HOMILY XIV.] HOMILIES ON EPHESIANS. 117 no longer common to them with men ; their sanctity, I mean, their fervency, their devotion, their love towards Christ. Wherefore then, one may say, did Paul exclude them from the teacher s seat? And here again is a proof how great a distance they were from the men, and that the women of those days were great. For, tell me, while Paul was teaching, or Peter, or those saints of old, had it been right that a woman should intrude into the office ? Whereas we have gone on till we have come so debased, that it is worthy of question, why women are not teachers. So truly have we come to the same weakness as they. These things I have said not from any desire to elate them, but to shame ourselves, to chastise, and to admonish us that so we may resume the authority that belongs to us, not inasmuch as we are greater in size but because of our foresight, our protection of them,and our virtue. For thus shall the body also be in the order which befits it, when it has the best head to rule. And God grant that all, both wives and husbands, may live according to His good pleasure, that we may all in that terrible day be counted worthy to enjoy the lovingkind- ness of our Master, and to attain those good things which are promised in Jesus Christ our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, and honor, now and forever and ever. Amen. HOMILY XIV. EPHESIANS iv. 25-27. " Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor; for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath : neither give place to the devil." HAVING spoken of the " old man " generally, he next draws him also in detail ; * for this kind of teaching is more easily learned when we learn by particulars. And what saith he ? " Where fore, putting away falsehood." What sort of false hood ? Idols does he mean ? Surely not ; not indeed but that they are falsehood also. How ever, he is not now speaking of them, because , these persons had nothing to do with them ; but he is speaking of that which passes between one man and another, meaning that which is deceit ful and false. " Speak ye truth, each one," saith he, " with his neighbor " ; then what is more touching to the conscience 2 still, "because we are members one of another." Let no man deceive his neighbor. As the Psalmist says here and there ; " With nattering lip and with a double heart do they speak." (Ps. xii. 2.) For there is nothing, no, nothing so productive of enmity as deceit and guile. Observe how everywhere he shames them by this similitude of the body. Let not the eye, saith he, lie to the foot, nor the foot to the eye. : For example, if there shall be a deep pit, and then by having reeds laid across upon the mouth of it upon the earth, and yet concealed under 1 [" And t\ie_first exhortation here was suggested by the imme diately preceding iArjfleia. The figurative form of the precept also (aTTofle^ei oi, putting off ) is an echo from what precedes."- Meyer. G. A.] 2 [ " Members one of another, and to lie to one another, how contradictory! " Meyer. G. A.] earth, it shall by its appearance furnish to the eye an expectation of solid ground, will not the eye use the foot, and discover whether it yields 3 and is hollow underneath, or whether it is firm and resists? 4 Will the foot tell a lie, and not report the truth as it is? And what again? If the eye were to spy a serpent or a wild beast, will it lie to the foot? Will it not at once inform it, and the foot thus informed by it refrain from going on? And what again, when neither the foot nor the eye shall know how to distinguish, but all shall depend upon the smelling, as, for example, whether a drug be deadly or not ; will the smelling lie to the mouth? And why not? Because it will be destroying itself also. But it tells the truth as it appears to itself. And what again ? W r ill the tongue lie to the stomach ? Does it not, when a thing is bitter, reject it, and, if it is sweet, pass it on? Observe ministration, and interchange of service ; observe a provident care arising from truth, and, as one might say, spon taneously from the heart. So surely should it be with us also ; let us not lie, since we are " mem bers one of another." This is a sure token of friendship ; whereas the contrary is of enmity. What then, thou wilt ask, if a man shall use treachery against thee ? Hearken to the truth. If he use treachery, he is not a member ; whereas he saith, " lie not towards the members." " Be ye angry, and sin not." Observe his wisdom. He both speaks to pre vent our sinning, and, if we do not listen, still 3 [eiicft, Field s emendation for the reading fixrj of the MSS.He cites the phrase TO tlicov <cai pr, avrirvnovv from Plato, Craty- tus, 420 D. G. A.] * a^Tirurrti.