1 Samuel 11:3

And the elders of Jabesh said to him, etc. The more prudent and cautious ones in faith said to the heretics, in whom they recognized the voice of the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, just as Christ spoke differently in Paul and his followers: Do not force us to believe your new doctrine until, in seeking the light of the Holy Spirit, who was given to the sevenfold Church, we have thoroughly examined the writings of the Fathers; and if in them there is no one who defends our faith, we will come out to you, and, abandoning the Catholic unity which is within, we will instead join you, who have long since gone out from it and now attack it from outside, and we will listen as it is also read against us in it. They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us (1 John 2). These things they spoke not with any intention of assenting to the heretics, but being most certain of the paternal faith, they intended to conquer them by the just reasoning of their argument. This is similar to what the Psalmist says: If I have returned evil to those who rewarded me, I will fall empty by my enemies (Psalm 7). And what the Apostle says: For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain, our preaching is also in vain. And we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we have testified against God that He raised up Christ; whom He did not raise if the dead do not rise (1 Corinthians 15). These things were said not so that either the resurrection of Christ is denied, or the prophet is taught to return evil to those who rewarded him; but that by means of those things which could not be proven false, also those things about which there was doubt might be established as true.

4. Who are the inhabitants of Jabesh, that is, of "the dried," except those who maintain the discipline of an emaciated flesh through long practice of virtue? For many begin to resist gluttony, but when they start to grow weary from the labor of abstinence, they incline themselves back to the habit of their accustomed greediness. They desire, as it were, to enter the city of Jabesh and become its citizens, but since they cannot endure the torment of dried and hungering flesh, they can by no means become its inhabitants. Therefore those inhabit Jabesh who hold the attenuation of the body through strength of mind as a right of possession, and are surrounded, as it were, by the walls of dryness, since through the very fact that they emaciate the body they are protected from the fiery darts of lust. When they are wearied by the most powerful rising stings of gluttony, they seek a truce of seven days, during which, if help does not come, they will go out to Nahash. But we explain this war of the Ammonites better if we observe in it the weakness of the flesh caught out and the sagacity of the trained mind. We see this more clearly too if we attend more closely to the opposite case in the foolish and weak. For certain people within holy Church are devout in desire, but slack through their habitual weakness of vices. They can indeed propose good things, but because they are unable to carry out what they propose, they are both overcome by present concupiscence and trust that they can recover in the near future the good which they abandon in the present. Often indeed they resolve to fast, but when they are conquered by habitual gluttony, they judge that they must eat on that day and fast on days to come. And since the ferocity of gluttony is always present to them, and present too is the desire for future goodness, it is brought about by the serpent's deceit that the good which is proposed is never found. For "tomorrow," which is always promised, is never reached. But since this is done by those whose mind is weak and flesh strong, let us see how those whose mind is strong but flesh weak make a mockery of the serpent. For concerning this same serpent the Psalmist says to the Lord: "This dragon, which you formed, to make sport of him" (Ps. 103:27). For he is never more fittingly conquered than when his cunning is overcome by a holy deception. Hence also the Redeemer,…