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requiring a discerning mind, and a most keen soul; wherefore I exhort you to follow with exactness what is about to be said. For if the labor is ours, yet the gain is yours; or rather, the labor is not even ours, but the gift of the Spirit's grace. And when he reveals, neither the speaker nor the hearers grow weary; for great is the ease of the revelation. Let us attend therefore with exactness; for even if you follow the greater part, but doze off for a small part, you will be ignorant of the whole beauty, the sequence having been broken. And just as those who do not know the roads and need others to guide them, even if they have advanced far following them, but becoming a little careless they lose their guide, there will be no benefit for them from their previous following, but they stand still at last, not knowing where to proceed; so also those who follow the speaker, 51.292 if, while paying attention throughout the whole teaching, they become a little careless, throwing away the entire sequence, will no longer be able to arrive at the end of the thoughts. In order that you may not suffer this, give me equal earnestness through all that is about to be said, until we come to the very end. 3. For what reason then has he said, *But having the same Spirit of faith*, and is zealous to show that in the Old and in the New [Testament] faith is the mother of good things, it is necessary to speak from a little earlier; for thus the cause will be more manifest to us. What then is the cause? A great war encompassed the faithful when these things were being said, a harsh and truceless war. For indeed whole cities and peoples rose up against them from all sides, and all tyrants plotted against them, and kings prepared themselves, and weapons were moved, and swords were sharpened, and armies were made ready, and every form of punishment and vengeance was devised; hence seizures of property and confiscations, and abductions and daily deaths, and tortures, and prisons, and fire, and iron, and beasts, and the stock, and the wheel, and pits, and cliffs, and all things imaginable for the destruction of the faithful were set in motion; and not even up to this point did the war stand still. For it was not fanned by enemies only, but nature itself was rent against itself. For fathers warred against their children, and daughters hated those who bore them, and friends turned away from friends, and this war, creeping, entered into kinships and into houses, and there was then great tumult throughout the world. And just as a ship, with waves rising up, clouds bursting, thunders crashing, darkness surrounding the vessel on all sides, the sea raging, beasts rising up, pirates attacking, those within being in sedition, would not escape the danger unless the hand from above, the mighty and great, should ward off the war, and having loosed the storm should establish in calm those who sail; so indeed it also happened then in the beginning of the preaching. For the storm did not attack from without only, but those within also often were in sedition against one another. Who says this? Paul himself writing, *Without were fightings, within were fears.* And that these things are true, and that countless evils surrounded teachers and disciples, and the war was spread over all, I bring forward the testimony of Paul himself again. But you, remember all the things that are being said, so that when you learn of the dangers, the temptations, the countless evils which those who then believed endured, you may the more and for this reason give thanks to God, who loosed all those terrible things, and brought in a deep peace, and drove away the war, and established a great calm; so that no one being slothful might think to escape punishment, nor being successful might be puffed up now.

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διορατικῆς δεόμενον διανοίας, καὶ ὀξυτάτης ψυχῆς· διὸ παρακαλῶ μετὰ ἀκριβείας παρακολουθεῖν τοῖς ῥηθήσεσθαι μέλλουσιν. Εἰ γὰρ ἡμέτερος ὁ πόνος, ἀλλ' ὑμέτερον τὸ κέρδος, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ἡμέτερος ὁ πόνος ἀλλὰ τῆς τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριτος ἡ δωρεά· ὅταν δὲ ἀποκαλύψῃ, οὔτε ὁ λέγων, οὔτε οἱ ἀκούοντες κάμνουσι· πολλὴ γὰρ τῆς ἀποκαλύψεως ἡ εὐκολία. Πρόσχωμεν τοίνυν μετὰ ἀκριβείας· κἂν γὰρ τοῖς πλείοσι παρακολουθήσητε, περὶ δὲ βραχὺ μέρος ἀπονυστάξητε, τὸ πᾶν ἀγνοήσετε τοῦ κάλλους, διακοπείσης τῆς ἀκολουθίας λοιπόν. Καὶ καθάπερ οἱ τὰς ὁδοὺς ἀγνοοῦντες καὶ ἑτέρων δεόμενοι τῶν ὁδηγούντων, κἂν πολὺ προέλθωσιν ἀκολουθοῦντες αὐτοῖς, μικρὸν δὲ ἀποῤῥᾳθυμήσαντες ἀπολέσωσι τὸν ἡγούμενον, οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς ὄφελος ἔσται τῆς προτέρας ἀκολουθήσεως, ἀλλ' ἵστανται λοιπὸν, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅπου προέλθωσιν· οὕτω καὶ οἱ τῷ λέγοντι παρακολουθοῦν 51.292 τες, ἐὰν παρὰ πᾶσαν τὴν διδασκαλίαν προσέχοντες μικρὸν ῥᾳθυμήσωσιν, ἅπασαν τὴν ἀκολουθίαν ῥίψαντες, οὐκ ἔτι λοιπὸν ἐπιστῆναι τῷ τέλει τῶν νοημάτων δυνήσονται. Ἵν' οὖν μὴ τοῦτο πάθητε, διὰ πάντων τῶν μελλόντων ῥηθήσεσθαι τὴν ἴσην μοι παρέχετε σπουδὴν, ἕως ἂν εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ τέλος ἔλθωμεν. γʹ. Τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν εἴρηκεν, Ἔχοντες δὲ τὸ αὐτὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς πίστεως, καὶ σπουδάζει δεῖξαι καὶ ἐν τῇ Παλαιᾷ καὶ ἐν τῇ Καινῇ πίστιν οὖσαν τὴν μητέρα τῶν ἀγαθῶν, μικρὸν ἄνωθεν ἀναγκαῖον εἰπεῖν· οὕτω γὰρ ἔσται κατάδηλος ἡμῖν ἡ αἰτία μᾶλλον. Τίς οὖν ἐστιν ἡ αἰτία; Πολὺς πόλεμος περιειστήκει τοὺς πιστοὺς, ἡνίκα ταῦτα ἐλέγετο, πόλεμος χαλεπὸς καὶ ἀκήρυκτος. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ πόλεις αὐτοῖς ὁλόκληροι καὶ δῆμοι πάντοθεν ἐπανίσταντο, καὶ τύραννοι πάντες ἐπεβούλευον, καὶ βασιλεῖς παρεσκευάζοντο, καὶ ὅπλα ἐκινεῖτο, καὶ ξίφη ἠκονᾶτο, καὶ στρατόπεδα ηὐτρεπίζετο, καὶ πᾶν εἶδος κολάσεως καὶ τιμωρίας ἐπενοεῖτο· ὅθεν ὑπαρχόντων ἁρπαγαὶ καὶ δημεύσεις, καὶ ἀπαγωγαὶ καὶ θάνατοι καθημερινοὶ, καὶ στρεβλώσεις, καὶ δεσμωτήρια, καὶ πῦρ, καὶ σίδηρος, καὶ θηρία, καὶ ξύλον, καὶ τροχὸς, καὶ βάραθρα, καὶ κρημνοὶ, καὶ πάντα τὰ εἰς ἐπίνοιαν πρὸς τὸν τῶν πιστῶν ὄλεθρον ἐκινεῖτο· καὶ οὐδὲ μέχρι τούτων ὁ πόλεμος εἱστήκει. Οὐδὲ γὰρ παρὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἀνεῤῥιπίζετο μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴ καθ' ἑαυτῆς ἡ φύσις ἐσχίζετο. Καὶ γὰρ παισὶν ἐπολέμουν πατέρες, καὶ θυγατέρες ἐμίσουν τὰς κυησάσας, καὶ φίλοι φίλους ἀπεστρέφοντο, καὶ εἰς τὰς συγγενείας καὶ εἰς τὰς οἰκίας ὁ πόλεμος οὗτος ἕρπων εἰσῄει, καὶ θόρυβος ἦν τότε πολὺς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην. Καὶ καθάπερ πλοῖον, κυμάτων διανισταμένων, νεφῶν συῤῥηγνυμένων, βροντῶν καταῤῥηγνυμένων, ζόφου πάντοθεν κυκλοῦντος τὸ σκάφος, τῆς θαλάσσης μαινομένης, θηρίων ἐπανισταμένων, πειρατῶν προσβαλλόντων, αὐτῶν τῶν ἔνδον στασιαζόντων, οὐκ ἂν διαφύγοι τὸν κίνδυνον, εἰ μὴ ἡ ἄνω χεὶρ, ἡ κραταιὰ καὶ μεγάλη, ἀποκρούσαιτο τὸν πόλεμον, καὶ λύσασα τὸν χειμῶνα καταστήσειεν ἐν γαλήνῃ τοὺς πλέοντας· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τότε ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ κηρύγματος γέγονεν. Οὐ γὰρ ἔξωθεν προσέβαλλεν ὁ χειμὼν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ἔνδον πολλάκις πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐστασίαζον. Τίς τοῦτό φησιν; Αὐτὸς ὁ Παῦλος γράφων, Ἔξωθεν μάχαι, ἔσωθεν φόβοι. Καὶ ὅτι ταῦτ' ἔστιν ἀληθῆ, καὶ διδασκάλους καὶ μαθητὰς μυρία περιεστοίχιστο κακὰ, καὶ πάντας ὁ πόλεμος ἐπενέμετο, αὐτοῦ πάλιν τοῦ Παύλου τὴν μαρτυρίαν παράγω. Ὑμεῖς δὲ μνημονεύετε τῶν λεγομένων ἁπάντων, ἵν' ὅταν μάθητε τοὺς κινδύνους, τοὺς πειρασμοὺς, τὰ μυρία κακὰ, ἅπερ οἱ τότε πιστεύοντες ὑπέμενον, μειζόνως καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εὐχαριστῆτε τῷ Θεῷ, τῷ λύσαντι πάντα ἐκεῖνα τὰ δεινὰ, καὶ εἰρήνην εἰσαγαγόντι βαθεῖαν, καὶ τὸν πόλεμον ἀπελάσαντι, καὶ πολλὴν κατασκευάσαντι τὴν γαλήνην· ἵνα μηδεὶς μήτε ῥᾳθυμῶν νομίζῃ διαφεύγειν τὴν κόλασιν, μήτε κατορθῶν ἐπαίρηται νῦν.