444 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XII. and simplicity as with children. With them it is laughter and pleasure, here is a man made ridiculous and contemptible. Glorify God, Who has kept thee free from this theatrical ostentation. For, if thou wilt, humble as thy station is, thou mayest be higher than he who is exalted in his chariot. And why? be cause, though his body is a little raised from the earth, his soul is fixed upon it, for " My strength," he saith, " cleaveth to my flesh " (Ps. cii. 6), but thou in thy spirit walkest in heaven. What though he has many attendants clearing his way? is he more honored by this than his horse? and what an absurdity is it, to drive men before one to clear the way for a beast to pass ! Then what sort of honor is it to bestride a horse ? an honor shared by his slaves ! Yet some are so vain of this, that they have it led after them even though they do not want it. What greater folly can there be ? To wish to be distinguished by their horses, by the costliness of their garments, by their retinue ! What can be more contemptible than glory which consists in horses, and servants? Art thou vir tuous ? use not such distinctions. Have orna ments in thyself. Be not indebted for thy glory to the presence of others. To such honor the most wicked, corrupt, and base of men may attain ; all indeed who are rich. Actors and dancers may ride on horseback with a servant running before them, yet are they but actors and dancers still. Their horses and attendants procure them no respect. For when the graces of the soul are wanting to such persons, the ad dition of these external things is superfluous and vain. And aswhen a wall is weak, or a body dis ordered, whatever you put upon it, it still re mains unsound and decayed ; so in this case ; the soul continues the same, and receives no advantage from things without, not though the man wear a thousand ornaments of gold. Let us not therefore be anxious for such things. Let us withdraw ourselves from temporal things, and pursue greater, even spiritual distinctions, which will render us truly objects of veneration, that we also may obtain the blessings of futurity, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, &c. HOMILY XII. i TIMOTHY iv. 1-3. " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons; speak ing lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and com manding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." As those who adhere to the faith are fixed on a safe anchor, so those who fall from the faith can nowhere rest ; but after many wanderings to and fro, they are borne at last into the very gulf of perdition. And this he had shown be fore, saying, that some had " already made ship wreck concerning the faith," and now he says, " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits." This is said of the Manichaeans, the Encratites, 1 and the Marcionites, and the whole of their tribe,2 that 1 St. Chrys. often speaks of the Manichees and Marcionites, but rarely of the Encratites. They are mentioned more than once by (plem. Al., who says (Strom. 7) that they are named from " Tem perance " (eyKpareia) . Origen (cont. Cel. v. 65, p. 628) says they did not acknowledge St. Paul s Epistles. Eusebius, iv. 28, 29, that Tatian was the author of this heresy, and so Epiphanius, who treats of its several points at length. Her. 26 (Montf.). - Literally, " shop." they should hereafter depart from the faith. Seest thou that this departure from the faith is the cause of all the evils that follow ! But what is "expressly"? Plainly, clearly, and beyond doubt. Marvel not, he says, if some having departed from the faith still ad here to Judaism. There will be a time, when even those who have partaken of the faith will fall into a worse error, not only with respect to meats, but to marriages, and other such things, introducing the most pernicious notions. This refers not to the Jews, (for " the latter times," and a " departure from the faith," is not appli cable to them ;) but to the Manichees, and the founders of these sects. And he calls them very justly, " seducing spirits," since it was by these they were actuated in speaking such things. " Speaking lies in hypocrisy." This implies that they utter not these falsehoods through ignorance and unknowingly, but as acting a part, knowing the truth, but " having their con science seared," that is, being men of evil lives. But why does he speak only of these heretics ? Christ had before said, " Offenses must need come" (Matt, xviii. 7), and he had predicted the same in his parable of the sower, and of the