examination of the heart 520 Wherefore the Apostle rightly exhorts: “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Pet 5:8-9) and in prudence. 2. Consider that prudence is most necessary for you in two things, namely: in doing good and avoiding evil. The good is done prudently when preceded by a right intention; when no boastfulness or personal interests are involved; when just means are employed to accomplish it; when it begins and ends with unconquerable firmness and fortitude; when the better good is chosen out of two; when actions are performed with the greatest possible perfection, and, no annoyance or trouble results from them by reason of carelessness either for us or someone else. By prudence harms are evaded, too, when they are foreseen a long time in advance. Finally, by prudence we either do not fall to temptations, or by a magnanimous spirit and by wise judgment we exclude, reject, and expel those which inadvertently have entered and occupied the soul and we do not at all let them to get the upper hand on us, unless it happens by God’s arrangement and permission for our greater good or humiliation. 3. Recount these actions of prudence: 1) To consider that the goal of your whole life is, naturally, serving God and doing things that are pleasing to God, as well as attaining the heavenly happiness and also considering the end of virtue in every action and every [f.170r] occupation. 2) To ponder the means of attaining that aim by observing the divine laws; to ask for God’s light for discerning His will in any action, to undertake extraordinary prayers for this intention, and also to anticipate every work, especially of great importance, by attentive reflection, consultation, and the advice of the others, not relying only on oneself. 3) To weigh out and properly differentiate things brought for consultation; separating the useless from the useful, the evil from the good, the more important from the less important. At the
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