456

It is a perverted judgment that makes every one place himself above the rest of the world, and prefer his own good, and the continuance of his own good fortune and life, to that of the rest of the world!

457

Each one is all in all to himself; for he being dead, all is dead to him.  Hence it comes that each believes himself to be all in all to everybody.  We must not judge of nature by ourselves, but by it.

458

“All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life; libido sentiendi, libido sciendi, libido dominandi."[172] Wretched is the cursed land which these three rivers of fire enflame rather than water![173] Happy they who, on these rivers, are not overwhelmed nor carried away, but are immovably fixed, not standing but seated on a low and secure base, whence they do not rise before the light, but, having rested in peace, stretch out their hands to Him, who must lift them up, and make them stand upright and firm in the porches of the holy Jerusalem!  There pride can no longer assail them nor cast them down; and yet they weep, not to see all those perishable things swept away by the torrents, but at the remembrance of their loved country, the heavenly Jerusalem, which they remember without ceasing during their prolonged exile.

459

The rivers of Babylon rush and fall and sweep away.

O holy Sion, where all is firm and nothing falls!

We must sit upon the waters, not under them or in them, but on them; and not standing but seated; being seated to be humble, and being above them to be secure.  But we shall stand in the porches of Jerusalem.

Let us see if this pleasure is stable or transitory; if it pass away, it is a river of Babylon.

460

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, pride, etc.—­There are three orders of things:  the flesh, the spirit, and the will.  The carnal are the rich and kings; they have the body as their object.  Inquirers and scientists; they have the mind as their object.  The wise; they have righteousness as their object.

God must reign over all, and all men must be brought back to Him.  In things of the flesh lust reigns specially; in intellectual matters, inquiry specially; in wisdom, pride specially.  Not that a man cannot boast of wealth or knowledge, but it is not the place for pride; for in granting to a man that he is learned, it is easy to convince him that he is wrong to be proud.  The proper place for pride is in wisdom, for it cannot be granted to a man that he has made himself wise, and that he is wrong to be proud; for that is right.  Now God alone gives wisdom, and that is why Qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur.[174]

461

The three lusts have made three sects; and the philosophers have done no other thing than follow one of the three lusts.

462