3, 2-4. 1 έγκα λείτω 268 Limits of allowing for weak offenders. COLOS. accuse me, I will not suffer it in any one, When I am about to be judged at the Tribunal of Christ, ye stand afar off, and for me to have your favour will tell for nothing, when I am giving in my account. "Those words have ruined all! he says, 'let him go and transfer himself to another sect!' Nay! he is weak! condescend to him!" To what point? Till when? Once, and twice, and thrice, but not perpetually. 2 κατορ Lo! I charge you again, and protest after the pattern of 2 Cor. the blessed Paul, that if I come again I will not spare. 13, 2. But when ye have done as ye ought, then ye will know on how great the gain is, how great the advantage. Yes! I entreat and beseech you, and would not refuse to clasp your 3ßλansia knees and supplicate you' in this behalf. What softness3 is it! What luxury, what wantonness! This is not luxury, but wantonness. What senselessness is it! What madness! So many poor stand around the Church; and though the Church has so many children, and so wealthy, she is unable 1 Cor. to give relief to one poor person; but one is hungry, and 11,21. another is drunken; one voideth his excrement even into 4 silver, another has not so much as bread! What madness! 9 i. e. the Preacher says. Downes would put in a negative, as Old Lat. and give the words to the objector, but with less spirit. insangíav Osiva. He alludes to the ancient custom of formally supplicating 6 for defence or relief, as by sitting on the hearth. Sophocl. Ed. Tyr. 1, &c. • ἐπιτρέψαι. Perhaps ἐπιτρίψαι, ag gravating,' as Ben. t. i. p. 24. B. and p. 225. A. HOMILY VIII. COL. iii. 5-7. Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things' sake, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience; in the which ye also walked sometime, when ye lived in them. νομένους I KNOW that many are offended by the foregoing discourse, 'but what can I do? ye heard what the Master enjoined. Am I to blame? what shall I do? See ye not how, when debtors are obstinate, they put collars on them? Heard θύνοι ye what Paul proclaimed to-day? Mortify, he saith, your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. What is worse than such a covetousness? This is still more grievous than what I was speaking of", this madness, namely, and silly weakness about silver. And covetousness, he saith, which is idolatry. See in what the evil ends. Do not, I pray, take what I said amiss, for not by my own good-will, nor without reason, would I have enemies; but I was wishful ye should attain to such virtue, as that I might hear of you the things I ought. So that I said it not for authority's sake, nor of imperious-ater ness, but out of pain and of sorrow. Forgive me, forgive! τίας 270 Sin why to be mortified after once slaying. COLOS. I have no wish to violate decency by discoursing upon such subjects, but I am compelled to it. 3,5-7. Not for the sake of the sorrows of the poor do I say these things, but for your salvation; for they will perish that have not fed Christ. For what, if thou dost feed some poor man? 1- still so long as thou livest so voluptuously' and luxuriously, all is to no purpose. For what is required is, not the giving much, but not too little for the property thou hast; for this is but playing at it. λας 12. 4. 2 i. e. death. 3 so 2 Mss. Mortify therefore your members, he saith, which are upon the earth. What sayest thou? Was it not thou that saidst, c. 2, 11. Ye are buried; ye are buried together with Him; ye are Rom. 6, circumcised: ye have put off the body of the sins of the flesh; how then again sayest thou, Mortify? Art thou sporting? Put to Dost thou thus discourse, as though those things were in us? There is no contradiction; but like as if one, who has clean scoured a statue that was filthy, or rather who has recast it, and displayed it bright afresh, should say that the rust was eaten' off and destroyed, and yet should again recommend diligence in clearing away the rust, he doth not contradict himself, for it is not that rust which he scoured off that he recommends should be cleared away, but that which grows 5ving afterwards; so it is not that former putting to death3 he speaks of, nor those fornications, but those which do afterwards grow. 4 XUTS πίθη v. 2. But lo! say the heretics', Paul accuseth the creation; for he said before, Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth; again he saith, Mortify your members which are upon the earth. But the words upon earth, are here expressive of sin, not an accusing of creation. For it is thus he calls sins themselves, things upon earth, either from their being wrought by earthly thoughts and upon earth, or from their shewing sinners to be earthly. Fornication, uncleanness, he saith. He has passed over the actions which it is not becoming even to mention, and by uncleanness has expressed all together. Inordinate affection, he saith, evil concupiscence. The Manichees. See on Gal. 1, 4. and note c. Tr. p. 9. and note at the end of St. Augustine's Confessions. Meaning of the old and new Man.' 271 Lo! he has expressed the whole in the class. For envy, Hoм. anger, sorrow, all are evil concupiscence. And covetousness, he saith, which is idolatry. For for these things' sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. By many things he had been withdrawing them; by the benefits which are already given, by the evils to come from which we had been delivered, being who, and wherefore; and all those considerations, as, for instance, who we were, and in what circumstances, and that we were delivered therefrom, how, and in what manner, and on what terms. These were enough to turn one away, but this one is of greater force than all; unpleasant indeed to speak of, not however to disservice, but even serviceable. For which things' sake cometh, he saith, the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. He said not, upon you,' but, upon the children of disobedience. In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. In order to shame them, he saith, when ye lived in them, and implying praise, as now no more so living: at that time they might. Ver. 8. But now ye also put off all these, He speaks always both universally and particularly; but this is from earnestness. Ver. 8, 9. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth. Lie not one to another. Filthy communication, he saith, out of your mouth, clearly intimating that it pollutes it. Ver. 9, 10. Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him. It is worth inquiring here, what can be the reason why he calls the corrupt life, members, and man, and body, and again the virtuous life, the same. And if the man means sins,' how is it that he saith, with his deeds? For he said once, the old man, shewing that this is not man, but the other. For the moral choice doth rather determine one than the substance, and is rather man than the other. For his substance casteth him not into hell, nor leadeth him into the kingdom, but this same choice: and we neither love nor hate VIII. 272 The new man, like Christ, grows not old. a man. COLOS. any one so far as he is man, but so far as he is such or such 3, 12. If then the substance be the body, and in either sort cannot be accountable, how doth he say that it is evil'? (2) But what is that he saith, with his deeds? He means the choice, with the acts. And he calleth him old, on purpose to shew his deformity, and hideousness, and imbecility; and new, as if to say, Do not expect that it will be with this one even as with the other, but the reverse: for ever as he farther advances, he hasteneth not on to old age, but to a youthfulness greater than the preceding. For when he hath received a fuller knowledge, he is both counted worthy of greater things, and is in more perfect maturity, and in higher vigour; and this, not from youthsidous fulness alone, but from that likeness' also, after which he is. weds : ἐστιν. Lo! the best life is styled a creation, after the image of Christ: for this is the meaning of, after the image of Him that created him, for Christ too came not finally to old age, but was so beautiful as it is not even possible to tell. Ver. 11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Lo! here is a third encomium of this man.' With him, there is no difference admitted either of nation, or of rank, or of ancestry, seeing he hath nothing of externals, nor needeth them; for all external things are such as these, circumcision, and uncircumcision, bond, free, Greek, that is, proselyte, and Jew, that is, such from his ancestors. If thou have only this man, thou wilt obtain the same things with the others that have him. But Christ, he saith, is all, and in all, that is, Christ will be all things to you, both rank, and descent, and Himself in you all. Or he says another thing, to wit, that ye all are become one Christ, being His body. Ver. 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved. He shews the easiness of virtue, so that they might both possess it continually, and use it as the greatest ornament. As the Manichees interpreted his words. « où wgòs yñgas iridiúrnov, Lat. ‘Nec senex mortuus est,' (died not old.) But the other sense seems more suitable. In either sense it is opposed to the view ascribed to Byzantine artists. See Rio's Poesie Chretienne. |