208 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY VI. Himself? " The mighty God," is He small and not great? What mean then these shameless and reckless men when they say, that being little He is a God? I repeat ofttimes what they say, that ye may the more avoid them. He being a lesser God seized not for Himself to be like the greater God ! Tell me now (but think not that these words are mine), if he were little, as they say, and far inferior to the Father in power, how could He possibly have seized to Himself equality withGod ? For an inferior nature could not seize for himself admission into that which is great ; for example, a man could not seize on becoming equal to an angel in nature ; a horse could not, though he wished it, seize on being equal to a man in nature. But besides all that, I will say this too. What does Paul wish to es tablish by this example? Surely, to lead the Philippians to humility. To what purpose then did he bring forward this example ? For no one who would exhort to humility speaks thus ; " Be thou humble, and think less of thyself than of thine equals in honor, for such an one who is a slave has not risen against his master ; do thou imitate him." This, any one would say, is not humility, but arrogance. 1 Learn ye what humil ity is, ye who have a devilish pride ! What then is humility? To be lowly minded. And he is lowly minded who humbles himself, not he who is lowly by necessity. To explain what I say ; and do ye attend ; he who is lowly minded, when he has it in his power to be high minded, is humble, but he who is so because he is not able to be high minded, is no longer humble. For instance, If a King subjects himself to his own officer, he is humble, for he descends from his high estate ; but if an officer does so, he will not be lowly minded ; for how ? he has not humbled himself from any high estate. It is not possible to show humble-mindedness except it be in our power to do otherwise. For if it is nec essary for us to be humble even against our will, that excellency comes not from the spirit or the will, but from necessity. This virtue is called humble-mindedness, because it is the humbling of the mind. If he who has it not in his power to snatch at another s goods, continues in the possession of his own; should we praise him, think you, for his justice? I trow not, and why? The praise of free choice is taken away by the necessity. If he, who has it not in his power to usurp and be a king, remains a private citizen, should we praise him for his quietness ? I trow not. The same rule applies here. For praise, O ye most senseless ones, is not given for abstaining from these things, but for the performance of good deeds ; for the former is free indeed from blame, 1 d oi oio?. He menns either that calling it humility were arro gance, or " this is not a question of humility, but of presumption." but partakes not yet of praise, while eulogy of the other is meet. Observe accordingly that Christ gives praise on this* principle, when He says, " Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda tion of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink." (Matt. xxv. 34, 35.) He did not say, Because ye have not been covetous, because ye have not robbed ; these are slight things ; but because " ye saw Me an hungered, and fed Me." Who ever praised either his friends or his enemies in this sort? No one ever praised even Paul. Why say Paul ? no one ever praised even a common man, as thou dost praise Christ, because he did not take that rule which was not his due. To admire for such things as this, is to give evidence of much evil. And why? be cause with evil men this is a matter of praise, as of one that stealeth, if he steal no more ; but it is otherwise among good men. (Eph. iv. 28.) Because a man has not seized on a rule and an honor which was not his due, is he praisewor thy? What folly is this? Attend, I entreat you, for the reasoning is long. Again, who would ever exhort to humil ity from such grounds as this ? Examples ought to be much greater than the subject, to which we are exhorting, for no one will be moved by what is foreign to the subject. For instance, when Christ would lead us to do good to our enemies, He brought a great example, even that of His Father, " For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." (Matt. v. 45.) When He would lead to endurance of wrong He brought an example, " Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." (Matt. xi. 29.) And again, " If I your Lord and Master do these things, how much more should ye"? (John xiii. 14.) Seest thou how these examples are not distant/ for there is no need they should be so distant, for indeed we also do these things, especially as in this case the example is not even near. And how? If He be a servant, He is inferior, and subject to Him that is greater ; but this is not lowliness of mind. It was requisite to show the contrary, namely, that the greater person subjected himself to the lesser. But since he found not this distinction in the case of God, between greater and lesser, he made at least an equality. Now if the Son were inferior, this were not a sufficient example to lead us to hu mility. And why? because it is not humility, for the lesser not to rise against the greater, not to snatch at rule, and to be " obedient unto death." 2 This sentence is difficult, but it seems to mean that the exam ple of our Lord as Man is less evidently " distant " than that given just before, but is still above the lesson; whereas this passage ex plained as by Arians would be far short of its purpose.