THE CAPITAL SINS 75 



bodies are members of Christ? Am I then to 

 take the members of Christ and make them the 

 members of a harlot? God forbid! Or know 

 you not that he that cleaveth to a harlot is one 

 body [with her] ? 'The two,' it is said, 'shall be- 

 come one flesh.' But he that cleaveth to the Lord 

 is one spirit [with him]. Flee from impurity. 

 Every [other] sin that a man committeth is [a 

 thing] outside the body; but the impure sinneth 

 against his own body. Know you not that your 

 body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is within 

 you, whom you have from God? And you are 

 not your own, for you have been bought at a price. 

 Glorify God, then, in your body." 23 With every 

 other sin (avarice, pride, anger, gluttony, etc.) 

 either the object, or the means of its attain- 

 ment, lie outside of the subject, whereas in the 

 case of impurity the sinner makes his own body 

 the direct means of wrong-doing (materia pec- 

 candi). This vice is especially offensive in a 

 Christian whose body has been raised to the su- 

 pernatural order by Baptism. God has not only 

 redeemed us from the servitude of the devil and 

 ransomed us at a tremendous price (the life of 

 His only begotten Son), but He has made us tem- 

 ples of the Holy Ghost and members of the mys- 

 tical body of Christ. For this reason impurity in 

 a Christian involves a kind of sacrilege, a dese- 



23 1 Cor. VI, 15 sqq. (Westminster Version). 



