"What then," you will say, "if the adversary be one in high place? Well, for this reason more than all one ought to go to law in Christian courts: for in the courts without he will get the better of you at all events. "But what if he acquiesce not, but both despise those within and forcibly drag the course without?" Better were it to submit willingly to what you are likely to endure by compulsion, and not go to law, that thou mayest have also a reward. For, (St. Matt. v. 40.) "If any one will go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, thou shalt let him have thy cloak also:" and, (v. 25.) “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art with him in the way.' And why need I speak of our rules? For even the pleaders in the heathen courts very often tell us this, saying, "it were better to make up matters out of court." But, O wealth, or rather, O the absurd love of wealth! It subverts all things and casts them down; and all things are to the many an idle tale and fables because of money! Now that those who give trouble to courts of laws should be worldly men is no marvel: but that many of those who have bid farewell to the world should do the very same, this is a thing from which all pardon is cut off. For if you choose to see how far you should keep from this sort of need, I mean that of the tribunals, by rule of the Scripture, and to learn for whom the laws are appointed, hear what Paul saith; ( 1 Tim. i. 9.)" For a righteous man law is not made, but for the lawless, and unruly." And if he saith these things about the Mosaic Law, much more about the laws of the heathen.

[10.] Now then, if you commit injustice, it is plain that you cannot be righteous: but if you are injured and bear it, (for this is a special mark of a righteous man,) you have no need of the laws which are without. "How then,' say you, "shall I be able to bear it when injured?' And yet Christ hath commanded something even more than this. For not only hath he commanded you when injured to bear it, but even to give abundantly more to the wrong-doer; and in your zeal for suffering ill to surpass his eagerness for doing it. For he said not, "to him that will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, give thy coat," but, "together with that give also thy cloak.' But I bid you overcome him, saith He, by suffering, not by doing, evil: for this is the certain and splendid victory. Wherefore also Paul goes on to say, "Now then it is altogether a defect in (a rec. vers. "a fault.") you that ye have lawsuits one with another." And, "Wherefore do ye not rather take wrong?" For that the injured person overcomes, rather than he who cannot endure being injured, this I will make

evident to you. He that cannot endure injury, though he force the other into court and gain the verdict, yet is he then most of all defeated. For that which he would not, he hath suffered; in that the adversary hath compelled him both to feel pain and to go to law. For what is it to the point that you have prevailed? and what, that you have recovered all the money? You have in the meanwhile borne what you did not desire, having been compelled to decide the matter by law. But if you endure the injustice, you overcome; deprived indeed of the money, but not at all of the victory which is annexed to such self-command. For the other had no power to oblige you to do what you did not like. And to shew that this is true; tell me, which conquered at the dunghill? Which was defeated? Job who was stripped of all, or the devil who stripped him of all? Evidently the devil who stripped him of all. Whom do we admire for the victory, the devil that smote, or Job that was smitten? Clearly, Job. And yet he could not retain his perishing wealth nor save his children. Why speak I of riches and children? He could not insure to himself bodily health. Yet nevertheless this is the conqueror, he that lost all that he had. His riches indeed he could not keep; but his piety he kept with all strictness. "But his children when perishing he could not help." And what then? Since what happened both made them more glorious, and besides in this way he protected himself against the despiteful usage. Now had he not have suffered ill and been wronged of the devil, he would not have gained that signal victory. Had it been an evil thing to suffer wrong, God would not have enjoined it upon us: for God enjoineth not evil things. What, know ye not that He is the God of Glory? that it could not be His will to encompass us with shame and ridicule and loss, but to introduce (πpožɛvia) us to the contrary of these? Therefore He commands us to suffer wrong, and doth all to withdraw us from worldly things, and to convince us what is glory, and what shame; what loss, and what gain.

"But it is hard to suffer wrong and be spitefully entreated." Nay, O man, it is not, it is not hard. How long will thy heart be fluttering about things present? For God, you may be sure, would not have commanded this, had it been hard. Just consider. The wrong-doer goes his way with the money, but with an evil conscience besides the receiver of the wrong, defrauded indeed of some money, but enriched 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 iookest 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 beaten, 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 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 passion he hath aggravated, his covetousness I mean; but yours, he hath alleviated, taking away the food of the wild beast. And besides all this, he hath set you free from cares, agony, envy, 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 hunger?" Thou endurest this with Paul, who saith, (1 Cor. iv. 10.) "Even unto 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 his pleasure with the wealthy." Nay, rather with the devil. But be you crowned with Paul.

Therefore fear not hunger, for (Prov. x. 3.) "the Lord will not kill with hunger the souls of the righteous." And again, another saith, (Ps. Iv. 23.) "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 these, and such as are far greater.

But if you are still grieving and bowing down, I should like to shew you the soul of the wrongdoer after his victory, how it is become ashes. For truly sin is that kind of thing: while one commits it, 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 robbed the other of things present; but himself he 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 of many, who consider this the greatest comfort, and who think they have got all back again, when they see those who had insulted them undergoing punishment. God doth not limit His recompense to this.

But

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

ther 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 shall bring to nought 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, (1 Tim. vi. 8.) "Having food and covering we shall be therewith content. However, thus he stigmatizes the whole thing; its amendment (after advice given) being left by him to prayer.

But some say that the words are a prophecy, declaring the state which shall be in the life to come, and that there is no eating or drinking there. Now if that which is moderate shall have an end, much more ought we to abstain from excess.

Then lest any one should suppose that the body is the object of his censure, and suspect that from a part he is blaming the whole, and say that the nature of the body was the cause of gluttony or of fornication, hear what follows. "I blame not," he says, "the nature of the body, but the immoderate license of the mind." And therefore he subjoins, "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; for it was not formed for this purpose, to live riotously and commit fornication, as neither was the belly to be greedy; but that it might follow Christ as a Head, and that the Lord might be set over the body. Let us be overcome with shame, let us be horror-struck, that after we have been counted worthy of such great honor as to become members of Him that sitteth on high, we defile ourselves with so great evils.

[2.] Having now sufficiently condemned the glutton, he uses also the hope of things to come to divert us from this wickedness: saying, Ver. 14.

And God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us also through His power. Do you perceive again his Apostolical wisdom? For he is always establishing the credibility of the Resurrection from Christ, and especially now. For if our body be a member of Christ, and Christ be risen, the body also shall surely follow the Head.

"Through his power." For since he had asserted a thing disbelieved and not to be apprehended by reasonings, he hath left entirely to His incomprehensible power the circumstances of Christ's own Resurrection, producing this too as no small demonstration against them. And concerning the Resurrection of Christ he did not insert this: for he did not say, "And God shall also raise up the Lord; -for the thing was past and gone;-but how? "And God

both raised up the Lord;" nor was there need of any proof. But concerning our resurrection, since it has not yet come to pass, he spoke not thus, but how? "And will raise up us also through His power:" by the reliance to be placed on the power of the Worker, he stops the mouths of the gainsayers.

Further if he ascribe unto the Father the Resurrection of Christ, let not this at all disturb thee. For not as though Christ were powerless, hath he put this down, for He it is Himself who saith, (S. John ii. 19.) "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up :" and again, (S. John x. 18.) "I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again.' And Luke also in the Acts says, (c. 1. 3.) "To whom also He shewed Himself alive." Wherefore then does Paul so speak? Because both the acts of the Son are imputed unto the Father, and the Father's unto the Son. For He saith, (S. John v. 19.) "Whatsoever things He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner."

And very opportunely he here made mention of the Resurrection, keeping down by those hopes the tyranny of gluttonous desire; and all but saying, Thou hast caten, hast drunk to excess and what is the result? Nothing, save only destruction. Thou hast been conjoined unto Christ; and what is the result? A great and marvellous thing: the future Resurrection, that glorious one, and transcending all utterance!

[3] Let no one therefore go on disbelieving the Resurrection: but if a man disbelieve, let him think how many things He made from nothing, and admit it as a proof also of the other. For the things which are already past are stranger by far, and fraught with overpowering wonder. Just consider. Just consider. He took earth and mixed it, and made man; earth which existed not before this. How then did the earth become man? And how was it produced from nothing? And, how, all the things that were made from it? the endless sorts of irrational creatures; of seeds; of plants; no pangs of travail having preceded in the one case, no rains having come down upon the others; no tillage seen, no oxen, no plough, nor any thing else contributing to their production? Why, for this cause the lifeless and senseless thing was made to put forth in the beginning so many kinds of plants and irrational creatures, in order that from the very first He might instruct thee in the doctrine of Resurrection. For this is more inexplicable than the Resurrection. For it is not the same thing to rekindle an extinguished lamp, and to shew fire that has never yet appeared. It is not the same thing to raise up again a house which has fallen down, and to produce one which has never at all had an exist