That is, the pleasurable passions. We provoked God to anger, he saith, we provoked Him to wrath, we were wrath, and nothing else. For as he who is a child of man is by nature man, so also were we children of wrath218 even as others; i.e., no one was free, but we all did things worthy of wrath. Ver. 4. “But God, being rich in mercy.” Not merely merciful, but rich in mercy; as it is said also in another place; “In the multi- tude of thy mercies.” (Ps. lxix. 17.) And again, “Have mercy upon me, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.” (Ps. li. 1.) Ver. 4. “For His great love,219 wherewith He loved us.” Why did He love us? For these things are not deserving of love, but of the sorest wrath, and punishment. And thus it was of great mercy. Ver. 5. “Even when we were dead through our trespasses He quickened us together with Christ.” Again is Christ introduced, and it is a matter well worthy of our belief, because if the Firstfruits live, so do we also. He hath quickened both Him, and us. Seest thou that all this is said of Christ incarnate? Beholdest thou “the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe?” (Eph. i. 19.) Them that were dead, them that were children of wrath, them hath he quickened. Beholdest thou “the hope of his calling?” Ver. 6. “He raised us up with Him and made us sit with Him.” 218 Chrysostom understands the words according to the order in which they stand in the original text, ἦμεν τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς, “we were natural” or “genuine children of wrath,” referring “by nature” not to “we were” but to “children.” To say that we were by “nature” under wrath, might have seemed all one with saying that God created Adam under wrath. When then we so speak, we must take the word “nature” in S. Augustine’s sense, not to mean our literal nature, but “as referring to our birth.” “In eo quod dixi, ‘naturâ esse malæ animæ nullo modo queunt,’ si quæritur quomodo accipiamus quod ait Apostolus, ‘Fuimus et nos naturâ filii irœ, &c.’” respon- demus, naturam in his verbis meis me intelligi voluisse illam, quæ proprie natura dicitur, in quâ sine vitiis creati sumus. Nam ista propter originem natura appellatur, quæ origo utique habet vitium, quod est contra naturam. August. Retract. i. 15. §. 6. vid, also de Lib. Arb. iii. 54.] “That man is a born subject of wrath from birth, an object of the divine condemnation, is not at all a doctrine of the Apostle, according to whom man by his actual sin falls under the wrath of God, inasmuch as he becomes subject to and follows the inborn principle of sin in opposition to his moral will which he likewise by nature bears in himself. Certainly man is born with this natural sinful quality, i.e., with the principle of sin, by the awakening and development of which the moral will is vanquished (Rom. vii. cf. John iii. 6.) It is not, however, the mere fact of this inborn presence having its basis in his flesh that in and of itself makes him a child of wrath, but he only becomes so when that constitution of his moral nature, that mingling of the two opposite principles in his natural disposition has brought about the victory of the sin-principle, which however is the case with every one.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 219 [Διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ: “namely, in order to satisfy it.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 128 Ephesians 2:1-3