of the law and of reputation did not prevent, and then, after such scrutiny, resolves that he will not do them because they are sins,—he then performs true and interior repentance; and still more so, when he is in the delight of those evils, and is at the same time in the liberty of doing them, and yet resists and abstains. He who repeatedly practises this, finds the delight of evils, when they return, become at length undelightful, and he condemns them."[1]
Such is the effect of conquest in temptations: by every such conquest man becomes spiritually stronger, finds it more easy to resist, and at length evils have no more power over him; and then they are no longer temptations.
Having thus spoken of the first class of temptations, which I have termed external or active temptations, being such as are presented from without, and act palpably and violently on man's evil propensities,—I come now to speak of the second great class of temptations. These I have termed internal and passive, first because they come, in general, unattended with any outward allurement, and spring from no apparent or visible cause; and also because the man is in a manner a passive sufferer under them: what he has then to do, is, not so much to fight, as to bear,—to endure. These are what are properly called spiritual temptations; for only the spiritual-minded are subject to them; whereas to the other class of temptations, all men, the bad as well as the good, natural men as well as spiritual, are
- ↑ T. C. R., n. 532.
