16. Understand what is said, lest ye lose it: I am labouring to enable you to perceive it. The dowry of the bride then was divided into two portions consisting of things present and things to come; things seen and things heard, things given and things taken on trust, things experienced, and things to be enjoyed hereafter; things belonging to present life, and things to come after the resurrection. The former things you see, the latter you hear. Observe then what He says to her that you may not suppose that she received the former things only, though they be great and ineffable, and surpassing all understanding. "Hearken O daughter and behold;" hear the latter things and behold the former that thou mayest not say "am I again to depend on hope, again on faith, again on the future?" See now: I give some things, and I promise others: the latter indeed depend on hope, but do thou receive the others as pledges, as an earnest, as a proof of the remainder. I promise thee a kingdom: and let present things be the ground of thy trust, thy trust in me. Dost thou promise me a kingdom? Yea. I have given thee the greater part, even the Lord of the kingdom, for "he who spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" [881] Dost thou give me the resurrection of the body? Yea; I have given thee the greater part. What is the nature of it? Release from sins. How is that the greater part? Because sin brought forth death. I have destroyed the parent, and shall I not destroy the offspring? I have dried up the root, and shall I not destroy the produce. "Hearken O daughter and behold." What am I to behold? Dead men raised to life, lepers cleansed, the sea restrained, the paralytic braced up into vigour, paradise opened, loaves poured forth in abundance, sins remitted, the lame man leaping, the robber made a citizen of paradise, the publican turned into an evangelist, the harlot become more modest than the maid. Hear and behold. Hear of the former things and behold these. Accept from present things a proof of the others; concerning those I have given thee pledges, things which are better than they are. "What is the meaning of this thy saying?" These things are mine. "Hearken O daughter and behold." These things are my dower to thee. And what doth the bride contribute? Let us see. What I pray thee dost thou bring that thou mayest not be portionless? What can I, she answers, bring to thee from heathen altars, and the steam of sacrifices and from devils? What have I to contribute? what? sayest thou? Thy will and thy faith. "Hearken O daughter and behold." And what wilt thou have me do? "Forget thy own people." What kind of people? the devils, the idols, the sacrificial smoke, and steam, and blood. "Forget thy own people, and thy father's house." Leave thy father and come after me. I left my Father, and came to thee, and wilt thou not leave thy father? But when the word leave is used in reference to the Son do not understand by it an actual leaving. What He means is "I condescended, I accommodated myself to thee, I assumed human flesh." This is the duty of the bridegroom, and of the bride, that thou shouldest abandon thy parents, and that we should be wedded to one another. "Hearken O daughter and behold, and forget thy own people, and thy father's house." And what dost thou give me if I do forget them? "and the king shall desire thy beauty." Thou hast the Lord for thy lover. If thou hast Him for thy lover, thou hast also the things which are his. I trust ye may be able to understand what is said: for the thought is a subtle one, and I wish to stop the mouth of the Jews.
Now exert your minds I pray: for whether one hears, or forbears to hear I shall dig and till the soil. "Hearken O daughter, and behold, forget also thy own people, and thy father's house, and the king shall desire thy beauty." By beauty in this passage the Jew understands sensible beauty; not spiritual but corporeal.
17. Attend, and let us learn what corporeal, and what spiritual beauty are. There is soul and body: they are two substances: there is a beauty of body, and there is a beauty of soul. What is beauty of body? an extended eyebrow, a merry glance, a blushing cheek, ruddy lips, a straight neck, long wavy hair, tapering fingers, upright stature, a fair blooming complexion. Does this bodily beauty come from nature, or from choice? Confessedly it comes from nature. Attend that thou mayest learn the conception of philosophers. This beauty whether of the countenance, of the eye, of the hair, of the brow, does it come from nature, or from choice? It is obvious that it comes from nature. For the ungraceful woman, even if she cultivate beauty in countless ways, cannot become graceful in body: for natural conditions are fixed, and confined by limits which they cannot pass over. Therefore the beautiful woman is always beautiful, even if she has no taste for beauty: and the ungraceful cannot make herself graceful, nor the graceful ungraceful. Wherefore? because these things come from nature. Well! thou hast seen corporeal beauty. Now let us turn inwards to the soul: let the handmaid approach the mistress! let us turn I say to the soul. Look upon that beauty, or rather listen to it: for thou canst not see it since it is invisible--Listen to that beauty. What then is beauty of soul? Temperance, mildness, almsgiving, love, brotherly kindness, tender affection, obedience to God, the fulfilment of the law, righteousness, contrition of heart. These things are the beauty of the soul. These things then are not the results of nature, but of moral disposition. And he who does not possess these things is able to receive them, and he who has them, if he becomes careless, loses them. For as in the case of the body I was saying that she who is ungraceful cannot become graceful; so in the case of the soul I say the contrary that the graceless soul can become full of grace. For what was more graceless than the soul of Paul when he was a blasphemer and insulter: what more full of grace when he said "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." [882] What was more graceless than the soul of the robber? what more full of grace when he heard the words "Verily I say unto thee to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise?" [883] What was more graceless than the publican when he practised extortion? but what more full of grace when he declared his resolution. [884] Seest thou that thou canst not alter grace of body, for it is the result not of moral disposition, but of nature. But grace of soul is supplied out of our own moral choice. Thou hast now received the definition. Of what kind are they? that the beauty of the soul proceeds from obedience to God. For if the graceless soul obeys God it puts off its ungracefulness, and becomes full of grace. "Saul! Saul!" it was said, "why persecutest thou me?" and he replied "and who art Thou Lord?" "I am Jesus." [885] And he obeyed, and his obedience made the graceless soul full of grace. Again, He saith to the publican "come follow me" [886] and the publican rose up and became an apostle: and the graceless soul became full of grace. Whence? by obedience. Again He saith to the fishermen "Come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men:" [887] and by their obedience their minds became full of grace. Let us see then what kind of beauty He is speaking of here. "Hearken O daughter and behold, and forget thy own people and thy father's house, and the king shall desire thy beauty." What kind of beauty will he desire? the spiritual kind. How so? because she is to "forget" He saith "hearken and forget." These are acts of moral choice. "Hearken!" he said: an ungraceful one hears and her ungracefulness being that of the body is not removed. To the sinful woman He has said "Hearken," and if she will obey she sees what manner of beauty is bestowed upon her. Since then the ungracefulness of the bride was not physical, but moral (for she did not obey God but transgressed) therefore he leads her to another remedy. Thou didst become ungraceful then, not by nature, but by moral choice: and thou didst become full of grace by obedience. "Hearken O daughter and behold and forget thy own people, and thy father's house, and the king shall desire thy beauty." Then that thou mayest learn that he does not mean anything visible to sense, when thou hearest the word beauty, think not of eye, or nose, or mouth, or neck, but of piety, faith, love, things which are within--"for all the glory of the king's daughter is from within." Now for all these things let us offer thanks to God, the giver, for to Him alone belongeth glory, honour, might, for ever and ever. Amen.
[815] Matt. xvi. 18.
[816] ou topon monon ?lla kai tropon.
[817] Matt. ix. 13.
[818] See Introduction.
[819] Job i. 21.
[820] Ps. xxiv. 1.
[821] Matt. v. 12.
[822] Is. xl. 8.
[823] Is. xl. 8.
[824] Ps. cxii. 9.
[825] Luke xv. 4.
[826] Luke xii. 20, a free quotation. Chrysostom transposes the clauses and substitutes lamb?nousi "they are taking," for ?paitousin ?po sou, "they are demanding from thee."
[827] Matt. xi. 12, slightly altered by Chrysostom from the original he basil?ia ton ouranon bi?zetai, the kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence.
[828] John xiv. 6.
[829] Ibid.
[830] John i. 8, 9; viii. 12.
[831] Perhaps Ps. xcviii. 1; Is. xxxiii. 2; li. 9, and other passages of the same kind.
[832] 1 John ii. 2.
[833] 1 Cor. iii. 11.
[834] John x. 7.
[835] 1 John iii. 5; 1 Peter ii. 22.
[836] Perhaps Matt. vi. 21; viii. 44.
[837] Phil. ii. 6.
[838] Col. i. 15.
[839] 2 Cor. xi. 2.
[840] 2 Cor. xi. 2.
[841] Ps. vi. 2.
[842] Ps. xliv. 23.
[843] Gen. vi. 7.
[844] Is. i. 14.
[845] Ps. lxxxii. 6; comp. John x. 34.
[846] Ps. xlv. 10.
[847] Is. li. 10.
[848] Is. xl. 12. Septuagint.
[849] Rom. xi. 33. Chrysostom has transposed the order of the adjectives.
[850] Matt. xvii. 2: Mark ix. 2. Chrysostom mixes up the accounts of the two Evangelists, and does not quote the exact words of either.
[851] John xii. 47.
[852] 2 Cor. i. 21, 22.
[853] John xv. 5. In the original, "I am the vine," etc.
[854] Matt. iii. 11.
[855] Ps. ii. 9.
[856] Job x. 9.
[857] 2 Cor. iv. 7.
[858] 2 Cor. xi. 24, etc.
[859] Acts iii. 6.
[860] Acts ix. 34.
[861] Acts xvi. 18.
[862] 2 Cor. i. 21, 22.
[863] 1 Cor. ii. 9.
[864] John xi.; Matt. xxvii. 52.
[865] 1 Thess. iv. 17.
[866] 2 Cor. xi. 2.
[867] Acts xix. 11.
[868] Acts v. 15.
[869] 2 Cor. ii. 16.
[870] 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6.
[871] Strictly speaking, the name of the Egyptian desert in the neighborhood of Thebes; but here it must be used in a general sense, to denote any wild country. The whole passage is highly rhetorical.
[872] He probably means Sergius Paulus. Acts xiii. 12.
[873] Acts xxvi. 28. It is doubtful, however, whether this is the right interpretation of the words. See the revised translation.
[874] Acts xvi. 30, etc.
[875] Acts xxviii. 3, etc.
[876] Ps. xlv. 10.
[877] 1 Cor. iii. 12.
[878] 1 Cor. xv. 41.
[879] i.e., the Church.
[880] The statement is grounded on a mistaken etymology. There is also an allusion to the proverbial blindness of love.
[881] Rom. viii. 32.
[882] 2 Tim. iv. 7.
[883] Luke xxiii. 43.
[884] Luke xix. 8.
[885] Acts ix. 4, 5.
[886] Matt. ix. 9.
[887] Matt. iv. 19.
St. Chrysostom:
a treatise
to prove that no one can harm the man who does not injure himself.
translated by
rev. w. r. w. stephens, m.a.,
prebendary of chichester cathedral, and rector of woolbeding, sussex.