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confining those sacrifices, the prophet, saying that in every place incense is about to be offered and a pure sacrifice, opposes and fights with Moses. But may it not be; for that one spoke about one kind of sacrifice, and this one about another. Listen then to Zephaniah proclaiming the same things and saying, "the Lord will appear over all the nations, and will destroy all the gods of the nations, and they will worship him, each from his own place." And yet this was not permitted, but Moses decreed that worship should be in one place. When, therefore, you hear the prophets foretelling and proclaiming beforehand that no longer into one city nor into one place will people 1.415 always be compelled to gather, but each one sitting at home will serve the divine, what other time could you say this is but the present one, in which our affairs shine forth throughout all the world, while yours have been extinguished and you wander in darkness throughout all the world? But that again He did not wish to give you such sacrifices from the beginning, hear what Isaiah says. "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. And who has required these things from your hands?" But if he had required these things from the beginning, he would have brought all the ancients who first shone among you into this way of life. How then, he says, did he permit these things? By condescending to your weakness. And just as a physician, seeing a man with a fever who is peevish and impatient, desiring a cold drink and threatening to kill himself if he does not get it, wishing to prevent the greater evil gives the lesser in exchange for a violent death, so indeed also did God. For when he saw them raging, choking, desiring sacrifices, and prepared, if they did not get them, to desert to idols, or rather, not prepared but having already deserted, he permitted the sacrifices. And that this is the reason is clear from this: for after the abominable feast which they celebrated to the demons by making the calf, then he permitted the sacrifices, as if to say, "Are you mad and do you wish to sacrifice? Then sacrifice to me." But nevertheless, having permitted this, he did not leave it 1.416 until the end, but by a most wise method he led them back again. And just as that physician, having yielded to the desire of the sick man, then brings a cup from home and commands him to partake of the cold drink from this alone, and when the sick man has obeyed, he might secretly order his servants to smash the cup itself, so that he might secretly and without suspicion lead him away from his desire, so also did God: having permitted sacrificing, he did not allow this to happen in any place of the world except in Jerusalem alone. Whence David says, "Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall a vow be paid in Jerusalem." Then, after they had sacrificed for some time, he overthrew the city. Just as the physician through the smashing of the vessel, so also God through the destruction of the city led them away from the practice, even against their will. For if he had openly said, "Desist," they would not have readily borne it; through the necessity imposed by the place, he secretly led them away from their madness concerning the practice. Let God, then, be the physician, the city be the cup, the sick man be the peevish people of the Jews, and the cold drink be the permission and authority for the sacrifices. For if he did not wish to bring this about, for what reason did he who is everywhere present and fills all things confine such a sacrifice to one place? For what reason, having gathered the worship into sacrifices, the sacrifices into a place, the place into a time, and the time into one city, did he then destroy that very city? And what is indeed wonderful and strange, 1.417 is that the whole world is open to the Jews, where it is not lawful to sacrifice, but Jerusalem alone, in which alone it was lawful, has become inaccessible and desolate. Concerning which things, however, the divine word also speaks in the apostolic ordinances. But already, even before the incarnate economy, God very clearly was rejecting the ... of the Jews

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συγκλείοντος τὰς θυ σίας ἐκείνας, ὁ προφήτης λέγων ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ θυμίαμα μέλλειν προσάγεσθαι καὶ θυσίαν καθαράν, ἐναντιοῦται καὶ μάχεται τῷ Μωϋσῇ. ἀλλὰ μὴ γένοιτο· περὶ γὰρ ἑτέρας ἐκεῖνος εἶπε θυσίας καὶ περὶ ἑτέρας οὗτος. ἀκούσατε δὴ Σοφωνίου φωνοῦντος τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ λέγοντος "ἐπιφανήσεται κύριος ἐπὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ ἐξολοθρεύσει πάντας τοὺς θεοὺς τῶν ἐθνῶν, καὶ προσκυνήσουσιν αὐτῷ ἕκαστος ἀπὸ τοῦ τόπου αὐτοῦ." καίτοι γε τοῦτο οὐκ ἐφεῖτο, ἀλλ' εἰς ἕνα τόπον ἐθέσπισε Μωϋσῆς λατρεύειν. ὅταν οὖν ἀκού σητε τῶν προφητῶν προλεγόντων καὶ προαναφωνούντων ὅτι οὐκέτι εἰς μίαν πόλιν οὐδὲ εἰς ἕνα τόπον ἀναγκασθήσονται ἄνθρωποι 1.415 πάντοτε συνάγεσθαι, ἀλλ' οἴκοι καθήμενος ἕκαστος θεραπεύσει τὸ θεῖον, τίνα ἂν ἔχοιτε εἰπεῖν ἕτερον καιρὸν ἀλλ' ἢ τὸν παρόντα τοῦτον, καθ' ὃν τὰ μὲν ἡμέτερα διαλάμπουσι κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην, τὰ δὲ ὑμέτερα κατεσβέσθη καὶ ἐν σκότει διαπορεύε σθε κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην; ὅτι δὲ πάλιν οὐ παρὰ τὴν ἀρ χὴν ὑμῖν δοῦναι τὰς τοιαύτας ἐβούλετο θυσίας, ἀκούσατε τί φησιν Ἠσαΐας. "τί μοι πλῆθος τῶν θυσιῶν ὑμῶν; λέγει κύριος. καὶ τίς ἐξεζήτησε ταῦτα ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν;" εἰ δὲ ταῦτα παρὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐζήτει, καὶ τοὺς παλαιοὺς πάντας τοὺς παρ' ὑμῖν λάμψαν τας πρώτους ἂν εἰς τὴν πολιτείαν ἤγαγε ταύτην. πῶς οὖν ταῦτα, φησίν, ἐπέτρεψε; τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ συγκαταβαίνων ἀσθενείᾳ. καὶ καθάπερ ἰατρὸς πυρέττοντα ἰδὼν ἄνθρωπον δυσάρεστόν τε καὶ ἀκαρτέρητον, ἐπιθυμοῦντα ψυχροποσίας καὶ ἀπειλοῦντα εἰ μὴ λάβοι ἑαυτὸν ἀναιρήσειν, βουλόμενος τὸ μεῖζον κωλῦσαι κακὸν τὸ ἔλαττον δίδωσι πρὸς ἀλλαγὴν τελευτῆς βιαίας, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐποίησεν. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἶδε μαινομένους, ἀγχομένους, ἐπι θυμοῦντας θυσιῶν, καὶ παρεσκευασμένους εἰ μὴ λάβοιεν αὐτομο λήσειν πρὸς τὰ εἴδωλα, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐ παρεσκευασμένους ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτομολήσαντας ἤδη, ἐπέτρεψε τὰς θυσίας. καὶ ὅτι αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ αἰτία, δῆλον ἐντεῦθεν· μετὰ γὰρ τὴν μυσαρὰν ἑορτὴν ἣν ἐπε τέλεσαν τοῖς δαιμονίοις μοσχοποιήσαντες, τότε τὰς θυσίας ἐπέ τρεψε, μονονουχὶ λέγων "μαίνεσθε καὶ βούλεσθε θύειν; οὐκοῦν ἐμοὶ θύετε." ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ τοῦτο ἐπιτρέψας οὐ μέχρι τέλους 1.416 ἀφῆκεν, ἀλλὰ διὰ σοφωτάτης μεθόδου πάλιν ἀνήγαγε. καὶ ὥσπερ ὁ ἰατρὸς ἐκεῖνος συγχωρήσας τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ τοῦ κάμνοντος, εἶτα φιάλην οἴκοθεν κομίσας κελεύσει ταύτῃ μόνῃ τῆς ψυχροπο σίας μεταλαβεῖν, καὶ τοῦ κάμνοντος πεισθέντος λάθρᾳ τοῖς ἐπι τηδείοις ἐπιτάξειε συντρῖψαι τὴν φιάλην αὐτήν, ἵνα λανθανόντως καὶ ἀνυπόπτως αὐτὸν ἀπαγάγῃ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῆς, οὕτω καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐποίησε· θύειν ἐπιτρέψας ἐν οὐδενὶ τόπῳ τῆς οἰκουμένης εἴασε τοῦτο γενέσθαι ἀλλ' ἢ ἐν τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις καὶ μόνον. ὅθεν φησὶν ὁ ∆αβίδ "σοὶ πρέπει ὕμνος ὁ θεὸς ἐν Σιών, καὶ σοὶ ἀποδοθήσεται εὐχὴ ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ." εἶτα ἐπειδὴ χρόνους τινὰς ἔθυσαν, καθεῖλε τὴν πόλιν. ὥσπερ ὁ ἰατρὸς διὰ τῆς τοῦ σκεύους συντριβῆς, οὕτως καὶ ὁ θεὸς διὰ τῆς καταστροφῆς τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἄκοντας αὐτοὺς ἀπήγαγε τοῦ πράγματος. ἐπεὶ γὰρ εἰ φανε ρῶς εἶπεν ἀπόστητε, οὐκ ἂν ἠνέσχοντο ῥᾳδίως, διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὸν τόπον ἀνάγκης λανθανόντως αὐτοὺς ἀπήγαγε τῆς περὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα μανίας. ἔστω τοίνυν ὁ μὲν ἰατρὸς ὁ θεός, ἡ δὲ φιάλη ἡ πόλις, ὁ δὲ νοσῶν ὁ δυσάρεστος δῆμος τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ἡ δὲ ψυχροποσία ἡ τῶν θυσιῶν ἐπιτροπὴ καὶ ἐξουσία. εἰ γὰρ μὴ τοῦτο ἠβούλετο κατασκευάσαι, τίνος ἕνεκεν εἰς τόπον ἕνα συνέκλεισε τὴν τοιαύτην θυσίαν ὁ πανταχοῦ παρὼν καὶ τὰ πάντα πληρῶν; τίνος χάριν τὴν μὲν λατρείαν εἰς θυσίας, τὰς δὲ θυσίας εἰς τόπον, τὸν δὲ τόπον εἰς καιρόν, τὸν δὲ καιρὸν εἰς μίαν πόλιν συναγαγὼν αὐτὴν πάλιν ἐκείνην κατέστρεψε τὴν πόλιν; καὶ τὸ δὴ θαυμαστὸν καὶ παρά 1.417 δοξον, ὅτι πᾶσα μὲν ἡ οἰκουμένη τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἀνεῖται, ἔνθα οὐκ ἔξεστι θύειν, μόνη δὲ ἡ Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἐν ᾗ καὶ μόνον ἐξῆν, ἄβατος καὶ ἔρημος γέγονε. περὶ ὧν μέντοι κἀν ταῖς ἀποστολι καῖς διατάξεσί φησιν ὁ θεῖος λόγος. ἤδη δὲ καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἐνσάρ κου οἰκονομίας ἐναργῶς ὁ θεὸς εὖ μάλα παρῃτεῖτο τὰς τῶν Ἰου δαίων