here being taken away. And this liveliness of faith shall kindle their desire to see their last end, and consequently shall increase the pain of their delay of the beholding it; for, as the Wise man says, " Hope that is deferred afflicteth the soul." [1]
2. The second cause is, because the love of Almighty God is there in its perfection, and exceedingly desires to see its beloved, to be united with Him, and has nothing to divert it, nor entertain it in this life, with meriting new glory, augmenting its perfection and doing good to its neighbours; all which ceases in purgatory. And if with all this some holy men have here so great a longing to behold Almighty God, that they are much afflicted with the delay of the accomplishment of their desire, and mourning say with David, " Woe to me, that my sojourning is prolonged," [2] my soul hath been long a sojourner on the earth; with how much more feeling shall the souls detained in purgatory say this, who love, are in pain, and yet profit not by that pain?
3. The third cause of this pain is, the suspension in which those souls are, not knowing how long time this prison, and this delay of beholding Almighty God shall endure; for although they are conformable to the will of God, yet for all this they are in great pain, considering that originally it springs from their own sin, and from their own negligence and carelessness, as well in satisfying for their sins as in desiring to see Almighty God. For, as it was revealed to St. Bridget, [3] there is for this culpable lukewarmness a kind of punishment in the other life, which they call the purgatory of desire, with which they are chastised that were but lukewarm in their desire to see Almighty God.
4. This pain likewise is augmented by wanting the sight of our Saviour Christ, of the most blessed Virgin, of the
