or silver, can hardly be perceived upon that of a coarser kind; in like manner the stain of a venial sin, nay many times even that of a mortal sin, is scarce taken notice of amongst seculars, or it is looked upon only as a trifle, there being so great and general a corruption in the world. But in religious, who are the dearly beloved of God, the least imperfection is very considerable — the least immodesty, the least murmuring, the least impatient or hasty word is a very great offence, and gives great occasion of scandal amongst us. But amongst seculars, there is so little account made of such things, that oftentimes they never reflect on, nor take any notice of them. To have dust on our feet troubles us not, but the least particle that gets into the apple of the eye puts us to very great pain. Men in the world are like the feet of the mystical body of the Church, and religious resemble the eyes of the same body; so that the least fault in a religious is of very great and very bad consequence, because it works a far worse effect in him than it can do in a secular; and for this reason a religious lies under a greater obligation of watching, and taking care of all his actions than others do.
Another means already stated in one of the preceding chapters, which will serve to encourage us still more, is, that we should always imagine we have a great way to go, and that as yet we have advanced but very little. Our blessed Saviour also insinuates the adoption of this means by these words, " Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." For what, think you, does our Saviour mean by saying so? Can it be, that we should ever be able to come near the perfection of our heavenly Father? "Can any man be just in comparison of God?" (Job, iv. 17.) No, certainly. Whatever degree of perfection we can possibly arrive at, there will still remain an infinite distance between his perfection and ours. And yet our Saviour says to us, "Be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect." To let us understand that in the career of virtue there are no bounds, and therefore we should never be satisfied with what we have already done, but should labour continually to acquire what we still want. It is a usual saying with holy men, and with a great deal of reason, that a most certain sign of a person's being far from perfection is that he thinks himself arrived at it. For on the road of a spiritual life, the more a man travels, the more plainly he sees that he has advanced but little. St. Bonaventure says, " That the more a man ascends a hill, the more extensive will be his prospect; in like manner, the nearer we come to the top
