Chapter X.—Answer to the Objection of the Heathen, that It Was Not Right to Abandon the Customs of Their Fathers.

But you say it is not creditable to subvert the customs handed down to us from our fathers. And why, then, do we not still use our first nourishment, milk, to which our nurses accustomed us from the time of our birth? Why do we increase or diminish our patrimony, and not keep it exactly the same as we got it? Why do we not still vomit on our parents’ breasts, or still do the things for which, when infants, and nursed by our mothers, we were laughed at, but have corrected ourselves, even if we did not fall in with good instructors? Then, if excesses in the indulgence of the passions, though pernicious and dangerous, yet are accompanied with pleasure, why do we not in the conduct of life abandon that usage which is evil, and provocative of passion, and godless, even should our fathers feel hurt, and betake ourselves to the truth, and seek Him who is truly our Father, rejecting custom as a deleterious drug? For of all that I have undertaken to do, the task I now attempt is the noblest, viz., to demonstrate to you how inimical this insane and most wretched custom is to godliness. For a boon so great, the greatest ever given by God to the human race, would never have been hated and rejected, had not you been carried away by custom, and then shut your ears against us; and just as unmanageable horses throw off the reins, and take the bit between their teeth, you rush away from the arguments addressed to you, in your eager desire to shake yourselves clear of us, who seek to guide the chariot of your life, and, impelled by your folly, dash towards the precipices of destruction, and regard the holy word of God as an accursed thing. The reward of your choice, therefore, as described by Sophocles, follows:—

And you know not that, of all truths, this is the truest, that the good and godly shall obtain the good reward, inasmuch as they held goodness in high esteem; while, on the other hand, the wicked shall receive meet punishment. For the author of evil, torment has been prepared; and so the prophet Zecharias threatens him: “He that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee; lo, is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”120    Zech. iii. 2. What an infatuated desire, then, for voluntary death is this, rooted in men’s minds! Why do they flee to this fatal brand, with which they shall be burned, when it is within their power to live nobly according to God, and not according to custom? For God bestows life freely; but evil custom, after our departure from this world, brings on the sinner unavailing remorse with punishment. By sad experience, even a child knows how superstition destroys and piety saves. Let any of you look at those who minister before the idols, their hair matted, their persons disgraced with filthy and tattered clothes; who never come near a bath, and let their nails grow to an extraordinary length, like wild beasts; many of them castrated, who show the idol’s temples to be in reality graves or prisons. These appear to me to bewail the gods, not to worship them, and their sufferings to be worthy of pity rather than piety. And seeing these things, do you still continue blind, and will you not look up to the Ruler of all, the Lord of the universe? And will you not escape from those dungeons, and flee to the mercy that comes down from heaven? For God, of His great love to man, comes to the help of man, as the mother-bird flies to one of her young that has fallen out of the nest; and if a serpent open its mouth to swallow the little bird, “the mother flutters round, uttering cries of grief over her dear progeny;”121    Iliad, ii. 315. and God the Father seeks His creature, and heals his transgression, and pursues the serpent, and recovers the young one, and incites it to fly up to the nest.

Thus dogs that have strayed, track out their master by the scent; and horses that have thrown their riders, come to their master’s call if he but whistle. “The ox,” it is said, “knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel hath not known Me.”122    Isa. i. 3. What, then, of the Lord? He remembers not our ill desert; He still pities, He still urges us to repentance.

And I would ask you, if it does not appear to you monstrous, that you men who are God’s handiwork, who have received your souls from Him, and belong wholly to God, should be subject to another master, and, what is more, serve the tyrant instead of the rightful King—the evil one instead of the good? For, in the name of truth, what man in his senses turns his back on good, and attaches himself to evil? What, then, is he who flees from God to consort with demons? Who, that may become a son of God, prefers to be in bondage? Or who is he that pursues his way to Erebus, when it is in his power to be a citizen of heaven, and to cultivate Paradise, and walk about in heaven and partake of the tree of life and immortality, and, cleaving his way through the sky in the track of the luminous cloud, behold, like Elias, the rain of salvation? Some there are, who, like worms wallowing in marshes and mud in the streams of pleasure, feed on foolish and useless delights—swinish men. For swine, it is said, like mud better than pure water; and, according to Democritus, “doat upon dirt.”

Let us not then be enslaved or become swinish; but, as true children of the light, let us raise our eyes and look on the light, lest the Lord discover us to be spurious, as the sun does the eagles. Let us therefore repent, and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-restraint, from unrighteousness to righteousness, from godlessness to God. It is an enterprise of noble daring to take our way to God; and the enjoyment of many other good things is within the reach of the lovers of righteousness, who pursue eternal life, specially those things to which God Himself alludes, speaking by Isaiah: “There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord.”123    Isa. liv. 17. Noble and desirable is this inheritance: not gold, not silver, not raiment, which the moth assails, and things of earth which are assailed by the robber, whose eye is dazzled by worldly wealth; but it is that treasure of salvation to which we must hasten, by becoming lovers of the Word. Thence praise-worthy works descend to us, and fly with us on the wing of truth. This is the inheritance with which the eternal covenant of God invests us, conveying the everlasting gift of grace; and thus our loving Father—the true Father—ceases not to exhort, admonish, train, love us. For He ceases not to save, and advises the best course: “Become righteous,” says the Lord.124    Isa. liv. 17, where Sept. reads, “ye shall be righteous.” Ye that thirst, come to the water; and ye that have no money, come, and buy and drink without money.125    Isa. lv. 1. He invites to the laver, to salvation, to illumination, all but crying out and saying, The land I give thee, and the sea, my child, and heaven too; and all the living creatures in them I freely bestow upon thee. Only, O child, thirst for thy Father; God shall be revealed to thee without price; the truth is not made merchandise of. He gives thee all creatures that fly and swim, and those on the land. These the Father has created for thy thankful enjoyment. What the bastard, who is a son of perdition, foredoomed to be the slave of mammon, has to buy for money, He assigns to thee as thine own, even to His own son who loves the Father; for whose sake He still works, and to whom alone He promises, saying, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity,” for it is not destined to corruption. “For the whole land is mine;” and it is thine too, if thou receive God. Wherefore the Scripture, as might have been expected, proclaims good news to those who have believed. “The saints of the Lord shall inherit the glory of God and His power.” What glory, tell me, O blessed One, which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man;”126    1 Cor. ii. 9. and “they shall be glad in the kingdom of their Lord for ever and ever! Amen.” You have, O men, the divine promise of grace; you have heard, on the other hand, the threatening of punishment: by these the Lord saves, teaching men by fear and grace. Why do we delay? Why do we not shun the punishment? Why do we not receive the free gift? Why, in fine, do we not choose the better part, God instead of the evil one, and prefer wisdom to idolatry, and take life in exchange for death? “Behold,” He says, “I have set before your face death and life.”127    Deut. xxx. 15. The Lord tries you, that “you may choose life.” He counsels you as a father to obey God. “For if ye hear Me,” He says, “and be willing, ye shall eat the good things of the land:”128    Isa. i. 19. this is the grace attached to obedience. “But if ye obey Me not, and are unwilling, the sword and fire shall devour you:”129    Isa. i. 20, xxxiii. 11. this is the penalty of disobedience. For the mouth of the Lord—the law of truth, the word of the Lord—hath spoken these things. Are you willing that I should be your good counsellor? Well, do you hear. I, if possible, will explain. You ought, O men, when reflecting on the Good, to have brought forward a witness inborn and competent, viz., faith, which of itself, and from its own resources, chooses at once what is best, instead of occupying yourselves in painfully inquiring whether what is best ought to be followed. For, allow me to tell you, you ought to doubt whether you should get drunk, but you get drunk before reflecting on the matter; and whether you ought to do an injury, but you do injury with the utmost readiness. The only thing you make the subject of question is, whether God should be worshipped, and whether this wise God and Christ should be followed: and this you think requires deliberation and doubt, and know not what is worthy of God. Have faith in us, as you have in drunkenness, that you may be wise; have faith in us, as you have in injury, that you may live. But if, acknowledging the conspicuous trustworthiness of the virtues, you wish to trust them, come and I will set before you in abundance, materials of persuasion respecting the Word. But do you—for your ancestral customs, by which your minds are preoccupied, divert you from the truth,—do you now hear what is the real state of the case as follows.

And let not any shame of this name preoccupy you, which does great harm to men, and seduces them from salvation. Let us then openly strip for the contest, and nobly strive in the arena of truth, the holy Word being the judge, and the Lord of the universe prescribing the contest. For ’tis no insignificant prize, the guerdon of immortality which is set before us. Pay no more regard, then, if you are rated by some of the low rabble who lead the dance of impiety, and are driven on to the same pit by their folly and insanity, makers of idols and worshippers of stones. For these have dared to deify men,—Alexander of Macedon, for example, whom they canonized as the thirteenth god, whose pretensions Babylon confuted, which showed him dead. I admire, therefore, the divine sophist. Theocritus was his name. After Alexander’s death, Theocritus, holding up the vain opinions entertained by men respecting the gods, to ridicule before his fellow-citizens, said: “Men, keep up your hearts as long as you see the gods dying sooner than men.” And, truly, he who worships gods that are visible, and the promiscuous rabble of creatures begotten and born, and attaches himself to them, is a far more wretched object than the very demons. For God is by no manner of means unrighteous, as the demons are, but in the very highest degree righteous; and nothing more resembles God than one of us when he becomes righteous in the highest possible degree:—

fashioners of stones, and worshippers of them. Let your Phidias, and Polycletus, and your Praxiteles and Apelles too, come, and all that are engaged in mechanical arts, who, being themselves of the earth, are workers of the earth. “For then,” says a certain prophecy, “the affairs here turn out unfortunately, when men put their trust in images.” Let the meaner artists, too—for I will not stop calling—come. None of these ever made a breathing image, or out of earth moulded soft flesh. Who liquefied the marrow? or who solidified the bones? Who stretched the nerves? who distended the veins? Who poured the blood into them? Or who spread the skin? Who ever could have made eyes capable of seeing? Who breathed spirit into the lifeless form? Who bestowed righteousness? Who promised immortality? The Maker of the universe alone; the Great Artist and Father has formed us, such a living image as man is. But your Olympian Jove, the image of an image, greatly out of harmony with truth, is the senseless work of Attic hands. For the image of God is His Word, the genuine Son of Mind, the Divine Word, the archetypal light of light; and the image of the Word is the true man, the mind which is in man, who is therefore said to have been made “in the image and likeness of God,”131    Gen. i. 26. assimilated to the Divine Word in the affections of the soul, and therefore rational; but effigies sculptured in human form, the earthly image of that part of man which is visible and earth-born, are but a perishable impress of humanity, manifestly wide of the truth. That life, then, which is occupied with so much earnestness about matter, seems to me to be nothing else than full of insanity. And custom, which has made you taste bondage and unreasonable care, is fostered by vain opinion; and ignorance, which has proved to the human race the cause of unlawful rites and delusive shows, and also of deadly plagues and hateful images, has, by devising many shapes of demons, stamped on all that follow it the mark of long-continued death. Receive, then, the water of the word; wash, ye polluted ones; purify yourselves from custom, by sprinkling yourselves with the drops of truth.132    [Immersion was surely the form of primitive baptism, but these words, if not a reference to that sacrament, must recall Isa. lii. 15.] The pure must ascend to heaven. Thou art a man, if we look to that which is most common to thee and others—seek Him who created thee; thou art a son, if we look to that which is thy peculiar prerogative—acknowledge thy Father. But do you still continue in your sins, engrossed with pleasures? To whom shall the Lord say, “Yours is the kingdom of heaven?” Yours, whose choice is set on God, if you will; yours, if you will only believe, and comply with the brief terms of the announcement; which the Ninevites having obeyed, instead of the destruction they looked for, obtained a signal deliverance. How, then, may I ascend to heaven, is it said? The Lord is the way; a strait way, but leading from heaven, strait in truth, but leading back to heaven, strait, despised on earth; broad, adored in heaven.

Then, he that is uninstructed in the word, has ignorance as the excuse of his error; but as for him into whose ears instruction has been poured, and who deliberately maintains his incredulity in his soul, the wiser he appears to be, the more harm will his understanding do him; for he has his own sense as his accuser for not having chosen the best part. For man has been otherwise constituted by nature, so as to have fellowship with God. As, then, we do not compel the horse to plough, or the bull to hunt, but set each animal to that for which it is by nature fitted; so, placing our finger on what is man’s peculiar and distinguishing characteristic above other creatures, we invite him—born, as he is, for the contemplation of heaven, and being, as he is, a truly heavenly plant—to the knowledge of God, counselling him to furnish himself with what is his sufficient provision for eternity, namely piety. Practise husbandry, we say, if you are a husbandman; but while you till your fields, know God. Sail the sea, you who are devoted to navigation, yet call the whilst on the heavenly Pilot.133    [This fine passage will be recalled by what Clement afterward, in the Stromata, says of prayer. Book vii. vol. ii. p. 432. Edin.] Has knowledge taken hold of you while engaged in military service? Listen to the commander, who orders what is right. As those, then, who have been overpowered with sleep and drunkenness, do ye awake; and using your eyes a little, consider what mean those stones which you worship, and the expenditure you frivolously lavish on matter. Your means and substance you squander on ignorance, even as you throw away your lives to death, having found no other end of your vain hope than this. Not only unable to pity yourselves, you are incapable even of yielding to the persuasions of those who commiserate you; enslaved as you are to evil custom, and, clinging to it voluntarily till your last breath, you are hurried to destruction: “because light is come into the world, and men have loved the darkness rather than the light,”134    John iii. 19. while they could sweep away those hindrances to salvation, pride, and wealth, and fear, repeating this poetic utterance:—

If you wish, then, to cast aside these vain phantasies, and bid adieu to evil custom, say to vain opinion:—

For what, think you, O men, is the Hermes of Typho, and that of Andocides, and that of Amyetus? Is it not evident to all that they are stones, as is the veritable Hermes himself? As the Halo is not a god, and as the Iris is not a god, but are states of the atmosphere and of the clouds; and as, likewise, a day is not a god, nor a year, nor time, which is made up of these, so neither is sun nor moon, by which each of those mentioned above is determined. Who, then, in his right senses, can imagine Correction, and Punishment, and Justice, and Retribution to be gods? For neither the Furies, nor the Fates, nor Destiny are gods, since neither Government, nor Glory, nor Wealth are gods, which last [as Plutus] painters represent as blind. But if you deify Modesty, and Love, and Venus, let these be followed by Infamy, and Passion, and Beauty, and Intercourse. Therefore Sleep and Death cannot reasonably any more be regarded as twin deities, being merely changes which take place naturally in living creatures; no more will you with propriety call Fortune, or Destiny, or the Fates goddesses. And if Strife and Battle be not gods, no more are Ares and Enyo. Still further, if the lightnings, and thunderbolts, and rains are not gods, how can fire and water be gods? how can shooting stars and comets, which are produced by atmospheric changes? He who calls Fortune a god, let him also so call Action. If, then, none of these, nor of the images formed by human hands, and destitute of feeling, is held to be a God, while a providence exercised about us is evidently the result of a divine power,136    A translation in accordance with the Latin version would run thus: “While a certain previous conception of divine power is nevertheless discovered within us.” But adopting that in the text the argument is: there is unquestionably a providence implying the exertion of divine power. That power is not exercised by idols or heathen gods. The only other alternative is, that it is exercised by the one self-existent God. it remains only to acknowledge this, that He alone who is truly God, only truly is and subsists. But those who are insensible to this are like men who have drunk mandrake or some other drug. May God grant that you may at length awake from this slumber, and know God; and that neither Gold, nor Stone, nor Tree, nor Action, nor Suffering, nor Disease, nor Fear, may appear in your eyes as a god. For there are, in sooth, “on the fruitful earth thrice ten thousand” demons, not immortal, nor indeed mortal; for they are not endowed with sensation, so as to render them capable of death, but only things of wood and stone, that hold despotic sway over men insulting and violating life through the force of custom. “The earth is the Lord’s,” it is said, “and the fulness thereof.”137    Ps. xxiv. 1; 1 Cor. x. 26, 28. Then why darest thou, while luxuriating in the bounties of the Lord, to ignore the Sovereign Ruler? “Leave my earth,” the Lord will say to thee. “Touch not the water which I bestow. Partake not of the fruits of the earth produced by my husbandry.” Give to God recompense for your sustenance; acknowledge thy Master. Thou art God’s creature. What belongs to Him, how can it with justice be alienated? For that which is alienated, being deprived of the properties that belonged to it, is also deprived of truth. For, after the fashion of Niobe, or, to express myself more mystically, like the Hebrew woman called by the ancients Lot’s wife, are ye not turned into a state of insensibility? This woman, we have heard, was turned into stone for her love of Sodom. And those who are godless, addicted to impiety, hard-hearted and foolish, are Sodomites. Believe that these utterances are addressed to you from God. For think not that stones, and stocks, and birds, and serpents are sacred things, and men are not; but, on the contrary, regard men as truly sacred,138    [1 Pet. ii. 17. This appeal in behalf of the sanctity of man as man, shows the workings of the apostolic precept.] and take beasts and stones for what they are. For there are miserable wretches of human kind, who consider that God utters His voice by the raven and the jackdaw, but says nothing by man; and honour the raven as a messenger of God. But the man of God, who croaks not, nor chatters, but speaks rationally and instructs lovingly, alas, they persecute; and while he is inviting them to cultivate righteousness, they try inhumanly to slay him, neither welcoming the grace which comes from above, nor fearing the penalty. For they believe not God, nor understand His power, whose love to man is ineffable; and His hatred of evil is inconceivable. His anger augments punishment against sin; His love bestows blessings on repentance. It is the height of wretchedness to be deprived of the help which comes from God. Hence this blindness of eyes and dulness of hearing are more grievous than other inflictions of the evil one; for the one deprives them of heavenly vision, the other robs them of divine instruction. But ye, thus maimed as respects the truth, blind in mind, deaf in understanding, are not grieved, are not pained, have had no desire to see heaven and the Maker of heaven, nor, by fixing your choice on salvation, have sought to hear the Creator of the universe, and to learn of Him; for no hindrance stands in the way of him who is bent on the knowledge of God. Neither childlessness, nor poverty, nor obscurity, nor want, can hinder him who eagerly strives after the knowledge of God; nor does any one who has conquered139    The expression “conquered by brass or iron” is borrowed from Homer (Il., viii. 534). Brass, or copper, and iron were the metals of which arms were made. by brass or iron the true wisdom for himself choose to exchange it, for it is vastly preferred to everything else. Christ is able to save in every place. For he that is fired with ardour and admiration for righteousness, being the lover of One who needs nothing, needs himself but little, having treasured up his bliss in nothing but himself and God, where is neither moth,140    Matt. vi. 20, 21. robber, nor pirate, but the eternal Giver of good. With justice, then, have you been compared to those serpents who shut their ears against the charmers. For “their mind,” says the Scripture, “is like the serpent, like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ear, and will not hear the voice of the charmers.”141    Ps. lviii. 4, 5. [It was supposed that adders deafened themselves by laying one ear on the earth, and closing the other with the tail.] But allow yourselves to feel the influence of the charming strains of sanctity, and receive that mild word of ours, and reject the deadly poison, that it may be granted to you to divest yourselves as much as possible of destruction, as they142    “They” seems to refer to sanctity and the word. have been divested of old age. Hear me, and do not stop your ears; do not block up the avenues of hearing, but lay to heart what is said. Excellent is the medicine of immortality! Stop at length your grovelling reptile motions.143    Ps. lviii. 4, 5. [It was supposed that adders deafened themselves by laying one ear on the earth, and closing the other with the tail.] “For the enemies of the Lord,” says Scripture, “shall lick the dust.”144    Ps. lxxii. 9. Raise your eyes from earth to the skies, look up to heaven, admire the sight, cease watching with outstretched head the heel of the righteous, and hindering the way of truth. Be wise and harmless. Perchance the Lord will endow you with the wing of simplicity (for He has resolved to give wings to those that are earth-born), that you may leave your holes and dwell in heaven. Only let us with our whole heart repent, that we may be able with our whole heart to contain God. “Trust in Him, all ye assembled people; pour out all your hearts before Him.”145    Ps. lxii. 8. He says to those that have newly abandoned wickedness, “He pities them, and fills them with righteousness.” Believe Him who is man and God; believe, O man. Believe, O man, the living God, who suffered and is adored. Believe, ye slaves,146    [The impact of the Gospel on the slavery and helotism of the Pagans.] Him who died; believe, all ye of human kind, Him who alone is God of all men. Believe, and receive salvation as your reward. Seek God, and your soul shall live. He who seeks God is busying himself about his own salvation. Hast thou found God?—then thou hast life. Let us then seek, in order that we may live. The reward of seeking is life with God. “Let all who seek Thee be glad and rejoice in Thee; and let them say continually, God be magnified.”147    Ps. lxx. 4. A noble hymn of God is an immortal man, established in righteousness, in whom the oracles of truth are engraved. For where but in a soul that is wise can you write truth? where love? where reverence? where meekness? Those who have had these divine characters impressed on them, ought, I think, to regard wisdom as a fair port whence to embark, to whatever lot in life they turn; and likewise to deem it the calm haven of salvation: wisdom, by which those who have betaken themselves to the Father, have proved good fathers to their children; and good parents to their sons, those who have known the Son; and good husbands to their wives, those who remember the Bridegroom; and good masters to their servants,148    [See above, p. 201, and below, the command “thou shalt love thy neighbor.”] those who have been redeemed from utter slavery. Oh, happier far the beasts than men involved in error! who live in ignorance as you, but do not counterfeit the truth. There are no tribes of flatterers among them. Fishes have no superstition: the birds worship not a single image; only they look with admiration on heaven, since, deprived as they are of reason, they are unable to know God. So are you not ashamed for living through so many periods of life in impiety, making yourselves more irrational than irrational creatures? You were boys, then striplings, then youths, then men, but never as yet were you good. If you have respect for old age, be wise, now that you have reached life’s sunset; and albeit at the close of life, acquire the knowledge of God, that the end of life may to you prove the beginning of salvation. You have become old in superstition; as young, enter on the practice of piety. God regards you as innocent children. Let, then, the Athenian follow the laws of Solon, and the Argive those of Phoroneus, and the Spartan those of Lycurgus: but if thou enrol thyself as one of God’s people, heaven is thy country, God thy lawgiver. And what are the laws? “Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not seduce boys; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt love the Lord thy God.”149    Ex. xx. 13–16; Deut. vi. 5. And the complements of these are those laws of reason and words of sanctity which are inscribed on men’s hearts: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; to him who strikes thee on the cheek, present also the other;”150    Luke vi. 29. “thou shalt not lust, for by lust alone thou hast committed adultery.”151    Matt. v. 28. How much better, therefore, is it for men from the beginning not to wish to desire things forbidden, than to obtain their desires! But ye are not able to endure the austerity of salvation; but as we delight in sweet things, and prize them higher for the agreeableness of the pleasure they yield, while, on the other hand, those bitter things which are distasteful to the palate are curative and healing, and the harshness of medicines strengthens people of weak stomach, thus custom pleases and tickles; but custom pushes into the abyss, while truth conducts to heaven. Harsh it is at first, but a good nurse of youth; and it is at once the decorous place where the household maids and matrons dwell together, and the sage council-chamber. Nor is it difficult to approach, or impossible to attain, but is very near us in our very homes; as Moses, endowed with all wisdom, says, while referring to it, it has its abode in three departments of our constitution—in the hands, the mouth, and the heart: a meet emblem this of truth, which is embraced by these three things in all—will, action, speech. And be not afraid lest the multitude of pleasing objects which rise before you withdraw you from wisdom. You yourself will spontaneously surmount the frivolousness of custom, as boys when they have become men throw aside their toys. For with a celerity unsurpassable, and a benevolence to which we have ready access, the divine power, casting its radiance on the earth, hath filled the universe with the seed of salvation. For it was not without divine care that so great a work was accomplished in so brief a space by the Lord, who, though despised as to appearance, was in reality adored, the expiator of sin, the Saviour, the clement, the Divine Word, He that is truly most manifest Deity, He that is made equal to the Lord of the universe; because He was His Son, and the Word was in God, not disbelieved in by all when He was first preached, nor altogether unknown when, assuming the character of man, and fashioning Himself in flesh, He enacted the drama of human salvation: for He was a true champion and a fellow-champion with the creature. And being communicated most speedily to men, having dawned from His Father’s counsel quicker than the sun, with the most perfect ease He made God shine on us. Whence He was and what He was, He showed by what He taught and exhibited, manifesting Himself as the Herald of the Covenant, the Reconciler, our Saviour, the Word, the Fount of life, the Giver of peace, diffused over the whole face of the earth; by whom, so to speak, the universe has already become an ocean of blessings.152    [Good will to men made emphatic. Slavery already modified, free-schools established, and homes created. As soon as persecution ceased, we find the Christian hospital. Forster ascribes the first foundation of this kind to Ephraim Syrus. A friend refers me to his Mohammedanism Unveiled, vol. i. p. 283.]

Ἀλλ' ἐκ πατέρων, φατέ, παραδεδομένον ἡμῖν ἔθος ἀνατρέπειν οὐκ εὔλογον. Καὶ τί δὴ οὐχὶ τῇ πρώτῃ τροφῇ, τῷ γάλακτι, χρώμεθα, ᾧ δήπουθεν συνείθισαν ἡμᾶς ἐκ γενετῆς αἱ τίτθαι; Τί δὲ αὐξάνομεν ἢ μειοῦμεν τὴν πατρῴαν οὐσίαν, καὶ οὐχὶ τὴν ἴσην, ὡς παρειλήφαμεν, διαφυλάττομεν; Τί δὲ οὐκέτι τοῖς κόλποις τοῖς πατρῴοις ἐναποβλύζομεν, ἢ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα, ἃ νηπιάζοντες ὑπὸ μητράσιν τε ἐκτρεφόμενοι γέλωτα ὤφλομεν, ἐπιτελοῦμεν ἔτι, ἀλλὰ σφᾶς αὐτούς, καὶ εἰ μὴ παιδαγωγῶν ἐτύχομεν ἀγαθῶν, ἐπανωρθώσαμεν; Εἶτα ἐπὶ τῶν πάτων αἱ παρεκβάσεις καίτοι ἐπιζήμιοι καὶ ἐπισφαλεῖς οὖσαι, ὅμως γλυκεῖαί πως προσπίπτουσιν, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ βίου οὐχὶ τὸ ἔθος καταλιπόντες τὸ πονηρὸν καὶ ἐμπαθὲς καὶ ἄθεον, κἂν οἱ πατέρες χαλεπαίνωσιν, ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐκκλινοῦμεν καὶ τὸν ὄντως ὄντα πατέρα ἐπιζη τήσομεν, οἷον δηλητήριον φάρμακον τὴν συνήθειαν ἀπωσά μενοι; Τοῦτ' αὐτὸ γάρ τοι τὸ κάλλιστον τῶν ἐγχειρουμένων ἐστίν, ὑποδεῖξαι ὑμῖν ὡς ἀπὸ μανίας καὶ τοῦ τρισαθλίου τούτου ἔθους ἐμισήθη ἡ θεοσέβεια· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐμισήθη ποτὲ ἢ ἀπηγορεύθη ἀγαθὸν τοσοῦτον, οὗ μεῖζον οὐδὲν ἐκ θεοῦ δεδώρηταί πω τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γενέσει, εἰ μὴ συναρπα ζόμενοι τῷ ἔθει, εἶτα μέντοι ἀποβύσαντες τὰ ὦτα ἡμῖν, οἷον ἵπποι σκληραύχενες ἀφηνιάζοντες, τοὺς χαλινοὺς ἐνδακόντες, ἀποφεύγετε τοὺς λόγους, ἀποσείσασθαι μὲν τοὺς ἡνιόχους ὑμῶν τοῦ βίου ἡμᾶς ἐπιποθοῦντες, ἐπὶ δὲ τοὺς κρημνοὺς τῆς ἀπωλείας ὑπὸ τῆς ἀνοίας φερόμενοι ἐναγῆ τὸν ἅγιον ὑπολαμβάνετε τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον. Ἕπεται τοιγαροῦν ὑμῖν κατὰ τὸν Σοφοκλέα τὰ ἐπίχειρα τῆς ἐκλογῆς, νοῦς φροῦδος, ὦτα ἀχρεῖα, φροντίδες κεναί, καὶ οὐκ ἴστε ὡς παντὸς μᾶλλον τοῦτο ἀληθές, ὅτι ἄρα οἱ μὲν ἀγαθοὶ καὶ θεοσεβεῖς ἀγαθῆς τῆς ἀμοιβῆς τεύξονται τἀγαθὸν τετιμηκότες, οἱ δὲ ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων πονηροὶ τῆς καταλλήλου τιμωρίας, καὶ τῷ γε ἄρχοντι τῆς κακίας ἐπήρτη ται κόλασις. Ἀπειλεῖ γοῦν αὐτῷ ὁ προφήτης Ζαχαρίας "ἐπιτιμήσαι ἐν σοὶ ὁ ἐκλεξάμενος τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ· οὐκ ἰδοὺ τοῦτο δαλὸς ἐξεσπασμένος ἐκ πυρός;" Τίς οὖν ἔτι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὄρεξις ἔγκειται θανάτου ἑκουσίου; Τί δὲ τῷ δαλῷ τῷ θανατηφόρῳ τούτῳ προσπεφεύγασιν, μεθ' οὗ καταφλεχθήσονται, ἐξὸν βιῶναι καλῶς κατὰ τὸν θεόν, οὐ κατὰ τὸ ἔθος; Θεὸς μὲν γὰρ ζωὴν χαρίζεται, ἔθος δὲ πονηρὸν μετὰ τὴν ἐνθένδε ἀπαλλαγὴν μετάνοιαν κενὴν ἅμα τιμωρίᾳ προστρίβεται, "παθὼν δέ τε νήπιος ἔγνω", ὡς ἀπολλύει δεισιδαιμονία καὶ σῴζει θεοσέβεια. Ἰδέτω τις ὑμῶν τοὺς παρὰ τοῖς εἰδώλοις λατρεύοντας, κόμῃ ῥυπῶντας, ἐσθῆτι πιναρᾷ καὶ κατερρωγυίᾳ καθυβρισ μένους, λουτρῶν μὲν παντάπασιν ἀπειράτους, ταῖς δὲ τῶν ὀνύχων ἀκμαῖς ἐκτεθηριωμένους, πολλοὺς δὲ καὶ τῶν αἰδοίων ἀφῃρημένους, ἔργῳ δεικνύντας τῶν εἰδώλων τὰ τεμένη τάφους τινὰς ἢ δεσμωτήρια· οὗτοί μοι δοκοῦσι πενθεῖν, οὐ θρῃσκεύειν τοὺς θεούς, ἐλέου μᾶλλον ἢ θεοσε βείας ἄξια πεπονθότες. Καὶ ταῦτα ὁρῶντες ἔτι τυφλώττετε καὶ οὐχὶ πρὸς τὸν δεσπότην τῶν πάντων καὶ κύριον τῶν ὅλων ἀναβλέψετε; Οὐχὶ δὲ καταφεύξεσθε, ἐκ τῶν ἐνταῦθα δεσμωτηρίων ἐκφεύγοντες, ἐπὶ τὸν ἔλεον τὸν ἐξ οὐρανῶν; Ὁ γὰρ θεὸς ἐκ πολλῆς τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ἀντέχεται τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ὥσπερ ἐκ καλιᾶς ἐκπίπτοντος νεοττοῦ ἡ μήτηρ ὄρνις ἐφίπταται· εἰ δέ που καὶ θηρίον ἑρπηστικὸν περιχάνοι τῷ νεοττῷ, μήτηρ δ' ἀμφιποτᾶται ὀδυρομένη φίλα τέκνα· ὁ δὲ θεὸς πατὴρ καὶ ζητεῖ τὸ πλάσμα καὶ ἰᾶται τὸ παράπτωμα καὶ διώκει τὸ θηρίον καὶ τὸν νεοττὸν αὖθις ἀναλαμβάνει ἐπὶ τὴν καλιὰν ἀναπτῆναι παρορμῶν. Εἶτα κύνες μὲν ἤδη πεπλανημένοι ὀδμαῖς ῥινηλα τοῦντες ἐξίχνευσαν τὸν δεσπότην καὶ ἵπποι τὸν ἀναβάτην ἀποσεισάμενοι ἑνί που συρίγματι ὑπήκουσαν τῷ δεσπότῃ· "ἔγνω δέ", φησί, "βοῦς τὸν κτησάμενον καὶ ὄνος τὴν φάτνην τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ, Ἰσραὴλ δέ με οὐκ ἔγνω." Τί οὖν ὁ κύριος; Οὐ μνησικακεῖ, ἔτι ἐλεεῖ, ἔτι τὴν μετάνοιαν ἀπαιτεῖ. Ἐρέσθαι δὲ ὑμᾶς βούλομαι, εἰ οὐκ ἄτοπον ὑμῖν δοκεῖ πλάσμα ὑμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐπιγεγονότας τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν εἰληφότας καὶ ὄντας ὅλως τοῦ θεοῦ ἑτέρῳ δουλεύειν δεσπότῃ, πρὸς δὲ καὶ θεραπεύειν ἀντὶ μὲν τοῦ βασιλέως τὸν τύραννον, ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ τὸν πονηρόν. Τίς γάρ, ὢ πρὸς τῆς ἀληθείας, σωφρονῶν γε τἀγαθὸν καταλείπων κακίᾳ σύνεστιν; Τίς δὲ ὅστις τὸν θεὸν ἀποφεύγων δαιμονίοις συμβιοῖ; Τίς δὲ υἱὸς εἶναι δυνάμενος τοῦ θεοῦ δουλεύειν ἥδεται; Ἢ τίς οὐρανοῦ πολίτης εἶναι δυνάμενος ἔρεβος διώκει, ἐξὸν παράδεισον γεωργεῖν καὶ οὐρανὸν περιπολεῖν καὶ τῆς ζωτικῆς καὶ ἀκηράτου μεταλαμβάνειν πηγῆς, κατ' ἴχνος ἐκείνης τῆς φωτεινῆς ἀεροβατοῦντα νεφέλης, ὥσπερ ὁ Ἠλίας, θεωροῦντα τὸν ὑετὸν σωτήριον; Οἱ δὲ σκωλήκων δίκην περὶ τέλματα καὶ βορβόρους, τὰ ἡδονῆς ῥεύματα, καλινδούμενοι ἀνονήτους καὶ ἀνοήτους ἐκβόσκονται τρυφάς, ὑώδεις τινὲς ἄνθρωποι. Ὕες γάρ, φησίν, "ἥδονται βορβόρῳ" μᾶλλον ἢ καθαρῷ ὕδατι καὶ "ἐπὶ φορυτῷ μαργαίνουσιν" κατὰ ∆ημόκριτον. Μὴ δῆτα οὖν, μὴ δῆτα ἐξανδραποδισθῶμεν μηδὲ ὑώδεις γενώμεθα, ἀλλ' "ὡς τέκνα φωτὸς" γνήσια ἀναθρήσωμεν καὶ ἀναβλέψωμεν εἰς τὸ φῶς, μὴ νόθους ἡμᾶς ἐξελέγξῃ ὁ κύριος ὥσπερ ὁ ἥλιος τοὺς ἀετούς. Μετανοήσωμεν οὖν καὶ μεταστῶμεν ἐξ ἀμαθίας εἰς ἐπιστήμην, ἐξ ἀφροσύνης εἰς φρόνησιν, ἐξ ἀκρασίας εἰς ἐγκράτειαν, ἐξ ἀδικίας εἰς δικαιοσύνην, ἐξ ἀθεότητος εἰς θεόν. Καλὸς ὁ κίνδυνος αὐτομολεῖν πρὸς θεόν. Πολλῶν δὲ καὶ ἄλλων ἔστιν ἀπολαῦσαι ἀγαθῶν τοὺς δικαιοσύνης ἐραστάς, οἳ τὴν ἀίδιον διώκομεν σωτηρίαν, ἀτὰρ δὴ καὶ ὧν αὐτὸς αἰνίττεται ὁ θεὸς διὰ Ἡσαΐου λαλῶν "ἔστι κληρο νομία τοῖς θεραπεύουσι κύριον"· καλή γε καὶ ἐράσμιος ἡ κληρονομία, οὐ χρυσίον, οὐκ ἄργυρος, οὐκ ἐσθής, τὰ τῆς γῆς, ἔνθα που σὴς καὶ λῃστής που καταδύεται περὶ τὸν χαμαίζηλον πλοῦτον ὀφθαλμιῶν, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνος ὁ θησαυρὸς τῆς σωτηρίας, πρὸς ὅν γε ἐπείγεσθαι χρὴ φιλολόγους γενο μένους, συναπαίρει δὲ ἡμῖν ἐνθένδε τὰ ἔργα τὰ ἀστεῖα καὶ συνίπταται τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας πτερῷ. Ταύτην ἡμῖν τὴν κληρονομίαν ἐγχειρίζει ἡ ἀίδιος διαθήκη τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ἀίδιον δωρεὰν χορηγοῦσα· ὁ δὲ φιλόστοργος οὗτος ἡμῶν πατήρ, ὁ ὄντως πατήρ, οὐ παύεται προτρέπων, νουθετῶν, παιδεύων, φιλῶν· οὐδὲ γὰρ σῴζων παύεται, συμβουλεύει δὲ τὰ ἄριστα· "δίκαιοι γένεσθε, λέγει κύριος· οἱ διψῶντες πορεύεσθε ἐφ' ὕδωρ, καὶ ὅσοι μὴ ἔχετε ἀργύριον, βαδίσατε καὶ ἀγοράσατε καὶ πίετε ἄνευ ἀργυρίου." Ἐπὶ τὸ λουτρόν, ἐπὶ τὴν σωτηρίαν, ἐπὶ τὸν φωτισμὸν παρακαλεῖ μονονουχὶ βοῶν καὶ λέγων· γῆν σοι δίδωμι καὶ θάλατταν, παιδίον, οὐρανόν τε καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα ζῷά σοι χαρίζομαι· μόνον, ὦ παιδίον, δίψησον τοῦ πατρός, ἀμισθεί σοι δειχθήσεται ὁ θεός· οὐ καπηλεύεται ἡ ἀλήθεια, δίδωσί σοι καὶ τὰ πτηνὰ καὶ τὰ νηκτὰ καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· ταῦτά σου ταῖς εὐχαρίστοις τρυφαῖς δεδημιούργηκεν ὁ πατήρ. Ἀργυρίῳ μὲν ὠνήσεται ὁ νόθος, ἀπωλείας ἐστὶ παιδίον, ὃς "μαμωνᾷ δουλεύειν" προῄρηται, σοὶ δὲ τὰ σὰ ἐπιτρέπει, τῷ γνησίῳ λέγω, τῷ φιλοῦντι τὸν πατέρα, δι' ὃν ἔτι ἐργάζεται, ᾧ μόνῳ καὶ ὑπισχνεῖται λέγων· "καὶ ἡ γῆ οὐ πραθήσεται εἰς βεβαίωσιν·" οὐ γὰρ κυροῦται τῇ φθορᾷ· "ἐμὴ γάρ ἐστιν πᾶσα ἡ γῆ," ἔστι δὲ καὶ σή, ἐὰν ἀπολάβῃς τὸν θεόν. Ὅθεν ἡ γραφὴ εἰκότως εὐαγγελίζεται τοῖς πεπιστευκόσιν· "οἱ δὲ ἅγιοι κυρίου κληρονομήσουσι τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ." Ποίαν, ὦ μακάριε, δόξαν, εἰπέ μοι· "ἣν ὀφθαλμὸς οὐκ εἶδεν οὐδὲ οὖς ἤκουσεν, οὐδὲ ἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου ἀνέβη· καὶ χαρή σονται ἐπὶ τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ κυρίου αὐτῶν εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν." Ἔχετε, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, τὴν θείαν τῆς χάριτος ἐπαγγε λίαν, ἀκηκόατε καὶ τὴν ἄλλην τῆς κολάσεως ἀπειλήν, δι' ὧν ὁ κύριος σῴζει, φόβῳ καὶ χάριτι παιδαγωγῶν τὸν ἄνθρωπον· τί μέλλομεν; Τί οὐκ ἐκκλίνομεν τὴν κόλασιν; Τί οὐ καταδεχόμεθα τὴν δωρεάν; Τί δὲ οὐχ αἱρούμεθα τὰ βελτίονα, θεὸν ἀντὶ τοῦ πονηροῦ, καὶ σοφίαν εἰδωλολατρείας προκρίνομεν, καὶ ζωὴν ἀντικαταλλασσόμενοι θανάτου; "Ἰδοὺ τέθεικα πρὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν", φησί, "τὸν θάνατον καὶ τὴν ζωήν." Πειράζει σε ὁ κύριος ἐκλέξασθαι τὴν ζωήν, συμβουλεύει σοι ὡς πατὴρ πείθεσθαι τῷ θεῷ. "Ἐὰν γὰρ ἀκούσητέ μου", φησί, "καὶ θελήσητε, τὰ ἀγαθὰ τῆς γῆς φάγεσθε," ὑπακοῆς ἡ χάρις· "ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ὑπακούσητέ μου μηδὲ θελήσητε, μάχαιρα ὑμᾶς καὶ πῦρ κατέδεται," παρακοῆς ἡ κρίσις. "Τὸ γὰρ στόμα κυρίου ἐλάλησεν ταῦτα"· νόμος ἀληθείας λόγος κυρίου· βούλεσθε ὑμῖν ἀγαθὸς γένωμαι σύμβουλος; Ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς μὲν ἀκούσατε· ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ δυνατόν, ἐνδείξομαι. Ἐχρῆν μὲν ὑμᾶς, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, αὐτοῦ πέρι ἐννοουμένους τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἔμφυτον ἐπάγεσθαι πίστιν, μάρτυρα ἀξιόχρεων αὐτόθεν οἴκοθεν, περιφανῶς αἱρουμένην τὸ βέλτιστον, μηδὲ ζητεῖν εἰ μεταδιωκτέον, [τὸ δ' ἀγαθὸν] ἐκπονεῖν. Καὶ γὰρ εἴ τῳ μεθυστέον, φέρε εἰπεῖν, ἀμφιβάλλειν χρή· ὑμεῖς δὲ πρὶν ἢ ἐπισκέψασθαι μεθύετε· καὶ εἰ ὑβρισ τέον, οὐ πολυπραγμονεῖτε, ἀλλ' ᾗ τάχος ὑβρίζετε. Μόνον δ' ἄρα εἰ θεοσεβητέον, ζητεῖτε, καὶ εἰ τῷ σοφῷ τούτῳ [δὴ] τῷ θεῷ καὶ τῷ Χριστῷ κατακολουθητέον, τοῦτο δὴ βουλῆς καὶ σκέψεως ἀξιοῦτε, οὐδ' ὃ πρέπει θεῷ, ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστι, νενοηκότες. Πιστεύσατε ἡμῖν κἂν ὡς μέθῃ, ἵνα σωφρονήσητε· πιστεύσατε κἂν ὡς ὕβρει, ἵνα ζήσητε. Εἰ δὲ καὶ πείθεσθαι βούλεσθε τὴν ἐναργῆ τῶν ἀρρήτων ἐποπτεύσαντες πίστιν, φέρε ὑμῖν ἐκ περιουσίας τὴν περὶ τοῦ λόγου παραθήσομαι πειθώ. Ὑμεῖς δέ, οὐ γὰρ τὰ πάτρια ὑμᾶς ἔτι τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπασχολεῖ ἔθη προκατηχημένους, ἀκούοιτ' ἂν ἤδη τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο ὅπως ἔχει· καὶ δὴ μή τις ὑμᾶς τοῦδε τοῦ ὀνόματος αἰσχύνη προκαταλαμβανέτω, "ἥτ' ἄνδρας μέγα σίνεται," παρατρέπουσα σωτηρίας. Ἀποδυσάμενοι δ' οὖν περιφανῶς ἐν τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας σταδίῳ γνησίως ἀγωνιζώμεθα, βρα βεύοντος μὲν τοῦ λόγου τοῦ ἁγίου, ἀγωνοθετοῦντος δὲ τοῦ δεσπότου τῶν ὅλων. Οὐ γὰρ σμικρὸν ἡμῖν τὸ ἆθλον ἀθανασία πρόκειται. Μὴ οὖν ἔτι φροντίζετε μηδὲ [εἰ] ὀλίγον, τί ὑμᾶς ἀγορεύουσι σύρφακές τινες ἀγοραῖοι, δεισιδαιμονίας ἄθεοι χορευταί, ἀνοίᾳ καὶ παρανοίᾳ ἐς αὐτὸ ὠθούμενοι τὸ βάραθρον, εἰδώλων ποιηταὶ καὶ λίθων προσκυνηταί· οἵδε γὰρ ἀνθρώ πους ἀποθεοῦν τετολμήκασι, τρισκαιδέκατον Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Μακεδόνα ἀναγράφοντες θεόν, "ὃν Βαβυλὼν ἤλεγξε νεκρόν". Ἄγαμαι τοίνυν τὸν Χῖον σοφιστήν, Θεόκριτος ὄνομα αὐτῷ· μετὰ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου τελευτὴν ἐπισκώπτων ὁ Θεόκριτος τὰς δόξας τὰς κενὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἃς εἶχον περὶ θεῶν, πρὸς τοὺς πολίτας "ἄνδρες," εἶπεν, "θαρρεῖτε ἄχρις ἂν ὁρᾶτε τοὺς θεοὺς πρότερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀποθνῄσ κοντας." Θεοὺς δὲ δὴ τοὺς ὁρατοὺς καὶ τὸν σύγκλυδα τῶν γενητῶν τούτων ὄχλον ὁ προσκυνῶν καὶ προσεταιριζόμενος, αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τῶν δαιμόνων ἀθλιώτερος μακρῷ. "Θεὸς" γὰρ "οὐδαμῇ οὐδαμῶς ἄδικος" ὥσπερ οἱ δαίμονες, "ἀλλ' ὡς οἷόν τε δικαιότατος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτῷ ὁμοιότερον οὐδὲν ἢ ὃς ἂν ἡμῶν γένηται ὅτι δικαιότατος." Βᾶτ' εἰς ὁδὸν δὴ πᾶς ὁ χειρῶναξ λεώς, οἳ τὴν ∆ιὸς γοργῶπιν Ἐργάνην θεὸν στατοῖσι λίκνοις προστρέπεσθε, ἠλίθιοι τῶν λίθων δημιουργοί τε καὶ προσκυνηταί. Ὁ Φειδίας ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ Πολύκλειτος ἡκόντων Πραξι τέλης τε αὖ καὶ Ἀπελλῆς καὶ ὅσοι τὰς βαναύσους μετέρχονται τέχνας, γήινοι γῆς ὄντες ἐργάται. Τότε γάρ, φησί τις προφητεία, δυστυχήσειν τὰ τῇδε πράγματα, ὅταν ἀνδριᾶσι πιστεύσωσιν. Ἡκόντων οὖν αὖθις, οὐ γὰρ ἀνήσω καλῶν, οἱ μικροτέχναι. Οὐδείς που τούτων ἔμπνουν εἰκόνα δεδημιούρ γηκεν, οὐδὲ μὴν ἐκ γῆς μαλθακὴν ἐμάλαξε σάρκα. Τίς ἔτηξε μυελὸν ἢ τίς ἔπηξεν ὀστέα; Τίς νεῦρα διέτεινεν, τίς φλέβας ἐφύσησεν; Τίς αἷμα ἐνέχεεν ἐν αὐταῖς ἢ τίς δέρμα περιέτεινεν; Ποῦ δ' ἄν τις αὐτῶν ὀφθαλμοὺς ποιήσαι βλέποντας; Τίς ἐνεφύσησε ψυχήν; Τίς δικαιοσύνην ἐδωρή σατο; Τίς ἀθανασίαν ὑπέσχηται; Μόνος ὁ τῶν ὅλων δημιου ργός, ὁ "ἀριστοτέχνας πατήρ," τοιοῦτον ἄγαλμα ἔμψυχον ἡμᾶς τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἔπλασεν· ὁ δὲ Ὀλύμπιος ὑμῶν, εἰκόνος εἰκών, πολύ τι τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπᾴδων, ἔργον ἐστὶ κωφὸν χειρῶν Ἀττικῶν. "Εἰκὼν" μὲν γὰρ "τοῦ θεοῦ" ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ (καὶ υἱὸς τοῦ νοῦ γνήσιος ὁ θεῖος λόγος, φωτὸς ἀρχέ τυπον φῶς), εἰκὼν δὲ τοῦ λόγου ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἀληθινός, ὁ νοῦς ὁ ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ, ὁ "κατ' εἰκόνα" τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ "καθ' ὁμοίωσιν" διὰ τοῦτο γεγενῆσθαι λεγόμενος, τῇ κατὰ καρδίαν φρονήσει τῷ θείῳ παρεικαζόμενος λόγῳ καὶ ταύτῃ λογικός. Ἀνθρώπου δὲ τοῦ ὁρωμένου τοῦ γηγενοῦς γήινος εἰκὼν τὰ ἀγάλματα ἀνδρείκελα, πόρρω τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπίκαιρον ἐκμαγεῖον, καταφαίνεται. Οὐδὲν οὖν ἀλλ' ἢ μανίας ἔμπλεως ὁ βίος ἔδοξέ μοι γεγονέναι, τοσαύτῃ σπουδῇ περὶ τὴν ὕλην καταγινόμενος. Ἐπιτέτριπται δὲ ὑπὸ κενῆς δόξης ἡ συνήθεια δουλείας μὲν γεύσασα ὑμᾶς καὶ ἀλόγου περιεργασίας· νομίμων δὲ ἀνόμων καὶ ἀπατηλῶν ὑποκρίσεων ἄγνοια αἰτία, ἣ δὴ † κατασκευασ θεῖσα τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος κηρῶν ὀλεθρίων καὶ εἰδώλων ἐπιστυγῶν πολλὰς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐπινοήσασα μορφάς, κηλῖδα τοῖς ἑπομένοις αὐτῇ ἐναπεμάξατο θανάτου μακροῦ. Λάβετε οὖν ὕδωρ λογικόν, λούσασθε οἱ μεμολυσμένοι, περιρράνατε αὑτοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς συνηθείας ταῖς ἀληθιναῖς σταγόσιν· καθαροὺς εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀναβῆναι δεῖ. Ἄνθρωπος εἶ, τὸ κοινότατον, ἐπιζήτησον τὸν δημιουργήσαντά σε· υἱὸς εἶ, τὸ ἰδιαίτατον, ἀναγνώρισον τὸν πατέρα. Σὺ δὲ ἔτι ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις παραμένεις, προστετηκὼς ἡδοναῖς; Τίνι λαλήσει κύριος "ὑμῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν"; Ὑμῶν ἐστιν, ἐὰν θελήσητε, τῶν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν τὴν προαίρεσιν ἐσχηκότων· ὑμῶν, ἐὰν ἐθελήσητε πιστεῦσαι μόνον καὶ τῇ συντομίᾳ τοῦ κηρύγματος ἕπεσθαι, ἧς ὑπακούσαντες οἱ Νινευῖται τῆς προσδοκηθείσης ἁλώσεως μετανοίᾳ γνησίῳ τὴν καλὴν ἀντικατηλλάξαντο σωτηρίαν. Πῶς οὖν ἀνέλθω, φησίν, εἰς οὐρανούς; "Ὁδός" ἐστιν ὁ κύριος, "στενὴ" μέν, ἀλλ' "ἐξ οὐρανῶν," στενὴ μέν, ἀλλ' εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀναπέμπουσα· στενὴ ἐπὶ γῆς ὑπερορωμένη, πλατεῖα ἐν οὐρανοῖς προσκυνουμένη. Εἶθ' ὁ μὲν ἄπυστος τοῦ λόγου συγγνώμην τῆς πλάνης ἔχει τὴν ἄγνοιαν, ὁ δὲ εἰς ὦτα βαλόμενος καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ [παρακούσας] παρὰ τῆς γνώμης φέρει τὴν ἀπείθειαν, καὶ ὅσῳ γε φρονιμώτερος εἶναι δόξει, πρὸς κακοῦ ἡ σύνεσις αὐτῷ, ὅτι τῇ φρονήσει κέχρηται κατηγόρῳ τὸ βέλτιστον οὐχ ἑλόμενος· πέφυκε γὰρ ὡς ἄνθρωπος οἰκείως ἔχειν πρὸς θεόν. Ὥσπερ οὖν τὸν ἵππον ἀροῦν οὐ βιαζόμεθα οὐδὲ τὸν ταῦρον κυνηγετεῖν, πρὸς ὃ πέφυκε δὲ ἕκαστον τῶν ζῴων περιέλκομεν, οὕτως ἀμέλει καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐπὶ τὴν οὐρανοῦ γενόμενον θέαν, "φυτὸν οὐράνιον" ὡς ἀληθῶς, ἐπὶ τὴν γνῶσιν παρακαλοῦμεν τοῦ θεοῦ, τὸ οἰκεῖον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐξαίρετον καὶ ἰδιωματικὸν παρὰ τὰ ἄλλα ζῷα κατειλημμένοι, αὔταρκες ἐφόδιον αἰώνων, θεοσέ βειαν, παρασκευάζεσθαι συμβουλεύοντες. Γεώργει, φαμέν, εἰ γεωργὸς εἶ, ἀλλὰ γνῶθι τὸν θεὸν γεωργῶν, καὶ πλεῖθι ὁ τῆς ναυτιλίας ἐρῶν, ἀλλὰ τὸν οὐράνιον κυβερνήτην παρα καλῶν· στρατευόμενόν σε κατείληφεν ἡ γνῶσις· τοῦ δίκαια σημαίνοντος ἄκουε στρατηγοῦ. Καθάπερ οὖν κάρῳ καὶ μέθῃ βεβαρημένοι ἀνανήψατε καὶ διαβλέψαντες ὀλίγον ἐννοήθητε, τί θέλουσιν ὑμῖν οἱ προσκυνούμενοι λίθοι καὶ ἃ περὶ τὴν ὕλην κενοσπούδως δαπανᾶτε· εἰς ἄγνοιαν [καὶ] τὰ χρήματα καὶ τὸν βίον ὡς τὸ ζῆν ὑμῶν εἰς θάνατον καταναλίσκετε, τοῦτο μόνον τῆς ματαίας ὑμῶν ἐλπίδος εὑρόμενοι τὸ πέρας, οὐδὲ αὑτοὺς οἷοί τε ὄντες οἰκτεῖραι, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῖς κατελεῶσιν ὑμᾶς τῆς πλάνης ἐπιτήδειοι πείθεσθαι γίνεσθε, συνηθείᾳ κακῇ δεδου λωμένοι, ἧς ἀπηρτημένοι αὐθαίρετοι μέχρι τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀναπνοῆς εἰς ἀπώλειαν ὑποφέρεσθε· "ὅτι τὸ φῶς ἐλήλυθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον καὶ ἠγάπησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι μᾶλλον τὸ σκότος ἢ τὸ φῶς," ἐξὸν ἀπομάξασθαι τὰ ἐμποδὼν τῇ σωτηρίᾳ καὶ τὸν τῦφον καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον καὶ τὸν φόβον, ἐπιφθεγγομένους τὸ ποιητικὸν δὴ τοῦτο· πῇ δὴ χρήματα πολλὰ φέρω τάδε; Πῇ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς πλάζομαι; Οὐ βούλεσθε οὖν τὰς φαντασίας ταύτας κενὰς ἀπορρί ψαντες τῇ συνηθείᾳ αὐτῇ ἀποτάξασθαι, κενοδοξίᾳ ἐπιλέ γοντες· ψευδεῖς ὄνειροι χαίρετ', οὐδὲν ἦτ' ἄρα; Τί γὰρ ἡγεῖσθε, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, τὸν Τύχωνα Ἑρμῆν καὶ τὸν Ἀνδοκίδου καὶ τὸν Ἀμύητον; Ἦ παντί τῳ δῆλονὅτι λίθους, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸν Ἑρμῆν. Ὡς δὲ οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς ἡ ἅλως καὶ ὡς οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς ἡ ἶρις, ἀλλὰ πάθη ἀέρων καὶ νεφῶν, καὶ ὃν τρόπον οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμέρα θεός, οὐδὲ μὴν οὐδὲ ἐνιαυτὸς οὐδὲ χρόνος ὁ ἐκ τούτων συμπληρούμενος, οὕτως οὐδὲ ἥλιος οὐδὲ σελήνη, οἷς ἕκαστον τῶν προειρημένων διορίζεται. Τίς ἂν οὖν τὴν εὔθυναν καὶ τὴν κόλασιν καὶ τὴν δίκην καὶ τὴν νέμεσιν εὖ φρονῶν ὑπολάβοι θεούς; Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδ' ἐρινῦς οὐδὲ μοῖραι οὐδὲ εἱμαρμένη, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ πολιτεία μηδὲ δόξα μηδὲ πλοῦτος θεοί, ὃν καὶ ζωγράφοι τυφλὸν ἐπιδεικνύουσιν· εἰ δὲ αἰδῶ καὶ ἔρωτα καὶ ἀφροδίτην ἐκθειάζετε, ἀκολουθούντων αὐτοῖς αἰσχύνη καὶ ὁρμὴ καὶ κάλλος καὶ συνουσία. Οὔκουν ἔτ' ἂν εἰκότως ὕπνος καὶ θάνατος θεὼ διδυμάονε παρ' ὑμῖν νομίζοιντο, πάθη ταῦτα περὶ τὰ ζῷα συμβαίνοντα φυσικῶς· οὐδὲ μὴν κῆρα οὐδὲ εἱμαρμένην οὐδὲ μοίρας θεὰς ἐνδίκως ἐρεῖτε. Εἰ δὲ ἔρις καὶ μάχη οὐ θεοί, οὐδὲ Ἄρης οὐδὲ Ἐνυώ. Ἔτι τε [εἰ] αἱ ἀστραπαὶ καὶ οἱ κεραυνοὶ καὶ οἱ ὄμβροι οὐ θεοί, πῶς τὸ πῦρ καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ θεοί; Πῶς δὲ καὶ οἱ διᾴσσοντες καὶ οἱ κομῆται διὰ πάθος ἀέρος γεγενημένοι; Ὁ δὲ τὴν τύχην θεὸν λέγων καὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν λεγέτω θεόν. Εἰ δὴ οὖν τούτων οὐδὲ ἓν θεὸς εἶναι νομίζεται οὐδὲ μὴν ἐκείνων τῶν χειροκμήτων καὶ ἀναισθήτων πλασμάτων, πρόνοια δέ τις περὶ ἡμᾶς καταφαίνεται δυνάμεως θεϊκῆς, λείπεται οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ τοῦτο ὁμολογεῖν, ὅτι ἄρα ὄντως μόνος ἔστι τε καὶ ὑφέστηκεν ὁ μόνος ὄντως ὑπάρχων θεός. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ μανδραγόραν ἤ τι ἄλλο φάρμακον πεπωκόσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐοίκατε οἱ ἀνόητοι· θεὸς δὲ ὑμῖν ἀνανῆψαι δοίη ποτὲ τοῦδε τοῦ ὕπνου καὶ συνιέναι θεὸν μηδὲ χρυσὸν ἢ λίθον ἢ δένδρον ἢ πρᾶξιν ἢ πάθος ἢ νόσον ἢ φόβον ἰνδάλλεσθαι ὡς θεόν. "Τρὶς γὰρ μύριοί εἰσιν" ὡς ἀληθῶς "ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ δαίμονες" οὐκ "ἀθάνατοι" οὐδὲ μὴν θνητοί (οὐδὲ γὰρ αἰσθήσεως, ἵνα καὶ θανάτου, μετειλήφασιν), λίθινοι δὲ καὶ ξύλινοι δεσπόται ἀνθρώπων, ὑβρίζοντες καὶ παρασπον δοῦντες τὸν βίον διὰ τῆς συνηθείας. "Ἡ γῆ δὲ τοῦ κυρίου," φησί, "καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτῆς"· εἶτα τί τολμᾷς ἐν τοῖς τοῦ κυρίου τρυφῶν ἀγνοεῖν τὸν δεσπότην; Κατάλειπε τὴν γῆν τὴν ἐμήν, ἐρεῖ σοι ὁ κύριος, μὴ θίγῃς τοῦ ὕδατος ὃ ἐγὼ ἀναδίδωμι, τῶν καρπῶν ὧν ἐγὼ γεωργῶ, μὴ μεταλάμβανε· ἀπόδος, ἄνθρωπε, τὰ τροφεῖα τῷ θεῷ· ἐπίγνωθί σου τὸν δεσπότην· ἴδιον εἶ πλάσμα τοῦ θεοῦ· τὸ δὲ οἰκεῖον αὐτοῦ πῶς ἂν ἐνδίκως ἀλλότριον γένοιτο; Τὸ γὰρ ἀπηλλοτριωμένον στερόμενον τῆς οἰκειότητος στέρεται τῆς ἀληθείας. Ἦ γὰρ οὐχ ᾗ Νιόβη τρόπον τινά, μᾶλλον δὲ ἵνα μυστικώτερον πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀποφθέγξωμαι, γυναικὸς τῆς Ἑβραίας δίκην (Λὼτ ἐκάλουν αὐτὴν οἱ παλαιοὶ) εἰς ἀναισθησίαν μετατρέπεσθε; Λελιθωμένην ταύτην παρειλήφαμεν τὴν γυναῖκα διὰ τὸ Σοδόμων ἐρᾶν· Σοδομῖται δὲ οἱ ἄθεοι καὶ οἱ πρὸς τὴν ἀσέβειαν ἐπιστρεφόμενοι σκληροκάρδιοί τε καὶ ἠλίθιοι. Ταύτας οἴου θεόθεν ἐπιλέγεσθαί σοι τὰς φωνάς· "μὴ γὰρ οἴου λίθους μὲν εἶναι ἱερὰ καὶ ξύλα καὶ ὄρνεα καὶ ὄφεις, ἀνθρώπους δὲ μή"· πολὺ δὲ τοὐναντίον ἱεροὺς μὲν ὄντως τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὑπολαμβάνετε, τὰ δὲ θηρία καὶ τοὺς λίθους ὅπερ εἰσίν. Οἱ γάρ τοι δείλαιοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἄθλιοι διὰ μὲν κόρακος καὶ κολοιοῦ νομίζουσι τὸν θεὸν ἐμβοᾶν, διὰ δὲ ἀνθρώπου σιωπᾶν, καὶ τὸν μὲν κόρακα τετιμήκασιν ὡς ἄγγελον θεοῦ, τὸν δὲ ἄνθρωπον τοῦ θεοῦ διώκουσιν, οὐ κρῴζοντα, οὐ κλώζοντα, φθεγγόμενον δέ, οἶμαι, λογικῶς καὶ φιλανθρώπως κατηχοῦντα ἀποσφάττειν ἀπανθρώπως ἐπιχειροῦσιν, ἐπὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην καλοῦντα, οὔτε τὴν χάριν τὴν ἄνωθεν ἀπεκδεχόμενοι οὔτε τὴν κόλασιν ἐκτρεπόμενοι. Οὐ γὰρ πιστεύουσι τῷ θεῷ οὐδὲ ἐκμανθάνουσι τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ. Οὗ δὲ ἄρρητος ἡ φιλανθρωπία, τούτου ἀχώρητος ἡ μισοπονηρία. Τρέφει δὲ ὁ μὲν θυμὸς τὴν κόλασιν ἐπὶ ἁμαρτίᾳ, εὖ ποιεῖ δὲ ἐπὶ μετανοίᾳ ἡ φιλανθρωπία. Οἰκτρότατον δὲ τὸ στέρεσθαι τῆς παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπικουρίας. Ὀμμάτων μὲν οὖν ἡ πήρωσις καὶ τῆς ἀκοῆς ἡ κώφωσις ἀλγεινοτέρα παρὰ τὰς λοιπὰς τοῦ πονηροῦ πλεονεξίας· ἣ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν ἀφῄρηται τῆς οὐρανίου προσόψεως, ἣ δὲ τῆς θείας μαθήσεως ἐστέρηται. Ὑμεῖς δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀνάπηροι καὶ τυφλοὶ μὲν τὸν νοῦν, κωφοὶ δὲ τὴν σύνεσιν ὄντες οὐκ ἀλγεῖτε, οὐκ ἀγανακτεῖτε, οὐ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἰδεῖν καὶ τὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ποιητὴν ἐπεθυμήσατε, οὐδὲ τὸν τῶν πάντων δημιουργὸν καὶ πατέρα ἀκοῦσαι καὶ μαθεῖν ἐξεζητήσατε, τὴν προαίρεσιν τῇ σωτηρίᾳ συνάψαντες· ἐμποδὼν γὰρ ἵσταται οὐδὲν τῷ σπεύδοντι πρὸς γνῶσιν θεοῦ, οὐκ ἀπαιδευσία, οὐ πενία, οὐκ ἀδοξία, οὐκ ἀκτημοσύνη· οὐδέ τις τὴν ὄντως ἀληθῆ σοφίαν "χαλκῷ δῃώσας" μεταλλάξαι εὔχεται οὐδὲ σιδήρῳ· εὖ γάρ τοι παντὸς μᾶλλον τοῦτο εἴρηται· ὁ χρηστός ἐστι πανταχοῦ σωτήριος· ὁ γὰρ τοῦ δικαίου ζηλωτής, ὡς ἂν τοῦ ἀνενδεοῦς ἐραστής, ὀλιγοδεής, οὐκ ἐν ἄλλῳ τινὶ ἢ ἐν αὐτῷ [καὶ] τῷ θεῷ τὸ μακάριον θησαυρίσας, ἔνθα οὐ σής, οὐ λῃστής, οὐ πειρατής, ἀλλ' ὁ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀίδιος δοτήρ. Ἄρα οὖν εἰκότως ὡμοίωσθε τοῖς ὄφεσιν ἐκείνοις, οἷς τὰ ὦτα πρὸς τοὺς κατεπᾴδοντας ἀποκέκλεισται. "Θυμὸς γὰρ αὐτοῖς," φησὶν ἡ γραφή, "κατὰ τὴν ὁμοίωσιν τοῦ ὄφεως, ὡσεὶ ἀσπίδος κωφῆς καὶ βυούσης τὰ ὦτα αὐτῆς, ἥτις οὐκ εἰσακούσεται φωνῆς ἐπᾳδόντων." Ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς γε κατεπᾴσθητε τὴν ἀγριότητα καὶ παρα δέξασθε τὸν ἥμερον καὶ ἡμέτερον λόγον καὶ τὸν ἰὸν ἀποπτύσατε τὸν δηλητήριον, ὅπως ὅτι μάλιστα ὑμῖν τὴν φθοράν, ὡς ἐκείνοις τὸ γῆρας, ἀποδύσασθαι δοθῇ. Ἀκούσατέ μου καὶ μὴ τὰ ὦτα ἀποβύσητε μηδὲ τὰς ἀκοὰς ἀποφράξητε, ἀλλ' εἰς νοῦν βάλεσθε τὰ λεγόμενα. Καλόν ἐστι τὸ φάρμακον τῆς ἀθανασίας· στήσατέ ποτε τοὺς ὁλκοὺς τοὺς ἑρπηστικούς. "Οἱ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ κυρίου χοῦν λείξουσι", φησίν [ἡ γραφὴ λέγει]· ἀνανεύσατε τῆς γῆς εἰς αἰθέρα, ἀναβλέψατε εἰς οὐρανόν, θαυμάσατε, παύσασθε καραδοκοῦντες τῶν δικαίων τὴν πτέρναν καὶ "τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς ἀληθείας" ἐμποδίζοντες· φρόνιμοι γένεσθε καὶ ἀβλαβεῖς· τάχα που ὁ κύριος ἁπλότητος ὑμῖν δωρήσεται πτερόν (πτερῶσαι προῄρηται τοὺς γηγενεῖς), ἵνα δὴ τοὺς χηραμοὺς καταλίποντες οἰκήσητε τοὺς οὐρανούς. Μόνον ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας μετανοήσωμεν, ὡς ὅλῃ καρδίᾳ δυνηθῆναι χωρῆσαι τὸν θεόν. "Ἐλπίσατε ἐπ' αὐτόν", φησί, "πᾶσα συναγωγὴ λαοῦ, ἐκχέετε ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ πάσας τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν." Πρὸς τοὺς κενοὺς τῆς πονηρίας λέγει· ἐλεεῖ καὶ δικαιοσύνης πληροῖ· πίστευσον, ἄνθρωπε, ἀνθ ρώπῳ καὶ θεῷ· πίστευσον, ἄνθρωπε, τῷ παθόντι καὶ προσκυνουμένῳ, θεῷ ζῶντι πιστεύσατε οἱ δοῦλοι τῷ νεκρῷ· πάντες ἄνθρωποι πιστεύσατε μόνῳ τῷ πάντων ἀνθρώπων θεῷ· πιστεύσατε καὶ μισθὸν λάβετε σωτηρίαν· "ἐκζητήσατε τὸν θεόν, καὶ ζήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν." Ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν θεὸν τὴν ἰδίαν πολυπραγμονεῖ σωτηρίαν· εὗρες τὸν θεόν, ἔχεις τὴν ζωήν. Ζητήσωμεν οὖν, ἵνα καὶ ζήσωμεν. Ὁ μισθὸς τῆς εὑρέ σεως ζωὴ παρὰ θεῷ. "Ἀγαλλιάσθωσαν καὶ εὐφρανθή τωσαν ἐπὶ σοὶ πάντες οἱ ζητοῦντές σε καὶ λεγέτωσαν διὰ παντός, μεγαλυνθήτω ὁ θεός." Καλὸς ὕμνος τοῦ θεοῦ ἀθάνατος ἄνθρωπος, δικαιοσύνῃ οἰκοδομούμενος, ἐν ᾧ τὰ λόγια τῆς ἀληθείας ἐγκεχάρακται. Ποῦ γὰρ ἀλλαχόθι ἢ ἐν σώφρονι ψυχῇ δικαιοσύνην ἐγγραπτέον; Ποῦ ἀγάπην; αἰδῶ δὲ ποῦ; πραότητα δὲ ποῦ; Ταύτας, οἶμαι, τὰς θείας γραφὰς ἐναποσφραγισαμένους χρὴ τῇ ψυχῇ καλὸν ἀφετήριον σοφίαν ἡγεῖσθαι τοῖς ἐφ' ὁτιοῦν τοῦ βίου τραπεῖσι μέρος, ὅρμον τε τὴν αὐτὴν ἀκύμονα σωτηρίας σοφίαν νομίζειν· δι' ἣν ἀγαθοὶ μὲν πατέρες τέκνων οἱ τῷ πατρὶ προσδεδρα μηκότες, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ γονεῦσιν υἱοὶ οἱ τὸν υἱὸν νενοηκότες, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ ἄνδρες γυναικῶν οἱ μεμνημένοι τοῦ νυμφίου, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ οἰκετῶν δεσπόται οἱ τῆς ἐσχάτης δουλείας λελυτρωμένοι. Ὢ μακαριώτερα τῆς ἐν ἀνθρώποις πλάνης τὰ θηρία· ἐπινέμεται τὴν ἄγνοιαν, ὡς ὑμεῖς, οὐχ ὑποκρίνεται δὲ τὴν ἀλήθειαν· οὐκ ἔστι παρ' αὐτοῖς κολάκων γένη, οὐ δεισιδαι μονοῦσιν ἰχθύες, οὐκ εἰδωλολατρεῖ τὰ ὄρνεα, ἕνα μόνον ἐκπλήττεται τὸν οὐρανόν, ἐπεὶ θεὸν νοῆσαι μὴ δύναται ἀπηξιωμένα τοῦ λόγου. Εἶτ' οὐκ αἰσχύνεσθε καὶ τῶν ἀλόγων σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀλογωτέρους πεποιηκότες, οἳ διὰ τοσούτων ἡλικιῶν ἐν ἀθεότητι κατατέτριφθε; Παῖδες γεγόνατε, εἶτα μειράκια, εἶτα ἔφηβοι, εἶτα ἄνδρες, χρηστοὶ δὲ οὐδέποτε. Κἂν τὸ γῆρας αἰδέσθητε, ἐπὶ δυσμαῖς τοῦ βίου γενόμενοι σωφρονήσατε, κἂν ἐπὶ τέλει τοῦ βίου τὸν θεὸν ἐπίγνωτε, ὡς δὴ τὸ τέλος ὑμῖν τοῦ βίου ἀρχὴν ἀναλάβοι σωτηρίας. Γηράσατε πρὸς δεισιδαιμονίαν, νέοι ἀφίκεσθε πρὸς θεοσέβειαν· παῖδας ἀκάκους ἐγκρινεῖ θεός. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀθηναῖος τοῖς Σόλωνος ἑπέσθω νόμοις καὶ ὁ Ἀργεῖος τοῖς Φορωνέως καὶ ὁ Σπαρτιάτης τοῖς Λυκούργου, εἰ δὲ σεαυτὸν ἀναγράφεις τοῦ θεοῦ, οὐρανὸς μέν σοι ἡ πατρίς, ὁ δὲ θεὸς νομοθέτης. Τίνες δὲ καὶ οἱ νόμοι; "Οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ παιδοφθορήσεις, οὐ κλέψεις, οὐ ψευδο μαρτυρήσεις, ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου." Εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ τούτων τὰ παραπληρώματα, λόγιοι νόμοι καὶ ἅγιοι λόγοι ἐν αὐταῖς ἐγγραφόμενοι ταῖς καρδίαις· "ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν", καὶ "τῷ τύπτοντί σε εἰς τὴν σιαγόνα πάρεχε καὶ τὴν ἄλλην", καὶ "οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις, ἐπιθυμίᾳ γὰρ μόνῃ μεμοίχευκας." Πόσῳ γοῦν ἄμεινον τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τοῦ τυγχάνειν τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν ἀρχὴν μηδὲ ἐπιθυμεῖν ἐθέλειν ὧν μὴ δεῖ; Ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς μὲν τὸ αὐστηρὸν τῆς σωτηρίας ὑπομένειν οὐ καρτερεῖτε, καθάπερ δὲ τῶν σιτίων τοῖς γλυκέσιν ἡδόμεθα διὰ τὴν λειότητα τῆς ἡδονῆς προτιμῶντες, ἰᾶται δὲ ἡμᾶς καὶ ὑγιάζει τὰ πικρὰ τραχύνοντα τὴν αἴσθησιν, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἀσθενεῖς τὸν στόμαχον ῥώννυσιν ἡ τῶν φαρμάκων αὐστηρία, οὕτως ἥδει μὲν καὶ γαργαλίζει ἡ συνήθεια, ἀλλ' ἣ μὲν εἰς τὸ βάραθρον ὠθεῖ, ἡ συνήθεια, ἣ δὲ εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀνάγει, ἡ ἀλήθεια, "τραχεῖα" μὲν τὸ πρῶτον, "ἀλλ' ἀγαθὴ κουροτρό φος"· καὶ σεμνὴ μὲν ἡ γυναικωνῖτις αὕτη, σώφρων δὲ ἡ γερουσία· οὐδέ ἐστι δυσπρόσιτος οὐδὲ ἀδύνατος λαβεῖν, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἐγγυτάτω ἔνοικος ἡμῶν, ᾗ φησιν αἰνιττόμενος ὁ πάνσοφος Μωυσῆς, τρισὶ τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐνδιαιτωμένη μέρεσι, "χερσὶ καὶ στόματι καὶ καρδίᾳ." Σύμβολον τοῦτο γνήσιον τρισὶ τοῖς πᾶσι συμπληρουμένης τῆς ἀληθείας, βουλῇ καὶ πράξει καὶ λόγῳ μηδὲ γὰρ τόδε δείμαινε, μή σε τὰ πολλὰ καὶ ἐπιτερπῆ φανταζόμενα ἀφέληται σοφίας· αὐτὸς ἑκὼν ὑπερβήσῃ τὸν λῆρον τῆς συνηθείας, καθάπερ καὶ οἱ παῖδες τὰ ἀθύρματα ἄνδρες γενόμενοι ἀπέρριψαν. Τάχει μὲν δὴ ἀνυπερβλήτῳ εὐνοίᾳ τε εὐπροσίτῳ ἡ δύναμις ἡ θεϊκὴ ἐπιλάμψασα τὴν γῆν σωτηρίου σπέρματος ἐνέπλησε τὸ πᾶν. Οὐ γὰρ ἂν οὕτως ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ τοσοῦτον ἔργον ἄνευ θείας κομιδῆς ἐξήνυσεν ὁ κύριος, ὄψει καταφρο νούμενος, ἔργῳ προσκυνούμενος, ὁ καθάρσιος καὶ σωτήριος καὶ μειλίχιος, ὁ θεῖος λόγος, ὁ φανερώτατος ὄντως θεός, ὁ τῷ δεσπότῃ τῶν ὅλων ἐξισωθείς, ὅτι ἦν υἱὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ "ὁ λόγος ἦν ἐν τῷ θεῷ", οὔθ' ὅτε τὸ πρῶτον προεκηρύχθη, ἀπιστηθείς, οὔθ' ὅτε τὸ ἀνθρώπου προσωπεῖον ἀναλαβὼν καὶ σαρκὶ ἀναπλασάμενος τὸ σωτήριον δρᾶμα τῆς ἀνθρω πότητος ὑπεκρίνετο, ἀγνοηθείς· γνήσιος γὰρ ἦν ἀγωνιστὴς καὶ τοῦ πλάσματος συναγωνιστής, τάχιστα δὲ εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους διαδοθεὶς θᾶττον ἡλίου ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀνατείλας τῆς πατρικῆς βουλήσεως, ῥᾷστα ἡμῖν ἐπέλαμψε, τὸν θεόν, ὅθεν τε ἦν αὐτὸς καὶ ὃς ἦν, δι' ὧν ἐδίδαξεν καὶ ἐνεδείξατο, παρασ τησάμενος, ὁ σπονδοφόρος καὶ διαλλακτὴς καὶ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν λόγος, πηγὴ ζωοποιός, εἰρηνική, ἐπὶ πᾶν τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γῆς χεόμενος, δι' ὃν ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν τὰ πάντα ἤδη πέλαγος γέγονεν ἀγαθῶν.