[122] We may properly ask, why directly after the recital of Noah’s perfection in virtues, we are told that “the earth was corrupt before the Lord and filled with iniquity” (Gen. 6:11). And yet perhaps save for one who is especially uninstructed it is not difficult to obtain a solution.
[123] We should say then that when the incorruptible element takes its rise in the soul, the mortal is forthwith corrupted. For the birth of noble practices is the death of the base, for when the light shines, the darkness disappears.
And therefore in the law of leprosy it is most carefully laid down, that if a living colour arise in the leper, he shall be defiled (Lev. 13:14, 15).
[124] And by way of clinching this and so to speak setting a seal upon it, he adds “and the healthy colour will defile him.” This is quite opposed to the natural and ordinary view. For all men hold that things healthy are corrupted by things diseased, and living things by dead things, but they do not hold the converse, that the healthy and living corrupt their opposites, but rather that they save and preserve them.
[125] But the lawgiver, original as ever in his wisdom, has here laid down something distinctly his own. He teaches us that it is the healthy and living which produce the condition which is tainted with pollution. For the healthy and living colour in the soul, when it makes a genuine appearance upon it, is Conviction.
[126] When this Conviction comes to the surface it makes a record of all the soul’s transgressions, and rebukes and reproaches and calls shame upon it almost without ceasing. And the soul thus convicted sees in their true light its practices each and all, which were contrary to right reason, and then perceives that it is foolish and intemperate and unjust and infected with pollution.