Psalms 140:5

"The proud have hidden a trap for me" (ver. 5). He hath briefly described the whole body of the devil, when he saith, "the proud." Hence is it that for the most part they call themselves righteous when they are unrighteous. Hence is it that nothing is so grievous to them as to confess their sins. They are men who, being falsely righteous, must needs envy the truly righteous. For none envieth another in that which he wisheth not either to be or to seem. ...Hence come all allurings and trippings up of others. This the devil first wished, when falling himself he envied man who stood. ...But those "proud ones have hidden a trap for me;" they have sought to trip up my steps. And what have they done? "And have stretched out cords as traps." What cords? The word is well known in holy Scripture, and elsewhere we find what "cords" signify. For "each one is holden with the cords of his sins," saith Scripture. And Esaias saith openly, "Woe to them that draw sin like a long rope." And why is it called a "cord"? Because every sinner who persevereth in his sins, addeth sin to sin; and when he ought by accusing his sins to amend, by defending he doubleth what by confession he might have removed, and often seeketh to fortify himself by other sins, on account of the sins he hath already committed. ...But these their sins they "spread" for the righteous, when they persuade them to do the evils which they themselves do. Therefore he said, "they spread cords and traps;" that is, by their sins they desired to overthrow me. And where did they this? "Beside the paths have they laid a stumbling-block for me:" not in the paths, but, "beside the paths." Thy "paths" are the commandments of God. They have "laid stumbling-blocks beside the paths;" do not thou withdraw out of the paths, and thou wilt not rush upon stumbling-blocks. […]

Divine readings uplift us, lest we be broken by despair; and again they terrify us, lest we be inflated by pride. To hold, however, the middle way, true and straight, as if between the left of despair and the right of presumption, would be very difficult for us, unless Christ said: I am the way. I am, he says, the way, the truth, and the life. As if he were saying: Which way do you want to go? I am the way. Where do you want to go? I am the truth. Where do you want to remain? I am the life. Therefore, let us walk securely in the way; but let us fear the pitfalls next to the way. The enemy does not dare ambush on the way, because Christ is the way; but next to the way, he plainly does not cease. Hence it is said in the Psalm: They have set snares for me alongside the path. Another Scripture says: Remember that you are walking amidst traps. These traps, among which we walk, are not on the way, but still they are next to the way. Why do you fear, why do you dread, if you walk on the way? Then you should fear if you leave the way. For this reason, the enemy is even allowed to set traps alongside the way, so that out of the exultation of security, the way is not abandoned, and one does not fall into the snares.

Beside the path they have set a stumbling-block for me. That is: by bringing forward testimonies from the Scriptures, which seemed to have some semblance of reason, they were trying to deceive me.

Now these demons, if they see all Christians—and especially monks—joyfully laboring and making progress, first attack by attempting to place stumbling blocks in their way. Their "stumbling blocks" are filthy thoughts. But there is no need for us to fear the things they throw at us; through prayer and fasting and faith in the Lord the demons immediately fall. Having fallen, however, they do not stop but advance once more with deceit and cunning. Since they have been unable to deceive the heart openly through filthy pleasure, they renew their attacks on it by other means.

), conceited of themselves and confident of their success; and herein also they resemble Satan, whose reigning ruining sin was pride. The pride of persecutors, though at present it be the terror, yet may be the encouragement, of the persecuted, for the more haughty they are the faster are they ripening for ruin.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens