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Four Hundred Chapters on Love

St Maximus the Confessor, tr. Sherwood, 1955

2. The Second Century

The man that truly loves God certainly prays completely undistracted; and he that certainly prays completely undistracted also truly loves God. But he that has his mind fastened on some earthly thing does not pray completely undistracted; he therefore who has his mind bound to some earthly thing does not love God.¹

The mind that gives its time to some sensible thing certainly experiences some attachment in its regard, as desire or grief or anger or ill will; and unless he scorns that thing, he cannot be freed from that attachment.

When the passions control a mind, they bind it over to material things and, moving it away from God, make it to be engrossed in the same. But when charity of God has control, it delivers the mind from the bonds and persuades it to disregard not alone sensible things, but even our passing life.

The work of the commandments is to make the thoughts of things mere thoughts; and of reading² and contemplation, to render the mind clean of any material thing or form; and from this there comes undistracted prayer.

An active way³ is not enough so perfectly to free the mind from the passions that it can pray undistracted, unless various spiritual contemplations succeed one another in it. Now the first-mentioned frees the mind only from incontinence and hate; the others take it away from forgetfulness and ignorance. And thus it will be able to pray as it ought.

There are two supreme states of pure prayer: the one, for those of the active life; the other, for those of the contemplative. The one comes to the soul from fear of God and a good hope; the other, from burning divine love and maximum purification. The signs of the first kind are these: namely, when a man gathers his mind from all the thoughts of the world, to make his prayers, as though God Himself were at his side (as really He is present), without distraction and undisturbed; of the second, however, that at the very onset of prayer the mind be rapt by the divine and infinite light and be conscious neither of itself nor of any other creature at all, save only of Him who through charity effects such brightness in it. Then indeed, being concerned with the properties of God, it receives impressions of Him, pure and limpid.⁴

What a man loves that he assuredly clings to and everything that obstructs his way to it he despises, lest he be deprived of it; and the man that loves God is concerned for pure prayer and every passion that obstructs his way to it he casts out of himself.

He that casts out self-love, the mother of the passions, will easily with God’s help put away the others, such as anger, grief, grudges, and so on. But he that is in the power of the first is wounded, though against his will, by the second. Self-love is the passion of attachment for the body.⁵

For these five causes men love one another, whether it be to their praise or their blame: namely, for God’s sake, as the virtuous man loves everybody and as the man who is not yet possessed of virtue loves the virtuous man;⁶ or for natural reasons, as parents love their children and vice versa; or for vainglory, as the man that is extolled loves the extoller; or for avarice, as one loves a wealthy man for benefits received; or for love of pleasure, as the man who cares only for his belly and things of sex. The first is praiseworthy, the second is in between, the rest belong to the passions.

If you hate some and some you neither love nor hate, while others you love but only moderately and others again you greatly love, learn from this inequality that you are far from perfect charity which supposes that you love every man equally.

Decline from evil and do good.⁷ That is to say: War on your enemy to lessen the passions; then, keep sober lest they increase. Or: Fight to acquire virtues; and afterwards, keep sober so as to guard them. And this doubtless is what is meant by dressing and keeping.⁸

Those who, with God’s permission, tempt us either rouse the desires of our soul, or stir up our temper, or darken our reason, or fill the body with pain, or snatch away bodily necessities.

The demons tempt us either by themselves or arm against us those that have no fear of the Lord: by themselves, when we are alone apart from men, as they tempted the Lord in the desert; by men, when we associate with men, as they tried the Lord through the Pharisees. But we, looking to our model—let us beat them back however they come.⁹

When the mind begins to advance in love for God, then the demon of blasphemy sets to tempting it and suggests such thoughts as no man but only the devil, their father, could ever find. He does this out of envy for the God-devoted man, that in despair at having such thoughts he no longer dare to approach God in his accustomed prayer. But the vindictive wretch gains nothing thereby to his purpose; on the contrary, he makes us sturdier. For in this fighting back and forth we find ourselves more sincere and trustworthy in our love for God. May his sword pierce his heart and his bows be shattered.¹⁰

The mind, when it applies itself to visible things, knows them naturally through the senses. So neither the mind is bad, nor the natural knowledge, nor the things, nor the senses; for they are all the works of God. What then is bad? Evidently the passion which our natural ideas undergo. Indeed this need not be in our use of thoughts, if the mind keeps watch.¹¹

Passion is a movement of the soul contrary to nature, either in irrational love, or in senseless hate of something or on account of some material thing. For example, in irrational love for food, or a woman, or money, or passing glory, or for some other material thing, or on their account; or again in senseless hate of one of the foregoing, as has been said, or on its account.¹²

Or again, vice¹³ is the mistaken judgment of our ideas, upon which follows the misuse of things. For example, as regards women, the right judgment about intercourse is that its purpose is the begetting of children. He then who looked to the pleasure was mistaken in judgment in that he took what is not morally good to be such. Such a man therefore misuses a woman in having intercourse. The like holds good also for other things and thoughts.

When the demons have thrown chastity out of your mind and surround you with thoughts of fornication, then with tears say to the Master: They have cast me forth and now they have surrounded me. My joy, deliver me from them that surround me.¹⁴ And you will be safe.

Violent is the demon of fornication and vehemently he sets upon those that contend against passion. This he does especially through their carelessness in eating and through contact with women. With the suavity of pleasure he imperceptibly steals upon a man’s mind and then, through the memory, assails him in his retirement,¹⁵ inflaming his body and presenting various forms to his mind. And so he provokes his consent to the sin. If you do not want these things to stay with you, take up fasting and hard work and vigils and fair retirement with constant prayer.

Those that forever seek our soul do so through bad thoughts that they may throw it into some sin of thought or deed. When therefore they find the mind unreceptive, then will they be ashamed and confounded; but when they find it given over to spiritual contemplation, then will they be turned back and utterly put to shame in short order.¹⁶

He who anoints his mind for the sacred contests and drives bad thoughts from it has the characteristics of a deacon; of a priest, however, if he illumines it with knowledge of beings and utterly destroys counterfeit knowledge; of a bishop, finally, if he perfects it with the sacred myrrh of knowledge of the worshipful and Holy Trinity.¹⁷

The demons are weakened when the passions in us are lessened through the commandments; but they perish when finally through detachment of soul the passions are utterly destroyed, as they no longer find anything by which they may settle in and war against it. This doubtless is the meaning of: They shall be weakened and perish before Thy face.¹⁸

Some men restrain themselves from the passions because of human fear; some because of vainglory; others because of self-mastery; yet others are freed from the passions through the divine judgments.¹⁹

All the words of the Lord are contained in these four—commandments, doctrine, threats, promises. Because of them we endure every hardship, such as fastings, vigils, sleeping on the ground, toil and trouble in attending on our duties, affronts, dishonor, torturings, death and the like. For the sake of the words of Thy lips, Scripture says, I have kept hard ways.²⁰

The wages of self-mastery are detachment; of faith, knowledge. Now detachment begets discernment, while knowledge love for God.²¹

The mind that follows well the active life advances in prudence; the contemplative life, in knowledge. To the one it belongs to bring the contender to a discernment of virtue and vice; to the other, to lead the participant to the essences of the incorporeal and corporeal creation. Then finally is it fit for the grace of theology when it has passed beyond, on the wings of charity, all the things just mentioned; and, being in God, it will examine, through the Spirit, the essential concerning Him, as much as the human mind may.²²

When you are about to enter theology, seek not out the very reasons of His nature (for that the human mind, or that of any other creature, is incapable of finding); scan rather, in so far as possible, the things about Him: for instance, His eternity, His immensity and infinity, His goodness and wisdom and power that makes, governs, and judges His creatures. For among men he truly is a great theologian who searches out these reasons, be it ever so little.²³

He is a man of power that has joined knowledge to action; for by the one he makes his concupiscences wither and tames anger; with the other he gives wings to the mind and departs for God.²⁴

When the Lord says: I and the Father are one, He indicates identity of substance; but when He says: I in the Father and the Father in me,²⁵ He shows the inseparable-ness of the persons. The Tritheists, therefore, who separate the Father from the Son, go off the deep end either way. For they either say that the Son is coeternal with the Father, but separate one from the other and so are forced to say that He was not born of Him and to go off the deep end—that there are three Gods and three origins; or else they say that He was born of Him, but separating still, they are forced to say that He is not coeternal with the Father and to subject to time Him who is master of time. For indeed it is necessary alike to preserve the ‘one God,’ as the great Gregory²⁶ says, and to confess the three persons, each in its individuality. For ‘it is divided,’ yet ‘without division,’ as he says; and ‘it is joined together,’ but ‘with distinction.’ Therefore both the division and the union are extraordinary. But what is there extraordinary, if as one man with another, so likewise the Son and the Father, is both united and separate and nothing more?

He who is perfect in love and has attained the summit of detachment knows no difference between ‘mine and thine,’ between faithful and unfaithful, between slave and freeman, or indeed between male and female. Having risen above the tyranny of the passions and looking to nature, one in all men, he considers all equally and is disposed equally towards all. For in Him there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither male nor female, neither slave nor freeman, but everything and in all things Christ.²⁷

From the passions embedded in our soul the demons seize opportunities of stirring up in us impassioned thoughts. Then, warring upon the mind through them, they force it on to consent to sin. When the mind is overcome, they lead on to a sin of thought; and when this is completed, they finally carry it prisoner to the deed. After that, those who have made the soul desolate through thoughts, withdraw together with them; and there remains alone in the soul the idol of sin. On it the Lord says: When you shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place—he that readeth let him understand.²⁸ The mind of man is a holy place and temple of God, in which, having through impassioned thoughts rendered his soul desolate, the demons have set up the idol of sin. That these things have already come to pass in history no one, I think, will doubt who has read the works of Josephus; though some say these things will come to pass at the time of the Antichrist.²⁹

There are three things that move us to the good: natural tendencies, the holy Powers, good choice. The natural tendencies—as, for instance, when what we wish men would do for us, we likewise do for them; or, when we see someone in sore straits, we then naturally have pity. The holy Powers—as when moved to some fine deed, we experience their good assistance and prosper. Good choice —when, for example, discerning good from evil, we choose the good.³⁰

There are likewise three things that move us to evil: the passions, the demons, and evil choice. The passions—as when we desire a thing out of reason; for example, food out of times or without necessity, or a woman without intention of begetting children or one not permitted us; or again, when we are angered or grieved more than is fitting, as against him who does us dishonor or harm. And the demons—as when they watch for the moment of our carelessness and then suddenly set upon us with great vehemence, rousing the passions just mentioned and their like. And evil choice—as when, knowing the good, we choose evil instead.

The wages for the labors of virtue are detachment and knowledge. These become our friends and advocates in the kingdom of heaven, just as the passions and ignorance are the advocates for eternal punishment. He then who seeks the former for the sake of reputation among men and not for the good in it, will hear from Scripture: You ask and you receive not, because you ask amiss.³¹

There are many things men do that are of themselves noble, and still for a certain reason they are not noble; for example, fasts and vigils, prayer and psalmody, alms and hospitality are of themselves noble deeds, but when they are done for vainglory, they are no longer so.

God seeks the intention of everything we do, whether we do it for Him or for some other reason.³²

When you hear the Scripture saying: Thou wilt render to every man according to his works³³—not for things done apart from a right intention, though they seem to be noble, will God make a return of noble things, but for things done with right intention precisely. For God’s judgment looks not to the things done, but to the intention.

The demon of pride has a twofold wickedness: either he persuades the monk to ascribe his virtuous deeds to himself and not to God, the giver of good things and helper in right doing; or, failing in this, he suggests scorn for the brothers still imperfect. And so unknowingly the bedeviled man is persuaded to deny the help of God. For if he scorns them as men unable to do rightly, he puts himself forward as doing rightly of his own power. And this is not possible, since the Lord says: Without me you can do nothing.³⁴ For our weakness is such, that roused to noble things, it can bring nothing to conclusion without the giver of good things.

He that has known the weakness of human nature has had experience of the divine power; by it such a man has done some things rightly, others he hastens so to do; but never does he scorn a single man. For he knows that as it has helped him and freed him from many passions and difficulties, so God is able to help all men when He wishes, especially those who are striving for His sake. Although in the dispositions of His judgment God does not at once deliver all from their passions, yet as a good and charitable physician in due time He heals each of those who are pressing on.

With the inefficaciousness of the passions pride arises, either from hidden causes or from the crafty withdrawal of the demons.

Practically every sin is committed for pleasure; it is taken away by the suffering of hardships and grief, whether this be voluntary or involuntary, through penitence, or some trial disposed by Providence. For if, Scripture says, we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But whilst we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world.³⁵

When a temptation comes upon you unexpectedly, do not accuse him through whom it came; but seek the why of it and you will find correction. Whether it was to be through one or through another, the fact is you had to drain the wormwood of God’s judgments.

So long as you are disposed to do evil, refuse no hardships, that you may be humbled by them and throw up pride.

Some temptations bring men pleasure, some grief, some bodily pain. The Physician of souls by means of His judgments applies the remedy to each soul according to the cause of its passions.

The attacks of temptations in some cases are brought on to take away past sins, in other cases for sins now being committed, in yet others to cut off those that are liable to be committed. And this apart from the temptations that come upon one as a trial, as with Job.

The prudent man who reckons upon the medicine of divine judgments, thankfully bears the misfortunes that thereby come upon him, allowing that they have no other cause than his own sins. The imprudent man, however, ignorant of the supernal wisdom of God’s providence, sins and is chastised, yet considers God or men as the cause of his evils.

Certain things put a stop to the movements of passion and do not allow them to go on to increase; others lessen them and make them decrease. For example, fasting, work, and vigils do not permit concupiscence to grow; while solitude and meditation, prayer, and burning love for God diminish it and bring it to nothing. Similarly for anger: for instance, long-suffering, forgetfulness of grudges, and meekness put a stop to it and do not allow it to grow; while charity, alms, kindness, and benevolence make it diminish.³⁶

For him whose mind is continually with God, even his concupiscence is increased above measure into a divinely burning love; and the entire irascible element is changed into divine charity. For by continual participation in the divine illumination it has become wholly lightsome and, making the passible element one with itself, it has turned as was said above, to a divinely burning love without end and unceasing charity, passing over completely from earthly things to the divine.³⁷

Not to have envy, not to be angry, not to hold a grudge against him who offends you, is not for all that to bear the man charity. For it can be that a man, not yet loving, does not return evil for evil, because of the commandment; nevertheless he does not yet do good for evil, spontaneously. Purposely to do good to those who hate you belongs to perfect spiritual love alone.³⁸

Because a man does not love some one, he does not for that hate him; and again—because he does not hate, he does not for that love him; rather, he can be in a midway position, that is, neither loving nor hating him. For the disposition to love is produced only in one of the five ways, mentioned in the ninth saying of the present Century: that is, the praiseworthy way, the one in between, and the blameworthy ones.

When you see your mind tarrying with pleasure over material things and fond of thinking of them, know that you love them rather than God; for where thy treasure is, says the Lord, there will thy heart be also.³⁹

The mind, joined with God and abiding with Him through prayer and charity, becomes wise, good, powerful, benevolent, merciful, long-suffering; in a word, it contains in itself practically all the divine attributes. But when it leaves Him and goes over to material things, it becomes either like a domestic animal, pleasure-loving, or like a wild beast, fighting for these things with men.⁴⁰

Scripture calls material things the world. Worldlings are those who let their mind tarry over them; such it severely rebukes, saying: Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. The concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life is not of God, but of the world, and the rest.⁴¹

A monk is one who separates his mind from material things and by self-mastery, charity, psalmody, and prayer devotes himself to God.

The cattle-keeper is, allegorically, the practical man; for moral actions are of the nature of cattle. Therefore Jacob said: Thy servants are keepers of cattle. The shepherd, however, is the gnostic; for the thoughts, which are pastured by the mind in the mountains of contemplations, are of the nature of sheep. So also: All shepherds are an abomination to the Egyptians, that is, to the powerful adversaries.⁴²

When the senses move the body to its own concupiscences and pleasures, the careless mind follows along and consents to its imaginings and instigations. But the virtuous mind masters itself and holds itself back from those impassioned imaginings and instigations; rather, as a philosopher,⁴³ it tries to improve such emotions.

There are virtues of the body and virtues of the soul. Those of the body include fasting, vigils, sleeping on the ground, service of others, manual work, done in order not to burden anybody or else to have something to share, and so on. The virtues of the soul are charity, long-suffering, meekness, self-mastery, prayer, and so on. If from some necessity or bodily condition, as sickness, or some such thing, it happens that we are unable to carry out such corporal virtues, we are pardoned by the Lord, who knows the reasons; but when we fail to carry out the virtues of the soul, we shall have no excuse—they submit to no necessity.

Charity for God persuades him who has it to scorn, with neglect of all pleasure, every hardship and grief. Let all the saints convince you of this, they who have suffered so much for Christ.

Guard yourself from self-love, mother of vices, which is unreasonable affection for the body. For from it doubtless arise those first three capital, impassioned, raving thoughts—I mean gluttony, avarice, and vainglory. They have their origin in some needful demand of the body; from them the whole catalogue of vices is born. One must then, as has been said, necessarily be on guard and war against this self-love with great sobriety. When this is done away with, all its offspring are likewise done for.

The passion of self-love suggests to the monk that he indulge the body and take food oftener than is fitting. Under the pretense of considerate care it purposes to draw him on little by little to fall into the pit of voluptuousness; to the worldling it proposes at once to make provision for concupiscence.⁴⁴

The supreme state of prayer is, they say, when the mind passes out of the flesh and the world and remains entirely untouched in prayer by matter and forms. He who keeps this state without blemish really prays without ceasing.⁴⁵

As the body that dies leaves behind all the affairs of life, so the mind that dies in the summits of prayer leaves behind all thoughts of this world; for if it will not die such a death, it cannot be found with God and live.

Monk, let no one deceive you, as though you could be saved while in the service of pleasure and vainglory!

As the body, sinning through things, has for guidance and discipline the corporal virtues that it may be sober-minded: so the mind too, sinning through impassioned thoughts, has likewise for guidance and discipline the virtues of the soul, that looking upon things with purity and detachment it may be sober-minded.

Just as night succeeds day, and winter summer, so pain and grief succeed vainglory and pleasure, either now or in the future.

No sinner will escape the judgment to come unless here below he undertake hard things or endure what is inflicted.

There are five reasons, they say, why God permits us to be warred upon by the demons: (1) that in the attacks and counter-attacks we come to distinguish virtue and vice; (2) that possessing virtue in such combat and struggle, we shall hold it firm and steadfast; (3) that with advance in virtue we do not become high-minded but learn to be humble; (4) that having had some experience of vice, we will hate it with a consummate hate; and (5) above all that when we become detached we forget not our own weakness nor the power of Him who has helped us.

As the hungry man’s mind forms phantoms of bread and the thirsty man’s of water, so the glutton imagines a variety of food, the voluptuary forms of women, the vain man attentions from men, the avaricious gain, the vengeful man vengeance on the offender, the envious man evil for the object of his envy—and similarly for the other passions. For the mind beset by passions receives impassioned thoughts, whether the body be waking or sleeping.

When concupiscence is grown strong, the mind dreams of the objects that give pleasure; when anger is strong, the mind looks on the things that cause fear. The impure demons, then, with our carelessness as fellow worker, strengthen and arouse the passions, while the holy angels, who move us to the exercise of virtue, lessen them.

When the concupiscible part of the soul is frequently roused, there is induced in the soul a fixed habit of pleasure. The temper continually stirred makes the mind cowardly and unmanly. They are healed, the first by a continual exercise of fasting, vigils, and prayer; the other by kindness, benevolence, charity, and mercy.

The demons make their attacks either with things or with the impassioned thoughts connected with them. They attack with things those that are occupied in affairs; with thoughts those that live withdrawn from affairs.⁴⁶

As it is easier to sin in thought than in deed, so war with thoughts is harder than with things.

Things are outside the mind; thoughts about them have their place within. It is then for the mind to use them well or ill; misuse of things follows on the mistaken use of their thoughts.

The mind receives impassioned thoughts from three sources—from the senses, from the body’s condition and temperament, from the memory. From the senses, when they, receiving impressions from the objects of the passions, move the mind to impassioned thinking; through the body’s condition and temperament, that is, when this condition, altered by undisciplined living, by the activity of demons, or some disease, moves the mind to impassioned thinking, or against Providence; through memory, namely, when the memory recalls the thoughts of things that have stirred our passion, it likewise moves the mind to impassioned thinking.⁴⁷

Of the things God has given us for use some are in the soul, some in the body, some are concerned with the body. In the soul there are its powers, in the body the sense organs and the other members, concerned with the body are food, possessions, and so on. The good or ill use of these, or of their accidents, make us either virtuous or bad.⁴⁸

Of these accidents in things some are in the soul, some in the body, some concerned with the body. Of those in the soul there are knowledge and ignorance, forgetfulness and memory, charity and hate, fear and courage, grief and joy, and so on; of those in the body there are pleasure and hardship, the use of the senses and its loss, health and sickness, life and death, and such like; concerned with the body there are fecundity and sterility, wealth and poverty, fame and ill repute, and so on. Now among these men reckon some as good and attractive, others as evil—though essentially none of them is evil. It is with regard to their use that they are discovered to be in a proper sense either evil or good.

Knowledge is naturally good and attractive, so also is health; yet their contraries have benefited more people. Knowledge does not turn out to the advantage of the bad, though it be naturally good, as was said; similarly neither health, nor riches, nor joy. For men do not use them advantageously. Their contraries therefore are helpful. So then they are not essentially evil though they seem to be so.

Do not misuse thoughts, lest you be forced to misuse things too. For unless a man first sin in thought, he will never sin in deed.

The capital vices are the image of the earthly man—folly, cowardice, intemperance, injustice. The capital virtues are the image of the heavenly man—prudence, courage, temperance, justice. Certainly then, as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.⁴⁹

If you will to find the way that leads to life, look for it, and there you will find it, in the Way that says: I am the way and the life and the truth. But let the search be diligent and painstaking, since few there are that find it; otherwise left out of the few, you will be found with the many.⁵⁰

Because of these five a soul will cut itself off from sins—because of fear of men, or for fear of judgment, or because of the future reward, or for charity towards God, or finally because of the prompting of conscience.⁵¹

Some say that there would be no evil in creatures unless there were some other power that drew us on to it. And this is no other than carelessness about the natural activities of the mind. Wherefore those that have a care always do good things, evil things never. If then you too have the will, expel carelessness and you drive out vice, which is the mistaken use of thoughts, on which follows the misuse of things.

It is of the nature of our rational element to be subject to the divine Word and to rule the irrational element in us. Preserve then this order in everything and there will be no evil in creatures nor will anything be found to draw on to evil.⁵²

Some thoughts are simple, some are compound. The simple are passionless; the compound are impassioned, composed, as it were, of passion and representation. Things being so, it is noticeable that many simple thoughts follow along with the compound when these are first moved to a sin of the mind. This is the case with money. An impassioned thought rises in someone’s memory about gold; mentally he has the urge to steal and he completes the sin in his mind. There comes along with the memory of the gold a remembrance of the purse, the chest, the room, and so on. Now the memory of the gold is compound; for it is with passion. The memory of the purse, chest, and so on is simple; for the mind has no attachment for them. And thus it is with every thought, with vainglory, with women, and the rest. For all thoughts that follow after an impassioned thought are not themselves impassioned, as the explanation has shown. From this then we can know what are impassioned representations, what simple.

Some say the demons touch the private parts of the body in sleep and rouse the passion of fornication; the roused passion then suggests to the mind, by the memory, female forms. Others say the demons appear to the mind in the guise of a woman and then touching the body rouse desire, and thus imaginings arise. Still others say that the passion dominant in the approaching demon rouses the passion and thus the soul is prepared for thoughts and recalls the forms by memory. For other impassioned images it is the same; some say it happens so, some say in some other way. However, in none of these ways are the demons able to rouse any passion whatsoever in a soul whether awake or asleep, when charity and self-mastery are present.

Some commands of the Law it is necessary to keep both in actual fact and in spirit; some in spirit only. For example, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal—these and the like one must observe both in fact and in spirit (the spiritual observance is threefold). To be circumcised, to keep the Sabbath, to sacrifice the lamb and eat the unleavened bread with bitter herbs, and so on, are to be kept in spirit only.⁵³

There are in general three moral conditions among monks. The first is not to sin in deed; the second not to permit impassioned thoughts to linger in the soul; the third is to look on with detachment when forms of women and of those who have offended us arise in the mind.

He is poor who has renounced all his goods and possesses nothing at all on earth save his body; and who, in severing his attachment to it, has confided himself to the care of God and pious men.

Some owners own with detachment; therefore, stripped of their goods they do not grieve, like the men who accepted with joy the seizure of their goods.⁵⁴ Some own with attachment; wherefore, about to be stripped, they become grief-stricken, like the rich man in the Gospel, who went away sad.⁵⁵ And if in fact they are stripped they grieve till death. Such a stripping then probes the state of detachment or attachment of men.

The demons war upon those who are at the summit of prayer to keep them from receiving mere representations of sensible things. Against gnostics they strive so that impassioned thoughts may linger in their minds; against those struggling in the active life, so as to persuade them to sin by deed; in every way, against all, these wretches strive to separate man from God.⁵⁶

Those whose piety Divine Providence exercises in this life are tried by three sorts of temptation: by the gift of pleasant things, as health, beauty, many children, wealth, good repute, and so on; or by the infliction of grievous things, as the loss of children, of wealth, of good repute; or by painful afflictions of the body, as disease, torments and so on. To the first the Lord says: If any one doth not renounce all that he possesseth, he cannot be my disciple; to the second and third: In your patience possess your souls.⁵⁷

The following four things are said to alter the condition and temperament of the body and give thoughts to the mind, whether they be impassioned or detached, namely: angels, demons, the weather, and style of living. The angels, it is said, make the alteration by the use of reason; the demons, by touch; the weather, by its changes; the style of living, by the quality of food and drink, by excess and defect. Besides, there are the alterations coming from the memory, from the hearing and sight, by which the soul is directly affected with grief or with joy. The soul then being thus affected alters the temperament of the body; the temperament thus changed induces thoughts in the mind.⁵⁸

Separation from God is, properly, death, and sin the sting of death. In consenting to it Adam at the same time became exiled from the tree of life, from Paradise and from God; of necessity bodily death followed after. He who says I am life is properly life. He in His death led back to life him who had been made dead.⁵⁹

A man writes either to help his memory or to render a service, or both; either to harm certain people or to make a fine showing; or out of necessity.

Virtue of the active life is the place of pasture; knowledge of creatures is the water of refreshment.⁶⁰

Human life is the shadow of death. If then anyone is with God and God is with him, clearly such a man can say: for though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me.⁶¹

A pure mind sees things rightly; a practiced speech places them in evidence; a keen hearing accepts them. But the mind that is deprived of these three does ill to the speaker.

He that knows the Holy Trinity, the Trinity’s handiwork and Providence, he that possesses the sensitive part of his soul without attachment—this man is with God.

The rod is said to signify God’s judgment, the staff, His Providence. He then who has received knowledge of these things, may say: Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me.⁶²

When the mind is stripped of passions and illumined by contemplation of creatures, then it can be in God and pray as it ought.

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