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that which truly is? For indeed, in such magnificent sayings, the prophetic word showed a part of the divine energy; but the power itself from which the energy comes—not to mention the nature from which the power comes—it neither spoke of, nor was it about to; but it also rebukes in its discourse those who portray the Divine by certain conjectures, as if speaking this from the person of God: To whom have you likened me? says the Lord. And Ecclesiastes includes the same counsel in his own words, Do not be quick to bring forth a word before the face of God; because God is in heaven above, and you are on the earth below; showing, I think, through the distance of the elements from one another, by how great a measure the divine nature has risen above earthly reasonings. To this thing, then, of such a kind and so great, which can neither be seen, nor heard, nor conceived, man, who is accounted as nothing among beings—the dust, the grass, the vanity—is made kindred, being received into the rank of a son by the God of all. What can be found worthy of thanksgiving for this grace? What voice, what thought, what movement of reflection, by which one will praise the excess of this grace? Man transcends his own nature, becoming immortal from mortal, and incorruptible from perishable, and eternal from ephemeral, and altogether god from man. For he who is deemed worthy to become a son of God will certainly have in himself the dignity of the father, and becomes heir of all the paternal goods. Oh, the great gift of the rich Master! Oh, the open palm! Oh, the great hand! How great are the gifts from the ineffable treasures! Through love for humanity He brings the nature dishonored by sin almost to a state of equal honor with Himself. For if He bestows upon men kinship with that which He Himself is by nature, what else does He promise but a certain equality of honor through this kinship? 44.1281 Such, then, is the prize; but what is the contest? If you make peace, it says, you will be crowned with the grace of the promise. It seems to me that the work for which he promises so great a reward is another gift. For what is sweeter to men for the enjoyment of the things pursued in life than a peaceful life? Whatever pleasant things you might mention in life, it needs peace to be pleasant. For if one had everything that is esteemed in life—wealth, health, a wife, children, a house, parents, servants, friends; land and sea, each enriching with its own resources; parks, hunts, baths, wrestling-schools, gymnasia; places of luxury and places of youthful vigor; and all the inventions of pleasure; let pleasant sights be added to these, and musical hearings; and anything else through which life is sweetened for those who live in luxury. If one had all these things, but the good of peace were not present, what is the profit of them, when war cuts off the enjoyment of good things? Therefore peace itself is both pleasant to those who share in it, and it sweetens all the things honored in life. But even if we suffer some misfortune, as is human, in peace, the evil mixed with good becomes easier for those who suffer; but when war holds life in its grip, we become in a way insensitive to such causes of grief. For the common misfortune surpasses in its pains the individual ones. And just as physicians say about bodily afflictions, that if two pains should occur at the same time in one body, the sensation is only of the greater one; and that the pain of the lesser evil somehow escapes notice, being stolen away by the onset of the prevailing one; so the evils of war, surpassing in their painfulness, make each individual insensitive to his own misfortunes. And if the soul somehow grows numb to the sensation of its own evils, being struck with terror by the common evils of war, how will it have a sensation of pleasant things? Where are arms and horses, and sharpened iron, and the echoing trumpet? and phalanxes bristling with spears, and shields clashed together, and helmets nodding fearfully with their crests, collisions, pushings, entanglements, battles, man-slayings, flights, pursuits, wailings, war-cries, the earth moistened with blood,

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ὄντως ὄν; Μέρος γάρ τοι τῆς θείας ἐνεργείας ἐν ταῖς τοιαύταις μεγαληγορίαις, ὁ προφητικὸς ἐνεδεί ξατο λόγος· αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν δύναμιν ἀφ' ἧς ἡ ἐνέργεια, ἵνα μὴ εἴπω τὴν φύσιν, ἀφ' ἧς ἡ δύναμις, οὔτε εἶπεν, οὔτε ἐμέλλησεν· ἀλλὰ καὶ καθάπτεται τῷ λόγῳ τῶν στοχασμοῖς τισι τὸ Θεῖον ἀπεικονιζόντων, ὡς ἐκ προσ ώπου τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ τοιοῦτον διεξιών· Τίνι με ὁμοιώ σατε; λέγει Κύριος. Τὴν ἴσην δὲ συμβουλὴν καὶ ὁ Ἐκκλησιαστὴς τοῖς ἰδίοις ἐγκατατίθεται λόγοις, Μὴ σπεύσῃς ἐξενεγκεῖν ῥῆμα πρὸ προσώπου τοῦ Θεοῦ· ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἄνω, καὶ σὺ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κάτω· δεικνὺς, οἶμαι, διὰ τῆς τῶν στοιχείων πρὸς ἄλλη λα διαστάσεως, ὅσῳ τῷ μέτρῳ ἡ θεία φύσις τῶν λογι σμῶν γηΐνων ὑπερανέστηκεν. Τούτῳ μέν τοι τῷ τοι ούτῳ καὶ τοσούτῳ πράγματι, ὃ οὔτε ἰδεῖν ἔστιν, οὔτε ἀκοῦσαι, οὔτε λογίσασθαι, ὁ ἀντ' οὐδενὸς ἐν τοῖς οὖσι λελογισμένος ἄνθρωπος, ἡ σποδὸς, ὁ χόρτος, ἡ ματαιό της, οἰκειοῦται, εἰς υἱοῦ τάξιν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων προσλαμβανόμενος. Τί τῆς χάριτος ταύτης ἔστιν εὑρεῖν εἰς εὐχαριστίαν ἐπάξιον; Ποίαν φωνὴν, ποίαν διάνοιαν, ποίαν ἐνθυμήσεως κίνησιν, δι' ἣν τὴν τῆς χάριτος ὑπερβολὴν ἀνυμνήσει; ἐκβαίνει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἀθάνατος ἐκ θνητοῦ, καὶ ἐξ ἐπική ρου ἀκήρατος, καὶ ἐξ ἐφημέρου ἀΐδιος, καὶ τὸ ὅλον θεὸς ἐξ ἀνθρώπου γινόμενος. Ὁ γὰρ Θεοῦ υἱὸς γενέ σθαι ἀξιωθεὶς, ἕξει πάντως ἐν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ πατρὸς τὸ ἀξίωμα, καὶ πάντων γίνεται τῶν πατρικῶν ἀγαθῶν κληρονόμος· ὢ τῆς μεγαλοδωρεᾶς τοῦ πλουσίου ∆εσ πότου! ὢ τῆς πλατείας παλάμης! ὢ τῆς μεγάλης χειρός! ἡλίκα τῶν ἀποῤῥήτων θησαυρῶν τὰ χα ρίσματα! Εἰς τὸ ὁμότιμον ἑαυτῷ σχεδὸν τὴν ἐξ ἁμαρ τίας ἀτιμωθεῖσαν φύσιν ὑπὸ φιλανθρωπίας ἄγει. Εἰ γὰρ ὅπερ αὐτός ἐστι κατὰ τὴν φύσιν, τούτου τὴν οἰκειότητα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις χαρίζεται· τί ἄλλο, ἢ οὐχὶ ὁμοτιμίαν τινὰ διὰ τῆς συγγενείας κατεπαγ γέλλεται; 44.1281 Τὸ μὲν οὖν ἔπαθλον τηλικοῦτον· ὁ δὲ ἆθλος τίς; Ἐὰν εἰρηνοποιήσῃ, φησὶ, τῇ τῆς ὑποθεσίας χά ριτι στεφανωθήσῃ. Ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ καὶ τὸ ἔργον ἐφ' ᾧ τὸν τοσοῦτον μισθὸν ἐπαγγέλλεται ἕτερον δῶρον εἶναι. Τί γὰρ εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον σπουδαζομέ νων τῆς εἰρηνικῆς ἐστι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γλυκύτερον ζωῆς; ὅτιπερ ἂν εἴπῃς τῶν ἡδέων κατὰ τὴν ζωὴν, εἰρή νης χρῄζει τὸ εἶναι ἡδύ. Εἰ γὰρ πάντα εἴη, ὅσα κατὰ τὸν βίον τετίμηται, πλοῦτος, εὐεξία, γαμετὴ, παῖδες, οἰκία, γονεῖς, ὑπηρέται, φίλοι· γῆ, θάλασσα, τοῖς οἰκείοις ἑκατέρα πλουτίζουσα· παράδεισοι, θῆραι, λουτρὰ, παλαῖστραι, γυμνάσια· τρυφητήριά τε καὶ ἡβητή ρια· καὶ πάντα, ὅσα ἐστὶ τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐφευρήματα· προσκείσθω τούτοις τὰ ἡδέα θεάματα, καὶ τὰ μουσικὰ ἀκροάματα· καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο δι' οὗ τοῖς τρυφῶσιν ὁ βίος ἡδύνεται. Εἰ ταῦτα μὲν εἴη πάντα, τὸ δὲ τῆς εἰρήνης ἀγαθὸν μὴ παρῇ, τί κέρδος ἐκείνων, πολέ μου τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν ἐπικόπτοντος; οὐκοῦν ἡ εἰρήνη αὕτη τε ἡδεῖά ἐστι τοῖς μετέχουσι, καὶ πάντα καταγλυκαίνει τὰ ἐν τῷ βίῳ τιμώμενα. Ἀλλὰ κἄν τινα συμφορὰν κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ἐν εἰρήνῃ πάθωμεν, ἀγαθῷ τὸ κακὸν συγκεκραμένον ῥᾷον τοῖς πεπονθόσι γίνεται· πολέμου δὲ τὴν ζωὴν συνέχοντος, ἀναισθητοῦμεν τρόπον τινὰ πρὸς τὰς τοιαύτας τῶν λυπηρῶν ἀφορμάς. Ὑπερβάλλει γὰρ ταῖς ἀλγηδόσι τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον ἡ κοινὴ συμφορά. Καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ ἰατροὶ περὶ τῶν σωματικῶν λέγουσι παθημάτων, εἰ δύο κατ' αὐτὸν ἐν ἑνὶ σώματι πόνοι συμπέσοιεν, τοῦ ὑπερβάλλοντος μόνου τὴν αἴσθησιν γίνεσθαι· λαν θάνειν δέ πως τοῦ ἐλάττονος κακοῦ τὴν ἀλγηδόνα, τῇ ἐπιβολῇ τοῦ ἐπικρατοῦντος ἐκκλεπτομένην· οὕτω τὰ τοῦ πολέμου κακὰ τοῖς ἀλγεινοῖς ὑπερβάλλοντα, πρὸς τὰς ἰδίας συμφορὰς ἀναισθήτως ἔχειν τοὺς καθ' ἕκαστον παρασκευάζει. Εἰ δὲ πρὸς τὴν τῶν κακῶν τῶν ἰδίων αἴσθησιν ἀποναρκᾷ πως ἡ ψυχὴ, τοῖς κοι νοῖς τοῦ πολέμου κακοῖς ἐκπεπληγμένῃ, πῶς τῶν ἡδέων αἴσθησιν ἕξει; Ποῦ ὅπλα καὶ ἵπποι, καὶ τε θηγμένος σίδηρος, καὶ σάλπιγξ ἠχοῦσα; καὶ φάλαγγες τοῖς δόρασι φρίσσουσαι, καὶ ἀσπίδες συνερειδόμεναι, καὶ κράνη τοῖς λόφοις φοβερῶς ἐπινεύοντα, συμ πτώσεις, ὠθισμοὶ, συμπλοκαὶ, μάχαι, ἀνδροκτασίαι, φυγαὶ, διώξεις, οἰμωγαὶ, ἀλαλαγμοὶ, γῆ τοῖς αἵμασιν ὑγραινομένη,