論戰文集 第 3 章

Since you deign to hold the customary word—for unless you both believed sincerely and supposed that these things you do concerning us were pleasing to God, you would already have been struck dead—I have desired to disclose to you the deeds of a few kings, equal to you in apostasy and cruelty, so that that saying of yours might be buried, which declares: 'Unless the catholic faith were that of Arius, that is, mine; unless it were pleasing to God that I persecute that faith which they wrote against us at Nicaea, I should assuredly never yet be flourishing in empire.' I make no mention of those kings who were strangers to the knowledge of God; I treat only of those who are known to have reigned in Judaea. In the Book of Judges we find Jerubbaal the son of Joash chosen by God, and it was said to him:

'Go in this thy strength, and thou shalt save Israel out of the hand of Midian. Have not I sent thee?' And further on: 'I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite Midian as one man.' This Midian, the Scripture says, had a multitude like the sand of the sea. But when all that God had promised to Gideon was fulfilled, when he saw himself exalted from a lowly state, enriched from poverty, made king out of a plebeian condition—what does he straightway do? Surely he says to the people: 'Give me, each of you, an earring out of his spoil.'

And when he had received a weight of golden earrings amounting to seventeen hundred shekels, besides the bracelets and the chains and the coverings and the purple that were upon the kings of Midian, and besides the golden collars that were on the necks of the enemies' camels—what does the sacred Scripture say Gideon did? 'And Gideon made of them an ephod, and set it up in his city Ophrah; and the children of Israel went a-whoring there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.' Did he then delay for some days, and thus work this malignant work against God? Could he possibly have remembered, when he had set out to do this, that God had said to him: 'Go, I will be with thee'?

Where is that deed by which, according to God's command, he demolished Baal and cut down his groves and offered a sacrifice to God? Where is that word which he spoke to God's messenger who said to him, 'The Lord is with thee, mighty in valor'—'In me, O Lord? And if the Lord is with us, why then have all these evils laid hold on us? And where are his wonders, which our fathers recounted to us, saying: Did not God bring us up out of Egypt? And now the Lord has spurned us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.' Did he then recall, at the time when he attempted to act against God, that those evils had befallen them on account of idolatry?

But when they had been rescued, that they might live without fear of their adversaries, from all those evils by which he said the whole people was weighed down together with him, he immediately did a deed by which both he and all the people alike would have been delivered, on account of idolatry, into the hands of their adversaries. He had heard that, because they had served idols and forsaken God, all those evils had befallen them; he remembered that the prophet had spoken; and yet on that very day, on which their enemies were brought to nothing before them, that king judged, in the madness which you deign to resemble, that service ought to be rendered to idols rather than to God who had granted these things to him.

'And the children of Israel,' says the Scripture, 'did that which was evil before the Lord God, and he delivered them into the hands of Midian seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed exceedingly over Israel. And the children of Israel made themselves, because of the face of Midian, hiding-places in the mountains, and caves, and strongholds. And it came to pass that whenever Israel sowed, Midian and Amalek and the children of the East came up against them, and encamped against them and destroyed the fruits of the land, as far as thou comest to Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor calf nor ass.'

'For they and their cattle came up, and they brought their tents and led their camels, and came like locusts in multitude, for there was no number of them; and they came upon the land to destroy it. And Israel was made poor before the face of Midian. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; and it came to pass, because the children of Israel had cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a man, a prophet, to the children of Israel, and said to them: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I am he who brought you up out of Egypt, and led you out of the house of bondage, and took you from the hand of the king of Egypt, and from the hand of all who persecuted you, and cast them out from before your face, and gave you their land. And I said to you:'

'I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you did not hearken to my voice.' What, after this rebuke of the Lord, does Jerubbaal, who is also called Gideon, do? As soon as he sees his enemy brought to nothing, as soon as all those adversaries who are said to have been like the sand of the sea are slain—and that not by a vast number of Israelites, but by three hundred men—as soon as he sees all the foreign kings slain, he fashions that thing by which the children of Israel might sin against God; and yet, even after so great a crime committed, he is found to have reigned here in Israel for forty years.

It will be no wonder, then, if you too, a sacrilegious man, still live on in the body, when you see that Gideon the king lived forty years after committing idolatry and continued in possession of his kingdom; for the sacred Scripture tells that the Israelites rested forty years, and that no adversaries at all were permitted against them, nor was there any dominion of foreigners over them, because they had cried out to God. Such good things did God do concerning your fellow-sacrilegious ones, showing himself indeed all-powerful, yet showing them unworthy to attain rest, since they would not choose to serve, even for a single day after receiving rest from so great dangers, him who had granted so great a mercy.

Though the Israelites were such, yet for his own mercy he spared them even after this, when they were committing idolatry, and did not requite them at once, but again requited them at the time when it pleased him; the guilt of idolatry could not pass by them with impunity. So also to you, Constantius, will he render recompense, unless meanwhile you provide for yourself. If the Israelites, serving demons, forsaking God, though they had already been made strangers to the knowledge of God, yet—as soon as it rose up in their hearts that he is God, all-powerful, who had led their fathers out of the land of Egypt—were heard and delivered from the hand of Midian and from all who persecuted them, do you imagine that we Christians can be snatched from your hands?

Or do you deny—and, as far as I know, you do not clearly perceive—that we worship only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all the prophets and apostles and martyrs? Believe me, that we have been heard and shall be heard, so that you, with all your frail loftiness, may lie beneath the heel of all his servants; but that certain little delays occur, so that he does not yet, once you Arians are extinguished, grant to his holy Church the full security of peace, the cause is this: that it is fitting, while an adversary rages, that a proving of all should come to pass. You say: 'If I had done ill, if I held heresy, God would already have avenged himself upon me.' You hear the sacred Scripture declaring that the Lord spared even foreigners for a long time, and yet that afterward they obtained the deserts of their deeds.

Samuel said to Saul: 'The Lord sent me to anoint thee king over Israel; and now hear the voice of the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord almighty: Now I will requite what Amalek did to thee, O Israel, how he withstood thee in the way, when thou camest up out of Egypt. And now go and smite Amalek and all that is his, and thou shalt not covet anything of theirs, but thou shalt utterly destroy him and put him under the ban, and all that is his, and thou shalt not spare him, but shalt slay all that is his, from man to woman, and from infant to suckling.' And further on: 'And Saul came as far as the city of Amalek, and drew near and laid siege to Amalek in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenite:'

'Go and turn aside from the midst, and turn away from Amalek, and do not set thyself with him, for thou didst show mercy to the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. And the Kenite turned aside from the midst of Amalek. And Saul smote Amalek from Havilah as far as Shur, which is over against the face of Egypt. And Saul took Agag the king of Amalek alive, and all his people he slew with the edge of the sword.' You see how, late though it was, they attained the reward of their crime; and you say: 'Unless I acted well, I should never reign so long.' We find that Saul too, because he acted against the Lord's command, was reprobated, and yet reigned a long time after his reprobation, after God had said to Samuel: 'It repents me that I anointed Saul king.'

And you say: 'Unless I had believed rightly, unless I lived as is pleasing to God, I should assuredly never have ruled until now.' And that you may thoroughly drink in what we say concerning Saul, receive what he did against the Lord's command: 'And Saul and all his people took Agag the king, and the good things of the flocks and herds, and of the foods and the vineyards, and of all good things, and they would not destroy all the good things, but they reserved every precious work and destroyed what was superfluous. And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: It repents me that I set up Saul as king, for he has turned away from me and has not established my words.'

'And Samuel was grieved, and cried to God all night and before dawn; and Samuel went out to meet Israel.' And further on: 'And Samuel came to Saul, and behold, Saul was offering a burnt offering to the Lord, and the firstfruits of the spoils which he had brought from Amalek. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him: Blessed art thou of the Lord; I have established all that the Lord spoke. And Samuel said: What then is this voice of the flock in my ears, and the voice of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said: I have brought them from Amalek, the things which the people spoiled, the best of the flock and of the oxen, that they might be sacrificed to the Lord thy God the king; but the rest I have destroyed and put under the ban. And Samuel said to Saul:'

'Wast thou not least in thy own sight, yet made leader of the sceptres of the tribe of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel, and the Lord sent thee on the way and said to thee: Go and destroy those who sin against me, Amalek, and thou shalt make war against them until thou consume them. And why didst thou not hearken to the voice of the Lord, but didst rush upon the spoil and do what is evil before the Lord? And Saul said: Because I hearkened to the people, I went on the way on which God sent me, and I brought Agag the king of Amalek, and Amalek I destroyed. And the people took of the spoil, flocks and the choicest herds of those I destroyed, to sacrifice before the Lord our God in Gilgal. And Samuel said:'

'Does the Lord desire burnt offerings and sacrifices more than to obey the voice of the Lord? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. Since sin is an abomination, thou hast brought upon thyself sorrows and groanings. Because thou hast made of no account the word of the Lord, the Lord shall make thee of no account, that thou shalt not reign.' And Saul said to Samuel: 'I have sinned, because I have transgressed the word of the Lord and thy word, for I feared the people and hearkened to their voice. And now take away my sin, return with me, and I will worship the Lord thy God.' And Samuel said to him: 'The Lord will rend thy kingdom from Israel out of thy hand this day, and will give it to thy neighbor better than thee.' And further on:

'And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, for Samuel mourned over Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. And the Lord said to Samuel: How long dost thou mourn over Saul? Behold, I cast him off, that he should not reign over Israel; and fill thy horn with oil, and come, I will send thee to Jesse, as far as Bethlehem, for I have provided for myself a king among the sons of Jesse.'

You can now recognize, Constantius, that even those reprobated by the Lord, even those destined to eternal death, reign a long time after a grievous offense committed, since you see that, after the glorious son of Jesse, David, had been anointed king, Saul nonetheless reigned a long time and had power even to persecute him whom God had chosen for himself as prophet and king; the wicked persecuted the good, the unjust the just, the man hateful to God persecuted him whom God loved. Since these things are so, do not boast because, after so great a crime perpetrated, you are living thus far as Saul lived; but consider what manner of vengeance came to pass concerning Saul, which may come to pass concerning you also, unless you take counsel for yourself.

For if the Lord was so indignant concerning him, first because he took spoil contrary to the interdict, second because he persecuted David his man, how much more necessarily does the vengeance of his indignation proceed concerning you—concerning you, whose crimes are so enormous that you have even come into the guilt of sacrilege? 'If I had done ill,' you say, 'if I were a heretic as Lucifer says, God would already have taken away my kingdom from me.' Consider also that Solomon survived after committing idolatry, and deign to understand that you too are such as he was after his idolatry. 'And the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, and Rezon the son of Eliada in Bemathad, Hadadezer king of Zobah his lord.'

'And men gathered themselves to him, and he was chief of the band, and he seized the city of Damascus and dwelt in it and reigned in Damascus; and they were adversaries to Solomon and to Israel all the days of Solomon.' We have proved to you that Solomon too reigned some years after his idolatry, and indeed serving no longer God but the devil, whence he is noted to have clung to devilish men; so you too are one clinging to your fellow-sacrilegious Arians, who, though you are still in the body, though you continue in the kingdom, are nonetheless found to be such as Solomon was after he forsook God and followed idols. You wished us to cleave to such as Solomon made the Israelites cleave to.

Where was that love of God, which is recounted through the sacred Scriptures to have been in Solomon, at that time when he deigned to follow idols and to forsake God? Whence came this? Except that he had become altogether a man estranged from sober understanding. I do not wish you to applaud yourself because, though you are a blasphemer and a destroyer of the religion of God, you nonetheless still have a kingdom and are exalting yourself after your sacrilege, since we find that Rehoboam the son of Solomon, practicing idolatry, lived on in the kingdom twenty years. For the sacred Scripture says of him: 'And king Solomon slept with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Rehoboam reigned in his stead in Jerusalem, and he was sixteen years old when he reigned, and he reigned twenty years in Jerusalem.' And further on:

'And he did that which was malignant before the sight of the Lord, and walked not in the way of David his father.' Therefore, just as Solomon, from the time he deigned to enslave himself to idols, and his son Rehoboam, who was always serving idols—although they walked not in the ways of David—nonetheless lived on in the kingdom, and both, reigning, arrived at the last day of their life: how do you marvel at yourself, that after committing sacrilege, living on in that crime, you reign in your pride, seeing that neither kingdom nor life is taken from you by God? When you see that even Jeroboam attempted, as you did, to overthrow the religion of the Lord from its foundations, and yet survived very many years, and indeed remaining in that crime, as it is written:

'And there was a man from Mount Ephraim, a servant of Solomon, and his name was Jeroboam, and the name of his mother was Zeruah, a harlot woman'; and in another place: 'And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they sent and called him into the assembly and made him king over Israel'; and further on: 'And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now shall the kingdom return to David. If this people go up to offer sacrifice in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, then the heart of the people will turn back to their lord Rehoboam king of Judah. Then therefore Jeroboam took counsel and went away. And he made two golden calves and said to the people: Let it suffice you to have gone up to Jerusalem.'

'Behold, these are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin, and the people went before the face of the one calf as far as Dan. And they made houses on the high places, and he made priests of a certain part of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, according to the feast of Judah, and he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel, to sacrifice before the calves which he had made, and he set up in Bethel priests of the high places which he had made. And he went up to the altar which he had made on the fifteenth day, in the eighth month, on the feast which he had devised out of his own heart, and he made a feast for the children of Israel.'

I do not want you, then, to boast that, though you practice idolatry, you nevertheless live possessing the glory of a kingdom, when you see that this Jeroboam made golden calves, turned the people of Israel to idolatry, and yet was not only not destroyed at once when he had sinned, but was even permitted to live long. Could not God have removed those same idolatrous kings? But it was shown how ungrateful to God you are, who, though you are so exalted, nevertheless not only forget the very One who exalts you, but even persecute Him in His servants, desiring to remove His religion from the midst.

Recognize that this is so from the deed of that king Jeroboam, who, though he was the son of a slave-woman, though he remembered that he was born of a harlot, though he received the kingdom of his lord Solomon to the reproach of that same Solomon — why, forsaking God, did he turn himself to idols? Since, I say, Jeroboam knew that the kingdom had been given him by God for the reason that Solomon his lord had followed idols, yet counting all these things as nothing, he resolved to make idols, and to be enslaved to them together with all the people that served God, rather than to the living God, who had made him, the son of a harlot woman, hold the kingdom of Solomon his lord. Do not, therefore, wonder that to you...

...spares you ungrateful ones though you sin against Him; but this I urge you to see: that, though late, if you remain in this wickedness of yours, you will receive those things which all your predecessors received in their sacrilege. We urge you to deign to snatch yourself away from such great evils. And you have examples besides; you are not the first to do this. We see too that this Jeroboam counted the Lord's admonition as nothing. 'And it came to pass,' it says, 'at that time, that Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the Shilonite the prophet found him on the way; and Ahijah was clad in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the field. And Ahijah took hold of his new garment that he had upon himself, and tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam:'

Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I rend the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten sceptres; and two sceptres shall be his for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem the city, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel — because Solomon has forsaken me, and has made offering to Astarte the unclean idol of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh the idol of Moab, and to their king the religion of the children of Ammon, and has not walked in my ways to do what is right before me, as David his father did. Yet I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand in the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, though I will act against him all the days of his life.

And I will take the kingdom from the hand of his son, and I will give you ten sceptres, but to his son I will give two sceptres, that there may be a standing for my servant David all the days before me in Jerusalem the city, which I chose for myself, to put my name there. And I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. And it shall be, if you keep all whatsoever I command you, and walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight, and keep my precepts and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with you, and I will build you a faithful house, as I built for David.

When this man, sprung from a harlot, this man who remembered that he was born of servile stock, had heard these things from God, did he — after all the things that the Lord had promised were fulfilled — obey Him who had promised him such great things? And did he not, as soon as he saw himself exalted, take up arms against Him? Was not effort at once given, through Jeroboam, that God should be forsaken by all His worshippers? It is said to you by us, that unless you correct yourself, unless you begin to be in the ways pleasing to God, you will perish by a new example; yet you remain in your iniquity, you persevere in your sacrilege.

It is nothing new, since to this King Jeroboam too God, through His man, caused those things already spoken to be delivered; and when his son was held by a mighty sickness, he sent to God's intimate and heard the things to come, and yet, though he saw the things which had been promised him — even the evil ones — being fulfilled, he acted more and more against God, and wished the house of God to be destroyed. 'And there was a man,' it says, 'from Shiloh, and his name was Ahijah, and he was sixty years old, and the word of the Lord was with him. And Jeroboam said to his wife: Arise, and take in your hand for the man of God loaves, and cakes for his sons, and grapes, and a jar of honey. And the woman arose and did as her husband told her.'

And Ahijah was a very old man, and his eyes were dim to see. And the woman arose from Baria and departed. And it came to pass, when she had entered into the city to Ahijah the Shilonite, that Ahijah said to his servant: Go out now to meet Anna the wife of Jeroboam, and you shall say to her: Come in and do not stand still, for thus says the Lord: I am sending harsh things upon you. And Anna came in to the man of God, and Ahijah said to her: Why have you brought me loaves and grapes and cakes and a jar of honey? Thus says the Lord: Behold, you shall go from me, and it shall be, when you enter the gate of the city of Arira, your maidens shall come out to meet you and shall say to you: The boy is dead. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I destroy every male of this Jeroboam;

and those of Jeroboam who die in the city, the dogs shall eat them, and those dead to him in the field, the birds of heaven shall eat them. It is nothing new, I say, if you persist in this obstinacy, since you know that this Jeroboam was not deterred by all these things; for at once, as had been said by the man of God, as soon as the woman entered the city, their son died; and yet Jeroboam did not perceive what God — because he had forsaken Him and had caused the people to perish with him — was about to bring upon him, nor did he fear from the death of his son that the rest also might follow him, but he grew old in his craftiness;

For to such a degree had Jeroboam been made out of his mind, from the time he departed from Him who had handed over the kingdom to him, that although he had said, 'Go to the man of God and learn whether our son shall die,' and had learned through the man of God that not only would their son die, but that dangers loomed over his whole kingdom, he nevertheless, as he had once decided, preferred to serve the devil. He sends to inquire of the man of God about the future, and upon Him whose man he sends to, he spits, and to the insult of His majesty he makes calves and makes the people worship them with him. These things he did, and yet was not destroyed on the spot, but survived long in the kingdom. And you say:

'If I were a heretic, if, as Lucifer, Pancratius and Hilarius say, I were assailing the religion of God, vengeance would already have been taken upon me.' Hear yet further what befell this King Jeroboam, and how, even so, he did not turn to God, but rather, persevering in his crime, died, and perished in his sacrilege:

And Jeroboam made a feast day in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, after the feast day of Judah, and he went up to the sacrifice which he had made in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves which he had made; and he appointed in Bethel priests of the high places whom he had made, and he went up to the shrine which he had made, on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, on the feast day which he had devised from his own heart; and he made a feast day for the children of Israel, and went up to the shrine to sacrifice. And behold, a man of God from Judah came by the word of the Lord to Bethel, and Jeroboam was standing over his altar to sacrifice; and the prophet cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, saying: O shrine, shrine, thus says the Lord:

Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, and Josiah shall be his name, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who sacrifice upon you, and he shall burn men's bones upon you. And he gave on that day a portent which the Lord had spoken: Behold, the shrine shall be rent, and the fatness that is in it shall be poured out. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the man of God calling out against the altar which was in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand toward the altar, saying: Seize him. And the king's hand which he stretched out against him became withered, and he could not draw it back to himself. And the sacrifice was rent, and its fatness was poured out from the shrine, according to the portent which the man of God had spoken in the word of the Lord. And the king answered and said to the man of God:

Entreat the face of the Lord your God, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the face of the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him, and became as it was before. When he had seen fulfilled both the portents which had been uttered by the mouth of the man of God, and the impious arm stretched out to slay the man of God suddenly made withered in his terror, and forthwith made whole again through the prayer of God's worshipper — did he destroy the idolatry which he himself had established? Did he at last remove from the midst the feast day which he himself had devised out of his own heart? By no means; but in that obstinacy of his presumption he is found to have met the day of his death.

We shall not, therefore, be able to wonder if — which may God avert from you — you should decree to meet your day of death in your heresy, since even by signs and portents your former fellow-sacrilegists could not be recalled to worship God alone. For holy Scripture says of Jeroboam: And after this Jeroboam did not turn back from his malice, but turned back and made priests of the high places from among the people. For whoever wished lifted up his hand, and became a priest in the high places. And this thing became a sin unto the house of Jeroboam, and unto its destruction and extermination from the face of the earth.

Lest these things be said also of you, I beg you to snatch yourself away from the wicked assembly of the Arians; I beg you to be a Christian, as before you were, instead of an Arian, and do not be indignant with us that we equate your deeds with Jeroboam's; but rather I beseech you to see that all these things which I press upon you for the good of your salvation are to be called instructions rather than rebukes. For you are compared by us to Jeroboam in our times, because you have thus tried to turn all men from God, just as he tried to make the people of Israel an apostate from being a worshipper of God.

I do not want you to promise yourself any hope from this — that, though you do evil, you nevertheless reign — since you see that Jeroboam also reigned long in his crime, and Solomon's son likewise, practicing idolatry, died in the same crime, and likewise his son Abijah, of whom I find it written: And he walked in the sins of his father, which he did before him, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father; and yet, though they served idols, they were in the kingdom and died in that dignity, and handed on to their sons the authority of the kingdom. Therefore do not applaud yourself even in this — that your father handed the kingdom over to you — saying:

'Unless my father had done well to join himself to the Arians, we his sons would not be reigning.' I do not want you to say: If I were a heretic, I would never rule so long, God would never permit me still to be in the kingdom — when you see that Baasha the son of Ahijah reigned twenty-four years over Israel, of whom you have found it written in the third book of Kingdoms: And he did evil before the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he sinned in Israel. This King Baasha surely ought to have feared lest he be struck down like Jeroboam, if he departed from the ways of the Lord. But so it is.

You are such as turn aside from God, so that when it pleases you, to God's injury, to take up the office of idolatry, you cannot even be frightened by the example of those who have already been judged, so as to turn to God. It is written also of King Omri: And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more wickedly than all who were before him, and walked in every way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in his sins;

and yet this one, who is said to have sinned above all the kings who were before him, was not destroyed as soon as he forsook God, nor was he afflicted by any grave illness, so that he who is described as having sinned more grievously should be striven after to be slain by a graver punishment. You see, Constantius, even if it should befall you to pass this temporal life in the highest felicity, yet you ought all the more to fear, because you are reserved for God's judgment; and although even those who are destroyed at once, on whom here some of their punishments are divinely inflicted, are always tormented after their descent, yet if you, living in the highest felicity, are snatched from here, mark how vengeance will proceed against you, who are found in so great a crime.

Therefore do not ascribe to yourself any felicity from this — that, though you deny the only Son of God, though you persecute His family, your spirit nevertheless still remains in that executioner's body — when you consider that the son of Asa too reigned thirty-five years among the Jews, though he was sacrilegious like you; of whom you have read it written: He walked in the ways of Asa his father, and did not turn aside from them, to do what was right in the sight of the Lord, but they did not abstain from the high places, and sacrificed on the high places and burned incense. Behold, this king too is described as having slept in peace. Since therefore he practiced idolatry for thirty-five years, do not ascribe it to yourself for glory and say:

'For this reason I am not stricken by any blow, for this reason I am not yet destroyed, but I still live possessing the kingdom of the Roman Empire, because I believe rightly; because the faith of Arius is correct; because I have done well to remove the bishops and to install others such as Arius desired.' Do not, I say, glory in this — that, though you do these things, you nevertheless are proud — when you see that that king held the kingdom for thirty-five years and was taken away in peace. If, therefore, the crime of idolatry could pass unpunished for them, because they were thus taken away, it will be able to do so for you also, Constantius. Turn yourself, therefore, to the Lord, lest you be found such as Ahab was found, of whom I find it written:

And Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more wickedly than all who were before him. And it was not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, but he also took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians. And he went and served Baal and worshipped him, and set up a shrine of Baal in the house of his cults, which he built in Samaria; and Ahab made a sacred grove, to make provocation, to provoke God and to destroy his own soul, and did more wickedly than all the kings of Israel who were before him. Do not any longer allow yourself to be among the Arians, but make your passage over to us Christians, to whom all heresies are just as Baal is.

So you are now heretics to us, just as, to those worshippers of God in those times, were those who sacrificed to idols; through this heresy of yours, believe me, you are in our times such a one as Ahab also was. Do not, therefore, be pleased with yourself that God has not immediately repaid you, when you see that to this Ahab and his wife Jezebel — who even killed the prophets of the Lord, who are found to have been so engaged in so great a crime that they did not permit any man in the land of Israel confessing himself God's to remain — mercy was shown for a very long time. Do not regard this — that, though you do evil, you nevertheless are proud in your crimes;

but I beseech you to see this: that unless you turn, just as to them, though late, the deserts of their works were repaid, so also it can be presented to you. Do not say: I am long in the kingdom here, I am powerful here, because I hold the good faith, because I act rightly by persecuting those who believe as that faith set forth at Nicaea holds — this, I say, do not say, but that I pray you to see: that you are so proud after so many of your slaughters, that either, hearing us the priests of God, you should turn yourself to God, or else you should surely receive the just deserts of your deeds then, when you shall not be able to say that you erred unknowingly.

Mark that these things are so, admonished by the example of Ahab, the slayer of the prophets of the Lord and the worshipper of all demons. Understand that this man, so wicked, was for this reason kept long in the kingdom after such great crimes: that at last, if he wished, he might turn himself — he to whom not only are the deserts of his evil deeds not presented, but who is even helped in his straits, doubtless for this, that he might be able to conclude that he was rescued not through Baal and the other demons, whom the heathen call gods, but through the God of Israel, whose prophet he saw speaking with him and declaring to him in what manner God was about to reduce the enemies of the Israelites to nothing.

For Ben-Hadad the king had besieged Samaria with thirty-two other kings, boasting so much, as though he counted the Israelites as nothing, that he alone, one man, would overcome the whole multitude of the Israelites. This foreigner God made nothing before Israel. For which king did God conquer? Surely for Ahab, for him who had forsaken Him, who had made Israel serve Baal and all the demons — for whom nevertheless He gave aid, namely that he might believe that He alone is God whose people was Israel, and no other beside Him, who had conquered for him, so that Ahab might see that it would be just for him at last to correct his errors.

As soon as the adversary began to build the siege against the city of the Israelites, behold, says sacred Scripture, a certain prophet approached the king of Israel and said: Thus says the Lord, have you heard this great tumult? Behold, today I will deliver him into your hands, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And the king said: By whom? And the prophet said: By the servants of the princes of the provinces. And the king said: Who shall join battle? And the prophet said: You. And below: And the servants of the princes of the provinces went out from the city, and the army that was behind them, and each one struck down whomever he found beside him, and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued. How do you say, Constantius:

'If I did not serve God well, if I were not believing rightly, I would never have seen the kingdom of the Romans placed in my power, nor would I have been living so long in the kingdom?' When you see that to Ahab, king of Israel, living after the manner of the Gentiles and turning the people of God away from God — just as you also turn them away — it was said by Him against whom he was sinning, whose precepts he counted as nothing: I deliver him into your hands, that you may know that I am God.

He, therefore, who snatched him from the son of Hadad king of Syria, has likewise snatched, and snatches, you from all who desire to destroy you, for this purpose surely: that you may be able to recognize that He is the God of the patriarchs and the martyrs, that you may be able to conclude that the victory was granted you not for the merits of your faith and life — since you are in all things like King Ahab — but that mercy was shown you, against your merits, by Him whom you have forsaken, just as it was shown to Ahab. For if you should say that you conquer your adversaries because you believe well, Ahab too, worshipper of idols and slayer of the holy prophets, could have said the same. Do you not see, then, that you have been reserved for this: that you might correct your errors?

As soon as you seized Italy, you attempted to overturn her Church; you said that God the Father is not the true God the Father, denying His only Son, affirming that He is not the true Son. You also asserted that the Holy Paraclete, the Spirit, was fashioned out of nothing; you attempted to defend that there was a time when the only Son of God existed, when He did not exist; you gave your effort with all your strength to how you might remove the apostolic and evangelical tradition from the midst; you caused bishops ordained by God's judgment to be removed by your authority, and resolved that heretics should be installed in their places, who might be able to preach your heresy;

with military force you fought against the Church in Alexandria; very many of the bishops you banished into exile, into the mines, you cast into prison, and you even killed a certain number out of all the worshippers of God. Though you have done these things, you nevertheless say: Unless I were doing well and believing soundly, God would never yet permit me to reign — as though God had been patient toward Ahab also, and your other fellow-idolaters, for the reason that they were holding to the right way.

You, therefore, because He is patient with your sins by His untiring mercy, just as He was to King Ahab, suppose that you are not sinning, but that you are spared for your merits — whom you imitate in this too: that you love those who counsel you evil, but destroy those who, for the sake of your salvation, tell you what is true.

For just as to Ahab those four hundred false prophets spoke that all prosperous things could befall him, while on the contrary God's prophet Micaiah said that all evils would befall him, and he loved those false prophets more than the true prophet of the Lord, so also you love your fellow-heretics the Arians, obey their sayings, and execrate us all, the priests of the Lord — first of all, because we confess the Son of God to be the true Son of God; secondly, because we do not flatter you, because we affirm and say that you are in danger, and that unless you turn to God, you will come into eternal punishment.

And that you may be able to believe that God's men have always been held in hatred by apostate men, but that the enemies of God's religion, that is, the worshippers of the devil, have been loved, hear whom Ahab loved and whom he held in hatred. And Jehoshaphat king of Judah said to the king of Israel: Inquire now today of the Lord. And the king of Israel gathered together all the prophets, about four hundred men, and King Ahab said to them: Shall I go to Ramoth in Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said: Go up. And below: And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel: Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord? And Ahab king of Israel said to King Jehoshaphat: There is one by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not speak good concerning me.

Likewise, after the prophet of the Lord, Micaiah, had told him not to go up, because if he went up he would not return, the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: Did I not tell you that this man prophesies to me not good, but rather evil? Those things seemed evil, mad and heartless, to him whom the devil had already besieged — evil, those things which were spoken by the servant of God, and those things were judged good which were spoken by the servants of the devil. Nor is it therefore to be wondered at, if Ahab listened to those whom the devil caused him to listen to, namely his own slaves, and if he would not listen to those whom both the very endurance of their sufferings and the very constancy of their assertion manifested to him to be God's servants.

The false prophets were enriched, honored, and dismissed by the king, but Micaiah the prophet of the Lord is shut up in prison, and it is said: Let him eat the bread of affliction until I return; and yet, according to the word of God's servant, he did not return at all. So you too act, Constantius; you love those who drag you with them to perpetual death, who lead your soul to utter destruction, and you deign to hold in hatred those who desire that you become God's friend.

Do not glory in this — that, though you do such great things, you nevertheless, mighty in the glory of a kingdom, still possess this fragile life — when the sacred writings relate that Jeroboam the son of Joash too reigned in Israel forty-one years in Samaria, and indeed, having forsaken God, serving idols, and not departing from the malice of Ahab king of Israel and the sacrifices of Jeroboam. 'If I had done evil,' you say, 'God would already have removed me from the kingdom' — as if the son of Amaziah, for the reason that he did not depart from vain things, was indeed filled with leprosy, but nevertheless reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem.

But in this you are more fortunate than King Uzziah: that you do not have elephantiasis, which, though it can consume all your limbs — but you have that disease which can utterly defile the soul. Grieve for yourself along with us, and shed tears for yourself; behold how this which appears as elephantiasis defiles the body, how the poison of leprosy consumes the limbs. Understand that the Arian heresy, your elephantiasis, thus defiles all your inner parts; mark that it thus affects your inner man, just as this disease does, which has seized those whom you see infused with elephantiasis. Do not say:

'Unless I acted well, I would never rule for so long a time, I would never still have been permitted to live' — when you see that Manasseh too, the son of King Hezekiah, king of Judah, received the kingdom at sixteen years of age and reigned fifty-seven years; of whom, when you have heard what things are written, you will assuredly find that you are his imitator, and you will not begin to wonder that, though you do evil, you are nevertheless still spared, seeing Manasseh — in whose cruelty and sacrilege you are not less — that, though he did such great things, he held the kingdom for fifty-seven years. 'And Hezekiah slept,' says Scripture, 'with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.'

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-seven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. And he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he built an altar to Baal and made groves, as did Ahab king of Israel, and he worshipped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built an altar in the two houses of the house of the Lord, and he made his sons pass through the fire, and he practised divination and made pythons and many soothsayers, that he might do what is evil in the eyes of his own soul, so as to provoke the Lord God.

And he made the graven images of the groves which he had set in the house, concerning which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son: In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever; and I will not again set foot to move Israel from the land which I have given, provided only they will hearken to me in all things which I have commanded them, and according to the law which my servant Moses commanded them. But they did not hearken; and because Manasseh mightily despised and seduced them, so that they did what is evil above all the nations which the Lord took away from before Israel.

And the Lord spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets, saying: Because Manasseh king of Judah has made idols, according to all that the Amorite did who was before him, and has made Judah to sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I bring evils upon Jerusalem and upon Judah; whosoever hears these things, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as a writing-tablet is wiped clean from the post before his face.

And I will give them into the hands of their enemies, and they shall be for a prey and a burning to all their foes, because they have been cast off from following me, and they were following me and yet were provoking me, from the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt even to this day. And the rest of the words of Manasseh and all that he did, how he made Israel to sin, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah? and how he shed the blood of the innocent very abundantly, until he filled Jerusalem to the very brim, besides the sin whereby he made Judah to sin, to do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord God? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and his son reigned in his stead; and Amon was twenty-two years old.

What do you say to this, Constantius? I believe you now cease to say: If I did not act well, I would not be reigning so long a time, seeing that you behold this other Manasseh also, who did such things, reigned fifty-seven years; and since we have said that you are another Manasseh, look how you have all that was his. He set up idolatry in the house of God; you did just as much in the temple and dwellings of the Lord. He caused idols to be adored; you have usurped for yourself that which was called the Lord's, so that henceforth it may be called that of idols.

All these things you also have done, for you have brought the Arian heresy into the Church, and you who established your blasphemy to be received as though it were the Catholic faith, and commanded that faith written at Nicaea, which we know to be apostolic and evangelical, to be spat upon. As you have now craved that these things be done, so also Manasseh commanded that all idols were to be served, but that men were to depart from God. It will not therefore be a marvel if you have claimed for yourself the buildings in which we are wont to gather the people of God, and have called yourself, an idolater, a Catholic, when you see that Manasseh also did this very thing which you have now done.

So then the Lord will spare you likewise, holding to the way of Manasseh, in the same manner as he spared him, and to the extent that he spared him, so that it is written that he slept with his fathers and was buried in Jerusalem, and that his son received the kingdom in his place. Do you read that he perished in war or was weighed down by some sickness? By no means; but what do you think? I believe, in that prudence of yours you say that all those things went unpunished for king Manasseh. Such are you, that you would thus think about Manasseh, namely that, because after reigning fifty-seven years he handed over the kingdom to his son and himself died in peace, such great crimes as he committed could have gone unpunished for him.

Do not have pity on yourself, so as to turn yourself to God; do not refuse to correct your wicked deeds, and you will find yourself tormented together with Manasseh, whom, this Manasseh, you will be seen to surpass in this respect: that he shed the blood of the just only within the borders of Jerusalem, but you have shed it and are shedding it throughout the whole Roman realm. But, you say, he burned or consecrated his sons before the images of his gods; and you too, if you had had sons, would without doubt have made those same sons receive the Arian blasphemy. Or do you not know that, just as then those pleased the devil who burned their sons, since indeed they had one mind to forsake the Creator and to serve the creature, so now the devil demands nothing of you except that you deny the only Son of God?

This is to him the most acceptable sacrifice, that you should be a believer just as Arius also believed; in our times this is more to him, that you deny the Son of God, than if you were willing to be burned in flames in honour of all the demons. For he sees that the cult of idols is despised by all, because that invention proved empty; now he is eager, through you his servants the heretics, to deceive us the servants of God. How, you ask, to deceive? In the same way as he has already deceived you, so he wishes us also to be deceived. Since you are an Arian, you feign yourself a Christian for this purpose, until with the poison of your heresy you may wound the defenceless, so that thereafter they may be not Christians, which we are, but what you Arians are. This is the fattening of your services which is offered by you to the demons.

For who indeed, save the devil and his sons, can say of the only Son of God: He is a son and yet not a true son; he is God and yet not true God? Therefore when you say, I am a Christian but I do not believe God to have a true Son, I do not believe in one power of the Father and the Son; when you say the Son is a creature, made out of nothing; when you say there was a time when he was not, then you sacrifice to the devil better than Manasseh did of old, when he either consecrated his sons to all the demons through fire or when he burned them. I grieve for you, emperor, why, when you are of such folly and when you do such great evils, you nonetheless deign to say: If I did not act well, I would no longer be in the kingdom; God would already have destroyed me.

Do you not perceive that this Manasseh, in sacrilege and in cruelty, is to be compared to you, in that he held the kingdom in Judaea for fifty-seven years, as I have often said? This is he who made the people forsake God and serve idols, this is he who set up images in the temple of the Lord and in the dwellings of God, who made the house of God, who made the sanctuary of his majesty into a sanctuary of idols. So too God bears with you, so he endures until he both proves his household and crowns the worthy, and, if you do not correct yourself, punishes the unworthy along with you unto eternal punishment.

For the rest, believe that he could, both then Manasseh and now you, destroy you in a single instant, in the twinkling of an eye; but he spares, not because he cannot, but because it is fitting that his worshippers also be crowned, who remain unmoved against your cruelty, and that he condemn you, the enemies of his clemency, to everlasting punishment, if you resolve to persist such as you are. As for your saying, If I did not act well, I would never yet be ruling, this is the doing of those who not only refuse that you, straying, be corrected, but even drive you on to perish. No wonder; for it is written that both you and they would be such: The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does wickedly shall be blessed. The sinner has provoked the Lord; according to the multitude of his wrath he will not seek him.

God is not before his eyes; his ways are defiled at all times; your judgements are taken away from before his face. When therefore you say: We do well to remove those bishops who confess that they hold the faith written at Nicaea, and to appoint those who confess as Arius confessed; and they say: You are indeed rightly that sinner who is praised unjustly for the desires of your soul; and you are the wicked one who, though you have been forsaken by God for your blasphemies, yet, along with your flatterers, whatever you transgress is not rebuked, but rather it is said that you act well. When you say: I did well to send a soldier to Alexandria to carry off Athanasius, they say most rightly:

To whom shall you be compared, save to him who is marked out by the Holy Spirit through the psalmist, in that, though he does wicked things, though he is most base and detestable, he nonetheless is eager to be praised? You say: Unless I acted well, God would no longer have spared me; and I find it said to God: Because you correct in part those who have strayed, and you address, admonishing, those who sin, that, having forsaken those evils, they may believe in you, O Lord. For you also, hating those ancient inhabitants of your land, because they were doing works hateful to you through sorceries and unjust sacrifices, and being slayers of children without mercy, you willed to destroy them by the hands of our fathers, that the land which is dearer to you than all might receive a worthy sojourning of the children of God.

But even these you spared as men, and you sent ahead of your army wasps, that they might exterminate them by degrees. Were you powerless to attack, to subject the impious to the just, or to destroy them at once with the fiercest of beasts or with a harsh word? But judging by degrees, you gave place for repentance, not being ignorant that their race was wicked and their malice inborn, and that their thought could never be changed for ever; for the seed was accursed from the beginning, and, fearing no one, you granted pardon to their sins. For who shall say to you: What have you done? or who shall stand against your judgement? In like manner you too are spared, Constantius, that you may do penance, or perish by their example, who, when

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;