The exhortation of the last Homily is continued in this. The people are exhorted to bear with fortitude the impending wrath of the Emperor. The cases of Job and the Ninevites are referred to as examples. It is shewn that men ought not to fear death, but sin. What it is to die miserably is explained; and the Homily concludes with an earnest dissuasive against the use of oaths.

1. The discourse concerning the three young men, and the Babylonian furnace, did, as it would seem, yesterday give no small comfort to your Charity; and still more the example in the case of Job, and that dunghill more to be venerated than any kingly throne. For from seeing a royal throne no advantage results to the spectators, but only a temporary pleasure, which has no profit; but from the sight of Job’s dunghill, one may derive every kind of benefit, yea, much divine wisdom and consolation, in order to patience. Therefore to this day many undertake a long pilgrimage,¹²²⁷

1227 Comp. Hom. I. 23; Hom. XXXI. on Rom. xvi. 4.

1228 τὴν δεξαμ™νην τὰ σκ€μματα, see Hom. IV., this word can only mean the prepared place, not the spectators.

1229 βαπτιζόμενον, perhaps rather “drenched,” but the mention of the purple favors “dyed;” the present tense does not admit “baptized,” though the allusion is well sustained in Ben. tinctum.

2. Figure to yourselves then this wrestler; and imagine that you see that dunghill, and himself sitting in the midst of it! That golden statue! set with gems! I know not how to express it: for I am unable to find any material so precious as to compare it with that body stained with blood! So far above every substance, however costly, was the nature of that flesh, beyond all comparison more precious, and those wounds more splendid than the sun’s beams; for these illumine the eyes of the body; but those enlighten the eyes of the mind! those struck the devil with utter blindness! Therefore it was, that after that blow, he started back and appeared no more. And do thou, O beloved, learn thence too what advantage there is in tribulation! For when the just man was rich, and enjoyed ease, he had the means of accusing him. However falsely, yet still he had it in his power to say, “Doth Job serve thee for nought?” But after he had stripped him and made him poor, he dared not even open his mouth any more. When he was wealthy, he prepared to wrestle with him, and threatened to overthrow him; but when he had made him poor, and taken away all he had, and thrown him into the deepest distress, then he started back. When indeed his body was sound, he lifted up his hands against him,¹²³⁰

1230 Or buffetted with him, χεῖρας ‡ντῇρεν.

3. Who hath seen or heard of such an astonishing contest? The fighters in worldly contests, when they have battered the heads of their adversaries, are then victorious, and are crowned! But this adversary, when he had battered the body of the just man, perforating it with ulcers of every kind, and had reduced him to great weakness, was then conquered, and drew back. Even when he had pierced his ribs in every direction, he was no gainer thereby; for he spoiled him not of his hidden treasure, but he made him more conspicuous to us; and through that piercing he gave to all the privilege to look into his interior, and to discern completely the whole of his wealth! When he expected to prevail, then he withdrew with much ignominy, and never again uttered a syllable! What is the matter, O devil? For what cause withdrawest thou? Was not everything done that thou chosest? Hast thou not taken away his flocks, his herds, his droves of horses and of mules? Hast thou not also destroyed his troop of children? and battered his flesh to pieces. For what reason withdrawest thou? “Because,” saith he, “every thing I chose¹²³¹

1231 ἠθ™λησα, desired is ἐβουλόμην. See Plat. Gorg. where Socrates argues that a tyrant has no great power, since, though he can do all he chooses, … δοκεῖ αὐτῷ, he cannot attain what he wishes, … βούλεται.

1232 εὐεξίαν. See Hom. I. 16.

4. Collecting then all these reasons, let us raise ourselves from the dejection which oppresses us. For I have laid these histories before you, not that ye may applaud what is spoken, but that ye may imitate the virtue and the patience of such noble men; that ye may learn from the very facts, that there is nothing of human ills to be dreaded, save sin only; neither poverty, nor disease, nor insult, nor malicious treatment, nor ignominy, nor death, which is accounted the worst of all evils. To those who love spiritual wisdom, such things are only the names of calamities; names which have no substantial reality. But the true calamity consists in offending God, and in doing aught which is displeasing to Him. For tell me, what is there in death which is terrible? Is it because it transports thee more quickly to the peaceful haven, and to that life which is free from tumult? Although man should not put thee to death, will not the very law of nature, at length stealing upon thee, separate the body from the soul; and if this event which we fear does not happen now, it will happen shortly.

5. I speak thus, not anticipating any dread or melancholy event:¹²³³

1233 i.e., as connected with the present events.

1234 1 Cor. ii. 9; Isa. lxiv. 4.

1235 Rom. viii. 22, 23.

1236 οὐ στ™γω. Cf. 1 Thess. iii. 1.

6. But grant me, saith one, to be like Paul, and I shall never be afraid of death. Why, what is it that forbids thee, O man, to become like Paul? Was he not a poor man? Was he not a tent maker? Was he not a man of humble position? For if he had been rich and high born, the poor, when called upon to imitate his zeal, would have had their poverty to plead; but now thou canst say nothing of this sort. For this man was one who exercised a manual art, and supported himself too by his daily labours. And thou, indeed, from the first hast inherited true religion from thy fathers; and from thy earliest age hast been nourished in the study of the sacred writings; but he was “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious,”¹²³⁷

1237 1 Tim. i. 13.

1238 1 Cor. xi. 6.

1239 ζωντες, but Ben. Mar. ὄντες, who are.

1240 1 Tim. v. 6.

1241 John xi. 5.

1242 Jas. ii. 18.

7. But I have no fear of death, says one, nor of the act of dying, but of a miserable death, of being beheaded. Did John then, I ask, die miserably? for he was beheaded. Or did Stephen die miserably? for he was stoned; and all the martyrs have thus died wretchedly, according to this objection: since some have ended their lives by fire; and others by the sword; and some cast into the ocean; others down a precipice; and others into the jaws of wild beasts, have so come by their death. To die basely, O man, is not to come to one’s end by a violent death, but to die in sin! Hear, at least, the prophet moralising on this very matter, and saying, “The death of sinners is evil.”¹²⁴³

1243 In this rendering of the Septuagint there is a coincidence with that of the Targum, and the Vulgate, Æthiopic, and Arabic versions. But the Syriac is conformable with the Hebrew. The discrepancy may be accounted for by a slight difference in the reading of the vowel points.

1244 Ps. xxxiv. 21. This passage is quoted by Bishop Latimer at the close of a sermon upon the epistle for the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, preached A.D. 1552. His words are, Mors peccatorum pessima. “Death to sinners is the worst thing that can happen unto them.” “What meaneth he by that? he signifieth unto us, that the wicked be not enough punished here, therefore it shall be worse with them after their death. So that it shall be a change: they that have their pleasure here, and live according to their desires, they shall come to afflictions in the other world.”

1245 See Hom. III. on Rom. i. 18.

8. Since therefore such evils await sinners, what advantage can it be to them, though they should end their days at home, and in their bed? Even so, on the other hand, it can do no harm to the righteous to lay down the present life through sword, or steel, or fire, when they are to depart to the good things that are immortal. Truly “the death of sinners is evil.” Such a death was that of the rich man, who despised Lazarus. He, when he had terminated his life by a natural end, at home and on his bed, and with his relatives about him, experienced after his departure to the other world a fiery torment; nor was he able to obtain there even a little comfort, out of all the pleasure he had enjoyed in the present life! But not so was it with Lazarus; for when lying upon the pavement, while the dogs came and licked his sores, he had suffered a violent death (for what could be more painful than hunger?), but on his departing hence he enjoyed eternal blessings, luxuriating in the bosom of Abraham! In what respect, then, did it injure him that he died a violent death? or what did it profit the rich man, that he died not with violence?

9. But, says some one, “We have no fear of dying by violence, but of dying unjustly; and of being punished in a similar way with the guilty,—we who have had nothing to do with the crimes of which we are suspected.” What sayest thou, tell me? Art thou afraid of dying unjustly, and wouldest thou wish to die justly. But who is there so wretched and miserable, that when he had the alternative of dying unjustly, would rather depart by an act of justice? For if it be necessary to fear death, it is necessary to fear it when it comes upon us justly; since he indeed who dies unjustly, is by this very means made a partaker with all the saints. For many of those who were approved and distinguished by God, have been subjected to an unjust end; and first of all Abel. For it was not that he had sinned against his brother, or done Cain any harm; but inasmuch as he had honoured God, therefore was he slaughtered. But God permitted it. Was it, think you, because He loved him, or because He hated him? Most clearly, because He loved him, and wished to make his crown the brighter, by that most unjust murder. Seest thou then, that it becomes us not to be afraid of dying by violence; nor yet of dying unjustly; but of dying in a state of sin? Abel died unjustly. Cain lived, groaning and trembling! Which then, I would ask, was the more blessed of the two; he who went to rest in righteousness, or he who lived in sin; he who died unjustly, or he who was justly punished? Would you have me declare unto your Charity, whence it is that we are afraid of death? The love of the kingdom hath not penetrated us, nor the desire of things to come inflamed us: otherwise we should despise all present things, even as the blessed Paul did. Add to this, on the other hand, that we do not stand in awe of hell; therefore death is terrible. We are not sensible of the unsufferable nature of the punishment there; therefore, instead of sin, we fear death; since if the fear of the one held possession of our souls, the fear of the other would not be able to enter.

10. And this I will endeavour to make manifest, not from anything of a remote nature, but from what is at our own doors; and from the events which have happened among us in these days. For when the Emperor’s letter came, ordering that tribute to be imposed which was thought to be so intolerable, all were in a tumult; all quarrelled with it; thought it a sore grievance, resented it; and when they met one another said, “Our life is not worth living, the city is undone;—no one will be able to stand under this heavy burden;” and they were distressed as if placed in the extremest danger. After this, when the rebellion was actually perpetrated, and certain vile, yea, thoroughly vile persons, trampling under foot the laws, threw down the statues, and involved all in the utmost peril; and now that we are in fear for our very lives, through the indignation of the Emperor, this loss of money no longer stings us. But instead of such complaints, I hear from all a language of a different kind. “Let the Emperor take our substance, we will gladly be deprived of our fields and possessions, if any one will but ensure us safety for the bare body.” As therefore, before the fear of death pressed upon us, the loss of our wealth tormented us; and after these lawless outrages had been perpetrated, the fear of death succeeding, expelled the grief for that loss; so if the fear of hell had held possession of our souls, the fear of death would not have possessed them. But even as it is with the body, when two kinds of pain seize upon us, the more powerful usually overshadows the weaker one, so also would it now happen; if the dread of future punishment remained in the soul, that would overshadow all human fear. So that if any one endeavours always to have the remembrance of hell, he will deride every kind of death; and this will not only deliver him from the present distress, but will even rescue him from the flame to come. For he who is always afraid of hell, will never fall into the fire of hell; being made sober by this continual fear!

11. Permit me, that I now say to you at a fitting time, “Brethren, be not children in understanding; howbeit in malice be ye children.”¹²⁴⁶

1246 1 Cor. xiv. 20.

12. Would you have me mention another reason on account of which we fear death? We do not live with strictness, nor keep a clear conscience; for if this were the case nothing would alarm us, neither death, nor famine, nor the loss of wealth, nor anything else of this kind. For he who lives virtuously, cannot be injured by any of these things, or be deprived of his inward pleasure. For being supported by favourable hopes, nothing will be able to throw him into dejection. What is there that any one can possibly effect, by which he can cause the noble-minded man to become sorrowful? Take away his riches? He has yet wealth that is in the heavens! Cast him out of his country? He will take his journey to¹²⁴⁷

1247 στελεῖ εἰς, al. τελεῖ εἰς, is free of.

1248 ƒμαρτημ€των, see Hom. IV. 4.

1249 Thus in Plat. Gorg. 78. Socrates argues that it is best to be punished when one does wrong, comparing punishment to medicine.

1250 M. what is the advantage that.

13. Some one is mulcted in property: he becomes sad, but this does not make good his loss. Some one hath lost a son: he grieves, but he cannot raise the dead, nor benefit the departed. Some one hath been scourged, beaten, and insulted; he becomes sorrowful. This does not recall the insult. Some one falls into sickness, and a most grievous disease; he is dejected. This does not remove his disease, but only makes it the more grievous. Do you see that in none of these cases does sadness answer any useful purpose? Suppose that any one hath sinned, and is sad. He blots out the sin; he gets free from the transgression. How is this shewn? By the declaration of the Lord; for, speaking of a certain one who had sinned, He said, “Because of his iniquity I made him sad for a while; and I saw that he was grieved, and he went on heavily; and I healed his ways.”¹²⁵¹

1251 Isa. lvii. 17. The English version seems rather to give the sense of the Hebrew, and is less pointedly apposite, though it too implies that trouble is given for our good, and, as the context also implies, sorrow too.

1252 2 Cor. vii. 10.

1253 Gen. ii. 17.

1254 Martyrdom was held to be a kind of second baptism, or instead of baptism to those on whom it came before they could be baptized. St. Cyr. Cat. iii. (7); St. Cypr. Ex. to Mart.; Ep. 73, ad Jud., Ed. Ben. p. 136. Tertullian says, “This is a baptism which will either supply the place of water-baptism to one that has not received it, or will restore it to one that has lost (or defaced) it. De Bapt. c. xvi., quoted by Wall on Inf. Bapt. c. vi., t. ii., p. 190.

1255 So St. Aug. Serm. de Script. cxlviii. (al. 10, de Div.) on Acts v. 4, Origen, xv. 15, on Matt. xix. 21, Ed. Ben. iii. 673. C. thinks Ananias to have had this benefit, but he supposes his death not to have been an immediate judgment, but the effect of his feeling at the moment. Œcumenius speaks of 1 Cor. xi. 31, as not merely threatening death, but future punishment. Photius, Cat. Cramer, p. 223, speaks as St. Chrysostom.

1256 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32.

14. Let us not then fear death, but let us only fear sin, and grieve on account of this. And these things I speak, not anticipating any thing fearful, God forbid! but wishing you when alarmed to be always thus affected, and to fulfil the law of Christ in very deed. For “he,” saith Christ, “that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.”¹²⁵⁷

1257 Matt. x. 38.

15. As for me, “I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet,”¹²⁵⁸

1258 Amos vii. 14.

1259 τρεῖς ἡμ™ραι. Thus it has always been read in the Septuagint, even from the first ages of the Church (note in Ed. Par. 1834). But this reading, it should be remarked, is not supported by the Targum, or the Vulgate, or Syriac, which all read forty days, as in the Hebrew copies. (St. Jerome on the passage corrects the error, and Theodoret says that the Syriac, and Hebrew, and the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, read forty. Origen, Hom. XVI. on Num. xxiii. 19, Ed. Ben. ii. p. 330, d. corrects the LXX. from the Hebrew.)

1260 Jonah iii.

1261 Nineveh was entirely ruined in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, and though it was afterwards rebuilt by the Persians, and not finally destroyed till about the seventh century, it seems probable that St. Chrysostom alludes here rather to its moral than to its actual glory at that time.

1262 βίον ˆριστον, “best life.” The article is not used, and the words added seem nearly to express what is intended to be understood.

1263 Gr. The good hope, i.e., the hope of the better alternative.

16. For God even preferred that His own prediction should fall to the ground, so that the city should not fall. Or rather, the prophecy did not even so fall to the ground. For if indeed while the men continued in the same wickedness, the sentence had not taken effect, some one perhaps might have brought a charge against what was uttered. But if when they had changed, and desisted from their iniquity, God also desisted from His wrath, who shall be able any longer to find fault with the prophecy, or to convict the things spoken of falsehood. The same law indeed which God had laid down from the beginning, publishing it to all men by the prophet, was on that occasion strictly observed. What then is this law? “I shall speak a sentence,” saith He, “concerning a nation or a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; and it shall be, that if they repent of their evil, I will also repent of the wrath which I said I would do unto them.”¹²⁶⁴

1264 Jer. xviii. 7, 8.

1265 The clause, “and if they had not repented,” inserted from Savile. Both the general sense, and the parallel with Rom. x. 14, seem to require it.

1266 τόπων.

1267 τρόπων.

17. Thus did the barbarians! and are we not ashamed, and ought we not to hide our faces, whilst instead of changing our habits, as they did, we change only our habitations; privily removing our goods, and doing the deeds of men that are drunken? Our Master is angry with us; and we, neglecting to appease His wrath, carry about our household stuff from place to place, and run hither and thither, seeking where we may deposit our substance; while we ought rather to seek where we may deposit our soul in safety; or rather, it behoveth us not to seek, but to entrust its safety to virtue and uprightness of life. For when we were angry and displeased with a servant, if he, instead of defending himself against our displeasure, went down to his apartment, and collecting together his clothes, and binding up together all his movables, meditated a flight, we could not tamely put up with this contempt. Let us then desist from this unseasonable endeavour, and let us each say to God, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from Thy presence?”¹²⁶⁸

1268 Ps. cxxxix. 7.

1269 Jonah iii. 9.

18. The prophet is indeed ashamed, foreseeing what the issue would be, and conjecturing that what he had prophesied, would remain unaccomplished; God however is not ashamed, but is desirous of one thing only, viz. the salvation of men, and corrects His own servant. For when he had entered the ship, He straightway there raised a boisterous sea; in order that thou mightest know that where sin is, there is a tempest; where there is disobedience, there is the swelling of the waves.¹²⁷⁰

1270 κλυδώνιον.

1271 ‡τερμ€τιστον, this word means “vast,” “immeasurable,” and does not suit the sense: ‡νερμ€τιστον is undoubtedly the right reading, unless indeed St. Chrysostom used one for the other, as Suidas. Hesychius gives it “without ballast,” and so Aristotle ›ρματίζειν, but Il. i. 486, œρματα are props used on shore.

19. Therefore he came back again; he preached; he threatened; he persuaded; he preserved; he affrighted; he amended; he established; by one, and that the first preaching! Many days he needed not, nor continued counsel; but speaking these simple words only, he brought all to repentance! On this account God did not lead him directly from the ship into the city; but the sailors committed him to the sea; the sea to the whale; the whale to God; God to the Ninevites; and by this long circuit he brought back the fugitive, that he might instruct all, that it is impossible to fly from the hands of God; that whithersoever any one may roam, dragging his sin after him, he will have to undergo a thousand evils; and though no mortal were present, yet on every side the whole creation will rise up against him with the utmost vehemence! Let us not then provide for our safety by flight, but by a change of the moral character. Is it for remaining in the city that God is angry with thee, that thou shouldest fly? It is because thou hast sinned, that He is indignant. Lay aside therefore the sin, and where the cause of thy wound lies, thence remove¹²⁷²

1272 ‡ν€στειλον, divert as a stream. The metaphor is explained by the sequel, the “wound” meaning an incision made for surgical purposes.

20. Let us therefore persuade it to make this first change for the better, by the avoidance of oaths; for although I spake to you yesterday, and the day before,¹²⁷³

1273 This passage will serve to shew, that during the season of Lent it was the practice to have sermons daily at Antioch. Bingham has given a variety of quotations to the same effect. B. xiv. c. iv., sec. 7, vol. iv. p. 536, New Ed.

1274 The supper, it should be remembered, was the chief meal of the day among the Greeks and Romans. And with those who observed the fast strictly the only meal: see Hom. VI. [6], and Hom. IV. 12.

21. Ye have applauded what I have spoken. But still shew me your applause too by deeds. Else what is the advantage of our meeting here? Suppose a child were to go to school every day, yet if he learnt nothing the more for it, would the excuse satisfy us that he every day went there? Should we not esteem it the greatest fault, that going there daily, he did it to no purpose. Let us consider this with ourselves, and let us say to ourselves, For so long a time have we met together at church, having the benefit of a most solemn Communion,¹²⁷⁵

1275 συν€ξεως φρικωδεστ€της. The word σύναξις is of frequent occurrence in St. Chrysostom, but is of somewhat ambiguous signification, and means commonly the service of the Church; but here and in some other passages, it seems to mean the Communion service. See a passage in Homily IX. on Penitence, where the same expression receives a most striking commentary.

22. Let us not moralize on these things here only. For this temporary admonition does not suffice to extirpate the whole evil; but at home also, let the husband hear of these things from the wife, and the wife from the husband. And let there be a kind of rivalry among all in endeavouring to gain precedence in the fulfilment of this law; and let him who is in advance, and hath amended his conduct, reproach him who is still loitering behind; to the end that he may stir him up the more by these gibes. He who is deficient, and hath not yet amended his conduct, let him look at him who hath outstripped him, and strive with emulation to come up with him quickly. If we take advice on these points, and are anxiously concerned about them, our other affairs will speedily be well adjusted. Be thou solicitous about God’s business, and he will take care of thine! And do not say to me, “What if any one should impose upon us the necessity of taking oaths? What if he should not believe us?” For assuredly, where a law is transgressed, it is improper to make mention of necessity; forasmuch as there is but one necessity which cannot be dispensed with, viz. that of not offending God! This, however, I say further; cut off in the meantime superfluous oaths, those that are taken uselessly, and without any necessity; those to your own family, those to your friends, those to your servants; and should you take away these, you will have no further need of me for the others. For the very mouth that has been well disciplined to dread and to avoid the frequent oath, should any one constrain it a thousand times, would never consent to relapse again into the same habit. On the contrary, as now, with much labor and vast importunity, by alarming, threatening, exhorting, and counselling, we have scarcely been able to bring it over to a different habit, so in that case, although any one were to impose ever so great necessity, he could not possibly persuade to a transgression of this law. And as a person would never choose to take a particular poison, however urgent the necessity might be, so neither would he to utter an oath!

23. Should this amendment then take place, it will be an encouragement and inducement to the attainment of the remaining parts of virtue. For he who has not accomplished anything at all becomes listless, and quickly falls; but he who is conscious with himself that he has fulfilled at least one precept, coming by this to have a good hope, will go on with greater alacrity towards the rest; so that, after he has reached one, he will presently come to another; and will not halt until he has attained the crown of all. For if with regard to wealth, the more any one obtains of it, the more he desires, much rather may this be seen with reference to spiritual attainments. Therefore I hasten, and am urgent that this work may take its commencement, and that the foundation of virtue may be laid in your souls. We pray and beseech, that ye will remember these words, not only at the present time, but also at home, and in the market, and wheresoever ye pass your time. Oh! that it were possible for me familiarly to converse with you!¹²⁷⁶

1276 St. Chrysostom perhaps here refers to the interruption of his private pastoral duties, which were occasioned by the existing calamity. Possibly also to the numbers of his congregation. See the end of the next Homily. In Hom. LXXXV. on St. Matt. near the end, he estimates his congregation at 100,000. Ed. Ben. p. 810.

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