Thee too much. Thou alone, Who art of Infinite Goodness couldst have put up with me until now. But already do I see that Thou canst not endure me much longer, and Thou art right. Pardon me, therefore, my Lord and my Highest Good, all the injuries I have committed against Thee, for which I repent with my whole heart; and I purpose for the future never more to offend Thee. And wherefore? Perhaps I shall ever continue to provoke Thee! Ah! be at peace with me, O God of my soul, not through my merits, to which nothing but punishment and hell belong, but through the merits of Thy Son and my Redeemer, in Whose merits I place my hope. For the love, therefore, of Jesus Christ, receive me into Thy grace, and give me perseverance in Thy love. Take from me every impure affection, and draw me all to Thyself. I love Thee, O Highest God, O Sovereign lover of my soul, Who art worthy of infinite love. Oh, that I had ever loved Thee.
Third Point.
When the light shall be lost, and the heart shall be hardened, it will generally happen that the sinner's end will be a bad one, and that he will die obstinate in his sins. " A hard heart shall fear evil at the last." (Ecclus. iii. 27.) The just continue to walk in the right way. " The way of the just is uprightness." (Isa. xxvi. 7.) Habitual sinners, on the contrary, ever walk round about. " The ungodly walk on every side." (Ps. xii. 9.) They leave sin for a time, and then return to it. S. Bernard announces condemnation to such as these, " Woe to the man who follows this course." But some will say, I am willing to repent before I die; but the difficulty is for an habitual sinner to amend even should he come to be old. Holy Scripture tells us to " train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. xxii. 6.) The reason truly is, as S. Thomas of Villanova observes, because our strength is very weak: for " the strong shall be as tow." (Isa. i. 31.) Therefore it happens, as the saint continues, that the soul, being deprived of grace, cannot remain without committing more sins.
Moreover, would not any one be very foolish, who should wish
