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leaping away? For this reason also the prophet, discoursing about luxury and wealth and such things, and mocking those who gape at them as if they were permanent, says: They considered these things as standing still, and not as fleeing. He did not say, not passing by, but what is much greater, As fleeing; for it does not withdraw slowly, but with great speed. But not so the patriarch, but leaving all these things, he looked only to the promises from God, preparing a way for us to the faith of things to come, so that, when God promises you future things that are not seen, you may not say that those things are uncertain and unseen. For those uncertain things are clearer than these things that are seen, if we have the eyes of faith. For even if we have not seen them, yet God has announced and promised them. When God promises, no change affects the promises; so that those things especially remain and are fixed in the hand of God. "For no one is able to snatch out of the hand of God," he says. "No one is able to snatch out of my Father's hand." Since, then, no one is able to snatch out of the hand of God, it remains forever in a manifest treasury. But these things are subject to all kinds of changes and turnings; for this reason we often endure the labor for them, but are deprived of their end. But in the case of those hopes this is not so, but he who has labored must by all means also obtain the crowns. "For hope does not put to shame." For the promise is God's, and the gifts imitate the one who promised. Therefore, leaving the uncertain things, hold fast to the things that appear; for the things that appear are not the present things, but the future things. But if some, being terrified by present things, despise future things, they despise them because they are too weak for the height of that hope, not because these things are unseen and uncertain. Consider, then, the philosophy of the just man. God promised him sensible things, and he sought intelligible things. And where did God promise him sensible things, while he himself wanted intelligible things? "Go out," he says, "from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into a land that I will show you." Both the former land is sensible, and the one to be given later. What then of him? Rather, let us not listen to him, but to Paul speaking about him, so that we may learn that he did not look to this land, even though God promised this one, but leaving present things, he gaped at future things. What then does Paul say? "These all died in faith," speaking of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the just. For not only Abraham, but all were partakers of the same philosophy. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but 54.627 having seen them from afar." What are you saying? Did Abraham not receive the promises, nor come into Palestine? Is what has been said a lie then? "No," he says. For he came into Palestine, but he did not look to this promise, but desired another in the heavens, and considered himself a stranger to all present things. Which Paul, testifying to him, also added: "And confessing that they are strangers and sojourners." A stranger, he who received a fatherland, tell me, and so great a country? "Yes," he says; "for he did not look to this one, but to heaven." "For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking another country," whose builder and maker is God, that heavenly Jerusalem, the one above. Did you see how God promised him sensible things? How he sought the Jerusalem above? "For those who say such things," he says, "make it clear that they are seeking a country." "And if they had been mindful of that from which they came out, they would have had opportunity to return; but now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly one." Therefore the promise was sensible, but the desire of the just man was intelligible, the opposite of us. For to him He promised Palestine, but he looked around for heaven; but to us

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ἀποπηδώντων; ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ προφήτης περὶ τρυφῆς καὶ πλούτου καὶ τῶν τοιούτων διαλεγόμενος, καὶ σκώπτων εἰς τοὺς πρὸς αὐτὰ κεχηνότας ὡς διαμένοντα, φησίν· Ὡς ἑστῶτα ἐλογίσαντο ταῦτα, καὶ οὐχ ὡς φεύγοντα. Οὐκ εἶπεν, οὐ παρερχόμενα, ἀλλ' ὃ πολλῷ μεῖζόν ἐστιν, Ὡς φεύγοντα· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἠρέμα ἀναχωρεῖ, ἀλλὰ μετὰ πολλοῦ τοῦ τάχους. Ἀλλ' οὐχ ὁ πατριάρχης οὕτως, ἀλλὰ πάντα ταῦτα ἀφεὶς, πρὸς τὰς ἐπαγγελίας τὰς παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ μόνον ἔβλεπε, προοδοποιῶν ἡμῖν πρὸς τὴν τῶν μελλόντων πίστιν, ἵν', ὅταν ἐπαγγέλληταί σοι ὁ Θεὸς τὰ μέλλοντα καὶ οὐχ ὁρώμενα, μὴ λέγῃς, ὅτι ἄδηλά ἐστιν ἐκεῖνα καὶ ἀφανῆ. Τὰ γὰρ ἄδηλα ἐκεῖνα τούτων ἐστὶ σαφέστερα τῶν ὁρωμένων, ἐὰν τοὺς τῆς πίστεως ἔχωμεν ὀφθαλμούς. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ μὴ ἑωράκαμεν αὐτὰ, ἀλλ' ὁ Θεὸς αὐτὰ ἐπηγγείλατο καὶ ὑπέσχετο. Ὅταν ὁ Θεὸς ἐπαγγέλληται, οὐδεμία μεταβολὴ τῶν ὑποσχέσεων ἅπτεται· ὥστε ἐκεῖνα μάλιστα μένει καὶ πέπηγεν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἐκ γὰρ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἁρπάζειν οὐδεὶς δύναται, φησίν. Ἁρπάζειν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ Πατρός μου οὐδεὶς δύναται. Ἐπεὶ οὖν οὐδεὶς δύναται ἁρπάζειν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐν δήλῳ μένει θησαυρῷ διαπαντός. Ταῦτα δὲ παντοίαις μεταβολαῖς ὑπόκειται καὶ τροπαῖς· διὰ τοῦτο πολλάκις τὸν μὲν πόνον αὐτῶν ὑπομένομεν, τοῦ δὲ τέλους αὐτῶν ἀποστερούμεθα. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ἐλπίδων ἐκείνων οὐκ ἔνι τοῦτο, ἀλλὰ τὸν πονέσαντα πάντως δεῖ καὶ τῶν στεφάνων ἐπιτυχεῖν. Ἡ γὰρ ἐλπὶς οὐ καταισχύνει. Θεοῦ γάρ ἐστιν ὑπόσχεσις, καὶ τὸν ὑποσχόμενον μιμεῖται τὰ δῶρα. Ἀφεὶς τοίνυν τὰ ἄδηλα, κάτεχε τὰ φαινόμενα· τὰ γὰρ φαινόμενα οὐ τὰ παρόντα ἐστὶν, ἀλλὰ τὰ μέλλοντα. Εἰ δέ τινες, πρὸς τὰ παρόντα ἐπτοημένοι, τῶν μελλόντων ὑπερορῶσιν, ἐπειδὴ ἀσθενέστεροί εἰσι τοῦ ὕψους τῆς ἐλπίδος ἐκείνης, διὰ τοῦτο ὑπερορῶσιν, οὐκ ἐπειδὴ ἀφανῆ ταῦτά ἐστι καὶ ἄδηλα. Σκόπει γοῦν τὴν φιλοσοφίαν τοῦ δικαίου. Ὁ Θεὸς ἐπηγγείλατο αὐτῷ αἰσθητὰ πράγματα, καὶ αὐτὸς νοητὰ ἐζήτει. Καὶ ποῦ ὁ Θεὸς αἰσθητὰ αὐτῷ ἐπηγγείλατο, αὐτὸς δὲ νοητὰ ἤθελεν; Ἔξελθε, φησὶν, ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου, καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου, καὶ δεῦρο εἰς γῆν, ἣν ἄν σοι δείξω. Αἰσθητὴ καὶ ἡ προτέρα γῆ, καὶ ἡ μέλλουσα δίδοσθαι ὕστερον. Τί οὖν αὐτός; Μᾶλλον δὲ μὴ αὐτοῦ ἀκούσωμεν, ἀλλὰ Παύλου περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγοντος, ἵνα μάθωμεν ὅτι οὐ πρὸς ταύτην ἔβλεπε τὴν γῆν, εἰ καὶ ταύτην ἐπηγγείλατο ὁ Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ τὰ παρόντα ἀφεὶς, πρὸς τὰ μέλλοντα ἐκεχήνει. Τί οὖν ὁ Παῦλός φησι; Κατὰ πίστιν ἀπέθανον οὗτοι πάντες, περὶ Ἀβραὰμ λέγων, καὶ Ἰσαὰκ, καὶ Ἰακὼβ, καὶ τῶν δικαίων ἁπάντων. Οὐδὲ γὰρ Ἀβραὰμ μόνος, ἀλλὰ πάντες τῆς αὐτῆς ἦσαν φιλοσοφίας κοινωνοί. Κατὰ πίστιν ἀπέθανον οὗτοι πάντες, μὴ κομισάμενοι τὰς ἐπαγγελίας, ἀλλὰ 54.627 πόῤῥωθεν αὐτὰς ἰδόντες. Τί λέγεις; οὐκ ἐκομίσατο τὰς ἐπαγγελίας ὁ Ἀβραὰμ, οὐδὲ ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν Παλαιστίνην; Ψεῦδος οὖν τὰ εἰρημένα; Οὐχὶ, φησίν. Ἦλθε μὲν γὰρ εἰς τὴν Παλαιστίνην, οὐ πρὸς ταύτην δὲ ἔβλεπε τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν, ἀλλ' ἑτέρας ἐπεθύμει τῆς ἐν οὐρανοῖς, καὶ τῶν παρόντων ξένον ἑαυτὸν ἐνόμιζεν εἶναι ἁπάντων. Ὅπερ οὖν καὶ αὐτῷ μαρτυρῶν ὁ Παῦλος ἐπήγαγε· Καὶ ὁμολογήσαντες ὅτι ξένοι καὶ παρεπίδημοί εἰσι. Ξένος ὁ πατρίδα λαβὼν, εἰπέ μοι, καὶ χώραν τοσαύτην; Ναὶ, φησίν· οὐ γὰρ πρὸς ταύτην, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἔβλεπεν. Οἱ γὰρ ταῦτα λέγοντες ἐμφανίζουσιν, ὅτι ἑτέραν πατρίδα ζητοῦσιν, ἧς τεχνίτης καὶ δημιουργὸς ὁ Θεὸς, ἐκείνην τὴν ἐπουράνιον Ἱερουσαλὴμ, τὴν ἄνω. Εἶδες πῶς ἐπηγγείλατο αὐτῷ ὁ Θεὸς αἰσθητά; πῶς ἐκεῖνος τὴν ἄνω Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐζήτει; Οἱ γὰρ ταῦτα λέγοντες, φησὶν, ἐμφανίζουσιν ὅτι πατρίδα ζητοῦσι. Καὶ εἰ μὲν ἐκείνης ἐμέμνηντο, ἀφ' ἧς ἐξῆλθον, εἶχον ἂν καιρὸν ἀνακάμψαι· νυνὶ δὲ ἑτέρας κρείττονος ὀρέγονται, τουτέστιν, ἐπουρανίου. Οὐκοῦν αἰσθητὴ μὲν ἡ ὑπόσχεσις, νοητὴ δὲ ἡ ἐπιθυμία τοῦ δικαίου, ἀπεναντίας ἡμῖν. Ἐκείνῳ μὲν γὰρ ἐπηγγείλατο τὴν Παλαιστίνην, ὁ δὲ περιεβλέπετο τὸν οὐρανόν· ἡμῖν δὲ