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do they blaspheme His providence or His creation? But you, brethren, being instructed by the scripture, beware of making schisms of opinion or indeed of your unity, because those who have been the authors of unholy opinion become causes of perdition to the peoples. Likewise also you laity, do not approach those who have taught doctrines contrary to the mind of God, nor become partakers of their impiety, for God also says: "Separate yourselves from the midst of these men, lest you perish along with them." And again: "Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you." For those who blaspheme God are truly to be shunned; for most of the impious have ignorance of God, but these suffer from malevolence like fighters against God; for from the wickedness of the heretics a pollution has gone out over all the earth, as Jeremiah the prophet says. For when the wicked synagogue was cast out by the Lord God, and the house rejected by him, as he somewhere says: "I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance." And again: "I will let my vineyard go, and it shall not be pruned nor dug, and thorns shall come up on it as on a waste land, and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." Having therefore forsaken the people like a tent in a vineyard, and like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city, and having taken from them both the Holy Spirit and the prophetic rain, he filled his Church with spiritual grace as the river of Egypt in the days of new fruits, and he exalted it as a house upon a mountain, or as an exceeding high mountain, as a curdled mountain and a fat mountain, in which God was pleased to dwell; for the Lord will dwell there to the end. And in Jeremiah he says: "A glorious high throne is our sanctuary." And in Isaiah he says: "And it shall be in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of God on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills." Since, therefore, he both forsook the people and left the temple desolate, having rent the veil of the temple and taken the Holy Spirit from them—"for behold," he says, "your house is left to you desolate"—and having given to you from the Gentiles the spiritual grace, as he says through Joel the prophet: "And it shall come to pass afterward, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons shall prophesy, and your daughters shall see visions, and your

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βλασφημοῦσιν αὐτοῦ τὴν πρόνοιαν ἢ τὴν δημιουργίαν; Ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς, ἀδελφοί, ἐκ τῆς γραφῆς παιδευόμενοι, φυλάσ σεσθε μὴ ποιεῖν τὰ σχίσματα τῆς γνώμης μήτε μὴν τῆς ἑνώσεως ὑμῶν, ὅτι σκοποὶ ἀπωλείας οἱ δόξης ἀθεμίτου ἄρξαντες καθίστανται τοῖς λαοῖς. Ὁμοίως καὶ οἱ λαϊκοί, τοῖς τῇ γνώμῃ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐναντία δογματίσασιν μὴ πλησιάζετε μηδὲ κοινωνοὶ τῆς ἀσεβείας αὐτῶν γίνεσθε, λέγει γὰρ καὶ ὁ Θεός· «Ἀποσχίσθητε ἐκ μέσου τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων, ἵνα μὴ συναπόλησθε αὐτοῖς.» Καὶ πάλιν· «Ἐξέλθετε ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν, καὶ ἀφορίσθητε, λέγει Κύριος, καὶ ἀκαθάρτου μὴ ἅπτεσθε, κἀγὼ εἰσδέξομαι ὑμᾶς.» Φευκτέοι γάρ εἰσιν ὡς ἀληθῶς οἱ βλασφημοῦντες Θεόν· οἱ μὲν γὰρ πλεῖστοι τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἄγνοιαν ἔχουσιν Θεοῦ, οὗτοι δὲ κακόνοιαν ὡς θεομάχοι νοσοῦσιν· ἐκ γὰρ τῆς κακίας τῶν αἱρεσιωτῶν ἐξῆλθεν μόλυσμα ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν, ὥς φησιν Ἱερεμίας ὁ προφήτης. Ἀποβληθείσης γὰρ τῆς συναγωγῆς τῆς πονηρᾶς ὑπὸ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ οἴκου ἀπορριφέντος ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, καθώς πού φησιν· «Ἐγκαταλέλοιπα τὸν οἶκόν μου, ἀφῆκα τὴν κληρονομίαν μου.» Καὶ πάλιν· «Ἀνήσω τὸν ἀμπελῶνά μου, καὶ οὐ μὴ τμηθῇ οὐδ' οὐ μὴ σκαφῇ, καὶ ἀναβήσεται εἰς αὐτὸν ὡς εἰς χέρσον ἄκανθα, καὶ ταῖς νεφέλαις ἐντελοῦμαι τοῦ μὴ βρέξαι εἰς αὐτὸν ὑετόν.» Ἐγκαταλιπὼν οὖν τὸν λαὸν ὡς σκηνὴν ἐν ἀμπελῶνι καὶ ὡς ὀπωροφυλάκιον ἐν σικυηλάτῳ, ὡς πόλιν πολιορκουμένην, περιελὼν δὲ ἀπ' αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον καὶ τὸν προφητικὸν ὑετόν, ἐπλήρωσεν τὴν αὐτοῦ Ἐκκλησίαν πνευματικῆς χάριτος ὡς ποταμὸν Aἰγύπτου ἐν ἡμέραις νέων, καὶ ὑπερύψωσεν αὐτὴν ὡς οἶκον ἐπ' ὄρους ἢ ὡς ὄρος ὑπερφερές, ὡς ὄρος τετυρωμένον καὶ ὄρος πῖον, ἐν ᾧ εὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεὸς κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ γὰρ ὁ Κύριος κατασκηνώσει εἰς τέλος. Καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἱερεμίᾳ λέγει· «Θρόνος δόξης ὑψωμένος ἁγίασμα ἡμῶν.» Καὶ ἐν Ἡσαΐᾳ λέγει· «Ἔσται ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις ἐμφανὲς τὸ ὄρος Κυρίου, καὶ ὁ οἶκος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπ' ἄκρων τῶν ὀρέων, καὶ ὑψωθήσεται ὑπεράνω τῶν βουνῶν.» Ἐπεὶ οὖν καὶ τὸν λαὸν ἐγκατέλιπεν, καὶ τὸν ναὸν ἀφῆκεν ἔρημον, σχίσας τὸ καταπέτασμα τοῦ ναοῦ καὶ λαβὼν ἀπ' αὐτῶν τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον· «Ἰδοὺ γάρ, φησίν, ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος», καὶ δοὺς ἐφ' ὑμᾶς τοὺς ἐξ ἐθνῶν τὴν πνευ ματικὴν χάριν, ὡς λέγει διὰ Ἰωὴλ τοῦ προφήτου· «Καὶ ἔσται μετὰ ταῦτα, λέγει ὁ Θεός, καὶ ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Πνεύ ματός μου ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα, καὶ προφητεύσουσιν οἱ υἱοὶ ὑμῶν, καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες ὑμῶν ὁράσεις ὄψονται, καὶ οἱ