far as it is possible for them, and in much fasting, watching,
and disciplines; and, on the other hand, the lax and the wicked
take courage and lose the fear of God, because they consider the
way on which they are travelling as the safer: and this is their
delusion,--they call that a plain and safe road which is the
absence of the knowledge and consideration of the dangers and
precipices amidst which we are all of us journeying in this
world. Nevertheless, there is no other security than that which
lies in our knowing our daily enemies, and in humbly imploring
the compassion of God, if we would not be their prisoners.
Besides, there are souls whom God, in a way, constrains to enter
on the way of perfection, and who, if they relaxed in their
fervour, could not keep a middle course, but would immediately
fall into the other extreme of sins, and for souls of this kind
it is of the utmost necessity that they should watch and pray
without ceasing; and, in short, there is nobody whom lukewarmness
does not injure. Let every man examine his own conscience, and
he will find this to be the truth.

"5. I firmly believe that if God for a time bears with the
lukewarm, it is owing to the prayers of the fervent, who are
continually crying, 'et ne nos inducas in tentationem.' I have
said this, not for the purpose of honouring those whom we see
walking in the way of contemplation; for it is another extreme
into which the world falls, and a covert persecution of goodness,
to pronounce those holy forthwith who have the appearance of it.
For that would be to furnish them with motives for vain-glory,
and would do little honour to goodness; on the contrary, it would
expose it to great risks, because, when they fall who have been
objects of praise, the honour of goodness suffers more than if