# The Eternal Happiness of the Saints

## About this edition

St. Robert Bellarmine’s *De aeterna felicitate sanctorum* contemplates the happiness of Heaven through the scriptural images of a kingdom, a city, a house, and Paradise. Its fifth book considers further images drawn from the Gospel parables and the writings of St. Paul.

This reading translation follows the Latin text in *Opera omnia*, volume VIII, edited by Justin Fèvre (Paris: Louis Vivès, 1875). The introductory note is editorial; Bellarmine’s preface follows.

The [source volume is available at Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/operaomniarobert0008just). Selected source comparisons have corrected broken joins, short omissions, and transcription errors. This is a reading translation; a complete scholarly review has not been established.

These English drafts were prepared with AI assistance using SWE-2 Max and then edited for Remember Eternity. Website review has checked structure, source provenance, and selected passages and corrections; it has not checked every sentence against the original. This is not a certified translation or an ecclesiastically approved edition.

This edition is available to read and download free of charge. No open reuse licence is stated for this modern English edition. Free access does not establish republication permission; the source transcriptions and editorial material may have separate terms.

## PREFACE

In the preceding year, principally for my own spiritual benefit, I wrote for myself a little book on the ascent of the mind to God by the ladder of created things. Now, since it has pleased God to prolong my old age yet a little longer, it came into my mind to meditate somewhat on the heavenly fatherland — for which all we sons of Adam sigh, we who dwell groaning and weeping in this valley of mortality — and to commit these meditations to writing, lest they perish. In the Holy Scriptures, therefore, which are like letters of consolation sent by the Father from the heavenly fatherland to us in our exile, I find four names by which the good things of that place can in some measure become known to us. The names are: paradise, house, city, kingdom. Of paradise, St. Paul says: I know a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago, caught up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12); and a little further on: caught up into paradise; where, lest we should think he was speaking of the earthly paradise, he first said: caught up to the third heaven. Of the House, the Son of God Himself speaks thus: In My Father's house there are many mansions (John 14). Of the City, the Apostle says to the Hebrews: You are come, he says, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12). Of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord Himself says in the Gospel of Matthew: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5); and no name in all Holy Scripture is more frequent than this one. The place of the saints in heaven is called paradise, because it is a most delightful place, abounding in delights. But since men might have supposed paradise to be a little garden, set in a corner of a house, which could hold very few people, the Spirit added in the Scriptures the name of House: for a royal house is wont to be a vast palace, where besides the garden there are also halls, dining rooms, chambers, and many other rooms of the same kind. But since a house, however great, cannot hold many people — lest we should think that exceedingly few will attain to eternal life — Scripture adds the name of city, which can hold many gardens and many palaces. But since St. John wrote in the Apocalypse concerning the number of the saints: I saw a great multitude, which no man could number (Rev. 7); and since there is no city that can enfold an innumerable multitude within her bosom, Holy Scripture added the word kingdom, and kingdom of God — a place than which none in the whole universe of created things is more capacious.

But again, since in a most spacious kingdom there are many men who never see the greater part of its inhabitants, nor know their names, nor even know whether they ever existed; and since it is certain that all the saints are seen and known by all, and live together familiarly as friends and neighbors — therefore Scripture, not content with the name of kingdom, adds the name of city, so that we might understand that the inhabitants of that kingdom, though it is most spacious and great, are truly citizens of the saints, and are as united and familiar with one another as are the citizens of one small city. And so that we might know besides that those happy men are not only citizens of the saints, but also members of God's household — indeed, even sons of God — the Holy Spirit, who had called it a city, called it also a house. Finally, because all the saints enjoy the same delights in heaven, He named that place paradise.

Thus these four words — kingdom, city, house, paradise — signify one and the same thing; and that paradise is so spacious that it can truly be called a house, a city, and a kingdom. Therefore, concerning this most happy place, I have resolved, with the gracious help of God Himself, to meditate in the secret chamber of my heart, first under the name of kingdom, then under the name of house, and finally under the name of paradise, and to commit to writing whatever God Himself shall deign to suggest.

Toward the end of the work I shall add six other names — not of places, but of things — taken from the parables of the Lord, namely: the treasure hidden in a field, the precious pearl, the day's wage, the joy of the Lord, the great supper, and the royal wedding feast; and two others from the Apostle: the prize and the crown. Thus there will be in all twelve considerations on the twelve names by which the eternal happiness of the saints is described in the Holy Scriptures.

THE ETERNAL HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS

UNDER THE NAME OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

## BOOK ONE

### CHAPTER I.

On the vastness of the kingdom of God.

Of how great importance the doctrine of the kingdom of God is, may be recognized even from this: that the heavenly Master, Christ, began His sermons with these words: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 4:17). And He framed nearly all His parables about the kingdom of God, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to… (Matt. 13; 18; 20; 21; 22; 25) And after His resurrection, during those last forty days before the Ascension, appearing to His disciples, He spoke of the kingdom of God, as St. Luke testifies in the Acts of the Apostles. Thus the beginning, the progress, and the consummation of Christ's preaching was the kingdom of God (Acts 1). We, however, do not attempt in this place to explain all that can be discussed about the kingdom of God, but only those things which pertain to the place and state of the saints; and first of all, why the place and state of the saints is called the kingdom of God in the Sacred Writings.

The dwelling place of the saints is called the kingdom of God for many reasons. First, because it is a most vast region, far vaster than the narrow bounds of human thought can grasp. The globe of the earth — which is but a point, if compared with the highest heaven — contains many great kingdoms, so that they can scarcely be numbered: how great, then, will be that kingdom which is one alone, and is spread abroad through the whole breadth and expanse of the heaven of heavens? Nor does the kingdom of God contain only the region above the heavens, but this whole universe of things. For the region above the heavens, which is properly called the kingdom of God, is, as it were, the first province of the kingdom of God, in which the chief princes reside, who are all sons of God. The second province may be called the ethereal region, in which the stars dwell; and these stars, although they are not in themselves living beings, nevertheless so obey the nod of the Creator that they may be called living and animate, according to the words of the Church: Come, let us adore the King for whom all things live. The third province is the region of air, in which the winds and clouds run their course, and produce storms, rains, snows, hail, thunder, and lightning, and in which also birds of diverse kinds move about and fly. The fourth province is the watery region, which embraces the seas, springs, rivers, and lakes, in which are bred the fish that pass through the paths of the sea (Ps. 8). The fifth is the earthly region, which, as though emulating heaven, has most noble inhabitants, though not most blessed — namely, men endowed with reason, but mortal — who nevertheless have dominion over the beasts of the earth, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea. The last is the subterranean province, which, like a desert Arabia, produces no good fruits at all, but only thorns and thistles; in it dwell the reprobate spirits, who by their pride merited this: that they who wished to be first should become the last, and that they who strove to exalt their throne above the stars of heaven should be thrust down to the lowest hell. And this place awaits all those men who, as companions of the demons, wallowed in shameful deeds and crimes, and depart from this life without true repentance. All these provinces God holds under His dominion, to whom the Psalmist sings: All things serve You (Ps. 118). And this whole most vast and greatest kingdom God will share with those who love Him, as we shall say a little further on.

Therefore, Christian soul, enlarge your heart; do not let yourself be hemmed in by the narrow confines of present things. Why do you toil and sweat so much to obtain a tiny fragment of this world, when you could possess the whole of it, if you wished? Surely if mortals aspired to this kingdom in earnest, or even thought of it attentively, they would blush to wage wars for the tiniest little portions of earth. God offers you, O man, a share in His own immense and eternal kingdom; and you, for the defense or acquisition of a single little town, wage war, in which many robberies and murders and innumerable other sins are committed, by which the King of kings is most justly provoked to anger. Where is your prudence? Where is your counsel? Nor do I say this because I think it unlawful for Christians to wage war in defense of their towns: for I know that just wars are defended not only by the holy Fathers, especially Augustine, a most learned and most holy man (Epistle 5 to Marcellinus), and by St. Thomas, the prince of scholastic theologians (II-II, q. 40); but that soldiers were also told by the very Precursor of the Lord, than whom no one greater has arisen among those born of women, not to abandon the military life as though it were unlawful, but, content with their pay, to do violence to no one (Luke 3:14) and to wrong no one; and I myself defended just wars in my books of the Controversies (Book III, On the Laity, ch. 14). I do not, then, simply condemn wars, but exhort to what is more perfect and often more profitable; in much the same way as St. Paul says to the Corinthians: It is a fault in you that you have lawsuits among yourselves; why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? (1 Cor. 6:7) And St. James in his Epistle: From whence are wars and strifes among you? Are they not from your concupiscences? You covet, and have not; you kill and envy, and cannot obtain; you quarrel and wage war, and you have not (James 4:1–2). For surely a man who was deeply concerned about the kingdom of God would not readily be stirred to war over the loss of a single little town, but would seek mediators who would settle the dispute without the expense and the perils of wars. But let us pass on to the rest.

### CHAPTER II.

On the Countless Multitude of the Kingdom of God

That sublime dwelling-place is called, secondly, the kingdom of God, because it contains so great a multitude and diversity of inhabitants as no house or city, but only the greater kingdoms, are wont to contain. There is, as the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the company of many thousands of angels; there too are the spirits of the just made perfect, to whose number will belong all who, from Abel the just until the consummation of the world, die in the Lord (Heb. 12:22–23). Nor will only the spirits of just men be there after the consummation of the world, but there will also be glorified bodies, all and each of which will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, as the Lord says in Matthew (Matt. 13:43). And indeed, as regards the diversity of the angels, we pilgrims on earth are permitted to know little more than their names. For we know that some are called Seraphim, from the vision of the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 6); others Cherubim, from the prophecy of Ezekiel (Ezek. 28); others Thrones, others Dominations, others Principalities, others Powers, from the Apostle to the Colossians (Col. 1:16); likewise others Virtues, from the same Apostle to the Ephesians (Eph. 1:21); others Archangels, from the same Apostle (1 Thess. 4:16) and from the Epistle of the Apostle Jude (Jude 9); and finally others Angels, of whom most frequent mention is made in all the sacred books. From these nine names it is the constant opinion of the Doctors that nine orders of angels are to be gathered, each single order containing many thousands of angels, as Daniel says: Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him (Dan. 7:10); and Job adds: Is there any numbering of His soldiers? (Job 25:3) And although all the angels are without doubt most blessed and shine wondrously with the splendor of every virtue and divine gift, yet those are called Seraphim who are preeminent in the ardor of charity; those Cherubim who outshine the rest in the splendor of knowledge; those Thrones, or Seats, who rejoice in the tranquillity of ineffable contemplation; those Dominations who, as ministers of the supreme Emperor, bear rule over the lower world; those Virtues who, at the bidding of the omnipotent Lord, work signs and prodigies; those Powers who hold dominion over the airy powers of the unclean spirits; those Principalities who preside over the kings and princes of the world; those Archangels who are appointed as helpers to the prelates of the Church; and finally those Angels who undertake the custody and care of individual men while they live on earth.

And not only are these things signified by the various names of the angels; but those names are, besides, as it were banners, or images, or mirrors of the greatness of God. Thus the Seraphim, by their ardor, as by a kind of banner, image, or mirror, represent the infinite charity of God, who, impelled by love alone, created and preserves the angels themselves, and men, and all things else. The Cherubim, by a like banner, image, or mirror, reflect the infinite wisdom of God, by which He has ordered all things in number, weight, and measure. The Thrones, in the same manner, display, as in a perfect image, that most high repose which God, seated, enjoys, while unmoved He moves all things, and in tranquillity disposes and rules all things. The Dominations likewise show all that God is He who truly and properly alone has dominion over all things, since it belongs to Him alone to preserve all things, or to reduce them to nothing. The Virtues also show all that God alone is He who alone does great wonders, and who has reserved to Himself alone the renewing of signs and the multiplying of prodigies. The Powers, by their name, proclaim that God is the only one powerful, absolutely and truly, He to whom nothing is impossible, since in Him alone true power has its place. The Principalities signify by their banner that God is the prince of the kings of the earth, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Archangels show God to be the true and supreme President of all the Churches. Finally, the Angels indicate God to be the true Father of orphans, and that, although He has given angels as guardians to each man, He Himself is nevertheless present to each, guarding each and protecting each. For the same Prophet who had said, He has given His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways (Ps. 91:11), also introduces God saying: I am with him in tribulation; I will deliver him, and I will glorify him (Ps. 91:15). And the Lord who had said, Their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven (Matt. 18:10), also said: Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them falls to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not therefore fear: you are of more value than many sparrows (Matt. 10:29–31). And this is the little that we know about the angels; on which matter, if you please, see St. Bernard in Book V of his On Consideration, from which we have gathered these few things.

To these nine orders of angels there corresponds, as it were on the other side, a throng of saints so great that no one can count it, as we showed above from the Apocalypse (Rev. 7:9); and this throng is likewise arranged in nine orders: for some are Patriarchs, some Prophets, some Apostles, some Martyrs, some Confessors, some Pastors and Doctors, some Priests and Levites, some Monks or Hermits; and finally holy women, whether virgins, or widows, or even married women. I ask you now, Christian soul, how great a happiness will it be to converse with so many and such as these? St. Jerome writes in his Epistle to Paulinus that many traversed provinces, visited new peoples, and crossed seas, to see and hear face to face those whom they had known as famous from books. To the one Solomon, on account of his renown for wisdom, the Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth (1 Kings 10:1; Luke 11:31); and to the one Anthony the Hermit, on account of his fame for holiness, men flocked together from every side (Athanasius, in his Life); even emperors themselves courted his friendship. What then will it be, to see and converse with so many angels and so many illustrious men, all of them most holy, and at the same time most loving, and sharers in the same happiness? If a single angel were to present himself to be beheld in his beauty in this exile, who would not gladly hasten to meet him? What then will it be to behold all the angels at a single glance? And if some one of the Prophets, or of the Apostles, or of the Doctors of the Church, were now to come down from heaven, with what eagerness and attention would he be heard! But in that kingdom it will be granted to see and hear not one but each and every one of the Prophets and Apostles and Doctors, and to converse with them continually. How much does a single sun gladden the whole earth? What then will innumerable suns do, living, intelligent, jubilant suns, in the kingdom of God? For my part, this fellowship with angels and men, of whom not one is foolish or wicked, but all are most good and most wise, is so sweet to my taste that this alone seems to me like a great happiness, and for this alone I would gladly forgo all the delights of this life.

### CHAPTER III.

On the Truly Monarchical Form of the Kingdom of God

The third reason is that in this place alone is found the perfect form of ruling. For the difference between a kingdom and a republic, whether an aristocratic or a popular republic, is that in a kingdom supreme power is found in one man, while in a republic it is found in many. In the kingdoms of men, however, supreme power never resides in one truly and properly: for a king may perhaps, without the counsel or consent of others, command that something be done, but he cannot carry it out unless his subjects are willing. And often he cannot even give the command — or at least will not dare to — if the multitude of his subjects intimidates him. For how many great kings or emperors have there been, whom their army deserted or even put to death? The histories are full of such examples. Empty, therefore, is the supreme power of mortal kings, who can never accomplish anything unless their subjects are willing. But the power of God, who is truly called and truly is the great King, depends on no one but His own will; and since that will is omnipotent, no one can resist it, nor does He need soldiers or arms or anything outside Himself. And if He employs angels or men as ministers, or even things without sensation and inanimate, He does so because He wills it, not because He cannot do all that He wills without them; for He who, without any companion or minister, created heaven and earth and all that is in them by His word alone, and preserves them by His will alone, could surely also govern all things by His command alone. Nor does God reign in the truest sense only because supreme power resides in Him, but also because the supreme art of governing is His alone; nor does God need any senate or any counselors. "Who," says St. Paul, "has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" (Rom. 11:34) And before him the prophet Isaiah: "Who," he says, "has aided the Spirit of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor, and shown Him? With whom has He taken counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of prudence?" (Isa. 40:13-14) And so monarchy, which is the best form of government, is not only found in God, but in Him alone is it found true and perfect. For He is not only "terrible above all the kings of the earth" (Ps. 75:13), as is said in the Psalms, but He is also "a great King above all gods" (Ps. 94:3), as is said in another Psalm. For others are false gods, who should rather be called devils, according to that saying of the Prophet: "All the gods of the Gentiles are devils." (Ps. 95:5) Others are gods by participation, such as the kings of the earth and the angels of heaven, according to that saying: "I have said: you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High." (Ps. 81:6) But all these gods, that God who reigns in the heavens holds subject to His rule; hence He alone is the true and great King. This Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, acknowledged and confessed in these words, after he had paid most heavy penalties for his pride: "Therefore at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and glorified Him who lives forever; for His power is an everlasting power, and His kingdom endures for generation after generation; and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing before Him; for He acts according to His will both with the powers of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and there is none who can resist His hand and say to Him: Why have You done it? Now therefore I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and magnify and glorify the King of heaven, because all His works are true, and His ways are judgments, and those who walk in pride He can humble." Thus he spoke — and he can be an example to all, that they should humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, as St. Peter admonishes, and take more delight in serving the King of kings, so as to merit His bounty, than in resisting His will with a proud heart and so being forced to feel His most heavy hand. (1 Pet. 5:6)

### CHAPTER IV.

That all the saints are kings.

The fourth reason why the place and state of the saints is called the kingdom of heaven — and the most powerful reason — is that all the saints in heaven are kings, and that all the conditions of kingship apply most aptly to them. For although all the saints in heaven serve God, as is said in Revelation, yet at the same time they also reign (Rev. 22:5); for in the same book and the same chapter where it is said, "His servants shall serve Him," a little further on it is said, "and they shall reign for ever and ever." Nor will all the saints merely serve and reign at the same time; they can also be called at once servants and sons. For thus God speaks in Revelation: "He that shall overcome shall possess these things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." (Rev. 21:7) Wherefore, just as the same persons can be both servants and sons, so too can they be both servants and kings: for they are servants because they were created by God, and owe obedience to Him from whom they receive their being, and life, and all things; nor does David except anything created when he says, "All things serve You." (Ps. 118:91) Yet at the same time they can be sons of God, since they have been reborn of God through water and the Holy Spirit (John 3:5); and they can likewise be kings, to whom the royal dignity is communicated by the very King of kings, who therefore in the same Revelation is called "King of kings and Lord of lords." (Rev. 19:16) Someone will perhaps say that it is not difficult for a man to be at once a king of the earth and a servant of God, in the way the Psalm says: "And now, O kings, understand; be instructed, you who judge the earth; serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling." (Ps. 2:10-11) But to be a king of the kingdom of heaven and a servant of the King of heaven — who can grasp or believe this? And yet so it is, and faith grasps this and believes it. The just, therefore, in the kingdom of their Father will themselves also be kings of the kingdom of heaven, because they will be sharers in that royal dignity and power and wealth and the other goods that are in the kingdom of heaven. This the Holy Spirit plainly declares in three principal places of Holy Scripture. One place is in the Gospel of St. Matthew: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:3) Another in the same Gospel: "Come, you blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25:34) The third in Revelation: "To him that shall overcome I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also have overcome and have sat down with My Father on His throne." (Rev. 3:21) What can be said more plainly? We have the kingdom of heaven promised to us; we have the possession of that same kingdom to be assigned to us on the day of judgment; we have a seat on the royal throne of the Son of God and of His Father, the eternal King. What is this but a sharing in that same kingdom of heaven which God possesses from eternity? Add the testimony of St. Paul: "If we suffer," he says, "we shall also reign with Him." (2 Tim. 2:12) And of St. John at the beginning of Revelation: "I, John, your brother and sharer in tribulation and in the kingdom." (Rev. 1:9) And of St. James in his Epistle: "God," he says, "has chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which God has promised to those who love Him." (Jas. 2:5) Nor is the kingdom of heaven diminished because it is shared by many — indeed nearly innumerable — angels and men; for the kingdom of heaven is not like the kingdoms of the earth, which do not suffer a sharer, and which, if they are divided into parts, are diminished by the division and at last are wholly consumed. Not such, I say, is the kingdom of heaven; rather, the whole of it is possessed by all, and the whole by each one, undiminished — just as the same sun is seen whole by each and whole by all, and itself in turn warms and enlightens each no less than all. This will be more easily understood when the goods of the kingdom of heaven have been explained. But first the conditions or qualities required in kings must be explained, so that no one may doubt that the saints and the blessed in heaven are not without reason called kings, and kings of the kingdom of heaven.

There are two qualities especially necessary for kings: wisdom and justice. But with wisdom Scripture joins prudence and counsel and all that pertains to understanding; with justice it joins mercy, clemency, and the other virtues that adorn and perfect the will. Thus wisdom is required so that the king may know; justice, so that he may will to govern his subjects well. Therefore Solomon, admonished by God at the beginning of his reign to ask for whatever he wished, asked for wisdom, which is the foremost of the good qualities required in kings; and his petition pleased God, as is clear from the third Book of Kings, and so he obtained what he asked. Would that he had asked for justice as well; perhaps he would not have fallen into so many crimes. (1 Kgs. 3) More rightly does David speak in the Psalm in which he prays for blessings on his son Solomon: "Give Your judgment to the king, O God, and Your justice to the king's son." (Ps. 71:1) There he seems to have foreseen that Solomon would ask for wisdom, and therefore he asks for justice and judgment on his behalf — things that cannot exist without wisdom, whereas wisdom can exist without justice, at least a partial and imperfect wisdom. The Book of Wisdom also, which was written expressly for the instruction of kings, says thus: "Love justice, you who judge the earth." (Wis. 1:1) And it begins with justice, because it is not only necessary in itself for kings, but is also a disposition toward wisdom; for a little later it adds: "For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul." Finally — to pass over many other things — Jeremiah, foretelling the virtues of Christ the eternal King, says: "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch; and a king shall reign and be wise, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." (Jer. 23:5) Truly, therefore, wisdom and justice are the dower-gifts required in kings.

Now indeed, it is beyond controversy that all the saints who are in heaven, even though many of them were perhaps unskilled and unlearned while on earth, possess outstanding wisdom and the eminent virtue of justice, so that they could worthily be made kings of any kingdom whatever. For there is no one among the saints in heaven who does not see the very essence of God, which is the first cause of all things; and therefore they draw from the fount of uncreated wisdom a wisdom so great as neither Solomon nor any mortal man ever possessed, except our Lord Jesus Christ, who even in the time of His mortality saw God, and in whom were all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Col. 2:3). Moreover, in proportion to their wisdom, a full measure of justice is also given to all the saints, so that henceforth they neither will nor can sin; for so speaks St. Augustine in the book On Rebuke and Grace: "The first liberty of the will was to be able not to sin; the last will be much greater: not to be able to sin." (On Rebuke and Grace, ch. 11.) But he who cannot sin cannot be unjust either; and since perfect charity is perfect justice, as the same St. Augustine affirms at the end of the book On Nature and Grace, he who cannot but love God with the highest and most perfect love likewise cannot but possess the highest and most perfect justice (On Nature and Grace, last chapter). But those who see God, the highest and pure and infinite good, certainly cannot be turned away from Him, nor can they fail to love Him always with the most ardent love; whence it comes about that all the saints in heaven are always perfectly wise and perfectly just, and therefore ever most fit to reign.

Arise, therefore, O Christian soul, and ascend in mind as far as you can, and consider what a good thing it is to reign with God; and, to pass over all other things for now, pierce the very heavens with the wings of contemplation and behold that lofty throne of which the Savior says: To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also have overcome and am seated with My Father on His throne (Rev. 3:21). For how great will that glory be, for a just soul to be placed upon the very throne of Christ and of God before the infinite multitude of the angels, and by the just judgment of God to be proclaimed the conqueror of the world and of the rulers of the world and of all invisible powers? And with how great a joy will that same soul exult, when it sees itself delivered from every danger and labor, triumphing most happily over all its enemies? And what will remain for it to desire further, when it has been made a sharer in all the goods of its Lord, even to fellowship in His throne and kingdom? O how cheerfully do they fight on earth, and how easily do they bear all adversities for Christ, who by a living faith and a sure hope behold with the eye of the mind such sublime honors in heaven!

### CHAPTER V.

On the goods of the kingdom of God.

The fifth reason seems to me to be this: that the goods of the saints dwelling in the heavens do indeed appear similar to the goods of those who reign on earth; but they are as much greater and more splendid as heaven is above the earth. And so the kingdom prepared for the saints is called not simply a kingdom, but the kingdom of God: that we may understand the goods of the one to be in such proportion to the goods of the other as earth is to heaven—that is, to a thing most vast, most lofty, most noble, and, what is greatest of all, everlasting. The goods of an earthly kingdom are usually reckoned to be power, honor, riches, and pleasures. An earthly king can command his subjects, and if they do not obey, he can punish them with chains, prisons, exile, fines, scourging, and death. Hence kings are dreaded by the people and are reckoned to be, as it were, gods. Again, kings wish to be honored with a worship almost beyond human nature: they wish to be adored on bended knees, and often they do not deign to hear those who speak to them unless the knee is bent and the face bowed to the ground; and when they happen to walk through the streets, they wish all who meet them to step aside from the way. Moreover, they require a large treasury filled with gold and silver, nor do they reckon their revenues by hundreds or thousands of gold pieces, but by millions; and rightly so, since they must feed not ten or twenty servants, but lead great armies against the enemy. Finally, they do not deign to refresh their minds with customary amusements, but think it belongs to the splendor of their majesty to consume many pounds of gold and silver in banquets, in hunting, and in the theater. And these are, in general, the goods of earthly princes, which have this above all in common: that they are all brief and fleeting, beginning with the prince's birth and ending with his death—unless perhaps at times the contrary happens, that life lasts longer than the reign. Furthermore, they are not pure goods, but power has weakness mixed in, honor has disgrace, riches have poverty, and joys have grief and sorrows. The power of a king is such that the people hang upon the nod of the prince; but weakness is mixed with that power, because the prince hangs upon the arms and strength of the people. What will the nod of a prince accomplish in capturing or defending a city, if the people cannot or will not join battle? Nor does the nod of the prince depend only on the strength of his subjects, but also on walls, on ramparts, on weapons, on engines of war, and on money, which is wont to be called the sinew of war. And so the people hang upon one thing—namely, the nod of the prince—and serve one man; but the prince hangs upon very many men and other things besides, and is the servant of them all. Finally, a king can punish his subjects with chains, prison, exile, scourging, and death; but a king can also (I speak of fact, not of right) be bound, consigned to prison, and punished with exile, wounds, and death. This was the lot of Nero, Galba, Vitellius, Domitian, Commodus, Heliogabalus, and others without number: and not only those infamous princes, but also the most moderate—Alexander Mamaea, Gordian the Younger, Pertinax, Tacitus, Numerian, Probus, Gratian, and Valentinian the Second—to say nothing of holy men: St. Edward, king of the English; St. Wenceslaus, duke of Bohemia; St. Sigismund, king of Burgundy; St. Canute, king of Denmark; and others. Let us come now to honor: kings are certainly honored while they are present and in the sight of others; but in their absence they are often torn to pieces by insults and held up to ridicule. And even in their presence, many flatter them with the tongue who in their heart despise and scorn them; and if the number of all who praise and who revile could be counted, far more would be found to revile than to praise. Truly, therefore, the glory of kings is often less than their ignominy, since those present, who honor their exalted rank, are few, while the absent are very many, of whom some mark the stains of avarice, others cruelty, others lust, others...

But perhaps the riches of kings are pure and have no poverty mixed in? On the contrary, none at all are found more needy and poor than kings: they have great revenues and great treasures, but they sometimes have debts far greater still. And he is not so much poor who has little, as he who desires much because he needs much. And is it not a great proof of poverty that they beg, as it were, pennies even from the poor themselves, while they exact petty taxes on the things that are necessary for sustenance? Nor do I say this as though I would dare to find fault with taxes and tributes being paid to kings, since the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Romans: Be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For therefore also you pay tribute; for they are the ministers of God, attending upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom (Rom. 13:5-7). But I wished to show the miserable condition of mortal kings, who must needs abound in riches, and yet are compelled to gather a portion of them even from the poor and the needy. What, then, do we say of comforts and delights? Kings certainly have gardens, orchards, sumptuous tables, hunts, theaters, and many other things of that kind most suited to refresh the mind; but they also commonly have gout, pains of the stomach and head, and—what is more bitter—the gravest anxieties of mind, which sometimes compel them to pass whole nights sleepless: suspicions, fears, and anguish. If the doors of the bedchamber creak at night, they suspect treachery; if it is reported that a multitude of armed men has been seen, they fear revolt. Thus are joys mingled with sorrows, and rest is interrupted by care; which was the reason why not a few, abandoning their kingdoms, chose a private life.

But let us hear St. John Chrysostom, who in a certain homily to the people of Antioch speaks thus of the emperors of his time: "Look not at the diadem, but at the tempest of cares; nor gaze upon the purple, but at the soul darker than the purple itself. For the crown surrounds the head just as care surrounds the soul. Look not to the troop of attendants, but to the multitude of troubles. For no private house can be found so full of cares as royal houses are: he expects deaths every single day, and at night, it cannot even be said how often his soul starts up and fancies it is leaping out of him. And this in peacetime: but if war should threaten, what could be more wretched than this life? And how many dangers rush in upon him from his own household and his subjects? For the royal pavement is always full of the blood of kinsmen — and that most of all, both in ancient times and in our own. One king, suspecting his wife of adultery, bound her naked on the mountains and gave her over to wild beasts, though she had already become the mother of many kings. What sort of life do you think he lived? For he would never have burst forth into such vengeance unless he had been consumed by a great sickness. This one cut the throat of his own son. Of his sons, one killed himself when captured by a tyrant; another killed his own grandson, his partner in the kingdom which he himself had seized. And this one is said to have done away even with his brother. Another after him was carried off by poisoned potions: for him the chalice was death, not a drink; and his son, though he had committed no crime, had an eye torn out, from fear of what he might do. Another ended his life so miserably that it is not fitting even to tell. Of those who followed, one was burned like some poor and wretched man, together with his horses and chariots and everything else; for no one could express in words the hardships of the life he was compelled to endure when revolt broke out against him. And he who now reigns — has he not, since being crowned with the diadem, been amid toils, amid dangers, amid sorrows, amid snares? But not such is the kingdom of heaven." (Hom. 66 to the people of Antioch). So spoke that man — and how truly he said, "Not such is the kingdom of heaven" — as what we shall now say will show.

For the kings of the kingdom of heaven — such are all those who live in blessedness with God — have power without weakness, honor without disgrace, riches without poverty, pleasure without pain. For of them it is said in the Psalm: "There shall no evil come to thee, nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling" (Ps. 90). And in Revelation: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more" (Rev. 21). And so the power of those heavenly kings is the very greatest, and their weakness none. A single angel, without an army, without cannons, without swords and spears, slays at one stroke one hundred and eighty thousand Assyrians[^assyria]; nor did he fear lest he himself be wounded by some soldier (2 Kgs. 19). St. Gregory relates in his book of Dialogues that a certain holy man, when the executioner loomed over him with arm outstretched and drawn sword to kill him, cried out, "Saint John, hold him!" — and at once the executioner's hand stiffened, so that he could neither lower it nor move it (Bk. 3, ch. 36). Thus St. John heard from the height of heaven the voice of his devoted client, and struck his assailant with a stroke of withering so swiftly that he forestalled the blow already begun. Such is the power of the heavenly kings, that neither the almost infinite distance of the place, nor the helplessness of a poor and unarmed just man, nor the multitude of armed enemies, could hinder St. John from rescuing his suppliant from the peril of death. And numberless examples of this kind could be adduced. Now the honor of those heavenly kings is so great that not only godly men, but also the ungodly, and even the demons themselves, honor them. For there are many who despised and trampled upon holy men while they lived on earth, yet afterwards, when they have been taken up into heaven — especially if by public decree of the Church they have been enrolled among the saints — venerate and honor them; and even the demons themselves, who wearied the holy men with temptations while they lived in the flesh, and often, with God's permission, afflicted them with scourges and blows, afterwards fear the sacred relics and images of those who reign with God in heaven. What shall I say of the riches of the heavenly kings? Their great wealth is to lack nothing, since God is all in all. For he is not rich who possesses much, but he who desires nothing, since he lacks nothing; for it is the soul that ought to be rich, not the chest. To say nothing of the fact that heaven and earth, and whatever is in them, belong to the riches of the saints (1 Cor. 3): for what do they not possess, who are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8), whom the Father appointed heir of all things (Heb. 1)? There remains pleasure, which in the kings of heaven is altogether pure and unmingled, without any admixture of pain or sadness; for we have already heard from Revelation that God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and that there shall be no more any pain or mourning (Rev. 21). But more will have to be said about pleasure when we speak of paradise. We hold, therefore, that the goods of those who reign in heaven will be such as are common to all the saints and the blessed, so that the goods which are on earth seem in no way able to be compared with them, especially since earthly goods are passing, and heavenly goods everlasting.

### CHAPTER VI.

How highly the kingdoms of the earth are prized among men; and how highly the kingdom of heaven ought to be prized.

With what ardor earthly kingdoms are coveted by men, however fleeting, small, and full of fears and anxieties they may be; so that from this we may gather with how much love the heavenly kingdoms are to be coveted, and with what ardor they are to be sought. The desire of reigning beyond all doubt easily surpasses every other human desire: for a kingdom is not one single good, but a gathering together of all the goods that men seek. There is power, honor, riches, pleasure, as we were saying a little before; there is the freedom of living as one wills, which is naturally sought by all — not only by men but even by beasts; there is excellence, and a certain, as it were, divinity, on account of which kings within their kingdom have no equals, but stand above all, surpass all, and are adored by all. Hence it is that kings, when they wish to promise something, can find nothing greater than half of their kingdom. Thus Ahasuerus to Esther: "What wilt thou?" he says; "what is thy request? Even if thou shouldst ask for half of the kingdom, it shall be given thee" (Esth. 5); and Herod to the daughter of Herodias: "Ask of me," he says, "what thou wilt, and I will give it thee"; and he swore to her, "Whatsoever thou shalt ask I will give thee, though it be the half of my kingdom" (Mark 6). Hence it comes about that men think themselves permitted to overturn every right in order to gain or extend kingdoms, and that nothing is so sacred that it may not be violated for the sake of reigning. The first of all to assail friends and neighbors in war without any just cause was Ninus, that he might extend his empire by right and by wrong (Justin, Bk. 1), as St. Augustine relates from Justin in his book on the City of God. Julius Caesar, in order to reign, first had the commander — from whom he had received very many and very great benefits — slain by his own soldiers, so that he might succeed him in command (City of God, Bk. 4, ch. 6). The same did Philip the Arab to his lord the emperor Gordian — a crime utterly unheard of. Nor has the lust for reigning armed the hands of kindred blood only against neighbors and benefactors, but also against brothers, grandchildren, and even a father. For the sake of reigning, Romulus slew his brother Remus, and Caracalla his brother Geta. Athaliah destroyed all the grandchildren born of her son King Ahaziah, so that she might reign herself, as we read in the fourth book of Kings. Thus the desire of reigning inflames not only men but even women to commit horrendous crimes (2 Kgs. 11). Siroes the Persian had his father Chosroes and his brother Medarses put to death, so that he might reign alone. What of Nero's mother, who, when she had learned from the astrologers that her son would reign but would slay his mother, is reported to have said: "Let him slay me, provided he reign"? Thus did the ambitious woman esteem her son's kingdom so highly that she set even her own life beneath the kingdom of her son. And not only does the love of reigning make injustice seem just, and overcome the love of brothers, grandchildren, and parents; it also decrees that the sacredness of an oath — which has always been held most holy among all nations, and which even the cruelest enemies have judged must be kept, even at the risk of life — should be violated for the sake of reigning. For if we believe Cicero in the third book of On Duties, Julius Caesar always had on his lips those verses of Euripides: "If an oath must be broken, it is for the sake of reigning that it must be broken; in all else, practice piety." I pass over numberless examples which in every age have shown that there is absolutely nothing men esteem more than a kingdom: and yet not only do kings not reign for long, but even the kingdoms themselves will all soon utterly perish, and only the kingdom of the saints will remain forever. Hear the prophet Daniel in the second chapter: "In the days of those kingdoms," he says, "the God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand forever." This prophecy is to be fulfilled at the consummation of the world: for then not only the greater monarchies, but also the small kingdoms and magistracies and all the power of temporal princes shall vanish; and the kingdom of Christ and of the saints shall be eternal, according to the word of the Angel in Luke 1: "And of his kingdom there shall be no end."

Now if a kingdom that is brief and fleeting, that falls to the lot of few, and that is sprinkled with very many bitternesses, is so ardently loved, sought after, preferred above all things, and acquired through wounds and a great shedding of blood: what is the reason why so few love the heavenly kingdom, and seek it so negligently? And yet we hold it for certain, if we believe the holy Scriptures, that this kingdom lies open to all men, that it can be acquired without wounds and the shedding of blood, and that it surpasses all earthly kingdoms beyond any comparison. If I were to say, "Despise a kingdom so as to acquire a small farm or a vineyard," you would rightly laugh at me or be astonished; but when I say—or rather, when God says—"Despise a vile and petty kingdom, and seek a precious and great one, which, if you are willing, you can obtain with the grace of God, which will never fail you," why do you not rise up to desire it and to procure it? For my part, I cannot grasp what answer could be given, except that the glory of the earthly kingdom lies open before our eyes and can, as it were, be touched with our hands, whereas the heavenly kingdom is neither seen nor touched, and can scarcely be conceived even by faith. And this indeed is true; but if anyone would attentively consider how great is the force of holy Scripture's truthfulness, antiquity, sincerity, and dignity, and how clearly and plainly the same holy Scripture speaks on this point; and how great a cloud of witnesses has now for many ages confirmed it, not only by miracles but also by blood; he surely could not but cry out: "Your testimonies, O Lord, have become exceedingly credible" (Ps. 92). The reason, therefore, why we are not inflamed to seek that heavenly kingdom is not the obscurity of faith; but rather that, occupied with outward things and weighed down by the force of habit, we do not take the time to think and meditate on what is expedient for us; nor, in accordance with the Lord's counsel, do we enter into the chamber of our heart and, with the door closed, most earnestly beg God to be present with us in so great a matter (Matt. 6). For surely, if we sometimes set aside lesser cares and seriously considered what the kingdom of heaven is, and how easily and certainly it can be acquired, and by how great a distance eternal things stand from temporal ones, the greatest from the least, the most weighty from the most trivial—in short, heavenly kingdoms from earthly kingdoms; without doubt so great a contempt for temporal thrones, and crowns, and scepters, and on the other hand so great an ardor for heavenly things, would arise in us, that it would become for us not only not difficult, but even most easy, to devote all our strength to seeking and obtaining the kingdom of God, for which, as for our true and last end, we were created by our supremely good Creator.

### CHAPTER VII.

What is the first path to the kingdom of God.

Let us therefore now ask what must be done in order that we may arrive at that most desired and most happy heavenly kingdom. But we shall not need to labor much on this point, since the King of heaven Himself came down to earth to teach us, and, having become our Master and Guide, showed us four most excellent and most secure paths. The first is this: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6). Moral teaching must begin from the end: our end is the kingdom of God, which will likewise be our kingdom if, walking in the paths of our Guide, we arrive there. Moreover, the justice of the kingdom of God is, as it were, the mark at which we must aim, if we desire the reward of the heavenly kingdom. For as John Cassian rightly teaches in his first Conference, the end is one thing and the mark another: the mark is the target at which arrows are aimed; the end is the reward which those receive who have hit that target most surely (Collat. 1, ch. 2). The mark set before our actions by God is justice; the reward of those who hit the mark is the kingdom of heaven. But the justice of the kingdom of God is not the justice of the Scribes and Pharisees, which consisted in the external observance of the precepts; nor is it the justice of the philosophers, which did not go beyond the light of human reason corrupted by sin; but it is the justice of the Gospel, which teaches us to love God with our whole heart, with our whole soul, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbor—whoever he may be, even an enemy—as ourselves (Matt. 22). Of this mark and end Saint Paul says: "You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, life everlasting" (Rom. 6). This, therefore, is what our Guide admonishes us: that first of all we seek the kingdom of God and His justice (Matt. 6); that is, that our chief thought and our highest desire be carried not toward any temporal goods, but toward obtaining the kingdom of heaven and the most diligent observance, in its perfection, of that first and greatest commandment. And because very few do this, therefore "many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt. 22). For most people so live and so conduct themselves that their last thought is how they may arrive at the kingdom of heaven; and the justice of God is to them a matter of indifference, as though the Lord had said, "Seek first the kingdom of this world and its delights, and the kingdom of God shall be added unto you." But the kingdom of God is not so cheap a thing that it should be thrust upon those who prefer all else to it.

But if we wish to learn an easy way of obtaining the justice of God, which most truly and certainly leads to that kingdom, let us hear Christ our Teacher: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall have their fill" (Matt. 5). Is it so, O Lord, that the ease of finding justice with You is so great that it suffices merely to hunger and thirst for it? Blessed indeed would all the poor be, if by merely hungering and thirsting for money they were so filled with money that, once sated, they desired nothing more. But it is one thing to hunger and thirst for money, and another to hunger and thirst for justice. For they who hunger and thirst for justice—that is, who seek justice as anxiously and eagerly as the thirsty seek water or the hungry seek food—surely think of it always, sigh after it, and, what is most important, beg it of God with unutterable groanings. And God gladly hears those who ask for such things, and so fills them with the gifts of justice that, sated, they pour forth words and works of justice. But money is not such a good that one who desires it or asks it of God is heard at once; for many abuse money, whereas no one can make bad use of justice. Finally, justice is like wisdom, of which Saint James says: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly and does not upbraid" (James 1). O ineffable mercy of the Lord, who grants the things that are most necessary to us more easily and more willingly than we ask or desire them! If, then, anyone lacks the wisdom of the saints, and likewise lacks the gift of justice—which are necessary for obtaining the kingdom of heaven—let him ask of God as he ought: from the soul, earnestly, with unutterable groanings, and he shall securely receive them.

For God gives to all who ask in this way, and repels no one; nor does He give grudgingly or sparingly, but abundantly; nor does He upbraid, as though taking it ill that one should ask often. What shall we say, then? Who, on the day of judgment, will be able to plead ignorance or weakness? Only hunger for justice, and ask it of God, and you shall be so filled with it that you will no longer hunger for the flatteries of the flesh, nor the allurements of honors, nor any other earthly goods; and thus you will live justly, soberly, and piously in this world, so as to arrive in the world to come at the everlasting kingdom.

### CHAPTER VIII.

The second path to the kingdom of God.

The other path of justice which our Guide pointed out is this: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5). In this passage we are not commanded to make our chest or purse entirely empty of money, but that we utterly empty our heart of all affection for and desire of external things. The Lord offers us immense riches, but He will not give them unless we offer Him the bosom of our heart wide open and wholly empty. The desire of money is the root of all evils (1 Tim. 6:10), which in Greek is called philargyria, that is, the love of money; the root of all good things is charity, and these two cannot abide together. Therefore, unless a man becomes truly and entirely poor in spirit — so that, whether he possesses great wealth or little, he is not attached to it, readily distributes it to the needy, and does not turn it to his own use beyond what necessity demands — he cannot fulfill the justice of the kingdom of God, and consequently cannot attain the kingdom of God itself. This is the true path to eternal life; Christ Himself was the first to enter upon it — He who for our sakes became poor, that by His poverty He might make us rich (2 Cor. 8:9); and although He had a purse, He entrusted it to Judas, though He knew him to be a thief, so that we might understand how free His soul was from the love of money (John 12:6). The Apostles entered upon this path, though it would not have been difficult for them to be enriched with wealth and made rich beyond measure, since they shone with signs and wonders, spoke the languages of all nations, and were admired by the whole world for their wisdom; but they who had once said: Behold, we have left all things and have followed You (Matt. 19:27), and had tasted the sweetness of freedom from the birdlime and love of riches, were content with food and clothing, and reckoned piety and the justice of the kingdom of God to be great gain (1 Tim. 6:6-8). This path was entered not only by monks and hermits, but also by kings and pontiffs who reached the kingdom of God. Certainly St. Louis, king of France, was rich; but because he was at the same time poor in spirit, he wore common clothing, fasted often, was generous to the poor, and most sparing to himself alone; nor do we read that he spent money on games and banquets. St. Gregory also was Sovereign Pontiff and possessed in various places many ecclesiastical estates, ample and rich enough; but because he too was poor in spirit, he was so profuse in almsgiving, and so sparing — almost miserly — toward his own use, that he seemed to exceed the bounds of liberality toward others and of parsimony toward himself and his household. But this is the way that leads to life.

And let us also add some examples of women poor in spirit: St. Paula, a Roman lady, whose life was written by St. Jerome, was no less rich in wealth than poor in spirit; for this most noble woman consumed her fortune in building monasteries and supporting the poor with such ardor that she desired to be reduced to such poverty that her funeral would have to be provided for by the charity of others. And how sparingly she used her riches for herself may be proved by this: she forbade herself meat, eggs, and wine; instead of a linen garment she wore haircloth; she lay on the ground with only haircloth beneath her; and with assiduous prayers and tears she purged away even her slightest sins. St. Hedwig also, queen of Poland, rich in wealth but richer still in poverty of spirit, content with a single cheap tunic, wore it even in the greatest cold; she fasted daily, Sundays and great feasts excepted; and with scourges, vigils, and every kind of austerity she afflicted her little body (Surius, in her Life, ch. 4). From this it may be understood on what she spent her royal wealth, and how little — or rather, no — love she had for riches. It is therefore no wonder if a woman so poor in spirit, and so free of all other cares, reached the kingdom of God by such great strides.

### CHAPTER IX.

The third path to the kingdom of God.

The third path shown by our Leader is this: Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:10). Truly admirable is the wisdom of Christ our Teacher, yet wholly hidden from the wise of this world. Who would believe — unless God the Master said it — that it is good to be poor in money and rich in afflictions? And yet it is truly so. Nothing is more profitable for acquiring the true riches, which are the merits of the heavenly kingdom, than to have a mind empty of affection for money and at the same time full of the desire to suffer for Christ. Hear the Lord in Luke: Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation; woe to you that are filled; woe to you that laugh (Luke 6:24-25). And on the contrary, in the same place: Blessed are you poor; blessed are you that now hunger; blessed are you that now weep; blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake: be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. Hear what blessed James says of riches, and what he says of tribulations: Count it all joy, my brethren, when you shall fall into various temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith works patience; and patience has a perfect work (James 1:2-4). There he does not say: Bear, endure, be patient; but: Rejoice — nay rather: Count it all joy — that is, receive tribulation not as tribulation but as the matter of every kind of joy. But of riches, on the contrary: Go now, you rich, weep howling in your miseries that shall come upon you (James 5:1); and in the chapter before: Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow (James 4:9).

But how does it happen that persecution makes a man blessed, when it seems rather to make him miserable? Many things could be said here; but I shall be content with this one: that persecution is like a furnace of burning fire; and fire cooks food, purges silver, and proves gold. So also persecution, if patiently endured, cooks sinners, purges the imperfect, proves the just, and thus is wonderfully profitable to all. The sinner is like raw flesh: unless it is properly cooked, it is thrown to the beasts, not eaten by men. For the sinner is full of every evil humor: the concupiscence of the flesh, which is lust; the concupiscence of the eyes, which is avarice; and pride, which is ambition. But if the furnace of persecution draws near, in that fire he is dried and cooked, so that he becomes fit to be brought honorably to the table of the Lord (John 2). For when persecution or a grave tribulation presses in, he forgets his lusts, his gains, and his ambitions, and begins to be altogether another man than he was before. The just man, however, who is yet imperfect — though he does not slip into horrible crimes — is still a friend of his flesh: he follows pleasures, loves gain, and does not shrink from the vanities of the world. He is therefore like silver that has much dross mixed into it. But if the furnace of great persecution seizes him and he bears it patiently, the dross will begin little by little to be separated from the silver; he will begin, I say, to be gathered within himself, to meditate on the things that are above, to abstain from carnal desires; in fine, to live justly, soberly, and piously in this world, and to look for that blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God (Titus 2:12-13). Finally, the man perfect in charity is gold; but he must be proved by the fire of persecution, lest it should be thought by others — and he himself even suspect — that he is a golden alloy and not true gold. For when he is seen to bear the fire of persecution patiently, not only is he recognized by others to be what he is, but he himself is raised up into a great hope and awaits that reward of the heavenly kingdom with greater assurance. Tribulation, says the Apostle, works patience; and patience, trial; and trial, hope; and hope does not confound (Rom. 5:3-5). And God Himself, when His friend has been proved by the fire of tribulation, advances and exalts him more and more each day, until He brings him to the fellowship of the kingdom and of happiness. Behold how much patience brings forth in persecutions. And it is indeed strange how few there are who enjoy these goods, though these goods lie open to all: for persecution can be found everywhere, and everywhere it meets us — in the house, on the road, in the forum, in the temple; for everywhere the wicked beset the good. And most certain is the sentence of the Apostle: All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). But we, delicate soldiers, either flee the proving furnace or hurl back upon our adversary the injury we have received; so that we not only refuse to suffer persecution, but even inflict it. Nor are they wanting — a man's enemies are those of his own household (Matt. 10:36) — who praise the man who, as they say, unloads himself of the injury and loads it upon his adversary; and yet they who despise the precepts of Christ wish to be called Christians.

### CHAPTER X.

The fourth path to the kingdom of God.

But since these things are very difficult, and very few understand them, and far fewer still are willing to put them into practice, our Leader therefore pointed out a fourth path — and a most exalted one — saying: The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent carry it off (Matt. 11). As though men did not see that the poor are blessed and the rich miserable; that, on the contrary, we must rejoice in persecutions and weep in prosperity. Nor was it hidden from Me that few would be willing to give up present goods in order to acquire future ones, and to choose present evils in order to avoid future ones; but I, who am the truth, could not and ought not to say anything but what is true. Therefore I now added that the kingdom of God cannot be snatched except by those who use great force, and that only the violent seize it. Therefore I said elsewhere: How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18); and again elsewhere: How narrow is the gate, and strait the way, that leads to life, and few there are who find it! (Matt. 7) And again I said elsewhere: The kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field, and like a precious pearl, which cannot be bought unless all things are sold (Matt. 13), so that it is altogether necessary for a man to be stripped of all that he has on earth if he wishes to possess the heavenly treasure and the precious pearl in the heavens. And again elsewhere I openly declared, and without circumlocution I said: Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be My disciple (Luke 14). Although this renunciation is to be understood of the preparation of the soul, yet because a true preparation of the soul for giving up temporal goods, should the salvation of the soul or the glory of God require it, is not an easy thing and is found in few, I therefore added those similitudes: of the man who wishes to build a tower and has not the means to finish it, and of the king who plans to make war against another king and has not equal forces to meet him with hope of victory. And if the building of a tower without very great expense, and the waging of war against a powerful king without a very great army, are things most difficult and almost impossible, how much more difficult will it be to do both at once? Yet both must be done by him who would storm the kingdom of God: for a tower must be built that reaches to heaven — that is, merits must be gathered that may merit eternal life — and at the same time battle must be joined with most numerous and most mighty enemies, namely the unclean spirits, who resist with all their might. A figure of this went before in the children of Israel, who, when they wished to rebuild the city and were hindered by the neighboring peoples warring against them, were obliged, with incredible solicitude and labor, to build with one hand and to fight with the other (2 Esd. 4). From all this it follows that the kingdom of God cannot be obtained without great labor and sweat by those who are attached to earthly things and have learned neither to tame the concupiscence of the flesh nor to fight with invisible enemies. Yet if any should wish, with the grace of God breathing upon them, to strive earnestly after Christian perfection, and to ponder the words of Christ not perfunctorily but most attentively, and to follow His example and that of all the saints, little by little the way will widen for him, the gates will be opened, the strength of his soul will grow, the enemies will grow weak, and as the charity of God in Christ Jesus grows, the burden will begin to seem light and the yoke sweet (Matt. 11); and that word of Isaiah will be fulfilled: They who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isa. 40); and they shall say with the royal Prophet: I have run the way of Your commandments, when You enlarged my heart (Ps. 118). Truly it was not burdensome for St. Anthony to pass whole nights without sleep; indeed, the stretches of the night seemed all too short to him on account of the sweetness of divine contemplation, when he even complained of the sun itself, saying: "Why do you hinder me, O sun, who now rise for this very purpose — to draw me away from the brightness of this true light?" (Cassian, Coll. 9, ch. 34). Nor was it hard for him, or for others like him, to spend whole nights in the reading of the divine word, being refreshed as by heavenly bread. Nor was it bitter for St. Augustine to forgo the sweetness of the empty trifles to which he had been accustomed from early youth, once he began to taste the sweetness of divine love and the delights of interior contemplation. Therefore no one, whoever he may be, should lose heart, but should hope in the help of the Most High, who, just as He made us for Himself, so also will draw us to Himself, and will deign to place in His kingdom, through the merits of His Son, those whom He has deigned to redeem with the precious blood of His Only-begotten.

Wherefore, O Christian soul, not only should you not lose heart on account of the difficulty of the way, but you should hope in the Lord, who would not bid us seek His kingdom first unless He were prepared to help us with His most powerful aid. Set out, therefore, with a great spirit on the journey of life. There is no room here for deliberation. For if a great labor presents itself, a still greater reward presents itself; and if the forces of the enemies who hinder are great, greater is the power of Him who helps — God. And if so very many of every age and of every sex have been able to reach the kingdom by this way, why shall you not be able to reach it by the same way? For they were not of stone or iron, but of flesh — mortal, fragile; and so they were able to do it not in themselves, but in the Lord their God. Why, then, should you too, weak and infirm though you be, not be able to do it in the Lord your God? "Cast yourself upon Him," says St. Augustine; "do not fear: He will not withdraw so that you fall; cast yourself upon Him with confidence — He will catch you, and He will help you" (Conf. 8, ch. 12). God is faithful; He cannot deny Himself. Only two things are required of you: the one, that you most firmly resolve to set the glory of God and your eternal salvation before all things; the other, that you trust not in your own strength nor in your own prudence, but in the omnipotence of God and in His infinite charity. If you truly perform these two things, the crooked shall be made straight for you, and the rough places into level ways (Isa. 40), and you shall serve the Lord in gladness and exultation, and you shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord (Ps. 137).

## BOOK TWO

### CHAPTER I.

On the beauty of the city of God.

Glorious things are said of you, O city of God (Ps. 86); wherefore I too have longed, by meditating, to behold your beauty in some measure, as through a glass in a dark manner. And the first thing that presents itself for consideration is why the eternal happiness, which in the holy Scriptures is called the kingdom of God, should also be called the city of God; and the reason seems to me to be this: that just as it is called a kingdom on account of its vast extent, so it also deserves to be called a city on account of its beauty. For someone, upon hearing of a most wide and vast kingdom, might suspect that in it were many deserted and squalid places, passable only to wild beasts, uncultivated mountains, wooded valleys, inaccessible crags, and finally thickets, precipices, and other things of that kind. But since all this unhappiness must be far removed from the happiness of the blessed, the Holy Spirit therefore taught in His Scriptures that the kingdom of God is like a most beautiful and most ornate city; and that, although it stretches far and wide in every direction, the whole of it nevertheless shines and gleams as a most populous and opulent city is wont to do. For in cities, especially the greater ones, are seen most ornate temples, most splendid palaces, most delightful gardens, most spacious public squares, most crowded dwellings, fountains, columns, pyramids, obelisks, theaters, towers, and workshops of all things useful for human life. What a sight Italy would present if, the barren Apennines removed, the whole of it shone like Rome — not as it now is, but as it was under Augustus Caesar, who found it of brick and left it of marble! And how beautiful would all Syria once have been, had it been like Jerusalem shortly before it was overthrown by the Romans? For Josephus describes it in the sixth book of the Jewish War in such wise that the magnificence of that city is altogether a marvel (Bk. 6, ch. 6) — the city of which the Prophet not without cause sings: Glorious things are said of you, O city of God (Ps. 86); and yet it had not yet reached that eminence to which, after David and Solomon, Herod the Great raised it. How glorious, too, would Chaldea have been, and all Assyria and Mesopotamia — or rather the whole East — if the city of Babylon had embraced all that part of the world within its walls! For so do Pliny in Book 6 and Strabo in Book 16 write of it, that its magnitude and beauty seem incredible; whence the city of Babylon is numbered among the seven wonders of the world. What, then, will that heavenly city be, the Jerusalem on high, which occupies the whole kingdom of God — that is, which makes that kingdom, the greatest of all kingdoms, shine and gleam as though it were all one most beautiful and most ornate city, nowhere empty, nowhere unsightly, nowhere mean, nowhere uncultivated, nowhere wild? Surely the city on high is such that no one thinks of it seriously without at once burning with desire for so great a thing; and no one truly burns without at once leaving all things to seek it, and never resting until he finds it. Hear what the elder Tobias says of that city, exulting and singing in spirit: You shall shine with a glorious light, and all the ends of the earth shall worship you. The gates of Jerusalem shall be built of sapphire and emerald, and all the circuit of its walls of precious stones. All its streets shall be paved with white and clean stones, and through its lanes Alleluia shall be sung (Tob. 13). And in harmony with him St. John sings in the Apocalypse, saying: And the structure of its wall was of jasper stone; but the city itself was pure gold, like clear glass; and the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone; and each of the gates was of a single pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold (Rev. 21). Nor indeed will the heavenly Jerusalem be seen to be truly adorned with gold and precious stones such as are found on earth; but these things are said so that we may understand that the heavenly city excels the earthly as much as gold excels mud, and pearls excel stones, and the stars lamps, and the sun a torch, and heaven earth, and the immortal Maker, God, excels mortal architects. But since we shall speak a little below of the beauty of all the parts of the city of God, we shall add nothing further here.

### CHAPTER II.

On the concord and peace of the city of God.

A second reason why the kingdom of God is also called the city of God seems to be this: that a kingdom usually contains a nearly infinite multitude of diverse nations, distinct from one another in languages, customs, and laws, where many have never seen many others of the same kingdom, much less been joined to them in friendship; whereas a city contains only citizens of the same language and the same customs, who are governed by the same laws and usages. The same thing, therefore, is called both kingdom and city, because the inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom, although they are exceedingly many and can scarcely be numbered, and, as St. John says, are gathered out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues; and again consist of Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim — who are far more numerous than men, and are distinguished one from another not by nations and peoples and tongues, but by diversity of nature, that is, by specific difference (Rev. 7) — yet they are all true citizens, harmonious, of one mind, and governed by the single and sole law of charity. And so they are all of one heart and one spirit (Rom. 14). And because charity is contrary to hatred, envy, contentions, discords, quarrels, and other sins and vices, therefore far removed from that holy city of Jerusalem are angers, quarrels, contentions, and envies; charity alone reigns there, and with it justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. A great battle was indeed fought in heaven at the beginning of the creation of the world between Michael the Archangel and the dragon; but the Archangel Michael and his angels, who stood fast in the truth and kept faith and obedience to their Lord, won the victory over the dragon and his angels, who, lifted up in pride, had fallen away from the common Lord Himself (Rev. 12): And that great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who seduces the whole world; and he was cast down to the earth. From that time the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, placed peace in its borders; nor has the trumpet of war been heard in it, nor shall it be heard any more for ever (Ps. 147).

What, then, is sweeter, what happier than this city? Those to whom the evils of wars are known — pillaging, slaughter, rapine, conflagrations, sacrileges — can readily proclaim how great is the delight and loveliness of peace. But leaving aside public wars, who is there who, in his own city — indeed, even in his own house — has not experienced how bitter it is to dwell among wrathful or harsh men, who interpret everything in the worse sense? Depart from the unjust man, and evils shall depart from you (Sir. 7), says Sirach. But where shall we go, where we shall not find the unjust? And if the unjust are found everywhere, surely evils will accompany us in every place while we are in this exile. Hear what the same Sirach says of a wicked wife: It is better to dwell with a lion and a dragon than to live with a wicked woman (Sir. 25). And if the companion of one's life is turned by her wickedness into a lion and a dragon, to how many anguishes are most mortals exposed? All who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3), says the Apostle. How unhappy, then, is the city of this world, in which one must suffer adversaries and wage wars! For if you wish to be godly, you will suffer persecution from men; but if you choose to be ungodly in order to escape the persecution of men, you will fall into the wrath of the most high and almighty King, who will persecute you and slay you alive and dead, and whose wrath no one can resist. Unhappy and fatal region, in which no one will find true peace! Why, then, do we not love and praise with our whole heart the heavenly city, from which alone all persecution is absent, and in which no wars, no enmities, no quarrels can find a place?

### CHAPTER III.

On the liberty of the city of God.

The third reason why the kingdom of God is called a city is this: that a kingdom has a monarchical form, which seems opposed to liberty; and yet all the citizens of heaven are free, and our mother, the Jerusalem which is above, is free, as the Apostle Paul writes to the Galatians. And that blessed Apostle knew what he was saying, since he was once caught up into the third heaven and into paradise, and had searched out the customs and laws of that city (Gal. 4; 2 Cor. 12). Therefore, since a kingdom seems to include servitude and a city liberty, that kingdom may be called a city in which those who serve the King are free. Now among the blessed inhabitants of heaven there is not a single and simple liberty, but a manifold one. For first, all those citizens are free from the servitude of sin; because the first liberty, which existed in the earthly paradise, was to be able not to sin; whereas the second liberty, far greater, in the heavenly paradise is not to be able to sin, as St. Augustine teaches in his book On Rebuke and Grace (ch. 11).

The second liberty is from the servitude of death, and is like the former: for Adam was free in the earthly paradise, in that he was able not to die; the sons of Adam are free in the heavenly paradise, in that they cannot die. Nor should anyone wonder that we place liberty in this—in not being able to do something—since not being able to sin and not being able to die mark the excellence of freedom from the servitude of sin and from the servitude of mortality. For he who cannot sin is not only free from sin, but is also so far removed from that servitude that he is certain and secure that death will never draw near to him—a liberty which God alone possesses by nature, as the Apostle says: "Who only hath immortality" (1 Tim. 6). For although the Angels and souls endowed with reason are said to be immortal by nature, because they have no principle of corruption in their nature, yet God, who created them, can also destroy them. But the Angels and the blessed among men are certain and secure, as we have said, that they will neither sin nor die, and are therefore most free from the servitude of sin and of death—which is a glorious participation in that liberty.

The third liberty is from necessity, and that a manifold necessity. For in this life mortal men are obliged to eat, to drink, to sleep, to labor; they must now stand, now walk, now lie down. But the blessed in heaven are subject to no necessity, but are free from every necessity; and this is that liberty of the glory of the sons of God of which the Apostle speaks in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 8).

How great this liberty is, can be attested first by poor men, secondly by spiritual men, and thirdly by the rich and the friends of this world. How greatly poor men labor to provide food and drink, clothing and a bed, and other necessities for themselves and their families! And how immense would be the thanks they would feel and render to those who freed them from this servitude of necessity! Nor are there lacking those who allow themselves to be drawn into thefts and robberies, or other evil arts, in order to procure the necessary supports of life; for they say with that unjust steward of the Gospel: "To dig I am not able, to beg I am ashamed; I know what I will do" (Luke 16)—I will defraud my master; that is, by theft or rapine I will free myself from the servitude of necessity. But this is to fall into a far heavier servitude, namely the servitude of sin and of the devil, the foulest enemy of the human race. Holy men, who long for heavenly things, regard the servitude of caring for the body as a heavy burden, since it both requires many things and steals a great portion of time from far better things. Eusebius writes in the Ecclesiastical History, on the testimony of Philo, that the first Christians who lived at Alexandria in Egypt under Mark the Evangelist were accustomed to take such delight in heavenly meditations that they never ate except after sunset, so that they gave the whole day and a great part of the night to heavenly studies and left scarcely a small part of the night for refreshing the body; and that some were even accustomed to forget bodily food for three whole days, and some for six entire days (Eccles. Hist. 2, ch. 16). And John Cassian in his Conferences, and Theodoret in his Religious History, testify that this same thing was afterwards common among many holy hermits. To all these, therefore, the servitude of bodily necessity seemed most grievous, and with the Apostle they cried out: "Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7). Moreover, to the citizens of this world, especially the rich, this servitude of necessity is not unwelcome; yet if they were wise, they too would judge it most grievous. Food and drink have savor for them, and sleep is sweet on a soft cushion; but if they exceed due measure, they fill their bodies with diseases, to repel which they are forced to take bitter potions and to endure no slight pains. Then, whether they wish it or not, they must either be at enmity with God and endure His most grievous wrath, or fight for temperance and sobriety against the concupiscence of the flesh—a warfare which is beyond all doubt most laborious and most perilous. From so great and so irksome a necessity, therefore, are poor and rich, the upright and the wicked alike delivered, when they are delivered from the servitude of this wretched and manifold necessity.

The fourth liberty is from the law and its precepts. For "the law is not made for the just, but for the unjust," as the Apostle teaches in the first Epistle to Timothy (1 Tim. 1). Now none are more just than the blessed, who are confirmed in justice and cannot become unjust. It is indeed true that for the just dwelling in this world the law is not imposed as something threatening and pressing, since they obey the law of their own accord and with a willing mind; yet it cannot be denied that a law is still laid upon them, directing and binding them to do what the law commands and to flee what the law forbids. But the just who enjoy the liberty of the glory of the sons of God need no law, since in the Word they behold all justice and, confirmed in perfect charity, cannot turn aside from the will of God. A great good is this liberty, which delivers from all solicitude and is altogether contrary to the captivity and servitude of those unhappy ones who, bound hand and foot, will be cast into the exterior darkness and into the furnace of fire (Matt. 22), so that they can neither endure nor escape those torments. And yet there is no man who is not bound to undergo one or the other of these two so contrary fates (Matt. 13). But most men are so blinded by the smoke of present honor, or by the dust of earthly goods, that they neither see nor consider these things, until sudden destruction comes upon them (1 Thess. 5) and punishment opens the eyes that sin had closed.

### CHAPTER IV.

On the site and form of the city of God.

But let us return to the heavenly city, and consider attentively its site, its form, its foundation, its gates, its walls, and its streets. Its site is upon the holy mountains, for so we read in the Psalm: "The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains" (Ps. 86). St. John agrees with this in the Apocalypse when he says: "And he took me up in spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city" (Rev. 21). Now a city's site upon a mountain is wont to be serviceable both for the healthfulness of the air and for defense. But what mountains are higher than the heavens? And what mountain is exalted above all mountains, if not the heaven of heavens, of which David sang: "The heaven of heaven is the Lord's" (Ps. 113)? This is that mountain for which the same Prophet longed when he said: "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?" (Ps. 23). And it is from this mountain that he implored and awaited help, saying: "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me" (Ps. 120). The site of the city of God, therefore, is so sublime that it utterly transcends everything that could in any way disturb the peace and quiet of the city. For it is too high for the dust and mire, the thorns and thistles, the bites and venom of the beasts of the earth to reach; too high also for the vapors and mists of the air, for hail and thunder, for fire and lightning to harm it; too high, finally, for those unclean and rapacious birds, which the Apostle in the Epistle to the Ephesians calls "the spirits of wickedness in the high places" (Eph. 6), to reach it in any way at all.

The form of the city of God is square, for so speaks St. John: "And the city lieth in a foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth" (Rev. 21). Now this signifies nothing else than the admirable and most perfect justice which reigns in that city, where nothing is unjust, nothing discordant, nothing distorted. So St. Augustine explains that verse of the Psalm, "Wonderful in equity" (Ps. 64)—that is, in justice. And surely it will be altogether wonderful to behold the inhabitants of that city, plainly innumerable and all endowed with the freest will, and yet to see that in not one of them, through all eternity, could anything distorted be found, whether in deed, in word, or in thought. Truly, then, that city is laid out as a square, so that its breadth does not exceed its length by even a little, nor its length its breadth. Yet that square figure may also signify that the breadth of the heavenly goods is equal to their length: for as their abundance will be infinite, so also will their duration be infinite. For breadth is wont to be applied to the abundance of a thing, and length to its duration. Thus in the first book of Kings the manifold wisdom of Solomon is called "a largeness of heart, as the sand that is on the seashore" (1 Kings 4); and in the ninetieth Psalm the duration of time is called "length of days." In the city of our God, therefore, there will be as much breadth as length, because there will be an immensity of goods together with everlasting duration. A little later St. John adds that the height of the city is also as great as its breadth, so that the city is squared on every side—because, namely, the goods of the heavenly city will be not only exceedingly many and everlasting, but also most noble and most exalted. Nor does it much matter that our own Vitruvius (Bk. 1, ch. 5) and Vegetius (Bk. 4, ch. 2) do not approve a square site for cities: for they speak of cities that fear enemies, whereas holy Scripture speaks of the city that "hath placed peace in her borders" (Ps. 147), and to which, by reason of its surpassing height, "evil cannot draw near," as the Prophet sang (Ps. 90).

### CHAPTER V.

On the foundations and gates of the city of God.

Moreover, the foundation of this city is of such a kind that this city alone can deservedly be said to have a foundation. For so speaks the holy Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "For he looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11). For the Apostle gives the reason why Abraham built neither a city nor a house in the land of promise, but dwelt in it as a stranger: the reason is that he understood that land of promise to be a kind of figure of a greater land of promise, and therefore he was unwilling to build a house or a city that would perish, because he was looking for a city resting upon a firm foundation, whose builder and maker is God. And so only the heavenly city truly and properly has a foundation, which, built by God, will endure forever: the cities that men built—Cain, Nimrod, Ninus, Nebuchadnezzar, Romulus, and the rest—by having so often fallen, and by being destined to be utterly destroyed at the consummation of the world, show plainly enough that they had no foundation. Hence we may understand how much wiser than we were those Patriarchs, who, though they lived more than twice as long as we live, and had to wait for several thousand years before entering the heavenly city, yet deigned to build neither cities nor houses, but chose to dwell in tents as pilgrims, remembering that an eternal home awaited them in heaven, and that all things on earth would shortly perish.

But we, who live for the briefest span of time, and who can, if we will, enter that heavenly and most blessed city immediately after death, labor so at erecting and adorning buildings on earth, as though either we were never to die, or did not look forward to the heavenly city. Surely in this matter we imitate not the believing Patriarchs, but the unbelieving heathen; and yet we are Christians, and we know that Christ and the Apostles wished to have on earth neither a city, nor a tower, nor even a house—much less to build one. Yet we do not reprove the princes of this world, though Christian, who build new cities, nor private persons who build comfortable houses for themselves and their families; for we know that David built a royal house for himself in that city, as holy Scripture teaches in the books of Kings (2 Sam. 5). We know likewise that St. Louis, king of the Franks, restored at his own expense several Christian cities in Palestine; nor are we unaware that it is fitting for princes to dwell more comfortably and magnificently than private persons, and for patricians than plebeians; but we demand moderation, and we condemn excess—above all when private men covet the palaces of kings, and kings, not content with palaces, build for themselves immense piles that rival towns in size. In short, we condemn excessive attachment to these temporal things, as though the highest good were placed in them, and we praise contempt of the world and the humility of Christ.

Now the gates of the City are said by St. John, in the place cited, to be made of pearls (Rev. 21), the fabric of the walls of jasper stone, and the street of the city—indeed the whole city—of pure gold. All of which signifies that that holy city is wholly precious, yet bright and translucent: for pearls are precious, and so is jasper, of which one kind is green and another white. And for this reason St. John says: "And the light thereof was like to a precious stone, as to the jasper stone, even as crystal"—for he added "even as crystal" to show that he spoke of jasper that is not green, or of some other color, but white and shining. So also, when he said that the street was of pure gold, he added "as it were transparent glass," that is, clear and gleaming white like crystal. And so that whole city, whether you look upon its gates, its walls, or its streets, is precious; it admits nothing cheap, nothing base, nothing perishable; and at the same time it is all bright and all transparent, because nothing covered, nothing closed is found there—all see all things; there is no suspicion there, no deceit.

And perhaps this is the reason why St. John says in the same place: "And the gates thereof shall not be shut"—because there is no darkness there, no thieves, no enemies, on account of which doors are shut at night. Nor does this conflict with the words of the Psalmist, who sings in praise of the heavenly city: "Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates" (Ps. 147). For both the Prophet and the Evangelist wished to signify one and the same thing: that the city on high is in no danger from enemies or thieves. The one signified it by doors ever shut, the other by doors ever open: for the former, by doors ever shut, signified that the divine protection would never suffer any enemy to enter that city beloved of God; the latter, by doors ever open, signified that the city is so secure from every evil assault that there is no need to shut its gates, much less to post guards. But what the gate, the wall, and the street signify is that after Christ's passion an entrance was given to men for entering into the city of God and of the Angels: for Christ Himself, having vanquished the sting of death, opened the kingdom of God to believers. Nor is there one gate only, but twelve, through which the faithful may enter that city. For so speaks St. John: "On the east, three gates; and on the north, three gates; and on the south, three gates; and on the west, three gates" (Rev. 21). For not only Jews enter, as they fancy, but all nations from every part of the world; indeed, so few Jews enter that in comparison with the rest they can be called almost none. For so the Lord foretold to them when He said of the centurion: "I have not found so great faith in Israel. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness" (Matt. 8). And in the parable of the vineyard: "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21). And most clearly in Luke: "When you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And there shall come from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God" (Luke 13).

Now three gates are said to stand on every side of the world—twelve in all—because access will be open not only from the east, the north, the west, and the south, but from the beginning of the east, the middle of the east, and the end of the east, and so likewise for the other quarters of the world. Unless it be more pleasing to think that three gates are assigned to each side of the heavenly city on account of the mystery of the Trinity and of the three most necessary virtues: for all those enter from the four quarters of the world who, baptized in the name of the three divine Persons, have kept faith, hope, and charity even to the end.

### CHAPTER VI.

On the wall and street of the city of God.

Moreover, the wall of the city signifies nothing else than the divine guardianship, which alone suffices, without other watches, or arms, or towers, to guard that city. "I," says God through Zechariah, "will be to it a wall of fire round about, and in glory I will be in the midst of it" (Zech. 2). A truly wondrous promise. "I," He says, "will be a wall of fire round about," to keep off enemies; "and I will be in glory in the midst of it," to make the citizens glorious. As though He should say: Fire burns and gives light; therefore I will burn the enemies, and I will enlighten the citizens; so shall I be a wall of fire round about, and a light of glory within. This St. John also explains a little later when he says: "And the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it; for the brightness of God hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof" (Rev. 21). The brightness of God, like a sun, enlightens minds; the Lamb of God, Christ, like a lamp, enlightens bodies. Christ is called a lamp, not because a lamp is needed in the night, but by comparison with the divinity: otherwise, if the faces of the blessed will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God, as the Lord Himself says in Matthew (Matt. 13), how much more will the face of Christ enlighten the city of God, not as a lamp, but as the primal sun? And for this reason St. John adds that "there shall be no night there" (Rev. 21). There remains the street of the city, which comprises the whole space within the circuit of the walls.

This is the common dwelling of the heavenly citizens, and it is all pure gold—that is, charity burning and luminous—which will contain them all, and through which each will dwell in the others by the affection of pure love; and not only each in the others, but all in God, and God in all: for "he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4). That this might come to pass, Christ the Lord asked the Father in that prayer which, as He was going to His passion, He poured forth while all the Apostles listened, saying: "But not for these only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in Me; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us" (John 17).

O most blessed city, which, set upon the highest mountain, enjoy the purest air; you who are founded upon the rock, so that you rest upon everlasting firmness; whose gates gleam like pearls and stand ever open to those who enter; whose wall is God, who ever surrounds you with His protection and adorns you like a precious jasper stone; whose street is charity, brighter than all gold and whiter than all crystal, which makes all who dwell in you to be one heart and one soul, fills them with unspeakable joy, and establishes them in everlasting peace. My soul longs and faints for your streets (Ps. 83:3). For what is more desirable to one who labors and groans in the midst of a perverse nation, among false brethren, and in this very world, which lies wholly in wickedness, than to fly away to the place of sweetest peace, where charity alone reigns? When shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Ps. 41:3) For what is sweeter to a soul that loves the Lord than to see the Beloved, and to be seen by the Beloved, and through a most intimate and delightful bond to dwell in Him and to be dwelt in by Him? It seems indeed an intolerable boldness that dust and ashes should sigh after your courts, O holy city; and a still greater boldness that a lowly little soul should aspire to the embrace of the supreme Creator; but He who gave that boldness will excuse it — He who asked the Father that we might all be one, and that as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, so we also might be one in Them both.

### CHAPTER VII.

On the temple of the city of God.

But there is still something that we must look for in the city of our God: namely, a temple for praising God, and food and drink for eating and drinking; for about clothing there is no reason for us to be anxious. For if Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise had no need of clothing, much less will the blessed need it in the heavenly paradise, where they will all be clothed with light as with a garment. But food and drink not only could Adam and Eve not do without; even the Angels themselves do not lack them, as the Angel Raphael says: I use invisible food and drink, which cannot be seen by men (Tob. 12:19). Now as to the temple, St. John says in the Apocalypse: And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty is the temple thereof, and the Lamb (Rev. 21:22). That John saw no temple in the heavenly city may perhaps seem strange.

For temples are erected in the Church militant for four ends: that in them the word of God may be preached to the faithful, that the Sacraments and sacrifices may be celebrated, that public prayer may be offered to God, and that due praises may be rendered with song and gladness. Preaching will cease in heaven, where the uncreated Word Himself will speak openly to all, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah: No longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each man his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least of them even to the greatest (Jer. 31:34). Sacraments and sacrifices will not be necessary there either, where no sins will have to be expiated; nor will signs be required, where the things signified will lie plainly open to view. Prayer and the praises of God are offered here on earth in temples consecrated to God, since He Himself promised that His eyes would be open and His ears attentive in the temple; for thus He spoke to Solomon in the second book of Paralipomenon: My eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer of him who shall pray in this place (2 Chr. 7:15). But since in the heavenly city God is openly seen and heard by all, a temple surely does not seem necessary in that place. Hence we easily understand what St. John says: And I saw no temple therein. Why then did he add: For the Lord God Almighty is the temple thereof, and the Lamb? If no temple is required in that city, why is God Himself said to be the temple of that city — and not God alone, but also the Lamb? Or who will explain to us how God and the Lamb are called temples in heaven, and what use that temple has in heaven? It is the custom of the holy Scriptures that one passage explains another, and that an obscure place is understood from a clearer one. It is said in the ninetieth Psalm: He who dwells in the aid of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven (Ps. 90:1); the meaning of which words is this: he who is joined to God with a sure confidence makes for himself, as it were, a house in God, in which he may dwell secure and be protected from every evil. The same can be said of praise and prayer: for he who is joined to God with intimate reverence makes for himself, as it were, a house in God, so that dwelling in it he may pray and praise God as he ought. In heaven, therefore, the Lord God Almighty is the temple of the holy city, because those blessed citizens, thinking most attentively on the omnipotence of God and thus joined to Him in intimate reverence, dwell in Him and offer Him worthy praises; and when they pray for us, they are most readily heard. So also when they think attentively on the merits of Christ, who like an innocent lamb delivered Himself up as an oblation and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor, they are intimately united to Him through love; and dwelling in Him as in a temple, they pour out prayers for us and without doubt find the eyes of God open and His ears attentive, so that whatever they ask for us they obtain.

But if those blessed citizens in heaven are wont to dwell in God and in Christ as in a temple, in order to sing God's praises and to pour out prayers for us, what ought we to do, who see neither God nor Christ? O would that it might be granted us — by what would surely be a great gift of God — that we might so draw near to God to praise and pray that, first being joined to God through true humility and deepest reverence arising from the consideration of His most high majesty, we might dwell in God Himself as in a most holy and sacred temple! For thus it would come to pass that we would offer praises and prayers not drowsily or while thinking of other things, but most attentively and most devoutly we would offer to God pleasing praises, and to the Lord prayers profitable to ourselves and to our brethren; and that word would be fulfilled: The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me; and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God. For the divine praises, offered as a holocaust upon the altar of the heart through the fire of charity, ascend in a fragrance of wondrous sweetness; and they obtain for us and for ours that a way be opened to us, through the enlightening of the heart, to behold the true salvation which God has prepared for those who love Him. All these benefits those wretched men lose who discharge the divine praises and prayers with wandering of mind and willful dryness of heart; they share the labor of praying and singing psalms with the others who pray and sing, but in the divine consolation and the foretaste of heavenly beatitude they have no share at all.

### CHAPTER VIII.

On the food and drink of the city of God.

Now concerning the food and drink of the heavenly citizens, we read these words in the Apocalypse: And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street thereof, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:1-2). I fear that those who hear these things may marvel at the frugality of the fare of the heavenly citizens, and suppose that more and better things are to be had in this our pilgrimage: for here we hear of nothing but the fruits of a single tree for food, and the water of a river for drink. But let those who say this remember that in the earthly paradise, where without doubt the fare would have been better than in this exile, Adam was granted for food nothing but fruits and herbs, and water for drink: and yet those fruits, and those herbs, and those waters were better than all the foods and all the wines of this life, though far, far inferior to the tree of life and the living water of the heavenly paradise (Gen. 2). In this vale of miseries all men are sick, and their sense of taste is corrupted by a certain bitterness; therefore, to take away the nausea, they have devised a variety of foods: yet that variety of food so lessens the nausea that it increases the disease. In the earthly paradise all men would have been wholly sound; and such was the healthfulness and sweetness of those fruits and that water, that they could have nourished men perfectly and preserved them in health with incredible delight; to say nothing of the fact that, without labor and sweat, they would have had food and drink abundantly at hand. But whatever may be said of the earthly paradise, the living water and the tree of life in the city of God are not food and drink common to men and beasts, as are the waters and fruits of this pilgrimage: they are so choice, so great, so divine, that the Prophet sings: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure (Ps. 35:9). Nor are those foods and drinks corporeal things, but spiritual and divine. The living water is wisdom, of which we read: She shall give him the water of wholesome wisdom to drink (Sir. 15:3). And the tree of life is that bread of which the same book says: She shall feed him with the bread of life and understanding. For as St. Augustine teaches, in corporeal things food is one thing and drink is another; but in spiritual things the same thing is food and drink — that is, wisdom, or understanding, or intelligence, which here mean the same thing: it is food because it nourishes, and drink because it quenches thirst. Still, by the living water wisdom might also be understood, and by the tree of life, charity; for we have it from the same John in his first Epistle: He that loveth not, abideth in death (1 John 3:14); and: We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren (1 John 3:14). And truly both to understand and to love are vital acts. Therefore the drink of the blessed in the city of God is to drink of the living river that springs from the fountain of life, who is God: that is, the fruition of a participation in that wisdom by which God is wise, which is the highest, most exalted, and unutterable. And the food of the same blessed is to eat of the tree of life — that is, the fruition of a participation in that ineffable love by which goodness itself, clearly beheld, can be loved, and by which God loves Himself, who is the infinite good and the fountain of all goodness. What these things are, we can in some measure surmise; we cannot understand them, nor shall we be able to, until we come to that city.

But what St. John says — that the tree is on either side of the river and yields its fruit every month — is to be understood metaphorically, that he might in some manner, through the likeness of corporeal things, express spiritual things: a tree of supreme goodness and fruitfulness. To this end he described a tree standing on the bank of the river, which, both by its own goodness and by continual watering, brings forth its fruit every month, not once a year as other trees are wont. Nor does he mean to signify that there is only one tree, but many of the same kind, planted on either side of the river that flows through the midst of the city, so that between one tree and another there is no great space; and in this way the whole city can enjoy both the course of the water and the fruit of the trees. The goodness of the tree is signified in the name tree of life; its fruitfulness is shown in this, that it bears new fruits every month. Whence it comes that the citizens of that city always have fruits both fresh and ripe: fresh from the present month, ripe from the month just past; never withered, never dry, never insipid. All of which signifies that the food and drink of the blessed — that is, the wisdom by which they perfectly understand God, and the charity by which they perfectly love Him — is the best, and never fails.

What the same blessed Evangelist adds concerning the leaves of that tree — that they are for the healing of the nations — seems to signify this: that to us in this exile the very fruits of the tree of life are never sent, yet certain leaves are sent, which, although they do not bring us eternal life itself, are nonetheless useful for the healing of our diseases: the concupiscence of the eyes, the pride of life, and other vices of the same kind, from which we are all sick, some gravely and some lightly. These leaves are the divine words brought down to us from heaven — that is, from divine revelation — through the Prophets and Apostles. O how good a fragrance those leaves breathe forth, if a man have the Spirit of the Lord! Read the Prophets, read the Psalmist, read the Gospels, read the Apostles — Peter, Paul, John, James, Jude: all these leaves breathe humility, the charity of God, virginity, things of which there is no mention among the philosophers. Nor should this seem strange; for the former are leaves from the trees of paradise, the latter from the trees of the mountains of the earth.

Therefore, Christian soul, diligently gather these leaves; make for yourself of them a daily medicine; and from the leaves form a conjecture of the fruits. And despising the husks of swine, sigh ardently for those fruits of eternal life which are on high; think upon them; let the memory of them abide with you always, until their presence be granted.

### CHAPTER IX.

On the mystical foundation of the city of God.

We have considered one structure of the city on high; now we shall consider another. For the city comprises not only the foundation, the gates, the walls, and the streets, but also the assembly of the citizens, who, according to the diversity of their functions, are themselves likewise called foundations, or gates, or walls, or other things of the same kind. And perhaps the name city belongs more properly to a congregation of citizens under the same laws than to a congregation of houses within the same walls. For so Cicero speaks in The Dream of Scipio: The assemblies and gatherings of men united by law are called cities. Of this heavenly city, which consists of citizens, not only St. John speaks in the Apocalypse, but also St. Peter in his first Epistle, and St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians. In the Apocalypse we read that at the twelve gates twelve angels were seen, and names inscribed — the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel; while on the twelve foundations were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev. 21:12-14). In the first Epistle of St. Peter we read: Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and made honorable by God, be you also as living stones built up (1 Pet. 2:4-5). In the Epistle to the Ephesians St. Paul writes: Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone (Eph. 2:19-20). First, then, the city of God has the Apostles and the Prophets for foundations, because the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets upholds the whole fabric. For faith is the beginning of salvation; and faith was revealed through the Prophets and Apostles: whether concerning the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection of the dead, the blessed glory, the eternal punishments, or other things that surpass human reason — all these we have learned from the Prophets and Apostles, to whom God deigned to reveal them. But although faith has no place among the blessed, who see what they believed — and what is seen is not believed, but known and beheld — yet the Apostles and Prophets are called the foundations of the city on high, because faith is the beginning of salvation, and thereby the beginning of beatitude. But since St. Peter says that we, as living stones, are built up upon Christ (1 Pet. 2:4-5); and the Apostle Paul himself says in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 3:11) — therefore there is one foundation, and there are twelve foundations, as St. Augustine teaches in his exposition of the eighty-sixth Psalm, because Christ was in the twelve Apostles. For He Himself, or His Spirit, spoke and taught through them. Hear the Apostle Paul: Do you seek, he says, a proof of Christ that speaketh in me? (2 Cor. 13:3) Hear Christ Himself: He that heareth you, He says, heareth Me (Luke 10:16). And elsewhere: For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you (Matt. 10:20). Nor is there any doubt that the Spirit of the Father and of the Son is one and the same. From which we also understand that in the twelve foundations are understood not only the twelve Apostles, but all those who first preached the same faith; otherwise Paul himself and Barnabas, and the seventy disciples, who were not of the twelve, would not belong to the foundations — nay, the Prophets themselves would not belong to the foundations either, and we should make the Apostle a liar (God forbid), who said that we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.

But a difficulty of no small weight arises: how can Christ be truly called the foundation of the building, since He is the chief cornerstone, as the Apostle says, and has been set as the head of the corner, as the Prophet sings (Ps. 117)? For how can the same stone be at once highest and lowest, in the foundation and at the summit? But if one reflects that these are metaphorical terms, he will understand without difficulty that, on account of different functions, contrary names can belong to one person. Indeed, not only Christ, who is God and man, but every prelate in his church is both foundation and summit: for as foundation he must sustain the weight of the building and bear the infirmities of all, and so be placed beneath all; and yet the same man as summit must be set over all, command all, and be upheld by all. Much more, therefore, will Christ the Lord be able, as the foundation of the Church, to bear all and to sustain all by His authority and power; and at the same time, as set at the head of the corner, to join the two walls and to form one people out of Gentiles and Jews, to preside over all, and to command all.

### CHAPTER X.

On the mystical gate of the city of God.

Next we must consider the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem. And indeed it is the common interpretation of the commentators that by the gates the same Apostles are meant; in which interpretation they have followed St. Augustine in his exposition of the eighty-sixth Psalm. But St. John in the Apocalypse, when he spoke of the gates, made mention of twelve Angels and of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel, whose names he said were written on the twelve gates of the city of God (Rev. 21); he did not even name the Apostles in that passage. Yet the opinion of St. Augustine, and of those who have followed him, is not false: for St. John speaks mystically, not as the letter sounds — as a prophet, not as a historian — and that whole description of his is most full of mystical meanings. The land of promise was, by the consent of all, a figure of the heavenly city. To whom was the promise of that land first made? To Abraham; for so God speaks to Abraham in the book of Genesis: All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever (Gen. 13). And the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians says: To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed; and a little further on: God gave it to Abraham by promise (Gal. 3). The heir of Abraham was Isaac alone, Ishmael being excluded, who was the son of the bondwoman, as Scripture says: The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman (Gen. 21). The heir of Isaac was Jacob alone, his brother Esau being excluded, who sold his birthright (Gen. 25); hence Malachi says: I have loved Jacob, but have hated Esau (Mal. 1). Which sentence the Apostle repeats in his Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 9). The heirs of Jacob were all his sons, who were twelve, none being excluded. And so the land of promise was divided among the twelve tribes of Israel, as can be understood from the book of Joshua (Josh. 13, 14, 15, and following). This, then, is the reason why St. John in the Apocalypse said that on the twelve gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel: namely because the gate by which the land of promise was entered was the right of inheritance, which belonged to all the sons of Israel and to them alone. But, as we were saying a little before, the Apostle John speaks mystically, and by the twelve tribes of Israel are understood the true Israelites, not according to the flesh but according to spirit and faith, and accordingly the twelve Apostles and their spiritual sons. For, as St. Paul plainly teaches in the Epistle to the Romans: All are not Israelites that are of Israel; neither are all they that are the seed of Abraham, children (Rom. 9). And a little further on he compares Israel to a tree, many of whose branches were broken off because of unbelief, and others were grafted in because of faith. For thus the Gentiles converted to the faith began to be sons of Israel, and very many of the Jews ceased to be true Israelites. St. Augustine demonstrates and explains all these things at length in his Epistle to Asellicus, in which he speaks thus: "Are not these things great marvels, and a profound mystery, that many not born of Israel should be Israel, and that many should not be sons, though they are the seed of Abraham? For how are they not, and how are they, unless they are not sons of the promise pertaining to the grace of Christ, but sons of the flesh, bearing an empty name? And so neither are they Israel as we are, nor are we Israel as they are: for we are so according to spiritual regeneration, they according to carnal generation." (Rom. 11) And a little further on: "This same great and profound mystery, of which the same Apostle speaks when he had recalled the sons of the promise through Isaac as pertaining to the grace of Christ, is found also in the grandsons of Abraham, the sons of Isaac, those twins Esau and Jacob, who was afterwards called Israel. This surely apostolic and Catholic teaching plainly enough shows us that, according to the origin of the flesh, the Jews belong to Sarah and the Ishmaelites to Hagar; but according to the mystery, the Christians belong to Sarah and the Jews to Hagar. Likewise, according to the origin of the flesh, to Esau, who was also called Edom, belongs the nation of the Idumeans, and to Jacob, who was also called Israel, the nation of the Jews; but according to the mystery of the spirit, the Jews belong to Esau and the Christians to Israel." So he; and he shows plainly enough that Christians are the true Israelites, not according to the flesh but according to the spirit, and are therefore the true heirs of the land of promise which is in heaven. Therefore the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem bear inscribed upon them the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, because the gate by which that heavenly land of promise is entered is the right of inheritance of the sons of God, who alone are true and sincere Christians, sons of the blessed Apostles, who are signified by the true Israelites, that is, the sons of the Patriarch Jacob. Moreover, what St. John adds, that there were twelve Angels at those gates, signifies that Angels are the keepers of the gates, whose office it is to see that no one enters there who does not have the right of inheritance. And perhaps it is for this reason that the Archangel Michael is depicted with a balance in his hands, because through the Angels subject to him he examines the merits of those who aspire to that heavenly city. So much for the gates.

### CHAPTER XI.

On the mystical stones of the city of God.

The rest of the building consists of stones, which are all the faithful who are built upon it, as the Apostles Peter (1 Pet. 2) and Paul clearly set forth in their Epistles (Eph. 2). And since this part of the building concerns everyone, it will be best to note the conditions or qualities which those must have who desire to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, under Jesus Christ Himself, the chief cornerstone; so that they may not only be in the city of God, but may themselves be the most exalted and most happy city of God.

Three things are required for a man to be built upon so noble a foundation: first, that he be a stone; secondly, that he be living; and lastly, that he be as well polished and squared as possible. First, then, we must be stones — not wood, not hay, not stubble — so that we may form a solid wall; that is, we must be grave and steadfast men, persevering in faith, in charity, in humility, and in obedience to the commandments, and not carried about by every wind of doctrine, as heretics are wont to be; nor swept away by various desires, as fickle Catholics are very easily swept away. For such materials are indeed used in building, but they serve for the making of huts, which are destroyed without any trouble. Secondly, we must be living stones, as St. Peter admonishes (1 Pet. 2), that is, full of charity and of the spirit of life, such as is the cornerstone Christ: who, though He died once according to the flesh, yet according to the spirit always lived, and according to the flesh lived again after having tasted death, and now shall die no more. Dead stones build dead houses, that is, bodily houses; but a spiritual house — or rather the city of the great King — which is known to be spiritual and heavenly, requires spiritual, and therefore living, stones. Lastly, we must be squared and polished stones, not rough and shapeless, for so it befits the building of the most excellent of all cities. For if Arphaxad built Ecbatana of squared and hewn stones, as we read in the book of Judith (Jdt. 1); and if king Solomon built the temple of the Lord on this earth of ours from hewn and finished stones, as Scripture says in the first book of Kings (1 Kgs. 6); what care, then, is fitting in the building of the eternal City, which is by far the most excellent of all?

But this squaring, and cutting, and hewing must be done here on earth, not in heaven. A figure of this went before in the building of the temple of Solomon. For thus we read in the third book of Kings: Now the house, when it was in building, was built of stones hewn and made ready; and neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was in building (1 Kings 6:7); because, namely, the stones were cut and pounded far from the house of the Lord, and so perfectly squared that, when they were brought to the temple, they were placed in their positions without any sound of the hammer. Therefore in the heavenly City no sound of the striking hammer will be heard, because there there will be no persecution, no tribulation, no labor of penance, no groaning, no pain, no sadness. The stones chosen, therefore, for the glory of the heavenly House must be polished by poundings and pressures in this vale of tears; for so the Church sings:

Polished by poundings and pressures, the stones

Are fitted each into its place

By the hand of the Craftsman, and set to abide forever in the sacred edifice.

Here the labor of penance is necessary for us, for in many things we all offend (James 3:2), as St. James affirms. Here must the carnal concupiscences be tamed, here our own wills conquered, here the body chastised and brought into subjection, here must the shield of faith be held up with unwearying labor against the fiery darts of the unclean spirits. Otherwise, if we cannot bear the pounding of the hammer, how shall we, rough and unpolished, be admitted by the heavenly Architect into the heavenly fabric? O if mortals understood how great a good they are deprived of while they flee the striking hammer, and can bear nothing troublesome, nothing harsh, nothing bitter! Surely they would change their resolve and, giving up feasting, leaving off fine apparel, would seek hair-shirts; neglecting idle talk, they would devote themselves to vigils and prayers; and if they suffered any trouble from false brethren or from open enemies, they would not think of revenge, but would give thanks to God, and from their heart pray to God for those who slander and persecute them, because the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh in us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17).

And certainly, if we look at the living stones that went before us into the heavenly edifice, we shall see none that were not polished by many poundings and varied pressures. Christ Himself, the most precious corner stone, who for Himself needed no hewing, nevertheless suffered for us, leaving us an example: and when He was reviled, He did not revile; when He suffered, He threatened not (1 Pet. 2:21-23). All the Apostles could say with St. Paul: Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode, and we labor, working with our own hands: we are reviled, and we bless; we suffer persecution, and we endure it; we are blasphemed, and we entreat; we are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all (1 Cor. 4:11-13). What of the martyrs? Did they not all ascend to the edifice of the heavenly City, cut and hewn by many tribulations and torments and most bitter deaths? I pass over the blessed Confessors, Anchorites, Virgins, Widows, and all the others who pleased God, who were admitted to the heavenly building only by crucifying their flesh with its vices and concupiscences, and by waging war with themselves. Nor was this hewing of living stones necessary only after the coming of Christ, but also before, and from the very beginning of the world. The first living stone was Abel, cruelly slain by his brother Cain. The holy Patriarch Joseph was sold by his brethren. To Tobias the Angel Raphael said: Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you (Tob. 12:13). He did not say, Because you were a sinner and hateful to God, it was necessary that you should pay the penalty of blindness and beggary; but, Because you were acceptable to God, as being just and holy — therefore, as a living stone destined for the heavenly edifice, it was necessary that you should be proved by trial. Which of the Prophets did not suffer persecution from the wicked? What torments did the blessed Maccabee youths not endure? Let us hear the Apostle preaching of the blessed of the Old Testament in the Epistle to the Hebrews: And others, he says, had trial of mockeries and stripes, moreover also of bands and prisons; they were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth (Heb. 11:36-38). What will you say to this, O Christian soul? If the Builder's hammer did not spare those of whom the world was not worthy on account of their outstanding holiness, so that they might be squared and polished and made fit for the heavenly edifice, what will be done with you and those like you, who take pleasure in sinning and find the labor of penance too heavy? One of two things must needs be: either you are struck and polished in this life or in purgatory, or you will have no place in that lofty edifice, and the hammer of hell will pound you forever. Why, then, do you not choose (if you have any sense) rather to be pounded and squared in this life by a brief and light tribulation, than to be rejected in the life to come and consigned to eternal and intolerable pounding?

For that punishment in the life to come, although it is not eternal, is nevertheless more severe, and often lasts longer, than any punishment of this life. For hear St. Augustine explaining the thirty-seventh Psalm: "It is said," he says, "he shall be saved, yet so as by fire. And because it is said, He shall be saved, that fire is made light of; yet that fire will be more severe than whatever a man can suffer in this life." So says he, who adds that the pains of purgatory will be more grievous than the torments inflicted on robbers, and than the sufferings of the martyrs were; and that therefore they are foolish who despise the fire of purgatory, yet shrink in horror from the tribulations of the present life. And because in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand, hear St. Gregory on the third penitential Psalm: "That transitory fire," he says, "I judge to be more intolerable than all present tribulation." Hear St. Bernard in the sermon On the Death of Humbert the Monk: "Know this," he says, "that after this life, in the places of purgatory, the things that were neglected here are repaid a hundredfold, even to the last farthing." Hear finally St. Anselm in his exposition of the third chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "It must be known," he says, "that that fire is more severe than whatever a man can suffer in this life. For all the torments that are here are easier; and yet men, to avoid suffering them, do whatever is commanded them by man. How much better is it to do what God commands, that we may not suffer those more grievous things?"

### CHAPTER XII.

On fleeing the city of the world.

Having explained the building up of the city of God, it only remains to set forth briefly what is chiefly required for citizens to be enrolled in that most happy City. And this can be said in one word: namely, that we renounce the city of this world, and that we live here in the meantime as strangers and pilgrims.

For it cannot come to pass that we should be at once citizens of the world and citizens of the blessed; and there is no one who tenders his renunciation to the city of this world without being received at once into the bosom of the city of God. But let us set forth the whole matter a little more fully. Two cities are declared to us in the holy Scriptures: an earthly city, which began with Cain, who first founded a city upon the earth, as we read in Genesis; and a heavenly city, which began with Abel, and whose founder is not Abel but God, as we said above on the word of the Apostle (Gen. 4). Of the former, great Babylon bore the figure — Babylon, which signifies Confusion; of the latter, Jerusalem, the city of the great King, which is called the Vision of peace. The citizens of the earthly city are those who dwell upon the earth not only in body but also in heart: they till the earth, they gape after earthly goods, for them they contend, for them they go to law, for them they stir up tumults. The prince of this city is the Devil, who, cast out of the heavenly city, seized the tyranny of the earthly city. For although our Lord, when His passion was at hand, said: "Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12), and although He did in truth cast him out with the rod of His cross, and through that same cross triumphed over him — as the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Colossians: "And despoiling the principalities and powers, He hath exposed them confidently in open show, triumphing over them in Himself" (Col. 2) — yet this is not to be understood as though the devil were utterly cast out of the world, or had altogether lost the principality of the world, but rather that he was cast out from all those, and in all those lost his principality, who join themselves to Christ and, fleeing from the earthly city, are enrolled in the heavenly city. That the Devil still holds dominion in the earthly city, which is also called the world, the Apostle teaches in the Epistle to the Ephesians when he says: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness" (Eph. 6). Therefore Satan still holds principality in the world together with his ministers, and he is the ruler of the world — that is, of worldly men and of the citizens of the earthly city — of which world St. John says: "The whole world is seated in wickedness"; as if he had said: the world cleaves to its head, who is called by antonomasia the wicked one; or, the world is under the rule and power of the wicked demon.

Furthermore, the citizens of the heavenly city are the blessed who reign in the kingdom of God, and also those who, placed in a mortal body, inhabit the earth — not in heart but in body; for in heart their conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3), and they desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, who is the king of the heavenly city (Phil. 1). But because the citizens of heaven are mingled on earth with the citizens of earth, the holy Scriptures say that the citizens of heaven are in the world but not of the world, and that they are in the world not as citizens but as strangers and pilgrims; for so speaks St. Peter: "I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires" (1 Pet. 2). And of the citizens of earth, on the contrary, the sacred letters say that they are "strangers to the testaments, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world"; for these are the words St. Paul uses in the Epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 2). Since these things are so, let no one deceive himself; let no one think that he can be at the same time a citizen of the world and a citizen of heaven. The citizens of the world are of the world; the citizens of heaven are not of the world. To be of the world and not to be of the world are contradictories; therefore they cannot be joined together. Wherefore let those whom the world and earthly things still delight not imagine that they can have a place in the heavenly city, unless they first go out of the world, renounce the present age, and disdain earthly things.

And because these are great things, and are understood by few, or pondered as they ought to be, therefore — that no one may plead ignorance on the last day — there is nothing that the Apostles and Evangelists inculcate and repeat more often. Hear the Lord: "You are of this world, I am not of this world" (John 8). Again, to the Apostles: "If you had been of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15). Hear St. Paul: "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Cor. 3). Again: "You should have gone out of this world" (1 Cor. 5). Again: "That we be not condemned with this world" (1 Cor. 11). Hear St. James: "Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God" (Jas. 4). Hear St. Peter: "Flee the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world" (2 Pet. 1). Hear St. John: "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 John 2). Again: "If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him." Again: "And the whole world is seated in wickedness" (1 John 5). Finally, hear the Lord saying in His prayer to the Father: "I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me. And the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, as I also am not of the world" (John 17). Here we have it most plainly: the world is, in a manner, so excommunicated and condemned by God that Christ judged He should in no wise pray for it. But if Christ does not pray for the world, how is it that elsewhere He says: "God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son" (John 3)? Does the Father love the world, and the Son hate the world? Or how does the Son exclude from His prayer the world which the Father does not exclude from His love? St. Augustine (Tract. CVII on John), expounding this latter passage, says that the world for which Christ says He does not pray signifies only the reprobate, as the Apostle speaks in the first Epistle to the Corinthians when he says: "that we be not condemned with this world" (1 Cor. 11). But we can also say that Christ did not pray for the world because the things He was then asking for the Apostles were in no way suited to the world. For He was asking the gift of perseverance: "Keep them," He says, "in Thy name" (John 17); and at the same time He was asking eternal glory for them, when He said: "Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me, that they may see My brightness." But these things do not suit the world; for the world is not fitted for the kingdom of God unless it be first made clean — just as one would not say that a man spattered all over with mud, and filthy, should enter the king's bedchamber. God, however, loves the world, and gave His Son for it, that He might truly cleanse it and make it fit for the kingdom. For this reason also Christ prayed for His crucifiers — not that they should persevere in the state in which they were, but that the Father would forgive them, and by forgiving them cleanse them, so that they too might go out of the world. And this Christ also observed in that prayer in which He said: "I pray not for the world"; for He adds, not far below: "That the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." The sum, therefore, is that Christ prayed for His own, not for the world; because unless a man go out of the world before he goes out of the body, he will never come to the kingdom of God.

Therefore, whoever loves that heavenly city, let him make haste to go out of the world, lest the last day come suddenly and snatch him away from life, when there will be no hope of conversion for him; and when he has gone out of the world, let him forget the world and its concupiscences, that he may continually remember the city of the Lord alone, and swear with the holy Prophet: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten; let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee, if I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy" (Ps. 136). For this is the true mark of the citizens of the eternal City: if truly and with all their heart they would choose rather to be deprived of tongue and hands than to say or do anything against the love of God the Father and of the heavenly fatherland; and if truly, not feignedly, that City which makes her citizens blessed is the beginning of their joy — so that no worldly happiness delights them, and the remembrance and expectation of future joys alone suffices to gladden them in this exile.

It is fitting to conclude this book with the words of St. Augustine, so that those who perhaps will believe nothing may not hesitate to put faith in so great a man. For in his exposition of the sixty-first Psalm he explains in these words what is the true mark of the citizens of the city of the world and of the citizens of the City of God: "All," he says, "who savor earthly things, all who prefer earthly happiness to God, all who seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ, belong to that one city which is called mystically Babylon, and which has the Devil for its king; but all who savor the things that are above, who meditate on heavenly things, who live in this world with anxious care lest they offend God, who guard against sinning, and whom it does not shame to confess when they have sinned — the humble, the meek, the holy, the just, the pious, the good — all belong to one City, which has Christ for its king."

## BOOK THREE

### CHAPTER I.

That all the blessed are members of the household of God and sons of God.

"I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord" (Ps. 121). Truly great and unspeakable is the cause of rejoicing for a good and faithful servant, when he has either labored painstakingly in the vineyard, or in trading has multiplied his talents, or in the race has been the first to seize the prize, or in war or in the combat has earned the crown, or the sheep entrusted to him has diligently fed, and strenuously and bravely defended them from wolves: and having discharged all these labors, he enters with joy the house of his Lord. But let us see why it is called a house, which a little before was called a city. For the reason of this is not that it is narrow, and therefore does not deserve the name of city; since indeed it is so spacious that it yields in greatness to no city, or even to any kingdom. For hear what the Prophet Baruch says: O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast the place of His habitation! It is great, and has no end (Bar. 3). Why, then, should not so great a dwelling rightly be called a house? The first reason, then, is this: that the blessed, although spread throughout the whole kingdom of heaven, are all of the household and family of the Lord. For one might have supposed, if mention were made only of a kingdom or a city, that many in the kingdom of heaven, and in the city of our God, would never see God, and would never have access to speak with Him, unless they were admitted through certain of the greater blessed. But the matter does not stand so; rather, all without exception ever see God, and abide with Him, and converse with Him face to face, whether they be the eminent Seraphim and Cherubim, Apostles and Prophets, or lesser Angels and the lesser of the blessed. For of the guardian Angels, who belong to the last order of the Angels, He says: Their Angels in heaven always see the face of My Father who is in heaven (Matt. 18). And the Apostle, writing to the Ephesians, says that all the blessed are not only fellow citizens with the saints, but also members of the household of God (Eph. 2). Therefore their dwelling is called not only a city, but also a house. There are indeed in heaven diverse mansions, greater and lesser; and there are also diverse crowns, more and less illustrious, according to the diversity of merits: yet those citizens are all blessed and happy, all clean of heart and full of charity. Therefore there is no one who is not also in that house, and who does not see God and abide with Him as one of His household and a friend; although in other kingdoms and cities there are many who never see the king, and very few who are admitted to his conversation and company.

A second reason seems to be this: that in a city many see the king and speak with him, but not all are sons and heirs of the king; only those are who dwell in the palace and are acknowledged by the king as sons and heirs. But in the kingdom of heaven and the city of our God, all the blessed, whether greater or lesser, are truly sons of God and brothers of Christ, and heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and thereby also brothers to one another; nor do the greater despise the lesser, nor is there any ill will or envy among them. For when the Lord taught that foremost prayer, to be recited daily — Our Father, who art in heaven (Matt. 6) — He excluded no one; and when in the judgment He shall say, Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25), He will except none of the just; and when the Apostle said to the Romans, Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. 8), and a little further on, The Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God; and if sons, heirs also: heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ — he too excluded no one, neither great nor small, provided he have the Spirit of God and suffer himself to be led by Him. Which gift is surely common to all who are regenerated in Christ and persevere in faith, hope, and charity. St. Peter likewise in his first Epistle promises to all the regenerated an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled (1 Pet. 1). Finally, St. John in his first Epistle says to all the just without exception: Behold what manner of charity the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be, the sons of God (1 John 3).

Rightly, therefore, is that dwelling of the blessed called a house, and not only a city and a kingdom: for in it all are sons and heirs of the great King, and all are loved by God as sons and by Christ as brothers; and they can justly say with the Prophet: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Ps. 132) For what greater joy can be imagined than to abide with innumerable Angels, and with men greater, equal, and lesser, and to be loved by all with the most sincere affection as a brother, treated as a brother, embraced as a brother?

### CHAPTER II.

On the greatness and beauty of the house of God.

Another reason can be assigned why the dwelling of the blessed is called a house: namely, that houses — especially royal houses — have very many ornaments in their halls, in their chambers, and in their bedchambers, which the rest of the city does not have. For who could recount the costly hangings, the vessels of gold and silver, with which the palaces of kings gleam? Nor are the interior ornaments alone of great price; the very outward structure is wont to be a marvel, for its precious marbles and columns, its gilded or painted porticoes, its hanging gardens, and other things of the kind, which it would be long to enumerate. Solomon, king of Jerusalem, after he had built a temple for the Lord with the magnificence that was fitting, built his own house also with such splendor that he spent thirteen years in building it (1 Kgs. 7); although he had many workmen and overseers of the works, and material of precious stones and cedar wood was at hand. And with no less outlay and labor he built a palace for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, and the house of the forest of Lebanon; the description of which is found in the first book of Kings (1 Kgs. 7), so sumptuous that it seems incredible.

Therefore, when sacred Scripture calls that dwelling — which it had called the city of God and the kingdom of heaven — a house of God, it meant to signify that the whole of that city, and the whole of that kingdom, so gleam and shine as a royal house shines and gleams. For, as we have heard from the Prophet Baruch, the house of God is so immense that it can occupy the whole kingdom of heaven (Bar. 3).

It seemed altogether admirable, a little before, that some whole kingdom should shine with that beauty in which its chief city shines. Who, then, would not be astonished to consider that the whole kingdom of heaven is called the house of God, because it is all adorned, all beautiful, all precious, as is the very house of the Lord God? Rightly does the Prophet David cry out: My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord (Ps. 83). For who would not long with his whole heart to see and possess a most noble royal house, which equals a whole kingdom in its size; and on the other hand, to see and possess a most ample kingdom, which equals any royal house in ornaments, in beauty, and in price? Nor would our soul only long for such a house and such a kingdom, if it considered these things attentively and believed them faithfully; it would even plainly faint away and be rapt out of itself, on account of the incredible beauty and greatness of so great a thing. But we, lying prostrate on the ground and intent on earthly things, think those things great which we discern here, and therefore give no thought to invisible things: just as little children do, who, having never gone out of their father's house, love their little cottage and do not even think of the palaces of kings. So too are peasants wont to do: because they have never seen cities, they are anxious about tilling their little field and repairing their little house of wood and clay, should it happen to threaten ruin; while for palaces, for the forum, for the theater, for honors, for dignities, for increasing their wealth, and for splendid banquets, no care whatever gnaws at them. And perhaps peasants and little children are happier than wealthy citizens and great princes: since the things that seem lofty in this world bring more trouble and danger than solid profit or dignity. But the good things that are in that heavenly house of our Father are truly the greatest, and bring no trouble and no danger; nay, they free us from all trouble and danger, not for a time, but for everlasting ages. And so St. Paul — who was neither a little child nor a peasant, and who knew the goods of this world, being a most learned man who had conversed with the wise; and who had also been in the house of God and surveyed the heavenly city, caught up into Paradise and into the third heaven — says of himself: While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4); and again: Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3). And exhorting us all, he said: Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth (Col. 3).

### CHAPTER III.

On the dining hall of the house of God.

Another reason may be added why that is called the house of the Lord which was called a city and a kingdom: namely, because In My Father's house there are many mansions (John 14). For in houses there are dining halls for taking food, bedchambers with their beds for taking sleep, and halls or courts for the exercise of the various functions which are not wont to be done outside houses. And to begin with the dining hall: there is truly a dining hall in the house of the Lord, where all the blessed not only feast on royal dishes, but — what is greatly to be marveled at, and would not be believed unless the Holy Spirit Himself taught us this — the King Himself, girded, waits upon the tables. For so speaks the Lord in Luke: Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching: amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them (Luke 12). What manner of dining hall is this, I ask? Who has ever heard of such things? The Lord stands; the servant reclines. The Lord girds Himself, that He may minister without hindrance; the servant is ungirded, that he may recline the more freely and at ease. The Lord moves about, hastening to and fro and bringing the dishes; the servant eats in quiet and enjoys royal fare. O if we pondered these things and took them to heart, how quickly would all earthly desires grow worthless in our eyes! The Lord once girded Himself with a linen towel to wash His disciples' feet. Peter shuddered, and could not bear that a servant's feet should be washed by the Lord (John 13). But then Peter rightly shuddered, because He was giving His little servants an example of humility. Yet in that heavenly house, the girding and ministry of the Lord is not a humbling, but a gracious condescension; nor will the servants of God in heaven need an example of humility, where none will be proud, but all will be confirmed and perfected in every kind of virtue. That girding of the Lord, therefore, signifies that the Lord will wait upon each one of His servants and brethren so freely, so readily, so without any hindrance — heaping all good things upon them and refreshing them — as though He had nothing else to do, and were alone with each one alone.

O Christian soul, what is this? Would that you could taste and understand with what honor and with what delight the Lord will heap up His blessed servants for all eternity! For if these things sank deep into your heart, surely you too, fervent in spirit, your loins girt, would gladly spend yourself wholly in the service of so sweet a Lord; and if He ever met you in His poor brethren, you would not only not spurn Him or look on Him with disdain, but with a heart enlarged by charity you would refresh Him and cherish Him, mindful of those words: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me (Matt. 25). Now, that He will make His servants sit down signifies that they, already admitted into the Father's house, may recline in utmost safety, without any danger or anxiety, and be filled and enjoy all the good things with which the house of the Lord is furnished. For there will be no one thenceforth who could hinder them, by force or by craft, or prevent them from enjoying every good with the utmost freedom. Finally, that the Lord Himself, passing among them, ministers to them means nothing else than that the choice fare of the blessed is the Lord Himself: for He is the bread of life, He is the fountain of wisdom, He is the hidden manna, which no one knows but he who receives it. So He Himself passes among them all, He Himself ministers to all a feast ineffable, which satisfies without cloying and fills without satiety.

### CHAPTER IV.

On the bedchambers of the house of God.

Let us now pass from the dining hall to the bedchamber, or the beds. The saints shall rejoice in glory, says David: they shall be joyful in their beds (Ps. 149). This bed is nothing else than the complete repose of the blessed, and that sleep of which the same David sings in another place: When He shall give sleep to His beloved: behold the inheritance of the Lord (Ps. 126). Of which rest he says in another place: In peace in the selfsame I will sleep, and I will rest (Ps. 4). Finally, this is that rest of which it was said to St. John: Write: Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow them (Rev. 14). It is a great good, and one proper to the blessed. For in this life no one at all is free from toil; and those who seem to be at rest, as nobles and the rich, are beset by yet greater anxieties. For not without cause did our Lord compare riches to thorns, in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13). And Job says: The life of man upon earth is a warfare (Job 7). And one of his companions: Man, he says, is born to labour, and the bird to fly. And Sirach: A great occupation, he says, is created for all men, and a heavy yoke is upon the children of Adam, from the day of their coming out of their mother's womb until the day of their burial into the mother of all; their thoughts, and fears of the heart, the imagining of expectation, and the day of the end, from him who sits upon a glorious throne down to him who is humbled in earth and ashes; from him who wears purple and bears a crown, to him who is covered with rough linen (Sir. 40). Thus far Sirach, wherein he teaches most beautifully that no mortal at any time has a share in rest. I will briefly explain this passage, so that all may understand how highly that sleep — that is, the rest of the blessed — ought to be prized. A great occupation, he says, is created for all men, and a heavy yoke is upon the children of Adam. Occupation is opposed to rest; but because many are occupied in pleasant things — in hunting, in laughter, in song, in dancing — he adds, And a heavy yoke, to show that he is speaking of a laborious and troublesome occupation, in which no one delights and which all men shun. And this most troublesome occupation he says was created for men — that is, attached and appointed to man from his very creation as an indivisible and inseparable companion. Which he explains, lest anyone should fail to understand, saying: From the day of their coming out of their mother's womb, until the day of their burial into the mother of all. And so it has gone more gently with oxen, which bear the heavy yoke by day and rest by night, than with men, who are forced to bear the heavy yoke day and night. Then he briefly touches part of the troublesome occupations that press upon the necks of mortals like a very heavy yoke: thoughts, and fears of the heart, the imagining of expectation, and the day of the end. The first part of the troublesome occupation is the thought of things to come: for a man is ever anxious about the morrow, and says within himself: What will come after this? Shall we lose even that little good which we enjoy? From these springs a continual fear of heart, which suffers not a man to rest. And this thought, together with its offspring, which is fear, is twofold: the one which the mind fashions for itself; the other which is necessary and which no one can escape. Of the former he says, The imagining of expectation; of the latter, The day of the end.

Man devises — that is, fashions for himself — various expectations of things to come, which torment no less than if they were certainly to come. But the thought and fear of death, which he calls the day of the end, torments most of all; for all await it with such fear that the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, calls it a continual bondage: since the expectation of death turns bitter all the delights of this life (Heb. 2). Finally, Sirach adds that this laborious occupation is so common to all the children of Adam that it reaches all men, from the first to the last: from him who sits aloft upon a throne, and wears a crown, and is clad in purple, down to him who lies on the ground and is clothed in rough linen.

And in all these things men, since Adam's sin, are more unhappy than all the beasts: for the beasts live without fear, are not anxious about the morrow, and neither remember past toil nor are anguished by the expectation of things to come. And therefore the wise Sirach said that this yoke is upon the children of Adam, both to exclude the beasts, which are free from this yoke, and to show that the cause of this misery was the sin of the first man.

Most wretched, however, is the life of those who do not aspire to the heavenly house, for they will find far worse in hell. For in this life no one is free from toil, yet it is toil joined with some consolation; but after this life, in hell, there is toil and pain without consolation or rest; only in the blessed house of God is there rest without any toil, and consolation without any pain. Rightly, therefore, does the Prophet sing: The saints shall rejoice in glory, they shall be joyful in their beds (Ps. 149); for they shall not rest like sleepers, who do not feel their rest, but shall rest with great exultation, knowing and acknowledging with eternal thanksgiving the boon of a most blessed repose, most free from all toil, pain, fear, trouble, and turmoil. Indeed, if there were nothing else in the house of the Lord but this everlasting rest, would it not be worth purchasing with all the toils of this life? And if in hell there were no other torment but an everlasting and restless watching, would it not be worth redeeming with all the prayers and tears of this life, by day and by night? For surely, as sweet as it will be for the blessed, at their departure from this world, to see the end of toil and pain, so bitter will it be for the wicked, at a like departure, to discern that no rest from toil and pain is henceforth to be hoped for. Death is said to be the last of terrible things; and yet, because death seems to hold some rest, therefore those most wretched men who shall go down into hell shall seek death, and shall not find it; and they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them (Rev. 9). Thus the want of all rest will be judged a heavier evil than the last of terrible things itself. And yet so great is the blindness of mortals in this world that they count it as nothing to lose everlasting rest, and to go down to that place where the torments admit no rest at all.

### CHAPTER V.

On the hall of the house of God.

There remain in a house the rooms set apart for various occupations; but in that blessed house there will be but one occupation: praise. For here some busy themselves to gain money; others to acquire dignities; others devote themselves to the study of doctrine, that they may learn and teach; others to the mechanical arts, to procure the things necessary for life. But in that region of the living and immortal there will be no want, no ignorance, no necessity, no ambition; all will be content with their present state, nor will they desire or seek anything more; and so all will be wholly intent on enjoying, loving, and praising the supreme Good.

But I seem to hear those who say that the office of praising God in psalms and hymns, and especially in the recitation of the canonical hours, is not without labor and weariness; nor are there lacking those who complain that a heavy burden is laid upon them, in that they are bidden to spend so many hours singing in the churches and praising God. To these we answer: the praise of God in this life is the merit, in eternal life the reward; and hence it comes about that what here is for many a laborious and burdensome praise will there be for all a joyful and comely praise. Now we read or sing many things which we do not understand; moreover, in driving away vain thoughts, like so many troublesome flies, we labor not a little; and finally, the body, which is subject to corruption, cannot long serve the functions of the mind without fatigue. But in that blessed fatherland the body will be immortal and impassible; the flies of empty thoughts will be gone; we shall understand most perfectly all that we sing; and — what is of the greatest moment — the divine praise will be nothing else than the exercise of happiness. Therefore, if eternal happiness will not be wearisome, neither can eternal praise be wearisome. That there is in heaven a praise of God which is the exercise of beatitude, the Prophet teaches when he says: Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord: they shall praise Thee for ever and ever (Ps. 83). For just as it belongs to beatitude ever to see and love the supreme Good, so it belongs to the exercise of beatitude ever to admire and praise the beauty of the supreme Good. And just as no one will be wearied in loving God, so too no one will be wearied in praising Him. Add to this that we shall not only not grow weary in seeing and praising the works of God — all of which will ever be before our eyes and will ever display their surpassing beauty — but we shall not even be able to praise the exceedingly beautiful works of God without praising at the same time the Author of those works, which will ever cry out: He made us, and not we ourselves. Finally, just as we shall never be able to forget the benefits wherewith God has overwhelmed us and bound us fast, as it were, with indissoluble bonds of love, so too we shall not be able to do otherwise than ever exult with most grateful hearts in the praises of the best of Benefactors. Let us therefore conclude with St. Augustine, and say: "What else will be done there, where there will be neither the idleness of sloth nor the labor of want? God Himself will be the end of our desires: He will be seen without end, loved without satiety, praised without weariness. This office, this affection, this activity will surely belong to all, even as eternal life itself is common to all. There, then, we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise. Behold what shall be in the end without end. For what other end is ours than to come to the kingdom of which there is no end?" (City of God, bk. XXII, ch. 30.)

### CHAPTER VI.

On the first part of the gate of the house of God, which is faith.

These things having been explained, it seems that one point remains: namely, to see what the gate is by which we may enter that most happy house. But the Lord Himself in the Gospel not only showed us the gate, but also foretold that it is exceedingly narrow, and admonished us to strive to enter. For when He was asked, "Lord, are they few that are saved?" (Luke 13), He answered: "Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall have gone in and shut the door, you shall begin to stand without and knock at the door, saying: Lord, open to us. And He answering shall say to you: I know you not, whence you are; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." So speaks the Lord, who teaches plainly enough that the gate of the house of God, which is in heaven, is exceedingly narrow, although the house itself is most spacious; and that on account of its narrowness many will not enter who would otherwise gladly enter — and that they will not enter for this very reason, that although they do wish to enter, they will not strive, nor endure any hardship.

Let us explain why the gate of the most spacious house is narrow. A gate has four parts: the threshold, the lintel, and the two sides — that is, four stones, one below, one above, and two at the sides; and in this gate of ours these are four virtues altogether necessary for anyone to be able to enter the heavenly house: faith, hope, charity, and humility. Faith and hope are the side stones; charity is the lintel; humility is the threshold that is trodden underfoot. But all these stones — that is, all these virtues — have so small a length and breadth in themselves that they are exceedingly narrow in themselves and make a most narrow gate. Let us begin with faith. The true Christian faith is beset by straits of such a kind that, unless the human mind does violence to itself and suffers itself, as it were, to be brought into captivity, bound and hemmed in, no one can enter through it. And this is what the Apostle writes in the second Epistle to the Corinthians: Bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10). For the Christian faith proposes many things to be believed which so surpass all reason that it is most difficult to assent to them; and yet it commands them to be believed so certainly and so firmly that a man must be prepared to pour out his life and blood a thousand times rather than deny a single part of the faith. Great are these straits; nor is it a wonder if few surmount them. And this is the reason why so many fall away to the Mohammedans or the heretics: for these have removed the straits of the faith and opened the widest gates — through which, however, one goes not to life but to perdition, according to the word of the Lord in Matthew: Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat (Matt. 7). For every man naturally desires to know, as the Philosopher wrote at the beginning of the Metaphysics; and the mind does not easily assent unless a demonstration, or at least a probable reason, is brought forward. The Apostle Paul experienced this; for although he spoke with infused and acquired wisdom, yet when he preached the resurrection of the dead, there were not lacking those who mocked him, and others who said: What is it that this word sower would say? (Acts 17) And when he proclaimed Christ crucified, he seemed foolish to the Gentiles, and the Jews were scandalized, as he himself testifies in the first Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1). Hence also the ancient heretics, in order to widen the narrow gate, devised various errors. For some did away with the mystery of the Trinity, as the Sabellians and Arians; others with the mystery of the Incarnation, as the Nestorians; others with the resurrection of the dead, as the Origenists; and others with still other doctrines. But all these gates — and others, nearly two hundred in number — because they had human architects and lacked a solid foundation, collapsed within a short time; indeed, we would not even know their names had we not read them in the books of Philastrius, Epiphanius, St. Augustine, Theodoret, and the like. But the Mohammedans, who have now spread their sect so far and wide, have removed almost everything that is more difficult in the Christian faith: the Trinity of the divine Persons, the Incarnation of the divine Word, the death and resurrection of the Son of God, the Sacrament of Penance. All the narrow straits were taken away, and the widened gate admits an innumerable multitude.

But the heretics of our time have entered by another road, and have removed especially those straits which pertain not so much to understanding as to action. The Christian faith teaches that all sins are to be avoided — so that an account must be rendered even for an idle word; that if anyone falls into mortal sin, his sins must be confessed to a priest and washed away by sincere contrition and satisfaction; that good works, however laborious and difficult, must be done if they are prescribed by superiors; that the kingdom of heaven is to be merited by good works, as the crown of justice and the reward of labor; that celibacy is to be observed by ecclesiastical and consecrated men, and sacred vows are to be kept. These and similar things, which seemed to make the way narrow, the heretics of this time so removed that they opened a very wide gate. For they preached that faith alone is necessary for salvation, so that a Christian man cannot perish, however covered he may be with all manner of sins, unless he refuses to believe. Likewise, that there is no need to confess sins to a priest — it is enough if one confesses to God; that contrition is not required — it suffices to acknowledge certain errors in the mind; that works of penance and satisfaction are not necessary; that priests are free to exchange celibacy for marriage; that monks and nuns are no less free to despise all their vows; and that prelates cannot oblige their subject peoples to any works of piety. By these and similar doctrines, having removed the straits of the faith, they seemed to themselves to have made a very wide gate of salvation; but in truth they opened the gate that leads to hell, and through it drew with them a huge crowd of frivolous men to perdition.

Nor indeed do all Catholics surmount the straits of faith: for although they believe all that faith teaches, yet because they live otherwise than faith commands, they are proved to be among those of whom the Apostle speaks when he says: They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him (Titus 1:16). And for this reason they too escape the straits of faith and enter through the wide gate that leads to perdition. Therefore, if the matter is considered as regards faith, the answer to the question put to the Lord — Are they few who are saved? — will be that few are saved, and that we must therefore strive to enter by the narrow gate.

### CHAPTER VII.

On hope, which is the second part of the gate of the house of God.

Now hope too has its straits, whether you consider the greatness of the reward or our own littleness. For if someone were to command an unlettered rustic, who has no experience of human affairs, to hope that he would soon possess the wisdom of Solomon, or at least of Plato and Aristotle, and together with it the empire of Alexander the Great or of Augustus — when, I ask, could such a man be persuaded to hope for things so great, small as he is? Yet this is far easier than for a mortal man to hope for the wisdom and power of the Angels who are in heaven and are pure intelligences. For that rustic, and Alexander, and Aristotle were of the same nature; all were mortal men; the wisdom of Aristotle did not transcend human wisdom, and the empire of Alexander did not occupy even a third part of the earth. But the hope of the faithful bids them hope for equality with the Angels, the Lord saying: They that shall be accounted worthy of that world and of the resurrection from the dead shall neither marry nor take wives; neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the Angels, and are the children of God (Luke 20:35-36). And if someone were to command a man who creeps upon the ground to hope that he would soon fly through the air, or remain in the waters for a long time and run this way and that, when could he be brought to hope for such things? And yet even large birds — cranes, storks, eagles — fly most swiftly through the air; and the heaviest laden ships rest upon the waters, or run and course through the waters wherever the sailors wish. But the hope of Christians, without any ambiguity, commands the Christian man to hope even with his body that he will ascend above the heavens, that he will descend from heaven to earth without any danger of falling, and that in the race from rising to setting he will contend with the sun itself and without doubt will conquer it. Finally, if a poor orphan were told to hope that a great king unknown to him would adopt him as a son, he would surely labor greatly to be able to hope that this could ever happen; and yet both are men, sons of the earth and subject to death. But Christian hope teaches that any man whatsoever, provided he is baptized in Christ and keeps Christ's commandments, will receive from God the spirit of adoption, will truly be enrolled as a son, and will be heir of all that God Himself possesses (Rom. 8:17), and co-heir of Christ — who is the natural and true Son, and whom the Father appointed heir of all things (Heb. 1:2).

If this hope, so great and so exalted, were cherished and held fast by Christians as it ought to be, it would surely make them fearless as lions, so that they would yield to no dangers and no terrors, and would say with the Prophet: The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me (Ps. 117:6); and: If armies stand arrayed against me, my heart shall not fear (Ps. 26:3); and with the Apostle: I can do all things in Him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13); and: If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom. 8:31). But very few are those who hope for things so arduous as they ought, since very many are found who do not hope even for small and temporal things from God, and who trust more in their own cunning, in thefts, and in lies than in the help of the Most High. The Lord Himself in Matthew (Matt. 6:26) and in Luke (Luke 12:24) admonished the faithful with most beautiful comparisons not to be over-anxious about seeking food and clothing, since the heavenly Father, who feeds the little birds that neither sow nor reap, and clothes the lilies of the field that neither labor nor spin, will much more provide for His own children, for whom He keeps an eternal kingdom; and yet so small, and almost none, is the confidence in God found in most Christians that often in their distress they flee to human frauds, or even to diabolical arts, rather than to God. Therefore, if they do not hope from God for the things which God gives to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and which He promises He will give them if they place their hope in Him, it is a strong proof that in such souls there is no room for that hope which is proper to the children of God, who hope from God for a share in the everlasting kingdom. And since without a sure and living hope, which is a part of the gate of the heavenly house, no one enters unto salvation, for this reason not many are saved.

But there are also other, greater straits in the virtue of hope. For Christian hope commands that present things, which are seen, be despised, and that future things, which are not seen, be desired with the whole heart and with all one's strength; it commands us to scatter our goods and give to the poor, so that they may be restored to us multiplied in the heavens — where no one has gone who has seen them, and no one is able to conceive or even suspect what those goods are that will be repaid to us in heaven if ours are sown on earth. And indeed the rustic is easily persuaded to scatter wheat by sowing it into the ground, because the practice of many years has taught him that what is sown with labor is reaped with rejoicing; but that what is scattered to the poor is gathered, multiplied, in the heavens — no experience has taught this. Therefore it seems difficult to men to let go of present things, which are seen, and to hope for future things, which are not seen.

Finally, it is a strong proof that firm confidence in God is a most narrow gate, that so great a crowd of the wretched is found everywhere — mourning, crying out, blaspheming, despairing. For to those who trust in Him, God either removes their miseries or grants patience joined with so great a consolation that they can say with the Apostle: I am filled with comfort; I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation (2 Cor. 7:4). That crowd, therefore, of those who mourn and weep in their miseries is proof — as St. Basil writes on the Forty-fifth Psalm — that many have on their lips, Our God is our refuge and strength, but very few have it in their hearts and truly and from the soul hope in God.

### CHAPTER VIII.

On charity, which is the third part of the gate.

Let us come now to charity, which is the lintel of the heavenly gate. Charity, the queen of virtues, seems on one side very broad, since it extends to God, to the Angels, to all men, even to strangers and enemies; yet it is rendered narrow when one must pass through it, because of the incredible difficulty it brings with it, since its precepts must be fulfilled not in word and speech but in deed and truth. For what, I ask, does this Queen command? (1 John 3:18) First, that God be loved with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with all one's strength (Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27). A man is brought into great straits when he girds himself to fulfill these things. For what is it to love God with a true and supreme love? Those words from the heart and from the soul mean that the love must be true, not feigned — not in word and speech, as St. John says, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:18). Those words from the whole heart and with all your strength — or with all your might, as another Evangelist has it (Mark 12:30) — mean that love for God must be the greatest of all. The force of the precept, then, is that God be loved with a true and supreme love, so that nothing be preferred to Him, nothing made equal to Him, and all things placed after Him — so that the Christian man be ready, together with the Patriarch Abraham, if it be necessary for the glory of God, not to spare the life of his own, only-begotten, and most beloved son. And not only this, but also — as the Lord commands in the Gospel — to hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yea, and his own life also, and to renounce all that he possesses (Luke 14:26, 33): that is, to be ready, with the same promptness, to be deprived of all his kin, of his own life, and of all his possessions and dignities, of which he would be deprived if he truly and from the soul hated them. These are great straits, and who is fit to pass through them? For men will be found more easily — and not a few of them — who are ready to renounce God and all His promises than to renounce riches and temporal honors, to say nothing of their own lives or their children. St. Cyprian is witness in his treatise On the Lapsed that in the primitive Church itself, when the ardor of charity was far greater than it is now, there were very many deserters in place of a few martyrs — men who set their patrimonies, to say nothing of their lives, before the charity of God; and Eusebius testifies to the same in his Ecclesiastical History (bk. 6, ch. 2).

What shall we now say of charity toward our neighbor? What does charity command us to do for our neighbors? Surely this: to love them as ourselves, and to do to others what we would have done to ourselves. For who is there who, if he were in great need, would not wish to be given by the rich at least what they have left over? Nor will he accept the excuse if the rich man replies that he is weighed down with debt because he has bought a villa at a great price, or built a sumptuous palace, or at least adorned it with costly hangings; for perhaps those things are superfluous, and charity does not allow our poor neighbor to lack the things he needs. On this matter let the reader consult, I beg, St. Basil in his homily to the rich, and St. Bernard in his discourse upon those words: Behold, we have left all things. For he will see and shudder at the danger of those who do not consider that they will render an account to the Lord of their own wealth, and who use it according to their own desire, not according to the will of the Lord and charity toward their neighbors. For if we shall render an account for an idle word, why not much more for money ill spent? (Matt. 12:36)

But let us hear the Apostle John, and learn from him how far the debt of charity extends. In this, he says, we have known the charity of God: because He has laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16). Christ, who is God, laid down His life for His servants: what great thing then will it be if we lay down our soul, that is, our life, for our brethren? Therefore the Apostle does not say, We can, but, We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren; nor did he say, I think, I judge, I advise; but he pronounced absolutely, We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren — and if our lives, why not much more our goods? Hence St. Gregory rightly concludes: Since the soul by which we live is incomparably better than the earthly substance we outwardly possess, who will not give his substance, seeing he is to give his life? (Hom. 14 on the Gospel) The same may be said of other things: for he who is bound to lay down his life for his brethren — why is he not much more bound to do them good? And he who is bound to lay down his life for his brethren — why is he not bound to take diligent care not to injure his brother by word or deed? Because, then, the precept of charity toward God and neighbor involves such straits that they are surmounted by few, therefore to the man who asked the Lord, Are they few who are saved? the Lord could rightly answer that they are few, and that for this reason we must strive with all our strength to surmount, together with those few, the straits of the saving gate.

### CHAPTER IX.

On humility, which is the fourth part of the gate.

There remains humility, which also has its straits — and not small ones. What does that Master command, who most truly said of Himself: Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart? Go, sit down in the lowest place (Matt. 11:29; Luke 14:10). And what He said, He did. For coming into this world, He lay at His birth in a manger, and at His death upon the cross. A humbler place He surely could not have found, either at His birth or at His death. And while He lived, He was poorer not only than men but even than brute animals: for foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but He had not where to lay His head. But what is the meaning of: Sit down in the lowest place (Luke 14:10)? It means this: whoever you are, and however great you are, always reckon yourself worthy of the last place. The Apostle gives the reason for this in the Epistle to the Galatians, when he says: For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself (Gal. 6:3); and he did not say, Whoever thinks himself to be great, or greater than others, whether in wisdom, or in power, or in virtues; nor did he say: If anyone thinks himself not great, nor greater than the rest, but yet equal to others; but he said, If anyone thinks himself to be something — and finally he did not say, Whereas he is poor, or unlearned, or inglorious, but, Whereas he is nothing. Therefore the Apostle could not have descended lower, to designate the lowest place and to explain the words of the Lord with a worthy commentary. But, they say, there must be men in high ranks — prelates, princes, kings, emperors, Pontiffs. So it is — there must; but each one ought to sit in the lowest place and wait for the Lord to say: Go up higher. Of this we have a notable example in St. Augustine, which I am glad to set forth in his own words. For thus he speaks in his sermon On the Common Life of Clerics: I separated myself from those who love the world; but I did not make myself equal to those who preside over the people; nor did I choose a higher place at the banquet of the Lord, but a lower and abject one. And it pleased Him to say to me: Go up higher. Yet I so feared the episcopate that, since my reputation had begun to be of some account among men, I would not go to any place where I knew there was no bishop. I was on my guard against this, and did what I could to be saved in a lowly place, and not to be put in peril in a high one. But, as I have said, a servant must not contradict his Lord. Would that all imitated this example! For we would have many good prelates, many good princes, many excellent magistrates. But because many thrust themselves forward and do not deign to await the call of the Lord, God is sometimes angered, and by way of example to others forces not a few to sit in the lowest place, so that all may understand that honors and riches, together with temporal and spiritual goods, depend upon His hand. For hence we often see the richest of men reduced in a short time to extreme poverty, and great princes cast down from their thrones.

But neither is it enough to await the call of God; one must also, in the prelature or principate itself, not think proudly, but, according to the counsel of the Wise Man, the greater one is, the more let him humble himself in all things (Sir. 3:18) — not in body but in heart, as St. Gregory teaches in his Pastoral Rule (bk. II, ch. 6); and more plainly St. Augustine in the Epistle which is the rule for consecrated virgins: Let her, he says, be set above you in honor before men, but beneath your feet before God (Ep. 109). For each one ought to believe all others to be better than himself, and for that reason greater. For he is properly and simply greater who is greater before God. And before God he is greater who is better; and he is better who excels in virtues — whatever may be said of prefectures, of riches, of titles, of crowns, of insignia. For virtues make a man good — not prefectures, riches, titles, and other things of that kind; and if virtues make a man good, greater virtues make him better, and the greatest make him best; and they who possess virtues in a more excellent degree surpass the rest. And that humility is one of the great virtues is known from this, that the Lord Himself attributed exaltation to humility, in that sentence so often repeated by Him: Everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted (Matt. 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14). This sentence was followed by the Blessed Virgin in her Canticle: He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble (Luke 1:52); and by St. Peter: Be humbled under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation (1 Pet. 5:6); and by Saint James: Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4:10). Finally, St. Paul says of Christ Himself: He humbled Himself, and God exalted Him (Phil. 2:8-9).

Since, therefore, it is true virtues — and especially charity and humility — that make men good before God, and even better and greatest; and since certainly no one knows what he is before God, or what others are or shortly will be; therefore it is dangerous to put oneself before anyone, and most profitable to put oneself after all; therefore the Lord pronounces absolutely: Sit down in the lowest place. Yet how few are they who keep this precept of the Lord! Over what is there more contention among men than over precedence? How much labor must be undertaken by those who strive to bring to agreement men quarreling over points of honor! How many do we often hear misapplying that sentence of Scripture: My glory I will not give to another (Isa. 48:11) — and yet that sentence belongs to the Most High Himself in Isaiah, to whom alone it is justly fitting. For God alone must not be humble, because humility is the virtue that restrains man's desire, lest he wish to rise above himself; but God, since He is the Most High, has nothing above Him. It is therefore intolerable pride that a little worm should dare to say: My glory I will not give to another; and yet the same little worms, whom pride so inflates that they say with God, My glory I will not give to another, so abase themselves as to confess themselves slaves of honor — that is, of empty repute; and so faithfully do they serve their lord, human honor, that they would rather be cruelly challenged to a duel and go down to hell, and so lose eternal and temporal life together, than that any hurt be brought to their idol, honor. O vanity of vanities! How grievously has this smoke of honor blinded the eyes of the mind! And yet we are Christians, and we know that Christ heard from His enemies: Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine-drinker (Matt. 11:19); again: Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil (John 8:48); again: By Beelzebub, the prince of devils, He casts out devils (Luke 11:15); and yet no one heard from His mouth the word Thou liest, or anything of the kind; but because He was meek and humble of heart, when He was reviled, He threatened not, as the Apostle Peter writes (1 Pet. 2:23).

From this it is evident that the gate of eternal life is narrow — no less on account of humility than on account of the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity — and that few can pass through it; and that therefore, to one who asks, "Are they few who are saved?" the most correct answer can be given: they are few, because few there are who strive, as they ought, with all their strength to enter through the straits of that gate.

### CHAPTER X.

Again on faith, which is the first part of the gate.

But lest we should seem, by too much terror, to drive men away from entering that gate — whereas on the contrary our purpose in this whole book is to kindle the minds of the faithful with a longing for our most sweet and most happy fatherland — I will briefly show that that gate, which on one side is most narrow on account of the eminence and perfection of those virtues, can on account of God's own omnipotence, truth, and mercy be called most wide and easiest of access, if anyone truly desires to enter through it.

And to begin with faith. Faith indeed teaches us to believe things most difficult, placed far above sense and reason, and sublimely exalted above the natural capacity of the Angels themselves; but when we are admonished by the very doctrine of faith that those things are to be believed on the word of God, who cannot lie — not of Angels, not of men — the straits already begin to widen. If faith were to say: Believe that God is at once three and one; believe that the Son of God was made the Son of the Virgin; believe that Christ rose from the dead after three days, immortal by His own power; and believe all these things most firmly because Peter, and Paul, and John, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel said so — I should surely hesitate, nor would I dare to believe men like myself in things so difficult and set above reason. For it is written: Every man is a liar (Ps. 115); and therefore we require so many oaths and so many sureties before we put our trust in men. But when faith says: All these things God has revealed; and neither Peter, nor Paul, nor John, nor the other Apostles and Prophets taught them from their own mind, but taught by God Himself; and they preached the word of God, not their own words — straightway the heart is enlarged and prepared for belief. Moreover, that it is God who spoke through the Apostles and Prophets, the same God has made manifest by so many signs and wonders that it would be foolish — and not merely rash — to refuse to believe. For thus speaks the Apostle to the Hebrews: Which having begun to be declared by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 2). And who would deny that the things God speaks are true, since God can in no wise lie — and if He could lie, He would not be God?

But, it is objected, the things proposed for our belief surpass reason. So they do; yet they do not surpass the power and wisdom of God. For this reason St. John says that God is greater than our heart (1 John 3): for He can do what we cannot understand, and His essence and existence are more perfect than our mind can comprehend. If an unlearned man easily believes the philosophers and astronomers when they tell him many seemingly incredible things about the magnitude of the sun and the stars, why should not man easily believe God Himself, whatever He may have willed to reveal, since His wisdom and power are separated by an infinite distance from the little spark of reason with which men are endowed? Those, therefore, who ponder these things feel no straits in believing the things the Church sets before us to be believed.

### CHAPTER XI.

Again on hope, which is the second part of the gate.

We can say the same of the virtue of hope: for if the things we hope for in the life to come were said to be hoped for from men, we should deserve to be rejected as vain impostors — since men can both lie and are in no way able to bestow such exalted rewards. But we say they are to be hoped for not from man, but from God, who can neither lie, since He is truth; nor deceive, since He is goodness; nor is anything impossible with Him, since He is omnipotent. And so a rustic would rightly think himself mocked if someone promised him the wisdom of Solomon or the power of Augustus, because the one who promised him such things would be a lying and feeble man. But the Christian, to whom God has promised eternal life, the kingdom of heaven, and a paradise of every delight — why should he not hope?

Perhaps, it will be said, we lack pledges of God's perfect good will. But did not God, as a figure of the things now promised to us, lead His people through the Red Sea with dry foot? Did He not rain down manna upon them from heaven? Did He not bring forth water from the rock? Did He not at last bring them in by Joshua into the land of promise? Can so remarkable a figure be empty and void?

Then, if God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son (John 3), has He not with Him given us all things (Rom. 8)? What great thing do we hope to be given us by God that is not surpassed by the gift He has already given when we neither hoped for it nor asked? If He gave to sinners and enemies the death of His Son, will He not give to the justified and to friends the life of His Son? And not content with this, He added the Holy Spirit as a pledge of the inheritance (Eph. 1) — the Spirit who cries in our hearts, Abba, Father, and bears witness to our spirit that we are the sons of God; and if sons, heirs also: heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8).

Wherefore, even if the greatness of the things promised could seem to exceed our hope, yet it cannot exceed the greatness of Him who promises; and since that greatness is infinite, it can easily lift our hope to reach those promises without wavering. And this promise — as the Apostle proves in the Epistle to the Hebrews — God confirmed with an oath (Heb. 6), that through two unchangeable things, namely the promise of Him who cannot lie, we might hold fast our hope as an anchor safe and firm, entering even into the inner part of the veil, where Jesus has entered for us, made a high priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.

### CHAPTER XII.

Again on charity, which is the third part of the gate.

What shall we now say of charity? Assuredly, just as it is most narrow on account of the difficulty of fulfilling its precepts, so on account of the excellence of the divine goodness toward which it looks, it can be called most wide. For why should it seem difficult to love God with the whole heart, and with the whole soul, and with all one's strength, since He is Himself most beautiful and most good, and most worthy of infinite love? It is not difficult here on earth to love beautiful and good things; rather, it is difficult not to love them — or certainly not to love them too much. God, therefore, seems in a way to do us an injury when He so strictly commands us to love Him, as though we would not be bound to love Him of our own accord. But the good and beautiful things on earth are loved so ardently because they are clearly seen; whereas no man hath seen God at any time (John 1). It is true: we have not seen God; but we see, and daily see, His works, which are exceedingly beautiful; of which the Wise man says: With whose beauty if they, being delighted, took them to be gods, let them know how much more beautiful than they is the Lord of them: for the first author of beauty hath made all these things (Wis. 13). We also experience His sweetness in His daily benefits; and we have the testimony of One who sees and cannot lie — namely, of the Holy Spirit, who through the Apostles and Prophets in the holy Scriptures proclaims that God is so good and beautiful that He alone deserves to be called good and beautiful.

But, they say, it is very hard that for God's sake we must sometimes be compelled to lose our possessions, our kindred, and our own life. I myself confess that this is hard for those who do not love God; but for those who love Him and long to possess Him, I maintain that it is easy and light — especially since for those who despise these temporal things for the love of God, there are prepared goods beyond compare, more and better. For what is the exchange? You lose corruptible riches; you will gain an everlasting kingdom. You lose father and brothers and friends; you will gain God for a father, and Christ for a brother, and all the Angels and the blessed for friends and companions. You lose a temporal and miserable life; you will gain an eternal and most happy one. Hear the Canticle of divine love (Song 8): If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing; and a little before: Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it. Hear one who loves God: Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword? But in all these things we overcome, because of Him that hath loved us (Rom. 8).

But to love my neighbor in such a way that I must share my goods with him — and that even if he be my enemy and have grievously injured me, I must still not only forgive him but also do him good — seems to me to fight against nature. That indeed might be said to be against nature corrupted by sin, but not against nature repaired by the grace of Christ. Does not God Himself share His goods with His enemies? Does He not daily forgive His enemies, and return them good for evil, when He makes His sun rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt. 5)? But if God so conducts Himself toward His enemies, it is not against the nature of God, nor of man — who is created in the image of God — to love one's enemies and do them good: it is against the nature of beasts, and of those who, when they were in honor, did not understand; they are compared to senseless beasts, and are become like to them (Ps. 48).

### CHAPTER XIII.

Again on humility, which is the fourth part of the gate.

I come now to humility, which is like its sisters: for while it produces great straits for the proud and arrogant, for those who come to the school of Christ and are willing to learn from Him it begins to widen without difficulty. For we are bidden to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God (1 Pet. 5:6), as the Prince of the Apostles admonished; and this his fellow Apostle St. James confirms (James 4:10). For what difficulty can be imagined in a mortal man humbling himself before the immortal and almighty God? Then we must also choose the lowest place among men, since it befits us to esteem one another as better, as the Apostle warns in the Epistle to the Philippians: "Esteeming," he says, "others better than themselves" (Phil. 2:3). But those who know themselves, and are conscious of their own weakness, while they do not know the hearts of others, suffer no straits in holding all others above themselves, in giving them precedence in honor, and in yielding them the higher place. For as pride is born of ignorance of oneself, so humility is born of knowledge of oneself. The heart of a proud man easily sees the vices that he does not have in himself and that others have, because they are all outside him; but his own vices, though often the greatest and known to all others, he himself does not see, because they are within him — just as the eye does not see what is within itself, but only what is outside it. That Pharisee can serve us as an example, who gave thanks to God that he was not like the rest of men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers (Luke 18:11); for he saw that the vices of robbery, injustice, and adultery were not in him, but he did not see the graver vices that lay hidden within — pride, blindness of mind, and impenitence — and therefore he set himself above the publican who was praying in the same temple. But the publican, because he had better eyes, saw the vices in himself and did not see his virtues; therefore he kept to the lowest place, standing afar off, striking his breast, and imploring the mercy of God: whence it came about that by God's judgment the latter went away justified, and the former condemned. Wherefore, if anyone will seriously apply himself to the knowledge of himself, he will suffer no straits in passing through the gate of the House of the Lord.

To all this we must add that the gate of the House of the Lord appears most narrow, and almost impassable, to those who approach laden, and who, fat of body or wrapped in many garments, attempt to enter with the body held erect; while the same gate appears wide and of easiest access to those who enter without any burden, naked, lean, and hardened. And so the cause lies in us that we cannot enter easily through that gate through which many of the blessed passed without any difficulty or trouble. Let the Christian man then begin to lay aside the burdens of riches; let him understand that wealth has been given him by God as to a steward, not as to a master — to distribute to the needy, not to keep carefully for himself alone: for so it will come about that the soul, freed from the love of riches, as though a great burden had been laid down, will not labor because of the narrowness of the gate. Let him likewise put off the excessive fat of carnal delights, or rather cast out the noxious humors that infect and inflate the body. Finally, let him strip off the conceit of his own self-esteem, put on the humility of Christ, and bow his neck to the obedience of the commandments; and then let him complain if he cannot enter the gate of salvation easily and comfortably enough.

### CHAPTER XIV.

That entrance through the gate, however narrow, is necessary if a man would be saved.

But whether that gate be wide or narrow, we must strive with all our might to enter by it: for after this life, which flees away like a shadow, there is no other place where we can fare well save within this gate. For this reason the Lord exhorts us, saying: "Strive to enter by the narrow gate" (Luke 13:24); for as He Himself adds in the same place, all who remain outside will be dragged away to those places where there is everlasting weeping and continual gnashing of teeth — which signifies the greatest pains together with despair of remedy; whence arises a frenzy that impatiently endures what it would not wish to endure and will always be forced to endure. How much better it would be to strive to enter by the narrow gate, where, after a little labor or pain endured, rest and delight are found! And if men could escape both the straits of the gate and the pains of hell at once, perhaps the frailty or weakness of those who dared not force their way through the straits of that gate might be excused: but since it is necessary either to labor here for a time in forcing one's way, or to fall into perpetual labors and pains, where is the judgment, where the reason, that would dictate fleeing lesser and briefer straits only to come to intolerable and most grievous ones? But even if no straits were to follow after this life, but only the loss of the House of God, where there are everlasting joys, this alone ought to move us to enter gladly not only through the straits of the gate, but even through thorns and briars, yes, through iron and fire. And although in this life we do not feel what it is to be deprived of beatitude; yet after the soul's separation from the body the eyes of the mind will be opened, so that they may see most clearly how great a loss — indeed, how infinite a loss — it is not to attain the last end for which we were created. And this desire is signified by those words recorded in the Gospel, repeated by those who, shut out, remain outside: "Lord, Lord, open to us" (Matt. 25:11). For the desire of the last end will always torment the wretched, and the remorse of conscience will never rest, and that word will be fulfilled: "Their worm dieth not, and their fire is not extinguished" (Mark 9:47). O if we could now seriously ponder with what feeling those men will say: "Lord, Lord, open to us" (Matt. 25:11)! As though they were saying: "Without entrance into that House we cannot live, yet it is not granted us to die. And so we live, not that we may live, but that we may be forever most wretched. Therefore open to us, for we are ready to suffer any straits of torment whatsoever, provided we may enter." But the answer will come: "I know you not. The year of jubilee has ended: when you could enter, you would not; now therefore it has come about that when you wish to enter, you cannot." Thus those shut out without any remedy will nevertheless never cease to cry, goaded by natural desire: "Lord, Lord, open to us." But they who in this life were deaf to the Lord's exhortations concerning the narrow gate will then cry out to the deaf ears of the Lord: "Lord, Lord, open to us." Wherefore, if we have any wisdom, let us now provide for our affairs while we have time. Let us do now, while we may, what then without any hesitation we shall long with our whole heart to do, or to have done, and it will not be permitted.

## BOOK FOUR

### CHAPTER I.

That in heaven there are true joys.

Paradise is a name of pleasure and delight: for it signifies a garden, or rather an orchard and pleasure-ground together, most lovely, and most apt to afford recreation and delight. In the book of Genesis (Gen. 2 and 3) it is more than once called the "paradise of pleasure", where the earthly paradise is spoken of. In Ezekiel, moreover, it is said of the heavenly paradise to the chief Angel, who afterwards fell and became the Devil: "Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God" (Ezek. 28:13). And since in holy Scripture we have nothing about paradise except that there were in it many trees and a fountain of living water, it has seemed good to me, on the occasion of this name, to explain the pleasures and joys which the blessed enjoy in heaven. And this contemplation will, unless I am mistaken, be useful for stirring up our minds to seek and ponder the things that are above, and thereby for so ordering our life that, when we must depart hence, we may with God's help pass not to sorrow and darkness, but to light and everlasting gladness. For men, with few exceptions, are wont to be drawn more by pleasure than by any other good; and the Church says in a certain prayer: "there may our hearts be fixed, where true joys are." And first we shall consider what the holy Scriptures teach us about the heavenly paradise, whence we may prove that there truly are joys in the heavenly paradise; then we shall try to explain what those joys are; lastly we shall demonstrate by various arguments, or rather comparisons, that those joys are far greater than we can grasp, or conceive, or even suspect.

First then, the very name "paradise" sounds of pleasure and delight, as we showed a little before from the book of Genesis. That there is a paradise in heaven, Ezekiel bears witness, who wrote of the first Angel: "Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God" (Ezek. 28:13). The Lord bears witness in the Gospel, when He said to the thief hanging with Him: "This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). For he took paradise to mean the kingdom of God and of essential beatitude; for the good thief had said, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom," and the Lord, promising him a share in His kingdom, answered, "Today you shall be with Me in paradise." St. Paul bears witness in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, when he says, "I know a man in Christ, caught up even to the third heaven, and that he was caught up into paradise" (2 Cor. 12:2-4); St. John bears witness in the Apocalypse, where he introduces the Lord speaking, "To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of My God" (Rev. 2:7). From these passages it is evident that the region of the blessed is a place of delights and pleasure. Then, when the Lord says to the good and faithful servant, "Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25:21), does He not most plainly declare that the house of God, or the city of God, into which good and faithful servants are admitted when they depart from this world, is a place of joy? And when the same Lord in many places compares the kingdom of God to a supper — as in Luke, when He says, "A certain man made a great supper" (Luke 14:16); and when He says elsewhere, "And I appoint to you, as My Father has appointed to Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom" (Luke 22:29-30); and finally when it is said in the Apocalypse, "Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:9) — surely Scripture, through the metaphor of a supper, signifies delight and pleasure, unless one would deny that there is any pleasure in the sense of taste. Moreover, in the Gospels and in the Apocalypse the kingdom of God is compared to a royal wedding feast, as is known from the parable of the king who made a wedding feast for his son (Matt. 22:2), and from the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, of whom the wise went in with the bridegroom to the wedding feast, while the foolish remained outside (Matt. 25:10); and from the Apocalypse, where many things are said of the wedding feast of the Lamb celebrated in the kingdom of God with the greatest magnificence (Rev. 19). Furthermore, the beatitude of the blessed is compared to a royal wedding feast, because in such feasts every kind of pleasure is experienced and enjoyed; but of this we shall speak in the following book.

Finally, in the Apocalypse St. John saw choirs of virgins who followed the Lamb wherever He went, and who sang a new song which no one else could sing. St. Augustine explains this passage in his book On Holy Virginity (chap. 27) as referring to certain joys and holy pleasures which virgins alone will fully enjoy; his words are these: "You will bring to the wedding feast of the Lamb a new song, which you will sing upon your harps, that is, upon hearts dedicated to divine praises — a song such as none but you will be able to utter." And further on: "Where do we think this Lamb is going, where no one is able or dares to follow Him except you? Where do we think He is going? Into what pastures and meadows? Where, I believe, the very grasses are joys — not the vain joys of this world, deceitful with madness; nor such joys as even in the kingdom of God itself will belong to the others who are not virgins, but joys distinguished from the lot of all the rest." And further on: "The rest of the multitude of the faithful, who cannot follow the Lamb thus far, will see you; they will see you, and will not envy you; and rejoicing with you, what they do not have in themselves they will have in you. For that new song which is yours alone they will not be able to sing, but they will be able to hear it, and to delight in your so excellent good. But you, who will both sing it and hear it — for what you sing you will hear from yourselves — will exult more happily and reign more joyfully." (On Holy Virginity, chap. 30) From all this, then, it is clearly established that in the heavenly kingdom and city, or house, there are many true joys, and the truest and greatest pleasures.

### CHAPTER II.

On the joy of the understanding.

Since it has now been proved from divine Scripture that there are true joys in the kingdom of God, we shall now set forth what these joys are. First we must briefly explain the joys of the understanding, of the will, and of the memory, which belong to the spirit; then the joys of each of the senses, which belong to the body. Nor do we intend in this place to assert that the understanding, the memory, and the senses of the body are the proper seat of joy; for we are not unaware that joy, like desire, properly belongs to the will in the higher part of the soul. But we speak as men commonly speak, who do not hesitate to say that the eye is delighted by the beauty of color and the ear by the sweetness of sound. By the joy of the mind, then, or of the memory, or of the external senses, we mean the delight which a man perceives from the things he understands, or of which he has remembrance, or which he draws in through the outward senses.

The first joy of the blessed, then, will be to see God with the eyes of the mind, face to face, as St. Paul says in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 13:12), and to see Him as He is, as St. John says in his First Epistle (1 John 3:2). How great this joy will be, we may conjecture from the fact that the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 64:4) and the Apostle Paul testify that it surpasses all the joys which no man has seen, or heard, or desired, or conceived: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9). For Scripture here speaks of the principal and essential beatitude, which consists in the very vision of God, according to the word of the Lord: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8); and "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent" (John 17:3). And indeed that seems a great amplification — that no one has seen, or heard, or desired, or conceived such a good as will be perceived in the vision of God; yet it is not an amplification but the simple truth. For the eyes, the ears, and the hearts of men are wont to perceive only bounded, measured, and finite joys; but the vision of God is a vision of inaccessible light and of a good utterly infinite, which contains in itself every good — according to the word of the Lord to Moses, "I will show you all good" (Exod. 33:19), when he had first asked, "Show me Your face." But to demonstrate this same point by reason, it should be known from St. Thomas (I-II, q. 32, art. 2) that the delight which is perceived from knowledge requires three things: a power that understands or senses, an object suited to that power, and the union of the object with the power; and the more apt the power is for knowing, the nobler the object, and the more intimate the union, the greater the delight that is perceived. Now, that the understanding or mind is purer, loftier, nobler, and, so to speak, more lively, and therefore far more apt for knowing than the external sense, cannot be called into doubt. And that God is the highest and noblest object, not only above all the objects of the senses, but even above absolutely all objects of the mind — being infinite good, and every good, or rather goodness itself — no one can doubt. Moreover, that the union of the understanding with God through open vision is a most intimate union — so that the essence of God penetrates the whole mind of man, and the mind itself is wholly plunged into God Himself and transformed, as into a great sea — is equally certain and beyond doubt. Who, then, can grasp or even surmise how great that joy is? What a kiss of the supreme Good! What an embrace of the Bridegroom of infinite beauty! Certainly, in the union of a beautiful color with the sense of sight, of the sweetest sound with the sense of hearing, and of the other sensible things with their own senses, we experience great pleasure — and often so great that some men nearly lose their minds on account of it; and yet the sentient powers are material and common to us with the beasts, the objects also are corporeal things which harm as often as they delight, and finally the union is superficial and external, and in most of the senses it is not the object itself that is united with the power, but its image. Add that the spiritual union — the union of God with the understanding through vision — is firmer, more lasting, and whole all at once; for bodily delights perceived by the senses, since they bring change, cannot be enduring, nor are they whole at once, but are instilled as it were drop by drop. Wherefore, beyond all doubt, the delight of the mind is greater than that of the senses.

Gather yourself therefore, O man, and weigh in a just balance the pleasure that the world offers you with that which God promises, since He promises the vision of Himself to those who love Him, and choose what you will. For surely, if you love pleasure — which you cannot deny that you love — you will choose the greatest rather than the least, and that which will last forever rather than that which is but for a moment. Nor is the vision of God alone promised to the blessed in heaven, but also the vision of all things that God has made. Here indeed on earth we discern through the sense of sight the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and lands and seas, and rivers, and animals, and trees, and metals; but our mind discerns nothing at all — that is, it knows no created substance perfectly, not its essential differences, not its properties, not its powers — and a man does not even see his own soul, but, in the manner of the blind, by groping at effects and running to and fro through reasoning, acquires some knowledge. How great a joy, then, will it be, when our intellect, with unveiled face, shall plainly see the natures of all things — their differences, their properties, their powers? And with how great an exultation will it be amazed, when it shall see the innumerable army of the Angels, no one of whom shares a species with another, and shall distinctly behold the differences of all and of each? Ah, what a theater that will be, how desirable, how lovely — when it will be granted to behold the blessed, who have lived from the beginning of the world to the end, gathered together with all the Angels, and the merits, palms, and crowns of each one! Nor shall we look without joy and pleasure upon the crimes and the torments of the damned, in which the holiness of the pious and the justice of God will wondrously shine forth: for then the just shall wash their hands in the blood of sinners (Ps. 57:11), as the Prophet foretold so long beforehand. For what is it to wash one's hands in the blood of sinners, if not that the works of the just shine out more brightly by comparison with the works of wicked men? Surely the virginity of some will shine the more when it is compared with the adulteries of others of like condition; and likewise the fastings and almsdeeds of some, when they are compared with the revelry, and drunkenness, and cruelty of others of like condition — namely, when there will be those who say: "That man was young and handsome, and yet he kept virginity or chastity all his life; but this man was also young and handsome, and, not content with his wife, often defiled himself with adulteries and sacrileges; and that man was rich and noble, and he fasted, and prayed frequently, and gave many alms; this man was equally rich and noble, but, given over to revelry and drunkenness, he so consumed everything on his pleasures that he never gave anything to the poor." And hence it will come to pass that the joy of the just will grow from the knowledge of the crimes of the wicked; and at the same time their joy will grow from the contemplation of the justice that will wondrously shine in the rewards of the blessed and in the punishments of the wretched. For now in human affairs a great deformity is seen in this, that often guilt is joined with reward, and virtue with punishment — whence the justice of God seems to be obscured not a little among men: but then every punishment will be joined with guilt, and every reward with virtue; and so the beauty of justice will stir up incredible joy in the minds of the blessed.

### CHAPTER III.

On the joy of the will.

There are three things which, besides the pleasure that the will receives from the good apprehended by the intellect, will beget the greatest joys properly within the will itself. One is the most ardent and inextinguishable love of God and of neighbor: for love is the chief seasoning of all lovable things. He who loves judges all that he loves to be most beautiful and best; and therefore he rejoices greatly in their sight and company, and grieves inconsolably at their absence or loss. We see parents, who by nature love their children dearly, believe them to be most beautiful, most gifted, most prudent, although they are often deformed and destitute of talent and judgment; and if the choice were given them, they would not exchange their children for any others judged by other men to be better and more beautiful. We often see men too, smitten with love for deformed persons — whether by some enchantment or by some chance — whom they judge it most delightful to be with, and most wretched to be torn away from. And this surely nothing causes but love — the seasoning, as we said, of all things lovely. Since these things are so, how great and of what kind will be the pleasure of the blessed, when they shall dwell forever with God and with all the blessed, whom they will always love most ardently — and who are not by a false judgment but most truly most beautiful and best, and from whom they know they will never be torn away? On the contrary, one of the greatest torments of hell will be to dwell forever with those whom they most hate, and by whom they know they were ensnared by a thousand wiles.

A second thing that will beget great joy in the will of the blessed will be a certain incomparable rest, and a satiety without loathing, which will render them peaceful and content in every way. For here on earth there is no one content with his lot, no one who does not desire many things which he cannot obtain. Hence all live famished, all thirsty, all restless. Nor should this seem strange, since our soul is capable of an infinite and everlasting good, while created things are small and frail, and cannot long endure. What a joy, then, will it be for the man who sees himself set in that place where he will live wholly content in every respect — where he will desire nothing, fear nothing, feel the want of nothing, and strive for nothing more? O peace that surpasses all understanding, which the world cannot give, and which is found only in the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the peaceful and great King! For you our pilgrimage sighs — our pilgrimage, which, full of temptations and anxieties, rests a little only in the remembrance and expectation of you.

A third thing that brings great joy to the blessed will is justice — and a perfect justice, more perfect than the original justice in Adam. That justice subjected the lower part to the higher only so long as the higher was subject to God; but this subjects the lower part to the higher, and the higher to God, with a most firm and indissoluble bond. That was like a garment of wool or of linen; this is like a garment of pure silk, or of gold, which makes the will most beautiful and lovely to God, and to itself, and to the Angels, and to all the blessed. This is that perfect justice which admits no stain, not even a venial one, so that of the soul clothed in such a garment it may be said: "Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee" (Song 4:7). It encloses within itself all the virtues, which have no imperfection mingled in them. And how great a delight and gladness this justice brings, the Wise Man bears witness in Proverbs when he says: "A secure mind is like a continual feast" (Prov. 15:15). But that mind alone is secure which conscience never gnaws at, because through perfect justice it is so established in good that it cannot slip even for a moment. Witness also is the Apostle Paul, who says: "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17).

Where the holy Apostle plainly teaches that the kingdom of heaven indeed comprises great pleasure within itself, but that this lies not in the delight of the palate and the filling of the belly, as carnal and sensual men might wish; but in justice, which begets in the soul a solid peace and a true joy. For he who is perfectly just has nothing in his heart that rebukes him, nor anything in his actions that can be rebuked by others. Hence arises a most solid and most sweet peace with God, and with himself, and with all others. And hence is born an ineffable joy in the Holy Spirit, to which no earthly or temporal gladness can be compared.

### CHAPTER IV.

On the joy of the memory.

Now indeed the memory, from the recollection of things past, will supply no small matter of joys. For first, the recollection of God's benefits throughout one's whole life — spiritual and corporal, natural and supernatural, temporal and eternal — brings incredible gladness, when the just man considers that he has been anticipated in so many ways by blessings of sweetness. Then, what gladness will the recollection of the dangers bring — dangers from which God delivered us in wondrous ways, at every age, in every office, in every state? Among other dangers I place this one first: that often someone was near to mortal sin, and thereby near to hell, and God, moved by His goodness alone, prevented the sin. Surely this mercy of God, so great and so singular, so often bestowed upon His elect, when it comes to mind in that safest and most peaceful region, will supply the greatest gladness. And if this recollection were wanting to the blessed in heaven, how could they, as the Psalm says, sing the mercies of the Lord for ever? (Ps. 88:2) "Than which song," says St. Augustine in the last book of the

City of God, "sung to the glory of the grace of Christ, by whose blood we have been freed, there will surely be nothing more delightful to that city." (City of God, Bk. 22, ch. 30)

What shall I say of the course of the times and of the ages, from the beginning even to the end? How great a delight will the remembrance of so many vicissitudes of things, and of such great variety, bring — vicissitudes which the inimitable providence of God so wisely governed and ruled, and brought to their due ends? This, perhaps, is that torrent of the river which so wondrously gladdens the city of God (Ps. 45). For what is the order of the ages, gliding by with great speed and never interrupting their course, but the torrent of a river that without ceasing sweeps its waters along and bears them down, until they are plunged into the ocean and disappear? And now indeed, while the river flows and the times glide on, many dispute about the providence of God; nor are there wanting even among the servants of God those who, troubled by this torrent of the river — which often brings many losses to the good and many advantages to the wicked, while it carries off the good soil taken from the fields of the just and bears it to the fields of the impious — have suffered grievous temptations, and seemed to doubt the providence of God. Hear the Royal Prophet: But my feet were almost moved, my steps had well nigh slipped: because I was jealous of the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners (Ps. 72); and below: Behold these very sinners, and abounding in the world, have obtained riches; and

I said: In vain have I justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent, and I have been scourged all the day. Hear Jeremiah: Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I plead with Thee; but yet I will speak just things to Thee: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? Why is it well with all them that transgress, and act wickedly? Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root...: they prosper and bring forth fruit: Thou art near to their mouth, and far from their reins (Jer. 12). Hear Habakkuk:

Why, he says, dost Thou look upon them that do unjust things, and holdest Thy peace when the wicked devoureth one more just than himself? And Thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping thing that hath no ruler (Hab. 1). But when the course of the times has been unfolded and the river plunged into the sea, when the blessed in heaven shall recall that whole course to memory and understand the reasons of all those vicissitudes, it is incredible to say how vehemently the torrent of that river, represented to the memory, will gladden the city of God. There they will see why God permitted the first Angel and the first man to fall; and why the mercy of God freed man, but did not free the Angel. There they will see why God chose the sons of Abraham for His people, though He foresaw that they would be most stiff-necked; and what great goods He was to prepare for the Gentiles out of their stubbornness. And, to pass over the universal providence, there they will see why He permitted most of the just — indeed almost all — to suffer tribulation in the world, namely that He might crown them most gloriously. And from this remembrance they will bless with immense joy all the crosses they suffered in the world, when they see them turned into everlasting crowns; and they will say with the Prophet: According to the greatness of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given joy to my soul (Ps. 93).

### CHAPTER V.

On the joy of the eyes

Let us now consider the joys of the glorified body. And first presents itself the joy of the sense of sight, which is the noblest among the bodily senses, and whose office extends most delightfully and most widely. In the heavenly fatherland it will rejoice first in the splendor and beauty of its own body. For it will see (Phil. 3) its body reformed by Christ, and conformed to the body of His brightness, as the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Philippians. Nor will its brightness be less than the brightness of the sun: for the same Apostle testifies in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 26) that Christ, to whose splendor we are to be conformed, was seen by him above the brightness of the sun; and the Lord Himself speaks in the Gospel and says: Then shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13). What a sight, then, and how pleasing, will the eyes of the blessed behold, when their hands and their feet and all their members they discern sending forth rays of light from themselves, so that they no longer need the light of the sun or of the moon, and much less of lamp or candle, to scatter all darkness on every side? But they will see not only their own body shining like the sun, but the bodies of all the blessed, and first of all that of Christ Himself and of His most holy Mother. How greatly does the one sun gladden the whole earth at its rising! What then will it be to see at once innumerable suns, illustrious not for their light alone, but most beautiful in the variety and comeliness of their members? Nor in that place will the eyes have to be closed, lest perchance they be hurt by too great a splendor: for the eyes themselves will be blessed, and therefore impassible and immortal; for He who will strengthen the eyes of the mind with the light of glory, lest in seeing God face to face they be overwhelmed by the glory, will also strengthen the eyes of the body with the gift of impassibility, that without injury they may behold not one sun, but innumerable,

To the joy of the eyes will also be added what St. Augustine (bk. 22, ch. 19) teaches in the book of The City of God: that the most blessed Martyrs will bear, in that part of the body in which they endured torments, the most beautiful and comely marks of virtue. What will it be, then, to see St. Stephen adorned with as many precious gems as he endured blows of stones upon his body? What to see the necks of Paul and the rest of the Apostles, and of others almost without number, that were severed for Christ, shining — thrice ennobled and more precious than all gold — with incredible beauty? What to behold St. Bartholomew, whose skin was torn from his whole body, so resplendent in his whole body that he seems to surpass all purple, however precious? What will it be — to pass over the rest — to see Peter, and Andrew, and very many others who endured the punishment of the cross, bearing in their hands and feet, as it were, most brilliant stars with infinite comeliness? For of Christ, the King of Martyrs, who willed to retain those most holy marks for His own glory and our consolation, no tongue can tell with what light they will shine: since all the glory of the blessed compared with the glory of Christ is less than if the beauty of the stars were compared with the beauty of the sun.

What shall I now say of the delight that the eyes of the blessed will take in the sight of that whole most spacious city, which the Prophet and the Apostle (Isa. 54; Rev. 21), finding no words sufficiently worthy, declared to be wholly of gold, and adorned with gems and pearls and precious stones?

What, finally, of the new heaven (Isa. 65; Rev. 21) and the new earth, which the holy Scriptures promise us after the day of the last judgment, and of the renewal and change into a better state of the whole universe of things? For as these things are unknown to us, so they will delight the eyes of the blessed with a new and wondrous joy when their beauty begins to be beheld.

### CHAPTER VI.

On the joy of the ears.

That the sense of hearing and the instruments of speech will exist in the kingdom of heaven cannot be doubted: for the bodies of the blessed will be true and living, and perfect in every part — such as all the Apostles, and many disciples besides, and not a few women, manifestly saw the body of Christ to be after the resurrection (Matt. 28; Luke 24; John 20-21); for they both heard Him speaking, and He answered them when they questioned Him (Acts 1; 9; 22; 26); and St. Paul himself also heard Christ speaking to him from heaven, and answered Christ who heard him. That there will also be songs in heaven, and especially of that word Alleluia, is witnessed by Tobit (Tob. 13) and St. John (Rev. 19). From these things it can be understood clearly enough that in that city there will not be wanting very many and most sweet songs, by which God is praised and the ears of the blessed are marvelously delighted. And if all things must be commensurate, there will also be no doubt that those songs must be so much the sweeter and nobler, as the singers themselves are more skilled, and He who is praised more sublime, and the place in which they sing more exalted, and the assembly of hearers more intelligent and more numerous. What then will it be, in that most high peace, and concord of souls, and in that ardor of charity toward the supreme Benefactor? If St. Francis, as St. Bonaventure has left written (Life of St. Francis, ch. 5), at the briefest sound of a cithara played by an Angel was so moved that he thought he had passed into another world; with what delights will our ears be regaled, when thousands of singers and harpers in most harmonious and sweetest voices will praise God together; and other thousands, with like harmony and no less ardor, will repeat the same praises again and again? And perhaps in that city not only the praises of God will be sung, but also the triumphs of the blessed Martyrs, the praises of the Confessors, the glory of the Virgins, and the victories of all the blessed against the Devil will be extolled among the nations: for all these things will redound to the praise and glory of God. Wherefore it is said by Sirach: "He that hath been tried thereby, and is found perfect, shall have everlasting glory; he that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed, and could do evil, and hath not done it: therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints shall declare his alms" (Sir. 31). Although this may be understood of the praises of mortal men in the Church that is a pilgrim on earth, yet nothing hinders it from being understood of the immortal citizens and of the Church that triumphs in heaven: for there the blessed shall truly have everlasting glory, and that is truly and properly the Church of the saints. And since the Lord says in the Gospel that the faithful and prudent servants are to be praised by God in the heavenly kingdom with these words — "Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matt. 25) — what hinders us from supposing that those words of the Lord will be taken up in the song of the whole heavenly court, and repeated again and again most sweetly? Certainly, the Catholic Church did not hesitate to say thus of St. Martin: "Martin, poor and lowly here, enters heaven rich, and is honored with heavenly hymns" (At Lauds). Finally, St. Augustine, at the end of his book on the City of God, affirms this very thing in express words when he says: "There true glory shall be, where no one shall be praised through the error or the flattery of the praiser. True honor, which shall be denied to no worthy man and conferred on no unworthy man; nor shall any unworthy man strive after it, where none is suffered to be but the worthy" (bk. 22, ch. 30). O therefore thrice and four times blessed, who in that place — whence flattery is banished, and where no lie is found — shall hear their own praises sung without danger of pride, yet not without increase of joy!

### CHAPTER VII.

On the joy of the nostrils.

Of the other senses little need be said — not because they lack their own great pleasures, but because Scripture has not revealed what those pleasures will be. This much is well known to us: that the bodies of many of the blessed began, immediately after death, to breathe forth a most sweet odor, the like of which no one had ever perceived before. This St. Jerome testifies of the body of St. Hilarion (Life of St. Hilarion): for he affirms that, ten months after its burial, the body was found entire, as though it still lived, and so fragrant with odors that it was thought to have been anointed with ointments. The same does St. Gregory testify in his Dialogues of the body of St. Servulus the paralytic; his words are these: "When his soul departed, such a fragrance of odor was poured forth that all who were there present were filled with an inestimable sweetness" (bk. 4, ch. 14). And a little further on: "Until they gave his body over to burial, the fragrance of that odor did not depart from their nostrils." Nor are there wanting many other like examples, both ancient and recent. From which it may be gathered that if the bodies of the departed breathe a sweet odor after the soul's glorification, much more will living and glorified bodies breathe forth a holy and most sweet odor. To this may be added what the same St. Gregory relates of the living and most glorious body of our Lord; his words in the fourth book of the Dialogues and in a certain Homily on the Gospels are these: "Then the virgin Tarsilla, looking up, saw Jesus coming; and suddenly there was poured forth such a fragrance of wondrous odor that the very sweetness made known to all that the Author of sweetness had come thither" (bk. 4, ch. 16; Hom. 38). But if the glorified body of the Redeemer breathes an odor of such sweetness, it is altogether credible that all the bodies of the blessed in heaven will breathe a like sweetness of odor: for it is fitting that the members be conformed to their head, not only in brightness, but also in sweetness of odor. Let those, then, who delight in fragrances consider with what sweetness they are to be filled, when in that divine garden they shall draw into their glorified sense of smell the varied and most sweet odors of so many thousands of heavenly flowers breathing on every side.

### CHAPTER VIII.

On the joy of the senses of taste and touch.

Concerning the sense of taste, the theologians write (see Denis the Carthusian on the fourth book of the Sentences, dist. 44, art. 4, who cites others; and Dominic de Soto, bk. 4, dist. 49, q. 4, art. 5) that the blessed will not make use of mortal food, yet will have some delight in that sense, lest it should seem superfluous — a delight, however, befitting the place and the state of the blessed and the immortal. Concerning the sense of touch, all agree that its use will not be wanting in heaven, since the bodies of the blessed can doubtless be touched, being true and living bodies — as the Lord says: "Handle, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see Me to have" (Luke 24). Yet all impure contact will be far removed from those bodies, which will have no concupiscence of generation; and, as the Lord Himself says, "in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married, but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22). But we will not dwell on these matters, which are daily disputed in the schools. This one thing we affirm: that the sense of touch will perceive no small pleasure from the perpetual and most excellent disposition of the body, by reason of the dower-gifts of the glorified body, of which the Apostle speaks in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "It is sown," he says, "in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15). Of these four dower-gifts or privileges of glorified bodies, that one — of glory, or of the splendor of the glorified body — pertains to the sense of sight, as we said in its place; the remaining three seem properly to pertain to the sense of touch. For just as, when the body is weighed down by diseases, blows, and wounds that lead to death, it is the sense of touch that suffers and grieves; so also, when the body is well and is sound and strong, the sense of touch rejoices. With great joy, therefore, will the sense of touch be affected in heaven, when after the resurrection the bodies of the blessed shall enjoy immortality and impassibility, and indeed the best of health, for all eternity. What would men not gladly give — princes especially — if throughout their whole life they could be freed from the pains of gout, of the head, of the stomach, or of the kidneys? What joy, then, will it be in heaven, from which not only death but every disease and every pain will be utterly exiled? Accordingly, those dower-gifts by which the corruptible body rises incorruptible, and the infirm body rises impassible, pertain to the joy of the sense of touch. In like manner, the dower-gifts of agility and subtlety, by which the natural body shall rise spiritual, seem to pertain to the same sense of touch. For the glorified body will be called — and will be — spiritual: not because it will not truly have flesh and bones, but because it will be so subject to the spirit that at the spirit's bidding it will move most swiftly, without difficulty or labor — ascend and descend, come and go, and penetrate all places whatsoever, as though it were not a body but a spirit. Therefore, just as the sense of touch fares ill and grieves when the heavy body is forced to ascend on high or to be moved swiftly from place to place, so on the contrary it rejoices and is glad when the body, without weariness or labor, either ascends on high or passes most swiftly from place to place. Behold, then, from how great a servitude of corruption the blessed shall be freed, when they shall no longer need horses, nor carriages, nor attendants, nor arms, nor anything else; but the blessed bodies, of themselves, shall run most swiftly whithersoever they will, and shall be everywhere most safe, even amid the ranks of armed men. Would that those who cannot taste spiritual delights, because they have an infected palate, would at least consider these greatest and perpetual bodily goods, and be moved by them and seek after them! For so it would come to pass that little by little they would ascend to higher things, and by these steps would at length, through God's gracious help, arrive at the everlasting joys.

### CHAPTER IX.

On the comparison of the joys of the earth with the joys of heaven.

We have set forth, as far as our poor ability allowed, what joys are prepared in heaven for those who love God; now we shall endeavor to show how great they are by certain outward arguments, and first from a comparison with the joys which God in this life very often bestows upon His enemies and the reprobate. And indeed so great are the joys in riches, in honors, in power, and in pleasures of every kind, which God grants to sinners — His enemies who either blaspheme Him or do not believe in Him — that they are judged happy by almost all men. "They have called the people happy," says the Prophet, "that hath these things" (Ps. 143). Who among the lovers of this world would not envy Solomon, who reigned forty years, abounded in riches and in every delight, and had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines — who nevertheless, in the judgment of St. Augustine, seems to have been reprobate? For so speaks St. Augustine on the Psalms: "This same Solomon was a lover of women, and was rejected by God" (Ps. 126). And in the books of the City of God he says of Solomon what Sallust said of Catiline: "He had a good beginning but an evil end" (Book 17). St. Gregory followed St. Augustine in the second book of the Moralia: "Hence it is," he says, "that Solomon, who received a wisdom in which he was not to persevere, is described as having received it in dreams and by night" (Moralia, Book 2, ch. 2). Nor unlike Solomon in our own time are the kings of the Turks, of the Persians, of the Chinese, and of the Tartars, who possess most ample kingdoms and, enslaved to the pleasures of the flesh, deny nothing to the heart, or the eyes, or the ears, or the gullet, or lust that they in any way desire.

But to pass over those things which belong to few — how great are the joys God bestows in common upon mortals, the greatest part of whom either do not know God, or do not love and fear Him as they ought? Has He not given to all in common the earth with all its riches and delights — its living creatures, fruits, flowers, and metals? Has He not given to all in common the seas, springs, rivers, and lakes, with so many kinds of fish? Has He not given to all in common the sky, adorned with so many stars like the roof of this great house? Has not the Lord Himself, most good and most generous, commanded His sun to rise and His clouds to rain upon the good and the evil? And if He bestows such great joys in this life upon reprobate sinners — His ungrateful slaves, worthy of every punishment — is it not right that He should keep for His friends and children joys beyond all comparison greater? Hear St. Augustine on the Psalms: "To sinners," he says, "who blaspheme Him daily He gives heaven and earth; He gives fountains, fruits, health, children, plenty, abundance. What think you does He reserve for His faithful ones, who gives such things to sinners?" (on Ps. 85). Of St. Fulgentius it is written in his Life (in Surius, vol. 2) that he once saw at Rome the glory of the senate and exclaimed: "How fair must the heavenly city be, if earthly Rome shines so! And if in this world such dignity of honor is given to those who love vanity, what honor and glory will be shown to the blessed who contemplate the truth?" Certainly St. Augustine, a prudent appraiser of things if ever there was one, judged that all earthly joys stand at so great a distance from the heavenly that he did not hesitate to affirm it more desirable to enjoy the heavenly joys for a single day than to enjoy all the joys of the world for many thousands of ages; and these are his words:

"So great is the delight of the eternal light that, even were it not permitted to remain in it longer than the space of a single day, for this alone innumerable years of this life, full of delights and overflowing with temporal goods, would rightly and deservedly be despised; for it was not said in a false or feeble spirit: Better is one day in Thy courts above thousands" (On Free Will, Book 3, last chapter). What shall we say to this? If these things are true — and they are most certainly true — would it not be right that we should at last begin to be wise? Until now we have been wont to say that earthly goods must be despised because they are fleeting, and heavenly goods loved because they are everlasting; now let us hear Augustine, that wisest of Doctors, affirming that even if earthly things were eternal and heavenly things fleeting, heavenly things should still by right judgment be preferred to earthly. Are we not then deaf, and blind, and dull, and foolish, if for the sake of earthly goods — not only vile but also fleeting and brief — we despise the heavenly things which are most precious and everlasting? Do You break, O merciful and compassionate Lord, our deafness; enlighten our blindness; rouse our dullness; heal our madness. For why have You signed upon us the light of Your countenance, O Lord (Ps. 4), if we do not discern things so great and so necessary? And why have You given us the judgment of reason, if we do not see things so evident?

### CHAPTER X.

On the comparison of the earthly paradise with the heavenly paradise.

We have compared the joys of this world with the joys of the kingdom of heaven; let us now briefly compare the joys of the earthly paradise with the joys of the heavenly paradise. How great the joys of the earthly paradise were can be known even from this: that it was, as it were, a garden of delights given to men, who had been created in the image and likeness of God, while the rest of the earth was given to brute animals. Hence also, when Adam by sinning lost the honor in which God had set him, and was made like to senseless beasts (Ps. 48), he was cast out of that place and sent away to this land. The earthly paradise is described by St. Alcimus Avitus in his poems on Genesis, and by others, as a most lovely and most temperate region, where the heat of summer did not scorch nor the cold of winter hurt; but perpetual spring gladdened it with flowers, and autumn overflowed with fruits of every kind. But let us hear his own words:

Here endless spring the clemency of heaven preserves; the murky South Wind is far away, and all is ever beneath an unclouded sky.

Nor does the nature of the place ask for the rains it does not have; but the young shoots, content, are nourished by its own dew.

Thus while winter is wanting and scorching summer does not burn, autumn with fruits and spring with flowers fill the year.

St. Basil, in his book on paradise, says: "There," he says, "God planted a paradise where there is no violence of winds, no unruliness of the seasons, no hail, no lightnings, no whirlwinds, no wintry freezing, no dampness of spring, no summer heat, no autumn drought; but a temperate and peaceable concord of the seasons with one another. For around that place the seasons dance — nay, they even run together in a throng with their gifts: the delights of spring, the sustenance of summer, the gladness of autumn, the rest of winter. Its waters are clear and transparent, affording much delight to the sight, yet showing still more usefulness than delight. God therefore first created that place itself, worthy to receive the plantings of God; then He planted in it trees of every kind in their beauty, and bestowed through them a most pleasing sight and a most delightful fruition." St. Augustine in the books of the City of God speaks thus of the earthly paradise (City of God, Book 14, ch. 40): "What could those men fear or grieve, amid such abundance of so many good things, where neither death was dreaded nor any ill health of body, where nothing was wanting that a good will could obtain, and nothing present that could offend the flesh or the spirit of man living happily? There was undisturbed love toward God, and between husband and wife a faithful and sincere fellowship of life, and from that love a great joy, since what was loved did not fail to be enjoyed. There was a tranquil avoidance of sin; and while this remained, no evil at all rushed in from any other quarter to sadden them." And further on: "How happy then were those first men, who were neither agitated by any disturbances of soul nor hurt by any discomforts of body! And how happy the whole human fellowship would have been, had neither those first parents committed the evil which they would pass on to posterity, nor anyone of their stock committed an iniquity that would incur condemnation." So says St. Augustine. I pass over what Claudius Marius Victor writes of the incredible loveliness and fruitfulness of the earthly paradise in the first book of his Poems on Genesis, St. John Damascene in On the Orthodox Faith, Book 2, ch. 11, St. Isidore in the Etymologies, Book 14, ch. 11, and Rupert of Deutz in his commentary on Genesis, Book 1, ch. 37.

But whatever be the case with these particulars, we gather from Scripture itself, beyond any doubt, that that place was more blessed than this dwelling of ours; for as a punishment for sin it is said to Adam: "Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee" (Gen. 3). And to the woman it is said: "I will multiply thy sorrows and thy conceptions; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee." In paradise therefore there would have been no barrenness of the earth, nor would men have had to toil in tilling it, nor would it have brought forth thorns and thistles; and women would never have conceived in vain, but every conception would have come to its birth, and a happy one; and though wives would have been subject to their husbands, it would not have been by a despotic rule, but a civil and moderate one. And so those men would have led a happy life without fear and pain, without toil and distress.

And if the earthly paradise had been free from every evil, and had abounded in many great goods: what must we think of the heavenly Paradise, which ought to be so much the happier as it is loftier, and so much the better as it was established for better inhabitants? The height of the heaven of the blessed is beyond all comparison loftier than the paradise of Adam: and the blessed men in heaven, who can neither sin nor die, are far, far better than the inhabitants of the earthly paradise, who could sin and die. It was fitting, therefore, that the heavenly paradise should not only be free from every evil, but should overflow with all good things, beyond all comparison more numerous and greater than those with which the earthly paradise overflowed. Since this is so, let us give thanks to God, because through the redemption of His Son, in place of the earthly paradise which the envy of the Devil snatched from us, we have obtained a far more blessed heavenly paradise: and both that we may not be ungrateful to so great a Liberator, and that we may not appear to be enemies to ourselves, let us strive with all our strength to find the entrance into the heavenly paradise, and to open it for ourselves by an undivided faith, a sincere hope, a perfect charity, and good works.

### CHAPTER XI.

On the comparison of the goods of this world and of the earthly Paradise, taken together, with the goods of the heavenly Paradise alone.

But now let us proceed further, and compare all the goods of this world and the goods of the earthly paradise, taken together, with the goods of the heavenly Paradise alone, and let us see whether perhaps those goods, joined together, outweigh it. This we shall do if we imagine that riches, empires, pleasures, and all the glory of Solomon and of other similarly most fortunate men could be acquired without labor and retained without fear; and that such most fortunate men could also never sin and never die—yet in such a way that they could still sin and die. This being granted, I confidently affirm that the goods of the heavenly Paradise alone far outweigh all the goods of the world and of the earthly paradise taken together. And I gather this from the fact that those goods, joined together, can never fill the human heart nor satisfy its desire, because the human heart is capable of infinite good, whereas all those things are finite. And so what St. Augustine says at the beginning of his Confessions will always be true: "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rest in Thee" (Conf. 1.1). And what the holy Prophet sings is also true: "I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear" (Ps. 16). But as long as the heart is restless, it will be miserable; and if it is miserable, it will not be happy. The heavenly paradise, however, has this as its chief property: that it satisfies the soul and takes away all restlessness. For what will he be able to desire, who will be like God because he shall see Him as He is (1 John 3)? What will he be able to desire, whom God will set over all His goods (Matt. 24; 25)? What will he be able to desire, who will reign with God and will be co-heir with Christ, whom the Father appointed heir of all things (Heb. 1)—unless someone should dare to say that God Himself has a restless heart and is miserable? Moreover, those goods of the world, and even of the earthly paradise, however many and of whatever kind they were, by the very fact that they could be lost were not perfect goods, nor could they satisfy or set the soul at rest, and for this reason they did not make man truly happy and blessed: but the goods of the heavenly paradise are in every respect perfect and secure, and can neither be lost nor diminished in any way. For the blessed, established in those most happy dwellings, can neither die nor sin, and are most certain of their everlasting happiness.

Let mortals, therefore, open the eyes of their mind, and seriously reflect how much it matters not to lose the heavenly paradise. For what is at stake here is truly the sum of the whole matter, not small or fleeting things. For the Wisdom of God has said, by a judgment altogether divine: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. 16; Mark 8; Luke 9)

### CHAPTER XII.

On the comparison of the price of paradise with paradise itself.

The last comparison will be between the price at which Paradise was bought by Christ, and at which it must also be bought by us, and the greatness and excellence of Paradise itself. Christ, at the price of His Blood, bought for us the heavenly paradise, which the envy of the Devil had snatched from us—not that he might have it himself, but that we too might be deprived of it; for it was to this end that he seduced Eve, and through her drove Adam into transgression, that he might have companions in his punishment. Christ, therefore, is that prudent merchant (Matt. 13), who gave all that he had to buy the precious pearl, by which, as He Himself clearly taught, the kingdom of heaven is signified; He is the one of whom the Apostle speaks when he says: "You are bought with a great price" (1 Cor. 6). And the Apostle Peter: "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, with gold or silver, but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of the Lamb unspotted and undefiled" (1 Pet. 1). And again: "They deny the Lord who bought them" (2 Pet. 2). For Christ, at one and the same time, both bought paradise for us and bought us ourselves. For we too had been made captives, and had lost paradise through sin: but Christ, redeeming us from our sins and from the captivity of the Devil, at the same time made us sons and heirs of God, and thereby restored paradise to us. Hence, then, is revealed the greatness of the heavenly paradise: that it seemed to the Wisdom of God worthy of an infinite price. If now among men a prudent and exceedingly rich merchant were to buy a precious pearl, gladly selling off all his possessions, certainly no one would doubt that that pearl was so extraordinary and unique that a price worthy of it could scarcely be found. Of how great a worth, then, ought we to reckon—if we were endowed with any judgment—the possession of the heavenly kingdom, which the Wisdom of God, the Incarnate Word, purchased with all His labors, and sweat, and sufferings over the space of thirty-three years, and finally with His Blood and His most precious death? We are altogether too foolish if we sell, for the paltry price of any temporal goods whatever, that which Christ the Lord deemed worthy of an infinite price.

What is more: not only did Christ judge that paradise should be bought for us with His Blood; but all the blessed, taught by Him, most gladly offered whatever they had, whatever they were worth, whatever they were, in order to buy that same paradise. Indeed St. Paul cries out: "The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8). And if anyone were to ask all the blessed Martyrs whether they gladly bought paradise at the cost of so many most bitter torments, and the blessed Confessors whether they gladly bought paradise at the cost of so many vigils, fasts, prayers, alms, and persecutions: surely they would all cry out with the Apostle: "The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us." For although the Blood of Christ was for us not only a worthy price for paradise—indeed, one surpassing and exceeding the worth of the thing purchased—nevertheless He also willed that we should buy it, so as to honor and exalt us. For it is a great glory for a man that he obtains paradise not only by the merit of Christ, but also by his own merit, which nevertheless received its force from the merit of Christ. And if anyone, though able, should refuse to do good and to suffer evil in order to buy paradise, he is cast out from the commerce of Christ as a wicked and slothful servant, as Christ Himself warns in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25): and the Apostle gravely warns when he says: "If sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ; yet so, if we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him" (Rom. 8).

And lest anyone should perhaps complain that he does not have a worthy price, let him know that nothing is demanded of us except what we have. For so speaks St. Augustine: "The kingdom of God is worth as much as you have" (Tract. on Ps. 49). And he proves it by examples from divine Scripture;

"What is so cheap, what so earthly, as to break bread for one who is hungry? So much is the kingdom of God worth. For it is written: 'Possess the kingdom prepared for you, for I was hungry, and you gave Me bread.' The widow bought it with two mites. Peter bought it by leaving his nets. Zacheus bought it by giving half of his possessions." So speaks St. Augustine; and with him agrees the Venerable Bede when he says that he who has nothing besides himself buys it by giving himself. "That thing," he says, "that is, the heavenly kingdom, asks no other price than yourself: it is worth as much as you are; give yourself, and you shall have it" (Sermon 19 on the Saints). For certainly Lazarus the beggar had nothing to give except patience in his sufferings, and he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom (Luke 16); and the good thief had nothing in this world that was his own except a free voice, with which he cried out: "Remember me when You come into Your kingdom" — and at once he heard: "Today you shall be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23). O truly great liberality of God! O ineffable happiness of man, who can so easily strike a bargain with his Lord over the price of a thing precious above all things! Do you ask God, O man, for the paradise of all delights? Give yourself, and you shall have it. And what is it to give yourself? Love God with your whole heart, humble yourself under His mighty hand, praise Him at all times, and freely acquiesce in His will, whether He wills you to be rich or poor, held in honor or in obscurity, healthy or sick. For His every will is good, and all His judgments are just. Say to God: "I am Yours; do with me according to Your good pleasure; I do not resist, I do not complain, I do not refuse Your dominion. My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready" (Ps. 107). "Not my will, but Yours be done" (Luke 22). This holocaust is beyond every price in the sight of God, who has no need of our goods (Ps. 15). "Does the Lord will holocausts and victims," says Samuel, "and not rather that the voice of the Lord be obeyed?" (1 Sam. 15). This holocaust of obedience Christ offered daily to the Father, as He Himself testifies when He says: "The things that are pleasing to Him, I do always" (John 8). And the Apostle, a true imitator of Christ: "We strive, whether absent or present, to please Him" (2 Cor. 5). This perfect renunciation of all that a man possesses or desires to possess (Luke 14), this denial of one's very self so as to serve God alone, is the true price of paradise. Nor does he who in this way gives himself to buy paradise lose himself; rather, he finds himself, as the Lord says: "He who loses his life for My sake shall find it" (Matt. 10).

And "he who hates his life in this world keeps it unto life eternal" (John 12). But since this wisdom is hidden (Matt. 11) from the wise and prudent of this world — who are truly fools before God, and "of fools the number is infinite" (Eccles. 1) — therefore "many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt. 22).

## BOOK FIVE

### CHAPTER I.

Of the Treasure Hidden in the Field.

Concerning the happiness of the blessed under the names of the places in which those dwell who are truly happy and blessed — that is, the kingdom of God, the city of God, the house of the Lord, and the paradise of delights — I have written thus far what God has deigned to suggest to me in meditation. I will now add something on the same happiness under the names of the things to which the Lord compared the happiness of the blessed in parables. At the outset, however, it must be understood that those words of the Lord, "The kingdom of God is like," which the Lord employs throughout His parables, do not always refer to the words immediately following — as if, when the Lord says, "The kingdom of God is like a merchantman," the sense were that the kingdom of God is like a merchantman — but to the whole narrative, in which the way to the kingdom of God is shown by means of a likeness; and sometimes the kingdom of God itself, that is, the beatitude of the heavenly kingdom, is described more obscurely, sometimes more clearly, and sometimes not touched upon at all. I shall explain each part in turn.

When the Lord in Matthew sets forth the parable of the sower (Matt. 13), He describes the fruit which the preaching of the Gospel bears according to the various dispositions of the soil, and this He calls the mystery of the kingdom of God; but of the beatitude of the blessed He says nothing. When, however, the same Lord in the same place adds the parable of the cockle, He briefly touches the happiness of the blessed, saying that the wheat is to be gathered into the Lord's barn, while the cockle is to be bound in bundles for burning. But when in the same place He tells the parables of the man seeking good pearls and of the man finding a treasure hidden in the field, He now more clearly compares the kingdom of God to the pearl and the treasure. And of this third kind I find only six among the parables of the Lord: one of the treasure hidden in the field, another of the precious pearl, a third of the day's wage, a fourth of the master distributing the talents, a fifth of the great supper, and a sixth of the royal wedding feast. To these we shall add two similitudes from the Apostle: one of those who run for the prize, and another of those who strive in the contest. Thus there will be eight considerations on the blessed life of the saints drawn from the names of the parables.

The first parable, then, which is found in St. Matthew, makes the kingdom of God like a treasure hidden in a field (Matt. 13:44); and it briefly teaches how it may be acquired when it says: "Which a man, having found, hides; and for joy thereof goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Treasure signifies an immense store of gold, silver, and precious stones; and, as the jurist Paul teaches (Digest, On the Acquisition of the Ownership of Things, law Nunquam), it must be so ancient that no memory of it survives; and therefore it has no proper owner, but by right belongs to the finder. This treasure is the Divinity itself, which is hidden in the field of Christ's humanity, as St. Hilary and St. Jerome rightly explain in their commentaries on the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. For in Christ, as the Apostle says, "are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God" (Col. 2). Now the Divinity is the truest treasure of all goods, and truly so ancient that no memory of it can exist, since it is eternal and has preceded all ages; nor has this immense treasure ever had an owner, since it is itself the Lord of all. Yet it is said to come under the right of finders, because it freely gives itself to those who, having sold all they have, strive to acquire it. It is said, moreover, to be hidden — buried, as it were, in a field — in the humanity of Christ: for although the Divinity is everywhere, yet it is nowhere more properly than in the humanity of Christ, to which it is so united that God and man are one Person; wherefore the Apostle says: "God indeed was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5). And although nowhere is it so present as in Christ's humanity, yet it seemed so hidden in it that it was necessary to light a lamp which might point out God in Christ. That lamp was John the Baptist, of whom, as St. John writes, "He was a burning and a shining light" (John 5), and of whom David foretold in the person of God the Father: "I have prepared a lamp for My anointed" (Ps. 131). For John the Baptist manifested Christ and truly showed Him to be God, the only-begotten Son of God, when he said: "No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (John 1). And again: "He who comes from above is above all" (John 3). And a little after: "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has life everlasting; but he who is unbelieving toward the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him." But although this burning and shining light so openly manifested Christ as the Son of God, yet the blinded Jews could not, or would not, recognize the Divinity hidden in Christ; for, as the Apostle says, "if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2).

This treasure, therefore, which the man enlightened by God finds, "he hides; and for joy thereof goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." To hide the treasure thus found is nothing else than to cover the grace received under the veil of humility: not to put oneself forward on account of the light divinely received, nor to boast of divine consolations and revelations, lest vainglory corrupt the true glory. And so Isaiah used to say: "My secret to myself" (Isa. 24). And the Apostle: "If I must glory (though it is not expedient), I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord" (2 Cor. 12): "I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago," etc. For the extraordinary revelation which he received when caught up into paradise he covered with silence for a full fourteen years; and he would always have covered it, had not the necessity of manifesting it compelled him. And he openly says that it is not expedient to disclose such gifts, and he discloses it under another's name, to show how unwillingly he did so. Something of this kind happened to St. Francis when the sacred stigmata were divinely impressed upon him (Life of St. Francis, ch. 13); for, as St. Bonaventure relates in his Life, at other times he was wont to cover divine revelations in silence and to say with Isaiah, "My secret to myself"; but then, when he saw that the matter could not be hidden, with great fear he related the whole account to the brothers who asked him.

Moreover, to sell everything with joy and buy that field where the treasure lay hidden means nothing else than this: that he who wishes to have the fruition of God and of Christ in the kingdom of heaven must utterly renounce all attachment to temporal things, and devote all his goods and his very self to the service of God — and this not out of sadness or necessity, but with great joy; for God loveth a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7). But to one who has truly known how great a treasure is the fruition of Christ in the eternal fatherland — to behold His divinity with the eyes of the mind and His humanity with the eyes of the body, to be made a sharer in all the good things of God and of Christ, and to be secure forever in the possession of so great a good — it will not seem much, nor any great thing, to despise all temporal goods and even life itself for the love of God and everlasting happiness. Let St. Ignatius the Martyr be our witness, who writes in his Epistle to the Romans: "Fire, the cross, the onslaught of wild beasts, the cutting off, the tearing apart, the breaking and scattering of my limbs, the destruction of my whole body, and all the scourges of the devil — let them come upon me, that I may be found worthy to attain Jesus Christ." He who speaks thus would surely fear poverty, disgrace, exile, and imprisonment far less than the loss of that incomparable treasure. Whoever, then, seriously desires to acquire the treasure of eternal life, let him also seriously think and think again whether he is prepared to despise all other goods; otherwise he will never obtain — neither living nor dead — that treasure without which he will be forever most miserable and most poor. But whence does it happen, let us ask, that so many anxiously search out treasures of gold and silver and, not content with human diligence, even employ the aid of demons through wicked arts, at great peril to their good name and to their life — while Your treasure, O Lord my God, which alone can make a man most rich, and which can be found without toil, without expense, without danger, is sought by so few?

For my part, I find no other cause than either the little faith of Your people, or their excessive preoccupation with acquiring temporal things, which leaves men no room to think upon and ponder the divine promises. Therefore, good Lord, increase in us faith in Your promises, and extinguish our thirst for possessing temporal riches; for so it will come to pass that we seek Your treasure with greater zeal, and obtain it with Your help.

### CHAPTER II.

On the Precious Pearl.

The second parable, which concerns the precious pearl, is very similar to the preceding one, and it also follows immediately after it in St. Matthew (Matt. 13:45). For in the former there was a treasure; in this one there is a pearl, which can be held to stand in place of a treasure. In the former, one had to sell all one's goods and buy the field in which the treasure lay hidden; and here likewise one must sell everything one possesses in order to buy the precious pearl. It will therefore be necessary to explain only the points in which these parables differ. They differ in two respects: namely, that in the former a treasure is named, while in the latter a precious pearl; and that the treasure was found by chance, while the pearl was diligently sought by a merchant. And indeed in this passage heavenly beatitude, or Christ Himself, is called a pearl, as the holy Fathers teach — St. Ambrose in his sixth sermon, and St. Gregory Nazianzen in Oration 48, which is his treatise on the faith, in Rufinus's translation. Moreover, what in the former parable was called a treasure is called a pearl in this one, so that we may understand that the divinity of Christ (which is the object of eternal happiness, and whose vision is itself — to speak with the theologians — formal beatitude and felicity) is indeed a treasure, yet not one divided into many kinds of gold, silver, and precious stones, but a single thing containing within itself the price of an infinite treasure.

For the pearl is a single thing; yet, as Pliny relates, it holds the highest rank among all precious things (Bk. 9, ch. 35). Moreover, a treasure can consist of money alone, provided it be in the greatest quantity; but such a treasure serves only for utility, not for delight or adornment. Therefore, lest anyone should gather from the preceding parable that heavenly beatitude is merely useful but neither comely nor honorable, He taught that the divinity of Christ and our happiness are like a precious pearl, which, besides the usefulness of a treasure, also possesses a beauty and splendor that adorns and delights.

Add that the pearl is a symbol of Christ, both as Son of God and as Son of the Virgin. For the pearl is generated from the light of the sun and from the dew of heaven, as Pliny teaches in the place cited, and others besides; so also the Son of God according to the divinity is begotten of the Father of lights, who is the uncreated sun — and hence it is said in the Creed, "Light from Light, true God from true God." And the same Christ according to the humanity was begotten of the dew of heaven, inasmuch as He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, not of the seed of man. Finally, the pearl is white, shining, solid, pure, smooth, and round; and the humanity of Christ — and far more, beyond all comparison, His divinity — is white on account of innocence, shining on account of wisdom, solid on account of constancy, pure because without stain, smooth because gentle and meek, and round because perfect on every side.

Now the pearl is not found by chance, but is diligently sought by a prudent merchant. Nor is this parable contrary to the former one, in which the treasure is said to be found by accident; for both are true, but in different persons. And therefore the Lord in His divine wisdom joined this second parable to the first, lest anyone should think that it falls to everyone to stumble upon the treasure unawares. For some God enlightens at once with a singular grace, so that, neither seeking nor desiring nor even thinking of it, they come to the truth of the faith, to most ardent charity, and even to a certain hope of obtaining eternal life; and these, so far as they themselves are concerned, find the treasure by chance — although it was not by chance that God preordained them to this grace and to future glory, but by His eternal providence. But others God indeed forestalls with His grace, yet He does not show them the treasure at once; rather He inspires in them a desire to seek out the truth, and makes them diligent merchants, and aids and directs them until they find the precious pearl. Saint Paul and St. Augustine will serve us as examples. Saint Paul was not seeking the true treasure, which is Christ; rather, he was persecuting Christ as a deceiver and Christians as deceived. And while he was on the journey, breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9:1), Christ appeared to him, and at one and the same time blinded the eyes of his body and enlightened the eyes of his heart with so great a light that he was immediately changed from a persecutor into a preacher. And although this befell him by a happy chance, yet what was chance in him was providence in God. For so he himself speaks in the Epistle to the Galatians: "You have heard," he says, "of my manner of life in times past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it, and advanced in the Jews' religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased him, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood" (Gal. 1:13-16), and what follows. St. Paul, then, was set apart from his mother's womb by divine providence to preach the Gospel of Christ; yet he himself did not seek the good pearl or the treasure in the field, but by good fortune the treasure showed itself to him and made itself loved by him with so ardent a charity that he spared no labors: nay, he even exposed himself to every danger and counted all things as dung, that he might gain Christ (Phil. 3:8). St. Augustine, on the other hand, began from his very youth to burn with the desire of finding the precious pearl, that is, true wisdom and eternal happiness. But having fallen into the sect of the Manichees, he labored long and much, both by seeking within himself and by disputing with others, that he might find the truth of the Gospel; and since in that sect he found nothing but fabulous and deceitful tales, he had almost despaired of finding the truth after spending so many years in the search. For so he himself speaks in the sixth book of the Confessions: "I had come," he says, "into the depth of the sea, and I distrusted and despaired of discovering the truth" (Conf. 6.4). Yet it pleased God that he should at length find the precious pearl; and then without any delay, having sold all things — that is, having cast off the desire of marriage, which held him most of all, and having spurned riches and honors, for which, as he himself confesses in the same book, he had a vehement longing — he bound himself wholly and forever to the service of God alone. This, then, is the reason why the Lord in the former parable compared the kingdom of heaven to a treasure found by chance and without labor, and in the latter said that it is like a pearl sought out by a merchant with great labor and diligence. It now remains for the Christian soul, alone with itself and before God, all other occupations being put aside for a time, to weigh seriously what manner of commerce this is, how profitable and how easy at this present time, and how difficult — or rather impossible — if the opportunity of the present market should be lost. Surely the children of this world would not let slip the chance of buying a pearl that could afterwards be sold for many thousands of gold coins and that can now, at the present market, be bought for a hundred silver coins, even if they had to borrow those hundred silver coins at the heaviest interest: and will the children of light be so imprudent as to refuse to buy a pearl that will make them rich and blessed for all eternity, when they are neither compelled to borrow money at interest nor obliged to run hither and thither in search of the price, but it is wholly enough to give freely what they have, even if they possess only two mites? Therefore, O Lord God, let Your light shine in our hearts; grant us to know the priceless worth of Your pearl, and together with it the cheapness of the price that is asked of us so that we may obtain it. Add, O Lord, to Your mercies, that You may not have shown us so precious a pearl in vain; and You who said: Cast not your pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6), grant by Your grace that, if we were once like swine — not knowing the dignity of Your pearl, and preferring acorns and husks to it — now, enlightened and taught by You, we may know Your pearl, and seek it, and, having sold off all things, purchase it with joy.

### CHAPTER III.

On the Day's Wage.

The third parable follows, that of the day's wage promised by the householder to those laboring in the vineyard, which parable is found in St. Matthew (Matt. 20). And at first sight the reward of eternal life seems to be much diminished in this parable, since it is compared to a day's wage, though before it had been compared to a treasure and a precious pearl. For the comparison would seem unfitting if a pearl, or a scepter, or a royal crown were promised to those who labor for a single day in the vineyard. But this diminution was employed so that the reward might correspond to the labor. Now, that this denarius is not a denarius of a few copper coins, but a heavenly denarius, and one which will abundantly suffice for food and clothing for all eternity, can easily be shown. For the reward ought to correspond to the labor; but the labor of those who work in the vineyard of Christ must not be measured by the mere substance of the work: for then we should all have to say with the Apostle: The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). Rather, that labor must be measured by the grace of God dwelling in the hearts of the just — which is a fountain of living water springing up unto life everlasting — and by the charity which is poured forth in us by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5); and the crown of eternal life has been prepared by God for those who love him, as St. James writes (James 1:12). It must likewise be measured by our union with Christ, who, as the true vine, imparts the greatest worth and value to the fruits of the living branches and to the works of the living members of his mystical body, of which he himself is the head (John 15:5), and to whom he himself said: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven (Matt. 5:12). Finally, will not the Lord say to those laboring in the vineyard: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat (Matt. 25:34-35)? For the works of charity belong above all to the labor in which we sweat in the vineyard of the Lord. Behold, then, how precious is that denarius which by the Lord himself is called a kingdom. Nor without reason can this denarius be called a kingdom, since it represents Christ himself no less than the treasure or the pearl. For on a denarius is seen stamped the image of the prince, together with the inscribed words and the round shape. Now Christ is the image of the invisible God, according to the Apostle (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15), and the Word of the eternal Father, according to John the Evangelist (John 1:1); and he has neither beginning of days nor end of life, according to the Apostle writing to the Hebrews — which is signified by the round shape (Heb. 7:3). And lastly, All things obey money (Eccl. 10:19), as most wise Solomon says; and Christ is Lord of all, as St. Peter testifies in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 10:36). Therefore the denarius which is given to those laboring in the vineyard is Christ, the true God, and therefore eternal life, as St. John says in his first Epistle:

And we may know the true God, and may be in His true Son. This is the true God and life eternal. But let us see how precious that denarius is, which those who have once obtained will need nothing more. Call the laborers, says the Lord, and pay them their reward (Matt. 20). Therefore it will be given to those laboring in the vineyard without intermission, without ceasing, without negligence; but it will not be given to those standing idle in the marketplace, or busied with fowling, or hunting, or games and sports: for the reward is rendered to merits, it is not given gratis, and much less is it bestowed on the undeserving. For when the Apostle says, The wages of sin is death, but the grace of God, life everlasting (Rom. 6), he says it for this reason: because without the grace of God going before, no one can work well in such a way that the reward of eternal life would be owed to him; but once grace has been received, which is given gratis and not from works, eternal life will indeed be the wages of good works. For so speaks St. Augustine in his Letter to Sixtus, the Roman priest: "Just as death is paid as wages to the merit of sin, so eternal life is paid as wages to the merit of justice." (Ep. 105) Nor, because the same denarius is given to all the laborers, is it to be thought that in the kingdom of heaven the rewards are equal for all; for the denarius signifies eternal life, or God, or Christ; and eternal life, and God and Christ, will be common to all. But just as the same sun is seen more clearly by the eagle than by other birds, and the same fire warms those near more than those far off; so in the same eternal life, among those who see God and Christ, one will see more clearly and rejoice with more delight than another: and as merits will be diverse, so also will rewards be diverse. It might be more puzzling why the Lord changed the order in distributing the reward, saying: Pay them their reward, beginning from the last even to the first. So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen (Matt. 20). But this pertains to the grace of the New Testament, that we may understand that we are happier than the Fathers of the Old Testament: and therefore let us be grateful to God, and labor in His vineyard more diligently and more eagerly. The holy Fathers who cultivated the vineyard of the Lord before Christ's ascension — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the rest of the Patriarchs and the Prophets, who were called at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours — not only for a long time labored their whole life through, since they lived longer; but also after death waited for the reward, that is, the denarius, for many centuries of years, and even for some thousands of years. The Apostles, and the Martyrs, and the rest of the laborers, who at the eleventh, that is, the last hour — as St. John testifies (1 John 2) — labored for a few years, and immediately after death entered the kingdom of heaven and received the denarius. How great is this grace, how mighty, how solid, that a Christian, if he wills, can by enduring a very brief labor ascend at once to that place to which the most holy Patriarchs and the Prophets sighed for so very long a time! Not without cause did those ancient Fathers say, with a kind of murmur that seems to signify wonder rather than complaint: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But the Lord answered for us: Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is thine, and go: but I will give to this last even as to thee. Which answer does not mean that the men of the New Testament receive a reward equal to theirs from grace and not from justice: but that they had a more abundant grace, through which in a short time they labored no less, or even more, in the vineyard than those did in a long time, and so received an equal reward. Certainly did not the Apostles — in a short time indeed, but bearing by far the greatest fruit for the Lord — leaving aside all temporal cares and traversing almost the whole world, draw entire provinces of the Gentiles to the true worship of God? When in those ancient times did so vast an army of Martyrs endure all torments and the most bitter deaths for the faith of the true God? When in the Old Testament were so many choirs of holy Virgins found who, following the spotless Lamb, vowed and rendered to God the integrity of soul and body? And where in that ancient time were so many Pastors and Doctors who, watching over their flock, fought with most learned writings against the impious, that is, heretics and Gentiles? Where, finally, was so great a number of Hermits and Monks, and other religious, who, emulating the life of the Angels, spent days and nights in the praises of God and in prayer alone? These and other examples of the most eminent virtue of this kind pertain to the grace of the New Testament: on account of which grace the Lord rightly concludes the parable with these words: So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen; that is, many were called to cultivate the vineyard in all the ages of the world through the eleven hours, but few chosen — that is, not few in number, but the men of only one, and that the last, hour were chosen for the grace of the New Testament, through which they both produced the greatest fruit by their labor and received the greatest rewards in the shortest time. Nor indeed is it to be thought that all who were called at the eleventh hour will receive the denarius, but only those who in that briefest time labored with all their strength in the vineyard of the Lord: for very many there are who, knowing that this is the last hour and that we have but little time, do not say, as would be fitting, "Our life is short; therefore let us labor strenuously, so that in the small space of time we may bring forth the greatest fruit," but with the foolish say what is read in the book of Wisdom: They said, thinking within themselves not rightly: Brief and tedious is the time of our life; and there is no rest at the end of a man, nor has anyone been known to return from the netherworld (Wis. 2); and a little after: Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are, and let us use the creatures speedily as in youth. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let not the flower of the time pass us by. Let us crown ourselves with roses before they wither; let there be no meadow that our luxury does not pass through. Let none of us be without his share in our luxury; let us everywhere leave signs of joy: for this is our portion. These are the words of those who either knew not God, or saying that they know God denied Him in deeds and works. And indeed they are so many that to them also can be applied that conclusion: Many are called, but few are chosen. For many are called at the last hour, but few are chosen, because few have so labored as to deserve to receive the denarius. Woe therefore to us, who, called at the last hour, consume a great part of that little hour in playing and sleeping, when we ought to be so solicitous about every single moment that not even one moment should slip idly away from us: for on these moments hangs the eternity of rewards or of punishments. And the more excellent the grace of the New Testament granted to Christians, so much the more grievously will they be punished who receive that grace in vain: and as they shall be the last made first in receiving the reward who have labored strenuously at the last hour, so they shall be the last made first in enduring punishments who have neglected to labor strenuously at the last hour.

### CHAPTER IV.

Of the Talents, and of the Joy of the Lord.

The fourth parable is that in which the Lord in Matthew speaks thus of the reward of beatitude: Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matt. 25). In this passage two things are promised to faithful servants: most ample power, and the greatest joy. Over many things, He says, I will place thee; and what those many things are, He explains in another place when He says: Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing: for he shall place him over all his goods (Matt. 24). But what is it to be placed over all the goods of the Lord, except to receive power over all inferior things, and to be made a sharer in the dominion which God has over the whole world? Who can grasp how great this power is? What king or emperor on earth can be compared with the least of the blessed?

But because so great a power does not seem capable of being held by a man without great care and disturbance of mind, therefore the Lord adds: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord: as if He wished to say, Just as I make thee a sharer in the highest power, so also I make thee a sharer in the highest rest and pleasure, which no care will be able to hinder or diminish. How great this joy is, which is promised to the just in heaven, is altogether inexplicable, nor shall we know it before we have learned it by experience. Meanwhile, however, from three words of this very sentence we may in some measure conjecture that that joy will be the greatest. The first word is, Enter thou, for that it is not said, Let the joy of thy Lord enter into thee, but on the contrary, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, is proof that this joy is greater than we can wholly contain. And so we shall enter, as it were, into a great sea of everlasting and divine joy, which will fill us wholly within and without, and will overflow on every side. What place, then, can there be for sadness amid so great an abundance of joy? The second word is, Into joy; where we are not promised this or that joy — the joy of this or that good — but joy itself absolutely, pleasure itself, delight itself, sweetness itself. And how should not the whole soul melt, suffused with such sweetness? But the third word is the one that heightens this matter beyond measure, namely, of your Lord. For we shall enter not into the joy in which men, or any Angels whatsoever, rejoice, but into that in which God rejoices — in whom all things are infinite. Who can conceive what manner of joy the joy of God is — His, who knows perfectly His own infinite goodness, and enjoys it, and rejoices in it in an infinite manner? And yet, O Christian, what you cannot now conceive, you will be able to experience and taste, and to enjoy forever, if you are willing to be a good and faithful servant.

Let us now see, therefore, to whom such great promises pertain. They pertain, surely, to those who have taken care to multiply faithfully the talents committed to them by God. For the comparison is taken from a rich man, who delivered his goods to his servants, and gave to one five talents, to another two, and to a third one; and he charged them to take care to multiply the talents by diligent and prudent trading.

Now the opinions of the sacred interpreters concerning the meaning of the talents are various. Some understand by the talents the graces bestowed; others, the holy Scriptures; others hold that the five talents are the knowledge of exterior things, which is acquired through the senses; that the two talents are the intellect and operation; and that the single talent is the intellect alone; others, finally, that they are natural goods, such as intelligence and judgment, and spiritual goods, such as the gift of faith, hope, and charity. But all agree in this: that to multiply the talents is to work well for one's own salvation and that of others. Another exposition occurs to me, which is not opposed to the others, and seems in every respect to fit what the Lord says of the talents. First, then, in this passage the goods of the Lord are called talents: He delivered to them, it says, His goods. Secondly, the talents are commanded to be multiplied by trading in the same kind: Thou didst deliver to me five talents; behold, I have gained other five. Thirdly, they are said to be given to each one according to his own ability. Lastly, the talent is taken away from the wicked and slothful servant. I therefore take the talents to be the souls of faithful and devout men, which are committed to the fidelity and diligence of prelates. For these are truly the goods of the Lord, which He does not give to us, but commits to us to be cared for and multiplied. For this reason the Lord did not say to Peter, Feed thy sheep, but, My sheep (John 21). The rest are our goods, though given by the Lord — such as intelligence, judgment, the Scriptures, graces freely given, and all the rest. But faithful and devout souls He calls His goods, His vineyard, His household, His bride: for these He came into the world; to redeem these He shed His blood; to win these He sent the Apostles, to whom He said: I will make you to be fishers of men (Matt. 4).

Moreover, faithful souls are multiplied in the same kind when a prelate converts sinners by word and example, as St. Peter did (Acts 2), when to the one hundred and twenty faithful whom Christ had at first committed to him, when He said, Feed my sheep, he converted on the day of Pentecost, in that very first sermon, about three thousand men, then about five thousand (Acts 4), and afterwards many thousands. And St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, who when he was made Bishop of Neocaesarea found seventeen faithful, so multiplied them that, when he was at the point of death, in so large a city only seventeen unbelievers were left — a thing which St. Gregory of Nyssa relates in the Life of the same St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, which he wrote at length and with great care.

Moreover, these talents are committed to each one according to his own ability. God also, who knows the strength of all — that is, their prudence, knowledge, charity, and fortitude — does not entrust souls save to those whom He knows to be fit to bear that burden. And therefore no one ought to thrust himself into the care of souls, into the episcopate especially, unless called by Him who distributes the talents according to each one's own ability. Otherwise it will be no wonder if many fall beneath the burden; nor will they find excuse before God if they say that they had not shoulders equal to so great a load. For it will be answered: Who forced you to take up a burden beyond your strength? Did you not yourself desire it, and beg for it, and strive to obtain it? Now therefore suffer yourself to be cast, bound hand and foot, into the exterior darkness.

Finally, the talent committed to the slothful servant is taken away from him. And this also fits most exactly, if we say that the talents are the souls of the faithful. For he who received one talent — that is, the care of his own soul alone — if he has not cared for it rightly, will lose his soul: for he will become a slave of the devil. For just as the blessed acquire the liberty of the children of God, whereby they abide most freely where they will and do whatever they will, so on the contrary the reprobate lose all liberty; and with hands and feet bound, they can neither walk where they will, nor do what they desire, but are forced to remain where they do not wish, and to do none of the things they wish; and this is to lose one's soul. And so this interpretation, in which the talents are understood to be the souls of the faithful, is in every way fitted to the parable. But to show how the other interpretations can be aptly fitted to it is very difficult; yet they are not on that account false, or to be rejected, because it is not necessary that everything be fitted, as St. John Chrysostom rightly observes, but it is enough that what is principal in the parable be fitted (Hom. 48 and 65 on Matthew). We, however, will follow out our own exposition, not rejecting the others, as I have said.

Therefore the Lord committed talents to three kinds of men: to those who are perfect, such as bishops ought to be, He gave five talents, that is, whole peoples to be cared for; to others less perfect, such as parish priests usually are, two talents, that is, fewer souls, such as are contained in one parish; to others still more unskilled and weak, such as the common people, to each a single talent, that is, the care of his own soul alone. Yet these too ought, in such way as they can — by the word of private exhortation and by the example of an innocent life — to convert others from sins to the way of justice, and in that way to multiply the talent committed to them. And what has been said of bishops and parish priests must likewise be understood of secular princes and magistrates, and of fathers of families. For so writes St. Augustine: "Let every father of a family acknowledge that by this name he owes a father's affection to his household. For Christ and for eternal life let him admonish all his own, teach them, exhort them, rebuke them, show them kindness, exercise discipline: so in his own house he will fulfill an ecclesiastical and, in a manner, episcopal office" (Tract. LI on John). And in this sense Constantine the Great used to say that he was a bishop outside the Church — he who took care, as far as he could, that the Church be preserved and spread, yet did not usurp ecclesiastical functions.

And lest anyone should think that in this parable only one man, or only one kind of men, is reproved — because he alone who had received one talent is read to have been reproved and punished — it must be known that the Lord willed that from him we should understand the dangers of those in higher office. For just as from this — that at the last judgment He will give rewards to those who gave corporal alms (Matt. 25), and punishments to those who did not — we understand that greater rewards are in store for those who give spiritual alms, and the greatest for the holy Apostles and Martyrs and for Virgins who exercise heroic virtues; and on the contrary that thieves and robbers and perjurers and the sacrilegious are to be afflicted with greater torments than those who did not bestow alms on the poor: so also in this place, from the fact that he who had received one talent — which he could easily have multiplied — yet did not multiply it, is most gravely punished, we ought to understand that it is so much the easier for bishops and pastors and princes and magistrates to fail in this matter, as the office they exercise is graver and more perilous; and that they are to be punished in the judgment so much the more severely, as the loss of many souls is greater than that of one.

Let us hear what St. Augustine says of the danger of ecclesiastical office in the letter he wrote to his bishop Valerius: "Above all things I beg that your religious prudence consider that there is nothing in this life, and especially at this time, easier or more pleasant or more acceptable to men than the office of Bishop or Presbyter or Deacon, if the charge be discharged perfunctorily or with flattery; but nothing before God sadder, more wretched, or more damnable. Likewise, that there is nothing in this life, and especially at this time, more difficult or more laborious than the office of Bishop or Presbyter or Deacon; but before God nothing more blessed, if the warfare be waged in the manner our Emperor commands" (Epist. 141). So he writes — and in the rest of the letter he treats this same argument in such a way that care must be taken that all churchmen read it attentively, and most of all those who rashly aspire to the episcopate or the presbyterate, and who, when they have obtained what they sought and found what they desired, either desert their flock or, intent on other matters, think of nothing less than of caring for and increasing the number of the faithful and devout. Certainly the shepherds, on the night of the birth of the Lord, the Prince of all shepherds, kept the night watches over their flock (Luke 2); and if this was done over a flock devoid of reason by those who bore the figure of the shepherds of the Church, how much more ought it to be done by those who are truly her shepherds — Christ Himself, while He dwelt on earth, having passed the whole night in prayer, not surely for Himself but keeping vigil for His sheep (Luke 6)?

And if the patriarch Jacob was so worn out with labor for the sheep of his father-in-law Laban that he said, Day and night was I parched with heat and with frost, and sleep departed from my eyes: what ought the shepherd of the sheep of Christ to do, for whom He shed His blood? And if the Devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5), would it not also be just that the good shepherd should continually go about his flock, seeking whom he might set free?

But, they will say, the affairs of the Church itself compel us to desert the flock. I do not gainsay it, if the business is weighty and only a short time need be spent in dispatching it; otherwise greater affairs must be set before lesser ones, and the greater they ought to dispatch in person, the lesser through others. For if business compels them to leave the flock, greater business — nay, even the most grievous wars — compels them not to leave the defense of the flock. For the Apostolic trumpet thunders: Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places (Eph. 6). And if the leader is absent, who will teach the soldiers how they are to quench the fiery darts of the most wicked one? Certainly the Lord said to Peter, and in him to all pastors, Feed my sheep; the rest He passed over in silence, that we might understand this alone to be the chief duty. And in the episcopal consecration it is said, Go, preach to the people committed to your care — and nothing is added concerning temporal affairs, so that the bishop is warned that temporal things are not to be made equal to spiritual things, and much less preferred to them. Finally, in the Council of Carthage (Fourth Council of Carthage, canons 41, 48, 19, 20), with what earnestness it is enjoined on bishops that they should conduct the care of widows and orphans and strangers not in person but through an archpriest or an archdeacon; that they should not undertake the trusteeship of wills; that they should neither litigate nor lodge appeals over transitory things; and that they should take upon themselves no care of household affairs, but devote themselves solely to reading, to prayer, and to the word of preaching.

And so a council of two hundred and fourteen bishops — that is, of the whole of Africa — at which St. Augustine also was present, willed that bishops should without exception handle all temporal affairs, even pious and necessary ones, through others, so that they themselves might be freer to devote themselves to guarding and increasing the flock. This parable, therefore, just as it shows eternal happiness to be a thing especially to be desired — since it contains the greatest power joined with the greatest pleasure — so also shows that the way to that happiness is unceasing labor, spent in seeking and procuring the salvation of one's own soul and of others. Those who refuse to undergo this labor are deprived not only of that happiness and of that surpassing power and pleasure, but, condemned to hell, they suffer eternal punishments. For so speaks the Lord: And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25). And here it must also be carefully observed that the servant who is sentenced to so great a punishment is called not impious, not criminal, not wicked, but merely unprofitable: for even if a bishop or a parish priest, or a prince or a magistrate, or a father of a family, or anyone else whatsoever, be free of other crimes, for this alone — that he has been unprofitable, that is, has not procured the salvation of those under his charge — he is cast into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth which shall never end. And if the unprofitable servant will suffer these things, what will become of the wicked servant — the covetous, the proud, the lustful, the one covered with many vices? If the unprofitable servant is rejected, what account will the impious and treacherous one render to the Lord for the talents committed to him? Surely those who consider these things do not aspire to posts of authority; and if they are forced to undertake them, they keep watch always with fear and trembling, as men who must render a most exact account for the souls committed to them.

### CHAPTER V.

On the great supper.

The fifth parable, which is in St. Luke, makes the happiness of the blessed like to a great supper (Luke 14). And certainly not without great reason; for in a great supper — whether a wedding or a royal one — are found all things that can delight the human senses and display power, and riches, and the glory of this world. Thus Ahasuerus, who reigned over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, when he wished to display the riches of the glory of his kingdom and the greatness and boast of his power, found no more fitting and suitable means than to give a banquet most magnificent in every respect (Esth. 1). For first, at a great supper the eyes are delighted by the sumptuous array of the whole hall, by the order of the attendants clothed in comely and costly garments, and by the vessels of gold and silver in which the dishes are brought in; the ears are delighted by the hearing of various musical instruments and the voices of men and women singing; the sense of smell is delighted by the fragrance of flowers and roses, by precious ointments and perfumed waters, and by other things breathing a most sweet scent; the sense of taste is delighted by the seasonings of every kind of food and by precious wines gathered from every quarter; and finally the sense of touch is delighted by the reclining or resting upon the softest and most pleasant couches. Thus at a royal and wedding supper are gathered together nearly all the bodily goods that can be found here on earth — so that not without cause the Lord, wishing to set forth the happiness which in itself comprehends all goods, willed to compare it to a great supper — of which it is also read in the Apocalypse: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19). Next, how great that supper of the Lord is can be known from this: that all the glory of the glorified bodies will be, as it were, the last course of the meal, at which the sweetmeats are served. And so great is the sweetness of those sweetmeats that St. Peter, once seeing the body of the Lord shining like the sun, said: It is good for us to be here (Matt. 17). And if such are the sweetmeats, what will be the substance of the supper, which consists in the fruition of the Godhead?

Finally, all the goods of this world are nothing else than, as it were, the rinds and shells of the fruits of paradise. And if the shells and rinds are such that men are driven mad with love and desire of them, what will the fruits themselves and the apples of paradise be? And if the apples and the fruits are such, what will the other foods be, more solid and more excellent? Surely they will be such that they are always eaten without satiety, and always desired. Yet we must not suppose that in heaven there will be a supper such as great princes have here when they celebrate a wedding feast; for in heaven we shall be like the Angels of God, who neither marry nor take wives (Matt. 22), nor partake of the foods necessary for sustaining mortal life. There will therefore be a supper full of riches and delights and adornments and glory, befitting the state of the blessed. For these things are said to us at this time because we do not see better and greater things; but from them we ought to learn that that supper will be so much better than our suppers, however sumptuous, as heaven is distant from the earth, and as God, who will prepare it, surpasses mortal kings in power and riches.

But why, someone will say, is the happiness of the blessed compared to a supper rather than to a dinner? The reason is this: dinner is taken at midday, and after dinner business is usually transacted until evening; but supper is taken at the end of the day, when all business has been finished, and after supper come rest and sleep. And so in the other parable, which is in Matthew, where the Incarnation of the Lord is treated (Matt. 22), a dinner is introduced on account of the wedding feast which a king made for his son. For the Incarnation of the Lord and His marriage with the Church, His bride, were begun at midday — that is, a good while before the end of the world. After that dinner many weighty affairs were accomplished, and above all the redemption of the world and the reconciliation of men with God. But the bringing of the bride to the house of the bridegroom, and the nuptial supper, will take place at the evening of the day and the end of the world, when all business shall have ceased and the sweetest sleep — that is, eternal rest — shall follow. This, then, is the reason why the consummate and perfect glory of the blessed is called a supper rather than a dinner.

But it will be worth the effort to see what must be done in order that we may be admitted to that supper. And this the Lord Himself taught plainly enough in His parable; for He says: A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. But they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it: I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them: I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. A marvelous thing! Men are invited by God to a royal wedding supper, and they refuse: what would they do if they were called to the labor of military service, or to a long and dangerous journey? This surely is the blindness of man, which can hardly be brought to believe what it does not see. But what is it, after all, that mortals prefer to the divine supper — that is, to the supreme and eternal Good?

The Lord sets forth three impediments to salvation which are not evil in their own kind, and yet, through a disordered affection, hinder eternal salvation. To buy a farm, to try oxen, and to marry a wife are not sins; but to prefer these things to the kingdom of heaven is an incredible blindness: and yet many Christians are everywhere to be found who pursue those temporal things with so great eagerness — honor or dignity or power, which is noted in the purchase of the farm; gain or profit, which is signified in the cultivation of the fields and the working of oxen; and the delight and pleasure taken in a new marriage — that they consume whole days and nights in acquiring and enjoying them, wholly forgetful of the eternal and greatest rewards which God has promised to those who love Him. Nor are most mortals content to buy farms, try yokes of oxen, and marry wives; but, so as to depart as far as possible from salvation, they invade the farms of others, steal oxen, and prefer concubines or harlots; nor do they ever think — much less consider — what a loss it is, for the sake of such trifles, to forfeit the supper of the Lord. For indeed, if God did not promise us worms a supper of infinite sweetness in heaven, but promised only the crumbs falling from that table or the leavings of the food, it would still profit us to despise all temporal goods, that we might be able to enjoy those crumbs and leavings. How great a madness is it, then, to prefer fleeting worldly pleasures to the very supper of the Lord, which abounds in all good and everlasting things, and at which we shall recline in the heavenly kingdom together with the holy Angels and with the Lord of Angels Himself?

Moreover, after our Lord had shown what hinders entrance to the great supper, He added also the remedies by which those impediments may be removed; for He continues in His parable, and says: Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame. Because the rich, occupied in buying farms and oxen and in marrying wives, refused to go to the supper of the great Father of the family, He calls the poor, who have no money to buy farms and oxen and do not easily find wives, since they have not the means to support them. He calls the feeble, who can neither set out for the farm, nor try oxen by driving them, nor marry wives. He calls the blind, who can neither view a farm, nor guide oxen, nor easily find a wife. He calls the lame, who can only with the greatest difficulty go to the farm, drive oxen, and dance at the wedding feast. These, then, as being free from all the impediments by which the former were bound, and admitted to the great supper, may deservedly congratulate themselves that God willed them to be poor, feeble, blind, and lame. Many complain in this life that they were born poor, or are often sick, or are deprived of their sight, or are hindered in their feet, and seem to be most unfortunate; and they do not know what good God prepares for them in the world to come on account of this very thing which men call misfortune: but if they knew, they would surely rejoice and exult. Therefore no one ought to complain of the providence of God, but in all things give thanks to God, the best of fathers, who has care of us, and always acquiesce in His will.

But although these things are so, in this place the poor are properly understood to be those who are poor in spirit, not in wealth; the feeble, not in strength but in confidence in themselves; the blind, not in eyes but in cunning; and the lame, not in feet but in affections. I will say this more plainly. The poor who are admitted to the supper of the Lord are those who, hearing the Apostle, do not wish to become rich (1 Tim. 6), and if they have money, they have it not in order to heap it up or to spend it on vanities, but to do what the Holy Spirit says through the mouth of David: He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever and ever (Ps. 111). And the feeble are understood to be those who do not trust in their own virtue, nor glory in their own strength. And the blind are those who truly believe what they do not see, especially concerning the rewards of the just and the punishments of the wicked. For they who are firmly persuaded that the rewards of the just are truly the greatest and everlasting, and that the punishments of the wicked are likewise most bitter and will never have an end, surely do not remain fixed to the earth, nor do they think much of the things that are beneath the moon; but their hearts are fixed there where true joys are. Finally, those are well and happily lame, and may deservedly aspire to the supper of the Lord, whose right foot is much longer than the left — that is, whose affection toward God and the everlasting goods is far, far greater than the left foot — that is, the love toward their own flesh and toward earthly and temporal goods.

But let us hear the sentence of the great Father of the family against those who thoughtlessly and most foolishly despised His supper: I say to you, He says, that none of those men who were invited shall taste of My supper. For the Lord knows that in a short time those who had been invited and, clinging to present things, had despised the future goods as empty — once the body has been laid aside, the senses of the flesh extinguished, and the earthly goods left behind upon the earth — will hunger for that supper with an incredible desire. For as the Prophet David says: They shall return at evening, and shall suffer hunger like dogs, and shall go round about the city (Ps. 58). Plainly, at evening — when the day of this present life is ended — they will return and come to their senses, when repentance will be useless; and they will suffer hunger like ravenous dogs, and will go round about the city of the Lord, if perhaps they may be able to obtain crumbs of that supper. But the sentence of the Lord stands firm: none of them shall taste of My supper.

O if you knew, O soul, what it means: You shall not taste of My supper. O if you could grasp how great that hunger of the wretched will be, and how sweet the food of which they will be deprived for ever. And what would they then give, if only they could taste — even if they held the whole world in their power, they would most readily renounce it all. Since these things are so, let us be converted while we have time, while it is day, and while repentance is fruitful. Let us now hunger for that most sweet supper; let us now suffer hunger — not like unclean and ravenous dogs, which in taking food think of nothing but the good of the mouth and the belly, but like men who share in reason — let us hunger for the food of eternal life and the bread of Angels, or even for that hidden manna which no man knoweth, but he that receiveth it (Rev. 2), and of which God Himself has the fruition from eternity and for eternity; and let us so live in this exile that we love not the exile, but sigh for our homeland; and when we have arrived there, we shall not need to go round about the city, but shall enter through the wide-open gate and, freely admitted to the supper of the Lord, shall be satisfied with the bread of life and the water of wisdom — that is, with the most pleasing and sweetest food and drink.

### CHAPTER VI.

Of the Wedding Feast, and of the Wise and Foolish Virgins.

Finally, there is the parable which likens the happiness of the blessed to a royal wedding feast, to which ten virgins were invited (Matt. 25): five foolish and five wise. Here it must first be briefly explained who the bridegroom is and who the bride; then, how excellent a good is signified by the name of wedding feast; and lastly, what is required that we may be able to attain so excellent a good.

And first, no one can doubt that the Bridegroom is Christ. St. John the Baptist expressed this in plain words when, speaking of Christ, he says: He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice (John 3). The Lord Himself says the same in the parable of the king who made a wedding feast for his son (Matt. 22). The Apostle confirms the same most plainly when he says to the Corinthians: I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11). Lastly, St. John signifies the same in the Apocalypse when he says: Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him: for the wedding feast of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself (Rev. 19). And again: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Of the bride it is equally certain that she is the Church; for the Apostle in the Epistle to the Ephesians says plainly: As the Church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it (Eph. 5). And further on: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church.

But although the Church is the bride of Christ, and the faithful are called sons of the Church because through the laver of Baptism she in a manner brings them forth to Christ: nevertheless, since the Church is nothing other than the assembly of the faithful, all faithful souls are therefore particular brides, just as the Church is the universal bride. For the Church does not sing falsely of the holy virgins: Come, bride of Christ, receive the crown which the Lord hath prepared for thee forever. (And although holy virgins are called brides of Christ in a special sense — because they spurned carnal wedlock that they might be spiritually wedded to Christ alone — yet the other Christian souls too are brides of Christ, since they are espoused to Him by faith and united by charity, and sigh for the consummation of the spiritual marriage in the kingdom of heaven.)

Now indeed, what manner of good it is for a human soul to be joined in wedlock with Christ — and with Him even as He is God — if anyone could grasp it or worthily conceive it, he would perhaps find nothing more honorable, nothing more profitable, nothing sweeter either in this world or in the world to come. Great is the glory, the profit, and the sweetness of serving the King of kings; greater still, to be numbered among the friends and household of God and to be called a brother of Christ; but that a soul may be called the bride of God — sharer of His throne, sharer of His bed, sharer of His crown, sharer of all His titles — seems to me, if I may so speak, a good more than the greatest. For this is what the Lord says in Isaiah of the spiritual eunuchs: I will give them in my house a name better than sons and daughters (Isa. 56) — that is, I will give them the name of a spouse. Who can grasp how exalted, how honorable, and how full of delight it is not only to see God and to converse and dwell with God, but to be made one spirit with God, and to be transformed into God — that is, into the supreme good? They are the Apostle's words: He that cleaveth to a harlot is made one body; for they shall be two in one flesh. But he that cleaveth to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6). And again: But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from brightness to brightness, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3). What a sense of delight there will be when, united to God and irradiated by the brightness of His countenance, we shall be transformed into the very brightness of God, so as to be made most like to God! We shall be like to him, says St. John, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3). Nor shall we be like Him only as images created after His likeness, but like in glory, in beatitude, in happiness. The Apostle Paul, in that great ecstasy which he underwent when, caught up into paradise, he heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter (2 Cor. 12), was not yet in God; and yet he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body. How great, then, will be that most blessed union of the soul with God, and how swallowed up and immersed in a sea of all sweetness will that soul be which shall be one spirit with God! Such surely will this joy be that, as St. Bernard attests, compared with it every other delight is sadness, every sweetness pain, all that is sweet bitter, all that is comely foul, and in short everything else that can delight is rightly judged a burden. But since this embrace of the most beautiful Bridegroom with the blessed soul is ineffable, let us rather inquire, and understand from the parable proposed, what is required that we may be admitted to that wedding feast which is in every part most blessed. All this we shall learn from the qualities of the wise virgins, since they alone — the foolish being shut out — went in to the wedding feast of the heavenly Bridegroom. Five are the conditions or qualities that are required: first, that the soul be a virgin; secondly, that she be wise; then, that she have light in her lamp; further, oil in her vessel; and lastly, that she watch, and by watching diligently observe the Bridegroom's coming.

As to the first: all brides of Christ must be virgins — not necessarily in the flesh, but in the virginity of faith and morals — as St. Augustine rightly expounds in his sermons On the Words of the Lord, on that saying of the Apostle: I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (Serm. 93), where by that virgin he understands the whole Church of the Corinthians, in which it is certain enough that not all were virgins in the flesh (2 Cor. 11), since the same Apostle in the former Epistle admonished married believers of their duty. They therefore are the virgins in this parable — men and women alike — who are not corrupted in faith and morals, and who, departing from all evil, do not defile their souls.

But because for perfect justice it is not enough to decline from evil, but one must also do good — according to the royal Prophet, Decline from evil, and do good (Ps. 36) — therefore a second condition is added: that the virgin be wise, not foolish; and that she not think it enough for herself if she harms no one, does not kill, does not steal, does not bear false witness, but that she understand that she must consider the last end and order the means to that end.

And because the end is eternal life, and the means are the merits of good works, therefore a third condition is added: that she have light in her lamp, or a burning lamp — which is good works, as the same St. Augustine teaches in the place cited; and the Lord Himself taught it before, when He said: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

But because good works proceed from charity as from a root, and cannot be preserved unless they are fostered and nourished by the same charity — just as the light of a lamp is necessarily extinguished if the supply of oil fails — therefore a fourth condition is required: that the wise virgin have always oil in her vessel. Moreover, that charity is signified by the oil, St. Augustine teaches in the same place, from the fact that oil rises above all other liquids; and charity is above all virtues, as the Apostle says: A yet more eminent — or, as we read, a more excellent — way I show unto you (1 Cor. 12). And a little after: And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three: but the greater of these is charity (1 Cor. 13). Therefore, if anyone in his heart either sets anything before charity or makes anything equal to it, charity at once departs; for she must either hold the first place and rule and reign in our heart, or go away — because oil is a most subtle, airy, and fiery liquid, which ascends above all others. And so great is the power of the oil of charity in mounting upward that, if it be poured into the soul of a publican or of a harlot, it at once draws that soul upward, and of a sinner makes a saint, of a carnal a spiritual soul. Nay, I even dare to say that if this oil could drip into the souls of damned men, or into the very demons, we should at once see all the damned, or all the demons, mount on high; and if, on the contrary, this oil should forsake the souls of the holy Angels, Apostles, Martyrs, and Virgins, they would at once grow heavy and sink down to the depths. Behold, then, how great is the excellence of this oil, and how justly are the foolish virgins so called, who lacked this oil. But there is yet another reason why charity is signified by oil: namely, that oil renders all hard and rough things soft and smooth. This oil makes sweet the yoke of which the Lord said: My yoke is sweet (Matt. 11), since by the grace of charity the yoke laid upon us is rotted away, as it were, at the presence of the oil, as Isaiah says (Isa. 10). For what made sweet in the Apostles the yoke of obedience — of going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to every creature — but the oil of charity? What made sweet in the Martyrs the yoke of patience in enduring very many torments, unheard of before that time, but the oil of charity? What made sweet the yoke of poverty, of continence, and of obedience for so many thousands of religious and of nuns, but the oil of charity? For nothing is sweeter to one who loves than to show his love to the beloved by doing or enduring great and difficult things for him; even as Christ also showed His love toward the human race by nothing more than by suffering for us.

I have spoken of the oil at somewhat greater length, because it could not easily be understood how it signified charity. There remains the fifth condition, which is the chief one, and the one especially intended by the Lord in this parable, namely, watchfulness: for so the parable is concluded: Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour (Matt. 25). And that this saying may be deeply fixed in the hearts of the faithful, the Lord repeats it again and again: Watch, He says again in Matthew, because you know not what hour your Lord will come (Matt. 24). And in Mark: Watch ye therefore, for you know not when the lord of the house cometh: at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch (Mark 13). And in Luke: Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching (Luke 12). And elsewhere: Watch ye therefore, praying at all times (Luke 21). And through St. Peter: Be prudent, and watch in prayers (1 Pet. 4). And through St. Paul: Let us not sleep, as also the others; but let us watch, and be sober (1 Thess. 5). And through St. John: Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth (Rev. 16). All these things signify that the day and the hour are uncertain — whether at the consummation of the world or in each one's particular death — and that therefore God requires of us that we should always keep watch, our soul in suspense with the expectation of His coming, that He may find us prepared and not
be forced to shut us out of His wedding feast together with the foolish virgins. Therefore to sleep is nothing else than to forget death and judgment, or so to live as if we never thought of, nor cared about, a matter so great upon which eternal salvation hangs. For bodily sleep is not forbidden to the faithful — otherwise it would not be said in the parable, They all slumbered and slept — but what is forbidden is forgetfulness, thoughtlessness, and heedlessness.

Therefore every faithful man who has the salvation of his soul at heart ought every day, both morning and evening, having shut the door of his heart to all other business, to think attentively, and there to persuade himself with certainty that that day or that night could easily be his last; and thereby seriously to provide lest he be found so unprepared that he suffer the loss of his soul and of all goods together. All mortals indeed shrink from thinking of death, and gladly turn the mind away to other things to be thought of; but the sick man also shrinks from the bitter medicine, and yet for love of life willingly takes it; and the eyes shrink from seeing a ghastly wound in their own body, yet still they look attentively, so as to apply the remedy to it,

So therefore it is necessary that a prudent man count the loss of his soul of more moment than the horror of death, and that he think again and yet again that there is no age and no hour in which he cannot die. For this thought, when it descends deep into the inmost heart, is wont easily to change the whole man, and to make of the carnal man a spiritual one, and of the sinner a saint, so that he no longer dreads but loves the coming of the Lord. Not without cause does our Lord so often exhort us to watch; nor in vain does Sirach admonish: In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin (Sir. 7). For who, thinking that he is hastening to the Judge and must shortly be made to stand before His tribunal, would dare to sin against that very Judge? And yet we are all hastening at every moment to the judgment; and so great is human blindness that on the very road to the judgment we outrage the Judge Himself and most justly provoke His wrath against us. And what man already condemned to death, while he is being led to it, would laugh and jest, and talk of fornication or adultery, or of obtaining some dignity, or of increasing his wealth by trading, unless he were plainly out of his senses? And yet we are truly condemned to death, nor does any of the children of Adam escape the sentence of death; and our mortal life is nothing else than a race toward death; and yet on this journey, which cannot be long, what do most men — even Christians — do? What
do they think of, what do they speak of, what do they busy themselves with, save gains, honors, and pleasures — not to say crimes and shameful deeds — as though the road to death were never to be ended? And what else is this but to sleep toward serious things and to watch toward trifles? or to sleep, and in sleeping to dream?

Rightly therefore does the Lord cry out: Watch, watch. And blessed are they who are roused by this voice, and call to mind where they are and whither they are going, and meanwhile take pains that their lamp may shine and that oil may abound in the vessel; so that when that cry is heard, Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him, they may straightway run joyfully to meet the bridegroom, and enter with him into the wedding feast. But woe to those who, forgetful of so great a matter and deaf to the voices of the Scriptures, are found sleeping with their lamps extinguished, and, shut out of the sweetest wedding feast, will cry in vain: Lord, Lord, open to us.

### CHAPTER VII.

On the Prize.

Having explained the parabolic names which are found in the Gospel, it remains only to explain the names which are found in the Apostle in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, namely, the prize and the crown. Of the prize St. Paul speaks thus: They that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain (1 Cor. 9). And that by the prize is signified heavenly beatitude, the same Apostle teaches in the Epistle to the Philippians when he says: Forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3). Therefore the prize is in heaven, and to it God calls us through Jesus Christ. For although the prize which the princes of the world set forth is not so very great a thing, yet the heavenly prize cannot but be in every respect most splendid, whether you consider God, who sets it forth — a Prince of infinite power and magnificence, of whom the Prophet sings: Thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens (Ps. 8) — or those who run, who are His sons and the brothers of Christ; whom surely the King their Father would not invite to the race, if the prize were not a thing so great that it could worthily be sought even by the sons of God. What more concerns us is to see what it is to run for the prize, and by what art we may be able so to run as to obtain it. To run for the prize is nothing else than wholly
keeping the commandments of the Lord our God. For that the race-course is the law of the Lord, David testifies when he says: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord; and: I have run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst enlarge my heart (Ps. 118). Therefore they who run along the way of the commandments are running in the race-course toward the prize. Moreover, the art of so running that we may arrive and lay hold of the prize comprises three instructions. The first is this: that we should not depart from the race-course; for they who depart from the course will never arrive, because they run not toward the prize but into uncertainty. That he diligently avoided this, the Apostle testifies when he says: I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty. What is it to run outside the course? Not to run along the way of the commandments, but to decline to the right hand or to the left. For example, the Law says: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Lev. 19; Matt. 22). He who loves his neighbor as himself runs in the course, and runs toward the prize. He who loves his neighbor with such ardor that he does not fear to offend God for his neighbor's sake, and makes an idol for himself of a man, declines to the right hand and runs outside the course, and runs not toward the prize but into uncertainty; and the faster he runs — multiplying benefits upon that person whom he has set up as his idol — the more he goes astray and the farther he withdraws from the prize. But he who loves his neighbor less than is fitting, and when he sees him suffering need shuts up his bowels from him, as St. John says (1 John 3),
declines to the left hand, and runs neither in the course nor toward the prize, even though he may otherwise seem to do many good works. One must therefore love his neighbor as himself, neither more nor less than himself; that is, he must so conduct himself toward his neighbor that he does to his neighbors what he wishes to be done to himself by his neighbors (Matt. 7). For so explains this commandment God our Master, who gave it (Luke 6). And what I have said of the love of neighbor, which is an affirmative commandment, we can say also of the negative commandments. For he who steals others' goods declines to the right hand of the commandment, Thou shalt not steal, and departs from the course; but he who does not steal others' goods, but pours out and wastes his own, declines to the left hand and likewise departs from the course. For the just man, who alone remains in the course, departs no less from the course if he steals others' goods than if he wastes his own; because the virtue of liberality, which belongs to justice, has two opposite extreme vices: avarice and prodigality. The sum is this: he who would remain in the course must be altogether free of mortal sin. The second instruction is that he who desires to lay hold of the prize should run swiftly and perseveringly. He runs swiftly who keeps the commandments with an ardent will, according to that of the Psalm: Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord; he shall delight exceedingly in His commandments (Ps. 111). And that saying of the Apostle: fervent in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom. 12). He runs perseveringly who never wearies nor ceases to run, knowing that it is written: He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved (Matt. 10). And indeed these two things — to run swiftly, and not to grow weary nor interrupt one's course — seem almost contrary to each other, or at least exceedingly difficult. For he who runs swiftly is soon wearied and ceases to run; and he who does not wish to be wearied hastens slowly, and perseveres in the race with a measured step. Both are true; and therefore few attain the prize. For it is altogether necessary that he who desires to lay hold of the prize run both swiftly and perseveringly, because the time is short and the way long.

But if Christian men were willing to imitate those who run for a corruptible and paltry prize, they could easily run both swiftly and without intermission toward an incorruptible and very great prize. What, then, do those do who run for a corruptible and paltry prize? They lay aside burdens, they strip off their garments, and they run free and unencumbered. Let Christians, then, do this: let them lay aside the burdens of this world's cares, let them strip off the garments of carnal desires, or at least their attachment to earthly goods; and when they have done this, let them not glory in their own strength, but hope in the Lord; and then let them complain if, running swiftly, they grow weary in the course. This teaching is Isaiah's and Paul's, not mine. Isaiah in chapter 40 says thus: They that hope in the Lord shall run, and shall not be weary. But the Apostle says: This I say, brethren: the time is short; it remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as though they used it not (1 Cor. 7). By these words the Apostle does not forbid Christians to have wives, or to mourn in adversity, or to rejoice in prosperity, or to love the things that are necessary, or to use the goods of this world; but he admonishes them to employ moderation in all these things, and to cling to them with so slight an affection as if those things did not belong to them.

Let St. Melania, a most noble Roman matron, serve as our example, of whom St. Jerome speaks thus in the Epitaph of Blesilla: "St. Melania, the true nobility among the Christians of our time, when the body of her husband had but lately fallen and was not yet buried, lost two sons at once. I am about to tell a thing incredible, yet, Christ being my witness, not false. Who would not have thought her, in a frenzy and with hair disheveled, about to hurl herself upon the holy altars? Not a drop of a tear flowed; she stood unmoved; and, prostrate at the feet of Christ, as though she held Him, she smiled: 'I shall serve You more freely, Lord,' she said, 'since You have freed me from so great a burden.'" So spoke Jerome, who by this example, as by a choice commentary, declared what it means that they who have wives, and children, and the other goods of this world, should be as though they had them not — so that, free and unencumbered, they may run toward the prize.

But we have a still greater example in Job, who on a single day lost all his sons and daughters and all his substance, and, covered with sores, lay upon a dunghill — he who a little before had been the happiest of all the men of the East; and yet, as though these things did not concern him, he uttered that saying most full of wisdom: Naked came I forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1). Lastly, St. Peter with the rest of the Apostles — who first followed Christ as He ran toward the prize, to teach us what is required for running swiftly and perseveringly — says: Behold, we have left all things, and have followed Thee: what therefore shall we have? (Matt. 19) And the Lord, approving their purpose, answered, openly promising them the prize: Amen I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

There remains the third lesson: that he who longs for the prize must be joined to Christ. For as the Apostle says: All indeed run, but one receiveth the prize (1 Cor. 9). Now that one is, beyond all doubt, Christ — who rejoiced as a giant to run His course (Ps. 18), and of whom it is said in St. John: No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven (John 3). But Christ did not ascend alone, but with all those who are one with Him — that is, who are living and true members of His body, of which He is the head. And so all who run labor in vain, even if they distribute all their goods to the poor (1 Cor. 13), and deliver up their body so that it burns, unless they be joined to Christ through faith and charity, and become one with Him — as He Himself says when He speaks thus: As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us.

But there is also another mode of union with Christ, which wondrously helps one to run swiftly and perseveringly toward the prize. This is the union of the inner eye with Christ Himself, inasmuch as He is the prize. For Christ as man ran toward the prize; and as God, He is Himself the prize. For He is the true God and life eternal, as St. John testifies (1 John 5); which He also signified when He said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14). For as the truth He guides us; as the way He leads us on to Himself; as the life He brings us through to Himself. Nothing, therefore, is more profitable for obtaining the prize than never to turn one's eyes from the prize itself, and to say with the Prophet: My eyes are ever toward the Lord (Ps. 24).

For he who keeps the eye of his heart united to the prize neither sees nor hears what bystanders say or do, whether they watch or mock; he cares nothing for the judgments of others, whether they praise or blame; and with the Prophet he says: I am become as a man that heareth not (Ps. 37); and with the Apostle: But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man's day (1 Cor. 4). And moreover, the nearer he draws, the better he comes to know the greatness of the prize — a greatness which adds strength, and causes a man, however weary and worn, not to interrupt his course. Whoever, then, aspires to the heavenly prize, let him not depart from the racecourse of the Lord's commandments; let him run ardently and perseveringly, and, united to Christ through true faith and charity, let him never turn the eye of his heart from the prize itself.

### CHAPTER VIII.

On the crown.

The last name of eternal happiness is the crown of justice, of which crown the Apostle speaks thus in the same place where he spoke of the prize: Every one that striveth in the contest refraineth himself from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one (1 Cor. 9). Nor can it be doubted that in this place by "contest" is meant not a race in the stadium — so that this similitude would be the same as the former — but rather a fight and a struggle, so that this similitude differs from the previous one. That by agon is to be understood a struggle and a fight, and that this similitude is different from the former, is shown by those words placed a little below: I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air; and by those in the second epistle to Timothy: I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice (2 Tim. 4). For in both places St. Paul distinguishes the race from the fight, and in the one similitude uses the name of the prize, in the other the name of the crown — which are names clearly enough distinct.

Moreover, by the name of the crown is signified eternal happiness, which in the Apostle Paul's epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. 4) is called the crown of justice, because it is rendered as a reward to just works. In St. James (James 1) it is called the crown of life, because it contains everlasting life. In St. Peter, the unfading crown of glory (1 Pet. 5), because it comprises the beauty and splendor of eternal honor. Lastly, in Isaiah (Isa. 28), God Himself is said to be the future crown of glory for the remnant of His people. From this passage we understand that the crown of which St. Paul speaks, and which is given to the victors in the contest, is a thing most honorable and most high, since God Himself wills to be the crown — surrounding, loving, and glorifying the heads of the remnant of His people, that is, of those few among His people who, strong in battle, shall have won the victory. For, as we have often said on the testimony of the Scriptures, Many are called, but few are chosen; and the more glorious will be the crown of the blessed on the day of judgment, the fewer those to whom it shall be given.

Let us now see in what contest we must strive, and what we must do to win the victory. It is a fight, and a most perilous struggle, that we have undertaken — especially if it be compared with the contest in which men on earth strive in the arena for a corruptible crown. For in this place the Apostle speaks of the contest of the games, in which they fought in the theater before the watching people, whether in wrestling or with the cestus. Those athletes, then, fought with men like themselves, and with equal arms, and for a most worthless crown, and under the peril of the mockery or disgrace of the crowd. But Christian men must fight with enemies whom they do not see, and by whom they themselves are seen; enemies who are very many, and most strong, and most cunning; and with unequal arms, and before God and His Angels, and for the crown of eternal life, and under peril of everlasting death; in a word, in a combat that is no game, but most real and most fierce (Eph. 6). For our antagonists are demons, which Scripture now calls lions (Ps. 90), now dragons, now basilisks; and they have traitors within our houses — namely, the concupiscences of the flesh, which are in our bodies and war against our souls on behalf of our adversaries — as St. Peter teaches when he says: I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires, which war against the soul (1 Pet. 2). Add, what is most wretched, that this fight is waged at the same time as the race in the stadium. For this reason the Apostle joined these two together, that we might understand that those who run toward the prize are hindered by antagonists through the whole course, and that they must at one and the same time run with their feet and fight with their hands. O if Christians would think on these things, and understand their own condition! surely they would not so easily waste their time on temporal things, in jesting, in games, in reveling, in heaping up riches, in hunting after honors, as though the whole matter were already safe; but they would hear the Apostle crying out: Take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, having on the breastplate of justice; in all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one: and take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: by all prayer and supplication praying at all times in the Spirit, and in the same watching with all instance (Eph. 6). Good God, what an exhortation is this! how full of terror! how vehement! especially if one weighs those words: By all prayer, at all times, with all instance. And yet most of us bear ourselves as though we had neither to run in the stadium nor to fight in the combat. But what, I ask, must we do to carry off the victory over our enemies in this terrible combat? The Apostle declares this very thing in few words when he says: Every one that striveth in the combat refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one (1 Cor. 9). The meaning of which words is this: those athletes, that they may receive a corruptible crown, abstain from all things that can weaken the body and render it unfit for that sportive combat — from excessive food and drink, from intercourse with their wives, from domestic affairs, and from all other things, otherwise pleasant or useful, that can hinder or delay the victory in the fight. We therefore, who sweat in a real contest for an incorruptible crown, ought much more to abstain from all things that can weaken the soul and render it unfit for that serious combat, and at the same time for the race in the stadium. And what are the things that weaken the soul? The very things that make the body strong: much food, much sleep, frequent walking abroad, mirth, merriment, singing, music, gaming, fowling, hunting; little reading, little praying, no meditating, no mourning over sins, no bringing forth fruits worthy of penance. From these he must abstain who wishes his soul to be strong and fit for running in the stadium and fighting in the combat. Take heed to yourselves, saith the Lord, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly (Luke 21). On the contrary, the food of the soul, which renders it strong, is fasting; the refreshment and reviving of the soul is prayer; the soul's wholesome sleep is contemplation; its purgation from noxious humors is the confession of sins; the joy and delight of the soul are tears; the triumph of the soul is the crucifixion of the flesh and of concupiscences. For they that are Christ's, saith the Apostle, have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences (Gal. 5). And in the same place: I, saith he, so fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway (1 Cor. 9). He refraineth himself from all things: I, saith he, so fight in the combat that I abstain from all things that please the body — in which are they that fight on the side of my enemies, namely the carnal concupiscences — and by chastising my body with fasts and watchings and other macerations and mortifications of the flesh, I bring my body into subjection, so that it cannot rebel against the dominion of the soul, nor take the field for my enemies.

But whom would those words not cause to fear, and to tremble with his whole body: Lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway? If the vessel of election, made an Apostle by God Himself and caught up to the third heaven, feared to become a castaway if he did not chastise his body and bring it into subjection: which of us will not fear reprobation, unless he crucify his flesh with the vices and concupiscences? This apostolic example surely ought to admonish all men not to dare to hope for victory and the crown, unless they return in earnest to their hearts, and bring forth worthy fruits of penance, and strive by every means to subject the flesh to the spirit. And truly to be wondered at is the folly and blindness of heart of many, who, while they do none of these things — nay, on the contrary, abstain not even from unlawful things, let alone lawful — nevertheless live so merrily and securely as though they had from God a most certain and manifest promise of salvation and of the crown of glory. But this is a proof, as we have often said, that few there are who are saved, and that many are called, but few are chosen. Which St. John Chrysostom confirms in a wondrous manner in Homily 40 to the people of Antioch, in which he gives many reasons why, out of the innumerable multitude of Christians, few there are who are saved; and of the very city of Antioch, which was one of the greatest in the whole world, he speaks thus: "How many do you suppose there are in our city who are being saved? Grievous indeed is what I am about to say, yet I will say it: among so many thousands there cannot be a hundred who are saved; nay, even of these I am in doubt. For how great is the wickedness in the young, how great the torpor in the old!" Let the reader see the whole Homily, which is most weighty and most profitable.

To You therefore I flee for refuge, good Lord, I Your servant and the son of Your handmaid: I long with all the desire of my soul for that heavenly prize, and that most shining crown, which You have prepared and promised to them that love You. I know the greatness of the combat and the length of the stadium; I feel my own weakness, and I confess before You, who search the reins and the heart, that my strength is small and well-nigh nothing; nor am I ignorant of the great might and the cruel rage of my invisible enemies, who cannot endure that we little men should be called to that great glory whence their pride cast them down. Enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death; increase my strength, lest I faint in the way; let Your grace fight for me, lest at any time my enemy say: I have prevailed against him. And what I ask for myself, the same I ask for all my brethren; but most of all for those who are set by You in high places, whether ecclesiastical or secular: whose peril is so much the greater as their office is the more excellent; and whose crown of glory will be so much the more illustrious if they rightly discharge their office, as their damnation will be the heavier if through their fault the souls perish whom You have redeemed with Your precious blood.

## EPILOGUE OF THE WHOLE WORK.

Now that the twelve considerations on the happiness of the blessed have been set forth, I see that one conclusion may be drawn: that the happiness of the blessed is a thing at once greatest and most eminent in itself, and to be desired and procured by all men above all else; but that the way to find and obtain it is most narrow and most laborious, so that unless a man firmly resolve in his own mind to strive and struggle with all his strength, passing over all other things, he can never make his way through it, and much less arrive at the joys he longs for. And to set all this briefly before the eyes, it will be well to run briefly through all those considerations and their chief difficulties, by way of epilogue:

First, then, we considered eternal happiness under the name of the kingdom of God; but we saw annexed to it a very great difficulty from the book of God, because it is written: The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away (Matt. 11).

Next we considered the same happiness under the name of the city of God, or the heavenly City; and there too we noted no small difficulty, because they cannot be citizens of the saints who are citizens of this world (Eph. 2); and it is most difficult to live in the world and not to be of the world.

Thirdly we considered the same happiness under the name of the house of God, in which there are many mansions (John 14); and we noted that the gate of that house is most narrow, so that it cannot be entered without great labor.

Fourthly we considered the same place of beatitude under the name of paradise; but we considered at the same time at how great a price — not of gold or of silver, but of tears or of blood — the Lord purchased it, and the Martyrs, and the Confessors, and indeed all the blessed, both men and women. For it behooved Christ to suffer, and so to enter into His glory (Luke 24).

Fifth, we considered the same happiness under the name of a treasure hidden in a field: and we observed at the same time that it could not be obtained by him who had found it, unless he sold all that he had. (Matt. 13)

Sixth, we considered the same under the name of a precious pearl, for the acquiring of which the buyer likewise had to sell all his goods, so as to be able to purchase it. (Matt. 13)

Seventh, we considered the same under the name of the day's wage (Matt. 20), which was given only to those who labored diligently and unceasingly in the vineyard.

Eighth, we considered the same under the name of the great supper (Luke 14): and we saw that those were not deemed worthy of that supper who were devoted to temporal things.

Ninth, we considered the same under the name of the joy of the Lord: into which those alone were admitted (Matt. 25) who by great labor and solicitude had multiplied the talents committed to them, the rest being sent away into the exterior darkness.

Tenth, we considered the same under the name of the royal wedding feast (Matt. 25), from which all were excluded who, given over to sleep and sloth, did not keep unceasing vigil in good works and in expectation of the heavenly Bridegroom.

Eleventh, we considered the same under the name of the prize (1 Cor. 9), which those alone laid hold of who, not without labor and sweat, ran swiftly and perseveringly for the prize in the stadium.

Twelfth, we considered the same under the name of the crown (1 Cor. 9), which those alone merited who, fighting most valiantly, overthrew the adversary.

Therefore, to whatever side you turn, and under whatever name you consider the heavenly happiness, you will find that it cannot be obtained unless you sweat with all your strength and with every effort of mind and body. Accordingly, let all who wish to be blessed — which no one but a madman can fail to wish — shake off all sluggishness, and gird themselves for laboring in earnest, and for doing all good things, and enduring all evil things, with so great a reward set before them; and let them put no temporal affairs whatever before this great and truly only business, and let them always keep in mind those words of the holy Paul and Barnabas with which they exhorted the Christians: Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14)



[^assyria]: Editorial note: The 1875 Latin text reads 180,000. The biblical account in 2 Kings 19:35 gives 185,000. The source’s number is retained here.