HOMILY IV.] HOMILIES ON TITUS. 531 of uncleanness there are. The woman in child bed is unclean. Yet God made child-birth, and the seed of copulation. Why then is the woman unclean, unless something further was intimated? And what was this? He intended to produce piety in the soul, and to deter it from fornication. For if she is unclean who has borne a child, much more she who has com mitted fornication. If to approach his own wife is not altogether pure, much less to have intercourse with the wife of another. He who attends a funeral is unclean, much more he who has mixed in war and slaughter. And many kinds of uncleanness would be found, if it were necessary to recount them all. But these things are not now required of us. But all is trans ferred to the soul. For bodily things are nearer to us, from these therefore he introduced instruction. But it is not so now. For we ought not to be confined to figures, and shadows, but to adhere to the truth, and to uphold it : sin is the unclean thing. From that let us flee, from that let us abstain. " If thou comest near it, it will bite l thee." (Ecclus. xxi. 2.) Nothing is more unclean than covetousness. Whence is this manifest? From the facts themselves. For what does it not defile? the hands, the soul, the very house where the ill-gotten treasure is laid up. But the Jews consider this as nothing. And yet Moses carried off the bones of Joseph. Samson drank from the jawbone of an ass, and ate honey from the lion, and Elijah was nourished by ravens, and by a widow woman. And tell me, if we were to be precise about these things, what can be more unclean than our books, which are made of the skins, of animals ? The fornicator, then, is not the only one that is unclean, but others more than lie, as the adulterer. But both the one and the other are unclean, not on account of the intercourse, (for according to that reasoning a man cohabiting with his own wife would be unclean,) but because of the wickedness of the act, and the injury done to his neighbor in his nearest interests. Dost thou see that it is wickedness that is unclean? He who had two wives was not unclean, and David who had many wives was not unclean. But when he had one unlawfully, he became unclean. Why? Because he had injured and defrauded his neighbor. And the fornicator is not unclean on account of the intercourse, but on account of the manner of it, because it injures the woman, and they injure one another, making the woman common, and subverting the laws of nature. For she ought to be the wife of one man, since it is said, " Male and female created He them." (Gen. i. 27.) And, "they twain shall be one flesh." Not "those many," but " they twain shall be one flesh." Here then is injustice, and therefore the act is wicked. Again, when anger exceeds due measure, it makes a man unclean, not in itself, but because of its excess. Since it is not said, "He that is angry," merely, but "angry without a cause." Thus every way to desire overmuch is unclean, for it proceeds from a greedy and irrational disposi tion. Let us therefore be sober, I beseech you, let us be pure, in that which is real purity, that we may be thought worthy to see God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, with whom, &c. HOMILY IV. TITUS ii. 2-5. "That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holi ness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keep ers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of Clod be not blasphemed." THKRE are some failings which age has, that youth has not. Some indeed it has in common with youth, but in addition it has - a slowness, a 1 Sav. Srjferai, which reading Hen. unaccountably neglects, hav ing Several, and in Lat. sHscij>ict. - MS. Colb. "And youth indeed has many faults, old age how ever has." timidity, a forgetfulness, an insensibility, and an irritability. For this reason he exhorts old men concerning these matters, " to be vigilant." 3 For there are many things which at this period make men otherwise than vigilant, especially what I mentioned, their general insensibility, and the difficulty of stirring or exciting them. Wherefore he also adds, " grave, temperate." 4 Here he means prudent. For temperance is named from the well-tempered 5 mind. For there are, indeed there are, among the old, some who rave and are beside themselves, some from wine, and some from sorrow. For old age makes them narrowminded. 3 i n<t>a\iov<;. E. V. " sober." [R. V. " temperate." P.S.] 4 [R. V. " soberminded." P.S.] r> <ru><j>poo-vi r).