Chap. 4:17. This I Say Therefore, And Testify In The Lord, That Ye Henceforth Walk Not As Other Gentiles Walk, In The Va
HOMILY XII
CHAP. 4:17. THIS I SAY THEREFORE, AND TESTIFY IN THE LORD, THAT YE HENCEFORTH WALK NOT AS OTHER GENTILES WALK, IN THE VANITY OF THEIR MIND, HAVING THE UNDERSTANDING DARKENED.
It is the duty of the teacher to restore and reestablish the souls of his disciples, not only by counselling and instructing them, but also by alarming them, and making them over to God. For when the words spoken by men as coming from fellow-servants are not sufficient to touch the soul, it then becomes necessary to make over the case to God. This accordingly Paul does also; for having discoursed concerning lowliness, and concerning unity, and concerning our duty not to rise up one against another, hear what he says. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. He does not say, ‘That ye henceforth walk not as ye are now walking,’ (for that expression would have struck too hard.) But he plainly indicates the same thing, only he brings his example from others. And so in writing to the Thessalonians, he does this very same thing, where he says, Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the other Gentiles. Ye differ from them, he means to say, in doctrine, but that is wholly God’s work: but I require on your part, the life and the course of behaviour that is after God. This is your own. And I call the Lord to witness what I have said, that I have not shrunk, but have told you how ye ought to walk.
In the vanity, saith he, of their mind.
What is vanity of mind? It is the being busied about vain things. And what are those vain things, but all things in the present life? Of which the Preacher saith, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. But a man will say, If they be vain and vanity, wherefore were they made? If they are God’s works, how are they vain? And great is the dispute concerning these things. But hearken, beloved: it is not the works of God which he calls vain; God forbid! The Heaven is not vain, the earth is not vain,—God forbid!—nor the sun, nor the moon and stars, nor our own body. No, all these are very good. But what is vain? Let us hear the Preacher himself, what he saith; I planted me vineyards, I gat me singing men and singing women, I made me pools of water, I had flocks and herds, I gathered me silver and gold, and I saw that these are vanity. And again, Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity. Hear also what the Prophet saith, He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not for whom he shall gather them. Such is vanity of vanities, your splendid buildings, your vast and overflowing riches, the herds of slaves that bustle along the public square, your pomp, and vainglory, your high thoughts, and your ostentation. For all these are vain; they came not from the hand of God, but are of our own creating. But why then are they vain? Because they have no useful end. Riches are vain when they are spent upon luxury; but they cease to be vain when they are dispersed abroad amongst the poor. But when thou hast spent them upon luxury, let us look at the end of them, what it is;—grossness of body, flatulence, pantings, fulness of belly, heaviness of head, softness of flesh, feverishness, enervation; for as a man who shall draw into a leaking vessel labours in vain, so also does the self-indulgent liver; he draws into a leaking vessel. But again, that is called ‘vain,’ which is expected indeed to possess value, yet possesses it not;—that which men call empty, as when they speak of “empty hopes,” and that which is fruitless. And generally that is called ‘vain,’ which is of no use. Let us see then whether all human things are not of this sort. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. What then, tell me, is the end? Corruption. Let us put on clothing and raiment. And what is the result? Nothing. Thus did some of the Greeks philosophize, but in vain. They made a shew of a life of hardship, but of mere hardship, not looking to any beneficial end, but to vain-glory, and to the honour of the many. But what is the honour of the many? It is nothing, for if they themselves which render the honour perish, much more does the honour. He that renders honour to another, ought first to render himself honoured; for if he gain not honour for himself, how can he ever render it to another? Whereas now we seek even honours from vile and despicable characters, themselves dishonourable, and objects of reproach. What kind of honour then is this? Perceive ye, how that all things are vanity of vanities? Therefore, saith he, in the vanity of their mind.
But further, is not their religion of this sort? Are not wood and stone the objects which they worship? He hath made the sun to shine for a lamp to light us. Who will worship his own lamp? The sun supplies us with light, but where he cannot, a lamp can do it. Then why not worship thy lamp? ‘Nay,’ one will say, ‘I worship the fire.’ Oh, how ridiculous! Is the disgrace so great, and yet art thou not ashamed of it? For look again at another absurdity. Why extinguish the object of thy worship? Why destroy, why annihilate thy god? Wherefore dost thou not suffer thy house to be filled with him? For if the fire be god, let him feed upon thy body. Put not thy god under the bottom of thy kettle, or thy cauldron. Bring him into thy inner chambers, bring him within thy silken draperies. Whereas not only dost thou not bring him in, but if by any accident he has found entrance, thou drivest him out in all quarters, thou callest all around together, and, as though some wild beast had entered, thou weepest and wailest, and callest the presence of thy god an overwhelming calamity. I have a God, and I do all I can to enshrine Him in my bosom, and I deem it my true bliss, not when He visits my dwelling only, but when I can draw Him even to my heart. Do thou too draw the fire to thine heart. Folly this and vanity. Fire is good for use, not for adoration; good for ministration and for service, to be my slave, not to be my master. It was made for my sake, not I for it. If thou art a worshipper of fire, why recline upon thy couch thyself, and order thy cook to stand before thy god? Take up the art of cookery thyself, become a baker if thou wilt, or a coppersmith, for nothing can be more honourable than these arts, since these are they that thy god visits. Why deem that art a disgrace, where thy god is all in all? Why commit it to thy slaves, and not be ambitious of it thyself. Fire is good, inasmuch as it is the work of a good Creator, but it is not God. It is the work of God, not God. Seest thou not how ungovernable is its nature;—how when it lays hold on a building it knows not where to stop? But if it seizes any thing continuous, it destroys all; and, except the hands of workmen or others quench its fury, it knows not friends nor foes, but deals with all alike. Is this then your god, and are ye not ashamed? Well indeed does he say, in the vanity of their mind.
But the sun, they say, is God. Tell me, how and wherefore. Is it that he sheds abundance of light? Yet dost thou not see him overcome by clouds, and in bondage to the necessity of nature, and eclipsed, and hidden by moon and cloud? And yet the cloud is weaker than the sun; but still it often gains the mastery of him. And this indeed is the work of God’s wisdom. God must needs be all sufficient: the sun needs many things; and this is not like a god. For he requires air to shine in, and that, too, pure and thin air; since the air, when it is greatly condensed, suffers not the rays to pass through it. He requires also water, and other restraining power, to prevent him from consuming. For were it not that fountains, and lakes, and rivers, and seas, formed some moisture by the emission of their vapours, there would be nothing to prevent an universal conflagration. Dost thou see then, say ye, that he is a god? What folly, what madness! A god, say ye, because he has power to do harm? Nay, rather, for this very reason is he no god, because where he does harm he needs nothing; whereas, where he does good, he requires many things besides. Now to do harm, is foreign to God’s nature; to do good, is His property. Where then the reverse is the case, how can he be God? Seest not that poisonous drugs injure, and need nothing; but when they are to do good, need many things? For thy sake then is he such as he is, both good, and powerless; good, that thou mayest acknowledge his Lord and Master; and powerless, that thou mayest not say that he is lord and master. ‘But,’ say they, ‘he nourishes the plants and the seeds.’ What then, at that rate is not the very dung a god? for even that also nourishes. And why not at that rate the scythe as well, and the hands of the husbandman? Prove to me that the sun alone nourishes, and needs nothing, neither earth, nor water, nor tillage; but let the seeds be sown, and let him shed forth his rays, and produce the ears of corn. But now if this work be not his alone, but that of the rains also, wherefore is not the water a god also? But of this I speak not yet. Why is not the earth too a god, and why not the dung, and the spade? Shall we then, tell me, worship all? Alas, what trifling! And indeed rather might the ear of corn be produced without sun, than without earth and water; and so with plants and all other things. Were there no earth, none of these things could ever appear. And if any one, as children and women do, were to put some earth into a pot, and to fill up the pot with a quantity of dung, and to place it under the roof, plants, though they may be weak ones, will be produced from it. So that the contribution of the earth and of the dung is greater, and these therefore we ought to worship rather than the sun. He requires the sky, he requires the air, he requires these waters, to prevent his doing harm, to be as bridles to curb the fierceness of his power, and to restrain him from letting loose his rays over the world, like a furious horse. And now tell me, where is this our god at night? Whither has he taken his departure? For this is not like a god, to be circumscribed and limited. This is in fact the property of bodies only. But, say they, there is moreover a certain power residing in him, and he has motion. Is this power then, I pray you, itself God? Why then is it insufficient in itself, and why does it not restrain the fire? For again, I come to the same argument. But what is that power? Is it productive of light, or does it by the sun give light, though of itself possessing none of these qualities? If so, then is the sun superior to it. How far shall we unwind this maze?
Again, what is water? is not that too, they say, a god? This again is a matter of truly absurd disputation. Is that not a god, they say, which we make use of for so many purposes? And so again in like manner of the earth. Truly is this in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened.
But these words he is now using concerning life and conduct. The Greeks are fornicators, and adulterers. Of course. They who paint to themselves such gods as these, will have all their works consistent; and if they can but escape the eyes of men, there is no one to restrain them. For what will avail the argument of a resurrection, if it appear to them a mere fable? Yea, and what that of the torments of hell:—they too are but a fable. And mark the Satanic notion. When they are told of gods who are fornicators, they deny that these are fables, but believe them. Yet whenever any shall discourse to them of punishment, ‘these,’ they say, ‘are poets, men who turn every thing into fable, that man’s happy condition may be on all sides overturned.’
But the philosophers, it is said, discovered something truly grand, and far better than these. How? They who introduced fate, and who tell us that nothing is providential, and that there is no one to care for any thing, but that all things consist of atoms? Or, others again who say that God is a body? or who, tell me, are they? Are they those who would turn the souls of men into those of dogs, and would persuade mankind that one was once a dog, and a lion, and a fish? How long will ye go on and never cease trifling, having the understanding darkened? for they say and do all things as though they were in the dark, both in those things which concern doctrine, and those which concern life and conduct; for the man who is in darkness sees none of the things which lie before him, but oftentimes when he sees a rope, he will take it for a live serpent; or again, if he is caught by a hedge, he will think that a man or an evil spirit has hold of him, and great is the alarm, and great the perturbation. Such as these are the things they fear. They were afraid, it saith, where no fear was; but the things which they ought to fear, these they fear not. But just as children in their nurses’ arms thrust their hands incautiously into the fire, and boldly into the candle also, and yet are scared at a man clothed in sackcloth; just so these Greeks, as if they were really always children, (as some one also amongst themselves has said, the Greeks are always children,) fear those that are no sins, such as filthiness of the body, the pollution of a funeral, a bed, or the keeping of days, and the like: whereas those which are really sins, unnatural lust, adultery, fornication, of these they make no account at all. No, you may see a man washing himself from the pollution of a dead body, but from dead works, never; and, again, spending much zeal in the pursuit of riches, and yet supposing the whole is undone by the crowing of a single cock. So darkened are they in their understanding. Their soul is filled with all sorts of terrors. For instance: ‘Such a person,’ one will say, ‘was the first who met me, as I was going out of the house;’ of course ten thousand evils must certainly ensue. At another time, ‘the wretch of a servant in giving me my shoes, held out the left shoe first,’—terrible mishaps and mischiefs! ‘I myself in coming out set forth with the left foot foremost;’ and this too is a token of misfortune. And these are the evils in the house. Then, as I go out, my right eye shoots up from beneath. This is a sure sign of tears. Again the women, when the reeds strike against the standards, and ring, or when they themselves are scratched by the shuttle, turn this also into a sign. And again, when they strike the web with the shuttle, and do it with some vehemence, and then the reeds on the top from the intensity of the blow strike against the standards and ring, this again they make a sign, and ten thousand things besides as ridiculous. And so if an ass should bray, or a cock should crow, or a man should sneeze, or whatever else may happen, like men bound with ten thousand claims, as I was saying, like men confined in the dark, they suspect every thing, and are more slavish than all the slaves in the world.
But let it not be so with us. But scorning all these things, as men living in the light, and having our conversation in Heaven, and having nothing in common with earth, let us regard but one thing as terrible, that is, sin, and offending against God. And if there be not this, let us scorn all the rest, and him that brought them in, the Devil. And now for these things let us give thanks to God. Let us be diligent, not only that we ourselves be never caught by this slavery, but if any of those who are dear to us have been caught, let us break his bonds asunder, let us release him from this most bitter and contemptible captivity, let us make him free and unshackled for his course toward Heaven, let us raise up his flagging wings, and teach him to be wise for life and doctrine’s sake. Let us give thanks to God for all things. Let us beseech Him that we be not found unworthy of the gifts bestowed upon us, and let us ourselves withal endeavour to contribute our own part, that we may teach not only by speaking, but by acting also. For thus shall we be able to attain His unnumbered blessings, which God grant we may all attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father and the Holy Ghost together, be glory, might, and honour, now, henceforth, and for ever and ever. Amen.