mark we can have is to feel in our hearts an ardent desire of daily perfecting ourselves more and more in virtue. So that there can be no need of any motive but this to urge us to cherish this desire, since it gives us, in some measure, an assurance that we are in the state of grace, than which nothing in this life can be of greater consolation.
This may be easily confirmed by what the Holy Ghost says in the Proverbs: 11 The ways of the just are like the sun that rises, and increases both in light and heat till mid-day." (Prov. iv. 18 ) The farther they proceed, the more they increase in virtue, and to use the words of St. Bernard, the just man never believes that he has fully performed his duty; he never says it is enough, but always hungers and thirsts after justice; so that if he were to live here always, he would perpetually strive to become more just and more perfect, and to advance always from good to better. (Ep. 253 to Ab. Gaurin.) Again it is written of the just, " they shall proceed from virtue to virtue" (Ps. lxxxiii. 8); i.e. they shall continually increase in fervour, and advance in virtue without stopping till they ascend the height of perfection. But the way of the tepid, the imperfect, and the wicked, is like unto the light of the evening, which, decreasing every moment, at length disappears, and leaves us in the darkness of night. "The way of the wicked," says the Wise Man, " is full of darkness, so that they cannot see the precipices into which they fall." (Prov.iv. 19.) They stumble every step they take. Their confusion is so great, and their blindness so deplorable, that they see not their faults, and feel no remorse for them. On the contrary, judging of sins according to their fancy, they will not believe that to be a sin which is so in reality, and will often think that to be but venial which is mortal; nay, will consider it to be nothing more than a trivial imperfection.
CHAPTER VI.
That not to advance in Virtue is to go back.
It is a maxim received by all holy men, that in the way of God we certainly go back, if we do not advance. This is the point I intend to demonstrate here, that it may be a powerful motive to encourage us daily to make new progress in perfection. For what man is there, that, after having travelled homeward
