WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY X. rejoice." " You no longer have," he says, " cause for despondency. You have Epaphro- ditus, for whose sake you were grieved ; you have Timothy ; I am myself coming to you ; the Gospel is gaining ground. What is hence forth wanting to you? Rejoice ! " Now he calls the Galatians indeed " chil dren" (Gal. iv. 19), but these "brethren." For when he aims either to correct anything or to show his fondness, he calls them " chil dren" ; but when he addresses them with greater honor, " brethren " is the title. " Finally, my brethren," he says, "rejoice in the Lord." He said rightly "in the Lord," not "after the world," for this is no rejoicing. These tribu lations, he says, which are according to Christ bring joy. " To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe. Beware of the dogs:" Dost thou mark how he forbears to bring in the exhorta tion at the beginning? But after he had given them much commendation, after he had shown his admiration of them, then he does this, and again repeats his commendation. For this mode of speech seems to bear somewhat hard upon them. Wherefore he overshadows it on every side. Butwhom does he style " dogs " ? There were at this place some of those, whom he hints at in all his Epistles, base and contemptible Jews, greedy of vile lucre and fond of power, who, desiring to draw aside many of the faith ful, preached both Christianity and Judaism at the same time, corrupting the Gospel. As then they were not easily discernible, therefore he says, "beware of the dogs": the Jews are no longer children ; once the Gentiles were called dogs, but now the Jews. Wherefore? because as the Gentiles were strangers both to God and to Christ, even so are these become this now. And he shows forth their shamelessness and vio lence, and their infinite distance from the rela tion of children, for that the Gentiles were once called " dogs," hear what the Canaanitishwoman says, " Yea, Lord : for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters table." (Matt. xv. 27.) But that they might not have this advantage, since even dogs are at the table, he adds that, whereby he makes them aliens also, saying, " Beware of the evil workers " ; he admirably expressed himself, " beware of the evil workers " ; they work, he means, but for a bad end, and a work that is much worse than idleness, plucking up what is laid in goodly order. " Beware," he says, " of the concision." The rite of circumcision was venerable in the Jews account, forasmuch as the Law itself gave way thereto, and the Sabbath was less esteemed than circumcision. For that circumcision might be performed the Sabbath was broken; but that the Sabbath might be kept, circumcision was never broken ; and mark, I pray, the dispensa tion of God. This is found to be even more solemn than the Sabbath, as not being omitted at certain times. 1 When then it is done away, much more is the Sabbath. Wherefore Paul makes a concision of the name, and says, " Be ware of the concision " ; and he did not say " that circumcision is evil, that it is superfluous," lest he should strike the men with dismay, but he manages it more wisely, withdrawing them from the thing, but gratifying them with the word, nay, rather with the thing too, in a more serious way. But not so in the case of the Ga latians, for since in that case the disease was great, he forthwith adopts the remedy of ampu tation with open front and with all boldness ; but in this case, as they had done nothing of the sort, he vouchsafes them the gratification of the title, he casts out the others, and says, " Beware of the concision; for we are the circumcision" how? "who worship God in spirit, 2 and have no confidence in the flesh." He said not that " we test the one circumcision and the other, which is the better of the two " ; but he would not even allow it a share in the name ; but what does he say? That that circumcision is " con cision." Why? Because they do nothing but cut the flesh up. For when what is done is not of the law, it is nothing else than a concision and cutting up of the flesh ; it was then either for this reason that he called it so, or because they were trying to cut the Church in twain ;- and we call the thing: " cutting up " in those who do this at random, without aim and without skill. Now if you must seek circumcision, he says, you will find it among us, " who worship God in spirit," i.e. who worship spiritually. For answer me, which is superior, the soul or the body? Evidently the former. Therefore that circumcision is also superior, or rather, no longer superior, but this is the only circumcision ; for while the type stood, He rightly brought it forward in conjunction, writing, "For ye shall circumcise the foreskins of your hearts." (Jerem. iv. 4.) In the same way in the Epistle to the Romans he does away with it, saying, " for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter." (Rom. ii. 28, 29.) And lastly, he takes from it the very name, 1 [The text is very obscure. Field, by altering two words with out documentary evidence, makes it " even that of the Sabbath, which is more to be reverenced, is found not to be adopted at certain times"; or possibly, "even that which is more to be reverenced than the Sabbath, is found not to be adopted," etc. J. A. B.] 2 [Field here reads (with all his MSS.) as in Rev. Ver. Trvev/j-an 8eov, "worship by the Spirit of God." But Chrys. s explanation (below) indicates that he read Oeu>, " worship God in spirit," as in the common printed text of Chrys. and the Textus Rec. of the N. T. J. A. B.I