[Of the Great Week, and on What Account They Enjoin Us to Fast on Wednesday and Friday.]

XV. He therefore charged us Himself to fast these six days on account of the impiety and transgression of the Jews, commanding us withal to bewail over them, and lament for their perdition. For even He Himself “wept over them, because they knew not the time of their visitation.”  118  Luke xix. 44 Luke xix. 44 But He commanded us to fast on the fourth and sixth days of the week; the former on account of His being betrayed, and the latter on account of His passion. But He appointed us to break our fast on the seventh day at the cock-crowing, but to fast on the Sabbath-day. Not that the Sabbath-day is a day of fasting, being the rest from the creation, but because we ought to fast on this one Sabbath only, while on this day the Creator was under the earth. For on their very feast-day they apprehended the Lord, that oracle might be fulfilled which says: “They placed their signs in the middle of their feast, and knew them not.”  119  Ps. lxxiv. 4 Ps. lxxiv. 4 Ye ought therefore to bewail over them, because when the Lord came they did not believe on Him, but rejected His doctrine, judging themselves unworthy of salvation. You therefore are happy who once were not a people, but are now an holy nation, delivered from the deceit of idols, from ignorance, from impiety, who once had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy through your hearty obedience: for to you, the converted Gentiles, is opened the gate of life, who formerly were not beloved, but are now beloved; a people ordained for the possession of God, to show forth His virtues, concerning whom our Saviour said, “I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest to them that asked not after me. I said, Behold me, to a nation which did not call upon my name.”  120  Isa. lxv. 1 Isa. lxv. 1 For when ye did not seek after Him, then were ye sought for by Him; and you who have believed in Him have hearkened to His call, and have left the madness of polytheism, and have fled to the true monarchy, to Almighty God, through Christ Jesus, and are become the completion of the number of the saved—“ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;”  121  Dan. vii. 10. Dan. vii. 10. as it is written in David, “A thousand  122  The words from “A thousand” to “of the prosperous” are not in the V. mss. The words from “A thousand” to “of the prosperous” are not in the V. mss. shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand;”  123  Ps. xci. 7. Ps. xci. 7. and again, “The chariots of God are by tens of thousands, and thousands of the prosperous.”  124  Ps. lxviii. 17. Ps. lxviii. 17. But unto unbelieving Israel He says: “All the day long have I stretched out mine hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, which go in a way that is not good, but after their own sins, a people provoking me before my face.”  125  Isa. lxv. 2. Isa. lxv. 2.

[15] Ὑμεῖς οὖν μακάριοι, οἵ ποτε οὐ λαός, νῦν δὲ ἔθνος ἅγιον ῥυσθὲν ἀπὸ πλάνης εἰδώλων, ἀπὸ ἀγνοίας, ἀπὸ δυσσεβείας: οἱ οὐκ ἠλεημένοι, νῦν δὲ ἐλεηθέντες διὰ τὴν ὑπακοὴν τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν. Ὑμῖν γὰρ ἠνοίγη ἡ πύλη τῆς ζωῆς τοῖς ἐξ ἐθνῶν, οἵτινές ποτε οὐκ ἠγαπημένοι, νῦν δὲ πεφιλημένοι, λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν Θεοῦ τεταγμένος τῷ τὰς ἀρετὰς αὐτοῦ ἐξαγγέλλειν, περὶ ὧν εἶπεν ὁ σωτήρ: «Εὑρέθην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν, ἐμφανὴς ἐγενόμην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν, εἶπα: ἰδού εἰμι, τῷ ἔθνει, οἳ οὐκ ἐκάλεσαν τὸ ὄνομά μου.» Μὴ ζητήσαντες γὰρ αὐτόν ποτε ἐπεζητήθητε παρ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὑμεῖς πιστεύσαντες εἰς αὐτὸν ὑπηκούσατε τῇ κλήσει αὐτοῦ, καταλείψαντες τὴν πολύθεον μανίαν καὶ τῇ ἀληθεῖ μοναρχίᾳ προσφυγόντες, τῷ παντοκράτορι Θεῷ διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, πλήρωμα τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν σῳζομένων γενόμενοι, μύριαι μυριάδες καὶ χίλιαι χιλιάδες, ὡς ἐν τῷ Δαυὶδ γέγραπται. Πρὸς δὲ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τὸν ἄπιστον λέγει: «Ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῖράς μου πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ ἀντιλέγοντα, τοῖς πορευομένοις ἐν ὁδῷ οὐ καλῇ, ἀλλ' ὀπίσω τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν, λαὸν παροξύνοντά με ἐνώπιον ἐμοῦ.»