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you will show, how will you not again be deemed worthy of a greater honor? 4.12 For you heard today the blessed Paul, the bridegroom's attendant of the church, writing and saying: 'Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature'; not that we should think what was said is about this sensible creation, for it was for this reason that he added: 'if any man be in Christ,' teaching us that if anyone has transferred to faith in Christ, he shows us a new creation. For what is the benefit, tell me, to see so new a heaven and the other parts of creation, as is the gain to see a man who has passed from evil to virtue and has been transferred from error to the truth. For this is what this blessed one also called a new creation, wherefore he also added immediately: 'The old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,' all but showing that just as having put off the burden of sins like an old garment through faith in Christ, those who have been freed from error and illuminated by the light of righteousness have put on this new and bright garment and the royal robe; for this reason he said: 'if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.' 4.13 For how is it not new and strange when one who yesterday and before was devoted to luxury and gluttony suddenly embraces temperance and simplicity of diet? How are all things not new and strange when one who was formerly licentious and was being consumed by the pleasures of the present life, suddenly having become superior to his passions, as if not even clothed with a body, so pursues temperance and purity. 4.14 Do you see how what has happened is truly a new creation? For the grace of God, having entered, has remolded and reformed the souls and has made them different from what they were, not by changing their substance but by refashioning their will, and no longer allowing the judgment of the eyes of the mind to hold a contrary opinion about things, but just as having scattered a certain blindness from the eyes, it has granted to see accurately both the ugliness and shapelessness of evil and the great beauty and brightness of virtue. 4.15 Do you see how each day the Master works a new creation? For who else, tell me, has persuaded one who has often spent his whole life in the pleasures of this life and worshiping stones and wood and considering these to be gods, to ascend suddenly to such a height of virtue as to despise and laugh at all those things and to see stones as stones and likewise wood as wood, and to worship the creator of all things and to prefer faith in him above all things in the present life. 4.16 Do you see how faith in Christ and the return to virtue is called a new creation? Let us hear, then, I beseech you, both those who have long been initiated and those who have recently enjoyed the Master's honor, the apostolic exhortation that says: 'The old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,' and having forgotten all former things, let us so reform our own life as if living in a new life, and considering the dignity of the one who dwells in us, so let us both speak and do all things. 4.17 For if men who undertake the duties of this life, and often bear upon the garment which they wear the image of the royal portraits and because of this appear trustworthy to all others, would never endure to do anything which would be unworthy of that garment which has the royal images, but even if they themselves should ever attempt it, they have many who hinder them, and if certain others should wish to treat them badly, they have sufficient security from suffering anything unpleasant because of the garment they wear, how much more indeed should those who have not upon a garment but upon their soul Christ himself dwelling within, and his Father, and the visitation of the Holy Spirit, justly be showing great security and making themselves manifest to all through the precise

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ἐπιδείξεσθε, πῶς οὐ μείζονος πάλιν ἀξιωθήσεσθε τῆς φιλοτιμίας; 4.12 Ἠκούσατε γὰρ σήμερον τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου τοῦ νυμφαγωγοῦ τῆς ἐκκλησίας γράφοντος καὶ λέγοντος· «Ὥστε εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις»· οὐχ ἵνα περὶ τῆς αἰσθητῆς ταύτης κτίσεως νομίσωμεν εἶναι τὸ εἰρημένον, διὰ γὰρ τοῦτο προσέθηκεν· «εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ» διδάσκων ἡμᾶς ὅτι εἴ τις πρὸς τὴν εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν πίστιν μετετάξατο, καινὴν κτίσιν ἡμῖν ἐπιδείκνυσι. Τί γὰρ ὄφελος, εἰπέ μοι, τοσοῦτον καινὸν ἰδεῖν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τῆς κτίσεως μέρη, ὅσον κέρδος ἄνθρωπον ἰδεῖν ἀπὸ κακίας ἐπὶ ἀρετὴν μεταστάντα καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς πλάνης ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν μεταταξάμενον. Τοῦτο γὰρ καινὴν κτίσιν καὶ ὁ μακάριος οὗτος ὠνόμασε, διὸ καὶ ἐπήγαγεν εὐθέως· «Τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθεν, ἰδοὺ γέγονε τὰ πάντα καινά», μονονουχὶ δεικνὺς ὅτι καθάπερ ἱμάτιον παλαιὸν ἀποδυσάμενοι τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τὸ φορτίον διὰ τῆς εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν πίστεως, τὸ καινὸν τοῦτο καὶ φαιδρὸν ἱμάτιον καὶ τὴν στολὴν τὴν βασιλικὴν περιέθεντο οἱ τῆς πλάνης ἐλευθερωθέντες καὶ τῷ φωτὶ τῆς δικαιοσύνης καταυγασθέντες· διὰ τοῦτο ἔλεγεν· «εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις· τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθεν, ἰδοὺ γέγονε τὰ πάντα καινά». 4.13 Πῶς γὰρ οὐ καινὰ καὶ παράδοξα ὅταν ὁ χθὲς καὶ πρώην περὶ τὴν τρυφὴν καὶ τὴν ἀδηφαγίαν ἐσχολακὼς ἀθρόον ἐγκράτειαν καὶ λιτότητα διαίτης ἀσπάζηται; Πῶς οὐ καινὰ καὶ παράδοξα τὰ πάντα ὅταν ὁ πρότερον ἀκόλαστος καὶ περὶ τὰς ἡδονὰς τοῦ παρόντος βίου καταδαπανώμενος, ἐξαίφνης ἀνώτερος τῶν παθῶν γεγονώς, ὡς οὐδὲ σῶμα περικείμενος, οὕτω τὴν σωφροσύνην καὶ τὴν ἁγνείαν μεταδιώκῃ. 4.14 Εἶδες πῶς ὄντως καινὴ κτίσις ἐστὶ τὸ γεγενημένον; Ἡ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ χάρις ἐπεισελθοῦσα μετέπλασε καὶ μετερρύθμισε τὰς ψυχὰς καὶ ἄλλας ἀντ' ἄλλων αὐτὰς εἰργάσατο, οὐ τὴν οὐσίαν μεταβαλοῦσα ἀλλὰ τὴν προαίρεσιν μετασκευάσασα καὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τῆς διανοίας τὸ κριτήριον οὐκ ἀφιεῖσα λοιπὸν ἐναντίαν περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων ἔχειν τὴν ὑπόληψιν, ἀλλὰ καθάπερ λήμην τινὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἀποσκεδάσασα παρέσχεν ἀκριβῶς ὁρᾶν καὶ τῆς κακίας τὸ δυσειδὲς καὶ ἄμορφον καὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς τὴν πολλὴν εὐμορφίαν καὶ τὴν φαιδρότητα. 4.15 Εἶδες πῶς καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν καινὴν ἐργάζεται κτίσιν ὁ δεσπότης; Τίς γὰρ ἕτερος ἔπεισεν, εἰπέ μοι, τὸν πᾶσαν τὴν ζωὴν πολλάκις καταναλώσαντα εἰς τὰς τοῦ βίου ἡδυπαθείας καὶ λίθους προσκυνοῦντα καὶ ξύλα καὶ ταῦτα θεοὺς ἡγούμενον, ἀθρόον εἰς τοσοῦτον ὕψος ἀρετῆς ἀναδραμεῖν ὡς ἐκείνων μὲν ἁπάντων ὑπεριδεῖν καὶ καταγελᾶν καὶ τοὺς λίθους λίθους ὁρᾶν ὡσαύτως καὶ τὰ ξύλα ξύλα, τὸν δὲ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸν προσκυνεῖν καὶ τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν πίστιν τῶν ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ πάντων προτιμᾶν. 4.16 Εἶδες πῶς ἡ εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν πίστις καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὴν ἀρετὴν ἐπάνοδος καινὴ κτίσις λέγεται; Ἀκούωμεν τοίνυν, παρακαλῶ, καὶ οἱ πάλαι μεμυημένοι καὶ οἱ πρόσφατον τῆς φιλοτιμίας ἀπολαύσαντες τῆς δεσποτικῆς, τῆς ἀποστολικῆς παραινέσεως τῆς λεγούσης· «Τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθεν, ἰδοὺ γέγονε τὰ πάντα καινά» καὶ τῶν προτέρων ἁπάντων ἐπιλαθόμενοι, ὥσπερ ἐν καινῇ πολιτευόμενοι ζωῇ οὕτω τὸν ἑαυτῶν βίον μεταρρυθμίσωμεν, καὶ ἐννοοῦντες τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος ἐν ἡμῖν τὸ ἀξίωμα οὕτως ἅπαντα καὶ λέγωμεν καὶ πράττωμεν. 4.17 Εἰ γὰρ ἄνθρωποι τὰς βιωτικὰς λειτουργίας ἀναδεχόμενοι καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἐσθῆτος πολλάκις ἣν περίκεινται τὸν τύπον τῶν βασιλικῶν εἰκόνων ἐπιφερόμενοι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀξιόπιστοι τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασι φαινόμενοι, οὐδὲν ἀνάσχοιντο ἄν ποτε πρᾶξαι τοιοῦτον ὃ τῆς ἐσθῆτος ἐκείνης τῆς τοὺς τύπους ἐχούσης τοὺς βασιλικοὺς ἀνάξιον ἂν γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ κἂν αὐτοί ποτε ἐπιχειρήσωσι, πολλοὺς ἔχουσι τοὺς διακωλύοντας, κἂν ἕτεροί τινες αὐτοὺς κακῶς διαθεῖναι βούλοιντο, ἱκανὴν ἔχουσιν ἀσφάλειαν τοῦ μηδὲν ἀηδὲς παθεῖν τῆς ἐσθῆτος τὴν περιβολήν, πολλῷ δὴ μᾶλλον οἱ οὐκ ἐπὶ ἱματίου ἀλλ' ἐπὶ ψυχῆς αὐτὸν τὸν Χριστὸν ἔχοντες ἐνοικοῦντα καὶ τὸν τούτου Πατέρα καὶ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου τὴν ἐπιφοίτησιν, πολλὴν ἂν εἶεν δίκαιοι τὴν ἀσφάλειαν ἐπιδείκνυσθαι καὶ πᾶσιν ἑαυτοὺς καταδήλους ποιεῖν διὰ τῆς ἀκριβοῦς