Chapter 46.—55. Now, seeing that when Petilianus attributes this to me as though it were my opinion, he makes it an occasion for a serious and vehement invective against me, he at any rate shows, by the very force of his indignation, how great a sin it is in his opinion to entertain such views; and, accordingly, whatever he has wished it to appear that he said against me for holding this opinion will be found to have been really said against
himself, who is proved to entertain the view. For he shows herein by how great force on the side of truth he is overcome, when he cannot find any other door of escape except to pretend that it was I who entertained the views which really are his own. Just as if those whom the apostle confutes for maintaining that there was no resurrection from the dead, were to wish to bring an accusation against the same apostle, on the ground that he said, "Then is Christ not risen," and to maintain that
the preaching of the apostle was vain, and the faith of those who believed in it was also vain, and that false witnesses were found against God in those who had said that He raised up Christ from the dead. This is what Petilianus wished to do to me, never expecting that any one could read what I had written, which he could not answer, though very anxious that men should believe him to have answered it. But just as, if any one had done this to the apostle, the whole calumnious accusation would
have recoiled on the head of those who made it so soon as the entire passage in his epistle was read, and the preceding words restored, on which any one who reads them must perceive that those which I have quoted depend, in the same way, so soon as the preceding words of my epistle are restored, the accusation which Petilianus brings against me is cast back with all the greater force upon his own head, from which he had striven to remove it.
56. For the apostle, in confuting those who denied that there was any resurrection of the dead, corrects their view by showing the absurdity which follows those who entertain this view, however loth they may be to admit the consequence, in order that, while they shrink in abhorrence from what is impious to say, they may correct what they have ventured to believe. His argument continues thus: "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not
risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not."2417
In order that, while they
fear to say that
Christ had not risen, with the other
wicked and accursed conclusions which follow from such a statement, they may correct what they said in a spirit of
folly and infidelity, that there is no resurrection of the dead. If, therefore, you take away what stands at the head of this argument, "If there be no resurrection of the dead," the
rest is spoken
amiss, and yet must be ascribed to the
apostle. But if you restore the
supposition on which the
rest depends, and place as the hypothesis from which you start, "There is no resurrection of the dead," then the conclusion will follow rightly, "Then is
Christ not risen, and our
preaching is
vain, and your
faith is also
vain," with all the
rest that is appended to it. And all these statements of the
apostle are
wise and good, since whatever
evil they have in them is to be imputed to those who denied the resurrection of the dead. In the same manner also, in my
epistle, take away my supposition, If every one is
born again in
spiritual grace of the same character as he by whom he is
baptized, and if, when the man who baptizes is genuinely and manifestly good, he does of himself give
faith, he is the origin and root and head of him who is being
born again; but when the baptizer is a
wicked man, and undetected in his
wickedness, then each man who is
baptized receives his
faith from
Christ, derives his origin from
Christ, is rooted in
Christ, makes his
boast in
Christ as his Head:—take away, I say, this hypothesis, on which all that follows depends, and there remains a saying of the worst description which must fairly be ascribed to me, viz., that all who are
baptized should desire that they should have faithless men to
baptize them, and be ignorant of their faithlessness. For however good men they may have to
baptize them,
Christ is incomparably better who will then be the Head of the
baptized, if the baptizer be a
faithless man, but undetected.
2418
| 2418 See Book I. c. 6, 7.
|
But let the statements that you make be restored, and then it will forthwith be found that this which depends upon it and follows in close connection from it is not my sentiment, and that any
evil which it contains is retorted on the opinion which you maintain. In like manner, take away the supposition, If the good baptizer is the good
tree, so that he whom he has
baptized is his good fruit, and if, when the character of an
evil tree is concealed, then any one that has
been
baptized by it is
born, not of it, but of
Christ,—take away this hypothesis, which you were compelled to confess had its origin in your
sect and in the letter of Petilianus, and the
mad conclusion which follows from it will be mine, to be ascribed to me alone, then they are justified with greater holiness who are baptized by undetected evil men, than they who are baptized by men that are genuinely and manifestly good.
2419
| 2419 See Book I. c. 8, 9.
|
But restore the hypothesis on which this depends, and you will at once see both that I have been right in making this statement for your correction, and that all that with good reason displeases you in this opinion has recoiled upon your own head.
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