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produces; and no corruptible thing could fittingly be a gift to the incorruptible. For if the soul is incorruptible, its gifts are also incorruptible. And the form of this world is passing away. But if the law has a shadow of the good things to come, understand for me certain delightful, holy Sabbaths from the eternal days, new moons, festivals; and understand for me in a manner worthy of the spiritual law. Cease your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. If you wish to be in the good days, if you love life, do the commandment of life. For he who loves me, he says, will keep my commandments. And the first commandment is to cease the tongue from evil, and the lips from speaking deceit. For almost the most ready and manifold sin is that which is worked through the tongue. Were you angered? And the tongue runs ahead. Are you in desires? And you have the tongue before all things as a kind of procurer and panderer, working together with sin, playing the hypocrite to your neighbors. And the tongue is a weapon for you for injustice, not speaking the things from the heart, but bringing forth things for deceit. And why must I go through in my speech all the things sinned through the tongue? Our life is filled with stumblings from the tongue. Filthy speech, coarse jesting, foolish talk, things which are not fitting, slander, idle words, perjury, false testimony, all these evils, and even more than these, are the creations of the tongue. But those who open their mouth against the glory of God, and speak injustice to the height, by what other thing do they work impiety and not by the organ of the tongue? Since, therefore, By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned, cease your tongue from evil, and do not work vain treasures with a lying tongue. And cease your lips from speaking deceit; instead of this, Make the whole organ given to you for the service of speech to be at leisure from evil activity. And deceit is a hidden evil-doing brought to one's neighbor under the pretense of better things. 29.376 Turn away from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The exhortations are elementary, and introductory to piety: enjoining to restrain the tongue, to abstain from deceitful plots, to turn away from evil. For abstention from evil is not fitting for the perfect, but for one just being instructed it is proper to escape from the impulse toward evil, and having been freed, as it were, from the evil way of habit in a wicked life, thus to take hold of the activity of good things. For it is impossible to take hold of the good without first completely departing from and escaping evil; just as it is impossible to recover health without being freed from the sickness; or for one not purely ceased from being chilled to become warm; for these things are not receptive of one another. So also it is proper for the one about to be in a good life to be freed from all connection to evil. Seek peace, and pursue it. Concerning this the Lord has said: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives peace, do I give to you. Seek therefore the peace of the Lord, and pursue it. And you will pursue it in no other way than by running toward the goal for the prize of the upward call. For the true peace is above. Since for as long as we are bound to the flesh, we are yoked together with many things that also disturb us. Seek therefore peace, a release from the disturbances of this world; acquire a calm mind, a certain wave-less and untroubled state of the soul, neither shaken by passions, nor dragged around into consent by false doctrines inviting through plausibility, so that you may acquire the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guarding your heart. He who seeks peace seeks Christ, because he himself is our peace, who created the two into one new man, making peace, and making peace through the blood of his cross, whether the things in heaven or the things on earth. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

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ἀπεργάζεται· οὐδὲν δὲ φθαρτὸν ἁρμοζόντως ἂν δῶρον γένοιτο τῷ ἀφθάρτῳ. Εἰ γὰρ ἄφθαρτος ἡ ψυχὴ, ἄφθαρτα αὐτῆς καὶ τὰ χαρίσματα. Καὶ Παρ άγει τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου. Εἰ δὲ σκιὰν ἔχει ὁ νόμος τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, νόει μοί τινα Σάββατα τρυφερὰ, ἅγια, ἐκ τῶν αἰωνίων ἡμερῶν, νεομηνίας, ἑορτάς· καὶ νόει μοι ἀξίως τοῦ πνευμα τικοῦ νόμου. Παῦσον τὴν γλῶσσάν σου ἀπὸ κα κοῦ, καὶ χείλη σου τοῦ μὴ λαλῆσαι δόλον. Εἰ βούλει ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις γενέσθαι ταῖς ἀγαθαῖς, εἰ ἀγαπᾷς τὴν ζωὴν, ποίησον τὴν ἐντολὴν τῆς ζωῆς. Ὁ γὰρ ἀγαπῶν με, φησὶ, τὰς ἐντολάς μου τηρήσει. Πρώτη δὲ ἐντολὴ τὸ, παῦσαι τὴν γλῶσσαν ἀπὸ κακοῦ, καὶ χείλη τοῦ μὴ λαλῆσαι δόλον. Σχεδὸν γὰρ ἡ προχειροτάτη καὶ πολύτροπος ἁμαρτία ἡ διὰ γλώσσης ἐστὶν ἐνεργουμένη. Ὠργίσθης; καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα προτρέχει. Ἐν ἐπιθυμίαις εἶ; καὶ τὴν γλῶσ σαν ἔχεις πρὸ πάντων οἱονεί τινα μαστρωπὸν καὶ προαγωγὸν, συγκαταπρασσομένην τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, καθ υποκρινομένην τοὺς πλησίον. Καὶ ὅπλον σοι πρὸς τὴν ἀδικίαν ἡ γλῶσσα, μὴ τὰ ἀπὸ καρδίας φθεγγομένη, ἀλλὰ τὰ πρὸς ἀπάτην προφέρουσα. Καὶ τί δεῖ πάντα τῷ λόγῳ ἐπεξιέναι τῶν διὰ γλώσσης ἁμαρτανομένων; Πεπλήρωται ἡμῶν ὁ βίος τῶν ἀπὸ γλώσσης πταισμάτων. Αἰσχρολογία, εὐτραπε λία, μωρολογία, τὰ οὐκ ἀνήκοντα, καταλαλιαὶ, λό γος ἀργὸς, ἐπιορκίαι, ψευδομαρτυρίαι, πάντα ταῦτα τὰ κακὰ, καὶ ἔτι πλείω τούτων, τῆς γλώσσης ἐστὶ δημιουργήματα. Οἱ δὲ ἀνοίγοντες τὸ στόμα κατὰ τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ἀδικίαν εἰς τὸ ὕψος λαλοῦντες, ἄλλῳ τινὶ τὴν ἀσέβειαν καὶ οὐχὶ τῷ ὀρ γάνῳ τῆς γλώσσης ἐργάζονται; Ἐπειδὴ οὖν Ἐκ τῶν λόγων σου δικαιωθήσῃ, καὶ ἐκ τῶν λόγων σου κατακριθήσῃ, παῦσον τὴν γλῶσσάν σου ἀπὸ κακοῦ, καὶ μὴ ἐνεργήσῃς θησαυρίσματα γλώσσῃ ψευδεῖ μά ταια. Παῦσον δὲ καὶ τὰ χείλη σου τοῦ μὴ λαλῆσαι δόλον· ἀντὶ τοῦ, Ὅλον τὸ ὄργανον τὸ πρὸς τὴν διακο νίαν τοῦ λόγου σοι δεδομένον σχολάζειν ἀπὸ τῆς πονηρᾶς ἐνεργείας ποίησον. Ἔστι δὲ ὁ δόλος κακοποιία λαθραία ἐν προσποιήσει τῶν βελτιόνων τῷ πλησίον προσφερομένη. 29.376 Ἔκκλινον ἀπὸ κακοῦ, καὶ ποίησον ἀγα θόν· ζήτησον εἰρήνην, καὶ δίωξον αὐτήν. Στοι χειώδεις αἱ παραινέσεις, καὶ εἰσαγωγοὶ εἰς εὐσέβειαν· ἀκριβοῦσαι γλώσσης κρατεῖν, δολερῶν ἐπιβουλευμά των ἀπέχεσθαι, ἐκκλίνειν ἀπὸ κακοῦ. Οὐ γὰρ τελείῳ πρέπουσα ἡ ἀποχὴ τοῦ κακοῦ, ἀλλὰ τῷ ἄρτι στοι χειουμένῳ ἐκνεῦσαι προσήκει ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ κακὸν φορᾶς, καὶ οἱονεὶ ὁδοῦ κακῆς τῆς ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ βίῳ συνηθείας ἀπαλλαγέντα, οὕτως ἅψασθαι τῆς τῶν ἀγα θῶν ἐνεργείας. Ἀμήχανον γὰρ ἅψασθαι τοῦ ἀγα θοῦ μὴ ἀποστάντα πρότερον παντελῶς καὶ ἐκνεύσαντα τοῦ κακοῦ· ὡς ἀμήχανον ὑγείαν ἀναλαβεῖν μὴ τῆς νόσου ἀπαλλαγέντα· ἢ ἐν θερμότητι γενέσθαι τὸν μὴ καθαρῶς πεπαυμένον τῆς καταψύξεως· ἀνεπί δεκτα γὰρ ταῦτα ἀλλήλοις. Οὕτω καὶ τὸν μέλλοντα ἐν ἀγαθῷ βίῳ γενέσθαι πάσης προσήκει τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ κακὸν συναφείας ἀπαλλαγῆναι. Ζήτησον εἰρήνην, καὶ δίωξον αὐτήν. Περὶ ταύτης εἴρηκεν ὁ Κύριος· Εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν, εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν· οὐ καθὼς ὁ κόσμος δίδωσιν εἰρήνην, ἐγὼ δίδωμι ὑμῖν. Ζήτησον οὖν τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου εἰρήνην, καὶ δίωξον αὐτήν. ∆ιώξεις δὲ οὐκ ἄλλως ἢ κατὰ σκο πὸν τρέχων εἰς τὸ βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως. Ἄνω γάρ ἐστιν ἡ εἰρήνη ἡ ἀληθής. Ἐπεὶ ὅσον γε τῇ σαρκὶ συνδεδέμεθα χρόνον, πολλοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἐκταράσ σουσιν ἡμᾶς συνεζεύγμεθα. Ζήτησον οὖν εἰρήνην, λύσιν τῶν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου θορύβων· κτῆσαι γα ληνιῶντα νοῦν, ἀκύμονά τινα καὶ ἀτάραχον κατά στασιν τῆς ψυχῆς, μήτε ὑπὸ παθῶν σαλευομένην, μήτε ὑπὸ τῶν ψευδῶν δογμάτων διὰ πιθανότητος προκαλουμένων εἰς συγκατάθεσιν περιελκομένην, ἵνα κτήσῃ τὴν εἰρήνην τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν ὑπερέχουσαν πάντα νοῦν, φρουροῦσαν τὴν καρδίαν σου. Ὁ ζητῶν εἰρήνην Χριστὸν ἐκζητεῖ, ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ἡ εἰρήνη, ὃς ἔκτισε τοὺς δύο εἰς ἕνα καινὸν ἄνθρωπον, ποιῶν εἰρή νην, καὶ εἰρηνοποιήσας διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ σταυροῦ αὑτοῦ, εἴτε τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς εἴτε τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Ὀφθαλμοὶ Κυρίου ἐπὶ δικαίοις,