“For to those who do these things God is not manifest, unless they have first cleansed themselves from all impurity. All these things, then, involve you in darkness, as when a filmy discharge on the eyes prevents one from beholding the light of the sun. So, too, do sins, O man, involve you in darkness, so that you cannot see God.”
(St. Theophilus of Antioch, ‘Autolycus’)