3. A certain man in the Gospels once pried into the marriage feast  14  Matt. xxii. 12. The same passage is applied to Baptism in Cat. iii. 2. , and took an unbecoming garment, and came in, sat down, and ate: for the bridegroom permitted it. But when he saw them all clad in white  15  See Cat. xxii. 8 and Index, “White.” , he ought to have assumed a garment of the same kind himself: whereas he partook of the like food, but was unlike them in fashion and in purpose. The bridegroom, however, though bountiful, was not undiscerning: and in going round to each of the guests and observing them (for his care was not for their eating, but for their seemly behaviour), he saw a stranger  not having on a wedding garment , and said to him,  Friend, how camest thou in hither? In what a colour  16  The Greed word (χρῶμα) is used by Ignatius in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans of a discolouring stain. ! With what a conscience! What though the door-keeper forbade thee not, because of the bountifulness of the entertainer? what though thou wert ignorant in what fashion thou shouldest come in to the banquet?—thou didst come in, and didst see the glittering fashions of the guests: shouldest thou not have been taught even by what was before thine eyes? Shouldest thou not have retired in good season, that thou mightest enter in good season again? But now thou hast come in unseasonably, to be unseasonably cast out. So he commands the servants,  Bind his feet , which daringly intruded:  bind his hands , which knew not how to put a bright garment around him:  and cast him into the outer darkness; for he is unworthy of the wedding torches  17  Compare § 1, note 6. . Thou seest what happened to that man: make thine own condition safe.

Ἐπολυπραγμόνησέ τίς ποτε τὸν γάμον ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις: καὶ ἀνάξιον ἔνδυμα λαβὼν εἰσῆλθε, καὶ ἀνέπεσε, καὶ ἔφαγε: συνεχώρησε γὰρ ὁ νυμφίος. Ἔδει δὲ αὐτὸν ἰδόντα τὸ λευχειμονοῦν πάντων, καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναλαβέσθαι τοιοῦτον ἔνδυμα. Ἀλλ' ἴσων μὲν μετελάμβανε βρωμάτων: ἀνισότητα δὲ εἶχε σχημάτων καὶ προαιρέσεως. Ἀλλ' ὁ νυμφίος, εἰ καὶ δαψιλὴς, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἄκριτος: περιερχόμενος δὲ τῶν ἀνακειμένων ἕκαστον καὶ θεωρῶν, [ἔμελε γὰρ αὐτῷ, οὐχ ὅπως φάγωσιν, ἀλλ' ὅπως εὐσχημονῶσιν] ἰδών τινα ἀλλότριον, μὴ ἔχοντα γάμου ἔνδυμα, ἔλεγε πρὸς αὐτόν: Ἑταῖρε, πῶς εἰσῆλθες ὧδε; ποίῳ χρώματι; ποίᾳ συνειδήσει; ἔστω, ὁ θυρωρὸς οὐκ ἐκώλυσε, διὰ τὸ δαψιλὲς τοῦ παρέχοντος: ἔστω, ἄγνοιαν εἶχες ποταπῷ δεῖ σχήματι εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸ συμπόσιον: εἰσῆλθες, εἶδες ἀστράπτοντα ὥσπερ τὰ σχήματα τῶν ἀνακειμένων: οὐκ ἔδει σε κἂν ἐκ τῶν φαινομένων διδαχθῆναι; οὐκ ἔδει σε ἐξελθεῖν εὐκαίρως, ἵνα καὶ εὐκαίρως εἰσέλθῃς; Νῦν δὲ ἀκαίρως εἰσῆλθες, ἵνα ἀκαίρως ἐκβληθῇς. Καὶ προστάσσει τοῖς ὑπηρέταις: Δήσατε αὐτοῦ πόδας, τοὺς τολμηρῶς εἰσβάλλοντας: δήσατε αὐτοῦ χεῖρας, τὰς μὴ εἰδυίας ἔνδυμα περιβαλέσθαι φαιδρόν: καὶ ἐκβάλετε αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον: ἀνάξιος γάρ ἐστι λαμπάδων νυμφικῶν. Ἰδὲ τί συνέβη τῷ τότε: ἀσφάλισαι τὰ σεαυτοῦ.