1 Cor. 3, 6.7. 190 One only ascendeth; Christ, Head and Members. HOMIL. who wished to make them one, in One, to One: let them XII. hear him, saying, Do not ye make many: I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase; but neither he that planteth is any thing, neither he that watereth, but He that giveth the increase, even God. Those men were saying, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas. And he: Is Christ divided? In One be ye; 'one (body) be ye, one (person): None ascendeth into heaven, but He which descended from heaven. Lo, we wish to be thine,' said they to Paul. And he: I will not that ye be Paul's, but His shall ye be Whose is Paul together with you. unum, unus. Ib. 2, 24. 10. For He descended and died, and by very death delivered us from death. By death slain, He slew Death. : And ye know, brethren, that this same Death entered into Wisd. 1, the world through envy of the Devil. God made not death, 13. 14. saith the Scripture, neither is glad in the destruction of the living for He created all things that they might be. But what saith it there? But by envy of the devil death entered into the whole earth. To the death whereunto the devil challenged us, man would not come by force of constraint: for the devil had not power to drive, but only wiliness to persuade. Hadst thou not consented, the devil had brought in nothing: thy consenting, O man, brought thee to death. Of mortal born mortals, from immortal became we mortal. Of Adam all men are mortals: but Jesus, Son of God, Word of God by Which all things were made, Only Son equal John 1, with the Father, became mortal: for the Word was made 13. 14. flesh, and dwelt among as. 11. So then He took death upon Him, and hung up Death upon the cross; and from Death itself mortal men are delivered. What was done in a figure among them of v.14,15. old time, the Lord rehearseth the same: And as, saith He, Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life. A great mystery! and they who have read, know that it is. Then let them hear, who either have not read, or perchance have read or Numb. heard, but have forgotten. The people Israel in the desert 21,6-9. 'lay prostrated under the bites of serpents: a mighty havoc there was among them by many deaths: for it was the up Death. 191 III. 14, 15. The Life, by dying, swallowed stroke of God, chiding and scourging them, that He might JOHN train them. There was shewn forth, then and there, a great and mysterious sign of a thing which was to come: the Lord Himself is witness in the present Lesson, so that no man can interpret it to mean other than what He Who is Very Truth doth indicate concerning Himself. Moses, namely, was bidden of the Lord to make a brazen serpent, and lift it up on a pole in the desert, and admonish the people Israel, that, if any had been bitten by a serpent, he should fix his regard upon that serpent lifted up on the pole. It was done: men were bitten, looked, and were made whole. What are the serpents which bite? Sins, from mortality of the flesh. Who is the serpent lifted up? The death of the Lord on the cross. For, as from the Serpent came death, it was figured by the image of a serpent. The serpent's bite brings death, the death of the Lord bringeth life. They fix their regard upon death, that death may have no power. But Whose death? The death of Life; if the thing can be spoken, the death of Life; yea, because it can be spoken, it is wonderfully spoken. But is that not proper to be spoken, which was proper to be done? Should I hesitate to speak that, which the Lord for me hath deigned to do? Is not Christ Life? And yet Christ on a Cross! Is not Christ Life? And yet a Christ Who died! death of Christ, Death died; because Life by Death, fulness of Life swallowed up Death: absorbed in Christ's Body. So shall we also say in the resurrection, when at last we shall triumphantly sing, Where, 1 Cor. O Death, is thy contention? Where, O Death, is thy sting? 15, 54. In the mean while, my brethren, that we may be made whole from sin, look we now upon Christ crucified: because, As Moses, saith He, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so Contentio, implying the reading veikos, in conformity with Hos. 13, 14. LXX. To diкn σov, dávate; vet. Lat. Ubi est mors contentio tua? In Enarr. in Ps. 148. §. 4. Aug. reads the text as here and expounds the expression mortis contentio.' But in Op. Imperf. c. Julian. 6, 40. he reads (as in Vulg.) victoria.' Ubi est, mors, victoria tua? quod alibi scriptum est, Ubi est, mors, contentio tua? S. Hilar. But in the dying slew Death was de Trin. 2, 55. reads 'contentione' (eis 55. 192 Not to believe is to be self-condemned. HOMIL.must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth XII. on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life. Like as they which looked upon that serpent perished not by the bites of the serpents; so they who look by faith upon the death of Christ, are made whole from the bites of sins. But those were made whole from death to temporal life; whereas He here saith, that they may have everlasting life. For this is the difference between the figurative resemblance and the reality itself: the figure brought about temporal life; the reality whereof that was the figure bringeth about life. eternal. v. 17. om. in 12. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge [v. 16. the world, but that the world may be saved through Him. comm.] So then, as much as in the Physician lieth, He is come to heal the sick. That man is his own destroyer, who will not observe the orders of the Physician. He is come, a Saviour, to the world: wherefore is He called Saviour of the world, but that He may save the world, not judge the world? Thou dost not choose to be saved by Him: of thine own self thou wilt be judged. And why should I say,' wilt be judged'? See what He saith: He that believeth on Him is not judged: but he that believeth not-What thinkest thou He is going to say but, is judged'? is, saith He, already judged. Not yet hath the judgment appeared, but it hath already taken 2 Tim.2, place. For the Lord knoweth them that are His: knoweth who shall persevere unto the crown, persevere unto the flame: knoweth on His own threshing-floor the wheat, knoweth the chaff; knoweth the corn, knoweth the tares. Already judged is he which believeth not. Wherefore judged? Because he hath not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God. 19. v. 19. v. 21. 13. And this is the judgment: that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness more than light, for their works were evil. My brethren, in whom doth the Lord find good works? In none: in all He findeth evil works. In what sense then is it said that certain have done truth, and are come to the Light? For it follows: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. In what sense have certain done a good work, so as to come to the Light, i. e. to Christ? Man, accusing himself, thenceforth works with God. 193 17-21. And in what sense have some loved darkness? For, if JOHN He findeth all men sinners, and doth heal all of sin, and III. that serpent in which was figured the death of the Lord healeth them which were bitten, and it was because of the serpent's bite that the serpent was erected, i. e. the death of the Lord because of mortal men whom He found unrighteous, in what sense are we to understand that This is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil? What is this? Why, whose works were good? Art Thou not come to justify the ungodly? But, saith He, they loved darkness more than light. There hath He laid the stress. For many loved their sins; many confessed their sins. Now he that confesseth his sins, and accuseth his sins, worketh thenceforth with God. God accuseth thy sins: if thou accusest too, thou art joined unto God. They are, as it were, two things; man, and sinner. That thou art called man, was God's doing: that thou art called sinner, was man's own doing. Abolish what was thy doing, that God may save what was His doing. It behoveth that thou hate in thee thine own work, and love the work of God in thee. Now, when that which was thy doing shall begin to be displeasing to thee, at that point thy good works begin, in that thou accusest thine evil works. The beginning of good works is, the confession of evil works. Thou doest truth, and comest to the light. What meaneth, thou doest truth?' Thou dost not fondle thyself, not soothe, not flatter thyself; dost not say, I am just, when thou art unrighteous; and so beginnest to do truth. But thou comest to the light, that thy works may be made manifest that they be wrought in God. Because this very thing, namely, the displeasure thou hast at thy sin, thou wouldest not have at all, did not God shine unto thee, and His truth shew thee thy sin. But the man who, even being admonished, doth love his v. 20. sins, hateth the light which admonisheth, and fleeth from it, that his evil works which he loveth may not be reproved. Whereas the man who doeth truth, accuseth in himself his own evils; spareth not himself, forgiveth not himself, that God may forgive: because what he would that God should overlook, as if it were not there', he looketh it in the face, 1ignos cat XII. agnos cit 194 We come to the Light when we confess our sins. HOMIL. and owneth that it is there', and cometh to the Light; to the which he also giveth thanks; because It shewed him that which he should hate in himself. He saith to God, Turn Ps. 51, away Thy face from my sins; and with what assurance saith 11. ibid. 5. it, unless he say again, For I acknowledge my wickedness, and my sin is ever before me? Let that be before thee, which thou wouldest not should be before God. But if thou put thy sin behind thee, God doth force it back before thine and this, at a time when there is no more any eyes; fruit of repentance. John12, 35. 14. Run ye, that the darkness come not upon you, my brethren. Wake up to your salvation, wake up, while it is time. Let none be retarded from the temple of God, none retarded from the work of the Lord, none called off from continual prayer, none self-defrauded of the customary devotion. Wake up then while it is day. The day shineth: Christ is the Day. He is ready to forgive sins, but to them who acknowledge their sins: ready too to punish them which defend themselves, and boast that they are righteous, and think themselves to be something when they are nothing. But he which walketh in His love and in His mercy, even while delivered from those deadly and huge sins such as are the crimes of murder, theft, adultery, still, because of those which seem to be minute sins, of tongue or thoughts, or want of moderation in things permitted, he doeth truth of confession, and cometh to the light in good works: seeing that many minute sins, if they be neglected, are fatal. Minute are the drops which make the rivers: minute, the grains of sand: but if much sand be heaped up, it presseth and crusheth. The bilge-water allowed to accumulate in the ship's hold, doth all one as a rushing wave. By little and little it draineth in through the hold, but by long draining in and no pumping out, it drowneth the ship. Now this pumping out, what is it, but by good works to take care that sins overwhelm us not: by mourning, fasting, giving, forgiving? Truly, the path of this life is troublous, full of temptations: in prosperity, let it not lift us up; in adversity, not break us. He who gave thee felicity of this world, gave it for thy comfort, not for thine undoing. Again, He who scourgeth thee in this world, doth it for thine amending, not |