{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/211/2110595.htm","path":"chr/ecf/211/2110595.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/211/2110595.htm","text":"What is said of the value of discretion in Holy Scripture.\nSuch is discretion, which is not only the \u201clight of the body,\u201d but also called the sun by the Apostle, as it said \u201cLet not the sun go down upon your wrath.\u201d 1168 It is also called the guidance of our life: as it said \u201cThose who have no guidance, fall like leaves.\u201d 1169 It is most truly named counsel, without which the authority of Scripture allows us to do nothing, so that we are not even permitted to take that spiritual \u201cwine which maketh glad the heart of man\u201d 1170 without its regulating control: as it is said \u201cDo everything with counsel, drink thy wine with counsel,\u201d 1171 and again \u201clike a city that has its walls destroyed and is not fenced in, so is a man who does anything without counsel.\u201d 1172 And how injurious the absence of this is to a monk, the illustration and figure in the passage quoted shows, by comparing it to a city that is destroyed and without walls. Herein lies wisdom, herein lies intelligence and understanding without which our inward house cannot be built, nor can spiritual riches be gathered together, as it is said: \u201cA house is built with wisdom, and again it is set up with intelligence. With understanding the storehouses are filled with all precious riches and good things.\u201d 1173 This I say is \u201csolid food,\u201d which can only be taken by those who are full grown and strong, as it is said: \u201cBut solid food is for full grown men, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.\u201d 1174 And it is shown to be useful and necessary for us, only in so far as it is in accordance with the word of God and its powers, as is said \u201cFor the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and reaching even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and a discerner p. 310 of the thoughts and intents of the heart:\u201d 1175 and by this it is clearly shown that no virtue can possibly be perfectly acquired or continue without the grace of discretion. And so by the judgment of the blessed Antony as well as of all others it has been laid down that it is discretion which leads a fearless monk by fixed stages to God, and preserves the virtues mentioned above continually intact, by means of which one may ascend with less weariness to the extreme summit of perfection, and without which even those who toil most willingly cannot reach the heights of perfection. For discretion is the mother of all virtues, as well as their guardian and regulator.\nProv. xi. 14 (LXX.).\n309:1170 309:1171\nProv. xxxi. 3 (LXX.).\n309:1172\nProv. xxv. 28 (LXX.).\n309:1173\nProv. 24:3, 4 (LXX.).\n309:1174 310:1175","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XI: The Wor...","type":"page"}