On Jealousy and Envy.

 1. To be jealous of what you see to be good, and to be envious of those who are better than yourself, seems, beloved brethren, in the eyes of some peo

 2. He goeth about every one of us and even as an enemy besieging those who are shut up (in a city), he examines the walls, and tries whether there is

 3. Wherefore, beloved brethren, against all the devil’s deceiving snares or open threatenings, the mind ought to stand arrayed and armed, ever as read

 4. From this source, even at the very beginnings of the world, the devil was the first who both perished (himself) and destroyed (others). He who was

 5. Hence, in fine, began the primal hatreds of the new brotherhood, hence the abominable fratricides, in that the unrighteous Cain is jealous of the r

 6. Considering which things, beloved brethren, let us with vigilance and courage fortify our hearts dedicated to God against such a destructiveness of

 7. But what a gnawing worm of the soul is it, what a plague-spot of our thoughts, what a rust of the heart, to be jealous of another, either in respec

 8. Hence the threatening countenance, the lowering aspect, pallor in the face, trembling on the lips, gnashing of the teeth, mad words, unbridled revi

 9. The mischief is much more trifling, and the danger less, when the limbs are wounded with a sword. The cure is easy where the wound is manifest and

 10. And therefore, beloved brethren, the Lord, taking thought for this risk, that none should fall into the snare of death through jealousy of his bro

 11. Why do you rush into the darkness of jealousy? why do you enfold yourself in the cloud of malice? why do you quench all the light of peace and cha

 12. We ought to remember by what name Christ calls His people, by what title He names His flock. He calls them sheep, that their Christian innocence m

 13. Thus also the Apostle Paul, when he was urging the merits of peace and charity, and when he was strongly asserting and teaching that neither faith

 14. Vices and carnal sins must be trampled down, beloved brethren, and the corrupting plague of the earthly body must be trodden under foot with spiri

 15. For this is to change what you had been, and to begin to be what you were not, that the divine birth might shine forth in you, that the godly disc

 16. The mind must be strengthened, beloved brethren, by these meditations. By exercises of this kind it must be confirmed against all the darts of the

 17. To these rewards that you also may come who had been possessed with jealousy and rancour, cast away all that malice wherewith you were before held

 18. And you have many things to consider. Think of paradise, whither Cain does not enter, who by jealousy slew his brother. Think of the heavenly king

4. From this source, even at the very beginnings of the world, the devil was the first who both perished (himself) and destroyed (others). He who5    Some add “long ago.” was sustained in angelic majesty, he who was accepted and beloved of God, when he beheld man made in the image of God, broke forth into jealousy with malevolent envy—not hurling down another by the instinct of his jealousy before he himself was first hurled down by jealousy, captive before he takes captive, ruined before he ruins others. While, at the instigation of jealousy, he robs man of the grace of immortality conferred, he himself has lost that which he had previously been. How great an evil is that, beloved brethren, whereby an angel fell, whereby that lofty and illustrious grandeur could be defrauded and overthrown, whereby he who deceived was himself deceived! Thenceforth envy rages on the earth, in that he who is about to perish by jealousy obeys the author of his ruin, imitating the devil in his jealousy; as it is written, “But through envy of the devil death entered into the world.”6    Wisd. ii. 24. [So Lactantius, Institutes, book ii. cap. ix. in vol. vii., this series.]  Therefore they who are on his side imitate him.7    [Chrysostom, vol. iv. p. 473, ed. Migne.  This close practical preaching is a lesson to the younger clergy of our days.]

IV. Hinc diabolus inter initia statim mundi et periit 0640C primus et perdidit. Ille angelica majestate subnixus , 0641A ille Deo acceptus et charus, postquam hominem ad imaginem Dei factum conspexit, in zelum malivolo livore prorupit, non prius alterum dejiciens instinctu zeli quam ipse zelo ante dejectus, captivus antequam capiens, perditus antequam perdens, dum, stimulante livore , homini gratiam datae immortalitatis eripit , ipse quoque id quod prius fuerat amisit. Quale malum est, fratres dilectissimi, quo angelus cecidit, quo circumveniri et subverti alta illa et praeclara sublimitas potuit, quo deceptus est ipse qui decepit! Exinde invidia grassatur in terris, dum livore periturus magistro perditionis obsequitur, dum diabolum qui zelat imitatur, sicut scriptum est: Invidia autem diaboli mors introivit in orbem terrarum (Sap. II, 24). Imitantur ergo illum qui sunt ex parte ejus.