CHAPTER XIX.
THE PRIEST'S LIFE.
The Fourth Provincial Council has also traced out in its twelfth decree what a priest's life ought to be in the following words:
1. "'They who are not holy ought not to lay hands on holy things.'[1] All the faithful of Christ, as the Apostle testifies, are called to be Saints.[2] But priests ought to ascend to the perfection of sanctity. 'For he who, by the necessity of his position, is compelled to teach the highest things, by the same necessity is bound to show them forth in himself.'[3] The warning is altogether fearful: 'No man ought rashly to offer himself to others as a guide in the divine light who, in all his state and habit, is not most like to God.'[4] 'For they who are appointed to divine ministries attain to a royal dignity, and ought to be perfect in virtue.'[5] For so
- ↑ Conc. Carthag.
- ↑ 1 Cor. i. 2.
- ↑ S. Greg. Cura Past. P. ii. c. iii.
- ↑ De Eccl. Hier. c. v.
- ↑ S. Thom. lib. iv. Sent. Suppl. ad B. i. quæst. xi.
