THE SECOND PREFACE.

...they do not grant nor do they wonder; if his doctrine, eloquence, and erudition do not delight them, they certainly stood amazed at the discord between those men and the universal assembly of Christians. The Syrians, Armenians, Copts, and Melkites These are various Eastern Christian groups. "Melkites" refers to those who followed the Byzantine Emperor and the Council of Chalcedon. were horrified by a wandering discipline that strayed from the customs and dogmas of all Christian nations when—while I was staying in Syria at that time—they read the Protestant Catechism translated into Arabic at Aleppo, the most famous marketplace of all the Eastern nations. I admit, they themselves disagree with the Catholic Church, but only on one or two points, and those most obscure; they would not disagree if they understood what they deny. However, it was rightly and not without great cause that they were stunned to see the clearest Dogmas condemned by those men—truths known by the very light of nature, such as that Man is endowed with the force and power of free will original: arbitrii. and is able to sin; and other dogmas received by the consensus of all Christian nations before the memory of all men.

The Syrians contemporary with Ephrem believed that this Prophet had been granted to their nation by God and bore witness to it; but they certainly could not have grasped what such a great name would eventually signify. The Theologians of our own time clearly understand it, and they congratulate themselves that the Heresies of this age were foreseen by him and most eloquently refuted. Indeed, although this may seem common to certain ancient Fathers alongside EPHREM, it is certain that no one performed it more abundantly than he. Nor, considering the distance of places and times, is anything more effective for overcoming the stubbornness of the Innovators The author uses "Innovators" as a derogatory term for the leaders of the Protestant Reformation.,

nor more complete, due to his continuous battles with the Heretics, of whom Mesopotamia was most fertile.

Furthermore, since there are many among the Heterodox Those holding beliefs different from the Catholic Church. who are involved in Heresy not through a consciousness of the truth or a consensus of free will, but through profit, custom, the laws of their country, and that sort of "prescription for believing" which follows the fate of one's birth—these people will surely never loathe the books of Saint EPHREM. For as for those whom the tide of passions, ambition, and a love of license impatient of any yoke has driven into that Charybdis A mythical whirlpool; used here to describe a dangerous moral or spiritual trap., Saint EPHREM certainly cannot please them. For those who hate temperance, continence, and modesty, what disposition must they have toward him who, having himself professed the Monastic life, hands down the precepts of severe discipline and proscribes pleasures perceived by touch or taste? Can those who have sold their souls for gold, lust, gluttony, and ambitious displays help but be the greatest enemies of EPHREM, who urges voluntary poverty and contempt for all human things and even for oneself? Shall those who introduced the captive human will A reference to the theological doctrine that the human will is enslaved to sin and cannot choose good without Grace, a major point of debate during the Reformation., who abolished Christian funerals, who burned the Relics of the Saints, be reconciled to EPHREM, who published entire Treatises against the portents of such errors? Shall those who measure faith by their own petty sophistries not be angry with EPHREM, whose work includes eighty sermons against the Scrutinizers? original: Scrutatores. This refers to Ephrem's famous "Hymns Against the Scrutinizers," which targeted those (like the Arians) who tried to use human reason to probe or "scrutinize" the nature of God.

Nevertheless, whatever the sick may judge concerning nectar, for whom...