Defence of His Flight.

1. Athanasius charged with cowardice for escaping.

I hear that Leontius1    Leontius died in the summer of 357, probably before Ath. wrote., now at Antioch, and Narcissus2    De Syn. 17. of the city of Nero, and George3    Apol. Ar. 48., now at Laodicea, and the Arians who are with them, are spreading abroad many slanderous reports concerning me, charging me with cowardice, because forsooth, when I myself was sought by them, I did not surrender myself into their hands. Now as to their imputations and calumnies, although there are many things that I could write, which even they are unable to deny, and which all who have heard of their proceedings know to be true, yet I shall not be prevailed upon to make any reply to them, except only to remind them of the words of our Lord, and of the declaration of the Apostle, that ‘a lie is of the Devil,’ and that, ‘revilers shall not inherit the kingdom of God4    John viii. 44; 1 Cor. vi. 10..’ For it is sufficient thereby to prove, that neither their thoughts nor their words are according to the Gospel, but that after their own pleasure, whatsoever themselves desire, that they think to be good.

1 Ἀκούω Λεόντιον τὸν νῦν ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ καὶ Νάρκισσον τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως Νέρωνος καὶ Γεώργιον τὸν νῦν ἐν Λαοδικείᾳ καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτοῖς Ἀρειανοὺς πολλὰ περὶ ἐμοῦ θρυλοῦντας καὶ λοιδοροῦντας, δειλίαν τε ἐγκαλοῦντας ὅτι δή, ζητούμενος ἀναιρεθῆναι παρ' αὐτῶν, οὐκ ἔκδοτον ἐμαυτὸν αὐτοῖς προσήγαγον. Πρὸς μὲν οὖν τὰς λοιδορίας καὶ τὰς συκοφαντίας αὐτῶν, καίτοι δυνάμενος πολλὰ γράφειν, ἃ μήτ' αὐτοὶ ἀρνεῖσθαι δύνανται ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντες ἐπιγινώσκουσιν οἱ κατ' αὐτῶν ἀκούοντες, ὅμως οὐδὲν προαχθήσομαι λέγειν πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἢ μόνον τὸ τοῦ Κυρίου ῥῆμα καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου ῥητὸν ὅτι· «τὸ μὲν ψεῦδος ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν», οὔτε δὲ «λοίδοροι βασιλείαν Θεοῦ κληρονομήσουσιν». Ἀρκεῖ γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἐκ τούτων δειχθῆναι μηδὲν κατὰ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον μήτε φρονοῦντας μήτε πράττοντας, κατὰ δὲ τὰς ἰδίας ἡδονὰς οἰομένους εἶναι καλὸν ὅπερ αὐτοὶ βούλονται.