Anti-Arian Works 11 part 4/5

and to whom now, that is, in the time of the New Testament, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit—with whom He is one divinity—the holy catholic Church throughout the whole world does not cease to offer the sacrifice of bread and wine, in faith and love. For in those carnal victims there was a signification (or figuration) of the flesh of Christ, which He, being without sin, was to offer for our sins, and of the blood which He was to shed for the remission of our sins: but in this sacrifice there is a thanksgiving and a commemoration of the flesh of Christ, which He offered for us, and of the blood which the same God shed for us. Of this blessed Paul says in the Acts of the Apostles:

'Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, over which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops, to rule the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood' (Acts 20:28). In those sacrifices, then, what was to be given to us was signified figuratively; but in this sacrifice what has already been given to us is plainly shown. In those sacrifices the Son of God was foreannounced as one to be slain for the ungodly: but in this one He is announced as slain for the ungodly, the Apostle testifying that Christ, 'while we were yet weak, according to the time, died for the ungodly' (Rom. 5:6), and that 'while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son' (ibid. 10). CHAPTER XX, or RULE XVII. The humanity of Christ. — 61.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that the Word made flesh always has that same true human flesh in which the Word God was born of the Virgin, in which He was crucified and died, in which He rose again and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God, in which also He is to come to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the apostles heard from the angels: 'So shall He come, in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven' (Acts 1:11); and blessed John says: 'Behold, He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and those also who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall see Him such as He is' (Rev. 1:7). CHAPTER XXI, or RULE XVIII. No nature is anything but good.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that the Trinity, God, that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, is by nature the supreme and unchangeable good; and that all natures were created by Him, good indeed, because they were made by the supreme good; but changeable, because they were made out of nothing; and that there is no nature of evil, because every nature, insofar as it is nature, is good. But because in it the good can be both diminished and increased, it is called evil to the extent that its good is diminished. For evil is nothing else than the privation of good. Hence it is clear that the evil of the rational creature is twofold: one by which it voluntarily fell away from the supreme good, its creator; the other by which

it will be punished against its will with the torment of eternal fire: the latter it will suffer justly, because it committed the former unjustly; and because it did not preserve in itself the order of the divine institution, it will not escape the order of the divine vengeance. CHAPTER XXII, or RULE XIX. No creature is the same as God. — 63. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that neither the angels, nor any other creature, is of the same nature as that which, according to its natural divinity, is the supreme Trinity, which is by nature one God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. For He who made them and the things which He made could not be of one nature. CHAPTER XXIII, or RULE XX. The angels made stable. — 64. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that every creature

was made naturally changeable by the unchangeable God; yet that not any of the holy angels can now be changed for the worse, because they have so received the eternal blessedness by which they steadfastly enjoy God, that they cannot be without it. But this very fact—that they can in no way be changed for the worse from that state of blessedness in which they are—is not implanted in them naturally, but was conferred by the bounty of divine grace after they were created. For if the angels had become naturally unchangeable, the devil and his angels would never have fallen from their fellowship. CHAPTER XXIV, or RULE XXI. Rational creatures. — 65.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that of all the creatures, both spiritual and corporeal, which the supreme Trinity made, only the angelic and human spirits received from God the faculty of understanding; but that the other spirits of brute animals did not receive reason and intelligence, and indeed cannot have it at all. For this reason it is said to men: 'Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding' (Psalm 32:9); and therefore that the souls of men and the souls of beasts are not of one nature; and that neither can the souls of beasts pass into men, nor the souls of men into beasts at any time. CHAPTER XXV, or RULE XXII. The free will of Adam. — 66.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that the first human beings, that is, Adam and his wife, were created good, upright, and without sin, with free will, by which they were able, if they willed, to serve and obey God always with a humble and good will; by which free will they were also able, if they willed, to sin by their own will; and that they did not sin by necessity, but by their own will; and that by that sin human nature was so changed for the worse, that not only in those first human beings did death obtain its reign through sin, but the dominion of sin and death also passed into all men. CHAPTER XXVI, or RULE XXIII. Original sin. — 67.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that every man who is conceived through the intercourse of man and woman is born with original sin, subject to impiety and subject to death, and for this reason is born a child of wrath by nature. Of this the Apostle says: 'For we too were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest' (Eph. 2:3). From this wrath no one is freed except through faith in the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who, conceived without sin, born without sin, dead without sin, was made sin for us, that is, was made a sacrifice for our sins. For in the Old Testament the sacrifices which were offered for sins were called sins:

in all of which there was a signification of Christ, because He Himself is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins (or sin) of the world (John 1:29). CHAPTER XXVII, or RULE XXIV. What is the punishment of the unbaptized. — 68. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that not only men already using reason, but also little children—whether they begin to live in their mothers' wombs and there die, or, already born of their mothers, pass from this world without the sacrament of holy baptism, which is given in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—are to be punished with the everlasting torment of eternal fire. For even if they had no sin of their own action, they nevertheless drew the condemnation of original sin by carnal conception and birth. CHAPTER

XXVIII, or RULE XXV. Judgment. — 69. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that Christ the Son of God will therefore come to judge the living and the dead, in order that the men whom here by the gift of His grace He freely justifies through faith, and to whom, once justified, He grants perseverance in faith and love in the holy mother Church even to the end, He may at His coming raise up and glorify, and according to His promise make equal to the holy angels, and bring to that state in which they may be perfectly good—insofar as God grants to each—and may thereafter never be changed from that very perfection: where the glory of the saints will be diverse, but the eternal life of all will be one.

But that the devil and his angels are to be sent by Christ into eternal fire, where they will never be free from the punishment which divine justice has prepared for them; and that with the devil himself, the impious and wicked men, of whom Scripture says: 'But they who are of his part imitate him' (Wis. 2:25)—because they imitated him in evil works, and did not perform fitting penance before the end of this present life—will, when their bodies are resumed, burn in the torment of eternal burning. CHAPTER XXIX, or RULE XXVI. The resurrection of the flesh. — 70. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that for all men, both good and bad, the resurrection of the flesh will be common at the coming of the Lord;

but that the recompense of God's justice will be unlike for the good and the bad: according to what the Apostle says, that 'we shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed' (1 Cor. 15:51). But the just, who will go into eternal life, will be changed. This the Apostle shows, saying: 'And the dead shall rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed' (ibid. 52). And showing what that change will be, he added (v. 53): 'For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.' In the bodies of the just will happen what the same Apostle says: 'It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power;'

'it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body' (ibid. 42 ff.). This he called spiritual not because the body itself will be a spirit, but because by the life-giving spirit it will remain immortal and incorruptible. But it will then be called a spiritual body in this way: not that it is a spirit, but that it remains a body; just as now it is called a natural body, when nevertheless it is found to be not a soul, but a body. CHAPTER XXX, or RULE XXVII. Faith and baptism. — 71.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that—except for those who are baptized in their own blood for the name of Christ—no man will receive eternal life who has not here been converted from his sins by penance and faith, and freed through the sacrament of faith and penance, that is, through baptism. And that for adults it is indeed necessary both to do penance for their evils, and to hold the catholic faith according to the rule of truth, and to receive the sacrament of baptism;

but that for little children, who can neither believe by their own will nor do penance for the sin which they draw originally, the sacrament of faith and penance, which is holy baptism, suffices for salvation for as long as they cannot be capable of reason. CHAPTER XXXI, or RULE XXVIII. Grace. — 72. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that no man here can do penance except him whom God has enlightened and converted by His gratuitous mercy. For the Apostle says: 'Lest perhaps God give them penance to know the truth, and they recover themselves from the snares of the devil' (2 Tim. 2:25). CHAPTER XXXII, or RULE XXIX. Nothing is done without grace. — 73.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that a man whom neither ignorance of letters nor any weakness or adversity hinders can indeed either read the words of the holy law and the Gospel, or hear them from the mouth of some preacher; but that no one can obey the divine commandments except him whom God has anticipated by His grace, so that what he hears with the body he may also perceive with the heart, and, having received from God a good will and power, may both will and be able to do the commandments of God. For 'neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase' (1 Cor. 3:7): who also 'works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will' (Phil. 2:13). CHAPTER XXXIII, or RULE XXX. Nothing is hidden from God. — 74.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that to the unchangeable God not only past and present things, but also all future things, are unchangeably most fully known—to whom it is said: 'O God, who are the knower of hidden things, who know all things before they come to pass' (Dan. 13:42). CHAPTER XXXIV, or RULE XXXI. Predestination. — 75. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that the unchangeable Trinity, God, the most certain knower of all things and works, both His own and human, knew before all ages to whom He would grant grace through faith: without which no one could, from the beginning of the world even to its end, be absolved from the guilt of sin, both original and actual.

'For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be made conformable to the image of His Son' (Rom. 8:29). CHAPTER XXXV, or RULE XXXII. The blessed by predestination. — 76. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that all whom God makes vessels of mercy by His gratuitous goodness were predestined by God before the foundation of the world unto the adoption of the sons of God; and that none of those whom God predestined to the kingdom of heaven can perish, nor can any of those whom God has not predestined to life be saved by any means. For that predestination is the preparation of gratuitous gift by which the Apostle says we were 'predestined unto the adoption of sons, through Jesus Christ unto Himself' (Eph. 1:5). CHAPTER XXXVI, or RULE XXXIII.

Baptism. — 77. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that the sacrament of baptism can exist not only within the catholic Church, but also among heretics who baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; but that outside the catholic Church it cannot profit: indeed, just as within the Church salvation is conferred through the sacrament of baptism on those who believe rightly, so for those baptized outside the Church, if they do not return to the Church, ruin is heaped up by that same baptism (I, question 1, chapter 'Firmissime'). For so much is the unity of ecclesiastical fellowship worth for salvation, that he is not saved by baptism to whom it is not given where it ought to be given.

Yet baptism does inhere in a man baptized even outside the Church, but it inheres unto judgment for one separated from the Church. And because it is manifest that wherever it is given, this baptism is to be given only once, therefore even if it has been given by heretics in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is to be reverently acknowledged, and for this reason in no way repeated. For the Savior says: 'He who is once washed needs only to wash his feet' (John 13:10). CHAPTER XXXVII, or RULE XXXIV. Outside the Church there is no salvation. — 78.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that everyone baptized outside the catholic Church cannot become a partaker of eternal life, if before the end of this life he has not been restored to the catholic Church and incorporated into it: for 'if I have,' says the Apostle, 'all faith, and know all mysteries, but have not charity, I am nothing' (1 Cor. 13:2). For also in the days of the flood we read that no one could be saved outside the ark. CHAPTER XXXVIII, or RULE XXXV. Those to be condemned. — 79.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that not only all pagans, but also all Jews, and all heretics and schismatics, who end their present life outside the catholic Church, will go into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). CHAPTER XXXIX, or RULE XXXVI. Heretics. — 80. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that any heretic or schismatic whatsoever, baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, if he has not been joined to the catholic Church, however many alms he may give, even if he should shed his blood for the name of Christ, can in no way be saved.

For to every man who does not hold the unity of the catholic Church, neither baptism, nor alms however abundant, nor death undertaken for the name of Christ, can profit unto salvation, so long as there persists in him either heretical or schismatic depravity, which leads to death. CHAPTER XL, or RULE XXXVII. Christians living wickedly. — 81. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that not all who are baptized within the catholic Church will receive eternal life, but those who, having received baptism, live rightly, that is, who have abstained from the vices and lusts of the flesh.

For just as the unfaithful, heretics, and schismatics shall not possess the kingdom of heaven, so Catholics who are guilty of crimes cannot possess it. CHAPTER 41, or RULE 38. That no one lives without sins. — 82. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that even just and holy men — except those who have been baptized as little children — no one here can live without sin; and that it is always necessary for every man both to wash away his sins, right up to the end of the present life, by almsgiving, fastings, prayer, and tears, and humbly and truly to ask of God for their remission. CHAPTER 42, or RULE 39. Food and drink. Marriage; second marriages are lawful. — 83.

Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that every creature of God is good, and that nothing is to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving; and that those servants of God who abstain from meats or from wine do not spurn as unclean the things which were made by God, but abstain from the stronger food and drink solely for the chastisement of the body. Hold also that marriage was instituted and blessed by God; and that it is indeed better if one be without wedlock, so as more freely and fully to consider the things of God, how to please God (1 Cor. 7:34); nevertheless, for those who have not vowed continence, there is no sin if either a woman marries or a man takes a wife.

And hold that not only first marriages were instituted by God, but also second and third ones were granted on account of the weakness of those who cannot contain themselves. But for those who, whether within marriage or free of marriage, have vowed continence to God, it is exceedingly damnable if the former should wish to seek out the marital act, to which they professed they would not approach, or the latter to resume it, from which they professed — the one by a free, the other by a common resolve — that they would withdraw. CHAPTER 43, or RULE 40. That the evil are mingled with the good in the Church. — 84. Hold most firmly, and in no way doubt, that the threshing-floor of God is the Catholic Church, and that within it, until the end of the age, the chaff is contained mingled with the wheat, that is, the evil are mingled with the good in the communion of the sacraments;

and that in every calling — whether of clergy, or of monks, or of laity — there are both the good and the evil together; and that the good are not to be forsaken on account of the evil, but the evil are to be tolerated on account of the good, insofar as the reason of faith and charity requires — that is, provided they either scatter no seeds of any perfidy in the Church, or do not lead the brethren to some evil work by deadly imitation. And that no one within the Catholic Church who believes rightly and lives well can ever be stained by another's sin, provided he grants neither consent nor favor to anyone sinning;

and that the evil are usefully tolerated by the good within the Church, if this be done with them by living well and admonishing well, so that, both seeing and hearing the things which are good, they may spurn their own evils, and tremble at being judged by God for their evil works; and thus, by the going-before gift of grace, they may be confounded at their own iniquities, and be converted to a good life through the mercy of God. But the good, established within the Catholic Church alone, ought to be separated from the evil only by dissimilarity of works, so that with those with whom they share the divine sacraments they may not have in common the evil works by which those men are criminal.

But at the end of the age the good are to be separated from the evil even in body, when Christ shall come having His fan in His hand, and shall thoroughly cleanse His floor, and shall gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12); when by a just judgment He shall set apart the just from the unjust, the good from the evil, the upright from the perverse: He will place the good on the right, the evil on the left, and, when the everlasting and unchangeable sentence of His just and eternal judgment has been pronounced from His mouth, all the wicked shall go into eternal burning, but the just into life everlasting (Matt. 25:46): the wicked ever to burn with the devil, but the just to reign without end with Christ. CHAPTER 44. That one must persevere in the faith.

— 85. Meanwhile, believe faithfully these forty chapters, which pertain most firmly to the rule of the true faith, hold them bravely, defend them truthfully and patiently. And if you should come to know anyone teaching doctrines contrary to these, flee him as a plague, and cast him out as a heretic. For these things which we have set down so agree with the Catholic faith that, if anyone should wish to contradict not only all of them, but even single ones of them, in that in which he obstinately resists any single one of these and does not hesitate to teach things contrary to them, he shows himself a heretic and an enemy of the Christian faith, and on this account one to be anathematized by all Catholics.

Therefore, although both the shortness of time and the haste of the bearer have compelled us to pass over in silence some things which should have been inserted for the recognizing and avoiding of the various heresies, nevertheless, if you do not neglect to review the things contained in this little work and to hold them altogether most well-known, from these you will be able, with cautious discernment, to judge spiritually even about other matters. For the Apostle says that the spiritual man judges all things (1 Cor. 2:15): until each one of us attains to this, let him walk in that to which he has attained, that is, let him faithfully persevere in that which he has received as certain. But if he thinks anything otherwise, this too God will reveal to him. Amen. 532. NOTICE concerning the following chapter 45.

That the following chapter did not truly come forth from Fulgentius, but was appended to this now-completed work by some other uncertain author, no one will deny who, reading the whole book of Fulgentius, has attended even moderately to the final words of the last chapter. For, having set forth 40 chapters — or rather rules — of the true faith, he says that he is compelled by the shortness of time and the haste of the bearer to pass over in silence many things which should otherwise have been inserted. Hence it is not even likely that he (a manifest conclusion of the whole work having moreover been added) would have augmented an already-completed work with this longer chapter, one contributing nothing, or almost nothing, to the matter, or would have repeated in briefer discourse rules already sufficiently treated in themselves.

There is added the fact that, even if these considerations availed little to keep us from attributing this chapter to Fulgentius, all the manuscripts seen by us — four from the Vatican, two from England, and also one very ancient one from Corbie, which by its very script shows a thousand years or more, that is, written in almost the very century of Fulgentius or the one immediately following — omit all these things which are read in that chapter; and that last Corbie manuscript has at the end, after these words 'This too God will reveal to him. Amen,' in exactly the same hand: 'Here ends the book of Fulgentius, bishop of the holy Catholic Church of Ruspe, On the Rule of the True Faith.'

But because it was a matter of conscience to publish anything here less fully than in the earlier editions, it seemed good to append this whole chapter to this work by way of a separate appendix. CHAPTER 45. 1. Truly firm is the foundation of faith: to believe principally that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are by nature one God — so that we believe the only-begotten Son to be truly born of the nature of the Father, and the Holy Spirit truly and naturally proceeding at once from the Father and the Son; and that the same Holy Trinity is one only, true, eternal, and unchangeable God. It is also fitting to believe unto salvation that one Person of the Trinity, that is, the only-begotten God, for our salvation was made man alone;

and that the same is one true God and true man, having according to His divinity one nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit; but according to His humanity, that the rational soul of Christ is of the same nature as are the souls of all men, and that the flesh of Christ is of that nature which is common to all who derive their origin from the first man. Therefore neither the soul nor the flesh of Christ is of one and the same nature with the divinity, because according to His humanity He was truly created; but just as His divinity has a common divine nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit, so His soul and His body have a natural community with our souls and bodies.

By His own divinity He freely rescued the flesh and soul of those who believe in Him, both from the dominion of sin and from the punishment of eternal death, by taking away sin. 2. Fortified therefore by this belief, you will not forget day and night to make supplication to the divine mercy, beseeching Him who is the blessed hope of all who believe in Him, who is Christ the Lord, that you may hold firmly and keep inviolate the truth of this faith: for the Holy Spirit supplies abundant help to the faithful who entreat Him, as the prophet says: The Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth. He will do the will of them that fear Him, and will hear their prayers, and will save them.

The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all sinners He will destroy (Ps. 145:18-20). And again the same one says to God: Behold, all who withdraw far from You shall perish: You have destroyed all who commit fornication away from You (Ps. 73:27). And of himself he says: But it is good for me to cleave to God, to put my hope in the Lord (ibid., 28). 3. Cleave therefore to God, dearest son, and set your hope in Him with all your heart, in faith and charity. In the warfare of the world render faithful service to the earthly king, because this God loves, this the Apostle commands. But in the cause of the faith, by which Christ redeemed us in His blood, let all fear depart from our heart. To Him we owe our souls, by whose blood we have been redeemed.