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 Who drifts  into  unbelief? Those whose hearts are  full  of  the  smoke  of  sin,  of  the  mist of evil  passions;  those  who  are  averse  to  the holy truths  of  religion  and  detest  its  threats  and admonitions on  account  of  the  sinful  lives  they are leading. It would  be  wonderful  indeed,  if such  persons  could  see  as  clearly  as  those  who, free from  evil  passions,  follow  after  truth.

3. Yes,  it  is  vice,  evil,  unruly,  unbridled  passions, which  deprive  men  of  their  faith. Who is  it, for instance,  who  mocks  at  confession  and  communion, or  despises  and  rails  at  the  commands of the  Church? It is  the  man  addicted  to  vice, who finds  it  difficult  to  confess  the  shameful deeds which  he  commits  over  and  over  again. Who begins  to, doubt  about  eternal  punishment? The man  addicted  to  vice,  who  trembles  at  the thought of  hell,  and  heartily  wishes  that  such  a place  did  not  exist. It is  vice,  the  sinful  gratification of  the  passions,  which  has  produced heresies, and  it  is  vice  which  keeps  them  alive.

There is  one  vice  in  particular  which  gradually weakens  and  destroys  the  mental  powers  of man. Men endowed  with  the  highest  gifts  may become weak  in  intellect  and  memory,  and  if this  happens  in  regard  to  worldly  affairs,  the vice to  which  we  refer  attacks  all  the  more frequently and  inevitably  the  supernatural  endowments of  the  soul. "The sensual  man,"  as St.  Paul  tells  us,  "  perceiveth  not  those  things  that are  of  the  Spirit  of  God"  (1  Cor.  ii.  14). Hence comes the  saying  of  St.  Jerome,  the  Doctor  of the  Church:  "It  is  difficult  to  find  a  heresiarch who  was  chaste."

4. If  we  open  the  pages  of  ecclesiastical  history, we  find  this  truth  confirmed  in  the  most striking manner. We will  illustrate  our  meaning