Be
thoroughly convinced of the truth expressed by the Evangelist St.
John, _that he is a liar who says that he loves God, and does not
keep his commandments._ Remember that the spirit of darkness, as
St. Paul tells us, can, and often does, transform himself into an
angel of light, and produce in the mind false lights, which dazzle
and blind it.
Now that you know in what the essence of piety consists, you ought
to learn in what faculty of the soul it resides, and this knowledge
will preserve you from many illusions, and point out to you the
direction in which you must advance in order to attain your end.
Piety, should, by its divine influence, penetrate all the faculties
of the soul and take possession of your whole being; it ought, as we
have said above, to make its presence especially felt in your heart,
by purifying all its affections; but its principal abode should be in
the will, through which it may reach all the other faculties in order
to elevate and vivify them.
The will is, indeed, if I may so speak, the organ or the instrument
of sacrifice and duty; and since piety properly consists in sacrifice
and duty, in suppressing the inordinate appetites of the human heart,
and elevating nature above herself, the will is the faculty in which
piety should reside.
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