2

XXVIII.

μινὸν

318 His head why asked. It cries louder now. The two tongues.

HOMIL. Others said, He is grievous unto us even to behold; but to her, as I said, he was grievous even to hear of. Wherefore she saith, Give me here in a charger the head of John. And yet because of thee he inhabits a prison, and is laden with chains, and thou art free to wanton over thy love, and to say, 'So completely have I subdued the king, that though publicly reproached he yielded not, nor desisted from his passion, nor tore asunder his adulterous connection with me, but even put him that reproached him in bonds.' Why art thou mad and rabid, when even after that reproof of his sin thou retainest thy paramour? Why seekest thou a table of furies, and preparest a banquet of avenging demons? Seest obba thou how nothing-worth', how cowardly, how unmanly, is vice; how when it shall most succeed, it then becomes more feeble? For this woman was not so much disturbed before she had cast John into prison, as she is troubled after he is bound, and she is urgent, saying, Give me here in a charger the head of John. And wherefore so? I fear,' she says, lest there be any hushing up of his murder, lest any should rescue him from his peril.' And wherefore requirest thou not the whole corpse, but the head? The tongue,' she says, 'that pained me, that I long to see silent.' But the contrary will happen, as indeed it also hath done, thou wretched and miserable one! it will cry louder afterwards, when it is cut out. For then indeed it cried in Judæa only, but now it will reach to the ends of the world; and wheresoever thou enterest into a church, whether it be among the Moors, or among the Persians, or even unto the British isles themselves, thou hearest John crying, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother Philip's wife. But she, unknowing to reason 3yx in any such way, urges and presses, and thrusts on the senseless tyrant to the murder, fearing lest he change his mind. But from this too learn thou again the power of virtue. Not even when shut up, and bound, and silent, does she bear the righteous man. Seest thou how weak a thing vice is? how unclean? For in the place of meats it bringeth in a human head upon a charger.

UK ασθῇ ὁ φόνος

What is more polluted, what more accursed, what more immodest, than that damsel? what a voice she uttered in that theatre of the devil, in that banquet of demons! Seest

The victors lose, the beheaded crowned. Victory by suffering. 319

XII.21.

thou this tongue and that; the one bringing healthful 2 Cor. medicines, the other one with poison on it, and made the purveyor to a devilish banquet. But wherefore did she not command him to be murdered within there, at the feast, when her pleasure would have been greater? She feared lest if he should come thither and be seen, he should change them all by his look, by his boldness. Therefore surely (4.) it is that she demandeth his head, wishing to set up a bright trophy of fornication; and gave it to her mother. Seest thou the wages of dancing, seest thou the spoils of that devilish plot? I mean not the head of John, but her paramour himself. For if one examine it carefully, against the king that trophy was set up, and the victress was vanquished, and the beheaded was crowned, and proclaimed victor, even after his death shaking more vehemently the hearts of the offenders. And that what I have said is no [mere] boast, ask of Herod himself; who, when he heard of the miracles of Christ, said, This is John, he is risen from the dead: and Mat. 14, therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. So lively' was the fear, so abiding the agony he retained; àμáand none had power to cast down the terror of his conscience, but that incorruptible Judge continued to take him by the throat, and day by day to demand of him satisfaction for the murder. Knowing, then, these things, let us not fear to suffer evil, but to do evil; for that indeed is victory, but this defeat.

2.

ζοντα.

7.8.

Wherefore also Paul said, Why do ye not rather suffer 1 Cor. 6, wrong, why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded. Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. For by the suffering evil [come] those crowns, those prizes, that proclamation [of victory]. And this may be seen in all the saints. Since then they all were thus crowned, thus proclaimed, let us too travel this road, and let us pray indeed that we enter not into temptation; but if it should come, let us make stand with much manliness and display the proper readiness of mind, that we may obtain the good things to come, through the grace and love towards men of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, honour, now and for ever, and world without end. Amen.

320

Paul threatens without punishing, in this like God.

HOMILY XXIX.

2 COR. xiii. 1.

φιλοσοφίαν.

This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

THE wisdom of Paul and his much tender affection, one may observe in many other circumstances, but especially in this, his being so abundant and vehement in his admonitions, but so tardy and procrastinating in his punishments. For he did not chastise them immediately on their sinning, but warned them once and again; and not even so, upon their paying no attention, does he exact punishment, but warns again, saying, This is the third time I am coming to you; and before I come I write again.' Then, that his proyxe crastinating may not produce indifference, see how he corrects this result also, by threatening continually, and holding the blow suspended over them, and saying, If I come again I will not spare; and, lest when I come again I shall bewail many. These things, then, he doeth and speaketh, in this too imitating the Lord of all: because that God also threateneth indeed continually, and warneth often, but not often chastiseth and punisheth. And so in truth also doth Paul, and therefore he said also before, To spare you, I came not as yet to Corinth. What is, to spare you? Lest finding you to have sinned, and to continue unamended, I should visit with chastisement and punishment. And here, This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. He joins the unwritten to the written, as he has done also in another

6

XIII.2.

1 ἀπε

χρήσ

His comings and writing are, two or three witnesses.' 321 place, saying, He that is joined to an harlot is one body; 2 COR. for the two, saith He, shall be one flesh. Howbeit, this was 1 Cor. 6, spoken of lawful marriage; but he diverted its application 1 16. unto this thing' conveniently, so as to terrify them the more. And so he doth here also, setting his comings and garo. his warnings in the place of witnesses. And what he says fornicais this: I spoke once and again when I was with you; Ition speak also now by letter. And if indeed ye attend to me, what I desired is accomplished; but if ye pay no attention, it is necessary henceforth to stop speaking, and to inflict the punishment.' Wherefore he says,

Ver. 2. I told you before, and foretell you as if I were present the second time; and being absent now, I write to them, which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that if I come again, I will not spare.

2 i. e.

θεῦσαι.

'For if in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established, and I have come twice and spoken, and speak now also by this Epistle; it follows, I must after this keep my word. For think not, I pray you, that my writing 3 aλnis of less account than my coming; for as I spoke when present, so now I write also when absent.' Seest thou his paternal solicitude? Seest thou forethought becoming a teacher? He neither kept silence, nor punished, but he both foretells often, and continues ever threatening, and puts off the punishment, and if they should continue unamended, then he threatens to bring it to the proof. But what didst thou tell them before when present, and when absent writest?' That if I come again, I will not spare. Having shewed before that he is unable to do this unless he is compelled, and having called the thing a bewailing, and a humbling; (for he saith, lest my c. 12,21. God will humble me among you, and I shall bewail many of those which have sinned already, and have not repented;) and having made his excuse unto them, namely, that he had told them before, once and twice and thrice, and that he does and contrives all he can, so as to hold back the punishment, and by the fear of his words to make them better, he then used this unpleasing and terrifying expression, If I come again, I will not spare. He did not say, 'I will avenge, and punish, and exact satisfaction:' but again expresses even punishment itself in paternal language; shewing his

Y

XXIX.

v. 1.

322 His purpose to punish was not to give proof of His power.

HOMIL. tender affection, and his heart to be grieved along with them; because that he always to spare them put off. Then that they may not think now also, that there will be again a putting off, and merely a threat in words, therefore he both said before, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established; and [now], If I come again, I will not spare. Now what he means is this: I will no longer put off, if (which God forbid) I find you unamended; but will certainly visit it, and make good what I have said.'

[2] Then with much anger and vehement indignation against those who make a mock of him as weak, and c. 10,10. ridicule his presence, and say, his presence is weak, and 1 αποτει his speech contemptible; aiming his efforts' at these men,

νόμενος

2 j. e. the Co

ans

themselves

he says,

Ver. 3. Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me. For he said this, dealing at once a blow at these, and at the same time lashing those2 also. Now what he means is rinthi- this; Since ye are desirous of proving whether Christ dwelleth in me, and call me to an account, and on this score make a mock of me as mean and despicable, as if I were destitute of that Power: ye shall know that we are not destitute, if ye give us occasion, which God forbid."' What then? tell me. Dost thou therefore punish, because they seek a proof? No,' he says; for had he sought this, he would have punished them at the first on their sinning, and would not have put off. But that he does not seek this, he has shewn more clearly as he proceeds, saying, Now I pray that ye do no evil, not that we may appear approved, but that ye may be approved, though we be as reprobates.

v. 7.

γικῶς

He doth not employ those words then as assigning a Jairioλo- reason, but rather in indignation, rather as attacking those that despise him. For,' he says, ' I have no desire indeed to give you such a proof, but if ye yourselves should furnish cause, and should choose to challenge me, ye shall know by very deeds.' And observe how grievous he makes what he says. For he said not, 'Since ye seek a proof of me,' but of Christ speaking in me, shewing that it was against Him they sinned. And he did not say merely,' dwelling in me,' but speaking in me, shewing that his words are spiritual.