Commandment Twelfth. On the Twofold Desire. The Commandments of God Can Be Kept, and Believers Ought Not to Fear the Devil. Chap. I. He says to me, “Put away from you all wicked desire, and clothe yourself with good and chaste desire; for clothed with this desire you will hate wicked desire,225 and will rein yourself in even as you wish. For wicked desire is wild, and is with difficulty tamed. For it is terrible, and consumes men exceedingly by its wildness. Especially is the servant of God terribly consumed by it, if he falls into it and is devoid of understanding. Moreover, it con- sumes all such as have not on them the garment of good desire, but are entangled and mixed up with this world. These it delivers up to death.” “What then, sir,” say I, “are the deeds of wicked desire which deliver men over to death? Make them known to me, and I will refrain from them.” “Listen, then, to the works in which evil desire slays the servants of God.”226 Chap. II. “Foremost of all is the desire after another’s wife or husband, and after extravagance, and many useless dainties and drinks, and many other foolish luxuries; for all luxury is foolish and empty in the servants of God. These, then, are the evil desires which slay the servants of God. For this evil desire is the daughter of the devil. You must refrain from evil desires, that by refraining ye may live to God.227 But as many as are mastered by them, and do not resist them, will perish at last, for these desires are fatal. Put you on, then, the desire 29 of righteousness; and arming yourself with the fear of the Lord, resist them. For the fear of the Lord dwells in good desire. But if evil desire see you armed with the fear of God,228 and resisting it, it will flee far from you, and it will no longer appear to you, for it fears your ar- mour. Go, then, garlanded with the crown which you have gained for victory over it, to the desire of righteousness, and, delivering up to it the prize which you have received, serve it even as it wishes.229 If you serve good desire, and be subject to it, you will gain the mastery over evil desire, and make it subject to you even as you wish.”230 225 [Concupiscence is here shown to have the nature of sin.] 226 [See the Greek of Athanasius, and Grabe’s transposition, in Wake’s version of the Eleventh and Twelfth Commandments.] 227 For … God. This desire, therefore, is wicked and destructive, bringing death on the servants of God. Whoever, therefore, shall abstain from evil desire, shall live to God.—Vat. 228 God. The Lord.—Vat. 229 Go … wishes. And you will obtain the victory, and will be crowned on account of it, and you will arrive at good desire, and you will deliver up the victory which you have obtained to God, and you will serve Him by acting even as you yourself wish to act.—Vat. 230 Chapters third, fourth, and a part of fifth, are omitted in the Palatine. [This chapter seems based on Heb. v. 14.] Commandment Twelfth. On the Twofold Desire. The Commandments of God Can Be Kept, and Believers Ought Not to Fear the Devil. 57 Commandment Twelfth. On the Twofold Desire. The Commandments of God Can…