XV
HOW AVARICE TOOK THE NAME OF DISCRETION
But whilst my Disciples were thus walking in so great Fervour of the Love of Christ, Avarice, taking to herself the Name of Discretion, spake and said unto them: Do not show yourselves so severe to Mankind, nor thus contemn their Honours, but have a kindly Countenance for them, and do not outwardly reject the Honours offered to you: be content to do so inwardly. It is a good thing to have the Friendship of Kings, the Acquaintance of Princes, the Intimacy of the Great, for if they honour and venerate you, if they rise up to meet you, many seeing this shall follow their Example, and be the more easily turned to God. And my Friends, acknowledging these advantages, but not guarding themselves from the Snare which ♦Ps. cxlii. 4.♦ had been set in the Way, in the End embraced Honours and Glory with all their Heart. They thought themselves to be inwardly such as they seemed outwardly, but they gloried in the Praises they received, and were like the Foolish Virgins without Oil, profitless servants upon the Earth. And Men who believed them to be interiorly that which they seemed exteriorly, freely offered them their Goods in Remission of their Sins. In the beginning they had counted all these ♦Phil. iii. 8.♦ Things as dung, saying: We are Poor Men and always desire to be Poor; we do not desire your goods but you. We have Food and wherewithal ♦1 Tim. vi. 8.♦ to cover ourselves and desire no more, for Vanity of ♦Eccl. i. 2.♦ Vanities and All is Vanity. Wherefore the devotion of Men towards them increased still more, so that many held in small Regard the Goods which they saw thus despised of the Saints.