Part 1, lesson 5. That Christians are obliged to mortify in themselves the inclinations of Adam and of the flesh, and crucify the old man

Q. What ought Christians to do, when they feel in themselves an inclination to unite and bind themselves to creatures?

A. They must mortify such inclinations j they mustrenounce them, since they come from the flesh, and they are no longer debtors to the flesh, to live ac cording to its inclinations.*

Q. After receiving baptism, which is a second generation,

• Debitores sumus non carni, ut se cnndum carnem vivamus. Rom. viii are Christians obliged to con form themselves to Adam, their father, and live according to his life ?

A. No; for God being made our father in baptism, we are obliged to live according to God, and the inclinations which his spirit infuses into us.

Q. If we live according to the flesh, shall we be saved ?

A. No; for St. Paul says that we shall die, if we do not mortify our flesh and all its concupis cences.

Q. Christians therefore are obliged to mortify themselves?

A. Yes; for, according to the apostle, those who are Christ's, have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences;* theyhave crucified, and stripped themselves of the old man with all his deeds.!

Q. What do you mean by the old man?

A. It is the same thing as the flesh; it is ourselves with the inclinations we have received from Adam, in being born of him by our parents.

Q. What are those inclina tions ?

A. They are all the inclina tions which we have to evil, and

• Qui sunt Christi, carnem suam crucifixerunt cum vitiis et concupiscentiis. Gal. v, 24.

f Expoliantes vos veterera hominem cum actibus suis. Col. iii, 9.

with which we are entirely filled.

Q. To how many heads may these inclinations be referred ?

A. To three : inclinations to pleasures, inclinations to riches, and inclinations to honors.

Q. What ! must all these be repressed ?

A. Yes.

Q. We must then crucify in us the old man ?

A. Yes, we must crucify him, as the wicked crucify in them selves Jesus Christ.

Q. But again, what do you mean precisely by crucifying the old man ?

A. It is to bind, repress, and destroy interiorly all the impure and inordinate desires that we feel in our flesh.

Q. What do you mean by our flesh ?

A. All the old creature in us, all man, in as much as he is not regenerated by grace, and is opposed to the Holy Spirit that we receive in baptism.

Q. What! are. our souls and minds flesh, before we are bap tised ?

A. Yes.

Q. But why do you call the soul flesh ?

A. Because, being sunk and drowned in the flesh, it partici pates in all its evil inclinations ; so that, unless grace separates them, they become the same thing; and therefore the soul is called flesh.

Q. Is it for this reason, that our Lord says we must hate our soul ?*

A. Yes; for in as much as the soul is the same thing with the flesh, and in as much as it ani mates and vivifies its impurity and corruption, it is the enemy of God, and worthy of all hatred.

Q. Could the flesh alone sin ?

A. No, since it can not even live without the soul. The soul, at the same time that it animates the flesh, seeks evil with it, and participates in all its corruption.

• Qui non odifc— adhuc— et animam suam, etc. Luc. xiv, 26. 3 "*

Q. Is the mind also called flesh?

A. Yes, when it has thoughts conformable to the inclinations and movements of the flesh. Hence St. Paul says that the prudence of the flesh is death.*

Q. What do you mean by the prudence of the flesh ?

A. All the thoughts and de signs formed in the mind, to attain the ends of the flesh, which are carnal pleasures, honors, and riches.

Q. Is the will also called flesh?

A. Yes, when it adheres to the movements of the flesh.

Prudentia carnis mors est. Horn, viii, 6.

Q. What do you call the movements of the flesh ?

A. St. Paul calls them the desires and the will of the flesh.*

Q. The flesh is then very in jurious to man?

A. Yes; and therefore we must hate it, crucify it, and make it die.

Q. Is it for this reason that our Lord was crucified, put to death, and even buried ?

A. Yes, it was to teach us that we must crucify ourselves in our flesh; and that, if he spared not his innocent flesh, which had only the resemblance

• In desideriis carnis nostrae facientes voluntatein carnis. Eph. ii, 3.

of sin, we are much more bound to crucify ours, which is truly s'inful, and filled with corruption and malice.