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

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 worthy of praise, and kept pure for God, or being purified for Him Who is all-pure and all-luminous, Who demands of us, us His only sacrifice, purification—that is, a contrite heart and the sacrifice of praise,3    Ib. l. 23; li. 19. and a new creation in Christ,4    2 Cor. v. 17. and the new man,5    Eph. iv. 24. and the like, as the Scripture loves to call it.  The first wisdom is to despise that wisdom which consists of language and figures of speech, and spurious and unnecessary embellishments.  Be it mine to speak five words with my understanding in the church, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue,6    1 Cor. xiv. 19. and with the unmeaning voice of a trumpet,7    Ib. xiv. 8. which does not rouse my soldier to the spiritual combat.  This is the wisdom which I praise, which I welcome.  By this the ignoble have won renown, and the despised have attained the highest honours.  By this a crew of fishermen have taken the whole world in the meshes of the Gospel-net, and overcome by a word finished and cut short8    Isai. x. 22, 23 (LXX.); Rom. ix. 28. the wisdom that comes to naught.9    1 Cor. ii. 6.  I count not wise the man who is clever in words, nor him who is of a ready tongue, but unstable and undisciplined in soul, like the tombs which, fair and beautiful as they are outwardly, are fetid with corpses within,10    S. Matt. xxiii. 27. and full of manifold ill-savours; but him who speaks but little of virtue, yet gives many examples of it in his practice, and proves the trustworthiness of his language by his life.

Βʹ. Καὶ οὔπω λέγω τὴν ἀληθινὴν σοφίαν καὶ πρώτην, ἣν ὁ θαυμάσιος ὅδε γεωργὸς καὶ ποιμὴν τὰ πρῶτα φέρεται. Σοφία πρώτη, βίος ἐπαινετὸς καὶ Θεῷ κεκαθαρμένος, ἢ καθαιρόμενος, τῷ καθαρωτάτῳ καὶ λαμπροτάτῳ, καὶ μόνην ἀπαιτοῦντι παρ' ἡμῶν θυσίαν, τὴν κάθαρσιν, ἣν δὲ καρδίαν συντετριμμένην, καὶ θυσίαν αἰνέσεως, καὶ καινὴν ἐν Χριστῷ κτίσιν, καὶ νέον ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, τῇ Γραφῇ καλεῖν φίλον. Σοφία πρώτη, σοφίας ὑπερορᾷν τῆς ἐν λόγῳ κειμένης, καὶ στροφαῖς λέξεων, καὶ ταῖς κιβδήλοις καὶ περιτταῖς ἀντιθέσεσιν. Ἐμοὶ δὲ γένοιτο πέντε λόγους ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ λαλῆσαι μετὰ συνέσεως, ἢ μυρίους ἐν γλώσσῃ, καὶ φωνῇ σάλπιγγος ἀσήμῳ, τὸν ἐμὸν ὁπλίτην οὐκ ἐγειρούσῃ πρὸς τὸν πνευματικὸν πόλεμον. Ταύτην ἐπαινῶ τὴν σοφίαν ἐγὼ, ταύτην ἀσπάζομαι, δι' ἣν ἀγεννεῖς ἐδοξάσθησαν, καὶ εἰς ἣν ἐξουθενήμενοι προετιμήθησαν, καὶ μεθ' ἧς ἁλιεῖς τὴν οἰκουμένην ὅλην τοῖς τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου δεσμοῖς ἐσαγήνευσαν, τῷ συντετελεσμένῳ καὶ συντετμημένῳ λόγῳ, τὴν καταργουμένην σοφίαν νικήσαντες. Οὐ γὰρ ὁ ἐν λόγῳ σοφὸς, οὗτος ἐμοὶ σοφὸς, οὐδὲ ὅστις γλῶσσαν μὲν εὔστροφον ἔχει, ψυχὴν δὲ ἄστατον καὶ ἀπαίδευτον, ὥσπερ τῶν τάφων, ὅσοι τὰ ἔξωθεν ὄντες εὐπρεπεῖς καὶ ὡραῖοι, μυδῶσι νεκροῖς τὰ ἔνδον, καὶ πολλὴν δυσωδίαν περικαλύπτουσιν: ἀλλ' ὅστις ὀλίγα μὲν περὶ ἀρετῆς φθέγγεται, πολλὰ δὲ οἷς ἐνεργεῖ παραδείκνυσι, καὶ τὸ ἀξιόπιστον τῷ λόγῳ διὰ τοῦ βίου προστίθησιν.