Whoever were to commend cleanness fittingly, and reckon up all the arguments that she demands by right, lovely examples would he be able to find in support of his discourse, and in the contrary enormous trouble and difficulty. For the Being who created all things is exceedingly angry with the man who follows after him in filth – such as men of religion who read and sing the service, and approach His presence, and are called priests; they go to His temple and are bound to Him, righteously with reverence they arrange His altar: there they handle His own body and partake of it as well. [12] If they are enclosed in cleanness they obtain a great reward; but if they feign wisdom and lack courtesy, by being pure on the outside and all filth within, then they are sinful themselves and altogether defile both God and His utensils, and drive Him to wrath. The King who rules everything is so clean in His court and pure in His household, and fittingly served by angels in very bright clothes, surrounded by all that is clean, both within and without; if He were not scrupulous and fastidious, and loved no evil, it would be too great a marvel – it could not happen.

[23] Christ Himself once made it known in a speech, in which He extolled eight beatitudes and promised to them [i.e. the blessed] their rewards. I am thinking of one among them, as Matthew records, which discloses a clear statement about cleanness in this way: ‘It turns out very well for the man with a clean heart, for he shall look on our Lord with a loved face’ – which is to say that anyone who is wearing any uncleanness anywhere about him shall never come to that sight; for He who banishes all filth from His heart cannot endure the shock of its approaching Him. [33] Therefore do not hurry to heaven in ragged clothes, nor in the hood of a beggar and with hands unwashed.