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the most unbelieving of all the peoples on earth; and for this reason most suited for the reception of the opposing power; heralding, in every way and disposition, the advent of the evil one; and through what it does, announcing the presence of the Antichrist, since (15Β_272> it was ignorant of the one who is truly the Savior; the hostile and lawless one, a hater of men and a hater of God, and for this reason more a hater of men, because a hater of God, and permitted to revel in outrages against the saints; as the vengeance is near, so that it may also be punished more justly, when its tyranny and rebellion against God are completely revealed through its deeds; the people who are a champion of falsehood, an architect of bloodshed, and an enemy of the truth; the bitter persecutor of my faith, through which the polytheistic error was destroyed, and the phalanxes of demons were driven away. Through which All the nations have clapped their hands, according to the prophecy, and shouted to God with a voice of exultation; because the Lord is most high, terrible, a great King over all the earth. The only-begotten Son, having come in the flesh, was mystically known to them; Lord, indeed, as commanding virtue to the servants who endure through the practice of the commandments; but most high, as the provider of true knowledge, to those who through contemplation, with a longing for wisdom, hasten toward the comprehension of the mysteries stripped of symbols; but terrible, as a judge and avenger of transgressions; but king, as the distributor to each of what has been prepared according to merit; 0541 and great, as one who does contrary things through contrary things, beyond nature; and through suffering creating impassibility, and through death, life, and with paradoxical power, through his own deprivations in the flesh, bestowing on nature the immutable states of good things; and not even so is the senseless people ashamed, and it ceases not from persecuting faith and virtue. Which things it clearly persecutes through malice; as having fallen from both, and not knowing that it has fallen, limping on both hams, and being completely unable to rise from the fall of impiety, or rather, not willing, to speak more properly; as one ever betraying faith and virtue for the sake of pride and pleasure, (15Β_274> as an apostate and foolish people, and an uninstructed nation. To which having divided his life, the apostate one and full of lawlessness, he makes the one the mother of apostasy from God, and the other, the creator of misanthropy; so that both God and creation are outraged by him; the one being despised, the other being corrupted by the defilements of his practices.

What of these things, as I said, is more terrible for the eyes or ears of Christians? To see a harsh and strange nation, permitted to raise its hands against the divine inheritance. But the multitude of our sins has caused these things to happen. For we have not lived worthily of the Gospel of Christ. We have all sinned, we have all transgressed, we have all left the way of the commandments which said, I am the way, and we have become like beasts toward one another, being ignorant of the grace of philanthropy, and the mystery of the sufferings of the incarnate God for us; and we have traveled impassable paths, having ratified, that is, the states of the passions of dishonor by the disposition of our will. But let us watch and pray, lest our hearts be weighed down more with surfeiting and drunkenness. For surfeiting is hesitation concerning the word of faith in times of persecution; and drunkenness, the rejection of natural reasonings, through which the true discernment of things is naturally born, whenever the soul, out of weakness, gives way to the assaults of temptations; and being darkened, suffers turmoil concerning the word, as I said, of faith. For if we pray and watch, we hold more firmly the faith in our Lord and God Jesus Christ, contemplating, and receiving by experience, the outcome of those things He foretold; and we are not at all astonished, and we do not endure turmoil in soul, as though suffering contrary to promise, but we hold the faith more firmly, seeing the Lord's (15Β_276> prophecy fulfilled through events. If indeed a confirmation

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πάντων τῶν ἐπί γῆς λαῶν ἀπιστότατον· καί διά τοῦτο πρός ὑποδοχήν τῆς ἀντικειμένης δυνάμεως ἐπιτηδειότατον· προπομπεύοντα, τρόπῳ τε παντί καί διαθέσει τῆς ἐνδημίας τοῦ πονηροῦ· καί δι᾿ ὧν πράττει μηνύοντα τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου τήν παρουσίαν, ἐπειδή (15Β_272> τήν τοῦ ἀληθῶς Σωτῆρος ἠγνόησεν· τόν δυσμενῆ καί παράνομον, μισάνθρωπόν τε καί μισόθεον, καί διά τοῦτο μᾶλλον μισάνθρωπον, ὅτι μισόθεον, καί ταῖς κατά τῶν ἁγίων ἐντρυφᾷν ὕβρεσι συγχωρούμενον· ὡς ἐγγύς οὔσης τῆς ἐκδικήσεως, ἵνα καί κολασθῆ δικαιότερον, φανείσης αὐτοῦ διά τῶν πραγμάτων τελείως τῆς κατά τοῦ Θεοῦ τυραννίδος τε καί ἐπαναστάσεως· τόν τοῦ ψεύδους προστάτην λαόν, τῆς τε μιαιφονίας δημιουργόν, καί τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθρόν· τόν πικρόν τῆς ἐμῆς πίστεως διώκτην, δι᾿ ἧς ἡ πολύθεος κατελύθη πλάνη, καί τῶν διαμόνων αἱ φάλαγγες ἀπηλάθησαν. ∆ι᾿ ἧς Πάντα τά ἔθνη κεκροτήκασι χεῖρας, κατά τήν προφητείαν, καί ἠλάλαξαν τῷ Θεῷ ἐν φωνῇ ἀγαλλιάσεως· ὅτι Κύριος ὕψιστος, φοβερός, Βασιλεύς μέγας ἐπί πᾶσαν τήν γῆν. Ἐγνώσθη μυστικῶς αὐτοῖς διά σαρκός ἐπιδημήσας ὁ μονογενής Υἱός· Κύριος μέν, ὡς δούλοις ἀρετήν ἐπιτάσσων τοῖς διά πράξεως τῶν ἐντολῶν ἀνεχομένοις· ὕψιστος δέ, ὡς τῆς ἀληθῶς γνώσεως χορηγός, τοῖς πόθῳ σοφίας διά θεωρίας πρός τήν γυμνήν συμβόλων ἐπειγομένοις τῶν μυστηρίων κατάληψιν· φοβερός δέ, ὡς κριτής, καί τῶν παραβάσεων ἐκδικητής· βασιλεύς δέ, ὡς ἑκάστῳ τῶν κατ᾿ ἀξίαν ἡτοιμασμένων διανομεύς· 0541 καί μέγας ὡς ὑπέρ φύσιν διά τῶν ἐναντίων τά ἐναντία ποιῶν· καί διά πάθους ἀπάθειαν, καί διά θανάτου ζωήν δημιουργῶν, καί παραδόξῳ δυνάμει ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ κατά σάρκα στερήσεσι, τάς ἀτρέπτους ἕξεις τῶν ἀγαθῶν τῇ φύσει δωρούμενος· καί οὐδ᾿ οὕτως ὁ παράφρων αἰσχύνεται λαός, καί λήγει διώκων πίστιν καί ἀρετήν. Ἅπερ σαφῶς διώκει διά βασκανίαν· ὡς ἀμφοτέρων ἐκπεπτωκώς, καί οὐκ εἰδώς ὅτι πέπτωκεν, ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοτέραις χωλαίνων ταῖς ἰγνύαις, καί διαναστῆναι τοῦ πτώματος τῆς ἀσεβείας παντελῶς μή δυνάμενος, ἤ μή βουλόμενος, εἰπεῖν οἰκειότερον· ὡς πίστιν καί ἀρετήν ἀεί προδιδούς ὑπερηφανίας χάριν καί ἡδονῆς, (15Β_274> ὡς ἀποστάτης λαός καί μωρός, καί ἔθνος ἀπαίδευτον. Αἷς ἐπιμερίσας ἑαυτοῦ τήν ζωήν, ὁ ἀποστάτης καί πλήρης ἀνομιῶν, τήν μέν ἀποστασίας Θεοῦ ποιεῖται μητέρα, τήν δέ, μισανθρωπίας δημιουργόν· ἵνα καί Θεός αὐτῷ καί κτίσις ὑβρίζεται· ὁ μέν καταφρονούμενος, ἡ δέ, φθειρομένη τοῖς αὐτοῦ μιασμοῖς τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων.

Τί τούτων, ὡς ἔφην, Χριστιανῶν ὀφθαλμοῖς, ἤ ἀκοαῖς φοβερώτερον; Ἔθνος ἀπηνές καί ἀλλόκοτον, κατά τῆς θείας κληρονομίας ὁρᾷν ἐπανατείνεσθαι χεῖρας συγχωρούμενον. Ἀλλά ταῦτα τό πλῆθος ὧν ἡμάρτομεν συμβῆναι πεποίηκεν. Οὐ γάρ ἀξίως τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου τοῦ Χριστοῦ πεπολιτεύμεθα. Πάντες ἡμάρτομεν, πάντες ἠνομήσαμεν, πάντες ἀφήκαμεν τήν ὁδόν τῶν ἐντολῶν τήν εἰποῦσαν, Ἐγώ εἰμί ἡ ὁδός, καί κατ᾿ ἀλλήλων ἐθηριώθημεν, ἀγνοήσαντες τῆς φιλανθρωπίας τήν χάριν, καί τῶν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ παθημάτων τό μυστήριον· καί διωδεύσαμεν τρίβους ἀβάτους, τάς τῶν παθῶν τῆς ἀτιμίας δηλαδή σχέσεις τῇ διαθέσει τῆ γνώμης κυρώσαντες. Ἀλλά γρηγορήσωμεν καί προσευξώμεθα, μήπως πλέον βαρυνθῶσιν αἱ καρδίαι ἡμῶν ἐν κραιπάλῃ καί μέθῃ. Κραιπάλη γάρ ἐστιν, ὁ ἐπί τῷ λόγῳ τῆς πίστεως ἐν καιροῖς διωγμῶν δισταγμός· μέθη δέ, ἡ τῶν κατά φύσιν ἀποβολή λογισμῶν, δι᾿ ὧν ἡ ἀληθής γενέσθαι πέφυκε τῶν ὄντων διάγνωσις, ὅτ᾿ ἄν ἐξ ἀτονίας ἐποκλάσῃ ταῖς ἐπηρείαις τῶν πειρασμῶν ἡ ψυχή· καί σκοτωθεῖσα, πάθῃ σάλον περί τόν λόγον, ὡς ἔφην, τῆς πίστεως. Ἐάν γαρ προσευχώμεθα καί γρηγορῶμεν, βεβαιοτέραν μᾶλλον τήν εἰς τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν καί Θεόν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν πίστιν κατέχομεν, θεωροῦντες, καί τῇ πείρᾳ λαμβάνοντες, ὧν προεῖπεν τήν ἔκβασιν· καί οὐ ξενιζόμεθα παντελῶς, καί σάλον κατά ψυχήν ὑπομένομεν, ὡς παρ᾿ ἐπαγγελίαν πάσχοντες, ἀλλά βεβαιοτέραν τήν πίστιν κατέχομεν, βλέποντες διά τῶν πραγμάτων πληρουμένην τοῦ Κυρίου τήν (15Β_276> πρόῤῥησιν. Εἰ δέ βεβαίωσιν