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monster, his enemy, whose malice is altogether opposed to the perfection of God. And if God hate
sin, he must necessarily hate the sinner who makes league with sin. But to God the wicked and his
wickedness are hateful alike. Wisd. 14:9. O God, with what an expression of grief and with what
reason do you not complain of those who despise you, to take part with your enemy. Hear, O ye
heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken; I have brought up children, and exalted
them; but they have despised Me.  Is. 1:2. Hear, O ye heavens, he says, and give ear, O earth,
witness the gratitude with which I am treated by men. I have brought them up, and exalted them as
my children, and they have repaid me with contempt and outrage. The ox knoweth his owner, and the
ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known Me, they are gone away backwards. Is.1:3,4.
The beast of the field, the ox and the ass, continues the Lord, know their master, and are
grateful to him, but my children have riot known me, and have turned their back upon me. But how is
this? "Services are remembered even by beasts,'' says Seneca. The very brutes are grateful to their
benefactors; see that dog how he serves. and obeys, and is faithful to his master, who feeds him;
even the wild beasts, the tiger and the lion are grateful to those who feed them. And God, my
brethren, who till now has provided us with everything, who has given us food and raiment: What
more? who. has kept us in existence up to the moment when we offended him, how have we treated
him?
How do we purpose to act in future? Do we not think to live on as we have been living? Do we not
perhaps think that there is no punishment, no hell for us? But hearken and
know that as the Lord cannot but hate sin, because he is holy, so he cannot but chastise it when
the sinner is obstinate, because he is just.
When he does chastise, it is not to' please

himself, but because we. drive him to it. The wise man says that God did not create hell, through
a desire of condemning man thereto, and that he does not rejoice in their damnation, because he
does not wish to see his creatures perish: For God made not death, neither hath He
pleasure in the destruction of the living; for He created all things that they might be. Wisd.1:13
 No gardener plants a tree in order to cut it down and burn it. It was not God's desire to see
us miserable and in torment; and therefore, says St. John Chrysostom, he waits so
long before he takes
vengeance of the sinner. He waits for our conversion, that he may then be able to use his mercy
in our regard. Therefore the Lord
waiteth, that He may have mercy on you.  Is. 30:18 Our God, says the same St. John Chrysostom, is
in haste to save, and slow to condemn. When there is question of pardon, no sooner has the sinner
repented than he is forgiven by God. Scarcely had David said Peccavi, Domino, when he was informed
by the prophet that his pardon was already granted: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin. 2 Kings
12:13 Yes, because "we do not
desire pardon so anxiously as he desires to pardon us," says the same holy Doctor. On the other
hand, when there is question of punishment, he waits, he admonishes, he sends us warning of it
beforehand: For the Lord God doth nothing without revealing His secret to His servants, the
prophets. Amos 3:7

But when, at length, God sees that we are willing to yield neither to benefits, nor
threats, nor admonitions, and that we will not amend, then he is forced by our own selves to punish
us, and while punishing us, he will place before our eyes the great mercies he before
extended to us: Thou thoughtest unjustly that I shall be like to thee; but I will reprove
thee, and set before thy face. Ps. 49:20 He will then say to the sinner, think

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