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640 CITY OF GOD
ceivest, so that amid all these benefits there be no cross so
heavy, no death so bitter, as shall not be deemed by thee
very light and acceptable. In this consists all thy good,
and in it is to be thy delight; since, if thou dost not suc
ceed in dying to all things, besides that thy path will be
sown with thorns, thou shalt not reach the perfection
thou desirest, nor the state to which the Lord calls thee.
759. If the world will not forget thee, do thou forget
it; if it will not leave thee alone, remember that thou
hast forsaken it, and that I have separated thee from it.
If it follow thee, fly;
if it flatter thee, despise it; if it
contemn thee, suffer it ;
and if it seek thee, let it not find
thee except in so far as will be to the glory of the Most
High. But as regards all the rest, thou must not any
more bear it in mind, than the living remember the dead.
Forget it just as the dead forget the living, and I desire
that thou have no more intercourse with this world, than
the dead have with the living. It will not seem extraor
dinary to thee, that in the beginning, in the middle and
at the end of this history I repeat so often this doctrine,
if thou ponder what depends upon thy practicing
it. Con
sider, my dearest, what persecutions the devil has roused
against thee in secret through the world and its inhabi
tants under different pretexts and appearances. If God
has permitted them for the purpose of trying thee and for
the exercise of his grace,
it is proper, that, as far as thou
are concerned, thou take it as a lesson and a warning.
Remember that great
is the treasure which thou carriest
in a fragile vessel (II Cor. 2, 7) ,
and that all hell conspires
and rises up against thee. Thou livest in mortal flesh,
surrounded and assailed by astute enemies. Be a Spouse
of Christ my divine Son, and I shall be thy Mother and
Instructress. Recognize, then, thy need and thy weak
ness, and correspond with me as a dearest daughter, as
an obedient and perfect disciple in all things.
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