A man should in the first place act as when a town is besieged, and
it is certain that the besieging army is stronger than the town.
When the town is weakest, men take the very greatest care to guard
and defend the town; if they neglected to do so, they would lose the
town, and with it their lives and properties. So should every man
do: he should be most careful to find out in what things the evil
spirit most often besets him--that is, on what side the man is
weakest, and to what kind of errors and failings he is most prone,
and should manfully defend himself at those points.

Next, turn thyself earnestly away from sin; for I tell you of a
truth, by whatever temptation a man is assailed, if he turns not
from it heartily, but stands in it vacillating, he has no
wholehearted desire to leave his sins by God's will, and without
doubt the evil spirit is close upon him, who may make him fall into
endless perdition.

Know of a truth, that if thou wouldst truly overcome the evil
spirit, this can only be done by a complete manful turning away from
sin. Say then with all thy heart: Oh, everlasting God, help me and
give me Thy Divine grace to be my help, for it is my steadfast
desire never again to commit any deadly sin against Thy Divine will
and Thine honour. So with thy good will and intention thou entirely
overcomest the evil spirit, so that he must fly from thee ashamed.

Understand, however, that it is a miserable and pitiable thing for a
reasonable man to let himself be overcome by the evil spirit, and in
consequence of his attacks to fall voluntarily into grievous and
deadly sin, whereby man loses the grace of God. A reasonable man,
who allows himself voluntarily to be overcome by the evil spirit, is