Justice and Profit most help move the Will to good

February 5, 2022 • 1 min

From The Sinner’s Guide, page 13
By Venerable Louis of Granada

THE SINNER’S GUIDE.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST MOTIVE WHICH OBLIGES US TO PRACTISE VIRTUE AND TO SERVE GOD: HIS BEING IN ITSELF AND THE EXCELLENCE OF HIS PERFECTIONS.

Two things, Christian reader, particularly excite the will of man to good. A principle of justice is one, the other the profit we may derive therefrom.

All wise men, therefore, agree that justice and profit are the two most powerful inducements to move our wills to any undertaking.

Now, though men seek profit more frequently than justice, yet justice is in itself more powerful; for, as Aristotle teaches, no worldly advantage can equal the excellence of virtue, nor is any loss so great that a wise man should not suffer it rather than yield to vice.

The design of this book being to win men to virtue, we shall begin by showing our obligation to practise it because of the duty we owe to God. God being essentially goodness and beauty, there is nothing more pleasing to Him than virtue, nothing He more earnestly requires.

Let us first seriously consider upon what grounds God demands this tribute from us.

But as these are innumerable, we shall only treat of the six principal motives which claim for God all that man is or all that man can do.