already described, you must learn further to desire and love the slight you have received, wishing for a repetition of it, and from the same person; awaiting and disposing yourself to suffer still greater insults. These contrary acts are necessary for our perfection in holiness, because the above-named exercises of resistance—many and efficacious as they are—are not sufficient to pluck out the roots of sin.
And therefore (to continue the same instance) although, on receiving an insult we may not consent to the feelings of impatience, but fight against them in the three ways which have been recommended yet, unless we accustom ourselves by many and constant acts of the will to love contempt and rejoice in it, we shall never be free from the vice of impatience, springing as it does from a regard for our own reputation and a dread of contempt.
And if the root of this sin be left alive, it will be sure to spring up afresh again and again, until virtue is weakened, and wholly choked by it; it will keep us in continual danger of a relapse upon every occasion. Therefore, without these contrary acts, the true habit of virtues can never be acquired.
And keep in mind also, that these acts must be so frequently made, as to be sufficient to destroy the sinful habit; for this habit, having been
