Volume III, Treatise IV, Chapter IX

That the Fear of God Is the Most Sovereign Remedy Against Temptations to Impurity

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12),—says the apostle. To live in fear, to diffide in ourselves, and to fix all our confidence in God alone, conduce very much to maintain a pure spirit, and to preserve ourselves in the grace of God. ‘I have found by experience”, says St. Bernard, “that there is nothing more proper to obtain the grace of God, to preserve it when obtained, or to recover it when lost, than never to think or presume too much on ourselves, but always to walk before God in holy fear”—in Cant. serm. 54,—according to these words of Solomon, “happy is the man that is always fearful” (Proverbs 28:14) On the contrary, too much self-confidence, and a want of this fear, has been the cause why several great saints have fallen. And therefore the Holy Ghost by way of advice tells us, “that a wise man always fears, and so avoids danger” (Proverbs 14:16) He that carries a precious liquor in a glass, will not take precautions to carry it safe if he does not know how brittle the glass is, and so upon the first occasion the glass will be broken and the liquor lost. But he who knows the nature of glass will use all possible precaution, and consequently the liquor will be much more secure in his hands than in the other’s, The same thing happens to all men in respect of divine grace. ‘“‘ We carry that great treasure in earthen vessels”—II. Cor., iv. T7,—which are easily broken, and so much the sooner, because sometimes we are driven to and fro, as in a crowd, and every moment very much shaken with the winds of temptation which the world raises against us. Those that are not sensible of the weakness and frailty of their nature, take no care of themselves, but perish by a supine security, into which they are lulled as it were asleep, by not knowing themselves. But those who know themselves well and walk in fear, are always upon their guard, and by this means are more secure; for if there be any security in this life, they must infallibly have it.

How comes it to pass, says St. Bernard, that some Christians, who lived very chaste in their youthful days, in the midst of all those violent temptations which that age is usually subject to, have fallen afterwards into the greatest vices of the flesh, and so desperately too, that they have even been astonished at themselves. The reason is this, they spent their youth in humility and in the fear of God, and then seeing themselves every moment in danger of falling, they continually had recourse to God, who never failed to succour them. But having lived long chaste, they hereupon grew proud, and when they presumed too much upon themselves God withdrew his hand which sustained them, so that being left to themselves, they followed the motion of their own weakness, which is to fall. St. Ambrose attributes the fall of several great men to the same cause, who, after having served God a long while, making his law their daily and nightly meditation, crucilying their flesh, restraining the heat of concupiscence, and suffering great afflictions and outrages with a generous patience, fell at last from the very top of a perfect and elevated state into an abyss of misery and disorder. They began at last, says he, to set too great a value upon their good works, and to presume too much upon their own strength, so that the Devil, who was not able heretofore to seduce them by all the imaginary baits and allurements which sensuality has, nor overcome them by the violence of persecution, has now undermined them by their own pride and presumption, and hereby insensibly wrought their ruin.

Holy Scripture and the works of the holy fathers furnish us with infinite examples of this kind, “I tremble”, says St. Austin, ‘when I think of so many great men, whom we have seen and heard of, who, after their virtues had placed them amongst the stars and almost fixed their habitation there, have miserably fallen into most grievous sins, and died impenitent. We have seen, Lord, the great lights of your Church fall from Heaven, being pulled from thence by the infernal dragon; and on the contrary, some that lay as it were grovelling upon the ground, wonderfully elevated all at once on a sudden by the power of thy almighty hand”—~Solil., c. 19. How often have we seen those, who for a great while eat of the bread of angels at your table, fall afterwards to feed upon husks of swine! How many have we known that for many years lived pure and chaste, and afterwards plunged themselves into all the filthiness and beastliness of lust and uncleanness!

Who can read in Lipomanus—(tom. v.)—the unhappy fall of James the hermit, and not be seized with wonder and amazement? This man was threescore years old, forty of which he had spent in continual austerities; he was even famous for the many miracles he had wrought, and God had given him the power of casting out devils. Having one day cured a young woman who was possessed by the Devil, and finding that the persons who brought her to him were afraid to take her home with them, for fear the Devil should repossess her, he consented that she should stay some time with him. Now because he was too confident and presumed too much upon his owf strength, God permitted him to fall into the sin of fornication with her. And as one sin ordinarily draws on another, fear of being discovered made him murder her and throw her body into a river. To conclude all, despairing of God’s mercy, he left his solitary way of living, went into the world again, and gave himself over to all manner of wickedness, till at last entering into himself, he merited by a severe penance of ten years to be restored to the state and perfection from which he had fallen, and to be canonized for a saint after his death.

Who is it that is not likewise astonished at what happened to another hermit, of whom St. Anthony speaks in these terms: This very day, brethren, one of the greatest pillars of a religious life is fallen. Who is it that does not tremble to hear it? Who is he that dares confide in the holiness of his life or profession? Consider, says St. Jerom, that persons far more eminent for

\ virtue than you are, and once great favourites of Heaven, have fallen. ‘You are not more holy than David, wiser than Solomon, nor stronger than Samson”, and yet all these have fallen; one of the twelve apostles fell likewise, though fortified by the example, by the good instructions, and by the miracles of his Divine Master. Nicholas, who was chosen by the apostles to be one of the seven deacons, and upon whom the Holy Ghost descended as well as upon the other six, became not only a heretic, but the author of a new sect and a father of heretics. Who is there, continues St. Jerom, that can think himself secure from the malice of the old serpent, when he remembers how by pride “he drove Adam out of Paradise, who had care of that place”, and was endowed with original justice? We cannot believe, says St. Austin, that ever man could have been deceived by the Devil, if he had not first left God by pride. It is a truth taught us in holy Scripture, and therefore not to be doubted of, that “pride goes before. humiliation; a haughtiness of mind is a forerunner of our ruin” (Proverbs 18:12),—“and the heart of man swells and grows big before a dejected submission”.

If these examples do not move us, let us ascend to Heaven, and take a survey of the glory from which so many thousand angels fell by their pride and arrogance. ‘Behold! those who attend upon him are not stable; he has found his angels faulty; with how much more reason shall those that dwell in houses of clay, and have only earth for their foundation, become motheaten like cloth! From morning till night, they shall be cut down like grass that is mowed” (Job 4:18), etc. St. Gregory, in his morals upon Job, applies these words very happily to our present subject. If, says he, God found so little stability and permanency in the angelical nature--if he met with so much dross in such fine gold,—what will become of us who live in houses of clay, which may be destroyed in one moment, and which so easily run to decay of themselves? How can the soul that is penned up in a body, which breeds worms to its own destruction, be free from fear and solicitude? How can those presume upon themselves, who carry the source and origin of their own ruin about them? Job says, continues St. Gregory, “that they shall be consumed by worms”, and that comparison is exact. For as moths, which destroy cloth, are bred in it; so our flesh, with which our soul is clothed, engenders a kind of worm, I mean, carnal concupiscence, which daily wars against us, and when it overcomes us, then we are properly consumed by the very worms which breed in our bodies. Besides, as moths spoil cloth, and eat it through without making any noise, so the worm of our depraved inclinations and concupiscence, “the fuel of sin”, which we carry about us, destroys us so quietly and insensibly, that the evil is sometimes committed even before we perceive it; and if those pure spirits, that had no flesh about them, as we have, to engender corruption in them, did not persevere in good, which of us dare be so bold as to confide in our own strength, since he knows that he continually carries about him a sufficient cause of his ruin?

Let us learn from these sad examples to live in continual restraint and holy fear,.and wo be to him that does not. We may very well at present mourn for him, for he certainly will fall. It is the holy Scripture, not I, that advances this truth. “Tf thou dost not live as it were fixed in the fear of God, thy house will soon be overturned”—Eeel., xxvii. 4. That is, if you do not behave with a great deal of circumspection and fear—if you do not keep at a distance from danger by avoiding all occasions, by suddenly suppressing evil thoughts, and preparing against the day of temptation, you will infallibly soon fall into some disaster. Do not flatter yourself by thinking that you are not subject at present to such temptations; that motions to impurity make no impression upon you; and that, moreover, you think that frequent visits and conversations with people of the world are not at all dangerous for you, nor do you any hurt. Do not trust to this: it is an artifice of the Devil, who thus lulls you now into this false security, that he may the more easily surprise you hereafter, and cast you headlong into Hell when you least suspect him. It is, on the contrary, the opinion of holy men, that the more favour and grace you receive from God, so much the more you are obliged to stand. upon your defence, for then it is that the Devil is most irritated and most active to destroy you. “He loves to feed upon choice food”— (Habacuc 1:16),—says the prophet: he had rather, as you will see in those examples I will set down by and by, procure the fall of one of God’s servants—of a religious person that aspires to perfection, than of a thousand others, who live in the disorders of the world, This made St. Jerom, in one of his epistles to the holy virgin Eustochium, admonish her not to neglect herself by relying too much upon the holiness of her state of life. ‘Your good resolutions”, says he to her, “must not make you proud, but humble and diffident. You carry a great sum of gold about you: take care not to meet any highwaymen. This life is a race for all mankind; we run here to obtain a crown hereafter in the other world, and how can you hope for peace and quiet in a world which produces nothing but crosses and affliction?” —Ep. ad Eust., c. i. There is nothing certain in this life; we are in a continual warfare, and therefore ought to be upon our guard day and night. We sail in a tempestuous sea, in a poor leaky vessel; the rocks threaten us on every side; and the Devil, who aims at nothing else but our destruction, never ceases to increase the storm, to overwhelm us thereby if he can. Hence it was that the apostle gave this precaution even to the virtuous, ‘ Watch, ye just, and be upon your guard against sin, and he that thinks he stands firm, let him take care lest he fall”—I. Cor., x. 2. Certainly if there be any means to. prevent our ruin and to place us in a secure state, it must necessarily flow from a diffidence in ourselves and from the fear of God.

I have heard an affair of this kind, which happened about the beginning of our society, and I will tell it to you just as I heard it. When Mary, Infanta of Portugal, went into Spain to be married to the prince who was afterwards Philip the Second, king of Sapin, the king of Portugal appointed Father le Fevre and Father Araoz to go along with her to the court of Spain, from which time our fathers of the society obtained great reputation in that court. These two, though they were but young (for at that time there were few or none old in the society), heard the confessions of most of the women of quality. They led a life very angelical, and behaved themselves with so much prudence and moderation, that all were astonished to see such rare examples in so young men and in such dangerous occasions. The prince himself admired them also as much as his courtiers, and one day conversing with Father Araoz, he spoke thus to him: They say, father, that those of your society carry an herb about them which has virtue in it to preserve chastity: is it true? The father being a man of good parts, told him that it was certainly true. But what herb is it? replied the prince. The father answered: It is, may it please your royal highness, the fear of

God: this is the herb with which our society preserves itself pure and chaste—from hence proceeds what all the court-wonders at, and it is what God has blessed us with. It is this fear of God that has virtue in it to drive away devils, as the liver of that fish had, which Tobias took with him when he travelled with the angel Raphael.

This may still be confirmed out of Scripture. ‘No evil shall happen to him that fears God, God will defend him in time of tribulation, and deliver him from evil” (Ecclesiasticus 33:1) “The fear of the Lord expels sin’— (Ecclesiasticus 1:27) “By fearing the Lord we decline from evil” (Proverbs 16:6) This is the herb, therefore, we are always to carry about us as an antidote against the temptations of the flesh: and as long as we have not this holy fear before our eyes, our chastity can never be secure; it is by the fear of God that every one declines and avoids evil, nor can any virtue or sanctity be relied upon without it. Therefore the Holy Scripture, to show us that we are never to be without this holy fear, counsels us to “live in this fear, and grow old in it”’ (Ecclesiasticus 2:6) For it is proper not only for beginners, but also for those who are well advanced in God’s service; and the just themselves have reason to fear as well as sinners. These must fear, because they are fallen; and those must fear to prevent their fall]. The remembrance of past falls should make sinners tremble, and the uncertainty of what is to come should make the just tremble. “Happy is the man that always lives in the fear of God”— (Proverbs 28:14)

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