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vengeance, and punishment, all the things that happen there. For what is the benefit of this temporary pleasure, when perpetual pain is born from it, and by day and by night, being goaded by desire, you are disagreeable and unpleasant to all? Examine yourself, then, who you become when you depart from the church, and who when you depart from the theaters; and compare the days of each, and you will have no need of our words. For the comparison of each day will be sufficient to show the magnitude both of the benefit from the one, and of the harm from the other. These things I have already said to your charity, and I will never cease saying them. For we will comfort those who suffer from such sicknesses, and we will make those who are healthy more secure. For the discourse on these things is useful to both; to the one, that they may depart from them, to the other, that they may not fall into them. But since it is necessary for those who rebuke to do this with measure, having stopped this exhortation at this point, we will render to you the things left over from the previous subject, returning again to our father Abraham. For it is a custom for painters, whenever they are about to work on a lifelike image, to have those who are about to be painted sit for them for one and two and three days, so that by the continuity of their observation they may preserve the unfailing accuracy of the form. Since, therefore, it is now our task to paint not a type of bodily form, but the beauty of a soul, and an intelligible comeliness, and the flourishing life of the just man, and his gentleness, and meekness, and magnanimity, and all his other virtue, it is necessary to spend more time on this, so that through the continuity of the discourse's close examination we may not fail to capture the likeness of the archetype. For if images of the body bring some comfort to those who see them, much more so do images of the soul. And while it is not possible to see those everywhere, but it is necessary for them to be permanently fixed in one place; this one, however, you can carry about wherever you wish, with nothing to prevent it. For having stored it in the treasuries of your mind, wherever you are, you will be able to look upon it continually, and to reap much benefit from it. And just as those who suffer from eye diseases, holding sponges and rags of dark blue garments, and looking at them continually, reap some comfort for their malady from that color, so also you, if you keep the image of the patriarch Abraham before your eyes, and gaze at him continually, even if anger a thousand times, or some other unseemly thing should trouble and confuse the eye of your mind, looking at that character of virtue, you will receive complete health, and pure philosophy. Henceforth, if you please, let us guide our discourse to the subject at hand.

2. The blessed Moses, beloved, he who through works of piety became familiar to God, he who was deemed worthy of a more intimate communion with the Creator 56.545 than all the prophets after him, as God spoke to him mouth to mouth in a vision, and not through riddles, he who by the divine fire, which knows only to illuminate, not to burn, was initiated into the contemplation of God, he who by divine counsel was proclaimed to be a god to Pharaoh, and was exceptionally adorned beyond all men of that time by partaking of a venerable title, he who was appointed a most terrible minister of the divinely sent plagues which happened in Egypt, and was revealed as a most swift servant of the active power of God, he whose intelligible eye of the soul was illuminated by the torch-bearing of the Holy Spirit, and who became a later expositor of the ancient works of the Almighty, this blessed one, after the orderly and beautiful narrative of the creation of the world, proceeded to the history of the men of old, separately of the good, and separately of the wicked, and he recorded the end of the good as truly thrice-blessed, but that of their opposites as accursed, so that we, having from the creation of the world the doctrines to be instructed in regarding godliness, and from the lives of those who came before to both hate wickedness and honor virtue, might easily live a God-loving and blessed life. Many things, therefore, of virtue and

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τιμωρία, καὶ κόλασις, τὰ ἐκεῖ γινόμενα ἅπαντα. Τί γὰρ ὄφελος τῆς προσκαίρου ταύτης ἡδονῆς, ὅταν διηνεκὴς ἐντεῦθεν ὀδύνη τίκτηται, καὶ ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ ἐν νυκτὶ κεντούμενος ὑπὸ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας πᾶσιν ᾖς δυσχερὴς καὶ δυσάρεστος; Ἐξέτασον γοῦν σαυτὸν, τίς μὲν γίνῃ ἀπὸ ἐκκλησίας ἀναχωρῶν, τίς δὲ ἀπὸ θεάτρων· καὶ ἑκατέρας δὲ παράβαλε τὰς ἡμέρας, καὶ οὐδὲν δεήσῃ τῶν ἡμετέρων λόγων. Ἀρκέσει γὰρ ἑκατέρας ἡ σύγκρισις τῆς ἡμέρας δεῖξαι τὸ μέγεθος καὶ τῆς ἐντεῦθεν ὠφελείας, καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν βλάβης. Ταῦτα καὶ ἤδη πρὸς τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην εἶπον, καὶ οὐδέποτε παύσομαι λέγων. Τούς τε γὰρ νοσοῦντας τὰ τοιαῦτα νοσήματα παραμυθησόμεθα, τούς τε ὑγιαίνοντας ἀσφαλεστέρους ποιήσομεν. Ἑκατέροις γὰρ ὁ περὶ τούτων χρήσιμος ὁ λόγος· τοῖς μὲν, ἵνα ἀποστῶσι, τοῖς δὲ, ἵνα μὴ ἐμπέσωσιν. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ χρὴ καὶ τοὺς ἐπιτιμῶντας τοῦτο συμμέτρως ποιεῖν, μέχρι τούτου ταύτην στήσαντες τὴν παραίνεσιν, τὰ ὑπολειφθέντα ἐκ τῆς προτέρας ὑποθέσεως ὑμῖν ἀποδώσομεν, ἐπὶ τὸν πατέρα ἡμῶν Ἀβραὰμ ἐπανελθόντες πάλιν. Καὶ γὰρ τοῖς ζωγράφοις ἔθος, ἐπειδὰν μέλλωσιν ἐμφερῆ τινα ἐργάζεσθαι εἰκόνα, καὶ μίαν καὶ δύο καὶ τρεῖς ἡμέρας τοὺς γράφεσθαι μέλλοντας παρακαθίζουσιν αὐτοῖς, ἵνα τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῆς θεωρίας ἀδιάπτωτον τῆς μορφῆς διασώσωνται τὴν ἀκρίβειαν. Ἐπεὶ οὖν καὶ ἡμῖν ζωγραφῆσαι πρόκειται νῦν, οὐχὶ τύπον μορφῆς σωματικῆς, ἀλλὰ ψυχῆς κάλλος, καὶ νοητὴν εὐμορφίαν, καὶ πολιτείαν ἀκμάζουσαν τοῦ δικαίου, καὶ τὸ πρᾶον, καὶ ἥμερον, καὶ μεγαλόψυχον, καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἅπασαν αὐτοῦ ἀρετὴν, δέον πλείονα τὴν διατριβὴν πρὸς τοῦτον ποιήσασθαι, ἵνα τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῆς τοῦ λόγου διοπτρίσεως τῆς τοῦ ἀρχετύπου ὁμοιότητος μὴ διαμάρτωμεν. Εἰ γὰρ σώματος εἰκόνες φέρουσί τινα παραμυθίαν τοῖς ὁρῶσι, πολλῷ μᾶλλον αἱ τῆς ψυχῆς εἰκόνες. Κἀκείνας μὲν οὐ δυνατὸν πανταχοῦ ὁρᾷν, ἀλλ' ἀνάγκη διηνεκῶς ἐφ' ἑνὸς ἱδρύσθαι τόπου· ταύτην δὲ ὅπουπερ ἂν θέλῃς περιαγαγεῖν, οὐδὲν τὸ κωλύον. Ἐναποθέμενος γὰρ αὐτὴν τοῖς τῆς διανοίας ταμιείοις, ὅπουπερ ἂν ᾖς, συνεχῶς εἰς αὐτὴν ὁρᾷν δυνήσῃ, καὶ πολλὴν παρ' αὐτῆς καρποῦσθαι τὴν ὠφέλειαν. Καὶ καθάπερ οἱ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς νοσοῦντες, σπογγιὰς, καὶ ἱματίων ῥάκη κυανιζόντων κατέχοντες, καὶ συνεχῶς εἰς αὐτὰ βλέποντες, καρποῦνταί τινα τοῦ νοσήματος παραμυθίαν ἀπὸ τοῦ χρώματος ἐκείνου, οὕτω καὶ σὺ, ἂν τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ πατριάρχου Ἀβραὰμ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ἔχῃς τῶν ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ συνεχῶς εἰς αὐτὸν ἀτενίζῃς, κἂν μυριάκις θυμὸς, ἢ ἕτερόν τι τῶν ἀτόπων ἐνοχλῇ καὶ συγχέη τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τῆς διανοίας, ὁρῶν εἰς ἐκεῖνον τὸν χαρακτῆρα τῆς ἀρετῆς, ὁλόκληρον δέξῃ τὴν ὑγίειαν, καὶ καθαρὰν τὴν φιλοσοφίαν. Λοιπὸν, εἰ δοκεῖ, ἐπὶ τὸ προκείμενον τὸν λόγον χειραγωγήσωμεν.

βʹ. Ὁ μακάριος Μωϋσῆς, ἀγαπητὲ, ὁ τοῖς κατ' εὐσέβειαν ἔργοις οἰκειωθεὶς τῷ Θεῷ, ὁ παρὰ πάντας τοὺς μετ' αὐτὸν προφήτας ἰδικωτέρας ἀξιωθεὶς τῆς τοῦ κτίσαντος 56.545 ὁμιλίας, ὡς καὶ στόμα κατὰ στόμα λαλήσαντος αὐτῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν εἴδει, καὶ οὐ δι' αἰνιγμάτων, ὁ θείῳ πυρὶ, φωτίζειν μόνον, οὐ καίειν εἰδότι, πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ μυσταγωγηθεὶς θεωρίαν, ὁ θείᾳ βουλῇ θεὸς εἶναι Φαραὼ χρηματίσας, καὶ μετοχῇ σεβασμίου προσηγορίας παρὰ πάντας ἐξαιρέτως τοὺς τότε κοσμούμενος, ὁ τῶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ γεγενημένων θεηλάτων πληγῶν διάκονος προχειρισθεὶς φοβερώτατος, καὶ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δραστηρίου δυνάμεως φανεὶς ὑπηρέτης ὀξύτατος, ὁ δᾳδουχίᾳ Πνεύματος ἁγίου τὸν νοητὸν τῆς ψυχῆς φωτισθεὶς ὀφθαλμὸν, καὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων τοῦ Παντοκράτορος ἔργων ἐξηγητὴς γενόμενος ὄψιμος, οὗτος ὁ μακάριος μετὰ τὴν εὔτακτον καὶ καλὴν τῆς κοσμοποιίας διήγησιν, ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν ἱστορίαν ἐχώρησεν, ἰδίᾳ μὲν τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἰδίᾳ δὲ τῶν πονηρῶν, καὶ τῶν μὲν ἀγαθῶν τρισμακάριον ὄντως τὸ τέλος, τῶν δὲ ἐναντίων τούτοις ἐπάρατον ἀνεγράψατο, ἵνα ἔχοντες ἐκ μὲν τῆς κοσμοποιίας τὰ περὶ τῆς θεοσεβείας παιδεύεσθαι δόγματα, ἐκ δὲ τῶν προλαβόντων τοῦ βίου καὶ μισεῖν πονηρίαν, καὶ τιμᾷν ἀρετὴν, ῥᾳδίως τὸν θεοφιλῆ καὶ μακάριον διανύωμεν βίον. Πολλὰ μὲν οὖν ἀρετῆς καὶ