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Against the Arians and concerning himself

Oration 33.

Against the Arians, and on himself. 1. Where are they now, who reproach us for our poverty, and boast of their wealth? They who define the 36.216 Church by numbers, and scorn the little flock? who also measure Godhead, and weigh the people? who honor the sand, and insult the luminaries? who treasure up the pebbles, and despise the pearls? For they do not know that sand is not so much more abundant than stars, and pebbles than transparent stones, as these are purer and more precious than those. Are you indignant again? Are you arming yourself again? Are you insolent again? the new faith? Hold back your threat for a little, that I may speak. We will not be insolent, but we will refute; we will not threaten, but we will reproach; we will not strike, but we will heal. Does this too seem to you insolence? O the arrogance! Even here do you make a slave of one of equal honor? But if not, accept my boldness of speech. And a brother reproves a brother when he is wronged. 2. Do you want me to speak to you the words of God to Israel, when it was stiff-necked and hardened? My people, what have I done to you, or how have I wronged you, or how have I troubled you? But rather, my word is to you, the insolent one. We keep a bad watch on one another's opportunities, and having broken our unity of soul for the sake of heterodoxy, we are little better than the barbarians now warring against us, whom the dissolved Trinity has brought together. We have become more inhuman and bolder to one another, except that we are not strangers attacking strangers, nor people of a different tongue attacking others of a different tongue (which is but a small consolation for our misfortune), but we plunder and harry one another, as if members of the same household; or if you will, as members of the same body we consume and are consumed. And this is not the terrible thing, great as it is, but that we even consider our loss a gain. But since this is our state, and we believe with the times, let us set our times against one another: you your king, and I mine; you Ahab, I Josiah. Recount to me your clemency, and I my audacity. Rather, yours many books and 36.217 tongues bear, which future time also will receive, I think, as the immortal monument of your deeds; but I will relate my own.

3. What people did I bring against you, borne on by audacity? What soldiers did I draw up? What general boiling with anger, and bolder than his commanders, and he not even a Christian, but offering his own religion to his own demons, an impiety against us? What praying people did I besiege, while they were lifting their hands to God? What psalms did I stop with trumpets? Whose mystic blood did I mix with murderous blood? Whose wailings did I silence with lamentations, spiritual with deadly, and tears of tragedy with tears of compunction? What house of prayer have I made a common grave? What liturgical vessels, untouched by the many, did I deliver into the hands of the lawless, either to Nebuzaradan the chief cook, or to Belshazzar who feasted wickedly on the holy things, and indeed paid the just penalty for his madness? Beloved altars, as the divine Scripture says, but now defiled; and which of your altars has on our account been danced upon by a wanton youth, shamefully twisting and bending? or rather, through what such person have I danced away the great and divine mystery? An honorable chair, and the seat and resting place of honorable men, which has had in succession many pious priests, who from the beginning have celebrated the divine mysteries; but upon you what Hellenic orator has ascended, and a wicked tongue,

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Contra Arianos et de seipso

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΛΓʹ.

Πρὸς Ἀρειανοὺς, καὶ εἰς ἑαυτόν. Αʹ. Ποῦ ποτέ εἰσιν, οἱ τὴν πενίαν ἡμῖν ὀνειδί ζοντες, καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον κομπάζοντες; Οἱ πλήθει τὴν 36.216 Ἐκκλησίαν ὁρίζοντες, καὶ τὸ βραχὺ διαπτύοντες ποίμνιον; οἱ καὶ θεότητα μετροῦντες, καὶ λαὸν σταθμίζοντες; οἱ τὴν ψάμμον τιμῶντες, καὶ τοὺς φωστῆρας ὑβρίζοντες; οἱ τοὺς κάχληκας θησαυρί ζοντες, καὶ τοὺς μαργαρίτας ὑπερορῶντες; Οὐ γὰρ ἴσασιν, ὅτι οὐ τοσοῦτον ψάμμος ἀστέρων ἀφθο νωτέρα, καὶ λίθων διαυγῶν κάχληκες, ὅσον ταῦτα ἐκείνων καθαρώτερά τε καὶ τιμιώτερα. Πάλιν ἀγα νακτεῖς; πάλιν ὁπλίζῃ; πάλιν ὑβρίζεις; ἡ καινὴ πίστις; Μικρὸν ἐπίσχες τὴν ἀπειλὴν, ἵνα φθέγξωμαι. Οὐχ ὑβρίσομεν, ἀλλ' ἐλέγξομεν· οὐκ ἀπειλήσομεν, ἀλλ' ὀνειδίσομεν· οὐ πλήξομεν, ἀλλ' ἰατρεύσομεν. Ὕβρις σοι καὶ τοῦτο δοκεῖ; Τῆς ὑπερηφανίας! Κἀνταῦθα δοῦλον ποιεῖς τὸν ὁμό τιμον; Εἰ δὲ μὴ, δέξαι μου τὴν παῤῥησίαν. Καὶ ἀδελφὸς ἀδελφὸν ἐλέγχει πλεονεκτούμενος. Βʹ. Βούλει σοι τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ πρὸς τὸν Ἰσραὴλ φθέγξομαι, τραχηλιῶντα καὶ σκληρυνόμενον; Λαός μου, τί ἐποίησά σοι, ἢ τί ἠδίκησά σε, ἢ τί παρηνώχλησά σοι; Μᾶλλον δὲ, πρὸς σέ μοι τὸν ὑβριστὴν ὁ λόγος. Κακῶς μὲν τοὺς ἀλλήλων ἐπι τηροῦμεν καιροὺς, καὶ τὸ σύμψυχον τῷ ἑτερο δόξῳ λύσαντες, μικροῦ καὶ τῶν νῦν πολεμούντων ἡμῖν βαρβάρων, οὓς ἡ Τριὰς λυομένη συνέστη σεν. Γεγόναμεν ἀλλήλοις ἀπανθρωπότεροι καὶ θρα σύτεροι, πλὴν ὅσον οὐ ξένοι βάλλομεν ξένους, οὐδὲ ἀλλογλώσσους ἀλλόγλωσσοι (ὃ καὶ βραχεῖα παρα μυθία τῆς συμφορᾶς), ἀλλήλους δὲ, καὶ οἷον οἱ τῆς αὐτῆς οἰκίας, φέρομέν τε καὶ ἄγομεν· εἰ βούλει δὲ, τὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ σώματος μέλη δαπανῶμεν καὶ δαπα νώμεθα· καὶ οὐχὶ τοῦτό που δεινὸν, καίπερ ὂν τηλικοῦτον, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ προσθήκην νομίζομεν τὴν ὑφαίρεσιν. Ἐπεὶ δὲ οὕτως ἔχομεν, καὶ μετὰ τῶν καιρῶν πιστεύομεν, ἀντιθῶμεν τοὺς καιροὺς ἀλλή λοις· σὺ τὸν σὸν βασιλέα, κἀγὼ τοὺς ἐμούς· σὺ τὸν Ἀχαὰβ, ἐγὼ τὸν Ἰωσίαν. ∆ιήγησαί μοι τὴν σὴν ἐπιείκειαν, κἀγὼ τὴν ἐμὴν θρασύτητα. Μᾶλλον δὲ, τὴν μὲν σὴν, πολλαὶ καὶ βίβλοι καὶ 36.217 γλῶσσαι φέρουσιν, ἃς καὶ ὁ μέλλων ὑπολήψεται χρόνος, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, ἡ ἀθάνατος στήλη τῶν πράξεων· ἐγὼ δὲ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ διηγήσομαι.

Γʹ. Τίνα δῆμον ἐπήγαγόν σοι θράσει φερόμενον; Τίνας ὁπλίτας παρέταξα; Τίνα στρατηγὸν θυμῷ ζέοντα, καὶ τῶν ἐπιτασσόντων θρασύτερον, καὶ τοῦτον οὐδὲ Χριστιανὸν, ἀλλ' οἰκείαν θρησκείαν προσάγοντα τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ δαίμοσι, τὴν καθ' ἡμῶν ἀσέβειαν; Τίνας εὐχομένους ἐπολιόρκησα, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν αἴροντας; Τίνας ψαλμῳδίας σάλπιγξιν ἔστησα; Τίνων μυστικὸν αἷμα φονικοῖς αἵμασιν ἔμιξα; Τίνων οἰμωγὰς θρήνοις ἔπαυσα, πνευματικὰς ὀλεθρίοις, καὶ δάκρυσι τραγῳδίας, δάκρυα κατανύξεως; Ποῖον προσευχῆς οἶκον πεποίηκα πολυάνδριον; Ποῖα λειτουργικὰ σκεύη, καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἄψαυστα, χερσὶν ἀνόμων ἐξέδωκα, ἢ Ναβουζαρδὰν τῷ ἀρχιμαγείρῳ, ἢ Βαλτάσαρ τῷ κα κῶς ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις τρυφήσαντι, καὶ μέντοι καὶ δίκας εἰσπραχθέντι τῆς ἀπονοίας ἀξίας; Θυσιαστήρια ἠγαπημένα, ὥς φησιν ἡ θεία Γραφὴ, νυνὶ δὲ καθυβρισμένα· ὑμῶν δὲ ποῖον δι' ἡμᾶς κατωρ χήσατο μειράκιον ἀσελγὲς, αἰσχρὰ λυγιζόμενον, καὶ καμπτόμενον; μᾶλλον δὲ, διὰ τίνος ἐγὼ τοιού του τὸ μέγα μυστήριον καὶ θεῖον ἐξωρχησά μην; Καθέδρα τιμία, καὶ τιμίων ἀνδρῶν ἵδρυμα καὶ ἀνάπαυμα, καὶ πολλοὺς εὐσεβεῖς ἀμεί ψασα ἱερέας, ἄνωθεν τὰ θεῖα μυσταγωγήσαντας· ἐπὶ δὲ σὲ τίς ἀνέβη δημηγόρος Ἕλλην, καὶ γλῶσσα πονηρὰ,