Polemical Works 3 part 3/3

they were known by God, that they would not do penance, that they would not turn themselves to God, therefore, though the seed was wicked from the beginning, he nonetheless spared them and did not punish them at once as soon as they had transgressed. So then do not say: If I did not act well, God would surely never have spared me, seeing that you behold a place for repentance long displayed to your criminal accomplices, that at last they might see the causes of their evil deeds and make sufficient satisfaction to God for their offence. You too therefore, if you are by no means converted to God, will be one of that accursed race, of which it is said to God: I know, not being ignorant, that their race is wicked and their malice inborn, and that their thought could never be changed for ever;

for the seed was accursed from the beginning. How glorious then will you see yourself to be, when you have begun to be with such men, when you will see yourself judged among such, when, found among such, you will be sent into the inextinguishable flames? You surely will be first of all and greatest even there in those punishments; for no one can be found equal to you in wickedness, save only the devil, so that in those punishments someone may be seen to be better than you. Do you dare to say:

If I did not live well, if my works were not upright, if my faith, that is the Arian, had not been Catholic, if I had not acted rightly in removing those bishops who preach the faith described by the three hundred at Nicaea and more, I would never reign for long, I would never shine so brightly in the kingdom that, though for but a little time, I alone should nonetheless rule within the Roman border. So it is, as you say. Why does Job, the most just worshipper of God, say to those who were assailing his justice with false allegations? Hear me, since the pains of my wound compel me to speak: Wherefore do the impious live, and their houses are not laid waste, and fear is far from them? Their cow never miscarried, but always bore its young;

but they themselves abide like sheep for ever, and their children, taking up the instrument, play with delight, so that they pass their life in good things, though the Lord says: Depart from me, you wicked; I will not know your ways, for the lamp of the impious shall be extinguished, and they shall grieve with lamentation in their life. They shall be as chaff which the wind carries away, or as dust which is whirled by the storm; but let their own eyes see death. Since I know that the Lord has said these things concerning them, know that none of you can constrain me to be silent. Why does the most glorious Job say these things?

Save because he knew that very many indeed do evil and yet are not at once requited to certain men, but are reserved for this: that either they correct themselves, or at least after death feel the punishments of their offences, feel what it was not to have sought God, not to have served him while there was opportunity, by believing in him alone and serving him to win his favour. Now I believe that, convinced by the testimony of so great a man, you will cease to say that you acted justly, in that you have removed the priests of the Lord and have ordained even men of the Arian faith, and have commanded the faith of the Arian dogma to be preached, and have proscribed and deported and applied tortures and slain those who believe in the only Son of God;

you will cease, I say, to say that you live and thus flourish in the kingdom because you did and are doing those things, when you hear the just man Job speaking, whom God said served him without complaint, whom he declared to be his true worshipper, saying that, though there are very many acting impiously, they nonetheless live in this life most agreeably. Deign further to receive what he says below concerning you the impious, and learn how, though you act wickedly, meanwhile you are spared, and present yourself to God through penance. I knew not that such darkness would come before my face. Wherefore then, O Lord, could I not lie hidden for one hour?

But the impious pass over into the borders of others, and they have seized flocks of sheep together with their shepherds, and have afflicted the cattle of orphans, and have taken the widow's ox in pledge. They have reaped before its time a field not their own, and have compelled men to work in their vineyards for nothing. And they have despoiled many and have taken bread from the hungry, and have beset many in the throat, and have not understood the way of righteousness. Let their portion be accursed in the earth. For what hope is there for impious men, or what approach can they have before the Lord?

But even if they gather strength, they shall come to want, and those of them who remain shall die an evil death, and no one shall pity their widows; and if they heap up gold or silver like clay, all these things the just shall possess. Do not therefore any longer deign to flatter yourself unjustly, emperor, because you are such as we have asserted, and think yourself a murderer and a sacrilegious man to live so very long in this life because your works are pleasing to God. Such are your works as theirs, 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 heard my commandments, your peace would have been made 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, namely to those of whom you have made yourself an imitator. And now, as has often been said, change your wicked ways, believe as the holy Church believes, and in all things he will be favourable to you. For he himself says: Return to me with all your heart, and with fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return with all your heart to God, acquiesce in these wholesome remedies for perceiving the understanding of your crime; open the eyes of your heart, groan with all your heart, gathering that you have so grievously transgressed;

then he will have mercy on you who says: When you are converted and groan, then you shall be saved, and you shall know where you have been. Remember that the prophet, dedicated to God, said: I will not the death of him who dies, says the Lord, but rather that he should return and live. Do not any longer suppose that, though your works are evil, you may reckon yourself to act well because you have not at once received punishment for your deeds; but consider that it is written that the Lord is patient, that you may repent. Do not say: I have sinned, and what sad thing has befallen me? For the Most High is a patient recompenser.

Hear also the blessed Paul inviting you to God, opening to you the way to appease him: that God is patient and does not at once render the deserts of your works, precisely because he wishes you at last to emerge from evils through penance, 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 you, according to your hardness and impenitent heart, treasure up to yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgement of God, who will render to every man according to his work. Return, Constantius, to God; against the robbery of your inner enemy take up the arms of penance; flee the flatterers, who would not be worthy of you.

These men, who have in themselves nothing to say but pernicious praise, remember that the Lord said by the mouth of Isaiah: They who call you happy lead you into error and confound the path of your feet. Believe in the only Son of God, receive pardon of your crimes; repeat with the psalmist: In hell who shall confess to you? and again: Shall the dust make confession to you? Return to God, groan for your crimes; hear the voice of the Lord speaking by Jeremiah: Shall not he who falls rise again, or he who is turned away not be converted? You fell on the day you denied the Son of God; you shall rise in the hour you shall have confessed. Since the enemy's wound has settled upon you, hand yourself over to be healed by the medicine, apply the remedy to yourself. You wounded yourself, saying:

He is not the true Son of God; you are again to heal yourself, 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 bends the sentence against the malice inflicted. If you resolve to reject this indulgence promised you for your deaths, you will be desiring to obtain it there where you will receive nothing but the torments of punishments.