16.  For this cause the Lord knowing the greatness of the adversary grants indulgence to the godly, saying, Then let them which be in Judæa flee to the mountains Matt. xxiv. 16..  But if any man is conscious that he is very stout-hearted, to encounter Satan, let him stand (for I do not despair of the Church’s nerves), and let him say, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ and the rest Rom. viii. 35.?  But, let those of us who are fearful provide for our own safety; and those who are of a good courage, stand fast: for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be Matt. xxiv. 21..  But thanks be to God who hath confined the greatness of that tribulation to a few days; for He says, But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened Ib. v. 22.; and Antichrist shall reign for three years and a half only.  We speak not from apocryphal books, but from Daniel; for he says, And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time Dan. vii. 25.  By “apocryphal” books Cyril probably means all such as were not allowed to be read in the public service of the Church:  see Cat. iv. 33, note 3; and Bp. Westcott’s note on the various meanings of the word ἀπόκρυφος, Hist. of the Canon, P. III. c. 1.  That the Apocalypse of St. John is included under this term by Cyril, appears probable from the following reasons suggested by the Benedictine Editor.  (1) It is not mentioned in the list of the Canonical Scriptures in iv. 36.  (2) The earlier writers whom Cyril follows in this Lecture, Irenæus, Hær. V., 26, § 1, and Hippolytus, De Antichristo, § 34, combine the testimony of the Apocalypse with that of Daniel.  The omission in Cyril therefore cannot have been accidental..  A time is the one year in which his coming shall for a while have increase; and the times are the remaining two years of iniquity, making up the sum of the three years; and the half a time is the six months.  And again in another place Daniel says the same thing, And he sware by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, and times, and half a time Dan. xii. 7..  And some peradventure have referred what follows also to this; namely, a thousand two hundred and ninety days Ib. v. 11.; and this, Blessed is he that endureth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days Ib. v. 12..  For this cause we must hide ourselves and flee; for perhaps we shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come Matt. x. 23..