Who does not see that before a man can do good that is good, he must be cleansed from his evils? Does not a cup have to be cleansed? And if it is not cleansed, does not the wine get a taste from its uncleanness? And does not a dish have to be cleansed before food is put on it? For if the inside of the dish is all unclean, will not the food excite aversion? How can anything pure inflow from heaven into a man, when he is wholly impure and unclean? Must not the impure and unclean things be removed first? If you let your bedroom get filled with excreta, would not the whole house have an offensive smell? Could anyone go into it? Would not anyone going in say, "I can't," and would he not turn away from the house, saying, "It's only fit for swine"? Consequently, before the Lord can inflow with good, evil must be removed;* for influx before that is dangerous, as the good is turned into evil and increases it. The first thing, therefore, is to remove evil, and afterwards to inflow with good, and bring it into operation by means of the man. Anyone attempting to do good from the Lord, before evil has been removed by repentance, or without shunning evils as sins, is attempting what is impossible, and such things as may make him worse, inasmuch as, in the case of a wicked man, the good is turned into evil, and in that way it is profaned. That evil must be removed first, is clearly evident from the precepts of the Decalogue. Who is loving a person, when he wants to kill him, or hates him? Who is loving the neighbour,* when he commits whoredom with someone else's wife? Who is loving the neighbour, when he defrauds him?* Who is loving the neighbour, when he slanders him? Who is loving the neighbour, when he covets what belongs to him? Those evils, therefore, must first be removed; and in the measure that they are being removed, to that extent the neighbour is being loved. Paul speaks of these things thus: . . .**

But* people ask whether love towards the neighbour should be first, or whether shunning those evils should be first.* Everyone can see that shunning those evils should be first, inasmuch as a man is born into evil. Is it not necessary then for him to repent? * In the margin: "N.B." ** In the MS. no passage is quoted here; but the intended passage is possibly Rom. xiii. 10: "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: love therefore is the fulfillment of the law" (R.V.).