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.
But to come home to our subject, how unhappy must those poor creatures be who have nothing, if even those who enjoy all they can wish are so uneasy, because they do not enjoy God! For the want of every one of these things is a particular hunger and thirst, that torments them, and a thorn that is perpetually pricking their hearts : what peace, what quiet is it possible for a soul to have, when all its thoughts and desires are continually so importunate and rebellious ? The prophet says very well of such sort of people, " That the heart of the wicked is like a tempestuous sea, which is not to be calmed Isa. lvii. 20. And, indeed, what sea, what waves, or what winds can be more boisterous and stormy than the passions and desires of the wicked, which very often disturb not only the sea, but all the world? But there often start up contrary winds in this sea, which is another most violent sort of storm. For the same desires, like opposite winds, frequently resist one another, so that what pleases the flesh does not please honour, what honour loves, riches do not care for; reputation does not covet that which is agreeable to wealth, nor does sloth or luxury desire what reputation does. So that by this means it often happens, that the wicked, whilst they desire all things, do not know what they would have, and so are ignorant what to take and what to leave, because their desires contradict one another; just as bad humours do in distempers which proceed from different causes, where the physicians are puzzled what remedy to prescribe, because that which is good for the expelling of one humour may be apt to nourish another. Such was the confusion of languages at Babel, and such was that, for the preventing of which the royal prophet prayed to God, saying, "Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, because I have beheld iniquity and contradiction in the city; " Ps. liv. ix. What, therefore, can this division of tongues, this iniquity and this contradiction be, but the disturbance which different passions make in the hearts of worldly-minded men when they oppose one another, and one desires that which is against the inclination and desire of another ?
