288 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY VII. disc, to dwell " in front of Paradise " l (Gen. iii. throughout His will. Let us become well-pleas- 24), nor to reascend thither from whence we ing to God, that we may be able both to escape have fallen. But what after this? Hell, and the worm undying. But far be it that any of us should become amenable to this punishment ! but living virtuously, let us earnestly strive to do the punishment, and to obtain the good things eternal, of which may we all be counted worthy, through the grace and love toward man, &c. HOMILY VII. COLOSSIANS ii. 16-19. " Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sab bath day : which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ s. Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and wor shiping of the Angels, dwelling in the things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body being supplied and knit together, through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God." HAVING first said darkly, " Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you after the tradition of men " (ver. 8) ; and again, further back, " This, I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech " (ver. 4) ; thus preoccupying their soul, and working in it anxious thoughts ; next, having in serted those benefits, and increased this effect, he then brings in his reproof last, and says, " Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day." Seest thou how he depreciates them? If ye have obtained such things, he saith, why make yourselves accounta ble for these petty matters ? And he makes light of them, saying, "or in the part 2 of a feast day," for in truth they did not retain the whole of the former rule, " or a new moon, or a sabbath day." He said not, " Do not then observe them," but, "let no man judge you." He showed that they were transgressing, and undoing, but he brought his charge against others. Endure not those that judge you, he saith, nay, not so much as this either, but he argues with those persons, almost stopping their mouths, and saying, Ye ought not to judge. But he would not have reflected on these. He said not " in clean and unclean," nor yet "in feasts of Tabernacles, and unleavened 1 LXX. has KaTWKiaev avrov a-rrevavn TOV TrapoSeicrov, " He placed him opposite Paradise." And it is generally thought that Adam approached the gate of Paradise to worship. 2 [The word here rendered " respect " means primarily " part." But it is exegetically wrong to insist on this sense as Chrys. does, for the phrase designates the category or class of things. See Meyer or Lightfoot. J. A. B.] bread, and Pentecost," but "in part of a feast" : for they ventured not to keep the whole ; and if they did observe it, yet not so as to celebrate the feast. " In part," he saith, showing that the greater part is done away. For even if they did keep sabbath, they did not do so with pre cision. " Which are a shadow of the things to come " ; he means, of the New Covenant ; " but the body" is "Christ s." Some persons here punctuate thus, " but the body " is " of Christ," i.e. the truth is come in with Christ : others thus ; " The Body of Christ let no man adjudge away from you," that is, thwart you of it. The term Karaftpa^vd^vai, is employed when the victory is with one party, and the prize with another, when though a victor thou art thwarted. Thou standest above the devil and sin ; why- dost thou again subject thyself to sin? There fore he said that " he is a debtor to fulfill the whole law " (Gal. v. 3) ; and again, " Is Christ" found to be " the minister of sin " (Gal. ii. 17) ? which he said when writing to the Galatians. When he had filled them with anger through saying, " adjudge away from you," then he begins; "being a voluntary," 3 he saith, "in humility and worshiping of Angels, intruding into things he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." How " in humility," or how "puffed up"? He shows that the whole arose out of vainglory. But what is on the whole the drift of what is said? There are some who maintain that we must be brought near by Angels, not by Christ, that were too great a thing for us. Therefore it is that he turns over and over again what has been done by Christ, " through the Blood of His Cross " (c. i. 20) ; on this account he says that " He suffered for us "; that " He loved us." (i Pet. ii. 21.) And besides in this very same thing, moreover, they were elevated afresh. And he said not " introduction by," but " worshiping of" Angels. " Intruding into things he hath not 4 3 E. V. marg. 4 [" Not " is wanting in the best documents for N. T. text, and