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Vice brings short-term pleasure and long-lasting sorrow, while virtue brings short-term work and long-term benefit, and at the same time pleasure. For example, you prayed to God, cried and grieved for a while during prayer, or even had fun all day, but then gave alms, fasted, did some other good deed, or, being cursed, did not retaliate with a curse; Having restrained yourself in this way and curbed your passion for one moment of time, you then rejoice and rejoice unceasingly, remembering your good deeds. But with vice it’s completely different: who scolded [the other], repaid [the other] with abuse? Arriving home, he consumes himself, reflecting on his words, which more than once caused great harm. So, if you are looking for pleasure, then avoid the lusts of young people (see 2 Tim. 2:22), maintain chastity and listen carefully to the Word of God (1). If a person who causes us harm is even wearing a diadem, we will not value our friendship, because there is nothing worse than a person given over to vices, even if he were a king; and on the contrary, there is nothing higher than a person who has acquired virtue, even if he were a prisoner. Whoever surrenders to repentance and is heard by God can easily achieve this good - to avoid communication with vicious people. “Let all my enemies be put to shame and severely defeated; let them return and be ashamed instantly” (Ps. 6:11). This desire contains great benefit, i.e., so that they will be ashamed and return back, because if those who walk badly are ashamed and return back, then they will abandon their vices. How do we, seeing a person striving for the abyss, keep him from further striving and say: “man, where are you striving? “There is an abyss before you,” just as the prophet wants the evil ones to return back. Likewise, a mad horse, if someone does not quickly restrain it, will soon die. Likewise, doctors, with great haste, try to stop the further spread of the poison of some poisonous animal, which often infects the entire body, stopping the harm that occurs from it. We will do exactly the same, we will destroy vice in ourselves with great haste, so that this disease, as it develops, does not intensify. Sinful wounds, being neglected, become larger and these illnesses and infirmities are not limited to wounds, but give birth to immortal death, whereas, being plucked out at the beginning and when they are still small, they will not become great. Look: whoever tries not to offend will not quarrel; he who does not know quarrels will maintain friendship; whoever maintains friendship will have no enemies; He who has no enemies and nourishes love will fulfill every virtue. Let us not neglect the beginning of evils, lest they increase further. Judas, if he had stopped his love of money, would not have reached the point of sacrilege; and if I had refrained from this, I would not have achieved the greatest evil. That is why Christ prohibits not only fornication or adultery, but also immodest looks, destroying vice at the very root so that it can be more easily overcome (see Matt. 5:28). God did the same with the Jews, although in a more sensual and representative way - because he spoke to carnal people - but he did. How and in what way? He did not allow any mixing of different kinds between working animals (see Deut. 22:10); did not allow eating the blood of dumb animals (see Lev. 17:10); did not allow bail to be kept after the evening (see Deut. 14:12), thus preventing important crimes, namely: the first - sodomy, the second - murder, the third - cruelty and inhumanity. But now everything is done openly and with great shamelessness - that’s why everything has been perverted. So, when a small passion arises in you, do not look at the fact that it is small, but imagine that, when fed, it produces the greatest disasters. In the house, when we see a small piece of flax on fire, we get embarrassed and make a fuss, because we are not looking at the beginning, but from beginning to end, we worry and run around to put out the fire. But vice spreads stronger than fire in the soul; therefore it is necessary to warn him. If we remain careless, correction will be more difficult. The same can be seen on a ship: those sailing do not begin to worry when the sea is already excessively agitated, but when they see that it is ready to become agitated. Let us not remain careless with small sins, but let us destroy them with great strength in order to avoid large ones and be worthy of future blessings (2). The most terrible effect of vice is that it does not allow those who have fallen into it to see the full danger of their own destruction; on the contrary, wallowing in the mud, they imagine that they are enjoying fragrances, which is why they cannot free themselves, and being full of worms, they are proud, as if adorned with precious stones. They do not even want to exterminate them, but feed them and breed them within themselves until they are passed on to the worms of the next century, since these here are the minions of the future, or better yet, not only minions, but the ancestors of those worms that never die, according to what is said: “their worm does not die” (Mark 9:44). They also kindle Gehenna, which never goes out. So, to prevent this from happening to us, let us dry up the source of evil, quench the furnace, and pluck out the root of vice from below, since if you cut down a bad tree on top of the ground, you will not do any good, because the root of vice will remain below, from which bad shoots will again come (11). If we drive out vice from ourselves and instill virtue in ourselves, we will clearly teach that vice is not a natural evil, and we can easily stop those who ask where evil comes from, not only with words, but also with deeds, when we appear before them free from their vices, although we have the same nature as them. Let us not look at the fact that virtue is difficult, but at the fact that it is possible to improve in it, and if we try, it will be both easy and convenient for us. If you tell me about the pleasantness of vice, then tell me about its end: after all, it leads to death, just as virtue leads us to life. But it is better, if you like, to consider vice and virtue without regard to their end; we will see that vice itself contains great sorrow, and virtue contains pleasure. Tell me, really, what is heavier than a bad conscience? What is more beautiful than good hope? After all, nothing, nothing usually torments and oppresses us more than the expectation of bad things; nothing supports and almost inspires as much as a good conscience. This can also be learned based on the events taking place before us. Thus, those living in prison and awaiting condemnation, even though they have enjoyed countless pleasures, live more restlessly than those beggars who walk along the street, but are not aware of anything bad about themselves, because the expectation of disasters does not allow them to experience real pleasures. And what about the prisoners? Hardworking artisans who work all day long are in a much better mood than free and rich people who are aware of something bad in themselves. That is why we consider gladiators pitiful; although we see that they get drunk, have fun and eat in taverns, we call them the most unfortunate of all, because the bitterness of the expected death incomparably exceeds these pleasures. If such a life seems pleasant to them, then remember what I have repeatedly told you - that there is nothing surprising when someone living in vice does not avoid the troubles and torment of vice. And so a thing worthy only of damnation seems amiable to those who participate in it. But we do not please them for this, but on the contrary, as a result of this we consider them unhappy, because they themselves do not realize what misfortunes they are in. What, for example, can we say about adulterers who, for the sake of insignificant pleasure, are subjected to shameful slavery, waste of property and continuous fear, in short, lead the life of Cain and even more difficult, because they fear the present, tremble for the future, suspect friends and enemies, those who know and those who know nothing. Even during sleep they are not freed from this torment, since their bad conscience creates terrible dreams in them and thereby frightens them. But a chaste person is not like that: he spends his real life in joy and perfect freedom. So, compare the insignificant pleasure with the countless excitement of these horrors, and the short-term labor of abstinence with the tranquility of a whole life - and you will see that the latter is more pleasant than the former. But whoever wants to steal and appropriate someone else’s property, tell me, doesn’t he endure countless hardships, constantly running, deceiving slaves, freemen, doorkeepers with flattery, intimidating, threatening, acting shamelessly, spending nights without sleep, trembling, tormenting and suspecting everyone? But he who neglects money is not like that. He again enjoys complete pleasure, living without fear and in perfect security. And if anyone wants to look at other types of vice, he will see great confusion everywhere, many pitfalls. The most important thing is that in virtue the beginning is full of work, but the continuation is pleasant, so that this makes the work itself easier; in vice, everything happens the other way around - pleasure is followed by illness and torment, so that as a result the pleasure itself disappears. Just as one who expects crowns does not feel any real heaviness, so one who expects punishment after pleasure cannot enjoy pure joy, because fear leads everything into confusion. Or rather, if you examine more carefully, you will find that the wicked, even before the punishment determined for bad deeds, experience great torment at the moment when they dare to do evil (11). You might be interested in: