The Pattern of Moses and the Danger of False Books

A person of sound mind will not endure the charm of deception, nor the speed of horses, nor a stance producing death, nor the sickness of cities. Instead of these, rejoice in studies, from which the way of most excellent exercises comes.

If you train your mind moderately as in a wrestling school through various writings, you will enter into the God-breathed Scriptures, gathering great wealth from the collections of the two covenants, the old and the new always. For the new is a second written covenant and, with itself, no longer possesses a third. Devote yourself to all these unswervingly, from which you will learn the good way of exercising and to revere the true and only God.

For the Trinity is one God in three persons, eternal: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, distinct yet one in nature. Therefore, do not confuse the hypostases by number, nor do you divide the nature while worshiping God. For truly the Trinity is nature and is not divided. For it is one Trinity, one almighty God. This is a subtle, pious mystery.

For truly the way of truth is narrow, a bifurcated path, crushed, from which, having slipped from the opposing sides, they were broken into a deep-cleft error: Sabellius, looking toward the Jews, and the idolater Arius, imitating them; the one confusing the persons into one hypostasis, the other impiously dividing the essence. But you, unswervingly, guard the middle way, as it is necessary to divide and as it is proper to unite. For the Trinity is united without confusion, just as the one is separated without evaporation. For nature is without evaporation, and the hypostases always remain entirely without confusion.

Having guarded these, you will remain in the dogmas, a genuine worker of the commandments, wise in all mystical contemplations, always progressing, never being cast out. For he will be thrown back greater...

Thus the grace. You see the faithful Moses, the man of God, an icon of a life according to virtue; how, having mastered all the wisdom of the Egyptians, even if he was nourished by deep wealth, he willingly became a fugitive and a poor man; even if he exchanged the table of luxury in the Egyptian wilderness for the life of shepherds, preferring the glory of tyrants to a hard life, until, being judged worthy of perfect wonders, he saw the greatest mystery of an angel appearing from a bush of flaming fire (Exod 3:2).

Then, having been made worthy first to hear the voice of God and having received authority by the vote of God to loose the yoke of a narrow, servile people and to rule all the race. Having received such height, he does not exalt himself, but says that he is weak, having a heavy voice and a slow tongue (Exod 4:10), as if thinking that being humble makes him strong. Guard this icon of life, shaping yourself in the manner of Moses.

And the learning of the Greek words, as if a judge bringing a lawful vote, serves the order—which is fitting—of the boldness of true dogmas and the all-wise contemplation of the Scriptures. For it is right that the wisdom which is from above, being from God, having arrived, should be the mistress of the lower education, as a handmaid not growing in vain, but being trained to serve decorously. For let the lower serve that of God.

But rather, it is most fitting for you to learn that beforehand: not every book is secure, though it possesses the venerable name of Scripture. For there are, there are indeed pseudepigraphal books; some are indeed intermediate and neighbors, as one might say, to the words of the truth. But others are both counterfeit and very dangerous, like counterfeit and fake coins, which have the inscription of a king but are deceptive, being defrauded by the materials. Of these