11. But in order that the amendment may take place the more quickly, do this which I tell thee. Inscribe upon the wall of thy house, and upon the wall of thy heart, that "flying sickle;" [1433] and think that it is flying forth on occasion of the curse, and constantly remember it. And if thou observest another person swearing, restrain, forbid, and be careful for him, and be careful for thine own domestics. For if we would look to this, that we might not merely correct ourselves, but also bring others to the same point, we shall ourselves quickly arrive at the goal; since while we undertake to instruct others, we shall be ashamed and blush, should we in our own case seem to leave those things unperformed, which we enjoin upon them. There is no need to say more; for much has been already spoken on these matters; and these things are now said only by way of remembrance. But may God, who is more sparing of our souls than we are, make us perfect in this, and every good work; that so having completed the whole fruit of righteousness, we may be found worthy of the kingdom of heaven, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom, and with Whom, to the Father, with the Holy Ghost, be glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
[1394] Comp. Phil. i. 24, Country Parson, c. 7.
[1395] Alluding to the passage, 2 Cor. vi. 11, 12. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
[1396] He seems to mean those who voluntarily submitted to it. He had recommended masters to punish themselves, as well as their dependents. See above.
[1397] Country Parson, c. 32.
[1398] Country Parson, c. 34.
[1399] This Homily is placed by Montfaucon on the Monday after the last; it is difficult to find any especial reason for the circumstance here referred to; there was the same impediment when the following Homily was delivered. Perhaps the most probable account is, that some persons began the fast with a strictness from which they afterwards fell off. The meal spoken of was an early dinner. Eumæus takes his ?riston at daybreak, Od. xvi. 2. But Athenæus, l. i. c. 9 and 10, says that in his day such a meal was called ?kr?tisma, and the deipnon of the ancients, at mid-day, ?riston(quoted by Perizonius on Ælian. V. H. ix. 19).
[1400] poll?kis. But Sav. and M. polles, making the sense, "thou wilt assuredly, even if unwilling, observing great sobriety."
[1401] i.e., the oracles of Scripture explained at church. (See Hom. II. 12.) The Holy Communion was always received fasting.
[1402] eristekos.
[1403] A canon of Isaac Lingonensis (in the eighth century), Tit. viii. cap. 2, Labbe viii. 620, forbids any one to take an oath except fasting. The Athenian courts did not sit after sunset, and the great time for forensic business was the forenoon. Goeller on Thuc. viii. 92. Ælian, V. H. xii. 30, says that the luxurious Tarentines would be drunk even when the forum is fullest, peri plethousan ?gor?n. v. Act. ii. 15; Perizonius on Ælian, cites Dio Chrys. Or. 67, de Glor. 2, who shews it was about that time.
[1404] i.e, the promise of explaining that subject which had been proposed in the two foregoing Homilies; namely, the reason why the gift of Holy Scripture was so long delayed.
[1405] See Butler's Analogy, p. ii. c. 6, where the somewhat similar objection, "that Christianity is not universal," is discussed.
[1406] An enlarged view of this principle is given in Butler's Analogy, p. ii. c. 7, applying it further to the facts recorded in Holy Scripture. "The general design of Scripture, which contains in it this revelation, thus considered as historical, may be said to be, to give us an account of the world, in this one single view, as God's world."
[1407] Rom. i. 18.
[1408] Rom. i. 20.
[1409] Wisd. xiii. 5.
[1410] Ps. xix. 1.
[1411] Ps. xix. 3.
[1412] The diurnal motion of the earth, or, as they called it, of the heavens, was taken by Plato for the very type of stability. The exactness of its rate is far greater than the ancients had means to appreciate, as is proved by constant observations, as well as by the oldest eclipses.
[1413] psalmodos: St. Chrys. usually says "the prophet."
[1414] sp?rmata. He seems to mean the young blade. These remarks are adapted to a climate in which the harvest is over before midsummer.
[1415] See Job xxxviii. 4.
[1416] Ps. xxiv. 2.
[1417] Ps. cxxxvi. 6. Among the variety of opinions that anciently prevailed respecting the earth's form and situation, one of the principal was, that the heavens and earth above this ocean was the only visible universe; and that all beneath the ocean was Hades, or the invisible world. Hence when the sun set, he was said, tingere se oceano; and when any went to Hades, they must first pass the ocean. Of this opinion were not only the ancient poets, but some of the Christian Fathers, particularly Lactantius, and St. Augustin, and others, who thought their opinion was favoured by the Psalmist, in Ps. xxiv. 2, and cxxxvi. 6. Derham's Physico-Theology, p. 41. St. Chrysostom must evidently have adopted the same opinion. St. Greg. Nyss. in Hexæm. t. l., p. 22e., speaks of the earth's conical shadow. See Plin. ii. 11. St. Bas. in Hex. i. c. 9, explains the "founding on the waters," of their being spread all round: ix. c. 1, he speaks of various opinions as to its shape, and some who thought it to be 180,000 stadia round. See St. Greg. Naz. Or. xxviii. al. xxxiv. c. 28, and Philoponus de Mund. Cr. iii. 6-13; Galland, xii. p. 525.
[1418] This line of argument, from arrangements above the course of nature, is a dangerous one; and it would be less difficult than invidious, to search out instances of fallacy in modern writers. It always brings men's ignorance into play.
[1419] Job xxvi. 7.
[1420] Ps. xcv. 4.
[1421] Ps. xxiv. 2.
[1422] sunkratousa, but Sav. sunkrotousa. There is constant variation of reading wherever these words occur.
[1423] See in Bacon's Novum Organum, his Vindemiatio prima de forma calidi, L. II. Aph. 20, Diff. 2, he says, "the motion of heat is at once expansive, and a tendency upwards."
[1424] In accordance with the notions of his age, St. Chrysostom supposed that the firmament was something solid; and it seems to have been entirely a notion of modern times, that the visible heavens are formed of a subtle ether. Thus Homer terms them ch?lkeon ouranon, and chalkobate domata; and sometimes sidereion ouranon. The notion of St. Chrysostom seems to have been similar. He supposes a solid spherical arch, which he terms the visible heaven, which divided the waters above from those below it. See Gen. i. 7. A similar idea seems to have prevailed among those who translated the Bible into English, from the use of the word firmament, which was however a mere copying of the Vulgate, and the Greek stereoma. It is remarkable that this idea is defended by Drusius in his Loca Difficiliora Pentateuchi, and in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas's Weeks and Days.
[1425] Sav. and M., of it.
[1426] schematos.
[1427] Ps. cxlviii. 4.
[1428] Jer. v. 22.
[1429] Or the next day of preaching.
[1430] See his request.
[1431] See on Rom. xi. 6, Hom. XVIII.
[1432] Matt. v. 16.
[1433] Flying hook, or sickle. See Zech. v. 1-3. A flying roll, is the version given in the present translation of the Bible, which follows the Hebrew as well as the Vulgate, the Targum, and the Syriac. (See St. Jerome on the place, who adds Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus.) The Septuagint, which St. Chrysostom usually follows, instead of hlgm, probably read lnm, which signifies a reap-hook, or sickle; in this, as in some other instances, the final letter having been dropped through the carelessness of transcribers. See Homily XV., conclusion.