Anti-Arian Works 9 part 4/6

On that account the wicked, having repentance barrenly because untimely, and groaning through anguish of spirit: How are they reckoned among the sons of God, and their lot is among the saints? The unexpected salvation, therefore, that is, the one not hoped for by the wicked, shall assuredly be given to the just, not to the wicked. For it will not be given to those who by despairing of it live evilly, but to those who by hoping well for it, and by abstaining from carnal desires, keep the saving commands of the blessed Peter, who says: Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from carnal desires, which war against the soul; having your conversation among the Gentiles good (1 Pet. 2:11).

Through that same good conversation the just present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1), because through good conversation they themselves are also the temple of God. That the faithful are so, the Apostle testifies, saying: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). Lest this temple be defiled by evil works, he not only diligently forewarns, but also vehemently terrifies our minds, saying: But if anyone violate the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are. Let no one deceive himself (same place, 17-18).

For who, I ask, living evilly, when he hears from the Apostle that if anyone violate the temple of God, God will destroy him, would dare, if he be not converted in this time, to promise himself any hope of future remission? Who would not fall down struck with terror? Who would not, before the end of the present life, hasten pierced and humbled to repentance? The Apostle cries out: That if anyone violate the temple of God, God will destroy him—and yet the vain man deceives himself with a most wicked thought, saying: Even if I violate the temple of God, and live evilly to the very end, I shall be saved. Does not the Apostle say of such: They say, Let us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just (Rom. 3:8)?

Are not these they whom holy Scripture calls unhappy, and pronounces their hope wholly empty, saying: He who casts away wisdom and instruction is unhappy, and their hope is empty, and their labors without fruit (Wisd. 3:11)? Chapter 4. That salvation, therefore, will not be given to the wicked, but to the just: that is, to those corrected and converted before the end of this life. That salvation will be given to the good, who shall have run to the friendship of God through conversion—not to those who, remaining friends of the world, deserve to be fittingly named, by the apostolic rebuke, enemies of God. For the blessed James rebukes such: Adulterers, do you not know that the friendship of this world is enmity with God?

Whoever, therefore, wishes to be a friend of this world is constituted an enemy of God (James 4:4). Whoever, then, turning away from evil and doing good, has performed repentance in the present life for his iniquities, and being converted to God has with his whole heart renounced evil works, his hope will not be vain. But he deceives himself in vain, whoever thinks he will arrive at life by the broad and spacious way: since the Lord bids us walk by the narrow way, and shows us the entrance of the strait gate, through which one comes to the kingdom. For He says: Enter by the narrow gate. How wide is the gate and spacious the way that leads to perdition, and many there are who enter by it!

How narrow is the gate and strait the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it! (Matt. 7:13-14). Our way is the present life, in which if anyone placed does not consent to the word of God, he will not receive remission of sins; but in weeping and gnashing of teeth he will bewail his punishment without end: nor undeservedly will he never merit to be free of torment, who, as long as he lived here, was unwilling to renounce sin. Chapter 5. On this account the Savior forewarns each one of us, saying: Be agreeing with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Amen I say to you, you will not go out from there until you pay back the last farthing (Matt.

5:25). For a man makes the word of God his adversary, as long as he does those things which the divine speech forbids. To such a one it is said in the psalm: But you have hated instruction, and cast my words behind you (Ps. 49:17). To this divine word, if anyone on the way, that is, if anyone in this life, has not quickly consented, being cast into the prison of eternal fire he will have no rest beyond. For that adversary is good, who by saving adversity constantly presses upon us, that he may drive from us the adversity of deadly iniquity. Hence it is that divine Scripture in another place exhorts us to be converted quickly, lest deadly delay bring perdition to the one who defers, and not salvation. It says, therefore:

Do not delay to be converted to God, and do not put it off from day to day; lest suddenly His wrath come, and in the time of vengeance He destroy you (Ecclus. 5:8-9). The divine speech has surely shown that when the time of vengeance shall have come, conversion will no longer withdraw evil from punishment, but avenging wrath will destroy with due condemnation. For that time will not be one of remission, but of recompense; not of pardon, but of vengeance—which is therefore deferred by divine long-suffering, that the number of the saints may be filled up. For this vengeance the blessed John in the Apocalypse records that the saints made petition, whose words are these: How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth (Apoc.

6:10)? And in order to teach that the time of vengeance is deferred by the supernal ordering on account of those who are to be reckoned in their fellowship, it follows, saying: And white robes were given to each of them, and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until the number of their fellow-servants and brethren should be fulfilled (same place, 11). The blessed Paul also knew the difference between the present age and the age to come. He knew that in the present so great a benefit of salvation could be acquired; but in the future nothing but the wages of justice would be restored to each, according to the quality of good or evil works. Whence, when he had set down the prophetic testimony in which God says: In an accepted time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you (2 Cor. 6:2); immediately following it he adds:

Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (Isa. 49:8). But concerning the future he says: For we must all be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). Chapter 6. Therefore eternal life is not bestowed in the future, unless remission of sins has been granted in this age; nor will anyone here receive remission of sins except him who renounces his sins and hastens to God, the highest and true, by a true conversion of heart. For that time will not be one of remission, but of recompense. There mercy will not justify the impious, but justice will discern the just and the impious. For it is contained written in the psalm:

The Lord examines the just and the impious (Ps. 10:6). And to show that in iniquities there is the perdition of the soul, not salvation, it follows, saying: But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul. And lest those who persevere in iniquity to the very end of the present life should promise themselves any mercy, it subsequently speaks thus of God: He shall rain snares upon sinners; fire, brimstone, and the spirit of storms shall be the portion of their cup: because the Lord is just and has loved justices; His countenance has beheld equity (same place, 7-8). Whoever, therefore, hearing these things, is unwilling in the present time to seek the mercy of God through conversion, will never be able to find it in the future.

For this the just Judge has commanded to be announced to us through the blessed apostle James, who says: Judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy (James 2:13). And the order of mercy holds that the mercy which a man is bidden to expend upon another, he should first exhibit to himself, as Scripture says: Have mercy on your own soul, pleasing God (Ecclus. 30:24). Accordingly, if anyone is unwilling to please God, he denies mercy to his own soul; and he who has been unwilling to grant mercy to his own soul in the present age, will in no way be able to find mercy with God. For judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy. And thereby, what is subsequently said:

But mercy exalts itself above judgment (James 2:13), will be fulfilled in him who now has mercy on his own soul, pleasing God. For the Lord Himself says: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matt. 5:7). For since the blessed Apostle admonishes that all things be done honestly and according to order (1 Cor. 14:40), on account of which it is also said in the Song of Songs: Order charity in me (Cant. 2:4): how is he to be said to hold the order either of charity or of mercy, who—I do not say any other man, but his own body—refreshes with food, that it may not fail; equips with clothing, that it may not grow cold; while it is sound, takes care that it not become infirm; while it is infirm, is busy that it may be healed;

who unceasingly ministers to his flesh, with anxious intent, the support of foods, garments, and medicines; yet by living evilly acquires ruin for his own soul: nourishes his flesh with necessary foods, and kills his soul with evil works; denies harmful foods to his flesh, and administers evil works to his soul as though deadly poisons; desires to prolong the life of his flesh, which is ended in few days, and procures death for his soul, of whose punishment there will be no end—how, I ask, is he to be said to hold the order of charity or mercy? And thereby he who is convicted of hating his own soul is found also a cruel adversary to his own soul:

because just as good acts make the flesh together with the soul enjoy heavenly beatitude, so evil works make the soul together with the flesh be tormented in eternal fire. He is therefore his own most pernicious enemy, whoever, living evilly, does not change his life before he ends it. Chapter 7. For from the end of this life depends the beginning of that life, in which whatever is repaid is not ended. But since it is worthily said by the apostle John: He who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15); and since holy David says: But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps. 10:6): if he is a murderer who hates his brother, what is he who loves

iniquity and hates his own soul? And if he who hates his brother does not have eternal life abiding in him, how shall he who, in the love of iniquity, ends this life by the hatred of his own soul, be able to arrive at the pardon of sins, through which one comes to life? Since our Lord Himself evidently shows how each one arrives at life, saying: If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments (Matt. 19:17). He, therefore, will come to life who keeps the commandments. And who keeps the divine commandments, except he who, converted to God, has departed from his former iniquities before the end of the present life? On this account the blessed Paul admonishes us that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity (2 Tim.

2:19). Now he said this, knowing that in this time repentance is fruitfully performed, in which pardon is granted to the penitent. But in the future there will be repentance of the wicked, yet it will not be fruitful: because there will be no conversion of the wicked. For they shall be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There without end they shall be tormented, not only in soul and body together by the punishment of hell, but also by the very darkness of most wicked pleasure. For here that very evil pleasure will be to such persons an increase of their punishment, for which their torment remains without end. For they now spurn the opportunity of the accepted time; and in the day of salvation they do not seek to be divinely helped.

Which time God has thus intimated to us by prophetic utterance, saying: In an accepted time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. When the blessed Apostle had inserted this testimony in his epistle, he followed on by adding: Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). This time the same apostle commends so evidently in another place, that whoever, illuminated by the divine gift, reads it intently and understands it fittingly, may not deceive himself, nor seek for himself any other time of conversion or of remission: knowing that whoever in this time is unwilling to seek pardon, will in no way be able to find it after this life. Writing, therefore, to the Galatians, the blessed Paul speaks these things: Do not err:

God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that also shall he reap. For he who sows in his flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows in the spirit shall from the spirit reap eternal life. But in doing good, let us not fail: for in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, while we have time, let us work good toward all, but especially toward those of the household of faith (Gal. 6:7ff.). By these words of the Apostle, who would not be roused to the desire of good work? Who, wandering from God, would not, struck with terror, seek the right way? Who would not delight to persist in good sowing, when he knows that he shall receive in the harvest nothing other than what he sows? Chapter 8.

It behooves us, therefore, to attend a little more diligently to this word of the apostolic preaching. For not in vain does he forewarn with such great weight, saying: Do not err; and thereupon he added: God is not mocked. But afterward he disclosed in what he recognized that some were erring, saying: For whatever a man sows, that also shall he reap. Therefore whoever thinks that he will reap in the future recompense what he does not sow in the working of this time, errs. But because the diversity of that very sowing and harvest was to be more evidently intimated, therefore the husbandman skilled in discerning, adding it in the words that follow, says this: Because he who sows in his flesh, shall from the flesh reap corruption:

but he who sows in the spirit, shall from the spirit reap eternal life. That, therefore, is the error which he forbade in the opening of this discourse, whereby each one supposes he will reap something other than he sows. He errs, therefore, whoever, sowing in the flesh—from which corruption is reaped—supposes that he will reap eternal life, which is reserved for those sowing in the spirit. The Apostle continues, saying: But in doing good, let us not fail: for in due time we shall reap, not failing. This (perhaps: Here) he evidently shows that by the name of seed the works of each are designated. For above he had said: For whatever a man sows, that also shall he reap. Now he says: But in doing good, let us not fail: for in due time we shall reap, not failing.

Truly a disciple of Truth, and on that account an outstanding teacher of the Gentiles, who, just as he taught that justice will not be lacking in the recompense of works, so distinguished the time of sowing and of harvest, that is, of working and of recompense: lest anyone, confounding by inept thought the time of sowing and of harvest, either at the time of sowing demand the effect of the future harvest, or at the time of harvest hope that the beginning of good sowing will be granted him; and so the idle and slothful worker, ensnared in the bonds of sloth—nay, what is worse, intent on the pursuit of deadly sowing—should not rejoice in the harvest, but lament, when he shall begin to reap then what is worthy of his sowing, when he can no longer change the quality of the evil seed.

Moreover, it is to be attended to more diligently that three things indeed are shown to us in this place of the apostolic doctrine's speech: that is, that we do good, and that we do not fail, because in due time we shall reap, not failing. Of these three, two are in the precept of work, the third in the promise of reward. Two labors are enjoined upon the workers; by the third the mind of the laborers is uplifted with the future harvest. For he who hopes for a reward certain according to the quality of his labor is wont to take rather from labor a virtue. To good working, therefore, the Apostle joins perseverance, that he may not fail in the seed who delights to rejoice without end in the harvest.

Accordingly, according to the saying of the blessed Apostle, he must needs arrive at the joy of the future harvest, who in the present time perseveres in the seed of good working. But he greatly deceives himself, whether he who, sending forth no seeds of good works up to the end of the present life, thinks he will one day reap good things; or he who, depraved, lacks perseverance in good working, and yet hopes for gladness in the recompense of reward: since the blessed Apostle testifies that each one will receive this in the harvest which he perseveringly sends forth in the seed. For such a one is that most skilled winnower (Matt. 3:12) who will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, so that in the separation of the wheat and the chaff he be deceived by no fraud;

nor does he put into the granary the chaff that is to be given to the fires, nor deliver to the flames the wheat that is to be assigned to the granary. For at the time of the future harvest the good sowers, that is, those who now perseveringly sowing in tears shall reap in joy, and who now going forth weep as they cast their seeds, but then coming shall come in exultation carrying their sheaves (Ps. 125:5-6). Just as he shall be deprived of the joy and fellowship of the reapers who, although he once sowed good things, yet did not hold to perseverance in sowing good:

so also he shall be able to enjoy participation neither in pardon nor in gladness, who so delights to serve and favor the nocturnal sower, that is, the devil, that until death he does not cease to sow those things which, gathered by the discernment of the reaping angels and bound into bundles, are, by the judgment of the Lord, with an immutable precept, assigned to the inextinguishable fire (Matt. 13:25): because both by the vice of subsequent iniquity every good labor of the just man that went before is frustrated, and the merit of iniquity remains, whose labor is all evil. For the Apostle says: That each one shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor (1 Cor. 3:8).

That day, namely, in which each one is found when he is bidden to pass from the present age. Wherefore, as the Apostle admonishes: 'While we have time, let us do good unto all, but especially unto those who are of the household of the faith' (Galatians 6:10). CHAPTER IX. For in the Epistle also which was written to the Hebrews, not only is conversion in the present time signified to be necessary, but it is likewise commanded that perseverance be maintained even unto the end. For it says: 'Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God; but exhort one another every day, whilst it is called To-day, that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.'

'For we are made partakers of Christ, if only we hold the beginning of His substance firm unto the end' (Hebrews 3:12ff). And who would not be made to tremble by the very example of that Apostle, so that, departing from evil works, he might run to God in penitence and conversion, and anxiously beware lest, the tenor of perseverance being abandoned, he become a reprobate? For it must be considered by all the faithful with what solicitude the blessed Paul himself ran, with what vigilance he fought, with what severity he chastised his own body. He says therefore: 'I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; so I fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection;'

'lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a reprobate' (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). And this he was saying, knowing what was divinely spoken through Ezekiel: 'When the just man shall turn himself away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity, and die; in his iniquity which he hath done, in it he shall die' (Ezekiel 18:24). In vain, therefore, does anyone dream for himself the remission of sins by empty imaginings, whoever does not persevere in the commandments of the Lord unto the end of the present life, or whoever does not depart from his most wicked ways before the end of the present life. For it is fitting that every just man work out his own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12); and that every wicked man cease to present his members as instruments of iniquity unto sin;

but that he present himself to God as one alive from the dead, and his members as instruments of justice unto God (Romans 6:13), and cease to work such things whose wage is death, since Paul the apostle says: 'For the wages of sin is death' (Romans 6:23). This death is also called the future wrath of God, which shall be inflicted upon the wicked and upon those who persevere in evil. Whence John the Baptist rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees in such wise that by his rebuke he also strikes at Christians who live evilly. For he says: 'Ye brood of vipers, who hath shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penance; and think not to say: We have Abraham for our father.'

'For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire' (Luke 3:7ff). When the Lord's Forerunner said these things, without doubt he was speaking to the wicked and to the evil, whom also, on account of their imitation of serpents, that is, of the devil's work, he named a brood of vipers. Yet to them he showed what they should do in this age, and what also they should dread in the future judgment. For in commanding them to bring forth fruits worthy of penance, he showed that men can here be changed, and pass over from the desert of punishment to the merit of the kingdom by the conversion of a penitent mind.

But by adding that every tree which doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire, he foretold the time of the future judgment, in which, to the evil who lead a criminal life unto the end, as to fruitless trees, no remission of sins shall mercifully be granted, but eternal burning shall justly be rendered. Therefore also he foretells that our Saviour shall come for the separation of the wheat and the chaff: 'Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and will gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire' (Luke 3:17).

Moreover, by the tenor of the Gospel reading he instructs every Christian, so that, with discernment kept, he may consider what was granted to each one at the Saviour's first coming by His most merciful bounty, and what also is awaited by each at the second, to be rendered by just retribution. CHAPTER X. For our same Saviour and judge, who now comes that He may save, but then is to come that He may judge; who now comes that He may make the good out of the evil by loving remission, but then is to come that He may separate the evil from the good by just examination, demonstrates the benefit of His first coming, saying: 'For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost' (Luke 19:10). But the fearful equity of His second coming He thus intimates:

'The Son of man shall come, and then will he render to every man according to his works' (Matthew 16:27). Again showing the mercy of His first coming, He says: 'For God so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him' (John 3:16-17). But pronouncing the judgment of His second coming, He says: 'I have many things to speak and to judge of you' (John 8:26). And in another place: 'The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you' (John 12:48). And in another place: 'As I hear, so I judge, and my judgment is just' (John 5:30).

Again He intimates in such words the benefit of His first coming, whereby, finding no one alive, He freely raises the dead, whom indeed He makes just out of the impious: 'Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live' (John 5:25). But the examination of His second coming, whereby He is to judge the living and the dead, He thereafter foretells, saying: 'Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour shall come, when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice: and they shall come forth that have done good things, unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment' (John 5:28-29).

The hearing, therefore, of His present voice grants life to the dead, when He bestows the grace of faith upon unbelievers, and makes good those whom He finds evil; and the hearing of His present voice mercifully justifies the impious, mercifully saves sinners, and gently enlightens the blind. But the hearing of His second voice, as it will render the crown of justice to the just, so will it repay punishment to the wicked for their iniquity. In the hearing of His first voice, the mercy of the Redeemer forestalls those who sin; in the hearing of His second voice, the retribution of the Judge follows upon those who have worked. Here it is said to His citizens: 'Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you' (Matthew 11:28). But there it will be said to those on the right hand only: