Ibid.—Terrible ones shall go and come upon him. 33. By as many vices as succeed one another to press the sinner, by so many malignant spirits going and returning is he laid waste.—Who in this place are called «terrible ones» but the malignant spirits, to be dreaded namely and fled by good minds? And because these same malignant spirits are to be believed each severally to attend upon certain particular vices, when this perverse man seems for a moment to forsake indeed some vices, but begins to practise others, upon him assuredly the terrible ones go and come, because they occupy the mind of the perverse with other evils, even if they forsake some. For often you may see a wicked man, set in earthly power, moved by grievous fury, carry out whatever anger has suggested;
and when the fury has departed, forthwith lust lays waste his mind; when lust is for a time intermitted, pride is immediately, as it were out of continence, substituted in his thought, and that he may be feared by others, he longs to appear terrible. But when the matter requires that he should speak something double, then, as it were laying aside the terror of pride, with relaxed speech he flatters; and when he has ceased to appear proud, he fears not to become double. In whose mind therefore vices succeed to vices, it is rightly said of him: They shall go and come upon him, the terrible ones, because by as many vices departing and succeeding as he is pressed, by so many malignant spirits, as it were going and returning, is his soul laid waste.