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1 COR. VI 12.
"All things are lawful for me, but not all
things are expedient. All things are lawful for
me, but I will not be brought into the power of
any.
HERE he glances at the gluttons. For since
he intends to assail the fornicator again, and
fornication arises from luxuriousness and want of
moderation, he strongly chastises this passion.
It cannot be that he speaks thus with regard to
things forbidden, such not being "lawful:"
but of things which seem to be indifferent. To
illustrate my meaning: "It is lawful," he
says, "to eat and to drink; but it is not
expedient with excess." And so that marvellous
and unexpected turn of his, which he is often
wont to adopt; (Cf. Rom. xii. 21; 1
Cor. 7. 53.) bringing his argument clear
round to its contrary, this he manages to
introduce here also; and he signifies that to do
what is in one's power not only is not
expedient, but even is not a part of power, but
of slavery.
And first, he dissuades them on the ground of
the inexpediency of the thing, saying, "they
are not expedient:" in the next place, on that
of its contrariety to itself, saying, "I will
not be brought under the power of any."
This is his meaning: "You are at liberty to
eat," says he; "well then, remain in
liberty, and take heed that you do not become a
slave to this appetite: for he who uses it
properly, he is master of it; but he that
exceeds the proper measure is no longer its
master but its slave, since gluttony reigns
paramount within him." Do you perceive how,
where the man thought he had authority Paul
points out that he is under authority? For this
is his custom, as I was saying before, to give
all objections a turn the contrary way. It is
just this which he has done here. For mark;
each of them was saying, "I have power to live
luxuriously." He replies, "In doing so,
thou art not so much acting as one who had power
over a thing, but rather as being thyself
subject to some such power. For thou hast not
power even over thine own belly, so long as thou
art dissolute, but it hath power over thee."
And the same we may say both of riches and of
other things.
Ver. 13. "Meats for the belly." By
"the belly" here he means not the stomach, but
the stomach's voraciousness. As when he says,
(Phil. iii. 19.) "Whose God is their
belly:" not speaking about that part of the
body, but about greediness. To prove that so
it is, hear what follows: "And the belly for
meats; but the body is not for fornication, but
for the Lord." And yet "the belly" also is
of "the body." But he puts down two pairs of
things, "meats" and gluttony, (which he
terms "the belly;") "Christ," and "the
body."
What then is the meaning of, "Meats for the
belly?" "Meats," he says, are on good
terms with gluttony, and it with them. It
cannot therefore lead us unto Christ, but drags
towards these. For it is a strong and brutal
passion, and makes us slaves, and puts us upon
ministering to the belly. Why then art thou
excited and gaping after food, O man? For the
end of that service is this, and nothing further
shall be seen of it: but as one was waiting on
some mistress, it abides keeping up this
slavery, and advances no further, and has no
other employment but this same fruitless one.
And the two are connected together and destroyed
together; "the belly" with "the meats," and
"the meats" with "the belly;" winding out a
sort of interminable course; just as from a
corrupt body worms may be produced, and again by
worms the body consumed; or as it were a wave
swoln high and breaking, and having no fur 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.
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 eaten, 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!
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. 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 ence. For in the former case, if nothing
else, yet the material was given to work with:
but in the latter, not even the substance
appeared. Wherefore He made first that which
seemed to be the more difficult, to the end that
hereby thou mightest admit that which is the more
easy; more difficult, I say, not to God,
but as far as our reasonings can follow the
subject. For with God nothing is difficult:
but as the painter who has made one likeness will
make ten thousand with ease, so also with God
it is easy to make worlds without number and
end. Rather, as it is easy for you to conceive
a city and worlds without bound, so unto God is
it easy to make them; or rather again it is
easier by far. For thou consumest time, brief
though it be, in thy conception; but God not
even this, but as much as stones are heavier
than any of the lightest things, yea even than
our minds; so much is our mind surpassed by the
rapidity of God's work of creation.
Do you marvel at His power on the earth?
Think again how the heaven was made, not yet
being; how the innumerable stars, how the sun,
how the moon; and all these things not yet
being. Again, tell me how after they were made
they stood fast, and upon what? What
foundation have they? and what the earth? What
comes next to the earth? and again, what after
that which came next to the earth? Do you see
into what an eddy the eye of your mind is
plunged, unless you quickly take refuge in faith
and the incomprehensible power of the Maker?
But if you choose from human things also to make
conjecture, you will be able by degrees to find
wings for your understanding. "What kind of
human things?" may be asked. Do you not see
the potters, how they fashion the vase which had
been broken in pieces and become shapeless?
Those who fuse the ore from the mine, how the
earth in their hands turns out (thn Uhn krusion
apoyainousi) gold, or silver, or copper?
Others again who work in glass, how they
transform the sand into one compact and
transparent substance? Shall I speak of the
dressers of leather, the dyers of purple
vestments; how they make that which had received
their tint shew as one thing, when it had been
another? Shall I speak of the generation of
our own race? Doth not a small seed, at first
without form and impress, enter into the womb
which receives it? Whence then the so intricate
formation of the living creature? What is the
wheat? Is it not cast a naked seed into the
earth? After it has been cast there, doth it
not decay? Whence is the ear, the beard, the
stalk, and all the other parts? Doth not often
a little grain of a fig fall into the ground,
and produce both root, and branches, and
fruit? And dost thou hereupon admit each of
these and make no curious enquiries, and of God
alone dost thou demand account, in His work of
changing the fashion of our body? And how can
such things be pardonable?
These things and such like we say to the
Greeks. For to those who are obedient to the
Scriptures, I have no occasion to speak at
all.
I say, if you intend to pry curiously into all
His doings, what shall God have more than
men? And yet even of men there are many about
whom we do not so enquire. Much more then ought
we to abstain from impertinent inquiry about the
wisdom of God, and from demanding accounts of
it: in the first place, because He is
trustworthy who affirmeth: in the second place,
because the matter admits not investigation by
reasonings. For God is not so abjectly poor as
to work such things only as can be apprehended by
the weakness of thy reasonings. And if thou
comprehendest not the work of an artisan, much
less of God, the best of artificers.
Disbelieve not then the Resurrection, for very
far will ye be from the hope of that which is to
come.
But what is the wise argument of the
gain-sayers; rather, I should--say, their
exceeding senseless one? "Why how, when the
body is mixed up with the earth and is become
earth, and this again is removed elsewhere,
how," say they, "shall it rise again?" To
thee this seems impossible, but not to the
unsleeping Eye. For unto that all things are
clear. And thou in that confusion seest no
distinction of parts; but He knows them all.
Since also the heart of thy neighbor thou
knowest not, nor the things in it; but He
knoweth all. If then, because of thy not
knowing how God raiseth men up, thou believest
not that He doth raise them, wilt thou
disbelieve that He knoweth also what is in thy
mind? for neither is that obvious to view. And
yet in the body it is visible matter, though it
be dissolved: but those thoughts are invisible.
Shall He then who knoweth with all certainty
the invisible things, not see the things which
be visible, and easily distinguish the scattered
parts of the body? I suppose this is plain to
every one.
Do not then disbelieve the Resurrection; for
this is a doctrine of the Devil. This is what
the Devil is earnest for, not only that the
Resurrection may be disbelieved, but good works
also may be done away with. For the man who
does not expect that he shall rise again and give
an account of the things which he has done, will
not quickly apply himself to virtue; will in
turn come to disbelieve the Resurrection
entirely: for both these are established by each
other; vice by unbelief, and unbelief by vice.
For the conscience filled with many wicked
nesses, fearing and trembling for the recompense
to come and not willing to provide itself with
comfort by changing to what is most excellent,
is fain to repose in unbelief. Thus when thou
deniest resurrection and judgment, the other for
his part will say, "Then shall I also not
have to render account of my bold deeds."
But why saith Christ? (St. Matt. xxii.
29.) "Ye do err, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God." For God
would not have wrought so many things, had He
intended not to raise us up again, but to
dissolve and blot us out in annihilation. He
would not have spread out this heaven, He would
not have stretched the earth beneath, He would
not have made all the rest of the universe only
for this short life. But if all these are for
the present, what will He not do for that which
is to come? If, on the contrary, there is to
be no future life, we are in this respect of far
meaner account than the things which have been
made for our sakes. For both the heaven, and
the earth, and the sea, and the rivers, are
more lasting than we are: and some even of the
brutes; since the raven, and the race of
elephants, and many other creatures, have a
longer enjoyment of the present life. To us,
moreover, life is both short and toilsome, but
not to them. Theirs is both long, and freer
from grief and cares.
"What then? tell me: hath he made the slaves
better than the masters?" Do not, I beseech
thee, do not reason thus, O man, nor be so
poverty-stricken in mind, nor be ignorant of
the riches of God, having such a Master. For
even from the beginning God desired to make thee
immortal, but thou wert not willing. Since the
things also of that time were dark hints of
immortality: the converse with God; the
absence of uneasiness from life; the freedom
from grief, and cares, and toils, and other
things which belong to a temporary existence.
For Adam had no need either of a garment or a
shelter, or any other provision of this sort;
but rather was like to the Angels; and many of
the things to come he foreknew, and was filled
with great wisdom. Even what God did in
secret, he knew, I mean with regard to the
woman: wherefore also he said, "This is now
bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh."
(Gen. ii. 23.) Labor came into being
afterwards: so did sweat, so did shame, and
cowardice, and want of confidence. But on that
day there was no grief, nor pain, nor
lamentation. But he abode not in that dignity.
What then, saith one, am I to do? must I
perish on his account? I reply, first, It is
not on his account: for neither hast thou
remained without sin: though it be not the same
sin, at least there is some other which thou
hast committed. And again, you have not been
injured by his punishment, but rather have been
a gainer. For if you had been to remain
altogether mortal, perchance what is said would
have had some reason in it. But now thou art
immortal, and if thou wilt, thou mayest shine
brighter than the sun itself.
"But," says one, "had I not received a
mortal body, I had not sinned." Tell me
then, had he a mortal body when he sinned?
Surely not: for if it had been mortal before,
it would not have undergone death as a punishment
afterwards. And that a mortal body is no
hindrance to virtue, but that it keeps men in
order and is of the greatest service, is plain
from what follows. If the expectation of
immortality alone so lifted up Adam; had he
been even immortal in reality, to what a pitch
of arrogance would he not have proceeded? And
as things are, after sinning you may do away
with your sins, the body being abject, falling
away, and subject to dissolution: for these
thoughts are sufficient to sober a man. But if
you had sinned in an immortal body, your sins
were likely to have been more lasting.
Mortality then is not the cause of sin: accuse
it not: but the wicked will is the root of all
the mischief. For why was not Abel at all the
worse for his body? Why are the devils not at
all the better for being incorporeal? Wilt thou
hear why the body's becoming mortal, so far
from hurting, has been positively useful? Mark
how much thou gainest thereby, if thou art
sober. It drags thee back and pulls thee off
from wickedness, by griefs and pains and labors
and other such things. "But it tempts men to
uncleanness," perhaps you will say. Not the
body, but incontinence, doth this. For all
these things which I was mentioning certainly do
belong to the body: on which account it is
impossible that a man who has entered into this
life should escape disease and pain and lowness
of spirits: but that he commit no uncleanness is
possible. Thus it appears that if the
affections of vice were part of the nature of the
body they would be universal: since all things
natural are so; but to commit fornication is not
so. Pain indeed cometh of nature: but to
commit fornication proceeds from deliberate
purpose.
Blame not the body then; let not the Devil
take away thine honor, which God hath given
thee. For if we choose, the body is an
excellent bridle to curb the wanton sallies of
the soul, to pull down haughtiness, to repress
arrogance, to minister to us in the greatest
achievements of virtue. For tell me not of
those who have lost their senses; since we often
see horses, after they have thrown out their
drivers, dashing with their reins over the
precipices, and yet we do not blame the rein.
For it is not the breaking of that which caused
it all, but the driver not holding them in was
the ruin of every thing. Just so do thou reason
in this case. If thou seest a young person
living in orphanhood and doing innumerable evil
things, blame not the body, but the charioteer
who is dragged on, I mean, the man's faculty
of reasoning` For as the reins give no trouble
to the charioteer, but the charioteer is the
cruise of all the mischief through his not
holding them properly: (and therefore do they
often exact a penalty of him, entangling
themselves with him, and dragging him on, and
compelling him to partake in their own mishap:)
so is it also in the case before us. "I,"
Say the reins, "made bloody the horse's mouth
as long as you held me: but since you threw me
away, I require satisfaction for your
contempt, and I entwine myself about you, and
drag you along, so as not to incur the same
usage again." Let no one then blame the
reins, but himself and his own corrupt mind.
For over us too is a charioteer, even reason:
and the reins are the body, connecting the
horses with the charioteer; if then these be in
good condition, you will suffer no harm: but if
you let them go, you have annihilated and ruined
every thing. Let us be temperate then, and lay
all blame not on the body, but on the evil
mind. For this is the Devil's special work,
to make foolish men accuse the body and God and
their neighbor, rather than their own perverted
minds; lest, having discovered the cause, they
get free from the root of the evils.
But do ye, being aware of his design, direct
your wrath against him: and having set the
charioteer upon the car, bend the eye of your
minds towards God. For in all other instances
he that appoints the games contributes nothing,
but only awaits the end. But in this case, He
is all in all, who appointed the contest, even
God. Him therefore let us render propitious,
and surely we shall obtain the blessings in
store; through the grace and loving-kindness of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom, with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory,
power, honor, now, henceforth, and for
evermore. Amen.
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