SIX VOLUMES IN ONE BY THE DISTINGUISHED EXPONENTS OF CATHOLICISM
REV. HENRY DODRIDGE, D. D. REV. HENRY EDWARD MANNING, D. D.REV. F. LEWIS, of Granada REV. STEPHEN KEENAN REV. BERNARD VAUGHAN, S. J. REV. THOMAS N. BURKE, O. P.
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| Sketch of the face of Jesus from Crown of Thorns - Gustave Dore |
Now, though this be so frequent and so monstrous a disorder, we take little notice of it, and no one is surprised at it, because the world is so disorderly, " For," as St. Bernard says, " we are not sensible of the stench of our crimes, because the number of them is too great;" For, as no one is affronted to be called Moor in those countries where every one is as black as himself; and as no one thinks it a disgrace to be drunk, notwithstanding the filthiness of the sin, where drunkenness is in fashion; so, this disorder being general, there is scarce any one that looks on it as he ought to do. From what has been said, we may see how unhappy a slavery this is; and not only that, but what dreadful torments man must expect in punishment of his sins, which have delivered up so noble a creature into the hands of so cruel a tyrant. The author of Ecclesiasticus looked on it as such, when he prayed to God "that he would deliver him from the inordinate desires of sensuality, and from the concupiscence of the flesh ; and that he would not give him over to a shameless and unbridled soul " (Eccl. xxiii. 6); as if he begged not to be delivered up into the hands of some cruel tyrant or executioner, looking on his irregular appetite as such.
