Chapter VII.
How vainglory and pride can be consummated without any
assistance from the body.
And
to go on in the order
which we proposed, with our account of the way in which the other
passions act (our analysis of which was obliged to be interrupted by
this account of gluttony and of the Lord’s temptation) vainglory
and pride can be consummated even without the slightest assistance from
the body. For in what way do those passions need any action of the
flesh, which bring ample destruction on the soul they take captive
simply by its assent and wish to gain praise and glory from men? Or
what act on the part of the body was there in that pride of old in the
case of the above mentioned Lucifer; as he only conceived it in his
heart and mind, as the prophet tells us: “Who saidst in thine
heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars
of God. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like
the most High.”
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And just as he
had no one to stir him up to this pride, so his thoughts alone were the
authors of the sin when complete and of his eternal fall; especially as
no exercise of the dominion at which he aimed
followed.
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Is. xiv. 13, 14
.