HOMILY I.] HOMILIES ON EPHESIANS. (Mat. vii : 24, 25.) And what is that rock but those heavenly things which are above the reach of every change ? < Every one therefore who, saith Christ, "shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in Heaven : But whosoever shall deny Me, him will I also deny." (Mat. x: 32, 33.) Again, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Mat. v:8.) And again, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." (Mat. v : 3.) And again, "Blessed are ye which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for great is your reward in Heaven." (Mat. v: ii, 12.) Observe, how every where He speaketh of Heaven, no where of earth, or of the things on the earth. 1 And again, "Our citizenship is in Heaven, from whence also we wait for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ." (Phil, iii : 20.) And again, "Not setting your mind on the things that are on the earth, but on the things which are above." (Col. iii : 3.) "In Christ." That is to say, this blessing was not by the hand of Moses, but by Christ Jesus : so that we surpass them not only in the quality of the blessings, but in the Mediator also. As more over he saith in the Epistle to the Hebrews; " And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken ; but Christ as a Son over His house, whose house are we." (Heb. iii: 5-6.) Ver. 4. "Even as," he proceeds, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish be fore Him in love." His meaning is somewhat of this sort. ThroughwhomHe hath blessed us, through HimHe hath also chosen us. And He, then, it is that shall bestow upon us all those rewards here after. He is the very Judge that shall say, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Mat. xxv: 34.) And again, "I will that where I am they will also be with Me." (John xvii : 24.) And this is a pointwhich he is anxious to prove in almost all his Epistles, that ours is no novel system, but that it had thus been figured from the very first, that it is not the result of any change of purpose, but had been in fact a divine dispensation and fore-or dained. And this is a mark of great solicitude for us. What is meant by, " He chose us in Him?" By means of the faith which is in Him, Christ, 1 I "Such a specification of the sphere and thence of the spir itual character of the action would seem superfluous after the dication to fv\oyia Tri fV^atiKrj defining the region whence the blessings of the Spirit come. Cf. Heb. vi : 4." Ellicott. G. A.] he means, happily ordered this for us before we were born ; nay more, before the foundation of the world. And beautiful is that word " foun dation," as though he were pointing to the world as cast down from some vast height. Yea, vast indeed and ineffable is the height of God , so far removed not in place but in incommuni- cableness of nature ; so wide the distance be tween creation and Creator! A word which heretics may be ashamed to hear. 2 But wherefore hath He chosen us ? " That we should be holy and without a blemish before Him." That you may not then, when you hear that " He hath chosen us," imagine that faith alone is sufficient, he proceeds to add life and conduct. To this end, saith he, hath He chosen us, and on this condition, "that we should be holy and without blemish." And so formerly he chose the Jews. On what terms? " This nation, saith he, hathHe chosen from the rest of the nations." (Deut. xiv: 2.) Now if men in their choices choose what is best, much more doth God. And indeed the fact of their being chosen is at once a token of the loving kindness of God, and of their moral goodness.3 For by all means would he have chosen those who were approved. He hath Himself ren dered us holy, but then we must continue holy. A holy man is he who is a partaker of faith ; a blameless man is he who leads an irreproach able life. It is not however simply holiness and irreproachableness that He requires, but that we should appear such "before Him." For there are holy and blameless characters, who yet are esteemed as such only by men those who are like whited sepulchres, and like such as wear sheep s clothing. It is not such, however, He requires, but such as the Prophet speaks of; "And according to the cleanness of my hands." (Ps. xviii: 24.) What clean ness? That which is so "in His eyesight." He requires that holiness on which the eye of God may look. Having thus spoken of the good works of these, he again recurs to His grace. " In love," saith he, " having predestinated us." Because this comes not of any pains, nor of any good works of ours, but of love ; and yet not of love alone, but of our virtue also. For if indeed of 2 [And an argument which can hardly he considered valid, hased, as it is, on the literal and etymological meaning of a word in a passage where it is plainly used metaphorically and not literally The word is caTa/3oAij. G. A.] 3 [Te/c/ut/pioi 1 KO.I rij? avriof aperi)?, a proposition which will strike a Protestant reader of any denomination wiih surprise, to say the least. Schaff says, " Chrysostom laid great stress on free will and the co-operation of the human will with divine grace in the work of conversion. Cassian, the founder of Semi-Pelagianism, was his pupil and appealed to his authority. We may say ihat in tendency and spirit he was a Catholic Semi-Pelagian orSynergist before Semi-Pelagianism was brought into a system." Proltfo- mena. p. 20. Chrysostom s exposition of this passage is inaccurate, inconsistent, illogical and untenable. If He chose us in order^that we should be holy how can holiness, or " moral goodness," as Chrysostom says, be an antecedent condition of His choosing us? See note on ch. ii : 10. G. A.]