at Antioch: for he speaks of Constantinople
as at a distance, (Hom. 26,) which passage Sir Henry Saville has
mistaken, as Montfaucon clearly shows. This commentary is inferior to
the last, though not in elegance, yet in fire, the moral instructions
being shorter. The saint mentions several of the ceremonies used still
at mass, or in the public office of the church. Hom. 18, p. 568. Hom.
30, p. 6{5}0. On visiting the shrines of martyrs, he says, Hom. 26, p.
629, "The tombs of those who served the crucified Christ surpass in
splendor the courts of kings. Even he who wears purple visits and
devoutly kisses them, and standing suppliant, prays the saint to be a
protection to him before God." He adds that emperors sue for their
patronage, and count it an honor to be porters to them in their graves.
By this he alludes to the burial of Constantine the Great in the porch
of the church of the apostles. He proves, Hom. 3, p. 441, and Hom. 14,
p. 537, that the essence of repentance consists in a change of the
heart: that without an amendment of life, penance is only a mask and a
shadow, what fasts or other works soever attend it, and that it must be
founded not barely in the fear of hell, but in the love of so good and
loving a God. He teaches, Hom. 10, p. 505, that a Christian ought to
rejoice at the approaches of death. He speaks in many places on the
precept of alms-deeds with great vehemence. He says, Hom. 16, that to be
animated with a spirit of charity and compassion is something greater
than to raise the dead to life: our alms must be liberal, plentiful,
voluntary, and given with joy. He says, Hom. 19, that Christ stripped
himself of his immense glory and riches for love of us; yet men refuse
him a morsel of bread. They throw away on dogs, and what is superfluous
among servants, that which Christ wants in his members, to whom all
strictly belongs whatever we enjoy beyond what is necessary for life. He
enters into a severe and elegant detail of these superfluities, Hom. 19,
p. 570. The apostle, as he observes, (Hom. 20, p. 577,) justly calls
alms a seed, because it is not lost, but sown, and produces a most
plentiful harvest.

His commentary On the Epistle to the Galatians (t. 10) is an accurate
interpretation of the text, with frequent remarks against the Anomoeans,
Marcionites, and Manichees, but very sparing in moral exhortations:
these the saint probably added in the pulpit, and gave to the work the
form of discourses; f