HOMILY VI.] HOMILIES QN PHILIPPIANS. 209 Again, consider what he says after the exam ple, " In lowliness of mind, each counting other better than themselves." (Phil. ii. 3.) He says, " counting," for as ye are one in substance, and in the honor which cometh of God, it follows that the matter is one of estimation. Now in the case of those who are greater and lesser, he would not have said " counting," but honor them that are better than yourselves, as he says in another place, " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them." (Heb. xiii. 17.) In that instance subjection is the result of the nature of the case, in this of our own judg ment. " In lowliness of mind," he says, " each counting other better than themselves," as Christ also did. Thus are their explanations overthrown. It remains that I speak of our own after I have first spoken of theirs summarily. When exhort ing to lowliness of mind, Paul would never have brought forward a lesser one, as obedient to a greater. If he were exhorting servants to obey their masters, he might have done so with pro priety, but when exhorting the free to obey the free, to what purpose could he bring forward the subjection of a servant to a master? of a lesser to a greater? He says not, "Let the lesser be subject to the greater," but ye who are of equal honor with each other be ye subject, " each counting other better than themselves." Why then did he not bring forward even the obedience of the wife, and say, As the wife obeys her husband, so do ye also obey. Now if he did not bring forward that state in which there is equality and liberty, since in that the subjection is but slight, how much less would he have brought forward the subjection of a slave? I said above, that no one so praises a man for abstaining from evil, nor even mentions him at all ; no onewho desires to praise a man for con tinence would say, he has not committed adul tery, but, he has abstained from his own wife ; for we do not consider abstinence from evil as a matter of praise at all, it would be ridiculous. I said that the " form of a servant " was a true form, and nothing less. Therefore "the form of God " also is perfect, and no less. Why says he not, " being made in the form of God," but " being in the form of God "? This is the same as the saying, "I am that I am." (Ex. iii. 14.) " Form " implies unchangeable- ness, so far as it is form. It is not possible that things of one substance should have the form of another, as no man has the form of an angel, neither has a beast the form of a man. How then should the Son? Now in our own case, since we men are of a compound nature, form pertains to the body, but in the case of a simple and altogether un- compounded nature it is of the substance. But if thou contendest that he speaks not of the Father, because the word is used without the article, in many places this is meant, though the word be used without the article. Why say I, in many places ? for in this very place he says, " He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God," using the word without the article, though speaking of God the Father. I would add our own explanation, but I fear that I shall overwhelm your minds. Meanwhile remember what has been said for their refuta tion meanwhile let us root out the thorns, and then we will scatter the good seed after that the thorns have been rooted out, and a little rest has been given to the land ; that when rid of all the evil thence contracted, it may receive the divine seed with full virtue. Let us give thanks to God for what has been spoken ; let us entreat Him to grant us the guarding and safe keeping thereof, that both we and ye may rejoice, and the heretics may be put to shame. Let us beseech Him to open our mouth for what follows, that we may with the same earnestness lay down our own views. Let us supplicate Him to vouchsafe us a life worthy of the faith, that we may live to His glory, and that His name may not be blasphemed through us. For, " woe unto you," it is written, " through whom the name of God is blasphemed." (Isa. Hi. 5, LXX. nearly.) For if, when we have a son, (and what is there more our own than a son,) if therefore when we have a son, and are blasphemed through him, we publicly renounce him, turn away from him, and will not receive him ; how much more will God, when He has ungrateful servants who blaspheme and insult Him, turn away from them and hate them ? And who will take up him whom God hates and turns away from, but the Devil and the demons ? And whomsoever the demons take, what hope of salvation is left for him? what consolation in life? As long as we are in the hand of God, " no one is able to pluck us out " (John x, 28) , for that hand is strong ; but when we fall away from that hand and that help, then are we lost, then are we exposed, ready to be snatched away, as a " bowing wall, and a tottering fence " (Ps. Ixii. 3) ; when the wall is weak, it will be easy for all to surmount. Think not this which I am about to say refers to Jerusalem alone, but to all men. And what was spoken of Jerusalem? " Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My well- beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and I made a fence about it, and surrounded it with a dike, and planted it with the vine of Sorech, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also dug a wine press in it, and I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth