"But he rejoices," thou wilt say, "and exults in these things, and they brighten him up." The crowning point [2285] of his evils lies in that word of thine, and the incurable part of the disease. For he that rejoices in these things, would be unwilling however easily to be released from that which is the ground of his evils; yea, he hath blocked up against himself the way of healing by this delight. So that here most of all is the mischief, that he is not even pained, but rather rejoices, when the diseases are growing upon him.
For neither is rejoicing always a good thing; since even thieves rejoice in stealing, and an adulterer in defiling his neighbor's marriage bed, and the covetous in spoiling by violence, and the manslayer in murdering. Let us not then look whether he rejoice, but whether it be for something profitable, lest [2286] perchance we find his joy to be such as that of the adulterer and the thief.
For wherefore, tell me, doth he rejoice? For his credit with the multitude, because he can puff himself up, and be gazed upon? Nay, what can be worse than this desire, and this ill-placed fondness? or if it be no bad thing, ye must leave off deriding the vainglorious and aspersing them with continual mockeries: ye must leave off uttering imprecations on the haughty and contemptuous. But ye would not endure it. Well then, they too deserve plenty of censure, though they have plenty of lictors. And all this I have said of the more tolerable sort of rulers; since the greater part of them we shall find transgressing more grievously than either robbers, or murderers, or adulterers, or spoilers of tombs, from not making a good use of their power. For indeed both their thefts are more shameless, and their butcheries more hardened, and their impurities far more enormous than the others; and they dig through, not one wall, but estates and houses without end, their prerogative making it very easy to them.
And they serve a most grievous servitude, both stooping basely under their passions, [2287] and trembling at all their accomplices. For he only is free, and he only a ruler, and more kingly than all kings, who is delivered from his passions.
Knowing then these things, let us follow after the true freedom, and deliver ourselves from the evil slavery, and let us account neither pomp of power nor dominion of wealth, nor any other such thing, to be blessed; but virtue only. For thus shall we both enjoy security here, and attain unto the good things to come, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.
[2215] John iv. 25.
[2216] John i. 21.
[2217] Titus ii. 11, 12. [The Homily omits "to all men."]
[2218] Tit. ii. 13.
[2219] John i. 21.
[2220] Matt. xvii. 11. [R.V., "Elijah indeed cometh," etc.]
[2221] Mal. iv. 5, 6, LXX.
[2222] [The Hebrew does not have this; the argument rests on the inaccurate rendering of the LXX.]
[2223] John xii. 47.
[2224] See LXX.
[2225] As to Elijah's future coming, see St. Just. Mart. Dial. adv. Tryph. p. 268, ed. Paris, 1636: Tert. de Anim. 35; de Resur. Carnis, 22; Origen (more doubtfully) in St. Matt. tom. 13, iii. 572; in St. Joan. tom. 3, iv. 92. St. Jer. in St. Matt. xi, 15, (t. 7, 70. Vallars. 1771), but doubtingly; in loco, p. 132, more positively; St. Aug. in St. Joan. Tr. iv. 5, 6. de Civ. Dei, 20, 29: who speaks positively of his coming to convert the Jews, as being "a most common topic in the mouths and hearts of the faithful."
[2226] Matt. xvii. 12, 13.
[2227] Matt. xi. 14.
[2228] This refers apparently to such texts as Jer. xxx. 9; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, xxxvii. 24; Hos. iii. 5.
[2229] Isa. i. 10.
[2230] Amos ix. 7.
[2231] Matt. xvii. 12.
[2232] Matt. xvi. 21.
[2233] ["Sinful" (hamartoln) is omitted in some mss. of the Homily. It does not occur in Matt. xvii. 22, but is taken from Luke xxiv. 7. Comp. Homily LVIII. at the beginning.--R.]
[2234] Matt. xvii. 23.
[2235] Matt. xvi. 14.
[2236] Comp. Luke xxiii. 24.
[2237] Matt. xvii. 22, 23.
[2238] Mark ix. 32.
[2239] Luke ix. 45.
[2240] [R.V., "for he is epileptic, and suffereth grievously."]
[2241] Matt. xvii. 14-16.
[2242] Mark ix. 23.
[2243] Mark ix. 24.
[2244] Mark ix. 25.
[2245] Mark ix. 22.
[2246] 2 Kings xiii. 21.
[2247] Gal. ii. 9.
[2248] Matt. xvii. 17.
[2249] Mark ix. 21.
[2250] Mark ix. 23.
[2251] Matt. viii. 2.
[2252] Mark ix. 23. [The word pistesai is read here; The R.V. has a briefer reading. The entire passage in Mark shows many variations of text.--R.]
[2253] Matt. iv. 24. [seleniazomnou; the same term occurs here, and is the basis of the comment.--R.]
[2254] to stoicheouparapheromne.
[2255] 1 Tim. v. 23.
[2256] Ps. civ. 15.
[2257] Lightfoot, Harmony, A.D., 43. t. i. p. 333, seems to show from Talmudic writers, that anointing was regularly used among the Jews, either as a remedy or as a charm, in complaints of the head especially; and he uses the fact to explain St. James v. 15.
[2258] animthai.
[2259] [The Oxford edition reads "apes," obviously a typographical error. The Greek word is onontn gnsin.
[2260] Literally, a stater, = 4 drachmas. [R.V., "shekel, Greek, stater."]
[2261] Matt. xvii. 27. [Slightly abridged.]
[2262] diorthnmeno .
[2263] Matt. xv. 11.
[2264] Matt. viii. 26.
[2265] Matt. xiv. 29.
[2266] Matt. xviii. 1. [R.V., "Who then is greatest (Greek, greater)." Compare the comment.--R.]
[2267] Matt. xvi. 19.
[2268] Mark ix. 34.
[2269] [mezon "greater."]
[2270] [R.V., "Except ye turn, and become as little children," but Chrysostom substitutes "this little child."--R.]
[2271] Matt. xviii. 2, 3.
[2272] apragmosnen .
[2273] Matt. xviii. 5. ["one such little child," rec. text; so R.V.]
[2274] Matt. xviii. 6. [R.V., "but whoso shall cause one of these little ones which believe in me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone (Greek, a millstone turned by an ass) should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea." The Greek text of Chrysostom agrees very closely with the received, but omits "which believe in me."--R.]
[2275] [skndalon, "stumbling block."]
[2276] [sumphere at, "it is profitable for him."]
[2277] aponoa.
[2278] Mark vi. 18.
[2279] 1 Kings xviii. 18.
[2280] 1 Cor. xii. 26.
[2281] 1 Thes. ii. 19.
[2282] 1 Thes. iii. 8.
[2283] 2 Cor. ii. 4.
[2284] 2 Cor. xi. 29.
[2285] kolophna.
[2286] [The Greek text has diaskepsmetha, which the translator has ignored: "Let us consider well, lest," etc.--R.]
[2287] [Some mss. insert here: ka to sundolou tptonte pheid, "and beating the fellow servants unsparingly." But it is put in brackets by Field.--R.]