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dignity, having been muddied and confounded by wickedness, finally leads them away, condemned by themselves, and judged, and not even able to say, we suffer unjustly, which here for those who suffer is sometimes sufficient for consolation of their condemnation?

Θʹ. But there, what advocate? what pretext? what false defense? what artful plausibility? what device against the truth will deceive the court, and steal away the right judgment, which places all things for all men on a scale, both deed, and word, and thought, and weighs the better things against the evil things, so that the heavier side may win, and the verdict may be with the majority, after which there is no appeal, no higher judge, no defense through second works, no oil from the wise virgins, or from those who sell it, for the lamps that are going out, no repentance of a rich man wasting in flame, and seeking correction for his own people, no deadline for amendment; but the judgment is both unique, and final, and fearful, and just more than it is dreadful, or rather for this reason more dreadful, because it is also just? When thrones are set, and the Ancient of days is seated, and books are opened, and a river of fire is drawn forth, and the light is before him, and the darkness is prepared; and those who have done good will go forth to a resurrection of life, which is now hidden in Christ, and later will be revealed with him; but those who have done evil, to a resurrection of judgment, by which those who have not believed have already been condemned by the Word that judges them; and some the ineffable light will receive, and the vision of the holy and royal Trinity, shining more clearly and purely, and the whole being mixed with the whole mind, which I indeed set down as especially the kingdom of heaven alone; but for others, along with other torments, or rather before the others, being cast away from God, and the shame in the conscience that has no end. And these things later.

Ιʹ. But now what shall we do, brethren, who are crushed, and humbled, and drunk, not with strong drink, nor with wine, which for a little while makes one stagger and darkens the mind, but from the plague which the 35.948 Lord has brought, who says: And you, O heart, be shaken and tremble; and giving the scorners a spirit of grief and compunction to drink; to whom it is also said: Behold, you scoffers, and look, and wonder, and perish? How shall we bear His reproofs; or what answer shall we give, when in addition to the multitude of His benefits, for which we have remained ungrateful, He also reproaches us with the plagues, and enumerates the medicine, by which we have not been healed? And He calls us children, but says we are blemished, and sons, but aliens and limping from their own paths on account of tracklessness and roughness; How, and from where should you have been disciplined, that I have not disciplined you? By gentler remedies? I brought them on. I passed over the Egyptian blood being drunk from springs and rivers and every gathering of water, the first plague. I passed over the frogs, and the gnat, and the dog-fly, the subsequent scourges; but I began from the cattle, and the oxen, and the sheep, the fifth plague, and I fell upon the irrational, still sparing the rational. The destruction meant nothing to you; but you have become to me even more irrational than those that were smitten, and more undisciplined. I held back the rain from you; one portion was rained upon; and a portion on which I did not rain, was dried up; and you said: We will be brave. I brought hail upon you, disciplining with the opposite plague, I reaped your vineyards and oak-groves and your produce; and I did not crush your wickedness.

ΙΑʹ. I know that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew; these things He will perhaps say to me, who am not admonished even by plagues; he who rejects, rejects; he who is lawless, is lawless; the admonition from above is nothing; the scourges are nothing. The bellows have failed, the lead has failed, things with which I reproached you before through Jeremiah; In vain

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ἀξίωμα, τῇ κακίᾳ συνθολωθείσης καὶ συγχυθείσης, τὸ τελευταῖον ἀπ άγει αὐτοὺς ὑφ' ἑαυτῶν κατεγνωσμένους, καὶ κα τακεκριμένους, καὶ οὐδὲ ὡς ἄδικα πάσχομεν εἰ πεῖν ἔχοντας, ὅπερ ἐνταῦθα τοῖς πάσχουσιν ἔστιν ὅτε ἱκανὸν εἰς παραμυθίαν τῆς κατακρίσεως;

Θʹ. Ἐκεῖ δὲ τίς συνήγορος; ποῖα σκῆψις; τίς ψευδὴς ἀπολογία; ποία πιθανότης ἔντεχνος; τίς ἐπίνοια κατὰ τῆς ἀληθείας παραλογιεῖται τὸ δικαστήριον, καὶ κλέψει τὴν ὀρθὴν κρίσιν, τοῖς πᾶσι πάντα ἐν ζυγῷ τιθεῖσαν, καὶ πρᾶξιν, καὶ λόγον, καὶ διανόημα, καὶ ἀντισηκοῦσαν τοῖς πονηροῖς τὰ βελτίονα, ἵνα τὸ ῥέπον νικήσῃ, καὶ μετὰ τοῦ πλείονος ἡ ψῆφος γέ νηται, μεθ' ἣν οὐκ ἔφεσις, οὐ κριτὴς ὑψηλότερος, οὐκ ἀπολογία δι' ἔργων δευτέρων, οὐκ ἔλαιον παρὰ τῶν φρονίμων παρθένων, ἢ τῶν πωλούντων, ταῖς ἐκλει πούσαις λαμπάσιν, οὐ μεταμέλεια πλουσίου φλογὶ τηκομένου, καὶ τοῖς οἰκείοις ἐπιζητοῦντος διόρθωσιν, οὐ προθεσμία μεταποιήσεως· ἀλλὰ καὶ μόνον, καὶ τελευταῖον, καὶ φοβερὸν τὸ κριτήριον, καὶ δίκαιον πλέον ἢ ὅσον ἐπίφοβον, μᾶλλον δὲ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ φοβερώτερον, ὅτι καὶ δίκαιον; Ἡνίκα θρόνοι προτί θενται, καὶ Παλαιὸς ἡμερῶν προκαθέζεται, καὶ βίβλοι ἀνοίγονται, καὶ ποταμὸς πυρὸς ἕλκεται, καὶ τὸ φῶς ἔμπροσθεν, καὶ τὸ σκότος ἡτοιμασμένον· καὶ πορεύσονται οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνά στασιν ζωῆς, τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ νῦν κρυπτομένης, καὶ ὕστερον αὐτῷ συμφανερουμένης· οἱ δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως, ἣν ἤδη παρὰ τοῦ κρίνοντος αὐτοὺς λόγου οἱ μὴ πιστεύσαντες κατεκρίθησαν· καὶ τοὺς μὲν τὸ ἄφραστον φῶς δια δέξεται, καὶ ἡ τῆς ἁγίας καὶ βασιλικῆς θεωρία Τριάδος ἐλλαμπούσης τρανώτερόν τε καὶ καθαρώτε ρον, καὶ ὅλης ὅλῳ νοῒ μιγνυμένης, ἣν δὴ καὶ μόνην μάλιστα βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν ἐγὼ τίθεμαι· τοῖς δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων βάσανος, μᾶλλον δὲ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων, τὸ ἀπεῤῥίφθαι Θεοῦ, καὶ ἡ ἐν τῷ συνειδότι αἰσχύνη πέρας οὐκ ἔχουσα. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὕστερον.

Ιʹ. Νῦν δὲ τί ποιήσωμεν, ἀδελφοὶ, συντετριμ μένοι, καὶ τεταπεινωμένοι, καὶ μεθύοντες, οὐκ ἀπὸ σίκερα, οὐδὲ ἀπὸ οἴνου, τοῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον σαλεύοντος καὶ σκοτίζοντος, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς πληγῆς ἣν ἐπήγαγε 35.948 Κύριος, ὁ λέγων· Καὶ σὺ, καρδία, σείσθητι καὶ σα λεύθητι· καὶ ποτίζων τοὺς καταφρονητὰς πνεῦμα λύπης καὶ κατανύξεως· πρὸς οὓς καὶ λέγεται· Ἴδετε, οἱ καταφρονηταὶ, καὶ ἐπιβλέψατε, καὶ θαυμάσατε, καὶ ἀφανίσθητε; Πῶς οἴσομεν αὐτοῦ τοὺς ἐλεγμούς· ἢ τίνα δώσομεν τὴν ἀπόκρισιν, ὅταν ἐπὶ τῷ πλήθει τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν, ἐφ' αἷς ἀχάριστοι μεμε νήκαμεν, ἔτι καὶ τὰς πληγὰς ἡμῖν ὀνειδίζῃ, καὶ ἀπαριθμῆται τὴν ἰατρείαν, ἐξ ἧς οὐ τεθεραπεύμεθα; Καὶ τέκνα μὲν, ἀλλὰ μωμητὰ καλῶν λέγῃ, καὶ υἱοὺς μὲν, ἀλλ' ἀλλοτρίους καὶ χωλάναντας ἀπὸ τῶν τρίβων αὑτῶν δι' ἀνοδίαν τε καὶ τραχύτητα· Πῶς ἔδει, καὶ πόθεν ὑμᾶς παιδευθῆναι, καὶ οὐ πεπαίδευκα; ∆ι' ἁπαλωτέρων φαρμάκων; ἐπήγαγον. Παρῆκα τὸ Αἰγύπτιον αἷμα πινόμενον ἐκ πηγῶν καὶ ποταμῶν καὶ πάσης συναγωγῆς ὕδατος, τὴν πρώτην πληγήν. Παρῆλθον τοὺς βατράχους, καὶ τὸν σκνῖπα, καὶ τὴν κυνόμυιαν, τὰς ἑξῆς μάστιγας· ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν κτηνῶν, καὶ τῶν βοῶν, καὶ τῶν προβάτων ἠρξάμην, τῆς πέμπτης πληγῆς, καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐνέσκηψα, ἔτι τῶν λογικῶν φειδόμενος. Οὐδὲν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἡ θραῦσις· ἀλλὰ γεγόνατέ μοι καὶ τῶν πληγέντων ἀλογώτεροι, καὶ ἀπαιδευτότεροι. Ἀνέσχον ἐξ ὑμῶν τὸν ὑετόν· μερὶς μία ἐβράχη· καὶ μερὶς ἐφ' ἣν οὐκ ἔβρεξα, ἐξηράνθη· καὶ εἴπατε· Ἀνδριούμεθα. Ἐπήγαγον ὑμῖν χάλαζαν, τῇ ἐναντίᾳ πληγῇ παιδεύων, ἀμπελῶνας ὑμῶν καὶ δρυμῶνας καὶ γεννήματα ὑμῶν ἐξεθέρισα· καὶ τὴν κακίαν ὑμῶν οὐ συν έτριψα.

ΙΑʹ. Γινώσκω, ὅτι σκληρὸς εἶ, καὶ νεῦρον σιδηροῦν ὁ τράχηλός σου· ταῦτα τυχὸν ἐρεῖ πρὸς ἐμὲ, τὸν μηδὲ ταῖς πληγαῖς νουθετούμενον· ὁ ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ· ὁ ἀνομῶν ἀνομεῖ· οὐδὲν ἡ ἄνωθεν νουθεσία· οὐδὲν αἱ μάστιγες. Ἐξέλιπε φυσητὴρ, ἐξέλιπε μόλιβδος, ἃ καὶ διὰ Ἱερεμίου πρότερον ὑμῖν ὠνείδισα· Εἰς κενὸν