DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71556#0200
160 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
proper order and succession, thus enabling readers
to judge for themselves.
No. 1.
Extract from Sermon 23rd of the Collection entitled
" Quam bonus Israel Deus," preached in the
Advent of 1493. Its subject is, the Condition of the
Modern, as contrasted with that of the Primitive
Church.
" The primitive Church was constructed of
living stones, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
corner-stone. The Church was then a garden
of delights, a very heaven upon earth. How
holy was the zeal which animated its pastors for
the good of souls! How anxiously did they em-
ploy themselves in things divine! What obe-
dience was there in the people; what prudence and
discretion in the prelates; what wisdom in the
teachers; what truth flowed from the lips of the
preachers; what holiness animated the priests;
what purity distinguished the youths; what chas-
tity the virgins; what continence the widowed;
what mutual faith the married; what love and
charity animated the whole body of the faithful!
No imagination can adequately conceive the happi-
ness of that time, when they who believed were of
one heart and one soul; and when every tongue
could feelingly unite in the spirit of that fine sen-
timent of the psalmist, 'Behold, how sweet and
proper order and succession, thus enabling readers
to judge for themselves.
No. 1.
Extract from Sermon 23rd of the Collection entitled
" Quam bonus Israel Deus," preached in the
Advent of 1493. Its subject is, the Condition of the
Modern, as contrasted with that of the Primitive
Church.
" The primitive Church was constructed of
living stones, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
corner-stone. The Church was then a garden
of delights, a very heaven upon earth. How
holy was the zeal which animated its pastors for
the good of souls! How anxiously did they em-
ploy themselves in things divine! What obe-
dience was there in the people; what prudence and
discretion in the prelates; what wisdom in the
teachers; what truth flowed from the lips of the
preachers; what holiness animated the priests;
what purity distinguished the youths; what chas-
tity the virgins; what continence the widowed;
what mutual faith the married; what love and
charity animated the whole body of the faithful!
No imagination can adequately conceive the happi-
ness of that time, when they who believed were of
one heart and one soul; and when every tongue
could feelingly unite in the spirit of that fine sen-
timent of the psalmist, 'Behold, how sweet and