Chapter 4.—6. We do not, therefore, "acknowledge the baptism of heretics,"1351
| 1351 Ib., lxiii. 12, quando a nobis baptisma eorum in acceptum refertur.
|
when we refuse to
baptize after them; but because we acknowledge the
ordinance to be of
Christ even among
evil men, whether openly separated from us, or secretly severed whilst within our body, we receive it with due respect, having corrected those who were wrong in the points wherein they went
astray. However as I seem to be hard pressed when it is said to me, "Does then a heretic confer
remission of
sins?" so I in turn press hard when I say, Does then he who violates
the commands of
Heaven, the avaricious man, the robber, the usurer, the envious man, does he who renounces the
world in words and not in
deeds, confer such
remission? If you mean by the force of
God’s sacrament, then both the one and the other; if by his own merit, neither of them. For that sacrament, even in the
hands of
wicked men, is known to be of
Christ; but neither the one nor the other of these men is found in the body of the one uncorrupt, holy,
chaste dove, which has neither spot nor
wrinkle. And just as
baptism is of no
profit to the man who renounces the
world in words and not in
deeds, so it is of no
profit to him who is
baptized in
heresy or
schism; but each of them, when he amends his ways, begins to receive
profit from that which before was not profitable, but was yet already in him.
7. "He therefore that is baptized in heresy does not become the temple of God;1352
| 1352 Cypr. Ep. lxxvii. 12.
|
but does it therefore follow that he is not to be considered as
baptized? For neither does the avaricious man,
baptized within the
Church, become the
temple of
God unless he depart from his avarice; for they who become the
temple of
God certainly
inherit the
kingdom of
God. But the
apostle says, among many other things, "Neither the covetous, nor extortioners, shall
inherit the
kingdom of
God."
1353
For in another place the same
apostle compares
covetousness to the
worship of
idols: "Nor covetous man," he says, "who is an
idolater;"
1354
which meaning the same Cyprian has so
far extended in a letter to Antonianus, that he did not hesitate to compare the
sin of
covetousness with that of men who in time of persecution had declared in writing that they would offer
incense.
1355
The man, then, who is
baptized in
heresy in the name of the Holy
Trinity, yet does not become the
temple of
God unless he abandons his
heresy, just as the covetous man who has been
baptized in the same name does not become the
temple of
God unless he abandons his
covetousness, which is
idolatry. For this, too, the same
apostle says: "What
agreement hath the
temple of
God with
idols?"
1356
Let it not, then, be asked of us "of what
God he is made the
temple"
1357
| 1357 Cypr. Ep. lxxvii. 12.
|
when we say that he is not made the
temple of
God at all. Yet he is not therefore unbaptized, nor does his foul error cause that what he has received,
consecrated in the words of the
gospel, should not be the holy sacrament; just as the other man’s
covetousness (which is idolatry) and great uncleanness cannot prevent what he receives from being holy baptism, even though he be baptized with the same words of the gospel by another man covetous like himself.
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