Orations (other than the Theological Orations) 42.1–42.20

How do you find my affairs, my friends, shepherds and fellow shepherds, whose feet are beautiful as they bring the good news of peace and good things, with which you have come; beautiful also in your dealings with us, to whom you have come in season, not to turn back a straying sheep, but to visit a shepherd who is abroad? How do you find my sojourn abroad? And what is its fruit, or rather the fruit of the Spirit in us, by whom we are always moved and now have been moved, desiring nothing of our own, and perhaps having nothing? Do you understand by yourselves and observe, and are you kinder reckoners of our affairs? Or must we, like those called to account for generalship, or public works, or the management of money, ourselves give you a public account of what we have administered? For we are not ashamed to be judged, since we too judge in our turn, and both with the same love. The law is an ancient one: Paul too communicated his gospel to the apostles, not to gain honour (for the Spirit is far from all ambition), but that what was done well might be confirmed, or what fell short be corrected, if there was anything of the kind in what he said or did, as he himself indicates in writing about himself; since the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets, according to the good order of the Spirit, who administers and distributes all things well. If he did it privately and to a few, but I give account publicly and to all, do not wonder. For I need, more than he did, to be helped by the freedom of reproof, if I appear to fall short of what is right, lest I should be running or should have run in vain. And there is no other way to make a defence than by speaking among those who know.

What, then, is the defence? If it is false, refute it …

… but if it is true, bear witness, you for whom and among whom I speak. For you are my defence, and … [3] … to conduct ourselves worthily of your commandments, but we walked after our evil mind. For why else were we delivered to the most unjust and most wicked men, beyond all who dwell on the earth? The first Nebuchadnezzar afflicted us, he who after Christ raged against Christ, and hated Christ for this very reason, that he had been saved through him, and who took up godless sacrifices in exchange for the sacred books. He devoured me, he divided me, he covered me with thin darkness; for I would not depart from Scripture even in my lament.

… had not the Lord helped me, and justly delivered him into the hands of the lawless, removing him to the Persians (how wonderful are God's judgments!), and for unholy blood righteous blood was shed (here alone justice did not wait in long-suffering), my soul would almost have dwelt in Hades. The second was no kinder than he, except that he was even more oppressive, inasmuch as, bearing the name of Christ, he was a false Christ, at once a burden and a reproach to Christians; for them it was godless to act, and inglorious to suffer, since they did not even seem to be wronged, nor did the splendid name of martyrdom attach to their suffering; but even here the truth was stolen, as those who suffered as Christians were punished as impious. Alas, that we grew rich in evils, that fire devoured the beauties of the world! What the caterpillar left, the locust ate; what the locust left, the mildew ate; then the cankerworm; then I know not what besides, one evil springing up after another. Why should one recount in tragic style all the evils of that time, whether trial or refining by fire? Except that we went through fire and water and came out into refreshment, by the good pleasure of God who saves. [4] But what my discourse wished to tell from the beginning is this: this husbandry was once small and poor, and not worthy, I do not say of God, who has cultivated and cultivates the whole world with the fair seeds and doctrines of piety, but not even, as it seemed, of one poor man among the needy and modest; not even a farm at all, nor worthy of barns, nor perhaps of a threshing floor, nor of a sickle; neither sheaves nor handfuls, or only small and unripe handfuls, like the grass on the housetops, neither filling the hand of the reaper nor calling for the blessing of passers-by. Such was our husbandry, such the harvest: great indeed, full in the ear and rich to him who beholds hidden things, and fitting for such a husbandman, multiplied by valleys of souls well cultivated by the word; but not known to the many, nor gathered into one, but collected little by little, like straw in the harvest and like a gleaning in the vintage, when there is no cluster. I think I will add this too, and very timely: as I found Israel like a fig in the desert, and like one or two ripe grapes in an unripe cluster, a blessing of the Lord preserved and firstfruits consecrated, but still small and rare, and not filling the mouth of one who eats; and like a beacon on a hill and a mast on a mountain, or anything else that stands alone and is seen by few. These were the circumstances of our former poverty and dejection.

But since God, who makes poor and makes rich, who kills and gives life, who makes all things and transforms them by his will alone, who makes day out of night, spring out of winter, calm out of storm, rain out of drought, and that often through the prayer of one righteous man long persecuted, who lifts up the meek on high and humbles sinners to the ground, said that word to himself: “I have surely seen the affliction of Israel,” and, “they shall no longer toil at the clay and the brickmaking”; and, having said it, visited them, and having visited them, saved them, and brought his people out with a mighty hand and an uplifted arm, by the hand of Moses and Aaron his chosen ones: what happens, and what wonders are wrought? Those that books and records report. Besides the wonders on the way and that great proclamation, to put it most briefly: Joseph went into Egypt one man, and a short time after sixty myriads came out of Egypt. What is more wonderful than this, or a greater proof of God's magnanimity, when he wishes to give a way through to affairs out of impasses? And the land of promise is allotted through one who was hated, and he who was sold removes nations and is made a great nation; and that small offshoot becomes a flourishing vine, so great that it spreads over rivers, stretches to the sea, widened from border to border, and covers mountains with the height of its glory, and rises above the cedars, even those of God, whatever we are to understand by these mountains and these cedars.

Such was this flock once, and such it is now, so healthy and widening; and if not yet perfectly, yet advancing to this by additions little by little; and I prophesy that it will advance. This the Holy Spirit foretells to me, if I am at all a prophet and see what lies ahead; and I can be confident from what has gone before, and know by reasoning, as one nurtured on reason. For it was far more wonderful that from that state it should become so great, than that what now is should come to the height of splendour. For since it began to be gathered by him who gives life to the dead, bone to bone and joint to joint, and the Spirit of life and regeneration was given to the dry bones, the resurrection, I know well, must be completed for all; so that let not those who provoke be exalted in themselves, nor think they hold anything, holding a shadow, or the dream of those who awake, or breezes blowing past, or the track of a ship upon the water. Let the pine howl, for the cedar has fallen. Let them be instructed by the misfortunes of others, and learn that the poor man will not be forgotten for ever, nor will the Godhead, which is cut up and wrongly divided into ruler and ruled, endure without cutting off in amazement the heads of the mighty, as Habakkuk says; so that the Godhead would especially be insulted by being brought down, and the creation burdened by an equal honour with the Godhead.

I seem to hear also that voice from him who gathers the broken and receives the oppressed: “Enlarge the place of your tent; spread out to the right and to the left; fix your stakes; do not spare your curtains. I delivered you up, and I will help you. In a little wrath I struck you, and with everlasting mercy I will glorify you.” The measure of his love for man is greater than the measure of his discipline. Those things were for wickedness; these are for the Trinity that is worshipped. Those were for cleansing; these for my glory, for “I glorify those who glorify me”, and provoke to jealousy those who provoke me. Behold, these things are sealed up with me, and this is the unbreakable law of requital. But you clung to walls and porches and … of the elaborate mosaic, and long colonnades and circuits, and you glittered and gleamed with gold, scattering the one like water and storing up the other like sand, not knowing that faith in the open air is better than costly impiety, and that three gathered in the name of the Lord are worth more to God than many myriads denying the Godhead. Or will you prefer all the Canaanites to Abraham alone? Or the Sodomites to Lot alone? Or the Midianites to Moses, the sojourner and stranger? What of the three hundred with Gideon, who shone so manfully, compared with the thousands who turned back? What of Abraham's household servants, a little more than these in number, compared with the many kings and the myriads of their army, whom, though few, they pursued and routed? And how do you understand this: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved”? And this: “I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal”? It is not so, it is not. God did not take pleasure in the many.

You count the myriads, but God those who are saved; you the immeasurable dust, but I the vessels of election. For nothing is so magnificent to God as pure doctrine and a soul perfect in the doctrines of truth. For nothing is worthy to give and offer to God, who made all things, from whom are all things and to whom are all things; not the work of one hand or one fortune, nor even if one gathered into one all the wealth or the handiwork among men and wished to honour him with it. “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord”; and, “What house will you build for me? Or what is the place of my rest?” But since we must needs fall short of what is worthy, I ask for the second best: I ask from you piety, the wealth common to me and equal in honour, in which perhaps the very poor man will surpass the very splendid, if he is great-souled; for such generosity belongs to the will, not to wealth. “These too I will receive from your hands, know it well. You shall no longer tread my court; but the feet of the meek shall tread it, those who have known me and my only-begotten Word and the Holy Spirit soundly and genuinely. How long will you inherit my holy mountain? How long will the ark be among the foreigners? Now revel a little longer in what belongs to others, and enjoy your will. As you planned to thrust me away, so I too will thrust you away, says the Lord Almighty.”

These things I seemed to hear him say and to see him doing; and besides, crying to the people, which from few has now become many, and is well united after being scattered, and has perhaps passed from being pitied to being envied: “Go through my gates and be enlarged. Must you always toil dwelling in tents, and those who afflict you exult over you?” And to the angels set over us (for I am persuaded that different angels preside over different churches, as John teaches me through the Apocalypse): “Make a way for my people and throw the stones out of the way, that there may be no stumbling block or hindrance to the people on the divine way and entrance,” now to the temples made with hands, but shortly to the Jerusalem above and the Holy of Holies there, which I know to be the end of the labour and strain here for those who travel well. Among them are you too, called saints, a special people, a royal priesthood, the best portion of the Lord, a whole river from a drop, a heavenly torch from a spark, a tree from a mustard seed, a resting place for the birds.

Lift up your eyes round about and see, every examiner of my words. See the crown of glory woven in place of the hirelings of Ephraim and the crown of pride. See the council of presbyters, honoured by grey hairs and understanding; the good order of the deacons, not far from the same Spirit; the decorum of the readers; the love of learning among the people, both men and women, equal in virtue; and of the men, philosophers and simpler folk alike, all wise in divine things; rulers and ruled, all here well ruled; soldiers, nobles, those in letters and those who study letters, all soldiers of God, gentle in other things but warlike for the Spirit, all honouring the senate above (into which it is not the written roll that brings the commoner, but the life-giving Spirit), all truly learned and servants of the true Word; and of the women, those under the yoke, bound to God rather than to the flesh, and those unyoked and free, wholly consecrated to God; young and old, of whom the old travel well towards old age, and the young strive to remain immortal, renewed by the better hopes.

To this crown (what I say I do not say according to the Lord, but I will say it nevertheless) I too contributed something with those who wove it. Some of these are the work of my words, not of words we threw away but of words we loved; not harlot's words, as someone said, disparaging both our speech and our manner as harlots', but very chaste ones. Some of these are also the offspring and fruit of my spirit, as the spirit knows how to beget those who withdraw from the body. The fair-minded among you will bear witness, I know well, or rather all of you, since we cultivated all; and our only reward is your acknowledgement. For we seek nothing else, nor have we sought it. For virtue is unpaid, that it may remain virtue, looking to the good alone.

Do you want us to add something bolder? Do you see the hostile tongues tamed, and those who fight against us over the Godhead quiet? This too is the work of the Spirit, and of our husbandry. For we do not instruct uninstructedly, nor pelt with insults, as most do, fighting with those who speak not by argument, and sometimes covering the weakness of their reasonings with insults, as cuttlefish are said to spew out their ink before them, that they may escape their hunters or hunt by being hidden. But we show that we fight for Christ by fighting as Christ did, the peaceable and gentle, who bore our weaknesses. Nor do we make peace against the word of truth, yielding something for a reputation for moderation, for we do not hunt the good by evil means; and we keep peace while fighting lawfully, within our own bounds and the rules of the Spirit. On these matters this is my judgment, and I lay it down as a law for all stewards of souls and dispensers of the word: neither to exasperate by harshness, nor to make people conceited by submissiveness, but to be reasonable in teaching the word, exceeding the measure in neither direction.

… both in names and in realities (you know it, who have been initiated): a renunciation of godlessness and a confession of the Godhead; and so we are perfected, knowing the one in the essence and in the undivided worship, and the three in the hypostases, or persons, as some prefer. Let not those who quarrel about these words behave unseemly, as though our piety lay in names and not in realities. For what do you mean, you who bring in three hypostases? Do you say this supposing three essences? I know that you will cry out loudly against those who think so, for you teach that the essence of the three is one and the same. And what of you who say persons? Do you imagine one thing, a kind of composite, three-faced, or entirely in human form? Away with it, you too will cry back; may he not see the face of God, whatever that is, who thinks so. What then do the hypostases mean to us, or the persons to you? I will ask you. That the three are distinguished not by natures but by properties. Excellent! How could people agree more, and say the same thing, being so minded, even if they differ in syllables? You see what a reconciler I am for you, leading you from the letter to the sense, as one does with the Old and the New …

But I must return again to the same subject. Let “unbegotten”, “begotten” and “proceeding” be said and thought, if anyone likes to coin names; for we shall not fear that incorporeal things may be thought of in a bodily way, as the slanderers of the Godhead suppose. “Creature”, however, let it be said of what belongs to God (for this too is great for us); but “God”, never. Or I will accept that a creature is God when I too become properly God. For so it is: if he is God, he is not a creature, for the creature is ranked with us, who are not gods; and if he is a creature, he is not God, for he began in time; and what began, there was when it was not; and that to which not-being is prior is not properly being; and how is what is not properly being God? So none of the three is a creature, nor, what is worse than this, made for my sake …, so that it would be not only a creature but even less honourable than we are. For if I exist for the glory of God, and it exists for my sake (as the tongs exist for the wagon, or the saw for the door), I surpass it in respect of purpose. For as much as God … of creatures …

Against these things, let neither Moabites nor Ammonites enter the church of God: the dialectical and mischievous arguments of those who busy themselves about God's generation and his ineffable procession, and rise up boldly against the Godhead; as though what is above reason must either be attainable by them alone, or not exist at all because they have not grasped it. But we, following the divine Scriptures and removing the stumbling blocks lying in the way of the blind, will hold fast to salvation, daring anything rather than to be insolent towards God. The testimonies we will leave to others, since they have been discussed often by many already, and by us not carelessly; and besides, it would be very shameful, for me at least, to collect now the proofs of what has long been believed. For it is not the best order to teach first and then to learn, not only in things divine and so great, but in any of the small and worthless things. And to resolve and set right the stumbling blocks in Scripture is not for the present occasion, but for a more thorough and greater effort than the present impulse of the subject allows. Our doctrine, then, to sum it up, is this. And I have gone through these things, not to contend with opponents (for we have often contended already, if in measure), but to show you the character of my teaching, whether I am your fellow combatant, and against the same adversaries. [19] This, gentlemen, is the defence of my sojourn among you: if it is praiseworthy, thanks be to God and to you who called me; if it falls short of what was hoped, thanks even so. For it is not wholly blameworthy, I know well, and you will not disbelieve me when I say so. Have we taken advantage of the people in anything? Have we managed anything for our own benefit, as I see most people do? Have we grieved the church in anything? Others perhaps we have, those who think they have won against us by default, since we opposed them with our doctrine; but you in nothing, so far as I am conscious. “I have not taken an ox of yours,” says the great Samuel to Israel when disputing about the king, “nor a ransom for your souls; the Lord is witness among you”; not mentioning this and that besides, so that I may not myself enumerate each thing. But I have kept the priesthood pure and unadulterated. If I have loved power, or the height of thrones, or treading the courts of kings, may I have no other glory, or may I throw away what I have.

What then am I saying? I am not an unpaid labourer in virtue, nor have I reached such a height of virtue. Give me the wage of my labours. What is it? Not what some of those who think everything easy might suppose, but what is safe for me. Give us rest from our long labours; respect these grey hairs; honour my sojourn as a stranger; bring in another in my place, one who will be persecuted for you, pure of hands, not unskilled in speech, able to please you in all things and to share the burden of the church's cares; for now especially is the time for such men. As for me, you see how this body is, worn out by time, disease and labour. What need have you of a timid old man, frail and dying, so to speak, every day, not only in body but also in cares, who can scarcely say even these words to you? Do not disbelieve the voice of your teacher; for you have never disbelieved it. I am weary of being accused for my moderation. I am weary of fighting both with words and with envy, with enemies and with our own. The former strike at the breast and succeed less, for what is openly hostile is easily guarded against; the latter watch for the back and are more painful, for what is unsuspected is more deadly. If I were a pilot, and one of the very skilled, and the sea around us were great and boiling about the ship, and the strife among those on board were great, some quarrelling about one thing and others about another, and dashing against one another and against the waves, how long could I have held out sitting at the helm, so as to fight both the sea and those on board, and bring the ship safely through the double storm? For where salvation would be hard even with all working together, how could one not sink when they work against one another?