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These things I say, and saying them I will not cease. Come, and become a man, so that the name of your nature may not be a lie. Do you understand what has been said to you? He is a man, he says, but often a man in name, but not a man in mind. For when I see you living irrationally, how shall I call you a man, and not an ox? When I see you seizing, how shall I call you a man, and not a wolf? When I see you fornicating, how shall I call you a man, and not a pig? When 55.501 I see you deceitful, how shall I call you a man, and not a snake? When I see you having venom, how shall I call you a man, and not an asp? When I see you foolish, how shall I call you a man, and not a donkey? When I see you committing adultery, how shall I call you a man, and not a mare-crazed horse? When I see you disobedient and without understanding, how shall I call you a man, and not a stone? You received nobility from God, why do you betray the virtue of your nature? What are you doing? Tell me. Other men have the skill to transform the irrational animals, as far as possible, into the nobility of men; they teach parrots to speak with a human voice, and by art they constrain nature; they make lions tame, leading them through the marketplace. You make the lion, an untamable animal, tame, and you make yourself more savage than a wolf? And what is more difficult, is that each of the irrational animals has one fault, the wolf its rapaciousness, the snake its deceitfulness, the asp its venom; but this is not so in the case of a wicked man. For a man often possesses not just one fault, but becomes rapacious, and deceitful, and venomous, and gathers the vices of the irrational animals into his own soul. How then shall I call you a man, you who do not have the token of royalty, do not have the diadem, do not have the purple robe? Let us make, he says, man in our image and likeness. Consider in whose image you were made, O man, and do not be brought down to the worthlessness of irrational animals. If you see a king who has thrown off his purple robe and diadem and herds together with the soldiers, and betrays his own rule, how will you call such a one a king? And you are a man. Do not show me, then, that you have the soul of a man, but whether you are a man in mind. You are a ruler of the irrational animals, and have you become a slave of the irrational passions within you? 2. And how may I become a man? he says. If you control the reasonings of the flesh, those irrational things, if you have cast out fornication, if you have cast out unseasonable desire for money, if you have cast out that wicked tyrant, if you have made the place of yourself clean. But how do you become a man? If you come here, where men are created. If I take you as a horse, I make you a man; if I take you as a wolf, I make you a man; if I take you as a snake, I make you a man, not changing nature, but transforming purpose. But what does he say? I have children, I preside over a household, I care for a wife, I am afflicted by poverty, I hasten for necessary food. These are excuses and pretexts. For if I were to keep you here completely, and not allow you to give even a small moment of time to outside affairs, you would have had a defense to give me and say, that I have children, and preside over a household; and you would have said these things rightly; or rather, not even then should you have said these things. For God is able, while you are occupied here, to arrange all your affairs with greater abundance. But now I compel you in none of these things, nor do I say, Be at leisure every day, but twice a week. What is heavy, what is burdensome? Not even the whole day, but for a small moment of time come to the church; receive 55.502 spiritual thoughts, so that you may not receive wounds; not that you may strike others down, but that you may make the marketplace a church. Come, take up a weapon, so that in the weapon you may not receive a harmful blow.

2

Ταῦτα δὲ λέγω, καὶ λέγων οὐ παύσομαι. Ἐλθὲ, καὶ γενοῦ ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα μὴ ἐπιψεύδηταί σου ἡ προσηγορία τῆς φύσεως. Ἆρα συνήκατε τὸ λεχθὲν πρὸς ὑμᾶς; Ἄνθρωπός ἐστι, φησὶν, ἀλλ' ἄνθρωπος μὲν τὸ ὄνομα πολλάκις, οὐκ ἄνθρωπος δὲ τὸ φρόνημα. Ὅταν γὰρ ἴδω σε ἀλόγως βιοῦντα, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ βοῦν; Ὅταν ἴδω σε ἁρπάζοντα, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ λύκον; Ὅταν ἴδω σε πορνεύοντα, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ χοῖρον; Ὅταν 55.501 ἴδω σε δολερὸν, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ ὄφιν; Ὅταν ἴδω σε ἰὸν ἔχοντα, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ ἀσπίδα; Ὅταν ἴδω σε ἀνόητον, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ ὄνον; Ὅταν ἴδω σε μοιχεύοντα, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ ἵππον θηλυμανῆ; Ὅταν ἴδω σε ἀπειθῆ καὶ ἀσύνετον, πῶς σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ λίθον; Ἔλαβες εὐγένειαν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τί προδίδως τὴν ἀρετὴν τῆς φύσεως; Τί ποιεῖς; εἰπέ μοι. Ἕτεροι τέχνην ἔχουσιν ἄνθρωποι, τὰ ἄλογα, κατὰ τὸ ἐγχωροῦν, εἰς ἀνθρώπων εὐγένειαν μετατιθέναι· ψιττακοὺς παιδεύουσι φωνῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φθέγγεσθαι, καὶ τῇ τέχνῃ τὴν φύσιν βιάζονται· λέοντας ἡμέρους ἐργάζονται, διὰ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἕλκοντες. Τὸν λέοντα ἥμερον ποιεῖς ζῶον ἀτιθάσσευτον, καὶ σαυτὸν λύκου ἀγριώτερον καθιστᾷς; Καὶ τὸ δὴ χαλεπώτερον, ὅτι τῶν μὲν ἀλόγων ἕκαστον ἓν ἐλάττωμα ἔχει, ὁ λύκος εἰς τὸ ἁρπακτικὸν, ὁ ὄφις εἰς τὸ δολερὸν, ἡ ἀσπὶς εἰς τὸ ἰῶδες· ἐπὶ δὲ ἀνθρώπου πονηροῦ οὐκ ἔνι τοῦτο. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἓν ἐλάττωμα πολλάκις κέκτηται ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἁρπακτικὸς γίνεται, καὶ δολερὸς, καὶ ἰώδης, καὶ τὰς τῶν ἀλόγων κακίας εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ συνάγει ψυχήν. Πῶς οὖν σε καλέσω ἄνθρωπον, ὃς οὐκ ἔχεις τῆς βασιλείας τὸ σύνθημα, οὐκ ἔχεις τὸ διάδημα, οὐκ ἔχεις τὴν πορφύραν; Ποιήσωμεν, φησὶν, ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. Ἐννόησον κατὰ τίνος εἰκόνα ἐγένου, ἄνθρωπε, καὶ μὴ κατενεχθῇς εἰς τὴν τῶν ἀλόγων εὐτέλειαν. Ἐὰν ἴδῃς βασιλέα πορφύραν ῥίψαντα καὶ διάδημα καὶ μετὰ τῶν στρατιωτῶν συναγελαζόμενον, καὶ προδιδόντα τὴν ἀρχὴν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ, πῶς καλέσεις τὸν τοιοῦτον βασιλέα; Καὶ σὺ ἄνθρωπος εἶ. Μή μοι οὖν δείξῃς, ὅτι ψυχὴν ἀνθρώπου ἔχεις, ἀλλ' εἰ τὸ φρόνημα ἄνθρωπος εἶ. Ἄρχων εἶ τῶν ἀλόγων, καὶ τῶν ἐν σοὶ ἀλόγων παθῶν δοῦλος ἐγένου; βʹ. Καὶ πῶς γένωμαι ἄνθρωπος; φησίν. Εἰ κρατεῖς τῶν λογισμῶν τῆς σαρκὸς, ἐκείνων τῶν ἀλόγων, εἰ ἐξέβαλες πορνείαν, εἰ ἐξέβαλες ἐπιθυμίαν χρημάτων ἄκαιρον, εἰ ἐξέβαλες τὴν πονηρὰν ἐκείνην τύραννον, εἰ καθαρὸν σαυτοῦ τὸ χωρίον εἰργάσω. Ἀλλὰ πῶς γίνῃ ἄνθρωπος; Ἐὰν ἔλθῃς ὧδε, ὅπου δημιουργοῦνται ἄνθρωποι. Ἐὰν λάβω σε ἵππον, ποιῶ σε ἄνθρωπον· ἐὰν λάβω σε λύκον, ποιῶ σε ἄνθρωπον· ἐὰν λάβω σε ὄφιν, ποιῶ σε ἄνθρωπον, οὐ μεταβάλλων τὴν φύσιν, ἀλλὰ μετατιθεὶς τὴν προαίρεσιν. Ἀλλὰ τί φησι; Τέκνα ἔχω, οἰκίας προΐσταμαι, γυναικὸς ἐπιμελοῦμαι, πενίᾳ κατέχομαι, ἐπὶ τὴν ἀναγκαίαν σπεύδω τροφήν. Σκήψεις ταῦτα καὶ προφάσεις. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ δι' ὅλου σε κατεῖχον ἐνταῦθα, καὶ οὐδὲ μικρὰν καιροῦ ῥοπὴν τοῖς ἔξω σε συνεχώρουν ἐκδιδόναι πράγμασιν, εἶχες ἂν ἀπολογήσασθαί μοι καὶ εἰπεῖν, ὅτι Τέκνα ἔχω, καὶ οἰκίας προΐσταμαι· καὶ καλῶς ἂν ταῦτα ἔλεγες· μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ τότε ταῦτα λέγειν ἐχρῆν. Ἱκανὸς γάρ σοι ὁ Θεὸς ἐνταῦθα ἀσχολουμένῳ πλείονος εὐπορίας τὰ σὰ πάντα διατυπῶσαι. Νῦν δὲ οὐδὲν τούτων σε ἀναγκάζω, οὐδὲ λέγω, Καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν σχόλαζε, ἀλλὰ δεύτερον τῆς ἑβδομάδος. Τί βαρὺ, τί φορτικόν; Οὐδὲ ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν, ἀλλὰ μικρὰν καιροῦ ῥοπὴν ἐλθὲ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν· δέξαι 55.502 νοερὰ νοήματα, ἵνα μὴ δέξῃ τραύματα· οὐχ ἵνα ἄλλους καταβάλλῃς, ἀλλ' ἵνα ποιήσῃς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐκκλησίαν. Ἐλθὲ, λάβε ὅπλον, ἵνα ἐν τῷ ὅπλῳ μὴ δέξῃ τὴν πληγὴν βλαβεράν.