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to be seen as just towards one another, we shall be able to obtain some loving-kindness. For with respect to God it is impossible, whatever we might show; for everywhere he himself conquers by what is just, as also the Prophet says: And you shall overcome when you are judged. But if we do not corrupt the just things toward one another, then we shall be just; if we are able to show that we have been wronged, then we shall be just. How does he say again to those who are clothed, Put on? He now speaks of from life and from works. Then the garment came from baptism, but now from conduct and from works, no longer according to the desires of deceit, but according to God. But what is holiness? That which is pure, that which is owed. For this reason we speak of piety over the departed; that is, I owe them nothing further, I am not liable. Thus it is our custom to say also, 'I have fulfilled my duty,' and such things, that is, 'I owe nothing.' 62.97 3. It is our part, therefore, not to take off the garment of righteousness, which the Prophet also calls a garment of salvation, that we may be made like God; for he himself is clothed in righteousness. Let us put on this garment. But 'to put on' means nothing other than never to put it off. For hear the Prophet saying: He clothed himself with a curse as with a garment, and it shall come upon him. And again, Who covers yourself with light as with a garment. And again, it is our custom to say of men: 'So-and-so has put on so-and-so.' So he wants us to be in virtue not for one day nor a second nor a third, but always, and never to be naked of this garment. For a man is not so unseemly being naked in body, as he is being naked of virtue. Here his fellow servants see him being unseemly, but there the Master and the angels. If, then, you see someone, tell me, going through the marketplace naked, do you not feel pain? When, then, you run naked of this garment, what shall we say? Do you not see these beggars, whom it is our custom to call ragamuffins, how they go about, how we pity them? But yet for these there is no pardon; for we do not forgive them when they lose their own garments by gambling. How then will God forgive us for having lost this garment? For when the devil sees someone naked of virtue, he immediately both covers his face with soot and darkens it, and wounds him, and forces great things. Let us become naked of money, so that we may not be stripped of righteousness; the covering of money corrupts this garment; it is a covering of thorns. Such are the thorns, and the more we put around ourselves, the more we are stripped naked. Licentiousness strips one of this garment; for it is a fire, and fire is consuming of this garment. Wealth is a moth; just as the moth eats through everything and does not even spare silk garments, so also does this. Let us therefore put away all these things, that we may become just, that we may put on the new man. Let us possess nothing old, nothing apparent, nothing corruptible. Virtue is not toilsome, it is not hard to achieve. Do you not see those in the mountains? they leave houses and wives and children and all protection, and having made themselves outside the world, putting on sackcloth, having strewn ashes under them, having hung collars from their necks, having shut themselves up in a small cell, they do not stop even at these things, but they also wear themselves out with fastings and continual hunger. If I were now commanding such things, would you not all have leaped away? would you not have said the matter is burdensome? I do not say one must do such a thing; for I wish it, but I do not legislate it. But what? Also use baths, and care for the body, and enter the marketplace, and have a house, and be served by servants, and use foods and drinks; cast out greed everywhere. For it is that which makes sin, and the same thing in excess has become sin. So that greed is nothing other than sin. And see: Anger, when it is moved more than is necessary, then leaping forth, it reviles, then it does all things unjustly; the desire for bodies, for money, for glory, for all other things. And do not say to me, that those

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δίκαιοι πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὀφθῆναι, δυνησόμεθα φιλανθρωπίας τινὸς τυχεῖν. Πρὸς μὲν γὰρ τὸν Θεὸν ἀδύνατον, ὅσα ἂν ἐπιδειξώμεθα· πανταχοῦ γὰρ αὐτὸς τοῖς δικαίοις νικᾷ, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Προφήτης λέγει· Καὶ νικήσεις ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαί σε. Ἀλλὰ τὰ πρὸς ἀλλήλους δίκαια ἂν μὴ διαφθείρωμεν, τότε ἐσόμεθα δίκαιοι· ἂν δυνηθῶμεν δεῖξαι, ὅτι ἠδικήθημεν, τότε ἐσόμεθα δίκαιοι. Πῶς ἐνδεδυμένοις αὐτοῖς πάλιν λέγει, Ἐνδύσασθε; Ἀπὸ τοῦ βίου νῦν φησι καὶ τῶν ἔργων. Τότε γέγονεν ἀπὸ τοῦ βαπτίσματος τὸ ἔνδυμα, νῦν δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς πολιτείας καὶ τῶν ἔργων, οὐκέτι κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἀπάτης, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν Θεόν. Τὸ δὲ ὅσιον τί ἐστι; Τὸ καθαρὸν, τὸ ὀφειλόμενον. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν ὁσίαν ἐπὶ ἀπελθόντων φαμέν· τουτέστιν, Οὐδὲν ὀφείλω αὐτοῖς λοιπὸν, οὐκ εἰμὶ ὑπεύθυνος. Οὕτως ἔθος ἡμῖν λέγειν καὶ τὸ, Ἀφωσιωσάμην, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, τουτέστι τὸ, Μηδὲν ὀφείλω. 62.97 γʹ. Ἡμῶν τοίνυν ἐστὶ μὴ ἀποδύσασθαι τὸ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἱμάτιον, ὃ καὶ ὁ Προφήτης ἱμάτιον σωτηρίου καλεῖ, ἵνα τῷ Θεῷ ὁμοιωθῶμεν· καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς δικαιοσύνην ἐνδέδυται. Τοῦτο ἐνδυσώμεθα τὸ ἱμάτιον. Τὸ δὲ, ἐνδύσασθαι, οὐδὲν ἄλλο δηλοῖ, ἢ τὸ μηδέποτε ἀποθέσθαι. Ἄκουε γὰρ τοῦ Προφήτου λέγοντος· Ἐνεδύσατο κατάραν ὡς ἱμάτιον, καὶ ἥξει αὐτῷ. Καὶ πάλιν, Ὁ περιβαλλόμενος φῶς ὡς ἱμάτιον. Καὶ πάλιν ἡμῖν ἔθος λέγειν ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων· Ὁ δεῖνα τὸν δεῖνα ἐνεδύσατο. Ὥστε οὐ μίαν ἡμέραν οὐδὲ δευτέραν οὐδὲ τρίτην, ἀλλὰ διαπαντὸς ἡμᾶς βούλεται εἶναι ἐν ἀρετῇ, καὶ μηδέποτε γυμνοὺς εἶναι τοῦ ἱματίου τούτου. Οὐ γὰρ οὕτως ἄνθρωπος ἀσχημονεῖ γυμνὸς ὢν τὸ σῶμα, ὡς γυμνὸς ὢν τὴν ἀρετήν. Ἐνταῦθα αὐτὸν οἱ ὁμόδουλοι βλέπουσιν ἀσχημονοῦντα, ἐκεῖ δὲ ὁ ∆εσπότης καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι. Ἂν οὖν τινα ἴδῃς, εἰπέ μοι, γυμνὸν διὰ τῆς ἀγορᾶς προϊόντα, οὐχὶ ἀλγεῖς; Ὅταν οὖν σὺ γυμνὸς τοῦ ἱματίου τούτου τρέχῃς, τί ἐροῦμεν; Οὐχ ὁρᾷς τούτους τοὺς προσαιτοῦντας, οὓς λώταγας ἡμῖν ἔθος καλεῖν, πῶς περιίασι, πῶς καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐλεοῦμεν; Ἀλλ' ὅμως τούτοις οὐδὲ συγγνώμη τίς ἐστιν· οὐδὲ γὰρ συγγινώσκομεν αὐτοῖς, ὅταν κυβεύοντες ἑαυτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια ἀπολλύωσι. Πῶς οὖν ἡμῖν ὁ Θεὸς συγγνώσεται τὸ ἱμάτιον τοῦτο ἀπολέσασιν; Ὅταν γὰρ ὁ διάβολος ἴδῃ γυμνὸν ἀρετῆς τινα, εὐθέως καὶ ἀσβολοῖ καὶ ἀμαυροῖ τὸ πρόσωπον, καὶ τιτρώσκει, καὶ ἀναγκάζει μεγάλα. Γυμνοὶ γενώμεθα χρημάτων, ἵνα μὴ γυμνωθῶμεν ἀπὸ δικαιοσύνης· ἡ τῶν χρημάτων περιβολὴ τοῦτο λυμαίνεται τὸ ἱμάτιον· ἀκανθῶν ἐστι περιβολή. Τοιαῦταί εἰσιν αἱ ἄκανθαι, καὶ ὅσῳ ἂν πλείονας περιβαλώμεθα, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον γυμνούμεθα. Ἡ ἀσέλγεια γυμνοῖ τοῦ ἱματίου τούτου· πῦρ γάρ ἐστι, τὸ δὲ πῦρ ἀναλωτικὸν τοῦ ἱματίου τούτου. Σής ἐστιν ὁ πλοῦτος· καθάπερ ὁ σὴς πάντα διατρώγει καὶ οὐδὲ τῶν σηρικῶν φείδεται, οὕτω καὶ οὗτος. Πάντα τοίνυν ταῦτα ἀποθώμεθα, ἵνα γενώμεθα δίκαιοι, ἵνα ἐνδυσώμεθα τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον. Μηδὲν παλαιὸν, μηδὲν φαινόμενον, μηδὲν φθειρόμενον κατέχωμεν. Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ἀρετὴ ἐπίπονος, οὐκ ἔστι δυσκατόρθωτος. Οὐχ ὁρᾷς τοὺς ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν; ἐκεῖνοι καὶ οἰκίας ἀφιᾶσι καὶ γυναῖκας καὶ παῖδας καὶ προστασίαν ἅπασαν, καὶ ἐκτὸς ἑαυτοὺς τοῦ κόσμου ποιησάμενοι, σάκκον περιθέμενοι, σποδὸν ὑποστρωσάμενοι, κλοιὰ τῶν τραχήλων ἐξαρτήσαντες, ἐν οἰκίσκῳ μικρῷ κατακλείσαντες ἑαυτοὺς, οὐδὲ μέχρι τούτων ἵστανται, ἀλλὰ καὶ νηστείαις καὶ λιμῷ διηνεκεῖ κατατείνουσιν ἑαυτούς. Εἰ τοιαῦτα ἐπέταττον νῦν ἐγὼ, οὐκ ἂν ἅπαντες ἀπεπηδήσατε; οὐκ ἂν εἴπατε τὸ πρᾶγμα φορτικόν; Οὐδὲ τοιοῦτόν φημι δεῖν ποιεῖν· βούλομαι μὲν γὰρ, πλὴν οὐ νομοθετῶ. Ἀλλὰ τί; Καὶ λουτροῖς κέχρησο, καὶ τὸ σῶμα θεράπευε, καὶ εἰς ἀγορὰν ἔμβαλλε, καὶ οἰκίαν ἔχε, καὶ διακόνοις διακονοῦ, καὶ χρῶ σιτίοις καὶ ποτοῖς· πανταχοῦ τὴν πλεονεξίαν ἔκβαλλε. Ἐκείνη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ποιοῦσα, καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα πλεονάζον ἁμαρτία γέγονεν. Ὥστε οὐδὲν ἕτερόν ἐστιν ἡ πλεονεξία, ἢ ἁμαρτία. Καὶ ὅρα· Ὁ θυμὸς ὅταν πλέον τοῦ δέοντος κινηθῇ, τότε ἐκπηδῶν λοιδορεῖται, τότε ἀδίκως πάντα ποιεῖ· ὁ τῶν σωμάτων ἔρως, ὁ τῶν χρημάτων, ὁ τῆς δόξης, ὁ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων. Καὶ μή μοι εἴπῃς, ὅτι ἐκεῖνοι