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CHAPTER 28. And that freedom is not of equal weight with wicked slavery, for they invade especially, and beyond these things, so that having made the one under authority self-willed, they may easily impale him on material things; for some they hasten to separate from the fatherhood through these things, and others through other means. “Work, and acquire, and show hospitality,” they chant within, so that you may gain a good name for yourself; for from supposedly good things they sow bit by bit the tares of wickedness, and at the beginning they let him be sweetened by vainglory, and to be sober in continuous fasting, and to rise up readily in prayers, and in the gatherings, so that he may reason, that “Being under authority, I was not like this; for there there were insults, and griefs, and disturbances, but here peace, and calm, and joy, there the Father’s severity, and fear, and rebuke, but here freedom from care, and fearlessness, and freedom from rebuke.” And so in such things, having stolen his mind, they snatch it away; but suddenly coming upon him with excessive sleep, they sprinkle his soul with fear, and cut off the gatherings with negligence and despondency, and suggest that hospitality is a burden, and bring on all the charms of wickedness, so that having cast despondency upon him, they may also work hatred for life itself, and so having set him naked of 79.1132 virtues, they make an example of him to the angels. Sometimes the demons magnify the labors through thoughts, and at other times they belittle them as accomplishing nothing, so that in one place they might implant recklessness, and in another sow despair. For to those who are not bent to grow slack, they magnify the labors, so that they might implant recklessness, but to those who are not persuaded to be bent by recklessness, they chant that the labors accomplish nothing more, so that having made them slack, they might sow despair.

CHAPTER 29. When, therefore, the thoughts magnify the labors, these

spitting them out, let us belittle the soul, but when again they diminish the labors as accomplishing nothing, let us, as much as we can, magnify the mercies of Christ; for the more you discipline your body, the more you examine your conscience. Know yourself, being aware of the secret plunderings of your thoughts, lest being insensibly carried along we be overshadowed by their secret robberies, to harvest the virtues by hardship alone. For thus some, having imagined, were shaken from their senses like locusts, the demons creating fantasies, and distorting their visions, and at other times, also seizing the soul with cowardice. To one of the brothers who was keeping watch at night the demons were impressing terrifying fantasies, not only to his outer eye, but also to his inner gaze, so that with anxiety for the coming night his struggling mind was in danger of being robbed of its senses, and for several nights the war flew against his soul, and the one in danger struggled to restrain within the governor of his senses, suspending his soul from the Giver of prayer, and he strove to see himself, bringing forward the deeds of his stumblings against himself; then also distracting his soul with the pyre of judgment he terrified it, so that by clashing fear with fear he might drive away cowardice, just as indeed it happened, as the one who suffered the war said. For when the demons were terrifying the soul in many ways, the one laboring in prayer was seeking God, and when they were distracting the soul with fantasies, he, recounting the mass of his stumblings, was showing it to the all-seeing God; and when they in turn were dragging down the eye of prayer, he, having exchanged it for the fear of judgment, made the fear of the phantoms disappear; for the one part of fear having overcome the other, with God he prevailed over the deception; for the soul, having been humbled by the memory of its sins and awakened by the fear of judgment, blew away the terrors of the demons from within; but the whole thing happened by the grace from above, the demons indeed

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ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΚΗʹ. Καὶ ὅτι μοχθηρᾶς δουλείας ἡ ἐλευθερία ἰσόζυγος οὐ τυγχάνει, εἰσβάλλουσι γὰρ μάλιστα, καὶ περαιτέρω τούτων, ἵνα αὐθάδη τὸν ὑπεξούσιον ποιήσαντες, εὐχερῶς εἰς τὰς ὕλας περιπείρωσι· τοὺς μὲν γὰρ καὶ διὰ τούτων τῆς πατροσύνης χωρίσαι σπουδάζουσι, τοὺς δὲ καὶ δι' ἑτέρων. Ἔργασαι, καὶ κτῆσαι, καὶ ξένισαι, ἔνδον ἐπᾴδοντες, ὅπως ὄνομα καλὸν σεαυτῷ περιποιήσῃ· ἀπὸ γὰρ τῶν δῆθεν καλῶν τὰ ζιζάνια τῆς πονηρίας τὸ κατὰ μέρος ἐνσπείρουσι, καὶ παρὰ μὲν τὰς ἀρχὰς ἀφιᾶσιν αὐτὸν τῇ κενοδοξίᾳ ἐγγλυκαίνεσθαι, καὶ νήφειν τῇ συνεχεῖ νηστείᾳ, καὶ προθύμως ἀνίστασθαι ἐν ταῖς προσευχαῖς, καὶ ἐν ταῖς συνάξεσιν, ὡς ἵνα λογίζηται, ὅτι Ὑπεξούσιος ὢν τοιοῦτος οὐκ ἐτύγχανον· ἐκεῖ γὰρ καὶ ὕβρεις, καὶ λύπαι, καὶ ταραχαὶ, ἐνταῦθα δὲ εἰρήνη, καὶ γαλήνη, καὶ χαρὰ, ἐκεῖ Πατρὸς αὐστηρία, καὶ φόβος, καὶ ἐπιπληξία, ἐνταῦθα δὲ ἀμεριμνία, καὶ ἀφοβία, καὶ ἀπληξία. Καὶ οὕτω ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις κλέψαντες αὐτοῦ τὸν νοῦν ὑφαρπάζουσιν· ἄφνω δὲ ἐπιστάντες ὕπνῳ ὑπερορίῳ τὴν ψυχὴν φόβῳ ῥαντίζουσι, καὶ τὰς συνάξεις ἀμελείᾳ καὶ ἀκηδίᾳ ὑπεκκόπτουσι, καὶ τὴν ξενοδοχίαν ὄχλησιν εἶναι ὑπομνηματίζουσι, καὶ πάντα μάγγανα τῆς κακίας ἐπάγουσιν, ἵνα τὴν ἀκηδίαν αὐτῷ προσρίψαντες, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν βίον μῖσος ἐργάσωνται, καὶ οὕτω γυμνὸν αὐτὸν τῶν 79.1132 ἀρετῶν στήσαντες τοῖς ἀγγέλοις δειγματίσωσι. Ποτὲ μὲν οἱ δαίμονες διὰ τῶν λογισμῶν τοὺς πόνους μεγαλύνουσι, ποτὲ δὲ τούτους εὐτελίζουσιν ὡς μηδὲν ἀνύοντας, ἵνα ὅπου μὲν ἀπόνοιαν ἐνθήσωσιν, ὅπου δὲ ἀπόγνωσιν ἐνσπείρωσι. Τοῖς γὰρ μὴ καμπτομένοις χαυνῶσαι, τοὺς πόνους μεγαλύνουσιν, ἵνα ἀπόνοιαν ἐνθήσωσι, τοῖς δὲ ἀπονοίᾳ κάμπτεσθαι μὴ πειθομένοις, οὐδὲν πλέον, ἀλλ' ἢ τοὺς πόνους ἐπᾴδουσιν ἀνύειν, ἵνα χαυνώσαντες, ἀπόγνωσιν ἐνσπείρωσιν.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΚΘʹ. Ὅταν οὖν οἱ λογισμοὶ τοὺς πόνους μεγαλύνωσι, τούτους

ἀποπτύοντες, τὴν ψυχὴν εὐτελίζωμεν, ὅταν δὲ πάλιν τοὺς πόνους σμικρύνωσιν ὡς μηδὲν ἀνύοντας, ἡμεῖς, ὅση δύναμις, τὰ ἐλέη Χριστοῦ μεγαλύνωμεν· ὅσον γὰρ ἐπὶ πλεῖον σκληραγωγεῖς σου τὸ σῶμα, τοσοῦτον διερευνᾷς σου τὸ συνειδός. Ἐπίγνωθι σαυτὸν, ἐπαισθανόμενον τῶν ἐν κρυφῇ τῶν λογισμῶν διαρπαγῶν, μήπως ἀναισθήτως φερόμενοι περὶ τὰς κρυπτὰς αὐτῶν λῃστείας σκιασθῶμεν, μόνῃ τῇ σκληρουχίᾳ τρυγᾷν τὰς ἀρετάς. Οὕτω γάρ τινες φαντασθέντες, τῶν φρενῶν ἐξετινάχθησαν ὡσεὶ ἀκρίδες, τῶν δαιμόνων φαντασιοκοπούντων, καὶ τὰς ὁράσεις παραφερόντων, ἐσθ' ὅτε δὲ, καὶ δειλίᾳ τὴν ψυχὴν διαρπαζόντων. Τινὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἐγρηγορότι νύκτωρ φοβερὰς φαντασίας ἐξετύπουν οἱ δαίμονες, οὐ μόνον τῷ ἔξωθεν ὄμματι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ ἔσωθεν βλέμματι, ὥστε μερίμνῃ τῆς ἐπιούσης νυκτὸς τὸν νοῦν ἀγωνιῶντα κινδυνεύειν τὴν τῶν φρενῶν διαρπαγὴν, καὶ ἐπὶ πλείους νύκτας ὁ πόλεμος τῇ ψυχῇ ἀφίπτατο, ὁ δὲ κινδυνεύων ἔνδον κατέχειν τὸν ἡγεμόνα τῶν φρενῶν ἐβιάζετο, τῷ τῆς εὐχῆς δοτῆρι τὴν ψυχὴν ἀποκρεμνῶν, καὶ τὰς πράξεις τῶν πταισμάτων καθ' ἑαυτοῦ προφέρων εἰσιδεῖν ἑαυτὸς ἠγωνίζετο· ἔπειτα καὶ τῇ πυρᾷ τῆς κρίσεως τὴν ψυχὴν περισπῶν ἐξεφόβει, ἵνα φόβῳ φόβον συγκρούσας τὴν δειλίαν ἀποκρούσηται, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ γέγονεν, ὡς ἔφησεν ὁ πεπονθὼς τὸν πόλεμον. Τῶν γὰρ δαιμόνων πολυτρόπως τὴν ψυχὴν ἐκφοβούντων, ὁ κάμνων τῇ εὐχῇ τὸν Θεὸν ἐπεζήτει, ἐκείνων δὲ ταῖς φαντασίαι; τὴν ψυχὴν περισπώντων, οὗτος τῶν πταισμάτων τὸν ὄγκον ἀναλέγων, τῷ παντεπόπτῃ Θεῷ ἐπεδείκνυε· τῶν δὲ πάλιν τῆς εὐχῆς τὸ ὄμμα κατασπώντων, ἐκεῖνος τὸν φόβον τῆς κρίσεως ἀνταμείψας, τὸν φόβον τῶν φαντασμάτων ἐξηφάνισε· τὸ γὰρ ἕτερον μέρος τοῦ φόβου πλεονάσαν τοῦ ἄλλου, τῆς πλάνης σὺν Θεῷ περιεγένετο· τῇ γὰρ μνήμῃ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἡ ψυχὴ ταπεινωθεῖσα καὶ τῷ φόβῳ τῆς κρίσεως διυπνισθεῖσα, τὰ φόβητρα τῶν δαιμόνων ἐκ τῶν ἐντὸς ἀπεφύσησε· τὸ δὲ πᾶν τῆς ἄνωθεν χάριτος γέγονε, τῶν μὲν δαιμόνων