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you boast about the matter; but having come into the court, you betrayed your philosophy, when most of all you should have spoken boldly, and you say to the judge: "I would pray that you might become a Christian without these bonds"? And yet if the bonds are a good thing, and so good, as to give others courage for the word on behalf of godliness—for you yourself have already said this, that most of the brethren, having confidence in my bonds, spoke the word without fear—why is it that before the judge you do not glory in the matter, but do the very opposite? Does what is being said not seem to be a problem? But I bring the solution very quickly. For Paul did not do this out of anguish or cowardice, but from much wisdom and spiritual understanding; and how, I shall tell you. He was speaking to a Greek and an unbeliever, who did not know our ways. Therefore he did not wish to lead him in by burdensome things, but 49.167 just as he said, "To the lawless I became as one lawless," this is what he was doing here as well. If he hears of bonds, he says, and tribulations, he immediately leaps away; he does not know the power of the bonds; let him first become a believer, let him taste the preaching, and then he himself will run to these bonds. I have heard my Lord saying, that "No one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from it, and a worse tear is made; nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, for the skins burst." This man's soul is an old garment, and an old wineskin; it has not been renewed by faith, it has not been made new by the grace of the Spirit, it is still weak and earthly, it thinks worldly thoughts, and is terrified by worldly show, it loves present glory. If from the very beginning he hears that upon becoming a Christian he will immediately become a prisoner and be bound in a chain, ashamed and blushing he will leap away from the preaching; for this reason he says, "Without these bonds," not refusing the bonds themselves, may it never be! but condescending to that man's weakness, since he himself so loves and embraces them, as a worldly woman her own golden ornaments. From where is this clear? "I rejoice in my sufferings," he says, "and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." And again: "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him." And again: "Not only so, but we also glory in tribulations." If, therefore, he rejoices and glories, and calls the thing a gift, it is evident that for this reason he said these things when speaking to the judge; since also elsewhere, having fallen again into the necessity of boasting, he shows this very thing, saying: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly," he says, "about my weaknesses, in hardships, in insults, in persecutions, in difficulties, so that Christ's power may rest on me"; and again: "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." And elsewhere comparing himself to others, and showing us his superiority by comparison, he speaks somewhat thus: "Are they servants of Christ? I am out of my mind to talk like this. I am more." And wishing to show his superiority, he did not say that he raised the dead, or cast out demons, or cleansed lepers, or did any other such thing, but what? That he suffered countless terrible things. For having said, "I am more," he brought forward the multitude of his trials, speaking thus: "In beatings more severely, in deaths often, in prisons more frequently; from the Jews five times I received forty lashes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked, I have spent a night and a day in the deep, and all the rest. Thus everywhere Paul boasts in his tribulations, and glories in the matter with exaggeration; and quite rightly. For this is what most of all shows the power of Christ, that through such things the apostles conquered, through bonds and tribulations and scourgings and the worst of evils. For Christ promised these two things, affliction and rest, labors and crowns, sweat and rewards, good things and painful things; but the painful things He has given in the present life, but the

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καυχᾶσαι ἐπὶ τῷ πράγματι· εἰς δικαστήριον δὲ ἐλθὼν προέδωκας τὴν φιλοσοφίαν, ὅτε μάλιστα παῤῥησιάσασθαι ἔδει, καὶ τῷ δικαστῇ λέγεις· Εὐξαίμην ἄν σε γενέσθαι Χριστιανὸν ἄνευ τῶν δεσμῶν τούτων; Καὶ μὴν εἰ καλὰ τὰ δεσμὰ, καὶ οὕτω καλὰ, ὥστε παρέχειν καὶ ἑτέροις θαῤῥεῖν εἰς τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐσεβείας λόγον σὺ γὰρ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἔφθης εἰπὼν, ὅτι οἱ πλείονες τῶν ἀδελφῶν πεποιθότες τοῖς δεσμοῖς μου τὸν λόγον ἐλάλουν ἀφόβως, τίνος ἕνεκεν ἐπὶ τοῦ δικαστοῦ οὐκ ἐγκαλλωπίζῃ τῷ πράγματι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὐναντίον ποιεῖς; Ἆρα οὐ δοκεῖ ζήτημα εἶναι τὸ λεγόμενον; Ἀλλὰ ταχίστην ἐπάγω τὴν λύσιν. Οὐ γὰρ ἐξ ἀγωνίας οὐδὲ δειλίας ὁ Παῦλος τοῦτο ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ σοφίας πολλῆς καὶ συνέσεως πνευματικῆς· καὶ πῶς, ἐγὼ λέγω. Πρὸς Ἕλληνα διελέγετο καὶ ἄπιστον, καὶ οὐκ εἰδότα τὰ ἡμέτερα. Οὐκ ἐβούλετο τοίνυν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῶν φορτικῶν ἐναγαγεῖν, ἀλλ' 49.167 ὥσπερ ἔλεγεν, Ἐγενόμην τοῖς ἀνόμοις ὡς ἄνομος, τοῦτο καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἔπραττεν. Ἂν ἀκούσῃ δεσμὰ, φησὶ, καὶ θλίψεις, εὐθέως ἀποπηδᾷ· οὐκ οἶδε τῶν δεσμῶν τὴν δύναμιν· γενέσθω πρότερον πιστὸς, γευσάσθω τοῦ κηρύγματος, καὶ τότε καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπιδραμεῖται τοῖς δεσμοῖς τούτοις. Ἤκουσα τοῦ ∆εσπότου μου λέγοντος, ὅτι Οὐδεὶς ἐπιβάλλει ἐπίβλημα ῥάκους ἀγνάφου ἐπὶ ἱματίῳ παλαιῷ, ἐπεὶ αἴρει τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτοῦ, καὶ χεῖρον τὸ σχίσμα γίνεται· οὐδὲ βάλλουσιν οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς παλαιοὺς, ἐπεὶ ῥήγνυνται οἱ ἀσκοί. Ἡ ψυχὴ ἡ τούτου ἱμάτιόν ἐστι παλαιὸν, καὶ ἀσκὸς παλαιός· οὐκ ἀνενεώθη τῇ πίστει, οὐκ ἀνεκαινίσθη τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριτι, ἀσθενής ἐστιν ἔτι καὶ γήϊνος, βιωτικὰ φρονεῖ, καὶ πρὸς τὴν κοσμικὴν φαντασίαν ἐπτόηται, δόξης ἐρᾷ τῆς παρούσης. Ἂν ἐκ προοιμίων εὐθέως ἀκούσῃ, ὅτι γενόμενος Χριστιανὸς δεσμώτης εὐθέως γενήσεται καὶ ἅλυσιν περικείσεται, αἰσχυνθεὶς καὶ ἐρυθριάσας ἀποπηδήσεται τοῦ κηρύγματος· διὰ τοῦτό φησιν, Ἄνευ τῶν δεσμῶν τούτων, οὐκ αὐτὰ τὰ δεσμὰ παραιτούμενος, μὴ γένοιτο! ἀλλ' ἐκείνου τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ συγκαταβαίνων, ἐπεὶ αὐτὸς οὕτως αὐτὰ φιλεῖ καὶ ἀσπάζεται, ὡς γυνὴ φιλόκοσμος τὰ χρυσία τὰ ἑαυτῆς. Πόθεν τοῦτο δῆλον; Χαίρω ἐν τοῖς παθήμασί μου, φησὶ, καὶ ἀνταναπληρῶ τὰ ὑστερήματα τῶν θλίψεων τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου. Καὶ πάλιν· Ὅτι ὑμῖν ἐχαρίσθη ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, οὐ μόνον τὸ εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πάσχειν. Καὶ πάλιν· Οὐ μόνον δὲ, ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμεθα ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν. Εἰ τοίνυν χαίρει καὶ καυχᾶται, καὶ χάρισμα τὸ πρᾶγμα καλεῖ, εὔδηλον ὅτι διὰ τὴν αἰτίαν ταύτην πρὸς τὸν δικαστὴν διαλεγόμενος ταῦτα ἔλεγεν· ἐπεὶ καὶ εἰς ἀνάγκην ἀλλαχοῦ πάλιν ἐμπεσὼν τοῦ καυχήσασθαι, τοῦτο αὐτὸ ἐνδείκνυται λέγων· Ἥδιστα οὖν καυχήσομαι, φησὶν, ἐν ταῖς ἀσθενείαις μου, ἐν ἀνάγκαις, ἐν ὕβρεσιν, ἐν διωγμοῖς, ἐν στενοχωρίαις, ἵνα ἐπισκηνώσῃ ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Χριστοῦ· καὶ πάλιν· Εἰ καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ, τὰ τῆς ἀσθενείας μου καυχήσομαι. Καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ συγκρίνων ἑαυτὸν ἑτέροις, καὶ τὴν κατὰ σύγκρισιν ὑπεροχὴν ἡμῖν ἐνδεικνύμενος, οὑτωσί πώς φησι· ∆ιάκονοι Χριστοῦ εἰσι· παραφρονῶν λαλῶ, ὑπὲρ ἐγώ. Καὶ δεῖξαι βουλόμενος τὴν ὑπεροχὴν, οὐχ ὅτι νεκροὺς ἀνέστησεν, οὐδ' ὅτι δαίμονας ἀπήλασεν, οὐδ' ὅτι λεπροὺς ἐκαθάρισεν, οὐδ' ὅτι ἄλλο τι τῶν τοιούτων ἐποίησεν, εἶπεν, ἀλλὰ τί; Ὅτι τὰ μυρία ἔπαθε δεινά. Εἰπὼν γοῦν, ὅτι Ὑπὲρ ἐγὼ, ἐπήγαγε τῶν πειρασμῶν τὸ πλῆθος οὕτω λέγων· Ἐν πληγαῖς ὑπερβαλλόντως, ἐν θανάτοις πολλάκις, ἐν φυλακαῖς περισσοτέρως· ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων πεντάκις τεσσαράκοντα παρὰ μίαν ἔλαβον, τρὶς ἐῤῥαβδίσθην, ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθην· τρὶς ἐναυάγησα, νυχθήμερον ἐν τῷ βυθῷ πεποίηκα, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἅπαντα. Οὕτω πανταχοῦ καυχᾶται ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν ὁ Παῦλος, καὶ ἐγκαλλωπίζεται τῷ πράγματι μεθ' ὑπερβολῆς· καὶ μάλα εἰκότως. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν ὃ μάλιστα τὴν δύναμιν ἐνδείκνυται τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὅτι διὰ τοιούτων ἐκράτησαν οἱ ἀπόστολοι, διὰ δεσμῶν καὶ θλίψεων καὶ μαστίγων καὶ τῶν ἐσχάτων κακῶν. ∆ύο γὰρ ταῦτα ὁ Χριστὸς ἐπηγγείλατο, θλῖψιν καὶ ἄνεσιν, πόνους καὶ στεφάνους, ἱδρῶτας καὶ ἀμοιβὰς, χρηστὰ καὶ λυπηρά· ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν λυπηρὰ κατὰ τὸν παρόντα βίον δέδωκε, τὰ δὲ