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037 - Homily 20 - Romans 121 · Homilies on Romans

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Speaker 1: Section thirty seven of Homilies on Romans by John Chrysostom,
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Speaker 1: translated by J. B. Morris. This LibriVox recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. Homily twenty Romans twelve, Verse one. I
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Speaker 1: beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
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Speaker 1: you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God,
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Speaker 1: which is your reasonable service. After discousing it large upon
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Speaker 1: the love of God towards man, and pointing out his
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Speaker 1: unspeakable concern for us and unutterable goodness which cannot even
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Speaker 1: be searched into, he next puts it forward with a
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Speaker 1: view of persuading those who have received the benefit to
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Speaker 1: exhibit a conversation worthy of the gift. And though he
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Speaker 1: is so great and good a person, yet he does
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Speaker 1: not decline beseeching them, And that not for any enjoyment
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Speaker 1: he was likely to get himself, but for that they
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Speaker 1: would have to gain. And why wonder that he does
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Speaker 1: not decline beseeching when he is even putting God's mercies
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Speaker 1: before them, For since he means it is from this
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Speaker 1: you have those numberless blessings from them of God reverence them,
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Speaker 1: be moved to compassion by them, for they themselves, take
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Speaker 1: the attitude of suppliants, that you would show no conduct
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Speaker 1: unworthy of them. I entreat you. Then, he means by
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Speaker 1: the very things through which you were saved, as if
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Speaker 1: any one who wished to make a person who had
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Speaker 1: had great kindness as done him show regard was to
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Speaker 1: bring him the benefactor himself as a suppliant. And what
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Speaker 1: dost thou beseech Let me hear that he would present
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Speaker 1: your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God? Which
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Speaker 1: is your reasonable service? For when he had said sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: to prevent any from thinking, he bade them kill themselves,
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Speaker 1: he forthwith added living. Then, to distinguish it from the Jewish,
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Speaker 1: he calls it wholly acceptable to God. Your reasonable service,
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Speaker 1: for theirs was a material one, and not very acceptable either,
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Speaker 1: since he saith who hath required this at your hands?
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Speaker 1: And in sundry other passages he clearly throws them aside,
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Speaker 1: for it was not this, but this with the other
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Speaker 1: that he looked to have presented. Wherefore he saith the
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Speaker 1: sacrifice of praise it glorifieth me. And again I will
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Speaker 1: praise the name of my God with a song. And
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Speaker 1: this shall please him better than a bullock that putteth
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Speaker 1: forth horns and hoofs. And so in another place he
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Speaker 1: rejects it and says, shall I eat the flesh of bulls,
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Speaker 1: or drink goat's blood, And proceeds with offer unto God
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Speaker 1: a sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the
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Speaker 1: most High. So Paul also here bids us do present
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Speaker 1: your bodies a living sacrifice. And how is the body
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Speaker 1: it may be said to become a sacrifice. Let the
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Speaker 1: eye look upon no evil thing, and it hath become
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Speaker 1: a sacrifice. Let thy tongue speak nothing filthy, and it
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Speaker 1: hath become an offering. Let thine hand do no lawless deed,
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Speaker 1: and it hath become a whole bond offering. Or rather,
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Speaker 1: this is not enough, but we must have good works. Also,
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Speaker 1: Let the hand do alms, the mouth bless them that
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Speaker 1: cross one, and the hearing find leisure ever more, for
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Speaker 1: elections of scripture. For sacrifice allows of no unclean thing.
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Speaker 1: Sacrifice is a first fruit of the other actions. Let us, then,
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Speaker 1: from our hands and feet and mouth and all other members,
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Speaker 1: yield a first fruit under God. Such a sacrifice, as
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Speaker 1: well pleasing as that of the Jews, was even unclean
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Speaker 1: for their sacrifices, it says unto them, as the bread
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Speaker 1: of mourning, not so ours, that presenteth the thing sacrifice dead.
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Speaker 1: This maketh the thing sacrifice to be living, For when
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Speaker 1: we have mortified our members, then we shall be able
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Speaker 1: to live. For the law of this sacrifice is new.
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Speaker 1: And so the sort of fire is a marvelous one.
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Speaker 1: For it needeth no wood or matter under it. But
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Speaker 1: our fire liveth of itself, and doth not burn up
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Speaker 1: the victim, but rather quickeneth it. This was the sacrifice
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Speaker 1: that God's sought of old. Wherefore the prophet saith the
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Speaker 1: sacrifice of God is a broken spirit, and the three
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Speaker 1: children offered this when they say, at this time there
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Speaker 1: is neither prince or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering
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Speaker 1: or place to sacrifice before thee and to find mercy. Nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: in a contrite heart and an humble spirit, let us
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Speaker 1: be accepted and observe how great the exactness wherewith he
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Speaker 1: useth each word. For he doth not say, offer your
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Speaker 1: bodies as a sacrifice, but present them as if he
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Speaker 1: had said, never more have any interest in them. Ye
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Speaker 1: have given them up to another. For even they that
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Speaker 1: furnish the war horses have no further interest in them.
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Speaker 1: And thou too hast presented thy members for the war
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Speaker 1: against the devil, and for that dread battle array. Do
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Speaker 1: not let them down to selfish appliances. And he shows
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Speaker 1: another thing also from this, that one must make them
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Speaker 1: approved if one means to present them. For it is
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Speaker 1: not to any mortal being that we present them, but
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Speaker 1: to God, the King of the universe, not to war only,
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Speaker 1: but to have seated thereon the King himself. For he
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Speaker 1: doth not refuse even to be seated upon our members,
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Speaker 1: but even greatly desireth it. And what no king who
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Speaker 1: is but our fellow servant would choose to do that,
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Speaker 1: the Lord of angels chooseth. Since then it is both
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Speaker 1: to be presented and is a sacrifice, rid it of
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Speaker 1: every spot, since if it have a spot, it will
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Speaker 1: no longer be a sacrifice. For neither can the eye
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Speaker 1: that looks lettererously be sacrificed, nor the hand be presented
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Speaker 1: that is grasping and rapacious, nor the feet that go
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Speaker 1: lame and go to playhouses, nor the belly that is
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Speaker 1: the slave of self indulgence and kindless lusts after pleasures,
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Speaker 1: nor the heart that hath rage in it, and harlot's love,
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Speaker 1: nor the tongue that uttereth filthy things. Hence we must
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Speaker 1: spy out the spots on our body upon every side.
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Speaker 1: For if they that offered the sacrifices of old were
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Speaker 1: bid to look on every side, and were not permitted
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Speaker 1: to offer an animal that hath anything superfluous or lacking,
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Speaker 1: or is scurvy or scamped, much more must we, who
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Speaker 1: offer not senseless animals, but ourselves, exhibit more strictness and
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Speaker 1: be pure in all respects, that we also may be
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Speaker 1: able to say, as did Paul, I am now ready
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Speaker 1: to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand.
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Speaker 1: For he was purer than any sacrifice, and so he
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Speaker 1: speaks of himself as ready to be offered. But this
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Speaker 1: will be brought about if we kill the old man,
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Speaker 1: if we mortify our members that are upon the earth,
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Speaker 1: if we crucify the world unto ourselves. In this we
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Speaker 1: shall not need the knife any more, nor alter, nor fire,
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Speaker 1: or rather we shall want all these but not made
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Speaker 1: with the hands. But all of them will come to
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Speaker 1: us from above, fire from above, and knife also, and
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Speaker 1: our alder will be the breath of heaven. Be For
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Speaker 1: if when Elijah offered the visible sacrifice, a flame that
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Speaker 1: came down from above consumed the whole water, wood, and stones,
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Speaker 1: much more will this be down upon thee. And if
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Speaker 1: thou hast aught in thee, relaxed and secular, and yet
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Speaker 1: offer us the sacrifice with a good intention, the fire
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Speaker 1: of the spirit will come down and both wear away
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Speaker 1: that worldliness and carry up the whole sacrifice. But what
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Speaker 1: is reasonable service? It means spiritual ministry conversation according to Christ,
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Speaker 1: as then he that ministerreth in the House of God
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Speaker 1: and officiateth of whatever sort he may be, then collects
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Speaker 1: himself and becomes more dignified. So we ought to be
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Speaker 1: minded in all our whole life as serving and ministering.
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Speaker 1: And this will be so if every day you bring
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Speaker 1: him sacrifices and become the priest of thine own body
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Speaker 1: and of the virtue of thy soul, as for example,
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Speaker 1: when you offer soberness, when almsgiving, when goodness, and forbearance.
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Speaker 1: For in doing this thou offerest a reasonable service, that
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Speaker 1: is one without aught, that is bodily gross visible. Having
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Speaker 1: then raised the hearer by the names bestowed, and having
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Speaker 1: shown that each man is a priest of his own flesh.
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Speaker 1: By his conversation, he mentions also the way whereby we
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Speaker 1: may compass all this, What then is the way? Use two,
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Speaker 1: and be not fashioned after this world, but be ye
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Speaker 1: transformed by the renewing of your mind. For the fashion
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Speaker 1: of this world is groveling and worthless, and but for
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Speaker 1: a time. Neither hath aught of loftiness, or lastingness, or straightforwardness,
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Speaker 1: that is wholly perverted. If then thou wouldst walk upright,
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Speaker 1: figure not thyself after the fashion of this life present,
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Speaker 1: for in it there is naught abiding and stable. And
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Speaker 1: this is why he calls it a fashion. And so
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Speaker 1: in another passage, for the fashion of this world passeth away,
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Speaker 1: for it hath no durability or fixedness, but all in
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Speaker 1: it is but for a season. And so he calls
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Speaker 1: it this age hereby to indicate its liableness to misfortune,
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Speaker 1: and by the word fashion its unsuitableness. For speak of riches,
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Speaker 1: or of glory, or beauty, of person, or of luxury,
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Speaker 1: or of whatever other of its seeming great things you will,
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Speaker 1: it is a fashion only, not reality, a show, and
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Speaker 1: a mask, not any abiding substance. But be not thou
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Speaker 1: fashioned after this, but be transformed, he says, by the
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Speaker 1: renewing of your mind. He says, not change the fashion,
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Speaker 1: but be transformed, to show that the world's ways are
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Speaker 1: a fashion, but virtues, not a fashion, but a kind
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Speaker 1: of real form, with the natural beauty of its own,
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Speaker 1: lacking not the trickeries and fashions of outward things, which
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Speaker 1: no sooner appear than they go to naught. For all
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Speaker 1: these things even before they come to light and dissolving.
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Speaker 1: If then thou throwest the fashion aside, thou wilt speedily
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Speaker 1: come to the form. For nothing is more strengthless than vice,
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Speaker 1: nothing so easily wears old. Then, since it is likely
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Speaker 1: that being men, they would sin every day, he consoles
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Speaker 1: his hearer by saying, renew thyself from day to day.
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Speaker 1: This is what we do with houses. We keep constantly
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Speaker 1: repairing them as they wear old. And so do thou
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Speaker 1: unto thyself, as thou sin to day, as thou may
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Speaker 1: thy soul old, despare not despond not, but renew it
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Speaker 1: by repentance and tears and confession, and by doing of
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Speaker 1: good things, And never fail of doing this. And how
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Speaker 1: are we to do this, that ye may prove things
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Speaker 1: more expedient and know what is that good and acceptable
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Speaker 1: and perfect will of God. Either he means by this
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Speaker 1: be renewed, that ye may learn what is more expedient
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Speaker 1: for you and what the will of God, or rather
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Speaker 1: that he can get so renewed if he learn the
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Speaker 1: things expedient and what God may will. For if thou
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Speaker 1: see this and know how to distinguish the nature of things,
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Speaker 1: thou art in possession of the whole way of virtue.
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Speaker 1: And who, it may be said, is ignorant of what
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Speaker 1: is expedient and what is the will of God. They
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Speaker 1: that are flurried with the things of this world, They
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Speaker 1: that deem riches an enviable thing, They that make light
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Speaker 1: of poverty, They that follow after power, They that are
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Speaker 1: gaping after outward glory. They that think themselves great men
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Speaker 1: when they raise fine houses and by costly sepulchers, and
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Speaker 1: keep hords of slaves, and carry a great swarm of
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Speaker 1: eunuchs about with them. These know not what is expedient
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Speaker 1: for them, or what the will of God is. For
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Speaker 1: both of these are but one thing for God Willeth.
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Speaker 1: While things are expedient for us, and what God willeth
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Speaker 1: that is also expedient for us. What then, are the
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Speaker 1: things which God willeth to live in poverty, in lowliness
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Speaker 1: of mind, in contempt of glory, incontinency, not in self indulgence,
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Speaker 1: in tribulation, not in ease, in sorrow, not in dissipation,
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Speaker 1: and laughter in all the other points whereon He hath
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Speaker 1: given us laws. But the generality do even think these
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Speaker 1: things of ill omen So far are they from thinking
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Speaker 1: them expedient and the will of God. This, then, is
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Speaker 1: why they ever can come near even to the labours
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Speaker 1: for virtue's sake. For they that do not know so
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Speaker 1: much even as what virtue may be, but reverence vice
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Speaker 1: in its place, and take in unto them the harlot
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Speaker 1: instead of the modest wife. How are they to be
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Speaker 1: able to stand aloof from the present world? Wherefore we
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Speaker 1: ought above all to have a correct estimate of things.
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Speaker 1: And even if we do not follow after virtue, to
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Speaker 1: praise virtue, and even if we do not avoid vice,
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Speaker 1: to stigmatize vice, that so far we may have our
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Speaker 1: judgments uncorrupted. For so as we advance on our road,
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Speaker 1: we shall be able to lay hold on the realities.
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Speaker 1: This then, is why he also bids you be renewed,
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Speaker 1: that he may prove what is the perfect will of God.
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Speaker 1: But here he seems to me to be attacking the
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Speaker 1: Jews also, who cling to the law. For the old
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Speaker 1: dispensation was a will of God. He had not the
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Speaker 1: ultimate purpose, but aloud owing to their feebleness. But that
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Speaker 1: which is a perfect one and well pleasing is the
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Speaker 1: new conversation. So too, when he called it a reasonable service,
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Speaker 1: it was to set it in contrast with that other
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Speaker 1: that he gave it such a name. Verse three. For
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Speaker 1: I say, through the grace given unto me, to every
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Speaker 1: man that is among you, not to think of himself
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Speaker 1: more highly than he ought to think, but to think
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Speaker 1: soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the
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Speaker 1: measure of faith. After saying above, I beseech you by
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Speaker 1: the mercies of God, here he says again, by the grace,
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Speaker 1: observe the teacher's lowliness of mind, observe a spirit quite subdued.
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Speaker 1: He means to say that he is in no respect
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Speaker 1: worthy to be trusted in such an exhortation and counsel.
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Speaker 1: But at one time he takes the mercies of God
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Speaker 1: along with him at another his grace. It is not
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Speaker 1: my word. He would say that I am speaking but
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Speaker 1: one from God. And he does not say, for I
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Speaker 1: say unto you by the wisdom of God, or for
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Speaker 1: I say unto you by the law given of God,
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Speaker 1: but by the grace so reminding them continually have the
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Speaker 1: benefits done them, so as to make them more submissive,
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Speaker 1: and to show that even on this account they were
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Speaker 1: under an obligation to obey what is here said to
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Speaker 1: every man that is among you, not to this person
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Speaker 1: and to that merely, but to the governor and to
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Speaker 1: the governed, to the slave and to the free, to
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Speaker 1: the unlearned and to the wise, to the woman and
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Speaker 1: to the man, to the young and to the old.
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Speaker 1: For the law is common to all, as being the lords.
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Speaker 1: And by this he likewise makes his language inoffensive, setting
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Speaker 1: the lessons he gives to all, even to such as
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Speaker 1: do not come under them, that those who do come
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Speaker 1: under them may with more willingness accept such a reproof
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Speaker 1: and correction. And what dost thou say, let me hear
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Speaker 1: not to think more highly than he ought to think.
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Speaker 1: Here he is bringing before us the mother of good deeds,
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Speaker 1: which is lowliness, of mind in imitation of his own master.
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Speaker 1: For as he, when he went up into the mountain
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Speaker 1: and was going to give a tissue of moral precepts,
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Speaker 1: took this for his first beginning, and made this the foundation.
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Speaker 1: In the words Blessed are the poor in spirit. So Paul, too,
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Speaker 1: as he has now passed from the doctrinal paths to
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Speaker 1: those of a more practical kind, has taught us virtue
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Speaker 1: in general terms, by requiring of us the admirable sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: and being on the point of giving a more particular
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Speaker 1: portrait of it. He begins from lowliness of mind, as
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Speaker 1: from the head, and tells us not to think more
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Speaker 1: highly of oneself than one ought to think, for this
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Speaker 1: is the will of God, but to think soberly. But
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Speaker 1: what he means is about this we have received wisdom,
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Speaker 1: not that we should use it to make us haughty,
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Speaker 1: but to make us sober minded. And he does not
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Speaker 1: say in order to be lowly in mind, but in
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Speaker 1: order to sobriety, meaning by sobriety here not that virtue
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Speaker 1: which contrasts with lewdness, nor the being free from intemperance
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Speaker 1: by being sober and healthful in mind. And the Greek
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Speaker 1: name of it means keeping the mind safe. To show
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Speaker 1: then that he who is not thus modest cannot be
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Speaker 1: sober either, that is, cannot be stayed and helpful minded,
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Speaker 1: because such an one is bewildered and out of his wits,
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Speaker 1: and is more crazed than any madman. He calls lowliness
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Speaker 1: of mind soberness of mind. According as God hath dealt
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Speaker 1: to every man the measure of faith. For since having
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Speaker 1: gifts given them, he had made many unreasonably elated. Both
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Speaker 1: with these and with the Corinthians. See how he lays
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Speaker 1: open the cause of the disease and gradually removes it.
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Speaker 1: For after saying that we should think soberly, he proceeds
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Speaker 1: according as God hath dealt to every man the measure
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Speaker 1: of faith, meaning here the gift by faith. And by
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Speaker 1: using the word dealt, he solaces him who had the
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Speaker 1: less and humbles him who had the greater share. For
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Speaker 1: if God dealt it, and it is no achievement of thine,
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Speaker 1: why think highly of thyself? But if any one says
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Speaker 1: that faith here does not mean the gift, this would
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Speaker 1: only the more show that he was humbling the vain boats.
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Speaker 1: For of that faith which is the cause of the
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Speaker 1: gift by which faith miracles are wrought, be itself from God.
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Speaker 1: On what ground dost thou think highly of thyself? If
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Speaker 1: He had not come or been incarnate, then the things
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Speaker 1: of faith would not have fared well either. And it
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Speaker 1: is from hence that all the good things take their rise.
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Speaker 1: But if it is he that giveth it, he knoweth
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Speaker 1: how he dealeth it. For he made all, and taketh
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Speaker 1: like care of all. And as his giving came of
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Speaker 1: his love towards man, so doth a quantity which he giveth.
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Speaker 1: For was he who had shown his goodness in regard
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Speaker 1: to the main point, which is the giving of the gifts,
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Speaker 1: likely to neglect THEE in regard to the measure, For
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Speaker 1: had he wished to do THEE dishonor, then he had
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Speaker 1: not given them at all. But if to save THEE
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Speaker 1: and to honor THEE was what he had in view,
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Speaker 1: and for this he came and distributed such great blessings.
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Speaker 1: Why art thou confounded and disturbed and abusst thy wisdom
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Speaker 1: to foolishness, making thyself more disgraceful than one who is
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Speaker 1: by no nature? So, for being foolish by nature is
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Speaker 1: no ground of complaint. But being foolish through wisdom is
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Speaker 1: at once bereaving one's self of excuse and running into
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Speaker 1: greater punishment. Such then, are those who pride themselves upon
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Speaker 1: their wisdom and fall into the excess of recklessness. For
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Speaker 1: recklessness of all things makes a person a fool. Wherefore
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Speaker 1: the prophet calls thee Barbarian by this name. But the fool,
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Speaker 1: he says, shall speak folly, but that you may see
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Speaker 1: the folly of him from his own words. Hear what
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Speaker 1: he says. Above the stars of heaven, will I place
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Speaker 1: my throne, and I will be like the most high.
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Speaker 1: I will take hold of the world as a nest,
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Speaker 1: and as eggs that are left, will I take them away? Now?
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Speaker 1: What can be more foolish than these words? And to
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Speaker 1: each instance of haughty language he directly applies this reproach.
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Speaker 1: And if I were to set before you every expression
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Speaker 1: of them that are reckless, you would not be able
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Speaker 1: to distinguish whether the words are those of a reckless
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Speaker 1: man or a fool. So entirely the same is this failing,
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Speaker 1: and that, and another of a strange nation says again,
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Speaker 1: I am God and not man, And another again, can
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Speaker 1: God save you? Or deliver you out of my hand.
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Speaker 1: And the Egyptian too, I know not the Lord, neither
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Speaker 1: will I let Israel go. And the foolish body in
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Speaker 1: the Psalmist is of this character, who hath said in
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Speaker 1: his heart there is no God, and cain am I
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Speaker 1: my brother's keeper. Can you now distinguish whether the words
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Speaker 1: are those of the reckless or those of the fool?
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Speaker 1: For recklessness is going out of due bounds and being
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Speaker 1: a departure from reason, whence its name, recklessness maketh men
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Speaker 1: both fools and vainglorious. And if the beginning of wisdom
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Speaker 1: is the fear of the Lord, the beginning of folly
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Speaker 1: is surely not knowing the Lord. If then knowing be wisdom,
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Speaker 1: and not knowing him folly and not knowing come of haughtiness.
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Speaker 1: For the beginning of haughtiness is the not knowing of
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Speaker 1: the Lord, then his haughtiness the extreme of folly. Such
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Speaker 1: was nebile, if not to God would at least toward
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Speaker 1: man having become senseless from his recklessness, But he are
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Speaker 1: to its diet of fear. For when any falleth from
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Speaker 1: the measure of wisdom, he becomes at once a coward
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Speaker 1: and bold, his soul having been made feeble. For as
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Speaker 1: the body, when it loseth its proper tone, having become
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Speaker 1: out of condition, is a prey to any disease, Thus
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Speaker 1: to the soul, when it hath lost its greatness of
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Speaker 1: nature and lowly mindedness, having gotten a particular habit becomes
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Speaker 1: feeble and fearful, as well as bold and unreasonable, and
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Speaker 1: loses its powers of self consciousness. And he that has
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Speaker 1: lost these, how is he to know things above himself?
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Speaker 1: For as he that is seized with a frenzy, when
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Speaker 1: he has so lost them, knoweth not even what is
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Speaker 1: right before him. And the eye, when it is dimmed,
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Speaker 1: darkeneth all the other members. So doth it happen with
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Speaker 1: this recklessness. Wherefore these are more miserable than the mad,
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Speaker 1: or than those silly by nature. For like them they
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Speaker 1: stir laughter, and like them they are ill tempered, and
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Speaker 1: they are out of their wits, as the others are.
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Speaker 1: But they are not pitied as they are, and they
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Speaker 1: are beside themselves as are these. But they are not
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Speaker 1: excused as are these, but are hated only. And while
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Speaker 1: they have the failings of either, they are bereaved of
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Speaker 1: the excuse of either. Being ridiculous, not owing to their
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Speaker 1: words only, but to their whole appearance. Also, for why
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Speaker 1: pray dost thou stiffen up thy neck? Or why walk
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Speaker 1: on tiptoe? Why knit up thy brows? Why stick thy
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Speaker 1: breast out? Thou canst not make one hair white or black?
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Speaker 1: And thou goest with as lofty gait as if thou
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Speaker 1: couldst command everything. No doubt thou wouldst like to have
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Speaker 1: wings and not go upon the oath at all. No
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Speaker 1: doubt thou wouldst wish to be a prodigy, For hast
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Speaker 1: thou not made thyself prodigious? Now, when thou art a
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Speaker 1: man and triest to fly, or rather flying from within
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Speaker 1: and bloated in every limb, what shall I call thee
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Speaker 1: to quit thee of thy recklessness? If I call the
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Speaker 1: ashes and dust and smoke and potter, I should have
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Speaker 1: described thy worthlessness, to be sure, But still I should
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Speaker 1: not have laid hold of the exact image I wanted,
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Speaker 1: For I want to put their bloatedness before me, and
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Speaker 1: all its emptiness. What image am I have find there
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Speaker 1: which will suit? With all this? To me? It seems
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Speaker 1: to be like tone ablaze, for it seems to swell
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Speaker 1: when lighted, and to lift itself up. But when it
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Speaker 1: is submitted to a slight touch of the hand, it
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Speaker 1: all tumbles down, and it turns out to be more
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Speaker 1: worthless than the various ashes of this sort. Are these
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Speaker 1: souls of these men that empty inflatedness of theirs, even
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Speaker 1: the commonest attack may humble and bring down. For he
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Speaker 1: that behaves recklessly must of necessity be a thoroughly feeble person,
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Speaker 1: since the height he has is not a sound one.
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Speaker 1: But even as bubbles are easily burst, so are these
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Speaker 1: men easily undone. But if thou dost not believe, give
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Speaker 1: me a bold, reckless fellow, and you will find him
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Speaker 1: more cowardly than a fallen man, even at the most
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Speaker 1: trivial circumstance. For as the flame that rises from dry
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Speaker 1: sticks is no sooner lighted than it becomes dust, But
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Speaker 1: stiff logs do not, by their nature easily kindle up
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Speaker 1: and then keep up their flame a long time burning.
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Speaker 1: So souls that be stern and firm are not easily
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Speaker 1: kindled or extinguished. But these men undergo both of these
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Speaker 1: in a single moment. Since then we know this, let
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Speaker 1: us practice humble mindedness, For there is nothing so powerful
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Speaker 1: as it, since it is stronger even than a rock,
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Speaker 1: and harder than adamant, and places us in a safety
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Speaker 1: greater than that of towers and cities, and walls, being
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Speaker 1: too high for any of the artillery of the devil.
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Speaker 1: As then, recklessness makes men an easy prey even to
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Speaker 1: ordinary occurrences, being as I was saying, easier broken than
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Speaker 1: a bubble, and rent more speedily than a spider's web,
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Speaker 1: and more quickly dissolved than a smoke. That we then
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Speaker 1: may be walking upon the strong rock, let us leave
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Speaker 1: that and take to this, For with us in this
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Speaker 1: life present we shall find rest, and shall in the
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Speaker 1: world to come have every blessing by the grace and
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Speaker 1: love toward Man et cetera. End of Section thirty seven