lvi. 6.) Whether then it be evil spirits, or all wicked men that follow in the steps of their pride, they mark the heel when they aim at spoiling the end of a good action, and hence it is said to that serpent, "It shall mark thy head, and thou shalt mark his heel." (Gen. iii. 15. Vulg.) For to mark the serpent's head is to keep an eye upon the beginnings of his suggestions, and with the hand of needful consideration wholly to eradicate them from the avenues of the heart; yet when he is caught at the commencement he busies himself to smite the heel, in that though he does not strike the intention with his suggestion at the first, he strives to ensnare at the end. Now if the heart be once corrupted in the intention, the middle and the end of the action that follows is held in secure possession by the cunning adversary, since he sees that that whole tree bears fruit to himself, which he has poisoned at the root with his hateful tooth. Therefore because we have to watch with the greatest care that the mind even in the service of good works be not polluted by a wicked intention, it is rightly said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." As if it were said in plain words, that is no good work which is performed outwardly, unless the sacrifice of innocency be inwardly offered for it upon the altar of the heart in the Presence of God. The stream of our work then is to be looked through all we can, if it flows out pure from the wellspring of thought. With all care must the eye of the heart be guarded from the dust of wickedness, lest that which in action it shews upright to man, be within set awry by the fault of a crooked intention. : We must take heed then, that our good works be not too few, take heed that they be not unexamined; lest by doing too few works we be found barren, or by leaving them unexamined we be found foolish ; for each several virtue is not really such if it be not blended with other virtues; and hence it is well said to Moses, "Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, of good scent, with pure frankincense; of each there shall be a like weight and thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, well tempered together and pure." (Ex. xxx. 34, 35.) For we make a perfume compounded of spices when we yield a smell upon the altar of good works with the multitude of our virtues; and this is tempered together and pure, in that the more we join virtue to virtue, the purer is the incense of good works we set forth. Hence it is well added, "And thou shalt beat them all very small, and put of it before the tabernacle of the testimony." We beat all the spices very small, when we pound our good deeds as it were in the mortar of the heart, by an inward sifting, and go over them minutely, to see if they be really and truly good and thus to reduce the spices to a powder is to rub fine our virtues by consideration, and to call them back to the utmost exactitude of a secret reviewal; and observe that it is said of that powder, "and thou shalt put of it before the tabernacle of the testimony;" for this reason, in that our good works are then truly pleasing in the sight of our Judge when the mind bruises them small by a more particular re-examination, and as it were makes a powder of the spices, that the good that is done be not coarse and hard, lest if the close hand of reexamination do not bruise it fine, it scatter not from itself the more refined odour. For it is hence that the virtue of the Spouse is commended by the Voice of the Bridegroom, where it is said, "Who is this, that cometh out of the wilderness like a rod of smoke of the perfume of myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?" (Cant. iii. 6.) For holy Church rises up like a rod of smoke from spices, in that by the virtues of her life she duly advances to the uprightness of inward incense, nor lets herself run out into dissipated thought, but restrains herself in the recesses of the heart by the rod of severity : and while she never ceases to re-consider and go over anew the things that she does, she has in the deed myrrh and frankincense, but in the thought she has powder. Hence it is that it is said again to Moses of those who offer a victim, And he shall flay the burnt-offering, and cut it into pieces." we strip the skin of the victim (Levit. i. 6) when we remove from the eyes of the mind the overcast of virtue; and we cut in pieces when we minutely dissect its interior, and contemplate it piecemeal. We must therefore be careful that when we overcome our evil habits, we are not overthrown by our good ones running riot, lest they chance to run out loosely, lest being unheeded they be taken cap For tive, lest from error they forsake the path, lest broken down by weariness they lose the meed of past labours. For the mind ought in all things to keep a wary eye about it, aye and in this very forethought of circumspection to be persevering; and hence it is rightly added, "Thus did Job all his days." For vain is the good that we do, if it be given over before the end of life, in that it is vain too for him to run fast, who fails before he reaches the goal. For it is hence that it is said of the reprobate, "Woe unto you that have lost patience." (Ecclus. ii. 14.) Hence Truth says to His elect, "Ye are they that have continued with Me in My temptations." (S. Luke xxii. 28.) Morals of the Book of Job. Bk. i. Third Sunday in Lent. THE POOL OF BETHESDA. S. AUG. WITHOUT doubt it is not without a meaning that these miracles were done, and something they figured out to us bearing on eternal saving health. For the health of body which was restored to the man, of how long duration was it?" For what is your life?" saith holy Scripture: "it is a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Therefore in that health was restored to this man's body for a time, some enduringness was restored to a vapour. So then this is not to be valued much; "Vain is the health of man." And brethren, recollect that prophetical and evangelical testimony, for it is read in the Gospel; "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, the flower falleth away, the Word of the Lord endureth for ever." The Word of the Lord communicateth glory even to the grass, and no transitory glory; for even to flesh He giveth immortality. But first passeth away the tribulation of this life, out of which He giveth us help, to Whom we have said, "Give us help from tribulation." And all this life is indeed a tribulation to the understanding. For there are two tormentors of the soul, torturing it not at once, but alternating their tortures. These two tormentors' names are Fear and Sorrow. When it is well with thee, thou art in fear; when it is ill, thou art in sorrow. This world's prosperity, whom doth it not deceive, its adversity not break? In this grass, and in the days of grass, the surer way must be kept to, the Word of God. For when it had been said, "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh as the flower of grass, the grass withereth, the flower falleth away;" as though we should ask, "What hope has grass? what stability the flower of grass?" it is said, "but the Word of the Lord endureth or ever." And whence, you will say, that Word to me? "The Word was made Flesh, and is |