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did he enjoy security? But he never even breathed free from dangers. For "I was with you," he says, "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling;" and not only he himself, but his disciples also suffered the same things. "For call to remembrance," he says, "the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods." And again, writing to the Thessalonians, he says: "For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: who both killed the Lord, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men." And again writing to the Corinthians he said that: "The sufferings of Christ abound in you, and as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also of the consolation," and to the Galatians: "Have ye suffered so many things in vain," he says, "if it be yet in vain." 4.13 When, therefore, the preacher is unlearned and poor and obscure, and the thing preached is not attractive, but even a stumbling-block, and those who hear it are poor and weak and of no account, and dangers are successive and continuous for both the teachers and the disciples, and the one being proclaimed is a crucified one, what is it that made it prevail? Is it not abundantly clear that it was some divine and ineffable power? It is clear to everyone. And this can be seen also from the contrary examples. For when you see the opposite of these things coming together—wealth, and noble birth, and greatness of country, and skill in rhetoric, and security and much attendance—and the new doctrines immediately extinguished, but these men prevailing from opposite circumstances, what is the cause, tell me? For the same thing has happened, as if a reigning king, with armies and weapons and battle array, having been unable to overcome the barbarians, some poor man, naked and alone, not even handling a javelin, nor having a cloak, should enter and accomplish what others with arms and preparation were not strong enough to do. 4.14 Do not then be ungrateful, but on each point cast your vote, and worship the power of the crucified one. For neither, if you should see someone building cities, and digging trenches around them, and bringing engines against walls, and forging arms, and enrolling soldiers, and having countless treasures, and yet being unable to take a single city, but another attacking with a naked body, and using only his hands, overrunning not one and a second and twenty cities, but ten thousand throughout the world, and taking them with all their men, would you say this was of human power. So it is clear that it is so now. For on this account God allowed even robbers to be crucified, and certain impostors to appear before him, in order that by comparison the superiority of the truth might be shown even to the very senseless, and that you might learn that this one is not one of them, but that the distance between this one and them is great and infinite. For nothing had strength to overshadow his glory, not the sharing of the same sufferings, not the coinciding in the same times. For if the demons fear the cross, and not the strength of the crucified one, the pair of robbers stops the mouth of those who say these things. And if the difficulty of the times accomplished everything, Theudas and Judas, who attempted the same things as we with many other signs besides, and were destroyed, make their defense. For as I said, for this reason God permitted these things, that he might show his own things in abundance. For this reason he also allowed false prophets to appear in the time of the prophets, and false apostles in the time of the apostles, that you might learn that nothing can overshadow his own things. 4.15 Shall I tell you also from another source a wonderful and paradoxical power of the preaching, and show you him being lifted up and increasing even through those who war against him? To Paul

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ἀδείας ἀπέλαυσεν; Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἀνέπνει ποτὲ τῶν κινδύνων. Καὶ γὰρ ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, φησί, καὶ ἐν φόβῳ καὶ ἐν τρόμῳ πολλῷ ἐγενόμην πρὸς ὑμᾶς· οὐκ αὐτὸς δὲ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ τὰ αὐτὰ ἔπασχον. Μέμνησθε γάρ, φησί, τὰς πρότερον ἡμέρας, ἐν αἷς φωτισθέντες, πολλὴν ἄθλησιν ὑπεμείνατε παθη μάτων· τοῦτο μέν, ὀνειδισμοῖς καὶ θλίψεσι θεατριζόμενοι, τοῦτο δὲ κοινωνοὶ τῶν οὕτω πασχόντων γενηθέντες. Καὶ γὰρ τὴν ἁρπαγὴν τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ὑμῶν μετὰ χαρᾶς προσεδέξασθε. Καὶ πάλιν Θεσσαλονικεῦσι γράφων λέγει· Ὑμεῖς γὰρ τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπάθετε ὑπὸ τῶν ἰδίων συμφυλετῶν, καθὼς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, τῶν καὶ τὸν Κύριον ἀποκτεινάντων, καὶ τοὺς ἰδίους προφήτας, καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐκδιωξάντων, καὶ Θεῷ μὴ ἀρεσκόντων, καὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐναντίων. Καὶ Κορινθίοις δὲ πάλιν ἐπιστέλλων ἔλεγεν ὅτι· Περισσεύει τὰ παθήματα τοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς ὑμᾶς, καὶ ὥσπερ κοινωνοί ἐστε τῶν παθημάτων, οὕτω καὶ τῆς παρακλήσεως, καὶ Γαλάταις· Τοσαῦτα ἐπάθετε εἰκῇ, φησίν, εἴ γε καὶ εἰκῇ. 4.13 Ὅταν οὖν καὶ ὁ κηρύττων ἰδιώτης ᾖ καὶ πένης καὶ ἄσημος, καὶ τὸ κηρυττόμενον οὐκ ἐπαγωγόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ σκάνδαλον ἔχον, καὶ οἱ ἀκούοντες αὐτὸ πένητες καὶ ἀσθενεῖς καὶ οὐδένες, καὶ κίνδυνοι ἐπάλληλοι καὶ συνεχεῖς καὶ τοῖς διδασκάλοις καὶ τοῖς μαθηταῖς, καὶ ὁ καταγγελλόμενος ἐσταυρωμένος, τί τὸ ποιῆσαν κρατήσειν; Οὐκ εὔδηλον ὅτι θεία τις καὶ ἀπόρρητος δύναμις; Παντί που δῆλον. Καὶ τοῦτο καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐναντίων ἔστι κατιδεῖν. Ὅταν γὰρ ἴδῃς τὰ ἐναντία τούτων συνδραμόντα, καὶ πλοῦτον, καὶ εὐγένειαν, καὶ πατρίδος μέγεθος, καὶ ῥητο ρείας δεινότητα, καὶ ἄδειαν καὶ θεραπείαν πολλήν, καὶ εὐθέως σβεσθέντα τὰ καινοτομηθέντα, τούτους δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐναντίων περιγενομένους, τί τὸ αἴτιον, εἰπέ μοι; Ταὐτὸν γὰρ συνέβη, οἷον ἂν εἰ μετὰ στρατοπέδων καὶ ὅπλων καὶ παρατάξεως τοῦ βασιλεύοντος μὴ δυνηθέντος κρατῆσαι τῶν βαρβάρων, πτωχός τις γυμνὸς καὶ μόνος, καὶ μηδὲ ἀκόντιον μεταχειρίζων, μηδὲ ἱμάτιον ἔχων, εἰσελθὼν διαπράξοιτο ἃ μετὰ ὅπλων καὶ παρασκευῆς οὐκ ἴσχυσαν ἕτεροι. 4.14 Μὴ τοίνυν ἀγνωμόνει, ἀλλὰ καθ' ἑκάστην φέρε τὴν ψῆφον, καὶ προσκύνει τοῦ σταυρωθέντος τὴν δύναμιν. Οὐδὲ γάρ, ἂν ἴδῃς τινὰ πόλεις κατασκευάζοντα, καὶ τάφρους περιελαύνοντα, καὶ μηχανήματα προσάγοντα τείχεσι, καὶ ὅπλα χαλκεύοντα, καὶ στρατιώτας καταλέγοντα, καὶ χρήματα ἔχοντα ἄπειρα, καὶ μὴ δυνάμενον πόλιν μίαν ἑλεῖν, ἄλλον δὲ γυμνῷ σώματι προσβαλόντα, καὶ χερσὶ μόναις χρώμενον, οὐχὶ μίαν καὶ δευτέραν καὶ εἴκοσι πόλεις, ἀλλὰ μυρίας κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐπιτρέχοντα, καὶ αὐτάνδρους λαμβάνοντα, ἀνθρωπίνης ἂν εἴποις εἶναι τοῦτο δυνάμεως. Οὕτω δῆλον ὅτι καὶ νῦν. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο συνεχώρησεν ὁ Θεὸς καὶ λῃστὰς σταυρωθῆναι, καὶ πρὸ αὐτοῦ τινας ἀπατεῶνας φανῆναι, ἵνα καὶ ἀπὸ συγκρίσεως τοῖς σφόδρα ἀναισθητοῦσι δειχθῇ τῆς ἀληθείας ἡ ὑπεροχή, καὶ σὺ μάθῃς ὅτι οὐκ ἐκείνων εἷς οὗτος, ἀλλὰ πολὺ καὶ ἄπειρον τούτου καὶ ἐκείνων τὸ μέσον. Οὐδὲν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὴν δόξαν συσκιάσαι ἴσχυσεν, οὐ τὸ τῶν αὐτῶν κοινωνῆσαι παθῶν, οὐ τὸ τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρόνοις συνδραμεῖν. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ τὸν σταυρὸν οἱ δαίμονες δεδοίκασι, καὶ οὐ τοῦ σταυρωθέντος τὴν ἰσχύν, ἐμφράττει τῶν ταῦτα λεγόντων τὸ στόμα τῶν λῃστῶν ἡ ξυνωρίς. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἡ δυσκολία τῶν καιρῶν τὸ πᾶν ἤνυσεν, ἀπολογοῦνται οἱ περὶ Θευδᾶν καὶ Ἰούδαν, περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἡμῖν ἐπιχειρήσαντες μετὰ καὶ ἑτέρων πολλῶν τῶν σημείων, καὶ διαφθαρέντες. Ὅπερ γὰρ ἔφην, διὰ τοῦτο ταῦτα εἴασεν ὁ Θεός, ἵνα ἐκ περιουσίας τὰ αὐτοῦ δείξῃ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ψευδοπροφήτας ἐπὶ τῶν προφητῶν φανῆναι συνεχώρησε, καὶ ψευδαποστόλους ἐπὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων, ἵνα μάθῃς ὅτι οὐδὲν τῶν αὐτοῦ συσκιάσαι δύναται. 4.15 Εἴπω σοι καὶ ἑτέρωθεν δύναμιν κηρύγματος θαυμαστὴν καὶ παράδοξον, καὶ δείξω σοι καὶ διὰ τῶν πολεμούντων αἰρόμενον αὐτὸν καὶ αὐξανόμενον; Τῷ Παύλῳ