That would be renouncing the glorious
title of Christian, and the incomparable favor that God has conferred
upon us in creating us to live with Him forever. If it is useful to
consult our taste and aptitude it is because they are for the most
part indicative of God's will; hence we ought to employ them for the
purpose for which He gave them to us. Then the object of your
researches in this matter should be to discover God's will in that
state of life for which He has given you a pronounced taste and
aptitude; but, because the caprice of nature or character may
sometimes be taken for that taste and aptitude, you are not
altogether safe from deception without some other guarantee.
It frequently happens that man believes to be an inspiration from
God what is only the effect of badly-regulated passion or some bad
habit deeply rooted in the soul. In order to be sure that God has
given such a disposition or aptitude of the heart and mind as being
indicative of the state of life He would have us enter, it should be
possessed of the following conditions, namely: The sanction of time,
which is the instrument that God ordinarily employs to stamp the
impress of His will on the works that He operates in us.
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