Pseudo-Philo

Philo of Carpasia (d. 400)

Philo, Bishop of Carpasia, Letter to Eucarpius

(Translation by Roger Pearse, Attribution to Pseudo-Philo)

1. I shall become a mediator for you in a matter of salvation, my true brother, if you gladly accept our advice on what you should do, especially regarding the things you yourself asked us to advise you about. For, although perhaps many have dared to begin this solitary life, it seems to me that few have bothered to sustain it worthily to the end. And the objective of it is not just the intention, but the objective is the reward of the effort. So there is no benefit to those who rush to reach the end of the goal while they remain merely at the beginning of the solitary life, and instead abandon it and become a laughing-stock, and are accused by outsiders of cowardice and vacillation. For the Lord says about such people, “Who, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate if he has the means to complete it, lest, after laying its foundation and not being able to finish it, passers-by begin to mock him, saying that this man started to build and was unable to finish?”[Luke 14:28]

See also

• More works by Philo of Carpasia

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