45.  For some need to be fed with the milk97    1 Cor. iii. 1, 2; Heb. v. 12–14. of the most simple and elementary doctrines, viz., those who are in habit babes and, so to say, new-made, and unable to bear the manly food of the word:  nay, if it were presented to them beyond their strength, they would probably be overwhelmed and oppressed, owing to the inability of their mind, as is the case with our material bodies,98    Our material bodies, lit., “matter.”  This, together with “dust,” “mire” or “clay” and other similar terms, is often used by S. Gregory as a synonym of “the body.” to digest and appropriate what is offered to it, and so would lose even their original power.  Others require the wisdom which is spoken among the perfect,99    1 Cor. ii. 6. and the higher and more solid food, since their senses have been sufficiently exercised to discern100    Heb. v. 14. truth and falsehood, and if they were made to drink milk, and fed on the vegetable diet of invalids,101    Rom. xiv. 2. they would be annoyed.  And with good reason, for they would not be strengthened102    Col. i. 11, 16, 17. according to Christ, nor make that laudable increase, which the Word produces in one who is rightly fed, by making him a perfect man, and bringing him to the measure of spiritual stature.103    Eph. iv. 13.

ΜΕʹ. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ δέονται γάλακτι τρέφεσθαι, τοῖς ἁπλουστέροις καὶ στοιχειωδεστέροις τῶν διδαγμάτων, ὅσοι τὴν ἕξιν νήπιοι καὶ ἀρτιπαγεῖς, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, τὴν ἀνδρείαν τοῦ λόγου τροφὴν οὐ φέροντες: ἣν εἰ προσάγοι τις παρὰ δύναμιν, τάχα ἂν καταπιεσθέντες καὶ βαρηθέντες, οὐκ ἐξαρκούσης τῆς διανοίας, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖ τῆς ὕλης τὸ ἐπεισελθὸν ἑλκῦσαι καὶ οἰκειώσασθαι, ζημιωθεῖεν ἂν καὶ εἰς τὴν ἀρχαίαν δύναμιν: οἱ δὲ τῆς ἐν τοῖς τελείοις λαλουμένης σοφίας χρῄζοντες καὶ τροφῆς τῆς ὑψηλοτέρας καὶ στεῤῥοτέρας, τῷ πρὸς διάκρισιν ἀληθοῦς τε καὶ ψευδοῦς ἱκανῶς γεγυμνάσθαι τὰ αἰσθητήρια, εἰ γάλα ποτίζοιντο καὶ τρέφοιντο λαχάνοις, ἀσθενῶν βρώματι, δυσχεραίνοιεν ἄν: καὶ μάλα εἰκότως, οὐ δυναμούμενοι κατὰ Χριστὸν, οὐδὲ αὔξοντες τὴν ἐπαινετὴν αὔξησιν, ἣν ἐργάζεται λόγος τελειῶν εἰς ἄνδρα, καὶ εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας ἄγων πνευματικῆς, τὸν καλῶς τρεφόμενον.