要理講授（全本） 第 2 章

Of those being illumined. Delivered extempore at Jerusalem: On Repentance, and the Remission of Sins, and concerning the Adversary.

And a reading from Ezekiel:

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the lawlessness of the lawless shall be upon him.

And the lawless, if he turn back from all his lawless deeds—and what follows.

A dreadful thing is sin, and lawlessness is a most grievous disease of the soul;

cutting away its sinews, and becoming a cause of eternal fire.

It is a self-chosen evil, an offshoot of the will;

and that we indeed sin of our own choice, the prophet somewhere says plainly:

But I planted you a wholly true and fruitful vine; how then are you turned to bitterness, a strange vine? The planting was good, but the fruit, from the will, is bad;

and for this reason the planter is blameless, but the vine shall be burnt with fire, since it was planted for good, but bore fruit for evil out of its own will.

For God made man upright, according to Ecclesiastes, but they themselves sought out many devices.

For we are his workmanship, created unto good works, says the Apostle.

The Creator, then, being good, created man for good works;

but the created being, by its own will, turned to wickedness.

Sin, then, is indeed a dreadful evil, as has been said, but it is not incurable;

rather it is easily healed for one who lays it aside through repentance.

Suppose, for example, that someone holds fire in his hand;

as long as he holds the coal, he is certainly burned.

But if he lays aside the coal, he would also cast away with it that which burns;

and if anyone thinks he is not being burned while sinning, to such a one the Scripture says:

Can a man bind fire in his bosom, and not burn his garments? For sin burns;

it cuts away the sinews of the soul [and crushes the spiritual bones of the understanding;

and it darkens the light of the heart].

But someone will say, what then is sin? Is it a living thing? Is it an angel, is it a demon? What is this thing that works within? It is not an enemy from without, O man, contending against you, but an evil offshoot growing up from yourself by your own will.

Look with your eyes straight, and there is no lust;

and neither fornication, nor adultery, nor murder, nor any of the lawless deeds will have power over you.

But when you forget God, then thereafter you begin to devise wicked things and to commit lawless deeds.

Yet you are not the sole author of the matter;

but there is also another, a most wicked instigator, the devil.

He indeed suggests, but he does not by force prevail over those who do not yield.

Therefore Ecclesiastes says:

If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, do not leave your place.

If you shut your door, even though he be near, he will not harm you.

But if you carelessly receive the thought of lust, it casts down roots in you through the reasonings, and binds your understanding, and drags you down into the pit of evils.

But perhaps you say, I am a believer, and lust does not get the better of me, even if I dwell on it rather frequently.

Do you not know that a root remaining long has often even split a rock? Do not receive the seed, lest it tear apart your faith;

before [it] flowers, pluck out the evil by the root;

lest, having been negligent from the beginning, you have later to busy yourself with axes and fire;

when your eye begins to ail, get it treated in good time;

lest, having been blinded, you then seek the physician.

The author of sin, then, is the devil, and the begetter of evils;

this the Lord has said, not I;

namely, that from the beginning the devil sins.

But he sinned not because he received from his nature any necessity to sin;

since otherwise the pretext for sin would run back again to him who so fashioned him;

but having been fashioned good, he became a devil by his own will, taking the name from his deed.

For being an archangel, he was afterwards called devil (diabolos), from his slandering (diaballein);

and being a good servant of God, he became Satan, true to his name;

for Satan is interpreted as the opposing adversary.

...these teachings, but [hear] those of Ezekiel, the Spirit-bearing prophet.

For he, taking up a lamentation over him, says:

You are the seal of likeness, and a crown of beauty; you were begotten in the paradise of God;

you were begotten blameless in your days, from the day you were created, until iniquities were found in you.

Quite excellently he says, 'were found in you.'

For it was not brought in from without, but you yourself begot the evil.

And next he stated the cause:

Your heart was lifted up at your beauty;

because of the multitude of your sins, and because of your sins you were wounded, and I cast you to the ground.

The Lord, in agreement with this, again says in the Gospels:

I beheld Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

You see the agreement of the Old Testament with the New.

This one, having fallen, drew away many with him;

this one casts lusts into those who yield to him;

from this one come adultery, fornication, and every kind of evil.

Because of this one, our forefather Adam was cast out for disobedience;

and instead of a paradise that of itself bore wondrous fruits, he exchanged it for the thorn-bearing earth.

What then? someone will say. We have perished, having been deceived;

is there then no longer salvation? We have fallen;

is there no rising up again? We have been blinded;

is there no recovering sight? We have become lame;

is there no walking sound again? But to say it briefly, we have died;

is there no rising again? He who raised Lazarus, dead four days and already stinking, O man—

will he not far more easily raise you who are alive? He who poured out his precious blood for us will himself deliver us from sin.

Let us not despair of ourselves, brethren;

let us not cast ourselves into a hopeless condition.

For it is a dreadful thing not to believe in the hope of repentance.

For he who does not expect salvation recklessly adds evil upon evil;

but he who hopes for healing readily thereafter spares himself.

For the robber who expects no pardon proceeds to madness;

but having hoped for forgiveness, he often comes to repentance.

Again, a serpent puts off its old skin;

and shall we not put off sin? And thorny ground, when well cultivated, is changed into fruitful land;

and is salvation for us irremediable? Nature, then, admits of salvation, but what is required henceforth is the will.

God is loving toward mankind, and loving not a little.

For do not say, I have committed fornication, I have committed adultery;

dreadful things have been done by me, and not once, but many times;

will he then pardon? will he grant amnesty? Hear what the psalmist says:

How great is the multitude of your goodness, O Lord!

The sins you have gathered do not overcome the multitude of God's compassions;

your wounds do not overcome the great Physician's skill.

Only give yourself with faith;

say yourself, too, after David:

I said, I will confess my iniquity against myself to the Lord;

and there shall come upon you what is similar, the thing said next:

And you forgave the ungodliness of my heart.

Do you wish to see God's love for mankind, you who have only lately come to the catechesis? Do you wish to see God's love for mankind, and the abundance of his long-suffering? Hear concerning Adam.

Adam, the first-formed of God, disobeyed;

could he not have brought death upon him at once? But see what the most loving Lord does.

He casts him indeed out of paradise;

[for he was unworthy of dwelling there because of his sin], but he settles him over against paradise, that, seeing whence he had fallen, and from what, into what he had been brought down, he might thereafter be saved by repentance.

Cain, the firstborn man, became a fratricide, an inventor of evils, and a chief of murders, and the first envious one; yet, having slain his brother, what is his condemnation? Groaning and trembling you shall be on the earth;

great the sin, but small the sentence.

This too, then, is truly God's love for mankind, but still small compared with what follows.

Consider [for] me the things in the days of Noah.

The giants sinned, and much lawlessness was then poured over the earth, and because of this a flood was about to come;

and in the five hundredth year God brought forth the threat, but in the six hundredth he brought the flood upon the earth.

Do you see the breadth of God's love for mankind, stretching out over a hundred years?

Now, what he did then after the hundred years, could he not have done at once? But he deliberately delayed, giving a respite for repentance.

Do you see the goodness of God? And had the men of that time repented, they would not have failed of God's love for mankind.

Come with me now to the others also, those saved through repentance.

But perhaps among the women also someone will say:

I have committed fornication, I have committed adultery, I have defiled my body with all manner of licentiousness;

is there salvation? Look, O woman, to Rahab, and expect, you too, salvation;

for if she who openly and publicly played the harlot was saved through repentance,

shall she who once played the harlot, before receiving grace, not be saved through repentance and fasting? For how she was saved, inquire;

she said only this, 'Your God is in heaven and on the earth, your God';

for she did not dare to say 'of myself,' because of her licentiousness;

and if you wish to receive written testimony of this woman's being saved, you have it recorded, in the Psalms:

I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me;

O the great love of God for mankind, that makes mention even of harlots in the Scriptures!

I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon—but together with this:

There is therefore salvation both for men and likewise for women, the salvation procured through repentance.

And even if a whole people should sin, it does not overcome the love of God for mankind.

The people made a calf, and God did not depart from his love for mankind;

the men denied God, but God denied not himself.

These are your gods, O Israel, they said;

and yet again, as was his custom, the God of Israel became their saviour.

And not only did the people sin, but also Aaron the high priest.

For it is Moses who says, And upon Aaron came the wrath of the Lord;

and I prayed, he says, for him, and God forgave him.

Then if Moses, asking on behalf of a sinning high priest, prevailed upon the Lord;

shall Jesus the only-begotten, asking on our behalf, not prevail upon God? And if he did not, on account of his fault, prevent that one from coming to the high priesthood;

has he prevented you, who have come from among the nations, from entering into salvation? Repent, O man, then, you too likewise, and grace is not withheld from you.

Present your manner of life henceforth blameless;

for truly God is loving toward mankind, and all time will not be able to declare worthily his love for mankind;

nor, if all the tongues of men should come together at once, could they even so recount any part of God's love for mankind.

For we tell only a part of what is written concerning his love toward men;

but we do not know how much he has forgiven even to angels.

For he forgives even to those, since one alone is sinless,

Jesus, who cleanses our sins.

And concerning those things, enough.

But if you wish that yet other examples concerning us be set before you, come also to David the blessed, and take him as a pattern of repentance.

After his rest, toward evening, walking upon the roof, he looked carelessly, and suffered something human.

The sin was accomplished, but there did not die with it the candour of confession concerning the fault.

Nathan the prophet came, a swift reprover, a physician of the wound.

The Lord is angry, he says, and you have sinned—the commoner saying it to the king.

But David the king [the wearer of the purple] was not indignant;

for he gave heed not to the one who spoke, but to the one who sent.

The surrounding throng of soldiers did not puff him up;

for he considered the angelic army of the Lord, and feared the Invisible as though seeing him.

And he says to the one who came—or rather, through him, to the one who sent—answering:

You see the king's humility, you see his confession.

For had he been reproved by anyone? Did many share knowledge of the matter? The deed was done quickly, and at once the prophet was present as accuser, and the offender confesses the evil; and since he confessed candidly, he obtained the swiftest healing.

For the threatening prophet Nathan immediately says:

And the Lord has put away your sin.

O most swift a change of the loving God!

By provoking you have greatly provoked the enemies of the Lord;

many enemies indeed you had on account of your righteousness, but chastity kept guard over you;

but having betrayed your greatest weapon, you have the enemies standing ready, risen up against you.

The prophet, then, thus comforted him, but the blessed David, even though he most certainly heard that 'the Lord has put away your sin,' yet the king did not desist from repentance;

but he put on sackcloth instead of purple, and instead of gold-inlaid thrones, the king sat upon ashes and earth.

And not only did he sit on ashes, but he also had ashes for his food, as he himself says:

For I have eaten ashes like bread [and mingled my drink with weeping].

He melted with tears the eye that had lusted;

I will wash my bed every night, he says, I will water my couch with my tears.

When the princes urged him to eat bread, he would not yield;

for a whole seventh day he prolonged his fast.

If a king thus confessed, ought not you, a commoner, to confess? And after the rebellion of Absalom, though many ways of flight were open to him, he chose to flee by way of the Mount of Olives, all but in his mind calling upon the Redeemer who would ascend from there into the heavens;

and when Shimei bitterly cursed him, he says, Let him alone;

for he knew that to him who forgives it shall be forgiven.

You see that it is good to confess.

You see that for those who repent there is salvation.

But what does he say? Afterward I repented.

And Ahab, the king of Samaria, became a most lawless idolater, monstrous, the slayer of prophets, a stranger to godliness, a coveter of fields and of others' vineyards;

but when, through Jezebel, he had killed Naboth, and Elijah the prophet came and merely threatened him, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth.

And what does the loving God say to Elijah? Have you seen how Ahab was pricked to the heart before me? all but persuading the prophet's ardour to condescend to the penitent.

For I will not bring, [he says,] the evil in his days;

and yet, although he was about, after the pardon, not to desist from wickedness, the Forgiver forgives;

not being ignorant of the future, but bestowing the pardon suited to the present time of repentance.

For it belongs to a righteous judge to answer fittingly to each of those born.

Again, Jeroboam stood sacrificing to the idols upon the altar.

His hand became withered, because he had commanded the reproving prophet to be seized;

but having learned by experience the power of the one present, he says:

Entreat the Lord on my behalf.

And because of this word his hand was restored again.

If the prophet healed Jeroboam, can Christ then not heal you of your sins and set you free? Manasseh too became most lawless, the one who sawed Isaiah asunder, and was defiled with all manner of idolatries, and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood;

but having been led captive to Babylon, he used the experience of his misfortunes for the healing of repentance.

For the Scripture says that Manasseh humbled himself before the Lord, and prayed, and the Lord heard, and brought him back into his kingdom.

If he who sawed the prophet asunder was saved through repentance,

and shall you, who have done nothing so great, not be saved? Take heed that you do not vainly disbelieve in the power of repentance.

Do you wish to know how strong repentance is? Do you wish to know the mighty weapon of salvation, and to learn how strong confession is? By confession Hezekiah routed a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the enemy;

great indeed truly is this also, but still small compared to what is to be told.

The same man, through repentance, recalled a divine sentence that had been pronounced.

For when he was sick, Isaiah said to him:

Set your house in order;

for you shall die, and not live.

What expectation, then, remained? What hope of salvation, when the prophet said,

for you shall die? But Hezekiah did not desist from repentance, remembering that word:

When, having turned back, you groan, then shall you be saved.

He turned to the wall, and stretching his mind from the bed up to heaven (for the thickness of walls does not hinder prayers sent up with reverence), he says, Lord, remember me;

for sufficient for healing is this, that you should remember me;

you are not subject to times, but you yourself are the lawgiver of life;

for we do not live according to nativity and the conjunction of the stars, as some idly babble.

But you yourself are the lawgiver both of living, and of when one ought to live, as you will.

And to him for whom living was beyond hope because of the prophetic sentence, to this one fifteen years of life were added, the sun making its course backward as a sign.

Then, for Hezekiah's sake the sun turned back, but for Christ's sake the sun was eclipsed;

He did not turn back, but failed away; and by this he showed the difference between the two, namely Hezekiah and Jesus.

And the one prevailed to undo a sentence of God;

and shall Jesus not grant forgiveness of sins? Turn, and groan over yourself; shut the door and pray, that you may be forgiven, that He may take away from you the searing flames;

for confession has power to quench even fire, it has power even to tame lions.

But if you disbelieve, consider what befell Hananiah and his companions;

what springs did they pour out? How many measures of water could quench the flame that rose forty-nine cubits high? But where the flame mounted up but a little, there faith was poured out like a river, and there they spoke the antidote of their evils:

'You are righteous, O Lord, in all that You have done to us;

for we have sinned and committed iniquity.'

And their repentance undid the flames.

If you disbelieve that repentance can quench the fire of Gehenna, learn it from what happened to Hananiah and his companions.

But perhaps one of the keen listeners will say:

'God justly delivered them at that time, because they refused to worship idols; God gave them the power.'

Since this objection has been raised, I now proceed to another example of repentance.

What opinion do you hold concerning Nebuchadnezzar? Have you not heard from the Scriptures that he was bloodthirsty, savage, with a lion-like disposition? Have you not heard that he brought the bones of kings out of their tombs into the light? Have you not heard that he led the people into captivity? Have you not heard that he blinded the eyes of the king after he had watched his children slaughtered before him? Have you not heard that he shattered the Cherubim—I do not mean the spiritual ones, far from it, do not so suppose, O man, but the carved ones;

and the mercy-seat, over the midst of which God spoke with a voice;

he trampled underfoot the veil of the sanctuary;

he took the altar of incense and carried it off to an idol's temple;

he carried away all the offerings;

he burned the temple to its foundations.

Of how many punishments was he worthy—for slaying kings, for burning the holy things, for taking the people captive, for placing the sacred vessels within idol-temples? Was he not then worthy of countless deaths? You have seen the magnitude of his evils;

come now to the loving-kindness of God.

He was turned into a beast, he dwelt in the wilderness, he was scourged that he might be saved;

for he had been a plunderer of the saints;

for he was a lion, seizing and roaring;

for he was a brute beast, not knowing the One who had given him the kingdom;

his body was drenched by the dew;

because, foreseeing the fire that was to be quenched by the dew, he had not believed.

And what came to pass? 'After this,' he says, 'I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes to heaven, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and glorified Him who lives forever.'

Since therefore he acknowledged the Most High, and sent up thanksgivings to God, and came to repentance for what he had done, and recognized his own weakness,

then God restored to him the honor of the kingdom.

What then? To Nebuchadnezzar, who had committed such deeds and then confessed, God gave pardon and the kingdom;

and will He not grant to you, when you repent, forgiveness of sins and the kingdom of heaven, if you live worthily? The Lord is loving toward man and quick to pardon, but slow to punish.

Therefore do not despair of your own salvation.

Peter, the chief and foremost of the apostles, before a little servant-girl denied the Lord three times;

but having repented, he wept bitterly.

And his weeping showed forth heartfelt repentance; and on this account he not only received forgiveness for his denial, but also kept the apostolic dignity unforfeited.

Having therefore, brethren, many examples of those who sinned and repented and were saved, do you also readily confess to the Lord;

that you may both receive pardon for your former sins, and be counted worthy of the heavenly gift, and inherit the heavenly kingdom together with all the saints;

in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.