The Deception of Repentance

It is being purged. That which testifies to you is the conscience, not allowing the thought that mocks, nor the one that speaks sweetly of the slip, nor the one that contends and does not share, so that you might not suffer a passion and, having fought for virtue, be defeated; it is the proud one who does not share with the thought that opposes toward a contrary spirit.

It is not praise through a tongue speaking haltingly, but through lips whose glory moves steadily. While listening to a word, ask your mind, and then, having discerned the verdict, you will give it; do not miscalculate your mind through the thoughtlessness of words, so that your fallen tongue might not be sunk. Let not a wordy spirit lead you astray, for in it the deceitful lie takes root.

He who is bitten by the slanders of others, and does not cast these toward the devil, incites the demon of his own thoughts against himself, and provokes it even more to prepare arrows for himself, in that he causes the soul, being mocked through such things, to fall apart. If you walk abroad for the sake of service, do not seek to be hospitable by all, but rather deem yourself unworthy of glory, so that in this way you may flee the thought of slander, even if one speaks the truth.

I think, however, that he who slanders the greatest things still shows love, nor is he acting unjustly, nor will he be malicious, but will bless. For he who is malicious toward demons does not act maliciously toward men; but he who is malicious toward his brother makes peace with demons. The wrath of contention is a burning of the heart, but the souls of the unresentful are cooled spiritually; sparks of fire-embers are being hunted, so also are the malicious souls that pursue evil thoughts; just as the sting of a scorpion has a most sharp pain, so also a malicious soul has a most bitter venom.

Chapter 22. He is malicious toward spirits of fornication and vainglory, two bitter demons opposed to one another; for one flees from faces, while the other greets faces. And the demon of debauchery, having suddenly struck the combatant of asceticism with its filth, falls quickly, as the heat of the endurance of passing through pains...

Not enduring, but the one having been flattered by the slight flattery of pleasures, converses a little with the heart, so that having perceived the evils, it may discourse with them and be captured, and bring the hatred of sin to an end.

But the deceiver of vainglory, becoming public-spirited, stands stealthily against the soul of the willing-minded, devouring the glory they work through their labors.

If anyone therefore wishes to overcome these with God, let him discipline the flesh against fornication, and let him humble the soul against vainglory.

For in this way we will easily cast out vain glory and please God, and we will blow away the impure fantasies and make the heart pure of pleasures.

It is most difficult a habit of pleasures to bury the heart, and much toil is needed to cut off the custom of evils to the extreme.

Therefore do not allow the thought to converse with pleasures; for in a gathering of evils a fire is kindled, for as they heat you, they make you reason that it is a labor to restrain the fire of nature, and that the life of self-control is great; and they also bring to you memories of those things which they present to you by night as shameful, shaping for you the fiery idols of delusion; then, having more fiercely kindled the fever in the flesh, they will testify to you within by the law of sin that you are not strong enough to restrain the violence of nature, even if today you sin through necessity, but tomorrow you will repent because of the commandment.

For the law is philanthropic, and forgiving sin to those who repent (Rom 2:4). And they bring forward some of those who, having stumbled in self-control, repented again, so that from these they may make their advice plausible: that by calling back the soul through turning-repentance, they might make the temple of temperance a place of fornication.

In this way the double-tongued ones drag down the thought like serpents in the moving workshop of the heart.

Chapter 23. But you, O man of self-control, do not let repentance appear again.