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to have been brought about by the violent wind that shatters the ships of apostasy which wickedly float upon the sea of life; For with a violent wind, he says, you will shatter the ships of Tarshish. And he who remembers the history of the Acts is not ignorant of the violent breath made known to the disciples in the upper room. And he who has paid attention to the prophecy of Jonah knows well that having turned away from God, he seeks a ship sailing to Tarshish. Then the discourse, as if divided into two persons, in the preceding parts assumes the person of the one foretelling, but in the parts that follow, it imitates the voices of those who received the word. For agreeing with the truth of the 5.129 preceding things, as if having learned what was said from someone else, he says that "As we have heard, so have we seen." in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. For this reason also, he made those who with pleasure saw what they had heard to exhort one another. And the exhortation was, "Go around Zion and encircle her." "tell of her towers." "Set your hearts on her power, and go through her citadels;" and whatever the discourse contains in what follows. After this, the proclamation of the word goes forth in succession to all the earth, and just as before the confusion of tongues there was one lip for all and one voice, so now too all the nations and the whole inhabited world and all people become one hearing and one heart, with one word resounding in all. For having gathered the entire human nature at the same time and having set up the whole world as one theater for himself, he cries out the word to all in common, saying, "Hear, all you nations, give ear, all you who inhabit the world, both those born of the earth and the sons of men, whether one among you be rich or happen to be poor." For with these three pairings he generally comprises every difference among men in life. In the first pairing, he says "all nations" and "those who inhabit the world"; so that by the name "nations" the boundaries of places are signified, and by the following word, the inhabitants of the places. 5.130 And by saying "those born of the earth" and "sons of men," he distinguishes the carnal and the earthly and the more irrational from those who are being saved and have in themselves some characteristic of human nature; for the proper characteristic of man is likeness to the divine. And the inequality of life according to poverty and wealth is the most general cause of the varied and manifold irregularity of affairs among men. Who is this who is addressing such a great and numerous audience? Who else but he who testifies for himself that he will speak wisdom and understanding? And he who has the Spirit of wisdom and understanding certainly speaks these things, this great grace which is achieved through attention and meditation. For he did not say he would open his mouth before inclining his ear to the comparative word; "My mouth," he says, "will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart, understanding." And first, "I will incline my ear to a parable, and then I will open my problem on the psaltery." What then is the understanding and what is the problem? God's creation, he says, knows not the making of any evil day, as the account of the world's creation testifies, but sin has made the day of rejoicing a day of fear and punishment, which it was possible not to fear, if the serpent watching our heel, whose name is iniquity, had not encompassed the course of our life, fearfully bristling from all sides and becoming rough in his own trail with the varied scales of the passions. Then, having divided the whole psalmody into two, in the first part he sets down the counsel not to look to any other redeemer; for neither does a brother redeem, he says, nor any other man, 5.131 but each man will ransom himself, if he "gives to God a propitiation for himself and the price of the redemption of his soul," which he desires to be a counsel for despising vain pursuits, the † sequence pursued in this life according to vanity. how in unprofitable

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γεγενῆσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ βιαίου πνεύματος τοῦ τὰ πλοῖα τῆς ἀποστασίας συντρίβοντος τὰ κακῶς τῇ θαλάσσῃ τοῦ βίου ἐπιπολάζοντα· Ἐν πνεύματι γὰρ βιαίῳ, φησίν, συντρίψεις πλοῖα Θαρσεῖς. ὁ δὲ τῆς τῶν Πράξεων ἱστορίας τὴν μνήμην ἔχων οὐκ ἀγνοεῖ τὴν βιαίαν πνοὴν τὴν ἐν τῷ ὑπερῴῳ τοῖς μαθηταῖς γνωρισθεῖσαν. καὶ ὁ τῇ προφητείᾳ τοῦ Ἰωνᾶ προσεσχηκὼς γινώσκει πάντως ὅτι τοῦ θεοῦ ἀποστὰς ζητεῖ πλοῖον τὸ ἐπὶ Θαρσεῖς ναυτιλλόμενον. εἶτα ὥσπερ δύο προσώποις ἐπιμερισθεὶς ὁ λόγος, ἐν μὲν τοῖς προλαβοῦσιν τὸ τοῦ προαγορεύοντος ὑποδύεται πρόσωπον, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἐφεξῆς τὰς τῶν ὑποδεξαμένων τὸν λόγον φωνὰς ὑποκρίνεται. λέγει γὰρ συντιθέμενος τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῶν 5.129 προηγουμένων ὡσανεὶ παρ' ἄλλου τινὸς τὰ εἰρημένα μαθών, ὅτι Καθάπερ ἠκούσαμεν, οὕτως καὶ εἴδομεν. ἐν πόλει κυρίου τῶν δυνάμεων, ἐν πόλει τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν. διὸ καὶ παρακελευομέ νους ἀλλήλοις ἐποίησεν τοὺς ἐν ἡδονῇ θεασαμένους ἃ ἤκουσαν. ἡ δὲ παρακέλευσις ἦν τὸ Κυκλώσατε Σιὼν καὶ περιλάβετε αὐτήν. διηγήσασθε ἐν τοῖς πύργοις αὐτῆς. θέσθε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν εἰς τὴν δύναμιν αὐτῆς, καὶ καταδιέλεσθε τὰς βάρεις αὐτῆς· καὶ ὅσα κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον περιέχει ὁ λόγος. Μετὰ τοῦτο δὲ δι' ἀκολούθου εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν διαφοιτᾷ τοῦ λόγου τὸ κήρυγμα, καὶ ὥσπερ ἦν πρὸ τῆς συγχύσεως τῶν γλωσσῶν χεῖλος ἓν πᾶσιν καὶ μία φωνή, οὕτω καὶ νῦν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη καὶ ἡ οἰκουμένη πᾶσα καὶ πάντες ἄνθρωποι μία γίνονται ἀκοὴ καὶ καρδία μία ἑνὸς τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐνηχοῦντος τοῦ λόγου. πᾶσαν γὰρ κατὰ ταὐτὸν τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν ἐκκλησιάσας καὶ θέατρον ἓν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον ἑαυτῷ περιστή σας κοινῇ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐμβοᾷ τὸν λόγον Ἀκούσατε, λέγων, πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, ἐνωτίσασθε πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν οἰκουμένην, οἵ τε γηγενεῖς καὶ υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, κἂν πλουτῶν τις ἐν ὑμῖν κἂν πενόμενος τύχῃ. ταύταις γὰρ ταῖς τρισὶ συζυγίαις πᾶσαν γενικῶς διαλαμβάνει τὴν κατὰ τὸν βίον τῶν ἀνθρώπων διαφοράν. ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ συζυγίᾳ ἔθνη λέγει πάντα καὶ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας τὴν οἰκουμένην· ὡς τῷ μὲν ὀνόματι τῶν ἐθνῶν τὰς περιγραφὰς τῶν τόπων σημαί νεσθαι, τῷ δὲ ἐφεξῆς λόγῳ τοὺς τῶν τόπων οἰκήτορας. 5.130 γηγενεῖς δὲ εἰπὼν καὶ ἀνθρώπων υἱοὺς τοὺς σαρκώδεις τε καὶ χοϊκοὺς καὶ ἀλογωτέρους διακρίνει ἀπὸ τῶν σῳζο μένων καί τινα ἐν αὑτοῖς χαρακτῆρα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐχόντων· ἴδιος δὲ χαρακτὴρ ἀνθρώπου ἡ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ὁμοίωσις. ἡ δὲ κατὰ πενίαν τε καὶ πλοῦτον ἀνισότης τοῦ βίου τὸ γενικώτατόν ἐστιν αἴτιον τῆς ποικίλης τε καὶ πολυειδοῦς τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις πραγμάτων ἀνωμαλίας. τίς οὗτος ὁ ἐν τοσούτῳ καὶ τηλικούτῳ ἀκροατηρίῳ δημηγορῶν; τίς ἄλλος ἢ ὁ μαρτυρῶν ἑαυτῷ ὅτι σοφίαν λαλήσει καὶ σύνεσιν; λαλεῖ δὲ ταῦτα πάντως ὁ ἔχων Πνεῦμα σοφίας τε καὶ συνέσεως, τὴν μεγάλην ταύτην χάριν, τὴν ἐκ προσοχῆς καὶ μελέτης κατορθουμένην. οὐ γὰρ πρότερον εἶπεν ἀνοίγειν τὸ στόμα πρὶν ὑποκλῖναι τὴν ἀκοὴν τῷ παραβάλλοντι λόγῳ· Τὸ στόμα μου, φησίν, λαλήσει σοφίαν καὶ ἡ μελέτη τῆς καρδίας μου σύνεσιν. καὶ πρῶτον Κλινῶ εἰς παραβολὴν τὸ οὖς μου, καὶ τότε ἀνοίξω ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ τὸ πρόβλημά μου. τίς οὖν ἡ σύνεσις καὶ τί τὸ πρόβλημα; οὐκ οἶδεν, φησίν, ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ κτίσις πονηρᾶς τινος ἡμέρας κατασκευήν, ὡς μαρτυ ρεῖ τῆς κοσμογενίας ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ' ἡ ἁμαρτία τὴν ἀγαλλιάσι μον ἡμέραν φόβου καὶ τιμωρίας ἡμέραν ἐποίησεν, ἣν ἐξῆν μὴ φοβεῖσθαι, εἰ μὴ ὁ τὴν πτέρναν ἡμῶν ἐπιτηρῶν ὄφις, ᾧ ὄνομά ἐστιν ἡ ἀνομία, κύκλῳ τὴν πορείαν τοῦ βίου διέλαβεν, τῷ ἰδίῳ ὁλκῷ ταῖς ποικίλαις τῶν παθημάτων φολίσιν φοβερῶς ἐπιφρίσσων πανταχόθεν καὶ τραχυνόμενος. εἶτα διχῇ διελὼν πᾶσαν τὴν ψαλμῳδίαν, ἐν μὲν τῷ πρώτῳ μέρει συμβουλὴν κατατίθεται τοῦ μὴ πρὸς ἄλλον βλέπειν τινὰ λυτρωτήν· οὔτε γὰρ ἀδελφὸς λυτροῦται, φησίν, οὔτε ἄλλος τις ἄνθρωπος 5.131 ἀλλ' ἢ αὐτὸς ἕκαστος ἑαυτὸν ἐξαιτήσεται, ἐὰν ∆ῶ τῷ θεῷ ἐξίλασμα ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τὴν τιμὴν τῆς λυτρώσεως τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, ὃ βούλεται συμβουλὴν πρὸς ὑπεροψίαν τῶν μάτην σπουδαζομένων γενέσθαι τὴν † σπουδαζομένην ἐν τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ κατὰ τὸ μάταιον ἀκολουθίαν. πῶς ἐν ἀνονήτοις