Opuscula

Contents

Reading pages: 1.0–2.14 · 2.15–2.175 · 2.176–2.211 · 3.0–3.13 · 4.0 · 4.1–4.4 · 5.1–5.11 · 5.12–5.13 · 6.1–6.28 · 7.0 · 7.1–10.1 · 10.2–10.11

1. 1.0Mark explains that he writes because his readers asked how the law is spiritual.
2. 1.1God is the source of all good, which is done and believed only in Christ and the Spirit.
3. 1.2Every good is the Lord's gift; firm faith is a tower and Christ is all to the believer.
4. 1.3Begin every undertaking with God.
5. 1.4The humble reader applies Scripture to himself.
6. 1.5Pray for the eyes of the heart to be opened; compassion preserves a gift and boasting loses it.
7. 1.7To contradict the truth spoken by the humble is like striking Christ.
8. 1.8Do not learn from the proud.
9. 1.9Pride in scriptural insight leads to blasphemy.
10. 1.10Untangle hard matters by patience, prayer, and hope, not by quarrelling.
11. 1.11Bodily prayer is like the blind man's cry; spiritual sight confesses Christ as Son of God.
12. 1.12Tears in prayer are Christ's gift, not a cause for pride.
13. 1.13Like Bartimaeus, the one who casts off his cloak follows Christ.
14. 1.14Evil dwelt on hardens the heart; resisted, it brings contrition.
15. 1.15Contrition can heal or wound.
16. 1.16Vigil, prayer, and patience break the heart beneficially.
17. 1.17Love of pleasure binds the soul at death; love of toil frees it.
18. 1.18The iron gate of a hard heart opens to the afflicted, as for Peter.
19. 1.19No true prayer is harmful.
20. 1.20One hindered from evil by providence gives thanks.
21. 1.21David was restrained from killing Nabal and gave thanks.
22. 1.22David forgot God and sinned until Nathan reminded him.
23. 1.23Pray much when you remember God, so he will remind you when you forget.
24. 1.24Seek the hidden sense of Scripture, written for our instruction.
25. 1.25Faith is the substance of hope; those who do not recognize Christ dwelling in them are unapproved.
26. 1.26As deeds reveal intention, the heart's workings reveal the future reward.
27. 1.27The merciful receive mercy; the law of liberty is understood through keeping the commandments.
28. 1.29The perfection of the law is hidden in Christ's cross.
29. 1.30The law of liberty is read by knowledge, understood by practice, fulfilled by Christ's mercy.
30. 1.31Striving to keep every commandment reveals that only God's mercy perfects the law in us.
31. 1.32Those who do not see themselves as debtors to Christ's commands think they fulfil the law by works.
32. 1.33An act's appearance may differ from its aim.
33. 1.34Words too may misrepresent things from ignorance, malice, or godly purpose.
34. 1.35Slander disguised as praise and vanity disguised as humility are hard to detect.
35. 1.36Long-concealed falsehood is eventually exposed.
36. 1.37A seemingly good act may be revenge; refraining may profit the soul.
37. 1.38Rebuke may come from malice or from fear of God.
38. 1.39Do not rebuke the penitent; first confess your own faults.
39. 1.40God begins every virtue as the sun begins daylight.
40. 1.41Remember that without Christ we can do nothing.
41. 1.42Good comes through affliction, evil through vainglory and pleasure.
42. 1.43Suffering wrong frees from sin and brings matching help.
43. 1.44Faith in Christ's reward enables patience under injustice.
44. 1.45Praying for wrongdoers defeats demons; pleasing the Lord conquers both.
45. 1.47Good comes from God but slips away from the ungrateful and idle.
46. 1.48Vice ends in forbidden pleasure, virtue in spiritual consolation, each breeding its kind.
47. 1.49Enduring reproach purifies.
48. 1.50Bold ignorance resists what helps and multiplies vice.
49. 1.51Accept hardship and reject greed as one who must give account.
50. 1.52Hidden sin cannot be hidden from God.
51. 1.53Present your inner self to God, who sees the heart.
52. 1.54Act always with a purpose.
53. 1.55Sin without compulsion makes repentance hard; painful events recall God.
54. 1.57Unwanted pain teaches remembrance of God and prompts repentance.
55. 1.58Forgetfulness grows from negligence.
56. 1.59Unwanted forgetfulness comes from neglecting duty when remembered.
57. 1.60Doing what you remember reveals what you forgot.
58. 1.61Hades and destruction in Proverbs signify ignorance and forgetfulness.
59. 1.62Ignorance and forgetfulness are hidden, being a loss of what existed.
60. 1.63Attend to your own faults, not your neighbour's.
61. 1.64Almsgiving and prayer recover the negligent.
62. 1.65Affliction for God's sake is real piety, testing love.
63. 1.66Virtue untested by affliction is unproven.
64. 1.67Voluntary affliction destroys sin.
65. 1.68Others' advice is many-sided, but one's own judgment fits best.
66. 1.69Heed your conscience to find healing.
67. 1.70God and conscience know our secrets and correct us.
68. 1.71Unwilling toil impoverishes; hopeful effort enriches doubly.
69. 1.72We strive as we will; God decides outcomes justly.
70. 1.73Love correction before seeking praise.
71. 1.74Shame borne for Christ's truth is repaid with glory a hundredfold.
72. 1.75Do good for the sake of the future reward.
73. 1.76Help given between people is God's grace.
74. 1.77Hypocritical praise turns to reproach and shame.
75. 1.78Ignorance of the passions' causes leads to a fall.
76. 1.79Pleasure breeds negligence and forgetfulness, though God gives all knowledge of the good.
77. 1.80We advise by knowledge; God acts by the hearer's faith.
78. 1.81The humble unlearned grow wise; boasting of ignorance breeds pride.
79. 1.82Boasting of ignorance shows real ignorance.
80. 1.83Eloquence differs from prudence, and plain speech from folly.
81. 1.84Neither plain nor learned speech harms the devout and humble.
82. 1.85Doing the good we know reveals the rest.
83. 1.86Practice must precede higher knowledge; love builds up.
84. 1.87Read Scripture by doing it, not by empty talk.
85. 1.88Knowledge without practice is a reed staff that wounds its holder.
86. 1.89God weighs every thought; temptation follows obedience.
87. 1.90A thought that suggests human glory prepares shame.
88. 1.91The enemy seeks only consent, knowing it brings repentance or suffering.
89. 1.92The enemy may provoke resistance to afflictions to multiply pain.
90. 1.93Only prayer and repentance escape evil; vices and virtues each grow by each other.
91. 1.94The devil makes small sins seem trivial; praise roots desire; renunciation with luxury is useless.
92. 1.100The abstinent who acquires money shares the luxurious man's root in pleasure.
93. 1.101Cutting off one passion for a greater pleasure is futile toil.
94. 1.102Vainglory and pleasure cause all vice.
95. 1.103Love of money, vainglory, and pleasure blind the mind.
96. 1.104The three passions are the leech's daughters loved by folly.
97. 1.105These passions have dulled our natural knowledge and faith.
98. 1.106All violence grows from these three passions.
99. 1.107Hate the three passions as mothers of vice.
100. 1.108Not loving the world means cutting off the passions' occasions, not hating creation.
101. 1.109Entanglement in worldly affairs makes victory over the passions impossible.
102. 1.110Anger over money, glory, or pleasure ignores God's just governance.
103. 1.111Renouncing all means renouncing every evil work, not money alone.
104. 1.112Knowledge of truth precedes true faith.
105. 1.113God assigns fitting consequences to thoughts as to things.
106. 1.114Unpunished, unrepentant sin faces merciless judgment after death.
107. 1.115True prayer bears trials; injury from others brings future good.
108. 1.117Suffering heals bad character as wormwood helps poor appetite.
109. 1.118Doing evil inevitably brings suffering; we reap what we sow.
110. 1.119The delay between sowing and reaping makes us doubt God's recompense.
111. 1.120Sin begins in the mind, not the deed.
112. 1.121Secret wrongdoing is worse and punished more.
113. 1.122The secret schemer is the serpent biting the horse's heel.
114. 1.123Praising and blaming the same person reveals vainglory and envy.
115. 1.124The deceiver cannot obtain mercy.
116. 1.125Mixing self-will into obedience is adultery; self-justification opposes humility.
117. 1.127Seek forgiveness through humility, not condemnation of others.
118. 1.128Even a small sin left unerased leads to greater evil.
119. 1.129Love true words and accept rebuke.
120. 1.130John's true word changed the brood of vipers.
121. 1.131Receiving true words is receiving the divine Word.
122. 1.132The paralytic stands for a sinner forgiven through others' faith.
123. 1.133Prayer for a neighbour is better than constant rebuke.
124. 1.134Mockery by fools signals true repentance.
125. 1.135The spiritual athlete persists; loving one passion equals loving all.
126. 1.136Sin is a fire that grows with fuel and dies without it.
127. 1.137Pride in praise brings dishonour.
128. 1.138After casting out willed evil, we fight passions rooted in prepossession.
129. 1.140Prepossession is the involuntary memory of past sins, checked by the struggler and repelled by the victor.
130. 1.141Provocation is an imageless stirring of the heart, which the experienced block.
131. 1.142Images in thought mean consent; some escape, others feed the fire.
132. 1.143Unwanted temptations come because we love their causes.
133. 1.144Seeking praise and resenting affliction show passion and love of ease.
134. 1.145The self-indulgent waver; testing all things keeps one from evil.
135. 1.147Patience and attention to wisdom bring understanding.
136. 1.148True knowledge needs remembrance of God.
137. 1.149Subtle teaching cannot help the hard-hearted without fear.
138. 1.150Faithful words help the meek, who do not provoke God.
139. 1.151Rebuke the powerful by showing future dishonour.
140. 1.152Hating rebuke shows willed passion; loving it shows only prepossession.
141. 1.153Listening to others' sins feeds their images in us.
142. 1.154Blame yourself, not the speaker, for evil words you hear.
143. 1.155Idle talk we meet is a debt we owe; hypocritical praise turns to blame.
144. 1.157Weigh present trials against future goods.
145. 1.158Praising a benefactor apart from God ends in disappointment.
146. 1.159Bearers of good are God's servants.
147. 1.160An even mind in good and ill lets God level circumstances.
148. 1.161Unsteady thoughts bring unsteady circumstances by God's just ordering.
149. 1.162Outward events follow inward states by God's decree.
150. 1.163Pleasure breeds pestilent thoughts that reveal the inner fuel.
151. 1.164Staying within the mind eases temptation.
152. 1.165Pray against temptation, but accept it as your own when it comes.
153. 1.166Freedom from greed reveals the devil's schemes.
154. 1.167Claiming to know all the devil's schemes is self-deceiving pride.
155. 1.168Freed from bodily cares, the mind sees the enemy's tricks.
156. 1.169Thoughts blind us to sin's causes.
157. 1.170Evil thoughts can nullify a good deed.
158. 1.171Entering evil is already defeat.
159. 1.172Everything grows from small beginnings.
160. 1.173Evil is a net that tightens on the careless.
161. 1.174Rejoicing at enemies' misfortunes reaps its own fruit.
162. 1.175Not all affliction is punishment; the godly too suffer persecution.
163. 1.176In affliction beware of temptations that seem consoling.
164. 1.177True prudence is mastery of one's will.
165. 1.178An unpurified heart seeks more of the evil it holds.
166. 1.179Some passions form in thought, others lie lodged through past deeds.
167. 1.180Passions that stir in stillness were once put in the heart by the mind.
168. 1.181Every passion is born of a thought.
169. 1.182Ceasing the flesh's wishes lets old passions subside.
170. 1.183Lodged images are stronger, but thoughts cause them.
171. 1.184Some evil is lodged by habit; some attacks through daily affairs.
172. 1.185God judges deeds by intentions.
173. 1.186Without attention to conscience, one shuns bodily labour for God.
174. 1.187Conscience is nature's book; reading it in action brings God's help.
175. 1.188Refusing willing labour brings harsher unwilling suffering.
176. 1.189Doing God's will spares great labours; the Lord is hidden in his commandments.
177. 1.190Peace is freedom from passion, given by the Spirit; practice differs from virtue.
178. 1.191Virtue is one with many forms; words without works are ill-gotten wealth.
179. 1.192Grace governs the mind; conscience and prayer need each other.
180. 1.200As Jacob gave Joseph a coat, God gives the meek knowledge of truth.
181. 1.201Always do good and never turn back.
182. 2.1Mark announces that the chapters refute false belief.
183. 2.2The kingdom is not a wage for works but grace prepared for faithful servants.
184. 2.3Freedom is awaited as grace, not demanded as pay.
185. 2.4Christ died for our sins and gives freedom to his faithful servants.
186. 2.5Faithfulness is obedience, not bare knowledge.
187. 2.6A faithful servant obeys and accepts the consequences of failure.
188. 2.7Knowledge without labour breeds pride.
189. 2.8Unexpected trials teach diligence and lead to repentance.
190. 2.9Afflictions spring from our sins, but endured with prayer they bring good.
191. 2.10People mistake the pleasure of praise for consolation and the pain of rebuke for evil.
192. 2.11Pride in works or in knowledge is folly.
193. 2.12Works confirm knowledge.
194. 2.13Neglect of practice darkens knowledge.
195. 2.14The benefit of keeping commandments depends on our intention.
196. 2.15God counts an intention as a deed, for good or evil.
197. 2.16The mind acts without the body, never the body without the mind.
198. 2.17Faith without works and works as wages both miss the kingdom.
199. 2.18Freedom is not owed, yet comes only to those who serve well.
200. 2.19Since we owe Christ service unto death, adoption cannot be owed to us.
201. 2.20Christ is Master as Creator and as Redeemer.
202. 2.21Repayment according to works means the works of faith or unbelief.
203. 2.22The baptized do good works to keep their purity, not for reward.
204. 2.23Good works restrain evil, but only grace adds holiness.
205. 2.24Every virtue is abstinence from sin, which is natural duty; adoption is Christ's gift through the cross.
206. 2.25Commandments are partial or comprehensive.
207. 2.26Discernment of grace and deception belongs to God; crossing the spiritual sea needs four virtues.
208. 2.28Stillness with the four virtues and prayer is the shortest road to dispassion.
209. 2.29Stillness of mind needs the body and prayer.
210. 2.30Walking by the Spirit overcomes fleshly desire.
211. 2.31Perfect prayer is undistracted inner invocation.
212. 2.32Undistracted prayer brings a contrite heart, which God accepts.
213. 2.33Prayer is the mother of virtues through union with Christ.
214. 2.34Action without prayer and hope ends badly.
215. 2.35Love, last-born of the virtues, is first in worth.
216. 2.36Against listlessness, remember death and judgment.
217. 2.37Cleaving to God in prayer surpasses useful outward thoughts.
218. 2.38The virtues work only together.
219. 2.39Feeding on thoughts is not self-control.
220. 2.40Unrepented sin is the sin unto death.
221. 2.41True penitents do not count their toil as payment for sins.
222. 2.42Daily good is owed, so nothing is left to repay past sins.
223. 2.43Present virtue exposes past negligence rather than repaying it.
224. 2.44Bodily and mental discipline must go together; love of enemies forgives wrongs.
225. 2.45True knowledge enables heartfelt forgiveness.
226. 2.47What is given up for the Lord returns manifold.
227. 2.48Virtue without godly aim is useless.
228. 2.49Bad counsel harms ascetics most.
229. 2.50Learn about will and recompense by practice.
230. 2.51God helps those who labour for godliness.
231. 2.52Testing an opinion against truth is more pious than holding it unexamined.
232. 2.53True knowledge shows in patience and in not blaming others.
233. 2.54Seeking reward serves self-will; only fitting repentance escapes retribution.
234. 2.55Grace given in baptism works secretly through conscience, teaching, and reading, in proportion to obedience.
235. 2.57Seeking the Spirit's gifts before obedience is like a new slave demanding freedom.
236. 2.58Seeing God's justice in afflictions is knowledge with righteousness.
237. 2.59Seeing God's judgments everywhere makes every event a teacher.
238. 2.60Consequences fit each one's thoughts in ways only God knows.
239. 2.61Meet dishonour by thinking of God's coming glory.
240. 2.62When praised by God's will, add no self-display.
241. 2.63Growth needs both our labour and God's help.
242. 2.64A good conscience is needed to please God.
243. 2.65Keep learning; God's providence surpasses our wisdom.
244. 2.66A heart dislodged by pleasure is like a stone rolling downhill.
245. 2.67Thoughts lead the soul astray little by little.
246. 2.68Breaking an old habit tears the heart between mind and passion.
247. 2.69Haters of evil welcome rebuke as sailors welcome the calm heat.
248. 2.70Passions in an old, consecrated life are like flight in winter or on the Sabbath.
249. 2.71God forgives only the repentant.
250. 2.72We grieve over sins yet welcome their causes.
251. 2.73Unbelief about the temporal blocks belief about the eternal.
252. 2.74True knowledge is a prior grace teaching trust in the Giver.
253. 2.75A sinful soul refusing affliction is like unhealed Babylon.
254. 2.77Shameful thoughts cannot last in a God-loving heart.
255. 2.78A passion fed by willing action later overpowers the will.
256. 2.79Unwanted thoughts come because we love their causes.
257. 2.80Conceit breeds blasphemy; greed and vainglory breed cruelty and hypocrisy.
258. 2.81Heartfelt prayer draws stronger attacks from the devil.
259. 2.82A lingering thought shows attachment; a quickly rejected one shows resistance.
260. 2.83The mind moves between three states: natural, unnatural, and above nature.
261. 2.84Meekness, humility, and love confirm true knowledge.
262. 2.85Baptism gives all grace mystically; obedience makes it known.
263. 2.86Conscientious obedience brings consolation in due time.
264. 2.87Pray constantly, since nothing is done without God's help.
265. 2.88Prayer is the most powerful aid.
266. 2.89Prayer contains all commandments; undistracted prayer shows love for God.
267. 2.90Vigil, patience, and prayer bring the Spirit; faith from hearing differs from faith as substance of hope.
268. 2.91Helping others by virtue and prayer surpasses words.
269. 2.92Prayer, right faith, and patience lead to every good.
270. 2.93Hope in God ends quarrels; we are our own worst enemies; ignorance and unbelief lead the evils.
271. 2.100Words and deeds without prayer go wrong.
272. 2.101Works bring a justification; faith, grace, and repentance bring salvation's treasures.
273. 2.102Penitents cannot be proud; wilful sinners cannot be humble.
274. 2.103Humility is recognizing God's grace.
275. 2.104The mind receives grace as a house receives air.
276. 2.105Clearing the mind of vainglory and pleasure lets grace enter.
277. 2.107Hope in God enlarges the heart; bodily care cramps it.
278. 2.108The Spirit's grace is one but works variously.
279. 2.109Grace, like rain, gives each virtue its fitting fruit.
280. 2.110The Spirit is unchanging and given fully in baptism; we are enlightened as we remove the passions.
281. 2.111Hating passions means removing their causes.
282. 2.112Blame ourselves, not ancestral sin, for evil thoughts.
283. 2.113Outward vices root evil thoughts.
284. 2.114Dwelling on a passion shows love of its causes.
285. 2.115Not contending when rejected shows true knowledge and faith.
286. 2.117Wronging gains nothing and being wronged loses nothing, so agitation is vain.
287. 2.118Dishonours reap the harvest of vainglorious thoughts.
288. 2.119Excess pleasure is repaid with labour.
289. 2.120A superior must instruct and warn.
290. 2.121Not seeking redress is faith in Christ and is richly rewarded.
291. 2.122Remembering God is heartfelt toil; forgetting him breeds indulgence.
292. 2.123The dispassionate still grieve for others.
293. 2.124Forgotten sins give the enemy a hold to compel more.
294. 2.125Patience keeps God in mind; hide your virtues so God hides your sins.
295. 2.127Righteousness includes pure thoughts, not just hidden virtue.
296. 2.128Rejoice in bearing ingratitude without resentment.
297. 2.129Only fear of God keeps good deeds unstained.
298. 2.130God's mercy hides in unwanted pains, leading to repentance.
299. 2.131Weighing commands against sins versus relying on Christ's death.
300. 2.132Fear of hell and longing for paradise, given by God, sustain patience.
301. 2.133Faith in the future keeps one from present pleasures.
302. 2.134Indulgence can happen in thought alone.
303. 2.135Knowledge of truth comes by hope in Christ; prayer conquers the powers.
304. 2.136Paul's spiritual warfare explains the parable on constant prayer.
305. 2.137The sabbath figures rest through renunciation; the kingdom begins within through the Spirit's grace.
306. 2.138The wise accept afflictions as leading to fear of God.
307. 2.139Recalling past sins in detail harms either hope or purity.
308. 2.140Detailed recall of past sins under pretext of confession revives passion; confess by enduring their consequences.
309. 2.141Pains repay sins; the wise confess by patient endurance.
310. 2.143Refusing labour and dishonour, one cannot repent by other virtues.
311. 2.144Labour and dishonour breed virtue; pleasure and glory breed vice.
312. 2.145Pleasure comes from ease, ease from unbelief; the sinner cannot conquer the flesh alone.
313. 2.147The passionate need prayer and obedience.
314. 2.148Fighting self-will by obedience and prayer is skilful athletics.
315. 2.149Self-will leads to defeat.
316. 2.150Friendship of the wicked is complicity.
317. 2.151Pride and vainglory feed each other.
318. 2.152A truth-loving hearer benefits from praise and rebuke alike.
319. 2.153Life must match progress, and prayer must match life.
320. 2.154Seek the kingdom alone, or else pray about each need.
321. 2.155Neglecting prayer breeds disobedience; hope for future good frees from anger.
322. 2.157The apostolic road is suffering for truth; inner attention without it goes astray.
323. 2.158Fight both thoughts and their causes together.
324. 2.159Fighting others to avoid suffering brings worse suffering.
325. 2.160Entrust affairs to God in prayer and hope.
326. 2.161Needless bodily cares let the devil rob knowledge and then hope.
327. 2.162In pure prayer reject even knowledge offered by the enemy.
328. 2.163Thinking about things helps in temptation but harms pure prayer.
329. 2.164A disobeyed teacher should grieve inwardly, not be agitated.
330. 2.165Explain plainly what is seemly and veil what is harsh.
331. 2.166Do not rebuke those not under your authority.
332. 2.167Common acts help all, but conscience shows each his own.
333. 2.168Right speech is God's gift and calls for thanks.
334. 2.169Do not argue with those not under obedience, lest hatred arise.
335. 2.170Yielding to an unjustly contradicting subordinate harms him.
336. 2.171Correction in fear of God gains virtue; spiteful reproach brings the same passion.
337. 2.172Knowing the law well brings fear of God and avoidance of evil.
338. 2.173Double-tongued speech is cursed.
339. 2.174Hatred for truth and love for hypocrisy are both brief; God repays all.
340. 2.175Bearing small present pains avoids great future ones.
341. 2.176Avoid boasting, since good is done by God.
342. 2.177God repays thoughts as well as deeds.
343. 2.178Voluntary thoughts cause involuntary ones.
344. 2.179Unwanted thoughts bring grief and pass; welcomed ones bring joy and stay.
345. 2.180Lovers of pleasure and of God grieve at opposite things.
346. 2.181Ignorance of God's judgments makes one unstable in every circumstance.
347. 2.182Creation serves what God approves and resists what he rejects.
348. 2.184Accepting afflictions is waiting on the Lord.
349. 2.185In temptation ask only how to endure it thankfully.
350. 2.186Others' evil harms us only if we welcome it in thought.
351. 2.187Since all who please God are tested, thank him for everything.
352. 2.188Failure and suffering preceded the blessings of Peter, Paul, and Stephen.
353. 2.189Temptation is unexpected affliction that tests the will, as with Abraham.
354. 2.190Wisdom bears wrongs humbly; voluntary hardship frees from evil thoughts.
355. 2.191Self-control in sleep, food, and comfort breaks the heart and frees from evil.
356. 2.192A superior must speak and forgive; every event is a market for gain or loss.
357. 2.200Gain patience instead of forcing the disobedient.
358. 2.201When one harms many, act for the many's sake.
359. 2.202Without fitting grief, one repeats the sin.
360. 2.203Shamelessness rejects godly grief.
361. 2.204Satiety and heartfelt toil cannot produce virtue together.
362. 2.205Godly grief and toil come from loving their causes.
363. 2.207Those who ignore Scripture are driven by harsher discipline.
364. 2.208Defeat in small things means slavery in great ones.
365. 2.209Rebuke does not help those who boast of virtue.
366. 2.210Christ hides his self-manifestation in his commandments, received by glad hearers.
367. 2.211Love of God and neighbour, through detachment and stillness, leads to Christ's inner house, sought by persevering prayer.
368. 3.0The end of the title of the treatise On Repentance, speaking of the power received in baptism.
369. 3.1All Christ's commandments come down to repentance; the kingdom is near in the power of his word.
370. 3.2Having received so much, we are worse than beasts if we sin without fear after faith.
371. 3.3Mark exposes contempt for inferiors, rivalry with equals, and envy of superiors.
372. 3.4Forgiving others is alms anyone can give; refusing it makes us the unforgiving servant.
373. 3.5Greed of any gift is wealth that rots; comprehensive commandments contain the particular ones, and condemnation comes from refusing repentance.
374. 3.7Repentance, woven of three commandments, befits all to the end; Hebrews 6 forbids rebaptism, not repentance, against the Novatianists.
375. 3.8Hebrews warns the deniers of post-baptismal repentance; even the spiritual can fall through small unrepented sins.
376. 3.9Neglected small sins grow; God's help often comes through affliction.
377. 3.10Even the perfect need repentance until death, since all sinned in Adam and Christ fixed repentance to death.
378. 3.11Repentance is unfinished until death; through it the saints are justified and the world holds together.
379. 3.12Repentance is owed like breathing; refusing it is conceit, while Abraham, Job, and the three youths repented though righteous.
380. 3.13Peter and Paul show that repentance and humility last until death.
381. 4.0Baptism is perfect and frees from Adam's sin; sin after baptism comes from neglect of the commandments, which reveal the grace hidden in the baptized.
382. 4.1The heavenly Jerusalem's firstfruits are in the heart; the Spirit is given wholly in baptism but works in proportion to obedience; sin is from the will, not Adam.
383. 4.2Mark distinguishes Satan, Adam's sin, provocation, and our thoughts; provocation is compulsory, but consent is chosen, and death, not guilt, was inherited from Adam.
384. 4.3The promise of vengeance is for those warred on by prepossessions, not for the self-indulgent who blame others.
385. 4.4God's delay exposes love of evil thoughts; only Adam's death was inherited, and Christ's perfect grace in baptism is revealed by keeping the commandments.
386. 5.1Mark writes to Nicolas, now absent, to repeat in writing his counsel against anger and desire.
387. 5.2Constant remembrance of God's benefits moves the heart to humility, gratitude, and zeal.
388. 5.3Keep remembrance against forgetfulness and passions; no one is a true Christian without humbly taking up the cross.
389. 5.4Outward asceticism without inner purity is like the foolish virgins, who were shut out.
390. 5.5Good works must be pure; going one's own way without guidance makes ascetic labour fruitless.
391. 5.6Mark reminds Nicolas of God's mercies, especially his rescue from shipwreck and his reception at Ancyra.
392. 5.7Nicolas should live for Christ, subdue youthful flesh by fasting and vigil, and be renewed in the image of God.
393. 5.8Anger is rooted in pride and is uprooted by remembering Christ's humility.
394. 5.9Christ took on our condition and suffered every humiliation, and was exalted; remembering this humbles the soul.
395. 5.10Remembering Christ's humility destroys anger; forgetfulness, sloth, and ignorance let the passions in.
396. 5.11Inner lust is adultery before God; the young should avoid women and live under experienced spiritual fathers.
397. 5.12Like David against the giant, one can conquer the three giants: ignorance, forgetfulness, and sloth.
398. 5.13Mark arms Nicolas against the three giants with remembrance, knowledge, and eagerness; Nicolas replies with thanks.
399. 6.1The believer, the disciple, and the apostle mark three stages of spiritual progress.
400. 6.2The sabbath of sabbaths is the soul's rest wholly in God.
401. 6.3The harvest of harvests is the mystical understanding of God.
402. 6.4Keeping the sixth day leads to dispassion; crossing the Jordan leads to knowledge.
403. 6.5The seventh day is contemplation beyond creation; the eighth is resurrection into God's life by deification.
404. 6.6Visible things need a cross, intelligible things a burial; salvation is by grace, not nature.
405. 6.7Unchangeableness comes only by passing beyond oneself in love into silence beyond thought.
406. 6.8All thought implies duality; God is simple unity beyond substance and thought.
407. 6.9Contemplation of God requires going beyond multiplicity, as Moses outside the camp and the high priest within the veil.
408. 6.10Moses outside the camp and in the darkness figures the soul's entry into the knowledge of God.
409. 6.11Keeping the law restrains evil deeds, sufficient for the spiritually immature.
410. 6.12The evangelical life cuts off evil at its root and offers praise in hope.
411. 6.13Fear, hope of reward, and love mark three stages; love makes the mind blind to all but God.
412. 6.14Christ appears to beginners as servant and to the advanced in the glory of the transfiguration.
413. 6.15The unsetting Sun of righteousness and Joshua's sun and moon figure the light of knowledge and natural discernment.
414. 6.17The disciples behind shut doors figure contemplatives who receive the Word with senses closed.
415. 6.18Chaldea, Mesopotamia, and the promised land figure passion, wavering, and perfection.
416. 6.19Saints in Babylon figure teachers who leave contemplation to guide others, as Paul remained in the flesh.
417. 6.20Contemplation is being away from the flesh and with the Lord.
418. 6.21Beyond Scripture's verbal veils one must seek the Word himself, not his garments.
419. 6.22Fixation on Scripture's letter and passionate perception are scales on the soul's eyes.
420. 6.23After defeating the passions, pray for a clean heart filled with divine thoughts.
421. 6.24A pure heart is a formless memory ready for God's impress.
422. 6.25The many dwellings differ in spiritual quality, not place.
423. 6.26Grace is always present but varies in intensity; no Christian is yet wholly perfect or free from sin.
424. 6.27Grace works in turns: childlike love for all, entry into heavenly dwellings, prayer for the world, spiritual warfare, and joy.
425. 6.28Ascetic practices are good but not the core; evil feigns retreat to breed conceit, so the Christian stays poor in spirit.
426. 7.0An old ascetic answers a lawyer on not going to law, on prayer, on worldly wisdom, and on people-pleasing, then teaches his monks that afflictions come by God's just judgment.
427. 7.1Afflictions fit their causes spiritually; through communion in thought, word, and deed we bear one another's temptations, and wrongdoers take on those they wrong.
428. 7.2Christ and the apostles bore our temptations in suretyship of love; we must believe God's justice and not couple with the flesh's movements.
429. 8.1The mind tells the soul that we blame others for sins that come from our own will.
430. 8.2Praise and ease test the will; welcoming them opens the soul to the devil, refusing them to Christ.
431. 8.3Love of pleasure can grow without wealth; judging others repeats Adam's eating of the tree of knowing good and evil.
432. 8.4The spiritual law judges hidden things; forgiving those who wrong us is the greatest virtue and reveals baptismal grace.
433. 8.5The war against vainglory and pleasure is within, with Christ hidden in baptism as our ally.
434. 9.1The safer fast is bread by weight and water by measure, always rising hungry, since fullness breeds new desires.
435. 9.2Food is not sin, but excess and excessive abstinence both harm; fasting must be sown with prayer.
436. 9.3Fasting prepares the soil for prayer; practise it with discernment, dividing one's bread over the fast days.
437. 9.4All our troubles come from elation; humility like Job's lets us see and know God.
438. 10.1Against those who make Melchizedek God by nature, Mark argues that his titles are interpretations of his name, not his nature.
439. 10.2“After the order of Melchizedek” concerns Christ's priesthood apart from the law, not divinity in Melchizedek.
440. 10.3Melchizedek is like Christ as a type, as Jonah and Moses are, not identical with him.
441. 10.4Melchizedek is without genealogy by Scripture's silence; Christ is truly without beginning because the Word was united to his humanity from the womb.
442. 10.5Melchizedek remains a priest as all saints remain with God; Paul's “how great” refers to tithes, not divinity, and types are not God.
443. 10.7Melchizedek's titles come from his city and his name, as personal names do not describe their bearers' nature.
444. 10.8Abraham's 318 servants figure the 318 fathers of Nicaea; Melchizedek's bread and wine figure the Eucharist.
445. 10.9A fleshless Word could not offer sacrifice; Melchizedek, like Abel and Jacob, was a human priest before the law.
446. 10.10The Melchizedekians are the secret false teachers Peter foretold; though excommunicated, they meet in secret and slander the orthodox.
447. 10.11No prophet, apostle, martyr, or father called Melchizedek God; the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ alone.