He warneth them against false teachers. He counts all other things loss, that he may gain Christ.
He vvarneth them of the False-apostles, shevving that him self had much more to bragge of in Iudaisme then they: but that he maketh price of nothing but only of Christ, and of Christian iustice, and of suffering vvith him (12 vvherein yet he acknovvledgeth his imperfection) 17 exhorting them to beare Christes Crosse vvith him, and not to imitate those bellygods.
1As to the rest, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not wearisome, but to you is necessary.Del rimanente, fratelli miei, state allegri nel Signore. Non rincresce a me, ed è necessario per voi, che io vi scriva le stesse cose.FROM hence forth my brethren, reioyce in our Lord. To vvrite the same things vnto you, to me surely it is not tedious, and to you it is necessarie.De cetero, fratres mei, gaudete in Domino. Eadem vobis scribere, mihi quidem non pigrum, vobis autem necessarium. 2Beware of dogs: beware of evil workers: beware of the concision.Guardatevi dai cani, guardatevi dai cattivi operai, guardatevi dal taglio.See the dogges, see the euil vvorkers, see the concisiō.Videte canes, videte malos operarios, videte concisionem. 3For we are the circumcision, who in spirit serve God and glory in Christ Jesus, not having confidence in the flesh.Imperocché i circoncisi siam noi, che serviamo a Dio in Ispirito, e ci gloriamo in Cristo Gesù, e non ponghiamo fiducia nella carne:For vve are the circumcision, vvhich in spirit serue God: and vve glorie in Christ IESVS, and not hauing confidence in the flesh,Nos enim sumus circumcisio, qui spiritu servimus Deo, et gloriamur in Christo Jesu, et non in carne fiduciam habentes, 4Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other thinketh he may have confidence in the flesh, I more:Quantunque io abbia onde confidare anche nella carne. Se alcun altro vuoi confidar nella carne, maggiormente io,albeit I also haue confidence in the flesh. If any other man seeme to haue confidence in the flesh, I more,quamquam ego habeam confidentiam et in carne. Si quis alius videtur confidere in carne, ego magis, 5Being circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews. According to the law, a Pharisee:Circonciso l'ottavo giorno, Israelita di nazione, della tribù di Beniamin, Ebreo (nato) di Ebrei, secondo la legge Fariseo,circumcised the eight day, of the stocke of Israël, of the tribe of Beniamin, an Hebrevv of Hebrevves: according to the Lavv, a Pharisee:circumcisus octavo die, ex genere Israël, de tribu Benjamin, Hebræus ex Hebræis, secundum legem pharisæus, 6According to zeal, persecuting the church of God: According to the justice that is in the law, conversing without blame.Quanto allo zelo, persecutor della Chiesa di Dio, quanto alla giustizia consistente nella legge, irreprensibile.according to emulation, persecuting the Church of God: according to the iustice that is in the Lavv, conuersing vvithout blame.secundum æmulationem persequens Ecclesiam Dei, secundum justitiam, quæ in lege est, conversatus sine querela.
7But the things that were gain to me, the same I have counted loss for Christ.Ma quegli, che erano i miei guadagni, gli stimai a causa di Cristo mie perdite.But the things that vvere gaines to me, those haue I esteemed for Christ, detriments.Sed quæ mihi fuerunt lucra, hæc arbitratus sum propter Christum detrimenta. 8Furthermore, I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ.Anzi io giudico, che le cose tutte siano perdita rispetto all'eminente cognizione di Gesù Cristo mio Signore: per causa di cui ho giudicato un discapito tutte le cose, e le stimo come spazzatura per fare acquisto di Cristo,Yea but I esteeme al things to be detriment for the passing knovvledge of IESVS Christ my Lord: for vvhom I haue made al things as detriment, and do esteeme them as dung, that I may gaine Christ:Verumtamen existimo omnia detrimentum esse propter eminentem scientiam Jesu Christi Domini mei: propter quem omnia detrimentum feci, et arbitror ut stercora, ut Christum lucrifaciam, 9And may be found in him, not having my justice, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ Jesus, which is of God: justice in faith.Ed essere trovato in lui, non avendola mia giustizia, che vien dalla legge, ma quella, che vien dalla fede di Cristo Gesù: giustizia, che viene da Dio (che posa) sopra la fede,and may be found in him not hauing my iustice vvhich is of the Lavv, but that vvhich is of the faith of Christ, vvhich is of God iustice in faith:et inveniar in illo non habens meam justitiam, quæ ex lege est, sed illam, quæ ex fide est Christi Jesu: quæ ex Deo est justitia in fide, 10That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings: being made conformable to his death,Affin di conoscer lui, e l'efficacia della sua risurrezione, e la partecipazione de' suoi patimenti, conformatomi alla morte di lui:to knovv him, and the vertue of his resurrection, and the societie of his passions, configured to his death,ad cognoscendum illum, et virtutem resurrectionis ejus, et societatem passionum illius: configuratus morti ejus: 11If by any means I may attain to the resurrection which is from the dead.Se in qualche modo giunga io alla risurrezione da morte:if by any meanes I may come to the resurrection vvhich is from the dead.si quo modo occurram ad resurrectionem, quæ est ex mortuis: 12Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect: but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend, wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus.Non che io già tutto abbia conseguito, o che io sia già perfetto: ma tengo dietro a studiarmi di prendere quella cosa, per cui io pure fui preso da Cristo Gesù.Not that novv I haue receiued, or novv am perfect: but I pursue, if I may comprehend vvherein I am also comprehended of Christ IESVS.non quod jam acceperim, aut jam perfectus sim: sequor autem, si quomodo comprehendam in quo et comprehensus sum a Christo Jesu.
13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forth myself to those that are before,Io, fratelli, non mi credo di aver toccata la meta. Ma questo solo, che dimentico di quel, che ho dietro le spalle, verso le cose stendendomi, che mi stanno davanti,Brethren, I do not account that I haue comprehended. Yet one thing: forgetting the things that are behinde, but stretching forth my self to those that are before,Fratres, ego me non arbitror comprehendisse. Unum autem, quæ quidem retro sunt obliviscens, ad ea vero quæ sunt priora, extendens meipsum, 14I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus.Mi avanzo verso il segno, verso il premio della superna vocazione di Dio, in Cristo Gesù.I pursue to the marke, to the price of the supernal vocation of God in Christ IESVS.ad destinatum persequor, ad bravium supernæ vocationis Dei in Christo Jesu. 15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, this also God will reveal to you,Quanti adunque siamo perfetti, pensiamo in tal guisa: e se in alcuna cosa pensate altrimenti, anche in questo Dio vi illuminerà.Let vs therfore as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if you be any othervvise minded, this also God hath reuealed' to you.Quicumque ergo perfecti sumus, hoc sentiamus: et si quid aliter sapitis, et hoc vobis Deus revelabit. 16Nevertheless, whereunto we are come, that we be of the same mind, let us also continue in the same rule.Quanto però a quello, a che siam già arrivati, tenghiamo gli stessi sentimenti; e perseveriamo nella stessa regola.Neuerthelesse vvherevnto we are come, that vve be of the same minde, let vs continue in the same rule.Verumtamen ad quod pervenimus ut idem sapiamus, et in eadem permaneamus regula. 17Be ye followers of me, brethren: and observe them who walk so as you have our model.Siate miei imitatori, o fratelli, e ponete mente a quegli, che camminano secondo il modello, che avete in noi.Be folovvers of me brethren: & obserue them that vvalke so as you haue our forme.Imitatores mei estote, fratres, et observate eos qui ita ambulant, sicut habetis formam nostram. 18For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ:Imperocché molti, de' quali spesse volte vi ho parlato (e ve ne parlo anche adesso con lagrime) si diportano da nemici della croce di Cristo:For many vvalke vvhom often I told you of (and novv vveeping also I tel you) the enemies of the crosse of Christ:Multi enim ambulant, quos sæpe dicebam vobis (nunc autem et flens dico) inimicos crucis Christi:
19Whose end is destruction: whose God is their belly: and whose glory is in their shame: who mind earthly things.La fine de' quali è la perdizione: il Dio de' quali è il ventre: i quali della propria confusione fan gloria, attaccati alle cose della terra.vvhose end is destruction: vvhose God, is the belly: and their glorie in their confusion, vvhich minde vvorldly things.quorum finis interitus: quorum Deus venter est: et gloria in confusione ipsorum, qui terrena sapiunt. 20But our conversation is in heaven: from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ,Ma noi siam cittadini del cielo: donde pur aspettiamo il Salvatore, il Signor nostro Gesù Cristo,But our conuersation is in heauen? vvhence also vve expect the Sauiour, our Lord IESVS Christ,Nostra autem conversatio in cælis est: unde etiam Salvatorem exspectamus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, 21Who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory, according to the operation whereby also he is able to subdue all things unto himself.Il quale trasformerà il corpo di nostra vilezza, perché sia conforme al corpo della sua gloria, per quella potenza, con la quale può ancor soggettare a se tutte le cose.vvho vvil reforme the body of our humilitie, configured to the body of his glorie, according to the operation vvhereby also he is able to subdue al things to him self.qui reformabit corpus humilitatis nostræ, configuratum corpori claritatis suæ, secundum operationem, qua etiam possit subjicere sibi omnia.
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Beware of dogs.[Ver. 2. Videte canes....Videte Concisionem, blepete tous kunas....ton katatomen. The Jewish circumcision at this time, says St. Chrysostom (log. 1.) was merely a cutting off of the flesh: ouden allo e sarkos tome esti, kai katatome.] The Jews called so the Gentiles; and St. Paul now applies it to those among the Jews who spread false doctrine, who privately snarled and publicly barked against the true apostles. None deserve sharp reprehension more than heretical preachers.
Witham
Beware of the concision, or as some French translations, of false circumcision. St. Paul by derision makes use of this word, which signifies a cutting to pieces, or destruction. (Witham)
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For we are the circumcision. We Christians now use the only profitable and commendable spiritual circumcision; which, to the Colossians 2:11. he calls the circumcision of Christ, and to the Romans (Romans 2:29.) circumcision of the heart in the spirit.
Witham
Not having confidence in the flesh; that is in such carnal ceremonies. (Witham)
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If any other thinketh he may have confidence in the flesh, in being of the Jewish race and of their religion, I more; that is I have greater reasons to glory than they have, being circumcised of the stock of Israel, etc.
Witham
But what things, etc. as soon as I was miraculously called to the knowledge and faith of Christ. (Witham)
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Witham
I may be found in him not having my justice, which is of the law; that is not pretending to be justified either by my own works or by the works of the Jewish law, but by that which proceedeth from faith in Christ, and by his merits. (Witham)
St. Augustine expounds the sense thus: not that justice which is in God, or by which God is just, but that which is in man from God, and by his gifts. (lib. 3. cont. 2. ep. Pelag.)
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That I may know him. This knowledge of Christ the apostle prefers to all honours and advantages accruing from his adherence to the synagogue.
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Witham
If by any means I may attain to the resurrection, which is from the dead; that is may attain to a happy resurrection, when the dead shall rise again. (Witham)
St. Chrysostom
This manner of expression does not betray any distrust or fear, but merely insinuates the difficulty of the enterprise, the uncertainty of success, and the ardent desire of the apostle, who sought by every means to arrive at this happiness, either by sufferings and labours, or even by martyrdom. (St. Chrysostom; Estius)
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Witham
Not as though I had already attained the happiness I hope for, or am now become perfect as to that perfection in virtue, which I must always endeavour to increase in; but, like a person still running a race for a prize, I pursue and run as well as I can, I stretch myself with perseverance towards[Ver. 14. Ad destinatum, kata skopon dioko. See St. Chrysostom of the necessity of good works, (log. is. p. 65) and of the uncertainty a man is always in of his salvation. p. 67.] the mark, forgetting that part of the course which I had made. Let all of us, though perfect as to the knowledge of the mysteries we are to believe, be of this mind, that we are still to advance in the way of Christian perfection; and if any of you be of another mind, and think otherwise, God will reveal to you and teach you this truth, that we may all continue in the same rule of doctrine and discipline. We may here take notice with St. Chrysostom that it is not enough to believe, or have the true faith, but that we must strive and labour to the end in the way of perfection; secondly that St. Paul did not look upon himself absolutely certain of his salvation: and how much greater presumption would this be in us? (Witham)
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Calmet
I do not count myself. That is, I do not suppose that vain security is sufficient to put my salvation out of doubt, and that Christ having died, nothing remains for me to do. No; I consider myself as a wrestler at the games, uncertain of success. (Calmet)
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Be followers of me, always in distrust of your own merits, and always eager to advance in perfection, as I am. It is a happy thing when a pastor can thus in all sincerity and simplicity address his flock.
Witham
He exhorts them to follow him in what he had taught them, and in the model of a good life, which he had set before them. He repeats to them, with tears, what he had formerly told them, that many walk and conduct themselves as enemies to the cross of Christ, to Christ crucified, by abandoning themselves to the pleasures of a sensual life, who glory in things they ought to be ashamed of. He hints at the disciples of Simon Magus, or of the Jewish doctors. (Witham)
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By allusiō of vvords, he calleth the carnal Christiā Iews that yet boasted in the circūcision of the flesh, concisiō: & him self & the rest that circūcided their hart and senses spiritually, the true circumcision. S. Chrys. Theophylact.
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〈Greek〉
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Concordance 2. Cor. 11, 22.
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Concordance Act. 23, 6.
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In the liturgy The Epistle for a Confessor that is not a Bishop.
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9. My iustice.] The obiection against inherent iustice, ansvvered. Diuers Lutherans in their translations do shamfully mangle this sentence by transposing the vvordes, Magdeburg. cent. 1. li, 2 c. 4. pag. 222. and false poluting of the partes: hereof, to make it haue this sense, that the Apostle vvould haue no iustice of his ovvne, but onely that iustice vvhich is in Christ. Vvhich is a false and heretical sense of the vvordes, and not meant by S. Paul: vvho calleth that a mans ovvne Iustice, vvhich he chalengeth by the vvorkes of the Lavv or nature vvithout the grace of Christ: and that Gods iustice (as S. Augustine expoundeth this place) not vvhich is in God, or by vvhich God is iust, but that vvhich is in men from God and by his gift. li. 3 cont. • ep. Pelag. c. 7. de Sp. & lit. c. 9.
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If S. Paul ceased not to labour still, as though he vvere not sure to come to the marke vvithout continual endeuour: vvhat securitie may vve poore sinners haue of Heretikes persuasions & promises of securitie and saluation by onely faith?
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12. Not that novv.] Double perfection: here, and in the life to come. No man in this life can attaine the absolute perfectnes either of iustice or of that knovvledge vvhich shal be in heauen: but yet there is also an other perfectnes, such as according to this state a man may reach vnto, vvhich in respect of the perfection in glorie, is small, but in respect of other lesser degrees of mans iustice and knovvledge in this life, may be called perfectnes. And in this sense the Apostle in the next sentence calleth him self and others perfect, though in respect of the absolute perfectnes in heauen, he saith here, he is not yet perfect nor hath yet attained therevnto.
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ad brauium
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15. Othervvise minded.] The heretikes folish defense of their dissensions and diuisions among them selues. Vvhen Catholike men novv a daies charge Heretikes vvith their horrible diuisions, dissensions, combattes, contentions, and diuersities among them selues, as the Catholikes of al other ages did chalenge their Aduersaries most truely and iustly for the same, (both because vvhere the Spirit of God is not, nor any order or obedience to Superiors, there can be no peace nor vnitie, and specially for that it is, as S. Augustine saith (li. de agent Christ. c. 29) the iust iudgement of God that they vvhich seeke nothing els but to diuide the Church of Christ, should them selues be miserably diuided among them selues) therfore (I say) vvhen men charge the Protestants vvith these things, they flee for their defence to this, that the old Fathers vvere not al of one iudgement in euery point of religion: that S. Cyprian stood against others, that S. Augustine and S. Hierom vvrote earnestly in a certaine matter one against an other, that our Dominicans and Franciscans, our Thomists and Scotists be not al of one opinion in diuers matters, and therfore diuisions and contentions should not be so preiudicial to the Zuinglians and Lutherans, The difference betvvene the disagreing of auncient fathers or other Catholikes, & the Heretikes dissensions among them selues. as men make it. Thus they defend them selues: but ridiculously and against the rule of S. Paul here, acknovvledging that in this imperfection of mens science in this life, euery one can not be free from al error, or thinke the same that an other thinketh: vvherevpon may rise differences of vnderstanding, opinion, and iudgement, in certaine hard matters vvhich God hath not reuealed or the Church determined, and therfore that such diuersitie is tolerable and agreable to our humane condition and the state of the vvay that vve be in: alvvaies prouided, that the controuersie be such and in such things, as be not against the set knovven rule of faith, as he here speaketh, and such as breake not mutual societie, fellovvship, and communion in praier, seruice, Sacraments, and other offices of life and religion. for such diuisions and differences come neuer but of Schisme or Heresie, and such are among the Heretikes, not onely in respect of vs Catholikes, but among them selues: at they knovv that be acquainted vvith the vvritings of Luther against Zuinglius, The spiteful vvritings of Heretikes, one Secte, against an other. or Vvestphalus against Caluin, or the Puritans against the Protestants, not onely charging one an other vvith Heresie, Idolatrie, Superstition, and Atheisme, but also condemning ech others ceremonies or maner of administrations, til it come to excommunication, and banishment, yea sometimes burning one of an other. Thus did not S. Cyprian, S. Augustine, S. Hierom, the Dominicans, Franciscans, Thomists, Scotists, vvho al agree in one rule of faith, al of one communion, al most deere one to an other in the same, al (thankes be to God) come to one holy Masse, and receiue the same Sacraments, and obey one head through out al the vvorld. A notable place of S. Augustine. S. Augustine li. 2 de bapt. c. 5. shal make vp this matter vvith this notable sentence: We are men (saith he) and therfore to thinke somevvhat othervvise them the thing it, is an humane tentation: but by louing our ovvne sentence to much, or by enuying our betters, to procede vnto the sacrilege of deuiding the mutual societie and of making schisme or heresie, it diuelish prosumption: in nothing to haue other opinion then the truth is, that is Angelical perfection. And a litle after, If you be any other vvise minded, this God vvil reueale: but to them only (saith he) that vvalke in the vvay of peace, and that stroy a side into no diuision or separation. Vvhich saying vvould God al our deere countrie men vvould marke, and come into the Church, vvhere onely, God reuealeth truth.
vvil reueale
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In the liturgy The Epistle vpon the 23 Sunday after Pentecost. And for S. Clemēt, Nouemb. 23.
It is a goodly thing vvhen the Pastor may so say to his flocke. Neither is it any derogatiō to Christ, that the people should imitate their Apostles life & doctrine, & other holy men, S. Augustine, S. Benedict. S. Dominike, S. Francis.
Concordance Ro. 16, 17.
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Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 3
… “And it shall be exalted,” he says, “above the hills; and there shall come over it all nations; and many shall walk, and say, Come, ascend we unto the mount of the Lord, and unto the house of the God of Jacob ,” —not of Esau , the former son, but of Jacob , the second; that is, of our “people,” whose “mount” is Christ, “præcised without concisors’ hands,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 18.34
34. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord alway; again I will say, Rejoice: for your redemption hath drawn nigh
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 To Olympias 1
… “for to write the same things,” it is said, “to me indeed is not grievous, and for you it is safe.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 18
… Wherefore it needs much reminding. And for this cause Paul, writing to the Philippians, said, “To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 32
… Wherefore I exhort you to abstain from these Satanic assemblies; for if it is not lawful to enter into an idol’s house, much less to Satan’s festival. I shall not cease to say these things and weary you, until I see some change; for to say these things, as saith Paul, “to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 51
… Since if when we go not beyond the righteousness of the Jews, the Kingdom is shut against us, how shall we be able to attain unto it when we prove ourselves worse than the heathen? Let us then cast out all bitterness, and wrath, and anger. To speak “the same things, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe,” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints 1.1
We know that in the Epistle to the Philippians the apostle said, “To write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 75.1
… For I remember that I have already spoken to you, Beloved, on this lesson of the Gospel. Yet to repeat the same explanation to you is not wearisome, even as it was not wearisome to repeat the same Lesson to you. The Apostle Paul saith in a certain Epistle, “To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not wearisome, but for you it is necessary.”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 A discourse by the most blessed Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, on the end of the world, and on Antichrist, and on the second coming of our lord Jesus Christ 11
Finally, hear Paul as he speaks boldly, and mark how clearly he discovers these: “Beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 54.19
… as not to find his humility and weakness animated by the vigour and strength of the Lord who protects him. It matters nothing to us by whom, or when we are slain, since we shall receive from the Lord the reward of our death and of our blood. Their concision
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 28.2
… Shall we not watch? Shall we not meet together? Shall we not look to our common Lord, Who suffers each of his saints to serve his own generation, and summons him back to Himself at His own appointed time? Now in season remember the voice of him who when preaching to you used always to say “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 2.5
… He teaches that the Creator is to be served by condemning those who serve the creature, whereas we owe our service to the Creator. And since he knew the Spirit to be the Creator, he teaches that we ought to serve Him, saying: “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision who serve the Spirit of God.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.6
… For it is written: “Hedge thine ears about with thorns;” and again: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 19
And mark how Christ began, as though He were speaking of some wild beast, hard to catch, and crafty to deceive him who was not very watchful. Thus, “take heed,” saith He, “as to your alms.” So Paul also speaks to the Philippians; “Beware of dogs.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 25
… i. 9 ), “even” if it be “an angel.” And again, “I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted.” ( 2 Cor. xi. 3 .) And in writing to the Philippians, he says, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 27
… in assertion, as when he says, “If even an angel preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed;” ( Gal. i. 8 .) but in reproof, as when he says, “Whosoever of you would be justified by the law, ye are fallen away from grace.” ( Gal. v. 4 .) And at one time he calls the corrupters “dogs,” saying, “Beware of dogs:” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 41
[2.] And wherefore did he not at once appeal to the power of God? Because he is discoursing with unbelievers. For when his discourse is addressed to believers, he hath not much need of reasons. Wherefore having said elsewhere, “He shall change the body of your humiliation, that it may be fashioned like to the body of his glory,” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians introductory-discourse
3. So then after admonishing them to be of one mind, and showing that unanimity comes of humility, and then aiming a shaft at those Jews who were everywhere corrupting the doctrine under a show of Christianity, and calling them “dogs” and “evil workers” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 12
… for it is not reasonable to talk to the disciples about the teacher. But to stop their mouths, he writes thus to them; “Say to Archippus,” he saith, “Take heed.” This word is everywhere used to alarm; as when he saith, “Take heed of dogs.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 79
… Be not uplifted, as your writing shows you to be, by supposing that I magnify you, by my resolving to check the out-flowing of your poison, lest its insidious and pestilential power should do harm: for the apostle does not magnify those whom he calls “dogs,” saying to the Philippians, “Beware of dogs;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.22
For from the place in which he undertook to say these things, he thus began, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, who serve God in the Spirit,”—or, as some codices have it, “who serve God the Spirit,” or “the Spirit of God,”—“and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 68.29
29. Lastly, he addeth, “The tongue of Thy dogs out of enemies by Himself,” calling those very same that had been about to strive for the faith of the Gospel, even dogs, as though barking for their Lord. Not those dogs, whereof saith the Apostle, “Beware of dogs:”
Anonymous A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop 1
… for although he is now by himself made unclean, defiled with the filth of sacrilege, he contends that we are so. And although it is written that the dogs should remain without, and the apostle has taught that these same dogs must be shunned, as we read, for he says, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,”
3:3
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Apparel of Women ii.9
… We are they “upon whom the ends of the ages have met, having ended their course.” We have been predestined by God, before the world was, (to arise) in the extreme end of the times. And so we are trained by God for the purpose of chastising, and (so to say) emasculating, the world. We are the circumcision
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 12.3
… as for example, the sign of Jonah going out after three days from the whale’s belly was indicative of the resurrection of our Saviour, rising after three days and three nights from the dead; and that which is called circumcision is the sign of that which is indicated by Paul in the words: “We are the circumcision.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.87
… though he may show himself more inhuman than all previous madmen, and discover fresh tortures of greater severity. I have one remedy for them all, one road to victory; I will glory in Christ
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 3.18
… For it is said of the Son of God: “Let all the Angels of God worship Him;” we do not read, Let the Spirit worship Him. For how can He worship Who is not amongst servants and ministers, but, together with the Father and the Son, has the service of the just under Him, for it is written: “We serve the Spirit of God.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 14
… iii. 11 .) There was a law, and there is a law. (“For the law of the Spirit of life hath made me free.”) ( Rom. viii. 2 .) There was a service, and there is a service. (“To whom pertaineth the service”— Rom. ix. 4 : and again: “Serving God in the Spirit.”) (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 1.6
… as says the apostle, “For we are the circumcision, which serve the Spirit of God,”
3:4
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.20
… But “those things which he had once accounted gain,” and which he enumerates in the preceding verse—“trust in the flesh,” the sign of “circumcision,” his origin as “an Hebrew of the Hebrews,” his descent from “the tribe of Benjamin,” his dignity in the honours of the Pharisee
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 35
… and then he calls them “loss,” thus saying, “If any man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal, persecuting the Church; as touching the righteousness which is the law, found blameless.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 24
… ‘Think not, therefore, that I set these down as a virtue; no; but because those men boast I also am compelled to institute my comparison on these points.’ Which he does also in another place, saying, “If any man thinketh that he may trust in the flesh, I more:” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 10
… And he did not say, “For among them is the concision”; for they themselves are henceforth in a condition of ruin and of wickedness. But no longer, says he, is circumcision performed in the body, but in the heart. “And have no confidence,” says he, “in the flesh; though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.22
… Then he added, “Although I may have confidence in the flesh. If any one else thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I more.”
3:5
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 1
Then he told me frankly both his name and his family. “Trypho,” says he, “I am called; and I am a Hebrew of the circumcision,
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 1
For the occasion, indeed, of claiming Divine grace even for the Gentiles derived a pre-eminent fitness from this fact, that the man who set up to vindicate God’s Law as his own was of the Gentiles, and not a Jew “of the stock of the Israelites.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 7
… “By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith.” See he calls the faith also a law delighting to keep to the names, and so allay the seeming novelty. But what is the “law of faith?” It is, being saved by grace. Here he shows God’s power, in that He has not only saved, but has even justified, and led them to boasting,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 2.93
… Among those who thought that they were showing service to God was even our Saul, though not ours as yet; so that among his causes for confidence which were past and to be forgotten, he enumerates the following: "An Hebrew," he says, "of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 72.6
… Let Paul, who was first Saul, answer us. He found it by experience, when he was first a persecutor, and afterwards became a preacher; first Jacob, afterwards Israel; who was himself too “of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 68.33
33. “There is Benjamin the younger in a trance” ( ver. 27 ). There is Paul the last of the Apostles, who saith, “For even I am an Israelite, out of the seed of Abraham, out of the tribe of Benjamin.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 147.26
… How was he bright and white? “An Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.” Behold the brightness of crystal. Now hear the hardness of crystal. “As touching zeal, persecuting the Church”
3:6
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 1 Timothy 4
But how is it, that he here calls himself a sinner, nay, the chief of sinners, whereas he elsewhere asserts that he was “touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless”? (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 14
… “grace for grace,” saith he. What grace, for what? For the old, the new. For there was a righteousness, and again a righteousness, (“Touching the righteousness which is in the law,” saith Paul “blameless.”) (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.16
… It was also in view of this righteousness which is of God that the Apostle Paul, although as “touching the righteousness which is of the law he was blameless,” yet “counted all things” not only as loss, but even as dung.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.20
What commendation, however, is bestowed on Zacharias and Elisabeth which is not comprehended in what the apostle has said about himself before he believed in Christ? He said that, “as touching the righteousness which is in the law, he had been blameless.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.53
… The statement, however, was not made with any reference to that perfect state of righteousness in which we shall one day live truly and absolutely in a condition of spotless purity. The Apostle Paul, indeed, has told us that he was “blameless, as touching the righteousness which is of the law;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.19
… for whose sake I have believed all things not only to be losses, but I have thought them to be even as dung, that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God in faith.”
3:7
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.20
… But “those things which he had once accounted gain,” and which he enumerates in the preceding verse—“trust in the flesh,” the sign of “circumcision,” his origin as “an Hebrew of the Hebrews,” his descent from “the tribe of Benjamin,” his dignity in the honours of the Pharisee —he now reckons to be only “loss” to himself;
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 2.4
… As, then, there is no loss of blessedness to virtue through pain, so also the pleasures of the body and the enjoyment that benefits give add nothing to it. On this the Apostle says well: “What things to me were gain, those I counted loss for Christ,” and he added: “Wherefore I count all things but loss, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood 1.8
… Thus the blessed Paul attracted those multitudes of Jews: with this purpose he circumcised Timothy, although he warned the Galatians in his letter that Christ would not profit those who were circumcised. For this cause he submitted to the law, although he reckoned the righteousness which came from the law but loss after receiving the faith in Christ.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 10
… Wherefore he added; “howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 17.4
… But by the dunghill from which he is lifted up we are with the greatest reason to understand the persecuting Jews, of whom the apostle says, when telling that when he belonged to them he persecuted the Church, “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; and I have counted them not only loss, but even dung, that I might win Christ.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.20
… that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made comformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
3:8
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Antiochians 8
Ye presbyters, “feed the flock which is among you,” till God shall show who is to hold the rule over you. For “I am now ready to be offered,” that I “may win Christ.”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.20
… (in other words,) it was not the God of the Jews, but their stupid obduracy, which he repudiates. These are also the things “which he counts but dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Patience 13
Thus far, finally, of patience simple and uniform, and as it exists merely in the mind : though in many forms likewise I labour after it in body , for the purpose of “winning the Lord;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 10.9
… Or what does every one that seeketh find? I venture to answer, pearls and the pearl which he possesses, who has given up all things, and counted them as loss; “for which,” says Paul, “I have counted all things but loss that I may win Christ;”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 197
… Who now has drawn forth for the care of Christ’s flock a man from the imperial city, entrusted with the government of a whole nation, exalted in character, in lineage, in position, in eloquence, in all that this world admires. This same man has flung away all the advantages of the world, counting them all loss that he may gain Christ,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.56
56. Why should I enter into detail? He lived not to himself, but to Christ and his preaching. He crucified the world to himself, and being crucified to the world and the things which are seen, he thought all things little,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 2.6
… For as a rule most people call that only useful which is profitable, but we are speaking of that kind of usefulness which is sought in earthly loss “that we may gain Christ,”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.1.4
4. And the Apostle teaches us how to dung it, saying: “I count all things but dung, that I may gain Christ,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 16
“For I could wish that I myself were accursed.” What does the “I myself” mean? It means I that have been a teacher ( 1 Cor. ix. 27 ) of all, that have gathered together countless good deeds, that am waiting for countless crowns, that desired Him so much, as to value His love above all things, who all my days am burning for Him, and hold all things (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.39
39. The things that I have here set forth will seem hard to her who loves not Christ. But one who has come to regard all the splendor of the world as off-scourings, and to hold all things under the sun as vain, that he may win Christ;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 40.6
… Lastly, in this also Paul differed from the Jews: that they persecuted the Christian preachers of grace as enemies of the law. These and all similar errors and sins he declares that he “counted but loss and dung that he might win Christ;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 75.15
… Lastly, in this also Paul differed from the Jews, that they persecuted the Christian preachers of grace as enemies of the law. These, and all similar errors and sins, he declares that he counted but loss and dung, that he might win Christ.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 32.1
… Instead of that, you cull out only the prophecies telling of a future King of the Jews, for you suppose this to be Jesus, along with a few precepts of common morality, such as, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery; and all the rest you pass over, thinking of the other things as Paul thought of the things which he held to be dung.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.53
… The Apostle Paul, indeed, has told us that he was “blameless, as touching the righteousness which is of the law;” and it was in respect of the same law that Zacharias also lived a blameless life. This righteousness, however, the apostle counted as “dung” and “loss,” in comparison with the righteousness which is the object of our hope,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 24
… “For whose sake I counted all things not only as loss, but I deemed them to be dung, that I might win Christ, and be found in Him—not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is of God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 4.4
4. They who are such, neither do they account their righteousness as their own, but His, by the faith of whom they live (whence also the Apostle says, “That I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78.33
… 66 ): those, to wit, who were rejoicing that they were able to take His Ark: for they were smitten in their back-parts. Which seemeth to me to be a sign of that punishment, wherewith a man will be tortured, if he shall have looked back upon things behind; which, as saith the Apostle, he ought to value as dung.
3:9
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.20
… These are also the things “which he counts but dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ” (but by no means for the rejection of God the Creator); “whilst he has not his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through Him,” i.e. Christ, “the righteousness which is of God.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.14
… When, indeed, it has been given, it is not called our own righteousness, but God’s; because it becomes our own only so that we have it from God. These are the apostle’s words: “That I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.46
… You perceive, however, that men who entertain such opinions as we have reviewed are “ignorant of God’s righteousness, and desire to establish their own,” and are far off from “the righteousness which we have of God”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.21
… And thus, when he had said, “Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness from God in faith,” he then added, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.8
… and in that resting-place there will be a Country, and no pilgrimage, no dissension, no temptation. Make me then to know “this number of my days, which is, that I may know what is wanting unto me;” because I am not there yet; lest I should be made proud of what I already am, that “I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.13
… for it is ever with me” ( ver. 98 ). For “they have indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,” etc. But the Psalmist, who understandeth the commandment of God above these his enemies, wishes to be found with the Apostle, “not having” his “own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, which is of God;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 125.6
… Thence they are so called in another passage: “Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God.” Not their righteousness, but “Thy righteousness.” Hear that great mountain the Apostle. “That I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.”
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 13
… not “hireling” workmen; not workmen to whom the fear of God and righteousness appear to be gain; not workmen who “serve their belly;” not workmen who “with fair speeches and pleasant words mislead the hearts of the innocent;” not workmen who imitate the children of light, while they are not light but darkness—“men whose end is destruction;”
3:10
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 11
… He is my boast; He is my never-failing riches, on whose account I bear about with me these bonds from Syria to Rome, these spiritual jewels, in which may I be perfected through your prayers, and become a partaker of the sufferings of Christ, and have fellowship with Him in His death, His resurrection from the dead, and His everlasting life.
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, XXXVI 1
… For the truth is unsophisticated ( ἀσχημάτιστος ); and “the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart,” as the same apostle declares, being easy of comprehension to those who are obedient. For it renders us like to Christ, if we experience “the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 2.69
… words, “I am crucified with Christ,” and intimated also in these, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world;” and as His death was necessary, because of the statement, “For in that He died, He died unto sin once,” and this, “Being made conformable to His death,”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 15
… For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the example of gentleness, lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ, says, “being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 68.40
… He Himself then shall give the virtue which in His own flesh He hath sent before, whereof the Apostle saith, “the power of His Resurrection.”
3:11
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.13.4
… Of which resurrection the apostle speaks in the Epistle to the Philippians: “Having been made conformable to His death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection which is from the dead.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 23
… By the righteousness of God, he means that judgment which we shall have to undergo as the recompense of our deeds . It is in expectation of this for himself that the apostle writes to the Philippians: “If by any means,” says he, “I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 4.5
… to one husband,” to be presented “as a chaste virgin to Christ” in heaven, “having gotten the victory, striving for undefiled rewards.” Hence also the prophet Isaiah proclaims, saying, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Now these promises, it is evident to every one, will be fulfilled after the resurrection.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.21
… And how had he perfectly known already the fellowship of His suffering, if he had not yet experienced for him the suffering of death? Finally, he adds and says, “If in any manner I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
3:12
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.9.2
… as also the Lord said to His disciples: “Ye shall see greater things than these.” And Paul declares: “Not that I have already attained, or that I am justified, or already have been made perfect. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect has come, the things which are in part shall be done away.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 23
… Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.” And yet he had believed, and had known all mysteries, as an elect vessel and the great teacher of the Gentiles; but for all that he goes on to say: “I, however, follow on, if so be I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ.”
Tertullian † AD 220 To His Wife 2.2
… in short, divorce He prohibits, except for the cause of fornication; but continence He commends. Let the one, therefore, have the necessity of continuing; the other, further, even the power of not marrying. Secondly, if, according to the Scripture, they who shall be “apprehended”
Tertullian † AD 220 To His Wife 2.7
If these things may happen to those women also who, having attained the faith while in (the state of) Gentile matrimony, continue in that state, still they are excused, as having been “apprehended by God”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 3.2
… This we are taught in the Gospel: “Be ye perfect even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect.” I read again that Paul was perfect and yet not perfect. For when he said: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend it.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 11
Ver. 12 . “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Titus 1
… Whence Christ Himself said, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” ( John xv. 16 .) And elsewhere this same blessed one writes, “I shall know, even as also I am known.” ( 1 Cor. xiii. 12 .) And again, “If I may apprehend that, for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 133.6
… we have done that which was our duty to do.” If he is unprofitable who has done all, what must we say of him who has failed to do so? This is why the Apostle declares that he has attained in part and apprehended in part, that he is not yet perfect, and that forgetting those things which are behind he reaches forth unto those things which are before.
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 1.14
A. I see you are much more disturbed than is your wont; so I will not ply you with arguments. But let me briefly ask what you think of the well-known passage of the Apostle when he wrote to the Philippians:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 55.26
… For “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Hence the apostle himself, who says, “I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus,” confesses frankly that he has not attained to it. “Brethren,” he says, “I count not myself to have apprehended.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 1.5
… but, according to my measure, “if I forget those things that are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before, and press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.20
… but I follow after, if I may comprehend that for which also I am apprehended in Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 19
… . .Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius 42
For it was objected that in the sixth chapter of Cœlestius’ work there was laid down this position: “Men cannot be called sons of God, unless they have become entirely free from all sin.” It follows from this statement, that not even the Apostle Paul is a child of God, since he said: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.15
… although that elected vessel confesses this, who, considering in what state he still was, and that the body which is corrupted drags down the soul, says, “Not that I have already attained or am yet perfect; brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.19
… For, in respect to this infirmity, that little righteousness of man’s is perfect according to its measure, when it understands even what it lacks. And therefore the apostle calls himself both perfect and imperfect,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.22
… and he confessed, therefore, that he was not yet perfect. “But I follow on,” said he, “if I may apprehend that in which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.31
… “We see it to be impossible that any person created in a body can be absolutely spotless, since even Paul says that he is imperfect. For thus he has it: ‘Not that I have already received, or am already perfect;’
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 1
… and until He Himself lead you to perceive what at present is beyond your comprehension, walk firmly on the ground of which you are sure. This is the advice of the Apostle Paul, who, after saying that he was not yet perfect,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 41.6
… “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind, and stretching forth unto those things which are before, I press earnestly toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 92.10
… And I beg that ye would offer this prayer for me, that what I advise may be perfected in me also. For we are all now imperfect, and there shall we be perfected, where all things are perfect. The Apostle Paul says, “Brethren, I do not reckon myself to have apprehended.” He says, “Not that I have already attained, either am already perfect.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.6
6. The “end” he speaks of, is that which the Apostle fixed his eye upon, in his course; and made confession of his own infirmity, perceiving in himself a different state of things from that which he looked for elsewhere. For he says, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.8
8. “That I may know what is wanting to me.” For while I am struggling here, “this” is wanting unto me: and so long as it is wanting unto me, I do not call myself perfect. So long as I have not received it, I say, “not that I have already attained, either am already perfect; but I am pressing towards the prize of God’s high calling.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 40.3
… that we advance to something farther. For what did the Apostle Paul say when now upon the Rock, when his “goings had now been established”? “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 115.8
… It is not so. For even “the house of Aaron hath hope in the Lord” ( ver. 10 ). Therefore, that they also may stretch forward perseveringly towards those things which are before them, and may run perseveringly, until they may apprehend that for which they are apprehended,
3:13
Tertullian † AD 220 To His Wife i.3
… For you are bound to prefer what is profitable to what is (merely) not harmful. For the first place is what every struggle aims at; the second has consolation attaching to it, but not victory. But if we listen to the apostle, forgetting what is behind, let us both strain after what is before,
Tertullian † AD 220 On Modesty 6
… Yet I must necessarily prescribe you a law, not to stretch out your hand after the old things, not to look backwards: for “the old things are passed away,” according to Isaiah; and “a renewing hath been renewed,” according to Jeremiah; and “forgetful of former things, we are reaching forward,”
Archelaus † fl. AD 278 The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes 48
… When one is a child, he thinks as a child, he speaks as a child; but when he becomes a mature man, those things are to be done away which are proper for a child: in other words, when one reaches forth unto those things which are before, he will forget those which are behind.
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) 16
20. ‘Wherefore having already begun and set out in the way of virtue, let us strive the more that we may attain those things that are before. And let no one turn to the things behind, like Lot’s wife, all the more so that the Lord hath said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and turning back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.28
… then, the end of all things and the limit of each of us hath the Word concealed from us (for in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each the end of all is comprehended), that, whereas it is uncertain and always in prospect, we may advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things before us and forgetting the things behind
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 5
… for there is no one free from defilement, though his course may have been but one hour on the earth, as Job, that man of surpassing fortitude, testifies. But, ‘stretching forth to those things that are to come
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 8
… We understand by Way that advance to perfection which is made stage by stage, and in regular order, through the works of righteousness and “the illumination of knowledge;” ever longing after what is before, and reaching forth unto those things which remain,
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 42.1
… The right noble athlete Paul, wishing us not to rest in easy security on so much of our life as may have been lived well in the past, but, every day to attain further progress, says “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling.”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 19.8
… Hast thou not heard the old history which tells us of Lot and his daughters? Was not he himself saved with his daughters, when he had gained the mountain, while his wife became a pillar of salt, set up as a monument for ever, in remembrance of her depraved will and her turning back. Take heed therefore to thyself, and turn not again to what is behind
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 8.5
… of beginning to be in excellence, by its continual advance in improvement, since it never halts at what it has reached, but all that it has acquired becomes by participation a beginning of its ascent to something still greater, and it never ceases, in Paul’s phrase, “reaching forth to the things that are before,” and “forgetting the things that are behind
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Concerning Lowliness of Mind 11
… and for him who is in affliction and his many dangers, that he may see some favourable change brought about to him, and be transported into a calm of consolation. Art thou in a calm? Then beseech God that this calm may continue settled to thee. Hast thou seen a storm risen up against thee? Beseech God earnestly
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 16
In order then that we too may establish ourselves in this habit, let us order ourselves each day by what hath been said, and “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, let us press on towards the prize of the high calling:”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philemon 2
… I have done, thou sayest, what no other has done. I have achieved humility. How then may any one continue in humility? If he remembers the command of Christ, which says, “When ye shall have done all things, say, We are unprofitable servants.” ( Luke xvii. 10 .) And again the Teacher of the world, saying, “I count not myself to have apprehended.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 71.2
… even at that early day he is already fulfilling the prophet David’s words: “I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.” He is called “a Hebrew,” in Greek περάτής , a passer-over, for not content with present excellence but forgetting those things which are behind he reaches forth to that which is before.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 79.10
… He evidently wished to shew them that he was not so much anxious that they should take husbands as that they should avoid paramours. These things, dearest daughter in Christ, I impress upon you and frequently repeat, that you may forget those things which are behind and reach forth unto those things which are before.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 125.16
But you, since you will not be alone but one of a community, will have no temptation to act thus. Things at first compulsory will become habitual. You will set to work unbidden and will find pleasure in your toil. You will forget things which are behind and will reach forth to those which are before.
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 2.10
… But that our Lord is not satisfied with what we have, but always desires more, He himself shows by saying, “Wherefore didst thou not give my money to the money-changers, that so when I came I might have received it with usury?” The Apostle Paul understood this, and
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 9.10
… at which place, removed from the crowd, we were resting ourselves for the voyage, after the fatigues of a long journey. We then were conversing alone very pleasantly; and, “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 11.29
… and not distracted, but drawn on, not to those things which shall be and shall pass away, but to those things which are before,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 11.30
… Let them therefore see that there could be no time without a created being, and let them cease to speak that vanity. Let them also be extended unto those things which are before,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.13
… hope that is seen is not hope.” As yet deep calleth unto deep but in “the noise of Thy waterspouts.” And as yet doth he that saith, I “could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,” even he, as yet, doth not count himself to have apprehended, and forgetteth those things which are behind, and reacheth forth to those things which are before,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 1.34
… The apostle, therefore, although still on the way, and following after God who called him to the reward of His heavenly calling, yet forgetting those things which were behind, and pressing on towards those things which were before,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 9.1
… but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press in purpose toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.41
… Lot’s wife was the type of a different class of men,—of those, namely, who, when called by the grace of God, look back, instead of, like Paul, forgetting the things that are behind, and looking forward to the things that are before.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 64
… But even now this commandment is enjoined upon us, that we may be reminded what we ought by faith to require, and what we should in our hope look forward to, and, “forgetting the things which are behind, reach forth to the things which are before.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 11
… nor is God’s love shed abroad in our hearts by our own selves, but by the Holy Ghost that is given to us. This, however, takes place day after day in those who advance by willing, believing, and praying, and who, “forgetting those things which are behind, reach forth unto those things which are before.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 36
I suppose, too, that there is a difference between one who is upright in heart and one who is clean in heart. A man is upright in heart when he “reaches forward to those things which are before, forgetting those things which are behind”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 4.12
… And yet you compare me to cattle, if among the things which are behind I have forgotten anything concerning my own origin—although you hear the same apostle say: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.22
… but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those which are before, I follow on according to the purpose for the reward of the supreme calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 46.10
… To whatever point then any one has been able to reach, let him fear to “look back” from thence; and let him walk in the way, let him “follow Christ.” “Forgetting those things which are behind, and stretching forth unto those things which are before, let him by an earnest inward intention press on toward the prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 55.7
… and an egg is something, but not yet the chicken. So then quadrupeds give birth to young ones, but birds to the hope of young. Hope therefore exhorts us to this, to despise things present, to wait for things to come; “forgetting those things which are behind,” let us, with the Apostle,” reach forth unto those things which are before.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 92.10
… and pray that what is begun may be perfected. And I beg that ye would offer this prayer for me, that what I advise may be perfected in me also. For we are all now imperfect, and there shall we be perfected, where all things are perfect. The Apostle Paul says, “Brethren, I do not reckon myself to have apprehended.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 9.3
… Read all the prophetic books; and if Christ be not understood therein, what canst thou find so insipid and silly? Understand Christ in them, and what thou readest not only has a taste, but even inebriates thee; transporting the mind from the body, so that forgetting the things that are past, thou reachest forth to the things that are before.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 4.6
… by stretching, makes it more capacious. Let us desire therefore, my brethren, for we shall be filled. See Paul widening, as it were, his bosom, that it may be able to receive that which is to come. He saith, namely, “Not that I have already received, or am already perfect: brethren, I deem not myself to have apprehended.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 9.4
… but the heavenly man is preferred before, although he came after. For “the first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is from heaven, heavenly.” But from this stock he came by whom it was said, “He who cometh after me is preferred before me.” And the Apostle forgets “those things that are behind, and reaches forth unto those things that are before.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.13
… even now, I am not perfect, “I have not yet apprehended.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 67.10
… things present not hold us; let us not “close the ear” as it were with tail, let us not press down the ear on the ground; lest by things past we be kept back from hearing, lest by things present we be entangled and prevented from meditating on things future; let us reach forth unto those things which are before, let us forget things past.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 70.9
… she became a statue of salt, in order to season thee. For to thee she hath been given for an example, in order that thou mayest have sense, mayest not stop infatuated on the way. Observe her stopping and pass on: observe her looking back, and do thou be reaching forth unto the things before, as Paul was.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 84.4
… let no one look back, no one delight himself with his former interests, no one turn away from that which is before to that which is behind: let him run until he arrive: for we run not with the feet but with the desire. But let no one in this life say that he hath arrived. For who can be so perfect as Paul?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 90.5
… since however long a time may be wished for for this life, “a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday:” not as to-morrow, which is to come: for all limited periods of time are reckoned as having already passed. Hence the Apostle’s choice is rather to aim at what is before,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 114.7
… It is therefore good for him that he turn back, and that God whom he had set behind his back, may be before his face as he returneth; and that the sea of this world, which he had set before his face, when he was gliding on towards it, may become behind him; and that he may so forget what is behind him, that he may “reach forward to what is before him;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 149.4
… The more the strings are stretched, the more sharply do they sound. The Apostle Paul then, in order that his psaltery might sound sharply, what said he? “Stretching forth unto those things which are before,” etc.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 5.17
… He does not run uncertainly, because, “forgetting those things which are behind, he reaches forth to those that are before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 1.5
… Of which goal the same blessed Apostle teaches us, and significantly uses the very term, i.e., σκοπός , saying as follows, “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of the Lord:”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 6.14
Theodore : It is needful that one must either, as the Apostle says, “be renewed in the spirit of the mind,” and daily advance by “pressing forward to those things which are before,”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 20.8
… And so he will begin to weep no more at the recollection of former sins, but at the hope of what is to come, and, thinking less of past evils than of good things to come, will shed tears not from sorrow at his sins, but from delight in that eternal joy, and “forgetting those things which are behind,” i.e., carnal sins, will press on “to those before,”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 1.5
… But to us the things that are behind are the goods of the present world, which we leave behind us; but the things that are before are those which are eternal and permanent, to which we are called, as Paul bears witness, saying, Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before (
3:14
Novatian † AD 258 On the Jewish Meats 1
… Therefore as you run, I exhort you; and as you watch, I stir you up; and as you contend against “the spiritual things of wickedness,” I address you; and as you press “in your course to the prize of your calling in Christ,”
St Peter of Alexandria † AD 311 The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras 8
… in order that contending the more constantly, they may be counted worthy of “the prize of their high calling.”
St Peter of Alexandria † AD 311 The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras 11
For those who first, when the persecution waxed warm, leaped forth, standing around the judgment-seat, and beholding the holy martyrs who were hastening to the “prize of their high calling,”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes) 5
… what is proper, or rather, driven herself along with them by her own doing, sins and makes mischief for herself, not seeing that she has strayed from the way, and has swerved from the goal of truth, to which the Christ-bearing man, the blessed Paul, was looking when he said, “I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) 7
… conclusion, ‘that progress in virtue, and retirement from the world for the sake of it, ought not to be measured by time, but by desire and fixity of purpose.’ He at least gave no thought to the past, but day by day, as if he were at the beginning of his discipline, applied greater pains for advancement, often repeating to himself the saying of Paul
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 13
6. Now what does this mean, my beloved, but that we also, when the enemies are arrayed against us, should glory in afflictions , and that when we are persecuted, we should not be discouraged, but should the rather press after the crown of the high calling
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 43
… And He that sitteth upon the Cherubim having appeared with greater grace and loving-kindness, led into Paradise with himself the thief who confessed, and having entered heaven as our forerunner, opened the gates to all. ( And again: ) Paul also, ‘pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 49
… nor do you make excuses, to the effect that you will deteriorate. For you may even grow better if you imitate Paul, and follow up the actions of the Saints. For you know that men like those, when appointed stewards of the mysteries, all the more pressed forward to the mark of their high calling
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 1.2
… To count the terms used in theology as of primary importance, and to endeavour to trace out the hidden meaning in every phrase and in every syllable, is a characteristic wanting in those who are idle in the pursuit of true religion, but distinguishing all who get knowledge of “the mark” “of our calling;”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 16
… For this reason “In Hell there is none that maketh confession; in death none that remembereth God,” because the succour of the Spirit is no longer present. How then is it possible to conceive that the judgment is accomplished without the Holy Spirit, wherein the word points out that He is Himself the prize
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… and that they may lay hold of the discipline of Christ, lest the Lord at any time be angered; and that the Word may gain credence by action, as was the case with that which was given in the hand of a prophet; the other, that they be not swift to shed blood, nor to run to evil, but that they be prompt to run to the Gospel and the Prize
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 17
… When then we shall have disciplined these two faculties of the soul, anger and desire (vid. Plat. Phædr. cc. 25, 34), and have put them like well-broken horses under the yoke of reason, then let us set over them the mind as charioteer, that we may “gain the prize of our high calling” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.14
… “The apostle has not expressed his preference for marriage so unreservedly as to quench in men the aspiration after virginity; he commences with a recommendation of continence, and it is only subsequently that he stoops to mention the remedies for its opposite. And although to the strong he has pointed out the prize of their high calling,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 11.29
… and not distracted, but drawn on, not to those things which shall be and shall pass away, but to those things which are before, not distractedly, but intently, I follow on for the prize of my heavenly calling,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.9
… those of his own time, but all those who were to be gathered in,—that hero, I say, and athlete of Christ, instructed by Him, anointed of His Spirit, crucified with Him, glorious in Him, lawfully maintaining a great conflict on the theatre of this world, and being made a spectacle to angels and men, and pressing onwards for the prize of his high calling,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 40.7
… and, in short, anything else they hope to obtain at God’s hands, except only God Himself. But do thou seek after thy God Himself: nay, indeed, despising all things else, make thy way unto Him! Forget other things, remember Him. Leave other things behind, and “press forward”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 11.6
… “In the way wherein I walked have they laid a snare for me;” that in this very way of virtue along which we are walking, when pressing on to “the prize of our high calling,”
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 5
… “Take up thy cross and follow” Him who makes thee clean, Jesus Christ thy Lord. Strive to run straight forward and boldly, not with fear, but with courage, relying on the promise of thy Lord, that thou shalt obtain the victor-crown of thy “calling on high”
3:15
Tertullian † AD 220 The Chaplet, or De Corona 4
… to God, as is helpful to discipline, as promotes salvation, when the Lord says, “But why do you not even of your own selves judge what is right?” And not merely in regard to a judicial sentence, but in regard to every decision in matters we are called on to consider, the apostle also says, “If of anything you are ignorant, God shall reveal it unto you;”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Fasting 10
… “And if,” says (the apostle), “there are matters which ye are ignorant about, the Lord will reveal to you.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Genesis 1
… And if the words, “giving increase of beauty in the case of the shoot,” are understood, as perhaps they may, with reference to us, the clause is still quite intelligible. For, by progressing in virtue, and attaining to better things, “reaching forth to those things which are before,”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 62.18
… And because already His second coming draws near to us, His benign and liberal condescension is more and more illuminating our hearts with the light of truth.
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 11.24
… Guiding this advance wisely and carefully, the same blessed Apostle writes to the Philippians, Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you. Only, wherein we have hastened, in that same let us walk
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 11
… And in relation to all that is future and perfect, the things known by him here were in part; but with respect to those things which were committed and entrusted to him by the Lord, he was perfect; as he said, ‘We who are perfect, should be thus minded
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 3.2
… This we are taught in the Gospel: “Be ye perfect even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect.” I read again that Paul was perfect and yet not perfect. For when he said: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend it.” Immediately he added: “We, then, that are perfect.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 26
… Else if we be not excessively supine, but contribute our own share to its full amount, God will also reach forth His hand unto us in those things which we are ignorant of. And this is what Paul said to the Philippians likewise. “If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 12
… for Paul was teaching, but God shall lead them on. And he said not, shall lead you on, but “shall reveal,” that this may rather seem to spring from ignorance. These words were spoken not concerning doctrines, but concerning perfection of life, and our not considering ourselves to be perfect, for he who considers that he hath apprehended all, hath nothing.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 93.35
… For we are amongst those who do not reject what has been taught us even by an apostle: “If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you; nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 148.5
… and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.” Walking in this love, let us inquire with oneness of heart, and, if possible, with yet greater diligence than hitherto, into the nature of the spiritual body which we shall have after our resurrection. “And if in anything we be diversely minded, God shall reveal even this unto us,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 1.3
… and I commit my meditations to writing, lest they should escape me through forgetfulness; hoping by the mercy of God that He will make me hold steadfastly all truths of which I feel certain; “but if in anything I be otherwise minded, that He will himself reveal even this to me,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Good of Widowhood 19
… that either we may have a right mind in all those things, or, if in any matter we be otherwise minded, this also God may reveal unto us. However, what there also the Apostle saith next after, “Whereunto we have arrived, in that let us walk.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 11.5
… For we are of those of whom the apostle says: "And if ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 2.5
… Accordingly the apostle says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man." It is therefore part of man’s nature to be sometimes wrong. Wherefore he says in another place, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 3.15
… Each man receives after the fashion of his own faith; yet how much does he obtain under the guidance of that mercy of God, in the confident assurance of which the same apostle says, "If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you"?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.11
… whence the apostle says to such good members, who are rooted in charity, and yet walk not rightly in some points, "If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you;"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 5.2
… if they really had baptism, and this were not rightly perceived by those who thought that they should be baptized again, that error was covered by the charity of unity so long as it contained, not the discord and spirit of the devil, but merely human infirmity, until, as the apostle says, "if they were otherwise minded, the Lord should reveal it to them."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 5.27
… and again rising up and being kindled afresh, it is restored to its former course. For they know how to say, "My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto Thy word." But when "in anything they be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto them,"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.1
2. For as the spiritual man, keeping "the end of the commandment," that is, "charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," can see some things less clearly out of a body which is yet "corruptible and presseth down the soul," and is liable to be otherwise minded in some things which God will reveal
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.7
… thereby the seditious calumnies of heretics and schismatics in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, speaking by His apostle, says, "Forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;" and again, by the mouth of the same apostle, "If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you,"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.22
… yet in turn, with anxious piety, they showed toleration towards each other, though without violation of Christian charity they entertained different opinions, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, till God should reveal to one of them, were he otherwise minded, even this error of his ways.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.25
… and yet what is erroneous in them does not vitiate what is right, but rather it is rendered null thereby, just as in the man of good hope and approved faith, who yet is but a man, if in anything he be otherwise minded, what he holds aright is not thereby vitiated until God reveal to him also that in which he is otherwise minded.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.39
76. To him we answer: But this is not the judgment which the Church pronounces, to which also God has now revealed in a plenary Council the point in which ye were then still otherwise minded,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 7.23
45. This man also acknowledges most openly that certain of his colleagues entertained opinions contrary to his own: whence again and again the love of unity is confirmed, because they were separated from one another by no schism, till God should reveal to one or other of them anything wherein they were otherwise minded.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 7.54
… so that even where they were otherwise minded until God should reveal even this to them,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.20
… All such he would fain take with him as companions of his course. This he expresses in the words which follow our former quotation: “Let as many, then, of us as are perfect, be thus minded: and if ye be yet of another mind, God will reveal even this also to you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by that rule.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.22
… and in the same manner the apostle called men perfect, to whom he said at the same time, “Yet if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.5
… For it was not to heretics, but to catholics, that the apostle was speaking when he said, “Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.15
… brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.” And yet a little after, he who had denied himself to be perfect says, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.22
… Then, admonishing those who might think themselves already perfect with the fulness of that righteousness, he says, “Let as many of us, therefore, as are perfect, be thus minded.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.31
… “We see it to be impossible that any person created in a body can be absolutely spotless, since even Paul says that he is imperfect. For thus he has it: ‘Not that I have already received, or am already perfect;’ and yet after a little he says, ‘As many of us, therefore, as are perfect.’
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 1
… and until He Himself lead you to perceive what at present is beyond your comprehension, walk firmly on the ground of which you are sure. This is the advice of the Apostle Paul, who, after saying that he was not yet perfect, a little later adds, “Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 45
… that wickedness should alter his understanding;” and be sure that you do not in such cases ascribe unrighteousness or unwisdom to God, in whom is the very fountain of righteousness and wisdom, but, as I have exhorted you from the commencement of this treatise, “whereto you have already attained, walk therein,” and “even this shall God reveal unto you,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints 1.2
… in which it is affirmed, “Every one is a hope for himself,” and so fall under that condemnation which is, not poetically, but prophetically, declared, “Cursed is every man that hath hope in man,” must be treated in that way wherein the apostle dealt with those to whom he said, “And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 5
… but because they were members of the dove, they did not cut themselves off, and in their case that happened which the apostle said, “If in any thing ye are otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 45.7
… but continue in faith, walk on in the way, and hear the apostle saying, “And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk therein.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 53.7
… thy strength.” Not that such things are forbidden us, since the divine Master saith, “There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed:” but if we walk up to the measure of our present attainments, then, as the apostle tells us, not only what we know not and ought to know, but also if we are minded to know anything else, God will reveal even this unto us.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 98.7
… And that they might not rush into the hands of seducers, whose desire would be to turn them away from the faith by promising them the knowledge of the truth, and suppose such to be the meaning of the apostle’s words, “God shall reveal even this unto you,” he forthwith added, “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.14
… only from those, that I may not relapse into those which I have already “over-leaped;” but from all, without exception, of those on account of which I now beat my breast, and say, “Forgive us our debts.” “Deliver me from all mine offences:” me being thus minded, and holding fast what the Apostle said, “As many of us as be perfect, let us be thus minded.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 131.7
7. For if ye be not exalted, if ye raise not your heart on high, if ye tread not in great matters that are too high for you, but preserve humility, God will reveal unto you what ye are otherwise minded in.
3:16
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Philippians 1
… mindful of your love and of your zeal in Christ, which ye have manifested towards us, we thought it fitting to write to you, who display such a godly and spiritual love to the brethren, to put you in remembrance of your Christian course, “that ye all speak the same thing, being of one mind, thinking the same thing, and walking by the same rule of faith,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 12
Ver. 16 . “Only, whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule let us walk, let us mind the same thing.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 2.5
… And so, when the apostle said, "And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you," lest they should think that besides the way of peace their own wrong views might be revealed to them, he immediately added, "Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.22
… “Brethren, be imitators of me, and mark them which so walk as ye have our example. For many walk, of whom I have spoken often, and now tell you even weeping, whose end is destruction,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 1
… and then immediately adds, “And if, in any thing, ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 45
… person is taken away from this life, “lest that wickedness should alter his understanding;” and be sure that you do not in such cases ascribe unrighteousness or unwisdom to God, in whom is the very fountain of righteousness and wisdom, but, as I have exhorted you from the commencement of this treatise, “whereto you have already attained, walk therein,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints 1.2
… For which reason the apostle, when he had said, “If ye are in anything otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you,” says, “Nevertheless whereunto we have attained, let us walk in the same.”
3:17
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 1
… He said, “If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also” ( Ib. v. 40 ): now He not only gave His garments, but even His blood. In this way He bade others teach. Wherefore Paul also said, “So as ye have us for an example.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 45
… “to support the weak”—not all indiscriminately—“and to hear the word of the Lord which He spake, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” For lest any one should think that it was spoken with reference to them, and that he gave himself for an ensample, as he elsewhere says, “giving an ensample to you” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 12
Ver. 17 . “Brethren, be ye imitators of me, and mark them which so walk even as ye have us for an ensample.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 14
… “Think on these things,” saith he. Seest thou, that he desires to banish every evil thought from our souls; for evil actions spring from thoughts. “The things which ye both learned and received.” This is teaching, in all his exhortations to propose himself for a model: as he saith in another place, “even as ye have us for an ensample.” (
3:18
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 9
… Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, “To the end, for the eighth day,” on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the Saviour, deny, “whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things,”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Trallians: Shorter and Longer Versions 11
… These men are not the planting of the Father, but are an accursed brood. And says the Lord, “Let every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted be rooted up.” For if they had been branches of the Father, they would not have been “enemies of the cross of Christ,”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Antiochians 6
These things I write to you, thou new olive-tree of Christ, not that I am aware you hold any such opinions, but that I may put you on your guard, as a father does his children. Beware, therefore, of those that hasten to work mischief, those “enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose glory is in their shame.”
3:19
Tertullian † AD 220 On Patience 16
… that, I mean, which, making husbands venal for dowry, and teaching them to trade in panderings, makes them subject to the power of their wives; which, with feigned affection, undergoes every toil of forced complaisance, with a view to ensnaring the childless; which makes the slaves of the belly
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Veiling of Virgins 14
… where compulsion, there necessity; where necessity, there infirmity. Deservedly, therefore, while they do not cover their head, in order that they may be solicited for the sake of glory, they are forced to cover their bellies by the ruin resulting from infirmity. For it is emulation, not religion, which impels them. Sometimes it is that god— their belly
Tertullian † AD 220 To His Wife i.8
… through idleness they seduce one from strictness; through winebibbing they insinuate any and every evil; through curiosity they convey a spirit of rivalry in lust. Not one of such women knows how to speak of the good of single-husbandhood; for their “god,” as the apostle says, “is their belly;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 11.14
… And do not suppose that Paul said that he was truly God; for just as the belly, though it is not the god of those who prize pleasure too highly, being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, is said by Paul to be their god,
Archelaus † fl. AD 278 The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes 38
… And again, in the same epistle, he also warns us not to mind earthly things, and tells us that we ought to have our conversation in heaven; from which also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 11.28
… Their end is to abide with unbroken rest in that condition, towards which they are pressing. Similarly, as a deterrent, the Apostle warns us of the end of the wicked, Whose end is perdition, . . . . . but our expectation is in heaven
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 6
… What then did cause nakedness? Our disobedience, and the devil’s counsel. Thus, from the first, even from the very beginning, this was his contrivance. Yet they were at least ashamed when they were naked, but ye take a pride in it; “having,” according to that saying of the apostle, “your glory in your shame.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 21
Now He calls mammon here “a master,” not because of its own nature, but on account of the wretchedness of them that bow themselves beneath it. So also He calls “the belly a god,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 13
Here again he calls sin a law warring against the other, not in respect of good order, but from the strict obedience yielded to it by those who comply with it. As then it gives the name of master ( κύριον Matt. vi. 24 ; Luke xvi. 13 ) to Mammon, and of god (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 32
… iv. 15 .) Then also to lash ( κωμῳδὥν ) those who dare to do such things, he mentions also the reason of their devising this division. “For they that are such,” he says, “serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly.” And this he said too when he wrote to the Philippians, “Whose god is their belly.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 17
Ver. 13 . “Meats for the belly.” By “the belly” here he means not the stomach, but the stomach’s voraciousness. As when he says, (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 18
… xiv. 16 .) tells us, that a certain rich man afflicted with untimely mourning for his son, and having no consolation for his sorrow, consoled his passion in this way: having made a lifeless image of the dead, and constantly gazing at it, he seemed through the image to have his departed one still; whilst certain flatterers, “whose God was their belly” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 14
“Let your forbearance be known unto all men.” He said above, “Whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame,” and that they “mind earthly things.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 46
[1.] “ Whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 25
Should we have a contest with him who wears the purple, let us consider that in insulting him, we insult ourselves, for we become worthy to be disgraced. Tell me, what dost thou mean? When thou art a citizen of Heaven, and hast the Philosophy that is above, dost thou disgrace thyself with him “that mindeth earthly things”? (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 29
Wouldst thou that I bring before you those [that live] in luxury? Let us ascend from the last to the first. The rich man who is burning in the furnace; the Jews who live for the belly, “whose god is their belly” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 7.5
5. The fact is that my native land is a prey to barbarism, that in it men’s only God is their belly,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 14.4
… his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch the poor;” and do you slumber under a shady tree, so as to fall an easy prey? On one side self-indulgence presses me hard; on another covetousness strives to make an inroad; my belly wishes to be a God to me, in place of Christ,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.10
… and why Satan used hunger to tempt the Lord Himself in the wilderness; and why the apostle cries: “Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them;” and why he speaks of the self-indulgent as men “whose God is their belly.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 123.17
… Though nomin ally addressed to you my words are really meant for others such as are idle, inquisitive and given to gossip. These wander from house to house and from one married lady to another, their god is their belly and their glory is in their shame,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 147.1
… You have fallen and refuse to rise; you do not so much as lift your eyes to heaven; having wasted your father’s substance you take pleasure in the husks that the swine eat; and climbing the precipice of pride you fall headlong into the deep. You make your belly your God instead of Christ; you are a slave to lust; your glory is in your shame;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.26
39. But they who are delighted with them are fed by those fruits; nor are they delighted with them “whose god is their belly.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 29.11
… At the same time, I said that those may well be afraid who seek anything which shall one day be destroyed as the chief object of their desire, seeing that every one shares the portion of that which he worships; a warning expressly given by the apostle to such, when he says of them their “god is their belly,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.21
… By His chariots (for the word is plural) we suitably understand the ministration of angels. And when he says that all flesh and all the earth shall be judged with His fire and sword, we do not understand the spiritual and holy to be included, but the earthly and carnal, of whom it is said that they “mind earthly things,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 6.5
… The Apostle Paul says most appropriately of some who preached the gospel to gratify their appetite, that their "god was their belly."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 1.24
… For whereas men really eat to live, they think that they live to eat. These will every wise man condemn, and holy Scripture especially, all gluttons, drunkards, gormandizers, “whose god is their belly.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.3
… Let them pray therefore that the commandments of God may not be hidden from them, whereby they may be freed from this temporary sojourn, by loving God, with whom they will be for evermore; and by loving their neighbour, that he may be there where they also themselves will be.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 146.5
… in Him let thy hope be. His hope too is in the lord his god, who worshippeth Saturn; his hope is in the lord his god, who worshippeth Neptune or Mercury; yea more, I add, who worshippeth his belly, of whom is said, “whose god is their belly.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 11.4
… And so we are warned by Solomon, the wisest of men: “Turn not aside to the right hand or to the left;” i.e., do not flatter yourself on your virtues and be puffed up by your spiritual achievements on the right hand; nor, swerving to the path of vices on the left hand, seek from them for yourself (to use the words of the Apostle) “glory in your shame.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 23.1
… wickedness from his youth.” For to such an extent are all inflamed by the love of sin and desire to carry out what they like, that they actually look out with watchful care for an opportunity of committing wickedness and are afraid of being too slow to enjoy their lusts, and glory in their shame and the mass of their crimes, as the Apostle says in censure,
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
Orth. —Yes, if their revilings are vain. Sometimes the divine Apostle himself opportunely uses this mode of speech. He calls the Galatians “foolish,” and of others he says “men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith,” and again of another set, “Whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame,”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.19
… vi. 13 ). And again, Not in rioting and drunkenness ( Rom. xiii. 13 ). And again, Meat commendeth us not to God ( 1 Cor. viii. 8 ). Let the latter hear, To the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure ( Tit. i. 15 ). Let the former hear, Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their own confusion (
3:20
Mathetes † fl. AD 130 Epistle to Diognetus 5
… They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.
Polycrates of Ephesus † AD 196 Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus 1
… I speak of Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who is laid to rest at Hierapolis; and his two daughters, who arrived at old age unmarried; his other daughter also, who passed her life
Tertullian † AD 220 The Chaplet, or De Corona 13
… at another, on account of some custom belonging to municipal festivals. For luxury strives to make her own every occasion of public gladness. But as for you, you are a foreigner in this world, a citizen of Jerusalem, the city above. Our citizenship, the apostle says, is in heaven.
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 3.24
… inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-built city of Jerusalem, “let down from heaven,” which the apostle also calls “our mother from above;” and, while declaring that our πολίτευμα , or citizenship, is in heaven,
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.10
… What follows will also be too much for him. For when the apostle says, “As is the earthy,” that is, man , “such also are they that are earthy”—men again, of course; “therefore as is the heavenly,” meaning the Man, from heaven, “such are the men also that are heavenly.”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.20
… Subtle enough! But here is something still more subtle for you. For when (the apostle) says, “Not (the righteousness) which is of the law, but that which is through Him,” he would not have used the phrase through Him of any other than Him to whom the law belonged. “Our conversation,” says he, “is in heaven.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 47
… and this from earth to heaven, where, as the apostle teaches the Philippians, “we have our citizenship, from whence also we look for our Saviour Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 2.4
… For to the former, being below and still dwelling in the flesh, the better things are closed, since they cannot understand them and have neither power nor will to see their beauty, looking down as they do and not striving to look up. But to the excellent, or those who have their commonwealth in heaven,
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 10.14
… so neither can thieves in regard to whom the Saviour said, “All that came before Me are thieves and robbers,” break through those things which are treasured up in heaven, and through the heart which is in heaven and therefore says, “He raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ,” and, “Our citizenship is in heaven.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 7
… yet not I, but Christ liveth in me .’ For that is the true life, which a man lives in Christ; for although they are dead to the world, yet they dwell as it were in heaven, minding those things which are above, as he who was a lover of such a habitation said, ‘While we walk on earth, our dwelling is in heaven
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 43
Of us, then, whose also is the Passover, the calling is from above, and ‘our conversation is in heaven,’ as Paul says; ‘For we have here no abiding city, but we seek that which is to come
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Hexæmeron 9.2
… Thou art called to more noble cares; “seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth.” Raise thy soul above the earth; draw from its natural conformation the rule of thy conduct; fix thy conversation in heaven. Thy true country is the heavenly Jerusalem;
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 223.2
… they were never willing to waste attention on it; always, as though living in a flesh that was not theirs, they shewed in very deed what it is to sojourn for a while in this life, and what to have one’s citizenship and home in heaven.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 2.10
… great, then, is the grace which has changed earth to heaven, that the conversation of us, who once were wandering as wild beasts in the woods, might be in heaven.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.15
… learn that He has Himself brought all things into subjection to Himself, for it is written: “Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working, whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Widows 9
… Cherish, then, the nearness of Peter and the affinity of Andrew, that they may pray for you and your lusts give way. Touched by the word of God you, who lay on the earth, will then forthwith rise up to minister to Christ. “For our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 22.5
5. Paul was a heaven, when he said: “Our conversation is in heaven.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 63.24
104. And for the rest, most dear brethren, consider that Jesus suffered without the gate, and do you go forth out of this earthly city, for your city is Jerusalem which is above. Let your conversation be there, that you may say: “But our conversation is in heaven.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 2.5
… he is not stung by the loss of wealth; for he has learned that we “brought nothing into this world, neither can we carry anything out;” he is not caught by the longings of ambition or glory; for he has learned that our citizenship is in heaven;
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 3
For seeing that his citizenship was in heaven, thence also he received that proclamation. (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 15
… next, when committed, not how it may remove the deceased [member], but how they may be blotted out. And of the things of this life indeed it maketh not much account, but all its transactions are about the things in heaven. “For our citizenship is in heaven.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 1
… v. 3 .) And again, “Blessed are ye which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for great is your reward in Heaven.” ( Mat. v. 11, 12 .) Observe, how every where He speaketh of Heaven, no where of earth, or of the things on the earth. And again, “Our citizenship is in Heaven, from whence also we wait for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 10
… And again, because the Angel has his home far from thee in distance also, and dwelleth in Heaven; whereas this man is living with thee, and giving an impulse to thy emulation. And indeed he lives farther apart from thee than the Angel. For “our citizenship,” saith the Apostle, “is in Heaven.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 23
… And this implies two things, both that we must depart out of Egypt, and that, whilst we stay, we must stay henceforth as in a strange country; “for our citizenship,” saith he, “is in Heaven” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 3
… vi. 2 .) It is then possible to live the life of sin. Attend diligently, I entreat you, lest my labor be vain. There is the life everlasting and immortal; with eternal life the heavenly; “for our citizenship,” says he, “is in heaven” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 12
See how great a distance this is that must be run over! See how great an ascent! Thither we must fly up with the wings of the Spirit, otherwise it is impossible to surmount this height. Thither must we go with the body, for it is allowed. “For our citizenship is in heaven” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 1 Timothy 10
Let us then return to a sound mind; let us watch, and show forth a heavenly conversation upon earth. Let us say, “Our conversation is in heaven” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 16
… since although angels are on earth, yet they are called Heavenly. And the Cherubim appeared on earth, but yet are heavenly. And why do I say “appeared”? nay rather they dwell on earth, as indeed in Paradise: but this is nothing; for they are heavenly. And, “Our conversation is in Heaven” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 14.3
3. Hereafter there shall come—yes, there shall come—a day when you will return a victor to your true country, and will walk through the heavenly Jerusalem crowned with the crown of valor. Then will you receive the citizenship thereof with Paul.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 16
… Only tell me by letter with whom I am to communicate in Syria, and I will pray for you that you may sit in judgment enthroned with the twelve; that when you grow old, like Peter, you may be girded not by yourself but by another, and that, like Paul, you may be made a citizen of the heavenly kingdom.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 58.2
… The city which we are to praise and to seek is not that which has slain the prophets and shed the blood of Christ, but that which is made glad by the streams of the river, which is set upon a mountain and so cannot be hid, which the apostle declares to be a mother of the saints, and in which he rejoices to have his citizenship with the righteous.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 60.3
… It is not surprising that this should be promised us in the resurrection: for as many of us as living in the flesh do not live after the flesh, have our citizenship in heaven,
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.38
… “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in uncorruptness.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.9
… For they reign with Him who do what the apostle says, “If ye be risen with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above, not the things which are on the earth.” Of such persons he also says that their conversation is in heaven.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 1.8
… For this the apostle plainly declares, when he says to the Philippians, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.54
Lastly, let him give good heed to his venerable bishop, when he is expounding the Prophet Isaiah, and says that “no man in this world can be without sin.” Now nobody can pretend to say that by the phrase “ in this world ” he simply meant, in the love of this world. For he was speaking of the apostle, who said, “Our conversation is in heaven;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.5
… But I think the expression “in heaven” means in the spiritual firmament, where dwells everlasting righteousness: in comparison with which a wicked soul is called earth, to which it is said when it sins, “Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return.” Of this heaven the apostle says, “For our conversation is in heaven.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 94.5
… Why is the world convinced by the Holy Ghost of this righteousness? And yet if He did not Alone go to the Father, He would not say in another place, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He That descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” But the Apostle Paul also says, “For our conversation is in heaven.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 2
… In like manner we call those the world who by loving it, inhabit the world. Who are they? Those who love the world; for they dwell with their hearts in the world. For those who do not love the world in the flesh, indeed, sojourn in the world, but in their hearts they dwell in heaven, as the apostle says, “Our conversation is in heaven.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 12.8
… Therefore it follows that “no man hath ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” Dost thou marvel that He was both here and in heaven? Such He made His disciples. Hear the Apostle Paul saying, “But our conversation is in heaven.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 49.2.1
… If then in hell are the sheep, whose shepherd is death, in heaven are the sheep, whose shepherd is life. What then? Are we now in heaven? In heaven we are by faith. For if not in heaven, where is the “Lift up your heart”? If not in heaven, whence with the Apostle Paul, “For our conversation is in heaven”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62.7
… What wilt Thou? wilt faint? wilt Thou not persevere even unto the end? wilt Thou not hearken, “He that shall have persevered even unto the end, the same shall be saved,” though for that iniquity aboundeth, the love of many shall wax cold? And where is it that Thou hast leaped over them? where is it that Thy conversation is in Heaven?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 65.3
… Beauteous and graceful the city, how much more beauteous a Builder it hath! “For Thee a hymn is meet, O God,” he saith. But where? “In Sion:” in Babylon it is not meet. For when a man beginneth to be renewed, already with heart in Jerusalem he singeth, with the Apostle saying, “Our conversation is in the Heavens.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 97.8
… “If ye be risen with Christ,” saith the Apostle to believers, “set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth.” Thou hast begun to set thine affection upon things above, not on things upon earth; hast thou not become a heaven? Thou carriest flesh, and in thy heart thou art already a heaven; for thy conversation will be in heaven.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.4
… 25 ). What meaneth, “My soul cleaveth to the pavement, O quicken Thou me according to Thy word”?…If we look upon the whole world as one great house, we see that the heavens represent its vaulting, the earth therefore will be its pavement. He wisheth therefore to be rescued from earthly things, and to say with the Apostle, “Our conversation
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 3.6
… And this we shall succeed in doing when, while we walk in the flesh, we are no longer at war with the Lord according to the flesh, proclaiming in deed and actions the truth of that saying of the blessed Apostle “Our conversation is in heaven.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 3.7
… “But our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who will reform the body of our low estate made like to the body of His glory,”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
… for what is seen is a body; but I will nevertheless point out to you that even after the assumption the body of the Lord is called a body. Hear the teaching of the Apostle, “For our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 146
… This is distinctly told us by the blessed Paul in the words “For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 147
… This instruction he has given us yet more clearly in the Epistle to the Philippians; “For our conversation” he writes “is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 72
… “whence also,” as the Apostle says, “we look for a Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall refashion the body of our humility to become conformed to the body of His glory
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.27
… For they will be , saith the Lord, as the angels of God : there will no longer be marriage nor procreation of children. The divine apostle, in truth, says, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body
3:21
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.20
… “Our conversation,” says he, “is in heaven.” I here recognise the Creator’s ancient promise to Abraham: “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven.” Therefore “one star differeth from another star in glory.” If, again, Christ in His advent from heaven “shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body,”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 55
… It was as full of this splendid example that Paul said: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.50
… He does not say, “Who knows if to die is not to live, and if to live is not death” But he boldly proclaims the truth, and says, “Our soul is bowed down to the dust;” and, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death;” and similarly, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” also, “Who will change the body of our humiliation.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 12.29
… for it did not become Him in glory to bear our sins and suffer pain for us. But He also comes in glory, having prepared the disciples through that epiphany of His which has no form nor beauty; and, having become as they that they might become as He, “conformed to the image of His glory,” since He formerly became conformed to “the body of our humiliation,”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 13.21
… “in the tabernacle, do groan being burdened” with “the body of humiliation,” and do all things that they may become worthy to be found in the mystery of the resurrection, when God shall fashion anew the body of humiliation not of all, but of those who have been truly made disciples to Christ, so that it may be conformed to the body of the glory of Christ.
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 76.2
… This temporal and brief suffering, how shall it be exchanged for the reward of a bright and eternal honour, when, according to the word of the blessed apostle, “the Lord shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like to the body of His brightness!”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Mortality 22
… Who would not crave to be changed and renewed into the likeness of Christ, and to arrive more quickly to the dignity of heavenly glory, since Paul the apostle announces and says, “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change the body of our humiliation, and conform it to the body of His glory?”
St Methodius † AD 311 From the Discourse on the Resurrection, Part III 2
XII. The transformation, he says, is the restoration into an impassible and glorious state. For now the body is a body of desire and of humiliation,
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 9.8
… for all who are, or shall be, regenerated through the hope of faith to life eternal, abide even now in the body of Christ; and afterwards they shall be made full no longer in Him, but in themselves, at the time of which the Apostle says, Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 11.35
… The Apostle tells us also of the special reward attained by this subjection which is made perfect by the subjection of belief: Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the works of His power, whereby He is able to subject all things to Himself
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 Homilies on the Psalms 1
… But delay in point of time depends upon the fulness of times. For the dispensation of yielding fruit waits upon the fulness of time. Now what, you ask, is this fruit that is to be dispensed? That assuredly of which this same Apostle is speaking when he says: And He will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like His glorious body
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.11
… His Spirit which He hath given us .’ And this too is an evidence of His goodness towards us that, while we were exalted because that the Highest Lord is in us, and on our account grace was given to Him, because that the Lord who supplies the grace has become a man like us, He on the other hand, the Saviour, humbled Himself in taking ‘our body of humiliation
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 28
… For the height of folly is reached if we through the faith in Christ which is in the Spirit hope that we shall be raised together with Him and sit together in heavenly places, whenever He shall change our vile body from the natural to the spiritual,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 21.1
1. Having been baptized into Christ , and put on Christ , ye have been made conformable to the Son of God; for God having foreordained us unto adoption as sons , made us to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.91
91. I have said nothing yet of the internal warfare within ourselves, and in our passions, in which we are engaged night and day against the body of our humiliation,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.3
… Time is the best touchstone of this wisdom, and “the hoary head is a crown of glory.” For if, as it seems to me as well as to Solomon, we must “judge none blessed before his death,” and it is uncertain “what a day may bring forth,” since our life here below has many turnings, and the body of our humiliation
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 5.2
… of the Apostle to present to us that existence of the Only-begotten which was before the ages (which is now the subject of our argument), for he clearly speaks, not of the very essence of God the Word, Who was in the beginning with God, but of Him Who emptied Himself to take the form of a servant, and became conformable to the body of our humiliation
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 14
… changing thy body), and along with it the change of the whole creation. And this he has put in a clearer light in another passage, where he says, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious Body.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 39
… For how could He be, of whom he testified so great things before, and referred to Him all that was said? But it was for the reason which I mentioned, and that he might show all things to be common to Father and Son which were done in our behalf. For that Himself alone was sufficient to “put all things in subjection under Him,” hear again Paul saying, (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 11
… xiv. 30 .) And “not after the flesh” is being thenceforward freed even from these things, not the being without flesh. For with this also He cometh to judge the world, His being impassible and pure. Whereunto we also shall advance when “our body” hath been “fashioned like unto His glorious body.” (
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius 1.6
… it is sown a natural body, it will be raised a spiritual body.” Inasmuch then as it is a spiritual body, and glorious, and incorruptible, it will be furnished and adorned with its own proper members, not with members taken from elsewhere, according to that glorious image of which Christ is set forth as the perpetual type, as it is said by the Apostle:
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius 1.38
“We must hold that men are by nature children of wrath because of this
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 46
… that the flesh of the saints is to be changed into such a glorious condition at the resurrection as to be caught up to meet God, suspended in the clouds and borne in the air, since the same Apostle, setting forth the great things which God bestows on them that love Him, says, “Who shall change our vile body that it may be made like unto His glorious body.”
St Jerome † AD 420 To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 26
… It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory. It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power. It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body.’ Now we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, act with our hands, walk with our feet. But in that spiritual body we shall be all sight, all hearing, all action, all movement. The Lord shall transfigure
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 4.3
… afterward they that are Christ’s.” For it was the resurrection of the body to which this place refers, on account of which he also says, “Who has changed our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Harmony of the Gospels 2.47
… “When He perceived that they would come to make Him a king, He departed again into a mountain Himself alone.” Surely the matter of the departure is in no way a thing antagonistic to the matter of prayer. For, indeed, the Lord, who in His own person transformed the body of our humiliation in order that He might make it like unto the body of His own glory,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 60.2
… or is it rather our infirmity that is troubled in Him? Assuredly so: let servants believe nothing unworthy of their Lord, but recognize their own membership in their Head. He who died for us, was also Himself troubled in our place. He, therefore, who died in power, was troubled in the midst of His power: He who shall yet transform
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 102.2
2. Let him add poverty then to poverty: let Him transfigure unto Himself our humble body: let Him be our Head, we His limbs, let there be two in one flesh.
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
… Paul too teaches us that the words ‘until I make thy foes thy footstool’ are spoken to men, describing the success as His own of course in accordance with His divinity ‘According to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’
3:1
FOR THE REST (τὸ λοιπόν, that is, what remains; the Syriac translates it, therefore), MY BRETHREN, REJOICE IN THE LORD, — that is to say, You were anxious and sorrowful about my bonds, and about the illness of Epaphroditus your teacher, now you receive him back in health, and my bonds have been to me a joy, to the honor of the Gospel and to the salvation of many, I have made you certain in chapter i; therefore it remains that, wiping away all sadness, you rejoice, but "in the Lord" Christ, who imparts to you all this consolation and grace, and who thus propagates and exalts his faith, religion and Christian Church, both at Rome and among you. TO WRITE THE SAME THINGS TO YOU IS NOT IRKSOME TO ME, — that is, as Vatablus says, it is not irksome, and the Syriac, it is not tedious or troublesome to me to write and inculcate the same things to you so often: for the charity with which I embrace you absorbs all this tedium, shakes off all sloth, and makes me diligent and assiduous in teaching and admonishing you. BUT FOR YOU IT IS NECESSARY. — In Greek ὑμῖν δὲ ἀσφαλὲς, that is, but for you it is safe, that is to say, That I write the same things so often, I do so that I may strengthen you and make you safer, more cautious and more watchful, lest you fall into some error or sin. Our reading with Ambrose, for ἀσφαλὲς seems to have read ἀναγκὲς placed for ἐπαναγκὲς, that is, necessary.
3:2
BEWARE OF DOGS, — that is, Observe, and as the Syrian [translator renders it], beware of, shameless and wicked Judaizers and heretics, who bark at us and bite us, like dogs. Note the catachresis: to see is the same here as to beware. Thus in Colossians II, 8: "Beware," that is, by seeing beware, "lest any man deceive you by philosophy." Note secondly here the cynical or canine genius of heretics, which in this age the Blessed Thomas More, Chancellor of England, experienced: "Heretics," he says, "have already cast off their first hypocrisy, but have substituted shamelessness; so that those who before feigned religion, now glory in impiety." Hence flowed that phrase by which we commonly compare heretics to dogs, saying: "oh is soo gens als eenen hondt." BEWARE OF EVIL WORKERS, — beware and flee the false apostles, who mix and corrupt Christianity with Judaism, says Chrysostom. BEWARE OF (beware) CONCISION. — Note first: he calls "concision" circumcision, as will be clear from the following verse, and this in order to diminish it and teach Christians to regard it as of little account, that is, Circumcision once so precious, now after Christ is merely concision: "For they do nothing else," says Chrysostom, "now (the Jews circumcising themselves) than cut the flesh; for since what they do is not legitimate, it is nothing else than a cutting and concision of the flesh." Chrysostom adds that those things are said to be cut which are cut rashly and vainly, and without art; but those are said to be circumcised which, with the superfluous removed, are polished. Again, by concision, or circumcision, he understands the circumcised and those circumcising, namely the Jewish false apostles. Thus Chrysostom, the Syrian, Theodoret; for the abstract is put for the concrete, according to Canon 21. Secondly, he calls "concision" the very heresy of Simon, Basilides, Cerinthus, "who," as St. Ignatius says, in his epistle to the same Philippians, "circumcise and mutilate the birth of the Virgin, dividing namely Jesus from Christ" (man from God), and saying the Blessed Virgin is the mother of Jesus, not of Christ, and that Christ did not truly suffer, but by image, or by opinion and appearance only, or that Christ did not suffer, but only Jesus, concerning which see verse 18. Thirdly, as Chrysostom [says], he calls "concision" the schism and tearing of religion and the Church, which these false teachers made; for he alludes to the dogs, which he has already named in this verse 2, that is, These false teachers like rabid dogs tear and lacerate the Church, and are cut off from it and from Christ, says Anselmus, and cut off others. Fourthly, he alludes to their "concision," that is, perdition and eternal death, which they bring upon themselves by the concision and circumcision already mentioned. For the Greek κατατομὴ signifies both concision and slaughter.
3:3
3. WE ARE THE CIRCUMCISION, WHO SERVE GOD IN SPIRIT, AND GLORY IN CHRIST JESUS, AND HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH, — that is, I rightly said that carnal circumcision is to be avoided, and the Judaizing circumcised, who likewise wish to circumcise you: because this carnal circumcision is not true circumcision, but merely a cutting of the flesh, as I called it in the preceding verse; for true circumcision is among us Christians, who are "circumcision," that is, circumcised (according to Canon 21) in spirit, who cutting off and removing both carnal desires and Jewish ceremonies in spirit, serve God in spirit, which alone is true and pleasing to God circumcision. Thus Theodoret and others. So in Romans II, 28, he said: "For he is not a Jew, that is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, that is one inwardly: and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." WHO SERVE GOD IN SPIRIT. — There is a threefold reading here, as St. Augustine indicates, book I On the Trinity, chapter VI. First, "Who serve God in the Spirit." Second, "Who serve the Spirit of God." This Ambrose holds firmly, book II On the Holy Spirit, chapter VI, in order to prove that the Holy Spirit is God and to be worshipped with latria. Third and true and genuine, "Who serve God in spirit:" for he opposes serving God in spirit to that which follows, "to have confidence in the flesh and to serve God." Therefore "in spirit" does not signify the person who is worshipped, to whom service is rendered, but the manner in which it is worshipped. Whence Chrysostom interprets "in spirit" as πνευματικῶς, that is, spiritually; and Theophylactus, πνευματικῶς καὶ διὰ νοῦς, that is, spiritually and in mind. Whence also the Syrian renders it, we who worship God in spirit. Thus also Vatable, Erasmus and others everywhere, that is, We Christians are truly circumcised, who serve God religiously in spiritual faith, hope and charity (for in Greek it is λατρεύοντες, that is, worshipping God with latria); "and glory in Christ Jesus," as Messiah, our savior and redeemer, not in Moses now obliterated and abolished, "and have no confidence in the flesh," that is, we have [no confidence], according to Canon 29. Note: by "flesh" he calls external and carnal things, namely carnal circumcision, nobility, knowledge of the law, Pharisaism: For thus he explains himself in verse 5. Thus Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Anselmus.
3:4
4. ALTHOUGH I MYSELF HAVE (am able to have, in a potential manner) CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH. IF ANY OTHER SEEMS TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH, I MORE SO. — He calls "confidence" a pre-confidence and the glorying consequent upon it, and he calls "to have confidence" to pre-confide and to glory; for it is a catachresis or metalepsis. Whence in the preceding verse he opposed "to glory in Christ," to that which is, "to have confidence in the flesh;" that is, to glory. Secondly, what he understands by flesh, he explains in the following verse, as if to say: If I wished, I could glory just as the Jews do in carnal circumcision, nobility, learning, etc.; there is therefore no reason why the Jews should think that I detract from these things out of zeal and envy, as though I were inferior to them; but let them know that I do this from a study of truth, faith and salvation, so that I might lead all from the flesh to the spirit, and teach both Jews and Gentiles to worship God in spirit and truth.
3:5
5. CIRCUMCISED ON THE EIGHTH DAY. — In Greek: περιτομῇ ὀκταήμερος, that is, circumcision of the eighth day. "Circumcision," that is, circumcised; as elsewhere he calls the uncircumcised the uncircumcised, namely the Gentiles (according to Canon 21). Note: He does not merely say he was circumcised, but adds that this was done on the eighth day, to signify that he is a Jew, not a stranger and proselyte (for these indeed were converted to Judaism as adults and were circumcised), but a natural-born one; for as soon as he was born of Jewish parents, according to the law he was circumcised on the eighth day, and thus he himself became a Jew. Again, he says, lest you say I was born of Jews, but of proselytes, I add that I was born "of the stock of Israel," that is, of the lineage of Jacob the patriarch, who was called by another name Israel, as if to say, By lineage and descent I am an Israelite. Third, lest you except me as born of the ten tribes which made a schism from the Jews, I add that I was born "of the tribe of Benjamin," which was most mighty, and first gave King Saul to all Israel, and which in the schism remained faithful and steadfast to the tribe of Judah and to God's temple and kingdom. Thus St. Augustine, sermon 15 On the Words of the Apostles. Finally, so that I may explain in a word the nobility and antiquity of this nation and lineage of mine, add that I am "a Hebrew of Hebrews" by descent; namely, from those first most praised and most ancient Hebrews, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. See the words at II Corinthians XI, 22. ACCORDING TO THE LAW (that is, according to the sect of the law), I WAS A PHARISEE. (Or, as Maldonatus in his manuscript notes, as if to say, But as far as the law is concerned, understand, I was so observant of it that I was even a Pharisee: for the Pharisees were the most observant of the law among all the Jews.) A PHARISEE. — Note: There were three principal sects of the Jews in the time of Christ and Paul: namely, the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Sadducees; for there were several other less celebrated ones, namely the Dositheans (although these were not so much Jews as schismatic Samaritans), the Hemerobaptists, the Herodians, the Nazarenes, and others. First, the Essenes professed a holier life, but were separated from the others by schism. Whence they did not sacrifice in the temple, saying that they used holier ceremonies. Second, the Sadducees said there was no resurrection of the dead, nor angel, nor spirit, all of which the Pharisees confessed and taught, Acts XXIII, 8. Third, the Dositheans abstained from animate things, and so superstitiously observed the Sabbath that, in whatever position one of them was found on the Sabbath day, he remained in that same position until evening. Synesius, an eyewitness, relates a amusing example of this concerning their leader to Evoptius. Fourth, the Hemerobaptists were so called because they baptized themselves daily, thinking namely that a man could not live purely unless he immersed himself in water each day, and thus by immersing himself he was washed and sanctified. Fifth, the Nazarenes rejected the Pentateuch and the sacrifices of the Jews, and abstained from animate things, as from unclean. Sixth, the Herodians said that Herod the Ascalonite was the Christ, because under him and through him, as an alien, namely an Idumaean, designated and declared king of the Jews, the scepter had departed from Judah and the ruler from his thigh, which was a sign and indication of the coming of the Messiah, according to the prophecy of Jacob, Genesis XLIX. Seventh, the Pharisees excelled all others in knowledge of the law, and in life and morals. Whence in Acts XXVI, 5, Paul says: "According to the most exact (in Greek ἀκριβεστάτην, that is, most precise; the Syriac version renders it, principal discipline) sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." Hence the Scribes and Pharisees in the time of Christ were the supreme teachers of the law; they opposed Christ. This sect was therefore more learned, purer, truer than others, teaching the immortality of the soul and the rewards of the good and punishments of the wicked after this life, yet not so much so that it did not also have its own errors: for, as Josephus, who was himself also a Pharisee, teaches in book XVIII of the Antiquities, chapter II, and book II, chapter VII, the Pharisees attributed all things to fate, and μετεμψύχωσιν, that is, the transmigration of souls, if they had been good, into other and other bodies, they asserted from the doctrine of Pythagoras. Whence arose that opinion of theirs, by which some thought Christ was Elijah, others Jeremiah, others John the Baptist, or some other one of the Prophets, Matthew XVI, 14, because namely they thought the soul of Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, or another Prophet had transmigrated into Christ. The Pharisees were called from this knowledge and interpretation of the law, from the root פרש paras, that is to explain, to expound, to teach; or rather, as Epiphanius, book I of the Panarion, chapter XVI, and others hold, from the same root paras, insofar as it signifies to divide and to separate, because the Pharisees were separated from other Jews by their doctrine, religion and customs, and excelled all others. Just as therefore the most learned of the Gentiles were called Philosophers, so the most learned of the Jews were called Pharisees, as if to say Expounders and Separated on account of eminent knowledge and holiness. For the life of the Pharisees was most rigorous in its training, and holy in appearance, and for many years they cultivated continence and virginity, abstaining from pleasures, living frugally, devoted to vigils and prayers, fasting on the Sabbath, the second and fifth day of the week; so that among the Jews the Pharisees were what the Religious are among Christians; they also had their own garment proper to their profession, having fringes of hyacinth (which perpetually reminded them of the observance of the law and of heavenly life, according to the precept of the Lord, Deut. XXII, 12) longer than those of other Jews, and in the edges of them they bound thorns, as Jerome says in Matthew XXIII, so that by their prickings they might display their feet tormented as a sign of the austerity of their life and of strict remembrance and observance of the law. Moreover they bound the law written on parchments on their foreheads, or placed it around their heads in the manner of a crown: thus indeed they declared the profession of Pharisaism, so that no one would touch them as if they were sanctified, as Epiphanius says, book I, chapter XV. Again they were devoted to many and daily purifications. From all these things their authority with the people was so great, as Josephus says, book XIII, chapter XVIII, that even if they contradicted the king or the high priest, the common people nevertheless believed them, and, as the same author says in book XIII, chapter VIII, those things which pertained to divine worship and solemn prayers were done according to their responses. From this sect therefore, equally as others, the Apostle could glory. Indeed in Acts XXIII, 6, he glories as a Christian and now made an Apostle, that he is still a Pharisee, namely, as to the profession of the immortality of the soul and of other doctrines and customs agreeing with Christian life.
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6. ACCORDING TO ZEAL, PERSECUTING THE CHURCH OF GOD, ACCORDING TO THE JUSTICE THAT IS IN THE LAW, CONVERSING WITHOUT BLAME. — Note: In the preceding verse he praised himself among the Judaizers from his race and nation, that he was a Jew; but here he praises himself from his own zeal and deeds in Judaism. First therefore he praises himself here; that he was of the sect of the Pharisees, whose sect was held to be the noblest. Second, lest you think he was lukewarm and tepid in it, he says that he was a zealot of it, and from its zeal and emulation persecuted the Church of Christ. "I was not," he says, "a sluggish Jew: whatever appeared to be adverse to my law, I bore impatiently, I pursued it sharply. This is nobility among Jews, but humility is sought in Christ. Therefore there that Saul, here Paul," says St. Augustine, sermon 13 On the Words of the Apostles. Third, lest you blame his life in the sect and zeal as inconsistent, he adds: "According to the justice that is in the law," that is according to the justice of the law; that he conversed without blame, that is, he kept every right and precept which the law prescribed, so that in nothing could he be blamed or reproved as a transgressor of some precept, and no one could complain of him, but all would proclaim him to be a man just and religious in the observance of the law.
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7. BUT WHICH THINGS WERE GAINS TO ME, THESE I HAVE COUNTED AS LOSS FOR CHRIST, — that is to say, These excellences of the flesh, which I have now recounted, and which when I was a Jew I held in such high esteem, gathered together, set apart, as a merchant is wont to hold his gains, rare merchandise in high esteem, to gather together, to set apart, namely that I was circumcised, that I was of the race of Israel, that I was of the tribe of Benjamin, that I was a Pharisee, that I was a zealot of the law, that I was daily acquiring justice from the observance of the law: these, I say, all the prerogatives of the flesh, that is of carnal Judaism, after I came to know the truth and dignity of the Gospel of Christ, I now hold before Christ and for the sake of Christ as of no value; indeed as losses, namely impediments to receiving truth and salvation from Christ. Thus Anselm and others.
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8. NEVERTHELESS I ESTEEM ALL THINGS TO BE BUT LOSS FOR THE EXCELLENT KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST MY LORD, AND I ACCOUNT THEM AS DUNG, THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST. — Note that τὸ "all things" refers to the preceding matters, namely all the excellences of the flesh, that is of Judaism, which I enumerated in verse 7. Secondly, and more worthily and fittingly to the mind of Paul, not only "all things" good of Judaism, but "all things" absolutely, that is all things whatsoever, such as eloquence, riches, delights, glory, favors and anything else which this world loves and admires, for the sake of Christ and on account of Christ I esteem to be losses and damages, indeed dung; for to such a height does the lofty mind of Paul ascend, and this is signified by the Greek ἀλλὰ μενοῦνγε, that is "nay rather" (for which our text has "nevertheless"), which is the language of one correcting, or rather amplifying, as if to say: I have said too little when I said that I account all the gains of Judaism and the legal observances of the Jews to be losses on account of Christ. I say more: all the goods of the world, all earthly things on account of Christ I despise, I reckon as loss, nay I reject and abhor them as dung defiling me. Thus Chrysostom and Theophylactus. AND I ACCOUNT THEM AS DUNG. — In Greek σκύβαλα. Which first signifies harder excrement and dung, as if to say: The legal observances, now as it were dung, defile and soil their observers, says Anselm, and likewise all things of the world. Secondly, σκύβαλα Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Theophylactus translate as the refuse of grain, or chaff, as if to say: Such is the law after it has presented to us Christ as grain threshed out, namely empty, superfluous, to be rejected. Such likewise are all the goods of the earth. Thirdly, properly σκύβαλα are called those things which are cast out from the intestines of oxen, sheep, or cattle to dogs, from ἀπὸ τοῦ τοῖς κυσὶ βάλλεσθαι, because they are cast to dogs in contempt and thrown away. He alludes to the Judaizers, whom in verse 2 he called dogs, as if to say: They are dogs, let them devour their σκύβαλα, their canine refuse, let them enjoy namely their legal and Jewish ceremonies. Yet at the same time he calls all other earthly goods σκύβαλα, which ought to be delights for brute and voracious dogs, not for men, not for Christians, who enjoy the delights of Christ and Christianity. For them therefore all beauty, honor, riches and delights are dung. Wherefore St. Jerome, instructing Paulinus the monk, says: "Let his food be cheap and of the evening, vegetables and legumes: he who desires Christ and feeds on that bread does not greatly seek from what precious foods dung is made." THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST (the grace of Christ, His justice, friendship, virtues, and gifts, and finally His glory). — See how all earthly things are losses, Christ alone is gain, teaching Chrysostom in the moral homily 10 and 11, where among other things he says: "Therefore monies are called χρήματα, not that they be set before us for viewing as with goldsmiths, but that we work some good in them:" for χρῆμα is said παρὰ τὸ χρῆσθαι, from using, because monies were invented that we use them for mutual commerce and mutual aid. And further below, how all things ought to be converted to the service of Christ and virtue, and thus become not losses but gains, he teaches thus: "He made you an eye; exhibit that eye to Him, not to the devil. But how will you exhibit it to Him? If by the sight of His creatures you glorify Him, and withdraw your sight from the gaze of women. He made you hands; let those be His possession, not the devil's: not for robbery and avarice, but for the commandments of God Himself and His benefits, and for continual prayers, and for helping the needy by extending and stretching them forth. He made you ears; exhibit those to Him, not to wanton songs, obscene tales; but let all your meditation be in the law of the Most High. He made you a mouth; let that do nothing of those things which He does not approve, but sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. He made you feet, not that you run to wickedness, but to those things which are good. He made you a belly, not that you burst it with foods, but that you philosophize. He gave you clothing, that we be covered, not for ostentation; not that these indeed have much gold, while Christ goes naked. He gave a house, monies and fruits, not that you alone have them, but that you impart them to others, especially to the needy." MY LORD. — Note the delights of Paul's love for Christ: Christ, he says, is the Lord of all of us, but mine in particular, who called me, contumacious and rebellious as I was, to himself with immense charity, indeed compelled me, who made me not merely a servant, but also his Apostle, who constituted me a teacher of the Gentiles with such grace, so many miracles, such fruit and efficacy; he is mine, who delivered himself up for me in particular, who communicated all his things to me, so that I may justly say: My Lord and my God, my love and my all; for before you I count knowledge, Pharisaism, fame, glory, nobility, riches, delights as nothing, I esteem losses and dung; because you are to me true glory, true nobility, knowledge, delights, honor, life, salvation and all things. FOR WHOM I HAVE SUFFERED THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS, — that is, as Vatablus, the Syrian and others say, for whom I have counted all things as losses, for whom all things have seemed to me damnable. Secondly and rather, for whom I have made the loss of all things: for this is the Greek διʼ ὃν τὰ πάντα ἐζημιώθην, because namely I have stripped myself of all things, I have left and despised all things, counting all things as losses, indeed as dung. FOR THE EXCELLENCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST, — διὰ τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς γνώσεως, that is by the excellence of knowledge, or of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, as if to say: Because I see, feel and experience that the faith and doctrine of the Gospel is so excellent, eminent and sublime (for he calls this "knowledge"), hence I count all the knowledge which I drew from Gamaliel, from the law, from the Pharisees, indeed all other things and whatever things as nothing. He touches here upon a twofold cause, why Paul should consider all things, even the justice of the law, and thus the very circumcision and the old law itself (as St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus and Oecumenius say), although otherwise good in itself, to be losses to him, indeed as dung. The first is the excellence of the Gospel and Christianity, which is so great that all other things, even the old law, compared to it appear to be nothing but trifles and filth, so much so that, if you had to choose one or the other, namely Judaism or Christianity, you would make an enormous loss if you chose Judaism before Christianity: just as if a rustic finding a great diamond, a jeweler should offer him the same amount of lead, the rustic would be foolish and would make an enormous loss if he chose and accepted lead for the diamond, as Chrysostom says. The latter cause is, because the other things, especially circumcision and legal observances, although once good, are now after Christ impediments to Christianity, and consequently to grace and salvation: for if a Jew wishes to become a Christian, it is necessary that he bid farewell to legal observances; for these have been abolished, indeed they are now opposed to Christianity: if therefore a Jew adheres to his legal observances, he makes an enormous loss for himself, because he deprives himself of the greatest good, namely Christianity; indeed by this very fact, that he is a Jew and remains one, he is an enemy of Christ and Christianity. Both of these causes are brought forward by Chrysostom, Theophylactus and Oecumenius.
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9. AND BE FOUND IN HIM, NOT HAVING MY OWN JUSTICE, WHICH IS OF THE LAW, BUT THAT WHICH IS OF THE FAITH OF CHRIST JESUS. — "Be found," that is, exist, and be in Christ, that is in the faith, grace and Church of Christ. Thus it is said of evil angels in Apoc. XII, 8: "Neither was their place found any more in heaven," that is they were cast down from heaven, so that they might no longer be in heaven, nor be found there. It is a catachresis. NOT HAVING MY OWN JUSTICE. — "My own," that is, acquired by the powers of my nature, by my labors, as St. Chrysostom says. WHICH IS OF THE LAW. — That is, legal justice, which is acquired from the observance of the law without the spirit of faith and the grace of Christ. BUT THAT WHICH IS OF THE FAITH OF CHRIST. — That is, but be having justice, which is acquired freely through the faith of Christ. WHICH IS OF GOD JUSTICE. — That is, which is divine justice flowing from God, so that God may make us just and we may be truly just before him; not however human justice, which is of the law: for this makes us just before men only in a political sense, so that men may proclaim us just, when they see us devoted to the observance of the law. See Augustine, sermon 5 On the Words of the Apostle, vol. X, where he treats this passage.
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10. TO KNOW HIM, AND THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS. — Paul desires to know three things, not so much speculatively as practically. First, "him," namely Christ, and the grace of Christ, the justice, redemption of Christ, or that Christ is the Messiah the redeemer, who justifies us and saves us. Second, "the power of his resurrection," in Greek δύναμιν, that is, power, not by which Christ rose, but by which through his resurrection, as it were already the conqueror and triumpher over death, he will cause us to rise. He desires to know this, both through faith, and rather through experience, so that namely the power of Christ may be raised from the dead and with Christ in glory among the Saints may rise. Third, "the fellowship of his sufferings," in Greek παθημάτων, that is, of the sufferings, afflictions "of his," so that namely he may know and taste how sweet, holy, meritorious, excellent it is to suffer and to be afflicted with Christ and for Christ, and to have him as a companion both in punishment and in cause, so that, just as Christ for truth, faith, justice, the Church and the salvation of souls suffered so greatly, so also we may suffer for the same things. CONFIGURED TO HIS DEATH, — συμμορφούμενος is a present participle, as if to say, While I am made conformable to Christ dying, through mortification both my own and inflicted by those who persecute me. Thus Anselm, as if to say, I do not give myself to delights, I do not live an idle and delicate life, but I take upon myself and express the labors and sufferings of Christ in me, I assimilate myself to them and configure myself to them, I rejoice and exult in them, and I desire to know and to feel how great consolation, dignity, grace and merit it is to have fellowship with Christ in suffering, so that through suffering I may merit to rise with him to glory.
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11. IF BY ANY MEANS I MAY ATTAIN (to Christ and the Saints rising) TO THE RESURRECTION (so that I may rise in the common resurrection of all), WHICH IS FROM THE DEAD. — The resurrection of the good he calls in Greek ἐξανάστασιν, as it were an exsuscitation from death to glory; but that of others ἀνάστασιν, that is, a raising up and resurrection simply. Note here first, against the special faith of the Novatians, the uncertainty of grace and perseverance; for this is signified by the conjunction if, which is of one doubting: for if Paul doubts about it, who would not doubt? For Paul could not doubt about the blessed resurrection unless he doubted whether he would die in grace or not. Whence the same Paul in I Corinthians X, 12, says Chrysostom, says: "He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall." Second, from this it is clear that resurrection and beatitude are not obtained from faith alone, but from good works, labors, sufferings. Thus Chrysostom. Third, from this it seems more probable that Paul was not revealed his own election and salvation; and indeed it cannot be drawn from any passage of Paul. But the reasons which some bring forward to establish it are weak, and only certain moral congruities; indeed the Apostle himself in I Corinthians IX, 27 says: "I chastise my body, lest, etc., I should become reprobate."
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12. NOT THAT I HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED, OR AM ALREADY PERFECT. — For "have received," the Greek is ἔλαβον, that is, as the Syrian and Vatable say, I have apprehended, or rather seized, whose compound the Apostle immediately adds: εἰ καὶ καταλάβω, if I comprehend, as if to say: These things which I have said concerning the contempt of all things, by which on account of Christ I count all things as dung, concerning the justice which is from God in the faith of Christ, concerning the knowledge of the virtue, resurrection and fellowship of the passion of Christ, and especially what I said: Configured to His death, I did not say these things as if I thought I had already apprehended this contempt, this apex of Christian justice, this perfect knowledge of the resurrection and passion of Christ; nor did I say assertively that I am configured to the death of Christ, but conditionally and incipiently, namely that I desire and hope for the aforesaid knowledge of the resurrection and passion of Christ through configuration to His death, or when I shall be conformed and configured to Christ dying, which configuration although I have already begun, yet I am still far from its perfection, much labor still remains for me, so that I may perfect and perfectly express and depict the image of the crucified Christ in myself. Thus Oecumenius and others. Note that the Apostle says these things out of zeal for humility. Ambrose and Chrysostom add that he says these things not so much on account of himself, as on account of the Philippians, who attributed too much to themselves, as if they had already attained the perfection of Christianity, as if to say: O Philippians, my disciples, do not be wise in high things, do not think that you have apprehended the summit both of knowledge and doctrine, both of justice and of Christian life: behold, I, who am both your teacher and Apostle, who have already devoted myself so earnestly to this perfection for so many years, confess and assert that I have not yet apprehended this perfection, that I still pursue it by running, and doubt whether I shall finally comprehend it in all my running and striving. See therefore how far you, recently converted and scarcely disciples, are from it. Note: This is the temptation and persuasion of beginners, that when they have begun to serve God, they immediately think themselves perfect, partly because they see that they have left others serving the world and sins far behind them at a great distance, partly because they have not yet perceived their vices, just as neither the apex of virtues. I FOLLOW AFTER, IF SO BE THAT I MAY COMPREHEND, WHEREIN ALSO I AM COMPREHENDED BY CHRIST JESUS. — For "I follow," the Greek is διώκω, that is, I pursue, whose force Chrysostom and Theophylactus explain: "Still," he says, "my life is full of contests, still I am far from the goal, still I am absent from the prize, still I run and pursue: indeed he did not say I run, but I pursue; he who pursues, you know with what contention he pursues; he sees no one, he casts aside all who impede him with great force; he contracts his mind, and eye, and strength, and spirit, and body into one, directing himself to nothing else except to the prize alone." I follow therefore here is the same as I pursue, as when we follow fleeing things, which we most desire to capture. Thus Virgil says, Eclogue II: The fierce lioness pursues the wolf, the wolf himself the goat, The wanton goat pursues the flowering cytisus, Thee Corydon, O Alexis: each is drawn by his own desire. Where indeed Theocritus, whom Virgil is accustomed to follow in the Eclogues, said διώκει, that is, pursues, Virgil said follows. Thus that Abbot, in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, chapter vii On Patience, number 35, being asked how a Religious ought not to be scandalized when he sees some returning backward to the world, but to progress toward the perfection of Religious life, answered: "He ought to observe dogs, which hunt hares; and as one of them seeing a hare pursues it, the others indeed seeing only the dog running, run with it for a while, but afterward growing weary return behind: he alone, however, who saw the hare, follows until he comprehends it, neither hindered by the example of those returning, nor by precipices, nor by forests, nor by brambles, but pricked by thorns and does not rest until he comprehends it. Thus also the monk, or he who seeks the Lord Jesus, intends unceasingly to the cross, passing by all scandals that occur, until he arrives at the crucified." I shall comprehend, — I shall apprehend the perfection of the knowledge and life of Christ already mentioned. He speaks therefore of comprehension in this life, not in the future in the heavens, lest anyone infer from this that the blessed in heaven comprehend by their vision the divine essence, which although it is visible, is nevertheless incomprehensible. IN WHICH I AM ALSO APPREHENDED. — First, St. Thomas explains it thus, as if to say: Just as I am perfectly apprehended and known by the foreknowledge and knowledge of Christ, so do I strive that in turn I may apprehend Christ himself, namely that I may know Christ perfectly, just as Christ himself knows me perfectly and comprehends me by his knowledge. Second (Oecumenius), "in which," that is, to which I have been apprehended by God, that is, called and chosen, so that namely I may run toward the perfection of Christianity and apprehend it. Whence Vatablus and Erasmus explain it thus: if somehow I may attain that to which Christ has appointed me, and in this stadium has commanded me to contend. This sense is apt, but does not sufficiently explain the force of the word "apprehended" or "seized." Whence third, more simply and plainly Chrysostom, Ambrose and Vatablus, as if to say: In the heat of persecution when I was proceeding to Damascus, that I might seize and bind Christians, I was apprehended by Christ on the way, when Christ laid his hand upon me, struck me down, smote me with blindness, subdued my body and soul to himself, and compelled me to say: Lord, what wilt thou have me do? And Christ did all these things to this end, that in turn I might strive to apprehend both him and the perfection of Christianity. Whence Chrysostom notes second that the word "apprehended" signifies the aversion and flight of Paul, namely that God apprehended him as one turned away and fleeing from him and drew him back to himself. Note third, an enallage of the preposition "in which," that is, to which I have been apprehended by Christ, to this end namely, that in turn I may strive to apprehend him. Otherwise however Chrysostom takes the Greek ἐφ' ᾧ, which our author renders "in which," causally for "inasmuch as": namely that Christ so anticipated me with his love, that he apprehended me turned away, fleeing, nay even hostile, and drew me to himself; hence that I may be grateful to his love and respond to it, with all my effort and study I run and pursue, that I may apprehend him and his life, virtues and perfection. Let the penitent and converted note this example of Paul, and let them think upon and ponder this benefit of God, by which he pursued those devoted to sins and filth, turned away from him and fleeing from him, apprehended them and drew them back to himself, and led them into the way of grace and salvation, and with Paul and Magdalene and the bride erring in the Canticles, let them recognize the bridegroom so loving them, seek him through the streets and squares, pursue him, and say: "I sought him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and I will not let him go," etc., so that they may now love him as much as they formerly hated him; pursue him as much as they fled from him; serve him as much as they offended him; propagate his honor and glory as much as they obscured it by their sins and scandals and dishonored God: and thus we see it happen in great sinners, when touched seriously by God they are converted. "Let us run," said those at Climacus, step 5, "let us run, brethren, let us run; for running is necessary and vehement running, because we have fallen from our comely and excellent assembly; let us run, and let us not spare this filthy and wicked flesh of ours, but let us kill it, as it formerly killed us." And this is a sign of true conversion and penance. Whence St. Gregory: "Often," he says, "a life burning with love after fault is more pleasing to God than innocence torpid in security."
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13. I have not yet apprehended it. — Hence Chrysostom, homily 3 On the Incomprehensibility of God's Nature, argues against Eunomius for his rash error, in that he said he had comprehended God in this life. For, as St. Augustine rightly says in Sentences, no. 102: "In this life, which is wholly a trial, even in the most sublime Saints that perfection is not apprehended to which there does not remain an ascent." And no. 103: "While the course of the present life is being run, even if one makes very great progress, whose outer man is corrupted, the inner is renewed; it is nevertheless necessary that, while he is subject to the condition of death, he bear the labors of old age." Note: There is here a continuous metaphor taken from stadium runners, who contend in a race in the stadium, as the Syrian rightly observes. Paul is the runner and every Christian, the stadium is the Christian life, the goal is its perfection, the prize is the heavenly crown, which Christ the agonothete will give. The Apostle used a similar metaphor in I Corinthians IX: "Every one," he says, "that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things, and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible," etc. One Thing, — supply, is necessary, says Anselm. Secondly and properly, "one" thing, supply, I strive and do, to this one thing I devote myself entirely. Thus Chrysostom, Theophylactus and others. This one thing is what he explains when he adds: FORGETTING THE THINGS THAT ARE BEHIND, AND STRETCHING FORTH MYSELF TO THOSE THAT ARE BEFORE. — "The things that are behind" he calls temporal goods and gains, says St. Thomas, which Paul had left in the world (for he was indeed rich and noble), of which he here says he forgets. Secondly, Augustine in Psalm LXXXIX, "the things that are behind," that is my past sins; or, as Vatablus, Judaism and the life which I lived in Judaism, I forget. Thirdly and best, "the things that are behind," that is my past good works, labors, sufferings for Christ I forget, because the memory of them makes men both lazy and proud. Thus Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theodoret, Theophylactus, Anselm, as if to say: Just as stadium runners while running in the stadium do not look back at how much space they have traversed, but at how much remains to the goal, and with all their effort and impetus and straight course they are borne forward: so also I forget my past course, I am borne wholly toward the goal, and I do not regard what I have done, but what remains to be done. St. Jerome inculcates this precept of the Apostle to Gelasius aspiring to perfection: "Blessed," he says, "are those who, not flattering themselves concerning their past justice, according to the Apostle are renewed in virtue day by day: for justice will not profit him from whom the day he ceased to be just. Let your whole span of life be such that you may be able to accomplish justice, lest, trusting in your past justice, you become more remiss; but, as the Apostle says: Forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the supernal vocation. Therefore act, so that you order the remaining time of your life, so that you may be able to sing with the Prophet: I walked in the innocence of my heart; for to have begun is not enough, but to have perfected is justice." The same to Eustochium: "Hear, daughter," he says, "and see and incline thy ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house, and the king shall desire thy beauty. God speaks to the human soul, that according to the example of Abraham going forth from his land and from his kindred, she may leave the Chaldeans, demons, and dwell in the region of the living. But it is not enough for you to go forth from your land, unless you forget your people and your father's house, that, despising the flesh, you may be joined to the embraces of the Spouse. Do not look back, he says, lest you stand in all the region round about; but save yourself on the mountain, lest perhaps you be caught. It is not expedient, having put your hand to the plow, to look back, nor to return from the plow home, nor after Christ's tunic to go down from the roof to take another garment. I have said these things to you, that you might understand that he who goes out from Sodom must fear the example of Lot's wife." Finally, St. Augustine, in the book On the New Song, chapter iv, vol. IX: "This way of ours," he says, "those walking in it seeks: there are three kinds of men which it hates, the one remaining, the one turning back, and the one going astray. He who does not make progress has remained in the way; he who perhaps declines from a better purpose to that which he had left as worse, has turned back; he who abandons faith has gone astray from the way. Who is he who does not make progress? He who has thought himself to be wise, who has said: It suffices me what I am; who has not heeded him who says: Forgetting the things that are behind, I stretch myself forth to those things that are before, I follow toward the palm of the heavenly calling. He said running himself, he said following himself; he did not remain, he did not look back. Who are those turning back? Those who from continence return to uncleanness, those who from holy and singular good purpose are corrupted into evil. These the Apostle rebukes, saying: It had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back. It is said, because they have returned in heart into Egypt; for eternal things are before us, temporal things behind us: O evil to look back! For Lot's wife, who was freed from Sodom, against the command looked back, and was turned into a statue of salt." TO THOSE THINGS THAT ARE BEFORE. — "Before," in Greek ἔμπροσθεν, that is, as the Syrian and Vatablus say, from the front: for he sets these in opposition to those things which are behind from the back. Stretching forth. — In Greek ἐπεκτεινόμενος, which has great emphasis; for it signifies to stretch out hands and the whole body toward the goal, so that you may seize it before you touch it with your feet. Which the stadium runners do, who with extreme effort strive, especially when they are near the finish line and victory, so that they may outstrip the antagonist running at almost equal pace, they thrust out head and whole body and strength, and rush headlong toward the goal, and stretch themselves forth with outstretched hands to seize it. Thus Chrysostom and Theophylactus. This stretching forth in the Christian runner, as St. Augustine teaches, tract. 4 in the epistle 1 of St. John, vol. IX, is done through desire: for this dilates his soul and increases his effort and impulse: "The whole life," he says, "of a good Christian is holy desire for progress: this is our bosom, this is our sack, and because it is narrow, by stretching you make it more capacious. Thus God by deferring extends desire, by desiring extends the soul, by extending makes it more capacious; let us therefore desire, brethren, because we are to be filled." Secondly, this stretching forth is done through the effort of virtues, so that you may strive to acquire those which are lacking to you. Thus St. Basil, homily 11 on the Hexameron in those words of Genesis I, Increase and multiply: "The soul," he says, "grows, while by daily advancement it promotes itself toward perfection. To us it has been said, Increase, by a wonderful reason of the inner man, by which advancing, we strive straight toward God. Such was Paul, who while he strove, and stretched himself forth manfully in the things before, he forgot those things which were behind. This very stretching forth consists in this, that by daily advancement we stretch ourselves forth to greater things already sought, namely, so that indeed that which you have already attained, being removed from memory, you may pursue with all your might that which as an emulator of perfect piety you recognize is lacking to you. Such also was Isaac, in whom that celebrated eulogy is handed down to memory, because advancing his step he was lifted up on high, until he became great." See what follows. Thirdly thus let us always direct our mind to the things before, which are in front. Thus Ezekiel concerning the four Cherubim says in chapter 1: "They turned not when they went, but each one went straight forward." Which words St. Gregory explaining, homily 3 on Ezekiel: "The saints," he says, "when they go, do not turn back at all, because thus they pass from earthly acts to spiritual things, so that to those things which they have left, they do not in any way look back further. As if indeed to go by a certain way is to them, to go always in mind to better things. Which on the contrary concerning the reprobate Jacob saw in the ladder angels, where no one remaining, no one standing still appeared; but all seemed either to ascend or to descend: so that it might be plainly given to understand, between the perfect and the defective in this state of mortal life nothing intermediate is found. Fifthly, but as our very body is known to continually either grow or diminish, so it is necessary that the spirit either always make progress or diminish."
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14. I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK — κατὰ σκοπὸν διώκω, that is, I am borne entirely toward the mark. Note: The mark is a sign set before archers, so that they aim their arrows at it and strike it; but the Apostle is not speaking of archers, but of runners or stadium racers, who contend by running not toward a mark, but toward a finish line; therefore by mark here he means the finish line. Whence the Syriac translator renders it, I run toward the finish line. This finish line is Christian perfection, so often already mentioned. Otherwise the Fathers translate these words thus: Augustine, in Psalm XXXVIII, renders it, I am borne according to intention; for σκοπεῖν signifies to consider and to intend: whence a Bishop is called one who attends to and watches over his subjects. Secondly, Cyprian, or whoever is the author of the book On the Life of Clerics, renders it, I am borne toward the rule. Thirdly, Tertullian, in the book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, renders it, I press toward the mark unto the palm (unto the prize). Note here the means in the middle that incite to the race in Christian life, so that in it you may attain the finish line, that is, perfection, which the Apostle here suggests. The first is, that you know and persuade yourself that you are not perfect, and say with St. Paul here: "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;" for he who thinks himself perfect, as if secure from the finish line, stands still, nor does he labor to advance or perfect himself; but he who sees himself still far from the finish line is incited to strive toward it. Hence, however much you may have advanced, think that you are not yet perfect, but rather ought to advance more each day. "The path of the just," says the Wise Man, Prov. IV, 18, "is as a shining light, going forward and increasing even to perfect day." And Cant. VI, 9, it is said of the Church (and consequently of the faithful, who in the Church as members in a body live and advance): "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising (in those beginning), fair as the moon (in those advancing), bright as the sun (in the perfect)?" But let the Christian runner never lose heart in spirit, or become faint-hearted if he stumbles, or does not advance as much as he would wish: rather, take this as a sign that you tend toward perfection, if you note and observe this very thing in yourself and therefore displease yourself; for, as St. Augustine says, serm. 50 On the Seasons: "This itself is the perfection of man, to have found that he is not perfect." And serm. 13 On the Words of the Apostle: "Therefore," he says, "advance, brethren, examine yourselves always without deceit, without flattery, without self-deception; let what you are always displease you, if you wish to arrive at what you are not; for where you have pleased yourself, there you have remained. But if you say: It is enough, you are lost." The second means to perfection is strenuous generosity and zeal for advancing in virtues; namely, if you exercise yourself strenuously and drive yourself to heroic works of virtue: for you will advance more by one heroic act than by twenty common and ordinary ones. Moreover, these heroic works are: First, heroic victory over yourself, and heroic restraint of your passions and appetites. Secondly, to heroically overcome and transcend the difficulties and obstacles that are wont to set themselves against virtue. Thirdly, to strive and endeavor toward arduous and lofty things, great deeds by which the glory of God is promoted as much as possible both in us and in others. Thus St. Bernard, epist. 254 to Guarinus: "Unceasing," he says, "zeal for advancing, and constant striving toward perfection is reckoned perfection. But if to strive for perfection is to be perfect, then surely to be unwilling to advance is to fall short. Where then are they who are wont to say: It is enough for us, we do not wish to be better than our fathers? O monk, do you not wish to advance? No. Do you then wish to fall short? Not at all. What then? Thus," you say, "I wish to live and remain where I have arrived, and I do not suffer myself to become worse, nor do I desire to become better." And soon he refutes this by saying: First, "You therefore wish what cannot be; for what stands still in this world? And certainly it is written specially of man: He fleeth as a shadow and never remaineth in the same state. Secondly, Our Lord exulted as a giant to run his course. But he who runs is not overtaken by one who stands still, nor does he himself run likewise. Whence Paul said: So run that you may apprehend. Thirdly, but if while the Lord runs you stop in your step, you do not draw near to Christ, but rather remove yourself further, and you should fear what David says: Behold, they that remove themselves far from Thee, O Lord, shall perish. Therefore if to advance is to run, where you cease to advance, there you also cease to run; but where you cease to run, there you begin to fall short. Hence it is plainly gathered that to be unwilling to advance is nothing but to fall short." Then he confirms this same thing fourthly by the example of the angels on Jacob's ladder, saying: "He saw a ladder" Most truly, fervor and an insatiable desire of making progress and tending toward perfection incite one to perfection: to which a certain ancient author applies to us remarkable spurs, writing thus: First, "It is shameful to consider how great is the fervor in the world, with what care each and every pursuit of men strives daily toward perfection. The love of riches is insatiable, the desire for honors knows not how to be satisfied, things which will have a swift end are sought without end. We neglect heavenly riches with a certain sluggish dissimulation, spiritual riches we either do not touch at all, or if we have lightly tasted them, we straightway think ourselves to be satisfied. Second, otherwise divine wisdom invites us to her feasts, saying: They that eat me, shall yet hunger; and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. No one is ever satisfied with such feasts, nor does he ever suffer from satiety's disgust. The more capacious each one becomes, the more eager he will be, the more he has drawn from it. He wills that we hunger here always and thirst for justice, so that in the future retribution of justice we may be satisfied. The force of the very words is to be considered, and thus justice is to be desired by us, as food is desired in hunger or drink in thirst." And toward the end of the epistle: Third, "nothing in this undertaking is worse than idleness, which not only does not acquire new things, but also consumes what is prepared. Fourth, the method of holy life rejoices in progress and grows, it becomes sluggish in cessation and fails. The mind is to be renewed by daily and fresh increments of virtues, and we must measure this journey of living not by what is past, but by what remains. Fifth, if blessed Paul, a vessel of election, who was so clothed with Christ that he said: I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me; yet still extended himself, still grew and made progress: what ought we to do, to whom it is to be desired that at the end of our course, we appear compared to Paul's beginning? Therefore do you forget all that is past, and think that you begin anew each day, lest for the present day, in which you ought to serve God, you reckon the past. Sixth, what you have well sought you will guard, if you always inquire. What is prepared will feel loss, if you cease to prepare." Whence note here the word διώκω, that is, I pursue. For just as a runner pursues his course most intently, and pursues the very goal itself, so also ought we to pursue perfection. That elder, in the Lives of the Fathers, being asked what one studying perfection ought to do, answered that he ought to imitate hunting dogs. For just as they pursue the hare most swiftly and with all effort, they do not regard what is in the way or offered, nor do they attend to it, but with all eyes, senses and strength even through rocks, thorns and brambles they are borne toward the hare, nor do they rest until they have caught it; so also ought the student of virtue to act concerning virtue. And thus did St. Marcianus the anchorite, as Theodoret relates in the Philotheos. For when he had come upon a hunter, and was asked what he, alone and idle in the desert, was doing, he asked in turn: What then are you doing? To whom the hunter said: I hunt deer and hares, as you see. Then Marcianus said: "And I, he said, hunt my God here, nor shall I cease from this beautiful hunt until I apprehend him." The third means to perfection is always to have before one's eyes the prize of the heavenly calling of God, that is, the palm, and, as the Syrian translated it, the victorious reward, to be given from on high in the heavens, to which God calls us: for God, who as the agonothete sits upon the supreme throne of the heavens, will call us after death as strenuous runners to himself in heaven, so that there he may bestow upon us the heavenly and celestial palm before all the Saints and Angels, and crown us with a crown of glory, as victors and triumphers; but each one according to his merits, so that he who was more eager and strenuous in this race may receive a greater crown: he who was less, a lesser crown. From heaven therefore God and the Angels show us these crowns and promise them to us, so that by them they may incite us to the race. Father Alphonsus Rodriguez suggests more means, and those practical and efficacious, part. I De Perfect., tract. 4 and 5. Moreover, the practice of this race of running toward perfection is convenient and efficacious, if anyone first, before God sincerely and most deeply, examines himself, and searches the depths of his soul, so that he may intimately perceive himself and all his inclinations, both bad and good, and clearly know what most impedes and hinders him from progress in virtues, what is the origin and root of all his vices and imperfections. For in man there is some one or other capital and radical vice, from which his other vices, as branches, sprout forth and arise, which being eradicated, all the others are likewise eradicated. Secondly, that having known and perceived this radical vice of yours, you may seriously and effectively propose to uproot it, and keep your eyes intent and fixed upon it the whole day, just as upon a capital enemy, and you must engage in daily combat with it. Then gather arms from all sides to overcome it: nor cease until through constant reflection upon it, self-custody, mortification, prayer, and the love of God, you overcome and conquer it. Thirdly, particular examination of conscience will greatly help in this: if in the morning you resolutely propose to suppress that very thing heroically throughout the day; if during the day you constantly attend to that same thing and continually restrain it; if at any time you happen to fall, immediately grieve, and rise again more eagerly and more strongly; in the evening remember how many times and by what occasion during the day you fell into it, and strive to amend all your lapses through penance, and through a new and stronger resolve to avoid or overcome its occasions, and through other remedies proper to each person. Perform this same examination each week, so that on Sunday you may review and see what progress or failure you have made in the elapsed week, and resolve to compensate for or increase it in the following week, and to advance in three daily degrees in the contrary virtue, whether of humility, or temperance, or continence, or another similar virtue, and to climb higher seriously. Undertake a similar examination at the beginning of each month, and likewise at the beginning of each year. There is nothing that cannot be overcome and eradicated by this constancy, constant and vigilant labor. Wherefore St. Chrysostom and Cassian teach that a man can become perfect in one year. For if resolute soldiers, certain to conquer or die, break through any armies and fortresses, what will not a generous and resolute soldier of Christ break through in himself and by his own will? Fourthly, if you exercise yourself in continual love of God, and strive to begin and complete all works, even indifferent ones, such as studying, eating, playing, sleeping, walking, laboring, from the love of God, having excited and conceived that love at the beginning of each work. Again, if you offer all adversities and crosses to God through love, and bear all things generously and cheerfully in the love of God. Finally, if you mortify and cut away vices, and especially your radical vice, whenever it breaks forth, through the love of God. For, as Peter of Ravenna says: "It is the mark of tender soldiery to gain victory over all vices by love alone." Come then, O athlete of Christ, run in this stadium with all your strength, fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life. How hard it is for you now to run and be weary, so joyful will it be for you at the finish line to say with St. Paul: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice." Life is short, the stadium is short, the crown is eternal. Perhaps today God will cut short your course, will cut off your life: then you will not be able to run anymore: then what you neglect in your running at this moment of time, you will wish to repair too late; because you will not be able to make up this negligence throughout all eternity; what you neglect now, you neglect forever; what you lose now, you lose forever. And what is so long as long eternity is? And what do you lose? You lose at each moment the most ample crowns, not golden, nor jeweled, but heavenly, but angelic, so that you who could by your running arrive at the Cherubim and Seraphim, on account of your lukewarmness, sluggishness and slowness, remain stuck, and remain stuck forever among the lowest, in the lowest order of angels. Thus Abbot Pambo, when dying, said: "I do not repent of any word which I have spoken up to this hour: and thus I go to the Lord, as one who has not even begun to serve God:" as is found in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, vol. I, no. 16. And Abbot Silvanus, being asked by Abbot Moses: "Can a man make a beginning of conversion throughout the whole day?" Answered: "If a man is a laborer, he can begin the beginning of his conversion by day and by hour." Ibid., title XI, no. 29. Another, being asked what he thought and meditated upon daily in his cell, said: "I say to myself, today you are born anew, today you have begun to serve God, today you have begun to dwell here: thus be daily a pilgrim and to be freed tomorrow; thus I counsel myself daily." Ibid., book VII, cap. XLIV, no. 2. Another, being asked what was to him a spur to virtue? what did he meditate upon daily? answered: "I have determined for myself through individual days that my words be heard by the Lord, thinking to myself to be said: Labor for me, and I will give you rest. Yet a little while contend, and you shall see my salvation and my glory. If you love me, if you are my sons, return asking to the Father. If you are my brothers, be ashamed for me, as I have suffered much for you. If you are my sheep, follow the passion of the Lord." Therefore when you rise in the morning, think with St. Anthony: Today I have begun to run, today I have begun to serve God, today perhaps I shall also finish. Thus let me live as if dying today; thus let me run, as if today I were to complete my course. Therefore let me run swiftly, because the time of running is short, and a great way remains for me to heaven. In Christ Jesus,—through Christ Jesus, through the merits of Christ. Thus Chrysostom. This can be referred first to the prize of the heavenly calling, that is to say, God has proposed this prize to us, and calls us to it through the merits of Christ, Christ has merited this with the Father, so that He might offer and propose this prize to us as the reward of our course. Second, this can be referred to I pursue, that is to say, I run, I pursue this prize, not by my own, but by the strength of grace, which Christ has merited for me.
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15. WHOSOEVER THEREFORE ARE PERFECT, LET US MIND THIS SAME THING. — You will say, verses 12 and 13, he denied that he was perfect, how therefore does he here number himself among the perfect? Some answer with St. Augustine that the Apostle, in verse 12, denied that he was perfect with the perfection of the fatherland, but here asserts that he is perfect with the perfection of the way, or such as can be had in this life. But from what has been said it is clear that the Apostle in verse 12 also speaks of the perfection not of the fatherland, but of the way. Secondly, Ambrose answers that the Apostle says he is perfect in respect to those more imperfect: just as we call religious men perfect in respect to the common people, because they perform more duties of piety and virtue than the common people. Thirdly and genuinely: "perfect," that is, zealous for perfection, or, as Anselm says, perfect wayfarers: for indeed "perfect" is taken in an act not complete, but begun, according to can. 32, q. d. Since I Paul, who seem to you perfect, feel that I have not yet comprehended, but forgetting those things that are behind, I stretch myself forth to those that are before, and pursue the mark and the prize; therefore equally, nay much more, whosoever among you aspire and strive with me toward the perfection of Christian life, let them mind this same thing with me, namely that they have not yet attained perfection, but ought to run toward it in a direct and continuous course, as I have already said; for this pronoun demonstrates that which was said in the preceding verses 13 and 14. Thus Anselm. Note here that the perfection of this life consists, not so much in that someone is completely perfect, having no vice or concupiscence, for this is impossible: but in a continuous striving and course toward perfection. For this is the perfection of wayfarers, that they continually and swiftly progress in their way toward the end: but we in this life are wayfarers and our life is a way, both toward perfection and toward heaven. Therefore the more we progress through virtues toward perfection and toward heaven, the more perfect we are as wayfarers. Thus St. Augustine, in the book On Perfect Justice, chapter ix: "Perfect," he says, "(the wayfarer) is, who runs toward perfection blamelessly, lacking damnable crimes, and not neglecting even venial sins themselves to cleanse them with alms." AND IF YOU BE OTHERWISE MINDED, THIS ALSO GOD WILL REVEAL TO YOU. — Thus the Roman, Greek and Syriac texts, not "revealed," as many with Ambrose and Augustine, epistle 48, read. Vatable thus expounds it: "whosoever are perfect, let us mind this same thing," namely that justice is not from the law, but from faith in Christ, "and if you be otherwise minded," that is to say, if you feel the contrary, namely that justice comes to man from the observance of the law of Moses, "this also God will reveal to you," that is to say, as Erasmus says: If anyone still attributes something to the law of Moses, so that he thinks he is justified from it, for this reason let not Christian harmony be rent, but let him be borne with and excused, because he is new in faith and recently converted from Judaism: but when he shall be more learned, God will inspire him with this mind that he despise those things which he cannot yet despise. Secondly, Theodoret thus explains it, that is to say, if you understand anything more perfectly than I have already said, you have this from God. Thirdly, Hilary, book XI On the Trinity, and Chrysostom here favors this, thus expounds it, that is to say, to those who have not yet attained the full knowledge of the mysteries of faith and truth, the revelation of God is to be awaited, who grants full knowledge of the truth, and if anything was previously erred, corrects it. Fourthly and genuinely, that is to say, if concerning perfection "you be otherwise minded" than I, because namely you feel and think that you have apprehended the mark, namely perfection, or are near to it, or this also like the rest, "to you" being ignorant and erring "God" in his time "will reveal," namely that it is an error, and that you err in this sense of yours. Thus Theodoret and Anselm. Note: God reveals this when he gradually lays bare to man himself and his vices, when the difficult works of virtues, in which the weakness of perfect men lies hidden.
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16. VERILY (supply, I beseech or exhort) TO THAT WHICH WE HAVE ATTAINED, THAT WE MAY THINK THE SAME THING, AND IN THE SAME RULE REMAIN. — That is to say, Truly indeed, to return to those things which at the beginning of the chapter I said concerning the avoidance of those who Judaize, and a little before concerning the course toward perfection, I beseech all that they retain the rule of doctrine, equally of the life of Christ, to which they have attained in baptism, and that they remain in it: namely that they think the same thing and be of one accord in Christianity, in the faith of Christ equally as in morals, and that they admit not those who Judaize, who sow discord and make schism, wishing to mingle Judaism with Christianity. Where note first: The word "Verily" signifies that the Apostle returns and resumes the principal argument of this chapter, indeed of the whole epistle, which is to establish the rule of faith and Christianity, namely that they admit not Judaism. This is evident from the following verses, where he acts against those who Judaize, denying the cross of Christ. Second, "rule," or straightedge, and, as it is in Greek, canon, he calls the law and faith of Christ, which is straight like a straightedge, to which nothing may be added, nor taken away, nor may it be bent, nor twisted toward Judaism or otherwise. Thus Theophylactus. For faith is as it were a line and a most straight rule, which if you bend it ever so little, you err from the truth and incur falsehood; for truth consists in a point, in the indivisible: such is the norm of believing and living, which the faith and law of Christ prescribe to us. For that the Apostle speaks not only of the norm of believing, but also of living, is evident from the following verse, where he says: "Be ye imitators of me, and mark them who so walk as you have our form." Thus Oecumenius and Ambrose. Hence third, for "remain," in Greek it is στοιχεῖν, that is, let us walk as soldiers in battle array, in order and rank. Concerning which I have said at Galatians IV, 25, and to the same, chapter vi, verse 16. Fourth, the Greek texts have it thus, πλὴν εἰς ὃ ἐφθάσαμεν τῷ αὐτῷ κανόνι στοιχεῖν, τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν, that is, verily in that to which we have attained, in the same rule to walk (that is, let us walk), the same to think (that is, let us think); for infinitives are put for the imperative after the Hebrew manner. Then it is understood in the second member, and, that is to say, And let us think the same thing; for this is what the two-membered sentence requires, and in it the Hebrews often omit the conjunction.
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17. BE YE IMITATORS OF ME, BRETHREN, AND OBSERVE THEM WHO SO WALK, AS YOU HAVE OUR FORM. — In Greek, συμμιμηταί, that is, be ye co-imitators of me, as if to say: Together with others who imitate me, do you also, O Philippians, imitate me. Wisely did Nazianzenus say in his epistle to Nicobulus: "It is the part of a prudent and wise man to measure his life by a great standard, and to compose himself after the imitation of excellent men. For it is better to hold the second place among great and wealthy men, than the first among the poor and abject: just as it is surely of greater glory to fly a little below the eagle, than above the humble larks." Secondly, for "our form," in Greek it is τύπον ἡμᾶς, that is, type and exemplar us, which Vatablus clearly translated, "as you have us for an exemplar." O how efficacious is the word and command of a Pastor, Bishop and Prince, when he himself first undertakes that which he commands, and exhibits himself as a form and rule of acting and living to others. How beautiful and becoming it is, when a Prelate and Prince does not command imperiously, saying: People or servants, go, labor, do what I command; but rather, by exciting and exhorting, says: Let us go, let us do, let us labor, follow me and the form and rule of my life. Thus Julius Caesar in camp went before his soldiers in labor, vigils and all difficulties, so that no one dared to refuse what he saw the leader doing. Thus Alphonsus, King of Aragon, when his army suffered greatly from lack of food and a radish with bread was offered to him, refused, saying: "It is not fitting for an emperor to eat while his army is hungry." The Panormitanus testifies to this, in his book On the Deeds of Alphonsus. In the Lives of the Fathers, in the Sayings of the Fathers, century 196, a brother asked an elder, saying: "Other brothers dwell with me and wish that I command them; how do you command that I do?" He answered: "Do what you command, so that you may provide to them not only precepts, but also a form." Hence St. Dionysius the Areopagite said that priests ought to be like crystal, pellucid and radiant, into which the rays of the sun falling are reflected back upon other things that are near. Sulpitius writes that St. Martin dwelt with St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, and profited greatly from his learning and piety, and having been ordained by him an exorcist, began to prepare himself for the priesthood. St. Hilary therefore was the form of life to St. Martin, and the guide and author of his sanctity. St. Hilarion, desiring to see St. Anthony, hastened into the desert: where, having dwelt for two months with him, he learned the whole manner of his life; whence returning home, he distributed his possessions to the poor, returned to the desert, and lived that wonderful life which St. Jerome describes, making himself a mirror and a portent to the world. Maffei relates in the Life of St. Father Ignatius, book II, chapter xiii, that a certain Lutheran youth, who could not be converted by disputation, was entrusted to Ignatius, and was received by him into his house and converted. When asked how he had thus changed a mind before impregnable, he answered that he had yielded to Ignatius and his Companions, not so much by arguments (though these were of great force), as by their observed sanctity and virtue; because he had determined within himself almost necessarily that from such uncorrupted morals, from such peace and concord, from such good works, true faith in God could in no way be absent. Hence again it was customary for the faithful to form the sign of the cross, for blessing, for driving away demons, indeed for beginning any works and offering them to God. Whence Tertullian, speaking almost as of an ancient matter, in the book On the Crown of the Soldier, chapters III and IV: "At every," he says, "progress and advancement, at every entrance and exit, at dressing and putting on shoes, at baths, at tables, at lights, at beds, at seats, whatever our conduct exercises, we mark the forehead with the sign of the cross." (Note: he does not say we mark, but we wear away; so frequently did they mark themselves that they seemed to wear away the forehead.) "If you demand the law of these and other disciplines, you will find no Scripture. Tradition (let the Novatians note this, who admit nothing except what is expressly stated in Holy Scripture) will be put forward as its author, custom as its confirmer, and faith as its observer." So also Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 13: "Be not ashamed," he says, "to confess the crucified one, but let the sign of the cross be confidently impressed on the forehead with your fingers, and let the cross be made in all other things, in eating bread and in drinking from cups, and in entering and in leaving, before sleep, in reclining and in rising, in going and in resting. Great is this protection, which is given freely for the poor, without labor for the weak, since this grace and fear of demons is from God: for by this sign he triumphed over him. Show it to him boldly: for when he sees the cross, he remembers the crucified one; for he fears him who crushed the head of the dragon." So also Jerome, to Eustochium, epistle 22: "At every," he says, "action, at every step, let the hand paint the cross." Indeed, St. Nilus teaches that crosses ought to be painted in individual houses, and even in the bedrooms of Christians, writing to Olympiodorus the Proconsul. Note secondly: These heretics, just as they were enemies of the cross of Christ, so also were they enemies of continence, severity, and austerity of life, which the cross of Christ teaches Christians, and they acted and preached a life in idleness and delights, soft, wanton and Epicurean: just as now our heresies indulge all liberty to the flesh. And for this reason also the Apostle calls them enemies of the cross of Christ, because namely, as follows, their god is their belly, and they savor nothing but earthly things. Whence the Apostle also strikes at any others, even Catholics, devoted to belly and lust with these words.
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18. MANY INDEED WALK. — Understand, otherwise than I do: because I preach and follow the cross of Christ and an austere life, they both in word and deed deny the cross of Christ, they live in idleness, delights, pride and Jewish ceremonies, as enemies of the cross of Christ. WHOM OFTEN I TOLD YOU (understand, they are) (BUT NOW EVEN WEEPING I SAY) ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. — He notes Simon Magus and his followers, who denied that Christ was truly crucified; for they said that Christ withdrew himself on the cross, and that only his image suffered. Thus Cerinthus, dividing Jesus from Christ, said that Jesus suffered and rose again, but that Christ did not at all, but remained impassible, and himself withdrew from Jesus at the time of the passion. Irenaeus is witness, book I, chapter xxv, and Epiphanius, heresy 28. Basilides added that Jesus transformed himself into Simon of Cyrene, and that he was crucified in place of Jesus. Epiphanius is witness, heresy 24. Paul here rebukes these heretics, and after forty years St. Ignatius rebukes them writing to the same Philippians, and warning them to beware of these very ones who denied the cross of Christ: "For the prince," he says, "of this world rejoices when anyone denies the cross; he knows that the confession of the cross is his own destruction: for that is a trophy against his power, which seeing he is terrified, and hearing he fears." And below: "Therefore also in some, so that they deny the cross, he makes them blush at the passion; they call death an opinion; they circumcise nativity and origin from the Virgin," dividing namely Jesus from Christ and calling the Blessed Virgin the mother of Jesus, not however of Christ. And this is what Paul said, verse 2: "Beware of the concision," that is beware of them, who thus cut off and divide Jesus from Christ. This heresy crept forth not only through Judea, but through Greece and Asia. Whence writing to the Corinthians and to the Philippians and others, Paul so often exalts the cross of Christ, and professes that he knows nothing else than Jesus Christ crucified. Hence so that the Church might abolish this heresy and exalt the cross, from its beginning it erected a wooden cross as a title, as it were erected as a trophy against the power of the devil, which when he sees it, he abhors. Indeed this was the title of the Church, and by this very thing a house was erected into a church, if in it the title of the cross were erected, as Baronius and James Gretser teach, book II On the Cross, chapter VII.
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19. WHOSE END IS DESTRUCTION. — In Greek ἀπώλεια, that is perdition, as if to say: Those who in the end shall perish and be destroyed; their end of lasciviousness and gluttony shall be eternal death; their pleasures shall cease and be ended by the fire of hell and destruction. WHOSE GOD IS THEIR BELLY, — who indulge the belly in all things, who are wholly devoted to the belly, who study only for the belly: for indeed that is each man's god which he most cultivates, to which he wholly serves, and to which he expends himself and all his possessions. And properly such are those who refer all their studies, thoughts and resources to gluttony and the belly, as if to the highest and ultimate good: again those who prefer the belly to God, prepared to violate God's law and friendship for the sake of gluttony: for then gluttony is mortal sin; otherwise gluttony is almost only venial sin, as I said on Galatians v, 21. Beautifully St. Chrysostom: "So many evils," he says, "does not the sea cause by transgressing its boundaries, as the belly causes, if it overcome our body together with the soul; the sea floods the whole world, and the belly the whole body. Set for it the boundary of natural sufficiency, as God set sand for the sea, and if it shall swell and rage, rebuke it with the virtue which you have in you: see how God rebuked it, that you may imitate him." Paul seems to allude to Dagon, the god of the Philistines, I Kings v. For Dagon is the god of the belly, because he was worshipped for the sake of the belly: for Dagon seems to have been the god of fishes, of offspring and of grain, from whom they doubtless sought an abundance of fishes, offspring (in the manner of the multiplication of fishes) and grain. For Dagon in Hebrew is said to be from דג dag, or דגה daga, that is from fish. Whence the Hebrews relate that Dagon was an idol of a man mixed with a fish, so namely that from the navel downward it was a fish, but above it had the form of a man, such as Sirens are imagined. For the Philistines devoted themselves to fishing, and lived from it; for they were inhabitants of the Mediterranean Sea. Lilius Giraldus, in his book On the Gods of the Gentiles, syntagm. 2, page 103, thinks that Dagon was Jupiter the Ploughman, whom the Phoenicians worshipped as the inventor of grain and the plough, as if Dagon were called from דגן dagan, that is grain. Again Dagon is the god of the belly: because, when the ark of the covenant captured by the Philistines was placed beside Dagon, Dagon fell before it, with head and hands severed from the body, so that only the trunk or belly remained, which they afterwards worshipped; and to this Paul alludes when he says: "And their glory in their shame who mind earthly things." Whence also the worshippers of Dagon were struck with shameful diseases, with new and unknown maladies, and with that shameful and infamous plague, or the French disease. To this also the name Dagon appropriately alludes, which in Hebrew signifies both a fish of iniquity and a fish of sorrow and sadness, as St. Jerome translated it in the Hebrew Names. Note: The god of the belly is the abyss of all goods. Hence Diogenes the Cynic called the belly of gluttons the Charybdis of life, because it devoured all things and was never satisfied; nay, Charybdis only swallows what is carried on the sea, and finally vomits up what it has absorbed; but the bellies of gluttons are not satisfied by air, nor earth, nor rivers, nor seas: nay, they even absorb whole houses and fields, and do not vomit them up. Laertius relates this, book VI. AND THEIR GLORY IN THEIR SHAME, — that is, these Judaizers glory in circumcision, of which they ought to be ashamed; for it is made in the shameful member, of which we are most ashamed. Thus St. Augustine, sermon 14 On the Words of the Apostle. Secondly and better, St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Oecumenius, as if to say: In shameful sins, of which they ought to be ashamed, and of which they ought to be embarrassed, they even glory, and boast of them. Appropriately Pythagoras, when he heard someone say that he preferred to associate with women rather than with Philosophers, replied: "Swine," he said, "prefer to wallow in mud rather than in clear waters." WHO MIND EARTHLY THINGS, — whose heart is fixed on earth and has only earthly affections, loves, desires, cares for and thinks only of earthly goods.
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20. BUT OUR CONVERSATION IS IN HEAVEN. — In Greek it is read πολίτευμα, that is, manner of life, institution, as Budaeus says, meaning that the institution of Christian life is to dwell in heaven; Christianity is the profession of heavenly life. Note secondly, πολίτευμα also signifies conversation. Note: He opposes conversation in heaven to conversation on earth, and to earthly things, or to those who savour of earthly things, meaning that earthly and worldly men savour, love, and care for earthly things: we Christians savour, love, and care for heavenly things; earthly men like moles dwell in the earth, dig the earth, gape after the earth, delight in earthly riches: we Christians are nourished by heavenly things, we tend toward heaven, we gape after heavenly things, our heart and all our goods are in heaven; we are therefore in heaven, not on earth, because the soul is more where it loves than where it animates. "As the house," says St. Gregory, lib. VIII Moral., cap. xxxi, "of external conversation is the building which the body inhabits: so the house of our thought is whatever thing the mind inhabits through love. Whence Paul, who had fixed his heart in the highest things, though placed indeed on earth, yet said as one estranged from the earth: Our conversation is in heaven." Therefore "our conversation is in heaven," first, because we have our mind and thought in heaven, we have our hearts above, we often think and speak of the Saints, Angels, God, blessed life and heavenly things, indeed we speak with the Saints. In this matter the Blessed Mary of Oignies once excelled among us, who was so familiar with the Saints and Angels, that a grave author, James of Vitry the Cardinal, writes thus of her, cap. VIII of her Life: "When," he says, "the feast day of some Saint was at hand, that Saint would announce his feast to her and on those very feast days would visit her, bringing with him many blessed citizens, and thus his spirit spent that whole joyful day with the Saint. From the familiar and frequent conversation of the Saints she obtained this, that just as men distinguish their neighbours from one another, so she herself could distinguish angels and holy men from one another." Secondly, "our conversation is in heaven," through heavenly life, because we live on earth a pure and holy life, such as the Angels live in heaven. Hence the Church, which is the congregation of the Saints and the faithful, has been given by God a hyacinthine shoe, or heavenly shoe, Ezech. xvi, 40: "I shod," he says, "thee with hyacinth," namely with a hyacinthine shoe, as the Septuagint translates it, that is, of violet and heavenly colour, so that by this symbol God might signify that the conversation of the Saints who are in the Church is in heaven. Again, through the hyacinth, which is the garment of kings, as appears Eccli. xl, 4, God signified the kingly and lofty spirit of the Saints of the Church, which indeed fixed in heaven, destroys and tramples all these earthly things. Whence also the moon is placed under the feet of the Church, Apocal. xii, 1. Thirdly, "our conversation is in heaven," through hope, because we tend toward heaven and hope soon to reach Christ, who has prepared the way for us to heaven; we therefore send before our hope, affection and works, to which we hope after this life in reality both soul and body to ascend. Empedocles, when asked why he lived, answered: "That I may behold heaven; take away heaven, and I shall be nothing." Far more truly a Christian, when asked why he lives, will answer: "That I may not only behold heaven, but also attain it." Wherefore deservedly St. Bernard to those who gape after earthly things: "Art thou not ashamed," he says, "to lift up thy body to heaven, and to creep with thy mind on earth: to have thy head above, and thy heart below?" Note thirdly: πολίτευμα signifies moreover, says Budaeus, the political government of the commonwealth or city, as if to say, Our government, our commonwealth, our city is in the heavens; we conduct ourselves as citizens of the heavens; the kingdom of heaven is our city, by whose municipal law all the Saints are governed. Which government is spiritual and heavenly, not carnal and earthly: because it is placed not in carnal, external and earthly, but in spiritual, internal and heavenly laws and institutions. Whence Tertullian, in the book On the Crown of the Soldier, reads: "Our citizenship is in the heavens," as if to say, We are pilgrims of the world, but citizens and inhabitants of heaven. Thus "conversation" here (as Our [translator] rendered it) can be understood as civic, or such as befits citizens; for this is what πολίτευμα means. Whence also this passage can thus be translated: "we conduct ourselves as citizens of the heavens," who namely are governed and live by the laws, customs, polity, right and goods of the heavenly city and kingdom. Thus in Ephesians, chapter II, 19, he said: "Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God." And Hebrews XII, 22: "You are come," he says, "to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels, and to the church of the firstborn, who are written in the heavens," etc. Concerning the word πολίτευμα, or πολιτεία (for these two are often taken for the same thing, as Budaeus testifies), I have said more in Ephesians II, 12. Hence morally St. Gregory, explaining that passage from Job, xxxix: "Shall the eagle mount up at thy command, and build her nest on high?" compares St. Paul and the Saints to an eagle, in book XXXI of the Morals, XIX: "Let us see," he says, "the eagle building itself a nest on high, who says: Our conversation is in heaven; and again: Who hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places. It has its nest on high, because it surely fixes its counsel in the highest things. It does not wish to cast down its mind to the lowest things, it does not wish through the abjection of human conversation to dwell in the lowest places. Then Paul perhaps was held in prison, when he testified that he was seated with Christ in the heavenly places; but he was there, where he had already fixed his burning mind, not there, where his sluggish flesh still necessarily held him." Then he teaches that this height of mind placed in heaven is a sign of divine predestination, thus: "For this is wont to be the special mark of the elect, that they know how to traverse the journey of the present life in such a way that through the certainty of hope they already know that they have reached the heights, inasmuch as they see all things that pass away beneath them, and trample under foot all that is eminent in this world through love of eternity. For this is what the Lord says to the following soul through the Prophet: I will lift thee up above the heights of the earth; for as it were certain things lower than the earth are losses, insults, poverty, abjection, which even those who love the world, while they walk along the flatness of the broad way, do not cease to avoid treading upon. But the heights of the earth are gains of things, flatteries of subjects, abundance of riches, honor and sublimity of dignities, which whoever still walks with low desires, by that very fact esteems as high, in the measure that he thinks them great. But if once the heart is fixed in the heavenly places, soon it is seen how abject are those things which appeared high; for just as he who climbs a mountain, in the measure that he goes higher, despises the other things lying beneath, so he who strives to fix his intention on the highest things, while by that very effort he discovers that no glory of the present life exists, is elevated above the heights of the earth; and what he who was formerly placed in low desires believed to be above him, he who afterwards advances by ascending knows to be beneath him." WHENCE (ἐξ οὗ, from which, namely from heaven) WE ALSO AWAIT OUR SAVIOUR, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,—so that coming to judgment he may adjudge us the faithful, us friends yearning for heavenly things, to the heavens, and may lead us into the heavens with him in triumph; and then he will bring us full salvation from all affliction of body and mind, and will bestow upon us glory, both of body and of soul, and he will be a full and perfect saviour. Note: "To save" properly is to recover or restore a thing lost or destroyed. Whence the Greek σώζων is derived ἀπὸ τοῦ σός, σά, σόν, so that to say σώζω σε is the same as to restore and return you to yourself. Thus Christ is called σωτήρ, that is Saviour, because he restores us to ourselves, namely to our original integrity, hope, salvation and happiness. Among the Greeks those were called ἀλεξίκακοι, who warded off evils, diseases and monsters from men, such as Hercules and Aesculapius. Among the Romans they were called Fathers of the fatherland, who freed the commonwealth from an impending enemy or danger. Such is Christ.
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21. WHO SHALL REFORM THE BODY OF OUR LOWLINESS, MADE CONFORMABLE TO THE BODY OF HIS GLORY. — For "reform," the Greek is μετασχηματίσει, transfigure, transform, that is, change into another figure and form, not essential, but accidental, so that namely from corruptible it makes the body incorruptible, from passible impassible, from earthly heavenly. Secondly, "body of lowliness" by Hebraism calls a humble body, that is vile, abject and miserable. Otherwise St. Bernard, sermon 47 in the Canticles: "He calls," he says, "body of lowliness, because only the humble shall be reformed with this glory;" but this is not literal, nor genuine. Thirdly, "body of glory" calls the body of Christ clear and glorious. Fourthly, for "made conformable to the body," the Greek is εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι αὐτὸ σύμμορφον τῷ σώματι, etc., that is, so that it may become conformed to the body of the glory of Christ. The Syriac translates it, so that it may become in the likeness of the body of his glory. Hence the falsity and stupidity of that opinion of heretics is evident, who taught that in the resurrection our body is to be transformed into a globe, so that it be like the body of the sun, because it is written: "The just shall shine as the sun;" for neither is such, namely round, the figure of the human body, nor is such the figure of the glorious body of Christ. Whence Origen is ascribed with this heresy, and it is condemned by the Emperor Justinian, in his Constitution which Baronius recites, vol. 13, in the year of Christ 538, pages 289, 293. Note: The Apostle places this configuration or conformity in clarity, that is in glory, as if to say, This body of ours, which equally as the body of Christ is here worn away, hungers, freezes, burns, is weakened, is beaten, is scourged, is torn, shall become through these sufferings in the resurrection glorious and similar to the glorious body of Christ. Whence Chrysostom exclaims: "O my," he says, "shall this body become conformed to him who sits at the right hand of the Father? to him, who is adored by angels; to him, to whom those incorporeal virtues stand by? to him, who is above all principality, power and virtue, shall this become conformed to him? If therefore the whole world, taking up tears, should weep for those who have fallen from this hope, would it weep worthily; that, when the promise has been made to us that our body shall become so conformed to the glorious body of Christ, they go away with demons?" And St. Bernard, sermon 2 On the Words of Isaiah, citing this place of the Apostle: "Why still," he says, "do you murmur, miserable flesh, why still do you resist, and lust against the spirit? If it humbles you, if it chastises you, if it reduces you to servitude, that is surely in your kind no less your concern than his. Why do you envy those, who from the works of worms and mouse skins do not blush to beg empty glory, living in unworthy cultivation, forbidden and with women, dishonoring themselves rather than adorning themselves? Let them reform, or rather certainly deform their bodies: you, if you shall be a body of lowliness, the same artificer who formed you shall reform. That hand (if you do not lose your senses) await, so that what he himself made he may remake." ACCORDING TO THE OPERATION, BY WHICH HE IS ALSO ABLE TO SUBJECT ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF. — He gives the cause of this transformation, namely the power and powerful operation of Christ, by which he is able to subject all things to himself; if all things, therefore also corruption and death, as if to say, Christ rules over death and life, and all things which are in heaven and on earth; therefore it is easy for him, so that by his command he may make our corrupted bodies rise to immortality and glory. Thus Chrysostom. Excellently and piously the Manual of St. Augustine, chapter twenty-four: "O my soul," he says, "marked with the image of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, espoused by faith, endowed with the Spirit, adorned with virtues, appointed with the angels, love him by whom thou hast been so greatly loved. Attend to him who attends to thee, seek him who seeks thee, love thy lover. Be solicitous with the solicitous, vacant with the vacant, pure with the pure, holy with the holy." And a little further on: "Choose him as a friend before all thy friends, because when all things shall have been taken from thee, he alone will keep faith with thee: on the day of thy burial, and when all thy friends shall depart from thee, he will not forsake thee: but he will protect thee from the lions of hell roaring and prepared for food, and will lead thee through an unknown region, and will bring thee to the streets of the heavenly Sion, and there will place thee with his angels before the face of his majesty: where thou shalt hear that angelic melody, Holy, holy, holy, etc. There is the song of joy, the voice of exultation and salvation, the giving of thanks, the voice of praise and perpetual alleluia. There is the fullness of happiness, surpassing glory, superabundant joy and all good things." And finally he concludes: "O my soul, sigh ardently, and desire vehemently, that thou mayest be able to reach that heavenly city, concerning which such glorious things have been said: in which, as it is the dwelling place of all the rejoicing. Thou canst ascend by love: to the lover nothing is difficult, nothing impossible. The soul that loves ascends frequently and runs familiarly through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, visiting those Patriarchs and Prophets, greeting the Apostles, admiring the hosts of Martyrs and Confessors, beholding the choirs of Virgins, and all the Saints." Behold thus was the conversation of St. Augustine in heaven, expecting thence the Saviour.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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Proposuit exempla quae sequi deberent, hic ostendit quorum exempla debent vitare. Et circa hoc tria facit; quia primo praemittit quos vitare debent; secundo exemplum vitandi per conversationem sanctorum, ibi vos enim, etc.; tertio inducit ad vitandum eos quos illi reputabant imitabiles, ibi imitatores, et cetera. Iterum prima pars dividitur in tres particulas; quia primo praemittit finem huius doctrinae; secundo scribendi necessitatem, ibi eadem vobis, etc.; tertio necessitatis rationem, ibi videte, et cetera. Intentio admonitionis est removere fideles gentes a legalibus, ad quae quidam eos inducebant. Et ideo dicit o fratres, scilicet per fidem, de caetero, id est postquam vos monui, ut supra, gaudete in domino tantum, non in legalibus observantiis. Hab. III, v. 18: ego autem in domino gaudebo, et exultabo in Deo Iesu meo, et cetera. Et hoc, quia eadem, quae dixi in praesentia, non est mihi pigrum vobis scribere in absentia. Verba enim de facili transeunt, sed scripta manent. Eccli. XXXVIII, v. 25: sapientiam scribe in tempore vacuitatis, et cetera. Iud. I, 3: omnem sollicitudinem faciens scribendi vobis de communi vestra salute, necesse habui scribere vobis, et cetera. Rom. c. XV, 15: audacius scripsi vobis, fratres, ex parte tamquam in memoriam vos reducens, et cetera. Et causa huius necessitatis est quia instant seductores; et ideo oportet instantius veritatem scribere, unde dicit videte, id est observate, et cetera. Et tria de his dicit: scilicet saevitiam cordis irrationabilem; unde dicit canes. Glossa: natura canis est, ut statim ex ira latret, non ex ratione, sed ex consuetudine. Sic et illi, Is. LVI, 11: canes impudentissimi nescierunt saturitatem, ipsi pastores nesciverunt intelligentiam, et cetera. Apoc. ult.: foris canes, et cetera. Secundo perversae doctrinae seminationem, ibi malos operarios, quia non fideliter in vinea domini laborant, nec bonum semen in agro mittunt. Matth. XIII, 28: inimicus homo hoc fecit, et cetera. II Tim. II, 15: cura teipsum probabilem exhibere Deo, et cetera. Tertio dissensionis, ibi concisionem. Et hoc verbo utitur in eorum suggillationem. Praedicant enim circumcisionem, quae non potest stare cum gratia Christi. Gal. V, 2: si circumcidamini, Christus nihil vobis proderit. Unde alludens vocabulo, dicit concisionem, quasi non circumcisionem, sed concisionem habeant. Deinde cum dicit nos autem, etc., ostendit quomodo vitentur a sanctis. Et primo quomodo ab omnibus; secundo quomodo ab ipso, ibi quapropter, et cetera.
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Dicit ergo: ego dico quod illi sunt concisio, sed nos vera circumcisio, qui spiritu, et cetera. Est autem duplex circumcisio, scilicet corporalis, et spiritualis. Rom. II, 28: non enim, qui in manifesto Iudaeus est, neque quae in manifesto in carne est circumcisio; sed qui in abscondito Iudaeus est, et circumcisio cordis in spiritu, non littera, et cetera. Circumcisio enim carnis est, quae est de superfluo carnis, sed circumcisio spiritus, per quam spiritus sanctus abscindit superfluas interiores concupiscentias. Et ideo dicit nos sumus, etc., id est qui interius circumcidit nos Deo. Rom. II: testis enim est mihi Deus, cui servio in spiritu meo in Evangelio filii eius, et cetera. I Cor. XIV, 15: psallam spiritu, psallam et mente; orabo spiritu, orabo et mente, et cetera. Data est autem circumcisio, ut ostenditur Rom. IV, 16, ut signum fidei Abrahae ostenderetur, ut scilicet eius fides ostenderetur vera, quae fuit fides de futuro semine. Gal. III, 16: Abrahae dictae sunt promissiones, et cetera. Est ergo circumcisio signum fidei Abrahae de Christo. Ille ergo circumciditur, qui interius per spiritum sanctum renovatur in Christo, qui est veritas circumcisionis. Col. II, 11: circumcisi estis circumcisione non manufacta in expoliatione corporis carnis, sed in circumcisione Christi, et cetera. Et non habentes fiduciam in carne, id est in carnali circumcisione, quia, ut dicitur Io. VI, v. 63: spiritus est qui vivificat, caro autem non prodest quicquam. Sumitur autem caro aliquando in nobis pro carnali concupiscentia, quandoque pro carnis cura, et quandoque pro carnali observantia. Et utrumque debemus circumcidere, nec in eis gloriari. Deinde cum dicit quamquam ego, etc., ponit exemplum proprium, et primo praemittit eminentiam suam, quam habebat in statu legali; secundo ostendit quomodo eam contempsit, ibi sed quae, et cetera. Primum proponit primo in generali; secundo explicat per partes, ibi circumcisus, et cetera. Circa primum duo facit, quia primo ostendit fiduciam, quam habere potuit in legalibus, dicens: non debemus habere fiduciam in legalibus, quamquam habeam, id est possem habere si vellem, quia in quo quis audet, in insipientia dico, audeo et ego, etc., ut dicitur II, 21. Et hoc etiam excellentius, quia ego magis. II Cor. XI, 23: ut minus sapiens dico, plus ego, et cetera. Et hoc totum adducit, ut efficacius destruat observationes legales. Multi enim contemnunt quae nesciunt, vel non habent, et hoc non valet; sed tunc quando aliquis habet et contemnit, et non gloriatur in eis. Sic, si apostolus non habuisset locum in statu legalium, poterat dici quod ideo ad statum Evangelii venit. Et ideo ostendit per hoc eminentiam suam in statu illo. Et primo quantum ad genus; secundo quantum ad conversationem, ibi secundum legem, et cetera. Quantum ad primum tripliciter, quantum ad generis sacramentum, quia circumcisus octavo die. Gen. XVII, 10: ut sit signum foederis inter me et vos, et cetera. Et dicit octava die, quia haec erat differentia inter proselytos et eos qui erant de genere Abrahae, quia illi non octava die, sed iam adulti quando convertebantur, sed isti secundum legem octava die. Gen. XVII, 12: infans octo dierum circumcidetur ex vobis. Sic ergo non ut proselytus, sed ut vere Israelita fuit. Secundo quantum ad ipsum genus, et primo quantum ad gentem, cum dicit ex genere Israel. Ex Abraham enim duae gentes descenderunt: una per Isaac, et alia per Ismael. De primo, duae: una per Esau, et alia per Iacob. Sed duae, scilicet quae ex Esau et Ismaelitae, non sunt consecutae haereditatem, sed solus Iacob, qui et Israel. Ideo dicit ex genere Israel. II Cor. XI, 22: Israelitae sunt, et ego. Item quantum ad tribum, quia in tribu Israel erant quidam de ancillis, scilicet de Bala et Zelpha; quidam de liberis, scilicet Lia et Rachel; et inter istos quidam semper erant in cultu Dei, scilicet levi, Iuda et Beniamin. Aliae, tempore Ieroboam, conversae sunt ad idola. Et ideo tribus Beniamin privilegiata erat, quia in fide et dilectione uxoris, et in ea templum. Deut. XXXIII, 12: Beniamin amantissimus domini habitabit confidenter in eo, quasi in thalamo tota die morabitur, et inter humeros illius requiescet, et cetera. Gen. XLIX, v. 27: Beniamin lupus rapax mane comedet praedam, et vespere dividet spolia. Quo figurabatur Paulus, qui fuit quandoque contra Ecclesiam. Tertio quantum ad nomen et linguam, cum dicit Hebraeus. Aliqui dicunt quod Hebraeus dicitur ab Abraham: et hoc dicit Augustinus, sed postea retractat. Sed dicitur ab Heber, de quo Gen. XI, 14. Quod autem non ab Abraham, patet, quia etiam Abraham dicitur Hebraeus. Gen. XIV, 13: nuntiavit Abrahae Hebraeo. Dicit Glossa super Gen. XI, quod tempore Heber divisum est labium gentium omnium, et illa lingua, quae prius erat, remansit in familia Heber, et in cultu unius Dei, et inter omnes Hebraeos. Natus est etiam ex parentibus Hebraeis, et ideo dicit ex Hebraeis. Deinde ostendit suam eminentiam quo ad conversationem.
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Et primo quantum ad sectam, cum dicit secundum legem Pharisaeus. Apud Iudaeos siquidem erant tres sectae, scilicet Pharisaeorum, Sadducaeorum et Essenorum. Sed Pharisaei magis ad veritatem accedebant, quia Sadducaei negabant resurrectionem, neque credebant esse Angelos, neque spiritus. Pharisaei autem utrumque confitentur, ut dicitur Act. XXIII, 8. Et ideo in hoc commendabilior est secta Pharisaeorum. Quomodo autem Pharisaeus fuerit, dicitur Act. XXVI, 5: quoniam secundum certissimam sectam nostrae religionis vixi Pharisaeus.
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Secundo, quantum ad aemulationem quam habuerunt Iudaei, licet non secundum scientiam in persequendo Christianos, ideo dicit persequens Ecclesiam Dei. Gal. I, 23: qui persequebatur nos aliquando, nunc autem evangelizat fidem quam aliquando expugnabat. Et Act. XXVI, 9: et ego quidem existimaveram me adversus nomen Iesu Nazareni debere multa contraria agere, quod et feci Ierosolymis, et multos sanctorum ego in carceribus inclusi, et cetera. I Cor. XV, 9: non sum dignus vocari apostolus, quoniam persecutus sum Ecclesiam Dei. Tertio, quantum ad innocentiam conversationis. Ideo dicit secundum iustitiam, et cetera. Haec iustitia consistit in exterioribus, sed iustitia fidei est cordis. Act. XV, 9: fide purificans corda eorum. Nam, quantum ad iustitiam exteriorem, apostolus innocenter vixit. Et ideo dicit sine querela, et cetera. Non autem ait sine peccato quia querela est peccatum scandali proximorum in his, quae sunt exteriora. Lc. I 6: incedentes in omnibus mandatis et iustificationibus domini sine querela, et cetera. Et ideo non est contrarium quod dicitur Eph. II, 3: in quibus et nos ambulavimus, quia veram iustitiam fidei, quae facit hominem purum, tunc non habuit, sed solum legis. Deinde cum dicit sed quae mihi, etc., ostendit contemptum suae eminentiae in legalibus. Et primo ostendit propter quid legalia contempsit in generali; secundo in speciali, ibi verumtamen, et cetera. Dicit ergo: haec quae fuerunt, etc., id est reputabam magna, scilicet quod Pharisaeus, etc., haec sum arbitratus propter Christum mihi detrimenta, id est reputo quod sunt mihi in detrimentum. Legales enim observantiae, quae tempore legis erant efficaces, per Christum factae sunt noxiae. Et ideo dicit detrimenta. Et finis huius est Christus.
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Et ideo dicit propter Christum. Et exponit, quia primo propter Christum cognoscendum, secundo propter Christum adipiscendum.
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Quantum ad primum dicit verumtamen existimo omnia detrimenta esse; verum est, si eis inniteretur. Et hoc quod aliquando feci, reputo mihi detrimentum, et hoc propter desiderium rectae scientiae Christi domini mei. I Cor. II, 2: nihil reputavi me scire, nisi Iesum Christum, et hunc crucifixum. Et hoc propter eminentem scientiam, et cetera. Quia haec superat omnes alias scientias. Nihil enim melius potest sciri, quam verbum Dei, in quo sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae absconditi, Col. II, 3. Quantum ad secundum dicit propter quem omnia, et cetera. Et primo ostendit, quod propter Christum adipiscendum contempsit legalia; secundo ostendit, quod possit Christum adipisci, ibi non habes, et cetera. Dicit ergo omnia detrimentum feci, habendo me ad ea sicut ad detrimentum et vilia, et hoc ut Christum lucrifaciam, id est adipiscar ipsum, et adiungar ei per charitatem.
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Ostendit supra praeterita lucra contemnere propter Christum, et ostendit quod intendebat Christum cognoscere, et Christum lucrari, et hoc intendit hic specialiter exponere. Et primo quomodo desiderat Christum lucrari et inveniri in eo per iustitiam; secundo per passionis tolerantiam, ibi configuratus, et cetera. Circa primum, primo ostendit quae sit iustitia, quam dereliquit; secundo quae sit quam quaerit, ibi sed, et cetera. Sciendum est autem, quod iustitia quandoque sumitur ut est specialis virtus, per quam homo ponit rectitudinem in his, quae sunt ad communem convictum et secundum quod est in his directiva. Nam temperantia est circa interiores passiones, iustitia autem est ad alterum. Alio modo iustitia dicitur virtus generalis, secundum quod homo servat legem propter bonum commune, et hoc modo frequenter in Scriptura sacra ponitur pro observantia divinae legis. Ps. CXVIII, v. 121: feci iudicium et iustitiam, scilicet, legem, quam servabat ex amore, quasi motus ex se: et sic est virtus. Non autem si alio modo, id est ex aliqua exteriori causa, scilicet vel propter lucra, vel propter poenas, et si observatio ei displiceat. Et secundum hoc est duplex modus iustitiae: unus est iustitiae moralis, alius est iustitiae legalis, per quam, legem non ex amore, sed timore servat. Et ideo dicit non habens meam iustitiam, quae ex lege est, quia, ut dicit Augustinus, brevis differentia legis et Evangelii, est amor et timor. Rom. VIII, 15: non accepistis spiritum servitutis iterum in timore, sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis, et cetera. Sed si tua est, quomodo est ex lege? Respondet: imo est mea, quia humana virtute, absque habitu gratiae interioris iustificantis, facio talia opera, sed ex lege est, sicut a docente. Vel mea est, quod praesumo per me eam servare. Rom. X, 5: Moyses enim scripsit, quoniam iustitiam, quae ex lege est, qui fecerit homo, vivet in ea. De hac iustitia, quam quaerit, tria dicit: scilicet modum adipiscendi, actorem, et fructum. Modus est quia non adipiscitur, nisi ex fide Christi. Rom. V, 1: iustificati igitur ex fide, pacem habeamus ad Deum per dominum nostrum Iesum Christum. Rom. III, 22: iustitia autem Dei per fidem Iesu Christi in omnes, et super omnes, qui credunt. Actor autem est Deus, et non homo. Rom. c. VIII, 33: Deus qui iustificat. Rom. IV, 5: credenti autem in eum, qui iustificat impium, reputatur fides eius ad iustitiam, secundum propositum gratiae Dei. Et ideo dicit quae ex Deo est, et cetera. Act. V, 32: et spiritus sanctus quem dedit Deus omnibus, et cetera. Fructus est cognitio eius, et virtus resurrectionis eius, et societas sanctorum eius. Et de huiusmodi, secundum duplicem cognitionem, potest dupliciter agi. Uno modo exponendo de cognitione viae, et sic oportet tria cognoscere de eo. Primo eius personam, scilicet quod est verus Deus, et verus homo. Et ideo dicit ad cognoscendum illum. Io. XIV, 9: tanto tempore vobiscum sum, et non cognovistis me, et cetera. Secundo gloriam resurrectionis eius.
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Unde dicit et virtutem resurrectionis eius, id est resurrectionem virtuosam factam propria virtute. Tertio qualiter eum imitentur, ibi et societatem, scilicet ut ei sociemur in passione. I Petr. II, 21: Christus passus est pro nobis, vobis relinquens exemplum ut sequamini vestigia eius. Secundo de cognitione experimentali, et incipit a posteriori, quod est ultimum in executione, et primum in intentione. Primum est agnitio Dei per essentiam, ad quam ducit fides. Ier. XXXI, 34: omnes cognoscent me a minimo eorum usque ad maximum, dicit dominus, et cetera. Et ideo dicit ad cognoscendum illum. Secundo quia non solum anima glorificatur, sed ex hoc etiam corpus erit gloriosum. Ideo dicit et virtutem resurrectionis eius, scilicet ex qua resurgemus. I Cor. XV, 14: si Christus non resurrexit, vana est fides nostra, et cetera. Tertio societatem, quia per experientiam habebimus quantum valeat societas passionis eius. I Cor. I, 9: fidelis autem Deus per quem vocati estis in societatem filii eius Iesu Christi domini nostri. Deinde cum dicit configuratus, etc., ostendit quomodo velit lucrari et inveniri in eo per tolerantiam passionis. Et primo ponit tolerantiam, secundo fructum, ibi si quo modo, et cetera. Dicit ergo: inveniar non solum habens iustitiam, sed configuratus morti eius, ut patiar propter iustitiam et veritatem, sicut Christus. Gal. ult.: ego enim stigmata domini Iesu in corpore meo porto. Fructus vero est, si quo modo, et cetera. Ex passionibus enim hic toleratis homo pervenit ad gloriam. Rom. VI, 5: si enim complantati facti sumus similitudini mortis eius, simul et resurrectionis erimus. II Tim. c. II, 11: si commortui sumus, et convivemus; si sustinemus, et conregnabimus. Rom. c. VIII, 17: si tamen compatimur, ut et glorificemur.
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Et dicit si quo modo, propter difficultatem, arduitatem, et laborem. Matth. VII, 14: arcta est via quae ducit ad vitam, et pauci sunt, qui inveniunt eam, et cetera. Amos IV, 12: praepara te in occursum Dei tui Israel, et cetera. Christus enim surrexit per potentiam propriam, homo autem non propria potestate, sed gratia Dei. Rom. VIII, 11: qui suscitavit Iesum Christum a mortuis, vivificabit et mortalia corpora vestra, propter inhabitantem spiritum eius in vobis. Vel potest intelligi de occursu sanctorum, quando occurrent Christo descendenti de caelo ad iudicium. Deinde cum dicit nam quod iam, etc., ostendit quomodo differtur suum desiderium. Et primo ostendit quid de se sentit; secundo hortatur alios ut idem de se sentiant, ibi quicumque enim perfecti, et cetera. Iterum prima in duas, quia primo ostendit quomodo deficit a perfectione interna; secundo hoc exponit, ibi fratres, ego me, et cetera. Circa primum duo facit. Primo ostendit se non pervenisse ad perfectionem; secundo quod ad eam tendit sequor autem, et cetera. Tendens in aliud duo intendit, scilicet adipisci quaesitum et frui illo. Frustra enim quaereret, si non eo frueretur et inhaereret. Et ideo dicit non quod iam acceperim, scilicet gloriam quam quaero. Sap. V, 17: accipient regnum decoris, et diadema speciei de manu Dei sui. Aut iam perfectus sim. I Cor. XIII, 10: cum venerit quod perfectum est, evacuabitur quod ex parte est. Sed contra: estote perfecti, Matth. c. V, 48 et Gen. XVII, 1: esto perfectus. Respondeo. Dicendum est, quod duplex est perfectio, scilicet patriae et viae. Perfectio namque hominis consistit in hoc, quod adhaereat Deo per charitatem, quia unumquodque est perfectum secundum modum quo adhaeret suae perfectioni. Anima autem potest adhaerere Deo dupliciter perfecte. Uno modo, ut totam actionem suam referat in Deum actualiter, et cognoscat ut cognoscibilis est: et haec est patriae. Sed inhaesio viae est duplex. Una de necessitate salutis, ad quam omnes tenentur, scilicet ut in nullo cor suum quis applicet ad id quod est contra Deum, sed habitualiter referat totam vitam in eum. Et isto modo dicit dominus, Matth. XXII, 37: diliges dominum Deum tuum, et cetera. Alia est supererogationis, quando quis ultra communem statum inhaeret Deo, quod fit removendo cor a temporalibus, et sic magis appropinquat ad patriam; quia quanto deficit cupiditas, tanto plus crescit charitas. Quod ergo hic dicitur, intelligitur de perfectione patriae. Deinde cum dicit sequor autem, etc., ostendit conatum ad eam, dicens sequor, scilicet Christum. Io. VIII, 12: qui sequitur me, non ambulat in tenebris, et cetera. Io. c. X, 3: oves meae vocem meam audiunt, et sequuntur. Et hoc si quo modo comprehendam. I Cor. IX, 25: sic currite, ut comprehendatis. Sed contra, quia Deus est incomprehensibilis, quia Ier. XXXI, 37 dicitur: si mensurari potuerint caeli desursum, et investigari fundamenta terrae deorsum, et cetera. Respondeo. Dicendum est, quod comprehendere uno modo est includere, sicut domus comprehendit nos. Alio modo idem est quod attingere et tenere. Primo ergo modo est incomprehensibilis, quia non potest includi in intellectu creato, cum sit simplicissimus, quia non perfecte vides eum nec amas, sicut est visibilis et amabilis, sicut qui nescit demonstrationem, nescit demonstrative, sed opinative. Deus autem perfecte seipsum cognoscit ut cognoscibilis est. Cuius ratio est, quia res cognoscitur secundum modum sui esse et veritatis. Deus autem lux est et veritas infinita, sed nostrum lumen est finitum. Et ideo dicit sequor si quo modo comprehendam, hoc intelligendo secundo modo, scilicet attingendo. Cant. ult.: tenui eum, nec dimittam, et cetera. In quo et comprehensus sum. Quod tripliciter intelligitur. Nam tota gloria est in dicta Dei comprehensione, ut scilicet Deus sit praesens animae nostrae. Sed non omnes habent aequalem beatitudinem, quia quidam clarius vident, sicut etiam quidam ardentius amabunt et plus gaudebunt. Unde quilibet habebit certam mensuram, et hoc ex praedestinatione divina.
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Et ideo dicit in quo et comprehensus sum; quasi dicat: in tali mensura intendo comprehendere, secundum quod mihi dispositum est a Christo. Vel sequor ut comprehendam sicut comprehensus sum; quasi dicat: ut videam eum sicut ipse me videt. I Io. III, 2: videbimus eum sicuti est, id est non per similitudinem, sed per essentiam. Vel comprehendam videndo Christum gloriosum. In quo comprehensus sum, id est in illa gloria qua apparuit quando conversus sum. Deinde cum dicit fratres, ego, etc., exponit quae dixerat; et primo de defectu perfectionis; secundo de sequela, ibi unum autem, et cetera. Dicit ergo ego, etc.; quasi dicat: non sum sic superbus, quod attribuam mihi quod non habeo, sed sequor, etc.; quod tripliciter legitur: uno modo sic: unum arbitror, scilicet quod quae retro sunt, et cetera. Vel non arbitror me comprehendisse, sed prosequor unum, scilicet ad destinatum, et cetera. Vel non arbitror me comprehendisse illud supra. Ps. XXVI, 4: unam petii, et cetera. Et tunc ostendit quid deseruit, quia vel temporalia lucra vel temporalia bona, vel merita praeterita, quia non debet homo comparare Deo merita praeterita. Secundo ostendit ad quid tendit, scilicet ad ea, etc., id est vel quae pertinent ad fidem Christi, vel maiora merita, vel caelestia. Ps. LXXXIII, 6: ascensiones in corde suo disposuit, et cetera. Et dicit extendens. Qui enim aliquid vult capere, extendit se quantum potest. Sed debet cor extendere se per desiderium. Sap. VI, v. 21: concupiscentia sapientiae ducit ad regnum perpetuum, et cetera. Sed ad quid tendit? Ad destinatum bravium, quod est praemium solius currentis. I Cor. IX, 24: omnes quidem currunt, sed unus accipit bravium. Dico autem ad hoc bravium destinatum mihi a Deo, quod est supernae vocationis Dei. Rom. VIII, v. 30: quos praedestinavit, hos et vocavit, et cetera.
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Et hoc in Christo Iesu, id est, per fidem Christi.
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Supra proposuit quomodo ab ultima perfectione deficiebant, nunc hortatur alios ad idem sentiendum. Et primo ponitur exhortatio; secundo quid ab eis necessario exigatur, ibi verumtamen ad quod pervenimus, et cetera. Dicit ergo quicumque, etc., scilicet quod ego sentio, scilicet quod non sum perfectus. Quomodo ergo si perfecti sumus, sentimus quasi non perfecti? Respondeo. Dicendum quod perfecti perfectione viae, sed non perfecti perfectione comprehensionis, quando scilicet tota intentio fertur actu in Deum. In via vero habitualiter, quod scilicet nihil contra Deum faciamus. Et dicit quicumque, quia quanto quis est perfectior, tanto imperfectum se magis cognoscit. Iob ult.: auditu auris audivi te, nunc autem oculus meus videt te. Idcirco ipse me reprehendo, et ago poenitentiam in favilla et cinere, et cetera. Hebr. V, 14: perfectorum est solidus cibus: eorum qui pro consuetudine exercitatos habent sensus ad discretionem boni et mali. Et si quid aliter, et cetera. In Glossa quatuor modis dicitur, et primo ponuntur duo sensus magis litterales. Unus talis: dico quod vos sentiatis quod ego, scilicet vos esse imperfectos; tamen si quid aliter, id est melius de vobis sapiatis, quam ego de me, hoc ipsum est vobis per revelationem divinam donatum. Et quando altius est vobis revelatum aliquid quod non mihi, non contradico, sed cedo vestrae revelationi.
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Verumtamen nolo, quod propter hanc revelationem ab unitate Ecclesiae discedatis; sed teneamus ex unitate illud ad quod pervenimus, ut idem sapiamus, et cetera. Quae unitas Ecclesiae consistit in unitate veritatis fidei, et rectitudinis bonae operationis. Et utraque servanda est. II Cor. ult. XIII, 11: perfecti estote, exhortamini, idem sapite, et cetera. Et eadem regula bonae vitae et operationis. Gal. ult. VI, 16: quicumque hanc regulam secuti fuerint, pax super illos et misericordia, et cetera. Vel aliter: dico, etiam si vos propter ignorantiam vel infirmitatem aliter sapitis, quam veritas habet, humiliter confiteamini, nec proterve defendatis. Matth. XI, 25: abscondisti haec a sapientibus et prudentibus, et revelasti ea parvulis, et cetera. Vel aliter: dico, quod idem sentiamus, scilicet nondum comprehendisse; sed si quid aliter nunc sapiatis, quam sapiendum sit in futuro, quia nunc videmus in speculo, tunc autem facie ad faciem Deus revelabit in futuro. Ps. XXVIII, 9: revelabit condensa, et cetera. Vel aliter: sive sapiatis hic obscure, sive in futuro manifeste, Deus revelabit, quia fides ex Deo est. Verumtamen, etc., non mutatur. Deinde cum dicit imitatores, etc., inducit ad sui et aliorum imitationem, ut caveant malos. Et primo proponit intentionem; secundo rationem, ibi multi enim, et cetera. Dicit ergo: quia haec reputo ut stercora, etc., in hoc imitatores, et cetera. Io. X, 3: vocem eius audient, et cetera. Ego sum pastor, vos oves meae per imitationem.
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Imitatores mei estote, I Cor. IV, 17, sicut et ego Christi, et cetera. Et observate, id est diligenter considerate, qui ita ambulant, sicut ego. Et vos scire potestis ex regula et doctrina mea. I Tim. IV, 12: exemplum esto fidelium in verbo, in conversatione, in charitate, in fide, in castitate. I Petr. V, 3: forma facti gregis ex animo. Deinde cum dicit multi, etc., ponitur ratio monitionis: et primo ex parte vitandorum; secundo ex parte imitandorum, ibi nostra autem conversatio, et cetera. Ne autem haec videatur ex odio dicere, praemittit suam affectionem; secundo ostendit quales sunt vitandi, ibi inimicos, et cetera. Dicit ergo: dico quod imitandi indigent observatione: quia quidam aliter incedunt, scilicet de malo in peius. Ps. LXXXI, v. 5: in tenebris ambulant, et cetera.
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Quos, etc., vobiscum praesens, nunc autem et flens, prae compassione. Ier. IX, 1: quis dabit capiti meo aquam, et oculis meis fontem lacrymarum, et plorabo die ac nocte interfectos populi mei? Et huius rationem ostendit, dicens inimicos, etc., quos describit, primo ex opere; secundo ex intentione, ibi quorum Deus, et cetera. Item circa primum, primo proponit opus; secundo eventum operis ostendit, ibi quorum finis, et cetera. Opus eorum est exercitium inimicitiae contra crucem Christi, scilicet dicentium quod nullus potest salvari sine legalibus, in quo evacuant virtutem crucis Christi. Gal. II, 21: si enim ex lege iustitia, ergo Christus gratis, id est sine utilitate, mortuus est. I Cor. I, v. 18: verbum enim crucis pereuntibus quidem stultitia est: his autem, qui salvi fiunt, id est, nobis, virtus Dei est. Et quid eveniet? Certe nobis vita per crucem Christi: illis autem contrarium, quia incurrent mortem.
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Unde dicit quorum finis interitus, scilicet mortis aeternae. Iob XXVIII, v. 3: lapidem caliginis et umbram mortis dividit, et cetera. Deinde describit eos quantum ad intentionem. Et primo manifestat eorum intentionem; secundo ostendit intentionis eventum, ibi: et gloria, et cetera. Dicit ergo quorum Deus, etc., quasi dicat: ideo hoc disseminant, scilicet legalia esse observanda, propter lucrum et gloriam propriam, ut satisfaciant ventri. Rom. ult.: domino non serviunt, sed suo ventri, et per dulces sermones et benedictiones seducunt corda innocentium. Eccle. VI, 7: omnis labor hominis in ore eius, sed anima illius non implebitur. Et dicit, Deus, quia proprium Dei est ut sit principium primum et finis ultimus. Unde qui pro fine habet aliquid, illud est Deus suus. Item quaerunt gloriam suam, contra illud Io. VIII, 50: ego gloriam meam non quaero; est qui quaerat et iudicet, et cetera. Sed eventus eorum erit in confusione. Os. c. IV, 7: gloriam eorum in ignominiam commutabo. Et hoc eorum, qui terrena sapiunt, id est, quibus terrena placent, et ea quaerunt. Et hi confundentur, quia status eorum transit. Rom. VIII, 13: si secundum carnem vixeritis, moriemini, et cetera. Glossa: quorum Deus, etc., Dei proprium est iustificare; qui ergo in cibis iustificationem ponebant, dicebant Deum ventrem. Item, est in confusione, quia in confusibilibus, scilicet in circumcisione pudendorum, et occisione brutorum. Consequenter ostendit quales sunt imitandi, ibi nostra autem conversatio, et cetera. Et primo describit in eis caelestem conversationem; secundo expectationem, ibi unde etiam salvatorem, etc.; tertio utilitatem, ibi qui reformabit corpus humilitatis. Dicit ergo: illi terrena sapiunt, sed non est sic de nobis, quia nostra conversatio in caelis est, id est perficitur per contemplationem. II Cor. IV, 18: non contemplantibus nobis quae videntur, sed quae non videntur, et cetera. Item per affectionem, quia sola caelestia diligimus. Item per operationem, in qua est caelestis repraesentatio. I Cor. XV, 49: sicut portavimus imaginem terreni, portemus et imaginem caelestis. Sed quare est ibi conversatio? Quia inde expectamus optimum auxilium. Ps. CXX, v. 1: levavi oculos meos in montes, et cetera. Matth. VI, 21: ubi est thesaurus tuus, ibi est et cor tuum. Unde dicit unde expectamus salvatorem nostrum. Is. XXX, 18: beati omnes qui expectant eum. Lc. XII, 36: similes hominibus expectantibus dominum suum, quando revertatur a nuptiis, et cetera. Tria autem facit iste adventus. Primo communem resurrectionem. Ideo dicit reformabit corpus humilitatis, id est abiectionis, quia est mortalitati subiectum. Iob c. XXV, 6: homo putredo, et filius hominis vermis. I Cor. XV, 43: seminatur in corruptione, surget in incorruptione: seminatur in ignobilitate, surget in gloria: seminatur in infirmitate, surget in virtute. Hoc corpus sic abiectum reformabit, id est ad propriam formam reducet. Rom.
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VIII, 11: qui suscitavit Iesum Christum a mortuis, vivificabit et mortalia corpora nostra, et cetera. Secundo sanctorum imitationem.
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Ideo dicit configuratum corpori claritatis suae. Corpus siquidem Christi est glorificatum per gloriam divinitatis suae, et hoc meruit per suam passionem: quicumque ergo participat virtutem divinitatis per gratiam, et passionem Christi imitatur, glorificabitur. Apoc. III, 21: qui vicerit, dabo ei sedere mecum in throno meo, sicut ego vici, et sedi cum patre meo in throno eius. I Io. III, 2: similes ei erimus. Matth. XIII, 43: tunc iusti fulgebunt sicut sol in regno patris eorum. Et hoc facit secundum operationem divinitatis suae, id est, per virtutem in ipso, per quam possit sibi subiicere omnia. Omnes enim Christo subiicientur, quidam quantum ad salutem, quidam quantum ad poenam: in primis exercebit misericordiam, in secundis iustitiam. Ps. VIII, 8: omnia subiecisti sub pedibus eius, et cetera. I Cor. XV, 28: pater subiecit omnia filio. Io. V, 19: quaecumque pater facit, et filius similiter facit.
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1. De caetero, fratres mei, gaudete in Domino. Consolatione concludit superiora, ut ad novum transeat argumentum. Quod reliquum est, inqait, fratres mei, volo vos abjecto rooerore, quem sive ex vinculis meis, sive ex periculo Epaphroditi, sive ex afflictionibus vestris concepistis, gaudere in Domino Christo, id est, eo gaudio, quod et quale Christianos decet.
Eadem vobis scribere, mihi quidem non pigrum, vobis autem necessarium. Graece non est necessarium, sed ao<paabq, id est, tutum sive securum. Sensus est: Ea vobis scribere, quae praesens dixi et inculcavi, vel eadem scribere vobis, qvsae scripsi aliis, ut Romanis, Galatis, me sane non piget, imo quo magis sitis extra periculum, omnino mihi faciendum censeo.
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2. Videte canes. Judaei prae contemptu gentiles canes vocabant. Unde Dominus Matth. 15. ex opinione Judaeorum sic loquitur: Non est bonum sumere panem filiorum et mittere canibus. Merito igitur Apostolus vicissim Judaeos, tametsi diversa ratione, canes appellat, juxta illud ejusdem Salvaforis Matth. 7. Nolite sanctum dare canibus. Canes erant Judaei, quia verbo Dei a veris Apostolis praedicato passim adlatrabant, et praedicatores ejus mordebant, lacerabant et persequebantur ad mortem. Item canes erant Judaizantes isti, id est, homines impudentes et improbi, qui ventris causa apud omnes sese ingerebant, et Mosem suum omnibus venditabant: mare et aridam circumeuntes, ut facerent unum proselytum Matth. 23. Utramque rationem tradunt Graeci interpretes. Videte autem, id est, cavete. Nam et in Evangelio sic aliquoties accipitur videte. Et Ambrosius lib. ad Virg. devotam ita legit hunc locum: Vitate canes etc.
Videte malos operarios. Quos eosdem 2 Cor. 11. vocat operarios subdolos. Erant ergo mali operarii, tum quia in opere suo non Christi Domini, sed suam spectabant utilitatem, utpote ventri suo, non Christo servientes, sicut dicitur Rom. 16., de quibus et infra: quorum Deus venter est, tum maxime, quia videbantur quidem operari in praedicatione Evangelii, propter quod et ministros Christi sejactabant, ut habetur in eodem ad Cor. loco, sed revera Christi Evangelium sua doctrina peivertebant, sicit de eis dicitur Gal 1.
Videte concisionem. Judaei vocabantur circumcisio, quemadmodum patet ex Epistola ad Rom. 2. et alibi, atque eo nomine ipsi gloriabantur: hic vero non dignatur ecs Apcstolus nomine circumcisionis, tanquam ea appellatione indignos, seJ per contemptum, quadam cum paronomasia, vocat eos concisionem. Ciicumciditur enim id, a quo superfluum aliquid resecatur, conciditur autem, quod in partes minutas scinditur. Et circumcisio quidem arte fit, ad rem purgandam et expoliendam: concisio veio, temere et cum dostrr.ctione rei. Erant igitur Apostolo Judaizantes illi concisio: et non circumcisio, hoc est, concisi et non circumcisi, quia circumcisionis necessitatem praedicantes, crucem Christi evacuabaut, et per hoc non ad salutem, sed ad perniciem eis sua circumcisio velut concisio quaedam proficielat. Unde de eis infra dicitur: Quorum finis interitus.
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3. Nos enim sumus circumcisio. Sensus est: Ult jactant carnalem circumcisionem, nec agnoscunt ejus usum et significationem; nos autem sumus vera circumcisio, quatenus scilicet in nobis spiritualis significatio circumcisionis impletur. Sic idem Apostolus Rom. 2. Non qui in manifesto, Judaeus tst, neque quae in manifesto, in carne, est circumcisio, sed qui in abscondito, Judaeus est, et circumcisio cordis in spiritu, non litera. Quod autem dixit nos, deinceps explicat, quorum in persona dix9rit:
Qui spiritu servimus Deo. In Graeco hic est ordo: Qui spiritu Deo servimus. Sed interpres verbum servimus in medio posuit, ut sensus, quem intendit, esset magis obvius. Potest autem ex Graeco verti: Qui spiritui Deo servimus, et ita legendum contendit Ambrosius lib. 2. de Spiritu S. cap. 6. dicens, Latinos codicices partim variare, partim falsatos esse, non tamen exprimens eorum lectionis varietatem. Itaque eignificari vult hoc loco, Spiritum sanctum esse Deum, cui serviendum sit, ea nimirum servitute et cultu, qui soli Deo debetur. Nam in Graeco verbum est Xaxpsostv, quod et Matth. 4. Et illi soli servies. Et Rom. 1. Servierunt creaturae potius quam creatori. Nec aliter fere iu Scripturis usarpatur, quam ad designandum eum cultum, quem sibi soli Deus vendicat. Ambrosium ea in re sequitur Sedulius. Porro Graeca quaedam, ut Complutensia cum paucis aliis, pro dativo Osto legunt genitivum OsoO, Dei. Cujus etiam lectionis Faber et Erpsmus in suis annotationibvs meminerunt. Et Faber quidem veitendum putat: Spiritu Dei. Quod et Cajetanus sequitur. Sei ea verdo, quamvis huic ruam diximus Graecae lectioni non repugnet, sensum tamen minui commodum exhibet. Undo ex hac lectione potius vertendum esset: Spiritui Dei servimus. Quomodo legit Augustinus lib. 1. de Trinit. cap. 6. et serm. 15. de verbis Apostol. cap. 3. probans itidem ex hac scriptura, Spiritum sanctum esse Deum eadem raticne, qua Ambrosius. Testatur idem Augustinus, hanc Graecam lectionem haberi in pluribus ac pene omnibus exemplaribus: acvitiosum existimat, quod in nonnullis, ut aitLatinis, invenitur spiritu Deo. Quod sane mirum est: cum ex commentariis Graecorum constet, eos legisse Deo non Dei, et dativum 7rvs6jiaTt sic accepisse, ut modum significet, quem Latini reddunt per ablativum spiritu, id est, spiritualiter, quemadmodum illi diserte exponunt. Quaeritur autem, de quo spiritu Paulusloquatur. Non dubium, quin de spiritu sancto, silegamns: spiritui Dei, quod vult Augustinus, aut spiritui Deo, quod Ambrosius. At si cum vulgato interprete consentienter Graecorum commentariis legamus: spiritu Deo; dubium esse potest. Sunt enim-, qui sic quoque Spiritum sanctum putent intelligi. Nam, ut patet ex sequentibus, spiritum carni opponit Apostolus: quod dum facit, Spiritum sanctum intelligere solet, sicut ostendimus ad illud Gal. 5. Caro concupiscit adversus spiritum etc. Sed et Rom. 2. commendans circumcisionem cor-lis, quae in spiritu est non litera, non alium intelligit spiritum, quam illum ipsum, quem literae opponit 2 Cor. 3., ubi sine dubio de Spiritu sancto sermo est. Igitur juxta horum sententiam spiritu servire Deo, est Deum colere per gratiam Spiritus sancti. At vero Graeci de spiritu hominis interpretantur, id est, de animo seu mente, quem interiorem hominem alibi vocat, ut Rom. 7. et 2 Cor. 4., ut spiritu servire Deo, sit ei servire ex animo et secundum hominem interiorem, id est, cultu interno, quod est spiritualiter servire. Cui opponitur carne servire Deo, id est, carnalem seu corporalem tantum exhibere Deo servitutem, quae est secundum hominem exteriorem et ea, quae foris aguntur: cujusmodi erat cultus Judaicus. Haec Graecorum interpretatio mihi probabilior est. Non enim spiritus hic opponitur carni, prout caro accipitur pro concupiscentia carnali, sed ut substantiam significat, id est, corpus hominis resque corporeas et externas. Nec dissimilis acceptio est utriusque in illa Christi sententia: Spiritus quidem promptus est, caro autem infirma.
Et gloriamur in Christo Jesu, tanquam auctorejsalutis nostrae, quasi dicat: Omne bonum verae virtutis ac pietatis, et quidquid est, in quo Christianus ut talis recte gloriatur, Christi meritis acceptum referimus: quia non est in quoquam alio salus Act. 4.
Et non in carne fiduciam habentes. In Graeco quidem est participium Tieizoiftoxet; confisi, pro quo dixit interpres, fiduciam habentes; sed sicut duo praecedentia participia resolverat per verba, qui servimus et gloriamur, ita consequenter et istud resolvendum erat per verbum confidimus, aut fiduciam habemus, ut legit Ambrosianus. Nec obstat hujus vocabuli praeteritum tempus in Graeco. Nam significationem habet praesentis. In carne confidunt, qui in rebus camalibus sibi placent, tanquam per eas sint Deo commendatiores, ac caeteris hominibus meliores. Hujusmodi res erant, quas deinde Aportolus enumerat: ut esse circumcisum, Israelitam, Pharisaeum: denique secundum justitiam, quae in lege est, conversatum esse sine querela. Nam et hoc adjunxit. Ex quo intelligitur non solum illa priora, sed et ipsam justitiam, quae ex lege est, carnalem esse.
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4. Quanquam ego habeam confidentiam et in carne. Ita legendum ex castigatione Romana, videlicet conjunctione et suo lcco reddita: cum prius in innltis legeretur: Quanquam et ego habeam confidentiam in carne. Sed vera lectio, ex antiquis MSS. restituta, non solum est in Graecis et Syris codicibas, verum etiam extat apud Ambrosianum et Primasium in commentariis, et apud Augustinum serrr. supra citato. Nec secus legit Aquinas, ut ex ejus commentario colligitur. Sciendum praeterea, loco verbi habeam Graece legi participium S)(U)v, habens, quod tamen addito verbo substantivo, sim habens, idem valet. Igitur sensus est: Non ideo rejicio confidentiam, quae in carne est, quod mihi hac in parte gloriandi materia desit: solent enim homires ea contemnere in aliis, quae ipsi nesciunt aut non habent. At ego, inquit, habeo quod in aliis contemno, ac possem si vellem, perinde ut illi, in carne gloriari et confidere: quo magis certe mihi ea contemnenti credendum est. Ut si quis nobilis nobilitatem generis contemnendam doceat, ut rem vanam: facilius ei creditur. Observandum est, in Graeco Apostolum non dicere: Quanquam ego confidam et in carne, sicut dixerat, et non in carne confidimus: esset enim in verbis repugnantia; sed, mutato sermone, dicit se habere confidentiam, id est, confidentiae materiam, qua posset aeque ut alii, vel etiam magis, in carne confidere: secundum id quod soquitur:
Si quis alius videtur confidere in carne, ego magis. De Judaizantibus loquitur, et sensus est: Si quisquam eorum videtur merito confidero in carne, eo quod habeat hujusmodi fiduciae materiam; ego vel maxime materiam hujusmodi confidentiae habeo. Non enim supplendum est, ego magis confido; sed ego magis habeo confidentiam in carne: idquejuxta sensum supradictum. Augusliiius legit: Si quis alius putat se habere fiduciam: nam et ita verti potest verbum Graecum 5oxsT, sicque interdum vertit noster interpres, ut 1 Cor. 7. Puto quod et ego spiritum Dei habeam. Jac. 1. Si quis putat se religiosum esse. Atque ea interpretatio bene congruit huic loco. Sed quaeres quomodo dicat Apostolus: Ego magis, cum essent utique inter Judaeos quidam to nobiliores secundum carnem; ut qui ex tribu Juda et ex genere regio, aut ex tribu Levi et ex genere sacerdotali. Responsio est: Apostolum id non dicere propter singula, quae mox enumerat, sed propter omnia simul. In illis enim, opinione Judaeorum, excellebat zelus legis: qua in re Paulus caeteros superaverat. Item quaeret aliquis, cum hic locus persimilis sit ei, qui est 2 Cor. 11., ubi dicit Apostolus: Quoniam multi gloriantur secundum carnem, et ego gloriabor, et rursum: In quo quis au~ det, audeo et ego. Hebraei sunt, et ego etc., cur ibi gloriatur secundum carnem; hic autem negat se in carne confidere. Respondeo, rationem esse, quia gloriari secundum carnem licitum est, dum urget justa necessitas; at confidere in carne, semper malum est. Id quod facile intelligitur ex utriusque loci explicatione.
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5. Circumcisus octavo die. Supplenda dictio causalis, utpote, aut quid simile. Probat enim illud, ego magis. Graece est: Circumcisio octavi diei. Quod ea phrasi dicit, qua supra: Nos enim sumus circumcisio: et qua alibi Judaeos circumcisionem, gentes autem praeputium vocat. Ambrosianus et Augustinus in ablativo legunt, circumcisione octavi diei; quod fortassis interpies, qui ita vevtit, pro recto casu legerit dativum in Graeco. Nam utriusque casus literae sunt eaedem. Addens autem Apostolus, octavo die, significare voluit se non esse proselytum, id est, advenam populi Dei; ut praeter alios observavit Augustinus. Nam proselyti, ex gentilitate ad Judaismum adducti, aetate adulta circumcidebantur. Sed ne saltem ex parentibus proselytis natus videretur, et ab iis octavo die circumcisus, addit:
Ex genere Israel, scilicet oriundus aeque ut illi. Sic 2 Cor. 11. Israelitae sunt; et ego. Male Erasmus, ct eum secuti Cajetanus et Sasboldus, suspicantur Israel esse nominativum, tanquam sensus sit: Genere Israel, id est: Israelita: quomodo dixit se circumcisionem, id est, circumcisum: nusq uam enim Israel pro uno quopiam Israelita ponitur, sed collectivum nomen est, significans pcpulum ex Israele genitum. Est igitur Israel genitivus, sicut et Benjamin, in eo quod sequitur:
De tribu Benjamin. In Graeco subauditur ex praepositio ex parte praecedenti. De tribu Benjamin jam secundo se nuncupat: prius enim id fecit in Epistola ad Rom. 11. Quippe non parva gloria erat Benjamitam esse; fuit enim haec tribus ex praecipuis: nam et prima regem habuit in illo populo, Saul nomine. Quod idem et Paulo nomen fuerat: sic enim coelitus ei dictum est: Saul, Saul, quid me persequeris? ut habetur in Graeco Act. 9. Et quod amplius eam tribum commendabat, neque postea, tempore schismatis. a regno Juda recessit, neque religionem mutavit, sicut decem tribus fecerant; sed tam regiae tribui, quam sacerdotali mansit perpetuo conjuncta. Rationem hanc attendit Augustinus, cui praeterea accedit, quod in sorte tribus Benjamin sita erat Jerosolyma et aedificatum templum.
Hebraeus ex Hebraeis. Quibusdam videtur, Apostolum hac parte significare genus suum non fuisse permixtum aliquando cum alienigenis, i! est, gentibus: qucmodo permixtum erat p;enus Samaritanorum, sed ortum se tantum ex Hebraeis parentibus atque majoribus. Huic sententiae Cajetanus accedit. At Graeci putant, Apostolum eo respicere, quod multi Judaeorum per varias orbis regiones dispersi Hebraicae linguao peritiam amiserant, peregrinis linguis assueti, qui proinde inter Ilebraeos merito censeri non debuerint; Paulum vero et parentes ejus iiil tale passos, sed characterem gentis, id est, linguam incorruptam retinuisse: ut hoc sit Hebraeum esse ex Hebraeis. Quae sententia probabilior est, imo vera omnino, secundum ea, quae diximus ad illud 2 Cor. 11. Hebraei sunt, et ego. Cum enim Paulus non ipse solum Pharisaeuc fuerit, sed et Pharisaeo patre natus, quemadmodum ipse testatur Act. 23., cura fuit parenti ejus, quamvis in Cilicia moranti, *it tam lingua patria, quam lege et secta filium a primis annis imbueret. Porro quod in hujus loci commentario scribit titularis Ambrosius, Hebraeos ab Abraham Patriarcha dictos unius literae mutatione, tanquam Ahraeos, et hanc generis originem Paulum significare voluisse: recte S. Thomas in suo comment. reiellit eo argumento, quoniam et ipse Abraham cognominatus fuitHebraeus Gen. 14. Existimat aufem Thomas, Augustinum iii Retract. lib. 2. cap. 16. secutus, Hebraeos esse nuncupatos ab Heber, qui sexta generatione Abraham praecedit, Geu. 11., quod nimirum, facta divisione linguarum, in sola ejus familia prima lingua reman* serit: qui proinde et linguae et posteritati suae nometi dederit. At vero aliorum sententia est, Hebraeum dici quasi transitorem: eoque cognomine appellatum Abraham ab incolis terrae Chanaan, propterea quod transito flumine Euphrate illuc coinmigrasset; velut si dicas tranisfluvialem. Quae quidem sententia verior est, ut pluribus ostendemus in argum. epist. ad Hebraeos. S^eundum legem Pharisaeus. Nunc ad ea verit, quae propriae sunt electionis, ideoque plus habere videntur commendationis. Nam qr.atuor superiora nativitatis sunt, aut alieni operis. Secundum legem 86 dicit Pharisaeum fuisse, non quod lex alkjuid praecipiat de Pharisaeis, sed quod, cum duae essent celebres in populo sectae legem Mosaicam profitentes, Pharisaeorum et Sadducaeorum, eam, quae sanior et praestantior erat, id est Pharisaeorum sectam atque institutum, fuerit amplexus. Habebatur enim hoc vitae genus apud Judaeos cumprimis honestum et laudabile, neque ex professione quicquam mali continebat. Unde Dominus ait Matth. 23. Super cathedram Mosis sederunt Scribae et Pharisaei: quaecunque dixerint vubis servate et facite, non utique de Sadducaois id dicturus. Repetit autem hoc ipsum de se Paulus, eoque nomine se defendit Act. 23. dicens: Ego Pharisaeus sum} filius Pharisaeorum, aut ut in Graeco: filius PharLaei, et 26. Secundum certissimam sectam nostrae religionis vixi Pharisaeus.
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6. Secundum aemulationem persequens ecclesiam Dei. Genitivum Dei Graeca non habent, nec agnoscit Augustinus: additum suspicor ex GaL 1. Tantus, inquit, in me fuit zelus et studium legis ac paternarum traditionum; ut quicquid eis adversarium videretur, impatienter ferrem, ipsamque adeo Christi Ecclesiam tanquam apostatricem legis persequerer, per hoc existimans obsequium me praestare Deo.
Secundum justitiam, quae in lege est, conversatus sine querela. Graece, factus irreprehensibilis. Augustinus legit, qua fuerim sine querela. Postremo loco re s^rvavit Apostolus, quod praecipuum erat, scilicet exactam legis observationem, quatenus illo in statu observari potuit. Sensus est: Denique quod ad justitiam attinet, quae in lege et per legem habetur; ita conversatus sum coram hominibus, ut nemi) de me queri possit, aut objicere, quod legem ulla parte fuerim transgressus. Justitiam, quae in lege est, paulo post vocat justitiam ex lege, quomodo etiam hoc loco legit Ambrosianos; id est, justitiam ex sola legis cognitione partam, quae cujusmodi sit justitia, mox explicabitur. An autem simili sensu dixerit Apostolus Act. 23. Ego omni conscientia bona conversatus sum ante Deum; t,t 2 Tim. 1. Gratias ago Deo, cai servio a progeniloribus in conscientia pura: suis locisexpendendum est. Certe constat, illud non esse simile, quod scriptum est de parentibus Joannis Baptistae Luc. 1. Erant autem justi ambo ante Deum, incedentes in omnibus mandatis et justificationibus Domini sine querela. Haec enim vera justitia fuit.
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7. Sed quae mihi fuerunt lucra, haec arbitratus sum propter Christum detrimenta. Graece, detrimentum numero singulari. Totum hunc locum Chrysostomus aliique Graeci contra Marcionitas veteris legis calumniatores ita tractant, ut ea, quae Apostolus dicit sibi fuisse lucra, vere talia fuisse intelligant; reputari autem ab eodem damna, detrimenta, stercora, non absolute, sed solum comparatione Christi et donorum ejus. Quod quidem contra veteres haereticos sane recteque dicitur: Lex enim sancta; et mandatum sanctum, et justum et bonum. Rom. 7. Et lex paedagogus Judaeorum fuit in Christo, Gal. 3. Nec potuit non esse bona lex a Deo data: sive decalogum spectes, sive ceremonias lege praescriptas. Verum si Pauli scopus ct verba penitus inspiciantur, non de ipsa lege loquitur, sed de justitia, quae in lege est: hoc enim ultimum et praecipuum commemoraverat: Secundum justitiam, quae in lege est, conversatus sine querela. Et hoc ipsum postea repudiat, dicens: Ut inveniar in illo non habens meam justitiam, quae ex lege est, sed illam, quae ex fide est Christi etc. Hanc igitur justitiam et caetera svperiora, quatenus huc referenantur, Apostolus postquam a lege transiit ad Christum, reputavit ut detrimenta et stercora. Sic intelligit et exponit hunc locum Augustinus in serm. superius cit. cap. 5. et seq. Videantur et haec ejus loca: lib. 3. contra 2. epist. Pelag. cap. 2. et 7., lib. de grat. et lib. arb. cap. 12. Itera lib. de gratia Christi cap. 13. et epist. 106. Censet autem Apostolus, justitiam, quae ex lege est, damnosam et rejectaneam fuisse, tum quia non erat vera, sed falsa justitia: nam ex operibus legis non justificabitur omnis caro, Rom. 3. et Gal. 2., tum quia opera sic facta, quomodo fiebant a Judaeis, Dei justitiam ignorantibus et suam quaerentibus statuere, ne moraliter quidem bona erant, sed simpliciter mala, propter vitiosam circumstantiam. Est igitur Apostoli sensus: Sea quae tunc mea et aliorum opinione erant utilia tanquam verae justitiae opera, et pro quibus praemium a Deo exspectabam: ea propter Christum, id est, ut Christum lucrifaciam, sic enim postea seipsum exponit, damni et detrimenti loco duxi; quia a vera justitia, quae non est nisi per Christum, magis me alienarunt, nec potui particeps esse justitiae Christi, nisi sic de illis sentirem.
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8. Verumtamen existimo omnia detrimentum esse propter eminentem scientiam Jesu Christi Domini mei. Graece: Verumtamen etiam, aut, quin etiam, existimo. Similiter Augustinus et Ambrosianus legunt. Nec otiosa est particula et vel etiam. Servit enim incremento orationis rhetorico. Nam sensus est: Plus aliquid dicam, non solum enim vitam, quam in Judaismo duxi, reputavi detrimentum propter Christum: verum semel omnia, quae tunc magnifaciebam, ut genus, sectam, legisperitiain, quam Gamaliele doctore accepi, et quicquid ad Christum me non promovet, arbitror esse detrimentum: hoc est, non solum inutile, sed etiam damnosum et noxium: idque propter eminentem scientiam, sive, ut est in Graeco et apud Ambrosianum, propter eminentiam scientiae, id est, ut assequar excellentiam cognitionisChristi et beneficiorum ejus. Ita enim ipse Apostolus paulo post exponit: Ad cognoscendum illum etc. Sub cognitione more Scripturao comprehendit perceptionem et fructum rerum cognitarum; simulque significat, se huju«modi cogaitionem nondum plene consecutum esse, sed adhuc in ea proficere. Id quod infra docet expressius. Addit autem, Domini mei, ut ardentem animi sui affectum erga redemptorem suum declaret. XT
Propter quem omnia detrimentum feci. Quod interpres veriit detrimentum feci, in Graeco unum verbum est passivum, quod significat multari, damno affici, detrimentum pati. Quapropter Hentenius et alii nonnulli sic vertunt: Propter quem omnium feci jacturam. Quin et Ambrosius in Psalm. 118. serm. 8. sic legit: Propter guem omnia detrimentum passus sum. Nec ab eo sensu nostra lectio aliena est: nam sicut facere jacturam, sic et detrimentum facere, passivam habere potest significationero, ut sensus esse queat, etiam nostra lectione retenta: Propter quem Dominum meum passus sum detrimentum omnium, exui me omnibus, omnia projeci, quae prius magna et pretiosa reputabam. Non hoc erat absolute detrimentum pati; sed juxta rerum aestimationem, quam habuerat in Judaismo.
Et arbitror ut stercora. Graeca majorem adhuc contemptum sonant, et arbitror e^sz stercora. Consonat Augustini et Ambrosiani lectio. Nonnulli Graecam vocem ox6|3aXa quisquilias interpretati sunt. Atque ita legit Hieronymus lib. 2. dial. contra Pelag. cap. 3. Alii vertunt rejectamenta, quod fere idem valet. Et quidem hujusmodi interpretationem exigunt Graecorum commentarii, ne videlicet aequo contemptibilius de lege loqui videatur Apostolus. Sed jam supra dictum est, non haec in contemptum legis, sed justitiae, quae ex lege est, ab Apostolo dici. Constat Graeco vocabulo stercora quoque significari, qup.madmodum et Erasmus vertit et legunt omnes Latini veteres: tametsi et ad alias rerum sordes et purgamenta nonnunquam ea vox extendatur. Hieronymus commentans in Habac. 2. alium quendam hujus loci sensum adfert: Apostolus, inquit, doctrinae veteris errorem dicit se reputasse oxuftaXa, id est, in stercora. Non quod lex tetus, ut Manichaei arbitrantur, ad comparationem Evangelii ox6|3aAa computetur: quod impium est dicere, cum unius Dei utrumque sit testamentum: sed quod doctrinae Pharisaeorum, et praecepta hominum, et SsuTspojoei*; Judaeorum, stercora dicantur ab Apostolo. Sic ille, quem sequitur ac nominatim citat in suo collectaneo Sedulius. Verum nec ista germana est explicatio. Nam traditionum Judaicarum seu Pharisaicarum in superioribus nulla facta est mentio. Quocina retinenda nobis est via, quam Augustino duce ingressi sumus, exponentes Apostolum de justitia legali: quae etiam sine piaeceptis ac traditionibus illis humanis a Christo in Evangelio damnatis Matth. 15. detrimentum est et stercora: detrimentum quidem, quia nocet; stercora vero, quia foetet et habentem commaculat. Nec vero quisquam mirabitur, legalem justitiam ab Apostolo vocari stercora; si cogitet eandem a Propheta vocari immunditiam, et comparari cum panno mulieris menstruatae. Sic enim in persona carnalium Judaeorum, justitiam ex lege quaerentium, loquitur Jesaias cap. 64. Et facti sumus ut immundus omnes nos; et quasi pannus menstruatae universae justitiae nostrae. Quo pertinet etiam illud a Domino dictum adversus justitiam Pharisaeorum, Luc. 16. Quod hjminibus altum est, abominatio est apud Deum. Natio vero perspicua est: quia fiebant ab illis ea opera legis, non solum non ex fide Christi, sine qua nihil valent ad salutem, sed et cum opinione, quod per ea ex sola legis cognitione profecta possent Deum sibi promereri.Putabant enim, legem solam sibi ipsis ad veram justitiam sufficere. Quae persuasio cum sit falsa, noxia et pemiciosa, cuinquinabat omnia opera tali animo atque opinione facta. Et quamvis qui sic instituti erant, manum ab opere per legem vetito cchiberent, timore poenae, quam lex minabatur, repressi, voluntatr» tamen transgressores erant. Unde Augustinus in sermone saepe citato cap. 6. Qui timore poenae non concupiscit, puto, quia concupiscit. Nec solum voluntate, sed et opere, per legem decalogi non expresse prohibito: quasi ideo contra legem non esset. Unde Dominus suis dicebat: Nisi abundaverit justitia vestra plus quam Scribarum?t Pharisaeorum, non intrabitis in regnum coelorum Matth. 5. Fatatur haec et docet ipse Apostolas de se et caeteris sub lege constitutis, Eph. 2. In quibus, inquit, et nos omnes aliquando conversati sumus in desideriis carnis nostrae, facientes voluntatem carnis et cogitationum. Et plenius ad Tit. 3. Erasmus enim aliquando et nus insipientes, increduli, errantes, servientes desideriis et voluptatibus variis, in malitia et invidia agentes, odibiles, odientes invicem. Ex quibus omnibus satis apparet, quam merito justitiam, quae cx lege est, detrimentum et stercora reputaverit Apostolus. Finem autem et fructum hujusmodi reputationis subjungit: Ut Christum lucrifaciam. Id est, ut bonorum ejus particeps efficiar. Habetur haec participatio primum quidem per fidem at notitiam Christi, veramque justitiam: deinde per consortium resurrectionis et gloriae ejus.
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9. Et inveniar in illo non habens meam justitiam, quae ex lege est, sed illam, quae ex fide est Chi isti. Graece per fidem, quomodo legunt etiam Augustinus et Ambrosianus. Quod autem ait: inveniar, Hebraismus est, qualis Gal. 2. Inventi sumus et ipsi peccatores, ut talis inveniri quis dicatur, qualio existit secundum veritatem. Itaque sensus est: Et ut sim in illo, scilicet Christo, sicuti palmes in vite, non habens meam justitiam, id est, quae mihi a meipso sit, eam nimirum, quae ex sola legis notitia habetur, quae quidem non vera, sed falsa justitia est: sedillam, quae est ex fide, vel per fidem, qua in Christum creditur. Haec enim sola vera justitia est. Dicitur autem esse ex fide, qua in Christum creditur, tum quia per hanc fidem cognoscitur, eam non aliunde, quam ex merito passionis Christi haberi posse, tum quia fides illam impetrat, imo et initium ejus est, adeo ut et ipsa non nisi per Christum habeatur. His fere modis explicat eam phrasim Apostoli Augustinus serm. meraorato, et lib. de praedest. sanct. cap. 7. et epist. 106. Notandum autem, particulam in illo posse transferri ad illud posterius: sed illam, quae ex fide est Christi, idque per hyperbaton simile ei, quod est in fine primi capitis: quia vobis donatum est pro Christo etc. Et ita sensus est: Et ut inveniar non habens meamjustitiam, quae ex lege est, sed in illo, id est, per illum, habens justitiam, videlicet eam, quae est ex fide Christi.
Quae ex Deo est justitia in fide. Verti etiam potest super fidem, quemadmodum dicitur Eph. 2. Superaedificati super fundamentum Apostolorum etc. Est enim eadem praepositio fticl. Sensus est: Justitiam, inquam, quae a Deo auctore est, et fundatur in ride: quia fides hujus justitiaefundamentum est, eo sensu, quem modo explicuimus. Hic observa, secundum Apostoli doctrinam utrumque tenendum esse, quod et a Deo justitia nostra sit, et quod per Christum: a Deo, ut auctore seu causa efficiente: per Christum vero, ut promerentem; quorum neutrum agnoscebant Judaizantes. Putabant enim, proprias naturae vires una cum legis adminiculo, velut commonitorio quodam, ipsis sufficere ad justitiam. Unde dicebant audita lege: Omnia, quae locutus est Dominus, faciemus Exod. 24. Christum vero tantummodo velut insignem doctorem et exemplar justitiae coelitus ad se missum suscipiebant. Porro alia parte peccant nostri temporis haeretici, dum putant, Apostolum dicentem: non habens meam justitiam, quae ex lege est etc, tollere omnem justitiam inhaerentem, qua formaliter homo justus sit, et quae in legis observatione consistat, atque eam solam statuere, quae in Christo inhaerens, credentibus in Christum imputetur. Quod ab Apostoli mente quamsit alienum, vel unum illud ostendit, quod ait: factoreslegisjustificariRom.2. Conferendus est autem praesens locus cum eo, qui est Rom. 9. et 10., ubi similiter et eodem sensu de duplici justitia disserit: altera nostra, quae sit ex lege: altera Doi, quae ex fide. Non enim nostram vocat justitiam, quae in nobis est, sed quae a nobis: sicut et Dei justitiam, quae a Deo est, non quae in Deo, et qua Deus ipse justus sit. Quod dum adversarii nolunt intelligere, in absurdissimos errores prolapsi sunt.
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10. Ad cognoscendum illum, et virtutem resurrectionis ejus et societatem passionum illius. Societalem, Graece communionem seu communicationem. Et ita legunt Augustinus et Ambrosianus. Haec pars tota secundum Graecorum expositionem dependet ab eo, quod proxime praecessit, in fide, ut sensus sit: Justitiam esse ex fide, qua cognoscitur Christus, et virtus resurrectionis ejus et communio passionum ejas. Eandem fere constructionem Latini plerique sequuntur. Attamen nil vetat, imo valde probabile est, hanc partem altius esse referendam, ut simul cum praecedentibus dependeat ab eo, quod dixerat: se omnia detrimentum fecisse et arbitrari ut stercora. Docet enim, et pluribus verbis inculcat Apostolus, rationem et fructum deserti a se atque contempti Judaismi, quodque breviter et obscure dixerat: propter eminentem scientiam Jesu Christi, nunc partibus quibusdam explicat, ut sit sensus: Et ut cognoscam illum, nempe quis et quatenus sit, utpote Deus et homo, et caetera, quae ad utramque ejus naturam pertinent. Item ut cognoscam virtutem seu potentiam resurrectionis et gloriae ejus, nempe quod ea sit exemplaris causa nostrae resurrectionis et gJoriae, quia nos ad ejus similitudinem reformandi sumus; quasi dicat: Pharisaei semper habent resurrectionem in ore, sed non intelligunt hoc mysterium, quod Christi resurrectio sit causa nostrae resurrectionis. Denique, ut cognoscam communicationem passionum ejus, sive qua merita passionum ejus nobi3 ad justitiam et salutem communicantur, id quod Judaizartes non intelligebant, sive qua ego Paulus per afflictiones et adversa, quae propter amorem Christi patior, communico passionibus ejus, ut et gloriae ejus particeps efficiar, juxta illud 1 Petr. 4. Communicantes Christi passionibus gaudete: ut et in revelatione ejus gaudeatis exsultantes. Hunc posteriorem sensum Graeci tradunt, eique bene congruit, quod sequitur:
Configuratus morti ejus. Negligit Apostolus syntaxim grammaticam, ut interdum alibi. Graecum verbum conformare potius significat quam configurare, tametsi interpres haec usurpet pro eodem. Augustinus legit conformatus. Sed scito, Graecum participium praesentis esse temporis, cui non est Latinum, quod respondeat. Unde interpretes alii circumloquuntur. Ambrosianus: Conformans me morti ejus. Erasmus et Hentenius: Dum conformis fio morti ejus. Haeret sententia cum extrema parte i&uperiori, ad hunc modum explitanda: Et ut cognoscam communicationem passionum ejus, in quam venio, et quae mihi contingit, dum per passiones et mortis pericula, quae pro nomine ejus sustineo (sicut alibi dicit se quotidie mori, 1 Cor. 15.), conformis efficior morti ejus.
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11. Si quo modo occurram cd resurrectionem, quae est ex mortuis. Graece ad resurrectionem mortuorum. Sicctiam Augustinus legit. Sensus est: Compatior et commorior Christo, ut si quo modo possim, perveniam ad beatam resurrectionem mortuorum, quam justi exspectant. Observat Theophylactus, hoc loco non esse avaOTaoiv, quo nomine solet in Scripturis resurrectio significari, sed s£avaoTaotv, id est, exsurrectionem, qua nimirum ita quippiam resurgit, ut in altum feratur. Hac igitur voce putat proprie significatam esse resurrectionem justorum, qui quum resurgent, momento levabuntur in aera ad Dominum, caeteris in terra manentibus. Idem docet scribens in Joan. 6. et Heb. 11. Quod vero Apostolus, velut dubitans, dicit: si quo modo, non solum insinuat difficultatem perveniendi ad illam beatitudinem, secundum illud 1 Petr. 4. Justus vix salvabitur, verum etiam securitatem et certitudinem consequendae salutis excludit, uti diserte annotarunt post Chrysostomum, Theophylactus ct Oecumenius addacentes ad eandem rem alia duo loca ex 1 Cor. 9. et 10. Qui se existimat stare, videat, ne cadut; et: Castigo corpus meum et in servitutem redigo, neforte, cum aliis praedicaverim, ipse reprobus efficiar. Haec ostendunt, Apostolam, quando ea scripsit, nondum habuisse divinitus revelationem suae salutis. Quod si Paulus post tot labores Christi nomine snscsptos, et post tanta divini erga se amoris indicia, nondum securus erat; falluntur ergo, imo seipsos tallunt miserrime, quotquot hodie certam sibi ipsis salutem, velut ex verbo Dei promittunt.
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12. Non quod ja?n acceperim, aut jam perfectus sim. Hanc partem alii alio referunt. Quidam ad haec proxima: Si occurram etc., quasi dicat: non ideo mentionem facio praemii, quod jara perfectionem viae sim assecutus. Theophylactus eodem refert, sed diverso sensu, ut propterea dicat Apostolus se ambigue locutum: Si quo modo occurram, quia nondum erat consummatus. At Oecumenius existimat, Apostolum respicere ad illud: Configuratus morti ejus. Per hoc enim videri poterat, magnum aliquid et perfectum sibi adscripsisse, quod proinde hac sententia temperare voluerit. Porro Chrysostomus et Ambrosius hoc dictum a Paulo interpretantur non propter aliquod verbum praecedens, sed propter Philippenses, ut audientes Apostolum tam humiliter de semetipso loqui, discerent et ipsi modeste de se sentire. Potest nihilominus ad illa superiora referri, quibus exposuerat fructum, quem ex abjecto Judaismo consequebatur, ui sensus sit: Haec non commemoravi, quod jam totum fructum, qui in hac vita haberi potest, acceperim, vel ut Ambrosianus legit: apprehenderim, aut quod jam perfectus sim vita et cognitione, ita ut ad capiendum praemium nihil mihi desit, nec ultra proficere debeam.
Sequor autem, si comprehendam. Sequor, Graece persequor. Sic enim ipse interpres paulo postvertit eandem vocem; significat autem insequi cum extremo conatu assequendi et apprehendendi. Jam illud: si comprehendam, in multis codicibus ita legitur: Si quo modo comprehendam. Quae lectio etiam apud veteres Augustinum et Ambrosium reperitur, eamque Clementina confirmat editiu. Quanquam e diverso nostram, quae Lovaniensis est, apud Primasium, Pelagium et Sedulium reperio. Verisimile est addititiam esse particulam quo modo, huc insertam ex eo, quod supra dictum est: Si quo modo occurram. Nam in Graeco nil ei respondet, nisi ccnjunctio copulativa: Si et comprehendam; quae conjunctio subinde otiosa est apud Apostolum, et ab interprete omittitur. Notandam autem, in his Apostoli verhig et sequentibus esse continuam quandam metaphoram, sumptam ab iis, qui cursu certant in stadio. Sensus igitur est: Nondum assecutus sum perfectionem, ut mihi jam quiescendum sit, sed adhuc curro, contendo, persequor, ut illam, si queam, apprehendam. Non loquitur de praemio vitae aeternae, quod infra vocat bravium supernae vocationis, sed de perfectione cognitionis et vitae, ad quam in hoc saeculo, post quantumlibet profectum, semper adhuc aspirandum est. Nam de praemio beatitudinis non diceret, quod sequitur: Ego me non arbitror comprehendisse: cum id nullam haberet dubitationem.
In quo et comprehensus sum a Christo Jesu. Haec pars dupliciter exponitur. A Graecis quidem hoc modo: Sicut aliquando procul aberrans et fugiens a Christo, comprehensus sum ab eo, per gratiam ejus praevenientem: ita nunc vicissim hanc praesto diligentiam, ut totis viribus eum insequar, et nitar apprehendere virtutum perfectione. Latini vero sensum hunc reddunt: Curro et persequor, ut comprehendam, pc talis efficiar, qualis, ut fierem, comprehensus sum, id est, electus ac praedestinatus a Christo; hoc est, ut pertingam ad justitiae perfectionem. Utrumque sensum adfert Oecumenius. Priori modo particula: In quo, Giaece £<p' w, causam aut similitudinom denotat: posteriori idem valet, ac si dicas: ad quod. Eadem est autem particula Rom. 5. In quo omnes peccaverunt: ubi et de ejus acceptione nonnulla diximus. Conferatur hic locus cum eo, qui est 1 Cor. 13. Tunc autem cognoscam, sicut et cognitus sum. Nam et illa sententia duplicem recipit expositionem, et utramque probabilem, sicut ibi declaratum est. Sed cum hoc loco durius sit, comprehensum interpretari electum, seu praedestinatum: videtur prior expositio praeferenda.
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13. Fratres, ego me non arbitror comprehendisse. Ad Philippenses sermonem convertit, ut eos suo exemplo humilitatis admoneat. In Graeco plenius legitur: Fratres ego meipsum nondum arbitror apprehendisse. Pro nondum, Ambrosianus legit, non adhuc, quod aequivalot. Sensus est: Ego, quamvis tot pro Christo laboribus ac periculis perfunctus, adeo ut dicere possim me plus omnibus laborasse: nondum tamen arbitror me assecutum esse perfectionem, quam habere debeo. Multa adhuc video mihi deesse: nolite in me falli, plus me ipse novi quam vos, inquit Augustinus serm. supradicto. XJnum autem. Subaudi, ago; id est, in unam rem totus sum intentus, tametsi Augustinr.s serm. 1. de diversis cap. 6. construit cum verbo, sequor, ouod infra habetur. Sed hoc rainus probabile. Unum autem illud exponit Apostolus sequentibus verbis: Quae quidem retro sunt obliviscens, ad ea vero quae sunt priora extendens meipsum. Persistit in metaphora currentis in stadio; qui negligens ea, quae sunt a tergo, totum se protendit ad anteriora, sic ut pedibus adhuc currentibus, jam corpore promineat ad scopum. Hanc enim significationem Graeci participii S7csxTStvou,svoc, quasi dicat adextensus, in praesenti, diligenter explicant interpretes Graeci; nec ejus vim assecutus est Erasmus, dum vertit, enitens. Sed quaenam intelligit Apostolus per ea, quae retro sunt? utrum opera legis, de quibus superius dixit, se ea reputare ut detrimentum et stercora? an potius opera sua praeterita ex fide facta, sed imperfectiora comparatione ejus perfectionis, ad quam toto cursu se tendere dicit? Omnino haec posteriora intelligenda sunt: nam illapriora erant extra cursum hominis Christiani, imo contra cursum. Et hoc modo Augustinus, Ambrosianus, Chrysostomus, eiusque sequaces Apostolum intellexerunt. Obliviscitur autem operum praeteritorum, quamvis justorum non quod ea contemnat, sed quod iis non contentus, semper ad majora et perfectiora nititur.
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14. Ad destinatum persequor. Graece est, xcctoc oxo7iov, id est, secundum scopum, ut vertit Theophylacti interpres. Sed quia scopus Graeca dictio est, tametsi Latinis usitata, maluit interpres noster Latine dicere, ad destinatum: pro quo Hentenius trantulit, juxta praefixum signum. Nam scopus significat signum sagittantibus propositum, Potest etiam veiti, secundum intentionem: quomodo legit AuguEtinus utroque serm. jam allegato, et in enarr. Psalm. 38. Verum haec lectio non perinde quadrat metaphorae, in qua Apostolus versatur. Opponit autem hoc quod est, ad scopum seu destinatum persequi, ei quod est, in incertum currere, quod a se removet 1 Cor. 9. dicens: Ego sic curro, non quasi in incertum. Ad bravium supernae vocationis Dei in Christo Jesu. BpapsTov, Graeca vox est, quaproprie significatur praemium certantibus propositum: de quo ibidem Apostolus: Omnes quidem currunt, sed unus accipit bravium. Augustinus et Ambrosiauus legunt, ad palmam. Atque hoc modo vertere malunt recentiores. Sed jam totam Apostoli sententiam elucidemus. Ego, inquit, ea quae sunt a tergo relinquens, ad ea vero, quae sunt a fronte, meipsum extendens, oculis semper in scopum defixis, cursu contendo ad palmam, seu praemium regni coelestis, ad quod a Deo vocati sumus per Christi fidem et merita. Quaeritur, an Apostolus per scopum et bravium rem eandem voluerit significare. Ita quidem sentiunt plerique commentatores, tam Graeci, quam Latini: verum diversae praepositiones ui Graeco, xaxa et sn\, non parum resistunt huic intellectui. Qui enim dicit, juxta scopum contendo ad palmam: ipso loquendi modo videtur Uiud atque aliud iis nominibus significare. Accedit, quod in certamine corporali, unde similitudo petitur, aliud est scopus, aliud praemium, seu palma, seu corona. Quare secundum ea, quae superius dicta sunt, appaiet, per scopum, seu destinatum, intelligi perfectionem illam, de qua dicebat: Non quod jam acceperim aut jam perfectus sim, et rursus: Ego me non arbitror comprehendisse: per bravium vero seu palmam significari praemium supernae beatitudinis, ad quoJ obtinendum currere sc dicit, habendo oculos semper intentos in scopum perfectionis propositae.
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15. Quicunque ergo perfecti sumus, hoc sentiamus. Hieronymus lib. 1. dial. contra Pelag. cap. 5. testatur, exemplaria variasse, ut in aliis legeretur, sapimus, in aliis sapiamus, id est, sentiamus. Verum haec posterior lectio hodie, ni fallor, omnium est codicum, etiam Grapcorum; eademque procul dubio Paulinae menti congruentior. Nam ea, quae de se humiliter dixit Apostolus, nunc co±vertit ad Philippensium inscructionem atque adhortationem. Perfectos dicere videtur, quos alibi spirituales, et firmiores, et perfectos vocat: id est, sapientiae sublimioris capaces et percipientes ea, quae sunt spiritus Dei, et eos, qui pro consuetudine exercitatos habent sensus ad discretionem boni et mali. Quibus ab eodem Apostolo opponuntur infirmi, carnales, animales etparvuli, quibus lacte opus est. Loca sunt Rom. 14. et 15. 1 Cor. 2. et 3. 2 Cor. ult. Gal. 6. et Heb. 5. Proinde sensus est: Quotquot igitur perfecti sumus, id est, intelligentia rerum divinarum caeteris praestamus, vel reipsa, vel nostra, aut aliorum opinione: hoc sentiamus, quod ego de meipso jam pro fessus sum, scilicet, nbs nondum apprehendisse, aut perfectos esse, sed adhuc multa nobis deesse; ideoque nos eorum, quae retro sunt, oblitos semper ad anteriora debere extendi. Ex hoc commentario liquet, Apostolum non esse sibi contrarium, dum paulo ante negavit se perfectum, hic vero inter perfectos se annumerat. Non enim, ut existimat Hieronymus super Hab. 1., diversas personas induens haec dicit Apostolus: quasi prius in persona incipientium locutus fuerit, hic autem loquatur in persona perfectorum, quorum unus ipse erat. At neque sufncit dicere, qucd superius a se removerit perfectionem patriae, nunc vero viae perfectionem sibi cum aliis adscribat: osrensum enim est, etiam verba superiora de perfectione viatoris accipienda esse. Sed illic se perfectum negat, quod adhuc multa sibi deesse intelligeret, quorum accessio etiam in hac vita per continuum profectum expectari poterat: hic vero se perfectis annumerat, id est, sp:ritualibus, qui comparatione eorum, qui in via et cognitione Dei minus profeceiant, merito perfecti dici poterant, Ucet adhuc, etiam in hac vita, amplius perficiendi, donec ad terminum pertingerent. Haec conciliatio apud Ambrosianum est, eademque Graecorum commentariis consentanea; quos et sequitur Cajetanus, addens, ex hoc textu clare haberi, quod non solum incipientes et proficientos, sed et peifecti quicunque, in hac vita nunquam perveniunt ad terminum meriti: sed semper possunt amplius mereri. Nec ab his Augustinus, quod ad rem ipsam attinet, dissentit. Quamvis enim priori loco perfectionem patriae putet intelligi; vult tamen, Apostoli mentem esse, quod nemo tam sit perfectus viator, quin ad majorem perfectionem, etiam in hac vita consequendam semper anniti debeat. Tta docet serm. 15. de verb. Ap. c. ult., lib. 2. de peccat. mer. cap. 7. et 13., lib. 3. contra 2. ep. Pelag. cap. 7., de perfect. just. cap. 8., de gratia et lib. arb. cap. 1. et 25. Tract. 98. in Joann. et in enarr. Psalmi 89. Porro si perfecti sic, uti dictum est, de se sentire debent, imo qui revera perfecti sunt, ita sentiunt; utique intelligendum r^linquitur, multo magis ab imperfectis id requiri, quales erant, de quibus jam sequitur:
Et si quid aliter sapitis. Vel sentitis; est enim idem verbum in Graeco, quod prius.
Et hoc vobis Deus revelavit. Legendum, revelabit. Sic enim non modo Graeci et Syri codices ac multi Latini vetusti habent: verum etiam legunt et et exponunt Augustinus, Primasius, Sedulius, Thomas, Lirantis, ac caeteri expositores Latini: sufiragante etfam editione Clementina. Nec secus legit ac inte.pretatur Ambrosianus, ut male ab Erasmo annotatum est. Occasio mutandi fufuri temporis in praeteritum fr.it, quod revelatio videretur referenda ad vertum sapitis, quod est praesentis temporis, cui prcinde non videbatur respondere posse revelatio futura, sed praeterita. Atqui non eo referenda est, sed ad id, quod proxime dixerat, ut sensus sit: Et si qui vestrum aliter sentiunt de ea re, de qua jam egi, nimirum aibitrantes se jam apprehendisse perfectionem, ut proficereultra non debeant: equidem confido, Deum vobis, qui tales estis, etiam hoc, quod sentiendum dixi, revelaturum per internam inspirationem atque doctrinam. Obiter significat, Dei donum esse, quod quis recte sapit et imperfectionem suam agnoscit. Hunc sensum Augustinus et plerique interpretes tradunt. Qr.anquam Lyranus alium sensum subjungit, quem putat magis literalem: Si quid aliter sapitis, id est, inquit, si quid aliud pertinens ad cultum Dei et ad perfectionis statum vos cognoscere contigerit: scire debetis, id non provenire ex intelligentia vestra, sed ex revelatione divina. Vertim aliter sapere, pro eo, quod est adhuc aliud et amplius aliquid sapere: contorta videtur expositio. Nam istud aliter passim haber. significationem ejus, quod est diversum, imo contrarium: etiam apud Apostolum, ut 1 Tim. 1. Ut denunciares quibusdam ne aliter docerent, et cap. 6. Si quis aJiter docet, et non acquiescit sanis sermonibus, ete.
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16. Verumtamen ad quod pervenimus: ut idem sapiamus, et in eadem permaneamus regula. Graeca ad verbttra sic habent: Verumtamen ad quod pervenimus, eadem incedere regula, idem sentire. Quos infinitivos Theophylacti interpres et alii quidam non male per imperativos reddunt, incedite, sentite. Nam similiter ad Rom. 12. dixit: Gaudere cum gaudentibus, et flere cum flentibus. Ant certe, supplendum erit verbum, hortor, moneo, ut sit sensus: Interim quantum ad id, quod de rebus divinis jam assecuti sumus, hortor vos omnes. eadem regula doctrinae et fidei incedere, eandomqtte regulam tenere, et idem sapere, id est, concordes esse. Ratio exhortationis est, quia qui permanet in eo, qttod accepit, cum amore pacis et fraternitatis: meretur amplitts illttstrari, ut, etiamsi quid aliter sapiat, divina revelatione corrigatur. Forro de regula et consensit iu doctrina fidei Paulum loqui, probabile fit, tum ex superioribus, ubi de doctrina contra Judaizantes egit: tum quia etiam alibi, de fideloquens regulam nominat, ut Gal. ult. Quicunque hanc regulam secuti fuerint etc.
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17. Imitatores mei estote, fratres. Transit ad morttm informationem: monetque Philippenses, quos imitari debeant, et quos vitare. Ubi imprimis seipsum, tanquam illorum Apostolus et magister, idemque optime sibi conscius, et profectus sui non ignarus, imitandum eis proponit: deinde et alios ejusdem conversationis. Quo magis autem pseudapcstolorum doctrinam reddat illis odiosam, breviter etiam mores eorum ex adverso delineat: ostendens, eos non minus vita, quam doctrina pravos et corruptos esse: et proinde utroque nomine vitandos. In Graeco non est, LUUTyta! imitatores, sed ouuLUU-TjTat, coimitatores Pro quo Augustimis legit: Cooperatores, in tractatu de cultura agri Deminici cap. 1., tametsi minus bene. Sensus enim est: Estote trei imitatores una cum aliis, qui me ircitantur. Sicut alios videtis esse studiosos mei imitandi: ita et vos facite. Hos alios indicat parte sequenti.
Et observate eos, qui ita ambulant, sicut habetis formam nostram. Nostram, Graece, nos, quod et in nonnullis legitur Latinis tam excusis, quam manuscriptis. Dictum est autem appositive, sicut habetis formam nos, id est, nos ut fbrmam et exemplar, Graece, tutcov. Est itaque sensus: Et obseruate, sive (ut Ambrosianas legit, aliique vertunt) considerate eos, qui vUam suam instituunt ad exemplar, quod ego vobis praebui, quodque a me accepistis: et eos imitamim. Haec enim observatio est ad imitandum, sicut illa ad fugiendum, de qua Rom. 16. Rogo vos, inquit, fratres, ut observetis eos, qui dissensiones et offendicula faciunt, etc. Ac de talibus jam sequitur:
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18. Multi enim ambulant, quos saepe dicebam vobis, nunc autem et flens dico. Sensus est: Ideo tam solicite moneo quos imitemini, quia multi sunt nequaquam vobis imitandi, quantumvis Christi nomine sese venditent, et crucem Christi praedicent: de quibus saepe coram vos commonefeci, nunc autem absens rursus non sinelacrymis commonefacio. Flentem se introducit, ut commendet amorem suum erga Philippenses, quorum periculum metuebat. Verbum, ambulant, pendet a.3huc et modum desiderat, qui infra explicabitur.
Inimicos crucis Christi. Regitur a verbo dicebam, et: dico. Designat enim eos a doctrina. Nam qui justitiam praedicabant ex lege quaerendam, ut bene S. Thomas annotat, quamvis in Christum crucifixum credere se dicerent, ex consequenti tamen hostes crucis Chrhti se de- clarabant, quia, sicut alibi dicit Apostolus: Si per legem justitia: ergo gratis Christus mortuus est. Gal. 2. fin. Hanc autem praesentis loci veram esse intelli-
3:20
gentiam, sub initium hujus capitis satis monstratum est, ut ne quis suspicetur, Apostolum loqui de quibusdam, qui Chri- stura ~ere crucifixum esse negabant. Grae- ci inimicos crucis Christi interpretantur eos, qui voluptates et luxum hujus vitae sectantes, crucem Christi videntur olisse: utpote, quae non ad delicias, sed ad labores et austeritatem vitae nos invitet. Verum si crucis inimici sunt, qui molliter ac deliciose vivunt, rectam de Christo fidem tenentes; quanto magis illi, qui doctrina sua crucem Christi evacuant? 19. Quorum finis interitus. Id est, qui ad extremum interibunt ac perdentur. Lcquitur autem de aeterna perditione: in quam necessario incidunt, qui Christi crucem omnis salutis et gratiae fontem pravitate doctrinae suae persequuntur. Quorum Deus venter est. Hic jam explet id, quod dixerat, ambulant, quod huc usque mansit suspensum. Et sensus est: Non ambulant sicut nos, sed locge aliter. Nam ventrem habent pro Deo: non qaidem proprie ventrem Deum suum reputantes: at nec eo sensu, quod in ventre fiduciam collocent, sicut hominis avari Deus est pecunia, quatenus sperat et confidit in pecuniae thesauris: sed quia causa ventris omnia faciunt, id est, finem constituunt in deliciis cibi et potus: ut proinde ventricolae merito dici possint, juxta illud ApjstoK de iisdem, Rom. 16. Hujusmodi, inquit, Christo Domino nostro non serviunt, sed suo ventri. Hoc autem quam apte quadret in carnales Judaeos explicatum vide apud Theodoretum. Et gloria in confusione ipsorum. Id est: In dedecore, ignominia, turpitudine, pudore ipsorum. Haec enim significat vox Graeca aio/'jvirj. Ambrosianus legit, in pudendis ipsorum. Quae lectio etiam apud Ambrosium est libr. 1. de Cam et Abel cap. 5. et apud Augustinum serm. 15. de verbis Apostol. cap. 1. et fragmento ultim. cap. 4. Hi referunt ad circumcisionem, in qua maxime gloriabantur Judaei; quasi sensus Apostoli sit: Et quorum gloriatio est in eo membro, quod pudendum est et abscondenduir. Jactant enim illius membri circumcisionem, cum e diverso gloria nostra sit in cruce, quam portamus in frontibus. Meminerunt hujus expositionis Chrysostomus, Theophylnctus et Oecumenius, sed omnes eam rejiciunt, nec immerito: quia Graeca vox, etsi per tropum ad eam significationem trahi possit, nusquam tamen sic usurpata legitur. Adde quod de moribus Judaizantium, non de doctrina, nunc agit Apostolus: sicut et parte praecedenti et sequenti. Quare cum Graecis hunc sensum reddimus: Et qui gloriantur in iis, quorum ipsos oportebat pudere, id est, in flagitiis et male factis: juxta illud Prov. 2. Qui laetantur, cum male fecerint, et exultant in rebus pessimis. Quod quidem extremae malitiae signum est. Qui terrena sapiunt. Verbum Graecum, quod interpres vertit, sapere, tametsi proprie pertineat ad intellectum, saepe tamen ad affectum refertur. Atque eo sane referendum est hoc loco; sicut et ad Col. 3., ubi dicitur: Quae sursum sunt, sapite: non quae super terram. Igitur terrena sapiunt, quorum omne studium, et intentio vel solum, vel praecipue versatur circa bona terrena. Id quod carnalium Judaeorum moribus erat usitatissimum.
20. Nostra autem conversatio in coelis est. Graece, nostra enim, ut haec sit connexio: Nos autem non sic, nam nostra conversatio in coelis est. Vel: Merito vos invito, et ad nostri imitationem invitavi verbis superioribus. Ncstra enim etc. Dicit nostra, in sua persona simul et imitatorum sui. Pro conversatione Graece est 7ioXtT£U|j.a, quae vox significat conversationem civilem, id est, civium inter se: tanquam dicat Apostolus: Civitas nostra, in qua ut cives conversamur, in coelis est: itaque nos non terrena sapimus, sed coelestia; hoc enim est conversationem habere in coelis, coelestia sapere, quaerere, meditari. Locus similis Heb. 13. Non habemus hic manentem civitatem, sed futuram inquirimus.
Unde etiam salvatorem expectamus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Graece: Fx quo et Salvatorem expectamus Dominum Jesum Christum. Cajetanus illud: Ex quo referri posse negat ad coelos, numero repugnante: refert autem ad totum hoc, quod est conversari in coelis, quasi sensus sit: Nos per conversationem coelestem expectare Salvatorem etc. Verum alii omnes tam Graeci quam Latini ad coelum, vel coelos referunt, ubi Christum corporaliter esse credimus, et unde eum et Salvatorem expectamus. Idoue multo rectius. Sic enim et ad Coloss. 3. ait: Quae sursum sunt quaerite, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens. Sensus igitur est: Ex quo coelo, vel, ex quibus coelis, etiam expectamus venturum Christum Dominum, Salvatorem ac remuneratorem nostrum: nimirum, ut plenam nobis salutem, praemiumque referat: juxta ea quae sequuntur de corporis nostri reformatione. Caeterum Cajetano facile respondetur, Apostolum more suo neglexisse constructionem grammaticam: et eo magis, quod Graecum vocabulum indirferenter utroque numero soleat usurpari iu scripturis. Tametsi etiam sic exponi potest: Ex quo loco, quod eodem recidit. Hic monendus es loctor: Salvatoris vocabulum literatis plerisque non placere, et ircprimis Erasmo, qui in vertendo novo testamento, quoties Graeca vox aojxr^p occurrit, aut servatorem pro ea reddit, aut periphrasi quadam utitur, dicens, cum qui dat salutem: quod et alii quidam imitati sunt. Negant enim Salvatorem Latine dici, quod nec Cicero, nec omnino quisquam eorum, qui Latinitatis auctores habentur, eo vocabulo usus legatur. Quibus ex ad/erso nos dicimus: Si dictio Salvator non recipitur in ea, de qua agimus, significatione, ut ou)xr]pa nobis referat, nullam prorsus aliam exstare apud Latinos, quae id praestet. Testatur hoc ipse Cicero actione 4. in Verrem his verbis: Itaque eum non solum patronum istius insulae, sed et Soteia inscriptum vidi Syracusis. Hoc quantum est? ita magnum, ut Latine uno verbo exprimi non possit. Is eet nimirum Soter, qui salutem dedit. Haec ille. Ex quibus etiam disce magnum quiddam esse, quod Soteris ucmine significatur: nt pro eo servatoris vocabulum suffic^re non possit. Quare quod in omnibus fit disciplinis, ut qui eas t^adunt, propria quaedam vocabula ad artem accommodata sibi fabricent, ubi consueta non suppetunt: id utique religio Christiana tanto potiori jure siti vendicat, qaanto sunt ejus mysteria a sensu humano remotiora. J.jm si dandum erat vocabuli.m Latinum Graeco respondens, et vim ejus explens: quomam awiTjp is dicitur, auctore Cicerone, qui salutem dedit: quid proclivius, aut convenientius, quam ut a salute salvator diceretur? Recte igitur Augustinus lib. 3. de Trinit. cap. 10. dicit, hoc verbum linguam Latinam antea quidem non habuisse, sed habere potuisse. sicut habuit quando voluit. Hoc ille. Etenim ipso usu factum est juris ecclesiastici. Unde et Hieronymus futiles istos criticos nihil veritus eo utitur frequentissime in sua versione Bibliorum, in qua servatorem nusquam leges: nisi Prov. 24., ubi sic hai et: Servatorem animae tuae nihil fallit. Sed ibi servatorem dixit pro eo, qui custodit aut observat: non pro eo. qui dat salutem, ut patet ex Hebraeo. Quocirca refugere vocabulum, quod tota retro antiquitas Patrum Latinorum in perpetuo usu habuit: quid est aliud, quam plus omnibus illis sapere velle? Adde, quod analogia derivationis ita defendit ist, Salvus, salvo, salvator: sicut haec, Servus, servo, servator. Quod si voces ipsas lubet expendere: servator is dicitur, qui servat, quod periturum erat. Unde servi olim dicti, id est, in bello servati, curo potuissent occidi. Salvator autem, qui salvum facit, et ut Cicero loquitur, qui dat salutem: utique ei, qui salvus non erat. Hoc autem Christus fecit, non in uno homine, sed in universo genere humano: nec temporariam salutem dando, sed aeternam. Proinde longe plus ei tribuit, qui Salvatorem vocat, quam qui servatorem. Idem censeo de verbo saf,vare } a quo Salvator deducitur: quod aeque refugit ubique Erasmus, atque ejus loco, ex Graeco verbo oeoCstv, reddit servare, salutem dare, salvum facere. Verum Hieronymus in vertendo scripturam sacram, idemque ac caeteri patres Latini in enarrando, vulgatissime utuntur: ac servandi vocabulum in hac significatione pene igaorant. Apud unum Ambrosium lib. 3. de iide ad v^ratianum cap. 6. lego recitata Petri Apostoli verba ex 2. ep. 1. ad hunc modum: Sic enim abundantius ministrabitur introitus in aeternum imperium Dei et Domini nostri conservatoris Jesu Christi. Verum hoc non Ambrosii est, sed interpretis, quisquis is fuit, cujus versione pro tempore usus e-t Ambrosius. Nec quisqu^m doctus probaverit, conservatorem dioi Latine, quem Graeci ooTTJpa dicunt. Ita vero probamus in hac significatione verbum salvare y ut haec, salutem dare, et salvum facere, quae etiam apud vulgatum interpretem leguntur, haudquaquam refugiamus. Sed de ea ru satis. Obiter observa, Paulum hac parte nonnihil mutare personam. Sicut enim aliquando loquitur in eorum persona, qui vivi reperientur in adventu Domini, ut 1 Thess. 4., ita hic, cum ait: Vnde et Salvatorem expectamus: eos repraesentat, qui in hac vita constituti Christum de coelo venientem ad judicium verisimiliter expectare poterunt. Quod certe in Pauli tempora non competebat, secundum ea, quae ipse scribit in 2 ad Thess. 2. Qui vero jam mortui sunt, ii non de coelo Christum expectant, sed eorum animae in coelum receptae cum Chiisto regnant; quamvis et ipsi, in uie jadicii animabus ad corpora leversis, Christo de coelo venienti ituri sint obviam in aera. 1 Thess. 4.
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21. Qui reformabit corpus humilitatis nostrae configuratum corpori claritatis suae. Docet, quod et quantum bonum adventu suo Dominus justis omnibus sit allaturus: scilicet gloriam corporum. Graeca sic habent: Qui transfigurabit corpus humilitatis nostrae, ut fiat conforme ccrpori gloriae suae. Atque ita ferme legunt tam commentator Ambrosii titulo, quam verus Ambrosius libr. 5. de fide cap. 7. Sensus: Qui trausmutabit corpus nostrum humile, vile, miseriis et corruptioni obnoxium: ut sit tale, quale est corpus ipsius gloriosum. Hanc mutationem significat Apostolus verbo jiSTao-)(7]uaTtast_, transfigurabit: non quod aliam figuram habitura sint sanctorum corpora, quam nunc habeant, quae fuit quorundam haeresis dicentium nos resurrecturos in globosis corporibus, qualia sunt solis et stellarum: sed quia formae seu qualitates erunt longe diversae. Ad hanc enim significationem facile extenditur o^Tjjia Graecum. Unde apud Matthaeum et Marcum hoc mutationis genus transformatio vocatur: licet in nostra versione transflgurandi vocabulum ibi legatur. Matth. 17. Marci 9. in princ.
Secundum operationem, qua etiam possit subjicere sibi omnia. Pro operatione y Graece est svepysia, quae significat efficaciam, sive operationem efficacem. Item conjunctionis vocula: Etiam in Graeco non verbum possit, sed verbum subjicere proxime praecedit et determinat: quod et videre est in textu Ambrosiano, et apud S. Ambrosium loco jam citato, et in quibusdam vetustis codicibus nostris, nominatim Laudensi. Sensus igitur est, Christum illud facturum per eam virtutis suae efficaciam, qua potest etiam subjicere sibi ipsi (saoTtu) universam creaturam: imo qua idipsum aliquando facturus est. Nam omnia tandem ei subjicieoda esse docent scripturae, Psal. 8. 1 Cor. 15. et Heb. 2. Quod quidem quo sensu accipiendum sit, ex iisdem locis petatur. Id vero consideratione dignum est, Apostolum hic Filio tribuere, quod alias Patri. Hic enim scribit Filium posse sibi ipsi subjicere omnia: cum alibi dicat, Patrem Filio omnia subjecturum. Ex quo contra Arianos ostendit Ambrosius loco memorato, eandem Patris et Filii potentiam, proindeque eandem essentiam ac divinitatem esse. Recte quoque Graeci monent, in Apostoli verbis argumontationem hujusmodi contineri: Christus efficaciter potest omnia sibi subjicere (nam id reipsa facturus est secundum scripturas jam citatas): ergo potest conformare corpora nostra mortalia corpori suo glorioso: idque adeo facturus est, quia facturum se promisit.
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v. 2 videte canes, videte malos operarios, videte concisionem ; eosdem tribus istis designari certum est ; canes vocantur ob impudentiam ; Yov «ov xvvàv $ dva(Setx (Theod. sim. Chrys.) ; vel vocari canes possunt, quia verbo Dei ab - apostolo praedicato oblatrabant, apostolum quasi mordebant, calumniis lacerantes; canes monent antea vocalos esse gentiles, utpote alienos a Deo et Christo, exclusos a familia Dei ; iam in illorum sorte et loco haberi iudaizantes, contra quos apostolus agit eliam in epistola ad Galatas, ad Corinthios, ad Romanos; videte i. e. attendite, cavete, malos operarios ; cf. 2 Cor. 44,13, operantur quidem el praedicant et asseclas acquirere student, at non ad rem Christi et evangelium promovendum, sed ad pervertendum. Unde 2 Cor. 11,13 vocantur pseudoapostoli, operarii subdoli. ` Et in qua re praesertim sese malos operarios. exhibeant, videtur declarari tertia compellatione videte concisionem : qui Galatis ritus iudaicos et cireumcisionem persuadere conabantur, de his scripsit : utinam et abscindantur, et « in Christo Iesu neque circumcisio aliquid valet » (Gal. 5,6.12) ; unde eiusmodi iudaizantes non sacrum aliquem ritum,- antiquitate consecratum, praedicant vel promovere student, sed meram aliquam et plane inutilem carnis concisionem, quam qui assumunt, eo ipso evacuantur a Christo, a gratia excidunt (Gal. 5,4). Quare lales iudaizantes nullo modo iam ad populum Dei pertinent, iam non circumcisio nominandi sunt, sed concisio, laceratio quaedam carnis seu 1ncisio, qualis lege ipsa prohibetur (Lev. 21,5) et solum in ritibus gentilium reperitur (3 Reg. 18,28). Circumcisio autem sacra quaedam est designatio, signum foederis inter Deum et populum suum (Gen. 17,11). Illos vero alienos esse a vero populo Dei, ostendit apostolus
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v. 3 nos enim sumus circumcisio, sacrum hoc nomen iam pertinet ad Christifideles, in quibus scil. spiritualis eius nominis significatio vere habetur : qui spiritu servimus Deo; sed oi mega: @coŭ Aatpeúovteç est lectio longe plurimorum ; iam Augustinus testatur, etiam plures codices latinos habere spiritui Dei, graecos autem codices omnes aut paene omnes (de Trinit. 1,13) ; cultus noster regitur spiritu Dei ; spiritu Dei acti el impulsi verum exercemus cultum ; vide Ioan. 4,24 in spiritu et veritate oportet adorare. In qua lectione Azzgeósv absolute dicitur de colendo Deo, uti Luc. 2,37 et Act. 26,7 et Hebr. 9,9 (Beelen). Iam in vetere foedere sermo est de circumcisione cordis (Lev. 26,41 ; Deut. 10,16 ; 30,6) et admonentur: circumcidimini Domino et auferle praeputia cordium vestrorum, viri Iuda (Ier. 4,4; 9,26); unde apostolus iam intulit veram circumcisionem esse circumcisionem cordis in spiritu (Rom. 2,29) ; ergo ex ipsa indole in vetere foedere iam expressa de cir- -cumcisione merito infert, eos tandem qui spiritu Dei cultum exercent esse circumcisionem (i. e. cireumcisos) veri nominis. Lectionem 0s tuentur praeter aliquos codices Chrys. Orig. et versiones syr. go. vul. garm. aeth. De varietate codicum latinorum affert Augustinus has lectiones : qui spiritui Dei servimus : qui spiritu Deo servimus : quj. spiritui Deo servimus. Ambrosius tenet lectionem qui spiritui Del servimus, provocans ad graecam lectionem et utitur hoc textu ad probandam divinitatem Spiritus sancti (de Spir. s. 2,6). Si bene consideratur, in subsequentibus efferri tamquam indolem propriam iudaizantium confidere iv capxí, in carne confidere, quam maxime commendatur in oppositione ad £v cxgx( lectio vulg. et aliorum : qui spiritu servimus Deo, ita ul spiritu zysúgat: dicatur per modum instrumenti, animo scil, gratia Spiritus sancti imbuto cultum exhibeamus Deo ; eo sensu quo alias saepe «zvs)Upz apud apostolum legitur. Hanc oppositionem ad carnem etiam Chrys. innuit: si circumcisio quaerenda est, inquit, apud nos eam invenlelis,oi mveúwartt eso Aeroedovctec, voUtéOTiv, Ot TVEDWATIXÖG AarpsUoYtec. Alterum quo patet solis Christi fidelibus convenire nomina illa quibus populus Dei designetur, est et gloriamur in Christo Iesu xo xovyoyevot istud gloriari dicitur in oppositione ad confidere in carne xo oóx êv cxpxi memotüóesc, indicatur ergo : nos totam spem salutis in uno Christo laeti collocamus, de eo unico auctore et largitore salutis, gratiarum gloriamur, iam nihil sperantes de ritibus iudaicis, nihil de iis quae apud = Iudaeos et iudaizantes magni aestimantur. Quae omnia, uti ex sequenlibus quoque elucet, nomine carnis designantur, utpote ritus res exteriores spectantes vel quae e carnali progenie derivantur. Populus enim Dei in vetere foedere apud prophetas is est, cui tandem exsurget David rex, et pastor bonus, qui statin signum populorum, quem gentes deprecabuntur (cf. Is. 9,7 ; 11,10. Ier. 23,5; 33,14. Ez. 34,23). Hinc Messiae committitur regnum Dei, ei subduntur gentes omnes, ille affert pacem et salutem (cf. Os. 2,19. Am. 9,11; Mich. 5,4. Dan. 7,13 elc.). Si autem ille talis est, tota spes, seu gloriatio de opere Dei perficiendo, de salute et pace consequenda in eo esl collocanda, et non in carne fiduciam habentes, in rebus carnalibus, in observantiis, quae solum ad lempus datae et praescriptae erant, donec veniret plenitudo temporis et mysterium vocationis gentium palam fieret (cf. Gal. 4,4. Eph. 1,9; 9,13; 3,5. Hebr. 9,8 seq.). Uti hie apostolus fidelibus nomen sacrum circumcisionis vindicat, ita alias ostendit solum fideles esse filios Abraham, esse Israel Dei, esse hereditatem Dei et Dei heredes (cf. Rom. 8,17. Gal. 3,7.18,29 ; 4,6.30; 6,16, Eph. 1,14 ; 2,19 etc.). Repetitione illa videte per se posse designari tres ordines hominum patet, sed aeque bene magna cum emphasi eosdem posse ila efferri et ex varia sua malitia designari certum. est. Veteres generalim promiscue canes nominari volunt vel gentiles, vel ethnico-christianos lascive viventes, malos operarios;eos qui doctrinam Christi simul cum caerimoniis legalibus vel cum falsa philosophia proponere et commiscere conentur, concisionem autem Iudaeos incredulos. At in subsequentibus apostolus nullam affert explicationem de tribus ordinibus distinctis, neque ullo modo monet, quomodo cavendi sunt. Sed a v. 3 el deinceps unum illud de concisione assumit et ea refert de quibus iudaizantes gloriari solebant. Et si cum aliquibus putaveris, 3.18.19 describi canes (quod ipsum valde dubium est), nihil tamen explicatur de malis opeordine triphnei modo designato. Vox contumeliosa est canis; ita dicitur scortum virile (Deut. 23,19 ; Apoc. 22,15) et eo probro graeci et Iudaei inter se utebantur; propter legalem impuritatem ethnici appellabantur canes a Iudaeis (cf. Matth. 415,26. Marc. 7,27), et eodem probro graeci contemptum et abominationem adversus Iudaeos exprimebant (cf. Lightfoot, ipsum canis nomen apud graecos pro impudente sumitur. Unde apostolus opprobrium quo iudaizantes alienigenas afficiunt eis reddit, eos ait apud Deum in ethnicorum loco haberi, nihil sacri iam gerere, sed solum profanam quandam cireumferre mutilationem probrosam,'et mala el perversa perpetrare. Ob vocem xzzzzov./ (ergo ad perditionem) mavult Dib. perturbatores Iudaeos intelligere. Philippenses utique iis non possent confidere rebus carnalibus, quae iudaizantes tanli aestimant. At nunc apostolus suam rem quasi secernit a Philippensibus et respiciens ad gloriationem iudaizantium affirmat, se non loqui contra carnalia illa, quia sibi desint et quia talem. materiam gloriandi non habeat; « solent enim saepe homines ea contemnere in aliis, quae ipsi nesciunt aut non habent » (Est.) ;at ego habeo quod in aliis contemno et possem multo ampliorem illis materiam gloriandi proferre;
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v. 4 quamquam ego habeam confidentiam et in carne,nos in carne non habemus fiduciam, quamquam ego etiam in carne habeo materiam confidentiae, uti Cai. Est. Tust. explicant. confidentiam pro materia confidentiae seu gloriationis, quae cogitalio oplime congruit menti apostoli, qui nunc.non habet confidentiam et in carne, sed qui potest eiusmodi titulos contra iudaizantes proferre ; nam si quis alius videtur confidere in carne, oxsi, si quis censetur seu existimatur habere cur confidat in carne, ego magis habeo cur confidam in carne prae aliis. Dicit s? quis alius, ostendens necessitatem et illorum causa haec a se dici; attende quomodo in arguendo vitet odium, dum non nominatim arguit (Chrys.). Sciant ergo iudaizantes me non exinvidia hisce detrahere quasi iis inferior sim ; sed sciant me hoc facere studio veritalis, fidei et salutis, ula carne omnes traducam ad spiritum (Lap.). Sed quaerit Est., quomodo dicere possit ego magis, cum essent inter Iudaeos nobiliores Iam enumerat carnalia illa vel materiam confidendi in carne
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v. 5 circumcisus octavo die xspvcou T, òxtańwepos quoad circumcisionem octiduus, die a lege statuto (Gen. 17,12), ex antiquo genere Deo sacro, ex genere Israel, non ex aliquo parente proselyta, de tribu Beniamin, quae tribus tam regiae tribui quam sacerdotali perpetuo manserat unita, cum ceterae ea tribu erat Ierusalem, civitas regia et divini cultus (Caz.); Beniamin filius ex matre praeprimis dilecta a Iacob patriarcha natus erat, non ex matre serva; Hebraeus ex Hebraeis, ex familia in qua praeter strictam observantiam consuetudinum iudaicarum etiam servata sit ipsa lingua hebraea; ipse loquitur hebraice et maiores non permixti cum alienigenis etiam usum linguae sacrae retinuerunt. Ita recte explicant Chrys. Oec. Thph. Nat. Est. Hpt.: iam Act. 6,4 Hebraei ab Hellenistis, Iudaeis graeca lingua utentibus, distinguuntur; alias quoque &fgaixóc, n de lingua hebraea dicitur (Luc. 93, 38. Ioan. 5,2; 19,20. Act. 21,40; 22,2). Intelligi dialectum aramaicam illa aetate:in usu positam, qua Paulus revera ad plebem locutus erat, per se patet, non ipsam linguam veterem, quamvis qui aramaice loquebantur facilius quoque linguam proprie hebraeam addiscerent. Paulus eruditus ad pedes Gamaliel sine dubio in schola rabbinica etiam linguam veterem sacram didicerat. Insuper gloriari potest quod fuerit secundum legem Pharisaeus, pharisaei quam maxime insistebant strictae observationi legis et propter hanc apud populum venerationi erant. Et inter ipsos hos zelatores legis, ipse Paulus eminebat zelo singulari,
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v. 6 secundum aemulationem xarà Cos quod attinet zelum pro lege, persequens ecclesiam Dei: sensus non mutatur, si cum. editionibus criticis omittitur 6so3, zelum pro lege manifestavit persecutione haud mediocri (Act. 8,3 et 9,1), qua apud Iudaeos maximam sibi acquisivit aestimationem; et zelum pro lege eliam demonstravit et exhibuit integritate vitae, secundum iustitiam quae in lege est conversatus sine querela, ratione habita iustitiae legalis i. e. praeceptorum et observantiarum yevópevos Rpsuncoc effectus irreprehensibilis; apud omnes notus eram accurata legis observatione. Natura itaque et origine ipsa, dein sua ipsius industria, zelo legis, vitae incolumitate (nola ter xarà) ea possidebat, quibus prae multis aliis ludaeis eminebat et fortissimus defensor iudaismi existimari debuit ; PHHA 3,1-8; | 245 vide, similia de se narrat 2 Cor. 11,22 et Gal. 1,13.14 et Rom. 11,1. Apostolus multa habuit emolumenta, quibus apud Iudaeos ei magna conciliabatur auctoritas et aestimatio,
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v. 7 sed quae &:vx quaecumque mihi fuerunt lucra, quae utilitatem et honorem mihi attulerunt, haec arbitratus sum trav: arbitratus sum et arbitror propter Christum detrimenta, Cuz» damnum, 1acluram. Res illas et conditiones non solum arbitratur indifferentes, nihil verae utilitatis afferentes, verum eas habet tamquam vere noxias, ita ut Christi esse non possel, si quid lucri vel emolumenti in iis poneret. Et pro vehementia affectus auget sermonem (ipsis parliculis 2423: vevo3vys sed immo etiam) et non solum illa, verum omnia iam damnosa et noxia aeslimal
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v. 8 verumtamen existimo omnia detrimentwm esse nayta scil. quaecumque pertinent ad illud confidere in carne, cuncla commoda quae ei obvenire possunt honoribus oblatis, propter eminentem scientiam Iesu Christi Domini mei 9x tò Unipéyov propter eminentiam scientiae : Christum nosse didicit et haec cognitio. Christi tantae excellentiae est, ut longissime cuncta terrena emolumenta superet et excedat. Quaecumque igitur eum impedire aut retrahere possent a Christo, ab eius cognitione el amore, haec censet noxia el damnosa ; tolaspes salutis in uno Christo collocatur; extra ipsum nihil reperitur nisi damnum. — Et non solum ita cogitat apostolus, verum ipsa re omnia lucra et emolumenta terrena perdidit propter Christum, propter quem omnia: detrimentum feci £C«ui005», eius causa omnium illorum lucrorum iactura affectus sum, iacturam feci omnium illorum ; nam qui potuit esse antea apud contribules suos in honore et dignitate, iam a Iudaeisodio habetur, eum plagis alfecerunt, vilae eius insidiantur, in capüvitatem eum tradiderunt (cf. Act. 13:505 14,5.18 ; 20,3; 22,22 etc. 2 Cor. 11,24. 1 Thess. 2,15 elc.) Iterum augel sermonem : non solum iacluram feci, verum et arbitror (ut) stercora,ut Christum luerifaciam xai tyoüyat oxúßaha existimo stercora (Suidas, veteres medici, alii scriptores, losephus, Bell. iud. 5,13,7 explicant de excremenlis; cf. JWetsten.). Sed exófoov in alia quoque nolione reperitur variis in locis in Anthologia graeca et etiam apud Suidam, scil. de quisquiliis ciborum; ita legitur ós dmoðermvðiov yeucóuevos oxußahov, vel 8sizvov cuyybv dmo czußdhwv, et Suidas explicat tò toic xuct DaAAóuevov xuctBaXóv. t óv. Haec notio hoc loco certe non est inepta. Iudaei exspectabant fore ut recumbant cum patriarchis in regno Dei in convivio (ef. Matth. 8,11) et gentes considerabant et nominabant canes; iam apostolus aliam iis conditionem | proponit : iudaizantes appellat canes, et quae iudaizantes adeo magni aestimant, privilegia legalia, iam non sunt nisi quisquiliae ciborum, nutrimenta putrida, foeda (ita Lightfoot). En qualia iam sint in opinione apostoli « paternae traditiones» (Gal. 1,14; Vincent). Quod aposto'us Christi amore olim fecit, hoc etiamnunc mente et sententia relinet, imo contemptum plurimum auxit contra omnia quae possent. eum impedire a Christo; ita animo affectus est, ut Christum lucrifaeiam ; in id omnia directa sunt et diriguntur, ut Christus fiat. et sit lucrum eius. Et UIN Christum lucrifaciat, Ea
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v. 9 et inveniar in ilio, ut sim in illo (Est. Just. Nat. cf. Gal. 2,47 ; 2 Petr. 3,14) non habens meam iustitiam quae ex lege est, quae sit ex operibus legis. et solis meis viribus sit acquisita; talem non habet neque habere potest, vel est solum iustitia existimata, sed illam quae eo fide est Christi [esu nictews Xprotoù, quae per fidem:in Christum, seu mediànte fide acquiritur, hanc. iustitiam habens est in Christo; huius autem iustitiae largitor est Deus et eam largitur propter fidem : quae ex- Deo est iustitia in fide mt v7, míovet propter fidem, ita ut fides sit quasi conditio et suppositum et causa, cur iustitia detur; fides est fundamentum iustitiae ; iuslitiam èx Deo alius simpliciter vocat iustitiam Dei, scil. cuius auctor et largitor est Deus (cf. Rom. 4,17; 3,21.22; 10,3). Explicite hoc loco apostolus loquitur contra illos Iudaeos qui iustitiam ex operibus legis unice sectantur, qui propterea suam quaerentes statuere iustitiam iustitiae Dei non sunt subiecli et hanc iustitiam Dei ignorant (cf. Rom. 10,3). Falsam illam iusliiam designat ex duobus: vocat eam meam, «zv. iàízv (Rom. 10,3) et eam affirmat esse ex lege, gigni ex legis operibus. Huic opponitur vera iustitia, quae est ex Deo, donum Dei et ex parle hominis supponit fidem : unde iustitia Dei. per fidem, super fidem. Sequitur in v. 10 altera sententia finalis graeco infinitivo expressa toù yva, «d cognoscendum, quaeritur quo referatur; graeci'et latini. plerumque videntur sententiam. considerare explicationem et descriplionem praecedentis in fide, iustitiam esse ex fide, qua cognoscatur Christus. Sed iam Est. existimavit hanc partem altius esse referendam, - neque probabile videtur sententiam finalem adiungi ad determinationem aliquam secundariam. Quare Est. sententiam finalem facit dependentem a sentenlia principali : se omnia detrimentum. fecisse et arbitrari ut stercora. Quae tamen coniunctio immediata inde evadit improbabilis; quia iam antecessit prior sententia finalis, ut Christum lucrifaciam; quare vix poterit toù yvóvo: immediate referri ad v. 8; nec id opus est; nam altera haec sententia finalis zoò yvóvo: potest dependere a priore, uti iam Cai. indicat scribens : inveniar iustus ex fide ad cognoscendum. Apte monel Est. : « docet et pluribus verbis inculcat apostolus rationem et fructum deserti a se et contempti Iudaismi, quodque breviter dixerat el obscure propter eminentem. scientiam Iesu Christi, nune partibus quibusdam aias ul sit sensus : ut cognoscam illum ». Habemus itaque ad v. 8 priorem sententiam finalem : ut Christum lucrifaciam, ut inveniar in illo ; ad hanc sententiam finalem adiungitur alia seil. toù yvõva: etc. ad quod imè t} niote: trahi polest. Finis itaque Christi a nobis lucrifacti et inventi assignatur triplex in v. 10 et primo quidem ad cognoscendum illum scil. duce fide quis et quantus sit, ut intimam eius cognitionem, Dei et hominis, acquiramus, ut erescamus in hac cognitione, bona cuncta et thesauros sapientiae in uno Christo contineri (cf. Eph. 1,21; 3,418.19). Alterum est et virtutem resurrectionis eius, quae pars varie concipitur ; « quae esl virtus resurrectionis ? quoniàm pro omnibus facta est ut et omnes similem adsequantur resurrectionem ».(TAd M.); virtutem resurrectionis eius scopum «5v exozóy resurrectionis appellavit ( Theod.) ; potentiam scil. ad resuscitandos omnes secundum corpus, ad vivificandas animas, ad instauranda omnia coelestia et terrestria (Ca?.). Alii explicationis gratia recurrunt ad Rom. 6,4, nos enim ad similitudinem eius ad novam vitam in baptismo regenerati in hac novitate vitae ambulare debemus (Est. Lap.), ita ut in vita iustorum vis et efficacia resurrectionis eius sit conspicua, uti dicitur Rom. 4,25 resurrexit propter iustificationem nostram (Beelen). At valde dubium est rectene ad explicandum nostrum textum recurri possit ad sententiam in Rom. 6,4 expressam; nostro enim loco prius mentio fit resurrectionis, dein sermo infertur de passionum societate et configuratione cum morte eius. At Rom. 6,4 in mortem Christi baptizamur, dein ad similitudinem resurreclionis Christi in vitae novitate ambulamus. Unde cernitur ordinem in utroque loco non esse eundem, sed plane diversum. Quare Thv õúvawıv etc. intime iungendum erit cum antecedente, ut referatur ad ipsam illam cognitionem Christi per fidem, quatenus virtute resurrectionis Christus nunc vivit in gloria, vivit in vita immortali et coelesti; Christum in gloria constitutum debemus in dies magis cognoscere, Christum in gloria constitutum tandem debemus lucrifacere et inveniri cum illo coniuncti, id quod in v. 11 clare indicatur; cf. 1,21 mihi vivere Christus est et mori lucrum — dissolvi et esse cum Cliristo, multo magis melius. lam quae est via, ut tandem Christum in virtute resurrec- - tionis constitutum possideamus? vel quid requiritur, ut habeamus plenam Christi in gloria viventis cognitionem pro nobis practicam, frugiferam pro nostra vita terrestri? Ad hoc respondetur membro sequenti ; et societatem passionum eius, vide Rom. 8,47 coheredes Christi, si tamen compatimur, ut el conglorificemur ; nam nonne haec oportuit pati Christum et ita intrare in gloriam suam (Luc. 24,26)? haec est via ad Chris stum in gloria viventem ; antequam ad eum in gloria regnantem virtute resurrectionis pertingamus, imaginem mortis eius exprimere oportet. configuratus morti eius, cvpy.opytčópevos dum conformis fio morti eius; cf. 4 Cor. 15,31 quolidie morior, 2 Cor. 4,10 semper mortlificationem Iesu in corpore nostro circumferentes, ut et vita Iesu manifestetur in corporibus nostris. Pendet participium cuppopgiópevos a subiecto quod intelligitur in infinitivo «o9 yvovz:; quasi apostolus scripsisset tvx «v6. est anacoluthon scriptoribus tàm sacris quam profanis non infrequens ( Beelen). l i Hanc conformitatem declarant afflictiones et adversa; cum persecutionem patimur et affligimur, participes reddimur passionum Christi (Thph.); vexationes enim et calamitates reddunt imaginem quandam mortis (Chrys.). Haec alias vocal apostolus mortem : mundo ego crucifixus sum (Gal. 6,14), is qui foris est noster homo 6 3£o 16v &v0pomnoc corrumpitur (2 Cor. 4,16). Hanc autem societatem passionum Christi et hanc conformationem cum morte eius cognoscere, i. e. experiri, experimentaliter cognoscere, in se suscipere gestit apostolus,
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v. 11 si quo modo occurram ad resurrectionem quae est ex mortuis, siros xatavtýcw, Si forte pertingam ; hic est terminus, ad quem singula a v! 7 seq. tendunt et quo tandem perfectum atlingitur lucrum Christi in gloriosa resurrectione corporis, in qua perfecta habetur beatitudo hominis quoad corpus et animam, quando rapientur obviam Christo, ut semper cum eo sint (4 Thess. 4,16). Et Dam. advertit de e'zoc xzavc5oo : « ostendit qui donum cognitionis et passionum societatem acceperunt, multa vigilantia opus habere, ne amittant quae acceperunt ». Graviter monent veteres quam humiliter apostolus de se sentiat; « credidi in eum et me esse socium passionum eius configuratumque morli eius; verumtamen post haec omnia nondum penitus confido ; quod alibi dixit : qui se existimat stare, videat ne cadat! et rursus: timeo ne forle, cum aliis praedicaverim, ipse reprobus efficiar » (Chrys.); cf. 1 Cor. 9,27 ; 10,12. Apostolus in se ipso ostendit quod monuit : cum metu et tremore vestram salulem operamini (2,12). Nam loquens veluti dubitans si quo modo, non solum insinuat difficultatem perveniendi ad eam bealitudinem, verum etiam securilatem et certitudinem consequendae salutis excludit, uli interpretes latini adnotant. iam fit secundum apostolum in baptismo ; vide Rom. 6,3-6; Col. 3,1. De prima hac iustlificatione autem hoc loco sermo esse nequit; talis enim explicatio neque ad antecedentia consentanea est, in quibus iam fructus et effectusnovae vitae delineantur, neque ad sequentia, in quibus statim enuntiat, se hanc resurrectionem nondum accepisse, verum se magno conatu ad eam tendere et landem describitur tamquam bravium supernae vocationis. De locutione Xv&avaot; èx vexpðv vide Luc. 20,35; Act. 4,2; 4 Petr. 1,3; in quibus locis sermo est de resurrectione iustorum et Christi. Praeclara de se dixerat : omnia existimo detrimenta esse propter eminentem scientiam Iesu Christi, propter quem omnia abieci et arbitror ül stercora, ut Christum lucrifaciam et inveniar in illo (v. 8.9) ; affirmaverat se habere veram iustitiam quae valeat apud Deum ; nunc autem praecavel, ne verba intelligantur ac si in re acquisita iam plane acquiescendum et sistendum esset;
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v. 12 non quod iam acceperim oùy êti Kòn £aBov, elliplice dicitur (cf. 2 Thess. 3,9. 2 Cor. 1,24; 3,5) i. e. non dico quod iam accepi, in hoc et in sequentibus non ponitur obiectum i. e. non ponitur res seu id quod nondum accepit; indeterminate loquitur apostolus indicans multa adhue deesse, conditionem terrestrem semper esse imperfectam, nunquam esse sistendum, quiescenduüm ; semper plura adhue esse quae merito appetantur; el talis rerum status optime locutione illa indeterminata designatur ; «ut iam perfectus sim, nullo modo iis quae de se dixit innuere vult se iam virum esse cv, in quo quasi nihil perfectionis desideretur aut desit. Nonne facile quis opinari posset salis perfectionis superque describi in v..8.9 el qui talia praestiterit iam ad ceXs(octv pervenisse? : Mae Quam longe absit apostolus a cogitatione, se peregisse et absolvisse rem suam seu pensum laboris sibi a Christo attributum, declarat : sequor autem, &woxo S£, serio studeo, vel cursu contendo, si quo modo comprehendam, si xoà xaxo)46o, si eliam comprehendam, declaratur et modestia apostoli et desiderium eius ; illud xí videtur referri ad sententiam causalem, in quo et comprehensus sum a Christo, tọ’ œ quia (cf. 2 Cor: 5,4 ubi vulg i9' ó rite explicat : eo quod), quia apostolus iam a Christo comprehensus est (a Christo scil. iam est captus, caplus in conversione el fortiter relentus), ideo ipse quoque serio studet, si eliam comprehendat; scil. si tandem perveniat ut ipse quoque plene et perfecte apprehendat Christum. Sed eo ipso quia Christus iam forli manu eum apprehendit, ei datur spes et subsidium, ut ipse quoque ad terminum perveniat, ut apprehendat quaecumque tandem apprehendenda sunt. Verum ex gratia a Christo sibi facla apostolus infert conclusionem, sibi omni vi enitendum esse, ut fideliter huic gratiae respondeat; quare eodem utitur verbo xazvxAdfo, x«rsM4uoUrnv. Admitti potest eliaur altera significatio ie' à ob quod, propter quod et comprehensus sum, uti Oec. 250 PHIL. 3,12-13. indicat, verum prior (quia) videtur magis ex usu apostoli (Rom. 5,12. 2 Cor. 5,4). Unde clare indicat, postquam Christum ipsum apprehenderit, eliam sibi ipsi adlaborandum esse, neque sufficere ad ultimum terminum, ut semel a Christo sit comprehensus.. Plerique merito ex-. plicant xateìńugðny de conversione Pauli, in qua Christus eum quasi manu iniecta apprehensum ad se adduxit. Ad ipsam vocem haec acceptio magis congruit, quam illa de praedestinatione, elect'one, vocatione. Bene Theod. dicit: ipse me prior comprehendens reti illigavit, xzzoAefov żcayńvevoev, fugiebam enim illum et valde aversabar; ipse aulem apprehendit fugientem. Cur autem apostolus adeo explicite efferat, se nondum accepisse, sed studiose eniti, ut comprehendat, ratio nobis panditur ipsa hacad Philippenses allocutione cum repetitione et ulteriore explicatione eiusdem rei el argumenti;
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v. 13 -/ratres, ego me non arbitror comprehendisse, iyò iuaoróv cum emphasi, quasi dicat: ego pro mea parte, ego de me ipso quidem ita iudico ; et est simul pathetica superioris declarationis confirmatio (Beelen). Recte explicat. Theod. : haec dicit iis qui de suis recte factis gloriabantur, eorum fastum deprimens, et Chrys. : quodsi Paulus adhuc non comprehendit, neque securus est de resurreclione ac futuris rebus, multo igitur minus illis, qui nec minimam partem illius benafaclorum assecuti fuerant, id faciendum erat ». Philippenses videt contentos esse quod fidem susceperint et vitam agant evangelio non indignam ; verum deficere in iis studium progrediendi; aliquam in iis deprehendit socordiam, ad quam excutiendam iam monuerat 2,12 et nunc suo ipsius exemplo. et suo de se iudicio eos edocet : ego iam tot annos apostolus, tot pro Christo perfunctus laboribus et periculis (quorum enumeralionem sat longam legere est 2 Cor. 11,23-29', ego quidem quod me spectat non indico me comprehendisse. Etiam ex sequentibus sat clare elucet. apostolum velle calcaria addere torpescentibus. Hunc esse scopum apostoli, generatim veteres et recentiores agnoscunt Attamen Auguslinus verba ita concipit quasi apostolus velit reprimere nimiam Philippensium de se ipso aestimationem : mulla adhuc video mihi deesse ; nolite, inquit, in mefalli : plus me ipse novi, quam vos (serm. 169, 13; M.38,925). Quae acceptio neque antecedentibus neque sequentibus consentanea est. Loquitur iterum indefinite où Aoyikoua: xatengéva, rem peregisse seu absolvisse ; unum autem, scil. agere contendo, in hoc uno totus sum : quae quidem retro sunt obliviscens, ex metaphora in cursu singula depromit apostolus, uti bene scribit Lap. : sicut stadiodromi, dum currunt in stadio, non respectant quantum spatii transmiserint, sed quantum supersit ad metam, eoque toto conatu el impetu ac cursu recto feruntur, ita et PHIL. 3,13-14. 254 ego praeteriti cursus mei obliviscor, totus in metam feror et non respecto quid egerim, sed quid supersit agendum ». Cum sermo sit de cursu ad metam, ad bravium (v: 14), ea quae retro sunt, non possunt inlelligi de peccatis praeteritis neque de iis quae. antea in iudaismo lucra repulaverat, sed solum de operibus laboribusque in fide Christi praestitis eousque. Et notat Chrys. apostolum. non dicere : « non cogito, non memini, sed obliviscens, » ita nos attentiores reddens; tunc enim valde vehementes sumus, 2908005, cum omnem animi impetum in id quod restat coniecimus, cum praeterita oblivioni mandavimus. » Et revera recordatio meritorum iam aequisitorum, laborum susceplorum et felici successu cum fructu peractorum facile posset aliquem reddere vel socordem vel superbum, quod utrumque longe abest a studio perfectionis christianae. In modo metaphorico loquendi «à piv ózíco sunt spatium eousque ab eo emensum. Nemo autem medio in stadio sistit. -3neipsum tois È Ewmxpogüsy ÈTEALTELVÓLEVOG, quae a fronte sunt (opposita a tergo), ad ea corporis-inclinatione ac protensione enititur, ènsxteivówevoç qui ita contendit ad metam, ut annisu ac protensione corporispedum celeritatem antevertat ; significatur quasi conatus, ut antequam corpore quis perveniat ad metam, iam manibus bravium captare videatur (Zust.). Voce graeca cursor depingitur manibus: colloque. protensis et quasi praecipitle corpore ad scopum ruens, qua imagine summum studium, summa sollicitudo in re salutis exprimitur (Beelen). Designatur studium conlinuum et indefessum praestandi quae in. praesenti agere oportet simul cum magno desiderio proficiendi. Id unice spectat et spectandum “esse docet, quod adhuc deest, quod adhue attingi debet. Et in isto: conatu et studio non curritin incertum (cf. 1. Cor. 9,26), sed ad destinatum persequor, xarà cxonbw 9uóxo versus scopum seu metam celeriter curro, eo animum oculosque intendens. Istud 93:óxew includit studium illudquod in v. 10 descripsit, crescere scil. in cognitione Christi, in tolerantia laborum et afflictionum Christi causa, vel istud 2:5xevv 1dem est, quod in. alia occasione apostolus. de exercitio virtatum | professus est : castigo corpus meum et in servitutem redigo (1 Cor. 9,27). Meta autem ad quam cursus dirigitur est ad bravium supernae vocationis Dei; Goz(sio» praemium est quod victoribus in certaminibusgymnicis datur ; vide 4 Cor. 9,24; verum iis qui in stadio Christi currunt, proponitur praemium coeleste quod Deusdistribuit, supernae vocationis che dvo xXseoc, vide Hebr. 3,1 xkýcews ixougzvíov ; dicitur. vocatio superna, coelestis, non quia coelitus ad nos pervenit — tunc enim certe legeretur àvo0sv — sed quia est vocatio ad vitam in. coelo agendam ; unde tali genitivo ipsum praemium determinatur tamquam propositum in vocatione Dei coelesti quae ipsa vocalio Dei suam habet, rationem et quasi fundamentum in Christo Jesu, quatenus meritis Chrisli omnis gratia nobis concessa innititur; vocatio Dei autem prima quasi est gratia et fundamentum omnium. Vocatio Dei autem, sicut omnis gralia supernaturalis, tendit ad vitam coelestem tamquam ad suum terminum; unde merito vocatio superna seu coelestis dicitur. Nota quoties apostolus vitam fidelium comparat laboribus et certaminibus cursorum, athletarum, militum ; cf. 4 Cor. 9,24. Gal. 2,2; 5,7. Eph. 6,13 sq.1 Thess. 5,8; 4 Tim. 6,12; 2 Tim. 2, 5; 4,7: Hebr. 12,4. — Veteres, uti Tertullianus, Augustinus, Ambrst., pro bravio legunt palmam. Ad bravium seu praemium vocationis coelestis pertingere apostolus magna contentione laborat. Tuvat itaque hoc loco advertere, quoties apostolus menlionem faciat meritorum et operum ad vitam aeternam el mercedem coelestem accipiendam : Deus reddet uniquique secundum opera eius; et reddet vitam aeternam iis qui secundum perseverantiam (xa0' ónouovýv) boni operis gloriam et honorem et incorruptionem quaerunt (Rom. 2,7); si compatimur cum Christo, et conglorificabimur / (Rom. 8,17) ; omnes stabimus ante tribunal Christi et unusquisque pro se ralionem reddet Deo (Rom. 14,10,12) ; si cuius opus manserit quod superaedificavit, mercedem accipiet (1 Cor. 3,14); id quod in praesenti est momentaneum et leve, supra modum in sublimitate aeternum gloriae pondus operatur (2 Cor. 4,17) ; omnes nos-manifestari oporlet ante : tribunal Christi, ut referat unusquisque propria corporis prout gessit, sive bonum sive malum (2 Cor. 5,10); qui parce seminat, parce et metet, et qui seminat inbenedictionibus, de benedictionibuset metet (2. Cor. 9,6) quae seminaverit homo, haec et metet: qui seminat in spiritu, de spi-. rilu metet vitam aeternam ; bonum facientes, non deficiamus, tempore enim suo melemus non deficientes (Gal. 6,8,9); quodcumque fecerit homo, hoc recipiet a Domino (Eph. 6,8); quodcumque facitis, ex animo operamini sicut Domino et non hominibus, scientes quod a Domino accipietis retributionem hereditatis (Col. 3,23); mandat apostolus, ut : divites fiant in bonis operibus et thesaurizent sibi fundamentum bonum in futurum (1 Tim. 6,19) ; si sustinebimus, et conregnabimus; reddet Dominus coronam iustitiae iis qui diligunt adventum eius (2 Tim. 2,11. 12 et 1,8); nolite ergo amittere confidentiam vestram, quae magnam habet remunerationem (ui50zz680c(zy, Hebr. 10,33). — Ita spe mercedis animos fidelium confortat in variis suis epistolis. Patefaclis itaque animi sui sensibus et studiis concludit apostolus breviter et nervose v. 45 do6t oiv TEAELOL, T0UTO qgpovouev quicumque ergo perfecti, hoc sentiamus, hoc i. e. eam mentem et sensum et sententiam induere oporlet, prout v. 11-14 propositum est. Supra v. 12 negavit apostolus se esse perfectum, quomodo nunc loquitur et monet : quolquot perfecti, hoc sentiamus ? oxymorum videtur proponere ; ita concipit Chrys. : quid hoc est ? nimirum quae-retro sunt obliviscenda sunt, ita ut perfecti hominis sit, non se existimare perfectum; quomodo igilur dicis : óso: téàstot; die enim mihi, hoccine vis sapiamus quod tu sapis? nam si non assecutus es, si non es perfectus, quomodo iubes perfectos hoc sapere quod tu sapis, qui nondum es perfectus ? Hoc enim, inquit, perfectio est ». Unde acute dictum est perfectionem in eo esse, ut quis non se existimans perfectum continuo tendat serio ad ulteriora, ut eontinuo proficiat. Interpretes latini ita rem concipiunt : quotquot intelligentia rerum divinarum ceteris praestamus, vel re ipsa, vel nostra vel aliorum opinione (Est. Nat. Lap.), et ita notionem «eo: imminuere student; eam notionem quasi augendam esse censel Ca. : quantumvis perfecti sint, tamen hoc sentiant ; vel dici «dete: opinatur Beelen, qui ad aetatem adultam pervenerint et non amplius inter parvulos (v«zíouc) sint recensendi, ergo de perfectione quadam relativa vocem esse capiendam. Meminit Just. ex nonnullorum sententia dici «eo: per ironiam ; ipse quidem hane opinionem merito repudiat ; at res ipsa omissa ironia non videtur a limine abiieienda. Nam in v. 44 éyo» &uzvzóv loquitur ita, ut suam sententiam opponere videatur opinioni aliorum, quise ipsos putent iam comprehendisse. Fortasse inter Philippenses erant qui se lactabant zehelovç, velita sua conditione sibi satisfactum esse opinabantur, ut iam nihil ultra praestandum esset. Tales itaque leniter perstringere videtur apostolus dicens $sot oiv v&eto:. Si apud Philippenses eiusmodi «£e erant, etiam aliquid luminis alfunditur sententiae : et sz quid aliter sapitis &z£ooc vario, diverso modo, opus esse tanta contentione, spero et confido fore, ut Deus intellectum eorum illuminando eos edoceat? ita multi explicant (Chrys. Dam. Thphsentire nullo modo intelligi potest de iis, qui legalibus observationibus quidquam tribuendum putent. Nam inter Philippenses certe nemo erat, qui tale quid postularet ; contra iudaizantes autem apostolus multo acrius scripsisset. Inter Philippenses fortasse reperiri poterant, qui non omnia emolumenta mundana abiicienda et stercora exislimanda esse opinarentur, quia talia quoque, uti origo, nobilitas, auctoritas, existimatio aliorum, rei evangelii utilia esse possunt. Hisce qui rebus mundanis partim essent addicti, diceret apostolus : Deus vos pro sua benignitate ita illuminabit, ut hoc sentiatis quod nos sentimus. Aliam sententiam proponit Hpt; putat totum quod dictam est respicere iudaizantes ; qui aliter sentiant, esse quosdam putantes apostolum nimis dure et acerbe iudicium ferre contra iudaizantes ; iis nunc dicere apostolum, Deum .effecturum esse ulteriore illustratione seu revelatione, ut agnoscant suum iudicium plane rei veritati esse conforme. Quidquid est, sententia manet obscura; neque id mirum ; nam conditionem rerum et opinionum apud Philippenses parum novimus. Concludit et effert, ut in hac quacumque diversitate, id retineatur quod cardo rei est v. 46 zv eic ò &g0dauuev, verumtamen ad quod pervenimus, quantum ad id quod de rebus divinis iam assecuti sumus (Est.), vel ad quam vitae rationem provenimus cà z9«0 ccorysiv, idem prosequamur eodem vestigio incedamus ; haec lectio a criticis genuina habetur ; eam Augustinus quoque tuetur : verumtamen in quod pervenimus, im eo ambulemus, et explicat: 1n quod pervenimus, non in eo remaneamus, sedin eo ambulemus ; ambulare autem -est proficere (serm. 496, 43 ; M. 38,926). Reliqua xavóvi, tò aùtò .gpoveiv explicalionis causa, addita sunt, scil. «à «cà ecot/siv xxvóv: eadem regula seu norma incedere; ' dein ulterius haec eadem norma explicata est secundum monitum 2,2; TÒ AUTÒ quas explicationes vulg habet; utidem sapiamus, in eadem permaneamus regula, in eadem regula fidei et doctrinae. . Graeci explicant Tiy, interim, quod conseeuli sumus, teneamus, caritatem, concordiam, pacem; hoc nobis statutum est (Chrys. Thph. Oec.); regulam appellavit praedicationem evangelii ( Theod.) et quidem regulam 774/M. et Theod. intelligunt, ne eos tolerent qui legalia evangelio admisceant. At nullum adest indicium Philippenses voluisse legalia amplecti, neque tales conatus iudaizantium pertrahendi eos ad observanda legalia ullibi in epistola notantur. Quae 3,2 sq. dicuntnr, id unum enuntiare videntur, iudaizantes sese jactasse quasi in superiore gradu quodam prae aliis Christifidelibus constitutos; contra hanc arrogantiam et vanam superbiam apostolus aperte agit 3,3-8. ppovety, et Coelestia appetant, concordiam et gaudium in, Domino sectentur 3,17-4,7. Complura dixit apostolus de sua sentiendi agendique ratione: neque enim solum verbis docebat, sed etiam factis ; cur ea proposuerit et quomodo possint «à «và ccorysiv, nunc iis ob oculos ponit : imitatores mei estote xívss0s, studete ut fiatis eouquwnvxí vo» co-imitalores, exigit ut concorditer imitentur ipsum (Ca:.), ut omnes una mente evadant imitatores, vel: estote mei imitatores una cum aliis qui me imitantur (Est. Lap. - Beelen). Suum exemplum alias quoque fidelibus imitandum exhibet : 2 Thess. 3,7 ipsi scitis quemadmodum oporteat imitari nos; 4 Cor. 4,16 ; 11,1 imitatores mei estote. Ipse quidem abest; at eius exemplum cernere possunt in iis qui revera imitatores apostoli sunt ; et observate eos qui ita ambulant axonsizs, intuemini eos qui ila, scil. ut ego, vitam instituunt, in illis habetis formam nostram xz0óc čyere zózov hus : siquidem habetis nos tamquam formam, exemplar vitae (cf. 2 Thess. 3,9 ut. nosmetipsos formam zóroy daremus vobis ad imitandum nos). Dicit zc, formam nostram, quia sese comprehendit cum iis qui ambulant sicut ipse ; unde z30óc i. e. ea ralione plures habent quos imitentur, dummodo attente considerent eos qui exemplum Pauli sequuntur. Et profecto est, cur talem iis commendet imitationem
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v. 18 multi enim ambulant quos saepe dicebam vobis, nunc autem et flensdico, inimicos crucis Christi ; non desunt mala exempla ; etiani hic sermonem fieri de iudaizantibus censent Theod. ThdM. Ephr. Thom. Ambrst. Cai. (qui malos operarios designari putat 3,2) Est. Tust. Nat. Ew. qui scil. legalia docentes et observantesinimicos se exhibeant crucis Christi (nam si per legem iustitia, ergo gratis Christus mortuus est Gal. 2,21) et qui quidquam spei ponentés in illis, virtutem crucis Christi evacuent. Graeci, Chrys. Oec. Thyh., et recentiores autem interpretantur apostolum non de iudaizantibus loqui, sed de malis christianis « qui christianismum quidem simulabant, sed in olio ac deliciis vivebant; id vero adversatur cruci » (Chrys.). Quomodo ambulent, seu qualem vitam agant, apostolus eo indirecte declarat quod eos vocatinimicos crucis Christi; ergo directe erat dicendum : multi ambulant ut inimici crucis Christi. Tales autem sunt qui vitam agunt voluptatibus el luxuriae deditam; Christus postulat: si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum et tollat crucem suam (Matth. 16,24) et apostolus scripsit : qui autem Christi sunt, carnem suam crucifixerunt cum vitiis et concupiscentiis suis (Gal. 5, 24); « nonne in crucem est actus Dominus tuus? si illius modum non potes, imitare alia ratione Dominum tuum ; ipse te crucifige, prout Paulus dicebat : mihi mundus crucifixus est et ego mundo » (Chrys. Gal. 6,14). Agi de malis christianis, polest suaderi ex ipsa hac appellatione, qua inimici crucis Christi nominantur; nam fidelis debet inire societatem passionum eius, configurari morti eius (3,10); si autem voluptatibus se dederit, odio habet crucem Christi, quia contrarium eius prosequitur, quod socielate passionum Christi exigitur. Ita facile intelligitur, cur inimici crucis Christi vocentur christiani voluptuose viventes; iudaizantes autem inimici Christi merito dicuntur, quia meritum eius, doctrinam, voluntatem spernunt ac pervertunt; cur autem speciali ralione crucis inimicos se ostendant, non ita apparet, nisi dixeris eos esse primarios inimicos et perseeulores apostoli, qui glorietur in cruce Christi (Gal. 6,14) et Christum annuntiet crucifixum (4 Cor. 4,23). Sed notandum est, quanto affectu apostolus commoveatur : nunc autem et flensdico, lanto dolore corripitur recordatione, ut lacrimas fundat. Intelligitur dolor de corruptione nomine christiano indignissima et de turpi libidine quae adeo contraria sit cruci Domini. Praeterea tantus apostoli dolor de iis potius concipitur qui perfecte antea erant fratres ` apostoli in eadem fide, quam de iudaizantibus, qui nunquam fide integra Christo adhaeserunt neque vero sensu fratres fidelium seu Pauli existimari poterant. Quare Dib. dicit ex xAzíov colligendum esse sermonem fieri de Christianis. EE Dolor apostoli inde quoque augetur, quia interitus eiusmodi prolapsis imminet
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v. 19 quorum finis interitus, ixosix 1,98; apud tales enim valet illud : impossibile est enim eos qui semel sunt illuminati, gustaverunt donum coeleste, bonum Dei verbum, participes facti Spirilus sancli et prolapsi sunt, rursus renovari ad poenitentiam (Hebr. 6,4; 10,26). Insuper Paulus peccatoribus impuris denuntiare solet : qui talia agunt, regnum Dei non consequentur. (Gal. 5,21), neque fornicarii, neque molles, neque ebriosi regnum Dei possidebunt (1 Cor. 6,10); hoc scitote intelligentes, quod omnis fornicator aut immundus non habet heredilatem in regno Christi et Dei (Eph. 5,5). Unde cum dolore eandem praevidet et deflet sortem eorum, quos alim fratres in Christo, nunc a " Christo alienos et inimicos crucis Christi cognoscit. Horum autem mores ulterius pandit : quorum deus venter est, quorum quasi summum bonum, cui serviunt et cui omnem adhibent curam et cuius gratia omniá agunt, est venter, gula et libido; qui sibi quasi deum et finem constituunt delicias cibi et potus et reliqua quae ventris sunt; cf. Rom. 16,18. Patet similem reprehensionem iudaizantibus quoque posse impingi, quia cum observatione legalium, in qua hi suum studium ponebant, luxuria consistere potest. Conatur TA^dM. hanc partem ad iudaizantes applicare, sed parum feliciter : « hoc manduca, illud noli manducare; et circa studia sua se vertunt, quasi deo ventri suo intendentes el idipsum pietatem esse existimant, quod alia quidem illi offerre, alia minime offerre studeant » (cf. cat. Cramer p. 279; Swete l. c. 242). Applicatio haec est satis coacta nec lalis agendi modus aple describeretur reprehensione : quorum deus venter. Unice quadrat quod in cat. Cr. loco illi ex ThdM. statim subiungitur formula 7, xai otos, vel etiam sic : vides quantum malum sint deliciae, cov $ tovg xaxóv; aliis quidem pecunia, aliis vero venter deus est: nonne hi etiam sunt idololatrae et illis quidem - eliam nequiores? (quae scil. leguntur apud Chrys. hom. 13 in ep. ad .Philip. M. 62,277); sed haec ad iudaizantes quoque applicari possunt. Et si isti peccatores deum habent ventrem, fere consequens est, ut gloriam suam in istis rebus turpibus ponant: et gloria in confusione ipsorum ży 77, dle óv*, otv, in ignominia eorum; notat Chrys. : quidam circumcisionem per hoc significari dicunt; ego autem hoc non dico, sed ita res est : ob quae oportebat sese occultare, in his efferuntur, esuvóvovza. » Sese igitur iactant et gloriantur in gula et luxuria; altior gradus improbitatis describitur, scil. in illis ipsis quae ignominiosa «icyóvņ sunt gloriam suam collocare; vide Is. 3,9 peccatum suum quasi Sodoma praedicaverunt nec absconderunt, vae animae eorum. Etiam haec pars potest congruere iudaizantibus, uli veleres graeci ab aliquibus fiericommemorant, et Ambrst. simpliciter explicat : gloriantes in pudendis: circumcisis. Quam interpretationem Est. non admittit, quia Paulus de moribus agat, non de doctrina. Tandem ultimo loco describit apostolus animorum illorum indolem et naturam, qui terrena sapiunt ot cà niyer qoovouvcec, eorum mens, cogilandi et appetendi ratio tota affixa est rebus terrenis, in lis solum versatur, extra terrena et supra terrena mens el appetitus non extollitur; quae itaque terrenis superiora sunt vel iis opposita et contraria, haee ypovsiv, sapere, appetere minime possunt, polius horum evadunt jnimici. Quae appellatio z ézíyez ad legalia Dl est; quando agitur de pravis concupiscentiis, ADM £ elc. occurrit (Rom. 8,7; Gal. 5,17 ete.). T itaque ambulant RR inimici Christi, quia et quatenus «x iniyes appetunt, in quantum scil. tota cogitandi appetendique ratio versatur et continetur in terrenis. Et horum omnium ratio ex graeco affertur v. 20 4uov yàp tò moíceona, nostra enim, scil. Christifidelium civilas, respublica, patria, in coelis est; nostra igilur ratio vitae non rebus terrenis, legalium institulioni, affixa esse debet, sed ad exemplum apostoli conformanda est, qui nos docuit v. 11-15 quomodo ad coelestia aspirare oporteret. In vulg. designatur. oppositio ad terrena sapientes
3:20
v. 90 nostra autem conversatio in coelis est, bene notat Tertullianus : politeuma nostrum i. e. municipatus est in civitate coelesti, est Ierusamilit. 13; c. Marc. 3,24; de resurr. carnis,47; M. 2,96. 355. 863); item legitur apud Cassianum (collatio 3,6.7; M. 49,566.507). Unde municipes, seu cives sumus coelestis reipublieae, coelestis bre. dum qui legalibus serviunt, servi sunt terrestris urbis (cf. Gal. 4,25.26); patria nostra in coelis est (graeci); etiam eo sensu, quia non habemus hie manerítem civitatem sed futuram inquirimus (Hebr. 13.14), sicuti veteres patriarchae confitebantnr, quia peregrini et hospites sunt super lerram, exspectantes fundamentum habentem civitatem, cuius artifex et conditor tatem Dei viventis, ad quam Christi fideles iam. accesserunt (cf. Hebr. 12,22). Idem hoc loco enuntiatur quod Eph. 2,19 : estis cives sanctorum vocari colonias externorum, quae in administratione rerum et. in modo gubernandi zoXweízv regionis patriae imitentur. Qua notione speciali supposita exislere sensum : nos regnum patrium habemus in coelo et in lerra sumus colonia civium coelorum (Kolonie von Himmelsbürgern, deren Heimatsreich im Himmel ist). Lectione vulg. nostra. conversatio per se dicitur : nostra vivendi ratio in coelis est (anima magis est ibi ubi amat, quam ubi animat, Lap.); at: ünlerpreles latini rité explicant PHIL. 3,20-4,4. 259 Lap. Tust.). Opponuntur regiones, ut id quod regionibus continetur et significatur, nobis ob oculos ponatur. Et nos merito collocare patriam nostram in supernis, ad quae per Christum transferendi simus, explicatur unde etiam salvatorem ecspectamus, && oò adverbialiter ponitur: unde; cotùpa (Eph. 5,23), qui dat salutem, qui nos reddet incolumes, nos servat et liberat a terrenis, ixexbeyóus0x desiderium dieit vehemens et praestolationem ardentem; et quomodo tandem perfecte sese nobis exhibiturus sit Dominus noster servatorem, declaratur
3:21
v. 21 qui reformabit, (Let aono (iser: cywa, habitum, formam externam mutabit, corpus humilitatis nostrüe, cf. 2 Cor. 4,7 vasa fictilia, et 2 Cor. 5,1 terrestris domus nostra; qui immutabit seu transmutabit corpus nostrum vile, humile, miseriis et corruptioni obnoxium ; Christifideles enim corpus suum, uti conditionem terrestrem, secundum rei veritatem iudicant et agnoscunt, in oppositione summa claritatis suae, cóvu.oocov, illius trahsmutationis effectus erit, ut corpus nostrum fiat et sit conforme corpori glorioso, corpori gloriae Iesu Christi. Qualis sit. autem gloria, 7 3ótx, corporis post resurrectionem, exponit apostolus 1 Cor. 15, 40-49. induat incorruptionem, mortale hoc immortalitatem, et càua Voycxóv fiat cma. Tyevyatıxóv (1^ Cor. 15,44.53), effectus est supremae potestatis et scil. secundum eam potentiae suae efficaciam ac vim, qua etiam possit subiicere sibi omnia; « ostendit maiora opera potentiae suae, ut haec 4 Cor. 15,25-27; Hebr. 2,6 seq. Et notant apostolum hoc loco tribuere Filio, quod alias Patri adscribitur, qui Filio omnia subiiciat (cf. 1 Cor. 15,27. Hebr. 2,8). Unde iam veteres contra Arianos inferunt eandem esse Patris et Filii potentiam, proindeque eandem naturam, divinitatem. Uti 4,1 czs indicat, conclusionem ex antecedentibus colligit apostolus. Solum quaeri polest, ad quaenam extendatur conclusio, utrum ad v. 90.91, an ad v. 17-21, an ad v. 11-21. Bona conclusio. iam habetur ex ultimis sententiis : cives sumus coelestis patriae, cuius gloriam nobis conferet Christus; itaque etc. Sed cum apostolus dical sie state odcos, ipsa hae voce videtur respicere, quod scripsit v. 17 oxonsire toù oŬtwg TEPITATOŬVTXG, xaz0oc elc.; quare refer óste ad v. 17-21. Est itaque sensus: itaque, vel quae cum ila sint: magno affectu amoris eos alloquitur et admonet simul cum eximio encomio; testatur suum in eos amorem et quanto desiderio eorum teneatur : fratres mei carissimi et desideratissimi, laude praeclara eos: afficit : : gaudium meum et corona mea, inde necessario supponi debet, mores Philippensium, fidem eorum ac caritatem in eo fuisse statu florenti, ut animus apostoli et gauderet et hanc eorum conditionem gloriam el coronam, insigne ornamentum apostolatus sui merito existimaret et palam profiteretur. Idem consequitur ex adhortatione : sic state, cf. v. 17 sicut videtis in me et in aliis, sic ambulate et permanete ; el eo modo permanebitis in Domino, cum eo unili, in eius gralia constituti; state otýxete constanter rectam hanc vitae rationem tenete in Domino, eius gratia adiuli, scil. ita tamen, ut et ipsi ex sua parte studeant firmiter manere in unione cum Domino, in promovenda causa Domini. Cum magna laude coniuneta est adhortatio ( Theó4.). Subditur monitum quoddam singulare: v. 2 in graeco idem verbum ponitur, Evodiam xzpax«^o et Syntychen Tapara, adhortor; habet emphasin quod unaquaeque singulari modo admonetur et admonitio fit eodem verbo, ne una prae altera vel magis noxia vel magis nobilis ' videatur. Dissensionem quandam studiorum inter se habebant; idipsum sapere in Domino tò «òtó, idem appetant et sentiant, et hunc animorum sensum concordem hauriant et firmiter sibi constituant in Domino; « illas religiosa urbanitate apostolus obtestatur, ut summam inter se concordiam. servent, qualem Christus imperat et caritatis leges bonumque ecclesiae exigunt » (Nat.). Aliter in Dominó concipi posse censet Beelen : si mulieres illae, sive tamquam diaconissae, sive aliopeculiari modo rei christianae fuerint cooperatrices, dicerem tò in Domino hie esse dictum metonymice valereque ac si, esset scriptum : idem sapere in negotio promovendae rei christianae. Sin vero, in Domino significare potest: tamquam membra unius mystici corporis Christi ». Illas antea in re evangelica laborasse, patet ex v. 3: unde conieceris, illas in modo laborandi, in subsidiis adhibendis, in ratione procedendi sive suavi sive fortiore non fuisse concordes. Ad has feminas ad concors studium reducendas adiutorem compellat Paulus
3:1
That there is an abrupt and unexpected transition in Phil. 3, 1 f. is undeniable: 3, 1 would appear to be the beginning of a letter's closing; but then the text decisively resumes in order to renew recommendations already made (3, 16); and there follow …
3:4
… The A. and the Epistles agree in presenting Paul as a Pharisee, son of Pharisees (26, 5; cf. Phil. 3, 4), as a persecutor marvelously transformed into an apostle of Christ, who escaped from Damascus in a basket (II Cor. 11, 32 f.), persecuted at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra (II Tim. …
a) This zealot for the traditions of the fathers (Gal. 1:13-14; Phil. 3:4-6), this persecutor of Christians was in no way prepared to admit a suffering Messiah, the divinity of a mortal man, the evangelical morality, the general vocation of the Gentiles, etc. …
3:5
… The tribe then merged its history with that of Judah, while still preserving its own individuality (Ezra 2; Neh. 5:11). St. Paul is careful to note his belonging to B. (Rom. 11:1; Phil. 3:5).
I. LIFE. - 1. Youth. - By birth P. inherited the right of Roman citizenship (Acts 16:37; 22:25-28) and a deep attachment to the Mosaic Law. He glories in being "a Hebrew, born of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee" (Phil. 3:5); elsewhere he calls himself "a Pharisee, son of Pharisees" (Acts 23:6) and recalls his almost fanatical zeal "for the traditions of his fathers" (Gal. 1:14). It is possible that in …
… After the exile the censuses were modeled on the ancient tribal scheme, which however will have had purely topographical value, or even only conventional, remaining until the Christian era, in which Anna of the tribe of Asher is remembered, and Paul of Benjamin (Lk. 2, 36; Rom. 11, 1; Phil. 3, 5). There is also talk of the 12 tribes of Israel, to mean the totality of the chosen people in the messianic sense (Mt. 19, 28; Rev. 7, 5 ff.; 21, 12 ff.; cf. Ezek. 47, 13-48, 35). Giovanni Rinaldi
3:10
… This assertion is confirmed by many other expressions of St. Paul and of the New Testament in general, in which the Christian life is described as beginning and unfolding in union with Jesus (cf. Eph. 2:5-7; Col. 2:20; 3:3; 1 Pt. 3:21; Phil. 3:10, etc.). …
… goods, so that, through these, you may become partakers of the divine nature... θείας κοινωνοί φύσεως." The term κοινωνός (κοινωνός) used by St. Peter also in the First Letter (5:1), is likewise found in St. John (Jn. 1:3) and in St. Paul (1 Cor. 1:9; Phil. 3:10); with the meaning of communion, divine participation, which is linked to the idea of adoptive filiation (v. ADOPTION, SUPERNATURAL) by virtue of a regeneration of man reborn from …
… Haer., 4, 18, 4: PG 7, 1026; cf. 2, 8, 3 [Phil. 4, 17]; 5, 13, 4 [Phil. 3, 10]: PG 7, 995, 1159). The authenticity of the F. is commonly affirmed by Clement of Alexandria (Strom., 4, 13: PG 8, 1300; Paed., 1, 6: PG 8, 312), by Tertullian (De resurrectione carnis, …
3:11
… The non-Catholic T. A. Lacey (The Historic Christ, Ital. trans., Turin 1907, p. 122) already noted: "The words written by St. Paul on two occasions (II Cor. 5:8 and Phil. 3:11), separated by a long span of time, show the continuity of his thought. …
3:12
… Hence the Christian must be ready for the fight like a soldier armed cap-a-pie (Eph. 6:10-18), like the athlete, accustomed to harsh exercises, who strikes the enemy (himself) until he draws blood (I Cor. 9:24-27) and is wholly intent on the finish line (Phil. 3:12-14).
… Truly all have sinned in Adam; although in the original text this precise statement is lacking: the Greek ἐφ' ὃ is merely causal (II Cor. 5, 4; Phil. 3, 12), and likewise the in quo of the Latin translation can be explained as "because" (Rom. 8, 3; Phil. 3, 12). St. Paul does not say how this infection took place; he does not develop …
3:13
… this desire for bodily death (Rom. 7:24), like all the saints, because "to be separated from the body" is an indispensable condition for being united to the Lord (II Cor. 5:6-8). While he awaits death, Paul is wholly intent on awaiting the parousia (Phil. 3:13-21; II Tim. 4:8), the summit of hope and salvation; meanwhile the union of the heavenly and the earthly continues to be accomplished in Jesus (Eph. 1:10). We are therefore in the new, …
3:15
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. - In its ideal content it entails the complete realization of the Christian life as opposed to its beginnings, that is, the fullness of goodness in the supernatural moral order (Phil. 3:15; Col. 3:14; I Cor. 2:6; Jas. 1:4). He is called "perfect" who practices in the most excellent degree possible, according to the measure of the grace communicated to him, that …
Besides the allusions of I Clem. 3, 4; 21, 1 (Phil. 1, 27); 47, 2 (Phil. 4, 15); of St. Ignatius, Ad Smyrn., 4, 2 (Phil. 13); 11, 3 (Phil. 3, 15); ad Philad., 1, 5; 8, 2 (Phil. 2, 3), there is the explicit testimony of Polycarp, Ad Phil., 3, 2, who reminds the F. of the letters written to them by Paul; allusions in 1, 1 (Phil. …
3:16
In a figurative sense the word canon was used in grammar, in literature (canones were the classical authors), in art (canon of Polyclitus: Quintilian, Inst. orat., X, 1, 54), in matters of faith (Gal. 6, 16), in matters of morals (Phil. 3, 16), in liturgy (St. Clement, Ep. I Cor., I, 41).
Epistles I-II to the Thessalonians
… φθάνω (Grimme, Zorell: "nequaquam ante illos aut sine illis ad gloriam perveniemus") in the more recent Greek authors is always constructed with εἰς and the accusative; and this is the usage of St. Paul in the other two times he employs it (Rom. 9, 31; Phil. 3, 16), always placing εἰς and the accusative before the verb φθάνω. …
3:18
… The Apostle constantly uses τοῦ Χριστοῦ (with the article) after terms of soteriological import: Ἰεσσαγγέλων (8 times), "the cross" (I Cor. 1:17; Gal. 6:12; Phil. 3:18), "the sufferings" (II Cor. 1:5 and Col. 1:24; cf. Act. 3:18; 17:3; 26:23), Ἰάγιπτη (Rom. 8:35; II Cor. 5:14; Eph. 3:19), "the Blood" and "the Body" of his sacrifice (I …
… ad Philad., 1, 5; 8, 2 (Phil. 2, 3), there is the explicit testimony of Polycarp, Ad Phil., 3, 2, who reminds the F. of the letters written to them by Paul; allusions in 1, 1 (Phil. 2, 17; 4, 10); 2, 1 (Phil. 2, 10; 3, 21); 9, 2 (Phil. 2, 16); 12, 3 (Phil. 3, 18). The F. is also cited in a writing of the churches of Thyatira and Vienna (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 5, 2: PG 20, 433). Phil. 4, 18 is cited as Paul's by St. Irenaeus (Adv. …
3:20
In the mind of the first Christian generation, the title ὁ Χριστός expressed, beyond the traditional concept of "King of Israel," that of universal "Savior," as appears in St. Paul, in whose major epistles σωτήρ does not occur (but only in Eph. 5:23; Phil. 3:20, and 10 times in the Pastorals). …
… of Christ is the beginning and the epilogue, the inauguration and the conclusion, the faith and the "blessed hope" (Tit. 2:11-13; Col. 3:1-4); it is not limited to the terminal episode of the human drama; therefore "to await the p." (I Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20; Rom. 8:19-25) is not equivalent to awaiting the end of the world. …
… While in certain texts P. seems to long for a speedy end of the world with the corresponding beginning of a blessed life with Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:3, 4; Phil. 1:6, 10; 3:20; 4:5), in others (Rom. 11:25) he posits as necessary the prior spread of the Gospel and the conversion of the Jews, which should precede the complex events of the parousia (revelation …
… (Wis. 18:3; Hab. 3:16: παρενία is a synonym of x.), every Christian is and must feel himself a "stranger" (ξένος) and a "foreigner" (παρενός): 1 Pt. 1:1; 2:11; Heb. 11:13; 13:14); his homeland is the city of God and of the saints (Eph. 2:19; Phil. 3:20). Many ascetics of antiquity practiced voluntary x., wandering ceaselessly. …
3:21
… 2 (Phil. 13); 11, 3 (Phil. 3, 15); ad Philad., 1, 5; 8, 2 (Phil. 2, 3), there is the explicit testimony of Polycarp, Ad Phil., 3, 2, who reminds the F. of the letters written to them by Paul; allusions in 1, 1 (Phil. 2, 17; 4, 10); 2, 1 (Phil. 2, 10; 3, 21); 9, 2 (Phil. 2, 16); 12, 3 (Phil. 3, 18). The F. is also cited in a writing of the churches of Thyatira and Vienna (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 5, 2: PG 20, 433). Phil. 4, 18 is cited …
… Theol., suppl., q. 85, a. 1), making them conformable, even in the body, to the Incarnate Word: (Phil. 3:21) whence « tunc fulgebunt iusti sicut sol in regno Patris mei » (Mt. 13:43; cf. Wis. 3:7; Dan. 12:3); c) agility (δῶσις), whereby the bodies, freed from natural heaviness, will be able …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Rheims 1582), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.