Marriage and Virginity
you. Do not, I say, live according to yourself; that is how you became lost, though you have been found. When you hear the words, If you live according to the flesh, you will die (Rom 8:13), do not blame the natural flesh. He could have said, and said with utmost truth, "If you live according to yourselves, you will die." The devil has no flesh, and yet, because he wanted to live according to himself, He did not stand in the truth. Why wonder, then, that living according to himself, when he speaks lies, he speaks according to his own nature (Jn 8:44)? This is the truth about him, and it is the Truth who said it.
You Must Rely on God's Grace
5, 12. When you hear it said: Sin will not have dominion over you (Rom 6:14), do not trust yourself to prevent sin having dominion over you, but trust him to whom a certain saint said this prayer: Guide my journeys according to your word, and let no wickedness rule me (Ps
119:133). On hearing, Sin will not have dominion over you, we could perhaps become proud and attribute it to our own strength, but the apostle saw this and to forestall it he immediately added: For you are not under the law, but under grace (Rom 6:14). It is grace, therefore, that brings it about that sin has no dominion over you. So do not trust in yourself, lest it have even greater dominion over you because of that. And when we hear the words, If with the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live (Rom 8:13), let us not attribute this great benefit to our own spirit, as if it could achieve these things by itself. So that we would not take it with that carnal meaning as referring to the spirit that was put to death rather than the one that put it to death, he adds there, All who are led by the Spirit of God are God's children (Rom 8:14). Therefore, in order to put to death the works of the flesh with our spirit, we are led by the Spirit of God, who provides the continence, whereby we control and rule and conquer carnal desire.
13. In this great battle people live under grace, and when with the Lord helping them they fight well, they rejoice in him in the midst of their fear. At the same time even though they are unvanquished in bringing death to the works of the flesh, the untiring warriors are not without some wounds of sin. Every day they should say, Forgive us our debts (Mt 6:12), for these to be healed, and they should be increasingly vigilant and energetic in the struggle against those sins, and against the prince of devils and king of sin. His fatal suggestions, with which he