The Death Bed of the Unprepared.

727

migrate with us; and for those we shall give account, but MATT. for these we shall ask reward.

Know ye not in the day of death how sins make the soul shrink? how they stir up the heart from beneath? At that time therefore, when such things are happening, the remembrance of good works stands by us, like a calm in a storm, and comforts the perturbed soul.

For if we be wakeful, even during our life this fear will be ever present with us; but, insensible as we are, it will surely come upon us when we are cast out from hence. Because the prisoner too is then most grieved, when they are leading him out to the court; then most trembles, when he is near the judgment-seat, when he must give his account. For the same kind of reason most persons may be then heard relating horrors, and fearful visions, the sight whereof they that are departing may not endure, but often shake their very bed with much vehemence, and gaze fearfully on the by-standers, the soul urging itself inwards, unwilling to be torn away from the body, and not enduring the sight of the coming Angels. Since if human beings that are aweful strike terror into us beholding them; when we see Angels threatening, and stern Powers, among our visitors; what shall we not suffer, the soul being forced from the body, and dragged away, and bewailing much, all in vain? Since that rich man too, after his departure, mourned much, but derived no profit therefrom.

All these things then let us picture to ourselves, and consider, lest we too suffer the same, and thus let us keep the fear thence arising in vigour; that we may escape the actual punishment, and attain unto the eternal blessings; unto which God grant we may all attain, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom be glory unto the Father, together with the Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.

XVI. 12.

HOMILY LIV.

MATT. xvi. 13.

Now when Jesus had gone forth into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

WHEREFORE hath he mentioned the founder of the city? Because there was another besides, Cæsarea Stratonis. But not in that, but in this doth He ask them, leading them far away from the Jews, so that being freed from all alarm, they might speak with boldness all that was in their mind.

And wherefore did He not ask them at once their own opinion, but that of the people? In order that when they had told the people's opinion, and then were asked, But whom say ye that I am? by the manner of His inquiry they might be led up to a sublimer notion, and not fall into the same low view as the multitude. Accordingly He asks them not at all in the beginning of His preaching, but when He had done many miracles, and had discoursed with them of many and high doctrines, and had afforded so many clear proofs of His Godhead, and of His unanimity with the Father, then He puts this question to them.

And He said not, "Whom say the Scribes and Pharisees that I am?" often as these had come unto Him, and discoursed with Him; but, Whom do men say that I am? enquiring after the judgment of the people, as unbiassed.

Our Lord calling out St. Peter's Confession.

729

XVI.

For though it was far meaner than it should be, yet was it Matt. free from malice, but the other was teeming with much 13-17. wickedness.

Incar

And signifying how earnestly He desires His Economy 11i.e. His to be confessed, He saith, The Son of man; thereby denoting nation. His Godhead, which He doth also in many other places. For He saith, No man hath ascended up to Heaven, but the Son of man, which is in Heaven?. And again, But when ye 2 John shall see the Son of man ascend up, where He was before3. 3,13.

3 John

Then, since they said, Some John the Baptist, some 6, 62. Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the prophets, and set forth v. 14. their mistaken opinion, He next added, But whom say yev. 15. that I am? calling them on by His second inquiry to entertain some higher imagination concerning Him, and indicating that their former judgment falls exceedingly short of His dignity. Wherefore He seeks for another judgment from themselves, and puts a second question, that they might not fall in with the multitude, who, because they saw His miracles greater than human, accounted Him a man indeed, but one that had appeared after a resurrection, as Herod also said. But He, to lead them away from this notion, saith, Matt. But whom say ye that I am? that is, " ye that are with Me 14, always, and see Me working miracles, and have yourselves done many mighty works by Me."

4

2.

When all 5; xogvasked the años

[2.] What then saith the mouth of the Apostles, Peter, the ever fervent, the leader of the Apostlic choir5? are asked, he answers. And whereas when He opinion of the people, all replied to the question; when He asked their own, Peter springs forward, and anticipates them, and saith, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What then saith Christ? Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-v. 17. jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee.

v. 16.

Yet surely unless he had rightly confessed Him, as begotten of the very Father Himself, this were no work of revelation; had he accounted our Lord to be one of the many, his saying was not worthy of a blessing. Since before this also they said, Truly He is Son of God, those, I mean, who were 6 Matt. in the vessel after the tempest, which they saw; not blessed, although of course they spake truly.

and were

For they

14, 33.

730

Peculiarity of St. Peter's Confession.

HOMIL. Confessed not such a Sonship as Peter, but accounted Him

LIV. 2, 3.

to be truly Son as one of the many, and though peculiarly so beyond the many, yet not of the same Substance.

And Nathanael too said, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, 1 John Thou art the King of Israel1; and so far from being blessed, 1, 49. he is even reproved by Him, as having said what was far short of the truth. He replied at least, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these2.

2 ib.

v. 50.

Why then is this man blessed? Because he acknowledged Him very Son. Wherefore you see, that while in those former instances He had said no such thing, in this case He also signifies Who had revealed it. That is, lest his words might seem to the many (because he was earnest lover of Christ) to be words of friendship and flattery, and of a disposition to shew favour to Him, 3 x he brings forward the Person Who had made them ring' in his soul; to inform thee that Peter indeed spake, but the Father suggested, and that thou mightest believe the saying to be no longer a human opinion, but a divine doctrine.

σαντα

And wherefore doth He not Himself declare it, nor say, "I am the Christ," but by His question establish this, bringing them in to confess it? Because so to do was both more suitable to Him, yea necessary at that time, and it drew them on the more to the belief of the things that were said.

Seest thou how the Father reveals the Son, how the Son the Father? For neither knoweth any man the Father, saith He, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will 4 Matt. reveal Him. It cannot therefore be that one should learn 11, 27. the Son of other than of the Father; neither that one should learn the Father of any other than of the Son. So that even hereby, Their sameness of Honour and of Substance is manifest.

Luke10,

22.

John 1,

any

[3.] What then saith Christ? Thou art Simon, the son of 5 v. 17. Jonas; thou shalt be called Cephas. "Thus since thou hast 18. see proclaimed My Father, I too name him that begat thee;" all but saying, “As thou art son of Jonas, even so am I of My Father." Else it were superfluous to say, Thou art Son of Jonas; but since he had said, Son of God, to point out that

42.

Christ's indirect assertion of His Godhead.

XVI.

731 He is so Son of God, as the other son of Jonas, of the same MATT. substance with Him that begat Him, therefore He added this, 18. And I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will v. 18. I build my Church; that is, on the faith of his confession. Hereby He signifies that many were now on the point of believing, and raises his spirit, and makes him a shepherd. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. "And if not against it, much more not against Me. So be not troubled because thou art shortly to hear that I shall be betrayed and crucified."

Then He mentions also another honour. And I also will v. 19. give thee the keys of the Heavens. But what is this, And I also will give thee? "As the Father hath given thee to know Me, so will I also give thee."

And He said not, "I will entreat the Father," (although the manifestation of His authority was great, and the largeness of the gift unspeakable,) but, I will give thee. What dost Thou give? tell me. The keys of the Heavens, that whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bouud in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven. How then is it not His to give to sit on His right hand, and on His left', when He saith, I will give1 Matt. thee?

20, 23.

Seest thou how He, His own Self, leads Peter on to high thoughts of Him, and reveals Himself, and implies that He is Son of God by these two promises? For those things which are peculiar to God alone, (both to absolve sins, and to make the Church incapable of overthrow in such assailing waves, and to exhibit a man that is a fisher more solid than any rock, while all the world is at war with him,) these He promises Himself to give; as the Father, speaking to Jeremiah, said, He would make him as a brazen pillar, and as a wall 2; 2 Jer. 1, but him to one nation only, this man in every part of the world.

I would fain enquire then of those who desire to lessen the dignity of the Son, which manner of gifts were greater, those which the Father gave to Peter, or those which the Son gave him? For the Father gave to Peter the revelation of the Son; but the Son gave him to sow that of the Father and that of Himself in every part of the world; and to a mortal man He

18.