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THE CORONATION 273
traps and pitfalls set for their ruin. Hence the number
of fools is so great, and that of the truly prudent and
wise so small; many are called and few are chosen; the
wicked and the sinners are countless, while the virtuous
and the perfect are very scarce. In proportion as any
one multiplies his sins, in that proportion the devil
acquires positive rights over his soul, and if he cannot
put an end to the life of his victim, he at least seeks to
treat him as his vile slave. For he claims, that each day
this soul becomes more his own, and that of its own will
it so chooses; that therefore it cannot justly be snatched
from his hands, nor deserve the assistance which it will
not accept; that the merits of Christ should not be ap
plied to it, when it
spurns them ;
that it should not bene
fit from the intercession of the saints, when it entirely
forgets them.
290. By these and other pretenses, which cannot be all
mentioned here, the devil tries to cut short the time of
for those whom he claims as his own. If he
penance
does not succeed in this, he tries to block the way of their
justification; and his attempts are successful with many
souls. But the protection of God and of the holy angels
is
wanting to none of us and thus we are delivered from
dangers of death by innumerable ways; and this is so
certain that there is scarcely any one, who could not
verify it in the course of his life. They furnish us with
ceaseless inspirations and warnings ; they make us of all
occasions and means available for our admonishment and
exhortation. What is still more valuable, they defend us
of the demons and set in motion
against the rabid fury
against them all that the intellect of an angel or of a
blessed spirit can devise, and all that their power and
their most ardent charity can command for our safety.
All this is necessary many times for some souls and at
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