NOTE: — 68 —

[From the] spirit-inspired and salutary hortatory words of the blessed Apostle Pōghos, who writeth: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of his grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. iv. 16). Behold what they seek! Having abandoned the spiritual power of Divine grace, they strive earnestly to acquire the aid of carnal and worldly powers; whereby they also make manifest their own contagion in crooked ways, according to the parabolic saying of Soghomon: “He that walketh uprightly shall find help: but he that walketh in crooked ways shall be ensnared thereby” (Prov. xxviii. 18). I leave it here unto the spiritually discerning minds of fair-minded readers to contemplate the fraudulent formulation of [their] words and these men’s cunning undertakings, which thou shalt see below; for as an epilogue to their deceitful words, they henceforth begin even to recoil from the Roman Church, in order to make it appear as though they have not altogether recoiled from the bosom of the ancestral Church; whence they also deduce:

DISCOURSE IX.

"And our difference from the Romans, for the present, is this: First, that we sing the *Holy God* [Trisagion] with 'who was crucified,' thus: 'Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, [Thou] Son, who was crucified for us, have mercy upon us.' Second, that we perform the mystery of the holy liturgy with pure wine, manifestly not mixing water into the chalice. Thenceforth we have no communion whatsoever with the church of the Ējmiatsnakan [Etchmiadzin] Armenians; but rather, under the authority of our *azgapet* [national-ecclesiastical leader], we freely serve Jesus Christ and our consciences, according to the commandment of the Lord. Wherefore, with inward conviction and a clean conscience, having signed, we seal this writing of orthodox confession—"