О том, что не должно обольщаться еллинскими мнениями

I will add the following to the word: when a pestilence began in Constantinople and many ended their lives, one doctor, named Domnus, seeing that there were many dead, and others were seized with great fear, said: “Artisans who work near the fire and have premises in underground churches are dying; and those who live in high places, enjoy clean and thin air, are not exposed to infection.” He reasoned this way because he diligently studied Hellenic sciences and infected his mind with them. However, two or three days after he announced his opinion, he himself, stricken with illness, lay half dead, and gathered his slaves to take him to his country estate and, when he ended his life, to bury him there. Another doctor, named Macedonius, seeing that he, struggling with death, was taken and carried away (and Macedonius was one of those who heard his mockery), said: “Behold, he has a most beautiful house, and he uses clean air, but he was not saved: his illness broke him, and his idle talk did not help him.” Domnus, moved outside the city, died and was buried there. And Macedonius, having got rid of the intensified pestilence and renounced the world, became a true monk, without becoming a victim of Domnov’s wickedness. And we will establish our minds in the truth, guided by the inspired Scripture. For whoever has not illuminated his mind with Divine teaching is far from the truth in his mind. We will listen to the Divine Scripture, which in the Second Book of Samuel clearly cries: “And the Lord caused wrath to burn in Israel, and move David among them, saying: Go and honor Israel and Judah. And the king said to Joab, the prince of power who was with him, “Pass through now all the tribes of Israel and Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number the people, and let us number the people” (2 Samuel 24:1-2). And a little lower: “And Joab gave the number of the numbered men to the king: and the number of Israel was eight hundred thousand mighty men holding weapons: and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand fighting men. And the heart of David feared, according to the numbering of the people, and David said to the Lord: I have sinned greatly, because I have done this verb: and now, Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have taken away the evil. And David arose in the morning: and the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, the seer, saying: Go and speak unto David, saying, Thus saith the Lord: I will bring three upon thee, and choose thee one from these, and I will do unto thee. And Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Choose thyself to be: either three years of famine shall come upon thee in thy land, or three months shall they flee before thy enemies, and they shall persecute thee: or three days shall death be in thy land: now therefore understand and see that I answer him that sent me. And David said to Gad: I am straitened everywhere by these three things: let me therefore fall into the hand of the Lord, for many are His bounties; but let me not fall into the hands of men. And David chose for himself death and the days of the wheat harvest. And the Lord gave death in Israel from the morning until the hour of mass; and the plague began to be among the people, and seventy thousand men died from the people of the Lord from Dan to Beersheba. And the Angel of God stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy it, and the Lord repented of the evil, and said to the Angel destroying people: it is enough now, take away your hand. And the Angel of the Lord stood before the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite. And David spoke to the Lord, when he saw the Angel beating people, and said: Behold, I am a sinner, I am a shepherd who has done evil, and what have you done to these sheep? Let Thy hand be now upon me and upon my father's house. And Gad came to David on that day and said to him: Go up and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite. And David went up according to the word of the prophet Gad, in which way the Lord commanded him. And Orna bowed down, and saw the king and his youths ascending above him, and Orna went out, and bowed down to the king on his face on the ground, and Orna said: Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said: buy from you a threshing floor (priidoh) to build, an altar of the Lord... and Ornas said to David: let all be for my lord the king, and do good before his eyes: behold, an ox for a burnt offering, and the wheels and vessels of the oxen for firewood. All give Orna to the king. And Orna’s speech to the king: May the Lord your God bless you. And the king said to Orna: neither, but only when I buy, I will buy from You at a price, and I will not offer burnt offerings to my God. And David bought a threshing floor and oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And there David created an altar of the Lord; and offered burnt offerings and peace... And the Lord of the earth obeyed, and took away the plague from Israel” (2 Samuel 24:9-25). So, whether a sword, or famine, or an ulcer, or death, or anything else that seems sorrowful, is sent to earth for chastity and correction, so that people direct their minds to piety, because every generation has a need for admonition by the Lord’s visit. If even in the midst of fears, others remain insensitive in the matter of piety; then, if there is no visitation of the Lord at all, won’t they be much more seduced by their minds into godlessness and destruction? You might be interested in: