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that I may be found uncondemned before you, Savior, at your dreadful judgment seat on the day of judgment. Hear what everyone who is to be saved should do, and rather, first of all you who are also exhorting me. Today, consider that you have died; today you have renounced; today consider that you have left the whole world behind! Today, having left friends, relatives, and all vain glory, deny them all at once and the care of things below, and take up the cross upon your shoulders, and bind it tightly, and until the end bear the pains of temptations, and the sufferings of afflictions, and the nails of sorrows joyfully accept, like a crown of glory; and being struck every hour by the lances of insults and stoned harshly with all dishonors, pouring forth tears instead of blood, you shall be a martyr, and bearing mockings and blows with all thanksgiving, you shall be a partaker of my divinity and glory. And if you show yourself to be the last of all, and a slave and a servant, I will later show you to be the first of them all, just as I promised. (298) If you love your enemies and all who hate you, and pray from your soul for those who abuse you and do good to them as much as you can, you have truly become like your most high Father, and having acquired a pure heart from these things, in it you will see God, whom no one has ever seen. And if it happens that you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, then leap for joy, because the kingdom of heaven has become yours; and what is greater than this? Do these things and more than these, which I have commanded, and teach others, both you and all others who believe in me, if you wish to be saved and to dwell with me for ever and ever. But if you refuse and are discontented, and consider these things a shame, and to suffer dishonor and to lay down your lives for my commandments, why do you even ask to learn how you must be saved and by what actions you may be made my own? And why do you even call me your God at all, why do you think you believe in me without understanding? For I suffered these things for your sake willingly; I was crucified, I died the death of evildoers, and the reproaches against me became the glory of the world, and life and splendor, and the resurrection of the dead and the boast of all who have believed in me, and the unseemly death was a garment of incorruption and true deification for all the faithful. Therefore, those who imitate my venerable passions will also be partakers of my divinity

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ἵν᾿ εὑρεθῶ ἐνώπιον ἀκατάκριτος, Σῶτερ, τοῦ βήματός σου τοῦ φρικτοῦ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τῆς δίκης. Ἄκουσον τί ποιήσειε πᾶς ὁ μέλλων σωθῆναι, μᾶλλον δέ πρῶτος πάντων σύ ὁ καί παρακαλῶν με. Σήμερον, δόξον, τέθνηκας, σήμερον ἀπετάξω, σήμερον κόσμον ἅπαντα νόμισον καταλεῖψαι! Σήμρον φίλους, συγγενεῖς, δόξαν ματαίαν πᾶσαν ἀφείς ὁμοῦ ἀπάρνησαι καί μέριμναν τῶν κάτω καί ἐπί ὤμων τόν σταυρόν ἆρον, σφοδρῶς τε σφίγξον καί μέχρι τέλους βάστασον τῶν πειρασμῶν τούς πόνους, ὀδύνας τε τῶν θλίψεων καί λυπηρῶν τούς ἥλους περιχαρῶς κατάδεξαι, ὥσπερ στέφανον δόξης, τῶν ὕβρεων ταῖς λόγχαις δέ βαλλόμενος καθ᾿ ὥραν καί λιθαζόμενος σφοδρῶς ἁπάσαις ἀτιμίαις δάκρυα ἀντί αἵματος προχέων ἔσῃ μάρτυς, καί ἐμπαιγμούς καί ῥαπισμούς φέρων παντευχαρίστως τῆς ἐμῆς ἔσῃ κοινωνός θεότητος καί δόξης. Ἐάν δέ πάντων ἔσχατον σεαυτόν ἀποδείξῃς καί δοῦλον καί διάκονον, πρῶτον ἐκείνων πάντων ὕστερον ἀποδείξω σε, καθάπερ ὑπεσχόμην. (298) Εἰ ἀγαπήσεις τούς ἐχθρούς καί πάντας τούς μισοῦντας, τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων τε ἐκ ψυχῆς ὑπερεύξῃ καί ἀγαθοποιήσειας τούτους κατά τό δυνατόν σοι, ὅμοιος ὄν τως γέγονας τοῦ ὑψίστου πατρός σου καί τήν καρδίαν καθαράν κτησάμενος ἐκ τούτων ἐν ταύτῃ ὄψει τόν Θεόν, ὅν οὐδείς ποτε εἶδεν. Εἰ δέ καί διωχθῆναί σε ὑπέρ δικαιοσύνης γένηται, τότε σκίρτησον, ὅτι ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν σή γέγονε, καί ποῖον τούτου μεῖζον; Ταῦτα καί τούτων πλείονα, ἅπερ ἐνετειλάμην, πρᾶξον καί ἄλλους δίδαξον, καί σύ καί πάντες ἄλλοι οἱ εἰς ἐμέ πιστεύοντες, εἰ βούλοισθε σωθῆναι καί σύν ἐμοί αὐλίζεσθαι εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων. Εἰ δέ γε ἀπαναίνεσθε καί δυσανασχετεῖτε, αἰσχύνην τε λογίζεσθε ταῦτα καί ἀτιμίαν παθεῖν καί θεῖναι τάς ψυχάς ὑπέρ τῶν ἐντολῶν μου, τί καί αἰτεῖσθε τοῦ μαθεῖν πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς σωθῆναι ἐν ποίαις τε ταῖς πράξεσιν ἐμοί οἰκειωθῆναι; Τί δέ με καί Θεόν ὑμῶν ὀνομάζετε ὅλως, τί καί πιστεύειν οἴεσθε εἰς ἐμέ ἀσυνέτως; Ἐγώ γάρ ταῦτα δι᾿ ὑμᾶς ἔπαθον ἑκουσίως˙ ἐσταυρώθην, ἀπέθανον θάνατον τῶν κακούργων, καί δόξα κόσμου γέγονε, ζωή τε καί λαμπρότης, καί νεκρῶν ἐξανάστασις καί καύχημα ἁπάντων τῶν πιστευσάντων εἰς ἐμέ τά εἰς ἐμέ ὀνείδη, καί ὁ ἀσχήμων θάνατος ἔνδυμα ἀφθαρσίας καί ἀληθοῦς θεώσεως πᾶσι πιστοῖς ὑπῆρξε. ∆ιό καί οἱ μιμούμενοι τά ἐμά σεπτά πάθη συμμέτοχοι ὑπάρξουσι καί τῆς θεότητός μου