The Economy of God and the Defeat of the Devil

Because of that dark cause and the night, which is called excessive and dim, so that some correction might arise from repentance... he prays that the one who has come into repentance be made as if enclosed in that year, about which the Psalmist says: 'He will bless the crown of the year with your goodness' (Ps 65:11), and to sing, progressing: 'You will teach me in your counsel in your power' (Ps 25:5). 'And let neither joy nor gladness come upon it.'

Being a fellow-laborer, the saint prays that no one should fall and be delighted or find pleasure in this. For often, seeing someone hastening toward evil deeds, we pray, saying: 'May he not happen to be the one striving.' With this same mind, the saint, while praying, sings, not cursing: 'Let the deceitful lips that speak lawlessness against the righteous with pride be made silent, and let them be brought to nothing' (Job 5:1). And for the deceitful lips to become silent, what would it be other than to cease speaking unjustly, once the speaker recognizes how improper such a thing is?

And he, therefore, prays that no one might be so perverted as to think that it is a matter of indifference or a source of joy to fall into the state that leads to human weakness. The Savior himself says: 'It would have been good for him if that man had not been born' (Matt 26:24), and in Ecclesiastes it is shown: 'Better is the one than these two, who has not yet become' (Eccl 4:3). But for the one not yet born, since the birth is clearly shown to be a good thing if it happens, it does not happen without foundation. 'But he will curse it, the one who curses that day, he who is about to grasp the great worm' (Job 5:1).

This is the prayer for the loosening of the cause of what happens, being evils for those who have come upon the path of birth through themselves, and pains for those through others. He prays, therefore, that the fall might be a curse worthy of the actual cause of the human accident, so that those being born in it, recognizing that it is full of curses, might flee from it as...

It is not a different energy of the conquering God, but according to the economy, to join with the one who conquers. For he did not say, 'but the conqueror will destroy that day' and add 'the creator' or 'the teacher'—nor does he follow with these, but 'he who is about to seize the great sea monster'.

Since the devil has been called the cause of the fall of men, he brings a prayer for this, in order that it might be loosed, following the prophecy, as 'the devil, who has the power of death, shall be destroyed' (Hebrews 2:14); for this was foretold to the purity of the soul moved by the Holy Spirit, as also authority will be given to the saints 'to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy' (Luke 10:19), so that others, rising up from these, might be delivered from the clinging sin as they hear of progressing in virtue: 'he shall tread upon the shield and the basilisk and shall trample the lion and the dragon' (Psalm 91:13), who is the devil. For it is said concerning him: 'our adversary the devil, as a lion, walks seeking someone to devour' (1 Peter 5:8), and again: 'having crushed the heads of the dragon' (Revelation 12:5).

And well is 'he who is about to' said, signifying that according to the incarnation. For it was not fitting to destroy the devil by naked divinity, but through this temple of the Word having come to be, who was born from the seed of the one deceived and harmed by the devil. For it was a boast for him to have existed having seized him by naked divinity.

But the various names of the devil signify his various energies, not his essence. For devil, and adversary, and evil, and lion, and dragon, and serpent, and sea monster, are called because of the manner of his evil working in different ways, which is a subversion of the Manichaean dogma. 'Let the stars of that night be darkened and not remain, and not come into light, and not see the Morning Star rising' (Isaiah 14:12). The things having happened on the fourth day...