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I KNEW one of the number of the brethren, whom I heartily wish I had
never known; since afterwards he allowed himself to be saddled with the
responsibilities of my order: who confessed to a most admirable elder
that he was attacked by a terrible sin of the flesh: for he was inflamed
with an intolerable lust, with the unnatural desire of suffering rather
than: of committing a shameful act: then the other like a true spiritual
physician, at once saw through the inward cause and origin of this evil.
And, sighing deeply, said: "Never would the Lord have suffered you to be
given over to so foul a spirit unless you had blasphemed against Him." And
he, when this was discovered, at once fell at his feet on the ground, and,
struck with the utmost astonishment, as if he saw the secrets of his heart
laid bare by God, confessed that he had blasphemed with evil thoughts
against the Son of God. Whence it is clear that one who is possessed by the
spirit of pride, or who has been guilty of blasphemy against God,--as one
who offers a wrong to Him from whom the gift of purity must be looked for--
is deprived of his uprightness and perfection, and does not deserve the
sanctifying grace of chastity.
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