Chapter XIV.—We Should Obey God Rather Than the Authors of Sedition.

It is right and holy therefore, men and brethren, rather to obey God than to follow those who, through pride and sedition, have become the leaders of a detestable emulation.  For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults,66    I. εἰς αἱρέσεις (sects). so as to draw us away from what is good.  Let us be kind one to another after the pattern of the tender mercy and benignity of our Creator.  For it is written, “The kind-hearted shall inhabit the land, and the guiltless shall be left upon it, but transgressors shall be destroyed from off the face of it.”67    Prov. ii. 21, 22.  And again [the Scripture] saith, “I saw the ungodly highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon:  I passed by, and, behold, he was not; and I diligently sought his place, and could not find it.  Preserve innocence, and look on equity:  for there shall be a remnant to the peaceable man.”68    Ps. xxxvii. 35–37.  “Remnant” probably refers either to the memory or posterity of the righteous.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Ι∆’. ∆ίκαιον οὖν καὶ ὅσιον, ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί, ὑπηκόους ἡμᾶς μᾶλλον γενέσθαι τῷ θεῷ ἢ τοῖς ἐν ἀλαζονείᾳ καὶ ἀκαταστασίᾳ μυσεροῦ ζήλους ἀρχηγοῖς ἐξακολουθεῖν. Βλάβην γὰρ οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν, μᾶλλον δὲ κίνδυνον ὑποίσομεν μέγαν, ἐὰν ·ιψοκινδύνως ἐπιδῶμεν ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς θελήμασιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, οἵτινες ἐξακοντίζουσιν εἰς ἔριν καὶ στάσεις, εἰς τὸ ἀπαλλοτριῶσαι ἡμᾶς τοῦ καλῶς ἔχοντος. Χρηστευσώμεθα ἑαυτοῖς κατὰ τὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν καὶ γλυκύτητα τοῦ ποιήσαντος ἡμᾶς. Γέγραπται γάρ· «Χρηστοὶ ἔσονται οἰκήτορες γῆς, ἄκακοι δὲ ὑπολειφθήσονται ἐπ' αὐτῆς· οἱ δὲ παρανομοῦντες ἐξολεθρευθήσονται ἀπ' αὐτῆς.» Καὶ πάλιν λέγει· «Eἶδον τὸν ἀσεβῆ ὑπερυψούμενον καὶ ἐπαιρόμενον ὡς τὰς κέδρους τοῦ Λιβάνου· καὶ παρῆλθον, καὶ ἰδού, οὐκ ἦν, καὶ ἐξεζήτησα τὸν τόπον αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐχ εὗρον. Φύλασσε ἀκακίαν καὶ ἴδε εὐθύτητα, ὅτι ἐστὶν ἐγκατάλειμμα ἀνθρώπῳ εἰρηνικῷ.»