Oration XXXIII.

 I.  Where are they who reproach us with our poverty, and boast themselves of their own riches who define the Church by numbers, and scorn the little

 II.  Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened?  “O my people what have I done unto thee, or wherein hav

 III.  What tumultuous mob have I led against you?  What soldiers have I armed?  What general boiling with rage, and more savage than his employers, an

 IV.  What wild beasts have we let loose upon the bodies of Saints,—like some who have prostituted human nature,—on one single accusation, that of not

 V.  And to speak of older things, for they too belong to the same fraternity whose hands living or dead have I cut off—to bring a lying accusation ag

 VI.  Now since your antecedents are such, I should be glad if you too will tell me of my crimes, that I may either amend my life or be put to shame. 

 VII.  Why do you not also mention the convenience of the site, and what I may call the contest between land and sea as to which owns the City, and whi

 VIII.  Do you also find fault with the raggedness of my dress, and the want of elegance in the disposition of my face? for these are the points upon w

 IX.  But I am so old fashioned and such a philosopher as to believe that one heaven is common to all and that so is the revolution of the sun and the

 X.  I was deceived too by the Ramah of Samuel, that little fatherland of the great man which was no dishonour to the Prophet, for it drew its honour

 XI.  But perhaps some one who is very circumscribed and carnally minded will say, “But our herald is a stranger and a foreigner.”  What of the Apostle

 XII.  My friend, every one that is of high mind has one Country, the Heavenly Jerusalem, in which we store up our Citizenship.  All have one family—if

 XIII.  It is thus then and for these reasons that I, who am small and of a country without repute, have come upon you, and that not of my own accord,

 XIV.  And if I am doing wrong in this, that when tyrannized over I endure it, forgive me this wrong I have borne to be tyrannized over by others too

 XV.  Moreover this also I reckoned and still reckon with myself and do you see if it is not quite correct.  I have often discussed it with you before

 XVI.  These I call by name (for they are not nameless like the stars which are numbered and have names), and they follow me, for I rear them up beside

 XVII.  These words let everyone who threatens me to-day concede to me the rest let whoever will claim.  The Father will not endure to be deprived of

XVII.  These words let everyone who threatens me to-day concede to me; the rest let whoever will claim.  The Father will not endure to be deprived of the Son, nor the Son of the Holy Ghost.  Yet that must happen if They are confined to time, and are created Beings…for that which is created is not God.  Neither will I bear to be deprived of my consecration; One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.  If this be cancelled, from whom shall I get a second?  What say you, you who destroy Baptism or repeat it?  Can a man be spiritual without the Spirit?  Has he a share in the Spirit who does not honour the Spirit?  Can he honour Him who is baptized into a creature and a fellow-servant?  It is not so; it is not so; for all your talk.  I will not play Thee false, O Unoriginate Father, or Thee O Only-begotten Word, or Thee O Holy Ghost.  I know Whom I have confessed, and whom I have renounced, and to Whom I have joined myself.  I will not allow myself, after having been taught the words of the faithful, to learn also those of the unfaithful; to confess the truth, and then range myself with falsehood; to come down for consecration and to go back even less hallowed; having been baptised that I might live, to be killed by the water, like infants who die in the very birthpangs, and receive death simultaneously with birth.  Why make me at once blessed and wretched, newly enlightened and unenlightened, Divine and godless, that I may make shipwreck even of the hope of regeneration?  A few words will suffice.  Remember your confession.  Into what were you baptised?  The Father?  Good but Jewish still.  The Son?…good…but not yet perfect.  The Holy Ghost?…Very good…this is perfect.  Now was it into these simply, or some common name of Them?  The latter.  And what was the common Name?  Why, God.  In this common Name believe, and ride on prosperously and reign,35    Ps. xlv. 4. and pass on from hence into the Bliss of Heaven.  And that is, as I think, the more distinct apprehension of These; to which may we all come, in the same Christ our God, to Whom be the glory and the might, with the Unoriginate Father, and the Lifegiving Spirit, now and for ever and to ages of ages.  Amen.

ΙΖʹ. Τούτων παραχωρείτω μοι τῶν φωνῶν πᾶς ὁ ἀπειλῶν σήμερον: τῶν δὲ ἄλλων μεταποιείσθωσαν οἱ βουλόμενοι. Οὐκ ἀνέχεται Πατὴρ Υἱὸν ζημιούμενος, οὐδὲ Υἱὸς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον: ζημιοῦται δὲ, εἰ ποτὲ, καὶ εἰ κτίσματα. Οὐ γὰρ Θεὸς τὸ κτιζόμενον. Οὐ φέρω ζημιούμενος, οὐδὲ ἐγὼ τὴν τελείωσιν. Εἷς Κύριος, μία πίστις, ἓν βάπτισμα. Εἰ τοῦτο ἀκυρωθείη μοι, παρὰ τίνος ἕξω τὸ δεύτερον; Τί φατὲ, οἱ καταβαπτίζοντες, ἢ ἀναβαπτίζοντες; Ἔστιν εἶναι πνευματικὸν δίχα Πνεύματος; Μετέχει δὲ Πνεύματος ὁ μὴ τιμῶν τὸ Πνεῦμα; Τιμᾷ δὲ ὁ εἰς κτίσμα καὶ ὁμόδουλον βαπτιζόμενος; Οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐχ οὕτω, πολλὰ ἐρεῖς. Οὐ ψεύσομαί σε, Πάτερ ἄναρχε: οὐ ψεύσομαί σε, μονογενὲς Λόγε: οὐ ψεύσομαί σε, τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. Οἶδα τίνι ὡμολόγησα, καὶ τίνι ἀπεταξάμην, καὶ τίνι συνεταξάμην. Οὐ δέχομαι τὰς πιστοῦ φωνὰς διδαχθῆναι, καὶ μαθεῖν ἀπίστους: ὁμολογῆσαι ἀλήθειαν, καὶ γενέσθαι μετὰ τοῦ ψεύδους: ὡς τελειούμενος κατελθεῖν, καὶ ἀνελθεῖν ἀτελέστερος: ὡς ζησόμενος βαπτισθῆναι, καὶ ἐννεκρωθῆναι τῷ ὕδατι, καθάπερ τὰ ταῖς ὠδῖσιν ἐναποθανόντα κυήματα, καὶ σύνδρομον λαβόντα τῇ γεννήσει τὸν θάνατον. Τί με ποιεῖς μακάριον ἐν ταυτῷ καὶ ἄθλιον, νεοφώτιστον καὶ ἀφώτιστον, θεῖον καὶ ἄθεον, ἵνα ναυαγήσω καὶ τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς ἀναπλάσεως; Βραχὺς ὁ λόγος: μνήσθητι τῆς ὁμολογίας. Εἰς τί ἐβαπτίσθης; εἰς Πατέρα; Καλῶς: πλὴν, Ἰουδαϊκὸν ἔτι. Εἰς Υἱόν; Καλῶς: οὐκ ἔτι μὲν Ἰουδαϊκὸν, οὔπω δὲ τέλειον. Εἰς τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα; Ὑπέρευγε: τοῦτο τέλειον. Ἆρ' οὖν ἁπλῶς εἰς ταῦτα, ἢ καί τι κοινὸν τούτων ὄνομα; Ναὶ κοινόν. Τί τοῦτο; Δηλαδὴ τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Εἰς τοῦτο τὸ κοινὸν ὄνομα πίστευε, καὶ κατευοδοῦ, καὶ βασίλευε, καὶ μεταβήσῃ ἐντεῦθεν εἰς τὴν ἐκεῖθεν μακαριότητα. Ἡ δέ ἐστιν, ὡς ἐμοί γε δοκεῖ, ἡ τούτων αὐτῶν ἐκτυπωτέρα κατάληψις: εἰς ἣν φθάσαιμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἐν αὐτῷ Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος, σὺν τῷ ἀνάρχῳ Πατρὶ, καὶ ζωοποιῷ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων Ἀμήν.