That there is no security against temptation in this life
“My Son, thou art never secure in this life, but thy spiritual armour
will always be needful for thee as long as thou livest. Thou dwellest
among foes, and art attacked on the right hand and on the left. If
therefore thou use not on all sides the shield of patience, thou wilt
not remain long unwounded. Above all, if thou keep not thy heart fixed
upon Me with steadfast purpose to bear all things for My sake, thou
shalt not be able to bear the fierceness of the attack, nor to attain
to the victory of the blessed. Therefore must thou struggle bravely all
thy life through, and put forth a strong hand against those things
which oppose thee. For to him that overcometh is the hidden manna
given,(1) but great misery is reserved for the slothful.
2. “If thou seek rest in this life, how then wilt thou attain unto the
rest which is eternal? Set not thyself to attain much rest, but much
patience. Seek the true peace, not in earth but in heaven, not in man
nor in any created thing, but in God alone. For the love of God thou
must willingly undergo all things, whether labours or sorrows,
temptations, vexations, anxieties, necessities, infirmities, injuries,
gainsayings, rebukes, humiliations, confusions, corrections,
despisings; these things help unto virtue, these things prove the
scholar of Christ; these things fashion the heavenly crown. I will give
thee an eternal reward for short labour, and infinite glory for
transient shame.
3. “Thinkest thou that thou shalt always have spiritual consolations at
thy will? My Saints had never such, but instead thereof manifold
griefs, and divers temptations, and heavy desolations. But patiently
they bore themselves in all, and trusted in God more than in
themselves, knowing that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.(2)
Wouldst thou have that immediately which many have hardly attained unto
after many tears and hard labours? Wait for the Lord, quit thyself like
a man and be strong; be not faint-hearted, nor go aside from Me, but
constantly devote thy body and soul to the glory of God. I will reward
thee plenteously, I will be with thee in trouble.”(3)
(1) Revelation ii. 17. (2) Romans viii. 17. (3) Psalm xci. 15.