HOMILY XIII.] HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS. 243 and the world unto me." But here he saith, "I now tell you weeping." Wherefore? Because the evil was urgent, because such deserve tears. Of a truth the luxurious are worthy of tears, who make fat that which is thrown about them, I mean the body, and take no thought of that soul which must give account. Behold thou livest delicately, behold thou art drunken, to-day and to-morrow, ten years, twenty, thirty, fifty, a hun dred, which is impossible ; but if thou wilt, let us suppose it. What is the end? What is the gain ? Nought at all. Doth it not then deserve tears, and lamentations, to lead such a life ; God hath brought us into this course, that He may crown us, and we take our departure without doing any noble action. Wherefore Paul weep- eth, where others laugh, and live in pleasure. So sympathetic is he : such thought taketh he for all men. "Whose god," saith he, "is the belly." For this have they a God ! l That is, " let us eat and drink ! " Dost thou see, how great an evil luxury is? to some their wealth, and to others their belly is a god. Are not these too idolaters, and worse than the common? And their "glory is in their shame." (i Cor. xv. 32.) Some say it is circumcision. I think not so, but this is its meaning, they make a boast of those things, of which they ought to be ashamed. It is a fearful thing to do shameful actions ; yet to do them, and be ashamed, is only half so dread ful. But where a man even boasts himself of them, it is excessive senselessness. Do these words apply to them alone ? And do those who are here present escape the charge? And will no one have account to render of these things? Does no one make a god of his belly, or glory in his shame ? I wish, earnestly I wish, that none of these charges lay against us, and that I did not know any one involved in what I have said. But I fear lest the words have more reference to us than to the men of those times. For when one consumes his whole life in drinking and reveling, and expends some small trifle on the poor, whilst he consumes the larger portion on his belly, will not these words with justice apply to him? No words are more apt to call attention, or more cutting in reproof, than these : " Whose god is the belly, whose glory is in their shame." And who are these? They, he says, who mind earthly things. " Let us build houses." Where, I ask ? On the earth, they answer. Let us purchase farms ; on the earth again : let us obtain power ; again on the earth : let us gain glory ; again on the earth : let us enrich our selves ; all these things are on the earth. These are they, whose god is their belly ; for if they have no spiritual thoughts, but have all their possessions here, and mind these things, with 1 There is some false reading here. Old Lat. has " What is their God? This, Let us eat and drink! " reason have they their belly for their god, in saying, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." And about thy body, thou grievest, tell me, that it is of earth, though thus thou art not at all injured. But thy soul thou draggest down to the earth, when thou oughtest to render even thy body spiritual ; for thou mayest, if thou wilt. Thou hast received a belly, that thou mayest feed, not distend it, that thou mayest have the mastery over it, not have it as mistress over thee : that it may minister to thee for the nour ishment of the other parts, not that thou may est minister to it, not that thou mayest exceed limits. The sea, when it passes its bounds, doth not work so many evils, as the belly doth to our body, together with our soul. The former over- floweth all the earth, the latter all the body. Put moderation for a boundary to it, as God hath put the sand for the sea. Then if its waves arise, and rage furiously, rebuke it, with the power which is in thee. See how God hath honored thee, that thou mightest imitate Him, and thou wilt not ; but thou seest the belly overflowing, destroying and overwhelming thy whole nature, and darest not to restrain or moderate it. " Whose God," he saith, " is their belly." Let us see how Paul served God : let us see how gluttons serve their belly. Do not they undergo ten thousand such deaths? do not they fear to disobey whatever it orders ? do not they minis ter impossibilities to it? Are not they worse than slaves? "But our citizenship," says he, " is in Heaven." Let us not then seek for ease here ; there do we shine, where also our citizen ship is. " From whence also," saith he, " we wait for a Saviour," the Lord Jesus Christ : " who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory." By little and little he hath carried us up. He saith, " From Heaven " and " Our Saviour," showing, from the place and from the Person, the dignity of the subject. " Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation," saith he. The body now suffereth many things : it is bound with chains, it is scourged, it suffereth innumerable evils ; but the body of Christ suf fered the same. This, then, he hinted at when he said, " That it may be conformed to the body of his glory." Wherefore the body is the same, but putteth on incorruption. " Shall fashion anew." Wherefore the fashion is different ; or perchance he has spoken figuratively of the change. He saith, "the body of our humiliation," because it is now humbled, subject to destruc tion, to pain, because it seemeth to be worthless, and to have nothing beyond that of other ani mals. " That it may be conformed to the body of his glory." What? shall this our body be fashioned like unto Him, who sitteth at the right