Punishments hereafter. No excuse for covetousness.

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is punishing these; and when He saith, Depart into the MATT. everlasting fire prepared for the Devil, He is sending thither 23. 24. them that make a bad use of riches. And the wicked servant, who gives not to his fellow-servants the goods of his Lord, is of the number of these men, and he that buried his talent, and the five virgins.

16, 26.

And whithersoever thou shalt go, thou wilt see the covetous punished. And now they will hear, There' is Luke a void between us and you; now, Depart from Me into Matt. the fire that is prepared. And now being cut asunder, they 25, 41. will go away, where there is gnashing of teeth; and from every place one may see them driven, and finding a place no where, but gathered in hell alone. What then is the use of [5.] the right faith to us for salvation, when we hear these things? There, gnashing of teeth, and outer darkness, and the fire prepared for the Devil, and to be cut asunder, and to be driven away; here, enmities, evilspeakings, slanders, perils, cares, plots, to be hated of all, to be abhorred of all, even of the very persons that seem to flatter us. For as good men are admired not by the good only but even by the wicked; so bad men, not the good only, but also the worthless, hate. And in proof that this is true, I would gladly ask of the covetous, whether they do not feel painfully one toward another; and account such more their enemies than those that have done them the greatest wrong; whether they do not also accuse themselves, whether they do not account the thing an affront, if any one brings this reproach upon them. For indeed this is an extreme reproach, and a sure proof of much wickedness; for if thou dost not endure to despise wealth, of what wilt thou ever get the better? of lust, or of the mad desire of glory, or anger, or of wrath? And how would any be persuaded of it? For as to lust, and anger, and wrath, many impute it even to the temperament of the flesh, and to this do students of medicine refer the excesses thereof; and him that is of a more hot and languid temperament, they affirm to be more lustful; but him that runs out into a drier kind of ill temperament, eager, and irritable, and wrathful. But with respect to covetousness, no one ever heard of their having said any such thing. So entirely is the pest the effect of mere remissness, and of a soul past feeling.

HOMIL

LXXXI.

1080

Dangers of the several ages of our life.

Therefore, I beseech you, let us give diligence to amend all such things, and to give an opposite direction to the passions that come upon us in every age. But if in every part of our life we sail past the labours of virtue, every where undergoing shipwrecks; when we have arrived at the harbour destitute of spiritual freight, we shall undergo extreme punishment. For our present life is an outstretched ocean. And as in the sea here, there are different bays exposed to different tempests, and the Egean is difficult because of the winds, the Tyrrhenian strait because of the confined space, the Charybdis that is by Africa because of the shallows, the Propontis, which is without the Euxine sea, on account of its violence and currents, the parts without Cadiz because of the desolation, and tracklessness, and unexplored places therein, and other portions for other causes; so also is it in our life.

And the first sea to view is that of our childish days, having much tempestuousness, because of its folly, its facility, because it is not stedfast. Therefore also we set over it guides and teachers, by our diligence adding what is wanting to nature, even as there by the pilot's skill.

After this age succeeds the sea of the youth, where the winds are violent as in the Egean, lust increasing upon us. And this age especially is destitute of correction; not only because he is beset more fiercely, but also because his faults are not reproved, for both teacher and guide after that withdraw. When therefore the winds blow more fiercely, and the pilot is more feeble, and there is no helper, consider the greatness of the tempest.

After this there is again another period of life, that of men, in which the cares of the household press upon us, when there is a wife, and marriage, and begetting of children, and ruling of a house, and thick falling showers of cares. Then especially both covetousness flourishes and envy.

When then we pass each part of our life with shipwrecks, how shall we suffice for the present life? how shall we escape future punishment. For when first in the earliest age we learn nothing healthful, and then in youth we do not practise sobriety, and when grown to manhood do not get the better of covetousness, coming to old age as to a hold full of bilgewater, and as having made the barque of the soul weak by all

Ill spent youth ends in wretched old age.

XXVI.

1081 these shocks, the planks being separated, we shall arrive at that MATT. harbour, bearing much filth instead of spiritual merchandise, 23. 24. and to the Devil we shall furnish laughter, but lamentation to ourselves, and bring upon ourselves the intolerable punish

ments.

That these things may not be, let us brace ourselves up on every side, and, withstanding all our passions, let us cast out the lust of wealth, that we may also attain unto the good things to come, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY LXXXII.

MATT. xxvi. 26-28.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; This is My Body.

And He took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; This is My Blood of the New Testament, Which is shed for many, for the remission of sins.

AH! how great is the blindness of the traitor! Even partaking of the mysterics, he remained the same; and admitted to the most holy Table, he changed not. And Luke this Luke shews by saying, that after this Satan entered1 22, 3. see also into him, not as despising the Lord's Body, but thenceforth John 13, laughing to scorn the traitor's shamelessness.

27.

For indeed

his sin became greater from both causes, as well in that he came to the mysteries with such a disposition, as that having approached them, he did not become better, either from fear, or from the benefit, or from the honour. But Christ forbad him not, although He knew all things, that thou mightest learn that He omits none of the things that pertain to correction. Wherefore both before this, and after this, He continually admonished him, and checked him, both by deeds, and by words; both by fear, and by kindness; both by threatening, and by honour. But none of these things withdrew him from that grievous pest.

Wherefore thenceforth He leaves him, and by the mysteries again reminds the disciples of His being slain, and in the midst of the meal His discourse is of the Cross, by

Time of the Passover chosen to shew the Type.

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the continual repeating of the prediction, making His MATT. Passion easy to receive. For if, when so many things had been done and foretold, they were troubled; if they had heard none of these things, what would they not have felt?

And as they were eating, He took bread, and brake it. Why can it have been that He ordained this Sacrament then, at the time of the Passover? That thou mightest learn from every thing, both that He is the Lawgiver of the Old Testament, and that the things therein are foreshadowed because of these things. Therefore, I say, where the type is, there He puts the truth.

But the evening is a sure sign of the fulness of times, and that the things were now come to the very end.

And He gives thanks, to teach us how we ought to celebrate this Sacrament, and to shew that not unwillingly doth He come to the Passion, and to teach us whatever we may suffer to bear it thankfully, thence also suggesting good hopes. For if the type was a deliverance from such bondage, how much more will the truth set free the world, and will He be delivered up for the benefit of our race. Wherefore, I would add, neither did He appoint the Sacrament before this, but when henceforth the rites of the Law were to cease. And thus the very chief of the feasts He brings to an end, removing them to another most awful Table, and He saith, Take, eat, This is My Body, Which is broken for many.

And how were they not confounded at hearing this? Because He had before told unto them many and great things touching this. Wherefore that He establishes no more, for they had heard it sufficiently, but he speaks of the cause of His Passion, namely, the taking away of sins. And He calls it Blood of a New Testament, that of the undertaking, the Promise, the New Law. For This He undertook also of old, and This comprises the Testament that is in the New Law. And like as the Old Testament had sheep and bullocks, so this has the Lord's Blood. Hence also He shews that He is soon to die, wherefore also He made mention of a Testament, and He reminds them also of the former Testament, for that also was dedicated with blood. And again He tells the cause of His Death,