HOMILY VIII.] HOMILIES ON THESSALONIANS. 359 they ? Is it not manifest that it is, because the punishment is kept in store for us ? And, if you please, I will tell you in the person of every individual how they were punished. Cain mur dered his brother. A horrible sin indeed, who can deny it? But he suffered punishment ; and a heavy one, equivalent to ten thousand deaths, for he would rather have died ten thousand times. For hear him saying, " If Thou castest me out from the land, and I shall be hidden from Thy face, then it will happen that every one who findeth me will slay me." (Gen iv. 14, Sept.) Tell me then, do not many even now do the same things that he did? For when thou slayest not thy brother according to the flesh, but thy spiritual brother, dost thou not do the same ? For what, though not by the sword ? yet by some other means ; when being able to re lieve his hunger, thou neglectest him. What then? Has no one now envied his brother? has no one plunged him into dangers? But here they have not suffered punishment, yet they will suffer it. Then he, who never heard the written laws, nor the prophets, nor saw great miracles, suffered such great vengeance ; and shall he, who has done the same things in another way, and was not rendered wise by so many examples, shall he go unpunished? Where then is the jus tice of God, and where His goodness? Again, a certain one for having gathered sticks on the Sabbath was stoned, and yet this was a small commandment, and less weighty than cir cumcision. He then who gathered sticks on the Sabbath was stoned ; but those who often com mit ten thousand things contrary to the Law have gone off unpunished ! If then there be not a hell, where is His justice, where His im partiality, that respects not persons? And yet He lays to their charge many such things, that they did not observe the Sabbath. Again, another, Charmi, 1 having stolen a de voted thing, was stoned with all his family. What then? Has no one from that time com mitted sacrilege? Saul, again, having spared contrary to the command of God, suffered so great punishment. Has no one from that time spared? Would indeed that it were so ! Have we not, worse than wild beasts, devoured one another contrary to the command of God, and yet no one has fallen in war? 2 Again, the sons of Eli, because they ate before the incense was offered, suffered the most severe punishment to gether with their father. Has no father then been neglectful with respect to his children? and are there no wicked sons? But no one has 1 [This is an error in the documents, or a slip of memory in the preacher, for he meahs Achan the son of Carmi, Josh. vii. i. 2 [No one of us has been punished for it, as Saul was, by falling in battle. J. A. B.] suffered punishment. Where will they suffer it then, if there be no hell? Again, numberless instances one might enu merate. What? Ananias and Sapphira were immediately punished, because they stole part of what they had offered. Has no one then since that time been guilty of this ? How was it then that they did not suffer the same punishment ? Do we then persuade you that there is a hell, or do you need more examples? Therefore we will proceed also to things that are unwritten, such as now take place in life. For it is neces sary that this idea should be gathered by us from every quarter, that we may not, by vainly grati fying ourselves, do ourselves harm. Do you not see many visited by calamities, maimed in their bodies, suffering infinite troubles, but others in good repute ? For what reason do some suffer punishment for murders, and others not ? Hear Paul saying, " Some men s sins are evident, . . . and some men they follow after." (i Tim. v. 24.) How many murderers have escaped ! how many violators of the tombs ! But let these things pass. How many do you not see visited with the severest punishment ? Some have been delivered to a long disease, others to continued tortures, and others to numberless other ills. When therefore you see one who has been guilty of the same things as they, or even much worse and yet not suffering punishment, will you not suspect, even against your will, that there is a hell? Reckon those here who before you have been severely punished, consider that God is no respecter of persons, and that though you have done numberless wickednesses, you have suf fered no such thing, and you will have the idea of hell. For God has so implanted that idea within us, that no one can ever be ignorant of it. For poets and philosophers and fabulists, and in short all men, have philosophized con cerning the retribution that is there, and have said that the greater number are punished in Hades. And if those things are fables, yet what we have received are not so. I say not these things as wishing to frighten you, nor to lay a burden on your souls, but to make them wise, and render them easier. I could wish also myself that there were no pun ishment yes, myself most of all men. And why so? Because whilst each of you fears for his own soul, I have to answer for this office also in which I preside over you. So that most of all it is impossible forme to escape. But it can not be that there is not punishment and a hell. What can I do ? Where then, they say, is the kindness of God to men ? In many places. But on this subject I will rather discourse at some other season, that we may not confuse the discourses concerning hell. In the meantime let not that slip, which we have gained. For