Begin the conflict in the Name of the Lord, taking up the armour of distrust of self and trust in God, with prayer and spiritual exercises; with these arms challenge this foe, that is, this inclination, whatever it may be, which, according to the order above laid down, you have resolved to overcome. Do this, now by open resistance, now by deep loathing, or again, by acts of the opposite virtue; wounding it with oft-repeated and deadly blows, in order to please your Lord, Who, with His whole Church Triumphant, is looking on and watching the combat.
I tell you again, that you must not grow weary in the conflict, but must ever bear in mind that it is the bounden duty of all to serve and please God; that the necessity of fighting is absolute, and escape impossible without wounds or death. I tell you, also, that if, as a deserter you were to fly from God, and give yourself to the delights of the world and of the flesh, you would still, in spite of yourself, be forced to labour in the sweat of your brow against many and many a contradiction which would pierce your heart with deadly anguish.
Consider, then, what madness it would be to incur all this toil and pain—which only lead to greater toil and pain with endless death—simply to avoid that which will soon be over, and which would bring us to a life eternal and
