[131] Similar again is the enactment about the house in which leprosy is a frequent occurrence. For the law says that “if there is an infection of leprosy in a house, the owner shall come and report it to the priest with the words ‘what seems an infection of leprosy has appeared in my house,’ ” and then it adds “and the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest enters the house and sees it, and whatsoever is in the house shall not become unclean, and after that the priest shall go in to observe it” (Lev. 14:34–36).
[132] So then before the priest goes in, the things in the house are clean, but after he has gone in they are all unclean. And yet we should have expected just the opposite, that when a man who has been purified and fully consecrated, who is wont to offer prayers and litanies and sacrifices for all men, has come within the house, its contents should thereby be bettered and pass from impurity into purity. But here we find that they do not even remain in the same position as before, but actually shift into the inferior region at the entrance of the priest.
[133] Now whether in the plain and literal sense of the ordinance these things are consistent with each other is a matter for those who are used to such questions and find pleasure in them. But we must say positively that no two things can be more consistent with each other than that, when the priest has entered, the belongings of the house are defiled.
[134] For so long as the divine reason has not come into our soul, as to some dwelling-place, all its works are free from guilt, since the priest who is its guardian or father or teacher—or whatever name is fitting for him—the priest, who alone can admonish and bring it to wisdom, is far away. There is pardon for those whose sin is due to ignorance, because they have no experience to tell them what they should do. For they do not even conceive of their deeds as sins, nay often they think that their most grievous stumblings are righteous actions.
[135] But when the true priest, Conviction, enters us, like a pure ray of light, we see in their real value the unholy thoughts that were stored within our soul, and the guilty and blameworthy actions to which we laid our hands in ignorance of our true interests. So Conviction, discharging his priest-like task, defiles all these and bids them all be cleared out and carried away, that he may see the soul’s house in its natural bare condition, and heal whatever sicknesses have arisen in it.