543 SPURIA. [...] the burning of perjury consumes soul and body in Gehenna. If I say, "Do not offer insult," you object to me your anger; if I say, "Give money to the poor," you offer as a pretext your poverty and the maintenance of your children. Not swearing and not lying do not require money taken from a purse. Why do we not practice that justice A without expense? The purple and the diadem do not befit a king as much as not lying befits a Christian. Therefore his kinsmen, friends, neighbors, and business associates respect him; for this reason demons fear him, angels love him, and they themselves, rejoicing, open the gates of the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
NOTICE
Cotelerius published this homily as a genuine product of Chrysostom in the year 1661, to which he also added three others as "unedited"; this one was at the head of the group regarding Psalm VI, followed by another on Psalm L, another again on the same Psalm L, and a fourth finally on Psalm XCIV. Cotelerius presented them all as "genuine" works, which is indeed true of the second, whose beginning is *Eldete tē proterā kyriakē*, but that had been published by Savile among the Homilies on Repentance, and also by Fronto Ducaeus, who relegated it to the end of the fifth volume. We, however, placed it in the second volume, the second on Repentance, p. 287. What induced Cotelerius to publish it anew is the diversity of readings occurring here and there. But everything confirms that it is a genuine production of Chrysostom. However, no one who has even touched the style of Chrysostom with his fingertips would say this one on Psalm VI is genuine. The speech is utterly relaxed, supported by no sinews, smells of a foreigner, and bears the marks of a clumsy, paltry Greek attempt. Everything teems with solecisms and unusual forms of expression. For who could tolerate that, *oude aposōpō tōn pollōn mou hamartiōn peri sou poiēsasthai, Despota*? Or who, *ton arrabōna ebiōsa*? Moreover, that *ean gar mē sy phthasēs, tis hina phthasē*, completely smacks of an unskilled Greek of a more recent age. In a word, you could hardly run through two or three periods without such unusual modes of expression or solecisms: so that all these can by no means be attributed to the ignorance of scribes. Yet I will not hide that regarding the end there is BOUR HOLY FATHER JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PSALM OF DAVID ON THE OCTAVE. ON PSALM VI.
1. The Scripture calls "the octave" that life and manner of conduct which follows the seventh, that is, the present age, which that circumcision of the eighth day foretold. The wise Solomon also warns about the octave, saying, "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight" (Eccl. 11:2), as if to say: In this age, think of the seventh millennium, and of the good part, that is, the eighth, the future and permanent one, eternal life. But let us look also at the beginning of the Psalm itself.
2. "O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger." Staring with the eyes of the mind at the awesome tribunal, the prophet, as if already naked and with bowed neck, asks the judge nothing else but just this: "O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger." I know, O Lord, that a tremendous and terrible tribunal awaits me, before the angels and every creature; where you preside upon a formidible and high throne to judge, and you bring about the manifestation and revelation of all the sins that have been committed; and I do not dare, because of the multitude of my many sins, to make confession before you, O Master. Because my sin is greater than that it can be forgiven, because I have sinned against you more than other men, because I have provoked your name beyond measure, because I have lived prodigally beyond the prodigal, because I have become a debtor to you more than that debtor of the ten thousand talents. Above the tax-collector, a hostile tax-collector has exacted tribute from me; above the robber, a murderous robber has wretchedly slain me. More than the harlot, I have committed fornication; more than Nineveh, I have sinned unrepentantly; more than the Canaanite woman, I have sinned. My sins have been heavy upon me like a heavy burden; and I have been bowed down even to the end. I have provoked your holy name, I have not obeyed your commandments, I have wickedly dissipated your riches, I have consumed your treasure poorly; the pledge which you had given me, I have consumed with your enemies; I have not kept the voice of your commandment; I have soiled the tunic with which you had clothed me; I have extinguished the lamp which you had prepared for me, by falling asleep; I have disgraced with sins my face which you had made joyful; my eyes, which you had enlightened, I have again wickedly blinded; my lips, which you had sanctified, I have again defiled. And I know that you are surely going to call my deeds to account, and therefore there is nowhere for me to flee; but I must necessarily be rebuked. O Lord, not in your anger C