Verse 9. — May He who has begun, Himself crush me utterly. 20. God mercifully corrects one who exalts himself over his virtues. — For often the Lord begins to work in us the crushing of vices; but when the mind, from the very beginning of its progress, is lifted up, and when it now as it were raises itself over its virtues, it opens an entrance to the adversary raging against it, who, penetrating the innermost parts of the heart, shatters everything that he finds in it of zeal for a good beginning; and he shows himself the more vehemently in the shattering of it, the more grievously it grieves, because it had been advanced even a little. Whence also, as the Gospel witnesses, by the voice of Truth, to the neglected house of conscience the unclean spirit, who alone went out, returns with seven spirits (Matt. xii, 45).
Lest, therefore, after the beginnings of divine correction, the ancient enemy should steal in, and drag toward the shattering of virtues, the holy man fittingly prays, saying: May He who has begun, Himself crush me. As if he plainly said: Let Him not cease to perfect by striking that which He has begun in me, lest, abandoning me to the adversary, He hand me over to crushing. Whence also it is fittingly added: