The Dialogue

A repetition of the preceding chapter : and how the Devil flees those who have arrived at the fifth kind of tears, and how the assaults of the Devil are the true means of reaching this stage.

"THOU hast now seen the various states of tears and the difference between them, according as it has pleased My Truth to satisfy thy desire. With regard to the first tears of those who are in the state of death, in the guilt, namely, of mortal sin, thou hast seen that their sorrow, proceeding in general from their heart, on account of the conception of the principle of the affection which causes tears, is corrupt and miserable sorrow, and indeed their every work is corrupt. The second stage is that of those who are begin ning to learn their own evil through the penalty which follows their guilt. This is a general beginning, generously given by Me to the fragile, who ignorantly drown in the river, loathing the doctrine of My Truth. But there are many who know their evil without servile fear (fear, that is, of the penalty due to their guilt), who abandon sin with a great self-hatred, which makes them deem themselves worthy of punishment, and who, in their simple goodness, devote themselves to serving Me, their Creator, grieving over the offence which they have done Me. It is true that he who abandons sin with very great self-hatred is more apt for perfection than the others (those actuated by servile fear), yet both classes may arrive thereat by exercise, though the former will arrive first.

" One of the latter class should take care not to remain in servile fear, and one of the former should beware of tepidity, that he does not grow cold within, through not exercising his simple goodness. This is a common vocation.

"The third and fourth stages are of those who, having arisen out of fear, have arrived at love and hope, tasting My Divine mercy, receiving many gifts and consolations from Me, on account of which the eye weeps in order tosatisfy the feeling of the heart. But because this sorrow is.

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imperfect and mingled with the sorrow of spiritual self-love, as I have said, the soul must, by exercise in virtue, reach the fourth stage, where, having grown by her desires, she unites and conforms herself to My will to such a point, that she can neither wish nor desire other than what I wish, in the matter of love to her neighbour, from which she extracts the grief of love in herself for the offences and losses inflicted on her neighbour. This stage is united with the fifth and ultimate perfection in which the soul unites herself to the Truth, and the fire of holy desire is increased, from which desire the Devil flees, for he can persecute the soul no more, neither by injuring her, for she has grown patient in the love of her neighbour, nor by spiritual or temporal consolation, because through self-hatred and true humility she despises both. True indeed it is that the Devil, for his part, never sleeps, thus reading a lesson to you negligent ones, who sleep through the time of merit. But all his watching cannot hurt such as these, because he cannot endure the heat of their love, nor the odour of the union which they have made with Me, the Sea Pacific ; while a soul thus united to Me cannot be deceived. So he avoids such a soul, as a fly the boiling kettle, from fear of the fire. The following however happens to the soul before she has reached perfection. The Devil, seeing that she seems tepid, enters into her with many and diverse temptations. But, the soul, being in the Sea of Knowledge, heat, and hatred of guilt, resists, binding the will, for fear it should consent, with the bands of hatred of sin and love of virtue. Let every soul that experiences many temptations rejoice, for through them lies the road to this glorious and sweet state. For I have already told thee, that by knowledge and hatred of yourselves and knowledge of Me, ye could arrive at perfection. At no time does the soul know so well whether I am in her or no, as in the time of battle. Thou askest, in what way ? I will tell thee. If she know well, seeing herself in battle, that she cannot liberate herself, or resist the perverse will, for she has nothing of her own with which to do so. (She can indeed resist the perverse will, in the sense of not consenting to it, but in no other sense.) And then she

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learns that she herself is nothing, for were she anything in her own power, she could cause this battle, which is against her will, to cease. Thus she humbles herself with true self-knowledge, and, with the light of the most Holy Faith, runs to Me, the Eternal God, through Whose Goodness she is able to preserve a good and holy will that does not consent in the time of battle, or yield to the miseries with which it is assailed. You are then quite right to comfort yourselves with the doctrine of the sweet and amorous Word, My only-begotten Son, in the time of your troubles and adversities and temptations from men or devils, for these increase your virtue and cause you to arrive at great perfection."