burning in my bones, and I am weary on all sides and cannot bear it, because I heard the reproach of many gathering together round about,” and “saying,” clearly: “Come together, and let us come together against him, men who are his friends; watch his purpose, if he will be deceived, and we will prevail against him and we will take our vengeance from him.” But as they were saying these things, the prophet says: “And the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior; for this reason they persecuted and were not able to understand; they were greatly ashamed, because they did not understand their own dishonor, which will not be forgotten forever.” This is the second pericope of the reading. How then does the prophet say: “You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived”? Does God deceive? I am at a loss how I shall manage this saying. For if, on account of God and his word, I see something in it, what is about to be said requires a noble economy. Having ceased from being deceived, the prophet says: “You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived,” as if his elementary instruction and introduction had occurred for him in deceit, and it not being possible for him to be instructed and introduced into piety, unless he were first deceived, so that he might later come to the perception of the deceit. But it is sufficient to mention just one example that is useful for the present matters. We speak to children, guiding the children, and we do not speak as to the mature, but as to children needing [through] instruction we speak to them, and we deceive children, frightening [the children], so that they may cease from the lack of discipline found in children, and we frighten children by speaking words of deceit on account of their underlying childishness, so that through the deceit we might make them afraid and go to teachers and report and do the things that befit the progress of children. We are all children to God and we need the guidance of children. For this reason God, sparing us, deceives us (even if we do not perceive the deceit before the time), so that we might not, as those who have passed beyond infancy, no longer be instructed through deceit, but through realities. In one way a child is brought to fear, in another way one who has advanced in age and has passed childhood. For if I am able through deceit while training him †, so that the deceiving God might say: “I will instruct them in the hearing of their affliction.” I will set forth stories, how God deceives for the sake of salvation and says something, so that the sinner might cease from doing what he would have done, if he had not heard some of these words. The one who says: “Yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown”—was he speaking truthfully, or not truthfully and deceiving with a deceit that brings about conversion? Which conversion, if it had not happened, would no longer have been deceit but the saying would have been truth already, and destruction would have followed for Nineveh. It depended on the hearers, that is, those deceived and who believed what was said as true, to be benefited and not be overthrown. Or, if what was said did not become true and they were not deceived, but understood that what was said would not be, to despise what was said as a deceit <and> to suffer not the “yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown,” but—I dare to say—something much more terrible than “yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” For in that case the Ninevites, having sinned [if they had not repented], if they had not repented, perhaps “yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown” would have happened; but let it be that this did not happen, something worse than this would have happened, they would have been delivered over to eternal fire. For this reason another punishment according to the law is spoken for those who are trained as children; for whom “but the fullness of time has come [of which],” other punishments have been written down. Compare the punishments of sinners according to the law with the punishments of sinners according to the gospel, and you will see that they, as infants, heard of punishments befitting those infants, while we, as mature in age, hear of more terrible punishments. If an adulterer or an adulteress should exist then, the threat is not Gehenna, not eternal fire, but: he will be stoned with stones; “let the whole congregation stone him.” The adulterer found in these things, the adulteress found in these things, will go away and say: Would that the saying were about me too, that the people were stoning me with stones and I was not being kept for the eternal fire.
καῖον ἐν τοῖς ὀστέοις μου, καὶ παρεῖμαι πάντοθεν καὶ οὐ δύναμαι φέρειν, ὅτι ἤκουσα ψόγον πολλῶν συναθροιζομένων κυκλόθεν», καὶ «λεγόντων» δηλονότι· «ἐπισύστητε, καὶ ἐπισυστῶμεν αὐτῷ ἄνδρες φίλοι αὐτοῦ· τηρήσατε τὴν ἐπίνοιαν αὐτοῦ εἰ ἀπα τηθήσεται, καὶ δυνησόμεθα αὐτῷ καὶ ληψόμεθα τὴν ἐκδίκησιν ἡμῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ». ἀλλὰ ταῦτα ἐκείνων λεγόντων φησὶν ὁ προφήτης· «καὶ κύριος μετ' ἐμοῦ καθὼς μαχητὴς ἰσχύων· διὰ τοῦτο ἐδίωξαν καὶ νοῆ σαι οὐκ ἠδύναντο· ᾐσχύνθησαν σφόδρα, ὅτι οὐκ ἐνόησαν ἀτιμίας αὐ τῶν, αἳ δι' αἰῶνος οὐκ ἐπιλησθήσονται». αὕτη ἡ περικοπὴ ἡ δευτέρα τοῦ ἀναγνώσματος. Πῶς οὖν λέγει ὁ προφήτης· «ἠπάτησάς με, κύριε, καὶ ἠπατήθην»; θεὸς ἀπατᾷ; πῶς οἰκονομήσω τὸν λόγον, ἀπορῶ. ἐὰν γὰρ διὰ τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ βλέπω τι εἰς αὐτόν, οἰκονομίας δεῖται γενναίας τὰ λεχθησόμενα. παυσάμενος τοῦ ἀπατᾶσθαι λέγει ὁ προ φήτης· «ἠπάτησάς με κύριε, καὶ ἠπατήθην», ὡς τῆς στοιχειώσεως καὶ εἰσαγωγῆς γεγενημένης αὐτῷ ἐν ἀπάτῃ καὶ μὴ δυναμένῳ αὐτῷ στοιχειωθῆναι καὶ εἰσαχθῆναι εἰς θεοσέβειαν, ἐὰν μὴ πρότερον ἀπα τηθῇ, ἵνα ἥκῃ ὕστερον ἐπὶ τὸ συναισ<θη>θῆναι τῆς ἀπάτης. ἀρκεῖ δὲ μόνον παράδειγμά τι εἰπεῖν χρήσιμον εἰς τὰ προκείμενα. παιδίοις λαλοῦμεν ἄγοντες τὰ παιδία, καὶ οὐχ ὡς τελείοις λαλοῦμεν, ἀλλ' ὡς παιδίοις δεομένοις [διὰ] τῆς παιδεύσεως λαλοῦμεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἀπατῶμεν τὰ παιδία φοβοῦντες [τὰ παιδία], ἵνα παύσηται τῆς ἐν παισὶν ἀπαιδευ σίας, καὶ φοβοῦμεν τὰ παιδία ἀπάτης λόγους λέγοντες διὰ τὸ ὑποκεί μενον τῇ νηπιότητι αὐτῶν, ἵνα διὰ τῆς ἀπάτης ποιήσωμεν αὐτὰ φοβηθῆναι καὶ διδασκάλοις φοιτῆσαι καὶ ἀπαγγεῖλαι καὶ ποιῆσαι τὰ ἐπιβάλλοντα προκοπῇ παιδίων. πάντες ἐσμὲν παιδία τῷ θεῷ καὶ δεόμεθα ἀγωγῆς παιδίων. διὰ τοῦτο ὁ θεὸς φειδόμενος ἡμῶν ἀπατᾷ ἡμᾶς (καὶ εἰ μὴ αἰσθανόμεθα τῆς ἀπάτης πρὸ καιροῦ), ἵνα μὴ ὡς ὑπερβεβηκότες τὸ νήπιον, μηκέτι δι' ἀπάτης παιδευώμεθα, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων. ἄλλως τὸ παιδίον εἰς φόβον ἄγεται, ἄλλως τὸ προκόψαν τῇ ἡλικίᾳ καὶ διαβεβηκὸς τὴν παιδικὴν ἡλικίαν. εἰ γὰρ δύναμαι δι' ἀπάτης αὐτὸ παιδαγωγῶν †, ἵνα εἴπῃ ὁ ἀπατῶν θεός· «παι δεύσω αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀκοῇ τῆς θλίψεως αὐτῶν». Ἱστορίας παραθήσομαι, πῶς ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ ἀπατᾷ καὶ λέγει τινά, ἵνα παύσηται ὁ ἁμαρτωλὸς τοῦ ποιεῖν, ἃ ἐποίησεν ἄν, εἰ μὴ ἠκηκόει τῶνδε τινῶν τῶν λόγων. ὁ λέγων· «ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέραι καὶ Νινευὴ καταστραφήσεται» ἀληθεύων ἔλεγεν, ἢ οὐκ ἀληθεύων καὶ ἀπα τῶν ἀπάτην ἐπιστρέφουσαν; ἥτις ἐπιστροφὴ εἰ μὴ γεγόνει, οὐκέτι ἀπάτη ἦν ἀλλ' ἤδη ἀλήθεια τὸ λεγόμενον, καὶ ἦν ἂν ἀκολουθήσασα καταστροφὴ τῇ Νινευῇ. ἦν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀκούουσιν, ἤτοι ἀπατηθεῖσι καὶ πιστεύσασι τοῖς λεγομένοις ὡς ἀληθέσιν εὐεργετηθῆναι καὶ μὴ καταστραφῆναι. ἢ μὴ γινομένου ἀληθοῦς τοῦ εἰρημένου καὶ μὴ ἀπατη θεῖσιν, ἀλλὰ καταλαβοῦσιν ὅτι τὰ εἰρημένα οὐκ ἔσται, καταφρονῆσαι τῶν εἰρημένων ὡς ἀπάτης <καὶ> παθεῖν οὐχὶ τὸ «ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέραι καὶ Νινευὴ καταστραφήσεται», ἀλλὰ τολμῶ καὶ λέγω πολλῷ χαλεπώ τερα τοῦ «ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέραι καὶ Νινευὴ καταστραφήσεται». τῇ γὰρ ὑποθέσει ἡμαρτηκότες [εἰ μὴ μετανοήκεισαν] Νινευῖται εἰ μὴ μετα <νε>νοήκεισαν, τάχα μὲν «ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέραι καὶ Νινευὴ καταστραφήσεται» ἐγίνετο· ἀλλ' ἔστω ὅτι οὐκ ἐγίνετο τόδε, τούτου χεῖρον ἐγίνετο, πυρὶ αἰωνίῳ παρεδίδοντο. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἄλλη κόλασις κατὰ τὸν νόμον εἴρηται τοῖς ὡς παιδίοις παιδαγωγουμένοις· οἷς «δὲ ἦλθε τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου [οὗ]», ἄλλαι κολάσεις ἀναγεγραμμέναι εἰσίν. σύγκρινε τὰς κατὰ τὸν νόμον κολά σεις ἁμαρτωλῶν ταῖς κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον κολάσεσιν ἁμαρτωλῶν, καὶ ὄψει ὅτι ἐκεῖνοι μὲν ὡς νήπιοι ἤκουσαν κολάσεων ἐκείνοις νηπίοις ἁρμοζουσῶν, ἡμεῖς δὲ ὡς τέλειοι τὴν ἡλικίαν ἀκούομεν κολάσεων χαλεπωτέρων. μοιχὸς εἰ τότε γεγένηται ἢ μοιχαλίς, ἡ ἀπειλὴ οὐ γέεννα, οὐ πῦρ αἰώνιον, ἀλλά· λίθοις λιθοβοληθήσεται· «λιθοβολεί τω αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ συναγωγή». ἐρεῖ ἀπελθὼν ὁ ἐν τούτοις εὑρεθεὶς μοιχός, ἡ ἐν τούτοις εὑρεθεῖσα μοιχαλίς· εἴθε καὶ ἐπ' ἐμοῦ ὁ λόγος ἐρεῖ, ὁ λαὸς λίθοις με ἔβαλλε καὶ μὴ τετηρημένος ἤμην εἰς τὸ αἰώνιον πῦρ.