The Fall, and our Bodies, no Excuse for Sin.

creatures, have a longer enjoyment of the present life. moreover, life is short and toilsome, but not to them. is both long, and freer from grief and cares.

"What then? tell me: hath He made the slaves better than the masters?" Do not, I beseech thee, do not reason thus, Oman, nor be so poverty stricken in mind, nor be ignorant of the riches of God, having such a Master. For even from the beginning God desired to make thee immortal, but thou wert not willing. Since the things also of that time were dark hints of immortality: the converse with God; the absence of uneasiness from life; the freedom from grief, and cares, and toils, and other things which belong to a temporary existence. For Adam had no need either of a garment or a shelter, or any other provision of this sort; but rather was like to the Angels; and many of the things to come he foreknew, and was filled with great wisdom. Even what God did in secret, he knew, I mean with regard to the woman: wherefore also he said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh1. 1 Gen.2. Labour came into being afterwards: so did sweat, so did shame, and cowardice, and want of confidence. But on that day there was no grief, nor pain, nor lamentation. But he abode not in that dignity.

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What then, saith one, am I to do? must I. perish on his account? I reply, first, It is not on his account: for neither hast thou remained without sin: though it be not the same sin, at least there is some other which thou hast committed. And again, you have not been injured by his (4.) punishment, but rather have been a gainer. For if you had been to remain altogether mortal, perchance what is said would have had some reason in it. But now thou art immortal, and if thou wilt, thou mayest shine brighter than the sun itself.

[5.] "But," says one," had I not received a mortal body, I had not sinned." Tell me then, had he a mortal body when he sinned? Surely not: for if it had been mortal before, it would not have undergone death as a punishment afterwards. And that a mortal body is no hindrance to virtue, but that it keeps men in order, and is of the greatest service, is plain from what follows. If the expectation of immortality alone so lifted up Adam; had he been even immortal in reality, to

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How bodily Frailty may help towards Salvation.

HOMIL. What a pitch of arrogance would he not have proceeded? XVII. And as things are, after sinning you may do away with your

sins, the body being abject, falling away, and subject to dissolution: for these thoughts are sufficient to sober a man. But if you had sinned in an immortal body, your sins were likely to have been more lasting.

Mortality then is not the cause of sin: accuse it not: but the wicked will is the root of all the mischief. For why was not Abel at all the worse for his body? Why are the devils not at all the better for being incorporeal? Wilt thou hear why the body's becoming mortal, so far from hurting, has been positively useful? Mark how much thou gainest thereby, if thou art sober. It drags thee back and pulls thee off from wickedness, by griefs and pains, and labours, and all other such things. "But it tempts men out to uncleanness," perhaps you will say. Not the body, but incontinence, doth this. For all these things, which I was mentioning, certainly do belong to the body: on which account it is impossible that a man who has entered into this life should escape disease and pain, and lowness of spirits: but that he commit no uncleanness is possible. Thus it appears that if the affections of vice were part of the nature of the body, they would be universal: since all things natural are so; but to commit fornication is not so. Pain indeed cometh of nature: but to commit fornication proceeds from deliberate purpose.

Blame not the body then let not the Devil take away thine honour, which God hath given thee. For if we choose, the body is an excellent bridle to curb the wanton sallies of the soul, to pull down haughtiness, to repress arrogance, to minister to us in the greatest achievements of virtue. For tell me not of those who have lost their senses: since we often see horses, after they have thrown out their drivers, dashing with their reins over the precipices, and yet we do not blame the rein. For it is not the breaking of that which caused it all, but the driver not holding them in was the ruin of every thing. Just so do thou reason in this case. If thou seest a young person living in orphanhood and doing innumerable evil things, blame not the body, but the charioteer who is dragged on, I mean, the man's faculty of reasoning. For as the reins give no trouble to the charioteer,

The Mind, not the Body, to blame for dissolute Conduct. 238

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but the charioteer is the cause of all the mischief through his 1COR.6. not holding them properly: (and therefore do they often exact a penalty of him, entangling themselves about him, and dragging him on, and compelling him to partake in their own mishap:) so is it also in the case before us. "I," say the reins," kept in the horse's mouth, as long as you held me: but since you threw me away, I require for satisfaction your contempt, and I entwine myself about you, and drag you along, so as not to incur the same usage again." Let no one then blame the reins, but himself and his own corrupt mind. For over us too is a charioteer, even reason: and the reins are the body, connecting the horses with the charioteer: if then these be in good condition, you will suffer no harm: but if you let them go, you have annihilated and ruined every thing. Let us be temperate then, and lay all blame not on the body, but on the evil mind. For this is the Devil's special work, to make foolish men accuse the body, and God, and their neighbour, rather than their own perverted minds; lest, having discovered the cause, they get free from the root of the evils.

But do ye, being aware of his design, direct your wrath. against him and having set the charioteer upon the car, bend the eye of your minds towards God. For in all other instances, he that appoints the games contributes nothing, but only awaits the end. But in this case, He is all in all, who appointed the contest, even God. Him therefore let us render propitious, and surely we shall obtain the blessings in store; through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honour, now, henceforth, and for evermore. Amen.

HOMILY XVIII.

1 COR. vi. 15.

Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

HAVING passed on from the fornicator to the covetous person, he comes back to the former from the latter, no longer henceforth discoursing with him, but with the others who had not committed fornication. And in the act of securing them, lest they fall into the same sins, he assails him again. For he that has committed sin, though you direct your words to another, is stung even in that way; his conscience being thoroughly awakened and scourging him.

Now the fear of punishment indeed was enough to keep them in chastity. But seeing that he does not wish by fear alone to set these matters right, he also adds threatenings and reasons.

Now upon that other occasion, having stated the sin, and prescribed the punishment, and pointed out the harm which intercourse with the fornicator brought upon all, he left off, and passed to the subject of covetousness: and having threatened the covetous and all the rest whom he numbered with expulsion from the kingdom, he so concluded his discourse. But here he takes in hand the work of admonition in a yet more terrific manner. For as he that only punishes a sin, and does nothing to point out its most extreme lawlessness, produces no such great effect by his chastisement: so again, he who only abashes, and fails to terrify by his mode of punishing, does not very keenly hit men of hardened minds. Wherefore Paul does both: here he abashes, saying, Know ye not that we shall judge angels? there again he

St. Paul persuades by mingling Fear with Shame.

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terrifies, saying, Know ye not that the covetous shall not ICOR.6. inherit the kingdom of God?

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And in regard to the fornicator, he again uses this order of discourse. For having terrified him by what he had said before; first cutting him off and delivering him to Satan, and then reminding him of that day which is coming; he abashes him again by saying, Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? thenceforth speaking as to children of noble birth. For whereas he had said, Now the body is for the Lord, he indicates it more plainly now. And in another place as well he does this same thing, saying, 'Now1 c. 12. ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And the same figure he often employs, not on the same subjects, but at one time to shew His love, and at another to increase their fear. But here he has employed it to startle and fill them with alarm. Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. Nothing can be apter to strike horror than this expression. He said not, "Shall I take the members of Christ, and join them on to a harlot?" but what? make them the members of an harlot; which surely would strike more keenly.

Then he makes out how the fornicator becomes this, saying thus, Know ye not, that he that is joined unto an harlot is one body? How is this evident? For two, saith He, shall be one flesh.

Ver. 17. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. For the conjunction suffers the two no longer to be two, but makes them both one.

[2] Now mark again, how he proceeds by means of the bare general terms, conducting his accusation in the names of the harlot and of Christ.

Ver. 18. Flee fornication.

He said not," abstain from fornication," but Flee: that is, with all zeal make to yourselves deliverance from that evil. Every sin which a man committeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. This is less than what went before; but since he had to speak of fornicators, he amplifies that guilt by topics drawn from all quarters, from greater things and smaller alike, making the charge heinous. And in fact, that former topic was addressed