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Christians are the Temple of God.

HOMIL. had said, "But himself shall remain for ever in punish

IX.

ment."

He then makes an inference, saying,

[7.] Ver. 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God? For since he had discoursed in the section before, concerning those who were dividing the Church, he thenceforward attacks him also who had been guilty of uncleanness; not indeed as yet in plain terms, but in a general way; hinting at his corrupt mode of life, and enhancing the sin, by the Gift which had been already given to him. Then also he puts all the rest to shame, arguing from these very blessings which they had already for this is what he is ever doing, either from the future, or from the past, whether grievous, or encouraging. First, from things future; For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. Again, from things already come to pass; Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Ver. 17. If any man destroy the Temple of God, him will God destroy. Dost thou mark the sweeping vehemence of his words? However, so long as the person is unknown, what is spoken is not so invidious, all having among themselves the fear of the rebuke.

Him will God destroy, that is, will cause him to perish. And this is not the word of one denouncing a curse, but of one that prophesieth.

For the Temple of God is holy: but he that hath committed fornication is profane.

Then, in order that he might not seem to spend his earnestness upon that one, in saying, for the Temple of God is holy, he addeth, which ye are.

[8.] V. 18. Let no man deceive himself. This also is in reference to that person, as thinking himself to be somewhat, and flattering himself for his wisdom. But that he might not seem to press on him at great length in a mere digression; he first throws him into a kind of agony, and delivers him over unto fear, and then brings back his discourse to the common fault, saying, If any man among you seemeth to be 1y wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become' wise. And this" he doth afterwards with great boldness

Tai. rec.

vers.

"be."

bi. e. "reproving them for their common fault."

A Portraiture of Sin: especially Covetousness.

121

18.

of speech, as having sufficiently beaten them down, and shaken 1COR.3. with that fear the mind not of that unclean person only, but of all the hearers also: so accurately does he measure the reach of what he has to say. For what if a man be rich, what if he be noble; he is viler than all the vile, when made captive by sin. For as if a man were a king and enslaved to barbarians, he is of all men most wretched, so also is it in regard of sin: since sin is a barbarian, and the soul which hath been once taken captive she knoweth not how to spare, but plays the tyrant, to the shame and ruin of all those who admit her.

[9.] For nothing is so inconsiderate as sin: nothing so (4.) senseless, so utterly foolish and outrageous. All is overturned and confounded and destroyed by it, wheresoever it may alight. Unsightly to behold, disgusting and grievous. And should a painter draw her picture", he would not, methinks, err, in fashioning her after this sort. A woman with the form of a beast, savage, breathing flames, hideous, black; such as the heathen poets depict their Scyllas. For with ten thousand hands she lays hold of our thoughts, and comes on unexpected, and tears every thing in pieces, like those dogs that bite slily.

But rather, what need of the painter's art, when we should rather bring forward those who are made after sin's likeness? Whom then will ye that we should pourtray first? The covetous and rapacious? And what more shameless than those eyes? What more immodest, more like a greedy dog? For no dog keeps his ground with such shameless importunity, as he when he is grasping at all men's goods. What more polluted than those hands? What more audacious than that mouth, swallowing all down, and not satisfied? Nay, look not on the countenance and the eyes as being a man's. For such looks belong not to the eyes of men. He seeth not men as men; he seeth not the heaven as heaven. He does not even lift up his head unto the Lord; but all is money in his account. The eyes of men are wont to look upon poor persons in affliction, and to be softened; but these of the

sentences.

d Compare G. Herbert, Remains, It p. 110. ed. 1824.

From this to the end of the sentence is not in the Benedictine, but in Savile's margin, evidently from some MS. seems to complete the connection of the

IX.

122

Brutalizing Effect of Covetousness:

HOMIL. rapacious man, at sight of the poor, glare like wild beasts'. The eyes of men behold other men's goods, not as if they were their own, yea, rather, their own as others; and they covet not the things given to others, but rather exhaust upon others their own means: but these will be content with nothing, except they take all men's property. For it is not a man's eye which they have, but a wild beast's. The eyes of men endure not to see their own body stripped of clothing, (for it is their own, though in person it belong to others,) but these, unless they strip every one, and lodge all men's property in their own home, are never cloyed; yea rather they never have enough. Insomuch that one might say, that their hands are not wild beasts' only, but even far more savage and cruel than these. For bears and wolves, when they are satiated, leave off their kind of eating: but these know not any satiety. And yet for this cause God made us hands, to assist others, not to plot against them. And if we were to use them for that purpose, better had they been cut off, and we left without them. But thou, if a wild beast rend a sheep, art grieved; but when doing the same unto one of thine own flesh and blood, thinkest thou that thy deed is nothing atrocious? How then canst thou be a man? Seest thou not that we call a thing Humane, when it is full of mercy and loving-kindness? But when a man doth any thing cruel and savage, Inhuman is the title we give to such an one. You see then that the stamp of man as we pourtray him, is his shewing mercy; of a beast the contrary; according to the constant saying, 1 vid 2 Why, is a man a wild beast, or a dog?" For men relieve poverty; they do not aggravate it. Again, these men's mouths are the mouths of wild beasts; yea, rather these are the fiercer of the two. For the words also, which they utter, emit poison, more than the wild beasts' teeth, working slaughter. And if one were to go through all particulars, one should then see clearly how inhumanity turns those who practise it from men into beasts.

Kings 8. 13.

66

[10.] But were he to search out the mind also of that sort of people, he would no longer call them beasts only, but demons. For first, they are full of great cruelty and S.Matt. of hatred against their fellow-servant: and neither is

18. 33.

Coretous Men compared with Evil Spirits. 123

18.

love of the kingdom there, nor fear of hell; no reverence 1COR.3. for men, no pity, no sympathy: but shamelessness and audacity, and contempt of all things to come. And unto them the words of God concerning punishment seem to be a fable, and His threats mirth. For such is the mind of the covetous man. Since then within they are demons, and without, wild beasts, yea, worse than wild beasts; where are we to place such as they are? For that they are worse even than wild beasts, is plain from this. The beasts are such as they are by nature: but these, endowed by nature with gentleness, forcibly strive against nature to train themselves to that which is savage. The demons too have the plotters among men to help them; to such an extent, that if they had no such aid, the greater part of their wiles against us would be done away: but these, when such as they have spitefully entreated are vying with them, still try to be more spiteful than they. Again, the devil wages war with man, not with the devils of his own kind: but he of whom we speak is urgent in all ways to do harm to his own kindred and family, and doth not even reverence nature.

I know that many hate us because of these words; but I feel no hatred towards them; rather I pity and bewail those who are so disposed. Even should they choose to strike, I would gladly endure it, if they would but abstain from this. their savage mind. For not I alone, but the prophet also with me, banisheth all such from the family of men, saying ',' Ps. 49. 20. Sept. Man being in honour hath no understanding, but is compared rois avońunto the senseless beasts.

Let us then become men at last, and let us look up unto heaven; and that which is according to His image, let us receive and recover: that we may obtain also the blessings 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 and always, and unto everlasting ages. Amen.

τους.

2 Colos.

3. 10.

HOMILY X.

omitted.

1 Cor. iii. 18, 19.

1 iv iμiv Let no man deceive himself. If any man 1 seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

As I said before, having launched out before the proper time into accusation of the fornicator, and having half opened it, obscurely in a few words, and made the man's conscience to quail, he hastens again to the battle with heathen wisdom, and to his accusations of those who were puffed up therewith, and who were dividing the Church: in order that having added what remained, and having completed the whole topic with accuracy, he might thenceforth suffer his tongue to be carried away with vehement impulse against that unclean person, having had but a preliminary skirmishing with him in what he had said before. For this, Let no man deceive himself, is the expression of one aiming chiefly at him, and quelling him beforehand by fear: and the saying about the stubble, suits best with one hinting at him. And so does the phrase, Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? For these two things are most apt to withdraw us from sin; when in mind we realize the punishment appointed for the sin; and when we reckon up the amount of our true dignity. By bringing forward then the hay, and the stubble, he terrifies; but by speaking of the dignity of that noble birth, which was theirs, he puts them to shame; by the former striving to amend the more insensible kind, by the latter the more considerate.