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AND so the wretched soul, embarrassed by such contrivances of the
enemy, is disturbed, until, worn out by the spirit of accidie, as by some
strong battering ram, it either learns to sink into slumber, or, driven out
from the confinement of its cell, accustoms itself to seek for consolation
under these attacks in visiting some brother, only to be afterwards
weakened the more by this remedy which it seeks for the present. For more
frequently and more severely will the enemy attack one who, when the battle
is joined, will as he well knows immediately turn his back, and whom he
sees to look for safety neither in victory nor in fighting but in flight:
until little by little he is drawn away from his cell, and begins to forget
the object of his profession, which is nothing but meditation and
contemplation of that divine purity which excels all things, and which can
only be gained by silence and continually remaining in the cell, and by
meditation, and so the soldier of Christ becomes a runaway from His
service, and a deserter, and "entangles himself in secular business,"
without at all pleasing Him to whom he engaged himself.
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