[Page] 70

... knew, and the veil is torn away from his face where he least expected [it]. God is not deceived . . . that all-seeing eye penetrateth everywhere. Take heed unto thyself, cast away thy veil or thy mask; otherwise, God shall smite thee, [thou] whited wall! Be what thou appearest, or appear what thou art!” (in *Tarekan arats*, printed in Venice, p. 121). Let there be remembered here the premonitory word—demonstrated by a natural example—of the blessed holy Patriarch Yovhannēs Oskiberan [John Chrysostom], which [is found] in the commentary on the epistles of the holy Apostle Pōghos [Paul] to Timot‘ēos [Timothy], wherein he writeth: “A wilful error, which is small at the first, becometh great in the end, even as a line deviating from a point: the farther it extendeth, the more it crooketh.” Now, let us proceed to bring to light also the second deceit of their fraud-filled and ill-counselled minds, whereby they strive to establish a certain novel religion, in all respects different not only from the holy Christian religion of other nations, but also from the Apostolic holy religion of their very own nation. Wherefore they write with unconscionable minds, without fear of God and shameless before men, that: “Henceforth we have no communion whatsoever with the church of the Ējmiatsnakan Armenians.” What mean they by saying “Ējmiatsnakan Armenians”? For the very Christian Church of the Armenians was established by the fruitful labours of the first illuminators—the holy Apostles T‘adēos [Thaddaeus] and Bardughimēos [Bartholomew]—and by the preachings of our proto-Patriarch, the holy Father Grigor Lusaworich‘ [Gregory the Illuminator], and was doubly glorified by the matchless grace of the Descent of the Only-Begotten (*Miatsnaēj*). Rightly, then, is the Orthodox Church of the Ējmiatsnakan Armenians praised as a luminous Mother and treasury of the Divine graces, whereof drinking, all true-born and un-erring sons of the Armenian nation are enraptured, as our *Sharaknots‘* [Book of Hymns] beautifully singeth with magnificent encomiums, according to this: “The Only-Begotten descended from the Father, and the light of glory with Him; the subterranean depths of the abyss resounded. Having beheld the great light, Patriarch Grigor recounted [it] with exultation to the believing king: ‘Come, let us build the holy tabernacle of light, for therein light hath dawned upon us in the land of Armenia!’” O, the treachery of these [men], who [that which was established] through the intolerable torments and the spirit-flowing preaching of the holy Father Grigor Lusaworich‘...