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It is good for us to fill this assembly; and I infer this from the fact that our theater has become more splendid and the gathering of hearers more numerous. Not in vain, it seems, did we recently expend many words concerning them, exhorting your love to draw them to their mother, and to persuade them that it is possible even after bodily food to partake also of spiritual food. For when, tell me, have you done better, beloved? at the last gathering, when after the meal you turned to sleep, or now, when after the meal you have come to the hearing of the divine laws? when you were spending time in the marketplace, and partaking in gatherings that had nothing good in them, or now, when you stand with your brothers, and hear prophetic words? It is not a shame to eat, beloved, but what is? For one who has eaten to remain at home and to be absent from this sacred festival. For remaining at home you will be more idle and sluggish, but coming here you will shake off all sleep and all laziness; and not only laziness, but also having put away all despondency, you will be more at ease and more cheerful in all circumstances that befall you. And what need is there to say the rest? Only stand near one who is fasting, and you have immediately partaken of his fragrance; for the one fasting is a spiritual myrrh, revealing through the eyes and through the tongue and through all things the good order of the soul. I have said these things not to accuse those who have eaten breakfast, but to show the profit of fasting. And by fasting I mean not only the abstinence from foods, but even before this the abstinence from sins; since even he who has feasted, and has come here with fitting sobriety, is not far short of him who fasts, just as, therefore, he who has fasted and does not pay attention with zeal and exactness to what is said, will reap nothing great from the fast. For he who eats and partakes in the holy assembly with fitting zeal is much better than he who eats nothing and is absent; for not eating will not be able to benefit us in such a way as the partaking of spiritual teaching benefits and gives good things. For where else will you hear these things that you learn here? If you go to a court of law, there are disputes and battles; if to the senate-house, the care for political matters; if to a house, the concern for private affairs wears you down from all sides; if to the assemblies and gatherings of the marketplace, everything there too is earthly and corruptible; 49.112 for either about goods for sale, or about taxes, or about a luxurious table, or about the sale of lands, or about other contracts, or about wills, or about inheritances, or about certain other such things are all the conversations for those gathered there. And even if you enter the royal courts themselves, there again you will hear everyone discussing the same things: about money, about power, about the glory that is honored here, but nothing spiritual; but here, entirely the opposite: about heaven and the things in heaven, about the soul, about our life, and for what purpose we were made, and why we spend so much time here, and on what terms we depart from here, and what will succeed us after these things, and for what reason our body is of clay, and what is the nature of death, and what this present life is, and what the future one is, and absolutely nothing earthly, but all our discourses are about spiritual things; and having received great provisions for our salvation, thus we shall depart from here with good hope.

2. Since, then, we did not cast the seeds in vain, but just as I exhorted you, you all hunted down those of yours who were absent, come let us also repay you, and having reminded you of a few of the things said before, let us render again what remains. What then were the things said before? We were seeking how and in what manner before the giving of the Scriptures God ordered our affairs, and we were saying that through creation He educated our race, having stretched out the heaven and set it forth in the midst, a very great book, both for the unlearned and the wise, and for the poor and the rich, and for Scythians and

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καλὸν ἡμῖν σύλλογον τοῦτον πληροῦν· καὶ τοῦτο στοχάζομαι ἐκ τοῦ λαμπρότερον ἡμῖν τὸ θέατρον γενέσθαι καὶ πλείω τῶν ἀκροωμένων τὴν σύνοδον. Οὐ μάτην, ὡς ἔοικε, τοὺς πολλοὺς περὶ αὐτῶν πρώην ἀνηλώσαμεν λόγους, τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην παρακαλοῦντες ἕλκειν πρὸς τὴν μητέρα αὐτοὺς, καὶ πείθειν, ὡς ἔξεστι καὶ μετὰ τροφὴν σωματικὴν καὶ τροφῆς μετασχεῖν πνευματικῆς. Πότε γὰρ, εἰπέ μοι, βέλτιον πεποιήκατε, ἀγαπητοί; τῇ παρελθούσῃ συνάξει, ὅτε μετὰ τὴν τράπεζαν ἐπὶ ὕπνον ἐτρέπεσθε, ἢ νῦν, ὅτε μετὰ τὴν τράπεζαν πρὸς τὴν ἀκρόασιν τῶν θείων ἀπηντήκατε νόμων; ὅτε ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς διετρίβετε, καὶ συνεδρίων μετείχετε οὐδὲν ἐχόντων χρηστὸν, ἢ νῦν, ὅτε μετὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἑστήκατε τῶν ὑμετέρων, καὶ προφητικῶν ἀκούετε λόγων; Οὐκ ἔστιν αἰσχύνη τὸ φαγεῖν, ἀγαπητοὶ, ἀλλὰ τί; Τὸ φαγόντα μένειν οἴκοι καὶ ὑστερεῖν τῆς ἱερᾶς ταύτης ἑορτῆς. Οἴκοι μὲν γὰρ μένων ἀργότερος ἔσῃ καὶ νωθέστερος, ἐνταῦθα δὲ ἐλθὼν πάντα ὕπνον καὶ πᾶσαν ῥᾳθυμίαν ἀποτινάξεις· οὐ ῥᾳθυμίαν δὲ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀθυμίαν ἅπασαν ἀποθέμενος, ῥᾴων καὶ εὐθυμότερος ἐν ἅπασιν ἔσῃ τοῖς συμπίπτουσι πράγμασι. Καὶ τί χρὴ τὰ ἄλλα λέγειν; Στῆθι μόνον ἐγγὺς τοῦ νηστεύοντος, καὶ μετέλαβες αὐτοῦ εὐθέως τῆς εὐωδίας· μύρον γάρ ἐστιν ὁ νηστεύων πνευματικὸν, καὶ διὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ διὰ τῆς γλώττης καὶ διὰ πάντων ἐμφαίνων τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς εὐταξίαν. Ταῦτα οὐχὶ κατηγορῶν τῶν ἠριστηκότων εἶπον, ἀλλ' ἵνα δείξω τῆς νηστείας τὸ κέρδος. Νηστείαν δὲ οὐ τὴν ἀποχὴν λέγω τῶν βρωμάτων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸ ταύτης τὴν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀποχήν· ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ ἑστιαθεὶς, καὶ ἐνταῦθα μετὰ τῆς προσηκούσης παραγενόμενος σωφροσύνης, οὐ πολὺ τοῦ νηστεύοντος ἀπολιμπάνεται, ὥσπερ οὖν ὁ νηστεύσας καὶ μὴ μετὰ σπουδῆς καὶ ἀκριβείας τοῖς λεγομένοις προσέχων, οὐδὲν ἀπὸ τῆς νηστείας καρπώσεται μέγα. Ὁ γὰρ ἐσθίων καὶ συνάξεως ἁγίας κοινωνῶν μετὰ τῆς προσηκούσης σπουδῆς, τοῦ μηδὲν ἐσθίοντος καὶ ἀπολιμπανομένου πολὺ βελτίων ἐστίν· οὐδὲν γὰρ τοιοῦτο τὸ μὴ φαγεῖν ἡμᾶς ὠφελῆσαι δυνήσεται, ὅσα ὠφελεῖ καὶ δίδωσιν ἀγαθὰ τὸ πνευματικῆς μετασχεῖν διδασκαλίας. Ποῦ γὰρ ἑτέρωθι ταῦτα ἀκούσῃ ἅπερ ἐνταῦθα φιλοσοφεῖς; Ἂν εἰς δικαστήριον ἀπέλθῃς, ἀμφισβητήσεις ἐκεῖ καὶ μάχαι· ἂν εἰς βουλευτήριον, ἡ τῶν πολιτικῶν πραγμάτων φροντίς· ἂν εἰς οἰκίαν, τῶν ἰδιωτικῶν ἡ μέριμνα κατατρύχει πάντοθεν· ἂν εἰς συλλόγους καὶ συνέδρια τῆς ἀγορᾶς, πάντα κἀκεῖ γήινα καὶ φθαρτά· 49.112 ἢ γὰρ περὶ τῶν ὠνίων, ἢ περὶ τῶν εἰσφορῶν, ἢ περὶ τραπέζης πολυτελοῦς, ἢ περὶ χωρίων πράσεως, ἢ περὶ συμβολαίων ἑτέρων, ἢ περὶ διαθηκῶν, ἢ περὶ κληρονομιῶν, ἢ περὶ ἑτέρων τινῶν τοιούτων ἅπαντες τοῖς ἐκεῖ συλλεγομέγοις οἱ λόγοι γίνονται. Κἂν εἰς αὐτὰς δὲ εἰσέλθῃς τὰς βασιλικὰς αὐλὰς, καὶ ἐκεῖ πάλιν τὰ αὐτὰ ἀκούσῃ διαλεγομένων ἁπάντων περὶ χρημάτων, περὶ δυναστείας, περὶ δόξης τῆς ἐνταῦθα τιμωμένης, πνευματικὸν δὲ οὐδέν· ἐνταῦθα δὲ τοὐναντίον ἅπαν, περὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐν οὐρανῷ πραγμάτων, περὶ ψυχῆς, περὶ ζωῆς τῆς ἡμετέρας, καὶ τίνος ἕνεκεν γεγόναμεν, καὶ διὰ τί τοσοῦτον διατρίβομεν ἐνταῦθα χρόνον, καὶ ἐπὶ τίσιν ἀποδημοῦμεν ἐντεῦθεν, καὶ τί μετὰ ταῦτα ἡμᾶς διαδέξεται, καὶ τίνος ἕνεκεν τὸ σῶμα ἡμῖν πήλινον, καὶ τίς ἡ τοῦ θανάτου φύσις, καὶ τί ποτέ ἐστιν ἡ παροῦσα ζωὴ, καὶ τίς ἡ μέλλουσα, καὶ οὐδὲν ἁπλῶς γήινον, ἀλλὰ πάντες περὶ πνευματικῶν ἡμῖν οἱ λόγοι γίνονται· καὶ μεγάλα τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν λαβόντες ἐφόδια, οὕτως ἐντεῦθεν ἀπελευσόμεθα μετὰ χρηστῆς τῆς ἐλπίδος.

βʹ. Ἐπεὶ οὖν οὐκ εἰκῆ τὰ σπέρματα κατεβάλομεν, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ὑμᾶς παρεκάλεσα πάντας ἐθηρεύσατε τοὺς ἀπολειφθέντας ὑμῶν, φέρε καὶ ἡμεῖς ὑμᾶς ἀμειψώμεθα, καὶ μικρὰ τῶν πρότερον εἰρημένων ὑμᾶς ἀναμνήσαντες, τὰ λειπόμενα ἀποδῶμεν πάλιν. Τίνα οὖν ἦν τὰ πρώην εἰρημένα; Ἐζητοῦμεν πῶς καὶ τίνι τρόπῳ πρὸ τῆς τῶν Γραφῶν δόσεως τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ᾠκονόμησεν ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἐλέγομεν, ὅτι διὰ τῆς κτίσεως ἐπαίδευσεν ἡμῶν τὸ γένος, οὐρανὸν ἐκτείνας καὶ εἰς τὸ μέσον προθεὶς, βιβλίον μέγιστον, καὶ ἰδιώταις καὶ σοφοῖς, καὶ πένησι καὶ πλουσίοις, καὶ Σκύθαις καὶ