Untitled - Saints' Books

3IO Material for Instructions. [PART n.
in need of a special aid from God. But how can a proud
priest practise that sublime virtue if in punishment of
his pride the Lord withholds his assistance ?
Pride, says
the Wise Man, is a sign of approaching ruin. The spirit is
lifted up before a fall? Hence St. Augustine has gone so
far as to say that it is in a certain manner useful to the
proud to fall into some manifest sin, that thus they may
2
learn humility and a horror of themselves. This is what
happened to David, who, as he himself afterwards con
fessed with tears, fell into adultery because he was not
humble: Before I was humbled, I offended? St. Gregory
calls pride the seminary of impurity; because some,
while they are exalted by the spirit of pride, are precipi
tated into hell by the flesh. 4 The spirit of pride easily
brings with it the spirit of impurity. The spirit of forni
cation, says the Prophet Osee, is in the midst of them, . . .
and the pride of Israel shall answer in his face. 5
Ask certai n
persons why they always
fall back into the same im
purities; pride shall answer for them, that it is the cause
of their relapses: they are full of self-esteem, and therethe
Lord chastises them by permitting them to remain
immersed in their abominations, a chastisement which,
as the Apostle says, has already fallen on the wise of the
world: God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto
uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves?
" 1
Contritionem praecedit superbia; et ante ruinam, exaltatur
Prov. xvi. 18.
spiritus."
2
Audeo "
dicere, superbis esse utile cadere in aliquod apertum peccatum,
unde sibi displiceant."
De Civ. D. 1. 14, c. 13.
3 "
4 "
Priusquam humiliarer, ego deliqui."
Ps. cxviii. 67.
Multis saepe superbia luxuriae seminarium fuit; quia, dum eos
spiritus quasi in altum erexit, caro in infimis mersit." Mor. 1.
26,
c. 12.
5
"Spiritus
fornicationum in medio eorum. .
. . Et respondebit
6 "
arrogantia Israel in facie ejus." Osee, v. 4.
Propter quod tradidit illos Deus in desideria cordis eorum, in
immunditiam, ut contumeliis afficiant corpora sua in semelipsis."
Rom. i.
24.