not with the devils, and seek not to make attacks upon them, for there is a measure [i.e., moderation] in everything’; doth this apply also to works and to the labours of the ascetic life?”
The old man said, “Because at the beginning Abbâ Moses was ignorant of the rule of the ascetic life, and because he was healthy of body, he worked overmuch, and he thought that he would be able to prevail mightily against devils by the multitude of his works alone, and that he would be able to vanquish them. Therefore, because the devils perceived his object, they attacked him more severely with frequent wars, both secretly and openly, but Abbâ Isidore, wishing to teach him the truth, and to make him to acquire humility, said unto him, ‘Without the power of the Spirit which our Lord gave us in baptism for the fulfilling of His commandments, the which is confirmed in us each day by the taking of His Body and Blood, we cannot be purified from the passions, and we cannot vanquish devils, and we cannot perform the works of spiritual excellence’; thereupon Abbâ Moses learned these things, and his thoughts were humbled, and he partook of the Holy Mysteries, and the devils were conquered, and they reduced their war against him, and from that time forward he lived in rest, and knowledge, and peace. Many monks have imagined that their passions would be healed, and that they would acquire soundness of soul merely by their labours and strenuousness, and therefore they were abandoned by grace, and fell from the truth. For as he who is sick in his body cannot be healed without the physician and medicines, however much he may watch and fast during the time he is taking the medicine, so he who is sick in his soul through the passions of sin, without Christ, the Physician of souls, and without the partaking of His Body and Blood, and the power which is hidden in His commandments, and the humility which is like unto His, cannot be healed of his passions, and cannot receive a perfect cure. Therefore, whosoever fighteth against the passions and the devils by the commandments of our Lord is healed of the sickness of the passions, and acquireth health of soul, and is delivered from the crafts of the devils.”
618. The brethren said, “With what object did those two monks say to Abbâ Macarius, ‘If thou art not able to become a monk like us, sit in thy cell, and weep for thy sins, and thus thou shalt be like us?” The old man said, “Because they knew that, if a man was able to be a solitary in his body, and a dweller in silent contemplation, and a worker both in his soul and in his body, who made himself humble
