baptized, and forthwith depart out of this life, come up from the font1991 without any debt;
without any debt they leave the world. But they who are baptized and are still kept in this
life, contract defilements by reason of their mortal frailty, by which though the ship be not
sunk, yet have they need of recourse to the pump. For otherwise by little and little will that
enter in by which the whole ship will be sunk. And to offer this prayer, is to have recourse
to the pump. But we ought not only to pray, but to do alms also, because when the pump
is used to prevent the ship from sinking, both the voices and hands are at work. Now we
are at work with our voices, when we say, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our
debtors.” And we are at work with our hands when we do this, “Break thy bread to the
hungry, and bring the houseless poor into thine house.1992 Shut up alms in the heart of a
poor1993 man, and it shall intercede for thee unto the Lord.”1994
12. Although therefore all our sins were forgiven in the “laver of regeneration,” we
should be driven into great straits, if there were not given to us the daily cleansing of the
Holy Prayer. Alms and prayers purge away sins; only let not such sins be committed, for
which we must necessarily be separated from our daily Bread; avoid we all such debts to
which a severe and certain condemnation is due. Call not yourselves righteous, as though
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ye had no cause to say, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” Though ye
abstain from idolatry, from the consolations1995 of astrologers, from the cures of enchanters,
though ye abstain from the seductions of heretics, from the divisions of schismatics; though
ye abstain from murders, from adulteries and fornications, from thefts and plunderings,
from false witnessings, and all such other sins which I do not name, as have a ruinous con-
sequence, for which it is necessary that the sinner be cut off from the altar, and be so bound
in earth, as to be bound in heaven, to his great and deadly danger, unless again he be so
loosed in earth, as to be loosed in heaven; yet after all these are excepted, still there is no
want of occasions whereby a man may sin. A man sins in seeing with pleasure what he ought
not to see. Yet who can hold in the quickness of the eye? For from this the eye is said to have
received its very name, from its quickness.1996 Who can restrain the ear or eye? The eyes
may be shut when thou wilt, and are shut in a moment, but the ears thou canst only with
an effort close: thou must raise the hand and reach them, and if any one hold thy hand, they
are kept open, nor canst thou close them against reviling, impure, or flattering, and seducing
words. And when thou hearest any things thou oughtest not to hear, though thou do it not,
1991 Ascendunt.
1992 Isa. lviii. 7.
1993 The LXX. is, σύγκλεισον ἐλεημοσυνην ἐν τοῖς ταμειοις σου, καὶ αὕτη ἐξελεῖταί σε ἐκ πάσης κακώσεως.
1994 Ecclus. xxix. 12, Vulgate.
1995 Constellationibus. (Bened.) Meliores notæ MSS. a consolationibus mathematicorum.
1996 Oculus a velocitate.
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On the Lord’s Prayer in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. vi. 9, etc. to the …