Better hopes for the audience. 21 I. 1. the summit of excellencies, we may obtain the promised JOHN goods. Which may it come to pass that we all attain to, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom and with Whom, to the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory world without end. Amen. HOMILY III. 1 al. JOHN i. 1. In the beginning was the Word. On the subject of attention in hearkening it is superfluous to exhort you any more, so quickly have you shewn by your actions the effects of my advice. For your manner of running together, your attentive postures, the thrusting one another in your eagerness to get the inner places, where my voice may more clearly be heard by you, your unwillingness to retire from the press until this spiritual assembly be dissolved, the clapping of hands, the murmurs of applause; in a word, all things of this kind may be considered proofs of the fervour of your souls, and of your desire to hear. So that on this point it is superfluous to exhort you. One thing, however, it is necessary for us to bid and entreat, that you continue to have the same zeal, and manifest it not here only, but that also when you are at home, you converse man with wife, and father with son, concerning these matters. And say somewhat of yourselves, and require somewhat in return from them; and so all contribute to this excellent banquet". For let no one tell me that our children ought not to be occupied with these things; they ought not only to be occupied with them, but to be zealous about them only. And although on account of your infirmity I do not assert this, nor take them away from their worldly learning1, just as I do study' not draw you either from your civil business; yet of these seven days I claim that you dedicate one to the common Lord of us all. For is it not a strange thing that we should bid our domestics slave for us all their time, and ourselves apportion not even a little of our leisure to God; and this a gavov, a feast to which all the guests contributed. Children especially need spiritual instruction. 23 I. 1. too when all our service adds nothing to Him, (for the JOHN Godhead is incapable of want,) but turns out to our own advantage? And yet when you take your children into the theatres, you allege neither their mathematical lessons, nor any thing of the kind; but if it be required to gain or collect any thing spiritual, you call the matter a waste of time. And how shall you not anger God, if you find leisure and assign a season for every thing else, and yet think it a troublesome and unseasonable thing for your children to take in hand what relates to Him? Do not so, brethren, do not so. It is this very age that most of all needs the hearing these things; for from its tenderness it readily stores up what is said; and what children hear is impressed as a seal on the wax of their minds. Besides, it is then that their life begins to incline to vice or virtue; and if from the very gates and portals one 1al.‘belead them away from iniquity, and guide them by the hand to ginning' the best road, he will fix them for the time to come in a sort of habit and nature, and they will not, even if they be willing, easily change for the worse, since this force of custom draws them to the performance of good actions. So that we shall see them become more worthy of respect than those who have grown old, and they will be more useful in civil matters, displaying in youth the qualities of the aged. For, as I before said, it cannot be that they who enjoy the hearing of such things as these, and who are in the company of such an Apostle, should depart without receiving some great and remarkable advantage, be it man, woman, or youth, that partakes of this table. If we train by words the animals which we have, and so tame them, how much more shall we effect this with men by this spiritual teaching, when there is a wide difference between the remedy in each case, and the subject healed as well. For neither is there so much fierceness in us as in the brutes, since theirs is from nature, ours from choice; nor is the power of the words the same, for the power of the first is that of the human intellect, the power of the second is that of the might and grace of the Spirit. Let then the man bi.e. Man is more tractable than brutes, the words of the Spirit more powerful than words of reason. III. 24 The word of God the safeguard of the soul. HOMIL. who despairs of himself consider the tame animals, and he shall no longer be thus affected; let him come continually to this house of healing, let him hear at all times the laws of the Spirit, and on retiring home let him write down in his mind the things which he has heard; so shall his hopes be good and his confidence great, as he feels his progress by experience. For when the devil sees the law of God written in the soul, and the heart become tablets to write it on, he will not approach any more. Since wherever the king's writing is, not engraved on a pillar of brass, but stamped by the Holy Ghost on a mind loving God, and bright with abundant grace, that (evil one) will not be able even to look at it, but from afar will turn his back upon us. For nothing is so terrible to him and to the thoughts which are suggested by him as a mind careful about Divine matters, and a soul which ever hangs over this fountain. Such an one can nothing present annoy, even though it be displeasing; nothing puff up or make proud, even though it be favourable; but amidst all this storm and surge it will even enjoy a great calm. [2.] For confusion arises within us, not from the nature of circumstances, but from the infirmity of our minds; for if we were thus affected by reason of what befals us, then, (as we all sail the same sea, and it is impossible to escape waves and spray,) all men must needs be troubled; but if there are some who stand beyond the influence of the storm and the raging sea, then it is clear that it is not circumstances which make the storm, but the condition of our own mind. therefore we so order the mind that it may bear all things contentedly, we shall have no storm nor even a ripple, but always a clear calm. If After professing that I should say nothing on these points, I know not how I have been carried away into such a length of exhortation. Pardon my prolixity; for I fear, yes, I greatly fear lest this zeal of ours should ever become weaker. Did I feel confident respecting it, I would not now have said to you any thing on these matters, since it is sufficient to make all things easy to you. But it is time in what follows to proceed to the matters proposed for consideration to-day; that you may not come weary to the contest. For we have contests against the enemies of the truth, against those who use I. 1. Against those who denied the Eternity of the Word. 25 every artifice to destroy the honour of the Son of God, or JOHN rather their own. This remains for ever as it now is, nothinglessened by the blaspheming tongue, but they, by seeking eagerly to pull down Him Whom they say they worship, fill their faces with shame and their souls with punishment. What then do they say when we assert what we have asserted? "That the words, In the beginning was the Word, do not denote eternity absolutely, for that this same expression was used also concerning heaven and earth." What enormous shamelessness and irreverence! I speak to thee concerning God, and dost thou bring the earth into the argument, and men who are of the earth? At this rate, since Christ is called Son of God, and God, Man who is called Son of God must be God also. For, I have said, Ye are Ps.82,6. Gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. Wilt thou contend with the Only-Begotten concerning Sonship, and assert that in that respect He enjoys nothing more than thou? "By no means," is the reply. And yet thou doest this even though thou say not so in words. "How?" Because thou sayest that thou by grace art partaker of the adoption, and He in like manner. For by saying that He is not Son by nature, thou only makest Him to be so by grace. 2. However, let us see the proofs which they produce to us. In the beginning, it is said, God made the heaven and Gen. 1, the earth, and the earth was invisible and unformed. And, There was a man of Ramathaim Zophim. These are 1 Sam. what they think strong arguments, and they are strong; but1 it is to prove the correctness of the doctrines asserted by us, while they are utterly powerless to establish their blasphemy. For tell me, what has the word "was" in common with the word "made?" What hath God in common with man? Why dost thou mix what may not be mixed? Why confound things which are distinct, why bring low what is above? In that place it is not the expression was only which denotes eternity, but that One was in the beginning. And that other, The Word was; for as the word "being," when used concerning man, only distinguishes present time, but when concerning God, denotes eternity', so was," when used respecting our nature, signifies to us past time, and through 66 1 al.'one ever and all time' |