Chapter 2.—2. All the more, then, because "we are fighting1337
for the
honor and
unity" of the
Church, let us
beware of giving to
heretics the credit of whatever we acknowledged among them as belonging to the
Church; but let us
teach them by argument, that what they possess that is derived from
unity is of no efficacy to their
salvation, unless they shall return to that same
unity. For "the
water of the
Church is full of
faith, and
salvation, and
holiness"
1338
to those who use it rightly. No one, however, can use it well outside the
Church. But to those who use it perversely, whether within or without the
Church, it is employed to
work punishment, and does not conduce to their
reward. And so
baptism "cannot be
corrupted and polluted," though it be handled by the
corrupt or by
adulterers, just as also "the
Church herself is uncorrupt, and pure, and
chaste."
1339
| 1339 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 11.
|
And so no share in it
belongs to the avaricious, or
thieves, or usurers,—many of whom, by the
testimony of Cyprian himself in many places of his letters, exist not only without, but actually within the
Church,—and yet they both are
baptized and do
baptize, with no change in their
hearts.
3. For this, too, he says, in one of his epistles1340
to the clergy on the subject of prayer toGod, in which, after the fashion of the holy Daniel, he represents the
sins of his people as falling upon himself. For among many other evils of which he makes mention, he speaks of them also as "renouncing the
world in words only and not in
deeds;" as the
apostle says of certain men, "They profess that they know
God, but in works they deny Him."
1341
These, therefore, the
blessed Cyprian shows to be contained within the
Church herself, who are
baptized without their
hearts being changed for the better, seeing that they
renounce the
world in words and not in
deeds, as the
Apostle Peter says, "The like figure whereunto even
baptism doth also now
save us, (not the putting away of the
filth of the
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience),"
1342
which certainly they had not of whom it is said that they "
renounced the
world in words only, and not in
deeds;" and yet he does his utmost, by chiding and convincing them, to make them at length
walk in the way of Christ, and be His friends rather than friends of the world.
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