1.7

I have said these things because of the illnesses of the soul that become mixed with the body’s natural functions, when the soul is moved through them and becomes a follower of evil spirits, so that they work in its members. But I have also said that the soul itself has a distinct class of such illnesses of its own. For pride is an illness of the body itself; vainglory, however, is an illness apart from the body; likewise conceit, hatred, envy, anger, faintheartedness, impatience, and the other lesser things that arise from these.

But if the soul entrusts itself to God with its whole heart, then the good God gives it the Spirit of repentance and bears witness to it so that it may repent of each illness. The adversaries hinder it in these things, testing it in order to seize it for themselves and not allowing it to repent. But if it endures and obeys the Spirit who urges it to repentance, then its Creator also is moved with inward compassion by its labors in bodily privations—that is, in many fasts, vigils, much meditation, the word of God, abundant prayers, renunciation of the world, humility, and poverty of spirit. When the good God sees it enduring in all these things and considers its patience as it perseveres in temptations, He has mercy on it and helps it.