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he might say, that If all are in sin, and He commanded the sinner not to recount the righteous acts, who will be the one to recount them? Therefore, so that no one might say these things, he also sets forth types according to the type of sins. For there is a sin unto death, just as Eli also said: If a man sinning sins, the priest will pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him? And in the law, some sins were incurable, so as to be punished by death; while others had some very quick consolation; so also Christ in the New [Testament]: If your brother sins, he says, rebuke him between you and him alone. But if he does not listen, take with you two more, he says. If he does not listen even to them, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. And yet elsewhere Peter said: How often, if my brother sins against me, shall I forgive him? and heard: Up to seventy times seven; but here after two admonitions He shows the offense to be great, and does not compel one to remain again. What then? Are these things contrary to those? By no means; but the ‘seventy times seven,’ he says, is if he repents. For how could anyone forgive one who neither confesses to have sinned, nor repents? For in demanding medicines from the physician, we also show the wound. Who then is the sinner, about whom the Scripture speaks here? Let us listen with precision. For it describes him, speaking thus in what follows: If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and with adulterers you cast your lot. Your mouth abounded in evil, and your tongue wove deceits. Sitting, you spoke against your brother, and against your mother’s son you laid a stumbling block. Did you see, as in a portrait of evil, the colors, and how the wicked one has become a beast in his wickedness, having betrayed the nobility of his nature? Let us not, then, go over the image simply, but examining it precisely and in each detail 55.252. ‘If you saw a thief,’ it says, ‘you ran with him.’ This is the cause of all evils; this most of all is what overthrows virtue, what weakens the zeal of the many for what is good, when some not only do not rebuke, but even take pleasure with those who sin. This is no less than sinning. Listen then to Paul saying: Not only do they do them, but they also approve of those who practice them. And this is no small sin, even if one does not do evil things, to take pleasure with the evil. For the one has necessity to plead, to blame poverty, even if the excuses are not reasonable; but whence do you praise what has been done, not even enjoying the pleasure from it? And that one perhaps will even repent; but you both shut these doors, and destroy the medicine, and overturn such great consolation, everywhere blocking up for yourself the harbor of return to repentance. When, therefore, he sees you, who are outside the sin, and who ought to rebuke, not only not rebuking, but also concealing it, and not only concealing it, but also cooperating, what will he think about himself? And what about what was dared? For generally the majority of people do not cast their votes about what should be done from their own minds alone, but are also corrupted by the choice of others; and if the one who has sinned sees everyone turning away from him, he will consider that he has done something great and evil; but when he sees them not only not indignant, nor displeased, but even bearing it mildly and participating, having now corrupted the tribunal of his conscience, with the vote of the many cooperating with his corrupted mind, what will he not dare? And when will he condemn himself, and cease from sinning without fear? Therefore it is necessary, even if someone does evil, to condemn himself; for this is a way to depart from evil; and even if he does not do good things, to praise good things. For zeal is the way to the work. Here, however, since he also partakes in the things being done, he rightly brands him with hyperbole

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ἔχῃ λέγειν, ὅτι Εἰ πάντες ἐν ἁμαρτίαις, τὸν δὲ ἁμαρτωλὸν ἐκέλευσε μὴ διηγεῖσθαι τὰ δικαιώματα, τίς ἔσται ὁ διηγησόμενος; ἵνα μή τις οὖν ταῦτα λέγῃ, τίθησι καὶ κατ' εἶδος ἁμαρτιῶν εἴδη. Ἔστι γὰρ ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον, καθάπερ καὶ ὁ Ἠλεὶ ἔλεγεν· Ἐὰν ἁμαρτὼν ἁμάρτῃ ἄνθρωπος, προσεύξεται περὶ αὐτοῦ ὁ ἱερεύς· ἐὰν δὲ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἁμάρτῃ, τίς προσεύξεται περὶ αὐτοῦ; Καὶ ἐν τῷ νόμῳ δὲ τὰ μὲν ἦν ἀνίατα, ὡς καὶ θανάτῳ κολάζεσθαι· τὰ δὲ εἶχέ τινα ταχίστην παραμυθίαν· οὕτω καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἐν τῇ Καινῇ· Ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ ὁ ἀδελφός σου, φησὶν, ἔλεγξον αὐτὸν μεταξὺ σοῦ καὶ αὐτοῦ μόνου. Ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἀκούσῃ, παράλαβε ἔτι μετὰ σαυτοῦ δύο, φησίν. Ἐὰν μηδὲ τούτων ἀκούσῃ, ἔστω σοι ὡς ὁ ἐθνικὸς καὶ τελώνης. Καίτοι γε ἀλλαχοῦ εἰπόντος τοῦ Πέτρου· Ποσάκις, ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ ὁ ἀδελφός μου εἰς ἐμὲ, ἀφήσω αὐτῷ; καὶ ἀκούσαντος· Ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά· ἐνταῦθα δὲ μετὰ δύο παραινέσεις μέγα δείκνυσι τὸ πλημμέλημα, καὶ οὐκ ἀναγκάζει παραμεῖναι πάλιν. Τί οὖν; ἐναντία ταῦτα ἐκείνων; Ἄπαγε· ἀλλὰ τὸ, Ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτὰ, ἐὰν μετανοῇ, λέγει. Πῶς γὰρ ἄν τις ἀφήσει τῷ μηδὲ ἡμαρτηκέναι ὁμολογοῦντι, μηδὲ μετανοοῦντι; Καὶ γὰρ τὸν ἰατρὸν φάρμακα ἀπαιτοῦντες, καὶ τὸ ἕλκος δείκνυμεν. Τίς οὖν ἐστιν ὁ ἁμαρτωλὸς, περὶ οὗ φησιν ἐνταῦθα ἡ Γραφή; Ἀκούσωμεν μετὰ ἀκριβείας. Καὶ γὰρ ὑπογράφει αὐτὸν, διὰ τῶν ἑξῆς οὕτω λέγων· Εἰ ἐθεώρεις κλέπτην, συνέτρεχες αὐτῷ, καὶ μετὰ μοιχῶν τὴν μερίδα σου ἐτίθεις. Τὸ στόμα σου ἐπλεόνασε κακίαν, καὶ ἡ γλῶσσά σου περιέπλεκε δολιότητας. Καθήμενος κατὰ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου κατελάλεις, καὶ κατὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς μητρός σου ἐτίθεις σκάνδαλον. Εἶδες καθάπερ ἐν εἰκόνι τῆς κακίας τὰ χρώματα, καὶ πῶς θηρίον ὁ πονηρὸς γέγονε τῇ κακίᾳ, τῆς φύσεως τὴν εὐγένειαν προδούς; Μὴ τοίνυν ἁπλῶς ἐπέλθωμεν τὴν εἰκόνα, ἀλλ' ἀκριβῶς καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐξετάζον 55.252 τες. Εἰ ἐθεώρεις κλέπτην, φησὶ, συνέτρεχες αὐτῷ. Τοῦτο πάντων αἴτιον τῶν κακῶν· τοῦτο μάλιστά ἐστι τὸ ἀνατρέπον ἀρετὴν, τὸ ἐκλύον τὴν περὶ τὰ καλὰ τῶν πολλῶν σπουδὴν, ὅταν μὴ μόνον μὴ ἐπιτιμῶσί τινες, ἀλλὰ καὶ συνήδωνται τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσι. Τοῦτο τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν οὐκ ἔλαττον. Ἄκουσον γοῦν Παύλου λέγοντος· Οὐ μόνον αὐτὰ ποιοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ συνευδοκοῦσι τοῖς πράσσουσιν. Οὐ μικρὸν δὲ καὶ τοῦτο ἁμάρτημα, κἂν μὴ πράττῃ τις τὰ κακὰ, τὸ συνήδεσθαι τοῖς κακοῖς. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἔχει τὴν ἀνάγκην εἰπεῖν, τὴν πενίαν αἰτιάσασθαι, εἰ καὶ μὴ εὔλογοι αἱ προφάσεις· σὺ δὲ πόθεν ἐπαινεῖς τὸ γεγενημένον, οὐδὲ τὴν ἐξ αὐτοῦ καρπούμενος ἡδονήν; Κἀκεῖνος μὲν ἴσως καὶ μεταγνώσεται· σὺ δὲ καὶ ταύτας ἀποκλείεις τὰς θύρας, καὶ τὸ φάρμακον ἀναιρεῖς, καὶ ἀνατρέπεις τὴν τοσαύτην παραμυθίαν, πάντοθεν ἑαυτῷ προσχωννὺς τὸν λιμένα τῆς ἐπὶ τὴν μετάνοιαν ἐπανόδου. Ὅταν οὖν ἴδῃ σε, τὸν ἐκτὸς τῆς ἁμαρτίας, καὶ τὸν ὀφείλοντα ἐπιτιμῆσαι, οὐ μόνον μὴ ἐπιτιμῶντα, ἀλλὰ καὶ συσκιάζοντα, καὶ μὴ συσκιάζοντα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ συμπράττοντα, τί ἡγήσεται περὶ ἑαυτοῦ; τί δὲ περὶ τοῦ τολμηθέντος; Ὡς γὰρ τὰ πολλὰ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὐκ ἐκ διανοίας μόνον ταύτας περὶ τῶν πρακτέων φέρουσι τὰς ψήφους, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἑτέρων προαιρέσεως διαφθειρόμενοι· κἂν μὲν ἴδῃ πάντας ἀποστρεφομένους αὐτὸν ὁ ἡμαρτηκὼς, μέγα τι καὶ πονηρὸν ἡγήσεται εἰργάσθαι· ὅταν δὲ μὴ μόνον μὴ ἀγανακτοῦντας, μηδὲ δυσχεραίνοντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ πράως φέροντας, καὶ συνεφαπτομένους, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ συνειδότος διαφθείρας λοιπὸν δικαστήριον, τῆς τῶν πολλῶν ψήφου συμπραττούσης αὐτοῦ τῇ διεφθαρμένῃ γνώμῃ, τί οὐ τολμήσει; πότε δὲ καταγνώσεται ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ παύσεται τοῦ ἀδεῶς ἁμαρτάνειν; ∆ιὸ χρὴ, κἂν πράττῃ τις τὸ πονηρὸν, καταγινώσκειν ἑαυτοῦ· ὁδὸς γὰρ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τὸ ἀποστῆναι τοῦ πονηροῦ· κἂν μὴ πράττῃ τὰ καλὰ, ἐπαινεῖν τὰ καλά. Ὁδὸς γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν ἐργασίαν ἡ προθυμία. Ἐνταῦθα μέντοι, ἐπειδὴ καὶ συνεφάπτεται τῶν γινομένων, εἰκότως αὐτὸν μεθ' ὑπερβολῆς στίζει