was all overrun with briers and thorns, sent his son to stub and clear it. The young man, perceiving the laborious task imposed on him by his rather, lost courage, and fell asleep the first day, and the second day he did the same, for which his father reprehended him, saying, Son you must not look upon this work all together, and in the gross, as if you were to do it all at once; but you must undertake every day as much as you can easily perform. The son followed the father's advice, and in a short time the whole field was cleared.
But the chief obstacle to our advancement in virtue, and to our receiving new graces from God, is our not putting into execution those good desires with which he inspires us; so that, by the bad use we make of his gifts, we compel him to withhold his hand. In the affair of perfection, he treats us as scholars are treated by a writing-master, who, until they form their first letters well according to the copy already given, will not allow them to get a new one. The longer we refrain from making good use of the graces God has given us, the longer he defers to give us new ones; and the more we endeavour to put in practice those good inspirations which he sends us in time of prayer, the more he is inclined to bestow on us his heavenly gifts. Doctor Avila says, that he who makes good use of the lights God has given him, shall receive additional ones from him; but he that neglects to make good use of those already received, can have no pretensions to ask for others; for }ie may be justly answered, why do you desire to know the will of God, when you do not accomplish it in these things wherein you already know it? (M. Avila, lib. i. de las. ep. fol. 241.) If you do not put in practice the good desires which he gives you, how can you expect that he will confer on you greater favours? With what confidence can you entreat him in your prayers, to bestow on you such a gift, which you stand in need of, if you omit to amend those faults, which, by his holy inspirations, he has so often reminded you to correct? I cannot comprehend how any person, who wilfully and deliberately persists even in one fault, how trivial soever it may appear, can lift up his eyes, or open his lips, to beg of God new and extraordinary graces. If we desire to obtain them, let us be careful to put in execution the holy inspirations which he sends us.
It is the opinion of all the saints, that he who makes good use of the grace he has received, deserves to obtain new ones; but, on the contrary, he who does not employ the first well, becomes un-
