HOMIL.

XXXIX.

562

Christ did not repeal but enhance the Sabbath.

For because they could not have borne it, if when He 3, 4. was giving the law for the Sabbath, He had said, "Do your good works on the Sabbath, but do not the works which are evil," therefore He restrained them from all alike: for, " Ye must do nothing at all," saith He: and not even so were they kept in order. But He Himself, in the very act of giving the law of the Sabbath, did even therein darkly signify that He will have them refrain from the evil works only, by the saying, "Ye must do no work, except what shall be done for your life1." And in the Temple too all went on, and with LXX. more diligence and double toil. Thus even by the very 2 Numb. shadow He was secretly opening unto them the Truth.

1 Exod.

12, 16.

28,9.10.

Did Christ then, it will be said, repeal a thing so highly profitable? Far from it; nay, He greatly enhanced it. For it was time for them to be trained in all things by the higher rules, and it was unnecessary that his hands should be bound, who was freed from wickedness, winged for all good works; or that men should hereby learn that God made all things; or that they should so be made gentle, who are called to imitate God's own love to mankind, (for He saith, Be ye Luke merciful, as your Heavenly Father ;) or that they should 6, 36. make one day a festival, who are commanded to keep a feast all their life long; (For let us keep the feast, it is said, not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness; but with unleavened bread of sincerity and 41 Cor.5, truth;) as neither need they stand by an ark, and a golden altar, who have the very Lord of all for their Inmate, and in all things hold communion with Him; by prayer, and by oblation, and by scriptures, and by almsgiving, and by having Him within them. Lo now, why is any Sabbath required, by him who is always keeping the feast, whose conversation is in Heaven?

8.

[4.] Let us keep the feast then continually, and do no evil thing; for this is a feast: and let our spiritual things be made intense, while our earthly things give place: and let us rest a spiritual rest, refraining our hands from covetousness; withdrawing our body from our superfluous and unprofitable toils, from such as the people of the Hebrews did of old

a The meaning seems to be, It would have been too hard a trial of their religious discretion.

Our Obligations stricter than the Jews'.

563

XII. 8.

endure in Egypt. For there is no difference betwixt us who MATT. are gathering gold, and those that were bound in the mire, working at those bricks, and gathering stubble, and being beaten Yea, for now too the Devil bids us make bricks, as Pharaoh did then. For what else is gold, than mire? and what else is silver, than stubble? Like stubble, at least, it kindles the flame of desire; like mire, so doth gold defile him that possesses it.

Wherefore He sent us, not Moses from the wilderness, but His Son from Heaven. If then, after He is come, thou abide in Egypt, thou wilt suffer with the Egyptians; but if leaving that land thou go up with the spiritual Israel, thou shalt see all the miracles.

Yet not even this suffices for salvation. For we must not only be delivered out of Egypt, but we must also enter into the Promise. Since the Jews too, as Paul saith, both went through the Red Sea1, and ate manna, and drank spiritual1 Cor. drink, but nevertheless they all perished.

Lest then the same befal us also, let us not be slow, neither draw back; but when thou hearest wicked spies even now bringing up an evil report against the strait and narrow way, and uttering the same kind of talk as those spies of old, let not the multitude, but Joshua, be our pattern, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh; and do not thou give up, until thou have attained the promise, and entered into the Heavens.

10,1.&c.

10.

Neither account the journey to be difficult. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved?. "But this way," it 'Rom.5, will be said, " is strait and narrow." Well, but the former, through which thou hast come, is not strait and narrow only, but even impassable, and full of savage wild beasts. And as there was no passing through the Red Sea, unless that miracle had been wrought, so neither could we, abiding in our former life, have gone up into Heaven, but only by Baptism intervening. Now if the impossible hath become possible, much more will the difficult be easy.

"But that," it will be said, " was of grace only." Why, for this reason especially thou hast just cause to take courage. For if, where it was grace alone, He wrought with you; will He not much more be your aid, where ye also shew forth

XXXIX.

564

Counsels of Perfection, a Rebuke to Sinners.

HOMIL. laborious works? If He saved thee, doing nothing, will He 4. not much more help thee, working?

Above indeed I was saying, that from the impossibilities thou oughtest to take courage about the difficulties also; but now I add this, that if we are vigilant, these will not be so much as difficult. For mark it: Death is trodden under foot, the Devil hath fallen, the law of sin is extinguished, the grace of the Spirit is given, life is contracted into a small space, the heavy burdens are abridged.

And to convince thee hereof by the actual results, see how many have overshot the injunctions of Christ; and art thou afraid of that which is just their measure? What plea then wilt thou have, when others are leaping beyond the bounds, and thou thyself too slothful for what is enacted?

Thus, thee we admonish to give alms of such things as thou hast, but another hath even stripped himself of all his possessions: thee we require to live chastely with thy wife, but another hath not so much as entered into marriage: and thee we entreat not to be envious, but another we find giving up even his own life for charity: thee again we entreat to be lenient in judgments, and not severe to them that sin, but another, even when smitten, hath turned the other cheek also.

What then shall we say, I pray thee? What excuse shall we make, not doing even these things, when others go so far beyond us? And they would not have gone beyond us, had not the thing been very easy. For which pines away, he who envies other men's blessings, or he who takes pleasure with them, and rejoices? Which eyes all things with suspicion and continual trembling, the chaste man, or the adulterer? Which is cheered by good hopes, he that spoils by violence, or he that shews mercy, and imparts of his own to the needy?

Let us then bear in mind these things, and not be torpid in our career for virtue's sake; but having stripped ourselves with all readiness for these glorious wrestlings, let us labour for a little while, that we may win the perpetual and imperishable crowns; unto which may we all attain, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY XL.

MATT. xii. 9, 10.

And when He was departed thence, He went into their synagogue: and, behold, a man which had his hand withered.

AGAIN He heals on a Sabbath day, vindicating what had been done by His disciples. And the other Evangelists indeed say, that He set the man in the midst, and asked them, If it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath days1.

See Mark 3,

3. 4. and

8.9.

See the tender bowels of the Lord. He set him in the midst, that by the sight He might subdue them; that over- Luke 6, come by the spectacle they might cast away their wickedness, and out of a kind of shame towards the man, cease from their savage ways. But they, ungentle and inhuman, choose rather to hurt the fame of Christ, than to see this person made whole in both ways betraying their wickedness; by their warring against Christ, and by their doing so with such contentiousness, as even to treat with despite His mercies to other men.

And while the other Evangelists say, He asked the question, this one saith, it was asked of Him. And they asked v. 10. Him, so it stands, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might accuse Him. Aud it is likely that both took place. For being unholy wretches, and well assured that He would doubtless proceed to the healing, they hastened to take Him beforehand with their question,

XL.1,2.

566 Christ's Reasonings with the Scribes on the Sabbath.

HOMIL. thinking in this way to hinder Him. And this is why they asked, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? not for information, but that they might accuse Him. Yet surely the work was enough, if it were really their wish to accuse Him; but they desired to find a handle in His words too, preparing for themselves beforehand an abundance of arguments.

v.11.12.

1 John 9, 6.

But He in His love towards man doth this also; He answers them, teaching His own meekness, and turning it all back upon them; and points out their inhumanity. And He setteth the man in the midst; not in fear of them, but endeavouring to profit them, and move them to pity.

But when not even so did He prevail with them, then was He grieved, it is said, and wroth with them for the hardness of their heart, and He saith,

What man is there among you that shall have one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the Sabbath days, will he not lay hold of it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.

Thus, lest they have ground of obstinacy, and of accusing him again of transgression, He convicts them by this example. And do thou mark, I pray thee, how variously and suitably in each case, He introduces His pleas for the breaking of the Sabbath. Thus, first, in the case of the blind man1, He doth not so much as defend Himself to them, when He made the clay and yet then also were they blaming Him; but the manner of the creation was enough to indicate the Lord and Owner of the Law. Next, in the case of the paralytic, when he

:

2 John carried his bed, and they were finding fault2, He defends Him5, 9. 10. self, now as God, and now as man; as man, when He saith, Iƒ a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the Law should not be broken; (and He said not" that a man should be profited;") are ye angry at Me, because I have made a 3 John7, man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? As God again, 4 John5, when He saith, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

23.

17.

5 Matt.

12, 3. 4.

But when blamed for His disciples, He said, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, himself and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shew bread 5? He brings forward the Priests also.