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will confess to you?” Therefore, it is necessary to be ready in good things, that we may travel that road without grief. Wherefore also the divine word exhorts through Solomon the wise, saying to you: “Prepare your works for your departure,” that none of the good things may fail us, just as the five virgins in the Gospel, through foolishness, lacked the oil of piety, and were cast out of the bridechamber. For this reason, everyone who spares his own life and remains sinless remains without danger, so that he may also preserve for himself the righteousness he has previously accomplished. You, therefore, judge thus, as judging for God; “for the judgment,” he says, “is the Lord’s.” First, therefore, condemn the guilty with authority; then with mercy and compassion and acceptance make him your own, promising him salvation if he should change his way and turn to repentance; but receive the penitent with firmness, remembering the Lord who said that “There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” But if you do not receive the penitent, you hand him over as a prey to schemers, forgetting David who said: “Do not deliver to the beasts the soul that confesses to you.” Wherefore also Jeremiah, urging to repentance, says. “Does not he who falls rise again, or he who turns away not turn back? Why has my people turned away with a wicked and shameless turning away and been held fast in their own purpose? Return, you apostate children, and I will heal your afflictions.” Receive, therefore, the one who repents, not hesitating at all nor being hindered by those who mercilessly say that one must not be defiled by such people nor have fellowship of speech with them; for such counsels are of those who are ignorant of God and his providence, but of irrational, savage, and merciless beasts; for they do not know that one must guard against not the fellowship in word with sinners, but that in deed. “For the righteousness of the righteous will be upon him, and the lawlessness of the lawless will be upon him.” And again: “If a land sins against me by committing a transgression, I will also stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread, and I will send famine upon it and destroy from it man and beast; and if these three men, Noah and Job and Daniel, were in its midst, they by their righteousness would save their own souls, says Adonai the Lord.” The scripture has made it most clear that a righteous man being with an unrighteous one does not perish with him. For in the world

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ἐξομολογήσεταί σοι;» ∆εῖ οὖν ἕτοιμον εἶναι ἐν ἀγαθοῖς, ἵνα ἄνευ λύπης τὴν ὁδὸν ἐκείνην στειλώμεθα. ∆ιὸ καὶ παραινεῖ ὁ θεῖος λόγος διὰ Σολομῶντος τοῦ σοφοῦ λέγων σοι· «Ἑτοίμαζε εἰς τὴν ἔξοδον σου τὰ ἔργα σου», ἵνα μὴ ἐπιλείψῃ ἡμῖν τι τῶν καλῶν, ὥσπερ καὶ ταῖς πέντε ἐν τῷ Eὐαγγελίῳ παρθένοις διὰ μωρίαν ἐπέλειπεν τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἔλαιον, καὶ ἀπεβλήθησαν τοῦ νυμφῶνος. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἀκίνδυνος μένει πᾶς ὁ φειδόμενος τῆς ἑαυτοῦ Ζωῆς καὶ μένων ἀναμάρτητος, ὅπως καὶ τὰς προγεγονυίας ὑπ' αὐτοῦ δικαιοσύνας αὐτῷ συντηρήσῃ. Σὺ οὖν οὕτως κρῖνε ὡς Θεῷ δικάζων· «Τοῦ γὰρ Κυρίου, φησίν, ἡ κρίσις.» Πρῶτον οὖν ἀπ' ἐξουσίας τὸν ἔνοχον καταδίκαζε· ἔπειτα μετὰ ἐλέους καὶ οἰκτιρμοῦ καὶ προσλήψεως οἰκειοῦ, ὑπισχνού μενος αὐτῷ σωτηρίαν, εἰ μετάθοιτο τοῦ τρόπου καὶ εἰς μετάνοιαν χωρήσει· μεταμελόμενον δὲ στύφων προσδέχου, μεμνημένος τοῦ Κυρίου εἰπόντος, ὅτι «Χαρὰ γίνεται ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐπὶ ἑνὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ μετανοοῦντι». Ἐὰν δὲ τὸν μετανοοῦντα μὴ προσδέξῃ, ἐπιβούλοις αὐτὸν ἔκδοτον παρέχεις, ἐπιλαθόμενος τοῦ ∆αυὶδ λέγοντος· «Μὴ παραδῷς τοῖς θηρίοις ψυχὴν ἐξομολογουμένην σοι.» ∆ιὸ καὶ παρορμῶν εἰς μετάνοιαν ὁ Ἱερεμίας λέγει. «Μὴ ὁ πίπτων οὐκ ἀνίσταται ἢ ὁ ἀποστρέφων οὐκ ἐπι στρέφει; Τί ὄτι ἀπέστρεψεν ὁ λαός μου ἀποστροφὴν πονηρὰν καὶ ἀναιδῆ καὶ κατεκρατήθησαν ἐν τῇ προαιρέσει αὐτῶν; Ἐπιστράφητε, υἱοὶ ἀφεστηκότες, καὶ ἐγὼ ἰάσομαι τὰ συντρίμματα ὑμῶν.» ∆έξαι οὖν τὸν μετανοοῦντα, μὴ διστάζων ὅλως μηδὲ παρεμποδιζόμενος ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνηλεῶς λεγόντων μὴ δεῖν τοιούτοις συμμολύνεσθαι μήδε λόγου κοινωνεῖν· αἱ γὰρ τοιαῦται συμβουλίαι ἀγνοούντων εἰσὶν Θεὸν καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ πρόνοιαν, ἀλόγων δὲ ἀγρίων καὶ θηρίων ἀμειλίκτων· οὐ γὰρ γὰρ γινώσκουσιν, ὅτι χρὴ φυλάσσεσθαι οὐ τὴν ἐν λόγῳ κοινωνίαν πρὸς τοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντας, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ. «∆ικαιοσύνη γὰρ δικαίου ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἔσται, καὶ ἀνομία ἀνόμου ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἔσται.» Καὶ πάλιν· «Γῆ ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ μοι ἀδίκημα ἀδικῆσαι, καὶ ἐκτενῶ τὴν χεῖρά μου ἐπ' αὐτὴν καὶ συντρίψω ἐπ' αὐτῆς στήριγμα ἄρτου καὶ ἐξαποστελῶ εἰς αὐτὴν λιμὸν καὶ ἐξολοθρεύσω ἐξ αὐτῆς ἄνθρωπον καὶ κτῆνος· κἂν ὦσιν οἱ τρεῖς ἄνδρες ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῆς, Νῶε καὶ Ἰὼβ καὶ ∆ανιήλ, αὐτοὶ ἐν τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ αὐτῶν σώσουσιν τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν, λέγει Ἀδωναΐ Κύριος.» Σαφέστατα δεδήλωκεν ἡ γραφή, ὅτι συνὼν δίκαιος ἀδίκῳ οὐ συναπόλλυται μετ' αὐτοῦ. Ἐν γὰρ τῷ κόσμῳ