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420 CITY OF GOD
soliciting them to follow their own judgment and refuse
to obey the laws and the will of their superiors, but rather
to despise and rebel against it, perverting
the order of
divine Providence for the well-ordering of all things.
And because men overthrow this government of the
Lord, the world is filled with confusion and darkness,
created things are thrown out of order and subjected to
opposite force without regard or attention to God and
his laws.
475. But though
all this damage is odious in the eyes
of the supreme Governor and Lord, yet it is especially
displeasing to Him in religious, who, being bound by the
vows of religion, seek to widen these restrictions or al
together free themselves from their obligations. I am
not now speaking of those who transgress their rules in
open daring or break their vows in small or in great
things ;
this is
nothing else than a dreadful temerity en
tailing eternal damnation. But, in order that they may
not incur such a danger. I wish to exhort those who seek
their salvation in religion, to guard themselves against en
tertaining opinions or explanations for relaxing the
obedience due to their superiors in the name of God, or
against trying to determine what liberties they might
take without committing sin by infringing on obedience
and their other vows or against studying whether they
may not act according to their own judgment in certain
matters great or small. Such disquisitions are never made
for the better observance of vows, but always in order to
stifle the remorse of conscience in breaking them. I
remind them, that the demons seek to induce them to
swallow these poisonous gnats, in order that, little by
little, after being accustomed to those that seem insig
nificant, they may arrive at swallowing the camels of the
more serious sins. Those that continually hover about
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