On His Silent Father

with the struggle against wicked affections, and strenuously contending with our daily Antiochus, who wages war upon all our members and pursues them in various ways. For I desire to have athletes at every time and in every manner, of every sex and age, whether battling in open war or being assailed by secret snares; and to be helped by both ancient and recent histories, and like bees, to collect the most useful things for the skillful confection and sweetness of a single honeycomb, so that both by the Old and New Testament God may be glorified in us, who is glorified in the Son and the Holy Spirit, and who knows those who are His, and is known by His own, and confessing Himself confesses those who confess Him, and glorifies those who glorify Him, in Christ Himself, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

ADMONITION ON ORATION XVI

ORATION XVI

^A that serves the law? Why do you provoke to speak ^B that which yields to the Spirit? Why, leaving the head, do you rush to the feet? Why, passing over Aaron, do you bring forward Eleazar? I do not suffer the fountain to be obstructed and the torrent to run; the sun to be eclipsed and the star to shine; gray hairs to withdraw and youth to legislate; wisdom to be silent and inexperience to boast insolently. For surely, a greater volume of rain is not more useful than a lesser one. For what? If it is too violent, it washes away the soil and diminishes the husbandman’s crops; but the latter, falling gently and penetrating even to the depths, fattens the field, benefits the cultivator, and turns the blade into ripe fruit. Nor likewise, in sermons, is he who excels in abundance of speech more fruitful and useful than the one who is wiser. For the former, though he may have perhaps afforded the hearer a slight pleasure, has departed, and at once vanished with the air that was struck, having no power beyond this than to have charmed greedy ears with the grace of his tongue as if with some illusions. But the latter has penetrated into the mind and, having widened the mouth, filled it with the Spirit; and he has appeared greater than his own origin ^C, and in a few syllables has produced a great harvest.

II. I do not yet speak of that true and primary wisdom, the primacy of which this illustrious shepherd and husbandman holds. For the first wisdom is a life that is upright and honest, and thoroughly purified for God, or provided it is being purified—for God, I say, who is most pure and most splendid, and who requires from us only the sacrifice of purification—which Scripture is accustomed to call a contrite heart, and a sacrifice of praise [Ps. XLIX, 23], and a new creation in Christ [II Cor. v, 17], and a new man [Ephes. IV, 24], and other things of this kind. The first wisdom is to spurn the wisdom that is situated in speech and in the shifts of diction and in adulterated and superfluous figures. For my part, would that it might be my lot to speak five words with understanding, rather than ten thousand in a tongue and voice of a trumpet without sense [I Cor. XIV, 19]; not in the least inciting my soldier to spiritual warfare. This is the wisdom I praise, this I embrace, through which the ignoble have obtained glory, and to which those who were of no account have been preferred, and with which fishermen have ensnared the whole world with the bonds of the Gospel—themselves having overcome the wisdom that is passing away by a finished and brief word [Rom. IX, 28]. For he who is wise in ^D speech is not, to me, wise, nor he who has a ready tongue but an unstable and uneducated soul, like

those graves which, being outward-fair and beautiful, are inwardly full of rotting corpses and cover over a great stench. But he is truly wise who speaks little of virtue, but shows much in what he does, and adds credibility to speech through his life.

^B III. Better to my mind is the beauty that is perceived by the eyes than that which is painted in words; and the wealth that hands hold, than that which dreams fashion; and the wisdom that is demonstrated through works, than that which shines and glitters in speech. For a good understanding is for all who practice it, he says, but not for those who preach it. The most accurate tester of this wisdom is time, and old age is truly a crown of glory. For if it is not right to deem a man blessed before his death, as Salomon and I think, and it is uncertain what the coming day will bring forth—for our life below has many "turns," and the body of humiliation is moved up and down and constantly changed—how is it not true that he who has spent the greater part of his life blamelessly, and is, as it were, already in the harbors of the common sea of life, is safer and therefore more blessed than he to whom a long voyage still remains?

^C IV. Do not, therefore, close the tongue that has spoken much and well, whose fruits are many, and many are the offspring of righteousness; for whose children and what treasures there are, lift up your eyes round about and see; this whole people is the one you have begotten in Christ through the Gospel. Do not, then, begrudge us more than a few words, nor give us a prelude to the impending loss. Speak, even if but a little, yet words dear and most sweet to me; though they be less audible, yet let them be such as are recognized through the spiritual cry, by which God heard Moses even when he was silent; and to him, praying mentally, it was said: "Why do you cry to me?" ^D Compose for me the people with your own ward, and thereafter shepherd, and now also chief shepherd. Teach me something concerning pastorship, and this people concerning obedience; philosophize a little about the present plague, and about the just judgments of God, whether we grasp them or are ignorant of the great abyss. How is it that almsgiving [reaches] to scales,

^A for goodness is not indiscriminate, even if it seemed otherwise to those who labored first in the vineyard, who, in the equality of the reward, did not understand the inequality of the labor, and how anger, which is called the cup in the hand of the Lord, and the cup of ruin which is drunk, corresponds in proportion to sins—even though he detracts something from the severity of the merited punishment for all, and tempers the neat wine of anger with benevolence; so that from severity he inclines to lenity and grace those who are instructed by fear, and who, from a small calamity, conceive and bring forth the correction of their ways, and bring forth the perfect spirit of salvation? But the dregs—that is, the extreme part of the anger—he reserves, to pour it out entirely upon those who are not at all healed by benevolence, but rather are hardened, just as that Pharaoh, laboring under the hardness of heart, and grievous in the imposition of works, [was] reserved to provide a specimen of the divine power against the impious.

V. Explain, whence such plagues and scourges ^B arise, and what is their reason? Is it some unordained, preposterous movement of the universe, devoid of all government, and a blind rashness, as if there were no one presiding over the regulation of things, and in short, as if chance brought these things about—as is the opinion of men who are foolishly wise, and those who are rashly carried along by a headlong and dark spirit? Or rather, is this whole mass of things, just as it was first created, tempered, linked, and moved with reason and order, as he alone knows who brought the movement, so also moved and arranged in various ways, led by the bridle ^C of Providence? Whence come famines, and blights brought by the winds, and hail—our present plague and admonition? Whence come corruptions of the air, and diseases, and the quaking of the surging earth, and the impetus of the sea raising itself on high, and terrors originating from heaven? And in what way does the creation, made for the use and convenience of men—those common, I say, and equal delights—change into the punishment of the impious? So that we may be instructed by those things for which we did not give thanks while we were adorned by them, and may recognize the power from those things which we suffer, since we did not recognize it from the benefits we received? In what way to some, from the hand of the Lord, are double [penalties] for sins awarded, and the measure of vice is filled by the double, according to which ^D Israel is disciplined; while to others, through the seven-fold [recompense] rendered into their bosom, their sins are emptied out? And what is the measure of the Amorites, not yet filled? And how is the sinner either released or punished

^A that, perhaps, he is reserved for the other life, this, that he may be recalled to health by that means? And in what way is the just man either oppressed by sufferings, that he may, perhaps, be tested, or possesses all things joyful, that he may be preserved, provided he be poor in spirit, and not overly exalted above those things which fall under the sense of the eyes, just as conscience, that is, the domestic and true tribunal, teaches of both these? What is this plague, and from where? Is it that our virtue should be searched out, or that wickedness should be avenged? Although it is better, as if for punishment (even if the matter stands otherwise), to cast down one’s spirit and be humbled under the mighty hand of God, than as if for probation to be exalted on high. Teach and admonish us of these things, lest we be too grievously vexed by the present plague, or, having fallen into a depth of evils, we despise it (for so this in fact happens to many), but rather let us behave ourselves prudently in this castigation, lest, by the stupidity of our mind and by receiving it without feeling, we bring a greater one upon ourselves. ^B

VI. A bitter thing is the barrenness of the earth, and the loss of fruits; and why not indeed, when they already gladdened us with hope, and were drawing near to the granaries? A bitter thing is an untimely harvest, and husbandmen following their own labors with mourning, and sitting as if by the dead, by the seedlings which a gentle rain nurtured, but a wild and savage one mowed down; those which the reaper did not fill his hand with, nor did he who gathers the sheaves fill his bosom; nor did he attain on their account that blessing which those who pass by are wont to bestow upon husbandmen. A pitiable spectacle, the earth struck by disaster, and shorn, and not possessing its own adornment. ^C The blessed Joel laments the corruption of the earth and the torture of famine, as if any other man were lamenting tragically; and another prophet laments, setting the final deformity against the prior beauty, when, speaking of the wrath of the Lord striking the earth, he speaks in this way: The parts before him are a garden of delight, and the parts behind him are a field of extermination. These are indeed terrible things, and more than terrible, as long as the present things alone bring distress, and the feeling of a more atrocious plague does not yet strike the soul with sorrow; since, just as in diseases, the present calamity is always more grievous than that which is far off. But the treasures of divine wrath contain things more grievous ^D than these, which would that it might not befall you to experience! Nor indeed will you experience them, provided you take refuge in the mercies of God, and draw forth the one who wills mercy with tears, and turn away the sequel of wrath through repentance. These things are still gentleness, and philanthropy, and a mild training, and elements

^A of the blow that instructs our infancy; it is still the smoke of anger, the prelude to torments, but not yet the fire that consumes, which is the acme of the impulse, nor the kindled coals that are the final parts of the scourge—of which He threatened some, brandished others, forcibly restrained some, and inflicted others. He instructs us alike through the blow and the threat, and by his incredible magnitude of goodness, He paves a path for His own anger, that He might not have to use harsher measures, but instruct us through greater ones, if we should be driven to them.

VII. ^B I know of a gleaming spear and a sword drunk in heaven, commanded to slaughter, to destroy, to bereave, and not to spare even flesh, marrow, and bones. I know of Him who is free from all perturbation, yet like a bear famishing and a leopard meeting one on the way of the Assyrians—not only of those who lived then, but also of any who, by the wickedness of their lives, now act the Assyrian. And it is not possible for anyone to flee the strength and speed of His anger when He wakes up against our impieties, and when zeal, which knows how to devour adversaries, has pursued His enemies. I know of the shaking, the casting down, the bubbling up, the breaking of the heart, the loosening of the knees, and ^C such punishments as these, by which the crimes of the impious are avenged. For I pass over the tribunals of the future life, to which the indulgence and impunity of this life hands them over; so that it is better to be chastened and purged now than to be sent to that torture when it will be the time for punishment, not for purgation. For just as, as it was well said by David 20, he who remembers God here is superior to death, so there is no confession or correction of morals for those who have departed to Hades. For God has concluded both life and action here, and there, the examination of things done.

VIII. ^D What shall we do in the day of the visitation 21, with which one of the prophets terrifies me, whether it be when God speaks His judgments with us, or on the mountains and hills, as we have heard, or whatever it may be and in whatever place it is to happen, when He shall convict us and stand opposite, our sins burning

^A and standing as bitter accusers before our face, and setting against the benefits we have received those things which we have wrongfully committed, and striking thought with thought and act with act, and demanding from us the dignity of the image, which has been clouded and confounded by vice, He shall at last lead them away, self-convicted and self-condemned, and not even able to say that we are suffering unjustly—a thought which here, for those who are paying the penalty, sometimes has enough power to mitigate their condemnation and torment.

IX. But there, who is the advocate? What excuse is there? What false defense? What artificial convincingness? What device shall hoodwink the tribunal against the truth, and steal the upright judgment, which puts everything for everyone in the balance—action, and word, and thought—and weighs the better things against the evil ones, so that the weightier aspect may win, and the vote may be cast with the greater side, after which there is no appeal, no higher judge, no defense through secondary works, no oil from the wise virgins or from those who sell it for the failing lamps, no repentance of the rich man melting in the flame ^B and requiring correction for his kin, no deadline for reformation? But it is only, and it is final, and the tribunal is fearful, and more just than it is fearful—or rather, for this very reason it is more fearful, because it is just. At the time when thrones are set, and the Ancient of Days takes his seat, and books are opened, and a river of fire is drawn along, and the light is in front, and the darkness is made ready; and they who have done good things shall go forth unto the resurrection of life, which is now hidden in Christ, and shall later be revealed with Him; while those who have done evil shall go forth unto the resurrection of judgment, by which they who do not believe have already been condemned by the word that judges them ^C; and those whom the ineffable light shall receive, and the contemplation of the holy and royal Trinity—shining more clearly and purely, and mingling itself wholly with the whole mind—which indeed I consider the only and greatest kingdom of heaven; while for the others, there is along with the rest, or rather before the rest, the torture of being cast away from God, and the shame in the conscience that has no end. And these things, then, are for later.

X. But now, what shall we do, brothers—contrite and humbled, and intoxicated, not with strong drink, nor with wine, which agitates the mind for a short time and casts darkness upon it, but with the blow which the Lord has dealt;

^A and who pours out a spirit of sorrow and compunction upon those who despise Him; to whom it is also said: "Behold, you despisers, and look, and wonder, and perish." How shall we bear His reproofs? Or what answer shall we give when, in addition to the multitude of benefits for which we have remained ungrateful, He shall also reproach us with the blows, and recount the types of medicine by which we have not been healed? And while calling us children, yet wicked ones, ^B and sons indeed, but aliens, and limping away from our paths on account of the extreme difficulty and roughness of the way, He will address us thus: "In what way, and by what means, was it fitting that you should be instructed, by which I have not instructed you? Was it by milder remedies? But those I did apply. The Egyptian blood, which was drunk from the springs and rivers and every collection of water, this I passed over as the first plague. I passed by the frogs, and the gnats, and the dog-flies, the plagues which followed next; but I began from the beasts, and the oxen, and the sheep, at the fifth plague, and I struck the irrational creatures, while still sparing those endowed with reason. Your crushing was nothing; but you have become more irrational and less instructed than those which were struck. I withheld the rain from you; one part was watered, ^C but the part upon which I denied rain dried up; and you said: 'We shall bear it bravely.' I sent hail upon you, punishing you with the opposite plague, I reaped your vineyards and thickets and produce; and yet I did not crush your wickedness."

XI. Furthermore, to me also, who do not become any better even by blows, perhaps He will use these words: "I know that you are stubborn, and your neck is an iron sinew." He who despised, still despises; he who acted wickedly, still acts wickedly; the warning from above is of no avail, the scourges are of no avail. The bellows are spent, the lead is spent, which I rebuked you with formerly also through Jeremiah: "The silversmith refines in vain; your wickednesses are not melted away." Will you ^D not endure me, says the Lord, in my anger? Or is my hand not able to bring other plagues besides? There are still with me bladders boiling up from the soot of the furnace, which Moses, or if there is any minister of divine wrath like him, scattering toward heaven, punishes Egypt with disease. There are still the locust, and the palpable darkness, and that plague which is last in order, but first in pain and power—namely, the slaughter and destruction of the firstborn—which, that we may escape and avert the exterminator from us, it is better to anoint the doorposts of the mind, contemplation and action, with that great and saving seal, namely, the blood of the New Testament, Christ, and his fellow-cross-bearers,

and to die with him, so that we may also rise together with him, and now and in his final appearing, be glorified, and reign together; but not be broken, and crushed, and lament, while that Wicked One, in the unseasonable night and in this dark life, strikes us and destroys the firstborn and the fruits and movements of our life that were consecrated to God. ^B

XII. Far be it from me, that along with other plagues, this also should be cast in my teeth by Him who is Good, who moves against me in oblique anger on account of my obliquity: *I have smitten you with blasting, and with mildew, and with rot; and yet you did not return to me*, says the Lord. Far be it that I should be the vineyard of the Beloved, which, after it had been planted and fenced, and fortified with a tower and all things, as much as was possible, should then grow wild and produce thorns, and for this reason come to such contempt that the tower is thrown down, and the wall is torn away, and it is neither pruned nor dug, but becomes a prey and a common insult and trampling for all. This is my fear, and this my word; and thus I am distressed at the plague, and I offer such a prayer, which I shall add to those things already said: *We have sinned, we have acted unjustly, we have committed impiety, because we have forgotten thy commandments, and have walked after our own evil thoughts; because we have not lived worthily of the calling and of the Gospel of thy Christ, and of his holy sufferings, and of the emptying which he underwent for our sake; because we have become a reproach to thy Beloved.* ^C Priest and people, *we have all together turned aside, we have all together become useless; there is none that does judgment and justice, there is not so much as one.* We have shut out thy mercies, and thy philanthropy, and the bowels of the mercy of our God, through our wickedness and the malice of our practices, in which we have walked. Thou art good, but we have committed iniquity; thou art longsuffering, but we are worthy of stripes. We know thy goodness, although we are senseless; for the things we have sinned, we have been scourged only a little. *Thou art terrible, and who shall stand against thee?* Mountains shall tremble from thee, and *at the greatness of thy arm who shall contend?* If thou shouldst close the heavens, who shall open them? And if thou shouldst loosen thy torrents, who shall restrain them? *A small thing in thy eyes is* the fall

^A of those who are poor, to make them rich, to bring to life and to kill, to strike and to heal; and thy will is a completed action. *Thou art angry, and we have sinned*, says one of the ancients in confession. But now it is time for me to say the contrary: We have sinned, and thou hast been angry; therefore we have become a reproach to our neighbors. Thou hast turned away thy face, and we have been filled with dishonor. But cease, O Lord; remit, O Lord; be propitious, O Lord; do not deliver us completely over because of our iniquities, nor let others be instructed by punishments meant for us, when it is possible for us to be corrected by the torments of others. Of whom, pray? Of the nations who have not known thee, and of the kingdoms which have not been subject to thy rule. But we are thy people, O Lord, and the rod of thy inheritance. Therefore, ^B chastise us, but in kindness and not in thy wrath; lest thou make us a very small remnant, and the most despised of all who inhabit the earth.

XIII. By these words I seek mercy; but if it were possible to appease his wrath with holocausts or sacrifices, I would not have spared even these. But you, do you yourselves also imitate the fearful priest; yes, beloved children, yes, you who are partners of divine admonition and kindness. Possess your souls in tears; calm the divine wrath by changing your pursuits and habits for the better. Sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing; just as the blessed Joel exhorts you together with me. Gather the elders, the infants at the breast, an age pitiable and especially worthy of the mercy of God. And it does not escape me what is commanded also to me, a minister of the Lord, and to you who have obtained the same honor: to enter in haircloth ^C and to beat our breasts day and night between the portico and the altar, pitiable in our very posture and appearance, yet more pitiable in our voices, crying out fervently both for ourselves and for the people, sparing nothing—neither toil, nor word, nor any other things by which the indignation of God is appeased—saying: *Spare, O Lord, thy people, and do not give thy inheritance over to reproach*, and what follows after that in the prayer; feeling so much the greater part of the affliction as we are superior in dignity, and by our own example instructing the people toward compunction and the correction of their wicked life, which indeed the gentleness of God and the suspension of the rod attend.

XIV. Come, therefore, all you, my brothers, let us worship, ^D and let us fall down, and let us weep before

the Lord who made us. Let us set up a common mourning, distinguishing ourselves by our ages and our families. Let us lift up the voice of supplication; instead of the cry that is hateful to Him, let us bring this into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Let us anticipate His anger with confession. Let us desire to behold Him as much turning and becoming appeased, as He was angry. "Who knows," He says, "if He will turn, and repent, and leave behind a blessing?" I know this clearly, I, the guarantor of God’s philanthropy. For even that which is contrary to His nature—I mean His anger—once set aside, He will move toward that which is according to His nature: mercy. For to that former state He is forced by us, whereas to this latter He has an inherent inclination. And if He strikes when forced, how should He not relent when using His natural disposition? Let us only have mercy upon ourselves, by opening a way for the just bowels of the Father ^A. Let us sow in tears, so that we may reap in rejoicing. Let us become Ninevites, not Sodomites; let us apply a remedy to our wickedness, lest we be consumed with our wickedness. Let us hear Jonah preaching, lest we be deluged by fire and sulfur. And even if we go out of Sodom, let us climb the mountain, let us take refuge in Segor, let us enter together with the rising sun. Let us not stand in all the surrounding region; let us not look back, lest we solidify into a pillar of salt—a pillar, indeed, immortal and an accuser of a soul turning back to wickedness.

XV. Let us recognize that to commit no sin ^B is indeed above man, and belongs to God alone—for I refrain from saying anything about the angels, lest we give occasion to the passions and a door to wicked rebuttals—and that incorrigible infirmity belongs to the wicked and opposing nature, and to those who are active under its influence. But to return after sinning is a human trait, yet a trait of the virtuous and of that portion which is being saved. For even if this dust drags along something of wickedness, and this earthy tabernacle weighs down the mind that is carried upward, or is created to be carried upward; yet let the image cleanse away the mire, and let it set the fellow-yoked flesh on high, lightening it with the wings of reason. And it is better, indeed, neither to have need of such a purification, nor to be purified, but to remain in the first dignity that we have received, ^C

^A to which we are also hastening through our training here, nor to fall away from the tree of life through the bitter taste of sin. But it is better, rather than to be unchastened while stumbling, to turn back when we have sinned. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and there is something paternal in reproof; but every soul that is unadmonished remains uncured. Therefore it is not grievous to be struck, but it is more grievous not to be brought to one’s senses by the blow. One of the prophets says, speaking of Israel, who was hard and uncircumcised in heart: Lord, thou hast stricken them, and they did not feel; thou didst chasten them, and they refused to receive instruction; and again, And the people turned not, until they were stricken; and, Why hath my people turned back with a perverse turning, from which it shall be utterly crushed and destroyed? ^B

XVI. It is a fearful thing, brothers, to fall into the hands of the living God. Fearful is the countenance of the Lord upon those who do evil, utterly destroying and vanishing away wickedness. Fearful is the ear of God, hearing even through the silent blood the voice of Abel. Fearful are the feet that overtake wickedness. Fearful is the filling of the universe, so that there is nowhere to flee from the movement of God, neither by flying up to heaven, nor by descending into Hades, nor by fleeing to the east, nor by hiding in the depths or the ends of the sea. Nahum the Elkoshite also fears before me, in the burden against Nineveh which he publishes, the jealous God and the Lord who takes vengeance with fury upon His adversaries, and who uses such an excess of severity that He leaves not even a second vengeance against the wicked. For when I hear Isaiah, ^C threatening the people of Sodom and the rulers of Gomorrah, and saying: Why will ye be stricken still, adding transgression? I am almost filled with shivering, and I am confused with tears. There is no possibility, he says, of finding a further addition of punishment for the addition of sin; you have so exhausted all, and have drained every kind of blow, constantly provoking some newer one through your own wickedness. There is no wound, nor bruise, nor festering plague; the wound is whole-bodied, he says, and indeed incurable. For there is no dressing to apply, nor oil, nor bandages. And I pass over the things that follow in the threat, lest I become more grievous to you than the present plague. ^D

^A XVII. But let us recognize the cause of this calamity. Why have the crops withered, the granaries become confounded, the pastures of the flocks failed, the beautiful things of the earth wasted away? Why are the fields drenched not in richness but in mourning? Why have the valleys not abounded in grain, but been left to lamentation? Why have the mountains not distilled sweetness for us—as they did later for the righteous—but been stripped of their adornment and brought to ignominy, receiving the curse of Mount Gelboe in reverse? The whole earth has become as it was from the beginning, before it was adorned with its own beauties. Thou hast visited the earth and watered it (Ps. LXIV, 10), but with a calamitous visitation and a pestilential intoxication. Woe to the sight! Our fertility is in the stalk, and our sowing is recognized only by its small remnants, and our harvest scarcely yields first-fruits to the Lord, being measured by months rather than by sheaves. Such are the riches of the ungodly, such are the crops of those who sow poorly: it is, by the ancient curse (Agg. I, 9), to look for much and bring in little; to sow and not reap; to plant and not press out; to have ten teams of oxen toil (Isa. V, 10) only to produce one flagon; to hear of the fruitfulness of others while being ourselves pressed by lack. Whence are these things, and what is the cause of this fracture? Let us not wait to be reproved by others; let us become examiners of ourselves. Great is the medicine for vice: confession and the flight from sin. I myself, first, just as I previously announced to my people, have performed the duty of a watchman (Ezech. XXXIII, 3). For I did not hide the coming sword, that I might save both my own soul and the souls of those who hear. Thus, now also, I will set forth the disobedience of my people, taking their sins as my own. For so, perhaps, it shall be that I might obtain some mercy and alleviation of the distress.

^D XVIII. One of us has oppressed the poor and snatched away a portion of his land, and has wickedly transgressed the boundary (II Reg. I, 21), either by stealing or by playing the tyrant, and has joined house to house, and field to field, that he might take something away from his neighbor; and he has competed to have no neighbor at all, as if he were to dwell alone upon the earth. Another has defiled the earth with usury and loans, gathering where he has not sown and reaping where he has not scattered, preparing his own comforts not from the cultivation of the earth, but from the poverty and need of the needy. Another has defrauded God—who gave all things—of the first-fruits of the threshing floor and the winepress, and has become at once both ungrateful and senseless; neither giving thanks for what he had, nor [thinking of] the future...

nor, if nothing else, providing for his own soul through an office of a righteous and grateful spirit.

Another has shown no mercy toward a widow or an orphan, nor has he shared bread or a little food with the needy—or rather, with Christ, who is fed through those who are fed even with little. He, perhaps, possesses much, and beyond what he expected—for this is the greatest injustice—and is cramped for space in his many barns, filling some and tearing down others in order to build larger ones for his future crops, unaware that he will be snatched away by death before he attains his hope, and that he will have to render an account both of the riches in which he has abounded here and of those things he fashioned in his mind and thought, as one who has badly managed goods that belonged to another.

Another has turned aside from the way of the humble, and has perverted the just cause of the righteous ^B by unjust arguments. Another has hated the one who reproves in the gates, and has abominated holy speech. Another has sacrificed to his own net, which gathers much, and keeping the plunder of the poor in his houses, he either has not remembered God or has remembered Him amiss, saying, "Blessed be the Lord, for we have become rich," and has suspected iniquity, as if he possessed those riches by His favor, from whom he shall be punished. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience; because of these things, either the heaven is shut up or it is opened to our hurt—and all the more so if, even when struck, we do not repent and draw near to Him who is by nature close at hand.

XIX. What shall we say to these things, we who buy and sell grain, and watch for the difficulties of the times so that we may grow wealthy and take pleasure in the calamities of others? ^C And we do not act like Joseph [with] the resources of the Egyptians for the sake of a greater dispensation (for he knew how to gather correctly, and correctly distribute the grain, just as he also knew how to foresee the famine and stand against it from afar), but as wicked and criminal men [we seek] the wealth of our fellow countrymen. We who say, "When will the month be over, that we may sell? And the Sabbaths, that we may open our granaries?" We who corrupt justice with double measures and scales, and lean the leaden measure of iniquity against ourselves?

What shall we say to these things, we who know no end to the increasing of wealth; who worship gold and silver, just as those of old worshiped Baal and Astarte, and that detestable Chemosh; who pursue the luxuries and splendors ^D of stones, and soft and flowing clothing—the prey of moths and robbers,

and of tyrants; who ^A vaunt themselves in the multitude of their slaves and cattle; who spread themselves out in the plains and on the mountains, having some possessions, acquiring others, and expecting still more, unable to be filled, after the manner of the Solomonic leech, just as is also the case with Hades, and the earth, and fire, and water; who seek another world to possess, and find fault with the boundaries of God as being too small for their own desire and insatiability? What then of those, too, who sit on high thrones and raise up the stage of power and their eyebrows higher than the theaters themselves, neither considering God, who is over all, nor that inaccessible height of the true kingdom, in order that they might rule over their subjects as fellow-servants—they who are in need of the selfsame philanthropy? Consider also with me those who indulge in luxury upon beds of ivory, whom the divine Amos rightly rebukes, and who anoint themselves with the finest ^B perfumes, and who applaud at the sound of musical instruments, and are attached to fleeing things as if they were firm and stable—yet do not feel pain or grief at the affliction of Joseph. For it was meet that they, seeing those who had fallen into calamity before them, should have embraced them with kindness and won for themselves mercy through mercy; it was meet, I say, for the fir tree to wail because the cedar has fallen, and to be instructed by the plague of their neighbors, and through this very thing to be in a better state; to be such as might have attained salvation through those others, rather than having others instructed through their own example.

XX. ^C Philosophize with us on these things, O divine and holy head, you who have gathered great experience in the long passage of time, from which wisdom is born. With these things, instruct your people. Teach them to break bread for the hungry, and to gather together the poor who are homeless, and to cover nakedness, nor to overlook their own kin; and now especially this, that our good deed should come from our penury, not from our surplus: with which gift God is better pleased than with many offerings and great bounties. In addition to these things, and before these things, be for me a Moses or a Phinehas today. Stand for us, and make atonement, and let the breaking cease, whether through spiritual sacrifice or through prayer and rational intercession. Restrain the anger of the Lord by your intervention; check the strokes that follow thereafter. ^D He is accustomed to be moved by the gray hair of a father pleading for his children. Pray for the past wickedness; promise us better things for the future. Offer your people

and purged by the calamity and fear. Seek your bodily sustenance; but seek first that angelic food descending from heaven. If you do this, you will reconcile God to us, you will appease heaven, and you will restore the early and the latter rain. The Lord will give his bounty, and our earth will yield her fruit: this, I say, the lower [earth], yields the daily [fruit], but our earth of flesh [yields] the eternal [fruit], which we shall store away in the divine granaries through you, who offer up both us and our gifts in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

ADMONITION TO ORATION XVII

I. This oration was delivered at Nazianzus, toward the end of the year 373. We attest to this fact by the same reasoning used in the preceding admonition. The elder Gregory was still living, and our Theologian had already been consecrated by episcopal anointing. The orator divides this oration into two parts, as it were. The first part is directed to the Nazianzenes, the second to the magistrates. However, what exactly the fault of the Nazianzenes was is not sufficiently declared in this oration. Billius conjectures that the Nazianzenes, offended by some edict or by the gravity of tributes and taxes, had shown certain signs of a disposition toward sedition. But it is probable that the crime of the Nazianzenes was not so grave; otherwise, Gregory would have held a much harsher oration against them had they not merely conceived it in their minds, but had also excited a sedition in reality. For in this oration, the orator does not chide the Nazianzenes at all, but rather gently consoles them and recalls them to patience. He also exhorts them to be mindful of God, if they wish to obtain consolation and delight in their misfortunes; and not to forget that men are often "instructed by God through contrary things," and therefore that they must be subjected to God with equal zeal and will, whether He confers benefits or chastises, and not to God alone, but also to those who wield authority on earth. Many other things of this kind, and worthy to be read, does the Theologian preach to the Nazianzene people.

II. In the second part, he addresses the magistrates, and especially the prefect; not indeed Julian, the mere assessor of taxes, as Nicetas assumes, but another, the procurator or prefect of the whole province, inasmuch as he "had received the sword from God." Gregory approaches him in every way, that he might calm and soothe his angry spirit. "You too," he says, "the law of Christ subjects to my authority and throne. For we too wield an authority, I would add, even one more excellent and perfect... nor do I doubt (addressing the prefect) but that you will take this freedom of speech in good part, as being a sacred sheep of my sacred flock.... You have received the sword from Christ, not so much that you might use it, as that you might threaten and terrify. You are an image of God, you rule also over the image of God.... Let the kinship of nature move you," etc. By these and many other such admonitions, Gregory tries to recall the prefect to clemency and gentleness. Then, adding to these the hoary head of his father, the reverence due to the clergy, and indeed the very dispensation of Christ in the flesh, and the sacred table, he urges the man with wonderful art, that he might mingle lenity with terror, that he might temper threats with hope, and that finally nothing, "neither time," nor "prince," nor "hope of greater dignities" might withhold or turn him away from mercy and kindness.

ORATION XVII

I. My belly, my belly, I am in pain, and the senses of