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WHEREFORE it Will not be of much advantage to us that we have made our
first renunciation with the utmost devotion and faith, if we do not
complete the second with the same zeal and ardour. And so when we have
succeeded in this, we shall be able to arrive at the third as well, in
which we go forth from the house of our former parent, (who, as we know
well, was our father from our Very birth, after the old man, when we were
"by nature children of wrath, as others also,") and fix our whole mental
gaze on things celestial. And of this father Scripture says to Jerusalem
which had despised God the true Father, "Thy father was an Amorite, and thy
mother a Hittite;" and in the gospel we read "Ye are of your father the
devil and the lusts of your father ye love to do." And when we have left
him, as we pass from things visible to things unseen we shall be able to
say with the Apostle: "But we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle is dissolved we have a habitation from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens," and this also, which we quoted a
little while ago: "But our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who will reform the body of our low estate
made like to the body of His glory," and this of the blessed David: "For
I am a sojourner upon the earth," and "a stranger as all my fathers
were;" so that we may in accordance with the Lord's word be made like
those of whom the Lord speaks to His Father in the gospel as follows: "They
are not of the world, as I am not of the world," and again to the
Apostles themselves: "If ye were of this world, the world would love its
own: but because ye are not of this world, therefore the world hateth
you." Of this third renunciation then we shall succeed in reaching the
perfection, whenever our soul is sullied by no stain of carnal coarseness,
but, all such having been carefully eliminated, it has been freed from
every earthly quality and desire, and by constant meditation on things
Divine, and spiritual contemplation has so far passed on to things unseen,
that in its earnest seeking after things above and things spiritual it no
longer feels that it is prisoned in this fragile flesh, and bodily form,
but is caught up into such an ecstasy as not only to hear no words with the
outward ear, or to busy itself with gazing on the forms of things present,
but not even to see things close at hand, or large objects straight before
the very eyes. And of this no one can understand the truth and force,
except one who has made trial of what has been said, under the teaching of
experience; viz., one, the eyes of whose soul the Lord has turned away from
all things present, so that he no longer considers them as things that will
soon pass away, but as things that are already done with, and sees them
vanish into nothing, like misty smoke; and like Enoch, "walking with God,"
and "translated" from human life and fashions, not "be found" amid the
vanities of this life: And that this actually happened corporeally in the
case of Enoch the book of Genesis thus tells us. "And Enoch walked with
God, and was not found, for God translated him." And the Apostle also says:
"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death," the death
namely of which the Lord says in the gospel: "He that liveth and believeth
in me shall not die eternally." Wherefore, if we are anxious to attain
true perfection, we ought to look to it that as we have outwardly with the
body made light of parents, home, the riches and pleasures of the world, we
may also inwardly with the heart forsake all these things and never be
drawn back by any desires to those things which we have forsaken, as those
who were led up by Moses, though they did not literally go back, are yet
said to have returned in heart to Egypt; viz., by forsaking God who had led
them forth with such mighty signs, and by worshipping the idols of Egypt of
which they had thought scorn, as Scripture says: "And in their hearts they
turned back into Egypt, saying to Aaron: Make us gods to go before us,"
for we should fall into like condemnation with those who, while dwelling in
the wilderness, after they had tasted manna from heaven, lusted after the
filthy food of sins, and of mean baseness, and should seem together with
them to murmur in the same way: "It was well with us in Egypt, when we sat
over the flesh pots and ate the onions, and garlic, and cucumbers, and
melons:" A form of speech, which, although it referred primarily to that
people, we yet see fulfilled today in our own case and mode of life: for
everyone who after renouncing this world turns back to his old desires, and
reverts to his former likings asserts in heart and act the very same thing
that they did, and says "It was well with me in Egypt," and I am afraid
that the number of these will be as large as that of the multitudes of
backsliders of whom we read under Moses, for though they were reckoned as
six hundred and three thousand armed men who came out of Egypt, of this
number not more than two entered the land of promise. Wherefore we should
be careful to take examples of goodness from those who are few and far
between, because according to that figure of which we have spoken in the
gospel "Many are called but few" are said to be "chosen." A renunciation
then in body alone, and a mere change of place from Egypt will not do us
any good, if we do not succeed in achieving that renunciation in heart,
which is far higher and more valuable. For of that mere bodily renunciation
of which we have spoken the apostle declares as follows: "Though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, but have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing." And the blessed Apostle would never
have said this had it not been that he foresaw by the spirit that some who
had given all their goods to feed the poor would not be able to attain to
evangelical perfection and the lofty heights of charity, because while
pride or impatience ruled over their hearts they were not careful to purify
themselves from their former sins, and unrestrained habits, and on that
account could never attain to that love of God which never faileth, and
these, as they fall short in this second stage of renunciation, can still
less reach that third stage which is most certainly far higher. But
consider too in your minds with great care the fact that he did not simply
say "If I bestow my goods." For it might perhaps be thought that he spoke
of one who had not fulfilled the command of the gospel, but had kept back
something for himself, as some half-hearted persons do. But he says "Though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor," i.e., even if my renunciation of
those earthly riches be perfect. And to this renunciation he adds something
still greater: "And though I give my body to be burned, but have not
charity, I am nothing:" As if he had said in other words, though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor in accordance with that command in the
gospel, where we are told "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven,"
renouncing them so as to keep back nothing at all for myself, and though to
this distribution (of my goods) I should by the burning of my flesh add
martyrdom so as to give up my body for Christ, and yet be impatient, or
passionate or envious or proud, or excited by wrongs done by others, or
seek what is mine, or indulge in evil thoughts, or not be ready and patient
in bearing all that can be inflicted on me, this renunciation and the
burning of the outer man will profit me nothing, while the inner man is
still involved in the former sins, because, while in the fervour of the
early days of my conversion I made light of the mere worldly substance,
which is said to be not good or evil in itself but indifferent, I took no
care to cast out in like manner the injurious powers of a bad heart, or to
attain to that love of the Lord which is patient, which is "kind, which
envieth not, is not puffed up, is not soon angry, dealeth not perversely,
seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil," which "beareth all things, endureth
all things," and which lastly never suffers him who follows after it to
fall by the deceitfulness of sin.
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