VI.

Ps. 137,

4.

86 He that would convert Heathens must be no Idolater.

HOMIL. Said, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Now if it were unlawful to sing the oracles of God in a strange land, much less might an estranged soul do it. For estranged the merciless soul is. For if the Law made those who were captives and had become slaves to men in a strange land, to sit in silence; much more is it right for those who are slaves to sin and are in an alien community to have a curb upon their mouths. And however they had their instruments then. For it says, Upon the willows in the midst thereof did we hang our instruments, but still they might not sing. And so we also, though we have a mouth and tongue which are the instruments of speech, have no right to speak boldly, so long as we be slaves to what is more tyrannical than any barbarian, sin. For tell me, what have you to say to the Gentile, if you plunder and be covetous? will you say, forsake idolatry, become acquainted with God, worship not gold and silver? Will he not make a jest of you, and say, Talk to thyself first in this way? For it is not the same thing for a Gentile to practise idolatry, and 13 Mss. a Christian to commit this same sin. For how are we to om.same draw others away from that idolatry if we draw not ourselves away from this"? For we are nearer related to ourselves than to our neighbour, and so when we persuade not ourselves, how are we to persuade others? For if he that doth not rule well over his own house, will not take care of the Church either, how shall he that doth not rule even over his own soul be able to improve others? Now do not tell me, that you do not worship an image of gold, but make this clear to me, that you do not do those things which gold bids you. For there be different kinds of idolatry, and one holds mammon lord, and another his belly his god, and a third some other most baneful lust.

1 Tim.

3, 5.

66 But, you do not sacrifice oxen to them as the Gentiles do." Nay, but what is far worse, you butcher to them your own soul. But you do not bow the knee or worship.' Nay, but with great obedience you do all that they command you, whether

Ο Βάρβαρος. Though this word is not equivalent to Barbarian, it has force enough to give a fitness to the term 'merciless.' St. Chrysostom excels in

these side-strokes, which he so much admires too in the Apostle.

Ρ κάκιστος ὁ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν χρώμενος τῇ poxengia, &c. Arist. Eth. v. 1.

Covetousness and lust are Idolatry.

87

3, 8.

and

it be your belly, or money, or the tyranny of lust. Why ROM. this is just what the Gentiles are disgusting in, that they made gods of the passions; calling lust Venus, and anger 6 Mss. Mars, and drunkenness Bacchus. If then you do not graven images as did they, yet do you with great eagerness bow our under the very same passions, when you make the members of Christ members of an harlot, and plunge yourself into the other deeds of iniquity. I therefore exhort you to lay to heart the exceeding unseemliness hereof, and to flee from this idolatry. For this doth Paul name covetousness-and to flee not only covetousness in money, but that in evil desire, and that in clothing, and that in table, and that in 25 Mss. every thing else: since the punishment we shall have to suffer if we obey not God's laws is much severer. For, 3 So He says, the servant that knew his Lord's will, and did it sav. not, shall be beaten with many stripes. With a view then The to escaping from this punishment, and be useful both to Luke 12, others and to ourselves, let us drive out all iniquity from our 47. soul and choose virtue. For so shall we attain to the blessings which are to come, and may we all attain thereto by His grace and love toward man, &c.

3

tables

6 Mss.

Lord's

HOMILY VII.

VII.

ROM. iii. 9-18.

HOMIL. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues have they used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.

He has accused the Gentiles, he has accused the Jews; what follows to mention next is, the righteousness which is by faith. For if the law of nature availed not, and the written Law was of no advantage, but both weighed down. those that used them not aright, and made it plain that they were worthy of greater punishment, then the salvation which is by grace was henceforth necessary. Speak then of it, O Paul, and display it. But as yet he does not venture, as having an eye to the violence of the Jews, and so turns afresh to accusation of them; and first he brings in David as accuser, who speaks of these things at length, which Isaiah mentioned briefly as a whole, so furnishing a strong

The Prophets condemn the Jews, and prepare for the new Covenant. 89

curb for them, such that none of those who heard him could Roм. 3, 19. bound off from, nor, after the matters of faith were laid open to them, start away, as being beforehand safely held down. by the accusations of the prophets. For there are three excesses which the prophet lays down; he says that all of them together did evil, and that they did not mingle any good with the evil, but followed after wickedness alone, and after this also with all earnestness. And next that they

should not say, "What then? if these things were said to others?" he goes on:

Ver. 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law.

21.

This then is why, next to Isaiah, who confessedly aimed at them, he brought in David; that he might shew that these things also belonged to the same subject. For what need was there, he means, that a prophet who was sent for your correction should accuse other people. For neither was the Law given to any else than you. And for what reason did he not say, we know that what things soever the prophet saith, but what things soever the Law saith? It is because Paul uses to call the whole Old Testament the Law. And in another place he says, Do ye not hear the Law, that Gal. 4, Abraham had two sons. And here he calls the Psalms the Law' when he says, We know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law. Next he shews that these things are not said merely for accusation's sake, but that the Law might again be paving the way for the faith. So close is the harmony1 of the Old Testament' 6 Mss. with the New, that even the accusations and reproofs were entirely with a view to this, that the door of faith might relationopen brightly unto them that hear it. For since it was the principal bane of the Jews that they were so conceited with themselves, (which thing he mentioned as he went on, how that being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and Rom. going about to establish their own righteousness, they submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God,) the Law and the Prophets by being beforehand with them cast

a The term Law was commonly so. They, however, viewed the whole applied to all the Pentateuch by Jew- O. T. as an evolved form of the Law. ish writers: but to the Psalms not

and

marg.

10, 3.

VII.

90 The witness of the Law silences men's boasting.

HOMIL. down their high thoughts, and laid low their conceit, that being brought to a consideration of their own sins, and having emptied out the whole of their unreasonableness, and seen themselves in danger of the last extremity, they might with much earnestness run unto Him who offered them the remission of their sins, and accept the grace through the faith. And this it is then which St. Paul hints even here, when he says,

16 Mss. add

Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Here then he exhibits them as destitute of the boldness of speech which comes of works, and only using a parade of words and behaving in a barefaced way. And this is why the phrase he uses has such propriety, when he says, that every mouth may be stopped, so pointing out the barefaced and almost uncontrollable pomposity of their language, and that their tongue was now curbed in the strictest sense. For as an unsupportable torrent, so had it been borne along. But the prophet stopped it. And when Paul saith, that every mouth may be stopped, what he means is, not that the reason of their sinning was that their mouth might be stopped, but that the reason of their being reproved was that they might not commit this very sin in ignorance. And all the world may become guilty before God. He does not say the Jew, but the whole of mankind". For the phrase, that every mouth may be stopped, is obscurely said of them, but if it is not perspicuously stated, it is with a view to prevent the language being too harsh. But the words that all the world may become guilty before God, is spoken at once both of the Jews and of the Gentiles. Now this is no slight thing with a view to take down their unreasonableness. Since even here they have no advantage over the Gentiles, but are alike given up as far as salvation is concerned. For he would be in strict propriety called a guilty person, who cannot help himself to any excuse, but needeth

bús, here used probably for the particular nature or kind in question, viz. the human. Somewhat in the same manner it is used of individual beings.

For the several uses of the term, see Arist. Metaph. 4. where he calls this use metaphorical.