Ho.wn.Y V.] HOMILIES OX TITUS. 539 After this the madman himself slew another man, and took his wife. What can be worse than such calamities as these? But I mention these instances taken from the Heathens, 1 with this view, that I may convince the Gentiles, what evils then prevailed in the world. But we may show the same from our own writings. For it is said, " They sacrificed their sons and daugh ters unto devils." (Ps. cvi. 37.) Again, the Sodomites were destroyed for no other cause than their unnatural appetites. Soon after the coming of Christ, did not a king s daughter dance at a banquet in the presence of drunken men, and did she not ask as the reward of her dancing the murder and the head of a Prophet ? " Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? " (Ps. vi. 2.) " Hateful," he says, " and hating one another." For it must necessarily happen, when we let loose every pleasure on the soul, that there should be much hatred. For where love is, with virtue, no man overreacheth another in any matter. Mark also what Paul says, " Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, shall inherit the king dom of God. And such were some of you." (i Cor. vi. 9, 10.) Dost thou see how every species of wickedness prevailed ? It was a state of gross darkness, and the corruption of all that was right. For if those who had the advantage of prophecies, and who saw so many evils in flicted upon their enemies, and even upon them selves, nevertheless did not restrain themselves, but committed numberless foolish crimes, what would be the case with others? One of their lawgivers ordered that virgins should wrestle naked in the presence of men. Many blessings on you ! that ye cannot endure the mention of it ; but their philosophers were not ashamed of the actual practice. Another, the chief of their philosophers, approves of their going out to the war, and of their being common,- as if he were a pimp and pander to their lusts. " Living in malice and envy." For if those who professed philosophy among them made such laws, what shall we say of those who were not philosophers? If such were the maxims of those who wore a long beard, and assumed the grave cloak," what can be said of others ? Woman was not made for this,O man, to be prostituted as common. O ye subverters 1 His object was probably to take familiar instances; these are chiefly from the Greek Drama. - This is an unfair view of Plato s Republic, against which, how ever, it is a real objection that it sets aside a law of nature, though with political, and not sensual views. Some have seen a great truth allegorized in this, and it may be justly, but ordinary Greeks would be more likely to take it as St. Chrysostom does, and Plato perhaps hints that it would be so in practice, b. viii. init. 3 rpiftiava. of all decency, who use men, as if they were women, and lead out women to war, as if they were men ! This is the work of the devil, to subvert and confound all things, to overleap the boundaries that have been appointed from the beginning, and remove those which God has set to nature. For God assigned to woman the care of the house only, to man the conduct of public affairs. But you reduce the head to the feet, and raise the feet to the head. You suffer women to bear arms, and are not ashamed. But why do I mention these things? They in troduce on the stage a woman that murders her own children, nor are they ashamed to stuff the ears of men with such abominable stories. Ver. 4. " But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." What means, " according to the hope " ? That, as we have hoped, so we shall enjoy eternal life, or because ye are even already heirs. "This is a faithful saying." Because he had been speaking of things future and not of the present, therefore he adds, that it is worthy of credit. These things are true, he says, and this is manifest from what has gone before. For He who has delivered us from such a state of iniquity, and from so many evils, will assuredly impart to us the good things to come, if we abide in grace. For all proceeds from the same kind concern. MORAL. Let us then give thanks to God, and not revile them ; nor accuse them, but rather let us beseech them, pray for them, counsel and advise them, though they should insult and spurn us. For such is the nature of those who are diseased. 4 But those who are concerned for the health of such persons do all things and bear all things, though it may not avail, that they may not have themselves to accuse of neg ligence. Know ye not that often, when a phy sician despairs of a sick man, some relative standing by addresses him, " Bestow further attendance, leave nothing undone,, that I may not have to accuse myself, that I may incur no blame, 5 no self-reproach." Do you not see the great care that near kinsmen take of their rela tions, how much they do for them, both entreat ing the physicians to cure them, and sitting perseveringly beside them? Let us at least imitate them. And yet there is no comparison between the objects of our concern. For if any &ev fiefj.<j>ionat.