294 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY VIII. saith, "which is idolatry." See in what the evil ends. Do not, I pray, take what I said amiss, for not by my own good-will, nor without reason, would I have enemies ; but I was wish ful ye should attain to such virtue, as that I might hear of you the things I ought. 1 So that I said it not for authority s sake, nor of imperi- ousness, 2 but out of pain and of sorrow. For give me, forgive ! I have- no wish to violate decency by discoursing upon such subjects, but I am compelled to it. Not for the sake of the sorrows of the poor do I say these things, but for your salvation ; for they will perish, will perish, that have not fed Christ. For what, if thou dost feed some poor man? still so long as thou livest so volup tuously and luxuriously, all is to no purpose. For what is required is, not the giving much, but not too little for the property thou hast ; for this is but playing at it. " Mortify therefore your members," he saith, "which are upon the earth." What sayest thou? Was it not thou that saidst, "Ye are buried ; ye are buried together with Him ; ye are circumcised : we have put off the body of the sins of the flesh" (c. ii. n, 12 ; Rom. vi. 4) ; how then again sayest thou, " Mortify " ? 3 Art thou sporting? Dost thou thus discourse, as though those things were in us? There is no contradiction ; but like as if one, who has clean scoured a statue that was filthy, or rather who has recast it, and displayed it bright afresh,4 should say that the rust was eaten off and de stroyed, and yet should again recommend dili gence in clearing away the rust, he doth not contradict himself, for it is not that rust which he scoured off that he recommends should be cleared away, but that which grew afterwards ; so it is not that former putting to death he speaks of, nor those fornications, but those which do afterwards grow. He said that this is not our life, but another, that which is in heaven. Tell me now. When he said, Mortify your members that are upon the earth, is then the earth also accused? or does he speak of the things upon the earth as themselves sins? 5 " Fornication, uncleanness," he saith. He 1 Or perhaps, " I could wish . . . that / might hear from youwhat is right." Gr. nap vfiiav. 2 <iftui^iaTos, wish to maintain dignity.3 i.e. put to death. 4 [The word is aviaOtv, as in John iii. 3, 7, and here necessarilymeans anew or afresh, a sense so rare as to justify calling atten tion to it. J. A. B.J5 [This is a passing allusion to the Manichaeans, who held that matter is necessarily the seat of evil, and might try to interpret the apostle as here accusing the earth of being evil. The passage hasbeen expanded in the often above mentioned group of documents,and so in the editions before Field, so as to be fuller and more per spicuous, thus: " But lo! say the heretics, Paul accuseth the crea tion; for he said before, Set your mind on the things that are above,not on the things that are upon the earth ; again he saith, Mortify your members which are upon the earth. But the words uponearth are here expressive of sin, not an accusing of creation. For it is thus he calls sins themselves, things upon earth, either from has passed over the actions which it is not be coming even to mention, and by " uncleanness " has expressed all together. " Passion," he said, " evil desire." Lo ! he has expressed the whole in the class. For envy, anger, sorrow, all are " evil desire." " And covetousness," he saith, " which is idola try. For which things sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." By many things he had been withdrawing them ; by the benefits which are already given, by the evils to come from which we had been delivered, being who, and wherefore ; and all those considerations, as, for instance, who we were, and in what circumstances, and that we were delivered therefrom, how, and in what manner, and on what terms. These were enough to turn one away, but this one is of greater force than all ; unpleasant indeed to speak of, not however to disservice, but even serviceable. " For which things sake cometh," he saith, " the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." He said not, "upon you," but, " upon the sons of disobedience." " In the which ye also walked aforetime,when ye lived in them." In order to shame them, he saith, " when ye lived in them," and implying praise, as now no more so living : at that time they might. Ver. 8. " But now put ye also away all these." He speaks always both universally and par ticularly ; but this is from earnestness. Ver. 8, 9. " Anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth. Lie not one to another." " Shameful speaking," he saith, " out of your mouth," clearly intimating that it pollutes it. Ver. 9, 10. "Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowl edge after the image of Him that created him." It is worth enquiring here, what can be the reason why he calls the corrupt life, " members," and " man," and " body," and again the virtu ous life, the same. And if " the man " means " sins," how is it that he saith, "with his doings " ? For once he said, " the old man," showing that this is not man, but the other. The moral choice doth rather determine one than the substance, and is rather " man " than the other. For his substance casteth him not into hell, nor leadeth him into the kingdom, but men themselves : and we neither love nor hate any one so far as he is man, but so far as he is such or such a man. If then the substance be the body, and in either sort cannot be accountable, how doth he say that it is evil ? 6 But what is that he saith, " with their being wrought by earthly thoughts and upon earth, or from their showing sinners to be earthly." J. A. B.j8 As the Manichees interpreted his words.