Untitled - Saints' Books

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In
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INSTR. in.] The Chastity of the Priest. 253
as the moth is insensibly generated in and corrodes the
garment, so by conversation with women concupiscence
is imperceptibly excited, even in men who are spiritual.
1
St. Augustine regards as certain the sudden fall of the
man who will not avoid familiarity with dangerous
objects. 2 St. Gregory relates 3 of Orsinus, who had sep
arated from his wife, and become a priest with her con
sent, that forty years after their separation, when he
was dying, she put her ear to his mouth to ascertain
whether he was still alive; but Orsinus exclaimed:
"Withdraw, O woman," said he;
take away the straw;
for I have still a small portion of the fire of life which
may consume us both."^
Every one should be filled with terror by the unhappy
example of Solomon, who after being so dear to God,
and so familiar with him, after being made, as it were,
the pen of the Holy Ghost, was in his old age, by con
versation with pagan women, induced to worship idols.
And when he was now old, his heart was turned away by
women to follow strange gods? No wonder; for, as St.
Cyprian says, it is impossible to stand in the midst of
flames without being burned. 6 And St. Bernard has
written, that to be familiar with a woman and to pre
serve chastity require greater virtue than to raise a
dead man to life. 7 If, then, says the Holy Ghost, you
1
"Tinea insensibiliter in veste nascitur, et earn erodit; sic insensibiliter
ex conversatione cum muliere oritur libido, etiam inter religiosos."
2
Sine ulla dubitatione, qui familiaritatem non vult vitare suspectam,
cito labitur in ruinara."
3
Dial. 1. 4, c. ii.
Serm. 293, E. B. app.
4
"
Recede mulier, adhuc igniculus vivit, paleam
tolle."
"
Cumque jam esset senex, depravatum est cor ejus per mulieres,
ut sequeretur deos alienos." 3 Kings, xi. 4.
6 "
cler.
Impossibile est flammis circumdari, et non ardere."
De Singular,
" 7
Cum femina semper esse, et non cognoscere feminam, nonne plus
est quam mortuum suscitare ?" Cant. s. 65.