e, but he goeth out to meet thee returning out of the
way of iniquity, as though it were a son returning from a far country.
And he falleth on his neck and kisseth him, and he strippeth him of the
shameful robe of sin, and putteth on him a cloak of brightest glory,
making mystic gladness for the powers on high, keeping feast for the
return of the lost sheep. The Lord himself saith, 'There is exceeding
great joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth': and again, 'I am
not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.' And he saith
also by the Prophet, 'As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in
the death of the sinner, and the ungodly, but that he should turn from
his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil way. And why will
ye die, O house of Israel?' For the wickedness of the wicked shall not
hurt him in the day that he turneth from his wickedness, if he do
righteousness and walk in the statutes of life, he shall surely live;
he shall not die. None of his sins which he hath committed shall be
remembered against him. Because he hath done the decree of
righteousness, he shall live thereby. And again he crieth by the mouth
of another prophet, 'Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of
your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil: learn to do well.
Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, I
will make them white as snow; though they be red like crimson, I will
make them white as wool.' Such therefore being the promises made by
God to them that turn to him, tarry not, O thou man, nor make delay:
but draw nigh to Christ, our loving God, and be enlightened, and thy
face shall not be ashamed. For as soon as thou goest down into the
laver of Holy Baptism, all the defilement of the old man, and all the
burden of thy many sins, is buried in the water, and passeth into
nothingness, and thou comest up from thence a new man, pure from all
pollution, with no spot or wrinkle of sin upon thee; and thenceforward
it is in thy power ever to keep for thyself the purity that thou
gainest hereby through the tender mercy of our God."

When Theudas had been thus instructed, he went out immediately and gat
him to his evil den, and took his magical books, and, because they were
the beginnings of all evil, and the storehouses of devilish mysteries,
burnt them with fire. And he betook himself to the cave of that same
holy man, to whom Nachor also had resorted, and told him that