HOMILY III.] HOMILIES ON PHILEMON. 557 He did not call men to account for their sins, it were a mark of goodness. But if He calls them to account, it is not goodness. That man, how ever, is not now present. But come, let us repeat what was then said, and more beside. For I, out of my superfluity, show that if He did not call men to account, He would not be good ; but because He does call them to account, there fore He is good. For, say, if He did not call us to account, would human life then have endured ? Should we not then have fallen into the state of beasts ? For if when there is this fear impending over us, and the giving account, and judgments, we have gone beyond fishes in devouring one another, we have thrown wolves and lions into the shade in ravaging one another s possessions ; if He did not call us to account, and we were persuaded of this, with how great tumult and confusion would life be filled ? What would be the fabled labyrinth after this, compared with the perplexi ties of the world ? Would you not see number less indecencies and disorders ? For who then would have respected his father any more ? Or who would have spared his mother ? Who would have left unattempted any pleasure, any wicked ness? And that the matter is so, I will en deavor to showyou from one house only. How? You who raise these questions and who have servants ; if I could make it manifest to these, that ifthey should destroy the family of their mas ters, 1 if they should insult their persons, if they should plunder everything, if they should turn things upside down, if they should treat them as enemies, they would not threaten them, nor cor rect them, nor punish them, nor even grieve them with a word, would this be any proof of goodness? I maintain that this is the extreme of cruelty, not only because the wife and chil dren are betrayed by this unreasonable kindness, but because the slaves,themselves are destroyed- before them. For they will be drunkards, wan ton, dissolute, and more irrational than any beasts. Is this, tell me, a proof of goodness, to trample upon the noble nature of the soul, and to destroy both themselves and others beside ? Seest thou that to call men to account is a proof of great goodness? But why do I speak of slaves, who more readily fall into these sins? But let a man have sons, and let him permit them to do everything they will, and let him not punish them ; will they not be worse than anything? tell me. In the case of men then, it is a mark of goodness to punish, and of cruelty not to punish, and is it not so in the case of God? So that because He is good, therefore He has prepared a hell. And do you wish that I should speak of another instance of God s goodness? It is not only this, but that He does not suffer the good to become bad. For if they were destined to meet with the same things, they would all be bad. But now this also does not a little con sole the good. For hear the Prophet, say ing, " The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance upon the, ungodly, he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sin ner." (Ps. Iviii. 10.) Not rejoicing on ac count of it, God forbid ! but fearing lest he should suffer the same things, he will render his own life more pure. This then is a mark of His great care. Yes, you say, but He ought only to threaten, and not to punish also. But if He does punish, and still you say it is a matter of threat, and on that account become more sloth ful, if it were really but a threat, would you not become more supine? If the Ninevites had known it was a matter of threat, they would not have repented. But because they repented, they cause the threat to stop at words only. Dost thou wish it to be a threat only? Thou hast the disposal of that matter. Become a better man, and it stops only at the threat. But if, which be far from thee ! thou despiseth the threat, thou wilt come to the experience of it. The men before 2 the flood, if they had feared the threat, would not have experienced the exe cution of it. And we, if we fear the threat, shall not expose ourselves to experience the reality. God forbid we should. And may the merciful God grant that we all henceforth, having been brought to sound mind, may obtain those un speakable blessings. Of which may we all be thought worthy, through the grace and loving- kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, power, and honor, now and for ever and ever. Amen. 2 So Sav. al. " of."