Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/211

Rh feasted with all the nobles of his empire. The Emperor lived a short time after this, and finished his career in peace.

My beloved, the Emperor is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He who seeks the life of his father is any bad Christian who is made a legitimate child of God by the virtues of baptism. The mother of the boy is the Holy Church, through which our baptismal vows are received; and through which also the perverse sinner, removed from God by manifold offences, seeks the death of Christ, who is Himself the Father, as appears from Deut. xxxii. "Is he not thy father, &c. Therefore, the Christian attempts to destroy Christ, as often as he departs from the law of God. Again, Christ withdraws into the innermost sanctuary, and there, not only offers His breast to the drawn sword—but has actually died for our sins. Wherefore, remembering His love, and the sources of our own security, we ought to