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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 120
4. It will also be well if a man is not offended at the testimony of the Shepherd, saying in the beginning of his book, 'Before all things believe that there is one God, Who created and established all these things, and from non-existence called them into being [4279] .' And, further, the blessed Evangelists--who recorded the words of the Lord--in the beginning of the Gospels, wrote the things concerning our Saviour; so that, having first made known the Lord, the Creator, they might be believed when narrating the events that took place. For how could they have been believed, when writing respecting him who [was blind] from his mother's womb, and those other blind men who recovered their sight, and those who rose from the dead, and the changing of water into wine, and those lepers who were cleansed; if they had not taught of Him as the Creator, writing, 'In the beginning was the Word [4280] ?' Or, according to Matthew, that He Who was born of the seed of David, was Emmanuel, and the Son of the living God? He from Whom the Jews, with the Arians, turn away their faces, but Whom we acknowledge and worship. The Apostle therefore, as was meet, sent to different people, but his own son he especially reminded, 'that he should not despise the things in which he had been instructed by him,' and enjoined on him, 'Remember Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospel [4281] .' And speaking of these things being delivered to him, to be always had in remembrance, he immediately writes to him, saying, 'Meditate on these things: be engaged in them. [4282] ' For constant meditation, and the remembrance of divine words, strengthens piety towards God, and produces a love to Him inseparable and not merely formal [4283] ; as he, being of this mind, speaks about himself and others like-minded, saying boldly, 'Who shall separate us from the love of God [4284] ?' For [4285] such men, being confirmed in the Lord, and possessing an unshaken disposition towards Him, and being one in spirit (for [4286] 'he who is joined to the Spirit is one spirit'), are sure 'as the mount Sion;' and although ten thousand trials may rage against them, they are founded upon a rock, which is Christ [4287] . In Him the careless take no delight; and having no continuous purpose of good, they are sullied by temporal attacks, and esteem nothing more highly than present things, being unstable and deserving reproof as regards the faith. For 'either the care of this world, or the deceitfulness of riches, chokes them [4288] ;' or, as Jesus said in that parable which had reference to them, since they have not established the faith that has been preached to them, but continue only for a time, immediately, in time of persecution, or when affliction ariseth through the word, they are offended. Now those who meditate evil we say, [think] not truth, but falsehood and not righteousness, but iniquity, for their tongue learns to speak lies. They have done evil, and have not ceased that they might repent. For, persevering with delight in wicked actions, they hasten thereto without turning back, even treading under foot the commandment with regard to neighbours, and, instead of loving them, devise evil against them, as the saint testifies, saying, 'And those who seek me evil have spoken vanity, and imagined deceit all the day [4289] .' But that the cause of such meditation is none other than the want of instruction, the divine proverb has already declared; 'The son that forsaketh the commandment of his father meditateth evil words [4290] .' But such meditation, because it is evil, the Holy Spirit blames in these words, and reproves too in other terms, saying, 'Your hands are polluted with blood, your fingers with sins; your lips have spoken lawlessness, and your tongue imagineth iniquity: no man speaketh right things, nor is there true judgment [4291] .' But what the end is of such perverse imagining, He immediately declares, saying, 'They trust in vanities and speak falsehood; for they conceive mischief, and bring forth lawlessness. They have hatched the eggs of an asp, and woven a spider's web; and he who is prepared to eat of their eggs, when he breaks them finds gall, and a basilisk therein [4292] .' Again, what the hope of such is, He has already announced. 'Because righteousness does not overtake them, when they waited for light, they had darkness; when they waited for brightness, they walked in a thick cloud. They shall grope for the wall like the blind, and as those who have no eyes shall they grope; they shall fall at noon-day as at midnight; when dead, they shall groan. They shall roar together as a bear, or as a dove [4293] .'
This is the fruit of wickedness, these rewards are given to its familiars, for perverseness does not deliver its own. But in truth, against them it sets itself, and it tears them first, and on them especially it summons ruin. Woe to them against whom these are brought; for 'it is sharper than a two-edged sword [4294] ,' slaying beforehand and very swiftly those who will lay hold of it. For their tongue, according to the testimony of the Psalmist, is a 'sharp sword, and their teeth spears and arrows [4295] .' But the wonderful part is that while often he against whom men imagine [harm] suffers nothing, they are pierced by their own spears: for they possess, even in themselves, before they reach others, anger, wrath, malice, guile, hatred, bitterness. Although they may not be able to bring these upon others, they forthwith return upon and against themselves, as he prays, saying, 'Let their sword enter into their own heart.' There is also such a proverb as this: 'The wicked is held fast by the chain of his sins [4296] .'
[4279] Herm. Mand. 1.
[4280] John i. 1.
[4281] 2 Tim. iii. 14; ii. 8.
[4282] 1 Tim. iv. 15.
[4283] The Syriac word here rendered not merely formal is one which stems to take no other meaning than 'inexpiable'--a sense scarcely admissible in this place. The Greek was probably agapen pros auton achoriston kai ouk aphosioumenen. This supposition would account for the Syriac misapprehension of the word.
[4284] Rom. viii. 35.
[4285] The Syriac text from here to the words, 'There is also such a proverb as this' (end of S:), was discovered after Cureton's edition of the Syriac, and is absent in Larsow.
[4286] 1 Cor. vi. 17.
[4287] Ps. cxxv. 1; 1 Cor. x. 4; Matt. vii. 25
[4288] Matt. xiii. 22.
[4289] Ps. xxxviii. 12.
[4290] Prov. xix. 27, LXX.
[4291] Is. lix. 3, 4.
[4292] Ib. lix. 4, 5.
[4293] Ib. lix. 9-11.
[4294] Heb. iv. 12.
[4295] Ps. lvii. 4.
[4296] Ib. xxxvii. 15; Prov. v. 22.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/letters.asp?pg=120
