CHAPTER LIX – Q.9: Must all passion be denied?
But, 1. He that shall think that whippings, or sack-cloth, or going farefoot, or other self-punishing, are of themselves good works, and meritorious with God, or satisfy his justice, or are a state of perfection, doth offer God a heinous sin, under the name and conceit of a good work. 2. And he that shall by such self-afflicting unfit his body for the service of God, yea that doth not cherish it so far as is necessary to fit it for duty, is guilty of self-murder, and defrauding
God of his service, and abusing his creature, and depriving others of the help we owe them; so that in one word, the body must be so used as may best fit it for God's service. And to think that self-afflicting is a good work, merely as it is penalty or suffering to the body, or that we may go further herein, is to think, 1. That we should use our body worse than our beast; for we will no further afflict him than is necessary to tame him, or serve ourselves by him, and not to disable him for service. 2. And it will teach men to kill themselves; for that is a greater penalty to the body than whipping or fasting. 3. And it is an offering God a sacrifice of cruelty and robbery, which we commit against himself and man.
But I must needs add, that though some friars and melancholy people are apt to go too far in this, and pine their bodies, or misuse them with conceits of merit and satisfaction; yet almost all the common people run into the contrary extreme, and pamper and please their flesh, to the displeasing of God, and the ruin of their souls. And I know but few that have need to be restrained from afflicting or taking down the flesh too much.
CHAPTER LIX
Is Self-denial to be without Passion?