Orations (other than the Theological Orations) 32.3–32.25

… so that, as in diseases, having cut off the causes and blocked or dried up the springs of the passions, we may cut off also the streams and effects that flow from them. For one cannot know anything well about the end without considering the beginning rightly. Do you, then, wish to state and make known the cause yourselves, or do you leave it to me, the physician, both to show it and to correct it? For I am ready to speak if you wish, and readier still to listen if you speak. You leave it to me, I know well; for perhaps you think us not bad physicians of such things, nor unskilled in the healing of souls, whether you think so wrongly or rightly. Do not be surprised if I say something paradoxical; for it is paradoxical, but true, as I say and as you will agree, if you wait to learn to the end, and do not suffer what I am blaming, rising up before the discourse is finished out of heat. … ignorance, and its offspring, the evil of rashness; for rashness is the offspring of ignorance. Weak souls are equally sluggish and hard to move toward virtue and toward vice, inclining much in neither direction, like the movements of the benumbed. But noble souls, when reason trains and directs them, are a great thing for virtue; and when knowledge and reason are lacking, they are found equally great for vice. So too a horse that is to win must be spirited and noble, whether for war or for racing; but the same horse would be good for nothing unless trained by the bridle and taught gentleness by laborious exercise.

This is what has made the one Church into many parts, and divided us: “I am of Paul, or of Cephas, or of Apollos,” or of so-and-so; and it has shown us many Pauls, Apolloses, and Cephases, instead of Christ, from whom we are named, the great and new name, whose we are said to be; and would that it had stopped there! But it has also shown many Christs (I shudder to say it): the one born, the one created, the one beginning from Mary, the one dissolving back into that from which he came forth into being; and the one a man, and the one existing, and the one appearing. And so also many Spirits: the uncreated and the created, the one of equal honour, and the operation, and … Whereas we should know one God, the Father, without beginning and unbegotten; and one Son, begotten of the Father; and one Spirit, having existence from God, yielding to the Father unbegottenness and to the Son begottenness, but in all else of the same nature, sharing the throne, equal in glory and in honour: to know these things, to confess these, to stop here, and to send away the great nonsense and the profane empty babbling of words to those who have leisure. What, then, has stirred us up so much? Fervour without reason and knowledge, unrestrained, and a voyage of faith without a pilot.

Knowing this, then, brothers, let us neither be sluggish toward the good, but be fervent in the Spirit, … lest he sow his evil seeds among us, he who praises the right and leads us away from the right again; I mean this apparent right, which is not truly right. Looking to this, Scripture says elsewhere, “Do not be very righteous, nor be overwise.” For the same passion concerns righteousness and wisdom: fervour in action and in word, falling outside the good and virtue through excess; for both deficiency and excess alike spoil it, as addition or subtraction spoils a rule.

Let no one, then, be wiser than is right, nor more lawful than the law, nor brighter than the light, nor straighter than the rule, nor higher than the commandment. How will this be? If we know order, praise the law of nature, follow reason, and do not dishonour good order. Look up to the heaven above and down to the earth below, and consider how the universe was constituted, and from what, and what there was before its ordering, and what name the universe now has. … by order all things were set in order, and by the Word who set them in order; although it was possible for all things to come into being as one and all at once (for he who gave being to things that were not, and forms and shapes to the things that came to be, was not too weak to bring forth and order the whole at once); but for this reason something is counted first, and second, and third, and so on, so that order might at once come in together with created things.

Order, then, constituted the universe. Order holds together the things of heaven and of earth; there is order among intelligible beings, order among sensible things; order among the angels; order among the stars, in their motion, magnitude, relation to one another, and brightness: “one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory”; order in the hours and seasons, which advance and withdraw in the world and tame harshness by their mean; order in the measures and intervals of day and night; order in the elements, from which bodies are made. Order rolled the heaven around, spread out the air, laid the earth beneath, or rather set it above the waters; it gathered and holds the liquid nature; it let loose the winds and yet did not let them loose entirely; it bound water in the clouds and did not hold it back, but scattered it over the face of the whole earth, in good order and evenly; and these things not for a little while, nor for one season or time, but from beginning to end, directed along and going round the same course, both fixed and moving, the former by the Word, the latter by flux. “He established them for ever and for ever and ever; he set a decree, and it shall not pass away.” This belongs to the fixity; and whatever has come or will come into being belongs to the flux. And while order prevails, the universe is a cosmos and its beauty undisturbed. But disorder and the absence of order brought in thunderbolts in the air, earthquakes on land, floods at sea, wars in cities and households, diseases in bodies, sins in souls. All these are names not of order or peace, but of disturbance and disorder. And the destruction that is so much talked of and expected, brothers, let us think it nothing other than an excess of disorder. For order binds and disorder dissolves, when it pleases the one who bound the universe to dissolve or transform it.

Order also laid down for all animals their birth, their food, and the places suited to each. No one has seen a dolphin cutting a furrow, nor an ox gliding through the water; nor the sun waning or waxing at night, nor the moon blazing by day. “The high mountains are for the deer, the rock is a refuge for the hares. He made the moon for seasons; the sun knows its going down.” Night comes, and man withdraws into sleep, and the beasts grow bold, and each seeks the food given it by the Creator; day comes, and the beasts gather in, and man hastens to his work; and we give way to one another in order, by the law and reason of nature. I will add the greatest and most fitting thing. Order constituted man, a rational animal, from a blend of the rational and the irrational, and bound the dust to the mind and the mind to the spirit, mystically and ineffably. And to work a greater wonder in his own creature, he both preserved and dissolved the same; for he brought the one in and led the other out, as in a stream, and procured immortality for the mortal through dissolution. Order set us apart from the irrational animals, founded cities, laid down laws, honoured virtue, punished vice, invented the arts, joined marriage together, tamed life by love for offspring, and established, greater than earthly and fleshly longing, the longing for God.

And why speak of each thing? Order is the mother and safety of all that exists; and it alone could fittingly speak the word of Wisdom, the Creator of all, if it were given a voice: “When the universe was being given essence and existence by God, I was beside him, setting it in harmony; when he prepared his throne upon the winds and made strong the clouds above; when he laid the foundations of the earth and set firm the springs under heaven …”

… and by the Spirit of his mouth he granted all their power. But (and it is for this that I have gone through all these things, and toward this that my discourse has long been hastening) order in the churches too has distinguished that some are flock and others shepherds; that some rule and others are ruled; that some are as it were the head, others the feet, others the hands, others the eye, others some other member of the body, for the harmony and benefit of the whole, whether they are led or lead. And as in bodies the members are not torn from one another, but the whole is one body composed of different members, nor is the operation of all the same, though needing one another is the same, so as to require goodwill and agreement: the eye does not walk, but guides; the foot does not look ahead, but moves and carries; the tongue does not receive sounds, for that belongs to hearing; nor does hearing speak, for that belongs to the tongue; the nose is the organ of smell; “the throat tastes food,” says Job; the hand is the instrument of giving and taking; and the mind is the leader of all, from which comes sensation and to which sensation returns. So too with us, in the common body of Christ, … the difference between those who lead and those who are led; and “the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets,” as Paul says; do not doubt it. “And God has appointed some in the Church,” he says, “first apostles, second prophets, third shepherds and teachers”: first because of the truth, second because of the shadow, third because of the measure of benefit and illumination. And the Spirit is one, but the gifts are not equal, since the vessels of the Spirit are not equal either. For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom and contemplation, to another a word of knowledge or revelation, to another firm and unhesitating faith, to another workings of powers and loftier miracles, to another helps, governings, that is, disciplines of the flesh, kinds of tongues, interpretations of tongues, the greater gifts and the secondary, according to the proportion of faith.

Let us revere this order, brothers; let us guard it. Let one be the hearing, another the tongue, another the hand, another something else. Let one teach and another learn; let another work what is good with his own hands, to share with the one in need and want. Let one rule and preside, and let another be justified through service; and let the one who teaches do so in good order. “Let two or three prophets speak, and in turn, and let one interpret”; and “if a revelation comes to another, let the first give way.” And let the learner learn in docility, the giver give in cheerfulness, and the one who serves serve with eagerness. Let us not all be tongue, the readiest of members; let us not all be apostles, not all prophets, not all interpreters. It is a great thing to speak about God, but greater to purify oneself for God, since “wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul.” We have been bidden to “sow for righteousness and reap the fruit of life,” so that we may also be illumined with the light of knowledge. And Paul wishes that, through loving the Lord, we may be known by the Lord, and through being known, may be taught; and he knows this as a better way to knowledge than the conceit that puffs up. [13] Is teaching a great thing? But learning is free from danger. Why do you make yourself a shepherd, when you are a sheep? Why do you become the head, when you are a foot? Why do you try to be a general, when you are ranked among the soldiers? Why do you pursue the great but unsafe gains of the sea, when you can farm the land in safety, even if you profit less? If you are a man in Christ, and your senses have been trained, and the light of knowledge shines brightly in you, speak the wisdom of God that is spoken among the perfect, the wisdom hidden in a mystery; and do so when you have the occasion and are entrusted with it. For what do you have of yourself that has not been given to you and that you have not received? But if you are still an infant and low in mind, and unable to approach loftier things, become a Corinthian, be fed with milk. Why do you need more solid food, which your members cannot digest, and which cannot become nourishment because of your weakness? Speak, if you have something better than silence (for you know that setting a guard on one’s lips is praised); but love quiet where silence is better than speech; and say some things, and listen to others; praise some things, and do not reject others harshly. … envy, every light, even if it seems surpassingly bright; but, you see, he treads upon our darkness, and made darkness his hiding place, setting it between himself and us, as Moses formerly set the veil between himself and the hardness of Israel; so that darkened nature might not easily see the hidden beauty, which few deserve, nor, having attained it easily, easily throw it away because it was acquired so easily; but that light might converse with light, which always draws us upward through longing, and that mind, purified, might approach the Purest, and part might appear now and part later, as the prize of virtue and of our inclination toward him here, that is, of our likeness to him. For “now,” he says, “we see through a mirror and in a riddle, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” How great is our lowliness! And how great the promise: to know God as much as we are known! These things says Paul, the great herald of the truth, the teacher of the Gentiles in faith, who completed the great circle of the gospel, who lived for no one but Christ, who reached as far as the third heaven, the beholder of paradise, who longed for his departure because of its perfection …

Moses scarcely saw the back parts of God through the rock (what these are, and what the rock is), and that after much entreaty and after receiving a promise; except that he did not see as much as he longed for, but what escaped him was more than what was shown him: Moses, God to Pharaoh, the leader of so great a people, who displayed such power in signs. And you, whom have you fed from heaven? What water have you given from the rock? What sea have you split with a rod? What people have you led through the waters as on dry land? What enemies have you drowned? Whom have you guided with a column of fire and cloud? What Amalek have you defeated by prayer and the stretching out of your hands, and by the cross foreshadowed mystically from afar, that it should be a disaster to you not to comprehend God perfectly, and that for this reason everything should be shaken and carried up and down? And since I have mentioned Moses, have you not learned from this the sequence of grace and the law of order? If you are a Moses, go within the cloud, speak to God, hear his voice, receive the law, and legislate. If you are an Aaron, go up with him, but stand near, outside the cloud. If you are an Ithamar or an Eleazar, third from Moses, or one of the elders and the Seventy, stand still further off, holding the third place in station. If you are one of the people and the many, the mountain does not admit you; even a beast that touches it will be stoned. Stay below and hear only the voice, and that after sanctifying and purifying yourself, as you have been commanded.

And to instruct you by more examples: who consecrated the hands of the priests? Moses. Who was the first of those consecrated? Aaron. And still earlier, who represented the people before God, and who was a voice for him to the people? Who entered the Holy of Holies, except one? And did this one enter always? By no means; but once a year, and at a fixed time. Who carried the tabernacle, except the Levites? And these, as had been ordered, some carried its more precious parts, others the secondary ones, according to the rank of the bearers. And since it also had to be guarded, who guarded it, and how? Some this side, others that; and nothing was left undefined or disordered, not even in the smallest things. But we, if we gain a little reputation, or often not even that, but by chance, or have studied two or three words of Scripture, and those piecemeal and without understanding (this is that wisdom made in a day, and the tower in Chalanne, which rightly divided the tongues), must rebel against Moses and become Dathan and Abiram, the insolent and godless. Let us flee their arrogance, and not imitate their madness, nor receive their end. … before his passion, and when he prayed, who were with him? The same again. Such was Christ’s preference. And as for the rest of their good order and rank: Peter asks one thing, Philip another, Judas another, Thomas another, or someone else; not all the same thing, nor one all things, but each in turn, one thing each. … what each needed, you would say? But what of this, what do you make of it? Philip wishes to say something, and does not dare alone, but takes Andrew along with him. Peter needs to ask something, and puts John forward by a nod. Where is harshness here? Where is love of rule? How could they have shown more clearly that they were disciples of Christ, meek and lowly in heart, who became a servant for us his servants, and referred all glory to the Father in everything, to give us a pattern of good order and moderation? From this we are so far removed that I would be content if we were not the most foolish of all, we who display this lack of order about the greatest things and in the greatest matters.

Do you not know that humility is judged not so much in small things (for it might come about from display and a false semblance of virtue) as it is tested in greater things? And to my mind the humble-minded man is not the one who speaks of himself in small terms, and that to few and seldom, nor the one who humbly addresses the more lowly, but the one who speaks with moderation about God; who knows what to say and what to keep back, and confesses his ignorance of some things, and yields the word to the one entrusted with it, and accepts that someone else is more spiritual and further advanced in contemplation. For it is shameful to choose not the loftier but the cheaper in clothing and food, and to display humility and awareness of one’s own weakness by calloused knees, fountains of tears, fasts, vigils, sleeping on the ground, toil, and every kind of bodily discipline, but to be an absolute tyrant in discourses about God, yielding to no one at all, and raising one’s brow above every teacher of the law, in the very place where humility brings safety together with good repute.

“What then? Shall we be silent about God? Is this what you command?” (one of the more fervent interrupted). “And about whom rather than him shall we speak? Where shall we put ‘His praise shall continually be in my mouth,’ and ‘I will bless the Lord at all times,’ and ‘My throat shall meditate on truth,’ and ‘Behold, I will not restrain my lips’?” And he will say such well-practised and fixed phrases. To such a man one must reply gently and not harshly, teaching good order from these very words. I do not command you to be silent, most wise friend, but not to take a contentious stand; not to hide the truth, but not to teach contrary to the law. I am the first of those who praise wisdom, and those who occupy themselves with divine words, or wish to; and may I never put anything before this occupation, nor hear myself called wretched by Wisdom herself as one who despises wisdom and instruction. Yet I flee excess and chastise insatiability; and I would rather be more idle than I should than meddlesome, if I cannot escape both and attain the mean; and more timid than I should rather than rasher. But you act as if, when I forbade excess in food, you accused me of forbidding food altogether, or of praising blindness when I recommended seeing with moderation.

“If you have a word of understanding, answer,” it says, “and who will hinder you?” But if not, put your hand on your mouth; this to those who are ready to teach. If you have the occasion, teach; if not, fetter your tongue and loose your hearing. Meditate on divine things, but remain within the bounds. Speak the things of the Spirit, and if possible nothing else; and speak of them more often than you breathe (for this is good and godly, to be constantly spurred toward God by the remembrance of divine things), but keeping in mind what you have been commanded. Do not busy yourself about the nature of the Father, the subsistence of the only-begotten Son, the glory and power of the Spirit, the one Godhead and splendour in the three, the undivided nature, confession, and glory, and the hope of those who have believed. Hold to the words you were brought up with; let argument belong to the wiser. It is enough for you to have the foundation; let the craftsman build on it. It is enough for the heart to be strengthened with bread; leave the delicacies to the rich. No one of sense will judge you for not feeding people lavishly; but he will if you do not set out bread, nor give water to drink, whether to a disciple of Christ or anyone else, when you are able to do as much as that. Do not be quick in words, Wisdom bids you; do not stretch yourself to match the rich when you are poor, nor seek to be wiser than the wise. Wisdom is also to know oneself, not to be puffed up, nor to suffer what happens to voices, which fail altogether when strained beyond their pitch through immoderation. It is better, being wise, to give way through gentleness than, being ignorant, to overreach through rashness. Let your quickness go as far as confessing the faith, if ever this is demanded of you; but beyond that be more timid. For there slowness carries the danger, here quickness.

… what harm is it to you if you do not excel in every argument, nor have precedence in every problem or inquiry, but others appear wiser or bolder than you? Thanks be to God that he both gives special gifts and knows how to save through common ones. And this wonder concerns not only words but creation itself, if you have ever considered it. Neither among created things do the first prizes belong to some, but to all, and the grace of the one creation is common; nor in the faith do the things that save belong to the more powerful, but to the willing. What is finer than air, fire, water, earth, rain, fruits both cultivated and wild, shelter, clothing? The sharing of these is common, of some entirely, of others in measure; and no one is so much a tyrant as to enjoy the common grace alone. He makes the sun rise on all equally and rains on rich and poor; common is the alternation of night and day, common the gift of health, common the limit of life, common the measure of bodily grace, common the power of the senses; and perhaps the poor man has more, in that he gives more thanks for these things and enjoys the common goods more sweetly than the powerful enjoy what comes from their abundance. These, then, are common and equal, tokens of God’s justice; but gold, transparent and coveted stones, soft and elaborate clothing, the table that inflames and maddens, and superfluous possessions, the toil of those who own them, are the adornments of the few.

This I observe in the faith too. Common to all are the law, the prophets, the covenants, the oracles of the covenants, grace, tutelage, perfection, the sufferings of Christ, the new creation, the apostles, the Gospels, the abiding presence of the Spirit, faith, hope, love toward God and from God, not by measure, as once the gift of manna to ungrateful and unfeeling Israel, but as much as each wishes; ascent; illumination, small here, but clearer the illumination hoped for; and, greatest of all, the knowledge of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the confession of our first hope. What is greater than these? What is more common? Things beyond these, even if they are more precious for their rarity, are second in necessity; for the things without which it is impossible to be a Christian are more useful than those attainable by few.

Someone is rich in contemplation and rises above the many, compares spiritual things with spiritual, and writes threefold on the breadth of his heart the word that builds up all, the word that builds up many, and the word that builds up some in place of more or all; and he cannot bear being poor, and enters into the depths. Let him ascend, let him be guided and carried by his mind, and, if he wishes, as far as the third heaven, like Paul; only with reason and knowledge, and let him not fall through being puffed up, nor shed his feathers through the height of his flight. What envy is there of a praiseworthy ascent? And what fall is like being pierced by pride, and not knowing how lowly is the upward gaze of man, and how far short of the true height even the highest of all still falls?

Another is small in mind and poor in speech, and does not know the twists of argument, the sayings and riddles of the wise, the objections, suspensions of judgment, and antitheses of Pyrrho, the solutions of Chrysippus’s syllogisms, the bad art of Aristotle’s arts, or the charms of Plato’s eloquence, which have wickedly entered our Church like Egyptian plagues. This man too has the means to be saved. And by what words? Nothing is richer than grace. “You need not,” it says, “ascend into heaven to bring Christ down from there, nor descend into the abyss to bring him up from the dead,” busying yourself either with his first nature or with the final economy. “The word is near you,” it says; the mind holds this treasure, and the tongue, the one believing, the other confessing. What is shorter than this wealth? What easier than this gift? Confess Jesus Christ, and believe that he was raised from the dead,