The distinction of thoughts

Regarding them: the Nazirites abstained from wine. And some of the wise men from without claimed that bile and stench were undefiled to the gods, not knowing, I think, what he was saying; for I consider that they thought the one was a symbol of wrath, and the other of irrational desire.

Concerning the fact that one ought not to be anxious for the sake of clothing or of food, I think it is superfluous to write, as our own Savior forbade in the Gospels: 'For do not be anxious, he says, about your soul, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or what you will put on' (Matthew 6:25-34). For the pagans act contrary to this, and the unbelievers reject the providence of the Lord and deny the Creator; but for Christians, such a thing is entirely foreign, having once believed that even the two sparrows that are sold are under the economy of the holy angels. However, it is also this habit of the demons, to cast in impure thoughts and those of anxiety, so that Jesus might exhale the thoughts of the crowd in the place of the intellect, and the word may become unfruitful, as it is choked by thorns (Matthew 13:22).

Chapter 6. Let us surely, those casting off thoughts from anxiety, cast our care upon the Lord, being content with the present things, and using a meager life, and let us strip off the garments of the fathers of vainglory daily. And if anyone thinks it shameful to be in meager clothing, let him look at the holy Paul, who expected the crown of righteousness in soul and in nakedness. But since the Apostle named this world a theater and a stadium, let us see, if it is possible, a man clothed in thoughts of anxiety running for the prize of the higher calling, or wrestling against the principalities and the powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this age (Ephesians 6:12); I do not know, even being educated from sensible history. For the athlete will be hindered by the obviousness of the tunic and will be easily tripped up, just as the mind is by the thoughts of anxiety, if he who says he is truly devoting his mind to treasure is telling the truth: 'For where your treasure is, he says, there will your heart be also' (Matthew 6:21).

Chapter 7. Of the thoughts, some cut, and some are cut; for the evil cut the good, and the evil are cut again by the good...

The Holy Spirit, having first been placed, attends to the thought, and judges us according to that, either accepting or rejecting what I say is such a thing. I have a certain thought of hospitality, and I have this for the Lord's sake, but when the tempter comes, it is cut off, suggesting hospitality for the sake of glory.

Again: I have a thought of hospitality toward being visible to men, but even this, when a superior thought comes, is cut off, which directs our virtue more toward the Lord and compels us not to do these things through men. If, therefore, we remain in the former thoughts through our works while being tempted by the latter, we shall have the rewards of the former thoughts alone, because being humans and having grown old, we are not able to always hold the right thought incorruptible, nor to not have the evil thought repeatedly, having acquired the seeds of virtues.

However, if anyone remains among the thoughts that are cut off in the place of the tempted one, and according to that, the man moving in the thought, will act. We have known, after much observation, that this difference exists between the angelic thoughts, the human ones, and those from demons: that first, the angelic ones investigate the natures of things and trace out their spiritual meanings. For example: for whose sake has gold come to be, and why is it sandy, and how it is scattered down among the forms of the earth, and after much toil and labor it is found? So that, having been found, it may be washed with water and delivered to fire, and in this way it is cast into the hands of craftsmen, those making the lamp, the censer, the altars, and the bowls, in which the Babylonian king, for the sake of our Savior, no longer drinks now (Daniel 5:4), and Cleopa bears a heart burning from these mysteries.

But the demonic thought neither knew these things nor understands them; it only proposes the possession of perceptible gold, and foretells the luxury and glory expected from it. But the human thought seeks neither the possession, nor investigates what the symbol of gold is, but it only brings into the intellect the bare form of gold, separated from the passion of greed; but the [demonic thought...]