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having healed us from death and corruption through the resurrection, but grace, as the distributor of adoption in the Spirit to God the Father through faith, and of the grace of deification to each one according to his worth. For it was necessary, truly necessary, for the light and the power of God the Father to come into that land in which there was darkness and the eternal bars, so that, having dissolved the darkness of ignorance, being as it were the paternal light, and having shattered the bars of wickedness as the hypostatic power of God, He might liberate the nature that had been terribly secured by these things by the evil one, bestowing upon it the unquenchable light of true knowledge and the indestructible power of virtues.

But when the prophetic grace, as from a certain Joppa(15), from the bodily worship of the law that was formerly considered glorious, evangelically passes over to the Gentiles and leaves the Jewish people destitute of its joy on account of their unbelief, and when the prophet mystically prefigures in himself the Church of the Gentiles, like Nineveh, turning to God through many tribulations and dangers and circumstances and labors and persecutions and deaths, he leaves Joppa, signifying that the grace of prophecy was departing from the worship according to the law, and that it was in the sea of involuntary circumstances and in the surge of the uprisings during persecutions and of the struggles and labors and dangers involved in them, and that it was swallowed by the sea monster of death, but by no means completely destroyed. For nothing in existence was able to hinder the course of the grace proclaimed evangelically to the Gentiles, not tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or danger or sword; on the contrary, indeed, through these things grace was confirmed, having overcome all who rose up against it and, in suffering, having all the more conquered those who inflicted it, and it turned wandering nature back to the living and true God, (14Γ_312> just as Jonah did Nineveh. And even if the evil one seemed to conceal grace through the insolence of persecutions, as the sea monster did the prophet, yet he was not able to hold it fast to the end, being unable to alter the strength of the power that was activating the grace. Wherefore he even made grace appear all the more resplendent in its disciples after the trial of adversities, insomuch as he himself, by his assaults, was corrupting his own power(16), seeing that grace was for him not only indestructible, but also that the natural weakness of the saints who proclaimed it to the Gentiles was becoming a power that overthrew his dominion and that completely annihilated every height that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and that, in seeming to be physically captured by insolence, was rather spiritually empowered.

Which thing Paul, the great trumpet of truth, having learned by experience from suffering, having become a minister to the Gentiles of the prophetic grace in Christ in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter, says, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels," calling the word of grace a treasure, and an earthen vessel this passible body or the perceived simplicity in the uttered word, which conquered all the wisdom of the world, or which contained, insofar as is possible, the wisdom of God which is utterly uncontainable for the world, and which filled the whole inhabited world with the light of true knowledge according to it, "so that the surpassing greatness of the power," he says, "may be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested (14Γ_314> in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you." On behalf of

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τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐξιασάμενος, χάρις δέ, ὡς τῆς ἐν Πνεύματι τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ διὰ πίστεως υἱοθεσίας καὶ τῆς ἐπαξίως ἑκάστου κατὰ τὴν θέωσιν χάριτος διανομεύς. Ἔδει γάρ, ἔδει κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν εἰς ἐκείνην γενέσθαι τὴν γῆν τὸ φῶς καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρός, ἐν ᾗ τὸ σκότος ὑπῆρχε καὶ οἱ μοχλοὶ οἱ αἰώνιοι, ἵνα, τὸ σκότος λύσας τῆς ἀγνοίας, οἷα δὴ φῶς πατρικὸν ὑπάρχων, καὶ τοὺς μοχλοὺς τῆς κακίας συντρίψας ὡς ἐνυπόστατος Θεοῦ δύναμις, τὴν τούτοις δεινῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ κατησφαλισμένην ἐλευθερώσειε φύσιν, δωρούμενος αὐτῇ φῶς ἀληθοῦς γνώσεως ἄσβεστον καὶ δύναμιν ἀρετῶν ἀκαθαίρετον.

Ὁπηνίκα δὲ τὴν προφητικὴν χάριν, ὡς ἔκ τινος Ἰόππης(15), τῆς τέως ἐνδόξου νομιζομένης σωματικῆς τοῦ νόμου λατρείας εὐαγγελικῶς εἰς τὰ ἔθνη μεταβαίνουσαν καὶ τὸν ἰουδαϊκὸν λαὸν διὰ τὴν αὐτῶν ἀπιστίαν τῆς κατ᾽ αὐτὴν χαρᾶς ἔρημον καταλιμπάνουσαν καὶ διὰ πολλῶν θλίψεων κινδύνων τε καὶ περιστάσεων καὶ πόνων καὶ διωγμῶν καὶ θανάτων τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν, καθάπερ Νινευή, πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἐπιστρέφουσαν Ἐκκλησίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τυποῖ μυστικῶς ὁ προφήτης, τὴν Ἰόππην ἀφίησιν, τῆς κατὰ νόμον δηλαδὴ λατρείας ἀφισταμένην τὴν χάριν σημαίνων τῆς προφητείας καὶ ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ γινομένην τῶν ἀκουσίων περιστάσεων καὶ ἐν τῷ κλύδωνι τῶν ἐν τοῖς διωγμοῖς ἐπαναστάσεων καὶ τῶν ἐπ᾽ αὐταῖς ἀγώνων καὶ πόνων καὶ κινδύνων καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ κήτους τοῦ θανάτου καταπινομένην μέν, οὐδαμῶς δὲ παντελῶς διαφθειρομένην. Οὐ γὰρ ἴσχυσεν τὸν δρόμον τῆς εὐαγγελικῶς τοῖς ἔθνεσι καταγγελθείσης κωλῦσαι χάριτος τῶν ὄντων οὐδέν, οὐ θλίψις οὐ στενοχωρία οὐ διωγμὸς οὐ λιμὸς οὐ κίνδυνος οὐ μάχαιρα· τοὐναντίον μὲν οὖν, διὰ τούτων ἡ χάρις ἐβεβαιώθη, πάντων τῶν ἐπαναστάντων κρατήσασα καὶ ἐν τῷ πάσχειν πλέον τοὺς δρῶντας νικήσασα, καὶ τὴν φύσιν πλανωμένην ἐπέστρεψεν ἐπὶ Θεὸν ζῶντα καὶ ἀληθινόν, (14Γ_312> ὥσπερ Ἰωνᾶς τὴν Νινευή. Κἂν ἐδόκει διὰ τῆς ἐπηρείας τῶν διωγμῶν καλύπτειν τὴν χάριν ὁ πονηρός, ὡς τὸν προφήτην τὸ κῆτος, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς τέλος κατέχειν οὐκ ἠδυνήθη, τῆς ἐνεργούσης τὴν χάριν δυνάμεως ἀλλοιῶσαι τὴν ἰσχὺν οὐ δυνάμενος. Ὅθεν καὶ λαμπροτέραν μᾶλλον ἐποίει μετὰ τὴν πεῖραν τῶν ἐναντίων τὴν χάριν ἐν τοῖς αὐτῆς φοιτηταῖς διαφαίνεσθαι τοσοῦτον, ὅσον αὐτὸς ταῖς προσβολαῖς τὴν οἰκείαν ὑπεφθείρετο δύναμιν(16), ὁρῶν ἑαυτῷ παντάπασι τὴν χάριν οὐ μόνον ἀνάλωτον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν φυσικὴν τῶν καταγγελλόντων αὐτὴν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἁγίων ἀσθένειαν ἰσχὺν τῆς αὐτοῦ καθαιρετικὴν δυναστείας γινομένην καὶ παντὸς ὕψους ἐπαιρομένου κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ παντελῶς ἀφανιστικὴν καὶ τῷ δοκεῖν σωματικῶς ἁλῶναι ταῖς ἐπηρείαις μᾶλλον πνευματικῶς δυναμουμένην.

Ὅπερ ἐκ τοῦ παθεῖν τῇ πείρᾳ μαθὼν ὁ ἐν καινότητι πνεύματος, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ παλαιότητι γράμματος, τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ πρὸς τὰ ἔθνη διάκονος προφητικῆς γενόμενος χάριτος Παῦλος, ἡ μεγάλη σάλπιγξ τῆς ἀληθείας, «ἔχομέν» φησιν «τὸν θησαυρὸν τοῦτον ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν», θησαυρὸν λέγων τὸν λόγον τῆς χάριτος, ὀστράκινον δὲ σκεῦος τὸ σῶμα τοῦτο τὸ παθητὸν ἢ τὴν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ κατὰ προφορὰν νομιζομένην ἰδιωτείαν, τὴν πᾶσαν τοῦ κόσμου τὴν σοφίαν νικήσασαν, ἢ χωρήσασαν, καθ᾽ ὅσον ἐστὶν ἐφικτόν, τὴν ἀχώρητον τῷ κόσμῳ παντάπασι τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίαν, καὶ τοῦ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν φωτὸς τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπιγνώσεως τὴν οἰκουμένην ὅλην πληρώσασαν, «ἵνα ἡ ὑπερβολὴ τῆς δυνάμεως, φησίν, ᾖ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ μὴ ἐξ ἡμῶν· ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι ἀλλ᾽ οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι, ἀπορούμενοι ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐξ απορούμενοι, διωκόμενοι ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι, καταβαλλόμενοι ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἀπολλύμενοι, πάντοτε τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιφέροντες, ἵνα καὶ ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι ἡμῶν φανερωθῇ· ἀεὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες εἰς θάνατον παραδιδόμεθα διὰ Ἰησοῦν, ἵνα καὶ ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ φανερωθῇ (14Γ_314> ἐν τῇ θνητῇ σαρκὶ ἡμῶν· ὥστε ὁ θάνατος ἐν ἡμῖν ἐνεργεῖται, ἡ δὲ ζωὴ ἐν ὑμῖν». Ὑπὲρ