Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/133

 unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Eccles. xii. 14, “ For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.”

II. On the second head, it is to be noted, that three most true witnesses will accuse the ungodly in the judgment. The first witness will be God, Mai. iii. 5, “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers.For I am the Lord : I change not.” The second will be conscience, Rom. ii. 15, “Their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts in the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” The third will be every creature, Job xx. 27, “The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him ;” whence a certain holy father said: we are about to render an account in the presence of heaven and earth ; and do you mock ?

III. On the third head, it is to be noted, that the severity to the sentence on the wicked will be felt in three ways. (1) They will be deprived of all good things, S. Augus. (in his book of the “ City of God ”), “ In the last punishment it will be just, that the wicked and the ungodly should weep for the loss of natural good things in their torments, feeling their depriver to be the most just God, when they have despised the most bountiful Benefactor.” Job xx. 15, “ He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again : God shall cast them out of his belly.” (2) Because they shall be tormented by the burning of the most fierce fire, Isa. lxvi. 24, “ Neither shall their fire be quenched.” (3) Because they shall not be liberated for ever, S. Matt. xxv. 41, “ Depart from me,” without Whom there is no good: behold the first. “ Into fire :” behold the second. “ Everlasting :” behold the third. From which may Jesus Christ deliver us.