14. Concerning the Gift of the Fear of the Lord, and Certain Vlrtues Springing Therefrom. Now the First Gift of These Seven Is the Loving or Affective Fear of the Lord, Which Rather Fears to Offend God Than to Lose the Reward, and Operates in a Man So as Reverently to Worship God and His Glorious Humanity, and Strongly to Desire to Refer and Shape His Whole Life and All His Actions to the Honour of Christ ; to Worship with Great Reverence All the Sacraments of the Church, the Teaching and Instructions of Christ, All His Saints and the Service of God ; and to Show Reverence to His Own Superiors Whether Secular or Spiritual with Hearty Goodwill, and Finally to Worship All Good Men in Whom He Recog Nises the Virtues of the Likeness of God. for True Humility Springs Out of This Loving Fear, and Least of All from a Feigned Casting of Himself Into the Depths, Whilst Such a One Ponders and Regards the Greatness of God and His Own Littleness, God's Wisdom and His Own Ignorance, the Riches of God and His Generosity, and His Own Poverty and Need. This Humility Always Leads a Man to Think Little of Himself, and to Abase Himself Before God, and in the Same Manner to Lower Him Self by No Means Only Below His Superiors and Equals, But Even Below His Inferiors, So That as Far as Right Reason Dictates, of His Own Poor Ability He May Humbly Attend to Them All, That He May Be Content with Food and Drink in Accordance with Nature's Demands ; That He May Manifest His Humility in Dress Also or Bodily Attention Just as His Condition Demands and Is Fitting, So That No One May Justly Srebuke Him ; and Finally, That in His Own Life, Both Outwordly and Within, He May Be Humble Before God and All Men. Furthermore from This Humility Obedience Takes Its Rise, Whereby He Shows Himself Bound and Submissive to God and All His Commands, and in the Same Way to His Own Superiors and the Holy Church, and to All Good Men in All Good Things ; and His Senses and Animal Faculties Are Subject to the Highest Faculties in Undergoing Hardship, and in the Doing of Bodily Penance, as Far as Nature Under the Guidance of Right Reason Is Able to Bear Them. Moreover Obedience Produces the Surrender of One's Own Will, Whereby Such a One Denies Himself in Performing Actions or in Omitting Them, and He Does Them or Does Them Not, in Accordance with the Will of God, Nay Even Rather in Accordance with the Will of His Own Superiors and of All Those Amongst Whom He Lives, and This Too in Lawful and Profitable Matters Having Regard to Judgment or the Decision of Right Reason. Each One Who Has Gained and Followed After the Fear of God Thus Perfectly, Each Self Will and Private Advantage Having Bee^n Trodden Underfoot and Spurned, — He Indeed Is of Those of Whom Christ Spoke : " Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit, for Theirs Is the Kingdom of Heaven." for No One Is So Poor, Nor Has Anyone Forsaken More Than He Who Has Served God Throughout His Whole Life and Yet Nevertheless Desires Nothing Nor Demands Nor Seeks Aught Save What God Wishes to Bestow. He Clearly Is the Disciple S 58 Fear of the Lord and Imitator of Christ, Who of a Truth Pos Sesses Nothing, and Has a Better Confidence in God Than If He Had the Choice of All His Gifts in Time and Eternity. Nor Is He Un Fittingly to Be Compared with the Angelical Spirits of the Lowest Order, Inasmuch as He Is Their Companion and Is to Be Admitted Into Their Order. for the Angels Offer Reverence to God, and to All Angelical Spirits, and to Men, and They Venerate Them, and They Are Exceedingly Humble, and Are Most Ready Not Only to Serve God, But Even Individual Men. and in the Same Way They Are Messengers, and Minister Now to God, Now to Men, Now to All the Orders of the Angels. and Because They Have Associated Their Own with the Divine Will, Therefore They Are Henceforth Resigned in Will, and Enjoy Eternal Happiness. a Man of This Kind Is Even Like God, Both as Regards His Divine and His Human Nature. for as Regards His Own Divinity, God Pays Reverence to His Human Nature, and Vener Ates It, Since He Bore and Uplifted It Above All Heavens and All Ranks of Angels, and He Moreover Made Known to Us His Own Humility When He Assumed Our Nature, and Con- Fear of the Lord 5$ Joined and United It with Himself. He Even Became Obedient to the Desires, the Sighs, the Prayers or Outcries of Patriarchs and Prophets, and Finally Yielded Up His Will in Many and Different Ways, According to the Scriptures, and Iollowed After the Will of His Own Friends. But Christ Jesus, as Regards His Humanity, Always Venerated the Father with Boundless Reverence, Looking to and Seeding His Praise, Honour and Glory Every Where in Every Action of His. and Not Only in Acts of Duty Towards His Father, But Also Towards All Men and Towards His Own Dis Ciples He Ordered Himself Lowly and Humbly, Ministering to Them in All Things Necessary to Them, and Even in Unspeakable Humility Washes Their Feet, and Says of Himself : " the Son of Man Came Not to Be Ministered Unto, But to Minister." He Yielded Also to His Father in Obedience and a Resigned Will Throughout the Whole Period of His Life, Even to His Last Breath, and in the Same Way, Wherever It Was Useful and Profitable ; to the Jewish Law Also, and Sometimes Even to the Customs of the Patriarchs and Prophets. Whosoever, as Was Said, Has Been Confirmed in This Fear of God, Has Adorned and Trans Formed with the Divine Virtues the First Element of Earth, That Is the Irascible Faculty. the Earth Is Indeed Adorned with Trees Bring Ing Forth Various Fruits-, Which Represent the Intention Rendered and Applied to God with Respect and Reverence. It Is Adorned Too, with Many Kinds of Herbs, Giving Out a Not Able Odour and Distinctive Fruits, Which Signify the Reasonable or Conscious Service in Unison with Humility Most Unfeigned. It Is Adorned Besides with Creatures of Various Kinds, Beasts of Burden, Herds of Cattle and Wild Animals, Which Symbolise the Animal Senses and Faculties, Which Ke Is to Master and Hold and Ever Restrain Under a Real Obedience. This Adorns in a Far More Marked Degree the Rational Man — That Is He Who, Renouncing Himself, Is Submissive and Obedient to God in His Own Will with Out Retraction or Dispute. in This Manner Both the Earth and the Rational Faculty Are Adorned. and This Is the Earthly Paradise in Which God Has Placed Man in Order That He Might Labour in It and Keep It. His Labouring in It Is to Rely Upon the Virtues ; His Keeping It Is to Take Care Lest He Fall Into Sin. for If He Has Sinned, He Will Lose Both the Fruits of It and Paradise Itself. But in the Midst of Paradise God Planted the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. the Tree Represents Natural Appetite or Pleasure. Upon It Various Fruits Are Produced and Increase, Beautiful and Sweet and Delightful in Their Kind, Which the Devil and the World Offer to the Senses, That Is, to the Woman. Furthermore the Woman, That Is the Senses Offer These to the Man, That Is to the Higher Reason to Which God En Trusted the Care and Guardianship of Paradise. These Are Allowed to Partake of Consolation and Joy from All the Fruits of the Virtues-, and Thus to Be Ever Increasing in Grace ; But to Partake of the Fruit of Pleasure Is Forbidden, That Is, to Live in Accordance with the Delights of Nature. for in Whatever Supreme Hour the Reason Feeds Upon This Fruit, and Yields Its Assent to It to Gether with the Woman, That Is with the Senses and the Evil Spirit, Against the Prohibition and the Wish of God, the Man Is Cast Forth Outside Paradise, Naked and Devoid of All Virtues, Shut Out and Set Apart from God's Eternal Kingdom. But in Order That Any Man May Be Able to Possess This Fear of God Together with All the Virtues Which Grow Out from Thence in the Highest Perfection, He Must Take Care That as Earnestly as Possible His Intention May Be Raised to God, and Devoted and Fitted for God, and That He May Serve God in the Fear of the Lord Continually, and Without Re Traction, by Praising and Worshipping Him ; Also That He May Make Examination and Consider, and with True Understanding May Seek and Ponder Within Himself in What Way He May Be Set Free for God, and at the Same Time for All Men, and That in Addition He May Persevere in Virtues Ever Watchfully and Carefully, by No Means Yielding to Slumber, and Undertaking His Works with Gladness and Without Weariness and Slothfulness, and That Henceforth He May Hold His Own Will Devoted and Resigned to God Through a True Renunciation. Indeed Who Ever Lives Apart from Pleasure or Choice Can Neither Suffer Loss Either in Time or Eternity. If It Please Him to Apply His Mind to This Point He Will Gain the Fear of the Lord in His Own Supreme Perfection. There Are Four Things Which Restrain a Man from Being Able to Possess the Fear of the Lord in the Supreme Perfection of His Own Nature. in Those Who Lead an Undisciplined Life Apart from Care and Solicitude, There Is Little Fear That They May Strive to Serve God in Accordance with His Dignity. Ignorant and Heavy and Devoid of Understanding, They Learn with Difficulty How to Serve in the Palace of the Eternal King. Those Who Bear the Yoke of Obedience Un Willingly and with Annoyance Must Needs Be Full of Complaints. as Often as They Un Willingly Renounce Their Own Will, They with Difficulty Accomplish Anything, Since They Are Gloomy. These Four Things Impede a Man from Obtaining Perfection in the Fear of the Lord. There Are Four Other Things Which Drive Out and Cast Away This Fear and All the Virtues at the Same Time. Those Who Having Abandoned God Turn to Creatures, Bring Upon God Contempt and Injury. Without Know Ledge, Ignorant, Not Realising Themselves, Such a One Is Far Removed and Alien from a Living Humility. He Who Bestows No Attention on the Virtues, and Does Not Train and Exercise Them, Leads (as We Have Frequently ,said Else Where) a Life Knowing Nothing of Obedience, or Rather a Life Disobedient. Finally One's Own Will Makes Its Own Hell When They Who Are Devoted to It Are Gloomy and Wilful. These Four Things Separate a Man from God, and Bring Him to the Anguish and Disaster of Eternal Damnation