LXXXIV.  I write all this with a view to testing the fruits of repentance. μετανοίας.  cf. note on p. 256; here the word seems to include both repentance and penance.  I do not decide such matters absolutely by time, but I give heed to the manner of penance.  If men are in a state in which they find it hard to be weaned from their own ways and choose rather to serve the pleasures of the flesh than to serve the Lord, and refuse to accept the Gospel life, there is no common ground between me and them.  In the midst of a disobedient and gainsaying people I have been taught to hear the words “Save thy own soul.” Gen. xix. 17, lxx.  Do not then let us consent to perish together with such sinners.  Let us fear the awful judgment.  Let us keep before our eyes the terrible day of the retribution of the Lord.  Let us not consent to perish in other men’s sins, for if the terrors of the Lord have not taught us, if so great calamities have not brought us to feel that it is because of our iniquity that the Lord has abandoned us, and given us into the hands of barbarians, that the people have been led captive before our foes and given over to dispersion, because the bearers of Christ’s name have dared such deeds; if they have not known nor understood that it is for these reasons that the wrath of God has come upon us, what common ground of argument have I with them?