ii. 12.) Wherefore? Since, if you turn and look back which God forbid and go back to your evil life, God will declare you to be excluded from heaven: " No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (S. Luke ix. 62.) Pray for the grace of the Lord, frequent the Holy Communion, make a daily meditation; blessed are you if you have progressed to do thus, and if, so doing, Jesus Christ shall find you, when He comes to judge you. " Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing." (S. Matt. xxiv. 46.) But do not believe, that now that you have set yourselves to serve God, temptations are either wanting or are at an end. " My son, if thou come to serve the Lord .... prepare thy soul for temptation." (Ecclus. ii. I.) Know that now, more than ever, you ought to prepare yourself for the battle, since your enemies, the devil, the world, the flesh, more than ever will arm themselves to fight against you, to make you lose what you have already gained. Denis the Carthusian says, " By how much any one the more bravely endeavours to serve God, by so much does the adversary rage against him." This is stated in the Gospel according to S. Luke, where it is said, " When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out Then goeth he and taketh seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." (S. Luke xi. 24, 26.) The " unclean spirit," when he is cast out of the soul, finds no rest, and he uses all his energy to return and enter into it; he even calls his companions to his aid; and if he succeeds in re-entering it, it will quickly be much worse with that soul in its second fall than it was at the first.
Consider, therefore, what arms you have, which will avail to defend you from these enemies, and to preserve you in the grace of God. Against being overcome of the devil, there is no defence save prayer; for S. Paul says, " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers." (Eph. vi. 12.) He wishes by this statement to warn us, that we have not strength to resist one so powerful, whence we need help from
