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For this reason also the Master blessed Peter when he said: "You are the Son of the living God," saying: "Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you - that is, to see and say these things - but my Father who is in heaven." So that he who now hears Him crying out daily through the holy Gospels and proclaiming the will of His blessed Father, and does not obey Him with fear and trembling and keep His commandments, would not have endured to believe in Him at all even then, if he had been present and seen Him Himself and heard Him teaching; for fear that, disbelieving completely, he might have blasphemed, considering Him an adversary of God and not true God.

And these things, indeed, are for those who are entirely duller than the others. But what of those more reverent than these? "If we had been," he says, "in the times of the holy fathers, we too would have struggled. For seeing their good way of life and their struggles, we would have emulated them. But now, associating with the slothful and the negligent, we are led astray by them and are unwillingly destroyed with them," being ignorant, as is likely, they too, that we are in a better harbor than they were. In the times of our fathers—let these people hear too!—there were many heresies, many false Christs, many who made a trade of Christ, many false apostles, there were many (375) false teachers, who went about openly sowing the tares of the evil one and snatched away many with their words, having deceived them, and sent their souls to destruction.

And you will find this to be true from the lives of our holy fathers Euthymius and Antony. For it is written that Antony at that time, having put on a garment more splendid than his usual one and having gone up to a high place, revealed and showed himself, so that having become visible he might by all means be seized by the heretics and killed; if, therefore, there had not been a persecution, he would not have done this. And at the birth of our holy father Euthymius, is it not written that good cheer was then dispensed to the churches by God, the persecutions and heresies having clearly ceased then? And at the end of the life of our holy father Sabas, do you not hear how much he struggled on behalf of the churches and against the heresies of that time, and how many of the monks were then led away with the heretics? And the things that happened in the time of Saint Stephen the Younger, what were they if not a most heavy and difficult persecution? Or do you not consider the winter that then occurred and the exceeding turmoil of the monks? But why do I attempt to go through everything? For when, before these, I recall the events in the time of Basil the Great, as Gregory the Great relates, and those in the time of the golden-mouthed John and of the holy fathers in succession, I both count myself wretched and pity those who do not consider these things. For they do not know precisely that all the past time was more terrible and openly filled with the tares of the evil one.

(376) Nevertheless, although the things that have passed were terrible, even now life has many heretics, many wolves, asps and serpents associating with us, yet having no authority over us, but such are as if under the night of their wickedness; and they both seize and devour those who come together and are under their darkness, but to those who walk in the light of the divine Scriptures and travel on the road of God's commandments, they do not even dare to meet them, but even seeing them pass by, they flee from their presence as from a fire.

Whom, then, did you suppose I meant by heretics? Those who deny the Son of God? Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and say that this is not God? Those who say the Father is greater than the Son? Those who the Trinity into

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∆ιά γάρ τοῦτο καί τόν Πέτρον εἰπόντα ὅτι· "Σύ εἶ ὁ Υἱός τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος" ἐμακάρισεν ὁ ∆εσπότης εἰπών· "Μακάριος εἶ, Σίμων βάρ Ἰωνᾶς, ὅτι σάρξ καί αἷμα οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψέ σοι - ταῦτα δηλονότι ἰδεῖν καί εἰπεῖν , ἀλλ᾿ ὁ Πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς". Ὥστε ὁ νῦν ἀκούων αὐτοῦ διά τῶν ἁγίων Εὐαγγελίων καθ᾿ ἑκάστην βοῶντος καί τό τοῦ εὐλογημένου Πατρός αὐτοῦ θέλημα διαγγέλοντος, καί μή φόβῳ καί τρόμῳ ὑπακούων αὐτοῦ καί φυλάττων τά παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ προστασσόμενα, οὐδέ τότε, εἰ καί παρῆν καί ἐκεῖνον αὐτόν ἐθεάσατο καί διδάσκοντα ἤκουσε, πιστεῦσαι αὐτῷ ὅλως ἠνέσχετο ἄν· δέος μή καί παντάπασιν ἀπιστήσας, ὡς ἀντίθεον αὐτόν καί οὐ Θεόν ἀληθινόν λογισάμενος, ἐβλασφήμησε.

Καί ταῦτα μέν οἱ πάντη τῶν ἄλλων παχύτεροι. Τί δέ οἱ τούτων σεμνότεροι; "Εἰ ἦμεν, φησίν, ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων, ἠγωνισάμεθα ἄν καί ἡμεῖς. Βλέποντες γάρ τήν ἀγαθήν αὐτῶν πολιτείαν καί τούς ἀγῶνας αὐτῶν, ἐζηλώσαμεν ἄν αὐτούς. Νυνί δέ μετά ῥᾳθύμων καί ἀμελῶν συναναστρεφόμενοι, συναπαγόμεθα τούτοις καί ἀβουλήτως συναπολλύμεθα", ἀγνοοῦντες, ὡς εἰκός, καί αὐτοί ὅτι ἐν λιμένι μᾶλλον ἡμεῖς ὑπέρ ἐκείνους ἐσμέν. Ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν πολλαί ἀκουέτωσαν καί οὗτοι! - αἱρέσεις ὑπῆρχον, πολλοί ψευδόχριστοι, πολλοί χριστοκάπηλοι, πολλοί ψευδαπόστολοι, πολλοί ἦσαν (375) ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι, παρρησίᾳ τά τοῦ πονηροῦ ζιζάνια περιϊόντες καί σπείροντες καί πολλούς τοῖς ἑαυτῶν συνήρπασαν λόγοις, ἐξαπαντήσαντες αὐτούς, καί αὐτῶν τάς ψυχάς ἀπωλείᾳ παρέπεμψαν.

Καί τοῦτο ἐκ τῶν τοῦ ἁγίου πατρός ἡμῶν Εὐθυμίου καί Ἀντωνίου βίων ἀληθές εἶναι εὑρήσετε. Γέγραπται γάρ τόν Ἀντώνιον τότε λαμπροτέραν στολήν ὑπέρ τήν συνήθη ἐνδυσάμενον καί ἐπί τόπου ὑψηλοῦ ἀνελθόντα φανερῶσαι ἑαυτόν καί ἐπιδείξασθαι, ἵνα ἐμφανής γεγονώς πάντως ὑπό τῶν αἱρετικῶν κρατηθῇ καί ἀναιρεθῇ· εἰ οὖν μή ἦν διωγμός, οὐκ ἄν τοῦτο ἐποίησεν. Ἐπί δέ τῇ γεννήσει τοῦ ἁγίου πατρός ἡμῶν Εὐθυμίου, οὐ γέγραπται εὐθυμίαν τηνικαῦτα πρυτανευθῆναι ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις παρά Θεοῦ, τῶν διωγμῶν δηλονότι τότε καταπαυθέντων καί τῶν αἱρέσεων; Ἐπί δέ τῷ τέλει τοῦ ὁσίου πατρός ἡμῶν Σάβα οὐκ ἀκούετε ὅσα ὑπέρ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν καί κατά τῶν τότε αἱρέσεων ἠγωνίσατο, καί ὅσοι τότε τῶν μοναχῶν τοῖς αἱρετικοῖς συναπήχθησαν; Τά δέ ἐπί τοῦ ἁγίου Στεφάνου τοῦ Νέου γεγονότα, τί οὐ διωγμοῦ βαρυτάτου καί χαλεποῦ ὑπῆρχον; Ἤ οὐκ ἐννοεῖτε τόν τότε γεγονότα χειμῶνα καί τόν ὑπερβάλλοντα σάλον τῶν μοναχῶν; Τί δέ πειρῶμαι τά πάντα διεξελθεῖν; Ὅταν γάρ πρό τούτων ἀναμνημονεύσω τῶν ἐπί τοῦ μεγάλου Βασιλείου γεγονότων, ὡς ὁ μέγας διηγεῖται Γρηγόριος, καί τῶν ἐπί τοῦ χρυσορρήμονος Ἰωάννου καί τῶν καθεξῆς πατέρων ἁγίων, αὐτός τε ἐγώ ἐμαυτόν ταλανίζω καί τούς ταῦτα μή ἀναλογιζομένους κατελεῶ. Οὐ γάρ ἀκριβῶς ἐπίστανται ὅτι ἅπας ὁ παρελθών χρόνος δεινότερος ἦν καί τῶν ζιζανίων τοῦ πονηροῦ πεπλησμένος ἀναφανδόν.

(376) Ὅμως οὖν, εἰ καί δεινά τά παρεληλυθότα, ἀλλά καί νῦν ἔχει πολλούς ὁ βίος αἱρετικούς, πολλούς λύκους, ἀσπίδας καί ὄφεις συναναστρεφομένους ἡμῖν, πλήν οὐκ ἔχοντας ἐξουσίαν τινά καθ᾿ ἡμῶν, ἀλλ᾿ οἷον ὑπό νύκτα εἰσίν οἱ τοιοῦτοι τῆς πονηρίας αὐτῶν· καί τούς μέν συνερχομένους καί ὑπό τό σκότος γινομένους αὐτῶν ἁρπάζουσί τε καί κατεσθίουσι, τοῖς δέ ἐν τῷ γωτί περιπατοῦσι τῶν θείων Γραφῶν καί τῇ ὁδῷ πορευομένοις τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐδέ προσυπαντῆσαι τολμῶσιν, ἀλλά καί διερχομένους ἰδόντες ἀπό τοῦ προσώπου αὐτῶν ὡς ἀπό πυρός φεύγουσι.

Τίνας οὖν ἄρα ὑπενοήσατε εἰπεῖν με αἱρετικούς; Μή τούς ἀρνουμένους τόν Υἱόν τοῦ Θεοῦ; Μή τούς βλασφημοῦντας εἰς τό ἅγιον Πνεῦμα καί λέγοντας μή εἶναι τοῦτο Θεόν; Μή τούς μείζονα λέγοντας τοῦ Υἱοῦ τόν Πατέρα; Μή τούς τήν Τριάδα εἰς