"There is a great difference between those who put out the fire of sin within themselves by fear of hell or hope of future reward and those who from the feeling of divine love have a horror of sin itself and of uncleanliness and keep hold of the virtue of purity simply from the love and longing for purity. They look for no reward from a promise for the future, but delighted with the knowledge of good things present, do everything not from regard to punishment but from delight in virtue. ... it is a much greater thing to be unwilling to forsake good for good's own sake than it is to withhold consent from evil for fear of evil. For in the former case the good is voluntary, but in the latter it is constrained either by fear of punishment or by greed of reward and more or less violently forced out of a reluctant party. Those who abstain from the allurements of sin owing to fear will, whenever the obstacle of fear is removed, once more return to what they love and so will not gain any permanent stability in good."
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