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or he who educates or teaches those in it or even he who saves everyone, if he himself is not saved? Who then is there, or how, having saved others, will the wretched man not save his own soul, but lose it? He who breaks my commandment of the Lord of all and, as it were, tramples upon it and through it goes out and transgresses my laws, leaping over my orders, and being outside the courtyard of the commandments and of their fence, even if he should save the world and those in the world, he will be a stranger to me and far from my sheep, and especially as one who has destroyed the fence of the courtyard and provided an exit for the sheep, not from the door alone, and an unjust entrance for the wild beasts, he will suffer an unspeakable punishment for all the sheep, and he will be cut in two, and the miserable man will be food for fire and Tartarus and the worms. For the Father said this through the Son and the Spirit spoke, which is the mouth of the Lord; angels praised with unceasing voices, the just fell down when they heard and said: Your judgment is incorruptible, your verdict is above suspicion, for you have judged without partiality, O all-merciful God! For how can he who has not abandoned his own will and put in preference and kept inviolate the will of him who represents you, as if it were your own, O Lord, just as you yourself, O merciful one, kept that of your Father, be seen as your co-heir and a sharer at all, and especially having agreed to this until death, not to do his own will in anything, (307) not to be attached to blood, not to prefer the flesh, which is kinship, and a natural bond, an affection binding those on earth to the things they have renounced and turning them all back? The martyrs cried out: A just judgment indeed! For as one who has willingly given himself to martyrdom, then his relatives coming, both wife and children, saying these things with grief: Do you not have mercy on your children nor pity, O heartless one, your wife's widowhood? Are you not moved with sympathy for their poverty, nor do you consider and pity their ruin, but you leave them orphans, strangers, poor, and your wife a widow, and you prefer to save only yourself? And how will you not rather be condemned as a murderer, because you have left us all to destruction and seek to save only your own soul? He ought not at all to listen to their voice, even for a short time, nor at all to incline his ear to their lamentations, and either to escape his bonds and prison with gifts, or by denying you, O Christ, to be freed from these things,

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ἤ ὁ τούς ὄντας ἐν αὐτῷ παιδεύων ἤ διδάσκων ἤ καί ὁ σῴζων ἅπαντας, εἰ μή καὐτός σωθείη; Τίς οὖν ὑπάρχει, εἴτε πῶς ἄλλους σώσας οὐ σώσει τήν ἑαυτόῦ ὁ ἄθλιος ψυχήν, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπολέσει; Ὁ παραλύων ἐντολήν ἐμήν ∆εσπότου πάντων καί οἱονεί καταπατῶν καί δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἐκβαίνων καί παραβαίνων νόμους μου, ὑπερπηδῶν προστάξεις καί τῆς αὐλῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν καί φραγμοῦ τούτων ἔξω γενόμενος, εἰ σώσειε κόσμον καί τούς ἐν κόσμῳ, ξένος ἐμοῦ καί τῶν ἐμῶν πόρρω προβάτων ἔσται, καί μάλιστα ὡς τόν φραγμόν τῆς αὐλῆς καταλύσας καί τοῖς προβάτοις ἔξοδον, οὐκ ἐκ τῆς θύρας μόνης, καί εἴσοδον τήν ἄδικον παρασχών τοῖς θηρίοις, δίκην ὑποίσει ἄρρητον ὑπέρ ὄλων προβάτων καί διχοτομηθήσεται καί πυρί καί ταρτάρῳ καί τῶν σκωλήκων ἔσται κατάβρωμα ὁ τάλας. Τοῦτο γάρ εἶπεν ὁ Πατήρ δι᾿ Υἱοῦ καί τό Πνεῦμα ἐλάλησεν, ὅπερ ἐστί τό στόμα τοῦ ∆εσπότου˙ ἄγγελοι προσευφήμησαν φωναῖς ἀκαταπαύστοις, οἱ δίκαιοι προσέπεσον ἀκούσαντες καί εἶπον˙ Ἀδέκαστος ἡ κρίσις σου, ἀνύποπτος ἡ ψῆφος, ἀπροσπαθῶς γάρ ἔκρινας, ὦ Θεέ πανοικτίρμον! Πῶς γάρ ὁ μή τό ἑαυτόῦ θέλημα καταλείψας καί τοῦ ἐκπροσωποῦντός σε, ὡς τόν σόν τοῦ ∆εσπότου, ἐν προτιμήσει θέμενος καί φυλάξας ἀτρώτως, ὡς αὐτός σύ ἐτήρησας τοῦ σοῦ Πατρός, οἰκτίρμον, συγκληρονόμος σου ὀφθῇ συγκοινωνός τε ὅλως, καί μάλιστα συνθέμενος τοῦτο μέχρι θανάτου, τό μή ποιῆσαι θέλημα ἔν τινι τό οἰκεῖον, (307) μή προστεθῆναι αἵματι, μή σάρκα προτιμῆσαι, ὅπερ ἐστί συγγένεια, σύνδεσμος φυσικός τε, στοργή συνδοῦσα τούς ἐν γῇ πρός τά ἀπαρνηθέντα καί ἐπιστρέφουσα αὐτούς ὅλους εἰς τά ὀπίσω; Οἱ μάρτυρες ἐβόησαν˙ Κρίσις δικαία ὄντως! Ὡς γάρ ὁ πρός μαρτύριον ἑαυτόν δούς προθύμως εἶτα ἐλθόντας συγγενεῖς, γυναῖκάς τε καί παῖδας, ταῦτα σύν πένθει λέγοντας˙ Οὐκ ἐλεεῖς σά τέκνα οὐδέ οἰκτείρεις, ἄσπλαγχνε, γυναικός σου χηρείαν; Οὐδέ πτωχείᾳ τῇ αὐτῶν συμπαθῶς ἐπικάμπτῃ οὐδέ ἀπώλειαν αὐτῶν ἐννοεῖς καί οἰκτείρεις, ἀλλά ἀφίεις ὀρφανά, ξένα, πτωχά, καί χήραν τήν σήν γυναῖκα, καί σαυτόν προτιμᾷς σῶσαι μόνον; Καί πῶς οὐχ ὡς φονεύς μᾶλλον μέλλεις κατακριθῆναι, ὅτι κατέλιπες ἡμᾶς εἰς ἀπώλειαν πάντας καί σῶσαι μόνην σου ζητεῖς τήν ψυχήν; Οὐκ ὀφείλει ὅλως αὐτῶν κἄν πρός βραχύ τῆς φωνῆς εἰσακοῦσαι, ὅλως πρός θρήνους τούς αὐτῶν τήν ἀκοήν προσκλῖναι καί εἴτε δώροις τά δεσμά καί εἱρκτήν ἀποδράσαι, ἤ ἀπαρνήσει σου, Χριστέ, τούτων ἀπολυθῆναι,