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they hate, and turn away as from a common enemy. But when you adorn the soul, this does not happen, but both men and angels and the Lord of angels, all weave a crown for you. So, if you love glory, desist from what you are now doing, and adorn not the house, but the soul, that you may become brilliant and renowned; for as it is now, nothing could be more worthless than you, who have a desolate soul and put forward the beauty of your house. But if you cannot bear what is said by me, hear what one of the outsiders did, 60.494 and be shamed at least by their philosophy. For it is said that one of them, having entered a splendid house, glittering with much gold, and sparkling with the beauty of its marbles and columns, when he saw that even the floor everywhere had carpets spread upon it, spat in the face of the master of the house; then, when he was being reproached, he said that because it was not possible to do this anywhere else in the house, he was compelled to insult his face. Do you see how ridiculous he is who adorns the outside, and is easily despised by all who have sense? And very rightly so. For not even if someone, allowing your wife to be clothed in rags and be neglected, were to clothe the handmaids in a splendid garment, would you bear it meekly, but you would be provoked, and you would say that the matter was the utmost insult. Consider this, therefore, also in the case of the soul. For when you adorn the walls and the floor and the furniture and all other things, but do not provide alms lavishly, nor practice the other philosophy, you are doing nothing other than this, or rather something much more grievous. For there is no difference between the female slave and the mistress, but between the soul and the flesh there is a great difference; and if of the flesh, much more of the soul and the house, and of the soul and the bed and the footstool. What defense, then, could you be worthy of, when you cover all these things with much silver, but overlook her clothed in rags, squalid, starving, full of wounds, torn by a thousand dogs, and after all this think that you are glorified by the adornment of the things that lie outside? which is indeed especially the part of extreme madness, to be laughed at and reproached, and to behave unseemly and be dishonored, and to fall into the utmost punishment, and still to take pride in these things. Therefore I beseech you, considering all these things, let us become sober at least sometime, and become our own masters, and transfer this adornment from things outside to the soul. For thus it both remains inviolable, and makes us equal to the angels, and will procure for us the immovable good things; may it be that we all attain these, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY XII.

I speak in a human way because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as

you presented the members of your flesh as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 1. Since he had required great exactness of life, commanding them to be dead to the world, and to have died to wickedness, and to remain unmoved toward the working of sins, and he seemed to be saying something great and heavy and surpassing human nature; wishing to show that he demands nothing excessive, nor as much as one who had enjoyed so great a gift ought, but something very moderate and light, he establishes it from its opposites, and says, I speak in a human way; as if he had said, from human reasonings, from what happens in common practice 60.494; for what is moderate he indicates by the term “human”; for elsewhere he also says: Temptation has seized you

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μισοῦσι, καὶ ἀποστρέφονται ὡς κοινὸν ἐχθρόν. Ἀλλ' οὐχ ὅταν τὴν ψυχὴν κοσμῇς, τοῦτο συμβαίνει, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄνθρωποι καὶ ἄγγελοι καὶ ὁ τῶν ἀγγέλων ∆εσπότης, πάντες σοι τὸν στέφανον πλέκουσιν. Ὥστε, εἰ δόξης ἐρᾷς, ἀπόστηθι τούτων ὧν νῦν ποιεῖς, καὶ μὴ τὴν οἰκίαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ψυχὴν καλλώπιζε, ἵνα γένῃ λαμπρὸς καὶ περιφανής· ὡς νῦν γε οὐδέν σου γένοιτ' ἂν εὐτελέστερον ἐρήμην ἔχοντος τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ τὸ τῆς οἰκίας προβαλλομένου κάλλος. Εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἀνέχῃ τῶν παρ' ἐμοῦ λεγομένων, ἄκουσον τί τῶν ἔξωθέν τις ἐποίησε, 60.494 καὶ αἰσχύνθητι τὴν γοῦν ἐκείνων φιλοσοφίαν. Λέγεται γάρ τις ἐκείνων εἰς οἰκίαν λαμπρὰν εἰσελθὼν, πολλῷ μὲν καταλαμπομένην χρυσίῳ, πολλῷ δὲ ἀπαστράπτουσαν τῷ τῶν μαρμάρων καὶ τῶν κιόνων κάλλει, ἐπειδὴ καὶ τὸ ἔδαφος εἶδε πανταχοῦ τάπητας ἔχον ἐστορεσμένους, εἰς τὴν ὄψιν ἐμπτύσαι τοῦ τῆς οἰκίας δεσπότου· εἶτα ἐγκαλούμενος εἰπεῖν, διὰ τὸ μηδαμοῦ τῆς οἰκίας ἑτέρωθι τοῦτο ἐξεῖναι ποιῆσαι, εἰς τὴν ὄψιν ἀναγκασθῆναι ὑβρίσαι τὴν ἐκείνου. Ὁρᾷς πῶς καταγέλαστος ὁ τὰ ἔξωθεν καλλωπίζων ἐστὶ, καὶ παρὰ πᾶσιν εὐκαταφρόνητος τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσι; Καὶ μάλα εἰκότως. Οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰ τὴν σύνοικόν τις ἀφεὶς τὴν σὴν ῥάκια περικεῖσθαι, καὶ ἠμελημένην εἶναι, τὰς θεραπαινίδας λαμπρᾷ περιέβαλε στολῇ, πράως ἂν ἤνεγκας, ἀλλὰ παρωξύνθης, καὶ ὕβριν ἂν τὸ πρᾶγμα ἔφησας εἶναι τὴν ἐσχάτην. Τοῦτο τοίνυν καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ψυχῆς λογίζου. Ὅταν γὰρ τοὺς μὲν τοίχους καὶ τὸ ἔδαφος καὶ τὰ ἔπιπλα καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα καλλωπίζῃς, ἐλεημοσύνην δὲ μὴ παρέχῃς δαψιλῆ, μηδὲ τὴν ἄλλην ἀσκῇς φιλοσοφίαν, οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἢ τοῦτο ποιεῖς, μᾶλλον δὲ τὸ πολλῷ χαλεπώτερον. Τῆς μὲν γὰρ δούλης καὶ τῆς δεσποίνης οὐδὲν τὸ μέσον, τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς πολὺ τὸ διάφορον· εἰ δὲ τῆς σαρκὸς, πολλῷ μᾶλλον τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τῆς οἰκίας, καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τῆς κλίνης καὶ τοῦ ὑποποδίου. Ποίας οὖν ἄξιος ἀπολογίας ἂν εἴης, ταῦτα μὲν ἅπαντα ἀργυρίῳ πολλῷ περιβάλλων, ἐκείνην δὲ περιορῶν ῥακοδυτοῦσαν, αὐχμῶσαν, πεινῶσαν, τραυμάτων γέμουσαν, ὑπὸ μυρίων σπαραττομένην κυνῶν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἅπαντα καὶ δοξάζεσθαι ἀπὸ τοῦ καλλωπισμοῦ τῶν ἔξωθεν περικειμένων νομίζων; ὃ δὴ μάλιστα τῆς ἐσχάτης παραπληξίας ἐστὶ, τὸ γελώμενον καὶ ὀνειδιζόμενον, καὶ ἀσχημονοῦντα καὶ ἀτιμαζόμενον, καὶ εἰς ἐσχάτην ἐμπίπτοντα· κόλασιν, ἔτι καὶ ἐγκαλλωπίζεσθαι τούτοις. ∆ιὸ παρακαλῶ, ταῦτα πάντα ἐννοήσαντες ἀνανήψωμεν ὀψὲ γοῦν ποτε, καὶ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν γενώμεθα, καὶ τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον ἀπὸ τῶν ἔξωθεν εἰς τὴν ψυχὴν μετενέγκωμεν. Οὕτω γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς ἄσυλος μένει, καὶ ἡμᾶς τοῖς ἀγγέλοις ἴσους ἐργάζεται, καὶ τὰ ἀκίνητα προξενήσει καλά· ὧν γένοιτο πάντας ἡμᾶς ἐπιτυχεῖν, χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ ΙΒʹ.

Ἀνθρώπινον λέγω διὰ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ

παρεστήσατε τὰ μέλη τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν δοῦλα τῇ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ καὶ τῇ ἀνομίᾳ εἰς τὴν ἀνομίαν, οὕτω νῦν παραστήσατε τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν δοῦλα τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ εἰς ἁγιασμόν. αʹ. Ἐπειδὴ πολλὴν ἀπῄτησεν ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ βίου, νεκροὺς εἶναι κελεύων τῷ κόσμῳ, καὶ τεθνηκέναι τῇ πονηρίᾳ, καὶ ἀκινήτους μένειν πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐνέργειαν, καὶ ἐδόκει μέγα τι καὶ βαρὺ λέγειν καὶ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ὑπερβαῖνον φύσιν· δεῖξαι βουλόμενος, ὅτι οὐδὲν ὑπέρογκον ἀπαιτεῖ, οὐδὲ ὅσον ἐχρῆν τὸν τοσαύτης ἀπολαύσαντα δωρεᾶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ σφόδρα σύμμετρον καὶ κοῦφον, ἀπὸ τῶν ἐναντίων αὐτὸ κατασκευάζει, καί φησιν, Ἀνθρώπινον λέγω· ὡσανεὶ ἔλεγεν, ἀπὸ ἀνθρωπίνων λογισμῶν, ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν συνηθείᾳ γινο 60.494 μένων· τὸ γὰρ σύμμετρον τῇ προσηγορίᾳ τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου δηλοῖ· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ φησι· Πειρασμὸς ὑμᾶς