Isaac of Stella, Sermons

in that it labours less than all, lessens the labour; in that it receives first, it makes [others] receive; and while it is itself at rest, it draws all things to rest. Therefore the spirit, delighting in God, addresses its soul, which it had before felt to be weary, fearful, sad, anxious, troubled and labouring in its exercise, thus: Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has done good to you, for He has delivered my soul from death, that is, from sin; my eyes from mourning, that is, from sorrow for past sin; my feet from falling (Ps. 114:7–8), that is, from fear of what is to come. Whoever, therefore, takes delight in all that he does and suffers is in nothing troubled at all, labours in nothing, is burdened in nothing, so that now, under the light yoke and the sweet burden, he truly finds rest for his soul as the wage of his work, as the Saviour says in promise: And you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:29); and so in holy living, from good habit, with heart enlarged by unspeakable sweetness, exulting and praising, he runs the way of God's commandments on the second day, that is, the day of charity, which casts out fear: he who on the first day, namely of fear, was pressed by the weight and the heat in the tilling of the vineyard, to which he found the narrow way, entered by the strait gate, and within dug the hard and intractable earth. But when we have come to this great abundance of God's sweetness, which He has hidden for those who fear Him but revealed to those who love Him, nothing will be hard for us, nothing harsh, nothing heavy that is settled to be for Christ. But since everywhere we shall feel sweetness and delight, we shall murmur at this alone, that all we do will be too little; and willingly and fervently we shall gird ourselves for stricter exercises of zeal, so as everywhere to have a foretaste of a greater sweetness of delights. Even the remembrance of sins will not be turned to the compunction of fear, but will kindle to thanksgiving. Such men, then, on the day of weariness and labour, the sixth day of working, the day of passion and the cross, are saddened in their exercise, while, still living, they are crucified with Christ; but on the day of peace and quiet, the day of tranquillity and silence, the day of burial and sabbath, as dead to sins and to the world, they are buried together within themselves and rest in Christ, so that on the third day, the day of exultation and salvation, the day of solemnity and gladness, the day of resurrection and glory, the Lord's day at last, the eighth day and the first of the new light, as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so these too, raised together, may walk in newness of life: living by the spirit, and walking by the spirit. Amen.

SERMON XVIII. ON SEXAGESIMA.

The sower went out, etc. (Luke 8:5). Among the plentiful wants of our quiet and lovable poverty, we are, as you see, rich in a dearth of books, and above all of commentaries. For just as someone, exulting, said praiseworthily: "I have given up the Gospel for the sake of the Gospel," so we have left books behind for the sake of books. For having been taught by the holy books the virtue of holy solitude,

the fruit of quiet, the grace of poverty, we few have escaped, not only, as once, going out from home and fleshly kindred, but rather as if forgetting the many holy brethren and the house of our spiritual father, making the loss, as of all other abundance, so of the numerous variety of books, and of almost the whole world and human race, to this remote island shut in by the Ocean, naked and shipwrecked, embracing the naked cross of the naked Christ. Therefore, since you do not let us be silent, and in place of reading require the frequent use of our living voice, in the other readings of the holy Gospel we do not everywhere follow the common explanations, but expound more freely what we judge fitting to the time, place, business and persons; for an exposition is not out of tune with the sense of the supreme Scribe, that is, the finger of God, which excludes the riddles of Scripture so as to destroy in its hearers the kingdom of cupidity and build up that of charity; but in this reading we are sent away from this licentious freedom, since He who sets it forth expounds it. The seed, then, is the word of God, the sower is the Son of Man, but He is Himself the Word of God: hence seed and sower are the same; and so He sows Himself. He alone it is who can worthily sow, that is, preach, Himself. We do not, says the excellent preacher, preach ourselves, but Jesus (II Cor. 4:5). I fear there may be someone today who preaches himself, who by speaking of Jesus desires to make a name for himself, who by speaking of what is another's seeks his own glory, or gain; who, throwing himself outside himself, sows to the wind, so as to remain empty within, and does not gather himself in outside; who, holding out the truth, brings in vanity; who, offering the antidote, drinks the poison himself; who, the better he discourses on humility, the worse he is proud; who preaches poverty while coveting riches, contempt of the world while greedy for it, mercy while avaricious, subjection while ambitious. The holy Word of the Father speaks what He is, does what He teaches; of Him it is written: The things which Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1); and through this that sower sows Himself by the example of His life and the word of His teaching, saying: Learn from Me, what you see in Me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29). But whence did He go out to sow? He went out whence He did not depart; He came whither He did not draw near. The Word went out from the bosom of the Father, came into the womb of the Virgin, and going out thence, made flesh, came into the world, as a sower into the field, the Son of Man. Those who sow are accustomed to draw the seed out of hidden granaries, to fill certain baskets for carrying, from which to sow, and so to go out into the field to sow. This seed and sower, then, going out from the hidden and unsearchable granary of the Godhead, where the fullness dwells, was sent, the Virgin giving birth, into the basket of the flesh: whence He sows Himself from Himself, He Himself seed, sower and basket. But while He sows, etc. (Luke 8:5). This prudent husbandman knows the differences of his soil, yet sows the soil without distinction, and, as if unaware, diligently makes loss of precious seed. What does this mean? Does He sow with distinction? For there are several sowings of the word, one inward, one outward; one to the ears of the flesh, one to the ears of the heart; one, finally, outwardly to the ears by the word of teaching, another to the eyes

by the example of life, another to the heart within by the inspiration of grace.

In these three, therefore, was the perfection of the heavenly teaching in Christ. For He who teaches hearts has His chair in heaven. The disciples of Moses, the Scribes and Pharisees, speak but do not do, sowing to the ears, not to the eyes; but the justice of Christ's disciples abounds more: for they speak and do, sowing to ears and eyes. The one Master, Christ, sows outwardly by life and voice; within He helps by the gift of grace. And so in the field He does not sow without distinction, although outwardly He scatters the seed of the word in common. The Spirit, He says, breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, etc. (John 3:8). Outwardly you hear the voice without distinction; but by what cause, by what reason, by what grace, by what discernment it comes from the hidden counsel of God, and how a voice made outwardly in common goes inwardly in particular to this man or that, you do not know. There is, then, a fourfold difference among the hearers of the word. Some, having a heart trodden down and hardened, hear the preaching with the ear outwardly, but do not receive it in the heart: on them the words fall beside the way, not on the way of belief or obedience. For not all have faith (II Thess. 3:2), nor do all obey the Gospel (Rom. 10:16). For the demon, flitting between ear and heart, draws out through the one ear what enters through the other, lest it go down to the heart. For when the preacher rises to speak outwardly, the devil rises to speak against him inwardly, either suggesting that it is false, or perverting what is said, or fighting against him by whom it is said, or weighing down with sleep or other thoughts him to whom it is said. Others, having readiness of obedience but lacking the strength of constancy, like the sons of Ephraim bending the bow, turn back in the day of battle, quickly pricked, more quickly withered, temporary and light, having no deep root of charity: in time of peace they believe, in time of temptation they fall away; while nothing itches within, they are chaste; while nothing rages without, brave; if no one troubles them, meek; if all goes well, devout: to them this applies: He will praise You when You have done good to him (Ps. 48:19). Truly sons of Adam, as the father, such the sons: he stood only so long as he had no occasion to fall; he stood until, lightly pushed, he fell. As the first are too hard, so these are too soft: those obstinate, these faint-hearted; those do not receive the word, these do not keep it. The third keep it, yet not for fruit to themselves, but as a witness against themselves: soil foul and untilled under the old curse, sprouting thorns and thistles: against whom the prophet cries: Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow upon thorns (Jer. 4:3). Malice hardens the first, poverty of heart dissolves the second; the third are cramped by avarice, laid waste by anxiety, oppressed by cares, choked by riches, unmanned by pleasures, weighed down by gluttony and drunkenness, so that, as in the hand of a drunkard, thorns sprung up in place of wheat prick and tear it.

Who today, when the very Word of God alleges this, when Truth itself expounds it, when the divine Wisdom, which knows the nature and power of all things, interprets it, thinks riches to be thorns? Who refuses to embrace them as thorns? To the Word of God

Believe the Word of God: riches are thorns, and whoever embraces them, like a bundle of thorns, pricks himself the more sharply the more tightly he binds them to himself. But fools, while they think there are delights beneath the briars, are torn by true and inward prickings, while they are mocked by false and brief delights. When we deter men from these thorns as from the food of hell, all cry out that riches truly are thorns, and yet they do not forsake them: they praise us as happy and call us blessed, as though we had already escaped, they accuse themselves, and curse the world they love; they serve it and disparage it, they carry its hay and grumble: not possessors, but possessed by the world, indeed laid low and buried under it; like that fire-spewing giant under the mass of the mountains, they cannot rise: in them, where the love of this world reigns, the charity of the Father, to use a rustic word, has no deep soil, which alone receives the seed of the Son unto fruit. Let us give thanks to the Father, the husbandman, who through the Holy Spirit has made us fit for the seed of the Son, pouring the fire of charity into our hearts, by which, the thorns burnt away, our soil, thoroughly baked, bears fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or even a hundredfold in patience. For obedience receives the seed of the word, patience makes it fruitful, perseverance reaps it. And as the Apostle says of the contestants: All run, but one receives the prize (I Cor. 9:24); so too one may say of the virtues. All run to the kingdom of God, but one takes the prize. Contempt of the world runs, poverty, almsgiving, abstinence, obedience, patience: perseverance alone is crowned. For he who perseveres to the end will be saved (Matt. 10:22); and the Lord judges the ends of the earth; for middles, like beginnings, have no examination; it is not beginning but finishing that is reckoned as virtue. And so patience commends obedience, and perseverance crowns it.

SERMON XIX. ON THE SAME FEAST, II.

The sower went out to sow his seed (Luke 8:5). The Son of Man went out indeed from the Virgin's womb, and sowed Himself, that is, the Word of God, in the ears of men by voice, in their eyes by example, in their hearts by grace. But while He sows, four differences of hearers are found. The first hear, but are not allowed to believe so as to do well, by the evil one, to whom they have sold themselves: made over to him as slaves, as if conquered by him, they have been sold to do evil. The second hear and receive with joy, that is, easily, but touched with the same lightness, they cast it out in the heat of temptation and miscarry: to such that word of Jeremiah applies: Faith has perished, and is taken away from their mouth (Jer. 7:28). The third, confessing with the mouth, choke it by their deeds. The fourth believe with the heart unto justice, and confess with the mouth unto salvation. But to one who looks more deeply it is clear that this sower did not go out from here first, nor sow here first, nor find these differences of the field now first. I went out, He says, from the Father, and came into the world (John 16:28), indeed, but through the womb. Hence He did not first go out from man, nor first sow among men. For neither did He first speak to men

was God; but [He spoke first] even to the angels. God has spoken once, it says, and does not repeat it a second time (Job 33:14). We ask, and it is worth asking, out of piety, not curiosity, out of devotion, not presumption: to whom did God speak once what He cannot repeat, nor say anything else before it, God who can do all things?

And so, my brethren, a certain mind devoted to God and impatient with love sought her beloved in her bed, sought outside her bed in the city, sought through the streets, sought through the squares, and could not find him at all until she had passed by the watchmen, that is, the angels, who never sleep. But when she had passed beyond all the height of the angelic nature, then first she found; having found, she held, and did not let go. O blessed soul, which sought so eagerly, found so happily, held so strongly, kept so wisely! What are we doing, brethren? Should not these few words, few but not small, suffice for every spiritual exercise: she sought, she found; she held, and did not let go? What else is there to do, or what more remains? That eagle, keen of eye and divining God, sought this which we seek, the first and one Word, and, having passed through the whole of what came from not-being to being, found in the beginning what did not begin to be, saying: In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1). But in what way was in the beginning that which cannot be without a beginning? For everything that is a word can by no means be without any beginning at all. For everything that is a word must be someone's word, and it is plain that it goes out from the speaker in order to be a word. The Word therefore went out from Him whose word it is: but how, when, of what kind, and from whom did the first word go out? For who first spoke, how, and to whom? But that we may track these things down more fully, we must begin a little higher, from common and customary speech. First of all, then, that any things whatever may be in some way, it is altogether necessary that they simply be. For what is in no way is altogether nothing; and what is not, in no way at all is, and is nothing. Mere being, therefore, meets us in all things first in composition, last in resolution. For before it nothing is found that underlies forms, nor after it anything, once the forms have been abstracted from it by the intellect. For the intellect divides what the effect does not divide: and that to which something can come so as to be this, from it something can also depart so that it is not this. But form itself, which can come to matter and depart from it, if it is not, is also nothing. Whatever is, therefore, is by having received the form of being, and subsists, so that it can be this or something else, that is, be held in some species. For everything that is, is for this reason, that it is one in number, whence it can afterwards be distinguished by measure and placed by weight. For no one denies that all things whatever are comprised in number, measure and weight, except one who is ignorant of all things. Therefore, regarding everything, it first occurs to us to investigate, when it is, what it is; then of what kind it is; thirdly, for what it is; that is, about its nature, form and use. Hence those who study such things, though they did not make them themselves, [found] three

found that there are by nature three disciplines, in which they recognized that all the pursuit of wisdom is sufficiently occupied: namely physics, logic, ethics, that is, natural, rational, moral. Following first, then, the natural, let us ask what everything that is established to be could be. Everything, then, that exists either exists through itself, or needs another in order to be able to exist.

And so, seeking God, than whom nothing is more worthy, let us gladly follow whatever better and worthier thing presents itself, until we arrive, at least by reason, at the most worthy, than which nothing can be better, and hold it by affection, and guard it by diligence.

Leaving aside, then, what does not subsist through itself but lies alongside another in order to be able to exist (whence it is rightly named adjacent, or accident), let us treat of the thing existing through itself. For this, however, the second discipline we mentioned is needed, so that it may be discerned how any thing whatever can subsist through itself. A thing, then, is said to subsist by nature or by act, in reason or in reality. For example, for man to subsist in reason, or by nature, nothing is required beyond rational mortal animal: for this is the whole being of man, and for man to subsist nothing is laid on top; but whether he is wise or not, of this or that size, father or son, white or black, whether he sits or not, is here or elsewhere, when he acts or is acted upon, whether he is armed or unarmed, is in no way required for being man; yet it is certain that without some one of these no one is, that is, subsists in reality and act. Man, therefore, subsists through himself so as to be man, and any man subsists through himself so as to be some man. Hence both are called substance, both what subsists in reason, man, and what subsists in act, some man. But that which is known to subsist in act is called substance properly, principally and most of all: whence it is named first substance. But what subsists only in reason and understanding, secondarily indeed, has obtained the name of second substance. Every substance, then, that is, every thing existing through itself, is either first or second. But they differ, in that the first subsists through itself and in itself, the second through itself but not in itself. For the second is not found to exist except in the first. The second, then, [subsists] only in reason, whether by nature or by the intellect abstractively; but the first in reason and reality together, by nature and act, in intellect and in state. Hence that substance which subsists in reason and reality together, one in number, is said to be truer and better than that which is understood only in reason and understanding, as it were common and confused, and suspended. For a man is nowhere found to exist who is not some man. But neither does some this or that man exist, if he is not man at all. As, then, second substance does not subsist except in first, so neither does first except from second. For in reason the second comes first, so that the first can be; but in act the first subsists, lest the second be nowhere, and thereby nothing. For there is no man [in particular] if there is no man at all; but neither is man anywhere, if there is no particular man. And similarly with these, so too of substance itself. For if substance itself

is not, neither this nor that substance will be. But yet, though it is, it will not be able to be except in this or that.

Substance, then, underlies all things existing through themselves, that is, substances, in reason and as cause, by nature, and as it were as matter, so that they not only are, which belongs to essence, but are what they are, which belongs to substance. Yet substance as such, that is, common to all and general, subsists nowhere. And though it has nothing before it, as matter from which it is, yet beneath itself it contains those things without which, and except in which, it can nowhere subsist. It falls to us, then, to conclude generally that every substance is first or second; and that every second substance exists through itself but none in itself; and every first exists through itself but none from itself: and therefore each is imperfect and needy, since the one lacks existing in itself, and the other existing from itself; the latter needs before it that from which it is; the former, after it, where and from what it is. But see, dearly beloved (I confess, my mind leaps ahead with I know not what impatience), out of the imperfection of those which alone and wholly are substances, there begins to shine through, as it were, a certain, if it can be said, supersubstance, which subsists through itself, in itself and from itself, altogether in reason and reality, by nature and act, in intellect and in state: over which nothing is set that it may be something, beneath which nothing lies lest it be nothing; nothing above, that it may be from there; nothing below, except in which it could not subsist; nothing before as to nature, nothing after as to state, nothing outside as to form. And if this is so in truth, and the mind is not mocked by an empty phantasm, that is far better than every substance. Hence substance, neither first nor second, will in no way be worshipped by me, since something better, even if perhaps it is not, can certainly be thought. Accident, as we said, is posterior to every substance: and therefore, since it cannot be except in substance, without it it must be nothing. So if there is no substance, there is no accident; but if there is no accident, which comprises nine categories, there will be no second substance at all through which the lower substances are specified by the higher, and through which second substances descend into first substances. Hence, if there is no form, no first substance will subsist in act. And if no first subsists, there will be no second at all, which has no way to subsist except in the first. Substance, then, is proved to be nothing if accident is nothing; but neither is accident anything without substance, nor substance anywhere without accident. For second substance as it is understood abstractively is nowhere in itself, and in act is nothing; but it is conceived confusedly in the mind, and held suspended in the intellect, until it is as it were clothed by the forms that arrive, and set up in some first thing and in act: which first thing, however, will be nothing at all if there is no form; nor form either, unless it [the thing] is.

And so each, that is, subject and accident, or substance and form, considered by itself without the other, is clearly found to be nothing and empty, so that from two nothings, that is, matter by itself and form by itself, it is evident that the third is nothing but nothing, that is, every