Therefore ought every one to be solicitous about his temptations, and to watch in prayer; lest the devil, (who never sleeps, but goes about seeking whom he may devour,) find room to deceive him.
No man is so perfect and holy as not to have sometimes temptations: and we cannot be wholly without them.
2. Temptations are often very profitable to a man, although they be troublesome and grievous: for in them a man is humbled, purified, and instructed.
All the saints have passed through many tribulations and temptations, and have profited by them: and they who could not support temptations, have become reprobates, and fell off.
There is not any order so holy, nor place so retired, where there are not temptations and adversities.
3. A man is never entirely secure from temptations as long as he lives: because we have within us the source of temptations, having been born in concupiscence.
When one temptation or tribulation is over, another comes on: and we shall have always something to suffer, because we have lost the good of our original happiness.
Many seek to fly temptations, and fall more grievously into them.
By flight alone we cannot overcome: but by patience and true humility we are made stronger than all our enemies.