Reasons for Gratitude to those who do us Wrong.

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the wrong, defrauded indeed of some money, but enriched 1Cor.6. with confidence towards God; an acquisition more valuable than countless treasures.

[11.] Knowing these things, therefore, let us of our free choice go on strict principles, and not be like the unwise, who think that they are then not wronged, when their suffering wrong is the result of a trial. But, quite on the contrary, that is the greatest harm; and so in every case when we exercise self-restraint in these matters, not willingly, but after being worsted in that other quarter. For it is no advantage that a man defeated in a trial endures it; for it becomes thenceforth a matter of necessity. What then is the splendid victory? When thou lookest down on it: when thou refusest to go to law. "How say you? have I been stripped of every thing," saith one, "and do you bid me keep silent? Have I been shamefully used, and do you exhort me to bear it meekly? And how shall I be able?" Nay, but it is most easy if thou wilt look up unto heaven; if thou wilt behold the beauty that is in sight; and whither God hath promised to receive thee, if thou bear wrong nobly. Do this then; and looking up unto the heaven, think that thou art made like unto Him that sitteth there upon the Cherubim. For He also was injured and He bore it; He was reproached and avenged not Himself; and was spit upon, yet He asserted not His cause. Nay, He made return, in the contrary kind, to those who did such things, even in benefits without number; and He hath commanded us to be imitators of Him. Consider that thou camest naked out of thy mother's womb, and that naked both thou and he that hath done thee wrong, shall depart; rather, he for his part, with innumerable wounds, breeding worms. Consider that things present are but for a season; count over the tombs of thine ancestors; acquaint thyself accurately with past events; and thou shalt see that the wrong-doer hath made thee stronger. For his own affection he hath aggravated, his covetousness I mean; but yours, he hath alleviated, taking away the food of the beast. And besides all this, he hath set you free from cares, agony, envy of informers, trouble, worry, perpetual fear; and the foul mass of evils he hath heaped upon his own head.

"What then," saith one, "if I have to struggle with

II Cor. 4. 10.

HOMIL. hunger?" Thou endurest this with Paul, who saith, 'Even XVI. at this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked. But he did it, you will say, " for God's sake:" do thou it also, for God's sake. For when thou abstainest from avenging, thou dost so for God's sake. "But he that wronged me, takes wealthy." Yea, rather with the devil. together with Paul.

2 Prov. 10.3.

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his pleasure with the

But be

But be you crowned

Therefore fear not hunger, for 2 the Lord will not kill with hunger the souls of the righteous. And again, another saith, 3 Ps. 54.3 Cast upon the Lord thy care, and He will nourish thee. For if the sparrows of the field are nourished by Him, how shall He not nourish thee? Now let us not be of little faith nor of little soul, O my beloved! For He who hath promised the kingdom of heaven, and such great blessings, how shall He not give things present? Let us not covet superfluous things, but let us keep to a sufficiency, and we shall always be rich. Let shelter be what we seek and food, and we shall obtain all things; both there, and such as are far greater.

But if you are still grieving and bowing yourself down, I should like to shew you the soul of the wrong-doer after his victory, how it is become ashes. For truly sin is that kind of thing: while it is being committed, it affords a certain pleasure; but when it is finished, then the trifling pleasure is gone, one knows not how, and in its place comes dejection. And this is our feeling when we do hurt to any: afterwards, at any rate, we condemn ourselves. So also when we over-reach we have pleasure; but afterwards we are stung by conscience. Seest thou in any one's possession some poor man's home? Weep, not for him that is spoiled, but for the spoiler: for he has not inflicted, but sustained an evil. For he hath robbed the other of things present; but himself he hath cast out of the blessings which cannot be uttered. For if he who giveth not to the poor shall go away into hell; what shall he suffer who takes the goods of the poor? "Yet," saith one, "where is the gain, if I suffer ill?" Indeed, the gain is great. For not of the punishment of him that hath done thee harm doth God frame a compensation for thee: since that would be no great thing. For what great good is it, if I suffer ill and he suffer ill? And yet I know

He who suffers Wrong is under God's Discipline.

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of many, who consider this the greatest comfort, and who 1COR.6. think they have got all back again, when they see those who had insulted them undergoing punishment. But God doth not limit His recompense to this.

Wouldest thou then desire to know in earnest how great are the blessings which await thee? He openeth for thee the whole heaven; He maketh thee a fellow-citizen with the Saints; He fits thee to bear a part in their choir: from sins He absolveth; with righteousness He crowneth. For if such as forgive offenders shall obtain forgiveness, those who not only forgive but who also give largely to boot, what blessing shall they not inherit?

Therefore, bear it not with a poor spirit, but even pray for him that injured thee. It is for thyself that thou dost this. Hath he taken thy money? Well: he took thy sins too: which was the case with Naaman and Gehazi. How much wealth wouldest thou not give, to have thine iniquities forgiven thee? This, believe me, is the case now. For if thou endure nobly and curse not, thou hast bound on thee a glorious crown. It is not my word; but thou hast heard Christ speaking, Pray for those that despitefully use you. And consider the reward how great! That ye may be like your Father which is in the heavens. So then you have been deprived of nothing, yea, you have been a gainer: you have received no wrong, rather you have been crowned; in that you are become better disciplined in soul; are made like to God; are set free from the care of money; are made possessor of the kingdom of heaven.

All these things therefore taking into account, let us restrain ourselves in injuries, beloved, in order that we may both be freed from the tumult of this present life, and cast out all unprofitable sadness of spirit, and may obtain the joy to come; through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honour, now, henceforth, and for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY XVII.

1 COR. vi. 12.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought into the power of any.

HERE he glances at the gluttons. For since he intends to assail the fornicator again, and fornication arises from delicacy and want of moderation, he strongly chastises this passion. It cannot be that he speaks thus with regard to things forbidden; such not being lawful: but he speaks of things which seem to be indifferent. To illustrate my meaning: "It is lawful," he says, " to eat and to drink; but it is not expedient with excess." And so that marvellous and unexpected turn of his, which he is often wont to adopt1; bringing his argument clear round to its contrary, this he manages to 1 Cor. 7. introduce here also; and he signifies that to do what is in one's power not only is not expedient, but even is not a part of power, but of slavery.

1 Cf. Rom.

12. 21;

23.

And first, he dissuades them on the ground of the inexpediency of the thing, saying, they are not expedient: in the next place, on that of its contrariety to itself, saying, I will not be brought under the power of any. This is his meaning: "You are at liberty to eat," says he; "well then, remain in liberty, and take heed that you do not become a slave to this appetite: for he who uses it properly, he is master of it; but he that exceeds the proper measure is no longer its master but its slave, since gluttony reigns paramount within him." Do you perceive how, where the man thought he had authority, Paul points out that he is under authority? For this is his custom, as I was saying before, to give all ob

Luxury in Eating, a Kind of Slavery.

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jections a turn the contrary way. It is just this which he 1COR.6. has done here. For mark; each of them was saying, "I have power to live delicately." He replies, "In doing so, thou art not so much acting as one who had power over a thing, but rather as being thyself subject to some such power. For thou hast not power even over thine own belly, so long as thou art dissolute, but it hath power over thee." And the same we may say of riches. also, and of all other things.

19.

Ver. 13. Meats for the belly. By the belly here he means not the stomach, but the stomach's voraciousness. As when he says, 'Whose God is their belly: not speaking about that Phil.3. part of the body, but about greediness. To prove that so it is, hear what follows: And the belly for meats; but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord. And yet the belly also is of the body. But he puts down two pairs of things, meats and gluttony, (which he terms the belly ;) Christ, and the body.

What then is the meaning of, Meats for the belly? Meats, he says, are on good terms with gluttony, and it with them. It cannot therefore lead us unto Christ, but drags towards these. For it is a strong and brutal passion, and makes us slaves, and puts us upon ministering to the belly. Why then art thou excited and gaping after food, O man? For the end of that service is this, and nothing further shall be seen of it: but as one waiting on some mistress, it abides keeping up this slavery, and advances no further, and has no other employment but this same fruitless one. And the two are connected together and destroyed together; the belly with the meats, and the meats with the belly; winding out a sort of interminable course; just as from a corrupt body worms may be produced, and again by worms the body consumed; or as it were a wave swoln high and breaking, and having no further effect. But these things he says not concerning food and the body, but it is the passion of greediness and excess in eatables which he is censuring and what follows shews it. For he proceeds:

But God will destroy both it and them; speaking not of the stomach, but of immoderate desire: not of food, but of high feeding. For with the former he is not angry, but even lays down rules about them, saying, Having food and raiment, 21 Tim.