WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [CHAPTER IV. from affection and solicitude. 1 " Ye did me no wrong ; ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you." What can be gentler than this holy soul, what sweeter, or more affectionate ! And the words he had already used, arose not from an unrea soning anger, nor from a passionate emotion, but from much solicitude. And why do I say, ye have not injured me? Rather have ye evinced a great and sincere regard for me. For " ye know," he says, " that because of an in firmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you ; and that which was a temptation to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected." What does he mean ? While I preached to you, I was driven about, I was scourged, I suffered a thousand deaths, yet ye thought no scorn of me ; for this is meant by that which was a temptation to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected." 2 Observe his spiritual skill ; in the midst of his self-vindication, he again ap peals to their feelings by showing what he had suffered for their sakes. This however, says he, did not at all offend you, nor did ye reject me on account of my sufferings and persecutions; or, as he now calls them, his infirmity and temptation. Ver. 14. " But ye received me as an Angel of God." Was it not then absurd in them to receive him as an Angel of God, when he was perse cuted and driven about, and then not to receive him when pressing on them what was fitting? Ver. 15, 1 6. " Where then is that gratulation of yourselves? for I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes, and given them to me. So then am I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth ? " Here he shows perplexity and amazement, and desires to learn of themselves the reason of their change. Who, says he, hath deceived you, and caused a difference in your disposition towards me ? Are ye not the same who attended and ministered to me, counting me more pre cious thUn your own eyes ? what then has hap pened ? whence this dislike ? whence this sus picion ? Is it because I have told you the truth ? You ought on this very account to pay me in creased honor and attention ; instead of which I am become your enemy, because I tell you the truth," for I can find no other reason but this. Observe too what humbleness of mind appears in his defence of himself; he proves not by his conduct to them, but by theirs to him i p< < Ye did me no wrong probably means : I have no personal ground of complaint." Schaffand Lightfoot. G. A.] ^ [" On account of some weakness of the flesh, means he was compelled by reason of bodily weakness to make a stay there which did not form part of his plan, and during that forced so journ he preached there." Meyer. G. A.I "He was detained there by some bodily infirmitiy or sickness and was thus induced to preach the Gospel." Schaff. G. A.] that his language could not possibly have pro ceeded from unkind feeling. For he says not ; How is it supposable that one, who has been scourged and driven about, and ill-treated a thousand things for your sakes, should now have schemes against you ? But he argues from what they had reason to boast of, saying, How can one who has been honored by you, and re ceived as an Angel, repay you by conduct the very opposite ? Ver. 17. " They zealously seek you in no good way ; nay, they desire to shut you out that ye may seek them." It is a wholesome emulation3 which leads toan imitation of -virtue, but an evil one, which se duces from virtue him who is in the right path. And this is the object of those persons, who would deprive you of perfect knowledge, 4 and impart to you that which is mutilated and spur ious, and this for no other purpose than that they may occupy the rank of teachers, and de grade you, who now stand higher than them selves, to the position of disciples. For this is the meaning of the words " that ye may seek them." But I, says he, desire the reverse, that ye may become a model for them, and a pattern of a higher perfection : a thing which actually happened when I was present with you. Where fore he adds, Ver. 1 8. "But it is good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only when I am present with you." Here he hints that his absence had been the cause of this, and that the true blessing was for disciples to hold right opinions not only in the presence but also in the absence of their master. But as they had not arrived at this point of per fection, he makes every effort to place them there. Ver. 19. "My little children,5 of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you." Observe his perplexity and perturbation, " Brethren, I beseech you : " " My little child ren, ofwhom I am again in travail : " He resem bles a mother trembling for her children. "Until Christ be formed in you." Behold his paternal tenderness, behold this despondency worthy of an Apostle. Observe what awail he utters,farmorepiercingthanofawoman in travail; Ye have defaced the likeness, ye have destroyed the kinship, ye have changed the form, ye need 3 [Thisword does not here mean " they vie with you," as Chry- sostom interprets it, but " they zealously seek you or pay court to you," (i Cor. xii : 31). G. A.] 4 ["They desire to shut you out " (not from a state of true knowledge, as Chrysostom interprets) but "from other teachers," anti-judaizing teachers, (according to Meyer) or fromme (Paul) and so virtually from Christ Himself (according to Schaff) or from Christ (Lightfoot). G. A.) ["A mode of address common in St. John but nowhere else found in St. Paul." Lightfoot. " It expresses Paul s tenderness and their feebleness." Schaff. G. A.]