The torment of the demon and the sting of the viper

He discourses with Scriptures, yet is entirely calloused and does not listen; the things offered by men are a delusion to him, and he does not consider the shame from men, and this he does not understand at all, like a pig having covered its eyes and breaking the fence. And these thoughts, having aged this demon of vainglory, if the days had not been cut short, all flesh would not have been saved.

For even regarding those occasionally offending the brothers, the cause is manifest; for when being pressed by misfortunes, either in sickness, or in prison being unfortunate, or by sudden deaths falling upon them, this one flees, the soul being slightly subdued and coming into compassion, and the demonic callousness being dissolved, of which we are at a loss due to the desert and the scarcity of the weak among us.

Chapter 12. The Lord in the Gospels commanded those seeing the weak and those visiting in prison to flee most especially from this demon: 'For I was weak,' he says, 'and you visited me, and in prison you also came to me' (Matt 25:36). However, this is to be known: if any of the recluses, having fallen into this demon, did not entertain fornication thoughts, or did not leave the house of grief, he received temperance and patience descending from heaven, and he is blessed, having been made worthy of such an apatheia. But as for those who intend godliness and to associate with worldly things, let them guard against this demon. For I have more to say or write about him, and I am ashamed before men.

Chapter 13. All demons teach the soul love of pleasure; but the demon of grief does not accept doing this, but also destroys the thoughts that have entered, cutting off all pleasure and drying it up through grief. If even the bone of a sorrowful man is dried up, the recluse proves himself tested, fighting moderately.

For it persuades him not to approach anything of this world and to turn away from all pleasure; and by persisting more, it generates thoughts that lead him astray, with the soul advising him, or by forcing him to flee from places. This is what has been said of old, and even the holy Job was harassed by this, being troubled by the demon: 'If only I could, he says, master myself, or having prayed to another, he would do this for me' (Job 7:15-17). The viper is a symbol of this demon, a beast whose nature, being given to human-loving in a deceptive way, destroys the venom of other beasts, but being taken uncontrollably, it destroys the animal itself. Paul delivered the one who acted lawlessly in Corinth to this demon, for he writes again earnestly: 'Command, he says to the Corinthians, love toward him, so that such a one may not be consumed by excessive sorrow' (1 Cor 5:5). But we know that this becomes a tribulation for the spirit of man and becomes a precursor to good repentance for them; whence also the holy John the Baptist, those being stung by this and offering themselves to God: 'Brood of vipers, he says, who showed you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce therefore fruit worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as father; for I say to you that God is able to raise up from these stones children to Abraham' (Matt 3:7-9). However, everyone imitating Abraham, and coming out from his land and from his kin, has himself become stronger of this demon.

CHAPTER 44. If anyone is mastered by passion, he is mastered by demons; and if anyone is enslaved by this passion, he is entirely a stranger to the solitary life, and a stranger to the ways of our Savior; if indeed our Lord himself is said to teach the gentle the ways of his gentleness (Matt 11:29). Therefore, the mind becomes difficult to manage when it retreats into the field of gentleness; for none of the virtues is almost so...