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These then are what I promised to tell you belong (198) to the Father. And thus He gives these things, as you have heard, to those who love Him and live on earth as if in heaven, and are in death as if already honored with immortality, and walk in darkness as if in daylight and in unapproachable light; and they breathe in this muddy body, as if in the paradise of delight, possessing the tree of life in their midst, yes, and even the food of angels, the heavenly bread, from which all the immaterial powers of the heavens are fed and live incorruptibly; who, moving about in the midst of the world and the affairs of the world, cry out in truth with Paul: "But our citizenship is in heaven", where holy love is, being with its lovers and richly illuminating them, makes them dispassionate and truly angels. He therefore who, before being united to it and completely mingled with it, calls himself dispassionate, or teaches others, or attempts to do the works of the dispassionate, or again disbelieves the things done by them, is like a delicate infant, who at an unripe age takes up the weapons of men and professes to teach others about war, and not only that, but also equating and inserting himself among men and warriors and attempting to go to war with them. Which is not only impossible, but also worthy of much laughter; for he will surely be encumbered by the very weapons he carries and will be cast down and crushed and perhaps will not even be able to rise up. And reasonably so; for he does not know that those who are struck and cast down in war rise up again and become more experienced and fight against their enemies more powerfully. For if God commanded Moses that a cowardly man should not go out to war, how much ( 199) more so for one who is still an infant and cannot even walk or gird himself is it fitting to await the age of manhood and not attempt the impossible before then.

Nevertheless, since "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places," and neither are our weapons carnal and visible, but spiritual and intelligible, and this war is also invisible, being waged invisibly against invisible enemies, for this reason all who think they are something show themselves to men as daring in these matters and courageous and very experienced in the explanation of such a struggle and battle array, and indeed wise and knowledgeable and instructive about the very defeat and victory of the wicked. From which, like certain single-combatants and victors over the enemy, they hasten through empty talk and the deceit of syllogisms to make themselves known to all; who, though reproved and condemned by their own conscience as inactive and inexperienced in such a war, are unable to assent and confess their own weakness and inexperience, being overcome by vainglory and the desire to please men; for they are greatly afraid of falling from the esteem of men.

For since they are not seen in soul by their neighbors for what they are, nor are they perceived by men to be naked of the weapons of the Spirit, nor that they are still weak and infants, they hide themselves in the fleece of hypocrisy and the skin of a sheep; and they wish to appear to all through plausible speech to be what those are who have acquired through labors the stature that is in Christ, while they themselves have perhaps not even laid the foundations of faith and hope (200) upon the rock, nor raised the edifice of virtues upon Christ the foundation. For this very reason, being still doubtful and unapproved, pushed by the onslaught of temptations and the storm of thoughts, they are entangled and, being tripped up, piteously fall down. For if they were seen by all for what they are, those who [have] only the form of piety, as it were

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Ταῦτα οὖν εἰσιν ἅ προϋπεσχόμην ὑμῖν εἰπεῖν ὑπάρχοντα (198) εἶναι τοῦ Πατρός. Καί οὕτω ταῦτα δίδωσιν, ὡς ἠκούσατε, τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν καί διάγουσιν ἐν τῇ γῇ καθάπερ ἐν οὐρανῷ, καί οὖσιν ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ ὡς ἤδη τῇ ἀθανασίᾳ τετιμημένοι, καί ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατοῦσιν ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ καί ἐν ἀδύτῳ φωτί· ἐν δέ τῷ βορβορώδει τούτῳ σώματι ἀναπνέουσιν, ὡς ἐν τῷ τῆς τρυφῆς παραδείσῳ κεκτημένοι τό τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον ἐν μέσῳ, ναί μήν καί αὐτήν τήν τῶν ἀγγέλων τροφήν, τόν οὐράνιον ἄρτον, ἐξ ὧν πᾶσαι αἱ ἄϋλοι δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν τρεφόμεναι ἀκηράτως ζωοῦνται· οἵ καί στρεφόμενοι ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ κόσμου καί τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πραγμάτων βοῶσιν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ μετά τοῦ Παύλου· "Ἡμῶν δέ τό πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς ὑπάρχει", ἔνθα πέλουσα ἡ ἁγία ἀγάπη, συγγινομένη τοῖς ἑαυτῆς ἐρασταῖς καί πλουσίως αὐτούς περιλαμποῦσα, ἀπαθεῖς καί τῷ ὄντι ἀγγέλους ἐργάζεται. Ὁ οὖν πρό τοῦ συναφθῆναι αὐτῇ καί συγκραθῆναι ὁλοτελῶς ἀπαθῆ ἑαυτόν ὀνομάζων, ἤ διδάσκων ἑτέρους, ἤ τά τῶν ἀπαθῶν ἔργα πράττειν ἐπιχειρῶν, ἤ πάλιν τά ὑπ᾿ ἐκείνων πραττόμενα ἀπιστῶν, νηπίῳ ἔοικεν ἁπαλῷ, ἐν ἀώρῳ τῇ ἡλικίᾳ τά τῶν ἀνδρῶν ὅπλα αἴροντι καί ἑτέρους περί πολέμου διδάσκειν ἐπαγγελλομένῳ, οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλά καί ἑαυτόν συνεξισοῦντι καί παρενείροντι τοῖς ἀνδράσι καί πολεμισταῖς καί πρός πόλεμον ἀπιέναι σύν αὐτοῖς ἐπιχειροῦντι. Ὅπερ οὐκ ἀδύνατον μόνον ἐστίν, ἀλλά καί πολλοῦ γέλωτος ἄξιον· ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν γάρ ὧν ἐπιφέρεται ὅπλων συμποδισθήσεται πάντως καί καταβληθήσεται καί συντριβήσεται καί οὐδέ ἀναστῆσαι ἴσως δυνήσεται. Καί εἰκότως· οὐκ οἶδε γάρ ὅτι οἱ ἐν πολέμῳ πληττόμενοι καί καταβαλλόμενοι ἐξεγείρονται πάλιν καί ἐμπειρότεροι γίνονται καί κραταιότερον τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ἀντιμάχονται. Εἰ γάρ δειλόν ἄνδρα μή ἐξιέναι εἰς πόλεμον τῷ Μωϋσῇ ὁ Θεός διετάξατο, πόσῳ γε ( 199) μᾶλλον νηπίῳ ἔτι καί μηδέ ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ περιπατεῖν ἤ ζώννυσθαι δυναμένῳ ἁρμόσει τήν ἀνδρῴαν ἡλικίαν ἐκδέξασθαι καί μή πρό τούτου τοῖς ἀδυνάτοις ἐπιχειρεῖν.

Ὅμως μέντοι ἐπειδή "οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρός αἷμα καί σάρκα, ἀλλά πρός τάς ἀρχάς, πρός τάς ἐξουσίας, πρός τούς κοσμοκράτορας τοῦ σκότους τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, πρός τά πνευματικά τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις", οὐδέ τά ὅπλα ἡμῶν σαρκικά καί ὁρώμενα, ἀλλά πνευματικά καί νοούμενα, ὑπάρχει δέ καί ὁ πόλεμος οὗτος ἀόρατος, ἀοράτως πρός ἀοράτους ἐχθρούς γινόμενος, διά τοῦτο πάντες οἱ δοκοῦντες εἶναί τι ἑαυτούς ἐπιδείκνυνται τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τολμηρούς περί ταῦτα καί ἀνδρείους καί περί τήν ἐξήγησιν τῆς τοιαύτης πάλης καί τῆς ἀντιπαρατάξεως λίαν ἐμπείρους, ἀλλά μήν καί αὐτῆς τῆς ἥττης καί νίκης τῶν πονηρῶν σοφούς καί ἐπιστήμονας καί διδακτικούς. Ὅθεν καί ὡς μονομάχοι τινές καί νικηταί τῶν ἐχθρῶν διά τῆς κενολογίας καί ἀπάτης τῶν συλλογισμῶν τοῖς πᾶσι γνωρίζεσθαι σπεύδουσιν· οἵ, καί ἐλεγχόμενοι καί ὑπό τοῦ οἰκείου συνειδότος κατακρινόμενοι ὡς ἄπρακτοι καί τοῦ τοιούτου πολέμου ἄπειροι, οὐ δύνανται συγκαταθέσθαι καί τήν ἑαυτῶν ἀσθένειαν καί ἀπειρίαν καθομολογῆσαι ὑπό φιλοδοξίας καί ἀνθρωπαρεσκείας κατακρατούμενοι· λίαν γάρ τῆς δόξης ἐκπεσεῖν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φοβοῦνται.

Ἐπειδή γάρ οὐ βλέπονται κατά ψυχήν τοῖς πλησίον ὁποῖοί ποτ᾿ ἄν εἰσιν, οὐδέ παρά τῶν ἀνθρώπων καταλαμβάνονται ὅτι γυμνοί τυγχάνουσι τῶν τοῦ Πνεύματος ὅπλων, οὐδέ ὅτι ἀσθενεῖς ἔτι καί νήπιοί εἰσι, κρύπτουσιν ἑαυτούς τῷ κωδίῳ τῆς ὑποκρίσεως καί τῇ δορᾷ τοῦ προβάτου· καί τοῦτο τοῖς πᾶσι διά τῆς χρηστολογίας φαίνεσθαι βούλονται ὅπερ οἱ τήν κατά Χριστόν ἡλικίαν διά πόνων κτησάμενοι αὐτοί, μηδέ τάς βάσεις ἴσως τῆς πίστεως καί ἐλπίδος (200) ἐπί τήν πέτραν ἐρείσαντες, μηδέ τήν οἰκοδομήν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπί τόν θεμέλιον Χριστόν ἀνυψώσαντες. ∆ιά δή τοῦτο ἀμφίβολοι ἔτι καί ἀδόκιμοι ὄντες, τῇ ἐπιφορᾷ τῶν πειρασμῶν καί τῇ καταιγίδι τῶν λογισμῶν ὠθούμενοι, συμποδίζονται καί σκελιζόμενοι ἐλεεινῶς καταπίπτουσιν. Εἰ γάρ ἐβλέποντο τοῖς πᾶσιν οἷοί εἰσιν οἱ τήν μόρφωσιν τῆς εὐσεβείας μόνην οἷα δή