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Unless you have mercy, I am not perfected. "I was well-pleasing," therefore, "in your truth." It is not necessary here to be humble, when the discussion is about truth. At any rate, I remember someone saying that: if you are asked: "are you a virgin?" say: "through God until now I am a virgin, and I wish also until now concerning faith, and very much so". The one who is well-pleasing, therefore, in the truth of God has the mercy of God before his eyes. And having before his eyes the one who works with and perfects, he will speak boldly about the things already accomplished by him. For this reason therefore I say: "Refine my reins and my heart," "because your mercy is before my eyes." And the reins are found yoked together with the heart in many places of scripture: "testing hearts and reins 93 God." "And even until the night my reins instructed me." And just as if we hear "heart," it does not mean the part of the body, which having clean one sees God; again: "Hear me, you who have lost your heart," no one loses this bodily part so called-or else, he dies if God tears out a heart of stone, and puts in its place one of flesh, we understand the thought. With this heart therefore the so-called reins also are not the parts of the body. It is said that the spermatic generations are first formed there and from there easily pass into the aphrodisiac organs. Therefore the reins are generative and servants of seeds. Since therefore there are also generations, according to which the soul or the mind begets, it calls those reins which are named with the heart. "You are near," it says, "to their mouth, but far from their reins." From these reins you are far, O God, not from the bodily parts. My reins therefore and my heart test, prove. I do not have seeds able to pass so as to become accursed children, destructive children, such as Judas had; for it is said that: "let them come to destruction. Let there be no helper for him," nor a helper for his children, not about bodily children. And perhaps we do not even know, if he had children. It calls his children all the betrayers of the truth. Just as Paul begets through the gospel, that one begot through the betrayal with which he came forth to betray Jesus: "What are you willing to give me, and I will hand him over to you?" Through this zeal he became the father of all the betrayers of the truth. "And I was well-pleasing in your truth." He who is well-pleasing in the truth of God is not ashamed of his words; for Jesus said: "whoever is ashamed of me and my words." And if he himself is also ashamed of the one who is ashamed, the one who speaks boldly and abides in the truth and prefers it to all things, he himself also strength ens, he abides in him. 4 I have not sat with a council of vanity and with transgressors I shall not enter. Evil and good things are incapable of coexisting. He who has good things cannot partake of evil things. He who is formed for wickedness, insofar as he is wicked, is unreceptive of virtue. But since abstinence from evils, when one naturally inclined toward them abstains from them by choice, children do not have intemperance, but I do not say that they abstain from intemperance. The inanimate and the irrational do not have impiety; and I do not say that they abstain from impiety; for to abstain is a movement of choice. At any rate, in the first psalm he blesses the man who is perfect according to the inner man: "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly and has not stood in the way of sinners and has not sat in the seat of the pestilent." The sophist and deceiver can say, that neither the child nor the irrational nor the inanimate "walked in the counsel of the ungodly 94 and did not stand in the way of sinners and did not sit in the seat of the pestilent." Denying such things of the perfect man, he says: How does he abstain from these things by having "his will" "in the law of the Lord"? -But it is not for everyone to have "his will in the law of the Lord." For as many as seem not to sin by

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ἐὰν μὴ σὺ ἐλεήσῃς, οὐ τελειοῦμαι. "εὐαρέστησα" οὖν "ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου". οὐ δεῖ ὧδε ταπεινοφρονεῖν, ὅτε περὶ ἀληθείας ὁ λόγος ἐστίν. ἀμέλει γοῦν μέμνημαί τινος λέγοντος ὅτι· ἐὰν ἐρωτηθῇς ὅτι· "παρθένος εἶ"; εἰπέ· "διὰ τὸν θεὸν ἕως νῦν παρθένος εἰμί, θέλω καὶ ἕως νῦν περὶ πίστεως, καὶ πάνυ". ὁ εὐαρεστῶν οὖν ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ ἔχει τὸ ἔλεος τοῦ θεοῦ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν. ἔχων δὲ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν τὸν συνεργοῦντα καὶ τελειοῦντα παρρησιάσεται ἐπὶ τοῖς ἤδη αὐτῷ κατορθωθεῖσιν. διὰ τοῦτο οὖν λέγω· "πύρωσον τοὺς νεφρούς μου καὶ τὴν καρδίαν μου", "ὅτι τὸ ἔλεός σου κατέναντι τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν μού ἐστιν". συνεζευγμένοι δὲ ἐν πολλοῖς τόποις τῆς γραφῆς οἱ νεφροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ εὑρίσκονται· "ἐτάζων καρδίας καὶ νεφροὺς 93 ὁ θεός". "ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἕως νυκτὸς ἐπαίδευσάν με οἱ νεφροί μου". καὶ ὥσπερ ἐὰν ἀκούωμεν καρδίαν, οὐ τὸ μέρος τοῦ σώματος λέγει, καθαρὸν ὃ ἔχων ὁρᾷ θεόν· πάλιν· "ἀκούσατέ μου οἱ ἀπολωλεκότες τὴν καρδίαν", οὐδεὶς τὸ σωματικὸν τοῦτο μέρος οὕτω καλούμενον ἀπόλλυσιν-εἰ δὲ μή γε, ἀποθνήσκει ἐὰν καρδίαν ἐκσπᾷ λιθίνην ὁ θεός, σαρκίνην ἀντ' αὐτῆς ἐντιθῇ, τὴν νόησιν ἐκλαμβάνομεν. σὺν ταύτῃ οὖν τῇ καρδίᾳ καὶ οἱ ὀνομαζόμενοι νεφροὶ οὐ τὰ μέρη τοῦ σώματός εἰσιν. λέγονται αἱ σπερματικαὶ γοναὶ ἐκεῖ πρῶτον συνίστασθαι κἀκεῖθεν ῥᾳδίως εἰς τὰ ὄργανα τὰ ἀφροδίσια χωρῆσαι. γεννητικοὶ ἄρα εἰσὶν καὶ σπερμάτων διάκονοι οἱ νεφροί. ἐπεὶ τοίνυν εἰσὶν καὶ γοναί, καθ' ἃς γεννᾷ ἡ ψυχὴ ἢ ὁ νοῦς, ἐκείνους νεφροὺς λέγει σὺν τῇ καρδίᾳ ὀνομαζομένῃ. "ἐγγὺς εἶ", φησίν, "τοῦ στόματος αὐτῶν, πόρρω δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν νεφρῶν". ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν νεφρῶν πόρρω εἶ, ὦ θεέ, οὐκ ἀπὸ τῶν σωματικῶν μερῶν. τοὺς νεφρούς μου οὖν καὶ τὴν καρδίαν μου ἔτασον, δοκίμασον. οὐκ ἔχω σπέρματα δυνάμενα χωρῆσαι ὥστε γενέσθαι τέκνα ἐπάρατα, τέκνα ὀλέθρια, οἷα εἶχεν ὁ Ἰούδας· εἴρηται γὰρ ὅτι· "γενηθήτω αὐτὰ εἰς ἐξολέθρευσιν. μὴ ὑπαρχέτω αὐτῷ ἀντιλήμπτωρ", μηδὲ τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτοῦ βοηθός, οὐ περὶ τέκνων τῶν σωματικῶν. τάχα δὲ οὐδὲ οἴδαμεν, εἰ εἶχεν τέκνα. τέκνα αὐτοῦ ὀνομάζει τοὺς προδότας πάντας τῆς ἀληθείας. ὥσπερ ὁ Παῦλος γεννᾷ διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, ἐκεῖνος ἐγέννησεν διὰ τῆς προδοσίας ὧν προῆλθεν ἐπὶ τῷ παραδοῦναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν· "τί θέλετέ μοι δοῦναι, κἀγὼ παραδώσω ὑμῖν αὐτόν"; διὰ ταύτης τῆς σπουδῆς πατὴρ γέγονεν πάντων τῶν προδοτῶν τῆς ἀληθείας. "καὶ εὐηρέστησα ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου". ὁ εὐαρεστῶν ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ· εἶπεν γὰρ Ἰησοῦς· "ὃς ἐὰν ἐπαισχυνθῇ με καὶ τοὺς λόγους μου". εἰ δὲ τὸν ἐπαισχυνόμενον ἐπαιςχύνεται καὶ αὐτός, τὸν παρρησιαζόμενον καὶ ἐνμένοντα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καὶ πάντων αὐτὴν προκρίνοντα καὶ αὐτὸς ἰσχυ ροποιεῖ, ἐνμένει αὐτῷ. 4 οὐκ ἐκάθισα μετὰ συνεδρίου ματαιότητος καὶ μετὰ παρανομούντων οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθω. ἀσυνύπαρκτά εἰσιν τὰ κακὰ καὶ τὰ ἀγαθά. ὁ ἔχων τὰ ἀγαθὰ οὐ δύναται μετέχειν κακῶν. ὁ ἐπὶ κακίαν πεποιωμένος καθ' ὅσον ἐστὶν κακός, ἀνεπίδεκτός ἐστιν ἀρετῆς. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀποχὴ τῶν κακῶν, ὅταν τις πεφυκὼς πρὸς αὐτὰ ἀπέχηται αὐτῶν προαιρέσει, τὰ παιδία οὐκ ἔχει ἀκολασίαν, ἀλλ' οὐ λέγω αὐτὰ ἀπέχεσθαι ἀκολασίας. τὸ ἄψυχον καὶ τὸ ἄλογον οὐκ ἔχει ἀσέβειαν· καὶ οὐ λέγω αὐτὰ ἀπέχεσθαι ἀσεβείας· τὸ γὰρ ἀπέχεσθαι προαιρετικὸν κίνημά ἐστιν. ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ γοῦν ψαλμῷ μακαρίζει τὸν ἄνδρα τὸν κατὰ τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον τέλειον· "μακάριος ἀνήρ, ὃς οὐκ ἐπορεύθη ἐν βουλῇ ἀσεβῶν καὶ ἐν ὁδῷ ἁμαρτωλῶν οὐκ ἔστη καὶ ἐπὶ καθέδραν λοιμῶν οὐκ ἐκάθισεν". ὁ σοφιστὴς καὶ ἀπατεὼν δύναται εἰπεῖν, ὅτι οὐδὲ τὸ παιδίον οὐδὲ τὸ ἄλογον οὐδὲ τὸ ἄψυχον "ἐπορεύθη ἐν βουλῇ ἀσε94 βῶν καὶ ἐν ὁδῷ ἁμαρτωλῶν οὐκ ἔστη καὶ ἐπὶ καθέδραν λοιμῶν οὐκ ἐκάθισεν". ἀποφήσας τοῦ τελείου τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγει· πῶς ἀπέχεται τούτων τῷ "τὸ θέλημα ἑαυτοῦ" ἔχειν "ἐν τῷ νόμῳ κυρίου"; -οὐ παντὸς δέ ἐστιν ἔχειν "τὸ θέλημα ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τῷ νόμῳ κυρίου". ὅσοι γὰρ δοκοῦσιν μὴ ἁμαρτάνειν τῷ