On the Principle that the Worse is accustomed to be always plotting against the Better (146-150)

Let us, therefore, address our supplications to God, we who are self-convicted by our consciousness of our own sins, to chastise us rather than to abandon us; for if he abandons us, he will no longer make us his servants, who is a merciful master, but slaves of a pitiless generation: but if he chastises us in a gentle and merciful manner, as a kind ruler, he will correct our offences, sending that correcting conviction, his

On this account the law-giver says, "Every word which a widow or a woman who is divorced vows against her own soul shall remain against it." [*] For if we call God the husband and father of the universe, supplying the origin and generation of all things, we shall be speaking rightly: as we shall if we call that heart widowed and divorced from God which either has not received divine seed, or, after having received it, has again voluntarily made it abortive.

Therefore every thing which it decides it shall decide against itself: and these things shall remain utterly incurable. For how can it be anything but a most intolerable evil, for a creature which is inconstant and easily moved in every direction, to lay down any positive decision and determination about itself, attributing to itself the virtues of the Creator? One of which is that, according to which, it defines in an unhesitating and unalterable manner.

Therefore, not only shall it be widowed of knowledge, but it shall likewise be divorced from it. And the meaning of this expression is as follows:—For the soul which is widowed of, but is not yet divorced from, what is good, is able, in a manner, after long perseverance, to come to a reconciliation and agreement with her lawful husband, right-reason. But the soul which has once been utterly separated from it, and which has been removed to a different abode, has been cast out for ever and ever, as utterly incapable of reconciliation or peace, and is entirely unable to return to its previous habitation.

This, then, may be enough to say about the expression, "My crime is too great to be forgiven." [*] Let us now consider what follows that verse—Cain says, "But if thou castest me out this day from off the face of the earth, and from thy face I shall be hidden." [*] What sayest thou, my good man? If thou art utterly cast out from the whole earth, shall you still be hidden? In what manner? [*] [*] [*]