HOMILY IV.] HOMILIES ON EPHESIANS. 69 foolish talk? foolish, I say, not because He is not good, but in that we keep thinking that His goodness will be available to us for these pur poses, though I have again and again used ten thousand arguments on this subject. Listen to the Scripture, which saith, " Say not, Hismercy is great, He will be pacified for the multitude of my sins." (Ecclus. v: 6.) He does not for bid us to say, " His mercy is great." This is not what He enjoins ; rather he would have us constantly say it, and with this object Paul raises all sorts of arguments, but his object is what follows. Do not, he means, admire the loving-kindness of God with this view, with a view to sinning, and saying, " His mercy will be pacified for the multitude ofmy sins." For it is with this object that I too discourse somuch concerning His goodness, not that we may pre sume upon it, and do any thing we choose, be cause in that way this goodness will be to the prejudice of our salvation ; but that we may not despair in our sins, but may repent. For " the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance," (Rom. ii : 4.) not to greater wickedness. And if thou become depraved, because of His good ness, thou art rather belying Him before men. I see many persons thus impugning the long- suffering of God ; so that if thou use it not aright, thou shalt pay the penalty. Is God a God of loving-kindness? Yes, but He is also a righteous Judge. Is He one who maketh allow ance for sins? True, yet rendereth He to every man according to his works. Doth He pass by iniquity and blot out transgressions ? True, yet maketh He inquisition also. How then is it, that these things are not contradic tions ? Contradictions they are not, if we dis tinguish them by their times. He doeth away iniquity here, both by the laver of Baptism, and by penitence. There He maketh inquisition of what we have done by fire and torment. " If then," some man may say, " I am cast out, and forfeit the kingdom, whether I have wrought ten thousand evil deeds or only one, whereforemay I not do all sorts of evil deeds?" This is the argument of an ungrateful servant; still never theless, we will proceed to solve even this. Never do that which is evil in order to do thy self good ; for we shall, all alike fall short of the kingdom, yet in Hell we shall not all undergo the same punishment, but one a severer, another a milder one. For now, if thou and anotherhave "despisedGod s goodness," (Rom. ii : 4.) the one in many instances, and the other in a few, ye will alike forfeit the kingdom. But if ye have not alike despised Him, but the one in a greater, the other in a less degree, in Hell ye shall feel the difference. Now then, why, it may be said, doth He threaten them who have not done works of mercy, that they shall depart into the fire, and not simply into the fire, but into that which is "prepared for the devil and his angels?" (Matt, xxv : 41.) Why and wherefore is this? Because nothing so provokes God to wrath. He puts this before all terrible things ; for if it is our duty to love our enemies, of what punish ment shall not he be worthy, who turns awayeven from them that love him, and is in this respect worse than the heathen ? So that in this case the greatness of the sin will make such an one go away with the devil. Woe to him, it is said, who doeth not alms ; and if this was the case under the Old Covenant, much more is it under the New. If, where the getting of wealth was allowed, and the enjoyment of it, and the care of it, there was such provision made for the succoring the poor, how much more in that Dispensation, where we are com manded to surrender all we have ? For what did not they of old do? They gave tithes, and tithes again upon tithes for orphans, widows, and strangers ; whereas some one was saying to me in astonishment at another, "Why, such an one gives tithes." What a load of disgrace does this expression imply, since whatwas not a matter of wonder with the Jews has come to be so in the case of the Christians ? If there was danger then in omitting tithes, think how great it must be now. Again, drunkenness shall not inherit the kingdom. Yet what is the language of most people? "Well, if both I and he are in the same case, that is no little comfort." What then ? First of all, that thou and he shall not reap the same punishment ; but were it other wise, neither is that any comfort. Fellowship in sufferings has comfort in it, when the miser ies have any proportion in them ; but when they exceed all proportion, and carry us beyond ourselves, no longer do they allow of our receiving any comfort at all. For tell the man that is being tortured, and has entered into the flames, that such an one is undergoing the same, still he will not feel the comfort. Did not all the Israelites perish together? What manner of comfort did that afford them? Rather, did not this very thing distress them ? And this was why they kept saying, We are lost, we are perished, we are wasted away. What manner of comfort then is there here? In vain do we comfort ourselves with such hopes as these. There is but one only comfort, to avoid falling into that unquenchable fire; but it is not psssible for one who has fallen into it to find comfort, where there is the.gnashing of teeth, where there is the weeping, where is the worm thatdieth not,and the fire that isnotquench ed. For shalt thou conceive any comfort at all, tell me, when thou art in so great tribulation