Nilus of Ancyra→Probatius|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To the same person.
Not only those who bring afflictions and pains upon the body are said to lay hold of the bones and the flesh, according to what is written in Job, but also the sin-loving and unclean spirits, which without ceasing contrive shameful passions and pleasures in the members of the wretched man. And let that man of much experience persuade you, the one who cries out: "There is no healing in my flesh because of the face of your wrath; there is no peace in my bones because of the face of my sins; for my iniquities have risen up over my head; they have putrefied and become corrupt because of my great folly. Therefore I have suffered misery and been bowed down toward the worse, not for a few days, but indeed for very many" [Psalm 37:4-7 LXX = Psalm 38 Hebrew]. And again another, as though he had come to be in a wilderness empty of the helping angels, cries out as one struck down, and wailing aloud, and saying: "Who will deliver me from the death of the mind [that is, spiritual death], which has surrounded me and overpowered me? Miserable am I and a wretched man" [cf. Romans 7:24], "tossed about by the ten thousand assaults of the demons." But yet another man, not inexperienced in such calamities, having become inspired, offers no slight encouragement to those who contend on behalf of incorruptibility and who strive in spiritual combat. "For there shall be," he says, "healing in your flesh, and tending care for your bones, so that all your bones may say: Lord, Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor man out of the hand of those stronger than he, and from those who plunder him?" [cf. Psalm 34:10 LXX = Psalm 35 Hebrew].
Not only those who bring afflictions and pains upon the body are said to lay hold of the bones and the flesh, according to what is written in Job, but also the sin-loving and unclean spirits, which without ceasing contrive shameful passions and pleasures in the members of the wretched man. And let that man of much experience persuade you, the one who cries out: "There is no healing in my flesh because of the face of your wrath; there is no peace in my bones because of the face of my sins; for my iniquities have risen up over my head; they have putrefied and become corrupt because of my great folly. Therefore I have suffered misery and been bowed down toward the worse, not for a few days, but indeed for very many" [Psalm 37:4-7 LXX = Psalm 38 Hebrew]. And again another, as though he had come to be in a wilderness empty of the helping angels, cries out as one struck down, and wailing aloud, and saying: "Who will deliver me from the death of the mind [that is, spiritual death], which has surrounded me and overpowered me? Miserable am I and a wretched man" [cf. Romans 7:24], "tossed about by the ten thousand assaults of the demons." But yet another man, not inexperienced in such calamities, having become inspired, offers no slight encouragement to those who contend on behalf of incorruptibility and who strive in spiritual combat. "For there shall be," he says, "healing in your flesh, and tending care for your bones, so that all your bones may say: Lord, Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor man out of the hand of those stronger than he, and from those who plunder him?" [cf. Psalm 34:10 LXX = Psalm 35 Hebrew].
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.