God's ready mercy. The first step in returning hardest. 161

6. 3. 4.

the greater honour. For he had greater pleasure himself at Roм. receiving back his son. And how am I to go back again? one may say. Do but put a beginning upon the business, and the whole is done. Stay from vice, and go no farther into it, and thou hast laid hold of the whole already. For as in the case of the sick, being no worse may be a beginning of getting better, so is the case with vice also. Go no further, and then your deeds of wickedness will have an end. And if you do so for two days, you will keep off on the third day more easily; and after the three days, you will add ten, then twenty, then an hundred, then your whole life. For the further thou goest on, the easier wilt thou see the way to be, and thou wilt stand close to the summit, and wilt at once enjoy many goods. For so it was, when the prodigal came back, there were flutes, and harps, and dancings, and feasts, and assemblings; and he who might have called his son to account for his ill-timed extravagance, and flight to such a distance, did nothing of the sort, but looked upon him as unattainted, and could not find it in him even to use the language of reproach, or rather, even to mention barely to him the former things, but threw himself upon him, and kissed him, and killed the calf, and put a robe upon him, and placed on him abundant honours. Let us then, as we have such examples before us, be of good cheer and keep from despair. For He is not so well pleased with being called Master, as Father, nor with having a slave as with having a son. And this is what He

liketh rather than that. This then is why He did all that He has done; and spared not even His Only-begotten Son, that Rom. 8, we might be adopted as sons, that we might love Him, not 32. as a Master only, but as a Father. And if He obtain this of us, He taketh delight therein as one that has glory given him, and proclaimeth it to all, though He needeth nothing of ours. This is what, in Abraham's case for instance, He every where does, using the words, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and yet it was they of His household who should have found an honour in this. But now it is the Lord evidently who does this: for this is why He says to Peter, Lovest thou Me more than these? to shew that John 21, He seeketh nothing so much as this from us. For this too He 17.

M

37.

X.

v.39.and

John 12,

25.

23.

162 To make sacrifices for the love of God a great blessing.

HOMIL. bade Abraham offer his son to Him, that He might make it known to all that He was greatly beloved" by the patriarch. Now this exceeding desire to be loved comes from loving exceedingly. For this cause too He said to the Apostles, Mat. 10, He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me. For this cause He bids us esteem that even which is 1 or life, in the most close connection with us, our soul1, as second to the love of Him, since He wisheth to be beloved by us with exceeding entireness. For we too, if we have no strong feelings about a person, have no strong desire for his friendship either, though he be great and noble; whereas when we love any one warmly and really, though the person loved be of low rank and humble, yet we esteem love from him as a very great honour. And for this reason He Himself also called it John 12, glory not to be loved by us only, but even to suffer those shameful things in our behalf. However, those things were a glory owing to love only. But whatever we suffer for Him, it is not for love alone; but even for the sake of the greatness and dignity of Him we love, that it would with good reason both be called glory, and be so indeed. Let us then incur dangers for Him as if running for the greatest crowns, and let us esteem neither poverty, nor disease, nor affront, nor calumny, nor death itself, to be heavy and burdensome, when it is for Him that we suffer these things. For if we be right minded, we are the greatest possible gainers by these things, as neither from the contrary to these shall we if not rightminded gain any advantage. But consider; does any one affront thee and war against thee? Doth he not thereby set thee upon thy guard, and give thee an opportunity of growing like unto God? For if thou lovest him that plots against Mat. 5, thee, thou wilt be like Him that maketh His Sun to rise upon the evil and good. Does another take thy money away? If thou bearest it nobly, thou shalt receive the same reward as they who have spent all they have upon the poor. Heb. 10, For it says, Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Has any one reviled thee and abused thee, whether truly or falsely, he weaves for thee a very great crown if thou

45.

34.

n This passage is one amongst many which shew how the fides formata'

was that which the Fathers contemplated.

Use of open enemies.

Danger of secret temptations. 163

6, 3.4.

Mat. 5,

11.

31.

bearest meekly his contumely; since he too, who calum- ROM. niates, provides for us an abundant reward. For rejoice, it says, and be exceeding glad, when men say all manner of 13. evil against you falsely, because great is your reward in Heaven. And he too that speaketh truth against us is of the greatest service, if we do but bear meekly what is said. For the Pharisee spake evil of the Publican, and with truth, still instead of a Publican he made him a righteous man. And Luke 18, what need to go into particular instances. For any one that will go to the conflicts of Job may learn all these points accurately. And this is why Paul said, If God be for us, Rom. 8, who can be against us? As then by being earnest, we gain even from things that vex us, so by being listless, we do not even improve from things that favour us. For what did Judas profit, tell me, by being with Christ? or what profit was the Law to the Jews? or Paradise to Adam? or what did Moses profit those in the wilderness? And so we should leave all, and look to one point only, how we may husband aright our own resources. And if we do this, not even the devil himself will ever get the better of us, but will make our profiting the greater, by putting us upon being watchful. Now in this way it is that St. Paul rouses the Ephesians, by describing his fierceness. Yet we sleep and snore, though we have to do with so crafty an enemy. And if we were aware of a serpent° nestling by our bed, we should make much ado to kill him. But when the devil nestleth in our souls, we fancy that we take no harm, but lie at our ease; and the reason is, that we see him not with the eyes of our body. And yet this is why we should rouse us the more and be sober. For against an enemy whom one can perceive one may easily be on guard; but one that cannot be seen, if we be not continually in arms, we shall not easily escape. And the more so, because he hath no notion of open combat, (for he would surely be soon defeated,) but often under the appearance of friendship he insinuates the venom of his cruel malice. In this way it was that he suborned Job's wife, by putting on the mask of natural affectionateness, to give that wretchless advice. And so when conversing with Adam, he

• See Macarius on the Keeping of Institutes of Christian Perfection, the Heart, c. 1. translated in Penn's p. 2.

X.

Gen. 3,

5.

164 Duty of providing against Satan's plausible shew.

Be then on thy guard, and arm the weapons of the Spirit, get

HOMIL. puts on the air of one concerned and watching over his interests, and saith, that your eyes shall be opened in the day that ye eat of the tree. Thus Jephtha too he persuaded, under the pretext of religion, to slay his daughter, and to offer the sacrifice the Law forbade. Do you see what his wiles are, what his varying warfare? thyself at all points with exactly acquainted with his plans, that thou mayest both keep from being caught, and easily catch him. For it was thus that Paul got the better of him, by getting exactly 1 Cor. 2, acquainted with these. And so he says, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Let us then also be earnest in learning and avoiding his stratagems, that after obtaining a victory over him, we may, whether in this present life or in that which is to come, be proclaimed conquerors, and obtain those unalloyed blessings, by the grace and love toward man, &c.

21.

HOMILY XI.

ROM. vi. 5.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.

add vas

WHAT I had before occasion to remark, that I mention ROM. 6, 5. here too, that he continually digresseth into exhortation, without making any twofold division as he does in the other Epistles, and setting apart the former portion for doctrines, and the latter for the care of moral instruction. Here then he does not do so, but blends the latter with the subject throughout, so as to gain it an easy admission. Here then he says there are1 two mortifyings, and two deaths, and that1 3 Mss. one is done by Christ in Baptism, and the other it is our duty to effect by earnestness afterwards. For that our former sins were buried, came of His gift. But the remaining dead to sin after Baptism must be the work of our own earnestness, however much we find God here also giving us large help. For this is not the only thing Baptism has the power to do, to obliterate our former transgressions; for it also secures against subsequent ones. As then in the case of the former, thy contribution was faith that they might be obliterated, so also in those subsequent to this, shew thou forth the change in thine aims, that thou mayest not defile thyself again. For it is this and the like that he is counselling thee when he says, for if we have been planted together

Here we have again two of the 3 Paris Mss. mentioned in note c. p.

153. and the other for the beginning of
Hom. xii.