not allowing him to depart
from us without further chastisement and humiliation. "Do not leave
off the conflict until the enemy is, as it were, wearied out, dead, and
yields himself up discomfited."[29]

"When the assaults have ceased," says Scupoli, "excite them again, so
as to have an opportunity of overcoming them with greater force and
energy. Then challenge them again a third time so as to accustom
yourself to repulse them with scorn and horror."[30]

Remember, however, as a point of the most extreme importance, that this
course should never be adopted in temptations against faith or against
purity. In these cases there should be an immediate avoidance of the
thought and occasion of the temptation, and the mind should be
instantly diverted utterly from it by definite occupation of a contrary
nature.

VII. _The Final Phase of Victory_

The counsel of the author of "The Spiritual Combat," appeals to us not
only as coming from {147} a great guide of souls, but because (as is
always the case with the wisdom of the Saints), it answers our sense of
the fitness of things. A poor soldier he would be who never planned to
fight on the offensive, who never sought to carry the war into the
enemy's country. The Blessed Christ has organized the armies of the
Kingdom not merely for the protection of a weak and incapable people,
but for the positive conquest of Satan through the strength and
aggressiveness of His soldiers. In the account of the armour of God as
given us by St. Paul,[31] we are, it is true, told of the breast plate,
the shield, and the helmet, all armour of defence; but we are also told
of the feet shod that the soldier might march straight forward; and of
the sword of the Spirit with which we are to slay the adversary.

Under the old dispensation, too, the Spirit taught the like truth. In
one of the chiefest of the Psalms of consolation,--the 91st,--the soul
is spoken of as finding its refuge in the very secret place of the Most
High; as being covered with His wings,--shielded from the mysterious
terror that walks by night, from the arrow that flies by day; and there
is mention of shield and buckler, weapons of defence. But also there
is mention of the splendid feats of aggressive conquest that {148} God
expects from those to whom He accords His almighty protection. "Thou
shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample under feet."

The contrast between the