1. VERY pleasant to me is the remembrance of your long friendship,
and I also bear a grateful sense of those benefits which at my frequent
intreaties you have most graciously extended to others. You may be
sure then that it could not be from any ungrateful feeling that on
your arrival, which I was wont to long for so ardently, I shunned your
presence. The motives of my conduct I will now briefly explain.
Sidenote: S. Luke viii. 17.
2. I found that I alone in all your court was denied the natural right
of hearing, in order to deprive me of the power of speaking too: for
you were frequently displeased at decisions having reached me which
were made in your Consistory. Thus I have been debarred from the common
privilege of men, though the Lord Jesus says, _Nothing is secret which
shall not be made manifest_. Wherefore I did my utmost to obey with
reverence your royal will, and I provided both for you and for myself;
for you, that you should have no cause of disturbance, to which end I
endeavoured that no intelligence should be brought me of the Imperial
decrees; and as to myself, I provided against my not seeming to hear
when present, from fear of others and thus incurring the charge of
connivance, and also against hearing in such manner that while my ears
were open my mouth must be closed, and I must not utter what I heard,
lest I should injure those who had fallen under suspicion of treachery.
Sidenote: Ezek. iii. 18.
3. What then was I to do? was I not to listen? But I could not close my
ears with the wax of the old tales. Must I disclose what I heard? But
then I had reason to fear that the same result which I apprehended from
your commands would ensue from my own words; that they might become
the cause of bloodshed. Was I then to be silent? But this would be the
most miserable of all, for my conscience would be bound, my liberty
of speech taken away. And what then of the text, _if the priest warn
not the wicked from his wicked way, the wicked man shall die in his
iniquity_, but the priest shall be liable to punishment, because he did
not warn him?
4. Suffer me, gracious Emperor. You have a zeal for the faith, I own
it, you have the fear of God, I confess it; but you have a vehemence
of temper, which if soothed may readily be changed into compassion, but
if inflamed becomes so violent that you can scarcely restrain it. If no
one will allay it, let no one at least inflame it. To yourself I would
willingly trust, for you are wont to exercise self-control, and by your
love of mercy to conquer this violence of your nature.
5. This vehemence of yours I have preferred secretly to commend to
your consideration, rather than run the risk of rousing it publicly
by my acts. And so I have preferred to be lacking somewhat in duty
rather than in humility, and that others should complain of my want
of priestly authority, rather than that you should find any want of
respect in me, who am so devoted to you; and this in order that you may
restrain your emotions, and have full power of choosing what counsel
to follow. I alleged as my reason, bodily sickness, which was in fact
severe, and not to be mitigated but by more gentle treatment; still I
would rather have died than not have waited two or three days for your
arrival. But I could not do so.
6. An act has been committed in the city of Thessalonica, the like of
which is not recorded, the perpetration of which I could not prevent,
which in my frequent petitions before the court I had declared to be
most atrocious, and which by your tardy revocation you have yourself
pronounced to be very heinous: such an act as this I could not
extenuate. Intelligence of it was first brought to a synod held on the
arrival of the Gallican Bishops: all present deplored it, no one viewed
it leniently; your friendship with Ambrose, so far from excusing your
deed, would have even brought a heavier weight of odium on my head,
had there been no one found to declare the necessity of your being
reconciled to God.
Sidenote: 2 Sam. xii. 13.
Sidenote: Ib. 7.
Sidenote: Ps. xcv. 6.
Sidenote: 2 Sam. xii. 13.
7. Is your Majesty ashamed to do that which the Royal Prophet David
did, the forefather of Christ according to the flesh? It was told him
that a rich man, who had numerous flocks, on the arrival of a guest
took a poor man’s lamb and killed it, and recognizing in this act
his own condemnation, he said, _I have sinned against the Lord_. Let
not your Majesty then be impatient at being told, as David was by the
prophet, _Thou art the man_. For if you listen thereto obediently and
say, _I have sinned against the Lord_, if you will use those words
of the royal Prophet, _O come let us worship and fall down, and kneel
before the Lord our Maker_, to you also it shall be said, Because thou
repentest, _the Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die_.
Sidenote: Ib. xxiv. 10.
Sidenote: 2 Sam. xxiv. 12.
Sidenote: Ib. 14.
8. Another time, when David had commanded the people to be numbered,
his heart smote him, and he said unto the Lord, _I have sinned greatly
in that I have done, and now, I beseech thee O Lord, take away the
iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly_. And Nathan
the prophet was sent again to him, to offer him three things, to choose
one of them, which he would; seven years famine in the land, or to
flee three months before his enemies, or three days pestilence in the
land. _And David said, I am in a great strait, let us now fall into the
hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great, and let me not fall into
the hand of man._ His fault lay in wishing to know the number of all
the people which were with him, a knowledge which ought to have been
reserved for God.
Sidenote: Ib. 17.
9. And Scripture tells us that when the people were dying, on the very
first day and at dinner time, David saw the Angel that smote the people,
he said, _Lo, I have sinned and done wickedly; but these sheep, what
have they done? let Thine hand, I pray Thee, be against me, and against
my father’s house_. So the Lord repented, and commanded the Angel to
spare the people, and that David should offer sacrifice: for there were
then sacrifices for sin, but we have now the sacrifices of penitence.
So by that humility he was made more acceptable to God, for it is not
wonderful that man should sin, but it is indeed blameable if he do not
acknowledge his error, and humble himself before God.