340 life, and one which is sweeter and much more endurable. For if it were not so, then he would not suffer many of the wicked to luxuriate through the present life; and many of the just to remain in ten thousand ills: but since there is provided another life, in which he is about to recompense every man according to his deserts; one for his wickedness, another for his virtue; on that account he forbears, while he sees the former enduring evil, and the latter living in luxury. 21. And that other1049 reason too I will endeavor to bring forward from the Scriptures. But what was it? It was, that we might not say, when exhorted to the same virtue, that they were partakers of another nature, or were not men. On this account, a certain one speaking of the great Elias, says, “Elias was a man of like passions with us.”1050 Do you perceive, that he shows from a communion of suffering,1051 that he was the same kind of man that we are? And again, “I too am a man of like passions with you.”1052 And this guarantees a community of nature. 22. But that you may learn that this also teaches us to consider those blessed whom we ought to consider blessed, is evident from hence. For when you hear Paul saying, “Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffetted, and have no certain dwelling place.”1053 And again; “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth;”1054 it is certain that it is not those who are enjoying quietness, but those who are in affliction for God’s sake, and who are in tribulation, whom we must applaud, emulating those who live virtuously, and cultivate piety. For so speaks the prophet: “Their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. Their daughters beautified, orna- mented after the similitude of a temple. Their garners full, bursting from one into another; their sheep fruitful; abundant in their streets; their oxen fat. There is no breaking down of the fence, nor passage through; nor clamor in their streets. They call the people blessed whose affairs are in this state.”1055 But what dost thou say, O prophet? “Blessed,” saith he, “the people whose God is the Lord;” not the people affluent in wealth, but one adorned with godliness;1056 that people, saith he, I esteem happy, although they suffer innumerable hardships! 1049 τὴν ›τ™ραν. 1050 James v. 17. 1051 παθὴς. 1052 Wisd. vii. 1. 1053 1 Cor. iv. 11. 1054 Heb. xii. 6. 1055 Ps. cxliv. 11–15. 1056 St. Chrysostom, it must be observed, in this quotation as elsewhere, follows the Septuagint Version. In the present instance that version is only supported by the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic. See Walton’s Polyglott. 469 Homily I