Chapter 6.—9. But as regards his saying, "Nor let any one affirm that what they have received from the apostles, that they follow; for the apostles handed down only one Church and one baptism, and that appointed only in the same Church:"1366
| 1366 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 13.
|
this does not so much move me to venture to
condemn the
baptism of
Christ when found amongst
heretics (just as it is necessary to recognize the
gospel itself when I find it with them, though I abominate their error), as it
warns me that there were some even in the times of the holy Cyprian who traced to the
authority of the
apostles that
custom against which the African
Councils were held, and in respect of which he himself said a little above, "In
vain do those who are
beaten by reason oppose to us the
authority of
custom." Nor do I find the reason why the same Cyprian found this very
custom, which after his time was confirmed by nothing less than a plenary
Council of the whole
world, already so
strong before his time, that when with all his learning he sought an
authority worth following for changing it, he found nothing but a
Council of Agrippinus held in Africa a very few years before his own time. And seeing that this was not enough for him, as against
the
custom of the whole
world, he laid hold on these reasons which we just now, considering them with great care, and being confirmed by the
antiquity of the
custom itself, and by the subsequent
authority of a plenary
Council, found to be
truth-like rather than true; which, however, seemed to him true, as he toiled in a
question of the greatest obscurity, and was in doubt about the
remission of
sins,—whether it could
fail to be given in the
baptism of
Christ, and whether it could be given among
heretics. In which matter, if an imperfect revelation of the
truth was given to Cyprian, that the greatness of his
love in not deserting the
unity of the
Church might be made manifest, there is yet not any reason why any one should venture to claim superiority over the
strong defenses and excellence of his
virtues, and the
abundance of graces which were found in him, merely because, with the
instruction derived from the
strength of a general
Council, he sees something which Cyprian did not
see, because the
Church had not yet held a plenary
Council on the matter. Just as no one is so insane as to set himself up as surpassing the merits of the
Apostle Peter, because, taught by the
epistles of the
Apostle Paul, and confirmed by the
custom of the
Church herself, he does not compel the Gentiles to judaize, as Peter once had done.
1367
10. We do not then "find that any one, after being baptized among heretics, was afterwards admitted by the apostles with the same baptism, and communicated;"1368
| 1368 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 13.
|
but neither do we find this, that any one coming from the society of
heretics, who had been
baptized among them, was
baptized anew by the
apostles. But this
custom, which even then those who looked back to past ages could not find to have been
invented by men of a later time, is rightly believed to have been handed down from the
apostles. And there are many other things of the same
kind, which it would be tedious to recount. Wherefore, if they had something to say for
themselves to whom Cyprian, wishing to
persuade them of the
truth of his own view, says, "Let no one say, What we have received from the
apostles, that we follow," with how much more force we now say, What the
custom of the
Church has always held, what this argument has failed to prove false, and what a plenary Council has confirmed, this we follow! To this we may add that it may also be said, after a careful inquiry into the reasoning on both sides of the discussion, and into the
evidence of Scripture, What truth has declared, that we follow.
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