Untitled - Saints' Books

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Great
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84 Material for Sermons. [PART i.
given, of him much shall be required.
1
The author of
the
"Imperfect Work" says, "On the day of judgment the
secular will receive the priestly stole, but the sinful
priest will be deprived of the priestly dignity, and
ranked among infidels and 2
hypocrites."
Hear ye this,
O priests! says the Prophet Osee, for there is judg
. . .
ment against you?
And as the judgment of priests is most rigorous, so
also shall their damnation be most miserable. With a
4
double destruction destroy them, says Jeremias. A Council
of Paris repeats these words of St. Jerome, already
cited:
is the dignity of priests, but if
they hap
pen to fall into sin, very great will also be their ruin."
And St. John Chrysostom says, If a priest were to
commit only the sins of which the simple faithful be
come guilty, he would incur not a similar but a more
rigorous chastisement." f
that priests who are sinners
It was revealed to St. Bridget
will find themselves deeper
in hell than all the other damned." Oh! how great
the rejoicing of the devils when a priest enters hell ? All
hell is in confusion to meet the priest who comes. Hell
below, says Isaias, was in an uproar to meet thee at thy
coming. . , . All the princes of the earth have risen from
" 1
Omni autem cui multum datum est, multum quaeretur ab eo."
Luke, xii. 48.
2 "
Laicus, in die judicii, stolam sacerdotalem accipiet; Sacerdos autem
peccator spoliabitur* dignitate, et erit inter infideles et hypocritas."
Horn. 40.
3 "
4 "
5 "
Audite hoc, Sacerdotes: . . .
quia vobis judicitim est." Osee,
v. i.
Duplici contritione contere eos." Jer. xvii. 18.
Grandis dignitas Sacredotum, sed grandis ruina, si peccant."
In
Ezcch. xliv.
6 "Sacerdos, si eadem cum subditis peccata committit, non eadem,
sed multo acerbiora patietur."
Ad pop. Ant. horn. 77.
7 "
Prae omnibus diabolis, profundius submergentur in
infernum."
Rev. 1. 4, c. 135.