Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Saints

however, how could those cling to us who are at odds with themselves? You see how well the Gospel reading suits this solemnity, which so deters us from scandalizing the little ones, since scandals displease the angels so vehemently. Whoever shall scandalize one of these little ones (Matt. 18:6): what follows is hard. But the hour is already passing; we must go to Mass. I ask that the delay may not be irksome to you; it may prove not unprofitable, if we pursue the present chapter more carefully in another sermon.

SERMON II. On the words, "Whoever shall scandalize one of these little ones who believe in Me," etc. (Matt. 18:6–9).

1. You have heard, brethren, the Gospel reading thundering terribly enough against those who scandalize the little ones. The Truth flatters no one, strokes no one, leads no one astray, openly declaring: Woe to that man by whom the scandal comes. It were good for him if that man had not been born (Matt. 26:24). Born, that is, anew, born to life, born of the Spirit, who is afterwards, to be sure, brought to his end by the flesh. It is better for him, if there is anyone who stirs up scandals in this house, in this holy congregation, pleasing to God and most welcome and familiar to His angels, that a millstone be hung about his neck, and that, instead of the sweet yoke and light burden of the Saviour, with the heavy mass of earthly desire laid upon his shoulders, he be sunk into the depth of this great sea, wide of reach, which is without doubt the wicked world. For it would have been less damnable for him to perish in the world rather than in the monastery. For the man who has not charity must perish, even if he should deliver his body to be burned. And I would say this, brethren, not as though I thought less well of you, or as though that most wicked vice seemed to reign among you; but that you should be careful enough to persevere, and to abound yet more, in the charity and unanimity and peace in which you stand in the Lord. For what is our hope and our joy and our crown of glory? Is it not your unity and unanimity, in which I rejoice to find you lovers of brotherhood, and above all having mutual charity among yourselves, which is the bond of perfection? Wherefore I beseech you, so stand in the Lord, dearly beloved. For by this all, even the holy angels, know that you are disciples of Christ, if you have love for one another.

2. Moreover, if you keep in memory the threefold cause of the angels' charity and solicitude towards us which we gave you in the preceding sermon, the profit of brotherly love can be splendidly commended from this too. For it is easy to see that for the man who does not love his neighbour none of the causes we then spoke of is available. For shall we be loved by the angels for Christ's sake, if from the want of mutual love they know that we are in no way His disciples? Shall we be loved by them for our own sake, that is, for the likeness of a spiritual nature [alias, by the likeness], if we are found not to love the sharers of our human nature: nay rather, if from those things which

are among us through contentions, it is clear that we are carnal rather than spiritual? Lastly, will they love us for their own sake, and for the future restoration of their city from among us, if, which God forbid, that one glue of charity should be lacking by which alone we can be united and built together with them? How will they hope that the everlasting walls of that city are to be rebuilt from us, if they know, if they see, that we are not living stones able to cleave to one another, but rather dust, which the wind drives from the face of the earth, which the breath of a single word stirs up into a whirlwind, and the lightest breeze of any suspicion scatters? And let it suffice to have said this concerning what the Lord says: If anyone shall scandalize one of these little ones. For I believe that henceforth you will guard with greater care against so very wicked a plague.

3. And now, whom would what follows in the Gospel not move: If your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out? For are we bidden to pluck out this bodily eye, or likewise to cut off one of these hands, or one foot? Far from us be a thought of this kind, wholly carnal and quite ridiculous! Nay rather, after the divine word has deterred us harshly enough, as you have heard, from outward scandals, it gives counsel on what we are to do about the scandal we suffer within, finding a contrary law in our members. For He knows our frame, that a scandal of this kind cannot so easily be avoided by us. Now that this scandal comes about in three ways we may know by daily experience. For sometimes there is in us a single eye of spiritual intention, one to be called grace's rather than ours: but our own eye scandalizes us, the one that truly is from us, when our will importunately thrusts in another, less chaste intention. But on this we already have the Saviour's wholesome counsel: Pluck it out, He says, and cast it from you. And this will come about if you do not consent, if you cast it away, if you resist. The hand and foot are to be understood in like manner. For when our own will tries to draw us, intent on good works, to other works, it is our hand that scandalizes us; but it must be cut off and cast from us, so that we do not consent to it.

4. So too, desiring to advance in holy living, and to climb the steps of the ladder that appeared to Jacob, and, as the Psalmist says, to go from virtue to virtue (Ps. 83:8), we often suffer scandal from a certain foot of our faint-heartedness and negligence, which tries, to be sure, rather to go down and to go more slackly; but it must be cut off, so that the foot of grace, which stands on the straight way, may run without stumbling, without scandal, without hindrance. And when He says that it is good for us to enter into life with one eye, or hand, or foot, rather than having two to go into the gehenna of fire, He marks those who follow their own will equally, whether it be good or bad, and walk in two ways, pursuing now good things, now bad, according as their desires vary. For them it would rightly have been more profitable to

cleave to grace in all things, and, where their own will stands in the way, to cut it off and cast it from themselves. But there comes a time when, exercised for a long while in cutting off our own will, we tame it in some measure, so that it learns no longer to be proud, but rather our soul is subject to God without any scandal or contradiction; and then there is no longer need to cast away our eye, since, cleaving to the single eye, it has itself become single, or certainly is no longer another eye but one with it, as the Apostle witnesses: for he who

ON THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS. SERMON I. On the Gospel reading, "Jesus, seeing the crowds," etc. (Matt. 5:1–12).

1. It is fitting that today's festival of All Saints be celebrated with all devotion. For if the solemnity of blessed Peter, or of blessed Stephen, or of any of the rest seems great, and is, how great is this one, which is not of one alone but of all? Now you are not unaware, brethren, that it is the custom of worldly people to prepare festive banquets for themselves on feast days: and the more illustrious the solemnity, the more splendidly they feast. What then? Must not those too who turn back to the heart seek the delights of the heart, and provide spiritual things for the spiritual? Therefore our banquet is now prepared, brethren, all things are now cooked, and the time for feasting has come. For it is fitting that the soul be filled first, since this portion is beyond doubt and beyond comparison the better: especially as it is plain that the solemnities of the Saints concern souls rather than bodies; and what belongs to souls, souls receive the more gladly, being joined to them by a certain natural kinship. And for this reason too these saints have the more compassion on them, for this reason they desire the more the goods of souls, and delight the more in their refreshment, because they too were subject to suffering like us; they too lamented the troubles of this pilgrimage and wretched exile; they too experienced the heavy burden of this body, the tumult of the world, and the temptations of the enemy. There is no doubt, then, that the festival which is directed to the feasting of souls is more pleasing and far more acceptable to them than that which is celebrated by worldly people, who make provision for the flesh in the desires of pleasure.

2. But where shall we find the bread of souls in a desert land, in a place of horror and of vast solitude? Where shall we find spiritual food under the sun, where there is nothing but toil and grief and affliction of spirit? But I know Who said: Ask and you shall receive; and this: If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good spirit to those who ask Him? (Matt. 7:7, 11; Luke 11:9, 13). Nor am I unaware how earnestly all this night and day you have asked, as beggars, that the living bread from heaven be given you; not the bread that strengthens the body, but that which strengthens the heart of man. For I would not dare to call us guests; we are beggars, on the prebend of God

cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). And what has been said of the eye is to be understood in the same way of the hand and foot as well. For he whose will cleaves to grace with affection and desire, so that he does not long to do evil things, nor lesser good things, nor to do good less well than grace prompts: this is plainly a perfect man. But that peace belongs rather to happiness: the cutting off of scandals, and the victory over temptations, to fortitude; the one, I say, to glory, the other to virtue.

living. Beggars, I say, lying before the gate of a very rich king, full of sores, and longing to be filled, nay, even to be kept alive, with the crumbs that fall from the table of our masters, whose solemnity we celebrate today. For they abound in delights, and receive good measure, pressed down and running over. But we trust that there will be one to give to us: for there is a great gulf and a very wide distance between the liberality and kindness of God and the cruelty of the miser rich man. Therefore our Father has given bread today: for the Father of mercies must needs be the father of the wretched too; He has given us, I say, bread from heaven, and victuals in abundance: of which would that I may prove a faithful cook, would that my soul may prove a useful kitchen!

3. For in preparing your dishes my heart grew hot within me all this night, and in my meditation a fire flamed out: that fire, without doubt, which the Lord Jesus sent upon the earth, and willed to be vehemently kindled (Luke 12:49). For spiritual food must needs have a spiritual kitchen and a spiritual fire. It remains now for me to distribute what I have prepared: but consider rather the Lord Who gives than the servant who distributes. For I, as far as in me lies, am nothing other than your fellow servant, who together with you, as the Lord Himself knows, beg both for myself and for you the bread from heaven and the nourishment of life. Therefore it is not I who give to you, but it is your Father Himself Who gives you the living bread from heaven; He feeds you with works and with words, and also with the flesh of His Son, which is truly food. For of works I read: My food is to do the will of My Father (John 4:34); and of words, that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3). So now we are to be fed with His deeds and words; after this, by His favour, we are also to receive the undefiled sacrament of the Lord's body at the most holy table of the altar.

4. We read in the Gospel today that Jesus, seeing the crowds, went up into the mountain. For people from the cities and villages were following the Lord as He preached; He saved their souls, He healed their bodies; and they clung to Him, delighted alike by His speech and by His look: for His voice was sweet, to be sure, and His face comely, as it is written: Beautiful in form above the sons of men, grace is poured out on Thy lips (Ps.

44:3). Such is He Whom we follow, to Whom we cleave; wholly desirable, on Whom not only the peoples but the holy angels themselves also desire to look. What sweeter thing shall we set before you? These, to be sure, are the delights of the angels. Taste, then, and see that the Lord is sweet. And nothing that is desired can be compared with this sweetness, this savour, this wisdom, which is truly drawn from hidden places. For what? Do you marvel at splendour in the sun, beauty in the flower, savour in bread, fruitfulness in the earth? But all these things are given by God: and there is no doubt that He has kept far more for Himself than He has given to creatures.

5. Now let us not think this idle either, that He went up into the mountain, which, to be sure, was foretold so long before, as though by a prophet crying from afar: Go up upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem (Isa. 40:9). In this ascent, unless you have something better, I think we are to understand what blessed Luke records at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, saying: The first account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1). Not, surely, after the manner of the Pharisees, who bound heavy and unbearable burdens and laid them on men's shoulders, but would not move them with their own finger (Matt. 23:4). Is this not good bread for the soul, and greatly strengthening the heart of man? Confidently I follow Thee, Lord, wherever Thou goest, and securely I walk the way of Thy commandments, knowing that Thou Thyself hast gone before along it. Securely, I say, I run the way of Thy commandments, since I know that Thy going forth to run this way was from the height of heaven, and Thy circuit even to its height was by this way. I cannot now, brethren, chew over each point in this manner: be you clean animals that chew the cud, so that it may be as it is written: A desirable treasure rests in the mouth of the wise (Prov. 21:20). For both the shortness of the hour and the greatness of the matter perhaps compel me to gird up and to cut short my word.

6. Jesus, seeing the crowds, went up into the mountain. Seeing them with a look of compassion, because they were like sheep going astray, having no shepherd. Why is it that before He began to teach He went up into the mountain, unless that by this very thing He taught that preachers of the word of God must strive towards the heights with the desires of the mind in holy living, and climb the mountain of the virtues? And when He had sat down, His disciples came to Him. When He had sat down, it says. Otherwise who could have come to that lofty giant? Most kindly indeed He bent Himself down, and emptied Himself even to sitting, so that He says to the Father: Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up (Ps. 138:2). For He sat, so that to Him Whom not even the angels could reach while He stood, even publicans and sinners might come, Mary Magdalene might come, and the Thief from the cross might come. And when He had sat down, His disciples came to Him. They came not so much by walking

of feet as by the affection of the heart and the imitation of virtues. And it is well said that not the crowds, not anyone at all of the people, but the disciples came to Him: so that, as the Old Testament is read to have been given on Mount Sinai, Moses alone going up and the people waiting below (Exod. 24:12–18), so now too the mountains might receive peace for the people, and the hills justice; and that there might be said to the apostles, as it were in a certain darkness and in secret, what they would afterwards say in the light, and they might hear in the ear what they would afterwards preach upon the housetops. Hence there follows:

7. And opening His mouth, He taught them. He opened His own mouth now, Who had before opened the mouths of the prophets. Hence it is that we read in the psalm, the Prophet saying: O Lord, Thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise (Ps. 50:17). But now He Who of old had spoken in many ways and by many means in the prophets has at last spoken with His own mouth, as if He were saying: I Who spoke, behold, I am here (Isa. 52:6). Blessed are they who heard Wisdom speaking in the flesh: blessed are they who heard the words of the Word of God that came forth from His own mouth. Yet what they heard is still kept for us; for we too can hear, though not from Him. Opening His mouth He taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Truly opened is His mouth, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. And truly this doctrine is His Who says in the Apocalypse: Behold, I make all things new (Rev. 21:5); Who had foretold through the Prophet: I will open My mouth, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world (Ps. 77:2; Matt. 13:35). For what is so hidden as that poverty is blessed? Yet the Truth speaks, which can neither be deceived nor deceive; and it is the Truth that says: Blessed are the poor in spirit. So do you, senseless sons of Adam, seek riches, still desire riches, when the beatitude of the poor [man] has now been divinely commended, preached to the world, believed by men? Let the pagan seek them, who lives without God; let the Jew seek them, who received earthly promises: but with what face, nay rather with what mind, does a Christian seek riches, after Christ has preached that the poor are blessed? How long, strange children, how long will your mouth speak vanity, so that you call that people blessed to whom these things belong, these visible things, these present things, when the Son of God, opening His mouth, has spoken the truth, that the poor are blessed, and woe to the rich?

8. But attend carefully to this, that He does not simply name the poor, because of the common poor, poor by wretched necessity, not by praiseworthy will. I do indeed hope that this very misery of their affliction will avail them with the mercy of the divine goodness: yet I know that the Lord in this place did not speak of such, but of those who can say with the Prophet: I will sacrifice to Thee freely (Ps. 53:8). Yet not even all voluntary poverty has praise with God: for philosophers too are read to have left all they had, so that, freed from worldly cares, they might give their time to the pursuit of vanity

more freely, and would not abound in earthly wealth, so that they might abound the more in their own sense. These are set apart by what is said: in spirit, that is, by spiritual will. Blessed, then, are the poor in spirit, that is, by spiritual intention, by spiritual desire, for the sole good pleasure of God and the salvation of souls, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But who is it that speaks thus, that thus makes the poor blessed, and thus enriches them? Do you think it can be true? It will be, without doubt, since He Who promises is truthful and mighty. If the enemy murmurs, he will be answered: Is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is your eye evil because I am good? (Matt. 20:15). If you were rightly humbled because you willed to exalt yourself against Me, are not those who humble themselves for My sake deservedly to be exalted? And truly, brethren, if that most wretched one was cast down from heaven because he aspired to loftiness, coveted height, presumed upon sublimity, does it not follow that they are blessed who of their own accord lay themselves down in the lowliness of poverty, and that, according to the Lord's declaration, theirs is the kingdom of heaven which that one lost? And see how wisely Wisdom has ordered it, setting the first remedy against the first sin. As if He were saying more openly: Do you wish to obtain the heaven which the proud angel lost, who trusted in his own strength and in the multitude of his riches? Embrace the lowliness of poverty, and it will be yours. There follows:

9. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. Well said, excellently. For so it was fitting that, poverty having been commended, meekness too should be preached; since for those who leave all things the first temptation is usually about the troubles of the body and the unaccustomed affliction of the flesh. And what will poverty profit if, which God forbid, the poor man falls into murmuring, become provoking and impatient of discipline? Excellently too, after the promise of the kingdom, another, lesser kingdom is given as a pledge, so that, according to the Scripture, we may have the promise of the life that now is, and equally of that which is to come (1 Tim. 4:8); and that from the bestowal of present things the expectation of things to come may be firm. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. By this land I understand our body: and if the soul wishes to possess it, if it desires to reign over its members, it must itself be meek and subject to its superior; for it will find its inferior such as it has shown itself to its superior. For the creature is armed to avenge the injury done to its Creator. And therefore let the soul that finds its own flesh rebellious against it know that it too is less subject than it ought to be to the higher powers. Let it grow gentle itself, and be humbled under the mighty hand of the Most High; and let it be subject to God, and likewise to the superiors whom it must obey in His stead: and at once it will find its body obedient and subject. For it is the Truth that speaks: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. And see whether the second medicine has not come forth against the wound of the second sin. For first after the ruin of the angelic transgression Eve sinned, driven by restlessness of spirit, and casting off the sweet yoke and light burden of the Lord's prohibition; since

she would not wait to merit from the hand of the Lord, from which she had already received everything else, the perfection of beatitude too, but tried to snatch it by the serpent's counsel. For this she lost paradise, the land of delights: for this she found a contrary law in her very body. But perhaps now, at this word of the Lord, you burn with desire for meekness, and complain of the harshness of your heart, and of certain bestial impulses and untamed fierceness. Attend, then, to what follows:

10. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Whips tame an unbroken horse; contrition of spirit and constancy in tears tame an ungentle soul. Therefore in all your works remember your last end: by no means let the horror of death, the dreadful trial of judgement, the fear of burning gehenna be removed from the eyes of your heart. Think on the misery of your pilgrimage, think over your years again in the bitterness of your soul; think on the perils of human life, think on your own frailty: and if you persevere in such thoughts, I tell you, you will feel little whatever outward thing seems troublesome, while with your whole heart you are taken up with the inward trouble. But neither will the Lord suffer you to be without consolation, since He is the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation; and what the Truth promises will be wholly fulfilled: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And with this sentence agrees also what you have read in Solomon: It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting (Eccl. 7:3). Therefore you would have been blessed, Eve, if after your fault you had sought the consolation of tears, and, turned to penance, had quickly obtained pardon. But as it is, you sought a most wretched consolation in the like fall of your husband, and with the worst of poisons, that is, the most wicked of vices, you infected all your posterity: so that to this day one man counts another's ruin his own consolation. Wretched indeed is the consolation of Eve, and of those who imitate this misery! But blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Yet what else is this consolation than the grace of devotion proceeding from the hope of pardon, and the most sweet delight in good, and a taste of wisdom, however slight, with which the kind Lord meanwhile refreshes the afflicted soul? But that taste is nothing other than a provocation of desire and an incentive of love, as it is written: Those who eat Me shall hunger still; and those who drink Me shall thirst still (Ecclus. 24:29). Therefore there is at once added:

11. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled. Let him who hungers hunger more; and let him who desires desire still more abundantly; for however much he is able to desire, so much is he to receive. Nay rather, not according to the imperfection or measure of his desire, since indeed until he possesses perfectly he cannot desire perfectly; nor yet can he possess perfectly until he desires perfectly; but he is to receive good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled.

To the weaker palate of the heart, and to a soul still languishing, justice seems a hard and tasteless thing; but those who have tasted, behold, they themselves know how blessed are they who hunger for it, for they shall be filled. O truly happy and glorious satiety! O holy banquet! O desirable feast! where surely there will be no anxiety, there can be no distaste, since the satiety will be the highest and the desire the highest. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled. Now I believe this word goes forth against Adam, who seems indeed to have held some portion of justice, in that he had compassion on the woman; but if he had hungered for justice, he would without doubt have taken care to render what he owed, not only to his wife but much more to the Creator. For he owed his wife compassion, certainly, and discipline, as to an inferior: for the man is the head of the woman (Eph. 5:23). But to God he owed obedience and subjection. But what do we think, brethren? Very many to this day judge that deed severely, and yet foolishly imitate it. They are indignant against Adam because he obeyed the voice of his wife rather than that of God; and they themselves daily listen to their own Eve, that is, the flesh, rather than to God. Brethren, if we now saw Adam present, placed at that moment, with thoughts rising up into his heart, hemmed in between his wife's entreaty and the Creator's command, would we not cry out against him, saying: Beware, wretch, see that you do not do it; the woman has been seduced, do not give in to her? Why then, whenever a like temptation seizes us, do we not persuade ourselves in the same way? For blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled. But what can all our justice be before God? Will it not, according to the prophet, be reckoned as the rag of a menstruous woman (Isa. 64:6), and, if it is strictly judged, will not all our justice be found unjust and wanting? What then will become of sins, when not even justice itself can answer for itself? Therefore, crying out earnestly with the Prophet: Enter not into judgement with Thy servant, O Lord (Ps. 142:2), let us run back in all humility to mercy, which alone can save our souls, and let us weigh carefully what follows:

12. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. And notice how Zacchaeus briefly embraces both in a single word, saying: Half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone, I restore fourfold (Luke 19:8). You see how much this man hungers for justice, for whom it is not enough to render an equal measure unless he renders fourfold. Great too is the mercy, that he gives half of his goods to the poor. Nevertheless I will not keep silent about what I perceive. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: plainly of the Lord, not yours. For I give glory not to you, but to His name. Zacchaeus certainly, whose praise is in the Gospel, gave half of his goods to the poor; but I see many Zacchaeuses here who have left nothing of all they had for themselves. Who will write for me this Gospel of these Zacchaeuses, or rather

of these Peters, who say confidently to the Lord: Behold, we have left all things and have followed Thee? (Matt. 19:27.) But it is already written in the eternal Gospel, written and sealed in the book of life: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Now, brethren, this sentence touches the cruelty of Adam, who seemed before to have sinned for love of his wife. For behold, we know, O Adam, that she is bone of your bones and flesh of your flesh, and that you sinned for love of her. Let us see now how much you love her. The Lord comes holding a fiery sword to punish the transgression: put yourself in the way of the danger for her sake, and say: Lord, the woman is the weaker, the woman was seduced: mine is the iniquity, mine the sin, let the vengeance fall on me alone. But he does not speak so: The woman, he says, whom Thou gavest me, gave me of the tree, and I ate (Gen. 3:12). O perversity! You shrink from taking the punishment for her, and you did not refuse to commit the fault! How, alas, you have confounded everything! perniciously merciful where you ought to have been severe, and more perniciously cruel where you ought to have shown mercy! For you ought in no way to have offended for her sake, but you ought to have made satisfaction for her with a willing heart. For so it must be, brethren: that a man never sin for another's sake, which belongs to justice, and that he willingly bear the sins of others, which belongs to mercy. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. There follows:

13. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. Blessed indeed, and wholly blessed, who shall see Him on Whom the angels desire to look, Whom to see is eternal life. My heart has said to Thee, my face has sought Thee: Thy face, O Lord, will I seek (Ps. 26:8). For what have I in heaven? and besides Thee what have I desired upon earth? My flesh and my heart have failed, O God of my heart, and God my portion for ever (Ps. 72:25, 26). When wilt Thou fill me with joy with Thy countenance? Woe is me for the uncleanness of my heart! by whose hindrance I do not yet merit to be admitted to that blessed vision. With what care, brethren, with what zeal must we give our labour, that the eye by which God is to be seen may be cleansed? And I indeed feel myself defiled by a threefold filth: the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of temporal glory, and the consciousness of past offences. For there are in the soul certain motions of both desires, which I can extinguish neither by reason nor by strength, so long as I am in this wicked world and am held bound in the body of death. Yet against these filths set the remedy of prayer; and therefore, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, so are our eyes on the Lord our God, until He have mercy on us, Who alone is clean and can make clean what was conceived of unclean seed. So too against the consciousness of sin the remedy of confession has been instituted; and in confession all things are washed. Behold, these are what cleanse the eye of the heart: prayer and confession. Further, blessed are the clean of heart, for

they shall see God. They shall see Him indeed at the end face to face; they see Him even now, but through a mirror in an enigma; and now they know in part, who will afterwards know perfectly. For everyone in whose conscience sin still lives shut in either sins in hope, and so thinks of God as though sins displeased Him less; or sins in despair, thinking God unmerciful. To both of them it is deservedly said: You thought unjustly that I shall be like you (Ps. 49:21): for neither of them sees God, but iniquity lies to itself, forming for itself an idol in place of Him, which is not He. But blessed are the clean of heart, for they alone see God, they alone think of Him in goodness: as He is truly good, so that no one is good but He alone. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. Wretched therefore were Adam and Eve, who, turning aside to words of malice to make excuses in sins, while they flee the cleansing of confession, remain with an unclean heart and are cast out from the face of the Lord. There follows:

14. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Deservedly shall they be called by the name of the Son who have fulfilled the work of the Son. For it is He through Whom, reconciled, we have peace with God: He Who made peace by His blood for the things that are in heaven and the things that are on earth, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And notice how in the first three the soul is reconciled to itself; in the two that follow, to its neighbour; in the sixth, to God; in the seventh it reconciles others too, as one received into the Lord's favour and endowed with a happy familiarity. For by poverty, meekness and weeping there is renewed in the soul a certain likeness and image of the eternity that embraces all times, while by poverty it merits the things to come, by meekness it claims the things present for itself, and by the mourning of penitence it recovers the things past as well, as it is written: I will recount to Thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul (Isa. 38:15). Further, by justice and mercy we cleave perfectly to our neighbour, when whatever we do not wish done to us we do not do to others, through justice; and whatever we wish men to do to us, we too do to them, through mercy. Now, reconciled to ourselves, reconciled also to our neighbour, we are confidently reconciled to God through cleanness of heart. But blessed are they who, not ungrateful for their own reconciliation, and devoutly solicitous for their brethren, labour to reconcile them too, as far as they are able, both to themselves and to God. For of what praises do you think him worthy, with how great affection to be embraced, that brother who, living without complaint among the brethren, takes care with all solicitude that there be nothing in him that others must bear, and who bears most patiently whatever is burdensome in others? who counts the stumblings of each as his own; who says with the Apostle: Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? who is weak, and I am not weak? (II Cor. 11:29.) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. For God is not of dissension but of peace; and therefore it is fitting that the sons of peace be called sons of God too.

15. Now the eighth beatitude, which follows, is the prerogative of the martyrs: of whose endurance neither