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love and hatred, desiring and shunning, grief and joy, hope and despair, fear and audacity, and anger. All which, for the most part, I apply to evil, with great disorder; for I love that which I ought to abhor, and I abhor that which I ought to love; I desire that which I ought to shun, and I shun that which I ought to desire; I rejoice in that for which I ought to be sorrowful, and I am sorry for that in which I ought to rejoice. Whence grievous sins arise; for the appetites, with these affections, solicit the will, and carry it after them, that with them it may give its consent.

2. On this account it is that these passions are the arms and snares of the devils to combat us, and to entangle us in great sins; [1] for in seeing any passion rise up they are joyful to see it, and presently make use of it to frame their temptation; so that I myself give to my enemy the principal arms with which he combats, persecutes, and destroys me. Besides this, these passions are my torturers and tormentors, for they make war within me against the poor spirit, molesting me, to make me will what I would not, [2] to do according to the desires of my flesh. And so likewise they are one contrary to another; for the passion of delight makes me desire that which the desire of honour abhors, and the desire of honour that which the passion of avarice shuns. For I am one who (as the Wise man says) always " willeth and willeth not" [3] I will virtue because it is good; and I will it not because it is laborious; I will vice because it is delectable; and I will it not because it is dishonest. And these willings and not willings of my passions are the tormentors of my miserable heart

Colloquy. — Oh, with what great reason may I lament to myself, saying to our Lord, " Why hast Thou set

  1. S. Amb. lib. i. offic cap. 4.
  2. Rom. vii. 15.
  3. Prov. xiii. 4.