HOMILY VI.] HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS. 21 I not to do His part. He often said, "One of you shall betray Me." (Matt. xxvi. 21.) He often marked thee, and yet spared thee, and though He knew thee to be such an one, yet cast thee not out of the band. He still bore with thee, He still honored thee, and loved thee, as a true disciple, and as one of the twelve, and last of all (oh, for thy vileness!), He took a towel, and with His own unsullied hands He washed thy polluted feet, and even this did not keep thee back. Thou didst steal the things of the poor, and that thou mightest not go on to greater sin, He bore this too. Nothing per suaded thee. Hadst thou been a beast, or a stone, wouldest thou not have been changed by these kindnesses towards thee, by these wonders, by these teachings? Though thou wast thus brutalized, yet still He called thee, and by won drous works He drew thee, thou wast more sense less than a stone, to Himself. Yet for none of these things didst thou become better. Ye wonder perhaps at such folly of the traitor ; dread therefore that which wounded him. He became such from avarice, from the love of money. Cut out this passion, for to these dis eases does it give birth ; it makes us impious, and causes 1 us to be ignorant of God, though we have received ten thousand benefits at His hands. Cut it out, I entreat you, it is no com mon disease, it knoweth how to give birth to a thousand destructive deaths. We have seen his tragedy. Let us fear lest we too fall into the same snares. For this is it written, that we too should not suffer the same things. Hence did all the Evangelists relate it, that they might re strain us. Flee then far from it. Covetousness consisteth not alone in the love of much money, but in loving money at all. It is grievous avarice to desire more than we need. Was it talents of gold that persuaded the traitor? For thirty pieces of silver he betrayed his Lord. Do ye not remember what I said before, that covetous- ness is not shown in receiving much, but rather in receiving little things ? See how great a crime he committed for a little gold, rather not for gold, but for pieces of silver. It cannot, it cannot be that an avaricious man should ever see the face of Christ ! This is one of the things which are impossible. It is a root of evils, and if he that possesses one evil thing, falls from that glory, where shall he stand who bears with him the root ? He who is the servant of money cannot be a true servant of Christ. Christ Himself hath declared that the thing is impossible. " Ye cannot," He says, " serve God and Mammon," and, " No man can serve two masters" (Matt. vi. 24), for they lay upon us contrary orders. Christ says, " Spare the poor " ; 1 Trapao-iceua^ei, which, when used without a preposition, is more immediate than " prepares." Mammonsays, "Evenfrom the naked2 strip offthe things they have." Christ says, " Empty thyself of what thou hast"; Mammon says, "Take also what thou hast not." Seest thou the opposition, seest thou the strife? How is it that a man cannot easily obey both, but must despise one? Nay, does it need proof? How so ? Do we not see in very deed, that Christ is despised, and Mammon honored? Perceive ye not how that the verywords are painful ? How much more then the thing itself? But it does not appear so pain ful in reality, because we are possessed with the disease. Now if the soul be but a little cleansed of the disease, as long as it remains here, it can judge right; but when it departs elsewhere, and is seized by the fever, and is engaged in the pleasure of the thing, it hath not its perception clear, it hath not its tribunal uncorrupt. Christ says, " Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple " (Luke xiv. 33) ; Mammon says, "Take the bread from the hungry." Christ says, " Cover the naked " (Isa. Iviii. 7) ; the other says, " Strip the naked." Christ says, " Thou shalt not hide thyself from thine own flesh," (Isa. Iviii. 7) and those of thine own house ; 3 Mammon says, 4 " Thou shalt not pity those of thine own seed ; though thou seest thy mother or thy father in want, despise them." Why say I father or mother? "Even thine own soul," he says, " destroy it also." And he is obeyed ! Alas ! he who commands us cruel, and mad, and brutal things, is listened to rather than He who bids us gentle and healthful things ! For this is hell appointed ; for this, fire ; for this, a river of fire ; for this, a worm that dieth not. I know that many hear me say these things with pain, and indeed it is not without pain I say them. But why need I say these things? I could wish the things concerning the kingdom to be ever my discourse, of the rest, of the waters of rest, of the green pastures, as the Scripture says, " He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters" (Ps. xxiii. 2), there He maketh me to dwell. I could wish to speak of the place, whence "sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isa. li. ii.) I could wish to discourse of the pleasures of being with Christ, though they pass all expres sion and all understanding. Yet would I speak of these things according to my power. But what shall I do ? it is not possible to speak con cerning a kingdom 5 to one that is diseased and in fever ; then we must needs speak of health. 1 [So the best group ofMSS. Field retains from the editions the feebler phrase of the altered text, " Mammon says, Strip offeven the things they have." To strip even the naked is a phrase quite in Chrys. s vein. J. A. B.] See i Tim. v. 8, and Gal. vi. 10. 4 See Mark vu. II. B He means an earthly kingdom in the first instance.