XLIII. Apostoliis in eamdem rem.

XLIII. Apostoliis in eamdem rem.

For this reason, God gave them up to the desires of their hearts, leading them into impurity, so that they would dishonor their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Because wicked people set their desires on uncertain things, they refuse to stop pursuing them, and justly does the Creator permit them, who has authority over all, to go after the lusts of their thoughts and wills, so that they may fall into impurity, which they long for so intensely, that they pervert their own bodies into disgrace and contradiction, while they commit those sins within themselves that are not fitting. Whatever these people desire and will, they pursue through their own depravity, abandoning God, which they know in their minds, only paying attention to what they can fulfill in their flesh. For this reason, they imitate the first angel, who wanted to change his own life through his wicked desires; but he could not accomplish this, because God delivered him to death, which is the life that is abstracted. For this reason, God allows these people to pursue their own desires, since they rush toward earthly things rather than heavenly ones; so that, while they defile themselves with unclean blood and the shameful filth of their actions, they also corrupt the very nature that God established, tearing it apart and destroying it; and they gnaw away at the honorable discipline with all kinds of impurity and inhuman contagion, abandoning it, and because they transform their bodies into wickedness. They also exchange that truth by which God is the true God for a lie, blaspheming God as they worship idols that have no truth and bear only false names; for they can benefit neither themselves nor others, and they serve creatures subjected to them in a servile condition, bending their knees to them and pouring out prayers to them, abandoning the one who created them, and failing to show the reverence due to Him. Hence, the Devil brings upon them many passions and desires of the flesh, from which they neither want nor can escape, since they worship those things that offer them no relief or salvation. For they choose a creature, which Adam recognized in rationality through its functions as if through its names, to be their God, and they seek salvation from it, which has been established for them in servitude; and they call God a servant when they abandon the true God, who is blessed in perpetual honor above all his creation for all ages. Thus, God is truth, but the Devil is a lie, who always rushes to lead those who serve him into the worst corruptions of body and soul. Therefore, luxury emits a certain breath and a certain venomous foam from its mouth, because in its words it reveals the effort and boastfulness of pride, and it provokes and produces its own laziness through certain vile expressions. Just as a puppy drinks from its mother's right side, a viper does so from the left; for where it ought to provide nourishment through wisdom, like a right hand, in righteousness, it instead produces filth through foolishness. And where it should hold itself back from injustice, like a left hand, through prudence, it instead nurtures bitterness through folly, sparing no one, but throwing scandals at anyone who resists their will: even those who cling to them are torn apart. From this, they gather flowers from the hands of trees and herbs, and they take in their scent through their nostrils, because it persuades everyone to seek in their works the beauty of greater and unnatural things, as well as those of lesser and natural things, and to desire them in a way that indiscriminately applies the odor of familiar flavors; for when the taste of the scent of filthy impurities is shamefully indulged, the appetite also grows for the worst illicit desires among those who frequently indulge in it. It has no other garments, but is entirely fiery; and with its heat, it dries up everything around it like dry grass, since it lacks the beauty of modesty and honor, revealing itself in confusion to all. And he claims to be a devilish and hellish fire, so that with his deceptive fervor he stirs the veins and flesh of those men who come to him, drawing them away like dry grass, and he leads them to every illicit temptation of carnal desires; just as he also admits in his speech above, to which chastity resists, and he warns that men should turn away from it and faithfully strive against it.