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can these things happen? Secondly. But He called mammon lord here, not because of its own nature, but because of the misery of those who bow down to it. Thus He also calls the belly god, not from the dignity of the mistress, but from the wretchedness of those who serve it; which is worse than any punishment, and is sufficient to punish the one who is caught even before the punishment. For of what condemned men would they not be more wretched, who have God as master, and from that gentle kingdom desert to a harsh tyranny, and this when so much harm comes from the matter even here? For there is unspeakable loss from the matter, and lawsuits, and insults, and struggles, and toils, and a maiming of the soul; and what is hardest of all, that one falls away from the highest of goods, which is the service of God. Having taught, therefore, through all this the advantage of despising money, both for the very keeping of one's money, and for the pleasure of the soul, and for the acquisition of philosophy, and for the security of piety, He establishes then that this exhortation is also possible. For this is especially the mark of the best legislation, not only to command what is advantageous, but also to make it possible. For this reason He adds, saying: Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat. For lest they should say: "What then? If we cast all away, how shall we be able to live?" He then very seasonably addresses this objection. For just as if He had said at the beginning, "Be not anxious," the saying would have seemed burdensome; so now that He has shown the ruin that arises from the love of money, He then makes the exhortation acceptable. Wherefore, not even now did He simply say, "Be not anxious," but after adding the reason, He so enjoined this. For after saying, "You cannot serve God and mammon," He added, "Therefore I say to you, be not anxious." This, what? The unspeakable loss. For not in money alone is the harm to you, but the blow is also in the most vital things, and in the subversion of your salvation. For it casts you out from God who made you and cares for you and loves you. Therefore I say to you, be not anxious. For since He has shown the harm to be unspeakable, He then strengthens the command. For He not only commands to cast away one's possessions, but not even to be anxious for necessary food, saying: Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat. Not because the soul needs food; for it is incorporeal; but He spoke according to common custom. For 57.297 although it does not need food, yet otherwise it could not endure to remain in the body, unless it were nourished. And having said this, He does not simply lay it down, but here also He stirs up reasonings; some from what has already been done for us, others from other examples. From what has been done, saying thus: Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment? He, therefore, who gave the greater, how will He not give the less? He who formed the flesh that is nourished, how will He not provide the nourishment? Wherefore He did not simply say, "Be not anxious what you shall eat, and what you shall put on," but, "For the body," and, "For the life"; since He was about to make His proofs from these things, advancing the argument by comparison. But the soul He gave once, and it remains such; but the body He causes to grow each day. Therefore, showing both these things, the immortality of the one, and the perishable nature of the other, He added, saying: Which of you can add one cubit to his stature? And being silent about the soul, since it receives no increase, He spoke only about the body; by this declaring that other point also, that it is not food that increases it, but the providence of God. Which Paul also, declaring through other words, said: So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. So from what has been done for us He thus exhorted; and from other examples, saying, Behold the fowls of the air. For lest anyone should say, "we profit by being anxious," He dissuades them both from the greater and from the lesser; from the greater, that of the soul, and of the body; from the lesser, that of the birds. For if of those which are far inferior there is so much account

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δυνατὸν ταῦτα συμβῆναι; βʹ. Κύριον δὲ ἐνταῦθα τὸν μαμωνᾶν ἐκάλεσεν, οὐ διὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν τῶν ὑποκλινομένων αὐτῷ ταλαιπωρίαν. Οὕτω καὶ τὴν κοιλίαν Θεὸν καλεῖ, οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ τῆς δεσποίνης ἀξιώματος, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν δουλευόντων ἀθλιότητος· ὃ πάσης κολάσεως χεῖρόν ἐστι, καὶ πρὸ τῆς κολάσεως ἱκανὸν τιμωρήσασθαι τὸν ἁλόντα. Ποίων γὰρ καταδίκων οὐκ ἂν εἶεν ἀθλιώτεροι οἱ τὸν Θεὸν δεσπότην ἔχοντες, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἡμέρου βασιλείας ἐκείνης ἐπὶ τὴν χαλεπὴν αὐτομολοῦντες τυραννίδα, καὶ ταῦτα τοσαύτης ἀπὸ τοῦ πράγματος βλάβης καὶ ἐνταῦθα γινομένης; Καὶ γὰρ ζημία ἄφατος ἀπὸ τοῦ πράγματος, καὶ δίκαι, καὶ ἐπήρειαι, καὶ ἀγῶνες, καὶ πόνοι, καὶ ψυχῆς πήρωσις· καὶ τὸ πάντων χαλεπώτερον, ὅτι τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐκπίπτει τῶν ἀνωτάτω, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ δουλεία. ∆ιδάξας τοίνυν διὰ πάντων τὸ συμφέρον τῆς τῶν χρημάτων ὑπεροψίας, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὴν τῶν χρημάτων τὴν φυλακὴν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἡδονὴν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῆς φιλοσοφίας κτῆσιν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀσφάλειαν, κατασκευάζει λοιπὸν ὅτι καὶ δυνατὴ αὕτη ἡ παραίνεσις. Τοῦτο γὰρ μάλιστα νομοθεσίας ἀρίστης, τὸ μὴ τὰ συμφέροντα μόνον ἐπιτάττειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ δυνατὰ αὐτὰ ποιεῖν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐπάγει, λέγων· Μὴ μεριμνήσητε τῇ ψυχῇ ὑμῶν, τί φάγητε. Ἵνα γὰρ μὴ λέγωσι· Τί οὖν; ἂν πάντα ῥίψωμεν, πῶς δυνησόμεθα ζῆσαι; πρὸς ταύτην λοιπὸν ἵσταται τὴν ἀντίθεσιν σφόδρα εὐκαίρως. Ὥσπερ γὰρ εἰ παρὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν εἶπε, Μὴ μεριμνήσητε, ἐδόκει βαρὺς εἶναι ὁ λόγος· οὕτως ἐπειδὴ ἔδειξε τὴν λύμην τὴν ἐγγινομένην ἀπὸ τῆς φιλαργυρίας, εὐπαράδεκτον λοιπὸν ποιεῖ τὴν παραίνεσιν. ∆ιόπερ οὐδὲ νῦν ἁπλῶς εἶπε, Μὴ μεριμνήσητε, ἀλλὰ τὴν αἰτίαν προσθεὶς, οὕτω τοῦτο ἐπέταξε. Μετὰ γὰρ τὸ εἰπεῖν, Οὐ δύνασθε Θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ, ἐπήγαγε· ∆ιὰ τοῦτο λέγω ὑμῖν, Μὴ μεριμνήσητε. Τοῦτο, ποῖον; Τὸ τῆς ζημίας ἄφατον. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐν χρήμασι μόνον ὑμῖν ἡ βλάβη, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τοῖς καιριωτάτοις ἡ πληγὴ, καὶ τῇ τῆς σωτηρίας ὑμῶν ἀνατροπῇ. Τοῦ γὰρ ποιήσαντος ὑμᾶς καὶ κηδομένου καὶ φιλοῦντος ἐκβάλλει Θεοῦ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο λέγω ὑμῖν, μὴ μεριμνήσητε. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὴν βλάβην ἔδειξεν ἄφατον, καὶ ἐπιτείνει λοιπὸν τὸ ἐπίταγμα. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τὰ ὄντα κελεύει ῥίπτειν μόνον, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀναγκαίας μεριμνᾶν τροφῆς, λέγων· Μὴ μεριμνήσητε τῇ ψυχῇ ὑμῶν, τί φάγητε. Οὐκ ἐπειδὴ ἡ ψυχὴ τροφῆς δεῖται· ἀσώματος γάρ· ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν κοινὴν ἐφθέγξατο συνήθειαν. Εἰ 57.297 γὰρ καὶ μὴ δεῖται τροφῆς, ἀλλὰ ἄλλως οὐκ ἂν ἀνάσχοιτο μένειν ἐν τῷ σώματι, ἀλλ' ἢ τρεφομένου αὐτοῦ. Καὶ τοῦτο εἰπὼν, οὐχ ἁπλῶς αὐτὸ τίθησιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐνταῦθα λογισμοὺς ἀνακινεῖ· τοὺς μὲν ἐκ τῶν ὑπηργμένων ἡμῖν ἤδη, τοὺς δὲ ἐξ ἑτέρων παραδειγμάτων. Ἀπὸ μὲν τῶν ὑπηργμένων, οὕτω λέγων· Οὐχὶ πλέον ἐστὶν ἡ ψυχὴ τῆς τροφῆς, καὶ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ ἐνδύματος; Ὁ τοίνυν τὸ μεῖζον δοὺς, πῶς τὸ ἔλαττον οὐ δώσει; ὁ τὴν τρεφομένην σάρκα διαπλάσας, πῶς τὴν τροφὴν οὐ παρέξει; ∆ιόπερ οὐδὲ ἁπλῶς εἶπε, Μὴ μεριμνήσητε τί φάγητε καὶ τί ἐνδύσησθε, ἀλλὰ, Τῷ σώματι, καὶ, Τῇ ψυχῇ· ἐπειδὴ ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἔμελλε τὰς ἀποδείξεις ποιεῖσθαι, κατὰ σύγκρισιν τὸν λόγον προάγων. Ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν ψυχὴν ἅπαξ ἔδωκε, καὶ μένει τοιαύτη· τὸ δὲ σῶμα καθ' ἑκάστην ἐπιδίδωσι τὴν ἡμέραν. Ἅπερ οὖν ἀμφότερα ἐνδεικνύμενος, καὶ τῆς μὲν τὸ ἀθάνατον, τούτου δὲ τὸ ἐπίκηρον, ἐπήγαγε λέγων· Τίς δύναται ἐξ ὑμῶν προσθεῖναι ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ πῆχυν ἕνα; Καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν σιγήσας, ἅτε οὐ λαμβάνουσιν ἐπίδοσιν, περὶ τοῦ σώματος διελέχθη μόνον· ἀπὸ τούτου κἀκεῖνο δηλῶν, ὅτι οὐχ ἡ τροφὴ αὐτὸ αὔξει, ἀλλ' ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ πρόνοια. Ὃ καὶ δι' ἄλλων δηλῶν ὁ Παῦλος ἔλεγεν· Ὥστε οὔτε ὁ φυτεύων, οὔτε ὁ ποτίζων ἐστί τι, ἀλλ' ὁ αὐξάνων Θεός. Ἀπὸ μὲν οὖν τῶν ὑπηργμένων οὕτω προέτρεψεν· ἀπὸ δὲ ἑτέρων παραδειγμάτων, Ἐμβλέψατε εἰς τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, λέγων. Ἵνα γὰρ μὴ λέγῃ τις, ὅτι ὠφελοῦμεν μεριμνῶντες, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ μείζονος καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐλάττονος αὐτοὺς ἀποτρέπει τοῦ μείζονος μὲν, τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ τοῦ σώματος· τοῦ ἐλάττονος δὲ, τῶν πετεινῶν. Εἰ γὰρ τῶν σφόδρα καταδεεστέρων τοσοῦτος λόγος