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the habit of evil, which irrationally attaches itself to the three powers of the soul through the senses, and the activity of the senses upon them.

Therefore, the mind that knows how to knowledgeably consume invisible conflicts should not pursue natural contemplation; nor do anything else at the time of the attack of wicked demons, other than only to pray beforehand, and to subdue the body with labors, and to accomplish with all haste the removal of the earthly way of thinking, and to guard the walls of the city (I mean the guardian virtues of the soul, or the methods for guarding the virtues, I mean self-control and patience) through innate good thoughts; with absolutely no thought responding argumentatively to any of the external, intelligible enemies; lest, deceiving through things on the right, he may lead one away from God, stealing away desire, he who makes the soul drink a murky [Argent. etc. deceitful] overthrow, and through what are considered good things, drag the mind that seeks good things down toward worse things, speaking in the Jewish tongue, Rabshakeh the chief general of Sennacherib king (453) of Assyria. And Rabshakeh is interpreted, “much with a drink-offering with kisses,” or, “having great kisses.” For the wicked demon, who is accustomed to warring against the mind through things on the right, speaks in the Jewish tongue, making the soul drink the murky overthrow through what is considered, but is not, virtue; showing it a deceptive and destructive friendship; whose wounds from a friend who strikes are better. For it says: *The wounds of a friend are more trustworthy than the kisses of an enemy.* And Sennacherib is interpreted, “temptation of dryness,” or, “sharpened teeth,” who is the devil, who in truth through thoughts sharpened for wickedness (for this is what “sharpened teeth” means to me) dries up within us the outflow of the divine streams of knowledge, according to the activity which he is naturally disposed to effect in those who accept it, having received a fitting name; being and being called truly a temptation of dryness, as he makes desolate of all life-giving communication in the spirit those who have fallen prey to his deceits.

Or perhaps Sennacherib, that is, the devil, is called a temptation of dryness, as one without resource and poor, and deprived of all his own power for the insurrection against us; and without the sensibles, through which he is accustomed to warring against the soul, is able to harm us in no way, and because of this needs for his contrived tyranny over us, the springs outside the city, that is, the material thoughts, by which the forms and species of sensible things are naturally cast into the soul; through which sense, being naturally imprinted due to its relation, often becomes for the devil a wicked and destructive weapon for the destruction of the divine comeliness in the soul, betraying entirely to the enemy, through the flattery of pleasure, the power of the reason within us.

But he who has nobly closed his senses through so-called self-control, and through the powers of the soul has walled off the entrances of the forms of sensible things to the mind, easily destroys the wicked machinations of the devil, turning him back with shame by the way he came. And the way by which the devil comes is the material things that seem to be for the constitution of the body, into his own land, I mean confusion, slaying him with the wicked thoughts born from him, transferring them to the setting-forth of rest. For he who has been able to subdue the devil with his own thoughts, through the use of them for what is better according to contemplation, killed Sennacherib by means of his own sons, and drove him as a fugitive to his own land of Armenia; having laid down, that is, for the setting-forth of rest, the thoughts that confuse the soul through sense perception. For Armenia is interpreted as “setting-forth of rest.” And the setting-forth of rest is the assault of the divine virtues, (456) to which the mind, once transferring to the things according to

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τῆς κακίας ἕξιν, τήν παραλόγως ταῖς τρισί τῆς ψυχῆς διά τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπιφυομένην δυνάμεσι, καί τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐταῖς ἐνέργειαν τῶν αἰσθήσεων.

Χρή τοιγαροῦν μήτε φυσικήν μετιέναι θεωρίαν, τόν γνωστικῶς τάς ἀοράτους συμπλοκάς ὑπαναλίσκειν ἐσπιστάμενον νοῦν· μηδ᾿ ἄλλο τι ποιεῖν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων προσβολῆς, ἤ μόνον προεύχεσθαι, καί τό σῶμα πόνοις καταδαμάζειν, καί τήν τοῦ χοϊκοῦ φρονήματος διά πάσης σπουδῆς ποιεῖσθαι καθαίρεσιν, καί φυλάττειν τά τείχη τῆς πόλεως (λέγω δέ τάς φρουρητικάς τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετάς, ἤ τάς τῶν ἀρετῶν φυλακτικάς μεθόδους, ἐγκράτειαν λέγω καί ὑπομονήν) διά τῶν ἐμφύτων ἀγαθῶν λογισμῶν· μηδενός τό σύνολον λογισμοῦ ἀντιῤῥητικῶς τινι τῶν ἐκτός νοητῶν πολεμίων ἀποκρινομένου· μήπως διά τῶν δεξιῶν ἀπατήσας, ἀποστήσῃ Θεοῦ, κλέψας τήν ἔφεσιν, ὁ τήν ψυχήν ποτίζων ἀνατροπήν θολεράν [Argent. etc. δολεράν], καί διά τῶν νομιζομένων καλῶν, πρός τά χείρονα τήν τά καλά ζητοῦσαν ὑποσύρῃ διάνοιαν, λαλῶν Ἰουδαϊστί Ῥαψάκης ὁ ἀρχιστράτηγος Σενναχειρίμ βασιλέως (453) Ἀσσούρ. Ῥαψάκης δέ ἑρμηνεύεται, πολύς ποτισμῷ μετά φιλημάτων, ἤ, μεγάλα ἔχων φιλήματα. Ὁ πονηρός γάρ δαίμων, ὁ διά τῶν δεξιῶν τόν νοῦν εἰωθώς πολεμεῖν, Ἰουδαϊστί λαλεῖ, διά τῆς νομιζομένης, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ οὔσης ἀρετῆς, τήν θολεράν ἀνατροπήν τήν ψυχήν ποτίζων· δεικνύς αὐτῇ τήν ἠπατημένην καί ὀλέθριον φιλίαν· ἧς τοῦ πλήττοντος μᾶλλον φίλου καθέστηκε τά τραύματα κρείττονα. Φησί γάρ· Ἀξιοπιστότερα τραύματα φίλου ὑπέρ φιλήματα ἐχθροῦ. Σεναχειρίμ δέ, πειρασμός ξηρασίας ἑρμηενύεται, ἤ, ὀδόντες ἠκονημένοι, ὅς ἐστιν ὁ διάβολος, ὁ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν διά τῶν πρός κακίαν ἠκονημένων λογισμῶν (τοῦτο γάρ μοι νοεῖται ὀδόντες ἠκονημένοι) τήν ἐν ἡμῖν τῶν θείων ναμάτων τῆς γνώσεως καταξηραίνων ἀποῤῥοήν, κατά τήν ἐνέργειαν ἥν πέφυκε τοῖς αὐτήν παραδεχομένοις ἐμποιεῖν, λαχών τήν κλῆσιν τοῦ ὀνόματος πρόσφορον· πειρασμός ὄντως ξηρασίας καί ὤν καί καλούμενος, ὡς ἐρήμους καθιστῶν πάσης τῆς ἐν πνεύματι ζωτικῆς διαδόσεως τούς ὑποπεσόντας τοῖς δόλοις αὐτοῦ.

Ἤ τυχόν πειρασμός κέκληται ξηρασίας ὁ Σενναχειρίμ, τουτέστιν ὁ διάβολος, ὡς ἄπορος καί πένης, καί πάσης ἐστερημένος πρός τήν καθ᾿ ἡμῶν ἐπανάστασιν ἰδικῆς δυναστείας· καί χωρίς τῶν αἰσθητῶν, δι᾿ ὧν εἴωθε τήν ψυχήν πολεμεῖν, οὐδέν ἡμᾶς βλάψαι δυνάμενος, καί διά τοῦτι δεόμενος τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμῶν περινενοημένης τυραννίδος, τῶν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως πηγῶν, τουτέστι, τῶν ὑλικῶν νοημάτων, οἷς πέφυκεν εἰσβάλλειν τῇ ψυχῇ τά σχήματα καί τά εἴδη τῶν αἰσθητῶν· δι᾿ ὧν τυπουμένη φυσικῶς διά τήν σχέσιν ἡ αἴσθησις, πολλάκις γίνεται τῷ διαβόλῳ πρός καθαίρεσιν τῆς κατά ψυχήν θείας εὐπρεπείας ὅπλον πονηρόν καί ὀλέθριον, ὅλην προδιδοῦσα τῷ ἐχθρῷ, διά τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν θωπείας, τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν λόγου τήν δύναμιν.

Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ γενναίως διά τῆς λεγομένης ἐγκρατείας μύσας τάς αἰσθήσεις, καί διά τῶν κατά ψυχήν δυνάμεων τάς πρός τόν νοῦν αἰσθητῶν σχημάτων ἀποτειχίσας εἰσόδους, εὐχερῶς τοῦ διαβόλου τάς πονηράς διόλλυσι μηχανάς, ὑποστρέφων αὐτόν μετ᾿ αἰσχύνης τῇ ὁδῷ ᾗ ἦλθεν. Ὁδός δέ δι᾿ ἧς ὁ διάβολος ἔρχεται, ἐστί τά πρός σύστασιν τοῦ σώματος εἶναι δοκοῦντα ὑλικά, εἰς τήν ἑαυτοῦ γῆν, φημί δέ τήν σύγχυσιν, σύν τοῖς ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννηθεῖσι πονηρούς λογισμοῖς αὐτόν ἀποκτένων, μεταφέρων αὐτοῖς πρός τήν παράθεσιν τῆς ἀναπαύσεως. Ὁ γάρ δυνηθείς τόν διάβολον τοῖς αὐτοῦ χειρώσασθαι λογισμοῖς, διά τῆς πρός τό κρεῖττον κατά τήν θεωρίαν συγχρήσεως, τόν Σενναχειρίμ ἀπέκτεινε διά τῶν αὐτοῦ υἱῶν, καί πρός τήν γῆν αὐτοῦ ἐφυγάδευσεν Ἀρμενίας· καταθέμενος δηλονότι πρός τήν παράθεσιν τῆς ἀναπαύσεως, τούς τήν ψυχήν διά τῆς αἰσθήσεως συγχέοντας λογισμούς. Παράθεσις γάρ ἀναπαύσεως Ἀρμενία ἑρμηνεύεται. Παράθεσις δέ τῆς ἀναπαύσεώς ἐστιν ἡ προσβολή τῶν θείων ἀρετῶν, (456) πρός ὅν μεταφέρων ὁ νοῦς ποτε πρός τά κατ᾿