5. O! how great was the fervour of all religious in the beginning of their holy institution!
O! how great was their devotion in prayer! how great their zeal for virtue!
How great discipline was in force amongst them! How great reverence and obedience in all, flourished under the rule of a superior!
The footsteps remaining still bear witness that they were truly perfect and holy men: who waging war so stoutly, trod the world under their feet.
Now he is thought great who is not a transgressor: and who can with patience endure what he hath undertaken.
6. Ah! the lukewarmness and negligence of our state, that we so quickly fall away from our former fervour, and are now even weary of living through sloth and tepidity!
Would to God that advancement in virtues were not wholly asleep in thee, who hast often seen many examples of the devout!
Chap. XIX.
Of the exercises of a good religious man.
1. The life of a good religious man ought to be eminent in all virtue: that he may be such interiorly, as he appears to men in his exterior.