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BUT the fact that to us on the contrary the yoke of Christ seems
neither light nor easy, must be rightly ascribed to our perverseness, as we
are cast down by unbelief and want of faith, and fight with foolish
obstinacy against His command, or rather advice, who says: "If thou wilt be
perfect, go sell (or get rid of) all that thou hast, and come follow
Me," for we keep the substance of our worldly goods. And as the devil
holds our soul fast in the toils of these, what remains but that, when he
wants to sever us from spiritual delights, he should vex us by diminishing
these and depriving us of them, contriving by his crafty wiles that when
the sweetness of His yoke and lightness of His burden have become grievous
to us through the evil of a corrupt desire, and when we are caught in the
chains of that very property and substance, which we kept for our comfort
and solace, he may always torment us with the scourges of worldly cares,
extorting from us ourselves that wherewith we are tortured? For "Each one
is bound by the cords of his own sins," and hears from the prophet: "Behold
all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with flames, walk in the light of
your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled." Since, as Solomon is
witness, "Each man shall thereby be punished, whereby he has sinned."
For the very pleasures which we enjoy become a torment to us, and the
delights and enjoyments of this flesh, turn like executioners upon their
originator, because one who is supported by his former wealth and property
is sure not to admit perfect humility of heart, not entire mortification of
dangerous pleasures. But where all these implements of goodness give their
aid, there all the trials of this present life, and whatever losses the
enemy can contrive, are endured not only with the utmost patience, but with
real pleasure, and again when they are wanting so dangerous a pride springs
up that we are actually wounded by the deadly strokes of impatience at the
slightest reproach, and it may be said to us by the prophet Jeremiah: "And
now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water?
And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water
of the river? Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall
rebuke thee. Know thou and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for
thee to have left the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not with thee,
saith the Lord." How then is it that the wondrous sweetness of the
Lord's yoke is felt to be bitter, but because the bitterness of our dislike
injures it? How is it that the exceeding lightness of the Divine burden
becomes heavy, but because in our obstinate presumption we despise Him by
whom it was borne, especially as Scripture itself plainly testifies to this
very thing saying: "For if they would walk in right paths, they would
certainly have found the paths of righteousness smooth"? It is plain, I
say, that it is we, who make rough with the nasty and hard stones of our
desires the right and smooth paths of the Lord; who most foolishly forsake
the royal road made stony with the flints of apostles and prophets, and
trodden down by the footsteps of all the saints and of the Lord Himself,
and seek trackless and thorny places, and, blinded by the allurements of
present delights, tear our way with torn legs and our wedding garment rent,
through dark paths, overrun with the briars of sins, so as not only to be
pierced by the sharp thorns of the brambles but actually laid low by the
bites of deadly serpents and scorpions lurking there. For "there are thorns
and thistles in wrong ways, but he that feareth the Lord shall keep himself
from them." Of such also the Lord says elsewhere by the prophet: "My
people have forgotten, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in
ancient paths, to walk in them in a way not trodden." For according to
Solomon's saying: "The ways of those who do not work are strewn with
thorns, but the ways of the lusty are trodden down." And thus wandering
from the king's highway, they can never arrive at that metropolis, whither
our course should ever be directed without swerving. And this also
Ecclesiastes has pretty significantly expressed saying: "The labour of
fools wearies those who know not how to go to the city;" viz., that
"heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all." But whoever truly
gives up this world and takes upon him Christ's yoke and learns of Him, and
is trained in the daily practice of suffering wrong, for He is "meek and
lowly of heart," will ever remain undisturbed by all temptations, and
"all things will work together for good to him." For as the prophet
Obadiah says the words of God are "good to him that walketh uprightly;" and
again: "For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in
them; but the transgressors shall fall in them."
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