HOMILY XL] HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS. 235 But these very words are favorable to the Law, and how they are so, shall be hence manifest. Let us attend accurately to his very words. He said not, The Law is loss : but " I counted it loss." But when he spake of gain, he said not, I counted them, but " they were gain." But when he spake ofloss he said, " I counted " : and this rightly ; for the former was naturally so, but the latter became so, from my opinion. " What then? Is it not so?" says he. It is loss for Christ. And how has the law become gain ? And it was not counted gain, but was so. For con sider how great a thing it was, to bring men, brutalized in their nature, to the shape of men. If the law had not been, grace would not have been given. Wherefore? Because it became a sort of bridge ; for when it was impossible to mount on high from a state of great abasement, a ladder was formed. But he who has ascended has no longer need of the ladder ; yet he does not despise it, but is even grateful to it. For it has placed him in such a position, as no longer to require it. And yet for this very reason, that he doth not require it, it is just that he should acknowledge his obligation, for. he could not fly up. And thus is it with the Law, it hath led us up on high ; wherefore it was gain, but for the future we esteem it loss. How? Not because it is loss, but because grace is far greater. For as a poor man, that was in hunger, as long as he has silver, escapes hunger, but when he finds gold, and it is not allowable to keep both, con siders it loss to retain the former, and having thrown it away, takes the gold coin ; so also here ; not because the silver is loss, for it is not ; but because it is impossible to take both at once, but it is necessary to leave one. Not the Law then is loss, but for a man to cleave to the Law, and desert Christ. Wherefore it is then loss when it leads us away from Christ. But if it sends us on to Him, it is no longer so. For this cause he saith " loss for Christ " ; if for Christ, it is not so naturally. But why doth not the Law suffer us to come to Christ? For this very cause, he tells us, was it given. And Christ is the fulfilling of the Law, and Christ is the end of the Law. It doth suffer us if we will. " For Christ is the end of the Law." He who obeyeth the Law, leaves the Law itself. It suffers, if we take heed to it, but if we do not take heed, it suffers not. "Yea verily, and I have counted all things but loss." Why, he means, do I say this of the Law? Is not the world good? Is not the present life good ? but if they draw me away from Christ, I count these things loss. Why ? " for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord." For when the sun hath appeared, it is loss to sit by a candle : so that the loss comes by comparison, by the superiority of the other. You see that Paul makes a com parison from superiority, not from diversity of kind ; for that which is superior, is superior to somewhat of like nature to itself. So that he shows the connection of that knowledge by the same means, by which he draws the superiority from the comparison. " For whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them dung, that I may gain Christ." It is not yet manifest, whether he speaks of the Law, for it is likely that he applies it to the things of this world. For when he says, " the things which were gain to me, those I have counted loss for Christ; yea verily," he adds, " I count all things loss." Al though he said all things, yet it is things present ; and if you wish it to be the Law too, not even so is it insulted. For dung comes from wheat, and the strength of the wheat is the dung, I mean, the chaff. But as the dung was useful in its former state, so that we gather it together with the wheat, and had there been no dung, there would have been no wheat, thus too is it with the Law. Seest thou, how everywhere he calls it "loss," not in itself, but for Christ. " Yea verily, and I count all things but loss." Wherefore again? " For the excellency of the knowledge (of Him), for whom I suffered the loss of all things." Again, " wherefore too I count all things to be loss, that I may gain Christ." See how, from every point, he lays hold of Christ as his foundation, and suffers not the Law to be anywhere exposed, or receive a blow, but guards it on every side. " And that I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the Law." If he who had righteousness, ran to this other righteousness because his own was nothing, how- much rather ought they, who have it not, to run to Him ? And he well said, " a righteousness of mine own," not that which I gained by labor and toil, but that which I found from grace. If then he who was so excellent is saved by grace, much more are you. For since it was likely they would say that the righteousness which comes from toil is the greater, he shows that it is dung in comparison with the other. For otherwise -I, who was so excellent in it, would not have cast it away, and run to the other. But what is that other? That which is from the faith of God, i.e. it too is given by God. This is the righteousness of God ; this is altogether a gift. And the gifts of God far ex ceed those worthless good deeds, which are due_ to our own diligence. But what is "By faith that I may know Him"? 1 So then knowledge is through faith, 1 [The words "by faith," literally, "upon faith," are usually understood as connected with " righteousness "; but in strictness of reek syntax this cannot be, and they are better connected with