real virtue or holiness. For this does not consist in (as I told you in the first chapter)—neither does it spring from—exercises which are pleasant to us and which accord with our natural tastes, but it is the fruit of the crucifying of the flesh with all its actions, and the renewing of man by the practice of the virtues of the Gospel, and the uniting him to his Crucified Creator.
Depend upon it, that as habits of sin are produced by many and repeated acts of the higher will, yielding itself to the sensual appetite; so, on the other hand, habits of the virtues of the Gospel are acquired by the performance of frequent and repeated acts of conformity to the Divine Will, as it calls us to the practice of different virtues from time to time.
For as our will can never become vicious or earthly, however fiercely assaulted or allured by the lower nature, unless it inclines towards or consents to the temptations; so, on the other hand, our will, however forcibly drawn and assailed by inspirations and Divine grace, will never become virtuous or be united to God, so long as by inward, and it may be, outward acts, it does not suffer itself to be brought into conformity with His Will.
