(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)
CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE
Translated by the Rev. Ernest Wallis, Ph.D.
ON THE LAPSED.(2)
ARGUMENT.--HAVING ENLARGED UPON THE UNLOOKED-FOR PEACE OF THE CHURCH,AND
THE CONSTANCY OF THE CONFESSORS AND THOSE WHO HAD STOOD FAST IN THE FAITH;
AND THEN WITH EXTREME GRIEF HAVING POINTED TO THE DOWNFALL OF THE LAPSED,
AND UNFOLDED THE CAUSES OF THE BYGONE PERSECUTION, NAMELY, THE NEGLECT OF
DISCIPLINE, AND THE SINS OF THE FAITHFUL; OUR AUTHOR SEVERELY REPROACHES
THE LAPSED, THAT, AT THE VERY FIRST WORDS OF THE ENEMY THREATENING THEM,
THEY HAD SACRIFICED TO IDOLS, AND HAD NOT RATHER WITHDRAWN, ACCORDING TO
CHRIST'S COUNSEL.(3) LASTLY, HE WARNS HIS READERS TO AVOID THE NOVATIANS,
CONFUTING THEIR HERESY WITH MANY SCRIPTURES.
1. Behold, beloved brethren, peace is restored to the Church; and
although it lately seemed to incredulous people difficult, and to traitors
impossible, our security is by divine aid and retribution re-established.
Our minds return to gladness; and the season of affliction and the cloud
being dispersed, tranquillity and serenity have shone forth once more.
Praises must be given to God, and His benefits and gifts must be celebrated
with giving of thanks, although even in the time of persecution our voice
has not ceased to give thanks. For not even an enemy has so much power as
to prevent us, who love the Lord with our whole heart, and life, and
strength, from declaring His blessings and praises always and everywhere
with glory. The day earnestly desired, by the prayers of all has come; and
after the dreadful and loathsome darkness of a long night, the world has
shone forth irradiated by the light of the Lord.
2. We look with glad countenances upon confessors illustrious with the
heraldry of a good name, and glorious with the praises of virtue and of
faith; clinging to them with holy kisses, we embrace them long desired with
insatiable eagerness. The white-robed cohort of Christ's soldiers is here,
who in the fierce conflict have broken the ferocious turbulence of an
urgent persecution, having been prepared for the suffering of the dungeon,
armed for the endurance of death. Bravely you have resisted the world: you
have afforded a glorious spectacle in the sight of God; you have been an
example to your brethren that shall follow you. That religious voice has
named the name of Christ, in whom it has once confessed that it believed;
those illustrious hands, which had only been accustomed to divine works,
have resisted the sacrilegious sacrifices; those lips, sanctified by
heavenly food after the body and blood of the Lord, have rejected the
profane contacts and the leavings of the idols. Your head has remained free
from the impious and wicked veil(4) with which the captive heads of those
who sacrificed were there veiled; your brow, pure with the sign of God,
could not bear the crown of the devil, but reserved itself for the Lord's
crown. How joyously does your Mother Church receive you in her bosom, as
you return from the battle! How blissfully, how gladly, does she open her
gates, that in united bands you may enter, bearing the trophies from a
prostrate enemy! With the triumphing men come women also, who, while
contending with the world, have also overcome their sex; and virgins also
come with the double glory of their warfare, and boys transcending their
years with their virtues.(5) Moreover, also, the rest of the multitude of
those who stand fast follow your glory, and accompany your footsteps with
the insignia of praise, very near to, and almost joined with, your own. In
them also is the same sincerity of heart, the same soundness of a tenacious
faith. Resting on the unshaken roots of the heavenly precepts, and
strengthened by the evangelical traditions, the prescribed banishment, the
destined tortures, the loss of property, the bodily punishments, have not
terrified them. The days for proving their faith were limited beforehand;
but he who remembers that he has renounced the world knows no day of
worldly appointment, neither does he who hopes for eternity from God
calculate the seasons of earth any more.
3. Let none, my beloved brethren, let none depreciate this glory; let
none by malignant dispraise detract from the uncorrupted stedfastness of
those who have stood. When the day appointed for denying was gone by, every
one who had not professed within that time not to be a Christian, confessed
that he was a Christian. It is the first title to victory to confess the
Lord under the violence of the hands of the Gentiles. It is the second step
to glory to be withdrawn by a cautious retirement, and to be reserved for
the Lord. The former is a public, the latter is a private confession. The
former overcomes the judge of this world; the latter, content with God as
its judge, keeps a pure conscience in integrity of heart. In the former
case there is a readier fortitude; in the latter, solicitude is more
secure. The former, as his hour approached, was already found mature; the
latter perhaps was delayed, who, leaving his estate, withdrew for a while,
because he would not deny, but would certainly confess if he too had been
apprehended.
4. One cause of grief saddens these heavenly crowns of martyrs, these
glorious spiritual confessions, these very great and illustrious virtues of
the brethren who stand; which is, that the hostile violence has torn away a
part of our own bowels, and thrown it away in the destructiveness of its
own cruelty. What shall I do in this matter, beloved brethren? Wavering in
the various tide of feeling, what or how shall I speak? I need tears rather
than words to express the sorrow with which the wound of our body should be
bewailed, with which the manifold loss of a people once numerous should be
lamented. For whose heart is so hard or cruel, who is so unmindful of
brotherly love, as, among the varied ruins of his friends, and the mournful
relics disfigured with all degradation, to be able to stand and to keep dry
eyes, and not in the breaking out of his grief to express his groanings
rather with tears than with words? I grieve, brethren, I grieve with you;
nor does my own integrity and my personal soundness beguile me to the
soothing of my griefs, since it is the shepherd that is chiefly wounded in
the wound of his flock. I join my breast with each one, and I share in the
grievous burden of sorrow and mourning. I wail with the wailing, I weep
with the weeping, I regard myself as prostrated with those that are
prostrate. My limbs are at the same time stricken with those darts of the
raging enemy; their cruel swords have pierced through my bowels; my mind
could not remain untouched and free from the inroad of persecution among my
downfallen brethren; sympathy has cast me down also.
5. Yet, beloved brethren, the cause of truth is to be had in view; nor
ought the gloomy darkness of the terrible persecution so to have blinded
the mind and feeling, that there should remain no light and illumination
whence the divine precepts may be beheld. If the cause of disaster is
recognised, there is at once found a remedy for the wound. The Lord has
desired His family to be proved; and because a long peace had corrupted the
discipline(1) that had been divinely delivered to us, the heavenly rebuke
has aroused our faith, which was giving way, and I had almost said
slumbering; and although we deserved(2) more for our sins, yet the most
merciful Lord has so moderated all things, that all which has happened has
rather seemed a trial than a persecution.
6. Each one was desirous of increasing his estate; and forgetful of
what believers had either done before in the times of the apostles, or
always ought to do, they, with the insatiable ardour of covetousness,
devoted themselves to the increase of their property. Among the priests
there was no devotedness of religion; among the ministers(3) there was no
sound faith: in their works there was no mercy; in their manners there was
no discipline. In men, their beards were defaced;(4) in women, their
complexion was dyed: the eyes were falsified from what God's hand had made
them; their hair was stained with a falsehood. Crafty frauds were used to
deceive the hearts of the simple, subtle meanings for circumventing the
brethren. They united in the bond of marriage with unbelievers; they
prostituted the members of Christ to the Gentiles. They would swear not
only rashly, but even more, would swear falsely; would despise those set
over them with haughty swelling, would speak evil of one another with
envenomed tongue, would quarrel with one another with obstinate hatred. Not
a few bishops s who ought to furnish both exhortation and example to
others, despising their divine charge, became agents in secular business,
forsook their throne, deserted their people, wandered about over foreign
provinces, hunted the markets for gainful merchandise, while brethren were
starving in the Church.(6) They sought to possess money in hoards, they
seized estates by crafty deceits, they increased their gains by multiplying
usuries. What do not such as we deserve to suffer for sins of this kind,
when even already the divine rebuke has forewarned us, and said, "If they
shall forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they shall profane
my statutes, and shall not observe my precepts, I will visit their offences
with a rod, and their sins with scourges?"(7)
7. These things were before declared to us, and predicted. But we,
forgetful of the law and obedience required of us, have so acted by our
sins, that while we despise the Lord's commandments, we have come by
severer remedies to the correction of our sin and probation of our faith.
Nor indeed have we at last been converted to the fear of the Lord, so as to
undergo patiently and courageously this our correction and divine proof.
Immediately at the first words of the threatening foe, the greatest number
of the brethren betrayed their faith, and were cast down, not by the onset
of persecution, but cast themselves down by voluntary lapse. What unheard-
of thing, I beg of you, what new thing had happened, that, as if on the
occurrence of things unknown and unexpected, the obligation to(1) Christ
should be dissolved with headlong rashness? Have not prophets aforetime,
and subsequently apostles, told of these things? Have not they, full of the
Holy Spirit, predicted the afflictions of the righteous, and always the
injuries of the heathens? Does not the sacred Scripture, which ever arms
our faith and strengthens with a voice from heaven the servants of God,
say, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
serve?"(2) Does it not again show the anger of the divine indignation, and
warn of the fear of punishment beforehand, when it says, "They worshipped
them whom their fingers have made; and the mean man boweth down, and the
great man humbleth himself, and I will forgive them not?"(3) And again, God
speaks, and says, "He that sacrifices unto any gods, save unto the Lord
only, shall be destroyed."(4) In the Gospel also subsequently, the Lord,
who instructs by His words and fulfils by His deeds, teaching what should
be done, and doing whatever He had taught, did He not before admonish us of
whatever is now done and shall be done? Did He not before ordain both for
those who deny Him eternal punishments, and for those that confess Him
saving rewards?
8. From some--ah, misery!--all these things have fallen away, and have
passed from memory. They indeed did not wait to be apprehended ere they
ascended, or to be interrogated ere they denied. Many were conquered before
the battle, prostrated before the attack. Nor did they even leave it to be
said for them, that they seemed to sacrifice to idols unwillingly. They ran
to the market-place of their own accord; freely they hastened to death, as
if they had formerly wished it, as if they would embrace an opportunity now
given which they had always desired. How many were put off by the
magistrates at that time, when evening was coming on; how many even asked
that their destruction might not be delayed! What violence can such a one
plead as an excuse? How can he purge his crime, when it was he himself who
rather used force to bring about his own ruin? When they came voluntarily
to the Capitol,--when they freely approached to the obedience of the
terrible wickedness,--did not their tread falter? Did not their sight
darken, their heart tremble, their arms fall helplessly down? Did not their
senses fail, their tongue cleave to their mouth, their speech grow weak?
Could the servant of God stand there, and speak and renounce Christ, when
he had already renounced the devil and the world? Was not that altar,
whither he drew near to perish, to him a funeral pile? Ought he not to
shudder at and flee from the devil's altar, which he had seen to smoke, and
to be redolent of a foul rector, as if it were the funeral and sepulchre of
his life? Why bring with you, O wretched man, a sacrifice? why immolate a
victim? You yourself have come to the altar an offering; you yourself have
come a victim: there you have immolated your salvation, your hope; there
you have burnt up your faith in those deadly fires.(5)
9. But to many their own destruction was not sufficient. With mutual
exhortations, people were urged to their ruin; death was pledged by turns
in the deadly cup. And that nothing might be wanting to aggravate the
crime, infants also, in the arms of their parents, either carried or
conducted, lost, while yet little ones, what in the very first beginning of
their nativity they had gained.(6) Will not they, when the day of judgment
comes, say, "We have done nothing;(7) nor have we forsaken the Lord's bread
and cup to hasten freely to a profane contact; the faithlessness of others
has ruined us. We have found our parents our murderers; they have denied to
us the Church as a Mother; they have denied God as a Father: so that, while
we were little, and unforeseeing, and unconscious of such a crime, we were
associated by others to the partnership of wickedness, and we were snared
by the deceit of others?"
10. Nor is there, alas, any just and weighty reason which excuses such
a crime. One's country was to be left, and loss of one's estate was to be
suffered. Yet to whom that is born and dies is there not a necessity at
some time to leave his country, and to suffer the loss of his estate? But
let not Christ be forsaken, so that the loss of salvation and of an eternal
home should be feared. Behold, the Holy Spirit cries by the prophet,
"Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch not the unclean thing;
go ye out from the midst of her, and be ye separate, that bear the vessels
of the Lord."(8) Yet those who are the vessels of the Lord and the temple
of God do not go out from the midst, nor depart, that they may not be
compelled to touch the unclean thing, and to be polluted and corrupted with
deadly food. Elsewhere also a voice is heard from heaven, forewarning what
is becoming for the servants of God to do, saying, "Come out of her, my
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues."(1) He who goes out and departs does not become a partaker of
the guilt; but he will be wounded with the plagues who is found a companion
in the crime. And therefore the Lord commanded us in the persecution to
depart and to flee; and both taught that this should be done, and Himself
did it. For as the crown is given of the condescension of God, and cannot
be received unless the hour comes for accepting it, whosoever abiding in
Christ departs for a while does not deny his faith, but waits for the time;
but he who has fallen, after refusing to depart, remained to deny it.
11. The truth, brethren, must not be disguised; nor must the matter and
cause of our wound be concealed. A blind love of one's own property has
deceived many; nor could they be prepared for, or at ease in, departing
when their wealth fettered them like a chain. Those were the chains to them
that remained--those were the bonds by which both virtue was retarded, and
faith burdened, and the spirit bound, and the soul hindered; so that they
who were involved in earthly things(2) might become a booty and food for
the serpent, which, according to God's sentence, feeds upon earth. And
therefore the Lord the teacher of good things, forewarning for the future
time, says, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow
me."(3) If rich men did this, they would not perish by their riches; if
they laid up treasure in heaven, they would not now have a domestic enemy
and assailant. Heart and mind and feeling would be in heaven, if the
treasure were in heaven; nor could he be overcome by the world who had
nothing in the world whereby he could be overcome.(4) He would follow the
Lord loosed and free, as did the apostles, and many in the times of the
apostles, and many who forsook both their means and their relatives, and
clave to Christ with undivided ties.
12. But how can they follow Christ, who are held back by the chain of
their wealth? Or how can they seek heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty
heights, who are weighed down by earthly desires? They think that they
possess, when they are rather possessed; as slaves of their profit, and not
lords with respect to their own money, but rather the bond-slaves of their
money. These times and these men are indicated by the apostle, when he
says, "But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and in
perdition. For the root of all evil is the love of money, which, while some
have coveted, they have erred s from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows."(6) But with what rewards does the Lord invite
us to contempt of worldly wealth? With what compensations does He atone for
the small and trifling losses of this present time? "There is no man,"
saith He, "that leaves house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or
children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but he shall receive seven fold(7)
even in this time, but in the world to come life everlasting."(8) If we
know these things, and have found them out from the truth of the Lord who
promises, not only is not loss of this kind to be feared, but even to be
desired; as the Lord Himself again announces and warns us, "Blessed are ye
when men shall persecute you, and when they shall separate you from their
company, and shall cast you out, and shall speak of your name as evil, for
the Son of man's sake! Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for,
behold, your reward is great in heaven."(9)
13. But (say they) subsequently tortures had come,(10) and severe
sufferings were threatening those who resisted. He may complain of tortures
who has been overcome by tortures; he may offer the excuse of suffering who
has been vanquished in suffering. Such a one may ask, and say, "I wished
indeed to strive bravely, and, remembering my oath, I took up the arms of
devotion and faith; but as I was struggling in the encounter, varied
tortures and long-continued sufferings overcame me. My mind stood firm, and
my faith was strong, and my soul struggled long, unshaken with the
torturing pains; but when, with the renewed barbarity of the most cruel
judge, wearied out as I was, the scourges were now tearing me,(11) the
clubs bruised me, the rack strained me, the claw dug into me, the fire
roasted me; my flesh deserted me in the struggle, the weakness of my bodily
frame gave way,--not my mind, but my body, yielded in the suffering." Such
a plea may readily avail to forgiveness; an apology of that kind may excite
compassion. Thus at one time the Lord forgave Castus and AEmilius; thus,
overcome in the first encounter, they were made victors in the second
battle. So that they who had formerly given way to the fires became
stronger than the fires, and in that in which they had been vanquished they
were conquerors. They entreated not for pity of their tears, but of their
wounds; nor with a lamentable voice alone, but with laceration and
suffering of body. Blood flowed instead of weeping; and instead of tears,
gore poured forth from their half-scorched entrails.
14. But now, what wounds can those who are overcome show? what gashes
of gaping entrails, what tortures of the limbs, in cases where it was not
faith that fell in the encounter, but faithlessness that anticipated the
struggle? Nor does the necessity of the crime excuse the person compelled,
where the crime is committed of free will. Nor do I say this in such a way
as that I would burden the cases of the brethren, but that I may rather
instigate the brethren to a prayer of atonement. For, as it is written,
"They who call you happy cause you to err, and destroy the paths of your
feet,"(1) he who soothes the sinner with flattering blandishments furnishes
the stimulus to sin; nor does he repress, but nourishes wrong-doing. But he
who, with braver counsels, rebukes at the same time that he instructs a
brother, urges him onward to salvation. "As many as I love," saith the
Lord, "I rebuke and chasten."(2) And thus also it behoves the Lord's priest
not to mislead by deceiving concessions, but to provide with salutary
remedies. He is an unskilful physician who handles the swelling edges of
wounds with a tender hand, and, by retaining the poison shut up in the deep
recesses of the body, increases it. The wound, must be opened, and cut, and
healed by the stronger remedy of cutting out the corrupting parts. The sick
man may cry out, may vociferate, and may complain, in impatience of the
pain; but he will afterwards give thanks when he has felt that he is cured.
15. Moreover, beloved brethren, a new kind of devastation has appeared;
and, as if the storm of persecution had raged too little, there has been
added to the heap, under the title of mercy, a deceiving mischief and a
fair-seeming calamity. Contrary to the vigour of the Gospel, contrary to
the law of the Lord and God, by the temerity of some, communion is relaxed
to heedless persons,--a vain and false peace, dangerous to those who grant
it, and likely to avail nothing to those who receive it. They do not seek
for the patience necessary to health nor the true medicine derived from
atonement. Penitence is driven forth from their breasts, and the memory of
their very grave and extreme sin is taken away. The wounds of the dying are
covered over, and the deadly blow that is planted in the deep and secret
entrails is concealed by a dissimulated suffering. Returning from the
altars of the devil, they draw near to the holy place of the Lord, with
hands filthy and reeking with smell, still almost breathing of the plague-
bearing idol-meats; and even with jaws still exhaling their crime, and
reeking with the fatal contact, they intrude on the body of the Lord,
although the sacred Scripture stands in their way, and cries, saying,
"Every one that is clean shall eat of the flesh; and whatever soul eateth
of the flesh of the saving sacrifice, which is the Lord's, having his
uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from his people."(3) Also,
the apostle testifies, and says, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and
the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the
table of devils."(4) He threatens, moreover, the stubborn and froward, and
denounces them, saying, "Whosoever eateth the bread or drinketh the cup of
the Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."(5)
16. All these warnings being scorned and contemned,--before their sin
is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their
conscience has been purged by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest,(6)
before the offence of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased,
violence is done to His body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord
more with their hand and mouth than when they denied their Lord. They think
that that is peace which some with deceiving words are blazoning forth:(7)
that is not peace, but war; and he is not joined to the Church who is
separated from the Gospel. Why do they call an injury a kindness? Why do
they call impiety by the name of piety? Why do they hinder those who ought
to weep continually and to entreat their Lord, from the sorrowing of
repentance, and pretend to receive them to communion? This is the same kind
of thing to the lapsed as hail to the harvests; as the stormy star to the
trees; as the destruction of pestilence to the herds; as the raging tempest
to shipping. They take away the consolation of eternal hope; they overturn
the tree from the roots; they creep on to a deadly contagion with their
pestilent words; they dash the ship on the rocks, so that it may not reach
to the harbour. Such a facility does not grant peace, but takes it away;
nor does it give communion, but it hinders from salvation. This is another
persecution, and another temptation, by which the crafty enemy still
further assaults the lapsed; attacking them by a secret corruption, that
their lamentation may be hushed, that their grief may be silent, that the
memory of their sin may pass away, that the groaning of their heart may be
repressed, that the weeping of their eyes may be quenched; nor long and
full penitence deprecate the Lord so grievously offended, although it is
written, "Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent."(1)
17. Let no one cheat himself, let no one deceive himself. The Lord
alone can have mercy. He alone can bestow pardon for sins which have been
committed against Himself, who bare our sins, who sorrowed for us, whom God
delivered up for our sins. Man cannot be greater than God, nor can a
servant remit or forego by his indulgence what has been committed by a
greater crime against the Lord, lest to the person lapsed this be moreover
added to his sin, if he be ignorant that it is declared, "Cursed is the man
that putteth his hope in man."(2) The Lord must be besought. The Lord must
be appeased by our atonement, who has said, that him that denieth Him He
will deny, who alone has received all judgment from His Father. We believe,
indeed, that the merits of martyrs and the works of the righteous are of
great avail with the Judge; but that will be when the day of judgment shall
come;(3) when, after the conclusion of this life and the world, His people
shall stand before the tribunal of Christ.
18. But if any one, by an overhurried haste, rashly thinks that he can
give remission of sins to all,(4) or dares to rescind the Lord's precepts,
not only does it in no respect advantage the lapsed, but it does them harm.
Not to have observed His judgment is to have provoked His, wrath, and to
think that the mercy of God must not first of all be entreated, and,
despising the Lord, to presume on His power.(5) Under the altar of God the
souls of the slain martyrs cry with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O
Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood upon those
who dwell on the earth?"(6) And they are bidden to rest, and still to keep
patience. And does any one think that, in opposition to the Judge, a man
can become of avail(7) for the general remission and pardon of sins, or
that he can shield others before he himself is vindicated? The martyrs
order something to be done;(8) but only if this thing be just and lawful,
if it can be done without opposing the Lord Himself by God's priest, if the
consent of the obeying party be easy and yielding, if the moderation of the
asking party be religious. The martyrs order something to be done; but if
what they order be not written in the law of the Lord, we must first know
that they have obtained what they ask from God, and then do what they
command. For that may not always appear to be immediately conceded by the
divine majesty, which has been promised by man's undertaking.
19. For Moses also besought for the sins of the people; and yet, when
he had sought pardon for these sinners, he did not receive it. "I pray
Thee," said he, "O Lord, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made
them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin, forgive it; but
if not, blot me out of the book which Thou hast written. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my
book."(9) He, the friend of God; he who had often spoken face to face with
the Lord, could not obtain what he asked, nor could appease the wrath of an
indignant God by his entreaty. God praises Jeremiah, and announces, saying,
"Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest out
of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the
nations."(10) And to the same man He saith, when he often entreated and
prayed for the sins of the people, "Pray not thou for this people, neither
lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time
wherein they call on me, in the time of their affliction."(11) But who was
more righteous than Noah, who, when the earth was filled with sins, was
alone found righteous on the earth? Who more glorious than Daniel? Who more
strong for suffering martyrdom in firmness of faith, more happy in God's
condescension, who so many times, both when he was in conflict conquered,
and, when he had conquered, lived on? Was any more ready in good works than
Job, braver in temptations, more patient in sufferings, more submissive in
his fear, more true in his faith? And yet God said that He would not
grant to them if they were to seek. When the prophet Ezekiel entreated for
the sin of the people, "Whatsoever land," said He, "shall sin against me by
trespassing grievously, I will stretch out mine hand upon it, and will
break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will
cut off man and beast from it. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and
Job, were in it, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; but they
only should be delivered themselves."(1) Thus, not everything that is asked
is in the pre-judgment of the asker, but in the free will of the giver;
neither can human judgment claim to itself or usurp anything, unless the
divine pleasure approve.
20. In the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says, "Whosoever shall confess
me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven:
but he that denieth me, him will I also deny."(2) If He does not deny him
that denies, neither does He confess him that confesses; the Gospel cannot
be sound in one part and waver in another. Either both must stand firm, or
both must lose the force of truth. If they who deny shall not be guilty of
a crime, neither shall they who confess receive the reward of a virtue.
Again, if faith which has conquered be crowned, it is of necessity that
faithlessness which is conquered should be punished. Thus the martyrs can
either do nothing if the Gospel may be broken; or if the Gospel cannot be
broken, they can do nothing against the Gospel, since they become martyrs
on account of the Gospel. Let no one, beloved brethren, let no one decry
the dignity of martyrs, let no one degrade their glories and their crowns.
The strength of their uncorrupted faith abides sound; nor can he either say
or do anything against Christ, whose hope, and faith, and virtue, and
glory, are all in Christ: those cannot be the authority for the bishops
doing anything against God's command, who themselves have done God's
command. Is any one greater than God, or more merciful than God's goodness,
that he should either wish that undone which God has suffered to be done,
or, as if God had too little power to protect His Church, should think that
we could be preserved by his help?
21. Unless, perchance, these things have been done without God's
knowledge, or all these things have happened without His permission;
although Holy Scripture teaches the indocile, and admonishes the unmindful,
where it speaks, saying, "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to those
who made a booty of him? Did not the Lord against whom they sinned, and
would not walk in His ways, neither were obedient unto His law? And He has
poured upon them the fury of His anger."(3) And elsewhere it testifies and
says, "Is the Lord's hand shortened, that it cannot save; or His ear heavy,
that it cannot hear? But your iniquities separate between you and your God;
and because of your sins He hath hid His face from you, that He may not
have mercy."(4) Let us rather consider our offences, revolving our doings
and the secrets of our mind; let us weigh the deserts of our conscience;
let it come back upon our heart that we have not walked in the Lord's ways,
and have cast away God's law, and have never been willing to keep His
precepts and saving counsels.
22. What good can you think of him, what fear can you suppose to have
been with him, or what faith, whom neither fear could correct nor
persecution itself could reform? His high and rigid neck, even when it has
fallen, is unbent; his swelling and haughty soul is not broken, even when
it is conquered. Prostrate, he threatens those who stand; and wounded, the
sound. And because he may not at once receive the body of the Lord in his
polluted hands, the sacrilegious one is angry with the priests. And--oh
your excessive madness, O frantic one--you are angry with him who
endeavours to avert the anger of God from you; you threaten him who
beseeches the divine mercy on your behalf, who feels your wound which you
yourself do not feel, who sheds tears for you, which perhaps you never shed
yourself. You are still aggravating and. enhancing your crime; and while
you yourself are implacable(5) against the ministers and priests(6) of God,
do you think that the Lord can be appeased concerning you?
23. Receive rather, and admit what we say. Why do your deaf ears not
hear the salutary precepts with which we warn you? Why do your blind eyes
not see the way of repentance which we point out? Why does your stricken
and alienated mind not perceive the lively remedies which we both learn and
teach from the heavenly Scriptures?(7) Or if some unbelievers have little
faith in future events, let them be terrified with present ones. Lo, what
punishments do we behold of those who have denied! what sad deaths of
theirs do we bewail! Not even here can they be without punishment, although
the day of punishment has not yet arrived. Some are punished in the
meantime, that others may be corrected. The torments of a few are the
examples of all.
24. One of those who of his own will ascended the Capitol to make
denial, after he had denied Christ, became dumb. The punishment began from
that point whence the crime also began;(8) so that now he could not ask,
since he had no words for entreating mercy.(9) Another, who was in the
baths, (for this was wanting to her crime and to her misfortunes, that she
even went at once to the baths, when she had lost the grace of the layer of
life); there, unclean as she was, was seized by an unclean spirit,(1) and
tore with her teeth the tongue with which she had either impiously eaten or
spoken. After the wicked food had been taken, the madness of the mouth was
armed to its own destruction. She herself was her own executioner, nor did
she long continue to live afterwards: tortured with pangs of the belly and
bowels, she expired.
25. Learn what occurred when I myself was present and a witness(2) Some
parents who by chance were escaping, being little careful(3) on account of
their terror, left a little daughter under the care of a wet-nurse. The
nurse gave up the forsaken child to the magistrates. They gave it, in the
presence of an idol whither the people flocked (because it was not yet able
to eat flesh on account of its years), bread mingled with wine, which
however itself was the remainder of what had been used in the immolation of
those that had perished. Subsequently the mother recovered her child. But
the girl was no more able to speak, or to indicate the crime that had been
committed, than she had before been able to understand or to prevent it.
Therefore it happened unawares in their ignorance, that when we were
sacrificing, the mother brought it in with her. Moreover, the girl mingled
with the saints, became impatient of our prayer and supplications, and was
at one moment shaken with weeping, and at another tossed about like a wave
of the sea by the violent excitement of her mind; as if by the compulsion
of a torturer the soul of that still tender child confessed a consciousness
of the fact with such signs as it could. When, however, the solemnities
were finished, and the deacon began to offer the cup to those present, and
when, as the rest received it, its turn approached, the little child, by
the instinct of the divine majesty, turned away its face, compressed its
mouth with resisting lips, and refused the cup.(4) Still the deacon
persisted, and, although against her efforts, forced on her some of the
sacrament of the cup. Then there followed a sobbing and vomiting. In a
profane body and mouth the Eucharist could not remain; the draught
sanctified in the blood of the Lord burst forth from the polluted stomach.
So great is the Lord's power, so great is His majesty. The secrets of
darkness were disclosed under His light, and not even hidden crimes
deceived God's priest.
26. This much about an infant, which was not yet of an age to speak of
the crime committed by others in respect of herself. But the woman who in
advanced life and of more mature age secretly crept in among us when we
were sacrificing, received not food, but a sword for herself; and as if
taking some deadly poison(5) into her jaws and body, began presently to be
tortured, and to become stiffened with frenzy; and suffering the misery no
longer of persecution, but of her crime, shivering and trembling, she fell
down. The crime of her dissimulated conscience was not long unpunished or
concealed. She who had deceived man, felt that God was taking vengeance.
And another woman, when she tried with unworthy hands to open her box,(6)
in which was the holy (body) of the Lord, was deterred by fire rising from
it from daring to touch it. And when one,(7) who himself was defiled, dared
with the rest to receive secretly a part of the sacrifice celebrated by the
priest; he could not eat nor handle the holy of the Lord, but found in his
hands(8) when opened that he had a cinder. Thus by the experience of one it
was shown that the Lord withdraws when He is denied; nor does that which is
received benefit the undeserving for salvation, since saving grace is
changed by the departure of the sanctity into a cinder. How many there are
daily who do not repent nor make confession of the consciousness of their
crime, who are filled with unclean spirits!(9) How many are shaken even to
unsoundness of mind and idiotcy by the raging of madness! Nor is there any
need to go through the deaths of individuals, since through the manifold
lapses occurring in the world the punishment of their sins is as varied as
the multitude, of sinners is abundant. Let each one consider not what
another has suffered, but what he himself deserves to suffer; nor think
that he has escaped if his punishment delay for a time, since he ought to
fear it the more that the wrath of God the judge has reserved it for
Himself.
27. Nor let those persons flatter themselves that they need repent the
less, who, although they have not polluted their hands with abominable
sacrifices, yet have defiled their conscience with certificates.(10) That
profession of one who denies, is the testimony of a, Christian disowning
what he had been. He says that he has done what another has actually
committed; and although it is written, "Ye cannot serve two masters,"(11)
he has served an earthly master in that he has obeyed his edict; he has
been more obedient to human authority than to God. It matters not whether
he has published what he has done with less either of disgrace or of guilt
among men. Be that as it may, he will not be able to escape and avoid God
his judge, seeing that the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms, "Thine eyes did
see my substance, that it was imperfect, and in Thy book shall all men be
written."(1) And again: "Man seeth the outward appearance, but God seeth
the heart."(2) The Lord Himself also forewarns and prepares us, saying,
"And all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and
the heart."(3) He looks into the hidden and secret things, and considers
those things which are concealed; nor can any one evade the eyes of the
Lord, who says, "I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man be
hidden in secret places, shall not I therefore see him? Do not I fill
heaven and earth?"(4) He sees the heart and mind of every person; and He
will judge not alone of our deeds, but even of our words and thoughts. He
looks into the minds, and the wills, and conceptions of all men, in the
very lurking-places of the heart that is still closed up.
28. Moreover, how much are they both greater in faith and better in
their fear, who, although bound by no crime of sacrifice to idols or of
certificate, yet, since they have even thought of such things, with grief
and simplicity confess this very thing to God's priests, and make the
conscientious avowal, put off from them the load of their minds, and seek
out the salutary medicine even for slight and moderate wounds, knowing that
it is written, "God is not mocked."(5) God cannot be mocked, nor deceived,
nor deluded by any deceptive cunning. Yea, he sins the more, who, thinking
that God is like man, believes that he evades the penalty of his crime if
he has not openly admitted his crime. Christ says in His precepts,
"Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, of him shall the Son of man be
ashamed."(6) And does he think that he is a Christian, who is either
ashamed or afraid to be a Christian? How can he be one with Christ, who
either blushes or fears to belong to Christ? He will certainly have sinned
less, by not seeing the idols, and not profaning the sanctity of the faith
under the eyes of a people standing round and insulting, and not polluting
his hands by the deadly sacrifices, nor defiling his lips with the wicked
food. This is advantageous to this extent, that the fault is less, not that
the conscience is .guiltless. He can more easily attain to pardon of his
crime, yet he is not free from crime; and let him not cease to carry out
his repentance, and to entreat the Lord's mercy, lest what seems to be less
in the quality of his fault, should be increased by his neglect of
atonement.
29. I entreat you, beloved brethren, that each one should confess his
own sin, while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his
confession may be received, while the satisfaction and remission made by
the priests are pleasing to the Lord? Let us turn to the Lord with our
whole heart, and, expressing our repentance for our sin with true grief,
let us entreat God's mercy. Let our soul lie low before Him. Let our
mourning atone to Him. Let all our hope lean upon Him. He Himself tells us
in what manner we ought to ask. "Turn ye," He says, "to me with all your
heart, and at the same time with fasting, and with weeping, and with
mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments."(8) Let us return to
the Lord with our whole heart. Let us appease His wrath and indignation
with fastings, with weeping, with mourning, as He Himself admonishes us.
30. Do we believe that a man is lamenting with his whole heart, that he
is entreating the Lord with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning,
who from the first day of his sin daily frequents the bathing-places with
women; who, feeding at rich banquets, and puffed out with fuller dainties,
belches forth on the next day his indigestions, and does not dispense of
his meat and drink so as to aid the necessity of the poor? How does he who
walks with joyous and glad step mourn for his death? And although it is
written, "Ye shall not mar the figure of your beard,"(9) he plucks out his
beard, and dresses his hair; and does he now study to please any one who
displeases God? Or does she groan and lament who has time to put on the
clothing of precious apparel, and not to consider the robe of Christ which
she has lost; to receive valuable ornaments and richly wrought necklaces,
and not to bewail the loss of divine and heavenly ornament? Although thou
clothest thyself in foreign garments and silken robes, thou art naked;
although thou adornest thyself to excess both in pearls, and gems, and
gold, yet without the adornment of Christ thou art unsightly. And you who
stain your hair, now at least cease in the midst of sorrows; and you who
paint the edges of your eyes with a line drawn around them of black powder,
now at least wash your eyes with tears. If you had lost any dear one of
your friends by the death incident to mortality, you would groan
grievously, and weep with disordered countenance, with changed dress, with
neglected hair, with clouded face, with dejected appearance, you would show
the signs of grief. Miserable creature, you have lost your soul;
spiritually dead here, you are continuing to live to yourself, and although
yourself walking about, you have begun to carry your own death with you.
And do you not bitterly moan; do you not continually groan; do you not hide
yourself, either for shame of your sin or for continuance of your
lamentation? Behold, these are still worse wounds of sinning; behold, these
are greater crimes--to have sinned, and not to make atonement--to have
committed crimes, and not to bewail your crimes.
31. Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, the illustrious and noble youths,
even amid the flames and the ardours of a raging furnace, did not desist
from making public confession to God. Although possessed of a good
conscience, and having often deserved well of the Lord by obedience of
faith and fear, yet they did not cease from maintaining their humility, and
from making atonement to the Lord, even amid the glorious martyrdoms of
their virtues. The sacred Scripture speaks, saying, "Azarias stood up and
prayed, and, opening his mouth, made confession before God together with
his companions in the midst of the fire."(1) Daniel also, after the
manifold grace of his faith and innocency, after the condescension of the
Lord often repeated in respect of his virtues and praises, strives by
fastings still further to deserve well of God, wraps himself in sackcloth
and ashes, sorrowfully making confession, and saying, "O Lord God, great,
and strong, and dreadful, keeping Thy covenant and mercy for them that love
Thee and keep Thy commandments, we have sinned, we have committed iniquity,
and have done wickedly: we have transgressed, and departed from Thy
precepts, and from Thy judgments; neither have we hearkened to the words of
Thy servants the prophets, which they spake in Thy name to our kings, and
to all the nations, and to all the earth. O Lord, righteousness(2) belongs
unto Thee, but unto us confusion."(3)
32. These things were done by men, meek, simple, innocent, in deserving
well of the majesty of God; and now those who have denied the Lord refuse
to make atonement to the Lord, and to entreat Him. I beg you, brethren,
acquiesce in wholesome remedies, obey better counsels, associate your tears
with our tears, join your groans with ours; we beseech you in order that we
may beseech God for you: we turn our very prayers to you first; our prayers
with which we pray(4) God for you that He would pity you. Repent
abundantly, prove the sorrow of a grieving and lamenting mind.
33. Neither let that imprudent error or vain stupor of some move you,
who, although they are involved in so grave a crime, are struck with
blindness of mind, so that they neither understand nor lament their sins.
This is the greater visitation of an angry God; as it is written, "And God
gave them the spirit of deadness."(5) And again: "They received not the
love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them the working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness."(6) Unrighteously pleasing themselves, and mad with the
alienation of a hardened mind, they despise the Lord's precepts, neglect
the medicine for their wound, and will not repent. Thoughtless before their
sin was acknowledged, after their sin they are obstinate; neither stedfast
before, nor suppliant afterwards: when they ought to have stood fast, they
fell; when they ought to fall and prostrate themselves to God, they think
they stand fast. They have taken peace for themselves of their own accord
when nobody granted it; seduced by false promises, and linked with
apostates and unbelievers, they take hold of error instead of truth: they
regard a communion as valid with those who are not communicants; they
believe men against God, although they have not believed God against men.
34. Flee from such men as much as you can; avoid with a wholesome
caution those who adhere to their mischievous contact. Their word doth eat
as doth a cancer;(7) their conversation advances like a contagion; their
noxious and envenomed persuasion kills worse than persecution itself. In
such a case there remains only penitence which can make atonement. But they
who take away repentance for a crime, close the way of atonement. Thus it
happens that, while by the rashness of some a false safety is either
promised or trusted, the hope of true safety is taken away.
35. But you, beloved brethren, whose fear is ready towards God, and
whose mind, although it is placed in the midst of lapse, is mindful of its
misery, do you in repentance and grief look into your sins; acknowledge the
very grave sin of your conscience; open the eyes of your heart to the
understanding of your sin, neither despairing of the Lord's mercy nor yet
at once claiming His pardon. God, in proportion as with the affection of a
Father He is always indulgent and good, in the same proportion is to be
dreaded with the majesty of a judge. Even as we have sinned greatly, so let
us greatly lament. To a deep wound let there not be wanting a long and
careful treatment; let not the repentance be less than the sin. Think you
that the Lord can be quickly appeased, whom with faithless words you have
denied, to whom you have rather preferred your worldly estate, whose temple
you have violated with a sacrilegious contact? Think you that He will
easily have mercy upon you whom you have declared not to be your God? You
must pray more eagerly and entreat; you must spend the day in grief; wear
out nights in watchings and weepings; occupy all your time in wailful
lamentations; lying stretched on the ground, you must cling close to the
ashes, be surrounded with sackcloth and filth; after losing the raiment of
Christ, you must be willing now to have no clothing; after the devil's
meat, you must prefer fasting; be earnest in righteous works, whereby sins
may be purged; frequently apply yourself to almsgiving, whereby souls are
freed from death.(1) What the adversary took from you, let Christ receive;
nor ought your estate now either to be held or loved, by which you have
been both deceived and conquered. Wealth must be avoided as an enemy; must
be fled from as a robber; must be dreaded by its possessors as a sword and
as poison.(2) To this end only so much as remains should be of service,
that by it the crime and the fault may be redeemed. Let good works be done
without delay, and largely; let all your estate be laid out for the healing
of your wound; let us lend of our wealth and our means to the Lord, who
shall judge concerning us. Thus faith flourished in the time of the
apostles; thus the first people of believers kept Christ's commands: they
were prompt, they were liberal, they gave their all to be distributed by
the apostles; and yet they were not redeeming sins of such a character as
these.
36. If a man make prayer with his whole heart, if he groan with the
true lamentations and tears of repentance, if be incline the Lord to pardon
of his sin by righteous and continual works, he who expressed His mercy in
these words may pity such men: "When you turn and lament, then shall you be
saved, and shall know where you have been."(3) And again: "I have no
pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord, hut that he should
return and live."(4) And Joel the prophet declares the mercy of the Lord in
the Lord's own admonition, when he says: "Turn ye to the Lord your God, for
He is merciful and gracious, and patient, and of great mercy, and repenteth
Him with respect to the evil that He hath inflicted."(5) He can show mercy;
He can turn back His judgment. He can mercifully pardon the repenting, the
labouring, the beseeching sinner. He can regard as effectual whatever, in
behalf of such as these, either martyrs have besought or priests have done.
Or if any one move Him still more by his own atonement, if he appease His
anger, if he appease the wrath of an indignant God by righteous entreaty,
He gives arms again whereby the vanquished may be armed; He restores and
confirms the strength whereby the refreshed faith may be invigorated. The
soldier will seek his contest anew; he will repeat the fight, he will
provoke the enemy, and indeed by his very suffering he is made braver for
the battle. He who has thus made atonement to God; he who by repentance for
his deed, who by shame for his sin, has conceived more both of virtue and
of faith from the very grief of his fall, heard and aided by the Lord,
shall make the Church which he had lately saddened glad, and shall now
deserve of the Lord not only pardon, but a crown.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 5, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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