[If you happen to have anything against anyone, forgive him. Do you wish your sins to be forgiven you? Forgive your neighbor. If you do not forgive your brother his sins, neither will the Lord forgive yours; for He says, "If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive yours" (Matt. 6:15). And we all know that He does not lie, for He is true and faithful in all His words. Be prepared, therefore, waiting daily for Him who shall require your soul. Do not repent today and forget to do so tomorrow; do not weep today and lead a dance tomorrow; do not fast today and be carried off drunk by many tomorrow; do not watch today and fail tomorrow; but tend to your salvation, that you may be crowned. Do not adulterate virtue, do not shun labor, lest you be deprived of the crowns. Hate all the joy of this world, and likewise its glory; and say with David: "Iniquity I have hated and abhorred, but Your law have I loved. From every evil way I have restrained my feet. I have sworn and determined to keep Your righteous judgments" (Ps. 118:163, 101, 106). Always take care to be prepared, so that when He who shall require your soul comes, He may find you prepared in repentance; and I promise you that He will not separate you from those who are to attain salvation. Keep always that command of the Lord: "Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation" (Matt. 26:41). And again He says: "Be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not think" (Id. 24:44). Hear also the Apostle saying: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). Consider what that is, "without ceasing"; that is, always, at every time, night and day, evening, morning, and midday, and at every hour; whether you are working, or traveling, or tending to a flock, or plowing the land, or lying down, or rising from your bed. Do not wait for the Lord's day, or a feast, or a difference of place. For God is not circumscribed by place; for "in His hand are the ends of the earth" (Ps. 94:4). Therefore the prophet David, praying through every day and night, did not wait for the day, nor for a distinction of place, but weeping he said, exhorting his own soul: "In every place of His dominion, bless, O my soul, the Lord" (Ps. 102:22). And you, beloved, do not wait for an hour, or a day, or a distinction of place; but, as has been said above, pray in every place, and in your house; pray also in the church, and in whatever place you are, pray, in every place of God's dominion. Hear with your ears, all you who inhabit the world, simultaneously, rich and poor (Ps. 48:2-3), whether male or female, or the gathering, young men and virgins, old with the young, kings of the earth and all judges of the earth, hear that which is written: "The time is short; that those who have wives should be as though they had none" (1 Cor. 7:29). Let us renounce impiety and worldly desires; let us live soberly, justly, and piously in this present age, awaiting in the future "the blessed hope and appearance of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (Tit. 2:12-13). Keep the traditions which you received from the blessed men, from the prophets, from the apostles, and from the Lord of all. Let the prophets be your example of affliction and perseverance; Job, of patience; Joseph, of chastity; Daniel, of discretion; our Lord Jesus Christ, of charity, who gave Himself for us; David, the father of God, of repentance. For he was to us an exemplar of repentance, admonishing and exhorting us with these words: "Come, children, hearken to me" (Ps. 33:12), and I will show you the manner of repentance; for I once fell, but through repentance I rose again; and I acknowledge the Lord’s kindness; I know that He receives with outstretched hands those who sincerely repent; for the Lord cannot lie. For I heard Him saying: "The things that proceed from My lips I will not make void" (Ibid. 88:35). "For heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Matt. 24:35). "Once have I sworn by My holy one" (Ps. 88:36). He is the lover of man. Therefore I exhort everyone: Come, children, hearken to me; and while there is time for us, let us hasten before the great day of the Lord comes: "Let us prevent His face in confession." Come, "let us worship and fall down before the Lord, who made us" (Ps. 94:6). "For He is the Lord our God, and we the people of His pasture" (Ps. 94:7 cf. 99:3). May He have mercy upon us and bless us; may He make His face to shine upon us and have mercy upon us (Ps. 66:1). For He is the God of the penitent, He receives us as we repent, He pastures us; to Him be glory and power and all thanksgiving, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.]
MONITUM
[We here finally present the foolish work of a most trifling Greek-ling, not without nausea, corrected according to the reliability of two manuscripts; it is unworthy, by Tillemont’s judgment (p. 393), of being read or understood. It was certainly a tasteless fellow, ineloquent and most ignorant of the Greek tongue, who produced such a trifle and dared to ascribe it to Chrysostom. And yet men among the leaders of the learned, Julius Caesar Bulengerus and Claudius Salmasius, attempted to illustrate it with commentaries and notes; because in that inept comparison between the visible circus, which he himself calls "fleshly," and the intelligible or "spiritual" circus, he employs many words pertaining to the games of the circus and those things pertinent to the circus; he mentions the euripus, the white line, and the starting-point (sphendonē), where the race began. Then he brings in the words *kombineuein* and *kombineumata*, which signify the joining of the horses in the circus. These words occur in almost all Byzantine historiographers. This was the cause why such an insipid little work was illustrated with notes. Bulengerus published this commentary on the Oration in his book on the Circus, since it would be too long for him to summarize here. He also published the Oration itself in Greek with a Latin translation.]ORATION ON THE CIRCUS
[A spiritual stadium and a heavenly race is opened to us today for those who are prepared for the spectacle of the Spirit; not according to the human being of earth, the earthly one, but according to the spiritual and heavenly human being: where one must indeed run on earth, but one must gaze toward heaven. I have undertaken to treat of this, to refute the lovers of spectacles, who despise the spiritual spectacle of salvation, and prefer before it this bodily horse-race of iniquity, or rather "satan-race." But you, beloved, look more diligently toward that tranquil circus of the Church, where Paul struggles, not running the circuits of a euripus or fields, but preaching the gospel at full speed roundabout from Jerusalem even to Illyricum (Rom. 15:19): where Elias leads that chariot of which it was said: "Chariot, chariot, and charioteer of Israel," and his horsemen, not from the white line to the starting-point (sphendonē), but from]the temple toward the merchants of the devil. A Stand firmly upon this equipment of election; ascend the chariot of the eunuch, O Philip, you who have been stripped of all defilement; ascend the chariot; look steadily and without distraction at the deacon who ministers to the reading of the Gospel. And let no one think that I am speaking in jest; I do not lie. For just as in the hippodrome the eyes of all, once the bolt is sprung, are fixed upon the charioteer, waiting in the council for his opening, so too are those who look to the ecclesiastical spectacle, B daring to gaze upon the fiery chariot of heaven, where a people of heavenly citizens is present for the spectacle; and the spiritual judge sits, and the King watches, and the heavenly trophy is set for a prize, and the scourges of a fearful judgment are placed before us. God wills you to fight through Himself. Therefore, He has given you the four-horse chariot of the Gospels, in which chariot are white horses according to Zechariah; those coupled are light and immortality, the ones on the ends are justice and truth, C which travel behind the chariot that journeys toward the land of the north; concerning which Wisdom says: "A harsh wind is the north wind"; for the spirit of the devil is truly harsh and wicked. In his chariot are black horses; those yoked beneath are Hades and death, the ones on the ends are darkness and destruction, which you must rein in for the chariot of Christ, because it is said, "The chariot of God is ten thousandfold, thousands of those who lead them aright," whom you must rein in amid the swells of life, as if upon the sea. D For He cast into the sea his horses that were troubling many waters, and destroying the chariots of the intellectual Pharaoh, and his power into the Red Sea. He also has as a fellow-rider an angel who pursues and blinds the horses of your enemy. For it is said: "Let their way be darkness and slipperiness, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them." You have positioned against you the Cananaeans, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees who proclaim his gifts; you also have Moses, Samuel, and David, who foretold the coming of the Just One. He has there the devil's transport-horses, Bel, Dagon, Baal, and Chemosh, who tripped up Israel, and their limbs were left in the desert; you also have the openers of heaven, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, as they themselves say, that a door was opened to us, great and manifest, and there are many adversaries, who also sought that a word might be given to them in the opening of their mouth. He has Philetus, Judas, Demas and Hermogenes, Hymenaeus and Alexander the coppersmith, filled with hypocrisy; you have as spectators the host of angels, the ranks of the righteous looking down from above, how they all run, but one takes the prize. One is the true people of Christ, one who has been baptized in Christ and has put on Christ; and no longer Jew nor Greek, male and female, slave or free, Scythian, A Arian, Eunomian, Marathonian, but one in Christ. Run worthy of God, and live, O people of God, in the spectacle of the All-Holy Spirit. Let not the pre-race intrigues delight you, lest the hazards before the judgment overtake you. If you wish to make an intrigue and arrange yourself, you can do this better in the spiritual contemplation. Yoke your pious thoughts against the devil’s lust-maddened horses; set yourself in array against the strong with longsuffering. For it says: A man of longsuffering is better than a strong man; [yoke] Christianity against Judaism, godliness against paganism, chastity against fornication, almsgiving against avarice, truth against falsehood, meekness and gentleness against anger. Again, against the sharp ones, yoke the submissive—that is, against anger and grief, place gentleness (for it is said: "A man of gentle heart is a physician of the heart"); against sharp ones [yoke] gentleness, against enmity friendship, against hate love, against affliction thanksgiving, against pride humility, against wickedness goodness, and against every contrary thing, hold to the orthodox and saving faith. You must, while charioteering, also have the temperance of the Spirit, lest you fall from seasickness and lose heart. "For," it says, "everyone who competes is temperate in all things." Those, indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. Take also the helmet of salvation, and the scourge in your hand, which our Lord Jesus, having made from a rope, drove out B those who were gathering there, when the deacon was about to open the four-horsed chariot of the Gospel; we all gaze upon him, providing silence, and as soon as he begins the course of the reading, immediately we rise, crying out: "Glory to You, O Lord." Ascend the chariot, hunt, outrun, restrain, cast out, turn away, catch, and make the good confession out of your mouth; outrun the adversary: "For he who walks simply, walks confidently." Restrain him as David did Goliath, cast him out as Elisha did Gehazi, catch him as Elijah did Ahab in the vineyard of Naboth, turn him away into the outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth; pay attention to yourself. "For take heed to yourselves," it says, "lest your hearts be weighed down with debauchery and drunkenness." Bear all things; "For bear one another's burdens," it says. As you have the path, guard yourself, "Lest you dash your foot against a stone"; do not look back, remembering the wife of Lot. Keep the middle road of justice, do not incline to the right, nor to the left. Seek it from within paradise, seek it from within. "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, slanders, blasphemies, which defile a man." C Do not ascend with him, just as neither did God with Israel, because it is stiff-necked; do not ascend with him; he calls you to sin. He himself will bend you. But be before him, saying to him: "Go behind me, Satan, for you do not set your mind on the things of God, but the things of men." Remain outside, as Elijah fleeing Jezebel; hasten to the prize of the upward call. Let him not catch you, as neither did the boys of Absalom the ones around Jonathan, and Ahimaaz the priests of the Lord who were fleeing; let him not catch you, as neither did the boys of the king of Jericho the spies; but if possible, deceive him as Rahab the harlot did those who were searching. Let him not subdue you, as neither did Pharaoh the ones around Moses and Aaron; but bypass him, as the Magi did Herod. Do not be anxious; for you have God as the director, and Christ as the physician. D Fear nothing; for you have the Holy Spirit as your trainer, the one anointing you with the mystical horn of Samuel with the myrrh. Nor fear thirst; for you have the water of the rest of baptism upon you through the gourd, that it may refresh you—that is, through the preaching of Jonah. Turn the chariot of his tyranny; cast him into the deep, into that which he wrought; cast him into the deep there. Cry out in the manner of the Psalms: "Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice." Cast him into the deep, having bent [him] utterly from his destruction. Lift up to the height holy hands to the King, having seized the prize of the palms like the boys, and having waved them, worship Him, because "Bel has fallen, Dagon has been crushed." Grace be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. By this victory you shall also be able to open paradise like a public bath, where there are four rivers, much water, as in a bath, in a place of pasture, so that you too may timely say: "He made me lie down in a place of pasture; He fed me by the waters of rest"; and above all these things, boasting, say: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness," in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.