Chapter XIV. What ought to be done when the higher Will seems to be wholly overcome and stifled by the lower Will, and by its Enemies."

IF sometimes the higher will should seem to you powerless against the lower, and its other enemies, because you do not feel that your will is effectually set against them, yet stand firm and do not leave off fighting; for you must regard yourself as victorious, until you can clearly see that you have given way.

For since the higher will can act without the lower, so the higher can never be compelled by the lower to yield, however hot the assaults of the latter may be.

God has, in truth, given to the will such liberty and such power, that, if all the senses, all evil spirits, and all the world were to conspire together, and with their combined strength to assault and oppress it, the will could still in spite of them will or will not whatever it liked with perfect freedom, and could assert itself when it liked, and as often as, for as long as, in what manner, and for whatever end, best pleased it.

And if these enemies should ever attack you and press you with such violence as almost to stifle your will, so as to leave you, as it were, no breath to make an act of the will against them; yet do not lose courage, nor throw down your arms, but in such a case make use of your tongue and defend yourself by saying—"I do not yield to you, I do not consent to you;" after the manner of one who has been grasped and thrown to the ground by an enemy leaping upon him, and, when he is unable to thrust at him with the point of his sword, contrives to strike him with the hilt.

And as he strives to spring backwards so as to wound his enemy with the point of the sword, so do you retire into the consideration of yourself, the knowledge that you are nothing, and that you can do nothing. Then, putting your trust in God Who can do all things, strike a blow at the passion which attacks you, and say—"Help me, O Lord; help me, my God; help me, Jesus, Mary's Son, that I may not yield to this."

You may also, if the enemy gives you time for it, call in your understanding to aid your will, and by the use of various considerations impart to the will fresh power and spirit against the enemy. Thus, for example, when you are in some persecution or trouble, and are so attacked by temptations to impatience that the will cannot, or at least will not, stand up against them, you will proceed to encourage it by considering some points, such as the following:—

First, consider, that if you have brought upon yourself the evil under which you are suffering, you deserve to bear it; for, in such a case, every rule of justice requires you to bear patiently the punishment which you have yourself been the means of inflicting.

Secondly, if you are not to blame in this particular matter, think that there are many faults which you have committed, for which you have received no chastisement from God, nor have you punished yourself for them as you ought. And seeing that the Divine mercy has changed the punishment of these faults, which should have been eternal, or at least should last for ages in another world, into this light affliction, ought you not to receive it willingly, or even thankfully?

Thirdly, if the thought should come that the penance is a long one in comparison with the offence against the Divine Majesty—a thought which no one can ever lawfully indulge—you must remember, that it is only through the strait gate of much tribulation that any can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Fourthly, think that were it possible to enter by an easier way, the law of love would not allow you to dream of doing so, seeing that the Son of God, with all His friends and His members, reached that Kingdom by the road of thorns and crosses.

Fifthly, the chief thought upon which your mind should dwell in this, and in all other temptations, is the Will of your God, Who, for the love He has for you, takes unspeakable delight in every act of holiness and mortification which you, as His faithful and devoted soldier, perform in return for His love to you. And be thoroughly convinced of this, that the more unreasonable in itself the trouble is, and the more shameful on account of the person from whom it comes and therefore to you the more vexatious and difficult to be borne, so much the more pleasing will you be to the Lord, if, in things disordered in themselves and especially grievous to you, you can approve and love His Divine Will and Providence, by which every event—however irregular it may seem to be—is disposed after a most perfect rule and order.