18 Objections to the Doctrine of Freedom HOMIL. Doth He not every day make His sun to rise? Are not the things Il. which He hath enjoined so simple and plain, that many tran ριουσία scend His commandments in their exceeding love of perfection1. 2 What was there to do unto the vineyard, and I have not done it? [10.]" And why," say you, "did He not make knowledge and virtue natural to us?" Who speaketh thus? The Greek or the Christian? Both of them indeed, but not about the same things; for the one raises his objection with a view to knowledge, the other with a view to conduct. First then we will reply to him who is on our side; for I do not so much regard those without, as our own members. What then saith the Christian? "It were meet to have implanted in us the knowledge itself of virtue." He hath implanted it; for if He had not done so, whence should we have known what things are to be done, what left undone? Whence all the laws and tribunals? But, "God should have imparted not [merely] knowledge, but also the very mode of action." For what then wouldest. thou have to be rewarded, if the whole was to be of God? For tell me, doth God punish in the same manner thee and the Greek upon committing sin? Surely not. For up to a certain point thou hast confidence, viz. that which ariseth from the true knowledge. What then, if any one should now say, that on the score of knowledge thou and the Greek will be accounted of like desert? Would it not disgust thee? I think so indeed. For thou wouldest say that the Greek, having of his own wherewith to attain knowledge, was not willing. If then the latter also should say that God ought to have implanted knowledge in us naturally, wilt thou not laugh him to scorn, and say to him, "But why didst thou not seek for it? why wast thou not in earnest even as I?" And thou wilt insist on it with much confidence, and say, that it was extreme folly to blame God for not implanting knowledge by nature. And this thou wilt say, because thou art right in what appertains to knowledge. d The meaning seems to be, "Whatever other sins you commit, you have not the sin of unbelief to answer for; and would, I suppose, think it hard, if cæteris paribus you were counted as So also, wert thou right in guilty as an unbeliever. Now this your instinctive judgment confutes any hope you may have that nature and circumstances may excuse you in any other sin." on the part of unstable Christians. 19 1.4-7. what appertains to practice, thou wouldest not have raised 1 COR. these questions: but thou art tired of virtuous practice, therefore thou shelterest thyself with these inconsiderate words. But how could it be at all right to cause that by necessity one should become good? Then shall we next have the brute beasts contending with us about virtue, seeing that some of them are more temperate than ourselves. But thou sayest," I had rather have been good by necessity, and so forfeited all rewards, than evil by deliberate choice, to be punished and suffer vengeance." But it is impossible that one should ever be good by necessity. If therefore thou knowest not what ought to be done, shew it, and then we will tell you what is right to say. But if thou knowest that uncleanness is wicked, wherefore dost thou not fly from the evil thing? "I cannot," thou sayest. But others, who have surpassed thee in well-doing, will plead against thee, and will more than prevail to stop thy mouth. For thou, perhaps, though living with a wife, art not chaste; but another even without a wife keeps his chastity inviolate. Now what excuse hast thou for not keeping the rule, while another even leaps beyond the lines that have been drawn to mark it? But thou sayest, "I am not of this sort in my bodily frame, or my turn of mind." That is for want, not of power, but of will. For thus I prove that all have a certain aptness towards virtue: That which a man cannot do, neither will he be able to do though necessity be laid upon him; but if, necessity being laid upon him, he is able, he that leaveth it undone, leaveth it undone out of choice. The kind of thing I mean is this: to fly up and be borne towards heaven, having a heavy body, is even simply impossible. What then, if a king should command one to do this, and threaten death, saying, "Those men who do not fly, I decree that they lose their heads, or be burnt, or some other such punishment:" would any one obey him? Surely not. For nature is not capable of it. But if in the case of chastity this same thing were done, and he were to lay down laws, that the unclean should be punished, be burnt, be scourged, should suffer the extremity of torture, would not inany obey the law? "No," thou wilt say: "for there is ap © Tà oxáμμara. The image is borrowed from the gymnastic exercise of leaping. 20 Virtue and Vice not involuntary. II. were I to person, and HOMIL. pointed, even now, a law forbidding to commit adultery', and all do not obey it." Not because the fear loses its power, but because the greater part expect to be unobserved. So that if when they were on the point of committing an unclean action the legislator and the judge came before them, the fear would be strong enough to cast out the lust. Nay, were I to apply another kind of force inferior to this; take the man and remove him from the beloved shut him up close in chains, he will be able to bear it, without suffering any great harm. Let us not say then that such an one is by nature good, and such an one by nature evil for if a man were by nature good, he could never at any time become evil; and if he were by nature evil, he could never be good. But now we see that changes take place rapidly, and that men quickly shift from this side to the other, and from that fall back again into this. And these things we may see not in the Scriptures only; for instance, that publicans have become apostles; and disciples, traitors; and harlots, chaste; and that robbers have found approval, and magicians have adored, and ungodly men passed over unto godliness, both in the New Testament and in the Old: but even every day a man may see many such things occurring. Now if things were natural, they could not change. For so we, being by nature susceptible, could never by any exertions become void of feeling. For that which is whatever it is by nature, can never fall away from such its natural condition. No one, for example, ever fell away altogether from sleeping: no one from a state of corruption [changed] unto incorruption: no one from hunger to the perpetual absence of that sensation. Wherefore neither are these things matters of accusation, nor do we reproach ourselves for them; nor ever did any one, meaning to blame another, say to him, "O thou, corruptible and subject to passion;" but either adultery or fornication, or something of that kind, we always lay to the charge of those who are counted guilty; and we bring them before judges, who blame and punish, and in the contrary cases award honours. [11.] Since then both from our conduct towards one another, f From the time of Constantine to offence. Gibbon, c. 44. note 197. that of Justinian it was a capital Evidence of Experience against Fatalism. 21 1. 4-7. φίας. and from others' conduct to us when judged, and from the things 1 COR. about which we have written laws, and from the things wherein we condemn ourselves, though there be no one to accuse us; and from the instances of our becoming worse through indolence, and better through fear; and from the cases wherein we see others doing well and arriving at the height of selfcommand', it is quite clear that we also have it in our power1000to do well: why do we, the most part, deceive ourselves in vain with cold pretexts and excuses, bringing not only no pardon, but even punishment intolerable? when we ought to keep before our eyes that fearful day, and to give heed to virtue ; and after a little labour, obtain the incorruptible crowns? For these words will be no defence to us; rather our fellowservants, and those who have practised the contrary virtues, will condemn all who continue in sin: the cruel man will be condemned by the merciful; the evil, by the good; the fierce, by the gentle; the grudging, by the courteous; the vain-glorious, by the self-denying; the indolent, by the serious; the intemperate, by the sober-minded. Thus will God pass judgment upon us, and will set in their place both companies; on the one bestowing praise, on the other punishment. But God forbid that any of those present should be among the punished and dishonoured, but rather among those who are crowned, and the winners of the divine kingdom. Which may God grant us all to obtain through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ; with whom unto the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory, power, honour, now, and ever, and unto everlasting ages. Amen. HOMILY III. 1 COR. i. 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. WHAT I have continually been saying, that we must frame our rebukes gently and gradually, this, Paul doth here also: in that, being about to enter upon a subject full of many dangers, and enough to tear up the Church from her foundations, he uses very mild language. His word is, that he beseeches them, and beseeches them through Christ; as though not even he were sufficient alone to make this supplication and to prevail. But what is this, I beseech you through Christ? "I take Christ to fight on my side, and to aid me, His injured and insulted Name." An awful way of speaking indeed! lest they should prove hard and shameless: for sin makes men stubborn. WhereI fore if at once1 you sharply rebuke, you make a man fierce and impudent: but if you strike awe into him, you bow down his neck, you check his confidence, you make him hang down his head. Which object being Paul's also, he is content for a Bened. while to beseech them by the Name of Christ. And what, of all things, is the object of his request? εὐθέως de That ye may all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions [schisms] among you. The emphatic force of the word schism, I mean the very word, was enough to astound them extremely. For it was not that they had become many parts, each entire within itself, but rather the One [Body which originally existed] had perished. For had they been entire Churches, there might be many of them; but if a i. e. the bodies formed by separation. |