the holy and the blessed life, in which (as it is only after many struggles that we are able to reach it) we ought so to continue, that no satiety of that blessedness should ever seize us; but the more we perceive its blessedness, the more should be increased and intensified within us the longing for the same, while we ever more eagerly and freely receive and hold fast the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But if satiety should ever take hold of any one of those who stand on the highest and perfect summit of attainment, I do not think that such an one would suddenly be deposed from his position and fall away, but that he must decline gradually and little by little, so that it may sometimes happen that if a brief lapsus take place, and the individual quickly repent and return to himself, he may not utterly fall away, but may retrace his steps, and return to his former place, and again make good that which had been lost by his negligence. Footnote 73: Ps. li. 11. Footnote 74: Dan. iv. 8. Footnote 75: John xx. 22. Footnote 76: Luke i. 35. Footnote 77: 1 Cor. xii. 3. Footnote 78: Acts viii. 18. Footnote 79: Cf. Matt. xii. 32 and Luke xii. 10. Footnote 80: Cf. _Hermæ Past._ Vis. v. Mandat. 12. Footnote 81: Per quem Spiritus Sanctus factura esse vel creatura diceretur. Footnote 82: Gal. v. 22. Footnote 83: Gal. iii. 3. Footnote 84: Isa. xlii. 5. Footnote 85: Isa. vi. 3. Footnote 86: Hab. iii. 2. Footnote 87: Luke x. 22. Footnote 88: 1 Cor. ii. 10. Footnote 89: Cf. John xvi. 12, 13, and xiv. 26. Footnote 90: John iii. 8. Footnote 91: Ex. iii. 14. Footnote 92: Rom. x. 6-8. Footnote 93: John xv. 22. Footnote 94: Jas. iv. 17. Footnote 95: Luke xvii. 20, 21. Footnote 96: Gen. ii. 7. Footnote 97: Gen. vi. 3. Footnote 98: Ps. civ. 29, 30. Footnote 99: Terra. Footnote 100: John xx. 22. Footnote 101: 1 Cor. xii. 3. Footnote 102: Acts i. 8. Footnote 103: Ps. xxxiii. 6. Footnote 104: 1 Cor. xii. 4-7. Footnote 105: 1 Cor. xii. 11. Footnote 106: 1 Cor. xii. 6. CHAPTER IV. ON DEFECTION, OR FALLING AWAY.