500 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY VII. eternal death. Do not purchase, He says, this short life, but that life that is everlasting. It is that I sell thee, not the other : I do not mock thee. Didst thou gain the present life, thou hadst gained nothing. I know the worth of that which I offer thee. The bargainers and traf fickers in worldly goods do not act thus. They, when they can 1 impose on whom they will, give a little to receive a great deal. It is not so with God. He gives the greater by far for the less. Tell me, ifyou were to go to a merchant, and he were to set before you two stones, one of little worth, 2 and the other very precious, and sure to fetch a large amount of wealth ; if he allowed you for the price of the cheap one to carry off the more costly, should you complain of him ? No ! You would rather admire his liberality. So now, two lives are set before us, the one temporal, the other eternal. These God offers us for sale, but He would sell us the latter rather than the former. Why do we com plain, like silly children, that we receive the more precious? 3 Is it possible then to pur chase life for money? Yes, when what we be stow is our own, and not the property of another ; when we do not practice an imposture. But, you say, henceforth the goods are mine. They are not thine after rapine. They are still thy neighbor s, though thou wert a thousand times the master of them. For if thou shouldest re ceive a deposit, it would not be thine own even for the short season that the depositor was traveling, though it might be laid up with thee. If therefore that is not ours, which we received with the consent and thanks of those who deposited it, even for the short period that we retain it, much less is that ours, which we plundered against the will of its owner. He is the master of it, however long thou mayest withhold it. But Virtue is 4 really our own ; as for money, even our own is not strictly ours, much less that of others. To day it is ours, to-morrow it belongs to another. What is of virtue is our own possession. This does not suffer loss, like other things, but is entirely possessed by all who have it. This therefore let us acquire, and let us despise riches, that we may be able to attain those real goods, of which God grant that we may be thought worthy to partake, through the grace and loving- kindness, &c. HOMILY VII. 2 TIMOTHY iii. 1-7. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, dis obedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, in continent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; Having a form of godli ness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away. For of this sort are they, which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts and pleasures, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." HE had said in the former Epistle, that " the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith" (i Tim. iv. i, 2) ; and elsewhere in this Epistle he foretells that something of this kind will afterwards hap pen ; and here again he does the same thing : " This know, that in the last days perilous times shall come." And this he pronounces not only from the future, but from the past ; " As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses." And again 1 B. ef fi for e^Tji . 2 B. counterfeit. * B. reads 6i//ei for on. " We take the value by sight." from reasoning ; " In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver." But why does he do this ? In order that Timothy may not be troubled, nor any one of us, when there are evil men. If there were such in the time of Moses, and will be hereafter, it is no wonder that there are such in our times. " In the last days perilous times shall come," he says, that is, exceeding bad times. How shall times be perilous ? 5 He says it not blam ing the days, nor the times, but the men of those times. For thus it is customary with us to speak of good times or evil times, from the events that happen in them, caused by men. Imme diately he sets down the root and fountain, whence these and all other evils spring, that is, overweeningness. He that is seized, with this passion is careless even of his own interests. For when a man overlooks the concerns of his neighbor, and is careless of them, how should he regard his own? For as he that looks to his neighbor s affairs will in them order his own TV " thn?e nther things are. B. adds, " th:-.t is," &c.