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of the sea of life, which still has a long voyage, safer, and for this reason more blessed?

IV. Do not, then, shut the tongue that has spoken many good things, whose fruits are many, and many the offspring of righteousness; whose children are so many, and whose treasures are so great, lift up your eyes round about, and see; all this people, whom you have begotten in Christ through the Gospel. Do not, I pray you, begrudge us more than a few good words, nor give us already a prelude to our future loss. Speak, a few words indeed, but dear and most sweet to me; not audible, but known by a spiritual cry, like that by which God heard Moses even when he was silent; and, "Why do you cry to me?" is said to one who is interceding with his mind. Prepare for me the people who were your flock, and after that a shepherd's, and now a chief shepherd's. Teach me something about shepherding, this people about obedience; philosophize about the present plague, about the just judgments of God, whether we understand them, or are ignorant of the great abyss. How even mercy is by measure, 35.940 according to the holy Isaiah (for not even goodness is without judgment, though it seemed so to those who had toiled in the vineyard, not understanding the inequality in the equality), and wrath is according to the measure of sins, called a cup in the hand of the Lord, and a bowl of staggering drunk to the dregs, even if something of its due is withheld from all, and He mixes the unmixed wrath with loving-kindness; turning from severity to leniency for those who are disciplined by fear, and for those who from small affliction conceive and are in travail with repentance, and bring forth a perfect spirit of salvation; yet still keeping the dregs, the last of wrath, that He may pour it all out on those who are not healed by his goodness, but are even hardened like the hard-hearted Pharaoh, and bitter taskmaster, who was reserved as an example of the power of God against the impious.

V. Tell me, whence come such plagues and scourges? And what is the reason for these things? Is it some disorderly, and irregular, and ungoverned motion and irrationality of the universe, as if no one presides over existing things, and chance brings these things about, as it seems to the unwisely wise, and to those who are carried aimlessly by the disorderly and dark spirit; or by some reason and order, just as the universe was established from the beginning, and was mixed, and bound together, and moved in an orderly way, as is known only to Him who moved it, so also is it moved and changed, guided by the reins of Providence? Whence famines, and blights, and hails, our present plague and admonition? Whence corruptions of the air, and diseases, and quakings of the earth, and uprisings of the sea, and terrors from heaven? And how is creation, which was fashioned for the enjoyment of men, our common and equal delight, changed into the punishment of the impious, so that by those things for which we, though honored, were not thankful, by these we may be disciplined, and may know His power from what we suffer, since we did not know it from what we have received? How for some their sins are given double from the hand of the Lord, and the measure of wickedness is filled up by the double portion, by which Israel also is chastened; while for others, by the sevenfold repayment into their bosom, their sins are emptied out? And what of the measure of the Amorites not yet being filled? And how is the sinner either forgiven, or punished 35.941 again; the one, perhaps being kept for the next world, the other, being healed in this? And how does the righteous man either suffer hardship, being tested perhaps, or prosper, being preserved, provided he be poor in spirit, and not greatly lifted up above the things that are seen, and as conscience, the proper and unerring judge, teaches concerning each of these? What is the plague, and from where? Is it a test of virtue, or a torment for wickedness, and that it is better to be bent as by punishment, even if it is not so, and to be humbled under the mighty hand of God, than to be exalted as by a trial. Teach and admonish these things, not exceedingly with the

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ζωῆς πελά γους, τοῦ πολὺν ἔχοντος ἔτι τὸν πλοῦν ἀσφαλέστερος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μακαριώτερος;

∆ʹ. Μὴ τοίνυν ἀποκλείσῃς γλῶσσαν τὴν πολλὰ φθεγξαμένην καλῶς, ἧς οἱ καρποὶ πολλοὶ, καὶ πολλὰ τὰ τῆς δικαιοσύνης γεννήματα· ἧς πόσα τὰ τέκνα, καὶ τίνες οἱ θησαυροὶ, ἆρον κύκλῳ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου, καὶ ἴδε· πᾶς ὁ λαὸς οὗτος, ὃν ἐν Χριστῷ διὰ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου ἐγέννησας. Μὴ δὴ φθονήσῃς ἡμῖν τῶν χρηστῶν πλέον ἢ ὀλίγων ῥημάτων, μηδὲ τῆς μελλού σης ζημίας ἤδη δῷς τὸ προοίμιον. Φθέγξαι, βρα χέα μὲν, ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ φίλα καὶ ἥδιστα· οὐκ ἀκου στὰ μὲν, ἀλλὰ τῇ πνευματικῇ βοῇ γινωσκόμενα, καθ' ἣν καὶ σιωπῶντος ἀκούει Μωσέως Θεός· καὶ, Τί βοᾷς πρὸς μέ; τῷ νοερῶς ἐντυγχάνοντι λέγεται. Κατάρτισαί μοι τὸν λαὸν τῷ σῷ θρέμματι, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο ποιμένι, νῦν δὲ καὶ ἀρχιποιμένι. ∆ίδαξον ἐμέ τι περὶ ποιμαντικῆς, τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον περὶ εὐπειθείας· περὶ τῆς παρούσης τι πληγῆς φιλοσόφησον, περὶ τῶν δικαίων τοῦ Θεοῦ κριμάτων, ἐάν τε καταλαμβάνωμεν ἡμεῖς, ἐάν τε ἀγνοῶμεν τὴν πολ λὴν ἄβυσσον. Πῶς καὶ ἡ ἐλεημοσύνη εἰς σταθμοὺς, 35.940 κατὰ τὸν ἅγιον Ἡσαΐαν (οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἄκρι τον, εἰ καὶ τοῖς ἐν τῷ ἀμπελῶνι προκεκμηκό σιν ἔδοξε, μὴ συνιεῖσι τὸ ἐν τῇ ἰσότητι ἄν ισον), καὶ ἡ ὀργὴ κατὰ λόγον τῶν ἁμαρτημά των, ποτήριον ἐν χειρὶ Κυρίου προσαγορευομένη, καὶ κόνδυ πτώσεως ἐκπινόμενον, εἰ καὶ πᾶσιν ὑφαι ρεῖταί τι τῆς ἀξίας, καὶ τὸ τῆς ὀργῆς ἄκρατον φιλαν θρωπίᾳ κίρνησιν· κλίνων μὲν ἐκ τοῦ ἀποτόμου πρὸς τὸ ἐνδόσιμον τοῖς φόβῳ παιδευομένοις, καὶ τοῖς ἐκ τῆς μικρᾶς θλίψεως συλλαμβάνουσι καὶ ὠδίνουσιν ἐπιστροφὴν, καὶ πνεῦμα σωτηρίας τέλειον ἀποτίκτου σιν· ὑποτηρῶν δὲ ὅμως τρυγίαν, τὸ τῆς ὀργῆς ἔσχα τον, ἵν' ὅλον κενώσῃ τοῖς μὴ θεραπευομένοις ἐκ τῆς χρηστότητος, ἀλλὰ καὶ σκληρυνομένοις κατὰ τὸν βαρυκάρδιον Φαραὼ, καὶ πικρὸν ἐργοδότην, εἰς δεῖγμα ταμιευθέντα τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ κατὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν δυνάμεως.

Εʹ. Εἰπὲ, πόθεν αἱ τοιαῦται πληγαὶ καὶ μάστιγες; καὶ τίς ὁ περὶ ταῦτα λόγος; Πότερον κίνησίς τις τοῦ παντὸς ἄτακτος, καὶ ἀνώμαλος, καὶ ἀκυβέρνητος φορά τε καὶ ἀλογία, ὡς οὐδενὸς τοῖς οὖσιν ἐπιστατοῦντος, καὶ τὸ αὐτόματον ταῦτα φέρει, ὡς δοκεῖ τοῖς ἀσόφως σοφοῖς, καὶ τοῖς εἰκῆ φερομένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀτάκτου καὶ σκοτεινοῦ πνεύματος· ἢ λόγῳ τινὶ καὶ τάξει, ὥσπερ ὑπέστη τὸ πᾶν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, καὶ ἐκράθη, καὶ συνεδέθη, καὶ ἐκινήθη κοσμίως, ὡς μόνῳ τῷ κινή σαντι γνώριμον, οὕτω καὶ μετακινεῖται καὶ μετατί θεται Προνοίας χαλινοῖς ὁδηγούμενον; Πόθεν ἀφορίαι, καὶ ἀνεμοφθορίαι, καὶ χάλαζαι, ἡ νῦν ἡμετέρα πληγὴ καὶ νουθεσία; Πόθεν ἀέρων φθοραὶ, καὶ νόσοι, καὶ βρασμοὶ γῆς, καὶ θαλάσσης ἐπαναστάσεις, καὶ τὰ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ δείματα; Καὶ πῶς ἡ εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργηθεῖσα κτίσις, τὸ κοινὸν ἐντρύ φημα καὶ ἰσότιμον, εἰς τὴν τῶν ἀσεβῶν κόλασιν μεταβάλλεται, ἵν' οἷς τιμηθέντες οὐκ ηὐχαριστήσαμεν, τούτοις καὶ παιδευθῶμεν, καὶ γνῶμεν τὴν δύναμιν ἐξ ὧν πάσχομεν, ἐπειδὴ μὴ ἔγνωμεν ἐξ ὧν εὖ πε πόνθαμεν; Πῶς τοῖς μὲν ἐκ χειρὸς Κυρίου διπλᾶ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα δίδοται, καὶ ἀναπληροῦται τὸ τῆς κακίας μέτρον τῇ διπλασίᾳ, καθ' ἣν καὶ ὁ Ἰσραὴλ σωφρονίζεται· τοῖς δὲ, διὰ τῆς ἑπταπλασίας εἰς τὸν κόλπον ἀποδιδομένης, κενοῦται τὰ ἁμαρτήμα τα; Καὶ τί τὸ τῶν Ἀμοῤῥαίων μέτρον οὔπω πεπλη ρωμένον; Καὶ πῶς ὁ ἁμαρτωλὸς ἢ ἀφίεται, ἢ κολά 35.941 ζεται πάλιν· τὸ μὲν, ἐκεῖθεν τυχὸν τηρούμενος, τὸ δὲ, ἐντεῦθεν ἰατρευόμενος; Καὶ πῶς ὁ δίκαιος, ἢ κα κοπαθεῖ πειραζόμενος ἴσως, ἢ εὐπαθεῖ συντηρούμε νος, ἄνπερ ᾖ πτωχὸς τὴν διάνοιαν, καὶ μὴ σφόδρα ὑπεράνω τῶν ὁρωμένων, καὶ ὡς τὸ συνειδὸς διδάσκει τούτων ἑκάτερον, τὸ οἰκεῖον καὶ ἀψευδὲς κριτήριον; Τίς ἡ πληγὴ, καὶ πόθεν; Πότερον ἀρετῆς ἔλεγχος, ἢ κακίας βάσανος, καὶ ὅτι κρεῖττον ὡς κολά σει κάμπτεσθαι, κἂν μὴ οὕτως ἔχῃ, καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν κραταιὰν τοῦ Θεοῦ χεῖρα ταπεινοῦσθαι, ἢ ὡς δοκιμα σίᾳ μετεωρίζεσθαι. Ταῦτα δίδαξον καὶ νουθέτησον, μὴ σφόδρα τῇ