Chapter 3.—4. And if they would have obeyed him, and begun to live rightly, not as false but as true Christians, would he have ordered them to be baptized anew? Surely not; but their true conversion would have gained this for them, that the sacrament which availed for their destruction while they were yet unchanged, should begin when they changed to avail for their salvation.
5. For neither are they "devoted to the Church"1343
| 1343 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 11.
|
who seem to be within and
live contrary to
Christ, that is, act against His
commandments; nor can they be considered in any way to
belong to that
Church, which He so
purifies by the washing of
water, "that He may present to Himself a glorious
Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing."
1344
But if they are not in that
Church to whose members they do not
belong, they are not in the
Church of which it is said, "My
dove is but one; she is the only one of her mother;"
1345
for she herself is without spot or wrinkle. Or else let him who can assert that those are members of this
dove who
renounce the
world in words but not in
deeds. Meantime there is one thing which we see, from which I think it was said, "He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the
Lord,"
1346
for
God judgeth every day. For, according to His foreknowledge, who knows whom He has
foreordained before the
foundation of the
world to be made like to the image of His Son, many who are even openly outside, and are called
heretics, are better than many good Catholics. For we see what they are to-day, what they shall be to-morrow we know not. And with
God, with whom the future is already present, they already are what they shall hereafter be. But we, according to what
each man is at present, inquire whether they are to be to-day reckoned among the members of the
Church which is called the one
dove, and the
Bride of
Christ without a spot or wrinkle,
1347
| 1347 Retract. ii. 18, quoted on I. 17.
|
of whom Cyprian says in the letter which I have quoted above, that "they did not keep in the way of the
Lord, nor observe the
commandments given unto them for their
salvation; that they did not
fulfill the will of their
Lord, being eager about their property and
gains, following the dictates of
pride, giving way to
envy and
dissension, careless about single-mindedness and
faith, renouncing the
world in words only and not in
deeds, pleasing each himself, and displeasing all
men."
1348
| 1348 Cypr. Ep. xi. I, first part loosely quoted.
|
But if the
dove does not acknowledge them among her members, and if the
Lord shall say to them, supposing that they continue in the same perversity, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that
work iniquity;"
1349
then they seem indeed to be in the
Church, but are not; "nay, they even act against the
Church. How then can they
baptize with the
baptism of the
Church,"
1350
| 1350 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 11.
|
which is of avail neither to themselves, nor to those who receive it from them, unless they are changed in
heart with a true conversion, so that the sacrament itself, which did not avail them when they received it whilst they were renouncing the
world in words and not in
deeds, may begin to
profit them when they shall begin to renounce it in deeds also? And so too in the case of those whose separation from the Church is open; for neither these nor those are as yet among
the members of the dove, but some of them perhaps will be at some future time.
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