benefit of God, and to enrol themselves the slaves of the devil. For what else is it to follow in our youth " the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life," but to enter into friend ship with the devil, and to deny Christ our Lord in deed and in word? Few is the number of those, who, prevented by a special grace of God, carefully preserve their baptismal grace, and, as the prophet Jeremias expresses it, have borne the yoke of the Lord "from their youth I" But unless we preserve either our baptismal grace, or by true penance again renounce the devil, and return to the service of God, and per severe in it till the end of our life, we cannot possibly live well, nor be delivered from a miserable death.
The fourth ceremony is, when the baptized receives the white garment, and is ordered to wear it until he shall appear before God. By this rite is signified " innocence of life," which acquired by the grace of Baptism, is most carefully to be preserved until death. But who can number the snares of the devil, that perpetual enemy of the human race, who desires nothing more than to disfigure that garment with every kind of stain? Very few, therefore, are there, who if they live long, do not contract stains of sin; holy David calls those blessed who are " undefiled" in their way. But the more difficult it is to walk undefiled in a defiled way, so much the more glorious
