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of transgression; and by night I dream, and by day I imagine. And God himself commands sinners to do this through Isaiah. "For I am," he says, "the one who blots out your transgressions, and I will not remember your iniquities. But you, remember, and let us be judged; you say your transgressions first, that you may be justified." In agreement with this, the blessed David himself has written in the thirty-first psalm: "I said, 'I will confess my transgression against myself to the Lord,' and you took away the impiety of my heart." 4. "Against you only have I sinned, and done evil in your sight." "Having enjoyed many," he says, "and great gifts from you, I repaid the gifts with their opposites, daring to do what was forbidden by the law." For he does not say this, that "I did not wrong Uriah"; for he did wrong both him and his wife; but the greatest transgression was dared against God himself, the one who chose him, the one who made him king instead of a shepherd, and showed him to be stronger than his enemies, and inundated him with all kinds of good things. And he has rightly added: "And I have done evil in your sight." For the history remembers this. For "the thing that had happened appeared," it says, "evil in the sight of the Lord." However, when this is said by the captive people, it must be understood thus: "Against you only have I sinned," "Regarding your gifts," it says, "I was ungrateful, and I have transgressed the laws laid down for me; and having enjoyed all kinds of good things, I have been unmindful regarding them; but although I did not wrong the Babylonians, I have been greatly wronged by them." "So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." "I have become for myself," 80.1244 he says, "an agent of evils; but your justice shines forth." For when judgment thus takes place, and the things done for me by you are brought forward, and the things dared by me are compared with them, you will be shown to be both just and loving, while I shall be seen as a transgressor and ungrateful. Therefore, the "so that" here is not indicative of cause (for neither David himself nor the people sinned for this reason, that God might be justified), but on the contrary, even when sin is committed by them, God's justice is revealed; for he has exercised providence for him, and for them, and for all men. 7. "For behold, I was conceived in transgressions, and in sins my mother conceived me." "From the beginning," he says, "and from the origin of nature, sin has prevailed; for the transgression of the commandment preceded Eve's conception." For after the transgression, and the divine sentence, and the deprivation of paradise, Adam knew Eve his wife, and conceiving she bore Cain. Therefore, he wishes to say this, that sin, having overcome our ancestors, made a kind of road and path through the race. The blessed Paul also says this: "For since by man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, because all sinned." The God of all also said this to the most admirable Noah, that "the thought of man is intently set on evil from his youth all his days." But through all these things we are taught, not that the working of sin is natural (for we would have been free from punishment, if this were so), but that nature is inclined toward stumbling, being troubled by the passions; yet the will nevertheless conquers, using labors as helpers. Therefore, he does not, as some have supposed, accuse marriage, and call marital union a transgression, as some have foolishly supposed, having understood thus the phrase, "I was conceived in transgressions, and in sins my mother conceived me;" but he brings forward the transgression dared from the beginning by our human ancestors, and says that it has become the source of these streams. "For if they," he says, "had not sinned, they would not have received death as the penalty for sin; 80.1245 and not being mortal, they would have been superior to corruption; and with incorruptibility, impassibility would certainly have been present as well." And with impassibility governing, sin had no place. But since they sinned, they were delivered over to corruption; and becoming corruptible, such

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παρανομίας· καὶ νύκτωρ ὀνειροπολῶ, καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν φαντάζομαι. Τοῦτο δὲ ποιεῖν τοὺς ἁμαρ τάνοντας καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Θεὸς διὰ Ἡσαΐου κελεύει. Ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι, φησὶν, ὁ ἐξαλείφων τὰς ἀνομίας σου, καὶ οὐ μὴ μνησθῶ τῶν ἀδικιῶν σου. Σὺ δὲ μνή σθητι, καὶ κριθῶμεν· λέγε σὺ τὰς ἀνομίας σου πρῶ τος, ἵνα δικαιωθῇς." Τούτῳ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ μακά ριος ∆αβὶδ σύμφωνα γέγραφεν ἐν τῷ τριακοστῷ πρώτῳ ψαλμῷ· Εἶπον, Ἐξαγορεύσω κατ' ἐμοῦ τὴν ἀνομίαν μου τῷ Κυρίῳ, καὶ σὺ ἀφεῖλες τὴν ἀσέβειαν τῆς καρδίας μου." ʹ. "Σοὶ μόνῳ ἥμαρτον, καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν ἐνώπιόν σου ἐποίησα." Πολλῶν, φησὶ, καὶ μεγάλων παρὰ σοῦ δωρεῶν ἀπολαύσας, τοῖς ἐναντίοις ἠμειψάμην τὰ δῶρα· τὰ ἀπειρημένα τῷ νόμῳ δρᾶσαι τολμήσας. Οὐ γὰρ τοῦτό φησιν, ὅτι Τὸν Οὐρίαν οὐκ ἠδίκη σα· ἠδίκησε μὲν γὰρ κἀκεῖνον, καὶ τὴν ἐκείνου γυ ναῖκα· ἡ δὲ μεγίστη παρανομία εἰς αὐτὸν τετόλμηται τὸν Θεὸν, τὸν ἐκλεξάμενον, τὸν ἀντὶ προβατέως βα σιλέα πεποιηκότα, καὶ κρείττονα τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἀπο φήναντα, καὶ παντοδαποῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἐπικλύσαντα. Κα λῶς δὲ προστέθεικε· "Καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν ἐνώπιόν σου ἐποίησα." Τούτου γὰρ ἡ ἱστορία μέμνηται. Ὤφ θη γὰρ, φησὶ, τὸ γεγονὸς πονηρὸν ἐνώπιον Κυ ρίου. Ἐκ μέντοι τοῦ δορυαλώτου λαοῦ τοῦτο λεγό μενον, οὕτω νοητέον· "Σοὶ μόνῳ ἥμαρτον," Περὶ τὰς σὰς, φησὶ, δωρεὰς ἐγενόμην ἀχάριστος, καὶ τοὺς τεθέντας μοι παραβέβηκα νόμους· καὶ παντοδαπῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀπολαύσας, ἀγνώμων περὶ ταῦτα γεγένημαι· τοὺς δὲ Βαβυλωνίους οὐδὲ ἀδικήσας, μεγάλα παρ' ἐκείνων ἠδίκημαι. "Ὅπως ἂν δικαιωθῇς ἐν τοῖς λό γοις σου, καὶ νικήσῃς ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαί σε." Ἐμαυ 80.1244 τῷ, φησὶ, πρόξενος ἐγενόμην κακῶν· τὸ δὲ σὸν δίκαιον διαλάμπει. Καὶ οὕτω κρίσεως γὰρ γινομένης, καὶ τῶν εἰς ἐμὲ παρὰ σοῦ γενομένων φερομέ νων εἰς μέσον, καὶ τῶν παρ' ἐμοῦ τετολμημένων παρεξεταζομένων ἐκείνοις, σὺ μὲν ἀποφανθήσῃ καὶ δίκαιος καὶ φιλάνθρωπος, ἐγὼ δὲ παράνομος ὀφθή σομαι καὶ ἀχάριστος. Τὸ τοίνυν ὅπως οὐκ ἔστιν ἐνταῦθα αἰτίας δηλωτικὸν (οὐ γὰρ διὰ τοῦτο ἥμαρτον, ἢ αὐτὸς ὁ ∆αβὶδ ἢ ὁ λαὸς μετὰ ταῦτα, ἵνα ὁ Θεὸς δικαιωθῇ), ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον, καὶ τῆς ἁμαρ τίας ὑπὸ τούτων γινομένης, τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ δίκαιον ἀναδείκνυται· πᾶσαν γὰρ καὶ τούτου, κἀκείνων, καὶ πάντων ἀνθρώπων πεποίηται πρόνοιαν. ζʹ. "Ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἐν ἀνομίαις συνελήφθην, καὶ ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ἐκίσσησέ με ἡ μήτηρ μου." Ἄνωθεν, φησὶ, καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τῆς φύσεως ἡ ἁμαρτία κεκρά τηκε· προὔλαβε γὰρ τῆς Εὔας τὴν σύλληψιν τῆς ἐν τολῆς ἡ παράβασις. Μετὰ γὰρ τὴν παράβασιν, καὶ τὴν θείαν ἀπόφασιν, καὶ τοῦ παραδείσου τὴν στέρη σιν, ἔγνω Ἀδὰμ Εὔαν τὴν γυναῖκα αὑτοῦ, καὶ συλ λαβοῦσα ἔτεκε τὸν Κάϊν. Τοῦτο τοίνυν εἰπεῖν βού λεται, ὅτι τῶν ἡμετέρων προγόνων κρατήσασα ἡ ἁμαρτία, ὁδόν τινα καὶ τρίβον διὰ τοῦ γένους εἰργάσατο. Τοῦτο καὶ ὁ μακάριος λέγει Παῦλος· "Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ δι' ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἁμαρτία εἰς τὸν κόσμον εἰσῆλθε, καὶ διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁ θάνατος, ἐφ' ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον." Τοῦτο καὶ ὁ τῶν ὅλων ἔφη Θεὸς πρὸς τὸν θαυμασιώτατον Νῶε, ὅτι "Ἔγκειται ἡ διάνοια τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπιμελῶς ἐπὶ τὰ πονηρὰ ἐκ νεότητος πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας." ∆ιδασκόμεθα δὲ διὰ τούτων ἁπάντων, οὐχ ὅτι φυσικὴ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἡ ἐν έργεια (ἢ γὰρ ἂν ἦμεν ἐλεύθεροι τιμωρίας, εἴπερ τοῦθ' οὕτως εἶχεν), ἀλλ' ὅτι ῥέπει ἡ φύσις περὶ τὸ πταίειν, ὑπὸ τῶν παθημάτων ἐνοχλουμένη· νικᾷ δὲ ὅμως ἡ γνώμη, πόνοις συνεργοῖς κεχρημένη. Οὐ τοίνυν, ὥς τινες ὑπέλαβον, τοῦ γάμου κατηγορεῖ, καὶ τὴν γαμικὴν κοινωνίαν παρανομίαν καλεῖ, καθά περ τινὲς ἀνοήτως ὑπέλαβον, οὕτω νενοηκότες τὸ, "Ἐν ἀνομίαις συνελήφθην, καὶ ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ἐκίσ σησέ με ἡ μήτηρ μου·" ἀλλὰ τὴν ἄνωθεν ὑπὸ τῶν προγόνων ἀνθρώπων τολμηθεῖσαν παρανομίαν εἰς μέσον προφέρει, κἀκείνην λέγει γεγενῆσθαι τῶν ῥευμάτων τούτων πηγήν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι, φησὶ, μὴ ἥμαρτον, οὐκ ἂν ἐδέξαντο τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὸν 80.1245 θάνατον ἐπιτίμιον· θνητοὶ δὲ μὴ ὄντες, κρείττους ἂν ἦσαν φθορᾶς· τῇ δὲ ἀφθαρσίᾳ πάντως ἂν καὶ ἡ ἀπάθεια συνῆν. Ἀπαθείας δὲ πολιτευομένης, χώραν οὐκ ἔσχεν ἡ ἁμαρτία. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐξήμαρτον, φθορᾷ παρεδόθησαν· φθαρτοὶ δὲ γινόμενοι, τοιού