a ,,«,*r-:-v««--^;-t-"^.^, // LIBRAKY OF FATHERS HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, ANTERIOR TO THE DIVISION OF THE EAST AND WEST; TRANSLATED BY MEMBERS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. .A •'•^ ' <^ Yet SIIAI.I. NOT TIIY TEACHERS BE REMOVED INTO A CORNER ANV .IIOIIE, BIT THINK EVES SHALL SEE THY TEACHERS, haia/i x\x 2". OXFORD, JOHN JIKNUY PARKER; F. AND J. RlVlNGTON, LONDON. MnrCTMAII. TO THK MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD WILLIAM LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND, FOUMKHI.Y REGIUS I'lTOFESSOR OK HIVIXITV IN THE UNIVERSITY Of OXFOKl», THIS LIBRARY OF ANCIENT BISHOPS, FATHERS, DOCTORS, MARTYRS, CONFESSORS, OF CHRIST'S HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, IS WITH HIS grace's PERMISSION RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, IN TOKEN OF REVERENCE FOR HIS PERSON AND SACRED OFFICE, AND OF ORATITCDE FOR HIS EPISCOPAL KINDNESS. SEVENTEKN SHOUT TREATISES S. A U G U S T I N^E, BISHOP OF HIPPO, TKANSLATlil), WITH NOTES AND INDICES. /V fo\ V% a/ OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PAKKKU; F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. MDCCCXLVIl THS0LQ6ICAI PREFACE. The present volume consists of seventeen short works of St. Augustine, all taken from the VI th volume of the Bene- dictine Edition, except the last, which was inserted from the Vlllth volume as connected in some degree with several of the others, and important in itself. The first and last may be classed together as relating to the general ])rinciples of evidence in Religion, and the last but one with some of the earlier ones, as going over the Creed with a particular expo- sition. There is of course some repetition of matter in the several expositions of the Creed, but it was thought worth while to jnit them together, both in order to give a more complete view of his teaching, and in order to shew how much of it was based on the Creed, and how it was used by the Christians of that time. The Treatise on Catechizing the Unlearned is remarkable as a specimen of the times, besides its great value in shewing what was thought the most needful instruction, and giving hints for conveying it, for which purpose it should be compared with the Sermon to the Catechumens. That on Faith and Works is very clear on its own main subject, maintaining that the faith which saves is the Faith of grace, which impHes Love. It also contains a remarkable discussion on the state of souls awaiting the Judgment, from which it appears that the doctrine of a Purgatory was then held by some, but doubted by St. Augus- tine. A similar doubt appears in his view of the interference of departed Saints in human affairs, which however he con- siders established as a fact in some cases, though the manner iv PREFACE. of it is very doubtful, and not easily to be gathered from appearances, which he shews to be deceptive with respect to living persons. The Treatises on Continence, Marriage, Virginity, and Widowhood, together give a tolerably complete view of his teaching on an important subject, and one which has given occasion to many attacks upon the Fathers of the Church. Much of what has been said against them will appear at once on reading these to be mere misrepresentation, while on some points there may be fair room for difference of opinion. It is impossible to go over such ground without offending modern delicacy, but it is probably realh' safer to venture on it by the side of St. Augustine, than with many of those who would blame him. The Treatise on Lying is, as he says, difficult, from its having the arguments on both sides drawn out, and his own judgment reserved for the end. It is necessary to remark this, as single extracts on one side might give a false impression of his cioctnne, which is as strict as possible against lying in Christians, especially in any matter of Faith and Religion. He makes allowance for heathens, and persons in any less perfect state, when iheir intention is good. The argument is clearer in the work ' against Lying,' where the objections are not put as if in his own mouth, and where a dangerous position taken up by others had roused him to speak somewhat vehemently. The treatise ' on the Work of Monks' refers to the question, whether manual labour is to be expected of them. The argument turns chiefly on certain passages of Scripture, which, -M'ithout mentioning the exact case, contain principles applicable to it. He decides in the affirmative. It is in- teresting as shewing something of the state of Monachism at that early period in Africa. Cassian and Palladius must however be consulted by any one who wishes to know the state of it in Egypt, where it had long flourished. riii<;FACK. V The principles stated in tlie Treatise ' on the IVodt ol Believing,' with respect to the autliority of the Church, com- pared with the constant appeal to the Holy Scri))tures in the rest of the works, and the manner in which those appeals are made, shew how perfectly consistent he considercth the free use of Holy Scripture to be with the deference due to Ecclesiastical Tradition, and how many interesting points even his enquiring mind was content to leave uncertain. The publication has been delayed some little time by the Index, which would have kept it back longer but for the kind assistance of two friends. The first ten treatises, and the last, are translated by the Rev. C. L. Cornish, M.A. of Exeter College, Oxford ; and the remaining six by the Rev. H. Browne, M.A. of Corpns Christi College, Cambridge, late Principal of the Diocesan College, Chichester. Several new volumes are in the press, to-be brought out in the coming year ; the third and last of St. Gregory's Morals on Job, the first of St. Augustine on the Psalms, St. Chrysos- tom on the second Epistle to the Corinthians. The third and last volume of St. Chrysostom on St. Matthew, and the Acta Martyrum fi-om the Collection of Ruinart, are in immediat-c preparation for the press. C. M. CONTENTS. Page Concerning Faith of things not seen 1 Of Faith, and of the Creed 15 Of Faith and Works . . . . 37 Enchiridion to Laurentius on Faith, Hope, and Charity 85- On the Christian Conflict 159 Of the Catechizing of the Unlearned 187 Of Continence 243 On the Good of Mamage 274 Of Holy Virginity 308 On the Good of Widowhood 353 On Lying .... 382 To Consentius : Against Lying 426 Of the Work of Monks 470 On Caro to be had for the Dead 517 On Patience .... 543 On the Creed: A Sennon to the Catechumens 563 On the Profit of Believing 577 PRO: S. AUGUSTINE CONCEUNING FAITH OF THINGS NOT 8EEN. This tract was thought spuriuusby some, but is kno\TO to be St. Augustine's by his mention of it in Ep. ccxxxi. ad Darium Comitem. It seems to have been written after 399, from what is said about Idols, §. 10; for in that year Ilonorius enacted laws against them. From Ben. The reader of Butler's Analogy will recognise many similar turns of thought. 1. There are who think that the Christian rehgion isoKMOE what we should smile at, rather than hold fast, for this"''"''*' reason, that, in it, not what may be seen, is shewn, but men non vi- are commanded foith of things which are not seen, ^y^g^f^u'^ therefore, that we may refute these, who seem to themselves ^* through prudence to be unwilling to believe what they cannot see, although we are not able to shew unto human sight those divine things which we believe, yet do shew unto human minds that even those things which are not seen arc to be believed. And first they are to be admonished, (whom folly hath so made subject to their carnal eyes, as that, whatsoever they see not through them, they think not that they are to believe,) how many things they not only believe but also know, which cannot be seen by such eyes. AVhich things being without number in our mind itself, (the nature of which mind is incapable of being seen,) not to mention others, the very faith whereby we believe, or the thought whereby we know that we either believe any thing, or believe not, being as it is altogether alien fi-om the sight of those eyes; what so naked, so clear, what so certain" is there to the inner eyes of our minds .? How then are we not to believe what we see not with the eyes ot the body, whereas, either that we believe, or that we believe not, in a case' where we cannot apply the eyes of the body, we without any doubt see .? B 2 Mmds and wills of men known wilhoni night. DEFiDE 2. But, say they, those things which are in the mind, in ^''•'^^^ that we can by the mind itself discern them, we have no need to know through the eyes of the body ; but those things, which you say unto us that we should believe, you neither point to without, that through the eyes of the body we may know them ; nor are they within, in our own mind, that by exercising thought we may see them. And these things they so say, as though any one would be bidden to believe, if that, which is believed, he could already see set before him. Therefore certainly ought we to believe certain ' mere- temporal things also, which we see not, that we may merit' *'""'" to see eternal things also, which we believe. But, whosoever thou art who wilt not believe save what thou seest, lo, bodies that are present thou seest with the eyes of the body, wills and thoughts of thine own that are present, because they are in thine own mind, thou seest by the mind itself; tell me, 1 pray thee, thy friend's will towards thee by what eyes seest thou ? For no will can be seen by the eyes of the body. What? see you in your own mind this also which is going on in the mind of another } But if you see it not, how do you repay in turn the good will of your friend, if what you cannot see, you believe not ? Will you haply say that you see the will of another through his works ? Therefore you will see acts, and hear words, but, concerning your friend's will, that which cannot be seen and heard you will believe. For that will is not colour or figure, so as to be thrown upon the eyes; or sound or strain, so as to glide into the ears; nor 2 affec- indeed is it your own, so as to be perceived by the motion^ tione of your own heart. It remains therefore that, being neither seen, nor heard, nor beheld within thyself, it be believed, that thy life be not left deserted without any friendship, or affection bestowed upon thee be not repaid by thee in return. Where then is that which thou saidest, that thou oughtest not to believe, save what thou sawest either out- wardly in the body, or inwardly in the heart ? Lo, out of thine own heart, thou believest an heart not thine own ; and lendest thy faith, where thou dost not direct the glance of thy body or of thy mind. Thy friend's face thou discernest by thy own body, thy own faith thou discernest by thine own mind ; but thy friend's faith is not loved by thee, unless there Ventures made for trial shetv some belief. 3 be in thee in return that faith, whereby thou mayest believe qu;g that which in him thou seest not. Although a man mav''"^^'! also deceive by feigning good will, and hiding malice: ^ or, if he have no thought to do harui, yet by expecting some benefit from thee, feigns, because he has not, love. 3. liut you say, that you therefore believe your friend, whose heart you cannot see, because you have ])roved him in your trials, and have come to know of what manner of spirit he was towards you in your dangers, wherein he deserted you not. Secmetli it therefore to you that we must wish for our own affliction, that our friends' love towards us may be proved } And shall no man be happy in most sure friends, unless he shall be unhappy through adversity ? so tliat, forsooth, he enjoy not the tried love of the other, unless he be racked by pain and fear of his own ? And how in the having of true friends can that happiness be wished for, and not rather feared, which nothing save unhappiness can put to the proof? And yet it is true that a friend may be had also in prosperity, but proved more surely in adversity. But assuredly in order to prove him, neither would you ii. commit yourself to dangers of your own, unless you believed ; and thus, when you commit yourself in order to prove, you believe before you prove. For surely, if we ought not to believe things not seen % since indeed we believe the hearts of our friends, and that, not yet surely proved ; and, after we shall have proved them good by our own ills, even then we believe rather than see their good will towards us: except that so great is faith, that, not unsuitably, we judge that we see, with certain eyes of it, that which we believe, whereas we ought therefore to believe, because we cannot see. 4. If this faith be taken away fiom human affairs, who but must observe how great disorder in them, and how fearful confusion must follow? For who will be loved by any with mutual affection, (being that the loving' itself is in-idiiectio visible,) if what I see not, I ought not to beheve? There- » The text seem.» corrupt. A Ms. will be, ' For certainly if you will m^t in Brasenose Library reads, 'si non have us believe things unseen, we ought vis rebus oreilere.' If we read ' Si non not (to believe this,) since Sec' ▼is rebus non vigis credere,' the sense B 2 4 Mutual love, even in families, is by faith in the unseen, DE FIDE fore will the whole of friendship perish, in that it consists ^^"^^ not save of mutual love. For what of it will it be able to receive from any, if nothing of it shall be believed to be shewn ? Further, friendship perishing, there will be preserved in the mind the bonds neither of marriages, nor of kindreds and relations; because in these also there is assuredly a friendly union of sentiment. Spouse therefore will not be able to love spouse in turn, inasmuch as each believes not the other's love, because the love itself cannot be seen. Nor will they long to have sons, who they believe not will make them a return. And if these be born and grow up, much less will the parents themselves love their own children, whose love towards themselves in those children's hearts they will not see, it being invisible; if it be not praiseworthy faith, but blameable rashness, to believe those things which are not seen. Why should I now speak of the other con- nections, of brothers, sisters, sons-in-law, and fathers-in- law, and of them who are joined together by any kindred or aflBnity, if love is uncertain, and the will suspected, that of parents by sons, and that of sons by parents, whilst due benevolence is not rendered; because neither is it thought to be due, that which is not seen in another not being thought to exist. Further, if this caution .be not a mark of 1 ingeni- ability S but be hateful, wherein we believe not that we are °^^ loved, because we see not the love of them who love, and repay not them, unto whom we think not that we owe a return; to that degree are human affairs thrown into dis- order, if what we see not we believe not, as to be altogether and utterly overthrown, if we believe no wills of men, which assuredly we cannot see. I omit to mention in how many things they, who find fault with us because we believe what we see not, believe report or history; or concerning places where they have not themselves been; and say not, we believe not, because we have not seen. Since if they say this, they are obhged to confess that their own parents are not surely known to them : because on this point also they have believed the accounts of others telling of it, who yet are unable to shew it, because it is a thing already past; retaining themselves no sense of that time, and yet yielding assent without any doubting to others speaking of that time : Prophecy of herself the Church'' s proof of things unseen. 5 and unless this be done, there must of necessity be incurred ou-e a faithless impiety towards parents, whilst we are, as it were, SentuIi shewing a rashness of belief in those things which we cannot see. Since therefore, if we believe not those things iii. wliich we cannot see, human society itself, through concord perishing, \\'\\\ not stand; how much more is faith to be applied to divine things, although they be not seen; failing the application of which, it is not the friendship of some men or other, but the very chiefest bond of piety' that isi'reli- violated, so as for the chiefest misery to follow. fumvi d 5. But you will say, the good will of a friend towards me, parents) altliough I cannot see it, yet can I trace it out by many proofs; but you, what things you will us to believe not being seen, you have no proofs whereby to shew them. In the mean time it is no slight ih'ing, that you confess that by reason of the clearness of certain ])roofs, some things, even such as are not seen, ought to be believed: for even thus it is agreed, that not all things which are not seen, are not to be believed ; and that saying, ' that we ought not to believe things which we see not,' falls to the ground, cast away, and refuted. But they are much deceived, who think that we believe in Christ without any proofs concerning Christ. For wdiat are there clearer proofs than those things, which we now see to have been foretold and fulfilled? Wherefore do ye, who think that there are no proofs why ye ought to believe concerning Christ those things which ye have not seen, give heed to what things ye see. The Church herself addresses you out of the mouth of a mother^s love : ' T, whom ye view with wonder throughout the whole world, bearing fruit and increasing, M'as not once such as ve now behold me. But, In thy Seed shall all nations be Gen.22, blessed. When God blessed Abraham, He gave the promise ^^* of me ; for throughout all nations in the blessing of Christ am I shed abroad. That Christ is the Seed of Abraham, the order of successive generations bears witness. Shortly to sum up which, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat twelve sons, of whom sprung the people Israel. For Jacob himself was called Israel. Among these twelve sons he begat Judah, whence the Jews have their name, of whom was born the Virgin Mary, who bore Christ. And, lo 6 Holy Church recounts prophecies of Christ and of herself . DEFiDE in Christ, that is, in the seed of Abraham, that all the nations ^^'^^^ are blessed, ye see and are amazed : and do ye still fear to believe in Him, in Whom ye ought rather to have feared not to believe ? What ? doubt ye, or refuse ye to believe, the travail of a Virgin, whereas ye ought rather to believe that it was fitting that so God should be born Man. For this also Is. 7, 14. receive ye to have been foretold by the Prophet; Behold, 23. a Virgin shall conceive in the wotnh, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with us. Ye will not therefore doubt of a Virgin bringing forth, if ye be willing to believe of a God being born ; leaving not the governance of the world, and coming unto men in the flesh ; unto His Mother bringing fruitfulness, not taking away maidenhood. For » Mss. thus behoved it that He should be born as Man, albeit' He 9!'"*^' was ever ^ God, by which birth He might become a God unto per.' us. Hence again the Prophet says concerning Him, Thy Ps.45, "YjiYone, O God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of right, the sceptre of Thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness^ and hated iniquity ; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee ivilh the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. This anointing is spiritual, wherewith God anointed God, the Father, that is, the Son : whence called from the Chrism, that is, from the anointing, we know Him as Christ. I am the Church, concerning whom it is said unto Him in the same Psalm, and what was future foretold as already done; There stood at Thy rigid hand the Queen, in a vesture of gold, in raiment of divers colours; that is, in the mystery of wisdom, ' adorned with divers tongues.' There it said unto me. Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy own people and thy father^s house : for the King hath desired thy beauty: seeing that He is the Lord thy God: and the daughters of Tyre shall worship Him with gifts, thy face shall all the rich of the people entreat. All the glory of that King''s daughter is vnthin, in fringes of gold, with raiment of divers colours. There shall be brought unto the King the maidens after her ; her com- panions shall be brought unto Thee. They shall be brought uith joy and gladness, they shall be brought into the Temple of the King. Instead of thy fathers, there are Fuljilment in conversions of Nations and calliny (>f Saints. 7 horn nnfo thee sons, thou shalt set them as jtrinces over qvm. ■JON VI >ENTUa the whole earth. They shall be mind/'nl of thy natne^^^^^^' even from generation to generation. Tlierefore shall the people confess unto thee for ever, and for ever and ever. 6. If this Queen ye see not, now rich also with royal progeny. If she see not that fulfilled which she heard to have been promised, she, unto whom it was said, Hear, 0 daughter, and see. If she hath not loft the ancient rites of the world, she, unto whom it was said. Forget thy oun people and thy Father'^s house. If she confesses not every where Christ the Lord, she, unto whom it was said, The King hath desired thy beauty, for He is the Lord thy Qod. If she sees not the cities of the nations pour forth prayers and offer gifts unto Christ, concerning Whom it was said inito her, There shall ivorship Him the daughters of Tyre with gijts. If the pride also of the rich is not laid aside, and they do not entreat help of the Church, unto whom it was said. Thy face shall all the rich of the pcopjle entreat. If He acknowledges not the King's daughter, unto Whom she was bidden to say, Our Father, Who art in Heaven; and Matt. ( 9. 2 Cor. 4, in her saints in the inner man she is not renewed from day to day, concerning whom it was said. All the glory ^^ of that King's daughter is within: although she strike upon the eyes of them also that are without with the blaze' of the fame of her preachers, in diversity of tongues, as in fringes of gold, and raiment of divers colours. If there be not, now that His fame is spread abroad in every place b}' His good odour, virgins also brought unto Christ Song of to be consecrated, of Whom it is said, and to Whom it^"'-'»^- is said, There shall be brought unto the King the virgins after her, her companions shall be brought unto Thee. And that they might not seem to be brought like captives, into some, as it were, prison, he says. They shall be brought in joy and gladness, they shall be brought into the King's temple. If she brings not forth sons, that of them she niay have, as it were, fathers, whom she may appoint unto herself every where as rulers, she, unto whom it is said. Instead of thy fathers there are born unto thee' sons, thou shalt set them as jirinces over the whole earth : unto whose prayers their * Ben. conj. ' fulgcntc,' for ' fulgintes.' H Tin' Cliurch pi ores past facts, not seen, hy present, seen. DE FIDE mother both preferred and made subject, commends herself, They shall be mindful of thy name, even from generation to generation. If, by reason of the preaching of those same fatliers, wherein they have without ceasing made mention of her name, there are not so great multitudes in her gathered together, and without end in their own tongues unto her confess the praise of grace, unto whom it is said, Therefore shall the people confess unto thee for ever, and for ever and iv. ever. If these things are not so shewn to be clear, as that the eyes of enemies find not in what direction to turn aside, where the same clearness strikes them not, so as by it to be obliged to confess what is evident: you perhaps assert wiih reason, that no proofs are shewn to you, by seeing which you may believe those things also which you see not. But if those things, which you see, both have been foretold long before, and are so clearly fulfilled ; if the truth itself makes itself clear to you, by effects '^ going before and following after, O remnant of unbelief, that ye may believe the things which you see not, blush at those things which ye see. 7. 'Give heed unto me, the Church says unto you; give heed unto me, whom ye see, although to see ye be unwilling. For the faithful, who were in those times in the land of Judaea, were present at, and learnt as present, Christ's won- derful birth of a virgin, and His passion, resurrection, ascension; all His divine words and deeds. These things ye have not seen, and therefore ye refuse to believe. There- fore behold these things, fix your eyes on these things, these things which ye see reflect on, which are not told you as things past, nor foretold you as things future, but are shewn you as things present. What ? seemeth it to you a vain or a light thing, and think you it to be none, or a little, divine miracle, that in the name of One Crucified the whole human race runs? Ye saw not what was foretold and fulfilled Ts. 7, 14. concerning the human birth of Christ, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive in the 7vomb, and shall bear a Son ; but you see the Word of God which was foretold and fulfilled unto Gen, 22, Abraham, /// thy seed shall all nations he blessed. Ye 18. d The Prophecy might be called an words going before and effects following ' effect' as well as its fulfilment ; or after.' For further illustration see St. read ' verbis' for ' vobis,' ' clear by Aug. on Ps. 45. Fiiljilme)itin Passion andResurtcction unseen; in Chinch seen t) saw not what was foretold concerning the wonderful works Qo« of Christ, Come ye, and see the works of the Lord, what dentur tconders He hath set upon the earth : but yc see that which Ps.4e,8. was foretold, The Lord said unto Me, My Son art Thou, /Ps.2, 7. hate this day begotten Thee; demand of Me and I will give^^^^ ^ Thee nations as Thy inheritance, and as Thy possessio)i the^; 5,5'. bounds of the earth. Ye saw not that which was foretold 33^1 ^ ' and fulfilled concerning the Passion of Christ, They pierced Vs. 22, My hands and My feet, they numbered all My bones; but they Jg' '^" themselves regarded and beheld Me ; they divided among them John 19, My garments, and upon My vesture they cast the lot ; but ye see that which was in the same Psalm foretold, and now is clearly lulfiUed ; All the ends of the earth shall remember Ps. 22, and be turned unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the'^^''^^' nations shall worship in His sight ; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule over the nations. Ye saw not what was foretold and fulfilled concerning the Resurrection of Christ, the Psalm speaking, in His Person, first concerning His betrayer and persecutors: They went forth out of doors, Pa^ 4\ and spake together : against Me whispered all My enemies,'^— ^' against Me thought they evil for Me ; they set in order an unrighteous word against Me. Where, to shew that they availed nothing by slaying Him Who was about to rise again, He adds and says; Wliat ? will not He, that sleeps, add this, that He rise again ? And a little after, when He had foretold, by means of the same prophecy, concerning His betrayer himself, that which is written in the Gospel also. He that did eat of My bread, enlarged his heel upon il/e, Ps. 41, that is, trampled Me under foot: He straightway added, ^* "^* But do Thou, O L^ord, have mercy upon Me, and raise Thou Me up again, and I shall repay them. This was fulfilled, Christ slept and awoke, that is, rose again: Who through the same prophecy in another Psalm says, / slept and took Ps. 4,8. my rest ; and L rose again, for the Lord will uphold Me. But this ye saw not, but ye see His Clmrch, concerning whom it is written in like manner, and fulfilled, O Lord My ,]cr. \6, Cod, the nations shall come tmto Thee from the e.vtremity^'^- of the earth and shall say, Truly our fathers worshipped lying images, and there is not in them any profit. Tliis certainly, whether vc will or no, ve behold; even although \Q Fall of idols J worship every where. Past, Present, and Future DEFiDEye yet believe, that there either is, or was, in those idols ^^'^"'^ some profit; yet certainly unnumbered peoples of the nations, after having left, or cast away, or broken in pieces such like Jer. 16, vanities, ye have heard say, Truly our fathers worshipped ^^'^^'^' lying images, and there is not in them any profit ; shall a man make gods, and, lo, they are no gods ? Nor think that it was foretold that the nations should come unto some one place of God, in that it was said. Unto Thee shall the nations come from the extremity of the earth. Understand, if you can, that unto the God of the Christians, Who is the Supreme and True God, the peoples of the nations come, not by walking, but by believing. For the same thing was by Zeph. 2, another Prophet thus foretold. The Lord, saith he, shall pre- ^^' vail against them, and shall utterly destroy all the gods of the nalions of the earth : and all the isles of the nations shall tvorship Him, each man from his place. Whereas the one says, Unto Thee all nations shall come ; this the other says, ' They shall worship Him, each man from his place.' Therefore they shall come unto Him, not departing from their own place, because believing in Him they shall find Him in their hearts. Ye saw not what was foretold and Ps. 108, fulfilled concerning the ascension of Christ; Be Thou exalted above the Heavens, O God; but ye see what follows imme- diately after. And above all the earth Thy Glory. Those things concerning Christ already done and past, all of them ye have not seen ; but these things present in His Church ye deny not that ye see. Both things we point out to you as foretold ; but the fulfilment of both we are therefore unable to point out for you to see, because we cannot bring back into sight things past. y 8. But as the wills of friends, which are not seen, are believed through tokens which are seen; thus the Church, which is now seen, is, of all things which are not seen, but which are shewn forth in those writings wherein itself also is foretold, an index of the past, and a herald of the future. Because both things past, which cannot now be seen, and things present which cannot be seen all of them, at the time at which they were foretold, no one of these could then be seen. Therefore, since they have begun to come to pass as they were foretold, from those things which in the Church. IVUness, and furcluld stale of the Jews. II have come to pass unto those which are coining to pass, cu* those things which were foretold concerning Christ and the oeJJ,*^^^ Church have run on in an ordered series: unto which series ~~~ tliese pertain concerning the day of Judgment, concerning tlie resurrection of the dead, concerning the eternal damna- tion of the ungodly with the devil, and concerning the eternal recompense of the godly with Christ, things which, foretold in like manner, are yet to come. A\'hy therefore should we not believe the first and the last things which we see not, when we have, as witnesses of both, the things between, which we see, and in the books of the Proj^hets either hear or read both the first things, and the things between, and the last things, foretold before they came to pass? Unless haply unbelieving men judge those things to have been written by Christians, in order that thosw things which they already believed might have greater weight of authority, if they should be thought to have been promised before they came, 9. If they suspect this, let them examine carefully the vi. copies' of our enemies the Jews. There let them read those ' codices things of which we have made mention, foretold concerning Christ in Whom we believe, and the Church whom we discern from the toilsome beginning of faith even unto the eternal blessedness of the kingdom. But, whilst they read, let them not wonder that they, whose are the books, under- stand not by reason of the darkness of enmity. For that they would not understand was foretold beforehand by the same Prophets; which it behoved should be fulfilled in like manner as the rest, and that by the secret and just judgment of God a due punishment should be rendered to their deserts. He indeed. Whom they crucified, and unto Whom they gave gall and vinegar, although when hanging upon the Tree, by reason of those whom He had been about to lead forth from darkness into light, He said unto the Father, Forgive them, I.uki'23, /or they know uot what they do; yet by reason of those whom through more hidden causes He had been about to desert, by the Proj)het so long before foretold, Theij gave il/eP8-69, (/(til /or My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to ~ drink; let their table become a snare be/ore them, and a recompense, and a shnnbling-block : let their eyes be 12 The Jeics preserved to attest their Scriptures. \)EFiT>E darkened that they see not, and ever how Thou down their "■^"•^^^ back. Thus, having with them the clearest testimonies of our cause, they walk round about with eyes darkened, that by their means those testimonies may be proved, wherein they themselves are disapproved. Therefore was it brought to pass, that they should not be so blotted out, as that this same sect should altogether exist not : but it was scattered abroad upon the earth, in order that, canying with it the prophecies of the grace conferred upon us, more surely to convince un- believers, it might every where profit us. And this very thing which I assert, receive ye after what manner it was Ps. 59, prophesied of: Slap them not, saith He, lest at any time ^^' they forget Thy law, hut scatter them abroad in Thy might. Therefore they were not slain, in that they forgot not those things vhich Vv^ere read and heard among them. For if they were altogether to forget, albeit they understand not, the Holy Scriptures, they would be slain in the Jewish ritual itself; because, when the Jews should know nothing of the Law and of the Prophets, they would be unable to profit us. Therefore they were not slain, but scattered abroad ; in order that, although they should not have in faith, whence they might be saved; yet they should retain in their memory, whence we might be helped; in their books our supporters, in their hearts our enemies, in their copies our witnesses, vii. 10, Although, even if there went before no testimonies concerning Christ and the Church, whom ought it not to move imto belief, that the Divine brightness hath on a sudden shone on the human race, when we see, (the false gods now abandoned, and their images every where broken in pieces, their temples overthrown or changed into other uses, and so many vain rites plucked out by the roots from the most inveterate usage of men,) the One True God invoked by all? And that this hath been brought to pass by One Man, by men mocked, seized, bound, scourged, smitten with the palms of the hand, reviled, crucified, slain : His disciples, (whom 1 idiotas He chose common men *, and unlearned, and fishermen, and publicans, that by their means His teaching might be set forth,) proclaiming His Resurrection, His Ascension, which they asserted that they had seen, and being filled with the Holy Ghost, sounded forth this Gospel, in all tongues which Succesfi of the Gospel, as foretold, proves God's Name, hi they had not learned. And of tlieni who licard them, part qvm behoved, part, believing not, fiercely withstood them wh()[^°^^'^ preached. Thus while they were faithi'ul even unto death for the truth, strove not by returning evil, but by enduring, overcame not by killing, but by dying; thus was the world changed unto this religion, thus unto this Gospel were the hearts of mortals turned, of men and women, of small and great, of learned and unlearned, of wise and foolish, of mighty and weak, of noble and ignoble, of high and low, and throughout all nations the Church shed abroad so increased, that even against the Catholic faith itself there arises not any perverse sect, any kind of error, which is found so to oppose itself to Christian truth, as that it affect not and go not about to glory in the name of Christ: which very error would not be suffered to spring up throughout the earth, were it not that the very gainsaying exercised an wholesome discipline- How' would The Crucified have availed so ' lit. greatly, had He not been God that took upon Him Man, " ^°' even if He had through the Prophet foretold no such things to come ? But when now this so great mystery of godliness hath had its prophets and heralds going before, by whose divine voices it was afore proclaimed ; and when it hath come in such manner as it was afore proclaimed, who is there so mad as to assert that the Apostles lied concerning Christ, of Whom they preached that He was come in such manner as the Pro])hets foretold afore that He should come, which Prophets were not silent as to true things to come concerning the Apostles themselves ? For concerning these they bad said, There is neither speech nor languarje, whereof Vs. 19, their voices are not heard; their sound icent out into all the ^' ^ earth, and their words unto the ends of the tcorld. And this at any rate we see fulfilled in the world, although wc have not yet seen Christ in the flesh. Who therefore, unless blinded by amazing madness, or hard and steeled by amazing obstinacy, would be unwilling to put faith in the sacred Scriptures, which have foretold the faith of the whole world ? 11. Hut you, beloved, who possess this faith, or who have viii. bcgtin now newly to have it, let it be nourished and increase in you. For as things temporal have come, so long before 14 Prophecy speaks of evils avoifed the Church. DEFiDEforetuld, so will things eternal also come, which are promised. QVM Nor let them deceive you, either the vain heathen, or the NONvi-fgIgg Jews, or the deceitful heretics, or also within the DENTUR ' Catholic (Church) itself evil Christians, enemies by so much the more hurtful, as they are the more within us. For, lest on this subject also the weak should be troubled, divine prophecy hath not been silent, where in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaking unto the Bride, that is, Christ the Song of Lord unto the Church, saith. As -a lily in the midst of I proxi- thorjis, so is my best BelovecV in the midst of the daughters. ^i^"- He said not, in the midst of them that are without; but, in 9. ' the midst of daughters. Whoso hath ears to hear, let him hear: and whilst the net which is cast into the sea, and ib.47-50. gathers together all kinds of fishes, as saith the holy Gospel, is being drawn unto the shore, that is, unto the end of the woi-ld, let him separate himself from the evil fishes, in heart, not in body ; by changing evil habits, not by breaking sacred nets; lest they who now seem being approved to be mingled with the reprobate, find, not life, but punishment everlasting *, when they shall begin on the shore to be separated. e Some Mss. ' that they «fee. may find not punishment, but life.' S. AUGUSTINE FAITH, AND OF THE CREED. S. Aug. Retract, i. 17. About the same time in the presence and by order A-D.393. of the Bishops, who were hokling a full Council of Africa at Hippo- Regius, 1 discoursed, as a Presbyter, of Faith and the Creed. Which discourse, at the very earnest request of some particular friends, I have formed into a book ; in which the truths themselves are treated of, with- out adopting the form of words which is given to the Competentes to learn by lieart. In this book, in treating of the Resurrection of the flesh, I say, " The body will rise again according to Christian Faith, Cap. 10. " which cannot deceive. He who thinks this incredible attends to what See S. " the flesh is now, but doesnotconsiderwhat it will then be; because in that ^{^^' " time of our angelical change it will be no more flesh and blood, but only xiv. 72. " body;" and the restofwhati there sayof the change of terrestrial bodies into celestial bodies, because the Apostle said in speaking thereof, Fks/i :. J' and blood shall not inherit the /ci>i(/do?)i of God. But whoso takes this so ' as to think that the earthly body, such as we have now, is in resurrection so changed into a heavenly body, as that there will be no limbs nor substance of flesh, must doubtless be set right by reminding him of the Lord's Body, who appeared after Resurrection in the same members, not only to be seen by the eyes, but also to be handled with the hands, and even proved Himself to have flesh by discourse, saying. Handle Me, Luke and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have. Whence ' it is plain that the Apostle did not deny that there will be the substance of flesh in the Kingdom of God; but either called men who were after the flesh ' flesh and blood,' or the corruption of the flesh itself, which then surely will be no more. For when he had said, Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, it is right to understand him as having added fur explanation what follows directly, Neither shall cor- ruption inherit incorruption. Of which point, on which it is so difficult to convince unbelievers, any one who will read my la.st book ' On the Can. 5. City of God' will see that I have treated with all the pains I could *° bestow. 10 The Faith of the Creed guarded by e.vplanaiions. DEFiDE Seeing that it hath been written and confirmed by most ^Bo^Lo!" strong authority of Apostohc teaching, Tltat the just liveth [] of faith ; and that this faith requires of us the duty both of Hab. 2, heart and tongue : for the Apostle says, With the heart man Kom. 1 helieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession J^- is made unto salvation : it behoveth that we be mindful both ii!' ' of righteousness and of salvation. Since of a truth being l^^*^*'' about to reign hereafter in everlasting righteousness, we Rom. cannot be saved from this present evil world, unless also ' ' we ourselves, striving for the salvation of our neighbours, make profession likewise, with the mouth, of the faith which we bear in the heart : and that this faith be not in any part violated in ourselves by the deceitful craftiness of heretics, we must with pious and cautious vigilance provide. However the Catholic Faith in the Creed is known to the faithful, and committed to memory, with as much brevity of speech as the matter allowed, in order that, to those who have been born again in Christ, commencing and still suckling, not yet strengthened by most diligent and spiritual handling and knowledge of the divine Scriptures, there might be put together in few words for their belief, what was afterwards in many words to be expounded to them as they should advance, and rise unto divine doctrine by the assured firmness of humility and charity. Wherefore beneath these very few words put together in the Creed, the most part of heretics have endeavoured to hide their poisons ; whom the Divine mercy hath resisted and yet resists by means of spiritual men. "Wlio in respect of the Catholic Faith have obtained, not only to receive and believe it in these words, but further, by the enlightening of the Lord, to understand Is. 7, 9. and know it. For it is written. Unless ye shall believe, ye ^■^^" sliall not understand. But the handling of the Faith avails to the fortifying of the Creed: not that itself should be given in place of the Creed, to those who are now obtaining the grace of God, to be committed to memory and repeated, but that those things which are contained in the Creed it may guard against the lyings in wait of heretics by Catholic authority, and by a more fortified defence. ii, '2. For certain have endeavoured to persuade that God the Oinuipolcnce implies creation o/ mailer froin iml/iiin/. 17 Fathek is not Almighty; not that they liave dared to assert deitdi ^TSYM. BOLO. tliis, but in their own traditions are convicted of thus ' holding and believing. For wiiercin they assert that there is a nature ' which God Almighty created not, out ot which nature however lie framed this world, which they grant hath been beautifully set in order; they so deny God tci be Almighty, as not to beheve that He could have created the world, unless for the framing of it He should make use of another nature, which was already in existence, and wliich Himself had not created; forsooth from their carnal use of seeing smiths, and house-builders, and worlimcn of all kinds, who, unless they be aided by materials already prepared, are unable to arrive at the ellect of their own art. For in this way they understand the Frauier of the world not to be Almiglity, if lie were unable to frame the world, unless these should aid Him, after the manner of materials, some nature not framed by Him. Or if they allow that God the Framer of the world is Almighty, they must of necessity confess that He made of nothing those things which He made. For there cannot exist any thing, whereof He were not Creator, being Almighty. Because although something He made out of something, as man out of clay, yet assuredly He made not out of that which Himself had not made ; for the earth, whence the clay was. He had made out of nothing. And if the very heaven and earth, that is, the world and all things which are in it. He had made out of some material, as it is written, T/ioii Wlio liast made the world of matter unseen, Wml or also, without form, as certain copies have ; in no way is ' it to be believed tliat that very matter out of which the world was made, altliough nit hout form, although unseen, in what- soever manner it existed, could have existed of itself, as if coeternal and coeval with God : but its manner, whatever it was, which it had, so as, in whatsoever manner, to exist, and to be capable of receiving the forms of things distinct, it had not, save from the Almighty God, by Whose goodness exists not only whatsoever thing is formed, but also whatsoever is formable. For between the formed and the formable there is this difference, that the formed hath already received form, » Of the Manichean doctrine, see note at the end of the Translation of .''t. Augustine's Confessions. C 18 Christ the Only Son, the Word, the Wisdom of God. DE FIDE but the formable is capable of receiving it. But He Who BOLo.OQ things bestows form, Himself also bestows the power of receiving form ; seeing that of Him and in Him is of all ispecio-t}jingg ^]jg most kindly kind', unchangeable: and therefore species. Himself is One, Who to each thing assigns, not only that it be beautiful, but also that it be capable of beauty. Where- fore most rightly do we believe that God hath made all things out of nothing: because, even although the world have been made of some material, that very same material hath been made out of nothing ; so that by the most ordered gift of God, there should take place first a capacity of receiving forms, and afterward all things, whatsoever have been formed, should be formed. But this we have said, that no one may imagine that the sentences of the divine Scrip- tures are oi)posed one to another, seeing that it is written, both that God created all things out of nothing, and that the world was made out of matter without form. •3. Believing therefore in God the Father Almighty, we ought to think that there is no creature which was not created by the Almighty. And, because He created all Johni4,tjjing.g ]jy xhQ Word, which Word is called also the Truth, i"cor.i,and the Power, and the Wisdom of God, and under many ^■^" other names is He suggested. Who is commended to our faith, Jesus Christ, the Lord our Redeemer, that is, and Ruler, the Son of God: for that Word, by Whom all things were made, could none other beget, save He, Who by Him iii. made all things: we believe also in Jesus Christ the Son OF God, THE Only-begotten, that is, the only Son of the Father, our Lord. Of which Word, notwithstanding, we ought to conceive not as of our own words, which being put forth by the voice and mouth, strike upon the air, and pass away, nor exist any longer than they sound. For that Word abideth unchangeably : for of This very Word it was said, "Wisd. 7, when it was said of Wisdom, In Herself abiding Slie maketh all tilings new. But therefore was He called the Word of the Father, because by Him the Father is made known. As therefore by our words this is our purpose, when we speak the truth, that oiu' own mind may become known to him who hears us, and that whatsoever we bear secret in our heart, may by means of signs of this sort be brought forth onan- Tlte Word is from the Father, not as our a-ords from us. \i) for another to understand: so That Wisdom Which God thcuEFiDK Father begat, seeing that by It there is made known unto "^bqi^o ' worthy minds the most hidden Fatlier, is most suitably ~ called His Word. 4. But there is a very great interval between our mind and our words, by which we endeavour to make known lliis our mind. That is, we do not beget audible' words, but's make them, and body is the subject-matter for making*"*' them. But there is a very great difference between mind and body. But God when He begat the Word, begat That which Himself is: nor yet out of nothing, nor out of any matter already made and created: but out of Himself That which Himself Is. For this we also endeavour, in speaking, if we diligently consider the aim of our will ; not when we lie, but when we speak the truth. For what other thing do we attempt, than to carry our very mind, if practicable, into the mind of the hearer, that he may know and see it thoroughly; that we may indeed ourselves remain within ourselves, and not depart from ourselves, and yet may put forth such a sign as that there be produced in the other a knowledge of us ; that so, as far as the power is granted, there be put forth by the mind as it were another mind whereby to declare itself? This we do endeavouring both by words ""j and by the very sound of the voice, by the counte- nance, and by the gesture of the body, that is to say, by so many contrivances desiring to shew that which is within : because we are unable to put forth some such thing, and therefore the mind of him who speaks cannot become entirely known; whence also there is a place open for lies. But God the Father, Who both willed and was able to declare Himself most truly to minds about to know Him, This begat in order to declare Himself, Which Himself Is Who begat; Who also is called His Power and Wisdom, because by Him He wrought and set in order all things; of Whom therefore it is said, // reacheth from one end eren unto the W'isd.i other end in Its strength, and selteth all tilings in order in '• Its sucetness. 5. Wherefore the Only -begotten Son of God was neither J^- made by the Father; because, as the Evangelist says, All things ^°^° ' *• al, making effort with the offspring of a word. C 2 20 The Sou uncreated, and equal in Godhead, i/et made 3lan. DEFiDE tvere mode hy Him ; nor begotten in timu', seeing that God '^BOLi^.' being ever-eternally wise, lialh with Himself His ever-elemal lex tem- Wisdom; nor miequal to the Father, that is, in any thing PhT 2 ^^**^' because also the Apostle says. Who, being set in the 6. * ^ form of God, thought it not rohberii to he equal with God. Wherefore by this Catholic Faith both they are excluded who say, that the Same Who is the Father is the Son : because both this Word could not be with God, save only with God the Father, and He Who is alone is equal to none. 2Sf.Ath.They also are excluded who say that the Son is a creature, ^V. "^g- although not such as are the rest of creatures. For how- great soever they may say that a creature is, if it is a creature, it hath been created and made. For condere (to build) is the same as creare (to create), although in the usage of the Latin tongue creare is sometimes said, where the proper word is gignere (to beget); but the Greeks make a distinction. For we call creafura what they call Krlcrixa or KTia-ii', and when we wish to speak without any ambiguity, we say not, creare, but condere (to build). If therefore the Son be a creature, how great soever it be, it hath been made. But we believe in Him, by Whom all things were made, not in Him by Whom all otlier things were made : for neither in this place can we understand, all, in any other sense, than, whatsoever things have been made. John 1, But since tlie Word teas made Flesh and dwelt among us, the same Wisdom which was begotten of God, deigned also 3 al. ' a- to be created among men ^ And to this applies the saying, all The Lord created* me in the beginning of His wags. For things.' j^ijg beginning of His ways is the Head of the Church, which 22. 'is Christ clothed in humau nature, by Whom should be messed gi^'^n unto us an example of life, that is, a certain vvay »«^>' whereby we might attain unto God. For, save by humility, "^' 'we were unable to return, who fell by pride, as was said Gen. 3, unto our first creation, Taste, and, ye shall he as Gods. An example therefore of this humility, that is, of the way whereby it was necessary that we should return, our Restorer 6. ;/ ' Himself hath deigned to shew us in Himself, Who thought it not robberg to be equal with God, yet emptied Himself, receiring the form of a servant; that He might be created a Man in the beginning of His ways, the Word by Whom The Sou laiKjhl Mosea His own Name, I AM. oj all tilings were created. Wherefore according to Ibis, that nppirE lie is the Only-begotten, He hath not brethren; accordi F.TSVM- BOLO. to this, however, that He is the First-begotten, He hath deigned to call brethi-en, all who after and throngh His First-born-ship^ are born again unto the grace of God ' I'^'ma- through the adoption of sons, as the Ajjostolic teaching i""k,,g instructs us. The Son by Nature therefore, of the very^'-'^^^- Substance of the Father, was He the Only One born; being Gal. 4, That Which the Father Is; God of God, Light of Light ;f fP''' but we are not by nature the iiight, but are enlightened by That Light, that we may be able to shine with wisdom, for I'Juit was, it is said, ilte true Liylit, JVIiich enlightenelh every John i, 7)1(111 comim/ into ihi.s norld. We add therefore to our faith ^* of things eternal the temporal dispensation also of our Lord, which He deigned to bear and minister for our salvation. For according to this, that He is the Only-begotten Son of God, it cannot be said. He was, and, He shall be, but only, He Is : because that, which hath been, now is not, and that, which shall be, is not as yet. He therefore Is unchangeable, without respect of times and variation. Nor do I think that it is to be ascribed to any other soiu'ce that He suggested unto His servant Moses such as His Name. For when he inquired of Him, in case the people, to whom he was being sent, should despise him, by Whom he sliould say that he was sent, he received an answer of Him, saying, / am That Exoil.3, I AM. Afterwards He added, These tliiiiys slialt thou say unto ^'*' the children of Israel, He That is hath sent me unto you. 7. From which I trust that it is by this time clear to .spiritual minds, that no nature can exist contrary to God. For if He is, and this word can jiroperly be sjjoken of God only, (for that which truly is, abideth unchangeably ; seeing that that which is changed, hath been something which now it is not, and will be something which as yet it is not,) therefore hath God nothing contrary to Himself. For if it were asked of us, what is contrary to white, we should answer, black ; if it were asked, what is contrary to hot, we should answer, cold ; if it were asked, what is contrary to rpiick, we should answer, slow; and all such like things. Hut when it is asked what is contrary to That Which is, it is rightly answered, that which is not. 22 The Son, made 3Ian, trulij horn of a JVoman. DEFiDE 8. But since (as 1 have said) through a temporal dis- ET SYM- BOLo. peusation, in order to our salvation aud restoration, through the operation of the goodness of God, by That Unchangeable Wisdom of God our changeable nature was assumed ; we add the belief in temporal things done for us in order to our health, believing in That Son of God, Who was born by THE Holy Ghost of thk Virgin Mary. For by the gift of God, that is, by the Holy Spirit, there was granted unto us so great humiliation of so great a God, as that He deigned to J totum assume the entire Man ^ in the womb of the Virgin, His nem!" Mother's body undefiled indwelling in, undefiled leaving. Which temporal dispensation in many ways the heretics lay wait against. But, if one shall hold the Catholic Faith, so as to believe that the entire Man was assumed by the Word of God, that is, body, soul, spirit, he is sufficiently fortified against them. Forasmuch as, seeing that that assumption was made for our salvation, one must take heed lest, by believing that some part of us pertains not unto that as- sumption, it pertains not unto salvation. And whereas man, except the form of his limbs, which hath been assigned different to ditferent kinds of living beings, is not separate from the cattle, save by a reasonable spirit, which also is called mind ; how is the faith sound, wherein it is believed that the Wisdom of God assumed that of ours which we have in common with the cattle, but did not assume that whicli is enlightened by the light of wisdom, and which is peculiar to man ? 9. But they also are to be abhorred, who deny that our Lord Jesus CIn-ist had a mother, Maiy, upon earth ; whereas that dispensation hath honoured either sex, the male and the female, and hath shewn that it pertaineth unto God's care, not only that sex which He assumed, but that also by means of which He assumed it, by bearing man's nature, by being born of a woman. Nor are we compelled to deny the Mother John 2, of Christ, by that saying of His, fVoman, what have I to do ttifh thee? not yet is Mine hour come. But He admonishes us rather that we may understand that according to that He 5 perso- was God Fie had no mother, the character" of which majesty "'^"'" He was about to display by turning water into wine. But in that He was crucified, according to that He was Man was Objections to this shiun to he futile. 23 He crucified; and that was the hour, wliich was not yctnEFiDu come, when it was said, What have I to do uith thee? "<>/ ^bolo! yet ii 3Iine hour come; that is, the liour in which I shall acknowledge thee. For then being crucified as Man He knew His human' Mother, and most humanely entrusted her' homi- to His best beloved disciple. Nor let that move us, that j^']^^,9 when word was brought to Him of His mother and IIis-tJ-27. brethren, He answered, Who is Mi/ mother, or ulio My ^lat.12, brethren? Sfc. But let it rather teach us, that our ministry, whereby we minister the Word of God to our brethren, when parents hinder, they ought not to be known by us. For if each one shall therefore think that He had no mother upon earth, because He said, Who is My mother? he must of necessity be compelled to deny also that the Ajioslles had fathers upon earth; seeing that He gave them charge, saying, Call ye not any your father upon earth: for One is your Ma.t.23, Father, Who is in Heaven. 10. Nor let it take away in us from that faith, the thought of the woman's womb, as that it should therefore be neces- sary to reject such a concejition of our Lord, because base- minded^ men think it base. Because most truly does the " sordidi. Apostle declare, both that the foolishness of God is triser iCot.\, than wan, and that to the pure ail things are pure. There- ^^/^ j fore they, who thus think, ought to consider, that the rays of 16. this sun, which at least they praise not as a creature of God, but adore as God, is every where poured abroad through foul smells of sewers and whatsoever things are horrible, and in these works according to its nature, and yet becomes not thence vile by any contamination, although the visible light be naturally more allied to visible filth : how much less therefore could the Word of God, Which is neither corporeal nor visible, be polluted out of a female body, where It assumed human flesh together with soul and spirit, by the intervention of which the Majesty of the Word dwells more retired and separate from the frailty of a human body. Whence it is clear that in no way could the Word of God be spotted by a human body, whereby not even the very human soul is spotted. For not when it rules and quickens the body, but when it lusts after its mortal goods, the soul is spotted of the body. But if they wished to avoid the spots 24 Our Lord'' a Crucljixion, Resurrection, Asceusioti. DEFjDEof tl)e soul, they would dread rather these lies and blas- ETSYM- , . _BOLo. pnemies, V. 11. But it was little that oar Lord for us humbled Himself in being born : there was added, that He deigned also to die Phil. 2, for mortal men. For He humbled Himself, heiiij made subject even tmio deatlt, and that the death of the Cross; lest any of us, although he should be able not to fear death, nsight yet shrink from some kind of death, which men judge most ignominious. Therefore we believe in Him, Who und?:r Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried. For it was necessary that the name of the judge be added, that the times miglU be known. But when that burial is believed in, there is made a calling to mind of the new tomb, whereby, to Him about to rise again unto newness of life, witness should be borne, as unto Him about to be born, by the Virgin's womb. John 19, For as in that sepulchre no other dead body was buried, neither before nor after ; so in that womb neither before nor after was any thing mortal conceived. 12. We believe also that He on the third day rose AGAIN from the DEAD, the First-begotteu unto brethren Epi. 1, about to follow after Him, whom He called unto the adoption of sons of God, whom He deigned to make co-partners and co-heirs with Himself, vi. 13. W^e believe that He ascended into heaven, which Mat.22, place of blessedness He promised unto us also, saying. They Gal 4 >^haU be as angels in the heavens, in that City, which is the 26. mother of us all, 3 exwsaXem, aiernsiX in the heavens. But it is wont to ofiend certain either impious heathen or heretics, that we believe that an earthly body was taken up into heaven. But the heathen for the most part are anxious to tveat with us with the arguments of the Philosophers, so as to assert that nothing earthly can be in heaven. For our Scriptures they know not, nor understand in what way it J Cor. was said, H is sown an animal body, it arises a spiritual "^' ■ body. For it was not so said, as if body were changed into spirit, and became spirit ; because now also our body which ' anima. is called animal, hath not been turned into soul', and made soul. But by a spiritual body that is understood, which hath been so subjected unto the spirit % as that it is suited to •■ al. ' Because it is \n lip so nrriered.' His sitting at the lliyht Hand of The Father. 25 a heavenly habitation, all frailty and earthly stain having been defidk changed and turned into heavenly purity and sted fastness. This '•-"^'^vm- is the change, of which again the Apostle says, We shall all i Cor. ' rise again^ but tee shall not ' all be channed. Which chan<>-e .'""'' '^'• 1*1 1 • -1 . , o 'so Vttlg. the same Apostle teaches is made not lor the worse, but for the better, in that he says. And we shall be changed. Where I Cor. however and in what manner the Body of tlie Ijord is in '^' ^^* heaven, it were most over-curious and superfluous to inquire; only we must believe that He is in heaven. For it belongs not to our frailty to discuss the secrets of the lieavcns, but it belongs to our faith to entertain high and honourable thoughts concerning the dignity of our Lord's Body. 14. We believe also tliat He sitteth at the right hand vii. OF THE Father. Yet nuist we not therefore suppose that God the Father is inclosed, as it were, witliin a human form ; so that, when we think of Him, tl)ere suggest itself to our mind a right or left side : neither the very fact that the Father is said to sit, must we think that that is done with bended knees, lest we fall into that blasphemy, wherein the Apostle curses them, who changed the glorg of the incor- Tiom. ], riiptible God into the likeness of corruptible man. For * such a likeness unto God it is impious for a Christian to place in a temple ; much more is it impious to })lace it in the heart, where truly is the temple of God, if it be cleansed from earthly lust and error. Wherefore we must understand that, * at the right hand,' is used in this sense, in the highest blessedness, where is righteousness, and ])eace, and joy; as the kids are set at the left hand, tliat is, in misery, by reason of unrighteousness, labours, and torments''. Wherefore that Mat.25, God is said to sit, signifies, not a position of the limbs, but'^'*' a Judicial power, of which That Majesty is never void, in assigning to men their deserts"; although in the last Judg-ajigna ment much more manifestly among men will be hereafter the «'•P"''*- undoubted brightness of the Only-begotten Son of God, the Judge of the quick and of the dead. 15. We believe also that He will thence come at the viii. most lilting time, and that He will judge the wlick and the dead. Whether by those names are meant the just and the sinners; or whether thosi; whom at that time He shall '^ al. ' thr labours and lornii'iit.s of unrightcniisncsp.' "26 Each Person of Himself God, yet the Three One God. DEFiDEfind before death upon the earth, are called the quick, and ^^QLo.diose the dead, who at His Coming shall rise again. This temporal Dispensation " is not simply, as that Generation according to that He is God, but also, halli been, and shall he. For our Lord haili been upon earth, and now is in Heaven, and shall he in His brightness the Judge of the quick and of the dead. For He shall so come, as He hath Acts 1, ascended, according to the authority^ which is contained in ^^' the Acts of the Apostles. According to this temporal dis- pensation then He speaks in the Apocalypse, wherein it is Kev. 1, written, Thtis saith He, Who is, and Who was, and Who is ftivos. ig. Thus then having been set in order and commended ^^' to faith, both the divine Generation of our Lord, and His human Dispensation, there is added unto our Confession, in order to perfect the faith which we have concerning God, THE Holy Ghost, not of an inferior nature ^ to the Father and the Son, but, so to say, consubstantial and coelernal ; inasmuch as That Trinity is One God, not so that the ' idem. Father be the same Person ^, Who is also the Son and the Holy Ghost; but that the Father be the Father, and the Son be the Son, and the Holy Ghost be the Holy Ghost, and Deut. 6, This Trinity One God, as it is written. Hear, O Israel, the Lord yovr God is One God. Yet if it be demanded of us concerning each separately, and it be said unto us, ' Is the Father God?' we will answer, ' He is God.' If it be asked whether the Son be God, this too we will answer. Nor, if there shall be such a question put concerning the Holy 3 aliud. Ghost, ought we to answer that He is any other thing ^ than God; earnestly taking heed against so understanding it, in Ps.82,6. the sense in which it is said of men, Ye ore gods. For they are not by nature Gods, whosoever have been made and created, of the Father, through the Son, by the gift of the Holy Ghost. For it is the very Trinity Which is signified, Rom. when the Apostle says, Since of Him, and in Him, and 1 1 36. . See S. through Him, are all tilings. Although therefore, when it Aug. on ijg demanded of us concerning each severally, we answer, * Dippensatio, used of the Incarna- Introduction, Ep. to Leander, c. v. tion, as Oixono/^lu in Greek. f Ben. conj. ' minor' for ' minore;' *" auctoritatem. See S. Greg. Mor. ' not inferior in nature.' Some natural tilings inipcrfectly three in one. 27 that He, concerning Wliom the question is put, is God,DEFiDK whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Ghost; yet'^BOLo.' should not any one tliink that three Gods are worshipped by us. 17. Nor is it wonderful that these things are said con- cerning an ineffable Nature, when even in those very things, which we see with the eyes of the body, and judge of by the sense of the body, some such thing hajipens. For when as, being asked concerning the fountain, we cannot say that it is itself the river; nor, being asked concerning the river, can we call it the fountain ; and again, the draught which is of the fountain or river, we can neither call the river nor the fountain. Yet in this trinity we use the name ' water,' and when the question is put concerning such, we answer of each, water. For, if I ask whether it be water in the fountain, it is answered, water; and if we ask whether it be water in the river, there is no other answer made, and in that draught no other answer will be possible ; and yet we call them not three waters, but one. Certainly good heed must be taken, that no one so think of the inefiable Substance of That Majesty, as of that visible and corporeal fountain, or river, or draught. For in these the water, which is now in the fountain, goes forth into the river, and abides not in itself; and, when it passes from the river or from the fountain into the draught, it abides not there, whence it is taken. Therefore it may be that the same water belongs at one time to the term fountain, at another to the term river, at another to the term draught: whereas in That Trinity we said, that it cannot be that the Father at one lime is the Son, at another the Holy Ghost: as in a tree, the root is nothing else than the root, nor the trunk any thing else than the trunk, nor can we call the boughs any thing else than the boughs; for what is called root, that cannot be called trunk and boughs ; nor can that wood which pertains to the root by any passage be at one time in the root, at another in the trunk, at another in the branches; that rule of the name remainiug, that the root is wood, and the trunk wood, and the boughs wood; and yet that they are not called three woods, but (me wood. Or, if these have some dissimilitude, so that thcv may be not absurdlv called three woods, by 28 The Son, how d kiln (juhhed from The Father. DEFiDE reason of differeuce in solidity ; yet that other at any rate all Bo^Lo/^^^ow, if from out one fountain three cups be filled, that they may be called tlnee cups, but can not be called three waters, but altogether one v. alcr ; although when asked concerning each several cup, you answer that in any one of them is water; although there in this case take place no passage, such as we were just now speaking of, from the fountain into the river. But these instances in bodies have been given, not by reason of their likeness to that Divine Nature '', but because of the unity even in things visible, that it might be understood to be possible, that some three things, not only singly, but also altogether, may have one single name ; and that no one wonder or think it absurd, that we call the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Ghost God, and yet that we worship' not three Gods in That Trinily, but One God, and One Substance. 18. And concerning indeed the Father and the Son, learned and spiritual men have treated in many books, wherein, as far as men could unto men, they have endeavoured to suggest, both in what manner the Father and the Son >'unus,'were not One Person, but One Substance'; and What '"""""•' severally 2 the Father was, and What the Son; the One the 2 ' pro- " ' ' prie.' Begetter, the Other the Begotten ; the One not of the Son, the Other of the Father; the One the Beginning of the I Cor. Other ; whence also He is called the Head of Christ, II 3 ' ■ although Christ also is the Beginning'', but not of the Father; but This the Image of the Other, although in no wise unlike, and altogether without any difference equal. These things are treated of more largely by those who, not so briefly as we, wish to unfold the profession of the whole Christian Faith. Therefore, in so far forth as He is the Son, He received of the Father that He Is, whereas He received not this of the Son : and in so far forth as through unspeakable mercy, by a dispensation in time. He assumed Manhood, that is to say, a creature subject to change in order that it may be changed for the better; h No corporeal illustration seems same instances are used, capable of expressing at once the ' al. « that there are not.' numerical unity of the Divine Essence, ^ John viii. 25. cf. Gr. «•^» a«;^iii o, and the perfection of each Person. See n xai XaXZ i/^Tv. ' Principium qui et St. Hil. de Trin. ix. 37. where the loquor vobis.' Vulg. See also Col. i. 15. Distinciion of the Holy Ghost from the Son less- cleared, -li) many things concerning llini in (lie Scriptures arc (omul sodkfidk said, as that the iniinous minds oC heretics wishing to teach Yiul^o!' before they understand, have been by them led into error, so as to think Him not equal to the Father, nor of the same Substance; such as are these; since the Father is w-ca/fr'^"'"'!'!» 28 than I; and, The head oj' the woman is the ma??, the Hea(l\ Cor. of the man is Christ, and the Head of Christ is God; and, J'»^- Then shall He Himself be subject unto Him Who made all\h,i%. thimjs subject unto Him; and, I fjo unto My Father, and ^^^^^^'^Q, your Father, My God, and your God; and some other of this sort; all which have had place, not to signify inequality of Nature and Substance, that those other be not false, I and Jo\m]o, the Father are One; and. He that hath seen 3Ie, hath «ce« 1^ u',iu,n. My Father; and. The Word teas God; for lie was notJo^iiu, made, seeing that all things were made by Him: and. He John i, thuuyhi it not robbery to be equal with God; and all other !,•,., such: but these have had place, ])artly by reason of that(j. ministration of Manhood which lie took upon Him, whereby it is said. He emptied Himself; not that That Wisdom was Pliil- 2, changed, seeing that It is altogether unchangeable; but because in so humble a guise He willed to be made known unto men : partly therefore by reason of this ministration were those things thus written, which the heretics falsely charge; partly for this reason, because the Son owes to the Father that He is, this also assuredly owing to the Father, that He^is equal and alike ^ to the Same Father; but the^^'^''" Father oweth to no one whatsoever He is. 19. But concerning the Holy Ghost it hath not yet been so fully and carefully discussed by learned and great expounders of the divine ScrijHures, as that there may easily be understood His pro])riety also, by which projiriety it comes to pass that we can call Hiin neither the Son nor the Father, but only the Holy Ghost ; saving only that they proclaim Him to be the Gift of God', that we may believe that God giveth not a Gift inferior to Himself. This how- ever they observe, that they proclaim not the Holy Ghost to be begotten as the Son of the Father ; for Christ is the Oidy Sjh ; nor of the Son, as if a grandson of the Supreme Father : nor yet that He is indebted not to any for That • Thus St. Hilary repeatedly names Him by the title Muvus. DEFIDE ETSYM- BOLO. Eom. 5, 5. 30 The Holy Ghost called the Love of The Fatherand The Son. which He is ; but to the Father, of Whom are all things ; that we establish not two Beginnings without a beginning, which is most false and most absurd, and not proper to the Catholic Faith, but to the error of certain heretics. Yet certain have ventured to believe the very Communion of the Father and the Son, and, so to say, the Godhead, Which the Greeks call ©eoVrjf, to be the Holy Ghost": that, seeing that the Father is God, and the Son God, the very Godhead, whereby They are joined One to Another, the One by begetting the Son, the Other by co-hering to the Father, may be made equal to Him by Whom He was begotten. This Godhead therefore, which also they would have under- stood to be the mutual Love and Charity of the Two, One toward the Other, they say has been called the Holy Ghost, and by many proofs of the Scriptures they support this their opinion ; whether it be by that which is said, Shice the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost Who hath been (jiven us; or whether by other many such testimonies ; and by the very fact that by the Holy ™ The notion as here stated, at least if taken to the letter, is hetero- dox, and he shades it off into truth instead of deuj-ing it. The Essential Godhead is clearly the Essence of the Father, not the Person of the Holy Ghost. The analogy of Being, Know- ledge, and Love, to the Holy Tri- nity is stated by him also, De Civ. Dei, xi. 24, &c. And in B. xv. De Trinitate, §. 29 — 31. he says expressly that the Holy Ghost may be, and is, in Holy Scripture, properly called Love, as the Son, Wisdom ; though every Person of the Blessed Trinity be of Himself essentially Wisdom and Love. See also P. Lombard, Sent. i. Dist. 10. and the commentators on it, and St. Thos. Aq. Sum. Theol. i. qu. xxxvii. art. ]. The statement quoted by P. Lombard, from St. Jerome on Ps. xvii. 1. is found in the ' Breviarium in Psal- terium,' which passes under his name. " The Holy Ghost is neither Father nor Son, but the Love, which the Father hath in the Son, and the Son in the Father." See also the remarks of Nicolas de Lyra on John i. 1. The danger involved in this way of speaking ia that of imagining the Attribute to be What we call the Holy Spirit, instead of remembering that He is a Person, whose Nature is shadowed forth to us by the Name of the Attribute; a point guarded by all these writers, and by St. Aug. himself, De Trin. xv. 37. cited by Petavius. " And if the Love with which the Father loves the Son does ineffably declare the communion of Both, what more fitting than that He be called Love, Who is the Spirit common to Both. For this is the sounder way of believing or under- standing, that not the Holy Spirit only is Love in That Trinity, yet not with- out meaning is He properly called Love because of what hath been said. As not He alone in That Trinity is ' Spirit,' or ' Holy,' since the Father is Spirit too, and the Son Spirit; and the Father Holy, and the Son Holy, which piety dcubteth not: and yet He is not without meaning called The Holy Spirit. For because He is com- mon to Both, He is called that properly which Both are in common. Else if in That Trinity the Holy Spirit alone is Love, certainly then the Son is found to be Son, not of the Father only, but also of the Holy Spirit." See the rest of this Book, and Petav. de Trin. vii. 12. Texls of Holy Scripture ivJticlt seem to speak thus. 31 Ghost we are reconciled unto God; whence also, when 1Ici>efide is called the Gift of God, they will have that it is sufficiently "ol"" shewn, that the Holy Ghost is the Love of God. For we are not reconciled unto Him, save only by love, whereby also we are called sons : not now under fear, as servants, because love j)erfccled castefh out fear; and we have re- 1 John ceived the Spirit of WhexVy, ic/ierein ive cry, Ahha, Fat/tcr.^^'j^^^^^ And because, having been reconciled and called back into-*. J^- friendship by love, we shall be able to understand all theiy"""' ' secret things of God, therefore it is said of the Holy Ghost, He shall lead you into all truth. Therefore also that con- Rom. 6, fidence in preaching the truth, wherewith the Apostles were j^jg filled at His coming, is rightly assigned unto love ; because i^. also distrust is ascribed unto fear, which the perfecting 4.^ ^ ' of love shutleth out. Therefore also It is called the GiftEph. 3. of God, because that which each man knows, he enjoys ^*^' not, unless he also love it. But to enjoy the Wisdom of God, is nothing else than to cling to ' It with affection : ' cohce- uor does any one abide in that which he perceives, except by affection ; and therefore He is called ' Spiritus Sancttis,' since all things whatsoever are sanctioned ^, are sanctioned '"^^°<;'- in order to abiding, nor is there any doubt that the term ' sanctitas' is used from ' sancioj' But especially do they who maintain this opinion make use of that witness, where it is written, That uhich is burn of the flesh is flesh, and John 3, that uhich is born of the Spirit is Spirit; seeing that God j'^^^ ^ is a Spirit. For herein He speaketh of our Regeneration, 24. which is, not according to Adam of the flesh, but according to Christ of the Holy Spirit. Wlicrcforc, if mention is made of the Holy Sjjirit in this place, when it is said, seeing that God is a Spirit : they say, that it is to be observed, that it is not said, Seeing that the Spirit is God"; but, Seeing that God is a Spirit; so that the very Godhead of the Fathcu- and of the Son is in this ])lace called God, which is the Holy Ghost. To this is added another witness, in that John the Apostle says, Seeiiiy that God is Love. For here also 1 John he says not. Love is God, but. Cod is Love; that the Very ' Godhead may be understood to be Love. And whereas, in that enumeration of things connected one with another, " al. ' the Spirit is of God.' 32 Mysteries of Ooilhead seen onlij by the pure in heart. ^:^g^^^ where it is said, All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, BOLo. and Christ is God's; and. The head of the woman is the ] Cor. 3, ;;j^^, iJiffd the Head of the man is Christ, and the Head of 22. 23. . . 1 Cor. Christ is God; no mention is made of the Holy Ghost; ^^' ^* this they say falls under the rule, that the very connection is not usually numbered among those things which are con- nected one with another. Wherefore they who read with more attention seem to recognise the Very Trinity in that Rom. place also, where it is said. For of Him, and through. Him, ' ■ and in Him, are all things. Of Him, Who oweth to no one His Being; through Him, as through a Mediator; in Him, as in Ilim Who holdeth together, that is, unites and joins. 20. This opinion is opposed by them who judge that that communion, which we call either Godhead, or Love, or Charity, is not a Substance ; but they require that the Holy Spirit be set forth to them according to that He is Substance, and understand not that it could not otherwise have been 1 John said, God is Love, unless Love were a Substance. That is, 4 16. . . . . ' * they are guided by experience of things corporeal ; since, if two bodies be joined one to another, so as that they be set near one another, the very joining is not a body ; since, when those bodies which had been joined are separated, it is no more ; and yet it is not understood to have, as it were, departed and passed away, as those bodies themselves. But let such as these make pure their heart, as far as they can, that they may be able to see, that there is not any thing such in the Substance of God, as if in It Substance were one thing, and that which is Accident to Substance were another thing, and not Substance, but whatsoever can be in It conceived of, is Substance. But these things may easily be said and believed, but seen, how they are in them- selves, they altogether cannot be, save by the pure heart. Wherefore, whether that opinion be true, or whether it be any thing else, the Faith must be held unshaken, that we call the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Ghost God ; nor yet three Gods, but That Trinity One God ; nor yet different of nature, but of the same Substance ; nor yet so that the Father at one time be the Son, at another time be the Holy Ghost ; but the Father ever the Father, the Son ever the Son, and the Holy Ghost ever the Holy Ghost, The Chnrdi. Remission Spiri/, Soiif, and /iodi/. .'J3 Nor rashly concerning things unseen affirm wc any thing aspEFiDE knowing, but as believing; since seen they cannot be save '^^*^^**" by the cleansed heart; and he who sees them in this lilr in part, as has been said, and in a riddle, cannot cfFect that i Cor. he also, to whom he speaks, shall see them, if he be hindered '^' '^* by impurities of heart. But, Blessed, are thoij of a cleanMiiU.5, heart, for they shall see Cod. This is our faith concerning*^* God our Creator and Renewer. 21. 13nt, since love is commanded us, not only towards God, when it is said, 77iOU shall love the Lord thy God with Dem. «, all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; ^' but also towards our neighbour; for, Thou shall love, saith Mat. 22, He, thy neighbour as thyself: again, since that faith, if it'^'"^^- contain not a congregation and society of men, wherein brotherly love may work, is less fruitful ; we believe also in the Holy Church, meaning thereby assuredly the Catholic. For both Heretics and Schismatics call their congregations Churches. But Heretics by holding false notions concerning God violate the very faith ; and Schismatics, on the other hand, by unrighteous rendings asunder, break away from brotherly love, although they believe the same things as ourselves. Wherefore neither Heretics pertain unto the Catholic Church, which loves God ; nor Schismatics, since it loves its neighbour; and therefore easily ]xirdons the sins of its neighbour, because it prays that itself may obtain jiardon from Him, Who hath reconciled us unto Himself, blotting out all things past, and calling us unto a new life : unto the perfection of which life until we attain, we cannot be without sins ; yet it conceras us of what kind they be. 22. Nor must we only treat of the difference between sins, aiatt.6, but must altogether believe, that in no way can the sins '"* which we commit be forgiven us, if we ourselves shall be inexorable to forgive sins. Therefore we believe also in the RliMlSSION OF SINS. 23. .\nd since there are three things whereof man consists, spii-it, soul, and body ; which again are called two, because often the soul is named togetlu r with the spirit; for a certain reasonable jiart of the same, which beasts are without, is ailed the sj)irit: that which is cliief in us is the spirit; ne.xt, the life whereby we arc joined unto the body, is called D 34 Spiritual life. Resurreciion of the Flesh. DEFiDEthe soul; finally, the body itself, since it is visible, is that ^lolo.' which in us is last. But all this creature groaneth and is in Eom. 8, travail until now : yet hath the spirit given its first fruits", ^^' in that it hath believed in God, and is now of a good will. This spirit is also called the mind, of which the Apostle says, Rom, 7, With the mind I serve the Law of Qod. Who also in another Rom. 1, place saith, God is my witness, Whom I serve in my spirit. ^- But the soul, when it yet seeks after fleshly goods, is called the flesh. For a certain part of it resists " the spirit, not by nature, but by custom of sins. Whence it is said, With the mind I serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Which custom hath been changed into nature accord- ing to our mortal generation by the sin of the first man. And therefore it is written. And we some time were by Eph. 2, nature children of wrath, that is, of vengeance, whereby it ^' hath been brought to pass that we serve the law of sin. But the nature of the soul is then perfected when it is subdued unto its ow^n spirit, and when it follows the spirit, the spirit following God. Therefore the carnal man perceiveth not I Cor. 2, f/ie things which belong unto the Spnrit of God. But not so speedily is the soul subdued unto the spirit unto good works, as the spirit unto God unto true faith and good will : but at times its natural impulse is more slowly checked, whereby it falls away unto things carnal and temporal. But since it also is cleansed, being established in its own nature through the rule of the spirit, which is its head, unto which, its head, Christ is a Head ; we must not despair of the restoration of the body also unto its proper nature, but certainly not so speedily as the soul, just as the soul not so speedily as the 1 Cor. spirit; but in a fit season at the last trumpet, when the dead 53' ■ shall rise again uncorrupted, and we shall be changed. And therefore we believe also in the resurrection of the flesh ; not only becaiise the soul is restored, which now by reason of fleshly affections is called flesh; but this visible flesh also, which is by nature flesh, whose name the soul hath received, not by reason of its nature, but of its fleshly affections: therefore this visible flesh, which is properly called so, we must without doubting believe that it will rise again. For " Ben. has spiritfis, ' Yet hath it P 4 Mss. ' and resists/ omitting * for given the first fruits of the spirit.' a certain part of it.' The liddy sliall rise Jit Ird for a /tcan /ilfj sid/c. 35 the Apostle Paul seems to ])()int out tliis itself ;is if witli thcDF.FiDE finger, when he says, // hehoveth that this corrnptible put on^'^^^^^' incorriiption. For when he says, This, he, as it were, points i ^^m,. his finger towards it. But that which is visible may be pointed at by the finger: since the soul also might have been called corruptible ; for itself is corrupted by moral vices. And when we read. And that this mortal ptit on immortality, the same visible flesh is meant, because at it from time to time there is, as it were, a finger pointed. For the soul too, as it is called corruptible by reason of moral vices, so may it also be called mortal. That i.s, it is the death of the soul to /all away from God'^; which its first sin in Paradise is contained in the Sacred Writings. 24. Therefore the body will rise again according to the Christian Faith, which cannot deceive. Which if it seem to any t)ne incredible, he regards what the flesh now is, but considers not what it will be : because in that time of angelic change, it will be no longer flesh and blood, but only body'. For the Ajiostle speaking of the flesh, says. The Jiesh oj'^ Cor. cattle is one, the Jiesh of birds another, of fishes another, qf^o\ creeping things another; and there are bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial. For he says not, ' and flesh celestial :' but he says, * both celestial and terrestrial bodies.' For all flesh is also body, but all body is not also flesh : first, in those things terrestrial, since wood is body, but not flesh : but to man or cattle there belongs both body and flesh : but ill things celestial no flesh, but bodies simple and bright, which the Apostle calls spiritual; but some call ethereal. And therefore that which he says. Flesh and blood shall noti Cor. inherit the kingdom of God, conti'adicts not the resurrection ' ' of the flesh ; but declares what that will one day be, which is now flesh and blood. Into which sort of nature whosoever believes not that this flesh can be changed, he must be led ste]i by step unto the faith. For if you demand of him whether earth can be changed into water; by reason of the nearness, it seems not to him to be incredible. Again, if you demand whether water can be changed into air ; he answers, I cf. Eccles. X. 12. a^xn ifrtftiifmricK , ^ SiC the pass.tge from his Retracta- iti^ci^ti) a(pi0T»/iitiu iira Ku^itu. LW . tiona quoted at the hegiuning of the " iiiitium superbia" hominis, apostare a treatise. Deo." V«A/. P 2 .3<) Eternal Life. The Creed uhy learned by novices. DEFiDEthat neither is this absurd; for they are near one another. ^'gQ^^^' And if the question be asked concerning air, whether it can be changed into an ethereal, that is, celestial, body; already the very nearness persuades. What therefore he allows may be done by these steps, that earth be changed into ethereal body, why does he not believe that, when there is added thereto the will of God, whereby a human body was able to walk upon the waters, it may be done most speedily, as it is 1 Cor. said, in the twinkling of an eye, without any such steps, just ' "' as generally smoke is changed into flame with wonderful quickness. For our flesh is certainly of earth ; but phi- losophers, (by whose arguments most frequently the re- surrection of the flesh is opposed, in that they assert that there cannot exist any terrestrial body in heaven,) allow that any body whatever may be turned and changed into all bodies. After that this resurrection of the body shall have taken place, being set free from the condition of time, we shall enjoy' throughly eternal life with love ineffable, and stedfastness without corruption. For then that shall 1 Cor. take place which is written. Death is swallowed up in victory ^ gg' ^^- where is, O Death, thy sting ? where is, 0 Death, thy strife ? 25. This is the Faith which in the Creed is given unto Christian novices in few words to hold. Which few words are known to the faithful, that by believing they may be made subject unto God, having been made subject may live rightly, by living rightly may cleanse their heart, with a cleansed heart may understand what they believe. * al. ' The body being set free, &c. shall enjoy.* S. AUGUSTliNK Of FAITH AND WORKS. S. Aug. Retract, ii. 38, mentions this work as written soon after that ' J)c Spiritu et Litera,' i, e. at the beginning of A.U. 413. "At that time were sent me by some lay Brethren, studious however of the Divine oracles, some writings which so sever Christian Faith from good works as to maintain that without it one could not, but witliout them one could attain eternal life. In answer to whom I wrote a book entitled ' l)e Fide ct Operibus,' In which I have set forth not only how they should live that are by the grace of (Jod regenerate, but also what sort of persons should be admitted to the laver of Regeneration." Some have thought the ' writings' mentioned were St. Jerome's on Isaiah or on St. Paul's Epistles, but St. Jerome does not go to the length of holding what is here refuted. Ah. from Ben. 1. It is the iiidgmcnt of certain, that all men without nEFioE distinction are to be admitted to the laver of regeneration, "JJib^^s." which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, even althougli they shall f be unwilling to change an evil and shameful life, rendered notable by sins and scandalous crimes, and shall even declare and make open profession, that they will continue therein. For instance, if any one is joined to a harlot, that he be not first charged to leave her, and then to come to be baptized ; but even continuing with her, and confidently purposing, or even professing, that he will so continue, that he be admitted and baptized, and be not hindered in becoming a member of Christ, even although he shall continue to be a member of an harlot; but that he be afterwards taught how evil this is, iCor.fi, and when now he hath^cen baptized, be instructed con- '^* cerning the change of his manner of life for the better. For they think it a perversion, and out of due order, first to teach how a Christian ought to live, and after to have him baptized. liut it is their opinion thai the Sacrament of Ha])tism ought to go fn-st, that there may follow after teaching concerning the life and morals: whicli if he shall be willing to hold and guard, he will do what is for his interest; but if he shall be unwilling, retaining the Christian Faith, without which he would pcrisli for ever, let him continue in what sin or SSSo7?iewouhIBap(/zef)ie}n/iktionnsi/>,rathertfian not at all. DEFiDE impurity soever he will, that he will be saved as if througl iCor,3,fire, as one who hath built upon the foundation, which is 11—15. Q|-,j.-gj^ j-jQj. gold,, silver, precious stones, but wood, hay, stubble ; that is, not righteous and chaste ways of life, but unrighteous and shameless. 2. But they seem to have been moved thus to dispute, as concerned at those not being admitted to Baptism, who have put away their wives and married others, or of females who have put away their husbands, and been married to others ; because of these the Lord Christ without any doubt testifies. Mat. 19, that they are, not marriages, but adulteries. For whereas ^" they could not deny that to be adultery, which the Truth, without leaving place for evasion, affirms to be adultery ; and (yet) wished to forward them toward their receiving Baptism, whom they saw to be so caught in a snare of this sort, as that, if they were not admitted to Baptism, they would choose to live, or even to die, without any Sacrament, rather than to burst the bond of adultery, and be set free ; they were by a certain human sense of pity moved in such wise to undertake their cause, as to judge that all, together with them, men of evil and scandalous lives, even unrebuked by any prohibition, uncorrected by any instruction, unchanged by any penitence, were to be admitted to Baptism ; thinking that unless it were done, they would perish for ever; but that, if it were done, even should they continue in those evil things, they would be saved through fire, ii. 3. In answer to whom, this first I say, that no one so understand those declarations of the Scriptures, which cither point to as present, or speak of beforehand as future, the mingling of the good and evil in the Church, as to believe that severity of discipline, or the diligent keeping of it, is to be altogether loosed and set asioP; not so taught by those Scriptures, but deceived by his own imagination. For neither, because Moses, the servant of God, endured most patiently that mingling in the first People, did he therefore not take vengeance on many even with the sword. And Numb. Phinees, the priest, thrust through with the avenging sword 2y, 5-8. jjjp adulterers whom he found together. Which very thing it was signified was to be done by degradations and ex- communications at this time, when in the discipline of the Church the visible sword was to lie by. Nor, because the St. Paul sujfered not evil liviuy in the Churcit, 31) Messed Apostle groans with all long-suffering in the midst etope- oi false brethren, and certain even driven on by the devilish '"""'^' stings of envy, he yet allows to preach Christ; docs hen, 26. therefore think that he must spare him, who had his own I'J'il- 1, father's wife; concerning whom he gives charge, that, when '~ the Church hath been gathered together, he be delivered over unto Satan, unto the destruction of the flesh, that the^^'^'^-^i spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus : or did he therefore himself not deliver over others unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme : or does he say in vain, i Tim. / ivrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with ', fornicators, yet not altogetlier with the fornicators of this9—\i.' world, or the covetous, or robbers, or idolaters ; otherwise ye had need to go forth out of this world : but now I have written unto you not to company, if any brother be named either a fornicator, or an idolater, or a covetous man, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; with such no not to eat. For how does it concern me to judge concerning them that are without ? Do ye not yourselves Judge con- cerning them that are ivithin ? But concerning them that are without, God will Judge. Take away the evil {man ' ) '"lafuw, from out of yourselves. Where indeed some so understand^,' ^,' the phrase, yVo//i otct of yourselves-, as that each man tiike'^ejevolis away from out of himself the evil; that is, that he be himself'^*'*' good. But in whichever way it be understood, whether that by the severity of the Church the evil be rebuked by excommunications, or that each man, by rebuking and correcting himself, take away from out of himself the evil ; yet that which is said above admits not of any doubtful sense, wherein he gives a charge not to company with those brethren, who in any sin mentioned above are ' named,' that is, are kndwn, and spoken of But with what iij. spirit and what charity that merciful severity is to bo made use of, he shews, not only in the place where he says, That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus; but clearly in other ])laces also, saying. If 2Thes9. any man obey not our word through our epistle, jnark"^'^*'^ ' this man, and company not with him, that he may be ashamed: yet count him not as an enemy, but rebuke him as a brother. 40 Oar Lord commanded to exclude ohslinate offenders. DEFiDE 4. And the Lord Himself, a singular example of patience, Who even among His twelve Apostles still endured a devil Mat.i3,wutil His Passion ; and Who said, Suffer both to grow until 29. 30. ifiQ harvest, lest haply, ivhilst ye ivould gather up the tares, ye root out the wheat also; and Who foretold that those nets, which were a figure of the Church, should have good and evil fishes, even unto the shore, that is, even unto the end of the world ; and all other things whatsoever He spake either openly or by way of figure concerning the mingling of the good and the evil: yet did He not therefore judge that the discipline of the Church was to be set aside: yea, rather. He admonished that it was to be made use of, when He Mat. 18, said. Take heed unto yourselves: if thy brother shall sin 15—18. agai^ist thee, go, and rebuke hitn between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou wilt have gained thy brother. But if he shall not hear thee, take with thee one or two, that 171 the mouth of two or three ivitnesses every loord may stand. But if he shall not hear them, tell it unto the Church. But if neither will he hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Next, a most weighty terror of that very severity He added also in that ])lace, saying, What things ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven ; and what things ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound also Matt. 7, m heaven. He also forbids that what is holy be given unto dogs. Nor is the Apostle contrary to the Lord, in that he iTim.5, says, Them that sin rebuke before all, that the rest may have ^^' fear ; whereas He says, Beprove him between thee and him. For either thing is to be done, according as we are admonished by the diversity of their disease, whom we have undertaken assuredly not to destroy, but to correct and heal ; and one man we must cure in this way, another in that. Thus also » ratio there is a way ' of passing over, and bearing with, evil men in the Church : and there is again a way of chastising and rebuking them, of not admitting them to, or removing them from, the Communion. iv. 5. But men err, through not observing a mean ; and when they have begun to descend rapidly in one direction, they lork not back on other declarations of divine authority, such as may recall them from that their purpose, and cause them to stand fast in that truth and moderation which is attempered Error of lookimj only ' • one side in Hoft/ Scripture. 11 uf hotli together: and that, not in this niattcr only, wliitli isjicroPK- now in question, but also in many otliors. For certain, ■'""^'^'- looking to the declarations of the divine writings, whercni One God is put into our minds as the object of worship, have thought that the Same ' Who is the Son, is the Father, and the Holy Ghost: others again, as it were, suffering under the contrary disease, fixing their attention on those things whereby the Trinity is declared, and being unable to under- stand how there is one God, when as neither is the Father the Son, nor the Son the Father, nor the Holy Ghost either the Father or the Son, have thought that they must maintain differences also of substances. Certain, looking to the praise of holy virginity in the Scriptures, have condennied marriages: certain, on the other hand, following those declarations wherein chaste marriages are connnended, have set marriage on a par with virginity. Certain on reading. It is good, liom. brethren, not to eatjlesh, nor to drink wine; and some other *^' ^'' like words ; have thought the creature of God, and what meats they would, to be unclean: whereas certain, reading, Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, iTiin.4, which is received with giving of thanks, have fallen into greediness and drunkenness ; not having it in their power to remove from themselves sins, unless there should succeed to them as great, or greater, sins on the opposite side. 6. Thus in this matter also, which we have in hand, certain looking to the precepts of severity, whereby we are admonished to rebuke the unruly, not to give what is holy unto dogs, to hold as an heathen man one who despises the Church, to pluck away from the frame of the body the member which causes offence ; so distort tiie peace of the Church, as that they endeavour before the time to separate the tares, and, blinded by this error, are themselves rather separated from the Unity of Christ. Such as is the case which we have against the schism of Donatus. And this, not with those, who know that Ciccilianus was assailed, not by true, but by scandalous, charges, and who, through a shame which works death, refuse to relinquish their fatal oi)inion ; but with those unto whom we say, Wiiat though they * Latin writen» constantly thus indicate ' Person' by the masculine pronoun. 42 Some evil io he home uilh for unity's sake. DHFiDEhad been evil men, by reason of whom ye are not in t'le Church, still ye ought by bearing with those, whom ye could in no wise correct or set apart, to have continued in the Church. But certain, making the opposite hazard, having seen clearly that the minghng of the good and evil in the Church is pointed out and foretold, and having learnt pre- cepts of patience, (which so render us most sure, as that, even if there seem to be tares in the Church, yet is not either our faith or our charity hindered, so as that, because we see that there are tares in the Church, we ourselves depart from the Church,) think that the discipline of the Church is to be abandoned, assigning to them that are set over it a certain most perverse absence of care, so that there pertain not unto them, save only to say what is to be shunned and what to be done, but whatsoever each man may do, never to heed. V. 7. But we judge that it pertains unto sound doctrine out of '?.®H" both declarations ' to attemper our life and opinion, so that moniis, ' ^ texts, we both endure dogs in the Church, for the sake of the peace of the Church, and, where the peace of the Church is safe, give not what is holy unto dogs. When therefore through the negligence of them who are set over it, or through some necessity such as admits of excuse, or through their secretly creeping in, we find in the Church evil persons, whom we cannot correct or restrain by ecclesiastical dis- cipline; in that case (lest there arise up in our heart an impious and fatal presumption, as that we suppose that wc are to separate ourselves from them, lest we be polluted by their sins, and so we endeavour to draw after us, as it were, pure and holy followers, separated from the whole frame of unity, as if from fellowship with the evil) let there come into our mind those figures out of the Scriptures, and those divine oracles or most sure examples, whereby it was shewn and foretold, that there will be evil persons in the Church mixed with the good even unto the end of the world and the time of the Judgment, and that the good, who consent not to their deeds, will be in no way hindered by them in unity and participation of the Sacraments. But when those by whom the Church is ruled, with safety to the peace of the Church, have at hand the power of exercising discipline on evil and ungodly men, then again, that we sleep not through Preparation for Baplisut^ hcsf Unw for correction. 13 indolence and slotli, we must be excited by the spurs oCetopi-.- other precepts, wliich liave respect unto severity of restraint ; ^1?*^* that, directing our ste])s in the way of the Lord out of both declarations, (lie being our CJuide and Ifelper,) we neither grow listless under the name of patience, nor be cruel under tlie pretext of diligence. 8. This moderation then being observed which is accord- vi. lug to sound doctrine, let us look to the point at issue, that is, whether men arc to be so admitted to receive Baj)tisni, as that no diligence keep watch in this case, lest what is holy be given unto dogs; to such an extent as that it should seem that not even they, who are guilty of most open adultery, and who make profession of continuing therein, are to be kept irom a Sacrament of so great holiness ; unto which, without any doubt, they would not be admitted, if, (huing those very days, (on which, being about to partake of that grace, after their names have been given in, they are under cleansing by abstinence, fastings, and exorcisms,) they were to make profession that they would lie with their lawful and true wives, and that in this matter, although at another time allowed, they would during these few solemn days observe no continence. How then is the adulterer, who refuses correction, admitted unto those holy things, whereunto the married is not admitted, if he refuse observance ? }). But first, they say, let him be baptized ; afterwards let him be taught what pertains unto a good life and morals. This takes place, when it so chances that the last day of life constrains any one, so that he believe alter the fewest possible words', (wherein yet all things are contained,) and receive i a.l vir- the Sacrament; in order that, if he shall pass out of this li'"i^,[.7sjj",n'.' he may go forth set free from the guilt" of all his past sins. ^ re:itu But if he ask it in health, and there is space for learning, what other time can be found more opportune, wherein to hear in what manner he ought to become a believer and live, than that, when, with a mind more intent, and, through \ery religious awe, anxious, he is seeking the Sacrament of most saving Faith. What? do we to that degree dissembU; from our own consciousness^ that we either remember not our\|i»e"- own selves, how intent we were and anxious wlial l'rccepts,n,gtri-.. 44 Old Man io he pal off for Baptkm, not after. DEFiDEthey, by whom we wove being catechized, would give us, when we were petitioning for the Sacraments of that fount, and on this account were also called Competentefi ; or mark not others, who, year by year, run to the laver of Regenera- tion, what kind of persons they are on the very days on which they are catechized, exorcised, examined; with how great watchfulness they come together, with how great zeal they glow, with what anxiety they are held in suspense ? If then be not the time for learning, what life is suitable to that so great Sacrament, which they desire to receive; when will it be? What? when they shall have received it, in so great crimes continuing even after Baptism, not new men, but old offenders? So that forsooth it be first said unto them by a strange perversion, ' Put on the new man ;' and, when they shall have put it on, it be after said, ' Put off the old Col. 3, man ;' whereas the Apostle keeping a sound order says. Put E h^ 4 ^-^ the old man, and put on the new man; and the Lord 22. 24. Himself cries aloud. No man seweth a new piece unto an 16^17. ' old garment, and no man putteth new wine into old bottles. For what else is the purport of that whole time, during which they hold the place and name of Catechumens, except that they may hear what the faith, and of what kind the life, of a Christian ought to be; that, after they shall have proved their own selves, they may then eat of the Table and drink 1 Cor. of iiie Cup of the Lord? Seeing that He that eateth and 29! drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh condemnation unto himself. But what is done during the whole time, at which it is the wholesome appointment of the Church, that they, who are approaching unto the name of Christ, be in the rank of Catechumens, this is done much more diligently and urgently on those days, on which they are called Com- petentes, when they have already given in their names in order to receive Baptism. vii. 10. What, if, they say, a virgin hath been married unknowingly unto the husband of another? If she continue in ignorance of this for ever, she will never be by reason cf this an adulteress: but if she come to know it, from this very moment will she begin to be an adulteress, from the time, that is, that she hath knowingly lain with another's husband. As in the law of estates, each man is most rightly said to be Adullcruus Marruiije,ichcH knonn as sucli, is AditUery. 45 the possessor in good laitli, so long as lie is ignorant that Ijcetope- is in possession of what is another's: but when he shall l^'""*^- conie to know it, and shall not withdraw^ from another's pos- session, then is he held to be of ill faith, and is justly called unjust. Far be it therefore that with a feeling clearly not human, but clearly vain, we so grieve when scandalous crimes are corrected, as if it were the putting asunder of marriages; especially in the City of our God, in His Holy Hill, that is, in the Church, wherein of marriage, not theP8.48,i. bond alone, but the Sacrament is so set forth ', as that it is " com- not lawful for a man to deliver his wife unto another; which ^r" *" in the times of the Jloman Republic, Cato is reported to have done, not only without any blame whatever, but even with praise. Nor is there need now to treat any more at length on this point, when even they, to whom I am replying, dare not to aflirm that this is no sin, and deny not that it is adultery, that they be not openly convicted of opposing the Lord Himself, and the Holy Gos])el. But whereas it is their will that such be first admitted to partake of the Sacrament of Baptism, and unto the Lord's Table, although they shall in most plain language refuse correction : nay further that it behovelh not that they be at all admonished on this matter, but be afterward taught; so that, if they shall receive to observe the precept, and shall correct their fault, tliey be counted among the wheat ; but, if they shall contemn it, be borne with among the tares: they sufficiently shew that they themselves are not defending those crimes, or acting as if they were light crimes or none at all. For what Christian of good hojie could esteem adultery to be no crime at all, or a slight one ? 11. Tl)e order, however, in which these things in others are either conected or borne with, they think that they bring forward out of the holy Scriptures, when they say that the Apostles so acted; and from tlieir letters they bring forward certain texts'^, wherein they are found to have first introduced* testi- ihc doctrine of faith, and alter to have delivered precepts of"" morality. And hence they would have it understood, that we are to make known only the rule of faith to them who are to be baptized, and afterward, when now they have been b;i)ilized, are to deliver unto them i)recepts also concerning 46 Faith why placed before rules of life in the Epistles. DE FIDE the change of life for the better; as though they read certain Apostolic Epistles addressed to men about to be baptized, wherein they treated of faith only; and others, unlo men already baptized, wherein are contained precepts concerning the avoiding evil, and the entering upon good, habits of life. When, then, it is certain that they addressed letters unto Christians already baptized, why are these woven together of both discourses, both that which relates unto faith, and that which relates unto a good life? What? is it, haply, now their will that we cease to give both to them who are to be baptized, and restore both to them who have been baptized? But, if it be absurd to say this, then let them confess that the Apostles set in their Epistles their doctrine made perfect of both; but that they for this reason generally first introduced faith, and after added what pertains unto a good life, because, in man himself, unless faith go first, a good life will be unable to follow. For WHATSOEVER A MAN SHALL HAVE DONE, AS IF ARIGHT, unleSS it be referred to that piety which is toward God, it ought not to be called right. But if some foolish and very unlearned men judged that the Epistles of the Apostles were addressed to Catechumens, certainly even themselves would confess, that unto them who are not yet baptized, we are to make known precepts concerning the manner of life which is suitable unto faith, together with rules of faith: unless haply these by their argument draw us to this strait, that they would have the first portions of the Apostolic Epistles wherein they speak of Faith, to be read to the Catechumens; but the latter, to believers, wherein now charge is given how Christians ought to live. But if to speak thus be most foolish ; there is then no proof of this opinion out of the Epistles of the Apostles, why we should therefore judge it right to admonish them who are to be baptized concerning the faith, and them who have been baptized concerning the manner of life, because they in the former portions of their lettei's set forth faith, and afterward in due order exhorted that believers should live well. For although that be first and this after, yet very often in one continuous discoiu'se are we with most sound and diligent teaching to preach both unto Catechumens, both unto believers, both unto Ihcm po^Hifen- tiam. Repentance, put he/ore F1 also I see not wherefore tlie Lord said, // thou udt cow/f ktopk. unto life, keep the Connimndments ; and made mention of '""^'^- those which pertain nnto a good life and morals, if ; even i/iL'io.' althongh these be not kept, a man may come unto life through faith alone, which irithout loorks is dead. Next, in what manner is that true which He will say unto them whom He will set on his left hand, Go ye into everlasl- M&t.25, in g fire, tvJiich is prepared for the devil and his anyels?^^' Whom He rebukes, not because they have not believed in Him, but because they have not done good works. For assuredly, in order that no man may promise unto himself life everlasting, of faith, which without works is dead, therefore said He that He will separate all nations, which were mixed together, and were wont to use the same pastures: that it may be evident, that they will say unto Him, Lord, when saw we Thee suffering this and that,Mat.25, and ministered not unto Thee, who had believed in Him,^*- but had not been careful to do good works, as if of their very dead fiiilh they should attain unto eternal life. What ? and will they hajjly, who have omitted to do works of mercy, go into everlasting fire, and will they not go who have taken away other men's goods, and by corrupting the Tem])le of God within them, have been unmerciful towards themselves? As if works of mercy were of any profit without love, whereas the Apostle says, If 1 distriljute all my goods to the poor, i Cor. and have not love, it projiteth me nothing; or as if any man ^^' ^' love his neighbour as himself, who loves not himself? For IVhnso loveth unrighteousness hateth his own soul. Nor Ps. 11,5. will that allow of being here said, wherein some deceive themselves, saying, that \\\q fire is said to be everlasting, not the punishment itself everlasting: insomuch as they judge that through fire, which is everlasting, they will pass, unto M hom, on account of a dead faith, they promise salvation through fire : evidently, that the fire itself be everlasting, but that their burning, that is, the operation of the fire on them, be not everlasting; whereas the Lord, foreseeing this also, as the Lord, thus ended His sentence, saying. Thus they shall'^'^'^^-'^^y go into everlasting hurning\ but the righteous into life ever-i »ixu,n lasting. Therefore the burning will be everlasting, in like ^j^^" manner as the fire; and the Trutli hath said that into it thev v. 62 A deadjaUli saves not even ihrouglijive. DEFiDEwill go, not whose faith, but whose good works, He hath declared to have been wanting. 26. If therefore all these sayings, and the rest which may be found without number throughout all the Scriptures, spoken without any doubtful sense, shall be untrue ; then will it be possible that that interpretation be true concerning the wood, hay, and stubble, that they shall be saved through fire, who holding faith alone in Christ have neglected good works. But if those other are both true and clear, without doubt in that sentence of the Apostle we must look for another interpretation, and we must account it among those things, whereof Peter says, that there are certain in his writings hard to be understood, which men ought not to pervert unto their own destruction, so as in opposition to the most manifest testimonies of the Scriptures to set free from all anxiety concerning the obtaining of salvation the most wicked men, most obstinately clinging to their wickedness, and unchanged by amendment or repentance. xvi. 27. Here perhaps I may be asked, what my own sense is of this same sentence of Paul, and in what way I think that it ought to be understood. I confess that on this point I should rather hear men of more understanding and learning than myself speak, who so expound it, as that there remain true and unshaken all those passages which I have made mention of above, and whatsoever other passages I have not made mention of, wherein Scripture most openly testifies that faith availeth nothing, save that faith which the Apostle hath Gal. 5, defined, that is, which worketh through love; but that without works it cannot save, neither beside fire, nor through fire : because if it save through fire, then assuredly itself James saves. But it is said absolutely and openly. What doth, it ' ' profit, if a man say that lie hath faith, and have not ivorks'^ What, will his faith be able to save himf I will however declare, in as few words as I can, what my own sense is of that sentence, ' hard to be understood,' of the Apostle Paul : only let that be especially kept in mind, which belongs to the profession which I made, that I had rather on this subject hear persons speak who are better than myself Christ is the Foundation in the building of a wise master- builder ; this stands in no need of exposition ; for it is openly Chief duties part of Foundation, Perfection built thereon, 63 said, But other foundation can no man lay beside that which etope- is laid, which is Christ Jesus, But if Christ, then without '"""— doubt faith in Christ: forasmuch as through faith Christ Eph. 3, dwelleth in our hearts, as tlie same Apostle says. Further, if faith in Christ, then surely that wliich the Apostle defined, uhich worketh through love. For not the faith of devils, whereas they themselves both believe and tremble, and confess that Jesus is the Son of God, can be taken as a foundation. For what reason, save because that is not faith which worketh through love, but which is wrung out through fear.? Thus the faith in Christ, the faith which is of Christian grace, that is, that faith which worketh through love, being laid as a foundation, suffereth no one to perish. But what it is to build upon tliis foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, and wood, hay, stubble, this, if I endeavour to discuss more exactly, 1 fear lest there be more difficulty in understanding the exposition itself: yet I will strive, so far as the Lord helps me, shortly and, as much as 1 may, clearly to set forth what my own sense is. IjO, he who sought from the good Master, what good thing he should do, that he might have life everlasting ; both heard it said, that, if he would come unto life, he must keep the Commandments; and, upon asking, what Commaudments? had it said unto him, 77osscssed by a certain carnal affection about his riches, although he should give much alms of them, and should 64 ' Fire,' the pain of canial affection not fully mastered. PEFiDE neither form plans of fraud or violence in order to increase them, nor through fear of lessening or losing them fall into any sin or act of guilt, (were he to do otherwise, he would be thus now withdrawing himself from the assuredness of ' sed. That Foundation,) still ' by reason of a carnal affection, as JicJTs"! said, which he had in them, whereby he could not without imper- pain suffer the loss of such good things; he would build upon That Foundation, wood, hay, stubble ; chiefly if he possessed a wife too, so as for her sake also to have thoughts of the things which are of the world, how to please his wife. Therefore inasmuch as these things, being with carnal affection loved, are not lost without sorrow, for this reason, they who so have them, as to have as a foundation faith which worketh through love, and who do not in any way, or through any desire, prefer these things to that faith, having suffered harm in the loss of these things, attain unto salvation through a certain fire of sorrow. From which sorrow and loss each one is so much the more secure in proportion as he has loved them less, or had them as though he had them not. But he who for the sake of retaining or gaining these things, shall have been guilty of murder, adultery, fornication, idolatry, and such like, shall not, by reason of the foundation, be saved through fire, but having lost the foundation shall be in everlasting fire tormented. 28. Wherefore also in that which they assert, as though desirous of proving of how great avail faith is, where the 1 Cor. 7, Apostle says, But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart: *^' for a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases; that is, that on account of the faith of Christ even the very wife joined in lawful union may be left without any fiudt, if she shall be unwilling to continue with her husband being a Christian, for the reason that he is a Christian; they observe not that in this way she is most rightly suffered to depart, if she shall say to her husband, 1 will not be your wife, unless you heap me up riches even by robbery, or unless, even now that you are a Christian, you exercise the wonted lewd practices whereby you used to maintain our 'domum ijouse-keeping^ ; or if she have known any thing else in her traDHi- husband, either criminal or disgraceful, by the delight whereof gebas. j,|^g ^^j^g wont to fill her lust, or had a more easy provision Ftitiiretemporaryjire^ifsncli there he^saves not the wicked. 65 for life, or, it may be, went more richly attired. For then heETOPE- unto whom his wife says this, if he truly repented from dead ^H^ works when he came unto Baptism, and hath as a foundation faith which worketh through love, will without any doubt be held more by love of divine grace, than of his wife's flesh, and the member, which causeth him to offend, he cou- rageously cutteth off. But whatsoever sorrow of heart in this separation he shall sustain by reason of his carnal affection for his wife, this is the loss which he will suffer, this is the fire through which, the hay burning, he himself shall be saved. But if he already had his wife as though he had her not, not of desire, but of mercy, that haply' he'neforte might save her, rendering rather than exacting the debt of marriage; certainly neither will he grieve after the flesh, when such a marriage shall be taken from him : for neither in her ^ had he any thoughts, save of the things which are'soMss. of God, how to please God. And thus in so far as he wasf^.' ^^ by these thoughts building upon the foundation gold, silver, i^°r- 7, and precious stones, thus far he would suffer no loss, thus far his building, which was not of hay, would be consumed by no burning. •29. Whether therefore it be in this life only that men suffer ^ v. note these things, or whether after this life also certain such^*!^®, judgments follow, the sense in which I understand this the trea- senlence is not, as I judge, alien from the manner of truth. However, if there be anotlier sense, which occurs not to myself, such as should be taken in preference ; yet, so long as we hold this, we are not obliged to say to the unjust, the disobedient, the wicked, the impure, murderers of fathers, i Tim. i, murderers of mothers, manslayers, whoremongers, defilers^""^^' of themselves with mankind, menstealers, liars, peijured persons, and if there be any other thing which is contrary to sound doctrine, which is according to the Gospel of the glory of the Blessed God ; ' if only ye believe in Christ, and receive the Sacrament of His Baptism, although ye change not that most evil life of yours, ye shall be saved.' .30. Whence neither doth that woman of Canaan make a precedent against us% because the Lord gave her what she 4 . pra?. asked, when He had before said, // is not good to take auay ^*^"^", the children s bread, and to cast it unto dogs; because He, Mat.ie, F ''■ res. 66 Woman of Canaan penitent be/ore favoured. DEFiDEthe Seer of the heart, saw her to be changed, when He praised her. And therefore He says not, O dog, great is thy Mat. 15, faith; but, 0 woman, (/real is thy faith. He changed the ^^- term, because He saw a change in the affection, and under- stood that that rebuke had come to bear fruit. But it is a wonder to me if He praised in her faith without works, that is, faith not such as that it was already capable of working through love, dead faith, and, what the Apostle James had no hesitation in saying, faith, not of Christians, but of devils. Lastly, if they are unwilling to understand 1 perdi- that the woman of Canaan changed her abandoned conduct", to«mo- when Christ brought her to a sense of her guilt by His neglect and rebuke ; whomsoever they shall find believing merely, and so far from even concealing, as that they make free profession of a most impure life; let them heal their sons, if they can, in like manner as the daughter of the woman of Canaan was healed ; yet let them not make them members of Christ, when they themselves cease not to be members of an harlot. In this indeed they judge not ill, that he sins against the Holy Ghost, and is without pardon 2 reum. under condemnation^ of everlasting sin, who even unto the end of his life shall refuse to believe in Christ; but this, provided they understood aright what to believe in Christ is. For this is not to have the faith of devils, which is rightly .. accounted dead ; but faith which worketh through love. 30. Such being the case, when we refuse to admit such persons to Baptism, it is not that we are endeavouring before the time to pluck out the tares, but that we are unwilling, like the devil, to sow tares upon the wheat : neither are we hindering them who are willing to come to Christ, but are by their own very profession convicting them of unwillingness to come to Christ: nor are we forbidding them to believe in Christ, but are shewing them that they are unwilling to believe in Christ, who either deny that to be adultery which He declares to be adultery, or believe that adulterers can be 9.10.* 'His members, who He declares through the Apostle inherit |J™ijnot the kingdom of God, and are contrary to sound doctrine, ' which is according to the Gospel of the glory of the Lukei4 Blessed God. Whence such are not to be accounted among 16. &c. them who came to the marriage feast ; but among them who were unwilling to come. For when these very nion dareETorE- most o])enly to contradict the doctrine of Christ, and to l)e -^^ contrary to the holy Gosjud, they are not thrust back from coming, but despise coming. But they who renounce the world, at least in words, even if not in deeds, come indeed and are numbered among the wheat, and are heaped together into the garner, and are joined unto the same flock with the sheep, and enter the nets, and are mixed with the guests at the feast; but within, whether they lie hid, or apjiear, then will there be a reason of bearing with them, in case there be no power of correcting them, nor due grounds for a jiresumptiim of separating them. For far be it that we so understand that which is written, that there were brought unto the marriage feast, whomsoever '^^^^''^'^y they found, good and bad, as to believe that they brought unto it them who made profession of continuance in evil. Otherwise it was the very servants of the householder who sowed the tares, and that saying will be false, But MeM^f'^. enemy who sowed them is the devil. But forasmuch as this cannot be untrue, the servants brought unto the feast good and bad, whether it be them who lay hid, or them w^ho appeared after that they had been brought and let in ; or whether the expression ' good and bad' be used according to a certain life and conversation of the natural man', 'huma- wherein even they who have not yet l)elieved, are wont to°*"' be either praised or blamed. Whence also is that advice which the Lord gives to the disciples, whom He originally sends to ])reach the Gospel, that into whatsoever city they come, they inquire who therein is worthy, that they may dwell at his house, until they go out thence. Who in truth will be this man that is worthy, save he that shall beMaf.io, accounted a good man in the judgment of his fellow-citizens? And who unwortiiy, save he who shall be known unto them as an evil man ? Of both kinds men come unto the faith of Christ, and thus both good and bad are brought thither; because those bad ones also refuse not to repent from dead works. But, if they refuse, they are not thrust back when they are desirous to enter in, but of themselves by open contradiction dej)art from the entrance. 32. Therefore also that servant will lie safe, and will not F 2 68 The Church not answeralle for those who reject her. DEFiDEbe condemned among the slothful, in that he would not lerogare expend^ his Lord's talent; since in truth it was they who were unwilling to receive what he would expend. For it is Mat.25, for their sakes that this parable is set forth, who are unwilling i4^_3o. ^^ ^^^g upon themselves the office of steward in the Church, Chrys. using as a pretext the slothful excuse, that they are unwilling in^Pr/n. to have to give an account for other men's sins; who hear Actor. Qj^^ (Jq jjQt^ tj^at is, who receive and do not make a return. But when the faithful and diligent steward, being most ready in expending, and most greedy of the gain of his Lord, says to the adulterer, ' Be no longer an adulterer, if thou wilt be baptized ; believe in Christ, Who declares that which thou art doing to be adultery, if thou wilt be baptized; be no longer a member of an harlot, if thou wilt be made a member of Christ ;' and the other replies, ' I obey not, I do not:' it is he himself who will not receive the true money of 3 adulte- the Lord, but will rather carry his own adulterated ^ money rinam. .^^^^ ^^ Lord's treasures. But in case he were to make profession of doing, and were not to do, and it were after impossible in any way to amend him ; a way would be found of disposing of him, so as that he, who was of no use "inutiiis. to himself, should not be hurtful* to others; so that if within the good nets of the Lord he were an evil fish, yet should he not ensnare the fishes of his Lord in evil nets ; that is, so that, if he should in the Church retain an evil life, yet should he not there set up evil doctrine. For when such persons defend such their deeds, or making most open pro- fession of their intention of continuing in them, are admitted unto Baptism ; it seems that nothing else is proclaimed, than that fornicators and adulterers, even unto the end of this life continuing in that sin, shall inherit the kingdom of God, and by the merit of faith, which without works is dead, shall come unto everlasting life and salvation. These are evil nets which fishers especially ought to beware of: that is, if in that parable in the Gospel by fishers are to be understood bishops, or others of lower rank who are set over the Matt. 4, Churches: because it is said, Come, and I will make you y^- fishers of men. For by good nets may be caught fishes both good and evil ; but by evil nets cannot be caught good fishes. Since in good doctrine there may be the good who Custom of the Church (Kjaiust ailuiilliinj open sinners. GO hears and does, and the evil who hears and does not; bulETOPE- in evil doctrine, both he who thinks it true, although he obey '^'"^'^' it not, is evil ; and he who obeys it, is worse. 33. This indeed is matter of wonder, that brethren, who xviii. think otherwise, whereas they ought to depart from that, whether old or new, at any rate pernicious opinion, of them- selves assert moreover tliat the doctrine is novel, whereby men most wicked, making open profession of their intention of continuing in their scandalous sins, are not admitted unto Baptism ; as though they were sojourning in a foreign land, I know not where, when harlots and stage-players, and any other persons whatsoever who are engaged publicly in shameful professions, are not allowed to approach the Christian Sacraments, save after they have set themselves free from, or broken off, such bonds: who certainly according to their view would all be admitted, were it not that Holy Church retained her ancient and unbending' custom, coming > robus- as it does from that most clear truth, whereby she knows ^"'"' of a surety, that they who do such things, shall not^'"'^-^^ inherit the kingdom of God. And unless they shall have 1 cTn6, repented from these dead works, they are not allowed to ^' ^^* approach unto Baptism : but in case they shall have crept in unawares, yet, unless, even after, they shall be converted and repent, they cannot be saved. But dmnkards, covetous men, slanderers, and if there be any other damnable sins such as cannot by open deeds be brought to proof and con- viction; yet are these strongly lashed by commandments and catechizings, and all such seem as having their wills changed for the better to approach unto Baptism. But if haply, as respects adulterers, whom^not human law but divine con- demns, that is, who have other men's wives for their own, or women, who have other women's husbands, they have ob- served these in any place to be admitted without due care ; these things they should endeavour to amend from those other which are right, that is, so as not to admit even tliese persons ; not from these latter, which are wrong, to make wrong those other, which are riglit, so as to hold that the Compelentes are not to be catechized even on the subject of correction of life: and, in consequence, to judge, that even all those w],., pMhlicly . xcrcise those sjiameful and sinful 70 If some sins be passed over, yet must not adultery. Dt-FiDE professions, that is, harlots, panders, gladiators, and such like, even whilst they continue in those evil practices, yet ought to he admitted. For all those things which the Apostle reckons up, saying at the end, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, they who act more strongly rehuke, as is becoming, when brought to their knowledge, and admit not to receive Baptism them who oppose them- selves, and make profession of their intention of continuing therein, xix. 34. But they who think that all other sins are easily atoned for by alms, yet have no doubt of three being deadly, and such as require to be punished by excommunications, until they be healed by a greater humility of penance, namely, unchastity, idolatry, murder. Nor is it now neces- sary to inquire of what nature that opinion of theirs is, and whether it be to be amended, or approved, that we lengthen not out the work which we have in hand, in order to that other question, which is no way necessary for the solution of this one. For it is enough, that if all sins are to be refused admission into the Sacrament of Baptism, among these all is adultery; or if only those three are to be excepted, even among those three is adultery, upon which the present discussion arose. 35. But because the conduct of evil Christians, which has been before this of the very worst character, yet seems not to have had in it this evil, that men married other men's wives, or women were wedded to other women's husbands ; hence perhaps in certain Churches this neglect hath crept in unawares, that in the catechizings of the Competentes these sins were not inquired into or rebuked ; and hence it hath come to pass, that they have begun even to be de- fended: which sins however among the baptized are rare as yet, if we ourselves by our neglect make them not to be frequent. In fact, it would appear probable that it was such neglect in some, want of skill in others, ignorance in others, Mat. 13, that our Lord meant by the term sleep, where He says, But ^''' while men slept, the enemy came, and sowed beside tares. But from this fact we are to think that these things appeared not at the first in the conduct even of evil Christians, that the blessed Cyprian in his letter concerning the Lapsed, Even douh/ful marriayea to be avoided, though spared. 71 when making mention of many things by way of lamentation etope- or rebulvc, whereby he saith that tlie wrath of God liath been "'""^' justly moved, so as to suffer His Church to be scourged by a persecution such as could not be borne, altogether omits to mention these in that jilace, when even on that other point he is not silent, and affirms that it perlaineth unto the same evil conduct, namely, to form the bond of marriage with unbelievers, affirming it to be nothing else than to prostitute unto the Gentiles the members of Christ: which in our times are not any longer thought to be sins ; since in truth there is no commandment on the subject in the New Testament, and therefore it was either believed to be lawful, or left as doubtful. Just as that also is uncertain, whether Herod married the wife of his brother, after his death, or Mat. 14, during his Hfe'': and so it is not so clear, what John declared to be not lawful to him. Also in the case of a concubine, if she shall make profession that she will know no other man, even although she be ])ut away by him unto whom slie is in subjection, it is with reason doubted, whether she ought not to be admitted unto Baptism. Whosoever also shall have put away his wife, having taken her in adultery, and shall have married another, it seems not right to place him on a level with them who, fur other causes save that of adultery, put away and marry: and in the divine sentences themselves it is so obscure, whether he also, who may without doubt lawfully put away an adulteress, is yet to be counted as an adulterer, if he shall marry another, that, as far as I think, each one who is in this matter deceived commits a venial fiiult'. Wherefore those which are manifest sins of un-ireniali- chastity, are in every way to be restrained from Baptism, ^^J^'gj^- unless they be amended by a change of w^ll and by repent- latur. ance: but where they are uncertain, we must every way endeavour that such unions be not formed. For what need is there to thrust one's self into so great danger of uncertainty ? But if they have been formed, 1 know not whether it seem not that they who have formed them, ought in like manner to be admitted unto Baptism. ^ JosephuH, Antiq. xviii. 7. states, in the Roman Breviary on the Feast of that he married his brother's wife the Beheading of St. John Baptist, daring his life, and the same is chanted Ikn. 720ne stilt an adulterer not 'tnacle whole.^ Script urePreceden Is. DEFiDE 36. So far therefore as pertains unto the wholesome XX. doctrine of the truth, in order that unto any deadly sin there be not given a most destructive security, or even be assigned a most pestilent authority, the order of the process of healing is this, that they who are to be baptized believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in that form wherein the symbol is delivered; and that they repent from dead works, and doubt not that they shall receive entire remission of all past sins whatsoever : not that sin may be lawful unto them hereafter, but that past sin may not injure them ; that there may be a remission of what was done, not a permission so to do. Then can it be truly said, even in a spiritual John 5, sense. Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more : which the Lord therefore spake of bodily soundness, because He knew, that in his case whom He had healed, the very sickness of the flesh had happened as what his sins deserved. But these men, where the man enters to receive Baptism an adulterer, and goes forth, being baptized, an adulterer, it is a wonder to me in what sense they think it said unto him. Behold, thou art made whole. For what is there that is a grievous and deadly disease, if adultery shall be soundness ? xxi. 37. But among the three thousand, say they, whom the Apostles baptized in one day, and among the so many Rom. thousands of believers, among whom, from Jerusalem even ' ■ unto Illyricum, the Apostle fully preached the Gospel, there were surely some men united to other men's wives, or women united to other women's husbands: among whom the Apostles ought to have established a rule, to be after observed in the Churches, whether or not they should be refused admission unto Baptism, unless they amended those adulteries. As though it may not be said against them in like manner, that they find not mention made of any one, who, being such, was admitted. Or as though in truth the sins of individuals, a thing which were without any end, could be made mention of; whereas that general rale is enough and more than enough, where Peter, with many words testifying, said unto them that were to be baptized, Acts 2, Save yourselves from this froward world. For who can ^^' doubt that adulteries, and they who have chosen to persist in the same unrighteous way, pertain unto the untowardness of 'The Jews punislu-cl /or icrony (icl.s as well an uvbilief. 73 this world? But in like manner it may be said, that public etope- prostitules (whom assuredly no Church admits unto Baptism, - save after they have been freed from that shameful state) might have been found among so many thousands of those who then believed throughout so many nations, and that the Apostles ought to have established precedents concerning the receiving or rejecting these. However, we may con- jecture the greater from certain lesser things. For if publicans coming to John's Baptism were forbidden to ask Luke 3, any thing more than what had been appointed unto them ; ^^' it .were a wonder if unto them who came unto the Baptism of Christ adultery should be allowed, 38. They have made mention also that the Israelites had committed many and grievous oflfences, and had shed much blood of the Prophets, and yet that not by reason of these things deserved they altogether to be blotted out, but by reason of unbelief alone, whereby they would not believe in Christ ; not considering that their sin was not this alone, that they believed not in Christ, but also that they slew Christ; whereof the one pertains unto the charge of unbelief, the other unto the charge of cruelty. The one therefore is contrary to a right faith, the other is contrary to a good life. But he is free from both faults, who hath the faith of Christ, not that which without works is dead, which is found even james in devils; but the faith of guace, which worketh through 2»19-20. Gal. 5, love. 6- Si). This is that faith, concerning which it is declared ; The kingdom of heave it ^ is tiithin you. For this kingdom Lukei7 they take by force, who do violence by believing, asking and^i- receiving the Spirit of Love, wherein is the fulfilling of the v. 'f/ law, without which Love'' the law in the letter made them to ^°'^'\„ Kom.la, be under the condemnation because of transgression. We lo. must not then think, that it was therefore declared, The'i°^{^^^]^ kingdom of heaven mfferelh violence, and they who riof"lfil- violence, fake it by force; because even the bad, merelv M^t,!! by believing and living the very worst lives, attain unto the '^* kingdom of heaven ; but because that state of condemnation by reason of transgression, which the law alone, that is, the letter, caused by giving commandment without the Spirit, is by believing done away, and by the violence of faith tlie 74 Failh of Grace is living, and icorks by Love. DEFiDEHoly Spirit is asked and received; through Whom, Love R^^iTs; being shed abroad in our hearts, the law is fulfilled, not from ^' fear of punishment, but from love of righteousness, xxii 40. Therefore let not the incautious mind be at all ' deceived, so as to think that it knows God, if it confess Him with a dead faith, that is, without good works, after the manner of devils: and on this account entertain no further doubt of attaining unto life everlasting, because the Lord Johni7,says, But this is life everlasting, that they way know Thee, ^- the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. In truth, that other also ought to come into his mind, which 1 John is written, Herein know we Him, if we keep His Command- ^'^•^- ments; whoso saith, 1 know Hitn, and keej^eih not His Commandments, is a liar, and in him the truth is not. And, that no one may think that His Commandments pertain only' unto faith; (although no one has dared to assert this, especially in that He spake Commandments, and lest these Mat 22 by their number should dissipate the thought, On these two ^0- 'hangeth the whole Law and the Prophets;) albeit it may be rightly said, that the Commandments of God pertain unto faith alone, if not dead faith, but that living faith be under- stood, which worketh through love ; yet after did John himself 1 John declare his meaning, when he said. This is His Command- ^' ^^- ment, that we believe in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another. 41. This then is profitable, to believe in God with a right faith, to worship God, to know God, that we may both obtain ' mere- from Him help to live well, and, in case we sin, may earn ' '"'''■• pardon from Him; not continuing carelessly in the things which He hates, but departing from them, and saying unto Ps4i 4. Him, / said, O Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I hare sinned against Thee : whereas they have not any one to whom to say it, who believe not in Him ; and they say it = tam in vain, who, being so far^ from Him, are alien from the grace '°"ee- of the Mediator. Whence are those words in the Book of Wisdom, which I know not how a security fraught with ruin Wise] interprets ; even though we sin, ue are Thine; since in truth 15> 2.' ^e have a good and great God, Who is both willing and able to heal the sins of ihcm who repent, not One Who dares not to destroy utterly them who continue in their evil mind. The Judgment^ thrcatiued to evil life. Is ddmiuUiun. 75 Finally, after having said, ue are Thine; he added, knowiiKj vrovv,- Thy pouer: that power certainly li-oni whieh the sinner can '- not withdraw himself or hide himself. Therefore he went on, and added ; Bui we uill vol .sin, knotcing Ihat ive are acconntcd Thine. For who that entertains worthy thoughts of the dwelling with God, wherein all are by predestination accounted, who according to the purpose are called, but must strive so to live, as is suitable to such a dwelling ? Whereas therefore John also sa\^s, These Ihinos I have wrilien unlo i John you, that ye sin not; and, ij any man sin, ine have an ' Advocate with the Father, Jesns Christ the riyhlcous, and He is an effect ital intercession^ for our sins : this is not his'.^'^°''*' object, that we may sin with security; but that, departing from sin, if we have committed any, by reason of That Advocate, Whom unbelievers have not, we may in no way despair of pardon. 4'2. Neither therefore out of these words are we to promise xxiii. any u)ilcler condition to them who would so believe in God, as to continue in evil conduct; much less out of those where the Apostle says, T7iey ivho have sinned nithout law, shall Rom. 2, perish without law, but they who have sinned in the law, shall be judged through the law; as if in this place there were some difference between perishing and being judged, whereas it is the same thing expressed by another word. For the Scriptures use to put' judgment' also for eternal dauniation; as in the (Jospel the Lord says. The hour shall come, uhcrein John 5, all that are in the graves shall hear His voice; and they^^'^^' (hat have done well shall go forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done ill imto the resurrection of judgment. Nor is it here said, * They that have believed' sliall do this, and ' they thai have not believed' shall do that, but, 'They that have done well shall do this, 7'hey that have done ill that. That is to say, a good life cannot be sejiarated from faith which workelh through love ; yea rather the faith itself is a good life. We see therefore that the Lord said, the resurrection of judgment, in jjlace of the resurrection of eternal damnation. Out of all, that is, who shall rise again (where without doubt will they also be who altogether believe not, for neither are they not in their graves) Me made two ]iarts, declaring tliat the one shall rise again unto thr 76 If sin is only 'judged,' so may be iinhelief. DEI IDE resurrection of life, tlie other nnto the resurrection of judgment. 43. But if they say that we are not to understand in that place them also who altogether believe not, but them ^who shall be saved through fire, because they have believed, even although they have lived ill, so as to pronounce that by the term judgment is meant the punishment of these latter which is for a time. (Although this were a most bold assertion, when altogether the Lord hath divided all that shall rise again, among whom without doubt unbelievers also will be, into two portions, ' life' and ' judgment ;' willing that the judgment be understood to be everlasting, although this He has not added, in like manner as the life also. For neither saith He, unto the resurrection of everlasting life ; albeit He surely meant not that any thing else should be understood.) Let them however see to it, what answer they will make, John 3, where He saith. But he thai believeth not, is judged already. ^^' For in this place without doubt they either understand that judgment is put for everlasting punishment, or will dare to assert that even unbelievers will be saved through fire ; forasmuch as, He that believeth not, saith He, is judged already; that is, is already appointed unto judgment: and there will not be any thing for them to promise as a great largess to them who believe and live evil lives, seeing that they also who believe not, will not be destroyed, but judged ^ And if they dare not assert this, let them not dare to promise any thing more gentle to them, of whom it is said, they shall be judged through the law; because it is certain that the term judgment is wont to be used for everlasting damnation. What, that we find that they who sin knowingly, are under terms not only in no sense more gentle, but even worse ? For these are they especially who have received the Kom. 4, law. For, as it is wi'itten. Where law is not, neither is there Rom. 7 transgression. Hence also is that other. Lust I was ignorant 7- 8. of, but that the Law said. Thou shall not lust. Tlius, having taken occasion, sin through the Commandment worked in me all manner of lust ; and many other things which the same Apostle says on this subject. From this more grievous "^ And therefore are in no such condition as to need Baptism without due preparation. Case of Jeivish and Gentile state unfairly qunied. 77 state of condemnation we are set free by the Grace of the et ope- Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord, wliich, by the '^''"^"' shedding abroad of love in our hearts, bestoweth on us a delight in righteousness, whereby to overcome the inordi- nateness of lust. Hence therefore it is made certain, that we are not only to understand nothing more gentle, but some- thing more grievous in their case, of whom it is said, TJiey, nfio have sinned in the laiv, shall be jiidyed ihrouijh the law; than in their case, who, sinning without law, shall perish without law: nor is the word judgment in this place put for a punishment which passes away, but for that whereby they also that believe not shall be judged. 44. For they who make use of this sentence in order to promise salvation through fire, to them who, although believers, are living most evil lives, so as to say to thera, Tliey uho have sinned uithout law, shall perish without law; hut they icho have sinned in the law, shall be judged through the laiv ; as though it had been said, shall not perish, but shall be saved through fire; could not have observed this point either, that the Apostle spake this of them who without law, and of them who in the law, have sinned, when treating of the Gentiles and the Jews; that he might shew that not unto the Gentiles only, but unto both there was need of the grace of Christ to set them free : which the whole of the Epistle to the Romans evidently shews. Now then let them promise, if they will, salvation through fire, unto the Jews also sinning in the law, of whom it is said. They shall be judged through the law, the grace of Christ not setting them free, seeing that of these it is said, They shall be judged through the law. Which if they do not, lest they come into collision with themselves, asserting as they do that they are bound with a most grievous charge of unbelief; wherefore do they transfer unto unbelievers, and believers, in what relates to faith in Christ, what was said of them who without law, and of them who in the law, have sinned, when the subject treated of was concerning the Jews, and concerning the Gentiles, that both should be invited unto tiie grace of Christ? For neither was it said, They, who xxiv. have sinned without faith, shall perish without faith ; but till V, who have sinned in tlie faith, shall be judged through 78 Christian Liberty. St. Peter* s sentence on evil livers. DEFiDE the faith ; but it was said, * without law,' and, ' in the law ;' that it might sufficiently appear that it affected that cause, which was being treated of, between Gentiles and Jews, not that which is between good and evil Christians. 45. Although, even if they would have law in that place taken in the^sense of faith, which were too absurd and out of » hinc. place, yet even on this' they may read a most open sentence of Peter, who, (speaking of them who had taken for an occasion of the flesh, and a cloak of evil jn-actice, that where it is written, that we, who pertain unto the New Testament, Gal. 4, (xre sons, not of the bond-woman, but of the free-woman, in soYxilgJhe liberty uherein Christ hath set us free : and had thought that this was to live freely, that, as though secure of so great redemption, they should think whatsoever pleased them to Gal. 6, be lawful to them, not considering what is said. Ye have been called into liberty, brethren ; only make not your liberty an iPet.2,occasio}i ofthejlesh: whence also Paul himself says, ^.9 //-ee, yet not having your liberty as a cloak of evil practice^ says 2 Pet. 2, of them in his second Epistle also, These are tvells that are ' dry, and clouds tossed with a tempest ; unto whom the gloom of darkness is reserved for ever ; for, lohen they speak proud icords of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the nantonness of 2 margi- t]ie jiesh them who are but just ^ escaped, after living in Tea.3mg,^^'for, offering unto them liberty, ivhereas they themselves and so ^^^ slaves of corruption. For of ithom one is overcome, unto Vulg. J I "^ . . and him, is he made over as a slave. For if, whilst fleeing from ^™® the pollutions of the world unto the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter state becomes unto them worse than the former. For it were better for them not to know the way of righteousness, than, tvhen they know it, to turn back from the holy Commandment delivered unto them. But it hath liappened unto them, what is said in the true proverb. The dog is turned unto his own vomit again, and the sow which teas washed unto her waUouing in the mire. Why any longer, in opposition to this most manifest truth, is a better condition promised unto them who have known the way of righteousness, that is, the Lord Christ, and who live abandoned lives, than if they had altogether been ignorant of it ; whereas it is most openly said, It were better for them Hoiv he aijrecs zvifh St. James and St. Jitde. 79 not to know the way ofrujUteoitftnesn, than, nhen they /i//o;r etope- //, to turn hack from the holy Commandifietit delirered unto— — ^ them. 4G. For neither by tbc holy Comniandinent must lie in this xxv. place understand that, wherein we were bidden to l)elieve in God ; although the whole be contained in this very thing, if we understand the faith of believers to be that which worketh through love ; but he openly set forth, what he called the holy Connnandnient, that is, wherein we were bidden to depart from the pollutions of this world, and to live in a holy conversation. For thus he saith, But if, Jlceing from the pollutions of the icorld unto the knowledye of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entanrjled therein and overcome, the latter state becomes unto them icorse than the former. He says not, fleeing from the ignorance of God, or fleeing from the unbelief of the world, or any other such thing; but the pollutions of the ivorld, wherein is contained assuredly every uncleanness of shameful sins. For speaking above of these, he said, Feasting together icith you, haviiig 2Vet.2, eyes full of adtdtery, and of sin unceasing. Therefore also ' * does he call them wells that are dry ; wells, that is, in that they had received the knowledge of the Lord Christ; but dry, because they live not in a manner suitable thereunto. For of such the Apostle Jude also speaking, says. They areSn^eii. they who in your feasts of charity, being full of spots, feast with you, feeding themselves withoiU fear, clouds are they ivithout water ; and the rest. For that which Peter says. Feasting xcith you, having eyes full of adultery; the same Jude, In your feasts of charity, being full of spots, they feast with you. For they are mingled with the good in the feasts of the Sacraments and in the feasts of charity of the poorer sort^ And whereof Peter says, Fountains ivhirh are dry: of tlie same Jude, Clouds without water,- of the same James, Faith thai is dead. 47. Let not therefore a promise be made of punishment, that is for a time, of fire, unto them who are living shameful and wicked lives, because they have * known the way of righteousness ;' unto whom it had been better not to know ' ' Dilectionil)us plebium.' He calU the same ' Agapes,' contra Faustum, w. 20. 80 Baptism a curse to those who will not leave sin. DE FIDE it, as the most true Scripture testifies. For concerning such Mat.i2,the Lord also says, And the last state of that man shall he ^■''' worse than was the former : since, by not receiving the Holy Spirit to be a dweller in his purified state, he hath made the unclean spirit to return into him manifold more. Unless haply they, of whom we are now treating, are therefore to be accounted better, because they have not returned unto the uncleanness of their adulteries, but have never departed from it; nor after cleansing have again defiled themselves, but have refiised to be cleansed. For neither, in order that they may disburthen their conscience and enter unto Baptism, do they deign at least to cast forth their former impurities, again, after the manner of dogs, to suck them up; but in the holiness of the very Laver they^ obstinately persist to hold the undigested wickedness in their crude breast: nor do they hide it by any, even feigned, promise, but with a shameless- ness of profession belch it forth ; nor do they, when going Gen. 19, forth from Sodom, after the manner of Loth's wife, again look back on things past, but they altogether disdain to go forth from Sodom ; yea they strive with Sodom to enter into iTim.i, Christ. Paul the Apostle saith, / who before was a blas- ^'^- j)hemer, and a persecutor, and injurious ; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignoranily in unbelief; and unto these it is said, ' Then will ye rather obtain mercy, if knowingly ye shall live evil lives in the faith itself.' It is too long a task, and well nigh without end, to wish to bring together all the testimonies of the Scriptures, whereby it 'causam appears, that not only is the case ' of them, who lead a most evil and unrighteous life knowingly, no wise lighter than that of them who do so unknowingly, but also that it is for this very cause more grievous; thus then let these be enough. xxvi. 48. Let us therefore take diligent heed, by the help of our Lord God, that we cause not in men an evil security, by telling them, that, if they shall have been baptized in Christ, of what nature soever their lives in that faith shall have been, they shall come unto eternal salvation ; that we make not Christians in the manner in which the Jews made proselytes, Mat.23,unto whom the Lord says, Woe unto you, Scribes and 1^- Pharisees, who compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; but after ye Imve made him, ye make him a child of hell Suitable reined ies for different deyrecs of sin. 81 twofold more than yourselves. But let us ratlicr hold iIicetope- sound doctrine of God our Master in both thinj^s; that there -"^^^ be a Christian life in harmony with holy Baptism, and that eternal life be promised to no man, if either be wanting. For He who said, Except a man be born arjain of water ^ and (f-^o^^ 3, the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven ; ^^ome Himself also said, Except your righteousness shall abound^H'^f^]."/ above that of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not ew/e/-i^latt-6, into the kingdom of heaven. Of them it is that He saith,^"' The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; what things Mat.23, they say, do ye; but what they do, do ye not; for they say^- ^* and do not. Therefore their righteousness is to say and not do ; and thus He willed that ours should be abundant above theirs, to say and do ; which if it shall not be, there shall be no entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Not that any one ought to be so lifted up, as (I will not say to boast in the presence of others, but) to dare to think within himself, that he is in this life without sin; but, were there not certain things so grievous as to require even the stroke of excom- munication, the Apostle would not say, Wheii ye are gathered \Cot. 5, together, and my spirit also, to deliver such an one unto ^' ^' Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Whence also he says. Lest I bewail many, who have before sinned, and have^ Cor. not repented for the iincleaancss and fornication which they^^'^^' have committed. In like manner, were there not certain which required not to be healed by that humiliation of penance, such as is assigned in the Church to them who are properly called Penitents, but by certain medicines of rebukes, the Lord Himself would not say. Rebuke him^\^t.\i(, between thee and him alone; and, if he shall hearken unto ^^" thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Finally, were there not certain, without which this life is not past, He would not set a daily healing in the prayer which He taught, that we should say, Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our Mut.G, debtors. ' 12. ' 49. I have now sudiciently, as I judge, set forth my views xxvii. on that whole opinion, wherein they have moved three questions; one, concerning the mixture in the Church of the good and evil, as of the wheat and lares; wlicrein wo G 8*2 The Ark had its door, though unclean beasts uent in. DEFiDE must take heed, that we do not think that we have these figures proposed to us (either this, or that of the unclean animals in the ark, or whatsoever other things there are of the same signification) for this purpose, that the discipline of the Church may sleep, concerning whom it was said under the Prov. figure of the woman, The ways of her house are severe; but see * that rashness of madness, rather than severity of diligence, LXX. gQ jjQ^ gQ j-g^j. j^g ^Q presume to separate, as it were, the good from the evil, by means of unlawful schisms. For neither through these figures and prophecies is counsel of sloth given unto the good, that they neglect what they ought to hinder; but of patience, that while they preserve entire the doc- trine of the truth, they endure that which they cannot amend. Gen. 7, Nor because it is written that there entered unto Noe into ^* ^" the ark unclean animals also, therefore ought not they who are set over the Church to forbid it, should any most unclean wish to enter unto Baptism dancing, which is surely a milder offence, than to do so in adultery ; but through this figure of what was done, it was foretold that there will be unclean persons in the Church, in order that they may be borne with, not that doctrine may be corrupted, or discipline dissolved. For not wheresoever they would did unclean animals break through the frame of the ark and enter it, but it remained entire, and they entered in through one and the same door, which the builder had made. A second question is that, wherein it seemed to them right to deliver to them that are to be baptized faith only, but after, when they have already been baptized, to instruct them in life and conduct. But it hath been sufficiently shewn, unless I am deceived, that it then more especially appertains to the care of the watchman, icompe-^hen all who are seeking' the Sacrament of the faithful, ^""^" listen to all that is said to them more intently and anxiously, not to be silent on the punishment which the Lord threatens to them who live evil lives ; lest they become guilty under most grievous charges in their very Baptism, whither they come that there may be remitted unto them the guilt of all their sins. The third question is one very full of danger, whence, in that it hath been little considered, and not handled according to the divine sayings, it seems to me that all that opinion hath arisen, whereby promise is made unto y\^urks as well as faith a condition n/' Salvalioii. 83 persons living most wicked and shameful lives, even altliough ktopi His Sacraments, that they shall come unto salvation and life everlasting; in opposition to the most open sentence of the Lord, Who made answer unto him that was longing for life everlasting, If thou wilt come unto life, keep the Counttaiid- Mat. 19, me/tts; and made mention what Connnanduients, wherein those very sins are shunned', unto which is promised, I know • read not how, salvation everlasting, on account of faith without/?!?"' "' tur 'tor- works dead. These three questions I have discussed, asbiilden.' I think, sufficiently : and have shewn, that we are so to bear with evil men in the Church, as not to neglect ecclesiastical discipline; are so to catechize them who ask for Baptism, as that they shall hear and receive, not only what they ought to believe, but also how they ought to live ; that the promise of life everlasting is so made to believers, that each one judge not that he can attain unto it even through a dead faith, which without works cannot save, but through that faith of gi-ace, which worketh through love. Let not therefore faithful stewards be blamed, not for their own neglect or sloth, but rather for the obstinacy of certain, who refuse to receive the_ Lord's money, and compel the Lord's servants to expen«i^ their own adulterate coin, whilst they are unwilling to be at least such evil persons, as holy Cyprian makes mention of, Ep. ii. who renounce the world in words only, and not in deeds ; ry^f ^e" whereas not even in words are they willing to renounce the Prec. works of the devil, when they with most open voice make „ ^24. "^ profession of an intention to continue in adultery. If any thing is wont to be said by them, which haply I have not touched on in my disputation, I have judged it to be such as not to require me to answer it; either in that it belonged not to the matter under discussion, or that it was so slight, as that any one could very easily refute it. Sf)anfes be to Gob. u 2 84 Note to page 65. NOTE. St. Augustine in several places of his Commentary on the Psalms, as on Ps. vi. 1. and xxxviii. 1. speaks of punishment at the Judgment, or after this life, for those who are saved ' as by fire,' without expressing a doubt. However, in his answers to the questions of Duleitius, written so late as about A.D. 420, he speaks of it most distinctly as a doubtful point. After stating nearly what he does in this Treatise about the pain arising from worldly affections, he adds, §. 13. ' Some such thing also it is not incredible may take place after this life, and whether it be so may be enquired, and may either be found out or remain hidden ; that some believers through some sort of cleansing fire, in the degree they have more or less loved perishing goods, may attain salvation with more or less delay : not however such of whom it is said, that they shall not inherit the kingdom of God, unless on fitting penitence the same crimes be remitted.' De Civ. Dei, XX. 25. xxi. ]3. written somewhat later, he expresses less doubt, but scarcely appears to have made up his mind. His principal object there is to contradict the notion that there would be no eternal punishments. In the same treatise, xxi. 26. he again writes thus doubtfully. " After the death of the body, until the arrival of that last day of condemnation and reward after the resurrection (of the bodv), should it be said that m this interval the spirits of the dead suffer a fire, such as they do not feel who had not habits and likings in the life of this body, which require their wood, hay, and stubble to be bu.ned up, but they feel who have carried with them the like worldly tabernacles, whether there only, or here and there, or not there because here, though they experience the fire of transitory tribulation rescuing venial offences ^from damnation by con- suming them, I do not oppose, for perchance it is true." S. AUGUSTINE ENCHIRIDION TO LAURENTIUS ON FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY. St. Augustine enumerates the Enchiridion addressed to Laurentius amongst his latest works, and after the six books against Julianus written about 421, m his second book of Retractations. In cap. 87, he alludes to the death of St. Jerome, which took place Sept. 30, A.D. 420. Laurentius is caUed the brother of Dulcitius in the book on Dulcitius' eight questions, q. 1. n. 10. Nothing is said that proves him not to have been a layman, though his learning and piety are liighly praised. One Ms. in tlie heading calls him a Deacon, otliers Primicerius, or Primicerius Notariorum urbis Romee, another Primicerius Roman» Ecclesiffi. The Author admits the name of Enchiridion, but usually speaks of the work as « on Faith, Hope, and Charity,' to which heads he reduces the questions of Laurentius. The first he treats in the order of the Creed, refuting, without naming, the heresies of the IVfanichwans, ApoUinarians,' PrisciUianists, Arians, and especially of the Pelagians. The second is' in the form of a brief exposition of the Lord's Prayer. The third part is a short discourse on Charity. Ab.from Ben. Retract, ii. 63. ' I also wrote a book on Faith, Hope, and Charity, on the request of the person to whom I addressed it, that he might have a work of mine which should never be out of his hands, such as the Greeks call an Enchiridim. In which I think I have pretty carefully treated of t»e manner in which God is to be worshipped, which knowledge divine Scripture defines to be the true wisdom of man.* 1. Beyond all expression am I plea.sed with your learning, enchi- niy very dear son Laurentius, and long for you to be wise • """"^' not of the number of them conccniing whom it is said, "pk'et W/iore is the wise? ivhere the scrihe? where the discoverer J^?'" o/ this worhU Hath not God made /oo/i^h the icisdom o/^^^, 20. 86 Man's wisdom comprised in Faith, Hope, Charity. ENCHi- this ivorld? but of them concerning whom it is written, The .^^^ multitude of the wise is the soundness of the world; and 24. such as the Apostle wishes them to become, to whom he Rom. writes, But I wish you to be wise indeed in what is good, but ' ' simple in what is evil. But as no one can of himself be, so no one can of himself be wise, but of Him, enlightening, Ecclns. concerning Whom it is written, All wisdom is from God"". ii. But man's wisdom is piety. You have this in the book of holy Job : for there we read, that Wisdom Herself said to Job 28, man. Behold, piety is wisdom. But if you enquire, what piety she there spake of, you will find more clearly in the Greek, 5eoo-£/3s<«v, which is the worship of God. For in the Greek there is another word also for piety, that is, sva-efista, by which word is signified good worship, although this too is especially referred to the worship of God. But there is nothing more suitable than that word, by which evidently the worship of God was expressed, when it was said, what was wisdom for man. Seek you any thing to be said more briefly, you who ask of me to speak briefly of great things ? Or haply you desire to have this very point briefly opened, and brought together into a short discourse, in what manner iii. God is to be worshipped. Here if I shall answer that God is to be worshipped by Faith, Hope, and Love ; you will certainly say, that this is a shorter statement than you wished ; and then you will ask, that what things belong to each of these three, may be briefly explained to you ; that is, what is to be believed, what to be hoped for, what to be loved. Which when I shall have done, therein will be all these things which in your letter you set down by way of enquiry *", a copy of which if you have with you, you may easily turn over and read them again ; if however you have iv. not, you may remember them as I repeat them. For your wish, as you write, is, " that I should write you a book, which ' Enchi-you may have as a manual', (as it is called,) and never suffer to leave your hands ; containing the things demanded, that is. What is chiefly to be followed; what, by reason of diverse heresies, mainly to be avoided ; how far reason contends for religion, or what in reason is unsuitable, when faith is ^- several Mss. omit ' But as no one,' '' ' quaerendo,' al. ' qiiccrenda,' ' as SiC. questions to be asked.' Groufuls of belief. Chrisl the Fonndatiou. 87 alone ° ; what is held first, what last ; what is the sum of the of, fide whole prescribed form ' ; what the certain and proper found- *^car^J ation of the Catholic Faith." All these things which 3^011 tate. inquire after you will without any doubt know, by knowing 'defini- carefully what ought to be believed, what to be hoped, what to be LOVED. For these things especially, nay rather alone, are in religion to be followed. These things whosoever contradicts, is either altogether an alien from the name of Christ, or an heretic. These things are to be defended by reasoning, either having'' their foundation in the senses of the body, or discovered by the power of understanding in the mind. But what things we have neither experienced by corporeal sense, nor either have been, or are, able to attain to by mental powers, these without any doubt are to be believed on their testimony, by whom was composed that Scripture which hath by this time deservedly come '^ to be «meruit, called divine ; who, by divine help, whether through the body, or through the mind, were able either to see, or even to foresee these things. But when the mind hath been v. imbued with the beginning of faith, which worketh by love, it goes on by living well to arrive at sight' also, wherein is^spe- unspeakable beauty known to holy and perfect hearts, ihe"^™' full vision of which is the highest happiness. This is assuredly what you are inquiring after, " what is held first, what last:" to be begun in faith, to be made perfect in sight. This also is " the sum of the whole prescribed form." But the " certain and proper foundation of the Catholic Faith" is Christ. For other foundation., says the Apostle,«o one can lay, 1 Cor. 3, beside that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Nor must '^' that therefore be denied to be the proper foundation of the Catholic Faith, because it may be thought that this is in common to us with certain heretics. For if those things which pertain to Christ be carefully thought on, as far as the name, Christ is found among certain heretics, who wish to be called Christians ; but in reality He is not among them. Which to shew is too long; inasmuch as all heresies have « 'Quid in ratione, cum fides «it sola, ' in ratione cum fide, si sit sola, non non cnnveniat.' al. ' quid in rationem, conviniat.' ' Wliat in reason, by itself, cum fides sit sola, non veniat.' ' why it agrees not with faith.' is not taken account of when faith "^ some Ms!«. ' qua» vel,' ' «uch as ftands alone.' Ani.ilJus ap. Ben. conj. either have.' 88 Hope and Love closely linked with Faith. ENCHi- to be noticed, which either have been, or are, or have been * able to be under the Christian name, and the truth of this lal.shal be able, to be pointed out in each : which discussion is one for so ^'*- many volumes that it may seem even endless. You however demand of us " a manual," that is, " what may be grasped by the hand, not what may load the bookshelves." To return therefore to those three things, by which we said that God is to be worshipped, faith, hope, love ; it is easily said, what is to be believed, what to be hoped for, what to be loved; but in what manner it may be defended against the false charges of those who think differently, is matter of more laborious and copious teaching; in order to possess which there needeth, not that the hand be filled with a short manual, but that the breast be inflamed with great zeal. ^^' 2. For see, you have the Creed and the Lord's Prayer : what shorter to hear or read } what more easy to commit to memory ? For in that by reason of sin, the human race was weighed down by heavy misery, and needed the Divine mercy ; the Prophet foretelling the time of the grace of Joel 2, God, says. And it shall be, every one that shall call on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved: for this reason is the Prayer ^ But the Apostle, after that, for the recommending of Grace itself^, he had recounted this testimony of the Rom. Prophet, immediate adds. But how shall they call on Llim, ' * in Whom they have not believed? for this reason is the Creed. In these two things view those three ; faith believes, hope and love pray. But without faith they cannot be ; and by this means faith also prays. Hence in fact it was said, How shall they call on Him, in Whom they have not v"i- believed? But what can be hoped for, which is not believed? Further, something also which is not hoped for, may be believed. For who of the faithful does not believe the punishments of the ungodly } yet he hopes not for thera ; and whosoever believes them to hang over him, and shudders at them with a shrinking feeling of mind, is more rightly said to fear than to hope for them. Which two things a ^ 2 Mss. certain one^ distinguishing between, says, ' May it be allowed ^Lucaii. one fearing to hope^' Another poet however, although a y^Y^' better, hath said, not properly, ' This so great grief if I have <^ al. ' The Lord's Prayer.' f i. e. as superior to the Law. Faith is of good and evil, Hofx' of /a lute yood. 89 been able to l)opc lor'.' In short, certain in tin; art ot'oEFiDB SPE ET CARI- graramar use this word as an instance to point out an improper expression, and say, he said '* to hope," for " to tate. fear." There is faitli, then, both of evil tilings and of good ; 'y""!?- seeing that both good things are believed, and evil ; and this4i9. by faith, itself good, not evil. There is also faith both of ])ast things, and of present, and of future. For we believe that Christ was dead, which is now past : we believe that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, which now is: we believe that He will come to judge, which is future. Also faith is both of one's own things, and of the things of others. For each man believes both himself at some time to have begun to be, and not certainly to have been from all eternity; and other men likewise, and other things: nor concerning other men only do we believe many things which pertain to religion, but concerning angels also. But hope is not, but only of things good, and also future, and relating to him who is considered to entertain hope of them. Which things being so, for these reasons it will be right to distinguish faith fi'om hope, as by word, so also by reasonable difference. For as respects the not seeing, whether they be the things which are believed, or the things which are hoped for, this is common to fiith and hope. In fact, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which illustrious defenders of the Catholic Rule ^ have used as a witness, faith is said to be * the proofs ^ al. of things not seen.' Although, when any one says, that he and has believed, that is, hath lent* his faith to, not words, not J*;"}"^' 1 1 • 1 Heb.li, Witnesses, not in short any arguments, but the evidence of i. the things present, he does not seem so out of placed as ^5^'*" rightly to be censured for the word, and to have it said to^accom- him, ' You saw, therefore you did not believe:' whence it may "[j.g'l^r*.® be thought not to follow, that whatsoever thing is believed isdus. not seen. But we better call that faith, which the Divine Oracles have taught, that is, of such things as are not seen. Concerning hope also the Apostle says, Hope ichich is seen Rom. 8, is not hope; for what a man seeth, ichy doth he hope for i But if what we see not we hope for, through patience we wait for it. When therefore good things are believed to be about to happen to us, they are nothing else but hoped for. Now concerning love*^ what shall I say, without which faith' imorp. 90 Nature of Enquiry. God the sole Cause. ENCHi- profiteth nothing? bnt hope M^thont love cannot be. Finally, RiDioN ^^ ^^^^ ^j^g Apostle James, The devils also believe, and 2, 19. tremble: yet do they not hope or love ; but i-ather what we hope for and love, they, in believing that it will come, dread. For which reason the Apostle Paul approves of and com- Gal. 5, mends/a^7/i which icorketh by love, which assuredly without hope cannot be. Wherefore neither is love without hope, nor hope without love, nor both without faith. ix. 3. When therefore it is asked, what is to be believed as matter relating to religion, we are not so to inquire into the nature of things, as is done by those whom the Greeks call 1 Vhysi- naturalists^ ; nor are we to fear, lest the Christian be ignorant "^®' of any thing concerning the force and number of the elements; the motion and order and eclipses of the heavenly bodies ; the figure of the heavens; the kinds and natures of animals, plants, stones, springs, rivers, mountains ; intervals of places and times; the signs of coming storms; and other six hundred things concerning those matters, which they either have discovered, or suppose themselves to have discovered ; in that neither have they themselves found out all things, excelling (as they do) in so great ability, burning with zeal, abounding in leisure, and prosecuting their enquiries, some 2histo- by human conjecture, others again by experience of fact^, "^^" and in those things which they boast to have discovered," on most subjects holding opinions rather than knovving. It is enough for the Christian to believe, that the cause of created things, whether heavenly or earthly, whether visible or invisible, is none other than the goodness of his Creator, Who is God, One and True ; and that there is no nature which is not either Himself or from Himself: and that He Himself is a Trinity ; the Father, that is, and the Son begotten by the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the same Father^, but' one and the same Spirit of the X. Father and of the Son. By this Trinity, supremely and equally and unchangeably good, all things were created, and that neither supremely, nor equally, nor unchangeably good, ? A few Mss. add ' and the Son,' ceed from the Son : for it is not without but this is more likely to have been meaning that He is called at once the added than omitted. He affirms the Spirit of the Father and of the Son.' f/octrine, De Trin. iv. 2i>. ' We cannot See also xv. 4.5, &c. say that the Holy Ghost does not pro- Evil is not in nature, hid in privation of yood. 91 but yet good even each one: but the whole togetlier vc/yoEFiDE good; in that out of all these is made an admirable beauty ^Jar^J of the whole. In which even that which is called evil, being tate. rightly set and put in its own place, commends mure^Y"''' strikingly things that are good, so as that they are more xi. pleasing and more praiseworthy through comjiarison with things that are evil. For neither would Almighty God, as even heathens confess, ' Ruler supreme of things',' being, as' Virg. He is, supremely good, in any way suffer any evil to be in joo." His works, were He not Almighty and good even to this, out of any evil to work what is good. But what else is that , which is called evil, but a privation of good ? For like as in rr- the bodies of animals, to be affected by diseases and wounds is nothing else than to be deprived of health, (for the object is not, when a remedial system is a])])lied, that those evils which were in the body, that is, diseases and wounds, may depart hence and be in some other place ; but that they may not be at all. For wound or disease is not any substance, but the fault of a carnal substance; the substance itself being the flesh, certainly some good thing, to which those evils are accidents, that is, the privations of that good which is called health,) so also, whatsoever are the faults of minds, are pri- vations of natural good things ; which when they are healed are not transferred to any place, but those things which were there, will be no where, seeing that in that health they will not be. 4. Therefore all natures, in that the Author of all natures xii. whatsoever is supremely good, are good : but because they are not, as their Author, supremely and unchangeably good, therefore in them good may be both increased and diminished. But for good to be diuiinished is evil ; although however much it be diminished, there must necessarily remain some- thing (if it is still nature) whence it may be nature. For neither, if it be nature of what kind and how little soever, can the good be destroyed, by which it is^ nature, unless thecal. . nature also itself be destroyed. Deservedly indeed is an \^'^^f^ uncorrupted nature praised: still further if it be uncorruptible ture.' also, such as cannot altogether be corrupted, without doubt it is much more deserving of praise. When, however, it is corrupted, its corruption is therefore an evil, in that it 92 No evil can exist hut in something of itself good. ENCHi- deprives it of good of some kind or other; for if it deprive it '^^°^°^ of no good, it harms it not : but it does harm it, therefore it takes away a good. As long therefore as a natm-e is mider- going corruption, there exists in it a good of which it may be deprived : and on this account if any thing of the nature shall remain such as cannot be any further corrupted, certainly the nature will be uncorruptible, and to this so great good it will arrive through corruption. But if it shall not cease to be corrupted, neither will it assuredly cease to possess good, such as corruption may be able to deprive it of. Which (nature) if it shall have consumed utterly and altogether, there will therefore be no good in it, because there will be no nature in it. Wherefore corruption cannot destroy what is good, except by destroying the nature. Every nature therefore is a good ; a great, if it cannot be corrupted ; a small, if it can : yet can it in no sense be denied to be a good, except foolishly and ignorantly. Which if it be destroyed by corruption, neither will the corruption itself remain, there existing no nature in which it may be. xiii. And for this reason that which is called evil is not, if good be not. But good free from all evil is perfect good ; > vitia- that however in which evil is, is good marred or faulty '. vitk)- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^'^^ ^® where good is not. Whence a wonderful sum. thing is brought to pass, that, whereas every nature, as far as it is nature, is a good, nothing else would seem to be said, when a faulty nature is called an evil nature, but this, that that is an evil which is a good ; and that neither is there any evil, but what is a good ; since every nature is a good, nor would any thing be evil, if the thing itself that is evil were not a nature. There cannot therefore be evil, except it be some good. Which however it appear an absurd thing to say, yet the connection of this reasoning, as it were unavoidably, compels us to say it. And care is to be taken that we fall not under that saying of the Prophet, wherein ls.5,20.we read, Woe unto them who call that which is good evil, and that which is evil good; who call darkness light, and light darkness ; who call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet. And Mat. 12, yet the Lord says. An evil man out of the evil treasure of ^^' his heart, bringeth forth evil things. But what is an evil man, but an evil nature ; because man is a nature ? Further, Good and evil in one subject, thou(/h contraries. 93 if a man is some good, because he is a nature, what is a badnEFiDE man, but an evil good ? Yet when we distinguish between ^clni^ these two things, we find that neither is he therefore an evil tate. because a man, nor therefore a good because unrighteous ; but a good, because a man ; an evil, because unrighteous. Whosoever therefore says, it is evil to be a man ; or, it is good to be unrighteous; falls himself under that sentence of the Prophet, Woe tcnto them xcho call that which is good evil, and that which is evil good. For he blames the work of God, which is man, and praises the fault of man, which is unrighteousness. Every nature therefore, although it be faulty, so A\r as it is nature, is good ; so far as it is faulty, is evil. Wherefore in those contraries which are called evils xiv. and goods, that rule of logicians ceases to hold, by which they say that nothing has in it two contraries at the same time. For no air is at the same time both dark and bright; no meat or drink at the same time sweet and bitter; no body at the same time, in parts where it is white, is there black also ; none at the same time, in parts where it is deformed, is there beautiful also. And this property is found in many, and nearly in all, contraries, that they cannot be at the same time in one thing. Yet, no one doubting that goods and evils are contraries, not only can they be at the same time, but evils cannot absolutely be without goods, and except in goods: although goods can without evils. For it is possible that a man or an angel may not be unjust; but except a man or an angel there cannot be that is unjust. And that he is a man is a good, that he is an angel is a good, that he is unjust is an evil. And these two contraries are so at the same time, that, were there not the good in which the evil might be, neither would the evil at all be, in that not only would the corruption not have where to exist, but not even whence to arise, were there not something that should be corrupted, and neither could this be corrupted, unless it were a good ; since corruption is nothing else than the banishing a good. Out of goods therefore have evils ai-isen, and except in certain goods they are not. Nor was there any other source whence any nature of evil could arise. For if it were, so far as it was nature, it would assuredly be good : and either an incorruptible nature would 94 Causea of good and evil, Man's proper study. ENCHi- be a great good, or even a corruptible nature could no way J^}2^ be otherwise than somewhat good, by corrupting which very XV. good corruption might be able to injure it. But in asserting that evils have their origin from goods, let us not be thought Matt. 7, to oppose the saying of the Lord, wherein He said, A good tree cannot produce evil fruit. For, as the Truth saith, ' the grape cannot be gathered of thorns,' because the grape can- not grow of thorns ; but we see that both vines and thorns can grow of the good ground. And in the same manner, as it were, an evil tree cannot produce good fruit, that is, an evil will good works ; but out of the good nature of man, will, both good and evil, can arise ; nor was there absolutely any source whence originally evil will should arise, except from the good nature of Angel and Man. Which the Lord Himself most clearly shews in the same place, where He Mat. 12, was speaking of the tree and its fruits: for He says. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree evil^ and its fruit evil: sufficiently admonishing us, that indeed of a good tree evil fruits cannot grow, nor good of an evil tree ; yet that from the earth itself, to which He was speaking, either tree may. xvi. 5. These things being so, when we are pleased with that Georg. verse of Maro, " Happy, who hath been able to learn the 11. 490. causes of things ;" let us not imagine that it hath an influence on the obtaining of happiness, if we know the causes of great movements of bodies in the world, which are con- Georg. cealed in the most hidden recesses of nature ; " Whence go ■ trembling to the lands, by what force the deep seas swell, having burst their barriers, and again sink back into them- selves," and all other things of this sort: but the causes of things g^ood and evil we ought to know, and these so far as, in this life most full of errors and anxieties, it is granted to man to know them, in order to escape these same errors and miseries. That happiness assuredly is to be the end of our course, wherein we are to be shaken by no misery, deceived by no error. For if the causes of the motions of bodies were necessary for us to know, it would be right for us to know none rather than the causes of our own state of health. But inasmuch as, being ignorant of them, we betake ourselves to Physicians, who but must see with how Error, what, and in ithat cases a real evil. 95 great patience we must be ignorant of what is hidden fromDEFiDB us of the secrets of lieaven and earth ? For although error be ^l^^ to be avoided with all the care in our power, not only in tate. greater, but also in lesser things, and, although except xvn. through ignorance of things, error cannot take ])lace ; yet it does not follow that he straightway errs whosoever is ignorant of any thing, but whosoever thinks himself to know what he knows not; seeing that he approves what is false as true, which properly belongs to error. Nevertheless it makes a groat difference, in what each man errs. For in one and the same thing both he who knows is with good reason preferred to him who knows not, and he who errs not to him who errs. In different things however, that is, when this man knows certain things, and that others ; and this man the more useful, that man the less so, or even hurtful ; who will not in those things which that man knows, prefer before him the man who knows them not ? For there are certain things which it is better not to know than to know. And also it hath been good to some at some time to err, but that in tiie way of the feet, not in the way of the life. For it happened to ourselves that we were deceived in a certain cross-way, and went not by that spot where an armed band of Donatists** lay in ambush waiting for us to pass; and so the result was that we came whither we were bound, by a circuit out of the way ; and having learnt of them lying in wait, congratulated ourselves on our error, and returned thanks to God on occasion of it. Who therefore would hesitate to prefer a traveller erring thus, to a robber not erring thus ? And it may be for this reason, that a certain wretched lover, speaking in the writings of our great poet, says, " When I saw, when I was lost, when evil error carried Virg. me away;" seeing that there is good error also, such as not4i/ only is no injury, but even some profit. But if the truth be carefully considered, when as to err is nothing else than to think that true which is false, and that false which is true ; or to esteem as certain instead of uncertain, or as uncertain h Possidius states that the ' Circum- tine, and mentions this instance of his celliones' more than once beset the being in danger from them. Life, c. road in arms, laying wait for St. Augus- 12. Ben, 96 The deceiver deceived. Every lie a sin. FNCHi- instead of certain, whether it be false, or whether it be true: ^^^'^"'^ and this be in the mind as unshapely and unbecoming, as Matt. 5, we esteem 'yea, yea; nay, nay;' to be beautiful and be- ^^* coming, either in speaking, or in assenting : assuredly even on this very account is that life, wherein we now live, miserable, because that to it at times, in order that it be not lost, error is necessary. Far be it that such be that life, where the Truth itself is the life of our soul ; where no one deceives, no one is deceived. But here men deceive and are deceived ; and are more miserable when they deceive by lying, than when they are deceived by believing them who lie. Yet so greatly does reasonable nature shrink from what is untrue, and, as much as it can, avoid error, that even they who love to deceive are unwilhng to be deceived. For he who lies seems not to himself to err, but to send another man into error who believes him. And in that matter indeed which he cloaks by a lie, he errs not, if he himself know what is true : but in this he is deceived, that he thinks that his own lie does him no injury : whereas every sin is more injury to him who does, than to him who suffers it. xviii. fi. But here arises a very difficult and obscure question, on which we have already concluded a large book, having had the necessity of reply laid upon us: whether it belong to the duty of a righteous man at times to lie. For certain* go so far, as to contend that it is at times a good and pious work, both to perjure themselves, and to speak what is false, on subjects relating to the worship of God, and on the very natui'e of God. But to me it seems that eveiy lie is certainly I a sin, but that it makes great difference, with what intention and on what subjects a man lie. For he does not so sin who lies with the wish to benefit, as he who lies with the wish to injure ; neither again does he so greatly injure who by lying sends a traveller to a wrong road, as he who by a deceitful lie perverts the way of life. No one indeed is to be esteemed as lying, who speaks a falsehood, thinking it truth ; since, as far as is in his power, he deceives not, but is deceived. Such an one then is not to be convicted of falsehood, but at times of rashness, who esteems as true, ' The Priscillianistfs. Ben. The work appears to be that ' Contra Mendacium ad Consentium.' To lie irorse Ihaii to he deceived^ except in Faith. 97 things false which he has incautiously believed. And, on the defiue contrary, rather is he, as far as is in his power, guilty of lying, ^^^^^J who speaks the truth, thinking it a lie. For as far as relates tate. to his intention, in that he says not what he thinks, he speaks not the truth, although that which he speaks be found to be the truth : nor is he any way exempt from falsehood, who unwittingly speaks truth with the mouth, but knowingly lies with the mind. Not taking into account then the things themselves, concerning which any thing is said, but only the intention of the s])eaker, he is better who unwittingly says what is false, in that he thinks it true, than he who knowingly has the intention to deceive, not knowing that what he says is true. For the former has not one thing in his mind, and another in his speech; but the latter, whatever in fact that which is said by him may be of itself, yet has one thing shut u]i within his breast, and another ready on his tongue ; which is the especial evil of lying. But taking into account the things themselves which are said, it makes so great difl'erence, what that is in which each man is either deceived or lies, that whereas to be deceived is a less evil than to lie, as far as relates to the person's will ; yet is it far more tolerable to lie in those things which are separate from religion, than to be deceived in those things, without the faith or knowledge of which God cannot be worshipped. To illustrate this by instances, let us consider what the case will be, if one man, speaking falsely, report that some man is alive who is dead ; and another, being deceived, believe that Christ will again die after an interval however long ; is it not beyond all comparison better to lie in the one way, than to be deceived in the other? and is it not a much less evil to lead any one into the one error, than to be led by any one into the other } Therefore in certain things we are deceived xix. with great evil, in certain with little, in certain with no evil at all, nay in certain even with some good. For a man is deceived with great evil, when he believes not this which leads to eternal life, or believes this which leads to eternal death. But a man is deceived with little evil, who by affirming as true what is false falls into any temporal inconveniences, which yet, by the increase in them of faithful patience, he turns to good account. As if one by thinking a bad naan H 98 All error in il self evil, though gcod may come of it. ENCHi- good should suffer any evil from him. But he who be- lieves a bad man good, in such a way as to suffer no evil from him, is deceived with no evil : nor does that denunci- Is.5,20. ation of the Prophet fall on him, Woe unto them who call i(hat is evil good. For this must be understood as said of the things themselves wherein men are evil, not of the persons. Whence he who calls adultery good, is rightly convicted by that word of the Prophet. But he who calls the person good, whom he thinks to be chaste, and knows not that he is an adulterer, is deceived not in the doctrine of things good and evil, but in the secrets of human character; calling a man good, in whom he thinks is that which he doubts not is good ; and calling an adulterer evil, and a chaste man good ; but calling the particular person good, from not knowing that he is an adulterer, not a chaste man. Still further, if through error any one escape destruction, as 1 stated above happened to us on our journey, a man receives even some good from error. But when I say that in certain things a man may be deceived without any evil, and even with some good ; 1 say not that the error itself is no evil or some good, but that that is evil at which a man comes not, or that good at which he comes through erring, that is, either what comes not to pass, or what does result from the error itself. For the error of itself, being either in a great thing a great evi], or in a small a small, is yet always an evil. For who except in eri'or will deny that it is an evil, to approve of things false as true, or condemn things true as false, or to esteem things uncertain as certain, or things certain as un- certain } But it is one thing to think a man good who is evil, which comes of error ; and another thing not to suffer from this evil another evil, if the evil man, who was thought good, do us no harm. Also it is one thing to think that the way which is not ; and another thing for this evil of error to obtain some good, as it is to be delivered from the lying-in- wait of evil men. XX. 7. In truth, 1 know not whether errors of this kind also, when one thinks well of an evil man, not knowing what kind of man he is ; or when, in place of those things which we are sensible of through the bodily senses, like things meet us, which are discerned by the spirit as if by the body, or by So)ne would shun (he Jaull of error hy douhliuij nil. 1)1) the body as if by the spirit; such as the Apostle PetcrnEFiDB thought it to be, when he supposed tlial he saw a ^"'••''»o;/,^^^^^f being on a sudden freed by the Angel from his bolts and tate. chains; or when in actual bodily things, what is rough isg'^*^"^^' thought smooth, or what is bitter is thought sweet, or what is rank is thought fragrant, or that it thunders when a cart passes, or that a certain one is the man when he is another, where two are very like each other, as is often the case in twins; whence he says, ' and a pleasing mistake to their parents' :' I know not, I say, whether these and such other' Virg. are to have the name of faults'- likewise. Nor have I now.yg."*^* undertaken to solve that most knotty question, wliich has'peccata racked those most acute men, the Academicians; whether the wise man ought to approve any thing, that he fall not into error, if he shall approve as true what is false, in that all things, as they affirm, are either hidden or uncertain. Upon which at the beginning of my conversion I finished three volumes^, that I might not be hindered by a question, which ^Contra opposed, as it were, at the very entrance. And certainly there micos.' had been need to put away the despair of discovering truth, which seems to be confirmed by these arguments. In their school then every error is thought a sin, which they maintain cannot be avoided, unless by suspending all assent. That is, they say that whosoever assents to things which are un- certain is in error ; and that nothing is certain in tlie things which men see, by reason of the undistinguishable likeness of falsehood, although what seems, may perhaps be, true; this they discourse of in controversies most acute but most shameless. But with us the just lireth of fail h. But if(Hab.2, assent be taken away, faith is taken away; because without Rom. i assent nothing is believed. And there are truths, seen though ^'^• they may not be, failing the belief of which, it is not possible to arrive at a life of blessedness, which is no other than life eternal. But I know not whether we ought to speak with those, who are ignorant, not that they shall live for ever, but that they are alive at the present moment; yea, who say that they are ignorant of that which they cannot be ignorant of. For no one is suffered to be ignorant that he is alive ; since if he be not alive, he cannot even be ignorant of any thing; since not only to know, but also to be ignorant of, belongs H 2 turn 100 Errors not in faith or duty, not more than slight faults. ENCHi- to one who is alive. But it would seem by not assenting "^"^°^ that they are alive, they seem to themselves to guard against error; when even by erring they are proved to be alive; seeing that he who is not alive cannot err. As therefore that we are alive is not only true, but also certain ; so there are many things true and certain, to refuse assent to which, far xxi. be it that it be called wisdom, and not rather madness. But in things, in which it matters not at all to the obtaining of the kingdom of God whether they be believed or not, or whether they either be, or be thought to be, true or false ; in these to err, that is, to think one thing instead of another, pecca- js not to be judged to be a fault'; or if it be, a very little and very light fault. In fine, let it be of what kind, and how great soever, it belongs not to that way by which we go to Gal.5,6.(3Jod; which way is the faith of Christ, which worketh by love. For neither did that ' error pleasing to their parents' in the case of the twin sons, wander from this way ; nor did the Apostle Peter wander from this way, when supposing that he saw a vision, he so thought one thing instead of another, as not to distinguish the real bodies, in the midst of which he was, from the images of bodies in the midst of which he supposed himself to be, until after that the Angel, by whom he had been freed, was departed from him. Nor did the Patriarch Jacob wander from this way, when he believed his son, who was yet alive, to have been slain by a wild beast. In these and such-like untruths, we are deceived without injury to the faith which we have towards God, and err without leaving the way which leads to Him : which errors, although they are not faults, are yet to be judged to be among the evils of this life, which has been so made subject to vanity, that here things false are approved as true, things true are rejected as false, things uncertain are held as certain. For although these things are separate from that faith, through which being true and certain we are on our way to eternal blessedness ; yet are they not separate from that misery in which we yet are. For in no way should we be deceived in any mental or bodily sense, if we were already in the enjoyment of that true and perfect happiness. xxii. But, moreover, every lie is therefore to be called a fault, in that a man, not only when he himself knows what is true, but LyiiKj for others' good excusuhlc, but wrong. 10 i also if at any time he err and is deceived as a man, ought to dkfide speak that which he has in his mind ; whether it be true, or^''''^ ^^ ^vhethe^ it be thought to be so, and be not. For every one tate. wlio lies, speaks contrary to what he tliinks in his mind, Willi the will to deceive. And surely words have therefore been appointed, not as means whereby men may deceive one another, but as means whereby each one may convev his own thoughts to another's knowledge. Tiierefore to use words for the purpose of deceit, not for what they were appointed, is a fault. Nor must we therefore think that any lie is not a fault, because we can at times benefit any one by lying. For this we can do also by stealing, if the poor man, to whom it is given openly, feel the benefit, and the rich man from whom it is taken secretly, does not feel the loss ; yet no one on tliis account will say tliat such a theft is not a fault. And this we can do again by adultery, if it appear that any, unless we consent to her in this, will die through love, and, in case she live, will be cleansed through re- pentance ; yet will not such an adultery be on this account denied to be a fault. But if chastity be deservingly pleasing to us, how does truth offend us, so that, in order to benefit another, the one may not be violated by adultery, while the other may be violated by lying ? It is not to be denied that men have made very great progress towards what is good, who lie not except for another's safety, but in such their progress, it is their good-will which is praised, or even receives temporal rewards, not their deceit, which that it be pardoned is enough, not that it be published abroad, espe- cially in heirs of the New Testament, to whom it is said. Let Matt. 5, it he in your mouth, yea, yea; nay, nay; for what is '' beyond is of evil. On account of which evil, because it ceases not in this mortal state to steal upon us, even the very co-heirs of Christ say, Forgive us our debts. Matt. 6, 8. These things therefore having been treated of as this "' •■• present brevity required, seeing that the causes of things good and evil are to be known, as far as it is sufficient for the way which leads us lo that kingdoni, where will be life without death, truth without error, happiness without disquiet; we ought not at all to doubt, that of such good things as relate to us there is none other cause tiian the goodness of -/J 102 Error and pain came into the world with sin. ENCHi- God ; but (the cause) of things evil is the will of a being Y-r — r— mutably good' falling away from immutable good, first that mutabi- of an angel, then of man. This is the first evil of a rational ^'^' . creature, that is, the first withdrawing of good : then after XXIV. ... this there found way, now even against their will, ignorance of things necessary to be done, and desire of things hurtful; in company with which are brought in error and pain : which two evils when they are perceived to be hanging over us, the emotion of the mind endeavouring to flee from them is called fear. Further, the mind when it obtains things desired, although hurtful or empty, in that through error it perceives it not, is either overpowered by morbid delight, or 2 venti- fanned" it may be with vain joy. From these as it were the ^^^^' fountains of diseases, fountains not of plenty, but of want, XXV. all the misery of a rational nature issues. Which nature, however, in the midst of its evils could not lose the desire of blessedness. But these are the common evils, both of men, and of angels condemned by the justice of the Lord for their wickedness. But man has beside his own punishment, whereby he was punished by the death also of the body. Forasmuch as God had threatened him with the punishment of death if he sinned ; thus gifting him with free will, as yet to rule him by His control, and affright him with destruction; and placed him in the happiness of Paradise as in the shadow of a life, from whence by observing righteousness he might xxvi. ascend to better thiugs. Hence after his sin being made an exile, his own race also, which by sinning he had corrupted in himself as in its root, he bound by the punishment of death and condemnation : so that whatever progeny should be born of him and of his wife, through whom he had sinned, condemned together with him, through carnal lust, wherein was repaid a punishment similar to the disobedience, should draw along with it original sin, whereby it should be drawn through various errors and pains, to that last never-ending punishment with the apostate angels, its corrupters, masters, Rom. 5, and partners. Thus, By one man sin entered into the world, ^^" and by sin death : and so death passed upon all men, in that all sinned. By the world in that place the Apostle meaning xxvii. the whole human race. This therefore was the case ; the mass of the whole human race under condemnation was God causes (J ood even to the fallen. Angels eaclt bijlihnselj'. 103 lying in evils, or even was rolling on and going headlong defidb from evils into evils; and joined to the side of those angels '^^j^^^^^J who had sinned, was paying the deserved penalty of impious tate. apostacy. Forasmuch as it ])ertaineth to the just anger of God, whatsoever the wicked willingly commit through blind and unsubdued lust, and whatsoever they unwillingly suffer b}' manifest and secret" punishments : the goodness of the Creator ceasinf]^ not to minister even to evil angels life and vital ])ower, which ministration being withdrawn, they would straightway perish ; and as for men, although they be born from a corrui)ted and condemned stock, ceasing not to give form and life to their seeds, to dispose their members, through periods of time and distances of place to quicken their senses, to bestow on them nutriment. Vox He judged it better to work good out of things evil, than to allow no things evil to exist. And truly had He willed that there should be no renewing' at all of man for the better, even as there is none 'reform; of impious angels, would it not be deservedly done, that the '°°^™' nature which deserted God, which, using evilly its own power, tram])led upon and transgressed the command of its Creator, which it might most easily have kept, which corrupted in itself the image of its Creator, frowardly turning away from His light, which evilly broke off, by its free-will, its salutary subjection to His laws, should be all of it eternally deserted by Him, and suffer everlasting punishment according to its desert? Certainly He would thus act, were He only just, and not merciful also, and sheved not much more clearly His own free mercy rather in setting free the unworthy. 9. Certain angels therefore througli impious pride deserting xxviii God, and being cast down from their high heavenly habitation into the lowest darkness of this air, that number of angels which was left continued in eternal blessedness with God, and in holiness. For the rest of the angels were not de- scended from one who fell and was condemned, that so original evil should bind them, as in the case of man, with the chains of succession subject to it, and draw down all to deserved punishments ; but when he, who became the devil, had become lifted up together with the partners in his impiety, and, by being thus lifted up, will) them overlinown, • ' npertis.' Benetl. ' iipertis,' ' open,' most Mss. 104 Heaven repeopled by Redemplion. Freeitill lust by sin. ENCHi- the rest with pious obedience clave to the Lord, receiving ■°^"^ also, what the others had not, a certain knowledge, to assure xxix. them of their eternal and unfailing stedfastness. It there- fore pleased God, the Creator and Governor of the universe, that, seeing that not the whole multitude of angels had perished by deserting God, the part which had perished should remain in eternal perdition ; whilst the part which had continued firm with God, when the other forsook Him, should rejoice in the full and certain knowledge of the eternity of its future happiness : but that, in that the other rational creature which was in man, had perished entire through sins and punishments both original and actual, out of the renewal of a part of it should be supplied whatever loss that fall of the devil had brought on the fellowship of the Angels. For this has been promised to the Saints at Luke20, their resurrection, that ' they shall be equal to the Angels of God/ Thus Jerusalem which is above, our mother, the city of God, shall suffer no robbery of the multitude of her sons, or, it may be, shall reign with a yet fuller abundance \ For we know not the number either of holy men, or of unclean devils, into whose place the sons of our holy Mother suc- ceeding, of her who appeared barren upon earth, shall abide without any limit of time in that peace from which they fell. But the number of those citizens, whether it be that which is now, or that which shall be, is contemplated by that Artificer Eom. 4, Who calls l/ie thinys which are not as the things ivhich are^ ■vvifjd. ^^^^ orders all things in measure and number and weight. 11,20. But ti^ig portion of the human race, to whom God hath ^^^- promised deliverance and an eternal kingdom, whether can it at all be restored by the merits of its own works ? Far be it. For what good does one who is lost work, except so far as he hath been delivered' from destruction ? Can it by the free choice of its will ? Far be this also : for man using evilly his free will hath lost both himself and it. For in like manner as he who kills himself, assuredly by living kills himself, but lives not by killing himself, nor will be able to raise himself up again after he has killed himself: so when through free-will sin was committed, sin being >> Cf. de Civ. Dei, 1. xxii. c. 1. he linth been restored.' •^ al. ' quando' — ' reparatus,' ' when Freedom to good restored to God's servants by yrace. 105 conqueror, free-will was lost. For of whom a man is over- defids come, to him is he made over as a. slave also. This is at any "cf^" rate the judgment of Peter the Apostle: seeing then that this tate. is true, what kind of liberty can that be of the slave who haSj»^**'-^' been made over, except when it pleases him to sin ? For he serves freely, who willingly does the will of his master. And thus he is free to commit sin, who is the slave of sin. Whence he will not be free to work righteousness, unless being set free from sin he shall begin to be the slave of righteousness. This is true liberty by reason of the joy in"al.'the doing right, and at the same time godly slavery by reason of'^nee of the obedience to the command. But this liberty to do well, when shall it be to man, made over and sold, unless He redeem him Whose is that saying, J/ the Son hath set you John 8, free, then shall ye he truly free. But before this begin to^^" have jilace in man, how doth any one of free-will glory in any good work, who is not yet free to work what is good, unless he exalt himself, being puffed up with vain pride ? Whom the Apostle resti-ains, saying. By grace are ye saved Eph. 2, through faith. And lest they should so take to themselves ~ * at any rate the faith itself, as not to understand that it was given of God ; (like as in another place the same Apostle says, that ' he had obtained mercy to be faithful ;') here also 1 Cor. 7, he hath added, and says, And this not of yourselves, hut it is the gift of God; not of works, lest haply any one be exalted. And lest it should be thought that good works will be wanting to believers, again he adds ; Fur ue are His uork- vianshi/), created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath before prepared, that in them we may walk. Therefore then are we made truly free, when God fashions us, that is, forms and creates us, not that we may be men, which thing He hath already done; but that we may be good men, which thing His grace now does; that we may be in Christ Jesus a Gal. 6, new creature, according to that which is said, A clean heart p^^^ create in me, O God. For his heart, as far as respects the 10. nature of the human heart, God hath not failed already to create. Also, that no one, although not of works, yet should xxxii. glory of the very free choice of his will, as if the desert began of himself, which received the very liberty of working what is right, as a reward due ; let him hear the same herald IOC Some gifts follow man's nil/, but grace ever prevents it. ENcHi- of grace saying, For it is God who icorketh in you both to ^^°^°^ will and to do, according to His good pleasure. And in ]3,' ' ' another place: Therefore is it, not of him ivho willeth, nor Eom. 9, Qjjt^iffi ^j,o runneth, but of God who sheweth mercy. Seeing that without doubt, if man be of such age, as ah-ead}-^ to exercise his reason, he cannot believe, hope, love, unless he Phil. 3, be willing, or arrive at the prize of the high calling of God, ^*' unless he have run with his will. How then is it not of him that ivilleth, nor of him that runneth, hut of God who sheueth mercy, except in that the will itself, as it is written, Prov. 8, is prepared before of the Lord. Otherwise, if it was therefore 35.LXX. g^^(j^ i^ ig ^qi Qj- ]^It^ ^jiQ tailleth, nor of him who runneth, but of God who sheweth mercy, because it is brought to pass of both, both the will of man, and the mercy of God ; and we understand it to be so said, it is not of him who willeth, nor of him who runneth, but of God who sheweth mercy, as if it were said, the will alone of man is not sufficient, unless there be also the mercy of God : therefore also the mercy alone of God is not sufficient, unless there be also the will of man ; and thus if it be rightly said, it is not of man who willeth, but of God ivho sheweth mercy, because the will alone of man does not fulfil it ; why is it not also on the other side rightly said, ' it is not of God who sheweth mercy, but of man who willeth, because the mercy alone of God does not fulfil it ?' So then if no Christian will dare to say, ' it is not of God who sheweth mercy, but of man who willeth,' that he contradict not most openly the Apostle ; it remains that it be undei'stood therefore rightly to have been said, it is not of him who willeth, nor of him who runneth, hut of God who sheweth mercy, that the whole may be given to God, who both prepares the good will of man hereafter to be assisted, and assists it when prepared. For the good will of man goes before many gifts of God, but not all*^: but those which it goes not before, among them is itself. For both ai'e Ps, 59, read in the sacred writings, both, His mercy shall j)revent -pii^Qnie, and. His mercy shall follow me. It prevents him who stery of holy Baptism in the Cross of Christ, in such manner as that we understand that Baptism in Christ is none other than the likeness of the death of Christ; and that the death of Christ crucified is none other than the likeness of the remission of sin : that, as iu Him true death had place, so in us true remission of sin ; and as in Him ti'ue resurrection, so in us true justification. For he says, What shall ice say then/ shall ive continue in sin, that Rom. 6, grace may abound? For he had said above, For where sin ^^^' g abounded, grace abounded more. And therefore he proposed 20. to himself the question, whether one be to continue in sin, in order to obtain abundance of grace. But he answered, Far be it: and added, If ice are dead to sin, how shall we live therein ? Then, in order to shew that we are dead to sin : What, know ye not, says he, how that ice whosoever have been baptized in Jesus Christ, have been baptized in His death ? If therefore we are hence shewn to be dead to sin, iu that we have been baptized in the death of Christ ; assuredly little children also who are baptized in Christ, die unto sin, because they are baptized in His death. For with- out any exception it is said. We whosoever have been bapdized in Christ Jesus, have been baptized in His death. And therefore is it said, that it may be shewn that we are dead to sin. But to what sin do little children die by being born again, except to that, which, by being born, they have derived ? And thus to them also pertains what follows, wherein he says, Therefore ice have been buried tofjather Kom. c, ivith Him through baptism unto death, that, in like manner '^~^^' as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have become planted together with the likeness of His death, so shall we be also of His resurrection : knowing this, that our 118 Christ died to the flesh, they that are His to its sin. ENCHi- old man hath been crucified toqether. that the body of sin may be made empty, that we serve not sin any longer. For he that hath died, hath been justified from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also together live with Him : knowing that Christ rising from the dead, now dieth not, death shall no more have dominion over Him. For in that He hath died unto sin. He hath died once ; but in that He liveth. He liveth unto God. Thus do ye also Judge yourselves to have died indeed unto sin, but to live unto God in Christ Jesus. For hence he had begun to prove that we must not continue in sin, that grace may abound ; and had said, If ive have died to sin, how shall we live i?i it? Rom. 6, and, to shew that we had died to sin, had added, What, ye not that we ivhosoever have been bajjtized in Christ Jesus, have been baptized in His death ? Thus then he closed that whole passage as he began. Seeing that he so introduced the death of Christ, as to say that even He died to sin. To what sin, except to the flesh, in which was, not sin, but the likeness of sin; and therefore it is called by the name of sin.? Therefore to them who have been baptized in the death of Christ, in which not only older persons, but little children also are ba])tized, he says, So do ye also, that is, in like manner as Christ, So do ye also judge yourselves to have liii. died unto sin, but to live unto God in Christ Jesus. What- ever therefore was done in the Cross of Christ, in His Burial, in His Resurrection on the third day, in His Ascension into Heaven, in His Sitting at the right hand of the Father ; was done in such sort, as that to these things, not only as spoken after a mystical manner, but also as done, the Christian life which is here lived might be conformed. For by reason of Gal. 5, His Cross it is said ; But they that are Jesus Christ's, have crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts. By reason Horn. 6, of His Burial : We have been buried together with Christ through Baptism unto death. By reason of His Resurrection : That like as Christ rose again from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may ivalk in newness of life. By reason of His Ascension into Heaven, and Sitting at the Col. 3, right hand of the Father: But if ye have risen again with ~ ' Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, mind the things which are Allf righteous and unriyJileous, shall be judged. 119 above, not the things which are upon earth : for ye have died, defidb a}id your life is hid with Christ in God. However, that ^clni^ which we confess concerning Christ as future; how that He tate. is to come from Heaven, to judge tlie quick and dead, relates li^'- not to that hfe of ours which is lived hero; in that neither is it among the things which lie hath done, but among those which He is to do, at the end of the world. To this belongs what the Apostle goes on to add: When Christ our life shall have appcared, then shall ye also appear ivith Him in glory. But that He will judge the quick and the dead may be Iv. understood in two ways: either to understand by the quick them whom His coming shall find not yet dead, but still living in this flesh ; but by the dead, them who, before His coming, have departed, or are to depart, from the body : or whether by the living the just, by the dead the unjust: since the just also shall be judged. For at times the judg- ment of God is used in an evil sense; whence is that saying, But they who have done evil, unto the resurrection (f judg- ment^: at times also in a good sense, according to that'soGr. which is said, O God, in Thy Name save me, and in ThyVs.bA,\. might judge me. Forasmuch as by the judgment of God takes place that very separation of the good and bad, that the good, being to be freed from evil, not to be destroyed with the evil persons, may be set apart at the right hand. Mat.25, By reason of which he cried out, Judge me, O God: and as if setting forth what he had said, And separate, says he, 7nyPsA3,i. cause from a nation not holy. Id. But now when we have spoken concerning Jesus Christ Ivi. the only Son of God, our Lord, what pertains to the brevity of confession, we thereunto add that we believe also in the Holy Ghost, that that Trinity may be comi)lete, Which is God: then next the Holy Church is mentioned. Whereby it is given to understand, that, after mention made of the Creator, that is, of the supreme Trinity, it wore fitting to subjoin the reasonable creation pertaining to that Jerusalem Gal. 4, which is free. Seeing that whatsoever hath been spoken ^*^" concerning the man Christ, pertaineth unto the unity of Person of the Only-begotten. Therefore the right order of confession demanded, that to the Trinity the Church should be subjoined, as to Him that dwelleth therein His own house, 120 The Church in Heaven and Earth God's Temple. ENCHi- to God His own Temple, to the Founder His own city. ^ Which is here to be understood as a whole, not only in respect ' al. of that part wherein she soiourneth' upon earth, from the ' which . . ' , •'. . • • .1 c sojourn- rismg of the sun even unto its settnig, praisnig the name ot P^'iis ^^^ Lord, and after its captivity of the old estate singing a 3. ' new song ; but also of that which in Heaven ever, from the time that it was created, hath cleaved unto God, neither hath experienced in itself any evil of falling. This in the holy Angels continueth blessed, and, as is fitting, helpeth that part of itself which is a sojourner: because both will be one by partaking in common of eternity, and are now one by the bond of charity, being that it was wholly instituted for the worship of the One God. Wherefore neither doth the whole, nor any part of it, will that it be worshipped in the place of God, nor that it be a God to any one who belongs to the Temple of God, which is built out of gods whom the uncreated God creates. And so the Holy Ghost, if He were creature, not Creator, would assuredly be a reasonable creature ; for that is the highest creature. And therefore in the Rule of Faith He would not be placed before the Church, in that He Himself also would pertain unto the Church in respect of that part of it which is in Heaven. Nor would He have a temple, but Himself also would be a temple. But a temple 1 Cor. 6, He hath, concerning Whom the Apostle says, Knoiv ye not, that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, tvhich is in you, lohich ye have of God? Concerning whom in another 1 Cor. 6, place he says. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? How then is not He God, Who hath a temple? or less than Christ, Whose members He hath as a temple ? For neither is His temple other than the temple of God, in that the same Apostle says, Know ye not that ye a.re the temple of God? in order to prove which He adds, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. God therefore dwelleth in His temple, not only the Holy Ghost, but also the Father and the Son, Who also concerning His own Body, (whereby He was made the Head of the Church, which is among men, Col. 1, tltat He may be in all things holding the preeminence,) says, John 2, Destroy this temple, and' in three days I tvill raise it up. ^'^- The temple therefore of God, that is, of the whole supreme Trinity, is the Holy Church, [the Church,] that is, universal ICor 16. What ice knuw of Aiujels, (Did nhal not. \'1\ in Heaven and on earth, liut concerning that which is inuioi'ioE Heaven, what can we affirm, but only that there is in it no '^Jari- one tliat is evil, nor hath any one since fallen thence, or tate. is about to fall, from the time that Gud spared not the Amjeh Ivii. . . 2 Pet. 2 sinnini/, as writes the Apostle VcicY,biit tJtrusting them j'ortli\ ' ' delivered them uiilo prisons of darkness of hell, to be reserved unto punishment in Judgment. But of what nature that most Iviii. blessed and lofty society is, what differences there are there of preemincncies in them, so that, all being named, as it were, by a general name Angels, (as in the Epistle to the Hebrews we read: For to which of the Angels said He a/Heb. i, ang time, Sit on My right hand, seeing that in this manner he shewed universally that all are called Angels,) there yet are there Archangels, and whether these same Archangels are called Powers; and so it was said, Praise Him, all HisPs.US, ... 2. Angels; Praise Him, all His Powers^; as if it were soxd^VyirttUes ' Praise Him all His Angels, Praise Him all His Archangels;' ^- v. and how those four words differ one from another, wherein the Apostle seems to have embraced the whole of that heavenly society, saying, Whether they he Thrones, or Col. i, Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers'^, let them speak 2 p^^^^. wlio are able, yet so that they be able to prove what they'«'<^*' say : I confess that I am ignorant of these things. But neither am I assured of that other, whether the sun and moon and all stars belong to that same society ; although to some they seem to be shining bodies, not bodies possessing sense and understanding. And also of Angels, who can lix. explain, with what kind of bodies they have appeared to men, so as not only to be seen, but also to be touched ; and, again, not by bodily bulk, but by spiritual power, they bring certain visions, not to the bodily eyes, but to the spiritual, i. e. to minds ; or speak something not to the ear from without, but within to the soul ' of man, themselves also having their place there : as is written in the Book of the Prophets, And the Angel who was speaking in me said unto Zech. 1, 7ne ; for he says not, who was speaking to me, but in me, or ' also appear in dreams, and converse after the manner of dreams; we have for example in the Gospel, Behold, ///eMat. 1, Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in dreams, saying? ' Reii. ' iu animo,' ' in the miin).' Mf#. animje. 122 Hard questions. What deceits of Satan dangerous. ENCHi- For in Ihis manner the Angels as it were ])oint out that they have not bodies which may be handled: and cause it to be a Gen. 18, difficult question, how the Fathers washed their feet, how 19,2. Jacob wrestled with the Angel with handling so palpable'. * V*d™ When these inquiries are made, and each one, as he can, Gen. 32, conjectures concerning them, the abilities are exercised not without profit, if only the disputation be moderate, and there be not there the error of them who think that they know what they know not. For what need is there, that these and such 2 «cum ii]ie things be affirmed, or denied, or defined with contention % mine.' when without reprehension^ one may be ignorant of them ? 3 'sine YQ. It is more necessary to distinguish and discern when crimine. , *' " . Ix. Satan transforms himself as an angel of light, lest deceiving 2 Cor. us, he lead us astray unto some hurtful things. For when he ' ^^' deceives the bodily senses, and yet moves not the mind from that true and right thinking, whereby each one lives the life of faith, there is no danger in religion : or when feigning himself to be good, he says or does those things which are suitable with good angels, even if he be believed to be good, it is not an error which endangers or infects Christian faith. When, however, by means of these things which are not his, he begins to lead us unto his own, then to discern him, and not to follow after him, is matter of great and necessary watchfulness. But how ievf of men are able to escape his deadly guiles, unless God do guide and protect them ! And the very difficulty in this matter is hereunto useful, that each man be not a hope unto himself, neither one man unto another, but God unto all that are His. For that this is rather expedient for us, no pious person at all can doubt. Ixi. This Church then which standeth in the holy Angels and Powers of God, will then at length become known to us as it is, when at the last we shall have been joined with it, to possess together with it eternal blessedness. That part how- ever which is separate from it and sojourning upon earth, is thereby the more known to us, in that we are in it, and in that it is of men, which we also are. This, by the Blood of a Mediator Who had no sin, hath been redeemed from all Rom. 8, sin, and her words are. If God for us, iclio against us? Who hath, not spared His own Son, but hath delivered Him up for us all. For not for the Angels hath Christ died. But 31. 32. Peace in Heaven and Earth thronyh C/t rial's Sacrijice. 123 therefore is it done even for Angels, whosoever of men are by defidk His death redeemed and freed from evil, in that tliey in s