Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/175

 and to render ourselves worthy of this grace, we must, on our part, avoid the occasions of sin. To practise the virtue of chastity, it is necessary to recommend ourselves continually to God: we have not strength to preserve it; that strength must be the gift of God. “And as I knew," says the Wise Man, ”that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, ... I went to the Lord, and besought him." (Wis. viii. 21.) But if we expose ourselves to the occasions of sin, we ourselves shall provide our rebellious flesh with arms to make war against the soul. “Neither," says the Apostle, “yield ye your members as instruments of sin unto iniquity." (Rom. vi. 13.) In explaining this passage, St. Cyril of Alexandria says: “You stimulate the flesh; you arm it, and make it powerful against the spirit." St. Philip Neri used to say, that in the war against the vice of impurity, the victory is gained by cowards that is, by those who fly from the occasions of this sin. But the man who exposes himself to it, arms his flesh, and renders it so powerful, that it will be morally impossible for him to resist its attacks. 6. "Cry," says the Lord to Isaias, “all flesh is grass." (Isa. xl. 6.) Now, says St. John Chrysostom, if all flesh is grass, it is as foolish for a man who exposes himself to the occasion of sin to hope to preserve the virtue of purity, as to expect that hay, into which a torch has been thrown, will not take fire. ”Put a torch into hay, and then dare to deny that the hay will burn." No, says St. Cyprian; it is impossible to stand in the midst of flames, and not to burn. ”Impossibile est flammis circumdari et non ardere." (De Sing. Cler.)”Can a man," says the Holy Ghost, "hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? or can he walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt ?" (Prov. vi. 27, 28.) Not to be burnt in such circumstances would be a miracle. St. Bernard teaches, that to preserve chastity, and, at the same time, to expose oneself to the proximate occasion of sin, ”is a greater miracle than to raise a dead man to life." 7. In explaining the fifth Psalm, St. Augustine says, that “he who is unwilling to fly from danger, wishes to perish in it." Hence, in another place, he exhorts those who wish to conquer, and not to perish, to avoid