Letter 179: Even though teachers and fathers have rejected flattery as something supremely harmful and ruinous — using fear...

If teachers and fathers, having abandoned flattery as something that does the greatest harm, set before us counsel for our instruction and learning, calling the renunciation of material things "departure" and obedience "willing submission" -- and if they had only nature as their teacher, while we have their recorded practice as well yet care little for the work -- then we must understand renunciation as the forgetting of former habits and obedience as the submission of the will to what is higher.

A πρὸς νουθεσίαν ἡμῶν καὶ μάθησιν ἔθεντο, ἀποταγὴν τὴν τῆς ὕλης ἀναχώρησιν, καὶ ὑποταγὴν τὴν εὐ- πείθειαν καλέσαντες. Καὶ οἱ μὲν φύσιν μόνην ἔσχον διδάσκαλον· ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐκείνων πρᾶξιν ἀνά- γραπτον ἔχοντες, μικρὰ τῆς ἐργασίας φροντίζομεν. Χρὴ τοίνυν τὴν μὲν ἀποταγὴν λήθην εἶναι προκα- τασχούσης γνώμης, καὶ ἄρνησιν συνηθείας · τὴν δὲ ὑπακοὴν, νέκρωσιν καὶ φθορὰν τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς μελῶν, καθὼς γέγραπται (1). --- ΡΟΘ' -- ΣΤΡΑΤΗΓΙΩ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΟ. Ἡ τῶν δικαίων παῤῥησία ἡ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἰδίας δικαιο σύνης, οὐκ ἀπὸ μεγαληγορίας, ὦ θαυμάσιε, ἐτέχθη, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπ᾿ ἀνάγκης· αὕτη γὰρ ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ δοκεῖν αὐτοὺς δικαίως πάσχειν, εἰς ταύτην αὐτοὺς ἐλθεῖν ``` ΡΟΘ. – ΙΣΙΔΩΡΟ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟ. Η μὲν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις νενεκρωμένης ψυχῆς ἀνάστασις ἐνταῦθα τελεῖται, ὅταν ταῖς τῆς δικαιο σύνης πράξεσιν εἰς ζωὴν ἀναστοιχειωθῇ. Νέκρωσιν & χρὴ νοεῖν ψυχῆς τὴν κακοπραγίαν, οὐ τὸν εἰς τὸ μὴ εἶναι ἀφανισμόν. Διὸ καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἀσώτου παιδὸς C ἔτι ζῶντος ἐῤῥέθη· «Νεκρὸς ἦν καὶ ἀνέζησε. » Καὶ τῷ ὑπὸ τῆς κακίας νεκρωθέντι, καὶ ταφέντι ἐῤ ῥέθη· «Ἔγειραι ὁ καθεύδων, καὶ ἀνάστα ἐκ τῶν νε- χρῶν, καὶ ἑπιφαύσει σοι ὁ Χριστός.» Τῷ γὰρ τὸν θάνατον τῆς ἁμαρτίας διὰ μετανοίας ἀποσεισαμένῳ τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν ἀνατελεῖ· ἡ δὲ τοῦ σώματος ἐκεῖσε τελεσθήσεται, πάντων μὲν ὁμοίως διὰ τὴν ἀθανασίαν, οὐ πάντων δὲ ὁμοίως διὰ τὴν εὔκλειαν. Ἡ γὰρ δόξα ἀναλόγως τοῖς ἐνταῦθα πεπραγμένοις ἑκάστῳ πρυτανευθήσεται, καθὼς τὰ ἀψευδῆ τῆς Γρα- φῆς περιέχει λόγια.