The Demons Do Not Fight Without Effort

But we believe that they do not undertake this struggle without effort on their part. In the conflict they themselves feel a kind of anxiety and dejection, especially when they are matched with stronger opponents, that is, with saints and perfect men. Otherwise there would be no contest or struggle assigned to them, only a simple deceiving of men, with no anxiety on their side. And then how would the apostle’s words stand, where he says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places”; and this too, “So I fight, not as one who beats the air”; and again, “I have fought a good fight”? For where it is spoken of as a fight, a conflict and a battle, there must be effort, exertion and anxiety on both sides; and equally there must lie in store for them either vexation and shame at their failure, or delight following their victory. But where one fights with ease and safety against another who struggles with great effort, and uses his will alone as his strength to overthrow his opponent, that ought not to be called a battle, a struggle or a contest, but a kind of unfair and unreasonable assault. But they certainly have to toil, and when they attack men they exert themselves no less, in order to win from each one the victory they want. And the same shame that awaited us, had we been beaten by them, is hurled back on them, as it is said: “The head of those who surround me, the trouble of their own lips will overwhelm them”; and, “His sorrow will be turned back on his own head”; and again, “Let the snare he does not know come upon him, and let the net he has hidden catch him, and let him fall into that very snare,” the snare, that is, which he devised to deceive men. So they themselves come to grief too. As they harm us, so they are harmed by us in the same way, and when they are beaten they do not go away without shame. One who had good eyes in his inner man saw these defeats and struggles of theirs. He saw too that they gloated over the falls and misfortunes of individual people, and, fearing that his own case might give them this kind of pleasure, he prayed to the Lord, saying: “Give light to my eyes, so that I do not sleep in death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed against him.’ Those who trouble me will rejoice if I am moved”; and, “O my God, do not let them rejoice over me. Do not let them say in their hearts, ‘Aha, aha, just what we wished’; and do not let them say, ‘We have devoured him’”; and, “They gnashed their teeth at me. Lord, how long will you look on this?” For “he lies in wait in secret like a lion in his den; he lies in wait to seize the poor”; and, “He seeks his food from God.” And again, when all their efforts are spent and they have failed to deceive us, they must “be put to shame and blush” at the failure of their efforts, they “who seek our souls to destroy them; and let those who plan evil against us be covered with shame and disgrace.” Jeremiah too says: “Let them be put to shame, and let me not be put to shame; let them be afraid, and let me not be afraid. Bring upon them the fury of your wrath, and destroy them with a double destruction.” For no one can doubt that when they are beaten by us they will be destroyed with a double destruction: first, because while men are seeking after holiness, they, who once possessed it, lost it and became the cause of man’s ruin; second, because, though they are spiritual beings, they have been beaten by fleshly and earthly ones. So each of the saints, when he looks on the destruction of his enemies and on his own triumphs, cries out with delight: “I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not turn back until they are destroyed. I will break them, and they will not be able to stand; they will fall under my feet.” And in his prayers against them the same prophet says: “Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me; overthrow those who fight against me. Take hold of weapon and shield, and rise up to help me. Draw the sword and shut off the way against those who persecute me; say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’” And when we have beaten these enemies by subduing and destroying all our passions, we will then be allowed to hear those words of blessing: “Your hand will be lifted up over your enemies, and all your enemies will perish.” So when we read or chant all these passages, and others like them found in Holy Scripture, unless we take them as written against those spiritual wickednesses that lie in wait for us night and day, we will not only fail to draw from them any edification to make us gentle and patient, but will actually meet with a dreadful result, one quite contrary to the perfection of the gospel. For we will not only fail to learn to pray for our enemies or to love them, but will actually be stirred up to hate them with an unrelenting hatred, to curse them, and to pour out prayers against them without ceasing. And it is terribly wrong and blasphemous to think that these words were spoken in such a spirit by holy men and friends of God. Before the coming of Christ the law was not laid on them, for the very reason that they went beyond its commands and chose instead to obey the precepts of the gospel and to aim at the perfection of the apostles, though they lived before the gospel’s appointed time had come. [a]