238 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XII. to behold Him, who blasphemed Him every day. He saw him lying on a dunghill, eaten with worms, afflicted with fever and hunger, hav ing every sort of disease ; for both fever vexed him, which is evil desire ; and inflammation lay heavy on him, this is pride ; and gnawing hunger had hold of him, which is covetousness ; and putrefying sores on every side, for this is forni cation ; and blindness of eyes, which is idolatry ; and dumbness, and madness, which is to worship stocks and stones, and address them ; and great deformity, for wickedness is this, foul to behold, and a most heavy disease. And he saw us speaking more foolishly than the mad, and call ing stocks our God, and stones likewise ; He saw us in such great guilt, he did not reject us ; was not wroth, turned not away, hated us not, for He was a Master, and could not hate His own creation. But what does he do? As a most excellent physician, He prepareth medi cines of great price, and Himself tastes them first. For He Himself first followed after vir tue, and thus gave it to us. And He first gave us the washing, 1 like some antidote, and thus we vomited up all our guilt, and all things took their flight at once, and our inflammation ceased, and our fever was quenched, and our sores were dried up. For all the evils which are from cove tousness, and anger, and all the rest, were dissi pated by the Spirit. Our eyes were opened, our ears were opened, our tongue spake holy words : our soul received strength, our body received such beauty and bloom, as it is like that he who is born a son ofGod should have from the grace of the Spirit ; such glory as it is like that the new-born son of a king should have, nurtured in purple. Alas ! How great nobility did He con fer on us ! We were born, we were nurtured, why do we again fly from our Benefactor? He then, who hath done all these things, giveth us strength too, for it was not possible, for a soul bowed down by the disease to endure it, did not He Himself give us the strength: He gave us re mission of our sins. We devoured all things. He gave us strength, we wasted it. He gave us grace, we quenched it; and how? we consumed it upon nought that was fitting, we used it for no useful end. These things have destroyed us, and what is more dreadful than all, when we are in a foreign country, and feeding on husks, we say not, Let us return to our Father, and say, " We have sinned against Heaven, and against Thee." (Luke xv. 18.) And that too, when we have so loving a Father, who eagerly desires our return. Ifwe will only return to Him, He does not even bear to call in question our former deeds, only let us quit them. It is sufficient apology with Him, that we have returned. Not only He Himself calls not in question, but if another does so, He stops his mouth, though the accuser be one of good repute. Let us return ! How long do we stand afar off? Let us perceive our dishonor, let us be sensible of our vileness. Sin makes us swine, sin brings famine to the soul ; let us regain ourselves, and be sober again, and return to our former high birth, that we .may obtain the good things which are to come, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and ever and world without end. HOMILY XII. PHILIPPIANS iii. 13, 14. " Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended : but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling ofGod in Christ Jesus." NOTHING so renders our real excellences vain and puffs them away, as to be remembering the good deeds we have done ; for this produces two evils, it both renders us remiss, and raises us to haughtiness. Wherefore see how Paul, since he knew our nature to be easily inclined to remissness, though he had given great praise to 1 [Or "bath," " laver." He refers to Tit. iii. 5. J. A. B.] the Philippians, now subdues their mind by many other things above, but chiefly by his present words. And what are they ? " Brethren, I count not myself 2 to have apprehended." But if Paul had not as yet apprehended, and is not confident about the Resurrection and things to come, hardly should they be so, who have not attained the smallest proportion of his excel lence. That is, I consider that I have not as 2 [Nearly all documents of Chrys. here read simply " not," as in Textus Receptus. Yet the connection following seems to show that Chrys. really read " not yet," as in the Rev. Eng. Bible. Early copyists made the quotation conform to the text of Scripture with which they were familiar, but left the comment unaltered, a fre quent occurrence in the Fathers. J. A. B.]