Letter 75: I hear that flatterers hang on your every word, swearing that everything you do is excellent — even if what you...

Blessed is the one who teaches what he practices and earns the blessings he proclaims. You are in danger, O whatever I should rightly call you, of being ignorant of things obvious even to small children. Do not suppose that faith, if one must call faith what is unaccompanied by works, is sufficient for salvation. For faith without works is dead, as the apostle declares, and the one who professes belief while living in wickedness deceives himself most of all.

ΚΟΜΗΤΙ ΘΕΡΑΠΕΥΤΗ Μακάριος ὁ διδάσκων ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἀπολαύει μακαρισμῶν ΟΙ΄. – ΠΑΛΛΑΔΙΩ. " ὅτι ἡ πίστις χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων οὐ σώζει τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Κινδυνεύεις, ὦ τί σε καλέσας ἀξίως προσονομάσω! ἀγνοεῖν τὰ καὶ τοῖς ἄγαν παισὶ πρόδηλα. Μὴ γὰρ δὴ νόμιζε, ὅτι ἡ πίστις (εἴ γε πίστιν χρὴ καλεῖν τὴν ὑπὸ τῶν ἔργων τῶν σῶν ἐλεγχομένην), σῶσαί σε δυ- νήσεται. Ἡ γὰρ πίστις ἡ ἐξ ἀρχῆς δικαιώσασα, πράξεις ἁρμοδίας ἑαυτῇ ἀπαιτεῖ, ὧν ἄνευ σωθῆναι οὐχ οἷόν τε. Τὸν γὰρ κατὰ χάριν προσληφθέντα, δἱ- καιον καὶ οἰκείοις ἐναβρύνεσθαι πλεονεκτήμασιν, εἰ γε μὴ μέλλοι καὶ ἀχαριστίας ἁλώσεσθαι. ΤΓ. – ΑΓΑΘΟΔΑΙΜΟΝΙ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΙΚΟ. Εἰ καὶ τισιν ἴσως κολακεύουσί σε, ἔδοξε λογισμοῦ εἶναι, οὐκ ὀργῆς ἡ ἀπόκρισις, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ θρασύτη- τος μᾶλλον εἶναι ἡ θράσους ὁ καρπός. Διὸ δὴ παραινῶ · σοι ἔμπροσθεν τῆς ὀργῆς τιθέναι τὸν λογισμόν, καὶ οὕτω καὶ λέγειν καὶ γράφειν. Εἰ γὰρ συγχωρή- σειας (30) αὐτῇ προπηδᾷν τοῦ λογισμοῦ, πάντα ἄνω καὶ κάτω ποιήσει. ΡΜΒ΄. – ΘΕΟΔΟΣΙΩ Πολλοὺς ἡ ἄγνοια παρ᾽ οὐδὲν ἔθηκεν.