HOMILY IX.] HOMILIES ON TIMOTHY. 509 you, if at least you believe in Christ ; and if you believe not, why do you expose yourselves? Why do you deceive ? " How long will ye halt on both your hips? " (i Kings xviii. 21, Sept.) Why do you go to them ? W T hy enquire of them ? The instant you go to them, the instant you en quire, you put yourself in slavery to them. For you enquire, as if you believed. " No," you say, " I do not enquire, as believing, but making trial of them." But to make trial, whether they speak the truth, is the part not of one who be lieves that they are false, but of one who still doubts. Wherefore then dost thou enquire what will happen? For if they answered, "This will happen, but do so and so, and thou wilt escape it " ; even in that case thou oughtest by no means to be an idolater ; yet thy madness were not so great. But if they foretell future events, 1 he that listens to them will gain nothing more than unavailing sorrow. The event does not happen, but he suffers the uneasiness, and torments,- himself. If it were for our good, God would not have grudged us this foreknowledge. He who has revealed to us things in heaven, would not have envied us. For, " All things," He says, " that I have heard of the Father I have made known unto you " ; and, " I call you not servants, but friends. Ye are my friends." (John xv. 15.) Why then did He not make these things known unto us ? Because He would not have us con cerned about them. And as a proof that He does not envy us this knowledge, such things were revealed to the ancients, because they were babes, even about an ass,4 and the like. But to us, because He would not have us concerned about such things, He has not cared to reveal them. But what do we learn? Things which they never knew, for little indeed were all those things of old. But what we are taught is this, that we shall rise again, that we shall be immor tal, and incorruptible, that our life shall have no end, that all things will pass away, that we shall be caught up in the clouds, that the wicked shall suffer punishment, and numberless other things, and in all these there is no falsehood. Is it not better to know these than to hear that the ass that was lost is found? Lo, thou hast gotten thine ass ! Lo, thou hast found him ! What is thy gain? Will he not soon be lost again some other way? For if he leave thee not, at least thou wilt lose him in thy death. But the things which I have mentioned, if we will but hold them fast, we shall retain perpetu ally. These therefore let us pursue. To these stable and enduring goods let us attach our selves. Let us not give heed to soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and jugglers, but to God who knoweth all things certainly, whose knowledge is universal. Thus we shall know all that it befits us to know, and shall obtain all good things, through the grace and lovingkindness, &c. HOMILY IX. 2 TIMOTHY iii. 16, 17. " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness : That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." [R. V. : Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable, &c.j HAVING offered much exhortation and conso lation from other sources, he adds that which is more perfect, derived from the Scriptures ; and he is reasonably full in offering consolation, be cause he has a great and sad thing to say. For if Elisha, who was with his master to his last breath, when he saw him departing as it were in death, 3 rent his garments for grief, what think 1 Dowries thinks it should be " events not to come," but the -ontrast is in theform of the prediction. The aorist would jus tify, " The event perchance does not happen."- Lit. "pickles." 5 iv rpoTTCij TeAeuTr)? 6p<ov avrbv TcAevrwi Ta. An Old Lat. has "by a new and strange manner of death." The present Greek is difficult and suspected. you must this disciple suffer, so loving and so beloved, upon hearing that his master was about to die, and that he could not enjoy his company when he was near his death, which is above all things apt to be distressing? For we are less grateful for the past time, when we have been deprived of the more recent intercourse of those who are departed. For this reason when he had previously offered much consolation, he then discourses concerning his Own death : and this in no ordinary way, but in words adapted to comfort him and fill him with joy ; so as to have it considered as a sacrifice rather than a death ; a migration, as in fact it was, and a removal to a better state. " For I am now ready to be offered up" (2 Tim. iv. 6), he says. For this reason he writes : " All Scripture is given by in spiration of God,5 and is profitable for doctrine, 4 Referring to i Sam. ix. 20. 5 Or, " every Scripture inspired," &c.