講辭選（辯護辭/論洗禮/巴西流葬辭） 第 1-1 章 第 3/4 段

and he adds wherein: in that they bring to the altar polluted loaves, food that is not first-fruits, and things which they would not even offer to one of their governors, or would be dishonored if they offered them—these they bring to the King of all, having vowed a vow: the lame, the sick, the corrupt, things wholly profane and to be spat upon;

now he reminds them of God's covenant with the Levites (which was a covenant of life and of peace), and that they should fear the Lord with awe, and stand in dread before the presence of His name.

'The law of truth,' he says, 'was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips.

In peace, walking aright, he went with Me, and turned many away from iniquity; for the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth.'

And the reason given is at once honorable and fearful!

for he is a messenger of the Lord Almighty.

And I beg to be excused from the blasphemous part of the curses upon these men;

but I fear the truth;

yet here is what is both moderate to say and profitable:

he says, 'Will He look upon your sacrifice, or accept anything as pleasing from your hands?'—as one who is greatly displeased, and rejects their priestly service because of their wickedness.

For whenever I call Zechariah to mind, I shudder at the sickle, and likewise at the things which this prophet witnesses against the priests;

the things which he intimates concerning the renowned Jesus, the high priest, from whom he stripped by the word the filthy and unworthy garment, and clothed him with the priestly and splendid robe;

and all that the angel is represented as saying to Jesus and charging him with;

let these things, perhaps referring to matters greater and loftier than belong to the common run of priests, be honored in silence;

except that even at his right hand the devil stood, to be his adversary;

a thing which to me at least is no light matter, nor worthy of but little fear and watchfulness.

But as for the things of which he carefully accuses and assails the rest of the shepherds, who is so bold and adamantine of soul as not to tremble at hearing them, and not to become more moderate toward himself? 'A voice,' he says, 'of shepherds lamenting, because their greatness has been brought to misery;'

'a voice of roaring lions, because they have suffered such things.'

He all but hears the lamentations as if already present, and laments together with those who suffer.

And yet a little before that, there is something more striking and more vehement.

"Feed," he says, "the sheep of the slaughter, which their owners slaughtered and felt no remorse;

and those who sold them said,

'Blessed be the Lord, for we have grown rich';

and their own shepherds had no compassion upon them."

"O sword, awake against the shepherds, and smite the shepherds, and scatter the sheep";

and, "I will bring my hand against the shepherds, and my wrath is kindled against the shepherds, and I will visit punishment upon the lambs";

thus adding to the threat even the foremost leaders of the people.

So earnestly does he press upon the matter, and cannot easily be drawn away from his threatenings;

so that I am afraid lest I too should in this way become accursed.

For even should we slip past, how shall we bear that which was so well spoken and foretold by the Master concerning them—that "iniquity went forth from Babylon from the elders, the judges, who seemed to govern the people"?

How shall we endure Ezekiel, the beholder and interpreter of great mysteries and visions? How shall we bear what he charges upon the watchmen—not to keep silent about wickedness and the sword that comes upon it—since this is profitable neither to themselves nor to those who sin;

but the foreseeing and foretelling of it benefits both, if the one should speak and the other should hear—or at the very least it benefits those who gave the warning?

And how shall we bear the further onslaught which he makes against the shepherds—now in these words:

"Woe upon woe shall there be, and rumour upon rumour, and a vision shall be sought from the prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders";

and now again in those words:

"Son of man, say to her,

You are a land that is not rained upon, nor did rain come upon you in the day of wrath;

her leaders in the midst of her are like roaring lions, seizing prey, devouring souls by their might;

her priests set at naught my law and profaned my holy things";

"between the profane and the holy," he says, "they made no distinction, but all things were as one to them; and from my sabbaths they hid their eyes, and I was profaned in the midst of them";

and he threatens to bring down the wall together with those who whitewash it;

and this means those who sin and those who cover up sin;

which is the mark of evil rulers and priests, who pervert the house of Israel according to their hearts that are estranged in their lusts.

And I pass over in silence all that he speaks concerning those who feed themselves, devouring the milk and clothing themselves with the wool and slaughtering the fatlings, yet not shepherding the sheep—not strengthening the weak, nor binding up the broken, nor turning back the straying, nor seeking out the lost, nor guarding the strong, but mastering them with toil and destroying them with eager zeal;

so that the sheep were scattered over every plain and mountain, because there were no shepherds, and they became food for all the birds and beasts, with none to seek them out and bring them back.

Then what? "As I live," he says, "says the Lord, in return for these things being so, and for my sheep becoming a prey, behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek out my sheep from their hands, and some I will gather and preserve";

but as for the rest, they shall suffer this and that, which is fitting for the bad shepherds.

But that I may not, by enumerating the words of all the prophets and all of them, draw out my discourse to too great a length, I will, after recalling one more—him who was known before his formation and sanctified from the womb (this was Jeremiah)—pass over the rest.

He seeks water for his head and a fountain of tears for his eyes, that he may weep worthily for Israel;

and he laments no less also the wickedness of those set in authority.

God says to him, in his reproof against the priests:

"The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who held fast to my law did not know me, and the shepherds were impious against me";

"The shepherds became senseless and did not seek the Lord, and therefore all the pasture had no understanding, and they were scattered";

"And many shepherds," he says, "have destroyed my vineyard;

they defiled my portion that was desirable, so that it was given over to a trackless wilderness."

Then again he turns his words against the shepherds themselves:

"O you shepherds, who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!

Therefore thus says the Lord against those who shepherd my people:

You have scattered my sheep, and driven them away, and have not visited them;

behold, I will visit punishment upon you, according to your evil practices."

And he wishes the shepherds to wail and the rams of the flock to beat their breasts, because their days are fulfilled for the slaughter.

And why should I speak of things of old? Whoever stretches himself out to measure up to the canons and limits which Paul appointed concerning bishops and presbyters—that they be temperate, sober-minded, not given to wine, not violent, apt to teach, blameless in all things and untouched by evil—will find that what falls short of the straightness of those canons is not small. And what, again, does Jesus lay down as law when he sends his disciples to the preaching? The sum of which—not to speak of each particular—is that they be of such virtue, and so well-ordered and modest, and, to put it briefly, so heavenly, that the Gospel runs no less by reason of their manner of life than by reason of their word.

But I am put in fear even by the Pharisees who are reproached and the scribes who are convicted;

for it would be a shame, when virtue ought greatly to abound, as we have been charged, if we are to have any share in the kingdom of heaven, that we should appear even worse than they in wickedness;

so that we too might fittingly be called serpents, and offspring of vipers, and blind guides, straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel, and filthy tombs within, with a fair appearance without, and platters clean to the eye, and whatever else those men both are and are called.

With these thoughts I keep company both by night and by day;

these things waste my marrow and consume my flesh, and do not allow me to be bold and to look upward;

and to set others straight as well, which is a task requiring great abundance of resource;

but rather that I myself might escape the wrath that is coming, and might scrape away from myself even a little of the rust of wickedness.

One must first be cleansed, then cleanse others;

be made wise, and so make others wise;

become light, and so give light;

draw near to God, and so bring others near;

lead others by the hand with hands, give counsel with understanding.

When then shall these things be? say those who are quick in all things and unsafe, who readily build up and pull down. And when is the lamp upon the lampstand? And where is the talent?—thus speaking of the gift.

These are the words of those whose friendship is more fervent than their reverence.

When shall these things be, and what is my plea, O most noble ones? It is no long postponement, nor extreme old age.

For grey hairs with prudence are better than untrained youth, and reasoned slowness than thoughtless speed;

and a short-lived kingdom than a long tyranny;

even as a small but honourable portion is better than a great possession that is dishonourable and perilous, and a little gold than much-talented lead and much darkness.

But this hastiness, this perilous and over-eager haste, must not be like those seeds which, falling upon the rocks, and because they had no depth of earth, sprang up at once, yet did not endure even the first heat of the sun;

or like the foundation laid upon the sand, which held out not even a little against the rain and the winds.

"Woe to you, O city, whose king is young," says Solomon;

and, "Be not hasty in words," is the saying of the same Solomon, speaking of something lesser—of haste concerning word as compared with eagerness concerning deed.

I know whose ministers we are, and where we are placed, and whither we send;

I know the height of God, and human weakness, and again its power;

"Heaven is high, but the earth is deep."

And who of those flung down in sin shall ascend? Who, while still clothed about with the darkness below and the grossness of the flesh, shall with a wholly pure mind purely behold mind in its entirety, and be mingled with the things that stand fast and are unseen, while still amid things unstable and seen? For scarcely could anyone here, even of the very pure, behold so much as an image of the Beautiful—just as those who behold the sun in the waters.

Who is it that measured the water in his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth in the hollow of his fist? Who set the mountains in a balance, and the wooded valleys in a scale? What is the place of his rest, and to which of all things shall he be likened?

Who is it that made all things by his word, and by his wisdom formed man, and brought into one things that were apart, and mingled dust with spirit, and compounded a living being visible and invisible, temporal and immortal, earthly and heavenly, touching God yet not grasping him, drawing near yet held afar? "I said, I will be wise," says Solomon, "and it was removed far from me, further than it was"—speaking of wisdom.

And indeed, "he who adds knowledge adds pain";

for what is found gives no more joy than what escapes us gives grief;

which, I think, is wont to happen to those who, while still thirsty, are dragged away from the water;

or who, unable to lay hold of anything, suppose that they possess it;

or those past whom a flash of lightning has straightway gleamed and gone.

This is what kept me low, and made me humble, and persuaded me that it is better to listen to the voice of praise than to be an expounder of things beyond one's power;

the abyss covers Him, whose hiding place is darkness, though He is the purest light and unapproachable to the many;

He who is within this whole universe, and yet is outside the whole;

He who is all that is beautiful, and yet is above all beauty;

He who enlightens the mind, yet eludes the mind's swiftness and height, ever withdrawing just as much as He is grasped, and drawing His lover upward by fleeing, and as it were by being seized only to slip away.

So great, then, and of such a kind is the object of our longing and our zeal;

and such must be the bridesman of souls and the one who presents them to the bridegroom.

For my part I am in dread, lest I too be cast outside the bridal chamber, bound hand and foot, as one not clothed with a wedding garment, but having rashly thrust myself in among those who recline there;

and yet I was called from my youth — to say something of what is unknown to most — and was cast upon Him from the womb, and was given as a gift by my mother's vow, and after that was confirmed by dangers;

and my longing grew with me, and my reason ran together with it, and I brought and gave everything to Him who had won me and saved me — possessions, distinction, good health, and learning itself, of which I reaped this one benefit alone: to have despised it, and to have had something to set behind Christ, whom I preferred.

And the words of God were sweet to me, like a honeycomb;

and I called upon understanding, and lifted up my voice to wisdom.

And as for the rest — to measure one's anger, to bridle the tongue, to keep the eye chaste, to discipline the belly, and to trample on the glory that abides here below —

I speak as a fool, yet it shall be said:

in these things at least I was perhaps no worse than the many.

But this was too high a calling for one such as us — to take up the leadership and oversight of souls, while we ourselves had not yet even learned to be well shepherded, nor been purified in soul as much as is fitting, and then to be entrusted with presiding over a flock;

and that too in such times as these, in which, seeing others tossed up and down and thrown into confusion, it is a thing to be cherished to flee with all speed out of their midst, and withdrawing under cover, to escape the storm and the gloom of the evil one;

when the members war against one another, and love is gone — if indeed any remnant of it remained — and the priest is but an empty name, contempt being poured out upon rulers, as it is said.

But now let the blasphemy turn upon the heads of the godless!

All fear has been banished from our souls;

knowledge belongs to whoever wishes it, and the deep things of the Spirit;

and we are all of us pious for this one reason alone — that we condemn the impiety of others.

We make use of the godless as judges, and we cast the holy things to the dogs and throw the pearls before swine, publishing divine things to profane ears and souls;

and we wretches diligently fulfil the prayers of our enemies, and committing fornication in our own pursuits we are not ashamed.

And Moabites and Ammonites, who were not even permitted to enter into the Church of the Lord, now tread upon our holiest places.

And we have opened to all, not the gates of righteousness, but the doors of reviling and of mutual insolence against one another;

and he is reckoned best among us, not the one who lets fall no idle word in the fear of God, but whoever happens to have spoken the most evil of his neighbour, whether openly or in riddles;

and who keeps turning under his tongue mischief and trouble, or, to speak more aptly, the venom of asps.

We keep watch over one another's sins, not that we may lament them, but that we may reproach them;

not that we may heal, but that we may strike the wound, and may make our neighbours' hurts an excuse for our own evils.

And it is not character, but division and friendship, that distinguishes the bad from the good among us;

and what we praise today, tomorrow we revile;

and what is held up to shame among others is admired among us;

and everything is readily condoned in favour of impiety.

So magnanimous are we — in wickedness!

Everything has become as it was in the beginning, when as yet there was no ordered world, nor the present good order and shaping;

but the whole was confused and unformed, and in need of the hand and power that gives shape.

If you will, it is as in a battle by night, with the dim glimmerings of the moon, in which we cannot tell apart the faces of foes or friends;

or as in a sea-battle and tempest, with the onsets of the winds, the seething surge, the rushing of the waves, the crashing of ships, the thrusting of poles, the cries of the boatswains, and the wailings of the falling — overwhelmed by the din and at our wits' end, having no opportunity for valour — alas for our plight! —

we fall upon one another, and are consumed by one another.

And it is not that the people behave thus, while the priest behaves otherwise;

but it seems to me that now in all purity that word is being fulfilled which was spoken of old as a curse: 'The priest has become like the people.'

Nor is it that the common people behave thus, while the stout and pre-eminent among the people behave the contrary;

but these too openly war against the priests, using their piety as a provision to win persuasion;

and as for all who suffer this for the sake of the faith, and of the highest and first questions, I myself do not blame them — but, if the truth must be told, I even commend them and rejoice with them.

And may I be one of these, who contend for the truth and are hated for it;

nay rather, I will even boast that I am.

For a praiseworthy war is better than a peace that separates one from God;

and for this cause the Spirit arms the gentle warrior, as one able to wage war nobly.

But now there are some who war even over trifles, and to no profit at all, and who take to themselves as partners in evil as many as they can, with utter ignorance and recklessness.

Then on top of all the faith — that revered name — is dragged into their own private rivalries.

And from these things, as is to be expected, we are hated among the Gentiles, and — what is harder than this — we cannot even say that it is unjustly;

and we have been brought into disrepute even among the more reasonable of our own;

for it is no wonder if we are so among the many, who would scarcely accept even any of our good qualities.

The sinners build upon our backs;

and the schemes we devise against one another, they have ready against us all;

and we have become a new spectacle — not to angels and to men, as did Paul, the noblest of athletes, contending against the principalities and the powers — but to nearly all the wicked, and at every season and place: in the market-places, in drinking-bouts, in revels, in times of mourning.

And now we have even gone so far as the stage — a thing I can scarcely say without tears — and are laughed at along with the most licentious of men;

and there is no entertainment among the things heard and seen so delightful as a Christian made the butt of comedy.

These are the fruits of our war against one another;

these the doings of those who fight so exceedingly for what is good and gentle;

these of those who love God more than is expedient.

And in wrestling it is not permitted to go beyond the established rules, nor to contend in any other way;

or else the one who wrestles foul, or contends in any other way not honourably, nor according to the laid-down rules of the contest, will be cried down and dishonoured and will lose the victory, however noble and most skilful he may be;

yet shall a man contend for Christ in a way that is not according to Christ, and then claim to do a favour to peace, while warring on its behalf in a manner that is not lawful?

And the demons still shudder even now when Christ is named, and the power of this name has not been worn out even by our wickedness;

yet we are not ashamed to outrage a thing and a name so revered;

and we all but hear Him crying out openly, and day by day:

'For my name is blasphemed because of you among the Gentiles.'

And the war from without I do not fear, nor the wild beast that has now risen up against the churches, and the fullness of the evil one — though he threaten fire, though swords, though wild beasts, though precipices, though pits, though he prove the most inhuman of all who ever raged, though to the torments that already exist he should devise still harsher ones;

against all these I have one medicine, one road to victory:

I will boast in Christ — death for Christ's sake.

But against my own inward war I do not know what to become, what alliance to find, what word of wisdom, what gift, with what panoply to arm myself against the wiles of the evil one.

For I confess that I am too weak for this war, and for this cause I have turned my back, hiding my face in shame, and have chosen to sit apart in solitude, because I was filled with bitterness; I sought even to keep silence, perceiving that the time is evil;

because the beloved have kicked back, because we have become apostate sons — the vine that bore fair branches, the true vine, all fruitful, all comely, well springing up by the drops that come from above.

for the diadem of beauty has been turned to dishonor for me, the seal of my glory, the crown of my boasting.

But if anyone is bold and high-spirited in the face of these things, blessed is he in my eyes for his courage and his nobility.

And I have not yet spoken of the war within us, in our very selves, the war waged in the passions, by which we are warred against night and day by this body of our humiliation, partly in secret, partly in the open;

and of that which surges us up and down and whirls us about, through the senses and the other allurements that wheel around this present life, and through the mire of the slime in which we are stuck fast, and through the law of sin warring against the law of the spirit, attempting to corrupt the royal image within us and all the portion of the divine effluence that has been set down with us;

so that one could scarcely—whether by educating oneself through long philosophy, and little by little tearing away the noble and luminous part of the soul from what is base and yoked together with darkness, or by finding God merciful, or both of these together, and making it his utmost endeavor to look upward—prevail over the matter that drags him down.

And before one has prevailed over this body as far as is possible, and sufficiently purified the mind, and become by far superior to others in nearness to God—to undertake the leadership of souls, or the mediation between God and men (for this perhaps is what the priest is), I know to be unsafe.

And from where was I led into this dread? Lest you should suppose me more timid than is fitting, but rather should heartily commend me for my forethought.

I hear of Moses himself, that when God was giving him his oracles—although many had been summoned to the mountain, among whom was Aaron with his two sons the priests, and seventy elders of the council—the rest were commanded to worship from afar, but Moses alone to draw near, while the people were not to go up with him, since it does not belong to all to come near to God, except one who, like Moses, is able to contain the glory of God;

of these, at the beginning of the lawgiving, the others were held below by trumpets, and lightnings, and thunders, and thick darkness, and the whole mountain smoking, and dreadful threats—that even if a beast should touch the mountain it would be stoned—and other such terrors; and it was a great thing for them, after they had thoroughly purified themselves, merely to hear the voice of God.

But Moses both goes up, and enters within the cloud, and receives the law, and takes the tablets;

for the many, the tablets of the letter, but for those above the many, the tablets of the spirit.

And I hear of Nadab and Abihu, that, having merely offered incense with strange fire, they too were consumed by strange fire, punished by the very means through which they had committed impiety, and finding for their destruction the same time and place as for their impiety;

and not even Aaron their father, second to Moses before God, availed for their salvation.

I know also of Eli the priest, and a little later of Uzzah: the one was required to pay the penalty for the lawlessness of his sons, which they dared to commit against the sacrifices, taking the firstfruits from the cauldrons before the appointed time—and this when he did not condone their impiety, but had rebuked them often and much;

and the other, because, when he had merely touched the ark as it was being shaken by the ox, he preserved the ark but himself perished, since God was guarding for the ark its sacredness.

For my part, I know too that not even the blemishes in the bodies of the priests, or of the victims, were left unexamined, but it was ordained that those who are perfect should offer what is perfect—a symbol, I think, of soundness of soul;

and that it was lawful for no one to touch the priestly vestment, or any of the holy vessels;

nor the sacrifices themselves—by whom, and when, and where it was not proper—to be consumed;

nor to imitate the oil of anointing, nor the incense of the compound;

nor for anyone who was unclean either in soul or in body, even in the smallest matters, to enter into the sanctuary;

so far was anyone from venturing boldly to frequent the Holy of Holies, into which it was permitted for one man only, and that but once a year, to enter;

so far was it from being lawful for everyone either to look upon, or to touch, the veil, or the mercy-seat, or the ark, or the cherubim.

Knowing these things, then, and that no one is worthy of the great God, both victim and high priest, who has not first presented himself to God a living, holy sacrifice, nor displayed his reasonable service as well-pleasing, nor offered to God the sacrifice of praise and a contrite spirit—which is the only sacrifice that He who gave all things requires of us—how was I to dare to offer to Him the outward sacrifice, the antitype of the great mysteries?

Or how could I assume the garb and name of priest, before I had consecrated my hands with holy works? before I had accustomed my eye to look soundly upon creation, and only unto wonder at the Creator, and not unto loss of the One who formed me? before my ears had been sufficiently opened to the instruction of the Lord, and an ear had been added to me able to hear not heavily, but to be bound as a golden earring set with costly sardius—the word of a wise man in an attentive ear? before my mouth, my lips, my tongue—the one had been opened and had drawn in breath, or had been enlarged and filled with the spirit of the mysteries and doctrines to be uttered;

and the other had been bound with divine discernment, to speak according to wisdom—and I would add, also loosed in due season;

and the other had been filled with exultation and had become a plectrum of divine melody, awaking with the glory, awaking early together with it, and laboring even until it should cleave to the throat? before my feet had stood upon the rock, made firm like a deer's, and my steps after God had been directed, not nearly nor at all poured out? before every member had become a weapon of righteousness, and had laid aside all deadness, swallowed up by life, and yielded to the spirit?

Who, while not yet kindled in heart by the pure and fiery oracles of God in the opening to him of the Scriptures;

nor having written them threefold upon the breadth of his heart, so as to have the mind of Christ;

nor having come within the hidden and unseen and dark treasures, so as to behold the wealth in them and be able to enrich others, comparing spiritual things with spiritual—

who, while not yet having contemplated, as it is worthy to contemplate, the delightfulness of the Lord, and having visited His temple, or rather having become a temple of the living God and a living dwelling of Christ in the spirit; who, while not yet having recognized the kinship and the distinction of types and truth, and having departed from the one and attached himself to the other, that, fleeing the oldness of the letter, he might serve the newness of the spirit, and pass over purely unto grace from the law that is spiritually fulfilled in the abolition of the body—

who, while listening to these names and these realities to no purpose, and not yet having shared in the Word, nor partaken of Him, according to which each of these both is and is called—