54 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY I. vailed for, as one might say, that He might be able to reveal to us the mystery. What mys tery ? That He would have man seated up on high. And this hath come to pass. Ver. 10. " Unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, even in Him." Heavenly things, he means to say, had been severed from earthly. They had no longer one Head. So far indeed as the system of the creation went, there was over all One God, but so far as management of one household went, this, amid the wide spread of Gentile error, was not the case, but they had been severed from His obedience. " Unto a dispensation," saith he, " of the fulness of the times." The fulness of the times, he calls it. Observe with what nicety he speaks. And whereas he points out the origination, the purpose, the will, the first intention, as proceeding from the Father, and the fulfillment and execution as effected by the agency of the Son, yet no where does he apply to him the term minister1 . " He chose us," saith he, " in Him, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself; " and, "to the praise of the glory of His grace, in whom we have redemption through His blood, which He pur posed in Him, unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ; " and no where hath he called Him minister. If however the word " in " and the word " by" implies a mere minister, look what the matter comes to. Just in the very beginning of the Epistle, he used the expression "through the will of the Father." The Father, he means, willed, the Son wrought. But neither does it follow, that because the Father willed, the Son is excluded from the willing ; nor because the Son wrought, that the Father is deprived of the working. But to the Father and the Son, all things are common. " For all Mine are Thine," saith He, " and Thine are Mine." (Jo. xviitio.) The fullness of the times,2 however, was His coming. After, then, He had done everything, by the ministry both of Angels, and of Prophets, and of the Law, and nothing came of it, and it was well nigh come to this, that man had been made in vain, brought into the world in vain, nay, rather to his ruin ; when all were absolutely perishing, more fearfully than in the deluge, He devised this dispensation, that is by grace ; that it might not be in vain, might not be to no purpose that man was created. This he calls "the fulness of the times," and "wisdom." And why so? Because at that time when they were on the very point of per ishing, then they were rescued. That " He might sum up " he saith. What isthemeaning of this word, "sumup ? " It is "to knit together." Let us, however, endeavor to get near the exact import. With ourselves then, in common conversation, the word means the summing into a brief compass things spoken at length, the concise account of matters described in detail. And it has this meaning. For Christ hath gathered up in Him self the dispensations carried on through a lengthened period, that is to say, He hath cut them short. For "by finishing His word and cutting it short in righteousness." (Romans ix: 28.) He both comprehended former dispensa tions, and added others beside. This is the meaning of " summing up." It has also another signification ; and of what nature is this ? He hath set over all one and the same Head, i. e., Christ according to the flesh, alike over Angels and men. That is to say, He hath given to Angels and men one and the same government ; to the one the Incarnate, to the other God the Word.3 Just as one might say of a house which has some part de cayed and the other sound, He hath rebuilt the house, that is to say, He has made it stronger, and laid a firmer foundation. So also here He hath brought all under one and the same Head. 4 For thus will an union be 3 ["A distinction at variance with Scripture." Meyer. G. A.]4 [" This illustration has been again employed by Harless whose view of this passage is that the apostle speaks thus : The Lord and Creator of the whole body of which heaven and earth aremembers, has in the restoration ofone member restored the whole body ; and in this consists the greatest significance of the reconciliation that it is not merely a restoration of the life of earth but a bringing back of the harmony of the universe. This concedes to the TO. 67Ti TOIS ovpavolf merely an indirect participation in the ava/ce^aA- aia)(7is and the defacto operation of the Messianic oiKoro^ua on the heavenly world is set aside, which appears the less admissible inasmuch as the TO. en-i TOIS oupavois has the precedence (in posi tion)." Meyer. " Heaven and earth have become places of sin (vi : 12 ;) indeed heaven was the first theatre of sin when a part of the angels fell into sin and away from God (i Tim. iii : 6 ; i Jo. iii : 8 ; James ii : 19 ; 2 Peter ii : 4 ;) thence it came to earth (2 Cor. xi : 3 ; i Cor. x : 20, 21 ) Thus the state originally appointed by God and the development He wished to be without disturbance, ceased (Rom. viii : 18-24,) so that a renewing of the heavens and the eartfi was taken into view (2 Peter iii : 13.) The center of this renewal is Christ and His redeeming work. Here we may certainly apply what Bengel so aptly remarks on Rom. viii : 19. that/ro suo quodque genus captu, every kind according to its capacity, participates in this Anacephalaiosis, the evil (angels) as conquered and rejected opponents, the good angels as partici pating friends, the redeemed as accepted children, the rest of crea tion as subordinate companions." Braune in Lange . Similarly Eadie : " Not only has harmony been restored to the universe and the rupture occasioned by sin repaired, but beings still in rebellion are placed under Christ s control, as well as the unconscious ele ments and spheres of nature. This summation is seen in the form of government : Jesus is universal regent." G. A.]