Nilus of Ancyra→Paul|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Paul the Scholastikos [advocate / man of law].
A settled disposition tends to arise from habit, and from this disposition a second nature tends to come into being. It is hard and difficult to dislodge or to change nature, yet it is possible for God, for nature does not set itself in opposition to God. "For though your sins be as scarlet," He says, "I will make them white as snow; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool" [Isaiah 1:18]. Therefore one must not despair, for God, who has acquired us as His own, is stronger than wicked and blameworthy habit; He it is who makes all things and refashions them, as the prophet says. And even if you have come into a fixed disposition and into a nature of vice, do not despair, but repent, and you shall be saved. For this very reason He took colors that are not easily washed out, but are, so to speak, all but fused with the materials beneath them - I mean the scarlet and the crimson - and declared that He would bring these over into the opposite disposition, so that He might hold out good hopes to those who are His own. Great, then, is the power of repentance, seeing that it works upon us as it does upon snow and whitens us like wool, and even when sin, taking hold beforehand, has over a long time grievously injured the soul, repentance has transformed it.
A settled disposition tends to arise from habit, and from this disposition a second nature tends to come into being. It is hard and difficult to dislodge or to change nature, yet it is possible for God, for nature does not set itself in opposition to God. "For though your sins be as scarlet," He says, "I will make them white as snow; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool" [Isaiah 1:18]. Therefore one must not despair, for God, who has acquired us as His own, is stronger than wicked and blameworthy habit; He it is who makes all things and refashions them, as the prophet says. And even if you have come into a fixed disposition and into a nature of vice, do not despair, but repent, and you shall be saved. For this very reason He took colors that are not easily washed out, but are, so to speak, all but fused with the materials beneath them - I mean the scarlet and the crimson - and declared that He would bring these over into the opposite disposition, so that He might hold out good hopes to those who are His own. Great, then, is the power of repentance, seeing that it works upon us as it does upon snow and whitens us like wool, and even when sin, taking hold beforehand, has over a long time grievously injured the soul, repentance has transformed it.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.