Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/213

Rh Swine are unclean animals, because they delight in filth, and therefore the devils may be compared to them, who are saturated with the filth of sin, proceeding from themselves. Refuse is the proper food of sin; thus, fornication, drunkenness, and gluttony, are the food of devils. The sinner seeks to fill his belly with such refuse, because no one supplies him with food enough, and because voluptuousness is always hungry. The devil often denies man the power of gratifying his appetite, knowing that the cup of his iniquity is full, and that he is dead in sin. Nevertheless, the Lord, by his grace, enables him to throw away the sword of vice; and the sinner then exclaims—"Pity me, O God, while thou correctest: I acknowledge my transgressions." The Almighty Being compassionates his distress, and, as it were, falls upon his neck, and kisses him. "Bring forth," he says, "the most sumptuous apparel, and clothe him; put a ring upon his finger, and shoes upon his feet. Slay likewise the fatted calf, that we may eat—for my son, which was dead, is alive again; he was lost and is found." Thus our heavenly Father,