Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/117

 earth, will light serve them.” (2) On account of the recovery of lost beauty. Isai. xxx. 26, “ Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold.” (3) On account of his rest from motion, Habak. iii. 11, “The sun and moon stood still in their habitation.” The sun in rising, the moon in setting, as they were ordained at the creation for these three good things, the heavenly bodies obtain.

III. It is noted, in the third place, that the earthly creature desires it for three reasons. (1) On account of its cleansing from the sins of the wicked, for now the wicked defile the earth with their iniquities. Psalm cv. 39, Vulg., the land “ was defiled with their works but hereafter it shall be purged with fire. 2 Peter iii. 10, “The elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth, also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.” (2) On account of its liberation from corruption; for there is now birth because there is destruction, but when destruction shall cease then there will be no necessity for birth. Rom. viii. 21, “The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (3) On account of its renovation. Isaiah lxv. 17, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind; but be ye glad arid rejoice for ever in that which I create.”

IV. Man desires it likewise for three reasons. (1) On account of his liberation from evil; (2) on account of his repletion in every good; (3) on account of his conservation for eternity. These three things follow man in the day of judgment who so lives here, that he may be found worthy at that day. Of these three S. Augustine, in his book of the “City of God,” “There will be one free will of that City in all things, and inseparable and individual; having been freed from all evil, filled with all good, for good does not fail in eternity, perfecting indefectibly by the happiness of eternal joys;” which may Christ grant us.'' Amen.