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taking refuge in him with good works becomes salvation. A certain irrational desire in you is enmity to God; for by a pretense of prudence it strengthens ignorance. But others say: God has not cared for us. And this is a lie. For if he truly did not care, he would not have made his sun rise on the good and the evil, nor would he have brought his rain upon the just and the unjust. Yet others say: We are more pious, reverencing both him and the statues. I do not think, if someone saying this should say to a king: I render to you the same honor as to the dead and to the discarded dung; I do not think he would get away well. But someone will say: Do you call our objects of worship dung? Yes, I say. For you have made them useless for yourselves, having counted them for worship, when their substance could perhaps have been well used for something else or for use as dung. But now it is not even useful for this, since you transform and worship it. How then do you say you are more pious, you who are the most impious of all, owing destruction of soul for this one and incomparable sin, in truth, if you persist? For just as if some son, having been much benefited by his father, gives to some other who is not his father the honor owed to the father, he is altogether disinherited; but when, living according to the will of his father, he gives thanks for the benefits, he reasonably becomes an heir. But others say: We are about to be impious, if we abandon the objects of worship handed down to us from our fathers; for it is similar to keeping a deposit safe. Therefore, by this reasoning, even if one is the son of a robber or of one who lives shamefully, ought not the son, having become sober, to choose what is better, so that he may not be impious and may not sin by doing the same things as his parents? How then are they senseless who say: We worship these things, so that we may not trouble him. As if God is troubled by the things for which he is praised, but is not troubled by the things for which, being shown ingratitude, he is blasphemed. Why then, whenever there is a lack of rain, do you, looking up to heaven in all things, offer prayers and supplications? And when you succeed, do you quickly forget? For after reaping or gathering the vintage, you immediately offer the first-fruits to the idols which are nothing, quickly forgetting the God who benefited you. And thus, having gone into the groves and into the temples, you perform sacrifices and feast. For this reason some of you say: For the sake of entertainment and of feasting these things have been well devised. O senseless ones, you yourselves be just judges of what is said. For if it were indeed necessary here to give oneself to the gladness of the body, what feasting is better, that in rivers and woods and groves, where there are banquets and drinking parties and shady places, or where there is the madness of demons and cuttings of hands and amputations of genitals and frenzies and insanities and flowing hair and boasts and possessions and wailings and all those things that happen with hypocrisy for the amazement of the foolish, so that you might offer your own owed prayers and thanksgivings even to things deader than the dead? And why do you do these things rejoicing? Since the snake lurking within you, who has sown in you the fruitless desire, does not wish to tell you, I will remind you by speaking. And it is thus: in the religion of God it is preached to be sober, to be temperate, to control anger, not to embezzle the things of others, to live justly, reasonably, steadfastly, gently, to punish

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σωτηρίας γίνεται ἡ μετὰ εὐποιίας πρὸς αὐτὸν καταφυγή. ἔχθρα τίς ἐστιν θεῷ ἐν ὑμῖν ἄλογος ἐπιθυμία· ὑπονοίᾳ γὰρ φρονήσεως τὴν ἄγνοιαν κρα- τύνει. ἄλλοι δὲ λέγουσιν· Oὐ πεφρόντικεν ἡμῶν ὁ θεός. καὶ τοῦτο ψεῦ- δός ἐστιν. εἰ γὰρ ὄντως οὐκ ἐφρόντιζεν, οὐκ ἂν οὐδὲ τὸν ἥλιον αὐτοῦ ἀνέτελλεν ἐπὶ ἀγαθοὺς καὶ πονηροὺς οὔτε τὸν ὑετὸν αὐτοῦ ἔφερεν ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους. ἕτεροι δὲ λέγουσιν· Eὐσεβέστεροί ἐσμεν καὶ αὐτὸν καὶ τὰ ἀγάλματα σέβοντες. οὐκ οἶμαι, εἰ τοῦτο λέγων τις ἐρεῖ βασιλεῖ· Τὴν ἴσην σοι ἀπονέμω τιμήν, οἵαν καὶ τοῖς νεκροῖς καὶ τῇ ἐρριμμένῃ κοπρίᾳ· οὐκ οἴομαι εἰ καλῶς ἀπαλλάξει. ἀλλ' ἐρεῖ τις· Κοπρίαν λέγεις τὰ σεβάσματα ἡμῶν; ναί φημι. ἄχρηστα γὰρ ὑμῖν αὐτὰ ἐποιήσατε, εἰς τὸ σέβειν καταριθμή σαντες, τῆς οὐσίας αὐτῶν ἴσως ἄλλο τι ἢ εἰς χρῆσιν κόπρου εὐχρηστησάσης. νῦν δὲ οὐδὲ εἰς τοῦτο χρησιμεύει, ὅτε μετασχηματίσαντες προσκυνεῖτε. πῶς δὲ καὶ εὐσεβέστεροι εἶναί φατε οἱ πάντων ἀσεβέστατοι, ταύτῃ αὐτῇ τῇ μιᾷ καὶ ἀσυγκρίτῳ ἁμαρτίᾳ ψυχῆς ὄλεθρον ὀφείλοντες τὰ ἀληθῆ ἐὰν ἐπιμείνητε; ὡς γὰρ εἴ τις υἱὸς πολλὰ εὐεργετούμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἑτέρῳ τινὶ τῷ μὴ πατρὶ τὴν ὀφειλομένην τῷ πατρὶ ἀποδση τιμήν, πάντως ἀποκληρονόμος γίνεται· ἐπὰν δὲ κατὰ γνώμην τοῦ πα- τρὸς βιοὺς εὐχαριστῇ ἐπὶ ταῖς εὐεργεσίαις, εὐλόγως κληρονόμος γίνε- ται. ἄλλοι δὲ λέγουσιν· Ἀσεβεῖν μέλλομεν, ἐὰν τὰ παραδοθέντα ἡμῖν ἐκ πατέρων σεβάσματα καταλείψωμεν· ὅμοιον γάρ ἐστιν τῷ παραθήκην φυλάξαι. οὐκοῦν τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ κἂν λῃστοῦ τις ᾖ πατρὸς ἢ αἰσχρο- βίου, οὐκ ὀφείλει ὁ υἱὸς νήψας τὸ κρεῖττον ἑλέσθαι, ἵνα μὴ ἀσεβήσῃ καὶ μὴ τὰ ἴσα τοῖς γονεῦσιν ποιῶν ἁμαρτάνῃ; πῶς δὴ ἀνόητοι οἱ λέγοντες· Ταῦτα προσκυνοῦμεν, ἵνα μὴ αὐτῷ ὀχλῶμεν. ὡς ὀχλουμένου θεοῦ ἐφ' οἷς εὐφημεῖται, μὴ ὀχλουμένου δὲ ἐφ' οἷς ἀχαριστούμενος βλασφη- μεῖται. διὰ τί οὖν, ὁπόταν ἐποχὴ ὑετοῦ γένηται, πρὸς οὐρανὸν τὰ πάντα ἀφορῶντες εὐχὰς καὶ λιτὰς ἀπονέμετε; καὶ ὅταν ἐπιτύχητε, τάχιον ἐπι- λανθάνεσθε; ἀμήσαντες γὰρ ἢ τρυγήσαντες εὐθέως τοῖς μηθὲν οὖσιν εἰδώλοις τὰς ἀπαρχὰς ἀπονέμετε, τάχιον ἐπιλανθανόμενοι τοῦ εὐεργετή- σαντος θεοῦ. καὶ οὕτως εἰς ἄλση καὶ εἰς τοὺς ναοὺς γενόμενοι θυσίας ἐπιτελοῦντες εὐωχεῖσθε. διὰ τοῦτο οἱ μὲν ὑμῶν λέγουσιν· Παρηγορίας καὶ τοῦ εὐωχεῖσθαι χάριν καλῶς ταῦτα ἐπινενόηται. ὦ ἀνόητοι, ὑμεῖς τοῦ λεγομένου γένεσθε δίκαιοι κριταί. εἴπερ γὰρ καὶ ἐχρῆν ἐνταῦθα εἰς εὐφρασίαν σώματος ἑαυτὸν δοῦναι, ποία εὐωχία ἀμείνων, ἡ ἐν ποτα- μοῖς καὶ ὕλαις καὶ ἄλσεσιν, ἔνθα εἰλαπίναι καὶ συμπόσια καὶ κατάσκιοι τόποι, ἢ ὅπου ἀπόνοια δαιμόνων καὶ χειρῶν τομαὶ καὶ αἰδοίων ἀποκοπαὶ καὶ οἶστροι καὶ μανίαι καὶ τριχῶν κόμαι καὶ κόμποι καὶ ἐνθουσιασμοὶ καὶ ὀλολυγαὶ καὶ πάντα ἐκεῖνα τὰ μεθ' ὑποκρίσεως εἰς κατάπληξιν τῶν ἀνοήτων γινόμενα, ὅπως τὰς αὑτῶν ὀφειλομένας εὐχὰς καὶ εὐχαριστίας καὶ νεκρῶν νεκροτέροις προσενέγκητε; καὶ διὰ τί χαίροντες ταῦτα ποιεῖτε; ἐπεὶ οὐ θέλει ὑμῖν ὁ ἐμφωλεύων εἰπεῖν ὄφις, ὃς ἐνέσπειρεν ὑμῖν τὴν ἄκαρπον ἐπιθυμίαν, λέγων ὑπομνήσω. ἔχει δὲ οὕτως· παρὰ τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ θρησκείᾳ κηρύσσεται νήφειν, σωφρονεῖν, ὀργῆς κρατεῖν, ἀλλότρια μὴ νοσφίζεσθαι, δικαίως βιοῦν, ἐπιεικῶς, εὐσταθῶς, πράως, κολάζειν