HOMILY II.] HOMILIES ON TIMOTHY. If you had a wound, tell me, and should go to a physician, would you stay him from salving and dressing your own wound, and be curious to enquire whether the physician had a wound, or not? and if he had, would you mind it? Or because he had it, would you forbear dressing your own, and say, A physician ought to be in sound health, and since he is not so, I shall let my wound go uncured ? For will it be any palliation 1 for him that is under rule, that his Priest is wicked ? By no means. He will suffer the destined punishment, and you too will meet with that which is your due. For the Teacher now only fills a place. For " it is writ ten, They shall all be taught of God." (John vi. 45 ; Isa. liv. 13.) " Neither shall they say, Know the Lord. For all shall know Me from the least to the greatest." (Jer. xxxi. 34.) Why then, you will say, does he preside? Why is he set over us? I beseech you, let us not speak ill of our teachers, nor call them to so strict an ac count, lest we bring evil upon ourselves. Let us examine ourselves, and we shall not speak ill of others. Let us reverence that day, on which he enlightened 2 us. He who has a father, what ever faults he has, conceals them all. For it is said, " Glory not in the dishonor of thy father ; for thy father s dishonor is no glory unto thee. And if his understanding fail, have patience with him." (Ecclus. iii. 10-12.) And if this be said of our natural fathers, much more of our spiritual fathers. Reverence him, in that he every day ministers to thee, causes the Scrip tures to be read, sets the house in order for thee, watches for thee, prays for thee, stands im ploring God on thy behalf, offers supplications for thee, for thee is all his worship. Reverence all this, think of this, and approach him with pious respect. Say not, he is wicked. What of that? He that is not wicked,3 doth he of him self bestow upon thee these great benefits ? By no means. Everything worketh according to thy faith. Not even the righteous man can benefit thee, if thou art unfaithful, nor the un righteous harm thee, if thou art faithful. God, when He would save His people, wrought for the ark by Oxen. 4 Is it the good life or the virtue of the Priest that confers so much on thee? The gifts which God bestows are not such as to be effects of the virtue of the Priest. All is of grace. His part is but to - i.e. baptized. s Sav. mar. " he that is wicked," which supposes the objection to be somewhat differently put. 4 i Sam. vi. 12. open his mouth, while God worketh all : the Priest only performs a symbol.5 Consider how wide was the distance between John and Jesus. Hear John saying, " I have need to be baptized of Thee" (Matt. iii. 14), and, " Whose shoe s latchet I am not worthy to un loose." (John i. 27.) Yet notwithstanding this difference, the Spirit descended. Which John had not. For " of His fullness," it is said, " we all have received." (John i. 16.) Yet neverthe less, It descended not till He was baptized. But neither was it John who caused It to de scend. Why then is this done? That thou mayest learn that the Priest performs a symbol. No man differs so widely from another man, as John from Jesus, and yet with him 7 the Spirit descended, that we may learn, that it is God who worketh all, that all is God s doing. I am about to say what may appear strange, but be not astonished nor startled at it. The Offering is the same, whether a common man, or Paul or Peter offer it. It is the same which Christ gave to His disciples, and which the Priests now minister. This is nowise inferior to that, be cause it is not men that sanctify even this, but the Same who sanctified the one sanctifies the other also. For as the words which God spake are the same which the Priest now utters, so is the Offering the same, and the Baptism, that which He gave. Thus the whole is of faith. The Spirit immediately fell upon Cor nelius, because he had previously fulfilled his part, and contributed his faith. And this is His Body, as well as that. And he who thinks the one inferior to the other, knows not that Christ even now is present, even now operates. Knowing therefore these things, which we have not said without reason, but that we may con form your minds in what is right, and render you more secure for the future, keep carefully in mind what has been spoken. For if we are always hearers, and never doers, we shall reap no advantage from what is said. Let us there fore attend diligently to the things spoken. Let us imprint them upon our minds. Let us have them ever engraved upon our consciences, and let us continually ascribe glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. 5 <rdfi^o\ov. This is said evidently of the act of the Priest con sidered in itself, and as distinct from the accompanying grace. For St. Chrysostom s view of the Priest s responsibility, see his Treatise on the Priesthood, and his comments on i Tim. iii. i, &c. , &c. 8 Suicer collects passages on this word. It may mean " a pledge," but certainly has also the sense of " symbol." It seems to be used of the material elements before and after consecration.