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And these labours they keep up for two reasons, besides this
consideration,--that they believe that when they are diligently exerting
themselves they are offering to God a sacrifice of the fruit of their
hands. And, if we are aiming at perfection; we also ought to observe this
with the same diligence. First, lest our envious adversary, jealous of our
purity against which he is always plotting, and ceaselessly hostile to us,
should by some illusion in a dream pollute the purity which has been gained
by the Psalms and prayers of the night: for after that satisfaction which
we have offered for our negligence and ignorance, and the absolution
implored with profuse sighs in our confession, he anxiously tries, if he
finds some time given to repose, to defile us; then above all endeavouring
to overthrow and weaken our trust in God when he sees by the purity of our
prayers that we are making most fervent efforts towards God: so that
sometimes, when he has been unable to injure some the whole night long, he
does his utmost to disgrace them in that short hour. Secondly, because,
even if no such dreaded illusion of the devil arises, even a pure sleep in
the interval produces laziness in the case of the monk who ought soon to
wake up; and, bringing on a sluggish torpor in the mind, it dulls his
vigour throughout the whole day, and deadens that keenness of perception
and exhausts that energy of heart which would be capable of keeping us
all day long more watchful against all the snares of the enemy and more
robust. Wherefore to the Canonical Vigils them are added these private
watchings, and they submit to them with the greater care, both in order
that the purity which has been gained by Psalms and prayers may not be
lost, and also that a more intense carefulness to guard us diligently
through the day may be secured beforehand by the meditation of the night.
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