132 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XVIII. such things which have been said by these men. Wherefore, I entreat you, let us banish the custom universally, and speak those things which become us. Let not holy mouths utter the words of dishonorable and base men. " For what fel lowship have righteousness and iniquity, or what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. vi. 14.) Happy will it be for us, if, having kept ourselves aloof from all such foul things, we be thus able to attain to the promised blessings ; far indeed from dragging such a train after us, and sullying the purity of our minds by so many. For the man who will play the jester will soon go on to be a railer, and the railer will go on to heap ten thousand other mischiefs on himself. When then we shall have disciplined these two faculties of the soul, anger and desire (vid. Plat. Phaedr. cc. 25, 34), and have put them like well- broken horses under the yoke of reason, then let us set over them the mind as charioteer, that we may " gain the prize of our high calling " (Phil, iii. 14) ; which God grant that we may all attain, through Jesus Christ our Lord, with Whom, to gether with the Holy Ghost, be unto the Father, glory, might, and honor, now, and ever, and throughout all ages. Amen. HOMILY XVIII. EPHESIANS v. 5, 6. " For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idol ater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no man deceive you with emptywords : for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." THERE were, it is likely, in the time of our forefathers also, some who " weakened the hands of the people" (Jer. xxxviii. 4), and brought into practice that which is mentioned by Eze- kiel, or rather who did the works of the false prophets, who " profaned God among His people for handfuls of barley" (Ezek. xiii. 19); a thing, by the way, done methinks by some even at this day. When, for example, we say that he who calleth his brother a fool shall depart into hell- fire, others say, "What? Is he that calls his brother a fool to depart into hell-fire ? Impos sible," say they. And again, when we say that " the covetous man is an idolater," in this too again they make abatements, and say the ex pression is hyperbolical. And in this manner they underrate and explain away all the com mandments. It was in allusion then to these that the blessed Paul, at this time when he wrote to the Ephesians, spoke thus, " For this ye know, 1 that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor cov etous man, which is an idolater, hath any inher itance in the kingdom of Christ and God " ; adding, " let no man 2 deceive you with empty words." Now " empty words " are those which 1 [""I(TTe yivia<TKovTfi : This you are aware of from your own knowledge, so that I need not first to instruct you with regard to it, that, etc. This is not a Hebraism, since y<.vul<TKov^e<; is a different verb from icr-e, but it is like bpuiv KO.I aKovuv ol&a, Xen. Cyr. iv. i, 14." Meyer. G. A.] 2 [" In accordance with the context, this refers to unbelieving Gentiles who sought to palliate those Gentile vices, to make them out as matter of indifference, and so to entice Christians back to the Gentile life." Meyer. G. A.] for a while are gratifying, but are in nowise borne out in facts ; because the whole case is a deception. " Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." Because of " fornication," he means, because of "covetousness," because of " uncleanness," or both because of these things, and because of the "deceit," 3 inasmuch as there are deceivers. " Sons of disobedience " ; he thus calls those who are utterly disobedient, those who disobey Him. Ver. 7, 8. " Be not ye, therefore, partakers with them. For ye were 4 once darkness, but are now light in the Lord." Observe how wisely he urges them forward ; first, from the thought of Christ, that ye love one another, and do injury to no man ; then, on the other hand, from the thought of punishment and hell-fire. " For ye were once darkness," says he, "but are now light in the Lord." Which is what he says also in the Epistle to the Romans ; " What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed?" (Rom. vi. 21 ), and reminds them of their for mer wickedness. That is to say, thinking what ye once were, and what ye are now become, do not run back into your former wickedness, nor do " despite to the grace " (Heb. x. 29) of God. " Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord ! " Not, he says, by your own virtue, but through 3 [Sia TO.VTO. refers not " to deceiving with empty words," but to the " vices " just mentioned. Comp. parallel passage, Col. iii. 6. G. A.] 4 [riTf yap, &c. ^re prefixed with significant emphasis, has the force of a "ground " : For your former state of darkness (with which those vices were in keeping) is " past." Comp.Rom. vi. 17. Meyer and Ellicott. G. A.]