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was given to those who were contending, truth itself on its own would have sufficed to persuade its lovers to embrace the dangers for its sake with all cheerfulness. And a witness of these words is the divine Apostle, crying out explicitly: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. And teaching that he expects no reward, but only loves the one who has saved him, he immediately added: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, Christ. And he has added other things, through which he laid bare more clearly his own desire: For I am persuaded, he says, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Behold, O my friend, the flame of apostolic love; see the torch of this passion. I do not desire, he says, His things, but I long for Him alone; and I cannot quench this love; but I would most gladly choose to be deprived of both present and future goods, and to suffer anything painful now, and to endure it again, so as to carry about this unquenchable flame. And not only did he say these things, but this divine man also did them, and everywhere on land and sea he left memorials of his sufferings. Looking to him and indeed to all the others, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, priests, I consider what is thought to be sorrowful to be very agreeable. For I am ashamed, I confess, even of those who have not learned these things at all, but have been guided by nature alone, and have distinguished themselves in the contests of virtue. For that Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, having endured the slanderous indictment, both despised the false speech of his accusers and showed his courage in adversity, crying: Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot harm me. And the orator of Paeania, having mixed philosophy with rhetorical skill, also offered this opinion both to the men of that time and to those who would come later. For the end of life for all men is death, even if someone shuts himself up in a little house and guards himself. For good men must always attempt all noble things, putting forth good hope, and bear nobly whatever God may give. And indeed, the writer older than this one, I mean the son of Olorus, wrote many other praiseworthy maxims; and he also wrote this one: It is necessary to bear what is divinely sent with necessity, and what comes from the enemy with courage. And why do I speak of philosophers and writers and orators? For even those who have preferred mythology to truth have mixed many beneficial exhortations into their myths; just as, for instance, Homer also taught in his words, how the wisest of the Greeks anoints himself for courage in those circumstances. For he speaks thus: He smote his breast, and rebuked his heart with a word: Endure, my heart; for you have endured another thing yet more shameful. And other things similar to these one could easily collect from poets and orators and philosophers; but for us the divine words are sufficient for every benefit. And I have set these things down, wishing to show how very shameful it is for those who have partaken of prophetic and apostolic teaching and have believed in the saving passion and await the resurrection of bodies and deliverance from corruption and the gift of immortality and the kingdom of heaven, to be defeated by the students of nature. Therefore, those who are disheartened at the things being rumored, O dear friend, comfort them, and those who rejoice, if there is anyone, teach them how we have rejoiced, and are glad, and dance, and how the very kingdom of heaven, what is considered

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ἀγωνιζομένοις ἐδίδοτο, ἤρκεσεν ἂν καὶ αὐτὴ καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἡ ἀλήθεια πεῖσαι τοὺς ἑαυτῆς ἐραστὰς σὺν εὐθυμίᾳ πάσῃ τοὺς ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς κινδύνους ἀσπάσασθαι. Καὶ μάρτυς τῶν εἰρημέ νων ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος διαρρήδην βοῶν· Τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; θλίψις, ἢ στενοχω ρία, ἢ διωγμός, ἢ λιμός, ἢ γυμνότης, ἢ κίνδυνος, ἢ μάχαιρα; καθὼς γέγραπται, ὅτι Ἕνεκά σου θανα τούμεθα ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν, ἐλογίσθημεν ὡς πρόβατα σφαγῆς . Καὶ διδάσκων ὡς οὐκ ἀντίδοσιν προσμένει τινά, ἀλλὰ μόνον τοῦ σεσωκότος ἐρᾷ, ἐπήγαγεν εὐθύς· Ἀλλ' ἐν πᾶσι τούτοις ὑπερνικῶμεν διὰ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς Χριστοῦ . Καὶ προστέθεικεν ἕτερα, δι' ὧν σαφέστερον τὸν οἰκεῖον ἐγύμνωσε πόθον· Πέπεισμαι γάρ , φησίν, ὅτι οὔτε θάνατος, οὔτε ζωή, οὔτε ἄγγελοι, οὔτε δυνά μεις, οὔτε ἐνεστῶτα, οὔτε μέλλοντα, οὔτε ὕψωμα, οὔτε βάθος, οὔτε τις κτίσις ἑτέρα δυνήσεται ἡμᾶς χωρίσαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν . Θεώρησον, ὦ φιλότης, τῆς ἀποσ τολικῆς ἀγάπης τὴν φλόγα· βλέπε τοῦ ἔρωτος τὸν πυρσόν. Οὐκ ὀριγνῶμαι, φησί, τῶν αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ' αὐτὸν μόνον ποθῶ· καὶ τοῦτον οὐ δύναμαι κατασβέσαι τὸν ἔρωτα· ἀλλ' ἑλοίμην ἂν ἥδιστα καὶ τῶν παρόντων καὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἐκπεσεῖν ἀγα θῶν, καὶ πᾶν ὁτιοῦν ἀλγεινὸν καὶ νῦν παθεῖν, καὶ αὖθις ὑπο μεῖναι, ὥστε ταύτην ἄσβεστον περιφέρειν τὴν φλόγα. Ταῦτα δὲ οὐ μόνον εἶπεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ δέδρακεν ὁ θεῖος οὗτος ἀνὴρ καὶ πανταχοῦ γῆς καὶ θαλάττης μνημεῖα τῶν παθημάτων κατέλιπεν. Εἰς τοῦτον καὶ μέντοι καὶ εἰς τοὺς ἄλλους ἅπαν τας ἀφορῶν, πατριάρχας, προφήτας, ἀποστόλους, μάρτυρας, ἱερέας, θυμήρη λίαν ἡγοῦμαι τὰ νομιζόμενα σκυθρωπά. Αἰσχύ νομαι γάρ, ὁμολογῶ, καὶ τοὺς ταῦτα μὲν ἥκιστα μεμαθηκότας, ὑπὸ δὲ μόνης ποδηγηθέντας τῆς φύσεως, καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀγῶσι τῆς ἀρετῆς διαπρέψαντας. Καὶ γὰρ Σωκράτης ἐκεῖνος ὁ Σωφρονίσκου, τὴν τῆς συκοφαντίας ὑπομείνας γραφὴν καὶ τῆς τῶν κατηγόρων κατεφρόνει ψευδολογίας καὶ τὴν ἐν τοῖς δεινοῖς εὐψυχίαν ἐδείκνυ βοῶν· Ἄνυτος δὲ καὶ Μέλητος ἀποκτεῖναι μὲν δύνανταί με, βλάψαι δὲ οὐ δύναν ται . Καὶ ὁ Παιανιεὺς δὲ ῥήτωρ, τῇ ῥητορικῇ δεινότητι φιλοσοφίαν ἀναμίξας, καὶ τήνδε τὴν γνώμην καὶ τοῖς τηνι κάδε ἀνθρώποις καὶ τοῖς εἰς ὕστερον ἐσομένοις προσήνεγκεν. Πέρας μὲν γάρ ἐστιν ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις τοῦ βίου θάνατος, κἂν ἐν οἰκίσκῳ τις αὑτὸν καθείρξας τηρῇ. ∆εῖ μὲν γὰρ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας ἐγχειρεῖν μὲν ἅπασιν ἀεὶ τοῖς καλοῖς, τὴν ἀγαθὴν προβαλλομέ νους ἐλπίδα, φέρειν δ' ἃ ἂν ὁ Θεὸς διδῷ γενναίως . Καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὁ τούτου πρεσβύτερος συγγραφεύς, τὸν Ὀλόρον λέγω, πολλὰς μὲν καὶ ἄλλας ἀξιεπαίνους ἔγραψε γνώμας· ἔγραψε δὲ καὶ τήνδε· Φέρειν δὲ χρὴ τά τε δαιμόνια ἀν αγκαίως, τά τε ἀπὸ τῶν πολεμίων ἀνδρείως . Καὶ τί λέγω φιλοσόφους καὶ συγγραφέας καὶ ῥήτορας; Καὶ γὰρ οἱ τὴν μυθολογίαν τῆς ἀληθείας προτετιμηκότες, πολλὰς ταῖς μυθο λογίαις ὀνησιφόρους παραινέσεις ἀνέμιξαν· ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καὶ Ὅμηρος ἐδίδαξεν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις, τὸν τῶν Ἑλλήνων σοφώτατον ἑαυτὸν ἐν ἐκείνοις πρὸς ἀνδρείαν ἀλείφοντα. Λέγει δὲ οὕτως· Στῆθος δὲ πλήξας, κραδίην ἠνίπαπε μύθῳ· τέτλαθι δή, κραδίη· καὶ κύντερον ἄλλο ποτ' ἔτλης . Καὶ ἄλλα δὲ τούτοις προσόμοια καὶ παρὰ ποιητῶν καὶ ῥητόρων καὶ φιλοσόφων ῥᾳδίως ἄν τις συλλέξειεν· ἀλλ' ἡμῖν οἱ θεῖοι λόγοι πρὸς πᾶσαν ὠφέλειαν ἀρκοῦσιν. Καὶ ταῦτα δὲ τέθεικα, δεῖξαι βουληθείς, ὡς ἄγαν αἰσχρὸν τῶν τῆς φύσεως μαθητῶν ἡττηθῆναι τοὺς προφητικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς μετεσχηκότας διδασκαλίας καὶ τῷ σωτηρίῳ πάθει πεπιστευκότας καὶ προσμένοντας σωμάτων ἀνάστασιν καὶ φθορᾶς ἀπαλλαγὴν καὶ χορηγίαν ἀθανασίας καὶ οὐρανῶν βασιλείαν. Καὶ τοὺς ἀθυμοῦντας τοίνυν ἐπὶ τοῖς θρυληθεῖσιν, ὦ φίλη κεφαλή, ψυχαγώγησον, καὶ τοὺς ἐφηδομένους, εἴπερ τις ἄρα ἐστί, δίδαξον ὡς γεγήθαμεν, καὶ γαννύμεθα, καὶ χορεύομεν, καὶ ὡς αὐτὴν τῶν οὐρανῶν τὴν βασιλείαν, τὴν νομιζομένην