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of prayers, of much zeal, of much purity of mind, both for us who speak and for those who listen, so that the one might be able to know and speak well, and the other to listen intelligently to what is being said. But what is the aim of this discourse? The aim, therefore, of the present discourse is the great and manifest and terrible day of the Lord, (291) and for what reason, so that we may know, it is called and is said to be the day of the Lord.

It is called, therefore, the day of the Lord not because it is the last of these days, nor because He is to come on it, just as we also speak of these days of the present time as the day of Pascha and the day of Pentecost and the day on which the king is to come forth and do this and that; nor because the judgment is to take place on it is it called the day of judgment (for that day will not be one thing and the Lord who is to come on it another), but because He Himself, the God and Master of all, will then shine with the glory of His own divinity. And the perceptible sun will be covered by the brightness of the Master and will become invisible, just as the stars are now covered by it and are not seen, and the stars themselves will be extinguished and all visible things will be rolled up like a scroll, that is, they will withdraw, having given place to the Creator; and He alone will be at once both day and God, He who is now invisible to all, and He who dwells in unapproachable light will then be revealed to all as He is and will fill all things with His own light and will become a day without setting, without end, of eternal joy among His saints, but for the lazy and sinful like me, utterly unapproachable and unseen. For since, while still alive, it was not their zealous concern to see the light of His glory through purification and to make Him dwell wholly in them, it is likely that He will also be unapproachable to them in the future.

For having willed from the very beginning to make what is good also our own, as the divine Scripture says, He granted free will to our first-created forefathers (292) and to us through them, so that, not out of grief or necessity, but from goodwill and love toward Him, by their own free will, with joy working His commandments and keeping them, they would be accounted as having acquired virtues from their own labors, and as their own gifts they would offer these to the Master, and through these, according to their progress, they might be led up to the perfect image and likeness of God, and approach the Unapproachable without being consumed, without bodily death, each one drawing near to Him generation after generation. But since the first-created, being the first to obey the will of the enemy, became transgressors of God's commandment and not only fell from the greater hope, that is, of being in Him, the unsetting light, but also were carried over into corruption and death and have fallen into lightless darkness, having become slaves to the ruler of darkness and being held fast by him, they came to be in the darkness of death through sin, and later we too, who were born of them, having submitted willingly to this tyrant, were enslaved, and not by force (for those who were well-pleasing before the law and in the law clearly showed this, having submitted their own will to the Lord God and not to the devil), the man-loving Lord, wishing to deliver from eternal darkness those who were well-pleasing before the law and in the law, and to grant freedom in grace to those after the law, and to free all, so to speak, together—those who had been well-pleasing to Him before the law and in the law and after the law—from the tyranny of the devil, He Himself, the all-powerful and long-suffering One, condescended to do this through Himself. For the one whom He had made with His own invisible hands in His likeness and image, He willed to raise up again when he had fallen, not through another, but through Himself, (293) so that He might also honor and glorify the

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τῶν εὐχῶν χρείας, πολλῆς τῆς σπουδῆς, πολλῆς τῆς τοῦ νοῦ καθαρότητος, καί τοῖς λέγουσιν ἡμῖν καί τοῖς ἀκούουσιν, ἵνα οἱ μέν γνῶναι καλῶς καί εἰπεῖν, οἱ δέ συνετῶς ἀκοῦσαι δυνηθῶσι τῶν λεγομένων. Ἀλλά τίς ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ λόγου σκοπός; Σκοπός οὖν τοῦ παρόντος λόγου ἐστίν ἡ μεγάλη καί ἐπιφανής καί φοβερά τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμέρα, (291) καί τίνος ἕνεκεν, ἵνα γνῶμεν, ἡμέρα Κυρίου καλεῖται καί λέγεται.

Λέγεται τοίνυν ἡμέρα Κυρίου οὐχ ὡς ἐσχάτη τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων οὖσα, οὐδέ διά τό ἐν ᾗ μέλλειν ἔρχεσθαι αὐτόν, καθά δή καί ἐπί τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων λέγομεν τοῦ παρόντος καιροῦ ἡμέρα τοῦ Πάσχα καί ἡ ἡμέρα τῆς Πεντηκοστῆς καί ἡ ἡμέρα ἐν ᾖ προελθεῖν μέλλει ὁ βασιλεύς καί τά ποιῆσαι καί τά· ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ διά τό ἐν αὐτῇ μέλλειν γενέσθαι τήν κρίσιν ἡμέρα κρίσεως λέγεται (οὐδέ γάρ ἕτερον μέν ἡ ἡμέρα ἔσται ἐκείνη καί ἕτερος ὁ ἐν αὐτῇ μέλλων ἐλεύσεσθαι Κύριος), ἀλλ᾿ ἐπειδή αὐτός ὁ τῶν ἁπάντων Θεός καί δεσπότης λάμψει τηνικαῦτα τῇ δόξῃ τῆς ἰδίας θεότητος. Καί ὁ μέν αἰσθητός ἥλιος ὑπό τῆς τοῦ ∆εσπότου λαμπρότητος καλυφθήσεται καί εἰς τό μή ὁρᾶσθαι γενήσεται, καθά νυνί τά ἄστρα ὑπό τούτου καλύπτεται καί οὐχ ὁρᾶται, αὐτά δέ τά ἄστρα σβεσθήσονται καί ἅπαντα εἰλιγήσονται ὡς βιβλίον τά ὁρατά, ἤγουν ὑποχωρήσουσι, τόπον δεδωκότα τῷ ποιητῇ· καί ἔσται μόνος ἐκεῖνος ἡμέρα τε ὁμοῦ καί Θεός, ὁ νῦν ὑπάρχων τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀόρατος, καί ὁ φῶς οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον τότε πᾶσιν ἀποκαλυφθήσεται οἷός ἐστι καί πληρώσει τά πάντα τοῦ οἰκείου φωτός καί γενήσεται ἄδυτος, ἀτελεύτητος, ἀϊδίου χαρμονῆς ἡμέρα ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ, τοῖς δέ γε κατ᾿ ἐμέ ῥᾳθύμοις καί ἁμαρτωλοῖς εἰς ἅπαν ἀπρόσιτος καί ἀθέατος. Ἐπειδή γάρ ἔτι περιοῦσιν οὐκ ἐγένετο τούτοις διά σπουδῆς τοῦ ἰδεῖν τόν φῶς τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ διά καθάρσεως καί ὅλον αὐτόν ἐν αὐτοῖς εἰσοικίσασθαι, εἰκότως ἔσται τούτοις καί εἰς τό μέλλον ἀπρόσιτος.

Καί γάρ βουληθείς ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὐτῆς ποιῆσαι τό ἀγαθόν καί ἡμέτερον, ὥς φησιν ἡ θεία Γραφή, τό αὐτεξούσιον τοῖς πρωτοπλάστοις καί προπάτορσιν ἡμῶν (292) ἐχαρίσατο καί ἡμῖν δι᾿ αὐτῶν, ὡς ἄν, μή ἐκ λύπης ἤ ἐξ ἀνάγκης, ἀλλ᾿ἐκ τῆς πρός αὐτόν εὐνοίας τε καί ἀγάπης διά τῆς αὐτοπροαιρέτου θελήσεως μετά χαρᾶς τάς ἐντολάς αὐτοῦ ἐργαζόμενοι καί ταύτας φυλάσσοντες, ὡς ἐξ οἰκείων πόνων τάς ἀρετάς κτησάμενοι λογισθήσονται, καί ὡς οἰκεῖα δῶρα ταύτας τῷ ∆εσπότῃ προσάξουσι, καί διά τούτων κατά προκοπήν εἰς τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ τελείαν εἰκόνα καί ὁμοιότητα ἀναχθῶσι, καί ἀκαταφλέκτως προσεγγίσωσι τῷ ἀπροσίτῳ δίχα σωματικοῦ θανάτου, κατά γενεάν καί γενεάν ὁ καθείς αὐτῷ προσπελάζοντες. Ἐπεί δέ οἱ μέν πρωτόπλαστοι, πρῶτοι τῷ ἐχθρῷ θελήματι ὑπακούσαντες, τῆς ἐντολῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ παραβάται γεγόνασι καί οὐ μόνον τῆς ἐλπίδος τῆς μείζονος, ἤγουν τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ γενέσθαι τῷ ἀνεσπέρῳ φωτί, ἐξέπεσον, ἀλλά καί εἰς φθοράν καί θάνατον μετηνέχθησαν καί εἰς ἀφεγγές περιπτώκασι σκότος, δοῦλοι τῷ τοῦ σκότους ἄρχοντι γεγονότες καί ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατακρατηθέντες, ἐν τῷ τοῦ θανάτου σκότει διά τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐγένοντο, ὕστερον δέ καί ἡμεῖς, οἱ ἐξ ἐκείνων τεχθέντες, θελήματι τῷ τυράννῳ τούτῳ ὑποκύψαντες, ἐδουλώθημεν, καί οὐ βίᾳ (ἔδειξαν γάρ τοῦτο σαφῶς οἱ πρό τοῦ νόμου καί ἐν τῶ νόμῳ εὐαρεστήσαντες καί τό ἑαυτῶν θέλημα τῷ δεσπότῃ Θεῷ καί οὐ τῷ διαβόλῳ προσαναθέμενοι), τούς πρό νόμου καί ἐν νόμῳ εὐαρεστήσαντας τοῦ αἰωνίου σκότους λυτρώσασθαι βουληθείς ὁ φιλάνθρωπος Κύριος καί τοῖς μετά τόν νόμον τήν ἐλευθερίαν δωρήσασθαι ἐν τῇ χάριτι καί πάντας, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ὁμοῦ τούς εὐηρεστηκότας αὐτῷ πρό τοῦ νόμου καί ἐν νόμῳ καί μετά τόν νόμον τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου τυραννίδος ἐλευθερῶσαι, αὐτός δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τοῦτο ὁ πάντα δυνατός καί ἀνεξίκακος ποιῆσαι ἠνέσχετο. Ὅν γάρ ἰδίαις καί ἀοράτοις χερσί καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν καί κατ᾿ εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ πεποίηκεν, οὐ δι᾿ ἑτέρου, ἀλλά δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ πάλιν καταπεσόντα ἀναστῆσαι ἠθέλησεν, (293) ὡς ἄν καί πλειόνως τιμήσῃ καί δοξάσῃ τό