And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
These three there are, and you can find nothing whereby human cupidity can be tempted, but either by the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. By these three was the Lord tempted of the devil. Matthew 4:1-10 By the lust of the flesh He was tempted when it was said to Him, If you be the Son of God, speak to these stones that they become bread, when He hungered after His fast. But in what way repelled He the tempter, and taught his soldier how to fight? Mark what He said to him: Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word of God. He was tempted also by the lust of the eyes concerning a miracle, when he said to Him, Cast yourself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning you: and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone. He resisted the tempter, for to do the miracle, would only have been to seem either to have yielded, or to have done it from curiosity; for He wrought when He w...
And the world passeth away and the lust thereof. See Matthew 24:35; 1 Corinthians 7:31; 2 Peter 3:11. See also Wisdom v7; S. Bernard, Epist. cvii, &c.
As S. Jerome says (Epist. iii.): "If we were granted the years of Methusalem, yet the previous length would be nothing when it ceased to be, for when the end of life arrives, there will be no difference between the child of ten and the man of a thousand years, except that the old man goes out of life bearing a heavier burden of sin." S. Cyprian (ad. Demetriad) shows at great length that the world is growing old: "The labourer is failing in the field, the mariner at sea, the soldier in camp, honesty in the market, justice in the courts, firmness in friendships, skill in arts, discipline in morals, for the sentence has been passed on the world that all things born should die, all things which have grown up should wax old, strong things should become weak, great things become small, and when they are thus weakened and diminished they co...
