Letter 25: Why do people bring the Lord's judgment down upon themselves — these blasphemers, these fighters against God, who...

That it is impossible to achieve virtue in the midst of disturbances. What profit is John's withdrawal into the wilderness to you [John the Baptist, or the desert ascetic taken as a model of solitude], a withdrawal which you once zealously emulated, but which now you no longer imitate, since you keep returning to your domestic cares, are agitated even in the desert, and are troubled when you are by yourself? For to be at rest only in outward form, while being churned up by the turnings and confusions of the mind, both fills the perception with fog, and darkens what has already been accomplished by labor, and gives the victory over to the passions, and makes the man-at-arms one who flings away his shield. But no man on military service entangles himself in the business affairs of life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him [an allusion to 2 Timothy 2:4]; rather, he becomes wholly a bearer of arms, drawing himself up for the contest that pleases his commanding officer.

Ὅτι ἀμήχανον ἐν μέσῳ θορύβων ἀρετὴν κατορθῶσαι. Τί σοι ὄφελος τῆς Ἰωάννου πρὸς τὴν ἔρημον ἀναχωρήσεως, ἣν πάλαι σπουδαίως ἐζήλωσας, νῦν (25) δὲ μὴ ἐκεῖνον μιμουμένῳ, καὶ πρὸς τὰς οἰκείας φροντίδας παλινοστούunti, καὶ ἐπ’ ἐρημίας θορυβουμένῳ, καὶ καταμόνας ὀχλουμένῳ; Τὸ γὰρ ἡσυχάζειν τῷ σχήματι, καὶ φύρεσθαι ταῖς κατὰ νοῦν στροφαῖς καὶ συγχύσεσι, καὶ ἀχλύος τὴν αἴσθησιν πληροῦῖ, καὶ τὰ ἤδη πονηθέντα ἀμαυροῖ, καὶ τοῖς πάθεσι τὴν νίκην εὐδοεῖ, καὶ ῥίψασπιν τὸν ὁπλίτην ποιεῖ. Οὐδεὶς δὲ στρατευόμενος ἐμπλέκεται ταῖς τοῦ βίου πραγματείαις ἵνα τῷ στρατολογήσαντι ἀρέσῃ, ἀλλ’ ὁπλοφόρος ὅλος γίνεται, πρὸς τὸν ἀρέσκοντα τῷ ταξιάρχῃ παρατασσόμενος ἀγῶνα.