forth every living creature that moveth, after their kind." But here we are ourselves responsible for being good kinds and worthy of what are called

' vessels," so to speak; or for being bad kinds, deserving only to be cast aside. For in us our nature is not the cause of evil, but it is voluntary choice that worketh evil; similarly, our nature is not the cause of righteousness, as being incapable of unrighteousness, but it is the Word which we have received that maketh men righteous; for you cannot see the living creatures of the waters changing from bad kinds to good - as fishes, for example-or from the better to the worse; but the good and the bad among men you can always observe either changing from vice to virtue, or turning back from the pursuit of virtue to the mire of wickedness. Wherefore in Ezekiel, regarding the man who turns from wickedness to the observance of the divine mandates, it is thus written: "But if the wicked man will turn from all the wickedness that he hath committed," and so forth, down to the words, "that he should turn from his wickedness and live"; but in regard to the man who turns back from the pursuit of virtue to the allurements of vice it is said: "But when the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity," and so forth, down to the words, "in his sins that he hath sinned, in them shall he die." Let those who,

from the parable of the drag-net, preach the doctrine of different natures, tell us this: if a wicked man should turn away from all the sins which he committed, and observe all the commandments of the Lord, and do what is righteous and merciful, of what nature was he when he was wicked? Surely not of a praiseworthy nature! If then of a reprehensible nature, of what nature can he rightly be called when he turns himself away from all the sins which he hath committed? If, because of the deeds which preceded, you say that he is of an evil nature, in what manner has he changed to a better nature? But if, in sooth, you say that, because of his subsequent deeds, he is of a good nature, in what way did he become wicked, since his nature was innately good? A similar perplexity will suggest itself regarding the just man who turns away from his righteousness and doeth wrong in every manner of sin. For before he turned away from righteousness, when he was engaged in righteous deeds, he was not of an evil nature; for the evil nature showeth not itself in righteousness; wherefore iniquity, which is an evil tree, cannot bring forth good fruit, which springeth from virtue. Again, on the other hand, if he had been of a good and unchangeable nature he would not have turned away from this good after he had once been righteous, so as to commit iniquity in all the transgressions which he hath committed.