5. Goodness too is rich, and if a man preserve it he is fed by the riches of the heavenly inheritance. To quote also the more ancient examples of Scripture, _Happy_, it is said, _is the man whom God correcteth_. Therefore _despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty ... in famine He shall redeem thee from death, and in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue; ... the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee, and thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace._ For the vices of this flesh being subdued, and those passions which are wont to war against the soul, your tabernacle shall be undisturbed, your house without offence, your seed shall not fail, your posterity shall be as the smell of a fruitful field, your burial as the harvest. For while others are looking for theirs to fail, the heap of your corn will be carried ripe into the heavenly garners. Sidenote: Ps. xxxvii. 26. 6. Fit it is that the righteous ever lendeth, while the wicked man is in want. He lendeth justice, he lendeth the commandments of God to the poor and needy; but the fool does not possess even that which he believes himself to possess. Do you suppose that he can be said to possess, who brooding over his treasure night and day, is troubled by covetous and wretched anxiety? Such a one truly wants; although to others he appears rich, to himself he is poor, because he who is still grasping after more and desiring more uses not that which he possesses. For where there are no bounds to desire, what profit can there be in riches? No man is rich who cannot carry away with him that which he has, for that which is left behind, is not our own but another’s. Sidenote: Gen. v. 24. Sidenote: Wisd. iv. 11. Sidenote: 2 Kings ii. 11. Sidenote: 1 Kings xvii. 9. Sidenote: 2 Kings i. 14. Sidenote: Ib. ii. 8. 7. Enoch was rich who carried away with him that which he had, and laid up all the riches of his goodness in the heavenly treasure-house; he was _taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding_. Elias was rich, who riding in a chariot of fire carried the treasures of his virtues up to the heavenly mansions. Not small were the riches he left to his heir, and yet he himself did not lose them. Who would have called him poor even then, when being himself in need of the sustenance of daily food, he was sent to the widow that he might be nourished by her, when at his voice the heaven was shut and opened, when at his word the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil failed not for three years, but overflowed; when it was replenished not diminished by use? Who would call him poor at whose word there came fire down from heaven, whom the river impassible by others could not retard, retiring back to its source that the prophet might pass over dry-shod? Sidenote: Job xx. 15. Sidenote: Prov. xii. 12. Sidenote: Ps. xcii. 11.