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and each time he was driven away, and did not receive healing; but he saw others being freed each year because they had many to help them, and himself, because of the lack of anyone to assist him, remaining in continuous paralysis. And not even then did he run to soothsayers, he did not go to enchanters, he did not tie on amulets, but he awaited help from God; for this reason, at the end, he received a certain wonderful and extraordinary healing. But Lazarus struggled with famine and sickness and desolation all the time, not just for thirty-eight years, but his whole life; thus, indeed, he expired, lying in the gate of the rich man, despised, mocked, starving, set forth as food for the dogs. For his body was so paralyzed that he was not even able to drive away the dogs that came and licked his sores. But nevertheless he did not seek an enchanter, he did not attach plates, he did not resort to sorceries, he did not call magicians to himself, he did not do anything else of the things that are forbidden, but he chose rather to die in those evils than to betray some small part of his piety. What excuse, then, will we have, if when they suffered so much and endured, whether because of fever or because of wounds, we run to synagogues, and call sorcerers and magicians into our houses? Have you not heard what Scripture says? My child, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation, make your heart straight, and persevere; in sickness and poverty, be one who trusts in Him. For just as gold is tested in fire, so an acceptable man is tested in the furnace of humiliation. If you flog your servant, and then he, after receiving thirty or fifty blows, immediately cries out for freedom, or abandons your lordship, and goes off to some others who hate you, and provokes them; will he be able to obtain pardon, tell me? will anyone be able to make a defense for him? By no means. Why is that? Because it is fitting for a master 48.937 to punish a servant. Not only for this reason, but because, if he had to flee, it should not have been to his enemies, nor to those who hate you, but to his genuine friends. 7. So you, then, when you see God punishing you, do not take refuge with his enemies, the Jews, so that you do not provoke him further, but with his friends, the martyrs, the saints, and those who have pleased him and have great boldness before him. And what am I saying about servants and masters? a son will not be able to do this because of the floggings from his father, nor to deny his kinship with him. For both the laws of nature and those established by men, even if he flogs him, even if he bars him from the table, even if he throws him out of the house, even if he punishes him in every way, command him to bear everything nobly, and if he does not obey nor endure it, no one gives him any pardon; but even if the child laments ten thousand times after being flogged, all say these words to him, that it is a father who flogged him and he is lord, and has authority to do and perform anything whatsoever, and it is necessary to bear all things meekly. Then servants endure masters, and sons fathers, even though they often punish them improperly; but you will not endure God when he disciplines you, who is more of a lord than masters, and loves you more than fathers, and arranges and does nothing for anger, but everything for your benefit? but if some small sickness occurs, do you immediately leap away from his lordship, and run to demons, and desert to the synagogues? And what pardon will you obtain then? How will you be able to entreat him again? Or rather, who else, even if he has the boldness of Moses, will be able to pray for you? There is no one. Or do you not hear what God says to Jeremiah concerning the Jews? Do not pray for this people, for if Moses and Samuel should stand, I will not listen to them. Thus there are certain sins that surpass all pardon, and are not able to receive a defense. Let us not then draw upon ourselves such

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καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐξεκρούετο, καὶ θεραπείας οὐκ ἐτύγχανεν· ἀλλ' ἑτέρους μὲν ἑώρα καθ' ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν ἀπαλλαττομένους διὰ τὸ πολλοὺς ἔχειν τοὺς θεραπεύοντας, αὑτόν τε διὰ τὴν ἐρημίαν τῶν προστησομένων ἐν διηνεκεῖ μένοντα παρέσει. Καὶ οὐδὲ οὕτως ἔδραμεν ἐπὶ μάντεις, οὐκ ἦλθε πρὸς ἐπαοιδοὺς, οὐκ ἐπέδησε περίαπτα, ἀλλ' ἀνέμενε τὴν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ βοήθειαν· διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς τῷ τέλει θαυμαστῆς τινος καὶ παραδόξου θεραπείας ἔτυχεν. Ὁ δὲ Λάζαρος λιμῷ καὶ νόσῳ καὶ ἐρημίᾳ πάντα τὸν χρόνον ἐπάλαισεν, οὐ τριακονταοκτὼ ἔτη ἔχων μόνον, ἀλλὰ πᾶσαν τὴν ζωήν· οὕτω γοῦν καὶ ἐξέπνευσεν ἐν τῷ πυλῶνι κείμενος τοῦ πλουσίου, καταφρονούμενος, χλευαζόμενος, λιμώττων, τοῖς κυσὶ βορὰ προκείμενος. Οὕτω γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸ σῶμα παρεῖτο, ὡς μηδὲ ἀποσοβεῖν δύνασθαι τοὺς κύνας ἐπιόντας καὶ τὰ τραύματα αὐτοῦ λιχμωμένους. Ἀλλ' ὅμως οὐκ ἐπαοιδὸν ἐζήτησεν, οὐ πέταλα περιῆψεν, οὐ μαγγανείας ἐκίνησεν, οὐ γόητας πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐκάλεσεν, οὐκ ἄλλο τι τῶν κεκωλυμένων ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ' εἵλετο μᾶλλον τοῖς κακοῖς ἐναποθανεῖν ἐκείνοις, ἢ τῆς εὐσεβείας μικρόντι προδοῦναι μέρος. Τίνα οὖν ἕξομεν συγγνώμην ἡμεῖς, εἰ τοσαῦτα πασχόντων ἐκείνων καὶ καρτερούντων ἢ διὰ πυρετὸν ἢ διὰ τραύματα, τρέχομεν ἐπὶ συναγωγὰς, καὶ τοὺς φαρμακοὺς καὶ γόητας εἰς τὰς οἰκίας καλοῦμεν τὰς ἑαυτῶν; Οὐκ ἤκουσας τί φησιν ἡ Γραφή; Τέκνον, ἐὰν προσέρχῃ δουλεύειν Κυρίῳ, ἑτοίμασον τὴν ψυχήν σου εἰς πειρασμὸν, εὔθυνον τὴν καρδίαν σου, καὶ καρτέρησον· ἐν νόσῳ καὶ πενίᾳ ἐπ' αὐτῷ πεποιθὼς γίνου. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν πυρὶ δοκιμάζεται χρυσίον, οὕτως ἄνθρωπος δεκτὸς ἐν καμίνῳ ταπεινώσεως. Ἂν σὺ τὸν οἰκέτην μαστίξῃς τὸν σὸν, εἶτα ἐκεῖνος τριάκοντα ἢ πεντήκοντα λαβὼν πληγὰς, εὐθέως ἐλευθερίαν ἀναβοήσῃ, ἢ καταλίπῃ σου τὴν δεσποτείαν, καὶ πρὸς ἑτέρους τινὰς ἀπέλθῃ τῶν μισούντων σε, καὶ παροξύνῃ· ἆρα δυνήσεται συγγνώμης τυχεῖν, εἰπέ μοι; ἆρα δυνήσεται ἀπολογήσασθαί τις ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ; Οὐδαμῶς. Τί δήποτε; Ὅτι προσῆκον δεσπότῃ 48.937 κολάζειν οἰκέτην. Οὐ διὰ τοῦτο δὲ μόνον, ἀλλ' ὅτι, εἰ καταφυγεῖν ἐχρῆν, οὐχὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐχθροὺς, οὐδὲ πρὸς τοὺς μισοῦντας, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοὺς φίλους τοὺς γνησίους ἔδει. ζʹ. Καὶ σὺ τοίνυν, ὅταν ἴδῃς τὸν Θεόν σε κολάζοντα, μὴ πρὸς τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ καταφύγῃς τοὺς Ἰουδαίους, ἵνα μὴ μᾶλλον αὐτὸν παροξύνῃς, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοὺς φίλους αὐτοῦ, τοὺς μάρτυρας, τοὺς ἁγίους, καὶ εὐηρεστηκότας αὐτῷ καὶ πολλὴν ἔχοντας πρὸς αὐτὸν παῤῥησίαν. Καὶ τί λέγω περὶ οἰκετῶν καὶ δεσποτῶν; υἱὸς οὐ δυνήσεται τοῦτο ποιῆσαι διὰ τὰς παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς μάστιγας, οὐδὲ ἀρνήσασθαι τὴν πρὸς ἐκεῖνον συγγένειαν. Καὶ γὰρ οἱ τῆς φύσεως καὶ οἱ παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τεθέντες νόμοι, κἂν μαστίζῃ, κἂν τραπέζης εἴργῃ, κἂν ἐκβάλλῃ τῆς οἰκίας, κἂν παντὶ κολάζῃ τρόπῳ, κελεύουσιν ἅπαντα φέρειν γενναίως, κἂν μὴ πείθηται μηδὲ ἀνέχηται, οὐδεμίαν οὐδεὶς αὐτῷ δίδωσι συγγνώμην· ἀλλὰ κἂν μυρία ἀποδύρηται μαστιχθεὶς ὁ παῖς, ταῦτα πρὸς αὐτὸν ἅπαντες λέγουσι τὰ ῥήματα, ὅτι πατήρ ἐστιν ὁ μαστίξας καὶ κύριος, καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχων πᾶν ὁτιοῦν ἐργάσασθαι καὶ ποιῆσαι, καὶ δεῖ πάντα πράως φέρειν. Εἶτα οἰκέται μὲν ἀνέχονται δεσποτῶν, καὶ υἱοὶ πατέρων, πολλάκις οὐδὲ δεόντως κολαζόντων αὐτοὺς ἐκείνων· σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἀνέξῃ τοῦ Θεοῦ παιδεύοντός σε, τοῦ καὶ δεσποτῶν ὄντος κυριωτέρου, καὶ πατέρων μᾶλλόν σε φιλοῦντος, καὶ πρὸς ὀργὴν μὲν οὐδὲν, πάντα δὲ πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον πραγματευομένου καὶ ποιοῦντος; ἀλλ' ἂν μικρά τις γένηται νόσος, εὐθέως ἀποπηδᾷς αὐτοῦ τῆς δεσποτείας, καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς δαίμονας τρέχεις, καὶ πρὸς τὰς συναγωγὰς αὐτομολεῖς; Καὶ ποίας τεύξῃ συγγνώμης λοιπόν; πῶς δὲ δυνήσῃ αὐτὸν παρακαλέσαι πάλιν; Μᾶλλον δὲ τίς ἕτερος, κἂν τὴν Μωσέως σχῇ παῤῥησίαν, δυνήσεται περὶ σοῦ δεηθῆναι; Οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδείς. Ἢ οὐκ ἀκούεις, τί περὶ Ἰουδαίων ὁ Θεός φησι πρὸς τὸν Ἱερεμίαν; Μὴ προσεύχου περὶ τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, ὅτι ἂν στῇ Μωϋσῆς καὶ Σαμουὴλ, οὐκ εἰσακούσομαι αὐτῶν. Οὕτως ἐστὶν ἁμαρτήματά τινα πᾶσαν ὑπερβαίνοντα συγγνώμην, καὶ οὐ δυνάμενα ἀπολογίας τυχεῖν. Μὴ τοίνυν τοσαύτην ἐπισπασώμεθα