Untitled - Saints' Books

INSTR. ix.] Exterior Mortification. 383
Hence every act of mortification is a work for heaven.
This thought will sweeten all the bitterness we shall
1
feel in mortification: The just man liveth by faith. To
live well, and obtain salvation, we must live by faith,
that is, in view of the eternity which awaits us: Man
shall go into the house of his eternity? Let us consider,
says St. Augustine, that at the very time when the Lord
exhorts us to combat against temptations, he assists us,
and prepares a crown for us. 3 Speaking of wrestlers,
the Apostle said, that they abstain from everything that
can be an obstacle to their winning a miserable tem
poral crown; how much more ought we to die to all
things in order to acquire an infinite and eternal crown:
Every one that strivcth for the mastery refraineth himself
from all things ; and they indeed that they may receive a
corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one."
" 1
2 "
3 "
Justus autem ex fide vivit." Rom. i.
17.
Quoniam ibit homo in domum aeternitatis suae." Eccles. xii. 5.
Deus hortatur ut pugnes, et deficientem sublevat, et vincentem
coronal." In Ps. 32, enarr. 2.
4 "
Omnis autem qui in agone contendit, ab omnibus se abstinet; et
illi
quidem utcorruptibilemcoronamaccipiant, nos autem incorruptam."
i Cor. ix. 25.