The Letters of Nerses the Gracious

concerning [it]. For I did not instruct the word that is in me with wisdom, nor the desire with temperance, and again I did not instruct these with justice, so that I might fashion myself according to the four-fold referring to the four cardinal virtues: wisdom, fortitude, temperance, and justice chariot of God. Rather, through the influence of opposing forces—ignorance and sloth, lust and injustice—I have become alienated from the true good and have become intimate with the workings of evil.

And since one who approaches God, especially in the likeness of the highest priesthood, is obligated to become godlike through virtue, according to what is written, according to the measure of the power of the temperament and the earthen nature; as those who were called by the Lord to this work of the stewardship of the house of God gave us an example: first the prophets, who, having been chosen from among the shepherds, were appointed as shepherds of the house of Israel. And they, even unto death...