Chapter 19.—25. They indeed who say that baptism is not to be repeated, because only hands were laid on those whom Philip the deacon had baptized,1316
are saying what is quite beside the point; and
far be it from us, in seeking the
truth, to use such arguments as this. Wherefore we are all the further from "yielding to
heretics,"
1317
| 1317 Because Cyprian, in his letter to Jubaianus (Ep. lxxiii. 10), had urged as following from this, that "there is no reason, dearest brother, why we should think it right to yield to heretics that baptism which was granted to the one and only Church."
|
if we deny that what they possess of
Christ’s
Church is their own property, and do not refuse to acknowledge the standard of our General because of the
crimes of deserters; nay, all the more because "the
Lord our
God is a
jealous God,"
1318
let us refuse, whenever we see anything of His with an
alien, to allow him to consider it his own. For of a
truth the
jealous God Himself
rebukes the
woman who
commits fornication against Him, as the type of an erring people, and says that she gave to her
lovers what belonged to Him, and again received from them what was not theirs but His. In the
hands of the adulterous
woman and the adulterous
lovers,
God in His
wrath, as a
jealous God, recognizes His
gifts; and do we
say that
baptism,
consecrated in the words of the
gospel,
belongs to
heretics? and are we willing, from consideration of their
deeds, to attribute to them even what
belongs to
God, as though they had the
power to pollute it, or as though they could make what is
God’s to be their own, because they themselves have refused to
belong to
God?
26. Who is that adulterous woman whom the prophet Hosea points out, who said, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and everything that befits me?"1319
Let us grant that we may understand this also of the people of the
Jews that went
astray; yet whom else are the false
Christians (such as are all
heretics and schismatics) wont to
imitate, except false Israelites? For there were also true Israelites, as the
Lord Himself bears witness to Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no
guile."
1320
But who are true
Christians,
save those of whom the same
Lord said, "He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me?"
1321
But what is it to keep His
commandments, except to
abide in
love? Whence also He says, "A new
commandment I give unto you, that ye
love one another;" and again, "By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have
love one to another."
1322
But who can doubt that this was spoken not only to those who heard His words with their fleshly
ears when He was present with them, but also to those who
learn His words through the
gospel, when He is sitting on His
throne in
heaven? For He came not to
destroy the
law, but to
fulfill.
1323
But the fulfilling of the
law is
love.
1324
And in this Cyprian abounded greatly, insomuch that though he held a different view concerning
baptism, he yet did not
forsake the
unity of the
Church, and was in the
Lord’s
vine a
branch firmly rooted, bearing fruit, which the heavenly
Husbandman purged with the knife of suffering, that it should bear more fruit.
1325
But the
enemies of this
brotherly love, whether they are openly without, or appear to be within, are false
Christians, and
antichrists. For when they have found an opportunity, they go out, as it is written: "A man wishing to separate himself from his
friends, seeketh opportunities."
1326
But even if occasions are wanting, while they seem to be within, they are severed from that
invisible bond of
love. Whence St. John says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us."
1327
He does not say that they ceased to be of us by going out, but that they went out because they were not of us. The
Apostle Paul also speaks of certain men who had erred concerning the
truth, and were overthrowing the
faith of some; whose word was eating as a canker. Yet in saying that they should be
avoided, he nevertheless intimates that they were all in one great
house, but as
vessels to
dishonor,—I suppose because they had not as yet gone out. Or if they had already
gone out, how can he say that they were in the same great
house with the
honorable vessels, unless it was in
virtue of the sacraments themselves, which even in the severed meetings of
heretics are not changed, that he speaks of all as belonging to the same great
house, though in different degrees of esteem, some to
honor and some to
dishonor? For thus he speaks in his
Epistle to Timothy: "But
shun profane and
vain babblings; for they will increase unto more
ungodliness. And their word will
eat as doth a canker; of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus; who concerning the
truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and
overthrow the
faith of some. Nevertheless the
foundation of
God standeth firm, having this seal, The
Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of
Christ depart from
iniquity. But in a great
house there are not only
vessels of
gold and of
silver, but also of
wood and of
earth; and some to
honor, and some to
dishonor. If a
man therefore
purge himself from these, he shall be a
vessel unto
honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good
work."
1328
But what is it to
purge oneself from such as these, except what he said just before, "Let every one that nameth the name of
Christ depart from
iniquity." And lest any one should think that, as being in one great
house with them, he might
perish with such as these, he has most carefully forewarned them, "The
Lord knoweth them that are His,"—those, namely, who, by departing from
iniquity,
purge themselves from the
vessels made to
dishonor, lest they should
perish with them
whom they are compelled to tolerate in the great
house.
27. They, therefore, who are wicked, evildoers, carnal, fleshly, devilish, think that they receive at the hands of their seducers what are the gifts of God alone, whether sacraments, or any spiritual workings about present salvation. But these men have not love towards God, but are busied about those by whose pride they are led astray, and are compared to the adulterous woman, whom the prophet introduces as saying, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread
and my water, my wool and my flax, and my oil, and everything that befits me." For thus arise heresies and schisms, when the fleshly people which is not founded on the love of God says, "I will go after my lovers," with whom, either by corruption of her faith, or by the puffing up of her pride, she shamefully commits adultery. But for the sake of those who, having undergone the difficulties, and straits, and barriers of the empty reasoning of those by whom they are led astray, afterwards feel
the prickings of fear, and return to the way of peace, to seeking God in all sincerity,—for their sake He goes on to say, "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, but she shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now." Then, that they may not attribute
to their seducers what they have that is sound, and derived from the doctrine of truth, by which they lead them astray to the falseness of their own dogmas and dissensions; that they may not think that what is sound in them belongs to them, he immediately added, "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her money; but she made vessels of gold and silver for Baal."1329
For she had said above, "I will go after my
lovers, that give me my
bread," etc., not at all understanding that all this, which was held soundly and lawfully by her seducers, was of
God, and not of men. Nor would even they themselves claim these things for themselves, and as it were assert a right in them, had not they in turn been led
astray by a people which had gone
astray, when
faith is reposed in them, and such
honors are paid to them, that they should be enabled
thereby to say such things, and claim such things for themselves, that their error should be called
truth, and their
iniquity be thought
righteousness, in
virtue of the sacraments and Scriptures, which they hold, not for
salvation, but only in
appearance. Accordingly, the same adulterous
woman is addressed by the mouth of Ezekiel: "Thou hast also taken thy fair
jewels of my
gold and of my
silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst
commit whoredom with them;
and tookest my
1330
| 1330 In Hieron, and LXX., as well as in the English version, this is in the second person, vestimenta tua multicolaria; τὸν ἱματισμὸν τὸν ποικίλον σου.
|
broidered
garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine
oil and mine
incense before them. My
meat also which I gave thee, fine
flour, and
oil, and
honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before thine
idols for a sweet
savor: and this thou hast done."
1331
For she turns all the sacraments, and the words of the
sacred books, to the images of her own
idols, with which her
carnal mind delights to wallow. Nor yet, because those images are false, and the
doctrines of
devils, speaking
lies in
hypocrisy,
1332
are those sacraments and
divine utterances therefore so to lose their due
honor, as to be thought to
belong to such as these; seeing that the
Lord says," Of my
gold, and my
silver, and my broidered
garments, and mine
oil, and mine
incense, and my
meat," and so forth. Ought we, because those erring ones think that these things
belong to their seducers, therefore not to recognize whose they really are, when He Himself says, "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and
wine, and
oil, and multiplied her
money"? For He did not say that she did not have these things because she was an adulteress; but she is said to have had them, and that not as belonging to herself or her
lovers, but to
God, whose alone they are. Although, therefore, she had her
fornication, yet those things wherewith she
adorned it, whether as
seduced or in her turn seducing, belonged not to her, but to
God. If these things were spoken in a figure of the
Jewish nation, when the
scribes and
Pharisees were rejecting the
commandment of
God in order to set up their own
traditions, so that they were in a manner committing
whoredom with a people which was abandoning their
God; and yet for all that,
whoredom at that time among the people, such as the
Lord brought to
light by
convicting it, did not cause that the
mysteries should
belong to them, which were not theirs but
God’s, who, in speaking to the adulteress, says that all these things were His; whence the
Lord Himself also sent
those whom He cleansed from
leprosy to the same
mysteries, that they should offer
sacrifice for themselves before the
priests, because that
sacrifice had not become efficacious for them, which He Himself afterwards wished to be commemorated in the
Church for all of them, because He Himself proclaimed the tidings to them all;—if this be so, how much the more ought we, when we find the sacraments of the New Testament among certain
heretics or schismatics, not to attribute them to these men, nor
to
condemn them, as though we could not recognize them? We ought to recognize the
gifts of the true
husband, though in the possession of an adulteress, and to amend, by the word of
truth, that
whoredom which is the true possession of the unchaste
woman, instead of finding fault with the
gifts, which
belong entirely to the pitying
Lord.
28. From these considerations, and such as these, our forefathers, not only before the time of Cyprian and Agrippinus, but even afterwards, maintained a most wholesome custom, that whenever they found anything divine and lawful remaining in its integrity even in the midst of any heresy or schism, they approved rather than repudiated it; but whatever they found that was alien, and peculiar to that false doctrine or division, this they convicted in the light of the
truth, and healed. The points, however, which remain to be considered in the letter written by Jubaianus, must, I think, when looking at the size of this book, be taken in hand and treated with a fresh beginning.
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