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who have become, and insofar as in their constitution have something more than the many, he is accustomed to call mountains and hills; but those that are unfruitful and randomly mixed together, having as it were a certain spontaneous and imperfect life, but not planted from the planting of the true husbandman, he names thickets. However, the fire touches all, beginning from the soul and ending at the flesh. For sins that stop at thoughts (such as committing adultery in one's heart) are matter in the soul, worthy to be consumed by fire; but those which have reached even to deeds, with the sins spreading to the activities through flesh and action, these I suppose to be sins. For beginning from the soul and ending in the heart, evil thoughts are not confined even to it; but they go out and as it were peep out, passing through the flesh and appearing to the outside. For if someone intended to commit murder, but did not do it, the murder did not go out from the heart. And he who has looked at a woman to lust after her, but not having corrupted the temple of God, nor made the members of Christ members of a prostitute, has made the heart, as it were, the boundary of his sin; so that the evil thought did not go out from the heart of such a one. Thus it is also possible to speak concerning theft and concerning idolatry and sorcery and as many other kinds of sins, when it is not contained by the body, but as if flowing from a porous vessel, is carried to the outside. 10.245 And he that flees shall be as one fleeing from a burning flame. And those left of them shall be a number, and a child shall write them. After the conflagration from the fire, which happens to the mountains and the hills and the thickets, he speaks of the small number of those who are saved. And thus (he says) their multitude will be reduced to an easily noted number, so that they can be written down even by a child, not at all experienced in either counting or writing. And perhaps he who flees from the conflagration, flees the evil life by repentance, and by conversion escapes the punishing flesh. For everyone who after being caught in sins, becoming conscious of himself as being worthy of conversion by rod and scourge (fleeing sin, as the matter for punishment) flees as from a burning flame. And then those who are left shall be a number, not only because they are few (as we have explained), but also because henceforth they are worthy to be taken up into the number. As we have found in the book of Numbers, children and women and old men, all who are of an age useless in wars, and the mixed multitude (as foreign to Israel) are left outside of being numbered, but those from twenty years and above are numbered, those able in war. And all the firstborn of Israel are numbered, from a month old and upward. Likewise also the Levites, from a month old and upward; and the ministering priests up to fifty years are numbered. But what child will write such ones (not the man, nor the elder)? No one will deny that it means those who preside in the Church, because they live in innocence and because they are entrusted by sinners with secrets, of which there is no witness, except He who searches the hidden things of each person. This one will write such ones, who were as it were blotted out through sin, he will write again those who fled the conflagration and received the purification through repentance, as it were a consuming fire of the existing matter of evils; he writes such ones. Or perhaps (since those worthy of being numbered at the right hand of the Most High are written in the book of life, and are written together with the righteous) it is fitting to understand the writer of those being saved as one who includes with the righteous, and enrolls the names of those turning from evil deeds in the book of the heavens. For rejoice (he says) that your names have been written in the heavens. What child therefore in the heavens is able to write the names of the

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γενομένους καὶ ὅσον ἐπὶ τῇ κατασκευῇ πλεῖόν τι τῶν πολλῶν ἔχοντας, ὄρη εἴωθε προσαγορεύειν καὶ βουνούς· τοὺς δὲ ἀκάρπους καὶ εἰκῆ ἀλλήλοις συμπεφυρμένους, οἱονεὶ αὐτό ματόν τινα καὶ ἀτελῆ ζωὴν ἔχοντας, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ ἐκ τῆς φυτεί ας τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ γεωργοῦ πεφυτευμένους, δρυμοὺς ὀνομάζει. Πάντων μέντοι τὸ πῦρ ἅπτεται, ἀρξάμενον ἀπὸ ψυχῆς, λῆγον δὲ ἐπὶ τὰς σάρκας. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ μέχρι ἐνθυμή σεων στάντα ἁμαρτήματα (ὁποῖόν ἐστι τὸ μοιχεῦσαι ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ ἑαυτοῦ) ἐν ψυχῇ ἐστιν ὕλη, ἀξία τοῦ ὑπὸ πυρὸς κατα βρωθῆναι· τὰ δὲ καὶ μέχρι τῶν ἔργων φθάσαντα, νεμη θέντων τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐπὶ τὰς διὰ σαρκὸς καὶ πράξεως ἐνεργείας, ταῦτα ὑπολαμβάνω ἁμαρτήματα εἶναι. Ἀρξά μενοι μὲν γὰρ ἀπὸ ψυχῆς, λήγοντες δὲ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ, οὐδὲ μέχρις αὐτῆς περιορίζονται οἱ πονηροὶ διαλογισμοί· ἀλλ' ἐξέρ χονται καὶ οἱονεὶ διακύπτουσι, περῶντες τὴν σάρκα καὶ ἐκφαινόμενοι πρὸς τὰ ἔξω. Εἰ γὰρ φόνον ἐνεθυμήθη μέν τις ποιῆσαι, οὐκ ἔπραξε δὲ, οὐκ ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φόνος ἀπὸ τῆς καρδίας. Καὶ ὁ ἐμβλέψας γυναικὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι, μὴ φθείρας δὲ τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, μηδὲ ποιήσας τὰ μέλη τοῦ Χριστοῦ πόρνης μέλη, οἱονεὶ ὅριον τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἑαυτοῦ τὴν καρδίαν ἐποίησεν· ὥστε οὐκ ἐξῆλθεν ἀπὸ τῆς καρδίας τοῦ τοιούτου ὁ πονηρὸς διαλογισμός. Οὕτω καὶ περὶ κλοπῆς ἔστιν εἰπεῖν καὶ περὶ εἰδωλολατρείας καὶ φαρμακείας καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα εἴδη ἁμαρτημάτων, ὅταν μὴ στέγηται ὑπὸ τοῦ σώματος, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ὑπὸ ἀγγείου ἀραιοῦ ῥέοντα, φέρηται πρὸς τὰ ἔξω. 10.245 Καὶ ἔσται ὁ φεύγων, ὡς ὁ φεύγων ἀπὸ φλογὸς καιο μένης. Καὶ οἱ καταλειφθέντες ἀπ' αὐτῶν, ἔσονται ἀριθμὸς, καὶ παιδίον γράψει αὐτούς. Μετὰ τὸν ἐμπρησμὸν, τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς, τοῖς ὄρεσι καὶ τοῖς βουνοῖς καὶ τοῖς δρυμοῖς ἐγγινόμενον, τὸ εὐα ρίθμητον λέγει τῶν διασωζομένων. Καὶ οὕτω δὲ (φησὶν) εἰς ἀριθμὸν εὐσημείωτον περιστήσεται αὐτῶν τὸ πλῆθος, ὥστε καὶ ὑπὸ παιδίου, μὴ πάνυ τι μηδὲ πρὸς τὸ ἀριθ μεῖν, μηδὲ γράφειν ἐμπείρως ἔχοντος, δύνασθαι αὐτοὺς ἀπο γραφῆναι. Τάχα δὲ ὁ φεύγων ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐμπρησμοῦ, τῇ μετανοίᾳ φεύγει τὸν πονηρὸν βίον, καὶ τῇ ἐπιστροφῇ τὴν κολάζουσαν σάρκα ἀποδιδράσκει. Πᾶς γὰρ ὁ μετὰ τὸ κατα ληφθῆναι ἐν ἁμαρτήμασι, συναισθόμενος ἑαυτοῦ ἀξίου ὄντος τῆς ἐν ῥάβδῳ καὶ μάστιγι ἐπιστροφῆς (φεύγων τὴν ἁμαρ τίαν, ὡς ὕλην κολάσεως) φεύγει ὡς ἀπὸ φλογὸς καιομένης. Καὶ τότε οἱ καταλειφθέντες ἔσονται ἀριθμὸς, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὸ εὐαρίθμητον (ὡς ἀποδεδώκαμεν) ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὸ λοιπὸν ἄξιοι εἶναι εἰς ἀριθμὸν ἀναλαμβάνεσθαι Ὡς ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῶν Ἀριθμῶν εὑρήκαμεν, παιδία καὶ γυναῖκας καὶ γέροντας, ὅσοι τὴν ἄχρηστον ἐν πολέμοις ἔχουσιν ἡλικίαν, καὶ τὸν ἐπίμικτον (ὡς ἀλλότριον τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ) ἔξω ἀφιεμένους τοῦ ἀριθμεῖσθαι, ἀριθμουμένους δὲ τοὺς ἀπὸ εἰκο σαετοῦς καὶ ἐπάνω, δυνατοὺς ἐν πολέμῳ. Καὶ οἱ πρωτότοκοι τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ πάντες ἀριθμοῦνται, ἀπὸ μηνιαίου καὶ ἐπάνω. Ὁμοίως καὶ οἱ Λευῖται, ἀπὸ μηνιαίου καὶ ἐπάνω· καὶ οἱ λειτουργοῦντες ἱερεῖς ἕως πεντήκοντα ἐτῶν ἀριθμοῦνται. Ποῖον δὲ παιδίον γράψει τοὺς τοιούτους (οὐχ ὁ ἀνὴρ, οὐδὲ ὁ πρεσβύτης); Οὐδεὶς ἀντερεῖ, τοὺς προεστῶτας ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλη σίᾳ, διὰ τὸ ἐν ἀκακίᾳ διάγειν καὶ διὰ τὸ πιστεύεσθαι παρὰ τῶν ἡμαρτηκότων τὰ ἀπόῤῥητα, ὧν οὐδεὶς μάρτυς, εἰ μὴ ὁ τὰ κρυπτὰ ἑκάστου διερευνώμενος. Οὗτος γράψει τοὺς τοιούτους, οἱονεὶ ἐξαλειφθέντας διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, πάλιν ἐγγράψει τοὺς τὸν ἐμπρησμὸν φυγόντας καὶ τὴν διὰ τῆς μετανοίας κάθαρσιν, οἱονεὶ πῦρ ἀναλωτικὸν τῆς ἐνυπαρχούσης ὕλης τῶν κακῶν, δεξαμένους· γράφει τοὺς τοιούτους. Ἢ τάχα (ἐπειδὴ ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς γράφονται, καὶ τοῖς δι καίοις συνεγγράφονται, οἱ ἄξιοι τοῦ ἀριθμεῖσθαι παρὰ τῆς δεξιᾶς τοῦ Ὑψίστου) ἄξιόν ἐστι νοῆσαι γραφέα τῶν σωζο μένων, συναναλαμβάνοντα τοῖς δικαίοις, καὶ ἐγκατατάσσοντα τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν ἐπιστρεφόντων ἀπὸ τῶν πονηρῶν ἔργων ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῶν οὐρανῶν. Χαίρετε γὰρ (φησὶν) ὅτι τὰ ὀνόματα ὑμῶν ἐγγέγραπται ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. Ποῖον οὖν παιδίον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς γράφειν τὰ ὀνόματα δύναται τῶν