2.  I have not yet alluded to the true and first wisdom, for which our wonderful husbandman and shepherd is conspicuous.  The first wisdom is a life worthy of praise, and kept pure for God, or being purified for Him Who is all-pure and all-luminous, Who demands of us, us His only sacrifice, purification—that is, a contrite heart and the sacrifice of praise,3    Ib. l. 23; li. 19. and a new creation in Christ,4    2 Cor. v. 17. and the new man,5    Eph. iv. 24. and the like, as the Scripture loves to call it.  The first wisdom is to despise that wisdom which consists of language and figures of speech, and spurious and unnecessary embellishments.  Be it mine to speak five words with my understanding in the church, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue,6    1 Cor. xiv. 19. and with the unmeaning voice of a trumpet,7    Ib. xiv. 8. which does not rouse my soldier to the spiritual combat.  This is the wisdom which I praise, which I welcome.  By this the ignoble have won renown, and the despised have attained the highest honours.  By this a crew of fishermen have taken the whole world in the meshes of the Gospel-net, and overcome by a word finished and cut short8    Isai. x. 22, 23 (LXX.); Rom. ix. 28. the wisdom that comes to naught.9    1 Cor. ii. 6.  I count not wise the man who is clever in words, nor him who is of a ready tongue, but unstable and undisciplined in soul, like the tombs which, fair and beautiful as they are outwardly, are fetid with corpses within,10    S. Matt. xxiii. 27. and full of manifold ill-savours; but him who speaks but little of virtue, yet gives many examples of it in his practice, and proves the trustworthiness of his language by his life.

Βʹ. Καὶ οὔπω λέγω τὴν ἀληθινὴν σοφίαν καὶ πρώτην, ἣν ὁ θαυμάσιος ὅδε γεωργὸς καὶ ποιμὴν τὰ πρῶτα φέρεται. Σοφία πρώτη, βίος ἐπαινετὸς καὶ Θεῷ κεκαθαρμένος, ἢ καθαιρόμενος, τῷ καθαρωτάτῳ καὶ λαμπροτάτῳ, καὶ μόνην ἀπαιτοῦντι παρ' ἡμῶν θυσίαν, τὴν κάθαρσιν, ἣν δὲ καρδίαν συντετριμμένην, καὶ θυσίαν αἰνέσεως, καὶ καινὴν ἐν Χριστῷ κτίσιν, καὶ νέον ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, τῇ Γραφῇ καλεῖν φίλον. Σοφία πρώτη, σοφίας ὑπερορᾷν τῆς ἐν λόγῳ κειμένης, καὶ στροφαῖς λέξεων, καὶ ταῖς κιβδήλοις καὶ περιτταῖς ἀντιθέσεσιν. Ἐμοὶ δὲ γένοιτο πέντε λόγους ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ λαλῆσαι μετὰ συνέσεως, ἢ μυρίους ἐν γλώσσῃ, καὶ φωνῇ σάλπιγγος ἀσήμῳ, τὸν ἐμὸν ὁπλίτην οὐκ ἐγειρούσῃ πρὸς τὸν πνευματικὸν πόλεμον. Ταύτην ἐπαινῶ τὴν σοφίαν ἐγὼ, ταύτην ἀσπάζομαι, δι' ἣν ἀγεννεῖς ἐδοξάσθησαν, καὶ εἰς ἣν ἐξουθενήμενοι προετιμήθησαν, καὶ μεθ' ἧς ἁλιεῖς τὴν οἰκουμένην ὅλην τοῖς τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου δεσμοῖς ἐσαγήνευσαν, τῷ συντετελεσμένῳ καὶ συντετμημένῳ λόγῳ, τὴν καταργουμένην σοφίαν νικήσαντες. Οὐ γὰρ ὁ ἐν λόγῳ σοφὸς, οὗτος ἐμοὶ σοφὸς, οὐδὲ ὅστις γλῶσσαν μὲν εὔστροφον ἔχει, ψυχὴν δὲ ἄστατον καὶ ἀπαίδευτον, ὥσπερ τῶν τάφων, ὅσοι τὰ ἔξωθεν ὄντες εὐπρεπεῖς καὶ ὡραῖοι, μυδῶσι νεκροῖς τὰ ἔνδον, καὶ πολλὴν δυσωδίαν περικαλύπτουσιν: ἀλλ' ὅστις ὀλίγα μὲν περὶ ἀρετῆς φθέγγεται, πολλὰ δὲ οἷς ἐνεργεῖ παραδείκνυσι, καὶ τὸ ἀξιόπιστον τῷ λόγῳ διὰ τοῦ βίου προστίθησιν.