Chapter I. — All instruction in the divine precepts, most beloved, works this above all in the hearts of believers: that a base love may be overcome by rightful love, and that by delight in righteousness the desire of sinning may be destroyed, as the Scripture says: Go not after thy lusts, but turn away from thine own will (Ecclesiasticus xviii, 30). But since there are in the souls of men many good desires and praiseworthy wills, what is the meaning of the command that we should not consent to our own affections, save that we are forbidden from that desire and recalled from that will whose origin is from ourselves, and which is therefore pronounced evil because it is proved to be our own? To distinguish, then, from those desires which are from God, it was well said to man:
Go not after thy lusts, that he may know those which he recognizes as his own to be shunned. Rightly therefore the Lord, in the prayer which He handed down, willed us not to say to God, 'Let our will be done,' but 'Thy will be done' (Matthew vi, 10): that is, not the will which the flesh incites, but the will which the Holy Spirit inspires. Whence this desire is conceived, which must ever be resisted, they do not find hard to understand who have judged themselves to be its subjects, and who do not doubt that in the sinning father of the human race that which is corrupt in the root was made vitiated in the offspring. Yet although through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we have passed over from the old into a new creation, and the heavenly man has stripped off from us the image of the earthly man;
nevertheless, so long as we bear a mortal body, we must needs strive against the desires of the flesh. For it is good for a soul that is subject to God to fear lest it fall, and to have that which it may conquer, since strength is made perfect in weakness; and that which exercises us unto self-restraint leads us on unto glory (2 Corinthians xii, 9). Chapter II. — We must therefore abstain, most beloved, from those things which harmfully allure us, and the law of sin which is in our members (Romans vii, 23) must be overcome by the law of God: so that, although through all the senses of the body many enticements lie in wait, yet the soul, to which God is the highest good and the true joy, may abide amid chaste and spiritual delights, in the breadth of wisdom and in the light of truth.
For if a rational man should compare himself with himself, and judge all the qualities of his own deeds by true examination, will he find in the inmost part of his conscience as much delight in an iniquity committed as in equity preserved? Or will carnal pleasure beget for him as much gladness as spiritual longing? He has touched nothing at all of the goods of the virtues, has tasted nothing of the sweetness of godliness, who prefers rather to grow foul in things that are unclean than to shine in things that are holy. Reason does not permit that, to hearts not wholly captive, an anger sated should please as much as a vengeance foregone; or that things ill-gotten from another's goods should beget as much joy as things rightly spent from one's own.
A frugal temperance is always happier than a lavish extravagance; there is greater rest for the humble than for the proud; and loftier is the mind which, amid things forbidden and things permitted, can more surely hope for heavenly things than love earthly ones. But that the religious spirit may excel in this advancement and obtain the right of its own dominion, the chastisement of fasting must be applied to subdue the body. And though this may seem by its general name to pertain to all self-restraint, yet properly it refers to the diminishing of food: that it may now profit us by our own will not to take that which from the beginning it harmed us to have usurped against the prohibition; so that as there desire was unto a wound, so here abstinence may be unto salvation. Chapter
III. — For this medicine, most beloved, although every season is suitable, yet we hold that one most fitting which we see chosen both by apostolic and by legal ordinances: that, as on other days of the year, so in the seventh month we should cleanse ourselves with spiritual purifications. For when the three pursuits come together into one purpose—namely prayer, almsgiving, and fasting—there will be granted to us by the merciful God both the curbing of our desires, the hearing of our prayers, and the remission of our sins: through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.