Letter 72: Since excessive intimacy seems to invite suspicion, let it be tempered by the fear of God, so that both may flourish...

To Ammonius. I think that the gifts of grace are not bestowed indiscriminately, but in proportion to the preparation of mind of those who receive them. And, if you please, let us consider the case of Moses the hierophant [Moses as the great initiator and revealer of sacred things]. For when he had warded off the Egyptian who was doing wrong, and reconciled into friendship his own kinsmen who were fighting one another, he was appointed by God to be the chastiser of the Egyptians and the lawgiver of his own people.

Οἶμαι μὴ ἁπλῶς τὰ χαρίσματα δίδοσθαι, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν παρασκευὴν τῆς διανοίας τῶν δεχομένων (55). Καὶ, εἰ δοκεῖ, τὰ κατὰ Μωσέα τὸν ἱεροφάντην σκοπήσωμεν. Ἐκεῖνος γὰρ, ἐπειδὴ τὸν ἀδικοῦντα Αἰγύπτιον ἠμύνατο, τοὺς δ’ ὁμοφύλους διαμαχομένους εἰς φιλίαν συνήλλαξεν, ἐχειροτονήθη παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῶν μὲν Αἰγυπτίων κολαστὴς, τῶν δ’ ὁμοφύλων νομοθέτης.