208. Abbâ Anthony used to say, “Let us put God before our eyes continually; remember death and Christ our Redeemer; hate the world and everything which is therein; hate the world and all bodily pleasure; die unto this life, so that thou mayest live unto God, for God will require it of thee in the day of judgement. Be hungry, and thirsty, and naked; weep and mourn; watch and groan in thy heart; examine thyself [and see] if thou art worthy of God. Love labour and tribulation, so that thou mayest find God, and treat with contempt and despise the body, so that thy soul may live.”
209. An old man was asked, “What is the straight and narrow way?” And he answered and said, “The straight and narrow way is for a man to constrain his thoughts, and to restrain his desires for God’s sake, and this [is intended to be understood when] it is said, ‘Behold, we have left everything and followed Thee.’ ”
210. Abbâ Poemen asked Abbâ Joseph, saying, “What am I to do when passions rise up against me, wishing to make me quake? Shall I stand up against them, and drive them away, or shall I allow them to enter?” The old man said unto him, “Let them shake thee, and do thou strive with them.” But to another brother who had come from Thebes, and gone down to Scete, and asked the same old man the same question, he spake differently; and when he returned from Scete to Thebes, he said before all the brethren, “I went to Abbâ Joseph, and I asked him, saying, ‘If passions draw nigh unto me, shall I drive them away so that they may not make me shake, or shall I permit them to enter into me?’ And he said unto me, ‘Thou shalt not let them draw nigh to thee in any way, but cut them off quickly.’ ” Now when Abbâ Poemen, who happened to be there, heard that Abbâ Joseph had spoken differently to that Theban, he rose up and went again to Abbâ Joseph, and said unto him, “Abbâ, I have believed in thee as in God, and I have revealed unto thee my thoughts, and behold, thou hast spoken unto that Theban in one way, and to me thou hast declared the opposite.” The old man said unto him, “Dost thou not know that I love thee?” And he answered and said unto him, “Yea, I do.” The old man said unto him, “Didst thou not say unto me, Tell me as if thou wast telling thyself? If, then, thoughts enter into thee, and thou art mingled with them, and thou givest and takest, and art not injured, they prove thee to be one who is tried and chosen especially. Now I spake unto thee as I would unto myself. But there are others whom the passions cannot even approach or touch, nevertheless it helpeth them to cut them off quickly.”
