loving purgatory, if (as has been already said) they are borne with humility and patience; and they will help us to win that crown in Heaven, which otherwise we could not obtain, the glory of which will be in proportion to the toil and pain through which it was gained.
Hence we see how little ground there is for that discontent or that alarm which inexperienced persons entertain, who attribute this trial to the devil, or to their own sins and imperfections, when it comes to them from the Hand of God.
Tokens of love they take as signs of hatred, and imagine that these Divine favours and caresses are blows which come from an enraged heart, and believe that all they do is lost and worthless, and that this loss is irremediable. Whereas did they but rightly believe, that not only was there no loss, but great gain, (if the soul properly used the opportunity, as it always has the power of doing,) and that all was an evidence of God's loving remembrance of us; it would not be possible for them to be disquieted or to lose peace, because they perceived themselves to be troubled with many temptations and imaginations, and found themselves dry and indevout in prayer and other exercises. On the contrary, they would with fresh perseverance humble their souls in the sight of the Lord, purposing in all and through all to accomplish the Divine Will, in
