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the one who has given to the poor, and the one who neither plots against nor curses the one who has defrauded him, both do these things for God's sake. When, therefore, the reason for the expense is one, it is clear that the crown is also one. But did he plot against your life, and attempt to kill you? The matter is reckoned to you as a martyrdom, if you count the plotter, the one who carried his enmity to such a point, among your benefactors, and continue praying for him, and imploring God to be merciful to him. 4. For let us not look at this, that God prevented David from being slain, but consider this, that he bound on himself a triple and quadruple crown of martyrdom from the plot of Saul. For the one who for God's sake saves his enemy, the one who once and twice and many times had hurled the 54.700 spear against his own head, and having become master of the situation to kill him, then spared him, and knowing this, that after this sparing he would attack again, it is clear that he was slain ten thousand times in his purpose; and having been slain ten thousand times for God's sake, he has many crowns of martyrdom, and what Paul said, that "Every day I die for God's sake," this he also suffered for God's sake. For though able to kill the plotter, for God's sake he was unwilling; but he chose rather to be in danger every day, than by working a just slaughter to be delivered from so many deaths. If it is not right to retaliate against and hate the one who plots even against life itself, much more one who wrongs you in any other thing. To many it seems that to hear evil things, and to be injured in reputation by one's enemies, is more unbearable than all deaths. Come then, let us examine this very thing. Did someone speak ill of you, and call you an adulterer and fornicator? If he says these things and they are true, correct yourself; but if they are false, laugh at it. If you are conscious of the things said, be sober; but if you are not conscious of them, despise them. Or rather, do not only laugh at it, nor only despise it, but also rejoice, and leap for joy according to the word of the Lord, who commands us to do so. For "when they revile you," He says, "and say all manner of evil against you falsely, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven." And again, "Rejoice and leap for joy, when they cast out your name as evil, speaking falsely." But that even if he speaks the truth, and you bear the words with gentleness, and do not insult in return, nor revile, but groan bitterly, and condemn your sins, you will reap no less a reward than the former; and this I will try to show you from the Scriptures, so that you may learn that as much as friends do not help by praising and gratifying, so much do enemies help by speaking ill, even if they speak the truth, only if we wish to use their accusations for a good purpose. For friends often flatter to please; but enemies bring our sins into the open. For since through self-love we do not see our own faults, they through enmity often, having observed them more accurately than we, and having reproached us, have cast us into a necessity of correction, and enmity has become for us a cause of the greatest benefit, not only because being reminded by them we understand our sins, but because we also put them away. For if an enemy reproaches you for a sin of which you are conscious, and you, having heard, do not insult him, but groan bitterly and implore God, you have immediately put away the entire sin. Indeed, what could be more blessed than this? What could be easier for deliverance from sins? But lest you think we are simply entertaining you, I will provide testimony for these things from the divine Scriptures, so that you may doubt no longer. There was a certain Pharisee, and a publican; the one having advanced to the extreme 54.701 of wickedness, the other practicing the highest righteousness; for indeed the

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ὁ πένησι δεδωκὼς, καὶ ὁ τῷ πλεονεκτήσαντι μήτε ἐπιβουλεύων, μήτε καταρώμενος, διὰ τὸν Θεὸν ταῦτα ἀμφότεροι ποιοῦσιν. Ὅταν οὖν ἡ ὑπόθεσις τῆς δαπάνης ᾖ μία, εὔδηλον ὅτι καὶ στέφανος εἷς. Ἀλλ' εἰς ψυχὴν ἐπεβούλευσε, καὶ ἀνελεῖν ἐπεχείρησε; Μαρτύριόν σοι τὸ πρᾶγμα λογίζεται, ἂν τὸν ἐπίβουλον, καὶ μέχρι τοσούτου τὴν ἔχθραν ἐξαγαγόντα, ἐν τοῖς εὐεργέταις ἀριθμῇς, καὶ διατελῇς εὐχόμενος ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἵλεω γενέσθαι παρακαλῶν. δʹ. Μὴ γὰρ δὴ τοῦτο ἴδωμεν, ὅτι διεκώλυσεν ὁ Θεὸς σφαγῆναι τὸν ∆αυῒδ, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνο σκόπει, ὅτι τριπλοῦν καὶ τετραπλοῦν στέφανον μαρτυρίου ἀνεδήσατο ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ Σαοὺλ ἐπιβουλῆς. Ὁ γὰρ διὰ τὸν Θεὸν τὸν πολέμιον σώζων, τὸν ἅπαξ καὶ δὶς καὶ πολλάκις τὸ 54.700 δόρυ κατὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ κεφαλῆς ἀκοντίσαντα, καὶ γενόμενος κύριος ἀνελεῖν, εἶτα φεισάμενος, καὶ ταῦτ' εἰδὼς, ὅτι μετὰ τὴν φειδὼ ταύτην πάλιν ἐπιθήσεται, εὔδηλον ὅτι μυριάκις ἐσφάγη τῇ προθέσει· μυριάκις δὲ σφαγεὶς διὰ τὸν Θεὸν, πολλοὺς ἔχει μαρτυρίου στεφάνους, καὶ ὅπερ ὁ Παῦλος ἔλεγεν, ὅτι Καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκω διὰ τὸν Θεὸν, τοῦτο καὶ αὐτὸς ἔπασχε διὰ τὸν Θεόν. ∆υνάμενος γὰρ ἀνελεῖν τὸν ἐπιβουλεύοντα, διὰ τὸν Θεὸν οὐκ ἠθέλησεν· ἀλλ' εἵλετο κινδυνεύειν καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν μᾶλλον, ἢ δικαίαν ἐργασάμενος σφαγὴν ἀπὸ τοσούτων ἀπαλλαγῆναι θανάτων. Εἰ δὲ τὸν μέχρι τῆς ζωῆς αὐτῆς ἐπιβουλεύοντα ἀμύνασθαι καὶ μισεῖν οὐ χρὴ, πολλῷ μᾶλλον εἰς ὁτιοῦν ἄλλο ἀδικοῦντα. Πολλοῖς δοκεῖ τὸ κακῶς ἀκούειν, καὶ εἰς ὑπόληψιν παραβλάπτεσθαι παρὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν, πάντων θανάτων ἀφορητότερον εἶναι. Φέρε οὖν καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐξετάσωμεν· Εἶπέ σέ τις κακῶς, καὶ μοιχὸν καὶ πόρνον ἐκάλεσε; Ταῦτα εἰ μὲν ἀληθῆ λέγῃ, διόρθωσαι· εἰ δὲ ψευδῆ, καταγέλασον· εἰ σύνοιδας σαυτῷ τὰ εἰρημένα, σωφρόνησον· εἰ δὲ μὴ σύνοιδας, καταφρόνησον· μᾶλλον δὲ μὴ καταγελάσῃς, μηδὲ καταφρονήσῃς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ χαῖρε, καὶ σκίρτα κατὰ τὸν τοῦ Κυρίου λόγον, τὸν κελεύοντα οὕτω ποιεῖν. Ὅταν γὰρ ὀνειδίσωσι, φησὶν, ὑμᾶς, καὶ εἴπωσι πᾶν πονηρὸν ῥῆμα καθ' ὑμῶν ψευδόμενοι, χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ὅτι ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολὺς ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. Καὶ πάλιν, Χαίρετε καὶ σκιρτᾶτε, ὅταν ἐκβάλωσι τὸ ὄνομα ὑμῶν ὡς πονηρὸν ψευδόμενοι. Ὅτι δὲ κἂν ἀληθεύων εἴπῃ, σὺ δὲ μετ' ἐπιεικείας ἐνέγκῃς τὰ ῥήματα, καὶ μὴ ἀνθυβρίσῃς, μηδὲ λοιδορήσῃς, ἀλλὰ στενάξῃς πικρὸν, καὶ καταγνῷς τῶν πεπλημμελημένων, οὐκ ἐλάττονα τοῦ προτέρου καρπώσῃ μισθόν· καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ τῶν Γραφῶν ὑμῖν παραστῆσαι πειράσομαι, ἵνα μάθητε ὅτι ὅσα οὐκ ὠφελοῦσι φίλοι ἐπαινοῦντες καὶ χαριζόμενοι, τοσαῦτα ὠφελοῦσιν ἐχθροὶ κακῶς λέγοντες, κἂν ἀληθεύωσι, μόνον ἂν εἰς δέον ἡμεῖς ταῖς κατηγορίαις χρήσασθαι βουληθῶμεν. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ φίλοι πολλάκις καὶ πρὸς χάριν κολακεύουσιν· οἱ δ' ἐχθροὶ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα εἰς μέσον ἄγουσιν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὑπὸ φιλαυτίας ἡμεῖς τὰ ἡμέτερα πλημμελήματα οὐχ ὁρῶμεν, ὑπὸ τῆς ἔχθρας ἐκεῖνοι πολλάκις ἡμῶν ἀκριβέστερον θεασάμενοι, καὶ ὀνειδίσαντες εἰς ἀνάγκην ἡμᾶς ἐνέβαλον διορθώσεως, καὶ γέγονεν ἡμῖν ἡ ἔχθρα μεγίστης ὠφελείας ὑπόθεσις, οὐ μόνον ὅτι μιμνησκόμενοι παρ' ἐκείνων νοοῦμεν ἡμῶν τὰ ἁμαρτήματα, ἀλλ' ὅτι αὐτὰ καὶ ἀποτιθέμεθα. Ἂν γὰρ ὀνειδίσῃ σε ὁ ἐχθρὸς ἁμάρτημα, ὃ σὺ σαυτῷ σύνοιδας, σὺ δ' ἀκούσας ἐκεῖνον μὲν μὴ ὑβρίσῃς, στενάξῃς δὲ πικρὸν, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν παρακαλέσῃς, εὐθέως ἀπέθου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἅπασαν. Ἆρα τί τούτου γένοιτ' ἂν μακαριώτερον; τί δ' εὐκολώτερον πρὸς ἁμαρτημάτων ἀπαλλαγήν; Ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ νομίσῃς ἡμᾶς ἁπλῶς σε ψυχαγωγεῖν, ἀπὸ τῶν θείων Γραφῶν τὴν ὑπὲρ τούτων παρέξομαι μαρτυρίαν, ἵνα μηδὲν ἀμφιβάλῃς λοιπόν. Φαρισαῖός τις ἦν, καὶ τελώνης· ὁ μὲν εἰς ἐσχάτην 54.701 κακίαν ἐληλακὼς, ὁ δὲ δικαιοσύνης ἐπιμελόμενος ἄκρας· καὶ γὰρ τὰ