Therefore he whose heart does not heed the words of faith, how shall he have its benefit? So then this man may be seen to fear becoming a Christian once the faith has been received, who is observed to act in this way precisely so that he may not sin freely. For he who hastens to sin, for this reason is unwilling to receive the faith, lest he be compelled to live well, which he is seen to be unwilling to do; but in death he wishes to obtain impunity, hoping also for the remission of his past evils, so that he may be secure both concerning the past and concerning the future, since, being about to die, he certainly will no longer be able to sin. But this is not done with good counsel nor with a clean conscience, that he should then wish to receive the faith when he can no longer — not when he is unwilling to — sin. To these men that saying applies:
'Let us do evil, that good may come,' that is, 'let us sin now and believe at the very last, and it will be remitted to us.' And therefore the Apostle added: 'whose condemnation,' he says, 'is just.' For it is not fitting that to these the remission of sins be given, who, already knowing the God who wills that no one sin and who hates sinners, are eager to sin, unwilling to perceive that the gift of God profits those who, in ignorance of God, sin in such a way that they do not know that God will judge. But he who has heard, and has pondered it within himself, and yet has the will to sin — not so as to be overcome by some compelling cause, but rather willing to sin — for such a one it is hard to be pardoned. For there are two causes which obtain the remission of sins: one of the gift, the other of penitence, so that he who has sinned after the gift may be reformed through penitence.
For because he did not remain in the grace he had received, so as to abide in liberty, but again subjected himself to sin, by lamentation and groaning he obtains that his sin be blotted out. For he sinned knowingly and deliberately — not that anyone is ignorant of sin, but he who does not know that God will judge thinks that what he sins will go unpunished.
And on this account, if a Gentile begins to grow infirm and, in his very despair of life, ponders within himself concerning faith and the promised hope, he has a complete case, so that to him, believing, his sins are remitted, and he is not held in the regions below, bearing with him the sign of death vanquished and despoiled — although he does not have the dignity or the reward, because there ought to be some difference between him who, called forth by love of his Lord, did not fear to fight against His enemies, arming himself with continence and the watchful guarding against all vices, that he might be able to resist evil, ever solicitous how he might defend his Lord's command, and him who, consorting with his Lord's foes and standing at their side, only at the end of life returned to his Lord — not to vindicate his Lord's kingdom, but to profit himself alone — a discharged veteran rather than a soldier.
For he who prefers to live as a Christian, that after death he may be rewarded, knows that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us; and on this account, having taken up the arms of faith, he does not hesitate to contend against principalities and powers, so that, existing as victor in this world, after the world he may be crowned.
For it is fitting that he who, among the faithless and rebellious, bears witness to his Lord's kingdom in the present, should obtain the reward of this thing in the future, so that the enemies of God, seeing the witness of Christ appear exalted in the kingdom of God on account of the truth of his confession, may grieve, confounded that they had reckoned as false what has been declared to be true; and so too those who believed late, confessing God not in life but in death, seeing how great is the glory of those who, serving as soldiers under the arms of Christ, wage the wars of their Emperor devoutly and faithfully, may repent that they did not live, but died, as Christians. For he can be seen to be by no means fit to die a Christian who had no will to live as a Christian.
For perhaps, being now about to die, he wished to be called a Christian for this reason — because there was now no time for sinning. ('Lest perhaps,' he says, 'what is believed be true, I wish to become a Christian, losing nothing if what is believed be false.') So that, because now in death not the will to sin, but the act of sinning, ceases to be possible, he tries whether faith can profit after death — whereas surely it would have been profitable that here the vices and sins should be amended, where they had been committed. For then does someone prove that he has condemned his past deeds, when, following the line of faith, he is seen to change his manner of life and conduct. For if he formerly sinned because he did not know God, when he comes to know Him, he ought to sin no longer, lest it be in vain that he has known Him;
for one ought to have made progress from the knowledge of God. For a Christian ought to be recognized before his profession: such men are proved more by their works than by their name. For this reason the commandments have been given, purer than the rest of the laws and pertaining to holiness, so that from these the worship of God might appear; otherwise they shall hear: 'Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?' By which He then signified that it profits to call the Lord 'Lord,' if His commandments are kept; for he is seen to be a mocker who calls Him Lord whose precepts he despises. To such a man the words of the Law must be recited, which say that God is not mocked. And so he will be condemned by his own words who calls Him Lord, whom by his own works he shows that he in no way fears.
ON THE SIN OF ADAM AND EVE. I think it is doubtful to none that this world was fashioned for the sake of man, which, though it consists of diverse substances, is yet one, fitted together with many members, so that from these, by mutual exchange of services, the things that would be necessary for man might be brought forth. For a house was made for man together with provision, in such a way that each of these things came to be upon the earth according to its kind — that is, so that, once made, they might have this power implanted in them, that the offspring of each one of their kinds might be created upon the earth. For origins were established, whose seed should advance to the procreation of kinds to be multiplied upon the earth. Whence Scripture testifies, saying: 'And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply upon the earth.'
In like manner also the race of men was blessed, which sense we behold in the Law; for we see it written: 'The people grew and was multiplied in Egypt.' For with the same blessing wherewith those things were blessed which were created for man's benefit, with that same blessing was man also blessed, so that likewise from male and female the offspring of the human race might grow and be multiplied upon the earth; and that, just as the seeds were to be improved through cultivation, so too the race of men, by the care applied, should strive at this — that, having received the knowledge of the Creator, it might bridle its life unto deserving Him, so that all things together might advance unto the praise and glory of the Creator. And since these words signify nothing other, the facts themselves bear witness.
For all things that were made have been multiplied and improved upon the earth by the will of God. For nor could anything grow otherwise than as the will and blessing of God decreed for the seeds. How then can it be said to be done wickedly, or not to be lawful, that which, by God's blessing and with Him favoring it, makes increase? The tradition of which thing both remained in the synagogue and is now celebrated in the Church — that God's creature should be joined together under God's blessing, not indeed by presumption, since by the Author Himself the form was thus given.
But if it is thought that it ought to cease, then it ought to cease when those things too shall cease which were likewise blessed that they might be multiplied; because, if the generation of men ceases, for what benefit are those things born which were blessed upon the earth? For the world cannot act in part and cease in part: either the whole of it works, or the whole rests in idleness. Is a body of any use, some of whose members are vigorous and some grow numb? That, therefore, which has been blessed by God — why is it asserted by certain men to be a sordid and defiled work, unless it be that they in a certain manner lay hands upon God Himself? For they would not reprehend this unless they thought ill of God, the Author of this work.
For because they fear to detract openly from God, they yet accuse Him through the work devised by Him. For when the work is displeasing, the author is reprehended. But if men of this kind would read, or rather accept, the Scriptures, they would be mindful of Balaam saying: 'Why should I curse,' he says, 'whom God blesses?' For in vain is he accused who is praised by the judge; nay rather, he is his own accuser who calls one guilty whom the laws defend. Who, then, are you, who presume to condemn what you read to have been blessed by God, unless you either deny that this is God, or accuse the Scripture of falsehood? For there are some who, receiving the new things as it were, think the old must be repudiated. But the new precepts made known to the peoples through Christ do not disagree with these.
For He Himself, being invited, did not disdain to go to a wedding, and not only honored it by His presence, but also supplied what was lacking for its joy. For it is written that 'wine gladdens the heart of man.' And that He might show that He had done this according to the will of God His Father, when the Jews asked whether it was lawful for a man to put away his wife, He replied, among other things, saying: 'Since from the beginning God made male and female, and said: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh. And so now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.'
Hence it is that, being invited, He went willingly to the wedding, lest He should seem to weaken the deed of God His Father; rather, showing that the doctrine of the old Law and the new agree together, He not only did not forbid marriage, but even deigned to be present, bearing them witness — since God is the Author of marriages, and what has been joined by God He showed by a salutary precept ought neither to be forbidden nor separated. And because birth is profitable, when He was now leaving the world, He commended His mother to John His disciple. For which reason we too are taught, through all the commandments of the old Law and the new, to honor our parents; and unless we do this, it is provided in the Law that we shall incur a curse.
And so what presumption is it, or from what law does it descend, to shut off access to marriage, when both the new and the old Law seem in all things to favor these things? But this is what we read, that 'what is beyond is from evil.' Whence the Apostle says that men of this kind have a cauterized conscience, who, forbidding to marry, teach that one must abstain from the foods which God created to be received. For they are marked as doing this in the hypocrisy of enmity, in order to bring accusation against the Law handed down by God. Others, being zealous for salutary precepts, stretch out opposing hands, that they may commend the commands of a depraved doctrine, and on this account are said to have a cauterized conscience.
For with a corrupted mind, knowing one thing they profess another, just as also the Jews, who, not being ignorant that the deeds of the Savior were the works of the Holy Spirit, said out of envy that He cast out demons by Beelzebub, in order to turn the people away from faith in Him. Such also is the cunning of the men mentioned above: that, in order to feign themselves lovers of chastity and sanctity, they even say that marriages are to be condemned, so that thereby they may be commended and may turn the people from the truth; and that, in order to pretend that they are zealous for abstinence, they hand down that one must restrain oneself from foods, in order to show by these things that they, being strangers to the world, hasten to the heavenly kingdoms. By which, enticing the minds of men, they thereafter teach that unlawful things are lawful and condemn lawful things as though forbidden.
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Haecsuntpraestrigiasatanae, utcausasinuertat, quasinouuminsinuansaliquidexcludatueritatem, inquanihilnonumest, quiatotumaeternumest. quianonaduertatsensumistumabaduersarioesseaptatum? quisenimaudeatdeiinuentumreprobareetquodnumquamalicuiobfuitnisiaduersariusueritatis, . qui, utinpuritatemsuamtegat, sanctimoniumpraedicat, quemnonamat, et, dumexeosequasibonaeuoluntatisostendit, inlicitasuadetquasilicita?
These are the sleights of Satan, that he may invert the causes, as if, by insinuating something new, he might exclude the truth, in which there is nothing new, because the whole is eternal. For who does not perceive that this notion has been fitted up by the adversary? For who would dare to reprove an invention of God, and a thing that never harmed anyone, save the adversary of truth — who, in order to cover his own impurity, preaches a sanctity which he does not love, and, while by this he shows himself as if of good will, persuades to unlawful things as if they were lawful?
For he commends himself, that he may deceive the more readily, and on this account, once the imprudent are caught, he suggests things by which he may make them yet greater sinners; because, in order to procure some remedy for his own cause, he greatly persuades men to sin, seeking from this a great consolation, while he shows many to be partners in his crime, reckoning the penalty light — as though it were grievous — if he should see many with himself in Gehenna. Let men look to themselves in their other sins, while they are overcome by vices, or through ignorance let them excuse as not punishable things that are not so. What contrary concupiscence deceives, or what darkness opposes, that what is true should not be seen! For letters are wont to seem to signify something other, when either they are not well pronounced or are improperly distinguished. But when it is read, 'God made,' and:
'He blessed what He had made,' who would dispute about this? Who would doubt? Who, hearing what is blessed, would think it cursed, unless he be animated by another spirit? Which indeed, if it were said to be the voice of a man, perhaps some deception might be believed; but God is said to speak, and do you doubt? God blesses, and is it reprobate? But perhaps under the name of God Moses introduced an error! Let the signs and prodigies wrought through Moses in Egypt satisfy you; let the wonders that were done in the Red Sea for the deliverance of the children of Israel persuade you; hear the magicians confessing that 'this is the finger of God'; assent to the Apostle saying:
'For I would not have you ignorant, brethren,' he says, 'that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.' And whence did the Apostle speak these things? The Scripture is at hand, in which we read Christ our Lord saying to the Jews: 'If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for Moses wrote of me.' Who would deny faith to this concord? Who would dare to say that what is one is at variance? Who is of so evil a mind as to contend that undivided love is seen to be enmity?
Behold, you have both the testimonies of words and the examples of mighty works, which may subjugate your mind to the truth, so that you may deem nothing true except what the books of the Catholic Church contain. Since, therefore, it has been proved that the same God who is now ours was He who was in the Old Testament, and that this God is true by many tokens of His mighty works, His authority ought to be preferred to such a degree that even that which is reckoned by us harsh and perhaps absurd ought to be accepted, and to be understood otherwise than is supposed by us, if it be commended to us by the judgment of God — because we ought to believe God rather than ourselves.
For our weakness and inexperience is wont to judge as useful things that are harmful, and to esteem false things as true — which, concerning God, it is impious even to suspect, for there is no nature that can be deceived. How much more, then, ought there to be no doubt concerning marriages, when God speaks! For it is a plain and simple matter. Certainly every man rejoices when he has attained God's favor, and believes himself to be improved while he learns the sacrament of the Creator — which assuredly he would not attain unless he had been born. Why then does he bewail that wherein he rejoices, and condemn what he glories to have learned? For if he rejoices because he has learned, and yet would not have learned unless he had been born, without doubt it is good to be born, since the fruit of birth is the knowledge of the truth.
But if to be born is evil, then knowledge will not be good; for to what thing will knowledge profit, if birth is condemned? Because, if it is not expedient to be born, nor ought one to be, it is empty that one doomed to be condemned should learn. But since no one is so dull as to deny that the knowledge of God is profitable to men, it is both good and useful. For through it birth is improved, so that it may merit more than had been conferred upon Adam; because in heaven, not on earth, shall believers reign — in the paradise of God the Father, not in that in which Adam had been bidden to labor bodily.
For if the Encaenia were celebrated at Jerusalem — that is, the festivity of the dedication of the Lord's temple was kept — how much more is the birthday of man himself to be celebrated, who is rather the temple of God, for whom even a temple has been built with hands for rendering thanks to God! For our body is a better temple, because this was constructed by the work of God, but that by human labor; and this is under the hope of eternity, that of perdition. And so he who knows that he was born by God's institution, that he may give thanks to Him, holding His mystery known, ought to rejoice on his birthday, seeing that there has been an advancement of his birth. But truly those ought not to have been born who, forsaking their Creator, attribute His glory to others; for the birth of these advances unto punishment;
but it is not the birth that incurs the crime, but the will. But who are you, who forbid marriages? Perhaps Marcion, since you suppose that the body was fashioned not by God, but by the devil, while you contend that the soul, fallen through a certain error, suffered, so as to come to the regions of darkness in which the world now is. How then could it be freed from here, if it were forbidden to be generated? For, being born, you came to know your fall and have made it your business to return to your ancestral seat, restored to your fountain. In short, you say that you give thanks to Christ, through whom you congratulate yourself on having attained this knowledge. But come now: if you had not been born, knowledge would have ceased, nor would deliverance have followed. And so, if you rejoice that the soul is freed, favor birth;
for if you resist birth, you are an enemy of souls. Or if you are a Manichee, who reject marriages as though contrary, I ask of you: if bodies were by no means begotten, how would the soul — which you assert was poured into the region of darkness and clings to material things — be rescued from here? For in your books you have it written that the soul is freed by being born, so that, taken up by the moon, the souls departing from the bodies are handed over to the sun, which you assert to be the god of your souls. For you rejoice when you are called Manichees. For through this name you demand your deliverance — which assuredly you would not know, had you not been born. And so it appears far and wide that through hypocrisy you condemn marriages.
For while professing sanctity, you secretly pursue uncleanness — which has been brought to light not only privately, but also by the edicts of emperors. Hear now, O Catholic, that the birth of man is profitable, with the Gospel as witness. For when Simeon, a righteous man, wished to depart from the world, thinking that the knowledge of the Creator without the knowledge of His mystery sufficed for him, it was not permitted him, unless he should make an increase in the perception of God, so that he might have the full reward of his faith. In short, receiving the new-born Savior in his hands, he blessed God and said: 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart according to Thy word in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.'
It was plainly shown that there is a benefit of God in the birth of man, when to a righteous man pondering upon death it was answered that he should not die before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. For he advanced so much in life that he was made worthy even in the present to see Him whom he hoped for as a deliverer after death. He, then, who was reserved in life and was not permitted to die unless he had seen the fruit of his hope, that he might be secure that he passed from life to life — how can it be said that birth did not profit him?
For if it were evil that we are born, paradise would not be promised, nor eternal life, nor the kingdom of heaven, but the punishment of Gehenna, perdition — so that he who knew himself born unto perdition should fear to generate another, so that one unlawfully born might not be permitted to generate. But perhaps it may be said: 'The kingdom of heaven is indeed promised, but to the faithful and those who act well.' Rightly. You see, then, that men are not made guilty because they have been born, but because they have lived ill. For the kingdom of heaven is not promised to the unborn, that they should impute it to birth to whom it will not be given; but it is promised to those born who act well, so that neither does birth profit one who acts ill, nor can it harm one who acts well.
For by the faithful and those who act well, birth is improved; but by the unfaithful and those who act ill, it is made worse. For birth is, as it were, like a tree that is grafted; because, if it is grafted with a good shoot, it will become better and be called good, but if it is grafted with a bad shoot, it will be both worse and not good, but will be called bad. So too, if good doctrine is added to birth, it will make good fruits; but if bad, it will make bad fruits. So, just as a tree is necessary, that there may be where the graft is set, so birth too is necessary, that there may be where one may advance. But it is answered to the contrary: 'If birth is useful, why is one reborn?' We would not be reborn, unless birth were useful. For to be reborn is to be renewed, and he who is renewed is restored.
Therefore rebirth does not accuse birth, but reforms it; and what is reformed is proved to have been well instituted from the beginning. So then, in that we are reborn, we are changed in counsel, having received the expiation of the body, that we may be restored to the pristine state of Adam. But the body was stained by the sin of the soul, which body, with its counsel repaired and improved through faith, is washed, so that, just as it had been polluted through contempt of God, so it may be washed through obedience, that it may escape the sentence given to Adam and be able to rise again. And so, if sin began from the soul, why is the nature of the body accused, when in the cause of Adam's sin there was not bodily desire, but the soul, enticed by the hope of deity, transgressed God's precept, so that it both subjected its body to sin and that men should be born
under sin? Which indeed does nothing to harm man — if only he obey the law of God — except that he dies; for which thing the benevolence of God has promised a reward, so that, since they are found faithful in devotion to the Creator, but through the transgression of Adam have been made subject to corruption and to death, for this reason they may receive from God the Judge more than had been granted to Adam — so that in the future they may both be glorious and have eternal life and be called adopted sons of God, that it may be gain that they were born. From this point I shall now return to the remaining part of the reading. When man had been placed in paradise, he received these commandments: 'Of every tree,' He says, 'which is in paradise for food, you shall eat; but of the tree whereby good and evil are discerned, you shall not eat of it.'
All the trees which He mentions are of fruits created for eating. In short, by one name they are called 'trees,' but they are understood as various in their fruits; yet they are all trees, and of eating there is one kind, although diverse are the things that are eaten. For when He had created for man many fruit trees for eating, as I have said, He forbade one tree to be eaten, so that they might have reverence for the Creator in some part, who had received all things into their power, while one tree was reserved over which they should not have license, that they might be mindful of the law of their condition. In what way was the kind of sin to be understood from the sentence? For this sentence befits the murderer too, and the malefactor, and the adulterer, and the infamous.
Achan too, the son of Carmi, when he had sinned, was adjudged to be consumed with all his household. In what way can the kind of sin be understood from the sentence? It can be known that the offense was great, yet the kind of offense cannot be understood. For we know that others too were condemned by this sentence, although they are known to have transgressed otherwise. For Haman too, and the Sodomites, are known to have perished with all that was theirs. For thus it comes about that those guilty even of one sin are struck by diverse sentences, and that sinners of diverse crimes are punished with one and the same kind of penalty. Wherefore, in the case of Adam and Eve, the kind of sin cannot be understood from the sentence given.
For although their sin was one, yet according to their own person the man and the woman received the sentence, and likewise also the serpent, so that not only should they not remain in that which they had been made, but also that labor should be added to them for punishment. For when all cattle and living creatures had been made subject to man, as we read, the serpent, contrary to this ordinance, raised himself up, and by guile, through deceit, had subjected to himself the man whom he had encircled. For without doubt he who captures someone makes that one within himself. On account of which the serpent, lest his cunning should have its effect, is recalled by the sentence of God and is repressed beyond what he had been made, lest he should be above man — so that, by his craftiness, he might grieve not only to have profited nothing, but even to have made himself worse.
For since the serpent is read to have been more cunning than the other beasts, after he deceived the man he was made accursed by all the beasts of the earth. After sentence was passed upon the serpent, it follows that the woman also, whom he had taken as his ally for despising the law of God, should receive her sentence. For He says: 'Filling I will fill up thy sorrows and thy groaning: in sadness shalt thou bring forth children, and thy turning shall be unto thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.' Let no one establish as a sanction the very thing that he censures. If for this reason children were granted, because she had usurped intercourse, then the usurpation gained the more. If, because He said, 'in sadness shalt thou bring forth children,' you suppose that generation took its beginning from there, what then becomes of that which was said, 'increase and multiply'?
Understand, therefore, that this was added only as a penalty, so that, whereas it had before been granted amid gladness, sadness was now imposed as a punishment. And in order that it might press upon the woman ever more harshly and manifoldly, there is added the turning toward her husband, that there might be a source from which it should again be renewed in her. If the Lord was condemning intercourse in His servants, why did He add, 'thy turning shall be unto thy husband'? Let no one set up as a penalty the very thing he condemns, since a penalty is surely contrary to the one condemned and never proceeds from one and the same thing, but from its opposite. For if punishment and reward lay in one and the same thing, no one would dread condemnation. And then, by what would anyone be punished for an offense, once he was seen to have transgressed against the law? This would be to confirm sin, not to punish it.
If the woman's turning toward her husband is reckoned to come from the fact that she had intercourse, and not from what is true, then the turning—which had simply been granted before—must be believed to have been imposed upon her, together with the utmost servitude, by way of punishment. For since through the woman the man had been made subject, and without doubt seemed the superior, yet by following her counsel he thought that what she urged would profit him, so that the work of God seemed to be undone by the subtlety of the serpent; therefore the institution is restored by the sentence of God, that the woman should return to the subjection of her condition, humbled beneath the man, as it had been ordained, and that there be added to her what is added as a penalty, when she hears: 'Filling I will fill up thy sorrows and thy groaning: in sadness shalt thou bring forth children, and thy turning shall be unto thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.'