falsehoods with
truths mix water with wine, as heretics do; likewise those who sell the word for human
favor, as hypocrites; those who, through earthly preaching, make money, as hirelings; who
contradict by word and deed, as false Christians. He must also be faithful in what he does, so
that what he does, he does it with the right intention, and makes God the end of the act
itself. Therefore he must be prudent in word and deed. In the word, that he may know what
is to be preached, and what is not. In fact, that he may know to whom and when they are to
be preached; namely, the greater for the greater, the lesser for the lesser. To whom the holy
things of God should not be offered to the unworthy like dogs, and the pearls should not be
handed over to be trampled under the feet of swine (Matthew 7). When, as when he has
spent time, he proposes a word; because as Solomon says: There is a time to speak, and a
time to be silent (Eccl. 3). Knowledge belongs to preachers, that they should be trained in
both Testaments, and be discreet in the examination of sentences, circumspect in what they
say, circumspect in all their actions, despisers of the world, constant in their duty. For
Malachi says of the prelate: The lips of the priests keep knowledge, and they require the law
from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts (Malach. 1). And Jesus the son of
Sirach said: If you have knowledge, answer your neighbor; if not, let your hand be over your
mouth; do not be taken by undisciplined speech (Eccl. 5) In fact, the Gospel saying is to be
greatly feared: If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit (Matthew 15, Luke 6). And
this of the Apostles: he that is ignorant shall be ignorant (1 Cor. 14). And what will the Lord
say to the foolish virgins? Amen I say to you, I do not know you (Matthew 25). And that:
"cursed elementary school old man." Also: A cursed sinner will be a hundred years old (Isa.
65). Now there is a kind of affected ignorance, when someone can know and does not want
to, this is gross and supine, and conquerable, and therefore inexcusable. Of this it is said: He
would not understand that he might do well (Psalm 34). Also: When man was in honor, he
did not understand, he was compared to foolish animals, and became like them (Psal. 48).
This ignorance belongs to the prelates, who slip into ignorance from contempt; from pride
they remain in foolishness: without reason the priests and the prophets; teachers of the
impossible, secret guides. O vile ignorance, abominable stupidity, which imposes silence on
the superior, renders our dog, that is, the shepherd, mute, this is the calamity which, thrown
into the dog's mouth, takes away the barking. The prelates of our time sit in the chair before
they are educated under the rod; they first receive the honor of the teacher before bearing
the burden of the student. They want to rule, not profit, the price of honor, not the weight of
the burden. To such a prelate it may be said: Physician, take care of yourself (Luke 4); the
speaker alleges for himself; you who are Christ's vicar, imitate his work, which he began to
do and to teach (Acts 1). For he who does not teach contradicts Christ; He imposes
importunate burdens on his subjects, but he does not want to move them with a finger.
Some hide the talent of divine wisdom entrusted to them in a shroud; namely, those who do
not want to preach out of negligence: some hide it in the dunghill, namely, those who
contradict their words with their works; others in the mud, who hide the word out of envy.

<3+> CHAPTER 39 To whom the preaching should be proposed

Having said, whose preaching ought to be, and what kind of preachers ought to be, it
remains to show to whom the preaching is to be proposed. To the faithful, that is, who
desire to hear the word of God with a certain mental appetite; of which the Lord says: Lift
up your eyes, and see that the regions are already turning white for the harvest (John 4).
The white regions for the harvest are called the minds of men, ready to receive the word of
God. This is the good land that receives seed and produces fruit. Indeed, preaching must be
withdrawn from the unworthy and obstinate, because those who reject the word of God
make themselves unworthy. Wherefore also the apostles said to the Jews, rejecting their
preaching: Because you have rejected the word of God, and have judged yourselves
unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are converted to the Gentiles (Acts 13) . For he lessens
the majesty of secrets, who divulges unworthy secrets; and the vessels of the Lord of
Babylon are not to be exposed. But it is fitting for the younger ones to speak in parables, and
for the older ones to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The little ones are to be
nourished with liquid food, the adults to be strengthened with solid food; lest the little one
should be killed by the solid, and the liquid should be abhorred when he is brought in, so
that each one may hold its place in a decent manner. It belongs to the preacher to carry the
material status of a physicist or a doctor. For just as the material physician varies according
to the variety of diseases, so the kinds of remedies vary; so the preacher must use the means
of admonitions. So that, if he preaches to the lascivious, he may bring authorities against
lasciviousness, and introduce reasons; let him show that she is abominable before God and
men; How can infamy fester, fester in one's own flesh, fester with one's neighbor, fester
with God. Now he cuts with a sword by threat, now he encourages by consolation. In like
manner he will argue against other vices, according as he sees the hearers entangled in
various vices. If he preaches to the poor, he should discuss poverty, commending poverty;
taking an example from our head Jesus Christ. He who was rich in heaven, became poor for
us on earth, that by his poverty he might make us rich. Let the ancient Fathers also come as
an example, who followed the naked Christ naked. Let him show how blessed are the poor
in spirit (Matthew 5), not the rich by count. If they preach to the rich, let them invite them to
almsgiving, to the contempt of riches, to the love of heavenly talents; so that if riches flow in,
they do not set their hearts on it; if they have them, yet do not seek them; for to have is in
substance, to walk is in fault. If he preaches to the soldiers, let him move them to be content
with their own wages, and not to threaten others; let them demand nothing violently, shake
no one, let them be defenders of the country, guardians of orphans and widows; so
outwardly they wear the armor of the world, so that inwardly they arm themselves with the
loins of faith. If to the speakers, let him warn them not to support an unjust cause as a gift,
or to weaken a just one from hatred, not to sell their tongue, not to prostitute wisdom, not
to follow falsehoods, not to worship lies. If he preaches to teachers, let him exhort them to
teach with a view of God, to make God the only end of their work; they are not sold for a
favorable wind, or for an earthly reward; they demonstrate in deed what they propose in
speech. If he directs a discourse to the prelates, he exhorts them about the government of
his subjects, that he may raise them up with the hope of heavenly things, correct them with
threats, direct them with flattery. If he preaches to the princes of the world, let him exhort
them to follow prudence, to abhor covetousness, not to depart from the path of justice, to
temper severity with meekness. If he speaks to cloistered men and religious men, let him
bring for their instruction the examples of the ancient Fathers, who led the present life in
excessive bodily chastisement: let him show that it is little to begin, unless the beginning be
concluded with a good end, because no one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is
fit in the kingdom of God (Luke 9) And Lot's wife, looking back, was changed into a statue of
salt (Gen. 19). If he proposes a discourse to the married, the state of the marriage, the faith
of the Torah, and the virtue of the sacrament shall be commended. Let him show how
marriage had its beginning in paradise, how the ancient Fathers in the conjugal state
deserved to obtain eternal life. If widowed, the burdens of marriage are shown in the care of
the children, in the acquisition of necessities, in the dispensation of family matters; how
glorious it is to shun the luxury of the flesh, and to serve God freely. If to virgins, let them be
commended for the cleanliness of the body, for the purity of the mind, by which man is
above man, overcoming the flesh, and bearing the likeness of angels.

<3+> CHAPTER 40 To the soldiers

John the Baptist said to the soldiers: Shake no one, do no injury to anyone: be content with
your wages (Luke 3). Let the soldiers have as an example of their life, the blessed martyr
Sebastian the soldier, who under the emperor Diocletian exercised such temporal warfare
that he did not forsake spiritual agony: rendering to Caesar what was Caesar's, and to God
what was God's. The blessed Victor, the blessed Hippolytus, and many others, who, through
material military service, have merited to be successfully exalted to the eternal service of
the supreme king. The band also of Thebes, so outwardly used the girdle of war, which
inwardly devoutly served God. For the external military is the form of the internal military,
and without the internal, the external is empty and empty. But just as there are two parts of
man, the corporeal and the spiritual, so there are two swords pertaining to warding off the
different attacks of men; material, by which injuries are repelled; and the spiritual, by which
the troubles of the mind are repelled. Whence it was said: Behold two swords here (Luke
22). Therefore the soldier must be girded outwardly to reform the violent peace of the time;
inwardly also with the sword of the word of God, to restore the peace of one's own heart.
Soldiers were specially appointed for this purpose, to defend their country, and to repulse
the abuses of violent men from the Church; they no longer practice warfare, but robbery,
and under the guise of soldiers they assume the cruelty of robbers; how they trample upon
the poor; and those whom they ought to protect with the shield of a military defense, they
pursue with the sword of savagery. They are already prostitutes of their military, they are
fighting to gain; they take up arms to be preyed upon. They are no longer soldiers, but
thieves and robbers; not the defenders, but the invaders. They sharpen their swords into
the bowels of the mother Church, and the force which they ought to expend on their
enemies, they expend on their own; but their enemies (either cast down by torpor, or
terrified by fear) desist from invading, and force the wicked servants of Christ to unsheath
their swords. Honorable service and temporal donations are due, and eternal reward
payments are not denied. And while some are bound by duty to exercise corporal warfare,
all are bound by precept to undertake spiritual warfare. The material soldier lives in the
camp, is free from the embraces of his wife, is content with meager food, is attentive to the
guards, is clad in arms, resists the enemy, and provides for his comrades. Every man must
be such in spirit as he is a material soldier in action. It is said of the soldier of Christ: The life
of man on earth is warfare (Job VII). And elsewhere: We do not have a fixed residence here
(Hebrews 13). Again the apostle says that here we are guests and sojourners, yet in the
future, citizens of the saints and householders of God (Eph. 2). A Christian, therefore, in the
pilgrimage of this life, must live as if in a camp, so that he does not think that he has a fixed
abode here, but looks forward to an eternal dwelling in the heavens. Of which dwellings it
has been said: In the house of my Father are many mansions (John 14), that he may live as if
he were about to die in a moment, that he might dwell in the tabernacle of the flesh, as if he
were about to pass away in a moment, be freed from the embraces of earthly pleasure, flee
the deluge of gluttony; let him guard against the snares of the spiritual thief, put on spiritual
armor, put on the breastplate of faith, gird himself with the sword of God's word, arm
himself with the lance of charity, take on the helmet of salvation. Armed with these, let him
fight against a threefold enemy: against the devil, lest he snatch away; against the world,
lest he be enticed; against the flesh, lest he desire unlawful things. Let him provide for his
fellow-soldiers, that is, the faithful: by giving generously if they are in need; reminding
them, if they need; sympathizing with the sick, rejoicing with the healthy.

<3+> CHAPTER 41. To the orators, or advocates.

The Scripture says to the speakers: Judge the orphan and the lowly (Psal. 10). And Isaiah:
Help the oppressed, defend the widow (Isa. 1). For the speaker must be fortified with truth,
prompt with discretion, fervent in charity, a reprover of avarice, a follower of justice, lest
either his falsity cloud reason, or his indiscretion weaken the truth of his speech, or hatred
instill suspicion. Let not avarice bend the mind, let not injustice lead astray, let not the
tongue sell money, let not the charm of words capture the popular air, but let the end of the
speech be right, and make the limit of the speech honorable. Let him not prostitute his
tongue, let him not expose his speech for sale, let him not sell God's gift, let him not speak of
God's gratuitous favor. What he received from the gift of grace alone, he did not prostrate by
sale. Oh, what an abominable simony it is, to sell the property of the poor, to rent the
support of the needy. Among alms, he occupies not the least place, who provides support to
the widow in her cause; because he who, by the power of reason, preserves his own
property, not only defends it, but also provides it. However, the poverty or misery of any of
the speakers should not bend them into falsity; nor bring the happiness of any one back to
the unjust. May truth always give strength to reason, and help the needy by speech. He who
does not defend what is right when he is able to defend it, is the same as if he consented to
injustice. For this is to visit the wretched in prison, to take counsel in the cause of the
oppressed. This is to dress naked; bare patronage, to bear the aid of the patronage in the
cause: this is to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to dispense medicine to the sick,
to receive a stranger, destitute of all help, to undertake to patronize the cause. He who,
therefore, in a just cause offers patronage to a needy person, fulfills all the work of mercy.
Speaker, why defend widows in neglecting their needs? You lose nothing in the exposition
of your knowledge, you lose nothing in the bestowal of this treasure. This is a noble
possession, which the avaricious possessor despises, if it is not plundered, slips away. A
spiritual orator, that is, a just man whose prayer is made before God, will allege pious
prayers for the guilty, before God, so that, although the guilt of the guilty is due to
condemnation, the divine mercy granted to him may give him space for true repentance,
and the improvement of his life. For the constant prayer of the righteous is of great worth
(James 5). The just person will plead for the guilty to the divine mercy, so that since human
weakness can do nothing without divine mercy, the guilty man may be freed from harm by
his grace and directed to salvation. And although the prayer of the just does not always
achieve the desired end in another, yet the one who prays always achieves the end in
himself; because even if the sin of him for whom he prays is not remitted, the prayer returns
to the bosom of the one who prays; because neither a physician will always heal, nor an
orator always persuade; but, if he omits nothing of the contingent, he has attained his end.

<3+> CHAPTER 42 To princes and judges.

It is said to the rulers of the earth: Love justice, you who judge the earth (Wisdom 1). And
elsewhere: And now, O kings, understand, learn, you who judge the earth (Psal. 2). O princes
of the world, whom the Lord has appointed over the heads of men, do not be lifted up by
pride, blinded by greed, and be consumed by cruelty. Consider a greater power over you,
which will judge you in judgment. If the prince of the family has been crowned with pomp, if
he has been established on the royal throne, he will not be able to contradict the divine will;
for who can resist his power? Let every ruler therefore humble himself under the mighty
hand of God. Nebuchadnezzar, because he did not recognize the divine power above him,
put on a beastly habit; because Manasses, king of Israel, did not know the divine power over
him, the divine power subjected him to extreme captivity. O prince, if you want to judge the
land of the world rightly, judge the land of your body rightly. For the earth is threefold; the
land we wear, the land we wear, the land we seek. The ground we wear is a material ground
that must be trodden on. The earth we wear is the earth of our body, which must be
cultivated. The land we seek is eternal life, which must be inhabited. Just as, then, the king
guards the material earth so that the enemy does not invade it; thus he must guard the earth
of his body, lest the devil steal the goods of the earth, that is, the gifts of body and soul. And
just as in the material earth there is a diversity of inhabitants, among whom there are
others who rule, as princes; workers, as soldiers; others obeying, as common men; thus, on
the ground of his body, the king must order the diversities of the three movements. The
motions of reason, which command; the movements of sensuality, which were to work; the
movements of the flesh, which obey And just as it behooves a prince to work for the peace of
the material earth, that is to observe the tranquility of peace, so it is said to the princes of
this earth: Learn, that is, learn the crudeness of carnality, you who judge the earth, that is,
you who in your bodies condemn earthiness. What will your heart dictate to you then, O
prince of the earth, when the poor will judge you on the day of judgment, if you rule the
world badly, if you judge the poor unjustly? O king! do not consider your leadership an
honor, but rather consider that the earthly honor is not of nature, but of fortune. For there
are no honors, slippery accidents prove the truth, and changeableness shows vanity. Many
kings are brought to the tomb with funeral honors, and their bodies are brought to the
grave with a certain superficial happiness, but the poor souls, fenced in by a horrible band
of demons, are miserably tortured in hell. Where then is the secular honor? where is the
popular wind? where is the family crowd? where are the worldly riches? Where is the
nobility of the race? Where is the fertility of the children? where is the beauty of the wife?
These are of no use to poor souls after death; nay, they will give way to an increase of pain.

<3+> CHAPTER 43 To the cloisters.

Speaking to the cloistered, the Scripture says: Behold how good and how delightful it is for
brothers to dwell together (Ps. 132). And elsewhere, the psalmist in the person of the
cloister: One thing I asked of the Lord, this I require, that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord, etc. (Ps. 26) When among the moral philosophers, unity is noted with the most famous
praises; among theologians it is not subject to mediocre sacraments. For without spiritual
unity, there is neither grace in the present, nor glory in the future. Without unity, all religion
is exhausted, heavenly love languishes, faith itself perishes, obedience fails. Unity begets
consonance in the divine, concord in the angels, obedience in the churches. For there is a
superheavenly unity, a heavenly unity, a subheavenly unity. The superheavenly unity is in
the harmony of the Trinity, where there is a unifying and united unity. The unity that unites
and is united is the Holy Spirit, who unites the Father with the Son; whence it is said: The
Father is one with the Son. And elsewhere it is said to be the kiss and love of the Father and
the Son. And there is a united unity, because it is united to the Father and the Son, through
the mediation of the divine nature. Unity uniting and not united, is the divine nature, which
unites three persons to each other, but is not itself united to them, because it is not itself a
person. The Father is a unity not uniting, because he is united to the Son and the Holy Spirit,
but neither of them is united to him or through him. It is also said of the uniting and uniting
unity: Now the Holy Spirit is for us, one with the Father and the Son. Of unity not united it is
also said: Unity in majesty. But of the unity which is united and not united, Hilary says:
There is unity in the Father, etc. But the heavenly unity is in the concord of the angels; and
there is a threefold unity: unity of nature, unity of grace, unity of glory. Unity of nature,
because all are spirits of administration: unity of grace, because they are confirmed in grace:
unity of glory, because all are glorified in eternal bliss. In this threefold unity there is
diversity in the mastery of dignities, in the knowledge of the mysteries of the arcane. There
is also discordant concord, consonant discord, different unity, united diversity, discord
agreeing, diversity uniting. But the subheavenly unity in the church must be, and is,
threefold: unity of faith, unity of charity, unity of obedience. In order that the inferiors
should obey their superiors, the superiors should condescend to the inferiors in a moderate
manner. To insinuate, then, the merit of this unity, one went down into the pool and was
healed (John 5); one son of a widow is raised (3 Kings 17); the ark is completed in one cubit
(Gen. 6); one is sent to announce David's victory; one announces to Job the death of his
children, by which he alone is delivered from danger (Job 1). Everything that pertains to the
ecclesiastical state is embraced by unity, singularity informs everything: for there is one
God, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4), one law, one king, one Church, one grace, one
glory. Therefore, among the religious, there must likewise be a threefold unity: unity of
religion, unity of possessions, unity of charity. Unity of religion, that they should be uniform
in dress, diet, vigils, and fasts. But some anomalous people deviate from the rule of this
unity, desiring to sleep in softer beds, to attend fewer vigils, to eat more delicate food, to use
little or no silence. For some monks mark their base habit in any way, either by the shaking
of dust, or by a certain neat arrangement of the parts; because either they put their feet
more tightly in their shoes, or they tighten their sleeves, or they reflect their heads over
their ears. They also desire more delicate foods according to their means, and as far as they
can, if not the material, at least they change the form; for if one wants beans or other thin
foods to be prepared in one way, another wants another. Some break the silence, and if not
with words, at least with signs, and thus redeem the lights of words by a plurality of signs.
Some either stop watching or interrupt. There must also be unity in possession, so that all
things may be common to them. For a monk must have nothing of his own, because he must
have neither his own in possessing, nor his own in willing. But that they ought not to have
anything of their own in the matter, let them understand by the example of Ananias, who
expired at Peter's feet (Acts 5), by what he had retained of his own. And to the instruction of
the cloistered, the Lord says: Unless a man renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be my
disciple (Luke 14). And yet it is not sufficient to abjure one's own in a matter, unless they
are abjured by will, whence also Peter says of this abjuration of the will: Behold, we have
left all things, and followed thee (Matthew 19). The locksmith, therefore, who longs to have
his own, looks back with his wife Lot, withdraws his hand from the plough, while Dinah, the
daughter of Jacob, desires the ornament of strangers. Those, therefore, who receive
something of their own from the communion of possessions, buy the place of Judas as a
traitor and a thief. O recluse, who has left much in the world, do not return to the world with
the desire of a single coin. Let not the desire of a single coin seize you, who was not deceived
by the treasure of riches; fear lest the devil's disciple should deceive you in the least, which
has not deceived you in the greatest. The cloistered person must also throw off his own will,
so that as the community is in religion, so it is in the will; so that not only all things may be
common to them in regard to census, but also in regard to consent, that all may agree in one
will, all may agree in one charity, so that it may truly be said of them: They had one heart
and one soul (Acts 4) . Even the cloistered are bound to have the unity of charity, so that in
the advancement of their neighbor they may find their own advancement; in the failure of
another, let them mourn their own failure. The wiser should instruct the less skilled, the
healthy should sympathize with the sick, the safe should rejoice in the healthy, and thus the
cloistered life should be an image of the heavenly life; so that, as in eternal life, in unequal
brightness, there will be equal joy; thus in the cloistered, in disparate charity, the uniform
bond of love. From this triple unity, the cloistered monk is called, as it were, the guardian of
unity. For if it does not preserve the first unity, it becomes anomalous; if the second, an
apostate; if the third, a schismatic. In the cloistered assembly there should be a uniting unit,
and united, that is, the superior uniting the subjects by authority, the subjects united by
charity; there let the unity be united, not uniting, that is, a subject who, even if he does not
unite others, still unites himself to others in charity. Let there be a unity that unites and not
united, that is, charity, which, though it unites the cloistered, yet firmly joins itself to none at
present. Let there be in them the unity of nature, that they may love it in themselves; let
there be a unity of grace, that they may impart to one another the grace conferred upon
them. Let there be unity of glory, that they may strive with one hope to the glory of eternal
life. Let there be unity of faith, lest there be heretics. Let there be unity of charity, lest there
be schismatics. Let there be unity of hope, lest they be obstinate; so that it may be said of
them specifically: Behold, how good, as far as the opinion of men is concerned, and how
delightful, as far as the devotion of the mind is concerned, for brothers to dwell together (Ps.
132). Of religion, into one of possession, into one of charity; that they may be able to attain
to that unity, of which it was said by the Prophet: One I asked of the Lord, etc. (Ps. 26)

<3+> CHAPTER 44 To the priests

The Lord said to the priests: You are the salt of the earth, and if the salt is adulterated, in
what will it be salted? (Matthew 5) Salt makes four; it renders the earth barren, preserves
food, preserves the flesh from rotting, and expels worms from the flesh itself. These four
agree with the spiritual salt, that is, the priest, who must dredge the earth of his subjects,
that is, their earthly thoughts, with the spade of preaching, lest they spring up into thorns
and briers of vices, and thus he must render them barren from evil works. even from his
own earth, that is, from his own flesh, he is bound to exclude the fertility of vices, and to
keep the flesh itself immune from corruption, that is, from lust and gluttony. Lust is
elegantly compared to putrefaction, because just as by rot it corrupts the flesh and causes it
to fester, so lust causes a man to fester through infamy, the flesh through impurity, a man
through a wrong conscience. Crapula is also compared to putrefaction, because through
crapula, a person is corrupted in the body, infected with stench, tends more quickly to non-
existence. He must guard his flesh from worms, lest the flesh give rise to perverse thoughts,
lest it escape into disordered appetites. The food of the Holy Scriptures must also be
seasoned with a careful search, because the Holy Scriptures seem in some places insipid
unless they are searched with a careful search. He must season the food of the Eucharist
with good work, because unless it is taken worthily, food which is sweet in itself becomes
bitter, and what is the choice of the just, is absinthe to the unjust. He must season the food
of doctrine by the example of a good life, so that if his life is despised, his preaching, by right,
should be despised. But, if that salt be infatuated, in what shall it be salted? Let this salt
become infatuated threefold: through ignorance, through negligence, through greed,
because the priests of our time are old elementary school children, hundred-year-old
children, of whom the Lord says through the prophet: Those who keep the law did not know
me (Jer. 2). How will such people be able to build others? who neither know how to instruct
themselves nor others? Because it often happens when the priests do not have the light of
knowledge, through their own fault, that through their ignorance even those who follow
stumble. Hence the Lord: If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit (Matthew 13). If
such are infatuated with the error of ignorance, who will season them with the salt of
wisdom, when they ought to teach, and not be taught? to instruct, not to instruct? since they
should not have elders above them to correct them, nor should they have more prudent
ones to instruct them? But they become infatuated through negligence, because in all their
works, negligence causes torpor, and destroys the fruit of their works. In the Psalms there is
no devotion, in the reading there is no solicitude, in the injunction of penitence, there is no
diligence, in the celebration of the mass there is no caution, in the government of subjects
there is no discretion, in good works there is no exercise. But if they are infatuated, from
whom will they jump? for who will be able to deliver them from such a precipice of
negligence? who will be able to season them with the taste of diligence? They are also
infatuated by avarice, because they sell Christ himself for money, and thus take the place of
Judas the betrayer: they expose baptism for purchase, they prostitute burials for sale; they
palpate the vices of their subjects, in order to embezzle money; they flatter themselves with
vices, that they may fill their purses. Such salt is not offered as a sacrifice to the Lord, but is
cast outside, trampled underfoot, and reduced to dung; because such priests do not worthily
offer themselves in sacrifice to God, nor do they season their sacrifices with the salt of
wisdom; and so, the salt is thrown out; for even if such priests are of the church in name and
number, yet they are not of God, and of merit, but worthy to be trodden under foot. The feet
are subjects, which the ecclesiastical priests are obliged to provide, lest they stumble on the
road of this life to the stumbling block of guilt. These wicked priests are trodden under foot,
because when their subjects see them darkened by ignorance, cast down by cowardice,
whom they ought to have in the form of good, they hold as an example of evil, and those
who ought to be in the form of the flock, they are the fable of the people, and thus the salt is
turned into dung, for such are born priests with the smell of infamy, they rot with the
corruption of guilt, they rot in the dung of bad habits. Therefore let there be salt in the
priests, and let them have peace among themselves.

<3+> CHAPTER 45 To the spouses

The Apostle Paul said: Let each man have his own wife, because of fornication (1 Cor. 7).
Also: It is better to marry than to burn (ibid.). The Lord also establishing marriage in
paradise, said: Grow and multiply (Gen. 2). In the Gospel also Christ says: What God has
joined together, let not man separate (Matthew 19; and Mark 10). Oh, what is the dignity of
marriage which had its beginning in paradise, which removes the vice of incontinence,
which includes in itself the heavenly sacrament: which preserves the faith of the Torah,
which maintains the partnership of life between the individual spouses, which frees the
offspring from infamy, which excuses carnal intercourse from guilt. For in this state the
patriarchs were saved, in this some of the apostles were chosen. Oh, what a virtue of this
sacrament, by which no one slips into the precipice of lust or incontinence, and is received
with conjugal honesty! Oh, how much he attacks honesty, who breaks faith with the law!
while, having left the conjugal bed, he commits adultery in another, he tarnishes the
sacrament as much as it is in himself; he sins against his own body, he divides the unity of
marriage, he breaks the laws of marriage. Oh, how much danger there is in adultery, where
God is sinned against, where the neighbor is offended, where frequent murder is committed,
where the legitimate son is frequently disinherited, where the daughter often marries the
father, the sister the brother! Adultery is usually the cause of multiple crimes. For from
adultery David slips into murder; Reuben is subject to his father's curse. But in confirmation
of marriage, Christ is born of the betrothed; in Cana of Galilee, the wedding is dedicated to
his presence. But although it excuses carnal intercourse from sin, it is still celebrated for the
reception of children, not for the pleasure of the flesh. He should therefore restrain himself
by carnal communion, by reason of place, by reason of time, and by reason of religious duty.
A spiritual man must also observe the marriage between flesh and spirit, so that the flesh
obeys the spirit as a woman, the spirit as a man, and the flesh as a wife. Let there be faith in
the law, lest either the flesh, abandoning the rule of the spirit, commit adultery with the
world, or the reason itself, led astray by the allurement of the flesh, fornicate with it,
according to what is said, "He who is a fierce lover of his wife is an adulterer." Let there also
be the hope of children, that is, the intention of good works: let there be the sacrament of
spiritual conjunction, let them procreate like children, good works; let there be a reasonable
union between the flesh and the spirit.

<3+> CHAPTER 46 Of widows.

The apostle says of widows: Not married and widowed, it is good for them if they continue
as I do, that is chastity (1 Cor. 7). And elsewhere: I also want all men to be like myself (ibid.),
that is, to be self-contained. Although the conjugal state is good, the widowed state is still
more expedient. For in marriage there is a danger in observing the faith of the Torah, a
danger in controlling the laws of carnal commerce; there labor in the care of the family;
there the burden in the education of the child, the pain of the wife in giving birth, the pain
while carrying the womb, there the wife is placed under the power of the man, even by
violence; there the husband's fear lest the wife should become an adulterer, there the
husband has no absolute power, there disordered motion, however venial. A widow,
therefore, should not proceed to a second marriage; for second marriages arouse the
suspicion of luxury, they are evidence of incontinence; An earthly widow is married to a
heavenly bridegroom, where conception is without labor, childbirth is without pain, where
justice is strict, where God is eternal life, where the will of conception is ordered, where
childbirth is a good operation; where concupiscence is charity, where faith is long-suffering,
where the sacrament of the sacrament is truth, where chastity is the torus, sight is
contemplation, address is prayer, contact is eternal love, where the kiss is peace of mind,
where carnal intercourse is eternal delight. O widow, if you are looking for an example of
the widow's state, you will find the form of widowhood in the prophetess Anna (Luke 2). By
virtue of her self-control she deserved prophecy, by virtue of her chastity she deserved to
see the Messiah. The widowhood of the turtledove of faith invites you to chastity, because
the widower is an equal, neither asking to love nor to be loved. If he lacks a match, he sits
neither on a green branch nor on a green herb. This reminds you, O widow, that in the time
of widowhood you despise the flower of the aging world, the greenness of worldly pleasure.
O widow, if you join a temporal husband, you will serve the heavenly spouse less freely. For
no one can serve two masters (Matt. 6), and while you tend to the flesh, you tend less to the
spirit.

<3+> CHAPTER 47 To the virgins.

It is said to virgins: I betroth you to one man to present a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11).
And the prophet said: Hear, daughter, and see, etc. (Psal. 44) O virgin, who art sealed with
the seal of virginity, with the title of chastity, do not betray that which nature has more
specially committed to you, with which she has marked you more favorably. Do not lose it
for a little pleasure, which cannot be repaired in any way. This is the treasure of nature,
which is lost and never returns: this is the flower which, having bloomed, never blooms
again. This is the star that does not return from the west to the rising: this is a gift that
cannot be compensated for being lost, and because it is the only thing that you cannot
repair, you must preserve it more carefully. By this alone a man living in the flesh imitates
an angel; by this alone man overcomes himself; this preserves the integrity of the
reputation, and preserves the flesh from impurity. Listen therefore, daughter, not only with
the ear of the body, but also with the ear of the mind, and see with the eye of the heart that
you may understand, and incline the material ear that you may obey, and thus forget your
people (ibid.). A people is a meeting of carnal thoughts, which suggests to a virgin that she
may take possession of marriage, that she may rejoice in the embraces of her spouse, that
she may be fruitful of offspring, that she may enjoy carnal pleasure. But, to forget such a
people, because they are the people of Babylon; a nation of confusion, which tries to take
the daughter of Zion captive. Forgetting even your father's house (ibid.) Your father is the
hearth of sin who begat you, who brought you forth from his mother, whose house and
habitation is concupiscence, in which that hearth commands, reigns, dominates and
commands. And so the king will covet your beauty (ibid.), that is to say, that king who is the
King of kings and the Lord of lords 116, of whom it is said: The side of the north, the city of
the great King (Ps. 47). And elsewhere: The earth is the Lord's and its fullness (Psal. 23). O
virgin, if you wish to marry an earthly man, for the sake of the flower of youth, consider that
either death plucks that flower, or at least it blossoms in the winter of old age. Cloud,
therefore, to that man who alone has immortality, with whom there is no transmutation,
nor the overshadowing of vicissitudes (Jacob. 1). If you want to marry an earthly husband
for the sake of riches, consider that earthly riches are illusory and transitory, because they
either pass away in the present life, or at least disappear in death. Cloud, then, to those with
whom treasures are incomparable, and riches unchangeable; which neither a thief steals,
nor a moth destroys (Matthew 6). But if you wish to marry an earthly man, because he is
distinguished by beauty, consider that beauty is either diminished by infirmity, or
extirpated by old age, or at least exterminated by the article of death. Cloud, then, "whose
beauty the sun and the moon marvel at." If you want to marry an earthly man, because of
the nobility of the race, to him in the cloud of which it is said: Who will tell his generation?
(Isa. 53.) If you want to marry an earthly husband for the sake of worldly honor or earthly
dignity, consider that it is forbidden to stand for a long time in the highest places, and to fall
under too heavy a weight. Cloud, then, of whom it is said: Who can resist his power? (Job 9.)
And elsewhere: There will be no end to his kingdom (Luke 1).

<3+> CHAPTER 48 To the sleepy.

Knowing that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep (Rom. 13): it must be noted,
dearest brothers, that sleep is threefold. There is sleep, when one is rapt to the
contemplation of the heavenly things, and then the natural forces are at rest; of which it is
said: The Lord sent sleep upon Adam (Gen. 2); and another sleep, when the animal virtues
rest, and the natural ones work; of whom it is said that an angel appeared to Joseph
(Matthew 1:2). The third sleep is when reason is asleep, and sensuality is exasperated. The
first sleep takes place above man; the second according to man; the third below man. The
first is miraculous, the second imaginary, the third monstrous. By the first man becomes
God, by the second spirit, by the third cattle. In the first he dreams true, in the second
monstrous; but the third time takes place in the night of sin, in the darkness of vice, in the
shadow of transgression. Now, therefore, in the season of grace, it is time for us to rise from
the sleep of error, to rise from the sleep of sin. For four things must rouse us from sleep: the
rising sun, the crowing of cocks, the fear of thieves, the anxiety of a family affair. The sun of
righteousness awakens us from the sleep of sin, which has already arisen for us through
grace in baptism, when we renounced sin. Therefore, because we have already received
grace, we are invited to take care of the mind and to guard it. The song of the Gauls wakes us
up from sleep, that is the preacher's admonition. Fear also of thieves, that is, of the devil,
who, if he finds us asleep, will enter the body through lust, the soul through pride, taking
away the purple of virtues, the riches of good works. Concern for family matters should also
awaken us from the sleep of sin. Let us therefore be excited, because so many excite us; let
us watch, because so many invite us to watch, and because our salvation is nearer than
when we believed; let us continue in grace, because glory is at hand. Let's run through the
stadium, because the bravery is imminent. But the just person approaches eternal salvation
in two ways: through the diet of natural life, through the diet of spiritual life, because the
more the just person fulfills from the diet of temporal life, the more he approaches the life of
glory. The more he completes the dwelling of the spiritual life, the more he approaches the
salvation of eternal life. Therefore, the more holy the righteous, the nearer to salvation, and
the older, the nearer to salvation. Our salvation is nearer than when we believe (Rom. 13),
because when faith was first imparted to us, a greater part remained of the diet of life, and
therefore a greater part of righteousness had to be completed. The night also passed, and
the day drew near (ibid.). It is a threefold night, the night of ignorance, the night of guilt, the
night of worldly tribulation. It is said of the night of ignorance: The night has passed, but the
day has drawn near. It is said about the night of guilt: I will wash my bed every night (Psal.
6). It is said of the night of worldly tribulation: In the day the Lord commanded his mercy,
and in the night his song (Psal. 41). In the first walk the fools, in the second the wicked, in
the third the wretched. But the night of ignorance is gone, because we are already
instructed by the law, informed by reason, taught by all creation. For the law teaches what
to act, reason how to act, the creature for whom to act. For every creature, while serving the
Creator, instructs us to serve God. Even the night of guilt has passed away, because since
grace was given to us in baptism, guilt has been banished from us. The night of worldly
tribulation has passed away, because when the primitive Church endured various
tribulations, from the attack of tyrants, from the attack of false brothers, from the attack of
heretics; The storm has already partially subsided, so that the Church can quietly fight for
God. Therefore, the day is near, that is, the day of knowledge, to enlighten the ignorant; the
day of grace, to direct the wayward; a day of worldly prosperity, to comfort the laborer. Let
us therefore cast off the works of darkness (Rom. 13). As there are different kinds of night,
so there are different kinds of darkness. For there is darkness of ignorance, of which it is
said: The people of the nations that walked in darkness saw a great light (Isa. 9). There is
the darkness of sins, of which it is said: He who walks in darkness does not know where he
is going (John 12). There are the darkness of punishments, of which it is said: Cast him into
the outer darkness (Matthew 22:25); the darkness of ignorance is interior; the darkness of
sins, inmost; the darkness of punishments, the outer ones. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness (Rom. 13), that we may do good, and shun the works of punishment, lest
we live in misery. Let us throw away the works of ignorance, that we may be prudent; the
works of sinners, that we may be simple; works of punishment, that we may be happy. And
so let us put on the armor of light (ibid.), protected by the light of wisdom against heretics,
the light of grace against the devil, the light of glory against hell. As in the day let us walk
honestly (ibid.) . He who walks in the night often walks dishonestly, because he either
stumbles into a stumbling block, or falls into the mud, or slips into a precipice, or rushes
into a lake. the lake of greed Let us therefore walk honestly in the day of good work, that we
may arrive at the day of eternity.