On Apostate Kings 11–12

In the same way you too are spared, Constantius, so that you may repent or perish by the example of those who, though God knew that they would not repent, that they would not turn to God, because their seed had been evil from the beginning, he nevertheless spared and did not punish as soon as they sinned. Do not say, then, “If I were not acting well, God would certainly never have spared me,” when you see that your fellow criminals were given room for repentance for a long time, so that they might at last see the causes of their evil deeds and make satisfaction to God for their sin. You too, then, if you do not turn to God, will be one of that accursed race of which it is said to God: “not unaware that their nation is evil and their wickedness inborn, and that their way of thinking could never be changed; for they were a seed accursed from the beginning.” How glorious, then, will you see yourself to be, when you begin to be with such as these, when you see yourself judged among such, when, found among such, you are sent into the unquenchable flames? You will certainly be first of all, and greater even there in those punishments; for no one can be found your equal in wickedness except the devil alone, so that anyone could be seen in those punishments to be better than you. You dare to say: “If I were not living well, if my works were not right, if my faith, that is, the Arian, were not catholic, if I had not done right in removing those bishops who preach the faith set down by the three hundred and more at Nicaea, I would never reign long, I would never shine on the throne to such a degree that, if only for a short time, I alone would have ruled within the Roman frontier.” If it is as you say, why does Job, that most righteous worshipper of God, say to those who were attacking his righteousness with false charges: “Hear me, for the pains of my wound compel me to speak: Why do the ungodly live, and their houses are not scattered, and fear is far from them? Their cow has never miscarried; she has always carried her young. They remain like sheep for ever, and their children take up the instrument and play with delight, so that they spend their life in good things, while the Lord says: Depart from me, you wicked; I do not wish to know their ways. For the lamp of the ungodly will be put out, and they will grieve with groaning in their life. They will be like chaff that is carried off by the wind, or like dust that is whirled by the storm; and let their eyes see death. Since I know that the Lord has said these things of them, know that none of you can restrain me so that I keep silent.” Why does the most glorious Job say this, unless because he knew that very many do evil and yet are not at once repaid, but are kept for this purpose: either to correct themselves, or at least to feel after death the punishments of their sins, to feel what it was not to have sought God, not to have served him, not to have earned his favour while there was opportunity by believing in him alone and serving him? Now, I believe, convinced by the testimony of so great a man, you will stop saying that you acted justly in removing the priests of the Lord, ordaining men of the Arian faith, ordering the faith of the Arian doctrine to be preached, proscribing, deporting, applying tortures to, and killing those who believe in the only Son of God. You will stop saying, I say, that you live and flourish on the throne because you have done and are doing these things, when you hear the righteous man Job, whom God said had served him without complaint and whom he declared his true worshipper, say that, though very many act ungodly, they nevertheless live most pleasantly in this life. Deign further to receive what he says below about you ungodly men, and learn how, though you act wickedly, you are spared for a time; and present yourself to God through repentance. “I did not know that such darkness would come before my face. Why then, Lord, could I not hide for one hour? But the ungodly pass over into others' borders, and they have carried off flocks of sheep with their shepherds, and have afflicted the cattle of orphans, and have taken the widow's ox in pledge. They have reaped a field not their own before its time, and have forced men to work in their vineyards without pay. And they have stripped many, and taken bread from the hungry, and lain in wait in many narrow places, and have not understood the way of righteousness. Let their portion be cursed on the earth. For what hope is there for ungodly men, or what access can they have to the Lord? But even if they grow strong, they will come to want, and those of them who remain will die an evil death, and no one will pity their widows; and if they gather gold or silver like mud, the righteous will possess all these things.” Do not, then, deign any longer to flatter yourself unjustly, emperor, because you are such as we have asserted, and do not think that you, a murderer and a man of sacrilege, live so very long in this life because your works are acceptable to God. Your works are such as those of the men against whom the Holy Spirit inveighs by the mouth of Isaiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel: I am God; I have shown you the way in which you should walk. And if you had listened to my commandments, your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea, and your seed would have been like the sand of the sea, and the offspring of your womb.”

But, you say, these things were said to the Jews; to those, that is, whose imitator you have made yourself. And now, as has often been said, change your wicked ways, believe as the holy church believes, and he will be gracious to you in all things. For he himself says: “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to God with your whole heart; agree to these healing remedies so as to see and understand your crime; open the eyes of your heart; groan with your whole heart, reflecting how gravely you have sinned. Then he will have mercy on you who says: “When you have turned and groaned, then you will be saved and will know where you were.” Remember that the prophet said, speaking for God: “I do not desire the death of the dying, says the Lord, so much as that he turn and live.” Do not think any longer, though your works are evil, that you are acting well because you have not at once received punishment for your deeds; but see that it is written that the Lord is patient, so that you may repent. “Do not say: I have sinned, and what sad thing has happened to me? For the Most High is a patient repayer.” Hear also blessed Paul inviting you to God and showing you how to appease him: that he is patient, and the reward of your works has not been repaid at once, because he wants you at last to come up out of your evils through repentance, through true satisfaction. “Do you despise the forbearance of his goodness and his patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But by your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay each one according to his work.” Come back to God, Constantius; against the robbery of your inner enemy take up the weapons of repentance; flee the ruinous praise of flatterers, who have not deigned to tell you what they hold within themselves. Remember that the Lord said by the mouth of Isaiah: “Those who call you happy lead you into error and confuse the path of your feet.” Believe in the only Son of God, receive pardon for your crimes; repeat the words of the psalmist: “In the underworld who will confess to you?” and again: “Will the dust make confession to you?” Return to God, groan for your crimes; hear the voice of the Lord speaking through Jeremiah: “Does he who falls not rise again, or he who turns away not turn back?” You fell on the day you denied the Son of God; you will rise again in the hour you confess him. Since an enemy's wound has lodged in you, give yourself to be healed by medicine; apply the remedy to yourself. You wounded yourself by saying, “He is not the true Son of God”; you will heal yourself again if you say, as we say and believe, that he is the true Son of God. “Return,” says Joel, “to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and kind and patient and of great compassion, and one who turns back his sentence against the evil threatened.” If you decide to reject this pardon promised you for the deaths you have caused, you will long to obtain it there where you will receive nothing but the torments of punishment.