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that everlasting life, and they are not only not plotted against by the irregularity of the weather and the occurrence of unexpected events, but they are not even dissolved by death itself. And from their hopes one might see their fruit shining even in ordinary matters, and the reward being great and abundant. For this reason the blessed Paul cried out, saying: Not only so, but we also glory in tribulations. I beseech you, let us not pass over what was said lightly; but since, I know not how, the discourse has again brought us into the harbor of the good pilot Paul, let us delight in the saying, which is brief, yet instructs us with much wisdom. What then is what was said, and what did he intimate to us by saying this, Not only so, but we also glory in tribulations? Let us take the argument of our teaching a little further back, if you please, and we shall see much clarity, and the power of the thoughts born for us from there. But let no one's body grow soft; but instead of dew, let there be the desire for spiritual hearing. For our discourse is about tribulation and the desire for eternal good things, and patience, and the reward which comes from these to those who have not fallen away. What then is this, "Not only so"? For he who said this shows us that many other good things had preceded it; and after those he adds this also, that which comes from tribulation; wherefore he himself also said: Not only so, but we also glory in tribulations. So that what has been said may become clearer, bear with us for a short while, as we make our teaching longer in words. For when the divine proclamation was announced by the apostles, and they went about everywhere in the inhabited world sowing the word of piety, and pulling up error by the roots, and abolishing the ancestral laws of the impious, and driving out all lawlessness, and cleansing the earth, and commanding to leap away from idols and temples and altars and the festivals and rites from there, but to acknowledge the one and only God of all, and to await the hopes to come, and they spoke concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and they taught philosophy concerning the resurrection, and they spoke concerning the kingdom of heaven; for these reasons a grievous war was kindled, and the most tyrannical of all wars, and everything was full of tumult and confusion and sedition, and all cities, and every people, and house, and the inhabited and the uninhabited world, since the ancient customs were being shaken, and the prejudice which had held sway for so long was being shaken, and new doctrines were being introduced, which no one had ever heard; at this, kings51.158 grew savage, and rulers were displeased, and private citizens were disturbed, and marketplaces were in an uproar, and courts were enraged, and swords were drawn, and weapons were prepared, and laws were indignant. From there punishments and torments and threats and all things that seem terrible among men were set in motion. Just as when the sea is raging and is in the throes of grievous shipwrecks, the affairs of the inhabited world were in no better state, with a father at that time disowning his child on account of piety, and a daughter-in-law being divided against her mother-in-law, and brothers being divided, and masters being indignant against their servants, and nature itself almost rebelling against itself, and not only a civil war, but also one of kinship passing through every house. For the word, entering like a sword, and cutting the diseased from the healthy, caused there to be much sedition and contention everywhere, and prepared from all sides countless burdens and battles to be raised against those who believed. Thence some were led to prisons, others to courts, and others the road that leads to death; and the property of some was confiscated, while others were often cast out both from their country and from life itself, and from all sides more numerous than snowflakes

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ἐκείνην καὶ διαιωνίζουσαν ζωὴν, καὶ οὐ μόνον ἀνωμαλίᾳ ἀέρων καὶ ἀδοκήτων πραγμάτων περιστάσει οὐκ ἐπιβουλευομένας, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ αὐτῷ τῷ θανάτῳ διαλυομένας. Ἀπὸ τῶν ἐλπίδων δὲ αὐτῶν ἴδοι τις ἂν καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς τυχοῦσι λάμποντα αὐτῶν τὸν καρπὸν, καὶ πολλὴν καὶ μεγάλην οὖσαν τὴν ἀμοιβήν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος ἐβόα, λέγων· Οὐ μόνον δὲ, ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμεθα ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσι. Παρακαλῶ μὴ παραδράμωμεν τὸ εἰρημένον ἁπλῶς· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ, οὐκ οἶδα πῶς, πάλιν ἡμᾶς ὁ λόγος εἰς τὸν τοῦ καλοῦ κυβερνήτου Παύλου λιμένα εἰσήγαγεν, ἐντρυφήσωμεν τῇ λέξει, βραχείᾳ μὲν οὔσῃ, πολλῇ δὲ ἡμᾶς παιδευούσῃ φιλοσοφίᾳ. Τί ποτ' οὖν ἐστιν ἄρα τὸ εἰρημένον, καὶ τί τοῦτο εἰπὼν ᾐνίξατο ἡμῖν, λέγων, Οὐ μόνον δὲ, ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμεθα ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσι; Μικρὸν, εἰ δοκεῖ, ἀνωτέρω τὸν τῆς διδασκαλίας λόγον ἀγάγωμεν, καὶ πολλὴν ὀψόμεθα τὴν σαφήνειαν, καὶ τὴν τῶν νοημάτων δύναμιν ἐκεῖθεν τικτομένην ἡμῖν. Ἀλλὰ μηδένα τὸ σῶμα καταμαλακιζέτω· ἀλλ' ἀντὶ δρόσου γενέσθω ἡ τῆς πνευματικῆς ἀκροάσεως ἐπιθυμία. Καὶ γὰρ περὶ θλίψεως ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος καὶ ἐπιθυμίας ἀγαθῶν αἰωνίων, καὶ ὑπομονῆς, καὶ τῆς ἐκ τούτων γινομένης ἀμοιβῆς τοῖς οὐκ ἀναπεπτωκόσι. Τί ποτ' οὖν ἐστι τὸ, Οὐ μόνον; Ὁ γὰρ τοῦτο εἰρηκὼς, εἰπεῖν ἡμῖν πολλὰ καὶ ἕτερα δείκνυσι προϋπηργμένα ἀγαθά· καὶ μετ' ἐκείνων καὶ τοῦτο προστίθησι, τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς θλίψεως· διὸ καὶ ἔλεγεν ὁ αὐτός· Οὐ μόνον δὲ, ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμεθα ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν. Ὥστε δὲ σαφέστερον γενέσθαι τὸ εἰρημένον, βραχεῖαν ὥραν ἀνάσχεσθε, μακροτέραν ἡμῶν ποιουμένων τὴν διδασκαλίαν τῷ λόγῳ. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ κατηγγέλθη ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων τὸ θεῖον κήρυγμα, καὶ περιῄεσαν πανταχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης σπείροντες τῆς εὐσεβείας τὸν λόγον, καὶ πρόῤῥιζον ἀνασπῶντες τὴν πλάνην, καὶ τοὺς πατρῴους τῶν ἀσεβῶν καταλύοντες νόμους, καὶ παρανομίαν ἅπασαν ἐλαύνοντες, καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐκκαθαίροντες, καὶ εἰδώλων μὲν καὶ ναῶν καὶ βωμῶν καὶ πανηγύρεων τῶν ἐκεῖθεν καὶ τελετῶν κελεύοντες ἀποπηδᾷν, ἐπιγινώσκειν δὲ τὸν τῶν ὅλων ἕνα καὶ μόνον Θεὸν, καὶ τὰς μελλούσας ἀναμένειν ἐλπίδας, καὶ περὶ Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου Πνεύματος διελέγοντο, καὶ περὶ ἀναστάσεως ἐφιλοσόφουν, καὶ περὶ βασιλείας οὐρανῶν διελέγοντο· διὰ ταῦτα πόλεμος ἀνήφθη χαλεπὸς, καὶ πολέμων ἁπάντων ὁ τυραννικώτατος, καὶ πάντα θορύβου καὶ ταραχῆς καὶ στάσεως ἔγεμε, καὶ πόλεις ἅπασαι, καὶ δῆμος ἅπας, καὶ οἰκία, καὶ οἰκουμένη καὶ ἀοίκητος, ἅτε δὴ τῶν παλαιῶν ἐθῶν διασαλευομένων, καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον κατασχούσης προλήψεως διασειομένης, καινῶν δὲ εἰσαγομένων δογμάτων, καὶ ὧν μηδεὶς μηδέποτε ἤκουσε· πρὸς ταῦτα βασι51.158 λεῖς ἠγρίαινον, καὶ ἄρχοντες ἐδυσχέραινον, καὶ ἰδιῶται ἐταράττοντο, καὶ ἀγοραὶ ἐθορυβοῦντο, καὶ δικαστήρια ἐχαλέπαινε, καὶ ξίφη ἐγυμνοῦτο, καὶ ὅπλα παρεσκευάζετο, καὶ νόμοι ἠγανάκτουν. Ἐκεῖθεν τιμωρίαι καὶ κολάσεις καὶ ἀπειλαὶ καὶ πάντα συνεκινεῖτο τὰ ἐν ἀνθρώποις εἶναι δοκοῦντα δεινά. Ὥσπερ θαλάττης μαινομένης καὶ χαλεπὰ ναυάγια ὠδινούσης, οὐδὲν ἄμεινον τὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης διέκειτο, πατρὸς παῖδα διὰ τὴν εὐσέβειαν τότε ἀποκηρύττοντος, καὶ νύμφης πρὸς πενθερὰν σχιζομένης, καὶ ἀδελφῶν διαιρουμένων, καὶ δεσποτῶν κατὰ τῶν οἰκετῶν ἀγανακτούντων, καὶ τῆς φύσεως σχεδὸν πρὸς ἑαυτὴν στασιαζούσης, καὶ οὐκ ἐμφυλίου μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ συγγενικοῦ διὰ πάσης οἰκίας διιόντος πολέμου Ὁ γὰρ λόγος μαχαίρας δίκην εἰσιὼν, καὶ τὸ νοσοῦν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑγιαίνοντος τέμνων, πολλὴν ἐποίει πανταχοῦ τὴν στάσιν εἶναι, καὶ τὴν φιλονεικίαν, καὶ πανταχόθεν μυρίας αἴρεσθαι κατὰ τῶν πιστευόντων παρεσκεύασεν ἐπαχθείας καὶ μάχας. Ἐντεῦθεν οἱ μὲν εἰς δεσμωτήρια ἀπήγοντο, οἱ δὲ εἰς δικαστήρια, οἱ δὲ τὴν ἐπὶ θάνατον φέρουσαν ὁδόν· καὶ τῶν μὲν αἱ οὐσίαι ἐδημεύοντο, οἱ δὲ καὶ τῆς πατρίδος καὶ τῆς ζωῆς αὐτῆς πολλάκις ἐξέπιπτον, καὶ πανταχόθεν νιφάδων πυκνότερα