3.  There are, as I said, three causes to necessitate your presence, all of equal weight, ourselves, the pastor, and the flock:  come then, and according to the spirit of ministry which is in you, assign to each its due, and guide your words in judgment, so that we may more than ever marvel at your wisdom.  And how will you guide them?  First by bestowing seemly praise upon his virtue, not only as a pure sepulchral tribute of speech to him who was pure, but also to set forth to others his conduct and example as a mark of true piety.  Then bestow upon us some brief counsels concerning life and death, and the union and severance of body and soul, and the two worlds, the one present but transitory, the other spiritually perceived and abiding; and persuade us to despise that which is deceitful and disordered and uneven, carrying us and being carried, like the waves, now up, now down; but to cling to that which is firm and stable and divine and constant, free from all disturbance and confusion.  For this would lessen our pain because of friends departed before us, nay we should rejoice if your words should carry us hence and set us on high, and hide distress of the present in the future, and persuade us that we also are pressing on to a good Master, and that our home is better than our pilgrimage; and that translation and removal thither is to us who are tempest-tost here like a calm haven to men at sea; or as ease and relief from toil come to men who, at the close of a long journey, escape the troubles of the wayfarer, so to those who attain to the hostel yonder comes a better and more tolerable existence than that of those who still tread the crooked and precipitous path of this life.

Γʹ. Τριῶν δὲ ὄντων, ὅπερ ἔφην, ἅ σοι τὴν παρουσίαν ἀναγκαίαν ποιεῖ, καὶ πάντων ἐξ ἴσης, ἡμῶν, τοῦ ποιμένος, τῆς ποίμνης: φέρε, κατὰ τὸ ἐν σοὶ πνεῦμα τῆς θεραπείας, ἀπόδος ἑκάστῳ τὸ πρόσφορον, καὶ οἰκονόμησον ἐν κρίσει τὸν λόγον, ἵνα σε καὶ μᾶλλον τῆς σοφίας θαυμάσωμεν. Οἰκονομήσεις δὲ πῶς; Τὸν μὲν ἐπαινέσας τῆς ἀρετῆς τὰ εἰκότα, οὐ μόνον ἵν' ἐντάφιον τῷ καθαρῷ καθαρὸν ἐπιβάλῃς τὸν λόγον, ἀλλ' ἵνα καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις εὐσεβείας χαρακτῆρα, τὴν ἐκείνου προθείης πολιτείαν τε καὶ παραίνεσιν. Ἡμῖν δὲ περὶ ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου βραχέα φιλοσοφήσας, καὶ τῆς κατὰ σῶμα καὶ ψυχὴν συζυγίας καὶ διαζεύξεως, καὶ τῶν δύο κόσμων, τοῦ τε παρόντος καὶ οὐχ ἑστῶτος, καὶ τοῦ νοουμένου καὶ μένοντος: καὶ πείσας, τοῦ μὲν περιφρονεῖν τὸ ἀπατηλὸν, καὶ ἄτακτον, καὶ ἀνώμαλον, καὶ, ὥσπερ ἐν κύμασιν, ἄνω καὶ κάτω φέρον τε καὶ φερόμενον: τοῦ δὲ προστίθεσθαι τῷ παγίῳ, καὶ σταθερῷ, καὶ θεοειδεῖ, καὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχοντι, καὶ πάσης ἐλευθέρῳ ταραχῆς καὶ συγχύσεως. Οὕτω γὰρ ἂν ἧττον ἀνιῷεν ἡμᾶς οἱ προεκδημήσαντες: ἀλλὰ καὶ ἥδοιεν, εἰ ἐνθένδε ἀπάγων ἡμᾶς ὁ λόγος, ἄνω τιθείη, καὶ τὸ παρὸν ἀηδὲς ἐναποκρύπτοι τῷ μέλλοντι, καὶ πείθοι, ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ παρὰ Δεσπότην ἀγαθὸν ἐπειγόμεθα, καὶ βελτίων ἡ κατοικία τῆς παροικίας: καὶ ὅπερ ἐστὶ τοῖς πλέουσι λιμὴν εὔδιος, τοῦτο τοῖς ἐνταῦθα χειμαζομένοις ἡ ἐκεῖσε μετάστασις καὶ μετάθεσις: ἢ ὥσπερ οἱ μακρὰν ὁδὸν προκαταλύσαντες, τῶν ὁδοιπορούντων καὶ μοχθούντων ἔτι ῥᾴους καὶ ἀπονώτεροι: οὕτως οἱ ἐπιτυχόντες τοῦ ἐκεῖ καταλύματος, τῶν ἔτι τὴν σκολιὰν καὶ κρημνώδη τοῦ βίου τούτου τεμνόντων ὁδὸν, ἀμείνους καὶ ἀνεκτότεροι.