mountains

At the same time there appeared a young man on the mountains to Joachim while he was feeding his flocks, and said to him: Why do you not return to your wife? And Joachim said: I have had her for twenty years, and it has not been the will of God to give me children by her. I have been driven with shame and reproach from the temple of the Lord: why should I go back to her, when I have been once cast off and utterly despised? Here then will I remain with my sheep; and so long as in this life God is willing to grant me light, I shall willingly, by the hands of my servants, bestow their portions upon the poor, and the orphans, and those that fear God. And when he had thus spoken, the young man said to him: I am an angel of the Lord, and I have today appeared to your wife when she was weeping and praying, and have consoled her; and know that she has conceived a daughter from your seed, and you in your ignorance of this hast left her. She will be in the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit shall abide in her; and her blessedness shall be greater than that of all the holy women, so that no one can say that any before her has been like her, or that any after her in this world will be so. Therefore go down from the mountains, and return to your wife, whom you will find with child. For God has raised up seed in her, and for this you will give God thanks; and her seed shall be blessed, and she herself shall be blessed, and shall be made the mother of eternal blessing. Then Joachim adored the angel, and said to him: If I have found favour in your sight, sit for a little in my tent, and bless your servant. And the angel said to him: Do not say servant, but fellow-servant; for we are the servants of one Master. But my food is invisible, and my drink cannot be seen by a mortal. Therefore you ought not to ask me to enter your tent; but if you were about to give me anything, offer it as a burnt-offering to the Lord. Then Joachim took a lamb without spot, and said to the angel: I should not have dared to offer a burnt-offering to the Lord, unless your command had given me the priest's right of offering. And the angel said to him: I should not have invited you to offer unless I had known the will of the Lord. And when Joachim was offering the sacrifice to God, the angel and the odour of the sacrifice went together straight up to heaven with the smoke.

At the same time there appeared a young man on the mountains to Joachim while he was feeding his flocks, and said to him: Why do you not return to your wife? And Joachim said: I have had her for twenty years, and it has not been the will of God to give me children by her. I have been driven with shame and reproach from the temple of the Lord: why should I go back to her, when I have been once cast off and utterly despised? Here then will I remain with my sheep; and so long as in this life God is willing to grant me light, I shall willingly, by the hands of my servants, bestow their portions upon the poor, and the orphans, and those that fear God. And when he had thus spoken, the young man said to him: I am an angel of the Lord, and I have today appeared to your wife when she was weeping and praying, and have consoled her; and know that she has conceived a daughter from your seed, and you in your ignorance of this hast left her. She will be in the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit shall abide in her; and her blessedness shall be greater than that of all the holy women, so that no one can say that any before her has been like her, or that any after her in this world will be so. Therefore go down from the mountains, and return to your wife, whom you will find with child. For God has raised up seed in her, and for this you will give God thanks; and her seed shall be blessed, and she herself shall be blessed, and shall be made the mother of eternal blessing. Then Joachim adored the angel, and said to him: If I have found favour in your sight, sit for a little in my tent, and bless your servant. And the angel said to him: Do not say servant, but fellow-servant; for we are the servants of one Master. But my food is invisible, and my drink cannot be seen by a mortal. Therefore you ought not to ask me to enter your tent; but if you were about to give me anything, offer it as a burnt-offering to the Lord. Then Joachim took a lamb without spot, and said to the angel: I should not have dared to offer a burnt-offering to the Lord, unless your command had given me the priest's right of offering. And the angel said to him: I should not have invited you to offer unless I had known the will of the Lord. And when Joachim was offering the sacrifice to God, the angel and the odour of the sacrifice went together straight up to heaven with the smoke.

After this, while they were going on their journey, Joseph said to Jesus: Lord, it is a boiling heat; if it please You, let us go by the sea-shore, that we may be able to rest in the cities on the coast. Jesus said to him: Fear not, Joseph; I will shorten the way for you, so that what you would have taken thirty days to go over, you shall accomplish in this one day. And while they were thus speaking, behold, they looked forward, and began to see the mountains and cities of Egypt.

And already on the morrow a great multitude assembled at the Sacred Way to see him flying. And Peter came unto the place, having seen a vision (or, to see the sight), that he might convict him in this also; for when Simon entered into Rome, he amazed the multitudes by flying: but Peter that convicted him was then not yet living at Rome: which city he thus deceived by illusion, so that some were carried away by him (amazed at him). So then this man standing on an high place beheld Peter and began to say: Peter, at this time when I am going up before all this people that behold me, I say unto thee: If thy God is able, whom the Jews put to death, and stoned you that were chosen of him, let him show that faith in him is faith in God, and let it appear at this time, if it be worthy of God. For I, ascending up, will show myself unto all this multitude, who I am. And behold when he was lifted up on high, and all beheld him raised up above all Rome and the temples thereof and the mountains, the faithful looked toward Peter. And Peter seeing the strangeness of the sight cried unto the Lord Jesus Christ: If thou suffer this man to accomplish that which he hath set about, now will all they that have believed on thee be offended, and the signs and wonders which thou hast given them through me will not be believed: hasten thy grace, O Lord, and let him fall from the height and be disabled; and let him not die but be brought to nought, and break his leg in three places. And he fell from the height and brake his leg in three places. Then every man cast stones at him and went away home, and thenceforth believed Peter. But one of the friends of Simon came quickly out of the way (or arrived from a journey), Gemellus by name, of whom Simon had received much money, having a Greek woman to wife, and saw him that he had broken his leg, and said: O Simon, if the Power of God is broken to pieces, shall not that God whose Power thou art, himself be blinded? Gemellus therefore also ran and followed Peter, saying unto him: I also would be of them that believe on Christ. And Peter said: Is there any that grudgeth it, my brother? come thou and sit with us. But Simon in his affliction found some to carry him by night on a bed from Rome unto Aricia; and he abode there a space, and was brought thence unto Terracina to one Castor that was banished from Rome upon an accusation of sorcery. And there he was sorely cut, and so Simon the angel of Satan came to his end.

And I measured out the whole earth, its mountains, and all hills, fields, trees, stones, rivers, all existing things I wrote down, the height from earth to the seventh heaven, and downwards to the very lowest hell, and the judgement-place, and the very great, open and weeping hell.

And the Lord blessed Levi, and the Angel of the Presence, me; the powers of glory, Simeon; the heaven, Reuben; the earth, Issachar; the sea, Zebulun; the mountains, Joseph; the tabernacle, Benjamin; the luminaries, Dan; Eden, Naphtali; the sun, Gad; the moon, Asher.

And these eat nothing save wild herbs which they gathered on the mountains, and having cooked them, they lived thereon together with Isaiah the prophet. And they spent two years of days on the mountains and hills.

And these eat nothing save wild herbs which they gathered on the mountains, and having cooked them, they lived thereon together with Isaiah the prophet. And they spent two years of days on the mountains and hills.

And it came to pass when Alagar Zagâr, king of Assyria, had come and captured Samaria and taken the nine (and a half) tribes captive, and led them away to the mountains of the Medes and the rivers of Tâzôn;

Then the voice of the Beloved will in wrath rebuke the things of heaven and the things of earth and the mountains and the hills and the cities and the desert and the forests and the angel of the sun and that of the moon, and all things wherein Beliar manifested himself and acted openly in this world, and there will be [a resurrection and] a judgement in their midst in those days, and the Beloved will cause fire to go forth from Him, and it will consume all the godless, and they will be as though they had not been created.

And when Isaiah began to speak the words of faith and truth with King Hezekiah, all the princes of Israel were seated and the eunuchs and the councillors of the king. And there were there forty prophets and sons of the prophets: they had come from the villages and from the mountains and the plains when they had heard that Isaiah was coming from Galgalâ to Hezekiah.

We were told that from the neighbouring mountains of Arabia copper and iron were formerly obtained.

And lo! a forest of trees planted on the plain, and lofty and rugged rocky mountains surrounded it, and that forest occupied much space.

Now that fountain came to the forest and was (stirred) into great waves, and those waves submerged that forest, and suddenly they rooted out the greater part of that forest, and overthrew all the mountains which were round about it.

And the height of the forest began to be made low, and the top of the mountains was made low and that fountain prevailed greatly, so that it left nothing of that great forest save one cedar only.

As you have seen the great forest which lofty and rugged mountains surrounded, this is the word.

Go up therefore to the top of that mountain, and there shall pass before you all the regions of that land, and the figure of the inhabited world, and the top(s) of the mountains, and the depth(s) of the valleys, and the depths of the seas, and the number of the rivers, that you may see what you are leaving, and whither you are going.

And I had not long to wait before God showed me the insolent one Slain on the mountains of Egypt, Esteemed of less account than the least on land and sea;

High mountains hath He abased into a plain for them;

For the heavens withheld the rain from dropping upon the earth, Springs were stopped (that sprang) perennial(ly) out of the deeps, (that ran down) from lofty mountains. For there was none among them that wrought righteousness and justice; From the chief of them to the least (of them) all were sinful;

And rough hills and high mountains and wild waves

And lambs shall in the mountains feed on grass

Shalt lie in golden mountains and by streams

Hungry upon the mountains, striving hard

Let him be killed between these two mountains instead of this Ahikar, and when it is heard, the king will send other men

the eunuch, instead of Ahikar here. He shall be killed between these two mountains.'

And the earth shall quake: even to its bounds shall it be shaken: And the lofty mountains shall be brought low and shall be shaken, And the valleys shall fall.

And I said to him: "By what angel art thou frustrated?" And he answered: "By the only-ruling God, that hath authority over me even to be heard. He that is to be born of a virgin and crucified by the Jews on a cross. Whom the angels and archangels worship. He doth frustrate me, and enfeeble me of my great strength, which has been given me by my father the devil." And I said to him: "What canst thou do?'' And he answered: ''I am able to remove mountains, to overthrow the oaths of kings. I wither trees and make their leaves to fall off." And I said to him: "Canst thou raise this stone, and lay it for the beginning of this corner which exists in the fair plan of the Temple?'' And he said: "Not only raise this, O king; but also, with the help of the demon who presides over the Red Sea, I will bring up the pillar of air, and will stand it where thou wilt in Jerusalem.''

. nor the disciple against his master, nor the official against the king, nor the layman against the bishop. For the teacher ought to have no fellowship with the disobedient and the wicked, for the sinner desireth not the word of admonition. Ezekiel the prophet saith, ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, they shall no more speak this proverb in Israel. [For the soul of every man is mine; as the soul of the father so the souls of his children are mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But the man that doeth righteousness and uprightness, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the thoughts of the house of Israel, and hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor come near to a woman in her uncleanness, nor done his neighbour violence, and hath returned the pledge of his debt, and hath not extorted, nor oppressed, and hath given of his food to the poor, and hath clothed the naked with his garment; and hath not lent his money on interest, nor taken (aught) unjustly; and hath turned his hand from sin, and hath done judgment and righteousness between a man and his neighbour, and hath walked in my commandment, and hath kept my law, and done righteousness, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. And if he beget a son (who is) a sinner and a murderer, and doeth wickedness and walketh not in the way of his righteous father, but hath eaten on the mountains, and hath defiled his neighbour’s wife, and oppressed the poor and needy, and hath plundered and wrought injustice, and hath not returned the pledge of his debt, and hath turned his eyes towards idols, and committed wickedness, and hath lent on interest, and robbed (his neighbours) and taken that which was stolen, such a one shall in no wise live, in all this sin of his which he hath committed, he shall surely die, and his blood shall return on himself. And if he beget a son, and he see all the sin of his father that he committeth, and fear, and do not likewise, and have not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted his eyes towards the thoughts of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor oppressed any man, but have returned the pledge of his debt, and have not robbed (his neighbours) nor plundered, but have given of his food to the hungry, and clothed the naked with his garment, and have turned his hand from wrong, and have not taken interest or bribes wrongfully, but have done righteousness, and walked in my commandment, he shall not die in his father’s sin, but shall surely live for ever. But his father, if he oppress, and plunder, and commit injustice, and defraud, and do what should not be done in the midst of my people, shall die in his iniquity. And ye say, Why is the son requited for his father’s sin? Because the son is righteous and hath given alms, and kept my law and done (it), he shall surely live. And the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But the son shall not be requited for the sin of his father; the righteousness of the righteous (shall be) upon him, and the sin of the sinner on him. If the sinner turn from his sin which he hath done, and keep all my law and my commandment, and do righteousness, and (give) alms, he shall surely live, and shall not die; and all his sin which he hath done I will not remember unto him, but in his righteousness which he hath done he shall live. Do I at all desire that the sinner should die, saith the Lord, (and not) rather that he should turn from his evil way and live? And if the righteous man turn from his righteousness, and commit injustice and sin, in all his iniquity which he hath done, the sinner shall as die: all his righteousness which he hath done I will not remember unto him, and in his sin which he hath sinned, in it he shall die. But ye say, It is not right.. When the righteous man turneth from his righteousness and committeth sin, he shall die in his iniquity which she hath done. And if the sinner turn from his sin which he hath done, and do righteousness and uprightness, such a one hath kept his soul; and hath seen, and turned from all his sin which he hath done; he shall surely live, and shall not die. And the house of Israel saith, The way of the Lord is not right. Is not my way right, O house of Israel? Is it not your way (which) is not right? And for this will I judge all of you according to your way, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Turn, and repent of your evil, and let not the punishment of your sin come upon you. Put away from you all your evil and your iniquity and your sin which ye have sinned against me;) and make you a new heart and a new spirit; and why will ye die in your sins, O house of Israel? For I desire not that ye should in any wise die, saith the Lord God, but that ye should repent and live.”

. nor the disciple against his master, nor the official against the king, nor the layman against the bishop. For the teacher ought to have no fellowship with the disobedient and the wicked, for the sinner desireth not the word of admonition. Ezekiel the prophet saith, ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, they shall no more speak this proverb in Israel. [For the soul of every man is mine; as the soul of the father so the souls of his children are mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But the man that doeth righteousness and uprightness, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the thoughts of the house of Israel, and hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor come near to a woman in her uncleanness, nor done his neighbour violence, and hath returned the pledge of his debt, and hath not extorted, nor oppressed, and hath given of his food to the poor, and hath clothed the naked with his garment; and hath not lent his money on interest, nor taken (aught) unjustly; and hath turned his hand from sin, and hath done judgment and righteousness between a man and his neighbour, and hath walked in my commandment, and hath kept my law, and done righteousness, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. And if he beget a son (who is) a sinner and a murderer, and doeth wickedness and walketh not in the way of his righteous father, but hath eaten on the mountains, and hath defiled his neighbour’s wife, and oppressed the poor and needy, and hath plundered and wrought injustice, and hath not returned the pledge of his debt, and hath turned his eyes towards idols, and committed wickedness, and hath lent on interest, and robbed (his neighbours) and taken that which was stolen, such a one shall in no wise live, in all this sin of his which he hath committed, he shall surely die, and his blood shall return on himself. And if he beget a son, and he see all the sin of his father that he committeth, and fear, and do not likewise, and have not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted his eyes towards the thoughts of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor oppressed any man, but have returned the pledge of his debt, and have not robbed (his neighbours) nor plundered, but have given of his food to the hungry, and clothed the naked with his garment, and have turned his hand from wrong, and have not taken interest or bribes wrongfully, but have done righteousness, and walked in my commandment, he shall not die in his father’s sin, but shall surely live for ever. But his father, if he oppress, and plunder, and commit injustice, and defraud, and do what should not be done in the midst of my people, shall die in his iniquity. And ye say, Why is the son requited for his father’s sin? Because the son is righteous and hath given alms, and kept my law and done (it), he shall surely live. And the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But the son shall not be requited for the sin of his father; the righteousness of the righteous (shall be) upon him, and the sin of the sinner on him. If the sinner turn from his sin which he hath done, and keep all my law and my commandment, and do righteousness, and (give) alms, he shall surely live, and shall not die; and all his sin which he hath done I will not remember unto him, but in his righteousness which he hath done he shall live. Do I at all desire that the sinner should die, saith the Lord, (and not) rather that he should turn from his evil way and live? And if the righteous man turn from his righteousness, and commit injustice and sin, in all his iniquity which he hath done, the sinner shall as die: all his righteousness which he hath done I will not remember unto him, and in his sin which he hath sinned, in it he shall die. But ye say, It is not right.. When the righteous man turneth from his righteousness and committeth sin, he shall die in his iniquity which she hath done. And if the sinner turn from his sin which he hath done, and do righteousness and uprightness, such a one hath kept his soul; and hath seen, and turned from all his sin which he hath done; he shall surely live, and shall not die. And the house of Israel saith, The way of the Lord is not right. Is not my way right, O house of Israel? Is it not your way (which) is not right? And for this will I judge all of you according to your way, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Turn, and repent of your evil, and let not the punishment of your sin come upon you. Put away from you all your evil and your iniquity and your sin which ye have sinned against me;) and make you a new heart and a new spirit; and why will ye die in your sins, O house of Israel? For I desire not that ye should in any wise die, saith the Lord God, but that ye should repent and live.”

. nor the disciple against his master, nor the official against the king, nor the layman against the bishop. For the teacher ought to have no fellowship with the disobedient and the wicked, for the sinner desireth not the word of admonition. Ezekiel the prophet saith, ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, they shall no more speak this proverb in Israel. [For the soul of every man is mine; as the soul of the father so the souls of his children are mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But the man that doeth righteousness and uprightness, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the thoughts of the house of Israel, and hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor come near to a woman in her uncleanness, nor done his neighbour violence, and hath returned the pledge of his debt, and hath not extorted, nor oppressed, and hath given of his food to the poor, and hath clothed the naked with his garment; and hath not lent his money on interest, nor taken (aught) unjustly; and hath turned his hand from sin, and hath done judgment and righteousness between a man and his neighbour, and hath walked in my commandment, and hath kept my law, and done righteousness, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. And if he beget a son (who is) a sinner and a murderer, and doeth wickedness and walketh not in the way of his righteous father, but hath eaten on the mountains, and hath defiled his neighbour’s wife, and oppressed the poor and needy, and hath plundered and wrought injustice, and hath not returned the pledge of his debt, and hath turned his eyes towards idols, and committed wickedness, and hath lent on interest, and robbed (his neighbours) and taken that which was stolen, such a one shall in no wise live, in all this sin of his which he hath committed, he shall surely die, and his blood shall return on himself. And if he beget a son, and he see all the sin of his father that he committeth, and fear, and do not likewise, and have not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted his eyes towards the thoughts of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor oppressed any man, but have returned the pledge of his debt, and have not robbed (his neighbours) nor plundered, but have given of his food to the hungry, and clothed the naked with his garment, and have turned his hand from wrong, and have not taken interest or bribes wrongfully, but have done righteousness, and walked in my commandment, he shall not die in his father’s sin, but shall surely live for ever. But his father, if he oppress, and plunder, and commit injustice, and defraud, and do what should not be done in the midst of my people, shall die in his iniquity. And ye say, Why is the son requited for his father’s sin? Because the son is righteous and hath given alms, and kept my law and done (it), he shall surely live. And the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But the son shall not be requited for the sin of his father; the righteousness of the righteous (shall be) upon him, and the sin of the sinner on him. If the sinner turn from his sin which he hath done, and keep all my law and my commandment, and do righteousness, and (give) alms, he shall surely live, and shall not die; and all his sin which he hath done I will not remember unto him, but in his righteousness which he hath done he shall live. Do I at all desire that the sinner should die, saith the Lord, (and not) rather that he should turn from his evil way and live? And if the righteous man turn from his righteousness, and commit injustice and sin, in all his iniquity which he hath done, the sinner shall as die: all his righteousness which he hath done I will not remember unto him, and in his sin which he hath sinned, in it he shall die. But ye say, It is not right.. When the righteous man turneth from his righteousness and committeth sin, he shall die in his iniquity which she hath done. And if the sinner turn from his sin which he hath done, and do righteousness and uprightness, such a one hath kept his soul; and hath seen, and turned from all his sin which he hath done; he shall surely live, and shall not die. And the house of Israel saith, The way of the Lord is not right. Is not my way right, O house of Israel? Is it not your way (which) is not right? And for this will I judge all of you according to your way, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Turn, and repent of your evil, and let not the punishment of your sin come upon you. Put away from you all your evil and your iniquity and your sin which ye have sinned against me;) and make you a new heart and a new spirit; and why will ye die in your sins, O house of Israel? For I desire not that ye should in any wise die, saith the Lord God, but that ye should repent and live.”

THAT BISHOPS OUGHT TO BE PEACEMAKERS, MEN OF MERCY, WHO PARDON HIM THAT HATH TRESPASSED AGAINST THEM, AND RECEIVE THE REPENTANCE OF THOSE THAT TURN TO GOD; AND IF THEY DO NOT THUS THEY SHALL NOT BE CALLED BISHOPS, BUT EVIL.. a But if the bishop pray for peace upon others, shall he not much more then be peaceable himself that he be not a son of darkness, and that he may be called a son of light?‘ And if in himself there be no peace, how then can he give (peace) to others? Wherefore the beginning of all his work must needs be peace, without evil or hatred; but in love and in peace let him feed the sheep of Christ. Especially let him guard them as a faithful friend, that they may be saved together and become one flock. But let evil men, who work iniquity and (cause) hatred and trouble, be far from God. [ii., 55-] For the Lord the God of mercy desired to bring back all generations to repentance by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and the righteous, and the prophets. For before the flood the people lived according to the teaching of Abel and the admonition of Abel, and Seth, and Enoch, who ascended to heaven; and those that were after the flood, Noah taught; and those of Sodom, Lot the lover of strangers taught. And after Lot (men were taught) by Melchizedek, and the patriarchs,” and Job the lover of God; and the Egyptians and the children of Israel by the commandments of Moses, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb, and Phinehas, and those (that were) after them; and after the law by the admonition of angels and prophets; and after these (came) our Lord, who became incarnate and was made man of our Lady the Holy Virgin Mary; and, after John the Baptist was cast into prison, He preached, saying, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And after He had suffered on the Cross, He commanded us, even us His twelve apostles to preach along with our good brother Paul. We are they to whom He hath granted that we should be witnesses concerning His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. And moreover (there are) with us James, the brother of our Lord, and the seven deacons. We have heard from His mouth the word of life, and have believed and known that He is Jesus Christ, in whom the Lord the Father is well pleased. We declare unto you perfectly that which we have heard from Him that none that believeth in Him shall perish. To Him let us offer up praise with one voice that we may obtain life eternal. [ii., 56.) Thus our Lord hath commanded us, When we pray to the Father, saying, Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth; that as the hosts of heavenly and spiritual ones glorify (Him), so every creature on earth may glorify the One God by His only-begotten Son our Lord and our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. This, then, is His good pleasure that we should glorify Him and bless Him with one mind, and worship Him with one spirit. This is the good pleasure of Christ, that those that are saved should be many, and that not one of them should perish, nor the Church be diminished. Slay not the soul which hath been made alive through repentance, for it hath been saved from indignation and anger. But do ye in the beauty of your patience fulfil every word of the Scriptures. But if ye scatter the sheep of His flock, ye shall be enemies of God. Destroy not the lambs that Christ hath fed. Be of good understanding, then, O bishop, lest by thine occasion the sheep of Christ’s flock be scattered, whom we have gathered by the preaching of tongues from every quarter, by toil, and by weariness, and by sorrow, and by watching, and by hunger, and by thirst and labour (and) journeyings, and by persecutions, and by affliction, and by imprisonment. And behold we have done the good pleasure of God, and have filled with plants the house which is the holy congregation, the Church of God. Those that are called thereinto rejoice and are glad, glorifying and blessing God, even those that have been called by you unto life eternal. And ye also, O people, work amongst you (the works of) love and peace, that ye may walk in the Church of God with one heart. And for this ye shall obtain a good reward from God. [ii., 57-] But be thou, O bishop, holy, without blemish, and do not that which is unseemly, nor be Passionate, nor deceitful, nor of evil-disposition, but be a teacher and helper of those that perish, and a counsellor of good; and confirm the people as a man of God. And when ye are gathered together in the church, command them to walk in the good way as a wise ship-master. And command the deacons to be as the sailors, that they may make the brethren to sit down each one in his own place, as befitteth in righteousness and purity, for they are together with you in one ship. Let the length, then, of the church be towards the East; and (let there be) two porches in its sides after the likeness of a ship; and let the throne of the bishop be set in the midst. Then let the presbyters sit on his right hand and on his left: and let the deacons also stand ready to serve with their garments girt up like sailors. But let the people sit in their places in fear and trembling; and in like manner let the women sit by themselves in silence. And let the reader also stand in (his) place, and read the books of Moses, and of Joshua the son of Nun, and of the Judges, and the Kings, and the Chronicles, and the books after the captivity (and) return from Babylon, (and) Job and Solomon, and the fifteen prophets. And after they have read ” from the books two at a time, one shall rise up and sing praises in the words of David, and the people shall answer with praises. Then they shall read the Acts of the Apostles and the - Epistles of our brother Paul, our beloved fellow-labourer, which he wrote, and sent to all the churches by the help of the Holy Spirit. And after this let the presbyters or the deacons read the Gospel which we have given unto you, even I Matthew and John, and which Luke and Mark, the fellow-labourers of the renowned Paul, have proclaimed, (and) which they have appointed for you. And when the Gospel is read, let the presbyters and the deacons and all the people stand in great fear; for it is written, ‘Be silent, O Israel, and hearken.” Then let the presbyters stand one by one, and confirm the people; and afterwards the bishop that he may save them by (his) admonition. And next let the doorkeepers stand where the men come in, and set them in their places: let the deaconess in like manner make the women stand in their places. If any man be found standing in a place which is not his, let the deacons put him to shame, and then bring him back to his own place; for the deacons are like the sailors, and the church like a ship. Howbeit it is not a ship, but a flock of sheep. Now shepherds separate the sheep from the goats, and place them according to their kinds and according to their divisions; and in like manner let the people be found together in the church according to their classes. Let the young men stand by themselves; but if there be no place to contain them, let them stand with (the rest of) the people, And let the old men sit by themselves, and let the children sit in front of their fathers, these taking care of them. And let the maidens sit by themselves; but if there be no place, let them stand behind the married women. And let the virgins and the widows and the elder women stand before all the (other) women. And let those that have husbands and children sit by themselves. The deacons should arrange them one by one; and let no one pass over into his neighbour’s seat. And let him mark the conduct and behaviour of the people in church, lest they sleep or be slothful in prayer; but let him watch them, and if any be found laughing or talking foolishly, let him admonish them and cause them to be silent. We ought, then, to stand in the church in fear and trembling, and to set our thoughts to hearken to the word of the Scriptures. And when the catechumens and those that are under penance have departed let all the people rise up and look towards the East, and pray unto God, who is in every place. to bring them back to their former place, unto the garden of joy, from which the first man went forth, when he consented to the counsel of the Serpent, and transgressed the commandment of God. And after this let the presbyters rise up and offer the sacrifice to God with fear and trembling. Then let the ministers rise and command them to keep silence; and let the deacon who standeth at the right hand ” of the bishop say thus to the people, Let no man harbour in his heart revenge, or hatred, or envy against his neighbour. Then let the men salute one another with a holy kiss; and in like manner let the women salute one another. Howbeit salute not one another with guile like Judas Iscariot, who kissed our Lord and betrayed Him wickedly. And after this let the deacon pray, and make supplication for the whole world, and all that is therein, for the fruits of the ground, for the king, for the priests, for the rulers, for the chief priests, for the peace of the holy Apostolic Church. And after this let the chief priest make supplication and entreaty that peace may be upon the people. Then let him bless them, as Moses commanded the priests to bless the people, saying thus, “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee, and make his face to shine on thee, and have mercy upon thee, and give thee peace.” And after this let the bishop make supplication, and say, Save Thy people, and bless Thine heritage; feed them and lift them up for ever. Thou hast purchased and redeemed by Thy precious Blood Thy Holy Church through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath called her to be a congregation of kings and priests, a pure family, a holy people. And after that the priests have taken up the mysteries, let them take heed lest (any) enter who are not of the faithful. And then let the men stand up, and the women also, veiling their heads, (and) let them put forth their hands, and pray for pardon, (and) receive His holy Flesh and precious Blood. [ii., 58.) And if any brethren or sisters come from a distant place, let the deacon enquire into their lives, and get knowledge of their faith. And if they have the tokens of the right faith, let him permit them to enter the church; but if they are unbelievers, let him not permit them to enter. And if a presbyter come from a distant place, let the presbyters receive him; and in like manner the deacons. And if a bishop come, a stranger, let the bishop, who is like unto him, receive him, and let him sit with him, and let (the bishop) show him honour. Then let him ask him to teach and admonish the people; for it is said, “A prophet is not had in honour in his own city.” Entreat him to offer up the sacrifice. But if, by reason of fear, he refuseth, let them all the more entreat him to bestow a blessing on the people. And if there be one that cometh to thee, a stranger, or one of the men of the place, clothed in goodly apparel, full of grace, do thou, O bishop, declare unto him the word of God. And when thou hearest them teaching or reading the Scriptures, cease not the work of thy ministry. The brethren ought to receive strangers, and magnify and honour them. But if there be one (who is) haughty, and (who) honoureth not a stranger, let the deacon coming admonish him, and set him behind (the rest of) the people, that others, when they see, may fear. And if there come unto you poor men, whether young or old, let the deacon receive them with a glad heart, and set them each one in his place, as befitteth, without respect of persons, but (so) that your service be that which is well pleasing to God. And let the deaconess also do in like manner with the women, whether rich or poor. [ii., 59.] Admonish, then, O bishop, thy people, and bid them come to the church day and night, and never absent themselves from it, that the congregation therein be not diminished, for they are members of Christ. And we say this not concerning the priests alone, but concerning all the people, that each one may understand the word of the Lord. For our Lord saith, “But he that is not with me is mine adversary, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” Be not slothful, then, for ye are members of Christ; separate not yourselves from His Body and His Blood; nor choose the cares of this world before the commandments of God. Gather yourselves together in the church in the evening and in the morning; glorify God, and sing, and read the Psalms of David, the sixty-second, and the hundred and fortieth as well. And especially on the Christian Sabbath. which is (the day of) His holy resurrection, offer praise and thanksgiving and honour to God, who created all things by His Son Jesus Christ, whom He sent unto us; who was well pleased to suffer according to His will, and was buried in the earth, and rose again from the dead. But if ye come not to the church, what excuse, or what answer will ye make to God? For on this day, the Christian Sabbath, we ought to hear the preaching of His holy resurrection, and remember His sufferings, and make remembrance of Him, and read the Scriptures of the prophets, and the Gospel; and (celebrate) the eucharist, the sacrifice, and oblation, (our) spiritual food. [ii., Go.] But if ye watch not day and night, and do not according as we say, ye are transgressors against God, and enemies unto Him, for ye have chosen pleasure, eating and drinking, and delights, that wax old and perish, and ye have forsaken that which waxeth not old, nor perisheth. And to them that do such things God saith, “The foolish people are better than you”; as He reproached” Jerusalem, and said unto her, “Sodom is better than thou.” Behold, then, let us look at the foolish Gentiles. Every day, when they awake and rise from sleep, they betake them forthwith to those gods that profit not, and they worship them, and make supplication to them concerning their needs; and they gather themselves together, great and small, on their feast-days, and not these alone, but others also come from distant places, and worship and serve them. And the foolish Jews, though ungodly (and) unbelieving, yet work six days, and rest on the seventh day. Then they gather themselves together in the synagogues, and keep a feast to idols, and magnify them, and honour them that have no life, nor spirit, and (that) profit not at all. Howbeit they vaunt themselves, and say, We are Jews. But if these " do thus, and gather themselves together at all times, and in folly serve those in whom is no profit, how is it then that ye who have received grace from the Lord God, are slothful, and neglect the service of the church? If ye keep far from the church, ye shall lose your hope, a and abandon your salvation, and become ungodly, ye who turn aside from that which is good, and become evil. Behold the Lord said by Jeremiah the prophet, “I‘or my people have forsaken my law which I set before their face, and have not heard my-voice, but have gone and have followed the desire of their own hearts, and have followed idols, as their fathers taught them.” And moreover it is said, “Rebellious Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah,” and, ‘“ Their shepherds have led them to the mountains, and driven them away; and they wander on the hills.” What excuse do they make who are slothful to go to the church, and go out therefrom at the time of prayer? At what time shall they hear of the salvation of their souls and what answer shall they give to God? Understand, then, that the service of the faithful (which) abideth with them in truth, is this, the worship of God. Let not your work and your toil be of the cares of this transitory world, which waxeth old and perisheth, but let your thoughts be toward God. Even as our Lord saith, “Take no thought for transitory meat that waxeth old and perisheth, but for the meat that endureth unto life eternal.” And moreover He saith, ‘‘The work which pleaseth God is this that ye believe in him whom he hath sent unto you.” (ii., 61.] Take heed, then, that ye keep not far from the church of God, nor follow the steps of the ungodly and unbelievers, and the worshippers of idols, and the congregation of the Jews. And go not to a temple of devils, nor have fellowship with Christ’s murderers, nor enter into a congregation of the ungodly. Have ye not heard that which is said, “I have not sat in the assembly of vanity, nor have I gone in with evil-doers: I have hated the congregation of the wicked, and I will not sit with the deceitful and evil-doers ’’?! And again it is said, “Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and that hath not stood in the way of sinners, and that hath not sat in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and on his law he meditated day and night.” But behold thou hast left the congregation of the faithful, and hast despised the Church of God, and hast not kept His law and His ordinance; but hast followed the way of robbers, and hast counted the unclean as clean, and hast become a companion of those that were separated from thee, and hast made thy dwelling with the heathen, and hast inclined thine ear unto the words of the theatre, which are full of all uncleanness and vanity, wherein is no profit. And thou hast refused to hearken to the words of Jeremiah the prophet, who saith, ‘‘O Lord, I have not sat on the seat of judgment with injustice, but I am afraid before thy face.” Wherefore desirest thou to hear the words of the dead heathen, who were wounded through sin, by the works of the devil, (and) slay the man who followeth them, and draw him away from the right faith, and make him to serve many gods? But do not ye thus, but keep the commandments of God, and choose for yourselves life. And above all seek after the law of the Church of the Lord, which Christ, His beloved Son, who was before the world was created, hath purchased with His Blood. For His? Church is the Daughter of the Most High, she who strengtheneth our hearts, and bringeth us near to God, that we may find a place with Him; for we are His members and His friends. Let us, then, be good and pure, without uncleanness, and perfect in the right faith and in every good work.

THAT WE CHRISTIANS OUGHT TO UNDERSTAND TO OBSERVE THE PASCHAL SEASON AND NOT KEEP IT IN ERROR ON ANY OTHER DAYS, BUT IN THE WEEK IN WHICH THE PASSOVER COMES ON THE FOURTEENTH DAY (OF THE MONTH). [v., 17.] Ye, beloved brethren, who have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, ought to keep the feast of the holy Passover with all exactness and understanding. For day and night are equal on the twenty-fifth (day) of the month Magabit. Make your reckoning sure, for our Lord did not suffer twice in one year. Do you also take heed to keep the memorial of His sufferings once only every year. For our sakes He died, and (therefore) consent not to keep the feast along with the Jews, for there is no love between us and them. [or they in folly have erred in their reckoning, though they think they are exact. Wherefore they are dishonoured in all the earth, and have departed from the truth. But do you take heed to the reckoning of the day on the twenty-fifth (day) of Magabit, which is the twenty-second (day) of the month Magabit according to the reckoning of the Hebrews, and observe this reckoning until the twenty-first (day). And further make no mistake in the reckoning of the Passover, lest it be celebrated before the (festival of) Hosanna, that the Passover may not fall twice in one year through inaccurate reckoning. But let the holy day of the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be celebrated on the holy Christian Sabbath. (v., 18.) And further let the fast of the holy Passover be from the second day of the week until the first Sabbath, the vigil of the Passover. And in the week of the Passion cat nothing except bread, and water and salt. Abstain on these days of the Fast from eating flesh and drinking wine, for they are days of mourning and sorrow. Above all in these six days, if any one be able to fast, let him patiently endure for two days; but if he be not able, let him fast on one day, and keep himself from evil-doing. For our Lord saith, “The sons of the bridegroom cannot fast so long as the bridegroom is with them, but days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them; then shall they fast.’ [v., 19.] For in these six days the Jews took our Lord from us, and crucified Him on the Cross, and reckoned Him with the transgressors. Wherefore we command you to fast, even as we ourselves have done since He ascended into heaven. And as for the other days, let them fast on the fourth and sixth days of the week until the ninth hour, and whoso wisheth let him fast till the sun set. And keep vigil at night until the cock crow, being: gathered together in the church for praise and prayer, (and) reading the Law, and the prophets, and the psalms of David. And after ye have baptized (the catechumens), read the Gospel with fear and trembling, and teach the people things tending to profit and the salvation of their souls; and pray ye to God that Israel may turn to repentance, and be saved from ungodliness. For the Governor washed his hands, and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just man,” but (they of) Israel cried out, and said, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” Then Pilate said unto them, “Shall I crucify your king? And they answered, and said, we have no king but Caesar: crucify him, crucify him, for everyone that maketh himself a king is a rebel against Caesar. And they answered, and said, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend.” Pilate the governor and Herod the King commanded that He should be crucified, that it might be fulfilled which was written, saying, ‘“ Why have the nations raged, and the peoples spoken vain things? The kings of the earth have risen up, and the rulers also have assembled together against the Lord and against his anointed.” And again it is said, “ And they have cast away their brother as an unclean corpse.”! Then they crucified Him on the sixth day of the week and He rose again on the Sabbath day. The Scripture was fulfilled which saith, “Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for thou shalt have inheritance among all the nations.” " And moreover it is said, “Now will I arise, saith the Lord, and will appoint salvation, and deal boldly in him.” And again it is said, ‘Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, and be thou exalted above mine enemies.” And moreover it is said, ‘Render to them their recompense upon their heads.”. And for this cause offer ye also your sacrifice as the Lord hath commanded you. For He said, “Thus do ye in remembrance of me.” Finish the fast, then, with joy and gladness, and keep the feast, for our Lord Jesus Christ hath risen from the dead, and His resurrection hath given us hope. Let this ordinance be unto you a law for ever until He come again in glory. For the Jews have not believed in the resurrection of our Saviour, but we Christians believe in His resurrection, for all who hope in His holy resurrection shall find life eternal. [v., 20.) Keep, then, a feast on the eighth day, for on it the Lord appeared. Thomas said, To me also He appeared, and made me glad, (shewing me) the marks in His hands and His feet, and the wound in His holy side. Though before was faithless, and believed not in His resurrection, He shewed me openly the wound in His right side. On the fortieth day keep a feast, for on it He finished all (His) dispensation and ascended into heaven to the Father who had raised Him (from the dead), and He sat down on the right hand of power, and subjected His enemies under the footstool of His feet; and He shall come again in glory and great power to judge the living and the dead, and He shall render to everyone according to his works. And behold the Jews who crucified Him shall see the beloved Son of God. For even until now the Jews are gathered together on the tenth (day) of the ninth month, reading the Lamentations of Jeremiah the prophet (where it is said) “The spirit of our life, Jesus Christ they have taken from us, and have afflicted him.” And moreover they read what Baruch wrote, “This is our God; there is none other that is like unto him. He found every way of life, and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved. And after this he walked upon the earth.” And as they read this, they weep and mourn. And thus they do, making it seem a mourning for the desolation which Nebuchadnezzar wrought, and pretending it is the truth. And ten days after He ascended (was) the fulfilment of Pentecost, for on that day at the third hour Jesus Christ sent unto us the Paraclete, and filled us with His power, and we spake with new tongues, (declaring) that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of God, who hath authority to judge the living and the dead. And concerning Him Moses bare witness, and said, The Lord our God took fire, and caused it to come down as rain.” And in like manner Jacob saw Him in the likeness of a man, and said, “I have seen the Lord our God face to face, and my life is preserved.” And Abraham also received Him as a stranger and believed that He was God. This is the chief of the hosts of the armies of God whom Joshua the son of Nun saw; and moreover as a strong man in armour He helped him by Jericho, and then Joshua did reverence to Him as a servant doth to his lord. And again, this is He of whom Samuel the prophet knew that He was Christ the Anointed of God. And further priests and kings called Him the Anointed. And again, He it was whom David knew, and spake with fear (concerning) the glory of the Beloved. ‘My heart hath uttered a good word and I have made known my work to the king; my tongue is as the pen of a scribe that writeth speedily. His beauty is fairer than the sons of men, grace hath been poured forth from his lips; therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, in thy beauty and thy comeliness. Advance, prosper and reign, because of righteousness, and uprightness, and meekness, and the glory of thy right hand shall lead thee. Thy arrows are sharp, O mighty one—the peoples shall fall under thee—in the heart of the king’s enemies. Thy throne, O Lord, is for ever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore the Lord thy God hath anointed (thee) with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” And concerning Him Solomon saith, ‘“‘The Lord created me in the beginning of his way for his works, before the world be founded me, in the beginning before he made the earth, and before he -made the abysses, and before the fountains of water issued forth, and before he set in order the mountains; before all the hills he begat me.” And moreover Isaiah the prophet saith, “A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall ascend from its stock, and shall be set as a ruler of the nations.” And again, Solomon saith, “Wisdom hath built herself a house.” And moreover, Zechariah saith, “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, and publish (it), daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh; he is righteous and bringeth salvation, and is meek, and rideth on an ass, and on the foal of an ass.”! And moreover, Daniel saith, ‘‘The Son of man came to the ancient of days. He then is the stone (that) came down from the mountain, (cut out) without hands."; We also declare (and) proclaim unto you that He is the Word of God that was before the world, and moreover is equal with Him in everything. Believe in Him that ye may find life eternal; but if ye believe not in Him, ye shall find condemnation. He who believeth not on the Son shall not see life eternal, and the wrath of God abideth on him. And after the feast of Pentecost keep a feast for seven days, and then fast; for we ought to rejoice and be glad because He hath granted us that we should receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days. And Daniel also fasted for three weeks, and ate no pleasant food, nor did flesh and wine enter into his mouth. And the blessed Hannah, when she made supplication to God to grant her a son [Samuel], said, “I have not drunk wine to be drunken, but my heart was strong in the Lord.” And the men of Nineveh fasted for three days and three nights. Esther, and Mordecai, and Judith were saved by fasting from the wicked Holofernes and from Haman. And David also saith, ‘My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is dried for want of oil.” Do ye also fast and ask of Him pardon of sin. And fast besides. on the fourth and sixth days of the week, giving alms to the poor; and honour the Sabbath being gathered together in the church with joy and gladness; and on the other Sabbaths fast not, but only on one day, the vigil of the Passover. And if there be anyone who fasteth on the Christian Sabbath which is (the day of) His holy resurrection, or at Pentecost, (that is) until the feast of Pentecost —they who do thus, and mourn on the feasts of the Lord, have no remission of sin. Do ye keep on them a spiritual feast, and never appear sad.

OF THE DIVISIONS OF THE UNGODLY AND UNBELIEVING. [vi., 1.) O Bishops, first of all beware of the divisions of the ungodly and unbelieving; turn aside from the way of the impure, and keep far from them, for he that draweth near unto them shall burn in consuming fire. Turn not, then, your hearts towards them, nor separate one from another, devising to obtain a position of authority. And if there be anyone who draweth near unto them, and doeth their works, he shall find eternal condemnation. As for Dathan and Abiram, who were moved to jealousy against Moses, the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up: and in like manner the fire devoured the five thousand sons of Korah, who were moved to jealousy against Aaron. Miriam also, the sister of Moses, when she reproached (him), was put forth from the camp for seven days, for she said, ‘‘How greatly hath Moses transgressed, and he hath married a strange woman.” And further Uzziah the King of Judah usurped the duty of the priesthood, and offered incense which it was not lawful for him to do. But Eleazar the priest, and eighty priests who were with him, reproved him, and he refused to hearken to their word; and leprosy appeared in his face, because the Lord was wroth with him. (vi., 2.] But if kings when they transgress meet with condemnation, how much more others who transgress against the priests. For the priest’s office is greater than the kingly; the priests minister to souls, and the kings by the sword have power over the body. And they who transgress against the priests shall receive a greater condemnation than they who transgress against kings. Howbeit there is none that can escape from the condemnation of either. And again it is said, Absalom... and the sons of Korah, and Dathan, and the others who transgressed against the priesthood saved not themselves from condemnation. For these rose up against David concerning the kingdom, and (the others) again strove with Moses in their desire to become rulers, and Absalom accounted his father an unjust judge. And again, it is said concerning Dathan and Abiram, “And they answered and said unto Moses, Is it not enough for thee that thou hast brought us forth from the land of Egypt, from a land that floweth with milk and honey, and hast plucked out the eyes of these men, and become a ruler over us?" And then many were gathered and joined together against him. And in like manner the sons of Korah said, “Hath the Lord spoken to Moses only, and to Aaron the high-priest? And among the children of Israel is there none holy save Aaron alone?” And concerning this there were some who said unto Moses, “Who made thee a prince and ruler over us? ” (vi, 3.] And then they rose up against Moses the man of God, and the faithful one who had wrought all these signs, and performed all the wonders, and brought down on the Egyptians many plagues. He divided the water, and made the sea to stand like a wall on this side and on that, and brought forth the people therefrom as one that walketh on dry ground. And Pharaoh and all his hosts were overwhelmed in the sea. He clave the rock asunder and caused water to flow for them, and gave them manna from heaven, and made flesh to rain upon them like dust, and he led them with a cloud by day, and all the night through with a light of fire. And moreover he gave them the law at the mouth of God the Father Almighty, and the two tables of stone whereon were written the ten words by the finger of God: and he spake with God face to face as a man speaketh with his friend. And concerning him it is said, “There shall not arise a prophet like unto Moses.” And against this man rose up the sons of Korah and the sons of Reuben, and they stoned him with stones as he prayed. And he said, Regard not thou their offering, and the earth swallowed them up, and then the glory of God appeared. And there were some whom the fire devoured; and in like manner those who unjustly sought for power—the earth swallowed them up; with their tents and all their substance they went down alive into Sheol. ([vi., 4.] Now if God requited them with the judgment of His wrath, how much more (will He execute judgment) against those who follow the way of the ungodly and unbelieving, and blaspheme against His creation. Do ye, brethren, hearken to the word of admonition of the Scriptures; and beware of divisions of opinion; and let not your faith be lacking, and seek not to get power with the ungodly and unbelieving who destroy the people. Keep far from their ungodliness, and have no fellowship with them, for God saith, “Depart from those that do thus, lest ye perish with them.” [vi., 5.] Ye ought to keep far from those who blaspheme the name of God. For to abide with the ungodly and unbelieving removeth far from God. These are they that contend with Him, and because of their evil deeds the earth is defiled. Even as Jeremiah the prophet saith, ‘This wicked people is far from the living God.” And again it is said, “I have left mine inheritance and my house, and I have turned my face from them.” And again it is said, ‘‘My vineyard I have not digged, nor pruned, nor cleansed, but within it thorns and thistles shall spring up, and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it,” and it shall become a desert. For the Lord “hath left this people as the tabernacle of a tent in the midst of a vineyard, and as the guardian of a hut, and as a ruined city; and the Holy Spirit hath removed from them the spirit of prophecy, but hath filled this Church with spiritual grace as the river of Egypt in the days of rain; and hath exalted it as a house on the top of a fruitful mountain, “a fat mountain and a fruitful mountain, a mountain wherein God hath been well aT) pleased to dwell and (wherein) He will abide for ever.” And again it is said by Jeremiah the prophet, ‘The throne of the Most High and Exalted is the holy place prepared for us.” And moreover, it is said by Isaiah, “In those days shall the mountain of the Lord appear on the high hilltops, and the house of God upon the extremity of the mountains, and it shall be exalted far above the hills.’’? Wherefore God hath left the people of Judah, and made their temple a desert, and rent the veil, and taken the Holy Spirit from them, even as it is written, ‘Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” But to you Christians hath been given the grace of the Holy Spirit, even as it is written by Joel the prophet, “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; and your young men shall see a vision, and your old men shall dream a dream.’’?' For God hath removed from the Jews the power of wisdom and knowledge, and hath given it unto you. Wherefore the devil hath been moved to envy against the Holy Church of God, and hath brought upon you fear and trembling, affliction and trouble, and all (manner of) reproach and division at the hands of the ungodly. for Satan moved the people of the Jews to slay Christ; but ye hated them and despised the evil of their deeds. Wherefore he hath brought upon you temptation and hatred, even as he did upon the righteous Job, and as he contended with Joshua, the son of Josedech. Us also Satan oftentimes desired to sift as wheat and (sought) to weaken our faith. But our Lord and Master cursed him and rebuked him, saying, ‘The Lord who hath saved Israel put thee to shame.” For He said formerly while we were assembled together, “I have prayed for you to the Father that your faith fail not.” [vi., 6.] For formerly there arose divisions and wicked enmities in the midst of the congregation of the Jews; the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, and the Pharisees who say, When a man is born, there is written concerning him all the sin that he shall do, and also what he shall be. These, then, are they who believe not in the work of God concerning us. And again, they say that the dead shall be raised in one hour. But these believe not in the resurrection. And there are some who taste no food, unless every day they baptize beds and pots and dishes and cups and seats, (that is) wash and cleanse (them) with water. And there are others who are called Ebionites who think and say that the Son of God is a (mere) man, and was born by the will of the flesh from the union of Joseph and Mary, though they were pure from any such thing. These,” then, are they who from the beginning have observed the law of their fathers.

On the Saturday let the bishop assemble them who receive the laver, and let him bid them to kneel while the deacon proclaimeth. And when there is silence let him exorcise [them], laying a hand on them, and saying: O God of heaven, God of the lights, God of the archangels who are under Thy power, God of the angels who are under Thy might, King of glories and of dominions, God of saints, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; who hast loosed the souls that were bound by death; who hast enlightened him that was bound in darkness and fixed firm, by the firm-fixing of the suffering of Thy Only-begotten; who hast loosed our cords and hast loosed every weight from [off] us; who hast repelled from us every attack of the Evil One; O Son and Word of God, who hast made us immortal by Thy death; who hast glorified us with Thy glory; who hast loosed all the bands of our sins by Thy passion; who hast borne the curse of our sins by Thy cross, and by Thy resurrection hast taught [mankind] to pass from [being] sons of men to become gods; who hast taken on Thee our humiliation; who hast trodden the way to heaven for us; who hast changed us from corruption to incorruptibility; hear me, O Lord, who cry to Thee in pain and fear,O Lord God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, before Him before whom stand the holy hosts of archangels and of cherubim and armies without number, of princes and of seraphim; whose veil [is] the light, and before whose face [is] fire; the throne of whose glory is ineffable; the habitations of whose delights, which Thou hast prepared for Thy saints, are ineffable, the raiments and treasures of which are visible to Thee alone and to Thy holy angels; before whom all things tremble, giving praise; whose glance measureth the mountains, and whose Name, when uttered, cleaveth the depths; whom the heavens which are shut up by Thy hand, hide from view; before whom the earth and the depths together tremble; before whom the sea and the dragons that [are] in it quake; of whom the wild beasts trembling, stand in awe; through whom the mountains and the firmament of the earth melt with fear; at whose power the tempest of the winter quaketh and trembleth, and the raging whirlwind keepeth its limits; because of whom the fire of vengeance doth not overpass that which hath been prescribed to it, but abideth when reproved by Thy commandment; because of whom the whole creation travaileth, groaning with groans, being bidden to tarry till its time; from whom all nature and creation that opposeth itself fleeth; because of whom the whole army of the adversary is subdued, and the Devil is fallen, and the serpent is trodden down, and,the dragon is killed; because of whom the nations which have confessed Thee are enlightened and strengthened in Thee, O Lord; because of whom life is revealed and hope confirmed, and faith strengthened and the Gospel preached; because of whom corruption is brought to naught and incorruptibility waxeth strong; through whom man was fashioned from the earth, but having believed in Thee he is no longer earth; O Lord God Almighty, I exorcise these in the Name of Thee and of Thy beloved Son Jesus Christ. Drive away from the souls of these Thy servants every disease and illness, and every stumbling block and all unbelief, all doubt and all contempt, every unclean spirit that worketh, that is a witch, that killeth, that is under the earth, that is fiery, dark, evil-smelling, given to witchcraft, lascivious, loving gold, uplifted, money loving, wrathful. Yea, O Lord God, overthrow from these Thy servants who have been named in Thee the weapons of the Devil, all magic, witchcraft, fear of idols, divination, astrology, necromancy, observation of the stars, astronomy, pleasure of the passions, love of disgraceful things, sadness, love of money, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, lasciviousness, contumacy, contentiousness, wrath, confusion, wickedness, evil suspicion. Yea, O Lord God, hear me, and breathe on these Thy servants the spirit of tranquillity, that, being guarded by Thee, they may bring forth in Thee fruits of faith, of virtue, of wisdom, of purity, of self-discipline of patience, of hope, of concord, of modesty, of praise. For by Thee they have been called as servants, in the Name of Jesus Christ, being baptized in the Trinity, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, the angels, glories, dominions, all the heavenly army being witnesses. O Lord, the real-essence of our life and theirs, guard their hearts, O God, for Thou art mighty and glorious for ever and ever. And let all the people, also the priests, say: Amen, So be it, so be it, so be it. If any one be in the endurance of any thing, rise suddenly while the bishop is saying [these words], and weep or cry out, or foam [at the mouth] or gnash with his teeth, or stare or be much uplifted or altogether run away, being quickly carried off, let such an one be put aside by the deacons, so that there be no disturbance while the bishop is speaking, and let such an one be exorcised by the priests until he be cleansed, and so let him be baptized. After the priest exorciseth those who have drawn near, or him who is found unclean, let the priest breathe on them and seal them between their eyes, on the nose, on the heart, on the ears; and so let him raise them up.

On the Saturday let the bishop assemble them who receive the laver, and let him bid them to kneel while the deacon proclaimeth. And when there is silence let him exorcise [them], laying a hand on them, and saying: O God of heaven, God of the lights, God of the archangels who are under Thy power, God of the angels who are under Thy might, King of glories and of dominions, God of saints, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; who hast loosed the souls that were bound by death; who hast enlightened him that was bound in darkness and fixed firm, by the firm-fixing of the suffering of Thy Only-begotten; who hast loosed our cords and hast loosed every weight from [off] us; who hast repelled from us every attack of the Evil One; O Son and Word of God, who hast made us immortal by Thy death; who hast glorified us with Thy glory; who hast loosed all the bands of our sins by Thy passion; who hast borne the curse of our sins by Thy cross, and by Thy resurrection hast taught [mankind] to pass from [being] sons of men to become gods; who hast taken on Thee our humiliation; who hast trodden the way to heaven for us; who hast changed us from corruption to incorruptibility; hear me, O Lord, who cry to Thee in pain and fear,O Lord God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, before Him before whom stand the holy hosts of archangels and of cherubim and armies without number, of princes and of seraphim; whose veil [is] the light, and before whose face [is] fire; the throne of whose glory is ineffable; the habitations of whose delights, which Thou hast prepared for Thy saints, are ineffable, the raiments and treasures of which are visible to Thee alone and to Thy holy angels; before whom all things tremble, giving praise; whose glance measureth the mountains, and whose Name, when uttered, cleaveth the depths; whom the heavens which are shut up by Thy hand, hide from view; before whom the earth and the depths together tremble; before whom the sea and the dragons that [are] in it quake; of whom the wild beasts trembling, stand in awe; through whom the mountains and the firmament of the earth melt with fear; at whose power the tempest of the winter quaketh and trembleth, and the raging whirlwind keepeth its limits; because of whom the fire of vengeance doth not overpass that which hath been prescribed to it, but abideth when reproved by Thy commandment; because of whom the whole creation travaileth, groaning with groans, being bidden to tarry till its time; from whom all nature and creation that opposeth itself fleeth; because of whom the whole army of the adversary is subdued, and the Devil is fallen, and the serpent is trodden down, and,the dragon is killed; because of whom the nations which have confessed Thee are enlightened and strengthened in Thee, O Lord; because of whom life is revealed and hope confirmed, and faith strengthened and the Gospel preached; because of whom corruption is brought to naught and incorruptibility waxeth strong; through whom man was fashioned from the earth, but having believed in Thee he is no longer earth; O Lord God Almighty, I exorcise these in the Name of Thee and of Thy beloved Son Jesus Christ. Drive away from the souls of these Thy servants every disease and illness, and every stumbling block and all unbelief, all doubt and all contempt, every unclean spirit that worketh, that is a witch, that killeth, that is under the earth, that is fiery, dark, evil-smelling, given to witchcraft, lascivious, loving gold, uplifted, money loving, wrathful. Yea, O Lord God, overthrow from these Thy servants who have been named in Thee the weapons of the Devil, all magic, witchcraft, fear of idols, divination, astrology, necromancy, observation of the stars, astronomy, pleasure of the passions, love of disgraceful things, sadness, love of money, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, lasciviousness, contumacy, contentiousness, wrath, confusion, wickedness, evil suspicion. Yea, O Lord God, hear me, and breathe on these Thy servants the spirit of tranquillity, that, being guarded by Thee, they may bring forth in Thee fruits of faith, of virtue, of wisdom, of purity, of self-discipline of patience, of hope, of concord, of modesty, of praise. For by Thee they have been called as servants, in the Name of Jesus Christ, being baptized in the Trinity, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, the angels, glories, dominions, all the heavenly army being witnesses. O Lord, the real-essence of our life and theirs, guard their hearts, O God, for Thou art mighty and glorious for ever and ever. And let all the people, also the priests, say: Amen, So be it, so be it, so be it. If any one be in the endurance of any thing, rise suddenly while the bishop is saying [these words], and weep or cry out, or foam [at the mouth] or gnash with his teeth, or stare or be much uplifted or altogether run away, being quickly carried off, let such an one be put aside by the deacons, so that there be no disturbance while the bishop is speaking, and let such an one be exorcised by the priests until he be cleansed, and so let him be baptized. After the priest exorciseth those who have drawn near, or him who is found unclean, let the priest breathe on them and seal them between their eyes, on the nose, on the heart, on the ears; and so let him raise them up.

As to a good shepherd, let the lay person honour him, love him, reverence him as his lord, as his master, as the high priest of God, as a teacher of piety. For he that hears him, hears Christ; and he that rejects him, rejects Christ; and he who does not receive Christ, does not receive His God and Father: for, says He, He that hears you, hears me; and he that rejects you, rejects me; and he that rejects me, rejects Him that sent me. In like manner, let the bishop love the laity as his children, fostering and cherishing them with affectionate diligence; as eggs, in order to the hatching of young ones; or as young ones, taking them in his arms, to the rearing them into birds: admonishing all men; reproving all who stand in need of reproof; reproving, that is, but not striking; beating them down to make them ashamed, but not overthrowing them; warning them in order to their conversion: chiding them in order to their reformation and better course of life; watching the strong, that is, keeping him firm in the faith who is already strong; feeding the people peaceably; strengthening the weak, that is, confirming with exhortation that which is tempted; healing that which is sick, that is, curing by instruction that which is weak in the faith through doubtfulness of mind; binding up that which is broken, that is, binding up by comfortable admonitions that which is gone astray, or wounded, bruised, or broken by their sins, and put out of the way; leasing it of its offenses, and giving hope: by this means restore it in strength to the Church, bringing it back into the flock. Bring again that which is driven away, that is, do not permit that which is in its sins, and is cast out by way of punishment, to continue excluded; but receiving it, and bringing it back, restore it to the flock, that is, to the people of the undefiled Church. Seek for that which is lost, that is, do not suffer that which desponds of its salvation, by reason of the multitude of its offenses, utterly to perish. Search for that which is grown sleepy, drowsy, and sluggish, and that which is unmindful of its own life, through the depth of its sleep, and which is at a great distance from its own flock, so as to be in danger of falling among the wolves, and being devoured by them. Bring it back by admonition, exhort it to be watchful; and insinuate hope, not permitting it to say that which was said by some: Our impieties are upon us, and we pine away in them; how shall we then live? As far as possible, therefore, let the bishop make the offense his own, and say to the sinner, Do thou but return, and I will undertake to suffer death for you, as our Lord suffered death for me, and for all men. For the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep; but he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, that is, the devil, and he leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf seizes upon them. We must know, therefore, that God is very merciful to those who have offended, and has promised repentance with an oath. But he who has offended, and is unacquainted with this promise of God concerning repentance, and does not understand His long-suffering and forbearance, and besides is ignorant of the Holy Scriptures, which proclaim repentance, inasmuch as he has never learned them from you, perishes through his folly. But — like a compassionate shepherd, and a diligent feeder of the flock — search out, and keep an account of your flock. Seek that which is wanting; as the Lord God our gracious Father has sent His own Son, the good Shepherd and Saviour, our Master Jesus, and has commanded Him to leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains, and to go in search after that which was lost, and when He had found it, to take it upon His shoulders, and to carry it into the flock, rejoicing that He had found that which was lost. In like manner, be obedient, O bishop, and seek that which was lost, guide that which has wandered out of the right way, bring back that which is gone astray: for you have authority to bring them back, and to deliver those that are broken-hearted by remission. For by you does our Saviour say to him who is discouraged under the sense of his sins, Your sins are forgiven you: your faith has saved you; go in peace. But this peace and haven of tranquillity is the Church of Christ, into which do you, when you have loosed them from their sins, restore them, as being now sound and unblameable, of good hope, diligent, laborious in good works. As a skilful and compassionate physician, heal all such as have wandered in the ways of sin; for they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. For the Son of man came to save and to seek that which was lost. Since you are therefore a physician of the Lord's Church, provide remedies suitable to every patient's case. Cure them, heal them by all means possible; restore them sound to the Church. Feed the flock, not with insolence and contempt, as lording it over them, but as a gentle shepherd, gathering the lambs into your bosom, and gently leading those which are with young.

For even now, on the tenth day of the month Gorpiæus, when they assemble together, they read the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in which it is said, The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord was taken in their destructions; and Baruch, in whom it is written, This is our God; no other shall be esteemed with Him. He found out every way of knowledge, and showed it to Jacob His son, and Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men. And when they read them, they lament and bewail, as themselves suppose, that desolation which happened by Nebuchadnezzar; but, as the truth shows, they unwillingly make a prelude to that lamentation which will overtake them. But after ten days from the ascension, which from the first Lord's day is the fiftieth day, keep a great festival: for on that day, at the third hour, the Lord Jesus sent on us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we were filled with His energy, and we spoke with new tongues, as that Spirit did suggest to us; and we preached both to Jews and Gentiles, that He is the Christ of God, who is determined by Him to be the Judge of quick and dead. To Him did Moses bear witness, and said: The Lord received fire from the Lord, and rained it down. Him did Jacob see as a man, and said: I have seen God face to face, and my soul is preserved. Him did Abraham entertain, and acknowledge to be the Judge, and his Lord. Him did Moses see in the bush; concerning Him did he speak in Deuteronomy: A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you out of your brethren, like me; Him shall you hear in all things, whatsoever He shall say unto you. And it shall be, that every soul that will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among his people. Him did Joshua the Son of Nun see, as the captain of the Lord's host, in armour, for their assistance against Jericho; to whom he fell down, and worshipped, as a servant does to his master. Him Samuel knew as the Anointed of God, and thence named the priests and the kings the anointed. Him David knew, and sung an hymn concerning Him, A song concerning the Beloved; and adds in his person, and says, Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O You who are mighty in Your beauty and renown: go on, and prosper, and reign, for the sake of truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and Your right hand shall guide You after a wonderful manner. Your darts are sharpened, O You that are mighty; the people shall fall under You in the heart of the king's enemies. Wherefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows. Concerning Him also spoke Solomon, as in His person: The Lord created me the beginning of His ways, for His works: before the world He founded me, in the beginning before He made the earth, before the fountains of waters came, before the mountains were fastened; He begot me before all the hills. And again: Wisdom built herself a house. Concerning Him also Isaiah said: A Branch shall come out of the root of Jesse, and a Flower shall spring out of his root. And, There shall be a root of Jesse; and He that is to rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles trust. And Zechariah says: Behold, your King comes unto you, just, and having salvation; meek, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. Him Daniel describes as the Son of man coming to the Father, and receiving all judgment and honour from Him; and as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and becoming a great mountain, and filling the whole earth, dashing to pieces the many governments of the smaller countries, and the polytheism of gods, but preaching the one God, and ordaining the monarchy of the Romans. Concerning Him also did Jeremiah prophesy, saying: The Spirit before His face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their snares: of whom we said, Under His shadow we shall live among the Gentiles. Ezekiel also, and the following prophets, affirm everywhere that He is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Judge, the Lawgiver, the Angel of the Father, the only-begotten God. Him therefore do we also preach to you, and declare Him to be God the Word, who ministered to His God and Father for the creation of the universe. By believing in Him you shall live, but by disbelieving you shall be punished. For he that is disobedient to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Therefore, after you have kept the festival of Pentecost, keep one week more festival, and after that fast; for it is reasonable to rejoice for the gift of God, and to fast after that relaxation: for both Moses and Elijah fasted forty days, and Daniel for three weeks of days did not eat desirable bread, and flesh and wine did not enter into his mouth. And blessed Hannah, when she asked for Samuel, said: I have not drunk wine nor strong drink, and I pour out my soul before the Lord. And the Ninevites, when they fasted three days and three nights, escaped the execution of wrath. And Esther, and Mordecai, and Judith, by fasting, escaped the insurrection of the ungodly Holofernes and Haman. And David says: My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails for want of oil. You should therefore fast, and ask your petitions of God. We enjoin you to fast every fourth day of the week, and every day of the preparation, and the surplusage of your fast bestow upon the needy; every Sabbath day excepting one, and every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice: for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's day, being the day of the resurrection, or during the time of Pentecost, or, in general, who is sad on a festival day to the Lord. For on them we ought to rejoice, and not to mourn.

For those are most certainly to be avoided who blaspheme God. The greatest part of the ungodly, indeed, are ignorant of God; but these men, as fighters against God, are possessed with a wilful evil disposition, as with a disease. For from the wickedness of these heretics pollution is gone out upon all the earth, as says the prophet Jeremiah. For the wicked synagogue is now cast off by the Lord God, and His house is rejected by Him, as He somewhere speaks: I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine inheritance. And again, says Isaiah: I will neglect my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor dug, and thorns shall spring up upon it, as upon a desert; and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. He has therefore left His people as a tent in a vineyard, and as a garner in a fig or olive yard, and as a besieged city. He has taken away from them the Holy Spirit, and the prophetic rain, and has replenished His Church with spiritual grace, as the river of Egypt in the time of first-fruits; and has advanced the same as a house upon an hill, or as an high mountain; as a mountain fruitful for milk and fatness, wherein it has pleased God to dwell. For the Lord will inhabit therein to the end. And He says in Jeremiah: Our sanctuary is an exalted throne of glory. And He says in Isaiah: And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord shall be glorious, and the house of the Lord shall be upon the top of the mountains, and shall be advanced above the hills. Since, therefore, He has forsaken His people, He has also left His temple desolate, and rent the veil of the temple, and took from them the Holy Spirit; for says He, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And He has bestowed upon you, the converted of the Gentiles, spiritual grace, as He says by Joel: And it shall come to pass after these things, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons shall prophesy, and your daughters shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. For God has taken away all the power and efficacy of His word, and such like visitations, from that people, and has transferred it to you, the converted of the Gentiles. For on this account the devil himself is very angry at the holy Church of God: he is removed to you, and has raised against you adversities, seditions, and reproaches, schisms, and heresies. For he had before subdued that people to himself, by their slaying of Christ. But you who have left his vanities he tempts in different ways, as he did the blessed Job. For indeed he opposed that great high priest Joshua the son of Josedek; and he oftentimes sought to sift us, that our faith might fail. But our Lord and Master, having brought him to trial, said to him: The Lord rebuke you, O devil; and the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is not this plucked out of the fire as a brand? And who said then to those that stood by the high priest, Take away his ragged garments from him; and added, Behold, I have taken your iniquities away from you; He will say now, as He said formerly of us when we were assembled together, I have prayed that your faith may not fail.

You, who has bound the strong man, and spoiled all that was in his house, who has given us power over serpents and scorpions to tread upon them, and upon all the power of the enemy; who has delivered the serpent, that murderer of men, bound to us, as a sparrow to children, whom all things dread, and tremble before the face of Your power; who has cast him down as lightning from heaven to earth, not with a fall from a place, but from honour to dishonour, on account of his voluntary evil disposition; whose look dries the abysses, and threatening melts the mountains, and whose truth remains for ever; whom the infants praise, and nursing babies bless; whom angels sing hymns to, and adore; who looks upon the earth, and makes it tremble; who touches the mountains, and they smoke; who threatens the sea, and dries it up, and makes all its rivers as desert, and the clouds are the dust of His feet; who walks upon the sea as upon the firm ground; You only begotten God, the Son of the great Father, rebuke these wicked spirits, and deliver the works of Your hands from the power of the adverse spirit. For to You is due glory, honour, and worship, and by You to Your Father, in the Holy Spirit, forever. Amen. And let the deacon say: Go out, you energumens. And after them, let him cry aloud: You that are to be illuminated, pray. Let all us, the faithful, earnestly pray for them, that the Lord will vouchsafe that, being initiated into the death of Christ, they may rise with Him, and become partakers of His kingdom, and may be admitted to the communion of His mysteries; unite them to, number them among, those that are saved in His holy Church. Save them, and raise them up by Your grace. And being sealed to God through His Christ, let them bow down their heads, and receive this blessing from the bishop:—

You, who has bound the strong man, and spoiled all that was in his house, who has given us power over serpents and scorpions to tread upon them, and upon all the power of the enemy; who has delivered the serpent, that murderer of men, bound to us, as a sparrow to children, whom all things dread, and tremble before the face of Your power; who has cast him down as lightning from heaven to earth, not with a fall from a place, but from honour to dishonour, on account of his voluntary evil disposition; whose look dries the abysses, and threatening melts the mountains, and whose truth remains for ever; whom the infants praise, and nursing babies bless; whom angels sing hymns to, and adore; who looks upon the earth, and makes it tremble; who touches the mountains, and they smoke; who threatens the sea, and dries it up, and makes all its rivers as desert, and the clouds are the dust of His feet; who walks upon the sea as upon the firm ground; You only begotten God, the Son of the great Father, rebuke these wicked spirits, and deliver the works of Your hands from the power of the adverse spirit. For to You is due glory, honour, and worship, and by You to Your Father, in the Holy Spirit, forever. Amen. And let the deacon say: Go out, you energumens. And after them, let him cry aloud: You that are to be illuminated, pray. Let all us, the faithful, earnestly pray for them, that the Lord will vouchsafe that, being initiated into the death of Christ, they may rise with Him, and become partakers of His kingdom, and may be admitted to the communion of His mysteries; unite them to, number them among, those that are saved in His holy Church. Save them, and raise them up by Your grace. And being sealed to God through His Christ, let them bow down their heads, and receive this blessing from the bishop:—

And I James, the brother of John, the son of Zebedee, say, that the deacon shall immediately say, Let none of the catechumens, let none of the hearers, let none of the unbelievers, let none of the heterodox, stay here . You who have prayed the foregoing prayer, depart. Let the mothers receive their children; let no one have anything against any one; let no one come in hypocrisy; let us stand upright before the Lord with fear and trembling, to offer. When this is done, let the deacons bring the gifts to the bishop at the altar; and let the presbyters stand on his right hand, and on his left, as disciples stand before their Master. But let two of the deacons, on each side of the altar, hold a fan, made up of thin membranes, or of the feathers of the peacock, or of fine cloth, and let them silently drive away the small animals that fly about, that they may not come near to the cups. Let the high priest, therefore, together with the priests, pray by himself; and let him put on his shining garment, and stand at the altar, and make the sign of the cross upon his forehead with his hand, and say: The grace of Almighty God, and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. And let all with one voice say: And with your spirit. The high priest: Lift up your mind. All the people: We lift it up unto the Lord. The high priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord. All the people: It is meet and right so to do. Then let the high priest say: It is very meet and right before all things to sing an hymn to You, who art the true God, who art before all beings, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named; who only art unbegotten, and without beginning, and without a ruler, and without a master; who standest in need of nothing; who art the bestower of everything that is good; who art beyond all cause and generation; who art always and immutably the same; from whom all things came into being, as from their proper original. For You are eternal knowledge, everlasting sight, unbegotten hearing, untaught wisdom, the first by nature, and the measure of being, and beyond all number; who brought all things out of nothing into being by Your only begotten Son, but begot Him before all ages by Your will, Your power, and Your goodness, without any instrument, the only begotten Son, God the Word, the living Wisdom, the First-born of every creature, the angel of Your Great Counsel, and Your High Priest, but the King and Lord of every intellectual and sensible nature, who was before all things, by whom were all things. For You, O eternal God, made all things by Him, and through Him it is that You vouchsafe Your suitable providence over the whole world; for by the very same that You bestowed being, did You also bestow well-being: the God and Father of Your only begotten Son, who by Him made before all things the cherubim and the seraphim, the æons and hosts, the powers and authorities, the principalities and thrones, the archangels and angels; and after all these, by Him made this visible world, and all things that are therein. For You are He who framed the heaven as an arch, and stretch it out like the covering of a tent, and founded the earth upon nothing by Your mere will; who fixed the firmament, and prepare the night and the day; who brought the light out of Your treasures, and on its departure brought on darkness, for the rest of the living creatures that move up and down in the world; who appointed the sun in heaven to rule over the day, and the moon to rule over the night, and inscribed in heaven the choir of stars to praise Your glorious majesty; who made the water for drink and for cleansing, the air in which we live for respiration and the affording of sounds, by the means of the tongue, which strikes the air, and the hearings which co-operates therewith, so as to perceive speech when it is received by it, and falls upon it; who made fire for our consolation in darkness, for the supply of our want, and that we might be warmed and enlightened by it; who separated the great sea from the land, and rendered the former navigable and the latter fit for walking, and replenished the former with small and great living creatures, and filled the latter with the same, both tame and wild; furnished it with various plants, and crown it with herbs, and beautify it with flowers, and enrich it with seeds; who ordained the great deep, and on every side made a mighty cavity for it, which contains seas of salt waters heaped together, yet You every way bounded them with barriers of the smallest sand; who sometimes raises it to the height of mountains by the winds, and sometimes smooths it into a plain; sometimes enrages it with a tempest, and sometimes stills it with a calm, that it may be easy to seafaring men in their voyages; who encompassed this world, which was made by You through Christ, with rivers, and water it with currents, and moisten it with springs that never fail, and bound it round with mountains for the immoveable and secure consistence of the earth: for You have replenished Your world, and adorned it with sweet-smelling and with healing herbs, with many and various living creatures, strong and weak, for food and for labour, tame and wild; with the noises of creeping things, the sounds of various sorts of flying creatures; with the circuits of the years, the numbers of months and days, the order of the seasons, the courses of the rain clouds, for the production of the fruits and the support of living creatures. You have also appointed the station of the winds, which blow when commanded by You, and the multitude of the plants and herbs. And You have not only created the world itself, but hast also made man for a citizen of the world, exhibiting him as the ornament of the world; for You said to Your Wisdom: Let us make man according to our image, and according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the heaven. Wherefore also You have made him of an immortal soul and of a body liable to dissolution — the former out of nothing, the latter out of the four elements — and hast given him as to his soul rational knowledge, the discerning of piety and impiety, and the observation of right and wrong; and as to his body, You have granted him five senses and progressive motion: for You, O God Almighty, by Your Christ planted a paradise in Eden, in the east, adorned with all plants fit for food, and introduced him into it, as into a rich banquet. And when You made him, You gave him a law implanted within him, that so he might have at home and within himself the seeds of divine knowledge; and when You had brought him into the paradise of pleasure, You allowed him the privilege of enjoying all things, only forbidding the tasting of one tree, in hopes of greater blessings; that in case he would keep that command, he might receive the reward of it, which was immortality. But when he neglected that command, and tasted of the forbidden fruit, by the seduction of the serpent and the counsel of his wife, You justly cast him out of paradise.

And I James, the brother of John, the son of Zebedee, say, that the deacon shall immediately say, Let none of the catechumens, let none of the hearers, let none of the unbelievers, let none of the heterodox, stay here . You who have prayed the foregoing prayer, depart. Let the mothers receive their children; let no one have anything against any one; let no one come in hypocrisy; let us stand upright before the Lord with fear and trembling, to offer. When this is done, let the deacons bring the gifts to the bishop at the altar; and let the presbyters stand on his right hand, and on his left, as disciples stand before their Master. But let two of the deacons, on each side of the altar, hold a fan, made up of thin membranes, or of the feathers of the peacock, or of fine cloth, and let them silently drive away the small animals that fly about, that they may not come near to the cups. Let the high priest, therefore, together with the priests, pray by himself; and let him put on his shining garment, and stand at the altar, and make the sign of the cross upon his forehead with his hand, and say: The grace of Almighty God, and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. And let all with one voice say: And with your spirit. The high priest: Lift up your mind. All the people: We lift it up unto the Lord. The high priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord. All the people: It is meet and right so to do. Then let the high priest say: It is very meet and right before all things to sing an hymn to You, who art the true God, who art before all beings, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named; who only art unbegotten, and without beginning, and without a ruler, and without a master; who standest in need of nothing; who art the bestower of everything that is good; who art beyond all cause and generation; who art always and immutably the same; from whom all things came into being, as from their proper original. For You are eternal knowledge, everlasting sight, unbegotten hearing, untaught wisdom, the first by nature, and the measure of being, and beyond all number; who brought all things out of nothing into being by Your only begotten Son, but begot Him before all ages by Your will, Your power, and Your goodness, without any instrument, the only begotten Son, God the Word, the living Wisdom, the First-born of every creature, the angel of Your Great Counsel, and Your High Priest, but the King and Lord of every intellectual and sensible nature, who was before all things, by whom were all things. For You, O eternal God, made all things by Him, and through Him it is that You vouchsafe Your suitable providence over the whole world; for by the very same that You bestowed being, did You also bestow well-being: the God and Father of Your only begotten Son, who by Him made before all things the cherubim and the seraphim, the æons and hosts, the powers and authorities, the principalities and thrones, the archangels and angels; and after all these, by Him made this visible world, and all things that are therein. For You are He who framed the heaven as an arch, and stretch it out like the covering of a tent, and founded the earth upon nothing by Your mere will; who fixed the firmament, and prepare the night and the day; who brought the light out of Your treasures, and on its departure brought on darkness, for the rest of the living creatures that move up and down in the world; who appointed the sun in heaven to rule over the day, and the moon to rule over the night, and inscribed in heaven the choir of stars to praise Your glorious majesty; who made the water for drink and for cleansing, the air in which we live for respiration and the affording of sounds, by the means of the tongue, which strikes the air, and the hearings which co-operates therewith, so as to perceive speech when it is received by it, and falls upon it; who made fire for our consolation in darkness, for the supply of our want, and that we might be warmed and enlightened by it; who separated the great sea from the land, and rendered the former navigable and the latter fit for walking, and replenished the former with small and great living creatures, and filled the latter with the same, both tame and wild; furnished it with various plants, and crown it with herbs, and beautify it with flowers, and enrich it with seeds; who ordained the great deep, and on every side made a mighty cavity for it, which contains seas of salt waters heaped together, yet You every way bounded them with barriers of the smallest sand; who sometimes raises it to the height of mountains by the winds, and sometimes smooths it into a plain; sometimes enrages it with a tempest, and sometimes stills it with a calm, that it may be easy to seafaring men in their voyages; who encompassed this world, which was made by You through Christ, with rivers, and water it with currents, and moisten it with springs that never fail, and bound it round with mountains for the immoveable and secure consistence of the earth: for You have replenished Your world, and adorned it with sweet-smelling and with healing herbs, with many and various living creatures, strong and weak, for food and for labour, tame and wild; with the noises of creeping things, the sounds of various sorts of flying creatures; with the circuits of the years, the numbers of months and days, the order of the seasons, the courses of the rain clouds, for the production of the fruits and the support of living creatures. You have also appointed the station of the winds, which blow when commanded by You, and the multitude of the plants and herbs. And You have not only created the world itself, but hast also made man for a citizen of the world, exhibiting him as the ornament of the world; for You said to Your Wisdom: Let us make man according to our image, and according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the heaven. Wherefore also You have made him of an immortal soul and of a body liable to dissolution — the former out of nothing, the latter out of the four elements — and hast given him as to his soul rational knowledge, the discerning of piety and impiety, and the observation of right and wrong; and as to his body, You have granted him five senses and progressive motion: for You, O God Almighty, by Your Christ planted a paradise in Eden, in the east, adorned with all plants fit for food, and introduced him into it, as into a rich banquet. And when You made him, You gave him a law implanted within him, that so he might have at home and within himself the seeds of divine knowledge; and when You had brought him into the paradise of pleasure, You allowed him the privilege of enjoying all things, only forbidding the tasting of one tree, in hopes of greater blessings; that in case he would keep that command, he might receive the reward of it, which was immortality. But when he neglected that command, and tasted of the forbidden fruit, by the seduction of the serpent and the counsel of his wife, You justly cast him out of paradise.

And the waters decreased in those days, and the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.

And the children of Elishah are the Almanim, and they also went and built themselves cities; those are the cities situate between the mountains of Job and Shibathmo; and of them were the people of Lumbardi who dwell opposite the mountains of Job and Shibathmo, and they conquered the land of Italia and remained there unto this day.

And the children of Elishah are the Almanim, and they also went and built themselves cities; those are the cities situate between the mountains of Job and Shibathmo; and of them were the people of Lumbardi who dwell opposite the mountains of Job and Shibathmo, and they conquered the land of Italia and remained there unto this day.

And he said to him, Take now thy son, thine only son whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which shall be shown to thee, for there wilt thou see a cloud and the glory of the Lord.

And they answered and said, We see nothing more than like the other mountains of the earth. And Abraham knew that they were not accepted before the Lord to go with them, and Abraham said to them, Abide ye here with the ass whilst I and Isaac my son will go to yonder mount and worship there before the Lord and then return to you.

And when Jacob went away to go to Haran Esau called unto his son Eliphaz, and secretly spoke unto him, saying, Now hasten, take thy sword in thy hand and pursue Jacob and pass before him in the road, and lurk for him, and slay him with thy sword in one of the mountains, and take all belonging to him and come back.

And the people shall not worship the sun and the magnificence of the heavens, or the mountains and the forests, or the stones and the trees of the wilderness, or the abysses and that which is in the waters, or graven images and figures of gold, or the feathered fowl which fly; and they shall not make use of them in divining, and they shall not pay adoration unto them.

The air (i.e., climate) of our country is good, for it is without burning heat and fire, and the water of our country is good, and sweet, and floweth in rivers, moreover the tops of our mountains run with water.

And although (thy) country pleaseth me even as doth a garden, yet is not my heart gratified therewith; the mountains of the land of my mother where I was born are far better in my sight.

And when those who are in the mountains see thee afar off they shall come down to the plain, and those who are on the seas and in the deep waters shall come forth, so that the Lord may bring them into thy hand, because they have transgressed the command of God.

And as for thee, O Tabernacle of the Law of God, salvation be whither thou goest, and from the place whence thou goest forth; salvation be in the house and in the field, salvation be here and be there, salvation be in the palace and in the lowly place, salvation be on the sea and on the dry land, salvation be in the mountains and in the hills, salvation be in the heavens and on the earth, salvation be ill the firm grounds and in the abysses, salvation be in death and in life, salvation be in thy coming and in thy going forth, salvation be to our children and to the tribe of thy people, salvation be in thy countries and in thy cities, salvation be to the kings and to the nobles, salvation be to the plants and to the fruits, salvation be to men and to beasts, salvation be to the birds and to the creeping things of the earth; be salvation, be an intercessor, and a merciful one, and have regard for thy people.

And when the holy Zion crossed over with those who were in attendance on her, and who sang songs to the accompaniment of harps and flutes, the sea received them and its waves leaped up as do the high mountains when they are split asunder, and it roared even as a lion roareth when he is enraged, and it thundered as doth the winter thunder of Damascus and Ethiopia when the lightning smiteth the clouds, and the sound thereof mingled with the sounds of the musical instruments.

And whilst its billows were tossing about like the mountains their wagons were raised above the waves for a space of three cubits, and among the sound of the songs the [noise of the] breaking of the waves of the sea was wonderful.

And he shall live and they shall give him of the gold of Arabia, and shall pray for him continually, and shall follow him [with good words], and he shall be a support for the whole earth on the tops of the mountains, and his fruit shall be greater than the cedar, and he shall flourish in the city like the grass of the earth, and his name shall be blessed for ever, and his name shall be before the sun.

And as thou hast built the house of God, so shall churches be built upon the tops of the mountains."

Now the wrath of God came down on the city of Sodom [in the form of] a rain of fire from heaven, which burned up mountains, and hills, and stones, and earth.

And as for Lot, God made him to dwell in the mountains of Ararat.

The daughters of Jerusalem suffered disgrace, and the daughters of Ethiopia were held in honour; the daughter of Judah was sad, whilst the daughter of Ethiopia rejoiced; the mountains of Ethiopia rejoiced, and the mountains of Lebanon mourned.

The daughters of Jerusalem suffered disgrace, and the daughters of Ethiopia were held in honour; the daughter of Judah was sad, whilst the daughter of Ethiopia rejoiced; the mountains of Ethiopia rejoiced, and the mountains of Lebanon mourned.

And as Moses smote the mountains by stretching out his hands with his rod, and brought forth punishments by the command of God, even so Christ, by stretching out His hands upon the wood of the Cross, drove out the demons from men by the might of His Cross.

I stand under the deepest deep so that the mountains may not sink down under the waters; and I am under the waters so that they may not sink down upon the fire, and sulphur; I stand under the fire and sulphur so that they may not sink down upon the winds and the rust.

Thus David the Prophet prophesied and said, "And He shall live, and they shall give Him of the gold of Arabia, and they shall pray for Him continually, and He shall be the stay of all the earth upon the tops of the mountains."

And again Micah the Prophet said, "A new covenant shall appear upon the mountain of God, and it shall be prepared upon the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall say, `Come ye, let us go up into the mountain of God.'

However, the governors of Tiberias took care to have their city secured with walls, and commanded their inhabitants to take their arms. They also sent for a great many soldiers from John, to assist them against me, if there should be occasion for them. Now John was at Gischala. Jonathan, therefore, and those that were with him, when they were departed from Tiberias, and as soon as they were come to Dabaritta, a village that lay in the utmost parts of Galilee, in the great plain, they, about midnight, fell among the guards I had set, who both commanded them to lay aside their weapons, and kept them in bonds upon the place, as I had charged them to do. This news was written to me by Levi, who had the command of that guard committed to him by me. Hereupon I said nothing of it for two days; and, pretending to know nothing about it, I sent a message to the people of Tiberias, and advised them to lay their arms aside, and to dismiss their men, that they might go home. But, supposing that Jonathan, and those that were with him, were already arrived at Jerusalem, they made reproachful answers to me; yet was I not terrified thereby, but contrived another stratagem against them, for I did not think it agreeable with piety to kindle the fire of war against the citizens. As I was desirous to draw those men away from Tiberias, I chose out ten thousand of the best of my armed men, and divided them into three bodies, and ordered them to go privately, and lie still as an ambush, in the villages. I also led a thousand into another village, which lay indeed in the mountains, as did the others, but only four furlongs distant from Tiberias; and gave orders, that when they saw my signal, they should come down immediately, while I myself lay with my soldiers in the sight of every body. Hereupon the people of Tiberias, at the sight of me, came running out of the city perpetually, and abused me greatly. Nay, their madness was come to that height, that they made a decent bier for me, and, standing about it, they mourned over me in the way of jest and sport; and I could not but be myself in a pleasant humor upon the sight of this madness of theirs.

Accordingly Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the priests who lived in a village called Modin, armed himself, together with his own family, which had five sons of his in it, and slew Bacchides with daggers; and thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons [of the enemy], he fled to the mountains; and so many of the people followed him, that he was encouraged to come down from the mountains, and to give battle to Antiochus's generals, when he beat them, and drove them out of Judea. So he came to the government by this his success, and became the prince of his own people by their own free consent, and then died, leaving the government to Judas, his eldest son.

Accordingly Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the priests who lived in a village called Modin, armed himself, together with his own family, which had five sons of his in it, and slew Bacchides with daggers; and thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons [of the enemy], he fled to the mountains; and so many of the people followed him, that he was encouraged to come down from the mountains, and to give battle to Antiochus's generals, when he beat them, and drove them out of Judea. So he came to the government by this his success, and became the prince of his own people by their own free consent, and then died, leaving the government to Judas, his eldest son.

However, Simon managed the public affairs after a courageous manner, and took Gazara, and Joppa, and Jamnia, which were cities in his neighborhood. He also got the garrison under, and demolished the citadel. He was afterward an auxiliary to Antiochus, against Trypho, whom he besieged in Dora, before he went on his expedition against the Medes; yet could not he make the king ashamed of his ambition, though he had assisted him in killing Trypho; for it was not long ere Antiochus sent Cendebeus his general with an army to lay waste Judea, and to subdue Simon; yet he, though he was now in years, conducted the war as if he were a much younger man. He also sent his sons with a band of strong men against Antiochus, while he took part of the army himself with him, and fell upon him from another quarter. He also laid a great many men in ambush in many places of the mountains, and was superior in all his attacks upon them; and when he had been conqueror after so glorious a manner, he was made high priest, and also freed the Jews from the dominion of the Macedonians, after one hundred and seventy years of the empire [of Seleucus].

Yet did Alexander meet both these forces with one thousand horsemen, and eight thousand mercenaries that were on foot. He had also with him that part of the Jews which favored him, to the number of ten thousand; while the adverse party had three thousand horsemen, and fourteen thousand footmen. Now, before they joined battle, the kings made proclamation, and endeavored to draw off each other's soldiers, and make them revolt; while Demetrius hoped to induce Alexander's mercenaries to leave him, and Alexander hoped to induce the Jews that were with Demetrius to leave him. But since neither the Jews would leave off their rage, nor the Greeks prove unfaithful, they came to an engagement, and to a close fight with their weapons. In which battle Demetrius was the conqueror, although Alexander's mercenaries showed the greatest exploits, both in soul and body. Yet did the upshot of this battle prove different from what was expected, as to both of them; for neither did those that invited Demetrius to come to them continue firm to him, though he was conqueror; and six thousand Jews, out of pity to the change of Alexander's condition, when he was fled to the mountains, came over to him. Yet could not Demetrius bear this turn of affairs; but supposing that Alexander was already become a match for him again, and that all the nation would [at length] run to him, he left the country, and went his way.

Yet did that Antiochus, who was also called Dionysius, become an origin of troubles again. This man was the brother of Demetrius, and the last of the race of the Seleucidae. Alexander was afraid of him, when he was marching against the Arabians; so he cut a deep trench between Antipatris, which was near the mountains, and the shores of Joppa; he also erected a high wall before the trench, and built wooden towers, in order to hinder any sudden approaches. But still he was not able to exclude Antiochus, for he burnt the towers, and filled up the trenches, and marched on with his army. And as he looked upon taking his revenge on Alexander, for endeavoring to stop him, as a thing of less consequence, he marched directly against the Arabians, whose king retired into such parts of the country as were fittest for engaging the enemy, and then on the sudden made his horse turn back, which were in number ten thousand, and fell upon Antiochus's army while they were in disorder, and a terrible battle ensued. Antiochus's troops, so long as he was alive, fought it out, although a mighty slaughter was made among them by the Arabians; but when he fell, for he was in the forefront, in the utmost danger, in rallying his troops, they all gave ground, and the greatest part of his army were destroyed, either in the action or the flight; and for the rest, who fled to the village of Cana, it happened that they were all consumed by want of necessaries, a few only excepted.

But as for Alexander, that son of Aristobulus who ran away from Pompey, in some time he got a considerable band of men together, and lay heavy upon Hyrcanus, and overran Judea, and was likely to overturn him quickly; and indeed he had come to Jerusalem, and had ventured to rebuild its wall that was thrown down by Pompey, had not Gabinius, who was sent as successor to Scaurus into Syria, showed his bravery, as in many other points, so in making an expedition against Alexander; who, as he was afraid that he would attack him, so he got together a large army, composed of ten thousand armed footmen, and fifteen hundred horsemen. He also built walls about proper places; Alexandrium, and Hyrcanium, and Machaerus, that lay upon the mountains of Arabia.

And here it was that Silo discovered he had taken bribes; for he set many of the soldiers to clamor about their want of necessaries, and to require their pay, in order to buy themselves food, and to demand that he would lead them into places convenient for their winter quarters; because all the parts about the city were laid waste by the means of Antigonus's army, which had taken all things away. By this he moved the army, and attempted to get them off the siege; but Herod went to the captains that were under Silo, and to a great many of the soldiers, and begged of them not to leave him, who was sent thither by Caesar, and Antony, and the senate; for that he would take care to have their wants supplied that very day. After the making of which entreaty, he went hastily into the country, and brought thither so great an abundance of necessaries, that he cut off all Silo's pretenses; and in order to provide that for the following days they should not want supplies, he sent to the people that were about Samaria [which city had joined itself to him] to bring corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle to Jericho. When Antigonus heard of this, he sent some of his party with orders to hinder, and lay ambushes for these collectors of corn. This command was obeyed, and a great multitude of armed men were gathered together about Jericho, and lay upon the mountains, to watch those that brought the provisions. Yet was Herod not idle, but took with him ten cohorts, five of them were Romans, and five were Jewish cohorts, together with some mercenary troops intermixed among them, and besides those a few horsemen, and came to Jericho; and when he came, he found the city deserted, but that there were five hundred men, with their wives and children, who had taken possession of the tops of the mountains; these he took, and dismissed them, while the Romans fell upon the rest of the city, and plundered it, having found the houses full of all sorts of good things. So the king left a garrison at Jericho, and came back, and sent the Roman army into those cities which were come over to him, to take their winter quarters there, viz. into Judea, [or Idumea,] and Galilee, and Samaria. Antigonus also by bribes obtained of Silo to let a part of his army be received at Lydda, as a compliment to Antonius.

And here it was that Silo discovered he had taken bribes; for he set many of the soldiers to clamor about their want of necessaries, and to require their pay, in order to buy themselves food, and to demand that he would lead them into places convenient for their winter quarters; because all the parts about the city were laid waste by the means of Antigonus's army, which had taken all things away. By this he moved the army, and attempted to get them off the siege; but Herod went to the captains that were under Silo, and to a great many of the soldiers, and begged of them not to leave him, who was sent thither by Caesar, and Antony, and the senate; for that he would take care to have their wants supplied that very day. After the making of which entreaty, he went hastily into the country, and brought thither so great an abundance of necessaries, that he cut off all Silo's pretenses; and in order to provide that for the following days they should not want supplies, he sent to the people that were about Samaria [which city had joined itself to him] to bring corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle to Jericho. When Antigonus heard of this, he sent some of his party with orders to hinder, and lay ambushes for these collectors of corn. This command was obeyed, and a great multitude of armed men were gathered together about Jericho, and lay upon the mountains, to watch those that brought the provisions. Yet was Herod not idle, but took with him ten cohorts, five of them were Romans, and five were Jewish cohorts, together with some mercenary troops intermixed among them, and besides those a few horsemen, and came to Jericho; and when he came, he found the city deserted, but that there were five hundred men, with their wives and children, who had taken possession of the tops of the mountains; these he took, and dismissed them, while the Romans fell upon the rest of the city, and plundered it, having found the houses full of all sorts of good things. So the king left a garrison at Jericho, and came back, and sent the Roman army into those cities which were come over to him, to take their winter quarters there, viz. into Judea, [or Idumea,] and Galilee, and Samaria. Antigonus also by bribes obtained of Silo to let a part of his army be received at Lydda, as a compliment to Antonius.

In the mean time Antony abode at Athens, while Ventidius called for Silo and Herod to come to the war against the Parthians, but ordered them first to settle the affairs of Judea; so Herod willingly dismissed Silo to go to Ventidius, but he made an expedition himself against those that lay in the caves. Now these caves were in the precipices of craggy mountains, and could not be come at from any side, since they had only some winding pathways, very narrow, by which they got up to them; but the rock that lay on their front had beneath it valleys of a vast depth, and of an almost perpendicular declivity; insomuch that the king was doubtful for a long time what to do, by reason of a kind of impossibility there was of attacking the place. Yet did he at length make use of a contrivance that was subject to the utmost hazard; for he let down the most hardy of his men in chests, and set them at the mouths of the dens. Now these men slew the robbers and their families, and when they made resistance, they sent in fire upon them [and burnt them]; and as Herod was desirous of saving some of them, he had proclamation made, that they should come and deliver themselves up to him; but not one of them came willingly to him; and of those that were compelled to come, many preferred death to captivity. And here a certain old man, the father of seven children, whose children, together with their mother, desired him to give them leave to go out, upon the assurance and right hand that was offered them, slew them after the following manner: He ordered every one of them to go out, while he stood himself at the cave's mouth, and slew that son of his perpetually who went out. Herod was near enough to see this sight, and his bowels of compassion were moved at it, and he stretched out his right hand to the old man, and besought him to spare his children; yet did not he relent at all upon what he said, but over and above reproached Herod on the lowness of his descent, and slew his wife as well as his children; and when he had thrown their dead bodies down the precipice, he at last threw himself down after them.

In the mean time, Herod's affairs in Judea were in an ill state. He had left his brother Joseph with full power, but had charged him to make no attempts against Antigonus till his return; for that Machaerus would not be such an assistant as he could depend on, as it appeared by what he had done already; but as soon as Joseph heard that his brother was at a very great distance, he neglected the charge he had received, and marched towards Jericho with five cohorts, which Machaerus sent with him. This movement was intended for seizing on the corn, as it was now in the midst of summer; but when his enemies attacked him in the mountains, and in places which were difficult to pass, he was both killed himself, as he was very bravely fighting in the battle, and the entire Roman cohorts were destroyed; for these cohorts were new-raised men, gathered out of Syria, and here was no mixture of those called veteran soldiers among them, who might have supported those that were unskillful in war.

After this he marched through Jericho, as making what haste he could to be avenged on his brother's murderers; where happened to him a providential sign, out of which, when he had unexpectedly escaped, he had the reputation of being very dear to God; for that evening there feasted with him many of the principal men; and after that feast was over, and all the guests were gone out, the house fell down immediately. And as he judged this to be a common signal of what dangers he should undergo, and how he should escape them in the war that he was going about, he, in the morning, set forward with his army, when about six thousand of his enemies came running down from the mountains, and began to fight with those in his forefront; yet durst they not be so very bold as to engage the Romans hand to hand, but threw stones and darts at them at a distance; by which means they wounded a considerable number; in which action Herod's own side was wounded with a dart.

At these clamors Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself from taking vengeance on the authors, on account of the haste he was in of going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making war on the multitude, such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly, he made trial to quiet the innovators by persuasion, rather than by force, and sent his general in a private way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet. But the seditious threw stones at him, and drove him away, as he came into the temple, and before he could say any thing to them. The like treatment they showed to others, who came to them after him, many of which were sent by Archelaus, in order to reduce them to sobriety, and these answered still on all occasions after a passionate manner; and it openly appeared that they would not be quiet, if their numbers were but considerable. And indeed, at the feast of unleavened bread, which was now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude of the people came out of the country to worship; some of these stood in the temple bewailing the Rabbins [that had been put to death], and procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support their sedition. At this Archelaus was affrighted, and privately sent a tribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the disease should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they should constrain those that began the tumult, by force, to be quiet. At these the whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of the soldiers, and killed them; but the tribune fled away wounded, and had much ado to escape so. After which they betook themselves to their sacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor did it appear to Archelaus that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed; so he sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes, by the way of the city, and the horsemen by the way of the plain, who, falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices, destroyed about three thousand of them; but the rest of the multitude were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains: these were followed by Archelaus's heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their own homes, whither they all went, and left the festival.

This Ptolemais is a maritime city of Galilee, built in the great plain. It is encompassed with mountains: that on the east side, sixty furlongs off, belongs to Galilee; but that on the south belongs to Carmel, which is distant from it a hundred and twenty furlongs; and that on the north is the highest of them all, and is called by the people of the country, The Ladder of the Tyrians, which is at the distance of a hundred furlongs. The very small river Belus runs by it, at the distance of two furlongs; near which there is Menmon's monument, and hath near it a place no larger than a hundred cubits, which deserves admiration; for the place is round and hollow, and affords such sand as glass is made of; which place, when it hath been emptied by the many ships there loaded, it is filled again by the winds, which bring into it, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote, and was no more than bare common sand, while this mine presently turns it into glassy sand. And what is to me still more wonderful, that glassy sand which is superfluous, and is once removed out of the place, becomes bare common sand again. And this is the nature of the place we are speaking of.

"Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed to do the contrary. But because some are earnest to go to war because they are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings, and because some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by it, and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too weak to resist them, I have thought proper to get you all together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage; that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some others. And let not any one be tumultuous against me, in case what they hear me say do not please them; for as to those that admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will all keep silence. I am well aware that many make a tragical exclamation concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your procurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; but before I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who they are against whom you must fight, I shall first separate those pretenses that are by some connected together; for if you aim at avenging yourselves on those that have done you injury, why do you pretend this to be a war for recovering your liberty? but if you think all servitude intolerable, to what purpose serve your complaint against your particular governors? for if they treated you with moderation, it would still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude. Consider now the several cases that may be supposed, how little occasion there is for your going to war. Your first occasion is the accusations you have to make against your procurators; now here you ought to be submissive to those in authority, and not give them any provocation; but when you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly. Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are injured diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it for granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hath Caesar, against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is not by their command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they who are in the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy for them there even to hear what is done in these parts. Now it is absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one, to do so with such mighty people for a small cause; and this when these people are not able to know of what you complain: nay, such crimes as we complain of may soon be corrected, for the same procurator will not continue for ever; and probable it is that the successors will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith. However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have labored earnestly in old time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never have been subject to it would have been just; but that slave who hath been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the proper time for doing all that was possible, that you might never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country. But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better circumstances than we are, both as to money, and strong bodies, and [valiant] souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army. And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience from one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those who first submitted, in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entire empire of the Romans. While those Athenians, who, in order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the land, and walked upon the sea, and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an army as was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a fugitive in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia at the Lesser Salamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principal governing city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians also who got the great victories at Thermopylae and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for their king], and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit the same lords. Those Macedonians also, who still fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander were, and see that the latter had promised them the empire over the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their obedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover, ten thousand ether nations there are who had greater reason than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world hath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? and where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your undertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten even by your neighboring nations, while the power of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth? nay, rather they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British islands as were never known before. What therefore do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans? Perhaps it will be said, It is hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is this to the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians, who have juster reason to claim their liberty than you have. What is the case of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a single governor, and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Henlochi, and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly knew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to three thousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? How strong a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty! But they are made tributary without an army. What are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose country extends in breadth five days' journey, and in length seven, and is of a much more harsh constitution, and much more defensible, than yours, and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off armies from attacking them? do not they submit to two thousand men of the Roman garrisons? Are not the Illyrlans, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, governed by barely two legions? by which also they put a stop to the incursions of the Daeians. And for the Dalmatians, who have made such frequent insurrections in order to regain their liberty, and who could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they always gathered their forces together again, revolted, yet are they now very quiet under one Roman legion. Moreover, great advantages might provoke any people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, and on the west by the ocean. Now although these Gauls have such obstacles before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous condition from them; and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason of the great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which are hardly so many as are their cities; nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans by land and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended their arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were so hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. Who is there among you that hath not heard of the great number of the Germans? You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans have them among their captives every where; yet these Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who are in rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their servants; and the rest of the entire nation were obliged to save themselves by flight. Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans sailed away to them, an subdued them while they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than the [continent of this] habitable earth; and four legions are a sufficient guard to so large an island And why should I speak much more about this matter, while the Parthians, that most warlike body of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you may see, if you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of the East, under the notion of peace, submitting to serve them. Now when almost all people under the sun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make war against them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians, who, in the midst of their brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobility of their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeed have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridite, a nation extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valor. And as for the third part of the habitable earth, [Africa,] whose nations are so many that it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic Sea and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subdued entirely. And besides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, this, over and above, pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revenues suitable to the necessities of the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion that abides among them. And indeed what occasion is there for showing you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? This country is extended as far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it hath seven millions five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet it is not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people and of riches, and is besides exceeding large, its length being thirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have none of these things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more noble Macedonians. Where then are those people whom you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assistance; but certainly these will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do; for it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans, and they will be supposed to break the covenants between them, if any under their government march against the Romans. What remains, therefore, is this, that you have recourse to Divine assistance; but this is already on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without God's providence. Reflect upon it, how impossible it is for your zealous observations of your religious customs to be here preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you then most of all hope for God's assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? and if you do observe the custom of the sabbath days, and will not be revealed on to do any thing thereon, you will easily be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested. But if in time of war you transgress the law of your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of your forefathers; and how will you call upon God to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now all men that go to war do it either as depending on Divine or on human assistance; but since your going to war will cut off both those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident destruction. What hinders you from slaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the reproach of being beaten. But it were best, O my friends, it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes; for we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without fore-seeing them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration]. But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able to find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those of them which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them, whom your enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; and so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the sake of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned; but if that slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you under their power, they will no longer abstain from them, when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back any thing that is for your preservation; and if you will follow that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common to you and to me; but if you indulge four passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be free from."

"Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed to do the contrary. But because some are earnest to go to war because they are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings, and because some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by it, and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too weak to resist them, I have thought proper to get you all together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage; that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some others. And let not any one be tumultuous against me, in case what they hear me say do not please them; for as to those that admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will all keep silence. I am well aware that many make a tragical exclamation concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your procurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; but before I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who they are against whom you must fight, I shall first separate those pretenses that are by some connected together; for if you aim at avenging yourselves on those that have done you injury, why do you pretend this to be a war for recovering your liberty? but if you think all servitude intolerable, to what purpose serve your complaint against your particular governors? for if they treated you with moderation, it would still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude. Consider now the several cases that may be supposed, how little occasion there is for your going to war. Your first occasion is the accusations you have to make against your procurators; now here you ought to be submissive to those in authority, and not give them any provocation; but when you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly. Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are injured diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it for granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hath Caesar, against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is not by their command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they who are in the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy for them there even to hear what is done in these parts. Now it is absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one, to do so with such mighty people for a small cause; and this when these people are not able to know of what you complain: nay, such crimes as we complain of may soon be corrected, for the same procurator will not continue for ever; and probable it is that the successors will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith. However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have labored earnestly in old time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never have been subject to it would have been just; but that slave who hath been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the proper time for doing all that was possible, that you might never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country. But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better circumstances than we are, both as to money, and strong bodies, and [valiant] souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army. And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience from one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those who first submitted, in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entire empire of the Romans. While those Athenians, who, in order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the land, and walked upon the sea, and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an army as was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a fugitive in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia at the Lesser Salamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principal governing city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians also who got the great victories at Thermopylae and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for their king], and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit the same lords. Those Macedonians also, who still fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander were, and see that the latter had promised them the empire over the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their obedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover, ten thousand ether nations there are who had greater reason than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world hath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? and where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your undertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten even by your neighboring nations, while the power of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth? nay, rather they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British islands as were never known before. What therefore do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans? Perhaps it will be said, It is hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is this to the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians, who have juster reason to claim their liberty than you have. What is the case of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a single governor, and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Henlochi, and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly knew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to three thousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? How strong a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty! But they are made tributary without an army. What are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose country extends in breadth five days' journey, and in length seven, and is of a much more harsh constitution, and much more defensible, than yours, and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off armies from attacking them? do not they submit to two thousand men of the Roman garrisons? Are not the Illyrlans, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, governed by barely two legions? by which also they put a stop to the incursions of the Daeians. And for the Dalmatians, who have made such frequent insurrections in order to regain their liberty, and who could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they always gathered their forces together again, revolted, yet are they now very quiet under one Roman legion. Moreover, great advantages might provoke any people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, and on the west by the ocean. Now although these Gauls have such obstacles before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous condition from them; and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason of the great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which are hardly so many as are their cities; nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans by land and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended their arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were so hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. Who is there among you that hath not heard of the great number of the Germans? You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans have them among their captives every where; yet these Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who are in rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their servants; and the rest of the entire nation were obliged to save themselves by flight. Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans sailed away to them, an subdued them while they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than the [continent of this] habitable earth; and four legions are a sufficient guard to so large an island And why should I speak much more about this matter, while the Parthians, that most warlike body of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you may see, if you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of the East, under the notion of peace, submitting to serve them. Now when almost all people under the sun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make war against them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians, who, in the midst of their brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobility of their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeed have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridite, a nation extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valor. And as for the third part of the habitable earth, [Africa,] whose nations are so many that it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic Sea and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subdued entirely. And besides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, this, over and above, pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revenues suitable to the necessities of the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion that abides among them. And indeed what occasion is there for showing you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? This country is extended as far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it hath seven millions five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet it is not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people and of riches, and is besides exceeding large, its length being thirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have none of these things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more noble Macedonians. Where then are those people whom you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assistance; but certainly these will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do; for it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans, and they will be supposed to break the covenants between them, if any under their government march against the Romans. What remains, therefore, is this, that you have recourse to Divine assistance; but this is already on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without God's providence. Reflect upon it, how impossible it is for your zealous observations of your religious customs to be here preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you then most of all hope for God's assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? and if you do observe the custom of the sabbath days, and will not be revealed on to do any thing thereon, you will easily be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested. But if in time of war you transgress the law of your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of your forefathers; and how will you call upon God to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now all men that go to war do it either as depending on Divine or on human assistance; but since your going to war will cut off both those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident destruction. What hinders you from slaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the reproach of being beaten. But it were best, O my friends, it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes; for we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without fore-seeing them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration]. But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able to find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those of them which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them, whom your enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; and so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the sake of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned; but if that slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you under their power, they will no longer abstain from them, when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back any thing that is for your preservation; and if you will follow that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common to you and to me; but if you indulge four passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be free from."

And this was the miserable calamity which at this time befell the Jews at Alexandria. Hereupon Cestius thought fit no longer to lie still, while the Jews were everywhere up in arms; so he took out of Antioch the twelfth legion entire, and out of each of the rest he selected two thousand, with six cohorts of footmen, and four troops of horsemen, besides those auxiliaries which were sent by the kings; of which Antiochus sent two thousand horsemen, and three thousand footmen, with as many archers; and Agrippa sent the same number of footmen, and one thousand horsemen; Sohemus also followed with four thousand, a third part whereof were horsemen, but most part were archers, and thus did he march to Ptolemais. There were also great numbers of auxiliaries gathered together from the [free] cities, who indeed had not the same skill in martial affairs, but made up in their alacrity and in their hatred to the Jews what they wanted in skill. There came also along with Cestius Agrippa himself, both as a guide in his march over the country, and a director what was fit to be done; so Cestius took part of his forces, and marched hastily to Zabulon, a strong city of Galilee, which was called the City of Men, and divides the country of Ptolemais from our nation; this he found deserted by its men, the multitude having fled to the mountains, but full of all sorts of good things; those he gave leave to the soldiers to plunder, and set fire to the city, although it was of admirable beauty, and had its houses built like those in Tyre, and Sidon, and Berytus. After this he overran all the country, and seized upon whatsoever came in his way, and set fire to the villages that were round about them, and then returned to Ptolemais. But when the Syrians, and especially those of Berytus, were busy in plundering, the Jews pulled up their courage again, for they knew that Cestius was retired, and fell upon those that were left behind unexpectedly, and destroyed about two thousand of them.

But Cestius sent Gallus, the commander of the twelfth legion, into Galilee, and delivered to him as many of his forces as he supposed sufficient to subdue that nation. He was received by the strongest city of Galilee, which was Sepphoris, with acclamations of joy; which wise conduct of that city occasioned the rest of the cities to be in quiet; while the seditious part and the robbers ran away to that mountain which lies in the very middle of Galilee, and is situated over against Sepphoris; it is called Asamon. So Gallus brought his forces against them; but while those men were in the superior parts above the Romans, they easily threw their darts upon the Romans, as they made their approaches, and slew about two hundred of them. But when the Romans had gone round the mountains, and were gotten into the parts above their enemies, the others were soon beaten; nor could they who had only light armor on sustain the force of them that fought them armed all over; nor when they were beaten could they escape the enemies' horsemen; insomuch that only some few concealed themselves in certain places hard to be come at, among the mountains, while the rest, above two thousand in number, were slain.

But Cestius sent Gallus, the commander of the twelfth legion, into Galilee, and delivered to him as many of his forces as he supposed sufficient to subdue that nation. He was received by the strongest city of Galilee, which was Sepphoris, with acclamations of joy; which wise conduct of that city occasioned the rest of the cities to be in quiet; while the seditious part and the robbers ran away to that mountain which lies in the very middle of Galilee, and is situated over against Sepphoris; it is called Asamon. So Gallus brought his forces against them; but while those men were in the superior parts above the Romans, they easily threw their darts upon the Romans, as they made their approaches, and slew about two hundred of them. But when the Romans had gone round the mountains, and were gotten into the parts above their enemies, the others were soon beaten; nor could they who had only light armor on sustain the force of them that fought them armed all over; nor when they were beaten could they escape the enemies' horsemen; insomuch that only some few concealed themselves in certain places hard to be come at, among the mountains, while the rest, above two thousand in number, were slain.

And now when Agrippa observed that even the affairs of the Romans were likely to be in danger, while such an immense multitude of their enemies had seized upon the mountains round about, he determined to try what the Jews would agree to by words, as thinking that he should either persuade them all to desist from fighting, or, however, that he should cause the sober part of them to separate themselves from the opposite party. So he sent Borceus and Phebus, the persons of his party that were the best known to them, and promised them that Cestius should give them his right hand, to secure them of the Romans' entire forgiveness of what they had done amiss, if they would throw away their arms, and come over to them; but the seditious, fearing lest the whole multitude, in hopes of security to themselves, should go over to Agrippa, resolved immediately to fall upon and kill the ambassadors; accordingly they slew Phebus before he said a word, but Borceus was only wounded, and so prevented his fate by flying away. And when the people were very angry at this, they had the seditious beaten with stones and clubs, and drove them before them into the city.

In short, if any one will suppose that Galilee is inferior to Perea in magnitude, he will be obliged to prefer it before it in its strength; for this is all capable of cultivation, and is every where fruitful; but for Perea, which is indeed much larger in extent, the greater part of it is desert and rough, and much less disposed for the production of the milder kinds of fruits; yet hath it a moist soil [in other parts], and produces all kinds of fruits, and its plains are planted with trees of all sorts, while yet the olive tree, the vine, and the palm tree are chiefly cultivated there. It is also sufficiently watered with torrents, which issue out of the mountains, and with springs that never fail to run, even when the torrents fail them, as they do in the dog-days. Now the length of Perea is from Machaerus to Pella, and its breadth from Philadelphia to Jordan; its northern parts are bounded by Pella, as we have already said, as well as its Western with Jordan; the land of Moab is its southern border, and its eastern limits reach to Arabia, and Silbonitis, and besides to Philadelphene and Gerasa.

Now Jotapata is almost all of it built on a precipice, having on all the other sides of it every way valleys immensely deep and steep, insomuch that those who would look down would have their sight fail them before it reaches to the bottom. It is only to be come at on the north side, where the utmost part of the city is built on the mountain, as it ends obliquely at a plain. This mountain Josephus had encompassed with a wall when he fortified the city, that its top might not be capable of being seized upon by the enemies. The city is covered all round with other mountains, and can no way be seen till a man comes just upon it. And this was the strong situation of Jotapata.

Vespasian, therefore, in order to try how he might overcome the natural strength of the place, as well as the bold defense of the Jews, made a resolution to prosecute the siege with vigor. To that end he called the commanders that were under him to a council of war, and consulted with them which way the assault might be managed to the best advantage. And when the resolution was there taken to raise a bank against that part of the wall which was practicable, he sent his whole army abroad to get the materials together. So when they had cut down all the trees on the mountains that adjoined to the city, and had gotten together a vast heap of stones, besides the wood they had cut down, some of them brought hurdles, in order to avoid the effects of the darts that were shot from above them. These hurdles they spread over their banks, under cover whereof they formed their bank, and so were little or nothing hurt by the darts that were thrown upon them from the wall, while others pulled the neighboring hillocks to pieces, and perpetually brought earth to them; so that while they were busy three sorts of ways, nobody was idle. However, the Jews cast great stones from the walls upon the hurdles which protected the men, with all sorts of darts also; and the noise of what could not reach them was yet so terrible, that it was some impediment to the workmen.

But still Josephus and those with him, although they fell down dead one upon another by the darts and stones which the engines threw upon them, yet did not they desert the wall, but fell upon those who managed the ram, under the protection of the hurdles, with fire, and iron weapons, and stones; and these could do little or nothing, but fell themselves perpetually, while they were seen by those whom they could not see, for the light of their own flame shone about them, and made them a most visible mark to the enemy, as they were in the day time, while the engines could not be seen at a great distance, and so what was thrown at them was hard to be avoided; for the force with which these engines threw stones and darts made them hurt several at a time, and the violent noise of the stones that were cast by the engines was so great, that they carried away the pinnacles of the wall, and broke off the corners of the towers; for no body of men could be so strong as not to be overthrown to the last rank by the largeness of the stones. And any one may learn the force of the engines by what happened this very night; for as one of those that stood round about Josephus was near the wall, his head was carried away by such a stone, and his skull was flung as far as three furlongs. In the day time also, a woman with child had her belly so violently struck, as she was just come out of her house, that the infant was carried to the distance of half a furlong, so great was the force of that engine. The noise of the instruments themselves was very terrible, the sound of the darts and stones that were thrown by them was so also; of the same sort was that noise the dead bodies made, when they were dashed against the wall; and indeed dreadful was the clamor which these things raised in the women within the city, which was echoed back at the same time by the cries of such as were slain; while the whole space of ground whereon they fought ran with blood, and the wall might have been ascended over by the bodies of the dead carcasses; the mountains also contributed to increase the noise by their echoes; nor was there on that night any thing of terror wanting that could either affect the hearing or the sight: yet did a great part of those that fought so hard for Jotapata fall manfully, as were a great part of them wounded. However, the morning watch was come ere the wall yielded to the machines employed against it, though it had been battered without intermission. However, those within covered their bodies with their armor, and raised works over against that part which was thrown down, before those machines were laid by which the Romans were to ascend into the city.

Hereupon a great multitude prevented their approach, and came out of Jericho, and fled to those mountainous parts that lay over against Jerusalem, while that part which was left behind was in a great measure destroyed; they also found the city desolate. It is situated in a plain; but a naked and barren mountain, of a very great length, hangs over it, which extends itself to the land about Scythopolis northward, but as far as the country of Sodom, and the utmost limits of the lake Asphaltites, southward. This mountain is all of it very uneven and uninhabited, by reason of its barrenness: there is an opposite mountain that is situated over against it, on the other side of Jordan; this last begins at Julias, and the northern quarters, and extends itself southward as far as Somorrhon, which is the bounds of Petra, in Arabia. In this ridge of mountains there is one called the Iron Mountain, that runs in length as far as Moab. Now the region that lies in the middle between these ridges of mountains is called the Great Plain; it reaches from the village Ginnabris, as far as the lake Asphaltites; its length is two hundred and thirty furlongs, and its breadth a hundred and twenty, and it is divided in the midst by Jordan. It hath two lakes in it, that of Asphaltites, and that of Tiberias, whose natures are opposite to each other; for the former is salt and unfruitful, but that of Tiberias is sweet and fruitful. This plain is much burnt up in summer time, and, by reason of the extraordinary heat, contains a very unwholesome air; it is all destitute of water excepting the river Jordan, which water of Jordan is the occasion why those plantations of palm trees that are near its banks are more flourishing, and much more fruitful, as are those that are remote from it not so flourishing, or fruitful.

Hereupon a great multitude prevented their approach, and came out of Jericho, and fled to those mountainous parts that lay over against Jerusalem, while that part which was left behind was in a great measure destroyed; they also found the city desolate. It is situated in a plain; but a naked and barren mountain, of a very great length, hangs over it, which extends itself to the land about Scythopolis northward, but as far as the country of Sodom, and the utmost limits of the lake Asphaltites, southward. This mountain is all of it very uneven and uninhabited, by reason of its barrenness: there is an opposite mountain that is situated over against it, on the other side of Jordan; this last begins at Julias, and the northern quarters, and extends itself southward as far as Somorrhon, which is the bounds of Petra, in Arabia. In this ridge of mountains there is one called the Iron Mountain, that runs in length as far as Moab. Now the region that lies in the middle between these ridges of mountains is called the Great Plain; it reaches from the village Ginnabris, as far as the lake Asphaltites; its length is two hundred and thirty furlongs, and its breadth a hundred and twenty, and it is divided in the midst by Jordan. It hath two lakes in it, that of Asphaltites, and that of Tiberias, whose natures are opposite to each other; for the former is salt and unfruitful, but that of Tiberias is sweet and fruitful. This plain is much burnt up in summer time, and, by reason of the extraordinary heat, contains a very unwholesome air; it is all destitute of water excepting the river Jordan, which water of Jordan is the occasion why those plantations of palm trees that are near its banks are more flourishing, and much more fruitful, as are those that are remote from it not so flourishing, or fruitful.

While the holy house was on fire, every thing was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain in the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine any thing either greater or more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of the Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people also that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy, and under a great consternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were under; the multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with those that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn away by the famine, and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of the holy house, they exerted their utmost strength, and brake out into groans and outcries again: Perea did also return the echo, as well as the mountains round about [the city,] and augmented the force of the entire noise. Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this disorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it, that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were slain more in number than those that slew them; for the ground did no where appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it; but the soldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as they ran upon such as fled from them. And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrust out [of the inner court of the temple by the Romans,] and had much ado to get into the outward court, and from thence into the city, while the remainder of the populace fled into the cloister of that outer court. As for the priests, some of them plucked up from the holy house the spikes that were upon it, with their bases, which were made of lead, and shot them at the Romans instead of darts. But then as they gained nothing by so doing, and as the fire burst out upon them, they retired to the wall that was eight cubits broad, and there they tarried; yet did two of these of eminence among them, who might have saved themselves by going over to the Romans, or have borne up with courage, and taken their fortune with the others, throw themselves into the fire, and were burnt together with the holy house; their names were Meirus the son of Belgas, and Joseph the son of Daleus.

In the first place, we must note that the nature of that deity which is in Christ in respect of His being the only-begotten Son of God is one thing, and that human nature which He assumed in these last times for the purposes of the dispensation [of grace] is another. And therefore we have first to ascertain what the only-begotten Son of God is, seeing He is called by many different names, according to the circumstances and views of individuals. For He is termed Wisdom, according to the expression of Solomon: “The Lord created me—the beginning of His ways, and among His works, before He made any other thing; He founded me before the ages. In the beginning, before He formed the earth, before He brought forth the fountains of waters, before the mountains were made strong, before all the hills, He brought me forth.” He is also styled First-born, as the apostle has declared: “who is the first-born of every creature.” The first-born, however, is not by nature a different person from the Wisdom, but one and the same. Finally, the Apostle Paul says that “Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Again, we are taught as follows by the prophet Isaiah regarding another opposing power. The prophet says, “How is Lucifer, who used to arise in the morning, fallen from heaven! He who assailed all nations is broken and beaten to the ground. Thou indeed saidst in thy heart, I shall ascend into heaven; above the stars of heaven shall I place my throne; I shall sit upon a lofty mountain, above the lofty mountains which are towards the north; I shall ascend above the clouds; I shall be like the Most High. Now shalt thou be brought down to the lower world, and to the foundations of the earth. They who see thee shall be amazed at thee, and shall say, This is the man who harassed the whole earth, who moved kings, who made the whole world a desert, who destroyed cities, and did not unloose those who were in chains. All the kings of the nations have slept in honour, every one in his own house; but thou shalt be cast forth on the mountains, accursed with the many dead who have been pierced through with swords, and have descended to the lower world. As a garment clotted with blood, and stained, will not be clean; neither shalt thou be clean, because thou hast destroyed my land and slain my people: thou shalt not remain for ever, most wicked seed. Prepare thy sons for death on account of the sins of thy father, lest they rise again and inherit the earth, and fill the earth with wars. And I shall rise against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall cause their name to perish, and their remains, and their seed.” Most evidently by these words is he shown to have fallen from heaven, who formerly was Lucifer, and who used to arise in the morning. For if, as some think, he was a nature of darkness, how is Lucifer said to have existed before? Or how could he arise in the morning, who had in himself nothing of the light? Nay, even the Saviour Himself teaches us, saying of the devil, “Behold, I see Satan fallen from heaven like lightning.” For at one time he was light. Moreover our Lord, who is the truth, compared the power of His own glorious advent to lightning, in the words, “For as the lightning shineth from the height of heaven even to its height again, so will the coming of the Son of man be.” And notwithstanding He compares him to lightning, and says that he fell from heaven, that He might show by this that he had been at one time in heaven, and had had a place among the saints, and had enjoyed a share in that light in which all the saints participate, by which they are made angels of light, and by which the apostles are termed by the Lord the light of the world. In this manner, then, did that being once exist as light before he went astray, and fell to this place, and had his glory turned into dust, which is peculiarly the mark of the wicked, as the prophet also says; whence, too, he was called the prince of this world, i.e. of an earthly habitation: for he exercised power over those who were obedient to his wickedness, since “the whole of this world”—for I term this place of earth, world—“lieth in the wicked one,” and in this apostate. That he is an apostate, i.e. a fugitive, even the Lord in the book of Job says, “Thou wilt take with a hook the apostate dragon,” i.e. a fugitive. Now it is certain that by the dragon is understood the devil himself. If then they are called opposing powers, and are said to have been once without stain, while spotless purity exists in the essential being of none save the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but is an accidental quality in every created thing; and since that which is accidental may also fall away, and since those opposite powers once were spotless, and were once among those which still remain unstained, it is evident from all this that no one is pure either by essence or nature, and that no one was by nature polluted. And the consequence of this is, that it lies within ourselves and in our own actions to possess either happiness or holiness; or by sloth and negligence to fall from happiness into wickedness and ruin, to such a degree that, through too great proficiency, so to speak, in wickedness (if a man be guilty of so great neglect), he may descend even to that state in which he will be changed into what is called an “opposing power.”

Again, we are taught as follows by the prophet Isaiah regarding another opposing power. The prophet says, “How is Lucifer, who used to arise in the morning, fallen from heaven! He who assailed all nations is broken and beaten to the ground. Thou indeed saidst in thy heart, I shall ascend into heaven; above the stars of heaven shall I place my throne; I shall sit upon a lofty mountain, above the lofty mountains which are towards the north; I shall ascend above the clouds; I shall be like the Most High. Now shalt thou be brought down to the lower world, and to the foundations of the earth. They who see thee shall be amazed at thee, and shall say, This is the man who harassed the whole earth, who moved kings, who made the whole world a desert, who destroyed cities, and did not unloose those who were in chains. All the kings of the nations have slept in honour, every one in his own house; but thou shalt be cast forth on the mountains, accursed with the many dead who have been pierced through with swords, and have descended to the lower world. As a garment clotted with blood, and stained, will not be clean; neither shalt thou be clean, because thou hast destroyed my land and slain my people: thou shalt not remain for ever, most wicked seed. Prepare thy sons for death on account of the sins of thy father, lest they rise again and inherit the earth, and fill the earth with wars. And I shall rise against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall cause their name to perish, and their remains, and their seed.” Most evidently by these words is he shown to have fallen from heaven, who formerly was Lucifer, and who used to arise in the morning. For if, as some think, he was a nature of darkness, how is Lucifer said to have existed before? Or how could he arise in the morning, who had in himself nothing of the light? Nay, even the Saviour Himself teaches us, saying of the devil, “Behold, I see Satan fallen from heaven like lightning.” For at one time he was light. Moreover our Lord, who is the truth, compared the power of His own glorious advent to lightning, in the words, “For as the lightning shineth from the height of heaven even to its height again, so will the coming of the Son of man be.” And notwithstanding He compares him to lightning, and says that he fell from heaven, that He might show by this that he had been at one time in heaven, and had had a place among the saints, and had enjoyed a share in that light in which all the saints participate, by which they are made angels of light, and by which the apostles are termed by the Lord the light of the world. In this manner, then, did that being once exist as light before he went astray, and fell to this place, and had his glory turned into dust, which is peculiarly the mark of the wicked, as the prophet also says; whence, too, he was called the prince of this world, i.e. of an earthly habitation: for he exercised power over those who were obedient to his wickedness, since “the whole of this world”—for I term this place of earth, world—“lieth in the wicked one,” and in this apostate. That he is an apostate, i.e. a fugitive, even the Lord in the book of Job says, “Thou wilt take with a hook the apostate dragon,” i.e. a fugitive. Now it is certain that by the dragon is understood the devil himself. If then they are called opposing powers, and are said to have been once without stain, while spotless purity exists in the essential being of none save the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but is an accidental quality in every created thing; and since that which is accidental may also fall away, and since those opposite powers once were spotless, and were once among those which still remain unstained, it is evident from all this that no one is pure either by essence or nature, and that no one was by nature polluted. And the consequence of this is, that it lies within ourselves and in our own actions to possess either happiness or holiness; or by sloth and negligence to fall from happiness into wickedness and ruin, to such a degree that, through too great proficiency, so to speak, in wickedness (if a man be guilty of so great neglect), he may descend even to that state in which he will be changed into what is called an “opposing power.”

I find in your letter yet another objection in these words: “And add, that among all the many prophets who had been before, there is no one who has quoted from another word for word. For they had no need to go a-begging for words, since their own were true. But this one, in rebuking one of these men, quotes the words of the Lord, ‘The innocent and righteous shalt thou not slay.’” I cannot understand how, with all your exercise in investigating and meditating on the Scriptures, you have not noticed that the prophets continually quote each other almost word for word. For who of all believers does not know the words in Esaias? “And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of the Lord on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall come unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, unto the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it: for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” But in Micah we find a parallel passage, which is almost word for word: “And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall hasten unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and they will teach us His way, and we will walk in His paths: for a law shall go forth from Zion, and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Again, in First Chronicles, the psalm which is put in the hands of Asaph and his brethren to praise the Lord, beginning, “Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name,” is in the beginning almost identical with Ps. civ., down to “and do my prophets no harm;” and after that it is the same as Ps. xcv., from the beginning of that psalm, which is something like this, “Praise the Lord all the earth,” down to “For He cometh to judge the earth.” (It would have taken up too much time to quote more fully; so I have given these short references, which are sufficient for the matter before us.) And you will find the law about not bearing a burden on the Sabbath-day in Jeremia, as well as in Moses. And the rules about the passover, and the rules for the priests, are not only in Moses, but also at the end of Ezekiel. I would have quoted these, and many more, had I not found that from the shortness of my stay in Nicomedia my time for writing you was already too much restricted. Your last objection is, that the style is different. This I cannot see. This, then, is my defence. I might, especially after all these accusations, speak in praise of this history of Susanna, dwelling on it word by word, and expounding the exquisite nature of the thoughts. Such an encomium, perhaps, some of the learned and able students of divine things may at some other time compose. This, however, is my answer to your strokes, as you call them. Would that I could instruct you! But I do not now arrogate that to myself. My lord and dear brother Ambrosius, who has written this at my dictation, and has, in looking over it, corrected as he pleased, salutes you. His faithful spouse, Marcella, and her children, also salute you. Also Anicetus. Do you salute our dear father Apollinarius, and all our friends.

I find in your letter yet another objection in these words: “And add, that among all the many prophets who had been before, there is no one who has quoted from another word for word. For they had no need to go a-begging for words, since their own were true. But this one, in rebuking one of these men, quotes the words of the Lord, ‘The innocent and righteous shalt thou not slay.’” I cannot understand how, with all your exercise in investigating and meditating on the Scriptures, you have not noticed that the prophets continually quote each other almost word for word. For who of all believers does not know the words in Esaias? “And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of the Lord on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall come unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, unto the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it: for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” But in Micah we find a parallel passage, which is almost word for word: “And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall hasten unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and they will teach us His way, and we will walk in His paths: for a law shall go forth from Zion, and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Again, in First Chronicles, the psalm which is put in the hands of Asaph and his brethren to praise the Lord, beginning, “Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name,” is in the beginning almost identical with Ps. civ., down to “and do my prophets no harm;” and after that it is the same as Ps. xcv., from the beginning of that psalm, which is something like this, “Praise the Lord all the earth,” down to “For He cometh to judge the earth.” (It would have taken up too much time to quote more fully; so I have given these short references, which are sufficient for the matter before us.) And you will find the law about not bearing a burden on the Sabbath-day in Jeremia, as well as in Moses. And the rules about the passover, and the rules for the priests, are not only in Moses, but also at the end of Ezekiel. I would have quoted these, and many more, had I not found that from the shortness of my stay in Nicomedia my time for writing you was already too much restricted. Your last objection is, that the style is different. This I cannot see. This, then, is my defence. I might, especially after all these accusations, speak in praise of this history of Susanna, dwelling on it word by word, and expounding the exquisite nature of the thoughts. Such an encomium, perhaps, some of the learned and able students of divine things may at some other time compose. This, however, is my answer to your strokes, as you call them. Would that I could instruct you! But I do not now arrogate that to myself. My lord and dear brother Ambrosius, who has written this at my dictation, and has, in looking over it, corrected as he pleased, salutes you. His faithful spouse, Marcella, and her children, also salute you. Also Anicetus. Do you salute our dear father Apollinarius, and all our friends.

whereas he ought to have seen, after denying that the birth of Jupiter took place in Crete because of his tomb, that it was quite congruous with his birth in Arcadia that he who was born should also die. And the following is the manner in which Callimachus speaks of these things: “O Jupiter, some say that thou wert born on the mountains of Ida, others in Arcadia. Which of them, O father, have lied? The Cretans are always liars,” etc. Now it is Celsus who made us discuss these topics, by the unfair manner in which he deals with Jesus, in giving his assent to what is related about His death and burial, but regarding as an invention His resurrection from the dead, although this was not only foretold by innumerable prophets, but many proofs also were given of His having appeared after death.

But will not those narratives, especially when they are understood in their proper sense, appear far more worthy of respect than the story that Dionysus was deceived by the Titans, and expelled from the throne of Jupiter, and torn in pieces by them, and his remains being afterwards put together again, he returned as it were once more to life, and ascended to heaven? Or are the Greeks at liberty to refer such stories to the doctrine of the soul, and to interpret them figuratively, while the door of a consistent explanation, and one everywhere in accord and harmony with the writings of the Divine Spirit, who had His abode in pure souls, is closed against us? Celsus, then, is altogether ignorant of the purpose of our writings, and it is therefore upon his own acceptation of them that he casts discredit, and not upon their real meaning; whereas, if he had reflected on what is appropriate to a soul which is to enjoy an everlasting life, and on the opinion which we are to form of its essence and principles, he would not so have ridiculed the entrance of the immortal into a mortal body, which took place not according to the metempsychosis of Plato, but agreeably to another and higher view of things. And he would have observed one “descent,” distinguished by its great benevolence, undertaken to convert (as the Scripture mystically terms them) the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” which had strayed down from the mountains, and to which the Shepherd is said in certain parables to have gone down, leaving on the mountains those “which had not strayed.”