PSEUDO-TITUS
without interruption! O great security, when a man lives lonesome in the body! Thou canst not expect to bind glowing coals on thy garment, and not set the robe alight.44 Should you do such a thing, then you will remain naked and your shame will be manifest. Add to this the word of the prophet: “All flesh is grass.”45 That a man then may not go up in flames, let him keep far from fire. Why exposest thou thine eternal salvation to loss through a trifle? Hast thou not read in the
247
law this word that holds good for thee: The people sat down to eat and to drink; and they rose to make merry; and of them 23,000 fell there? For they had begun to have intercourse with the daughters of men, i.e. they allowed themselves to be invited by them to their unclean sacri fices, and the children of Israel dedicated themselves to Baalpeor. . . .
45
Is. 40:6
46
Exod. 32:6, 28.