c.  Moral Orations.—(1)  The Apology for his flight.  As was said above, it is most probable that this discourse was never actually spoken; if it was, it certainly must have been considerably enlarged afterwards.  In it Gregory dwells on the motive of his flight and his return after his forced ordination; he speaks of his love of retirement, but most of all lays stress upon the difficulty of the Priestly Office, its heavy responsibilities and grave dangers, and upon his own sense of unworthiness.  His return, he says, was prompted by respect for his hearers and by care for his aged parents; by the fear of losing his father’s blessing; and by the recollection of what befel the Prophet Jonas on account of his resistance to the will of God.  The remainder of the Oration is practically a treatise on the Priesthood, and was made use of by S. Chrysostom and S. Gregory the Great in their books on the subject.