not be said to will any thing when the lower will desires it, unless the higher will is disposed also to consent to it.
And herein lies the whole spiritual struggle; the reasonable will stands midway between the Divine Will which is above it, and the lower will of the flesh which is below it, and is continually assailed by the one or the other; each seeking to attract it, to bring it into subjection, and to rule it.
Great is the toil and struggle at the outset, which beginners experience when they resolve to amend their wicked lives, and—renouncing the world and the flesh—to yield themselves up to the love and service of Jesus Christ. For the battery, which the higher will sustains from the Divine and sensual wills warring on both sides of it, is so sharp and violent, that it entails much suffering.
Those who are experienced in the ways of virtue or vice do not feel this, but pursue the course they have entered upon with less difficulty; the virtuous yielding readily their will to the Divine Will, the vicious yielding without resistance to the will of the flesh.
But let no one suppose it possible to form true Christian virtues, and to serve God as he ought, unless he is ready in good earnest to do violence to his own inclinations, and to endure
