he is accused, or withholding what he might owe, he would rightly be accused. 12 1, 17. But the righteousness of God is revealed to those who come from an older faith to a new one; for one must always believe in Moses so that one may also believe in Christ, and he who believes in Christ while not believing the prophets does not believe correctly, nor is this one properly said to believe. But “the just shall live by faith” teaches that if someone is just but does not have faith, or believes but is not just, he would not be saved. 13 1, 18. And “wrath” seems also to be said of the minister of the labors for things sinned, and those under him who are ministers of the same things, as when it was added that the wrath of God should burn in Israel, when David, being incited by it, commanded Joab to number the people. The second point is shown from “he sent upon them anger and wrath and affliction, a sending through evil angels.” But when the labors are through sins themselves; for thus I hear of “according to your hardness you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath,” and of “but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.” In addition to this, consider if <the> things that happen to the just, when the evil one tests them, are indeed wrath, but neither of God nor from heaven, but from somewhere below, either of the devil or of one of his angels. But against these things one might not implausibly counter that “our struggle is against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places”; for indeed these will seem, being wrathful, to wrestle with the saints and to bring upon them wrath from heaven. Is there not then a wrath from heaven and another from below, as we have shown, so that there is for us a wrath of God from heaven, and another from heaven, but not of God? 14 1, 24-26. Therefore, when godliness, which is the first virtue, goes out of the soul, self-control also goes out with it, and impiety enters into it, and licentiousness follows it, these things happening when the soul is given over; for it was not fitting, when piety was cast out, for God still to guard the impious soul, but for it to be given over to uncleanness, so that their bodies might be dishonored, having become temples of idols and worthy of all dishonor. For even if some impious idolaters practice self-control, yet self-control is a virtue that chooses a praiseworthy purpose, but these are of a wicked purpose; which is why the supposed virgins of the idols also exchange the natural use for that which is contrary to nature. 15 2, 7. And wrath is the labor that follows sinners for punishment, but they define anger as wrath fuming up and greatly swelling. And this anger has the work of convicting, whenever someone suffers something on account of sins, whether his conscience strikes him or some painful things follow upon the sin. But affliction also follows such people, not the kind that produces endurance, nor that in which one might boast, but that to which distress is joined. But one would not have been distressed, if one had breadth of heart from wisdom and had heard the apostle saying: be enlarged, you also; for evils are accustomed to contract and constrict the soul, so that the devil lurks in it as a serpent in a hole.

ἐγκαλεῖται, ἢ ἀποστερῶν οὗ ἂν ὀφείλῃ, εἰκότως ἂν ἐγκληθείη. 12 1, 17. Ἀποκαλύπτεται δὲ ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δικαιοσύνη τοῖς ἐκ πίστεως παλαιοτέρας εἰς νέαν ἥκουσι· πιστεῦσαι γὰρ ἀεὶ Μωϋσεῖ ἵνα τις πιστεύσει καὶ τῷ Χριστῷ, καὶ ὁ πιστεύων τῷ Χριστῷ μὴ πιστεύων τοῖς προφήταις οὐκ ὀρθῶς πιστεύει οὐδὲ λέγεται οὗτος κυρίως πιστεύειν. τὸ δὲ ὁ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται διδάσκει, ὅτι εἴ τις δίκαιος μὲν ᾖ, πίστιν δὲ μὴ ἔχει, ἢ πιστεύει μὲν, μὴ ᾖ δὲ δίκαιος, οὐκ ἂν σωθείη. 13 1, 18. Ἔοικε δὲ λέγεσθαι ὀργὴ καὶ ὁ διάκονος τῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἡμαρτημένοις πόνων καὶ οἱ ὑπ' αὐτὸν τῶν αὐτῶν λειτουργοί, ὡς ὅτε προσετέθη ἐκκαῆναι ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ, ὅτε ἀνασεισθεὶς ὑπ' αὐτῆς ∆αυὶδ ἐκέλευσε τῷ Ἰωὰβ ἀριθ μῆσαι τὸν λαόν. τὸ δὲ δεύτερον παρίσταται ἐκ τοῦ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς αὐτοὺς θυμὸν καὶ ὀργὴν καὶ θλίψιν, ἀποστολὴν δι' ἀγγέλων πονηρῶν. ὅτε δ' αὐτοὶ οἱ δι' ἁμαρτίας πόνοι· οὕτω γὰρ ἀκούω τοῦ κατὰ τὴν σκληρότητά σου θησαυρίζεις σεαυτῷ ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς, καὶ τοῦ ἔφθασε δὲ εἰς αὐτοὺς ἡ ὀργὴ εἰς τέλος. πρὸς τοῦτο ἐπίσκεψαι, εἰ <τὰ> συμβαίνοντα τοῖς δικαίοις, πειράζοντος αὐτοὺς τοῦ πονηροῦ, ὀργὴ μὲν ἐστίν, οὔτε δὲ θεοῦ οὔτε ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ, ἀλλὰ κάτωθέν ποθεν ἢ τοῦ διαβόλου ἤ τινος τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ. τούτοις δέ τις οὐκ ἀπιθάνως ἀνθυποίσει τὸ εἶναι ἡμῖν τὴν πάλην πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις· καὶ γὰρ ταῦτα δόξει ὀργιζόμενα τοῖς ἁγίοις παλαίειν καὶ ἐπάγειν αὐτοῖς ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ὀργήν. μή ποτε οὖν ἐστί τις ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ὀργὴ καὶ ἑτέρα κάτωθεν, ὡς ἀποδεδώκαμεν, οὕτως καὶ ἡμῖν ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ὀργὴ θεοῦ ἐστιν, ἑτέρα δὲ ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ μέν, οὐ θεοῦ δέ. 14 1, 24-26. Τῆς οὖν θεοσεβείας ἔξω τῆς ψυχῆς γενομένης ἥτις ἐστὶν ἀρετὴ πρώτη, συνεξέρχεται καὶ ἡ σωφροσύνη, καὶ ἀσέβεια εἰσέρχεται εἰς αὐτήν, καὶ ἀκολασία ταὐτῇ ἀκολουθεῖ ταῦτα παραδοθείσης τῆς ψυχῆς· οὐκ ἔπρεπε γὰρ ἐκβληθείσης εὐσεβείας τὸν θεὸν ἔτι φρουρεῖν τὴν ἀσεβῆ ψυχήν, ἀλλὰ παραδοθῆναι εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν ἵνα ἀτιμάζηται τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν, ναοὶ εἰδώλων γενόμενα καὶ πάσης ἀτιμίας ἄξια. εἰ γὰρ καί τινες ἀσεβεῖς εἰδωλολάτραι ἀσκοῦσι σωφροσύνην, ἀλλὰ σωφροσύνη ἀρετή ἐστι ἥτις ἕλεται προθέσεως ἐπαινετῆς, οὗτοι δὲ μοχθηρᾶς εἰσι προθέσεως· διὸ καὶ μεταλάττουσι τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν αἱ δοκοῦσαι παρθένοι τῶν εἰδώλων. 15 2, 7. Καὶ ὀργὴ μέν ἐστι ὁ ἑπόμενος τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν ἐπὶ τιμωρίᾳ πόνος, θυμὸν δὲ ὁρίζονται ὀργὴν ἀναθυμιωμένην καὶ λίαν οἰδένουσαν. οὗτος δὲ ὁ θυμὸς ἔργον ἔχει τὸ ἐλέγχειν, ἡνίκα ἄν τις διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας πάσχοι τι, ἤτοι τῆς συνειδήσεως αὐτοῦ πληττούσης ἢ ἀκολουθούντων ἐπιπόνων τινῶν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ. ἀλλὰ καὶ θλίψις ἕπεται τοῖς τοιούτοις οὐχ ἡ ὑπομονὴν κατεργαζομένη, οὐδὲ ἐν ᾗ τις ἂν καυχήσηται, ἀλλ' ᾗ συνέζευκται στενοχωρία. οὐκ ἂν δέ τις ἐστενοχωρήθη, εἰ ἔσχεν ἀπὸ σοφίας πλάτος καρδίας καὶ ἤκουσε τοῦ ἀποστόλου λέγοντος· πλατύνθητε καὶ ὑμεῖς· συνάγειν γὰρ εἴωθε καὶ στενοῦν τὴν ψυχὴν τὰ κακά, ὡς τὸν διάβολον ὡς ἐν ὀπῇ κατὰ τὸν ὄφιν ἐμφωλεύειν.