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 heavenly things,  the  more  frequently  and  fervently  shall  we  feel the desire  of  possessing  them.

But you  will  ask  me,  how  can  this  accord  with  what  our Saviour says  to  the  Samaritan,  "He  that  shall  drink  of  the water  I  shall  give  him  shall  never  thirst"? (John, iv.  13.) Here the  Son  of  God  says  that  we  shall  never  thirst,  if  we  drink of the  water  he  shall  give ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  the  mouth of the  Wise  Man,  says,  "  That  the  more  we  drink,  the  more  we shall  thirst." How shall  we  reconcile  one  with  the  other  such different assertions? The holy  Fathers  reply,  that  by  the  words of Jesus  Christ  to  the  Samaritan,  we  are  to  understand,  that whoever drinks  of  the  living  water  therein  described,  "  shall never  thirst  after  sensual  pleasures;"  because  the  sweetness  of spiritual  things  will  give  him  an  absolute  disrelish  for  things  of the  world,  and  will  render  them  quite  insipid. As when  you have tasted  honey,  says  St.  Gregory,- everything  else  will  seem sour and  bitter;  in  like  manner,  when  we  have  tasted  God  and spiritual things,  all  that  savours  of  any  affinity  to  and  contagion of  flesh  and  blood  will  become  insipid  and  excite  a loathing. But as  to  the  words  of  the  Wise  Man,  a  Those  who eat me  shall  yet  hunger,  and  those  who  drink  me  shall  yet thirst" (Ecclus.  xxiv.  29),  we  must  consider  them  to  relate  to spiritual  things,  and  we  must  understand,  that  the  more  we taste  them,  the  more  we  shall  feel  our  hunger  and  thirst  for  them to  increase.  For  being  then  come  to  a  better  knowledge  of  their worth,  and  having  experienced  their  sweetness,  we  shall,  in  consequence, be  impelled  to  be  more  zealous  in  seeking  after  them. It  is  thus  the  holy  doctors  reconcile  these  two  passages.

But then,  how  can  this  accord  with  what  our  Saviour  says again in  the  gospel,  "  Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst after  justice;  because  they  shall  be  filled"? (Matt. v.  6.)  Here he says  that  he  will  fill  those  who  shall  hunger  and  thirst  after justice; and  there  the  Wise  Man  assures  us,  that  such  as  shall eat and  drink  of  wisdom,  shall  always  find  the  same  hunger  and thirst as  before. Now, how  is  it  possible  that  things  so  opposite can exist  together? how is  it  possible  to  reconcile  assertions  so different? It is  very  easy  to  do  it. It is  the  privilege  and  the excellence of  spiritual  things  to  satisfy,  and  at  the  same  time, to excite  our  appetite;  to  quench,  and  still  to  excite  our  thirst; and in  a  word,  to  cause,  that  the  more  we  eat  and  drink  of  them, the more  we  hunger  and  thirst  after  them. But then  it  is  a hunger,  which,  instead  of  making  us  faint  and  weak,  renders  us