t
affectionately conjures them to make their conversion entire. A sight of
one such conversion, he says, gave him more joy, than if a thousand
imperial diadems of the richest jewels had been placed upon his head.
Other specimens of the saint's ardent love for his people at
Constantinople, see Hom. 9, in Hebr. t. 12, p. 100; Hom. 23, in Hebr. p.
217; Hom. 9, in 1 Thes. t. 11, p. 494; Hom. 7, in 1 Coloss. Hom. 39, in
Act. p. 230, &c. For his people at Antioch, t. 3, p. 362, t. 2, p. 279,
t. 7, p. 374, &c. On his humility, t. 2, p. 455, t. 4, p. 339. On his
desire to suffer for Christ, t. 1, p. 453, t. 7, p. 243, t. 11, pp. 53,
55.

The inspired epistles of St. Paul were the favorite subject of this
saint's intense meditation, in which he studied the most sublime maxims,
and formed in himself the most perfect spirit of Christian virtue. The
epistle to the Romans is expounded by him in thirty-two homilies, (t. 9,
p. 429,) which he made at Antioch, as is clear from Hom. 8, p. 508, and
Hom. 30, p. 743. Nothing can go beyond the commendations which St
Isidore of Pelusium bestows on this excellent work, (l. 5, ep. 32,) to
which all succeeding ages have subscribed. The errors of Pelagius, which
were broached soon after in the West, are clearly guarded against by the
holy preacher, though he is more solicitous to confute the opposite
heresy of the Manichees, which then reigned in many parts of the East.
He also confounds frequently the Jews. But what we most admire is the
pious sagacity with which he unfolds the deep sense of the sacred text,
and its author, the true disciple of Christ, and the perspicuity and
eloquence with which he enforces his moral instructions. Whoever reads
anyone of these homilies, will hear testimony to this eulogium. See Hom.
24. (t. 9, p. 694,) {270} on the shortness of human life: Hom. 8, on
fraternal charity and forgiving injuries: Hom. 20, on our obligation of
offering to God a living sacrifice of our bodies by the exercise of all
virtues, and the sanctity of our affections: Hom. 22 and 27, on patience
in bearing all injuries, by which we convert them into our greatest
treasure: Hom. 5, on the fear of God's judgments, and on his love, to
which he pathetically says, it would be more grievous to offend God than
to suffer all the torments of hell, which every one incurs who is not in
this disposition, (p. 469,) though it is a well-known maxim that persons
ought not to propose to themselves in too lively