Didymus the Blind

The devil does not fill someone or dwell in him by participation in his nature or being, as some think, but is thought to dwell in someone whom he has filled with confusion, deception and wickedness. With this same deception he entered the old men, who became cruel toward Susanna, and filled their souls with the passion of lust and the belated will of old age. In fact, it is written, “The two old men arrived, full of evil intentions.” He also filled the entire Jewish people with these deceptions. As the prophet says, “Woe to you, sinful nation, a people full of sins, evil seed, corrupt children.” “Evil seed” is the devil, and his children are called “sinners” because of their surpassing wickedness. If, therefore, those who are called “his children” in the Scriptures do not possess the devil according to a participation in being—because this has been shown, more than once, to be impossible in creatures—then neither can anyone else receive him by participation in his being but only by taking on an extremely treacherous will.