Chapter XVIII.

If any one supposes that116    τὸ μὴ συνηρμόσθαι τινὶ διὰ τῶν καταλλήλων τὸν βίον this want of mutual harmony between his life and a single one of its circumstances is quite unimportant, let him be taught the meaning of our maxim by looking at the management of a house. The master of a private dwelling will not allow any untidiness or unseemliness to be seen in the house, such as a couch upset, or the table littered with rubbish, or vessels of price thrown away into dirty corners, while those which serve ignobler uses are thrust forward for entering guests to see. He has everything arranged neatly and in the proper place, where it stands to most advantage; and then he can welcome his guests, without any misgivings that he need be ashamed of opening the interior of his house to receive them. The same duty, I take it, is incumbent on that master of our “tabernacle,” the mind; it has to arrange everything within us, and to put each particular faculty of the soul, which the Creator has fashioned to be our implement or our vessel, to fitting and noble uses. We will now mention in detail the way in which any one might manage his life, with its present advantages, to his improvement, hoping that no one will accuse us of trifling117    ἀδολεσχίαν τοῦ λόγου τις καταγινώσκοι, or over-minuteness. We advise, then, that love’s passion be placed in the soul’s purest shrine, as a thing chosen to be the first fruits of all our gifts, and devoted118    ὥσπερ τι ἀνάθημα; so Gregory calls the tongue of S. Meletius the ἀνάθημα of Truth. entirely to God; and when once this has been done, to keep it untouched and unsullied by any secular defilement. Then indignation, and anger, and hatred must be as watch-dogs to be roused only against attacking sins; they must follow their natural impulse only against the thief and the enemy who is creeping in to plunder the divine treasure-chamber, and who comes only for that, that he may steal, and mangle, and destroy. Courage and confidence are to be weapons in our hands to baffle any sudden surprise and attack of the wicked who advance. Hope and patience are to be the staffs to lean upon, whenever we are weary with the trials of the world. As for sorrow, we must have a stock of it ready to apply, if need should happen to arise for it, in the hour of repentance for our sins; believing at the same time that it is never useful, except to minister to that. Righteousness will be our rule of straightforwardness, guarding us from stumbling either in word or deed, and guiding us in the disposal of the faculties of our soul, as well as in the due consideration for every one we meet. The love of gain, which is a large, incalculably large, element in every soul, when once applied to the desire for God, will bless the man who has it; for he will be violent119    Gregory seems to allude to S. Matt. xi. 12. where it is right to be violent. Wisdom and prudence will be our advisers as to our best interests; they will order our lives so as never to suffer from any thoughtless folly. But suppose a man does not apply the aforesaid faculties of the soul to their proper use, but reverses their intended purpose; suppose he wastes his love upon the basest objects, and stores up his hatred only for his own kinsmen; suppose he welcomes iniquity, plays the man only against his parents, is bold only in absurdities, fixes his hopes on emptiness, chases prudence and wisdom from his company, takes gluttony and folly for his mistresses, and uses all his other opportunities in the same fashion, he would indeed be a strange and unnatural character to a degree beyond any one’s power to express. If we could imagine any one putting his armour on all the wrong way, reversing the helmet so as to cover his face while the plume nodded backward, putting his feet into the cuirass, and fitting the greaves on to his breast, changing to the right side all that ought to go on the left and vice versa, and how such a hoplite would be likely to fare in battle, then we should have an idea of the fate in life which is sure to await him whose confused judgment makes him reverse the proper uses of his soul’s faculties. We must therefore provide this balance in all feeling; the true sobriety of mind is naturally able to supply it; and if one had to find an exact definition of this sobriety, one might declare absolutely, that it amounts to our ordered control, by dint of wisdom and prudence, over every emotion of the soul. Moreover, such a condition in the soul will be no longer in need of any laborious method to attain to the high and heavenly realities; it will accomplish with the greatest ease that which erewhile seemed so unattainable; it will grasp the object of its search as a natural consequence of rejecting the opposite attractions. A man who comes out of darkness is necessarily in the light; a man who is not dead is necessarily alive. Indeed, if a man is not to have received his soul to no purpose120    ἐπὶ ματαί& 251· λάβοι. Gregory evidently alludes to Ps. xxiv. 4, and agrees with the Vulgate “in vano acceperit.”, he will certainly be upon the path of truth; the prudence and the science employed to guard against error will be itself a sure guidance along the right road. Slaves who have been freed and cease to serve their former masters, the very moment they become their own masters, direct all their thoughts towards themselves so, I take it, the soul which has been freed from ministering to the body becomes at once cognizant of its own inherent energy. But this liberty consists, as we learn from the Apostle121    Gal. v. 1., in not again being held in the yoke of slavery, and in not being bound again, like a runaway or a criminal, with the fetters of marriage. But I must return here to what I said at first; that the perfection of this liberty does not consist only in that one point of abstaining from marriage. Let no one suppose that the prize of virginity is so insignificant and so easily won as that; as if one little observance of the flesh could settle so vital a matter. But we have seen that every man who doeth a sin is the servant of sin122    S. John viii. 34.; so that a declension towards vice in any act, or in any practice whatever, makes a slave, and still more, a branded slave, of the man, covering him through sin’s lashes with bruises and seared spots. Therefore it behoves the man who grasps at the transcendent aim of all virginity to be true to himself in every respect, and to manifest his purity equally in every relation of his life. If any of the inspired words are required to aid our pleading, the Truth123    S. John xiv. 6 Itself will be sufficient to corroborate the truth when It inculcates this very kind of teaching in the veiled meaning of a Gospel Parable: the good and eatable fish are separated by the fishers’ skill from the bad and poisonous fish, so that the enjoyment of the good should not be spoilt by any of the bad getting into the “vessels” with them. The work of true sobriety is the same; from all pursuits and habits to choose that which is pure and improving, rejecting in every case that which does not seem likely to be useful, and letting it go back into the universal and secular life, called “the sea124    S. Matt. xiii. 47, 48.,” in the imagery of the Parable. The Psalmist125    Ps. lxix. 1. also, when expounding the doctrine of a full confession126    διδασκαλίαν ἐξομολογήσεως ὑφηγούμενος, calls this restless suffering tumultuous life, “waters coming in even unto the soul,” “depths of waters,” and a “hurricane”; in which sea indeed every rebellious thought sinks, as the Egyptian did, with a stone’s weight into the deeps127    Exod. xv. 10.. But all in us that is dear to God, and has a piercing insight into the truth (called “Israel” in the narrative), passes, but that alone, over that sea as if it were dry land, and is never reached by the bitterness and the brine of life’s billows. Thus, typically, under the leadership of the Law (for Moses was a type of the Law that was coming) Israel passes unwetted over that sea, while the Egyptian who crosses in her track is overwhelmed. Each fares according to the disposition which he carries with him; one walks lightly enough, the other is dragged into the deep water. For virtue is a light and buoyant thing, and all who live in her way “fly like clouds128    Is. lx. 8. The LXX. has περιστερὰν σὺν νεοσσοῖς.,” as Isaiah says, “and as doves with their young ones”; but sin is a heavy affair, “sitting,” as another of the prophets says, “upon a talent of lead129    Zech. v. 7. “this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah:” ἐπὶ μέσον τοῦ μέτρου (LXX.). Origen and Jerome as well as Gregory make her sit upon the lead itself. Vatablus explains that the lead was in an amphora..” If, however, this reading of the history appears to any forced and inapplicable, and the miracle at the Red Sea does not present itself to him as written for our profit, let him listen to the Apostle: “Now all these things happened unto them for types, and they are written for our admonition130    1 Cor. x. 11; Rom. xv. 6..”

[18] Κεφάλαιον ιηʹὍτι χρὴ πάσας τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις πρὸς ἀρετὴν βλέπειν. Οὐκοῦν ὅπερ ἐνταῦθα εἴρηται παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου, κοινὸν ἔστω δόγμα τοῦ βίου παντός, καὶ μάλιστα ἐπὶ τῶν διὰ παρθενίας τῷ θεῷ προσιόντων, τὸ μὴ πρὸς ἕν τι κατόρθωμα βλέποντας τῶν ἐναντίων ἀφυλάκτως ἔχειν, ἀλλὰ πανταχόθεν ἑαυτοῖς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐξευρίσκειν, ὡς ἂν διὰ πάντων τὸ ἀσφαλὲς ὑπάρχοι τῷ βίῳ. Οὐδὲ γὰρ στρατιώτης μέρη τινὰ τοῖς ὅπλοις φραξάμενος γυμνῷ κινδυνεύει τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι. Τί γὰρ κέρδος αὐτῷ τῆς ἐπὶ μέρους ὁπλίσεως, εἰ κατὰ τῶν γυμνῶν τὴν καιρίαν δέξεται; Τίς δ' ἂν εὔμορφον ὀνομάσειεν ἐκεῖνον, ᾧ τῶν εἰς εὐμορφίαν τι συντελούντων ἔκ τινος συμφορᾶς περικέκοπται; Ἡ γὰρ περὶ τὸ λεῖπον αἰσχύνη καὶ τὴν τοῦ ὑγιαίνοντος χάριν διελυμήνατο. Εἰ δὲ καταγέλαστός ἐστι, καθώς φησί που τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ὁ ἐγχειρήσας μὲν τῇ τοῦ πύργου οἰκοδομῇ, ἐν θεμελίοις δὲ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σπουδὴν στήσας καὶ τοῦ τέλους οὐκ ἐφικόμενος, τί ἄλλο ἐκ τῆς παραβολῆς ταύτης μανθάνομεν ἢ τὸ πάσης ὑψηλῆς προθέσεως ἐπὶ τὸ πέρας φθάνειν ἐσπουδακέναι, ταῖς ποικίλαις τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐποικοδομαῖς τὸ ἔργον τοῦ θεοῦ τελειοῦντας; Οὔτε γὰρ λίθος εἷς ἡ πᾶσα τοῦ πύργου οἰκοδομή ἐστιν οὔτε ἐντολὴ μία πρὸς τὸ ἐπιζητούμενον μέτρον ἄγει τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς τελειότητα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν θεμέλιον ὑποβεβλῆσθαι δεῖ πάντως καί, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, «τὴν ἐκ χρυσίου καὶ λίθων τιμίων οἰκοδομὴν ἐπιθέσθαι». Οὕτω γὰρ τὰ ἔργα τῶν ἐντολῶν ὀνομάζεται κατὰ τὸν εἰπόντα προφήτην ὅτι «Ἠγάπησα τὰς ἐντολάς σου ὑπὲρ χρυσίον καὶ λίθον τίμιον πολύν». Ὑποκείσθω τοίνυν ἀντὶ θεμελίου τινὸς τῷ κατ' ἀρετὴν βίῳ ἡ περὶ τὴν παρθενίαν σπουδή, ἐποικοδομείσθω δὲ τῷ θεμελίῳ τούτῳ πάντα τὰ ἔργα τῆς ἀρετῆς. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ σφόδρα τοῦτο τίμιον καὶ θεοπρεπὲς εἶναι πιστεύεται, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἔστι καὶ πεπίστευται, ἀλλ' εἰ μὴ καὶ ὅλος ὁ βίος τούτῳ συμβαίνοι τῷ κατορθώματι, ἐπιμολύνοιτο δὲ τῇ λοιπῇ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀταξίᾳ, τοῦτο ἐκεῖνό ἐστι «τὸ ἐνώτιον τὸ ἐν τῇ ῥινὶ τῆς ὑὸς» ἢ ὁ μαργαρίτης ὁ ἐν τοῖς ποσὶ τῶν χοίρων καταπατούμενος. Ἀλλὰ περὶ μὲν τούτων τοσαῦτα.
Εἰ δέ τις παρ' οὐδὲν ποιεῖται τὸ μὴ συνηρμόσθαι τινὶ διὰ τῶν καταλλήλων τὸν βίον, τὰ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ ἑαυτοῦ θεασάμενος παιδευθήτω περὶ τοῦ δόγματος. Δοκεῖ γάρ μοι, καθάπερ ἐπὶ τῆς ἰδίας οἰκήσεως ὁ τοῦ οἴκου δεσπότης οὐ καταδέξεται ἀπρεπῆ καὶ ἀσχήμονα τὰ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ βλέπειν, ἢ κλίνην ἀνατετραμμένην ἢ πλήρη κόπρου τὴν τράπεζαν ἢ τὰ μὲν τίμια τῶν σκευῶν ἐν ῥυπαροῖς τισι τόποις ἀπερριμμένα, ὅσα δὲ πρὸς τὰς ἀτιμοτέρας ὑπηρεσίας ἐστίν, ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς προκείμενα τῶν εἰσιόντων, ἀλλὰ πάντα εὐσχημόνως καὶ κατὰ τάξιν τὴν πρέπουσαν διαθεὶς καὶ ἑκάστῳ τὴν ἁρμόζουσαν ἀποδοὺς χώραν, θαρρῶν δέχεται τοὺς ἐπιξενουμένους, ὡς οὐδεμίαν αἰσχύνην ὀφλήσων εἰ φανερὸν γένοιτο ὅπως αὐτῷ τὰ κατὰ τὴν οἰκίαν ἔχει: οὕτως οἶμαι χρῆναι καὶ τὸν τοῦ σκηνώματος ἡμῶν οἰκοδεσπότην καὶ οἰκονόμον, τὸν νοῦν λέγω, πάντα τὰ ἐν ἡμῖν εὖ διατίθεσθαι ἑκάστῃ τε τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεων, ἃς ἀντὶ ὀργάνων τινῶν ἢ σκευῶν ὁ δημιουργὸς ἡμῖν ἐτεκτήνατο, οἰκείως καὶ πρὸς τὸ καλὸν κεχρῆσθαι. Εἰ δὲ μὴ φλυαρίαν τινὰ καὶ ἀδολεσχίαν τοῦ λόγου τις καταγνώσεται, εἰρήσεται καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον ὅπως ἂν τοῖς παροῦσιν αὐτῷ χρώμενος πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον αὐτῷ τὸν βίον οἰκονομήσειε.
Φαμὲν τοίνυν τὴν μὲν ἐπιθυμίαν δεῖν ἐν καθαρῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἱδρυμένην ἔχειν, ὥσπερ τι ἀνάθημα ἢ ἀπαρχὴν τῶν ἰδίων ἀγαθῶν ἐξελόντα ἀφιερώσαντά τε αὐτὴν ἅπαξ ἀνέπαφον καὶ καθαρὰν διαφυλάσσειν, μηδαμοῦ τῇ κατὰ τὸν βίον ῥυπαρίᾳ μολυνομένην. Τὸν δὲ θυμὸν καὶ τὴν ὀργὴν καὶ τὸ μῖσος καθάπερ κύνας τινὰς πυλωροὺς πρὸς μόνην ἐγρηγορέναι τὴν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀντίστασιν καὶ κατὰ τοῦ «κλέπτου» καὶ πολεμίου κεχρῆσθαι τῇ φύσει, ὃς ἐπὶ λύμῃ τοῦ θείου θησαυροῦ παρεισδύεται καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἔρχεται, «ἵνα κλέψῃ καὶ θύσῃ καὶ ἀπολέσῃ». Τὴν δὲ ἀνδρείαν καὶ τὸ θάρσος ἀντὶ ὅπλου τινὸς διὰ χειρὸς φέρειν, πρὸς τὸ μὴ πτοηθῆναί ποτε «πτόησιν ἐπελθοῦσαν καὶ ὁρμὰς ἀσεβῶν ἐπερχομένας». Ἐλπίδι δὲ καὶ ὑπομονῇ ἀντὶ βακτηρίας, εἴποτε τοῖς πειρασμοῖς κάμοι, ἐπιστηρίζεσθαι. Τὸ δὲ τῆς λύπης κτῆμα καιρῷ μετανοίας ἐπὶ ἁμαρτήμασιν, εἰ τύχοι ποτὲ συμβάν, προχειρίζεσθαι, ὡς οὐδέποτε χρήσιμον ὂν ἢ πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην μόνην ὑπηρεσίαν. Ἡ δὲ δικαιοσύνη αὐτῷ κανὼν εὐθύτητος ἔσται, τὸ ἐν παντὶ ἄπταιστον λόγῳ τε καὶ ἔργῳ ὑφηγουμένη, ὅπως τε χρὴ τὰ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ διακεῖσθαι καὶ πῶς ἄν τις ἑκάστῳ τὸ κατ' ἀξίαν νέμοι. Τὴν δὲ τοῦ πλείονος ἔφεσιν, ὃ πολύ τε καὶ ἀμέτρητον ἔγκειται τῇ ἑκάστου ψυχῇ, τῇ κατὰ θεὸν ἐπιθυμίᾳ προσθείς, μακαριστὸς ἔσται τῆς πλεονεξίας, ἐκεῖ βιαζόμενος, ὅπου ἐπαινετὸν τὸ βιάζεσθαι. Σοφίαν δὲ καὶ φρόνησιν συμβούλους ἕξει τῶν συμφερόντων καὶ συνδιοικούσας αὐτῷ τὴν ζωήν, ὡς μηδαμοῦ ὑπὸ ἀμαθίας ἢ ἀφροσύνης παραβλαβῆναι. Εἰ δὲ μὴ κατὰ φύσιν καὶ κατὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον χρῷτο ταῖς εἰρημέναις δυνάμεσιν, ἀλλὰ ὑπαλλάσσοι παρὰ τὸ δέον τὴν χρῆσιν, τὴν μὲν ἐπιθυμίαν προστιθεὶς τοῖς αἰσχίστοις, τὸ δὲ μῖσος ἐπὶ τοὺς ὁμοφύλους προχειριζόμενος, «ἀγαπῶν δὲ τὴν ἀδικίαν» καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς γονέας ἀνδριζόμενος καὶ θαρσῶν τὰ ἄτοπα καὶ ἐλπίζων τὰ μάταια, φρόνησιν δὲ καὶ σοφίαν ἀπελαύνων τῆς μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ συνοικήσεως, λαιμαργίαν καὶ ἀφροσύνην προσεταιρίζοιτο, καὶ περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ὡσαύτως ποιῶν, ἄτοπος ἂν εἴη τις καὶ ἀλλόκοτος, ὡς μηδ' ἂν εἰπεῖν ἀξίως τινὰ δυνηθῆναι τὴν ἀτοπίαν. Καθάπερ γὰρ εἴ τις ἐναλλὰξ ὁπλιζόμενος ἀναστρέφοι μὲν τὸ κράνος, ὥστε καλύπτειν τὸ πρόσωπον καὶ ὀπίσω νενευκέναι τὸν λόφον, τοὺς δὲ πόδας ἔχοι ἐν θώρακι καὶ τὰς κνημῖδας ἐφαρμόζοι τῷ στήθει, καὶ ὅσα τῆς ἀριστερᾶς ἐστι τῇ δεξιᾷ μεταλαμβάνοι, τὴν δὲ τῶν δεξιῶν ὅπλισιν τῇ εὐωνύμῳ προσρίπτοι: ὅπερ οὖν παθεῖν εἰκὸς ἐν πολέμῳ τὸν τοιοῦτον ὁπλίτην, τοῦτο καὶ παρὰ τὸν βίον πάσχειν εἰκὸς τὸν συγκεχυμένον τὴν γνώμην καὶ τὴν χρῆσιν τῶν δυνάμεων τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπαμείβοντα.
Οὐκοῦν προνοητέον ἡμῖν τῆς ἐν τούτοις εὐαρμοστίας, ἣν ἡ ἀληθὴς σωφροσύνη πέφυκεν ἐμποιεῖν ταῖς ἡμετέραις ψυχαῖς. Καὶ εἰ χρὴ τὸν τελεώτατον τῆς σωφροσύνης ὅρον σκοπῆσαι, τάχα τοῦτο σωφροσύνη κυρίως ἂν λέγοιτο, ἡ πάντων τῶν ψυχικῶν κινημάτων μετὰ σοφίας καὶ φρονήσεως εὔτακτος οἰκονομία. Καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη κατάστασις τῆς ψυχῆς οὐκέτι πόνου τινὸς οὐδὲ πραγματείας πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὑψηλῶν τε καὶ οὐρανίων μετουσίαν δεήσεται, ἀλλ' ἐν πολλῇ ῥᾳστώνῃ τὸ τέως δυσέφικτον εἶναι δοκοῦν κατορθώσει φυσικῶς, τῇ ὑπεξαιρέσει τοῦ ἐναντίου τὸ ζητούμενον ἔχουσα: τόν τε γὰρ ἔξω τοῦ σκότους γενόμενον ἐν φωτὶ πάντως εἶναι ἀνάγκη, καὶ τὸν μὴ τεθνηκότα ζῆν. Καὶ τοίνυν εἴ τις «μὴ ἐπὶ ματαίῳ λάβοι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν», ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ πάντως τῆς ἀληθείας ἔσται: ἡ γὰρ τοῦ μὴ παρατραπῆναι πρόνοιά τε καὶ ἐπιστήμη ὁδηγία τίς ἐστιν ἀκριβὴς τῆς ἐπὶ τὴν εὐθεῖαν πορείας. Καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ ἐλευθερωθέντες οἰκέται παυσάμενοι τοῦ τοῖς κρατοῦσιν ὑπηρετεῖν, ἐπειδὰν ἑαυτῶν γένωνται κύριοι, τρέπουσι πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς τὴν σπουδήν, οὕτως οἶμαι καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐλευθερωθεῖσαν ἀπὸ τῆς σωματικῆς λατρείας καὶ ἀπάτης ἐπιγινώσκειν λοιπὸν τὴν οἰκεῖαν ἑαυτῇ καὶ κατὰ φύσιν ἐνέργειαν: ἡ δὲ ἐλευθερία ἐστί, καθὼς καὶ παρὰ τοῦ ἀποστόλου ἐμάθομεν, τὸ «μὴ ζυγῷ δουλείας ἐνέχεσθαι» μηδὲ καθάπερ δραπέτην ἢ κακοῦργον γενόμενον πεδηθῆναι τῷ τοῦ γάμου δεσμῷ.
Οὐκ ἐν τούτῳ δὲ μόνῳ τὸ τέλειον τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἐστίν _μή τις οὕτω μικρόν τε καὶ εὔωνον τὸ τῆς παρθενίας οἰέσθω, ὥστε ἐν ὀλίγῳ παρατηρήματι σαρκὸς κατορθοῦν νομίζειν τὸ τοσοῦτον πρᾶγμα_ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ «πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν δοῦλος τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐστίν», ἡ ἐν παντὶ πράγματι καὶ ἐπιτηδεύματι πρὸς κακίαν παρατροπὴ δουλοῦταί πως τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ στιγματίαν ποιεῖ μώλωπας αὐτῷ καὶ ἐγκαύματα διὰ τῶν τῆς ἁμαρτίας πληγῶν ἐμποιοῦσα, ὥστε τὸν τοῦ μεγάλου σκοποῦ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν παρθενίαν ἁψάμενον ἐν πᾶσι προσήκειν ἑαυτῷ εἶναι ὅμοιον καὶ πάσῃ τῇ ζωῇ συνεμφαίνειν τὴν καθαρότητα. Οὕτως καὶ ἡ ἁλιευτικὴ τέχνη ποιεῖ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ κυρίου παραβολήν, τοὺς χρηστοὺς καὶ ἐδωδίμους τῶν ἰχθύων ἀπὸ τῶν πονηρῶν τε καὶ δηλητηρίων διαχωρίζουσα, ὡς ἂν μή τινος τῶν ἐναντίων συνεισπεσόντος τοῖς ἀγγείοις, καὶ ἡ τῶν χρησίμων ἀπόλαυσις συναχρειωθῇ. Τοῦτο καὶ τῆς ἀληθινῆς σωφροσύνης ἔργον ἐστί, τὸ ἐκ πάντων τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων τὸ καθαρόν τε καὶ ὠφέλιμον ἐκλεγομένην ἐν παντὶ τὸ ἄχρηστον ἀποποιεῖσθαι καὶ ἐναφιέναι τοῦτο τῷ κοινῷ καὶ κοσμικῷ βίῳ, θαλάσσῃ τροπικῶς ὑπὸ τῆς παραβολῆς ὠνομασμένῳ: καθὼς καὶ ὁ ψαλμῳδὸς ὀνομάζει, διδασκαλίαν ἐξομολογήσεως ἔν τινι τῶν ψαλμῶν ἡμῖν ὑφηγούμενος, τὸν ἄστατον τοῦτον καὶ ἐμπαθῆ καὶ ταραχώδη βίον «ὕδατα ψυχῆς ἁπτόμενα καὶ βάθη θαλάσσης καὶ καταιγίδα» καλῶν, ἐν ᾗ πᾶσα μὲν ἀποστατικὴ διάνοια καθ' ὁμοιότητα τῶν Αἰγυπτίων «ὡς λίθος εἰς τὸν βυθὸν καταδύεται», ὅσον δὲ θεῷ φίλον καὶ διορατικὸν τῆς ἀληθείας ἐστίν, ὅπερ Ἰσραὴλ ὑπὸ τῆς ἱστορίας ὠνόμασται, τοῦτο μόνον ὡς ξηρὰν αὐτὴν διεξέρχεται οὐδαμοῦ τῆς πικρίας καὶ τῆς ἅλμης τῶν βιωτικῶν κυμάτων συνεφαπτόμενον. Οὕτω τυπικῶς ὑπὸ καθηγεμόνι τῷ νόμῳ_τύπος δὲ ἦν ὁ Μωϋσῆς τοῦ νόμου_καὶ ὁ Ἰσραὴλ τὴν θάλασσαν διεπέρασεν ἄβροχος, καὶ τούτῳ συνδιαπερῶν ὁ Αἰγύπτιος ὑποβρύχιος ἦν, ἑκάτερος ὑπὸ τῆς συμπαρούσης ἑαυτῷ διαθέσεως, ὁ μὲν κούφως διεξιών, ὁ δὲ εἰς βυθὸν καθελκόμενος. Κοῦφον μὲν γάρ τι καὶ ἀνωφερὲς πρᾶγμα ἡ ἀρετή: πάντες γὰρ οἱ κατ' αὐτὴν ζῶντες «ὡς νεφέλαι πέτονται» κατὰ τὸν Ἡσαΐαν «καὶ ὡς περιστεραὶ σὺν νεοσσοῖς»: βαρὺ δὲ ἡ ἁμαρτία, καθώς φησί τις τῶν προφητῶν, ἐπὶ τάλαντον μολύβδου καθεζομένη. Εἰ δέ τινι βεβιασμένη καὶ ἀπρόσκολλος ἡ τοιαύτη τῆς ἱστορίας ἐκδοχὴ φαίνεται, καὶ οὐ δέχεται πρὸς ὠφέλειαν ἡμῶν τὴν διὰ τῆς θαλάσσης θαυματοποιίαν ἀναγεγράφθαι, ἀκουσάτω τοῦ ἀποστόλου ὅτι «Ἐκείνοις μὲν συνέβαινε τυπικῶς, ἐγράφη δὲ πρὸς νουθεσίαν ἡμῶν.»