60 Book IV. Basil heard this, and after a little pause thus replied: If thou wert thyself ambitious of obtaining this office, thy fear would have been reason- able; for in being ambitious of undertaking it, a man confesses himself to be qualified for its administration, and if he fail therein, after it has been entrusted to him, he cannot take refuge in the plea of inexperience, for he has deprived himself of this excuse beforehand,125 by having hurriedly seized upon the ministry, and whoever willingly and deliberately enters upon it, can no longer say, “I have sinned in this matter against my will—and against my will I have ruined such and such a soul;” for He who will one day judge him, will say to him, “Since then thou wert conscious of such inexperience, and hadst not ability for undertaking this matter without incurring reproach, why wert thou so eager and presumptuous as to take in hand what was so far beyond thy power? Who compelled thee to do so? Didst thou shrink or fly, and did any one drag thee on by force?” But thou wilt hear nothing like this, for thou canst have nothing of this kind to condemn thyself for; and it is evident to all that thou wert in no degree ambitious of this dignity, for the accomplishment of the matter was due to the action of others. Hence, circumstances which leave those who are ambitious of this office no chance of pardon when they err therein, afford thee ample ground for excuse. Chrysostom: At this I shook my head and smiled a little, admiring the simple-mindedness of the man, and thus addressed him: I could wish indeed that matters were as thou sayest, most excellent of men, but not in order that I might be able to accept that office from which I lately fled. For if, indeed, no chastisement were to await me for undertaking the care of the flock of Christ without consideration and experience, yet to me it would be worse than all punishment, after being entrusted with so great a charge, to have seemed so base towards Him who entrusted me with it. For what reason, then, did I wish that thou wert not mistaken in this opinion of thine? truly for the sake of those wretched and unhappy beings (for so must I call them, who have not found out how to discharge the duties of this office well, 61 though thou wert to say ten thousand times over that they had been driven to undertake it, and that, therefore, their errors therein are sins of ignorance)—for the sake, I say, of such that they might succeed in escaping that unquenchable fire, and the outer darkness126 and the worm that dieth not127 and the punishment of being cut asunder,128 and perishing to- gether with the hypocrites. 125 προλαβῶν γὰρ αὐτὸς ›αυτοῦ ταύτην ‡φείλετο τὴν ‡πολογίαν. 126 Matt. xxv. 30. 127 Mark ix. 44. 128 Matt. xxiv. 51; Luke xii. 46. Διχοτομηθῆαι. Some take this word to express the severance of the unrighteous from the godly priest, but others seek its meaning rather in the “dividing asunder” of sacrificial victims (Heb. iv. 12), or in the punishment of “sawing asunder” (Dan. iii. 29; Heb. xi. 37): so that its use by SS. Matthew and Book IV 85 Book IV