What Order the Devil Follows in Waging Spiritual Warfare Against Everyone, and How He Deceives People of Different Moral Conditions

Know, beloved, that the devil cares about nothing except the destruction of each one of us, and that he does not wage war against everyone in the same way. So that you may see and understand this more clearly, I will present five moral conditions of people and describe the corresponding wiles, stratagems, and temptations of the enemy. These conditions are as follows: some remain enslaved to sin, having no thought of being freed from it; others, while they do think about such freedom and desire it, take no steps to attain it; there are also those who, after being freed from the bonds of sin and acquiring virtue, fall back into sin with greater moral corruption. Of this last group, some, in self-delusion, think that despite this they are still progressing toward perfection; others in carelessness abandon the path of virtue; and some turn the very virtue they possess into an occasion and cause of evil for themselves.

Against each of these the enemy acts in accordance with his particular disposition.