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It is better, therefore, to no longer have experience of this abominable sin. But if anyone has ever been tripped up, let him apply these remedies, first promising to no longer fall into the same things. For if we condemn what has already happened, but then attempt the same things again, the purifications will be of no benefit to us. For one who washes himself, and again rolls in the same mire, and one who tears down again what he has built, and builds again, in order to tear down, gains nothing more than to do superfluous things and to labor in vain. And so we, therefore, that we may not spend our life in vain or to no purpose, let us cleanse away our former sins, and let us live our entire remaining life in self-control and propriety 51.225 and in the remaining virtue; so that, having God propitious, we may obtain the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord 51.226 Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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Τὸ μὲν οὖν ἄμεινον, μηκέτι πεῖραν λαβεῖν τῆς μυσαρᾶς ταύτης ἁμαρτίας. Εἰ δ' ἄρα τις ὑπεσκελίσθη ποτὲ, ταῦτα ἐπιτιθέτω τὰ φάρμακα, πρότερον ὑποσχόμενος μηκέτι τοῖς αὐτοῖς περιπεσεῖν. Ὡς ἐὰν ἁμαρτάνοντες καταγινώσκωμεν τῶν ἤδη γεγενημένων, πάλιν δὲ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐπιχειρῶμεν, οὐδὲν ἡμῖν ὄφελος ἔσται τῶν καθαρσίων. Ὁ γὰρ ἀπολουόμενος, καὶ τῷ αὐτῷ πάλιν ἐγκυλινδούμενος βορβόρῳ, καὶ ὁ καθαιρῶν πάλιν ὅπερ ᾠκοδόμησε, καὶ οἰκοδομῶν πάλιν, ἵνα καθέλῃ, οὐδὲν κερδαίνει πλέον, ἢ τὸ περιττὰ ποιεῖσθαι καὶ ταλαιπωρεῖν. Καὶ ἡμεῖς τοίνυν, ἵνα μὴ μάτην μηδὲ εἰκῆ τὴν ζωὴν ἀναλώσωμεν, τὰ πρότερα ἁμαρτήματα ἐκκαθάρωμεν, καὶ τὸν ἐπίλοιπον ἅπαντα βίον ἐν σωφροσύνῃ καὶ κοσμιότητι 51.225 καὶ τῇ λοιπῇ διαγάγωμεν ἀρετῇ· ἵνα καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἔχοντες ἵλεων, τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐπιτύχωμεν, χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν 51.226 Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.