Second Sermon for the First Sunday in November: That None Save Those Who Are Subject to God Shall be Admitted to His Temple

“ And those things that were under Him filled the Temple.” — IS Nk Ls

“ All the earth,” says our Prophet, speaking of Him Whom he saw sitting upon the throne, “all the earth was filled with His Majesty.” “ May Thy kingdom come ” (Matt. vi. 10), O Lord, so that Thy glory may fill all things on earth as it does in heaven! For wherefore does “the prince of this world ”(John xiv. 30) rage at large with such unbridled fury unless because meanwhile the earth has been given over into the hands of the impious one? “‘ But this is his hour and the power of darkness ” (Luke xxii. 53). The time will come when he who lost his place in heaven shall be miserably banished from the face of the earth also, and confined evermore in the subterranean caverns of hell. Hence the Prophet David, after describing the happiness of the saints, contrasts with them the wicked one and his angels or members, and says, ‘‘ Not so the wicked, not so, but (they shall be) like the dust which the wind driveth from the face of the earth ” (Ps. i. 4). Then the devil shall no longer have any power to tempt us, any liberty to trouble us, any possibility of working us harm. “Al the earth shall be filled with the majesty of the Lord” when His will shall no more be

THOSE WHO ARE SUBJECT TO GOD 349 disobeyed, but more especially then when “ the creature itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption”’* on account of which it “‘groaneth and travaileth in pain even till now ” (Rom. viii. 21, 2). For there shall be “ a new heaven and a new earth ” (Apoc. xxi. 1), and to whatever side we may choose to turn our gaze, we shall behold the face of all things resplendent, in a manner, with the glory of God.

But, my brethren, there is another earth (if I may call it so) nearer to us than this whereon we walk—I mean the earth of our own bodies—with regard to which we have a greater and a more reasonable solicitude. “For no man ever hated his own flesh ” (Ephes. v. 29). . Console your flesh, therefore, so that it also “shall rest in hope”’ (Ps. xv. 9), on hearing that ail the earth shall be filled with the majesty of the Lord. For at the present time, how could our bodies be filled with the divine majesty, since even the great St. Paul, having as yet only “the first fruits of the Spirit” (Rom. vili. 23), groans under the weight of his misery and cries out, “ I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good ” (ibid. vii. 18) ? And certainly sin was not reigning in his mortal body (ibid. vi. 12) at the time when he spoke thus. But remark further how he calls his body a mortal body and only denies that sin has dominion over it. For even then “the law of sin” dwelt in his members (ibid. vii. 23), which, however, was to be entirely excluded as soon as the fulness of glory should appear. And not alone the law of sin, but even death itself, the last of our enemies, shall then be destroyed (x Cor. xv. 26). Consequently all our earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord when we shall be fully delivered from both the consciousness of sin and the penalty of death. All our earth, I repeat, shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, when it shall beclothed with the beauty of a glorious resurrection, when it shall put on the stole of immortality, when it shall be “ made like to the Body of the glory ” of Christ (Phil. iii. 21). For “ we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the Body of His glory” (ibid. 20, 21). Wherefore, then, O my flesh, dost thou any longer complain? Wherefore dost thou strive and lust against the spirit’ (Gal. v. 17)? For if the spirit humbles thee, if it chastises thee, and brings thee into subjection (1 Cor. ix. 27), it does so undoubtedly quite as much for thy advantage and peculiar glory as for its own. What reason hast thou to envy them who are not ashamed to borrow an ignoble glory from the work of worms and the skins of mice, disgracing instead of adorning themselves by an art unworthy of man and disallowed even to women ? Leave such to be the reformers, or rather the deformers of their own bodies; but as for thee, thou shall be reformed by the same Artificer by Whom thou hast been formed, provided thou art found a “ body of lowness.” If thou art wise, thou wilt wait to be refashioned by the hand that made thee.*

But now, my brethren, attend to what follows in the account of the Prophet’s vision. ‘‘And those things which were under Him,” says he, “ filled the temple” (Is. vi. 1). This, no doubt, is the reason why the Apostle Peter admonishes you to “be humbled under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you

THOSE WHO ARE SUBJECT TO GOD 351 in the time of visitation” (x Peter v. 6). See to it, therefore, that you be found under Him, for otherwise you cannot bewith Him. What? Does it seem likely that He will admit all men indiscriminately into His temple of eternal beatitude, in which He did not suffer even all the angels indiscriminately to remain? Or do you imagine that He who discriminated between the: stars of heaven will not likewise discriminate between the clods of earth? Yea, most assuredly will He, Who tested and rejected the gold, test also the silver. Therefore, what perfection, think you, must those men possess who shall succeed to the thrones of the repudiated angels? Surely they must be free from every kind of iniquity, but most especially from that which in the very angels themselves was found, not unto a light offence, not unto a feeling of momentary indignation, but unto hatred everlasting (Ps. xxxv. 3). Pride once appeared in the city of God; it disturbed its tranquillity, shook its walls, aye, and threw them down in part, and in no small part. What then? Shall that devastating vice, think you, be readily re-admitted? How can the heavenly Jerusalem do otherwise than hate and utterly abominate a vice so pestilential ? Be sure, dearest brethren, that He who did not spare the proud angels will as little spare proud men. There is no contrariety in Him, “ God is not a respecter of persons ” (Acts x. 34) ; His judgments are never inconsistent with each other. Nothing can give Him pleasure, whether in angels or in men, save humility alone; and He Who sitteth upon the throne selects for the filling of His temple only such as are subject to Him. Hence it is written, “‘ Who is as the Lord our God Who dwelleth on high and looketh down on the low things in heaven and on earth ? ” (Ps. cxii. 5). But consider whether we may not perhaps take this to be the battle-cry of the Archangel Michael, “ resisting to the face” (Gal. ii. rz) the spirit of pride who said, “ I will be like the Most High” (Is. xiv. 14). For the name Michael is said to mean, “ Who is like to God ?”’.

The Prophet, therefore, after telling us how he “ saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated,” lest we should be tempted to understand the height of him who boasted, “ I will ascend above the height of the clouds” (Is. xiv. 14), or to refer the elevation to those men who lift themselves up in pride, very wisely added, “and those things which were under Him filled the temple.” For in these words is plainly implied, not any commendation of that “height that exalteth itself against God” (2 Cor. x. 5), but the fact that they alone shall be chosen for His temple or for His throne who are subject to Him, some of them exalted by the firm stability of their spiritual nature, others elevated from the earth by the divine compassion. But lest it should be objected here that all things are subject to His sway, and that the words, “ those things which were under Him,” ought to be understood without any limitation, the Prophet makes mention of the Seraphim, to show that God commends and approves not every kind of subjection, but only the subjection which is voluntary and proceeds from the fervour of charity. As touching the Seraphim, I purpose to communicate to you in the proper place whatever light the Lord has been pleased to favour me with concerning them.

“ And those things which were under Him filled the

THOSE WHO ARE SUBJECT TO GOD 353 temple.” In the beginning, my brethern, God created the angels in order that they might constitute the whole of His blessed temple. “ But with many of them God was not well pleased” (r Cor. x. 5), because even “in His angels He found wickedness” (Job iv. 18). Yes, there was wickedness in him who said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north ” (Is. xiv. 13) ; and he found many to join him in his revolt. Unhappy spirit that would rather be separated from God than subject to God! Unhappy they also who, when they saw the thief “ did run with him ”?” (Ps. xlix. 18)! Accordingly, these apostate angels were cast forth and left their places vacant for others to fill. Then, “shalt not thou, O my soul, be subject to God” (Ps. lxi. 2) ? Otherwise thou too shalt have no room in His temple, because the Prophet tells thee that “those things which were under Him filled the temple.” Vainly shall the foolish virgins knock, in vain shall they cry aloud (Matt. xxv. 11) when “ the marriage is filled with guests ” (Matt. xxii. Io) and the door shut. Most miserable the soul that shall deserve to be excluded from that marriage feast ! Most unhappy he who shall hear it said with reference to himself, ‘‘ Away with the wicked one that he may not see the glory of God ” (Is. xxvi. 10). What advantage can it be to have beheld the light of this world for the miserable one who shall not have merited to contemplate that immortal glory? Would to God that mine eyes had never gazed on anything at all if, forbid it, kind heaven !—they are destined to be defrauded of that glorious vision! Therefore, let the children of pride go if they please and show themselves II 24 more arrogant than ever; let them be lifted up and inflated with vanity; let them be always striving to appear protruding beyond the level, so that when the straight line of equity comes to be drawn, they may be cast forth from the fulness. But as for thee, O my soul, take care not to follow their evil example, but rather be thou subject to God (Ps. lxi. 2), subject from the heart, subiect from the fervour of devotion: because it is only the Seraphim, that is, those inflamed with charity, that were seen standing upon His throne. Let us stand there with them to-day, dearest brethren, and let us not suffer ourselves to be removed from that temple of God in which “all shall sing His glory” (Ps. xxviii. 9), because they shall there contemplate the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.