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

14.  Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker;85    Ps. xcv. 6. let us appoint a public mourning, in our various ages and families, let us raise the voice of supplication; and let this, instead of the cry which He hates, enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.  Let us anticipate His anger by confession;86    Ib. xcv. 2 (LXX.). let us desire to see Him appeased, after He was wroth.  Who knoweth, he says, if He will turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him?87    Joel ii. 14.  This I know certainly, I the sponsor of the loving-kindness of God.  And when He has laid aside that which is unnatural to Him, His anger, He will betake Himself to that which is natural, His mercy.  To the one He is forced by us, to the other He is inclined.  And if He is forced to strike, surely He will refrain, according to His Nature.  Only let us have mercy on ourselves, and open a road for our Father’s righteous affections.  Let us sow in tears, that we may reap in joy,88    Ps. cxxvi. 5. let us show ourselves men of Nineveh, not of Sodom.89    Gen. xix. 17, 23; Jonah iii. 5.  Let us amend our wickedness, lest we be consumed with it; let us listen to the preaching of Jonah, lest we be overwhelmed by fire and brimstone, and if we have departed from Sodom let us escape to the mountain, let us flee to Zoar, let us enter it as the sun rises; let us not stay in all the plain, let us not look around us, lest we be frozen into a pillar of salt, a really immortal pillar, to accuse the soul which returns to wickedness.

ΙΔʹ. Δεῦτε οὖν πάντες, ἀδελφοὶ, προσκυνήσωμεν, καὶ προσπέσωμεν, καὶ κλαύσωμεν ἐναντίον Κυρίου τοῦ ποιήσαντος ἡμᾶς. Στησώμεθα κοινὸν πένθος, κατά τε ἡλικίας καὶ γένη διαιρεθέντες. Ὑψώσωμεν τὴν φωνὴν τῆς ἱκεσίας: ἀντὶ τῆς μισουμένης αὐτῷ κραυγῆς, ταύτην εἰς τὰ ὦτα Κυρίου Σαβαὼθ ἀνενέγκωμεν: Προφθάσωμεν αὐτοῦ τὴν ὀργὴν ἐν ἐξομολογήσει. Βουληθῶμεν αὐτὸν ἰδεῖν, ὥσπερ ὠργισμένον, οὕτω καὶ μετατιθέμενον. Τίς οἶδε, φησὶν, εἰ ἐπιστρέψει, καὶ μετανοήσει, καὶ ὑπολείψεται εὐλογίαν; Οἶδα τοῦτο σαφῶς ἐγὼ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίας ἐγγυητής. Καὶ ὃ παρὰ φύσιν ἐστὶν αὐτῷ, τῆς ὀργῆς ἀφεὶς, ἐπὶ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν χωρήσει, τὸν ἔλεον. Εἰς ἐκεῖνο μὲν γὰρ ὑφ' ἡμῶν βιάζεται: πρὸς δὲ τοῦτο τὴν ὁρμὴν ἔχει. Καὶ εἰ πατάσσει βιαζόμενος, πῶς οὐκ ἀνήσει τῇ φύσει χρώμενος; Μόνον ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐλεήσωμεν, τοῖς δικαίοις τοῦ Πατρὸς σπλάγχνοις ὁδὸν ἀνοίξαντες. Σπείρωμεν ἐν δάκρυσιν, ἵν' ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει θερίσωμεν. Γενώμεθα Νινευῗται, μὴ Σοδομῖται: θεραπεύσωμεν τὴν κακίαν, μὴ τῇ κακίᾳ συντελεσθῶμεν. Ἀκούσωμεν Ἰωνᾶ κηρύσσοντος, μὴ πυρὶ καὶ θείῳ κατακλυσθῶμεν. Κἂν ἐξέλθωμεν Σόδομα, προσβῶμεν τῷ ὄρει, καταφύγωμεν εἰς Σεγὼρ, ἀνίσχοντι συνεισέλθωμεν τῷ ἡλίῳ. Μὴ στῶμεν ἐν πάσῃ τῇ περιχώρῳ: μὴ περιβλεψώμεθα, μὴ παγῶμεν εἰς στήλην ἁλὸς, στήλην ὄντως ἀθάνατον, καὶ κατηγορίαν ψυχῆς εἰς κακίαν ἐπιστρεφούσης.