The Uninhabited Houses of the Soul

It is signified. But there is no need to be surprised that he says such things. For it has already been said that perhaps he brings these things forward from mishearings of the ancients. He knows in himself, as in Job 15:23b, that he remains in a state of falling. He says that the conscience of those committing sin knows the expectation of the habits of the wicked, that this is a state of falling.

A day of darkness shall surround him (Job 15:23c), instead of 'he is being tossed about by afflictions.' You have in Amos concerning this day: 'Woe to those who desire the day, and why is this day of the Lord upon you? And this is darkness and not light' (Amos 5:18–20), 'and a gloom where there is no light' (Amos 5:30). This is also in Job 10:22a. Necessity and tribulation shall cast him down (Job 15:24a). He says, therefore, that the wicked will fall into these things, preparing for all evil, because through sin he suffers these things (Job 15:24b), like a leading general falling. Even if it is not Job who is saying these things, but he possessed some knowledge of the devil, which it is likely he obtained from the words of Job or from other ancients. He calls him a leading general because of his primordial wickedness. He says, therefore, that necessity and tribulation, as mentioned in the preceding things, shall cast him down in such a way as a leading general; thus he too shall fall, being primordially wicked.

Insolence ran against him (Job 15:26a). It is manifest through the fact that he does not act in secret, but against the Lord. And insolence can be both arrogance and every injustice; for those being reproached makes them worthy of insolence. The one insulting someone says these words and calls them wicked. But he does not entirely make him worthy of insolence; for neither praise makes one good, nor reproach makes one bad. He is in the thickness of his shield. Because he is bold in evil, he shows this in this: for as he uses the shield as if invincible, through its thickness and through fleshly habits. So also the false prophets, having put on the skin of a sheep, were 'wolves snatching' from within. Concerning the devil it is said in this very book: 'Who shall uncover his face-covering, and who shall enter into the folding of his armor?' For he who uncovers his wickedness is sparse. And just as the hypocrite, having another face, shows himself to others, so also the devil...

Being transformed into an angel of light, he deceives and snatches away, and not as the devil; for if he were openly so, we would have fled him. So also the prostitute, personified in the poems, injects the venom with goodly words. But he enters 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 wickedness; for their receptive qualities are of the same kind. And if anything is said about the devil as evil, as a worker of evil, it is possible for this same wickedness to be said about another evil power. Therefore, in general, we say about every evil that it enters into uninhabited houses; for where there is a significant dwelling, the evil one has no place.

And we have from the Gospel to demonstrate this: 'When the unclean spirit,' he says, 'goes out from the man, it passes through dry places seeking rest and does not find it' (Matthew 12:43). But dry places in these matters are the souls that are destitute of wickedness. For often the moisture of wickedness is called water: 'So our soul has passed through the unsubstantial water.' And the devil is 'king of all those in the waters,' not of the senses—for these are works of God—but of the evils and the sinners who are caught in that water, concerning which it has been said: 'Many waters will not be able to quench the love' (Song of Solomon 8:7), instead of 'evil does not hinder love.'

Therefore, when the unclean spirit, having been cast out from the man, seeks another house, seeks where to make its den, it passes through dry places, instead of 'it does not dwell in the soul'—for it finds it destitute of the bad moistures, so that it may speak boldly in this and say: 'My soul is like a dry land' (Psalm 63:1) (and 'it does not find rest there'). The hymnist says something analogous: 'I did not know him when the evil one was turning away from me.'

Therefore, the souls there are 'uninhabited houses,' from which every virtue has been separated, and in the absence of which God has departed, and His word and the Holy Spirit; into which the devil, the opposing power, enters. And what those prepared, others will destroy. Having spoken about opposing powers uniquely through 'he enters into uninhabited houses,' he moves to the plural: 'What those prepared, others will destroy.' For as many as...