Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To Jubaianus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Epistle LXXII.2847
| 2847
Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxiii. a.d.
256. |
To Jubaianus, Concerning the Baptism of
Heretics.
Argument.—Cyprian Refutes a Letter Enclosed to Him by Jubaianus, and
with the Greatest Care Collects Whatever He Thinks Will Avail for the
Defence of His Cause. Moreover, He Sends Jubaianus a Copy of the
Letter to the Numidians and to Quintus, and Probably the Decrees of the
Last Synod.2848
| 2848
In the year of Christ 256, a little after the seventh council of
Carthage, Cyprian wrote a long letter to the Bishop Jubaianus. He
had consulted Cyprian about baptism, and at the same time had sent a
letter not written by himself, but by some other person opposed to the
opinion of Cyprian. |
1. Cyprian to Jubaianus his brother,
greeting. You have written to me, dearest brother, wishing that
the impression of my mind should be signified to you, as to what I
think concerning the baptism of heretics; who, placed without, and
established outside the Church, arrogate to themselves a matter neither
within their right nor their power. This baptism we cannot
consider as valid or legitimate, since it is manifestly unlawful among
them; and since we have already expressed in our letters what we
thought on this matter, I have, as a compendious method, sent you a
copy of the same letters, what we decided in council when very many of
us were present, and what, moreover, I subsequently wrote back to
Quintus, our colleague, when he asked about the same thing. And
now also, when we had met together, bishops as well of the province of
Africa as of Numidia, to the number of seventy-one, we established this
same matter once more2849
| 2849
[Letter lxx. sec. 4, p. 378, supra. Jubaian. was of
Mauritania.] | by our judgment, deciding that there
is one baptism which is appointed in the Catholic Church; and that by
this those are not re-baptized, but baptized by us, who at any time
come from the adulterous and unhallowed water to be washed and sanctified by the truth of the
saving water.
2. Nor does what you have described in your
letters disturb us, dearest brother, that the Novatians re-baptize
those whom they entice from us, since it does not in any wise matter to
us what the enemies of the Church do, so long as we ourselves hold a
regard for our power, and the stedfastness of reason and truth.
For Novatian, after the manner of apes—which, although they are
not men, yet imitate human doings—wishes to claim to himself the
authority and truth of the Catholic Church, while he himself is not in
the Church; nay, moreover, has stood forth hitherto as a rebel and
enemy against the Church. For, knowing that there is one baptism,
he arrogates to himself this one, so that he may say that the Church is
with him, and make us heretics. But we who hold the head and
root2850
| 2850
[This helps us to understand the expression, p. 322, note 2,
supra.] | of the one
Church know, and trust for certain, that nothing is lawful there
outside the Church, and that the baptism which is one2851
| 2851 Or,
“the source of baptism which is one.” | is among us, where he himself also was
formerly baptized, when he maintained both the wisdom and truth of the
divine unity. But if Novatian thinks that those who have been
baptized in the Church are to be re-baptized outside—without the
Church—he ought to begin by himself, that he might first be
re-baptized with an extraneous and heretical baptism, since he thinks
that after the Church, yea, and contrary to the Church, people are to
be baptized without. But what sort of a thing is this, that,
because Novatian dares to do this thing, we are to think that we must
not do it! What then? Because Novatian also usurps the
honour of the priestly throne, ought we therefore to renounce our
throne? Or because Novatian endeavours wrongfully to set up an
altar and to offer sacrifices, does it behove us to cease from our
altar and sacrifices, lest we should appear to be celebrating the same
or like things with him? Utterly vain and foolish is it, that
because Novatian arrogates to himself outside the Church the image of
the truth, we should forsake the truth of the Church.
3. But among us it is no new or sudden thing
for us to judge that those are to be baptized who come to the Church
from among the heretics, since it is now many years and a long time
ago, that, under Agrippinus—a man of worthy memory—very
many bishops assembling together have decided this;2852
| 2852
[Note, that Cyprian believes himself to be sustaining a res
adjudicata, and has no idea that the councils of the African Church
need to be revised beyond seas. Letter lxx. p. 378, note 2,
supra.] | and thenceforward until the present day,
so many thousands of heretics in our provinces have been converted to
the Church, and have neither despised nor delayed, nay, they have both
reasonably and gladly embraced, the opportunity to attain the grace of
the life-giving laver and of saving baptism. For it is not
difficult for a teacher to insinuate true and lawful things into his
mind, who, having condemned heretical pravity, and discovered the truth
of the Church, comes for this purpose, that he may learn, and learns
for the purpose that he may live. We ought not to increase the
stolidity of heretics by the patronage of our consent, when they gladly
and readily obey the truth.
4. Certainly, since I found in the letter
the copy of which you transmitted to me, that it was written,
“That it should not be asked who baptized, since he who is
baptized might receive remission of sins according to what he
believed,” I thought that this topic was not to be passed by,
especially since I observed in the same epistle that mention was also
made of Marcion, saying that “even those that came from him did
not need to be baptized, because they seemed to have been already
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Therefore we ought
to consider their faith who believe without, whether in respect of the
same faith they can obtain any grace. For if we and heretics have
one faith, we may also have one grace. If the Patripassians,
Anthropians, Valentinians, Apelletians, Ophites, Marcionites, and other
pests, and swords, and poisons of heretics for subverting the
truth,2853
confess the
same Father, the same Son, the same Holy Ghost, the same Church with
us, they may also have one baptism if they have also one
faith.
5. And lest it should be wearisome to go
through all the heresies, and to enumerate either the follies or the
madness of each of them, because it is no pleasure to speak of that
which one either dreads or is ashamed to know, let us examine in the
meantime about Marcion alone, the mention of whom has been made in the
letter transmitted by you to us, whether the ground of his baptism can
be made good. For the Lord after His resurrection, sending His
disciples, instructed and taught them in what manner they ought to
baptize, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.”2854
He
suggests the Trinity, in whose sacrament the nations were to be
baptized. Does Marcion then maintain the Trinity? Does he
then assert the same Father, the Creator, as we do? Does he know
the same Son, Christ born of the Virgin Mary, who as the Word was made
flesh, who bare our sins, who conquered death by dying, who by Himself
first of all originated the resurrection of the flesh, and showed to
His disciples that He had risen in the same flesh? Widely different is the faith
with Marcion, and, moreover, with the other heretics; nay, with them
there is nothing but perfidy, and blasphemy, and contention, which is
hostile to holiness and truth. How then can one who is baptized
among them seem to have obtained remission of sins, and the grace of
the divine mercy, by his faith, when he has not the truth of the faith
itself? For if, as some suppose, one could receive anything
abroad out of the Church according to his faith, certainly he has
received what he believed; but if he believes what is false, he could
not receive what is true; but rather he has received things adulterous
and profane, according to what he believed.
6. This matter of profane and adulterous
baptism Jeremiah the prophet plainly rebukes, saying, “Why do
they who afflict me prevail? My wound is hard; whence shall I be
healed? while it has indeed become unto me as deceitful water which has
no faithfulness.”2855
The Holy Spirit makes mention by
the prophet of deceitful water which has no faithfulness. What is
this deceitful and faithless water? Certainly that which falsely
assumes the resemblance of baptism, and frustrates the grace of faith
by a shadowy pretence. But if, according to a perverted faith,
one could be baptized without, and obtain remission of sins, according
to the same faith he could also attain the Holy Spirit; and there is no
need that hands should be laid on him when he comes, that he might
obtain the Holy Ghost, and be sealed. Either he could obtain both
privileges without by his faith, or he who has been without has
received neither.
7. But it is manifest where and by whom
remission of sins can be given; to wit, that which is given in
baptism. For first of all the Lord gave that power to Peter, upon
whom He built the Church, and whence He appointed and showed the source
of unity—the power, namely, that whatsoever he loosed on earth
should be loosed in heaven. And after the resurrection, also, He
speaks to the apostles, saying, “As the Father hath sent me, even
so I send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them,
and saith, unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins
ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain,
they are retained.”2856
Whence we perceive that only they
who are set over the Church and established in the Gospel law, and in
the ordinance of the Lord, are allowed to baptize and to give remission
of sins; but that without, nothing can either be bound or loosed, where
there is none who can either bind or loose anything.
8. Nor do we propose this, dearest brother,
without the authority of divine Scripture, when we say that all things
are arranged by divine direction by a certain law and by special
ordinance, and that none can usurp to himself, in opposition to the
bishops and priests, anything which is not of his own right and
power. For Korah, Dathan, and Abiram endeavoured to usurp, in
opposition to Moses and Aaron the priest, the power of sacrificing; and
they did not do without punishment what they unlawfully dared.
The sons of Aaron also, who placed strange fire upon the altar, were at
once consumed in the sight of an angry Lord; which punishment remains
to those who introduce strange water by a false baptism, that the
divine vengeance may avenge and chastise when heretics do that in
opposition to the Church, which the Church alone is allowed to do.
9. But in respect of the assertion of some
concerning those who had been baptized in Samaria, that when the
Apostles Peter and John came, only hands were imposed on them, that
they might receive the Holy Ghost, yet that they were not re-baptized;
we see that that place does not, dearest brother, touch the present
case. For they who had believed in Samaria had believed with a
true faith; and within, in the Church which is one, and to which alone
it is granted to bestow the grace of baptism and to remit sins, had
been baptized by Philip the deacon, whom the same apostles had
sent. And therefore, because they had obtained a legitimate and
ecclesiastical baptism, there was no need that they should be baptized
any more, but only that which was needed was performed by Peter and
John; viz., that prayer being made for them, and hands being imposed,
the Holy Spirit should be invoked and poured out upon them, which now
too is done among us, so that they who are baptized in the Church are
brought to the prelates of the Church, and by our prayers and by the
imposition of hands obtain the Holy Spirit, and are perfected with the
Lord’s seal.
10. There is no ground, therefore, dearest
brother, for thinking that we should give way to heretics so far as to
contemplate the betrayal to them of that baptism, which is only granted
to the one and only Church. It is a good soldier’s duty to
defend the camp of his general against rebels and enemies. It is
the duty of an illustrious leader to keep the standards entrusted to
him.2857
| 2857
[This sounds like Ignatius himself, whose style abounds in
aphorisms. See vol. i. p. 45.] | It is
written, “The Lord thy God is a jealous God.”2858
We who
have received the Spirit of God ought to have a jealousy for the divine
faith; with such a jealousy as that wherewith Phineas both pleased God
and justly allayed His wrath when He was angry, and the people were
perishing. Why do we receive as allowed an adulterous and alien church, a foe
to the divine unity, when we know only one Christ and His one
Church? The Church, setting forth the likeness of paradise,
includes within her walls fruit-bearing trees, whereof that which does
not bring forth good fruit is cut off and is cast into the fire.
These trees she waters with four rivers, that is, with the four
Gospels, wherewith, by a celestial inundation, she bestows the grace of
saving baptism. Can any one water from the Church’s
fountains who is not within the Church? Can one impart those
wholesome and saving draughts of paradise to any one if he is
perverted, and of himself condemned, and banished outside the fountains
of paradise, and has dried up and failed with the dryness of an eternal
thirst?
11. The Lord cries aloud, that
“whosoever thirsts should come and drink of the rivers of living
water that flowed out of His bosom.”2859
| 2859
John vi. 37, 38. [This quotation is amended by me,
in strict accordance with the (ἐκ
τῆς
κοιλίας) Greek, which
refers to the nobler cavity, not the inferior, of the human
body.] | Whither is he to come who
thirsts? Shall he come to the heretics, where there is no
fountain and river of living water at all; or to the Church which is
one, and is founded upon one who has received the keys of it by the
Lord’s voice? It is she who holds and possesses alone all
the power of her spouse and Lord. In her we preside; for her
honour and unity we fight; her grace, as well as her glory, we defend
with faithful devotedness.2860
We by the divine permission water
the thirsting people of God; we guard the boundaries of the living
fountains. If, therefore, we hold the right of our possession, if
we acknowledge the sacrament of unity, wherefore are we esteemed
prevaricators against truth? Wherefore are we judged betrayers of
unity? The faithful, and saving, and holy water of the Church
cannot be corrupted and adulterated, as the Church herself also is
uncorrupted, and chaste, and modest. If heretics are devoted to
the Church and established in the Church, they may use both her baptism
and her other saving benefits. But if they are not in the Church,
nay more, if they act against the Church, how can they baptize with the
Church’s baptism?
12. For it is no small and insignificant matter,
which is conceded to heretics, when their baptism is recognised by us;
since thence springs the whole origin of faith and the saving access to
the hope of life eternal, and the divine condescension for purifying
and quickening the servants of God. For if any one could be
baptized among heretics, certainly he could also obtain remission of
sins. If he attained remission of sins, he was also
sanctified. If he was sanctified, he also was made the temple of
God. I ask, of what God? If of the Creator; he could not
be, because he has not believed in Him. If of Christ; he could
not become His temple, since he denies that Christ is God. If of
the Holy Spirit; since the three are one, how can the Holy Spirit be at
peace with him who is the enemy either of the Son or of the Father?
13. Hence it is in vain that some who are
overcome by reason oppose to us custom, as if custom were greater than
truth;2861
| 2861 [It
would seem, then, that “custom” could be pleaded on both
sides. This appeal is recognised in Scripture. 1 Cor. xi. 16; and see sec. 23,
infra. As to preceding sentence, Elucidation
XVII.] | or as if that
were not to be sought after in spiritual matters which has been
revealed as the better by the Holy Spirit. For one who errs by
simplicity may be pardoned, as the blessed Apostle Paul says of
himself, “I who at first was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and
injurious; yet obtained mercy, because I did it
ignorantly.”2862
But after inspiration and
revelation made to him, he who intelligently and knowingly perseveres
in that course in which he had erred, sins without pardon for his
ignorance. For he resists with a certain presumption and
obstinacy, when he is overcome by reason. Nor let any one say,
“We follow that which we have received from the apostles,”
when the apostles only delivered one Church, and one baptism, which is
not ordained except in the same Church. And we cannot find that
any one, when he had been baptized by heretics, was received by the
apostles in the same baptism, and communicated in such a way as that
the apostles should appear to have approved the baptism of
heretics.
14. For as to what some say, as if it tended
to favour heretics, that the Apostle Paul declared, “Only every
way, whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be
preached,”2863
we find
that this also can avail nothing to their benefit who support and
applaud heretics. For Paul, in his epistle, was not speaking of
heretics, nor of their baptism, so that anything can be shown to have
been alleged which pertained to this matter. He was speaking of
brethren, whether as walking disorderly and against the discipline of
the Church, or as keeping the truth of the Gospel with the fear of
God. And he said that certain of them spoke the word of God with
constancy and courage, but some acted in envy and dissension; that some
maintained towards him a benevolent love, but that some indulged a
malevolent spirit of dissension; but yet that he bore all patiently, so
long only as, whether in truth or in pretence, the name of Christ which
Paul preached might come to the knowledge of many; and the sowing of
the word, which as yet had been new and irregular, might increase
through the preaching of the speakers. Besides, it is one thing for
those who are within the Church to speak concerning the name of Christ;
it is another for those who are without, and act in opposition to the
Church, to baptize in the name of Christ. Wherefore, let not
those who favour heretics put forward what Paul spoke concerning
brethren, but let them show if he thought anything was to be conceded
to the heretic, or if he approved of their faith or baptism, or if he
appointed that perfidious and blasphemous men could receive remission
of their sins outside the Church.
15. But if we consider what the apostles
thought about heretics, we shall find that they, in all their epistles,
execrated and detested the sacrilegious wickedness of heretics.
For when they say that “their word creeps as a
canker,”2864
how is
such a word as that able to give remission of sins, which creeps like a
canker to the ears of the hearers? And when they say that there
can be no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, no
communion between light and darkness,2865
how can either darkness illuminate, or
unrighteousness justify? And when they say that “they are
not of God, but are of the spirit of Antichrist,”2866
how can they
transact spiritual and divine matters, who are the enemies of God, and
whose hearts the spirit of Antichrist has possessed? Wherefore,
if, laying aside the errors of human dispute, we return with a sincere
and religious faith to the evangelical authority and to the apostolical
tradition, we shall perceive that they may do nothing towards
conferring the ecclesiastical and saving grace, who, scattering and
attacking the Church of Christ, are called adversaries by Christ
Himself, but by His apostles, Antichrists.
16. Again, there is no ground for any one,
for the circumvention of Christian truth, opposing to us the name of
Christ, and saying, “All who are baptized everywhere, and in any
manner, in the name of Jesus Christ, have obtained the grace of
baptism,”—when Christ Himself speaks, and says, “Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven.”2867
And
again, He forewarns and instructs, that no one should be easily
deceived by false prophets and false Christs in His name.
“Many,” He says, “shall come in my name, saying, I am
Christ, and shall deceive many.” And afterwards He
added: “But take ye heed; behold, I have foretold you all
things.”2868
Whence it appears that all things are not at once to be received and
assumed which are boasted of in the name of Christ, but only those
things which are done in the truth of Christ.
17. For whereas in the Gospels, and in the
epistles of the apostles, the name of Christ is alleged for the
remission of sins; it is not in such a way as that the Son alone,
without the Father, or against the Father, can be of advantage to
anybody; but that it might be shown to the Jews, who boasted as to
their having the Father, that the Father would profit them nothing,
unless they believed on the Son whom He had sent. For they who
know God the Father the Creator, ought also to know Christ the Son,
lest they should flatter and applaud themselves about the Father alone,
without the acknowledgment of His Son, who also said, “No man
cometh to the Father but by me.”2869
But He, the same, sets forth,
that it is the knowledge of the two which saves, when He says,
“And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”2870
Since,
therefore, from the preaching and testimony of Christ Himself, the
Father who sent must be first known, then afterwards Christ, who was
sent, and there cannot be a hope of salvation except by knowing the two
together; how, when God the Father is not known, nay, is even
blasphemed, can they who among the heretics are said to be baptized in
the name of Christ, be judged to have obtained the remission of
sins? For the case of the Jews under the apostles was one, but
the condition of the Gentiles is another. The former, because
they had already gained the most ancient baptism of the law and Moses,
were to be baptized also in the name of Jesus Christ, in conformity
with what Peter tells them in the Acts of the Apostles, saying,
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. For this promise is unto you, and to your
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call.”2871
Peter makes mention of Jesus
Christ, not as though the Father should be omitted, but that the Son
also might be joined to the Father.
18. Finally, when, after the resurrection, the
apostles are sent by the Lord to the heathens, they are bidden to
baptize the Gentiles “in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost.” How, then, do some say, that a
Gentile baptized without, outside the Church, yea, and in opposition to
the Church, so that it be only in the name of Jesus Christ, everywhere,
and in whatever manner, can obtain remission of sin, when Christ
Himself commands the heathen to be baptized in the full and united
Trinity? Unless while one who denies Christ is denied by Christ,
he who denies His Father whom Christ Himself confessed is not denied; and he
who blasphemes against Him whom Christ called His Lord and His God, is
rewarded by Christ, and obtains remission of sins, and the
sanctification of baptism! But by what power can he who denies
God the Creator, the Father of Christ, obtain, in baptism, the
remission of sins, since Christ received that very power by which we
are baptized and sanctified, from the same Father, whom He called
“greater” than Himself, by whom He desired to be glorified,
whose will He fulfilled even unto the obedience of drinking the cup,
and of undergoing death? What else is it then, than to become a
partaker with blaspheming heretics, to wish to maintain and assert,
that one who blasphemes and gravely sins against the Father and the
Lord and God of Christ, can receive remission of sins in the name of
Christ? What, moreover, is that, and of what kind is it, that he
who denies the Son of God has not the Father, and he who denies the
Father should be thought to have the Son, although the Son Himself
testifies, and says, “No man can come unto me except it were
given unto him of my Father?”2872
So that it is evident, that no
remission of sins can be received in baptism from the Son, which it is
not plain that the Father has granted. Especially, since He
further repeats, and says, “Every plant which my heavenly Father
hath not planted shall be rooted up.”2873
19. But if Christ’s disciples are
unwilling to learn from Christ what veneration and honour is due to the
name of the Father, still let them learn from earthly and secular
examples, and know that Christ has declared, not without the strongest
rebuke, “The children of this world are wiser in their generation
than the children of light.”2874
In this world of ours, if any
one have offered an insult to the father of any; if in injury and
frowardness he have wounded his reputation and his honour by a
malevolent tongue, the son is indignant, and wrathful, and with what
means he can, strives to avenge his injured father’s wrong.
Think you that Christ grants impunity to the impious and profane, and
the blasphemers of His Father, and that He puts away their sins in
baptism, who it is evident, when baptized, still heap up evil words on
the person of the Father, and sin with the unceasing wickedness of a
blaspheming tongue? Can a Christian, can a servant of God, either
conceive this in his mind, or believe it in faith, or put it forward in
discourse? And what will become of the precepts of the divine
law, which say, “Honour thy father and thy
mother?”2875
If
the name of father, which in man is commanded to be honoured, is
violated with impunity in God, what will become of what Christ Himself
lays down in the Gospel, and says, “He that curseth father or
mother, let him die the death;”2876
if He who bids that those who curse
their parents after the flesh should be punished and slain, Himself
quickens those who revile their heavenly and spiritual Father, and are
hostile to the Church, their Mother? An execrable and detestable
thing is actually asserted by some, that He who threatens the man who
blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, that he shall be guilty of eternal
sin, Himself condescends to sanctify those who blaspheme against God
the Father with saving baptism. And now, those who think that
they must communicate with such as come to the Church without baptism,
do not consider that they are becoming partakers with other
men’s, yea, with eternal sins, when they admit without baptism
those who cannot, except in baptism, put off the sins of their
blasphemies.
20. Besides, how vain and perverse a thing it is,
that when the heretics themselves, having repudiated and forsaken
either the error or the wickedness in which they had previously been,
acknowledge the truth of the Church, we should mutilate the rights and
sacrament of that same truth, and say to those who come to us and
repent, that they had obtained remission of sins when they confess that
they have sinned, and are for that reason come to seek the pardon of
the Church! Wherefore, dearest brother, we ought both firmly to
maintain the faith and truth of the Catholic Church, and to teach, and
by all the evangelical and apostolical precepts to set forth, the plan
of the divine dispensation and unity.
21. Can the power of baptism be greater or
of more avail than confession, than suffering, when one confesses
Christ before men and is baptized in his own blood? And yet even
this baptism does not benefit a heretic, although he has confessed
Christ, and been put to death outside the Church, unless the patrons
and advocates of heretics declare that the heretics who are slain in a
false confession of Christ are martyrs, and assign to them the glory
and the crown of martyrdom contrary to the testimony of the apostle,
who says that it will profit them nothing although they were burnt and
slain.2877
But if
not even the baptism of a public confession and blood can profit a
heretic to salvation, because there is no salvation out of the
Church,2878
| 2878
[One of the Catholic maxims which has been terribly misunderstood and
cruelly abused. See below, p. 385, notes 2 and 3.] | how much
less shall it be of advantage to him, if in a hiding-place and a cave
of robbers, stained with the contagion of adulterous water, he
has not only not put
off his old sins, but rather heaped up still newer and greater
ones! Wherefore baptism cannot be common to us and to heretics,
to whom neither God the Father, nor Christ the Son, nor the Holy Ghost,
nor the faith, nor the Church itself, is common. And therefore it
behoves those to be baptized who come from heresy to the Church, that
so they who are prepared, in the lawful, and true, and only baptism of
the holy Church, by divine regeneration, for the kingdom of God, may be
born of both sacraments, because it is written, “Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God.”2879
| 2879
John iii. 5. [His exposition of this passage
explains his hyperbole, nulla salus extra ecclesiam.
Of which sec. 23, infra.] |
22. On which place some, as if by human
reasoning they were able to make void the truth of the Gospel
declaration, object to us the case of catechumens; asking if any one of
these, before he is baptized in the Church, should be apprehended and
slain on confession of the name, whether he would lose the hope of
salvation and the reward of confession, because he had not previously
been born again of water? Let men of this kind, who are aiders
and favourers of heretics, know therefore, first, that those
catechumens hold the sound faith and truth of the Church, and advance
from the divine camp to do battle with the devil, with a full and
sincere acknowledgment of God the Father, and of Christ, and of the
Holy Ghost; then, that they certainly are not deprived of the sacrament
of baptism who are baptized with the most glorious and greatest baptism
of blood, concerning which the Lord also said, that He had
“another baptism to be baptized with.”2880
But the same Lord declares in
the Gospel, that those who are baptized in their own blood, and
sanctified by suffering, are perfected, and obtain the grace of the
divine promise, when He speaks to the thief believing and confessing in
His very passion, and promises that he should be with Himself in
paradise. Wherefore we who are set over the faith and truth ought
not to deceive and mislead those who come to the faith and truth, and
repent, and beg that their sins should be remitted to them; but to
instruct them when corrected by us, and reformed for the kingdom of
heaven by celestial discipline.
23. But some one says, “What, then,
shall become of those who in past times, coming from heresy to the
Church, were received without baptism?” The Lord is able by
His mercy to give indulgence,2881
| 2881
[Here is the qualifying maxim to that other
dictum. Potens est Dominus misericordia sua,
indulgentiam dare. Matt.
ix. 13; xii. 7. How
emphatic this repeated maxim of Christ! And see Jas. ii. 13.] | and not to separate from the gifts of
His Church those who by simplicity were admitted into the Church, and
in the Church have fallen asleep. Nevertheless it does not follow
that, because there was error at one time, there must always be error;
since it is more fitting for wise and God-fearing men, gladly and
without delay to obey the truth when laid open and perceived, than
pertinaciously and obstinately to struggle against brethren and
fellow-priests on behalf of heretics.
24. Nor let any one think that, because
baptism is proposed to them, heretics will be kept back from coming to
the Church, as if offended at the name of a second baptism; nay, but on
this very account they are rather driven to the necessity of coming by
the testimony of truth shown and proved to them. For if they
shall see that it is determined and decreed by our judgment and
sentence, that the baptism wherewith they are there baptized is
considered just and legitimate, they will think that they are justly
and legitimately in possession of the Church also, and the other gifts
of the Church; nor will there be any reason for their coming to us,
when, as they have baptism, they seem also to have the rest. But
further, when they know that there is no baptism without, and that no
remission of sins can be given outside the Church, they more eagerly
and readily hasten to us, and implore the gifts and benefits of the
Church our Mother, assured that they can in no wise attain to the true
promise of divine grace unless they first come to the truth of the
Church. Nor will heretics refuse to be baptized among us with the
lawful and true baptism of the Church, when they shall have learnt from
us that they also were baptized by Paul, who already had been baptized
with the baptism of John,2882
as we read in the Acts of the
Apostles.
25. And now by certain of us the baptism of
heretics is asserted to occupy the (like) ground, and, as if by a
certain dislike of re-baptizing, it is counted unlawful to baptize
after God’s enemies. And this, although we find that
they were baptized whom John had baptized: John, esteemed the
greatest among the prophets; John, filled with divine grace even in his
mother’s womb; who was sustained with the spirit and power of
Elias; who was not an adversary of the Lord, but His precursor and
announcer; who not only foretold our Lord in words, but even showed Him
to the eyes; who baptized Christ Himself by whom others are
baptized. But if on that account a heretic could obtain the right
of baptism, because he first baptized, then baptism will not belong to
the person that has it, but to the person that seizes it. And
since baptism and the Church can by no means be separated from one
another, and divided, he who has first been able to lay hold on baptism has
equally also laid hold on the Church; and you begin to appear to him as
a heretic, when you being anticipated, have begun to be last, and by
yielding and giving way have relinquished the right which you had
received. But how dangerous it is in divine matters, that any one
should depart from his right and power, Holy Scripture declares when,
in Genesis, Esau thence lost his birthright, nor was able afterwards to
regain that which he had once given up.
26. These things, dearest brother, I have
briefly written to you, according to my abilities, prescribing to none,
and prejudging none, so as to prevent any one of the bishops doing what
he thinks well, and having the free exercise of his judgment.2883
| 2883
[See Ep. lxxi, sec. 3, p. 379, supra. Here is the spirit,
not of Tertullian, but of Irenæus (vol. i. p. 310), which seems to
have prevailed in the practical settlement, between East and
West, of one vexed question. As a question of canonical consent and of
irresistible logic, assuming the premiss, Cyprian appears to me
justified.] | We,
as far as in us lies, do not contend on behalf of heretics with our
colleagues and fellow-bishops, with whom we maintain a divine concord
and the peace of the Lord;2884
| 2884
[See Ep. lxxi, sec. 3, p. 379, supra. Here is the
spirit, not of Tertullian, but of Irenæus (vol. i. p. 310), which
seems to have prevailed in the practical settlement, between
East and West, of one vexed question. As a question of canonical
consent and of irresistible logic, assuming the premiss, Cyprian
appears to me justified.] | especially since the apostle says,
“If any man, however, is thought to be contentious, we have no
such custom, neither the Church of God.”2885
Charity of spirit, the honour
of our college, the bond of faith, and priestly concord, are maintained
by us with patience and gentleness. For this reason, moreover, we
have with the best of our poor abilities, with the permission and
inspiration of the Lord, written a treatise2886
| 2886
[See this volume, infra.] a.d. 256. | on the “Benefit of
Patience,” which for the sake of our mutual love we have
transmitted to you. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily
farewell.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
