HOMILY VIII.] HOMILIES ON THESSALONIANS. 357 led away? A crowd then stands around, the greater part not even knowing them. If any one looked into their souls, no one is so cruel, no one so hard-hearted, no one so firm, as not to have his soul dejected, and relaxed with fear and despair. And if when others are taken off by this death, which differs nothing from sleep, those who are not concerned in it are thus af fected ; when we ourselves fall into greater evils, what then will be our state ? It is not, believe me, it is not possible to represent the suffering by words. Nay, you say, but God is full of love to man, and none of these things will happen ! Then it is written in vain ! No, you say, but only as a threat, that we may become wise ! If then we are not wise, but continue evil, will He not, tell me, inflict the punishment? Will He not then recompense the good either with rewards? Yes, you say, for that is becoming to Him, to do good even beyond desert. So that those things indeed are true and will certainly be, while the punishments will not be at all, but are only for the purpose of a threat, and of terror ! By what means I shall persuade you, I know not. If I say, that " the worm will not die, and the fire will not be quenched " (Mark ix. 44) ; if I say, that " they shall go away into everlasting fire " (Matt. xxv. 41, 46) ; if I set before you the rich man already suffering punishment, you will say that it is all a matter of threatening. Whence then shall I persuade you ? For this is a Satanic reasoning, indulging you with a favor that will not profit, and causing you to be slothful. How then can we banish it ? Whatever things we say from Scripture, you will say, are for the purpose of threatening. But with respect to future things this indeed might be said, but not so concerning things that have happened, and have had an end. You have heard of the del uge. And were those things also said byway of threat? Did they not actually happen? Those men too said many such things, and for a hun dred years while the ark was building, and the wood was being wrought, and the righteous man was calling aloud, there was no one who be lieved. But because they did not believe the threat in words, they suffered the punishment in very deed. And this will be our fate too, if we shall not have believed. On this account it is that He compares His coming with the days of Noah, because as some disbelieved in that deluge, so will they in the deluge of hell. Were these things a threat? were they not a fact? Then will not He, who then brought punish ment upon them so suddenly, much more inflict it now also? For the things that are committed now are not less than the offenses of that time. How? because then, it says, "the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men" (Gen. vi. 4), and those mixtures were the great offense. But now there is no form of wickedness, which is unattempted. Do you then believe that the deluge took place? Or does it seem to you a fable? And yet even the mountains where the ark rested, bear witness ; I speak of those in Armenia. But, even superabundantly, I will turn my discourse to another thing more evident than that. Has any one of you ever traveled in Pal estine ? For I will no longer mention report, but facts, and yet the other were clearer than facts. For whatever things the Scripture says, are more to be trusted than things we see. Has any one of you then ever traveled in Palestine? I suppose so. What then ? Bear witness then for me, ye who have seen the places, to those who have not been there. For above Ascalon and Gaza up to the very end of the river Jordan there is a country wide and fruitful or rather there was for it is not now. This then is that which was as a garden. For it is said, " Lot beheld all the plain l of Jordan and it was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord." (Gen. xiii. 10.) This, therefore, that was so flourishing, and that rivaled all countries, which for thrivingness exceeded the Paradise of God, is now more desolate than any wilderness. And there stand trees, indeed, and they bear fruit. But the fruit is a monument of the wrath ofGod. For there stand pomegranates, I speak both of the tree and the fruit, having a very fine appearance, and to the ignorant man holding out great hopes. But if they are taken into the hand, being broken open they display no fruit indeed, but much dust and ashes stored up within. Such also is the whole land. If you find a stone, you will find it full of ashes. And why do I speak of stone and wood and earth, where the air and water partake of the calamity ? For as when a body is burnt and consumed, the shape remains, and the outline in the appear ance of the fire, and the bulk and the propor tion, but the power is no more, so truly there you may see earth, which yet has nothing of earth about it, but all ashes ; trees and fruit, but nothing of trees and fruit about them ; air and water, but nothing of water nor of air about them, for even these are turned to ashes. And yet how could air ever have been burnt, or water, whilst it remained water ? For wood and stones indeed it is possible to burn, but air and water it is altogether impossible. Impossible to us, but possible to Him who did these things. There fore the air is nothing else than a furnace, the water is a furnace. All things are unfruitful, 1 [Properly "the region around Jordan," and denoting the deep and rather wide valley through which it flows. Chrys. makes it in clude all of central Judea, and applies to that whole district what he had heard of the desolate country between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, the N. T. "wilderness of Judea." J. A. B.]