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 There is nothing here that needs to be explained. The words are clear enough, and we have only to reflect on them attentively, one after the other.

When we have been filled with fear by these words, we may arouse hope within us by the following ones, remembering that the whole Church tells us with St Paul: ' We hope for better things from you.'

Then, having heard St Paul, we may listen to St Peter: — ' For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. For that of the true proverb has happened to them: the dog is returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.’

Merely to hear such expressions horrifies and even sickens us; but the thing itself is much more horrible; and animals in the condition described are not nearly so degraded as the penitent who has fallen away again.