Evidently then it is not we that make you wretched, but ye yourselves. For how can it be that the devil should not hence-forth make sport of thee, seeing thee even before the stroke afraid and trembling at the menace? Or rather, when thou dost but esteem this a threat, he will have no need so much as to strike thee any more, but leaving thee to keep thy wealth, by the expectation of its being taken away he will render thee softer than any wax. And because it is our nature (so to speak,) not to consider the objects of our dread so fearful after suffering, as before and while yet untried: therefore to prevent thee from acquiring even this virtue, he detains thee in the very height of fear; by the fear of poverty, before all experience of it, melting thee down as wax in the fire. Yea, and such a man is softer than any wax and lives a life more wretched than Cain himself. For the things which he hath in excess, he is in fear: for those which he hath not, in grief; and again, concerning what he hath he trembles, keeping his wealth within as a wilful runaway slave, and beset by I know not what various and unaccountable passions. For unaccountable desire, and manifold fear and anxiety, and trembling on every side, agitate them. And they are like a vessel driven by contrary winds from every quarter, and enduring many heavy seas. And how much better for such a man to depart than to be enduring a continual storm? Since for Cain also it were more tolerable to have died than to be for ever trembling [189] .
Lest we then for our part suffer these things, let us laugh to scorn the device of the devil, let us burst his cords asunder, let us sever the point of his terrible spear and fortify every approach. For if thou laugh at money, he hath not where to strike, he hath not where he may lay hold. Then hast thou rooted up the root of evils; and when the root is no more, neither will any evil fruit grow.
[9.] Well: these things we are always saying and never leave off saying them: but whether our sayings do any good, the day will declare, even that day which is revealed by fire, which trieth every man's work, (1 Cor. iii. 13.) which showeth what lamps are bright and what are not so. Then shall he who hath oil, and he who hath it not, be manifest. But may none then be found destitute of the comfort; rather may all, bringing in with them abundance of mercy, and having their lamps bright, enter in together with the Bridegroom.
Since nothing is more fearful and full of anguish than that voice which they who departed without abundant almsgiving shall then hear the Bridegroom, "I know you not." (S. Matt. xxv. 12.) But may we never hear this voice, but rather that most pleasant and desirable one, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (S. Matt. xxv. 34.) For thus shall we live the happy life, and enjoy all the good things which even pass man's understanding: unto which may we all attain, through the grace and mercy, &c.
[178] [The author seems here to imply that the Apostle speaks of Christ simply as the head of the church, the same view which Meyer advocates. It is better to consider the expression as denoting the analogy of the body to Christ, since it is one body yet has many members. Christ is the personal subject, the "Ego" whose body is the church. "Christus non localiter, sed mystice et virtualiter, sive operative et per efficentiam, est corpus, hypostasis, anima et spiritus totius Ecclesiæ." (Cor. a Lap.) Principal Edwards says that the Apostle's meaning if expressed in modern phrase would run thus: "As the Person is one while the members of his body are many, so also Christ is one but the members of his mystical body, the church, are many." C.]
[179] eis ho--eph ho.
[180] eis ho--eph ho.
[181] elusamen.
[182] [The phrase here "drink into one Spirit" differs from that used in the citation above, where we read "drink of one Spirit." The difference exists in the Greek original. Chrysostom quotes what is now considered to be the correct text, omitting the preposition, but writes afterward, inserting it. There is unusual obscurity in his treatment of the passage. He expressly excludes any reference to the sacraments, saying it is "after baptism and before the mysteries," (i.e. the Lord's Supper), and then speaks of it as if it meant a watering of plants, which however is not natural. Most interpreters refer it baptism. C.]
[183] epi energeias.
[184] phratriai.
[185] See Bingham, vii. 2. 6; and as quoted by him, S. Athanas, ad Dracont, t. i. p. 263; S. Augustin. de Hæres. c. 40; in support of the opinion, that "there was an order of monks which lived in a married state, and enjoyed their own property and possessions as the primitive ascetics were used to do." If the opinion is correct, (the places quoted seem hardly to prove it,) this place of St. Chrysostom may perhaps refer to that order.
[186] Bingham, iv. 4. 1. "At the entrance of the interior Narthex," or Choir, "the Poor of the Church placed themselves, both before and after Divine Service, to ask alms of such as came from the Altar." S. Chrys. on 1 Thess. Hom. xi. near the end, "In the Churches, and in the Chapels of the Martyrs, the poor sit in front of the vestibules...When we enter into earthly palaces, there is no such thing to be seen, but grave, splendid, rich, wise men are hastening about on all sides. But at our entrance into the true palaces, the Church, and the houses of prayer of the Martyrs, there are possessed persons, maimed, poor, old, blind, distorted in their limbs." "They are an admirable sort of watch-dogs, keeping guard in the Courts of the Palace. Feed them therefore, for the honor redounds to their king...That human things are nought, thou art excellently instructed by the very Porch of the Church: that God delights not in wealth, thou art taught by those who sit before Him." For the custom of the Church of Rome, see the account of St. Lawrence's martyrdom in Prudentius, as quoted by Hooker, E. P. V. lxxix. 14.
[187] trephontai kai truphosen.
[188] pankratiasten.
[189] Gen. iv. 12; vid. supr. Hom. vii. 9.