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The Discourse to the Greeks
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Chapter 5: Final Plea
THEREFORE: you Greeks, come and partake of incomparable wisdom, and be instructed by the Divine Word, and acquaint yourselves with the immortal King; and do not regard those men as heroes who slaughter entire nations. For our own Ruler, the Divine Word, who even now constantly aids us, does not desire physical strength and beauty, nor the proud spirit of earthly nobility, but a pure soul, fortified by holiness, and the commands of our King—holy actions—because through the Word, power fills the soul.
O trumpet of peace to the soul at war! O weapon that drives away terrible passions! O instruction that quenches the innate fire of the soul! The Word influences not by making poets, nor equipping philosophers or skilled orators, but by its teaching, it makes mortals immortal, turns mortals into gods, and transports them from the earth to the realms above Olympus. Come, be taught; become as I am, for I, too, was as you are. These have conquered me—the divinity of the instruction and the power of the Word: for just as a skilled serpent-charmer lures the terrible reptile from its den and causes it to flee, so the Word drives the fearful passions of our sensual nature from the depths of the soul; first driving forth lust, through which every ill arises—hatreds, strife, envy, rivalries, anger, and the like.
Once lust is banished, the soul becomes calm and serene. And being freed from the ills in which it was deeply submerged, it returns to Him who made it. For it is fitting that it be restored to the state from which it departed, the state where every soul once was or is.