De arte praedicatoria

Blessed is that servant whom, when the Lord comes, he shall find watching.¹ Likewise: If the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, etc.² Likewise: Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come.³ Likewise: Watch and pray, that you do not enter into temptation.⁴ And Solomon: Those who watch for me early shall find me.⁵ Christ invites us to vigils by his own example, spending the night in prayer, watching for our instruction. Material vigils are to be kept for the exercise of the body, to drive away sluggishness, to avoid nighttime illusions, to guard against the slippery passions of the flesh, so that room is given to prayer, and denied to the enemy. For every believer, like a most valiant man, ought to surround the bed of Solomon,⁶ and hold a sword upon his thigh, because of the terrors of the night. Not only in material vigils, but also in spiritual ones, ought every believer to provide for the Church of God, which is the bed of Solomon, that is, of Christ, in whom he himself rests, because it is his delight to be with the sons of men.⁷ He ought also to hold a sword upon his thigh, that is, to use the sword of discretion, to restrain the movements of the flesh and the assaults of the devil, which are especially to be guarded against and feared in the darkness of this world. One ought to give more heed to spiritual vigils than to material ones, so that each one's mind keeps watch over its own flock, that is, the movements of the soul, lest the lurking wolf, that is, the devil, force some movement to stray from the right path. We must watch lest the thief, that is, the devil, enter the enclosure of our breast through lust, the chamber of the mind through sloth, and steal the garment of the soul, that is, the ornaments of the virtues. This invisible thief is sometimes a robber, when he rages through the tyranny of princes; sometimes he assails us like a thief through the heretic; now like a bird, when he is puffed up through pride; now like an asp, when he deceives through lust; now like a lion, when he rages through open savagery; now like a dragon, when through hidden temptation.

There are four parts of the night of sin; the first is called the dead of night, when someone delights in a wicked thought. The second, the silence of night, when men, that is, rational movements, lie under a seduced will. The third, cockcrow, when the will sounds forth into action. The fourth, before dawn, when the deed is made manifest. Not without reason, then, were nighttime vigils established, by which it is signified that one should rise at midnight for nocturnal hymns, so that not even the night is empty of divine praise, and material vigil rouses spiritual vigil. Let it shame a man that the rising of the sun anticipates his vigils, and that the cock indulges in its crowing during the night, while he himself is idle from divine praises. O man, beware of the watching rod, lest it find you sleeping; beware of the thief, lest he suffocate you while you are sluggish. The watching rod, or the rod of vigils, is the rod by which, thrust into a house, a thief tests whether the master of the house is sleeping, or whether the household is sluggish. For if the master of the house sleeps, the thief plunders everything he finds; if he watches, the thief flees. Spiritually, the rod of vigils is Christ, of whom Jeremiah says: I see the rod of vigils.⁸ This is he who, by his discretion, tests whether the master of the house is sleeping in his own house, that is, whether a man is sluggish in his own self-control. If he finds him sleeping, he condemns him; if he finds him watching, he finds nothing in him to harm him with. Likewise the devil, who is a spiritual thief, flees if he finds a man watching; if he finds him sleeping, he plunders everything. Because Ish-bosheth slept at noon, he was killed by robbers;⁹ Samson, put to sleep, was captured by his enemies;¹⁰ Sisera, sleeping, was killed by a woman;¹¹ Gideon killed his sleepy enemies.¹² Christ, when his passion drew near, rebuked his sleeping disciples.