On Jealousy and Envy.

 1. To be jealous of what you see to be good, and to be envious of those who are better than yourself, seems, beloved brethren, in the eyes of some peo

 2. He goeth about every one of us and even as an enemy besieging those who are shut up (in a city), he examines the walls, and tries whether there is

 3. Wherefore, beloved brethren, against all the devil’s deceiving snares or open threatenings, the mind ought to stand arrayed and armed, ever as read

 4. From this source, even at the very beginnings of the world, the devil was the first who both perished (himself) and destroyed (others). He who was

 5. Hence, in fine, began the primal hatreds of the new brotherhood, hence the abominable fratricides, in that the unrighteous Cain is jealous of the r

 6. Considering which things, beloved brethren, let us with vigilance and courage fortify our hearts dedicated to God against such a destructiveness of

 7. But what a gnawing worm of the soul is it, what a plague-spot of our thoughts, what a rust of the heart, to be jealous of another, either in respec

 8. Hence the threatening countenance, the lowering aspect, pallor in the face, trembling on the lips, gnashing of the teeth, mad words, unbridled revi

 9. The mischief is much more trifling, and the danger less, when the limbs are wounded with a sword. The cure is easy where the wound is manifest and

 10. And therefore, beloved brethren, the Lord, taking thought for this risk, that none should fall into the snare of death through jealousy of his bro

 11. Why do you rush into the darkness of jealousy? why do you enfold yourself in the cloud of malice? why do you quench all the light of peace and cha

 12. We ought to remember by what name Christ calls His people, by what title He names His flock. He calls them sheep, that their Christian innocence m

 13. Thus also the Apostle Paul, when he was urging the merits of peace and charity, and when he was strongly asserting and teaching that neither faith

 14. Vices and carnal sins must be trampled down, beloved brethren, and the corrupting plague of the earthly body must be trodden under foot with spiri

 15. For this is to change what you had been, and to begin to be what you were not, that the divine birth might shine forth in you, that the godly disc

 16. The mind must be strengthened, beloved brethren, by these meditations. By exercises of this kind it must be confirmed against all the darts of the

 17. To these rewards that you also may come who had been possessed with jealousy and rancour, cast away all that malice wherewith you were before held

 18. And you have many things to consider. Think of paradise, whither Cain does not enter, who by jealousy slew his brother. Think of the heavenly king

9. The mischief is much more trifling, and the danger less, when the limbs are wounded with a sword. The cure is easy where the wound is manifest; and when the medicament is applied, the sore that17    Erasmus and others give this reading. Baluzius, Routh, and many codices, omit “vulnus,” and thus read, “what is seen.” is seen is quickly brought to health. The wounds of jealousy are hidden and secret; nor do they admit the remedy of a healing cure, since they have shut themselves in blind suffering within the lurking-places of the conscience.  Whoever you are that are envious and malignant, observe how crafty, mischievous, and hateful you are to those whom you hate. Yet you are the enemy of no one’s well-being more than your own.  Whoever he is whom you persecute with jealousy, can evade and escape you. You cannot escape yourself.18    [“It punishes the delinquent in the very act.”  Jer. Taylor, ut supra, p. 492, also Anselm, Opp., i. 682, ed. Migne.] Wherever you may be, your adversary is with you; your enemy is always in your own breast; your mischief is shut up within; you are tied and bound with the links of chains from which you cannot extricate yourself; you are captive under the tyranny of jealousy; nor will any consolations help you. It is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy.

IX. Multo malum levius et periculum minus est cum membra gladio vulnerantur. Facilis cura est ubi plaga perspicua est, et cito ad sanitatem medela subveniente perducitur quod videtur. Zeli vulnera abstrusa sunt et occulta; nec remedium curae medentis 0645A admittunt quae se intra conscientiae latebras caeco dolore clauserunt. Quicumque es invidus et malignus, videris quam sis eis quos odisti insidiosus, perniciosus, infestus. Nullius magis quam tuae salutis inimicus es. Quisquis ille est quem zelo persequeris, subterfugere et vitare te poterit; tu te non potes fugere : ubicumque fueris, adversarius tuus tecum est, hostis semper in pectore tuo est , pernicies intus inclusa est, ineluctabili catenarum nexu ligatus et vinctus es, zelo dominante captivus es, nec solatia tibi ulla subveniunt. Perseverans malum est hominem persequi ad Dei gratiam pertinentem. Calamitas sine remedio est odisse felicem.