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having used it, I have been cast out of the true paradise, having become far from God and from the hands of the saints. Therefore, the all-evil serpent, finding me lying down and wholly given over to idleness of good things, deceitfully defiled me with all dishonorable works, in which I took pleasure and rejoiced as I was being roasted, (396) for which things I ought to have been grieved and to have lamented and wept, because from those things I was created to do, I, wretched one, willingly departed, and of my own free choice I gave myself over to all things contrary to nature, having fallen most miserably into the profane hands of the enemy, by whom I was also wholly held and moved, and not being strong enough to stand against him, O wretched one, for how could I, being dead, have stood against him? An instrument of all wickedness, a proven tool of all lawlessness and evil work I have become, O wretched one, having been deceitfully beguiled. For holding me by the hand and dragging me powerfully, he defiled me with dung-piles and cast me into all sorts of mire and bitter stenches and made me rejoice in these things, O the insensibility! Toward robberies, and toward envies, toward unjust deaths, toward revilings, toward angers, toward every form of evil, to tell you in short, he found me working, or rather, he himself used me against my will. For from the moment I willingly cast myself out of the hand of God and of His saints, and the terrible and soul-destroying ruler seized me and held me in his hand with my consent, I no longer had the strength not to do his things, but in all his wishes I was active. For the sword does not know how to speak against the one who holds it, but wherever he wishes, the one holding it uses it. Therefore, God who made me, looking down from above and seeing me held in the hand of the tyrant, had pity on me, snatched me from his hand, and again brought me into the divine paradise, into His vineyard, and into the hands of holy husbandmen (397) He delivered me to work at divine things, to practice the virtues, to keep the commandments, and not to be moved outside the hand of the saints, so that the worker of evil, finding me again living outside a holy hand, might not snatch me away and prepare me once more to do his things. The good and compassionate husbandmen, therefore, taking me and lifting up my whole will with their own hands, immediately permitted me to be active in humility and repentance and to mourn unceasingly. For these three things, they told me, child, those who keep them

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χρησάμενος ἐκβέβλημαι τοῦ ὄντως παραδείσου, μακράν γενόμενος Θεοῦ καί χειρῶν τῶν ἁγίων. Εὑρών λοιπόν με κείμενον ὁ παμπόνηρος ὄφις καί τῇ ἀργίᾳ τῶν καλῶν προδεδομένον ὅλον, δολίως κατηχρείωσε πᾶσιν ἔεργοις ἀτίμοις, οἷσπερ ἐνηδυνόμενος καί χαίρων ὠπτανόμην, (396) ἀνθ᾿ ὧν λυπεῖσθαί με ἐχρῆν καί θρηνεῖν τε καί κλαίειν, ὅτι πρός ἅπερ ἔκτισμαι ἐνεργεῖν, ἑκουσίως ἀπέστην ὁ ταλαίπωρος, καί αὐτοπροαιρέτως τοῖς παρά φύσιν ἅπασιν ἐμαυτόν ἐξεδόμην, χερσί βεβήλοις τοῦ ἐχθροῦ ἐμπεσών παναθλίως, ὑφ᾿ οὗπερ καί κρατούμενος καί κινούμενος ὅλως, καί ἀντιστῆναι πρός αὐτόν μή ἰσχύων, ὁ τάλας, πῶς γάρ καί ἀντιστήσεσθαι εἶχον νεκρός ὑπάρχων; πάσης κακίας ὄργανον, πάσης παρανομίας καί ἐργασίας πονηρᾶς δόκιμον ἐργαλεῖον γέγονα, ὁ ταλαίπωρος, ἀπατηθείς δολίως˙ κατέχων γάρ με τῇ χειρί καί δυνατῶς ἑλκύων κοπραγωγοῖς ἐρρύπου με καί παντοίοις βορβόροις καί δυσωδίαις με πικραῖς ἐνέβαλε καί τούτοις ἐποίει ἐνευφραίνεσθαι, ὤ τῆς ἀναισθησίας! Πρός ἁρπαγάς, πρός φθόνους τε, πρός θανάτους ἀδίκους, πρός λοιδορίας, πρός ὀργάς, πρός πᾶν εἶδος κακίας, ἵνα σοι εἴπω συνελών, ἐνεργοῦντά με εὗρε, μᾶλλον δ᾿ ἐχρήσατο αὐτός ἐμοῦ μή βουλομένου. Ἀφ᾿ οὗ γάρ καί ἀπέρριψα ἐμαυτόν ἑκουσίως ἐκ τῆς χειρός τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῶν αὐτοῦ ἁγίων, καί ἥρπασέ με ὁ δεινός ἄρχων καί ψυχοφθόρος καί τῇ ἐκείνου με χειρί κατέσχε θέλοντός μου, οὐκέτι τοῦ μή ἐνεργεῖν ἴσχυον τά ἐκείνου, ἀλλά ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς αὐτοῦ θελήμασιν ἐνήργουν. Οὐκ οἶδε γάρ ἀντιλέγειν τό ξίφος τῷ κρατοῦντι, ἀλλ᾿ ὅπου ἄν καί βούληται, ὁ κρατῶν τούτῳ χρᾶται. Ὁ οὖν ποιήσας με Θεός ἄνωθεν ἐπιβλέψας καί τοῦ τυράννου τῇ χειρί κρατούμενον ἰδών με ᾠκτείρησεν, ἀφήρπασε τῆς ἐκείνου χειρός με καί πάλιν με εἰσήγαγεν εἰς παράδεισον θεῖον, εἰς ἐμπελῶνα τόν αὐτοῦ, εἰς γεωργῶν τε χεῖρας (397) παρέδωκεν ἁγίων με τοῦ ἐνεργεῖν τά θεῖα, ἐργάζεσθαι τάς ἀρετάς, τάς ἐντολάς φυλάσσειν καί τῶν ἁγίων τῆς χειρός παρεκτός μή κινεῖσθαι, ἵνά μή πάλιν με εὑρών ὁ κακίας ἐργάτης ἔξω χειρός διάγοντα ἁγίας ἁφαρπάσῃ καί τά αὐτοῦ με ἐνεργεῖν αὖθις παρασκευάσῃ. Οἱ καλοί οὖν με γεωργοί καί συμπαθεῖς λαβόντες καί ταῖς χερσί ταῖς ἑαυτῶν ὅλον τό θέλημά μου ἄραντες, ταπεινώσει με εὐθύς καί μετανοίᾳ ἐνεργεῖν τε ἐπέτρεψαν καί πενθεῖν ἀενάως. Ταῦτα γάρ, εἶπόν μοι, τέκνον, τά τρία οἱ τηροῦντες