6. Thus much is taken from things celestial and sympathizing with our fortunes, in accordance with the mighty harmony and disposition of the universe. What follows let the Psalm finish for me: "Because Thou hast cast down cities," namely, those ancient ones for the very same acts of impiety, in the middle of the very same offences against us; some thereof overwhelmed by the floods, others swallowed up by earthquake; so that one is pretty nearly able to apply the remainder: "The memorial of them hath perished with a sound and a destruction noised abroad." For such has been their fall, and such their ruin, also of those their neighbours who took the most delight in their impiety, so that a very long time were necessary to them for their restoration, even if anyone should have the boldness to undertake it.

#2ʹ. Ταῦτα μὲν ἐκ τῶν οὐρανίων καὶ τῶν ἄνω συμπασχόντων τοῖς ἡμετέροις, κατὰ τὴν μεγάλην τοῦ παντὸς ἁρμονίαν τε καὶ οἰκείωσιν: τὰ δὲ ἑξῆς ὁ ψαλμὸς συμπληρούτω μοι: ὅτι Καὶ πόλεις καθεῖλες (ὡς τὰς παλαιὰς ἐκείνας ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἀσεβήμασιν), ἐν αὐταῖς ταῖς καθ' ἡμῶν παρανομίαις, τὰς μὲν πελάγεσιν ἐπικλυσθείσας, τὰς δὲ σεισμῷ κατενεχθείσας, ὡς μικροῦ καὶ τὸ λειπόμενον ἔχειν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι Ἀπώλετο τὸ μνημόσυνον αὐτῶν μετ' ἤχου καὶ περιβοήτου τῆς ἀπωλείας: τοσαύτη γὰρ αὐτῶν ἡ πτῶσις, καὶ τοιοῦτο τὸ σύντριμμα, καὶ τῶν ἐκ γειτόνων, καὶ μάλιστα τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ περιχαιρόντων, ὡς πολλοῦ χρόνου δεῖν αὐταῖς, εἴ τις ἄρα καὶ τολμήσειε τοῦτο πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν.