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greater, as to 60.181 eat and drink. To testify, he says. Here he also spoke fearfully, so that they might not have ignorance to flee to. And he did not say, that He is the Son of God, but what most frightened them, that He is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. Then the main argument from the prophets; for they had great renown. To him all the prophets bear witness. When he had shaken them with fear, then he brings on the forgiveness, not spoken by himself, but by the prophets. And the fearful part, from himself; but the gentle part, from the prophets. As many of you as have obtained this remission, as many as have been deemed worthy of the faith, having learned the magnitude of the gift, I beseech you, be diligent not to insult the benefactor. For we have obtained remission, not that we might become worse, but that we might become much better and improved. Let no one therefore say that God is the cause of our evils, by not punishing or taking vengeance. For tell me, if a ruler takes a murderer and releases him, is he himself judged to be the cause of the murders that follow? By no means. And how is it that we, giving occasion for God to be insulted by the godless tongues through the things we dare, do not fear nor shudder? For what will they not say? What will they not utter? He Himself permitted them, one says; for it was necessary to punish those who were deserving, not to honor, nor to crown, nor to give them the first places, but to punish and take vengeance. But He, by doing no such thing to them, but instead honoring them, makes them such as they are. Do not, I beg and beseech you, let anyone utter this word about us. It is better to be buried ten thousand times, than for God to hear these things because of us. The Jews also said to him: You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself; and again, If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. But these things are worse than those. So that it may not be possible for Him to be called a teacher of wickedness because of us, nor that by this very blasphemy we may become liable to punishment (For because of you, he says, my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles); let us cause the opposite to be said, by living worthily of the one who calls us, and approaching the baptism of adoption. For truly great is the power of baptism; it makes those who have partaken of the gift different from what they were; it does not allow humans to remain humans. Make the Greek believe that the power of the Spirit is great, that it has remolded, that it has reformed. Why do you wait for your last breaths, like a runaway, like an evildoer, as if you do not owe it to God to live? why are you so disposed as if you have a harsh and cruel Master? what is colder, what is more wretched than those who received the illumination then? God has made you a friend, and has deemed you worthy of all good things, so that you too might show the things of a friend. Tell me now, if you had greatly wronged and insulted someone, and after heaping ten thousand reproaches upon him, you fell into the hands of the one you had insulted, but he, instead of these things, honored you, and gave you a share of all his possessions, and among the friends in whose presence you insulted him, in their presence he crowned you, and said that he had you as a legitimate son, and then he immediately died; would you not have considered the matter a loss? would you not have said: I wished he were alive, that I might be able to give him his due, that I might repay him, that I might not appear wicked towards my benefactor? Then, in the case of a man it is so; but in the case of God, are you eager to depart, so that you may not repay the benefactor of so many gifts? And yet, approach then, when you are able 60.182 to repay him with equal measures. Why do you flee? Yes, he says, but I am not able to keep it. Has God then commanded impossible things? From this all things have been overturned, from this the affairs of the world have been corrupted, because no one has any intention of living according to God. The catechumens, then, being eager for this, take no care for an upright life; and of those already illuminated, some, because they received this when they were children, others in sickness, and having recovered, since they had no desire to live for God, these too make no effort; and those who received it in health, they too show little of this, and being fervent for the present, after this they too have extinguished the fire. For is it not possible to engage in affairs? For do I separate you from your wife?

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μεῖζον, ὡς τὸ 60.181 φαγεῖν καὶ πιεῖν. ∆ιαμαρτύρασθαι, φησίν. Ἐνταῦθα καὶ φοβερῶς εἶπεν, ἵνα μὴ ἔχωσιν εἰς ἄγνοιαν καταφυγεῖν. Καὶ οὐκ εἶπεν, ὅτι Αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλ' ὃ μάλιστα αὐτοὺς ἐφόβει, ὅτι Αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ ὡρισμένος ὑπὸ Θεοῦ κριτὴς ζώντων καὶ νεκρῶν. Εἶτα ἡ κυρία κατασκευὴ ἡ ἀπὸ τῶν προφητῶν· μεγάλην γὰρ εἶχον δόξαν ἐκεῖνοι. Τούτῳ πάντες οἱ προφῆται μαρτυροῦσιν. Ὅτε τῷ φόβῳ κατέσεισε, τότε ἐπάγει τὴν συγχώρησιν, οὐ παρ' αὐτοῦ λεγομένην, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τῶν προφητῶν. Καὶ τὸ μὲν φοβερὸν, παρ' αὐτοῦ· τὸ ἥμερον δὲ, ἀπὸ τῶν προφητῶν. Ὅσοι τῆς ἀφέσεως ἐτύχετε ταύτης, ὅσοι τῆς πίστεως κατηξιώθητε, μαθόντες τῆς δωρεᾶς τὸ μέγεθος, παρακαλῶ, σπουδάσατε μὴ ὑβρίσαι εἰς τὸν εὐεργέτην. Ἐτύχομεν γὰρ ἀφέσεως, οὐχ ἵνα χείρους γενώμεθα, ἀλλ' ἵνα ἀμείνους πολλῷ καὶ βελτίους. Μηδεὶς τοίνυν εἴπῃ ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῖν αἴτιος κακῶν, μὴ κολάσας μηδὲ τιμωρησάμενος. Εἰπὲ γάρ μοι, ἂν ἄρχων λαβὼν φονέα ἀφῇ, τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα φόνων αὐτὸς αἴτιος εἶναι κρίνεται; Οὐδαμῶς. Καὶ πῶς αὐτοὶ ταῖς ἀθέοις γλώσσαις διδόντες ὑβρίζεσθαι τὸν Θεὸν δι' ὧν τολμῶμεν, οὐ δεδοίκαμεν οὐδὲ φρίττομεν; Τί γὰρ οὐκ ἐροῦσι; τί δαὶ οὐ φθέγξονται; Αὐτὸς αὐτοῖς ἐπέτρεψε, φησίν· ἐχρῆν γὰρ ἀξίους ὄντας κολάσαι, οὐ τιμᾷν, οὐδὲ στεφανοῦν, οὐ τῶν πρωτείων μεταδιδόναι, ἀλλὰ κολάζειν καὶ τιμωρεῖσθαι. Ὁ δὲ μηδέν τι τοιοῦτον αὐτοῖς ποιῶν, ἀλλ' ἀντὶ τούτων καὶ τιμῶν, τοιούτους αὐτοὺς ἀπεργάζεται. Μὴ, δέομαι καὶ ἀντιβολῶ, μηδεὶς ταύτην περὶ ἡμῶν ἀφῇ τὴν φωνήν. Βέλτιον κατορυγῆναι μυριάκις, ἢ ταῦτα τὸν Θεὸν ἀκοῦσαι δι' ἡμᾶς. Εἶπον αὐτῷ καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι· Ὁ καταλύων τὸν ναὸν,καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγείρων αὐτὸν, σῶσον σεαυτόν· καὶ πάλιν, Εἰ Υἱὸς εἶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, κατάβα ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα ἐκείνων χαλεπώτερα. Ἵν' οὖν μὴ ἐξῇ δι' ἡμᾶς πονηρίας αὐτὸν διδάσκαλον λέγεσθαι, μηδὲ αὐτῷ τούτῳ τῷ βλασφημεῖσθαι ὑπόδικοι τῇ κολάσει γενώμεθα (∆ι' ὑμᾶς γὰρ, φησὶ, τὸ ὄνομά μου βλασφημεῖται ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι)· τἀναντία ποιήσωμεν λέγεσθαι, ἀξίως τοῦ καλοῦντος πολιτευόμενοι, καὶ τῷ τῆς υἱοθεσίας προσιόντες βαπτίσματι. Ὄντως γὰρ μεγάλη τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἡ δύναμις· ἄλλους ἀντ' ἄλλων ποιεῖ τοὺς μετασχόντας τῆς δωρεᾶς· οὐκ ἀφίησιν εἶναι ἀνθρώπους τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. Ποίησον τὸν Ἕλληνα πιστεῦσαι, ὅτι μεγάλη τοῦ Πνεύματος ἡ δύναμις, ὅτι μετέπλασεν, ὅτι μετεῤῥύθμισε. Τί τὰς ἐσχάτας ἀναπνοὰς ἀναμένεις, ὡς δραπέτης, ὡς κακοῦργος, ὡς οὐκ ὀφείλων τῷ Θεῷ ζῆσαι; τί ὡς πρὸς ἀπηνῆ τινα καὶ ὠμὸν ἔχων ∆εσπότην οὕτω διάκεισαι; τί ψυχρότερον, τί ταλαιπωρότερον τῶν τότε λαβόντων τὸ φώτισμα; Φίλον σε ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ πάντων ἠξίωσε τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἵνα καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπιδείξῃ τὰ τοῦ φίλου. Εἰπὲ δή μοι, εἰ τὰ μεγάλα ἠδίκησας εἴς τινα καὶ ὕβρισας, καὶ μυρίοις αὐτὸν ὀνείδεσι περιβαλὼν, εἰς τὰς χεῖρας ἐνέπεσες τοῦ ὑβρισθέντος, ὁ δὲ ἀντὶ τούτων ἐτίμησε, καὶ τῶν αὐτοῦ μετέδωκεν ἁπάντων, καὶ ἐν τοῖς φίλοις ἐφ' ὧν ὑβρίσθη, ἐπὶ τούτων σε ἐστεφάνωσε, καὶ ἔφησεν ὡς υἱὸν ἔχειν γνήσιον, εἶτα εὐθέως ἀπέθανεν· οὐκ ἂν ζημίαν τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐνόμισας; οὐκ ἂν εἶπες· Ἐβουλόμην αὐτὸν ζῶντα εἶναι, ἵνα δυνηθῶ ἀποδοῦναι τὰς ἀμοιβὰς, ἵνα ἀμείψωμαι, ἵνα μὴ κακὸς φανῶ περὶ τὸν εὐεργέτην; Εἶτα ἐπ' ἀνθρώπου μὲν οὕτως· ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ σπουδάζεις ἀπελθεῖν, ἵνα μὴ ἀμείψῃ τὸν εὐεργέτην τῶν τοσούτων δωρεῶν; Καὶ μὴν τότε πρόσελθε, ὅτε αὐτὸν 60.182 δύνασαι τοῖς ἴσοις ἀμείψασθαι. Τί φεύγεις; Ναὶ, φησὶν, ἀλλ' οὐ δύναμαι φυλάξαι. Οὐκοῦν τὰ ἀδύνατα ἐπέταξεν ὁ Θεός; Ἀπὸ τούτου πάντα ἀνατέτραπται, ἀπὸ τούτου τὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης διέφθαρται, ὅτι οὐδεὶς οὐδενὶ σκοπὸς κατὰ Θεὸν ζῇν. Οἱ μὲν οὖν κατηχούμενοι τοῦτο σπουδάζοντες, οὐδεμίαν ποιοῦνται ἐπιμέλειαν ὀρθοῦ βίου· οἱ δὲ ἤδη φωτισθέντες, οἱ μὲν ἐπεὶ παῖδες ὄντες τοῦτο ἔλαβον, οἱ δὲ ἐν ἀῤῥωστίᾳ, καὶ ἀνενεγκόντες, ἐπειδὴ μὴ εἶχον προθυμίαν τινὰ ζῆσαι διὰ Θεὸν, οὐδὲ οὗτοι σπουδὴν τίθενται· οἱ δὲ ἐν ὑγείᾳ λαβόντες, ὀλίγην ταύτην καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐπιδείκνυνται, καὶ πρὸς τὸ παρὸν διατεθέντες θερμοὶ, μετὰ ταῦτα καὶ οὗτοι τὸ πῦρ ἔσβεσαν. Μὴ γὰρ οὐκ ἔνι πράγμασι χρῆσθαι; μὴ γὰρ τῆς γυναικός σε διείργω;