Letter 459

To Palatinus the Chief Officer [protectores Palatini, the palace guard corps; here addressed as its leading member]. You keep saying repeatedly: "How can I be saved, teeming with the countless wounds of the soul, filled with unspeakable evils, and set ablaze by my own wretched conscience?" Attend, man, even if only in part, to the God-inspired Scripture, and you will have no need of my admonition. See what Solomon says: "For by acts of mercy and by faith sins are cleansed away." See what Daniel the prophet counsels Nebuchadnezzar: "Ransom your iniquities by acts of mercy, and your sins by compassion toward the poor." Be persuaded by Sirach when he exhorts: "Water quenches a blazing fire, and almsgiving quenches the flame of sins." — "For almsgiving delivers from death," meaning by death that which comes through a fearful and dreadful condemnation, and the darkness, as it seems to Tobit and to Solomon.

Συνεχέστερον φάσκεις· Πῶς δύναμαι σωθῆναι, μυρίοις βρύων τοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς ἕλκεσιν, καὶ ἀμυθή- τοις ἐμπεπλησμένος κακῶν, καὶ φλεγόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας μοχθηρᾶς συνειδήσεως; Πρόσχες, ἄνθρωπε, κἂν ἐκ μέρους τῇ θεοπνεύστῳ Γραφῇ, καὶ οὐκ ἂν σχοίης χρείαν τῆς ἐμῆς νουθεσίας. Βλέπε τί φησιν ὁ Σολομῶν· «Ἐλεημοσύναις γὰρ καὶ πίστεσιν ἀπο- καθαίρονται ἁμαρτίαι.» «Ὅρα τί συμβουλεύει τῷ Ναβουχοδονόσορ Δανιὴλ ὁ προφήτης· «Τὰς ἀνομίας σου ἐν ἐλεημοσύναις λύτρωσαι, καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου ἐν οἰκτιρμοῖς πενήτων.» Πείσθητι τῷ Σιρὰχ παραινοῦντι· «Πῦρ φλογιζόμενον ἀποσβέννυσιν ὕδωρ, καὶ ἁμαρτιῶν φλόγα σβέννυσιν ἐλεημοσύνη.» — «Ἐλεημοσύνη γὰρ ἐκ θανάτου ῥύεται, » θανάτου λέγων τοῦ διὰ καταδίκης φοβεβᾶς καὶ φρικώδους, καὶ τὸ σκότος, ὡς Τωβὴθ καὶ Σολομῶντι δοκεῖ.