Letter 642

To Elpidius the Goldsmith. From inert gold you eagerly fashion abundant ornaments for other people, yet you are unwilling to render to yourself an ornament of virtues. For having received from God a soul golden by nature, you have through your negligence rendered it stony, indeed leaden, by casting it into the crucible of worthlessness and wretchedness. Hence of necessity it will fall to you to be sunk in the sea of error, and to be made to vanish in the deep of sin by your own choosing. For your improprieties have not escaped our notice. But now at least fear the Song of Moses, by which he pillories the Egyptians who resemble you, drowned together by their own wickedness because of the incorrigibility of the depravity of their ways: "For the wicked Egyptians sank like lead," he says, "in the mighty water, and they went down into the depth like a stone." [Exodus 15:10]

Ἱκανὰ ἀλλότρια κόσμια ἐξ ἀλόγου χρυσίου κατασκευάζεις προθύμως, σαυτῷ δὲ κόσμον ἀρετῶν λειτουργῆσαι οὐ βούλει. Ψυχὴν γὰρ χρυσῆν τὴν φύσει παρὰ Θεοῦ εἰληφὼς, λιθεῖνην ταύτην διὰ τῆς ἀμελείας, καὶ μολιβδίνην ἀπέδειξας, ἐμβαλὼν τῷ χωνευτηρίῳ τῆς ἀχρειότητος καὶ τῆς ταλαιπωρίας. Ὅθεν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔξεταί σοι τὸ καταποντισθῆναι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ τῆς πλάνης, καὶ ἐναφανισθῆναι τῷ πελάγει τῆς ἁμαρτίας προαιρέσει οἰκείᾳ. Οὐ διέλαθε γὰρ ἡμᾶς τὰ ἀτοπήματά σου. Ἀλλὰ νῦν γοῦν φοβήθητι τὴν ᾠδὴν τοῦ Μωσέως, δι’ ἧς στηλιτεύει τοὺς κατὰ σὲ Αἰγυπτίους συναποπνιγέντας τῇ ἰδίᾳ κακίᾳ διὰ τὸ ἀδιόρθωτον τῆς μοχθηρίας τῶν τρόπων· «Ἔδυσαν γὰρ ὡς μόλιβδος, φησίν, οἱ φαῦλοι Αἰγύπτιοι ἐν τῷ σφοδρῷ ὕδατι, καὶ κατέδυσαν εἰς βυθὸν ὡσεὶ λίθος.»