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the sin occurs. Knowing these things, then, let us listen to the prophet and not be corrupted in the end. For because of this Ezekiel also cries out, saying: "If someone becomes righteous, then falling away sins, his righteous deeds will not be remembered, but in his sin he will die." For he also fears for the end. And not only from this, but also through the opposite he shows the great power of the matter. "For if someone becomes a sinner," he says, "then changing becomes righteous, his sins will not be remembered; in his righteousness he will live." Do you see here also how he takes much care for the end. For so that neither the righteous man, trusting in his righteousness, declining into carelessness should perish, he frightens him through the end; nor the sinner, despairing at his transgressions, should remain forever in his fall, he raises him up through the end. You have sinned much, he says, but do not despair; for there is a return, if you show the end to be the opposite of the beginning. Again to the righteous man: You have accomplished much, he says, but do not be confident; for it happens also to fall, if you do not have the same zeal to the end. Did you see how he removed the carelessness of the one, and the despair of the other? 3.3 But Uzziah listened to none of these things; wherefore, being confident, he fell a hard and incurable fall. For not every fall works the same wound for us, but of sins some lie under condemnation only, while others receive the harshest punishment. At any rate, Paul rebuking those who do not wait for their brothers at the common suppers, said thus: "But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you." You see the sin stopping at condemnation and the penalty being a censure. But not so, when he discourses about fornication, does he do this. But how? "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him." For here there is no censure, nor condemnation, but the harshest punishment. Solomon also knows the differences of sins; at any rate, comparing theft with adultery, he says something like this: "It is not a wonder, if someone is caught stealing; for he steals, to fill his hungry soul; but the adulterer through lack of sense brings ruin on his own soul." This and that are a sin, he says, but the one is lesser, the other greater; for the one has the pretext from poverty, but this one is deprived of all defense. But this one also has, he says, the necessity from natural desire. But his allotted wife does not leave him, but stands by depriving him of pardon. For this is why there is marriage and lawful enjoyment, so that the husband may have nothing of these things to say. For this reason the wife was given to him as a helper, to restrain his raging nature, to calm the waves of desire. Just as, therefore, a pilot causing a shipwreck in a harbor would not find any pardon, so also the man who after the security from marriage digs through the marriages of another, or looks curiously upon any woman whatsoever, would not find any defense, not from men, not from God, even if he should speak ten thousand times of the pleasure of nature. Rather, what pleasure could there be, where there is fear and agony and danger and expectation of so many terrors, where there are courts and reckonings and a judge's wrath and a sword and an executioner and a pit and a hanging? Such a man trembles and fears everything, the shadows, the walls, the very stones, as if they were giving voice; he looks askance at and suspects everyone, the servants, the neighbors, the friends, the enemies, those who know everything, those who know nothing. Or rather, if you will, let these things be taken away, and let no one know what has been dared, but only he himself with the woman who was wronged; how will he bear the reproof from his conscience, carrying about everywhere a bitter accuser? For just as one could never flee himself, so neither the verdict from that tribunal. This court is not corrupted by money, it does not yield to flatteries; for it is divine and

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τὸ ἁμάρτημα γίνεται. Ταῦτ' οὖν εἰδότες, ἀκούωμεν τοῦ προφήτου καὶ εἰς τὸ τέλος μὴ διαφθείρωμεν. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Ἰεζεκιὴλ βοᾷ λέγων· "Ἐὰν γένηταί τις δίκαιος, εἶτα μεταπεσὼν ἁμάρτῃ, οὐ μὴ μνησθῶσιν αὐτῷ αἱ δικαιοσύναι αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ αὐτοῦ ἀποθανεῖται." Καὶ γὰρ καὶ οὗτος δέδοικεν ὑπὲρ τοῦ τέλους. Καὶ οὐκ ἐντεῦθεν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τῶν ἐναντίων δείκνυσι πολλὴν τοῦ πράγματος τὴν ἰσχὺν οὖσαν. "Ἂν γὰρ γένηταί τις ἁμαρτωλός, φησίν, εἶτα μεταβαλόμενος γένηται δίκαιος, οὐ μὴ μνησθῶσιν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι αὐτοῦ· ἐν τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ αὐτοῦ ζήσεται." Ὁρᾷς καὶ ἐνταῦθα πολλὴν τοῦ τέλους αὐτὸν ποιούμενον πρόνοιαν. Ἵνα γὰρ μήτε ὁ δίκαιος τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ αὐτοῦ θαρρῶν, εἰς ῥᾳθυμίαν ἀποκλίνας ἀπόληται, φοβεῖ διὰ τοῦ τέλους αὐτόν· μήτε ὁ ἁμαρτωλὸς ἀπογνοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς παραπτώμασι μένῃ διαπαντὸς ἐν τῷ πτώματι, ἀνίστησι διὰ τοῦ τέλους αὐτόν. Ἥμαρτες πολλά, φησίν, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἀπελπίσῃς· ἔστι γὰρ ἐπάνοδος, ἐὰν ἐναντίον τῆς ἀρχῆς δείξῃς τὸ τέλος. Πάλιν πρὸς τὸν δίκαιον· Κατώρθωσας πολλά, φησίν, ἀλλὰ μὴ θαρσήσῃς· συμβαίνει γὰρ καὶ πεσεῖν, ἂν μὴ διὰ τέλους τὴν ἴσην ἔχῃς σπουδήν. Εἶδες πῶς τοῦ μὲν τὴν ῥᾳθυμίαν, τοῦ δὲ τὴν ἀπόγνωσιν ἀνεῖλεν; 3.3 Ἀλλ' οὐδενὸς τούτων ἤκουσεν Ὀζίας· διὸ καὶ θαρσήσας κατέπεσε πτῶμα χαλεπὸν καὶ ἀνίατον. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἅπαν πτῶμα ἴσον ἡμῖν ἐργάζεται τὸ τραῦμα, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τὰ μὲν ὑπὸ κατάγνωσιν κεῖται μόνον, τὰ δὲ χαλεπωτάτην δέχεται τιμωρίαν. Τοῖς γοῦν οὐκ ἀναμένουσι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ἐν τοῖς κοινοῖς δείπνοις ὁ Παῦλος ἐπιτιμῶν, οὕτως ἔλεγεν· "Τοῦτο δὲ παραγγέλλων οὐκ ἐπαινῶ." Ὁρᾷς μέχρι καταγνώσεως ἱστάμενον τὸ ἁμάρτημα καὶ ψόγον ἔχον τὸ ἐπιτίμιον. Ἀλλ' οὐχ, ὅταν περὶ πορνείας διαλέγηται, οὕτω ποιεῖ. Ἀλλὰ πῶς; "Εἴ τις τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ φθείρει, φθερεῖ τοῦτον ὁ Θεός." Ἐνταῦθα γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι ψόγος, οὐδὲ κατάγνωσις, ἀλλ' ἡ χαλεπωτάτη τιμωρία. Οἶδε καὶ ὁ Σολομῶν ἁμαρτημάτων διαφοράς· τὴν γοῦν κλοπὴν τῇ μοιχείᾳ συγκρίνων, οὑτωσί πώς φησιν· "Οὐ θαυμαστόν, ἐὰν ἁλῷ τις κλέπτων· κλέπτει γάρ, ἵνα ἐμπλήσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ πεινῶσαν· ὁ δὲ μοιχὸς δι' ἔνδειαν φρενῶν ἀπώλειαν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῇ περιποιεῖται." Ἁμάρτημα καὶ τοῦτο κἀκεῖνο, φησίν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν ἔλαττον, τὸ δὲ μεῖζον· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἔχει τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς πενίας πρόφασιν, οὗτος δὲ πάσης ἀπολογίας ἐστέρηται. Ἀλλὰ καὶ οὗτος ἔχει, φησί, τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς φυσικῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀνάγκην. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀφίησιν ἡ κληρωθεῖσα αὐτοῦ γυνή, ἀλλ' ἐφέστηκεν ἀποστεροῦσα τῆς συγγνώμης αὐτόν. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο γάμος καὶ ἀπόλαυσις ἔνθεσμος, ἵνα μηδὲν ἔχῃ τούτων λέγειν ὁ ἀνήρ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο αὐτῷ βοηθὸς ἐδόθη ἡ γυνὴ, ἵνα μαινομένην καταστέλλῃ τὴν φύσιν, ἵνα στορέσῃ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τὰ κύματα. Ὥσπερ οὖν κυβερνήτης ἐν λιμένι ναυάγιον ἐργαζόμενος οὐκ ἂν τύχοι συγγνώμης τινός, οὕτω καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος μετὰ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ γάμου τοὺς ἑτέρου διορύττων γάμους, ἢ γυναῖκα ἡντιναοῦν περιέργως ὁρῶν, οὐκ ἂν τύχοι τινὸς ἀπολογίας, οὐ παρὰ ἀνθρώποις, οὐ παρὰ Θεῷ, κἂν μυριάκις λέγῃ τὴν τῆς φύσεως ἡδονήν. Μᾶλλον δὲ ποία γένοιτ' ἂν ἡδονή, ὅπου φόβος καὶ ἀγωνία καὶ κίνδυνος καὶ προσδοκία τοσούτων δεινῶν, ὅπου δικαστήρια καὶ εὐθῦναι καὶ δικαστοῦ θυμὸς καὶ ξίφος καὶ δήμιος καὶ βάραθρον καὶ ἀγχόνη; Πάντα τρέμει καὶ δέδοικεν ὁ τοιοῦτος, τὰς σκιάς, τοὺς τοίχους, τοὺς λίθους αὐτούς, καθάπερ φωνὴν ἀφιέντας· πάντας ὑφορᾶται καὶ ὑποπτεύει, τοὺς οἰκέτας, τοὺς γείτονας, τοὺς φίλους, τοὺς ἐχθρούς, τοὺς πάντα εἰδότας, τοὺς οὐδὲν εἰδότας. Μᾶλλον δέ, εἰ βούλει, καὶ ταῦτα ἀναιρείσθω, καὶ μηδεὶς εἰδέτω τὰ τετολμημένα, ἀλλ' ἢ μόνος αὐτὸς μετὰ τῆς ὑβριζομένης γυναικός· πῶς οἴσει τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς συνειδήσεως ἔλεγχον, πικρὸν πανταχοῦ περιφέρων κατήγορον; Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἑαυτὸν οὐκ ἄν ποτέ τις φύγοι, οὕτω οὐδὲ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ κριτηρίου ψῆφον ἐκείνου. Τοῦτο τὸ δικαστήριον οὐ χρήμασιν διαφθείρεται, οὐ κολακείαις ἐνδίδωσιν· θεῖον γάρ ἐστιν καὶ