Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/212

resist sin, and serve Him faithfully. The father delivered to his son the instrument of death: so God gives to you a sword—that is, free will, either to receive His grace and love, or to reject them. Do thou, therefore, act as the son did: cast from thee the sword of iniquity and malice. We read in the Gospel, "The son went away into a far country." So when the sinner loves his carnal delights he wanders from the Lord. And in proportion that sin renders him unlike to God, in the same proportion he removes from Him. His substance is consumed, while life and thought are clogged and degraded by base actions. Thus, as it is said of the son in the Gospel, "He began to want; and joining himself to a citizen of that country, he was placed on a farm to feed swine," &c. The son begins to want, when his virtuous feelings are overwhelmed in sin; for, as the Psalmist says, "The rich want, and are hungry." He joined himself to a citizen—namely, to the devil; because devils are citizens and rulers of the darkness of this world. According to the remark of the Apostle, "We do not struggle against flesh and blood," &c.