Moralia in Job 868

51. That the ancient serpent was cast out by the hand of God from the hearts of sinners, as from his own caverns. — For who is called by the name of the serpent, but the ancient enemy, both slippery and tortuous, who in deceiving man spoke through the mouth of a serpent? Of whom it is said through the prophet: 'Leviathan the serpent, the crooked bar' (Isa. 27:1). Who was permitted to speak through the mouth of a serpent for this reason, that from his very vessel man might know what sort he was who dwelt within. For the serpent is not only tortuous, but also slippery. Because, therefore, he stood not in the uprightness of truth, he entered a tortuous animal.

But because, if his suggestion be not resisted at its first onset, he suddenly glides wholly, while unperceived, into the inner parts of the heart, he made words to man through the slippery animal. But the caverns of this serpent were the hearts of the wicked. Which, because he drew to depravity as his own, he as it were rested in their dwelling. But by the midwifing hand of the Lord, the tortuous serpent was expelled from his own caverns, because, while the divine grace heals us, that ancient enemy who had held us is cast out from us, as the incarnate Truth says: 'Now shall the prince of this world be cast out' (John 12:31).

Whence now henceforth he possesses all the saints not by holding but persecutes them by tempting. For because he does not reign within them inwardly, he fights against them outwardly; and because within he has lost dominion, he stirs up wars without. For He drove him out from the carnal hearts of men, who came to the Incarnation for the sake of men; and while he held the hearts of unbelievers, he as it were sent his hand into the hiding-places of the serpent. Whence rightly it is said through the prophet: 'The suckling child shall play upon the hole of the asp; and the weaned child shall put his hand into the den of the basilisk. They shall not hurt nor kill in all my holy mountain' (Isa. 11:8). For whom does he call the infant at the breast, or the one who has been weaned, but the Lord?

But what did he signify by the hole of the asp and the dens of the basilisk, but the hearts of the wicked? Because the ancient enemy, while he betook himself wholly into their consent, as though a tortuous serpent in his own hole, coiled up the folds of his cunning by gathering them together. Whom he calls both by the name of the asp, raging secretly, and of the basilisk, striking openly. The Lord, therefore, put His hand into the hole of the basilisk and of the asp, when by divine power He held the hearts of the wicked; and He drew thence the seized asp, or basilisk — that is, the captive devil — that in His holy mountain, which is the Church, he might not hurt the chosen faithful. 52. That the devil is compared to a lion. — Hence indeed in the Song of Songs, at the Bridegroom's coming, it is said:

'Thou shalt be crowned from the head of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of lions' (Cant. 4:8). For what else is designated by the name of lions but the demons, who rage against us with the most savage cruelty? And because sinners have been called to the faith, whose hearts were once the dens of lions, while the Lord is believed to have conquered death by their confession, He is as it were crowned from the dens of lions. For a crown is the reward of victory. As often, then, do the faithful offer Him a crown, as often as they confess by the resurrection that He conquered death. The lion, therefore, is driven from his dens, because, by the midwifing hand of the Lord, the tortuous serpent is forbidden to dwell in the caverns which he had held.

For, conquered, he departed from the hearts of the faithful, he who over these before had reigned with the sceptre of perfidy. 53. That Christ's first coming was in humility, His second in terror. — Behold, in few and brief sentences the holy man has related the order of the Lord's coming, has expressed its weight, and, in wonder, has narrated what could be wrought by His incarnation. But He who wrought marvels in coming in humility cannot be considered with how great terror He will come, appearing in the strength of His majesty. The order of that first coming could be weighed and beheld only in so far as, coming to redeem carnal men, He tempered the greatness of His divinity to carnal eyes.

But who could bear the terror of His loftiness, when, in the power of His second coming exercising judgment through fire, He shall have glowed white-hot in the majesty of His power? Whence the holy man narrates that first coming of His, but grows weary before the second, saying: