for our faults, and not receive the rewards of our virtues ? Neither is true: because we shall suffer for our sins, and receive the rewards of our good actions. For if on the foundation of Christ you shall have built not only gold and silver and precious stones, but also wood, and hay, and stubble, what do you expect, when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven, with your wood, and hay, and stubble, to defile the kingdom of God: or, on account of those encumbrances, remain without, and receive no reward for your gold and silver and precious stones! Neither is this just. It remains then, that you be committed to the fire, which shall consume the light materials; for our God, to those who can comprehend heavenly things, is called a consuming fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay, and stubble. It is manifest that, in the first place, the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions, and then returns to us the reward of our good works.” Homil. xvi. al. xii. in Jerem. T. lll. p. 231, 232.
CENT. IV.
EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA, G. C. Describing the funeral of the Emperor Constantine, he thus writes :-“ In this manner did Constantius perform the last duties in honour of his Father.-But when he had departed with his guards, the ministers of God, surrounded by the multitude of the faithful, advanced into the middle space, and with prayers performed the ceremonies of divine worship. The blessed Prince, reposing in his coffin, was extolled with many praises : when the people, in concert with the Priests, not without sighs and tears, offered prayers to heaven for his
