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Translated by Ch. Browne and J. Swallow.
Gregory Theologian Bilingual Anthology, Resources Online and in Print
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16 Pages
Page 6
7. I know the glittering sword, [3089] and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to naught, to make childless, and to spare neither flesh, nor marrow, nor bones. I know Him, Who, though free from passion, meets us like a bear robbed of her whelps, like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians, [3090] not only those of that day, but if anyone now is an Assyrian in wickedness: nor is it possible to escape the might and speed of His wrath when He watches over our impieties, and His jealousy, [3091] which knoweth to devour His adversaries, pursues His enemies to the death. [3092] I know the emptying, the making void, the making waste, the melting of the heart, and knocking of the knees together, [3093] such are the punishments of the ungodly. I do not dwell on the judgments to come, to which indulgence in this world delivers us, as it is better to be punished and cleansed now than to be transmitted to the torment to come, when it is the time of chastisement, not of cleansing. For as he who remembers God here is conqueror of death (as David [3094] has most excellently sung) so the departed have not in the grave confession and restoration; for God has confined life and action to this world, and to the future the scrutiny of what has been done.
8. What shall we do in the day of visitation, [3095] with which one of the Prophets terrifies me, whether that of the righteous sentence of God against us, or that upon the mountains and hills, of which we have heard, or whatever and whenever it may be, when He will reason with us, and oppose us, and set before us [3096] those bitter accusers, our sins, comparing our wrongdoings with our benefits, and striking thought with thought, and scrutinising action with action, and calling us to account for the image [3097] which has been blurred and spoilt by wickedness, till at last He leads us away self-convicted and self-condemned, no longer able to say that we are being unjustly treated—a thought which is able even here sometimes to console in their condemnation those who are suffering.
[3089] Ezek. xxi. 9.
[3090] Hos. xiii. 7, 8.
[3091] Isai. xxvi. 11 (LXX.).
[3092] Hos. viii. 3.
[3093] Nahum ii. 10.
[3094] Ps. vi. 5 (LXX.).
[3095] Isai. x. 3.
[3096] Ps. l. 21.
[3097] Gen. i. 26.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/gregory-nazianzen/plague-hail.asp?pg=6
