Question III: On lust

LUST is a fire devouring even unto consumption, as is said Iob 31., like Greek fire, of which the holy Doctor relates in Diaeta, tit. 1. cap. 9.; for there, once kindled, it is extinguished only when covered with sand and vinegar; so the flesh, kindled with the flames of lust, is scarcely checked unless it be long pricked with the austerity and acrimony of penitence, and seriously and often meditate on the emptiness of the world; which two things are figured by vinegar and sand. It is also a fire, namely, consuming whatever beauty it encounters; for those who are more beautiful, whether men or women, not rarely serve as it were as food for lust. I shall treat, therefore, here of Lust and its manifold species; handling indeed an ungrateful subject, I shall run through it with such a choice of words as to describe most shameful things with honest terms (as far as it will be fitting).