40. We see, then, that this death is a gain
and life a penalty, so that Paul says: “To me to live is
Christ and to die is gain.” Phil. i. 21. What
is Christ but the death of the body, the breath of life? And so
let us die with Him, that we may live with Him. Let there then be
in us as it were a daily practice and inclination to dying, that by
this separation from bodily desires, of which we have spoken, our soul
may learn to withdraw itself, and, as it were placed on high, when
earthly lusts cannot approach and attach it to themselves, may take
upon herself the likeness of death, that she incur not the penalty of
death. For the law of the flesh wars against the law of the mind,
and makes it over to the law of error, as the Apostle has made known to
us, saying: “For I see a law of the flesh in my members
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity in
the law of sin.” Rom. vii. 23. We are all
attached, we all feel this; but we are not all delivered. And so
a miserable man am I, unless I seek the remedy.