148. The internal and external of such people can be compared to poisonous substances coated with sugar; or to the gourds which the prophets' lads gathered and put in their porridge, so that when they came to eat it, they cried, 'Death in the pot' (2 Kings 4:38-41). Another possible comparison is with the beast from the land*, which had two horns like a lamb's and which had a voice like a dragon's (Rev. 13: 11). Later on the beast is called 'the false prophet.' Such people are like brigands in town among well-behaved citizens, who so long as they are there behave properly and speak reasonably, but when they return to the forest are wild beasts; or again like pirates who behave like human beings ashore, but like crocodiles at sea. Both of these groups, while they are ashore or in town, walk around like panthers dressed in sheepskins; or like monkeys dressed in human clothing, with a mask of a human face tied in front of their faces.
[2] They can also be likened to a prostitute who steeps herself in perfume, makes up her face with rouge, and dresses in white silk with a floral pattern; but when she returns home, she strips in front of a lascivious audience** and infects them with her contagion. Years of experience in the spiritual world have taught me that those who in their hearts deny the holiness of the Word or the divinity of the Lord are like this; for in that world all are at first kept in their external forms, but later on they are exposed in their internal forms, and then the comedy turns into tragedy.
*The Latin has 'from the sea', but this is not in this passage, but Rev. 13:1 **Latin luperci, the name of the ancient Roman worshippers of a fertility god.
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