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| Chapter XL
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Chapter
XL.
But, as
far as what has been already said, the instruction of this Catechism
does not seem to me to be yet complete. For we ought, in my opinion, to
take into consideration the sequel of this matter; which many of those
who come to the grace of baptism2052
| 2052 We
need not consider this passage about Regeneration as an interpolation,
with Aubertin, De Sacram. Eucharist. lib. ii. p. 487, because
Gregory has already dealt with Baptism in ch. xxxv.–xxxvi.; and
then with the Eucharist: his view of the relation between the two
Sacraments, that the Eucharist unites the body, as Baptism the soul to
God, quite explains this return to the preliminaries of this double
union. | overlook,
being led astray, and self-deceived, and indeed only seemingly, and not
really, regenerate. For that change in our life which takes place
through regeneration will not be change, if we continue in the state in
which we were. I do not see how it is possible to deem one
who is still in the same condition, and in whom there has been no
change in the distinguishing features of his nature, to be any other
than he was, it being palpable to every one that it is for a renovation
and change of our nature that the saving birth is received. And yet
human nature does not of itself admit of any change in baptism; neither
the reason, nor the understanding, nor the scientific faculty, nor any
other peculiar characteristic of man is a subject for change. Indeed
the change would be for the worse if any one of these properties of our
nature were exchanged away2053
| 2053 ὑπαμειφθείη. A word almost peculiar to this Gregory. | for something else.
If, then, the birth from above is a definite refashioning of the man,
and yet these properties do not admit of change, it is a subject for
inquiry what that is in him, by the changing of which the grace of
regeneration is perfected. It is evident that when those evil features
which mark our nature have been obliterated a change to a better state
takes place. If, then, by being “washed,” as says the
Prophet2054
, in that mystic bath we become
“clean” in our wills and “put away the evil” of
our souls, we thus become better men, and are changed to a better
state. But if, when the bath has been applied to the body, the soul has
not cleansed itself from the stains of its passions and affections, but
the life after initiation keeps on a level with the uninitiate life,
then, though it may be a bold thing to say, yet I will say it and will
not shrink; in these cases the water is but water, for the gift of the
Holy Ghost in no ways appears in him who is thus baptismally born;
whenever, that is, not only the deformity of anger2055
| 2055 τὸ κατὰ τὸν
θυμὸν
αἶσχος. Quite
wrongly the Latin translators, “animi turpitudo,”
i.e. baseness of mind, which is mentioned just
below. | , or the passion of greed, or the unbridled
and unseemly thought, with pride, envy, and arrogance, disfigures the
Divine image, but the gains, too, of injustice abide with him, and the
woman he has procured by adultery still even after that ministers to
his pleasures. If these and the like vices, after, as before, surround
the life of the baptized, I cannot see in what respects he has been
changed; for I observe him the same man as he was before. The man whom
he has unjustly treated, the man whom he has falsely accused, the man
whom he has forcibly deprived of his property, these, as far as they
are concerned, see no change in him though he has been washed in the
laver of baptism. They do not hear the cry of Zacchæus from him as
well: “If I have taken any thing from any man by false
accusation, I restore fourfold2056
.” What they
said of him before his baptism, the same they now more fully declare;
they call him by the same names, a covetous person, one who is greedy
of what belongs to others, one who lives in luxury at the cost of
men’s calamities. Let such an one, therefore, who remains in the
same moral condition as before, and then babbles to himself of the
beneficial change he has received from baptism, listen to what Paul
says: “If a man think himself to be something, when he is
nothing, he deceiveth himself2057
.” For what
you have not become, that you are not. “As many as received
Him,” thus speaks the Gospel of those who have been born again,
“to them gave He power to become the sons of God2058
.” Now the child born of any one is
entirely of a kindred nature with his parent. If, then, you have
received God, if you have become a child of God, make manifest in your
disposition the God that is in you, manifest in yourself Him that begot
you. By the same marks whereby we recognize God, must this relationship
to God of the son so born be exhibited. “He openeth His hand and
filleth every living thing with His good pleasure.” “He
passeth over transgressions.” “He repenteth Him of the
evil.” “The Lord is good to all, and bringeth not on us His
anger every day.” “God is a righteous Lord, and there is no
injustice in Him2059
| 2059 These
quotations are from the LXX. of Bible:Ps.7.11 Bible:Ps.92.15">Ps. cxlv. 16; ciii. 12
(Is. xliii. 25); Joel ii. 13; Ps. vii. 11 (Heb. “God is angry
every day”); xcii. 15. | ;” and all
other sayings of the like kind which are scattered for our instruction
throughout the Scripture;—if you live amidst such things as
these, you are a child of God indeed; but if you continue with the
characteristic marks of vice in you, it is in vain that you babble to
yourself of your birth from above. Prophecy will speak against you and
say, “You are a ‘son of man,’ not a son of the Most
High. You ‘love vanity, and seek after leasing.’ Know you
not in what way man is ‘made admirable2060
| 2060 Ps. iv. 2, 3. In the last
verse the LXX. has ἐθαυμάστωσε; which the Vulgate follows, i.e. “He hath
made his Saint wonderful” (the Hebrew implies, “hath
wonderfully separated”). That θαυμαστοῦται
(three of Krabinger’s Codd., and Morell’s)
is the reading here (omitted in Editt.), is clear from the whole
quotation from the LXX. of this Psalm. | ’? In no other way than by becoming
holy.”
It will be necessary to add to
what has been said this remaining statement also; viz. that those good
things which are held out in the Gospels to those who have led a godly
life, are not such as can be precisely described. For how is that
possible with things which “eye hath not seen, neither ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man2061
”? Indeed, the sinner’s life of
torment presents no equivalent to anything that pains the sense here.
Even if some one of the punishments in that other world be named in
terms that are well known here, the distinction is still not small. When you hear
the word fire, you have been taught to think of a fire other than the
fire we see, owing to something being added to that fire which in this
there is not; for that fire is never quenched, whereas experience has
discovered many ways of quenching this; and there is a great difference
between a fire which can be extinguished, and one that does not admit
of extinction. That fire, therefore, is something other than this. If,
again, a person hears the word “worm,” let not his
thoughts, from the similarity of the term, be carried to the creature
here that crawls upon the ground; for the addition that it “dieth
not” suggests the thought of another reptile than that known
here. Since, then, these things are set before us as to be expected in
the life that follows this, being the natural outgrowth according to
the righteous judgment of God, in the life of each, of his particular
disposition, it must be the part of the wise not to regard the present,
but that which follows after, and to lay down the foundations for that
unspeakable blessedness during this short and fleeting life, and by a
good choice to wean themselves from all experience of evil, now in
their lifetime here, hereafter in their eternal recompense2062
| 2062 The
section beginning here, which one Cod. (Vulcobius’), used by
Hervetus, exhibits, is “evidently the addition of some blundering
copyist.” P. Morell considers it the portion of a preface to a
treatise against Severus, head of the heretics called Acephali. But
Severus was condemned under Justinian, a.d.
536: and the Acephali themselves were no recognized party till after
the Council of Ephesus (those who would follow neither S. Cyril, nor
John of Damascus, in one meaning of the term, i.e.
“headless”), or after the Council of Chalcedon (those who
rejected the Henoticon of the Emperor Zeno, addressed to the orthodox
and the Monophysites, in the other meaning). It is quoted by Krabinger,
none of whose Codd. recognize it. | .E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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