Orations (other than the Theological Orations) 2.39–2.41

[87] Of the war from outside I am not afraid, nor of the beast who has now risen up against the churches, the fullness of the evil one, though he threaten fire, though swords, though wild beasts, though precipices, though pits, though he prove the most inhuman of all who have ever raged, and invent punishments harsher than those that exist. I have one remedy against them all, one road to victory: I will glory in Christ, namely in death for Christ. [88] But for my own war I do not know what to become, what alliance to find, what word of wisdom, what gift of grace, with what armour to arm myself against the wiles of the evil one. What Moses will conquer him, stretching out his hands on the mountain, so that the cross, typified and foreshown, may prevail? What Joshua after him, drawn up beside the commander of the divine armies? What David, playing the harp or fighting with slings, girded by God with strength for war and training his fingers for battle? What Samuel, praying and sacrificing for the people, and anointing as king one who is able to conquer? What Jeremiah will lament these things as they deserve, writing lamentations for Israel? [89] Who will cry, “Spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them”? Who will pray for us, Noah and Job and Daniel, who are named together in prayer and numbered together, that the war may abate a little for us, that we may come to ourselves, that we may at last recognize one another, that we may no longer be, instead of one Israel, Judah and Israel, no longer Rehoboam and Jeroboam, no longer Jerusalem and Samaria, handed over in turn for their sins and lamented in turn? [90] For I confess that I am too weak for this war; and therefore I turned my back, covering my face in the rout, and sought to sit alone, because I was filled with bitterness, and to keep silence, understanding that the time is evil: that the beloved have kicked; that we have become rebellious sons, we, the vine rich in branches, the true vine, all fruitful, all beautiful, springing up well under the drops from above; that the diadem of beauty, the seal of my glory, the crown of boasting, has been turned for me into dishonour. If anyone is bold and noble in the face of these things, I call him blessed for his courage and his nobility.

[91] And I do not yet speak of the war within, in ourselves, the war in our passions, which we wage night and day under the body of our humiliation, partly in secret, partly openly; and of the tossing that heaves and whirls us up and down through the senses and the other pleasures of this life; and of the mire of the deep in which we are stuck; and of the law of sin warring against the law of the spirit and trying to corrupt the royal image in us and whatever of the divine effluence has been deposited in us; so that scarcely could anyone master the matter that drags him down, unless he has trained himself by long philosophy, and little by little has broken away the noble and light-like part of the soul from what is lowly and yoked to darkness, or has found God merciful, or both, and has made it his special study to look upward. Before one has overcome this as far as possible and has sufficiently cleansed his understanding, and far surpassed others in nearness to God, I know that it is not safe either to accept the presidency of souls or the mediation between God and men (for this, perhaps, is what a priest is). [92] And whence was I brought to this fear? (I say this so that you may not suppose me more cowardly than I should be, but may rather greatly praise my foresight.) I hear of Moses himself, when God spoke with him, that though many were called up the mountain, among them Aaron with his two sons the priests, and seventy elders of the council, the rest were commanded to worship from afar, Moses alone to draw near, and the people not to go up with them; since it is not for all to come near God, but only for one who, like Moses, is able to contain the glory of God. And still earlier, at the beginning of the lawgiving, trumpets and lightnings and thunders and darkness, the whole mountain smoking, and fearful threats that if even a beast touched the mountain it would be stoned, and other such terrors kept the rest below; and it was a great thing for them, after thorough purification, only to hear the voice of God. But Moses goes up and enters within the cloud, and receives the law and the tablets: for the many, those of the letter; for those above the many, those of the spirit. [93] I hear of Nadab and Abihu that, merely for burning incense with strange fire, they were destroyed by strange fire, punished by the means by which they had sinned, and finding the same time and place for their destruction as for their impiety; and not even their father Aaron, second to Moses before God, was enough to save them. I know also of Eli the priest, and a little later of Uzzah: the one paid the penalty for his sons’ lawlessness, which they dared against the sacrifices by taking first-fruits from the cauldrons before the time, even though he did not approve their impiety but rebuked them often and severely; the other, because he merely touched the ark when it was tilted by the calf, saved it but himself perished, God guarding the reverence due to the ark. [94] I know that not even the bodily blemishes of priests or of victims went unexamined, but that it was the law that the perfect should offer the perfect, a symbol, I think, of soundness of soul; that it was not lawful for everyone to touch the priestly vestment or any of the holy vessels; nor were the sacrifices themselves to be consumed by those, or at times, or in places where it was not fitting; nor might the anointing oil or the compounded incense be imitated; nor might anyone enter the temple who was not clean in soul or body, down to the smallest things; so far was it from anyone daring to frequent the holy of holies, which was accessible to one man alone, and once a year; so far was it from anyone being permitted to look at or touch the veil, the mercy seat, the ark, or the cherubim. [95] Knowing these things, then, and that no one is worthy of the great God, sacrifice, and high priest who has not first presented himself to God as a living, holy sacrifice, nor shown forth the reasonable, well-pleasing service, nor sacrificed to God a sacrifice of praise and a contrite spirit, the only sacrifice that the giver of all requires of us, how was I to dare to offer him the external sacrifice, the antitype of the great mysteries? Or how was I to put on the garb and name of priest before my hands had been perfected by holy works? Before my eye had been trained to look upon creation soundly, to wonder only at the Creator, and not to the wrong of the One who fashioned us? Before my ears had been sufficiently opened by the instruction of the Lord, and an ear been given me that is not dull of hearing, but a golden earring set with a precious sardius, a wise man’s word in an obedient ear? Before my mouth, my lips, and my tongue: the mouth opened to draw in the Spirit, or enlarged and filled with the Spirit of the mysteries and doctrines that are spoken; the lips bound with divine perception, as Wisdom says (and I would add, loosed in due season); and the tongue filled with exultation and become the plectrum of divine melody, awaking with glory, awaking at dawn, and labouring until it cleaves to the throat? Before my feet were set upon the rock, made perfect like the feet of deer, and my steps directed according to God, not slipping in the least or at all? Before every member had become a weapon of righteousness, and all deadness had been put off, swallowed up by life and having given way to the spirit? [96] Who, if he has not yet been set on fire in his heart by the pure and tried oracles of God as the Scriptures were opened to him; nor written them in threefold form on the breadth of his heart, so as to have the mind of Christ; nor gone within the treasures that are hidden, unseen, and dark to the many, so as to survey the riches in them and be able to enrich others, comparing spiritual things with spiritual? [97] Who, if he has not yet beheld, as is fitting, the delight of the Lord, and visited his temple, or rather become a temple of the living God and a living dwelling of Christ in the Spirit; who, if he has not yet recognized the kinship and the difference between types and truth, and withdrawn from the one and attached himself to the other, so as, fleeing the oldness of the letter, to serve the newness of the spirit, and to pass over cleanly to grace from the law, which is fulfilled spiritually in the abolition of the body?

[98] Who, if he has not yet travelled, in action and in contemplation, through all the titles and powers of Christ, both the higher and first and those lower and last that are for our sake: God, Son, Image, Word, Wisdom, Truth, Light, Life, Power, Vapour, Effluence, Radiance, Maker, King, Head, Law, Way, Door, Foundation, Rock, Pearl, Peace, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption, Man, Servant, Shepherd, Lamb, High Priest, Victim, Firstborn before creation, Firstborn from the dead, Resurrection; who, if he hears these names and realities idly, and has not yet had communion with the Word nor shared in him according to what each of these is and is called; [99] who, if he has not yet had leisure, nor learned to speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, but is still an infant, still fed on milk, still one of those not numbered in Israel nor enrolled in God’s army, not yet able to take up the cross of Christ like a man, not yet perhaps even any other of the more honourable members: who, I say, will then gladly and eagerly accept to be appointed head of the fullness of Christ? Not if I am judge and counsellor! This is the greatest of fears, this the extreme of dangers, to anyone who understands both the greatness of success and the ruin of failure. [100] Let another, I said, sail for trade and cross the vast seas, and be ever tossed about with the winds and the waves, to gain great things, if it so happens, and to run great risks, whoever is the best sailor and the best merchant. For me it is preferable to stay on land, cutting a short and sweet furrow and greeting gain and sea from afar, and so, as best I can, with a little small barley-cake, to draw out a safe and calm life, rather than to throw a long and great risk for great gains. [101] For to a lofty man it is a loss not to undertake greater things, nor to extend his virtue to more people, but to stop at small things, like a great light lighting up a small house, or a young man’s full armour covering a child’s body; but for a small man it is safety to carry small burdens, and not to put himself under things beyond his strength and so both incur ridicule and add danger; just as building a tower is fitting for no one but the one who has the means to finish it, as we have heard. [102] You have my defence for my flight, and perhaps not an inadequate one. These, then, friends and brothers, are the things that led me away from you, painfully for me and perhaps for you, but necessarily, at least as it seemed to me then. What brought me back was above all my longing for you, and seeing that you long for me in return; for nothing is so strong for love as affection returned. [103] Second, my care, my duty: the grey hairs and weakness of my holy parents, who are more distressed on my account than by their age: this patriarch Abraham, a head honoured by me and numbered with angels, and Sarah, who brings us forth in travail in the teaching of the faith. I had prayed, among my first prayers, to become a staff for their old age and a support for their weakness, and indeed I fulfilled it as far as I could, even to the point of despising, for their sake, philosophy itself, the most precious of all possessions and names to me; or, to say it more truly, having made it my first act of philosophy not to seem a philosopher. I could not bear that my labour should be lost through a single cause, nor that the blessing should be undone which one of the holy men of old is even said to have stolen, having tricked his father with food and a pretence of hair, and having hunted the good, not in a good way, by craft. These two, then, are the causes of my defeat and my gentleness. And perhaps it is not unreasonable that my reasonings yielded and gave way to both of these; for there is a time also to be conquered, as, I think, for every thing; and it is better to be conquered well than to conquer dangerously and unlawfully. [104] Third, and greatest (and having said this I will be silent about the rest): I remembered the days of old, and running back to one of the ancient histories, I drew from it counsel for myself in the present circumstances. For let us not suppose that these things were written at random, nor that they are merely a crowd of words and deeds put together to entertain the hearers, a kind of delight for the ear that stops at pleasure. Such are the myths of those who play, and of the Greeks, who, caring little for truth, bewitch ear and soul with the elegance of their fictions and the daintiness of their diction. [105] But we, who extend the precision of the Spirit to every least stroke and line, will never admit (for it would be impious) that even the smallest deeds were recorded with random zeal by those who wrote them down, and preserved in memory until now; but rather that we might have reminders and lessons for considering similar cases, should such an occasion ever arise, so that we may flee some things and choose others, following earlier examples as rules and patterns. [106] What, then, is the history, and whence the counsel? For it is perhaps not a bad thing to go through it, for the safety of the many. Jonah too fled from the face of God, or rather thought he fled; but he was overtaken by sea and storm and lot and the belly of the whale and a three days’ burial, which holds the type of a greater mystery. He fled, so that he might not bring the gloomy and strange message to the Ninevites and afterwards be a liar when the city was saved by repentance. For he was not displeased at the salvation of the wicked, but was ashamed of the service of falsehood, and was jealous, as it were, for the credibility of prophecy, which was in danger of being undone in him, since the many could not see the depth of God’s economy in these things. [107] But as I heard from a man wise in these matters, who not unreasonably came to the help of what seems unreasonable in the history and was able to grasp the depth of a prophet, it was not these things that made the blessed Jonah a fugitive, brought him to Joppa, and took him on from Joppa toward Tarshish, entrusting his flight to the sea. For it is not likely that he, being a prophet, did not know God’s purpose: that by the threat he was bringing it about, in his great wisdom and according to his unsearchable judgments and the untraceable and incomprehensible character of his ways, that the Ninevites should not suffer what was threatened; nor, if he knew this, that he would not follow God, who was contriving their salvation by whatever means he wished. And to think that Jonah hoped to hide himself in the sea and escape the great eye of God by his flight, is this not wholly absurd and uninstructed, and not right to be believed of a prophet, nor even of anyone else who has sense and perceives, even moderately, God and his supreme … [108] But Jonah knew better than anyone, says the one who gave this explanation, and I am persuaded of it, what the preaching would bring the Ninevites, and that in planning his escape he was changing his place but not fleeing God. For no other man could do so either, neither by hiding himself in the bosom of the earth or the depths of the sea, nor by being lifted on wings, if there were such a device, and running into the air, nor by consorting with the lowest parts of Hades, nor by wrapping himself in a thick cloud, nor by devising anything else at all for the safety of his flight; but this alone of all things is the most inescapable and irresistible: God, when he wishes to seize something and take it in hand, outruns the swift, trips up the wise, overturns the strong, humbles the lofty, tames boldness … [109] Jonah, then, who threatened others with God’s mighty hand, was not ignorant of it, nor did he intend to flee the divine altogether; let us not believe this. But because he saw the falling away of Israel and perceived the prophetic grace passing over to the Gentiles, for this reason he withdrew from the preaching and put off the command; and leaving the watchtower of joy (for this is what Joppa means to the Hebrews: I mean his ancient height and dignity), he threw himself into the sea of grief. And for this reason he is storm-tossed, sleeps, is shipwrecked, is awakened, is chosen by lot, confesses his flight, is cast into the sea, and is swallowed by the whale, but not consumed; and there he calls upon God, and (the wonder of it!) after three days he is given back together with Christ. But let the discussion of this wait a little, to be worked out more carefully, if God grants it. [110] But now, to what my discourse set out to say: it occurs to me to consider and to suppose that for him there was perhaps some ground for pardon, hesitating over the prophecy for the reason I gave; but for me what room for defence would be left if I went on resisting and refused the yoke of the ministry, which I do not know whether to call light or heavy, but which at any rate was laid on me? [111] For if one were to grant us what alone is strong to say in these matters, that we are far beneath serving God as priest, and that one must first be worthy of the church, then of the bema, and first of this, then of the presidency, perhaps another will not acquit us of the charge of disobedience. Dreadful is the threat against disobedience, and dreadful its penalties; as also on the other side, the call not to hesitate at all, nor to shrink back, nor, like Saul of old, to hide among one’s father’s baggage, even when called to presidency only for a little while, but to go readily, as to some light and easy thing, toward a charge where it is not safe even to change one’s mind or to heal the earlier decision with a second. [112] For this reason I laboured in my thoughts, searching out what was right, standing between two fears, the one dragging down, the other leading up. And after being at a loss over these for a very long time and swaying myself to both sides, or turned this way and that like a current by unsteady winds, I finally became the property of the stronger, and the fear of disobedience conquered me and swept me along. And consider how rightly and justly I balance these fears: neither to aim at a presidency not given, nor to reject one that is given. For the one belongs to the bold, the other to the disobedient, and both to the untaught. And I stand somewhere between the very bold and the very timid: more timid than those who leap at every presidency, bolder than those who flee them all. This is my judgment on these matters. … [113] … perfecting the one who has trusted in him and set all his hopes on him; but for the danger of disobedience I do not know who will be our helper, or what word will bid us take courage. For there is fear that we may hear this said about those entrusted to us: “I will require their souls at your hands”; and, “As you have rejected me from being leaders and rulers of my people, so I too will reject you from being king over you”; and, “As you did not listen to my voice, but turned a stubborn back and disobeyed, so it shall be, when you call upon me: I will not look upon your prayer, nor will I hear.” May these words never come to us from the just Judge, to whom, even if we sing of mercy, we surely also sing of judgment. [114] But I am carried back again to history; and looking over the most approved of the ancients, I find that of all whom grace ever put forward for presidency or prophecy, some yielded readily to the call while others put off the gift; and that neither are blamed, neither the timidity of those who withdrew nor the eagerness of those who rushed forward. For the one were reverent before the greatness of the ministry; the others trusted the one who called and followed. Aaron was eager, but Moses resisted; Isaiah obeyed readily, but Jeremiah feared his youth, and did not dare to prophesy until he had received from God both a promise and a power greater than his age. [115] With these thoughts I charm myself, and little by little my soul yields and softens like iron; and I take time as a fellow worker for my thoughts, and the ordinances of God, to which I have entrusted my whole life, as my counsel. For this reason I am not disobedient, nor do I contradict, as my Master says, who was called not to presidency but led as a sheep to the slaughter; but I fall down and humble myself under the mighty hand of God, and ask pardon for my former idleness and disobedience, if this is a charge against me. I kept silence, but I will not always keep silence. I withdrew a little, long enough to examine myself and to give comfort to my grief; but now I have accepted to exalt him in the congregation of the people and to praise him in the seat of the elders. If the former deserved accusation, this deserves pardon. [116] What need of longer words? You have me, O shepherds and fellow shepherds; you have me, O holy flock, worthy of Christ the chief shepherd; you have me, O father, conquered in everything, and more subject to you by the laws of Christ than by those outside. You have my obedience: give your blessing. Lead me by the hand with your prayers, guide me with your word, establish me by the Spirit. “The blessing of a father establishes the houses of children”; and may I be established, and this spiritual house which I have chosen, which I pray may be my rest for ever and ever, when I am sent on from the church here to the church there, the festal gathering of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. [117] Such is my plea, and so reasonable. And may the God of peace, who made both one and gave us back to one another; who sets kings on thrones, and raises up the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill; who chose David his servant and took him from the flocks of sheep, though he was the least and youngest among the sons of Jesse; who gives the word to those who preach the gospel with great power for the perfecting of the gospel: may he himself hold our right hand, guide us with his counsel, and receive us with glory, he who shepherds the shepherds and guides the guides; so that we may shepherd his flock with knowledge, and not with the instruments of an unskilled shepherd, the one set as a blessing and the other as a curse for the people of old. May he himself give power and strength to his people; and may he himself present the flock to himself bright and spotless and worthy of the fold above, in the dwelling place of those who rejoice, in the splendour of the saints; so that in his temple we may all, flock … say “Glory.” Amen.