Third Point.
We come to the third enemy, which is the worst of all, that is the flesh; and let us see how we must defend ourselves from it. In the first place, by prayer; but this means we have already considered. In the second place, by avoiding any opportunities of sin; and this we desire now to consider thoroughly.
S. Bernardine of Sienna says, " That, amongst the precepts of Christ, one of the most celebrated, which is as it were the foundation of religion, is to flee from the opportunities of sin." If the devil did converse with us, he would tell us that the most hateful exhortations to him, are those which counsel, the flying from sinful opportunities; that he laughs at the resolutions and promises of a repentant sinner who does not avoid the temptations to sin. These opportunities, in reference to sensual pleasures especially, are as a bandage which is placed over the eyes, and which prevents any person from further seeing the resolutions he has made, the lights he has received, and the eternal truths; in short, it makes him to forget all things, and renders him like one blind. This was the cause of the ruin of our first parents their not fleeing from the opportunity of sin. God had prohibited them even to touch the forbidden fruit; for Eve said to the serpent, " God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." (Gen. iii. 3.) But the incautious one " saw," " took," and " did eat." First she began to admire the apple; then she took it in her hand; then she ate it: "He that loveth danger shall perish therein." (Ecclus. iii. 27.) S. Peter says that " your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (i S. Peter v. 8.) Hence, says S. Cyprian, what does he do when he seeks to enter a soul from whence he has been cast out? He bides the opportunity. " He explores what may be that part of it through the opening in which, it may be entered." If the soul suffer herself to be led with the sinful opportunity, the enemy truly will enter it again, and will devour it. The Abbot Guerric says, that Lazarus from the dead " came forth bound hand and foot with the grave-clothes," (S. John xi. 43); and rising so, returned to
