Mirror of the Honest Life and Eight Points of Spiritual Perfection

own senses, and do not be wise in your own eyes. Do not seek things higher than you, and do not scrutinize things stronger than you, but show yourself to be discreet, modest, and orderly in all things, because nothing immoderate, unstable, presumptuous, or disordered ever pleased God; but the spirit of the Lord rests upon the humble and the quiet.

Eighth and last: that you never be idle. For every idle person is in his desires. Love, therefore, the knowledge of the scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh; nor let your mind be vacant for various disturbances, which, if they settle in your breast, will dominate you and lead you to the greatest fault. Always, therefore, either read, or pray, or meditate on something sacred. For idleness has taught many evils; it is the death of the soul, the burial of a living man, and the sewer of all evils. Assign your exercises to each hour and day, comparing spiritual things to spiritual and bodily to bodily. In all things, beware of sin for yourself and of scandal for your neighbor. Immediately when you feel yourself stimulated by vain glory, or any temptation whatsoever, resist the beginnings, and be agile to do whatever you understand, through the admonition of another or by divine instigation, ought to be done. Learn to preside over yourself and to govern yourself, not others; order your own life, compose your manners, judge yourself, accuse and condemn yourself before yourself, and do not let any excess go unpunished. Be hard on yourself, never on others. In the morning, make an examination of the past night, and declare a caution for the day to yourself; in the evening, set up an account of the past day, and make an injunction for the coming night. Consider how much you progress, how much of the journey still remains for you; for a great way remains for you before the God of gods is seen in Zion. But when you have exercised yourself in these eight already mentioned, progressing from virtue to virtue, be cautious against the snares of the devil, lest he lead you away from them. Amen.