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but passes on to the common benefit. Since true reason tests the good hunter against the most savage beasts, and the good helmsman against winds blowing contrary to the ship, and the wise physician against incurable diseases, and the noble soldier against a heavy opposing battle-line, and the earnest and zealous man of piety, in the height of dangers and difficulty, so that he might rescue both himself and others from the plot. Therefore, it is not possible to find a form of virtues formerly practiced by anyone that was not also achieved in him. It is possible to liken his soul to a spring gushing with all kinds of streams, adorned with benefit and sweetness and delight; or a verdant meadow fragrant with various flowers; or an earthly heaven adorned with different lights, or a paradise, such as you hear of the one in Eden, resplendent with countless fruit-bearing trees; except not trodden by a most wicked serpent, the author of exile; or if nature has honored any other of the beautiful and delightful things with many and various goods; consider such to be the blessed soul of the great Ephrem, surrounded on all sides by many forms of virtues. For the admirable man, having made it his practice throughout his whole life to acquire complete virtue, was eager to encompass all excellences by himself. For as a priest, imitating the God-chosen offering of Abel, the first among the righteous, he did not offer victims from flocks, nor fat to the Lord, but a bloodless sacrifice, a spiritual worship, wholly consumed by purity of life, competing with him to such an extent that he was not killed by the wicked murderer, but having escaped the snares of the man-hating demon, he fled, and passed over, like him, to endless life, having appeared superior to the plot.

And having emulated the hope of Enoch, he not only called upon the name of the Lord God, but also taught others to call upon it with him. Of Enoch, he did not practice the strange translation from earth to paradise, but the passage from material passion to the spirit. Of Noah, not the small salvation of the race in a wooden ark, but that of securing his own soul on all sides, so as to pass unharmed through the surging waves of life, and not to lose the cargo of virtue. Of Abraham he became an imitator in many other things, in faith and meekness, and in love for God, but especially in flight from the world, as that one exchanged his own land and his kinship for a friend, and the sacrifice of the Only-Begotten to be taken as the voluntary offering of his own body for God's sake, having put to death the members that are upon the earth. Of Isaac, in his voluntary and untroubled death, except he was not by a father. For this one, offering himself as a priest at all times in an apostolic manner, was a whole burnt offering in body, as far as intention, but in spirit he lived, and lives to God through the pure offering of his body as in a ram. Jacob, in supplanting the profane Esau, that is, the progenitor of heresies, and receiving the birthright, the correct dogmas of the Church, and in seeing not a ladder set up from earth to heaven, but a pillar of fire reaching to heaven, showing in a more elegant way the depth of the mystery. Moreover also in this, that to his disciples, as that one to his sons, when he was about to depart from the body, he distributed the blessings; which someone who diligently looks into them will think to be those of the great Jacob himself. Of Joseph, especially in the chastity and purity of his body; but much more in the sharing of the word, as that one did of the grain. Of Moses, he was similar either in all things or in most; for he too fled the sorcerer Pharaoh, and lodged in the wilderness, and saw God, as much as is possible by vision, and worked wonders, and led a people, having been named a teacher; and he outwitted the Egyptians, seizing their wealth, having taken captive and triumphed over the books of the heretics, and he parted the sea, the salty and undrinkable unbelief, and brought the people across, the orthodox

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δὲ πρὸς κοινὴν διαβαίνει ὠφέλειαν. Ἐπειδὴ τὸν καλὸν θηρευτὴν ὁ ἀληθὴς λό γος πρὸς τὰ μάχιμα δοκιμάζει θηρία, καὶ τὸν ἀγαθὸν κυβερνήτην πρὸς ἀντιπνέοντας τῷ πλοίῳ ἀνέμους, καὶ τὸν σοφὸν ἰατρὸν πρὸς τὰ δυσίατα πάθη, καὶ τὸν γενναῖον στρατιώτην πρὸς ἀντικειμένην βαρεῖαν πα ράταξιν, καὶ τὸν σπουδαῖον καὶ ζηλωτὴν εὐσεβείας, ἐν ἀκμῇ κινδύνων καὶ δυσκολίας, ὅπως ἑαυτόν τε καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐκσπάσῃ ἐκ τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς. Οὐκ ἔστιν οὖν εἶδος εὑρεῖν ἀρετῶν παρά τισι πάλαι φιλοπονηθὲν, τὸ μὴ καὶ ἐν τούτῳ κατορθωθέν. Εἰκάσαι δὲ τὴν αὐ τοῦ ψυχὴν ἔστι πηγὴν παντοίοις βρύουσαν νάμασιν, ὠφελείᾳ καὶ γλυκύτητι καὶ τέρψει καθωραϊσμένοις· ἢ λειμῶνα κυπρίζοντα ποικίλοις ἀρωματίζουσαν ἄν θεσιν· ἢ οὐρανὸν ἐπίγειον διαφόροις λαμπτῆρσι πε ποικιλμένον, ἢ παράδεισον· οἷον ἀκούεις τὸν τῆς Ἐδὲμ ἀπείροις ἐγκάρποις ἀγλαϊζόμενον δένδροις· πλὴν μὴ βατὸν ὄφει πονηροτάτῳ, καὶ τῆς ἐξορίας προξένῳ· ἢ εἰ ἄλλο τι τῶν καλῶν καὶ τερπνῶν πολ λοῖς καὶ διαφόροις ἀγαθοῖς ἡ φύσις τετίμηκε· τοιαύ την εἶναι λογίζου τὴν τοῦ μεγάλου Ἐφραῒμ μακα ρίαν ψυχὴν, πολλαῖς ἀρετῶν ἰδέαις πάντοθεν κυκλου μένην. Μελέτην γὰρ ὁ θαυμάσιος διὰ βίου παντὸς θέμενος, τὴν ὁλικὴν κτήσασθαι ἀρετὴν, τὰ πάντα ἐσπούδασε μόνος περιλαβεῖν προτερήματα. Τοῦ γὰρ ἐν δικαίοις πρώτου Ἄβελ τὴν θεόλεκτον ὡς ἱερεὺς ἐκμιμησάμενος προσφορὰν, οὐκ ἐκ ποι μνίων θύματα, οὐδὲ στέαρ Κυρίῳ προσήνεγκεν, ἀλλὰ θυσίαν ἀναίμακτον, τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν, βίου καθα 46.844 ρότητι ὁλοκαυτουμένην, τοσοῦτον ἐκείνῳ ἁμιλληθεὶς, ὅσον μὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ φονέως ἀναιρεθῆναι, ἀλλὰ διαδράντα τὰς παγίδας τοῦ μισανθρώπου δαίμονος ἐκ φυγεῖν, καὶ πρὸς ἀτελεύτητον, ὡς ἐκεῖνος, μεταστῆναι ζωὴν, τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς φανέντα ἀνώτερον.

Τοῦ δὲ Ἐνὼχ τὴν ἐλπίδα ζηλώσας, οὐκ ἐπικέκληται μόνον τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις συν επικαλεῖσθαι ἐδίδαξεν. Ἐνὼχ, οὐ τὴν ξένην ἐκ γῆς πρὸς τὸν παράδεισον μετάθεσιν ἐπετήδευσεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐξ ὑλικῆς προσπαθείας ἐπὶ τὸ πνεῦμα μετάβασιν. Νῶε, οὐ τὴν ἐν ξυλίνῃ λάρνακι μικρὰν τοῦ γένους διάσωσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν πανταχόθεν ἀσφαλίσασθαι, ὥστε παρελθεῖν ἀβλαβῶς τὸ τοῦ βίου κλυδώνιον, καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς μὴ ζημιωθῆναι ἀγώ γιμα. Τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ ἐν πολλοῖς μὲν καὶ ἄλλοις γέγονε μιμητὴς, τῇ πίστει καὶ πραότητι, καὶ τῇ εἰς Θεὸν ἀγάπῃ, μάλιστα δὲ τῇ τοῦ κόσμου φυγῇ, ὡς τῆς οἰ κείας γῆς καὶ τῆς συγγενείας ἐκεῖνος ἠμείβετο φί λον, καὶ τὴν τοῦ Μονογενοῦς θυσίαν εἰς τὴν τοῦ σώ ματος ἐκείνου προαιρετικὴν διὰ Θεὸν ἐκλαβέσθαι προσφορὰν, νεκρώσαντι τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Τοῦ Ἰσαὰκ, ἐν τῷ ἑκουσίῳ καὶ ἀταράχῳ θανάτῳ, πλὴν οὐχ ὑπὸ πατρὸς ἐκεῖνος. Οὗτος γὰρ ἱερουργῶν ἑαυ τὸν ἑκάστοθι ἀποστολικῶς, σώματι μὲν ὡλοκαρποῦτο, ὅσον εἰς πρόθεσιν, πνεύματι δὲ ἔζη, καὶ ζῇ τῷ Θεῷ διὰ τὴν ὡς ἐν κριῷ τοῦ σώματος ἁγνὴν προσφοράν. Τὸν Ἰακὼβ, ἐν τῷ πτερνίσαι τὸν βέβηλον Ἡσαῦ,ἤτοι τὸν τῶν αἱρέσεων γεννήτορα, καὶ λαβεῖν τὰ πρωτότοκα, τὰ ὀρθὰ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας δόγματα, καὶ ἐν τῷ κατιδεῖν οὐ κλίμακα μὲν ἀπὸ γῆς εἰς οὐρανὸν ἐστηριγμένην, στύλον δὲ πυρὸς οὐρανομήκη, γλαφυ ρώτερόν πως μυστηρίου βάθος ἐμφαίνοντα. Ἔτι γε μὴν καὶ ἐν τῷ τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὡς τοῖς υἱέσιν ἐκεῖνος ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι ἀπαίρειν τοῦ σώματος, διανεῖμαι τὰς εὐλογίας· αἷς τις φιλοπόνως ἐγκύψας, αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου τοῦ μεγάλου Ἰακὼβ ταύτας εἶναι οἰηθήσεται. Τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ, μάλιστα μὲν ἐν τῇ τοῦ σώματος ἁγνείᾳ καὶ καθαρότητι· πολὺ δὲ πλέον ἐν τῇ τοῦ λόγου μετα δόσει, ὡς ἐκεῖνος τοῦ σίτου. Τοῦ Μωσέως ἢ ἐν πᾶσιν ἢ ἐν πλείστοις παρόμοιος· ἔφυγε γὰρ καὶ οὗτος τὸν γοητὸν Φαραὼ, καὶ ἐν ἐρήμῳ ηὐλίσθη, καὶ Θεὸν εἶδεν, ὅσον ἐφικτὸν θεωρίᾳ, καὶ θαύματα εἰργάσατο, καὶ λαοῦ καθηγήσατο χρηματί σας διδάσκαλος· καὶ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους κατεσοφίσατο, τὸν πλοῦτον ἐκείνων ἁρπάσας, τὰς τῶν αἱρετικῶν βίβλους αἰχμαλωτίσας καὶ θριαμβεύσας, καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν διέῤῥηξε, τὴν ἁλμυρὰν καὶ ἄποτον ἀπιστίαν, καὶ τὸν λαὸν διεβίβασε, τὸ ὀρθόδοξον