4. Let us keep the feast then continually, and do no evil thing; for this is a feast: and let our spiritual things be made intense, while our earthly things give place: and let us rest a spiritual rest, refraining our hands from covetousness; withdrawing our body from our superfluous and unprofitable toils, from such as the people of the Hebrews did of old endure in Egypt. For there is no difference betwixt us who are gathering gold, and those that were bound in the mire, working at those bricks, and gathering stubble, and being beaten. Yea, for now too the devil bids us make bricks, as Pharaoh did then. For what else is gold, than mire? and what else is silver, than stubble? Like stubble, at least, it kindles the flame of desire; like mire, so doth gold defile him that possesses it.
Wherefore He sent us, not Moses from the wilderness, but His Son from Heaven. If then, after He is come, thou abide in Egypt, thou wilt suffer with the Egyptians: but if leaving that land thou go up with the spiritual Israel, thou shalt see all the miracles.
Yet not even this suffices for salvation. For we must not only be delivered out of Egypt, but we must also enter into the promise. Since the Jews too, as Paul saith, both went through the Red Sea, [1673] and ate manna, and drank spiritual drink, but nevertheless they all perished.
Lest then the same befall us also, let us not be slow, neither draw back; but when thou hearest wicked spies even now bringing up an evil report against the strait and narrow way, and uttering the same kind of talk as those spies of old, let not the multitude, but Joshua, be our pattern, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh; and do not thou give up, until thou have attained the promise, and entered into the Heavens.
Neither account the journey to be difficult. "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved." [1674] "But this way," it will be said, "is strait and narrow." Well, but the former, through which thou hast come, is not strait and narrow only, but even impassable, and full of savage wild beasts. And as there was no passing through the Red Sea, unless that miracle had been wrought, so neither could we, abiding in our former life, have gone up into Heaven, but only by baptism intervening. Now if the impossible hath become possible, much more will the difficult be easy.
"But that," it will be said, "was of grace only." Why, for this reason especially thou hast just cause to take courage. For if, where it was grace alone, He wrought with you; will He not much more be your aid, where ye also show forth laborious works? If He saved thee, doing nothing, will He not much more help thee, working?
Above [1675] indeed I was saying, that from the impossibilities thou oughtest to take courage about the difficulties also; but now I add this, that if we are vigilant, these will not be so much as difficult. For mark it: death is trodden under foot, the devil hath fallen, the law of sin is extinguished, the grace of the Spirit is given, life is contracted into a small space, the heavy burdens are abridged.
And to convince thee hereof by the actual results, see how many have overshot the injunctions of Christ; and art thou afraid of that which is just their measure? What plea then wilt thou have, when others are leaping beyond the bounds, and thou thyself too slothful for what is enacted?
Thus, thee we admonish to give alms of such things as thou hast, but another hath even stripped himself of all his possessions: thee we require to live chastely with thy wife, but another hath not so much as entered into marriage: and thee we entreat not to be envious, but another we find giving up even his own life for charity: thee again we entreat to be lenient in judgments, and not severe to them that sin, but another, even when smitten, hath turned the other cheek also.
What then shall we say, I pray thee? What excuse shall we make, not doing even these things, when others go so far beyond us? And they would not have gone beyond us, had not the thing been very easy. For which pines away, he who envies other men's blessings, or he who takes pleasure with them, and rejoices? Which eyes all things with suspicion and continual trembling, the chaste man, or the adulterer? Which is cheered by good hopes, he that spoils by violence, or he that shows mercy, and imparts of his own to the needy?
Let us then bear in mind these things, and not be torpid in our career for virtue's sake; but having stripped ourselves with all readiness for these glorious wrestlings, let us labor for a little while, that we may win the perpetual and imperishable crowns; unto which may we all attain, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might forever and ever. Amen.
[1645] [With our best mss. authorities, the article is omitted in the Homily. Comp. R.V., in loco.--R.]
[1646] deuteroprt, Luke vi. 1. [On the textual difficulty, see Tischendorf (viii.) and Westcott and Hort. The former retains it, giving the patristic comments upon it. The latter put it in the margin, regarding it as spurious.--R.]
[1647] John ix. 6, 14.
[1648] John v. 17. [R.V., "even until now," etc.]
[1649] Matt. xii. 2.
[1650] Matt. xii. 10, 14.
[1651] [en t er, is inserted here (not in Homily XL.) by Chrysostom, but does not occur in any of our mss. of the New Testament.
[1652] Matt. xii. 3, 4.
[1653] John v. 17.
[1654] Acts ii. 29.
[1655] Mark ii. 26. [The Homily reads to rchieroto, rendering "when Abiathar was high priest;" but gives the other reading in the margin.--R.]
[1656] Abimelech, 1 Sam. xxi. 6.
[1657] Josh. vi. 15.
[1658] Matt. xii. 5.
[1659] As being done, 1, in the holy place; 2, on the holy day.
[1660] Matt. xii. 6. [R.V., "that one greater (Greek, a greater thing) than the temple is here."]
[1661] [R.V. "desire."]
[1662] Matt. xii. 7.
[1663] Hosea vi. 6.
[1664] Matt. xii. 8.
[1665] Mark ii. 27.
[1666] Numb. xv. 32-36.
[1667] Ezek. xx. 12.
[1668] The meaning seems to be, it would have been too hard a trial of their religious discretion.
[1669] Exod. xii. 16, LXX.
[1670] Numb. xxviii. 9, 10.
[1671] Luke vi. 36.
[1672] 1 Cor. v. 8.
[1673] 1 Cor. x. 1, &c.
[1674] Rom. v. 10.
[1675] ['Anotro; but "before" agrees better with English usage in public address.--R.]