ty. It rages in all our members: in the thoughts of our hearts,
in the seeing of our eyes, in the hearing of our ears, in the words of
our mouth, in the works of our hands and feet and all our body. To
control all these requires labor and effort; and thus the Commandments
of God teach us how great truly good works are, nay, that it is
impossible for us of our own strength to conceive a good work, to say
nothing of attempting or doing it. St. Augustine says, that among all
the conflicts of the Christian the conflict of chastity is the hardest,
for the one reason alone, that it continues daily without ceasing, and
chastity seldom prevails. This all the saints have wept over and
lamented, as St. Paul does, Romans vii: "I find in me, that is in my
flesh, no good thing."

II. If this work of chastity is to be permanent, it will drive to many
other good works, to fasting and temperance over against gluttony and
drunkenness, to watching and early rising over against laziness and
excessive sleep, to work and labor over against idleness. For gluttony,
drunkenness, lying late abed, loafing and being without work are
weapons of unchastity, with which chastity is quickly overcome. On the
other hand, the holy Apostle Paul calls fasting, watching and labor
godly weapons, with which unchastity is mastered; but, as has been said
above, these exercises must do no more than overcome unchastity, and
not pervert nature.

Above all this, the strongest defence is prayer and the Word of God;
namely, that when evil lust stirs, a man flee to prayer, call upon
God's mercy and help, read and meditate on the Gospel, and in it
consider Christ's sufferings. Thus says Psalm cxxxvii: "Happy shall he
be, that taketh and dasheth the little ones of Babylon against the
rock," that is, if the heart runs to the Lord Christ with its evil
thoughts while they are yet young and just beginning; for Christ is a
Rock, on which they are ground to powder and come to naught.

See, here each one will find enough to do with himself, and more than
enough, and will be given many good works to do within himself. But now
no one uses prayer, fasting, watching, labor for this purpose, but men
stop in these works as if they were in themselves the whole purpose,
although they should be arranged so as to fulfil the work of this
Commandment and purify us daily more and more.

Some have also indicated more things which should be avoided, such as
soft beds and clothes, that we