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of successive dangers, and the infirmity of the body did not refute the philosophy of the soul; so great is zeal according to God, so light does it make the wing. For just as for those who have bodies that are in good condition and healthy, there will be no gain from their good condition, if the soul is cast down and slothful and sluggish, so for those who are weakened, there will be no harm from their infirmity, if the soul is noble and roused. To some, then, this exhortation and counsel seems to give license for more fearless wine-drinking; but it is not so; but if one were to examine the saying itself with accuracy, the matter is rather an exhortation to fasting. For consider how Paul did not advise this from the beginning, nor from the introductions, but when he saw that all his strength was cast down, then he advised it; and not even then simply, but also with a certain pre-determination. For he did not say simply, 'Use wine,' but, 'a little wine'; not because Timothy needed this exhortation and counsel, but because we need it. For this reason, writing to him, he lays down measures and limits for us for wine-drinking, commanding to drink only so much as to correct weakness, so much as to provide health to the body, but not another disease. For 49.22 immoderate wine-drinking begets diseases no less than that unspeakable water-drinking, but indeed many more and more grievous ones for both the body and the soul, introducing the war of passions and the storm of unseemly reasonings into the mind, and making the strength of the body more loose and flabby. For the nature of the earth, when troubled by an excess of waters, is not so continuously dissolved, as the power of the body is made loose and flows away and becomes faint, being continually flooded with wine-drinking. Let us therefore flee immoderation from both sides, and let us take care of the health of the body, and let us cut off its leaps. For wine was given by God, not that we should be drunk, but that we should be sober, that we might rejoice, not that we might be in pain. For 'wine makes glad,' he says, 'the heart of man'; but you make it an occasion for despondency; for those who are excessively drunk are heavy-spirited, as a great darkness is scattered over their thoughts. It is the best medicine, when it has the best proportion. This passage is also useful for us against the heretics, those who slander God's creation; for if it were among the forbidden things, Paul would not have permitted it, he would not have said to use wine. Not only against heretics, but also against the more simple of our brethren, who, whenever they see some misbehaving because of drunkenness, leaving off blaming them, slander the fruit given by God, saying, 'Let there be no wine.' Let us say then to them, 'Let there be no drunkenness'; for wine is the work of God, but drunkenness is the work of the devil; it is not the wine that makes the drunkenness, but profligacy that makes the drunkenness; do not slander the creation of God, but accuse the madness of your fellow servant. But you, leaving off punishing and correcting the sinner, do you insult the benefactor?

5. When therefore we hear some saying these things, let us silence them; for it is not the use, but the immoderation that causes drunkenness, drunkenness, the root of all evils. Wine was given to correct the weakness of the body, not to cast down the strength of the soul, to take away the infirmity of the flesh, not to mar the health of the soul. Therefore, by using the gift of God immoderately, do not provide handles to the foolish and more shameless of men. For what is more pitiable than drunkenness? The drunkard is a living corpse; he is a voluntary demon, a disease that has no pardon, a fall deprived of apology, a common disgrace of our race. For not only in social gatherings is the drunkard useless, nor in private and public affairs, but even in mere appearance he is more unpleasant than all, breathing foul odors; belchings and yawnings, and the voices of the drunken are joyless and unpleasant, filling those who see and are with them with the utmost loathing; and the chief of evils, that it makes heaven inaccessible to those

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ἐπαλλήλων κινδύνων καὶ τὴν φιλοσοφίαν τῆς ψυχῆς οὐκ ἤλεγξεν ἡ τοῦ σώματος ἀῤῥωστία· τοσοῦτός ἐστιν ὁ κατὰ Θεὸν ζῆλος, οὕτω κοῦφον ἐργάζεται τὸ πτερόν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τοῖς τὰ σώματα ἔχουσιν εὐεκτοῦντα καὶ ὑγιῆ, κέρδος οὐδὲν ἔσται τῆς εὐεξίας, ἐὰν ἡ ψυχὴ καταβεβλημένη ᾖ καὶ ῥᾴθυμος καὶ νωθὴς, οὕτω τοῖς ἐξησθενημένοις οὐδὲν ἔσται βλάβος ἀπὸ τῆς ἀῤῥωστίας, ἐὰν ἡ ψυχὴ γενναία ᾖ καὶ διεγηγερμένη. ∆οκεῖ μὲν οὖν τισιν ἡ παραίνεσις αὕτη καὶ συμβουλὴ ἐξουσίαν διδόναι πρὸς ἀδεεστέραν οἰνοποσίαν· τὸ δὲ οὐ τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· ἀλλ' εἴ τις μετ' ἀκριβείας ἐξετάσειε τὴν ῥῆσιν αὐτὴν, νηστείας μᾶλλόν ἐστι τὸ πρᾶγμα παραίνεσις. Ἐννόησον γὰρ πῶς οὐκ ἐξ ἀρχῆς, οὐδὲ ἐκ προοιμίων τοῦτο συνεβούλευσεν ὁ Παῦλος, ἀλλ' ὅτε εἶδεν καταβεβλημένην τὴν ἰσχὺν ἅπασαν, τότε συνεβούλευσε· καὶ οὐδὲ τότε ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ μετὰ προδιορισμοῦ τινος. Οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν ἁπλῶς, Οἴνῳ χρῶ, ἀλλ', Οἴνῳ ὀλίγῳ· οὐκ ἐπειδὴ Τιμόθεος ταύτης ἐδεῖτο τῆς παραινέσεως καὶ τῆς συμβουλῆς, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἡμεῖς δεόμεθα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἐπιστέλλων ἐκείνῳ, μέτρα καὶ ὅρους ἡμῖν τίθησι τῆς οἰνοποσίας, τοσοῦτον κελεύων πίνειν, ὅσον διορθοῦν ἀσθένειαν, ὅσον ὑγείαν παρέχειν τῷ σώματι, ἀλλὰ μὴ νόσον ἑτέραν. Τῆς γὰρ 49.22 ὑδροποσίας τῆς ἀφάτου οὐκ ἐλάττονα, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλῷ πλείονα καὶ χαλεπώτερα ἡ ἄμετρος οἰνοποσία τίκτει νοσήματα καὶ τῷ σώματι καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ, τὸν πόλεμον τῶν παθῶν, καὶ τὸν χειμῶνα τῶν ἀτόπων λογισμῶν ἐπεισάγουσα τῇ διανοίᾳ, καὶ τοῦ σώματος τὴν ἰσχὺν χαυνοτέραν καὶ πλαδαρωτέραν ἐργαζομένη. Οὐ γὰρ οὕτως ἡ τῆς γῆς φύσις ἐνοχληθεῖσα τῇ τῶν ὑδάτων πλεονεξίᾳ συνεχῶς διαλύεται, ὡς ἡ τοῦ σώματος δύναμις χαυνοῦται καὶ διαῤῥεῖ καὶ ἐξίτηλος γίνεται συνεχῶς οἰνοποσίαις ἐπαντλουμένη. Φεύγωμεν τοίνυν τὰς ἀμετρίας ἑκατέρωθεν, καὶ τῆς ὑγείας ἐπιμελώμεθα τοῦ σώματος, καὶ τὰ σκιρτήματα αὐτοῦ περικόπτωμεν. Οἶνος γὰρ ἐδόθη παρὰ Θεοῦ, οὐχ ἵνα μεθύωμεν, ἀλλ' ἵνα νήφωμεν, ἵνα εὐφραινώμεθα, οὐχ ἵνα ἀλγῶμεν. Οἶνος γὰρ εὐφραίνει, φησὶ, καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου· σὺ δὲ αὐτὸν ἀθυμίας ὑπόθεσιν ποιεῖς· καὶ γὰρ βαρύθυμοι οἱ μεθύοντες μεθ' ὑπερβολῆς, σκότου πολλοῦ κατασκεδαννυμένου τῶν λογισμῶν. Φάρμακόν ἐστιν ἄριστον, ὅταν τὴν συμμετρίαν ἔχῃ ἀρίστην. Τοῦτο καὶ πρὸς τοὺς αἱρετικοὺς ἡμῖν χρήσιμον τὸ χωρίον, τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν κτίσιν· εἰ γὰρ ἦν τῶν κεκωλυμένων, οὐκ ἂν ἐπέτρεψεν ὁ Παῦλος, οὐκ ἂν εἶπεν οἴνῳ κεχρῆσθαι. Οὐ πρὸς αἱρετικοὺς δὲ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀφελεστέρους τῶν ἡμετέρων ἀδελφῶν, οἳ ἐπὰν ἴδωσί τινας ὑπὸ μέθης ἀσχημονοῦντας, ἀφέντες κακίζειν ἐκείνους, τὸν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοθέντα καρπὸν διαβάλλουσι, λέγοντες, Μὴ ἔστω οἶνος. Λέγωμεν τοίνυν πρὸς αὐτοὺς, Μὴ ἔστω μέθη· οἶνος γὰρ ἔργον Θεοῦ, μέθη δὲ ἔργον διαβόλου· οὐχ ὁ οἶνος ποιεῖ τὴν μέθην, ἀλλ' ἡ ἀσωτία ποιεῖ τὴν μέθην· μὴ διάβαλλε τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ δημιούργημα, ἀλλὰ κατηγόρει τῆς τοῦ συνδούλου μανίας. Σὺ δὲ ἀφεὶς τὸν ἁμαρτάνοντα κολάζειν καὶ διορθοῦσθαι, τὸν εὐεργετοῦντα ὑβρίζεις;

εʹ. Ὅταν τοίνυν ἀκούσωμέν τινων ταῦτα λεγόντων, ἐπιστομίζωμεν αὐτούς· οὐ γὰρ ἡ χρῆσις, ἀλλ' ἡ ἀμετρία τὴν μέθην ποιεῖ, μέθην, τὴν κακῶν ῥίζαν ἁπάντων. Οἶνος ἐδόθη, ἵνα σώματος ἀσθένειαν διορθώσηται, οὐχ ἵνα ψυχῆς ἰσχὺν καταβάλῃ, ἵνα σαρκὸς ἀῤῥωστίαν ἀνέλῃ, οὐχ ἵνα ψυχῆς ὑγείαν λυμαίνηται. Μὴ τοίνυν ἀμέτρως κεχρημένος τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ δωρεᾷ πάρεχε λαβὰς τοῖς ἀνοήτοις καὶ ἀναιδεστέροις τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Τί γὰρ ἐλεεινότερον μέθης; νεκρός ἐστιν ἔμψυχος ὁ μεθύων· δαίμων ἐστὶν αὐθαίρετος, νόσημα συγγνώμην οὐκ ἔχον, πτῶμα ἀπολογίας ἐστερημένον, κοινὴ τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν ἀσχημοσύνη. Οὐ γὰρ ἐν συνουσίαις μόνον ἄχρηστος ὁ μεθύων, οὐδ' ἐν ἰδιωτικοῖς καὶ δημοσίοις πράγμασιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ψιλῇ θεωρίᾳ πάντων ἐστὶν ἀηδέστερος, δυσωδίας πνέων· ἐρυγαὶ καὶ χασμήσεις, καὶ αἱ φωναὶ τῶν μεθυόντων ἀτερπεῖς καὶ ἀηδεῖς, βδελυγμίας ἐσχάτης πληροῦσαι τοὺς ὁρῶντας καὶ συγγινομένους· καὶ τὸ κεφάλαιον τῶν κακῶν, ὅτι τὸν οὐρανὸν ἄβατον ποιεῖ τοῖς