Where, after all, does evil come to a human being from, but from a human being? Count how many evils people suffer from outwardly. Those that are not evidently caused by other people are extremely few. Of evils coming to a human being from a human being there are plenty. Thefts come from a human being, adultery with his wife he suffers from a man, his slave is induced to do something unlawful by a human being, he is hoodwinked by a human being, he is outlawed by a human being, he is overthrown by a human being, he is taken prisoner by a human being. Deliver me, Lord, from the evil person.

Do you see how holy Scripture knows how to call human only the person practicing virtue and does not think the others are human, calling them instead flesh at one time and earth at another? Hence at this place, too, in promising to list the genealogy of the good person it says, Noah was a human being. You see, he alone was a human being, whereas the others were not human beings; instead, while having the appearance of human beings they had forfeited the nobility of their kind by the evil of their intention, and instead of being human they reverted to the irrationality of wild animals. Sacred Scripture assigns the names of wild beasts to human beings, rational creatures that they should be, in the event of their lapsing into evil and falling prey to irrational passions. Listen, for example, to its words, They turned into rutting horses.^[1] See how it gives them the animal’s name on account of their unbridled lust. Elsewhere, on the other hand, it says, Poison of serpents on their lips; here it highlights their resemblance to the animal’s trickery and duplicity. Again, it calls them dumb dogs.^[2] And again, Like a deaf adder that blocks its ears,^[3] referring to their stopping their ears against instruction in virtue. You would find many other names imposed by sacred Scripture on people seduced by their indifference into bestial passions.

Now these demons, if they see all Christians—and especially monks—joyfully laboring and making progress, first attack by attempting to place stumbling blocks in their way. Their stumbling blocks are filthy thoughts.^[1] But there is no need for us to fear the things they throw at us; through prayer and fasting and faith in the Lord the demons immediately fall. Having fallen, however, they do not stop but advance once more with deceit and cunning. Since they have been unable to deceive the heart openly through filthy pleasure, they renew their attacks on it by other means. From this point on, fabricating apparitions, they pretend to frighten us by changing their shapes and taking on the appearance of women, wild beasts, reptiles and huge bodies and legions of soldiers.

Nevertheless, we need have no fear at all of their apparitions, for they are nothing, and they disappear in a hurry, especially if each person protects himself with faith and the sign of the cross. But they are brazen and completely shameless, for even if they are defeated by these means they attack again by some other method. They act like soothsayers, saying they can predict the future, and they make themselves as tall as the roof and as wide as a house so that by illusions of this sort they can carry away those whom they have been unable to deceive by thoughts. But if they find that the soul has been secured with faith and hopeful resolve, then they bring in their leader. LIFE OF ST.

So let us walk serenely along this highway without a care in the world, but let us have a healthy fear of the traps set beside the road. The enemy does not dare lay his traps on the highway, because Christ is the way; but next to the road, on the wayside, he certainly never stops doing so. That is why it says in the psalm, They set trip wires^[1] for me next to the path. Another text of Scripture also says, Remember that you are treading in the midst of snares.^[2] These snares we are treading among are not on the highway, but they are by the wayside. Why be in dread, why feel frightened, if you are walking along the way? If you abandon the way, that is the time to be afraid. I mean, the reason the enemy is even permitted to set his snares beside the way is to make sure that in a mood of happy-go-lucky carelessness you do not abandon the way and fall into his traps.

Who is so foolish that, when he hears what is sung in the psalm, Do not give me up, O Lord, from my desire to the wicked, he says this person was praying that God should not be patient with him, as though, as you say, God does not give a man up so that evils are done except to show his patient goodness? Do we not ask daily, Lead us not into temptation,^[1] lest we be given up to our lusts? For everyone is tempted by being drawn away and enticed by his own concupiscence.^[2] Therefore, should we not ask for God’s mercy instead of asking him to show us his patient goodness? What sane person understands this; indeed, what maniac says this? Therefore, God gives people up to shameful lusts that they may do what is not fitting; but he gives them up fittingly, and these acts not only are sins, as well as punishments for past sins, but also they demand future punishments, just as he gave Ahab up to the lie of the false prophets and gave Rehoboam up to false advice.^[3]