Volume III, Treatise IV, Chapter VI

Certain Remedies Against Temptations to Impurity

In the fourth treatise of the second part of this work, we have touched on several remedies against these temptations, but in this place we shall treat of them more at large. The first that presents itself is prayer, recommended to us by the saints as the most sovereign remedy against all sorts of temptations, and taught us also by the Son of God himself, when he gave this counsel and admonition to his apostles, ‘Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation”—Mat., xxvi. 41. Venerable Bede says, that as a noise and outcry makes thieves run away, and brings the neighbours to our aid, even so the voice of prayer makes the devils fly, and calls the saints and angels to our assistance. We read of St. Bernard, that an improper woman finding him all alone, and tempting him to commit sin, he found no better remedy to deliver himself from the danger than to cry out, thieves, thieves. Now, if the voice of one man in a fright is so powerful against thieves, what force must we not allow to earnest prayers against our invisible enemies, who would rob our souls of grace? And how can we but hope that they will soon betake themselves to flight, when once we begin to call upon God for help?

A frequent meditation on the passion, and putting ourselves in the wounds of our Saviour, is an admirable remedy against all suggestions to impurity. ‘There is no remedy so powerful”, says St. Austin, “against the heat of concupiscence, as the remembrance of our Saviour’s passion. In all my difficulties, I never found anything so efficacious as the wounds of Christ. In them I sleep secure; from them I derive new life”’—Jn Manuali, c. 23. A grave doctor observes that the gospel, speaking of the wound in our Saviour’s side, does not say that Christ was wounded in the side, but, “that a soldier opened his side with a lance” (John 19:34),—as if the holy Scripture would signify to us, that the way to Jesus’ heart is open, and that we ought to retire thither, as “into the holes of a rock and caverns of a wall”— (Canticle of Canticles 2:14) St. Bernard proposes the same remedy to us in this manner: As soon as you feel any temptation of impurity, apply yourself to think of the passion of the Saviour of the world, and make the following act: ‘My God is nailed to a cross, and shall I admit of these most unlawful pleasures?” Thus the faithful Urias, when arrived from the army to give David an account of the siege of Rabba, would not, though greatly fatigued, sleep in his own house, but answered thus to David, when he asked the reason of it, “The ark of God, and the people of Israel and Juda, are still in the camp; Joab, my general, with a great many more of yourservants, sleep upon the ground; and shall I goeat and drink, and sleep with my wife? I swear by your sacred life and my own, that I will never do it”—II. Kings, xi. 2. Let us imitate his zeal, and say as he did: Lord, you are fastened to a cross, to atone by your sufferings for man’s sinful pleasures; I am resolved, therefore, not to give myself up to that pleasure which cost you so dear.

There are others who, when tempted, help themselves by remembering in general the four last things, as the wise man advises, ‘in all your actions, remember your last end, and you will never sin” (Ecclesiasticus 7:40) Several also make use of the consideration of Hell in particular, and seriously weigh that saying of St. Gregory—Pleasure is momentary, but the punishment due to it is eternal, And without doubt, “to descend alive into Hell”, by an. act of faith, and to consider the torments there, which shall never have an end, but last as long as God shall be God, is a means very proper to prevent our falling into sin. There are others who find much comfort and assistance from the contemplation of eternal glory, by reflecting what folly and madness it is to lose that and God for all eternity, only for a moment’s pleasure, and to neglect those things which God invites us to, and to which he has inseparably annexed such glorious _rewards, in order to perform what the Devil solicits us to, and which will infallibly be punished by endless pains. Others find much profit from the consideration of death and the last judgment: all these considerations are very good, and every one would do well to make use of that which he finds to move him most. Sometimes one, sometimes another, will make a more lively impression upon us, so that it will be no small advantage to put them all in practice occasionally.

To make the sign of the cross upon our forehead and heart, and earnestly invoke the holy name of Jesus, is also a remedy no less profitable than comfortable. The effects of this have been wonderful, and we read in history of many miracles which God has wrought by this means. Devotion to the blessed Virgin is likewise most profitable in all our difficulties; and hence, all persons should practise this devotion, and fly to her with confidence in all their necessities. For it is impossible that she who carried the Eternal Mercy nine months in her bowels, should not be most merciful herself. She is the mother of mercy, the advocate of sinners, whom she loves most tenderly, knowing how much her dear Son loved them, and how much they cost Him. Nay, she knows, moreover, that sinners were the occasion of the Eternal Word’s taking flesh upon him in her sacred womb, and of her becoming thereby the mother of God. For this reason her tenderness increases towards them, and she intercedes the more willingly for them with her Son, from whom she obtains whatsoever she pleases. For what is it that a son can refuse his mother, especially such a son to such a mother? This made St. Bernard cry out: “If there be one in the whole world, O sacred Virgin, that can say you failed to succour him after he called upon you in necessity, let him speak not of your mercy’—Serm. 4, de Assumpt. Now, if application to the blessed Virgin be very profitable in all troubles and temptations in general, it must certainly be much more in what relates to the virtue of chastity in particular. For she being herself most pure and immaculate, and a virgin by preéminence, is particularly inclined to show her care of those who call upon her ~ in order to maintain their purity. Some doctors, speaking of the Baptist’s extraordinary purity, which he always kept free from the least stain of sin, ascribes it to the visit our blessed Lady paid St. Elizabeth, and to her three months’ stay with her. “‘ This visit”, says St. Ambrose, “related no less to his soul than to his body; for the blessed Virgin’s acquaintance with her cousin Elizabeth, was not the only thing that kept her so long at Hebron, but the advantage so great a prophet was to reap from thence was partly the cause of her stay”—Lib. ii. Sup. Luc.,c. 9. For if, upon the first arrival, the Baptist was sanctified, and leaped for joy in his mother’s womb; if upon the first salutation, St. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, what benefit do you think, continues St. Ambrose, did three months’ presence yield both to the mother and to the son? Father Avila says, that he himself has seen several wonderful effects of this devotion to our Lady in divers persons, who used to say some prayers in memory of that purity in which the blessed Virgin herself was conceived, and of that also with which she conceived and brought forth the Saviour of the world; for these persons have been freed by this devotion from filthy temptations which had a long time tormented them. The prayers which holy Church sings in honour of our Lady, ‘are very proper for this effect:—

O Virgin Mother, ever meek, In our behalf to Jesus speak, That from our hearts all sin effaced, We may through you be mild and chaste. Post partam, etc. Virgo singularis, etc.

Whilst we thus celebrate her virginity and spotless purity, we at the same time ask her to obtain purity of heart for us, that we may be the more pleasing both to herself and her blessed Son.

Devotion to the saints and their holy relics is another excellent remedy. Cesarius relates an affair (Lib. 18, Dial., c. 68), which he says he heard from the person to whom it happened, and who was a Cistercian monk, by name Bernard. This man, when a secular, being one day travelling, was attacked by some impure thoughts, and as he was not so careful then, he took no pains to banish them or resist the temptation. Upon this a reliquary, in which were some of the relics of St. John and St. Paul, and which he was used to carry always about his neck, began to strike him upon his breast, but not knowing what it could be, and searching no farther into the matter, he still entertained his bad thoughts till some other object he met having made the thoughts to cease, the reliquary also ceased striking him upon the breast. Soon after, the same temptation set upon him again, and the holy relics began to renew their strokes, as if warning him to banish these impure thoughts from his heart. Here he began to enter into himself, and with the assistance of God’s grace, he courageously overcame the temptation.

It is also a devotion no less commendable than powerful against unchaste thoughts, frequently to prostrate one’s self before the blessed sacrament, and to beg God’s grace to be able to overcome them. But above all, there is nothing contributes

14B so much to the obtaining of this grace, as frequent communion, since our Saviour himself “has prepared that table against all those who persecute us” (Psalms 22:6) And all saints and holy writers agree that the blessed sacrament is not only a great remedy against all temptations in general, but particularly sovereign against impurity; for it deadens the fuel of sin, checks the motions of concupiscence, and extinguishes the ardour of sensuality, as water extinguishes fire. And hence it is that St. Cyril, with some other holy fathers, as I have already observed: elsewhere, apply that passage of Zacharias to this adorable sacrament of the altar, “wherein does its goodness and beauty consist, but in its being the bread of the elect and the wine that produceth virgins?” (Zacharias 9:17)

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