breath in our body, even though we may have fallen into sin. Do you want
better examples for regulating your conduct?"

[Footnote 1: Book i. 6.]
[Footnote 2: Book ii. 13.]
[Footnote 3: Peter v. 2, 3.]
[Footnote 4: 1 Peter iv. 12.]
[Footnote 5: Job xxi. 14.]


UPON THE LOVE OF GOD, CALLED LOVE OF BENEVOLENCE.

You ask me what I have to say as regards the love of benevolence towards
God. What good thing can we possibly wish for God which He has not already,
What can we desire for Him which He does not possess far more fully than we
can desire Him to have it?

What good can we do to Him to Whom all our goods belong, and Who has all
good in Himself; or, rather, Who is Himself all good?

I reply to this question as I have done to others, that there are many
spiritual persons, and some even of the most gifted, who are greatly
mistaken in their view of this matter.

We must distinguish in God two sorts of good, the one interior, the
other exterior. The first is Himself; for His goodness, like His other
attributes, is one and the same thing with His essence or being.

Now this good, being infinite, can neither be augmented by our serving God
and by our honouring Him, nor can it be diminished by our rebelling against