Ibid. — And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. 70. Under whose governance the devil does not wound the hearts of the good unto destruction. — Because, through the fact that he is by no means permitted to prevail unto the failing of the heart, being shut out from the inmost parts, he wanders outwardly. Who, even if for the most part he disturbs the virtues of the mind, in that very thing is outside, in that, God resisting, he does not wound the hearts of the good unto destruction. For he is permitted to rage against them only so far as is necessary, that being instructed by temptations they may be made solid; lest they attribute to their own strength the good things they do, lest they forsake themselves in the torpor of security, and dissolve themselves from the girding of fear:
but that they may watch the more skillfully for the guarding of their own advancement, the more they see themselves always to stand against the adversary in the battle-line of temptations.