By encouragement He assuages sins, reducing lust, and at the same time inspiring hope for salvation. For He says by Ezekiel, “If ye return with your whole heart, and say, Father, I will hear you, as a holy people.”[389] And again He says, “Come all to me, who labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;”[390] and that which is added the Lord speaks in His own person. And very clearly He calls to goodness by Solomon, when He says, “Blessed is the man who hath found wisdom, and the mortal who hath found understanding.”[391] “For the good is found by him who seeks it, and is wont to be seen by him who has found it.”[392] By Jeremiah, too, He sets forth prudence, when He says, “Blessed are we, Israel; for what is pleasing to God is known by us;”[393]--and it is known by the Word, by whom we are blessed and wise. For wisdom and knowledge are mentioned by the same prophet, when he says, “Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life, and give ear to know understanding.”[394] By Moses, too, by reason of the love He has to man, He promises a gift to those who hasten to salvation. For He says, “And I will bring you into the good land, which the Lord sware to your fathers.”[395] And further, “And I will bring you into the holy mountain, and make you glad,”[396] He says by Isaiah. And still another form of instruction is benediction. “And blessed is he,” He saith by David, “who has not sinned; and he shall be as the tree planted near the channels of the waters, which will yield its fruit in its season, and his leaf shall not wither”[397] (by this He made an allusion to the resurrection); “and whatsoever he shall do shall prosper with him.” Such He wishes us to be, that we may be blessed. Again, showing the opposite scale of the balance of justice, He says, “But not so the ungodly--not so; but as the dust which the wind sweeps away from the face of the earth.”[398] By showing the punishment of sinners, and their easy dispersion, and carrying off by the wind, the Instructor dissuades from crime by means of punishment; and by holding up the merited penalty, shows the benignity of His beneficence in the most skilful way, in order that we may possess and enjoy its blessings. He invites us to knowledge also, when He says by Jeremiah, “Hadst thou walked in the way of God, thou wouldst have dwelt for ever in peace;”[399] for, exhibiting there the reward of knowledge, He calls the wise to the love of it. And, granting pardon to him who has erred, He says, “Turn, turn, as a grape-gatherer to his basket.”[400] Do you see the goodness of justice, in that it counsels to repentance? And still further, by Jeremiah, He enlightens in the truth those who have erred. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways, and look, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, what is the good path, and walk in it, and ye shall find purification for your souls.”[401] And in order to promote our salvation, He leads us to repentance. Wherefore He says,