Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/141

 withal be fitted in thy lips that thy trust maybe in the Lord" —not in the world, not in anything else. (6) In the blood of Christ, Heb. x. 19, “ Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way.” (7) In the day of judgment, 1 S. John iv. 17, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so arc we in this world.”

II. In like manner the trust of the wicked consists in seven things, which are to be gathered from the text. (1) In riches, Jer. xlix. 4, “Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valleys, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures.” (2) In stupidity and maliciousness, Isa. xlvii. 10, “For thou trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me.” (3) In the false array of the powerful, “Isa. xxx. 1, 2, 3, “Wo to the rebellious children. . . To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and having trust in the shadow of Egypt; therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.” “Pharaoh” is the prince of this world, “ the shadow of Egypt ” the power of this world. He is rightly called “ confusion,” because often when help is looked for destruction follows; as also the shadow of the power of this world ends in ignominy. According as Isaiah says, xlii. 17, “They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed that trust in graven images ” —i.e., in the appearance of power and in the powerful. (4) In the vain beauty of the flesh, Ezek. xvi. 15, “But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornication upon every one that passed by.” (5) In the fortification of towers and walls, Deut. xxviii. 52, “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates until thy high and fenced walls come down wherein thou trustedst in all thy land.” (6) In the invocation of demons, Deut. xxxii. 37, “ Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted?” (7) In intercourse with that which is outward and unreal, Job viii. 13, “The hypocrite’s hope shall perish; whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.” From which trust may Christ deliver us.