493 EPISTOLA AD EUDOXIAM IMPERATRICEM 494
EDITOR'S ADMONITION
In many works of an older date, more or less, as well as among authors of ambiguous learning from diverse regions, we read daily that it is proclaimed that the old editions of St. Chrysostom, which Erasmus, Savile, and Fronton du Duc brought to light, contain not a few things—especially homilies, whether complete or mutilated—which are not found in the most famous Benedictine edition produced by Montfaucon and his associates. This sort of error, wherever it may have arisen, has been followed by writers of not-very-good discipline from one place to another, treading in each other’s footsteps, who have indeed neglected to seek matters from the source. For it is certain that the Benedictine Fathers had the three aforementioned editions before their eyes while working on the works of St. Chrysostom; and no one would deny that their labor, whatever may finally be desired in it, is by far superior to all the others. Furthermore, in the aforementioned editions, you will not find even one word uttered by St. Chrysostom—everyone admits this—which does not likewise appear in the most recent edition. Those things which are claimed to have been omitted by the Benedictine Fathers, but edited by Erasmus, Savile, and Fronton du Duc, are, in fact, more or less truncated fragments of works, which Montfaucon correctly did not neglect to set forth, just as he did not hesitate to reject several homilies as the non-genuine offshoots of uncertain authors. The result is that if the aforementioned homilies and portions of works—which those men, driven by some show of dubious erudition, boast of as supposedly overlooked—were to be republished, it would be a long series of things already repeated. And I do not regret putting forth this assertion, after having completed, with no small effort, a most accurate collation among themselves of the diverse editions about which the dispute has arisen.
SUPPLEMENT TO THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
A I. Chrysostom to the Empress Eudoxia.
God, being the creator of all nature, stands above all power and dominion by His very essence; but all men are equal to one another, even if one seems to excel another. Therefore, He has also delivered the royal scepter to you, not so that you might think you excel others, but so that you might accord each his own due and dispense justice. For glory, and wealth, and worldly pride will not help us at all on the fearful day of judgment, but only the observance of the commandments, which brings with it the preservation of right doctrine. B Make sure that you do not appear forgetful of these, and do not cast the fear of God from your soul, knowing clearly that the breath of us all is in His hands; for He adds years of life to one as He wills, and takes them away from another. For I, He says, will kill, and make to live; and who is there who shall deliver out of my hands? And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We are all but dust and ashes, men, a flower, grass, and dust, a shadow, smoke, and a dream, and we live without truly living. For since that sentence was passed upon our whole nature, Dust you are, and to dust you shall return, mortality...
we have all put on mortality and corruption, and we have all by now died in common, even if one dies today and another tomorrow. For having come forth from the earth, after a little while we are carried down again into the earth, kings and commoners, governors and governed alike. Look then, therefore, to those who reigned before you, and consider well what they were then, and what they have now become. Understand how those who have done good are called blessed both while living and after death, and at the day of retribution they shall go forth unto the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil are, even here, ceaselessly assailed by everyone with curses and reproaches, and they shall rise again not unto the resurrection of life, but unto judgment. Let your piety therefore also remember those who have kept the faith unblemished, and who have completed the beautiful course of the commandments; and restore to the humble wife of Theognostus, and to her children B their vineyard. The sorrows that have already occurred are sufficient for them; let not their troubles be increased, nor let their afflictions continue any further. I beseech you, resolve their pressing pain and misfortune as quickly as possible, remembering the exhortation of the Savior in the Gospels, that we should not let the sun go down upon our wrath. And again, addressing that rich man, he says: "Fool, this night they require your soul from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Shall the sweetness of the fruit of the vine go down with us into Hades? Or the sweetness of figs? Or the richness of oil? Or the abundance of riches and the glory of rule? Does not every endeavor of man end in corruption? Do we not, leaving all things behind, depart stripped of the goods of this present life, naked, and without protection? Mindful, therefore, of all these things, permit the vineyard to be restored, that it may be well with you on the day of judgment.
Chrysostom to Caesarius
CIt is pious, and very pious, to confess that Christ, who was clothed in death, is perfect in Divinity and perfect in humanity; [that he is] one only-begotten Son, not divided into a duality of sons, yet bearing in himself the unconfused properties of two inseparable natures, not one and another, God forbid, but one and the same Lord D Jesus, the Word of God clothed in flesh — and this [flesh] not inanimate and without reason, as the impious Apollinarius said.
If, however, it still seems impossible to some that two things can be one, and simultaneously be held and yet be crucified, and that one of them [the two] should endure the ignominy, I shall attempt to demonstrate this by a human example.