164 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XXIII. die, for all the language in this passage he employs in a spiritual sense. 1 And observe how methodically he proceeds. First he girds up his soldier.2 What then is the meaning of this ? The man that is loose in his life, and is dissolved in his lusts, and that has his thoughts trailing on the ground, him he braces up by means of this girdle, not suffering him to be impeded by the garments entangling his legs, but leaving him to run with his feet well at liberty. " Stand there fore, having girded your loins," saith he. By the "loins" here he means this; just what the keel is in ships, the same are the loins with us, the basis or groundwork of the whole body : for they are, as it were, a foundation, and upon them as the schools of the physicians tell you, the whole frame is built. So then in " girding up the loins " he compacts the foundation of our soul ; for he is not of course speaking of these loins of our body, but is discoursing spirit ually : and as the loins are the foundation alike of the parts both above and below, so is it also in the case of these spiritual loins. Oftentimes, we know, when persons are fatigued, they put their hands there as if upon a sort of foundation, and in that manner support themselves ; and for this reason it is that the girdle is used in war, that it may bind and hold together this founda tion, as it were, in our frame ; for this reason too it is that when we run we gird ourselves. It is this which guards our strength. Let this then, saith he, be done also with respect to the soul, and then in doing anything whatsoever we shall be strong ; and it is a thing most especially becoming to soldiers. True, you may say, but these our natural loins we gird with a leathern band ; but we, spiritual soldiers, with what? I answer, with that which is the head and crown of all our thoughts, I mean, " with truth." " Having girded your loins," saith he, "with truth." 3 What then is the mean ing of " with truth "? Let us love nothing like falsehood, all our duties let us pursue " with truth," let us not lie one to another. Whether it be an opinion, let us seek the truth, or whether it be a line of life, let us seek the true one. If we fortify ourselves with this, if we "gird ourselves with truth," then shall no one overcome us. He who seeks the doctrine of truth, shall never fall down to the earth ; for that the things which are not true are of the earth, is evident from this, that all they that are without are enslaved to the passions, following . 2 [" As for the actual warrior, the whole aptus habitus (prepared state) for the combat would be wanting in the absence of the girdle ; so also for the spiritual warrior, if he is not furnished with truth." Meyer. G. A.]3 ["It is clear that truth does not mean objectively the gospel, for that is designated later, ver. 17, by prjiuaOeoC ( thewordofGod ), but subjectively," truth as an inward property, i.e. the harmony of knowledge with the objective truth given in the gospel. " Meyer.G. A.] their own reasonings ; and therefore if we are sober, we shall need no instruction in the tales of the Greeks. Seest thou how weak and friv olous they are ? incapable of entertaining about God one severe thought or anything above human reasoning? Why? Because they are not " girded about with truth " ; because their loins, the receptacle of the seed of life, and the main strength of their reasonings, are ungirt ; noth ing then can be weaker than these. And the Manicheans 4 again, seest thou, how all the things they have the boldness to utter, are from their own reasonings? "It was impossible," say they, " for God to create the world without matter." Whence is this so evident? These things they say, groveling, and from the earth, and from what happens amongst ourselves ; be cause man, they say, cannot create otherwise. Marcion again, look what he says. "God, if He took upon Him flesh, could not remain pure." Whence is this evident? "Because," says he, " neither can men." But men are able to do this. Valentinus again, with his reasonings all trailing along the ground, speaks the things of the earth ; and in like manner Paul of Samosata. And Arius, what does he say ? " It was impossible for God when He begat, to beget without passion." 5 Whence, Arius, hast thou the boldness to allege this ; merely from the things which take place amongst ourselves? Seest thou how the reasonings of all these trail along on the ground? All are, as it were, let loose and unconfined, and savoring of the earth? And so much then for doctrines. With regard to life and conduct, again, whoremongers, lovers of money, and of glory, and of everything else, trail on the ground. They have not their loins themselves standing firm, so that when they are weary they may rest upon them ; but when they are weary, they do not put their hands upon them and stand upright, but flag. He, however, who " is girt about with the truth," first, never is weary ; and secondly, if he should be weary, he will rest himselfupon the truth itself. What ? Will poverty, tell me, render him weary? No, in nowise ; for he will repose on the true riches, and by this poverty will understand what is true poverty. Or again, will slavery make him weary? No, in nowise, for he will know what is the true slavery. Or shall disease? No, nor even that. " Let your loins," saith Christ, " be girded about, and your lamps burning" (Luke xii. 35), with that light which shall never be put out. This is what the Israelites also, when they were departing out of Egypt (Ex. xii. n), were 4 The Manichees considered matter to be uncreate; vid. Note on St. Augustine s Confessions, .b. The Marcionites considered mat ter intrinsically evil; vid. Theod. H&r. i. 24. Valentinus denied that our Lord was born of the substance of Mary; vid. St. Cyril, Lect. iv. 9. Paul ofSamosata and Arius both denied His Godhead.