66 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY IV. things to God, which belong to the Devil alone. How then are we to put them to silence ? By the very words they themselves use ; for, if He is righteous, as they themselves allow, and yet hath done these things, this is no longer the act of a righteous being, but rather of a being most unrighteous and corrupted ; and corrupted God cannot possibly be. Further, why does he call the Devil "the prince of the world ? Because nearly the whole human race has surrendered itself to him, and all are willingly and of deliberate choice his slaves. And to Christ, though He promises unnumbered blessings, not any one so much as gives any heed ; whilst to the Devil, though promising nothing of the sort, but sending them on to hell, all yield themselves. His kingdom then is in this world, and he has, with few exceptions, more subjects and more obedient subjects than God, in consequence of our indol ence. " According to the power," saith he, " of the air, of the spirit." 1 Here again he means, that Satan occupies the space under Heaven, and that the incorporeal powers are spirits of the air, under his opera tion. For that his kingdom is of this age, i. e., will cease with the present age, hear what he says at the end of the Epistle ; "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of this darkness ; " (Eph. vi : 12.) where, lest when you hear of world-rulers you should therefore say that the Devil is uncreated, he elsewhere (Gal. i: 4.) calls a perverse time, "an evil world," not of the creatures. For he seems to me, having had dominion beneath the sky, not to have fallen from his dominion, even after his transgression. " That now worketh," he says, " in the sons of disobedience." You observe that it is not by force, nor by compulsion, but by persuasion, he wins us over; "disobedience" or " untractable- ness " is his word, as though one were to say, by guile and persuasion he draws all his votaries to himself. And not only does he give them a word of encouragement by telling them they have an associate, but also by ranking him self with them, for he says, "Among whom we also all once lived." " All," because he cannot say thatany one is excepted. " In the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." That is, having no spiritual affections. Yet, [" The word arjp which is commonly confined to the region of the air, may be extended to all that supra-terrestrial but sub-celes tial region which seems to be, if not the abode, at least the haunt of evil spirits, cf Job i : 7." Ellicott. G. A.] lest he should slander the flesh, or lest it should be supposed that the transgression was not great, observe how he guards the matter, "Doing," he says, "the desires of the flesh and of the mind." That is, the pleasurable passions. We pro voked 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 wrath2 even as others ; i. e., no one was free, butwe 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. Ixix: 17.) And again, " Have mercy upon me, according to the mul titude of thy tender mercies." (Ps. li: i.) Ver. 4. " For His great love, 3 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 mat ter well worthy of our belief, because if the Firstfruits live, so do we also. He hath quick ened 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." Beholdest thou the glory of His inheritance ? 5 Chrysostom understands the words according to the order in which they stand in the original text, fi/j-fv Tiicva. i^iio-ei opyijt, "we were natural" or "genuine children of wrath," referring "by nature" not to "we were" but to "children." To say that we wereby " nature" underwrath, might haveseemed allone with say ing 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 to quod dixi, natura esse mala animce nullo modo queunt, si qu&ritur quomodo accipiamusquod ait Apostolus, Fuimus et nos natura filii irce, &c. " respondemus, naturam in his verbis meis me intelligi voluisse illam, qua proprie natura. dicitur, in qua sine vitiis creati sumus. Nam ista propter originem natura appellatur, quie 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 wrathfrom 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 sub ject to and follows the inborn principle of sin in opposition to his moral will which h likewise by nature bears in himself. Certainly man is born with this natural sinful quality, i. e., with the princi ple of sin, by the awakening and development of which the moral will is vanquished (Rom. vii. cf. Jo. 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.J 3 [Ato TTJV TroXArji/ dydmjc avrou : " namely, in order to satisfy it." Meyer. G. A.]