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that ancient Eli; the laity, leaving their own affairs, each one busies himself to scrutinize the affairs of the priests, and is an inexorable judge. Am I not speaking the truth? Is our city not full of these evils? And do I not bear witness to these things every day? Have I not toiled, crying out to abstain from oaths? Did I not foretell, the Lord will not overlook seeing the holy gospel so despised, and shamelessly and unreservedly held by covetous hands? Bring therefore the fruits 61.724 of the field, which you have acquired through greed, since it will not even provide the seeds that were sown; nor will you harvest the vineyard, which you seized through greed. For what God formerly threatened the Jews through Micah, these things he has now fulfilled in us: You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall press the olive, but you shall not anoint yourself with oil; and you shall not drink wine.

What then, someone might perhaps say, and yet not all are greedy, nor are all perjurers; how then, when few are sinning, has the wormwood of God's wrath been mixed for all in common? For the punishment ought to have been inflicted on the wicked alone. But as with one body, if an inflow of humor occurs in one member, the whole body requires cleansing; so also with us, since we are one body, and all members of Christ, when one part is sick, we all become partakers of the pain. Thus, when the son of Saul once sinned, the whole army was scourged, and when David numbered the people contrary to the will of God, destruction commonly rushed in. And secular learning also says this, that often an entire city has suffered from the wickedness of one man. For this reason the cup of God's wrath has been mixed for us unmixed. For a cup, he says, is in the hand of the Lord, full of the mixture of unmixed wine. Do you see how the nature of this cup is altered? For if it is unmixed, how is it full of a mixture? For what is mixed is not unmixed. But here both are said; and unmixed, on the one hand, as being unmingled with divine mercies for those who stumble incorrigibly, because of the justice of the judgment; and mixed, on the other hand, as from various scourges and punishments, with which God is accustomed to punish those who have not fallen into desperate evils. For in the same way that those who check the diseases of bodies, and have practiced the experience of being able to heal, cleanse the more insensitive parts of wounds with hot waters and pungent drugs, and reduce the suffering of the impurity present in it with the remedies of their art; so also God, who knows all things, to those who are insensible with blows, the assault of which it would be better to avoid before the experience. What then shall we say to these present circumstances?

Just is the judgment of God, or rather the philanthropic Master has greatly lightened the punishment of his just wrath, not so much that we might experience what we deserve, but so much that we might gain a perception of what we have sinned. For consider the long-suffering of God; we have sinned, and the elements are punished; we stumble, and the earth is punished; we live a worthless life, and inanimate things are scourged; we insult the Creator through our shameful deeds, and things that have sinned in nothing receive the blow; just as if someone, when his child has erred, carries out the torment against the slave. Such a good Master we have, thus he admonishes us, leading us back to correction; and he bends the bow of his threat, but holds back the arrow of his wrath. For he does not will our spiritual death, but awaits our return and repentance. Let us therefore, brothers, come to a sense of what is fitting, let us propitiate the compassionate Lord, lest we appear worse than the Ninevites. They, being gentiles and unbelievers, when they learned of the destruction of the city from the prophet, showed such repentance that they compelled even infants and cattle to fast, and they put on sackcloth and ashes, and thus were delivered from the just wrath of God.

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παλαιὸς ἐκεῖνος Ἠλεῖ· οἱ λαϊκοὶ, ἀφέντες τὰ ἑαυτῶν, ἕκαστος περισκοπεῖν τὰ τῶν ἱερέων περιεργάζονται, καὶ δικαστής ἐστιν ἀπαραίτητος. Ἆρα οὐκ ἀλήθειαν λέγω; οὐ τούτων ἔμπλεος τῶν κακῶν ἡ πόλις ἡμῶν; καὶ οὐ καθ' ἑκάστην ταῦτα μαρτύρομαι; οὐκ ἐκοπίασα κράζων, τῶν ὅρκων ἀπέχεσθαι; οὐ προέλεγον, οὐ παρόψεται Κύριος ὁρῶν οὕτω καταφρονούμενον τὸ ἱερὸν εὐαγγέλιον, καὶ ταῖς πλεονεκτικαῖς χερσὶν ἀναιδῶς καὶ ἀνυποστόλως κρατούμενον; Κόμιζε τοίνυν τοὺς καρποὺς 61.724 τοῦ ἀγροῦ, τοὺς ἐκ πλεονεξίας κτισθέντας σοι, ὡς οὐδὲ τὰ καταβληθέντα παρέξει σπέρματα· ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τὸν ἀμπελῶνα τρυγήσεις, ὃν πλεονεκτήσας ἀφήρπασας. Ἃ γὰρ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις πάλαι διὰ Μιχαίου ἠπείλησεν ὁ Θεὸς, ταῦτα νῦν πεπλήρωκεν ἐν ἡμῖν· Σὺ σπείρεις, καὶ μὴ ἀμήσῃς· σὺ πιέσεις ἐλαίαν, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀλείψῃ ἔλαιον· καὶ οἶνον οὐ μὴ πίῃς.

Τί οὖν, εἴποι τις ἴσως, καὶ μὴν οὐ πάντες πλεονέκται, οὐδὲ πάντες ἐπίορκοι· πῶς οὖν ὀλίγων ἁμαρτανόντων κοινῇ πᾶσι κεκέρασται τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ ἀψίνθιον; ἐχρῆν γὰρ μόνοις τοῖς κακοῖς ἐπενεχθῆναι τὴν κόλασιν. Ἀλλ' ὡς ἐφ' ἑνὸς σώματος, εἴπερ ἐν ἑνὶ μορίῳ ῥεύματος ἐπείσρυσις γίνεται, τὸ πᾶν σῶμα ἐδεῖτο καθάρσεως· οὕτω καὶ ἐφ' ἡμῖν, ἐπειδὴ ἓν σῶμά ἐσμεν, καὶ μέλη πάντες τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἑνὸς μέρους νενοσηκότος, κοινωνοὶ τῆς ἀλγηδόνος πάντες γινόμεθα. Οὕτω ποτὲ τοῦ παιδὸς Σαοὺλ ἁμαρτήσαντος, ἅπαν τὸ στρατόπεδον ἐμαστίζετο, καὶ τοῦ ∆αυῒδ παρὰ τὸ δοκοῦν τῷ Θεῷ τὸν λαὸν ἀριθμήσαντος, κοινῶς ὄλεθρος ἐπεισέφρησε. Τοῦτο δὲ καὶ ἡ ἔξωθεν παιδεία φησὶν, ὅτι πολλάκις καὶ σύμπασα πόλις ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς κακίας ἀπέλαυσε. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ ποτήριον κεκέρασται ἡμῖν ἄκρατον. Ποτήριον γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐν χειρὶ Κυρίου πλῆρες κεράσματος οἴνου ἀκράτου. Ὁρᾷς πῶς ἡ τοῦ ποτηρίου τούτου φύσις παρήλλακται. Εἰ γὰρ ἄκρατόν ἐστι, πῶς πλῆρες κεράσματος; τὸ γὰρ κεκερασμένον οὐκ ἄκρατον. Ἐνταῦθα δὲ ἀμφότερα λέγεται· καὶ ἄκρατον μὲν, ὡς ἀμιγὲς θείων οἰκτιρμῶν τοῖς ἀδιόρθωτα πταίουσι, διὰ τὸ τῆς κρίσεως δίκαιον· κεκερασμένον δὲ, ὡς ἐκ διαφόρων μαστίγων καὶ τιμωριῶν, αἷς εἴωθε κολάζειν Θεὸς τοὺς μὴ ἐν ἀπεγνωσμένοις γενομένους κακοῖς. Ὅνπερ γὰρ τρόπον οἱ τὰς τῶν σωμάτων ἀνακόπτοντες νόσους, καὶ τοῦ δύνασθαι θεραπεύειν τὴν πεῖραν ἐξησκηκότες, τὰ τῶν τραυμάτων δυσαισθητότερα θερμοῖς ὕδασι καὶ δριμέσι φαρμάκοις ἀποκαθαίρουσι, καὶ τῆς ἐνούσης αὐτῆς ἀκαθαρσίας τὸ πάθος ἀπολεπτύνουσι τοῖς ἐκ τῆς τέχνης ἐπικουρήμασιν· οὕτω καὶ ὁ τὰ πάντα γινώσκων Θεὸς τοὺς ἀναλγήτως ἔχοντας πληγαῖς, ὧν βέλτιον ἂν εἴη παραιτεῖσθαι πρὸ τῆς πείρας τὴν ἔφοδον. Τί οὖν εἴποιμεν πρὸς τὰ ὑπαρχόμενα;

∆ικαία ἡ κρίσις τοῦ Θεοῦ, μᾶλλον δὲ καταπολὺ τῆς δικαίας ὀργῆς ὁ φιλάνθρωπος ∆εσπότης τὴν τιμωρίαν ἐκούφισεν, οὐχ ὅσον, ὧν ἐσμεν ἄξιοι, πεῖραν λαβεῖν, ἀλλ' ὅσον αἴσθησιν λαβεῖν, ὧν ἡμάρτομεν. Σκόπει γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ μακρόθυμον· ἡμάρτομεν ἡμεῖς, καὶ τὰ στοιχεῖα κολάζεται· πταίομεν, καὶ ἡ γῆ τιμωρεῖται· φαῦλον βίον ζῶμεν ἡμεῖς, καὶ μαστίζεται τὰ ἄψυχα· ὑβρίζομεν τὸν πλάστην διὰ τῶν αἰσχρῶν ἡμῶν πράξεων, καὶ δέχεται τὴν πληγὴν τὰ μηδὲν ἁμαρτήσαντα· ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις τοῦ παιδὸς σφαλέντος, κατὰ τοῦ δούλου ἐκφέρει τὴν βάσανον. Τοιοῦτον ἔχομεν ἀγαθὸν ∆εσπότην, οὕτως ἡμᾶς νουθετεῖ, ἐπανάγων πρὸς τὴν διόρθωσιν· καὶ τείνει μὲν τὸ τόξον τῆς ἀπειλῆς, ἐπέχει δὲ τὸ βέλος τῆς ὀργῆς. Οὐ γὰρ βούλεται τὸν ψυχικὸν ἡμῶν θάνατον, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐπιστροφὴν ἀναμένει καὶ τὴν μετάνοιαν. Γενώμεθα οὖν, ἀδελφοὶ, ἐν αἰσθήσει τοῦ πρέποντος, ἱλεωσώμεθα τὸν εὔσπλαγχνον Κύριον, μὴ χείρονες ὀφθῶμεν τῶν Νινευϊτῶν. Ἐκεῖνοι ἐθνικοὶ ὄντες καὶ ἄπιστοι, ἐπειδὴ παρὰ τοῦ προφήτου τὴν καταστροφὴν τῆς πόλεως ἔμαθον, τοσαύτην ἐπεδείξαντο μετάνοιαν, ὡς καὶ τὰ νήπια καὶ τὰ κτήνη νηστεύειν ἠνάγκασαν, καὶ σποδὸν καὶ σάκκον περιεβάλοντο, καὶ οὕτω τῆς δικαίας ὀργῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀπηλλάγησαν.