Untitled - Saints' Books

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CHAP, vi.] The Sin of Incontinence. 1
19
3. ETERNAL DAMNATION.
Finally, this accursed vice leads all, and particularly
priests that are infected with it, to eternal damnation.
St. Peter Damian says that the altar of God receives no
other fire than that of divine love. Hence he that dares
to ascend the altar inflamed by the fire of impurity
is consumed by the fire of divine vengeance. And 1
in
another place he says that all the obscenities of the
sinner shall be one day converted into pitch, which shall
2
eternally nourish in his bowels the fire of hell.
Oh ! what vengeance does not the Lord inflict on the
unchaste priest
!
How many priests are now in hell for
sins against purity !
If," says St. Peter Damian, the
man in the Gospel, who came to the marriage feast with
out the nuptial garment, was condemned to darkness,
what then should he expect who, admitted to the
mystical banquet of the divine Lamb, neglects to adorn
himself with the brilliant garb of virtues, and even pre
sents himself impregnated with the fetid odors of im
1
purity."
Baronius relates that a priest who had con
tracted a habit of sins against chastity saw at death a
multitude of devils coming to carry him away. He
turned to a religious who was attending him, and be
sought him to pray for him. But soon after he exclaimed
that he was before the tribunal of God, and cried aloud:
Cease, cease to pray for me, for I am already con-
" 1
Altaria Domini, non alienum, sed ignem dumtaxat divini amoris
accipiunt; quisquis igitur carnalis concupiscentise flamma aestuat, et
sacris assistere mysteriis non formidat, ille divinse ultionis igne consumitur.
Opusc. 27, c. 3.
2 "
Veniet, veniet profecto dies,
imo nox, quando libido ista tua vertetur
in picem, qua se perpetuus ignis in tuis visceribns inextinguibiliter
nutriat."
Opusc. 17, c. 3.
3
"Quid illi sperandum, qui, coelestibus tricliniis intromissus, non
modo non est spiritalis indumend decore conspicuus, sed ultro etiam
foetet sordentis luxuriae squalore perfusus." Optisc. 18, d. i, c. 4.