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(1) About those who themselves become teachers, spiritual fathers and leaders of others, and, not having Divine grace, guide and teach others - and about the fact that no one should, before he is born and enlightened by a spiritual father, lead or teach others. 1. I would like, beloved brother, to die to this world in such a way that not a single person knows me, but so that I can spend my life as if truly dead, and live implicitly, a life hidden in Christ, by which other lovers of God know God and are known by God only, keeping themselves inseparably in living unity with Him at all times and in all places. At first I burned with desire for such a life, and I still burn for such a life. But since we, according to the word of St. Paul, are not governed by ourselves, but were purchased by the most pure blood of Christ, and since we must seek not only our own benefit and please not only ourselves, but also our neighbors for the good, then it is in every possible way necessary for me to carry out with all zeal the commandments of my Master Jesus Christ, who redeemed me. For if slaves bought by people have an urgent duty to do the commands of their masters, and when they disobey, they are punished; Shouldn’t we all the more, even to the point of death, do the commandments of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who redeemed us with His own blood? Moreover, for what slaves are commanded to do from their masters and what they do, they either do not receive any payment at all, as happens most of the time, or if they receive sometimes, it is extremely small and insignificant - and, again, the punishments that are given to slaves for disobeying their masters, no matter how great they are, are all temporary. But the commandments of our Lord have an endless and eternal reward, since in those who fulfill them, they instill immortal life and such give them blessings that no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, and no one has sighed in the heart; and on the contrary, the punishments that await those who transgress them are eternal and endless, and therefore more terrible than any other punishment to which slaves who transgress the will of their masters are subjected. - And what am I saying about slaves, while those who are rich and respected with dignity - and they do not always go where they want, and not only do what they please, but where and what the king commands them, they do it with complete obedience to his commands? So what? Slaves to their masters and rulers to their king have a duty to show all kinds of submission and obedience, but we, who have become warriors of the King of kings and God of gods and promised in Holy Baptism to be His slaves, do not have the duty to obey His commandments and fulfill His commandments? “And what excuse can we get when we neglect this?” - But woe to me that, while saying this and showing others the path of salvation leading to the kingdom of God, I myself am judged by all people, not only laymen, but I am condemned, sentenced to punishment and hated as unclean, even by monks, and priests, and bishops. And oh, if only this had happened without reason, through mere suspicion and the action of the devil, acting in the sons of disobedience to their destruction! But I say what I learned from experience, that if the demons had not had people as accomplices in their malice, then, probably, they would not have been able to alienate those who were mysteriously reborn through holy Baptism and became sons of God by grace from the commandments of God. I believe that baptized infants are sanctified and kept under the shelter of the All-Holy Spirit, that they are sheep of the flock of Christ and chosen lambs, since they are sealed with the sign of the life-giving Cross and are completely freed from the tyranny of the devil. And if the devil had not found suitable instruments of his anger for doing what he wants, either in the parents of children, or in nurses, or in those who treat them (as in the beginning - in the serpent and the wife), then he probably could not have kidnapped and appropriated any of them for himself. For, as reality testifies, these persons we have spoken about teach them from childhood all kinds of evil and deceit, lewd language, gluttony, dancing, panache and all sorts of other bad things - love of money, vanity, love of fame, pride - and they accustom them to these bad things from childhood and educate them in them. Why, even before children come to the knowledge of themselves and begin to reason for themselves, through teaching them the indicated bad skills and dispositions, they hand them over to the devil as slaves, depriving them, the unfortunate ones, of the grace of sonhood and the sanctification they received - without knowing what they are doing, as senseless. Of the fathers of the present century, almost none raises their children in a Christian way and teaches them the rules and commandments of Christ, but almost all of them raise them in worldly customs and Hellenic morals. They don’t even care about anything Christian, and they don’t talk to Job: When did my sons sin and in their thoughts have evil thoughts against God? ( Job 1:5 ). They do not fear and do not tremble at the thought that their children would not have done anything inappropriate and would not have thereby fallen away from the slavery and sonship of Christ, who was sacrificed for our salvation, and would not again become slaves of our enemy, the tyrant Satan, and would not be condemned to death and eternal torment in fire. One fear holds them all for their children, and they have one concern for them, how to make them ostentatious before people, glorious and brilliant, not by virtue and chastity, and not by indifference to the pomp and pleasures of the world, but by gilded horse trappings, smart clothes and slaves preceding and following them. Because of this, their children get used to the love of fame, to pomp, to wealth and exaltation. Thus, by their parents, children are led into every kind of passion without the temptation of demons, and often, through their (parents’) influence, they fall into shameful acts - and give entrance to the devil, the father of evil, through the violation of the vows given in holy Baptism. Having been brought up in this way and having grown up among such bad influences, they introduce into the soul a habit of evil that is difficult to erase, which over time turns into nature and becomes incorrigible. For this reason, some of them (children) remain in their evil habits until death, not having the strength to break away from lusts, passions and carnal pleasures, with which they die; others come to their senses somewhat, recognize the evil that has dominated them and try to free themselves from it. But if they do not completely separate themselves from their evil teachers (that’s what they should be called, not parents), then it will be impossible for them to free themselves from the evil habits that have taken root in them. – And foreseeing this, God calls out to all of us: unless anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother... and brothers... he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26). For for what other reason is it unfair to hate parents, except after realizing the mental harm caused by them. Whoever feels this harm, no longer looks at his parents and relatives as friends, but naturally hates them as the accusers of his soul, and runs away from dealings with them, trying in every possible way to first completely separate himself from those who have become the cause of so much evil for him, so that later he can strive more freely for the liberation of his soul from these outdated evil habits, and from the very lusts and passions. First of all, he must relieve his conscience from the burden of sins through repentance and confession. Now listen, honest father, what I intend to tell you. Those who renounce the world and do not have spiritual fathers and elders for themselves, those, of course, have not become anyone’s spiritual children. But those who did not become children were not born; those who were not born did not come into being; those who have not come into (spiritual) existence are not at all in the spiritual world. Just as those who were not born physically are not in the visible world, so those who were not born spiritually are not in this mental world and do not enter that wondrous light into which God leads those who believe in Him. Again: just as those who were not born physically do not exist at all, so those who were not born spiritually do not exist spiritually. But oh, if only they were not existing at all, and not existing. But this is not the case, for those who are born physically, but not born spiritually, await darkness, fire and eternal torment, according to the definition of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, who said: unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Our Lord here calls birth the grace of the Holy Spirit, as He Himself said to the Apostles: John baptized with water, but you must be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). So this is what spiritual Baptism and spiritual birth are, and it is impossible for this to be otherwise. We now need to find out the reason why others do not know that they were born spiritually. What is the reason for this? Ignorance and blindness of the eyes of their souls. - And pay more attention. – Just as it is impossible for children to be born to be impregnated and born without a father, so it is impossible for someone to be born again, that is, to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, who does not have a spiritual father who is born again. And just as a carnal father begets carnal children, so a spiritual father makes those who wish to be his children spiritual children. - But one who has not yet been born himself or has been born but is still a child, that is, has not yet reached perfection, how is it possible to be the father of others? No, it's impossible. And for one who has not become a son of Light, with the feeling and consciousness of that, with experienced confirmation and spiritual contemplation, how is it possible to know and see the Father of lights? And how is it possible for him to lead others to the Light, or to teach them that there is a Light that came into the world to enlighten those sitting in darkness? He himself is blind and does not see, how can he show the way to others? He who does not see the light always walks in darkness, constantly stumbles and needs a guide: how can he guide others? And if he begins to guide them, he will probably be the cause of destruction for them. For the Lord says: If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit (Matthew 15:14), into the pit of ignorance, or destruction. So, all those who see only with their bodily eyes and only this sensory light are blind, and they should not care about anything else except to open the intelligent eyes of their soul and see the non-evening Divine light. For just as a blind man cannot see any things of this world, nor distinguish between gold, for example, from silver or copper; even though they are in front of him, he does not see, and valuable stones and margaritas, if they are thrown on the floor, tramples underfoot like dust; and he does not see himself, and does not know what clothes he is wearing, white or black, clean or soiled; so the one who is blind with intelligent eyes cannot know himself or his state, much less it is impossible for him to see and know God. The eyes of the mind are opened and spiritual blindness is driven away by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And none of the saints from the ages became holy, knew God, became His servant and friend, unless his mind was first enlightened by the Holy Spirit, unless he received knowledge, words and power from Him, and was brought by Him to the knowledge of the wills and commands of God. He who is not enlightened by the Holy Spirit not only does not know himself and his neighbors, but also the commandments of God, which are like margaritas, and the commandments of God, which are like valuable stones, and His life-giving words, which are like coins bearing His most pure image - all this is trampled underfoot like unnecessary dust, not feeling them at all, nor how one relates to them, because he cannot feel. Let no one, my brothers, deceive you by saying that he sees what I said, while the eyes of his soul are not enlightened by the divine light. So, if every student is a spiritual child of his teacher, then in every possible way someone who is looking for a spiritual father should look for a person who was born spiritually and consciously knows God and his Father, so that he would give birth to him spiritually and make him truly a son of God. If now this student needs and is looking for such a spiritual father (for, as Scripture says, good teachers have good teachings, but from evil seeds there are evil offspring); then, on the other hand, in real life there are good teachers and fathers, truly spiritual, such as we said above. But next to them there are those who have not yet been born again and have not yet come to know themselves, and not just God; who, however, have presented themselves as teachers and fathers of others, and by all means try to attract to themselves everyone who has renounced the world and, as we said, is looking for a spiritual father for himself; and if they notice that he is praising one of the truly spiritual fathers, these unfortunates immediately rush to portray that spiritual one as bad in order to seduce the soul of the young man and prevent him from going to him. The question now is: if this young man, having been deceived, goes to those who deceived him, and thus loses the benefit that he would have received from that spiritual father, then who is to blame for the loss of him, as well as all those who in the same way are deprived of the benefit of spiritual fathers and teachers, being seduced by the words of these impostors? Are these seducers not guilty of this, who have set themselves up as leaders and fathers, and alienate everyone from good teachers, not allowing them to reach them in order to receive real guidance from them and enter the kingdom of heaven according to it? Of course they are guilty of this, and at their hands the blood of those tempted by them will be exacted, as the Lord said. They, being possessed by vanity and pride and thinking about themselves that they are some great ones, although they are nothing, become fathers, teachers and apostles, having ordained themselves; Meanwhile, they neither received the grace of the Holy Spirit, like the Apostles, nor were they enlightened by the light of knowledge, nor did they see God, Whom they preach, so that He would reveal Himself to them, as He promised: If you have My commandments and keep them, then you are the one who loves Me... and I will love him and appear to him myself; and again: I and My Father will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:21, 23); and again: he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him (John 6:56); also: if anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Believe in Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living waters will flow out of his belly (John 7:37–38); again: everyone who drinks from this (natural) water will thirst again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an everlasting belly (John 4:13–14). So, anyone who clearly does not see that all this really happened in him and was accomplished in fact is still blind. For whoever did not keep the divine commandments, who did not see the Son of God appear to him, who did not love Him as he should, who did not know in the feeling of his soul that the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit had made their abode with him, he suffered one of the following two: either God left him and his soul was empty, or the devil, expelled from him during Baptism, returned to him again because of sin; and this was either before he became a monk, or after that - and the last was worse for that man than the first (Matthew 12:45). Who drove out the evil one from his soul through great deeds, humility, many painful labors, weeping and tears, and then again allowed himself to be deceived by his suggestions, and this before Christ knowingly arose in him, and before he acquired true, realized humility; he again accepts the devil himself, who enters him without his knowledge, due to conceit and pride. Such a person cannot come to his senses and recognize his sins and the evil to which he has been subjected. For the devil closes the eyes of his soul and does not allow him to recognize the pride that rules over him. Then the devil does not force him to carnal pleasures, nor to gluttony or the love of money and avarice (for these passions are in some way humiliating, instill shame and take away all boldness from the conscience of the one defeated by them, even if the whole world praised and magnified him as a saint), but encourages him to keep fasts, vigils, all-night standing, non-covetousness, sleeping on the bare ground, unwashing and everything another thing, which, as he knows, can increase the passion of pride. For such deeds, if they are not built on the foundation of Christ-like humility, raise the soul to heaven and thereby cast it into the abyss. She thinks that she is rising, but in reality it happens that as much as she rises, she falls and is cast down to the ground, without noticing it. Just as it is impossible for a house to stand without a foundation, so it is impossible for the said virtues to be firm if they do not have humility as their foundation. If it is not first laid in the foundation or, having been laid, is then stolen by the spirits of malice, immediately the entire edifice of virtues, built with such sweat and labor, falls down and is destroyed. For the Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6); and everyone who is high-hearted is unclean before the Lord (Proverbs 16:5). Meanwhile, whoever has within himself this source and root of all spiritual passions considers himself the highest and most impassive of all people, and cannot believe that anyone is more active and contemplative than him; why he despises everyone and does not believe the gifts of grace that are given to them from God, envies them and condemns them, and tries in every possible way to prove that some of them (gifts) are false, and others are impossible. In this way, he drags himself and others along, plunging them into his own ditch of envy, unbelief and destruction. He who eats the Body of the Son of God and drinks His Blood, if he does not know by feeling and spiritual experience that he abides in God, and God in him, has truly not yet communed worthy of the Most Pure Mysteries. For how is it possible for someone who has united with God not to know about it, even if he does not have a completely sensitive heart? Also, if the one who eats the Body and drinks the Blood of Christ has an eternal belly and does not go to judgment, but has passed from death to the belly, then it is obvious that anyone who does not realize that he has an eternal belly in himself and has passed from death to the belly - just as someone knows that he has passed from a dark house to a bright and shining one - such a person has not yet learned the mystery of God’s economy and has not tasted eternal life. And one more thing: if our Lord promised that he would give the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him, so that He would be for them a source of water flowing into an eternal belly, and rivers flowing from their belly, then whoever does not see this happening in him every day, does not see everything else that the Lord promised to give to those who believe in Him or to do in them, how can he call himself a perfect believer? But, on the other hand, if someone thinks that such perfection is befitting only of the Apostles and the ancient saints, and says that no matter how much we labor, we cannot become like the ancient saints and do not even have hope of becoming like them, then who of those who know God and are compassionate to their brethren will not weep for this with all their soul? For if God loudly cries: Be holy, as I am holy (1 Pet. 1:16) - and in another place: Be like your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:48; Luke 6:36) - and Paul: Be like me, as I am Christ (1 Cor. 4:16), and this one writes laws contrary to this, then most certainly he is clearly the Antichrist and the God-fighter. For he says that they were different, and we were different, otherwise God loved them, granting them the great gifts of the Holy Spirit, and He treats us differently; He barely has mercy on us, He says, He only forgives us our sins and saves us if we repent, suffer any arbitrary hardships and cry; It is in no way possible for us to be like the Apostles or like the ancient saints. And those who consider this possible, he calls proud and blasphemers, whom, he says, you should not listen to at all, and commands you to run from them. What a pernicious delusion, not to say, what insensibility and unbelief! Those who speak and think in this way hope to be saved without accepting the grace of the Holy Spirit - and think to be sons of God, without consciously having the Holy Spirit, Who alone creates believers as sons of God. They call God their Father, but they say that they have never seen Him, and they think that they love Him without having seen Him. Even listening to the Apostle John, who says: do not love your brother, who you have seen, God, who you have not seen, how can you love? (1 John 4:20), - they do not come to their senses and do not understand what a bad state they are in, but they envy and hate their brothers, and such people use against them prejudicial (persuasive - Ed.) words that the devil himself, the father of lies and envy, could never invent. And before others they pretend to say all this with a godly and brotherly goal, although meanwhile all people sow a bad opinion about truly holy men, and, not suspecting that, by acting this way, they act against themselves, or thereby expose themselves, for if someone is not passionate, he is unholy, then, of course, you, who say so, are like that, since evil usually comes out of evil treasures of the heart. Passionate people think that everyone else is also passionate, and they judge everyone by themselves, forgetting that there is God, who said: Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1), - there is a Judge who has to reward everyone according to his deeds. With such vanity and insolence they slander and judge the brethren, but they do not know that such are not even allowed to read the Divine Scriptures, as God Himself says through the mouth of David: You have spoken of all my justifications, and have accepted my covenant with your lips, - and then, indicating the reason for such a sentence, he adds: You slandered your brother (Ps. 49:16, 20). If such a person is forbidden to even read the Divine Scripture, much less should he enter the church of God and stand with the faithful. And he, despite this, becomes a teacher with great pride and boldly ascends to the throne of the Apostles (for the dignity and power of the Apostles is, of course, the teaching that occurs in the Holy Spirit). After this, what punishment and what kind of execution does he not deserve? Whoever has not yet become a student as he should, and yet admires the dignity of his teachers, will receive a punishment a thousand times greater than that of robbers and murderers. These only kill bodies, but he kills souls. Like someone who would take some valuable stone or margarite from a king in order to carve an image of the king on the stone, and at the same time grind it down and decorate it decently, and make holes on the margarita and put it into a crown or into the royal clothes - if he did not make an image similar to the king on the stone, sharpened it unskillfully and made it worthless for anything, and on the margarita he did not make even holes or If he split it and completely ruined it, he will not only not receive a reward from the king, but will also be subject to great punishment; Teachers who undertake to teach others true Christianity are in exactly the same position. If, through the negligence of one of them, or through inability, or through rashness, or through ignorance and ignorance, the thoughts of any brother are damaged or the deeds and wisdom are corrupted, - unless he makes each of his listeners prudent, wise and perfect, with great art, knowledge of the matter, wisdom and prudence, imagining in him, as much as possible, Christ, so that He is seen in him imagined and shone - and thus will not elevate him to a perfect man, to the measure of the age of fulfillment of Christ - if, on the contrary, he makes the soul of each of such disciples obscene, and turns the skillful into the unskillful, the honest into the dishonest, while the whole world is not worthy of him, then such a one will clearly not receive a reward for his work, but torment and punishment for those whom he made obscene with his teaching. He will deserve the same if, through his teaching, someone is deprived of something that would contribute to his salvation, or if, because of him, it is not possible to achieve perfection, which could have been achieved under the guidance of other teachers. So, spiritual father, you must first become a disciple of Christ and learn His commandments and sacraments well, and then begin to teach others; You must first submit and follow your spiritual father, who would lead you on the path leading to Christ, so that you reach Christ, or, better said, so that Christ finds you; Moreover, you must notice all the turns and all the signs of the path along which he will unerringly lead you to the place where you will see Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit - and then guide others to Christ; You must first be enlightened by the true light yourself, and then lead others into this light; You must first obtain Christian freedom yourself, and then undertake to lead others to it, for the one who, being himself a slave, undertakes to free his fellow slaves, admiring the power of his master, is completely meaningless and buoyant. How can we become disciples of Christ? Let us listen to Christ Himself, Who says: If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Matthew 16:24). To follow Christ is to imitate Him in His deeds and to live as He, our Lord, lived on earth, enduring with joy temptations and reproaches in order to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. For neither vigilance, nor solitude, nor fasting, nor lack of anything, nor physical labor, nor any other virtue can, without the Holy Spirit, provide us with words of wisdom, or knowledge, or reasoning; because all this is the path leading to the light, and not the light itself. Why, if I follow this path for a thousand years and do not reach the light (which is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and enlightens in the Son every man coming into the world), but at the end of my life I find myself still existing in darkness, then what good does this do for me? And the Apostle Paul, having said that to another is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of understanding, to another the gift of healing, and so on, then added: but all this works one and the same Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11). Do you see that without the Spirit no one can learn himself or teach others? Why, if someone, before receiving the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see Him, knows Him below (John 14:17), dares and attempts, while still from the world, in the world to take upon himself the degree and dignity of a teacher and become a spiritual father and intercessor for others before God, then is he not worthy of a countless number of lightning strikes and torments? So that you can see that I am not saying anything that is not in Scripture, listen to what the Apostle Paul says: If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Rom. 8:9). Do you see that it is not only impermissible for someone who does not have the Holy Spirit to teach others, but that it is impossible for him to even be part of Christ? For Christ is united by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and whoever does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within himself is obviously impossible to have fellowship with Christ, or to see the glory of Christ consciously. He cannot intellectually contemplate the Divine Mysteries as if he were seeing Christ and God Himself, but he sees only sensually the bread and wine that stand on the table and are visible sensually. And such suffer righteously, because those who have not received the grace of the Holy Spirit cannot see or know Christ - God. Those who have not experienced and have not been worthy of this, they are not the race of God, or members of God, and do not know Him. For the One who is above all mind and thought, how is it possible for our mind, created by Him, to know if it is not enlightened by Him and is not united with Him? Just as he received being from Him, so, again, from Him he must be worthy to see and know Him with unknown knowledge and invisible contemplation. Those who were not worthy to become such do not have the Holy Spirit and are not Christ’s - and let them not deceive themselves. When they receive the Holy Spirit and become Christ’s, a sure and unambiguous sign of this will be for them what the divine Apostle said: where there is the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17), where by freedom he means complete liberation from all passions and from worldly and carnal lusts. Why does he say in another place: but those who are like Christ, that is, the servants of Christ, are the flesh crucified with passions and lusts (Gal.5:24), - and nowhere else: if Christ is in you, the flesh is dead for sin's sake, but the spirit lives for righteousness' sake (Rom.8:10). So, whoever does not realize that this and what is said above happens clearly in him, let him sit alone and cry for himself, that he has not yet become a servant of Christ, has not yet become a participant in the glory and Divinity of Christ, and that his state is not yet obvious. Why should he care most about himself, but let him not care about others; because a passionate person cannot reason about the affairs of his brethren dispassionately, just as a blind person cannot see sensory things, even if he holds them in his hands. But pray, I ask you, Father, to God for me, the poor, if for nothing else, then for the sake of love for Him who said: love the Lord your God... and your neighbor as yourself. Pray for me, a sinner, hated for my love for Christ, persecuted because I want to live piously in Christ, condemned by everyone because I honor my spiritual father and teacher, denounced everywhere as a heretic, because I teach everyone to seek above grace and the known presence of the Holy Spirit; because without this there is no remission of sins, that without the grace of the Holy Spirit it is impossible either to free oneself from passions and dumb lusts, or to become a son of God, or to be sanctified - and that those who are granted such gifts of the Spirit are not only freed from all lusts, passions and obscene thoughts, but also become gods by grace, abide near God and are outside the flesh and the world; - and not only are they themselves holy and seem to be incorporeal in the world, but they also see all other faithful as saints; and not only as saints, but also as clothed with Christ and made Christ; - and that whoever has not yet acquired such spiritual eyes has clearly not yet reached the light of Christ and has not been enlightened by it, for the light of Christ is given and seen by those who have been deemed worthy to enter into it through repentance. Whoever achieves this measure, loves and honors everyone as Christ, does not despise any of those who seem low and insignificant to us, but does not hate anyone else, does not revile, does not condemn and does not tolerate hearing others condemn someone. Let you and I be like this (I speak to these condemners), brethren. For if we do not become like this, then it will be impossible to enter into the kingdom of heaven there. So, since I say all this and preach that my spiritual father has become such, everyone condemns me for being proud and a blasphemer - and the devil has raised up his servants against me and is waging war to force me to stop preaching in word and fulfilling the Gospel commandments and apostolic decrees in deed, to stop trying to renew the gospel life, which has somehow become decrepit and forgotten - so that people in They did not think with self-willed audacity that they could be saved without receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit and without dispassion; they were not seduced by this and did not perish, without understanding it themselves. For this, instead of thanking me for telling them and encouraging them to strive for perfect virtue, they condemn me even more and hate me, turn away from me and gave me up to greed, thirst and death because I do not deceive them and do not say: be of good cheer, we can all be saved without labor and pain, without repentance and the exact fulfillment of the commandments of God, with which speeches those who say them, pervert all the teachings of Christ and His Apostles. Let us not philosophize and speak like this, but let us say to all with boldness, that since we believe in Christ as the true God, and accept the Apostles as His disciples, we have a duty to observe in every possible way what they commanded, to repent and weep with a sickness of heart for every disobedience and transgression of the commandments of the Lord, if we desire to receive the blessings promised to us from God, which we would also be worthy to receive by grace. and by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for mankind, with whom to the Father and together to the Holy Spirit belongs all glory, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: