there is a difference. For the two first make use of the third, that is, the flesh, as of a second Eve to deceive Adam; or as of a very fit instrument and stimulus to move us to all evil. And the Apostle gives to the cause the name of effect, calling it sin (Rom. vii. 11); because it stirs up to every kind of sin. For the same reason theologians call it "Fomes peccati,” which means the food and nourishment of sin; because it is the wood and oil that maintain the fire of sin. But we commonly call it sensuality, the flesh, or concupiscence, which may be explained as our sensitive appetite, the origin of all passions, as far as that appetite is corrupted or depraved by sin; for this it is that kindles and awakens all sins, and this is the fountain from which they all proceed; and therefore our other two enemies make especial use of it, and of the passions that proceed from it, to attack us. And, therefore, S. Basil said divinely, that the chief weapons wherewith the devil makes war upon us are our desires; because an immoderate attachment to the things that we desire makes us get them by right or wrong means, and break through all barriers, even the prohibitions of GOD's laws, which is the origin of all sin.

This appetite is one of the greatest tyrants to whom the wicked are subject, and, as the Apostle says, "sold" (Rom. vii. 14), as slaves are sold. But when he says that they are sold as slaves, he does not mean that by sin they have lost the free will with which they were created, for this, as to its essence, never has been, and never will be lost, whatever sins they commit; but he means that by sin this free will has become so weak, and the appetite so strong, that for the most part the strong overcomes the weak, and the rope breaks in its thinnest part.

What can be sadder than to see a man with a soul created in the image of GOD, and illumined with light from heaven, and with an understanding whose perceptions soar above all created things till they find GOD, despising all these great things, ruled and governed by the furious impulse of his brutish appetite, and that corrupted by sin, yea, moved and set on fire by the devil? What can be expected from such rule and guidance, but precipices, and disasters, and falls, and ills beyond comparison?

And that thou mayest see more plainly how vile this bondage is, I will explain it by a very palpable example. Let us suppose a man to be married to a wife, as noble, as beautiful, and as discreet as it is possible for a woman to be, and that a female slave of the wife, a skilful sorceress, envying the happiness of this marriage, has given him some drinks which so affect his brain that he hates his wife, shuts her up in a part of the house by herself, and gives himself entirely into the hands of the other woman, making her sit in his wife's seat, eating, drinking, sleeping, taking counsel, and arranging all the business of his house with her; and dissipating and spending all his property in banquets, festivals, pastimes, and the like, by her order; and that, not content with this, his madness goes so far that he makes his own wife serve this wicked woman as a slave in everything that she commands. Who can imagine that any man could be so deluded as this? And, if he were, how astonished would those who knew it be? How indignant against the wicked woman! how full of compassion for the noble wife! how would they cry out against the senseless husband! It would, indeed, be a most unworthy thing; but more unworthy beyond comparison is that of which we are speaking. For thou must know that in our own soul there are these two different women, the spirit and the flesh, which theologians call the superior and the inferior part. The superior part is that portion of the soul which contains the will and the reason, which is the natural light with which GOD created us, and which is so noble that it makes man the image of GOD, capable of comprehending GOD, and only lower than the Angels. (Ps. viii. 5.) This is the noble wife to whom GOD espoused man, that he might spend his life with her, ordering all things by her counsel, that is, by this heavenly light. But in the inferior part is the sensitive appetite of which we spoke before, which was given us that we might desire the things that are necessary for our life, and for the preservation of the human race, but only in the measure and order that reason appoints, as a steward buys food according to his master's orders. This appetite, then, is the slave of whom we have spoken; for it lacks the light of reason, and was not made to lead and command, but to be led and commanded. And

yet miserable man has become so attached and so devoted to the pleasures of this evil woman, that he forsakes the counsel of reason, by which he ought to be guided, and is ruled by her, doing whatever she tells him, that is, following all her bad desires and lusts. For we see men so sensual, so uncontrolled, so given over to the desires of their heart, that they obey and follow them in almost everything like brute beasts, without regarding the laws of justice and reason. And what is this but suffering their life to be governed by that abandoned slave, the flesh, giving themselves up to all the amusements, pastimes, and pleasures that she demands, and disregarding the counsels of their nobler and lawful wife-reason?

And what is worse, and more intolerable, they are not contented with this, but make the mistress serve the wicked slave, and watch day and night, inventing and seeking out all that is wanted to please and satisfy her. For when a man employs his whole reason and understanding in inventing innumerable varieties of personal adornments, of curious edifices, of exquisite dishes, of household furniture, and of plans and negotiations to gain what he needs for them, does he not turn away his soul from the spiritual exercises that belong to its proper dignity, and make it a slave, a cook, and a housekeeper to one who should have been its bondswoman. And when a sensual man, attached to a woman in order to destroy her chastity, employs all his reason and understanding in making all the mines and countermines that such a wicked undertaking requires, what is he doing but making the mistress serve the slave, employing that heavenly and divine light in seeking means for the base lusts of the flesh? When king David used so many means to hide his sin with Bathsheba-sending for her husband from the war, inviting him to sup, making him drunk at the supper, and afterwards giving him a letter with instructions and plans that he might be slain, (2 Sam. xi. 6-15,)—who planned these instructions but his understanding and reason, and who was the instigator but the perverse flesh, which desired to enjoy its pleasures more secretly and more securely? These are things of which Seneca, though but a heathen philosopher, was ashamed, and therefore he said, "I am greater, and born for

greater things, than to be the slave of my flesh.” Now, if we should be amazed at the delusion of the lost and bewitched man whom I have imagined, how far greater ought our amazement to be at this delusion, by which so much more good is lost, and so much more evil is acquired.

And though this is a thing so monstrous, so pitiable, and at the same time so common, we pass it by lightly, and are not startled at such great disorders, because the whole world is disordered. For, as S. Bernard says, the abominations of the vicious are not perceived, because there are so many of them. For, as in a land where all are born black, blackness is not thought a disfigurement; and where all are drunkards, drunkenness is not accounted a disgrace, contemptible as it is; so, because this monstrous defect is common in all the world, hardly any one perceives it to be a fault.

We have now sufficiently declared what a wretched bondage this is, and how terrible is the punishment to which man is condemned for sin, so noble a creature being given up to so vile a tyrant. And such the son of Sirach accounted it, when he prayed to GOD, and besought Him not to let the greediness of the belly, or the lusts of the flesh, take hold of him, and not to give him over into an impudent mind, (Ecclus. xxiii. 6,) as a man prays not to be delivered to some cruel tyrant or executioner.

If thou wouldst know how great is the power of this tyrant, thou mayest easily learn by considering what the world has done and does every day. I will not set before thine eyes the fables of the poets concerning the renowned Hercules, of whom they say that, after he had conquered and overcome all the monsters in the world, he was overcome by impure love for a woman, and laying aside his club, he sat down among her maidens to spin, with a distaff at his girdle, because she ordered him to do so, and threatened him if he disobeyed. This was well feigned by the poets to signify the tyranny and the power of this appetite. Nor will I bring in here the ancient truths of Holy Scripture, wherein we see Solomon in one place filled with holiness and wisdom, and in another going after idols, and building temples for them, a thing which no less declares the tyranny of this

passion, (1 Kings iv. 29–31; xi. 4–8,) but I will speak of common instances which we see every day. See, then, to what an adulterous woman exposes herself in order to obey an inordinate lust, for I will take this passion for an instance, and by this thou mayest judge of the strength of the rest. She knows very well that if her husband takes her in the fact, he will kill her; and that in the same instant she will lose her life, her honour, her property, her soul, and everything that it is possible to lose in this world and in the next, the greatest and the most total loss possible; she knows that she shall leave her children, her parents, her brothers and sisters, and all her family disgraced, and with perpetual cause of grief; and yet the force of this appetite, or rather the power of this tyrant, is so great, that it makes her risk all this, and incur all these horrible perils with the greatest readiness to obey its orders. What tyrant ever forced a captive to obey his commands at such great risk? What slavery can be harder and more wretched than such bondage?

This is the state in which the wicked live, as the prophet plainly signified, speaking of them as "such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being fast bound in misery and iron." (Ps. cvii. 10.) What is this darkness, but the blindness in which the wicked live, of which we treated above? for they neither know themselves nor GOD as they ought, nor do they know what they live for, nor for what end they were created, nor the vanity of the things that they love, nor the very slavery and bondage in which they live. And what is the "iron" in which they are bound but the strength of the attachments by which their hearts are fettered to the things that they love inordinately? And what is their "misery" but the insatiable hunger with which they long after innumerable things that they do not obtain? Can there be greater bondage than this?

Let us see this by other instances. Look at Amnon, David's first-born son, who, when he had set his eyes on his sister Tamar, was so blinded with this darkness, so bound with these chains, and so afflicted with this hunger, that he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep, but lost his health, and lay in his bed sick through the violence of this passion. (2 Sam. xiii. 1, 2, 6.)