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of the law he called himself, so these, having denied the faith which they received in the church, called themselves Encratites and Apotactites. It is necessary for them to be called transgressors, because they transgressed the covenants with God. For where shall we place each one? They were baptized in the church by the priests of God; after baptism they were nourished by the holy body and the precious blood of Christ. Do they keep these traditions? If one denies one of these things, he has denied all. Therefore, do they keep the three: the baptism, the body, the blood? One priest handed down to you the triad of the mysteries; you are not able to hold to one and let go of another; if one had baptized you and another had given the body and another the blood, you might say: "The two truly delivered to me, but the third mocked me." But now you received all the mysteries from one priest; if you call him a priest of Christ, keep the mysteries, lest you become a transgressor; but if you do not call him a priest, you call him a catechumen and a stranger to the name of Christ, for nowhere else were you baptized. And just as those who blaspheme against the Son of God are impious against the Father himself and against the Holy Spirit, and likewise also those who disbelieve in the Holy Spirit disbelieve in the all-holy Father and in his all-holy Son Jesus Christ, so it is to be found also with respect to the triad of the mysteries. If someone rejects one of them, he has rejected the triad; therefore having rejected the mysteries of Christ and having apostatized from the church, you ought rightly to be called a transgressor; and that I may persuade you that you happen to be more impious than the transgressors in the persecutions, those men, often not bearing the blows, were often forced to deny on account of weakness of body, pitiable and worthy of much lamentation; but nevertheless, repenting, they often lamented their whole life, so that God, being reconciled to them, might at some time deem them worthy again for entrance among the saints. But the devil has darkened you to such an extent as not to seek the communion of the saints but to say the opposite, so that the awesome and holy blood of Christ may no longer enter your blasphemous mouth. See then, from all sides you have been shown not only to have innovated a Samaria, but also a transgression. And just as the Samaritan made his apostasy through his guise and is convicted by his circumcision that he was once an Israelite, so also you, even if you separated from the church or innovated a transgression, nevertheless are convicted by the seal; for you received baptism in the church of Christ. And whence comes this great similarity of yours to Samaria? Granted you separated, granted you legislated for those tripped up by you no longer to tread the house of God, no longer to listen to the priests who baptized and made you a Christian; but whence comes your observance regarding vessels? From what tradition? Did the apostles, preaching the word of God and traveling the world, carry around pots and plates, when all were Greeks and all were mad for idolatry? Or, having Christ with them, did they know that an idol is nothing in the world, but all things are pure to the pure, and that it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer, and often entering the house of a Greek, if they were able to persuade the master of the house to believe in God, they immediately made the house a church. Which also happened in our city when the holy apostle Paul was in the house of Onesiphorus; the apostle did not ask which vessels were clean and which were unclean, but the house itself, as we have said before, he made a church. But that we may persuade them that they abstain from the vessels through vainglory and arrogance, and that to such an extent has their foolish heart been darkened, and claiming to be wise, they became fools, they surely see the bees making the honeycomb, how they alight on everything and not only on herbs and flowers, but also on newly slaughtered meats and on blood. And it is especially possible to see also in the time of the

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νόμου ἑαυτὸν προσηγόρευσεν, οὕτως οὗτοι ἀρνησάμενοι τὴν πίστιν ἣν ἔλαβον ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ Ἐγκρατίτας καὶ Ἀποτακτίτας ἑαυτοὺς προσηγόρευσαν. ∆έον παραβάτας αὐτοὺς λέγεσθαι, ὅτι τὰς πρὸς θεὸν συνθήκας παρέβησαν. Ἐπεὶ ποῦ θήσομεν ἕκαστον; Ἐβαπτίσθησαν ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ παρὰ τῶν ἱερέων τοῦ θεοῦ, μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα ἐτράφησαν τῷ ἁγίῳ σώματι καὶ τῷ τιμίῳ αἵματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ἆρα φυλάσσουσι ταύτας τὰς παραδόσεις; Ἓν τούτων ἐάν τις ἀρνήσηται, ὅλα ἠρνήσατο. Ἆρα οὖν τὰ τρία φυλάττουσι, τὸ βάπτισμα, τὸ σῶμα, τὸ αἷμα; Εἷς ἱερεὺς τὴν τριάδα σοι τῶν μυστηρίων παρέδωκεν· οὐ δύνασαι τὸ μὲν κρατεῖν, τὸ δὲ ἀφιέναι· εἰ μὲν ἄλλος ἦν ὁ βαπτίσας σε καὶ ἄλλος ὁ σῶμα ἐπιδοὺς καὶ ἕτερος ὁ τὸ αἷμα, ἔλεγες ἄν· «Οἱ δύο ἀληθῶς μοι παρέδωκαν, ὁ δὲ τρίτος ἐνέπαιξέ μοι «. Νυνὶ δὲ παρ' ἑνὸς ἱερέως πάντα τὰ μυστήρια ὑπεδέξω· ἐὰν αὐτὸν λέγῃς ἱερέα Χριστοῦ, φύλασσε τὰ μυστήρια, ἵνα μὴ γένῃ παραβάτης· εἰ δὲ οὐ λέγεις αὐτὸν ἱερέα, κατηχούμε νον αὐτὸν λέγεις καὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀλλότριον, ἀλλαχοῦ γὰρ οὐδαμοῦ ἐβαπτίσθης. Καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ εἰς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ βλασφημοῦντες εἰς αὐτὸν τὸν πατέρα καὶ εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀσεβοῦσιν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ τῷ πνεύματι ἁγίῳ ἀπιστοῦντες τῷ παναγίῳ πατρὶ καὶ τῷ παναγίῳ αὐτοῦ υἱῷ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ ἀπιστοῦσιν, οὕτως ἔστιν εὑρεῖν καὶ εἰς τὴν τριάδα τῶν μυστη ρίων. Ἐάν τις ἓν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀθετήσῃ, τὴν τριάδα ἠθέτησεν· ἀθετήσας οὖν τὰ μυστήρια τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἀποστατήσας τῆς ἐκκλησίας δικαίως παραβάτης ὀφείλεις ὀνομάζεσθαι· καὶ ἵνα σε πείσω, ὅτι καὶ τῶν παραβατῶν τῶν ἐν τοῖς διωγμοῖς ἀσεβέστε ρος τυγχάνεις, ἐκεῖνοι μὴ φέροντες πολλάκις τὰς πληγὰς ἠναγ κάσθησαν δι' ἀσθένειαν σώματος πολλάκις ἀρνήσασθαι, ἐλεεινοὶ καὶ πολλῶν θρήνων ἄξιοι· ἀλλ' ὅμως μεταγνόντες τὴν ζωὴν αὐτῶν πᾶσαν πολλάκις ἀπωδύροντο, ἵνα ποτὲ αὐτοῖς ὁ θεὸς διαλλαγεὶς καταξιώσῃ πάλιν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων. Σὲ δὲ εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐσκότισεν ὁ διάβολος ὡς μὴ ἐπιζητεῖν τὴν κοινωνίαν τῶν ἁγίων ἀλλὰ τἀναντία λέγειν, ἵνα μηκέτι εἰσέλθῃ εἰς τὸ στόμα σου τὸ βλάσφημον, τὸ φοβερὸν καὶ ἅγιον αἷμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ἴδε οὖν, πανταχόθεν ἀπεδείχθης οὐ μόνον Σαμάρειαν καινοτομήσας, ἀλλὰ καὶ παράβασιν. Καὶ ὥσπερ ὁ Σαμαρείτης διὰ τοῦ σχήματος τὴν ἀποστασίαν ἐποίησε καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς περιτομῆς ἐλέγχεται ὅτι ποτὲ Ἰσραηλίτης ἦν, οὕτως καὶ σύ, εἰ καὶ ἀπέσχισας ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἢ ἐκαινοτόμησας παράβασιν, ἀλλ' ὅμως ὑπὸ τῆς σφραγίδος ἐλέγχῃ· τὸ γὰρ βάπτισμα ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑπεδέξω. Πόθεν δέ σοι καὶ ἡ τοσαύτη ὁμοιότης πρὸς τὴν Σαμάρειαν; Ἔστω ἀπέσχισας, ἔστω ἐνομοθέτησας τοῖς ὑποσκελισθεῖσιν ὑπὸ σοῦ μηκέτι πατεῖν τὸν οἶκον τοῦ θεοῦ, μηκέτι ἀκούειν τῶν ἱερέων τῶν βαπτισάντων καὶ χριστιανόν σε ποιη σάντων· πόθεν δέ σοι καὶ ἡ τῶν σκευῶν παρατήρησις; Ἐκ ποίας παραδόσεως; Ἆρα οἱ ἀπόστολοι κηρύσσοντες τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον καὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην περιερχόμενοι, χύτρας καὶ πινάκια περιφέροντες πάντων Ἑλλήνων ὄντων καὶ πάντων μαινομένων εἰς εἰδωλολατρίαν; Ἢ ἔχοντες μεθ' ἑαυτῶν τὸν Χριστὸν ᾔδεσαν ὅτι οὐδὲν εἴδωλον ἐν κόσμῳ, ἀλλὰ πάντα καθαρὰ τοῖς καθαροῖς καὶ ὅτι ἁγιάζεται διὰ λόγου θεοῦ καὶ ἐντεύξεως, καὶ εἰσερχόμενοι πολλάκις εἰς οἶκον Ἕλληνος εἰ ἠδυνήθησαν πεῖσαι τὸν οἰκοδεσ πότην πιστεῦσαι τῷ θεῷ, εὐθὺς τὸν οἶκον ἐκκλησίαν ἐποίουν. Ὃ γέγονε καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας πόλεως γενομένου τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου Παύλου ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ Ὀνησιφόρου· οὐκ ἠρώτησεν ὁ ἀπόστολος ποῖα καθαρὰ σκεύη καὶ ποῖα ἀκάθαρτα, ἀλλ' αὐτὸν τὸν οἶκον, ὡς προείπομεν, ἐκκλησίαν ἐποίησεν. Ἵνα δὲ πείσωμεν αὐτοὺς ὅτι διὰ κενοδοξίαν καὶ ἀλαζονείαν τῶν σκευῶν ἀπέχον ται, καὶ ὅτι εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐσκοτίσθη ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία καὶ φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ ἐμωράνθησαν, τὰς μελίσσας τὰς τὸ κηρίον ἐργαζομένας πάντως ὁρῶσι πῶς ἐπὶ πάντα φέρονται καὶ οὐ μόνον ἐπὶ βοτάνας καὶ ἄνθη, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ νεοσφαγῆ τῶν κρεῶν καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ αἵματα. Καὶ μάλιστα ἔστιν ἰδεῖν καὶ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς