Volume II, Treatise I, Chapter XVI

That It Ts Very Dangerous to Neglect or Contemn Mortification in Small Things

By this it is very easy to comprehend, how dangerous it is to contemn or neglect small mortifications. For it is not only the thing in which we neglect to mortify ourselves, that we must look upon, but the refusing to overcome our will for the love of God, even in small matters. There is also in this another very great inconvenience, which deserves to be particularly attended to; it is, that by this means we permit our will to accustom itself to seek its satisfaction in several things, and that it entertains and fortifies itself in this habit in such a manner, that afterwards we cannot master it in any thing. At first we perceive not the hurt we do ourselves in it; for our own will is in the beginning only a lion’s whelp, but in a short time it grows up so cruel and fierce a lion, that it is not to be tamed, and that it will be impossible for us to resist it. Self-love is the cause of all evils and sins, and by consequence of hell itself. ‘If there were no self-love,” says St. Bernard, “there would be no hell.’’ But by these sorts of mortification we. have spoken of, we accustom ourselves to overcome our will, and take away from it the liberty of doing what it pleases. Richard of St. Victor says, that as the devil endeavours to make us commit little faults, that after having gained some small advantages over us, and thereby weakened us, he may gain greater; just so, ought we endeavour to overcome ourselves by frequent mortifications in small things, that it may be impossible for him to overcome us in greater. And afterwards, he adds, we must begin with little things, that we may fortify ourselves by this exercise, and that the victory we gain over ourselves in small things, may be the means to overcome ourselves in greater. Cassian gives the same counsel, and makes use of an example to strengthen his advice:— When you find yourself, says he, moved to choler, either because your pen is not good, or that your pen-knife cuts not well, or for some other such like cause; you must take great care to repress these irregular motions of anger, how little soever the cause of-them appears to be; because this victory gives you new strength, to mortify yourself in greater occasions that shall present themselves, and to preserve peace of mind, and charity amidst the greatest injuries and contempts.

There is also another advantage in the practice of these voluntary mortifications, which is, that it renders the assaults of the devil less dangerous, as St. Eusebius teaches, who, as Theodoret relates, continually exercised himself in them. One day they asked this saint, why he so applied himself to this practice? It is, says he, because I have the devil, a crafty enemy, to deal with; and therefore I endeavour to reduce the temptations of anger, impurity, envy, and all other sins that may put my soul in danger, unto small things, in which, if I be overcome, the loss will not be great; but if I gain ‘the victory, he cannot behold it without double indignation and confusion; since even in these small things he is not able to overcome me. This deserves to be taken notice of, for it is a truth experienced by the servants of God, that the more you endeavour to mortify yourself in small things, the more the devil will endeavour to turn all his forces that way, and all his temptations will ordinarily be to hinder you from some mortification, and prevent your overcoming yourself, in some other such like thing, in which you cannot lose very much, though it should happen you should some time or other be overcome. But if you leave off this exercise, and neglect to resist and fight the devil and your own flesh in small things, both the one and the other will set upon you with far more dangerous temptations, to which, if you give way, your loss will certainly be very great.

St. Austin relates, that a Catholic being provoked to passion, by flies that continually tormented him, was visited by a Manichean, to whom he related the inconvenience he received from them, and the emotions of impatience they caused in him. The Manichean thought he had found a fit occasion to instil his error, which was, that there were two origins or causes of things: the one of invisible things, which was God; the other of visible, which was the devil. (It is against this error, that in the creed of St. Athanasius, sung by the church at mass, these words are inserted, “of all things visible and invisible;” whereby we acknowledge God to be the. creator of all things, and not only of those that are spiritual and

invisible, but also of those that are corporeal and visible.) The Manichean, therefore, perceiving that so excellent an occasion was offered him, of persuading the Catholic to a belief of his error: Who, do you believe, says he, was the creator of these flies? The Catholic, who found himself so tormented by them, durst not say that it was God; but if it was not God, replied the Manichean, who was it that made them? The other replied, that he thought it was the devil; the Manichean still pressed the argument more home; but if the devil, says he, made these flies, who made the bees? By reason of the small difference he perceived between the one and the other, he answered, that if God had not created the flies, probably he had not also created the bees. The Manichean perceiving this, by little and little, drew him on farther, passing from the bee to the grasshopper, a little bigger than the bee; from the grasshopper to the lizard, from the lizard to the sheep, thence to an ox, then to an elephant, and last of all to man himself: “and hereby persuaded this poor man,” says St. Austin, ‘that God had not created man.”—(Ang. Tract. ii. sup. Joan.) See into what an abyss of miseries he fell, because he could not patiently suffer the small inconvenience which was caused by the flies. Birdcatchers, says he, are wont to make use of little flies to catch certain small birds with; the devil also made use of flies to catch this unhappy man with. Wherefore, take care that the like happen not to you, when you find the least aversion to ever so small a thing; when any thing angers or troubles you, defy the devil, for it is by such sorts of flies that the devil catches a great many, and by little and little, draws them into very great disorders.

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