Oration XVI. On His Father’s Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail.

 1.  Why do you infringe upon the approved order of things?  Why would you do violence to a tongue which is under obligation to the law?  Why do you ch

 2.  I have not yet alluded to the true and first wisdom, for which our wonderful husbandman and shepherd is conspicuous.  The first wisdom is a life w

 3.  Fairer in my eyes, is the beauty which we can gaze upon than that which is painted in words:  of more value the wealth which our hands can hold, t

 4.  Do not thou, therefore, restrain a tongue whose noble utterances and fruits have been many, which has begotten many children of righteousness—yea,

 5.  Tell us whence come such blows and scourges, and what account we can give of them.  Is it some disordered and irregular motion or some unguided cu

 6.  Terrible is an unfruitful season, and the loss of the crops.  It could not be otherwise, when men are already rejoicing in their hopes, and counti

 7.  I know the glittering sword, and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to naught, to make childless, and to spare neither flesh

 8.  What shall we do in the day of visitation, with which one of the Prophets terrifies me, whether that of the righteous sentence of God against us,

 9.  But then what advocate shall we have?  What pretext?  What false excuse?  What plausible artifice?  What device contrary to the truth will impose

 10.  What are we to do now, my brethren, when crushed, cast down, and drunken but not with strong drink nor with wine, which excites and obfuscates bu

 11.  Perchance He will say to me, who am not reformed even by blows, I know that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, the heedless is he

 12.  Far be it from me that I should ever, among other chastisements, be thus reproached by Him Who is good, but walks contrary to me in fury because

 13.  With these words I invoke mercy:  and if it were possible to propitiate His wrath with whole burnt offerings or sacrifices, I would not even have

 14.  Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker let us appoint a public mourning, in our va

 15.  Let us be assured that to do no wrong is really superhuman, and belongs to God alone.  I say nothing about the Angels, that we may give no room f

 16.  It is a fearful thing, my brethren, to fall into the hands of a living God, and fearful is the face of the Lord against them that do evil,

 17.  Only let us recognise the purpose of the evil.  Why have the crops withered, our storehouses been emptied, the pastures of our flocks failed, the

 18.  One of us has oppressed the poor, and wrested from him his portion of land, and wrongly encroached upon his landmark by fraud or violence, and jo

 19.  What shall be said to this by those of us who are buyers and sellers of corn, and watch the hardships of the seasons, in order to grow prosperous

 20.  Join with us, thou divine and sacred person, in considering these questions, with the store of experience, that source of wisdom, which thou hast

4.  Do not thou, therefore, restrain a tongue whose noble utterances and fruits have been many, which has begotten many children of righteousness—yea, lift up thine eyes round about and see,16    Isai. xlix. 18. how many are its sons, and what are its treasures; even this whole people, whom thou hast begotten in Christ through the Gospel.17    1 Cor. iv. 15.  Grudge not to us those words which are excellent rather than many, and do not yet give us a foretaste of our impending loss.18    Loss, i.e., the death of his father, which, from his age, could not be long delayed.  Speak in words which, if few, are dear and most sweet to me, which, if scarcely audible, are perceived from their spiritual cry, as God heard the silence of Moses, and said to him when interceding mentally, “Why criest thou unto Me?”19    Exod. xiv. 15.  Comfort this people, I pray thee, I, who was thy nursling, and have since been made Pastor, and now even Chief Pastor.  Give a lesson, to me in the Pastor’s art, to this people of obedience.  Discourse awhile on our present heavy blow, about the just judgments of God, whether we grasp their meaning, or are ignorant of their great deep.20    Ps. xxxvi. 6.  How again “mercy is put in the balance,”21    Is. xxviii. 17. (LXX.). as holy Isaiah declares, for goodness is not without discernment, as the first labourers in the vineyard22    S. Matt. xx. 12. fancied, because they could not perceive any distinction between those who were paid alike:  and how anger, which is called “the cup in the hand of the Lord,”23    Ps. lxxv. 9. and “the cup of falling which is drained,”24    Isai. li. 17 (LXX.). is in proportion to transgressions, even though He abates to all somewhat of what is their due, and dilutes with compassion the unmixed draught of His wrath.  For He inclines from severity to indulgence towards those who accept chastisement with fear, and who after a slight affliction conceive and are in pain with conversion, and bring forth25    Ib. xxvi. 18. the perfect spirit of salvation; but nevertheless he reserves the dregs,26    Ps. lxxv. 10. the last drop of His anger, that He may pour it out entire upon those who, instead of being healed by His kindness, grow obdurate, like the hard-hearted Pharaoh,27    Exod. v. 6; vii. 22. that bitter taskmaster, who is set forth as an example of the power28    Rom. ix. 17. of God over the ungodly.

Δʹ. 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 μελλούσης ζημίας ἤδη δῷς τὸ προοίμιον. Φθέγξαι, βραχέα μὲν, ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ φίλα καὶ ἥδιστα: οὐκ ἀκουστὰ 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. Δίδαξον 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 πολλὴν ἄβυσσον. Πῶς καὶ ἡ ἐλεημοσύνη εἰς σταθμοὺς, κατὰ τὸν ἅγιον Ἡσαΐαν (οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἄκριτον, εἰ καὶ τοῖς ἐν τῷ ἀμπελῶνι προκεκμηκόσιν ἔδοξε, μὴ συνιεῖσι τὸ ἐν τῇ ἰσότητι ἄνισον), καὶ ἡ ὀργὴ κατὰ λόγον τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, ποτήριον ἐν χειρὶ Κυρίου προσαγορευομένη, καὶ κόνδυ πτώσεως ἐκπινόμενον, εἰ καὶ πᾶσιν ὑφαιρεῖταί τι τῆς ἀξίας, καὶ τὸ τῆς ὀργῆς ἄκρατον φιλανθρωπίᾳ 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 ἀποτίκτουσιν: ὑποτηρῶν δὲ ὅμως τρυγίαν, τὸ τῆς ὀργῆς ἔσχατον, 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.