Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/177

 upon thee, oh inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit,” Isa. xxiv. 17, 18.

II. On the second head, the conditions of our walking, it is to be noted—

(1.) In the first place, that we walk in the midst of three snares. (1) The iniquity of the proud : “ The proud have hid a snare for me .they have set gins for me,” Ps. cxlv. (2) The lust of the avaricious : “ But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition,” 1 Tim. vi. 9. (3) The perversity of false accusers : “ And hast preserved my body from destruction, from the snare of an unjust tongue, and from the lips of them that forge lies,” Ecclus. i. 3.

(2.) In the second place, that similarly we walk in the midst of three kind of robbers. (1) The Devil: “ The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy,” St. John x. 10. (2) The flatterer: “The thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without,” Hos. vii. 1. (3) Vain-glory : S. Gregory says that as a certain robber it joins itself to the human traveller in the way; that it seeks those who are incautious, and spoils them, especially seeking to despoil those who bear treasure publicly in the way. And, again, that the appetite for human praise is a certain robber which gladly unites to those who are walking in the right way, that their eyes being led away they may be slain by the sword which hangs from their path. S. Chrysostom observes that vain-glory is the one thief, which robs us of our treasure laid up in heaven. The Devil steal souls; the flatterers, purity of conscience; vain-glory, the reward of eternal glory.

(3.) In the third place, that we similarly walk in the midst of three pits. (1) Woman, or luxury: “The mouth of a strange woman is- a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein,” Prov. xxii. 14. Gloss., the “abhorred of the Lord” is the son of wrath. He who embraces the words or kisses of a strange woman knocks as at the door of an abyss, and unless he draws back his feet, restraining his members, he will fall into that penal pit into which none except the son of wrath falls down. (2) Gluttony and drunkenness : “ Who falls into pits,” Prov. xxxiii. 29,