§ 170. JOHN CHEYSOSTOM. 93£
Spirit/ He was in the habit of making careful prepartition for his sermons by the study of the Scriptures, prayer, and meditation ; but he knew how to turn to good account unexpected occurrences, and some of his noblest efforts were extemporaneous effusions under the inspiration of the occasion. Hit ideas are taken fi-om Christian experience and especially from the inexliaustibl^e stores of the Bible, which he made his daily bread, and which he earnestly recommended even to the laity. He took up whole books and explained them in order, instead of confining himself to particular texts, as was the custom after the introduction of the pericopes. His language is noble, solemn, vigorous, fiery, and often overpowering. Yet he waa by no means wholly free from the untruthfnl exaggerations and artificial antitheses, which were regarded at that time aa the greatest ornament and highest triumph of eloquence, but which appear to a healthy and cultivated taste as defects and degeneracies. The most eminent French preachers, Bossuet, Massillon, and Bourdaloue, have taken Chrysostora for their model.
By far the most numerous and most valuable writings of this father are the Homilies, over six hundred in number, which he delivered while presbyter at Antioch and while bishop at Constantinople.' They embody his exegesis; and of this they are a rich storehouse, from which the later Greek commentat tors, Theodoret, Theophylact, and (Ecumenius, have drawa sometimes content to epitomize his expositions. Commentaries, properly so called, he wrote only on the first eight chapters of Isaiah and on the Epistle to the Galatians. But nearly all hia sermons on Scripture texts are more or less expository. He has left us homilies on Genesis, the Psalms, the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of John, the Acts, and all the Epistles
' Karl Hase (Kirchengeschichte, § 104, seventh edition) truly says of Chryso»tom that " he complemented the sober clearness of the Antiochian exegesis and the rhetorical arts of Libanius with the depth of liis warm Christian heart, and that ha carried out in his own life, as far as mortal man can do it, the ideal of the priest hood which, in youthful enthusiasm, he once described."
^ They are contained in vols, ii.-xii. of the Benedictine edition-
940 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-500.
of Paul, including the Epistlo to the Hebrews. His hiniiliet on the Pauline Epistles are especially esteemed.'
Besides these expository sermons on whole books of the Scriptures, Chrysostom delivered homilies on separate sections or verses of Scripture, festal discourses, orations in commemoration of apostles and martyrs, and discourses on special occasions. Among the last are eight homilies Against the Jews (against Judaizing tendencies in the church at Antioch), twelve homilies Against the Anomo3ans (Arians), and especially the celebrated twenty and one homilies On the Statues, which called forth his highest oratorical powers.'' He delivered the homilies on the Statues at Antioch in 387 during a season of extraordinary public excitement, when the people, oppressed by excessive taxation, rose in rebellion, tore down the statuea of the emperor Theodosius I., the deceased empress Flacilla, and the princes Arcadius and Honorius, dragged them through the streets, and so provoked the wrath of the emperor that he threatened to destroy the city — a calamity which was avoided by the intercession of bishop Flavian.
The other w^orks of Chrysostom are his youthful treatise on the Priesthood already alluded to; a number of doctrinal and moral essays in defence of the Christian faith, and in commendation of celibacy and the nobler forms of monastic life;' and two hundred and forty-two letters, nearly all written during his exile between 403 and 407. The most important of the letters are two addressed to the Roman bishop Innocent I.,
' A beautiful edition of the Homilies on the Pauline Epistles in Greek (but without the Latin version) has been recently published in connection with the Ox ford Library of the Fathers under the title: S. Joannis Chrysostomi interpretatio omnium Epistolarum Paulinarum per homilias facta, Oxen. 1849-'52, 4 vols. The English translation has already been noticed.
^ The Ilomilise xii contra Anomocans de incomprehensibili Doi natura, and the Orationes viii adversus Judasos are in the first, the ITomiliic xxi ad populum Antiochenum, de statuis, and the six Orationes de fato et providentia, in the second vol ume of the Bened. edition. The Homilies on the Statues are translated into English in the Oxford Library of the Fathers, 1812, 1 volume.
^ Ad Theodorum lapsum ; Adversus oppugnatores vita; raonasticae ; Comparatio regis et monachi ; De compunctione cordis ; He virginitate ; Ad viduam juiiiorem, etc., — all in the first volume of the Bened. edition together with the vi Libii d« Bacerdotio ; also in Lomler's selection of Chrys. Opera prjcstautissimu