Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/26

 precepts teach us honest good, because they teach the worship of the One God, and fairness of manners and of virtues which make the honest man. In counsels there is the useful good. S. Matt. xix. 21, “ If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.” The delightful or joyous good flows from promises. S. John xvi. 22, “ I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice.” Deut. iv. 1, “ Hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and the judgments which I teach you that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.” Likewise, concerning the evil things there are three points to be noticed — prohibitions, dissuasions, and comminations, and they agree with the threefold nature of evil. There is the evil of deadly sin, of venial sin, and of the sin of eternal punishment. The prohibitions refer to the evil of deadly sin, “Neither shalt thou commit fornication,” &c., and so with regard to the other prohibitions. The dissuasions refer to venial sins, Eccles. xix. 1, “ He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little. Thou hast avoided grand things, be careful lest thou art overwhelmed in the sand.” Comminations have respect to the evil of eternal punishment—Isa. lxvi. 24, “For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.” Lightly, therefore, does the Apostle say that whatever things were written in the book of Scripture were written for our instruction.

WE spoke in the Gospel of the preceding Sunday of the mercy of Our Lord's second coming; we will now treat of the justness of His Advent. It appertains to justice to punish the evil, and to reward the good; and therefore both these acts are treated of in this Gospel. The former in the words of the text, " And there shall be signs;" and the latter in the second part of this Gospel, " Look up, and lift