HOMILY VI.] HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS. 287 ulchre " (Matt. xxvi. 63, 64) be guarded by the soldiers. This was accordingly done, themselves also sealing it. Hear them further saying even afterwards to the Apostles, " Ye intend to bring this Man s blood upon us." (Acts v. 28.) He suffered not the very fashion of His Cross to be put to shame. For since the Angels have suf fered nothing like it, He therefore doth every thing for this, showing that His death achieved a mighty work. There was, as it were, a single combat. Death wounded Christ : but Christ, being wounded, did afterwards kill death. He that seemed to be immortal, was destroyed by a mortal body ; and this the whole world saw. And what is truly wonderful is, that He com mitted not this thing to another. But there was made again a second bond of another kind than the former. Beware then lest we be condemned by this, after saying, I renounce Satan, and array my self with Thee, O Christ. Rather however this should not be called " a bond," but a covenant. For that is "a bond," whereby one is held accountable for debts : but this is a covenant. It hath no penalty, nor saith it, If this be done, or if this be not done : what Moses said when he sprinkled the blood of the covenant, by this God also promised everlasting life. All this is a covenant. There, it was slave with master, here, it is friend with friend : there, it is said, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die " (Gen. ii. 17) ; an immediate threatening; but here is nothing of the kind. God arrives, and here is nakedness, and there was nakedness ; there, however, one that had sinned was made naked, because he sinned, but here, one is made naked, that he may be set free. Then, man put off the glory which he had ; now, he puts off the old man; and before going up (to the contest), puts him off as easily, as it were his garments. 1 He is anointed, 2 as wrestlers about to enter the lists. For he is born at once ; and as that first man was, not by little and little, but imme diately. (He is anointed,) not as the priests of old time, on the head alone, but rather in more abundant measure. For he indeed was anointed on the head, the right ear, the hand (Lev. viii. 23, 24) ; to excite him to obedience, and to good works ; but this one, all over. For he cometh not to be instructed merely ; but to wrestle, and to be exercised ; he is advanced to another creation. For when one confesses (his belief) in the life everlasting, 3 he has confessed a second creation. He took dust from the earth, and formed man (Gen. ii. 7) : but now, dust no longer, but the Holy Spirit ; with This he is formed, with this harmonized, even as Himself 1 See St. Cyril, Catech. XX. 2 See St. Cyril, Catech. XXI. 3 In the Apostles Creed, recited at Baptism. was in the womb of the Virgin. He said not in Paradise, but "in Heaven." For deem not that, because the subject is earth, it is done on earth ; he is * removed thither, to Heaven, there these things are transacted, in the midst of Angels : God taketh up thy soul above, above He har- monizeth it anew, He placeth thee near to the Kingly Throne. He is formed in the water, he receiveth spirit instead of a soul.5 And after he is formed, He bringeth to him, not beasts, but demons, and their prince, and saith, "Tread upon serpents and scorpions." (Luke x. 19.) He saith not, " Let Us make man in our image, and after our likeness" (Gen. i. 26), but what? " He giveth them to become the sons of God ; but of God," he saith, " they were born." (John i. 12, 13.) Then that thou give no ear to the serpent, straightway he teaches thee to say, " I renounce thee," that is, " whatsoever thou sayest, I will not hear thee." Then, that he destroy thee not by means of others, it is said,6 " and thypomp, and thy service, and thy angels." He hath set him no more to keep Paradise, but to have his citizenship in heaven. For straight way when he cometh up he pronounceth these words, " Our Father, Which art in Heaven, . . . Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so on earth." The plain falleth not on thy sight, 7 thou seest not tree, nor fountain, but straightway thou takest into thee the Lord Himself, thou art mingled with His Body, thou art intermixed with that Body that lieth above, whither the devil cannot approach. No woman is there, for him to approach, and deceive as the weaker ; for it is said, "There is neither female, nor male." (Gal. iii. 28.) If thou go not down to him, he will not have power to come up where thou art ; for thou art in Heaven, and Heaven is unap proachable by the devil. It hath no tree with knowledge of good and evil, but the Tree of Life only. No more shall woman be formed from thy side, but we all are one from the side of Christ. For if they who have been anointed of men take no harm by serpents, neither wilt thou take any harm at all, so long as thou art anointed ; that thou mayst be able to grasp the Serpent and choke him, " to tread upon serpents and scorpions." (Luke x. 19.) But as the gifts are great, so is the punishment great also. It is not possible for him that hath fallen from Para- * Old Lat. " thou art." The former clause may be, " think not, because the earth is under thee, that thou art in earth." 5 avriifivxav jrveu/ia, i.e. as Adam received a soul. The Spirit becoming, as it were, the life of the new man. See on Rom. viii. ii. 6 <bi)ai, the person who directs the catechumen. 7 No meaning appears in this, OVK fir o^iv iriirrci TO naittov, though old Lat. also has, " The child falleth not on his face ; but we have only to read TTC&WV, as in a doubtful passage of Horn. xvi. on Rom. Tr. p. 467, note. This has been done in the text, not to spoil so beautiful a passage. [There may be a fanciful notion of the person newly baptized and thereby regenerated (" formed in the water") as a child. Upon coming up and pronouncing the Lords Prayer, " the child does not fall on his face." The meaning will still" be obscure, but the whole passage N highly fanciful, and there is thus at least a possible sense. J. A. B.]