400 God (done remo-ves hindrances lo hoUjfreedom. Job 39, our wish, fly away, those things which had previously dis- — '- — tressed the mind from its longing to acquire them, oppress it afterwards with the fear of loss. He therefore is set free, who, having trampled down earthly desires, is exonerated, in security of mind, from seeking after temporal things. And who hath loosed his bands? Thou understandest, Except Myself. 51. But the bands ofeach one are loosed, when by Divine help the inward bonds of carnal desires are burst asunder. For when a holy intention calls to conversion, but the in- firmity of the flesh still calls back from this intention, the soul is fettered and impeded, as it were, by certain bonds. For we often see many desiring indeed a life of holy con- versation, but fearing at one time the onset ofpresent mishaps, and at another future adversities, so as to be unable to attain it. And while they look forward, as if with caution, read*in-to evils which are uncertain, they are incautiously retained in the bands of their own sins. For they place many things before their eyes, on the occurrence of which in their course of life, they are afraid that they can not stand firm. Ofwhom P^ov- Solomon well says ; The way of the slothful is as an hedge ofthorns. For when they seek the way ofGod, the suspicions of their fears stand in their way, and wound them, as the thorns ofhedges which oppose them. But since this obstacle is not wont to oppose the Elect, he there proceeds to add, ibid. The way of the righteous is without an obstacle. For what- ever adversity may have fallen in their way of life, the righteous stumble not against it. Because with the bound of eternal hope, and of eternal contemplation, they leap over the obstacles of temporal adversity. The Lord therefore looses the bands of the wild ass, when He tears off from the mind of each of His Elect the bonds of weak thoughts, and kindly rends asunder every thing which was binding his enchanted mind. Jt follows ; Ver. 6. To whom I have given a house in the solitude, and his tabernacles in the land of saltness. XVI. 52. Ought we in this place to understand the solitude of the body, or the solitude of the heart } But what avails the ^solitude of the body, if the solitude of the heart be wanting ? 'Tyy^l ^•oi-'jtel^ho lives bodily removed from the world, but yet ST. MICHAEL'S -^^ > COLLtGe ^ \ \T