The old man said, “He calleth [a man’s] care concerning God’s promises ‘action of the fear of God,’ wishing to say thus:—If thou art unable to bind thy thought continually in various ways to God, though thou thinkest about His Majesty, and His power, and His grace, and thou prayest to Him without ceasing and without wandering [in thy prayer, thy mind cannot be with Him]; but if thou reducest thine understanding by means of the constant labour of prayer and by the thought which is on God, and more particularly through the war with devils that [accompanieth] this work, bring down thy mind by degrees from the thought which is about God, and from prayer, and fetter it with the thought which is lower than this, and meditate on the promises of God, and think upon His commandments and the correction of thyself. And set not free thy mind from spiritual care, and do not make it wander and think the thought of passibility, but fetter thy mind to some thought of excellence, which will make it gain profit. And when it hath rested somewhat, then raise it up on high, and make it to labour in the thought which is of God, and in pure prayer which hath no wandering therein. For as the growth of the capacity of those who are as yet in the grade of bodily prayer and the reading [of the Scriptures] still existeth, even when they are exhausted by standing up, and by the singing of the Psalms, and they rest their bodies for a little by sitting down and by meditation upon the reading, and when they have rested their bodies and their mind hath become enlightened through the reading, they stand up for service and prayer, so also it is right for those who have arrived at a correct conduct of the mind, and who think continually about God, and who pray to Him without wandering, when they are exhausted by this severe labour, to bring down their minds from time to time, and to relieve it by means of thought concerning some profitable subject which is less exalted than the thought about God. And this thought must take the place to them of reading, and they must meditate upon God’s promises and commandments, and upon their straightness which is in God; and if some abominable thought knock [at the door of their minds] they must quickly make their minds to enter into prayer and into the thought which is upon God. And if there stir in their heart a thought of passion, as soon as they have refreshed themselves by means of thinking about some profitable subject, they must make their mind to enter into the height of prayer, and they must pray without ceasing, and meditate upon God. And from this we know that when the soul meditateth with understanding upon some profitable
