13. Moreover Isaiah, full of the Holy Spirit, cries out and chides the daughters of Sion, corrupted with gold, and silver, and raiment, and rebukes them, affluent as they were in pernicious wealth, and departing from God for the sake of the world’s delights. “The daughters of Sion,” says he, “are haughty, and walk with stretched-out neck and beckoning of the eyes, trailing their gowns as they go, and mincing with their feet. And God will humble the princely daughters of Sion, and the Lord will unveil their dress; and the Lord will take away the glory of their apparel, and their ornaments, and their hair, and their curls, and their round tires like the moon, and their crisping-pins, and their bracelets, and their clusters of pearls, and their armlets and rings, and earrings, and silks woven with gold and hyacinth. And instead of a sweet smell there shall be dust; and thou shalt be girt with a rope instead of with a girdle; and for a golden ornament of thy head thou shalt have baldness.”29    Isa. iii. 16. This God blames, this He marks out: hence He declares that virgins are corrupted; hence, that they have departed from the true and divine worship. Lifted up, they have fallen; with their heads adorned, they merited dishonour and disgrace. Having put on silk and purple, they cannot put on Christ; adorned with gold, and pearls, and necklaces, they have lost the ornaments of the heart and spirit. Who would not execrate and avoid that which has been the destruction of another? Who would desire and take up that which has served as the sword and weapon for the death of another? If he who had drunk should die by draining the cup, you would know that what he had drunk was poison; if, on taking food, he who had taken it were to perish, you would know that what, when taken could kill, was deadly; nor would you eat or drink of that whence you had before seen that others had perished. Now what ignorance of truth is it, what madness of mind, to wish for that which both has hurt and always will hurt and to think that you yourself will not perish by those means whereby you know that others have perished!

0451A XIII. Clamat etiam Spiritu sancto plenus Esaias, et filias Sion auro et argento ac veste corruptas increpat et objurgat perniciosis opibus affluentes et a Deo per saeculi delicias recedentes: Exaltatae sunt, ait, filiae Sion, et ambulaverunt alto collo , et nutu oculorum et incessu pedum trahentes tunicas, et pedidibus simul ludentes. Et humiliabit Deus principales filias Sion, et revelabit Dominus habitum earum, et auferet Dominus gloriam vestis illarum et ornamenta earum et crines et cincinnos et lunulas et discriminalia et armillas et botronatum et dextralia et annulos et inaures et serica contexta cum auro et hyacintho. Et erit pro odore suavitatis pulvis, et pro cingulo reste cingeris, et pro ornamento capitis aureo calvitium habebis (Isa. III, 16-24). Hoc Deus culpat, hoc denotat. 0451B Hinc corruptas esse virgines, hinc a cultu vero atque divino descivisse pronuntiat. Exaltatae ceciderunt , comptae turpitudinem foeditatemque meruerunt. Sericum 0452A et purpuram indutae Christum induere non possunt. Auro et margaritis et monilibus adornatae ornamenta cordis ac pectoris perdiderunt. Quis non id execretur et fugiat quod alii fuerit exitio ? quis id appetat et assumat quod ad necem alterius pro gladio fuerit et telo? Si hausto poculo moreretur ille qui biberat, venenum scires esse quod ille potavit. Si, accepto cibo, qui acceperat interiret, scires esse lethale quod acceptum potuit occidere, nec ederes inde nec biberes unde interiissc alios ante conspiceres. Nunc quanta ignorantia veri est, animi quanta dementia, id velle quod et nocuerit semper et noceat, et putare quod inde ipsa non pereas unde alios periisse cognoscas!