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and I, the wretched one, have become a proven tool of wicked work, having been cunningly deceived; for holding me in his hand and powerfully dragging me, he sullied me with dung-carriers and cast me into all sorts of mire and bitter stenches, and made me rejoice in these things—O, the insensibility! For plunder, for envy, for unjust deaths, for reviling, for outbursts of anger, for every kind of wickedness—to tell you in brief—he found me working, or rather, he himself used me against my will. For from the time I willingly cast myself out of the hand of God and of His saints, 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 works, but worked in all his wills. For the sword does not know how to contradict the one who wields it, but wherever the wielder wishes, he uses it. Therefore God who made me, looking down from on high and seeing me held in the tyrant's hand, took pity on me, snatched me from his hand, and brought me again into a divine paradise, into His vineyard, and into the hands of farmers (397) he delivered me, of saints, to do divine things, to practice the virtues, to keep the commandments, and not to be moved outside the hand of the saints, lest the worker of wickedness, finding me again living outside a holy hand, seize me and prepare me to do his works once more. So the good and compassionate farmers took me, and lifting up my whole will with their own hands, they immediately permitted me to work in humility and repentance and to mourn perpetually. "For these three things," they said to me, "child, those who keep them and persist in their good work are quickly, in a way they do not know, lifted up to glory, purification, and dispassion, and divine contemplation, and they are not yet captured by the hands of the enemy, but from God they receive forgiveness of all sins and of all faults together, and thus they become sons of the Most High and gods by grace and useful tools, working every good thing,"

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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 καί ἐπιμένοντες αὐτῶν τῇ καλῇ ἐργασίᾳ συντόμως, ὡς οὐκ ἴσασιν, ἀνάγονται πρός δόξαν, κάθαρσιν καί ἀπάθειαν καί θεωρίαν θείαν, καί ταῖς χερσί τοῦ δυσμενοῦς ἁλίσκονται οὐδέπω, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ Θεοῦ συγχώρησιν πάντων ἁμαρτημάτων, σφαλμάτων πάντων τε ὁμοῦ λαμβάνουσι καί οὕτως υἱοί ὑψίστου γίνονται καί θεοί κατά χάριν καί ἐργαλεῖα εὔχρηστα, πᾶν καλόν ἐνεργοῦντα,