Anti-Arian Works 6 part 7/24

and he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). The good of charity is manifold against sins. Where this has begun to dwell, it does not permit sin to have dominion, but covers a multitude of sins; nor does it only make present sins to be avoided, but even makes all past sins to be released. This the proud and contumacious repudiate, who despair of the remission of sins; and not only do they, with pitiable blindness, reject care for their own salvation, but they even do not cease with deadly discourses to disturb faithful souls, if they cannot pervert them:

for from these, in most cases, either the enormity of their sins, or the long duration of a life wickedly spent, takes away the hope of salvation, and drives them to perpetrate worse things; so that in such persons that sentence of holy Scripture is fulfilled: When the sinner has come into the depth of evils, he despises (Prov. 18:3). And truly the depth of evils slays, if it prejudges any by the detestable hardening of the heart with despair of pardon. One must in no way despair of God's mercy. For who does not see how impious and how sacrilegious it is, if to a man who has been converted through penance from past evils to good things, it is believed that the remission of any sin cannot be granted?

But what else is effected by these words, except that the hand of the almighty Physician is repelled, by the vice of despair, from accomplishing man's salvation? For the Physician Himself says: They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are ill (Luke 5:31). If our Physician is skilled, He can heal all infirmities; if our God is merciful, He can forgive all sins. That is not perfect goodness by which all malice is not overcome; nor is that perfect medicine to which some incurable disease is found. But it is held written in the sacred letters: Malice does not overcome wisdom (Wisd. 7:30), and the omnipotence of our Physician is intimated in the Psalm by such words as these:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His recompenses. Who is merciful to all your iniquities; who heals all your infirmities; who redeems your life from destruction; who satisfies your desire with good things; who crowns you in pity and mercy: your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's (Ps. 103:1-5). What then are we to suppose cannot be forgiven us, when the Lord is merciful to all our iniquities?

or what are we to reckon in us cannot be healed, when the Lord heals all our infirmities? or how is anything of want left to one healed and justified, whose desire is satisfied with good things? or in what way is he not believed to obtain the benefit of full remission, to whom even a crown in pity and mercy is granted? Let no one, then, despairing of the Physician, remain in his infirmity; let no one, belittling the mercy of God, waste away in his iniquities. The Apostle cries out: that Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6). He likewise says: That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). Sins even committed after baptism are remissible.

God is abundant in forgiving. But perhaps it is said that those sinners can be saved who after their sins deserve to be cleansed by the washing of baptism; but that thereafter the sins which one baptized is seen to commit remain unremissible. Was not John the Apostle speaking to the baptized, to whom he said: My little children, these things I write to you, that you sin not; and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just, and He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2)? Whatever the sin may be, then, it can indeed be remitted by God to one who is converted; but that man does not allow it to be remitted to himself, who, by despairing, shuts against himself the door of indulgence.

For the rest, the Truth does not lie, which said: Seek, and you shall find; ask, and you shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that seeks, finds; he that asks, receives; and to him that knocks it shall be opened (Matt. 7:7-8). Whence also the most holy prophet Isaiah, that the remission of sins be in no way despaired of, exhorts the impious and the wicked, saying: Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He is abundant in forgiving (Isa. 55:6-7). Let the impious, then, forsake his way, by which he sins;

let the unrighteous forsake his thought, by which he despairs of the remission of sins, and, according to the prophet's word, let him turn to the Lord, for He is abundant in forgiving. In this abundance nothing is lacking, in which both mercy is almighty and omnipotence is merciful. So great, moreover, is both the kindness of omnipotence and the omnipotence of kindness in God, that there is nothing which He is either unwilling or unable to release for one who is converted. A wholesome conversion consists in two things. The despair of Judas; penance without hope. Now a wholesome conversion subsists by a twofold principle: if neither penance forsake the one who hopes, nor hope forsake the one who does penance;

and through this, if anyone renounces his sin with his whole heart, and with his whole heart places the hope of remission in God. For sometimes the devil either takes away hope from the penitent man, or takes penance from the one who hopes: burdening the one, he crushes him; lifting up the other, he casts him down. Judas, who betrayed Christ, performed penance for his sin, but lost salvation, because he did not hope for pardon. Finally, thus the evangelist speaks of him: Then Judas, who betrayed Him, seeing that He was condemned, being moved with repentance, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying: I have sinned in betraying innocent blood. But they said: What is that to us? See you to it.

And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and going away, hanged himself with a noose (Matt. 27:3-5). Worthily indeed did he perform penance, because he had sinned in betraying innocent blood; but for this reason he denied himself the fruit of penance, because he did not hope that the sin of his betrayal could be washed away by the very blood of Him whom he had betrayed. Hope without penance is a vain presumption. The devil frightens very many under a vain hope of pardon into their sins, and compels them not to fear God's justice, whom he vainly persuades to rejoice in God's goodness. Such persons say, according to the Apostle's rebuke: Let us do evil, that good may come; whose damnation is just (Rom. 3:8).

By these signs we clearly recognize that a man repents in vain, if while penance is being performed, pardon is despaired of, and that pardon is hoped for in vain without penance for sins; and through this, no one ought to sin secure under the hope of remission, nor, considering the multitude of his sins, ought he to remain bound in the chain of despair. For holy Scripture exhorts us to cease now from sinning, and not to despair that the things we have done will be remitted to us; for it says: Son, you have sinned; add not again, but pray also for your past sins, that they may be forgiven you (Ecclus. 21:1).

In both respects holy Scripture forewarned, and showed that we ought neither to remain in sin, nor to doubt about the remission of any iniquity. For why are we commanded not to add sins to sins, if we must remain in sin? or why are we commanded to pray concerning past sins, that they be forgiven us, if there are any which can in no way be forgiven to those who pray? Or can perhaps length of time prejudice anyone, so that, just as after a period of thirty years has elapsed no one is permitted by human laws to reclaim things taken away, so by divine laws, after long spaces of sinning, it should not be allowed to ask for pardon? Far be it that this should be in our God, which the human condition holds in lawsuits.

For our God is as merciful and good as He is infinite and unconquered. Accordingly, the goodness of the unconquered is not conquered, and the mercy of the infinite is not brought to an end. Every time of the present life is fit for conversion. In short, He shows every time of the present life to be most fit for conversion, saying: If the wicked man turn himself away from all his iniquities which he has done, and keep all my commandments, and do justice and mercy, he shall surely live, and shall not die. All his transgressions that he has committed shall not be in remembrance. In his justice which he has wrought he shall live. Do I will the death of the sinner by my will, says the Lord, and not rather that he be turned from his evil way, and live?

But when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, according to all the iniquities which that wicked man did, all his righteous deeds which he did shall not be in remembrance; in his transgression by which he transgressed, and in his sins by which he sinned, in these he shall die (Ezek. 18:21-22, and following). And further down He says: When the just man turns himself from his justice, so as to commit transgression, in his transgression which he has done, in it he shall die. And when the wicked man turns away from his iniquity which he has done, so as to do judgment and justice, he has preserved his soul, and has turned himself away from all his iniquities which he did; he shall surely live, and shall not die (Ezek. 18:24, 27-28).

Both sentences are true, because both are divine: whether that the just man, when he shall have turned away from his justice, all his righteous deeds are to be handed over to oblivion; or that the wicked man, when he shall have been converted from iniquity to justice, is himself to be saved, and all his iniquities shall not be in remembrance. But it is unjust, if we suppose that a just man once turned away can be condemned; and yet suppose that a wicked man once converted cannot be saved. God is just and merciful. As therefore He can by justice condemn one turned away, so He can by mercy always save one converted. No length of time prejudices either the divine equity or the divine mercy.

Penance is never too late with God, in whose sight things past as well as things to come are always held as present. If the long duration of sins were to conquer God's mercy, Christ would not have come in the last age of the world to take away the sins of the perishing world, of whom John says: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and the Savior Himself of Himself: For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). An example of God's mercy, from the parable of the Samaritan and the Wounded man. Our Samaritan would never have mercifully placed the wounded man upon the beast and led him to the inn, if He had judged any wound in him to be incurable.

Never, in giving the two denarii, would He have promised that He would repay the innkeeper whatever he might spend over and above (Luke 10:30 and following), if He had not foreknown that that extra outlay would profit the man's full recovery. For why does the innkeeper spend anything extra, if there is in the wounded man a wound that cannot be healed? As therefore no wound is incurable to our Physician, so neither in any wound, nor at any time, can the heavenly medicine fail. Therefore that same Physician testifies that He can always grant salvation to one converted, saying: When you shall have been converted and shall have groaned, you shall be saved (Isa. 30:15). On account of which God does not cease thus through Jeremiah to rebuke the hardness of certain men:

Shall not he that falls rise again? or he that is turned away, shall he not return? Why then is this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn turning away? They have hardened their necks, they would not return (Jer. 8:4-5). God does not punish sins in the sinner, if the sinner's neck has not been hardened. God's justice saves the converted, condemns those turned away. It is good for us, therefore, if we flee for refuge to His mercy, whose justice we cannot escape. For the very justice of God is such that it condemns those turned away, and saves the converted. On account of which He says: Turn to me, and I will save you (Isa. 45:22).

But He always delights in our conversion, and He has appointed no time for man, as long as he is in this life, in which He cannot be made propitious to one converted; nay rather, He is known to have assigned every time of the present life to our conversion. For blessed Peter says: The Lord does not delay His promise, as some count delay, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should be converted to penance (2 Pet. 3:9). The parable of the laborers in the vineyard. God always delights in our conversion. If the Lord judged any age unfit for the remedy of conversion, He would not have called laborers to the vineyard at different times. For in the diversity of hours is not incongruously understood the diversity of ages;

so that the age of boyhood is received in the morning, adolescence at the third hour, youth at the sixth, the gravity of declining age at the ninth and eleventh, and old age itself at the very last. In whatever age, therefore, anyone is called, if he does not scorn the kindness of the calling Lord, he must needs receive the denarius of eternal life. For indeed He does not fail always to delight in our conversion, He who through the prophet Joel cries out to us: Thus says the Lord your God: Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God;

for He is merciful and patient, and of great magnanimity, and abundant in mercy, and having patience over evil (Joel 2:12-13). On account of which the apostle Paul rebukes the hardness of heart in those who neglect to do penance for their sins; for he says: Wherefore you are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judge. For in that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you do the same things which you judge. Now we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things. And do you suppose this, O man, whosoever you are that judge those who do such things, and do them yourself, that you shall escape the judgment of God?

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness and patience and long-suffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to penance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up to yourself wrath in the day of wrath, and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works (Rom. 2:1-6, and following). In another place too he laments not so much those who seemed to sin gravely, as those who were unwilling to do penance for their sins. Finally, he says to the Corinthians: Lest again, when I come, God humble me among you, and I mourn many of those who sinned before, and have not done penance for the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness which they have committed (2 Cor. 12:21).

And not without reason does the Apostle mourn those who do not do penance: for he knows that there is more joy before the angels of God over one sinner doing penance, than over ninety-nine just persons who have no need of penance (Luke 15:7). Worthily, therefore, does the blessed Apostle mourn those on account of the impenitence of their heart, over whom the angelic choir does not rejoice. In various ways God calls us to penance. The kindness of God, then, leads us to penance; for this reason He afflicts us with tribulations, chastens us with infirmities, instructs us by straits, so that we who sinned in health of body may learn in infirmity to abstain from sins:

so that we who in gladness despised the mercy of God may, chastised by the scourge of sorrow, dread His justice. Thus it comes about that we who, by abusing our health, brought forth infirmity for ourselves, may through infirmity repair the benefits of health; and we who through gladness fell into tribulations, may through tribulations recur to gladness. In short, holy Scripture testifies that God's love toward us is rather shown by scourges and chastisements; for it says: Son, do not faint under the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves, He chastens; and He scourges every son whom He receives (Prov. 3:11-12). But the Savior Himself too says that He loves those whom He reproves:

I, He says, rebuke and chasten as many as I love (Rev. 3:19). And the teaching of the apostles does not cease to proclaim that we must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:21). The Lord Himself too says that the way is narrow and the gate strait which leads to life. But that we may know that those who take delight in temporal joys, and despise the divine commands, are to be burned with eternal fires, while those who patiently endure temporal evils with the fear of God are to obtain eternal rest; let us consider the rich man clothed in purple, and poor Lazarus—the former after his feastings handed over to perennial flames, the latter after his hardships secure in the eternal rest of Abraham's bosom:

where, when the rich man, burning, begged that his tongue be moistened by a drop from the finger of the blessed poor man, this reply from the blessed Abraham was straightway directed to him: Son, remember that you received good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus likewise evil things; but now he is comforted, and you are tormented (Luke 16:24-25). There was no other cause why the rich man should pay the penalty, and the poor man be adorned with joy and rest, except that the one received good things in his life, and the other evil things. It is not the same thing to have and to receive the good things of the present life. Now not all who have the good things of the present life receive the good things of the present life, nor do all who suffer the evils of this life receive the evils of this life;

But those receive their good things in their lifetime who exult in the joy and pleasures of the present life, and reckon themselves blessed in this, that they see themselves shaken by no adversity; whereas those receive their evil things in their lifetime who bear the pressures and tribulations of the present life with the fear of God, and, with a contrite and humbled heart, sigh not for temporal joys but for eternal ones, and desire not the goods that pass away but those that abide. 19. Finally, to those who wish to have their gladness in the good things of present affairs, the psalm says: 'O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after a lie?' (Ps. 4:3); and in another place: 'Do not hope in iniquity, and do not covet in robbery.'

'If riches abound, set not your heart upon them' (Ps. 61:11). Such people the blessed James also ceases not to rebuke, saying: 'Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who have reaped your fields, which is defrauded by you, cries out; and the cry of them has entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have feasted upon the earth, and in luxuries you have nourished your hearts' (James 5:1 ff.).

The laughter and joy of such people He commanded to be turned into mourning and grief, saying: 'Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into grief. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you' (James 4:8-9). CHAPTER 14. Neither the good nor the wicked shall be deprived of a future recompense. — 20. Nor let us suppose that the sadness of the humble and the gladness of the proud, the mourning of the godly and the joy of the ungodly, can be deprived of a future recompense. For each awaits a fitting reward, to be rendered by the divine judgment, which the Judge Himself is known to have decreed by such a sentence: 'Woe to you who are filled, for you shall hunger;'

'woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Blessed are you who now hunger, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who now weep, for you shall laugh. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted' (Luke 6:25; Matt. 5:5). Such people David likewise says indeed sow in weeping, yet shall not fail to reap with joy and exultation; for thus he says: 'They who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves' (Ps. 125:5). To such also he now declares that the Lord draws near, saying: 'The Lord is near to those who are troubled in heart, and He shall save the humble in spirit' (Ps. 33:19).

For tribulation profits Christians so greatly that through it our spirit becomes a sacrifice to God. For it is contained written in the psalm: 'A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise' (Ps. 50:19). CHAPTER 15. An exhortation to prompt conversion. — 21. Formed by these and countless testimonies of this kind, let us hasten as quickly as possible to be converted chiefly to God; for Scripture says: 'Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and put it not off from day to day, lest suddenly His wrath come, and in the time of vengeance He destroy you' (Sir. 5:8). And once converted, let us by no means despair of the remission of sins, holding fast the faithful promise of the Lord, who says:

'When you shall be converted and shall groan, you shall be saved' (Isa. 30, according to the Septuagint). Let us with long-suffering bear the pressures and tribulations of the present time, and by no means depart from the fear of God; for the Apostle enjoins us to be patient in tribulation (Rom. 12:12). He also testifies that the correction of the present time profits us much toward avoiding the future judgment, saying: 'But when we are judged, we are corrected by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world' (1 Cor. 11:32). CHAPTER 16. In our tribulations let us give thanks to God. — 22. Indeed, in our very tribulations let us give thanks to the Lord, and what holy Azariah said in the furnace, let us say in tribulation:

'Blessed are You, O Lord God of our fathers, and to be praised, and glorious is Your name forever; for You are just in all that You have done to us, and all Your works are true, and Your ways right, and all Your judgments truth; and You have executed a judgment of truth according to all that You have brought upon us, and upon the holy city of our fathers, Jerusalem. For in truth and in judgment You have brought all these things because of our sins. For we have sinned and dealt unjustly, departing from You, and we have grievously erred in all things; and we have not obeyed Your commandments, nor kept them, nor done as You commanded us, that it might be well with us.

And all that You have brought upon us, and all whatsoever You have done to us, You have done in a true judgment' (Dan. 3:26 ff.). And a little later he says: 'And now we follow You with our whole heart, and we fear You, and we seek Your face; put us not to confusion' (ibid. 41). LETTER 8, OR THE BOOK TO DONATUS. On the orthodox faith and the diverse errors of the heretics. To the excellent lord, and most beloved son in the charity of Christ, DONATUS, FULGENTIUS, servant of the servants of God, greeting in the Lord. CHAPTER 1. Who is a partaker of life; who is without it. — 1. I greatly bless the Lord, most dear son, by whose grace you are such that, though you are younger than he in age, you covet not the things that are of the flesh, but the things that are of the spirit;

and, kindled with the fervor of faith, you now begin laudably to meditate on those things by which pleasure may not damnably nourish the flesh, but recognized truth may spiritually feed the soul; for I do not doubt that it is by His own inspiration that, whereas you were wont to devote yourself to the studies of secular letters, you now bestow your affection upon the divine oracles: choosing rather to lay hold of that from which not swollen eloquence is learned, but everlasting life is obtained. For whoever holds the true faith possesses life: 'For the just man lives by faith' (Rom. 1:17); and whoever desires to be instructed in the mystery of that same faith, longs to attain the knowledge of life: in which each one grows the more, the more he learns of that which is true and salutary.

Whoever holds without doubt the beginning of this knowledge will attain to its perfection, and whoever has not scorned humbly to receive the milk of the apostolic word, he himself will deserve to rejoice in the reception of solid food. Now whether one is nourished with milk within the catholic Church, or is fed with food; if only he has not withdrawn from the bosom of Mother Church, he will remain a partaker of life; because, holding the righteousness of faith, he will also possess life. This life neither he will possess who remains in unbelief, nor he who perseveres in crime:

since each of them is convicted of being among those who, according to the sentence of the Apostle, 'walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart' (Eph. 4:17-18): for that very blindness of heart is ignorant both of what it should believe and of what it should do. CHAPTER 2. Donatus tempted by the Arians against faith in the Trinity. We ought to be prepared to give an answer concerning the faith. The faith of the Holy Trinity is expounded. — 2. You say, then, that a question was put to you by certain Arians concerning the Father and the Son, in which they asserted the Father to be greater and the Son lesser: