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God has set a goal for our life. And you will see not one alone, but a choir of saints arrayed under the leader, the chief, those who make an imitation of the one who succeeded. Among whom are many young in years who have grown grey in the purity of temperance, having reached old age in their reasoning and surpassed time by their manner of life, who demonstrated a love for wisdom more intense and violent than that for bodily pleasures, not because their nature was different—for in all "the flesh desires against the spirit"—but because they listened well to the one who said that temperance "is a tree of life to all who lay hold of her." Upon this tree, having sailed through the surge of youth as if on a raft, they have come to anchor in the harbor of God's will, and now in fair weather and calm they hold their souls untroubled by waves, blessed for their good voyage, who have secured their own state upon a good hope as upon some safe anchor, who rest far from the disturbance of the waves, having set forth the brightness of their own lives for those who follow, like some torches from a high beacon. Therefore we have one to whom we may look and safely sail through the surge of temptations.

23.7 Why are you meddling with me, if some of those who intended these things were defeated, and for this reason you despair as if the matter were impossible? Look to the one who succeeded, and with courage venture upon the good voyage, guided by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with Christ as your pilot. For not even "those who go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters" have made someone's shipwreck an obstacle to their hopes, but setting forth their own good hope, they hasten to the end of their success. Would it not be the most absurd of all things to consider it evil for someone to fail in the disciplined life, but to think it a better counsel to grow old for a whole lifetime in failures? For if it is terrible to approach sin once, and for this reason you believe it is safe not even to attempt the higher goal, how much more difficult is it to make sin the practice of one's life and for this reason remain altogether without a share in the purer life? How do you listen to the crucified one, you who are living; to the one who died to sin, you who are healthy in it; to the one commanding you to follow after him, bearing the cross on your body like some trophy against the adversary, you who are not being crucified to the world and not accepting the mortification of the flesh? How are you persuaded by Paul who exhorts you "to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God," you who are "conformed to this world and not transformed by the renewal of your mind" nor "walking in newness of this life," but still clinging to the sequence of the life of the old man? How do you serve as a priest to God, although you were anointed for this very thing, to offer a gift to God, a gift not at all foreign nor counterfeit from external things that accompany you, but that which is truly yours, which is the inner man, who ought to be perfect and blameless according to the law concerning the lamb, free from every spot and blemish? How then will you offer these things to God, you who do not listen to the law that forbids the impure to serve as priest? And if you desire God to appear to you, why do you not listen to Moses commanding the people to be pure from marriage, so that they may receive the manifestation of God? And if these things seem small to you, "to be crucified with Christ," "to present oneself a sacrifice to God," "to become a priest of God most high," to be deemed worthy of the great manifestation of God, what shall we devise for you higher than these things, if perhaps for you

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τέθεικε σκοπὸν ὁ θεὸς τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ζωῇ. Ὄψει δὲ οὐχ ἕνα μόνον, ἀλλὰ χορὸν ἁγίων ὑπὸ καθηγεμόνι τῷ κορυφαίῳ ταττόμενον, τοὺς μίμησιν τοῦ κατωρθωκότος ποιουμένους. Ἐν οἷς πολλοὶ ταῖς ἡλικίαις νεάζοντες ἐν τῷ καθαρῷ τῆς σωφροσύνης ἐπολιώθησαν, φθάσαντες τῷ λογισμῷ τὸ γῆρας καὶ τρόπῳ τὸν χρόνον ὑπερβαλλόμενοι, οἳ τὸν τῆς σοφίας ἔρωτα σφοδρότερον καὶ βιαιότερον τῶν σωματικῶν ἡδονῶν ἐπεδείξαντο, οὐχ ὅτι φύσεως ἑτέρως εἶχον-ἐν ἅπασι γὰρ «ἡ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος»-, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ καλῶς ἤκουσαν τοῦ εἰπόντος, ὅτι ἡ σωφροσύνη «ξύλον ἐστὶ ζωῆς πᾶσι τοῖς ἀντεχομένοις αὐτῆς». Ἐπὶ τούτου τοῦ ξύλου τὸν τῆς νεότητος κλύδωνα ὥσπερ ἐπὶ σχεδίας τινὸς διαπλεύσαντες εἰς τὸν λιμένα τοῦ θελήματος τοῦ θεοῦ καθωρμίσθησαν, καὶ νῦν ἐν εὐδίᾳ καὶ γαλήνῃ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀκύμαντον ἔχουσι, μακαριστοὶ τῆς εὐπλοΐας, οἳ τὸ καθ' ἑαυτοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγαθῆς ἐλπίδος ὥσπερ ἐπί τινος ἀσφαλοῦς ἐβεβαίωσαν ἀγκύρας, οἳ πόρρω τῆς τῶν κυμάτων ταραχῆς ἀτρεμοῦσι, καθάπερ πυρσούς τινας ἀπὸ ὑψηλῆς φρυκτωρίας τὴν τῶν ἰδίων βίων λαμπρότητα τοῖς ἑπομένοις προέθηκαν. Οὐκοῦν ἔχομεν πρὸς ὃν ἀποβλέψαντες ἀσφαλῶς τὸν κλύδωνα τῶν πειρασμῶν διαπλεύσωμεν.

23.7 Τί μοι πολυπραγμονεῖς, εἴ τινες τῶν ταῦτα διανοη θέντων ἡττήθησαν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀπογινώσκεις ὡς ἀμη χάνου τοῦ πράγματος; Πρὸς τὸν κατωρθωκότα βλέπε, καὶ θαρρῶν κατατόλμησον τῆς ἀγαθῆς ναυτιλίας τῇ ἐπι-πνοίᾳ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ὑπὸ κυβερνήτῃ τῷ Χριστῷ εὐθυνόμενος. Οὐδὲ γὰρ «οἱ καταβαίνοντες εἰς τὴν θάλασ σαν ἐν πλοίοις καὶ ποιοῦντες ἐργασίαν ἐν ὕδασι πολλοῖς» τὸ συμβάν τινι ναυάγιον κώλυμα τῶν ἐλπίδων πεποίηνται, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀγαθὴν ἐλπίδα ἑαυτῶν προβαλλόμενοι ἐπὶ τὸ πέρας τοῦ κατορθώματος σπεύδουσιν. Ἦ οὐχὶ πάντων ἀτοπώτατον ἂν εἴη τὸ μὲν σφαλῆναί τινα ἐν τῷ διηκριβωμένῳ βίῳ πονηρὸν τίθεσθαι, ὅλον δὲ τὸν βίον καταγηρῶντας ἐν σφάλμασιν ἄμεινον ἡγεῖσθαι βουλεύεσθαι; Εἰ γὰρ δεινόν ἐστιν ἅπαξ προσεγγίσαι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀσφαλὲς εἶναι νομίζεις τὸ μηδὲ ἐγχειρεῖν τῷ ὑψηλοτέρῳ σκοπῷ, πόσῳ χαλεπώτερόν ἐστιν ἐπιτήδευμα βίου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ποιή-σασθαι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀμέτοχον καθόλου τῆς καθαρωτέρας διαμεῖναι ζωῆς; Πῶς ἀκούεις τοῦ ἐσταυρωμένου, ὁ ζῶν, τοῦ ἀποθανόντος τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ὁ κατ' αὐτὴν ὑγιαίνων, τοῦ κελεύοντος τὴν ἀκολούθησιν ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ, ὥσπερ τι τρόπαιον κατὰ τοῦ ἀντικειμένου τὸν σταυρὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος φέροντος, ὁ μὴ σταυρούμενος τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ τὴν νέκρωσιν τῆς σαρκὸς μὴ δεχόμενος; Πῶς πείθῃ τῷ παρακαλοῦντί σε Παύλῳ «παραστῆσαι τὸ σῶμά σου θυσίαν ζῶσαν ἁγίαν εὐάρεστον τῷ θεῷ», «ὁ συσχηματιζόμενος τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ καὶ μὴ μεταμορφούμενος τῇ ἀνακαινώσει τοῦ νοός σου» μηδὲ «περιπατῶν ἐν τῇ καινότητι τῆς ζωῆς ταύτης», ἀλλ' ἔτι τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῆς τοῦ παλαιοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζωῆς περιέ-πων; Πῶς ἱερατεύεις θεῷ καίτοι εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο χρισθείς, εἰς τὸ προσφέρειν δῶρον τῷ θεῷ, δῶρον δὲ οὐκ ἀλλότριόν τι πάντως οὐδὲ ὑποβολιμαῖον ἐκ τῶν ἔξωθέν σοι παρεπο- μένων, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀληθῶς σόν, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ὁ ἔσω σου ἄνθρω-πος, τέλειός τε καὶ ἄμωμος εἶναι ὀφείλων κατὰ τὸν περὶ τοῦ ἀμνοῦ νόμον, πάσης κηλίδος τε καὶ λώβης ἀπηλλαγ-μένος; Πῶς οὖν ταῦτα προσοίσεις θεῷ, ὁ μὴ ἀκούων τοῦ νόμου τοῦ κωλύοντος ἱερᾶσθαι τὸν ἄναγνον; Εἰ δὲ καὶ τὸν θεὸν ἐπιφανῆναί σοι ποθεῖς, τί οὐκ ἀκούεις τοῦ Μωϋσέως καθαρεύειν ἀπὸ γάμου τῷ λαῷ παραγγέλλοντος, ἵνα χω-ρήσωσι τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ἐμφάνειαν; Εἰ δὲ μικρά σοι ταῦτα δοκεῖ, τὸ «συσταυρωθῆναι Χριστῷ», τὸ «παραστῆσαι ἑαυτὸν θυσίαν τῷ θεῷ», τὸ «ἱερέα γενέσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου», τὸ τῆς μεγάλης τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπιφανείας ἀξιωθῆναι, τί σοι τούτων ἐπινοήσωμεν ὑψηλότερον, εἴ πού σοι