than to live deprived of the Fatherly care and providence of GOD, and exposed to all the casualties of the world, and to all the calamities and miseries of this life? For as, on the one hand, this world is a stormy sea, a desert full of robbers and savage beasts, as the disasters and accidents of human life are so many, the enemies who fight against us so numerous and so strong, the snares that are hid for us so plentiful and so hidden, the caltrops strewed everywhere under our feet so abundant; and as man, on the other hand, is so weak and naked a creature, so blind, so unarmed, so poor in strength and counsel: if he lacks this protection, this support and favour of GOD, what shall the weak do among so many strong, the dwarf among so many giants, the blind among so many snares, the lonely and unarmed man among so many and such mighty enemies?

But even this is not all, for the providence of GOD is not content with turning its eyes away from the wicked, and leaving them to fall into so many troubles and afflictions, but it actually causes and procures them. So that the eyes that before watched for their good, now watch for their punishment, as He plainly testifies by Amos, saying, "I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good." (Amos ix. 4.) As much as to say plainly, "The providential care that I had over them shall be so changed that I Who once watched to defend them, will now watch to punish them, and to pay them what their iniquities deserve." He declares this yet more expressly by Hosea, saying, "Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness:" I will punish and destroy them as clothes are destroyed by the moth. But because this seemed but a mild and tardy kind of persecution, He adds a swifter and more vehement sort, and says, I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.” (Hos. v. 12, 14.) What greater misery wouldst thou have?

Nor is it a less clear testimony to this kind of providence that we read in Amos the Prophet, who, after saying that GOD would slay the wicked with the sword for their sins of avarice, immediately continues thus, "He that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine hand take them; though they climb up into heaven, thence will I bring them down; and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them; and though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them; and I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good." (Amos ix. 1-4; Ps. cxxxix.) These are the words of the Prophet. Say now, what man reading these words, and remembering that they are from GOD, and seeing what His providential care is over the wicked, will not tremble from head to foot at seeing how mighty an enemy he has against him, and how carefully and diligently he seeks him, besieges him, guards every road against him, and watches for his destruction. How can he rest? How can he eat a morsel that tastes good to him, having such eyes, such fury, such a persecutor, such an arm against him? For if it be so great an evil to be deprived of the help and providential care of the LORD, what will it be to have the arms of that very providence turned against thee? the sword that was drawn against thine enemies used against thee? the eyes that watched to defend thee now watching for thy destruction? the arm that was to support thee employed to cast thee down? the heart that thought towards thee thoughts of peace and love now thinking thoughts of affliction and of pain? and He Who should have been thy shield, thy shelter, and thy protection, now become as a moth to devour thee, and as a lion to tear thee? How can any man sleep securely who knows that while he sleeps GOD, like the rod that Jeremiah saw, is waking to punish and afflict him? (Jer. i. 11, 12, Vulgate.) What counsel can there be against this counsel? what arm against this arm? and what providence against this providence? "Who," as it is written in Job, “hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?" (Job ix. 4.)

Truly, this is so great an evil that one of God's greatest punishments to the wicked in this world is to withdraw from them the hand of His Fatherly providence, as He Himself

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testifies in many passages of Holy Scripture. For in one place He says, My people would not hear My voice, and Israel would not obey Me,” therefore I no longer dealt with them as before. "I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, and let them follow their own imaginations," (Ps. lxxxi. 12, 13), and thus they went daily from bad to worse. And by Hosea the Prophet He says, Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy GOD, I will also forget thy children." (Hosea iv. 6.) So that, as one of the greatest misfortunes that can befall a wife is that her good husband should give her a letter of divorcement, and desert her; and one of the worst things that can happen to a vineyard is that its master should forsake it, and cease to cultivate it, for from a vineyard it soon degenerates into a wilderness: so one of the greatest evils that can befall a soul is that GOD should withdraw His hand from it. For what is a soul without GOD but a vineyard without a vinedresser, a garden without a gardener, a ship without a pilot, an army without a commander, a country without a ruler, a body without a soul?

Behold then, my Brethren, how GOD besets thee on all sides, and how this motive also besets thee; therefore if love and desire for His fatherly providence are not enough to move thy heart, let it be moved at least by fear of being thus forsaken, for those who are not moved by the desire of good are often moved by the fear of great evil.

CHAPTER XIII.

Of the Second Privilege of Virtue, namely, the Grace of the Holy Ghost which is given to the Virtuous.

THIS

HIS Fatherly providence, as we have said, is the source of all the other privileges and benefits that GOD bestows on His servants. For to this providence it belongs to provide them with all that is necessary for the attainment of their end, that is, of their ultimate perfection and felicity, by helping and assisting them in all their necessities, and also by creating in their soul all the capacities and virtues, and all the infused habits that are requisite for this purpose. The first of these is the Grace of the HOLY GHOST, which is the origin (under this Divine Providence) of all other heavenly privileges and gifts. This, therefore, is "the best robe" which was given to the prodigal son when he was received into his father's house. (S. Luke xv. 22.) And if thou askest what grace is? I answer that grace, according to the theologians, is a participation in the Divine Nature—that is, in the holiness, the goodness, the purity, and the nobleness of GOD, whereby man puts away the baseness and vileness that he inherits from Adam, and becomes a partaker in GOD's holiness and nobleness, putting off himself, and putting on CHRIST. The saints illustrate this by the common example of iron cast into the fire, which ceases not to be iron, but yet comes forth glowing and luminous as the fire itself; so that, still keeping the substance and the name of iron, it has the brightness, the heat, and the other qualities of fire. In like manner, grace, which is a heavenly quality infused by GOD into the soul, has the marvellous power of transforming man into

GOD, so that, without ceasing to be man, he partakes in his way of the virtues and purity of GOD, as was the case with him who said, "I live; yet not I, but CHRIST liveth in me." (Gal. ii. 20.)

Grace is also a supernatural and divine mould, which makes a man live a life in accordance with itself, that is, a supernatural and divine life. And here the providence of GOD shines forth wondrously; for, as it is His Will that man should live two lives, one natural and the other supernatural, so He has provided him with two moulds, which are as it were the souls of these two lives, and which enable him to live them both. Wherefore, as from the soul, which is a natural mould, proceed all the powers and senses with which we live the natural life; so from grace, which is a supernatural mould, proceed all the gifts and graces of the HOLY GHOST, with which we live the supernatural life; just as a man who works at two trades is provided with two sets of tools.

Grace is also a spiritual ornament and vesture of the soul, made by the hand of the HOLY GHOST, and makes it so fair and so pleasing in the eyes of GOD, that He accepts it as His child and His bride. In this vesture the Prophet gloried when he said, "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my GOD; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels." (Isa. lxi. 10.) These ornaments and jewels are all the virtues and the gifts of the HOLY GHOST, wherewith the soul of the righteous is decked and adorned by the hand of GOD. This is the "vesture of gold, wrought about with divers colours," (Ps. xlv. 10), in which the king's daughter was attired when she stood upon the right hand of her spouse. For from grace proceed the divers colours of all the virtues and of all heavenly habits wherein the beauty of the soul consists.

From this thou mayest understand the effects that grace works in the soul wherein it dwells. One, and the very chief of them, is to make the soul so fair and pleasing in the eyes of GOD that He takes it, as we have said, to be His child, His bride, His temple, and His abode, wherein He has His delights