g the good warfare, holding faith and a good
conscience, witnessed by good works, following after righteousness,
godliness, faith, charity, patience, meekness, laying hold on eternal
life whereunto thou wast called. But remove far from thee all pleasure
and lust of the affections, not only in act and operation, but even in
the thoughts of thine heart, that thou mayest present thy soul without
blemish to God. For not our actions only, but our thoughts also are
recorded, and procure us crowns or punishments: and we know that
Christ, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, dwelleth in pure hearts.
But, just as smoke driveth away bees, so, we learn, do evil
imaginations drive out of us the Holy Spirit's grace. Wherefore take
good heed hereto, that thou blot out every imagination of sinful
passion from thy soul, and plant good thoughts therein, making thyself
a temple of the Holy Ghost. For from imaginations we come also to
actual deeds, and every work, advancing from thought and reflection,
catcheth at small beginnings, and then, by small increases, arriveth at
great endings.

"Wherefore on no account suffer any evil habit to master thee; but,
while it is yet young, pluck the evil root out of thine heart, lest it
fasten on and strike root so deep that time and labour be required to
uproot it. And the reason that greater sins assault us and get the
mastery of our souls is that those which appear to be less, such as
wicked thoughts, unseemly words and evil communications, fail to
receive proper correction. For as in the case of the body, they that
neglect small wounds often bring mortification and death upon
themselves, so too with the soul: thus they that overlook little
passions and sins bring on greater ones. And the more those greater
sins grow on them, the more cloth the soul become accustomed therto and
think light of them. For he saith, 'When the wicked cometh to the
depth of evil things, he thinketh light of them': and finally, like the
hog, that delighteth to wallow in mire, the soul, that hath been buried
in evil habits, doth not even perceive the stink of her sin, but rather
delighteth and rejoiceth therein, cleaving to wickedness as it were
good. And even if at last she issue from the mire and come to herself
again, she is delivered only by much labour and sweat from the bondage
of those sins, to which she hath by evil custom enslaved herself.

"Wherefore with all thy might remove thyself far from every evil