HOMILY XIII.] HOMILIES ON TIMOTHY. 451 God in the place of all. She is not the worse for not having children, but He fills up her need with consolation, in that she is without children. What he says amounts to this. Grieve not, when it is said that a widow ought to bring up children, as if, because thou hast no children, thy worth were on that account inferior. Thou art a widow indeed, whereas she who liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. But since many who have children choose 1 the state of widowhood, not to cut off the occa sions of a worldly life, but rather to enhance them, that they may do what they will with the greater license, and indulge the more freely in worldly lusts : therefore he says, " She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." Ought not a widow then to live in pleasure? Surely not. If then when nature and age is weak, a life of pleasure is not allowable, but leads to death, eternal death ; what have men to say, who live a life of pleasure? But he says with reason, " She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." But that thou mayest see this, let us now see what is the state of the dead, and what of the living, and in which shall we place such an one ? The living perform the works of life, of that future life, which is truly life. And Christ has declared what are the works of that future life, with which we ought always to be occupied. "Come, inherit the kingdom pre pared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink." (Matt. xxv. 34, 35.) The living differ from the dead, not only in that they behold the sun, and breathe the air, but in that they are doing some good. For if this be wanting, the living are not better than the dead. That you may learn this, hear how it is possible that even the dead should live. For it is said, " God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Matt. xxii. 32.) But this again you say is a riddle. Let us therefore solve them both. A man who liveth in pleasure, is dead whilst he liveth. For he liveth only to his belly. In his other senses he lives not. He sees not what he ought to see, he hears not what he ought to hear, he speaks not what he ought to speak. Nor does he perform the actions of the living. But as he who is stretched upon a bed, with his eyes closed, and his eyelids fast, perceives nothing that is passing ; so it is with this man, or rather not so, but worse. For the one is equally insensible to things good and evil, but the latter is sensible to things evil only, but as insensible as the former to things good. Thus he is dead. For nothing relating to the life to come moves or affects him. For intemperance, taking him into her own bosom, as into some 1 2 MSS. " renounce." dark and dismal cavern, full of all uncleanness, causes him to dwell altogether in darkness, like the dead. For when all his time is spent between feasting and drunkenness, is he not dead, and buried in darkness? Even in the morning when he seems to be sober, he is not sober in reality, since he has not yet rid and cleansed himself of yesterday s excess and is still longing for a repetition, and in that his even ing and noon he passes in revels, and all the night, and most of the morning in deep sleep. Is he then to be numbered with the living? Who can describe that storm that comes of luxury, that assails his soul and body? For as a sky continually clouded admits not the sun beams to shine through it, so the fumes of luxury and wine enveloping his brain, as if it were some rock, and casting over it a thick mist, suffer not reason to exert itself, but overspread the drunken man with profound darkness. With him who is thus affected, how great must be the storm within, how violent the tumult. As when a flood of water has risen, and has surmounted the entrances of the workshops, 2 we see all the inmates in confusion, and using tubs and pitchers and sponges, and many other contrivances to bale it out, that it may not both undermine the building, and spoil all that is contained in it : so it is when luxury overwhelms the soul ; its reasonings within are disturbed. What is already collected, cannot be discharged, and by the introduction of more, a violent storm is raised. For look not at the cheerful and merry countenance, but examine the interior, and you will see it full of deep dejection. If it were pos sible to bring the soul into view, and to behold it with our bodily eyes, that of the luxurious would seem depressed, mournful, miserable, and wasted with leanness ; for the more the body grows sleek and gross, the more lean and weakly is the soul ; and the more one is pampered,3 the more is the other hampered. 4 As, when the pupil of the eye has the external coats over it too thick, it cannot put forth the power of vision,5 and look out, because the light is excluded by the thick covering, and darkness often ensues ; so when the body is constantly full fed, the soul must be invested with grossness. But the dead rot, and are corrupted, you say ; and an unwhole some moisture distills from them. So in her "that liveth in pleasure," may be seen rheums, and phlegm, catarrh, hiccough, vomitings, eruc tations, and the like, which, as too unseemly, I forbear to name. For such is the dominion of luxury, that it makes one endure things, which we do not even think proper to mention. 2 epyaonjpuoi , probably cellars. 3 0aA7TTai. 4 OdtTTfrai, buried. 5 It was commonly thought that a certain effluence from the eye was required to meet the light.