10. Not having distinctly experienced God’s
patronage, the heart is in no condition to commune with Christ.
10. A person cannot acquire a reliance on God if
prior to this, he hasn’t fulfilled His will according to one’s own strength.
Because hope in God and fortitude is born from witness of the conscience (in
God): and only with genuine witness of our mind (in God) can we have trust in
Him.
11. God demands not only the fulfillment of the
commandments but also — more importantly — reformation of the soul, which is
the reason why the commandments were given. The body participates equally in
good as well as bad deeds, and reason, by its behavior, becomes either
righteous or sinful, judging by its disposition.
11. Life in this temporary world is akin to
writing letters on a tablet. Everyone, when he wants to, can add or delete
words on it or rearrange the letters. But the future life is akin to a
manuscript, written on a clean sheet, on which it is forbidden to add or delete
and stamped with the king’s seal. That’s why while we are in this inconstant
world, let us be attentive to ourselves. And while we have authority over the
earthly manuscript, on which we write with our own hand, let us endeavor to
make good additions from a righteous life and delete on it, all the failings of
our past actions. This is because while we are in this world, God does not
affix His stamp neither to the virtuous nor the evil -up to the hour of our
leaving this life.
12. When in remembering his sins a person punishes
himself, God looks upon him with affection. God is pleased that for turning
away from His path, the individual has conferred punishment upon himself — this
serves as a sign of genuine repentance. And the harder the sinner compels
himself, the greater the increase in God’s affection for him.
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