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it is a war, that of the desire for money, that of envy, that of the passions. Describing this war, Paul says: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. This war is always present; for this reason he wants us to stand always armed. Stand therefore, he says, having girded yourselves; which is also of the present time; and he showed that one must always be armed. For great is the war through the tongue, great through the eyes; let us therefore restrain this; great is the war of desires. For this reason he begins from there to arm the soldier of Christ; For stand, having girded, he says, your loins, and he added, In truth. Why, In truth? For desire is a mockery and a lie; wherefore the prophet says: My loins have been filled with mockery. The thing is not pleasure, but a shadow of pleasure. Having girded, he says, your loins in truth. That is, with true pleasure, with temperance, with decency. For this reason he exhorts these things, knowing the absurdity of sin, and wishing all our members to be fenced about; For, he says, unjust anger will not be held innocent; and he wants us to wear a breastplate, and a shield. For anger is a beast that easily leaps in, and we will need countless fences and partitions to overcome and restrain it. And for this reason God built for us this part especially, as if from certain stones, from bones, placing a support around it, so that it might not ever burst, nor being cut through, easily destroy the whole living being. For it is a fire, he says, and a great storm; and no other member could withstand this violence. And the sons of physicians say that for this reason the lung is spread under the heart, 63.870 so that the heart, being soft, leaping into it as into a certain sponge, may be refreshed, and not be injured by the force of its leaps against the resistant and hard breastbone. We need, therefore, a strong breastplate, so as to always keep this beast in quietness; and we also need a helmet. For since the reasoning faculty is there, and from this it is possible either to be saved, when the right things are done, or to be destroyed, for this reason he says, And a helmet of salvation. For the brain by nature is soft; wherefore it too, as with a certain shell, is covered from above by the skull; and it becomes for us the cause of all good and evil things, whether knowing what is right, or what is not so. And our feet and hands also need weapons; not these hands, nor these feet, but again those of the soul, the ones to practice what is right, the others, that they may walk where they ought. Let us therefore do all things, beloved, for the sake of that future life; let us work doing all things with a view to it. Wickedness is darkness, beloved, it is death, it is night; we see none of the things we should, we do none of the things that are fitting. Just as the dead are unsightly and stinking, so also the souls of those in wickedness are full of much uncleanness; their eyes are closed, their mouth is shut, they remain motionless on the bed of wickedness; or rather, more pitiable than those who have suffered these things. For these are dead to both; but those are insensible to virtue, but alive to wickedness. If someone strikes a dead body, it does not feel it, nor defend itself, but is like dry wood; so also the soul is truly dry, having lost its life; it receives countless wounds every day, and does not feel them, but remains insensible to all things. One would not err in comparing them to the insane, to the drunk, to the delirious. But wickedness has all these things, and is more grievous than all. The one who is mad has much pardon from those who see him; for the disease is not of choice, but of nature alone; but the one who lives in wickedness, whence will he be pardoned? Whence then is wickedness? whence are the majority wicked? Tell me, whence is the evil of diseases, whence frenzy? whence heavy sleep? Is it not from inattention? If physical diseases have their beginning from choice, much more so do those of the will. Whence is drunkenness? is it not from incontinence of soul? is not frenzy from an excess of fever? and is not the fever from

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πόλεμός ἐστιν, ὁ τῆς τῶν χρημάτων ἐπιθυμίας, ὁ τῆς βασκανίας, ὁ τῶν παθῶν. Τοῦτον τὸν πόλεμον διηγούμενος ὁ Παῦλός φησιν· Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα. Ἀεὶ οὗτος ὁ πόλεμος ἐνέστηκε· διὰ τοῦτο ἀεὶ ὡπλισμένους ἡμᾶς ἑστάναι βούλεται. Στῆτε οὖν, φησὶ, περιζωσάμενοι· ὅπερ καὶ αὐτὸ ἐνεστῶτός ἐστι καιροῦ· καὶ ἐνέφηνεν, ὅτι ἀεὶ δεῖ ὁπλίζεσθαι. Πολὺς γὰρ ὁ πόλεμος διὰ γλώσσης, πολὺς δι' ὀφθαλμῶν· τοῦτον τοίνυν κατέχωμεν· πολὺς ὁ τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἐκεῖθεν ἄρχεται καθοπλίζειν τὸν στρατιώτην τοῦ Χριστοῦ· Στῆτε γὰρ περιζωσάμενοι, φησὶ, τὴν ὀσφὺν ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐπήγαγεν, Ἐν ἀληθείᾳ. ∆ιὰ τί, Ἐν ἀληθείᾳ; Ἐμπαιγμὸς γάρ ἐστι καὶ ψεῦδος ἡ ἐπιθυμία· διό φησιν ὁ προφήτης· Αἱ ψόαι μου ἐπλήσθησαν ἐμπαιγμάτων. Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡδονὴ τὸ πρᾶγμα, ἀλλὰ σκιὰ ἡδονῆς. Περιζωσάμενοι, φησὶ, τὴν ὀσφὺν ὑμῶν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ. Τουτέστι, τῇ ἀληθινῇ ἡδονῇ, τῇ σωφροσύνῃ, τῇ κοσμιότητι. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ταῦτα παραινεῖ, εἰδὼς τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὴν ἀτοπίαν, καὶ βουλόμενος ἡμῶν πάντα τὰ μέλη περιπεφράχθαι· Θυμὸς γὰρ, φησὶν, ἄδικος οὐκ ἀθωωθήσεται· καὶ θώρακα ἡμᾶς περικεῖσθαι βούλεται, καὶ ἀσπίδα. Θηρίον γάρ ἐστιν εὐκόλως ἐμπηδῶν ὁ θυμὸς, καὶ μυρίων θριγκίων καὶ διαφραγμάτων ἡμῖν δεήσει πρὸς τὸ περιγενέσθαι καὶ κατασχεῖν. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἡμῖν τοῦτο μάλιστα τὸ μέρος, ὥσπερ ἔκ τινων λίθων, τῶν ὀστέων ᾠκοδόμησεν ὁ Θεὸς, ἔρεισμα αὐτῷ περιθεὶς, ὥστε μὴ διαῤῥῆξάν ποτε, μήτε διατεμὸν, εὐκόλως τὸ πᾶν λυμήνασθαι ζῶον. Πῦρ γάρ ἐστι, φησὶ, καὶ ζάλη μεγάλη· καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἕτερον μέλος ταύτην τὴν βίαν ἀνάσχοιτο. Λέγουσι δὲ καὶ ἰατρῶν παῖδες τούτου χάριν ὑπεστορῆσθαι τὸν πνεύμονα τῇ καρδίᾳ, 63.870 ὥστε εἰς ἁπαλὸν αὐτὴν οὖσαν καθάπερ εἴς τινα σπόγγον ἐναλλομένην διαναπαύεσθαι τὴν καρδίαν, ἀλλὰ μὴ εἰς τὸ ἀντίτυπον καὶ σκληρὸν τὸ στέρνον καταβλάπτεσθαι τῇ ῥύμῃ τῶν ἁλμάτων. ∆εῖ τοίνυν ἡμῖν θώρακος ἰσχυροῦ, ὥστε διαπαντὸς ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ τοῦτο τὸ θηρίον διατηρεῖν· δεῖ δὲ ἡμῖν καὶ περικεφαλαίας. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐκεῖ τὸ λογιστικὸν τυγχάνει, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου ἢ σωθῆναι δυνατὸν, ὅταν τὰ δέοντα γίγνωνται, ἢ ἀπολέσθαι ἔνι, διὰ τοῦτό φησι, Καὶ περικεφαλαίαν σωτηρίου. Ὁ γὰρ ἐγκέφαλος φύσει μέν ἐστιν ἁπαλός· διὸ καὶ αὐτὸς, καθάπερ τινὶ ὀστράκῳ, τῷ βρέγματι καλύπτεται ἄνωθεν· πάντων δὲ ἡμῖν αἴτιος γίνεται τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ τῶν κακῶν, εἴτε τὰ δέοντα γνοὺς, εἴτε τὰ μὴ τοιαῦτα. Καὶ οἱ πόδες δὲ καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ὅπλων ἡμῖν δέονται· οὐχ αὗται αἱ χεῖρες, οὐδὲ οὗτοι οἱ πόδες, ἀλλὰ πάλιν οἱ τῆς ψυχῆς, αἱ μὲν μελετῶσαι τὰ δέοντα, οἱ δὲ, ἵνα πορεύωνται ἔνθα χρή. Πάντα τοίνυν, ἀγαπητοὶ, ὑπὲρ ἐκείνης πράττωμεν τῆς μελλούσης ζωῆς· πάντα πρὸς ἐκείνην ὁρῶντες ἐργαζώμεθα. Σκότος ἐστὶν ἡ κακία, ἀγαπητὲ, θάνατός ἐστι, νύξ ἐστιν· οὐδὲν ὁρῶμεν τῶν δεόντων, οὐδὲν πράττομεν τῶν προσηκόντων. Καθάπερ οἱ νεκροὶ δυσειδεῖς εἰσι καὶ ὀδωδότες· οὕτω καὶ αἱ ψυχαὶ τῶν ἐν κακίᾳ πολλῆς εἰσιν ἀκαθαρσίας μεσταί· μέμυκεν αὐτῶν τὰ ὄμματα, τὸ στόμα συνείληπται, ἀκίνητοι μένουσιν ἐν τῇ κλίνῃ τῆς κακίας· μᾶλλον δὲ τῶν ταῦτα παθόντων ἐλεεινότεροι. Οὗτοι μὲν γὰρ πρὸς ἑκάτερα νεκροί· ἐκεῖνοι δὲ πρὸς μὲν ἀρετὴν ἀναίσθητοι, ζῶντες δὲ πρὸς κακίαν. Νεκρὸν κἂν πλήξῃ τις, οὐκ αἰσθάνεται, οὐδὲ ἀμύνεται, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ὥσπερ ξύλον αὖον· οὕτω καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ αὖον ὄντως ἐστὶν ἀποβαλοῦσα τὴν ζωήν· μυρία καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν λαμβάνει τὰ τραύματα, καὶ οὐκ αἰσθάνεται, ἀλλ' ἀνάλγητος πρὸς πάντα διάκειται. Οὐκ ἄν τις ἁμάρτοι τοῖς μεμηνόσιν αὐτοὺς παραβάλλων, τοῖς μεθύουσι, τοῖς παραπαίουσι. Πάντα δὲ ταῦτα ἔχει ἡ κακία, καὶ πάντων ἐστὶ χαλεπωτέρα. Ὁ μαινόμενος ἔχει πολλὴν συγγνώμην παρὰ τῶν ὁρώντων· οὐ γάρ ἐστι προαιρέσεως τὸ νόσημα, ἀλλὰ φύσεως μόνης· ὁ δὲ ἐν κακίᾳ διάγων, πόθεν συγγνωσθήσεται; Πόθεν οὖν ἡ κακία; πόθεν οἱ πλείους κακοί; Εἰπέ μοι, πόθεν ἡ κακία τῶν νοσημάτων, πόθεν φρενῖτις; πόθεν ὕπνος βαρύς; οὐχὶ ἐξ ἀπροσεξίας; Εἰ τὰ φυσικὰ νοσήματα ἀπὸ προαιρέσεως ἔχει τὴν ἀρχὴν, τὰ προαιρετικὰ πολλῷ μᾶλλον. Ἡ μέθη πόθεν; οὐχὶ ἐξ ἀκρασίας ψυχῆς; ἡ φρενῖτις οὐχὶ ἀπὸ ὑπερβολῆς πυρετοῦ; ὁ δὲ πυρετὸς οὐχὶ ἀπὸ τῶν