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Fasting a means of intercession.

EPHES. tude? Behold ye a virtuous spirit? I was not ashamed, he IV. 4. saith, to own before the whole multitude my involuntary sins.

And if he was not ashamed to confess, much more were it our Is. 43, duty to do so. For saith the prophet, Declare thou first thy 26. Sept. transgressions, that thou mayest be justified. Great is the violence of this evil, every thing is overturned by it and annihilated. We have forsaken the Lord, and are become slaves of honour. We are no longer able to rebuke those who are under our rule and guidance, because we ourselves also are possessed with the same fever as they. We who are appointed by God to heal others, need the physician ourselves. What further hope of recovery is there left, when even the very physicians themselves need the healing hand of others?

μεν

I have not said these things without an object, nor am I making lamentations to no purpose, but with the view that one and all, with our women and children, sprinkled with ashes,

and girded about with sackcloth, we may keep a long fast, noslav may beseech God Himself to stretch forth His hand to us, ἐπιτείνω- and to stay the peril. For need is there indeed of His hand, that mighty, that marvellous hand. Greater things are Jonah 3, required of us than of the Ninevites. Yet three days, said 4. Sept. the prophet, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. A fearful

message, and burthened with tremendous threat. And how should it be otherwise; to expect that within three days, the city should become their tomb, and that all should perish in one common judgment. For if, when it happens that two children die at the same time in one house, the hardship becomes intolerable, and if Job regarded this of all things the most intolerable, that the roof fell in upon all his children, and they were thus killed; what must it be to behold not one house, nor two children, but a nation of a hundred and twenty thousand buried beneath the ruins!

Ye know how terrible a disaster is this, for lately has this very warning happened to us, not that any prophet uttered a

1 Job 31, 33. 34. The verses in the Sept. stand thus. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἁμαρτῶν ἀκουσίως ἔκρυψα τὴν ἁμαρτίαν μου οὐ

γὰρ διετράπην πολυοχλίαν πλήθους τοῦ μὴ ἐξαγορεῦσαι ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν.

The Church had been overthrown before S. Chrysostom's day. 219

X.

voice, (for we are not worthy to hear such a voice,) but the HOMIL. warning cried aloud from ou high more distinctly than any trumpet. However, as I was saying, There are yet three days, said the prophet, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. A terrible warning indeed, but now we have nothing even like that; no, there are no longer three days, nor is there a Nineveh to be overthrown, but many days are already past since the Church throughout all the world has been overthrown, and levelled with the ground, and all alike are overwhelmed in the evil; nay more, and they that are in high places are involved in the same guilt as the rest. And hence is the calamity worse, in proportion as the distress is heavier upon them. Wonder not therefore why I should exhort you to do greater things than the Ninevites; nay more, nor do I now proclaim a fast only, but I suggest to you the remedy which raised up that city also when falling. And what was that? The Lord saw, saith the Jonah 3, prophet, that they turned every one from his evil way, and He repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them. This let us do, both we and you. Let us renounce the passion for riches, the lust for glory, beseeching God to stretch forth His hand, and to raise up our fallen limbs. And well may we, for our fear is not for the same objects as theirs; for then indeed it was only stones and timbers that were to fall, and bodies that were to perish; but now it is none of these, no, but souls are about to be delivered over to hell fire. Let us implore, let us confess unto Him, let us give thanks unto Him for what is past, let us entreat Him for what is to come, that we may be counted worthy to be delivered from this fierce and most terrible monster, and to lift up our thanksgivings to the kind and loving God and Father, to whom, with the Son, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, and honour, now, henceforth, and for ever and ever. Amen.

b Antioch was exposed to earthquakes. In A. D. 458 it was almost overthrown One happened A. D. 395, which might from this cause. be about the date of these Homilies.

10.

HOMILY XI.

EPHES.

CHAP. iv. 4-7. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as IV. 7. ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

The love Paul requires of us is no common love, but that which cements us together, and makes us cleave inseparably to one another, and effects as great and as perfect an union, as though it were between limb and limb. For this is that love which produces great and glorious fruits. Hence he saith, there is one body, one, both by sympathy, and by not being vexed at other's good, and by sharing their joy. And thus having expressed all these at once by this figure, he then beautifully adds, and one Spirit; shewing that from the one body, there will be one Spirit: or, that it is possible that there may be indeed one body, and yet not one Spirit; as, for instance, if any member of it should be a friend of heretics: or else he is, by this expression, shaming them into unanimity, saying as it were, Ye who have received one Spirit, and have been made to drink at one fountain, ought not to be divided in mind;' or else by spirit here he means their zeal. Then in connection he adds, Even as ye have been called in one hope of your calling, that is, God hath called you all on the same terms. He hath bestowed nothing upon one more than upon another. To all He hath freely given immortality, to all eternal life, to all immortal glory, to all brotherhood, to all inheritance. He is the common Head of ch. 2, 6. all; He hath raised all up, and made them sit together with Him. Ye then who in the spiritual world have so great

XI.

We are all equal in Christ through faith and baptism. 221 equality of privileges, why are ye high-minded? Is it that HOMIL. one is wealthy and another strong? How ridiculous must. this be? For tell me, if the emperor some day were to take ten persons, and to array them all in purple, and seat them on the royal throne, and to bestow upon all the same honour, would any one of these, think ye, venture to taunt another, as though he were himself more wealthy or more illustrious than he? Surely never. And I have not yet said all; for the difference is not so great as this.

In Heaven then

are we equal, and do we differ here below? There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Behold the hope of your calling. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all, one and the same. For can it be, that thou art called by the name of a greater, another, of a lesser God? That thou art saved by faith, and another by works? That thou hast received remission in baptism, whilst another has not? Away with such a thought. There is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Who is above all, that is, above and over all; and through all, that is, providing for, ordering all; and in you all, that is, who dwelleth in you all. Now this they own to be an attribute of the Son; so that were it an argument of inferiority, it never would have been said of the Father.

But unto every one of us is given grace.

What then, he saith, and whence are those diverse spiritual gifts? For this subject was continually carrying away both the Ephesians themselves, and the Corinthians, and many others, some into vain arrogance, and others into despondency or envy. Hence he every where takes along with him this idea of the body. Hence it is that now also he has proposed it, inasmuch as he was about to make mention of these diversities of gifts. He enters indeed into the subject more fully in the Epistle to the Corinthians, because it was among them that this malady most especially reigned: here however he has only alluded to it. And mark what he says: he does not say, according to the faith of each, lest he should throw those who have no large attainments into despondency. But what saith he? According to the measure of the gift of Christ. The chief and principal

222

We are alike in grace, but differ in gifts.

EPHES. points of all, he saith,-Baptism, the being saved by faith, the IV. 10. having God for our Father, our all partaking of the same Spirit, these are common to all. If then this or that man possesses any superiority in any spiritual gift, grieve not at it; since his toil also is greater. He that had received the five talents, had five required of him; whilst he that had received the two, brought only two, and yet received no less a reward than the other. And therefore the Apostle here also encourages the hearer on the same ground.

1 Cor.

For the perfecting of the saints, he says, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Hence it is that even he himself saith, Woe is unto me, if 9, 16. I preach not the Gospel. For example: A man, suppose,

has received the grace of Apostleship, but for this very reason, woe unto him, because he has received it: whereas thou art free from the danger.

According to the measure.

It means,

What is meant by, according to the measure? 'not according to our merit,' for then would no one have received what he has received: but of the free gift we have all received. And why then one more, and another less? There is nothing to cause this, he would say, but the matter itself is indifferent; for every one contributes towards the edifying. And by this too he shews, that it is not of his own intrinsic merit that one has received more and another less, but that it is for the sake of others, as God Him1 Cor. self hath measured it; since he saith also elsewhere, But 12, 18. now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And he mentions not the proportion, lest he should deject or dispirit the hearers.

Ver. 8. Wherefore he saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

As though he had said, Why art thou high-minded? The Ps. 68, whole is of God. The Prophet saith in the Psalm, Thou 18.Sept. hast received gifts among men, whereas the Apostle saith, The one is the same as the other. 3; 16, Of this kind also is the expression,

Comp.

John 3, He gave gifts unto men.

35; 13,

15.

Ver. 9, 10. Now that He ascended, what is it, but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He