CHAPTER XXXII.
OF SELF-DENIAL, AND RENOUNCING EVERY EVIL APPETITE.
HOU canst not possess perfect liberty unless thou wholly renounce thyself.
They are but in fetters who merely seek their own interest, and are lovers of themselves. Covetous are they, curious, wanderers, always seeking what is soft and delicate, not the things of Jesus Christ, but oftentimes devising and framing that which will not continue.
For all that is not of God shall perish.
Keep this short and complete saying: "Forsake all and thou shalt find all." Forego desire and thou shalt find rest.
Consider this well, and when thou hast fulfilled it, thou shalt understand all things.
O Lord, this is not the work of one day, nor children's sport; yea, rather in this short word is included all religious perfection.
My son, thou oughtest not to turn back, nor at once to be cast down, when thou hearest of the way of the perfect; but rather to be stirred up to higher things, and at least in longing desire to sigh after them.
I would it were so with thee, and thou wert arrived at this, to be no longer a lover of thyself, but to stand merely at My beck, and at His Whom I
