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EPHESIANS iv. 17.
"This I say therefore and testify in the
Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles
also walk, in the vanity of their mind, bring
darkened in their understanding."
IT is the duty of the teacher to build up and
restore the souls of his disciples, not only by
counselling and instructing them, but also by
alarming them, and delivering them up to God.
For when the words spoken by men as coming from
fellow-servants are not sufficient to kindle 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 no longer walk
as the Gentiles also 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 passion of lust even as the
Gentiles which know not God." (1 Thess.
iv. 5.) Ye differ from them, he means to
say, in doctrine, but that is wholly God's
work: what I require on your path is the life
and the course of behavior 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 it the
being bused 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." (Eccles. i.
2.) 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." (Gen. i. 31.)
But what is vain? Let us hear the Preacher
himself, what he saith; "I planted me
vineyards, I gat me men singers and women
singers, I made me pools of water, I had
great possession of herds and flocks, I
gathered me ago silver and gold, and I saw that
these are vanity." (Eccles. ii. 4-8.)
And again, "Vanity of vanities, all things
are vanity." (Eccles. xii. 8.) Hear
also what the Prophet saith, "He healpeth up
riches, and knoweth not who shall gather
them." (Ps. xxxix. 6.) Such is "vanity
of vanities" your splendid buildings, your vast
and overflowing richest, 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 in luxury; but they cease to
be vain when they are "dispersed and given to
the needy." (Ps. cxii. 9.) But when
thou hast spent them upon luxury, let us look at
the end of them, what it is;-grossness of
body, flatulence, pantings, fullness of
belly, heaviness of head, softness of flesh,
feverishness, enervation; for as a man who
shall draw into a leaking vessel labors in vain,
so also does the one who lives in luxury and
self-indulgence draw into a leaking vessel.
But again that is called "vain," which is
expected indeed to contain something, but
contains it not;-that which men call empty,
as when they speak of "empty hopes." And
generally that is called "vain," which is bare
and purposeless, which is of no use. Let us
see then whether all human things are not of this
sort. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we
die?" (1 Cor. xv. 32.) What then,
tell me, is the end?
Corruption. Let us put on clothing and
raiment. And what is the result?
Nothing. Such are the lives of the Greeks.
They philosophized, but in vain.
They made a show of a life of hardship, but of
mere hardship, not looking to any beneficial
end, but to vainglory, and to honor from the
many. But what is the honor of the many? It
is nothing, for if they themselves which render
the honor perish, much more does the honor. He
that renders honor to another, ought first to
render it to himself; for if he gain not honor
for him self, how can he ever render it to
another? Whereas now we seek even honors from
vile and despicable characters, themselves
dishonorable, and objects of reproach. What
kind of honor 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, wood and stone? 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
rediculous! So great is the absurdity, and yet
look again at another absurdity. By 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 from every place, thou
callest everybody 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, but when I can draw Him even to my
heart. Do thou too draw the fire to thee
heart. This is folly 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 me, not
I for it. If thou art a worshiper 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
honorable 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, it was not
called God. Seest thou not how ungovernable is
its nature;-how when it lays hold on a
building it stops nowhere? But if it seizes
anything 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 the moon? 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: but
the sun needs many things; and this is not like
a god. For he requires air to shine in, and
that, too, 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 vapor, 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 thou not that
poisonous drugs injure, and need nothing; but
when they are to do good, need many things?
For thy sake then b he such as he is, both
good, and powerless; good, that thou mayest
acknowledge his Lord; and powerless, that thou
mayest not say that he is lord. "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 does the work of nourishing
without needing the help of either earth, or
water, or 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 hoe? Shall we then,
tell me, worship all? Alas, what triffling!
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 each, 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 each 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 some furious
horse. And now tell me, where is he at night?
Whither has your god token 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 some sort of
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 "they walk in the vanity of their mind,
being darkened in their understanding."
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 naturally do
all these things; 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
everything 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 anything, 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 the souls of dogs,
and would pervade mankind that one was once a
dog, and a lion, and a fish? How long will ye
go on and never cease trifling, "being darkened
in the understanding"? for they say and do all
things as though they were indeed in the dark,
both in those things which concern doctrine, and
those which concern fife 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. "There were they in great fear,"
it saith, "where no fear was" (Ps. liii.
5); but the things which they ought to fear,
these they fear not. But just as children in
their nurse 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 things 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, 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 that occur
about 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,
deserving of ridicule. 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 chains, or, as I was
saying, like men confined in the dark, they
suspect everything, 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 citizenship 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. 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 He
will not declare us unworthy of the gifts offered
to us, and let us ourselves withal endeavor 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, of which God grant we may all be
counted worthy, in Christ Jesus our Lord with
whom, to the Father and the Holy Ghost
together, be glory, might, and honor, now,
henceforth, and for ever and ever. Amen.
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