13. Or haply is it so, that
he who plots in this way to find out Priscillianists, denies not
Christ, forasmuch as with his mouth he utters what with his heart
he believes not? As if truly (which I also said a little above)
when it was said, “With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness,” it was added to no purpose, “with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation?”2398
Is it not so that almost all who
have denied
Christ before the persecutors, held in their
heart what
they believed of Him? And yet, by not confessing with the mouth
unto
salvation, they
perished,
save they which through penitence
have lived again? Who can be so
vain,
2399
as to think that the
Apostle Peter
had that in his
heart which he had on his
lips when he denied
Christ? Surely in that denial he held the
truth within and uttered
the
lie without. Why then did he
wash away with
tears the denial
which he uttered with his mouth, if that sufficed for
salvation
that with the
heart he believed? Why, speaking the
truth in his
heart, did he
punish with so
bitter weeping the
lie which he
brought forth with his mouth, unless because he saw it to be a
great and
deadly evil, that while with his heart he believed unto
righteousness, with his mouth he made not confession unto
salvation?
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