What he says amounts to this. Perhaps there will be a reformation. Perhaps! for it is uncertain. So that we ought to withdraw only from those, of whom we can show plainly, and concerning whom we are fully persuaded, that whatever be done, they will not be re- formed. “In meekness,” he says. In this temper, you see, we ought to address ourselves to those who are willing to learn, and never cease from conversing with them till we have come to the demonstration.1384 “Who are taken captive by him at his will.” It is truly said, “Who are taken captive,”1385 for meanwhile they float in error. Observe here how he teaches to be humble-minded. He has not said, if peradventure you should be able, but, “if peradventure God should grant 498 them a recovery”; if anything be done, therefore, all is of the Lord. Thou plantest, thou wa- terest but He soweth and maketh it produce fruit. Let us not therefore be so affected, as if we ourselves wrought the persuasion, even if we should persuade any one. “Taken captive by him,” he says, “to His will.”1386 This no one will say relates to doctrine, but to life. For “His will” is that we live rightly. But some are in the snare of the devil by reason of their life, we ought not therefore to be weary even with respect to these. “If peradventure,” he says, “they may recover, that are taken captive, unto His will.” Now “If peradventure,” implies much longsuffering. For not to do the will of God is a snare of the devil. For as a sparrow, though it be not wholly enclosed, but only caught by the foot, is still under the power of him who set the snare; so though we be not wholly subverted, both in faith and life, but in life only, we are under the power of the devil. For “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven”; and again, “I know you not; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matt. vii. 21–23.) You see there is no advantage from our faith, when our Lord knows us not: and to the virgins he says the same, “I know you not.” (Matt. xxv. 12.) What then is the benefit of virginity, or of many labors, when the Lord knows us not? And in many places we find men not blamed for their faith, but punished for their evil life only; as elsewhere, not reproved for evil lives, but perishing for their pravity of doctrine. For these things hold together.1387 You see that when we do not the will of God, we are under the snare of the devil. And often not only from a bad life, but from one defect, we enter into Hell, where there are not good qualities to counterbalance it, since the virgins were not accused of fornication or adultery, nor of envy or ill-will, nor of drunkenness, nor of unsound faith, but of a failure of oil, that is, they failed in almsgiving, for that is the oil 1384 That is, we ought not to be provoked by their slowness of apprehension to break off. 1385 ἐζωγρημένοι, “taken alive,” applied to fish enclosed in a net. 1386 Gr. “To His will.” As αὐτοῦ and ἐκείνου must refer to two different persons, the meaning probably is, “that they who are taken captive by the devil may be recovered to the will of God.” And so he takes it. 1387 Sav. ἀλλήλων ἔχεται. Ben. ἔρχεται, which would be hardly Greek even with a preposition. 861 2 Timothy 2:20,21