Wherefore we too mourn and lament. And if I see you persisting, I will forbid you for the future to set foot on this sacred threshold, and partake of the immortal mysteries; as we do fornicators and adulterers, and persons charged with murder. Yea, for it is better to offer our accustomed prayers, with two or three, who keep the laws of God, than to sweep together [785] a multitude of trangressors and corrupters of others.
Let me have no rich man, no potentate, puffing at me here, and drawing up his eyebrows; all these things are to me a fable, a shade, a dream. For no one of those who are now rich, will stand up for me there, when I am called to account and accused, as not having thoroughly vindicated the laws of God, with all due earnestness. For this, this ruined even that admirable old man, [786] though in his own life giving no handle for blame; yet for all that, because he overlooked the treading under foot of God's laws, he was chastised with his children, and paid that grievous penalty. And if, where the absolute authority of nature was so great, he who failed to treat his own children with due firmness endured so grievous a punishment; what indulgence shall we have, freed as we are from that dominion, and yet ruining all by flattery?
In order therefore that ye may not destroy both us and your own selves with us, be persuaded, I entreat you; set very many to watch over you, and call you to account, and so free yourselves from the habit of oaths; that going on orderly from thence, ye may both with all facility succeed in attaining unto all other virtue, and may enjoy the good things to come; which God grant that we may all win, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might now and always, even for ever and ever. Amen.
[742] [The phrase "to them of old time" (to rchaoi) is not found in the oldest mss. of the New Testament, in Matt. v. 27. It would be readily inserted from similar passages.--R.]
[743] Deut. vi. 4. [Comp. Mark xii. 29, and the renderings of the R.V. text and margin in both passages.--R.]
[744] [heautn suneiagagen .]
[745] John viii. 48.
[746] Matt. vii. 28, 29.
[747] Ecclus. ix. 8.
[748] t sunokou parthnou, they were often called suneisakto. The practice of unmarried men, especially of the clergy, having single young women in their houses, is a frequent object of warning and censure both in the Homilies of the Fathers and in Church Canons. The earliest mention of such a thing, and of the sad abuse consequent on it, appears to be in St. Irenæus, i. 6, 3: who lays it to the charge of the Valentinian heretics. Tertullian (de Jejun. ad fin.) imputes it to the Catholics. St. Cyprian's fourth Epistle (ed. Fell.) was written to repress and punish an instance of it in the Church of Carthage. It was one of the charges against Paul of Samosata, and was forbidden by the third canon of Nicæa. See Dr. Routh's Reliquiæ Sacræ, 2,506, to which the editor is indebted for this note. The custom seems to have prevailed particularly at Antioch, ib. 482. See also an oration of Chrysostom on this subject, vi. 214.
[749] Job xxxi. 1.
[750] [okti schonte, "no longer having strength."--R.]
[751] Isa. iii. 16.
[752] 1 Tim. ii. 9; Titus ii. 3, 4, 5.
[753] [The words in italics are a translation of the Latin version; nothing corresponding to these terms occurs in the Greek text of the Homily.--R.]
[754] Or, wantonness. See 1 Tim. v. 6.
[755] [The text has simply tn skandalzonta. The precept is thus made more general.--R.]
[756] Matt. v. 29. [R.V., "If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble," and so, everywhere in rendering skandalzein .--R.]
[757] [Matt. v. 29, 30.]
[758] Rom. ix. 3.
[759] kinsa.
[760] bblion postasou, St. Chrys. Comp. Mark x. 4: apostsion, rec. Text. [There is no variation in the text of Matthew here, but in verse 32 the best authorities read p polonhos n pols, as in text. rec.--R.]
[761] Matt. vi. 31, 32.
[762] Deut. xxiv. 1-4.
[763] Ps. lxxix. 3.
[764] proegomeno.
[765] Matt. xix. 8. [R.V. "for your hardness of heart."--R.]
[766] mikropsucha .
[767] [asthensteron gr gun. The translator paraphrases this as above, giving an unnecessary tone of depreciation to the language.--R.]
[768] Matt. v. 33, 34.
[769] See Num. xxx. 2; Deut. xxiii. 23.
[770] Isa. lxxvi. 1; Ps. xlviii. 2.
[771] Matt. xxiii. 16, et seq.
[772] Matt. v. 36.
[773] Matt. v. 37. St. Chrysostom deviates from the received text here: as if he were thinking also of James v. 12. [The variation is in the first half of the verse, but the resemblance to James v. 12 is not marked. In the latter half the citation is exact, and Chrysostom explains ek to ponero as the R.V. does: "of the evil one."--R.]
[774] Jer. iv. 2. LXX. ka ms, Z Krio, met lethea n, krsei, ka n dikaiosn.
[775] Num. xxv. 8.
[776] John viii. 44.
[777] Ps. cvi. 31.
[778] Acts v.
[779] Matt. v. 20.
[780] He clearly alludes to the history of Demosthenes.
[781] Jer. ii. 10, 11. [The citation is much abbreviated from the LXX., which does not vary materially from the Hebrew.--R.]
[782] Prov. vi. 6-8, LXX. "Or go to the bee, and learn how industrious she is, and how honorable she maketh her work; whose labors kings and private men make use of for health: and she is desirable to all and glorious, although she be weak in strength; for holding wisdom precious she is preferred." [This is the addition to Prov. vi. 8, found in the LXX., but not in the Vulgate.--R.]
[783] See St. Chrys. on 1 Cor. Hom. IV. and the note there.
[784] Heb. v. 12. [The text of Heb. v. 12 is modified, didskesthai being substituted for didskein. The Vulgate also has the passive. The R.V. takes tina as the indefinite pronoun: "that someone teach you;" but compare the margin. Notice, too, the acceptance of the Pauline authorship of the Epistle.--R.]
[785] episresthai .
[786] 1 Sam. iii. 13.