But the promise of Eternal Life is of the New Testament. 45 I.15-18. 1-13. shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods; Thou shalt not covet JOHN thy neighbour's wife. Are not all these commandments enjoined upon us too? But ask, what is the reward? Thou wilt find that it is there said, That thine enemies may be Lev. 26, driven forth from before thy face; and that ye may receive the land, which God promised to your fathers. They had not capacity to receive invisible blessings, and therefore they were held fast by visible. Why held fast? Lest they should utterly perish, and fall away to idols. For this they did, my brethren, as we read, forgetting those so great miracles, which God had wrought before their eyes. The sea had been their divided; a way made in the midst of the waves; enemies following them overwhelmed by the same waters, through which they had passed: and yet when Moses, the man of God, had withdrawn from their view, they asked for an idol, and said, Make us gods to go before us; for this Exod. man hath forsaken us. All their hope had been placed in not in God. Behold the man is dead: was God dead, Who had rescued them from the land of Egypt? And when they had made for themselves an image of a calf, they bowed down before it, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, ibid. 4. which delivered thee out of the land of Egypt. How soon forgetful of such signal grace! By what means then, save by carnal promises, could such a people be held fast? man, 32, 1. 20. In the Decalogue then, there are the same commandments which we also have; but not the same promises. What is the promise to us? Eternal life. And this is life John17, eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ 3. whom Thou hast sent. The knowledge of God is promised. This same is Brethren, now we believe, grace for grace. not see for this faith the reward will be, to see what we believe. The prophets knew this, but it was kept secret For in the Psalms, a certain lover, sighing for the object of his affection, exclaims, One thing have IPs. 27, desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. Dost thou ask, what he desires? Peradventure it is a land flowing with milk and honey, in a carnal sense, although this is to be spiritually sought after and desired; or, peradventure, the subjugation of his enemies, or the death of his personal foes, or the power and wealth of this world. For he is on fire before He came. 4. 46 Saints of Old Testament shew us what to long for. HOMIL. with love, much he sigheth, and gloweth, and panteth. Let III. us see what he desires: One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. What is it he doth seek after? That I may dwell, saith he, in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And suppose thou dost dwell in the house .of the Lord, what will be the source of thy joy there? That I may behold, saith he, the fair beauty of the Lord. 21. My brethren, why is it that you cry out, why is it that you exult, why is it that you love, but because the spark of this affection is there? What long you for, I pray you? Can it be seen with the eyes? Can it be touched? Is it some beauty which delights the eyes? Were not the martyrs ardently loved; and when we commemorate them, do not we burn with love? What love we in them, brethren? Their limbs torn by wild beasts? What more loathsome if thou ask the eyes of the flesh! What more beautiful, if thou ask the eyes of the heart! What would be thy feelings at the sight of some very beautiful youth, who was a thief? How would thine eyes be shocked! would the eyes of the flesh be shocked? If thou ask them, nothing more exquisitely adjusted, more gracefully proportioned than that person: the symmetry of the limbs, and the comeliness of the complexion allure the eyes; yet when thou hearest that he is a thief, thy mind revolts from him. On the other hand, thou seest an old man, bent double, staying himself upon a staff, moving himself with extreme difficulty, furrowed all over with wrinkles what seest thou to delight thine eyes? Thou art told that he is a righteous man: thou lovest him; thou embracest him. Such are the rewards promised to us, my brethren. Let such be the object of your affections; such the kingdom for which you sigh; such the country for which you long; if you would attain to that with which our Lord did come; i. e. to grace and truth. But if they be bodily rewards which thou hast coveted at God's hand, thou art still under the law, and the law, for that very reason, thou wilt not fulfil. For when thou perceivest those temporal things poured forth in abundance upon men who offend God, Ps. 73, thy footsteps falter, and thou sayest to thyself, Behold, I worship God, every day I run to church, my knees are worn 2. with Freely God loved you, freely love ye Him. prayers, 47 I.15-18. and yet I am always sick. Men commit_JOHN murders, they are guilty of extortion, they overflow and abound, every thing goes well with them. Were then such as these the things thou didst seek at God's hand? Certain it is thou didst belong to grace. If the grace God gave thee is grace, because gratuitous, because He freely gave, then do thou freely love. Do not love God for a reward; let Himself be thy reward. Let thy soul say, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the fair beauty of the Lord. Fear not to be cloyed and surfeited. Such will be that beauty, that it will be always present with thee, and yet thou wilt never be satiated: or rather, thou wilt be always satiated and never satiated. For if I should say thou wilt not be satiated, this would imply hunger: and if, thou wilt be satiated, I am afraid lest I convey the idea of surfeit. Where there shall be neither surfeit nor yet hunger, I know not what word to use. But God hath it to make good to those who find no word wherewith to express it, yet believe that they shall receive it. HOMILY IV. 1 Aug. a prophet' JOHN i. 19-33. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent unto him priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that' Prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent, were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that Prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water but there standeth one among you, Whom ye know not; He it is, Who coming after me, is preferred before me, Whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethany beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of Whom I said, After me cometh a Man, Which is preferred before me: for He was before me. And I knew Him not but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven, like a dove, and It abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the Same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the Same is He Which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Christ, once concealed: hereafter manifest. 49 I.19-33. 1. YE have many times heard, holy brethren, and ye know JOHN right well, that John the Baptist, in proportion to his superiority above those born of women, and to his humility in acknowledging the Lord, was counted worthy to be the friend of the Bridegroom; one zealous for the Bridegroom, not for himself: not seeking his own honour, but that of his Judge, Whom, as a herald, he preceded. Wherefore, to the Prophets who went before, it was given to foretel future events concerning Christ; but to John, to point Christ out with the finger. For like as Christ was unknown of those who believed not the prophets before He came, so of them was He unknown even when He was actually come. He came, at the first, in humble guise and concealed; the more concealed in proportion as He was more humble and the people, through their pride, despising the humility of God, crucified their Saviour, and made of Him their condemning Judge. For 2. But will not He, Who, at first, came concealed, because bumble, come the next time manifestly, because exalted? You have just heard in the Psalm: God shall come mani- Ps.50,3. festly, our God, and shall not keep silence. He kept silence that He might be judged, He will not keep silence when He begins to judge. It would not have been said, He shall come manifestly, unless, at first, He had come concealed; nor He shall not keep silence, had He not at first kept silence. How did He keep silence? Ask Isaiah: He was Is.53,7. brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer was dumb, so He opened not His mouth. But He Ps.50,3. shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence. How manifestly? A fire shall go before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest. That tempest is to carry wholly away the chaff from the floor which is now in threshing; that fire, to consume what the tempest carries off. Now, however, He is silent: silent in judgment, but not in precept. For if Christ is silent, what mean these Gospels? what the voices of the Apostles? the canticles of the Psalms? the lofty utterances of the Prophets? Truly, in all these Christ is not silent. Howbeit He is silent for the present, in not taking vengeance; not, in not warning. But He will come in surpassing brightness to take vengeance, and will be seen of E |