Letter 386

To the same person. "You are the temple of God," says the Apostle [Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:16]. Therefore, so that none of the unclean shapes may creep into your mind, weave nets of reasonings about the coming judgment over the windows of the body, and against the images that enter through the senses wall off your thought. But if in the time of temptations you reason away the fear of the divine tribunal, you have fallen into pleasure, and you seem to me to have suffered the fate of Ahaziah [king of Israel, 2 Kings 1], who fell through the lattice and was grievously sick unto death. And nothing is more grievous or more deadly than the sickness that comes from sin.

«Ναὸς Θεοῦ ὑμεῖς ἐστε,» φησὶν ὁ Ἀπόστολος. Ὡς ἂν οὖν μηδὲν εἰσέρπῃ τῶν ἀκαθάρτων μορφῶν εἰς τὴν σὴν διάνοιαν, δίκτυα λογισμῶν τῆς μελλούσης κρίσεως διάπλεξον ταῖς τοῦ σώματος θυρὶσιν, ταῖς διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων εἰσερχομέναις εἰκόσιν ἀποτεῖχον τὴν ἔννοιαν. Ἐὰν δὲ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῶν πειρασμῶν παραλογίσῃ τὸν φόβον τοῦ θείου δικαστηρίου, πέπτωκας πρὸς τὴν ἡδονήν, καὶ νομίζεις μοι τὸ τοῦ Ὀχοζίου πεπονθέναι πεσόντος ἀπὸ τοῦ δικτυωτοῦ, καὶ λίαν ἠβρωστηκότος μέχρι θανάτου. Οὐδὲν δὲ χειλεπώτερον καὶ θανατικώτερον τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἀρρωστίας.