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but they themselves, stripping off their outer garment and girding up their tunic, handle the scalpel and make the incision and endure foul odors and receive the splatters of discharge and wipe it clean with a sponge and sprinkle on the medicines and do the other 6.84 things, whatever the law of the medical art prescribes. And indeed you are fond of admiring and praising those kings, not those who are reared in royal chambers and enjoying every kind of luxury, but those who endure to face danger for their subjects and putting on military gear and fighting bravely before the phalanx. 6.85 But if you say: why did the maker of all things not do this long ago? blame the physicians also, because they keep the stronger medicines for last; for having first used the milder ones 6.86, they apply the most powerful last. This indeed is what the all-wise physician of our souls has done. For having applied many and various medicines, through creation and nature to all men, and through the law and the prophets to the Hebrews, later he applied this all-powerful and saving medicine 6.87 and drove out the disease. And the facts bear witness to the account, land and sea freed from their former ignorance, the error of idols having ceased, the gloom of ignorance driven away, the rays of the light of knowledge having filled the inhabited world, Greeks and Romans and barbarians theologizing about the crucified one and honoring the sign of the cross and worshipping the Trinity instead of the many falsely-named gods, the precincts of the demons having vanished, the altars of the idols torn up from their foundations, splendid churches built everywhere, in cities, in villages, in fields, in the remotest parts shrines of martyrs beautifully wrought, dwellings of ascetics sanctifying the peaks of mountains and making the uninhabited deserts inhabited. 6.88 These things and others like them show the divine propriety of our Savior's economy, and the ancient prophecies also bear witness to the truth for the gospels; For the one have the prediction of these things, while the others show the fulfillment of the prediction. And the one foretold the birth from the virgin, while the others teach the truth of the prophecy; the one foretold the cross, while the others show the cross; the one foretold the miracles, the 6.89 others relate the miracles; the one prophesied the salvation of the world, but we behold the fulfillment of those oracles; those ones announced beforehand the unbelief and utter destruction of the Jews, while we see their unbelief and their dispersion and their servitude. But I, if I did not suppose that by the length of the speech 6.90 I would weary both you and those who will read it hereafter, I would have set before you the very predictions of the divine prophets, so that you might learn more accurately through the facts the truth of the sayings; but since the quantity of what has been said does not permit me to do this, I ask you, o men, both to believe the prophecies and to listen to the facts which cry out and to be persuaded at least by Euripides the tragedian who says in Oenomaus: we infer the unseen from what is present, and again in Phoenissae: the unseen is captured fittingly by evidence. 6.91 But if the poet of tragedy is not a sufficient witness for you, listen to Hyperides the orator saying: "But what is unseen, it is necessary for those who teach to seek with evidence and probabilities." And Isocrates—and this orator is also one of the famous ones—has written in agreement concerning this: "For it is necessary," he says, "to infer future things from past events." But also Andocides, and he is one of the ten: "It is necessary," he says, "to use 6.92 past events as evidence for future ones." For since you are attached to the eloquence of words, we have brought you the proofs from this source, so that being guided by them toward the truth and seeing it proclaimed through the facts the epiphany of our God and Savior, and the one concerning

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ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ τῆς ἀμπεχόνης γυμνούμενοι καὶ τὸν χιτωνίσκον διαζωσάμενοι τὸν σίδηρον μεταχειρίζουσι καὶ τὴν τομὴν ἐπιφέρουσι καὶ δυσοσμίας ἀνέχονται καὶ τοῦ ἰχῶρος δέχονται τὰς ῥανίδας καὶ καταιονῶσι τῇ σπογγιᾷ καὶ τὰ φάρμακα ἐπιπάττουσι καὶ τἄλλα 6.84 δρῶσιν, ὅσα τῆς ἰατρικῆς τέχνης ὁ νόμος διαγορεύει. Καὶ μέντοι καὶ τοὺς βασιλέας ἐκείνους θαυμάζειν τε καὶ εὐφημεῖν φίλον ὑμῖν, οὐ τοὺς ἐν τοῖς βασιλικοῖς τρεφομένους θαλάμοις καὶ χλι δῆς παντοίας ἀπολαύοντας, ἀλλὰ τοὺς προκινδυνεύειν τῶν ὑπη κόων ἀνεχομένους καὶ στρατιωτικὴν περιβαλλομένους σκευὴν καὶ πρὸ τῆς φάλαγγος ἀριστεύοντας. 6.85 Εἰ δέ φατε· τί δήποτε μὴ πάλαι τοῦτο δέδρακε τῶν ὅλων ὁ ποιητής; ἐπιμέμψασθε καὶ τοῖς ἰατροῖς, ὅτι ἔσχατα φυλάττουσι τῶν φαρμάκων τὰ ἰσχυρότερα· τοῖς γὰρ ἠπίοις πρότερον κεχρημέ 6.86 νοι, τὰ δυνατώτατα προσφέρουσιν ὕστατα. Τοῦτο δὴ καὶ ὁ πάν σοφος πεποίηκε τῶν ἡμετέρων ψυχῶν ἰατρός. Πολλὰ γὰρ δὴ καὶ διάφορα προσενεγκὼν φάρμακα, διὰ μὲν τῆς κτίσεως καὶ τῆς φύσεως πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, διὰ δὲ νόμου καὶ προφητῶν Ἑβραίοις, ὕστερον τὸ παναλκὲς τοῦτο καὶ σωτήριον προσενήνοχε φάρμακον 6.87 καὶ τὴν νόσον ἐξήλασεν. Καὶ μαρτυρεῖ τῷ λόγῳ τὰ πράγματα, γῆ καὶ θάλαττα τῆς προτέρας ἀγνοίας ἀπηλλαγμέναι, πεπαυμέ νος τῶν εἰδώλων ὁ πλάνος, τῆς ἀγνοίας ὁ ζόφος ἐληλαμένος, τοῦ τῆς γνώσεως φωτὸς αἱ ἀκτῖνες τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐμπλήσασαι, Ἕλληνες καὶ Ῥωμαῖοι καὶ βάρβαροι τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον θεολογοῦντες καὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ τὸ σημεῖον γεραίροντες καὶ ἀντὶ τῶν πολλῶν καὶ ψευδωνύμων θεῶν τῇ Τριάδι λατρεύοντες, τὰ τῶν δαιμόνων τεμένη φροῦδα γεγενημένα, οἱ βωμοὶ τῶν εἰδώλων ἐκ βάθρων ἀνεσπασμένοι, ἐκκλησίαι περιφανεῖς πανταχῇ δεδομημέ ναι, ἐν πόλεσιν, ἐν κώμαις, ἐν ἀγροῖς, ἐν ἐσχατιαῖς σηκοὶ μαρτύ ρων εἰς κάλλος ἐξειργασμένοι, ἀσκητῶν καταγωγαὶ τὰς τῶν ὀρέων κορυφὰς ἁγιάζουσαι καὶ τὰς ἀοικήτους ἐρήμους οἰκίζουσαι. 6.88 Ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν οἰκονομίας τὸ θεοπρεπὲς ἐπιδείκνυσι, μαρτυροῦσι δὲ καὶ αἱ παλαιαὶ προ φητεῖαι τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις ἀλήθειαν· Αἱ μὲν γὰρ τὴν τούτων ἔχουσι πρόρρησιν, τὰ δὲ τῆς προρρήσεως ἐπιδεικνύει τὸ τέλος. Καὶ οἱ μὲν προεῖπον τῆς παρθένου τὴν γέννησιν, οἱ δὲ διδάσκουσι τὴν τῆς προφητείας ἀλήθειαν· οἱ μὲν προεθέσπισαν τὸν σταυρόν, οἱ δὲ δεικνύουσι τὸν σταυρόν· οἱ μὲν προεῖπον τὰ θαύματα, οἱ 6.89 δὲ ἱστοροῦσι τὰ θαύματα· οἱ μὲν ἐχρησμῴδησαν τῆς οἰκουμένης τὴν σωτηρίαν, ἡμεῖς δὲ τῶν χρησμῶν ἐκείνων θεωροῦμεν τὸ τέ λος· ἐκεῖνοι τὴν Ἰουδαίων καὶ ἀπιστίαν καὶ πανωλεθρίαν προ απήγγειλαν, ἡμεῖς δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν ἀπιστίαν καὶ τὴν διασπορὰν καὶ τὴν δουλείαν ὁρῶμεν. Ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μὴ τῷ μήκει τοῦ λόγου 6.90 καὶ ὑμᾶς καὶ τοὺς εἰς ὕστερον ἐντευξομένους ἀποκναίσειν ἐτό παζον, καὶ αὐτὰς ἂν ὑμῖν τῶν θεσπεσίων προφητῶν τὰς προρ ρήσεις παρέθηκα, ἵνα ἀκριβέστερον διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων ἐμάθετε τὴν τῶν ῥημάτων ἀλήθειαν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ τοῦτό με ποιεῖν οὐκ ἐᾷ τῶν εἰρημένων τὸ πλῆθος, ἀξιῶ ὑμᾶς, ὦ ἄνδρες, καὶ ταῖς προ φητείαις πιστεῦσαι καὶ τῶν πραγμάτων ἐπακοῦσαι βοώντων καὶ πεισθῆναι δέ γε Εὐριπίδῃ τῷ τραγῳδοποιῷ ἐν Οἰνομάῳ λέγοντι· τεκμαιρόμεσθα τοῖς παροῦσι τἀφανές, καὶ πάλιν ἐν Φοίνικι· τἀφανὲς τεκμηρίοισιν ἐοικότως ἁλίσκεται. 6.91 Εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἀξιόχρεως ὑμῖν εἰς μαρτυρίαν τῆς τραγῳδίας ὁ ποιητής, Ὑπερίδου τοῦ ῥήτορος ἐπακούσατε λέγοντος· "Ἃ δ' ἐστὶν ἀφανῆ, ἀνάγκη τοὺς διδάσκοντας τεκμηρίοις καὶ τοῖς εἰκόσι ζητεῖν." Καὶ Ἰσοκράτης δέ-τῶν ἐνδόξων δὲ καὶ οὗτος ὁ ῥήτωρ -ξύμφωνα περὶ τούτου γέγραφεν· "∆εῖ" γάρ φησι "τὰ μέλ λοντα τοῖς προγεγενημένοις τεκμαίρεσθαι". Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ Ἀνδοκίδης, εἷς δὲ τῶν δέκα καὶ οὗτος· "Χρή" φησι "τεκμηρίοις 6.92 κεχρῆσθαι τοῖς προγεγενημένοις περὶ τῶν μελλόντων." Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τῆς τῶν λόγων εὐεπείας ἐξήρτησθε, ἐντεῦθεν ὑμῖν τὰς ἀποδείξεις προσενηνόχαμεν, ἵνα καὶ δι' ἐκείνων ποδηγηθέντες πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων κηρυττομένην ὁρῶντες τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιφάνειαν, καὶ τὸν περὶ