Part 1, lesson 6. Of the source of the malignity of the flesh, which we are obliged to renounce

Q. Whence comes the' malig nity of our flesh ?

A. It comes from the devil, who insinuated his venom into the soul of our first parents: they received it with pleasure, and so infected their nature that all their posterity felt the effects of it.

Q. Will you explain this to me by an example ?

A. It is with the children of Adam as with those of a leper, whose corruption is so great, that all his flesh and substance are corrupted; so that all born of him are corrupted; all his childjcen. are lepers like himself.

Q. Have you another exam ple?

A. Yes; they may be com pared to a source of stagnant and corrupt water; the streams flowing from it, are equally cor rupt, and retain its infection.

Q. Our first parents were then infected with the malignity of the devil ?

A. Yes; and our flesh, which comes from that of Adam, as from its source, has been filled with the same malignity.

Q. And thus, the corruption and malignity of our flesh are of the same nature with that of the devil ?

A. Yes.

Q. God has then a great hatred for our flesh ?

A. Yes, since it is filled with the malignity of the devil him self.

Q. But the malice of the devil is consummated in hell ; does our flesh share in this consummated malice ?

A. Yes.

Q. What! is our flesh capable of doing as much evil as the devil ?

A. Our flesh would be guilty of all the evil that the devil can commit, if it were deserted by God and his Holy Spirit.

Q. In this case, we ought to have a great hatred and horror for our flesh r

A. Yes, we ought to hate it, as much as we do the devil; we ought to fly from it as from satan.

Q. It is, perhaps, for this reason, that the saints treated their flesh so cruelly; and that, through the hatred they had for it, they tore it to pieces and disciplined and scourged them selves even to blood ?

A. Yes; they discharged their anger upon their flesh, as upon the sworn enemy of God.

Q 0 ! how much we ought to hate the flesh, and renounce all that it may ask or desire of us !

A. Yes.

Q. Is it for this reason that our Lord said to his disciples, that he viho wishes to follow him must renounce himself?*

A. Yes.

Q. What do you mean by re nouncing ourselves ?

A. To renounce ourselves, is to renounce all the inclinations of the flesh; the desire of honors, pleasures, and riches; J:he de sire of being loved; the desire of vengeance ; in a word, all the

• Si quis vult post me yenire, abneget semetipsma Malth, xvi, 21.

desires of sin that are in us, and are opposed to the cross of Christ.