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and being made a spectacle with afflictions, and this, by becoming partakers with those who were so living. For you had compassion on my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods. And to the Galatians he says: Have you suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain. And to the Thessalonians, and Philippians, and simply all to whom he writes, he bears witness to many such things. And not only was this difficult, that a great and continuous war was stirred up from without, but that even among the faithful themselves there happened to be certain scandals and strifes and contentions and jealousies; and Paul, revealing these very things, said: Without were fightings, within were fears. And this war was more difficult than that one, both for the ruled and for the teachers. Paul, at least, did not fear the plots of his enemies so much as the falls from within, and the transgressions of his own people. When, for instance, someone fornicated among the Corinthians, he spent all that time mourning, tearing his own heart, and wailing bitterly. There was also a third thing, no less than the things mentioned, bringing much labor upon the faithful: the very nature of things, 50.421 full of many toils and pains. For the way to which the apostles led them was not easy and simple, but rough and difficult to achieve and requiring a certain philosophic and watchful and in all respects precise soul. For this reason Christ also called it narrow and afflicted. For it was not permitted to live without fear, as among the Greeks, in shamefulness and drunkenness and gluttony and luxury and extravagance; but it was necessary to bridle anger, and control unseemly desire, and despise money, and trample upon glory, and be superior to envy and malice. But how much labor these things provide, those who contend with them daily know. For what is more difficult than unseemly desire, tell me, which, like a rabid dog, continually leaps upon us, and daily troubles us, and requires a perpetually watchful soul? And what is more bitter than anger? For it is sweet to avenge oneself on one who has done wrong, but this was not permitted. And why do I say, it was not permitted to avenge oneself on one who has done wrong? It was necessary to do good to those who cause pain, and to bless those who revile, and never to utter a bitter word; and it was necessary to show self-control, not only up to deeds, but also up to thought. For it is necessary to abstain not only from the licentious act itself, but also from such a sight, and not to luxuriate in the looks of beautiful women, as those who are about to undergo the ultimate penalty even for this looking. Since, therefore, the war from those without was great, the fear from those within was great, the labor toward the working of virtue was great. And a fourth thing was also present, the inexperience of those who were about to strive in this great contest. For the apostles did not receive people who had inherited piety from their forefathers, but those raised in sluggishness and luxury and drunkenness and shamefulness and licentiousness. And this was no small thing for the difficulty of the contests, not to have been taught this philosophy from the beginning, nor from ancestors, but now for the first time to strip for these contests. 3. Since, therefore, the difficulty was so great for those contending then, consoling their labor he continually moved the discourse concerning the resurrection. And not only in this way does he exhort and anoint the athletes, but also by the narration of his own sufferings. Wherefore, before falling into the discourses concerning the resurrection, he recounts his own sufferings, saying thus: We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; by these things revealing the daily deaths, that just as living dead

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καὶ θλίψεσι θεατριζόμενοι, τοῦτο δὲ, κοινωνοὶ τῶν οὕτως ἀναστρεφομένων γενηθέντες. Καὶ γὰρ τοῖς δεσμοῖς μου συνεπαθήσατε, καὶ τὴν ἁρπαγὴν τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ὑμῖν μετὰ χαρᾶς προσεδέξασθε. Καὶ Γαλάταις δέ φησι· Τοσαῦτα ἐπάθετε εἰκῆ, εἴ γε καὶ εἰκῆ. Καὶ Θεσσαλονικεῦσι δὲ, καὶ Φιλιππησίοις, καὶ πᾶσιν ἁπλῶς οἷς ἐπιστέλλει, πολλὰ τοιαῦτα μαρτυρεῖ. Καὶ οὐ τοῦτο μόνον ἦν τὸ χαλεπὸν, ὅτι πολὺς ὁ πόλεμος ἔξωθεν κεκίνητο καὶ διηνεκὴς, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς πιστοῖς συνέβαινε γίνεσθαί τινα σκάνδαλα καὶ ἔρεις καὶ φιλονεικίας καὶ ζηλοτυπίας· καὶ ταῦτα αὐτὰ δηλῶν ὁ Παῦλος ἔλεγεν· Ἔξωθεν μάχαι, ἔσωθεν φόβοι. Καὶ οὗτος ἐκείνου χαλεπώτερος ὁ πόλεμος ἦν, καὶ τοῖς ἀρχομένοις καὶ τοῖς διδασκάλοις. Οὐχ οὕτω γοῦν τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἐδεδοίκει τὰς ἐπιβουλὰς ὁ Παῦλος, ὡς τὰ ἔνδον πτώματα, καὶ τὰς τῶν οἰκείων παρανομίας. Ὅτε γοῦν ἐπόρνευσέ τις παρὰ Κορινθίοις, ἅπαντα τὸν χρόνον ἐκεῖνον πενθῶν διετέλεσε, τὰ σπλάγχνα σπαράττων τὰ ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ πικρὸν ὀλολύζων. Ἦν τι καὶ τρίτον οὐκ ἔλαττον τῶν εἰρημένων, πολὺν ἐπάγον τοῖς πιστεύουσι πόνον, αὐτὴ τῶν πρα50.421 γμάτων ἡ φύσις πολλῶν ἱδρώτων γέμουσα καὶ πόνων. Οὐ γὰρ εὔκολος καὶ ῥᾳδία τις ἦν ἡ ὁδὸς, ἐφ' ἣν ἦγον αὐτοὺς οἱ ἀπόστολοι, ἀλλὰ τραχεῖα καὶ δυσκατόρθωτος καὶ φιλοσόφου τινὸς καὶ ἀγρύπνου δεομένη ψυχῆς καὶ ἠκριβωμένης πανταχόθεν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς στενὴν καὶ τεθλιμμένην αὐτὴν ἐκάλεσεν. Οὐ γὰρ ἐξῆν ἀδεῶς ζῇν, καθάπερ παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, ἐν αἰσχρότητι καὶ μέθῃ καὶ ἀδδηφαγίᾳ καὶ τρυφῇ καὶ πολυτελείᾳ· ἀλλ' ἔδει καὶ θυμὸν χαλινοῦν, καὶ ἐπιθυμίας ἀτόπου κρατεῖν, καὶ χρημάτων ὑπερορᾷν, καὶ δόξαν καταπατεῖν, καὶ φθόνου καὶ βασκανίας ἀνώτερον εἶναι. Ταῦτα δὲ ἡλίκον πόνον παρέχει, ἴσασιν οἱ καθ' ἡμέραν αὐτοῖς πυκτεύοντες. Τί γὰρ ἐπιθυμίας ἀτόπου χαλεπώτερον εἰπέ μοι, ἣ, καθάπερ κύων λυττῶν, συνεχῶς ἡμῖν ἐπιπηδᾷ, καὶ καθ' ἡμέραν ἡμῖν διενοχλεῖ, καὶ δεῖται διηνεκῶς ἐγρηγορυίας ψυχῆς; Τί δὲ καὶ ὀργῆς πικρότερον; Γλυκὺ μὲν γὰρ τὸ τὸν ἠδικηκότα ἀμύνασθαι, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξῆν. Καὶ τί λέγω, τὸν ἠδικηκότα οὐκ ἐξῆν ἀμύνασθαι; Εὐεργετεῖν ἔδει τοὺς λυποῦντας, καὶ εὐλογεῖν τοὺς λοιδορουμένους, καὶ μηδὲ ῥῆμα πικρὸν ἐκβάλλειν ποτέ· καὶ σωφροσύνην δὲ, οὐ τὴν μέχρι τῶν ἔργων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν μέχρι τῆς ἐννοίας ἐπιδείκνυσθαι ἔδει. Οὐ γὰρ μόνον αὐτῆς τῆς ἀκολάστου πράξεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὄψεως τῆς τοιαύτης ἀπέχεσθαι δεῖ, καὶ μηδὲ ἐντρυφᾷν ταῖς ὄψεσι τῶν εὐμόρφων γυναικῶν, ὡς καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς θεωρίας ταύτης τὴν ἐσχάτην μέλλοντας ὑποστήσεσθαι δίκην. Ἐπεὶ οὖν πολὺς ὁ πόλεμος ἦν παρὰ τῶν ἔξωθεν, πολὺς ὁ φόβος παρὰ τῶν ἔνδοθεν, πολὺς ὁ πόνος ὁ πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐργασίαν. Προσῆν δέ τι καὶ τέταρτον, ἡ ἀπειρία τῶν μελλόντων ἀγωνίζεσθαι τὸν μέγαν τοῦτον ἀγῶνα. Οὐ γὰρ ἐκ προγόνων τὴν εὐσέβειαν διαδεξαμένους τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἔλαβον οἱ ἀπόστολοι, ἀλλ' ἐν βλακείᾳ καὶ τρυφῇ καὶ μέθῃ καὶ αἰσχρότητι καὶ ἀκολασίᾳ τραφέντας. Οὐ μικρὸν δὲ τοῦτο εἰς δυσκολίαν τῶν ἀγώνων ἦν, τὸ μὴ ἄνωθεν, μηδὲ ἐκ προγόνων ταύτην πεπαιδεῦσθαι τὴν φιλοσοφίαν, ἀλλὰ νῦν πρῶτον πρὸς τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἀποδύεσθαι τούτους. γʹ. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τοσαύτη ἦν ἡ δυσκολία τοῖς ἀγωνιζομένοις τότε, παραμυθούμενος αὐτῶν τὸν πόνον συνεχῶς τὸν περὶ ἀναστάσεως ἐκίνει λόγον. Καὶ οὐ ταύτῃ προτρέπει μόνον καὶ ἀλείφει τοὺς ἀθλητὰς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ διηγήσει τῶν οἰκείων παθῶν. ∆ιόπερ πρὶν ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τοὺς περὶ ἀναστάσεως λόγους, τὰ αὑτοῦ πάθη διηγεῖται, λέγων οὕτως· Ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι, ἀλλ' οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι· ἀπορούμενοι, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι· διωκόμενοι, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐγκαταλιμπανόμενοι· καταβαλλόμενοι, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀπολλύμενοι· διὰ τούτων τοὺς καθημερινοὺς θανάτους δηλῶν, ὅτι καθάπερ ἔμψυχοι νεκροὶ