Book 10

Be, said he, long-suffering and prudent and you shall have power over all evil deeds and shalt do all righteousness.

For if you are courageous the Holy Spirit which dwells in you will be pure, not obscured by another evil spirit, but will dwell at large and rejoice and be glad with the body in which it dwells, and will serve God in great cheerfulness, having well-being in itself.

But if any ill temper enter, at once the Holy Spirit, which is delicate, is oppressed, finding the place impure, and seeks to depart out of the place, for it is choked by the evil spirit, having no room to serve the Lord as it will, but is contaminated by the bitterness. For the Lord dwells in long-suffering and the devil dwells in ill temper.

If therefore, both spirits dwell in the same place it is unprofitable and evil for that man in whom they dwell.

For if you take a little wormwood, and pour into it a jar of honey, is not the whole honey spoilt? And a great quantity of honey is ruined by a very little wormwood, and it spoils the sweetness of the honey, and it has no longer the same favour with the master, because it has been mixed and he has lost its use. But if no wormwood be put into the honey, the honey is found to be sweet, and becomes valuable to the master.

You see that long suffering is very sweet, surpassing honey, and is valuable to the Lord and he dwells in it. But ill temper is bitter and useless. If, therefore, ill temper be mixed with courage, the courage is defiled, and its intercession is no longer valuable before God.

I would like, sir, said I, to know the working of ill temper, that I may be preserved from it. Indeed, said he, if you do not keep from it, both you and your house, you have destroyed all your hope. But keep from it, for I am with you. And all shall refrain from it, who repent with all their heart; for I will be with them, and will preserve them, for all have been made righteous by the most revered angel.

Hear, then, said he, the working of ill temper, and how evil it is and how it destroys the servants of God by its working, and how it leads them astray from righteousness. But it does not lead astray those who are filled with faith, nor can it work evil to them, because my power is with them, but it leads astray those who are vain and are double-minded.

And when it sees such men in tranquillity, it forces its way into the heart of that man, and the man or woman is made bitter out of nothing, because of daily business or of food or some trifle, or about some friend, or about giving or receiving, or about some such foolish matters. For all these things are foolish and vain and meaningless, and unprofitable to the servants of God.

But long-suffering is great and mighty and has steadfast power and prospers in great breadth, is joyful, glad, without care, glorifying the Lord at every time, has nothing bitter in itself, but remains ever meek and gentle. Therefore this long-suffering dwells with those who have faith in perfectness.

But ill temper is first foolish, frivolous, and silly; then from silliness comes bitterness, from bitterness wrath, from wrath rage, and from rage fury; then fury, being compounded of such great evils, becomes great and inexpiable sin.

For when these spirits dwell in one vessel, where also the Holy Spirit dwells, there is no room in that vessel, but it is overcrowded.

Therefore the delicate spirit which is unaccustomed to dwell with an evil spirit, or with hardness, departs from such a man, and seeks to dwell with gentleness and quietness.

Then, when it departs from that man where it was dwelling, that man becomes empty of the righteous spirit, and for the future is filled with the evil spirits, and is disorderly in all his actions, being dragged here and there by the evil spirits, and is wholly blinded from goodness of thought. Thus, then, it happens with all who are ill tempered.

Abstain then from ill temper, that most evil spirit, but put on long suffering and withstand ill temper, and be found with the holiness which is beloved of the Lord. See then that you forget not this commandment, for if you master this commandment you will also be able to keep the other commandments which I am going to give you. Be strong in them and strengthen yourself, and let all strengthen themselves who wish to walk in them.