Behold, that man who inquired of the good Master what he should do that he might have eternal life, and heard that, if he wished to come to life, the commandments were to be kept by him; and when he asked which commandments, it was said to him: 'You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother,' and: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself' — this man, doing these things in the faith of Christ, would beyond doubt hold the faith which works through love. For he would not love his neighbor as himself except by having received the love of God, without which he would not love himself. Further, if he did that which the Lord also added, saying:
'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me' — then he would build upon that foundation gold, silver, precious stones; for he would think of nothing but the things which are God's, how he might please God. And these thoughts are, as I reckon, the gold, the silver, the precious stones.
But if he were held by a certain carnal affection concerning his riches — although out of them he gave many alms, and contrived nothing of fraud or plunder to increase them, nor, out of fear of diminishing or losing them, slipped into any crime or shameful deed (otherwise he would in this way already withdraw himself from the stability of that foundation) — but, on account of the carnal affection, as I said, which he had in them, whereby he could not be without such goods without grief, then he would build upon that foundation wood, hay, stubble; especially if he had a wife in such a way that even for her sake he thought of the things which are of the world, how he might please his wife.
These things, therefore, since when loved with a carnal affection they are not lost without grief, on that account those who so possess them that they have in the foundation the faith which works through love, and by no reasoning or desire prefer these things to it, in the loss of them, having suffered detriment, come to salvation through a certain fire of grief. From which grief and detriment each one is the more secure, the less he has loved these things, or the more he has possessed them as though not possessing. But whoever, for the sake of retaining or acquiring those things, has committed murder, adultery, fornication, idolatry, and any such like, will not be saved through fire on account of the foundation, but, the foundation being lost, will be tormented in eternal fire.
Wherefore, as to that also which they say — as if wishing to prove how much faith alone avails — where the Apostle says: 'But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; for a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases,' that is, that on account of the faith of Christ the lawful wife joined in wedded society may without any fault be left, if she has been unwilling to remain with a Christian husband precisely because he is a Christian — they do not consider that in this way she is most rightly dismissed, if she says to her husband:
'I will not be your wife unless you either amass riches for me by robbery, or, even as a Christian, ply the accustomed procurings by which you used to maintain our household' — or if she had known of some other criminal or shameful thing in her husband, wherein she took delight and either satisfied her lust, or had an easy living, or even went about more finely adorned. For then that man, to whom his wife says this, if he has truly repented from dead works when he came to baptism and has in the foundation the faith which works through love, will beyond doubt be held more by love of divine grace than of a wife's flesh; and the member which offends him, he bravely cuts off.
But whatever grief of heart he shall endure in this separation on account of the carnal affection for his spouse — this is the detriment which he will suffer, this is the fire through which, the hay burning, he himself will be saved. But if he already had a wife as though not having her — not for the sake of concupiscence, but for the sake of mercy, lest perchance he might save her, rendering rather than exacting the marriage debt — then assuredly he will not grieve carnally when such a wedlock is separated from him; for he thought of nothing in her but the things which are God's, how he might please God.
And through this, in so far as he built gold, silver, precious stones upon those thoughts, in so far would he suffer no detriment, in so far would his structure, which was not of hay, be consumed by no burning. Whether, then, men suffer these things only in this life, or whether even after this life certain such judgments follow, does not, so far as I judge, revolt from the reason of truth, this understanding of this saying. Nevertheless, even if there is another which does not occur to me, it is rather to be chosen;
but so long as we hold this one, we are not compelled to say to the unjust, the insubordinate, the wicked, the defiled, to slayers of fathers and slayers of mothers, to murderers, fornicators, abusers of themselves with men, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, which is according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God: 'If you only believe in Christ and receive the sacrament of his baptism, even if you do not change this most wicked life, you will be saved.' Whence neither does that Canaanite woman set a precedent for us, because the Lord gave her what she asked, though he had first said: 'It is not good to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs' — because he, the inspector of the heart, saw her changed when he praised her. And therefore he did not say: 'O dog, great is your faith!'
But he said, 'O woman, great is your faith!' He changed his word for her because he saw that her disposition was changed and recognized that his rebuke had borne fruit. Yet I would be astonished if he were praising in her a faith without works, that is, a faith not of the kind that is already able to work through love, a dead faith and — what James did not in the least hesitate to call it — a faith not of Christians but of demons. Finally, if they will not grant that this Canaanite woman changed her corrupt ways when Christ challenged her by disdaining and rebuking her, then whomever they find merely to believe, yet living a most defiled life which they will not even conceal but openly profess and refuse to change — let them heal such people's children, if they can, as the daughter of the Canaanite woman was healed;
yet let them not make such people members of Christ, so long as those same people do not cease to be members of a harlot. This indeed they understand not unreasonably: that he sins against the Holy Spirit and is guilty, without pardon, of an eternal sin, who to the very end of his life has refused to believe in Christ — but only if they rightly understood what it is to believe in Christ. For to believe in Christ is not to have the faith of demons, which is rightly declared dead, but the faith that works through love. Since these things are so, when we do not admit such persons to baptism, we are not trying to root up the tares before the time, but rather we refuse, like the devil, to sow tares in addition; nor do we forbid those who wish to come to Christ, but by their very own profession we prove that they are unwilling to come to Christ;
nor do we forbid them to believe in Christ, but we demonstrate that they are unwilling to believe in Christ — those who either say that is not adultery which he declares to be adultery, or believe that adulterers can be his members, whom through the Apostle he declares shall not possess the kingdom of God and are opposed to the sound doctrine which is according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Hence such persons are not to be reckoned among those who came to the wedding feast, but among those who refused to come. For when they themselves dare most openly to contradict the doctrine of Christ and to oppose the holy gospel, they are not repelled as they come, but they disdain to come.
But those who at least in words, even if not in deeds, renounce the world, do indeed come and are sown among the wheat, and are gathered into the threshing floor, and are joined to the sheep, and enter the nets, and are mingled with the banqueters; yet inwardly, whether they lie hidden or are manifest, there will then be reason for tolerating them, if there is no power to correct them, and there ought to be no presumption of separating them. But far be it that we should so understand what is written, that those whom they found were brought to the wedding feast — both good and bad — as to believe that they brought in those who professed that they would persevere as bad. Otherwise the servants themselves of the head of the household sowed the tares, and that will be false: 'the enemy who sowed them is the devil.'
But since this cannot be false, the servants brought in both good and bad — whether those who lay hidden, or those who, already brought in and admitted, appeared as such; or 'good and bad' was said according to a certain human manner of conversation, in which even those who have not yet believed are wont to be praised or blamed. Hence too is that admonition which the Lord gives to the disciples whom he first sends to preach the gospel, that into whatever city they come, they should inquire who there is worthy, that they may lodge with him until they depart thence. Assuredly, who will be that worthy one, save he who is held good in the estimation of his fellow citizens? And who unworthy, save he who has become known to them as bad?
From both these kinds men come to the faith of Christ, and thus both good and bad are brought in, because even those bad ones do not refuse repentance from dead works. But if they do refuse, they are not repelled while desiring to enter, but they themselves depart from the entrance by open contradiction. That servant, therefore, will also be secure, nor will he be condemned among the slothful for having refused to pay out the Lord's talent, since those men refused to receive what he was paying out. For this parable was set forth on account of those who refuse to undertake in the Church the office of a steward, alleging a slothful excuse — that they are unwilling to render an account for the sins of others — namely, those who hear and do not do, that is, receive and do not repay.
But when a faithful and diligent steward, most ready in disbursing and most eager for his Lord's gains, says to an adulterer: 'Do not be an adulterer, if you wish to be baptized; believe Christ, who says that this which you are doing is adultery, if you wish to be baptized; do not be a member of a harlot, if you wish to become a member of Christ' — and the man replies, 'I will not obey, I will not do it' — that man himself is unwilling to receive the true coin of his Lord, but rather wishes to bring his own adulterate coin into the treasuries of the Lord. But if he were to profess that he would do it, yet neither did it nor could afterward be corrected by any means whatever, it would be found —
what should be done with such a one, lest he be useless to others if he cannot be useful to himself, so that, if within the Lord's nets a bad fish were present, it might yet not ensnare the fish of its Lord with bad nets — that is, so that, if he had a bad life in the Church, he might yet not there establish a bad doctrine. For when such persons defend their deeds as such, or, most openly professing that they will persevere in them, are admitted to baptism, nothing else seems to be proclaimed except that fornicators and adulterers, remaining in that wickedness even to the very end of this life, shall possess the kingdom of God, and by the merit of a faith which without works is dead, shall come to eternal life and salvation. These are the bad nets which fishermen ought above all to beware:
if indeed by those fishermen in the gospel parable we are to understand bishops or the overseers of churches of a lower order, since it was said, 'Come, and I will make you fishers of men.' For with good nets both bad and good fish can be caught; but with bad nets good fish cannot be caught, since in good doctrine there can be both a good man, who hears and does, and a bad man, who hears and does not do; whereas in bad doctrine, both he who thinks it true, though he does not comply with it, is bad, and he who complies with it is worse.
This indeed is astonishing, that those brethren who think otherwise, when they ought to depart from this opinion — whether new or old, but in any case pernicious — themselves go further and say that it is a new doctrine, by which the most wicked men, who openly profess that they will persevere in their disgraceful deeds, are not admitted to baptism:
as if I know not where they are traveling abroad, seeing that harlots and actors and any others who are professors of public turpitude are not permitted to approach the Christian sacraments unless such bonds are loosed or broken — persons who, according to these men's opinion, would all be admitted, were it not that holy Church retains an ancient and firm custom, coming, namely, from that most limpid truth, by which she holds it certain that those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God, and unless they do penance from these dead works, they are not permitted to approach baptism; but if they creep in by stealth, unless they afterward change and do penance, they cannot be saved.
But drunkards, the avaricious, the abusive, and if there be any other damnable vices which cannot be convicted and refuted by open deeds, are nevertheless most vigorously scourged by precepts and catechisms, and all such persons, with their will changed for the better, are seen to approach baptism.
But if perhaps they have observed that adulterers — whom not human but divine law condemns, that is, those who keep other men's wives as their own, or women who keep other women's husbands — are somewhere wont to be admitted more carelessly, they ought from those right practices to endeavor to correct these things — that is, that these too should not be admitted — not from these wrong practices to deprave those right ones, so as to judge that candidates for baptism need not be catechized concerning the correction of their morals, and consequently to suppose that all the professors even of those public disgraces and crimes — that is, harlots, pimps, gladiators, and whatever is of this kind — ought, even while remaining in those evils, to be admitted.
For all those things which the Apostle enumerates, concluding that those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God, those who act more vehemently reprove consistently as manifest to themselves, and do not admit to receiving baptism those who resist and profess that they will remain in them. But those who suppose that the rest can easily be compensated for by almsgiving, yet do not doubt that three are deadly and to be punished with excommunications, until they are healed by a humbler penance — namely unchastity, idolatry, homicide. Nor is there now need to inquire what sort of opinion this of theirs is, and whether it should be corrected or approved, lest we prolong the work undertaken on account of that question, which is by no means necessary for resolving this one.
For it suffices that, if not all sins are to be admitted to the sacrament of baptism, adultery is among all these; but if those three alone are to be excepted, adultery is also among these three — from which this discussion arose. But since the morals of bad Christians, who were formerly even the worst, do not appear to have had this evil, namely that men should take other men's wives or that women should marry other women's husbands, thence perhaps in certain churches this negligence crept in, that in the catechisms of the candidates these vices were neither inquired into nor struck at; and thence it came about that they began to be defended — vices which nevertheless are still rare among the baptized, if we do not make them frequent by our negligence.
Such negligence in some, inexperience in others, ignorance in yet others, the Lord is understood to have probably signified by the name of sleep, where he says: 'But while men slept, the enemy came and oversowed tares.'
But hence it is to be reckoned that these things did not first appear in the morals even of bad Christians, since the blessed Cyprian, in his letter on the lapsed, when in lamenting and censuring he recalled many things by which he rightly says the indignation of God was stirred, so that he allowed his Church to be scourged by an intolerable persecution, does not there name these things at all — even though he does not keep silent about that other matter and confirms that it pertains to those same bad morals, asserting that to join the bond of matrimony with unbelievers is nothing other than to prostitute the members of Christ to the heathen: things which in our times are no longer thought to be sins, since in truth in the New Testament nothing is commanded about this, and therefore it has either been believed to be lawful or left as it were doubtful.
Just as this too is ambiguous, whether Herod took the wife of a dead or of a living brother, and therefore it is not so clear what John said was not lawful for him. Concerning a concubine also, if she has professed that she will know no other man, even if she be dismissed by him to whom she is subject, it is rightly doubted whether she ought not to be admitted to receiving baptism. Likewise whoever dismisses a wife caught in adultery and takes another does not seem to be equated with those who dismiss and take another for a cause other than adultery; and even in the divine pronouncements themselves it is so obscure whether this man too — to whom, without doubt, it is lawful to dismiss an adulteress — is nevertheless held an adulterer if he takes another, that, as I judge, anyone may there err pardonably.
Wherefore those crimes of unchastity which are manifest are in every way to be barred from baptism, unless they are corrected by a change of will and by penance; but as for those which are doubtful, every effort must be made that such unions do not take place. For what need is there to send one's head into so great a hazard of ambiguity? But if they have been made, I know not whether those who made them ought likewise to be seen as not to be admitted to baptism. As far, therefore, as pertains to the wholesome doctrine of truth — lest a most pernicious security be given to anyone for a deadly sin, or even a most pestilential authority be granted — this is the order of the cure: that those to be baptized should believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit by that rite,
by which the creed is delivered, and should do penance from dead works, and should not doubt that they will receive in baptism the remission of absolutely all past sins: not so that it be lawful to sin, but so that having sinned may not harm; so that there be remission of what was done, not permission to do it. Then it can truly be said, even spiritually: 'Behold, you have been made whole; now sin no more' — which the Lord said concerning bodily health for this reason, because he knew that even that infirmity of the flesh had befallen the man whom he had healed by the merits of his sins. But to that man who both enters to be baptized as an adulterer and departs baptized as an adulterer, I wonder how they think it can be said: 'Behold, you have been made whole.' For what grave and destructive disease will there be, if adultery is to be health?
But, they say, among the three thousand whom the apostles baptized in one day, and among the many thousands of believers with whom the Apostle filled the gospel from Jerusalem even to Illyricum, there were surely some joined to other men's wives, or women to other women's husbands: concerning whom the apostles ought to have established a rule which should thenceforth be kept in the churches, whether they should not be admitted to baptism unless they had corrected those adulteries. As if it could not likewise be said against them that they find no one recorded who, being such, was admitted;
or as if the crimes of individual men, which were infinite, could have been recorded, when that general rule more than amply suffices, where Peter, testifying in many words to those to be baptized, says: 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.' For who would doubt that adulteries pertain to the crookedness of this world, and those who have chosen to persist in the same iniquity? Similarly, moreover, it can be said that public harlots — whom no church admits to baptism unless freed from that turpitude — could have been found among so many thousands then believing throughout so many nations, and that the apostles ought to have set examples concerning their acceptance or prohibition. Nevertheless, from certain lesser matters we can conjecture greater ones.
For if the tax collectors coming to the baptism of John were forbidden to exact anything more than what had been appointed for them, I wonder whether to those coming to the baptism of Christ adultery could be permitted. They also recalled that the Israelites perpetrated many grave evils and shed much blood of the prophets, and yet from these deeds did not utterly deserve to be blotted out, but only from their unbelief, by which they were unwilling to believe in Christ — not observing that their sin was not this alone, that they did not believe in Christ, but also that they killed Christ: of which the one pertains to the crime of unbelief, the other to the crime of cruelty. The former, then, is against right faith, the latter against a good life.
But he lacks both vices who has the faith of Christ that is not dead without works — the faith which is found even in demons — but the faith of grace, which works through love. This is the faith of which it is said: 'The kingdom of heaven is within you.' For this those seize who do violence by believing, obtaining the Spirit of charity, where is the fullness of the law, without which the law in the letter made men guilty even of transgression. It is not therefore to be supposed that this was said —
'the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who do violence seize it' — as though even the wicked, merely by believing and living most wickedly, arrive at the kingdom of heaven; but rather because that guilt of transgression, which the law alone — that is, the letter without the spirit — made by commanding, is loosed by believing, and by the violence of faith the Holy Spirit is obtained, through whom, charity being poured abroad in our hearts, the law is fulfilled not through fear of punishment but through love of righteousness. In no way, therefore, let the incautious mind be deceived, so as to think that it has known God, if it confesses him with a dead faith, that is, without good works, after the manner of demons, and therefore doubts not that it will now come to eternal life, because the Lord says:
'And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.' For this too ought to come to mind, which is written: 'By this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, I have known him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and in him there is no truth.'
And lest anyone should suppose that his commandments pertain to faith alone — although no one has dared to say this, especially since he said 'commandments,' which, lest by their multitude they should scatter the thought, in those two the whole law and the prophets hang — although it can rightly be said that the commandments of God pertain to faith alone, if that faith be understood not as dead but as living, which works through love, nevertheless John himself afterward opened up what he meant, when he said: 'This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.'
This, then, is what it profits to believe in God with right faith, to worship God, to know God: that from him we may have help in living well, and, if we shall have sinned, that from him we may merit indulgence — not persevering secure in the deeds which he hates, but withdrawing from them and saying to him: 'I said, Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you' — which those have no one to whom to say it, who do not believe in him; and in vain do they say it who, since they are so far from him, are strangers to the grace of the Mediator. Hence come those words in the book of Wisdom, which pernicious security somehow misunderstands:
'And even if we shall have sinned, we are yours' — namely, because we have a good and great Lord, who both wills and is able to heal the sins of the penitent, not one who would by no means dare to destroy those persisting in malignity. Finally, when he had said 'we are yours,' he added: 'knowing your power' — surely the power from which the sinner can neither withdraw himself nor hide. And therefore, following on, he joined: 'but we will not sin, knowing that we are counted as yours.' For who, worthily considering the dwelling with God — in which all are counted by predestination who are called according to his purpose — would not strive so to live as to be fit for such a dwelling? Which therefore John also says: 'These things I have written to you, that you may not sin.'
'And if anyone shall have sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins' — this does not aim at our sinning with security, but that, withdrawing from sin, if any has been committed, we may, on account of that advocate whom unbelievers do not have, in no way despair of indulgence. Neither, therefore, from these words is any milder condition to be promised to those wishing so to believe in God as to persevere in ruinous morals — much less from those where the Apostle says: 'Those who have sinned without the law shall perish without the law; but those who have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law' — as though in this passage there were some difference between perishing and being judged, when by another word this same thing has been signified.
For the Scriptures are wont to put 'judgment' also for eternal damnation, just as in the gospel the Lord speaks: 'The hour will come in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice; and they shall come forth — those who have done good, into the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, into the resurrection of judgment.' Nor is it here said, 'this, those who have believed; but that, those who have not believed,' but: 'this, those who have done well; that, those who have done evil.' For a good life is inseparable from the faith which works through love; nay rather, it is that very thing, a good life.
We see, therefore, that the Lord said 'resurrection of judgment' for the resurrection of eternal damnation, for of all who are to rise again — among whom without doubt will be also those who do not believe at all; for neither are they themselves not in the tombs — he made two parts, declaring that some are to rise again into the resurrection of life, others into the resurrection of judgment.
But if they say that there are not to be understood there even those who do not believe at all, but those who shall be saved through fire because they believed, even if they lived badly, so that they suppose their transitory punishment to be signified by the name of judgment — although this is said most shamelessly, since the Lord divided absolutely all who are to rise again, among whom without doubt the unbelieving too will be, into 'life' and 'judgment,' willing thus that judgment be understood as eternal, though he did not add this, just as of 'life' too — for he did not say 'into the resurrection of eternal life,' when he assuredly did not wish anything else to be understood — let them nevertheless see what they are going to answer, where he says: 'But he who does not believe is already judged.'