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A THREEFOLD account of this mental dryness of which you speak has been
given by the Elders. For it comes either from carelessness on our part, or
from the assaults of the devil, or from the permission and allowance of the
Lord. From carelessness on our part, when through our own faults, coldness
has come upon us, and we have behaved carelessly and hastily, and owing to
slothful idleness have fed on bad thoughts, and so make the ground of our
heart bring forth thorns and thistles; which spring up in it, and
consequently make us sterile, and powerless as regards all spiritual fruit
and meditation. From the assaults of the devil when, sometimes, while we
are actually intent on good desires, our enemy with crafty subtilty makes
his way into our heart, and without our knowledge and against our will we
are drawn away from the best intentions.
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