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these as worthless. but it does not at all make him worthy of insult; for neither does praise make one good, nor blame bad. in the thickness of the back of his shield. That his audacity is in evil, he shows in this: for as one who is invincible he uses the ... shield, having used its thickness and carnal practices. So also the false prophets, clothed in sheep's skin, "inwardly" were "ravening wolves." it is said about the devil in this very book: "Who will uncover the garment of his face, and who would enter into the fold of his breastplate?" For rare is the one who uncovers his evil. And just as the actor on stage, having one face, shows himself as another, so also the devil, "transforming himself into an angel of light," deceives and snatches away, and not as a devil; for if he were manifest, they would flee him. So also the harlot personified in Proverbs Pa402 insinuates the venom with fair words. and he would enter into uninhabited houses. These things seem to be said about the devil or about every evil and opposing power and soul partaking of the same evil; for things receptive of the same things are of the same substance. And if something is said about the devil as evil, as an evildoer, it is possible for this evil to be said also about another evil power. Therefore, we say about all evil in general, that it enters into uninhabited houses; for where there is a virtuous dwelling, the evil one has no place. And we can demonstrate this from the gospel: "When the unclean," he says, "spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finds none." And in these, waterless places are the souls that have been deprived of evil. For in many places the moisture of evil is called water: "then our soul has passed through the irresistible water." And the devil is "king" "of all that are in the waters," not of the perceptible ones—for these are the cre403ations of God—but of the evil and sinful who are held fast in that water, concerning which it has been said: "Many waters will not be able to quench love," instead of "evil does not hinder love." Therefore, when the unclean spirit, cast out from the person, seeks another house, seeks where it may lurk, it passes through waterless places, instead of "it does not sit in a soul"—for it finds it deprived of the foul liquids, so that someone speaks freely in this and says: "my soul is as a waterless land" "and it does not find rest there." The psalmist says something analogous somewhere: "when the evil one turned away from me, I knew it not." Therefore, "uninhabited houses" are those souls from which every virtue has been separated, in the absence of which God is absent and His Word and the Holy Spirit; into which the devil, the opposing power, will enter. But what they have prepared, others will carry away. Having spoken of opposing powers in the singular through "and he would enter into uninhabited houses," he adds in the plural: "But what they have prepared, others will carry away." For as many things as the wicked prepare for evil, others, being the saints, take them, tearing them away from those who hold them through the divine preaching, which the blessed apostles 404 have done, having been sent "to make disciples of all nations." And pay attention, that he did not say "what they have acquired," but "what they have prepared," and they have prepared it through evil, through pleasures, through the other evils. that he should neither be enriched, nor that his#6 possessions should remain. Of those things diligently prepared being demanded, how could he still be rich? For poor and ... ... of things prepared ... ... of his deceit ... ... good teachers... ... . Similar to this is "a partridge called, it gathered what it did not hatch; at its end they will forsake it, at its end it will be a fool." it shall not cast a shadow on the earth. Bodies are productive of shadows, and it is impossible for there to be a shadow if there is no body. And so this one, since in a certain manner having existed he does not remain— I do not say that his substance does not remain, but in the way he wished to be he does not remain—, therefore not

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τούτους φαύλους. οὐ πάντ̣ως δὲ ποιεῖ αὐτὸν ὕβρεως ἄξιον· οὔτε γὰρ ἔπαινος ἀγαθὸν ποιεῖ οὔτε ψόγος κακόν. ἐν πάχει νώτου ἀσπίδος αὐτοῦ. ὅτι θρασύτης ἐν τῷ κακῷ ἐστιν, δηλοῖ ἐν τούτῳ· ὡς γὰρ ἀκατα̣μάχητος χρῆται τῇ ····· ἀσπίδι χρησάμενος τῇ ταύτης παχύτητι καὶ τοῖς σαρκικοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν. οὕτω καὶ οἱ ψευδοπροφῆται δορὰν προβάτου περιβεβλημένοι "ἔσωθεν" ἦσαν "λύκοι ἅρπαγες". περὶ τοῦ διαβόλου λέγεται ἐν αὐτῷ τούτῳ τῷ βιβλίῳ· "τίς ἀποκαλύψει ἔνδυμα προσώπου αὐτοῦ, εἰς δὲ πτύξιν θώρακος αὐτοῦ τίς ἂν εἰσέλθοι;" σπάνιος γὰρ ὁ ἀποκαλύπτων αὐτοῦ τὴν κακίαν. καὶ ὥσπερ ὁ ὑποκρινόμενος ἐν σκηνῇ ἄλλο ἔχων πρόσωπον ἄλλοις ἑαυτὸν ἐμφανίζει, οὕτω καὶ ὁ διάβολος "μετασχηματι̣ζόμενος εἰς ἄγγελον φωτὸς" ἀπατᾷ καὶ συναρπάζει, και οὐχ ὡς διάβολος· εἰ γὰρ αν προφανῶς, ἔφευγον ἂν αὐτόν. οὕτω καὶ ἡ ἐν Πα402 ροιμίαις προσωποποιουμένη πόρνη χρηστοῖς λόγοις τὸν ἰὸν ὑποβάλλει. εἰσέλθοι δὲ εἰς οἴκους ἀοικήτους. ἔοικεν ταῦτα περὶ διαβόλου λέγεσθαι ἢ περὶ πάσης πονηρᾶς καὶ ἀντικειμένης δυνάμεως καὶ ψυχῆς μετεχούσης τῆς αὐτῆς κακίας· τὰ γὰρ τῶν αὐτῶν δεκτικὰ ὁμοούσιά ἐστιν. καὶ ἐάν τι περὶ διαβόλου λέγηται ὡς πονηροῦ, ὡς κακούργου, δυνατὸν ταύτην τὴν κακίαν καὶ περὶ ἄλλην δύναμιν πονηρὰν λεχθῆναι. καθόλου οὖν περὶ παντὸς κακοῦ φαμεν, ὅτι εἰσέρχεται εἰς οἴκους ἀοικήτους· ἔνθα γὰρ οἴκησίς ἐστιν σπουδαία, οὐκ ἔχει χώραν ὁ κακός. καὶ ἔχομεν ἐξ εὐαγγελικοῦ παραστῆσαι τοῦτο· "ὅταν τὸ ἀκάθαρτον," φησίν, "πνεῦμα ἐξέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, διέρχεται δι' ἀνύδρων τόπων ζητοῦν ἀνάπαυσιν καὶ οὐχ εὑρίσκει." ἄνυδροι δὲ τόποι ἐν τούτοις αἱ ψυχαί εἰσιν αἱ ἐστερημέναι κακίας. πολλαχοῦ γὰρ ἡ ὑγρότης τῆς κακίας ὕδωρ λέγεται· "ἄρα διῆλθεν ἡ ψυχὴ ἡμῶν τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ἀνυπόστατον." καὶ "βασιλεύς" ἐστιν ὁ διάβολος "πάντων τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν," οὐ τῶν αἰσθη τῶν-ταῦτα γὰρ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰσι δημι403 ουργήματα-, ἀλλὰ τῶν κακῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν τῶν ἐνεχομένων τῷ ὕδατι ἐκείνῳ, περὶ οὗ εἴρηται· "ὕδωρ πολὺ οὐ δυνήσεται σβέσαι τὴν ἀγάπην," ἀντὶ τοῦ «κακία ἀγάπην οὐκ ἐμποδίζει». ὅταν οὖν τὸ ἀκάθαρτον πνεῦμα ἐκβληθὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζητῇ ἄλλον οἶκον̣ ζητῇ ποῦ φωλεύει, διέρχεται δι' ἀνύδρων, ἀντ̣ὶ τοῦ «οὐ κάθηται ἐν ψυχῇ»-εὑρίσκει γὰρ αὐτὴν ἐστερημένην τῶν φαύλων ὑγρῶν ὥστε παρρησιάζεσθαί τινα ἐν τούτῳ καὶ λέγειν· "ἡ ψυχή μου ὡς γῆ ἄνυδρος" «καὶ οὐχ εὑρίσκει ἐκεῖ ἀνάπαυσιν». ἀνάλογ̣όν τι ὁ ὑμνῳδός που λέγει· "ἐκκλίνοντος ἀπ' ἐμοῦ τοῦ πονηροῦ οὐκ ἐγίγνωσκον." "οἶκοι" οὖν "ἀοίκητοί" εἰσιν αἱ ἐκεῖναι αἱ ψυχαί, ὧν κεχώρισται πᾶσα ἀρετή, ἧς ἀπούσης ὁ θεὸς ἄπεστιν καὶ ὁ τούτου λόγος καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα· εἰς οὓς ὁ διάβολος, ἡ ἀντικειμένη δύναμις, εἴσεισιν. ἃ δὲ ἐκεῖνοι ἡτοίμασαν, ἄλλοι ἀποίσονται. εἰπὼν περὶ ἀντικειμένων δυνάμεων ἑνικῶς διὰ τοῦ "εἰσέλθοι δὲ εἰς οἴκους ἀοικήτους" ἐπάγει πληθυντικῶς· "ἃ δὲ ἐκεῖνοι ἡτοίμασαν, ἄλλοι ἀποίσονται." ὅσα γὰρ παρασκευάζουσιν οἱ φαῦλοι εἰς κακίαν, ἄλλοι αὐτῶν ὄντες οἱ ἅγιοι λαμβάνουσιν ἀποσπῶντες αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν κατεχόντων διὰ τοῦ θείου κηρύγματος, ὅπερ οἱ μακάριοι ἀπόστολοι 404 πεποιήκασι ἀποσταλέντες "μαθητεῦσαι πάντα τὰ ἔθνη". καὶ πρόσσχες, ὅτι οὐκ εἶπεν «ἃ ἐκεῖνοι ἔκ τισανʹ, ἀλλ' "ἃ ἐκεῖνοι ἡτοίμασαν", ἡτοίμασαν δὲ διὰ κακίας, δι' ἡδονῶν, διὰ τῶν ἄλλων κ̣ακῶν. οὔτε μὴ πλουτισθῇ, οὔτε μὴ μείνῃ αὐ#6τοῦ τὰ ὑπάρχοντα. τ̣ῶν σπο̣υ̣δ̣ῇ ἑτοιμασθέντων ε᾿̣ξαιτουμένων πῶς ἂν ἔτι π̣λουτοίη̣; πένης γὰρ καὶ ϊροσγ̣····· ····ν̣ ἡτοιμασμένων ······ ···· α τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀπάτης ····· ·· ἀγαθοὺς διδασκαλ····· ···· νων. τούτῳ ὅμοιον τὸ "ἐφώνησεν πέρδιξ, συνήγαγεν ἃ οὐκ ἔτεκεν· ἐπ' ἐσχάτου αὐτοῦ ἐγκαταλείψουσιν αὐτόν, ἐπ' ἐσχάτου αὐτοῦ ἔσται ἄφρων." οὐ μὴ βάλῃ ἐπὶ γῆς̣ σκιάν. τὰ σώματα ποιητικὰ τῶν σκιῶν ει᾿̣σιν καὶ ἀδύνατον σώματος μὴ ὄντος σκιὰν εἶναι. καὶ οὗτος οὖν ἐπεὶ τρόπον τινὰ ὑφεστηκὼς οὐ μένει- οὐ λέγω, ὅτι ἡ οὐσία αὐτοῦ οὐ μένει, ἀλλ' οὕτως ὡς ἠθέλησεν εἶναι οὐ μένει-, διὸ οὐ