don the sins of others, pray for your own; future sins shun by watching; past sins blot out by confessing.-On Virginity,

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THE

XCVI.

faithful pray for themselves also, that they may persevere in what they have begun to be. For it is useful to all, or almost all, with a view to this humility, which is so healthful, that they should not be able to know what they shall be hereafter. To this end it is said, 'Let him who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.' For the sake of this beneficial fear, lest, having been regenerated and now beginning to live godly, we should, as being secure, think over highly, there are mingled, by the permission and provision and disposition of God, with those who shall persevere, others who will not; alarmed at whose fall, we may walk on in the right path, with fear and trembling,' until, from this life on earth, which is all trial,'

we pass to another, where there will be no pride to be repressed, and no strife against suggestions and temptations-Ep. 217, §14.

XCVII.

MAN who makes progress in pros

A perity, by adversity learns what

progress he has made. For when he has an abundance of these passing goods, he trusts not in them, but when they are withdrawn, he recognises whether they have not taken hold of him. For generally, when we have them, we think that we love them not; but when they begin to depart, then we discover what sort of persons we are. For on that we set not our heart, when present, which we part from without sorrow.-On True Religion, c. 47.

XCVIII.

WHAT harm can result from the death

of the body to men who are des

་

tined to die some time? Or what do

those who fear death accomplish by their care, but a short postponement of the time at which they die? All the evil to which mortal men are liable comes not from death, but from life; and if in dying they have the soul sustained by Christian grace, death is to them not the night of darkness, in which a good life ends, but the dawn, in which a better life commences. -Epist. 151.

XCIX.

HE first sin, that is, the first voluntary

TH

loss, is the mind rejoicing in its own power, for it rejoices in something less than would be the source of its joy if it rejoiced in the power of God, which is unquestionably greater.-Ep. 118.

C.

PRIDE produces averseness to wisdom;

whence, however, this averseness, but that he, whose good is God, would be his own good to himself, as God is to Himself?-On Free Will, iii. c. 24.

K

НЕ

CI.

E that has well learnt or experienced the steps in overcoming vices, knows that the vice of vainglory is more than all to be shunned by the perfect. For that by which the soul first fell, she overcomes the last.-Hom. on Ps. 7.

CII.

THE fire is kindled in the furnace; and the refiner's furnace is a thing of high mysterious meaning. There is gold there, there is chaff; there is fire working in a confined space. This fire is not diverse, yet its effects are diverse: it turns chaff into ashes, from gold it takes away the dross. Now those in whom God dweils are assuredly made better in tribulation, being proved as gold. And if, perchance, the adversary, the devil, seek to prove any, and it be granted him, whether by some bodily pain, or some loss, or bereavement, let him keep his

heart fixed on Him Who withdraws not Himself; and if He seem to withdraw His ear from his lamentations, yet He shows mercy to his supplications. He Who made us knows what He is doing; He knows, too, how to re-make us. He is a good builder Who built the house; and if any thing therein has fallen to decay, He knows how to repair it.-Hom. on Ps. 22.

CIII.

AS a warped beam, though you lay it

on an even pavement, takes not its place, nor is it joined and fastened to the rest, but always moves about and totters; not because that is uneven where you placed it, but because that which you placed is warped': so thy heart, so long as it is crooked and warped, cannot coincide with the rightness of God, and cannot be so placed therein as to cleave unto the same; but for that to be, the rule is, He that is joined unto the Lord is