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3. And, to say something more compassionate, as if emboldened by a father who had given us up: Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not recognize us; but You are our Father; and to You we look; besides You we know no other; we call upon Your name. For this reason I will make my defense, yet I will speak judgments to You, says Jeremiah: We became as from the beginning, when You did not rule over us, and You forgot Your holy covenant, and You shut up Your mercies from us. For this reason we became a reproach to Your beloved, we the worshippers of the Trinity, the perfect refugees of the perfect Godhead; not daring to bring down to ourselves any of the things that are above us; nor to be so lifted up according to the godless and God-fighting tongues, as to make the Lordship a fellow-servant; but we were delivered up, evidently, for our other sins, and for not 36.461 walking worthily of Your commandments, but for going after our evil thoughts. For why else to men most unjust and wicked above all who dwell on the earth? The first Nebuchadnezzar afflicted us, who after Christ raged against Christ, and for this reason hated Christ, because through Him he had been saved; and who took in exchange for the sacred books, the godless sacrifices. He devoured me, he divided me, a thin darkness covered me, that I might not fall away, not even when lamenting, from the Scripture. Unless the Lord had helped me, and had justly delivered him into the hands of lawless men, having banished him to Persia (such are the judgments of God!), and for unholy blood righteous blood was shed, with justice here alone not enduring to be long-suffering, my soul had almost dwelt in Hades. The second, no more humane than that one, if not even more grievous, inasmuch as bearing the name of Christ, he was a false Christ, and to Christians at once a burden and a reproach, for whom it was both godless to act and inglorious to suffer; by not even seeming to be wronged, nor having the glorious name of martyrdom attached to our suffering; but even here truth was stolen, suffering as Christians, to be punished as impious men. Woe is me, for we have become rich in evils, for fire has devoured the beautiful things of the world. What the caterpillar left the locust has eaten, and what the locust left the cankerworm has eaten; then the bruchus, then I know not what besides these, and one evil growing upon another. How could one dramatize all the evils of the time, and that which then possessed us, whether one should call it a penalty, or a trial and a burning? Nevertheless, we passed through fire and water, and we came out into a place of refreshment by the good pleasure of the saving God.

4. But that which my discourse set out to say from the beginning: this was the field, when it was small and poor, and not only not God's, who has cultivated and cultivates the whole world with the good seeds and doctrines of piety, but not even of one poor man among the needy and moderate, as it seemed; but not even a field at all, nor of granaries, nor of a threshing floor perhaps, nor worthy of a sickle; nor a heap, nor sheaves, or sheaves small and untimely, and such as are from the housetops, neither filling the hand of the 36.464 reaper, nor calling forth a blessing from those passing by. Such was our field, so great the harvest; great, indeed, and full of ears of corn, and rich to the beholder of hidden things, and fitting to be of such a husbandman, which the valleys of souls well cultivated by the word multiply; not however being known to the many, nor gathered into one, but collected little by little, as stubble in a harvest, and as a gleaning after the vintage, when there is no cluster of grapes. I think I will add those things also, and very timely, as I found Israel like a fig-tree in the wilderness, and as one or two ripe grapes on an unripe cluster, a blessing indeed kept by the Lord, and a consecrated first-fruit, yet still small and rare and not filling the mouth of the one eating; and as an ensign on a hill, and as a mast on a mountain, or if anything else of the

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Γʹ. Καὶ, ἵν' εἴπω τι συμπαθέστερον, ὡς πατρὶ τῷ παραδεδωκότι θαῤῥήσας Ἀβραὰμ οὐκ ἔγνω ἡμᾶς, καὶ Ἰσραὴλ οὐκ ἐπέγνω ἡμᾶς· ἀλλὰ σὺ Πατὴρ ἡμῶν εἶ· καὶ πρὸς σὲ βλέπομεν· ἐκτὸς σοῦ ἄλλον οὐκ οἴδαμεν· τὸ ὄνομά σου ὀνομάζομεν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἀπολογήσομαι, πλὴν κρίματα λαλήσω πρὸς σὲ, φησὶν Ἱερεμίας, ἐγενόμεθα ὡς τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ὅτε οὐκ ἦρξας ἡμῶν, καὶ ἐπελάθου διαθήκης ἁγίας σου, καὶ ἀπέκλεισας ἀφ' ἡμῶν τὰ ἐλέη σου. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἐγενήθημεν ὄνειδος τῷ ἀγαπητῷ σου, οἱ τῆς Τριάδος προσκυνηταὶ, οἱ τέλειοι τῆς τελείας θεότη τος πρόσφυγες· καὶ μὴ τολμῶντές τι τῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς εἰς ἡμᾶς κατάγειν· μηδὲ τοσοῦτον ἐπαίρεσθαι κατὰ τὰς ἀθέους γλώσσας καὶ θεομάχους, ὥστε τὴν δεσποτείαν ποιεῖν ὁμόδουλον· ἀλλὰ παρεδόθημεν δη λαδὴ διὰ τὰς ἄλλας ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, καὶ τὸ μὴ 36.461 ἀξίως τῶν ἐντολῶν σου ἀναστραφῆναι· ἀλλ' ὀπίσω τῆς διανοίας ἡμῶν τῆς πονηρᾶς πορευθῆναι. ∆ιὰ τί γὰρ ἕτερον ἀνδράσιν ἀδικωτάτοις καὶ πονηροτάτοις παρὰ πάντας τοὺς κατοικοῦντας τὴν γῆν; Ὁ πρῶτος Ναβουχοδονόσορ ἐξέθλιψεν ἡμᾶς, ὁ μετὰ Χριστὸν κατὰ Χριστοῦ μανεὶς, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μισήσας Χριστὸν, ὅτι δι' αὐτοῦ σέσωστο· καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν βίβλων τὰς ἀθέους θυσίας ἀντιλαβών. Κατ έφαγέ με, ἐμερίσατό με, ἐκάλυψέ με σκότος λεπτὸν, ἵνα μὴ ἀποστῶ, μηδὲ θρηνῶν, τῆς Γραφῆς. Εἰ μὴ ὅτι Κύριος ἐβοήθησέ μοι, καὶ χερσὶν ἀνό μων δικαίως αὐτὸν παρέδωκεν, ἐκτοπίσας εἰς Πέρσας, (οἷα τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ κρίματα!) καὶ ὑπὲρ αἱμάτων ἀνοσίων αἷμα ἐχέθη δίκαιον, ἐνταῦθα μόνον οὐδὲ μακροθυμῆσαι ἀνασχομένης τῆς δίκης, παραβραχὺ παρῴκησε τῷ ᾅδῃ ἡ ψυχή μου. Ὁ δεύτερος, οὐδὲν ἐκείνου φιλανθρωπότερος, ὅτι μὴ καὶ βαρύτερος, ὅσῳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ φέρων ὄνομα, ψευδόχριστος ἦν, καὶ Χριστιανοῖς βάρος ὁμοῦ τε καὶ ὄνειδος, οἷς καὶ τὸ ποιεῖν ἄθεον, καὶ τὸ πάσχειν ἄδοξον· τῷ μηδὲ ἀδικεῖσθαι δοκεῖν, μηδὲ τὸ μεγαλο πρεπὲς ὄνομα τῷ πάσχειν προσεῖναι τὴν μαρτυ ρίαν· ἀλλὰ κἀνταῦθα κλέπτεσθαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν, πά σχοντας ὡς Χριστιανοὺς, ὡς ἀσεβεῖς κολάζεσθαι. Οἴμοι, ὅτι ἐπλουτήσαμεν ἐν τοῖς κακοῖς, ὅτι πῦρ κατέφαγε τὰ ὡραῖα τῆς οἰκουμένης. Τὰ κατά λοιπα τῆς κάμπης κατέφαγεν ἡ ἀκρὶς, καὶ τὰ κατάλοιπα τῆς ἀκρίδος κατέφαγεν ἡ ἐρυσίβη· εἶτα ὁ βροῦχος, εἶτα οὐκ οἶδ' ὅ τι πρὸς τούτοις, καὶ ἄλλο ἐπ' ἄλλῳ κακῷ φυόμενον. Τί ἄν τις ἐκτραγῳδοίη πάντα τὰ τοῦ καιροῦ κακὰ, καὶ τὴν τότε κατασχοῦσαν ἡμᾶς, εἴτε εἴσπραξιν χρὴ λέγειν, εἴτε δοκιμασίαν καὶ πύρωσιν; Πλὴν ὅτι διήλθομεν διὰ πυρὸς καὶ ὕδατος, καὶ προήλθομεν εἰς ἀναψυχὴν εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ σώζοντος Θεοῦ.

∆ʹ. Ἀλλ' ὅ μοι λέγειν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ὁ λόγος ὥρ μητο· τοῦτο τὸ γεώργιον ἦν, ὅτε μικρόν τε καὶ πενι χρὸν ἦν, καὶ οὐχ ὅπως Θεοῦ, τοῦ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον γεωργήσαντός τε καὶ γεωργοῦντος τοῖς καλοῖς τῆς εὐσεβείας σπέρμασί τε καὶ δόγμασιν, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ πένητος ἑνὸς τῶν ἐνδεῶν καὶ μετρίων, ὥς γε ἐδόκει· ἀλλ' οὐδὲ γεώργιον ὅλως, οὐδὲ ἀποθηκῶν, οὐδὲ ἅλω τυχὸν, οὐδὲ δρεπάνης ἄξιον· οὐδὲ θημὼν, οὐδὲ δράγματα, ἢ δράγματα μικρά τε καὶ ἄωρα, καὶ οἷα τὰ ἐκ δωμάτων, μήτε χεῖρα πληροῦντα τοῦ 36.464 θερίζοντος, μήτε τῶν παριόντων εὐλογίαν προ καλούμενα. Τοιοῦτον ἡμῶν τὸ γεώργιον, τοσοῦτον τὸ θέρος· μέγα μὲν, καὶ εὔσταχυ, καὶ πῖον τῷ θεωρητῇ τῶν κρυπτῶν, καὶ τοιούτου γεωργοῦ πρέπον εἶναι, ὃ πληθύνουσι κοιλάδες ψυχῶν καλῶς τῷ λόγῳ γεωρ γουμένων· οὐ μὴν γνωριζόμενον τοῖς πολλοῖς, οὐδὲ εἰς ἓν συναγόμενον, ἀλλὰ κατὰ μικρὸν συλλεγόμενον, ὡς καλάμη ἐν ἀμητῷ, καὶ ὡς ἐπιφυλλὶς ἐν τρυγητῷ, μὴ ὑπάρχοντος βότρυος. Προσθήσειν μοι δοκῶ κἀκεῖνα, καὶ λίαν κατὰ καιρὸν, ὡς συ κῆν ἐν ἐρήμῳ εὗρον τὸν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ὡς ῥάγα μίαν ἢ δευτέραν ὥριμον ἐν ἀώρῳ τῷ βότρυϊ, εὐλογίαν μὲν Κυρίου τετηρημένην, καὶ ἀπαρχὴν καθιερωμένην, πλὴν ὀλίγην ἔτι καὶ σπάνιον καὶ οὐ πληροῦσαν στόμα ἔσθοντος· καὶ ὡς σημαίαν ἐπὶ βουνοῦ, καὶ ὡς ἱστὸν ἐπ' ὄρους, ἢ εἴ τι ἄλλο τῶν