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heaven at this, and the earth shuddered very much more. Assuredly the Lord says even now that “The virgin has done two evil things; she has abandoned me, the true, holy bridegroom of holy souls, and has run away to an impious and lawless destroyer of both soul and body. She has departed from God her savior and has presented her members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness. She has forgotten me and has gone after her lover.” 46.4 It were better for him if a millstone were hung about his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause the virgin of the Lord to stumble. What insolent slave has become so mad as to throw himself on his master’s bed? What robber has advanced to such a degree of desperation as to lay hands on the very offerings of God, not lifeless vessels, but living bodies having an indwelling soul made in the image of God? Who has ever been heard of daring to inscribe the forms of unclean swine on a royal image in the middle of the city and at high noon? If anyone sets aside the marriage of a man, without mercy, he dies on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will he be thought worthy, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has corrupted the bride confessed to him, and has insulted the spirit of virginity? But she was willing, he says, and I did not force her against her will. For the dissolute mistress herself lusted for the fair Joseph, but the madness of the licentious woman did not overcome the virtue of the chaste man, nor, though she forced him with her hands, was he compelled to lawlessness. But this was her decision, he says, and she was no longer a virgin; and, if I had not been willing, she would have been corrupted by another. For the Son of Man, it says, had to be delivered up, but woe to him through whom he was delivered up; and it is necessary that offenses come, but woe to him through whom they come. 46.5 In addition to these things: “Does he who falls not rise again, or he who turns away not return?” Why has the virgin turned away with a shameless turning, although she heard Christ the bridegroom saying through Jeremiah: “And I said after she had committed all these acts of fornication, ‘Return to me,’ but she did not return. Is there no balm in Gilead, or is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?” Truly you would find in the divine Scripture many remedies for evil, and many medicines from destruction to salvation: the mysteries concerning death and resurrection, the words concerning the fearful judgment and eternal punishment, the doctrines concerning repentance and remission of sins, those countless examples of conversion: the drachma, the sheep, the son who devoured his living with harlots, who was lost and was found, who was dead and is alive again. Let us use these aids against evil, by these let us heal our own soul. Take into consideration the last day (for you alone will certainly not live forever) and the distress and suffocation and the hour of death and the pressing decision of God and the hastening angels, and the soul terribly troubled in these things and bitterly scourged beforehand by a sinful conscience and pitifully turning back to the things of this world and the unavoidable necessity of that long departure. Picture for me in your mind the final catastrophe of our common life, when the Son of God shall come in his glory with his angels, “For he will come and will not keep silent”; when he shall come to judge the living and the dead and to render to every man according to his work; when that trumpet, sounding something great and terrible, shall awaken those who have slept from the beginning of time, and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. Remember the divine vision of Daniel, how he brings the Judgment before our eyes. “I beheld,” he says, “till the thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool, his wheels were burning fire. A fiery stream issued from before him. A thousand thousands ministered

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οὐρανὸς ἐπὶ τούτῳ καὶ ἔφριξεν ἡ γῆ ἐπὶ πλεῖον σφόδρα. Λέγει πάντως καὶ νῦν ὁ Κύριος ὅτι «∆ύο καὶ πονηρὰ ἐποίησεν ἡ παρθένος· ἐμὲ ἐγκατέλιπε τὸν ἀληθινὸν ἁγίων ψυχῶν ἅγιον νυμφίον, καὶ ἀπέδρα πρὸς ἀσεβῆ καὶ παράνομον ψυχῆς ὁμοῦ καὶ σώματος φθορέα. Ἀπέστη ἀπὸ Θεοῦ σωτῆρος αὐτῆς καὶ παρέστησε τὰ μέλη αὐτῆς δοῦλα τῇ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ καὶ τῇ ἀνομίᾳ. Ἐμοῦ ἐπελάθετο καὶ ὀπίσω τοῦ ἐραστοῦ αὐτῆς ἐπορεύετο.» 46.4 Συνέφερεν αὐτῷ εἰ μύλος ὀνικὸς περιέκειτο περὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔρριπτο εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, ἢ ὅτι ἐσκανδάλισε τὴν παρθένον Κυρίου. Τίς δοῦλος αὐθάδης εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐμάνη ὡς δεσποτικῇ κοίτῃ ἑαυτὸν ἐπιρρῖψαι; Ποῖος λῃστὴς ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἀπονοίας προήχθη ὡς αὐτῶν ἐφάψασθαι τῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναθημάτων, οὐ σκευῶν ἀψύχων, ἀλλὰ σωμάτων ζώντων καὶ ψυχὴν ἔνοικον ἐχόντων κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ πεποιημένην; Τίς ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἠκούσθη ἐν μέσῃ πόλει καὶ σταθερᾷ μεσημβρίᾳ εἰκόνι βασιλικῇ χοίρων μορφὰς ἀκαθάρτων ἐπιγράψαι τολμήσας; Ἀθετήσας τις γάμον ἀνθρώπου, χωρὶς οἰκτιρμῶν, ἐπὶ δυσὶν ἢ τρισὶ μάρτυσιν, ἀποθνήσκει. Πόσῳ, δοκεῖτε, χείρονος ἀξιωθήσε ται τιμωρίας ὁ τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ καταπατήσας καὶ τὴν αὐτῷ καθομολογηθεῖσαν νύμφην νοθεύσας καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς παρθενίας ἐνυβρίσας; Ἀλλ' ἐβούλετο, φησίν, ἐκείνη, καὶ οὐκ ἄκουσαν ἐβιασάμην. Καὶ γὰρ ἡ δέσποινα ἡ ἄσωτος αὐτὴ τῷ καλῷ Ἰωσὴφ ἐπεμάνη, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐνίκησε τὴν ἀρε τὴν τοῦ σώφρονος ἡ μανία τῆς ἀκολάστου, οὐδέ, χερσὶν αὐτῆς βιαζομένης, πρὸς τὴν παρανομίαν ἐκεῖνος ἐβιάσθη. Ἀλλ' ἐκέκριτο ἐκείνῃ τοῦτο, φησίν, καὶ οὐκέτι ἦν παρθέ νος· καί, εἰ ἐγὼ μὴ ἐβουλόμην, πρὸς ἄλλον ἂν ἐφθάρη. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, φησίν, ἔδει παραδοθῆναι, ἀλλ' οὐαὶ δι' οὗ παρεδόθη· καὶ τὰ σκάνδαλα ἐλθεῖν ἀνάγκη, ἀλλ' οὐαὶ δι' οὗ ἔρχεται. 46.5 Ἐπὶ τούτοις· «Μὴ ὁ πίπτων οὐκ ἀνίσταται, ἢ ὁ ἀπο στρέφων οὐκ ἐπιστρέφει;» ∆ιὰ τί ἀπέστρεψεν ἡ παρθένος ἀποστροφὴν ἀναιδῆ, καίτοι ἀκούσασα Χριστοῦ τοῦ νυμφίου διὰ Ἱερεμίου λέγοντος· «Καὶ εἶπα μετὰ τὸ πορνεῦσαι αὐτὴν ταῦτα πάντα· πρός με ἀνάστρεψον, καὶ οὐκ ἀνέστρεψε. Μὴ ῥητίνη οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν Γαλαάδ, ἢ ἰατρὸς οὐκ ἔστιν; ἐκεῖ ∆ιὰ τί οὐκ ἀνέβη ἴασις θυγατρὸς λαοῦ μου;» Ἦ πολλὰ μὲν ἂν εὕροις ἐν τῇ θείᾳ Γραφῇ τοῦ κακοῦ ἀλεξήματα, πολλὰ δὲ ἐξ ἀπωλείας εἰς σωτηρίαν φάρμακα· τὰ περὶ θανάτου καὶ ἀναστάσεως μυστήρια, τὰ περὶ κρίσεως φοβερᾶς καὶ αἰωνίου κολάσεως ῥήματα, τὰ περὶ μετανοίας καὶ ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτημάτων δόγματα, τὰ μυρία ἐκεῖνα τῆς ἐπιστροφῆς ὑποδείγματα· τὴν δραχμήν, τὸ πρόβατον, τὸν υἱὸν τὸν καταφαγόντα τὸν βίον μετὰ τῶν πορνῶν, τὸν ἀπολωλότα καὶ εὑρεθέντα, τὸν νεκρὸν καὶ ἀναζήσαντα. Τούτοις χρησώμεθα τοῦ κακοῦ βοηθήμασι, διὰ τούτων τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτῶν ἰασώμεθα. Λαβὲ εἰς ἔννοιαν τὴν ἐσχάτην ἡμέραν (οὐ γὰρ δὴ μόνη σὺ τὸν αἰῶνα βιώ σεις) καὶ συνοχὴν καὶ πνιγμὸν καὶ θανάτου ὥραν καὶ ἀπό φασιν Θεοῦ κατεπείγουσαν καὶ ἀγγέλους ἐπισπεύδοντας, καὶ ψυχὴν ἐν τούτοις δεινῶς θορυβουμένην καὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ συνειδότι πικρῶς προμαστιγουμένην καὶ πρὸς τὰ τῇδε ἐλεεινῶς ἐπιστρέφουσαν καὶ ἀπαραίτητον τῆς μακρᾶς ἐκείνης ἀποδημίας ἀνάγκην. ∆ιάγραψόν μοι τῇ διανοίᾳ τὴν τελευταίαν τοῦ κοινοῦ βίου καταστροφήν, ὅταν ἔλθῃ ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, «Ἥξει γὰρ καὶ οὐ παρασιωπήσεται»· ὅταν ἔλθῃ κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκροὺς καὶ ἀποδοῦναι ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν αὐτοῦ· ὅταν ἡ σάλπιγξ ἐκείνη, μέγα τι καὶ φοβερὸν ἠχή σασα, τοὺς ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἐξυπνίσῃ καθεύδοντας, καὶ ἐκπο ρεύσονται οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς, οἱ δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως. Μνήσθητι τῆς τοῦ ∆ανιὴλ θεοπτίας, ὅπως ἡμῖν ὑπ' ὄψιν ἄγει τὴν Κρίσιν. «Ἐθεώρουν, φησίν, ἕως ὅτου θρόνοι ἐτέθησαν καὶ Παλαιὸς ἡμερῶν ἐκαθέζετο, καὶ τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ λευκὸν ὡς χιών, καὶ ἡ θρὶξ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ ἔριον καθαρόν, οἱ τροχοὶ αὐτοῦ πῦρ φλέγον. Ποταμὸς πυρὸς εἷλκεν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ. Χίλιαι χιλιάδες ἐλει τούργουν