Gregory Nazianzen the Theologian In Defence of His Flight to Pontus and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office (Oration II), Complete

Translated by Ch. Browne and J. Swallow.

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50 Pages

Page 27

57. Is the undertaking then so serious and laborious to a sensitive and sad heart—a very rottenness to the bones [2716] of a sensible man: while the danger is slight, and a fall not worth consideration? Nay the blessed Hosea inspires me with serious alarm, where he says that to us priests and rulers pertaineth the judgment, [2717] because we have been a snare to the watchtower; and as a net spread upon Tabor, which has been firmly fixed by the hunters of men's souls, and he threatens to cut off the wicked prophets, [2718] and devour their judges with fire, and to cease for a while from anointing a king and princes, [2719] because they ruled for themselves, and not by Him. [2720]

58. Hence again the divine Micah, unable to brook the building of Zion with blood, however you interpret the phrase, and of Jerusalem with iniquity, while the heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money—what does he say will be the result of this? Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem be as a lodge in a garden, and the mountain of the house be reckoned as a glade in a thicket. [2721] He bewails also the scarcity of the upright, there being scarcely a stalk or a gleaning grape left, since both the prince asketh, and the judge curries favour, [2722] so that his language is almost the same as the mighty David's: Save me, O Lord, for the godly man ceaseth: [2723] and says that therefore their blessings shall fail them, as if wasted by the moth.

59. Joel again summons us to wailing, and will have the ministers of the altar lament under the presence of famine: so far is he from allowing us to revel in the misfortunes of others: and, after sanctifying a fast, calling a solemn assembly, and gathering the old men, the children, and those of tender age, [2724] we ourselves must further haunt the temple in sackcloth and ashes, [2725] prostrated right humbly on the ground, because the field is wasted, and the meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the house of the Lord, till we draw down mercy by our humiliation.

[2716] Prov. xiv. 30.

[2717] Hos. v. 1, 2.

[2718] Ib. vi. 5.

[2719] Ib. vii. 7.

[2720] Ib. viii. 4.

[2721] Mic. iii. 10-12.

[2722] Ib. vii. 1-4.

[2723] Ps. xii. 1.

[2724] Joel i. 13, seq.

[2725] Isa. lviii. 5.

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