40. And what members of the
holy body, which is the Church, ought more to take care, that upon
them the holy Spirit may rest, than such as profess virginal
holiness? But how doth He rest, where He findeth not His own place?
what else than an humbled heart, to fill, not to leap back from; to
raise up, not to weigh down? whereas it hath been most plainly
said, “On whom shall rest My Spirit? On him that is humble and
quiet, and trembles at My words.”
2157
Already thou livest righteously,
already thou livest piously, thou livest chastely, holily, with
virginal purity; as yet, however, thou livest here, and art thou
not humbled at hearing, “What, is not human life upon earth a
trial?”
2158
Doth it
not drive thee back from over-confident arrogance, “Woe unto the
world because of offenses?”
2159
Dost thou not tremble, lest thou
be accounted among the many, whose “love waxeth cold, because
that iniquity abounds?”
2160
Dost thou not smite thy breast,
when thou hearest, “Wherefore, whoso thinketh that he standeth,
let him see to it lest he fall?”
2161
Amid these divine warnings and
human dangers, do we yet find it so hard to persuade holy virgins
to humility?
2157
Is. lxvi. 2
2158
Job. vii. 1
.
LXX.
2159
Matt. xviii. 7
. [See
R.V.]
2160
Matt. xxiv. 12
2161
1 Cor. x. 12