XXXV.  How shall this be?  Remember always the parable,121    Luke xi. 24. and so will you best and most perfectly help yourself.  The unclean and malignant spirit is gone out of you, being chased by baptism.  He will not submit to the expulsion, he will not resign himself to be houseless and homeless:  He goes through waterless places, dry of the Divine Stream, and there he desires to abide.  He wanders, seeking rest; he finds none.  He lights on baptized souls, whose sins the font has washed away.  He fears the water; he is choked with the cleansing, as the Legion were in the sea.122    Mark v. 13.  Again he returns to the house whence he came out.  He is shameless, he is contentious, he makes a fresh assault upon it, he makes a new attempt.  If he finds that Christ has taken up His abode there, and has filled the place which he had vacated, he is driven back again, and goes off without success and is become an object of pity in his wandering state.  But if he finds in you a place, swept and garnished indeed, but empty and idle, equally ready to take in this or that which shall first occupy it, he makes a leap into it, he takes up his abode there with a larger train; and the last state is worse than the first, inasmuch as then there was a hope of amendment and safety, but now the evil is rampant, and drags in sin by its flight from good, and therefore the possession is more secure to him who dwells there.

ΛΕʹ. Γενήσεται δὲ πῶς; Ἀεὶ τῆς παραβολῆς ἐκείνης μέμνησο, καὶ σεαυτῷ βοηθήσεις ἄριστά τε καὶ τελεώτατα. Ἐξῆλθεν ἀπὸ σοῦ τὸ ἀκάθαρτον καὶ ὑλικὸν πνεῦμα, διωχθὲν τῷ βαπτίσματι. Οὐ φέρει τὸν διωγμόν: οὐ δέχεται ἄοικον εἶναι καὶ ἀνέστιον. Πορεύεται δι' ἀνύδρων τόπων, καὶ ξηρῶν θείας ἐπιῤῥοῆς: ἐκεῖ φιλοχωρῆσαι βούλεται: πλανᾶται ζητοῦν ἀνάπαυσιν, οὐχ εὑρίσκει: βεβαπτισμέναις ἐντυγχάνει ψυχαῖς, ὧν τὴν κακίαν τὸ λουτρὸν ἐξέκλυσεν: φοβεῖται τὸ ὕδωρ: ἐμπνίγεται τῇ καθάρσει, καθάπερ ὁ Λεγεὼν τῇ θαλάσσῃ. Πάλιν ὑποστρέφει πρὸς τὸν οἶκον, ὅθεν ἀνεχώρησεν. Ἀναίσχυντόν ἐστι, φιλόνεικόν ἐστι, προσβάλλει πάλιν, πειρᾶται πάλιν. Ἐὰν μὲν εὕρῃ Χριστὸν εἰσοικισθέντα, καὶ πληρώσαντα τὴν χώραν ἣν αὐτὸς ἐκένωσεν: ἀπεκρούσθη πάλιν, ἀπῆλθεν ἄπρακτον, ἐλεεινὸν ἐγένετο τῆς περιπλανήσεως. Ἐὰν δὲ σεσαρωμένον καὶ κεκοσμημένον τὸν ἐν σοὶ τόπον εὕρῃ, κενὸν καὶ ἄπρακτον, ἕτοιμον ἐπίσης πρὸς ὑποδοχὴν τοῦδε ἢ τοῦδε τοῦ προκαταλαβόντος, εἰσεπήδησεν, εἰσῳκίσθη μετὰ πλείονος τῆς παρασκευῆς, καὶ γίνεται τὰ ἔσχατα χείρονα τῶν προτέρων, ὅσῳ τότε μὲν ἐλπὶς ἦν διορθώσεώς τε καὶ ἀσφαλείας: νῦν δὲ πρόδηλος ἡ κακία, τῇ φυγῇ τοῦ καλοῦ τὸ πονηρὸν ἕλκουσα: καὶ διὰ τοῦτο βεβαιοτέρα τῷ οἰκήτορι ἡ κατάσχεσις.