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

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 fast, and be reformed to the way of eternal life in the footsteps of salvation. Tear out from your breast thorns and thistles, that the Lord’s seed may enrich you with a fertile produce, that the divine and spiritual cornfield may abound to the plentifulness of a fruitful harvest. Cast out the poison of gall, cast out the virus of discords. Let the mind which the malice44    The Oxford translator gives “blackness;” the original is “livor.” of the serpent had infected be purged; let all bitterness which had settled within be softened by the sweetness of Christ. If you take both meat and drink from the sacrament of the cross, let the wood which at Mara45    Or “myrrh,” variously given in originals as “myrrham” or “merrham.” availed in a figure for sweetening the taste, avail to you in reality for soothing your softened breast; and you shall not strive for a medicine for your increasing health. Be cured by that whereby you had been wounded.46    [“Unde vulneratus fueras, inde curare.”  Lear, act ii. sc. 4.] Love those whom you previously had hated; favour those whom you envied with unjust disparagements. Imitate good men, if you are able to follow them; but if you are not able to follow them, at least rejoice with them, and congratulate those who are better than you. Make yourself a sharer47    “A fellow-heir,” according to Baluzius and Routh. with them in united love; make yourself their associate in the alliance of charity and the bond of brotherhood. Your debts shall be remitted to you when you yourself shall have forgiven. Your sacrifices shall be received when you shall come in peace to God. Your thoughts and deeds shall be directed from above, when you consider those things which are divine and righteous, as it is written:  “Let the heart of a man consider righteous things, that his steps may be directed by the Lord.”48    Prov. xv. 1, LXX.

XVII. Ad quas ut pervenire tu etiam possis, qui fueras zelo et livore possessus, omnem illam malitiam qua prius tenebaris abjice , ad viam vitae aeternae vestigiis salutaribus reformare. Evelle de pectore tuo spinas et tribulos, ut te Dominicum semen fertili fruge locupletet, ut divina et spiritalis seges in copiam foecundae messis exuberet. Venena fellis evome, discordiarum virus exclude, purgetur mens quam serpentinus livor infecerat, amaritudo omnis quae intus insederat Christi dulcedine leniatur. Si de sacramento crucis et cibum sumis et potum, lignum quod 0650B apud merrham profecit in imagine, ad saporis dulcedinem tibi in veritate proficiat ad mulcendi pectoris lenitatem, nec ad medelam prosperandae valitudinis laborabis. Unde vulneratus fueras, inde curare. Ama eos quos ante oderas, dilige illos quibus injustis obtrectationibus invidebas. Bonos imitare, si sectari potes . Si autem eos sectari non potes, collaetare certe et congratulare melioribus. Fac te illis adunata dilectione participem, fac te consortio charitatis et fraternitatis vinculo cohaerentem. Dimittentur tibi 0651A debita quando et ipse dimiseris; accipientur sacrificia tua cum pacificus ad Deum veneris: sensus atque actus tui divinitus dirigentur quando ea quae divina et justa sunt cogitaveris, sicut scriptum est: Cor viri cogitet justa, ut a Domino dirigantur gressus ejus (Prov. XVI, 9).