Latter part of Homily XI
Romans Chapter 6
Ver. 17. "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
unto you." (Lit. "into which ye were delivered.")
After shaming them by the slavery, after alarming them by the rewards,
and so exhorting them, he again rights them by calling the benefits to
mind. For by these he shows that they were great evils from which they
were freed, and that not by any labors of their own, and that things henceforth
would be more manageable. Just as any one who has rescued a captive from
a cruel tyrant, and advises him not to run away back to him, reminds him
of his grievous thraldom; so does Paul set the evils passed away most emphatically
before us, by giving thanks to God. For it was no human power that could
set us free from all those evils, but, "thanks be to God," who was willing
and able to do such great things. And he well says, "Ye have obeyed from
the heart." Ye were neither forced nor pressed, but ye came over of your
own accord, with willing mind. Now this is like one that praises and rebukes
at once. For after having willingly come, and not having had any necessity
to undergo, what allowance can you claim, or what excuse can you make,
if you run away back to your former estate? Next that you may learn that
it came not of your own willing temper only, but the whole of it of God's
grace also, after saying, "Ye have obeyed from the heart," he adds, "that
form of doctrine which was delivered you." For the obedience from the heart
shows the free will. But the being delivered, hints the assistance from
God. But what is the form of doctrine?12 It is living aright, and in conformity
with the best conversation.
Ver. 18. "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness."
There are two gifts of God which he here points out. The "freeing from
sin," and also the "making them servants to righteousness," which is better
than any freedom. For God hath done the same as if a person were to take
an orphan, who had been carried away by savages into their own country,
and were not only to free him from captivity, but were to set a kind father
ever him, and bring him to very great dignity. And this has been done in
our case. For it was not our old evils alone that He freed us from, since
He even led us to the life of angels, and paved the way for us to the best
conversation, handing us over to the safe keeping of righteousness, and
killing our former evils, and deadening the old man, and leading us to
an immortal life.
Let us then continue living this life; for many of those who seem to
breathe and to walk about are in a more wretched plight than the dead.
For there are different kinds of deadness; and one there is of the body,
according to which Abraham was dead, and still was not dead. For "God,"
He says, "is not a God of the dead, but of the living." (Matt. xxii. 32.)
Another is of the soul which Christ alludes to when He says, "Let the dead
bury their dead." (ib. viii. 22. Another, which is even the subject of
praise, which is brought about by religion (filosofiaj), of which Paul
saith, "Mortify your members which are upon the earth." (Col. iii. 5.)
Another, which is the cause even of this, the one which takes place in
baptism. "For our old man," he says, "has been crucified" (ver. 6), that
is, has been deadened. Since then we know this, let us flee from the deadness
by which, even though alive, we die. And let us not be afraid of that with
which common death comes on. But the other two, whereof one is blissful,
having been given by God, the other praiseworthy (cf. Ar. Eth. i. 12),
which is accomplished by ourselves together with God, let us both choose
and be emulous of. And of those two, one doth David pronounce blessed,
when he says, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven" (Ps. xxxii.
1); and the other, Paul holds in admiration, saying, and writing to the
Galatians, "They that be Christ's have crucified the flesh." (Gal. v. 24.)
But of the other couple, one Christ declares to be easy to hold in contempt,
when He says, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul:" and the other fearful, for, "Fear" (He says) "Him that is able
to destroy both body and soul in hell." (Matt. x. 28.) And therefore let
us flee from this, and choose13 that deadness which is held blessed and
admirable; that of the other two, we may escape the one and not fear the
other: for it is not the least good to us to see the sun, and to eat and
drink, unless the life of good words be with us. For what would be the
advantage, pray, of a king dressed in a purple robe and possessed of arms,
but without a single subject, and exposed to all that had a mind to attack
and insult him? In like manner it will be no advantage to a Christian to
have faith, and the gift of baptism, and yet be open to all the passions.
In that way the disgrace will be greater, and the shame more. For as such
an one having the diadem and purple is so far from gaining by this dress
any honor to himself, that he even does disgrace to that by his own shame:
so the believer also, who leadeth a corrupt life, is so far from becoming,
as such, an object of respect, that he is only the more one of scorn. "For
as many," it says, "as sinned without law, shall also perish without law;
and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." (Rom.
ii. 12). And in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he says, "He that despised
Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who had trodden
under foot the Son of God?" (Heb. x. 28, 29.) And with reason. For I placed
(He might say) all the passions in subjection to thee by baptism. How then
comes it that thou hast disgraced so great a gift, and hast become one
thing instead of another? I have killed and buried thy former transgressions,
like worms-how is it that thou hast bred others?-for sins are worse than
worms, since these do harm to the body, those to the soul; and those make
the more offensive stench. Yet we perceive it not, and so we are at no
pains to purge them out. Thus the drunkard knows not how disgustful the
stale wine is, but he that is not drunken has a distinct perception of
it. So with sins also, he that lives soberly knows thoroughly that other
mire, and the stain. But he that gives himself up to wickedness, like a
man made drowsy with drunkenness, does not even know the very fact that
he is ill. And this is the most grievous part of vice, that it does not
allow those who fall into it even to see the greatness of their own bane,
but as they lie in the mire, they think they are enjoying perfumes. And
so they have not even the power of getting free, but when full of worms,
like men that pride themselves in precious stones. so do they exult in
these. And for this reason they have not so much as the will to kill them,
but they even nourish these up, and multiply them in themselves, until
they send them on to the worms of the world to come. For these are providers
for those, and are not only providers, but even the fathers of those that
never die; as it says, "their worm shall not die." (Mark ix. 44.) These
kindle the hell which never extinguishes. To prevent this from happening
then, let us do away with this fountain of evil, and extinguish the furnace,
and let us draw up the root of wickedness from beneath, since you will
do no good by cutting the tree off from above, if the root remains below,
and sends up fresh shoots of the same kind again. What then is the root
of the evils? Learn from the good husbandman (i.e. St. Paul 1 Cor. iii.
6-9), who has an accurate knowledge of such things, and tends the spiritual
vine and cultivates the whole world. Now what does he say is the cause
of all the evils? The love of money. For the "love of money is the root
of all evils." (1 Tim. vi. 10). Hence come fightings, and enmities and
wars; hence emulations, and railings, and suspicions, and insults; hence
murders, and thefts, and violations of sepulchres.
Through this, not cities and countries only, but roads and habitable
and inhabitable parts, and mountains, and groves, and hills, and, in a
word, all places are filled with blood and murder. And not even from the
sea has this evil withdrawn, but even there also with great fury hath it
revelled, since pirates beset it on all sides, thus devising a new mode
of robbery. Through this have the laws of nature been subverted, and the
claims of relationship set aside, and the laws of piety itself14 broken
through. For the thraldom of money hath armed, not against the living only,
but even against the departed too, the right hands of such men. And at
death even, they make no truce with them, but bursting open the sepulchres,
they put forth their impious hands even against dead bodies, and not even
him that hath let go of life will they suffer to be let go from their plotting.
And all the evils that you may find, whether in the house or in the market-place,
or in the courts of law, or in the senate, or in the king's palace, or
in any other place whatsoever, it is from this that you will find they
all spring. For this evil it is, this assuredly, which fills all places
with blood and murder, this lights up the flame of hell, this makes cities
as wretchedly off as a wilderness, yea, even much worse. For those that
beset the high roads, one can easily be on one's guard against, as not
being always upon attack. But they who in the midst of cities imitate them
are so much the worse than them, in that these are harder to guard against,
and dare to do openly what the others do with secrecy. For those laws,
which have been made with a view to stopping their iniquity, they draw
even into alliance and fill the cities with this kind of murders and pollutions.
Is it not murder, pray, and worse than murder, to hand the poor man over
to famine, and to cast him into prison, and to expose him not to famine
only, but to tortures too, and to countless acts of insolence? For even
if you do not do these things yourself to him, yet you are the occasion
of their being done, you do them more than the ministers who execute them.
The murderer plunges his sword into a man at once, and after giving him
pain for a short time, he does not carry the torture any farther. But do
you who by your calumnies, by your harassings, by your plottings, make
light darkess to him, and set him upon desiring death ten thousand times
over, consider how many deaths you perpetrate instead of one only? And
what is worse than all, you plunder and are grasping, not impelled to it
by poverty, without any hunger to necessitate you, but that your horse's
bridle may be spattered over with gold enough, or the ceiling of your house,
or the capitals of your pillars. And what hell is there that this conduct
would not deserve, when it is a brother, and one that has shared with yourself
in blessings unutterable, and has been so highly honored by the Lord, whom
you, in order that you may deck out stones, and floors, and the bodies
of animals with neither reason, nor perception of these ornaments, are
casting into countless calamities? And your dog15 is well attended too,
while man, or rather Christ, for the sake of the hound, and all these things
I have named, is straitened with extreme hunger. What can be worse than
such confusion? What more grievous than such lawlessness as this? What
streams of fire will be enough for such a soul? He that was made in the
Image of God stands in unseemly plight, through thy inhumanity; but the
faces of the mules that draw thy wife glisten with gold in abundance, as
do the skins and woods which compose that canopy. And if it is a seat that
is to be made, or a footstool, they are all made of gold and silver. But
the member of Christ, for whom also He came hither from Heaven, and shed
His precious Blood, does not even enjoy the food that is necessary for
him, owing to thy rapaciousness. But the couches are mantled with silver
on every side, while the bodies of the saints are deprived even of necessary
clothing. And to thee Christ is less precious than anything else, servants,
or mules, or couch, or chair, or footstool; for I pass over furniture of
still meaner use than these, leaving it to you to know of it. But if thou
art shocked at hearing this, stand aloof from doing it, and then the words
spoken will not harm thee. Stand aloof, and cease from this madness. For
plain madness it is, such eagerness about these things. Wherefore letting
go of these things, let us look up, late as it is, towards Heaven, and
let us call to mind the Day which is coming, let us bethink ourselves of
that awful tribunal, and the exact accounts, and the sentence incorruptible.
Let us consider that God, who sees all these things, sends no lightnings
from Heaven; and yet what is done deserves not thunderbolts merely. Yet
He neither doth this, nor doth He let the sea loose upon us, nor doth He
burst the earth in twain, He quencheth not the sun, nor doth He hurl the
heaven with its stars upon us. He doth not move aught from its place, but
suffereth them to hole their course, and the whole creation to minister
to us. Pondering all this then, let us be awestruck with the greatness
of His love toward man, and let us return to that noble origin which belongs
to us, since at present certainly we are in no better plight than the creatures
without reason, but even in a much worse one. For they do love their kin,
and need but the community of nature to cause affection towards each other.
But thou who besides nature hast countless causes to draw thee together
and attach thee to the member: of thyself; the being honored with the Word
the partaking in one religion, the sharing in countless blessings; art
become of wilder nature than they, by displaying so much carefulness about
profitless things, and leaving the Temples of God to perish in hunger and
nakedness, and often surrounding them also with a thousand evils. For if
it is from love of glory that you do these things, it is much more binding
on you to show your brother attention, than your horse. For the better
the creature that enjoys the act of kindness, the brighter the crown that
is woven for such carefulness. Since now while thou fallest into the contrary
of all this, thou pullest upon thyself accusers without number, yet perceivest
it not. For who is there that will not speak ill of thee? who that will
not indite thee as guilty of the greatest atrocity and misanthrophy, when
he sees that thou disregardest the human race, and settest that of senseless
creatures above men, and besides senseless creatures, even the furniture
of thy t house? Hast thou not heard the Apostles say, that they who first
received the word sold both "houses and lands" (Acts iv. 34), that they
might support the brethren? but you plunder both houses and lands, that
you may adorn a horse or wood-work, or skins, or walls, or a pavement.
And what is worse is, that it is not men only, but women too are afflicted
with this madness, and urge their husbands to this empty sort of pains,
by forcing them to lay out their money upon anything rather than the necessary
things. And if any one accuse them for this, they are practised with a
defence, itself loaded with much to be accused. For both the one and the
other are done at once, says one.
What say you? are you not afraid to utter such a thing, and to set the
same store by horses and mules and couches and footstools, as by Christ
an hungered? Or rather not even comparing them at all, but giving the larger
share to these, and to Him meting out with difficulty a scant share? Dost
thou not know that all belongs to Him, both thou and thine? Dost thou not
know that He fashioned thy body, as well as gave thee a soul, and apportioned
thee the whole world? but thou art not for giving a little recompense to
Him. But if thou lettest a little hut, thou requirest the rent with the
utmost rigor, and though reaping the whole of His creation, and dwelling
in so wide a world, thou hast not courage to lay down even a little rent,
but has given up to vainglory thyself and all thou hast. For this is that
whereof all these things come. The horse is none the better above his natural
excellence for having this ornament, neither yet is the person mounted
upon him, for sometimes he is only in the less esteem for it; since many
neglect the rider and turn their eyes to the horse's ornaments, and to
the attendants behind and before, and to the fan-bearers. But the man,
who is lackeyed by these, they hate and turn their heads from, as a common
enemy. But this does not happen when thou adornest thy soul, for then men,
and angels, and the Lord of angels, all weave thee a crown. And so, if
thou art in love with glory, stand aloof from the things which thou art
now doing, and show thy taste not in thy house, but in thy soul, that thou
mayest become brilliant and conspicuous. For now nothing can be more cheap
than thou art, with thy soul unfurnished, and but the handsomeness of thy
house for a screen. But if thou art impatient of hearing me speak in this
way, listen to what one of those that are without did, and at all events
be shamed by their philosophy. For it is said that a certain one of them,
who went into a palace that shone with gold in abundance, and glistened
with the great beauty of the marbles and the columns, when he saw the floor
strewed with carpets in all directions, spat in the face of the master
of the house, and when found fault with for it said, that since there was
no other part of the house where he could do this, he was obliged to do
this affront to his face. See how ridiculous a man is, who displays his
taste in exteriors, and how little he is in the eyes of all reasonable
men. And with good reason. For if a person were to leave thy wife to be
clad in rags, and to be neglected, and clothed thy maid-servants with brilliant
dresses, thou wouldest not bear it meekly, but wouldest be exasperated,
and say that it was insulting in the extreme. Reason then in this way about
your soul. When you display your taste in walls then, and pavement, and
furniture, and other things of the kind, and do not give liberally in alms,
or practise the other parts of a religious life (filosofian); you do nothing
less than this, or rather what is worse than this by far. For the difference
between servant and mistress is nothing, but between soul and flesh, there
is a great disparity. But if it be so with the flesh, much more is it with
a house or a couch or a footstool. What kind of excuse then dost thou deserve,
who puttest silver on all these, but for it hast no regard, though it be
covered with filthy rags, squalid, hungry, and full of wounds, torn by
hounds unnumbered (Luke xvi. 20, 21); and after all this fanciest that
thou shall get thee glory by displaying thy taste in externals wound about
thee? And this is the very height of phrenzy, while ridiculed, reproached,
disgraced, dishonored, and falling into the severest punishment, still
to be vain of these things! Wherefore, I beseech you, laying all this to
heart, let us become sober-minded, late as it is, and become our own masters,
and transfer this adorning from outward things to our souls. For so it
will abide safe from spoiling, and will make us equal to the angels, and
will entertain us with unaltering good, which may we all attain by the
grace and love toward man, etc.
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12 Tit. ii. 12; 1 Tim. i. 10; are instances of a similar
use of the term "doctrine." Compare Eph. iv. 19-24, from which context
the phrase, "Even as Truth is in Jesus," appears to be used nearly in the
same sense.
13 So 4 mss. Sav. and 3 mss. omit "not," but the sense
requires it.
14 So Field from one Ms. Vulg. "of our very being,"-ousiaj
for osiaj.
15 Or "the pillar" and so in the next line kiwn and kiona
for kuwn and kuna.
First part of Homily XII.
ROM. VI. 19.-"I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity
of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members (so 4 mss. Sav. the
members of your flesh) servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity;
even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."
Since he had required great strictness of life, charging us to be dead
to the world, and to Have died unto wickedness, and to abide with no notion
towards the workings of sin, and seemed to be saying something great and
burdensome, and too much for human nature; through a desire to show that
he is not making any exorbitant demand, nor even as much as might be expected
of one who enjoyed so great a gift, but one quite moderate and light, he
proves it from contraries, and says, "I speak after the manner of men,"
as much as to say, Going by human reasonings; by such as one usually meets
with. For he signifies either this, or the moderateness of it, by the term
applied, "after the manner of men." For elsewhere he uses the same word.
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man" (1 Cor.
x. 13), that is, moderate and small. "For as ye have yielded your members
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield
your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." And truly the masters
are very different ones, but still it is an equal amount of servitude that
I ask. For men ought to give a much larger one, and so much the larger
as this is a greater and better mastership than the other. Nevertheless
I make no greater demand "because of the infirmity," and that, he does
not say of your free will or readiness of spirit, but "of your flesh,"
so making what he says the less severe. And yet on one side there is uncleanness,
on the other holiness: on the one iniquity, and on the other righteousness.
And who is so wretched, he says, and in such straits as not to spend as
much earnestness upon the service of Christ, as upon that of sin and the
devil? Hear then what follows, and you will see clearly that we do not
even spend this little. For when (stated in this naked way) it does not
seem credible or easy to admit, and nobody would endure to hear that he
does not serve Christ so much as he did serve the devil, he proves it by
what follows, and renders it credible by bringing that slavery before us,
and saying how they did serve him.1
Ver. 20. "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from
righteousness."
Now what he says is somewhat of this kind, When ye lived in wickedness,
and impiety, and the worst of evils, the state of compliance ye lived in
was such that ye did absolutely no good thing at all. For this is, "ye
were free from righteousness." That is ye were not subject to it, but estranged
from it wholly. For ye did not even so much as divide the manner of servitude
between righteousness and sin, but gave yourselves wholly up to wickedness.
Now, therefore, since ye have come over to righteousness, give yourselves
wholly up to virtue, doing nothing at all of vice, that the measure you
give may be at least equal. And yet it is not the mastership only that
is so different, but in the servitude itself there is a vast difference.
And this too he unfolds with great perspicuity, and shows what conditions
they served upon then, and what now. And as yet he says nothing of the
harm accruing from the thing, but hitherto speaks of the shame.
Ver. 21. "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed?"
So great was the slavery, that even the recollection of it now makes
you ashamed; but if the recollection makes one ashamed, the reality would
much more. And so you gained now in two ways, in having been freed from
the shame; and also in having come to know the condition you were in; just
as then ye were injured in two ways, in doing things deserving shame, and
in not even knowing to be ashamed. And this is worse than the former. Yet
still ye kept in a state of servitude. Having then proved most abundantly
the harm of what took place then from the shame of it, he comes to the
thing in question. Now what is this thing? "For the end of those things
is death." Since then shame seems to be no such serious evil, he comes
to what is veryfearful, I mean death; though in good truth what he had
before mentioned were enough. For consider how exceeding great the mischief
must be, inasmuch as, even when freed fromthe vengeance due to it, they
could not get free of the shame. What wages then, he says, do you expect
from the reality, when from the bare recollection, and that too when you
are freed from the vengeance, you hide your face and blush, though under
such grace as you are! But God's side is far otherwise.
Ver. 22. "For now being made free from sin, and become servants to
God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."
Of the former, the fruit was shame, even after the being set free. Of
these the fruit is holiness, and where holiness is, there is all confidence.
But of those things the end is death, and of these everlasting life. Do
you see how he points out some things as already given, and some as existing
in hope, and from what are given he draws proof of the others also, that
is from the holiness of the life. For to prevent your saying (i.e. as an
objection) everything lies in hope, he points out that you have already
reaped fruits, first the being freed from wickedness, and such evils as
the very recollection of puts one to shame; second, the being made a servant
unto righteousness; a third, the enjoying of holiness; a fourth, the obtaining
of life, and life too not for a season, but everlasting. Yet with all these,
he says, do but serve as ye served it. For though the master is far preferable,
and the service also has many advantages, and the rewards too for which
ye are serving, still I make no further demand. Next, since he had mentioned
arms and a king, he keeps on with the metaphor in these words:
Ver. 23. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
After speaking of the wages of sin, in the case of the blessings, he
has not kept to the same order (tacin, rank or relation): for he does not
say, the wages of good deeds, "but the gift of God;" to show, that it was
not of themselves that they were freed, nor was it a due they received,
neither yet a return, nor a recompense of labors, but by grace all these
things came about.2 And so there was a superiority for this cause also,
in that He did not free them only, or change their condition for a better,
but that He did it without any labor or trouble upon their part: and that
He not only freed them, but also gave them much more than before, and that
through His Son. And the whole of this he has interposed as having discussed
the subject of grace, and being on the point of overthrowing the Law next.
That these things then might not both make them rather listless, he inserted
the part about strictness of life, using every opportunity of rousing the
hearer to the practice of virtue. For when he calls death the wages of
sin, he alarms them again, and secures them against dangers to come. For
the words he uses to remind them of their former estate, he also employs
so as to make them thankful, and more secure against any inroads of temptations.
Here then he brings the hortatory part to a stop, and proceeds with the
doctrines again, speaking on this wise.
_______________________
1 The ground for Paul's speaking "after the manner of
men because of the infirmity of their flesh" can hardly be, as Chrys. suggests,
because he would only demand for the service of the gospel an earnestness
equal to that which they had formerly displayed in sin. The reference to
the infirmity of their flesh gives the reason for his manner of speech
in illustrating the character of the Christian life, rather than a ground
for the moderatehess of his demand. His meaning might be thus expressed:
"I am carrying the figure of bondage to its utmost length in applying it
to righteousness because I wish to make it clear to you that we are not
in a lawless condition, but are still under authority; hence I use the
strongest language and press it almost beyond its proper limits in calling
our relation to God and righteousness a servitude."-G. B. S.
