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the things of the Master; not those of weakness, but those of healing; not those of creation, but those of re-creation.

5. But how shall this be? Let us not crown our gateways, nor organize choirs, nor adorn the streets, nor feast the eye, nor charm the ear with flute-music, nor enervate the sense of smell, nor prostitute the taste, nor gratify the touch, these ready ways to evil, and entrances of sin; let us not be softened by clothing, soft and flowing, whose finest quality is its uselessness, nor by the transparency of stones, nor the gleam of gold, nor the deceptions of colors that falsify natural beauty, and are invented against the image; nor by revels and drunkenness, with which I know chambering and wantonness are joined; since from evil teachers come evil lessons, or rather, from evil seeds come evil harvests. Let us not set up high couches, making a tabernacle for the belly with things of softness. Let us not honor the bouquets of wines, the tricks of cooks, the costliness of perfumes. Let not land and sea bring us as gifts their precious dung; for thus I am accustomed to honor luxury. Let us not strive to outdo one another in incontinence. For to me, incontinence is everything that is superfluous and beyond need; and this, while others are hungry and in want, who are of the same clay and mixture.

6. But let us leave these things to the Greeks, and to Greek pomps, and festivals; who even name gods that delight in the savor of sacrifices, and accordingly worship the divine with the belly, being themselves wicked creators, mystagogues, and initiates of wicked demons. But we, for whom the Word is the object of our worship, if we must have luxury, let us find our luxury in the word, 36.317 and in the divine law, and in narratives, both the others, and those from which the present festival is drawn; so that our luxury may be appropriate, and not far from Him who has called us together. Or would you like me (for I too am your host today) to serve up the discourse on these matters for you, our good guests, as lavishly and generously as possible, so that you may know how the stranger can feed the native, and the rustic the townsman, and he who has no luxury those who have luxury, and the poor and homeless one those who are brilliant in their wealth? I will begin from this point; and purify for me both your mind, and hearing, and thought, all you who delight in such things; since the discourse is about God, and is divine; so that you may depart, having truly feasted on things that are not emptied. And it will be at the same time most full and most brief; so as neither to distress by its deficiency, nor to be unpleasant through satiety.

7. God always was, and is, and will be; or rather, He always is. For 'was' and 'will be' are fragments of our time, and of a flowing nature; but He is the Ever-existing, and this is the name He gives Himself, when speaking to Moses on the mountain. For He holds in Himself the whole of being, having neither beginning nor end, like some sea of being, infinite and boundless, transcending every conception of time and nature; sketched by the mind alone, and this very dimly and moderately, not from the things that are in Him, but from the things that are around Him, as one impression after another is gathered into some single image of the truth, which flees before it can be grasped, and escapes before it can be comprehended; so much illuminating our ruling faculty, and that when it is purified, as the speed of a fleeting flash of lightning does the sight. In my opinion, so that by what can be apprehended He might draw us to Himself (for what is completely incomprehensible is hopeless and unattempted), and by what cannot be apprehended He might be admired, and being admired might be desired the more, and being desired might purify, and purifying might make godlike, and when we have become such, He might then commune with us as His own, the Word dares a youthful thing, God being united to gods and being known, and perhaps as much as He already knows those who are known. The divine is therefore infinite and hard to contemplate; and this is the only thing about it that is completely comprehensible, its infinity; even if someone thinks that because it is simple

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τὰ τοῦ ∆εσπότου· μὴ τὰ τῆς ἀσθενείας, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῆς ἰατρείας· μὴ τὰ τῆς πλάσεως, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῆς ἀναπλάσεως.

Εʹ. Ἔσται δὲ τοῦτο πῶς; Μὴ πρόθυρα στεφανώ σωμεν, μὴ χοροὺς συστησώμεθα, μὴ κοσμήσωμεν ἀγυιὰς, μὴ ὀφθαλμὸν ἑστιάσωμεν, μὴ ἀκοὴν καταυ λήσωμεν, μὴ ὄσφρησιν ἐκθηλύνωμεν, μὴ γεῦσιν κα ταπορνεύσωμεν, μὴ ἁφῇ χαρισώμεθα, ταῖς προχεί ροις εἰς κακίαν ὁδοῖς, καὶ εἰσόδοις τῆς ἁμαρτίας, μὴ ἐσθῆτι μαλακισθῶμεν, ἁπαλῇ τε καὶ περιῤῥεούσῃ, καὶ ἧς τὸ κάλλιστον ἀχρηστία, μὴ λίθων διαυγείαις, μὴ χρυσοῦ περιλάμψεσι, μὴ χρωμάτων σοφίσμασι ψευδομένων τὸ φυσικὸν κάλλος, καὶ κατὰ τῆς εἰκόνος ἐξευρημένων· μὴ κώμοις καὶ μέθαις, οἷς κοίτας καὶ ἀσελγείας οἶδα συνεζευγμένας· ἐπειδὴ κακῶν διδασκάλων κακὰ τὰ μαθήματα, μᾶλλον δὲ πονηρῶν σπερμάτων πονηρὰ τὰ γεώργια. Μὴ στιβάδας ὑψηλὰς πηξώμεθα σκηνοποιοῦντες τῇ γαστρὶ τὰ τῆς θρύ ψεως. Μὴ τιμήσωμεν οἴνων τοὺς ἀνθοσμίας, ὀψο ποιῶν μαγγανείας, μύρων πολυτελείας. Μὴ γῆ καὶ θάλασσα τὴν τιμίαν ἡμῖν κόπρον δωροφορείτωσαν· οὕτω γὰρ ἐγὼ τιμᾷν οἶδα τρυφήν. Μὴ ἄλλος ἄλλον ἀκρασίᾳ νικᾷν σπουδάζωμεν. Ἀκρασία γὰρ ἐμοὶ, πᾶν τὸ περιττὸν καὶ ὑπὲρ τὴν χρείαν· καὶ ταῦτα πεινώντων ἄλλων καὶ δεομένων, τῶν ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πηλοῦ τε καὶ κράματος.

ςʹ. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν Ἕλλησι παρῶμεν, καὶ Ἑλληνικοῖς κόμποις, καὶ πανηγύρεσιν· οἳ καὶ θεοὺς ὀνομάζουσι κνίσσαις χαίροντας, καὶ ἀκολούθως τὸ θεῖον τῇ γαστρὶ θεραπεύουσι, πονηροὶ πονηρῶν δαιμόνων, καὶ πλάσται, καὶ μυσταγωγοὶ, καὶ μύ σται τυγχάνοντες. Ἡμεῖς δὲ, οἷς Λόγος τὸ προσ κυνούμενον, κἄν τι δέῃ τρυφᾷν, ἐν λόγῳ 36.317 τρυφήσωμεν, καὶ θείῳ νόμῳ, καὶ διηγήμασι, τοῖς τε ἄλλοις, καὶ ἐξ ὧν ἡ παροῦσα πανήγυρις· ἵν' οἰκεῖον ᾖ τὸ τρυφᾷν, καὶ μὴ πόῤῥω τοῦ συγκαλέσαντος. Ἢ βούλεσθε (καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ σήμερον ἑστιάτωρ ὑμῖν) ἐγὼ τὸν περὶ τούτων παραθῶ λόγον τοῖς καλοῖς ὑμῖν δαιτυμόσιν, ὡς οἷόν τε δαψιλῶς τε καὶ φιλοτίμως, ἵν' εἰδῆτε, πῶς δύναται τρέφειν ὁ ξένος τοὺς ἐγχωρίους, καὶ τοὺς ἀστικοὺς ὁ ἄγροι κος, καὶ τοὺς τρυφῶντας ὁ μὴ τρυφῶν, καὶ τοὺς περιουσίᾳ λαμπροὺς, ὁ πένης τε καὶ ἀνέστιος; Ἄρξομαι δὲ ἐντεῦθεν· καί μοι καθήρασθε, καὶ νοῦν, καὶ ἀκοὴν, καὶ διάνοιαν, ὅσοι τρυφᾶτε τὰ τοιαῦτα· ἐπειδὴ περὶ Θεοῦ, καὶ θεῖος ὁ λόγος· ἵν' ἀπέλθητε τρυφήσαντες ὄντως τὰ μὴ κενούμενα. Ἔσται δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς πληρέστατός τε ἅμα καὶ συντομώτατος· ὡς μήτε τῷ ἐνδεεῖ λυπεῖν, μήτε ἀηδὴς εἶναι διὰ τὸν κόρον.

Ζʹ. Θεὸς ἦν μὲν ἀεὶ, καὶ ἔστι, καὶ ἔσται· μᾶλλον δὲ ἔστιν ἀεί. Τὸ γὰρ ἦν, καὶ ἔσται, τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνου τμήματα, καὶ τῆς ῥευστῆς φύσεως· ὁ δὲ ὢν ἀεὶ, καὶ τοῦτο αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν ὀνομάζει, τῷ Μωϋσεῖ χρη ματίζων ἐπὶ τοῦ ὄρους. Ὅλον γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῷ συλ λαβὼν, ἔχει τὸ εἶναι, μήτε ἀρξάμενον, μήτε παυσό μενον, οἷόν τι πέλαγος οὐσίας ἄπειρον καὶ ἀόριστον, πᾶσαν ὑπερεκπῖπτον ἔννοιαν, καὶ χρόνου καὶ φύσεως· νῷ μόνῳ σκιαγραφούμενος, καὶ τοῦτο λίαν ἀμυδρῶς καὶ μετρίως, οὐκ ἐκ τῶν κατ' αὐτὸν, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν, ἄλλης ἐξ ἄλλου φαν τασίας συλλεγομένης, εἰς ἕν τι τῆς ἀληθείας ἴνδαλμα, πρὶν κρατηθῆναι, φεῦγον, καὶ πρὶν νοηθῆναι, διαδιδράσκον· τοσαῦτα περιλάμπον ἡμῶν τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν, καὶ ταῦτα κεκαθαρμένον, ὅσα καὶ ὄψιν ἀστραπῆς τάχος οὐχ ἱσταμένης. Ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, ἵνα τῷ ληπτῷ μὲν ἕλκῃ πρὸς ἑαυτὸ (τὸ γὰρ τελέως ἄληπτον, ἀνέλπιστον, καὶ ἀνεπιχείρητον), τῷ δὲ ἀλήπτῳ θαυ μάζηται, θαυμαζόμενον δὲ ποθῆται πλέον, ποθούμε νον δὲ καθαίρῃ, καθαῖρον δὲ θεοειδεῖς ἀπεργάζη ται, τοιούτοις δὲ γενομένοις, ὡς οἰκείοις, ἤδη προσομιλῇ, τολμᾷ τι νεανικὸν ὁ λόγος, Θεὸς θεοῖς ἑνούμενός τε καὶ γνωριζόμενος, καὶ τοσοῦτον ἴσως, ὅσον ἤδη γινώσκει τοὺς γινωσκομένους. Ἄπειρον οὖν τὸ θεῖον καὶ δυσθεώρητον· καὶ τοῦτο πάντη καταληπτὸν αὐτοῦ μόνον, ἡ ἀπειρία· κἄν τις οἴηται τῷ ἁπλῆς εἶναι