47. (Let not those be astonished, who know not the inscrutable depth of the counsels of God, by which the universe is directed, and who do not submit to the One skilled in the pilotage, Who is in all respects wiser than ourselves, Who guides His own whither and in what manner He pleaseth: and entirely for their good, and healing, what though those that are being healed be impatient tinder the cure: by which counsels He is not stirred up unto wickedness, for the Deity being good by His nature, is not the cause of evils, neither of him that prefers the things of wickedness.) He was not, however, checked in his career, but with vast celerity traversing his own and some part of the barbarian frontier, and forcing a passage more by stealth than by force of arms, he at last is drawing near to the capital of the empire; being, as his own partisans say, stimulated to this expedition by presages, the daemons promising a revolution in the time coming, and devising a change in the state: or rather, as the tale is of those who tell the truth, he did this in accordance with a certain preconcerted plot, but one more secret and deeply laid; he was calculating upon a death, of which he was himself the contriver, having plotted the execution of the crime by means of someone in the interior: ²⁹ so that his success was not foreknowledge but knowledge, and not a favour of the daemons. How sagacious they are in such matters, Persia has clearly shown: so let people cease praising the demons for his rapid success, or else we shall impute his ruin also to the same agency.

ΜΖʹ. Μὴ θαυμαζέτωσαν οἱ τῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγων, ὑφ' ὧν τὸ πᾶν φέρεται, τὸ ἀτέκμαρτον μὴ ἐπιστάμενοι βάθος, καὶ μὴ παραχωροῦντες τῷ τεχνίτῃ τῆς κυβερνήσεως, ἡμῶν γε πάντως συνετωτέρῳ, καὶ ἄγοντι τὸ οἰκεῖον ὅπη καὶ ὅπως βούλεται: πάντως δὲ πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον καὶ τὴν ἰατρείαν, κἂν οἱ θεραπευόμενοι δυσχεραίνωσιν: ὑφ' ὧν λόγων κἀκεῖνος οὐκ ἐπήρθη μὲν εἰς τὴν κακίαν: ἀναίτιον γὰρ παντάπασι κακῶν τὸ Θεῖον, ἀγαθὸν τῇ φύσει τυγχάνον, καὶ τοῦ προελομένου τὰ τῆς κακίας: οὐ μὴν ἐπεσχέθη γε τῆς ὁρμῆς: ἀλλὰ τάχει πολλῷ τήν τε οἰκείαν, καὶ τῆς βαρβαρικῆς ὄχθης ἔστιν ἣν διαδραμὼν, καὶ τῷ λαθεῖν μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ κρατῆσαι τὴν πάροδον ἁρπάσας, πλησίον τῶν βασιλείων γίνεται: ὡς μὲν οἱ τὰ ἐκείνου φρονοῦντες, κατὰ πρόγνωσιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκστρατείαν ἀρθεὶς, καὶ δαιμόνων κίνησιν τὸ μέλλον ὑπισχνουμένων, καὶ μεταβολὴν πρυτανευόντων τοῖς πράγμασιν: ὡς δὲ ὁ τῶν ἀληθευόντων λόγος, κατὰ προθεσμίαν παρὼν, ἀλλ' ἀποῤῥητοτέραν τε καὶ βαθυτέραν, καὶ σπεύδων ἐπὶ θάνατον, οὗ δημιουργὸς αὐτὸς ἦν, κλέψας τινὶ τῶν ἔνδον τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν: ὥστε εἶναι μὴ πρόγνωσιν, ἀλλὰ γνῶσιν, καὶ πονηρίας ἔργον, ἀλλὰ μὴ δαιμόνων εὐεργέτημα τὸ γινόμενον: οἵ γε πῶς εὔστοχοι τὰ τοιαῦτα, Περσὶς σαφῶς ἔδειξε. Καὶ παυσάσθωσαν οἱ τὸ ἐκείνου τάχος τοῖς δαίμοσιν ἐπιφημίζοντες: εἰ μή γε καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ κακὸν εἶναι τούτοις προσθήσομεν.