XIII.
XIII. DE ORATIONE MOYSI; IN MEDIO QUADRAGESIMA.
After Moses the great leader
had departed from the land of Egypt with his people,
and they had journeyed on foot over the Red Sea,
and come into the wilderness, there warred mightily against them
Amalek the king, fighting with his people.
Then said Moses to the brave Joshua,
'Choose thee now men, and go to-morrow
against Amalek, and fight valiantly against him,
I myself will stand on this steep mountain,
having in my hands the holy rod of God.'
Joshua then went and fought with Amalek,
and Moses then ascended the rugged mountain,
with Aaron and Hur, to pray to the Almighty.
Then Moses raised his hands in prayer,
and Joshua had victory, and slew the heathen.
Afterward, when Moses could no longer hold
his hands stretched out, then had Amalek
the victory for a while, and slew the people of God.
As often as Moses raised his hands in prayer,
so often had Joshua heavenly succour;
and as soon as his arms slackened from weakness,
immediately Amalek smote, and had victory over them.
Moses' hands were very much weighed down;
Aaron then placed an exceeding great stone
under Moses, and he sat thereupon,
and Aaron raised up his hand in prayer,
and Hur held the other until it was evening.
Joshua then had heavenly succour,
and put to flight Amalek and his people with weapons.
By this we may learn that we Christians should
in every distress, ever cry to God,
and entreat His aid, with full faith;
if He then will not give us His aid,
nor hear our prayer, then will it be manifest,
that we have before angered Him by evil deeds;
but nevertheless we should not desist from that prayer,
until the compassionate God mercifully deliver us.
Moses had victory, and great succour,
the while he held up his hands in prayer;
and his will fainted not, but the weary body.
Now have we warfare against the fierce devil,
and he fighteth against us, because he is cruel;
how will it be then if we will not cry to the Saviour,
since the weariness of Moses might not be excused?
Verily he shall be overcome by the deceitful devil,
who will not call Christ to help him.
Every righteous man has had, even as we read in books,
succour and deliverance, when he, with full faith,
in his difficulties has cried to the Almighty.
There is nothing so hateful to the faithless devil
as that a man pray boldly to God;
because the deceiver knoweth that his weapons must
by holy prayers be soonest broken in pieces,
and he will be alway overcome by prayers.
Therefore he seeketh diligently, when we cry to God,
how he may destroy those prayers by temptations,
and turn our minds thereby from that work.
Either he will, at least, occupy us with negligence,
or subtly disquiet us with curious enquiries.
When we pray with simple-mindedness,
then speak we verily to God Himself thus ;
and when we read books, or hear them read,
then God speaketh to us through the spiritual reading.
A man must pray even as he may and can,
because Almighty God can understand all speech;
and in every place must he magnify his Lord,
and continue in prayer wherever he be.
Nevertheless a man ought to seek church frequently,
and a man may not talk nor hold conversations
within God's church, because it is the house of prayer,
hallowed to God for ghostly discourses.
Neither ought a man to drink or foolishly eat
within God's House, which is hallowed to this [purpose],
that a man may there taste of God's body with faith.
Now men, nevertheless, act foolishly very often,
in that they will watch and madly drink
within God's house, and play shamefully,
and with foolish talking defile God's house;
but it were better for them that they lay in their beds,
than that they should anger God in the spiritual house.
He who will watch, and worship God's Saints,
let him watch in stillness, and make no disturbance,
but sing his prayers as he best knoweth how;
and he who will drink, and make a foolish noise,
let him drink at home, not in the Lord's house,
that he dishonour not God, to his own punishment.
We have need to cry often to Christ,
but without carelessness and hypocrisy.
Even as the body liveth by bread and drink,
so shall the soul live by doctrine and prayers.
Many foolish deeds injure mankind,
either from selfwill, or from want of thought.
Even as some men do who foolishly fast
beyond their strength in the catholic Lent,
even as we ourselves have seen, until they have fallen sick.
Some also fast, so that they have refused to eat,
save on the alternate day, and then ate greedily ;
but books tell us that some so fasted,
that they afflicted themselves very grievously,
and had no reward for this great hardship,
but were the farther on this account from God's pity.
Now the holy Fathers have appointed that we fast with prudence
and eat befittingly every day,
so that our body become not enfeebled,
nor again over fat unto vain lusts.
Moreover, this country is not so abundant in strength,
here, on the outer edge of the earth's extent,
as is that in the midst, in the strength-abundant region,
where men can fast more easily than here.
Nor is mankind so strong now as men were at the beginning.
There is no fasting so good, nor so pleasing to God,
as is this fasting, that a man shun foulness,
and avoid sins, and leave off contentions,
and please God with good services,
and live discreetly, even as we said before.
The wise man must not be without good works,
nor the old be without piety,
nor the young be without obedience,
nor the wealthy be without almsdeeds,
nor women be without modesty,
nor the lord be false in words,
nor must any Christian man shamefully strive.
Again, it is very contrary that the poor be proud,
and it is odious that a king be unrighteous;
also it is very hurtful that a bishop be careless,
and it is unprofitable that the folk be without a governor,
or without law, for the harm of them all.
It is for this world's safety that it have wise men,
and however many more there are of wise men on the earth's surface,
so much the better will it fare with the people's needs.
He is no wise man who liveth unwisely,
but such an one is an open sot, though it seem not so to himself.
If cowl-wearing men observe God's service
at set times, and live soberly,
and if the laity live according to right,
then know we for certain that God will provide
for our prosperity, and peace among us,
and, in addition thereto, give us the eternal mirth with Him.
If then the head-men, and the cowl-wearing teachers,
will not take care for this, but think of worldly things,
and care neither for God's commands, nor for His worship,
then will God manifest in them (their) contempt of Him,
either by hunger or by pestilence, that they may acknowledge
that the Almighty Ruler thus wreaketh contempt of Himself;
and they, in addition, shall suffer in the other life,
either for a long time or for ever, for their life's carelessness.
Well may we think how well it fared with us
when this island was dwelling in peace,
and the monastic orders were held in honour,
and the laity were ready against their foes,
so that our report spread widely throughout the earth.
How was it then afterward when men rejected monastic life
and held God's services in contempt,
but that pestilence and hunger came to us,
and afterward the heathen army had us in reproach?
Concerning this spake the Almighty God to Moses in the wilderness,
'If ye walk in my statutes and keep my commandments,
then will I alway send you rain-showers in due time,
and the earth shall yield you her fruits,
and I will give you peace and reconciliation,
that ye may enjoy your land without fear,
and I will also put the evil beasts far from you.
If ye then despise me, and cast away my laws,
I will also very speedily wreak it upon you j
I will cause that the heaven shall be to you as hard as iron,
and the earth underneath it as if it were brass.
Then shall ye labour in vain, if ye sow your land,
then the earth shall yield you no fruits;
and if ye even then will not turn to Me,
I will send the sword to you, and your enemies shall slay you,
and then they shall cruelly lay waste your land,
and your cities shall be broken down and wasted.
I will also send cowardice into your hearts,
so that none of you dare withstand your enemies."
Thus spake God, of old. concerning the people of Israel;
it is nevertheless very nigh thus accomplished in us,
now in these late days, and notoriously.
"We ought to worship God with true constancy,
because He is Almighty God, and He created us to be men;
now do we very wrongly if we worship Him not
for our own need, and our souls' bliss.
God from the beginning avenged contempt of Himself by punishments,
first upon the Angels who rashly exalted themselves,
and afterward on Adam, when He had sinned.
Again, in the days of Noah, when men wrought very foolishly,
and by fornication angered Almighty God exceedingly,
so that He sent the Flood, and drowned them all,
except only Noah with his own household,
because he alone of them all was righteous.
Again when God desired to wreak with fire
the foul fornication of the vilest race of men,
the people of Sodom, then He told it to Abraham.
Abraham then prayed the Almighty thus;
"Thou, Lord, who judgest all mortal flesh,
Thou shouldest not slay the righteous with the wicked.
If there be fifty men dwelling in the place,
righteous before Thee, spare them all."
Then said God to him again: "I will spare them all,
if I find there fifty righteous."
Then began Abraham again to entreat God earnestly,
that He would not destroy them, if there were forty there,
righteous men, dwelling among that people.
God granted him this, and he began yet to entreat,
until he came to ten men, and God granted him then,
that He would not destroy them if He found there ten
righteous men, and He turned from him therewith.
Then God straightway sent to those shameful men
two angels in the evening, and they led Abraham's brother's son
Lot, with his family, out of the city;
and there were no more found who were not wicked.
Then God sent to them, in the morning, fire and foul brimstone,
and burned them all up, and destroyed their cities,
and all that country with awful fire,
and there is now foul water there, where those foul men dwelt,
and Lot, the righteous, was delivered by God.
By these things we may perceive that the learned
servants of God greatly benefit the laity,
when they, in their office, intercede for them to God,
since God was willing to spare all the sinful,
if He had found there ten righteous men.
Even so [was it with] Dathan and Abiram, who spake foolishly,
and did great dishonour to Moses,
against God's will, when they were in the wilderness,
and despised his guidance, and sorely upbraided him;
then God was angry with them, and the earth clave asunder
where they dwelt, with their wives and children
within their tents, and they then all sank down,
quick, into the earth, overwhelmed with mould,
and the other folk fled affrighted at their cry.
Many of the people variously murmured often,
and tempted God, and blasphemed in speech,
but God wreaked it speedily, so that they died somehow,
because such murmuring is very hateful to God,
and specially when men provoke Him by words.
And it is very hateful to God in the faithful people,
that they shall be disagreeing, and perverse among themselves;
and Christ said in His Gospel, that no kingdom
can stand anywhile entire, if it be not peaceable,
because God loveth integrity and peace among men.
Again, David the king, though He were pleasing to God,
sinned very grievously, and then God sent to him
the prophet Gad, saying these words to him,
' Choose thee now a punishment, since thou art deserving [of it],
either three years' famine, or three months' war,
that thou shalt flee for so long from thine enemies, if thou may,
or three days' pestilence.' Then said David to him,
'This is hard to me, but it is better for me nevertheless
that I should fall into God's hands rather than that I should fall into man's hands;
because His mercies are manifold.'
Then God straightway sent an angel to him,
and the angel slew seventy thousand
in David's dominion, all males.
Then came the angel where the king himself was,
and would have slain the citizens,
but God had pity then, and quickly said to the angel,
'Enough, it is now enough ; hold thine hand.'
Then David himself saw how the angel slew the people,
and cried to God, and said with anguish,
'I am he that sinned, and I myself did unrightly
against Thee; what have these sheep done?
I pray thee that Thou wilt turn Thine hand against me,
and Thine indignation against my house.'
Then came Gad the prophet walking, and said to him,
'Go now, and rear quickly an altar to God,
and offer thy sacrifice, that this terror may cease.'
Then did David so, and the Lord had pity on him,
and the angel might no longer slay the men.
God would not slay the guilty David,
though he had sinned, because very often he had done,
both before and afterward, very excellent things
to the satisfaction of God, and God therefore spared him;
and those who there were slain, their souls were preserved.
Again, there was 'a people whom the living God
would punish for their witless deeds;
those were the Ninevites, who acted madly.
Then God sent to them a certain prophet,
hight Jonah, and bade them desist,
or they should all be destroyed together.
The king then turned directly with his people,
and they all fasted three consecutive days, and the Lord had pity on them.
A man can neither write, nor reckon in words,
how often the Almighty God has awfully wreaked
contempt of Himself upon guilty men,
or how often He has pitied mankind in some way,
those who with confession ceased from their evil.
We must not murmur, nor anxiously bemoan,
though mischance befall us respecting our possessions,
because murmuring is a very great danger,
that a man murmur against God, even as St. Paul has told us.
There will be many misfortunes at the end of this world,
but each one must patiently suffer his lot,
so that he sin not against God by murmuring,
and, for love of this world, merit for himself punishment.
This time is the last time, and the end of this world,
and men are made unjust amongst themselves,
so that the father contendeth with his own son,
and one brother with another, to their own destruction,
and thereby add iniquity to themselves,
both in this world and in that which is to come.
For it seemeth to the wicked, as if they might live for ever,
and they know not the saying, which God saith of such,
Viri sanguinum et dolosi non dimidiahunt dies suos; that is in English,
'The bloody men and those who choose deceit,
they shall not live out half their days' [Ps. lv. 23 ].
They are bloody men who commit manslaughters,
and those who seduce men's souls to destruction.
Such shall end by a very evil death,
if they do not amend their evil before the end.
And though some of them live longer than they should,
through God's patience, it profiteth them naught,
but they add to their punishments, if they turn not before the end.
God's wisdom crieth, and saith to all men
with fatherly love, thus gently exhorting,
'My son, forget not thou my commands and law,
but keep them [in] thine heart diligently;
they shall prolong thy life, and thou shalt live in peace,
and mercy and truth shall verily not forsake thee.
Have thou trust in God with all thine heart,
and trust thou not overmuch in thine own wisdom.
Think ever about God in all thy ways,
and He Himself shall well direct thy course.
Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom,
because wisdom is better than shining gold,
and it alone is more precious than costly treasures.
This is wisdom, that a man live wisely,
and order his deeds according to his Lord's will;
that he may receive the reward in the eternal life,
with the Almighty God, who ruleth in Eternity. Amen.