HOMILY IV.] HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS. 275 fend you, 1 not we, but the Episcopate itself, not live to the glory of God, and be counted worthy this man or that, but the Bishop. Let no one : of the good things promised to those that love hear me, but the dignity. Let us then do every- 1 Him, through the grace and lovingkindness, &c_ thing according to the will of God, that we may j &c. HOMILY IV. COLOSSIANS i. 21, 22. " And you, being in time past, enemies and alienated 2 in your mind, in your evil works, yet now hath He rec onciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unre- provable before Him." HERE he goes to show that He reconciled those even who were unworthy of reconciliation. For by the saying that they were under the power of darkness, he shows the calamity in which they were. (v. 13.) But lest, on hearing of " the power of darkness," thou shouldest con sider it Necessity, he adds, " And you that were alienated," so that though it appear to be the same thing that he says, yet it is not so ; for it is not the same thing to deliver out of the evilshim that through necessity came to suffer, and him that of his own will endures. For the former in deed is worthy to be pitied, but the latter hated. But nevertheless, he saith, you that are not against your wills, nor from compulsion, but with your wills, and wishes, sprang away from Him, and are unworthy of it, He hath reconciled . ;i And seeing he had made mention of the "things in the heavens," he shows, that all the enmity had its origin from hence, not thence. For they in deed were long ago desirous, and God also, but ye were not willing. And throughout he is showing that the Angels had no power in the successive times, 4 forasmuch as men continued enemies ; they could neither persuade them, nor, if persuaded, could they deliver them from the devil. For neither would persuading them be any gain, except he that held them were bound ; nor would binding him have been of any service, except they whom he detained were willing to return. But both of these were needed, and they could do neither of them, but Christ did both. So that even more marvelous than loosing death, is the per- 1 TrpoCTayres. "Up hill," "against the grain." 1 The order of words, "enemies" and "alienated," is here in verted as compared with the Rec. text, and the Commentary that follows here requires the common order. 3 Edd. have an-TJAAaff , but the Translator conjectures an-oicaTJJA- Aafe, which is confirmed by a MS. in Brit. M. * TOIS xaria xpdcois, usually " latter times"; here it seems to be " down the stream of time." One suspects avu, but it may be reck oned from the Fall, suading them. For the former was wholly of Himself, and the power lay wholly in Himself, but of the latter, not in Himself alone, but in us also ; but we accomplish those things more easily of which the power lies in ourselves. Therefore, as being the greater, he puts it last. And he said not simply "were at enmity," 5 but " were alienated," which denotes great enmity, nor yet " alienated " 6 [only], but without any ex pectation even of returning. " And enemies in your mind," he says ; then the alienation had not proceeded so far as purpose only but what? " in your wicked works " also. Ye were both ene mies, he saith, and ye did the works of enemies. " Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him." Agafti he lays down also the manner of the reconciliation, that it was "in the Body," not by being merely beaten, nor scourged, nor sold, but even by dying a death the most shameful. Again he makes mention of the Cross, and again lays down another benefit. For He did not only " deliver," but, as he says above, " Who made us meet" (ver. 12), to the same he alludes here also. " Through " His " death," he says, " to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him." For truly, He hath not only delivered from sins, but hath also placed amongst the approved. For, not that He might deliver us from evils only, did He suffer so great things, but that also we might obtain the first rewards ; as if one should not only free a condemned criminal from his punishment, but also advance him to honor. And he hath ranked you with those who have not sinned, yea rather not with those who have done no sin only, but even with thosewho have wrought the greatest righteousness ; and, what is truly a great thing, hath given the holiness which is before Him, and the being unreprovable. Now an advance upon unblamable is unreprovable, when we have done nothing either to be con demned for, or charged with. But, since he B evflpcuVoi Ta?, which is less than e> Here r,)^AAorpuojieVovs, not ajTTjAAoTpitu/aiei ou?, as above.