Chapter 9.—13. By this patience of Christian love he not only endured the difference of opinion manifested in all kindliness by his good colleagues on an obscure point, as he also himself received toleration, till, in process of time, when it so pleased God, what had always been a most wholesome custom was further confirmed by a declaration of the truth in a plenary Council, but he even put up with those who were manifestly bad, as was
very well known to himself, who did not entertain a different view in consequence of the obscurity of the question, but acted contrary to their preaching in the evil practices of an abandoned life, as the apostle says of them, "Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?"1379
For Cyprian says in his letter of such
bishops of his own time, his own colleagues, and remaining in
communion with him, "While they had
brethren starving in the
Church, they tried to amass large sums of
money, they took possession of
estates by fraudulent proceedings, they multiplied their
gains by accumulated usuries."
1380
| 1380 Cypr. de Lapsis. c. vi.
|
For here there is no obscure
question. Scripture declares openly, "Neither covetous nor extortioners shall
inherit the
kingdom of
God;"
1381
and "He that putteth out his
money to
usury,"
1382
and "No whoremonger, nor
unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, hath any inheritance in the
kingdom of
Christ and of
God."
1383
He therefore certainly would not, without
knowledge, have brought
accusations of such
covetousness, that men not only
greedily treasured up their own goods, but also fraudulently appropriated the goods of others, or of
idolatry existing in such enormity as he understands and
proves it to exist; nor assuredly would he bear false witness against his fellow-
bishops. And yet with the
bowels of fatherly and motherly
love he
endured them, lest that, by rooting out the tares
before their time, the
wheat should also have been rooted up,
1384
imitating assuredly the
Apostle Paul, who, with the same
love towards the
Church,
endured those who were
ill-disposed and envious towards him.
1385
14. But yet because "by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, and they that do hold of his side do find it,"1386
not because they are
created by
God, but because they go
astray of themselves, as Cyprian also says himself, seeing that the
devil, before he was a
devil, was an
angel, and good, how can it be that they who are of the
devil’s side are in the
unity of
Christ? Beyond all doubt, as the
Lord Himself says, "an
enemy hath done this," who "sowed tares among the
wheat."
1387
As therefore what is of the
devil within the fold must be
convicted, so what is of
Christ without must be recognized. Has the
devil what is his within the
unity of the
Church, and shall
Christ not have what is His without? This, perhaps, might be said of individual men, that as the
devil has none that are his among the holy
angels, so
God has none that are His outside the
communion of the
Church. But though it may be allowed to the
devil to mingle tares, that is,
wicked men, with this
Church which still wears the
mortal nature of
flesh, so long as it is wandering
far from
God, he being allowed this just because of the pilgrimage of the
Church herself, that men may desire more ardently the
rest of that
country which the
angels enjoy, yet this cannot be said of the sacraments. For, as the tares within the
Church can have and handle them, though not for
salvation, but for the
destruction to which they are destined in the
fire, so also
can the tares without, which received them from seceders from within; for they did not lose them by seceding. This, indeed, is made plain from the fact that
baptism is not conferred again on their return, when any of the very men who seceded happen to come back again. And let not any one say, Why, what fruit hath the tares? For if this be so, their condition is the same, so
far as this goes, both inside and without. For it surely cannot be that
grains of corn are found in the tares inside,
and not in those without. But when the
question is of the sacrament, we do not consider whether the tares bear any fruit, but whether they have any share of
heaven; for the tares, both within and without, share the rain with the wheat itself, which rain is in itself heavenly and sweet, even though under its influence the tares grow up in barrenness. And so the sacrament, according to the gospel of Christ, is divine and pleasant; nor is it to be esteemed as naught because of the barrenness of
those on whom its dew falls even without.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
