Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series • VOLUME 11
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins & John Cassian
SECTION 321
Chapter XXVIII.
Chapter XXVIII. A question about the fact that a plentiful supply of tears is not in our own power. Germanus: My own poor self indeed is not altogether ignorant of this feeling of conviction. For often when tears arise at the recollection of my faults, I have been by the Lord's visitation so refreshed by this ineffable joy whi…
725 wordsSECTION 322Chapter XXX.
Chapter XXX. How tears ought not to be squeezed out, when they do not flow spontaneously. From these tears those are vastly different which are squeezed out from dry eyes while the heart is hard: and although we cannot believe that these are altogether fruitless (for the attempt to shed them is made with a good intention, espe…
2,201 wordsSECTION 323Chapter XXXV.
[1640] S. Matt. xxi. 22. [1641] 1 John v. 16. [1642] Rom. viii. 26. [1643] 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9. [1644] Ex persona hominis assumpti. The language is scarcely accurate, but it must be remembered that the Conferences were written before the rise of the Nestorian heresy had shown the need for exactness of expression on the subject …
805 wordsSECTION 324Chapter II.
Chapter II. Of the custom which is kept up in the Province of Egypt for signifying the time of Easter. In the country of Egypt this custom is by ancient tradition observed that--when Epiphany is past, which the priests of that province regard as the time, both of our Lord's baptism and also of His birth in the flesh, and so ce…
1,008 wordsSECTION 325Chapter III.
Chapter III. Of Abbot Sarapion and the heresy of the Anthropomorphites into which he fell in the error of simplicity. Among those then who were caught by this mistaken notion was one named Sarapion, a man of long-standing strictness of life, and one who was altogether perfect in actual discipline, whose ignorance with regard t…
792 wordsSECTION 326Chapter V.
Chapter V. The answer on the heresy described above. Isaac: We need not be surprised that a really simple man who had never received any instruction on the substance and nature of the Godhead could still be entangled and deceived by an error of simplicity and the habit of a longstanding mistake, and (to speak more truly) conti…
897 wordsSECTION 327Chapter VII.
Chapter VII. What constitutes our end and perfect bliss. For then will be perfectly fulfilled in our case that prayer of our Saviour in which He prayed for His disciples to the Father saying "that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them and they in us;" and again: "that they all may be one as Thou, Father, in Me and …
1,153 wordsSECTION 328Chapter IX.
Chapter IX. The answer on the efficacy of understanding, which is gained by experience. Isaac: Your minute and subtle inquiry affords an indication of purity being very nearly reached. For no one would be able even to make inquiries on these matters, I will not say to look within and discriminate,--except one who had been urge…
2,387 wordsSECTION 329Chapter XI.
[1673] Ps. lxix. (lxx.) 2. It is not impropable that this chapter suggested to S. Benedict the use of these words as the opening versicle of the hour services, a position which it has ever since occupied in the West. See the rule of S. Benedict, cc. ix., xvii., and xviii. [1674] Ps. xxxv. (xxxvi.) 12. [1675] Deut. vi. 7. Chap…
1,060 wordsSECTION 330Chapter XII.
Chapter XII. A question as to how spiritual thoughts can be retained without losing them. Germanus: We think that you have described to us not only the system of this spiritual discipline for which we asked, but perfection itself; and this with great clearness and openness. For what can be more perfect and sublime than for the…
969 wordsSECTION 331Preface.
Preface. Although many of the saints who are taught by your example can scarcely emulate the greatness of your perfection, with which you shine like great luminaries with marvellous brightness in this world, yet still you, O holy brothers Honoratus and Eucherius, [1682] are so stirred by the great glory of those splendid men fr…
711 wordsSECTION 332Chapter II.
Chapter II. Of Bishop Archebius. And when we arrived there, God gratified our wishes, and had brought about the arrival of that most blessed and excellent man Bishop Archebius, [1687] who had been carried off from the assembly of anchorites and given as Bishop to the town of Panephysis, [1688] and who kept all his life long to…
903 wordsSECTION 333Chapter V.
Chapter V. Of our answer to his excuse. At this we were overwhelmed with no slight confusion and replied as follows: Although both the difficulty of the place and the solitary life itself, which even a robust youth could scarcely put up with, ought to be sufficient to teach us everything (and indeed without your saying anythin…
1,361 wordsSECTION 334Chapter VIII.
Chapter VIII. How greatly those excel who depart from sin through the feeling of love. For there is a great difference between one who puts out the fire of sin within him by fear of hell or hope of future reward, and one who from the feeling of divine love has a horror of sin itself and of uncleanness, and keeps hold of the vi…
1,443 wordsSECTION 335Chapter X.
Chapter X. How it is the perfection of love to pray for one's enemies and by what signs we may recognize a mind that is not yet purified. When then any one has acquired this love of goodness of which we have been speaking, and the imitation of God, then he will be endowed with the Lord's heart of compassion, and will pray also…
1,493 wordsSECTION 336Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIII. Of the fear which is the outcome of the greatest love. Whoever then has been established in this perfect love is sure to mount by a higher stage to that still more sublime fear belonging to love, which is the outcome of no dread of punishment or greed of reward, but of the greatest love; whereby a son fears with …
1,004 wordsSECTION 337Chapter XIV.
Chapter XIV. A question about complete chastity. Germanus: Now that you have finished your discourse on perfect chastity, we want also to ask somewhat more freely about the end of chastity. For we do not doubt that those lofty heights of love, by which, as you have hitherto explained, we mount to the image and likeness of God,…
1,330 wordsSECTION 338Chapter IV.
Chapter IV. An objection, asking how the Gentiles can be said to have chastity without the grace of God. Germanus: To this explanation, the excellence of which we cannot hastily disprove, it seems a difficulty that it tends to destroy free will. For as we see that many of the heathen to whom the assistance of Divine grace has …
1,329 wordsSECTION 339Chapter VII.
Chapter VII. Of the main purpose of God and His daily Providence. For the purpose of God whereby He made man not to perish but to live for ever, stands immovable. And when His goodness sees in us even the very smallest spark of good will shining forth, which He Himself has struck as it were out of the hard flints of our hearts…
1,123 wordsSECTION 340Chapter IX.
Chapter IX. Of the power of our good will, and the grace of God. Whence human reason cannot easily decide how the Lord gives to those that ask, is found by those that seek, and opens to those that knock, and on the other hand is found by those that sought Him not, appears openly among those who asked not for Him, and all the d…
773 wordsSECTION 341Chapter X.
Chapter X. On the weakness of free will. For Holy Scripture supports the freedom of the will where it says: "Keep thy heart with all diligence," [1784] but the Apostle indicates its weakness by saying "The Lord keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." [1785] David asserts the power of free will, where he says "I have incli…
1,200 wordsSECTION 342Chapter XII.
Chapter XII. That a good will should not always be attributed to grace, nor always to man himself. For we should not hold that God made man such that he can never will or be capable of what is good: or else He has not granted him a free will, if He has suffered him only to will or be capable of evil, but neither to will or be …
1,665 wordsSECTION 343Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIII. How human efforts cannot be set against the grace of God. And so the grace of God always co-operates with our will for its advantage, and in all things assists, protects, and defends it, in such a way as sometimes even to require and look for some efforts of good will from it that it may not appear to confer its …
2,151 wordsSECTION 344Chapter XV.
Chapter XV. Of the manifold grace of men's calls. And by this it is clearly shown that God's "judgments are inscrutable and His ways past finding out," [1843] by which He draws mankind to salvation. And this too we can prove by the instances of calls in the gospels. For He chose Andrew and Peter and the rest of the apostles by…
710 wordsSECTION 345Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVI. Of the grace of God; to the effect that it transcends the narrow limits of human faith. But let no one imagine that we have brought forward these instances to try to make out that the chief share in our salvation rests with our faith, according to the profane notion of some who attribute everything to free will an…
1,167 wordsSECTION 346Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XVIII. The decision of the fathers that free will is not equal to save a man. And from this it is clearly gathered by those who, led not by chattering words but by experience, measure the magnitude of grace, and the paltry limits of man's will, that "the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, nor food t…
705 wordsSECTION 347Chapter I.
Chapter I. The words of Abbot Nesteros on the knowledge of the religious. The order of our promise and course demands that there should follow the instruction of Abbot Nesteros, [1865] a man of excellence in all points and of the greatest knowledge: who when he had seen that we had committed some parts of Holy Scripture to mem…
823 wordsSECTION 348Chapter IV.
Chapter IV. How practical life is distributed among many different professions and interests. This practical life then, which as has been said rests on a double system, is distributed among many different professions and interests. For some make it their whole purpose to aim at the secrecy of an anchorite and purity of heart, …
727 wordsSECTION 349Chapter VII.
Chapter VII. An instance of chastity which teaches us that all men should not be emulous of all things. For apart from that loss, which we have said that a monk incurs who wants in light-mindedness to pass from one pursuit to another, there is a risk of death that is hence incurred, because at times things which are rightly do…
1,776 wordsSECTION 350Chapter IX.
Chapter IX. How from practical knowledge we must proceed to spiritual. Wherefore if you are anxious to attain to the light of spiritual knowledge, not wrongly for an idle boast but for the sake of being made better men, you are first inflamed with the longing for that blessedness, of which we read: "blessed are the pure in hea…
1,041 wordsSECTION 351Chapter X.
Chapter X. How to embrace the system of true knowledge. You must then, if you want to get at the true knowledge of the Scriptures, endeavour first to secure steadfast humility of heart, to carry you on by the perfection of love not to the knowledge which puffeth up, but to that which enlightens. For it is an impossibility for …
1,314 wordsSECTION 352Chapter XII.
Chapter XII. A question how we can attain to forgetfulness of the cares of this world. Upon this I was at first moved by a secret emotion, and then groaned deeply and said, All these things which you have set forth so fully have affected me with still greater despair than that which I had previously endured: as besides those g…
1,104 wordsSECTION 353Chapter XIV.
Chapter XIV. How an unclean soul can neither give nor receive spiritual knowledge. But it is, as we have already said, impossible for a novice either to understand or to teach this. For if one is incapable of receiving it how can he be fit to pass it on to another? But if he has had the audacity to teach anything on these matt…
1,700 wordsSECTION 354Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVII. To whom the method of perfection should be laid open. Take care too, when your riper age leads you to teach, lest you be led astray by the love of vainglory, and teach at random to the most impure persons these things which you have learnt not so much by reading as by the effects of experience, and so incur what …
726 wordsSECTION 355Chapter XIX.
Chapter XIX. How often even those who are not worthy can receive the grace of the saving word. But sometimes in the lavish generosity of God in His Providence, "Who willeth all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," [1937] it is granted that one who has not shown himself by an irreproachable life to be wor…
812 wordsSECTION 356Chapter II.
Chapter II. Wherein one ought to admire the saints. Wherefore we never ought to admire those who affect these things, for these powers, but rather to look whether they are perfect in driving out all sins, and amending their ways, for this is granted to each man not for the faith of some other, or for a variety of reasons, but …
1,162 wordsSECTION 357Chapter IV.
Chapter IV. Of the miracle which Abbot Abraham wrought on the breasts of a woman. Why also need I mention the acts of Abbot Abraham, [1949] who was surnamed haplous, i.e., the simple, from the simplicity of his life and his innocence. This man when he had gone from the desert to Egypt for the harvest in the season of Quinquage…
1,244 wordsSECTION 358Chapter VIII.
Chapter VIII. How it is more wonderful to have cast out one's faults from one's self than devils from another. And in truth it is a greater miracle to root out from one's own flesh the incentives to wantonness than to cast out unclean spirits from the bodies of others, and it is a grander sign to restrain the fierce passions o…
938 wordsSECTION 359Chapter I.
Chapter I. What Abbot Joseph asked us in the first instance. The blessed Joseph, [1963] whose instructions and precepts are now to be set forth, and who was one of the three whom we mentioned in the first Conference, [1964] belonged to a most illustrious family, and was the chief man of his city in Egypt, which was named Thmui…
1,179 wordsSECTION 360Chapter IV.
Chapter IV. A question whether anything that is really useful should be performed even against a brother's wish. Germanus: What then? If when one party wants to do something which he sees is useful and profitable according to the mind of God, the other does not give his consent, ought it to be performed even against the wish o…
1,290 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.