Anti-Arian Works 9

BOOK ONE. CHAPTER ONE. I cannot express in words, dearest Euthymius, how greatly I rejoice with you in your zeal: that not only, placed in your own house, do you give your mind to the heavenly Scriptures, but you also with watchful heart frequent the holy church, so that when the outer hearing of the body is struck by the divine words, the inner affection of your soul may be nourished. For it is recognized as the work of divine grace, that in the house of God you spiritually enjoy the conversation of those whom you know to be fervent in the love of the divine law;

nor do you delight, as some do, to mingle in useless talk — those who come together to the life-giving banquet of the heavenly word without profit to themselves, and, according to the truthful word of the reproving apostle Paul, indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but are turned unto fables (II Tim. IV, 4). Whom not undeservedly I would call like to those whose stomach, overcome by a deadly loathing, is found to delight rather in fasting than in food; and on this account they perceive in vain that medicinal riches are set before them; which, while they refuse to receive, they gain from them nothing of virtue or of health; and in the house of the physician, spurning the antidote of spiritual healing offered them, they enter with their infirmities only to depart the more grievously sick.

To whom nevertheless the Lord is able to grant delight and knowledge of His word, so that they may be inflamed by the examples of the good. Being admonished by these, may they cast off the negligence of their delay, and seek the effect of salvation in the wholesome precepts of the physician Himself: so that with those who, searching the testimonies of the Lord, seek Him out, they too may not cease to seek for their own salvation that which can be found by those who seek. CHAPTER II. And so the letter which you sent me, although it made known to us nothing unknown from your heart, nevertheless supplied to our heart a great increase of gladness in the Lord.

For it is known to us that divine grace mercifully works in you, and that you often and much think upon the remission of sins. Yet I said that our gladness had grown for this reason: because you so desire to obtain the remission of sins, that you frequently and vigilantly inquire into the effect of that same remission. You say, therefore, that a question has arisen among you, which, although you yourself recall it, I have nevertheless preferred to insert into this little work the very words that are contained in your letter, in the very order in which they were set down by you: so that not only may you recognize them from your own dictation, but also whoever else shall read may, while he is imbued by the inquiry of knowledge, be more conveniently instructed unto the understanding of the answer.

You ask, therefore, whether the Lord, the Maker of all things, remits sins in this world only to those whom He wills, and so anyone departs hence absolved; or whether, by His omnipotence, He remits to those to whom He did not remit in the present world, when they depart from the body before the day of judgment, or on that very day of the world to come. These very words which I have set down you surely recall to be, as I have already said, your own. CHAPTER III. In the resolution of this question I see you demanding the opinion of our littleness. Wherefore I hope in the abundance of the goodness of God, by which He is always so rich that thereby our poverty too can be enriched, and out of which He so gives to others as much as He wills, that He remains the more fully Himself in it;

for He will deign to pour into our heart spiritually such things as may profit both us to speak and you to hear. For the discourse which we minister to you in the grace of God then profits us also, if what we speak outwardly to you in word and pen for your salvation, we inwardly hear as meek and humble. For not in vain does the most holy David say: I will hear what the Lord God shall speak in me (Ps. LXXXV, 9). Which hearing properly pertains to the humble. Wherefore in another place the same prophet says: To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness, and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice (Ps. LI, 10). In another place the Majesty itself speaks thus: Upon whom shall my Spirit rest, but upon the humble and the quiet, and him that trembleth at my words (Isa. LXVI, 2)?

Nor indeed does this Spirit of God so rest upon the humble and quiet as though He Himself did not make him quiet and humble, but as though He should find him already humble and quiet in order to rest upon him. For in this He deigns to rest upon the humble and quiet, because upon whom He rests, him He makes quiet and humble. This therefore the Holy Spirit works: that He may expel the vice of pride and unquietness from the man in whom He rests; and so, by the operation of the Holy Spirit going before and mercifully changing the will of man, the freely-given remission of sins may loose every bond of past human iniquity. CHAPTER IV.

We therefore treat of no small matter, nor do we seek anything worthless, when we discuss the remission of sins, as far as the divine bounty aids us. For through this those are rescued from the power of darkness whom God will transfer into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. I, 13). Through it they are freed from eternal punishment, that they may enjoy eternal gladness. Through it is laid down the burden, whether the one that vicious birth has dragged along, or the one that the iniquity of vicious youth has added. Through it Christ refreshes those who labour and are burdened, coming to Him, upon whom He imposes the mild yoke and the light burden of His charity (Matt. XI, 28–30). Through it the ungodly is freely justified,

so that his faith is reckoned unto righteousness. Through it he lacks the evil life in which he had been entangled; and freely receives a good one, of which he was unworthy. Through it, it comes to pass that thereafter, in a good life, being enlightened by the gift of preceding mercy, he walks, and led into it, perseveres by the gift of following mercy: so that undeserved grace may begin in man the gift of living well, the remission of sins being granted; which it may perfect by the virtue of perseverance conferred. Through the remission of sins men are freely distinguished from those who shall be tormented forever with the devil, and are joined to those who shall reign without end with Christ. [Scripture] opened the one; but the other the Lord Himself indicated.

For when Mary His mother had been espoused to Joseph, and, as the evangelist testifies, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit, the cause of that conception was announced by the angel in these words to Joseph, who knew it not: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins (Matt. I, 18ff.). But what else is it to save from sins, but to remit sins? For our Saviour Himself, who came to save that which had perished (Matt.

XVIII, 11), testifies that He came for this, to call sinners to repentance. CHAPTER V. Now the principal benefit of this calling to repentance is the free remission of sins. For which our same Redeemer, after the banquet of the paschal supper was accomplished, declares that His blood is to be poured out. Drink, He says, of this, all of you. For this is my blood of the new Testament, which shall be shed for many for the remission of sins (Matt. XXVI, 28). This therefore, as I think, either all, or almost all who are in any way called by the Christian name, desire to find; but it matters where each one, or when, or how he seeks it.

For one cannot attain to the remission of sins, if he either does not hold the true faith, or neglects the office of good work, or, forestalled by deadly vanity, despises the time divinely granted for right belief and good work. For these three things, that is, faith, work, and time, are so together necessary to men in this life, that if any one of these three should be lacking to anyone in the present world, he cannot be a partaker of eternal life; and hence neither will he obtain the remission of sins, through which one comes to the reward of eternal life. This it is necessary, with the Lord's help, that we show by the attestation of the divine testimonies. CHAPTER VI.

Before all things, therefore, we must hold with firm belief that the Lord our God is merciful and just. For hence it can easily appear to those who inquire, to what kind of persons God remits sins, where He remits, when He remits. Which things being known, let no one retain a perverse opinion concerning God, nor neglect his own conversion, nor depart from the Catholic Church; or if anyone has departed, let him speedily return;

nor let anyone wish to flatter himself concerning time with foolish thought, if anyone, unwilling to be converted to God in this life and serving iniquities even to death, should believe that after this life he will obtain the remission of sins, when already, prejudged, [he falls] into the time of tribulation — [the enemy] whose incessant zeal is this, that to the fellowship of his own torment he may, as far as he can, either drag the crowd of the wretched enticed, or compel it unwilling. For he makes not a few, casting aside consideration of the divine justice, to think of God's mercy alone; so that they neglect their conversion, supposing that, even if they lead a criminal life to the very end, they will obtain the benefit of remission. But others

he compels or entices, the bosom of the Catholic Church being abandoned, to pass over to heresies or schisms in the blindness of a depraved heart. Whose minds he ensnares by the deception of a false promise, so that they either think themselves upheld by right doctrine, or hope that the benefit of remission will come to them for the mere belief of the heart, even though, with a feigned mind, for either the convenience or the fear of the time, they are held bound in the deadly fellowship of heretics even to death; too little considering that sentence of our Saviour who says: Whosoever shall confess Me before men, I also will confess him before My Father who is in heaven; and whosoever shall deny Me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in heaven (Matt. X, 32–33).

And in another place: Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed, when He shall come in His majesty, and that of the Father, and of the holy angels (Luke IX, 26). But to very many the enemy of the human race contrives to bring in the remembrance of their sins for this end, that he may cast desperation of remission upon the hardened, and shut them out from the remedy of conversion. But all these things he ever does, cloaked in fraudulent deceit, for no other reason than that he may take away the opportunity of the time in which remission can be granted to the converted; and so, as far as pertains to his malignity, that, if it could be, no one may come to salvation.

For he knows that God is merciful and just, nor is he ignorant that only the heart's true conversion can elicit from God the remission of sins. He knows too that nowhere but in the sole bosom of the Catholic Mother can sins be remitted to the converted; nor is it hidden from him that only in the present world can the remission of all sins be granted to the converted: where the human race, by the order divinely appointed through the departure of the dying and the succession of those being born, is not unjustly bound by the bond of carnal birth, and is freely loosed by spiritual birth:

where also conversion either looses every guilt, or renders it insoluble — whether the neglect nourished by vain hope, or the wickedness of a hardened heart, strengthened by despair and retained even to the end. CHAPTER VII. But now the urgency of the work undertaken compels me to teach thoroughly, by due discussion and by the attestation of the holy Scriptures, all the things I have indicated above. For indeed the truthful series of both Testaments is not silent about all the things that pertain to the achievement of human salvation; so that there may be nothing which the despiser, to be condemned hereafter, may plead in excuse.

Principally, therefore, all Scripture divinely inspired proclaims the one true and only God, that is, the Trinity, namely the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to be as merciful as He is just. For to Him it is said in the person of the Church: Mercy and judgment I will sing to thee, O Lord (Ps. CI, 1). Of Him also it is sung: Merciful is the Lord and just, and our God shall have mercy (Ps. CXVI, 5). In another place also: For the Lord is just, and hath loved justice; His countenance hath beheld equity (Ps. XI, 8). Again it is said: All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps. XXV, 10). And again: For the Lord loveth mercy and truth (Ps. LXXXIV, 12).

In the first precept of the decalogue also the same Lord makes Himself known as just and merciful, thus indeed: I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, who repay the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation, of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of thousands to them that love and keep My precepts (Exod. XX, 5–6). Wherefore Moses says: The Lord God, indulgent and merciful, patient and of much mercy and true, keeping justice and mercy unto thousands, taking away iniquities and injustices and sins. And He will not clear the guilty, bringing the sins of the fathers upon the children of the children unto the third and fourth generation (Exod. XXXIV, 6–7).

Through Isaiah also the Lord commemorates His mercy and justice, saying: I am God, and there is no other besides Me, just, and a saviour: there is none besides Me. Be converted to Me, and you shall be saved (Isa. XLV, 21–22). CHAPTER VIII. By these, therefore, and by innumerable testimonies of this kind, whereby the Lord our God is proclaimed merciful and just, it is shown how greatly His mercy is to be loved, and how greatly His justice is demonstrated to be feared. For the merciful and compassionate Lord, patient and of much mercy and true, as He knows how to remove punishment from the converted, so in him who is unwilling to be converted He in no way suffers sin to remain unavenged.

Therefore, if there be any whom in the present world the pious goodness of God does not free from the dominion of sin, these His just severity condemns in the world to come. Hence it is that by the divine words the wicked are unceasingly and wholesomely admonished, that they may not remain in the servitude of sin, but may seek the mercy of the just God while they are in this life. To the good also it is commanded (Ps. II, 11–12), that serving the Lord in fear, and rejoicing unto Him with trembling, they may lay hold of discipline; lest at any time the Lord be angry, and they perish from the just way.

God himself, therefore, who is both merciful and just, even as he warns that for justice and mercy's sake he should be feared and loved by the wicked—so that when they are converted they may escape the punishment which justice threatens and receive the pardon which mercy promises—so too he warns that for justice and mercy's sake he should be loved and feared by the good, in order that those who by his prevenient mercy are good may be able both, through love of mercy, to persevere in good works, and, through fear of justice, carefully to guard themselves from sins; and, instructed by consideration of their own weakness, may never trust in their own strength, but may continually and humbly beg the help of the divine power.

The good and the wicked alike, therefore, ought both to love mercy and to dread justice: lest either the good, in loving God's mercy, should fail to fear his justice and so fall into the snares of the seducing devil; or the wicked, considering only the severity of justice, should fail to seek—when by conversion they are able to find it—the benefit of mercy, and so, being hardened, not only deny themselves the remission of sins but even cease not to multiply their sins. For with this twofold snare the devil frequently takes the incautious captive: so that either, dulled by the empty hope of a future remission, they refuse to be converted through the fear of justice;

or, despairing utterly of remission, they neglect conversion, and, giving free rein to their iniquities, while they despair of pardon, run headlong into hell. And thus that cunning enemy of the human race casts some down by the rashness of despair, while others he trips up by the deception of a false hope. For this reason blessed Paul, in whom Christ spoke (2 Cor. 13:3), writing to those who live well, so commends their obedience that with fear and trembling he bids such men keep watchfulness in the work of salvation. For he says to the Philippians: 'Therefore, my dearly beloved, as you have always obeyed, not only as in my presence,'

'but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will' (Phil. 2:12–13). By these words blessed Paul intimates that God is indeed just, since he commanded that fear and trembling be kept by the faithful in their good works. He also proclaims him merciful, whom he says works in them both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will. For he would not be justly feared by those who do well, if he were not just; nor would he himself work in them every good of will and of deed, if he were not merciful. This fear of the divine justice the apostle Paul again vehemently impresses upon the just with a terrifying proclamation, saying:

'He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall' (1 Cor. 10:12). And again: 'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted' (Gal. 6:1). To the apostles themselves also, with heavenly teaching, their own weakness is announced, when the watchfulness of a fitting fear is shown to be kept in humility of heart, the Lord saying: 'Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak' (Matt. 26:41). CHAPTER X. Nevertheless, since all things that are contained in the divine oracles are spoken for the guarding or the restoring of human salvation,

the divine discourse provided that, while the fear of the divine equity is proclaimed to the just, there should not, on the contrary, arise in sinners a deadly despair—if, I say, hope were not turned toward conversion. Therefore the apostle Paul, in the Epistle which he wrote to the Romans, just as he terrifies the faithful and the good with the intimation of the divine severity, so he invites the unbelieving and the wicked to conversion with the most certain hope of the supernal goodness; namely, so that both the good might learn not to be high-minded but to fear, and the wicked might be able to obtain the remedy of eternal salvation without any impediment of doubt. Thus, therefore, says the most blessed Paul: 'Behold then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity;'

'but towards thee, goodness, if thou abide in goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again' (Rom. 11:22–23). Therefore, since the Apostle says that he who abides not in goodness must be cut off, and he who abides not in unbelief must be grafted in—what just man, struck with dread, would not fear justice; or what wicked man, confirmed in the mercy of God, would not run to it? Who would not be constrained—so that any impious man, if he be converted with his whole heart, should not dare to despair of any good—since the heavenly medicine, by its salutary precepts, provides equally for the healthy and the sick; to the former enjoining the fear of justice, as a guardian of the salvation received;

to the latter promising the benefit of mercy, so that, lifted up by the remedy of hope, they may receive back the soundness they had lost. For the fear of justice is enjoined upon one who has been healed, to whom it is said: 'Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee' (John 5:14). The hope of mercy also is shown to the sick, when it is said: 'They that are well need not a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance' (Luke 5:31–32). The prophetic word also ceases not to commend the mercy and the justice of God, God so saying through the prophet Ezekiel:

'If the wicked man turn himself away from all his iniquities which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do justice and mercy, living he shall live, and shall not die. All his transgressions whatsoever he hath done shall not be in remembrance. In his justice which he hath wrought, he shall live. Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his evil way and live?' (Ezek. 18:21–23).

And so, when the benefit of the divine long-suffering and kindness has been shown for the converting of the impious, the prophetic word is likewise directed to the deterring of the just: 'But when the just man shall turn himself away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity according to all the iniquities which the wicked man committed, all his justices which he hath done shall not be in remembrance. In his trespass by which he hath trespassed, and in his sins by which he hath sinned, in these he shall die' (Ezek. 18:24). CHAPTER XI.

Innumerable are the testimonies of the divine Scriptures by which God is proclaimed merciful and just, nor is there anything else that all the text of the heavenly oracle brings about, than that every wicked man, fearing the equity of God, should run to the mercy of his just goodness, and that every just man, rejoicing in the mercy of God, should not neglect the judgment of his most benign equity. For where mercy and justice are perfect, the just man can neither show favor to sins, nor can the merciful deny pardon to the converted. From this, therefore—that he is proclaimed just and merciful—it is most easily recognized that remission of sins is granted only to the converted, and that the punishment of eternal damnation is inflicted only on those who remain in sin.

For this reason the Psalmist thus sings: 'Except you be converted, he hath brandished his sword, he hath bent his bow and made it ready, and in it he hath prepared the instruments of death' (Ps. 7:13–14). Through Isaiah also, a sentence not unlike is found pronounced by the divine mouth against the stubborn and the despisers of the divine clemency, in which it is recognized that neither does anyone obey the divine commands in vain, nor does anyone remain in iniquities with impunity. So then he says: 'Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the wickedness of your souls from before mine eyes; cease from your evil deeds, learn to do good, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, and defend the widow; and come, let us reason together, saith the Lord.'

'And if your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. And if they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool. And if you be willing and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you will not, and will not hearken to me, the sword shall devour you. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it' (Isa. 1:16 ff.). Who, I ask, is so hard or so utterly stupid, that in this discourse of the heavenly admonition, if he be not invited to conversion by the delight of the promise, is not at least compelled by the terror of the punishment? For the despiser of the divine word salvation shall not receive, but the sword shall devour him. Hence it is that in another place, in the volume of the same prophet, it is shown that no one shall come to salvation except through conversion.

For thus it is said: 'If thou be converted and groan, thou shalt be saved' (Isa. 30:15, according to the Septuagint). In this conditional testimony God uses both a precept and a promise. For in saying, 'If thou be converted and groan, thou shalt be saved,' he shows that the promise of salvation depends entirely upon the condition of conversion. This, then, is the covenant between God and man—that is, between the Lord who commands and the servant who asks, between the judge who bestows mercy not without justice, and the sinner who awaits the mercy of the one who judges justly. Therefore this Lord, merciful and just, severe and holy, says: If thou do this, this thou shalt have; if thou keep what I say, I will give what thou askest;

I command thee conversion, thou askest of me salvation; if thou obey the precept, thou shalt enjoy the benefit; if I see my commands fulfilled, I will grant thy petitions: 'If thou be converted and groan, thou shalt be saved.' CHAPTER XII. When, therefore, it is said to the sinner who desires to receive the benefit of salvation, that if he be converted and groan, he shall be saved; it is consequently understood that, EVEN IF HE GROAN, yet is not converted, he shall not be saved. For not in vain has the divine word joined both together, save that we might recognize these two, namely conversion and groaning, to be necessary for obtaining the effect of salvation.

For some, terrified by the consideration of their own crimes, do indeed groan in prayer over their iniquities, yet do not depart from iniquitous conduct. They confess that they have done evil, yet will put no end to their evil deeds. They humbly accuse in God's sight the sins by which they are held oppressed, and those very sins which by humility of speech they accuse, with a perverse heart they defiantly heap up. The pardon which they beg with tearful groans, they themselves take from themselves by their depraved works. They ask a remedy of the physician, and to their own ruin they supply aid to the disease. And thus in vain do they seek with words to appease the just judge, whom by their iniquitous deeds they rather provoke to wrath.

For such men never wash away their sin by groaning, because they do not cease to sin after the groaning. For they groan over their crimes, and after the groaning they return to the crimes. Of such the divine Scripture speaks thus in the book of Ecclesiasticus: 'He that washeth himself after touching a dead body, and toucheth it again, what doth his washing avail? So a man that fasteth for his sins, and doth the same things again, what doth his humbling himself profit? Who will hear his prayer?' (Ecclus. 34:30–31). Most rightly, therefore, does God say to man: 'If thou be converted and groan, thou shalt be saved.'

For with God, who is severe and good, the prayer of the one who groans is then heard, then the weeping of the one who asks is heeded, then salvation is granted to the one who weeps, if he has been converted to God with the humility of a contrite heart. For it is necessary that God, having pity on the sinner, should forgive, if only the sinner, being converted, acknowledge his iniquity. Indeed, holy David for this reason effectually found the divine mercy, because, being converted through the humility of a contrite heart, he condemned by acknowledging what he had done wickedly, and did not delay to punish, by repenting, the lust of the evil deed into which he had fallen; for if he did not punish that whereby he was held guilty, without doubt he himself would be punished.

Being converted unto penance, therefore, he acknowledged his own crime; he feared lest, being condemned, he should have acknowledged the penalty. Repenting, he himself in himself took vengeance by acknowledging, that which he wished to be forgiven him by the Lord. Indeed, when he had said: 'Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity. Wash me yet more from my injustice, and cleanse me from my sin' (Ps. 50:3–4); immediately he added in what follows: 'For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me' (Ps. 50:5). He acknowledged his iniquity, not that he might by sinning increase it the more, but that he might by repenting wash it away;

and thus true conversion removed the dominion of sin, which culpable delight had introduced. And because David, converted with his whole heart, groaned, immediately he was made whole; and thus in him was fulfilled that which is enjoined by the prophet: 'If thou be converted and groan, thou shalt be saved.' CHAPTER XIII. Furthermore, conversion is enjoined both from impiety and from iniquity. For both provoke the wrath of God against themselves: because God abhors and condemns both, as Paul says: 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all impiety and injustice of men' (Rom. 1:18). And Solomon says—which blessed Peter also inserted in his own writings: 'If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?'

(Prov. 11:31, according to the Septuagint; 1 Pet. 4:18). Whence not without cause the Vessel of Election, who was full of divine charity, just as he was shaken with great sorrow and grief of heart for those who sinned in the faith, so he testified that he mourned for those who, being established within the Church and living unchastely and licentiously, did not undertake penance. For concerning the Jews, whom the impiety of an unbelieving heart possessed, he thus speaks: 'I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites' (Rom. 9:1–4).

But concerning those who, placed within the Church, persisted in evil works, he thus speaks to the Corinthians with a medicinal discourse: 'Lest again, when I come, God humble me among you, and I mourn many of them that sinned before, and have not done penance for the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness that they have committed' (2 Cor. 12:21). Surely the Apostle would not mourn in sorrow for these, nor be humbled in grief for those, if he believed that to the impious and the iniquitous who exacerbate the divine justice, remission of sins should be conferred without conversion of heart; since the remission of sins itself takes effect only in conversion of heart;

at least in those who, now using the judgment of their own will, being converted by the help of the divine gift, with their life changed for the better, cease not to run to ask remission of the sins whose commission either ignorance impelled them to unknowingly, or—which is worse—the defiance of their will enticed them to knowingly. For this reason the Prophet prays to God: 'The sins of my youth and my ignorances remember not' (Ps. 24:7). And our Savior says: 'The servant who knew not the will of his lord, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes; and the servant who knew the will of his lord, and did unworthy things, shall be beaten with many stripes' (Luke 12:47–48).

Whence the Apostle also confesses that he sinned in ignorance, with these words: 'I give thanks to him who hath strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry, who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and contumelious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it in ignorance, in unbelief' (1 Tim. 1:12–13). Lest anyone, therefore, flatter himself concerning ignorance, the Apostle's word must be heeded, who indeed declares that he acted in ignorance, yet does not deny that he sinned; nay, he calls himself the first (1 Tim. 1:15) of all sinners: the first, namely, not in the course of time, but in the excess of iniquity.

Thus, therefore, he obtained mercy in this, that the sins which he had committed in ignorance, being enlightened he acknowledged, and being converted he forthwith renounced. And this comes to pass, that we may recognize—as the apostle James teaches us—that 'every best gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above, from the Father of lights' (James 1:17). For when he finds in the sinner that for which he ought justly to be condemned, he himself freely grants conversion to the sinner, through which the torments of just condemnation may be removed. CHAPTER XIV. In every sinner, therefore, who now uses the judgment of his own will, the benefit of the divine gift is begun through conversion of heart.

But as for infants, we know that they are saved not by their own will, but by the right belief of the faithful who confess on their behalf. For it agrees with the judgment of truth that infants should be absolved by the ministry of another's confession, whom it is established are bound by the bond of another's iniquity: so that, while others confess spiritually, they may receive the benefit of justification—they who, while others begat them carnally, bear original sin; and just as, at their first birth, the carnal intercourse of their parents harmed those not yet born and doing nothing, so, at their second birth, may the spiritual affection of the faithful confessing on their behalf profit them, though they know it not.

As for those, therefore, who are now able to render an account of their own acts, none shall be brought forth blessed except him who, renouncing evil acts, has been converted to God with all humility of heart. 'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered' (Ps. 31:1). Whosoever, therefore, bears the iniquity of his own will and working, cannot receive any blessedness, unless he be converted to that very Bestower of blessedness. CHAPTER XV. For by sins the heart is blinded, but by remission it is enlightened. For just as to be blinded is nothing else than to be deprived of light, so a healed eye, in as much as it is able to enjoy the vision of light, in that much lacks the defect of blindness.

Yet that eye will by no means be able to see the light, unless the light shed itself into it. The eye, therefore, by the infusion of light, is able to perceive the vision of light. So too, when remission of sins is given to men, without doubt the blindness of the heart is expelled, so that the light of justice may be discerned by the inner eye. But how can it come to pass that the obscurity of darkness be removed, if the infusion of light be not granted? Therefore God, to those whose own sins he forgives, infuses the light of true conversion. Wherefore, just as any blind man, so long as he is blind, cannot see the light, so any iniquitous or impious man does not receive remission of sins, unless, prevented by the gift of gratuitous justification, he be converted to God with his whole heart:

for the effect of that very remission consists in the conversion of the heart. But to him to whom the grace of conversion is not granted, remission of sins is not bestowed. For what else is it to obtain remission of sins, than to be freed from the dominion of sin? For (as the Truth says) 'everyone that committeth sin is the servant of sin' (John 8:34). But how is he believed to enjoy the resplendent gift of liberation, who is not free from the most foul servitude of sin? For this reason, that the condemnation of those who say, 'Let us do evil, that good may come' (Rom. 3:8), is just, we have learned from the teaching of the Master of the nations, at whose preaching we have likewise heard:

'That neither fornicators, nor idol-worshippers, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God' (1 Cor. 6:9–10). To the Galatians also that same excellent teacher thus admonishes: 'Now the works of the flesh are manifest,' he says, 'which are fornication, uncleanness, luxury, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God' (Gal. 5:19 ff.).

Because, therefore, God is just, so long as these do such things, they do not obtain the kingdom of God; but because the same God is merciful, therefore the wicked, if they cease to do such things by which they defiantly exacerbate God, and, humbled and corrected, are converted to God, shall without doubt obtain the kingdom of God. For just as the work of justice is not overcome, so neither is the work of mercy removed. And therefore God has so disposed the possession of his kingdom, that, because he is just, he grants it not to the impious and iniquitous; but because he is merciful, he denies it not to anyone who is truly converted. CHAPTER XVI. But conversion is then proved true in a man, if impiety and iniquity be driven out of the heart.

Nevertheless, between impiety and iniquity this difference is wont to be pronounced: that impiety either holds a depraved faith in God, or none; but iniquity pollutes life with evil morals. Impiety blasphemes God, iniquity harms one's neighbor. Impiety, moreover, out of the lowliness of the flesh, measures the Most High, striving to proclaim the sacrament of unconquered piety to the reproach of the divine nature; or it denies that God the Son of God was conceived and born in human flesh, and assigns to the true God not the truth of flesh but only the appearance of a false vision; or it so confesses the flesh of Christ to be from the flesh of the Virgin, that it denies it was conceived in the assumption of flesh;

or with impious confusion says that the same is Father whom it calls Son and Holy Spirit; or with perverse separation introduces distinct natures of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; or does not believe the flesh of the Son of God to be taken from the flesh of Mary the Virgin, but does not hesitate to assert that it was brought down from heaven; or wishes to withdraw something of human nature from Christ, so as to deny that God the Only-begotten, in the human flesh received, received also a rational soul, that is, the full soul of a man. It is a crime of impiety, if anyone should say that not all spiritual and corporeal nature was created good by God; but on the contrary should wish to assign a substance proper to evil:

whereas all evil exists not from the origin nor from the state of a natural property, but arises from a defect of voluntary thought:

not because a good nature receives an evil nature—since there is no evil nature—but because, the order of love being forsaken, the rational creature, which was made for the love of the Creator, while, despising the Creator, it either clings to created things or to false thoughts, being made worse, prefers temporal things to eternal, the lowest to the highest, mutable things to immutable. Similarly those who say that the just and the iniquitous are to be judged not by the diversity of their works, but by the communion of the sacraments, wishing that it profit no one if among the unjust he live justly in the Catholic Church—as though eternal retribution, whether of punishment or of the kingdom, awaited each not according to the quality of his deed, but according to fellowship in the sacrament.

These things, therefore, which have been intimated by us above, and many others which are brought forth by heretics and schismatics against the Catholic and apostolic faith, are reckoned as the vice of impiety. For that very separation shows them to be impious, which makes such men not associates but adversaries of the ecclesiastical body. For they would not be separated in body and in place from the assembly of ecclesiastical unity, unless first they had departed from the ecclesiastical faith with a corrupt heart; nor would they be sundered by open impiety from the lawful wedlock of the word of God, unless they conceived perfidious and perverse thoughts by the adulterous sowing of the diabolical defilement;

which, wickedly cherishing them with inward assent, they afterwards bring forth by nefarious speech, so that, like the viper burst asunder by their own offspring, they perish. For with vipers, to give birth is the same as to perish. Whose young, as is reported, having burst asunder the bowels by which they were conceived, so come forth into the light, that they bring death upon their parents. When, therefore, any impious depravity is either conceived by assent, or even generated by profession, it slays the soul with eternal death. Consenting to corruption, for this cause it is inwardly inflated with the conception of infidelity, that afterward, burst by its own birth, it may die. Such the apostolic authority designates with these words: 'Now as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses;'

'so these also resist the truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith' (2 Tim. 3:8). If anyone, therefore, disputing contrary things, and separating himself from goodness, perversely withstands the ecclesiastical faith, he is without doubt called impious. But if anyone, persevering in the body of Catholic unity, joined in the fellowship of the sacraments, is given over to disgraceful deeds and crimes, he is wont to be called iniquitous, not impious. Whereof it is not now for us to dispute. This, however, we say: that not every iniquitous man is impious, although every impious man is iniquitous. CHAPTER XVII. That conversion, therefore, is pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God, in which both the rectitude of faith is preserved, and the rule of a good life is kept:

that is, so that first a right opinion concerning God be held, and then the charity divinely commanded be shown to one's neighbor. For then does a man rightly love himself, when, devoted and humble, he sets the love of God before himself. Then also does he love his neighbor, if he takes counsel for his neighbor as much as he can, that he may come to God by right faith and good conversation. But the charity of one's neighbor is to be kept by a twofold reasoning: namely, that one neither inflict on another anything which he would not wish inflicted on himself, nor deny to the needy the help of a good work as far as he can, since neither would he wish it denied to himself, if he likewise were in need. Whence we recognize ourselves to be instructed by the word of our Savior, who says: 'What you would that men should do to you, the same do you also to them.'

'For this is the law and the prophets' (Matt. 7:12). Christ did not say, As men have done to you, so do you also to them—lest we should believe that evil is to be returned for evil to him who has done us some evil, or think that a benefit is to be denied to anyone from whom we knew no benefit had been bestowed on us; since a Christian ought to every man either to bestow beforehand or to render the help of benevolence, so that both he may return good for good, and may forestall evil with goodness. For it is said to us by the Lord:

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and slander you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the wicked, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust (Matt. v, 44, 45). Now the good faithful suffer persecution not only from those who, standing outside, strive with faithless barkings and perverse doctrines against the dogmas of the Catholic Church; but also from those who indeed seem to be within the Church, yet, living wickedly, are found to resist the ecclesiastical tradition not in word, but in deed.

When the good behold such men, they groan grievously, and the good soul, moved with holy feeling, is tormented, since it cannot escape the awareness of another's perversity, though it cannot give consent to it. CHAPTER XVIII. For within the Catholic Church, in the present age, the just and the unjust are held mingled together, that is, by the communion of the sacraments, not of morals; by the fellowship of belief, not by likeness of conduct. Not, therefore, in heart, but in body; for by profession, not by deed. Now therefore, as long as, according to the preaching of blessed Paul, in a great house there are not only vessels of gold, but also of wood and of clay, and some indeed unto honor, but some unto dishonor (2 Tim. ii, 20);

within the Church, indeed, there are both the unjust and the just, but outside the Church there is no just man. And upon the Lord's threshing-floor, until the dreaded coming of the winnower is awaited, and the separation of the winnowing is deferred to the very last, the chaff is mingled with the wheat in local fellowship. But whatever place is outside the Lord's threshing-floor, although the name of husbandman be pronounced there, there only the chaff that is snatched away by the wind can remain. Yet because so great is the omnipotence of our Husbandman that none can prevail against his will;

whoever in the present life, being converted, has run back to the lawful place of the Lord's threshing-floor, if he perseveringly holds in right faith the purpose of a good life, he will not be chaff, but wheat, nor will he be handed over to the fires to be burned, but will be gathered into the barn, enriched with fruits pleasing to God. CHAPTER XIX. In the Catholic Church alone, therefore, is the remission of sins given and received; and the Bridegroom himself calls her his one dove, his one elect, whom he founded upon the rock, to whom he gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to whom also he granted the power of binding and loosing, as Truth itself truly promises to blessed Peter, saying:

Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. xvi, 18, 19). From this Church, which received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whoever is outside walks not the way of heaven, but of hell; nor does he journey toward the home of eternal life, but runs toward the punishment of eternal death; and this not only if he remains a pagan without baptism, but even if, baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he persists as a heretic.

For a man does not obtain true life through the merit of baptism, if anyone baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, whether within the Church or outside the Church, nevertheless has not ended this life within the Catholic Church; nor will he live through the sacrament of ecclesiastical baptism who has not held the fellowship of ecclesiastical charity. For that man is saved by the sacrament of baptism whom the unity of charity has held within the Catholic Church until the end of the present life. CHAPTER XX.

But if anyone either goes forth baptized from the Church, or, baptized outside the Church in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, has not before the end of the present life been restored to the Catholic Church, he will not lack death, but he will lack rest: for at the time of the flood likewise, whoever did not enter into the ark of Noah (Gen. vi, 21) was not saved by the flood, but slain, nor did he find salvation in the water, but death. For that water, in which was prefigured the sacrament of baptism, raised up on high to heavenly things, lifted from the earth, all whom it found in the ark; but the rest, whom it found outside, it slew, having overwhelmed them.

And when Jericho was perishing, whomever the house of Rahab the harlot enclosed, Joshua commanded to be preserved unharmed (Josh. vi, 25); but the rest, whom that house did not contain, the destruction of a single death consumed. In that ark, therefore, and in that house, one and the same Church was prefigured; but in those who perished outside the ark by the flood, and in those who died outside that house by the sword, the mystery of a twofold signification may be considered. For I judge, so far as it now seems to me for the present, that it is not incongruous to believe that in the signification of the flood the baptism of Christian confession went before;

so that we may recognize that heretics, if they remain outside the Church, earn by baptism punishment, not life, and that those who, denying Christ, depart from the Catholic Church, will perish in eternal punishment. Blessed Peter, indeed, expounds the sacrament of the ark with these words: In the days when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water: which also, in a like figure, baptism now saves you, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience toward God (1 Pet. iii, 20, 21). But where is a good conscience, save where there is also faith unfeigned? For the apostle Paul teaches:

That the end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned (1 Tim. i, 5). Why, then, did the water of the flood not save, but slay, those placed outside the ark? Without doubt it prefigured that every heretic, though possessing the sacrament of baptism, is to be plunged into hell by no other waters than those very waters by which the ark is raised to heaven. For destruction by water befalls them for no other reason than that the bosom of the ark does not contain them: in which alone can he live who does not wish to perish in the life-giving waters. CHAPTER XXI. This mystery of the ark blessed Cyprian, most blessed martyr, expounds, writing in the book On the Simplicity of Prelates, or rather, according to the ancient copies, On the Unity of the Catholic Church:

The spouse of Christ cannot be defiled: she is incorrupt and chaste; she knows but one home, and with chaste modesty she guards the sanctity of one bedchamber. She keeps us for God; she assigns to the kingdom the sons whom she has begotten. Whoever, separated from the Church, is joined to an adulteress, is cut off from the promises of the Church: nor shall he attain to the rewards of Christ who forsakes the Church of Christ: he is a stranger, he is profane, he is an enemy. He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother. As whoever was outside the ark of Noah could not escape, so also he who is outside the Church shall not escape.

It is certain, therefore, both from the preaching of the blessed apostle Peter and from the exposition of the holy martyr Cyprian, that in the ark of Noah there stood a figure of the Church, and in the waters of the flood a figure of baptism. In that house too of Rahab the harlot, which, when Jericho was perishing, alone at Joshua's command was preserved unharmed with all whom she had within herself, there was signified, in the sacrament of Christian confession, as it seems to me, the Catholic Church gathered from the nations. She, indeed, having cast off the filth of her former fornication, secretly received Joshua's two spies: that is, either the chaste knowledge of both Testaments, or the love of God and of neighbor:

because both in those two Testaments the love of God and of neighbor is conveyed, and on these two commandments the whole law with the prophets is known to hang (Matt. xxii, 40). This impious harlot, who before had prostituted herself to idols, receiving Joshua's spies, was made faithful and chaste: and guarding them from their pursuing enemies, she did not overwhelm them, hidden in the lower parts, but concealed them secretly, lifted up onto the upper story of her house. And it is called a sun-room (solarium) for this reason, because it is flooded with the light of the sun. But what is the sun of the human heart, save he of whom it is said through the prophet: But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and health in his wings (Mal. iv, 2)?

Concerning this rising sun, Zechariah in the Gospel thus prophesies: For the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Luke i, 78, 79). For Habakkuk too the prophet thus proclaims the ascension of Christ and the firmness of the ecclesiastical order under the name of sun and moon: The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order (Hab. iii, 11, according to the Seventy). The heart, therefore, of every one of the faithful is not incongruously called a spiritual sun-room, which is wholesomely illumined by the rays of that supernal sun.

Rahab the harlot, therefore, kept Joshua's spies, whom she hid in the sun-room of her house, on high in the upper parts, that is, illumined with spiritual knowledge, in the inmost love of an enlightened heart, so that she might sing that prophetic saying by the truth of her deed: In my heart have I hidden thy words, that I might not sin against thee (Ps. cxviii, 11). True faith, therefore, which is conveyed by the divine words, is then not handed over to persecutors, then is guarded inviolate and unharmed in the heart of the faithful, if the soul perseveres fixed not upon earthly and perishable and carnal promises, but upon heavenly and spiritual ones, and does not gaze upon the things that are seen, but upon the things that are not seen: For the things that are seen are temporal, as the Apostle says;

but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. iv, 18). But whoever holds the Christian faith for this end, that he may acquire earthly and transitory things, that man places Joshua's spies not in the upper parts of his house, but in the lower; where, when they have been placed, they can more easily both be found by enemies and destroyed. For every persecutor and enemy of the Church spiritually destroys those, and brings upon them the ruin of eternal death, whose heart he has found entangled with earthly and perishable things.

For these men, while they either fear to lose earthly riches or covet to acquire them, do not hide the commandments of Christ, that is, Joshua's spies, in the sun-room of their heart, but hand them over to their persecuting enemies, being either terrified by fear, or set aflame by the fire of depraved desire. Nor do they have the scarlet cord, by whose sign that house was saved, hung out through the window of their house—those who do not confess their faith, but deny the sacraments. For the scarlet cord displayed the mystery of the blood of Christ:

which cord he keeps hung out through the window of his house who, strengthened in faith by God's protection against pagans or against any heretics whatsoever, and carefully guarding his faith, confesses himself redeemed by the blood of Christ. For which reason the Savior himself says: Whoever shall confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father, who is in heaven; but whoever shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before my Father, who is in heaven (Matt. x, 32). Although, therefore, the persecuting enemy may strive to slay Joshua's spies in the lower parts, that is, to unnerve the strength of the Christian faith by earthly promises or terrors;

yet if anyone has placed in the upper parts the faith of the Trinity, by which he believes the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be one God in substance, he will not fear all the black errors (or perhaps: terrors) of the persecutor, nor all the snares of the seducer. CHAPTER XXII. Accordingly, not only ought those whom the guilt of a repeated baptism holds ensnared to run back swiftly to the Church, and with tears and almsgiving to entreat God for so great a crime; but also, if any perchance without a repeated baptism, being enticed by gifts or by fear of punishments, denying the sacrament of the Catholic faith, have slipped into the deadly fellowship of heretics,

let them resume the faith which they denied, and return swiftly to the Church, so that when Joshua comes, they may be found within that house outside of which no one can be delivered from destruction: for as in Jericho whoever was outside that house could obtain no help of life, so outside the Catholic Church no one will receive the pardon of sins; and as within the Catholic Church man believes with the heart unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. x, 10), so outside that same Church an evil belief is not reckoned unto righteousness, but unto punishment, and a wicked confession does not acquire salvation for the one confessing, but brings upon him death.

Outside this Church neither does the Christian name profit anyone, nor does baptism save, nor is a pure sacrifice offered to God, nor is the remission of sins received, nor is the felicity of eternal life found. For the Church of Christ is one, one dove, one beloved, one bride: in which the Trinity is believed to be one God, of one nature and substance; in which no insult of diminution is inflicted upon either the Son or the Holy Spirit; in which one and the same worship, and one honor, is offered to the one Trinity, which is the true God. This is the one true Church, which so believes and preaches one essence of the Trinity that it dares not prefer, among the three, any one person to another.

For thus she shows that she worships nothing diverse in the substance of the Godhead, confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is, the very Trinity, to be the one true and only God; and she neither runs, in the name of unity, into the error of Sabellian confusion, nor forgets, in the appellation of Trinity, to avoid the deadly ruin of Arian diversity. For, retaining the rule of apostolic preaching, just as she acknowledges the Trinity in the persons of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, so she preaches the right faith of the one God, because in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit she preaches a natural unity. CHAPTER XXIII.

If any who are outside this Church, established in diverse errors, they will then receive the pardon of sins, if, while they are established in this world, they have been converted to this same Church by right belief and by the humility of a contrite heart. Therefore let them run, while there is time, to their lawful mother, who, as she diligently keeps and nourishes the sons born of her own womb, so she does not spurn those born of a handmaid when they return; nay rather, with the bowels of mercy she seeks out the erring, and unceasingly invites them out of affection, that she may lead them into the fellowship of the paternal inheritance. For in them she considers not the condition of the servile womb, but recognizes the truth of the paternal seed.