WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY V. and distress? Wilt thou then be any longer thy self? Let us not, I pray and entreat you, let us not vainly deceive ourselves and com fort ourselves with arguments like these ; no, let us practise those virtues, which shall avail to save us. The object before us is to sit together with Christ, and art thou trifling about such matters as these ? Why, were there no other sin at all, how great punishment ought we not to suffer for these very speeches them selves, because we are so insensate, so wretched, and so indolent, as, even with so vast a privilege before us, to talk thus ? Oh ! how much shalt thou have to lament, when thou shalt then con sider them that have done good ! When thou shalt behold slaves and base-born who have labored but a little here, there made partakers of the royal throne, will not these things be worse to thee than torment ? For if even now, when thou seest any in high reputation, though thou art suffering no evil, thou regardest this as worse than any punishment, and by this alone art consumed, and bemoanest thyself, and weepest, and judgest it to be as bad as ten thousand deaths ; what shalt thou suffer then ? Why, even were there no hell at all, the very thought of the kingdom, were it not enough to destroy and consume thee? And that such will be the case, we have enough in our own experi ence of things to teach us. Let us not then vainly flatter our own souls with speeches like these ; no, let us take heed, let us have a regard for our own salvation, let us make virtue our care, let us rouse ourselves to the practice of good works, that we may be counted worthy to attain to this exceeding glory, in Jesus Christ our Lord with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and for ages of ages. Amen. HOMILY V CHAPTER n. VERSES n, 12. " Wherefore remember, that aforetime ye the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands ; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." THERE are many things to show the loving- kindness of God. First, the fact, that byHim self He hath saved us, and by Himself through such a method as this. Secondly, that He hath saved us, as being what we were. Thirdly, that He hath exalted us to the place where we are. For all these things both contain in them selves the greatest demonstration of His loving- kindness, and they are the very subjects which Paul is now agitating in his Epistle. He had been saying, that when we were dead through our trespasses, and children of wrath, He saved us ; He is now telling us further, to whom He hath made us equal. "Wherefore," saith he, "remember; " because it is usual with us, one and all, when we are raised from a state of great meanness to corresponding, or perhaps a greater, dignity, not so much as even to retain any recollection of our former condition, being nourished in this our new glory. On this ac count it is that he says, " Wherefore remember." "Wherefore." Why, " wherefore ?" 1 Because we have been created unto good works, and this were sufficient to induce us to cultivate vir tue; "remember," for that remembrance is sufficient to make us grateful to our Benefactor, " that ye were aforetime Gentiles." Observe how he lowers the superior advantages of the Jews and admires the disadvantages of the Gen tiles ; disadvantage indeed it was not, but he is arguing with each respectively from their char acter and manner of life. " Who are called Uncircumcision." 2 The honor then of the Jews is in names, their perogative is in the flesh. For Uncircumcision is nothing, and circumcision is nothing. " By that which is called," saith he, " Cir cumcision in the flesh made by hands, that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. 3 1 [" Therefore, because such exalted.and unmerited benefits have been imparted to us (vv. 4-10)," (Ellicott vv. 1-7). "These benefits should move the reader to remember his former miserable heathen state in order to appreciate by contrast the value of his present state." Meyer. G. A.]3 ["They were those designated Foreskin by the people who bear the name of the surgical operation performed on their flesh." Meyer. G. A.] 3 ["They were without church, without promise, without hope,without God, and that in the profane wicked world (eV TO> Kocr/xy being in contrast to no\treia<; rov lo-parjA and like it, ethical in reference. ) "AOeoi may mean ignorant ofGod or forsaken by God, probably the latter." Ellicott. G. A.]