Excerpt of Homilies on Gospel of St. Matthew by St. John Chrysostom

Homily XI: 7    

Thus having said, "He shall baptize with

   the Holy Spirit and with fire," and having there promised great

   blessings; unless you, released wholly from the former things, grow

   supine, he has added the fan, and the judgment thereby declared. Thus,

   "think not at all," said he, "that your baptism suffices, if you become

   ordinary persons hereafter:" for we need both virtue, and plenty

   of that known self-restraint.  Therefore as by the axe he urges

   them unto grace, and unto the font, so after grace he terrifies them by

   the fan, and the unquenchable fire. And of the one sort, those yet

   unbaptized, he makes no distinction, but said in general, "Every tree

   that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down," punishing all

   the unbelievers. Whereas after baptism He works out a kind of division,

   because many of them that believed would exhibit a life unworthy of

   their faith.

   Let no man then become chaff, let no one be tossed to and fro, nor lie

   exposed to wicked desires, blown about by them easily every way. For if

   you continue wheat, though temptation be brought on you, you will

   suffer nothing dreadful; no, for in the threshing floor, the wheels of

   the car, that are like saws,  do not cut in pieces the wheat; but

   if you fall away into the weakness of chaff, you will both here

   suffer incurable ills, being smitten of all men, and there you will

   undergo the eternal punishment. For all such persons both before that

   furnace become food for the irrational passions here, as chaff is for

   the brute animal: and there again they are material and food for the

   flame.

Be still and know that I am God.

In Christ,

+William

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