Coptic Homilies in the Dialect of Upper Egypt; Edited from the Papyrus Codex Oriental 5001 in the British Museum

If the blessed man Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who became the Doctor of the Church, who fought in pain and anguish to make himself to be like unto the incorporeal powers in his daily life, who completed his course [and] kept the Faith, who kept his light shining in fastings, and in hunger, and in thirst, and amid dangers, who travelled with patient endurance the road from Jerusalem to Illyricum preaching the Gospel, this angel who belonged to the earth, this man who belonged to the heavens, who possessed Christ Who spoke in him, the habitation of the Holy Spirit, who was caught up to the third heaven [and] heard the words of mystery, who was carried away into the Paradise, who was by reason of his love and zeal well close the equal of Christ, who bore the care of the Churches, the orator of piety, the sponsor of those who believed on Christ, the herald and teacher of the Gentiles, who has taught unto us the way whereby to enter into heaven, [if this man, I say] said, ‘I subdue my body, and I make it to be a servant, lest having preached unto others I myself will become a castaway’; and, moreover, if this holy man, who possessed in his own person so great a multitude of spiritual excellences, and who spoke out boldly, saying, ‘I know not how to do anything of myself,’ was afraid, and spoke in this manner, what will we ourselves do, who are miserable creatures, and who are wholly unable to cultivate successfully one spiritual excellence?