HOMILY VI.] HOMILIES ON TIMOTHY 499 offend, who offers the goods of another? An offering is nothing else but a sacrifice, a purifica tion, not a pollution. And thou who darest not to pray with unclean hands, dost thou offer the dirt and filth of robbery, and think thou doest nothing wrong? Thou sufferest not thy hands to be full of dirt and filth, but having first cleansed these, thou offerest. Yet that filth is no charge against thee, while the other deserves reproach and blame. Let it not therefore be our consideration, how we may offer prayers and oblations with clean hands, but how the things offered may be pure. If one, after having washed a vessel clean, should fill it with unclean gifts, would it not be ridiculous mockery? Let the hands be clean ; and they will be so, if we wash them not with water only, but first with righteousness. This is the purifier of the hands. But if they be full of unrighteousness, though they be washed a thousand times, it avails noth ing. "Wash you, make you clean " (Isa. i. 16), He says, but does He add, " Go to the baths, the lakes, the rivers " ? No ; but what? " Put away the evil of your doings from your souls." This is to be clean. 1 This it is to be cleansed from defilement. This is real purity. The other is of little use ; but this bestows upon us confi dence towards God. The one may be obtained by adulterers, thieves, murderers, by worthless, and dissolute, and effeminate persons, and espec ially the latter. For they are ever careful of the cleanliness of their bodies, and scented with perfumes, cleansing their sepulcher. 2 For their body 3 is but a sepulcher, since the soul is dead within it. This cleanness therefore may be theirs, 4 but not that which is inward. To wash the body is no great matter. That is a Jewish purification, senseless 5 and unprofit able, where purity within is wanting. Suppose one to labor under a putrefying sore, or con suming ulcer ; let him wash his body ever so much, it is of no advantage. And if the putre faction of the body receives no benefit from cleansing and disguising the outward appear ance ; when the soul is infected with rottenness, what is gained by the purity of the body? Nothing ! Our prayers ought to be pure, and pure they cannot be, if they are sent forth from a corrupt soul, and nothing so corrupts the soul as avarice and rapine. But there are some who after committing numberless sins during the day, wash themselves in the evening and enter the churches, holding up their hands with much confidence, as if by the washing of the bath they had put off all their guilt. And if this were the case, it would be a vast advantage to 1 B., though usually here far inferior to the printed text, seems best in these words. Sav. has, " That is.be clean: this it is that cleanses," &c. * o-jj^ia. * B. reads /xeTeivai, for /utrieVai. 3 0-cu/j.a. * Sav. " useless." use the bath daily ! I would not myself cease to frequent the baths, 6 if it made us pure, and cleansed us from our sins ! But these things are trifling and ridiculous, the toys of children. It is not the filth of the body, but the impurity of the soul, to which God is averse. For He says, " Blessed are the pure " does He say in body? No "in heart: for they shall see God." (Matt. v. 8.) And what says the Prophet : "Create in me a clean heart, O God." (Ps. li. 10.) And again, " Wash my heart from wicked ness." (Jer. iv. 14.) It is of great use to be in the habit of doing good actions. See how trifling and unprofitable these washings are. But when the soul is pre possessed by a habit, it does not depart from it, nor does it venture to draw nigh in prayer, till it has fulfilled these ceremonies. For instance, we have brought ourselves to a habit of washing and praying, and without washing we do not think it right to pray. And we do not willingly pray with unwashed hands, as if we should offend God, and violate our conscience. Now if this trifling custom has so great power over us, and is observed every day ; if we had brought our selves to a habit of almsgiving, and had de termined so constantly to observe it, as never to enter a house of prayer with empty hands, the point would be gained. For great is the power of habit both in good things and in evil, and when this carries us on, there will be little trouble. Many are in the habit of crossing 7 themselves continually, and they need no one to remind them of it, but often when the mind is wandering after other things, the hand is in voluntarily drawn by custom, as by some living teacher, to make the sign. Some have brought themselves into a habit of not swearing at all, and therefore neither willingly nor unwillingly do they ever do it. Let us then bring ourselves into such a habit of almsgiving. What labors were it worth to us to discover such a remedy. For say, were there not the relief of almsgiving, while we still by our num berless sins rendered ourselves liable to Divine vengeance, should we not have lamented sadly? Should we not have said,O that it were possible by our wealth to wash away our sins, and we would have parted with it all ! O that by our riches we could put away the wrath of God, then we would not spare our substance ? For if we do -this in sickness, and at the point of death we say, " If it were possible to buy off death, such an one would give all his posses sions " ; much more in this matter. For see how great is the love of God for man. He has granted us power to buy off not temporal but 6 This was thought too luxurious for persons of devout life. See Euseb. ii. 23, and St. Clem. Al. Psedag. iii. 9, who recommends pro viding for cleanliness by other means. "