Chapter
VII.—Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into
the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry.
A whole day the zeal of faith will direct its
pleadings to this quarter: bewailing that a Christian should come from
idols into the Church; should come from an adversary workshop into the
house of God; should raise to God the Father hands which are the
mothers of idols; should pray to God with the hands which, out of
doors, are prayed to in opposition to God; should apply to the
Lord’s body those hands which confer bodies on demons. Nor is
this sufficient. Grant that it be a small matter, if from other hands
they receive what they contaminate; but even those very hands deliver
to others what they have contaminated. Idol-artificers are chosen even
into the ecclesiastical order. Oh wickedness! Once did the Jews lay
brands on Christ; these mangle His body daily. Oh hands to be cut
off! Now let the saying, “If thy hand make thee do evil, amputate
it,” see to it whether it
were uttered by way of similitude merely. What hands more to be
amputated than those in which scandal is done to the Lord’s
body?