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The demon of licentiousness, having suddenly hurled filthiness at the athlete of asceticism, attacks sharply, not bearing the heat of the fiery torch-bearing of his labors, but to the one made slack by continence, through the flattery of pleasures, he gradually mounts to converse with the heart, so that, being kindled, it may discourse with evils and be taken captive, and bring the hatred of sin to an end. And the deceiver of vainglory, being a lover of popularity, stands over the soul of the willing laborers in a veiled manner, hunting for the glory within them which they gain through their labors. If, then, anyone wishes with God to overcome these, let him make thin the flesh against fornication, and let him humble the soul against vainglory. For thus we will easily cast out the empty glory of the one, and we will be pleasing to God, and we will blow away the impure fantasies of the other, and we will make the heart pure of pleasures. It is most difficult for the heart to be buried with the habit of pleasures, and many labors are needed to cut off completely the pasture of evils. Do not, then, accustom your thought to converse with pleasures; for in the company of evils a fire is kindled. for thus heating you up, they make you reckon that it is a labor to master the pyre of nature, and that the life of continence is long, and they bring to you also memories of the shameful things they show you by night, forming for you fiery idols of deception, then also, having kindled the fever more vehemently in the flesh, they give you counsel within by the law of sin, that you are not strong enough to restrain the violence of nature, and if today you should sin through necessity, yet tomorrow you will repent because of the commandment. For the law is philanthropic, and forgiving sin to those who repent. And they bring up some of those who stumbled after 79.1124 continence, and repented again; so that from these they might make persuasive the counsel of their own deceit; so that by calling back the soul to a contrary repentance, they might make the temple of chastity a brothel. Thus do the double-tongued serpents hiss at the thought in the moving workshop of the heart.

CHAPTER 23. But you, O man of continence, not on the pretext of repenting again

be enticed by uncertain hopes, for many having fallen were immediately snatched away, and others were not strong enough to rise again, being bound by the habit of pleasures as by a law. For what do you know, O man, if you will live, that you might also repent, that you subscribe for yourself times of life? And stumbling here, you indulge your flesh, when you ought rather to indulge yourself with the memory of death and to paint in your heart the fearful justice of the judgment, if somehow you might be able to extinguish the feverish mind of the flesh; for you will not otherwise extinguish the passions, unless you mix into your flesh the labors of their refutation. Nor indeed the soulish ones, unless you rain down upon the heart the fruits of love. The bodily passions take their beginning from the natural things of the flesh, against which there is also continence, but the soulish passions have their conception from the soulish things, against which there is also love. Love is the conjunction of passionlessness, and the wiping away of passions, offering long-suffering, and cooling down boiling anger, putting forth humility, and bringing down pride. Love has nothing of its own except God; for this is God. He who is newly-joined to the bright assembly of the monks, let him push away the thoughts approaching him of good repute from his kinship, so that he might seek not the praise from men, but the blessing from the commandments. And let him be of good courage against the demons who cast in cowardice; for you did not receive a spirit of cowardice again unto fear; let him not cower with a spirit of cowardice, nor let him tremble at the nocturnal noises of the demons, since they have no authority even over swine. Therefore, going out of the cell in the late hours, let him not be terrified, and fleeing, let him not jump back inside, as if the demons were supposedly chasing him, but having bent his knees

11

ὁ μὲν τῆς ἀσελγείας δαίμων τῷ τῆς ἀσκήσεως ἀγωνιστῇ τὰς ῥυπαρίας ἄφνω ἀκοντίσας ἐφάλλεται ὀξέως, τῆς διαπύρου τῶν πόνων δᾳδουχίας τὴν θέρμην μὴ φέρων, τῷ δὲ τῆς ἐγκρατείας χαυνωθέντι κολακείᾳ ἡδονῶν τὸ κατ' ὀλίγον ἐπιβατεύει συνομιλεῖν τῇ καρδίᾳ, ἵνα ἐξαφθεῖσα ταῖς κακίαις διαλεχθῇ καὶ αἰχμαλωτισθῇ, καὶ τὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας μῖσος εἰς πέρας ἀγάγῃ. Ὁ δὲ τῆς κενοδοξίας πλάνος δημοχαρὴς τυγχάνων παρεσκιασμένως ἐφίσταται τῇ ψυχῇ τῶν ἐθελοπόνων τὴν δι' ὧν πόνων ἐργάζονται δόξαν ἐν αὐτοῖς θηρώμενος. Εἴ τις οὗν βούλοιτο σὺν Θεῷ τούτων περιγενέσθαι, λεπτυνέτω τὴν σάρκα κατὰ τῆς πορνείας, ταπεινούτω δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν κατὰ τῆς κενοδοξίας. Οὕτω γὰρ ῥᾳδίως τοῦ μὲν τὴν ματαίαν δόξαν ἐξώσομεν, καὶ Θεῷ εὐαρεστήσομεν, τοῦ δὲ τὰς ἀκαθάρτους φαντασίας φυσήσομεν, καὶ καθαρὰν ἡδονῶν τὴν καρδίαν ποιήσομεν. Χαλεπώτατόν ἐστι συνηθείᾳ ἡδονῶν συνθάπτεσθαι τὴν καρδίαν, καὶ πολλῶν χρεία κόπων τὴν νομὴν κακῶν εἰς ἄκρον ἐκκόψαι. Μὴ οὖν ταῖς ἡδοναῖς τὸν λογισμὸν συνομιλεῖν ἐθίσῃς· ἐν γὰρ συλλόγῳ κακῶν ἐκκαίεται πῦρ οὕτω γὰρ ἐκθερμαίνοντές σε, λογίζεσθαι ποιοῦσι κόπον εἶναι τὴν πυρὰν τῆς φύσεως κρατῆσαι, καὶ ὅτι πολὺς ὁ τῆς ἐγκρατείας βίος, ἀναφέρουσι δέ σοι καὶ μνήμας ὧν σε νύκτωρ φαντάζουσιν αἰσχρῶν, μορφάζοντές σοι πυρωτικὰ τῆς πλάνης εἴδωλα, εἶτα καὶ σφοδρότερον ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ἐξάψαντες τὸν πυρετὸν τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας γνωμοδοτοῦσί σοι ἔνδον, ὅτι οὐκ ἰσχύεις κατασχεῖν τὴν τῆς φύσεως βίαν, κἂν σήμερον ἁμαρτήσῃς δι' ἀνάγκην, ἀλλ' αὔριον μετανοήσεις διὰ τὴν ἐντολήν. Φιλάνθρωπος γὰρ ὁ νόμος, καὶ συγχωρῶν ἁμαρτίαν τοῖς μετανοοῦσι. Καὶ φέρουσί τινας τῶν μετ' 79.1124 ἐγκρατείας πταισάντων, καὶ πάλιν μετανοησάντων· ἵνα ἐκ τούτων πιθανοποιήσωσι τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἀπάτης τὴν συμβουλήν· ὅπως τῇ ἀντιστρόφῳ μετανοίᾳ ψυχὴν ἀνακαλέσαντες, τὸν ναὸν τῆς σωφροσύνης πορνεῖον ποιήσωσιν. Οὕτως ὑποσυρίζουσιν οἱ δίγλωττοι τὸν λογισμὸν ὄφεις ἐν τῶ κινουμένῳ τῆς καρδίας ἐργαστηρίῳ.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΚΓʹ. Σὺ δὲ, ὦ τῆς ἐγκρατείας ἄνθρωπε, μὴ προφάσει πάλιν μετανοίας

δελεάζου ἐλπίσιν ἀδήλοις, πολλοὶ γὰρ πεσόντες εὐθὺς ἀνηρπάγησαν, ἕτεροι δὲ ἀναστῆναι οὐκ ἴσχυσαν τῇ τῶν ἡδονῶν συνηθείᾳ ὡς ὑπὸ νόμον δεθέντες. Τί γὰρ οἶδας, ἄνθρωπε, εἰ ζήσεις, ἵνα καὶ μετανοήσῃς, ὅτι χρόνους ζωῆς ἑαυτῷ ὑπογράφεις; Κἀνταῦθα πταίων, τῇ σαρκί σου χαρίζῃ, δέον μᾶλλον χαρίσασθαι σεαυτῷ θανάτου τὴν μνήμην καὶ ἵνα ζωγραφῇ σου τῇ καρδίᾳ τὴν φοβερὰν τῆς κρίσεως δίκην, εἴ πως δυνηθείης τὸ πυρεταῖνον τῆς σαρκὸς φρόνημα κατασβέσαι· οὐ γὰρ ἄλλως κατασβέσεις τὰ πάθη, πρὶν ἢ τῇ σαρκί σου συγκεράσῃς τοὺς τῆς ἀνασκευῆς αὐτῶν πόνους. Οὔτε μὴν ψυχικὰ, πρὶν ἢ τῇ καρδίᾳ ἐξομβρήσεις τοὺς καρποὺς τῆς ἀγάπης. Τὰ μὲν σωματικὰ πάθη ἐκ τῶν φυσικῶν τῆς σαρκὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν λαμβάνει, καθ' ὧν καὶ ἡ ἐγκράτεια, τὰ δὲ ψυχικὰ ἐκ τῶν ψυχικῶν τὴν κύησιν ἔχει, καθ' ὧν καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη. Ἡ ἀγάπη ἀπαθείας ἐστὶ συνάφεια, παθῶν δὲ ἀπαλοιφὴ, τὴν μακροθυμίαν προφέρουσα, καὶ τὸν ζέοντα θυμὸν καταψύχουσα, τὴν ταπείνωσιν προβάλλουσα, καὶ τὴν ὑπερηφανίαν καταφέρουσα. Ἀγάπη ἔχει μὲν ἴδιον οὐδὲν πλὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ· αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Θεός. Ὁ εἰς τὴν φαιδρὰν τῶν μοναχῶν σύγκλητον νεοπαγὴς τυγχάνων, ἀπωθείσθω τοὺς λογισμοὺς τοὺς προσιόντας αὐτῷ εὐφημίας ἀπὸ τῆς συγγενείας, ἵνα μὴ τὸν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἔπαινον, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἐκ τῶν ἐντολῶν μακαρισμὸν ἐπιζητοίη. Τῶν δὲ τὰς δειλίας εἰσβαλλόντων δαιμόνων καταθαρσείτω· οὐ γὰρ ἐλάβετε πνεῦμα δειλίας πάλιν εἰς φόβον· πνεύματι δειλίας ἑαυτὸν μὴ καταπτησσέτω, μήτε τοὺς νυκτερινοὺς κτύπους τῶν δαιμόνων τρεμέτω, ὁπόταν οὔτε κατὰ χοίρων ἔχωσιν ἐξουσίαν. Ἐν ταῖς ὀψιναῖς οὖν ἐξελθὼν τῆς κέλλης, μὴ θροείσθω, καὶ φεύγων ἀνόπιν εἰσπηδάτω, ὡς τῶν δαιμόνων δῆθεν κατατρεχόντων, ἀλλὰ κλίνας τὰ γόνατα