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by placing the times "in his own authority," did he bring forth our life destitute of limits? Far from it.

For where will you place "the time of every man has come before me," or "the days of your death have drawn near," or "my spirit shall not remain" among the sons of men, "but their days shall be one hundred and twenty years," you who advocate for this degenerate indeterminacy and introduce foreign, monstrous doctrines like certain Platonic ideas, phantoms of the mind and playthings of a flighty intellect, having improvised a bad, rather Hellenic Academy for the churches? Or was not the descent of Israel into Egypt also determined at four hundred years, O you lover of indeterminacy and counterfeiter of the unwritten dogmas of the faith? And where will the saying advocated by the psalmist go: "The days of our years are seventy years, or eighty years" [of distinction and strength]? And if a spiritual law had not restrained us from indulging in rash laughter, I would have been compelled to guffaw boisterously, as at a ridiculous matter, mocking your undertakings. Have you never heard David leading the choir and singing, "Make known to me my end, O Lord, and what is the number of my days, that I may know what I lack."? Do not be toward the church, O man, "but come now, cross over," according to the poet, and move toward our side, having cast off your orphaned and rudderless error. By fighting against the balance, you have been deprived of truth; but by fighting for knowledge, you will certainly possess what you have been deprived of. Have not the patriarchs fallen asleep, old and full of days? And what do you think scripture means by this? I indeed think "the limits of life having been fulfilled," according to that divine and great Basil. For truly not even a sparrow "will fall without our Father" who is in heaven, O you noble man in inquiry and most ready for turns of phrase. The saying, "What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come," and Christ's flight from the Jews because the hour of the cross had not yet come, how will these not speak against your doctrines and, like catapults, stone your words and winnow them like the chaff "which the wind drives from the face of the earth"? Who, while drinking, handed you this mythical nonsense? Why, having trafficked in a cargo of empty trifles, do you raise your eyebrows so high? What profit is it to you, weaving "a spider's web" according to the prophet, and weaving small and unsubstantial concepts against great dogmas? Why, having pushed aside the tunic of contemplation woven from above, have you put on the "leather" and thicker "tunics" of the intellect, which it is fitting for those to wear who have run aground and are exiled from the divine luxury of thoughts because of the emptiness of their forbidden undertaking? "Have respect for the gray hair" of right doctrines; it is of the same age as the church; reverence its venerable age. The newer is always by nature less honored; even the tragedians on the stage agree that the new is a bad lawgiver. For this reason, do not say, "I am younger"; for you know that poetry dishonors what is newer. For this reason, those of external wisdom and education also find fault with time, as always swelling with strange things, being sick with newer things. "Ask" your fathers, and they will tell you, and "your elders, and they will speak to you" that deaths are brought on when the limits of life are fulfilled. Sufficiently, O men, judges and givers of opinion and guardians of the law for the peoples, have I defended the recent words; and it is now time for me to carry off the victory and to be allotted the better portion and, having bound on the crown of words, to dance into the inner sanctuaries of the church and to sing with you to the Lord a victory ode, because a mouth speaking injustice has been stopped and a sea of error has parted and we have somehow escaped from it

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χρόνους "ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ ἐξουσίᾳ" τιθείς, ὅρων χηρεύουσαν τὴν ἡμετέραν ζωὴν προηγάγετο; πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ.

Ποῦ γὰρ θήσεις τὸ «"καιρὸς παντὸς ἀνθρώπου ἥκει ἐναντίον μου"» ἢ τὸ «"ἠγγίκασι αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ θανάτου σου"» ἢ τὸ «"οὐ μὴ καταμείνῃ τὸ πνεῦμά μου" ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, "ἔσονται δὲ αἱ ἡμέραι αὐτῶν ἑκατὸν καὶ εἴκοσιν ἔτη"» ὁ τὴν ἔκφυλον ἀοριστίαν πρεσβεύων καὶ τὰ ξένα τῶν δογμάτων παρεισάγων τεράστια οἷα Πλατωνικὰς ἰδέας τινάς, φάσματα νοῦ καὶ διανοίας κούφης ἀθύρματα, κακὴν ᾿Ακαδημίαν αὐτοσχεδιάσας ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἑλληνικώτερον; ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡ πρὸς Αἴγυπτον κάθοδος τοῦ ᾿Ισραὴλ ἔτεσι τετρακοσίοις διώριστο, ὦ φιλαόριστε σὺ καὶ παραχαράκτα τῶν ἀπαραγράφων δογμάτων τῆς πίστεως; ποῦ δὲ οἰχήσεται τὸ παρὰ τῷ ψάλλοντι πρεσβευόμενον λόγιον «"αἱ ἡμέραι τῶν ἐτῶν ἡμῶν ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτη ἢ ὀγδοήκοντα"» [τῆς διαστολῆς καὶ δυνάμεως]; καὶ εἰ μὴ πνευματικὸς ἡμᾶς ἐχαλίνωσε νόμος μὴ τοὺς προπετεῖς ἀσπάζεσθαι γέλωτας, εἶχον ἂν βρασματωδῶς κατακαγχάζειν ὥσπερ γελοίου τοῦ πράγματος τοῖς σοῖς ἐπεγγελᾶν καταναγκαζόμενος ἐγχειρήμασι. τὸν ∆αυὶδ οὐκ ἀκήκοας πώποτε χοροστατοῦντα καὶ ᾄδοντα «"γνώρισόν μοι τὸ πέρας μου, κύριε, καὶ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἡμερῶν μου τίς ἐστιν, ἵνα γνῶ τί ὑστερῶ ἐγώ."»; Μὴ πρὸς τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ὦ ἄνθρωπε, "ἀλλ' ἄγε δὴ μετάβηθι", κατὰ τὴν ποίησιν, καὶ μεταχώρει πρὸς τὰ ἡμέτερα, ὀρφανήν τινα καὶ ἀκυβέρνητον τὴν πλάνην ἀπορριψάμενος. ζυγομαχήσας ἐζημιώθης ἀλήθειαν· γνωσιμαχήσας δὲ πάντως ἕξεις οὗπερ ἐστέρησαι. οὐ πρεσβῦται καὶ πλήρεις ἡμερῶν οἱ πατριάρχαι κεκοίμηνται; καὶ τί σοι τούτῳ δοκεῖ τὴν γραφὴν ὑποσημήνασθαι; ἐγὼ μὲν οἶμαι "τῶν ὅρων τῆς ζωῆς πληρωθέντων" κατὰ τὸν θεῖον ἐκεῖνον καὶ μέγαν Βασίλειον. τῷ ὄντι γὰρ οὐ στρουθίον "πεσεῖται ἄνευ τοῦ πατρὸς" ἡμῶν τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ὦ γενναῖε εἰς ζήτησιν καὶ πρὸς λόγων στροφὰς ἑτοιμότατε. τὸ «"τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί, γύναι; οὔπω ἐληλύθη ἡ ὥρα μου"» καὶ ἡ ἐξ ᾿Ιουδαίων ἀπόδρασις τοῦ Χριστοῦ διὰ τὸ οὔπω τοῦ σταυροῦ ἐληλυθέναι τὴν ὥραν, πῶς οὐχὶ τοῖς σοῖς ἀντιφθέγξονται δόγμασι καὶ οἷα καταπέλται τινὲς τοὺς σοὺς λιθοβολήσουσι λόγους καὶ ὡσεὶ χνοῦν "ὃν ἐκρίπτει ὁ ἄνεμος ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς" διαλικμήσουσι; Τίς σοι τοὺς μυθικοὺς τούτους φληνάφους κωθωνιζόμενος παρέδωκε; τί φόρτον τερθρείας κενῆς ἐμπορευσάμενος ἐς μέγα τὰς ὀφρῦς ἀνιστᾷς; ποία σοι καθέστηκεν ὄνησις "ἱστὸν ἀράχνης" κατὰ τὸν προφήτην ὑφαίνοντι καὶ μικρὰς καὶ ἀνυποστάτους ἐννοίας κατὰ μεγάλων ἱστουργοῦντι δογμάτων; τί τὸν χιτῶνα τῆς θεωρίας τὸν ἄνωθεν ὑφαντὸν παρωσάμενος τοὺς "δερματίνους" καὶ παχυτέρους τῆς διανοίας "χιτῶνας" ἠμφίεσαι, οὓς περιβάλλεσθαι προσήκει τοὺς ἐξοκείλαντας καὶ τῆς θείας τῶν νοημάτων τρυφῆς ἐξοριζομένους διὰ τὸ κενὸν τῆς ἀπαγορευθείσης αὐτοῖς ἐγχειρήσεως; "τὴν πολιὰν" τῶν ὀρθῶν "δυσωπήθητι" λόγων, ἡλικιῶτίς ἐστι τῆς ἐκκλησίας, τὴν πρεσβυγένειαν ταύτης αἰδέσθητι. ἀεί που τὸ νεώτερον ἀτιμότερον πέφυκε· κακὸν τὸν νέον νομοθετοῦσι καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς τραγῳδοὶ συντάττονται. διὰ τοῦτο μὴ λέγε ὅτι «νεώτερός εἰμι»· καὶ τὴν ποίησιν οἶδας τὸ νεώτερον ἀτιμάζουσαν. διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸν χρόνον οἱ τῆς θύραθεν σοφίας τε καὶ παιδείας κακίζουσιν ὡς ἀεὶ τῶν ξένων ὀργῶντα, νοσηλευόμενον τὰ καινότερα. "ἐπερώτησον" τοὺς πατέρας σου καὶ ἀναγγελοῦσί σοι καὶ "τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους σου καὶ ἐροῦσί σοι" ὡς ἐπάγονται θάνατοι τῶν ὅρων τῆς ζωῆς πληρουμένων. ῾Ικανῶς, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταὶ καὶ λαῶν γνωμοδόται καὶ νομοφύλακες, ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀρτίως λόγων ἀπολελόγημαι· ἤδη δέ μοι καὶ τὴν νικῶσαν ἀποίσεσθαί με καιρὸς καὶ τὴν κρείττονα μοῖραν ἀποκληρώσασθαι ἀναδούμενόν τε τῶν λόγων τὸν στέφανον εἰς τὰ ἐνδόμυχα τῆς ἐκκλησίας χορεύειν ᾄδειν τε τῷ κυρίῳ μεθ' ὑμῶν ᾠδὴν ἐπινίκιον, ὅτι στόμα λαλοῦν ἐνεφράγη ἄδικα καὶ θάλασσα πλάνης διέστηκε καὶ ταύτης ἐξεκλίναμέν που