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

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 nor alms, nor even the passion itself of the confessor and the martyr,27    Or, according to ancient authority, “of confession and martyrdom.” [Note this clear conception of the root-principle of the true martyr, and compare Treatise xi. infra.] would avail him, unless he kept the requirements of charity entire and inviolate, added, and said:  “Charity is magnanimous, charity is kind, charity envieth not;”28    1 Cor. xiii. 4. teaching, doubtless, and showing that whoever is magnanimous, and kind, and averse from jealousy and rancour, such a one can maintain charity. Moreover, in another place, when he was advising that the man who has already become filled with the Holy Spirit, and a son of God by heavenly birth, should observe nothing but spiritual and divine things, he lays it down, and says: “And I indeed, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat:29    Or, “I have given you milk to drink, not meat,” is read by some. for ye were not able hitherto; moreover, neither now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there are still among you jealousy, and contention, and strifes, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”30    1 Cor. iii. 1–3.

XIII. Ideo et apostolus Paulus, cum pacis et charitatis merita depromeret, cumque asseveraret firmiter et doceret nec fidem sibi, nec eleemosynas, nec 0647A passionem quoque ipsam confessoris et martyris profuturam, nisi charitatis foedera integra atque inviolata servasset, adjecit et dixit: Charitas magnanima est, charitas benigna est, charitas non zelat (I Cor. XIII, 4); docens scilicet et ostendens eum posse charitatem tenere quisquis magnanimus fuerit et benignus et zeli ac livoris alienus. Item alio loco, cum moneret ut homo jam sancto Spiritu plenus et nativitate coelesti Dei filius factus non nisi spiritalia et divina sectetur, ponit et dicit: Et ego quidem, fratres, non potui vobis loqui quasi spiritalibus, sed quasi carnalibus, tamquam infantibus in Christo. Lacte vos potavi , non cibo, nondum enim poteratis, sed neque nunc potestis . Adhuc enim estis carnales. Ubi enim in vobiszelus et contentio et dissensiones sunt, nonne carnales estis et secundum hominem ambulatis (I Cor. III, 1-3)?