On the Unity of the Church

Introduction

ARGUMENT. — ON THE OCCASION OF THE SCHISM OF NOVATUN, TO KEEP BACK FROM HIM THE CARTHAGINIANS, WHO ALREADY WERE NOT AVERSE TO HIM, ON ACCOUNT OF NOVATUS AND SOME OTHER PRESBYTERS OF HIS CHURCH, WHO HAD ORIGINATED THE WHOLE DISTURBANCE, CYPRIAN WROTE THIS TREATISE. AND FIRST OF ALL, FORTIFYING THEM AGAINST THE DECEITS OF THESE, HE EXHORTS THEM TO CONSTANCY, AND INSTRUCTS THEM THAT HERESIES EXIST BECAUSE CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH, IS NOT LOOKED TO, THAT THE COMMON COMMISSION FIRST ENTRUSTED TO PETER IS CONTEMNED, AND THE ONE CHURCH AND THE ONE EPISCO- PATE ARE DESERTED. THEN HE PROVES, AS WELL BY THE SCRIPTURES AS BY THE FIGURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.^

I . Since the Lord warns us, saying, " Ye are the salt of the earth," ^ and since He bids us to be simple to harmlessness, and yet with our simplicity to be prudent, what else, beloved brethren, befits us, than to use foresight and watching with an anxious heart, both to perceive and to beware of the wiles of the crafty foe, that we, who have put on Christ the wisdom of God the Father, may not seem to be wanting in wis- dom in the matter of providing for our salvation ?

1 [Written ad. 251. Although, in order of time, this treatise ■would he the third, I have placed it here because of its dignity, and because of its importance as a key to the entire writings of Cyprian: for this theory is everywhere the underlying principle of his conduct and of his correspondence. It illustrates the epistles of Ignatius as well as his own, and gives the sense in which the primitive Christians understood these words of the Creed, " the Holy Catholic Church." This treatise has been subjected to falsifying iiiterpolations, long since exposed and detected, to make it less subversive of the coimter- theory of Rome as developed by the school doctors. Elucidation I.]

2 Describing in few words the ambition and dissimulation of Novatian in invading the episcopate of Rome, he argues at length, that neither on the one hand is the passage in Matthew xviii of any avail to compensate for their fewness as against the Church: " Wher- ever two or three are gathered together in my name," etc. : nor, on the other, could martyrdom be of any benefit to them outside the Church. Then he tells them that they need not marvel that heresies flourished, since they had been foretold by Christ; nor that certain Roman confessors acquiesced in the schism, because before one's death no one is blessed, and the traitor Judas was found in the very company of the apostles. Yet he charges them to shun the associa- tion of schismatics and heretics, and finally exhorts them by the Scriptures to peace and unanimity.

3 Matt. v. 13.

For it is not persecution alone that is to be feared ; nor those things which advance by open attack to overwhelm and cast down the servants of God. Caution is more easy where danger is manifest, and the mind is prepared beforehand for the contest when the adversary avows him- self. The enemy is more to be feared and to be guarded against, when he creeps on us secretly ; when, deceiving by the appearance of peace, he steals forward by hidden approaches, whence also he has received the name of the Serpent.* That is always his subtlety ; that is his dark and stealthy artifice for circumventing man. Thus from the very beginning of the world he de- ceived ; and flattering with lying words, he misled inexperienced souls by an incautious credulity. Thus he endeavoured to tempt the Lord Him- self: he secretly approached Him, as if he would creep on Him again, and deceive ; yet he was understood, and beaten back, and therefore pros- trated, because he was recognised and detected. 2. From which an example is given us to avoid the way of the old man, to stand in the footsteps of a conquering 5 Christ, that we may not again be incautiously turned back into the nets of death, but, foreseeing our danger, may possess the immortality that we have received. But how can we possess immortality, unless we keep those commands of Christ whereby death is driven out and overcome, when He Himself warns us, and says, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments? " ^ And again : " If ye do the things that I command you, hence- forth I call you not servants, bul' friends." ^ Finally, these persons He calls strong and sted- fast ; these He declares to be founded in robust security upon the rock, established with immove- able and unshaken firmness, in opposition to all the tempests and hurricanes of the world. " Who- soever," says He, " heareth my words, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, that built his house upon a rock : the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon

* The creeping, stealing thing.

5 Or, " living."

6 Matt. xix. 17. 1 John xiv. 15.

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that house : and it fell not : for it was founded upon a rock." ' We ought therefore to stand fast on His words, to learn and do whatever He both taught and did. But how can a man say that he believes in Christ, who does not do what Christ commanded him to do ? Or whence shall he attain to the reward of faith, who will not } keep the faith of the commandment? He must ' of necessity waver and wander, and, caught away by a spirit of error, like dust which is shaken by the wind, be blown about ; and he will make no advance in his walk towards salvation, because he dues not keep the truth of the way of salvation. 3. But, beloved brethren, not only must we beware of what is open and manifest, but also | of what deceives by the craft of subtle fraud. | And what can be more crafty, or what more j subtle, than for this enemy, detected and cast ! down by the advent of Christ, after light has come to the nations, and saving rays have shone for the preservation of men, that the deaf might receive the hearing of spiritual grace, the blind might open their eyes to God, the weak might grow strong again with eternal health, the lame might run to the church, the dumb might pray with clear voices and prayers — seeing his idols forsaken, and his fanes and his temples deserted by the numerous concourse of believers — to devise a new fraud, and under the very title of the Christian name to deceive the incautious? He has invented heresies and schisms, whereby he might subvert the faith, might corrupt the truth, might divide the unity.^ Those whom he cannot keep in the darkness of the old way, he circumvents and deceives by the error of a new way. He snatches men from the Church itself; and while they seem to themselves to have already approached to the light, and to have escaped the night of the world, he pours over them again, in their unconsciousness, new dark- ness ; so that, although they do not stand firm with the Gospel of Christ, and with the observa- tion and law of Christ, they still call themselves Christians, and, walking in darkness, tliey think that they have the light, while the adversary is flattering and deceiving, who, according to the apostle's word, transforms himself into an angel of light, and equips his ministers as if they were the ministers of righteousness, who maintain night instead of day, death for salvation, despair luider the offer of hope, perfidy under the ])re- text of faith, antichrist under the name of Christ ;

' Matt, vii 24.

- [Here note that our author's entire ignorance of any Centre of Unity, of any one See as the test of communion; in short, of any one bishop as having more of Peter's authority than others, — is a siifficient disproof of the existence of any such things. Otherwise, how could they have been overlooked in a treatise devoted to the subject of unity, its nature and its criteria ? The effort to foist into the text something of the kind, by corruption, demonstrates how en- tirely unsatisfactory' to the Middle- Age theorists and dogmatists is the unadulterated work, which they could not let alone.]

SO that, while they feign things like the truth, they make void the truth by their subdety. This happens, beloved brethren, so long as we do not return to the source of truth, as we do not seek the head nor keep the teaching of the heavenly- Master.

4. If any one consider and examine these things, there is no need for lengthened discus- sion and arguments. There is easy proof for faith in a short summary of the triith. The Lord speaks to Peter,^ saying, " I say unto thee, that thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." •♦ And again to the same He says, after His resurrection, " Feed my sheep." 5 And although to all th^ apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, " As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you : Receive ye the Holy Ghost : Whose so- ever sins ye remit, they shall be remitted unto him ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they shall be retained;"^' yet, that He might set forth unity. He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power ; but the beginning pro- Y ceeds from unity.^ Which one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in. the person of our Lord, and says, " My do\e,. my spotless one, is but one. She is fhe only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her."** Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith ? Does he who strives against and resists the Church ''' trust that he is in the Church, when moreover the blessed Apostle Paul teaches the same thing, and sets forth the sacrament of unity, saying,

" There is one body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one fiiith, one baptism,. one God ? " '°

5. And this unity we ought firmly to hold ^ and assert, especially those of us that are bish- ops who preside in the Church, that we may

11.1

3 [On the falsifying of the text by Romish editors, see EIucidatioi>.

•• Matt. xvi. 18, 19.

5 John xxi. 15. I Here is interpolated] : " Upon him, being one. He builds His Church, and commits His sheep to be fed."

*> John XX. 21.

7 [Here is interpolated]: "And the primacy is given to Peter, that there might be shown one Church of Christ undone See; and they are all shepherds, and the flock is one, which is fed by all the apostles with unanimous consent." Ibis passage, as well as the one a few lines before, is beyond all question spurious.

* Cant. vi. Q.

9 [Here is interpolated] : " Who deserts the chair of Peter, upon whom the Church is founded." This passage also is undoubtedly spurious.

"° Kph. iv. 4.

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also prove the episcopate itself to be one and ; undivided.' Let no one deceive the brother- hood by a falsehood : let no one corrupt the truth of the faith by perfidious prevarication. The episcopate is one, each part of which is% held by each one for the whcle.^ The Church- also is one, which is spread abroad far and wide into a multitude by an increase of fruitfulness. As there are many rays of the sun, but one light ; and many branches of a tree, but one strength based in its tenacious root ; and since from one spring flow many streams, although the multi- plicity seems diffused in the liberality of an overflowing abundance, yet the unity is still pre- served in the source. Separate a ray of the sun from its body of light, its unity does not allow a division of light ; break a branch from a tree, — when broken, it will not be able to bud ; cut | off the stream from its fountain, and that which is cut off dries up. Thus also the Church, shone over with the light of the Lord, sheds forth her j rays over the whole world, yet it is one light which is everywhere diffused, nor is the unity of , the body separated. Her fruitful abundance spreads her branches over the whole world. She broadly expands her rivers, liberally flowing, ■ yet her head is one, her source one ; and she is i one mother, plentiful in the results of fruitful- ness : from her womb we are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her spirit we arc animated. , 6. The spouse of Christ cannot be adulter- ous ; she is uncorrupted and pure. She knows | one home ; she guards with chaste modesty the sanctity of one couch. She keeps us for ^ God. She appoints the sons whom she has j born for the kingdom. Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress, ' is separated from the promises of the Church ; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger ; he is profane ; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother. If any one could escape who was outside the ark of Noah, then he also may escape who shall be outside of the Church. The Lord warns, saying, " He who is not with me is against me, and he who gath- ereth not with me scattereth." ^ He who breaks the peace and the concord of Christ, does so in opposition to Christ ; he who gathereth else- where than in the Church, scatters the Church of Christ. The Lord says, " I and the Father are one ; " "* and again it is written of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, " And these three are one." 5 And does any one

believe that this unity which thus comes from the divine strength and coheres in celestial sac- raments, can be divided in the Church, and can be separated by the parting asunder of oppos- ing wills? He who does not hold this unity does not hold God's law, does not hold the faith of the Father and the Son, does not hold life and salvation.

7. This sacrament of unity, this bond of a concord inseparably cohering, is set forth where in the Gospel the coat of the Lord Jesus Christ ^ " ' is not at all divided nor cut, but is received as '■ an entire garment, and is possessed as an unin- I jured and undivided robe by those who cast lots ^ tysoncerning Christ's garment, who should rather jput on Christ.^ Holy Scripture speaks, saying, " But of the coat, because it was not sewed, but I woven from the top throughout, they said one to ' another. Let us not rend it, but cast lots whose it shall be." ^ That coat bore with it an unity j that came down from the top, that is, that came . from heaven and the Father, which was not to be at all rent by the receiver and the possessor, but without separation we obtain a whole and substantial entireness. He cannot possess the garment of Christ who parts and divides the Church of Christ. On the other hand, again, when at Solomon's death his kingdom and peo- ple were divided, Abijah the prophet, meeting Jeroboam the king in the field, divided his gar- ment into twelve sections, saying, " Take thee ten pieces ; for thus saith the Lord, Behold, I

;b

the universal episcopate is the chair of Peter.] [This maxim is the essence of the treatise; i.e., Ecclesia in Episcopo." Conipare p. 333, note 9, su/ra.] 3 Matt. xii. 30. * John X. 30. 5 I John V. 7.

will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solo- mon, and I will give ten sceptres unto thee ;

j and two sceptres shall be unto him for my ser- vant David's sake, and for Jerusalem, the city

' which I have chosen to place my name there." ** As the twelve tribes of Israel were divided, the

I prophet Abijah rent his garment. But because Christ's people cannot be rent. His robe, woven

I and united throughout, is not divided by those

j who possess it ; undivided, united, connected, it shows the coherent concord of our people who

' put on Christ. By the sacrament and sign of His garment, He has declared the unity of the Church.

8. Who, then, is so wicked and faithless, who is so insane with the madness of discord, that \ either he should believe that the unity of God can be divided, or should dare to rend it — the garment of the Lord — the Church of Christ? He Himself in His Gospel warns us, and teaches, saying, "And there shall be one flock and one shepherd." 9 And does any one believe that in.

* The above reading of this passage seems hopelessly obscure; and it is not much mended apparently by substifutirg " ipoam " for Christum, unless " potius " be omitted, as in some cdi'iopi, iii which case we should read, " who should put it on."

7 John xix. 23, 24.

* I Kings xi. 31. 9 John X. i6.

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one place there can be either many shepherds or many flocks? The Apostle Paul, moreover, urging upon us this same unity, beseeches and exhorts, saying, " I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you ; but that ye be joined to- gether in the same mind and in the same judg- ment." ' And again, he says, " Forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." ^ Do you think that you can stand and live if you withdraw from the Church, building for yourself other homes and a different dwelling, when it is said to Rahab, in whom was prefigured the Church, " Thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all the house of thy father, thou shall gather unto thee into thine house ; and it shall come to pass, whosoever shall go abroad beyond the door of thine house, his blood shall be upon his own head? "J Also, the sacrament of the passover contains nothing else in the law of the Exodus than that the lamb which is slain in the figure of Christ should be eaten in one house. God speaks, saying, " In one house shall ye eat it ; ye shall not send its flesh abroad from the house." •♦ The flesh of Christ, and the holy of the Lord, cannot be sent abroad, nor is there any other home to believers but the one Church. This home, this household 5 of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and points out in the Psalms, saying, " God, who maketh men to dwell with one mind in a house." '' In the house of God, in the Church of Christ, men dwell with one mind, and continue in concord and simplicity.

9. Therefore also the Holy Spirit came as a dove, a simple and joyous creature, not bitter with gall, not cruel in its bite, not violent with the rending of its claws, loving human dwellings, knowing the association of one home ; when they have young, bringing forth their young together ; when they fly abroad, remaining in their flights by the side of one another, spending their life in mutual intercourse, acknowledging the con- cord of peace with the kiss of the beak, in all things fulfilling the law of unanimity. This is the simplicity that ought to be known in the Church, this is the charity that ought to be attained, that so the love of the brotherhood may imitate the doves, that their gentleness and meekness may be like the lambs and sheep. What does the fierceness of wolves do in the Christian breast ? What the savageness of dogs, and the deadly venom of serpents, and the sanguinary cruelty of wild beasts? We are to

' I Cor. i. 10. 2 Eph. iv. 3. •^ Josh. ii. 19. ■♦ Kx. xii. 46.' 5 " Hospitium." * Ps. Ixviii. 6.

be congratulated when such as these are sepa- rated from the Church, lest they should lay waste the doves and sheep of Christ with their cruel and envenomed contagion. Bitterness cannot consist and be associated with sweetness, dark- ness with light, rain with clearness, battle with peace, barrenness with fertility, drought with springs, storm with tranquillity. Let none think that the good can depart from the Church. The wind does not carry away the wheat, nor does the hurricane uproot the tree that is based on a solid root. The light straws are tossed about by the tempest, the feeble trees are overthrown by the onset of the whirlwind. The Apostle John execrates and severely assails these, when he says, " They went forth from us, but they were not of us ; for if they had been of us, surely they would have continued with us." 7

10. Hence heresies not only have frequently^ been originated, but continue to be so ; while \) the perverted mind has no peace — while a dis- cordant faithlessness does not maintain unity.p. But the Lord permits and suffers these things to be, while the choice of one's own liberty remains, so that while the discrimination of truth is testing our hearts and our minds, the sound faith of those that are approved may shine forth with manifest ^ ) light. The Holy Spirit forewarns and says by the apostle, " It is needful also that there should be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." ^ Thus the faith- ful are approved, thus the perfidious are detected ; thus even here, before the day of judgment, the souls of the righteous and of the unrighteous are already divided, and the chaff is separated from the wheat. These are they who of their own accord, without any di\ine arrangement, set themselves to preside among the daring strangers assembled, who appoint themselves prelates with- out any law of ordination, who assume to them- 1 selves the name of bishop, although no one gives ^ them the episcopate ; whom the Holy Spirit points out in the Psalms as sitting in the seat of pestilence, plagues, and spots of the faith, deceiv- ing with serpent's tongue, and artful in corrupt- ing the truth, vomiting forth deadly poisons from pestilential tongues ; whose speech doth creep like a cancer, whose discourse forms a deadly poison in the heart and breast of every one.

1 1 . Against people of this kind the Lord cries ; from these He restrains anil recalls His erring people, saying, " Hearken not unto the words of the false prophets ; for the visions of their hearts deceive them. They speak, but not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who cast away the word of God, Ye shall have peace, and every one that walketh after his own will. Every one who walketh in the error of his

' I John ii. 19. ' I Cor. xi. ig.

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heart, no evil shall come upon him. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. If they had stood on my foundation {substantia, viroa-ra- o-ti), and had heard my words, and taught my people, I would have turned them from their evil thoughts." ' Again, the Lord points out and designates these same, saying, "They have for- saken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out broken cisterns which can hold no water." ^ Although there can be no other baptism but one, they think that they can bap-' tize ; although they forsake the fountain of life,/*, they promise the grace of living and saving water.'' Men are not washed among them, but rather are made foul ; nor are sins purged away, but are even accumulated. Such a nativity does not generate sons to God, but to the devil. By a falsehood they are born, and they do not receive the promises of truth. Begotten of perfidy, they lose the grace of faith. They cannot attain to the reward of peace, since they have broken the Lord's peace with the madness of discord.

12. Nor lei any deceive themselves by a futile interpretation, in respect of the Lord having said, " Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." ^ Corrupters and false interpreters of the Gospeli quote the last words, and lay aside the former ones, remembering part, and craftily suppressing part : as they themselves are separated from the Church, so they cut off the substance of one section. For the Lord, when He would urge unanimity and peace upon His disciples, said, ■" I say unto you. That' if two of you shall agree on earth touching anything that ye shall ask, it shall be given you by my Father which is in heaven. For wheresoever two or three are gath- ered together in my name, I am with them ; " * showing that most is given, not to the multitude, but to the unanimity of those that pray. " If," He says, " two of you shall agree on earth : " He placed agreement first ; He has made the concord of peace a prerequisite ; He taught that we should agree firmly and faithfully. But how can he agree with any one who does not agree with the body of the Church itself, and with the universal brotherhood ? How can two or three be assembled together in Christ's name, who, it is evident, are separated from Christ and from His Gospel ? For we have not withdrawn from them, but they from us ; and since heresies and schisms have risen subsequently, from tlieir es- tablishment for themselves of diverse places of worship, they have forsaken the Head and Source of the truth. But the Lord speaks concerning His Church, and to those also who are in the

' Jer. xxiii. 16-21.

2 Jer. ii. 13.

3 Matt, xviii. 20.

-* Malt, xviii. 19, 20. [Compare John xx. 26-29.]

Church He speaks, that if they are in agreement, if according to what He commanded and ad- monished, although only two or three gathered together with unanimity should pray — though they be only two or three — they may obtain from the majesty of God what they ask. " Whereso- ever two or three are gathered together in my name, I," says He, " am with them ; " that is, with the simple and peaceable — with those who fear God and keep God's commandments. With these, although only two or three. He said that He was, in the same manner as He was with the three youths in the fiery furnace ; and because they abode towards God in simplicity, and in unanimity among themselves. He animated them, in the midst of the surrounding flames, with the breath of dew : in the way in which, with the two apostles shut up in prison, because they were simple-minded and of one mind, He Himself was present ; He Himself, having loosed the bolts of the dungeon, placed them again in the market- place, that they might declare to the multitude the word which they faithfully preached. When, therefore, in His commandments He lays it down, and says, " Where two or three are gathered to- gether in my name, I am with them," He does Inot divide men from the Church, seeing that He Himself ordained and made the Church ; but rebuking the faithless for their discord, and com- mending peace by His word to the faithful. He shows that He is rather with two or three who pray with one mind, than with a great many who differ, and that more can be obtained by the con- cordant prayer of a few, than by the discordant supplication of many.

13. Thus, also, when He gave the law of prayer, He added, saying, " And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any ; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you

'your trespasses." 5 And He calls back from the -^ altar one who comes to the sacrifice in strife, and ^ bids him first* agree with his brother, and then return with 'peace and offer his gift to God : for God had not respect unto Cain's offerings ; for he could not have God at peace with him, who through envious discord had not peace with his brother. What peace, then, do the enemies of the brethren promise to themselves ? What sac- rifices do those who are rivals of the priests think that they celebrate ? Do they deem that they have Christ with them when they are collected together, who are gathered together outside the Church of Christ?

14. Even if such men were slain in confession of the Name, that stain is not even washed away by blood : the inexpiable and grave fault of dis- cord is not even purged by suffering. He can- not be a martyr who is not in the Church ; he

5 Mark xi. 25. [Freeman, Principles, etc. vol. i. 417.]

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cannot attain unto the kingdom who forsakes that which shall reign there. Christ gave us peace ; He bade us be in agreement, and of one mind. He charged the bonds of love and charity to be kept uncorrupted and inviolate ; he cannot show himself a martyr who has not maintained brotherly love. Paul the apostle teaches this, and testifies, saying, " And though I have faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give, my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is magnanimous ; charity is kind ; charity envieth not ; charity act- eth not vainly, is not puffed up, is not easily j)rovoked, thinketh no evil ; loveth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth." ' " Charity," says he, " never faileth." For she will ever be in the kingdom, she will endure for ever in the unity of a brotherhood linked to herself. Discord cannot attain to the kingdom of heaven ; to the rewards of Christ, who said, " This is my com- mandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you : " ^ he cannot attain ^ who has violated the love of Christ by faithless dissension. He who has not charity has not God. The word of the blessed Apostle John is : "God," saith he, " is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him." ^ They can not dwell with God who would i]ot be of one mind in God's Church. Although they burn, given up to flames and fires, or lay down their lives, thrown to the wild beasts, that will not be the crown of faith, but the ])unishment of perfidy ; nor will it be the glorious ending of religious valour, but the destruction of despair. Such a one may be slain ; crowned he cannot be. He professes himself to be a Christian in such a way as the devil often feigns himself to be Christ, as the Lord Himself forewarns us, and says, " Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." 5 As he is not Christ, al- though he deceives in respect of the name ; so neither can he appear as a Christian who does not abide in the truth of His Gospel and of faith.

15. For both to prophesy and to cast out devils, and to do great acts upon the earth, is certainly a sublime and an admirable thing ; but one does not attain the kingdom of heaven al- though he is found in all these things, unless he walks in the observance of the right and just way. The Lord denounces, and says, " Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have

^

* I Cor. xiii. 2-5, 7, 8.

* John XV. 12.

3 According to some readings, " to Chri&t," or of Christ."

* I John iv. 16. S Mark xiii. 6.

' to the rewards

we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity." ^ There is need of righteousness, that one may deserve well of God the Judge ; we must obey His pre- cepts and warnings, that our merits may receive their reward. The Lord in His Gospel, when He would direct the way of our hope and faith in a brief summary, said, " The Lord thy God is one God : and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment ; and the second is like unto it : Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two com- mandments hang all the law and the prophets." 7 , He taught, at the same time, love and unity by His instruction. He has included all the proph- ets and the law in two precepts. But what unity does he keep, what love does he maintain or consider, who, savage with the madness of dis- cord, divides the Church, destroys the faith, disturbs the peace, dissipates charity, profanes the sacrament?

1 6. This evil, most faithful brethren, had long ago begun, but now the mischievous destruction of the same evil has increased, and the enven- omed plague of heretical perversity and schisms has begun to spring forth and shoot anew ; be- cause even thus it must be in the decline of the world, since the Holy Spirit foretells and fore- warns us by the apostle, saying, " In the last days," says he, " perilous times shall come, and men shall be lovers of their own selves, proud, boasters, covetous, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural af- fection, truce-breakers, false accusers, inconti- nent, fierce, hating the good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a sort of form ^ of religion, but denying the power thereof. Of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, which are led away with divers lusts ; ever learning, and never com- ing to the knowledge of the truth. And as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth ; ^ but they shall pro- ceed no fiirther, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, even as theirs also was." '° What- ever things were predicted are fulfilled ; and as the end of the world is approaching, they have come for the probation as well of the men as of the times. Error deceives as the adversary rages more and more ; senselessness lifts up, envy in-

*> Matt. vii. 22.

7 Mark xii. 29-31.

8 1 )eformationem religionis.

9 Some introduce, " men corrupted in feeling, reprobate concern- ing the faith."

'° 2 Tim. iii. 1-9. [Vol. iv. p. 521, this series.]

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flames, covetousness makes blind, impiety de- praves, pride puffs up, discord exasperates, anger hurries headlong.

17. Yet let not the excessive and headlong faithlessness of many move or disturb us, but rather strengthen our faith in the truthfulness which has foretold the matter. As some have become such, because these things were pre- dicted beforehand, so let other brethren beware of matters of a like kind, because these also were predicted beforehand, even as the Lord in- structs us, and says, " But take ye heed : behold, I have told you all things." ' Avoid, I beseech you, brethren, men of this kind, and drive away from your side and from your ears, as if it were the contagion of death, their mischievous con- versation ; as it is written, " Hedge thine ears about with thorns, and refuse to hear a wicked tongue." ^ And again, " Evil communications corrupt good manners." ^ The Lord teaches and warns us to depart from such. He saith, " They are blind leaders of the blind ; and if the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch." •* Such a one is to be turned away from and avoided, whosoever he may be, that is separated from the Church. Such a one is per- verted and sins, and is condemned of his own self Does he think that he has Christ, who acts in opposition to Christ's priests, who sepa- rates himself from the company of His clergy and people ? He bears arms against the Church, he contends against God's appointment. An enemy of the altar, a rebel against Christ's sac- rifice, for the feith faithless, for religion profane, a disobedient servant, an impious son, a hostile brother, despising the bishops, and forsaking God's priests, he dares to set up another altar, to make another prayer with unauthorized words, to profane the truth of the Lord's offering by false sacrifices, and nots to know that he who strives against the appointment of God, is pun- ished on account of the daring of his temerity by divine visitation.

18. Thus Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who endeavoured to claim to themselves the power of sacrificing in opposition to Moses and Aaron the priest, underwent immediate punishment for their attempts. The earth, breaking its fasten- ings, gaped open into a deep gulf, and the cleft of the receding ground swallowed up the men standing and living. Nor did the anger of the indignant God strike only those who had been the movers (of the sedition) ; but two hundred and fifty sharers and associates of that madness besides, who had been mingled with them in that boldness, the fire that went out from the

' Mark xiii. 23.

2 Ecclus. xxviii. 24, Vulg.

5 1 Cor. XV. 33.

* Matt. XV. 14.

5 According to some, "does not deign," or " disdains to know.'

Lord consumed with a hasty revenge ; doubtless to admonish and show that whatever those wicked men had endeavoured, in order by human will to overthrow God's appointment, had been done in opposition to God. Thus also Uzziah the king, — when he bare the censer and violently claimed to himself to sacrifice against God's law, and when Azariah the priest withstood him, would not be obedient and yield, — was confounded by the divine indignation, and was polluted upon his forehead by the spot of leprosy : he was marked by an offended Lord in that part of his body where they are signed who deserve well of the Lord. And the sons of Aaron, who placed strange fire upon the altar, which the Lord had not commanded, were at once extinguished in the presence of an avenging Lord.

19. These, doubtless, they imitate and follow, who, despising God's tradition, seek after strange doctrines, and bring in teachings of human ap- pointment, whom the Lord rebukes and reproves in His Gospel, saying, "Ye reject the com- mandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." ^ This is a worse crime than that which the lapsed seem to have fallen into, who nevertheless, standing as penitents for their crime, beseech God with full satisfactions. In this case, the Church is sought after and en- treated ; in that case, the Church is resisted : here it is possible that there has been necessity ; there the will is engaged in the wickedness : on the one hand, he who has lapsed has only injured himself; on the other, he who has endeavoured to cause a heresy or a schism has deceived many by drawing them with him. In the former, it is the loss of one soul ; in the latter, the risk of many. Certainly the one both understands that he has sinned, and laments and bewails it ; the other, puffed up in his heart, and pleasing him- self in his very crimes, separates sons from their Mother, entices sheep from their shepherd, dis- turbs the sacraments of God ; and while the lapsed has sinned but once, he sins daily. Fi- nally, the lapsed, who has subsequently attained to martyrdom, may receive the promises of the kingdom ; while the other, if he have been slain without the Church, cannot attain to the rewards of the Church.

20. Nor let any one marvel, beloved brethren, that even some of the confessors advance to these lengths, and thence also that some others sin thus wickedly, thus grievously. For neither does confession make a man free from the snares of the devil, nor does it defend a man who is still placed in the world, with a perpetual security from temptations, and dangers, and onsets, and attacks of the world ; otherwise we should never see in confessors those subsequent frauds, and

^ Mark vii. 9.

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fornications, and adulteries, which now with groans and sorrow we witness in some. Who- soever that confessor is, he is not greater, or bet- ter, or dearer to God than Solomon, who, although so long as he walked in Ood's ways, retained that grace which he had received" from the Lord, yet after he forsook the Lord's way he lost also the Lord's grace." And therefore it is written, " Hold fast that which thou hast, lest another take thy crown." ^ But assuredly the Lord would not threaten that the crown of righteousness might be taken away, were it not that, when righteous- ness departs, the crown must also depart.

21. Confession is the beginning of glory, not the full desert of the crown ; nor does it perfect our praise, but it initiates our dignity ; and since it is written, " He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved," ^ whatever has been before the end is a step by which we ascend to the sum- mit of salvation, not a terminus wherein the full result of the ascent is already gained. He is a confessor ; but after confession his peril is greater, because the adversary is more provoked. He is a confessor ; for this cause he ought the more to stand on the side of the Lord's Gospel, since he has by the Gospel attained glory from the Lord. For the Lord says, "To whom much is given, of him much shall be required ; and to whom more dignity is ascribed, of him more service is ex- acted." •» Let no one perish by the example of a confessor ; let no one learn injustice, let no one learn arrogance, let no one learn treachery, from the manners of a confessor. He is a confessor, let him be lowly and quiet ; let him be in his doings modest with discipline, so that he who is called a confessor of Christ may imitate Christ whom he confesses. For since He says, " Who- soever exalteth himself sliall be abased, and he who humbleth himself shall be exalted ; " s and since He Himself has been exalted by the Father, because as the Word, and the strength, and the wisdom of God the Father, He humbled 1 limself upon earth, how can He love arrogance, who even by His own law enjoined upon us hu- mility, and Himself received the highest name from the Father as the reward of His humility? He is a confessor of Christ, but only so if the majesty and dignity of Christ be not afterwards blasphemed by him. Let not the tongue which has confessed Christ be evil-speaking ; let it not l)e turbulent, let it not be heard jarring with re- ])roaches and (}uarrels, let it not after words of praise, dart forth serpents' venom against the l)rethren and God's priests. But if one shall

' Some read, " As it is written, And the I-ord stirred up the adversary (Satan) against Solomon; and therefore in the Apocalypse the I-ord solemnly warns John."

2 Apoc. iii. II.

3 Matt. X. 22. * Luke xii. 48.

^ Luke xviii. 14.

have subsequently been blameworthy and obnox- ious ; if he shall have wasted his confession by evil conversation ; if he shall have stained his life by disgraceful foulness ; if, finally, forsaking the Church in which he has become a confessor, and severing the concord of unity, he shall have ex- changed his first faith for a subsequent unbelief, he may not flatter himself on account of his con- fession that he is elected to the reward of glory, when from this very fact his deser\'ing of punish- ment has become the greater.

22. For the Lord chose Judas also among the apostles, and yet afterwards Judas betrayed the

. Lord. Yet not on that account did the faith I and firmness of the apostles fail, because the traitor Judas failed from their fellowship : so also in the case in question the holiness and dignity of confessors is not forthwith diminished, be- cause the faith of some of them is broken. The blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle speaks in this manner : " For what if some of them fall away from the faith, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect ? God forbid : for God is true, though every man be a liar."^ The greater and better part of the confessors stand firm in the strength of their faith, and in the truth of the law and discipline of the Lord ; neither do they depart from the peace of the Church, who remember that they have obtained grace in the Church by the condescension of God ; and by this very thing they obtain a higher praise of their faith, that they have separated from the faithlessness of those who have been associated with them in the fellowship of confession, and withdrawn from the contagion of crime. Illu- minated by the true light of the Gospel, shone upon with the Lord's pure and white brightness, they are as praiseworthy in maintaining the peace of Christ, as they have been victorious in their combat with the devil.

23. I indeed desire, beloved brethren, and I ecjually endeavour and exhort, that if it be possi- ' ble, none of the brethren should perish, and that our rejoicing Mother may enclose in her bosom the one body of a people at agreement. Vet if wholesome counsel cannot recall to the way of salvation certain leaders of schisms and origi- nators of dissensions, who abide in blind and obstinate madness, yet do you others, if either taken in simplicity, or induced by error, or de- ceived by some craftiness of misleading cunning, loose yourselves from the nets of deceit, free your wandering steps from errors, acknowledge the straight way of the heavenly road. The word of the witnessing apostle is : *' We com- mand you," says he, " in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from all brethren that walk disorderly, and not after

* Rom. iii. 3.

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the tradition that they have received from us." ' And again he says, ** Let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things Cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore, partakers with them." ^ We must withdraw, nay rather must flee, from those who fall away, lest, while any one is associated with those who walk wick- edly, and goes on in ways of error and of sin, he himself also, wandering away from the path of the true road, should be found in like guilt. God is one, and Christ is one, and His Church is one, and the faith is one, and the people ^ is joined into a substantial unity of body by the cement of concord. Unity cannot be severed ; nor can one body be separated by a division of its structure, nor torn into pieces, with its entrails wrenched asunder by laceration. Whatever has proceeded from the womb cannot live and breathe in its detached condition, but loses the substance of health.

24. The Holy Spirit warns us, and says, "What man is he that desireth to live, and would fain see good days? Refrain thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile. Eschew evil, and do good ; seek peace, and ensue it." •♦ The son of peace ought to seek peace and ensue it. He who knows and loves the bond of charity, ought to refrain his tongue from the evil of dis- sension. Among His divine commands and sal- utary teachings, the Lord, when He was now very near to His passion, added this one, saying, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." 5 He gave this to us as an heritage ; He promised all the gifts and rewards of which He spoke through the preservation of peace. If we are fellow-heirs with Christ, let us abide in the peace of Christ ; if we are sons of God, we ought to be peacemakers. " Blessed," says He, " are the peacemakers ; for they shall be called the sons of God." '' It behoves the sons of God to be peacemakers, gentle in heart, simple in speech, agreeing in affection, faithfully linked to one another in the bonds of unanimity.

25. This unanimity formerly prevailed among the apostles ; and thus the new assembly of be- lievers, keeping the Lord's commandments, maintained its charity. Divine Scripture proves this, when it says, " But the multitude of them which believed were of one heart and of one soul." 7 And again : " These all continued with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren."^

' 2 Thess. iii. 6.

2 Eph. V. 6.

3 " is one."

* Ps. xxxiv. 12, 13. 5 John xiv. 27.

* Matt. V. 9.

7 Acts iv. 32. [Bernard., Epist. ccxxxviii., C^^. i. sea.]

* Acts i. 14.

And thus "^ they prayed with effectual prayers ; thus they were able with confidence to obtain whatever they asked from the Lord's mercy.

26. But in us unanimity is diminished in pro- portion as liberality of working is decayed. Then they used to give for sale houses and estates ; and that they might lay up for them- selves treasures in heaven, presented to the apostles the price of them, to be distributed for the use of the poor. But now we do not even give the tenths from our patrimony ; and while our Lord bids us sell, we rather buy and increase our store. Thus has the vigour of faith dwindled away among us ; thus has the strength of believ- ers grown weak. And therefore the Lord, look- ing to our days, says in His Gospel, " When the Son of man cometh, think you that He shall find faith on the earth?" ■" We see that what He foretold has come to pass. There is no faith in the fear of God, in the law of righteousness, in love, in labour ; none considers the fear of futu- rity, and none takes to heart the day of the Lord, and the wrath of God, and the punishments to come upon unbelievers, and the eternal torments decreed for the faithless. That which our con- science would fear if it believed, it fears not because it does not at all believe. But if it be- lieved, it would also take heed ; and if it took heed, it would escape.

27. Let us, beloved brethren, arouse ourselves -^^^ as much as we can ; and breaking the slumber "^ of our ancient listlessness, let us be watchful to observe and to do the Lord's precepts. Let us be such as He Himself has bidden us to be, saying, " Let your loins be girt, and your lamps burning ; ' ' and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He shall come from the wedding, that when He cometh and knock- eth, they may open to Him. Blessed are those servants whom their Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching." '^ We ought to be girt about, lest, when the day of setting forth comes, it should find us burdened and entangled. Let our light shine in good works, and glow in such wise as to lead us from the night of this world to the daylight of eternal brightness. Let us always with solicitude and caution wait for the sudden coming of the Lord, that when He shall knock, our faith may be on the watch, and receive from the Lord the reward of our vigilance. If these commands be observed, if these warnings and precepts be kept, we cannot be overtaken in slumber by the deceit of the devil ; but we shall reign with Christ in His kingdom as servants that watch.

9 Some interpolate " because." 1° Luke xviii. 8. " Some read, " in your hands." '- Luke xii. 34.

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