to the rebellious children, saith the Lord." (Isa. xxx. i.) " Woe unto them! for they have fled from me." (Hos. vii. 13.) Do you not by this sin, place your eternal salvation in great peril and doubt? And is this a matter to be placed in peril? It is not as if it concerned a house, a place; it concerns, says S. Chrysostom, the perishing in an eternity of torments, and the losing of an eternal heaven. And this matter, which signifies your all in all, you jeopardise by a " it is possible." You say, " Perchance, who knows I may not be condemned, I trust that afterwards God will pardon me." But in the meantime? In the meantime already you condemn yourself to hell. Tell me, would you throw yourself down a well, saying, " Who knows perhaps I may escape death?" No: how then dare you to make your salvation hang upon so feeble a hope, upon a " who knows?" Oh! how many have lost themselves by this most accursed hope. Do you not know, that the hope of the wilful shiner is not hope but delusion and presumption, which excites God not to pity, but to greater wrath. If you say that you cannot trust yourself now, to resist the temptation and the passion which governs you, how will you be able to resist afterwards, when by the habit of sin your strength of resistance will be diminished and not increased? Since, on the one hand, the soul will be more blinded and hardened in its wickedness; and, on the other, it will be wanting in the divine help. Do you hope, perchance, that God will increase this light and grace, after you have increased your sins?
Affections and Prayers.
O my Jesus, ever recall to me the death which Thou sufferedst for me, and give me confidence. I tremble, lest at my death the devil should make me despair, by showing me how great betrayals of Thee I have committed; how many promises have I not made not to offend Thee any more, by a sight of the light which Thou hast given me; and afterwards, have I not turned back and cast Thee behind me through the hope of pardon? And then because Thou hast not chastised me, have I not, even for this very reason, greatly injured Thee? Because Thou hast shown so great pity towards me, have I not the more outraged Thee?
