Cornelius a Lapide

James I

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

After the ancient manner of letters, he gives, partly admonitions and partly precepts, on various and different virtues. First, from verse 1 to verse 12, he teaches that one should rejoice in temptation, since the patience of it produces a perfect work, and that wisdom must be asked of God with sure hope and faith; that the humble and poor should glory in their future exaltation, while the rich and proud should be confounded in the humiliation which will soon overtake them. Second, from verse 12 to 19, he teaches that he is blessed who endures temptation; that temptation is not from God, but every gift and good thing descends from Him, as from the Father of lights. Third, from verse 19 to 22, he teaches that the tongue, anger, and uncleanness must be bridled. Fourth, from verse 22 to the end, he teaches that the doers of the word are justified, not the hearers only. For true religion is to visit orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from this world.

Vulgate Text: James 1:1-27

1. James, a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion, greeting. 2. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various temptations: 3. knowing that the trial of your faith works patience. 4. And patience has a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. 5. But if any of you wants wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly, and does not reproach: and it shall be given to him. 6. But let him ask in faith, hesitating in nothing: for he who hesitates is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind. 7. Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any thing from the Lord. 8. A double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways. 9. But let the brother of low degree glory in his exaltation; 10. and the rich man, in his being made low, because as the flower of grass he shall pass away. 11. For the sun rose with a burning heat, and dried up the grass, and its flower fell off, and the beauty of its appearance perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation: for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. 13. Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God: for God is not a tempter of evils: and He Himself tempts no one. 14. But every man is tempted, being drawn away and enticed by his own concupiscence. 15. Then concupiscence, when it has conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, when it has been consummated, begets death. 16. Therefore do not err, my dearly beloved brethren. 17. Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration. 18. For of His own will He has begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of His creature. 19. You know, my dearly beloved brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger. 20. For the wrath of man does not work the justice of God. 21. Wherefore, casting away all uncleanness and abundance of malice, with meekness receive the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23. For if a man is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man considering the face of his birth in a mirror. 24. For he considered himself, and went away, and immediately forgot what he was. 25. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and remains in it, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work: he shall be blessed in his deed. 26. If any man thinks himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from this world. is this: To visit orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from this world.

Verse 1: A Servant of God and of Our Lord Jesus Christ

James. — He received this name from the first father and Patriarch of the twelve tribes, who was called Jacob, that is, "supplanter," by his mother Rebecca, because while in the womb at birth he held the heel of his brother Esau; by which portent it was signified that he would supplant him and cunningly seize for himself the right of the firstborn, as I said at Genesis ch. xxv, 25. In a similar way St. James supplanted the devil and his son Simon Magus along with his followers. So Saul received his name from Saul, the first king of his tribe of Benjamin. And just as Saul persecuted David, so Saul (Paul) persecuted Christ and Christians. Mystically, Jacob, that is "wrestler," is every Christian: for he challenges to single combat the demon, the flesh, and the world, and the whole of hell. Hence he is called the boxer and athlete of Christ, says St. Dionysius, ch. II of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and from Christ is called Christian, as it were anointed with ointment for the spiritual wrestling in which all his life he must contend with enemies. Thus St. Augustine, tractate 33 on John. The same thing was represented by Jacob wrestling with the Angel, Genesis xxxii, 24, as Theodoret teaches there in Question XCI.

OF GOD AND OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. — First, the Greeks in Oecumenius understand by "God" God the Father; by "Lord," God the Son, as if James professes himself the servant of both divine persons; inasmuch as their essence and operation are one and the same, so also their authority and dignity. Second, others take "God" for the Holy Trinity, and "Lord" for Christ as man. Third, and most properly, St. Cyril, book XII Thesaur., ch. XIII, Thomas Aquinas, Dionysius, and others judge that the same person, namely the Son, that is, Jesus Christ, is here called God and Lord, so that the two natures of Christ are signified: in "God," His divine nature; in "Lord," His human nature. Or certainly, because the epithet proper to God is "Lord": for full, transcendent, and universal dominion over all things properly belongs to God, according to that line of Virgil, Aeneid I: O Thou who governest the affairs of men and gods With eternal sway, and terrifiest with Thy thunderbolt. Hence also that line of Martial mocking the Emperor Domitian, who wished to be regarded and worshiped as God: The edict of our Lord and God. For according to Suetonius in his Life of Domitian, ch. xiii, Domitian dictated his letter with such arrogance that it began thus: " Our Lord and God commands that this be done. " St. Chrysostom, hom. 9 on the Epistle to the Colossians, notes that the name of the Lord, of the Trinity, or of Christ used to be prefixed by the faithful to letters and to all things: " Because, he says, wherever the name of the Lord shall be, there all things will be prosperous: and the name of Christ adds much more security to letters than the name of the Consuls. " Our Gretser, in book III On the Cross, ch. ix and following, teaches that Christians used to prefix the name of Christ or the sign of the cross to any kind of letters and monuments.

Morally and forcefully Primaticeius notes that by the word "of God" the excellence of the divine Majesty is signified and commended to us; by "of the Lord," His immense power; by "of our," His infinite charity; by "of Jesus Christ," His royal and priestly dignity.

A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST. — He does not call himself an Apostle, but a servant of Christ. Hence some have thought that James, who was the author of this epistle, was not an Apostle. For they distinguish and posit three James's: the first Zebedee's, the second Alphaeus's, both of them Apostles, and the third the brother of the Lord, who was only Bishop (not Apostle) of Jerusalem, and wrote this epistle. So Clement, book II of the Constitutions, ch. lix, and book VI, ch. XII, and Turrianus there; St. Jerome on Isaiah ch. xvii; Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 14. St. Anacletus favors this view, the fourth from St. Peter, epistle II, where he teaches that James the brother of the Lord was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem by St. Peter, James, and John, the brothers; whereas the common opinion of Anacletus there himself, of Cyril in catechesis 17, of Ammonius and others, whom I cited at Acts ii, 4, is that all the Apostles were ordained Bishops immediately by Christ Himself; unless one should say that this James was also ordained Bishop by Christ, but in a general sense for the whole world, as also the other Apostles, while by Peter he was ordained, that is, deputed and instituted as the proper Bishop of the first Church, namely Jerusalem, but not first consecrated by them, as St. Chrysostom rightly observed, hom. 87 on John.

But the common opinion is that there were only two James's, and both were Apostles, namely the son of Zebedee and the son of Alphaeus, who was Bishop of Jerusalem and the author of this epistle. This is clear from Paul, who in Galatians i, 19, says that he saw none other of the Apostles except James the brother of the Lord; and in ch. ii, 9, he calls this James, together with Cephas and John, a pillar of the Church. So thinks and teaches the Council of Trent, session IV; Eusebius, book II of his History, chapters 1 and XXII; Clement of Alexandria, book VI Stromata; Chrysostom, hom. 33 and 44 on Matthew; St. Epiphanius, heresy 29; and others everywhere, indeed the whole Church, which celebrates the feast of James the Less on 1 May, asserting that he was an Apostle, the brother of the Lord, son of Alphaeus, killed by the Jews with a fuller's club. For this reason St. Jerome changed his opinion; for in epistle 103, and book I Contra Pelagium, he calls James, the author of the epistle, an Apostle. Clement's books of Recognitions are of doubtful authority. Hence the same Clement, in epistle I to... this James, asserts that he was immediately ordained by Christ. The same is asserted by Eusebius, Dorotheus in his Synopsis, and others. Hence from St. James the Church of Jerusalem obtained the dignity of a Patriarchal Church, equally with Antioch and Rome, in which St. Peter sat in his own person; and with Alexandria, in which St. Peter sat through St. Mark his disciple. For Patriarchal Churches are Apostolic, founded and established by the Apostles themselves. Moreover Jerusalem obtained this dignity, not in St. James's time, since it was soon to be destroyed by Titus, but long afterwards from Pope Vigilius, as I said at Acts, ch. xi, xxv, and xxvi.

Therefore the reasons why St. James writes himself a servant of Christ, not an Apostle, are various. The first is his zeal for humility and modesty, just as from the same the Blessed Virgin called herself the handmaid of God, Luke i, 38. The second is that an Apostle properly is one who, sent by Christ, runs through the world to preach the Gospel. James, however, did not run through the world, like the other eleven Apostles, but was fixed to Judaea and Jerusalem, and was made by Christ and the Apostles its proper Bishop and Pastor. The third is that it is an enormous dignity, and a title of the highest honor, to be a servant of Christ. For, as St. Ambrose says, " It is a great dignity to be a servant of one who is powerful: " therefore it is the supreme dignity to be a servant of Him who is supremely powerful, namely Christ; for to serve God is to reign. Wherefore the Apostles preferred the servitude of Christ to all the kingdoms of the world, and gloried more in being servants of Christ than if they had been kings of the whole world, says Didymus and Oecumenius. Hence also St. Agatha said to the prefect Quintian: " Christian humility and servitude is much more excellent than the riches and pride of kings. " For to be a servant of Christ is to be a servant of eternal wisdom, justice, truth, goodness, and absolutely all virtues, which Christ is, as Origen rightly said. The fourth is that of the Apostles, only St. Peter, as primate, and St. Paul, as the apostle and teacher of all the Gentiles, by way of antonomasia took to themselves the title of Apostle. Hence neither St. John nor St. Jude calls himself an Apostle in his epistles. The fifth is that a servant of Christ is the same as an Apostle. For "servant" here does not signify just any kind, but to one's lord, namely Christ, the most faithful, most beloved, closest and most intimate, who attends to all his affairs, and is sent by him to any people whatever to convert them — who is indeed none other than an Apostle. Hence Jude, by the example of his brother James, likewise at the beginning of his epistle calls himself a servant of Christ. Finally Sixtus of Siena, book VII of his Bibliotheca, and Fevardentius here are of the opinion that the name "Apostle" was erased here by some forger so that, with the author removed, the authority of the epistle would be removed. For many Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Arabic codices have here the name "Apostle."

TO THE TWELVE TRIBES WHICH ARE IN THE DISPERSION. — that is, who are scattered among the Gentiles. So the Syriac. Now "to the tribes," that is, to any Jews who are descended from the twelve tribes. For not the whole tribes were dispersed, but many from each tribe. Note: the Patriarch Jacob had twelve sons, likewise patriarchs. For each one constituted a single family and tribe of sons and grandsons descended from himself, and gave it his own name, so that the tribe of Judah, Levi, Reuben is called the family descended from Judah, Levi, Reuben, etc. Among these twelve tribes the holy land or Judaea was divided by Joshua, ch. xv. From it they were repeatedly led into captivity and dispersed among the Gentiles, especially by the kings of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Syrians, Egyptians, and Greeks. Many also of their own accord went out from Judaea into foreign regions for the sake of gain, or rest, or for parents, etc., and there fixed their dwellings. Moreover, almost all the faithful Jews, except the Apostles, in the persecution stirred up over St. Stephen, fled from Jerusalem to other cities and regions and were dispersed, as is clear from Acts viii, 2. To all these, and especially to those dispersed on account of the killing of Stephen, as Beda, Gagneius, and Ribera think on Hosea, ch. 1, St. James writes this epistle (as also his own St. Peter), so that as present he taught with the spoken word, so absent he might teach, strengthen, and exhort with the written word to a life worthy of a Christian. For he himself was the proper Bishop of the Jews: whence he properly exercised pastoral care over them. Hence it is clear, first, that St. James wrote this epistle directly to the faithful Jews, though indirectly also to unbelievers, as Beda holds, and consequently he also wrote the same to the faithful converted from the Gentiles. For all these were professing the same faith and life of Christ which St. James inculcates here. Lucius Dexter adds in his Chronicle that very many Jews were dispersed throughout Spain, and that this epistle was written by James especially to them, since he himself thinks that James was not the son of Alphaeus but of Zebedee, the Apostle and master of the Spaniards, of whom I spoke in the Preface.

It is clear, secondly, that St. James did not write this epistle to the ten tribes, which after the schism made by Jeroboam from the two, namely Judah and Benjamin, were finally led off into Assyria by Shalmaneser, and which the Jews fable to be enclosed and hidden by the impassable Caspian mountains. For St. James says that he writes to the twelve tribes: therefore he writes both to the two and to the ten just mentioned.

GREETING. — Understand: "he wishes and prays"; in Greek it is χαίρειν (chairein), which signifies three things, namely to rejoice, to be well, and to fare well. It is the word of one greeting: hence the Greeks use it at the beginning of letters, which Horace imitated at the beginning of book I of the Epistles: " Bid Celsus Albinovanus, O Muse, when asked, to rejoice and to fare well. " So also here χαίρειν alludes to χαράν (joy), which follows; as if to say: I wish you to rejoice, so that the tribulation which besets you, you may consider not sorrow but joy. Now the greeting of the Apostles and Saints is not courtly and verbal, but effective and real, and is sufficient to fill with salvation the one who makes use of it, as from... as I said from St. Chrysostom on Romans 1, near the beginning. Now "salutem" (greeting/salvation) embraces peace, grace, and every good which leads to present and eternal salvation; and consequently Jesus Himself, who is the salvation and Savior of the world. Let this be the answer to Cajetan, who judged this greeting (and consequently the epistle) profane, not apostolic, and made little of it. For St. James and the Apostles used the same in the Council of Jerusalem, Acts xv, 23. Hence the Roman Pontiffs use the same in their Jubilees and ecumenical letters: for they pray for and impart to all the faithful greeting (salutem) and the apostolic blessing.

Symbolically St. Augustine notes in his Exposition on the Epistle to the Romans, before the middle, that the word "salus" in the Punic language (which is the kinswoman and daughter of Hebrew, in which שלוש [shalosh] likewise signifies three) signifies three, and so tacitly indicates the Holy Trinity, from whom all salvation flows. " In a conversation of certain country folk, he says, when one had said to another "Salus," (Valerius, Bishop of Hippo) asked one who knew both Latin and Punic, what "salus" meant. The answer was: three. Then he, recognizing with joy that our salvation is the Trinity, judged that the agreement of the languages did not sound thus by chance, but by a most hidden dispensation of divine providence: that when in Latin Salus is named, three is understood by the Punic; and when the Punic in their language name three, Salus is understood in Latin. " St. Augustine adds that the Canaanite woman, in Matthew xv, when she begged her daughter's salvation from Christ, implicitly was asking for the Holy Trinity, and His faith and aid, by which her daughter was to be saved not only in body but also in soul.

Verse 2: Count It All Joy When You Fall Into Various Temptations

2. ALL JOY. — " All, " that is whole, perfect, full, supreme. It is an enallage of quantity: for the whole universal is put for the whole integral, which is completed and made entire by its parts; as if to say: In temptation and tribulation, do not be sad, O Christians, but rejoice, not with any kind of joy, but with full and supreme joy. Some imperfect persons in tribulation partly grieve and partly rejoice. They plant one foot in patience and the other in impatience; St. James therefore wishes both feet of the soul to be planted in patience, and in its highest degree. For there are three degrees of patience: the first, to bear patiently; the second, to bear willingly; the third, to bear joyfully. Thus "all" is taken for "the whole," Ecclesiastes xii, 13: " Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole man, " that is, the entire man; as if to say: The whole good of man consists in the fear of God and the observance of His commandments; and therefore he himself wholly and with all the powers of his soul ought to attend to the fear of God and to His commandments, and devote himself to fulfilling them, according to that command of God: " You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, " Deuteronomy vi, 5.

Secondly, the word "all" can be taken properly, and then the sense will be more forceful, as if to say: Temptation and tribulation are so far from being evil and to be fled, that in them every good is placed, and consequently every object and material of joy, so that every joy which nature or God has scattered through other goods seems to be collected and united in this one universal and supreme good of tribulation; so that in tribulation alone one ought to rejoice more than if alone you possessed all the wealth, honors, and pleasures of the world. Hence it follows that tribulation is the supreme good of this life: for the supreme joy can be only about the supreme good. For there are three passions or affections which have good as their object, namely love, desire, and joy. Love regards good in general; desire is the longing for an absent good; joy is the enjoyment of a present good: and the greater the good, the greater are these affections. On the opposite side, the affections opposed to these, which have evil as their object, are hatred, fear, and sorrow. Hatred is of evil absolutely; fear is the flight of an absent evil; sorrow is the pain from the sadness of a present evil.

This is the first paradox of St. James, with which he begins, that he may win and arouse the attention of his readers, and that he may fully console the faithful afflicted in his own age by the Jews and others, and those who would be afflicted in the coming ages, and teach them how to embrace affliction and how they ought to bear themselves in it, namely by not casting down the soul but lifting it up, by not grieving but rejoicing, by not complaining but giving thanks. High is this wisdom, and unknown to the philosophers, which St. James learned from Christ, who brought it down, as it were a hidden and heavenly thing, from the Father's bosom into the world, saying: " Blessed are those who suffer persecution, " etc., Matthew v, 10; and therefore He descended from heaven into flesh, that He might teach men this, and that more by example than by word. For the whole life of Christ was continual affliction, cross, and martyrdom. The paradox therefore of Christ and of Christianity, preached and practiced by St. James and the other Apostles, is: " Tribulation is the supreme good, and therefore in it one must supremely rejoice. " The ancient wise men were ignorant of this; Aristotle did not know it; Plato did not understand it; Anaxagoras judged it false; Epicurus, foolish. For nature and natural reason shudder at tribulation, as the enemy of nature and of the natural state, of comfort and happiness, and as diametrically opposed to them. Wherefore man, even if he strives with all the powers of nature, cannot rise to such a height as to rejoice in tribulation, and to rejoice supremely; even though some philosophers feigned and pretended to rejoice in it, in order to chase after the name and reputation and empty smoke of the virtue of patience and constancy among men. Hence that saying of Cato to his soldiers in Africa wrestling with the sands and serpents, in Lucan: — Serpent, thirst, scorching heat, the sands, Are sweet to virtue: patience rejoices in hardships. Truly Tertullian, in his book On Patience, ch. xvi: " Christian patience, he says, is heavenly and true; that of the Gentiles is false and shameful, since the name of so great a good... they occupy with foul deeds: patient with rivals, and rich men, and guests, they live impatient only of God. " And St. Cyprian, in his book On Patience: " Among the Gentiles, he says, patience is as false as their wisdom. "

Therefore Christ by His doctrine and supernatural grace raises nature so high that, against nature, He rejoices over the evil of nature, namely over tribulation; and therefore He permitted the fall of Adam into sin, and through it into death and all tribulation, that in it He might show, as the most skillful and most powerful Physician, the power of His grace and how great a remedy is Christian patience. For this could not have had place, nor have been seen and shown, in the state of innocence, free as it was from all tribulation. Therefore we have received more virtue from Christ than we lost in Adam, as I have shown from the Apostle, Romans v. Wherefore St. Jerome, on Ephesians v, 20, "Giving thanks always for all things," speaks thus: " It is the proper virtue of Christians, even in those things which are thought adverse, to give thanks to the Creator. According to the Apostle this is the greatest virtue, that in dangers and miseries themselves we render thanks to God and always say: Blessed be God, I know I am bearing less than I deserve; these are small in comparison with my sins; nothing worthy is being repaid to me. This is the spirit of a Christian; this is one who, taking up his cross, follows the Savior, whom neither bereavement nor losses weaken; whom, as Horace says, even if the broken sphere of the world should fall, the ruins shall strike unafraid. "

The standard-bearer of this joy in the battle of tribulation was Christ, who panting toward the cross was saying: " I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished? " Luke xii, 50.

The chief centurion was St. Peter, who in I Peter, ch. IV, vers. 13: " Communicating, he says, with the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you shall be blessed: for that which is of the honor, glory, and power of God, and that which is His Spirit, rests upon you. "

The standard-bearer is St. Paul: " We glory, he says, in tribulations, " Romans v, 3. And: " I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ, " II Corinthians xii, 10. And: " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world, " Galatians vi, 14. Paul therefore by this love and joy of the cross seemed to have been transformed into Christ crucified. So also St. Francis; whence the stigmata of the five wounds were impressed upon him. Paul, says Chrysostom in hom. 4 on II Corinthians: " When he saw as it were heaps of snow, temptations rushing in daily, no otherwise than if he had lived in the midst of paradise, so did he rejoice and exult; and accordingly, just as he who is held by this joy rejoices and cannot be overcome by perturbation of soul, so he who is not held by this joy can easily be seized and conquered by any troubles whatever; and exactly the same happens to him as if one bearing weak armor were wounded by any light stroke: there is no kind of armor more powerful than to rejoice according to God. "

St. James here is the centurion, and the rest of the Apostles, who, as Luke says, Acts v, 41, " went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they had been counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus. " See what was said there. Hence St. Bernard, sermon On the Threefold Kind of Good: " Not only patiently, he says, but also willingly, and indeed ardently to torments as to ornaments, to punishments as to delights, did Blessed Andrew hasten. "

Count it, — ἡγήσασθε (hēgēsasthe), that is, judge, lead, think; the Syriac, "have," that is, hold, as if to say: This joy is placed not in the sense of nature: for this in tribulation feels pain, but in the reasoning of reason illuminated and strengthened through faith and grace, in its estimation, dictate, and judgment, which suggests various weighty considerations and reasons of nature tempted and afflicted (which I will soon review), on account of which one ought to rouse oneself to joy in temptation. Truly Seneca, epistle 78: " Pain is light, if opinion has added nothing to it. All things hang from opinion. "

WHEN INTO VARIOUS TEMPTATIONS. — For to one temptation succeeds another and another, often of another kind and matter, just as wave succeeds wave, wind succeeds wind, ring succeeds ring in a chain, and so many often at once invade a man. " For temptation is the life of man upon the earth, " as Job says, ch. vii, vers. 1, according to the Septuagint. Wherefore John Pico della Mirandola, giving twelve weapons to spiritual warfare, assigns the sixth among them: " When one temptation has been overcome, let him expect another, since the demon always goes about. Seventh: Not only must the devil be conquered, but profit must be made out of the temptation, and a temptation, e.g. of pride, must be received as an exhortation and invitation to humility. Eighth: While you fight, fight as one about to have perpetual peace afterwards, because God often grants this to noble souls; but when you have conquered, conduct yourself as one about to fight again soon. Eleventh: Consider that it is sweeter to conquer temptation than to go to sins; and so compare the sweetness of victory with the sweetness of sin, not the battle with pleasure. "

Temptations falling upon (us). — You will ask, what does "temptation" properly signify here? I answer first, temptation is the same as affliction and tribulation, namely the poverty by which the first faithful were pressed, hunger, sickness, infamies, heat, cold, and all other adversities and troubles, whether sent by God, or by the demon, or by enemies, or by friends, or by nature, or from elsewhere. These are called "temptation" because they tempt and try a man's virtue, patience, and strength.

Second, more properly and directly, St. James...

we know, lest we be saddened in temptations, but rather rejoice with Blessed Paul who says: "For now I rejoice in afflictions," Coloss. 1, 24. The same St. Chrysostom on the saying of the Apostle, Having moreover the same spirit: "This," he says, "is the duty of a noble and loving soul, to bear afflictions and adversities nobly, to endure temptation; and moreover to give thanks to Him who allows it to be tempted, this finally belongs to a soul of supreme fortitude and watchfulness, and which is superior to all human affections." Whence St. Ephrem, in the book On Faith, tom. I: "The Christian," he says, "stands amid diverse tribulations and temptations, like an anvil, which though it is always struck, yet does not give its back, nor receive the form of a hollow into itself, but ever remains the same. Let him have Christ the Lord always as a fortification and stronghold, and to Him let him flee in time of war, and say: Be Thou unto me a God for a protector, and for a place of refuge, that Thou mayest save me."

Third, because tribulation assimilates us to Christ crucified, the only-begotten of God, and summons His help. For "we have not a high priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things, like as we are, without sin," says Paul, Heb. IV, 15. Therefore it befits the Christian to rejoice and glory nowhere except in the Cross of Christ, with St. Paul. For God has hidden and enclosed so many goods in the cross of Christ and of Christians, that Paul, scrutinizing them, is everywhere astonished in his epistles. Again, Christ by His cross sweetens our crosses, so that not so much we, as He Himself in us, suffers. Wherefore St. Ephrem bore the cross on his forehead, and in his sermon On the Cross gives it magnificent praises, which I recited at Ezechiel IX, among which the chief and apposite to this place are these: "The Cross is the hope of Christians, the Cross is the resurrection of the dead, the Cross is the consolation of the afflicted, the Cross is the triumph against demons, the Cross is the hope of the despairing, the Cross is the wall of the besieged; the Cross is the guardian of infants, the head of men, the crown of old men, the magnificence of kings. The Cross is the preaching of the Prophets, the companion of the Apostles, the glorying of the Martyrs. The Cross is the chastity of virgins, the joy of priests. The Cross is the foundation of Churches and the security of the whole world. The Cross is the strength of the weak, the medicine of the sick, the confidence of monks."

He here calls temptation the persecution which the faithful of his time were suffering from the Jews and other unbelievers. For in order to strengthen them in it, he wrote this epistle, and so begins immediately with this temptation. Refer hither the labors, fatigues, dangers, and innumerable troubles and difficulties, into which the Apostles and the first faithful were falling, indeed throwing themselves of their own accord, for the cause of the Gospel, namely that they might preach and propagate it throughout the whole world.

Third, this temptation can be extended to true external temptation by the demon, and internal temptation of the flesh or of concupiscence. For this is properly called temptation, which tempts and solicits man to sin, and concerning this James adds, v. 13: "Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God." Add that tribulation is in like manner temptation properly so called, because it solicits man to faintheartedness, impatience, anger and other sins. Hence he concludes about this, v. 12, saying: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life."

You will ask secondly, why the Christian should rejoice in tribulation and persecution, not in some manner or other, but with all and supreme joy? and so why tribulation is the supreme good, in which the Christian's happiness in this life consists? I respond first, that tribulation tears us away from this world, and from love of it, from its enticements and blandishments, "lest we love the road for the homeland," as St. Gregory says, in book XXIII of the Morals, ch. xxiii; "and lest the traveler hastening to his homeland love the inn for his home," says St. Augustine, in the Sentences, sent. 186. Truly Seneca to Lucilius: "As far as we can, let us withdraw from slippery ground: even on dry ground we stand none too firmly." And epist. 93, at the end: "Good fortune and a good mind are as it were contraries to each other: thus we are wiser in evil things, prosperity takes away rectitude." St. Chrysostom, hom. 14 to the People: "The nature of temptations," he says, "is wont to wake us from our drowsiness, and to make us more religious."

Second, because tribulation is a sign of God's filiation, election, and predestination: "For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth," Heb. xii, 6. Whence St. Augustine, in the book On the Pastor: "If," he says, "you are exempt from the suffering of scourges, you are exempt from the number of the faithful." And St. Ambrose, book 1, epist. 4, calls patience in tribulations the mother of the faithful. Whence the angel to Tobias, chap. xii, v. 13: "I," he says, "offered thy prayer to the Lord: and because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee." St. Chrysostom, hom. 32 on Genesis: "Let us not think," he says, "that it is a sign that the Lord has forsaken us and despises us, if temptations are brought upon us; but let this be the greatest indication in us that God cares for us, because He purges our sins, and sets before us a struggle and matter for exercise, so that if we declare what is ours, He may deign to bestow upon us a more abundant care. Which when

Fourth, because tribulation removes two of man's greatest evils, namely sin and concupiscence. It is therefore man's greatest good: for it is itself penance for sins committed, and is also an antidote against future ones, because it is directly opposed to concupiscence. As therefore salt preserves flesh from putrefaction, so tribulation preserves body and soul from concupiscence and sin. And therefore God has filled our life with so many tribulations, because in this state of fallen and corrupted nature they are useful, indeed quite necessary, for raising and healing it; and so they are its only remedy and supreme good. Would not [a stone] rejoice...

a stone, if it had sense, that it is polished with the chisel, and becomes an elegant statue of the king? wood, which is smoothed with the plane, and becomes the throne of a prince? cloth, which is rubbed and cleansed with lye? etc. Surely it would rejoice: just so the just man ought to rejoice in tribulation. "For what fire is to gold, the file to iron, the chisel to stone, the cautery to cancer, the plane to wood, the lye to cloth, the winnowing-fan to wheat, salt to flesh, the furnace to bread, the hammer to timber-work, this tribulation is to the just man." Hence tribulation is the threshing of God, and so is so called from the threshing-sledge (tribula), with which crops are threshed and rubbed, Isa. ch. xxi, v. 10. Hear St. Augustine, On the Time of the Barbarians, III: "If you are gold, why do you fear chaff, why do you fear fire? Both indeed will be in the furnace together, but the fire will turn the chaff to ashes, and from you it will remove the dross. If you are wheat, why do you fear the threshing-sledge? You will not appear such as you were before in the ear, unless the sledge, by rubbing, has separated the chaff from you. If you are oil, why do you fear the pressure of the press? Your true form will not be displayed unless the weight of the stone also has separated the dregs from you." Whence Blessed Antiochus, hom. 79: "As wax," he says, "unless it grows warm or is softened, does not easily receive into itself the impression of the seal, so neither does man, unless he be tested by the exercise of labors and manifold infirmity." This is what the Lord says, Isa. xlviii, 9: "With My praise I will bridle thee, lest thou perish:" with praise, that is, with tribulation; for this is the bridle of concupiscence, and therefore is God's praise. And Lam. 1, 13: "From above He hath sent fire into my bones, and hath instructed me: He hath spread a net for my feet." For tribulation is the net of God, with which He fishes for men, and draws the unwilling to Himself. Tribulation is the discipline of the human race, as our Gretser shows at length, book V On the Cross, ch. xxii and following. Wherefore God gives no grace to men, except with tribulation going before, as St. Mark the anchorite says.

Fifth, because if you are sad and grieve in tribulation, you increase the tribulation and the grief, and you diminish the merit by the admixture of lesser patience, or of impatience. But if you rejoice and exult in it, you diminish the feeling of tribulation, and increase the merit by the increase of patience. For the highest act and degree of patience is to suffer with exultation. If therefore you are wise, receive tribulation courageously with joy, not torpidly and unwillingly with sadness: for thus it will lessen the punishment for you, and increase the crown.

Sixth, because tribulations supply rich material and exercise to all virtues which are situated in hard things: and virtues rejoice, when they have an occasion and object on which they may exert their vigor and display their glory. Whence Philo, in his book On Seeking Knowledge of Liberal Learning, asserts that the soul keeps festival, when by emulation in seeking the best things it undertakes the labor by which it strives toward perfection: for which reason to one who loves virtue labor grows sweet, and tribulations are matter of joy and delight.

Seventh, tribulation makes a man greater than [his] lofty soul, so that in heaven [he places] his concerns and his hopes...

set them, that as it were an eagle he may look down upon this point of the earth, and see and laugh at all the gusts of fortune in it, its waves and mockeries, according to that of Isaiah L, 14 [LVIII, 14]: "Then shalt thou delight in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father." See what is said there. Seneca saw this through a shadow, in the book On Providence, ch. IV: "Prosperity," he says, "comes upon the common people and base minds, but to put under the yoke the calamities and terrors of mortals belongs to a great man." And ch. v: "Military men glory in their wounds, calamity is the occasion of virtue: the general sends out the choicest, who shall attack the enemy by night ambushes. Teachers exact more labor from those in whom there is surer hope. There is never a soft proof of virtue. Fortune beats us and tears us: let us bear it, it is not cruelty; it is a contest." And ch. vi: "Labor calls forth the best. Fire proves gold, misery proves brave men. See how high virtue ought to ascend." Nazianzen, epist. 64 to Philagrius, praises this saying of the Stoics: "A good man is blessed, even if he be burnt up in the bull of Phalaris." Excellently Gerson, part 2, serm. On All Saints: "As," he says, "the ark of Noah, the more the waters of the flood abounded, the higher it was borne: so the meek soul, the greater shall be the waters of tribulation, the more lofty shall it be."

Wherefore to a noble soul fervently loving God nothing is more desirable, nothing more pleasant, nothing sweeter than to suffer many things for Him. The cause of this is manifold; but especially threefold. The first, that holy souls intensely love God: and they cannot show love toward Him in anything more than if they suffer or do hard things for Him. Again, they see Christ to have suffered such great things for them: that therefore they may imitate Him, and may render Him the return that they can, and repay love with love, they desire to suffer with Him and for Him, they thirst for crosses and sorrows, and say with St. Ignatius: "My love is crucified." So St. Lawrence to the tyrant: "Prepare," he said, "racks, beasts, fires, gridirons, and whatever torments you can devise: I crave and seek all these. There is no hungry man who so desires food as I desire your torments. Bring them forth therefore, and satisfy my hunger." When the Gentiles were pursuing St. Xavier to death, and so he often passed the night in trees, likewise in shipwrecks, when swimming in the midst of the sea he was tossed by the waves, he prayed: "Lord, do not take this cross from me, unless Thou send a greater." Wherefore he so abounded in heavenly consolations, that not containing them he would cry out: "It is enough, Lord, it is enough;" but in tribulations: "It is not enough, Lord, it is not enough: grant me to suffer more." So Father Lucena in his Life, book I, ch. vii. Edmund Campion, the first martyr from the Society in England, truly Campianus, that is, the champion of Christ, on hearing the sentence of death, in congratulation to God and himself sang: "We praise Thee, O God;" and being led forth to execution and standing in the theatre, said: "A spectacle...

we have become unto the world, unto angels, and unto men. I rejoice and congratulate myself on this happy lot, that I die a martyr: now I live, now I triumph." Wherefore, after the manner of Samson, who slew more by dying than by living, he converted more in death than in life to the orthodox faith, by his zeal and the example of his martyrdom, as his Life records. Outstanding and choirmaster in this matter was St. Andrew, who, on seeing the cross prepared for him, jubilantly exclaimed: "Hail, good cross, that hast received beauty from the limbs of the Lord, long desired, anxiously loved, without intermission sought, and at length prepared for a longing soul: receive me from men, and render me back to my Master, that He, through thee, may receive me, who through thee redeemed me."

Second, that God in turn embraces those who suffer for love of Him, consoles them, and sweetens the gall of suffering with the honey of divine consolation. The Martyrs experienced this, who upon the racks and in tortures leaped for joy, and sang hymns and praises to Christ. All those experience this who willingly endure adversities for God. So the Psalmist: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart," he says, "Thy comforts have given joy to my soul," Ps. xciii, 19; and Paul: "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also by Christ doth our comfort abound," II Cor. 1, 5. The measure of suffering is therefore the measure of consolation, and the greater the suffering, the greater the consolation that comes. As a type of this God gave to Moses at Mara wood that sweetens the bitter waters, Exodus xv, 25. This wood was a figure of the cross of Christ, which sweetens all the bitternesses of adversities, as I said in the same place. For which reason the Saints asked that crosses not be taken away nor mitigated, but increased, saying with Pope Pius V, when afflicted with sharp pains of the stone: "Lord, increase the pain, and increase the patience." So St. Teresa prayed: "Grant either to suffer or to die. For I want my life to be nothing else than to love Thee, to labor for Thee, to suffer for Thee." Another Saint said that she did not desire a short life and a swift death, because in heaven there is no suffering: I desire therefore to live long, because I desire long to suffer for love of God, not only martyrdoms, but also illnesses, calumnies, misfortunes and any adversities. Therefore to one who loves, virtue is sweet, patience sweet, fortitude sweet, said Cato. More divinely Sts. Mark and Marcellianus: "Never have we feasted so pleasantly as we now willingly bear these things for the cause of Christ."

The third, that they consider the suffering to be small and brief, and that they will soon receive in return for it immense and eternal glory. For they have this premeditated: "The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us. For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory," II Cor. IV, 17. So to St. Stephen seeing the heavens opened and Christ showing him the heavenly crown, the stones of the torrent were sweet. So St. Francis: "So great," he said,

is the glory which I await, that every disease, every mortification, every humiliation, every pain delights me." Doubtless he felt how sweet is the cross of Christ; and so the cross was not a cross to him, but the leader of life and joy. Happy he, to whom tribulation grows sweet, who with Blessed Catherine of Siena receives the sweet things of this life for bitter, the bitter for sweet. Indeed he who beholds and tastes the so many and so great goods which God has stored up in the cross and tribulation, judges, experiences, and feels it most sweet, and sings to the cross: "Sweet wood, sweet nails, bearing sweet burdens." In the cross therefore is true sweetness, true consolation, true joy. Embrace it willingly, and you will so find it.

St. Augustine experienced this. Whence in the Meditations, ch. vii: "Nothing," he says, "I beseech, without Thee, O Lord, may grow sweet to me, nothing please, nothing precious, nothing besides Thee smile upon me as fair. Let all things become vile to me without Thee, I beseech, let the universe become sordid: what is contrary to Thee, let it be grievous to me; and let Thy good pleasure be to me an unfailing desire. Let it weary me to rejoice without Thee, and let it delight me to be saddened for Thee." Wherefore St. Chrysostom, hom. 4 On Penance, teaches that tribulation is a spiritual commerce, in which the soul of the sufferer prepares for itself an immense gain. So St. Cyprian teaches that the Christian must stand firm and rejoice in illnesses, mortality, and death, in his book On Mortality: "Unless," he says, "the fight has gone before, there can be no victory: when in the engagement of battle there is victory, then are crowns given to the victors. For a pilot is recognized in a storm, a soldier is proved in the battle line. The boasting is delicate, when there is no danger: the struggle in adversities is the proof of truth. The tree which is founded on a deep root is not moved by the winds bearing down on it; and the ship which is solidly built with strong joining is struck by blows but is not pierced; and when the threshing-floor grinds the crops, the strong and robust grains scorn the winds, the empty straws are carried off by the bearing breath. So also the Apostle Paul, after shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many and grievous torments of flesh and body, says he is not vexed but amended in adversities, that while he is more grievously afflicted, he may be more truly proved." See our Gretser, in all of book V On the Cross, which is on the spiritual cross or tribulation. Indeed Seneca too, epist. 78 Against Pains, gives this remedy: "A great and prudent man," he says, "leads the soul away from the body, and converses much with the better and divine part. This is the consolation of vast pain, that you must necessarily cease to feel it, if you have felt it too much." And soon: "Let him fight against it with all his mind: it will be conquered, if it has yielded; he will conquer, if he has braced himself against his pain. If it is long, it has intervals, it gives place for refreshment. A brief and headlong illness will do one of two things, either be extinguished, or extinguish." So Agesilaus, king of Sparta, on Plutarch's testimony in the Laconica, when he was burning with the pains of gout, and Carneades had visited him, and was going out sad: "Stay," he said, "Carneades:

for nothing reaches hither from there," showing his feet and his breast. Feeling that his feet indeed were in pain, but that his breast and mind were free from pain.

All these things are truer and greater in that temptation which arises from persecution, of which St. James properly speaks. For its own material of joys is manifold.

The first, that such a one suffers for the faith; and is its champion and defender, or for justice: of such Christ says: "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake," Matt. v. Such a one therefore is the shield-bearer, athlete, and champion of the primary and divine truth, of the true religion, and of the holy Church, and gives wealth, strength, and life as a prey for them, fights with all his might, and often falls; which is far worthier and more divine than to fight and fall for king, fatherland, and commonwealth. Whence St. Augustine on Psalm lxvii: "The Martyrs," he says, "hold the highest place in the Churches, and excel in the summit of holy dignity." And St. Basil, hom. on the 40 Martyrs: "O holy chorus!" he says, "O sacred order! O impregnable phalanx! O common guardians of the human race, most powerful ambassadors before God, stars of the world, flowers of the Churches!"

The second, that he suffers for God and His law, honor and love. Whence he makes himself a most noble victim and a holocaust to God, immolating to Him body, blood, life, and death, according to that of Wis. III, 6: "As gold in the furnace He hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust He hath received them." He therefore wonderfully honors and equally delights God by suffering; and in turn God takes possession of him as of a victim devoted and consecrated to Himself, indeed He suffers, conquers, and triumphs with him and in him. Whence St. Jerome to Hedibia, Quaest. XII: "The triumph of God," he says, "is the suffering of the Martyrs and the shedding of blood for Christ's name, and joy amid torments, etc. This is God's triumph and the victory of the Apostles." Wherefore martyrdom by a singular privilege of God expiates all sins, however many and enormous, and abolishes all punishments due to him, and immediately transmits the martyr into heaven. "This is a baptism greater in grace, more sublime in power, more precious in honor. A baptism in which angels baptize. A baptism in which God and His Christ exult: which consummates the increase of our faith, which on our departing from the world immediately joins us to God," says St. Cyprian to Fortunatus, preface On the Exhortation to Martyrdom.

The third, that he renders to Christ the return of love, giving back to Him body for body, blood for blood, life for life. Whence St. Chrysostom, hom. 4 on the epistle to the Philippians: "To suffer for Christ," he says, "is the gift of a greater administration than actually to raise the dead, and to perform wondrous signs. For there indeed I am a debtor, but here I have Christ as my debtor." Basil, Bishop of Seleucia, in the Life of St. Thecla writes that she, after overcoming for Christ wild beasts, fires, prisons, etc., prayed to God for perseverance, "even if," she said, "every day it should be my lot to deal with fire, beasts, chains, prisons: so much so that every kind even of death and danger to be undergone for piety is judged by me preferable even to the very delights and most splendid feasts of paradise: only let me be held worthy ever to be able to endure tortures for Thee and Thy name."

The fourth, that he undergoes martyrdom, which is the noblest act of faith, charity, religion, and fortitude, and so confers the noblest palm and crown in heaven and on earth. See what is said at Hosea XI, 12, and Tertullian in the Scorpiace, Cyprian, On the Exhortation to Martyrdom, and the epistle to the Martyrs. Wherefore the Martyrs not only exulted in their torments, but the more those grew, the more their exultation grew likewise, so that they seemed to themselves to be in the courts and at the entry of heaven. Whence even the executioners and governors were astonished on seeing them, and many were converted to Christ, others were indignant and gnashed their teeth, and were more tortured by their joy than they themselves tortured them with their tortures. "They insulted," says St. Ephrem in the Encomium of the Martyrs, "the judges, as though devoid of feeling of pain, and as if they suffered in others' bodies, saying: If you have heavier torments, apply them to us. For these are of no account. Your fire appears cold, your torments ineffectual, your strikers feeble, your swords are rotten wood: you have nothing that would correspond to our promptness and alacrity, we stand ready to endure more and greater things." And below: "Neither the burning pyre, nor the hissing flame, nor the fiery frying pans, nor the boiling cauldrons, nor the white-hot plates, nor the teeth of iron claws, etc., deterred the most courageous and bravest soldiers of Christ, etc. For when struck, they received the blows of the lashes with great joy, as though receiving the highest delights. For when the hands of the lictors twisted their limbs and laid bare their entrails, they did not look upon them with a sad face, nor did they utter a groan amid the torments; but with a more cheerful and joyful countenance they testified to their inward joys: indeed for them those torments were instead of consolation and rest; afflicted, tempted, beaten, and tortured with the most exquisite torments, they always loved God with their whole heart and whole mind." And a little later: "For the expectation of things to come was glad and pleasant to you, which so animated and strengthened you, that at every hour you desired new and sharper punishments to be applied to you, nor could you be satisfied with any."

Finally, suffering and patience are not in heaven nor in paradise, but on earth and in the fallen state. By patience therefore man surpasses not only Adam, but also the angels: for the state of the angels is happier, but that of the sufferer is stronger. Wherefore St. Lawrence, for example, was stronger than the angels, who cannot suffer; stronger I say, by patience, not one and simple, but various and manifold. These are outstanding goods and joys of tribulations and persecutions... goods, and so to be ambitioned and envied; so much so that if envy could befall the angels, they would surely envy us such great gifts of suffering and patience; nay, the blessed men too, if they could be saddened, would be saddened over this one thing alone, namely that they have not suffered more for God, nor are able to suffer more for Him. When therefore we awake in the morning, let us rejoice and shout for joy to God, that He has made that day to dawn upon us, on which we may suffer many things for His love, and offer Him many heaps of patience, merits, and virtues; as we read in the Acts of St. Mechtilde, that she was instructed and admonished by Blessed ones appearing to her, and L. Blosius reports the same of her, in book IV of the Spiritual Grace, ch. IV. "Esteem it therefore all joy, brethren, when ye fall into divers temptations."

You will ask thirdly, how the Christian can lawfully rejoice in temptation of concupiscence properly so called, e.g. of fornication, gluttony, pride, when Christ commands us to flee and pray against it, namely that we pray: "And lead us not into temptation?" I respond: Christ commands us to pray this first, that we may not consent to the temptation, says St. Augustine, epist. 121, ch. xi, for he who consents, not he who feels, is led into temptation. Whence St. Bernard, On the Inner House, says: "The struggle is troublesome, but fruitful, because if it has a punishment, it will also have a crown: feeling does not harm, where there is no consent; nay, what wearies the one resisting, crowns the one conquering." Second, He commands us at the same time to pray, that God may take temptations from us, especially the graver and more dangerous. For man, mindful and conscious of his weakness, and of the danger of consent which temptation brings, ought commonly to avoid and pray against it, not to wish for or summon it, as Tertullian, Cyprian, Nyssen, and Chrysostom expound and teach in the [commentary on the] Lord's Prayer. Now

I say first: Although commonly it behoves to flee and pray against temptation, on account of the danger of falling, out of humble acknowledgment of our fragility, yet supposing that God wills us to undergo and suffer it, it must be undergone with joy, both that we may conform ourselves more to the divine will, and that we may more easily endure and conquer it, and that we may more strongly rout the demon, who arouses it. For the demon is by nothing so conquered as by spiritual joy and gladness, as St. Anthony said. As a symbol of this it is said of the unconquered Maccabees, indeed conquerors of the most numerous enemies, I Macc. III, 2: "And they fought the battle of Israel with gladness." For this gladness intimidates and casts down the demon, and takes from him hope of conquering or harming. For, as St. Augustine says, book XX On the City [of God], viii: "The demon is as it were a dog tied up by Christ, who can bark, can solicit; he cannot bite at all, except him that is willing: for he can persuade, he cannot cast down: but he loses hope of persuading, when he sees a man in temptation constant, noble, glad, and cheerful." Hear St. Anthony, most exercised in this kind: "If," he says, "the demons find in our breasts any seed of an evil mind and of fear, soon, like robbers who occupy desert places, they heap up the fears begun, and cruelly bearing down they vex the unhappy soul: but if we are eager in the Lord, and the desire of future goods has kindled us, if we always commit all things into God's hands, no demon will be able to approach to attack." So St. Athanasius in his Life. Wherefore St. James does not say: Wish for temptations, as Abulensis notes on St. Matthew ch. iv, Quaest. LXX, but cautiously says: "When ye fall into divers temptations, count it joy," as if to say: Do not throw yourselves of your own accord into temptations, but when you have fallen into them, sustain them with joy. So Salmeron.

I say secondly: Temptation, in so far as it solicits to sin, is not desirable: for thus it is the proximate cause of sin, which is supremely hateful; but in so far as the same is matter of struggle and victory, and of increasing virtue and merits, it is desirable, especially by noble men fixed in the hope and love of God. So Dionysius the Carthusian, in the book On the Remedy of Temptations, art. 7. Hence David in Psalm xxv: "Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart;" for temptation confers many and indeed great goods. For besides those general things which I have already recounted concerning tribulation, the particular advantages of temptations are these. The first, that it explores and strengthens virtue. "The furnace tries the potter's vessels, and the temptation of tribulation tries just men," says Eccli. ch. xxvii, 6. As therefore the potter's vessels, if they had reason and feeling, would desire to be baked by fire, that they might be perfected and solidified by it: so the just, supported by God's grace and power, can desire the flame of temptation, which in them may bake out whatever is impure and strengthen them in virtue. For as in winter and cold the heat by antiperistasis intensifies itself, so likewise virtue struggling with temptation intensifies itself: just as a boxer exerts all his strength, when he must engage with a sharp antagonist. Hence Julius Caesar wished for the strongest enemies, that he might exert and show forth his valor against them, and that by overcoming them he might gain a more glorious victory; and Cato judged that Carthage was not to be destroyed; that it might give the Romans a continual exercise of arms; lest they should be made effeminate by leisure, and that for them it might be a continual whetstone of virtue. "For virtue grows feeble without an adversary." Hence temptation of lust, of gluttony, of pride, etc., in the Saints who resist it, more increases and confirms chastity, sobriety, humility, etc. Elegantly and truly St. Cyprian, in the book On the Good of Modesty: "Nothing," he says, "so delights a faithful soul, as a whole conscience of unstained modesty. To have conquered pleasure is the greatest pleasure: nor is any victory greater than that which is reported over desires."

The second, that temptation is the whetstone of virtue, sharpening the mind's industry and the love of God, just as the whetstone sharpens the edge of a sword, and a little water cast on fire kindles it the more. Hence the Apostle says:

"In all these things we overcome, because of Him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," Rom. viii, 38. The Saint therefore in wishing for temptation, wishes for a war in which God's grace may conquer: he seeks a battle, in which, helped by the Lord, he may lay low the enemy; he desires an occasion in which to show himself faithful to the Lord; he aspires after the temptation in which to manifest his constancy in God's service and love to the whole world, to angels and men. So a soldier wishes for battle, that he may commend his bravery and fidelity to his general, that he may procure for himself glorious victory, fame, spoils and wealth: so too the Saint, fervent with God's love, wishes for temptation, that, fighting it in single combat, he may show how much he loves God, and how faithful and constant he is in His love, that by struggling he may exercise his strength, increase his virtues, and accumulate heaps of merits. For, as St. Leo says, serm. 1 On Lent: "There are no works of virtue without trials of temptations, no faith without disturbances, no contest without an enemy, no victory without engagement. If we wish to overcome, we must fight."

The third, that temptation may humble a man illustrious in virtues, and contain him in humility and fear of God, lest, lifted up into pride, he lose all with himself. So Paul: "Lest," he says, "the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given to me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me," II Cor. xii, 7. And Eccli. II, 4: "Whatsoever shall be brought upon thee, take cheerfully, and in pain bear it, and in thy humility have patience, for gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation." And Wis. III, 5: "God hath tried them, and found them worthy of Himself." Excellently St. Gregory, book II Morals, xxxvii: "Wondrous," he says, "is this dispensation that is dealt with us, that our mind sometimes is struck by the assault of fault. For man would believe himself to be of great strength, if he never felt any failure of those very strengths within the secrets of the mind; but when he is shaken by an inrushing temptation, and as it were is wearied beyond what is enough, against the snares of his enemy the defense of humility is shown to him, and whence he fears to fall feebly, thence he receives [strength] to stand strongly." So we see often that men learned and eminent in virtue are assailed by the temptation of faintheartedness, surely by the provident counsel of God, lest knowledge in its way puff them up, lest virtue exalt them. Thus often one temptation is a wedge for conquering another graver and more dangerous one. So we read in the Lives of the Fathers, that a young man, greatly tormented by the sting of the flesh, when he had tried other remedies in vain, was constantly assailed by his companions with false accusations by the Abbot's command, and shook off [the temptation]. After some time, when asked by the Abbot whether he was still struck by it, he replied: "It is not permitted [me] to live, would [it] please [me] to fornicate?"

The fourth, temptation is a goad of hope and of prayer: for it compels the afflicted and endangered man to take refuge in imploring God's help and grace, since he sees that without it he cannot overcome the temptation, but will certainly be conquered. Whence Eccli. II, 2, assigning to the tempted a remedy and refuge: "Humble," he says, "thy heart, and endure, etc. Endure God's stays: be united to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end;" and soon: "Believe God, and He will recover thee; and direct thy way, and trust in Him, etc. My children, behold the generations of men, and know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord and hath been confounded." Whence Isaiah ch. XII: "My strength," he says, "and my praise is the Lord," etc. Ch. xxxviii: "Lord, I suffer violence, answer Thou for me." And the Psalmist, Ps. lxix: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me;" and Ps. cxvii, 7: "The Lord is my helper, and I will look over my enemies;" and Ps. cxx, 1: "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me;" and Ps. xxvi, 1: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear. If a battle should rise up against me, in this will I be confident;" and Christ: "Have confidence, I have overcome the world," John xvi, 33.

The fifth, God is most present to His own in temptation, He is at hand and stands by, to protect, help, and strengthen. Whence in Ps. xc, He says: "I am with him in tribulation;" therefore the place of God is tribulation. Do you seek God? in tribulation and temptation you will find Him. Whence Jeremiah, ch. xx, v. 11: "The Lord," he says, "is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly confounded." For this is the immense and magnificent glory of the Lord, that by His grace He so strengthens weak and fragile men, that they overcome all the most powerful arms of the devil and of the flesh: for which reason He Himself chooses the weak things of the world, to confound the strong. "I will be to her a wall round about," says the Lord, Zech. II, 5; as He sent to Elisha fiery chariots of angelic armies, to defend him against the Syrians, IV Kings ch. vi, v. 17. See Dionysius the Carthusian, in the book On the Remedy of Temptations, art. 25. Wherefore Chrysostom, tract On Penance: "Trials," he says, "make us stronger, and persuade us to become most intimate with God: for they shake off torpor and put in holy fervor."

The sixth, God promises the most ample rewards to those who conquer temptation. "He that shall overcome," He says, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God," Apoc. III, 12. So Christ appeared to St. Anthony, and said that He had watched his struggles with joy and had helped him: "Because," He said, "in fighting manfully thou hast not given way, I will always aid thee, and I will make thee to be named throughout the whole world." So St. Athanasius in his Life. Hence one who conquers temptation gives to others an illustrious mirror and example of conquering the same, and learns to have compassion on the tempted, to counsel them, and to apply opportune remedies. Wherefore when Abbot Conon was [tempted] by...

the love of Christ," and he sang, saying: "If armies should stand against me, my heart shall not fear." Thus St. Athanasius in his Life.

St. Hilarion, disciple of St. Antony: "With his body so wasted, that his bones scarcely held together, says St. Jerome in his Life, on a certain night he began to hear the wailings of infants, the bleating of sheep, the lowing of oxen, what seemed to be the wailing of women, the roaring of lions, the murmur of an army, and again the prodigies of various voices, so that he yielded, terrified by the sound before the sight. He understood the mockeries of the demons, and falling on his knees signed the cross of Christ on his forehead: armed with such a helmet, and girded with the breastplate of faith, he fought more bravely while lying down, henceforth desiring to see those whom he had dreaded to hear, and looking around with anxious eyes here and there, when meanwhile by the unexpected shining of the moon he saw a chariot with raging horses rushing upon him: and when he had called upon Jesus, before his eyes the whole pomp was suddenly swallowed by the gaping of the earth. Then he said: He hath cast horse and rider into the sea;" and: "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will be magnified in the name of our God."

St. John Climacus relates that St. Ephrem, when he felt himself to be in the deepest peace and tranquility of mind, as if established in an earthly heaven of impassibility, asked God to restore to him the former contests and battles of temptation, lest he should lose the material for meriting and weaving his crown.

John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 164, relates that Abbot Victor said to one tempted by faintheartedness: "The fainthearted are disturbed by a small temptation, and reckon it to be great: but those who are sound in soul rejoice the more in temptations."

In the Lives of the Fathers, book V, booklet v (I follow the edition of our Father Heribert), num. 19, a certain disciple, tempted by the spirit of fornication, went to his elder, by whom being asked: "Do you wish me to ask the Lord to lift this trouble from you?" he replied: "I see, Abba, that although I labor, yet from the weight of this labor I consider that I bear fruit: but ask God this, that He may give me endurance, by which I may bear it." To whom the Abbot: "Now I have recognized that you are in great progress, my son, and you surpass me." Ibid. num. 10 it is related that Sara, attacked for thirteen years by the spirit of fornication, never prayed that this kind of battle should depart from her, but only said: "Lord, give me strength." For through temptation the soul is gradually cleansed and purified, that it may attain to purity and almost angelic perfection.

St. Dorotheus, doctrine 13, relates that a certain monk grieved because God had taken away from him the temptation by which he was being assailed, and weeping said in friendly fashion: "Am I then, Lord, unworthy to suffer, be afflicted, and be troubled for Thy name?"

Palladius in the Lausiac History reports that a similar monk said to his Pastor: "The Lord has freed me from the battle of temptations, and has restored peace to me." To whom

Seventh, temptation wonderfully enlightens the mind in the way of virtue. "For he that is not tempted, what doth he know?" Ecclus. xxxiv, 9. Again it makes him cautious, circumspect, watchful, so as to resist the flesh and sin on every side. Whence St. Laurence Justinian, in the Tree of Life, treatise On Patience, chapter 4: "Just as, he says, flesh, if it is not sprinkled with salt, although it be great and choice, becomes corrupt: so also the soul, unless it is constantly salted by temptations, is at once dissolved and relaxed. For through these very trials the soul shakes off the rottenness of negligence, and is preserved in the vigor of the spirit. Oh, how many have we seen protected from great dangers by small temptations, and freed from the plague of pride by a certain temptation of fear and a certain bodily infirmity, who otherwise like unbridled horses would have grown proud of their talents." Finally temptation consoles and tranquilizes the soul, because after clouds the sun, after desolation consolation, after temptation serenity and exultation succeed, God so justly ordaining it, as Sarah says in Tobit III, 22. Wherefore, as our Jacobus Alvarez rightly notes, treatise On Victory over Temptation, chapter 2, it is the mark of the strongest minds not to fear the assault of enemies, nor to be saddened by the trouble of temptations, but to rejoice. The Lord elegantly describes their strength in Job, chapter 39, verse 21 and following, mystically under the figure of that generous horse, saying: "He diggeth the earth with his hoof, he leapeth boldly, he goeth forth to meet armed men, he despises fear, nor yields to the sword." See St. Gregory there, who among other things says: "When he considers the contest of passion drawing near, he exults in the exercise of virtue; nor is he frightened by the danger of the battle, who rejoices in the triumph of victory." Again Climacus, step 27: "There is no, he says, more certain proof that demons have been conquered by us, than if they attack us most fiercely. For if you resist them altogether most strongly, they will attack you altogether sharply, as if to recall you, as one accomplishing nothing, from the contests;" and below: "St. Arsilaites said: I have noticed in the morning that for the most part the spirits of vainglory and concupiscence are wont to come; at noon however those of sloth, anger, and sadness; in the evening the unhappy tyrants of the dung of the belly."

Do you want examples of such combatants and heroes? Take these: St. Antony, mangled by demons and left half-dead, provoked them, saying: "Behold, here am I, Antony; I do not flee your contests, even if you do greater things: no one shall separate me from the love of Christ," and he sang, saying: "If" (the priest Conon) had withdrawn from his own monastery, lest he should baptize a beautiful girl, by whose appearance he felt the sting of the flesh, he met St. John the Baptist, who signing him with the cross said: "Believe me, presbyter Conon, I wished to reward you for this fight; but because you do not wish it, behold, I have taken this war from you: but you shall lack the reward of this work." Thus John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 3. Hence the Saints in heaven sing with jubilation: "We have passed through fire (of concupiscence) and water (of desolation and contempt), and Thou hast brought us out into refreshment," Psalm 65, 12.

The Pastor: "Return, and ask God to restore this fight to you, lest you fall into lukewarmness and negligence." Returning, he reported the Pastor's words to God. To whom God: "The Pastor has spoken rightly," and at the same time He restored the temptation to him. For, as St. Basil says in his oration on Patience: "As the storm proves the helmsman of a ship, study the athlete, the battle line the soldier, calamity the magnanimous: so temptation proves the Christian man. And just as the labors of contests draw athletes to crowns, so also the testing which descends from temptations leads Christian men to perfection, if only we receive them with becoming endurance, and with all giving of thanks, since they are ordained by the Lord." And St. Augustine on Psalm 60: "Our life, he says, in this pilgrimage cannot be without temptation, because our progress is made through our temptation; nor does anyone become known to himself, except by being tempted; nor can anyone be crowned, unless he conquers; nor can he conquer, unless he fights; nor can he fight, unless he has an enemy and temptations." And St. Ambrose, book IV on Luke, chapter IV: "Let us not fear temptations, but rather let us glory in temptations, saying: When we are weak, then are we strong. For then is woven the crown of justice, etc. Therefore He who wishes to crown, supplies temptations. And whenever you are tempted, know that a crown is being prepared. Is not Joseph's temptation the consecration of virtue? Is not the injury of prison the crown of chastity?" Cassian. Conference 24, chapter 25: "Greater, he says, are the rewards of praise that the kindly grace of the Saviour towards us has conferred through the wrestling of temptations, and (the grace) to endure greater things. For joy in tribulation is greater than if He had taken away from us every necessity of contest. For it belongs to a more sublime and more excellent virtue, to remain ever immovable when surrounded by sufferings and hardships, and somehow to acquire virtue from infirmity, because virtue is perfected in infirmity." The same, Conference 18, chapter 14, celebrates that a certain Religious woman asked of St. Athanasius a poor and infirm woman, but troublesome, ungrateful and quarrelsome, whom she might serve, in order that in her she might have an exercise of patience. And when she had served her for a long time with great charity and patience, she returned "to give thanks, because He had provided her, according to her own desire, a most worthy mistress of patience, by whose continuous insults, as by a certain oil of the wrestling-school, being daily strengthened, she might attain to the highest patience of soul."

Verse 3: The Trial of Your Faith Works Patience

"The trying of your faith" is the same as the temptation which preceded: for temptation proves the faith, virtue, love of God, and constancy of him who is tempted; for it gives the reason why he said one should rejoice in it. This therefore is James's argument: In temptation and tribulation do not be saddened, but rather rejoice, because tribulation, which is nothing other than the trying of your faith, works patience, which is an excellent virtue and as it were the beatitude of this life. Thus Bede: "He whose patience, he says, cannot be conquered, is proved to be perfect: and that reasoning brings it about that one is exercised through patience, in order that through this his faith may be proved how perfect it is." Furthermore tribulation works patience, not effectively, but materially and objectively; just as wood works fire, because it furnishes it tinder and fuel. Therefore it works it only in a faithful, patient and constant man. For in the unstable, impatient and inconstant it works the contrary, namely impatience and indignation. Hear St. Bernard, epistle 32 to the Abbot of St. Nicasius: "The furnace tries the potter's vessels, and temptation tries just men. Nor therefore do we without reason here have compassion on our friends whom we see placed in anxiety, for whom indeed, while we do not know the outcome, we fear failure. For just as in the Saints and elect tribulation works patience, patience trial, trial hope, and hope confoundeth not: so on the contrary in those to be damned and the reprobate tribulation begets faintheartedness, faintheartedness perturbation, perturbation despair; and that one destroys, etc. Wherefore let your humble prudence strive not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good: and you will overcome by fixing your hope strongly in God and patiently waiting for the end of the matter."

Note: James stirs up to joy in tribulation, by calling it a trial of faith, as if to say: Temptation is not so much tribulation and affliction, as a trial and testing of your faith. Rejoice therefore, that through it God may prove and test your faith; and you in turn by enduring it strongly and exultantly, prove and show yourselves to be faithful to Him, and prepared for His faith and love to undergo far more. For joy in tribulation is a sign of perfect faith and virtue. For, as Aristotle says, it is a sign of habitual and rooted virtue, if one performs and exercises it, not with sadness, but with delight and joy. Wisely Seneca, book I On Providence: "God, he says, trains good men more harshly, like stern fathers, and says: Let them gather strength by works, sorrows and losses, etc. Behold a pair worthy of God, a brave man matched with bad fortune, a spectacle worthy of God. Fortune, like a gladiator, seeks the strongest as her equals, passes others by with disdain. She tries fire on Mucius, poverty on Fabricius, exile on Rutilius, torment on Regulus, poison on Socrates, death on Cato. Great men sometimes rejoice in adverse things, no differently than brave soldiers in the triumph of war. Let them therefore say: We have been deemed worthy of God, in whom He might prove how much human nature can endure." And above: "The wise man remains in his state, and draws whatever befalls into his own color, as the sea does the rivers." The same, book On Anger, near the beginning: "Everything weak, he says, is by nature querulous; nor is anything great, unless it is at the same time peaceful." And below: "When shipwreck was announced to Zeno, when he heard that all his goods were submerged: Fortune, he says, bids me philosophize more freely." The same, book On Tranquility: "The Tyrant, he says, was threatening Theodorus the philosopher with death, and indeed unburied. Then he said: You have something with which to please yourself. A half-pint of blood

is in your power. For as concerns burial, O you fool, if you think it matters whether I rot under the earth or above it. Canius Julius, ordered to be led off by Gaius Caesar (Caligula): I give thee thanks, he says, most excellent prince; and to his lamenting friends: You, he said, are inquiring whether souls are immortal; I shall presently know. And to another: I have determined to observe, he said, whether the soul will be aware of itself going forth, etc. Therefore say to Fortune: you have business with a man, seek someone you can conquer." These things are from Seneca in the passages cited, but scattered, not joined together: for I have selected from him the sharper and better.

You will say: Paul says the contrary in Romans 5:3, namely: "We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope." Therefore trial does not cause patience, as James says; but rather is caused by it, as Paul says, and is its effect. I reply first, that often two things are mutually causes of each other, so that one produces the other as cause, and in turn is produced by it as an effect. Thus heat produces fire, and fire in turn heat. Thus vapor causes rain, and rain in turn vapor. Thus from moist air water is made, and from water in turn air is made.

Secondly, trial causes patience materially and objectively, as I have already said; but patience causes trial effectively, because it makes a man proved, namely so that his faith and virtue are proved and tested before all.

Thirdly and properly, for "trial" here in Greek is δοκίμιον, but in Paul it is δοκιμή: δοκίμιον is the thing itself, namely tribulation, which scrutinizes, examines, proves, tests and explores the mind, faith and virtue of man, just as δοκιμασία is the examination, scrutiny, proving, inquisition and exploration of the thing itself: but δοκιμή is the result of the proving and examination, namely the experiment, the proof, the specimen. Rightly therefore James says, that tribulation itself, as a δοκίμιον, that is a trial, this is the test by which the faith of man is proved and explored, works patience, that is, supplies the matter for exercising, confirming and increasing patience. Rightly also St. Paul says that patience works δοκιμήν, that is trial, this is the effect and result of trial, because it makes the mind of the patient man proved and explored, namely that he prefers God, faith and zeal to all things joyful and sad, since for Him he has suffered so much, and is prepared to suffer more. Wherefore this trial works, excites and sharpens hope, because it makes the patient man, who has proved his virtue in so many adversities to God, certainly hope from Him for the crown and prize of heavenly glory, which He has promised to those lawfully contending in the contest of patience.

Note: For "patience" the Greek is ὑπομονήν, that is, endurance and perseverance, namely so that we constantly and perseveringly endure long and hard persecutions and tribulations, longanimously waiting for God's help, consolation and deliverance, as if to say: Be it, O Christians, that this your persecution is long and continuous, be it that it afflicts you grievously, nevertheless persevere in faith and patience, that you may complete it and prolong it to the very last breath of life, if need be, awaiting refreshment not in this life, but in the future, and that an eternal one. And this is what the Greek compound verb κατεργάζεται means, that is, works thoroughly, that is, fully and perfectly works, because it works full, continuous and perfect patience, and in it perseverance unto death (1). Excellently Isidore of Pelusium, book III, epistle 26 to Cassius: "There precedes, he says, the crown trial, trial victory, patience victory, affliction and temptation, or testing, patience." And Laurence Justinian, On Patience, chapter III: "Just as, he says, medicine in bodies restores health, so in souls tribulation generates patience."

For the sake of this trial, Superiors, especially of Religious, sometimes command or offer them difficult things and things repugnant to nature, in order to prove, excite and sharpen their virtue; and so in the Lives of the Fathers we read that this was a common saying among them. For they reckoned that a Superior who does not exercise his subject, and does not suggest to him the occasion and exercise of mortification, patience, obedience, and other virtues, is inhuman; just as that father is inhuman, who denies food to a starving son asking for it: for in like manner this trial is food and nourishment to the soul, strengthening and comforting it like bread. Wherefore in some Religious orders the rule and practice is, that the Superior every year imposes this matter of trial on each subject, and tests them, by denying some things customarily granted, or withdrawing things conceded, or commanding unaccustomed things. Therefore the subject, when something like this comes upon him, let him not lose heart; but let him think that this is the customary law and practice of Superiors, and let him receive it as a trial which works patience, lest, lacking exercise, it grow rusty by disuse. Indeed not only the novitiate, but Religion itself, is nothing other than a continual trial. Read Dorotheus and Climacus, the step on Obedience; Cassian, book IV of the Institutes, chapter 23 and following.

Verse 4: Patience Has a Perfect Work

There is here a double reading and interpretation. For some codices read habet (has) in the indicative, others habeat (let it have) in the optative or imperative: for the Greek has ἐχέτω, that is, let it have, and so read Didymus, Oecumenius, Bede, Pagninus, the Tigurine, Vatablus and many Latin Bibles; the Syriac translates habebit, that is, let it have, or it has, by Hebrew and Syriac phrasing: for the Hebrews use the future as much for the imperative and optative, as for the indicative, which they lack. Hence some reconcile both readings thus: "it has," they say, that is, "it ought to have, it is necessary that it have." And this agrees very well with what

follows: "That you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing," as if to say: Let your patience have a perfect work, that is, let it be constant, continuous and full, yielding to no hardships or sorrows, growing weary at no length of time, but strong, ever like itself, growing and invincible, "that you may be perfect and entire." For many Christians of that age, fervent at first, stood strongly in the first onslaughts of persecution, but struck by them as by repeatedly battering rams, were wearied and lost heart. James therefore animates and strengthens these, that what they have well begun, they may constantly complete unto death and martyrdom, according to that saying of Tertullian, On Patience, chapter 8: "Let another's wickedness be wearied by your patience." And: "In all things I will be patient, otherwise I shall be tormented by my own impatience." Thus today we see many patient, but imperfect, and therefore in part impatient, who say: I would suffer that persecution, that tribulation, that injury, that sickness, that evil; but I cannot suffer this and that: I would suffer from this man, or from that, e.g. from a stranger and my enemy; but from a friend, a son, a disciple, on whom I have conferred so many benefits, whom I have promoted and exalted, I cannot suffer such things: I would suffer for one day or another, a month, or a year; but to suffer so many years without hope of outlet and end, is intolerable: I would suffer in this or that way; but that way which is offered me, is new, unheard of, and surpassing my strength. This is patient impatience, and impatient patience, neither fish nor flesh, but a mixture of both, which increases the burden to itself, and doubles the sorrow and torment. But patient and perfect patience desires to suffer whatever evil from whomever, however much, in whatever way it has been inflicted. Such were the Martyrs, of whom the Church sings:

These for Thee trampled down the furies and ferocity of men, and the savage scourgings: the cruelly tearing claw yielded to them, this rent their inmost parts. They are cut down by swords like sheep, no murmur resounds, no complaint; but with silent heart the mind well-conscious preserves patience.

Furthermore patience must have a perfect work in three ways. First, perfect in itself, namely in fortitude and continuation of endurance until the end of the cross and of life, so that we do not fail in tribulations, but hear from Christ: "You are they who have continued with Me in My temptations; and I dispose to you, as My Father hath disposed to Me, a kingdom," Luke XXII, 28. Secondly, perfect in its end, namely that one may suffer for the faith of Christ, justice, or virtue. Thirdly, perfect in the company of innocence and the other virtues, namely that the patient man be innocent, and pure from every sin and vice. For what does it profit you to suffer injury, if you indulge in avarice, gluttony, luxury? Thus Salmeron.

Thus St. Liduina, when she was passing her twenty-eighth year in her infirmity (she suffered for 38 years), burning with desire of martyrdom, saw in ecstasy a most precious crown, beautifully variegated with gems of various colors, but not yet entirely completed into a circle: she therefore asked to suffer many things for Christ, in order to complete this circle. God heard her, and sent soldiers, who badly afflicted her with insults and beatings, then an Angel came to her splendid as the sun, and said to her: "Hail, dearest sister. Behold, now is completed the crown which lately you saw imperfect; because of the shameless touches of those men, know that you have been placed in the footprints of the Saviour. The mockeries and wounds inflicted on your body were the gems which you saw both present and lacking in that crown." Thus her life has it in vol. II of Surius.

The second reading is, "patience has a perfect work." So read the Roman codices, Lyranus, Thomas Anglicus, Hugo, Dionysius and many others. The sense is, as if to say: Rejoice in tribulations, because they work patience: but patience is an exceptional and perfect thing: for it makes you, "that you may be entire and perfect" on every side.

You will ask: How is patience alone, before temperance, faith, hope, charity, and the other virtues, called perfect, and said to have a perfect work? I reply: It is certain that charity and religion, since they look most closely toward God, are by their object more noble and more perfect than patience: yet on another count patience has a perfect work, and that in many ways. First, because patience, sustaining all things and persevering to the end (for this is what the Greek ὑπομονή signifies), effects and preserves the consummation of the virtues: for the cross is continually as it were an instrument, e.g. a plane, a chisel, a paintbrush, by which God polishes and perfects us. For thus "Christ was made perfect through suffering," Heb. chapter 2, verse 10. Patience therefore is in the choir and assembly of the virtues that which the roof is in the house. For just as the roof protects the inhabitants of a house from heat, cold, storms, rains, winds, etc., and drives them away: so patience defends a man from the storms of any temptations and adversities whatever, and receives them in itself and dashes them away: just as soft wool receives and dashes away the impact of dough and an iron ball. Wherefore no virtue can exist or subsist without patience. For true humility cannot be, unless through patience it tolerates contempts and reproaches. True poverty cannot be, unless through patience it tolerates want, hunger, thirst, nakedness. True charity cannot be, which through patience does not tolerate the infirmities of neighbors, indeed even of enemies. Whence Tertullian, book On Patience, chapters XI and XII, teaches that there is no virtue which does not have patience as a companion, indeed as a leader; and so the complex of virtues which the Apostle in I Cor. XIII assigned to charity, he himself assigns to patience: "Love," he says, "the highest sacrament of faith, the treasure of the Christian name, which the Apostle commends with all the strength of the Holy Spirit, by whom is it instructed, if not by the disciplines of patience? Love, he says, is magnanimous (Our [translator]

[Our translator] renders "patient"): so it exercises patience. It is beneficent: patience does not do evil. It does not envy: that indeed is proper to patience. Nor does it taste of impudence: it has drawn its modesty from patience. It is not puffed up, it is not impudent: for these do not belong to patience. Nor does it seek its own, it bears (others read: if it offers) its own, while it profits another: nor is it changed. What besides has it left to impatience? Therefore, he says, love bears all things, endures all things: certainly because patient. Rightly therefore it shall never fall away; for the rest shall be done away. Sciences, tongues, prophecies are exhausted: faith, hope, love remain. Faith, which the patience of Christ has brought in: hope, which the patience of man awaits: love, which patience accompanies, with God as Master." For no one, unless vehemently loving God, faith and virtue, can obtain perfect patience. Whence St. Ignatius, Laurence, Vincent, etc., who were mirrors of patience, were equally mirrors of charity, so that Emperor Trajan, seeing the ardors of St. Ignatius for martyrdom, deservedly said: "No nation has endured so much for its God, as Christians for their Christ." The gold of Christian patience therefore is cooked and formed only in the furnace of charity.

Secondly, because ὑπομονή, that is, persevering patience, and patient perseverance, crowns and perfects the stadium of the contest and of human life: for it lasts until the end of life, and therefore as it were victrix of all things it leads the patient man unto death, and often to martyrdom, and through that to the merit of patience in heaven and the prize of victory. This is what James, explaining in other words, says in verse 12: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life." That saying is well-worn: "All the virtues contend, perseverance alone conquers and is crowned." Truly St. Augustine: No one can keep the hope of the future life, unless he have patience in the labors of the present life. In this stadium of patience Christ has gone before us as it were a leader. The Apostle gives the reason in Heb. II, 10: "For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, who had brought many sons unto glory, to perfect the author of their salvation by His passion;" the Syriac, to make perfect; in Greek, τελειῶσαι, that is, to perfect, to immolate, to consecrate, to crown, to glorify. Behold all these things passion and patience accomplished for Christ, and accomplish for us: see what is said there. So patience here signifies perseverance in suffering: for this is what ὑπομονή signifies, and this has a perfect work, because it embraces the whole of life, and lasts to the end unto death. Whence it alone fully merits the crown of glory, and immediately receives what it has merited, of which St. Bernard speaks excellently, epistle 129: "Perseverance, he says, is the vigor of strengths, the consummation of virtues, nurse to merit, mediatrix to reward. It is sister of patience, daughter of constancy, friend of peace, knot of friendships, bond of unanimity, bulwark of sanctity. Take away perseverance, neither does service have its reward, nor benefit grace, nor fortitude praise. Finally, not he who shall begin, but he who shall persevere unto the end, this man shall be saved." The same, book V On Consideration, last chapter: "Who endures, he says, and perseveres in love, except one who emulates the eternity of charity? for perseverance bears before itself a certain image of eternity. Finally she alone is the one to whom eternity is rendered, or rather who renders man to eternity." The same (or whoever the author is), sermon On Obedience and its degrees: "To begin, he says, belongs to many, to persevere to few. Perseverance is the singular daughter of the highest King, the fruit of virtues, and their consummation, the storehouse of all good, the virtue without which no one shall see God, nor shall be seen by God: it is the end unto justice for everyone who believes, in which the assembly of virtues has consecrated to itself a venerable bridal-chamber. For what does it profit to run, and to fail before the goal of the course? So run that you may obtain, says the Apostle. Oh, with what persevering foot he had completed the course, who said: I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice," II Timothy IV. I have said more about perseverance at Acts XI, 23.

Thirdly, because patience is as it were a breastplate and shield, which turns away and repels all evils as darts from a man, and conciliates the contrary goods. For it itself rules, mitigates, calms, composes all the motions of the soul, the heats, concupiscences, passions, and reduces all the affections of the soul to equity and as it were levels them. Whence follows wonderful peace of soul, and full self-dominion. For the patient man is master of himself and of his own affections, and rules them as it were a king. Is he not therefore perfect? This is what Christ says: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." St. Thomas gives the reason, II II, Question 136, article 2, reply 2: "Through patience, he says, a man is said to possess his soul, inasmuch as he plucks up by the roots the passions of adversities (namely sadness, anger, envy, vengeance, etc., which are aroused through adverse things), by which the soul is disturbed." On the contrary the impatient man does not possess his soul, but together with it is possessed by anger and impatience, and consequently by Satan. He therefore harshly serves a harsh tyrant like a slave. "Patience, says St. Gregory, is to bear with equanimity the evils of others, and to be moved with no sorrow against him who inflicts them." Hear Tertullian, book On Patience, XV: "Patience fortifies faith, governs peace, aids love, instructs humility, awaits penitence, assigns confession: it rules the flesh, preserves the spirit: it bridles the tongue, restrains the hand: it inculcates against temptations, drives away scandals, consummates martyrdoms: it consoles the poor, tempers the rich: it does not over-stretch the weak, does not consume the strong: it delights the faithful, invites the Gentile: it commends the servant to his master, the master to God: it adorns the woman, approves the man: it is loved in the boy, praised in the youth, looked up to in the old: in every sex, in every age, it is beautiful."

The disciple imitates his master Tertullian

St. Cyprian, book On the Good of Patience: "Patience, he says, is what both commends us to God, and preserves us. It is the same that tempers anger, that bridles the tongue, that governs the mind, guards peace, regulates discipline, breaks the impulse of lust, represses the violence of swelling pride, extinguishes the fire of contention, restrains the power of the rich, refreshes the want of the poor, defends in virgins blessed integrity, in widows toilsome chastity, in joined and married people indivisible love: it makes humble in prosperity, strong in adversity, mild against injuries and contumelies, teaches one to forgive quickly those who err; if you yourself err, to ask long and much: it expels temptations, tolerates persecutions, consummates passions and martyrdoms."

Wherefore St. Basil in the Admonition to a spiritual son teaches that patience is a singular means for acquiring perfection. "Son, he says, lay hold of patience, because it is the greatest virtue of the soul, so that you may swiftly ascend to the height of perfection. Patience is a great remedy of the soul: but impatience is the destruction of the heart." And St. Thomas Aquinas, asked, "who is perfect?" replied: "He who does not speak vain things, and easily suffers himself to be despised. For whomever you shall see being indignant, or saddened, at the contempt of himself, you should not call this man perfect, even if you saw him performing miracles." For virtues without patience are like a wall without lime and mortar, which therefore will collapse at once. Therefore the lime, bond and warp of the virtues is patience. Whence Bede here: "He whose, he says, patience cannot be conquered, he is proved to be perfect."

Fourthly, "Perfect and whole, says Aristotle, book IV of Physics, is that to which nothing is lacking." But to patience nothing is lacking, indeed it itself supplies all the defects of the virtues and of other things: therefore it is not only perfect, but also perfecting and consummating the virtues and other things; it itself therefore completes and perfects the imperfect works of the other virtues. Whence St. Cyprian, treatise On Patience: "Take away, he says, patience from charity, and desolated it does not endure." And St. Gregory, homily 35 on the Gospel: "Patience, he says, is the root and guardian of all the virtues." Dionysius the Carthusian gives a twofold reason: First, because the adversities which patience tolerates extinguish self-love, which is the cause of every imperfection and evil; second, because patience produces six perfect works: first, the subjugation of anger, envy and the other passions; second, the proof of man and of his virtues; third, possession of oneself; fourth, joy of spirit; fifth, governance of all actions, that in them man may be moderate and circumspect; sixth, attainment of eternal life. To this is added St. Thomas, I II, Question 66, article 4, reply 2, where he teaches that patience has a perfect work, because it itself extirpates inordinate sadness, which is the cause and root of anger, hatred, vengeance and every evil.

Truly Boethius book IV On Consolation prose 6: "Some, he says, unconquerable in tortures, have set forth an example to others, that virtue is invincible by evils." And Lactantius, book III of the Institutes: "Blessed therefore is the wise man in torments: but when he is tortured, for faith, for justice, for God, that patience of pain will make him most blessed."

St. James alludes to the ancient athletes in the Olympic contest. For he was called a perfect athlete, who had perfectly performed all the exercises of his contest, having endured labors, observed continence, and a lawful regimen of food; and therefore composed for all things, in whatever direction his adversary had drawn him, was ready for him, having learned by long practice to transfer his hands and effort there: for such athletes are patient. Whence St. Ephrem, oration On the Praises of the Holy Martyrs, calls them most perfect athletes. "These are, he says, O beautiful soldiers of Christ, the insignia of your victory: these, O most approved athletes, and perfect divine warriors, are the rewards of your faith and fortitude." Wherefore the Gentiles, seeing and admiring such great patience of Christians, especially of Martyrs, through it were converted to the faith of Christ. For they constantly declared that virtue so heroic and perfect could not flow from nature, but from God alone and His faith and grace.

Fifthly, as a trunk bears the beam with all its branches and fruits: so patience bears the whole burden and weight of man and of all the virtues, namely all difficult things, all arduous things, all adverse things, etc., and that with serene mind, mouth and countenance. Whence Tertullian paints the image of patience thus, in the place already cited: "Her face is tranquil and placid, her brow pure, contracted by no wrinkle of grief or anger, her eyebrows relaxed equally to a glad measure, her eyes cast down by humility, not by unhappiness; her mouth marked with the honor of taciturnity. Her color is such as belongs to those who are secure and harmless. Frequent motion of the head against the devil, and a threatening laugh. Moreover her garment about her breasts is white, and pressed close to her body, as one who is neither puffed up nor disturbed; for she sits on the throne of that gentlest and meekest Spirit, who is not gathered in a whirlwind, nor in the cloud of the moon; but is of tender serenity, open and simple, whom Elijah saw the third time," III Kings XIX, 12. "For where God is, there too His foster-child, namely patience. When therefore the Spirit of God descends, inseparable patience accompanies Him." And Prudentius in the Psychomachia, describing the duel of anger and patience, so portrays her:

Behold modest patience stood with grave countenance, unmoved through the midst of the battle lines and the various tumults, gazing with fixed eyes upon wounds and vital parts pierced through by stiff javelins, and remained slow.

Clement of Alexandria in the homily which is reported in volume I of the Councils, page 1205, extols patience with wonderful praises, and at last concluding says: "Therefore patience furnishes us every good." And Climacus, step 27: "Patience, he says, is the unbroken labor of the soul, by no nearest blows..."

said that virtue is sufficient for itself for happiness, and that one needs nothing but Socratic strength of soul: for Socrates had hardened himself to endure all things.

Sixthly, patience has God as its judge of contests and as its debtor. "So much so (says Tertullian in the place cited) is God a sufficient guarantor of patience: if you deposit an injury with Him, He is the avenger; if loss, the restorer; if pain, the physician; if death, the resurrector. How much is permitted to patience, that it may have God as its debtor?" He gives the reason: "For He defends all things pleasing to Him: He intervenes in all His commands." And a little before in chapter xiv, praising the patience of St. Job: "O most happy man, he says, who wiped out every form of patience against all the power of the devil. Whom neither herds driven away, nor sons taken away by a single ruin's onslaught, nor finally the torments of his own body in ulcers, excluded from the patience and faith owed to the Lord, whom the devil with all his might struck down in vain, etc. What kind of bier did God build in that man out of the devil? what kind of standard did He raise from the enemy of His glory, when that man, at every bitter message, brought forth nothing from his mouth but thanks to God? What? God laughed. What? the evil one (the devil) was being cut to pieces." Does not patience then have a perfect work, which gives to St. Job and to the Saints perfect victory over the devil, the flesh, the world, and all vices, and a heavenly triumph? St. Augustine, on Psalm XLII, says that patience is a harp, and tribulations are the strings, which when struck produce a melody: for in like manner patience produces a sweet melody in the ears of God, when in tribulations it praises God and gives Him thanks. "For every patience, he says, is sweet to God: but if in those very tribulations you fail, you have broken the harp."

Seventhly, patience has a perfect work: because its work and primary act is martyrdom, says Thomas Anglicus, which is the noblest and most perfect work. For the martyr is the boxer of God, the athlete of Christ, the victor over the world, the triumpher over death, and therefore deserves both the present and the eternal laurel of martyrdom, and immediately receives it. Patience therefore creates and crowns the martyrs.

In like manner patience conquers and overcomes whatever is terrible and formidable in the world, and therefore makes a man's life serene, placid, composed and perfect. For our whole life, and indeed each single action and each single moment, are full of troubles, sorrows and crosses: all these continual patience sustains and overcomes, even to the end of life. It alone therefore is the only refuge, support and crown both of life and of all sufferings, and it transfers a man to a life impassible and immortal, and so perfects and beatifies him. The other virtues therefore are often only useful to a man: but patience is always and everywhere necessary. Wherefore Bion, according to Laertius, Bk. IV, ch. VII, said that it is a great evil not to be able to bear evil: for without this no one's life can be sweet. Antisthenes, in the same author, Bk. VI, ch.

is troubled by them. Patience is the daily-awaited definition of vexation, etc.; the patient man died a moment beforehand: for he made the sepulchre his cell."

Eighthly, because it makes us most like Christ, the most patient One, according to this: "Whom He foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren, etc., these He also glorified," Rom. VIII, 28, as if to say: God has predestined us to be like Christ in the Church, both militant and triumphant: there in grace, here in glory: there in patience, here in the crown; and consequently that we may be perfect, because patience makes us like to the angels and to God. "God," says Seneca in his Sapiens, "is beyond patience; the wise man is above patience." Tertullian, in his book On Patience, ch. XVI: "Let us love, he says, the patience of God, the patience of Christ. Let us pay back to Him what He paid down for us. Let us offer the patience of the flesh, the patience of the spirit, we who believe in the resurrection of the flesh and the spirit." Marsilio Ficino philosophizes excellently on this matter, Bk. V to Bastianus Salvinus: "O wonderful, he says, is the power of patience! For other virtues fight in some way against fate; but patience, either alone or most of all, conquers fate: for those things that fate has decreed shall be unchangeable and necessary, patience, consenting with the will of divine providence, so changes in some way, that out of necessities it makes voluntary acts: just as he who acts evilly turns goods into evil for himself, so he who suffers evils well turns them into good for himself, namely, in bearing evils he himself becomes good." Whence he concludes that patience is so perfect a good, that without it the other goods of men cannot be perfected. For those things that are begun by other virtues are perfected by her. And after much, in the epistle to Antonio Cocchio: "Patience, he says, chiefly enjoins three things: first, that you willingly endure evils, which nature itself bids you to refuse to endure; second, that you make voluntary to yourself those things which fate (the providence and decree of God) has decreed shall be necessary; third, that you turn any evils into goods; which is the office of God alone. In the first indeed she bids us resist nature, in the second to conquer fate, in the third finally (as I might say) to make oneself equal to God." And a little later: "The whole life of men in this malignant region of the world, opposed to celestial minds, seems to be nothing else than a certain disease and a perpetual pain. Added to this is the supreme impatience of evils, which is so evil that without it nothing is an evil to us, with it nothing is a good; but patience, by bearing evils well, transfers them into good; and by using goods well, most happily enjoys them." She therefore is the medicine of all evils: because through her we are joined and we consent with God, who is every good, etc. "In this one thing the whole power of patience consists, that we suffer well as a good whatever happens under the government of infinite goodness."

The Gentiles also saw this through a shadow. When Burrhus the prince was visited by Nero, by whom (it was said) poison had been smeared on his throat under the pretense of applying a remedy, and was thus driven into sickness and death, Burrhus, who had now perceived the crime, turned away from him, and to his many questions answered nothing else but: "I am well, because I follow fate and the providence of God, which has destined for me this death, even though procured through your crime: you therefore should blush, but I should rest in the divine decree concerning my death."

Alexander, after the slaying of Antoninus the Roman Emperor, when he had heard that the Barbarians with great forces were invading him and the Roman Empire: "It befits, he said, brave and moderate men to wish indeed for the best, but to bear whatever befalls (as coming from the deity): for as he who first provokes seems unjust to himself, so he who repels an injury becomes more confident from his conscience, and from justice borrows a good hope." So Herodian, Bk. VI.

When asked in what way he bore insults, Zeno replied: "Just as if a legate were dismissed without a response." Indicating that those who have nothing to answer with are accustomed to take refuge in insults, and that these therefore ought not to be valued more than if nothing had been answered: so Laertius, Bk. VII, ch. I.

Whence Philip, king of the Macedonians, used to give thanks to those who insulted him: "Because, he said, while I try to convict them of falsehood by my deeds, I become a better man": so Plutarch in his Apophthegms of Kings.

Alfonso, king of the Aragonese, when the History of Titus Livy was sent to him, was warned not to accept and read it because the codex had been infected with poison. He took it and read it, saying: "Do you not know that the souls of kings are not subject to the lust of private men, but pass their lives secure and joyful under the care of God?" For the king is God's vicar on earth, indeed His image and mirror: so Panormita and Aeneas Sylvius in the deeds and sayings of Alfonso.

St. Basil, in his treatise On the Utility to be Drawn from the Books of the Gentiles, celebrates the patience of Pericles and Euclid. "A certain man, he says, in the forum was assailing Pericles with every kind of insult. But he, appearing not to care in the least, endured for almost the whole day: then in the evening, as the man was departing, he accompanied him with a light, lest he should commit any fault against the study of philosophy. Again, a certain man, stirred up in mind against Euclid of Megara, swore that he would bring death upon him. But he on the contrary swore that he would bear with him patiently, and even though hostile, would be reconciled and brought into agreement with him. Wherefore it greatly behooves us to be stirred up, that such examples of men restraining their anger may come to our memory." And a little later: "A certain man with a violent blow struck the face of Socrates: but he, not at all moved, allowed the raging man to rave and his anger to be satisfied: by which he made him completely swollen and bruised from the blows. But when the man stopped striking, Socrates is said to have done nothing else than to inscribe on his own forehead: Such a man did this; as though it were the name of the author on a statue; and in that way to have taken vengeance." Just as therefore Apelles used to inscribe on his perfected and outstanding paintings, "Apelles made this": so let the patient man inscribe on the perfected and heroic deeds of his endurance, by which he depicts and adorns endurance as a heroine in his soul: "Patience made this."

Finally Epictetus in Arrian, ch. VI: "What, I ask, would Hercules have been, had there not existed the bull, the lion, the hydra, the stag, and the bear?"

as if to say: If you are patient, and persevering in patience to the end of life, as I said, you will be perfect and whole: for the perseverance of patience has a perfect work, and makes men perfect and whole.

Now first, Thomas Anglicus distinguishes these three thus: "Perfect," he says, are those who endure the long duration of temptations; "whole," those who endure their bitterness and weight; "lacking in nothing," those who endure their variety and multiplicity. Secondly, the same: Perfection, he says, consists in acting, wholeness in suffering, absence of defect in persevering. Thirdly and genuinely, these three signify the same thing, or almost the same. For it is an emphatic expression of one and the same thing through different and different words, as if to say: The perseverance of patience will make you in every way perfect, whole and lacking in nothing, namely that in the Christian faith and virtue you may be whole in constantly professing, pursuing and defending it even unto death, and complete in all the parts and numbers of Christian duty, as far as the fragility of fallen and corrupted nature allows, so that you may not fall away from it by any fear and terror, by any punishments, by any promises or enticements, and so that you may not feel any motion of weariness or pusillanimity, of impatience, sadness, or any similar disturbance or vice, either in mind, or in imagination, or in appetite, or in will, that you do not at once overcome and suppress: for the spirit subjected through patience to God and to God's will, through the same will subject to itself the soul, and the soul will subject to itself the senses, the body, and the members. For God through patience will sanctify, and will subject to Himself and perfect your spirit, and through the spirit the soul, and through the soul the senses and members, and will make it so that you offer all things holy, whole and perfect to Him, as a whole victim of patience. This is what Paul says, II Thess. V, 23: "And may the very God of peace sanctify you in all things; that your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." See what is said there.

Note: In place of "perfect," the Greek has τέλεια, which secondly can be rendered "chosen, distinguished, supreme." For thus in Lucian τέλειοι θεοί are called "perfect gods," that is, the chief and highest: for heroes were held by the Gentiles to be gods, but lesser ones. Thirdly, "grown up": for τέλειος ἀνήρ is called a grown man, of full age and stature, so that the sense is: that you may be in Christian patience and virtue not children, but men and grown up, so that your virtue may not be tender and childish, but constant and manly, according to

the saying of the Apostle, Ephes. IV, 12: "For the perfecting of the Saints, etc., until we all meet into the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ, that henceforth we be no more children," etc. Fourthly, "solid." Fifthly, "holy and sacred," as it were patient and peaceful victims consecrated to God: for they used to call τέλεια ἱερά the choicest, splendid, more abundant, and more sacred victims; and τελείωσις, that is, perfection and consummation, is called the very purification, consecration, and sanctification, and martyrdom itself, by which the patient and the martyrs are consecrated and immolated to God. Whence St. Gregory of Nazianzus calls the martyrs τελειωθέντας δι' αἵματος, that is, those consecrated to God by their own blood. Hence also μύστης is called one initiated in the sacred rites, a priest.

Note secondly: In place of "lacking," the Greek has λειπόμενοι, that is yielding, falling, conquered, broken, diminished: for λείπομαι is the same as I fail, I fall, I am wearied, I succumb, I am conquered, I am unequal and inferior, I am faint of soul. James therefore wishes that Christians be wearied by no persecution, by no adversity, by no burden, by no length of time, by no weariness, and not fall in spirit, so as to depart even the least bit from the faith or from Christian duty, or even to intend to depart; but with a strong heart, of bronze and marble, may they persist in it, and constantly conquer and overcome all adversities; and so may they preserve the wholeness of faith, of patience and of virtue intact and undefiled on every side, lest there be in it anything maimed, mutilated, languid, enervated, weakening, or in any way diminished and lacking. For the foot of patience is broken through impatience, when it succumbs to injuries: the hand is broken, when it is wearied in helping others: the loins are dislocated, when it becomes slow and lazy, etc. The same holds for the body and members, the wholeness and mutilation of the other virtues, which often suffer some defect, mutilation and as it were a kind of waning, after the manner of the moon. Such is that of which Bernard speaks, in the sermon On obedience, patience and wisdom: "Moreover, he says, neither leprous obedience, nor canine patience is commended"; the former namely ulcerates the skin, the latter gnaws the liver and pours out gall.

Verse 5: If Any of You Wants Wisdom, Let Him Ask of God

5. BUT IF ANY OF YOU LACK (λείπεται, that is, is destitute, fails, grows weary, as I said a little before) WISDOM, — that he may know how great is the utility of tribulation, what high and deep mysteries are hidden by God in temptation and the cross, which I have already preached, namely that tribulation is the highest good, and therefore one ought to rejoice supremely over it: for tribulation produces patience, which has a perfect work, that you may be perfect, whole and lacking in nothing: that he may know, I say, these things not only speculatively, but also practically, namely by actually constantly bearing all tribulations, and rejoicing in them, and not yielding to any troubles or pains, nor falling in spirit; but persisting with whole and perfect fortitude in the end and in virtue. For this is true wisdom, not philosophical and human, but Christian and divine, of which therefore many, even Christians, were ignorant, and still are ignorant, at least practically, some even speculatively: for practical ignorance gradually produces speculative ignorance. For when someone grows weary in patience, and gradually becomes impatient, it happens that this impatience blinds the mind, so that it does not see, nor know how great a good patience is. Wherefore wisdom (sapientia) is named from savor and taste (sapor, gustus), as if it were savoury knowledge; that is, affectionate, loving and ardent toward the thing it knows and tastes. Furthermore, the τὸ "if" here does not so much signify the condition of one who doubts, as the cause of one who supposes, as also in Malachi I, 6: "If (that is, because, since) I am a Father, where is My honor? and if (since) I am the Lord, where is My fear?" For all men, however wise, lack wisdom, either as to its beginning, or as to its growth and perfection. Hence Plato in the Hippias praises the saying of Heraclitus, "that the wisest man, if compared with God, appears as an ape: and that the most beautiful ape is deformed, if it is compared with any other kind of living thing; just as the most beautiful pot is ugly, if it is compared with the kind of virgins."

Note firstly: The "wisdom" of which we have just spoken is nothing else than the knowledge of God and of the ultimate end, and of the means for attaining it, and the desire, love and pious affection for them, and thence the use and practice. Whence Prov. I, 7, it is said: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord," and Ecclus. I, 20: "The fullness of wisdom is to fear God," and ch. XIX, v. 18: "All wisdom is the fear of God, and in it is to fear God, and in all wisdom is the disposition of the law." This is the wisdom which the Wise Man in those books, which from it are commonly called the Sapiential books, namely in Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus, hands down; and which he calls now wisdom, now knowledge, now understanding, now discipline, now erudition, now doctrine, now prudence, now the law. Hence Wisdom X, 10, it is called "the knowledge of the Saints;" and Luke I, 17, "the prudence of the just," which is to fear, worship and love God, and the eternal heavenly goods, not the earthly and perishable.

On this Lactantius wrote four books On True and False Wisdom, where in Bk. III, ch. IX: "I come now, he says, to the highest good of true wisdom, whose nature must be determined in this manner. First, that it belong to man alone, and not fall to any other animal. Next, that it belong to the soul alone, and cannot be communicated to the body. Finally, that it cannot fall to any one without knowledge and virtue." Whence he reproves Anaxagoras, who "when he was asked for what reason he was born, answered: For seeing the sky and the sun." "Who, says Lactantius, brought you in to this spectacle? or what does the vision of the sky and the nature of things confer on you? namely that you might praise this immense and admirable work. Confess therefore that of all things

the founder is God, who has brought you into this world as it were a witness and praiser of His work. Do you believe it is a great thing to see heaven and the sun? Why then do you not give thanks to Him, who is the author of this benefit? Why do you not measure with your mind the virtue, providence, and power of Him whose works you admire?" And below: "Wherefore if anyone of men who truly is wise be asked, for what reason he was born? he will answer undaunted and ready, that he was born for the worship of God, who therefore begot us, that we might serve Him. But to serve God is nothing else than to defend and preserve justice by good works." And shortly after: "Because, by however much the soul is of more value than the body, by so much is God of more value than the world: because God made and governs the world;" and again: "The reasoning of man is therefore expeditious, if he understands what is proper to humanity. For what is humanity itself, but justice? What is justice, but piety? but piety is nothing else than the acknowledgment of God the parent."

Wherefore in ch. XVI he laughs at the philosophers, who fashioned their philosophy slowly to find wisdom, but a false one, not the true; he says therefore: "Seneca said: Not yet are there a thousand years since the beginnings of wisdom were born. For many ages therefore the human race lived without reason. Persius mocks this: After, he says, wisdom came to the city with pepper and palms: as though wisdom had been imported with the merchandise of flavor: but if it is according to the nature of man, it must necessarily have begun with man himself." The same, Bk. III, ch. XXVIII: "All the wisdom of man, he says, lies in this one thing, that he know and worship God. This is our doctrine, this is our judgment. This is that which all the philosophers in their whole life sought, and yet never wished to investigate, to grasp, to hold: because they either held a depraved religion, or wholly took away religion entirely, etc. To this then let us all confer, who have care for wisdom. Shall we wait until Socrates knows something? or until Anaxagoras finds light in darkness? or until Democritus draws truth from a well? or until Empedocles widens the paths of his soul? or until Arcesilaus and Carneades see, perceive, comprehend? Behold a voice from heaven teaching the truth, and showing us a light brighter than the sun itself, etc. Whoever wishes to be wise and blessed, let him hear the voice of God, learn justice, know the sacrament of his own nativity, despise human things, take up divine things: that he may attain that highest good for which he was born." The same, Bk. IV, ch. IV: "By which things it appears how closely connected to one another wisdom and religion are. Wisdom looks to sons, which demands love; religion to servants, which demands fear. For as the former ought to love and honor a father, so the latter to worship and revere a master. But God, who is one, since He sustains both persons, both of father and of lord, both we ought to love Him, because we are sons; and to fear, because we are servants. Religion therefore cannot be separated from wisdom: because it is the same God, who must both be understood, which belongs to wisdom; and be honored, which belongs to religion. Wisdom precedes, religion follows, because first one must know God, then worship Him." Hence the hieroglyph of wisdom were the Cherubim, placed near the ark and the propitiatory, as I said on Exod. ch. XXV, v. 20, at the end, where I reviewed the apophthegms, examples and lessons of wisdom.

Furthermore, the manner and means of acquiring wisdom St. Thomas Aquinas describes excellently from his own practice, in the epistle to a Friend, which has it thus: "Because you have asked of me, most beloved to me in Christ, how you ought to study in acquiring the treasure of knowledge, such advice is handed down by me to you upon this matter, that you should not at once choose to enter into the sea by the streams, because one must come to the more difficult through the easier. This therefore is my admonition and your instruction: I command you to be slow of speech, and slow to ascend to the parlor; embrace purity of conscience; do not cease to give yourself to prayer; love your cell frequently, if you wish to be brought into the wine-cellar. Show yourself amiable to all; seek nothing at all about the deeds of others; show yourself too familiar with no one: because too much familiarity breeds contempt, and supplies matter for withdrawing from study. With the words and deeds of worldly men in no wise involve yourself. Above all flee discourse. Do not omit to imitate the footsteps of saints and good men: do not regard from whom you hear, but whatever good is said, commend to memory. Take care to understand what you do and hear: be assured concerning doubtful matters; and whatever you can, strive to lay up in the little cupboard of the mind, as one desiring to fill a vessel. Seek not things higher than yourself. Following those footsteps, you will bear forth and produce useful leaves and fruits in the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, as long as you live. If you follow these things, you will be able to attain to that which you desire." Briefly, Hugh of St. Victor, in his book Didascalicon, ch. XIII, prescribes six means for acquiring wisdom in these verses:

A humble mind, zeal for inquiry, a quiet life, Silent investigation, poverty, a distant land: These are wont to unlock for many things obscure in reading.

Note secondly: Although this wisdom requires and embraces every virtue, yet beyond the rest it is situated in patience, for reasons, namely the goods of patience, which I brought forward at v. 1. The truly patient man therefore is the truly wise, and he who is supremely patient is supremely wise, according to Prov. XIX, 11: "The learning of a man is known by his patience." Hence also παθήματα are μαθήματα, that is, sufferings and tribulations are teachings and disciplines. Wherefore Lactantius rightly, in Bk. VI On True Worship, ch. XVIII, reproves Cicero, who in his Offices defines a good man as one who profits those whom he can, harms no one, unless provoked by injury. "O how simple and true a judgment, he says, has he corrupted by the addition of two words! For what need was there to add: Unless provoked by injury, so as to assign a vice to a good man, as it were

to add to him a most shameful tail, and to make him exempt from patience, which is the greatest of all virtues? He said that the good man would do harm, if he were provoked: now by this very thing he must necessarily lose the name of good man, if he will harm." He proves it first, "that it is no less an evil to return an injury, than to inflict one. Secondly, because impatience, opposed to wickedness, often stirs up great tempests. But if you oppose to wickedness patience, than which virtue nothing more true, nothing more worthy of man can be found, it is at once extinguished, as if you had poured water upon fire." Thirdly, that to avenge oneself belongs not to men but to beasts. "For even cattle, if you provoke them, fight back with hoof or horn, and serpents and wild beasts, unless you pursue to kill them, give us trouble, and the unskilled and unwise also, when they receive an injury, are led by a blind and irrational fury, and try to repay those who harm them. In what then does a wise and good man differ from the wicked and unwise, except that he has invincible patience, which fools lack; except that he knows how to rule himself and to mitigate his anger, which they, who lack virtue, cannot restrain? Fourthly, because he who strives to return an injury, longs to imitate the very one by whom he was injured: so he who imitates evil, can in no way be good. By two words therefore he has taken away from the good and wise man two greatest virtues, innocence and patience. Fifthly, because he himself (Cicero) practiced that canine eloquence (as Sallust reports said by Appius), and also wished man to live in a canine manner, to bite back when provoked. Sixthly, what kind of repayment of insult, how pernicious it is, and what slaughters it is wont to produce, whence will an example be sought more conveniently, than from the most sorrowful case of the doctor himself, who while desiring to obey these precepts of the philosophers, destroyed himself? But if, when provoked by injury (from Antony), he had kept patience, if he had learned that it is the part of a good man to dissemble, to bear insult, and had not poured out those noble orations inscribed under another's title with impatience, levity and madness, he would never have stained with his own head the rostra, on which he had previously flourished, nor would that proscription have utterly destroyed the republic." Whence he concludes: "It is not the part of a wise and good man to wish to contend, and to commit himself to danger. Therefore the greatest virtue is patience, which that the just man might not lack, God wished him to be despised in His stead. For unless he be afflicted with insults, it will not be known how much fortitude he has in restraining himself. But if when provoked by injury he begins to pursue the one harming him, he is conquered. But if he restrains that motion by reason, this man plainly commands himself, and this man can rule himself. This sustaining of self is rightly called patience: because it is the one virtue opposed to all vices and passions. This recalls the disturbed and fluctuating mind to its tranquility, this mitigates, this restores man to himself, etc. Finally Marcus Tullius, against his own precept, placed forgetfulness of injuries among great praises. I hope, he said, Caesar, who are wont to forget nothing, except injuries." The same in ch. XIX refutes those who say that anger is the companion of virtue, because they are ignorant of the cause why God assigned anger to man: otherwise indeed "what would be more savage than man? what more like the beasts than that animal, which God made for fellowship and innocence? There are therefore three passions, which drive men headlong into every crime: anger, greed, lust. Therefore the Poets said there were three Furies, who agitate the minds of men. Anger desires vengeance, Greed wealth, Lust pleasures, etc. Whoever therefore confines those passions within their bounds, which those ignorant of God cannot do, this man is patient, this man is brave, this man is just": thus Lactantius.

The wise precepts of patience, and the dictates of prudence, among others are these. First: "Peace surpasses any wealth and goods whatever: therefore the loss of them is to be purchased." Second: "There is no worse enemy of the soul, than the tumult and surge of thoughts, of anger and impatience." For, as Cassian says, Conf. XVIII, ch. XVI: "I cannot be harmed by a man, however malicious, if I do not myself fight against him with a peaceful heart. But if I am harmed, the fault is not of another's attack, but of my own impatience." Third: The best kind of vengeance is to do good to him who harms, as St. John the Almsgiver used to say. Fourth is that sublime saying of Abbot Stephen in St. Gregory, hom. 35 on the Gospels: "The virtue of patience, he says, had grown so vehemently in him, that he believed him to be his friend who had inflicted any annoyance on him. He gave thanks for insults. If any loss had been inflicted in his very poverty, he reckoned this the greatest gain. He esteemed all his adversaries nothing other than helpers." Fifth: "By the meekness of the subject the harshness of the Prelate is overcome," as St. Gregory writes that Libertinus overcame it, Bk. I Dial., ch. II. Sixth: "An injury inflicted on us is the medicine of our souls." Thus St. Monica, when she was called a wine-bibber by her maid by way of insult, as though struck with a goad, in indignation at herself, utterly renounced her accustomed desire for wine, and extinguished her drunkenness, as St. Augustine testifies, Bk. IX Conf., ch. VIII. Seventh: "An evil deed is to be compensated by a benefit." So did St. Liduina, saying: "I confess therefore that I am indebted to those who compel me to run the way of the commandments of God, the fulness of which is love": so her Life has it in Surius. Eighth: "It is the part of the prudent man to redeem with a slight and brief punishment of the present life, by patience, the long and heavy ones of Purgatory or hell," as in his sickness Stephen the monk near Mareotis used to say, in the Tripartite History, Bk. VIII, ch. I. Ninth: "This cross, if I have deserved it, I will bear, that I may satisfy for sins: if I have not deserved it, I will bear the same, that I may increase my crown: however it shall be, I shall have praise and honor, either of penitence, or of patience." Tenth: "It is better to suffer an injury, than to do one: for he who harms

another harms himself more," as St. Gregory relates that Blessed Stephen said, Bk. IV Dial., ch. XIX. Eleventh: "God takes upon Himself the patronage of him who patiently suffers calumny and injury;" thus that Elder in the Spiritual Meadow, ch. CCXIX. Twelfth: Seneca, Bk. II On Anger: "It is the part, he says, of a great soul to despise injuries. It belongs to the petty and miserable man to bite back at one who bites, like mice and ants, which turn their mouths if you put your hand near them. Weak creatures think themselves harmed if they are touched." Thirteenth: St. Ambrose, ep. 82 to the Church of Vercellae: "This is not the only form of justice, he says, that you do not harm him who has not harmed you; but also that, that you even forgive him who has harmed you. There is no difference whom you do evil to, whether the just man or the unjust, since you ought not to do evil. There is no distance how malicious you are, whether out of zeal for vindicating the just, or out of a desire of harming, since malice in either kind is not free from reproof." Plutarch brings forward more, in the book On the Profit to be Drawn from Enemies. Fourteenth: "Prudent patience in any difficulty suggests counsel." St. Ambrose teaches this, Bk. II On Jacob and the blessed life, ch. IV, by the example of Rebecca, who urged her son Jacob to flee, when Esau wished to kill him. "Let her come, says Rebecca, that is, let patience be introduced, the good guardian of innocence; let her counsel us to give place to anger, let oblivion creep over the offense: the pious mother endures her most beloved son to be absent from her, about to confer more on him than she has injured: yet consulting for both, that she might keep one immune from danger, and the other unstained by crime. Who could so counsel, except prudent endurance? Who could supply useful counsel to both, except wise patience?" Fifteenth: Seneca, ep. 60: "The wise man (assuredly patient) is unconquered against every assault: not if poverty, not if grief, not if ignominy, not if pain make an attack on him, does he draw back his foot. So patient is the wise man, and perfect patience is found together with wisdom." This is what the Wise Man says, Prov. ch. XIV, 29: "He that is patient is governed with much prudence: but he that is impatient exalts his folly." From which St. Chrysostom, hom. 33 on I Corinth.: "Patience, he says, is the root of all philosophy, etc.; charity bears all things, with patience as its leader."

An elegant allegory of this matter from Genesis ch. XXVI Philo brings forward, in his book On the Planting of Noah, namely that King Abimelech saw Isaac sporting with Rebecca: for Isaac, that is laughter, represents joy; Rebecca, that is fattened, represents patience; Abimelech, that is father of the king, supramundane wisdom; as if to say: Joy is found in the arms of wisdom; they embrace one another, as St. James said, v. 1. "O prudent sport and discipline! sight is aided by endurance," says Clement, Bk. I Paedagogus, ch. V. But this embrace of both, namely of joy and of patience, no one can consider, except Abimelech, that is, wisdom. For what other business befits the wise man, than to play, to rejoice, to be merry with honest endurance? And this is the reason why endurance is found only in the wise: because they alone behold this sport. Finally the emblem of the unconquered patient man is the diamond, which a sword and flame strike crosswise, with this motto: It yields neither to iron, nor to fire.

For God is the very eternal, uncreated, immense, essential wisdom, who as it were a fountain communicates it to angels, to men and to all creatures, to each according to his condition and capacity. Whence Lactantius, Bk. IV On True Wisdom, ch. IV: "The fountain, he says, of wisdom and of religion is God, from whom if these two streams stray, they must necessarily dry up: those who do not know Him can be neither wise nor religious." Baruch teaches the same, fully and elegantly, in ch. III, v. 12 and following, where he assigns the cause of all the evil of Israel to be that they were ignorant of God the fountain of wisdom: for in vain is He sought by Philosophers and the wise of the world; and finally concluding v. 36: "This, he says, is our God, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison of Him. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men," through the incarnation, that He might bring down wisdom from heaven to earth (which the Poets feign Prometheus to have done), and communicate it to men. This Christ did, who is the eternal and incarnate wisdom of the Father.

St. James here teaches first that wisdom is to be asked of God before the other gifts, because this is the origin and matrix of all knowledge, of all virtue, of all good. Whence Solomon alone asked this from God, when the option had been given him of asking whatever he wished, and through it he obtained all the rest. "Because, He says, thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself many days, nor riches, nor the lives of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself wisdom to discern judgment, behold I have done for thee according to thy words, and have given thee a wise and understanding heart, insomuch that there hath been no one like thee before thee, nor shall arise after thee; moreover also these things which thou didst not ask I have given thee, namely riches and glory, so that no one shall have been like thee among the kings in all days past," III Kings III, 11. Furthermore, under wisdom he comprehends patience; for he teaches that this also is to be asked of God by everyone. For excellently Origen on Psalm XXXVI, hom. 3: "We await, he says, the Lord, because He Himself is our expectation and our patience, as it is written in Psalm XXXVIII: And now what is my expectation? is it not the Lord? As therefore the Saviour is wisdom, and peace, and justice, so He is also our expectation, or patience. And as by participation in His justice we are made just, and by participation in His wisdom wise, so also by participation in His patience we are made patient. He is therefore as it were a certain perennial fountain, from which we can draw both patience, and justice, and wisdom, and all whatever are the goods of the virtues, provided we bring our vessels to the fountain duly worthy and pure."

Secondly, he teaches that this wisdom must be sought from no one other than God, whether immediately, or through the invocation and patronage of the Saints. Thus Solomon, although wisdom had already been promised and given to him by God, nevertheless asked God for it, that is, for its preservation and increase, saying — and proposing for all of us to say: " Give me the wisdom that sits by Your throne, and reject me not from among Your servants: for I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid, a man of feeble strength and short-lived, and lesser in understanding of judgment and laws, etc. Send her forth from Your holy heavens, and from the throne of Your majesty, that she may be with me and labor with me, that I may know what is pleasing to You, etc. For the thoughts of mortals are timid and our forecasts uncertain. For the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation depresses the mind that ponders many things. And we estimate with difficulty the things on earth, and find with labor the things that are at hand. But who shall investigate the things in the heavens? And who shall know Your purpose, unless You give wisdom and send Your Holy Spirit from on high, and so the paths of those on earth be set right, and people learn what pleases You; for through wisdom were healed all who pleased You, O Lord, from the beginning. " Wisdom IX, 4 ff. Hence in VI, 10 he proclaims the wonderful deeds of wisdom carried out through Adam, Lot, Joseph, Moses, and the Hebrews. " This (wisdom), he says, preserved him who was first formed by God, the father of the world (Adam), when he alone was created, and led him out from his transgression, and gave him the power to contain all things; " and verse 6: " This wisdom delivered the just man (Lot) fleeing from the perishing wicked, when fire descended upon Pentapolis, " and verse 10: " This led the just fugitive from his brother's wrath (Jacob fleeing Esau) by straight paths, and showed him the kingdom of God, and gave him the knowledge of holy things: she honored him in his labors, and completed his labors, etc., that he might overcome and know that wisdom is more powerful than all things; " and verse 13: " This did not abandon the just man who was sold (Joseph), but delivered him from sinners, and went down with him into the pit, and did not desert him in chains, until she brought him the scepter of the kingdom and power against those who oppressed him, and proved liars those who had defamed him, and gave him eternal glory. This delivered the just people (the Israelites) and the blameless seed from the nations (the Egyptians) who oppressed them. She entered into the soul of God's servant (Moses), and stood against terrible kings with portents and signs, " etc.

Thus Anthony sought and obtained this wisdom from God, of whom St. Athanasius writes in his Life: " He was, he says, very wise, and had this remarkable about him, that although he had not learned letters, he was most ingenious and prudent, unmovable and meek. Gentile philosophers came to him, thinking they could deceive him, to whom he said: If you have come to a fool, your labor is in vain; but if you think me to be wise, imitate what you approve. If I had come to you, I would imitate you: but since you have come to me as to a wise man, be as I am, Christians. The philosophers marveled at the sharpness of his mind. " Again Anthony asked them: " Which comes first, sense or letters? And which is the beginning of which? Does sense come from letters, or do letters arise from sense? When they asserted that sense was the author and inventor of letters, he said: Therefore he whose sense is unimpaired does not need letters, " as if to say: Such am I, lacking in letters, but taught by God.

Thus St. Ambrose, says Paulinus in his Life, " when he was dictating the 14th Psalm, while I was taking it down and looking on, suddenly in the manner of a small shield a fire (the indicator of the Holy Spirit) covered his head, and gradually entered through his mouth as into a dwelling: after which his face became as snow. "

Rupert, Abbot of Deutz, in book XII on Matthew, when objectors said to him: Who are your fathers and teachers? answers: " This I profess, that a visitation from the Most High is better for me than ten fathers and teachers; I speak in writing whatever that admonisher suggests. "

St. Thomas Aquinas openly professed that he had received his wisdom from heaven more by infused prayer than by acquired study.

St. Ephrem, praying and saying: " Bestow, O Lord, the rivers of Your grace, " received from the angels in a vision a book, and with it heavenly wisdom and eloquence, to such a degree that, however much perpetual fountains as it were of words were available to him, they were never sufficient for explaining the things he had conceived in his mind. For the depth of his doctrine and the swiftness of his thoughts so absorbed his tongue that he could not bring forth the inner senses of his soul, says Nyssen in his Life.

St. Equitius, preaching wisely and ardently, when asked whence he had this gift, replied: " One night a comely youth stood by me in a vision, and placed on my tongue a medical instrument, that is, a lancet, saying: Behold, I have placed My words in your mouth, go forth to preach. And from that day, even when I wish, I cannot keep silent about God, " as St. Gregory relates in book II of the Dialogues, chapter IV.

St. Ignatius, the founder of our Society, while praying at Manresa, was so rapt in God that he beheld the most august Godhead of the Trinity Itself distinct in Persons, one in essence, to such a degree that, although unlettered, he did not hesitate to compose a book On the Trinity, and from that he was affected with a marvelous sense of heavenly things whenever he celebrated the Mass of the Holy Trinity. There was also presented to his mind the very manner which that supreme Worker of all things employed in fashioning this universe. Moreover, while hearing the sacrifice of the Mass, when the saving Host was elevated by the priest in the customary way, he saw most clearly under that species Christ

to be most truly contained as God and man, says Maffei in his Life, book I, chapter VII.

St. Trudo, born of an illustrious family in Belgium, vowed to God that, if with Christ's help he should learn sacred letters, he would build a church on his own estate and there serve the Lord forever. An angel therefore was sent by God to him: " Know, brother, that those vows which you have addressed to Christ are pleasing to Him, nor doubt that He who, going before you, has inspired you, will also pursue this further and bring the affection to its effect. He, I say, will imbue your heart with His wisdom, and instruct you in His precepts, and inscribe His law upon your breast. " So Notger, Bishop of Liège, in the year of Christ 850, in the Life of St. Remaclus, chapter VI.

Illustrious is what St. Justin the philosopher and martyr writes about himself in the Dialogue against Trypho, namely, that when, eager for wisdom, he had wandered through all the schools and sects of the philosophers, and had vainly sought it among the Pythagoreans, Platonists, and Peripatetics, he heard from a certain unknown old man that it was found nowhere except in the school of Christ. " Therefore, he says, by vows and prayers ask before all things that the gates of light be opened to you: for they are neither perceived nor understood by any, unless God and Christ have granted them understanding. " Wherefore, turning to Christ and invoking Him, he obtained as much wisdom as he displays in his books.

Excellently Philo, in his book On Rewards and Punishments: " This visible sun, do we discern it by any other help than the sun itself? Do we not owe the sight of light to light? In the same way truly God by Himself makes known the knowledge of Himself, with no one cooperating, because this matter exceeds the powers of all. " And St. Augustine, book IV of the Confessions, chapter XVI: " You know, O Lord, that both the swiftness of understanding and the sharpness of discernment is Your gift. " The same in the Soliloquies, chapter V: " I would always have been blind unless You had enlightened me. "

WHO GIVES TO ALL. — This is a property proper to God, that He gives all things to all and receives nothing from anyone; and therefore in Hebrew He is called Shaddai, that is, breasted, a horn of plenty, as I said more fully on Genesis XVII, 2. Hence God is named, or rather acknowledged, by some from giving. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm XV, verse 1: " I said to the Lord: You are my God, for You have no need of my goods. " For God is, as it were, an ocean of all good things overflowing and surging, which pours itself out most lavishly upon all neighboring things. Truly Thomas Anglicus: " God, he says, gives first liberally, He does not sell, as many do. " Secondly, " He gives generally, not to one, but to all. " Thirdly, " He gives abundantly, not sparingly. " Fourthly, " He gives courteously, in common speech 'cortesemente,' " because He does not reproach. " Let human laziness blush therefore: God is more ready to give than we are to receive, " says the same author from St. Augustine. Let human ingratitude and avarice blush therefore, which while God is so liberal toward it, expends itself and its goods in His service so sparingly and miserably. To give therefore is the proper nature and disposition of God, as St. Thomas teaches, book I Against the Gentiles, chapter XXXIX, where he asserts that liberality is the virtue most proper to God, because He alone communicates Himself bountifully, as the fountain of goodness. And St. Augustine, tract 13 on John: " God, he says, is everything to you. If you hunger, He is your bread; if you thirst, He is water to you; if you are in darkness, light; if naked, He is your garment of immortality. " And St. Bernard, sermon 3 On the Circumcision: " Wholly, he says, given to me, and wholly expended for my uses. "

For a similar but far slighter reason, namely on account of estates restored to him that had been previously seized, Virgil, by way of flattery, calls Augustus Caesar a god and makes him such, in Eclogue 1: O Meliboeus, a god has given us this peace, For he shall always be a god to me; his altar Often a tender lamb from our sheepfolds shall stain. And Cicero calls Publius Lentulus a god, that is, a savior of his life: for so he says, after his return to the Quirites: " Publius Lentulus the consul, father, god, salvation of our life, our fortune, our memory, our name. " Excellently Boethius, book III: For one is the Father of all things, One ministers all, He gave Phoebus his rays, He gave the moon her horns. He also gave men to the earth, And stars to the heavens. Whom, since He alone beholds all, You might truly call the Sun. And St. Bernard, sermon 16 on the Canticle: " Truly, he says, is He beneficent, giving abundantly and not reproaching: He does not reproach His gifts, because they are gifts; and He has given me His benefits, He has not sold them. "

ABUNDANTLY (AFFLUENTER). — In Greek ἁπλῶς, that is, simply. Some suspect that Our Translator read ἁθρόως or πλουσίως, that is, richly, copiously, lavishly, abundantly; because " simply " in Scripture, when giving is in question, signifies liberality, abundance, magnificence in giving, as is plain from II Corinthians VIII, 2: " Their most profound poverty abounded into the riches of their simplicity; " and chapter IX, verse 11: " That being enriched in all things, you may abound in all simplicity; " Romans XII, 8: " He who distributes, let him distribute in simplicity, " that is, simply, without restriction, copiously, lavishly: see what is said there. St. James alludes to that invitation and promise of Christ: " If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, which they who believed in Him should receive, " John VII, 38.

Note first: In God there is an infinite propensity and love of communicating Himself, which proceeds from the infinite perfection and fullness of His essence, which is so great that He longs to pour Himself out upon others; and however much He imparts to others, He Himself loses nothing of His own fullness. Hence first, He has a propensity inward

naturally and intimately toward an infinite communion of Himself; just as created and corporeal things have a propensity to communicate themselves by generating something like themselves. But because that which is infinite cannot be multiplied, therefore the divine essence does not communicate itself by generating another like itself, distinct in number, as man and animals do; but by giving Himself, and as it were by replicating Himself, so that the same numerically and most simple divine essence is in three Persons numerically distinct, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Secondly, He has a propensity outward, that He may infinitely communicate Himself and His goods to creatures, especially rational ones, namely angels and men. For, as Nazianzen says: " As the sun is among sensible things, so is God among intelligible things. " As therefore the sun everywhere scatters its rays to illuminate all things, to warm them, to give life, to make fruitful: so God scatters the rays of His beneficence upon all and upon all things, especially angels and men, that He may illuminate them with the light of His wisdom, and thereby inflame them with His love, and quicken them with the life of grace and glory, so that they too may impart the same to others. Wherefore St. Dionysius On the Divine Names, chapter IV, part I, says that divine love is the motive force drawing upward into God, who alone is in Himself beautiful and good. The evident signs and effects of this love, beneficence, and communication are: the Incarnation, preaching, miracles, passion, death of the Eternal Word for teaching and saving men, the Sacraments, the mission of the Holy Spirit, the singular care of the whole Church and of each of the faithful. For in the Incarnation He poured out His whole self and all His tender mercies upon us, according to that of Zechariah: " Through the bowels of mercy of our God, in which the Dayspring from on high has visited us, " Luke I, 78.

Again in justification and sanctification God communicates Himself to the soul not only through grace, charity, and the virtues, but also through Himself: for in fact He gives the Holy Spirit, and with Him the other divine Persons, according to that text: " The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, " Romans v, 5; and: " If any man love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him, " John chapter XIV, verse 23. Wherefore by this communication of Himself He elevates the just man to Himself, transforms him into Himself, and makes him divine; especially those who give themselves wholly to God and devote themselves to Him. For divine love produces ecstasy and a going out of the lover from himself, so as to transfer him into the Beloved, to unite him most closely to Him, and make him one with Him, so that he may live, feel, rejoice in Him, as if incorporated into Him. For he who loves God, utterly failing from himself, passes over into God, and as it were melts away, thinking, understanding or feeling nothing other than God, desiring or longing for nothing else, rejoicing in no other thing than the goods of God. He who thus cleaves to God is made one spirit: because he strips off himself and puts on God, just as if he were transformed into the divine nature. Wherefore he is wholly in God in thought and affection, as Christ prays for him, John XVII, 11: " Holy Father, keep them in Your name whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We also are. " And verse 21: " That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us. " The reason is that the good is communicative and diffusive of itself. If therefore it be the highest good, as God is, He will communicate Himself and diffuse Himself in the highest manner: for this is the nature and disposition of the good and of the highest good. " God, says St. Leo, sermon 2 On the Nativity, whose nature is goodness, whose will is power, whose work is mercy. "

Note secondly: This bountifulness and affluence of God's beneficence is immense, and worthy of admiration from five heads, as our Lessius rightly notes, book IX On the Divine Attributes, chapter IV. The first is the majesty of the One loving and bestowing. For what is greater and more magnificent than God, who transcends all angels and men so much (indeed, infinitely more), as heaven transcends earth, which in comparison with the vastness of heaven is as a center and a point. The second is the condition of those upon whom He pours out Himself and His gifts; who if you consider their nature, are men, the lowest among rational creatures (for as prime matter is the lowest among corporeal things, so the soul is the lowest among spiritual things). If you consider the quality of the soul, they are sinners, enemies, proud, ungrateful, carnal, unfit for every good, prone to every evil; if of the body, they are mortal, sickly, vile, sordid, foul, soon to be food for worms, so that the Psalmist rightly exclaims, Psalm VIII: " What is man, that You are mindful of him? or the son of man, that You visit him? " The third is the immense and manifold good which He partly confers upon them, partly offers. For to man He has given a rational soul created to His own image, grace, the promise of glory, angelic custody, the whole machinery of the world, and finally His Only-begotten. " For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life, " John chapter III, verse 16. Which words, if pondered, each have great emphasis, and signify a new beneficence of God. Wherefore the Psalmist, Psalm XXXIII, 6: " Come to Him, he says, and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be confounded. " The fourth is the end for which He confers, which is that it may be well with man, not with God: for God expects or receives no gain, no advantage from man. The fifth is the manner in which He communicates Himself and pours Himself out, which is manifold. First, that He communicates Himself to us not as to servants, but as to sons, whom He has appointed His heirs and coheirs with Christ. Second, that it is the disposition of divine kindness to lower Himself to the lowest, to care for the weak, to gather up the abject, to raise up the humble, and where there is greater want, there to bestow His riches the more, and bring help. Wherefore St. Bernard, book V On Consideration, chapter XI, thus defines God, or rather circumscribes God's affluence: " What is God? a will

all-powerful, a most benevolent power, eternal light, immutable reason, supreme beatitude, creating minds to share in itself, vivifying them to feel, drawing them to desire, dilating them to grasp, justifying them to merit, kindling them to zeal, making fruitful for the fruit, directing to equity, forming to benevolence, moderating to wisdom, strengthening to virtue, visiting to consolation, illuminating to knowledge, perpetuating to immortality, filling to happiness, surrounding to security. " Third, that He often communicates Himself before being asked, as appears in all prevenient graces, and that by them He moves us to ask the subsequent ones. For no one can pray to God in the way one ought, unless he be moved to it by the grace of the Holy Spirit, as St. Augustine teaches everywhere, and the Council of Orange, indeed St. Paul, Romans VIII, 26. Again, that being asked He gives more than He is asked for, according to that which the Church professes when praying: " O God, who in the abundance of Your loving-kindness exceeds the merits and prayers of suppliants. " And St. Ambrose on Luke XXIII, 42, rightly observes that the thief on the cross only asked and said: " Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom; " but Christ bestowed far more upon him, saying: " This day you shall be with Me in paradise. For grace, he says, is more abundant than prayer; for the Lord always grants more than He is asked. " Thus Hezekiah asked health from God, but God added with it fifteen years of life, and the miraculous victory of 185,000 Assyrians slain, Isaiah XXXVIII. Solomon asked for wisdom, but God with it gave him immense riches and glory, III Kings III. Daniel asked for the liberation of the people from the Babylonian captivity; but God gave him the oracle and promise of the coming of the Messiah to redeem the whole world from the captivity of the devil, Daniel IX, 24. David asked for a son; but God gave him the Messiah: for He promised him to him, and made Him be born from him, II Kings VII, 12, and Psalm LXXXVIII, 4. Fourth, that He often confers His gifts on those whom He foresees will be ungrateful, indeed on the impious, unbelievers, heretics, atheists, blasphemers, and reprobates, according to that of Christ: " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, etc., that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun to rise on the good and the evil, and rains on the just and the unjust, " Matt. v, 44.

Morally, let us first learn to be liberal toward God by serving Him liberally, since He is so liberal toward us, because thereby we will continually experience Him more liberal toward us in turn. For He Himself contends with us, and being most liberal, does not permit Himself to be conquered by our liberality. This is what He promised through Isaiah, chapter LXVI, verse 11: " That you may suck, and be filled at the breast of her consolation: that you may milk out, and flow with delights, from the abundance of her glory. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring upon her as it were a river, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the Gentiles, which you shall suck; you shall be carried at her breasts, and on her knees they shall caress you. As one whom the mother caresses, so will I comfort you. " Excellently Nazianzen, oration on the Love of the Poor: " Nothing, he says, is so divine in man as to do good to others. Be a god to the wretched, by imitating God's mercy. " And Nyssen on Loving the Poor: " Beneficence, he says, is the most excellent of all praiseworthy virtues. This is the companion of happiness. This sits beside God, and is joined to Him by a great bond, " as she herself, appearing in a vision to St. John the Almsgiver, inciting him to almsgiving, affirmed. Indeed Seneca too, book III On Benefits, chapter XV: " He who gives benefits, he says, imitates the gods; he who demands their return, the moneylenders. "

Hence secondly, since we can give nothing back to God in Himself, let us give back to Him the same in His image, namely in our neighbors, that we may pour out upon them liberally the wisdom, grace, and other goods which we have received from God: for He gave them to us so that He might give us all the more, the more we pour out upon others. For just as fountains, the more they flow out, so much the more flow in: for if water did not flow out, no new would flow in; the prior would occupy the channel and exclude the influx: so it stands altogether with the teacher, the preacher, the almsgiver, etc., that the more he gives to his neighbor, the more he receives from God, as I taught from St. Paul and Basil on II Corinthians 13.

Thirdly, let us imitate God, that to one who asks the simple we may give double. Thus Christ, to those asking for bodily health, added also that of the soul; concerning whom St. Peter accordingly says, Acts X, 38: " He went about, doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil. " Whence the axiom of Christ and Paul was: " It is more blessed to give than to receive, " Acts xx, 35. See what is said there.

Of this matter the Gentiles gave illustrious examples: let Christians be ashamed, if they do not surpass them, but suffer themselves to be surpassed in liberality by them. Thus Plato, when Diogenes asked for a little wine and figs, sent him an entire flagon full of wine. But Diogenes, in his usual Cynic (that is, dog-like) way, gave him thanks, saying: " When you are asked how much two and two make, you answer twenty: so you give not according to what you are asked, nor do you answer to what you are questioned; " as Laertius reports, book VI, chapter I, who also adds that Diogenes used to say that hands should not be extended to friends with fingers folded but with them stretched out and liberal. Demosthenes, when asked what men had like to God, replied: " To do good kindly; " so Maximus, sermon 8. Cicero, in his oration for Ligarius: " Men, he says, approach the gods most closely in nothing else than in giving. Your fortune has nothing greater than that you may have the power, nor your nature anything better than that you may wish to save as many as possible. " Anaxilaus, when asked what was the most happy thing in tyranny, replied: " Never to be surpassed in conferring benefits; " so Stobaeus, sermon 46. Cyrus, king of the Persians, distributed the ornaments sent to him among his friends, reserving nothing for himself. Asked why? " The adornment of friends, he said, is my adornment; " so Maximus, sermon 6. Dionysius, having entered to his son and seeing the abundance of golden vessels, said: " There is in you no kingly spirit, who, with so many cups as you have received from me, have made no one your friend; " so Plutarch in the Apothegms of Kings. Alexander the Great, when asked where he kept his treasures, pointed to his friends and said: " In these caskets; " so Maximus, sermon 6. The same, distributing all to his friends, when Perillus asked what was left to the king, replied: " The hope of acquiring greater things. " The same, giving a city to someone who said it did not fit his fortune, Alexander replied: " I do not seek what is fitting for you to receive, but what is fitting for me, who am king, to give. " The same, when Perillus requested ten talents for the dowry of his daughters, ordered fifty to be given, saying: " To you indeed it suffices to receive only so much, but to me it does not suffice to give only so much; " so Plutarch in the Apothegms of Kings, who also adds that Alexander sent fifty talents to Xenocrates, that he might lavish them on his friends. " For to me, he said, scarcely the riches of Darius were sufficient for my friends. " The same, when asked: " Who was the best king? he replied: He who retains his friends with gifts, and reconciles his enemies with benefits; " so Maximus, sermon 9 On the Magistrate. Hence Ptolemy son of Lagus, his general and the first king of Egypt after him, learned liberality from Alexander, who enriched his friends, saying: " It is better to enrich, than to grow rich, " as Aelian witnesses, book XIII of Various History. Antony the triumvir with Lepidus and Augustus was so profuse in gifts that he often said the greatness of the Roman empire was illustrated not by what he received but by what he gave, says Plutarch in his Life.

But Christian heroes have far surpassed the Gentiles in this matter. Known to all is the lavish munificence of St. John, Patriarch of Alexandria, who from this gained the surname "Almsgiver." For by continual experience he had learned that when he gave double, he received quadruple.

And of St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, who, when a widow asked him for alms and a portion of the ransom to redeem her son, delivered himself, great as he was, into slavery to the Vandals in place of the son, and so deserved to free all the people of Nola, his fellow citizens, with himself from slavery.

Memorable also was the liberality of Pope Hadrian II, when an immense crowd of pilgrims had come together, and the steward said he did not have so much as to dispense even a single denarius to each (for he had only forty denarii in all): " By the power, he said, of Christ, who from five loaves and two fishes filled five thousand men, I will dispense not single denarii to each, but three denarii each. " He said it and did it, and six denarii remained. Then turning to the steward: " You see, he said, how generous and sweet is the most almighty Lord, who has distributed forty coins to our brothers by threes, and to me three, and to you three by an equal lot

preserved; " so from Anastasius the Librarian, Baronius volume X, year of Christ 867.

AND DOES NOT REPROACH. — does not upbraid, saying: You are in my debt, you owe me your life, I conferred this benefit on you when you did not deserve it, I gave more than you deserved, etc.; for the reproach of a benefit is the moth and rust of liberality, which sucks out all its grace, deforms and discolors all its color and beauty. Hence the Wise One admonishes, Ecclesiasticus XLI, verse 28, that you beware " of friends in talking reproachfully, and when you give, do not reproach. " And chapter XVIII, verse 18: " A fool will reproach sharply, and a gift (δόσις, that is, giving, donation) of one undisciplined makes the eyes waste away; " because when he has given to someone, he saddens and shames him with his reproaches, impudence, and harshness; and chapter XX, verse 14: " The gift of a fool will not profit you: for his eyes are sevenfold, " that is, manifold, as if to say: by the manifold throwing and blinking of his eyes upon you he signifies that he expects from you more than he gave. " He will give little and reproach much: and the opening of his mouth is a flame, " that is, choler, as if to say: he will speak to you harshly, severely, choleric-ly; in Greek ἀνοίξει τὸ ςόμα αὐτῷ ὡς κῆρυξ, that is, he will open his mouth as a herald, will cry out like a herald, will everywhere proclaim his benefit and your need or ingratitude. Against such a one Democritus would have hurled that little spear of his: " Perish miserably, because you have made the Graces, who are virgins, into harlots. " Concerning which see Maximus, sermon 8.

Wherefore Chilon the Lacedaemonian wisely used to say: " It is fitting to forget a benefit given, but to remember one received, " as Laertius testifies, book I, chapter IV.

Alexander the Great indeed used to say it was kingly to confer often and much upon those from whom you hear ill spoken, as Pontanus testifies, chapter XXX On Liberality.

On the contrary Aristotle of Cyrene asserted, " one ought not to receive a benefit offered by anyone. For either, in order that he may repay it, he will have troubles: or if he does not return it, he will be called ungrateful; " so Aelian, book X.

To this point belongs the quibble of Antigonus, which Seneca relates, book II On Benefits, chapter XVII: " From Antigonus, he says, a Cynic asked for a talent; he replied that it was more than a Cynic should ask. Refused, he asked for a denarius; he replied that it was less than a king should give. Such a quibble is most shameful. He found a way to give neither: in the denarius he regarded the king, in the talent the Cynic, when he could have given the denarius as to a Cynic, and the talent as a king. " The same Seneca, in the same place chapter X: " This, he says, is the law of a benefit between two: the one ought immediately to forget what he has given, the other never what he has received. The frequent recalling of merits lacerates and oppresses the mind; " and chapter XI: " How long will you say: I saved you, I snatched you from death? etc. Admonition produces tedium, reproach hatred; " and chapter XIV: " O pride of great fortune! O most foolish evil! how it is no joy to receive anything from you, how you turn every benefit into an injury, whatever

[reserving nothing.] When asked why? " The adornment of friends, he said, is my adornment; " so Maximus, sermon 6. Dionysius, having entered to his son and seeing the abundance of golden vessels, said: " There is in you no kingly spirit, who, with so many cups as you have received from me, have made no one your friend; " so Plutarch in the Apothegms of Kings. Alexander the Great, when asked where he kept his treasures, pointed to his friends and said: " In these caskets; " so Maximus, sermon 6. The same, distributing all to his friends, when Perillus asked what was left to the king, replied: " The hope of acquiring greater things. " The same, giving a city to someone who said it did not fit his fortune, Alexander replied: " I do not seek what is fitting for you to receive, but what is fitting for me, who am king, to give. " The same, when Perillus requested ten talents for the dowry of his daughters, ordered fifty to be given, saying: " To you indeed it suffices to receive only so much, but to me it does not suffice to give only so much; " so Plutarch in the Apothegms of Kings, who also adds that Alexander sent fifty talents to Xenocrates, that he might lavish them on his friends. " For to me, he said, scarcely the riches of Darius were sufficient for my friends. " The same, when asked: " Who was the best king? he replied: He who retains his friends with gifts, and reconciles his enemies with benefits; " so Maximus, sermon 9 On the Magistrate. Hence Ptolemy son of Lagus, his general and the first king of Egypt after him, learned liberality from Alexander, who enriched his friends, saying: " It is better to enrich than to grow rich, " as Aelian witnesses, book XIII of Various History. Antony the triumvir with Lepidus and Augustus was so profuse in gifts that he often said the greatness of the Roman empire was illustrated not by what he received but by what he gave, says Plutarch in his Life.

But Christian heroes have far surpassed the Gentiles in this matter. Known to all is the lavish munificence of St. John, Patriarch of Alexandria, who from this gained the surname "Almsgiver." For by continual experience he had learned that when he gave double, he received quadruple.

And of St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, who, when a widow asked him for alms and a portion of the ransom to redeem her son, delivered himself, great as he was, into slavery to the Vandals in place of the son, and so deserved to free all the people of Nola, his fellow citizens, with himself from slavery.

Memorable also was the liberality of Pope Hadrian II, when an immense crowd of pilgrims had come together, and the steward said he did not have so much as to dispense even a single denarius to each (for he had only forty denarii in all): " By the power, he said, of Christ, who from five loaves and two fishes filled five thousand men, I will dispense not single denarii to each, but three denarii each. " He said it and did it, and six denarii remained. Then turning to the steward: " You see, he said, how generous and sweet is the most almighty Lord, who has distributed forty coins to our brothers by threes, and to me three, and to you three by an equal lot

you give, you spoil. " God therefore, since He is most liberal, reproaches no one with a gift — that is, that He has given too much, or more than the man deserves — if he is willing to use His gift, repent, and live holily, as we see in Saul, Magdalene, Peter, etc. He does, however, reproach the impious for ingratitude, that, having been favored with so many benefits, he repays God with evil deeds, and contends with God's beneficence by them, and persists hard and obstinate in his wickedness. Such is the reproach of God in Micah VI, 3: " My people, what have I done to you? " etc. Jeremiah II, 4; Isaiah I, 2 and following. So in the day of judgment God will reproach the reprobate, that they have abused His grace to their own ruin and damnation, as appears from the parable of him who owed ten thousand talents and demanded from his fellow servant a hundred denarii, Matthew XVIII, 24.

AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN HIM. — Provided, namely, that he asks for himself things necessary for salvation, piously and perseveringly. For if prayer has these four conditions, it will certainly obtain what it asks, says St. Thomas, III, Question LXXXIII, article 13, reply to 2, who also adds from St. Augustine in the Sentences, Sent. 212: " He who faithfully supplicates God, he says, for the necessities of this life, is mercifully heard, and mercifully not heard. For the physician knows better what is useful for the sick than the sick man himself. And on this account Paul was not heard, when he asked that the sting of the flesh be removed, because it was not expedient. " And St. Basil, sermon On Praying to God: " Therefore, he says, sometimes you ask and do not receive, because you asked wrongly, or lukewarmly, or faithlessly, or for things not profitable to you, or you gave up. " Wherefore Plato in the Second Alcibiades assigns this manner of praying: " O most good, most great God, grant the best things to those who pray and to those who do not pray, but command evils to be far from those even who ask for them. " For, as St. Bernard says, sermon Against the Vice of Ingratitude: " It is often mercy to withhold mercy; just as it can be of wrath and indignation to show mercy. " And St. Gregory, book XV of the Morals, chapter XII: " It is, he says, of greater wrath when that is granted which is wickedly desired, and from there sudden vengeance follows, because the man also obtained what he coveted with God being angry. " To deny a benefit then is not a malefit but a benefit: just as parents kindly refuse knives to children who ask for them, lest they hurt themselves with them: for to give them the benefit they ask would be to do them a great harm.

Verse 6: But Let Him Ask in Faith, Hesitating in Nothing

6. BUT LET HIM ASK IN FAITH, NOTHING WAVERING. — " Faith " here is taken in three ways, or rather embraces three things which St. James requires in prayer: First, faith properly so called; second, confidence, or sure hope; third, credulity and firm persuasion of obtaining what we ask. To this threefold faith is opposed a hesitation likewise threefold: the first is hesitation in faith, which is incredulity and infidelity: for he who hesitates in faith, if he is stubborn in his doubt, is an infidel and a heretic. The second is hesitation in confidence, which is diffidence or despair. The third is hesitation in credulity, which is doubt, or an opinion and persuasion of not obtaining what we ask.

First, then, St. James requires for prayer faith properly so called, not only general faith concerning God's omnipotence, providence, munificence, truth, fatherly care and love toward us — namely, that as God He has the power, and as Father He has the will, to do good to us as His children — but also particular faith, namely that He will give us what we ask, if it is expedient. For He Himself promised this very thing, who can neither lie, be deceived, nor deceive, saying: " All things whatsoever you ask, when you pray, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come to you, " Mark XI, 39; Matthew XXI, 21, and often elsewhere. For we believe by divine faith that God is faithful in His promises, and therefore that He will give us what we ask in prayer, since He has promised this very thing, who, as He cannot deny Himself, so neither can He violate His promises. This faith Christ everywhere required of those who asked for healing, as of the blind, Matthew IX, 28: " Do you believe, He said, that I can do this for you? " and when they answered: " Yes, Lord, " they heard: " According to your faith be it done to you. And their eyes were opened. " You will say: Then the special faith of the heretics is true, by which they believe themselves to be just, predestined and infallibly to be saved. For when they ask of God justice, salvation, and glory, certainly they will obtain these things from God: for God promised that He would grant whatever we ask of Him. I reply: This promise of God is not absolute but conditional, namely, if we pray and ask in the way we ought, that is, with due faith, humility, purity, reverence, devotion, perseverance, etc. But we are ignorant and uncertain whether we fulfill these conditions in prayer; and therefore we are equally uncertain whether we will obtain the justice and salvation we ask for.

Second, this faith, as St. Cyril teaches, catechesis 5, requires and produces confidence: hence the Apostle, defining faith, Hebrews XI, 1, says that it is " the substance of things hoped for, " for faith in the omnipotence and faithfulness of God in fulfilling His promises is the substance — that is, the basis and support of hope and of the things hoped for. This is what St. Augustine says, sermon 36 On the Words of the Lord: " If faith fails, prayer perishes. Whence the Apostle, when he exhorted to prayer, said: Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved; in order to show that faith is the fountain of prayer (and consequently of hope, which is the mother of prayer: for no one prays unless he hopes to receive); and to show that the stream cannot go where the head of water has dried up, he added: How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? " This confidence Christ likewise required, as from the paralytic, Matthew IX, 2: " Be of good heart, son, your sins are forgiven you; " and from the woman with the issue of blood, verse 22: " Be of good heart, daughter, your faith has made you whole. " You see here how Christ together with faith demands confidence, which faith brings forth as a mother her daughter. Whence St. Thomas, III, Question LXXXIII, article 15.

to 3: "Prayer," he says, "has the efficacy of meriting from charity, but the efficacy of obtaining from faith and confidence," as St. James here says. Moreover, the certainty of hope cannot be as great as that of faith: "For what does anyone see," through divine faith, "that he hopes for?" says Paul, Rom. viii, 24. Hence St. Chrysostom, indeed the Apostle in Hebr. vi, 18 and 19, likens faith to a column supporting a house: for this support is most firm; but hope to an anchor which sustains a ship in the waves, but in such a way that it is tossed and fluctuates with them: for so also our hope is tossed and fluctuates between the waves of fear and confidence. But the greater the faith, the greater the hope it begets; and the greater the hope, the more efficacious the prayer, and the more certainly it obtains the thing requested, as was the case with St. Dominic, who used to say that he had never asked anything of God which he had not obtained, and with St. Thomas Aquinas, who asserted that he had attained everything which he had earnestly sought through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. Wherefore St. Catherine of Siena sharpened this hope in praying, saying: "Lord, I will not let You go, unless I obtain from You what I ask, e.g. the conversion of this or that sinner;" and thus she obtained everything. Now this confidence arises partly from the purity and sanctity of life, namely from the freedom of a holy conscience familiar with God, according to that of I John III, 21: "If our heart does not reprehend us, we have confidence toward God; and whatsoever we shall ask, we shall receive of Him: because we keep His commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in His sight;" partly and rather from the instinct of God, who animates those praying, and as it were promises that He will give that for which He impels and instigates them to ask. Wherefore here faith signifies confidence rather than faith. For the proper act of hope and confidence is prayer: wherefore the greater and more efficacious the confidence, the greater and more efficacious will be the prayer. Hence in prayer confidence is especially to be aroused, and this St. James here teaches, as if to say: Ask wisdom with great and certain confidence, and so you will certainly obtain it.

You will ask: Why does God so demand hope in prayer? I reply first, because the fitting order and disposition demands it: for it befits one praying to hope for what he prays for; indeed, without hope one cannot rightly pray; for no one prays for that of which he despairs. As therefore in a vessel, in order to receive a great quantity of liquid, a great capacity is required, so in one praying, in order to receive a great gift from God, great confidence is required. For this is the same in the soul as capacity in a vessel, as St. Bernard teaches in words to be cited shortly. Second, because hope is as it were a pipe and channel, which is raised from man on earth to heaven to God, so that through it the waters of heavenly graces may flow down and rain down upon him. As therefore the waters of heavenly rain, unless they are received in a channel and flow together into it, run away and perish: so also the shower of God's graces, unless drawn up and gathered by the channel of confidence, diffuses and disperses itself in various other directions. Third, because hope and hopeful prayer is as it were the money with which we buy grace from God: for we can offer and give nothing else to Him in exchange for it. But this hope He Himself esteems greatly: because by it He Himself is supremely honored. For by it we profess that we distrust ourselves, that we need Him, and that He is omnipotent, faithful, liberal, indeed God, father, governor, our provider and that of all creatures. As therefore a beggar, hoping and praising the wealth and liberality of a rich man, begs from him, buys and obtains alms, so also we from God. Therefore by hope, as by honoring God, we buy God's love and riches.

Third, as faith demands and begets hope and confidence, so hope begets faith, that is, credulity and persuasion of obtaining what we ask. Thus faith is sometimes taken for credulity, not divine and certain, but human and probable, as Rom. ch. xiv, v. 23: "All that is not from faith (that is, from credulity, namely from conscience, which dictates and believes this or that to be lawful for one, e.g. to eat things sacrificed to idols), is sin," as if to say: Whatever you do against the dictate and persuasion of conscience, in that you sin. Therefore the greater the hope in the affection, the greater the faith and credulity of obtaining it begets in the intellect. The reason is what St. Bernard gives, sermon 3 On the Annunciation of the Lord: "Hope alone," he says, "obtains a place of mercy with You (Lord), nor do You place the oil of mercy except in the vessel of confidence." Therefore he who knows this decree of God, and this power of hope, indeed from it conceives faith, that is, the persuasion of obtaining what he hopes and asks for.

This threefold faith is required for efficacious prayer. Hence God is wont, before He grants the thing requested, to inspire it in the petitioner, and accordingly it is a great gift of God, and as it were a sure presage of the thing to be obtained, even by miracle, if there be need. For this is the faith of miracles, namely faith joined with sure confidence in divine help to perform a miracle, which confidence the instinct of God produces in animating the wonderworker, and as it were promising him His help for the miracle which he attempts to perform, of which Christ in Matt. ch. xxi, v. 22: "If you have," He says, "faith, and do not hesitate, not only the matter of the fig tree shall you do, but even if you shall say to this mountain: Take up, and cast yourself into the sea; it shall be done, and all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, you shall receive."

For God wills that we trust Him completely, so that by our confidence we may honor His paternal care and providence over us. Wherefore He rejoices to be conquered by it, and as it were to have pious force inflicted on Himself by it. For one praying wrestles with God, as Jacob with the angel, who, conquering him, obtained a blessing from him, and was called Israel, that is, ruling over God, Gen. xxxii, 28. On the contrary, God hates distrust, as one feeling less worthily of Him and His kindness. Wherefore the Wise Man, ch. 1: "Think," he says, "of the Lord in goodness, and seek Him in simplicity of heart, because He is found by those who do not tempt Him; and He appears to those who have faith in Him," in Greek tois mê apistousi, that is, those who do not distrust Him. Hence Cassian, Conference IX, ch. xxxi, gives this as the sure sign of prayer being heard: "if we have felt in the very pouring out of prayer that we have obtained what we ask. For one shall merit being heard and obtaining as much as he has believed himself either to be regarded by God, or that God can perform. For that sentence of the Savior is unalterable: Whatsoever you ask in prayer, believe that you shall receive, and it shall come to you." On the contrary, ch. xxxiii: "Let no one praying doubt for certain that he will not be heard, when he has doubted that he will be heard." He then adds various causes for which prayer is heard.

Morally learn here that the measure of prayer and obtaining is faith and hope: what you certainly hope for, that you will certainly obtain: hope and ask for great things, you will obtain great things. For the more you dilate the soul through hope, the more capacious of God's gifts you make it, the more God will fill it with them, according to that oracle: "Dilate your mouth, and I will fill it," Psalm lxxx, 11.

Wherefore wisely St. Bernard, sermon 15 on Psalm xc: "Hope in Him," he says, "all the congregation of the people. For whatever place your foot shall occupy, shall be yours: your foot, indeed, is your hope, and however far it shall advance, it will obtain: provided however it be wholly fixed on God, so as to be firm, and not waver. Why should it fear the asp, or the basilisk? why dread the roarings of the lion, or the hissings of the dragon? Because he hoped in Me, I will deliver him." The same more clearly, sermon 32 on the Canticle, speaking of the great and magnanimous Saints: "Great things," he says, "they dare, because they are great, and what they dare, they obtain. For great faith merits great things: and as far as you shall extend the foot of confidence in the goods of the Lord, so far shall you possess. To such great spirits there comes a great spouse, and He will magnify the doing with them."

Thus Judas Maccabeus with few men had illustrious victories over Antiochus and his greatest forces; but in the last battle, seeing his men slipping away, broken in hope and spirit, and saying hesitantly: "Let us go against our adversaries, if we shall be able to fight against them," he succumbed and fell, I Macc. IX, 8.

Endowed with this confidence, Abbot Sisois, praying for his disciple Abraham who was tempted and fallen, confidently said: "O God, willing or unwilling, I will not let You go, unless we shall have cured him." And the disciple was cured, as is recorded in the Lives of the Fathers, book VI, ch. IV, no. 14.

Armed with the same, Theodoretus used to say: "If heaven should cleave to earth, Theodorus does not dread;" for he had asked from God that fear be taken away from him: ibid. book V, ch. vii, no. 6. I have recounted more examples of this illustrious hope and matter at Jerem. ch. vii, v. 8.

Moreover, these things are not said only to the just, but also to sinners. For to these, if they wish to repent, certain pardon, grace, and salvation (in which true wisdom consists) is promised by God; and accordingly they ought to ask for the same with sure faith and hope, as St. Magdalene asked, and therefore obtained when she heard from Christ: "Your faith has made you safe, go in peace," Luke ch. vii, v. 50. And the paralytic, when he heard from Christ: "Be of good heart, son, your sins are forgiven you," Matt. IX. For this is what He proclaims and promises everywhere through the Prophets: "Be converted to Me, and I will be converted to you. If the wicked man shall have done penance, etc., he shall live, and shall not die, of all his iniquities which he has worked, I will not remember," Ezech. ch. xviii, v. 12.

NOTHING HESITATING, — Greek mêden diakrinomenos, that is, judging nothing, disputing nothing, inquiring into nothing (he disputes and judges with himself who does not fully trust), being uncertain about nothing, doubting nothing, arguing about nothing, hesitating about nothing: for those who doubt dispute with themselves with alternating opinions, as is clear in those who are perplexed, scrupulous, anxious, fearful, faint-hearted, melancholic.

Therefore this hesitation either is opposed to faith, and is unbelief; or rather to the confidence of obtaining the thing requested, and is distrust. If it is unbelief, it calls into doubt God's power, goodness, truth, and the fact that He will not hear, even if the things required for prayer are present. If it is distrust, it hesitates and distrusts, not God's power and promise, but its own merits, namely that on account of its own unworthiness it will not obtain so great a thing as it asks from God. This distrust arises from sloth and faint-heartedness. Thus Moses hesitated on account of the unworthiness of the rebellious people, saying: "Can we bring forth water for you from this rock?" Num. xx, 10; and therefore he was punished with death in the desert, nor permitted to enter the promised land. Thus Peter hesitated seeing the wind on the sea, and therefore he began to sink, Matt. ch. xiv, v. 31; whence he heard from Christ: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Wherefore this hesitation does not include fear, which is joined to hope, moderate and holy, and is a gift of God. For as the Saints in other actions, so also in prayer have confidence, but joined with fear. For as the common proverb has it: Hope is in us, the outcome is in God. Now there have been and are various Spirits and virtues of the Saints. For some have exercised themselves and excelled in the spirit of fear, such as St. Ephrem, St. Arsenius, and the Anchorites, of whom Climacus speaks in the step On Penance. But others have exercised themselves more in the spirit of confidence and love, such as St. Anthony, whose voice this was: "I love my God, I do not fear." Hence it has come about, and does come about, that some Saints in prayer show fear and dread of not obtaining what they ask, especially if they are temporal things, which do not touch the salvation of the soul. For in these God often does not hear the faithful according to their will, that He may hear them unto salvation. Thus David prayed with fear for the life of the boy begotten by him from Bathsheba, saying:

"If perchance the Lord may give him to me," II Kings xii, 22; and the Ninevites prayed for pardon, not of guilt (for they knew this had been promised by God to penance), but of punishment and destruction, saying: "Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and turn back from the fury of His wrath, and we shall not perish?" Jonah III, 9. See what is said there.

But the spirit of hope and love is preferable to the spirit of fear and dread: hence the more hope and love grow, the more fear and dread are diminished. Finally, "fear is not in charity, but perfect charity casts out fear: for fear has punishment; but he that fears is not perfect in charity," I John IV, 18. Therefore St. James here signifies that one praying ought rather to hope than to fear that he will obtain the thing he asks for. Hence he says: "Let him ask in faith, hesitating nothing." Wherefore if you wish to pray fruitfully, before it and in it arouse great faith and confidence, and for it call upon God, saying with the Apostles: "Increase our faith," Luke ch. xvii, 5. And with the father of the lunatic: "I believe, Lord, help my unbelief," Mark IX, 24. Hence St. Bernard, sermon 4 On Lent, marking three vices and impediments of prayer, teaches first, that it ought not to be timid; second, nor on the contrary rash; third, nor lukewarm. "For timid prayer," he says, "does not penetrate heaven: because immoderate fear restricts the mind, so that the one praying — I shall not say cannot ascend — but cannot even proceed. Lukewarm prayer in its ascent grows faint and fails, because it has no vigor. Rash prayer ascends, but rebounds: for it is resisted; and not only does it not obtain grace, but it even merits offense. But the prayer that is faithful, humble, and fervent will without doubt penetrate heaven. Hence it is certain that it cannot return empty." Now timid prayer "arises from this, when a man so considers his own unworthiness as not to turn his eyes to divine kindness: for deep calls unto deep: the luminous deep calls the shadowy deep, the deep of mercy calls the deep of misery. For the heart of man is deep and inscrutable; but if my iniquity is great, much greater, Lord, is Your piety. And therefore when my soul is troubled within me, I am mindful of the multitude of Your mercy, and I breathe again in it: and when I shall enter into my own powers, I do not wish to be mindful of Your justice alone."

FOR HE THAT HESITATES IS LIKE A WAVE OF THE SEA, WHICH IS MOVED AND CARRIED ABOUT BY THE WIND. — The Greek klydôni signifies fluctuation, tempest, disturbance, impetus, surge of waves, especially when by a strong wind anemizetai, that is, it is fanned, agitated, tossed. For then wave continuously drives wave, so that with the waters surging back and forth mountains of water are heaped up, and those sailing seem now to be lifted up to heaven, now to descend into hell, according to that of Psalm cvi, v. 25: "His waves were lifted up: they mount up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths." And that of Ovid, book I of the Tristia:

Wretched me, how great are the mountains of waters that roll! Now now you would think they would touch the highest stars. How great are the valleys that subside in the parted sea? Now now you would think they would touch black Tartarus. Nor are the planks of the sides struck more lightly by the waves, Than the heavy weight of the ballista batters the walls.

For in a similar way one hesitating and distrustful in prayer is driven and tossed by various waves of thoughts, affections, and passions, which hesitation, like a wind, stirs up; so that now he hopes to obtain, now despairs, and there he says with alternating tide of mind: I shall obtain what I ask, I shall not obtain; God will give what I ask, He will not give; He will give late; He will give sparingly: I deserve to obtain, I do not deserve: I am worthy, indeed unworthy: God is merciful and liberal, but He is also just and severe: God's mercy is great, but my sins are too many to deserve to be heard. Hence it happens that now patiently he invokes God, now impatiently complains and murmurs; now waits; now casts down his spirit, and grows angry, that he is not immediately heard: and to these surges of disturbances he yields, and lets himself be carried away, nor strives against them with sails and oars, as in such a matter needs to be done. This is truer when something adverse or of tribulation arises, which seems to crush or diminish hope. For then the faint-hearted fall in spirit, when rather then they ought to lift their spirits to God, who when called upon in straits is wont to be present, by confidence and prayer, and to fix them entirely on Him. Thus by orators is proverbially called an Euripos, or Euripus, a man various, mutable, of doubtful faith and inconstant, who like the Euripus is agitated and fluctuates; now affirms, now denies; now wills, now does not will; now loves, now hates; now trusts, now distrusts. For the Euripus is part of the sea between Aulis and Euboea, ebbing and flowing seven times day and night; concerning which Cicero in defense of Murena: "For what strait," he says, "what Euripus do you think has so many movements, such great and so varied agitations of waves, as the system of elections has perturbations, and how great surges?" They say that Aristotle, in investigating the cause of so great a reciprocation of the Euripus, was swallowed up by it. Hence that common saying: "The Euripus has Aristotle, not Aristotle the Euripus." T. Livy, book VIII of the Punic War, believes the Euripus to be so swept by certain winds blowing there. Aeschines objects to Demosthenes that, by frequently changing his faction, he had surpassed the Euripus itself in inconstancy.

Such are many today, who are constantly inconstant. Such too is the Euripus of human happiness, or unhappiness, which Nazianzen graphically depicts, epistle to Sophronius: "You see," he says, "what the condition of our affairs is, and how a certain wheel of human affairs is turned around in its course, now these, now those flourishing and withering: while neither prosperity nor adversity is constant for us, but as quickly as possible is changed and leaps to the opposite, so that on the breath or on letters

one may sooner trust things written on water than human happiness." Such finally are the impious and worldly, who are continuously agitated and tossed by the surges of cupidities, who accordingly undergo similar waves and surges in prayer, concerning whom Isaiah, ch. lvii, v. 20: "The impious," he says, "are like a raging sea which cannot rest, and its waves overflow into trampling and mire. There is no peace for the impious, says the Lord." An illustrious example is in Cain the fratricide, Gen. IV, 13. But to the pious there is peace, and thence a peaceful, constant and happy mind, confidence, prayer, work and life. Such was Anna, mother of Samuel, who praying for him obtained him, "And her countenance was no more changed into different ones," I Kings ch. 1, v. 18.

Verse 7: Let Not That Man Think He Shall Receive Anything From the Lord

7. THEREFORE LET NOT THAT MAN THINK THAT HE WILL RECEIVE. — For ergo (therefore) the Greek has gar, that is enim (for), but the Translator learnedly rendered not word for word, but sense, as if to say: Let no one hesitate when asking, and be like a wave of the sea; for if he is such, I declare to him that he shall receive nothing. But this is what the Translator clearly and with emphasis says: "Therefore let not that man think that he will receive:" Add that the Greek gar, and the Latin enim, signify many things, namely "indeed," "certainly," "truly," "surely," "of course," "indeed," "therefore": and in all these ways it can here be translated, all of which Our Translator has embraced, by translating ergo. For thus in Latin, it sometimes begins a sentence, and seems to be the same as ergo, as in Plautus in the Trinummus: "Enim me nominat;" and in the Persa: "Enim non ibis;" and in the Miles: "Enim cognovi nunc." Finally, St. James Hebraizes. For in Hebrew 1 ve (as the Syriac translates), that is and, signifies for, because, certainly, indeed, therefore, etc. It is an argument from the contrary, as if to say: Let him ask in faith; for thus shall he obtain: because he who asks hesitating and distrusting shall obtain nothing. For only trusting and constant prayer merits to obtain what it asks.

Note: St. James speaks of receiving and obtaining insofar as it is from the force, and as it were the merit, of prayer. For otherwise God sometimes from His liberality supplies the defect of faith and confidence, and bestows on those hesitating what they ask, as He bestowed on the regulus who doubted whether Christ being absent could cure his absent son, much more whether He could raise the dead, John ch. IV, v. 49. For though absent He cured him, in order to instill in him this faith and hope concerning Himself, namely that He was the omnipotent Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. For this faith was then in the world new, recent and unheard of: hence it had to be proved and confirmed by Christ through miracles, as St. Gregory notes, hom. 28 on the Gospel. For the same reason He cured the lunatic after the rebuke of unbelief: "O generation," He says, "unbelieving and perverse, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" Matt. xvii, 17.

Verse 8: A Double-Minded Man Is Inconstant in All His Ways

8. A MAN DOUBLE OF MIND. — This pertains to the preceding (1): hence St. Peter in St. Clement, book VII of the Constitutions, ch. xii, alluding to this, says: "Do not be in your prayer of double mind, hesitating whether it will come to pass or not. For to me Peter the Lord said on the sea: O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And St. Ignatius, epist. 13 to Hiero: "Do not," he says, "be of double mind in your prayer: for blessed is he who does not hesitate." Hence the Syriac translates, a man divided in mind, that is, doubtful, in Greek dipsychos, that is, of double soul, having as it were two souls. For he who doubts and hesitates seems to have two souls: one, by which he hopes that what he asks will come to pass, the other by which he distrusts and despairs; one, by which he believes God to be powerful and merciful, the other by which he believes Him to be severe, and not about to do what is asked. This duplicity is opposed to simplicity, by which the faithful man ought firmly to place and fix his faith and hope in one God. Again, double of mind is the timid and irresolute, who from fear has his mind divided, so that in afflictions he places hope now in God, now in man, while now of God, now, as if deserted by God, he implores the help of men.

Second, dipsychos, that is, of double soul and double heart, is said of him who fixes his mind and heart partly on God and heaven, partly on mammon and earth, partly on virtue, partly on vice and cupidity. For his mind is divided into two most distant things, and as it were torn into two. So Oecumenius. Therefore St. James here touches the root of the evil, namely of hesitation in prayer. For those hesitating fluctuate in faith and hope in praying, because they fluctuate in mind, while they wish at once to please God and the world, at once to love heavenly and earthly things, at once to rejoice in present and future goods; these Christ rebukes, Matt. vi, 24, saying: "No one can serve two masters, etc. You cannot serve God and mammon." You cannot look at heaven with one eye, at earth with the other. This duplicity is opposed to the simplicity of affection and love, which places the whole heart and love in one God and virtue. Now the root of this duplicity is the variety, indeed the contrariety of affections, which arises from this, that the soul of man is partly rational, partly sensitive: for inasmuch as it is rational, it loves the good that is honorable; inasmuch as it is sensitive, the good that is delectable, which often is repugnant to the honorable. Hence some Philosophers, seeing in man so great a contrariety of affections and loves, gathered from it that there were in man two souls contrary to each other, one rational, by which he communicates with angels, the other animal, by which he communicates with beasts. But this is an error.

Third, dipsychos, that is, of double soul, or double in mind, is one light and changeable like a polyp, or chameleon, which takes upon itself the colors of all things to which it applies itself. For this lightness is the mother of inconstancy, concerning which St. James adds, saying: "He is inconstant in all his ways." This

This lightness also begets hesitation in prayer, concerning which the discourse has gone before. Hence Cassian, book VII of the Institutes, ch. xv, and St. Bernard, epistle 99, apply this sentence of James to apostates, who from lightness shake off the habit of Religion which they had assumed, and return to the world. This duplicity is opposed to constancy, by which one simply, absolutely and constantly adheres to right reason and to the honorable and holy good (1).

Fourth, dipsychos, that is of double soul, is the hypocrite, parasite, and every crafty and shifty person. For he has a double heart, one true, the other feigned. For, e.g. he pretends to love God, while he loves crimes; he pretends to be faithful and pious, while he is impious and unfaithful. Such are Heretics, also Politicians, who with Catholics are Catholics, with heretics heretics, with atheists atheists. Likewise those who with the chaste are chaste, with the incestuous incestuous, with the sober sober, with the drunken drunken: for they turn their cloak to every wind. These indeed are hateful to God, and accordingly their prayers, on account of hypocrisy and impiety, are execrable to God. This duplicity is opposed to simplicity, that is, sincerity: for hypocrisy is contrary to it.

Such too are the double-tongued and flatterers, concerning whom Psalm xi, 2: "With deceitful lips, in heart and heart," that is, with a double heart, "have they spoken." For they have one heart in the mouth, honeyed and flattering, the other in the mind gall-bitter and hostile. Whence the symbol of these is the partridge, a deceitful bird, as I showed at Jeremiah xvii, 19 and 20, which in Paphlagonia truly has a double or two-cleft heart, as Pliny relates, book XI, ch. iii, and Gellius, book XVI, ch. xv.

Therefore the double-tongued are double-hearted, and accordingly double-bodied, indeed double-horned; but the sincere and simple are of one mind, one heart, one body, one tongue, and accordingly most strong and invincible as it were unicorns. This the Psalmist desired, saying Psalm lxxxv, 11: "Let my heart rejoice, that it may fear Your name;" for "let it rejoice," in Hebrew is yached, that is, make my heart unique, or united, as Symmachus and St. Jerome translate, namely so that it may cleave to You alone, and so be united to You and become one with You. For, as St. Gregory says, part III of the Pastoral, ch. xii: "God is said to converse with the simple, because He illumines with the ray of His visitation about the heavenly mysteries the minds of those whom no shadow of duplicity obscures." Wherefore rightly St. Athanasius, epistle On the Nicene Synod, applies this sentence of St. James above all others to the Arian heretics, "who never," he says, "hold one and the same opinion, but now one, now another, and follow up their own sayings now with praise, now with blame; so that what they have already approved, they straightway condemn." For heresy, because false, is inconstant and always varies, just as on the contrary faith, because true, is constant and always like itself, indeed the same everywhere. Therefore:

Why is one faith played upon by so many strings?

Morally this duplicity of mind, and the laws, customs and acts of double-minded men, St. Gregory graphically depicts, book X of the Morals, ch. xxvii: "The simplicity of the just is derided," he says: "the wisdom of this world is to cover the heart with machinations, to veil meaning with words, to show as true things which are false, to demonstrate as false things which are true. This prudence indeed is acquired by use among youths, this is learned at a price by boys: those who know it grow proud by despising others: those who do not know it, being subject and timid, marvel at it in others: because by them this same duplicity of iniquity, palliated by a defense, is loved, while perversity of mind is called urbanity; this commands its followers to seek the heights of honors, to rejoice in the vanity of temporal glory once attained, to repay evils inflicted by others many times over; when their strength suffices, to yield to none who resist; when the possibility of virtue is lacking, whatever they cannot accomplish through malice, this they simulate in pacified goodness."

HE IS INCONSTANT IN ALL HIS WAYS, — namely in all his actions and discourses, as if to say: The origin of hesitation in prayer is duplicity of mind; for he who has this hesitates in all his actions, and is inconstant.

For "inconstant" the Greek is akatastatos, that is, confused, disordered, inconstant, unstable, troubled, infirm. Hence akatastasia is sedition, inconstancy, tumult, confusion, disturbed order of things. To this is opposed akataseistos, that is, unshaken, firm, composed, constant, stable.

Verse 9: Let the Brother of Low Degree Glory in His Exaltation

9. BUT LET THE LOWLY BROTHER GLORY. — Even if it is not necessary to connect all the sentences of James with each other, since after the manner of letters they are various and disparate, nevertheless some connect this with the verse immediately preceding, as if he opposed the humble man to the double-minded, who strives for great things, and therefore is proud, as if to say: Let the proud and double-minded glory in their present pride, but one fleeting and of brief duration: but let the humble and simple glory in his future exaltation, but one to endure forever. From duplicity therefore he made a step, and passes to the pride and opulence connected with it, and to it he opposes poverty and humility: and this seems sufficiently apt.

Others more aptly and elegantly refer this more remotely to v. 1: "Count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various temptations," as if here St. James descends and passes from thesis to hypothesis, from genus to species or example, namely from tribulation to poverty and abjection, by which the first Christians were oppressed. For the chief tribulation of the first faithful was poverty, both because they had voluntarily renounced their goods and placed them at the feet of the Apostles, Acts IV, 34, and that out of zeal for perfection; and because by the Jews persecuting the Christians,

they were despoiled of their goods. For this is what the Apostle says in Heb. x, 34: "You took with joy the spoiling of your goods." These therefore he here consoles, and animates to constancy. Hence as in v. 1 he said: "Count it all joy:" so here in a similar way, indeed more amply, he says: "Let him glory," as if to say: Not only let the faithful man rejoice, but let him also glory in tribulation, e.g. in abjection and poverty. Hence concluding this matter he adds: "Blessed is the man that endures temptation." Therefore let the humble and poor man glory, because he is conformed to Christ humble and poor: for humility and poverty have been honored, and made glorious through Christ, and indeed more illustrious than the wealth and splendor of kings. For the voice of Christ is: "Learn from Me, because I am meek and humble of heart," Matt. xi. Second, "let the humble glory," because humility is the ladder of heaven, and the sure way to exaltation, concerning which more shortly.

Brother, — that is, a Christian. For all Christians are brothers, because they have the same Father Christ, the same Mother the Church, by the same baptism are reborn as if from a womb, await the same heavenly inheritance; because, as Tertullian says in Apol. xxxix: "They have acknowledged one God as Father, who have drunk one Spirit of sanctity, who from one womb of the same ignorance, were startled at the one light of truth."

HUMBLE, — tapeinos, that is, abject, namely poor: for the Hebrew ani signifies both abject or humble, and poor. For these two are ordinarily conjoined. Hence to the humble St. James opposes the rich, saying: "But the rich in his humility," as if to say: Rich, and therefore proud and glorying. "For the worm of riches is pride," says St. Augustine, sermon 5 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew. And St. Bernard On the Conversion of Clerics, ch. xx: "Why," he says, "should not chastity be endangered in delights, humility in riches, piety in business, truth in much speaking, charity in this wicked world?" Thus in turn Christ signifies the humble through the poor, saying, Matt. ch. v, v. 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This James says in other words: "Let the humble glory in his exaltation."

Now tapeinos signifies both the vile and abject, and the humble or one endowed with the virtue of humility: here it includes both. For it signifies the abject, who bears his abjection out of virtue, and humbly receives and embraces it. For such a one is permitted to glory in his exaltation: otherwise he who is indignant in it, or is of swollen and proud spirit, cannot hope for exaltation, but rather for greater confusion and abjection. For such a one is hateful to God and men, according to that of Ecclesiasticus xxv, 3: "Three kinds my soul has hated, and I am greatly grieved at their souls: a poor man that is proud, a rich man that is a liar, an old man that is foolish and doting." So Oecumenius, Dionysius and others.

Note: James says these things, because the common temptation and tribulation of the first Christians was that they were everywhere despised, as vile and abject, and this first, because they themselves were few, poor and zealous of poverty: for they spurned earthly wealth, in order to acquire heavenly. Second, because they used modest and simple clothing. Hence Lucian in Philopater thus depicts and ridicules a Christian: "A rotten cloak, without shoes and covering, walking with bare head, hair shorn off." Third, because in words, and every motion and gesture, they bore humility and modesty before them. Fourth, because Christianity was then considered a new sect, vile, abject, and therefore hated by the world, namely by Gentiles and Jews: and such it is even now held among many Japanese and Indians.

IN HIS EXALTATION. — Our Serarius explains this in three ways. First, as if to say: If it happens that the humble man be exalted, let him bear himself humbly, and in this his humility let him glory. Second, as if to say: Let the humble glory in his humility, because humility through Christ has been made sublimity, and supremely celebrates and exalts the Christian. Third, as if to say: Let the humble man glory in his abjection, because this will be for him the cause of the highest exaltation, so that by metonymy the effect is put for the cause, or the reward for the merit, namely exaltation for humiliation, which merits and causes exaltation. Fourth, more simply and naturally, as if to say: Let the humble man glory in his exaltation, which he certainly expects; for this God has promised to the humble, and therefore He often grants it in this age, and always in the next. For the eternal and just sanction of God is: "He who shall exalt himself, shall be humbled; and he who shall humble himself, shall be exalted," Matt. xxiii, 12. Hence the Blessed Virgin sings: "He has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the humble," Luke 1, 52.

Thus humble Saul was raised to kingship, but growing proud he was deprived of life along with the kingdom. Hence he heard from Samuel: "When you were a little one in your own eyes, were you not made the head in the tribes of Israel?" I Kings xv, 17.

Thus David from a shepherd of sheep was made king.

Thus the Blessed Virgin by her humility merited to become the mother of God: "Because He has regarded," she says, "the humility of His handmaid," Luke 1, 48. "For it is the proper work of God to lay low the high, to raise up the humble," as the Philosopher says.

Thus St. Francis, because he cast himself down below all men, was raised above all. St. Bonaventure relates in his Life that a holy man saw a throne in heaven sublime and glorious, and when he asked whose it was, he heard: "This seat was that of one of those who fell, and now it is reserved for the humble Francis."

Thus God exalted the vile and humble St. Equitius, as St. Gregory relates, book I of the Dialogues, ch. IV.

Thus that holy virgin in the monastery of the Tabennesiotes pretending herself foolish, and therefore vile and despised; so that she seemed to be the sponge of the whole house, by Abbot Piterius at the command of an angel was declared and celebrated

namely on account of humility alone. Various authors explain this in various ways. First, some judge it to be irony, as if to say: Let the rich man, if he wishes, glory in his riches, but let him know for certain that he must shortly be deprived of them and humbled. Thus Bede, Thomas Anglicus, Hugo, Lyranus, Dionysius, Gagneius.

Second, others, as if to say: Let the rich man, if he is despoiled of his goods by an enemy, or deprived of them by shipwreck or some other misfortune, bear this humiliation and loss patiently, and accept it with joy, and so glory in it.

Third, others, as if he were saying: Let the rich man, even if he abounds in wealth, nevertheless not be proud of it, nor become insolent, but contain himself in humility, mindful that those riches wither like a flower, and immediately dry up like hay, that is, dissipate and perish. Thus Vatablus, Cajetan, Salmeron, and others.

Fourth, Oecumenius understands the implied word "let him be humbled," or "let him be confounded, put to shame, and think lowly of himself," so that there is an antithesis, as if to say: Let the humble man glory in the hope of his exaltation, but let the rich man be confounded in the humiliation which is prepared for him and which he must certainly expect. James was silent about "let him be confounded" out of modesty. This sense is more forceful, and the antithesis between the humble (or poor) and the rich in their lot, which will fall contrarily to each, seems to demand it. Likewise that which follows: "For as the flower of the grass shall he pass away, etc. The rich man also shall fade away in his ways." Therefore dryness and withering is humility, that is, the confusion of the rich man. Thus the rich man Dives was humbled when he was buried in hell; but Lazarus the beggar was raised up to Abraham’s bosom, Luke chapter 16, verse 22. Truly Seneca in Hercules Furens: "God the avenger follows the proud from behind."

By this sentence St. James chiefly censures the Gentiles and Jews, who pursued and gloried in wealth; and therefore despised Christians who were poor both in income and in spirit, indeed persecuted them, and despoiled them of their goods and their life.

FOR AS THE FLOWER OF THE GRASS SHALL HE PASS AWAY, — as if he were saying: Therefore let the rich man be humbled in his future humiliation, because, namely, just as the flower of the grass shall pass away — namely the rich man himself, as St. Augustine reads in the Speculum, not his humility: for this will endure forever in hell. Oecumenius notes that the wealth and glory of the rich man are here compared not to hay, but to the flower of the hay, which has beauty and splendor; but more quickly than the green grass of the hay itself it is dried up by the sun, withers, and falls: for in like manner the wealth of the rich has splendor and glory, but they are deprived of these by God in an instant, and they pass away and vanish, as St. Ambrose graphically describes in book V of the Hexaemeron, chapter 7. So the Poet compares the youth and brief life of man to a flower, saying:

Gather, maiden, the roses while the flower is new, and youth is new, And remember that thy own age likewise hastens away.

and Virgil in his poem on the Rose:

As long as one day, so long is the lifetime of roses.

Verse 10: And the Rich Man, in His Being Made Low

10. "But the rich, in his humility," — ταπεινώσει, that is, the most holy and most wise of all, and it is, by humiliation, by abjection of self. "For never did she sit with the others at table, but only wiping crumbs from it and washing the pots, she lived content with these foods alone; never did she use sandals; she never did wrong to anyone; no murmur of hers was heard, though she was beaten by all, and silently endured the mockeries and curses of all." Thus Heraclides in the Paradise, chapter 21, and Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter 41.

Thus it was revealed to St. Anthony that a certain tanner was holier than he, who esteemed all others holier than himself and worthy of heaven, but himself alone, on account of his sins, worthy of hell and guilty. Thus the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 15.

In the same place, chapter 13, those ancient fathers give these elogies to humility: "Humility is the tree of life growing up on high. The perfection of man is humility. Humility neither becomes angry itself, nor allows others to become angry. The earth on which God said sacrifice was to be offered to Him is humility. All labor without humility is vain. For humility is the precursor of charity; as John was the precursor of Jesus, drawing all to Him, so also humility draws to charity, that is, to God Himself, because God is charity. As much as a man lowers himself in humility, so much also does he advance on high. For just as pride, if it ascends to heaven, is brought down even to hell, so also humility, if it descends to hell, will then be exalted to heaven." In the same place, Abbot Macarius hears from the devil: "I suffer great force from thee, Macarius, since when I wish to harm thee, I cannot. Thou oftenest fastest and watchest; I always; but in one thing thou conquerest me." When Macarius asked, "In what?" he said: "Thy humility alone conquers me."

St. Bernard, in the tract On the 12 degrees of humility, teaches that Jacob’s ladder, stretched from earth to heaven, signifies humility, by which through its twelve degrees we ascend to God, "And the Lord appeared resting upon it from above, because at the summit of humility is established the knowledge of truth." The same, in sermon 27 on the Canticle: "What," he says, "is voluntary poverty, what is humility? Does not the one merit an eternal kingdom, and the other equally an eternal exaltation?" The same, in sermon 3 on the Annunciation of the Lord, teaches that Christ descended from the heavens to the earth and to the womb of the Blessed Virgin, "that we all might be enriched by His poverty, lifted up by His humility, magnified by His diminution, and, by His incarnation cleaving to God, might begin to be one spirit with Him." The same in De Modo bene vivendi, chapter 30: "The humbler thou shalt be, the greater the height of glory shall follow thee. Descend that thou mayest ascend, humble thyself that thou mayest be exalted, lest being exalted thou be humbled. Humility knows no fall, it knows ascent." Wherefore the same, elsewhere, gravely censures the foolishness of men who wish to ascend by pride, when there is no other way to ascent than humility and descent, and that the easiest of all.

Hence the hemerocallis is so called, that is, beautiful for a single day; and the Mantuan:

I marveled at swift youth in fleeting age, And that roses, even as they are born, have already grown old.

Pliny, book XVI, chapter 25: "The flower," he says, "is the sign of full spring and of the year being reborn, the joy of trees. Then they show themselves as new and other than they are: then with various pictures of colors they luxuriate even unto rivalry." The same, book XXI, chapter 1, teaches that flowers are the playful sport and painting of nature, and that by their fragility and brief duration they remind man of death. "For the rest," he says, "nature produced for the sake of use and nourishment; and therefore granted them ages and years: but flowers and scents she begets for a day: with great (as is plain) admonition of men, that what blooms most splendidly fades most quickly."

Secondly, just as green grass, otherwise sweet, becomes bitter if it dries up and is made into hay: for which reason Cato commands that it be cut before it dries, and Pliny after him, book XVIII, chapter 28: so when the rich man’s glory has passed away, bitter is his memory and recollection.

Thirdly, just as the sun by its heat at once dries up the flower: so fire, plunder, shipwreck, or some other similar mishap and misfortune suddenly takes away wealth and glory from the rich man.

Fourthly, just as the flower and the grass of hay, when cut, are reborn yearly in spring and autumn; whence Varro, book IV On the Latin Language, and Festus, judge that "foenum" (hay) is so called from "foenus" (interest), because it yearly produces a new offspring in the meadows: so wealth and glory, taken from one rich man, pass to another, and in him are as it were reborn and sprout again, soon to pass again from him to another and another.

Fifthly, just as the flower feeds the eyes only with its color, but has no fruit by which to fill the mouth and belly: so wealth feeds the eyes of the miser, but does not satisfy the mind. Wherefore the Wise Man, chapter 5, verse 8, compares the things and hopes of the wicked to a shadow, to a messenger, to a ship, to a bird flying past, to an arrow shot, to thistledown, to foam and smoke. "What hath pride profited us?" they say, "or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow, and like a messenger running by, and like a ship that passeth through the waves of the water, whereof when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found, nor the path of its keel in the billows: or as a bird that flieth through the air, whereof no proof of its passage is found, but only the sound of its wings beating the light wind, and parting the air by force of its way, by the moving of its wings it hath flown over, and after this no sign of its passage is found: or as an arrow shot at a mark, the divided air immediately closes again upon itself, so that its passage is not known: so we also being born forthwith ceased to be; and have been able to show no mark of virtue, but are consumed in our wickedness. Such things did they say in hell who sinned: for the hope of the wicked is as thistledown which is taken away with the wind; and as a thin foam which is dispersed by the storm; and as smoke which is scattered by the wind; and as the memory of a guest of one day that passeth by. But the just shall live for evermore, and their reward is with the Lord, and the thought of them is with the Most High."

Sixthly, the same flower changes color, and that often several times in one day. "Thus the leaves of polium are seen white in the morning, purple at noon, blue at sunset," says Pliny, book XXI, chapter 7. In like manner wealth and delights change appearance and taste, and according to the taste of the rich man taste differently at different times: to the hungry they seem of honey, to the satiated of gall, and they bring on a loathing of themselves.

Seventhly, there are three principal colors of flowers: scarlet in the rose, violet in the violet, purple in the iris. These three colors art imitates in the garments which the rich now dye and wear scarlet, now violet, now purple, says Pliny, book XXI, chapter 8. These three colors equally represent the three destroyers of wealth, namely scarlet for fire and conflagration, violet for water and shipwreck, purple for slaughters and plunderings. For wealth either perishes by fire, or by shipwreck, or by plunder.

Eighthly, trees and plants in flower succeed one another. "For first the almond flowers, then the pear, the cherry, the plum. The laurel follows, and after it the cypress; then the pomegranate, the fig. At the solstice the vine flowers, and the olive, which begins a little later. All shed their flowers in seven days," says Pliny, book XVI, chapter 25. So the wares of the rich succeed one another in flower, in use and in price; but all shed their flower in seven, that is in few, days, and lose their bloom, use, and value.

Verse 11: For the Sun Rose With a Burning Heat

11. "For the sun rose with a burning heat," — both in the morning, but rather at noon: for then it burns, especially when it is in Cancer or Leo.

AND THE GRACE OF ITS COUNTENANCE PERISHED. — He metaphorically calls the "countenance" of the flower its form and beauty. So the grace of the rich man’s countenance, and of his wealth, is the splendor of his garments, the elegance of his table, the brightness of his house and furnishings, the pomp of his servants, friends, and attendants, and, as Thomas Anglicus says, human favor and grace. For all court the favor of the rich man, and applaud him: but all these things, like the flower, soon fall away.

SO ALSO SHALL THE RICH MAN FADE AWAY IN HIS WAYS (rightly so: for this is what the Greek πορείαις signifies. Some read πορίαις, that is, in his riches and abundance. Now the "ways" of the rich man are, both his actions, occupations, and recreations; and the manners and paths by which he strives, indeed runs, after wealth, honors, and glory, and in which he gloriously walks, lives, and triumphs, as if to say: The rich man, in his opulence, splendor, and glory) WITHERS. — The Syriac has אותה chuma, that is, shall dry up like a flower. For wasting (marcor) is languor, rotting, consumption, decay, which often arises from fever and heat, devouring and drying up the radical moisture,

as is plain in consumptives and the hectic. Let the rich therefore expect a similar wasting, consumption and hectic of their wealth and glory, whether from an enemy, or from death, or from a thief, etc. Whence St. Augustine on Psalm 52, citing the saying of the wicked in Wisdom 2, "Let us crown ourselves with roses before they wither": "What more delicate," he says, "what more gentle? Wouldst thou expect crosses and swords from this gentleness? Marvel not, the roots of thorns also are gentle, and if anyone breaks them, he is not pricked; but that by which thou art pricked springs from there."

Verse 12: Blessed Is the Man Who Endures Temptation

12. "BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO ENDURES TEMPTATION." — This is the conclusion of the things said about temptation from verse 1 up to here. What and how many kinds of temptation are here understood, I have said at verse 1, namely that temptation is persecution and any kind of tribulation, and indeed temptation properly so called, which either concupiscence or the demon stirs up. For whoever steadfastly endures this, so as not to yield to it, will receive the crown of life: thus Theodore Studite, epistles 59 and 118, and Hesychius, book II on Leviticus, chapter 7. Moreover this sentence of James is an antistrophe to the sentence of Christ, in which He says: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted, etc. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew 5, verses 5 and 10. The patient man therefore enduring temptation, sorrow, and persecution is blessed, both in fact, on account of the virtue of patience, which is the highest good and beatitude of this life, as I said at verse 1; and in hope, on account of the crown of life laid up for him in heaven. Hence he is called "a man" (vir), from a manly spirit, virtue, and vigor for enduring all things. For, as Pliny says, book XI, chapter 49: "Males in every kind are stronger, except in panthers and bears." Under the word "man," women also who nobly endure adversities are understood: for these are heroines (viragines), indeed men (viri), because they have conquered men in virtue and still conquer them. Such were St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Agatha, and all the other women who underwent glorious martyrdom for Christ and virginity. These the world calls wretched, but Christ and James call blessed.

Note: "Suffert," says Hugo, is the same as "sub Deo fert," or "sursum fert" (bears under God, or bears upward). But the Greek is ὑπομένει, that is sustains, endures, bears through, lasts, persists, tolerates delay, perseveres, awaits, expects, persists: thence ὑπομονή is called patience, not just any patience, but that which has perseverance joined with hope, by which namely we endure evils through patient expectation, while indeed by hope of reward we hold out in evils, and reserve ourselves for better things, as I said at verse 3. Therefore the patient man, if he perseveres, is like an anvil, as St. Nazianzen says in his Distichs, which steadfastly bears all the blows of the hammers, and does not yield; and like a rock, which receives and repels all the waves of the sea, and, as Horace says, book IV, ode IV:

As an ilex struck by hard double-axes, etc. Through losses, through slaughters, from the very steel It draws strength and spirit.

Truly Cassian, Conference 18, chapter 13: "That patience is named from suffering and from sustaining," he says, "no one is ignorant, and therefore it is established that no one can be pronounced patient except him who endures, without indignation, all things that have been inflicted on him"; and below: "For there would be no praiseworthy fortitude in anyone, if he conquered without being tested; since indeed victory cannot have a place without the adversity of conflicts. For blessed is the man who endures temptation, because when he has been tested, he shall receive the crown of life."

Plutarch in his Laconica writes wonderful things about the endurance of the Laconian boys. "Boys," he says, "among the Lacedaemonians, at the altar of Diana — to whom from her unconquerable strength the surname Orthia was given — were beaten with whips every year on a fixed festival according to custom for the whole day, and so frequently endured even unto death, cheerful and glad, contending among themselves for the victory, which of them should longest and most bravely bear the lashes: whence they gave neither groan nor cry, nor drew in their shoulders or body, only for this, that they might obtain the name and honor of this victory." What now should the faithful Christian do, to whom not the ostentation of insane endurance and the slight praise of men, but the eternal crown of glory in heaven, and praise from God, Angels, and men, is promised for endurance?

Wherefore St. Athanasius for 46 years bore with unconquered spirit the persecutions of the Arians and of almost the whole world. "I know," he himself says in oration 1 Against the Arians, "that a reward is to be repaid by the Savior to those who endure, and that you, when you have endured, will have glory, by which it will be lawful to say: We have kept the faith. And you will receive the crown of life, which God promised to those who love Him."

And St. Basil, when the prefect of the emperor Valens threatened him with death unless he consented to the Arians, replied undaunted: "Would that I had something of worthy gift, which I might offer to this man, who would more quickly free Basil from the knot of this bellows (i.e. body), that he might fly to God!" Thus the Historia Tripartita, book XI, chapter 9.

The Emperor Constantius threatened the cutting off of his right hand to Eusebius of Samosata, unless he handed over the decree of the Arians made against Meletius; immediately Eusebius stretched out both his hands, saying: I will not give the decree. Thus the same, book V, chapter 49.

St. Lucius, condemned for the faith by Urbicius, when he was being led to execution, said: "I give thanks that thou sendest me, freed from most wicked masters, to the highest King of heaven." Thus Eusebius, book IV, chapter 17.

Simeon Stylites stood on a column for many years, suffering cold, heat, winds, rain, hunger, etc., with body and mind unmoved: because he gazed continually upon heaven. Thus Theodoret in his Life.

The Emperor Valens, through the prefect of Edessa, wished to compel eighty orthodox men to deny the faith. When therefore he said to Elogius: "Share with the one who possesses the kingdom"; he replied: "To me also belongs a fellowship of kingdom and of priesthood." Thus the Historia Tripartita, book VII, chapter 33.

St. Dionysia, a noble matron, when she was being severely beaten by the ministers of Huneric, and rivers of blood were already flowing over her whole body, said with free voice: "Ministers of the devil, what you do to my disgrace, that is my praise." Thus Victor of Utica, book III on the Vandals.

Abbot Alexander said to one experiencing acedia and weariness in solitude: "This, my son, is a sign that thou hast neither the kingdom of heaven nor eternal torment in thy mind. For if thou didst think on these things with anxious attention, thou wouldst feel no acedia in thy cell." Thus John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 92.

Abbot John in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 4, no. 12, used to say: "The gate of heaven is the endurance of injuries, and our fathers, rejoicing through many injuries, entered into it." For, as St. Augustine says, book X of The City of God, chapter 6: "Man himself," he says, "consecrated to the name of God and devoted to God, insofar as he dies to the world, that he may live to God, is a sacrifice." The same, on Psalm 118, sermon 23, speaking of martyrs, says: "Many wished to suffer and could not; yet none could suffer except those who wished to, etc., because for them there is not the temporal glory of men seeking vain things, but eternal glory belongs to those who suffer for a brief time and reign without end. Whence follows: For they are the exultation of my heart; and if there is affliction of the body, yet there is exultation of the heart."

Patience therefore and the patient man is like a palm tree, on which, whatever weights you place, "it does not yield downward," says Gellius, book III, chapter 6, "nor is it bent inward, but rises up against the weight, and strives upward and curves back." "For this reason," says Plutarch, "in contests the palm was chosen as the sign of victory: because the nature of such wood is that it does not yield to those who press and oppress it." This was the wisdom of the German sage Father Peter Canisius, who in all illnesses and adversities blessed God, saying: "Blessed be that fountain of good things, by which there is increased in old men sluggishness, distaste, forgetfulness, negligence, modesty, etc., which exhort us that we dwell in a fragile tabernacle and tend toward a better life." Thus Father Sacchinus relates in his Life, book III, page 375.

FOR WHEN HE HAS BEEN PROVEN, — namely when through much patience he has been tested, purged, polished and perfected, as I said in chapter 3. For, as Sirach 2:3 says: "In the fire gold and silver are tested, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation." And Wisdom 3:6: "As in a furnace He proved them, and as a holocaust victim He received them, etc., He found them worthy of Himself."

HE SHALL RECEIVE THE CROWN OF LIFE. — For, as St. Leo says, sermon 9 On Lent: "Certain and secure is the expectation of the promised beatitude, where there is participation in the Lord’s passion, etc. As therefore it belongs to the whole body to live piously, so it belongs to all time to bear the cross." Heavenly glory is called "the crown of life," because it is given to him who conquers temptations; just as formerly the olympionicae, that is, those who conquered in the Olympic games, were crowned with a crown of myrtle, of laurel, of ivy. It is called "of life," namely of blessed, glorious, and eternal life. Whence by St. Peter, in his first epistle, chapter 5, verse 4, this crown is called "unfading," so that it is opposed to the crown of the rich, that is, to wealth, delights, and glory, with which the rich are as it were girt and crowned, for this is of hay, and like the flower of hay immediately withers, as James said in verse 11; but the crown of the patient is unfading, and therefore always flourishing and blooming. Secondly, this life is fittingly given as it were a reward for temptations, blows, and death endured for Christ, according to that of Apocalypse 2:10: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life." Thirdly, "of life," because this crown is living and animated, and lives forever. For this crown is the vision and enjoyment of God, by which the Blessed are fed, delighted, and made blessed forever. Why heavenly glory is called eternal life, I have said on Romans 6:23, because, namely, this life embraces every joy, all delights, all wisdom, every good. Whence Didymus calls this crown the crown of hope, of delights, and of graces. Fourthly, some add that it is called "of life," because it is the reward of a life passed praiseworthily in patience and holiness.

St. James alludes to 4 Esdras 2:23, where Esdras saw Christ placing a crown on the heads of each of the patient ones and Saints. "These are they," he says, "who have put off the mortal tunic, and have put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God. Now they are crowned, and receive palms." And in chapter 7, verse 6, he saw the heavenly Jerusalem and its narrow and strait way, namely through temptations, tribulations, and martyrdoms. "The city," he says, "is built and placed in a level place: it is, however, full of all good things: its entrance is narrow, and set on a precipice, so that there is fire on the right, and deep water on the left (whence the Psalmist: “We have passed through fire and water, and Thou hast brought us out into refreshment,” Psalm 65:12). And there is only one path placed between them, that is, between the fire and the water, so that the path cannot hold but only the footstep of one man," which he explains in verse 18: "The just," he says, "will bear narrow things, hoping for spacious things."

This is the crown of which the Psalmist speaks, Psalm 20:4: "Thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stone"; and Psalm 102:4: "Who crowns thee with mercy and compassion, who fills thy desire with good things, thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle’s." Christ the Lord offered to St. Catherine of Siena two crowns, one of thorns, the other of gold and gems, saying: Choose either one, but know that whichever thou choosest, thou shalt have the other opposed to it in the future life. Immediately she chose the thorny one, and so fixed it on her head that for many days she felt grievous pains. Therefore through the thorny one on earth she merited the jeweled one in heaven; for, as Sirach 1:11 says: "The fear of the Lord is glory, and glorying, and joy, and a crown of exultation." The fear

namely by which the faithful one, fearing and loving God, suffers any adversities for Him; and chapter 6, verse 32: "Thou shalt put it (wisdom) on as a robe of glory, and shalt place upon thy head a crown of joy"; and Wisdom 5:17: "Therefore they shall receive the kingdom of beauty, and the diadem of comeliness from the hand of the Lord"; and Isaiah 62:3: "Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God"; and chapter 28, verse 5: "In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory and a garland of exultation to the residue of His people." See what is said on Apocalypse 2:20, and chapter 3, at the end.

Splendidly St. Augustine, homily 14 of the 50: "When God," he says, "crowns thy merits, He crowns nothing but His own gifts. For what hast thou which thou hast not received?" Whence the same infers, sermon 50 De Tempore: "Let us strive that in the life of the members (of Christians) there may be a crown for the Head (Christ)." The same describes pathetically this crown of life and glory, and its beauty and excellence, in the book On Loving God (or whoever the author is: for the style does not savor of Augustine), chapter 18, tome IX: "Let us exult," he says, "and consider of what kind and how great is the unique and singular joy of the elect. Namely that highest good, which is life, light, blessedness, wisdom, and eternity, and yet is not other than the unique and highest good, altogether sufficient, needing nothing, which all things need that they may be, and may be well. This good is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This good contains the pleasantness of all goods, but as different as the Creator differs from the creature. For if created life is good, how good is creating Life? If made salvation is delightful, how delightful is the salvation which made salvation? If wisdom together with knowledge of created things is lovable, how lovable is the wisdom which created all things from nothing? Finally, if there are many and great delights in delightful things, of what kind and how great is the delight in Him who made all delightful things? O he who is cherished by this good — what shall be his, and what shall not be his? Why therefore do we wander through many things, seeking the goods of body and soul? Let us love one good, in which are all goods, and it is enough." And soon: "For the kingdom of God is greater than all fame, better than all praise, more numberless than all knowledge, more excellent than every glory that is thought of. The kingdom of God therefore is full of light and peace, of charity and patience, of honesty and glory, of sweetness and delight, of perennial joy and beatitude, and of every ineffable good, which can neither be said nor thought." And below: "Therefore the future life is believed to be everlasting, and everlastingly blessed, where there is sure security, secure tranquility, tranquil pleasantness, happy eternity, eternal happiness, where love is perfect, fear none, the day eternal, the motion swift; and one is the spirit of all from the contemplation of their God, and secure of their continuance with Him: where the city itself, which is blessed by the assembly of all angels and Saints, glittering with shining merits, where eternal salvation overflows, truth reigns, where no one deceives nor is deceived: whence no blessed one is cast out, where no wretched one is admitted." And toward the end: "The understanding will be without error, the memory without forgetfulness, the thought without wandering, charity without dissimulation, sense without offense, soundness without weakness, health without pain, life without death, facility without impediment, fullness without disgust, and total health without sickness."

HE PROMISED TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM. — Namely those who so love God, that out of love for Him they bear all adversities bravely and cheerfully. He alludes to that of Isaiah chapter 64, verse 4, which Paul cites in 1 Corinthians 2:9: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for those who love Him." See what is said there.

Therefore to charity and love, as to merit and the cause of meriting, the crown of glory and of eternal life is promised as a reward. Hence it is plain, against Calvin, that the just by their patience and good works merit heavenly glory. For St. James here signifies this merit both by the name "crown": for this is owed to the conqueror as a reward and recompense for the contest; whence by Paul it is called the crown of justice: "I have fought," he says, "the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me in that day," etc., 2 Timothy 4:7. And also by the word "He promised again" (repromisit); for what is repromised under the condition of contest and works, is the reward of the same.

Morally, St. Augustine, sermon 64 on the Gospel of St. John: "The kingdom of God," he says, "is for sale: buy it if thou wilt. Nor be much troubled about a great matter on account of the greatness of the price. It is worth as much as thou hast. Do not seek what thou hast, but what thou art. This thing is worth as much as thou art. Give thyself, and thou shalt have Him. But I am bad, thou wilt say, and perhaps He will not accept me: by giving thyself to Him, thou wilt be good. And when thou art good, thou wilt be the price of the thing itself." We give ourselves therefore to God through love. Love therefore is the price by which we buy the crown of glory. The same on Psalm 118, sermon 23: "If," he says, "by loving we work good things, the love itself is eternal, and an eternal recompense is prepared for it. On account of which recompense he says he has inclined his heart to do the justifications of God, that loving eternally, he may eternally merit to have what he loves."

Come then, O fighter, O athlete of God, who with Christ and for Christ sufferest hard things and long. Lift up thy spirit, steel thy breast.

Bear and hold out; this pain shall one day profit thee.

"Wait for the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord"; thou hast entered the stadium of patience; in it contend with spirit, that thou mayest carry off the palm. Thou hast been made a spectacle to God, to the world, to angels and to men. Christ watches thee, the angels and all the Saints watch thee, the most holy Trinity watches thee: the same helps thee as thou fightest, that, as thou conquerest, He may crown thee.

St. James pronounces thee blessed, after a brief and slight trial; he promises thee the crown of life, promised to those who love God. Suffer therefore for God, for heaven, for the love of Christ. He loved thee unto death, even the death of the cross: repay love for love. It is sweet to love Christ, sweeter to suffer for the Beloved, and it will be sweetest, after a brief contest of patience, to enjoy Him, and most happily to enjoy Him for all eternity. "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us."

Verse 13: Let No Man Say He Is Tempted by God

13. "Let no man, when he is tempted, say." — Up to here St. James has dealt with the patient and brave who steadfastly and generously bore temptation, namely persecution and the spoliation of their goods for the sake of the faith, and therefore merited the crown of life: now he treats of the weak, who yielded to temptation or succumbed, and therefore merited death. For in order to escape persecution and to retain their goods, they were tempted either to deny the faith of Christ or to dissemble it, such as in our own age were many in England. He teaches them therefore that this temptation of pusillanimity, timidity, and avarice is not from God, but from concupiscence for the wealth, honors, and pleasures of this life, which they ought to extirpate and root out from their soul if they wish to overcome this temptation.

"LET HIM SAY, FOR (THAT) HE IS TEMPTED BY GOD." — The Greek has, "Let no one while being tempted say: For I am tempted by God"; and so St. Jerome reads, book II Against Jovinian. The sense returns to the same. Here St. James passes from the genus to the species, namely from generic temptation to specific temptation properly so called, by which one is tempted with a temptation which by its own nature, or by the malice of the tempter, incites to sin, such as that which is suggested inwardly by concupiscence, outwardly by the demon. James had said in verse 2 that any temptation is matter for all joy, and consequently is good; and in verse 12, that he is blessed who endures it: now lest anyone infer from this: If every temptation is good and makes blessed, then every temptation is from God: for God is the fount of every good, and especially of beatitude; he answers that this does not follow: for temptation properly so called is in itself and by its nature evil, because it allures and impels to evil, although by accident in the just and patient it is good, because they by their own virtue elicit good from evil, medicine from poison, theriac from the viper, while by struggling against temptation they bring back victory, and increase their virtue and merit. By this sentence St. James condemns the heresy of Simon Magus, who said God is the author of temptation and of sin. The same was taught soon after Simon by Florinus, Apelles, Hermogenes, Seleucius, Valentinus, Marcion, the Manichee: but these feigned two Gods, one good, the author of all good; the other evil, the author of all evil.

Wherefore more foolish and more impious than these are Calvin, Melanchthon, and the other heretics of our time, who teach that the one and true God is the author of all works, both evil and good, yet not of sin, granted that sin is inseparably joined to the evil work, on the ground that sin arises from the free will of man wishing to sin, but the work is a physical entity whose author is God. But from this it follows that God is the author of malice. For if God is the author of the evil work, then He is also the author of sin, because sin is intimately joined with the evil work, and in fact is nothing other than the evil work. For, e.g., hatred of God is a work so evil that it can in no way, even in thought, be separated from sin. If therefore God causes in the will this work, namely hatred of God, and is its author, then He is also the author of the malice and the sin which is intrinsically and essentially included in this work. Add: God, since He is the first cause, according to them prevenes and premoves the will to all works, so that the will cannot resist Him: therefore God is the cause of all works, not the free will, inasmuch as the will is so moved by God that it cannot fend off this motion, or turn itself elsewhere. Wherefore God indeed concurs with the physical entity which is in sin, e.g., the hatred of God, but by a general and indeterminate concursus, by which both love of God and hatred of God can be produced by the will, and He Himself wishes and intends that by it the will should produce love of God, not hatred; but the will abuses this concursus of God, and diverts, distorts, and determines it to hatred of God: wherefore she alone is the author of the hatred of God, not God. See St. Thomas and the Scholastics, and Bellarmine, book II On the Loss of Grace, chapter 8, and St. Basil, homily That God Is Not the Author of Evils.

"FOR GOD IS NOT A TEMPTER OF EVILS." — The Greek is ἀπείραστος, which, first, some explain passively, as if it were the same as "un-temptable," as if to say: God cannot be assailed or tempted in any evil: for He is impassible and supremely good, who can neither suffer, nor sin, nor desire concupiscently, and consequently He Himself tempts no one; but the demon does this, because he himself burns with concupiscence and malice. Thus Oecumenius and Cajetan. Whence some suspect that for "intentator" we should read "intentatus" in our Latin edition. But this is against the testimony of all the codices.

Secondly, others take it actively, as if to say: God threatens or sets evils against no one, namely temptations to do evil; God incites no one to wickedness. Whence in explaining He adds: "And He Himself tempts no man." Thus the Syriac translates: He is not מנסי menassai, that is, a tempter to evil, namely because He tempts to no evils, and consequently is tempted by no evils.

Thirdly, others, as if to say: "God is not a tempter of evils," that is, God does not tempt the evil, but only the good, such as Abraham, David, Job, Tobias. Whence St. Clement, book II Constitutions, chapter 8, reads: "A reprobate man is not tempted by God." Thus Salmeron.

Fourthly, others say that ἀπείραστος, that is, "non-tempter," is the same as dissuader, recaller. Whence before

they receive perfection from God limited to a certain species, e.g., an angel is perfect in the species of spiritual creatures, a lion in the species of brutes, man in the species of rational animals: but God most perfectly contains the goodness and perfection of all species and genera, either formally or eminently; whence this goodness of God embraces holiness and benignity, and other divine attributes, insofar as they pertain to the perfection of the divine nature. Think of infinite light, infinite wisdom, infinite beauty, infinite sweetness, infinite joy, infinite riches, infinite glory, infinite majesty, infinite purity, infinite love, infinite holiness: divine goodness contains all these, as it were an infinite ocean of all good things, from which all things participate the good which they have.

Note first, that God has all this goodness in a most eminent manner, not as an accessory by many and diverse forms or qualities, but intimately and essentially, by one most simple and most eminent form, namely by His essence. Therefore God is great without quantity, good without quality, infinite without number, beautiful without figure, eternal without time, immense without place, diffused without extension, perfect without multiplicity, highest without position, most holy without habit. In Him therefore is the allurement of all love, the consummation of all desire, the apex of all sanctity, the terminus of all motion, the satiety of all appetite.

Secondly, from this goodness of God all angels, men, and creatures beg and draw all their goodness. For God, says St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, ch. XIII, is hypertelēs, that is, superperfect, because, namely, He is so full and superfull of all goods, that, as an inexhaustible fountain, He overflows and redounds with perpetual and unceasing bounty of gifts upon all created things. " Overflowing, says St. Dionysius, with one unceasing, and the same, and superfull, and undiminishable bounty, by which He perfects all perfect things, and fills each with the perfection congruous to it. " And a little before: " Reaching equally to all, and above all with indefectible bounties, and never-ending operations. " Whence it appears that God is called good and perfect, because He is the author of every natural and supernatural perfection in all things, from the highest and those nearest to Him down to the lowest, from the first separate substance down to the lowest matter, and that His ray reaches to all things, and that not once only, but assiduously and unceasingly.

Thou therefore, O Lord, art the very fullness and universality of good, and consequently void of all evil. For if Thou hadst or didst even the least evil, Thou wouldst fall short of good, Thou wouldst be imperfect, nay evil, which is horrendous to think. For Thou art the fontal origin of all and only good, to whom all things must reckon as a gift the good which they have. From Thee all things

He adds: " But God tempts no one, " as if to say, God calls back from evils, but does not impel toward them. For, as Innocent I says, epistle to the Council of Carthage: " It is necessary that by whose help we conquer, by His not helping we are again conquered. "

The second sense is genuine: for apeirastos is taken actively, just as apeirastos, by which Cato was called, because he never laughed, though he was laughed at by others. Finally, the sense will be fuller and more vigorous if you join the first to the second; for apeirastos is taken both passively and actively: for it signifies both untempted and one who does not tempt; for apeirastos, or apeiratos, is said both of one who cannot be tempted, and of one who does not tempt, namely one inexperienced, untempted, who has no experience. Therefore God is apeiratos kakōn, because He has no sense or experience of evil in Himself, but is wholly good, and goodness itself, and accordingly cannot impose evils on others, nor impel toward evils; just as fire cannot moisten or cool, the sun cannot darken, humility cannot be proud, goodness or beneficence cannot do harm, but only do good: for this is proper to goodness and to God. Therefore God is called intentator (one who tempts not) of evils, because He tempts no evils, that is, experiences and senses none, either in Himself or in others, because He has no peira of evil, that is, no temptation, exploration, experience, but is apeiratos, that is, lacking experience of evil, devoid of evil, ignorant of malice, simple, upright, good; and accordingly does not produce this experience of evil in others, nor tempt them to evil.

BUT HE TEMPTS NO ONE. — For autem (but) Hugo, Dionysius, and Cajetan read enim (for): for the Greek kai signifies both, as Greek lexicons relate. But other Greeks and Latins everywhere read autem: which is the word of one asserting and confirming the prior sentence, as if to say, God is the intentator of evils; He Himself, I say, since He is the best, tempts no one: or " and indeed (for kai also signifies this, as is plain from lexicons) He Himself tempts no one, " according to Eccli. xv, 12: " Say not: He (God) has caused me to err (that is, made me wander: for this is planan): for impious men are not necessary to Him: the Lord hates every execration of error. " Habakkuk I: " Thy eyes are pure that they may not see evil. " Psalm CXLIV, 13: " The Lord is faithful in all His words, and holy in all His works. " The cause is that God is good through His essence, and goodness itself, to which every evil and all malice is repugnant. For good is the same as perfect; and the goodness of a thing is its perfection.

Furthermore, in God there is a threefold goodness: first, natural; second, moral, namely virtue and holiness; third, the goodness of beneficence, by which He communicates His own good to others. Natural goodness in God, as our Lessius rightly teaches, book VII On the Attributes of God, ch. 1, is the excellence of the divine nature, by which He has every perfection in the whole genus of being, and that infinite and immense, while creatures

all bright things draw their light from Thee, all wise things their wisdom, all holy things their holiness, all beautiful things their beauty, all perfect things their perfection. For Thou art not only the efficient cause of all perfection, but also its exemplar and measure, so that every angel or man is perfect only insofar as he reflects and imitates from afar his measure, namely Thy perfection. For Thy holiness, and Thy holy will, is the rule of all rectitude, virtue, and holiness. Thou art the author, form, end, and conserver of every good, terminating every infinity, transcending every end, defining every measure, fashioning every species, perfecting every perfection, sanctifying every holiness. Draw us after Thee, that we may run in the odor of Thy ointments. Let all riches, all honors, all delights become worthless to us, as vain and deceitful, which have the appearance of good, but the reality of evil, to which the foul flesh, the demon, and the world allure us: because Thou art our honor, riches, delights, sweetness, beatitude, every good, devoid of all evil. Join us therefore to Thee with an insoluble bond of love, bind us with an eternal nexus of charity. " For what have I in heaven, and besides Thee what have I desired upon earth, God of my heart, and my portion God forever? "

The Gentiles saw this very thing by the light of nature, who named God Optimus Maximus (Best and Greatest), about which Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods: " Jupiter, he says, that is, helping father, whom by inverted cases we call from helping (juvando) Jove, by the Poets is called father of gods and men; and by our ancestors, Optimus Maximus, and indeed best (optimus) before greatest (maximus): for it is greater, and certainly more pleasing, to benefit all, than to have great riches. "

In like manner Socrates said that God is the best and most blessed: that the closer anyone approaches His likeness, the better and more blessed he is. Socrates was followed by his disciple Plato, who asserts that God is only the cause of goods: therefore the cause of evils must be sought elsewhere; nor must it be permitted in a city established with good laws that anyone teach or say that God is the author of evils. So he himself, book II On the Republic. Plutarch, in his book On the Contradictions of the Stoics, attacks that saying of Chrysippus: " God works wars and malice, by inciting and perverting men. " Hence the Voice of that impious one tortured in the lower world, Aeneid VI:

Learn justice, being warned, and do not despise the gods.

See more in Theodoret, book VI On the Greek Affections, and Eusebius, book VI Preparation for the Gospel, ch. VII, where among others he adduces Homer, in whom Jupiter complains that men lay the cause of evils on the gods. And justly, for, as St. Fulgentius rightly says, book I to Monimus: " God is not the author of those things of which He is the avenger. " But He is the avenger of evils, therefore He cannot be the author of the same. Even Calvin himself, book I of the Institutes, ch. XVII, § 5: " As, he says, the stench of a corpse putrefied and laid open by the sun is excited by the sun's rays, yet does not pollute them, nor do they themselves stink: so also the evil works of men are from God, yet He Himself is not befouled by the filth of sins. " Where he expressly admits that God does not sin, yet is the author of the work of sin: which two are asystata (incompatible). For the principle of the sun is one, as a natural agent; and that of the author of sin is another, who is a free agent; and accordingly he manifestly sins, and is befouled by his sin with moral filth.

TEMPTS NO ONE — properly, so as to entice to sin: for thus the demon tempts. But God tempts the just, like Abraham, David, Job, etc., so as to demonstrate their virtue to the world, perfect it, and crown it, as I said at Gen. XXII, 1. This is what St. Augustine says, book II On the Consensus of the Evangelists, ch. XXX: " Temptation is understood in one signification, of which it is said: God tempts no one; and in another, of which it is said: The Lord your God tempts you, that He may know if you love Him, Deuteronomy XIII; that is of seduction, this of probation. " Thus a father tempts his son, a master his servant, a husband his wife, a teacher his disciple, that he may partly explore, partly sharpen and kindle his talent, study, and affection.

Verse 14: Every Man Is Tempted, Being Drawn Away by His Own Concupiscence

For 'enticed' in Greek is deleazomenos, that is, baited, taken with bait, smoothed and deceived by enticements; just as fish and birds are caught with bait, and as Esau, enticed by the bait of lentils, sold his birthright, Gen. XXV, 30; and as Eve and Adam, enticed by the beauty of the apple, ate it against God's command, and therefore incurred death. Moreover, when one concupiscence is overcome, another succeeds and tempts us, so that we must always be vigilant and fight against it. Truly St. Cyprian, sermon On Work and Almsgiving: " The mind of man, he says, besieged and surrounded on every side by the infestation of the devil, scarcely meets each one, scarcely resists. If avarice is prostrated, lust rises up. " Excellently St. Gregory Nazianzen, in the Tetrastichs:

Why do we always turn the blame upon the enemy, When our own crimes themselves furnish his strength? Blame thyself altogether, or at least more. For the fire is thine, but the flame is the demon's.

Note: Concupiscence tempts us, first, as Eve tempted Adam, and drew him away from God's law and enticed him to eat the forbidden fruit. For concupiscence is, as it were, an Eve which we bear internally, intimately cohering with us in flesh and soul. Whence as the devil through Eve deceived Adam and enticed him to sin; so the same through concupiscence deceives and entices us, as St. Augustine says on Psalm XLVIII.

Secondly, as a fever tempts one burning with fever, draw-

and draws and entices it to drink water harmful to itself, and presently lethal. For concupiscence is, as it were, a fever, an unnatural heat and burning of the soul. For, as St. Ambrose says, book IV on Luke, ch. IV: " Our flesh languishes with various fevers of crimes, and burns with the immoderate ardors of diverse lusts. Nor would I say the fever of love is less than that of heat. Therefore that one inflames the soul, this one the body. For our fever is avarice, our fever is lust, because the lusts are fiery. Our fever is ambition, our fever is wrath. Which though they are vices of the body, yet they involve fire in the bones, and thoroughly try the mind, the soul, and the senses. "

Third, as a fox tied to a dog tempts it, and draws it along with itself and entices it to attack and devour a hen passing by. For concupiscence is, as it were, a fox, which entices and deceives the reason and will of man with the appearance of delectable good, so as to draw it away from honorable good to wish for and love a concupiscible and illicit good.

Fourth, as a procuress tempts a husband and draws him from his wife to fornicate with her: so also concupiscence draws the soul away from God her spouse, that she may delight in created goods. Concupiscence therefore is the procuress of vices, says St. Ambrose in the place already cited: for it is like a procuring woman, whom the Wise Man graphically describes in Proverbs VII, 6, and IX, 13. Whence in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, ch. On Fornication, num. 23, we read that carnal concupiscence appeared to a certain man in the form of an Ethiopian woman, so foul and stinking, that he could not bear her stench.

Fifth, concupiscence is like the itch and pruritus, which if you scratch, you will feel a tickling, but soon pain. Whence the emblem:

Beware to defile your skin with sharpened nails: In place of honey, burning pepper soon will answer you; Pain is the constant companion of itching. Cupid holds the same bittersweet (glykypikros) force, Offering a gall-bitter cup in place of honey.

e.g., you indulged gluttony and got drunk, soon you will feel in the body pains of the head, stomach, nerves, etc.; but in the soul the worm of conscience, offense against God, the guilt of Gehenna, and Gehenna itself.

Note first: Concupiscence is the intrinsic cause of temptation and sin: but the extrinsic causes are the demon and the world, namely depraved companions, kin, friends, etc. But these extrinsic causes tempt through the intrinsic, namely by stirring up concupiscence with the proposition of a delectable good, so that it may snatch the will along with itself toward that good. Whence by St. Ephrem, tom. II, Paranesis 50: " Concupiscence is called the seed of the devil, the wound of the soul, the striking of the heart, the tree of malice, the viper. " The same is called by Gerson, tract II On the Knowledge of Sin, consideration 25, " the messenger of the devil " seeking our consent. For without concupiscence this messenger is feeble and powerless; as one in vain raises a blast with the bellows in wood, unless there is a fire underneath which, excited by this blast, may kindle the wood, says Thomas Anglicus.

Furthermore, sin has various causes intrinsic to us, namely the will, the intellect, passion, imagination, depraved habit, ignorance, and the act of another sin. For first, the will is the cause that immediately elicits the act of sin and receives it into itself. Second, the intellect is the cause of sin as proposing or counseling the will to embrace the sensible good, leaving the honorable, and as not considering the rule of divine law, which forbids this good to be loved. Third, imagination and passion are the cause of the same as vividly representing to the will the beauty of the sensible good. Fourth, depraved habit is the cause, as immediately inclining toward the act of sin. Fifth, ignorance is the cause, as concealing the malice of sin. Sixth, the act of another sin is the cause of sin in four ways: first, by removing grace, through which man resisted sin; second, by inclining to similar acts; third, by furnishing matter for another sin: thus gluttony is the cause of lust, pride of quarrels, avarice of thefts; fourth, as an end, as when one out of intention of one sin chooses another sin as a means: thus ambition is the cause of simony, and revelry is the cause of thefts.

Seventh, the proper and most powerful cause of temptation, and consequently of sin, is concupiscence. For this moves and solicits the will, the intellect, the imagination, to consent with itself to sin; the same begets passion, depraved habit, inconsideration and ignorance, and these things conceal and veil the malice of sin. Wherefore concupiscence is rightly called the tinder, origin, seedbed of sin, and by Paul Rom. VII, 23, the law of the members fighting against the law of the mind.

Note second, that concupiscence is not some depraved substance produced by the devil, which stirs up depraved motions of the sensitive appetite and as it were exhales them, as a marsh exhales fetid vapors; as Illyricus opined, but foolishly. For no substance can be evil in itself, nor be produced by the devil, nor be sin; for sin is an accident, namely a free act of the will. The same was the heresy of the Manichaeans, who, as St. Augustine attests, book On Heresies, thought there were two souls in man, one good from the good God, the other evil produced by the devil, and that this was concupiscence, the source of every evil in man. To this belongs the insane error of the heretical Paternianists and Venustianists, who, as St. Augustine says, book V Against Julian, ch. V: Say that from the loins down to the feet the devil made the body of man, but the upper parts God placed as upon some base; and they add that nothing is required of man's effort, except that the soul, which they say dwells in the stomach and head, be kept clean. But the lower parts, if they be smeared with the filth of all crimes, they say it pertains to

not pertain to their concern. So always, in order that they may basely serve their lust, they affix to it the title of its own authority. " Again, concupiscence is not original sin itself: for that having been condoned and abolished by baptism, concupiscence itself nevertheless remains in the just man, as daily experience shows. Finally, concupiscence is not a depraved quality begotten from original sin, which is, as it were, a furnace perpetually exhaling sparks of sins, as Calvin holds, book II of the Institutes, ch. 1, §§ 8, 9, 10, 11; and the Master of the Sentences favors this in book II, dist. XXXI, §§ 2 and 3, where he says original sin is a certain morbid quality existing in the soul, which perpetually excites depraved desires. Gregory of Rimini in II, dist. XXX, q. 1, adds that this quality in the soul arises from another morbid quality, which is in the seed of the parents. For the seed by this quality infects the body, and the body infects the soul: moreover the seed has been infected by the breath of the serpent. But these things are frivolous, and repugnant to true Philosophy and Theology. Whence

Note third: Concupiscence in reality is nothing other than the sensitive appetite itself, and its natural inclination to sensible goods which are contrary to reason and to the law of God, and therefore illicit and forbidden, insofar as this appetite, on account of original sin, has been deprived of original justice. For, if man had been created in the state of pure nature, he would have been such as he now is, and would have had similar motions of appetite as he now has; but those motions then would not have been called concupiscences, because they would have been natural to him, nor a penalty of sin: but now they are called concupiscences, because they are the penalty of original sin. For God did not wish to create man in the state of pure nature, lest he be imperfect and miserable; but He created him in the state of integral nature, namely by adding to him grace and original justice, which restrained all motions of appetite and subjected them to right reason, so that they could not anticipate it nor resist it. But, when Adam sinned, God removed this grace and original justice from him and all his posterity as a penalty of sin, and therefore left him to himself as regards appetites and powers in the state of pure nature: whence it comes that the sensible appetite is borne toward sensible goods beyond reason, and beyond the dictate of reason and will, and snatches both along with itself toward its goods: and so the flesh lusts against the spirit. Therefore it is now called concupiscence, because it has arisen from original sin. Wherefore concupiscence is nothing other than the very natural inclination of appetite, insofar as through the absence of original justice it is proximately disposed to be borne beyond, or against, the order of reason into its delectable objects: whence it bespeaks a relation to sin, as to its cause.

For which cause St. Augustine calls concupiscence a morbid affection and an affectional quality, because the very inclination of appetite is a certain quality lacking due order, from the privation of original justice, yet not as something mingled and transfused into the seed, as Arminius used to say. Whence book VI Against Julian, ch. VII, he says concupiscence is like a bad state of health: but a bad state of health adds nothing to the humors except the privation of due commensuration. That St. Augustine did not wish concupiscence to be any positive quality superadded to the powers of the soul, namely to the lower appetite and to the will, but the very natural inclination lacking the order of reason which original justice was producing as it were habitually, is plain from various passages of his, in which he assigns no other cause of concupiscence than the absence of original justice, as book I On Mortal Sin, ch. XVI; book IV Against Julian, last chapter; book XIII On the City, ch. XIII. The same is plain from this, that St. Augustine, book IV Against Julian, ch. V, and book II On Original Sin, ch. XL, and elsewhere teaches that what in man is a vice, in beasts is nature — he speaks of concupiscence. But concupiscence in beasts is not something distinct superadded to the natural appetite: therefore neither in man. The reason is, that the sensitive appetite by its nature is prone to those things which are delectable to the flesh: for it is moved by the apprehension of the delectable thing. Whence no superadded quality is required to incline it to this, but only the absence of original justice, which restrained it, made it upright, and conformed to reason as it were in first act. Therefore the very inclination of appetite, deprived of that order and conformity to right reason, which conformity original justice was producing in it, is called a morbid quality, decay, languor, etc. So Medina, I II, Q. LXXXII, art. 1 and 3, and at length Bellarmine, book V On the Loss of Grace, ch. XV. Hence

Fourth, it follows that concupiscence is not from God, inasmuch as He created nature integral and perfect; but from sin and the devil, who was the author of sin. This is what St. James here teaches, namely that the temptation of sin is not from God, but from concupiscence. And this is what Christ says in the parable of the man falling among robbers, that he was wounded and stripped by them, Luke X, 38 [recte 30]; for, as the Gloss says there: " Adam by sinning was stripped of gratuitous gifts, and wounded in natural things. " For when he was deprived of original justice, he necessarily received a wound in nature, inasmuch as original justice was integrating it. For God first created the powers of man inclined to their object, and consequently the sensitive appetite to seek sensible objects, as objects proportioned and suited to it: and besides He added grace, which would subordinate it and the other powers to right reason: of which when man was stripped through sin, he relapsed into his disorder and concupiscence.

Fifth, concupiscence is not only in the sensitive appetite, although it appears more in it, but also in the intellect and will, insofar as into sensible

things and the conveniences of nature they are borne and inclined, which fight against honorable good and right reason. And so intellect and will in man is virtually as it were twofold. For there is in it a superior part, which gazes upon the honorable, God, and heaven; and an inferior part, which looks to earthly and perishable goods. Therefore the concupiscence of the intellect is curiosity, vanity, puffed-up pride. The concupiscence of the will is desire of honor, glory, riches, delights. Wherefore the will here struggles with itself and fights, while, as the Apostle says, the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. This twofold will Christ felt in Himself and expressed praying in the garden: " Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done, " Luke XXII, 42. For the inferior part of Christ's will desired life, dreaded the death decreed by the Father: but the superior part of the same was clearly conformed to the will and decree of the Father, desiring and seeking death: whence according to it Christ was heard, and the same did not wish the desire and appetite of the inferior part deprecating death to be heard, as St. Athanasius learnedly noted, tract On the Cross and Passion.

From what has been said, it is plain that concupiscence is an immoderate force of desiring, both in the will, and more in the sensitive appetite. For man is, as it were, a composite forged from angel and beast, and as it were a participation of both, indeed a nexus and union. For the rational soul is the lowest in the genus of spiritual creatures, and therefore most near to the sensitive soul of animals, and as it were degenerates into it: for it joins in itself reason, which angels have, and sense, which beasts have; but in such a way that it inclines more to sense than to reason: whence it has more of the beast than of the angel. Wherefore St. Bernard prudently warns in sermon 5 on the Ascension: " Let us order, he says, and guard in ourselves the state of both substances, lest the lower part hurl down the soul, the nobler portion of man, into Tartarus, but rather acquire with itself the body sanctified for heaven. " For, as Clement of Alexandria says, book IV Stromata, " man seems composed from a Centaur (and so to be a Centaur), namely from one participating in reason and one without reason, namely soul and body: the body tends to the earth, the soul is lifted up to God. " For the poets feigned Centaurs to be forged from a man and a horse, or bull, so that a horseman with his horse was a Centaur, as I said at Isaiah 34, 14.

Verse 15: Concupiscence, When It Has Conceived, Brings Forth Sin

Cassian, Conference V, ch. IV, reads: " Concupiscence when it has been conceived (namely in the will) brings forth sin. " Bede and theologians everywhere from this passage distinguish three degrees of temptation, namely suggestion, delight, and consent; for suggestion is when concupiscence in itself, and as it were in its own womb, conceives and excites these depraved motions of concupiscence. Such is the titillation of gluttony, lust, anger, pride, etc., before reason takes notice of them: whence these motions are called first-firsts (primo primi) and undeliberate, in which therefore there is no sin, but only the conception of material sin, which brings forth formal sin, namely delight, by which reason and will begin to be delighted by the enticements of concupiscence and sin; in which if it cling and consent fully aware, it will be the consent and consummation of sin.

St. James therefore says: When concupiscence draws in delectable goods, as it were an evil seed through the eyes, ears, or fantasy, suggested either by the demon or from elsewhere, it conceives sin from it, namely when from the free will, as a father, it as a mother elicits and shapes some consent, e.g. half-full, as offspring. Whence St. Augustine, homily 42 of 50, ch. VIII: " Do not, he says, consent to your concupiscence. Whence is it to conceive, unless from you? Have you consented? You have as it were lain with it in your heart. Has concupiscence arisen? Deny yourself to it: do not follow it: when concupiscence has conceived, it brings forth sin, etc. Therefore lest you be drawn away by your concupiscence, deny yourself to it, do not follow it: it is illicit, it is lascivious, it is base, it alienates you from God. Do not give the embrace of consent, lest you mourn the offspring: for if you consent, if you embrace it, you conceive. "

Note: The conception of sin happens through a strong imagination of the concupiscible thing, which the sensitive appetite, or concupiscence, excites. For this imagination represents the concupiscible thing and its beauty vividly to reason and will, and shows it how sweet and delectable it is, and makes it be thought of again and again, looked at, turned over and over in the mind: which repetition and revolving of thoughts brings forth delight in the thing, not only in the sensitive appetite itself, but also in the rational, namely in the will, because both are in the same soul; whence reason and will begin to be affected by them; but imperfectly, because it does not yet fully notice that this is a grave evil, which gravely offends God. Therefore he sins venially out of indeliberation; then proceeding in this thought and delight of the concupiscible thing, fully noticing its malice, conquered by delight, he gives it his hand and consents to it, and then there is consummated and mortal sin. But this conception of sin is only material, so long as it cleaves only in the imagination and sensitive appetite: but as soon as it allures reason and will to itself, it is the conception of formal sin, at least venial.

Wherefore John Alba, Electorum, ch. XCV: Concupiscence, he says, conceives sin when it thinks of it: for the concept of fantasy and mind is its very thought. For concupiscence first tempts by suggesting enticements to man. Then man, thus tempted, conceives, that is, thinks of and turns over in mind that to which he is invited by concupiscence, now thinking of embracing it, now thinking of refusing it, and so struggles with himself and wavers in mind, and sins with half-full consent, and at last conquered

by the appetite of enticements deliberately consents to them, and consummates sin with the full consent of the will.

Therefore whoever wishes to conquer and escape the temptations of concupiscence, let him restrain his imagination, and violently turn it away from concupiscible goods, and occupy it with good and holy things, and especially apply it to the reading and study of Holy Scripture, the Fathers, the lives of the Saints, histories, Theology, Philosophy, etc. " Love the knowledge of the Scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh, " says St. Jerome. Even Seneca the Elder, who was the father of Seneca the philosopher, the teacher of Nero — for that this work is by the father is plain from the title, and Lipsius teaches it in Controv.: " The wise man (my son Mela), he says, desires this one thing, to desire nothing. "

Hence it is plain first, that the motions of concupiscence which precede reason, and are therefore wholly involuntary, are no sins. First, because St. James lays down the progression by which one comes from temptation to sin, namely first, he places the very enticement of concupiscence before any sin, which is the temptation itself, when he says: " But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence; " which is plain not to be sin, because a little before he said that he who endures temptation is blessed, that is, who suffers it unwillingly, because such temptation is not the tinder of sin, but the matter of merit. Then he sets the birth, namely some sin, e.g. venial; such as the delight preceding full deliberation. Third, he sets death, or mortal sin, namely when full consent is added.

Excellently St. Augustine, book V Against Julian: " Surely, he says, in these words (of James) the offspring is distinguished from the one giving birth. For the one bearing is concupiscence, the offspring is sin: but concupiscence does not give birth unless it has conceived: it does not conceive unless it has enticed, that is, has obtained the assent of the will to perpetrate evil. " The same, book I Against Two Epistles of the Pelagians, ch. X: " There is therefore no damnation for those who are in Christ Jesus: for none is damned, except he who consents to the concupiscence of the flesh. "

Second, because these motions are not in our power, so that we may avert or avoid them: for it is not in our power by what sights we are touched. But sin is in our power, namely voluntary, so that, if it be not voluntary, it is not sin, as St. Augustine teaches, book I Retract. ch. XIII, and book XXII Against Faustus, ch. XXVII. Whence these motions are found even in the justified and the saints, as the Apostle teaches Rom. 7, in whom there is nothing of damnation, as the same says ch. VIII, 1.

Third, because Philosophers and Theologians, and experience itself teach that such acts are not human, that is, free, which proceed from reason taking notice and will consenting; but are acts of imagination and the sensitive appetite. Whence St. Paul, although a saint, yet feeling in himself these motions, said Rom. VII, 20: " If I do that which I will not, it is now no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me, " as if to say: If I lust with my will resisting, I am not held to do this: for I consent to the law of God: but concupiscence, which anticipates my reason and liberty. Since therefore these acts are not human, they cannot be imputed to man for fault and punishment.

Fourth, the Council of Trent teaches this, sess. V: " That concupiscence, or the tinder, remains in the baptized, this Holy Synod admits and holds; which since it is left for the conflict, cannot harm those who do not consent, but who manfully resist by the grace of Jesus Christ, but rather, he who shall lawfully strive shall be crowned. This concupiscence, which the Apostle sometimes calls sin, the Holy Synod declares that the Catholic Church has never understood to be called sin, which truly and properly is sin in the regenerate, but because it is from sin, and inclines to sin. But if anyone shall hold the contrary, let him be anathema. " Hence St. Basil, On the Constitution of Monasteries, ch. II, asserts that all affections of the flesh are natural, nor is there sin in them, unless they proceed from the negligence of the soul. Just as if a wanton horse, he says, throws its rider, the fault is not of the horse, since it does not use reason, but of the unskilled and incautious rider: so if a man is dragged into sin through concupiscence, the fault is not of the flesh, but of the spirit. And St. Chrysostom, homily 19 To the People: " To desire, he says, is natural, but to desire wrongly is now of the will. " And St. Prosper, book II On the Contemplative Life, ch. III, treating of the stings of the flesh: " We err, he says, not by having these affections, but by using them ill. " And book III, ch. IV: " I cannot perpetrate sin, unless I consent to evil delight. " St. Gregory, book XXI Mor., ch. III: " An unclean thought, he says, in no way pollutes the mind when it knocks, but when it subjugates the mind to itself through delight. " St. Cyril, book IV on John, ch. LI: " If a certain pleasure precedes every sin, and a fervent desire is wont to entice to sins, which sits in wait before the act of sin, and snatches the consent of the mind, persuading us that it is easy to come this way to that for which we are inflamed. Which the disciple of Christ shows to be true, saying: Every man is tempted, being drawn away and enticed by his own concupiscence. "

From what has been said, it is plain that Cajetan errs, in his Commentaries on St. Thomas, in the place soon to be cited, who held that the motions of concupiscence in the sensitive appetite of themselves, and without any consent of the will, are venial sins. His reason is that the inferior appetite has some liberty of itself, as St. Thomas indicates I II, Q. LXXIV, art. 2, ad 3, and art. 3, ad 1. Whence it is commonly said, " the appetite is moved politically by reason, but the members despotically. " But here too is error. For all liberty is in the will, and from the will, as the School of Philosophers and Theologians teaches; nor does St. Thomas dissent, as is plain there art. 1 and 2, ad 1, where he expressly teaches from St. Augustine that we sin only by the will. Therefore what

first every affection, then it stirs itself up, and prepares its strength as it advances; it is more easily shut out than expelled." And Plutarch, in his book On the Progress of Virtue, assigns this as a clear sign of progress: "If one making progress no longer thinks any sin trivial, but zealously avoids and watches against everything." And St. Chrysostom, in homily 22 To the People, says: "Pleasure is like a dog: if you drive it away, it flees; if you feed it, it stays." The same author, in sermon 3 on the words of Isaiah, I saw the Lord, says: As a stag pierced by a javelin in a vital part of its body, even if it escapes the hunters' hands, gains nothing thereby; so also the soul, having received the javelin of concupiscence, if it is allowed to depart with it, is corrupted by itself and perishes. St. Jerome, in his letter to Eustochium on the custody of virginity, just after the beginning, says excellently: "As soon as lust has tickled the senses, or the gentle fire of pleasure has filled us with sweet warmth, let us burst forth in words: The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what flesh may do to me. And when the inward man begins to waver a little between vices and virtues, say: Why are you sad, my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I shall yet confess to Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God. I will not let you allow the thought to grow: let nothing Babylonian, nothing of confusion grow up in you. While the enemy is small, kill him; let wickedness, lest the tares grow, be crushed in the seed. Hear the Psalmist: O wretched daughter of Babylon, etc., blessed is he who shall take and dash your little ones against the rock; for since it is impossible that the innate heat of the marrow should not rush upon the senses of man, he is praised, he is proclaimed blessed who, as soon as he begins to think filthy thoughts, immediately kills the thoughts and dashes them against the rock; and the rock is Christ." He adds an example from himself: "Oh, how often I myself in the desert thought I was sharing in Roman delights, etc. Therefore, destitute of all help, I lay at the feet of Jesus, watered them with my tears, wiped them with my hair, and subdued the rebellious flesh by weekly fasts. I remember often joining day with night by my cries, nor ceasing from beating my breast until tranquility returned at the Lord's rebuke. After many tears, after my eyes fixed upon heaven, sometimes I seemed to myself to be among the ranks of angels, and joyful and rejoicing I sang: After You we will run in the fragrance of Your ointments."

Truly against all the motions and temptations of concupiscence, there is no more present and effective remedy than prayer, by which, distrusting our own strength, we humbly and ardently implore God's help, saying with the Psalmist: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me;" as Cassian teaches, indeed Christ Himself, saying: "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation," Matthew xxvi, 41. Therefore the demon, knowing this, in order to snatch these weapons from those who are tempted, is wont to cast other thoughts upon them, so that they look to human helps and forget God and prayer. He who is wise, therefore, as soon as he feels the sting of concupiscence, raises his mind to God

He attributes... venial sin to the appetite, mortal sin to the will, and he does this by a certain attribution or appropriation: for since venial sin is imperfectly human and voluntary, and sensuality is its first origin, it is attributed to it; but mortal sin, which requires perfect liberty, is attributed to the will. Furthermore, the lower appetite is said to be moved politically, not that it is free in itself, but because it can in some way resist the will, as a citizen resists the magistrate, at least with an ineffective motion: for though the will resists and is unwilling, it does not cease to desire and lust after sensible and illicit goods.

Morally, St. James here tacitly teaches first that concupiscence must be resisted, says St. Augustine, book I of the City of God xxi, namely that concupiscence is evil and the enticer to sin, and therefore is not to be loved and followed, but supremely hated and mortified by constant struggle against it. For from this it is that everywhere men, as if blind and insane, rush into sins, because they follow concupiscences like brutes, as Adam followed his Eve, according to Psalm xlviii, 21: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he was compared to senseless beasts, and was made like to them." For concupiscence in man is similar to, indeed the same as, that in beasts; for example, in the pig there is the concupiscence of gluttony, in the lion of pride, in the wolf of rapine, in the donkey of sloth. For in man the lower appetite is sensible and vehement; but the rational appetite is spiritual, insensible, and weak: hence it easily lets itself be drawn by the lower appetite, as if by a heavier weight. He therefore who is wise, and bears care for his soul and salvation, let him know that concupiscence, though deeply fixed in the soul, though flattering, though sweet, is a deadly siren, is a deadly enemy, and therefore let him pursue it as an enemy, and wage with it ἄσπονδον πόλεμον, an irreconcilable war. For it is itself a viper, killing its mother — that is, reason and will — by its conception and birth. Hence "wherever we go, we carry the enemy with us," says St. Jerome to Eustochium. Therefore always and everywhere throughout all life we must wrestle with it and fight it sharply: wherefore we must always fix our eyes upon it, lest it secretly insinuate itself into the mind, that is, that we may watch it as an enemy, repel it, and mortify it.

Secondly, he intimates that the first motions of concupiscence must be immediately resisted, and that immediately, so that the faithful man at once turns his mind from them to God, and implores His help to overcome them: for concupiscence creeps in gently, and like a serpent, where it inserts its head, there it draws in all the rest of its body, and entirely glides in. Wherefore this saying here is most true:

Resist beginnings: medicine is prepared too late, when evils have grown strong through long delays.

And that of Seneca, epistle 117: "You will not get them to cease, if you have allowed them to begin: every affection is feeble at

let him lift his mind, and as a suppliant implore His help through the Blessed Virgin, and he will immediately feel her present to him. Furthermore, our Thomas the God-taught describes the order and degrees of temptation excellently, in book I of the Imitation of Christ, chapter xiii: "First, he says, a simple thought comes to mind, then a strong imagination, afterwards delight and an evil motion, and consent, and so the malignant enemy enters bit by bit entirely, while it is not resisted at the beginning. And the longer one is sluggish to resist, the weaker he becomes daily within himself, and the enemy against him stronger."

Thirdly, let each one know himself, namely by what concupiscence he chiefly toils and is beset: for in some the concupiscence of gluttony rules, in others of pride, in others of avarice, in others of sloth. When, therefore, the glutton feels the thought and desire of delicacies, the proud man of honors, the greedy of wealth, the slothful of fear and torpor, let him know that this is his concupiscence, his temptation, his vice, which he must immediately resist with all his strength. A great part of victory is to know that what is suggested is a temptation: for if the scrupulous, slothful, timid, and melancholic knew that the thoughts and motions of fear, anguish, sadness, and pusillanimity, which are frequently suggested to them, are from scrupulosity, sloth, fear, and melancholy, they would immediately turn from them and repel them; but while fear and anxiety strike and cloud the mind, they do not see this and fear lest some true doubt, fear, or sin lie underneath or hidden: therefore they are anguished and tortured. Let them therefore believe their confessors and prudent men, let them believe their own experience, and let them say to themselves: I suffer from excessive fear, anxiety, scrupulosity; this is my disease, this is my evil, this is my vice: I am frequently agitated by its motions: hitherto, having considered the matter, I have experienced and learned that the fears suggested to me are empty and vain: in reality there is nothing to be feared; therefore I will likewise despise this fear as empty and vain. For just as those with hydrophobia, who suffer from fear and melancholy, are afraid of everything safe, lest, for example, the house fall upon them, lest the floor open under them, lest a falling tile strike them, and therefore the doctors say to them: You are wrong, the melancholic humor suggests these things to you; the house does not spin, it stands firm, it will not fall, but your brain spins; you suffer from vertigo and mania of the head; therefore do not believe those suggestions which your fear and mania produce in you: for you see that others do not believe them, indeed laugh at them as vain and futile. So exactly does it happen to the scrupulous, the timid, and the sad, who therefore must resist their apprehensions and anguishes with all their strength, and imitate Christ, who praying in the garden so vigorously resisted the fear and horror of death, that from the struggle and contention He sweat blood, Luke xxii, 44; and therefore He plainly conquered and prostrated this horror. If with similar effort we resisted our fears, we would utterly conquer them.

The same applies to other concupiscences and temptations; for, as St. Ambrose says, book IV on Luke, chapter iv: "The favor of honors, the loftiness of powers, the sweetness of feasts, the form of a harlot is a snare of the devil, and as it were a certain alluring effect of spiritual wickedness, which through the enticement of the flesh — which is quickly softened by a certain feminine gentleness — also casts down the mind from its rank: for the mind does not desire the form of a woman before the eye of the body does. Finally, what you have not seen, you will not love: but when the flesh has lusted, the constancy of the sympathizing mind also fails, and the mind is bent by the partnership of love. For two are in one flesh; and thus death creeps in by the effect of crime, with the devil tempting and the flesh persuading. Yet the fever of the mind is more vehement than that of the body." He gives an example: "Theotimus, suffering from a serious eye ailment and loving his wife, when intercourse was forbidden him by his doctor, impatient of desire and seized by the impulse of lust, said: Farewell, friendly light; thus lust is more fervent than fever, and more grievously casts down and inflames. But when one has come to his senses from the fury, then the sight of inner conscience is opened and repentance for the deed follows, and each one blushes at the shameful things of his own crime." Wherefore wisely St. Methodius in St. Epiphanius, heresy 64, says: "You see, he says, that thoughts, on account of sin dwelling in us, press upon us from outside like rabid dogs, or wild beasts, or bold robbers always incited against us by the tyrant and prince of iniquity, testing us to see whether we can resist them and draw up the battle line against them. Come then, O soul, resist bravely, lest perhaps relenting you be captured." Thus the concupiscence of anger drives men, and compels them to leap up and rage like dogs, sting like scorpions, bite like serpents.

Furthermore, concupiscence is born with us, as St. Augustine teaches in book I of the Confessions, chapter vii, nor does it leave us before death. It is therefore left to us by God as a punishment for sin for the contest, so that by constantly wrestling with it we may drive away laziness, and be vigilant in the service of God, and grow in virtue, victory, and merits, and turning the mind from earthly things, may sigh for heaven, groaning with the Apostle: "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans vii.

Furthermore, how strong, fierce, and indomitable concupiscence is, is clear first in adolescents, who burn with an immense fire of lusts, so that they are almost reduced to insanity. Secondly, in the invention of new enticements of gluttony and obscenity, by which the concupiscence of men far surpasses the concupiscence of beasts, as Plutarch shows in his book That Brutes Use Reason. Thirdly, because Anchorites and all the Saints, in order to tame concupiscence, continually afflicted themselves in marvelous ways with fasts, vigils, hairshirts, sleeping on the ground, spiked things, scourges, etc. Read the Lives of the Fathers, and you will marvel at their austerities and mortifications. Fourthly, the same is clear from the falls of holy, wise, and strong men, in every age and every region. Who was stronger than Samson? who wiser

than Solomon? who holier than David? and yet concupiscence of women laid these low. Indeed Plato, in book III of the Republic, whom Clement of Alexandria cites in book III of the Stromata, asserts that bodily pleasure is opposed to wisdom and is a most cruel mistress, from whom it would be most fortunate to be able to be freed. And Sophocles, according to Cicero in the book On Old Age, says that no more deadly plague has been given to men by nature than bodily pleasure.

Hence the Poets formed Cupid out of concupiscence as a god, son of Venus: for to each one his own dread Desire is a god. They depicted him as a boy, with veiled eyes, winged, armed with bow and arrows, carrying a torch, and naked. From these things learn the conditions and habits of concupiscence. For concupiscence first appears lovable like an elegant boy, and like a boy is changeable, now wanting this, now that; and for this reason this boy is depicted by some as many-headed: for the many heads represent the multitude and variety of alternating desires.

Secondly, the same is blind, because, being imprudent, it does not foresee the harms about to arise from itself, nor does it beware, says Socrates in Xenophon's Symposium. And Plato: "Love, he says, is blind, because lovers are blind in the thing loved." And the interpreter of Theocritus in the tenth Idyll, on another saying of Theocritus — Blind is not only Plutus, but also raving Love — says: "Note, he says, that the ancients called two things blind: Cupid and Plutus: for he who loves is blind: no lover sees what he does; for he loves a deformed woman, who seems to him to be most beautiful;" for love makes the foul appear beautiful.

Thirdly, the same is winged, because it flies most swiftly to the objects desired, indeed swoops down upon them like a hawk or vulture.

Fourthly, the same is quivered, because by the desire of its enticements it wounds the heart of man; which it strikes and occupies.

Fifthly, the same is πυροφόρος (fire-bearing), and carries a lit torch, because it stirs up in the soul the heats and fires of desired things.

Sixthly, the same is naked, because it manifests itself and cannot be hidden:

— For who could hide a fire, which is always betrayed by its own light?

so Alexander of Aphrodisias in his Problems.

Seventhly, there was also in the court of Octavia (as Pliny writes) a Cupid holding a thunderbolt, and a broken one: because love and desire are more powerful than a thunderbolt. Whence the Poet:

The winged god (Cupid) broke the winged thunderbolt with fire, while he shows, as it is, that Love's fire is stronger.

Hence also Themistocles bore on his shield a Cupid holding a thunderbolt, according to Athenagoras, book XII, because he sought to subjugate everyone to himself more by benevolence than by the sword.

Eighthly, Cupid was surnamed ὀμμάτιος, that is, eyed or watchful, because he strikes through the eyes: for the sight of a beautiful object casts its love into the beholder like an arrow. Whence Plotinus: ἔρως, he says, that is love, is so called as it were ὅρασις, that is sight and vision. For, as Propertius says:

If you do not know it, the eyes are the guides in love.

Ninthly, Cupid is called by Plato a tyrant, because he rages against noble and heavenly souls and exercises tyranny, dragging them down to earthly and sordid things; whence Euripides:

And You, O Cupid, tyrant of gods and men.

Indeed Proclus in his commentary on Plato's Sophist calls Cupid a magician, because he enchants souls like magicians, and not rarely arouses love of himself by magical arts.

Tenthly, Love has been called the god Harpys, from rapacity. The fables also relate that Erinys the Fury was loved by Love, in order to signify the impotence and impetus of those loving madly and ruinously.

Eleventhly, Cupid has been called πανδαμάτωρ, that is, conqueror of all, whence this is his saying:

My darts shatter, pierce, and burn the thunderbolt; thence indeed I have the name πανδαμάτωρ: for love conquers all.

Twelfthly, this Cupid and earthly love must be overcome and slain by the heavenly: namely through Anteros, about whom Alciati writes in his Emblems:

Nemesis painted a winged one, the winged enemy of Love, taming bow with bow, and fires with fire, and that as he did to others, this boy too may suffer one day. Bearing weapons fearlessly, the wretch weeps. He spits three times, and in his deepest bosom (a marvelous thing) Fire is consumed by Fire; Love hates the furies of Love.

These things from Giraldus, On the Gods of the Gentiles, syntagma 13. Hence St. Basil in his Monastic Constitutions, chapter iii: "The affections of the body, he says, are violent then, when reason ceases: but with reason moderating them and exercising its authority, they most easily obey." Therefore reason, ever vigilant, tames and rules them, just as a watchful charioteer rules horses: for if he sleeps, the horses will go astray. The same to Chilon: Conquer one pleasure, lest, if all together, they all rise in troops against you when irritated, and bring upon your mind a turbulent storm of temptations. Lay down the body to the exercise of labors, accustom the soul to bearing temptations with equanimity.

Finally, in order to signify the efficacy of Cupid and of Love, and the lightning-like blow, they painted an emblem in which, in place of thundering Jove, an adorned Cupid hurls a thunderbolt into the sea, while Neptune, having laid aside his trident and bent on his knees, reveres the divinity of Love; for thus he sings:

The Sun glows with my fire, Neptune is ablaze in the waves: though he was free, I made the Thunderer serve. Though he was free, I subdued Mars without war.

And another:

Love governs God, every kingdom belongs to Love, Love triumphs over God,

says St. Bernard. For indeed love and φιλανθρωπία (love of mankind) conquered and bound God, so that He descended into flesh, death, and the cross for men so much loved. This is our holy Cupid, from whose fount of passion if we draw water — indeed, blood — He will extinguish all the torches of impure Cupid; just as Mutianus, in Pliny, book XXXI, chapter II, writes that there is at Cyzicus a fount called the Fount of Cupid, because those who drink from it lay aside love and desire. See St. Augustine in his book On Continence, and sermon 45 On Time, where among other things he teaches that concupiscence is increased by yielding and diminished by resisting. "It fights, he says, fight back: do not satisfy it by yielding, but kill it by resisting; if you do not consent to it, it will be less and less daily, for its strength is your submission: for if you yield, you give it strength." And further on: "Therefore custom must always be resisted, because that very concupiscence with which we are born cannot be ended as long as we live. Daily it can be lessened, but it cannot be ended, etc. And the whole life of the Saints is in this battle." Wherefore wisely St. Bernard, sermon 56 on the Canticle: "Take care, he says, to resist concupiscence with all your might, that it may not draw you into consent, and the whole machine of malignity will thereafter vanish; nor is there at all anything that prevents the Spouse from approaching you, except the wall of the body alone;" this is done by circumcision not of the flesh but of the heart, of which Jeremiah, chapter iv, verse 4: "Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem," that is, of the vision of peace, which this circumcision and mortification produce.

Furthermore, the vehement assaults of concupiscence and the demon, when it injects alluring fantasies from sight, hearing, or memory of past things — difficult for the imagination to disentangle and through it for the mind — like certain fiery darts, must be parried and eluded by a more vehement and agile rebound of the imagination and mind, with greater effort, I say, and by applying the soul to other objects; and, as St. Basil says in his Monastic Constitutions, chapter xviii: "We must imitate the practice of skilled athletes, who, by the highest attention of mind and by the agility and swiftness of body, elude the grasps of their adversaries; and the escape from every battle, and the deflection of weapons, must be committed to prayer and to the imploring of divine help. For Paul commanded us this when he said: In all things taking the shield of faith, with which you may extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one." And shortly after: "But if through the impudence of the adversary the force of such shameful thoughts rises more vehemently, not even thus must we succumb, nor must the spirit be cast down, nor the contests already undertaken be left half-finished: but we must endure obstinately so far, until God, having seen our constancy, may shine upon us with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and illumine us — which both drives the ambusher into flight, and makes our mind pure, and fills it with divine light, and supplies leisure to our reason, established in most peaceful tranquility, for worshipping God."

This was experienced by St. Job, St. Anthony, St. Athanasius, St. Hilarion, and the rest of the Saints, who constantly resisted all temptations, even to the last breath of life; and therefore with Habakkuk, chapter iii, verse 18, as victors they sang: "But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet as the feet of harts, and over my high places He will lead me as victor singing in psalms." For harts, however many nets and snares there be, leap them over continually with huge bounds, until they escape to safety: thus also we must do in every temptation.

The same St. Basil, in his book On Holy Virginity, wisely warns the virgin to beware of the company of men, even spiritual men; because by their sight concupiscence is aroused, so that at length spiritual love degenerates into earthly, and charity becomes carnality. "For nearby, he says, and as it were by contiguous doors, the Gentiles also say that vices stand to virtues. Every door of virtue, finally, opens on either side a most similar appearance leading to vice, so that one who strives to enter virtue, standing first at its door, while he thinks he is knocking on this one, the other door of the vices being opened to him from this side or that, deceived by the great similarity, enters as if into the house of virtue, while everyone laughs at his error." So often, to those knocking at the door of divine love, the love of the world opens a door near to it; so that the one knocking turns aside to the love of the world, thinking he is turning aside to the love of God. "In this manner, deceiving those who would dare to be eager for virtue, he proves them rash; and those who fear the reproaches of rashness, he reveals as timid and pusillanimous. And those who would zealously be merciful, he wickedly softens to vices; but those who refuse to be merciful, he declares unkind and inhuman: so also those who follow the beauty of charity, by the false name of love he either casts down to bodily pleasures and a life detestable to all, or, as they fear its reproaches and disgraces, he makes them hate brothers, and persist without any sense of good. Therefore turn not aside to the right or to the left, lest perhaps, seduced by error, you fall into some of the gates of the vices, but walk in the middle and royal way of virtue." Thus St. Basil.

BUT SIN, WHEN IT HAS BEEN CONSUMMATED, BEGETS DEATH. — For here, as I said above, there is a triple degree and order of temptation and sin. The first is suggestion, or the thought of an evil thing, in which there is generally no sin, because often it is sent and stirred up by the demon without our fault.

The second is delectation, namely when the will neglects to repress it, or consents imperfectly: and in this is venial sin. The third is deliberate consent, in which there is mortal sin, if the matter is grave and forbidden under grave obligation. Hence St. Isidore, in book II On the Highest Good, chapter xxiii: "By these tinder-pieces, he says, as by certain steps, every sin grows strong: suggestion produces delight, delight produces consent, consent produces action, action produces custom, custom produces necessity."

Here note that sin is consummated in two ways. First, when the will interiorly, deliberately, and fully consents to it; this begets the death of the soul, because by mortal sin the soul is deprived of grace, as it were of its life, and so spiritually dies, and becomes guilty of eternal death. St. Augustine, in homily 42 of the 50, took this passage in this sense, as did Bellarmine and many others. Hence Nazianzen, oration 19, says there is only one true death, namely sin, because it is itself the destruction of the soul. And St. Augustine, book III On the City of God, chapter xi: "The death of the soul, he says, occurs when God deserts it; as that of the body, when the soul deserts it."

Secondly, when the will clings to it and endures in it until the end of life; for then it is fully consummated, and begets eternal death in Gehenna, to which it immediately consigns the soul; for although the soul lives there, yet it is called death, because, as St. Augustine says in book VI On the City of God, last chapter: "If the soul lives in eternal punishments, that is rather to be called death than life: for there is no greater and worse death than where death does not die," according to that saying of the Poet:

An immortal evil, destructible by no death.

St. James also looked to this, because he opposes this death of those sinning, who are overcome by temptation, to the crown of life which the patient, who overcome temptations and persevere constant in this victory until death, immediately obtain in heaven after death, as he said in verse 12. This is the second and eternal death, of which the former is, as it were, the conception and inchoation. Theodore Studites, sermon 413, takes this passage in this sense; St. Fulgentius, book I to Monimus, chapter v, Lorinus, and others.

Sin therefore is consummated, first, by full and deliberate internal consent to it. Secondly, and more so, when this consent is consummated by external action — for example, when one actually perpetrates the murder designed in the mind. Thirdly, when one establishes oneself in it, or repeats it, in order to introduce a habit; and Thomas Anglicus thinks St. James here speaks of this. Fourthly, when one dies in it and passes to eternal death: for death is the consummation and end of life and of all things. Hence Christ also, dying for sin on the cross, said: "It is consummated" — as if to say: By this consummation and death of My holocaust, ransom, obedience, and patience, I make satisfaction and abolish sin and its consummation, which consists in death. St. James opposes concupiscence to patience in this, that, just as patience has a perfect work, so the perfection and consummation of concupiscence is death itself.

BEGETS DEATH. — Note here the remarkable metaphor taken from human generation, by which the generation and lineage of sin is described: for the mother of sin is concupiscence, the father is the free will; the seed of the mother is suggestion and titillation, or the pleasure that concupiscence introduces and excites; the seed of the father is the consent of the will itself, as it is in the making. The offspring is consent itself, as considered as actually completed; for this is sin itself. This offspring is, first, imperfect, like an embryo and incomplete fetus: such is half-full consent, or venial sin from indeliberation. Second, it is offspring fully formed and perfect: such is full consent, or deliberate mortal sin. For St. James does not deal directly here with sins which are venial only from the object and lightness of matter. The grandson of sin is the external act, e.g., the murder itself. The great-grandson is the habit of sinning. The great-great-grandson is death in sin. The great-great-great-grandson is the death of eternal Gehenna. Behold how evil and miserable a brood, sown as if from a great-great-great-grandfather, springs up from sin. Wherefore St. Augustine truly says, book V Against Julian, chapter III: "The concupiscence of the flesh, against which the good spirit lusts, is sin, because there is in it disobedience against the rule of the mind; and it is the punishment of sin, because it has been rendered to the merits of the disobedient; and it is the cause of sin, by the defection of the one consenting, or by the contagion of the one being born."

Contrary is the generation and lineage of a good work and of virtue. For its mother is the will, the father is the grace of God, the seed is holy thoughts and inspirations. For the will, allured by their sweetness, through the grace of God brings forth a good work — for example, repentance and an efficacious resolution of changing one's life — as a spiritual offspring, according to that saying of Isaiah chapter xxvi, verse 18: "From Your fear we have conceived and brought forth the spirit of salvation," as St. Augustine reads from the Septuagint, sermon 20 On the Words of the Lord. The grandson is the execution of the resolution itself and the change of life. The great-grandson is perseverance and progress in this good resolution. The great-great-grandson is death in it. The great-great-great-grandson is the crown of life and eternal glory. This therefore is the generation of God and of His sons, which the devil, like an ape, through the mediation of concupiscence, busies himself to imitate, indeed to overturn and kill, as he killed Adam through Eve.

Wisely St. Augustine, homily 42 of the 50: "Or fear death, he says, if you do not fear sin: for sin, when it is consummated, begets death. You do not yet fear sin: fear that to which sin leads. Sweet is sin, but bitter is death. This is the unhappiness of men; that for which they sin while dying, they here leave behind, and the sin itself

they bear with them. Do you sin for the sake of money, a country house, a woman? these must be left behind, when you have closed your eyes in death, and the sin itself which you commit, you carry with you, that it may burn you for all eternity." For concupiscences are bellows and tinder of Gehenna, according to that saying of Isaiah l, 11: "Behold all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled. This is done to you by My hand: you shall sleep in sorrows." Thus the Israelites, murmuring and lusting after flesh, were punished by God with death, and were buried in the sepulchres of concupiscence, Numbers xi, 33. More and more recent examples of this matter Blessed Peter Damian recounts in book VII, epistle 19 to Countess Blanche. "The tribute of desire, then, is calamity," and death itself, according to Isaiah xxv, 11: "Beneath you the moth shall be strewn, and your covering shall be worms." When therefore you are tempted by concupiscence, think of death, think of moths, think of worms and toads, which will feed on your flesh; and they will delight in it the more, the more delicately you have nourished and fattened it." But these are slight, and only preludes to eternal death and the fire of Gehenna, of which Isaiah xxxiii, 14: "Who among you shall be able to dwell with the devouring fire? Who among you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"

Verse 16: Do Not Err, My Dearly Beloved Brethren

16. Do not therefore err, brethren — Μὴ πλανᾶσθε, that is, do not allow yourselves to be led and drawn into error by Simon Magus, heretics, or philosophers, namely so that, when you are tempted, you say with Simon that you are tempted by God: that God is the author of all evils as well as goods; or so that you say that wisdom and patience are to be acquired by your own talent and strength, and not to be asked from God, as I taught at verse 5: for the whole disputation of James thus far has been about patience and concupiscence, namely he taught that patience, in which Christian wisdom consists, must be sought from God, that we may overcome concupiscence: for God is the author of every good and of no evil, of every virtue and of no concupiscence. Hence, prostrating all these errors with one statement and axiom, as with a deadly dart, he adds: "Every best gift, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." For it is of equal error and impiety either with Simon to ascribe any evil to God, or with the Philosophers and Pelagians to take away any good from Him. For impious and atheistic is that saying of the Philosopher about Jupiter, that is, God:

Let Him give life, let Him give wealth; I will fashion an even mind for myself.

On the contrary, it is great wisdom to know and to understand practically this truth, that we have from ourselves no good, no wisdom, no virtue; but to receive all this with humble acknowledgment and thanksgiving from God who gives it. St. Francis was wise to this; his meditation and prayer through whole nights was this one: "Who am I, O Lord, who are You? I am an abyss of nothingness, of ignorance, of misery, of malice: You are an abyss of all essence, of wisdom, of happiness, and of goodness. The abyss of my poverty therefore calls upon Your abyss of abundance." So also Christ gave these two lessons to St. Catherine of Siena: "Think what you are, who I am. Think of Me, and I will think of you."

Our Peter Canisius, the apostle of Germany, learned this same thing by heavenly illumination: for, as Father Sacchinus writes in his Life, book I, page 257, when he was going to Loreto to venerate the cell of the Mother of God, "at Ancona, in the temple, God opened the eyes of his mind and poured forth from heaven a new light, vast, faithful, the head and font of great praises. This light showed to his interior eye the true and firm foundation of religious life; and at the same time it taught how he ought to commit all his counsels, and all his studies and deeds, to it. The foundation, however, was the intimate knowledge of himself, through which he profoundly grasped his vileness and emptiness — how he himself was nothing, how he neither knew, nor willed, nor could, nor had any good through himself; since the beginnings, middles, and ends of all goods are placed in God alone, and are nowhere else to be located by those using reason, except in God." Canisius celebrated this new and unusual light with great thanksgiving, and as upon a foundation built up all his actions on it, giving glory to God alone: but to himself defect, correction, misery. From this such a mass of building, such a harvest of graces and of souls grew up.

Verse 17: Every Best Gift Is From Above, From the Father of Lights

17. EVERY BEST GIFT — ἀγαθή, that is, good; and this first, simply, as if to say: Every gift that is good is from God who gives: but every evil gift is not from God; but either from the demon, or from concupiscence.

Secondly, "good" here is understood κατ' ἐξοχήν (par excellence) as outstanding and excelling, and best, namely "a perfect gift," as he adds, such as is patience, wisdom, and victory over concupiscence: of which St. James has hitherto been treating; and divine generation and sonship, of which he soon adds, explaining: "For of His own will He has begotten us by the word of truth, that we may be the beginning" — ἀπαρχή, that is the firstfruits — "of His creatures." For this is the perfect gift and best gift, as our Interpreter, looking to this, has rightly and skillfully translated: thus St. Cyril, book IV on John, chapter xxv, and others, refer this gift and donation to wisdom.

This gift "is from above," because it descends from God the Father of lights, who has set the throne of His glory above in the heavens, of whom Moses says in Deuteronomy xxxiii, 27: "The Rider of heaven is your helper; His habitation is above." See what is said there.

Note first: For datum (gift) the Greek is δόσις, that is, donation; but "donum" (gift) in Greek is called δώρημα; as if to say: Not every gift is from God, but the very δόσις or donation of the gift is also. For many give gifts not their own, but others'; or their own, but received from elsewhere; or they do not so much give their own as sell them:

He wants Christians to strive after every perfection of Christianity: as the first Christians of his age were truly striving. For he wants them to excel in extraordinary wisdom and patience, that they may rejoice supremely in temptations, persecutions and martyrdoms. Wherefore Cassian, book II Instit., ch. 10, by "perfect gift" understands the perfection of virtues; and St. Fulgentius, book I, epistle 4, says: "From God flows not only the beginning of every good will, but also its perfection." He proves this from St. James saying: "Every best gift, etc. For God is He who works in His own both to will and to accomplish." And St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, and St. Augustine, book I On Virginity, ch. 4, by "the best and perfect gift" understand virginity, which the virgin should humbly attribute not to herself but to God, as the Apostle teaches in I Corinthians VII, 7. Cyril, however, book IV on John, ch. 25, by "the best and perfect gift" takes perfect knowledge of Christ and of truth; for this is the highest grace, and therefore to be expected from God alone: knowledge (I say) not bare and dry, but informed and burning with the love of God. For the highest gift of God is charity, I Corinthians XIII, 1. The Gloss takes it as robust grace and perfect virtue, such as is given to the baptized in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Others adapt this same to the religious life: for this is the best and perfect. So our Alvarez, book V, part I, ch. 1. Others by "the best gift" understand tribulations and crosses: for these in verse 2 he called all joy. Others take it as the Eucharist. "For what is His good thing, and what is His beautiful thing, but the grain of the elect and the wine springing forth virgins?" Zech. IX, 17. These are partial gifts, not "every gift," as St. James says.

Finally, let the humble and truthful believer know and confess with St. Augustine, Soliloquy, ch. 15: "If there is anything good, small or great, it is Your gift, O Lord: and ours is nothing but evil. Whence therefore shall all flesh glory? In evil? This is not glory, but misery. But shall it glory in good? Yours, Lord, is the good, Yours is the glory: for he who seeks glory for himself from Your good, and does not seek it for You, he is a thief and robber, and like the devil, who wished to steal Your glory."

Descending from the Father of Lights. — He calls God and the Holy Trinity "Father of lights." First, because He has regard to wisdom, which he said is to be asked of God: for wisdom is the light of the mind, of which God is the Father, that is, the Author.

Secondly, because it has regard to the sun; for this is the father of all light in the world. For no corporeal creature so represents God as does the sun: for God is, as it were, a certain uncreated sun, most luminous and most beneficent, who illumines, vivifies and perfects all things by the light and rays of His beneficence. Whence St. Dionysius, ch. IV On the Divine Names: "Clear (he says) and express image of the divinity is

Now God is the author of every gift which He gives, and at the same time of the gratuitous and liberal giving itself, indeed the creator. But Our Author renders δόσις as "datum" (a thing given), because often by metonymy the act itself signifies the object — that is, the giving signifies the thing given, or the gift. Therefore "the best given thing" is the same as "the perfect gift;" for St. James uses exaggeration to amplify the gift of God. Wisely Trismegistus in the Asclepius: "All things are God, he says, and from Him all things, and of His will all things: which whole is good, becoming, immutable, prudent, perceptible and intelligible to Him alone: and without this nothing was, nor is, nor will be: for all things are from Him, and in Him, and through Him."

Note secondly, that by "given thing" and "gift" anything may, with Didymus, be taken — whether of nature, or of grace, or of glory: for all the gifts and works of God are best and perfect, Genesis I, 31; Deuteronomy XXXII, 4. Yet properly St. James has the two latter in view, for he addresses the faithful who had received from God the gift of faith, grace, wisdom and patience, and were awaiting with sure hope the gift of glory: whence Thomas the Englishman applies the "given thing" to gifts which are given on the way, and the "gift" to those in the homeland. Wherefore rightly: first, the Council of Orange, in its last canon, and often St. Augustine, turn this passage against the Pelagians, who deny that grace for living well must be asked from God; and indeed Theophilus in the Council of Ephesus by "gift" understands the Holy Spirit and His gifts — that is, the remission of sins, sanctity, wisdom, etc. — which Christ sends down from heaven into His faithful. Others take it as Christ Himself, who has given Himself with His gifts to us with immeasurable love, and gives Himself daily. For He is the best given thing and the perfect gift, and that in many ways: for, as the Church sings from Thomas: By being born He gave Himself as a companion, In dining together as food, By dying as the price, By reigning He gives Himself as the reward.

Secondly, rightly also the Author of the Opus Imperfectum, homily 39 on Matthew, applies "the perfect gift" to the royal power of Princes and Prelates: for all this descends from God and is given, as the Apostle teaches in Romans XIII, 1; indeed even Emperor Titus in Suetonius did not fear conspirators, saying that "sovereignty is given by fate." Better Pope Agatho, in his epistle to Heraclius and Tiberius, by "the best gift" understands the wisdom of princes, by which they know and confess that they have received their power from God, and cannot administer it rightly by their own prudence and strength, but for this they need the direction of God and the wisdom infused by Him: for this is the best gift of God.

Thirdly, St. James wants the faithful to ask of God not just any sort of given thing and gift, but the best and perfect, both because Christianity is a state and profession of the best and perfect life; and because

this great sun, wholly shining and always splendid, also shines forth to all who can receive its light, and has its light diffused through all things, above and below. And if there is anything which does not partake of it, this is not to be attributed to the thinness or smallness of its light, but to those things which, because they are not fit to receive light, are not unfolded for receiving it. Therefore its ray penetrates with immense magnitude of splendor, rouses to life, nourishes, increases, completes, purges, renews: and light is the measure and number of the hours, days and of all our time; it collects and turns to itself all things that are seen, that die, that are illumined, that grow warm, and in one word those things that are contained by its splendor: therefore ἥλιος (helios), that is, sun, is so called because it ἀολλίζει all things, that is, gathers and collects together what is dispersed: and all those things seek after it which are perceived by sense, either because they desire to see or to feel, to be illumined, to grow warm, and altogether to be contained by light." Behold, this is the Father of lights, this is the sun of most luminous divinity. Anastasius Sinaita, in book IV of his Hexaemeron, wrongly judges this to be a Hebrew name, the same as Eli, that is, my God, and therefore that Christ on the cross, when the sun was darkened, cried out: "Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani?" See the eighteen analogies of the sun and a king, and still more of God, who is King of kings, which I have set out at Isaiah XLV, 1.

Thirdly, God is the "Father of lights," that is, of good things: for light is the cause and symbol of every good. "For from the Good itself comes light, and it is an image of goodness. Therefore by the name of light the Good itself is celebrated, as it were an exemplar expressed in an image. For the goodness of the Divinity illumines all things, effects, vivifies, contains and perfects; and it is the measure and eternity, and number, and order, and bond, and cause, and end of those things which are," says St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, ch. IV. Hence the Church at Prime, praying for God's help and guidance for performing every good thing throughout the whole day, says: "And let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us, and direct the works of our hands upon us." For splendor and serenity of countenance is a sign of favor and aid, of benevolence and beneficence. Wherefore the Psalmist again and again prays: "Lighten Your countenance upon Your servant;" and Psalm LXXV, 4: "Wonderfully illumining, You, from the everlasting mountains," namely that You may free us from the darkness of siege, by cutting down the camp of Sennacherib from Mounts Sion and Moriah, say Theodoret and Euthymius there.

Hence Joannes Alba in his Electa, ch. 16, interprets "Father of lights" as "author of all good things." For light is the first good of the world, by which we enjoy the rest. Whence too it was first created by God, saying: "Let there be light. And there was light;" and immediately is added: "And God saw the light, that it was good," Genesis I, 4. Hence on the contrary Tobias to Raphael wishing him joy: "What joy, he says, will there be for me, who sit in darkness and do not see the light of heaven?" Tobit V, 12; and in ch. 10, vers. 4, he calls his son "the light of his eyes," that is, his every good. Hence as "to see good things" for the Hebrews signifies to possess good things: so also "to see the light" denotes the same, as in Psalm XXXV: "In Your light we shall see light," that is, in You, the highest good, we shall enjoy every good. So says Pacatus in his Panegyric of Theodosius: "At the very outset of his Empire he visited the homes of private men, and the corners of the city, which had never seen the imperial sun, he filled with pious light." This sense is more symbolic than literal.

Fourthly, because St. James opposes God to concupiscence, as light to darkness: for concupiscence is blind, and blinds a man: therefore God, he says, must be invoked as Father of lights, that by His light He may illumine and dispel all the darknesses of concupiscence.

You will ask: In how many ways and on what grounds is God, and the Holy Trinity, called "Father of lights?" I answer, six: First, because ad intra, or in His essence, God is uncreated, original and immense Light. See St. Dionysius, ch. IV On the Divine Names. Hence also St. Paul says God dwells in inaccessible light, I Tim. VI, 16. Again, the individual persons of the Holy Trinity are immense light; for as light proceeds from light, so the Son proceeds from the Father, according to that of the Nicene Creed: "Light from light;" so too the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as light. Whence the Church in the Pentecost hymn invoking Him says: Come, light of hearts. Wherefore St. Dionysius, ch. II On the Divine Names, Tertullian, Justin, Nazianzen and others explain the mystery of the Trinity through light, since in it there are three distinct and coeval things; which however seem to be one thing, namely light, splendor and heat. Again, just as light without any diminution of itself produces a second and third, so the Father without any loss of Himself begets the Son and breathes forth the Holy Spirit, and communicates to them His Godhead. Hear Nazianzen, oration 40: "This light, he says, is considered in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, whose richness is identity of nature, and one and the same outflowing of splendor." The same, oration 43: "God, he says, is light inaccessible, and not subject to succession, having no beginning, and that will have no end, not falling under dimension, glowing with perpetual brilliance, sparkling with threefold splendor, and such that to few, indeed not even to a few, His magnitude is perspicuous." Whence again St. Dionysius thus begins his Celestial Hierarchy: "Every best gift, he says, and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, etc. Therefore, having invoked Jesus, who is the light of the Father, which is, which is true, which illumines every man coming into this world, by whose benignity access to the Father, the author of light, lay open to us, let us come to the illuminations of the holy Scriptures, and let us consider the hierarchies of the heavenly minds and natures, and that primogenital light etc.; and again let us refer ourselves from it to its simple

ray and splendor." And St. Augustine, sermon 122 On Diverse Subjects, ch. 15: "The Word Himself, he says, is the immutable God, as God, with whom is God. Think of nothing in that Person of loss or change: for God the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of a moment." Finally, by the Apostle in Hebrews I, 3, the Son of God is called "the splendor of glory, and the figure of the Father's substance."

Secondly, because God ad extra produces the angels, who are wholly intelligent and luminous, of whom accordingly Nazianzen says in oration 2 On Easter: "Secondary splendors were procreated, ministers of the primary Splendor, shining together with the primary brilliance of God. That one because of his splendor was Lucifer," etc.; likewise men, who likewise are by nature intelligent: whence also man is called by the Greeks φώς (phos), that is, light, because of the use of reason, says Nazianzen in the place already cited. Moreover, God produces men, birds, fish and animals which possess the light of the eyes, as well as of the imagination and fantasy.

Thirdly, because God is the Father and Author of the sun, moon, stars and all lights, and so first of all created light, saying: "Let there be light," Genesis I, says Nazianzen, oration 43. This is what Baruch sings, ch. III, 33: "He who sends forth the light, and it goes: and He called it, and it obeyed Him in trembling; and the stars gave light in their watches, and rejoiced. They were called, and they said: We are here. And they shone for Him with joy, who made them. This is our God." Again, He is the author of every light, that is, of life — namely, angelic, human, animal and vegetative. Finally, all creatures by their own light, that is, by their own beauty, show their Creator as Father of lights. For, as the Wise One says, ch. 13, 5: "From the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the Creator of these things may, in a knowable manner, be seen."

Fourthly, because He produces all supernatural lights — that is, faith, wisdom and patience, and the other virtues, which are nothing other than lights of the mind, derived from the Father of lights, as one of the Saints has said. To this above all St. James had regard: for he wants patience, wisdom and the other virtues to be ascribed not to us, but to God, and to be sought from Him. Hence too baptism is called by St. Dionysius and other Greeks φωτισμός (and indeed by St. Paul, Hebrews VI, 4), that is, illumination, because through it God infuses into the faithful faith, wisdom, grace, charity and all Christian virtues, which are certain supernatural lights. Therefore St. James wishes the faithful to seek from the Father of lights the light of understanding, so that they may know and savor those sublime virtues, paradoxical to the world, which he taught a little before, namely that tribulation is joy and happiness; that patience has a perfect work; that the humble man is to glory in his exaltation, but the rich man to blush in his humiliation; that he is blessed who endures temptation, etc. For these are axioms which transcend every light and dictate of reason and philosophy, and are grasped only by divine light infused by the Father of lights. Whence Nazianzen, oration 40, teaches that God is a certain light: "By which the chief part of our soul is illuminated, and our steps according to God are directed;" indeed Christ: "I am, He says, the light of the world; he who follows Me does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life," John VIII, 12.

Fifthly, because every prophetic light descends from God, as the Father and Author of lights; for God inspired His oracles to all the Prophets, and revealed them as lights, so to speak: of which I have spoken at the beginning of the Commentary on the Prophets. Hence St. Dionysius, ch. IV On the Divine Names, says that the Good is called the light of the mind, because it fills the mind with spiritual light and bestows on it sacred illumination: "The light therefore of the mind, he says, is called the Good, because it surpasses all light, because as a ray flowing from the source and the light it illumines every mind out of its fullness, and renews all the faculties of the mind, contains all in its embrace, gathers and collects." The same, ch. 7, teaches that the manner of understanding divine things is, "if we be wholly outside ourselves, and become wholly God's: for it is better for us to be God's than our own. For thus at last divine things will be handed over to us, if we are with God." And below he asserts that the divine wisdom is the source, the procreating cause, the perfection, the guardian and the end of all wisdom and of every mind, and of every reason and sense.

Sixthly, because the light of glory, by which the Angels and all the Blessed see God, and enjoy and are made blessed by Him, flows out from God as Father of lights; concerning which the Psalmist, Psalm XXXV, 10: "For with You, he says, is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light." The author of all these things is God: rightly therefore is He named "Father of lights," namely as the Poet says: He Himself is the true fount of light, giving the light that does not set. Moreover, this light of glory in the elect God will derive from the soul into the body, and will make it splendid and glorious through the dowry of clarity infused into it. Whence Christ's face in the Transfiguration shone as the sun, Matthew XVII. And the Angels in the assumed body, representing the glory of the body of the rising Christ, appeared shining, indeed flashing. "His countenance, says St. Matthew, ch. 28, vers. 3, was as lightning." Finally, "the just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," Matthew XIII. Wherefore the Church, invoking Christ as Father of lights, on the feast of the Transfiguration at Lauds, thus rejoices: Most sweet Love of Jesus, When You visit our heart, You drive away the mind's darkness, And fill us with sweetness. How happy is he whom You satisfy, Sharer of the Father's right hand! You are the light of the true homeland, Which surpasses every sense.

Splendor of the Father's glory, Incomprehensible goodness, Grant us by Your presence The abundance of Your love,

WITH WHOM (in Greek παρ' ᾧ, that is in whom, or from whom; or more usually with whom) THERE IS NO CHANGE (local, such as belongs to the sun while it changes place and is moved from the East to the West), NOR SHADOW OF VICISSITUDE (in Greek τροπῆς, which Oecumenius explains as conversion).

For the sun causes darkness and shadow in two ways. First, by daily motion, when, this being finished, it goes away and sets in the evening; this is local change. Secondly, by a certain vicissitude and substitute conversion of itself from the tropic of Cancer to the tropic of Capricorn: for by this it generates various shadows for various places: for the more it approaches, the smaller; the more it recedes, the larger shadows it produces; but God undergoes neither change nor any conversion: whence He is plainly without darkness, and bears with Himself no shadows.

Secondly, Thomas the Englishman: With God, he says, there is no change in nature, because He is altogether immortal; nor shadow of vicissitude in effect, because from Him there always proceeds light, never darkness.

Thirdly, others: With God, they say, there is no accidental change, such that what He willed before, He afterwards does not will; or that He loves what before He hated; or that He is moved by anger, fear, or any other passion. For, as St. Augustine says, addressing God in book I of his Confessions, ch. 4: "You love, and grow not hot; You are zealous, and You are secure; You repent, and You grieve not; You are angered, and You are tranquil; You change Your works, and do not change Your counsel."

Fourthly, others more aptly, as if to say: With God there is no change nor vicissitude of the light of grace and the shadow of sin — namely, that He should now cause grace, now tempt to sin: for it is of this that St. James was treating.

And the Greek παραλλαγή, or παράλλαξις, is the same as alternation — that is, change by turns, variation, vicissitude, difference, diversity, aberration, passing-over, exchange: as sawyers of timber alternate and change turns, while now they raise the saw, now they press it down. Whence St. Hilary, book IV On the Trinity, renders it: with whom there is no change; St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian: With whom there is no difference; Vatablus: with whom there is no alteration. He alludes to the Astrologers who observe the parallax of the stars, and especially of comets — that is, the variation in motion, position, and aspect: for the sun, to which as it were father of lights St. James here alludes, has its own parallax, not in its essence, nor in its intrinsic light, but in the motion, position and light which it diffuses.

Note: There is a fivefold immutability in God: first, of nature, because He is immortal; secondly, of quality, because He is unalterable; thirdly, of place, because He is immense, and therefore immovable; fourthly, of will, because He is constant; fifthly, of operation and self-manifestation, because He always works in the same tenor, and always shows Himself the same; the four last flow from the first: for since God's nature is plainly immutable in itself, hence also it is such as to qualities, places and volitions: "For every change is a certain imitation of death," says St. Bernard, sermon 81 on the Canticle; and St. Gregory, book XII Morals, ch. 17, explains this passage thus: "What, he says, is mutability but a certain death? which, while it changes any thing into another, as it were kills what was, that what was not may begin to be. With whom there is no change, nor shadow of vicissitude: for mutability itself is a shadow, which would as it were obscure the light, if it changed it by any vicissitudes. But because mutability does not enter into God, no shadow of vicissitude cuts off His light." Whence in the Canticle, ch. 4, vers. 6, the spouse groans "until the day breathe," of eternity; "and the shadows decline," of mortality and mutability. Therefore St. James is not here speaking of the first four immutabilities of God, but of the fifth — as to operation, as if to say: God in operating does not change, nor vary His turns, so as now to cause wisdom and patience, now concupiscence, impatience and sin; but, ever the same and like Himself in all things, He constantly produces nothing but good, and that all good, and no evil. For he compares and prefers God to the sun, which though immutable in essence and quality, is nevertheless changed in place, aspect and operation, so as now to make day, now night; now heat, now cold; now summer, now winter. But God, as in essence and quality, so also in place, aspect and operation is immutable — namely, that He may always produce light, that is, good, never darkness, that is, evil. Whence Proclus in his Sphere uses the Greek παραλλαγή for the conversion of the sun. The sense therefore is, as if to say: God is Father of lights and the uncreated Sun, but He does not undergo, as does our sun, that reciprocation of motion, illumination and operation, so that now by approaching He brings the light of grace, now by receding the darkness of errors and sin, but is perpetual light, and a constant fountain of all light.

NOR SHADOW OF VICISSITUDE. — In Greek τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα. St. Augustine seems to have read ῥοπῆς in place of τροπῆς; for in his book On Holy Virginity, ch. 7, he renders it "nor of a moment," that is, momentary shadow: for ῥοπή signifies the inclination of the scale-pan in a balance — that is, leaning, weighing, impulse. Whence the Wise One, ch. XI, vers. 23: "As ῥοπή, that is, the inclination of the balance, so before You is the world, and as a drop of dew before dawn." But others throughout read τροπή, that is, conversion, vicissitude, flight, solstice; for he explains what he had called change, namely the shadow of vicissitude — that is, vicissitude of shadow, that is, casting shadow like a shadow; or conversely the shadowing of vicissitude — that is, that which substitutes itself by turns and succeeds light and illumination, just as the shadowing of night in its time and turn succeeds the illumination of day. For there is hypallage in either

word. St. Jerome, in book I Against Jovinian, reads: nor a little shadow of conversion, and in book II Against the Pelagians, ch. 3: "God, he says, is called light, and there are no darknesses in Him, because the lights of all others are stained with some defilement. The Apostles are the light of the world, yet there are some darknesses in them; for, as Job says, ch. 25, vers. 5: The moon does not shine, and the stars are not clean in His sight."

The sense therefore is, as if to say: Our sun, which is father of lights, undergoes — not in itself, but with respect to us — frequent shadow of vicissitude: for it changes its turns; first, of day and night: so that now it illumines our hemisphere, now the opposite; now in ours, now in the opposite, it causes shadow and darkness. Secondly, it changes its turns, in Greek τροπήν, that is, conversion, and reciprocation from the tropic of Cancer to the tropic of Capricorn: wherefore now for those dwelling under Cancer, now for those dwelling under Capricorn, it alternates, and by alternation increases light and shadow, and causes winter and summer. Thirdly, the sun undergoes eclipse by the interposition of the moon between it and the earth; and likewise eclipses the moon, if the globe of the earth is interposed between them both. Fourthly, the sun is often covered, shadowed and obscured by clouds, winds and storms. Fifthly, the sun, while it is in the winter solstice, causes very short days, in the summer the longest, in the equinox equal to the nights. Again, it causes and alternates the four seasons of the year, namely spring, summer, autumn and winter. By these its motions, approaches and recessions, it produces various and manifold shadows; indeed, daily, at every moment, the shadow of all bodies on the earth is changed according to the motion of the sun: for the shadow follows its luminous body, namely the sun, and conforms itself in all things to it; but God, who is a fixed, unmoved and immense sun, causes no shadows in illumination and operation, has no vicissitudes of darkness and light, so as to work now good, now evil, but as far as is in His own power, illumines every man coming into this world, John I, 9; in working, in illumining and doing good, He undergoes no τροπή, that is, no conversion, variation, flight, solstice, diminution, shadow, eclipse; but always and everywhere upon all and to all things He unfolds and spreads out the rays of His beneficence, never is dark or shadowed, that is, never harmful or less beneficent — indeed, never as if standing still in a solstice, and ceasing from doing good, but ever continually operating and bestowing good. So Bede. Truly St. Fulgentius, epistle 4, ch. 5: "He, he says, supplies us with every sufficiency of good, whose fullness is not diminished when He gives." For, as the Wise One says, ch. 7, 10, of the uncreated Wisdom, which is God: "Her light is inextinguishable." As far therefore as is on the side of this light and sun, He shines forth of Himself for all, scatters His rays upon all; if anyone by his hardness shuts the window of his heart, let him ascribe his darkness to himself, not to this sun, as I have said above from St. Dionysius. This belongs to God alone, not to the angels; for, as Gregory says, book V Morals, ch. 27: "The angelic nature, though by adhering to the contemplation of its Author it remains immutable in its state, yet by the very fact that it is a creature, has in itself the vicissitude of mutability." Hence Lucifer with his own was made from an angel into a devil. Much more does man "flee as a shadow, and never remain in the same state," Job XIV, 2. Hence God's name is Jehovah, or "I am who am," Exodus III, 14. And: "I am God, and I change not," Malachi III, 6. See what was said there. Wherefore the Church, rightly invoking the Father of lights, prays on the third weekday at Matins: Sharer of the Father's light, Light Yourself of light and day, Take away the darknesses of minds, etc. And at Lauds of the second weekday: Splendor of the Father's glory, Bringing forth light from light, Light of light and fount of light, Day illumining day. Glide in, true Sun, Flashing with perpetual brightness, And pour the radiance of the Holy Spirit Into our senses. For this cause the Son of God assumed humanity by becoming man, that in it He might be able to take on the shadows of sufferings, labors, the cross and death, of which the Godhead was incapable, as Anastasius Sinaita teaches in his ὁδηγός, that is, Guide of the Way, ch. 12. Whence St. Dionysius, when he saw the miraculous eclipse of the sun at the death of Christ, asking Apollophanes what this should mean, heard from him: "These, O good Dionysius, are the vicissitudes of divine things," as he himself reports in his epistle to Apollophanes.

Hence secondly, St. Augustine refutes the Gnostics and Manicheans teaching that the human soul is a particle of the divine breath, and cut off from God's very substance, in his book On Heresies, ch. 6 and 46, for thus the Godhead would be changed and diminished. Therefore God creates the soul, and by creating infuses and unites it to the human body duly organized.

Thirdly, God in Scripture is sometimes said to overshadow, not that, like a shadow, He suffers defect or variation of light; but that, like a shadow, He protects His own from the heat of temptations and tribulations, according to that of Psalm XC, 4: "With His shoulders He will overshadow you, and under His wings you shall hope." Or that He works His mysteries in shadow, that is, secretly and obscurely as regards men and the intellect of men. Whence concerning the Incarnation of the Word Gabriel said to the Blessed Virgin Mother of God: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," Luke I, 35.

Fourthly, hence St. Augustine in the Mirror, ch. 21, teaches that the Holy Trinity is the true Light, and τὸ ὄν, that is, that very being which is immovable, immense, subsistent and constant. "One, he says, of Himself (the Father), one

from One (the Son), one from both (the Holy Spirit): from One all, through One all, in One all; that is, of Himself the Father; from another, that is from the Father, the Son; from both the Holy Spirit; and of Himself, and from another, and from both; and every one and always in the three, and every one and equally in each: a truthful Begetter, Truth begotten, Love of both the Holy Spirit: one power, equal majesty, equal glory." Whence invoking Him he adds: "O God three and one. God almighty, with whom there is no change, and therefore in You the course of time, the alternation of day and night, in no way is varied. God true light, by whose approach You illumine those things which You choose; and by no recession do You forsake those which You reject: and therefore in You no defect, no mutability comes. O God, who, by remaining unchangeable in Yourself, have so founded transitory things in Yourself, that with You they can in no way pass away; and therefore in Your sight time does not flow away, which with us runs to an end. O God, in whose eternity those things remain fixed which not fixed externally flow forth as the volumes of the ages; and therefore Your eternity is one day, which is neither closed by an end, nor opened by a beginning. O God, who without mutability of Yourself behold all things at once, comprehend without extension, both the goods which You aid, and the evils which You judge, both those which You reward by aiding, and those which You damn by judging — in these which You arrange in different order, You are not different. O God, who surround Your works on the outside, and fill them within; rule above, and bear below: and although You are superior by power, You are nonetheless inferior by sustaining; exterior by magnitude, interior by subtlety; You are a superior and inferior cause without place; ample without breadth, subtle without attenuation, and therefore by the bulk of body You are nowhere, but by an uncircumscribed substance and the immensity of an immutable nature You are nowhere absent." Then in ch. 33, he thus addresses God: "O God above whom is nothing, outside whom is nothing, without whom is nothing, beyond whom is nothing, beneath whom is nothing. O God under whom is the whole, with whom is the whole, in whom is the whole. O God from whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things. O God whose faith rouses us, hope lifts us up, charity joins us. O God who command us to seek, and make us find, and open to those who knock. O God from whom to be turned away is to fall; to whom to be turned back is to rise again; in whom to remain is to stand fast. O God whom no one loses except by being deceived, no one seeks except by being warned, no one finds except being pure or purged. O God whom not to know is to die; whom to know is to live; whom to despise is to perish; whom to serve is to reign. O God by the help of whose mercy both the subject serves well and the prelate rules; and therefore without You none of them goes forward by a right path, or order. O God invisible and immense, ineffable and eternal, incomprehensible, and incorporeally immortal and perpetual, immutable and uncircumscribed, wonderful and blessed, unspeakable, to whom to be is to live, to be wise and to understand, to know and to be able to grow beautiful and bright; You are one and the same, because You are simple, and cannot be divided. You are Yourself my living and true God, the loving God, the King exceedingly great."

Finally, hence St. Gregory, book XII Morals, ch. 17, teaches that the way and method of acquiring stability and constancy of mind is, if we fix it in the stable and immutable God: for he who places his heart and hopes in a creature, becomes unstable with what is unstable: but he who places them in God, becomes stable with what is stable, so that he is moved by no vicissitude of things, times, persons, occupations, or passions; but is always the same and like himself, standing firm with the same countenance and mind in adversity and in prosperity. "Of the saints, says St. Gregory, it is written: The heavens declare the glory of God; who by nature all have their own mutability in themselves; but while they earnestly always desire to cling to immutable Truth, by clinging they bring it about that they become immutable. And when they hold to it with all affection, at some time they receive that, being led above themselves, they may overcome this — that they were mutable in themselves, etc. For He alone in Himself is immutable, of whom through James it is said: With whom there is no change, nor shadow of vicissitude." The Saints therefore say of God with the Psalmist, Psalm IV, in any occupation and perplexity: "In peace, in the same I will sleep and take my rest, for You, Lord, have singularly settled me in hope." These were the last vows and words of St. Gorgonia, sister of St. Gregory Nazianzen, and in them she died, as Nazianzen testifies in oration 11, which is the funeral oration of St. Gorgonia.

Verse 18: Of His Own Will He Has Begotten Us by the Word of Truth

18. For voluntarily He has begotten us. — He proves that God is not the author of darkness, that is of temptation and sin, but of light, that is of wisdom, patience, and of every best given thing and perfect gift; because He has begotten us and made us His sons — sons of light, I say, just as He Himself is Father of lights. For this generation is the best given thing, and embraces and includes every perfect gift. For what would God deny to His sons?

Note: The word "voluntarie" St. Bernard, in sermon 2 to the Brethren upon this text, This is the generation of those who seek the Lord, refers to the will of man, not of God, as if to say: God has begotten us by reforming our will, so that from being impious it becomes pious, from being carnal it becomes just and holy. For in baptism we are regenerated involuntarily, since we are infants; but as adults we are regenerated voluntarily through penance freely undertaken. "Now at last, he says, voluntary generation offers a voluntary sacrifice, according to that of Psalm LIII, 8: I will voluntarily sacrifice to You, and confess Your name, O Lord, for it is good. This is the generation of those who seek the Lord. Of those who seek, or shall I say of those who have? Of those who both have and seek; otherwise those who do not have could not seek. Begotten by the Word, they have the Word. For God was the Word." But in Greek it is βουληθείς, that is willing, as St. Jerome renders it, book I Against Jovinian; Oecumenius, by determined will; others, because He willed; others, by gratuitous benevolence. Therefore the word,

Fourth, more simply and genuinely, "by the word (Vatablus: discourse) of truth," that is, through the Gospel and the true preaching of the Gospel, both outwardly and more so inwardly through the inspiration and grace of Christ: so the Interpreters generally. Hence St. Jerome, Book I Against Jovinian: Christ, he says, a virgin, taught virginity by the word of truth, which succeeded the shadow and figure that had gone before in the law, dedicating in Himself, a virgin, the first-fruits of His virgins. Again, "by the word of truth," that is, through true faith: for this is the beginning of justification and regeneration; and it is called word metonymically, because from the word of the Gospel preached and heard it is conceived and brought forth. For the sinner hearing the word of God, by the faith of Christ the mediator conceives fear and hope of pardon, and from that, sorrow for sins, contrition and love of God, by which he is disposed to justification as to a spiritual generation by God.

Finally, Cajetan explains "by the word" as "for the word," as if to say: We have been begotten not for fables, but for the word of truth to be preached and celebrated by life and voice.

Morally, learn what kind and how great this divine generation and sonship is, since by it we are partakers of the divine nature, sons and heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ. In it, therefore, God is the Father; the seed is prevenient grace, breathed forth through Christ's passion and merits; the mother is our will; her seed is consent to God's grace and call; the offspring is the new man living the life of grace, indeed of God Himself and of Christ. For He, through justice, really and substantially dwells in the mind of the just one, sanctifies, informs as it were a soul, directs and moves to every good; as I have said on Hosea chapter 1, verse 10, and 2 Peter 1, 4. Truly St. Bernard to the Brothers of Mount God: "The formation of man," he says, "is a moral instruction: his life is the love of God. Faith conceives Him, hope brings Him forth, charity forms and vivifies Him. For the love of God, or rather the love that is God the Holy Spirit, infusing Himself into man's love, draws him to Himself. And God, loving Himself in man, makes Himself one with him, both his spirit and his love. Therefore, the love of God in man, born of grace, reading nourishes, meditation feeds, prayer strengthens and illuminates."

Wherefore Christ the Lord, that He might procure for us this generation and sonship, and indeed that He Himself, as it were our father, nay rather our mother, might bring us forth in travail and bear us, endured immense sorrows and torments throughout His whole life, but especially on the cross and in His passion: so that He seemed to be an abyss and sea of sorrows, that He might rightly say with Paul: "My little children, of whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you." And this is what the Greek here means, ἀπεκύησεν, that is, He begot, brought forth in travail, gave birth, brought into the light. Hence St. Bernard, sermon 16 on the Canticle: "Voluntarily," he says, "He begot us by the word of truth; He did not shake us forth by the goad of carnal desire, as the begetter of my flesh did. Then

The Apostle says: "Cleansing her by the laver of water, in the word of life," Ephesians 5:26.

Fifth, "voluntarily" signifies the grace of God, εὐδοκίαν, that is, His good pleasure and benevolence, by which, without our merits — nay, when we were unworthy and undeserving — He mercifully and liberally called, chose, justified, and regenerated us, according to that of Hosea 14:5: "I will love them freely."

Third, "voluntarily" signifies that we have been begotten by God not by chance, nor by some fortuitous will of God, but by His sure counsel, deliberation, purpose and predestination: for this is what βουλή signifies. So Oecumenius. This is what the Apostle says in Ephesians 1:9: "That He might make known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, to re-establish all things in Christ, etc., in whom also we are called by lot, predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will, that we may be unto the praise of His glory."

HE BEGOT US. — We have been begotten three times by God. First, naturally when we were born: for then God begot, that is, created and formed us. So Dionysius. Second, in baptism, when we were reborn in it. Third, in penance, when, after baptism, having relapsed into sins, we were renewed and regenerated through penance. Some think that St. James had these three generations in view. But it is more true that he was looking only at the latter two; for these God effected "by the word of truth." This is what St. John says, chapter 1, verse 13: "But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name: who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

By the word of truth. — First, as if to say: through the Word, that is, through His incarnate Son, and Him "of truth," that is, true and truthful. So St. Athanasius, sermon 4 Against the Arians; St. Bernard, in the words already cited, and Oecumenius here. For, as St. John says, chapter 1, verse 17: "The law was given through Moses: grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." On the contrary, the devil's generation is wrought by the word of falsehood: for he promises his own good things, but false and deceitful ones.

Second, others take "by the word" as: by His truthful, faithful and efficacious command; so that "truth" here is the same as fidelity, by which God faithfully fulfilled and accomplished this spiritual generation promised in Christ.

Third, others take "by the word," namely the sacramental word, saying in baptism: "I baptize thee;" and in the sacrament of penance: "I absolve thee." Hence the Apostle says: "Cleansing her by the laver of water, in the word of life," Ephesians 5:26.

He did not even spare His Only-Begotten for one thus begotten. Thus He indeed showed Himself a Father to me, but I have not in turn shown myself a son to Him. With what face do I now lift up my eyes to the countenance of so good a Father, I so wicked a son? I am ashamed to have done unworthy things in respect of my lineage; I am ashamed to have lived as a degenerate to so great a Father."

The same in his treatise On Loving God: "If I owe all of myself for being made, what shall I now add for being remade, and remade in this way? For I am not so easily remade as I was made: for He who once and only by speaking made me, in remaking me indeed both said many things and did wonderful things and endured hard things — and not only hard, but unworthy things. What shall I render to God for Himself? For even if I could repay myself a thousand times, what am I to God?" For God, as St. Augustine says, loved me more than Himself, because He gave His life for mine. How precious is it that man should be worth God? that the price of our death should be the death of God? that the ransom of my life should be the life of God? "I see," says Eusebius of Emesa, homily 6 on Easter, "that He Himself has passed into my price, since by so precious a gift the redemption itself is wrought, that man should seem worth God." Wherefore Peter Chrysologus rightly says, sermon 70: "Man, return to God, so loved by God; and give all of thyself to His glory — He who gave all of Himself for thee even to His own injury: and call Him Father with confidence, whom thou provest, perceivest, understandest to be thy Begetter with so great a love."

THAT WE MIGHT BE SOME BEGINNING OF HIS CREATURE. — First, as if to say: That we might be the beginning of Christianity, of the Church, and of the faithful. Or, that we might be initiated, consecrated and dedicated to God. Wherefore Luther erroneously and impiously held that our justice is called "beginning" because it is only inchoate, not complete, in that it is mingled with concupiscence and mortal sin: whence it is not so much justice as a covering and cloak of injustice: for it is nothing other than the justice of Christ imputed to us unjust. For this neither renews the mind, nor regenerates, nor makes a new creature, as St. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 24, and James here. See Bellarmine, Book V On the Loss of Grace, chapter 11.

Second and more genuinely, for "beginning" the Greek has ἀπαρχή, that is, first-fruits, as the Syriac and St. Jerome render it in Book I Against Jovinian. That we may be, he says, the first-fruits of His creatures; or, as Vatablus, that we may obtain principality among His creatures; and, as Oecumenius, that we may be the first and most honored; and, as Bede, that we may be better than the other creatures — namely, that we may be like first-fruits chosen by God out of the rest of the heap of humanity, and the chief part of His whole creature, receiving with the angelic nature a portion and place of dignity of His glory, namely that we may be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition, as elevated to divine sonship and to the right of eternal inheritance; that as the first-fruits of sacrifices, which are usually selected from the best things, we may be offered to God, made partakers of grace, charity, friendship, indeed of the divine nature. So Bede, Titelmann, Gagnaeus and others. Thus behemoth, that is the elephant, is called "the beginning of the ways of God," Job 40:14, because by his greatness he is the prince and king of animals; and, as St. Basil says in the Hexaemeron, "elephants seem to be a kind of animated mountains." So in Proverbs 8:22, eternal Wisdom is called "the beginning of the ways of God." So Christ in Colossians 1:15 is called "the firstborn of every creature," and Psalm 109:3: "With thee is the principality (in Hebrew נדבות nedabot, that is, principalities) in the day of thy strength." James alludes to that of Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 3: "Israel is holy to the Lord, the first-fruits of His harvest." For God chose the Israelites out of all nations, as it were as first-fruits, into His nation and Church.

By "creature," or, as the Greek has it, "creatures," first take both men and animals, and indeed all created things: for of these the first and chief is the just man. Christ therefore is, as it were, the sun of justice shining preeminently and illuminating all things; the just are like stars, but so sprinkled with the rays of this sun that among all bright things they shine more brightly; and by their splendor — though participated, yet wonderfully glittering — they in some way reflect the sun itself. For, as St. Thomas teaches, I-II, q. 113, art. 9, ad 3, the good of grace is greater than the good of the nature of the whole universe. Indeed, St. Augustine, Book II to Boniface, chapter 6: "The grace of God," he says, "surpasses not only all the stars and all the heavens, but also all the angels." Thus "beginning" is taken for principality, Apocalypse 3:14: "Who is the beginning (that is, the foremost and chief) of the creature of God;" and in Proverbs 1:7 and elsewhere it is said: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," that is, something foremost and most excellent in wisdom. Thus wisdom is called "the beginning of the ways of the Lord," Job 40:14; and "The beginning of man's life is water and bread," Ecclus. 29:28; and "The bee is small among such as fly, but her fruit hath the chiefest sweetness," that is, obtains the first place in sweetness, the sweetest of all sweet things, Ecclus. chapter 11, verse 3. So our Augustine Quiros here. He alludes to the primacy and dominion given to Adam over the animals and the rest of creatures, Genesis 1:28, which, lost by sin, the just recover through Christ, inchoately in this life, perfectly in the next.

Second, more strictly and forcefully, take "creatures" as the faithful recreated and regenerated in baptism. For these, through the grace of Christ, become new men and His new creatures, as the Apostle says, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10: "We are His workmanship," he says, "created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them," etc.; chapter 4, verse 24: "Put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth." See what is said there. James therefore says that the first faithful, begotten by Christ, are the first-fruits of the creatures, that is, of His sons — namely the faithful who would come thereafter; and that they therefore received the first-fruits of the Spirit of Christ, as it were to transmit it to posterity by word and example

they would pour forth and propagate it: as in fact the Apostles, Martyrs and Virgins did, who in that first age flourished in all sanctity, and gave to all who would come an illustrious model of perfect virtue. So St. Fulgentius, Against the Objections of the Arians, chapter 3, holds that the Apostles are here called the beginning of the creature, because they were first called and regenerated by Christ, and through them the rest of the faithful: for the Apostles received the first-fruits of the Spirit of Christ. Hence James adds the τὸ "some," which signifies that these first-fruits are, first, few — to be propagated and multiplied thereafter into a great offspring of the faithful; second, chosen out of many and outstanding; and third, that their grace and gifts are only inchoate, to be completed by glory in heaven. Thus Simon Magus said that he was someone, namely great and outstanding, Acts 8:9. Therefore, just as the elephant was created prince of the beasts, man of the animals, Lucifer of the angels and peoples, Christ of all creatures, as I said a little before: so the Apostles and Apostolic men were chosen by God and made princes of the sons of God — namely of the faithful — and of the whole Church, which is a creature, that is, a new progeny, family and stock of God, whom therefore St. Augustine and St. Jerome there reckon to be the mystical mountains of the Father of Lights, of whom the Psalmist says, Psalm 75:5: "Thou enlightenest wonderfully from the everlasting hills."

Mystically, Oecumenius takes the first-fruits as the priests, whom God willed to be princes and most honored in the Church: for thus God, out of the twelve tribes of Israel, chose and accepted the Levites in place of their first-born, that they might serve Him in the tabernacle, and perform the sacred rites and sacrifices, Numbers 3:12.

Hence St. Athanasius infers, in his treatise On the Passion, that those who are designated as it were first-fruits, if they bestow anything from themselves on profane uses, steal it from God. "This," he says, "must be known: that whatever we have promised to God is no longer ours, but is in the treasury of God; so that if we take anything thence, we should by no means do it as taking what is ours, but as plundering by sacrilege what is God's." And St. Bernard to the Brothers of Mount God: "Do not neglect," he says, "do not delay: a great way remains to you: you have vowed not only all sanctity, but the perfection of all sanctity and the end of all consummation: it is not yours only to consider what God commands, but what He wills. It belongs to others to serve God; to you, to cleave to Him."

Verse 19: Let Every Man Be Swift to Hear, Slow to Speak, Slow to Anger

19. LET EVERY MAN BE SWIFT TO HEAR. — Here St. James, in epistolary fashion, passes on to other teachings concerning the forming of the tongue and of anger. He takes a convenient occasion of passing thither from what he said in verse 5 about wisdom, and the manner both of obtaining it — namely through prayer — and of using it — namely through patience in bearing temptations and persecutions. For here he subjoins three other ways of obtaining and using it: of which the first is to be swift to hear; the second, slow to speak; the third, slow to anger. For nothing so impedes wisdom as the three vices opposed to the virtues just mentioned: namely first, to be slow to hear; second, swift to speak; third, swift to anger. For anger disturbs the mind so that it cannot consider a matter fully and calmly, but is borne by impulse into indignant and vindictive thoughts; and so renders one incapable of wisdom, which requires quietness of mind. Furthermore, St. James has in view the assemblies and gatherings of the faithful in the Church, in which indiscriminately the more learned and more ardent taught and exhorted as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, as is clear from 1 Corinthians 14:29; in which sometimes some bolder ones snatched the place of speaking and teaching from others more modest, in order to show off their wisdom and spirit. Wherefore James here admonishes them, that in those assemblies they should give a specimen rather of humility than of doctrine, and would rather hear and learn than speak and teach others. Otherwise, in hearing trifles, obscenities, detractions, errors, perverse counsels, one should not be swift to hear, but should close the ears, according to Ecclus. 28:28: "Hedge in thy ears with thorns, and listen not to a wicked tongue."

Furthermore, in swiftness to hear St. James implies swiftness to obey and to carry out in deed what is heard, as he himself explains in verse 22: "For, as St. Paul says in Romans 2:13, not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." So Oecumenius and St. Bernard, sermon On the Virtue of Obedience: "Thou therefore," he says, "when thou hast joined willingness to the heart, simplicity to the work, cheerfulness to the countenance, add swiftness, that thou mayest be, according to James the Apostle, swift to hear, and swifter to fulfill." See Plutarch, book On the Duty of a Hearer. James alludes to — indeed cites — Ecclus. 5:13: "Be meek to hear, that thou mayest understand, and with wisdom utter a true answer." Where the Syriac and the Greek have: be swift to hear, and slow to give an answer; for which James says: "Be swift to hear, but slow to speak."

BUT SLOW TO SPEAK. — This pertains also to preachers, that they may beware of excessive volubility of words, which some vainly pursue, that they may appear eloquent rather than that they may move the people: for although now and then voice and speech must be roused to pathos, yet the rest of the discourse

19. YOU KNOW. — He reads ἴστε, but some now read ὥστε, that is, "therefore" or "wherefore," as if to say: Wherefore, my brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. But the Latins generally read ἴστε, that is, "you know." It is a clause concluding what has been said, as if to say: You know well, O Christians, that the things I have said are true and handed down by Christ to Christians; and therefore plainly admit them into your heart, and reduce them to practice by doing them.

should rather be calm and solid, such as that of St. Gregory, Chrysostom, Leo, Augustine and the other Fathers in preaching. Seneca attacks the volubility of speech in Serapion, epistle 40: "That power," he says, "of rapid and copious speaking is more fitting for a mountebank than for one handling a great and serious matter and teaching. He wishes to move the crowd and carry off unwary ears by force. But how can a speech govern, which itself cannot be governed? What physician cures the sick on the run? Remedies do not profit unless they linger. Let the speech have great force, but moderated: let it be a perennial wave, not a torrent." With Seneca agrees St. Ambrose, Book I of Offices, chapter 3; reading with the Greek text, Ecclus. 28:29: "Bind up thy speech," he adds: "Lest it be luxuriant, lest it be wanton: let it be more restrained, and confined within its banks. The overflowing river quickly gathers mud."

You will ask here first, why does St. James require for wisdom, before all else, swiftness to hear and slowness to speak? I answer first, because hearing is the sense of learning, on the testimony of Aristotle. Whence we see that all disciples, by hearing the teaching of the master, drink it in and become wise, according to that of Proverbs 1:5: "A wise man, hearing, shall be wiser." Thus St. Thomas Aquinas attentively and silently listened to Albert the Great, so much so that by his fellow students he was nicknamed "the dumb ox"; but Albert defended him, saying: "The dumb ox will soon utter such bellowings that the whole world shall hear them." So we have seen it come to pass, and we still see it happening. Now to hearing speaking is contrary, both because hearing receives the master's wisdom and pours it into the soul of the hearer, while speaking does not pour it in but rather pours it out; and because hearing is the work of the learner, speaking of the teacher: but it is better, safer and more useful for each person to learn than to teach, because he who learns fills himself; he who teaches, fills others with wisdom. And this is what St. James intends here, namely to teach Christians that they should rather aspire to be disciples of Christian wisdom by hearing than teachers by speaking. For one must learn long and much before one teaches. In which many err headlong who wish to teach what they have not learned; masters before being disciples. They thus invert the order of nature and of learning. He therefore admonishes Christians of order, humility and modesty, that they should rather desire to hear those teaching than to teach those hearing: for it is the part of a wise man not to leap forth to teach except after much hearing, meditation and study, and that slowly, and only when asked — nay, commanded. Whence Pythagoras required of his disciples a five-year silence, says Bede. Famous is that line of Publius Mimus:

Whoever does not know how to be silent does not know how to speak.

More sublimely St. Augustine, epistle 132, and on Psalm 139: "He is an empty outward preacher of the Word of God," he says, "who is not an inward hearer."

Second, because swiftness in hearing causes a man to draw in and learn much by hearing; while slowness in speaking causes him to speak few but well-considered words: each of which is an act and practice of wisdom; especially because in speaking one easily sins: "In the multitude of words there shall not want sin: but he that refraineth his lips is most wise," says the Wise Man, Proverbs 10:19. For from the volubility and slipping of the tongue innumerable evils and disasters follow, as we shall hear in chapter 3, verse 5. Whence Cato:

For to have been silent has hurt no one; to have spoken has hurt many.

Well known is that saying of Epaminondas: "Man ought to be more eager to hear than to speak; because from hearing comes doctrine, from loquacity, repentance." Again, things heard can be rejected; things said cannot be recalled, nor things said be unsaid: for "the irrevocable word flies away." Wherefore wisely St. Augustine in Questions to Dulcitius, vol. IV, Question III: "I," he says, "love to learn more than to teach;" and citing this passage of James: "That we may learn," he says, "the sweetness of truth ought to invite us; but to teach, the necessity of charity must compel us. Whereupon rather is it to be prayed that this necessity may pass away, by which one man teaches another something, and that we all may be teachable by God."

Third, because God, who is most wise, prescribes this manner of wisdom not only by His word but also by His example. For He through eternal ages rested in contemplating and enjoying His own wisdom, and slowly — namely at the beginning of the world and of time — He began to speak, and by a single word "Let it be" He created heaven and earth and all things that are contained within their compass. Again, God, throughout the five thousand years during which the world stood, spoke very few things, namely only those which are contained in the Bible; so that most men speak more in one year than God has spoken through so many thousands of years. They therefore imitate God who hear much and speak few but efficacious things; who do much and say little. Moreover, the Incarnate Word taught us the same manner of wisdom by His very deed, while this Word became an infant and tongueless, namely when the child was born in Bethlehem; and while the same up to His thirtieth year of age heard much and spoke little. For as a craftsman He led His life in silence; but in His thirtieth year He began to teach — yet how few are His words which are contained in the Gospels, if compared with the abyss of wisdom which He contained in Himself? So also the Blessed Virgin was sparing of speech, and indeed you will find very few of her words in the whole of the Gospels: but she was eager to hear, especially Christ. Whence Luke says of her, chapter 2, verse 51: "His mother (Jesus's) kept all these words in her heart." So too Magdalene was wholly intent on hearing Christ's discourses in silence, and therefore Christ said she had chosen the best part, Luke 10:42.

Fourth, because the angels, who among creatures most nearly approach to the wisdom of God, hear much

from God, but speak few things. Read in Scripture the sayings and messages of Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin and to Zechariah, of Raphael to Tobias, of Michael to Daniel: you will see that their words are few and very rare, and sometimes none at all. In like manner, "it is the part of kings and princes to hear much, to speak little," says the Philosopher. Again, when angels speak to one another, they do so with a single conception, as it were with one voice and one stroke of the mind, as the Scholastics teach in the treatise On the Speech of Angels. Great and wise men imitate the same.

Fifth, because nature itself suggests to us this manner of wisdom. For first, she has made the wiser animals little vocal, such as elephants, apes, lions: for these utter rare but effective sounds. Again, songful birds sing at fixed and brief times — nightingales, blackbirds, swans; while talkative and shrill ones, like sparrows and swallows, perpetually peep and chatter. Wherefore St. Gregory Nazianzen, epistle 1 to Celeusius who reproached his taciturnity, replies with an apologue of swans and swallows, and the well-worn proverb about them: "The swans will sing then, when the jackdaws have fallen silent." Indeed, the single voice of a swan in its dying is more pleasing than all the screechings of jackdaws.

In like manner, the great and excellent bodies, such as all the celestial spheres, perform all motion — which is the greatest, continuous, and most swift — without voice or noise, in silence. And this is the silent harmony, and the harmonic silence of the heavens, which Job celebrates saying, chapter 38, verse 37: "Who shall declare the order of the heavens, and who can make the harmony of heaven to sleep?" Again in Scripture we read that the heavens were sometimes opened, but rarely, and only for a grave cause — for the praise of God and the salvation of men: as when the heavens rained down manna, Exodus 16; when the Father gave His voice from heaven at the baptism of Christ: "This is My beloved Son," Matthew 3:17; when Stephen, undergoing martyrdom, saw the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God, to aid him, to give him victory and a crown. The mystical heavens are the Apostles and Saints, according to that of Psalm 18:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God." Let the saints therefore imitate the heavens, that they may not open their mouths except to the praise of God and the salvation of their neighbors, namely that they may pour forth into them the manna of heavenly wisdom and charity. This is what Manes the heresiarch boasted of himself, who therefore called himself Manichaean, as it were the pourer-out of manna; but in reality he was μανείς, that is, mad, and Manichaean, that is, a pourer-out of mania and madness: but let the saint be Mannachaean, that is, a pourer-out of manna.

Sixth, because the very fabric of man — namely, the organs of hearing and of speaking — teaches man this same thing. For first, man alone, being rational among all animals, has received the power of speaking and of forming articulated voice, that he might learn that the tongue is the companion and handmaid of reason, and that it ought to utter nothing except what reason has first dictated and commanded to be spoken.

Second, God gave man ears that are open, that he might hear much; but He hedged in his tongue with two enclosures, namely the teeth and the lips, that he might be slow of speech.

Third, God gave man two ears and one tongue, to suggest that he ought to hear twice as much as he speaks. Whence St. Basil On True Virginity: "Two ears," he says, "one tongue He has fashioned for us, as if we ought to hear double for the sake of learning, and to render to those things about which we are asked a discourse contracted in sesquialteral proportion. The prudent virgin therefore will use chastened speech, and when she must seasonably address someone, she will hear much more than she speaks."

Fourth, the office of the ears is one, namely to hear: that of the tongue is several — namely to speak, to discern harmful food from beneficial, to taste, to chew, and to convey it into the stomach. Whence Varro thinks the tongue is so called from binding (ligare) food. So Lactantius, On the Workmanship of God, chapter 10.

Finally, talkative and chattering are children and women, in whom there is less of reason, wisdom and brains; but wiser and more discerning men are sparing of speech. Garrulity therefore is a sign of folly or of lesser judgment (κρίσις); silence, on the contrary, of wisdom and of polished judgment. Whence some also derive "fatuus" (fool) from "fari" (to speak), because he longs to speak and blurts out anything. For, as the Wise Man says, Proverbs 17:27: "He that ruleth his words is learned and prudent, and a man of precious spirit (namely, who knows how to restrain his spirit, lest he break forth into rash words; or whose words are precious, that is, rare and mature), an erudite man: even a fool, if he keep silent, shall be reckoned wise;" and Proverbs 29:20: "Hast thou seen a man hasty to speak? folly is rather to be looked for than his correction;" and Ecclus. 21:29: "In the mouth of fools is their heart, and in the heart of the wise is their mouth," so that they may not open their mouths except after the heart has been consulted. Hence those who instruct boys teach them to hear much and to speak little, says Plutarch, On the Duty of a Hearer. He also concludes the treatise: "The novitiate of right living," he says, "is to hear well." So also the Wise Man, Proverbs 1:8: "Hear, my son," he says, "the instruction of thy father," etc., and adds the fruit: "That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain to thy neck." Furthermore, the most difficult of all things are to keep silent and to hear, says Gellius, Book I, chapter 9. Truly St. Bernard, On the Interior House, 50: "To speak much," he says, "is folly: it is called the tongue (lingua), because it licks (lingit) by flattering, bites by detracting, kills by lying. It binds, and cannot be bound; it is slippery, and cannot be held, but slips and deceives. It slips like an eel, penetrates like an arrow; with one stroke it strikes and kills many."

Seventh, this manner of wisdom was taught by all the ancient wise men, both pagan and Christian. Take a few select examples of pagans out of many. Apollodorus used to say that "the best men in speak-

ing are the briefest," says Stobaeus, sermon 34. Who also adds: Zeno the philosopher, hearing an adolescent who was too garrulous, said: "This man's ears have flowed into his tongue," signifying that it belongs to the adolescent to hear much and speak little: and therefore he had only one mouth and two ears. The same to another foolish-talker: "Unless," he said, "you have discoursed with the tongue dipped in mind, you will offend by speaking much more." He also used to say that of his disciples some were φιλολόγους, that is, students of reason and knowledge; while others were λογοφίλους, that is, only desirous of speaking.

Theocritus, hearing Anaximenes, said: "There begins a river of words, but only a drop of mind," signifying that he was loquacious but had little wisdom.

Democrates used to say that it is a kind of avarice to wish to say everything and to hear nothing. All these things Stobaeus reports, sermon 34.

Demosthenes at a banquet to one who was speaking much: "If you had been as wise as you are talkative," he said, "you would never have spoken so much." The same, asked why we have one tongue but two ears: "Because," he said, "we ought to hear twice as much as we speak." So Maximus, sermon 47.

Isocrates from Careon, a loquacious disciple, "demanded a double fee. One," he said, "that you may learn to speak; the other, that you may learn to be silent." Same place.

Nicostratus used to say: "If to speak much and rapidly without restraint were a sign of wisdom, the swallows would be said to be far wiser than we." Same place.

Xenocrates, silent amid revilings, when asked the reason, said: "Because I have sometimes regretted having spoken, but never having been silent." The same, when asked about obscene matters, kept silent; when pressed for the reason he said: "It becomes you to ask such things, but not me to answer." So Maximus, sermon 31.

Solon, to one who said that he did not speak because he was mad, replied: "The fool cannot keep silent."

Plato, when the tyrant Dionysius asked whether at Athens they spoke of him, replied: "The philosophers at Athens are never so unoccupied, nor do they treat of so vile a matter, that they have leisure to speak of Dionysius;" freely lashing his life and tyranny. So Fulgosius, Book VI.

Paucity of words was characteristic of the Lacedaemonians, whence brevity of speech is called Laconism. So when the Abderites' envoy made no end of speaking before Agis and demanded a reply, Agis answered: "Report this to your people: as much time as you needed to speak, just so much I, in silence, was listening." Thus he reproached him with loquacity, on the testimony of Plutarch in his Laconica.

The same Lacedaemonians said to the loquacious envoys of the Samians: "We have forgotten the first things, and we have not understood the last, because we do not remember the first." Same place.

Laebotus said to one prolix in his discourse: "Why do you weave for me long preambles about a trifling matter?"

A Spartan said of the nightingale: "You are a voice, and nothing besides." You may say the same to the chatterer; and yet the nightingale is called philomela, because she sings while mourning. Hear Martial, Book XIV:

The nightingale weeps the wickedness of incestuous Tereus; and she who Was a mute girl, is now reputed a chattering bird.

In the same place Charillus, when asked why Lycurgus had given so few laws to the Lacedaemonians, said: "Because for those who speak little, few laws are also needed;" evidently sensing that most evils arise from much speaking. Same place.

Take the faithful and Christians: the Spouse, the Church, hears from Christ the Bridegroom in Psalm 44:11: "Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: and forget thy people and thy father's house. And the king shall greatly desire thy beauty; for he is the Lord thy God." Deuteronomy 27:9: "Attend and hear, O Israel;" the Septuagint: "Hear, O Israel, be silent" — a most beautiful precept which Philo calls so in his book Who is the Heir of Divine Things. St. John the Baptist, John 3:29, calls himself the friend of the Bridegroom (Christ), who "stands and hears Him, and rejoices with joy because of the voice of the Bridegroom."

St. Gregory Nazianzen, epistle 98 to Cledonius: "By speech," he says, "we are silent, that we may learn the things which need to be spoken;" and epistle 102 to Eulalius: "You devote yourself to solitude and immoderate fasting; I, to silence." St. Ambrose, Book I Of Offices, chapter 2: "The Law," he says, "says: Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God. It does not say: Speak, but Hear. Therefore Eve fell, because she spoke to her husband what she had not heard from the Lord her God. The first voice of God says to thee: Hear, if thou hearest, keep thy ways; and if thou hast fallen, quickly correct it. Be silent therefore first and hear, and thou wilt not offend with thy tongue."

St. Basil in a monastery cultivated silence for thirteen years, wholly devoted to the reading of Sacred Scripture and to prayer: for silence is the nourishment of the word, as St. Gregory teaches, homily 12 on Ezekiel; who also in Book V of the Morals, chapter 8, says: "To be silent is to restrain the mind from the voice of earthly desires, that it may be lifted up to things above," according to that of Psalm 45: "Be still, and see, for I am God." Tertullian is strict and concise in style, and therefore sinewy and efficacious, equally with St. Jerome.

St. Augustine, on Psalm 51: "Just as," he says, "you choose what you eat, so choose what you speak." The same on Psalm 139, explaining the verse "A man full of tongue shall not be established": "What sort," he says, "ought a servant of God to be? such that he would rather choose to hear than to speak; as it is written: Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak. And, if it can be done, let him desire this — not to have the necessity of speaking and teaching; but to hear Him to whom it is said: To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness. But let him have within, in his will, the joy of taciturnity, and the voice of teaching only in case of necessity." And presently: "Why do you wish to speak, and not to hear? You always go forth outside; you refuse to return within. For He who teaches you is within: when you teach, you as it were go forth outside

to those who are outside." Whence he concludes: "slow to wrath, slow to speak." First, as it were suggesting a remedy for slowness of speech, as if to say: Do you wish to be slow to speak? Be slow to wrath. For commonly the rashness of the tongue arises from rashness of mind, which anger begets; and conversely rashness of the tongue begets quarrels, wraths, and brawls: just as on the opposite side slowness of speech makes a man slow to anger. Secondly, because, as St. Gregory says (Moralia, Book V, ch. xxx): "Through anger wisdom is lost, so that what should be done and in what order is utterly unknown: because indeed it withdraws the light of understanding, since by stirring up the mind it confounds it." The Wise Man teaches the same, Ecclesiastes VII, 10: "Be not swift to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of a fool." For the most efficacious remedy of anger is the postponement of vengeance, or of any deed conceived in anger, says Seneca, Book III, On Anger, ch. 1. Whence Athenodorus the philosopher, on departing, gave this last admonition to Augustus Caesar: "When angry, say or do nothing before you have recited the whole alphabet," as Plutarch attests in his Life of Augustus. More wisely St. Ambrose, when the Emperor Theodosius, moved by anger (though in part just), had ordered the Thessalonians to be slain, prescribed that he should make a law forbidding those condemned by him to death to be punished before thirty days had elapsed from the passing of sentence. Thus indeed God has feet of wool but hands of iron; for He proceeds with slow foot to vengeance, but when He comes, He punishes sharply, and compensates the slowness of vengeance by its weight.

Excellently St. Gregory, in Book V of the Morals, ch. xxx, recounting the damages of anger: "Through anger," he says, "the grace of social life is lost, concord is broken, the law of truth is lost, the splendor of the Holy Spirit is excluded; the heart, kindled by the goads of anger, palpitates, the body trembles, the tongue stumbles, the face flames, the eyes are inflamed, and friends are by no means recognized;" and Cassian, Conference XVI, ch. xxvii: "Such," he says, "is the nature of anger, that when delayed it grows faint and perishes, but when given vent it blazes more and more. Therefore the heart must be dilated and enlarged, lest, constricted by the narrowness of pusillanimity, it be filled with the turbulent surges of wrath;" and a little before he teaches that anger must be conquered not by flight, but by embrace of him with whom we are angry. "For unless," he says, "the wrath of one's neighbor is overcome at once by humble satisfaction, by fleeing one provokes it rather than turns it aside." The same, Book VIII On the Institutes of Renunciation, ch. vi, teaches that anger was given to us that we might be angry at vices, and destroy them. Whence Gregory Nazianzen in the poem On Anger: "I am angry," he says, "at the demon of anger lodged within;" because anger out of a man makes a beast — say a lion, a tiger, a serpent, indeed a devil; so that the angry and raging man seems not to be a man, but a demon incarnate.

I have set forth the remedies by which anger must be conquered at Ephesians IV, 25. See more in St. Basil, Seneca and Plutarch, treatise On Anger; Cassian, throughout Book VIII On the Institutes of Renunciation; and St. Gregory, Book V of the Morals, ch. xxx, on that passage of Job v: "Anger kills the foolish man;" and St. Ambrose, Book I of Offices, xxi, 21, among other things says: "Let tranquility of conduct, by a certain habitual disposition of feeling, be turned into nature; let anger be repressed by reason; if it has anticipated the mind, do not leave your place. Your place is patience, your place is wisdom, your place is reason, your place is the calming of indignation. If you cannot mitigate the mind, restrain the tongue." And further on: "If you are angry, do not sin, but conquer anger by reason. Or certainly thus: If you are angry, be angry with yourselves, because you have been moved, and you will not sin. For he who is angry with himself, because he was quickly moved, ceases to be angry with another: but he who wishes to prove his anger just, is more inflamed, and quickly falls into fault. But better, according to Solomon, is he who restrains his wrath than he who takes a city: because anger seizes even the strong." For Solomon says, Proverbs xvi, 32: "Better is the patient man than the strong man; and he who rules his spirit is mightier than the conqueror of cities."

AND SLOW TO WRATH. — That anger, swift and overbearing, may not anticipate, and drag down with itself reason and will headlong; but follow them slowly as a handmaid, and not put forth its sting except when commanded, where some arduous work demands anger as the whetstone of virtue. St. James joins "slow"

to wrath, alluding to Ecclesiasticus I, 28: "He that is without fear," in Greek ἀνὴρ θυμώδης, that is, a spirited man, bold and irascible (for boldness, and anger akin to it, is opposed to fear, as the moral philosophers teach), will not be able to be justified: for the wrath of that boldness, is the overthrow of it." Anger therefore extinguishes in the soul of the angry man all patience, humanity, charity, justice, etc.

Verse 20: For the Wrath of Man Does Not Work the Justice of God

20. FOR THE WRATH OF MAN DOES NOT WORK THE JUSTICE OF GOD. — For God judges without anger, with tranquility, Wisdom XII, 18. Whence St. Clement, Book II of Constitutions, ch. xxxvii: "Where there is anger," he says, "there the Lord is not, but the friend of Satan." Hence Elijah, angry with the worshippers of Baal, saw God not in the form of a whirlwind, but of a gentle breeze, which is the symbol of meekness and a placid and serene spirit, III Kings xix, 12. He names "justice" above other virtues, because anger puts on the name and pretext of justice: for the angry man thinks and asserts that he is demanding the just punishment of a crime and an injury inflicted on him. Therefore anger veils and cloaks itself under the appearance of justice.

Now various authors here give various meanings. First, Cajetan: as if to say, God for the working and exercising of justice has appointed not anger, but judges: let them therefore exercise justice and just vengeance, not anger or the angry man, even though he could and might have the strength to avenge himself.

Secondly, Abbot Nilus, treatise On Anger, explains: as if to say, Anger does not love, but hates justice, and therefore so far from working justice, it works injustice, savagery, and cruelty: for it is a μείωσις (litotes): for less is said, but more is signified.

Thirdly, St. Jerome, Book II Against the Pelagians: "The wrath of God," he says, "is just and works justice, because God's wrath is quiet and led by reason: for in God anger is nothing other than the appetite of justice and just vengeance; but the wrath of man is unjust, because it proceeds from a disturbed mind."

Fourthly, St. Gregory, Book V of the Morals, ch. xxx: "The wrath of man," he says, "works not justice, because while the disturbed mind aggravates the judgment of its reason, it deems right whatever fury suggests." Anger therefore substitutes fury for justice, and reckons it to be justice, because it is so blind and blinds the mind that it perceives one of two contraries for the other: as if someone with disturbed sight should perceive what is white as black, and vice versa.

Fifthly, genuinely and adequately "justice" here is taken generally for any virtue, as if to say: Anger does not work what is just, equitable, consonant with reason, and holy, but commits many things against meekness, charity, patience, prudence, equity, and the other virtues, which Christian justice demands and embraces. St. James alludes to

Rightly St. Thomas, Part III, Question XV, article 9, reply 1, asking whether there was anger in Christ, since St. James says anger does not work justice, replies that anger is properly said to work, when it anticipates reason and drags it along with itself to act: it is otherwise when it follows reason and is its instrument, as it was in Christ and the Saints. "Anger," he says, "is found in two ways in man; for sometimes it anticipates reason, and draws it along with itself to action, and then anger is properly said to work: for the operation is attributed to the principal agent. And according to this is understood that the wrath of man does not work the justice of God. But sometimes anger follows reason, and is as it were its instrument; and then the operation which belongs to justice is attributed not to anger, but to reason;" which anger uses, as it were, as the whetstone of the soul for an arduous work, v. 7. of just vengeance. St. Thomas took this from St. Gregory, who in Book VII, letter 126, to Reccared, King of the Goths, admonishing him not to mix anger into governing: "Care must be taken," he says, "that anger does not creep in. Let not everything that is permitted be done quickly. For anger, when it punishes the faults of offenders, ought not to go before as mistress, but to serve behind the back of reason as a handmaid, so that, when commanded, she may come to the front; for if she once seizes the mind, she reckons even what she has done cruelly to be just. For hence it is written: The wrath of man does not work the justice of God." On the contrary, of St. Moses it is said in Ecclesiasticus XLV, 4: "In his faith and meekness He sanctified him, and chose him out of all flesh." Thus St. Augustine, letter 75 to Auxilius, a young bishop, who out of anger seemed to have rashly pronounced sentence of excommunication on Classicianus; admonishes him to pray, and to cry out to God: "My eye is troubled with anger: have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; that He may stretch out His right hand, and check thy wrath, and tranquillize thy mind to see and do justice. For as it is written: The wrath of man does not work the justice of God." Thus St. Ambrose, Book I of Offices, ch. xxi, praises the philosopher Archytas, because he said to his bailiff: "O wretched fellow, how I would have afflicted you had I not been angry! But also David checked his armed right hand in indignation: and the warriors who were prepared for vengeance against Nabal, by Abigail's entreaty

had recalled, I Kings xxv. The same Ambrose, On the Death of the Emperor Theodosius, praises him for his mastery over anger, saying: "He thought himself beneficent, and was then closer to pardon when there had been a greater commotion of wrath. It was a prerogative of forgiving to have been indignant, and what was feared in others was desired in him, namely that he should grow angry." The same in Book II of Offices, ch. vii: "David," he says, "was strong in battle, gentle in command, patient under reproach, more ready to bear injuries than to repay them. Therefore he was so dear to all that as a young man he was even sought for the kingdom against his will, was forced to it though resisting; as an old man he was begged by his men not to take part in battle, because all preferred to risk themselves for him rather than him for all."

Verse 21: Casting Away All Uncleanness, Receive the Engrafted Word

21. WHEREFORE, CASTING AWAY ALL UNCLEANNESS AND ABUNDANCE OF MALICE, RECEIVE WITH MEEKNESS THE ENGRAFTED WORD. — Many refer this to anger, of which there was just now discussion, as if to say: That you may cast off anger, cast off unclean desires: for these, while they are loved, stir up wraths and brawls against those who likewise covet them and strive to seize them from us or seize them before us. Others say: Since anger works not justice but injustice and all iniquity, for this reason cast it off; because it makes the soul unclean and defiles it, stirring up motions of ambition, avarice, envy, luxury, and all desires; but especially of malice and malignity, such as hatred, vengeance, calumny, homicide, etc.

More fittingly we shall refer this to all the preceding, even the more remote, and especially to verse 18, where he said: "Of His own will He begot us by the word of truth;" for this is what he here calls "the engrafted word that can save souls," as if to say: Since we have been regenerated by the word of truth and made sons of God, let us be eager to guard and preserve this regeneration, this new life and divine filiation, and therefore let us cast off all uncleanness and malice, which either stain it, or weaken it, or destroy it. Furthermore, by the name "uncleanness" he looks to concupiscence, by which he said we are tempted and drawn to death, vv. 14 and 15; but by the name "malice" he looks to anger, against which he had immediately before warned us: for both concupiscence and anger are at war with divine filiation and the new life of Christians.

For "uncleanness" the Greek is ῥυπαρία, that is, filth, dirt, dregs, refuse, mould, squalor, defilement, foulness: but when transferred to the mind, it means avarice, an illiberal, sparing, and sordid spirit. Hence ῥυπαρὸς means sordid, filthy, illiberal, avaricious. Properly therefore St. James here censures avarice: for this stirs up wraths, quarrels and brawls; and this was the first temptation of the Christians: for while for the faith of Christ they suffered from the Jews and Gentiles persecution and plunder of their goods, avarice tempted them to preserve those goods, not only to impatience, but also either to deny the faith or at least to dissemble it. He therefore touches the source and root of the temptation of which he treated extensively at the beginning, that by cutting it off he may cut off the temptation. As if to say: O Christians, suffer the spoiling of your goods for Christ's sake: despise them, and tear out from your soul all desire and avarice for them: so will you easily endure this whole persecution; so will you stand firm and constant in the faith, the grace, and the new generation of Christ, which you freely received; for it belongs to ῥυπαρία and a sordid mind to retain perishing goods and lose faith, grace, the soul, and God Himself. Thus today the avaricious perish, who, in order to gain a few pennies, denarii, or pieces of gold, deceive, defraud, perjure themselves, neglect the holy Office of Mass on a feast day, and violate other laws of God. For these for a penny or denarius, like Judas, sell Christ — that is, Christ's law, grace, friendship, their own conscience, and eternal life. Whence rightly the Apostle said of it, I Timothy v. 10: "The root of all evils is covetousness," in Greek φιλαργυρία, that is, desire for money, or avarice. In this sense "uncleanness" can be taken, as Our translator renders it, for the filth of avarice; so that to cast off all uncleanness is the same as to cast off all the filth of avarice. Furthermore, this avarice has place not only in wealth, but in any other thing, as I shall presently say at greater length.

Yet secondly ῥυπαρία, that is, filth, can signify luxury, gluttony, and all carnal vices, which are properly called "uncleanness," because they are in themselves filthy, and they defile both body and mind, according to the Apostle's word, I Corinthians vi, 18: "Every sin that a man commits is outside the body: but he who fornicates sins against his own body." So by "uncleanness" Bede, Thomas Anglicus, Salmeron and others everywhere take it as the vices of the flesh. Excellently Clement of Alexandria, Oration to the Gentiles: "I," he says, "have learned to tread the earth, not to worship it."

AND ABUNDANCE OF MALICE. — Wrongly Beza translates: and the excrement of malice; for περισσεία means abundance, not excrement. You will ask: What is this malice? First, some take it as excessive solicitude for temporal things, which Christ, wishing to root out from the souls of the faithful, says, Matthew vi, 34: "Sufficient unto the day is the malice (evil) thereof," that is, "its" solicitude and affliction. For this solicitude inflames anger, impatience, and is the cause of the other temptations of which St. James treated.

Secondly, others render "malice" as timidity, cowardice, reproach, disgrace: for the Greek κακία means this in Thucydides and Demosthenes, as if to say: Cast off excessive timidity and cowardice as a great reproach and disgrace; for this makes you yield to persecution, lose patience, betray the faith. Thus Catharinus.

Thirdly, others properly take "malice" as a mind that is evil, depraved, deceitful, cunning, double, proud, eager to harm. Thus Hugh by "abundance of malice" understands an abundant depravity of the heart, but a hidden one; which is therefore called abundant,

because "simulated equity is twofold iniquity." So also the Interlinear Gloss: "Abundance of malice," it says, "is the interior depravity peculiar to the wicked who abound in riches, especially the desire for vengeance," says Lyranus.

Fourthly, κακία, that is malice, can be taken for κακίωσις, that is, malignity, evil-speaking and ill-doing, by which one becomes a slanderer and calumniator, and harasses and disturbs others. Thus the painter Callimachus was called κακιζότεχνος, as it were κακίζων τὴν τέχνην, that is, slandering, disapproving, accusing his own art and painting, of whom Pliny, Book XXXIV, ch. ix: "Of all," he says, "the most remarkable is Callimachus, his own calumniator, who never had an end of diligence: for which reason he was called κακιζότεχνος, a memorable example of applying due measure to one's care." Of such κακιζότεχνοι there are many, who criticize, carp at, condemn, despise everything: thus they create troubles for all, and hatreds and quarrels for themselves. Wherefore Hugh says that uncleanness is in depraved thought, malice in perverse will, abundance of malice in iniquitous action.

Fifthly, Oecumenius and Bede by "abundance of malice" understand the habit, custom, obstinacy, and settled purpose of sinning.

Sixthly, Cajetan, Serarius and Salmeron take "malice" generally for any vice by which the will is kindled to evil; and therefore it is called "abundance of malice," because indeed malice abounds, nay overflows, to the destruction of others.

Seventhly, others hold that "abundance of malice" is here added by way of exaggeration: for it means the same as "uncleanness," but aggravates and exaggerates it: for the Gentiles were given over to uncleanness and luxury, and therefore abounded in malice.

All these meanings are probable, but the more probable, and more congruent with our Latin version, seem to be the third and fourth. Where note that "abundance of malice" is here forbidden by James, not as if a small measure of malice were allowed; but inasmuch as "abundance" signifies a property of malice itself, as if to say: Cast off malice, because of its very nature and character it boils up, abounds and overflows into every evil; for as new wine boils up and continually throws off foam and dregs, so malice ever boils, belches forth and suggests all sorts of evil thoughts, speeches and actions, and all frauds and arts of doing harm. Thus the sin of malice is opposed to the sin of infirmity or frailty; for theologians distinguish sin in respect of its cause into three species: for one is committed out of ignorance, another out of infirmity, another out of malice.

Finally, Emmanuel Sa, and Maldonatus in his Notes on the New Testament, which I saw and read at the Roman College, hold that there is here a Hebraism, so that "abundance of malice" means the same as "abundance of evils," that is, whatever evilly abounds, every superfluity. For this is what περισσεία κακίας signifies; for περισσεία is superfluity, redundancy, exuberance and all that exceeds measure, namely an excess that transgresses the limits of honesty and reason; and so it is rightly opposed to ῥυπαρία: for these are the two extremes, and therefore vicious, namely ῥυπαρία and περισσεία, that is, avarice and superfluity, parsimony and prodigality, against which St. James warns, that the mean in which virtue consists be kept; as if to say: Be not sparing nor prodigal; be not sordid and avaricious, nor superfluous and lavish in your wealth, expenses, household, deeds and any other things; but in all things keep the golden mean, and a heart free from every vicious affection as much as from defect, that it may be capable of the divine seed and may readily receive the engrafted word of salvation. This sense is very congruent, vigorous and coherent. Where note, that the τὸ κακίας can be referred both to ῥυπαρίας and to περισσείας, as if to say: Beware of every evil, as well avarice and tenacity, as abundance and superfluity: for to both are good things opposed, both tenacity and abundance — for instance, tenacity of truth is good, just as abundance of liberality or alms is good. Therefore St. James teaches that malice and vice consist in the extremes, namely in excess and defect; but goodness and virtue in the middle, namely in moderation and the mean: and therefore all sprouts and fibers of malice must be torn from our heart, that virtue may be engrafted in it; namely, that the seed of the divine word may be engrafted in it, may cleave, take root, and germinate and produce the fruits of good works.

WITH MEEKNESS. — He opposes "meekness" to malice: for meekness makes the heart docile and capable of the seed of the divine word, of which malice makes it incapable and indocile, according to Ecclesiasticus v, 13: "Be meek to hear the word, that you may understand, and bring forth a true answer with wisdom." For meekness is serenity, tranquility, and clarity of mind, which easily takes hold of wisdom and discerns all that is true: whence it is itself, as it were, limpid water, or a polished mirror, in which the images of things are clearly perceived; on the contrary, malice and anger are the disturbance, tumult, tempest and obscurity of the mind: hence it is like turbid water and a mirror covered with dust, in which nothing can be seen rightly, especially because, just as the inseparable companion of malice and anger is pride, so the companion and ally of meekness is humility, which is the necessary and best disposition for wisdom and so deserves to receive it from God by begging. Moreover, St. James requires meekness as the mother of patience, which was necessary to the faithful of that age in such great persecutions and tribulations; which therefore he earnestly commended to them in v. 1 and following.

RECEIVE, — that is, retain what has been received; for the act signified is not one begun, but continued and perfected. For he is speaking to the faithful who had already received the word of faith, whom he admonishes to preserve it studiously, to increase and promote it.

THE ENGRAFTED WORD. — Wrongly Oecumenius renders λόγον

as "reason," which is opposed to anger: for the matter here is the "word," not "reason"; whence the Syriac translates, "the word which is engrafted in our nature," Greek ἔμφυτον, which Oecumenius and Vatablus render "natural, native, true, not feigned," as in Wisdom XII, 10, where on the contrary it is called ἔμφυτος πονηρία, the natural malice of the obstinate. Better other commentators here generally translate ἔμφυτον as "implanted, inserted, engrafted," as happens when the branch of one tree is inserted into another, and, as farmers say, is "inoculated" or "implastrated," which the Greeks and Latins call emphyteusis. For thus Alemus engrafts a branch of pear into an apple tree, and through it produces pears. In a similar way the word of God, faith, and graces are engrafted into our will as a divine shoot and branch, and through it our will produces the supernatural works of faith, hope, charity, patience, martyrdom, and the other virtues. Where note that τὸ "engrafted" signifies that the word of God, faith, and grace are not connatural to us, but from elsewhere, namely engrafted divinely, and therefore are gratuitous and supernatural. Secondly, the works of faith and grace are not so much to be attributed to the will, as to faith and grace: from the will they receive only liberty, namely that they are vital, human and free works; but from faith and grace they receive their dignity and species, namely that they are supernatural works of faith, charity and grace: just as an apple tree, when through an engrafted branch of pear it produces pears, even though it communicates its own sap to it; nevertheless that it produces pears, not apples, must be ascribed to the engrafted branch of pear, not to itself. Elsewhere St. Paul and Scripture conversely say that we are engrafted into Christ, as if Christ were the tree, into which we are engrafted as branches or shoots, that from Him we may suck life, sap, and the vigor of grace, according to Romans vi, 5: "If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also of His resurrection;" and I John iv, 16: "He who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him." Thus St. Paul, Romans xi, 17, says that the unbelieving and impious Gentiles, like wild olives, have through faith and grace been engrafted into the good olive tree, namely into Christ, that they may produce sweet and rich olives of charity and good works.

You will ask, what is this "engrafted word" which St. James commands to be received by us? The Council of Vienne replies, first, that it is Christ, or the Word incarnate: for this, if we receive Him by faith and grace, will save us: for His incarnation is most like the engrafting or inoculation of trees. For first, just as into a wilder or more sterile tree there is wont to be engrafted a shoot of a better and more fruitful tree, that through it it may lay aside its wild sterility and produce better and more abundant fruits: so into our flesh and barren and sterile humanity, in the garden of the womb of the Blessed Virgin, by the working of the Holy Spirit, was engrafted the divine Word, that from humanity and divinity might be made one hypostasis, one suppositum, as it were one tree, which through the branch of the divine Word produced divine, sweetest, and best fruits; conversely it can be said that the humanity, as a branch, was engrafted in Christ into the Word and divinity as into the tree and trunk. For the Deity and divine hypostasis sustains the humanity and human nature in Christ, but not vice versa does the human hypostasis sustain the divine — for this was the error of Nestorius.

Secondly, just as a branch is cut off from one tree that it may be engrafted into another: so Christ, descending into the flesh, was as it were taken away and cut off from the bosom of the Father, that He might be transplanted from the heavenly paradise into the earthly one.

Thirdly, just as a branch of the tree into which the engrafting is to be made is cut off beforehand, that another and better may be inserted into it: so from the humanity of Christ the human and created hypostasis was taken away and as it were cut off, that the divine hypostasis might be communicated to it and as it were engrafted.

Fourthly, just as a branch engrafted into a tree grows together with it, and becomes one tree: so the humanity engrafted into the Word grew together with It into one and the same Person.

Fifthly, just as a branch is bound to a tree that it may coalesce: so the divinity is bound to the humanity by the bond of the hypostatic union. Excellently St. Bernard, Sermon 3 On the Vigil of the Nativity: "Nothing," he says, "is more sublime than God, nothing more vile than mud, and yet with such great condescension God descended into the mud, and with such great dignity the mud ascended to God, that whatever in Him God did, the mud is believed to have done; whatever the mud bore, God in it is said to have borne."

Sixthly, just as in spring when the south wind blows, when trees sweat and burst forth into buds, the engrafting of branches is to be done: so the Incarnation of the Word took place in spring, namely on the 25th day of March, on which the world was created, that He might repair and renew it.

Hence secondly, some by "engrafted word" understand the Eucharist. For in it Christ is really and substantially engrafted and as it were inoculated into us, into our stomach and mind; but in such a way that He rather converts us into Himself, than He is converted into our substance and quality, as St. Augustine says. But this is mystical, not literal.

Others by "engrafted word" understand Christ fastened to the cross. For the tree of the cross was a wild and sterile wood; according to that saying: "Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree," Galatians ch. III, v. 13. But Christ was a generous and fruitful shoot, according to Isaiah IV, 2: "In that day shall the bud of the Lord be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be high." This shoot therefore was by nails engrafted and bound into the cross, and then the cross brought forth most abundant fruits to the world, according to Jeremiah xxxiii, 15: "I will make to spring forth from David a bud of justice." But this sense is accommodated and homiletical, not the genuine one.

Thirdly, "engrafted word" is the Word of God, namely Holy Scripture and the Gospel. So Bede, the Gloss,

Sasbout, Catharinus, and Cajetan. It is called "engrafted," to distinguish it from what is connatural, namely from the light of reason engendered in us by nature. Whence St. Thomas, explaining Ephesians ch. vi, 18, "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God": "Preaching," he says, "is called the sword of the Spirit, because it does not penetrate even to the spirit unless it be directed by the Holy Spirit." It is therefore called "engrafted," because through the preaching of the Apostles and the faith of the hearers it is engrafted and inspired into the souls of believers by the Holy Spirit.

Where note the apt analogies between the inoculation of a shoot into a tree and the engrafting of the word into the soul. For many conditions are to be observed in the engrafting of trees, which Columella lists in Book V, ch. xi; Varro, Book I On Country Matters; Pliny, Book XVII, ch. xiv, and others. The first is: just as a branch is inserted into a tree by engrafting, so Christ is implanted into the mind by preaching and faith. The second: just as the native branch is cut off that another and better may be inserted, so in the Old Law the flesh of the foreskin was circumcised, that the faithful might be engrafted into the Church and grace of God: but in the New Law the soul is circumcised by cutting away sins and vices, that the faith and grace of God may be engrafted into the mind. The third: that the branch of one tree may be conveniently inserted into another, it must be like it in bark: so Christ is engrafted into us, because in outward appearance and as it were in bark, namely in humanity, He is like us. The fourth: the branch must be split to the marrow, that another shoot may be inserted and glued to it: so the soul must be split to the heart and its inmost recess by the love of Christ, that Christ Himself may be engrafted and inoculated into it, and, so to speak, encordiated and most intimately united, just as in turn He was pierced and transfixed to the heart on the cross, that He might be united to our heart. Whence in Canticles ch. IV, v. 9, it says: "You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse," where for "You have wounded" the Hebrew has לכבתני libbathani, that is, "You have taken away my heart, You have transfixed my heart, You have un-hearted me": for the lover must give his heart to the beloved, that, just as in the inoculation of a branch its marrow is united to the marrow of the tree, so the heart of the lover may be united and engrafted to the heart of the beloved. The fifth: the branch engrafted into the tree must be bound to it with ox-dung and clay, and protected against cold and heat: so by meditation on our dung and clay, that is, on human misery, death, and the last things, the soul must be bound to Christ, and protected against all temptations of sloth, gluttony, luxury, and other vices. The sixth: the engrafting of trees is to be done in spring, when the south wind blows: so spiritual engrafting is best done in youth and the flowering age, when the Holy Spirit breathes upon us. For youth is pliable and receives every engrafting: but old age, if it has grown old nourished in vices, with difficulty puts off ingrained habits and vices, and therefore it is most difficult to engraft opposite virtues into it. The seventh: shoots to be engrafted are to be cut off from a tree of three years; likewise from new branches that face the East, and these are to be engrafted into branches of the other tree that likewise face the East: so the word of God is to be implanted in the soul and drawn

from the Holy Trinity and from Christ, whose name is the East, Zechariah vi, 12; and conversely it is to be engrafted into the soul toward the East, that is, into its upper part, by which it looks to heaven and heavenly things, and desires a new and spiritual life. The eighth: just as a wild tree, which before produced nothing, or nothing but wild plums, by the inoculation of a pear-shoot produces sweet and savory pears: so an uncultivated soul, riotous with desires, which before produced nothing but works of gluttony, luxury, pride, etc., by the engrafting of the word and grace of God produces the sweetest pears of sobriety, chastity, humility, charity, etc.: thus Clement of Alexandria, Book VI of the Stromata, vi, where he lists four species of bodily engrafting, and mystically applies them to as many species of spiritual engrafting. The ninth: an inserted branch, as it were marries the branch and tree into which it is inserted, and binds it to itself by the closest bond of marriage: so Christ through the word of God betroths to Himself the faithful soul, according to II Corinthians xi, 2: "I have espoused you to one Husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ." Again, the inserted branch, as it were, adopts the other branch into which it is inserted, according to that line of Ovid, Book I On the Remedies of Love:

When the time of engrafting comes, see that branch adopts branch.

Thus Christ through the word, faith, and grace adopts us to Himself as sons and heirs. The tenth: just as the engrafted branch firmly cleaves to the other into which it is inserted, and so becomes one and the same with it: so Christ through faith and grace is firmly coupled and united to our soul, so that unless He is cast off and cut away by a hostile will, He remains perpetually joined and as it were conjugally united to the soul. The eleventh: engrafting is to a tree as a kind of cultivation: for it makes it better, makes it draw a better and more refined sap, and thence produce better fruit: so the engrafting of faith and grace cultivates, renews, polishes the animal soul, that it may imbibe and put on heavenly sap, and thence produce heavenly actions. Hence learn how useful it is to hear, read, ruminate on the word of God: for so by engrafting it into the mind, we renew it and make it heavenly, that all its sap, that is, thought and affection, and its fruit, that is, action, may be spiritual and heavenly: just as on the contrary to read, hear, ruminate on words vain, carnal, lascivious, evil-speaking, makes a man vain, carnal, lascivious, evil-speaking. Whence St. Ambrose, Book IX on Luke, ch. xx: "As a tender shoot," he says, "cut from an old tree is engrafted into the offspring of another root: so the holy people, the scars of the old shoot being smoothed away, grows up in that new wood of the cross as if cherished in the bosom of a pious parent, and the Holy Spirit poured into this prison-like body, as if let down into deep trenches of the earth, washes away with the irrigation of saving water whatever is foul, and raises the disposition of our members to heavenly discipline."

Mystically you may easily adapt all these things to the inspired word of God, that is, to the divine inspiration: this

for the Holy Spirit inserts it into the mind, and so the word of God is preached in vain outwardly by preachers, unless the Holy Spirit preaches it inwardly and inserts it into the mind; whether He inspires and inserts it into the mind through an outward preacher, or by Himself alone inwardly, matters little: for in either case the savor and the fruit are the same. For it passes into our nature, and makes us bear fruit unto God, as Thomas the Englishman says.

WHICH IS ABLE TO SAVE (Syriac: to give life to) YOUR SOULS, — namely, to regenerate them, and to bestow on them a new birth, and that a supernatural one, here through grace, hereafter through glory. St. James looks back to what he said in verse 18: " For of His own will He hath begotten us by the word of truth; " for the word of truth is the word implanted in our soul by the Holy Spirit, to accomplish this divine generation, which is wrought through the remission of sins, the infusion of righteousness, and sanctification, which we can and ought daily to renew and increase. This is what Paul says in Romans I, 16: " For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; " and chapter X, verse 10: " With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. " See what is said there. Furthermore, the word of God saves the soul not by faith alone in believing it, as the heretics would have it; but by obeying it, by fulfilling it in deed and life, and especially by suffering many things for it, as did the first faithful and Martyrs. That this is so St. James teaches when he adds:

Verse 22: Be Doers of the Word, and Not Hearers Only

22. BUT BE YE DOERS OF THE WORD, AND NOT HEARERS ONLY. — As if to say: What I said, " Receive the engrafted word, " I understand thus: not only that you hear and believe it, but also that you carry it out in deed. " For to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin, " says St. James, chap. IV, v. 17; and Christ, in Luke XI, 28: " Blessed, He says, are they that hear the word of God, and keep it; " and so " Jesus began first to do, and then to teach, " Acts I, 1. For in Christ " knowledge was the rule of living, life was the rule of speaking. " He did not know more excellently than He lived more holily; nor did He teach greater things than He did. All the Saints have imitated Christ as their leader. So St. Paul: " Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ, " I Cor. XI, 1. St. Gregory, in homily 29 on the Gospels, replying to one who says, " I have already believed, therefore I shall be saved, " responds: " He speaks truly, if he holds his faith by works: for true faith is that which does not contradict in conduct what it says in words. Hence it is that Paul says of certain false believers, to Titus I: They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him. " Hence John says, Epistle I, chap. II: " He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar. For we are then truly faithful, if what we promise in words we fulfill in works. " St. Augustine, in his Sermon On Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: " The scope, he says, of Christian religion is, that what we have learned from the doctrine of truth, we should fulfill in deed. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. " Vigorously Nazianzen, Oration 27: " Work is stronger than speech. " And St. Bernard to Pope Eugenius, book II On Consideration, chap. VII: " Hear, he says, my song, less sweet indeed, but wholesome. A monstrous thing is the highest rank with the lowest spirit; the first seat with the lowest life; a tongue full of grand speech, and a hand at leisure; abundance of words, and no fruit; a grave countenance, and a light deed; immense authority, and a tottering stability. " See what is said in Acts I, 1.

DECEIVING YOUR OWN SELVES, — παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς, that is, deceiving yourselves by paralogism and fallacious argumentation, and seducing yourselves into error, as the Sophists do. For this is the sophism of the devil and of heretics: It is written, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; therefore good works are not necessary, but faith alone suffices for salvation. Again: Blessed is he who hears and receives the words of God: away then with works and labors, let crosses be gone to a bad cross. But it must be answered that no one prudently hears and believes, unless he obeys what he has heard and believed, and reduces them to works. Furthermore, " it is more unfortunate to deceive than to be deceived, " says St. Eucherius in his epistle to Valerian; but the most unfortunate of all is to deceive oneself, and to be deceived by oneself, especially where eternal salvation is at stake. So today very many deceive themselves; for the temples are full of hearers of the word of God, but empty of doers. And thousands frequently hear sermons, and there is scarcely one who changes his life for the better; namely, because they hear the word of God as a musical song that tickles the ears, not as one that strikes the mind, as Ezekiel complains in chap. XXXIII, v. 32.

Verse 23: If a Man Is a Hearer of the Word, and Not a Doer

23. FOR IF ANY ONE BE A HEARER OF THE WORD, AND NOT A DOER, HE SHALL BE COMPARED TO A MAN BEHOLDING THE FACE OF HIS BIRTH. — That is, the natural face with which he was born, not feigned; not painted, not masked. Note: the word " man " suggests that men do not use the mirror, but abuse it: for the mirror and the image belong to women fond of adornment (φιλοκόσμων), not to men. Whence St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, and recently following him Cardinal Bellarmine, when his friends asked him to allow himself to be painted and his image to be set before his works, replied keenly and devoutly: " Do you wish to paint my old man, or my new? If the old, he is deformed and worthy not of a portrait but of hiding-places; if the new, he is not yet perfect. "

In a mirror. — Note: Just as a mirror is called that into which we look, and we contemplate our likeness, that is, image, so here the word and law of God is called a mirror, because in it we look at ourselves and contemplate the likeness of the soul, that we may see how far we are from the perfection of virtue, and that, beholding the stains of the soul, we may wipe them away and wash them off. For the word and law of God displays clearly, without disguise or flattery, the precepts of all virtues and the prohibitions of all vices; adding to the former promises and rewards, to the latter threats and punishments; so that He may impress the former upon us and erase the latter from our mind. Whence St. Augus-

tine wrote a book which he called The Mirror, because in it he gathers moral sayings of Holy Scripture concerning virtues and vices; that in it " the believer, he says, who is willing to obey God, may look upon himself, and consider how much he has progressed in good morals and works, and how much is still lacking to him. " The same, in Psalm CIII, sermon 1: " See, he says, whether you are this which the Psalmist said; if you are not yet, groan that you may be. The mirror has reported your face back to you: as a mirror does not feel a flatterer, so neither flatter yourself. " And St. Leo, Sermon II On Lent: " The Artificer of God's mercy, he says, has fashioned in His commandments a most splendid mirror, in which a man might look upon the face of his mind; and might recognize how conformable to the image of God, or how unlike, he was. " Virgil thus paints the mirror in his Epigrams:

Image in the wave. The likeness of the beholder is rendered in the liquid wave, Such as the brightest disk of a mirror throws back. The likeness answers from the liquid surface of the fountain, Such as the imitating shadow rebounds from a mirror.

In like manner St. Bernard says, in Sermon I On the Seven Loaves: " The Gospel, the mirror of truth, flatters no one, seduces none; everyone shall find himself in it as he truly is, so that he may neither tremble there with fear where there is no fear, nor rejoice when he has done evil. " And, citing this passage of St. James: " Let us therefore, brethren, consider ourselves in that reading of the holy Gospel which we have heard, that we may profit from it, and correct, if we discern in ourselves anything to be corrected. "

As a symbol of this thing, God had commanded in Exodus XXXVIII, 8, that a brazen laver be made out of the mirrors of the women, so that in it the priests, about to sacrifice, might wash and look upon themselves, and if they should find anything stained or disordered, they might detect and set it in order. For, as St. Gregory says in homily 17 on the Gospels: " The mirrors of the women are the precepts of God, in which holy souls always look upon themselves, and if any stains of foulness are upon them, they detect them, correct the vices of their thoughts, and, with shining countenances as if composed by the image rendered back from the mirror: because while they diligently attend to the Lord's precepts, they undoubtedly recognize in them what in themselves pleases the heavenly Man, or what displeases. "

Therefore just as women, while they adorn and dress themselves, studiously look at themselves in a mirror, that they may wash away every foul thing they have seen in their face, and may compose it beautifully in every respect: so the Christian ought continually to gaze upon the mirror of God's word and law, and according to it reform and adorn his whole self and all his morals. Ludovicus Vives writes, in commenting on St. Augustine's book XVIII On the City, chap. XIII, that the basilisk is killed thus: hunters surround themselves on every side with mirrors, into which when it looks, the poisoned rays of visual species emitted from its eyes are, by the force of the mirror, reflected back upon itself, and so they infect and kill it: so the sinner, looking upon the roots of his crimes in the law of God and reflecting them upon himself, being compunct, slays those sins which he sees to be so foul and repugnant to the law of God, and puts on the new man. This is what St. Paul says, II Cor. III, 18: " But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. " For, as St. Augustine says, in book XV On the Trinity, chap. VI: " By 'beholding' he meant 'seeing through a mirror' (for that is the meaning of κατοπτριζόμενοι), not looking out from a mirror. Therefore we are transformed, he says, we are changed from form to form, and pass from a dim form into a bright form, " so that we may be the image of God, and may represent Him as the exemplar according to which we have been created, while we conform ourselves to the Word — both the Word ensouled and incarnate, namely Christ, and the Word written, commanded, and heard; for of it the Psalmist says, Psalm CXVIII, 105: " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths. " And Proverbs VI, 23: " The commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and the way of life is the reproof of discipline. " Excellently St. Leo, in Sermon I On Lent: " This, he says, is the dignity of our race, if in us as in some mirror the form of the Divinity shines back. " Hence it is most useful frequently to look upon, to read, or to hear the life of Christ and the Saints, which is as a living law and an animated mirror, that from it we may correct our morals and conform them to the life of Christ and the Saints. For the examples of holiness are efficacious, because the Saints were weak and infirm men, as we are; and what they could do through the grace of God, we also can do.

Note: " the face of his birth, " that is, native and genuine (for so the Greek word γενέσεως signifies), signifies that in the mirror we do not behold the image of our face, as the common people think, but the very face itself, through a likeness not direct but reflected. Therefore we see a thing differently in a mirror than in an image: because vision is terminated upon an image as upon an adequate object, from which the mind rises up to the thing whose image it is, to imagine and contemplate it; but in a mirror the image which is seen is not an image, but is the very thing itself set before the mirror, seen in it through its own likeness, reflected from the mirror to the eye of the beholder, so that vision is most immediately terminated upon the very face itself, and that face is the object of sight (not the image in the mirror), to which by that reflected likeness it is immediately borne; therefore that image seen in the mirror is not an image, but is the very face of the man, as it is seen through the likeness in the mirror and reflected from the mirror. For which reason that old woman of Accos was deranged, who, looking upon herself in a mirror as upon an image, used to talk with it as with another woman, smile, threaten, etc., of whom Rhodiginus tells in book XVII, chap. II. They also report that those who steal a tiger cub set before her, as she pursues, a glass mirror, in which, looking upon herself and seeing her image in the mirror and thinking that it is her cub, she clings in contemplation of it and lets the robber escape with the cub.

But hear our Franciscus Aguilonius debating and defining this question on both sides,

lonius, in book I of Optics, proposition 46: " Whether that image, he says, which is seen in a mirror, is a likeness, or the thing itself? Some say one, others the other. That it is a likeness seems to be proved by these arguments. First, because that which floats about in the depth of the mirror cannot be so much a real body as something fantastic and imaginable. Hence that passage adopted by St. James, chap. I: If any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man considering the face of his birth in a mirror, etc. Furthermore, the real thing is not at all there where the image (idolum) appears. Therefore this is something other than the thing itself: but it can be nothing other than a likeness; therefore what is seen in the mirror is a likeness, not a real thing. On the contrary, that not the likeness, but the thing itself is seen in the mirror is shown by the argument that the phantasm appears immersed in the depth of the mirror: but if it were a likeness, it would necessarily be seen at the surface of the mirror where it terminates. Therefore what we see in the mirror is not a likeness, but the thing itself. But how is the thing seen within the mirror, when it is not there? I answer, that in every inflection of likenesses the thing appears in a different place than where it actually is. The same is true of an image, or of the little man (whence by the Hebrews it is called אישון, iscon) which we see in the pupil of another's eye. For it is … as it were a simulacrum of the beholder rebounded back from a convex mirror: for the cornea, on account of its smoothness, sends back the forms of objects, but smaller than the things themselves on account of its spherical convexity. " So mystically in the word and law of God we behold, embrace, and revere not some image, but the very will of God Himself, and God Himself as in a mirror.

Verse 24: He Considered Himself, and Went Away, and Forgot What He Was

24. FOR HE BEHELD HIMSELF, AND WENT HIS WAY, AND PRESENTLY FORGOT WHAT MANNER OF MAN HE WAS. — Hence at Rome a clever man proposed to me the question, whether the mirror has some power of producing forgetfulness of oneself rather than of another subject seen in it; for this is what St. James seems to suggest here. But there is no such thing, nor does St. James mean any such thing: for the mirror represents one's own face in the same way, with the same clarity and efficacy, as another's, and therefore one forgets another's face just as much as one's own, if he has only inspected it in the mirror; but because the other's face, which he inspected in the mirror, he can look upon at close range without a mirror through a direct likeness, and often does so, hence he impresses the image of it more upon mind and memory than that of his own, which he cannot look upon directly in himself, but only reflectively in a mirror. For reflected likenesses are refracted, and therefore are weaker, and strike the eye and mind more weakly than direct ones: whence the Apostle, I Cor. XIII, calls the vision through a mirror obscure and enigmatic: " We see now, he says, through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face. " So Dionysius the Carthusian: " The image, he says, in a mirror has a weak existence, and is intentional rather than real: therefore it makes a weak impression, because the manner of acting follows the manner of being, and consequently from such an impression follows a slipping cognition in the mind, and thence easy forgetfulness. " The same teaches Aguilonius, in book I of Optics, prop. 46: " Why, he says, is so weak a figure shown in a mirror? I answer, because by repercussion it languishes. Whence when the same is reflected from one mirror to another and another, the second reflection is darker than the first, and the third than the second, and the rest in the same order. "

Therefore the mirror of the divine word and law must be looked upon by us again and again, that we may renew, nourish, and sharpen its memory in our mind, and so vividly impress it that it may strike the will, compunct it, and drive it to good works. This is what St. James means when he says: " For he beheld himself, and went his way, " as if to say: He contemplated himself in the mirror only in passing and in transit; and so going away and running upon other objects, " he immediately forgot what manner of man he was, " that is, of what sort he had seen himself in the mirror: whence he takes no care to wash away the stains nor to compose what is disordered. For in like manner, he who hears the word of God only in passing, and immediately turns his mind to earthly affairs and fleeting things, immediately forgets both the mirror and himself, that is, both the divine law and his own morals, so that he takes no care to correct them and to conform them to the divine law, especially if he gazes upon this mirror of the divine law not so much for usefulness as for pleasure and curiosity, namely to feed his eyes and ears with vain knowledge and eloquence of it; but not to reduce it to practice and conform his life to it. For thus do many curiously, especially men (whence St. James shrewdly says, " he is like a man, " not a woman: for she looks at herself in a mirror to cleanse and adorn herself) gaze upon themselves in a mirror, to see whether they appear old or young; whether handsome or deformed; whether serene or morose and wrinkled; as Claudian says in book I against Eutropius, of Lais contemplating herself in a mirror:

And old age dreads itself when the mirror condemns it,

and Ovid, in his book Tristia:

She weeps also, when the daughter of Tyndareus has beheld in the mirror her old-woman wrinkles.

Therefore " to see in a mirror " is a proverb signifying to see only superficially, in such a way that you do not fully perceive the thing nor penetrate its inner parts: whence I Cor. XIII, 12: " We see now, he says, through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face, " as if to say: We see now divine things superficially through faith, but in heaven and in the vision of God we shall behold their inmost parts through their proper species. Hence also St. James opposes to the as-it-were superficial vision in a mirror the perfection by which the thing is thoroughly inspected and perceived, when he adds: " But he that hath looked into the law. "

Wherefore aptly Peter of Blois, in sermon 51, says that there are three kinds of hearers of the word of God: the slothful, the active, and the contemplative: the first hear and despise; the second hear and obey what they have heard;

the third hear and fall asleep in the embrace. The first are those whom St. James touches upon here, who namely, having heard the word of God, while thinking of death, judgment, and hell, are compunct; but soon, turning back to earthly cares and enticements, they forget it. The same our John David, in his Image of Twelve Mirrors, compares with the rainbow, which is a kind of mirror of the sun, as Seneca says, book I of Natural Questions, chap. IV, but imperfect and evanescent, because some parts of the cloud are too thick to transmit the sun, others too thin to exclude it: whence it comes to pass that in the rainbow there is a fiery color from the sun, a sky-blue from the cloud, and the rest from a mixture of both.

Memorable is what Theodoret writes in his History of the Holy Fathers, chap. IV, concerning Eusebius the anchorite watching men plowing in a field. " When, he says, the divine Ammianus had read a passage of the Gospel and was inquiring about its interpretation, the great Eusebius commanded him to repeat the reading. But when the latter had said: Perhaps you were taken up with watching those who were plowing, and did not listen attentively; he thereafter laid a law upon his own eyes, that they should never again gaze upon that field, nor enjoy the heavenly beauty and the sight of the choir of stars: but using a most narrow path, the measure of which they say was a single palm-breadth, leading to the oratory, he did not allow himself to step outside it thereafter. They say that he lived more than forty years after this law. Moreover, when he had bound his loins with an iron belt, and had placed a most heavy collar upon his neck, with another iron he joined the belt to the collar that was placed upon his neck, so that, bowed down in this way, he was constantly forced to look down upon the ground. " These penalties he exacted upon himself for his neglected hearing of the Gospel.

Morally, learn from the mirror and from one who beholds himself in it what kind of thing the word of God is, and what its hearer should be. For, first, just as in a mirror is seen not the image of a thing but the thing itself through a likeness not direct but reflected: so in the word of God is seen the very will of God, and God Himself, just as the word of the mind is discerned in the word of the mouth, as it were in a mirror. Hence the well-worn riddle of the mirror in Symphosius:

No figure is fixed for me, none is strange to me: Within there is a brightness shimmering with radiant light, Which shows nothing except whatever it has seen before.

Secondly, flat mirrors exhibit images equal to the things themselves, but convex ones smaller; and both, the farther away they are, the smaller they render the images, as Aguilonius teaches, in book V of Optics, prop. 56 and following. Whence Pliny, book XXXIII, chap. IX: " By the same force in mirrors, when the surface has been polished by use to a thickness and slightly pushed forward, the magnitude of images is enlarged immensely. So much depends on whether it rejects or receives the reflection, etc. And it makes a great difference whether they are concave and shaped like a cup, or depressed, or raised, or inverted, or oblique, supine, or straight, the quality of the receiving figure twisting the coming shadows. For that image is nothing else than the digested clarity of the matter that receives the shadow. " In like manner the word of God, when heard, read, and ruminated upon plainly, openly, and candidly, exhibits to us the will of God altogether and as it were adequately. But if you hear or read the word of God adorned and painted with a certain dread of human wisdom and eloquence, you will see God and God's will less in it, and you will perceive less pious motions of mind and will toward it. Wherefore the heralds of the word of God ought to be sincere, free, and not to care for the complaints of their hearers, according to the saying of St. Jerome to Nepotian, On the Life of Clerics: " My discourse has struck no one in particular; it is a general disputation about vices: whoever wishes to be angry with me will himself confess that he is such. " For, as Clement of Alexandria says, book I of the Pedagogue, chap. IX: " Just as a mirror is not evil to a deformed person, because it shows him what he is like; and just as a physician is not evil to a sick man, because he announces a fever to him: for the physician is not the cause of the fever, but he points out the fever; so neither does he who reproves wish ill to him who labors in soul, nor does he add to his offenses; but he shows the sins that are present, in order to turn him away from such pursuits. "

Thirdly, just as marriageable maidens, eager for beauty and adornment, gaze long and much upon themselves in a mirror, and clean and wipe away every blemish and stain, even the smallest, which they see in it, and shape and arrange their whole face, garments, gestures, and motions to the mirror: so the faithful one who is studious of the salvation and beauty of his soul ought to emulate, nay surpass, these maidens, that he may continually look upon himself in the word of God, and confer and conform his morals and his whole life with the law and will of God, and that better and better day by day.

Fourthly, " concave mirrors set against the rays of the sun are more easily kindled than any other fire, " says Pliny, book II, chap. CVII, so much so that they scorch and inflame tow, paper, the hand, and other things placed before them: so if with a humble heart we gaze longer and more deeply upon the humble law of God, which therefore receives the rays of the divine ardor, we shall be kindled by that same divine love. For, as the Psalmist says in Psalm XI, 7: " The words of the Lord are pure words, (as) silver tried by fire; " and Psalm CXVIII, 140: " Thy word is exceedingly fiery, and Thy servant hath loved it. "

Fifthly, the edge and brightness of mirrors is dulled by a woman's menses, says Pliny, book VII, chap. XV: so by luxury and carnal vices the word of God is darkened and as it were dulled in the soul, so that it can scarcely be perceived and recognized by the lustful and carnal man. Whence the same Pliny, in book XI, chap. XXXVII: " In men's teeth, he says, there is a certain venom. For they dull the brightness of a mirror placed opposite, and they kill unfledged dove chicks. " For teeth are a symbol of gluttony, and likewise of malicious speech, calumny, and detraction, by which as by clouds the word

of God is veiled, so that it can scarcely be perceived. Furthermore the same Pliny, in book XXVIII, chap. VII, assigns a remedy, and says that mirrors dulled in appearance receive their brightness if they have with them a certain fish (literally, no fish — likely OCR garble for the species which is the cure), which, as he says, in book IX, chap. XVIII, is so hard that it can never be cooked through unless beaten with a rod: so by hardness and austerity of life, gluttony and lust are overcome, and to one beholding the word of God its former splendor is restored.

Sixthly, it makes a great difference in what posture and with what eyes you gaze at a mirror: for you will see a thing differently in the mirror if to the left or to the right; differently if you have looked at it directly and at equal distance; again differently you will see if you gaze at it with sidelong, averted, etc., eyes; and plainly, in whatever manner you have looked at the mirror, in such manner it will exhibit itself in turn — nay, you, and your image — to you. If you approach, it approaches; if you withdraw, it withdraws; if you pass by, it passes by; if you stoop, it stoops; if you smile, it smiles; if you grow angry, it grows angry; if you strike, it strikes back. Thus, such as you exhibit yourself to God and God's word, such will He in turn exhibit Himself to you, according to that of Psalm XVII, 26: " With the holy Thou wilt be holy, etc. and with the perverse Thou wilt be perverted. " Therefore gaze upon this mirror, namely God's word, and in it upon God Himself, with direct, fixed, and kindly eyes, and He will look upon you in turn with the same.

Seventhly, Pliny, book XXXIII, chap. IX: " The best mirrors among our ancestors, he says, were those of Brundisium, with tin and bronze mixed; silver ones were preferred. Praxiteles first made one in the age of Pompey the Great; and lately it has begun to be believed that a more certain image is rendered when gold is applied to the back. " So the best mirrors of virtues and vices are the laws and sayings of Holy Scripture, which, like silver, clearly, and like bronze and tin, strongly and constantly thunder forth threats and punishments decreed by God against the violators of the laws. For by these the keen edge of the mind, being struck back, is reflected upon itself, is humbled, compunct, and returns into grace with God and God's law.

Thus in the oracle and threats of Jonah, as in a mirror, the Ninevites looked upon their crimes, did penance in sackcloth and ashes, changed their life, and escaped the destruction threatened by Jonah, Jonah III. The same did David at the oracle of Nathan, II Sam. XII, 13; and Nebuchadnezzar at the oracle of Daniel, chap. II, v. 46; and Cornelius at the preaching of St. Peter, Acts X, 25.

Thus Babylas, a mime and magician, who had two concubines, going to church and hearing the Gospel saying: " Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, " Matt. III, renounced all things and became a monk, and persuaded his concubines to do the same, as John Moschus testifies in his Spiritual Meadow, chap. XXXII.

Memorable is what Sozomen writes, book II, chap. IV, and from him Baronius, in the year of the Lord 350: Miles, he says, was the bishop of a certain city in Persia, and when he gained nothing by preaching in it, he cursed the city and departed from it; whereupon Sapor besieged the city, overthrew it, and turned it into a field: so God avenged the neglect of His word and of the law of the Gospel. A similar thing appears in the Life of St. Lawrence Justinian, Patriarch of Venice.

In the Lives of the Fathers, book II, chap. XC, it is related that, when a certain man complained to Arsenius that he heard the words of Holy Scripture, but did not grasp them, nor receive any fruit from them, Arsenius replied: " My son, it is necessary that you apply yourself to the meditation of divine doctrine with great ardor: for I have heard from the Fathers that the charmers of serpents do not understand the words by which they bewitch the serpents; but the serpents, hearing the words, understand them, perceive their power, and obey them. The same must be done by us: even if we do not plainly understand the virtue and efficacy of the sacred letters, nevertheless [the demons] perceive the virtue of the words [against] the devil, and are put to flight. "

Thus St. Chrysanthus, by constantly reading the sacred books and gazing upon himself in them, became both faithful and holy and a martyr, as his Life has it, in Surius, on October 25, chap. II.

Thus St. Antony, hearing in church: " If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, " and continually gazing upon this mirror, conformed his whole life to it, as St. Athanasius testifies. The same St. Bonaventure writes of St. Francis. For, as St. Paul says, II Tim. III, 16: " All Scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work. "

Finally, by constantly and ardently beholding themselves and cultivating themselves in this mirror of the word of God, Saints Lawrence, Vincent, Cecilia (who continually carried the Gospel on her breast), Agnes, Augustine, Basil, Gregory, Chrysostom, and all the holy Doctors, Martyrs, Virgins, Confessors, urging themselves on to the heroic works of martyrdom, virginity, religious life, contempt of the world, and the rest of the virtues, became as great as we read and look up to them. Of these you may truly say, with respect to us, that line of Plautus in Mostellaria: " What need have you of a mirror, who are yourself a most great mirror of a mirror; " for they had no need of the mirror of the law, who themselves became living mirrors of it for us.

Verse 25: He Who Looks Into the Perfect Law of Liberty

25. BUT HE THAT HATH LOOKED INTO, — within, even to the marrow, says Hugh. The Zurich version, He that hath looked forth. For in Greek it is παρακύψας, that is, one who, leaning forward with fixed and intent eyes, has thoroughly inspected: he sets him in opposition to one who has considered himself in the mirror only in passing and lightly, and has gone away, and so has forgotten what manner of man he was, and what he ought to correct in himself. For παρακύπτων is to look askew with head bent, neck bowed, body stooped, intent face and eyes, as those do who, leaning out through a window and stooping forward, with sidelong eyes curiously observe people coming and going. Whence the proverb, περὶ ὄνου παρακύψεως, " about an ass's stooping-look, " concerning the ass which, when carelessly led by its driver, in passing thrust its head into

a tavern or workshop, and overturned the vessels. So Budaeus in his Commentary on the Greek Language. The sense therefore is, as if to say: He who not perfunctorily but studiously; not negligently but attentively; not confusedly but accurately, leaning as it were wholly upon the mirror of the law of Christ, and bending and twisting his eyes upon it, has looked into it, has explored it, and has penetrated its force and efficacy, this man will bring what he has seen into deed, and will do what the law teaches and commands; and so he will be blessed in his deed. Wherefore Oecumenius less correctly translates παρακύψας as " he who has looked across, and as it were has glanced in passing ": for although the Greek παρά sometimes signifies " across, in passing, in the course of, " nevertheless here it signifies not a passage but a fixed contemplation; for it is set in opposition to one who considers in passing and goes away. It signifies therefore " to look through, " that is, to inspect to the very bottom; as those do who lean wholly upon a mirror or upon another thing to be inspected.

INTO THE PERFECT LAW, — into the Evangelical law: for this is perfect, whereas the Mosaic was imperfect: because it gives the perfect documents and precepts of life and virtue, and not only these, but also helps of grace, and these abundant and efficacious. See II Cor. III. Whence Christ says, Matt. chap. V, 17: " I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill. " Moreover Cicero gravely accuses Clodius, in his oration For His Own House, that in his house, which he had consecrated to liberty, while making an image of Liberty he had fashioned the statue of a harlot. For he who indulges in a harlot and in pleasures is not free, but a slave: for he serves the greatest enemies and the most powerless masters. Some read " into the law of perfect liberty "; but the Greek reads τέλειον, and the Roman version " perfect "; so also the Syriac.

OF LIBERTY, — as if to say: The Evangelical and perfect law is the law of liberty, not of servitude, as the old one was, Gal. IV, 24. Furthermore this liberty is not from the law, as if the Gospel made Christians free from the observance of the commandments, so that they would be bound by no law but could perpetrate whatever they please, as Luther and the Libertines teach: for if in the Gospel there is a law, and that a perfect one, then it also binds those subject to it, and is to be observed by Christians, as Christ teaches, Matt. V. For Christ came into the world not only to be its Redeemer, but also to be the lawgiver of a new law, as the Council of Trent defines against Luther, sess. VI, can. 19, 20, and 22.

Therefore this liberty of the Evangelical law which Christ has brought is, first, from the old law, namely from the judicial and ceremonial precepts of the Pentateuch: for from these Christ has loosed and freed us, but not from the law of the Decalogue: for this binds Christians, not insofar as it was promulgated through Moses, but insofar as it is the law of nature sanctioned by God and renewed through Christ, Matt. V. Secondly, it is freedom from sin and from the power of the devil and of hell, Rom. VI, 20. " For the only liberty before God is not to serve sins, " says St. Jerome to Celantia.

Thirdly, it is freedom from coercion and fear, that we may fulfill the law not from fear of vengeance, but from love of righteousness, according to that of II Cor. III, 17: " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; " and I Tim. I, 9: " The law is not made for the just man. " For Christians are not slaves, like the Jews, but sons; not under the spirit of servitude in fear, but under the spirit of adoption in love, Gal. IV, 5. So formerly the Stoics and Cicero, in Paradox 5, judged " that the wise man alone is free, and every fool a slave; " because the wise man, following reason, fulfills the law easily, freely, and willingly; but the rest with difficulty, unwillingly, and under compulsion. So Seneca, On the Happy Life, chap. XV: " We are born, he says, in a kingdom: to obey God is liberty. " And Ovid, in book I of the Metamorphoses, paints the golden age of the world thus:

—— Which, with no avenger, Of its own accord, without law, cherished faith and right.

More divinely St. Augustine, in his book On Continence, chap. III: " We are not, he says, under a law commanding good but not giving it; but we are under grace, which, by making us love what the law commands, is able to command those who are free. " The same, in tract 91 on John: " Do not abuse liberty for sinning freely, but use it for not sinning: for your will shall be free if it is pious: you shall be free if you are a slave — free from sin, a slave of righteousness. "

Fourthly, in the resurrection there shall be freedom from death and all misery. See what was said on Rom. VI, 20, where from St. Bernard I have assigned a threefold liberty, namely of nature, of grace, and of glory. Excellently St. Agatha, when the tyrant reproached her: " Is it not a shame to you, born of noble stock, to lead the humble and servile life of Christians? " replied: " Far more excellent is Christian humility and servitude than the wealth and pride of kings. " For, as St. Augustine says, in his book On the Quantity of the Soul, chap. XXXIV: " He frees from all, whom to serve in all things is most useful, and in whose service to please Him perfectly is the only liberty. " That One is Christ.

On the contrary, the unbelieving and carnal are not freeborn, but slaves of their own desires, nay even chattels. Thus liberty perishes by liberty, and accordingly the greatest liberty is the greatest servitude, just as the greatest right is the greatest injury, and the greatest wisdom the greatest folly: because in it as many tyrants are served as there are lusts.

AND HATH CONTINUED THEREIN, — by continually contemplating it, meditating on it, and exercising it in deed. For this is what " to abide in the law, in God, in Christ " signifies in Scripture, namely, to meditate continually and to do those things which the law, God, and Christ command; as Moses explains, Deuteronomy chap. VI, v. 7. So Christ says, John XV, 7: " If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. " And Moses, Deut. XXVII, 26: " Cursed is he that abideth not in the words of this law, nor fulfilleth them in deed. " And St. John, epistle 1, chap. II, v. 5: " He that saith he is in

to abide in Him, ought to walk even as He walked." For the law is, as it were, a soul, which informs and animates the man in whom it abides, and moves him to every good thing the law prescribes, to be accomplished by deeds. Whence S. James adds: NOT A FORGETFUL HEARER. — In Greek ἐπιλησμονῆς, that is of forgetfulness, namely one who consigns to oblivion the things he has heard. The Syriac: he is not a hearer who hears and forgets; just as the wolves called cervarii forget the prey set before them and seek another, as Solinus testifies in Polyhistor ch. XVIII: " And the lynxes, looking back, remember not what came before, and the mind loses what the eyes have ceased to see, " as S. Jerome says in Epistle 44 to Chrysogonus. THIS MAN SHALL BE BLESSED IN HIS DEED (ἐν ποιήσει, that is, in the doing and performance) of it. — As if to say: He shall be blessed not in contemplation, but in the deed, practice and exercise of the law; "blessed, " I say, with the blessedness of the way, which leads straight on and brings us to the blessedness of our heavenly homeland. Hence it is plain that our blessedness in this life consists in doing and fulfilling the law of God: for this is our righteousness; and conversely, the sinner who violates the law of God is wretched and unhappy, and so the unhappiness of this life consists in the transgression of God's law, because it begets the offense of God, which leads to eternal damnation, where is all misery and unhappiness.

To this matter of the deed and the doer of the law belongs what we read in the Life (in Surius, on the 23rd of April) of S. Giles (who was a companion of S. Francis), a man of rare sanctity and greatly enlightened by God. For S. Giles, hearing the master of a vineyard chiding his vinedressers and saying to them in Italian fate, fate, e non parlate (do, do, and do not talk): " Listen, " said he, " preachers, to what this man says: away with words, and put your hands to work. Preach by deed rather than by word. For if you possessed the whole earth and yet did not till it, what fruit would you gather from it? Surely none. On the contrary, if you had a small field and tended it diligently, you would gather much fruit from it for yourself and yours. Just so, the knowledge of the divine law and of any matter, however excellent, will profit you nothing if you do not cultivate it by works; but if it be small and yet cultivated by works, it will yield a great harvest of merits and glory. "

Verse 26: If Any Man Thinks Himself Religious, Not Bridling His Tongue

26. AND IF ANY MAN AMONG YOU THINK HIMSELF TO BE RELIGIOUS (the Syriac: to serve God; the Greek θρῆσκος signifies both religious and generous, noble), NOT BRIDLING HIS TONGUE, BUT DECEIVING HIS OWN HEART, THIS MAN'S RELIGION IS VAIN. — Although it is not necessary that all the sentences of an epistle be connected together — for they are often disparate, and after the Hebrew manner give counsels disconnected from one another — nevertheless by this sentence S. James looks back upon and confirms what he said in v. 19: " Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. " Again, immediately before he had said that the doer of the work is blessed: but to the doer the talker is opposed, who does not bridle his tongue. For such a man's soul is occupied with the tongue and flows away into words, so that it forsakes the hand and neglects works: as we see talkative people work little. And others, says Oecumenius, we see boasting of their own deeds and vainly glorying in them, who lose the praise of their work by this boasting, because they do not bridle their tongue. And others again, even good men assiduous in good works, we sometimes find to be chatterers, prone to censure, detraction, and reviling, says Bede. These S. James here admonishes to bridle the tongue. Finally, James had commended the doer of the law: now he shows who is the doer of the law, namely the religious man who bridles his tongue. For " religion, " according to some, is so called from the law, namely from re-reading the law, since it consists in the observance of the divine law. James therefore shows that the law of God, His worship and religion are seen indeed in all His commandments, but especially in three: first, in the governance of the tongue; second, in visiting orphans and widows; third, in keeping oneself unspotted from this world.

Note: Some take " religious " strictly for one who, striving after perfection, has by vows closely bound and obliged himself to God: such a man today the common people call a religious, for his proper character is silence, not conversation, says Abbot Gilbert, sermon 7 on the Canticle, which is extant among the works of S. Bernard. So explain the author of the sermons Ad Fratres in eremo (which are falsely attributed to S. Augustine), sermon 3, Hugh, Thomas Anglicus, Dionysius, Catharinus, and others. Indeed it is the special duty of these religious above all to bridle the tongue, and so he seems irreligious who knows not how to bridle it. But S. James takes the name of religious more generally for any believer who worships God: and the early Christians among the Gentiles seemed religious, nay rather were truly religious, as I showed in Acts v, 2. Hence it well befitted them to speak little, prudently and piously, that they might edify both Christians and Gentiles and draw them to the faith of Christ. Whence S. Cyril, book III on John XXVI, reads faithful for religious. For he says: " If any one among you seems faithful, who does not bridle his tongue, " etc.

Not bridling the tongue. — James signifies that the tongue is, as it were, an untamed and unbridled horse, which, unless it be bridled by its rider, namely by reason, drives him headlong so that he rushes to ruin, according to that saying of Theophrastus in Laertius, book V: " An unbridled horse is more to be trusted than an unmeasured word. " Wherefore Ecclesiasticus wisely admonishes in ch. XXVIII, v. 29: " Make thy gold and silver into balances, and make a balance for thy words, and right bridles for thy mouth, and take heed lest thou slip with thy tongue and fall in the sight of thine enemies that lie in wait for thee, and thy fall be incurable unto death. " See S. Thomas in the sermon for the IV Sunday after Easter, where he treats this saying of James excellently, showing what harm comes from an unbridled tongue and what advantages from a bridled one. Now the bridle of the tongue is the mind and reason,

of which accordingly this is the riddle in Symposius: A good law of speaking, I am also a hard law of keeping silent, The restraint of the eager tongue, the end of speaking without end. Flowing of itself while the words flow, that the tongue may be still.

BUT DECEIVING HIS OWN HEART. — The Syriac בטעט mate, that is, making his own heart go astray. Some render it, fornicating; others, playing the idolater, as though the talkative chatterer were committing fornication with his tongue and worshipping it as an idol: just as the glutton worships his palate as an idol, the lustful his belly, the proud his self-esteem, the miser his money. For the root טעא, or טעוד tau in Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic, signifies to err, and by metaphor to fornicate; thence by another metaphor to worship idols; for the supreme error in carnal things is fornication, in spiritual things idolatry. Yet the first sense is the genuine one: for the Greek ἀπατῶν and the Latin seducens (deceiving) properly mean the same as making to err, deceiving, leading astray; because the chatterer does not so much deceive another as himself: for by talkativeness he turns himself away from the true path of salvation, virtue, quiet and peace, and leads himself into many strifes, brawls, dangers of body and soul, and into present and eternal death.

Secondly, " deceiving his own heart, " that is, out of φιλαυτία (self-love) and excessive love of self persuading himself that he is religious, though he be petulant, talkative and slanderous. S. James points his finger at the source from which the petulance of the tongue flows, namely at the deceived heart. For he who lets his heart wander, as the Zurich version renders it here, never has the bridle of reason laid upon his tongue: " For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, " Matt. XII, 34. Wherefore if the words be not weighed, the heart wandering, they will rush forward with blind impulse without any bridle. For Aulus Gellius wisely writes, book I, ch. XV, that the speech of the talkative is born in the mouth, not in the breast. On the contrary Homer says that Ulysses, a man endowed with wise eloquence, sent forth his voice not from the mouth but from the breast. Which saying of Gellius greatly illuminates that passage of Ecclesiasticus ch. XXI, 18: " The lips of the imprudent shall tell foolish things; but the words of the prudent shall be weighed in a balance. The heart of fools is in their mouth, and the mouth of wise men in their heart. " The prudent, namely, bring forth their words from their heart, Job VIII, 10 [recte Matt. XII, 35]: " A good man out of a good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, " Luke ch. VI, v. 45. The foolish, on the contrary, pour forth unpremeditated words, Ps. LI, 2: " All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice. " Rightly does Origen say in Gellius there: " The heart of fools, " he says, " lies on the surface, not in the depth: it leaps out to the lips. "

This man's religion is vain. — The Syriac: this man's homage, or service, is vain. " Religion " therefore here signifies both the virtue of religion, by which we render to God the worship due to Him, which is the first among the moral virtues, as charity is the first among the theological virtues; and also the profession of Christianity: for this is called the Christian religion, because it worships God with true religion and with the true worship of sacred things. For, as Lactantius says, book IV Divin. Instit., ch. XXVIII: " We are born on this condition, that we may render just and due homage to the God who begets us, that we may know Him alone and follow Him alone: by this bond of piety we are bound and tied to God. Whence religion itself takes its name. And to this point we say that the name of religion is derived from a bond of piety, because God has bound men to Himself and constrained them by piety: since we must needs serve Him as Lord and obey Him as Father. " The same is asserted by S. Augustine, book On True Religion, ch. LV. The sense therefore of James is, as if to say: The chatterer in vain professes himself a Christian, in vain boasts himself religious, that is, fearing and worshipping God; his profession is empty, he bears about an empty name of the Christian religion, since chattering and vain and unjust speech overthrow the whole structure of the virtues: for nothing so commended Christians and the Christian religion among the Gentiles as moderation and piety in words. Whence S. Jerome to Marcella concerning Asella says: " She had a speaking silence, " as though by being silent she expressed her sanctity more than by speaking.

S. Gregory gives the reason, book VII Moralia ch. VII, citing and explaining this passage of James: " The human mind, " he says, " behaves after the manner of water. For just as water that is held in is lifted upward, so the human mind, when shut in, gathers itself up toward higher things, and when let loose perishes, because it spreads itself uselessly through the lowest things. For by however many superfluous words it is scattered away from the rule of its own silence, by so many streams, as it were, it is led outside itself; whence it is no longer sufficient to return inward to the knowledge of itself, because, spread abroad by much talking, it loses the force of inward consideration; whence it is written in Proverbs XXV: As a city that lieth open without the encircling of walls, so is a man who cannot restrain his spirit in speaking. For because it has not the wall of silence, the city of the mind lies open to the darts of the enemy, and when it casts itself outside itself by words, it exposes itself open to the adversary: whom the enemy overcomes the more easily, the more this same mind that is conquered fights against itself by much speaking. " This is what Isaiah says in ch. XXXII, v. 17: " And the work of justice shall be silence. " See what is said there. And in Canticles II the Bride is praised for her silence: " Thy lips, " he says, " are as a scarlet ribbon, " namely, not separated and divided by speech, but joined and united by silence in the manner of a ribbon. Nazianzen, requiring this in a priest above all, in his oration On Silence in Lent, says: " We must take care that we utter no sound that is at variance with God's praise. For my own part, with the pure sacrifices by which I propitiate that great King for mortals, I will keep my tongue pure: for I will not allow that, by a strange tongue and a foul and obscene mind, I should offer to God that pure life-giving sacrifice. "

Note: " Religion " properly is the same thing as the worship of God. " Religion, " says S. Augustine, book LXXXIII Questions, q. XXXI, " is that which gives care and ceremony to a certain higher nature, which they call divine,

[gives care and ceremony.] " See the same author, book X On the City of God, ch. I. For religion is the virtue by which we duly worship God as Creator, Lord, and Father, and render to Him the honor due to Him: both interiorly by adoration, invocation, reverence, etc.; and exteriorly by vows, sacrifices, genuflections, hymns, etc. The beginning and foundation of religion is faith, for because by faith we know the true God, hence we worship Him as such by religion. Whence S. Cyril, book III on John, ch. XXVI, reads: " This man's faith is vain. " For, as Trismegistus says: " Religion is the knowledge of God. " And S. Thomas, Opuscule XIX, ch. 1, says that the first bond by which man is bound to God is faith. And Lactantius, book IV On True Wisdom, ch. IV: " Wisdom, " he says, " goes first, religion follows, because first we must know God, and then worship Him. " Whence religion is sometimes called piety, and the religious are called εὐλαβεῖς, that is, pious, as appears in Acts II, 5 and X, 2. To this belongs the etymology of religion, that it be derived from religando (binding back), as I have already said: for by it we bind ourselves and oblige ourselves to God, as the author of all nature, of grace, and of glory.

Hence secondly, religion extends itself to the law of God, and those are called religious who diligently observe all the laws of God: for religion includes the fear and reverence of God. Fear commands and compels us to keep His laws and precepts. Whence in Scripture religious men are called fearers of God, according to that: " Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord: he shall delight exceedingly in His commandments, " Psalm CXI, 1. For he who honors and reveres God surely strives to fulfill His will and law. Hence of the religious persons Zechariah and Elizabeth it is said that they were " walking in all the commandments of the Lord without blame, " Luke I, 6. To this belongs the etymology of religion which Cicero offers, book II On the Nature of the Gods, that it be derived from relegendo (re-reading), because the religious man assiduously reads and re-reads the laws of God. This is what the Wise Man says, Ecclesiastes XII, 13: " Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole man. " Thus we say " to lay on religion, " that is, a scruple of conscience; " to make something a matter of religion, " that is, a duty of conscience and care not to offend God. So the duty to which we are bound is called religion. Whence Cicero, in the IV speech against Verres: " Whatever offices the Roman people have hitherto entrusted to me, " he says, " I have so received them as to consider myself bound by the religion of all my duties. " So Francisco Suárez, book I De Religione, ch. I.

Hence thirdly, " religion " is called the very profession of the faith, law and worship of God: whence the religion of Christ is called Christianity and the Christian profession. For, as S. Augustine says, book VIII On the City of God, ch. XVII: " The sum of religion is to imitate Him whom thou worshippest. " And S. Jerome on ch. IX of Amos says that religion gathers men, as it were, into one flock; and that for this reason the bundle of the righteous, or of the elect, is so called, because they are bound together by the one religion of the Lord. Whence religion itself takes its name from religando (binding back), and from being bound into the bundle of the Lord.

Fourthly, " religion " is called the excellence of religion, by which one binds and obliges his whole self to God, as the Religious do by the three vows. For they are called Religious from religendo (re-choosing), as from eligendo, choosing, and from diligendo, loving, and from intelligendo, understanding, as Cicero says, book II On the Nature of the Gods. And Isidore: " Religion, " he says, " is so called from religendo, that is, from eligendo, so that religion be called as it were eligio; therefore the religious are so called from eligendo, as if re-choosing God, the fountain of blessedness and of every good, whom by sin, through negligence, we had lost, " says S. Augustine, book X On the City of God, ch. IV. Hence again Gellius, book IV, ch. IX, thinks religion is so called from relinquendo (leaving), so that the religious is what has been left, removed, and set apart on account of holiness, as are the religious and the cloistered. Yet the truer etymology is that religion be derived from religando, because it binds us back to God, whence the Religious are called as it were bound back to God. So S. Augustine, Lactantius and others, and S. Thomas, Opuscule XIX Against the Impugners of Religion, ch. I.

Therefore the religion of the talker who does not bridle his tongue is vain in the four senses just enumerated.

First, because he shows that he does not worship God or hold Him in great esteem: both because, knowing himself to be in His presence and to be heard by Him, he does not fear or blush to speak things that displease God; and because the mouth which God gave him for His worship and praise he abuses for vain, base, slanderous things, etc. For " the tongue " was given us by God " as the organ of religion, " that it might be " the lyre and plectrum of divine praise. "

Secondly, because the talker frequently and in many ways violates religion, that is, the law of God — by lying, detracting, provoking, swearing, etc. Again, he cannot have religion, that is, a diligent and anxious care to keep the divine law, who does not religiously, that is diligently, bridle his tongue, lest he violate the divine laws and offend God.

Thirdly, because the talker by his chattering disgraces and brings infamy upon the Christian religion, so that unbelievers say: It is impossible that this Christian (and consequently the rest) should be religious, a modest worshipper of God and composed in mind, who is so unrestrained and uncomposed in his words. Whence S. Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Holy Spirit, writes that by vain talk not only is the soul wounded, but the very pattern of an honest life, which has joined man to God, is emptied out. Indeed S. Peter, in Clement, Epistle 1 to this very James of ours, asserts that S. Peter often preached to Christians that they should diligently guard and moderate their mouth and tongue. For from the tongue, as from a gate, we behold who dwells in the house, namely in the mind — whether sanctity or vanity, whether God or the devil. For just as the modesty of the body, especially of the tongue, argues and indicates modesty of soul, from which it flows and results as from a fountain, so on the contrary the immodesty and intemperance of the tongue is the indication and effect of the immodesty and intemperance of the soul.

Fourthly, because talkativeness is the sign of a wandering, dissolute, improvident, irreligious soul: for he who does not bridle his tongue, how shall he bridle anger, curiosity, gluttony, pride and other most powerful vices? Wherefore S. Jerome (or whoever the author is — certainly not S. Jerome) in his Rule bids monks frequently re-read this saying of S. James: for holy religion cannot exist in the talkative, who cannot moderate their tongue, for " death and life are in the power of the tongue, " Prov. XVIII, 21. Wherefore S. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Changing of the Water, calls silence the guardian of religion, and says that in it lies the strength of the Religious, just as Samson's strength lay in his hair. Hence in nearly all the Orders silence is strictly enjoined under grave penalties; and those who wish to reform monasteries first take care to restore silence. Indeed our holy father Ignatius, founder of our Society, used to say: Do you wish to know whether religious discipline flourishes in any Order? See whether these three things are duly observed in it, namely silence, enclosure, and cleanness. For if you find these three, know that discipline flourishes in it; if not, know that it languishes.

Truly says S. Bernard (or whoever the author is) in the treatise On the Passion of the Lord, ch. XXVII: " Bind back your tongue, if you wish to be religious; for without the binding back of the tongue, religion is vain. " And shortly after: " Spiritual men who have experienced it know how much devotion is taken away, how much inward dissolution is brought on, by frequent loosening of the tongue. For just as a furnace whose mouth is always open cannot retain its heat within itself, so neither can the heart of devotion preserve grace within itself, whose mouth is not closed by the door of silence. Let us therefore close our mouth, that we may preserve Christ, the giver of devotion, with fervent devotion in fervent affection, " and a little after: " O how good and pleasant it is to dwell with Thee in unity, O sweetest Jesus, to converse with Thee, to reveal to Thee the cause of our soul, and to enjoy the response of Thy consolation! "

Verse 27: Religion Clean and Undefiled: To Visit Orphans and Widows

27. PURE RELIGION. — S. James alludes both to the Jews, whose Bishop he was, who placed their religion and cleanness in the ceremonies and legal purifications, and to the Gentiles who thought themselves religious if they worshipped a multitude of gods with abominable sacrifices and rites. He therefore opposes the pure religion of Christians to the vain and unclean religion of the Jews, as also to the impious superstition of the Pagans, Saracens and heretics: for James seems in spirit to have foreseen and censured the impure religions and rites of the Gnostics and Carpocratians, who in their assemblies defiled themselves with incest and unspeakable intercourse, as Eusebius testifies in book IV, ch. VII, and of the Ophites, who consecrated their Eucharist by the touch of a serpent — for they believed this to be Christ, as S. Augustine testifies, heresies 6 and 17. So today is the impure religion of Luther and Calvin, by which they condemn the fasts, laws and vows of the Church, and incite, indeed compel, monks to sacrilegious marriages. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The Jews place the cleanness of their religion in many washings; the Pagans in many sacrifices to many gods; the heretics in the impure fictions and shameful imaginings of their own brains; the Saracens now in the worship of Lucifer, then of Mahomet, etc. But truly the pure and unspotted religion and piety of Christ and of Christians is chiefly seen and consists in mercy and charity: namely, in visiting orphans and widows, and in keeping oneself unspotted from this world. For the visiting of orphans is pure, because this is a work of pure mercy and charity, since from orphans no gain, favor, honor or reward is hoped for: whence both God, and angels, and men praise and celebrate this work of piety as pure and clean.

Note first: " Religion " here may be taken in the four ways stated a little above, as if to say: Both the worship of God, and the law of charity, and the Christian profession, and excellent religion consist chiefly in visiting orphans and in keeping the conscience unspotted. Properly however religion signifies the worship of God: for this is here called in Greek θρησκεία (in Hebrew עבודה aboda, that is service, cultivation, work, ministry) from the Thracians, because they began, more religiously than others, to worship God with a fixed and sacred rite under the institution of Orpheus. So Suidas: " θρησκεία, " he says, " is latria, and the same as worship and obedience to God and the veneration of the gods. For they relate that Orpheus the Thracian was the first to deliver the mysteries of the Greeks by a certain art, and to call the worship of the gods θρησκεία, because it was an invention of the Thracians. "

Finally, " religion " here might be taken for piety. For so we call pious men religious; and piety is a pious affection not only toward God, but also toward men, especially the wretched and afflicted: whence in Hebrew חסד chesed signifies piety and mercy, and חסיד chasid means a pious and merciful man. For these two are joined: he who is pious toward God is also pious and merciful toward his neighbor: just as he who loves God loves also his neighbor for God's sake.

Note secondly: The proper and elicited act of the virtue of religion is to worship and honor God, both with the internal submission and reverence of the mind, and externally, namely by adoration, sacrifices, hymns, vows, oaths, etc. The act commanded by the virtue of religion is to visit the poor, to fast, to mortify the flesh, etc., in honor of God and the Saints. S. James therefore could have said: Pure religion is to pray, to sing psalms, to vow, to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome, Compostella, etc.; for these are elicited acts of religion. He could also have said: Pure religion is to abstain from flesh and wine, to wear a hair-shirt, to fast, etc. But he preferred to say: Pure religion is to visit orphans and widows, because at that time this work, as I shall presently show, was most necessary and most pleasing to God, and of the greatest [edification among unbelievers — continues on the next page]

edification among unbelievers; so much so that many were converted to the faith of Christ on account of the charity and mercy of Christians. Otherwise, to visit orphans is properly an act of mercy; for it is elicited from mercy, but commanded, as I have said, by religion. Wrongly therefore do the heretics twist this passage against the solitary monks, who do not visit orphans: for religion is manifold and embraces many species, and so the religion of monks is true and properly so called. For they are wholly given to adoring, meditating on, and praising God, and follow the lot of the Magdalene, whom Christ praised and preferred to Martha, Luke X, 42; whence by their merits and prayers they sustain the Church, and benefit widows more by these than the rich do by their alms, so that Rufinus deservedly said of them in the preface to the Lives of the Fathers: " Who can doubt that the world stands by the prayers of the Saints? "

Pure. — Namely, it produces these effects, to visit orphans and to keep oneself unspotted from this world. Or, as if to say: religion is pure, if it visits orphans and keeps itself unspotted.

With God and the Father. — The Syriac: with God the Father. For " God and Father " is one and the same: for God is Father, that is the creator, governor, preserver and provider of all things, as if to say: With God who is also our Father. Some however, like Dionysius the Carthusian, distinguish these, and by " God " understand either the Holy Trinity, or God the Son, and by " Father " God the Father, as if to say: With the Holy Trinity and God the Son, who as the Word sees all things, and with God the Father, who as Father provides for all, even the wretched, as for His own children, religion is reckoned pure, is highly esteemed and honored, namely to visit orphans, etc.

TO VISIT ORPHANS. — " To visit " by metalepsis signifies by visiting to console, to provide for, to help, to feed: for the Hebrew פקד pacad, that is to visit, signifies all these things: for the Hebrew S. James hebraizes; indeed even a poor man who is unable to feed comforts the orphan by visiting, according to the old proverb: " He may offer with meal who cannot with incense. " In Greek it is ἐπισκέπτεσθαι, that is to provide for, to look out for; the Syriac, to care for and to relieve to the best of one's ability. Hence among the Gentiles " Bishops " (Episcopi) was the name of magistrates whose duty it was to provide for the commonwealth in matters of grain and the corn-supply, as I have said in Acts I, 20.

He names orphans and widows above the other poor and wretched, because in that first persecution by Jews and Gentiles many Christian men were partly killed, partly handed over to exile or prison, and almost all were stripped of their goods, as I said on Acts VIII, 1. These therefore left behind sons as orphans and wives as widows. The care of these forsaken ones S. James undertakes as their Bishop, and so commends them to the charity of Christians, as the children of Martyrs or Confessors, but yet orphans; or as wives, but now widows. For that communion and distribution of the goods of the Church of which I spoke in Acts II and IV had now ceased. For the number of Christians had grown to very many thousands, among whom this common life was impossible. Add to this that the community of goods was received only at Jerusalem in the first fervor of a few Christians, but not in the other Churches and cities, as I said on Acts V, 2. Therefore since orphans and widows still had no guardians, S. James here undertakes their protection and commends them to the Christians. So S. Lucy, as her Life relates, when she had distributed her wealth to the poor, widows, and orphans, and her betrothed demanded it back through the prefect Paschasius, replied: " This is a living and unspotted sacrifice with God and the Father: to visit widows and orphans in their tribulation; and because nothing remains, I offer myself as a living sacrifice to God, " namely by martyrdom, which she shortly afterwards heroically underwent.

In these last centuries S. Ivo excelled in this virtue, whom accordingly, by his merit, Pope Clement VI enrolled in the number of the Saints in the year of the Lord 1347, on the 19th of May. For of him the weighty author of his Life in Surius writes, among other things, on the 29th of May: " He defended orphans and the fatherless excellently, and on their behalf went to the courts in various places, showing himself their patron, and yet not in hope of any reward or prize, but moved by piety and justice, indeed at his own expense he defended their causes before the judges, that he might hear from the Lord: What you have done to one of the least of mine, you have done to Me. Thence it came to pass that in that region he was deservedly called the Advocate of the Poor; " and earlier: " Orphans, the afflicted, calamitous men were cherished by his humanity and patronage; among those at variance he reconciled peace and friendship; he exhorted those who were detained in prison to patience: and when a sentence was to be pronounced by him in court, he did not do it without tears; he gave himself wholly to works of mercy, despising with all his heart the things of this world, and longing for the heavenly and ever-abiding goods, " and below: " Foreigners, the poor, the needy, those afflicted with bad health, the deformed, he received humanely no otherwise than his own brethren, willed them to sit with him at table, served them from his own food, prepared their beds, with his own hands washed their feet. " Whence also by a miracle he merited that the loaves he gave out to the poor were multiplied for him, and that Christ Himself, or at any rate an angel as Christ's vicar, was his table-companion under the appearance of a poor man.

Orphans and widows. — For these persons, abandoned by all, are more pitiable than other afflicted ones; but under these, by parity or likeness, take in any wretched persons whatsoever — namely the poor, the sick, the naked, the imprisoned, the hungry, the thirsty, the wayfarers, the harassed, the oppressed, the tempted, etc. So Dionysius. For of all these orphans and widows are the idea and specimen, who therefore mystically represent the sinner, who by sin, deprived of God as of a father and

spouse, and made an orphan and a widow, becomes the prey of demons.

For many are the inconveniences of widows and of widowhood, says Gregory of Nyssa, treatise On Virginity, ch. III, namely widowhood, hardship, solitude, gloom, darkness, mourning, lamentable weepings, oppression, etc. Whence God, taking them to Himself, is called " the father of orphans and the judge of widows, " Ps. LXVII, 6; and Exodus XXII, 22: " You shall not hurt a widow or an orphan: if you injure them, they shall cry out to Me, and I will hear their cry. " Truly S. Ambrose, book I On Duties, ch. XI: " Nothing, " he says, " so commends a Christian soul as mercy, and no one is more blessed than he who has understanding upon the need of the poor. " This Job did; whence he says in ch. XXXI, v. 16: " If I have made the eyes of the widow to wait. "

Now this is called religion, because religion is concerned with God, that it may render to Him the honor due to Him. And to God, as to a Father and guardian, orphans and widows belong; therefore he who hurts them hurts God; he who feeds and cares for them feeds and cares for God. For this reason Heliodorus was scourged from heaven, because he had purposed to plunder the goods of widows from the treasury of the temple, II Maccabees III. Hence also Plato, book XII of the Laws, says that the causes of the wretched are God's own, and therefore no one ought to afflict orphans or widows, lest he find God to be his avenger and enemy. For this reason S. Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Tarsians, calls " widows " " the altar of God, " because, just as sacrifices are offered on the altar, so also God is most appeased by alms bestowed upon widows. Wherefore the Wise Man, Prov. XXIII, 10: " Enter not into the field of the orphans, " he says, " for their kinsman (Hebr. גואל goel, that is redeemer, vindicator, such as in the old law was a near relative and cognate) is mighty, and He shall judge their cause against you. " Therefore S. Basil, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Gregory, etc., showed themselves fathers of widows and orphans. And S. Paul, Hebr. XIII, 16: " Forget not, " he says, " beneficence and fellowship: for by such sacrifices God is promerited. "

If beneficence is a sacrifice, then it is also an act of religion, and that the most noble — namely a sacrifice. Whence God, preferring this victim to others: " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, " Hosea VI, 6. The almsgiver therefore who visits orphans and widows is as it were a priest, the alms is the victim, the very giving of it is the sacrifice, the altar is the orphan and the widow. Whence the Apostle, when in prison receiving alms from the Philippians: " I am filled, " he says, " having received from Epaphroditus the things you sent, an odor of sweetness, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God, " Philipp. IV, 18. For just as a sacrifice is, as it were, the food and drink of God, as I said on Leviticus II, so also is alms-giving: for in it God eats and drinks through the mouths of the poor, the orphans and the widows. For He Himself says and shall say on the day of judgment: " I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink, etc. Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me, " Matt. XXV, 40.

Thus S. Gregory at his meal received among other poor men an angel, and Christ Himself at his table, which is even now shown and religiously visited at Rome in his house, now a church. So S. Martyrius, taking up a leper, received Christ, as the same S. Gregory testifies in homily 39 on the Gospels.

Now indeed he who provides for widow and orphan provides for himself. For, as S. Ambrose says, On the death of Theodosius: " Good is the merciful man, who while he succors others, provides for himself, and in another's healing cures his own wounds. " And S. Basil, homily 6 to the Rich: " The favors of benefactions return to the givers: you gave to the hungry, you provided for yourself: for what you gave will return with increase. "

For alms is like a seed scattered in a field, which at harvest gives great increase to the sower, and returns to him with enormous interest, as I said from S. Paul on II Cor. IX, 10. Wherefore Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Paedagogus, compares almsgiving to the play of a ball, in which a thrown ball returns by rebound to him who threw it. And S. Chrysostom, homily 84 on John: " Alms, " he says, " is the garment which will rise with the dead. With these garments will those shine who shall then hear: You saw Me hungry, and you gave Me to eat: these make men distinguished, these conspicuous, these secure. " The same, homily 33 to the People, gives it this title: " That almsgiving is the most lucrative of all arts, " in which among other things he gives it these praises: " It is better to know almsgiving than to be a king and crowned with a diadem: it builds houses in heaven, and houses that abide. This teaches you how you may become like God. " The same, homily 7 On Penance: " Alms, " he says, " is a craftsman and the best defender and protectress of those who practice it: for it is the friend of God, and stands always close at hand by Him: those whom it has loved, for them it most easily obtains favor, provided it suffer no injury from us. But how does it suffer? When we have made it from plunder. " The same, homily 16 on II Corinthians: " A great, " he says, " and precious thing is a merciful man. This is a greater grace than to raise the dead: for here you do good to Christ, but there He does good to you. There you become a debtor to God; here by alms you make God your debtor. "

Mystically S. Chrysostom on Psalm XCV enumerates ten species of religion and of sacrifice. The first, he says, is sacrifice properly so called, of which the Apostle, Ephesians V: " Christ loved us, and delivered Himself up for us, an oblation and a victim to God, for an odor of sweetness. " The second is martyrdom, according to that of Romans XII: " I beseech you, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. " The third is supplication, according to that of Psalm CXL: " Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy [sight — continues on the next page]

is honored and rejoices, according to that maxim of Cato's Ethics: If God is mind, as the songs tell us, He must here be worshipped by you above all with a pure mind. Hence the angels, who are most pure spirits, worship God most purely and most perfectly, and so are wholly absorbed in loving, enjoying, and praising Him, and ceaselessly singing to Him: Holy, holy, holy, Isaiah VI, 3.

Secondly, because God is by His very essence holiness; therefore a holy victim befits Him. Now that is holy which is unblemished and pure. Hence Origen derives ἅγιον, that is holy, from the privative a and γῆ, that is earth, as if to say: Without earth, removed from earth and the defilements of earth. And St. Dionysius, in the book On the Divine Names, chap. XII: "Holiness," he says, "is freedom from all uncleanness, and perfect and altogether immaculate purity." This is what God commands and ordains for His ministers: "You shall be holy to me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other peoples, that you should be mine," Lev. ch. XX, 26. See what is said there, and chs. XXI and XXII, where God requires both victims and priests to be pure and free from every blemish.

Thirdly, because the Christian religion, and consequently the God whom it professes and worships, was greatly honored and celebrated in that earliest age of the Church among Gentiles and Jews throughout the world, on account of the innocence and purity of the life of Christians, as is clear from Tertullian, Justin, and Athenagoras in the Apologetic works. For the Gentiles used to say: How holy is the God who is worshipped so purely and holily by Christians, indeed who makes them so pure and holy? This still happens today.

Fourthly, because he who withdraws himself from the world unites himself to God, and the less he serves the world, the more he serves God, and so often consecrates his whole self to God and the worship of God. Hence in turn God dwells in pure bodies and minds as in His house and temple. "Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" says the Apostle, I Cor. VI, 19. Finally: "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God," Matt. V, 8.

Furthermore, the ways and means of preserving oneself unspotted in the world and from the world are many. The first is the fear of God, and of His judgment and vengeance, according to that of Psalm CXVIII, 120: "Pierce my flesh with Your fear: for I have feared Your judgments." Truly says St. Augustine, sermon 40 on St. John: "Our hope," he says, "is not of this world; let us not love the world. From the love of this world we have been called, that we may hope for and love another world." The same, sermon 13 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew: "Behold," he says, "the world is like a sea, a strong wind and a great storm. To each his own desire is a storm. If you love God, you walk upon the sea, beneath your feet is the fear of the world. If you love the world,

in Your sight: the lifting up of my hands, an evening sacrifice." The fourth is of praise and hymnody, according to Psalm XLIX, 14: "Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise." The fifth is of justice, Psalm L: "Then You shall accept a sacrifice of justice." The sixth is of mercy and almsgiving, James I: "A sacrifice (for so Chrysostom reads) is pure and unspotted, to visit the poor and orphans in their affliction." The seventh is of jubilation, Psalm XXVI: "I have gone around, and offered up in His tabernacle a sacrifice of shouting"; Chrysostom reads, of jubilation. The eighth, of compunction, Psalm L: "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit." The ninth, of humility, in the same place: "A contrite and humbled heart You will not despise." The tenth, of preaching, Rom. ch. XV, v. 16: "Sacrificing (in Greek ἱερουργοῦν, that is, performing sacred actions, sacrificing) the Gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles may be made acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Spirit."

AND TO KEEP HIMSELF UNSPOTTED FROM THIS WORLD. — Ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου, that is, from the world. "World," or age, is taken metonymically for worldly things, for instance for the secular, animal, and carnal life, such as is that of worldly men who give themselves to seeking and enjoying the riches, delights, and honors of this world, and accordingly often stain their consciences with avarice, gluttony, lust, ambition, etc. Hence in baptism we renounce all the pomps of the world, and accordingly we are clothed with a white garment, and are warned to keep it white, to bring it back, and present it to Christ the judge on the last day of the world. Hence also it is said of the Saints who follow the Lamb, Apoc. XIV, 5: "For they are without stain before the throne of God." St. James insinuates that Christians, since they are in the world, must associate with worldly people, and may easily be defiled by this association, as their vices rub off upon them. For, as St. Leo says, sermon 4 On Lent: "It is inevitable that even religious hearts should grow soiled by worldly dust"; and even in visiting the orphans and widows there is danger from vanity, avarice, luxury. Therefore he wisely warns that they should so live among them and all the rest, that they keep themselves unspotted.

For it is difficult to live in the world and not be defiled by it: for he who touches pitch is defiled by it. It is difficult to dwell in fire and not be burned: for the world is unclean and full of filth, as St. James here signifies: for it defiles with the pitch of vanities, and burns with the heat of desires. Whence Thomas the Englishman says: The world is not clean, because the world defiles: therefore, He who remains in the world, how shall he be clean?

You will ask why pure religion is to keep oneself unspotted from this world, or why God is worshipped chiefly by purity of conscience and life? I answer: First, because God is a most pure spirit and most remote from the dregs of earth: therefore there befits Him a most pure victim, namely a most spotless conscience, and with such a one

it will swallow you up. It knows how to devour its lovers, not to carry them. But when your heart wavers with desire, in order that you may overcome your desire, call upon the divinity of Christ." And shortly after: "It is of great virtue to wrestle with prosperity, of great happiness not to be conquered by happiness: if you stagger, if you begin to sink, say: Lord, I am perishing, deliver me; say: Lord, I am perishing, that I may not perish."

The second, mortification of the appetites and senses. For uncleanness and stain is not in the world, that is in worldly goods, delights, and honors, but in our appetite, which loves and pursues them too much, often forsaking and despising God. Therefore mortify and rectify the appetite, and thus you will not be stained by the world. Hence St. Augustine, bk. X of the Confessions, ch. XXXI: "I do not fear the uncleanness of food," he says, "but the uncleanness of desire." Likewise the consideration of the vanity and brevity of life and of all temporal goods; and on the other hand of the truth and eternity of heavenly glory, and of Gehenna and hell. For this is the salt with which the pleasures of the world must be seasoned and mortified, according to that of Ecclus. VII, 40: "Remember your last things, and you shall never sin." Why do you love the world, that is, age? For "saeculum" is so called from "senium" (old age), being nothing else, says Varro, than "the age of men growing old," and of all things. Others derive "saeculum" from "sequi" (to follow), because it follows itself and revolves on itself. Truly St. Augustine on Psalm XXX, sermon 1: "David says, Hasten, that you may understand that all this which appears to us, while the world rolls on, is but a point. It is not long that has an end: if Adam were still living and were to die today, what would it have profited him to have lived so long? Why then this haste? because times pass, and what is slow for you is short in the eyes of God." Why therefore do you love pleasure and honor? while it arises, it grows old and dies. "Sons of men, why do you love vanity and seek lying?" Pleasure lies: it is not pleasure, but sorrow and anguish. Abundance of things lies: it is not abundance, but want of true wealth, which is in the heavens. Honor lies: it is not honor, but a burden and a sport of the world.

The third is steadfast resolution and fortitude in resisting companions, allurements, and all the enticements of the world, by which it draws and lures us to sin and to staining the conscience. Thus of Fabricius, the Roman consul, the common saying was: "It is easier to turn the sun from its course than Fabricius from his purpose." Plutarch is the witness, in the Apophthegms. Similar was Cato, of whom Valerius Maximus says, bk. IV, ch. III: "From the same womb of nature were born both continence and Cato." And C. Piso, of whom the same Valerius, bk. III, ch. VIII: "Piso scorned many and terrible things," he says, "while he refused to bend the noble rigor of his mind." And C. Maevius, a centurion of Augustus, who was captured by Antony and asked what should be done with him: "Order me to be slain," he said, "for I can be brought neither by the benefit of life nor by the punishment of death either to cease being Caesar's soldier or to begin being yours." So Valerius in the same place. Much more does the faithful say to the tempting world that saying of St. Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? or distress? or famine? etc. For I am sure that neither death nor life," etc. Rom. VIII, 35.

The fourth is to touch the world as little as possible; hence we have a pyramidal heart, whose opening looks toward heaven and whose point looks toward earth; so that by this God may signify that we ought to touch the earth and earthly things with the heart, that is with love and affection, only at a point. This is what Religious understand and do, who withdraw all their affection and association from the world, that they may place all hope and love in God, and say with the Psalmist, Ps. LXXII: "But it is good for me to cleave to God"; and: "What have I in heaven, and besides You what have I desired upon earth, O God of my heart, and my portion, God forever?" Thus Abbot Olympius, in Sophronius (or rather John Moschus), ch. XII, gave this counsel of salvation to another: "Restrain your tongue and your belly; and wheresoever you sit, say constantly: I am a stranger."

Thus St. Gregory Nazianzen, epist. 51, otherwise 17, rebukes his brother Caesarius because, captivated by desire of honors, he had entered the household of Julian the Apostate, and had undertaken charge of the public treasury; he urges him to withdraw from it: "For this is true glory, security, and wealth, namely to stand bravely and strenuously against the times, and to keep oneself as far as possible from crime and guilt. Otherwise," he says, "in seeking honors you will suffer loss in matters of greater moment, and you will at least become a partaker of the smoke, if not of the fire," as if to say: even if not the guilt, certainly the report and suspicion of Julian's idolatry will splash upon you.

Do you wish, then, to be unspotted from the world? Be a pilgrim in the world, and a citizen and member of the household in heaven. A pilgrim does not fix his heart upon his lodging, does not cling to it, does not enjoy it: because he knows that he passes through it as a pilgrim, and after an hour will not be in it: therefore he uses all things as if in passing. Do you likewise: you eat, you drink, etc.; eat, drink, etc., for the sake of necessity: use them, do not enjoy them. If pleasure mingles with them, let it pass away with the eating and drinking. Do not become attached to food and drink, do not cling, do not give your heart to them: do not think about them outside mealtime, do not desire them, do not delight and feast yourself upon the appetite for them: thus they will not stain you. Reckon the same to be said of φιλαυτία, that is self-love, and φιλοδοξία, that is love of favor, goodwill, praise, and human glory; which is nothing other than a fleeting popular breeze and mere vanity. Think on that of Psalm CXVIII, 96: "Of every consummation I have seen the end," and a swift end; "Your commandment is exceeding broad." This was what St. Agatha was thinking of, for whom the angels accordingly set this epitaph: "A holy mind, voluntary, honor to God, and the deliverance of the fatherland." For she had lived in the body

as though without a body, as an angel in an assumed body. And St. Barlaam, who commends to King Josaphat purity of mind as a treasure of immense price, in Damascene's History, chap. XXXIX.

Finally St. Augustine, on Psalm LXVIII: "Who," he says, "shall not despise the sweetness of the world, longing for the sweetness of eternal life?" For, as the same says on Psalm CXXIII: "The sweetness of this world sweetens a few for a time, but afterwards will be turned into great bitterness. But the sweetness of eternal life is constant;" and therefore being free from all bitterness as well as from end, it fills and satisfies the mind. Wherefore St. Gregory Nazianzen, in the Distichs: "Let this," he says, "be your perpetual endeavor, that you build up your mind as a temple for God: for thus you will have Him as a spiritual statue in the inmost heart." And after some interposed words: "Come now, having forsaken this whole world, and having shaken off the world's burdens, spread your sails to the heavenly life: let the Trinity especially be your care. Let others prize gold, others silver, others delicate tables, that is, the trifles of this life; but I count Christ as the equivalent of the most ample wealth: whom O may it sometime be granted me to behold with a pure mind; but as for the rest, let the world have them." He gave the reason a little before: "Our man is the Word of the Father, that by this mingling He might mingle God with men: He is one and the same God on both sides, having become man only so far that He might make me from a mortal a God." And St. Eucherius, in the epistle to Valerian: "True blessedness," he says, "is to scorn the blessedness of the world, and, neglecting earthly things, to burn for divine ones." Again Nazianzen, epist. 57, otherwise 63, exhorting Eudoxius that, having forsaken rhetoric and the world, he give himself to a pure and perfect life: "Let us migrate hence," he says, "let us become men, let us cast away dreams, let us pass over shadows: let envy, time, and fortune hold others occupied, toss them about, and mock them. Farewell to thrones, principalities, riches, splendors, this vile and contemptible little glory, and finally the trifles of this great stage, and the theatrical nonsense. Let us most closely embrace the Word, and let us choose to have God in place of all things: that, I say, is the only enduring good, and ours; because the reward of virtue is to become God. Strive and fly toward these things. Never set your hopes anywhere until you have arrived at that supremely desirable and blessed good."