Moralia in Job 993

4. Lest the mind lust after unlawful things, the outward senses, which are the entrances of the mind, must be curbed. It is not fitting to gaze upon what it is not lawful to desire. — Since the soul is invisible, it is in no way touched by the delight of corporeal things, except that, cleaving to the body, it has, as it were, certain openings of egress in the senses of that same body. For sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are, as it were, certain ways of the mind, by which it may come forth and lust after those things which are outside its own substance. For through these bodily senses, as through certain windows, the soul looks out upon all outward things; and looking, it lusts. Hence indeed Jeremiah says: 'Death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our houses' (Jer. 9:21).

For death comes up through the windows and enters the house when concupiscence, coming through the senses of the body, enters the dwelling of the mind. Against this, as we have already often said, it is said of the just through Isaiah: 'Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?' (Isa. 60:8). For the just are said to fly as clouds, because they are lifted up from earthly defilements; and they are as doves to their windows, because through the senses of the body they do not look upon outward things with the intention of rapacity, and carnal concupiscence does not snatch them outward. But whoever incautiously looks outward through these windows of the body very often falls, even unwilling, into the delight of sin;

and, bound by desires, he begins to will what he did not will. For the headlong soul, while it does not first provide against incautiously seeing what it may lust after, blindly afterward begins to desire what it saw. Whence the mind of the Prophet also, which, uplifted, was engaged in holy inward mysteries, because it incautiously beheld another's wife, being afterward darkened, unlawfully joined her to itself (2 Sam. 11:2). But the holy man, who, the senses of the body being received as subjects and ministers, presides over them as a most keen judge, discerns faults before they come, and, as against a lurking enemy, closes the windows of the body, saying: 'I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.'

For that he might be able to keep the thoughts of his heart chaste, he made a covenant with his eyes, that he might not first incautiously behold what he would afterward unwillingly love. For that which the flesh drags downward is very strong, and the appearance of a form, once bound to the heart through the eyes, is scarcely loosed by the hand of great struggle. Lest, therefore, we turn over certain slippery things in thought, it must be provided for by us; because it is not fitting to gaze upon what it is not lawful to desire. For that the mind may be kept pure in thought, the eyes, as certain ravishers unto fault, must be repressed from the wantonness of their own pleasure. For neither would Eve have touched the forbidden tree, had she not first incautiously looked upon it. For it is written:

'The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold; and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat' (Gen. 3:6). Hence, then, it is to be weighed with how great a moderation we who live mortally ought to restrain our sight from unlawful things, if even the mother of the living came through her eyes unto death. Hence also, under the voice of Judah, which by seeing outward things and coveting had lost its inward goods, the prophet says: 'My eye hath despoiled my soul' (Lam. 3:51). For by coveting things visible, it lost the invisible virtues. She, therefore, who lost the inner fruit through the outward sight, suffered through the eye of the body the plundering of the heart.

Whence, for the guarding of the heart's purity, the discipline of the outward senses also is to be kept by us. For however great the virtue in which the mind is strong, however great the gravity in which it flourishes, the carnal senses nevertheless outwardly clamour with something childish, and, unless they be reined in by the weight of inward gravity and by a certain youthful vigour, they drag the mind, enervated, to whatever is fluid and light. 5. The example of Job, curbing the wantonness not only of the flesh, but also of the heart and mind. Through Moses lust perpetrated is condemned, through Christ even lust conceived. He who is a citizen of heaven wears away lust not through fear, but through charity. — Let us see, therefore, how blessed Job restrained by the vigour of a youthful wisdom that which in him the flesh could relish as fluid and childish.

For he says: 'I made a covenant with my eyes.' And because he extinguished in himself not only the action, but also the thought of lust, he added, following: 'That I would not so much as think upon a virgin.' For he knew assuredly that lust was to be reined in within the heart; he knew, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, that our Redeemer at His coming would transcend the precepts of the law, and would abolish from His elect not only the lust of the flesh, but also of the heart, saying: 'It is written, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that whosoever shall look upon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart' (Matt. 5:27-28). For through Moses lust perpetrated is condemned, but through the Author of purity lust conceived is condemned.

Hence it is that the first pastor of the Church says to his disciples: 'Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, hope perfectly for the grace that is offered you' (1 Pet. 1:13). For to gird up the loins of the flesh is to rein in lust from the deed. But to gird up the loins of the mind is to restrain it even from the thought. Hence it is that the angel who speaks to John (Rev. 1:13) is declared to be girded with a golden girdle about the breasts. For because the purity of the New Testament reins in the lust even of the heart, the angel who appeared in it came girded about the breast. Whom the golden girdle fitly binds, because whoever is a citizen of the heavenly country now forsakes uncleanness, not through fear of punishment, but through the love of charity.

The evil of lust is perpetrated either in thought or in deed. For when our cunning enemy is driven back from the accomplishment of the deed, he strives to defile us by secret thought. Whence also it is said by the Lord to the serpent: 'Upon thy breast and belly shalt thou creep' (Gen. 3:14). The serpent, indeed, creeps upon its belly when our slippery enemy, working through the members of the body subjected to him, drives lust as far as the completion of the act. But the serpent creeps upon its breast when he defiles in thought those whom he cannot defile in the deed of lust. So then, one man already perpetrates lust by action, and to him the serpent creeps from the belly. Another turns over in his mind what he would perpetrate, and to him the serpent creeps from the breast.

But because it is through thought that one arrives at the accomplishing of deeds, the serpent is rightly described as creeping first upon the breast and afterwards upon the belly. Whence blessed Job, because he kept discipline even in thought, by one single watchfulness overcame both the breast and belly of the serpent, saying: 'I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin' (Job 31:1). And whoever does not desire to attain this purity of heart, what else does he do but drive from himself the very Author of that purity? Whence blessed Job at once adds: