VII.  But, O people of God and mine, beautiful also was your yesterday’s assembly, which you held upon the sea, and pleasant, if any sight ever was, to the eyes, when I saw the sea like a forest, and hidden by a cloud made with hands, and the beauty and speed of your ships, as though ordered for a procession, and the slight breeze astern, as though purposely escorting you, and wafting to the City your city of the Sea.  Yet the present assembly which we now behold is more beautiful and more magnificent.  For you have not hastened to mingle with the larger number, nor have you reckoned religion by numbers, nor endured to be a mere unorganized rabble, rather than a people purified by the Word of God; but having, as is right, rendered to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, ye have offered besides to God the things that are God’s; to the former Custom, to the latter Fear; and after feeding the people with your cargoes, you yourselves have come to be fed by us.  For we also distribute corn, and our distribution is perhaps not worth less than yours.  Come eat of my Bread and drink of the Wine which I have mingled for you.11    Prov. ix. 5.  I join with Wisdom in bidding you to my table.  For I commend your good feeling, and I hasten to meet your ready mind, because ye came to us as to your own harbour, running to your like; and ye valued the kindred Faith, and thought it monstrous that, while they who insult higher things are in harmony with each other and think alike, and think to make good each man’s individual falsehood by their common conspiracy, like ropes which get strength from being twisted together; yet you should not meet nor combine with those who are of the same mind, with whom it is more reasonable that you should associate, for we gather in the Godhead also.  And that you may see that not in vain have you come to us, and that you have not brought up in a port among strangers and foreigners, but amongst your own people, and have been well guided by the Holy Ghost; we will discourse to you briefly concerning God; and do you recognize your own, like those who distinguish their kindred by the ensigns of their arms.

Ζʹ. Ἀλλ', ὦ Θεοῦ λαὸς, καὶ ἡμέτερος, καλὴ μὲν ὑμῶν καὶ ἡ πρώην πανήγυρις, ἣν ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης ἐστήσασθε, καὶ εἴπερ ἄλλη τις ὀφθαλμῶν χάρις, ἡνίκα εἶδον δενδρουμένην τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ χειροποιήτῳ νέφει κεκαλυμμένην, καὶ κάλλος νηῶν, καὶ τάχος, ὥσπερ εἰς πομπὴν ἐσταλμένων, καὶ πνεῦμα μέτριον κατὰ πρύμναν ἱστάμενον, ὥσπερ δορυφοροῦν ἐξεπίτηδες, καὶ παραπέμπον τῇ πόλει πόλιν πελάγιον: καλλίων δὲ ἡ νῦν ὁρωμένη καὶ μεγαλοπρεπεστέρα. Οὐ γὰρ τοῖς πολλοῖς φέροντες ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀνεμίξατε, οὐδὲ πλήθει τὴν εὐσέβειαν ἐμετρήσατε, οὐδὲ δῆμος γενέσθαι μᾶλλον ὀχλώδης ἠνέσχεσθε, ἢ λαὸς Θεοῦ λόγῳ κεκαθαρμένος: ἀλλ' ὅσον εἰκὸς, Καίσαρι τὰ τοῦ Καίσαρος εἰσενεγκόντες, τῷ Θεῷ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ προσενείματε: τῷ μὲν τὸ τέλος, τῷ δὲ τὸν φόβον: καὶ τὸν δῆμον τοῖς ὑμετέροις θρέψαντες, ἥκετε καὶ αὐτοὶ παρ' ἡμῶν τραφησόμενοι. Σιτοδοτοῦμεν γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς, καὶ σιτοδοσίαν ἴσως τῆς ὑμετέρας οὐ φαυλοτέραν. Δεῦτε, φάγετε τὸν ἐμὸν ἄρτον, καὶ πίετε οἶνον, ὃν κεκέρακα ὑμῖν: καλῶ μετὰ τῆς σοφίας ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν τράπεζαν. Ἐπαινῶ γὰρ τῆς εὐγνωμοσύνης, καὶ προστρέχω τῇ προθυμίᾳ, ὅτι ὡς ἐπὶ λιμένα ἴδιον ἡμᾶς κατηντήσατε, τῷ ὁμοίῳ προσδραμόντες, καὶ τὸ συγγενὲς τῆς πίστεως ἐτιμήσατε, καὶ τῶν ἀτόπων ἐνομίσατε, τοὺς μὲν ὑβριστὰς τῶν ἄνω συμφρονεῖν ἀλλήλοις καὶ συναρμόζεσθαι, καὶ τὸ καθ' ἕκαστον σαθρὸν οἴεσθαι διορθοῦσθαι τῷ κοινῷ τῆς συστάσεως, καθάπερ τῶν σχοινίων τὰ τῇ πλοκῇ δυναμούμενα, αὐτοὶ δὲ μὴ συνιέναι, μηδὲ συνδεῖσθαι τοῖς ὁμογνώμοσιν, οἷς γε εἰκὸς μᾶλλον: αὐτοὶ γὰρ συνάγομεν καὶ θεότητα. Καὶ ἵνα γε εἰδῆτε, μὴ μάτην προσδραμόντες ἡμῖν, μηδὲ ὡς ξένοις καὶ ἀλλοτρίοις, ἀλλ' ἐν ὑμετέροις καταχθέντες, καὶ καλῶς ὁδηγηθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματος, βραχέα περὶ Θεοῦ φιλοσοφήσομεν ὑμῖν. Καὶ γνωρίσατε τὰ ὑμέτερα, ὥσπερ οἱ τοῖς ἐπισήμοις τῶν ὅπλων τὸ οἰκεῖον διαγινώσκοντες.