344 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY V. HOMILY V. i THESSALONIANS iv. 1-3. " Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye abound more and more. For ye know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." WHEN he has met what was pressing, and what was upon his hands, and is about hence forth to enter upon things that are perpetual, and which they ought continually to hear, he adds this expression, "finally," that is, always and forever. " We beseech and exhort you in the Lord." Strange ! He does not even speak of himself as of sufficient credit to exhort. And yet who was so worthy of credit ? But he takes Christ along with him. We exhort you, he says, by God. Which also he said to the Corinthians, "God entreats (exhorts) you through us." (2 Cor. v. 20.) " That as ye received of us." This " received " is not of words only, but of actions also, viz. " how ye ought to walk," and he means thereby the whole conduct of life. "And to please God, that ye abound more and more. That is, that by more abounding ye do not stop at the limit of the commandments, but that you even go beyond them. For this it is, that " ye abound more and more." In what preceded he accepts the marvel of their firm faith, but here he regulates their life. For this is proficiency, even to go beyond the commandments and the statutes. For no longer from the constraint of a teacher, but from their own voluntary choice, is all this performed. For as the earth ought not to bear onlywhat is thrown upon it, so too ought the soul not to stop at those things which have been inculcated, but to go be yond them. Do you see that he has properly said "to go beyond"? For virtue is divided into these two things, to decline from evil, and to do good. For the withdrawal from evil is not sufficient for the arrival at virtue, but it is a kind of path, and a beginning leading thereto ; still we have need of great alacrity. The things there fore to be avoided he tells them in the order of commandment. And justly. For these things indeed being done bring punishment, but not being done, yet bring no praise. The acts of virtue however, such as to give away our goods, and such like, are not of the order ofcommand ment, he says. But what ? " He that is able to receive, let him receive." (Matt. xix. 12.) It is profitable, therefore, that as he with much fear and trembling had given these commandments to them, he also by these letters reminds them of that his care. Wherefore he does not repeat them, but reminds them of them. " For ye know," he says, " what charge we gave you through our Lord Jesus Christ. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." And observe how he nowhere so vehemently glances at any other thing, as at this. As else where also he writes to this effect ; " Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. xii. 14.) And why dost thou wonder, if he everywhere writes to his disciples upon this subject, when even in his Epistle to Timo thy he has said, " Keep thyself pure." (i Tim. v. 22.) Also in his second Epistle to the Corin thians he has said, " In much patience, in fast ings, by pureness." (2 Cor. vi. 5,6.) And one may find this in many places, both in this Epis tle to the Romans, and everywhere, and in all his Epistles. For in truth this is an evil perni cious to all. And as a swine full charged with mire, wherever he enters, fills all places with his ill odor, and chokes the senses with dung, so too does fornication ; it is an evil not easy to be washed away. But when some even who have wives practice this, how excessive is the outrage ! " For this," he says, " is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from all for nication." For there are many forms of disor derly conduct. The pleasures of wantonness are of many kinds and various, it were not tolerable to mention them. But having said " from all fornication," he leaves it to those who know them. Ver. 4, 5. "That each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctifi cation and honor, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles which know not God." He says, " That each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel." It is, then, a matter to be learnt, and that diligently, not to be wanton. But we possess our vessel, when it is pure ; when it is impure, sin possesses it. And reasonably. For it does not do the things which we wish, but what sin commands. " Not in the passion of lust," he says. Here he shows also the manner, according to which one ought to be temperate ; that we should cut off the passions of lust. For luxury, and wealth, and idleness, and sloth, and ease, and all such things, lead us on to irregular lust. " Even as the Gentiles," he says, " which know not God." For such are