wife." (Ib. xvii. 32.) What was it she did? God having brought her out of Sodom, in order to save her from the fire which consumed that city, she stopped upon the way, and turned to look behind her, and immediately in the very place where she turned her head, she was changed into a statue of salt. Would you know, says St. Austin, what this signifies? Salt seasons and preserves everything, and our Saviour would have us remember Lot's wife, to the end, that, reflecting upon what happened to her we may preserve ourselves with that salt, which her transformation does furnish us with; that is to say, that taking warning by the example of her punishment, we may go on and persevere in that good course of life, into which we are entered, without stopping or looking behind us, lest we ourselves should be turned also into statues, from which others may take salt, for their own preservation. Alas! how many are there now-a-days, who serve us for statues of salt, like that of Lot's wife? How many are there whose fall may serve us for a warning, and become of very great advantage to us, in order to our eternal salvation? Let us then be wise at other men's cost, and let us endeavour to do nothing that may make others become wise at our expense.
St. Austin and St. Jerom farther add and say, that " To begin well and end ill, is to make a monster, as if a painter, after he had drawn the head of a man, should add to it the neck of a horse. (Ad frat. in Erem. ser. 8.) St. Paul, writing to the Galatians, reprehends them very severely for proceeding after this manner. "What," says he, "are you grown to such a height of folly, as that having once begun well in the spirit you will needs end in the flesh? Senseless men! who has bewitched you, thus to rebel against truth?" (Gal. iii. 3.)
But to the end we may obtain God's holy grace to persevere in doing well, we must strive to lay at first a good foundation of virtue and mortification; for if the foundation be weak, the building will quickly come to lean, and so fall to the ground. That fruit into which the worm has once crept, never ripens, but soon falls from the tree; whilst that which is sound, sticks fast to the branch, till it is perfectly ripe; in the same manner if your virtue be not solid, and your heart not wholly possessed by God, and if you still cherish the same worm of presumption, of pride, of impatience, or any other irregular passion; that worm will by degrees corrupt your heart, and consume all its best juice and substance; and to speak more clearly, you will run the danger
