HOMILY XXII.] HOMILIES ON EPHESIANS. 159 here ! How startling the suggestion ! It is this. "With what measure thou metest, it shall be measured unto thee again " (Matt. vii. 2) ; lest thou hear the sentence, " Thou wicked servant. I forgave thee all that debt." (Matt, xviii. 32-) " And there is no respect of persons," he saith, "with Him." Think not, he would say, that what is done towards a servant, He will therefore forgive, be cause done to a servant. Heathen laws indeed, as being the laws of men, recognize a difference between these kinds of offenses. But the law of the common Lord and Master of all, as doing good to all alike, and dispensing the same rights to all, knows no such difference. But should any one ask, whence is slavery, arid why it has found entrance into human life, (and many I know are both glad to ask such questions, and desirous to be informed of them,) I will tell you. Slavery is the fruit of covetous- ness, of degradation, of savagery ; since Noah, we know, had no servant, nor had Abel, nor Seth, no, nor they who came after them. The thing was the fruit of sin, of rebellion against parents. Let children hearken to this, that whenever they are undutiful to their parents, they deserve to be servants. Such a child strips himself of his nobility of birth ; for he who re bels against his father is no longer a son ; and if he who rebels against his father is not a son, how shall he be a son who rebels against our true Father? He has departed from his nobility of birth, he has done outrage to nature. Then come also wars, and battles, and take their pris oners. 1 Well, but Abraham, you will say, had servants. Yes, but he used them not as servants. Observe how everything depends upon the head ; the wife, by telling him " to love her " ; the children, by telling him " to bring them up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord " ; the servants, by the words, " knowing that both their Master and yours is in Heaven." So, saith he, ye also in like manner, as being yourselves servants, shall be kind and indulgent. " Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." But if, before considering this next, ye have a mind to hearken, I shall make the same remarks concerning servants, as I have also made before concerning children. Teach them to be relig ious, and everything else will follow of necessity. But now, when any one is going to the theater, or going off to the bath, he drags all his servants after him ; but when he goes to church, not for a moment ; nor does he compel them to attend and hear. Now how shall thy servant listen, 1 [He seems to refer slavery to three causes: i. covetousness; 2. rebellion against parents; 3. war, where prisoners are taken and made slaves. G. A.] when thou his master art attending to other things ? Hast thou purchased, hast thou bought thy slave? Before all things enjoin him whatGod would have him do, to be gentle towards his fellow-servants, and to make much account of virtue. Every one s house is a city ; and everyman is a prince in his own house. That the house of the rich is of this character, is plain enough,where there are both lands, and stewards, and rulers over rulers. But I say that the house of the poor also is a city. Because here too there are offices of authority ; for instance, the hus band has authority over the wife, the wife over the servants, the servants again over their own wives ; again the wives and the husbands over the children. Does he not seem to you to be, as it were, a sort of king, having so many author ities under his own authority ? and that it were meet that he should be more skilled both in do mestic and general government than all the rest? For he who knows how to manage these in their several relations, will know how to select the fittest men for offices, yes, and will choose ex cellent ones. And thus the wife will be a second king in the house, lacking only the diadem ; and he who knows how to choose this king, will ex cellently regulate all the rest. Ver. 10. " Finally," saith he, " be strong in the Lord." Whenever the discourse is about to conclude, he always employs this turn. Said I not well from the first, that every man s house is a camp in itself? For look, having disposed of the sev eral offices, he proceeds to arm them, and to lead them out to war. 2 If no one usurps the other s office, but every one remains at his post, all will be well ordered. " Be strong," saith he, " in the Lord, and in the strength of His might." That is, in the hope which we have in Him, by means of His aid. For as he had enjoined many duties, which were necessary to be done, fear not, he seems to say, cast your hope upon the Lord, and He will make all easy. Ver. ii. "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." He saith not, against the fightings, nor against the hostilities, but against the " wiles." For this enemy is at war with us, not simply, nor openly, but by " wiles." What is meant by wiles ? To use wiles," is to deceive and to take by artifice or contrivance ; a thingwhich takes place both in the case of the arts, and by words, and actions, and stratagems, in the case of those who seduce us. z [This is very beautiful, but hardly correct exegesis. "The -/ord finally introduces a general, final exhortation, winding up the whole parenetic portion of the epistle (iv. i-vi. 9)." Meyer. G. A.]