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dominion with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY VI. Concerning the tree, whether from it the knowledge of good and evil came to Adam, or whether he had this discernment even before eating; in which also is a discussion on fasting, and on the necessity of studying at home what is said in church.

1. I love fasting, because it is the mother of temperance, and the fount of all philosophy; and I love it both for your sake, and for your love, because it has gathered for me this your sacred and honored assembly, and gives me to see again the faces I have longed for, and permits me to revel freely in this goodly festival and celebration. For one would not err in calling your assembly a festival and a celebration and a myriad of good things. For if someone goes into the marketplace, and meeting a single friend, often puts away all despondency; how shall we, coming not to the marketplace, but to the church, and meeting not a single friend, but 54.605 being with so many and such brethren and fathers, not put away all despondency? how shall we not reap every pleasure? For not only in number is this gathering better than the meetings in the marketplaces, but also in the very nature of the discourse. For those who meet in the marketplaces and sit together in a circle, often converse about unprofitable matters, and introduce frigid conversation, and speak of things that are no concern of theirs. For we are accustomed, for the most part, to pry into and be meddlesome about the affairs of others with great eagerness. Now, that it is precarious and has its danger, to utter and to hear such words, and to be carried away, and that often from such meetings tempests have been stirred up in homes, I pass over for now; but that all that discourse is unprofitable and frigid and worldly, and that a spiritual word would not likely ever enter such a gathering, no one would deny. Here, however, it is not so, but entirely the opposite; for all unprofitable discourse has been driven away, and all spiritual teaching has been brought in. For we converse about our soul, and the goods pertaining to the soul, and about the crowns laid up in the heavens, and about splendid lives, and about the love of God for mankind, and about the providence of the universe, and about all other things that most concern us, and for what reason we were made, and what end will meet us after our departure from hence, and in what state our affairs will then be. And in this gathering not only we, but also prophets and apostles participate; and what is greater than all, the Lord of all himself, Jesus, stands in our midst. For He Himself says, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And if where two or three are gathered, He is in their midst, how much more where so many men, so many women, so many fathers, and apostles and prophets are present in the midst. Wherefore we too speak with greater eagerness, enjoying the influence from thence, and we render our promise to you. For we promised to speak previously about the tree, whether from it the knowledge of good and evil came to Adam, or whether he had this discernment even before eating. We would therefore say with confidence now, that even before eating he had this discernment. For if he did not know what was good and what was evil, he would have been more irrational than the irrational animals themselves, and the master more senseless than his servants. For how would it not be absurd, for goats and sheep to know which

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κράτος σὺν τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΣΤʹ. Περὶ τοῦ ξύλου, εἰ ἐξ ἐκείνου γέγονεν ἡ γνῶσις τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τοῦ πονηροῦ τῷ Ἀδὰμ, ἢ καὶ πρὸ τῆς βρώσεως εἶχε τὴν διάγνωσιν ταύτην· ἐν ᾧ καὶ περὶ νηστείας, καὶ περὶ τοῦ δεῖν ἐν οἰκίᾳ μελετᾷν τὰ λεγόμενα ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ.

αʹ. Φιλῶ μὲν τὴν νηστείαν, ὅτι μήτηρ σωφροσύνης ἐστὶν, καὶ πηγὴ φιλοσοφίας ἁπάσης· φιλῶ δὲ αὐτὴν καὶ δι' ὑμᾶς, καὶ διὰ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην, ὅτι μοι ταύτην τὴν ἱερὰν καὶ τιμίαν ὑμῶν συνήγαγε σύνοδον, καὶ τὰ ποθούμενα πρόσωπα δίδωσι πάλιν ἰδεῖν, καὶ παρέχει μετὰ ἀδείας ἐντρυφῆσαι τῇ καλῇ ταύτῃ πανηγύρει καὶ ἑορτῇ. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ πανήγυριν καὶ ἑορτὴν καὶ μυρία ἀγαθὰ οὐκ ἄν τις ἁμάρτοι τὴν ὑμετέραν σύνοδον προσειπών. Εἰ γὰρ εἰς ἀγοράν τις ἐμβαλὼν, καὶ ἑνὶ συντυγχάνων φίλῳ, πολλάκις πᾶσαν ἀθυμίαν ἀποτίθεται· ἡμεῖς οὐκ εἰς ἀγορὰν, ἀλλ' εἰς ἐκκλησίαν ἀπαντῶντες, καὶ οὐχ ἑνὶ συντυγχάνοντες φίλῳ, ἀλλὰ 54.605 τοσούτοις καὶ τοιούτοις ἀδελφοῖς καὶ πατράσι συγγινόμενοι, πῶς οὐ πᾶσαν ἀποθησόμεθα ἀθυμίαν; πῶς οὐ πᾶσαν ἡδονὴν καρπωσόμεθα; Οὐ γὰρ τῷ πλήθει μόνον οὗτος βελτίων ὁ σύλλογος τῶν συνεδρίων τῶν ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῇ τῇ φύσει τῆς διαλέξεως. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἐν ἀγοραῖς συνεδρεύοντες καὶ μετὰ ἀλλήλων συγκαθήμενοι κύκλῳ, πολλάκις καὶ περὶ ἀνονήτων διαλέγονται πραγμάτων, καὶ ψυχρὰν εἰσάγουσιν ὁμιλίαν, καὶ φθέγγονται περὶ τῶν οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς προσηκόντων. Καὶ γὰρ εἰώθαμεν, ὡς τὰ πολλὰ, μετὰ πλείονος σπουδῆς τὰ ἀλλότρια περιεργάζεσθαι καὶ πολυπραγμονεῖν. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ἐπισφαλὲς καὶ κίνδυνον ἔχον, τὰ ῥήματα προϊέναι καὶ ἀκούειν τοιαῦτα, καὶ παρασύρεσθαι, καὶ πολλοὶ πολλάκις ἀπὸ τῶν τοιούτων συνεδρίων χειμῶνες ἐπῃωρίσθησαν ἐν οἰκίαις, παρίημι νῦν· ὅτι δὲ ἀνόνητος καὶ ψυχρὰ καὶ βιωτικὴ πᾶσα ἐκείνη ἡ διάλεξις, καὶ πνευματικὸς λόγος οὐκ ἄν ποτε ταχέως εἰς τοιοῦτον εἰσέλθοι σύλλογον, οὐδεὶς ἀντείποι. Ἐνταῦθα δὲ οὐχ οὕτως, ἀλλ' ἅπαν τοὐναντίον· πᾶσα μὲν γὰρ ἀκερδὴς διάλεξις ἀπελήλαται, πᾶσα δὲ πνευματικὴ διδασκαλία εἰσενήνεκται. Καὶ γὰρ περὶ ψυχῆς τῆς ἡμετέρας διαλεγόμεθα, καὶ τῶν ψυχῇ προσηκόντων ἀγαθῶν, καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀποκειμένων ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς στεφάνων, καὶ περὶ τῶν λαμπρῶν βίων, καὶ περὶ τῆς φιλανθρωπίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ περὶ τῆς προνοίας τοῦ παντὸς, καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων τῶν μάλιστα προσηκόντων ἡμῖν, καὶ τίνος ἕνεκεν γεγόναμεν, καὶ ποία μετὰ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἀποδημίαν ἀπαντήσεται λῆξις ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐν τίσι τὰ ἡμέτερα ἔσται τότε. Καὶ τοῦ συλλόγου τούτου οὐχ ἡμεῖς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ προφῆται καὶ ἀπόστολοι κοινωνοῦσι· καὶ τὸ δὴ μεῖζον πάντων, αὐτὸς ὁ τῶν ἁπάντων ∆εσπότης μέσος ἡμῶν ἕστηκεν Ἰησοῦς. Αὐτὸς γάρ φησιν, Ὅπου δύο ἢ τρεῖς συνηγμένοι εἰσὶν εἰς τὸ ὄνομά μου, ἐκεῖ εἰμι ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν. Εἰ δὲ ὅπου δύο ἢ τρεῖς εἰσι συνηγμένοι, ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν ἐστι, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὅπου τοσοῦτοι μὲν ἄνδρες, τοσαῦται δὲ γυναῖκες, τοσοῦτοι δὲ πατέρες, καὶ ἀπόστολοι καὶ προφῆται ἐν μέσῳ πάρεισι. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἡμεῖς μετὰ πλείονος προθυμίας φθεγγόμεθα τῆς ἐκεῖθεν ἀπολαύοντες ῥοπῆς, καὶ τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν ὑμῖν ἀποδιδόαμεν. Ὑπεσχόμεθα γὰρ ἐρεῖν περὶ τοῦ ξύλου πρότερον, εἰ ἐξ ἐκείνου γέγονεν ἡ γνῶσις τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τοῦ πονηροῦ τῷ Ἀδὰμ, ἢ καὶ πρὸ τῆς βρώσεως εἶχε τὴν διάγνωσιν ταύτην. Θαῤῥοῦντες οὖν ἂν εἴποιμεν νῦν, ὅτι καὶ πρὸ τῆς βρώσεως ταύτην εἶχε τὴν διάγνωσιν. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ᾔδει τί μὲν καλὸν, τί δὲ πονηρὸν, καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ἀλόγων ἀλογώτερος ἦν, καὶ τῶν δούλων ὁ δεσπότης ἀνοητότερος. Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἄτοπον, αἶγας μὲν καὶ πρόβατα εἰδέναι ποία μὲν αὐτοῖς