Instructions

Book One. 1. Preface. 2. The wrath of God. 3. The worship of demons. 4. Saturn. 5. Jupiter. 6. Hear about the thunderbolt of Jupiter himself. 7. On the Septizonium and the stars. 8. On the sun and the moon. 9. Mercury. 10. Neptune. 11. Apollo, the false soothsayer. 12. Father Liber, Bacchus. 13. The Unconquered. 14. Silvanus. 15. Hercules. 16. On the gods and goddesses. 17. On their images. 18. On Ammudates and the great god. 19. To the vain devotees of Nemesis. 20. The Titans. 21. To the Montesians. 22. The dullness of the age. 23. To those ready for anything. 24. To those who live between the two. 25. Those who fear and do not believe. 26. To those who resist the law of Christ (the living God). 27. Foolish one, you do not die to God. 28. The righteous rise again. 29. To the wicked unbelieving rich man. 30. You rich, be humble. 31. To judges. 32. To the self-satisfied. 33. To the Gentiles. 34. Again, to the ignorant Gentiles. 35. On the tree of life and of death. 36. On the folly of the cross. 37. Fanatics who judaize. 38. To the Jews. 39. Again, to the Jews. 40. Once more to them. 41. On the time of the Antichrist.

Preface. Our preface shows the way to the one who wanders, and shows that a good reward will be eternal when the goal of this age comes — a thing ignorant hearts disbelieve. I too wandered for a long time, frequenting the temples, while my parents themselves were ignorant; at last I took myself away from there by reading in the law. I call the Lord to witness: I grieve for the crowd of my fellow citizens, because in ignorance it goes on, perishing, seeking vain gods. For this reason, now thoroughly taught, I instruct the ignorant in the truth.

The wrath of God. In the law the Lord of heaven, earth, and sea commanded: “Do not worship empty gods made by your hands out of wood or gold, lest my wrath destroy you for these things.” The nation before Moses, uncouth, living without law and not knowing God, prayed to dead kings and made vain idols after their likenesses. After the Lord had brought the Jews over from the land of Egypt, he then imposed the law and commanded this: that they serve him alone, the Almighty, and not those others. In the law also there is teaching about the resurrection and the happy hope of living again in the age to come, if vain idols are abandoned and not worshiped.

The worship of demons. When God almighty had adorned the nature of the world, he willed that this earth be visited by angels; but, once sent down, they spurned his laws. So great was the beauty of women that it turned them aside. Since, defiled, they could not return to heaven, they became rebels and sent forth words against God. The Most High then passed sentence on them. From their seed the Giants are said to have been born. By them arts were brought forth on the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool and everything that is done; and those mortals set up images of the dead. But the Almighty, because they were of evil seed, did not decree that they be brought back from death when they died. Hence they now wander and ruin many bodies; above all these are the ones you worship today and pray to as gods.

Saturn. If old Saturn is a god, when does a god grow old? Or if he was a god, why did he devour his children? He was driven by terrors; but because he was not a god, he consumed the flesh of his children in monstrous rage. He was a king on earth, born on Mount Olympus, and he was not divine; yet he said he was a god. He came, poor in mind, and swallowed a stone in place of his son; so the god escaped, the one who is now called Jupiter.

Jupiter. This Jupiter, born to Saturn on the island of Crete, when he had grown up deprived his father of his kingdom, and then seduced the wives and sisters of nobles. Moreover, the smith Pyracmon had made him his scepter. In the beginning God made heaven, earth, and sea; but this terrible one, born in the middle of time, came out of a cave as a youth, having been nursed in secret. Consider the charges! The true God is another, not that Jupiter.

Hear about the thunderbolt of Jupiter himself. You say, you fools: “Jupiter thunders; he hurls the lightning himself.” Even if childishness thought so, why do you say it when grown in years? You were children: will you always be so? A mature age cannot keep living in infancy. Childish play has passed; so let childish hearts withdraw too; your counsels surely ought to match your conduct. Foolish one, then, do you believe that Jupiter thunders, who was born here on earth and nursed with goat's milk? So if Saturn had devoured him, who would have sent the rain in those times, with him dead? Above all, is a god to be believed born of a mortal father? Saturn grew old on earth and died there. No one prophesied beforehand that he would be born. Or, if he thunders, a law would have been given by him. Made-up (empty) stories lead the foolish astray. He reigned in Crete and died there. Your almighty became Semele's lover; if he were alive now, he would love likewise. You pray to impure beings and call them heavenly, born of mortal seed from those Giants. You hear and read that he was born on earth: how did the corrupter deserve to go up to heaven? It is said too that the Cyclopes made his thunderbolt: so the immortal had his weapons from mortals. One guilty of so many crimes, a murderer of his own kin too, you have raised on high on your own authority.

On the Septizonium and the stars. Your ignorance deceives you about the circle of the zodiac, since you think perhaps that Jupiter is to be prayed to. Saturn is said to be there, but it is a star, not he; he fled, driven out by Jupiter. Or is Jupiter to be believed to be in a star? And did he, the sole begetter, handle the stars of the pole — he who made war on the Trojans and, as a bird, loved a mortal? Or among the stars themselves is Mars, who was caught with her through a husband's jealousy, to be called a young god? You utter fools, who think that adulterers born from the stars rule, or govern the whole nature of the world! Themselves open to wounds and living under the fates, obscene, raging, warlike, ungodly in life, those mortals also begot as many sons. Every terrible one, you fools, is powerful in the Septizonium! If you worship the stars, worship the twice six signs too! You will approve the ram, the bull, the twins, and the fierce lion, and then what goes on to the fishes. A law without law, your refuge: what it wills will prevail. Lust wills to be, and seeks to live without a bridle. What you wish will be, and you pray to gods and goddesses. So I worshiped, while I wandered, what I now condemn.

On the sun and the moon. About the Sun and the Moon, though they are present to us, you are wrong, since you, as I once did, think they are to be prayed to. They are indeed among the heavenly bodies, but they do not run of their own accord: the Almighty, when he first founded all things, placed them there with the stars on the fourth of the days. … And indeed in the law he commanded that no one should worship them. You pray to so many gods, who promise nothing about life, whose law is not on earth and who were not foretold; but a few (empty) priests lead you astray, who say that divinities can do something for one who is about to die. Come to the (edicts) of the law and speak the truth.

Mercury. Let your Mercury be painted with his trousers and helmet, winged on his feet and otherwise naked. I see a wondrous thing: a god flying with a purse! Run, you poor folk, holding out your laps where he flies, so that he may pour out his purse; be ready from now on. Look at the picture, since he will throw coins down to you from on high; then dance without a care. Foolish one, are you not mad to worship gods painted on a board? If you do not know how to be a man, go and live with the beasts.

Neptune. You make Neptune a god, born of Saturn, and he wields a trident so that he can spear fish. Plainly he is a god — prepare him a porter's shoulder-pad! Did he not build walls for the Trojans with Apollo? How did the god become a needy mason? Did he not beget the monster Cyclops? Was he not an adulterer himself? He could not live on his own means, since he took on building work. So the begotten begot — one who died long ago.

Apollo, the false soothsayer. You make Apollo a harper and a diviner. First, he was born of adultery on the island of Delos; later, following the builder's trade for a wage offered, he built walls for Laomedon, king of the Trojans, and hired himself out — he whom, led astray, you think a god. Love for Cassandra burned in his bones; the virgin tricked him craftily, and the diviner was deceived: by his office with the sacred boughs he could not know her double heart; rejected, the diviner went away. The virgin burned him with her beauty, whom he ought … She at least ought to have loved a god first. Then he began to love Daphne, who was sporting, and still he pursues her, wanting to violate the girl: the fool loves in vain, and could not catch her in the race. Or, if he was a god, he would have met her through the air: she reached shelter first, and the diviner was left behind. The race of men deceives you; for these were men of great strength. He is also said at first to have fed flocks. In the games, when he threw the discus on high, he could not hold it as it fell back, and laid his friend low: that was the last day of his companion Hyacinthus. If he was a diviner, he would have forestalled his friend's death.

Father Liber, Bacchus. You yourselves surely say that Father Liber was born twice. Born first in India of Jupiter and Proserpina, he fought against the Titans, poured out his blood, and died like any one of the mortals. He was restored again by his father's breath in another womb: Semele, another mistress of Jupiter, received him again; when her womb was cut open, as she died close to childbirth, he was taken up and given to Nysus as a foster-child to be reared. From this he is called Dionysus, the twice born, whose false religion is practiced in vain; and they revel as Bacchants, as they themselves are now seen, or … conspire in wickedness and perform with feigned frenzy, to deceive the others into saying that the god is present. Hence, plainly, rude men living without law, transformed by wine, which he first pressed out, gave him honor in his game.

The Unconquered. If the Unconquered, born from a rock, is held to be a god, then I say no more; you tell me which of them came first! The rock conquered the god; the rock's creator must be sought. Besides, you even paint him as a thief, whereas if he were a god he certainly would not live by theft. He was surely earthly and of monstrous nature, and he was forever driving other people's cattle into caves, like Cacus, the son of Vulcan.

Silvanus. How did Silvanus turn out to be a god as well? Does he please, perhaps, because his pipe plays sweetly? Because he gives wood? Otherwise, perhaps, he would not exist. You bought a lord who was for sale, when you yourself are his master. Look, the wood fails! What is owed to him? Are you not ashamed, fool, to worship such boards? Seek the one God, who says that you will live after death! Withdraw from these, who have become biothanati.

Hercules. Because Hercules crushed the monster of the Aventine hill, who used to steal Evander's herds, the rustic and untaught minds of men, wishing to give thanks in his praise, vowed victims to the absent Thunderer, as though praying to a foolish god, and made altars to feast at in memory of it. From that it went on that he is worshiped by ancient custom. But he is not a god, though he was strong in arms.

On the gods and goddesses. You say they are gods who are plainly bloodthirsty, and you say that the fates assign us our birth? Tell me now, then, to which of the two sacrifices should be offered first: between the two, untimely death roams the roads. If the fates assign our birth, why do you pray to a god? You are deceived, vain one, who seek to pray to the spirits of the dead, and who call things that are manufactured your lords. Or you also pray to women, goddesses of some sort, Bellona and Nemesis, the goddesses Furina and Caelestis, the Virgins, and Venus, for whom your wives wear themselves out. There are other demons besides, (away from) the temples, which are not even counted yet and are carried around the neck, so that they cannot even give an account of themselves. They ought rather to be carried off to the ends of the earth.

On their images. A few wicked, empty seers delude you while they seek to scrape together their own living … They put others of their own up to a falsehood under the name of mysteries. Then, pretending to be shaken by some divinity, they chant of its majesty and wear themselves out in a disguise. You have often seen the priests of Bellona, with what din they enter on their excesses, while they try to feign frenzy, or when they strike their backs with a sparing double axe, since they see by their training that they heal with blood. Consider that it is not the divinities that drive them, since they first compose themselves with a sound mind; they devise such tricks to collect money. See from this that it is all made up. They cast a shadow over the suppliant people, so that those who are perishing may not believe. The thing once set out in vain from antiquity, so that false things uttered by a soothsayer are believed; but no majesty of theirs has ever spoken.

On Ammudates and the great god. We have already said much about this unspeakable superstition, and yet we go on, so that we may not be said to have passed anything over. Ammudates, whom his worshipers used to worship in their fashion, was great to them while there was gold in the temple; they bowed their heads beneath the divinity as though it were present. It came to the point that Caesar took away the gold: the divinity failed, or fled, or passed into the fire. The author of this wickedness is well known, the man who shaped the god; he led so many great men astray with false prophesying, and now he has fallen silent, who used to be a diviner. For he used to burst out in speech as though his mind were changed, as if the god of wood were speaking into his ear. Tell me now yourselves whether the divinities are not false, and how many that prophet ruined by that portent. He has forgotten how to prophesy, who used to do it before. These wonders were invented for the god by wine-guzzlers, whose damnable audacity invents divinities. Such a figurine was carried about and fed; now it too is silent, and no one prophesies about it. O, all too eagerly you want to destroy yourselves!

To the vain devotees of Nemesis. Is it not a disgrace for a sensible man to be led astray, to worship such a thing and to call a piece of wood Diana? In the morning you believe one man, drunk, raw from wine, doomed to perish, who by his art falsely says whatever he pleases; while he sternly plays the diviner, he is feeding his own belly. One detestable man makes all the citizens drunk and gathers men like himself, forming a guild, with whom he makes up a story to adorn the god. He cannot divine for himself, yet he dares to for others. He shoulders the god when he likes and puts him down when he likes; he spins round and round with the forked pole, so that you would think him inspired by the divinity of the wood. It is not gods you worship, whom these men prophesy falsely: you worship the priests themselves, fearing in vain. But if you are strong in heart, flee now the shrines of death.

The Titans. You say the Titans are your protectors; so you pray to the Silent and Quiet goddesses under your roof, to so many Lares in little shrines, images made for a Titan! Fools, you worship those who died an evil death, not reading their law; they do not speak themselves, and do you dare to call things cast in bronze gods? You would do better to melt them down into little vessels for yourselves.

To the Montesians. You say that the mountain gods are lords in gold, you who are darkened by evil and swear with an alien mind. For if your spirit were pure and your mind remained calm, you ought to reason out for yourself what they are. You are out of your senses, man, if you think that they save you, or rule, or diminish anything, unless you run to the temple. Seek the justice of the law rather than those things; it brings the help of salvation and says that you will become eternal. For whatever you pursue in vain, you enjoy for a season; you are glad for a short time and afterward you lament in the depths. Withdraw from them if you want to rise again to Christ.

The dullness of the age. Alas, I grieve, citizens, that you are so dulled by the world! One runs off to the lots, another watches birds, another wickedly inspects the blood of bleating victims poured out and cruelly longs to hear favorable answers. So many generals and kings who took counsel about their lives — where are they? Or what good did it do them to have known their omens? Learn the good, I beg you, citizens; beware of images; all of you, search into the law of the Almighty. It has so pleased the Lord of lords on high himself that demons should roam the world to test us. And yet, on the other side, he has sent ahead commandments, that those who abandon their altars should become heavenly. So I do not care to argue this in a little book: the law teaches openly; consult it on our behalf! You have set out on two roads: learn the right one.

To those ready for anything. While you serve your belly, you say you are innocent, and as though you were everyone's friend you make yourself ready for anything. Woe to you, foolish man; you are staring death in the face yourself. You seek to live without law, in the manner of a barbarian: by your own word you drive an axe into your own leg. You who feign simplicity — do you think you are living simply with him, while you long to fill your belly? You sit, petty and wicked, in a tyrant's house, ready for feasts, and you shun God's commands. Or, because you disbelieve that God judges the dead, do you make yourself ruler of heaven in his place? You look to your belly, as though you were its provider. Now you seem profane, now holy. You betray God's suppliant before the eyes of the tyrant. You will feel among the fates whose empty laws you now follow.

To those who live between the two. Thinking to be safe by living doubtfully between the two, stripped of the law, worn out by the luxury of the manger, you look ahead to so many (vain) things; what for? You seek what is wicked! And whatever you have done, see that it stays here when you are dead. Fool, you did not exist, and behold, you are seen! You do not know where you came from, nor where you are fed from. You flee God on high, who is kind to your life, and your ruler, who would rather you lived; you turn to your own face and turn your back to God; you plunge yourself into darkness while you think you are dwelling in light. Why do you run into the synagogue so often, double-minded? So that he may show mercy to you, whom you freely deny? You go out from there and again you seek out the temples. You want to live between the two, but by it you will perish. And besides you say: “Who is there who has come back from death, so that we may believe him that punishments are carried out there?” These things are not as you think they are, wicked one! For what does it profit one who lived rightly, after death? Yet you will soon die and be led to an evil place, but those who believe in Christ to a kind place, and that loveliness caresses those to whom it clings. But you will pay the penalty alive, without the body; the order of things will rouse you to cry out before the torturer's face.

Those who fear and do not believe. How long, foolish man, will you refuse to know Christ? You avoid the rich field and throw seed on barren ground. You want to stay in the forest where the robber lurks. You say: “I too belong to God,” and you wander outside. Come into the hall now, you who have been invited so often: the harvest is ripe now, and the time just as ready; see, reap now; if not, you will regret it. Now, if you have nothing, gather; the vintage has come; the time of life is at hand for believing, in the time of death. God's first law is the foundation of the later law, and it pointed to you. Believe, so that you may be in the second law; … Now that you are amazed, pray to believe in Christ; for the old testament proclaims him. Now it is needful to believe only this: that in him who died one can rise again and live for all time. So if anyone disbelieves that these things will come, until he is convicted as guilty in the second death, I will sing of what is to come in a few words in this little book; for it can be known where the hope of life should be placed. Still, I urge you to believe in Christ as quickly as you can.

To those who resist the law of Christ, the living God. Unhappy one, you spit out the good of the heavenly discipline and rush into death while you want to roam without a bridle. Luxuries and the brief joys of the world are destroying you, for which you will be tormented in hell for all time. The joys you delight in, you fool, are empty; they will not show, when you are dead, that you were a man. Can thirty years not make you wise yet? If you went astray at first in ignorance, look at your grey hair. Do you think you are now happily enjoying life here? Here there are injuries, lawsuits, and daily losses, wars and unspeakable things, frauds, thefts with bloodshed; the body is racked with sores, there is groaning and weeping; or plague invades, or you are held by a long illness, or you are bereaved of your children, or you weep for a wife you have lost; everything is destroyed, honors fall from on high; poverty burns you, doubly if you are sick; and do you call it life, where you linger in a life of glass? Consider at last that this time is worthless; but in the future you have the hope of living without grief. The (father) of a little one snatched away surely wanted him to live; but the young man deprived of life might perhaps have grown old too, because the rich man himself was getting ready to enjoy his luxuries; and yet, unwilling, we leave everything to the world. I too was a Gentile, living with a perverse mind, and I thought the life of this age was the true one, and I judged, as you do, that when death came and the soul had once gone out, the dead man had perished. But these things are not so: the founder and author of the world — for he required of the brother the brother who had been slain — said: “Ungodly one, tell me, where is your brother?” He denied it. “For your brother's blood has cried out to me on high.” You are tormented, I see, where you thought you would feel nothing; but he lives and holds the places on the right hand, enjoying the delights that you have lost, wicked one! And when the age has been renewed, he too, having gone before, will be immortal; but you will lament beneath Tartarus. God surely lives, who has made the dead live, to give fitting rewards to the harmless and good, but cruel Tartarus to the mad and the ungodly. Begin to feel God's judgments, you who have been led astray!

Foolish one, you do not die altogether to God. Foolish one, you do not die altogether, nor do you escape your deeds when you are dead, though you may reckon that you will feel nothing once dead. You are refuted, senseless one: God lives, the founder of the world, whose laws are proclaimed to hold good for the dead. But while you seek headlong to live without God, you think it idle that one extinguished by fate should be judged. The eternal God did not arrange things as you think, so that the dead forget what they did before. Now he has made receptacles of death for us, who are unskilled; but after our ashes we shall see them. Pull yourself out, fool, who think you will not exist after death. You have made your ruler and lord able to do nothing. But death is not into nothingness, if you think it over in your heart. Know that it is to be desired, for you will feel him too late. You were ruler of the flesh; the flesh certainly did not rule you; once you are taken from it, it is buried by your own people. Rightly is mortal man separated from the flesh. Therefore mortal eyes cannot measure up — such is our abyss — to the secrets of God. Give honor to God now, then, while you are frail and dying, and believe that Christ raises you alive from the dead. You ought to render praises to the Almighty in the church.

The righteous rise again. Justice and goodness, peace and true patience make one live after death and be questioned about one's conduct; but the deceitful, harmful, faithless, and depraved race takes itself off to one side and lives with a savage mind. Ungodly one, hear now, you who profit by evil deeds: look at earthly judges, who now torture cruel men with penalties in the body; either punishments by the sword are prepared for the guilty, or long weeping in prison. Do you hope in the end to mock the heavenly God, the ruler of the sky, through whom all things were made? You rage, you are mad, do you now even disparage God's name? You will not escape him, who will impose punishment after death. Now I want you to take care, so that you do not come into the heat of the fire. Give yourself to Christ now, so that good deeds may follow you.

To the wicked unbelieving rich man. You are distracted, rich man, by gazing too much at all your goods, to which you still seek insatiably to add. “After all this,” you say, “I do not hope to live once I am dead.” Ungrateful to God most high, you who declare God to be such, who brought you forth when you did not know it, then nourished you: he governs your meadows, he your vineyards, he your flocks and whatever you possess; and you pay no attention to this. Or do you perhaps govern all things? He who made this heaven and earth and the salt seas has decreed to restore us in a golden age; and now, if you believe, one lives in God's secret. Learn God, fool, who wants you to be immortal, so that you may give him thanks in the everlasting contest. His law teaches it; but because you want to roam, you disbelieve everything, and so you will go to Tartarus: soon you give back your soul, you will be led where you will regret being, and there an eternal spiritual penalty is paid; there is mourning forever, and you will not die out in it, crying out to Almighty God then, too late.

You rich, be humble. Learn, you who must die, to show goodness to all. Why do you make yourself something apart in the midst of the people? You go where you do not know, and you go back from there unknowing. You deal impiously with your very body, thirsting after riches; you lift yourself too high … and you do not look to the poor who are now subject to us, nor do you even feed your own parents. Alas, you wretches! Let people of modest means flee far from you. … Soon the Furies will drive you, when you perish yourself, you Charybdis. You rich are undisciplined like … ; you lay down the law for these, but you spare yourselves. Strip yourself, rich man, of such great evils and turn back to God, so that what you have done now may perhaps help you. Be generous to the least while you have time; as the elm loves the vine, so love the little ones. Keep the law, terrible to the wicked and kind to the good, you who are now barren! Be submissive in prosperity. Put away hearts of fraud, you rich, and take up hearts of peace. Atone for your evil with good deeds before the Most High.

To judges. Look at the sayings of Solomon, all you judges, how with a single word he disparages you: “How gifts and presents corrupt all judges!” The same: “You follow and always love the giver; when the case is examined, the unjust side carries off the victory.” I am innocent here; I, a little one, do not accuse you; let Solomon bear the reproach, who (cries it) openly. But to you God is your belly, and bribes are law. The apostle Paul suggests this, not I, a flea.

To the self-satisfied. If place or time favors you, or a person comes your way, be a new judge. Why are you now puffed up by it? You blaspheme, unteachable one; you never look to him by whose excellence you live in such frailty. Greedy, you presume on fortune through rank and gain; you have no law, nor do you know yourself in prosperity. Though you always dine off gold with a crowd of chorus-players, if you have not worshiped the crucified Lord, you have perished. Place and time and person are given to you, now, if only you believe; but if not, you will fear for it. Humble yourself before Christ and bow your neck to him: there honor remains, and full assurance in all things. When time now flatters you, be more careful. Not foreseeing the last things of fate, which must come to you, without Christ you can never have (life).

To the Gentiles. Fierce people without a shepherd, do not wander any longer. I too, who warn you, was once ignorant and wandering. So now take on the likeness of your Lord; put away your wild and embittered hearts: come into the stalls, you wild bulls, to the mangers, and stay safe from robbers under the royal roof. In the forest there are wolves; so flee to shelter. You make war, you rage, and you do not see where you are living. Believe in the one God, with whom you can live when dead and rise in the kingdom, since there is also a resurrection for the righteous.

Again, to the ignorant Gentiles. The untamed neck refuses to bear the yoke for work, and then it delights to feed on greens in rich fields. And yet the useful mare is tamed against her will, and once tamed she grows less fierce. Gentile, man, my brother, do not be a wild beast; pull yourself out at last and think it over with yourself: you were not born a beast or a brute but a man; tame yourself, wise one, and come under shelter. The idols you follow are nothing but the vanity of the age. Light hearts are leading you to the pit of punishment. There you carry gold, clothes, and silver in your arms; there is fighting there, and then love songs are sung in place of psalms. You think it life, where you play or watch such things; you cast lots, ignorant one, you seek dead, golden things. You will not escape destruction by it, though you do your own divining. The grace which the Lord sent on earth to be read, you do not seek it, but wander like a beast. If you believe, golden ages will come to you after death, so that you may begin again to live immortal forever. This too is given you to know: what you were before. Submit yourself to God, who governs all things.

On the tree of life and of death. So that Adam, the first-formed, might shun God's commands, Belial was the watcher, out of envy of the creature. Whatever the leader of our birth did, whether good or evil, he would have passed on to us; and so we die through him, since he himself was made an exile from the divine word. When six thousand years are finished, we shall be immortal. When the fruit of the tree was tasted, death entered the world; by this tree of death let us seek the tree of the life to come. On the tree hung life, bearing fruits, the commandments: take now (from there) the life-giving fruits, you who believe. The law given from the tree was to be feared by the first man, and from it came death when the first law was neglected. Now stretch out your hand and take from the tree of life. The Lord's best law, the one that followed, came forth from the tree; the first law was lost. The one who worships forbidden gods tastes, from where he is allowed, the evil joys of life. Reject that taste; it will be enough to know what it was. If you want to live, give yourselves to the second law; shun the worship of temples, the shrines of demons. Turn to Christ, and you will be God's companions. Holy is God's law, which says that the dead live. The Lord commanded that a hymn be offered to him alone. Shun, all of you, entirely the devil's law.

On the folly of the cross. I have spoken of the twofold tree, from which death came forth, and from which again life comes forth in abundance. But the cross is folly to the adulterous race. The King of eternity, by the cross, overshadows the cruel, so that they may not believe in him: O you fools, living in death! Cain, found wicked, killed his younger brother; from him, it is said, the offspring of Enoch were born, the Canaanites. So a wicked race grew up in the world, which never changes its mind to believe in the Lord's cross. It fell into error, and they say they live rightly. The first law was in a tree, and from there came the second, which with peace went before the terrible first law. In savage perversity the wicked rushed headlong: they refuse to recognize the Lord pierced with nails, and when they come to his judgment, there they will recognize him. But the race of Abel now believes in the kind Christ.

Fanatics who judaize. What? Do you want to be half Jew, half pagan? You will not escape Christ's judgment by it when you are dead. You were blind yourself, and you go in to the blind, you fool; so the blind man leads the blind back into the ditch. You go where you do not know, and you go back from there unknowing. Learners go to the learned, to come away learned; but you, such as you are, go where you can learn nothing: you go out of the doors, and from there you go off to the idols. Ask first what is commanded in the law; let them tell you whether it is commanded to worship gods. For what we chiefly exist for is unknown to them; but since they are guilty of that very offense, they tell nothing of God's commandments except wonders. Then, blind as they are, they lead you with them into the ditch. They are corpses; it is too much to report everything about them, or rather I am held to the narrow furrow of the plough. The Almighty did not want them to understand the King; he himself fled from so great a crime of the bloodthirsty. He gave himself to us, adding a (new) law; hence now, abandoned by the King, they bark at us. But if you think there is hope for you in them, you are wholly wrong, if you worship both God and the temples.

To the Jews. Always wicked and kicking back with stiff necks, you do not want to be won over; so you will be disinherited. Isaiah said that your heart had grown fat. You look to the law which Moses dashed down in anger; and the same Lord gave him a second law. In it he placed hope, which you mock with your heads held high. So, therefore, you will not be worthy of the heavenly kingdom.

Again, to the Jews. See that Leah was a type of the synagogue, with her weak eyes, whom Jacob received as a sign; and yet he served again for the younger, the beloved, a true mystery and type of our church. Consider the word from heaven to Rebekah when she was with child, so that you may believe in Christ … Then come to Tamar's bearing of twins; look to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and to Abel the shepherd, the ancient spotless offerer, who was slaughtered in sacrifice by his brother. Understand thus, then, that the younger are the ones approved by Christ.

Once more to them. There is no unbelieving people but yours, you wicked ones, rejected in so many places and so often by the law of those who cry out. The Most High spurns your sabbaths and has cut off entirely all your new moons from the law, so that you should not offer the sacrifices commanded to him — he who said he would lay a stone for you to stumble on. If any of you does not believe that he perished by an unjust death, another part of the law cries out: “You will see your life hanging on a tree, and you will not believe him.” God himself is life; he himself hung for us; but you, with hardened heart, mock him.

On the time of the Antichrist. Isaiah said: “This is the man who shakes the world and so many kings, under whom the earth will become a desert.” Listen, since the prophet foretold it of him; I have said nothing of my own composing, but from reading the law. Then indeed the world comes to an end, when he appears and has conquered three rulers in the world. But when Nero has been raised from hell, Elijah will come first to seal the beloved … For seven years the earth will tremble everywhere; but Elijah will hold half the time, and Nero half. Then Babylon the harlot (will be) burned to ashes; from there he will go on to Jerusalem, and the Latin conqueror will then say: “I am the Christ, to whom you always pray”; and indeed the deceived first people praise him, since his false prophet does many signs. Above all, so that they may believe him, the image will speak. The Almighty grants that … Going back over the Scriptures after that, the Jews cry out together to the Most High that they have been deceived.

1. On the hidden holy people of the almighty (Christ), the living God. 2. On the end of this age. 3. On the first resurrection. 4. On the day of judgment. 5. To catechumens. 6. To the faithful. 7. You faithful, beware of evil. 8. To penitents. 9. Those who have apostatized from God. 10. On infants. 11. Deserters. 12. To the soldiers of Christ. 13. On those who flee. 14. On the seed of the weeds. 15. To the dissembler. 16. Worldly things are to be shunned altogether. 17. What a Christian should be. 18. To the matrons of the church of the living God. 19. Again to them. 20. In church, to all the people of God. 21. To one who wishes for martyrdom. 22. The daily war. 23. On the jealousy of desire. 24. Those who give out of wrongdoing. 25. On deceitful peace. 26. To readers. 27. To ministers. 28. To the pastors of God. 29. I speak to the elders. 30. Visit the sick thus. 31. To the poor who are healthy. 32. Children are not to be mourned. 33. On funeral pomp. 34. To clergy. 35. On idle talkers and silence. 36. To drunkards. 37. To the pastor. 38. To one who prays. 39. The name of the man of Gaza.

On the hidden holy people of the almighty Christ, the living God. There remains a last holy (people), hidden, and indeed unknown to us as to where it lives. They themselves live by nine tribes and a half; the two tribes and a half that were left behind are ours. And Christ commanded those of old to live by the law. Let us all live now — the tradition of the new law — as the law itself teaches! I point it out to you more openly. Two tribes and a half were left behind: why? Why half a tribe from these? So that they might be martyrs, when the enemy brought war on his elect in the world; or rather, so that the chorus of the holy prophets might rise up against that people, to put a bridle on them, whom obscene horses trampled to death with lashing hooves; nor will they ever rush to take hold of peace. These tribes have been set apart so that all the mysteries of Christ might be fulfilled through them in the whole age. But they were born from the crime of two brothers, under whose lead they followed the crime. Were not such bloodstained men rightly scattered? They come together again in camp for the sake of the mysteries. Then the things told in the law hasten to be fulfilled. Almighty Christ comes down to his elect, who have been hidden from us for so long, grown to so many thousands; that is the true heavenly nation. There no one dies before his father, nor do they feel pains or sores arising in their bodies; resting on their beds, they depart in ripe old age, fulfilling all the law, and so they are protected. They are commanded to cross over to the Lord from those parts; he dries up the river for them, as for those who crossed before, and the Lord himself leads them out with them. He has crossed over to our parts; they come with the heavenly King. What shall I say of their journey, on which God leads them out? The mountains sink down before them and springs burst out: creation rejoices to see the heavenly people. This people hastens to defend its captive mother. But the wicked one who holds her, when he hears it, flees to the north and gathers everyone. But when the tyrant dashes himself against the army of God, his soldiers are laid low by heavenly terror; he himself is seized, with the unspeakable false prophet; by the Lord's decree they are handed over alive to Gehenna. After that the chief men and leaders are ordered to serve. Then the saints will come to the breasts of their ancient mother, so that at last those too may be refreshed whom that evil one tortured with various punishments to make them believe in him. The end has come: to take away the stumbling blocks from the world, the Lord will begin to give judgment by fire.

On the end of this age. The trumpet gives the signal from heaven, when the lion has been taken away, and suddenly there is darkness with the crash of the sky. The Lord casts down his eyes, so that the earth trembles, and he cries out, so that all in the world may hear: “Behold, I have long kept silent, bearing with your deeds for so long a time!” They cry out together, lamenting, groaning too late; there is howling and weeping, and no respite is given to the wicked. What will a mother do for the child at her breast, when she herself is burning? In the flame of fire the Lord will judge the wicked; but the fire will not touch the righteous; rather, it will lick them. They live under one roof, but one part will weep at the sentence. So great will be the heat that the very stones will melt; the winds drive on in lightning, heavenly wrath will rage, so that wherever the ungodly man flees, the fire catches him; there will be no help (then), not even from a ship's stern. Yet the flame, keeping the nations halved and divided, spares them, so that for a thousand years they may render their bodies to the saints. For after the thousand years they are handed over to Gehenna, and they are burned together with the frame of the world to which they belonged.

On the first resurrection. The city comes down from heaven in the first resurrection. And what shall we tell of so great a heavenly structure? We rise again to him, we who have been devoted to him; and they will then be incorruptible, living without death; nor will there be any pain or groaning in it. Those too will come who win strong martyrdoms under the Antichrist; they too live for all time and receive good things, since they suffered evil; and they themselves marry and beget children through the thousand years. All the produce of the earth is gathered there, because the earth, renewed, pours out abundantly without end. There is no rain there, no cold in the golden camp, no sieges as now, and no robberies. That city needs no lamplight: it shines from its author, and night does not appear there. It is twelve thousand stadia broad, long, and as high; its root is on the earth, but its head reaches the height of heaven. Before the gates of the city the sun or the moon will shine. The evil one is shut up in anguish, for the sake of the righteous who are to be nourished. But after the thousand years God carries all things away.

On the day of judgment. I add something about the day of judgment for the sake of unbelievers. God's fire, sent forth again, will hold sway; the earth then groans at the last end of things, since all the unbelieving nations are then on the earth; and yet the fire avoids the camp of his saints. All nature is turned into one flame; the earth is burned from its depths and the mountains melt; nothing of the sea remains, it will be overcome by the mighty fire; this heaven perishes and this earth is changed; a new heaven and an everlasting earth are framed. Then those who deserve it are sent into the second death, but the righteous are placed in the dwellings within.

To catechumens. All of you who believe in Christ, having left idols behind, I admonish in a few words for your salvation. What you did in earlier times through error … leave it all; and once you know God, be a good, tested recruit, and let virgin modesty dwell with you in the Lamb. Let your mind watch for good things: take care not to sin from now on; in the baptism of new birth only the (former) things are forgiven you. For if anyone sins as a catechumen, he is marked with a penalty; you may live distinguished by that baptism, but you do not remain without loss. The sum of it for you: always avoid grave sins.

To the faithful. I admonish the faithful not to harbor hatred against their brothers: ungodly hatreds are reckoned to martyrs as fuel for the fire; the martyr whose confession is of that kind is destroyed, and we are taught that his evil is not expiated even by shed blood. The law is given to the wicked, so that he can restrain himself; so you too, once washed, must likewise take care. You sin twice against God, you who drag out a lawsuit against a brother. You will not escape sin by it, following your old ways. You have been washed once: can you be dipped again?

You faithful, beware of evil. Birds and the beasts of the forest are caught with birdlime; those who have the reason of a mind are charmed by jests and deceived by a trick as they follow the bait; they do not know how to avoid evil and are not held by the law. The law has been given to man, and the teaching of life to be read, from which he may remember to live carefully, and his own place, and death's, and set aside the things that are. Whoever offends against the king condemns himself heavily: either bound in iron, or cast down from his rank, or deprived of life, he loses what he ought to have enjoyed. Warned by this example, do not sin gravely; after the washing, have love instead, and keep far away from the bait of the mousetrap, where death is. There are many martyrdoms without the shedding of blood. Not to covet another's goods … ; you ought to curb your tongue, to make yourself humble, not to do violence of your own accord nor repay violence done to you; if you have been patient in mind, understand that you are a martyr.

To penitents. You have become a penitent: pray night and day; but do not go far away from your mother, and the Most High will be able to have mercy on you. The shame of your guilt will not then be in vain, when you weep in your guilt in open squalor. If you have a deep wound, seek the physician too; and yet by penance you will be able to lessen your losses. For I will confess that I am one of you, and that I too once felt the terror of ruin. Therefore I admonish the wounded to walk more carefully, to defile beard and hair in the dust of the earth, to roll in sackcloth, and to ask the highest King to help you, so that you may not perish from among the people.

Those who have apostatized from God. When war is waged or the enemy floods in, whoever can conquer or hide wins great trophies; but unhappy will be the one who is captured by them. He loses both his country and his king — it comes to him deservedly — who would not fight for his country or for his life. He should have died rather than go under a barbarian king, submitting in lawless slavery to the enemy. If you die fighting for your land, you have conquered; but if you surrender, though unharmed, you have perished by the law. The enemy crosses the river: hide (yourself) in a hiding place, or, if he can get in … Make yourself safe on every side, and your family too: you have conquered; and act watchfully, so that no one breaks in on them. It will be a disgrace to the King if anyone gives himself up to the enemy. The fool who does not know how to conquer and runs to hand himself over has left praise neither to himself nor to his country; he refused to live then, when life itself was lost. Then, if he flees back from the enemy, destitute or profane, like sounding bronze, or like deaf asps, such a man ought to pray enough, or hide himself.

On infants. When the enemy suddenly comes flooding in with war and, before they could flee, has seized the helpless little ones, they are not to be reproached, though they seem to have been captured. Nor do I excuse them: perhaps they deserved it through the sins of their parents, and so God handed them over. Yet I urge the grown ones to run back into the hall and be born as it were anew from their mother's womb. Let them flee the terrible nation, always bloodthirsty, ungodly, unteachable, living a beastly life; for when another war perhaps has to be waged, whoever can conquer, or at least now knows how to take care, …

Deserters. Deserters are spoken of as of more than one kind: one is worthless, another withdraws in part; but true judgments decide for each. See, we are serving as soldiers: you obey Christ as you obey Caesar. Seek the King's refuge, if you have offended; implore him, fall down and confess to him: he will grant everything; everything is ours. Restored to the camp, take care not to offend any further. Do not wander long, soldier, through the dens of wild beasts. Let it be a mighty deed for you to stop sinning afterward.

To the soldiers of Christ. When you have enlisted in the army, you are held by a bridle. Begin, then: give up your former deeds, avoid luxuries, since toil awaits you under arms. The King's command must be obeyed with all your strength, if you wish to reach the happy last times. As a good soldier, always wait to enjoy them. Do not flatter yourself; give up all idleness; take care to be present before your officer every day; at dawn look to the standards. When you see war, take up the contest close at hand; this is the King's glory, to see his soldier ready. The King is present when he is longed for; he fights for your hope; he prepares gifts, he gladly receives you for the victory and makes you his own guardsman. Besides, do not spare yourself in the blows; be rather tireless, so that he may repay you with glory for death.

On those who flee. The souls of the damned rightly separate themselves; from this they run back again to their own protector. The Canaanite root, the accursed seed, breaks out and flees into a servile nation under a barbarian king; eternal flame will torture them on the appointed day. The profane vagrant wants to wander without discipline, to roam through the jaws of wild beasts, freed from the law. Such men, then, whom no punishment has compelled, if they will not (withdraw) from idols, ought to be rejected.

On the seed of the weeds. Those who stand mixed in the church from the seed of the weeds are separated from the crop when the times of the harvest are fulfilled. The weed has sprung up which the lord (of the field) had not sown; the farmer gathers it all and separates it. The law is our field: whoever does good in it, to us the Ruler himself surely grants true rest; but the weed is burned with fire. If, then, you thought that because you live under one roof you were safe, you are wrong: I declare you barren Christians. The fig tree without fruit was cursed at the Lord's word, and at once it withered. You do no works, you prepare no gift for the treasury: and do you, empty ones, think you deserve the Lord in this way?

To the dissembler. You pretend not to know the law, brought with such proclamation, crying out as though present with a trumpet and a heavenly voice. If only (one) prophet had declared it to the world, the Lord's voice through him would surely have been enough for me. In so many volumes of the prophets the Lord's voice proclaims it; yet no one puts away malice from a fair heart. You want to see good things, and you seek to live by fraud. Why, then, did the law itself come forth with such labor? You abuse the Lord's commands and call yourself a son; if that is what you are, you trust without cause, I say. The Almighty seeks gentle sons for himself, upright, good of heart, devoted to the divine law; but you know already where he has plunged the ungentle.

Worldly things are to be shunned altogether. Some teachers, while they wait for your gifts or fear persons, relax every rule for you; I do not teach so, but I am compelled to speak the truth. With the crowd of the Evil One you go to the empty shows, where the pomp is prepared by Satan amid the din. You persuade yourself that whatever pleases you is allowed. The offspring of the Most High mixed with the sons of the devil! Do you now want to look back to the former things which you renounced? You are busy with them again: what good will the One do you? Or if what you foolishly profane was given for sickness … “Do not love the world or its display”: so great is God's voice, and it seems a light thing to you. You keep a man's command and avoid God's; you trust in the gift with which teachers stop their mouths, so that they are silent and do not tell you the divine commands. Since you are held by my telling the truth, look to the Most High: you were his son; hand yourself over to him, foul as you are. If, a man of faith, you seek to live like a Gentile, the joys of the world remove you from the grace of Christ; undisciplined, you presume that whatever you like is allowed, and you seek the choruses of the theater and musical songs, and you do not care that your children run wild with such license. While you think you are enjoying life, you go astray, not looking ahead. The Most High commands, and you avoid his just precepts.

What a Christian should be. Since the Lord says that bread is to be eaten in groaning, why do you now act this way here, wanting to live merrily? You seek to overturn the sentence handed down by the Most High; see in the first-formed man the bridle of the law going forth. If God almighty commanded us to live by the sweat of the brow, you who make merry are therefore now a stranger to him. Scripture says the Lord was angry with the Jews: “Refreshed with food, the sons rose up to play.” Why, then, do we now follow those who went astray of their own accord? From the thing by which they perished we must take care. The greater part of you appears given over to luxuries. You transgress the law when you put yourself among the musicians. The apostle cries out, or (rather) God cries out through him: “Your license,” he says, “ruins you in it.” Be, then, such as Christ wants you to be: gentle and cheerful in him, but sad to the world. Run out, toil, sweat, fight with sadness; hope comes with toil, and, once you are given the palm of victory — if you want to refresh your soul, go to the martyrs! Wait for the rest of the things to come through the passage of death.

To the matrons of the church of the living God. You want to be a Christian matron while learning from the world: you surround yourself with gold or silk clothing, modest woman; you send the terror of the law out of your ears to the wind; you strive after vain things, all of them from the devil's pomp; you arrange at the mirror the curls turned back from your forehead; you also put false cosmetics on your cheeks and antimony on your pure eyes, a perverse beauty; or you dye your hair so that it is black at all times. God is an inspector who pierces every heart. Besides, these things are not necessary for the modest. Pierce your breast with a chaste and modest mind; the law of God testifies that such women depart from the law. Let it be enough for a woman who believes from the heart to be approved by her husband, not for her adornments but for a good mind. Put on the clothes you ought to, to keep off cold or too much sun, only so that you may be approved as modest; and show among God's people the gifts of your means. Tabitha, once most famous, gives you an example: lying lifeless, she was raised by the prayers of the widows. She deserved to be raised by her giving, not by her adornments. You good matrons, flee the beauty of vanity: the attire of the brothel suits (unchaste) women. Conquer the evil one, you modest women of Christ; show all your riches in giving.

Again to them. Hear the voice, you who want to remain a Christian woman: how the blessed Paul commanded women to pray. And Isaiah, the heaven-speaking teacher and author, detests those who follow the love of the world: “The daughters of Zion,” he says, “were exalted and have fallen.” It is not right before God for a faithful Christian woman to be adorned. Do you seek to approach God's holy things in the Gentile manner? The heralds of God, crying out in the law, condemn such women, saying that women who adorn themselves this way are unrighteous. You dye your hair, you smear your eyes with black, you curve your little locks, painted step by step on your forehead; you doctor your cheek with a coat of red; earrings hang of heavy weight; you bury your neck in pearls, gems, and gold; you bind hands worthy of God with evil omens. Why should I mention your clothes, or the whole pomp of the devil? You reject the law; you would rather please the world; you dance in houses and sing love songs instead of psalms. Though you may be chaste, you are not cleansed while following the wrong way: therefore Christ ranks such women with the Gentiles. The holy woman of God shows her riches in her heart. Serve Christ with a hymn-singing choir, pleasing to him; eager for his favor, offer Christ a sweet fragrance.

In church, to all the people of God. I am not righteous, brothers, I who was lifted out of the sewer; nor do I exalt myself, but I grieve for you, seeing that out of so great a people no one is crowned in the contest. Surely, if a man does not fight himself, let him at least encourage those who do. Rebuke the disaster; you who exult, stop your luxury! A brother toils under arms against the opposing world, and do you, relying on your wealth, neither fight nor stand by the one fighting? Fool, do you not see that one man fights for many? The whole church hangs on such a man, if he conquers. You see your brother fasting and fighting with the enemy; you want peace in the camp, while he fights it out outside. Be merciful, so that above all you may be saved. Do you not see the Lord crying out with such a proclamation, who commands us to give food even to enemies? For this reason, provide daily meals, which he always took with the poor on all days. Fool, you seek to feed someone who will feed you in turn. … Well fed, with a swollen belly, you hold forth, while your brother, crushed by want, is wasting away beside you. On the Lord's day, what then? If someone else has not invited him first, bring from your own neighborhood a poor man to take to dinner. In such a man, refreshed from your goods, is your hope.

To one who wishes for martyrdom. Since you desire martyrdom, son, listen. Be like Abel, or like the Master himself. Stephen chose the right way for his journey. What you desire is indeed a thing fit for the blessed. First conquer evil with good deeds by living rightly. When your King sees these things, be secure. The time is his, and we must bear ourselves in both; so, if war comes, will martyrs go in peace? Many indeed err, saying: “By our blood we conquer the Evil One”; yet they do not want to conquer him while he remains. The Evil One perishes by siege and so feels it, but the one who keeps the law does not feel punishments for his deeds. … Now if you conquer by good deeds, you will be a martyr in him. You, then, who seek to seize martyrdom by a word, clothe yourself in peace with good things and be secure.

The daily war. You long to make war, fool, as though wars had stopped! From the first-formed man's day we fight until the end. Lust drives you headlong: it is war; fight with it. Luxury tempts you: spurn it, and you have won the war. Go sparingly with wine, so that you do not go astray through it; keep from cursing the tongue with which you worship God; restrain your rage, make yourself peaceable to all; take care not to crush the lowly who are oppressed by misery; show only a threat, and do no harm; lead yourselves sincerely by the straight path through the world; in your riches make yourself generous to the little ones; give from your labor, clothe the naked: so you will conquer. Set traps for no one, you who serve God; look at the beginning, how the envious enemy perished. I am no teacher, but the law itself teaches, crying aloud. You speak such empty words, you who, idle, seek to carry off martyrdom for Christ in a single moment.

On the jealousy of desire. While you covet, you perish by it, while you burn with jealousy of your neighbor; you snuff yourself out when, driven on, you set yourself on fire. You envy another, envious one, who profits from evil, and you desire to become his equal in so much money. The law is not regarded that way. While you seek to press hard on him, you live all in suspense in the fever of gain; and though you are guilty in your own sight, condemning yourself as judge, the greedy edge of your eyes is never satisfied. Now, then, come back and think: it is a vain desire to heap up too much while living a frail life. Hence God cries: “Fool, this night you are called!” Afterward the delay comes crashing down: whose will these talents be? At the last you burn with striving for unjust gains, though the Lord supplies each one with daily food. Let another heap up; you, seek to live by what is good … Nor do I say that you should send yourself to utter death, while you keep watch for your day, living without fraud. The unwary bird perishes in the bait or sticks to the lime. Consider that you must take very great care, in simplicity. Let others go too far; you, always look to the end.

Those who give out of wrongdoing. Why do you make yourself out to be good by another's wound, wicked one? From what you give away, another weeps every day. Do you disbelieve that the Lord sees this from heaven? “The Most High does not approve the gifts of the wicked,” it says. You burst out against the wretched once you have gained a position. One man gives gifts in order to leave another empty-handed; or, if you have lent at twelve percent and doubled your money, you want to give alms from it, to purge yourself as it were of evil: the Almighty refuses such works altogether. You give from others' tears, dressed in white; he, in black, crushed by interest, weeps, made poor. Besides, having found a time for the enemy's informers, you wickedly despoil the saints now for a price, and you take a share of the profit of the goods to atone for yourself; it is yourself you strike, not another …, wicked one.

On deceitful peace. The appointed time brings peace to our people in the world, and at the same time ruin, as the age flatters the leaders. You drive headlong the people whom (you yourselves) sent into schism: either keep the law of the city or leave it. You see the speck sticking in our eyes, and you will not see the beam in your own. A deceitful peace has come to you; persecution is blazing. The wounds do not show, and so you have fallen without bloodshed; a war is being waged in secret under that very peace. Of (all) of you scarcely one has conducted himself carefully. O you, foretold to be fattened by evil for the slaughter! You praise a deceitful peace, which is unjust to you. You have become soldiers of another, not of Christ, and have perished.

To readers. I admonish readers only to know certain things: to give others material by the example of their living, to flee strife and likewise to avoid quarrels, to keep down swelling pride, and never to be arrogant. Pay each of your elders the deference that is due; make yourselves like Christ your master, little sons; be among the lilies of the field by your good deeds. You have become blessed when you have done what is commanded. You are the flowers among the people, you are Christ's lamps; keep what you are, and you can call it to mind.

To ministers. Deacons, perform the mystery of Christ chastely; therefore, as ministers, do the commands of your master. Do not avoid the part of a fair judge; fulfill your office completely, taught in all things. Looking upward, always devoted to God most high, render the sacred mysteries to God whole and unharmed. Be ready to give an example in all kinds of matters; bow your own heads to the pastors: so it will come about that you are approved by Christ's people.

To the pastors of God. If a pastor has been a confessor, he has doubled his contest. The apostle orders teachers to be such as these: let the ruler be patient, let him know when to slacken the reins; let him first frighten, and afterward anoint with honey; and let him first take care to do himself what he says. A pastor who serves worldly things becomes guilty, and you would dare to say anything to his face. Hell itself boils with rumors: woe to the wretched people that wavers, uncertain! If such a pastor is present, it totters, almost lost; but a devoted pastor holds it together, governing rightly. For the people's soul is gladdened by fit rulers. In such men is hope, and the whole church lives.

I speak to the elders. The time demands that I alone tell you the truth. What many disparage is always set in motion by one. I want to turn your hatred onto me alone, so that the hearts of all may rest from such swelling. Consider the saying that truth brings hatred. I have indeed already spoken beforehand about the deceitful peace, how great it is! The seducer of Eve has crept in by flattering you. Because you do not know it, you have fallen into this snare, while you drink in the very breeze of the world. No one for whom you intercede will get it for nothing; whoever flees from the fire comes into your whirlpool. Then the wretch, stripped by you, seeks help: the judges themselves now shudder at your embezzlements. … You look to those who speak, to whom you show yourselves freely; you take meals with them and feed them. For this you are now almost laying the earth's foundations.

Visit the sick thus. If a brother is sick — I am speaking of a poor one — do not visit him empty-handed as he lies there. Do good before God; render your services even to the lowest; so, if he recovers, or if he reflects, it is well. Let the poor man be refreshed, who has nothing from which to (give) a reward; but the founder and author of the world will give it for him. Or, if you are reluctant always to go to the poor man in his squalor, send him coins with which he can recover. Likewise, if a poor sister lies sick in bed, let your matrons start bringing food. God himself cries out: “Break your bread for the needy!” There is no need to visit with words, but with good deeds. It is wicked that a brother should be sick, overcome by want. He is not satisfied by words; he needs food and drink. Look after such people — but surely the disabled, who cannot get along by themselves — give at once! I promise you that you will be given back fourfold by the Lord.

To the poor who are healthy. What is healthy poverty? If riches are not there, and you have a trade, share it with a brother. Grant yourself this one thing, that you may not be called proud; I promise that you live more securely than the rich man. Take rather the teaching of Solomon into your ears: God did not grant the poor man to answer back to those on high: so submit yourself and give honor to the powerful. For a mild word — you know how the proverb says; even an old anger is overcome by courtesy. If the tongue is silent, nothing better will have been found. Of course, if you have no trade by which to keep yourself alive, either offer your labor or run errands at the command of the powerful; do not be ashamed or reluctant to run, since you are healthy. Besides, you ought to put something from your labor into the treasury, like that singular woman whom the Anointed held up as an example.

Children are not to be mourned. Though the death of children leaves grief in the heart, it is still not right to go out in black or to beat the breast. The law says wisely: grieve in the mind, not with display, in Solomon's book, when the week is over. Have you forgotten what the Lord promised about the resurrection? If you make them martyrs, then bewail your children aloud. Are you not ashamed, unrestrained, to mourn your children like a Gentile? You tear your face, beat your breast, rend your clothes, and do not fear the Lord, whose kingdom you wish to see. Do not mourn, but pray for them! Will you be less than the Gentiles, then, behaving so? By the devil's breeding you act like the crowds born of it; you cry out to the dead: by what grace, false one, did you ask? Nor did the father lead his son to be sacrificed at the altar with grief; nor did the father mourn his son with grief when he was dead; for he did not lead away the Almighty's nursling weeping, but, devoted to God, he carried out the funeral quickly.

On funeral pomp. You who seek to be concerned about the pomp of your funeral are wrong, servant of God, to want to please even in death — alas! — that the lifeless body should be adorned for burial. O true vanity, to desire honor for the dead! A mind held by the world and not devoted to Christ even in death. You know the proverb about the woman who wanted to be carried out through the forum! I add those like her, who live with a savage mind. You want a lucky and happy day at your departure, so that the people may gather to see praise mixed with mourning. Do you not look ahead to where you may deserve to go when you are dead? See, they follow the procession, and you are perhaps already burning, brought to punishment: what good will pomp do the dead? You will be accused, you who seek guilds for these things. You wish to live under black: you deceive yourself.

To clergy. It is fitting that at Easter, our most happy day, those who beg for their daily food should also rejoice: let what is enough be given them, wine and food. Consider that these things will be remembered in your favor! You fail to give to Christ at a small cost. When you do not do it yourselves, how can you urge the justice of the law on such people, even once a year? So, rightly, blasphemies often arise about you.

On idle talkers and silence. While it seems a light thing to everyone and is not avoided, and you think it easy, as if from the womb, stories come up in the place where you came to pour out prayers, or to beat on the breast for daily sin. The trumpet of the heralds cries out while the reader reads, so that ears may be open, and you instead stop them up; you loosen your lips, with which you ought to groan. Close your breast to evil, or dissolve (it) in your breast. But because riches or money give a bold face, everyone perishes by it, when they trust most in themselves. So women too come together as if they were going into the baths. And you make God's house like a market where people stand around. The Lord has warned against this: “Let it be a house of prayer!” When the priest of the Lord bids “Lift up your hearts,” so that there may be silence during the prayer to be made, you answer clearly, yet you do not keep the time either. He entreats the Most High for the devoted people, that no one may perish; but you turn to gossip; you smile there, or you detract from your neighbor's good name; you speak without discipline, as though God were absent, who made all things, and neither (heard) nor saw (you).

To drunkards. I set no limit for the drunkard; but, a greater beast, the more you drink, the further down you sink from your mind. You hold, fool, the command of a ruler among the Cyclopes, then among these savage ones: “When I am dead,” you say, “I do not drink; (it is) best for me to drink and put my heart to sleep.” Rather, give what you seek to squander in excess to the lowest poor man, and you will both be refreshed. If you do this, you put out Gehenna for yourself.

To the host. You who seek to give a feast and have prepared what you could, you have done rightly in feeding your equal regularly: but mix in a poor man, who cannot feed you in return; then your table will be approved by the one God. The Almighty commanded that such people above all be fed. When you give a meal, look to the sick, and you lend to the Most High. The Lord wanted you to be proved in them.

To one who prays. If you, when you pray, wish to be heard from heaven, break all the bonds of wickedness from your hiding place; or, if you pray having shown mercy to the needy by good deeds, do not doubt: whatever you ask is given to the one who prays. But if you worship God bare of good deeds, do not make your prayer that way at all, you fool.

The name of the man of Gaza. You who will dwell in heaven with God, with Christ, who holds the beginning and sees all things from heaven, let simplicity and goodness dwell in your body; do not be angry without cause with a devoted brother; for you will receive from him whatever you have done. It has pleased Christ that the dead rise from the depths with their bodies, even what fire burned in the age, when six thousand years are completed and the world is ended. Meanwhile the sky is turned, its course changed; for then the ungodly are burned with divine fire; the creation burns, groaning at the wrath of God most high. But the dignitaries, men of illustrious birth, and nobles, when the Antichrist has been conquered, live again in the age by God's command, for a thousand years indeed, to serve the saints and the Most High under a servile yoke, carrying provisions on their necks, so that they may be judged again when the kingdom is finished. Those who set God at nothing, when the thousandth year is completed, will perish by fire, melting with the very mountains. From pyres and tombs all flesh is given back for what it has done; they sink into hell and are handed over to punishment forever. Their deeds are shown to them and read out from heaven: the ancient record for what is due, and merits for the worthy; for the tyrant, a reward forever according to his deeds. I cannot take in everything in a little book. The curiosity of the learned will find the name in this one.