eloquent speech in my mouth.”1138 Let this be the prayer which we offer to God for our Teacher. For if a woman, supplicating on behalf of the Jews, prevailed to allay the wrath of a barbarian, much rather will our Teacher, entreating on behalf of so great a city, and in conjunction with so great a Church, be able to persuade this most mild and merciful Emperor. For if he hath received authority to loose sins committed against God, much more will he be able to take away and blot out those which have been committed against a man. He is also himself a ruler and a ruler of more dignity than the other. For the sacred laws take and place under his hands even the royal head. And when there is need of any good thing from above, the Emperor is accustomed to fly to the priest: but not the priest to the Emperor. 357 He1139 too hath his breast-plate, that of righteousness.1140 He too hath his girdle, that of truth, and sandals1141 of much greater dignity, those of the Gospel of peace. He too hath a sword, not of iron, but of the Spirit; he too hath a crown resting on his head. This panoply is the more splendid. The weapons are grander, the license of speech greater,1142 and mightier1143 the strength. So that from the weight of his authority, and from his own greatness of soul; and more than all the rest, from the hope which he has in God, he will address the Emperor with much freedom and much discretion. 7. Let us not then despair of our safety, but let us pray; let us make invocation; let us supplicate; let us go on embassy to the King that is above with many tears! We have this fast too as an ally, and as an assistant in this good intercession. Therefore, as when the winter is over and the summer is appearing, the sailor draws his vessel to the deep; and the soldier burnishes his arms, and makes ready his steed for the battle; and the husbandman sharpens his sickle; and the traveller boldly undertakes a long journey, and the wrestler strips and bares himself for the contest. So too, when the fast makes its appearance, like a kind of spiritual summer, let us as soldiers burnish our weapons; and as husbandmen let us sharpen 1138 From the additions to the Book of Esther, in the Apocrypha, ch. xiv. 2, 3, 13. 1139 Sav. and M. om. For. 1140 The imperial armature is here compared not with the Ecclesiastical dress, but with the spiritual armour, which the Church has somewhat differently, according to her discretion, represented by outward forms. What is applied by St. Paul to the individual Christian is here used specially of one who represents our Lord in authority as well as in person. Compare on the breastplate, Ex. xxvii. 15, Isa. lix. 7; on the girdle, Ex. xxviii. 40, Isa. xi. 5, Rev. i. 13, Eph. vi. 14; on the sandals, Isa. lii. 7, Eph. vi. 15; on the sword, Heb. iv. 12, Eph. vi. 17; on the crown, Ex. xxix. 6, Eph. vi. 17; see also Fabr. Ag. ii. 34 (Græv. Thes. viii. p. 2095). Martene de Ant. Eccl. Rit. l. i. c. 4, art. 1, sec. 12; Durand. Rat. Div. Off. lib. 3. 1141 See on Rom. viii. 25; Hom. XIV. Mor., where the shoes are especially noticed as a part of imperial mag- nificence. 1142 μεἴζων ἡ παῤῥησία, lit. “greater the boldness of speech,” but the context seems to give this meaning. 1143 i.e., than those belonging to an emperor. See Const. Ap. ii. 34, and note 11 of Cotelerius, p. 247. 498 Homily III