We have done it without cause; we only wish to see him do what we ourselves do. This, says St. Ephrem, is one of the artifices of the devil: when he has caught a soul in his net, he makes him a snare, or a decoy, to deceive others. ” Cum primum capta fuerit, anima, ad alias decipiendas fit quasi laqueus."
5. Hence, it is necessary to avoid, as you would a plague, all familiarity with those scorpions of hell. I have said that you must avoid familiarity with them that is, all fellowship in their banquets or conversation; for never to meet them is, as the Apostle says, impossible. ” Otherwise you must needs go out of this world." (1 Cor. v. 10.) But, it is in our power to abstain from familiar intercourse with them. ” But now I have written to you not to keep company, etc. with such a one, not so much as to eat." (Ibid. v. 11.) I have called them scorpions: so they have been called by the Prophet Ezechiel. ” Thou art among unbelievers and destroyers, and thou dwellest among scorpions." (Ezec. ii. 6 ) Would you live in the midst of scorpions? You must, then, fly from scandalous friends, who, by their bad examples and words, poison your soul. ” A man‟s enemies shall be they of his own household." (Matt. x. 36.) Wicked friends, that are very familiar and intimate with us, become the most pernicious enemies of our souls. ” Who," says Ecclesiasticus, ” will pity an enchanter struck by a serpent, or any that come near wild beasts? So it is with him that keepeth company with a wicked man." (Eccl. xii. 13.) If the man that makes free with serpents, or with ferocious wild beasts, be bitten or devoured by them, who will take pity on him? And so it is with him who associates with scandalous companions; if, by their bad example he be contaminated and lost, neither God nor man will have compassion on him; because he was cautioned to fly from their society.
6. One scandalous companion is enough to corrupt all who treat him as a friend. ” Know you not," says St. Paul, ” that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump ?" (1 Cor. v. 7.) One of these scandalous sinners is able, by a perverse maxim, to infect all his companions. They are the false prophets whom Jesus Christ warns
