giver of all good gifts in prayer. It also imparts in our estimation a higher value to the gifts of God: the pleasure derived from the realization of our wishes, and the value which we set on the objects which they pursue, are proportioned to their intensity; and the gratification which we thus receive from the desired object serves also to increase our devotion and gratitude to God. If then, it is, at any time, lawful to covet, it will be readily conceded, that every species of concupiscence is not forbidden. St. Paul, it is true, says that " concupiscence is sin;" [1] but his words are to be understood in the same sense as those of Moses, whom he cites; [2] a sense conveyed by the Apostle himself, when, in his Epistle to the Galatians, he calls it " the concupiscence of the flesh:" " Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." [3] That natural, well regulated concupiscence, therefore, which passes not its proper limits, is not prohibited; still less is that spiritual desire of the virtuous mind, which prompts to those things that war against the flesh, and to which the Sacred Scriptures exhort us: " Covet ye my words:" [4] " Come over to me all ye that desire me." [5] It is not, then, the mere motion of concupiscence, directed equally, as it may be, to a good or a bad object, that is prohibited by these commandments: it is the indulgence of criminal desire; which is called " the concupiscence of the flesh," and " the fuel of sin," and which, when it sways the assent of the mind, is always sinful. That which the Apostle calls " the concupiscence of the flesh" is alone prohibited; that is to say, those motions of corrupt desire which are contrary to the dictates of reason, and outstep the limits prescribed by God.
This concupiscence is condemned, either because it desires what is evil, such as adultery, drunkenness, murder, and such heinous crimes, of which the Apostle says: " Let us not covet evil things, as they also coveted;" [6] or because, although the objects may not be bad in themselves, yet circumstances concur to render the desire of them criminal, when, for instance, they are prohibited by God or his Church. We are not warranted in desiring that which it is unlawful to possess; and hence, in the Old Law, it was criminal to desire the gold and silver from which idols were wrought, and which the Lord forbad " any one to covet." [7] Another reason why this sort of concupiscence is condemned is, that it has for its object that which belongs to another, such as a house, servant, field, wife, ox, ass, and many other things; all of which, as they belong to another, the law of God forbids us to covet. The desire alone of such things, when consented to, is criminal, and is numbered among the most grievous sins. When the mind, yielding to the impulse of evil desires, is pleased with, or does not resist, evil, sin is necessarily committed, as St. James, pointing out the beginning and progress of sin, teaches, when he says: "Every man is
