De qvxituor fiwminibus quae de fonte libidinis
The Four Rivers of Lust
The author identifies four destructive rivers of worldly desire—greed, luxury, tyranny, and vainglory—that flow from the fountain of a perverse will.
They arise from Epicurean ways and create a flood by which the world is nearly drowned; they come from contrary waters and the garments of Esau. All these things converge to show that a quiet state in public or private affairs cannot come from anything other than the fountain of wisdom, whatever Epicurus may think. As mentioned above, this is the most abundant source of delights, from which the four rivers of the virtues arise. Conversely, the Epicurean origin has its own fountain: lust, which itself gives birth to the rivers that irrigate this entire valley of tears and misery, into which the exile is cast who chooses what he likes over what is lawful. Indeed, the love of possessing is like one river, through which a surplus of things is sought for the sake of sufficiency, in which greed labors to possess or know beyond what is lawful. Another river spreads the enticements of luxury and flows down into various pleasures, while it aspires to and reaches for the joys of tranquility and happiness. The third gathers strength to defend the freedom of nature and to repel the injuries of any annoyance, and when it has grown strong, it leaps into the hateful vein of tyranny. The fourth, from a desire for fame and reverence, swells deceptively as it seeks prominence.
The Ark of Grace
While the flood of worldly desire threatens to overwhelm the soul, those who live by grace rather than fleshly ambition find refuge in the Lord.
These are the four rivers that pour into and circle the world, springing from the fountain of a perverse will, which is rooted in the depths and originates from the mud of vanity. As they grow, they give birth to various streams and, like rising floodwaters, they overwhelm the world and destroy living things, wiping everything out so that the earth seems destined to become a wilderness—except that the ark of the Lord’s house preserves a few, that is, eight souls, the children of the resurrection. These are, indeed, the ones the Lord has chosen from all flesh. However, those who are in the flood of many waters will not draw near to Him. And indeed, the love of convenience—as mentioned before—pours out these waters like a second sea; and as malice grows, the Lord rains down various occasions for sin to increase the flood, allowing the one who is in filth to become even filthier when grace is withdrawn, and striking the one He commits to his own judgment as if in vengeance. I’m not saying that the desire for convenience is blameworthy if it’s tempered, nor do I count it a crime to have enough to live on, peace of mind, a natural love of freedom, or the merit of being distinguished; but none of these things brings what it promises; in the very way it’s sought, it produces the opposite effect. Yet all these things are good if, with grace as a teacher, a son struggling against flesh and blood uses them rightly, and if he is to be blessed by the Father with joy and exultation, and if he wears them as a flowery, fruitful, and pleasant garment. But if a blood-brother and brother of the flesh, despising the intimacy of the mother’s grace, usurps all these garments, they neither smell sweet, nor are they becoming, nor do they refresh by nourishing.
The Thirst for Truth
The vain pursuits of the world fail to satisfy the human heart, leaving the soul to seek the living waters of the Spirit.
It's significant that Esau's clothes are written to have pleased Jacob, yet it isn't written that Esau either used them or offered their sweet scent to his father. For while someone abuses good senses, they cannot be pleasing to the perfect. Therefore, the vain appearance of good things neither satisfies, nor gladdens, nor frees, nor exalts. Furthermore, some things have been said above against luxury, greed, and vainglory; but the craving for power has remained somewhat untouched until now—a craving which, even if it seems to offer a claim to freedom and high status, leads the wanderer more ruinously away from the truth of both. For this is what introduces the most ruinous plague and, by fostering the rise of tyranny, strives to extinguish the bond of quiet and peace, than which nothing is more wholesome. Indeed, these rivers extinguish charity in those to whom life is denied. In these, Tantalus labors in the fables without satisfaction, and the prophetic word rebukes the thirst of those living in these waters. Therefore, it invites the thirsty to the opposite waters, which flow from the Spirit, without change.
Read the original Latin
oriuntur Epicureis faciuntque diluvium quo fere mundua mergatur; et de aquis contrariis, et vestibus Esau. Eo quidem haec uniuersa concurrunt ut ostendatur quietum statum in rebus publicis aut priuatis nisi a fonte sapientiae, quicquid sentiat Epicurus, prouenire non posse. Hanc enim esse ortum deliciarum uberrimum superius a dictum est, de quo quatuor uirtutum flumina oriuntur. E diuerso et Epicureorum ortus fontem suum habet libidinem, qui et ipse parturit flumina quae irrigant uniuersam hanc uallem lacrimarum et miseriae, in quam eiectus est exul qui quod libuit quam quod licuit facere praeelegit. Et quidem quasi unus riuus est amor habendi, quo ad sufficientiam rerum copia quaeritur, in quo auaritia laborat praeter licitum possidere uel scire. Alter uero luxuriae lenocinia diffundit et defluit in uarias uoluptates, dum ad tranquillitatis et letitiae gaudia tendens aspirat. Tertius uires colligit, quibus tueatur naturae libertatem et cuiusuis molestiae propulsare possit iniurias, et cum uiribus habunb dauerit, prosilit in odibilem tirannidis uenam. Quartus ab appetitu celebritatis et reuerentiae, dum eminentiam quaerit, fallaciter intumescit.
Haec sunt quatuor flumina quae infundunt et circumeunt orbem et de fonte peruersae uoluntatis scaturiunt, qui sedem habet in imo et originem contrahit a luto uanitatis. Cum autem excreuerint, diuersos ex se pariunt riuos et quasi intumescentibus aquis diluuii mundum obruunt, animantia perimunt, et sic omnia delent ut terra uideri possit in solitudinem redigenda, nisi quia paucas, id est octo, animas, resurrectionis scilicet filios, domus Domini archa conseruat. Hi sunt utique quos ex omni came Dominus praeelegit. Verumtamen qui sunt in diluuio aquarum multarum ad eum non approximabunt. Et quidem amor commodi, de quo praedictum est, has quasi mare alterum fundit aquas; et inualescente malitia uelut chatharactis celi apertis uarias pluit Dominus in augmentum diluuii delinquendi occasiones, permittens ut subtracta gratia qui in sordibus est sordescat amplius, et quem proprio committit arbitrio quasi ulciscens ferit. Non quod appetitum commodi, si temperatus sit, dicam esse culpabilem, aut copiam rerum sufficientem aut letitiam mentis aut naturalem liberiatis amorem aut eminendi meritum ducam in crimine; sed nichil istorum quod poUicetur affert; eo quidem modo quo quaeritur, contrarium potius operatur effectum. Haec autem omnia bona sunt, si eis docente gratia recte filius aduersus camem luctans et sanguinem et a Patre gaudii et exultationis benedicendus utatur et eisdem quasi florido frugifero et iocundo induitur uestimento. Si uero sanguineus fraterque camalis, contempnens matris gratiae familiaritatem, haec omnia momm indumenta usurpet, nec fragrant nec decent nec pascendo reficiunt.
Et hoc est forte quod uestes Esau placuisse scribuntur in lacob, et eis aut non usus aut odorem suauitatis dedisse patri non scribitur Esau. Nam, dum bonis abutitur sensibus, integris gratus esse non potest. Ergo uana bonomm species nec satiat nec letificat nec liberat nec exaltat. Porro aduersus luxuriam, auaritiam, cenodoxiam quaedam superius dicta sunt; uirium affectatio quodammodo hactenus mansit intacta, quae, etsi libertatis et celsitudinis a uideatur afferre suffragium, a ueritate utriusque pemiciosius abducit errantem. Haec est enim quae pemiciosissimam inducit pestem et, tirannidis procurans ortum, compagem quietis et pacis, qua nichil salubrius est, molitur extinguere. Siquidem haec flumina caritatem extinguunt his quibus uita negatur. In his Tantalus laborat in fabulis citra satietatem, et sermo propheticus degentium in his aquis increpat sitim. Sitientes ergo ad aquas inuitat oppositas, quae a spiritu profluunt, absque commutatione
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
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