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| Chapter X.
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Chapter X.
“Moreover, it will
be worth while to relate also some of his familiar sayings, since they
were all salted with spiritual instruction. He happened to see a
sheep122
| 122 Halm has here an
unintelligible reading, probably a misprint—“quem recens
tonsam forte conspexerat.” | that had recently been sheared; and,
‘See,’ says he, ‘she has fulfilled the precept of the
Gospel: she had two coats, and one of them she has given to him who had
none: thus, therefore, ye ought also to do.’ Also, when he
perceived a swineherd in a garment of skin, cold and, in fact, all but
naked, he exclaimed: ‘Look at Adam, cast out of Paradise, how he
feeds his swine in a garment of skin; but let us, laying aside that old
Adam, who still remains in that man, rather put on the new Adam.’
Oxen had, in one part, eaten up the grass of the meadows; pigs also had
dug up some portions of them with their snouts; while the remaining
portion, which continued uninjured, flourished, as if painted with
variously tinted flowers. ‘That part,’ said he,
‘which has been eaten down by cattle, although it has not
altogether lost the beauty of grass, yet retains no grandeur of
flowers, conveys to us a representation of marriage; that part, again,
which the pigs, unclean animals, had dug up, presents a loathsome
picture of fornication; while the remaining portion, which had
sustained no injury, sets forth the glory of virginity;—it
flourishes with abundance of grass; the fruits of the field abound in
it; and, decked with flowers to the very extreme of beauty, it shines
as if adorned with glittering gems. Blessed is such beauty and worthy
of God; for nothing is to be compared with virginity. Thus, then, those
who set marriage side by side with fornication grievously err; and
those who think that marriage is to be placed on an equal footing with
virginity are utterly wretched and foolish. But this distinction must
be maintained by wise people, that marriage belongs to those things
which may be excused, while virginity points to glory, and fornication
must incur punishment unless its guilt is purged away through
atonement.’E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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