liberty, and of our adoption according to grace. Priests amongst the Jews had power to cleanse the leprosy of the body, or rather not at all to cleanse it, but only to proclaim who _were_ cleansed, and you know how sought after the priestly office then was. Now these have received power with regard to, not the leprosy of the body, but impurity of the soul, not to examine it when cleansed but to entirely effect the cleansing. Hence, those who hold them in contempt would be under a worse curse and would deserve a greater chastisement than Dathan and his companions. The latter, indeed, even if they claimed an authority which did not belong to them, were still impressed with its being something extraordinary, and showed this by desiring it with great warmth; but the former, since a better order has been brought about and divine worship has received so wonderful an increase, have ventured on a deed the opposite to that of the others, of much greater audacity. To desire undue honour and to disregard it are not forms of showing contempt; but the one is as far removed from the other as is the measure of contempt from admiration. What soul so unhappy as to disregard goods so great? I cannot say, unless anyone should be goaded on to it by a demon. Now I will go back to my starting-point. God has given greater power to priests than to parents, according to nature, not only for chastising but also for conferring benefits, and there is as great a difference between the two as between this present life and the life to come. Earthly parents generate for this present life, priests for the life to come: the former are unable to preserve their children from death even of the body or to ward off illness from them; but the latter have often saved a soul which was sick and about to be lost, procuring for some a milder chastisement, and keeping others out of trouble from the first, not only by teaching and advising, but also by helping them with prayer. Not only do they generate us anew, but after this they have authority to remit sins. _Is any man sick among you_, the Apostle says, _let him call in the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord shall raise him up, and whatever sins he may have committed shall be forgiven him_. So parents in the order of nature can do nothing to help their children if these should chance to offend people in high places; but priests have reconciled them not to rulers or kings only, but to God Himself, Who was angered against them. After this will anyone venture to accuse us of folly? For my part I conceive that what has been said will inspire the souls of hearers with such respect that they will no longer charge with folly and audacity those who shrink from acquiring this honour for themselves, but those who seek and pursue it. · · · · · · ·