of conferring upon you. Do not seek for the love or good opinion of any one in this life, that you may be left to suffer with Jesus Crucified, and have no one to hinder you. Be on your guard against yourself, as the greatest enemy you have. Do not follow your own will, your own disposition, your own judgment, if you would not destroy yourself. For this purpose you have need of arms to defend yourself from yourself; and when your will craves for anything—however right the thing may be—always place it first, detached and naked and with deep humility, before your Lord, beseeching Him that not your will but His may be done in it. And do this with desires wholly mortified, and without any admixture of self-love, knowing that you are nothing, and can do nothing of yourself. Beware of your own opinions, which bear with them an appearance of sanctity and indiscreet zeal, against which the Lord cautions us: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves; by their fruits ye shall know them." Their fruits are the loss of inward peace and quietness. Everything which separates you from humility, peace, and inward tranquillity, in whatsoever dress or disguise it presents itself, is to you a false prophet, one of those who in sheep's clothing, that is, under the pretext of zeal, and of lending some indiscreet
