X. Gen. 3, 5. 164 Duty of providing against Satan's plausible shew. Be then on thy guard, and arm the weapons of the Spirit, get HOMIL. puts on the air of one concerned and watching over his interests, and saith, that your eyes shall be opened in the day that ye eat of the tree. Thus Jephtha too he persuaded, under the pretext of religion, to slay his daughter, and to offer the sacrifice the Law forbade. Do you see what his wiles are, what his varying warfare? thyself at all points with exactly acquainted with his plans, that thou mayest both keep from being caught, and easily catch him. For it was thus that Paul got the better of him, by getting exactly 1 Cor. 2, acquainted with these. And so he says, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Let us then also be earnest in learning and avoiding his stratagems, that after obtaining a victory over him, we may, whether in this present life or in that which is to come, be proclaimed conquerors, and obtain those unalloyed blessings, by the grace and love toward man, &c. 21. HOMILY XI. ROM. vi. 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. add εἶναι WHAT I had before occasion to remark, that I mention ROM. 6, 5. here too, that he continually digresseth into exhortation, without making any twofold division as he does in the other Epistles, and setting apart the former portion for doctrines, and the latter for the care of moral instruction. Here then he does not do so, but blends the latter with the subject throughout, so as to gain it an easy admission. Here then he says there are1 two mortifyings, and two deaths, and that 13 Mss. one is done by Christ in Baptism, and the other it is our duty to effect by earnestness afterwards. For that our former sins were buried, came of His gift. But the remaining dead to sin after Baptism must be the work of our own earnestness, however much we find God here also giving us large help. For this is not the only thing Baptism has the power to do, to obliterate our former transgressions; for it also secures against subsequent ones. As then in the case of the former, thy contribution was faith that they might be obliterated, so also in those subsequent to this, shew thou forth the change in thine aims, that thou mayest not defile thyself again. For it is this and the like that he is counselling thee when he says, for if we have been planted together a Here we have again two of the 3 Paris Mss. mentioned in note c. p. 153. and the other for the beginning of 166 Fruits of being planted in the likeness of Christ's Death. HOMIL. in the likeness of His Death, we shall be also in the likeness XI. of His Resurrection. Do you observe, how he rouses the hearer by leading him straightway up to his Master, and taking great pains to shew the strong likeness? This is why he does not say in Death,' lest you should gainsay it, but, in the likeness of His Death. For our essence itself hath not died, but the man of sins, that is, wickedness. And he does not say, for if we have been partakers of the likeness of His Death, but what? If we have been planted together, so, by the mention of planting, giving a hint of the fruit resulting to us from it. For as His Body, by being buried in the earth, brought forth as the fruit of it the salvation of the world, thus ours also, being buried in Baptism, bore as fruit righteousness, sanctification, adoption, countless blessings. And it will bear also hereafter the gift of the Resurrection. Since then we were buried in the water, He in the earth, and we in regard to sin, He in regard to His Body, this is why he did not say, we were planted together in His Death, but in the likeness of His Death. For both the one and the other is death, but not that of the same subject. If then he says, we have been planted together in His Death', we shall Gr. be be in that1 of His Resurrection, speaking here of the Resurrection which is to come. For since when he was upon rection the subject of the Death before, and said, Know ye not, of His Resur 2 So 3 Mss. i yag, Sav. γάρι ய் brethren, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ b The construction here is harsh, and seems to require in the likeness of,' The word likeness in our version is in italics as an addition, and unless it is understood, the construction is scarcely grammatical; but this inter pretation favours the reading questioned in the last note. Perhaps also S. Chrysostom may have taken the words thus, If we have been in likeness planted together with His Death,' which would be a parallel construction. How we die in Baptism, what is the Body of Sin. 167 and how, if we did not die as He died, are we to rise as He ROM. rose? when he mentioned the Death, he did not say, planted. 6, 6. 7. together in the Death, but, in the likeness of His Death. But when he mentioned the Resurrection, he did not say, ' in the likeness of the Resurrection,' but we shall be of the Resurrection itself. And he does not say, We have been made, but we shall be, by this word again plainly meaning that Resurrection which has not yet taken place, but will hereafter. Then with a view to give credibility to what he says, he points out another Resurrection which is brought about here before that one, that from that which is present thou mayest believe also that which is to come. For after saying, we shall be planted together in the Resurrection, he adds, Ver. 6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. So putting together both the cause and the demonstration of the Resurrection which is to come. And he does not say is crucified, but is crucified with Him, so bringing Baptism near to the Cross. And on this score also it was that he said above, We have been planted together in the likeness of His Death, that the body of sin might be destroyed, not giving that name to this body of ours, but to all iniquity. For as he calls the whole sum of wickedness the old man, thus again the wickedness which is made up of the different parts of iniquity he calls the body of that man. And that what I am saying is not mere guesswork, hearken to Paul's own interpretation of this very thing in what comes next. For after saying, that the body of sin might be destroyed, he adds, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For the way in which I would have it dead is not so that ye should be destroyed and die, but so that ye sin not. And as he goes on he makes this still clearer. Ver. 7. For he that is dead, he says, is freed1 from sin. This he says of every man, that as he that is dead is henceforth freed from siuning, lying as a dead body, so must he that has come up from Baptism, since he has died there once for all, remain ever dead to sin. If then thou hast died So 4 Mss. Sav. so is, &c. ... for since.... he must remain, &c. the necessity spoken of is clearly, from the 1Gr.jus tified XI. 168 Christ died only for our sin, and once for all. HOMIL. in Baptism, remain dead, for any one that dies can sin no more; but if thou sinnest, thou marrest God's gift. After Gr.phi- requiring of us then heroism' of this degree, he presently losophy brings in the crown also, in these words. Ver. 8. Now if we be dead with Christ. And indeed even before the crown, this is in itself the greater crown, the partaking with our Master. But, he says, I give thee even another reward. Of what kind is it? It is life eternal. For we believe, he says, that we shall also live with Him. And whence is this clear? Ver. 9. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more. And notice again his undauntedness, and how he makes the thing good from opposite grounds. Since then it was likely that some would feel perplexed at the Cross and the Death, he shews that this very thing is a ground for feeling confident henceforward. For suppose not, he says, because He once died, that He is mortal, for this is the very reason of His being immortal. For His death hath been the death of death, and because He did die, He therefore doth not die. For even that death Ver. 10. He died unto sin. What does unto sin mean? It means that He was not subject even to that one, save for our sin. For that He might destroy it, and cut away its sinews and all its power, therefore He died. Do you see how he affrighteth them? For if He does not die again, then there is no second laver. But if there be no second laver, then do thou keep from all inclineableness to sin. For all this he says to make a stand against the let us do evil that good may come. Let us remain in sin that grace may abound. To take away this conception then, root and branch, it is, that he sets down all this. But in that He liveth, He liveth unto God, he says— that is, unchangeably, so that death hath no more any dominion over Him. For if it was not through any liability to it that He died the former death, save only for the sin of others, much less will He die again now that He hath done that sin away. And this he says in the Epistle to the epoxía, his determination to take single point. the highest ground, and give up no |