6.  Such then was once this flock, and such it is now, so healthy and well grown, and if it be not yet in perfection, it is advancing towards it by constant increase, and I prophesy that it will advance.  This is foretold me by the Holy Spirit, if I have any prophetic instinct and insight into the future.  And from what has preceded I am able to be confident, and recognize this by reasoning, being the nursling of reason.  For it was much more improbable that, from that condition, it should reach its present development, than that, as it now is, it should attain to the height of renown.  For ever since it began to be gathered together, by Him Who quickeneth the dead,47    Rom. iv. 17. bone to its bone, joint to joint, and the Spirit of life and regeneration was given to it in their dryness,48    Ezek. xxxvii. 7, 10. its entire resurrection has been, I know well, sure to be fulfilled:  so that the rebellious should not exalt themselves,49    Ps. lxvi. 7. and that those who grasp at a shadow, or at a dream when one awaketh,50    Ps. lxxiii. 20. or at the dispersing breezes, or at the traces of a ship in the water,51    Wisd. v. 9 sqq. should not think that they have anything.  Howl, firtree, for the cedar is fallen!52    Zech. xi. 2.  Let them be instructed by the misfortunes of others, and learn that the poor shall not alway be forgotten,53    Ps. ix. 18. and that the Deity will not refrain, as Habakkuk says, from striking through the heads of the mighty ones54    Hab. iii. 13. in His fury—the Deity, Who has been struck through and impiously divided into Ruler and Ruled, in order to insult the Deity in the highest degree by degrading It, and oppress a creature by equality with Deity.

Ϛʹ. Τοιοῦτόν ποτε τοῦτο τὸ ποίμνιον, καὶ τοιοῦτον νῦν, οὕτως εὐεκτοῦν τε καὶ πλατυνόμενον: εἰ δὲ μήπω τελείως, ἀλλ' εἰς τοῦτό γε ταῖς κατὰ μέρος ὁδεῦον προσθήκαις: προφητεύω δὲ, ὅτι καὶ ὁδεῦσον. Τοῦτό μοι τὸ Πνεῦμα προλέγει τὸ ἅγιον, εἴ τι προφητικὸς ἐγὼ, καὶ βλέπων τὰ ἔμπροσθεν: καὶ ἅμα τοῖς προλαβοῦσιν ἔχω θαῤῥεῖν, καὶ λογισμῷ γινώσκειν, ὡς λόγου σύντροφος. Πολὺ γὰρ παραδοξότερον, ἐξ ἐκείνου τοσαύτην γενέσθαι, ἢ τὴν νῦν οὖσαν εἰς ἄκρον προελθεῖν λαμπρότητος. Ἐξ οὗ γὰρ συνάγεσθαι ἤρξατο παρὰ τοῦ ζωογονοῦντος τοὺς νεκροὺς, ὀστᾶ πρὸς ὀστᾶ, καὶ ἁρμονία πρὸς ἁρμονίαν, καὶ τοῖς ξηροῖς ἐδόθη Πνεῦμα ζωῆς καὶ παλιγγενεσίας, πᾶσαν, εὖ οἶδα, πληρωθῆναι δεῖ τὴν ἀνάστασιν: ὥστε μὴ ὑψούσθωσαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς οἱ παραπικραίνοντες: μηδὲ σκιὰν κρατοῦντες, ἢ ἐνύπνιον ἐξεγειρομένων, ἢ αὔρας διαπνεούσας, ἢ νηὸς ἴχνη καθ' ὕδατος, ἔχειν τι νομιζέτωσαν. Ὀλολυζέτω πίτυς, ὅτι πέπτωκε κέδρος. Τοῖς τῶν ἄλλων κακοῖς παιδευέσθωσαν, καὶ μανθανέτωσαν, ὅτι οὐκ εἰς τέλος ἐπιλησθήσεται ὁ πτωχός: οὐδὲ ἀνέξεται, μὴ ἐν ἐκστάσει διακόψαι κεφαλὰς δυναστῶν, ὡς ὁ Ἀμβακούμ φησιν, ἡ διακοπτομένη θεότης, καὶ διαιρουμένη κακῶς εἴς τε τὸ ἄρχον καὶ τὸ ἀρχόμενον: ὡς ἂν μάλιστα καὶ θεότης ὑβρισθείη καταγομένη, καὶ βαρηθείη κτίσις ὁμοτιμίᾳ θεότητος.