(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing initially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.

In this file, footnote numbers sometimes refer to following text instead
of to the preceeding.


ST. JEROME

AGAINST JOVINIANUS, BOOK II

[Translated by The Hon. W. H. Fremantle, M.A., Canon of Canterbury
Cathedral and Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, with the
assistance of the Rev. G. Lewis, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford, Vicar of
Dodderhill near Droitwick, and the Rev. W. G. Martley, M.A., of Balliol
College, Oxford.]


BOOK II

   1. The second proposition of Jovinianus is that the baptized cannot be
tempted [1]by the devil. And to escape the imputation of folly in saying
this, he adds: "But if any are tempted, it only shows that they were
baptized with water, not with the Spirit, as we read was the case with
Simon Magus." Hence it is that John says, [2]"Whosoever is begotten of God
doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because
he is begotten of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the
children of the Devil." And at the end of the Epistle, [3]"Whosoever is
begotten of God sinneth not; but his being begotten of God keepeth him, and
the evil one toucheth him not."

   2. This would be a real difficulty and one for ever incapable of
solution were it not solved by the witness of John himself, who immediately
goes on to say, [4]" My little children, guard yourselves from idols." If
everyone that is born of God sinneth not, and cannot be tempted by the
devil, how is it that he bids them beware of temptation? Again in the same
Epistle we read: [5]" If we say that we have no sins, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we
say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in
us." I suppose that John was baptized and was writing to the baptized: I
imagine too that all sin is of the devil. Now John confesses himself a
sinner, and hopes for forgiveness of sins after baptism. My friend
Jovinianus says, [1]"Touch me not, for I am clean." What then? Does the
Apostle contradict himself? By no means. In the same passage he gives his
reason for thus speaking: [2]"My little children, these things write I unto
you, that ye may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our
sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And hereby know
we that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know
him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been
perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in
him ought himself also to walk even as he walked." My reason for telling
you, little children, that everyone who is born of God sinneth not, is that
you may not sin, and that you may know that so long as you sin not I you
abide in the birth which God has given you. Yea, they who abide in that
birth cannot sin. [1]"For what communion hath light with darkness? Or
Christ with Belial?" As day is distinct from night, so righteousness and
unrighteousness, sin and good works, Christ and Antichrist cannot blend. If
we give Christ a lodging-place in our hearts, we banish the devil from
thence. If we sin and the devil enter through the gate of sin, Christ will
immediately withdraw. Hence David after sinning says: [2]"Restore unto me
the joy of thy salvation," that is, the joy which he had lost by sinning.
[3]"He who saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him." Christ is called the truth: [4]"I am the way,
the truth, and the life." In vain do we make our boast in him whose
commandments we keep not. To him that knoweth what is good, and doeth it
not, it is sin. [5]"As the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so
faith apart from works is dead." And we must not think it a great matter to
know the only God, when even devils believe and tremble. "He that saith he
abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked." Our opponent
may choose whichever of the two he likes; we give him his choice. Does he
abide in Christ, or not? If he abide, let him then walk as Christ walked.
But if there is [6]rashness in professing to copy the virtues of our Lord,
he does not abide in Christ, for he does not walk as did Christ. [7]"He did
not sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: when he was reviled, he
reviled not again, and as a lamb is dumb before its shearer, so opened he
not his mouth." To Him came the prince of this world, and found nothing in
Him: although He had done no sin, God made Him sin for us. But we,
according to the Epistle of James, [8]"all stumble in many things," and
[9]"no one is pure from sin, no not if his life be but a day long." [10]For
who will boast "that he has a clean heart? or who will be sure that he is
pure from sin?" And we are held guilty after the similitude of Adam's
transgression. Hence David says, [11]"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me." And the blessed Job, [12]"Though I be
righteous my mouth will speak wickedness, and though I be perfect, I shall
be found perverse. If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never
so clean, yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall
abhor me." But that we may not utterly despair and think that if we sin
after baptism we cannot be saved, he immediately checks the tendency:
[1]"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours
only, but also for the whole world." He addresses this to baptized
believers, and he promises them the Lord as an advocate for their offences.
He does not say: If you fall into sin, you have an advocate with the
Father, Christ, and He is the propitiation for your sins: you might then
say that he was addressing those whose baptism had been destitute of the
true faith: but what he says is this, "We have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, and he is the propitiation for our sins." And not only for
the sins of John and his contemporaries, but for those of the whole world.
Now in "the whole world" are included apostles and all the faithful, and a
clear proof is established that sin after baptism is possible. It is
useless for us to have an advocate Jesus Christ, if sin be impossible.

   3. The apostle Peter, to whom it was said, [2]"He that is bathed
needeth not to wash again," and [3]"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my Church," through fear of a maid-servant denied Him. Our Lord
himself says, [4]"Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you, that he
might sift you as wheat. But I made supplication for thee, that thy faith
fail not." And in the same place, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into
temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." If you
reply that this was said before the Passion, we certainly say after the
Passion, in the Lord's prayer, [5]"Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive
our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
one." If we do not sin after baptism, why do we ask that we may be forgiven
our sins, which were already forgiven in baptism? Why do we pray that we
may not enter into temptation, and that we may be delivered from the evil
one, if the devil cannot tempt those who are baptized? The case is
different if this prayer belongs to the Catechumens, and is not adapted to
faithful Christians. Paul, the chosen vessel, [6]chastised his body, and
brought it into subjection, lest after preaching to others he himself
should be found a reprobate, and [7]he tells that there was given to him "a
thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet" him. And to the
Corinthians he writes: [1]"I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is toward Christ." And elsewhere: [2]"But to whom ye
forgive anything, I forgive also: for what I also have forgiven, if I have
forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it in the person of
Christ: that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not
ignorant of his devices." And again: [3]"There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as man can bear; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make
also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it." And, [4]"Let him
that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." And to the Galatians:
[5]"Ye were running well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the
truth?" And elsewhere: [6]"We would fain have come unto you, I Paul once
and again; and Satan hindered us." And to the married he says: [7]"Be
together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency." And
again: [8]"But I say, walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust
of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other: that ye may
not do the things that ye would." We are a compound of the two, and must
endure the strife of the two substances. And to the Ephesians: [10]"Our
wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers, against the world- rulers of this darkness, against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Does any one think
that we are safe, and that it is right to fall asleep when once we have
been baptized? And so, too, in the epistle to the Hebrews: [10]"For as
touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God,
and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to
renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." Surely we cannot deny that
they have been baptized who have been illuminated, and have tasted the
heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have
tasted the good word of God. But if the baptized cannot sin, how is it now
that the Apostle says, "And have fallen away?

   [1]Montanus and [2]Novatus would smile at this, for they contend that
it is impossible to renew again through repentance those who have crucified
to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. He therefore
corrects this mistake by saying: [3]"But, beloved, we are persuaded better
things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak;
for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye shewed
towards his name, in that ye ministered unto the Saints, and still do
minister." And truly the unrighteousness of God would be great, if He
merely punished sin, and did not welcome good works. I have so spoken, says
the Apostle, to withdraw you from your sins, and to make you more careful
through fear of despair. But, beloved, I am persuaded better things of you,
and things that accompany salvation. For it is not accordant with the
righteousness of God to forget good works, and the fact that you have
ministered and do minister to the Saints for His name's sake, and to
remember sins only. The Apostle James also, knowing that the baptized can
be tempted, and fall of their own free choice, says: [4]"Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation: for when he hath been approved, he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him." And that
we may not think that we are tempted by God, as we read in Genesis Abraham
was, he adds: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for
God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man. But each
man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the
lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full
grown, bringeth forth death." God created us with free will, and we are not
forced by necessity either to virtue or to vice. Otherwise, if there be
necessity, there is no crown. As n good works it is God who brings them to
perfection, for it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that pitieth and gives us help that we may be able to reach the
goal: so in things wicked and sinful, the seeds within us give the impulse,
and these are brought to maturity by the devil. When he sees that we are
building upon the foundation of Christ, hay, wood, stubble, then he applies
the match. Let us then build gold, silver, costly stones, and he will not
venture to tempt us: although even thus there is not sure and safe
possession. For the lion lurks in ambush to slay the innocent. [1]"Potters'
vessels are proved by the furnace, and just men by the trial of
tribulation." And in another place it is written: [2]"My son, when thou
comest to serve the Lord, prepare thyself for temptation." Again, the same
James says: [3]"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. For if any
one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man
beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth
away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." It was useless
to warn them to add works to faith, if they could not sin after baptism. He
tells us that [4]"whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in
one point, he is become guilty of all." Which of us is without sin? [5]"God
hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all."
Peter also says: [6]"The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of
temptation." And concerning false teachers: [7]"These are springs without
water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness hath
been reserved. For, uttering proud words of vanity, they entice in the
lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who had just escaped, and have
turned back to error." Does not the Apostle in these words seem to you to
have depicted the new party of ignorance? For, as it were, they open the
fountains of knowledge and yet have no water: they promise a shower of
doctrine like prophetic clouds which have been visited by the truth of God,
and are driven by the storms of devils and vices. They speak great things,
and their talk is nothing but pride: [8]"But every one is unclean with God
who is lifted up in his own heart." Like those who had just escaped from
their sins, they return to their own error, and persuade men to luxury, and
to the delights of eating and the gratification of the flesh. For who is
not glad to hear them say: "Let us eat and drink, and reign for ever"? The
wise and prudent they call corrupt, but pay more attention to the honey-
tongued. John the apostle, or rather the Saviour in the person of John,
writes thus to the angel of the Church of Ephesus: [1]"I know thy works and
thy toil and patience, and that thou didst bear for my name's sake, and
hast not grown weary. But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave
thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent,
and do the first works; or else I will come to thee, and will move thy
candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." Similarly He urges the
other churches, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea,
to repentance, and threatens them unless they return to the former works.
And in Sardis He says He has a few who have not defiled their garments, and
they shall walk with Him in white, for they are worthy. But they to whom He
says: "Remember from whence thou art fallen "; and, "Behold the devil is
about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried "; and, "I know
where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is "; and, "Remember how
thou hast received, and didst hear, and keep it, and repent," and so on,
were of course believers, and baptized, who once stood, but fell through
sin.

   4. I delayed for a little while the production of proofs from the Old
Testament, because, wherever the Old Testament is against them they are
accustomed to cry out that [2]the Law and the Prophets were until John. But
who does not know that under the other dispensation of God all the saints
of past times were of equal merit with Christians at the present day? As
Abraham in days gone by pleased God in wedlock, so virgins now please him
in perpetual virginity. He served the Law and his own times; let us now
serve the Gospel and our times, [3]upon whom the ends of the ages have
come. David the chosen one, the man after God's own heart, who had
performed all His pleasure, and who in a certain psalm had said, [4]"Judge
me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the
Lord and shall not slide. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins
and my heart," even he was afterwards tempted by the devil; and repenting
of his sin said, [5]"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-
kindness." He would have a great sin blotted out by great loving-kindness.
Solomon, beloved of the Lord, and to whom God had twice revealed Himself,
because he loved women forsook the love of God. It is related in the
[6]Book of Days that Manasses the wicked king was restored after the
Babylonish captivity to his former rank. And Josiah, a holy man, [1]was
slain by the king of Egypt on the plain of Megiddo. [2]Joshua also, the son
of Josedech and high-priest, although he was a type of our Saviour Who bore
our sins, and united to Himself a church of alien birth from among the
Gentiles, is nevertheless, according to the letter of Scripture,
represented in filthy garments after he attained to the priesthood, and
with the devil standing at his right hand; and white raiment is afterwards
restored to him. It is needless to tell how Moses and Aaron [2]offended God
at the water of strife, and did not enter the land of promise. For the
blessed Job relates that even the angels and every creature can sin.
[4]"Shall mortal man," he says, "be just before God? Shall a man be
spotless in his works? If he putteth no trust in his servants, and chargeth
his angels with folly, how much more them that dwell in houses of clay,"
amongst whom are we, and made of the same clay too. [5]"The life of man is
a warfare upon earth." [6]Lucifer fell who was sending to all nations, and
he who was nurtured in a paradise of delight as one of the twelve precious
stones, was wounded and went down to hell from the mount of God. Hence the
Saviour says in the Gospel: [7]"I beheld Satan falling as lightning from
heaven." If he fell who stood on so sublime a height, who may not fall? If
there are falls in heaven, how much more on earth! And yet though Lucifer
be fallen (the old serpent after his fall), [8]"his strength is in his
loins, and his force is in the muscles of his belly. The great trees are
overshadowed by him, and he sleepeth beside the reed, the rush, and the
sedge." [9]He is king over all things that are in the waters--that is to
say in the seat of pleasure and luxury, of propagation of children, and of
the fertilisation of the marriage bed [10]" For who can strip off his outer
garment? Who can open the doors of his face? Nations fatten upon him, and
the tribes of Phenicia divide him." And lest haply the reader in his secret
thought might imagine that those tribes of Phenicia and peoples of Ethiopia
only are meant by those to whom the dragon was given for food, we
immediately find a reference to those who are crossing the sea of this
world, and are hastening to reach the haven of salvation: [1]"His head
stands in the ships of the fishermen like an anvil that cannot be wearied:
[2]he counteth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. And all the gold of
the sea under him is as mire. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he
values the sea like a pot of ointment, and the blackness of the deep as a
captive. He beholdeth everything that is high." And my friend Jovinianus
thinks he can gain an easy mastery over him. Why speak of holy men and
angels, who, being creatures of God, are of course capable of sin? He dared
to tempt the Son of God, and though smitten through and through with our
Lord's first and second answer, nevertheless raised his head, and when
thrice wounded, withdrew only for a time, and deferred rather than removed
the temptation. And we flatter ourselves on the ground of our baptism,
which though it put away the sins of the past, cannot keep us for the time
to come, unless the baptized keep their hearts with all diligence.

   5. At length we have arrived at the question of food, and are
confronted by our third difficulty. "All things were created to serve for
the use of mortal men.' And as man, a rational animal, in a sense the owner
and tenant of the world, is subject to God, and worships his Creator, so
all things living were created either for the food of men, or for clothing,
or for tilling the earth, or conveying the fruits thereof, or to be the
companions of man, and hence, because they are man's [3]helpers, they have
their name jumenta. [4]'What is man,' says David, 'that thou art mindful of
him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but
little lower than the angels, and crownest him with glory and honour. Thou
madest him to have dominion over the works of thine hands; thou hast put
all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the
field: the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth
through the paths of the seas.' Granted, he says, that the ox was created
for ploughing, the horse for riding, the dog for watching, goats for their
milk, sheep for their fleeces. What is the use of swine if we may not eat
their flesh? of roes, stags, fallow-deer, boars, hares, and such like game?
of geese, wild and tame? of wild ducks and [5]fig-peckers? of woodcocks? of
coots? of thrushes? Why do hens run about our houses? If they are not
eaten, all these creatures were created by God for nothing. But what need
is there of argument when Scripture clearly teaches that every moving
creature, like herbs and vegetables, were given to us for food, and the
Apostle cries aloud [1]'All things are clean to the clean, and nothing is
to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving,' and [2]tells us that
men will come in the last days, forbidding to marry, and to eat meats,
which God created for use? The Lord himself was called by the Pharisees a
wine-bibber and a glutton, the friend of publicans and sinners, because he
did not decline the invitation of Zacchaeus to dinner, and went to the
marriage-feast. But it is a different matter if, as you may foolishly
contend, he went to the dinner intending to fast, and after the manner of
deceivers said, I eat this, not that; I do not drink the wine which I
created out of water. He did not make water, but wine, the type of his
blood. After the resurrection he ate a fish and part of a honey-comb, not
sesame nuts and service-berries. The apostle, Peter, did not wait like a
Jew for the stars to peep, but went upon the house-top to dine at the sixth
hour. Paul in the ship broke bread, not dried figs. When Timothy's stomach
was out of order, he advised him to drink wine, not perry. In abstaining
from meats they please their own fancy: as though superstitious Gentiles
did not observe the [3]rites of abstinence connected with the Mother of the
Gods and with Isis."

   6. I will follow in detail the views now expounded, and before I come
to Scripture and show by it that fasting is pleasing to God, and chastity
accepted by him, I will meet philosophic argument with argument, and will
prove that we are not followers of Empedocles and Pythagoras, who on
account of their doctrine of the transmigration of souls think nothing
which lives and moves should be eaten, and look upon him who fells a fir-
tree or an oak as equally guilty with the parricide or the poisoner: but
that we worship our Creator Who made all things for the use of man. And as
the ox was created for ploughing, the horse for riding, dogs for watching,
goats for milk, sheep for their wool: so it was with swine and stags, and
roes and hares, and other animals: but the immediate purpose of their
creation was not that they might serve for food, but for other uses of men.
For if everything that moves and lives was made for food, and prepared for
the stomach, let my opponents tell me why elephants, lions, leopards, and
wolves were created; why vipers, scorpions, bugs, lice, and fleas; why the
vulture, the eagle, the crow, the hawk; why whales, dolphins, seals, and
small snails were created. Which of us ever eats the flesh of a lion, a
viper, a vulture, a stork, a kite, or the worms that crawl upon our shores?
As then these have their proper uses, so may we say that other beasts,
fishes, birds, were created not for eating, but for medicine. In short, to
how many uses the flesh of vipers, from which we make our antidotes against
poison, may be applied, physicians know well. Ivory dust is an ingredient
in many remedies. Hyena's gall restores brightness to the eyes, and its
dung and that of dogs cures gangrenous wounds. And (it may seem strange to
the reader) Galen asserts in his treatise on Simples, that human dung is of
service in a multitude of cases. Naturalists say that snake-skin, boiled in
oil, gives wonderful relief in ear-ache. What to the uninitiated seems so
useless as a bug? Yet, suppose a leech to have fastened on the throat, as
soon as the odour of a bug is inhaled the leech is vomited out, and
difficulty in urinating is relieved by the same application. As for the fat
of pigs, geese, fowls, and pheasants, how useful they are is told in all
medical works, and if you read these books you will see there that the
vulture has as many curative properties as it has limbs. Peacock's dung
allays the inflammation of gout. Cranes, storks, eagle's gall, hawk's
blood, the ostrich, frogs, chameleons, swallow's dung and flesh--in what
diseases these are suitable remedies, I could tell if it were my purpose to
discuss bodily ailments and their cure. If you think proper you may read
Aristotle and [1]Theophrastus in prose, or [2]Marcellus of Side, and our
[3]Flavius, who discourse on these subjects in hexameter verse; the
[4]second Pliny also, and [5]Dioscorides, and others, both naturalists and
physicians, who assign to every herb, every stone, every animal whether
reptile, bird, or fish, its own use in the art of which they treat. So then
when you ask me why the pig was created, I immediately reply, as if two
boys were disputing, by asking you why were vipers and scorpions? You must
not judge that anything from the hand of God is superfluous, because there
are many beasts and birds which your palate rejects. But this may perhaps
look more like contentiousness and pugnacity than truth. Let me tell you
therefore that pigs and wild-boars, and stags, and the rest of living
creatures were created, that soldiers, athletes, sailors, rhetoricians,
miners, and other slaves of hard toil, who need physical strength, might
have food: and also those who carry arms and provisions, who wear
themselves out with the work of hand or foot, who ply the oar, who need
good lungs to shout and speak, who level mountains and sleep out rain or
fair. But our religion does not train boxers, athletes, sailors, soldiers,
or ditchers, but followers of wisdom, who devote themselves to the worship
of God, and know why they were created and are in the world from which they
are impatient to depart. Hence also the Apostle says: [1]"When I am weak,
then am I strong." And. [2]"Though our outward man is decaying, yet our
inward man is renewed day by day." And [3]"I have the desire to depart and
be with Christ." And, [4]"Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the
lusts thereof." Are all commanded [5]not to have two coats, nor food in
their scrip, money in their purse, a staff in the hand, shoes on the feet?
or to sell all they possess and give to the poor, and follow Jesus? Of
course not: but the command is for those who wish to be perfect. On the
contrary John the Baptist lays down one rule for the soldiers, another for
the publicans. But the Lord says in the Gospel to him who had boasted of
having kept the whole law: [6]"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow me." That He might
not seem to lay a heavy burden on unwilling shoulders, He sent His hearer
away with full power to please himself, saying "If thou wilt be perfect."
And so I too say to you: If you wish to be perfect, it is good not to drink
wine, and eat flesh. If you wish to be perfect, it is better to enrich the
mind than to stuff the body. But if you are an infant and fond of the cooks
and their preparations, no one will snatch the dainties out of your mouth.
Eat and drink, and, if you like, with Israel rise up and play, and sing
[7]"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die." Let him eat and
drink, who looks for death when he has feasted, and who says with Epicurus,
"There is nothing after death, and death itself is nothing." We believe
Paul when he says in tones of thunder: [8]"Meats for the belly, and the
belly for meats. But God will destroy both them and it."

   7. I have quoted these few passages of Scripture to show that we are at
one with the philosophers. But who does not know that no universal law of
nature regulates the food of all nations, and that each eats those things
of which it has abundance? For instance, the Arabians and Saracens, and all
the wild tribes of the desert live on camel's milk and flesh: for the
camel, to suit the climate and barren soil of those regions, is easily bred
and reared. They think it wicked to eat the flesh of swine. Why? Because
pigs which fatten on acorns, chestnuts, roots of ferns, and barley, are
seldom or never found among them: and if they were found, they would not
afford the nourishment of which we spoke just now. The exact opposite is
the case with the northern peoples. If you were to force them to eat the
flesh of asses and camels, they would think it the same as though they were
compelled to devour a wolf or a crow. In Pontus and Phrygia a paterfamilias
pays a good price for fat white worms with blackish heads, which breed in
decayed wood. And as with us the woodcock and fig-pecker, the mullet and
scar, are reputed delicacies, so with them it is a luxury to eat the
[1]xylophagus. Again, because throughout the glowing wastes of the desert
clouds of locusts are found, it is customary with the peoples of the East
and of Libya to feed on locusts. John the Baptist proves the truth of this.
Compel a Phrygian or a native of Pontus to eat a locust, and he will think
it scandalous. Force a Syrian, an African, or Arabian to swallow worms, he
will have the same contempt for them as for flies, millepedes, and lizards,
although the Syrians are accustomed to eat land-crocodiles, and the
Africans even green lizards. In Egypt and Palestine, owing to the scarcity
of cattle no one eats beef, or makes the flesh of bulls or oxen, or calves,
a portion of their food. Moreover, in my province [2]it is considered a
crime to eat veal. Accordingly the Emperor Valens recently promulgated a
law throughout the East, prohibiting the killing and eating of calves. He
had in view the interests of agriculture, and wished to check the bad
practice of the commoner sort of the people who imitated the Jews in
devouring the flesh of calves, instead of fowls and sucking pigs. The Nomad
tribes, and the [3]Troglodytes, and Scythians, and the barbarous [4]Hurts
with whom we have recently become acquainted, eat flesh half raw. Moreover
the Icthyophagi, a wandering race on the shores of the Red Sea, broil fish
on the stones made hot by the sun, and subsist on this poor food. The
[1]Sarmatians, the [2]Chuadi, the [3]Vandals, and countless other races,
delight in the flesh of horses and wolves. Why should I speak of other
nations when I myself, a youth on a visit to Gaul. heard that the Atticoti,
a British tribe, eat human flesh, and that although they find herds of
swine, and droves of large or small cattle in the woods, it is their custom
to cut off the buttocks of the shepherds and the breasts of their women,
and to regard them as the greatest delicacies? The Scots have no wives of
their own; as though they read Plato's Republic and took Cato for their
leader, no man among them has his own wife, but like beasts they indulge
their lust to their hearts' content. The Persians, Medes, Indians, and
Ethiopians, peoples on a par with Rome itself, have intercourse with
mothers and grandmothers, with daughters and granddaughters. The
[4]Massagetae and [5]Derbices think those persons most unhappy who die of
sickness--and when parents, kindred, or friends reach old age, they are
murdered and devoured. It is thought better that they should be eaten by
the people themselves than by the worms. The [6]Tibareni crucify those whom
they have loved before when they have grown old. The [7]Hyrcani throw them
out half alive to the birds and dogs: the Caspians leave them dead for the
same beasts. The Scythians bury alive with the remains of the dead those
who were beloved of the deceased. The Bactrians throw their old men to dogs
which they rear for the very purpose, and when Stasanor, Alexander's
general, wished to correct the practice, he almost lost his province. Force
an Egyptian to drink sheep's milk: drive, if you can, a Pelusiote to eat an
onion. Almost every city in Egypt venerates its own beasts and monsters,
and whatever be the object of worship, that they think inviolable and
sacred. Hence it is that their towns also are named after animals Leonto,
Cyno, Lyco, Busyris, Thmuis, which is, being interpreted, a he-goat. And to
make us understand what sort of gods Egypt always welcomed, one of their
cities was recently called [1]Antinous after Hadrian's favourite. You see
clearly then that not only in eating, but also in burial, in wedlock, and
in every department of life, each race follows its own practice and
peculiar usages, and takes that for the law of nature which is most
familiar to it. But suppose all nations alike ate flesh. and let that be
everywhere lawful which the place produces. How does it concern us whose
conversation is in heaven? who, as well as Pythagoras and Empedocles and
all lovers of wisdom, are not bound to the circumstances of our birth, but
of our new birth: who by abstinence subjugate our refractory flesh, eager
to follow the allurements of lust? The eating of flesh, and drinking of
wine, and fulness of stomach, is the seed-plot of lust. And so the comic
poet says, [2]"Venus shivers unless Ceres and Bacchus be with her."

   8. Through the five senses, as through open windows, vice has access to
the soul. The metropolis and citadel of the mind cannot be taken unless the
enemy have previously entered by its doors. The soul is distressed by the
disorder they produce, and is led captive by sight, hearing, smell, taste,
and touch. If any one delights in the sports of the circus, or the
struggles of athletes, the versatility of actors, the figure of women, in
splendid jewels, dress, silver and gold, and other things of the kind, the
liberty of the soul is lost through the windows of the eyes, and the
prophet's words are fulfilled: [3]"Death is come up into our windows."
Again, our sense of hearing is flattered by the tones of various
instruments and the modulations of the voice; and whatever enters the ear
by the songs of poets and comedians, by the pleasantries and verses of
pantomimic actors, weakens the manly fibre of the mind. Then, again, no one
but a profligate denies that the profligate and licentious find a delight
in sweet odours, different sorts of incense, fragrant balsam, [4]kuphi,
[5]oenanthe, and musk, which is nothing but the skin of a foreign rat. And
who does not know that gluttony is the mother of avarice, and, as it were,
fetters the heart and keeps it pressed down upon the earth? For the sake of
a temporary gratification of the appetite, land and sea are ransacked, and
we toil and sweat our lives through, that we may send down our throats
honey-wine and costly food. The desire to handle other men's persons, and
the burning lust for women, is a passion bordering on insanity. To gratify
this sense we languish, grow angry, throw ourselves about with joy, indulge
envy, engage in rivalry, are filled with anxiety, and when we have
terminated the pleasure with more or less repentance, we once more take
fire, and want to do that which we again regret doing. Where, then, that
which we may call the thin edge of disturbance, has entered the citadel of
the mind through these doors, what will become of its liberty, its
endurance, its thought of God, particularly since the sense of touch can
picture to itself even bygone pleasures, and through the recollection of
vice forces the soul to take part in them, and after a manner to practice
what it does not actually commit?

   9. At the call of reasoning such as this, many philosophers have
forsaken the crowded cities, and their pleasure gardens in the suburbs with
well-watered grounds, shady trees, twittering birds, crystal fountains,
murmuring brooks, and many charms for eye and ear, lest through luxury and
abundance of riches, the firmness of the mind should be enfeebled, and its
purity debauched. For there is no good in frequently seeing objects which
may one day lead to your captivity, or in making trial of things which you
would find it hard to do without. Even the Pythagoreans shunned company of
this kind and were wont to dwell in solitary places in the desert. The
Platonists also and Stoics lived in the groves and porticos of, temples,
that, admonished by the sanctity of their restricted abode, they might
think of nothing but virtue. Plato, moreover, himself, when [1]Diogenes
trampled on his couches with muddy feet (he being a rich man), chose a
house called [2]Academia at some distance from the city, in a spot not only
lonely but unhealthy, so that he might have leisure for philosophy. His
object was that by constant anxiety about sickness the assaults of lust
might be defeated, and that his disciples might experience no pleasure but
that afforded by the things they learned. We have read of some who took out
their own eyes lest through sight they might lose the contemplation of
philosophy. Hence it was that [3]Crates the famous Theban, after throwing
into the sea a considerable weight of gold, exclaimed, "Go to the bottom,
ye evil lusts: I will drown you that you may not drown me." But if anyone
thinks to enjoy keenly meat and drink in excess, and at the same time to
devote himself to philosophy, that is to say, to live in luxury and yet not
to be hampered by the vices attendant on luxury, he deceives himself. For
if it be the case that even when far distant from them we are frequently
caught in the snares of nature, and are compelled to desire those things of
which we have a scant supply: what folly it is to think we are free when we
are surrounded by the nets of pleasure! We think of what we see, hear,
smell, taste, handle, and are led to desire the thing which affords us
pleasure. That the mind sees and hears, and that we can neither hear nor
see anything unless our senses are fixed upon the objects of sight and
hearing, is an old saw. It is difficult, or rather impossible, when we are
swimming in luxury and pleasure not to think of what we are doing: and it
is an idle pretence which some men put forward [1]that they can take their
fill of pleasure with their faith and purity and mental uprightness
unimpaired. It is a violation of nature to revel in pleasure, and the
Apostle gives a caution against this very thing when he says, [2]"She that
giveth herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth."

   10. The bodily senses are like horses madly racing, but the soul like a
charioteer holds the reins. And as horses without a driver go at break-neck
speed, so the body if it be not governed by the reasonable soul rushes to
its own destruction. The philosophers make use of another illustration of
the relations between soul and body; [3]they say the body is a boy, the
soul his tutor. Hence the [4]historian tells us "that our soul directs, our
body serves. The one we have in common with the gods, the other with the
beasts." So then unless the vices of youth and boyhood are regulated by the
wisdom of the tutor, every effort and every impulse sets strongly in the
direction of wantonness. We might lose four of the senses and yet live,--
that is we could do without sight, bearing, smell, and the pleasures of
touch. But a human being cannot subsist without tasting food. It follows
that reason must be present, that we may take food of such a kind and in
such quantities as will not burden the body, or hinder the free movement of
the soul: for it is the way with us that we eat, and walk, and sleep, and
digest our food, and afterwards in the fulness of blood have to bear the
spur of lust. [5]"Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler." Whosoever has
much to do with these is not wise. And we should not take such food as is
difficult of digestion, or such as when eaten will give us reason to
complain that we got it and lost it with much effort The preparation of
vegetables, fruit, and pulse is easy, and does not require the skill of
expensive cooks: our bodies are nourished by them with little trouble on
our part; and, if taken in moderation, such food is easier to digest, and
at less cost, because it does not stimulate the appetite, and therefore is
not devoured with avidity. No one has his stomach inflated or overloaded if
he eats only one or two dishes, and those inexpensive ones: such a
condition comes of pampering the taste with a variety of meats. The smells
of the kitchen may induce us to eat, but when hunger is satisfied, they
make us their slaves. Hence gorging gives rise to disease: and many persons
find relief for the discomfort of gluttony in emetics,--what they disgraced
themselves by putting in, they with still greater disgrace put out.

   11. [1]Hippocrates in his Aphorisms teaches that stout persons of a
coarse habit of body, when once they have attained their full growth,
unless the plethora be quickly relieved by blood-letting, develop
tendencies to paralysis and the worst forms of disease: they must therefore
be bled, that there may be room for fresh growth. For it is not the nature
of our bodies to continue in one stay, but go on either to increase or
decrease, and no animal can live which is incapable of growth. Whence
[2]Galen, a very learned man and the commentator on Hippocrates, says in
his exhortation to the practice of medicine that athletes whose whole life
and art consists in stuffing cannot live long, nor be healthy: and that
their souls enveloped with superfluous blood and fat, and as it were
covered with mud, have no refined or heavenly thoughts, but are always
intent upon gluttonous and voracious feasting. Diogenes maintains that
tyrants do not bring about revolutions in cities, and foment wars civil or
foreign for the sake of a simple diet of vegetables and fruits, but for
costly meats and the delicacies of the table. And, strange to say,
Epicurus, the defender of pleasure, in all his books speaks of nothing but
vegetables and fruits; and he says that we ought to live on cheap food
because the preparation of sumptuous banquets of flesh involves great care
and suffering, and greater pains attend the search for such delicacies than
pleasures the consumption of them. Our bodies need only something to eat
and drink. Where there is bread and water, and the like, nature is
satisfied. Whatever more there may be does not go to meet the wants of
life, but are ministers to vicious pleasure. Eating and drinking does not
quench the longing for luxuries, but appeases hunger and thirst. Persons
who feed on flesh want also gratifications not found in flesh. But they who
adopt a simple diet do not look for flesh. Further, we cannot devote
ourselves to wisdom if our thoughts are running on a well-laden table, the
supply of which requires an excess of work and anxiety. The wants of nature
are soon satisfied: cold and hunger can be banished with simple food and
clothing. Hence the Apostle says: "Having food and clothing let us be
therewith content." Delicacies and the various dishes of the feast are the
nurses of avarice. The soul greatly exults when you are content with
little: you have the world beneath your feet, and can exchange all its
power, its feasts, and its lusts, the objects for which men rake money
together, for common food, and make up for them all with a sack-cloth
shirt. Take away the luxurious feasting and the gratification of lust, and
no one will want riches to be used either in the belly, or beneath it. The
invalid only regains his health by diminishing and carefully selecting his
food, i.e., in medical phrase, by adopting a "slender diet." The same food
that recovers health, can preserve it, for no one can imagine vegetables to
be the cause of disease. And if vegetables do not give the strength of Milo
of Crotona--a strength supplied and nourished by meat--what need has a wise
man and a Christian philosopher of such strength as is required by athletes
and soldiers, and which, if he had it, would only stimulate to vice? Let
those persons deem meat accordant with health who wish to gratify their
lust, and who, sunk in filthy pleasure, are always at heat. What a
Christian wants is health, but not superfluous strength. And it ought not
to disturb us if we find but few supporters; for the pure and temperate are
as rare as good and faithful friends, and virtue is always scarce. Study
the temperance of [1]Fabricius, or the poverty of [2]Curius, and in a great
city you will find few worthy of your imitation. You need not fear that if
you do not eat flesh, fowlers and hunters will have learnt their craft in
vain.

   12. We have read that some who suffered  with disease of the joints and
with gouty humours recovered their health by proscribing delicacies, and
coming down to a simple board and mean food. For they were then free from
the worry of managing a house and from unlimited feasting. Horace [1]makes
fun of the longing for food which when eaten leaves nothing but regret.

   "Scorn pleasure; she but hurts when bought with pain."

   And when, in the delightful retirement of the country, by way of
satirizing voluptuous men, he described himself as plump and fat, his
sportive verse ran thus:

   "Pay me a visit if you want to laugh,
   You'll find me fat and sleek with well-dress'd hide,
   Like any pig from Epicurus' sty."

   But even if our food be the commonest, we must avoid repletion. For
nothing is so destructive to the mind as a full belly, fermenting like a
wine vat and giving forth its gases on all sides. What sort of fasting is
it, or what refreshment is there after fasting, when we are blown out with
yesterday's dinner, and our[2] stomach is made a factory for the closet? We
wish to get credit for protracted abstinence, and all the while we devour
so much that a day and a night can scarcely digest it. The proper name to
give it is not fasting, but rather debauch and rank indigestion.

   13. [3]Dicarchus in his book of Antiquities, describing Greece, relates
that under Saturn that is in the Golden Age, when the ground brought forth
all things abundantly, no one ate flesh, but every one lived on field
produce and fruits which the earth bore of itself. Xenophon in eight books
narrates the life of Cyrus, King of the Persians, and asserts that they
supported life on barley, cress, salt, and black bread. Both the aforesaid
Xenophon, Theophrastus, and almost all the Greek writers testify to the
frugal diet of the Spartans. [4]Chremon the Stoic, a man of great
eloquence, has a treatise on the life of the ancient priests of Egypt, who,
he says, laid aside all worldly business and cares, and were ever in the
temple, studying nature and the regulating causes of the heavenly bodies;
they never had intercourse with women; they never from the time they began
to devote themselves to the divine service set eyes on their kindred and
relations, nor even saw their children; they always abstained from flesh
and wine, on account of the light-headedness and dizziness which a small
quantity of food caused, and especially to avoid the stimulation of the
lustful appetite engendered by this meat and drink. They seldom ate bread,
that they might not load the stomach. And whenever they ate it, they mixed
pounded hyssop with all that they took, so that the action of its warmth
might diminish the weight of the heavier food. They used no oil except with
vegetables, and then only in small quantities, to mitigate the unpalatable
taste. What need, he says, to speak of birds, when they avoided even eggs
and milk as flesh. The one, they said, was liquid flesh, the other was
blood with the colour changed? Their bed was made of palm-leaves, called by
them bai: a sloping footstool laid upon the ground served for a pillow, and
they could go without food for two or three days. The humours of the body
which arise from sedentary habits were dried up by reducing their diet to
an extreme point.

   14. [1]Josephus in the second book of the history of the Jewish
captivity, and in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, and the two
treatises against Apion, describes three sects of the Jews, the Pharisees,
Sadducees, and Essenes. On the last of these he bestows wondrous praise
because they practised perpetual abstinence from wives, wine, and flesh,
and made a second nature of their daily fast. [2]Philo, too, a man of great
learning, published a treatise of his own on their mode of life.
[3]Neanthes of Cizycus, and [4]Asclepiades of Cyprus, at the time when
Pygmalion ruled over the East, relate that the eating of flesh was unknown.
Eubulus, also, who wrote the history of [5]Mithras in many volumes, relates
that among the Persians there are three kinds of Magi, the first of whom,
those of greatest learning and eloquence, take no food except meal and
vegetables. At Eleusis it is customary to abstain from fowls and fish and
certain fruits. [6]Bardesanes, a Babylonian, divides the Gymnosophists of
India into two classes, the one called Brahmans, the other Samaneans, who
are so rigidly self- restrained that they support themselves either with
the fruit of trees which grow on the banks of the Ganges, or with common
food of rice or flour, and when the king visits them, he is wont to adore
them, and thinks the peace of his country depends upon their prayers.
Euripides relates that the prophets of Jupiter in Crete abstained not only
from flesh, but also from cooked food. [1]Xenocrates the philosopher writes
that at Athens out of all the laws of [2]Triptolemus only three precepts
remain in the temple of Ceres: respect to parents, reverence for the gods,
and abstinence from flesh. [3]Orpheus in his song utterly denounces the
eating of flesh. I might speak of the frugality of Pythagoras, Socrates,
and [4]Antisthenes to our confusion: but it would be tedious, and would
require a work to itself. At all events this is the Antisthenes who, after
teaching rhetoric with renown, on hearing Socrates, is related to have said
to his disciples, "Go, and seek a master, for I have now found one." He
immediately, sold what he had, divided the proceeds among the people, and
kept nothing for himself but a small cloak. Of his poverty and toil
Xenophon in the Symposium is a witness, and so are his countless treatises,
some philosophical, some rhetorical. His most famous follower was the great
Diogenes, who was mightier than King Alexander in that he conquered human
nature. For Antisthenes would not take a single pupil, and when he could
not get rid of the persistent Diogenes he threatened him with a stick if he
did not depart. The latter is said to have laid down his head and said, "No
stick will be hard enough to prevent me from following you." [5]Satyrus,
the biographer of illustrious men, relates that Diogenes to guard himself
against the cold, folded his cloak double: his scrip was his pantry: and
when aged he carried a stick to support his feeble frame, and was commonly
called "Old Hand-to-mouth," because to that very hour he begged and
received food from any one. His home was the gateways and city arcades. And
when he wriggled into his tub, he would joke about his movable house that
adapted itself to the seasons. For when the weather was cold he used to
turn the mouth of the tub towards the south: in summer towards the north;
and whatever the direction of the sun might be, that way the palace of
Diogenes was turned. He had a wooden dish for drinking; but on one occasion
seeing a boy drinking with the hollow of his hand he is related to have
dashed the cup to the ground, saying that he did not know nature provided a
cup. His virtue and self-restraint were proved even by his death. It is
said that, now an old man, he was on his way to the Olympic games, which
used to be attended by a great concourse of people from all parts of
Greece, when he was overtaken by fever and lay down upon the bank by the
road-side. And when his friends wished to place him on a beast or in a
conveyance, he did not assent, but crossing to the shade of a tree said,
"Go your way, I pray you, and see the games: this night will prove me
either conquered or conqueror. If I conquer the fever, I shall go to the
games: if the fever conquers me, I shall enter the unseen world." There
through the night he lay gasping for breath and did not, as we are told, so
much die as banish the fever by death. I have cited the example of only one
philosopher, so that our fine, erect, muscular athletes, who hardly make a
shadow of a footmark in their swift passage, whose words are in their fists
and their reasoning in their heels, who either know nothing of apostolic
poverty and the hardness of the cross. or despise it, may at least imitate
Gentile moderation.

   15. So far I have dealt with the arguments and examples of
philosophers. Now I will pass on to the beginning of the human race, that
is, to the sphere which belongs to us. I will first point out that Adam
received a command in paradise to abstain from one tree though he might eat
the other fruit. The blessedness of paradise could not be consecrated
without abstinence from food. So long as he fasted, he remained in
paradise; he ate, and was east out; he was no sooner cast out than he
married a wife. While he fasted in paradise he continued a virgin: when he
filled himself with food in the earth, he bound himself with the tie of
marriage. And yet though cast out he did not immediately receive permission
to eat flesh; but only the fruits of trees and the produce of the crops,
and herbs and vegetables were given him for food, that even when an exile
from paradise he might feed not upon flesh which was not to be found in
paradise, but upon grain and fruit like that of paradise. But afterwards
when [1]God saw that the heart of man from his youth was set on wickedness
continually, and that His Spirit could not remain in them because they were
flesh, He by the deluge passed sentence on the works of the flesh, and,
taking note of the extreme greediness of men, [1]gave them liberty to eat
flesh: so that while understanding that all things were lawful for them,
they might not greatly desire that which was allowed, lest they should turn
a commandment into a cause of transgression. And yet even then, fasting was
in part commanded. For, seeing that some animals are called clean, some
unclean, and the unclean animals were taken into Noah's ark by pairs, the
clean in uneven numbers (and of course the eating of the unclean was
forbidden, otherwise the term unclean would be unmeaning), fasting was in
part consecrated: restraint in the use of all was taught by the prohibition
of some. Why did Esau lose his birthright? Was it not on account of food?
and he could not atone with tears for the impatience of his appetite. The
people of Israel cast out from Egypt and on their way to the land of
promise, the land flowing with milk and honey, longed for the flesh of
Egypt, and the melons and garlic, saying:[2] "Would that we had died by the
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots." And
again,[3] "Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we
did eat in Egypt for nought; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks,
and the onions, and the garlic: but now our soul is dried away: we have
nought save this manna to look to."

   They despised angels' food, and sighed for: the flesh of Egypt. Moses
for forty days and forty nights fasted on Mount Sinai, and showed even then
that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word of God. He says to
the Lord, "the people is full and maketh idols." Moses with empty stomach
received the law written with the finger of God. The people that ate and
drank and rose up to play fashioned a golden calf, and preferred an
Egyptian ox to the majesty of the Lord. The toil of so many days perished
through the fulness of a single hour. Moses boldly broke the tables: for he
knew that drunkards cannot hear the word of God. [4]"The beloved grew
thick, waxed fat, and became sleek: he kicked and forsook the Lord which
made him, and departed from the God of his salvation." Hence also it is
enjoined in the same Book of Deuteronomy:[5] "Beware, lest when thou hast
eaten and drunk, and hast built goodly houses, and when thy herds and thy
flocks multiply, and thy silver and gold is multiplied, then thine heart be
lifted

up, and thou forget the Lord thy God." In short the people ate and their
heart grew thick, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their heart: so the people well fed and fat-
fleshed could not bear the countenance of Moses who fasted, for, to
correctly render the Hebrew, it was[1] furnished with horns through his
converse with God. And it was not, as some think, to show that there is no
difference between virginity and marriage, but to assert his sympathy with
severe fasting, that our Lord and Saviour when he was transfigured on the
Mount revealed Moses and Elias with Himself in glory. Although Moses and
Elias were properly types of the Law and the Prophets, as is clearly
witnessed by the Gospel:[2] "They spake of his departure which he was about
to accomplish at Jerusalem." For the passion of our Lord is declared not by
virginity or marriage, but by the Law and the Prophets. If, however, any
persons contentiously maintain that by Moses is signified marriage, by
Elias virginity, let me tell them briefly that Moses died and was buried,
but Elias was carried off in a chariot of fire and entered on immortality
before he approached death. But the second writing of the tables could not
be effected without fasting. What was lost by drunkenness was regained by
abstinence, a proof that by fasting we can return to paradise, whence,
though fulness, we have been expelled. In [3]Exodus we read that the battle
was fought against Amalek while Moses prayed, and the whole people fasted
until the evening. [4]Joshua, the son of Nun, bade sun and moon stand
still, and the victorious army prolonged its fast for more than a day.
[5]Saul, as it is written in the first book of Kings, pronounced a curse on
him who ate bread before the evening, and until he had avenged himself upon
his enemies. So none of his people tasted any food. And all they of the
land took food. And so binding was a solemn fast once it was proclaimed to
the Lord, that Jonathan, to whom the victory was due, was taken by lot, and
[6]could not escape the charge of sinning in ignorance, and his father's
hand was raised against him, and the prayers of the people scarce availed
to save him. [7]Elijah after the preparation of a forty days' fast saw God
on Mount Horeb, and heard from Him the words, "What doest thou here,
Elijah?" There is much more familiarity in this than in the "Where art
thou, Adam?" of Genesis. The latter was intended to excite the fears of one
who had fed and was lost; the former was affectionately addressed to a
fasting servant. [1]When the people were assembled in Mizpeh, Samuel
proclaimed a fast, and so strengthened them, and thus made them prevail
against the enemy. [2]The attack of the Assyrians was repulsed, and the
might of Sennacherib utterly crushed, by the tears and sackcloth of King
Hezekiah, and by his humbling himself with fasting. So also the city of
Nineveh by fasting excited compassion and turned aside the threatening
wrath of the Lord. And [3]Sodom and Gomorrha might have appeased it, had
they been willing to repent, and through the aid of fasting gain for
themselves tears of repentance. [4] Ahab, the most impious of kings, by
fasting and wearing sackcloth, succeeded in escaping the sentence of God,
and in deferring the overthrow of his house to the days of his posterity.
[5]Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, by fasting won the gift of a son. [6] At
Babylon the magicians came into peril, every interpreter of dreams,
soothsayer, and diviner was slain. Daniel and the three youths gained a
good report by fasting, and although they were fed on pulse, they were
fairer and wiser than they who ate the flesh from the king's table. Then it
is written that Daniel fasted for three weeks; he ate no pleasant bread;
flesh and wine entered not his mouth; he was not anointed with oil; and the
angel came to him saying, [7]" Daniel, thou art worthy of compassion." He
who in the eyes of God was worthy of compassion, afterwards was an object
of terror to the lions in their den. How fair a thing is that which
propitiates God, tames lions, terrifies demons! Habakkuk (although we do
not find this in the Hebrew Scriptures[8]) was sent to him with the
reaper's meal, for by a week's abstinence he had merited so distinguished a
server. David, when his son was in danger after his adultery, made
confession in ashes and with fasting. [9]He tells us that he ate ashes like
bread, and mingled his drink with weeping. [10]And that his knees became
weak through fasting. Yet he had certainly heard from Nathan the words,
[11]"The Lord also hath put away thy sin." Samson and Samuel drank neither
wine nor strong drink, for they were children of promise, and conceived in
abstinence and fasting. [1]Aaron and the other priests when about to enter
the temple, refrained from all intoxicating drink for fear they should die.
Whence we learn that they die who minister in the Church without sobriety.
And hence it is a reproach against Israel:[2] "Ye gave my Nazarites wine to
drink." Jonadab, the son of Rechab, commanded his sons to drink no wine for
ever. And when Jeremiah offered them wine to drink, and they of their own
accord refused it, the Lord spake by the prophet, saying: [3]"Because ye
have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, Jonadab the son of
Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." On the
[4]threshold of the Gospel appears Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, the wife
of one husband, and a woman who was always fasting. Long-continued chastity
and persistent fasting welcomed a Virgin Lord. His forerunner and herald,
John, fed on locusts and wild honey, not on flesh; and the hermits of the
desert and the monks in their cells, at first used the same sustenance. But
the Lord Himself consecrated His baptism by a forty days' fast, and He
taught us that the more violent devils [5]cannot be overcome, except by
prayer and fasting. [6]Cornelius the centurion was found worthy through
alms-giving and frequent fasts to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
before baptism. [7]The Apostle Paul, after speaking of hunger and thirst,
and his other labours, perils from robbers, shipwrecks, loneliness,
enumerates frequent fasts. And he [8]advises his disciple Timothy, who had
a weak stomach, and was subject to many infirmities, to drink wine in
moderation: "Drink no longer water," he says. The fact that he bids him no
longer drink water shows that he had previously drunk water. The apostle
would not have allowed this had not frequent infirmities and bodily pain
demanded the concession.

   16. The Apostle does indeed [9]blame those who forbade marriage, and
commanded to abstain from food, which God created for use with
thanksgiving. But he has in view Marcion, and Tatian, and other heretics,
who inculcate perpetual abstinence, to destroy, and express their hatred
and contempt for, the works of the Creator. But we praise every creature of
God, and yet prefer leanness to corpulence, abstinence to luxury, fasting
to fulness. [10] "He that laboureth laboureth for himself, and he is eager
to his own destruction." And,[1] "From the days of John the Baptist (who
fasted and was a virgin) until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and men of violence take it by force." For we are afraid lest at
the coming of the eternal judge we be caught, as in the days of the flood,
and at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha, eating and drinking, and
marrying, and giving in marriage. For both the flood and the fire from
heaven found fulness as well as marriage ready for destruction. Nor need we
wonder if the Apostle commands that everything sold in the market be bought
and eaten, since with idolaters, and with those who still ate in the
temples of the idols meats offered to idols as such, it passed for the
highest abstinence to abstain only from food eaten by the Gentiles. And if
he says to the Romans:[2] "Let not him that eateth set at nought him that
eateth not: and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth," he does
not make fasting and fulness of equal merit, but he is speaking against
those believers in Christ who were still judaizing: and he warns Gentile
believers, not to offend those by their food who were still too weak in
faith. In brief this is clear enough in the sequel:[3]" I know and am
persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: save that
to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if
because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love.
Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died. Let not then your good
be evil spoken of: for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking." And
that no one may suppose he is referring to fasting and not to Jewish
superstition, he immediately explains,[4] "One man hath faith to eat all
things: but he that is weak eateth herbs." And again,[5] "One man esteemeth
one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be
fully assured in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto
the Lord: and he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God
thanks; and he that eateth not, unto the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God
thanks." For they who were still weak in faith and thought some meats
clean, some unclean: and supposed there was a difference between one day
and another, for example, that the Sabbath, and the New Moons, and the
Feast of Tabernacles were holier than other days, were commanded to eat
herbs which are indifferently partaken of by all. But such as were of
stronger faith believed all meats and all days to be alike.

   17. My opponent has dared to maintain that our Lord was called by the
Pharisees a wine-bibber and a glutton: and from the fact of His going to
marriage feasts and from His not despising the banquets of sinners, I am to
infer His wishes respecting ourselves. That Lord, so you suppose, is a
glutton who fasted forty days to hallow Christian fasting; [1]who calls
them blessed that hunger and thirst; [2]who says that He has food, not that
which the disciples surmised, but such as would not perish for ever; [3]who
forbids us to think of the morrow; who, though He is said to have hungered
and thirsted, and to have gone frequently to various meals, except in
celebrating the mystery whereby He represented His passion, or [4]in
proving the reality of His body is nowhere described as ministering to His
appetite; [5]who tells of purple-clad Dives in hell for his feasting, and
says that poor Lazarus for his abstinence was in Abraham's bosom; who, when
we fast, [6]bids us anoint our head and wash our face, that we fast not to
gain glory from men, but praise from the Lord; who did indeed [7]after His
resurrection eat part of a broiled fish and of a honey-comb, not to allay
hunger and to gratify His palate, but to show the reality of a His own
body. For whenever He raised anyone from the dead He [8]ordered that food
should be given him to eat, lest the resurrection should be thought a
delusion. And this is why Lazarus after his resurrection is [9]described as
being at the feast with our Lord. We do not deny that fish and other kinds
of flesh, if we choose, may be taken as food; but as we prefer virginity to
marriage, so do we esteem fasting and spirituality above meats and full-
bloodedness. And if Peter [10]before dinner went to the supper chamber at
the sixth hour, a chance fit of hunger does not prejudice fasting. For, if
this were so, because our Lord" at the sixth hour sat weary on the well of
Samaria and wished to drink, all must of necessity, whether they so desire
or not, drink at that time. Possibly it was the Sabbath, or the Lord's day,
and he hungered at the sixth hour after two or three days' fasting; for I
could never believe that the Apostle, if he had eaten a dinner only one day
previous and had been blown out with a great meal, would have been hungry
by noon next day. But if he did dine the day previous, and was hungry next
day before luncheon, I do not think that a man who was so soon hungry ate
until he was satisfied. Again, God by the mouth of Isaiah says what fast He
did not choose: [1]"In the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and afflict
the lowly: ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of
wickedness. it is not such a fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord." What
kind He has chosen He thus teaches: "Deal thy bread to the hungry, and
bring the houseless poor into thy house. When thou seest the naked cover
him, and hide not thyself from thine own flesh." He did not therefore
reject fasting, but showed what He would have it to be: for that bodily
hunger is not pleasing to God which is made null and void by strife, and
plunder, and lust. If God does not desire fasting, how is it that in
[2]Leviticus He commands the whole people in the seventh month, on the
tenth day of the month, to fast until the evening, and threatens that he
who does not afflict his soul shall die and be cut off from his people? How
is it that the [3]graves of lust where the people fell in their devotion to
flesh remain even to this day in the wilderness? Do we not read that the
stupid people gorged themselves with quails until the wrath of God came
upon them? Why was the man of God at whose prophecy the hand of King
Jeroboam withered, and who ate contrary to the command of God,
[4]immediately smitten? Strange that the lion which left the ass safe and
sound should not spare the prophet just risen from his meal! He who, while
he was fasting, had wrought miracles, no sooner ate a meal than he paid the
penalty for the gratification. Joel also cries aloud: [5]"Sanctify a fast,
proclaim a time of healing," that it might appear that a fast is sanctified
by other works, and that a holy fast avails for the cure of sin. Moreover,
just as true virginity is not prejudiced by the counterfeit professions of
the virgins of the devil, so neither is true fasting by the periodic fast
and perpetual abstinence from certain kinds of food on the part of the
worshippers of Isis and Cybele, particularly when a fast from bread is made
up for by feasting on flesh. And just as the signs of Moses were imitated
by the signs of the Egyptians which were in reality no signs at all, for
the rod of Moses swallowed up the rods of the magicians: so when the devil
tries to be the rival of God this does not prove that our religion is
superstitious, but that we are negligent, since we refuse to do what even
men of the world see clearly to be good.

   18. His fourth and last contention is that there are two classes, the
sheep and the goats, the just and the unjust: that the just stand on the
right hand, the other on the left: and that to the just the words are
spoken: [1]"Come, ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world." But that sinners are thus
addressed: [2]"Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is
prepared for the devil and his angels." That a good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, nor an evil tree good fruit. Hence it is that the Saviour says
to the Jews: [3]"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father it is your will to do." He quotes the parable of the ten virgins,
the wise and the foolish, and shows that the five who had no oil remained
outside, but that the other five who had gotten for themselves the light of
good works went into the marriage with the bridegroom. He goes back to the
flood, and tells us that they who were righteous like Noah were saved, but
that the sinners perished all together. We are informed that among the men
of Sodom and Gomorrha no difference is made except between the two classes
of the good and the bad. The righteous are delivered, the sinners are
consumed by the same fire. There is one salvation for those who are
released, one destruction for those who stay behind. Lot's wife is a clear
warning that we must not deviate a hair's breadth from right. If, however,
he says, you object and ask me why the righteous toils in time of peace, or
in the midst of persecution, if he is to gain nothing nor have a greater
reward, I would assert that he does this, not that he may gain a further
reward but that he may not lose what he has already received. In Egypt also
the ten plagues fell with equal violence upon all that sinned, and the same
darkness hung over master and slave, noble and ignoble, the king and the
people. Again at the Red Sea the righteous all passed over, the sinners
were all overwhelmed. Six hundred thousand men, besides those who were
unfit for war through age or sex, all alike fell in the desert, and two who
were alike in righteousness are alike delivered. For forty years all Israel
toiled and died alike. As regards food, an homer of manna was the measure
for all ages: the clothes of all alike did not wear out: the hair of all
alike did not grow, nor the beard increase: the shoes of all lasted the
same time. Their feet grew not hard: the food in the mouths of all had the
same taste. They went on their way to one resting place with equal toil and
equal reward. All Hebrews had the same Passover, the same Feast of
Tabernacles, the same Sabbath, the same New Moons. In the seventh, the
Sabbatical Year, all prisoners were released without distinction of
persons, and in the year of Jubilee all debts were forgiven to all debtors,
and he who had sold land returned to the inheritance of his fathers.

   19. Then, again, as regards the parable of the sower of  the Gospel, we
read that the good ground brought forth fruit, some a hundred fold, some
sixty fold, and some thirty fold; and, on the other hand, that the bad
ground admitted of three degrees of sterility: but Jovinianus makes only
two classes, the good soil and the bad. [1] And as in one Gospel our Lord
promises the Apostles a hundred fold, in another seven fold, for leaving
children and wives, and in the world to come life eternal; and the seven
and the hundred mean the same thing: so, too, in the passage before us, the
numbers describing the fertility of the soil need not create any
difficulty, particularly when the Evangelist Mark gives the inverse order,
thirty, sixty, and a hundred. The Lord says, [2]"He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him." As, then, there are not
varying degrees of Christ's presence in us, so neither are there degrees of
our abiding in Christ. [3]"Every one that loveth me will keep my word: and
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with
him." He that is righteous, loves Christ: and if a man thus loves, the
Father and the Son come to him, and make their abode with him. Now I
suppose that when the guest is such as this the host cannot possibly lack
anything. And if our Lord says, [4]"In my Father's house are many
mansions," His meaning is not that there are different mansions in the
kingdom of heaven, but He indicates the number oft Churches in the whole
world, for though the Church be seven-fold she is but one "I go," He says,
"to prepare a place for you," not places. If this promise is peculiar to
the twelve apostles, then Paul is shut out from that place, and the chosen
vessel will be thought superfluous and unworthy. John and James, because
they asked more than the others, did not obtain it; and yet their dignity
is not diminished, because they were equal to the rest of the apostles.
[5]" Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost?" A
temple, He says, not temples, in order to show that God dwells in all
alike. '"Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe
on me through their word; as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, are one,
so they may be all one in us. And the glory which thou hast given me I have
given unto them. I have loved them, as thou hast loved me. And as we are
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, so may they be one people in
themselves, that is, like dear children, partakers of the divine nature."
Call the Church what you will, bride, sister, mother, her assembly is but
one and never lacks husband, brother, or son. Her faith is one, and she is
not defiled by variety of doctrine, nor divided by heresies. She continues
a virgin. Whithersoever the Lamb goeth, she follows Him: she alone knows
the Song of Christ.

   20. "If you tell me," says he, "that one star differeth from another
star in glory, I reply, that one star does differ from another star; that
is, spiritual persons differ from carnal. We love all the members alike,
and do not prefer the eye to the finger, nor the finger to the ear: but the
loss of any one is attended by the sorrow of all the rest. We all alike
come into this world, and we all alike depart from it. There is one Adam of
the earth, and another from heaven. The earthly Adam is on the left hand,
and will perish: the heavenly Adam is on the right hand, and will be saved.
He who says to his brother, 'thou fool,' and 'rata,' will be in danger of
Gehenna.

And the murderer and the adulterer will likewise be sent into Gehenna. In
times of persecution some are burnt, some strangled, some beheaded, some
flee, or die within the walls of a prison: the struggle varies in kind, but
the victors' crown is one. No difference was made between the son who had
never left his father, and his brother who was welcomed as a returning
penitent. To the labourers of the first hour, the third, the sixth, the
ninth, and the eleventh, the same reward of a penny was given, and what may
perhaps seem still more strange to you, the first to receive the reward
were they who had toiled least in the vineyard."

   21. Who is there even of God's elect that would not be disturbed at
these and similar passages of Holy Scripture which our crafty opponent,
with a perverse ingenuity, twists to the support of his own views? The
Apostle John says that many Antichrists had come, and to make no difference
between John himself and the lowest penitent is the preaching of a real
Antichrist. At the same time, I am amazed at the portentous forms which
Jovinianus, as slippery as a snake and like another Proteus, so rapidly
assumes. In sexual intercourse and full feeding he is an Epicurean; in the
distribution of rewards and punishments he all at once becomes a Stoic, He
exchanges Jerusalem for [1]Citium, Judaea for Cyprus, Christ for Zeno. If
we may not depart a hair's breadth from virtue, and all sins are equal, and
a man who in a fit of hunger steals a piece of bread is no less guilty than
he who slays a man: you must, in your turn, be held guilty of the greatest
crimes. The case is different if you say that you have no sin, not even the
least, and if, although all apostles and prophets and all the saints (as I
have maintained in dealing with [2] his second proposition) bewail their
sinfulness, you alone boast of your righteousness. But a minute ago you
were barefooted: now you not only wear shoes, but decorated ones. Just now
you wore a rough coat and a dirty shirt, you were grimy, and haggard, and
your hand was horny with toil: now you are clad in linen and silks, and
strut like an exquisite in the fashions of the Atrebates and the
Laodiceans. Your cheeks are ruddy, your skin sleek, your hair smoothed down
in front and behind, your belly protrudes, your shoulders are little
mountains, your neck full and so loaded with fat that the half-smothered
words can scarce make their escape. Surely in such extremes of dress and
mode of life there must be sin on the one side or the other. I will not
assert that the sin lies in the food or clothing, but that such fickleness
and changing for the worse is almost censurable in itself. And what we
censure, is far removed from virtue; and what is far from virtue becomes
the property of vice; and what is proved to be vicious is one with sin. Now
sin, according to you, is placed on the left hand, and corresponds to the
goats. You must, therefore, return to your old habits if you are to be a
sheep on the right hand; or, if you perversely repent of your former views
and change them for others, whether you like it or not, and although you
shave off your beard, you will be reckoned among the goats.

   22. But what is the good of calling a [3]one-eyed man Old One-eye, and
of showing the inconsistency of an assailant, when we have to refute a
whole series of statements? That the sheep and the goats on the right hand
and. on the left are the two classes of the righteous and the wicked, I do
not deny. That a good tree does not bring forth evil fruit, nor an evil one
good fruit, no one doubts. The ten virgins also, wise and foolish, we
divide into good and bad. We are not ignorant that at the deluge the
righteous were delivered, and sinners overwhelmed with the waters. That at
Sodom and Gomorrha the just man was rescued, while the sinners were
consumed by fire, is clear to everyone. We are also aware that Egypt was
stricken with the ten plagues, and that Israel was saved. Even little
children in our schools sing how the righteous passed through the Red Sea,
and Pharaoh with his host was drowned. That six hundred thousand fell in
the desert because they were unbelieving, and that two only entered the
land of promise, is taught by Scripture; and so is the rest of your
description of the two classes, good and bad, down to the labourers in the
vineyard. But what are we to think of your assertion, that because there is
a division into good and bad, the good, or the bad it may be, are not
distinguished one from another, and that it makes no difference whether one
is a ram in the flock or a poor little sheep? whether the sheep have the
first or the second fleece? whether the flock is diseased and covered with
the scab, or full of life and vigour? [1] especially when by the
authoritative utterances of His own prophet Ezekiel God clearly points out
the difference between flock and flock of His rational sheep, saying,
"Behold I judge between cattle and cattle, and between the rams and the he-
goats, and between the fat cattle and the lean. Because ye have thrust with
side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, until
they were scattered abroad." And that we might know what the cattle were,
He immediately added: [2] "Ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men."
Will Paul and that penitent who had lain with his father's wife be on an
equality, because the latter repented and was received into the Church: and
shall the offender because he is with him on the right hand shine with the
same glory as the Apostle? How is it then that tares and wheat grow side by
side in the same field until the harvest, that is the end of the world?
What is the significance of good and bad fish being contained in the Gospel
net? Why, in Noah's ark, the type of the Church, are there different
animals with different abodes according to their rank? Why standeth the
queen upon the Lord's right hand, in raiment of wrought gold, in a vesture
of gold? Why had Joseph, representing Christ, a coat of many colours? Why
does the Apostle say to the Romans: [3]" According as God had dealt to each
man a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body, and
all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body
in Christ, and severally members one of another. And having gifts differing
according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us
prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or ministry, let us give
ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that
exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality;
he that ruleth, with diligence," and so on. And elsewhere: [1]" One man
esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." To the Corinthians he says:
"I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase. So then,
neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but God
that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are
one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own
labour. For we are labourers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye
are God's building." And again elsewhere:[3], According to the grace of God
which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder I laid a foundation, and
another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth
thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. But if any man buildeth on the foundation, gold,
silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble: each man's work shall be made
manifest: for the day shall reveal it, because it is revealed in fire: and
the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is. If any
man's work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself
shall be saved; yet so as through fire." If the man whose work is burnt and
is to suffer the loss of his labour, while he himself is saved, yet not
without proof of fire: it follows that if a man's work remains which he has
built upon the foundation, he will be saved without probation by fire, and
consequently a difference is established between one degree of salvation
and another. Again in another place be says:  "Let a man so account of us,
as of ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here,
moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." Would
you be assured that between one steward and another there is a great
difference (I am not speaking of bad and good, but of the good themselves
who stand on the right hand)? then listen to the sequel: [1]" Know ye not
that they which minister about the sacrifices, eat of the sacrifices, and
they which wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so
did the Lord ordain that they which proclaim the gospel should live of the
gospel. But I have used none of these things: and I wrote not these things
that it may be so done in my case: for it were good for me rather to die,
than that any man should make my glorying void. For if I preach the gospel,
I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; for woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. For if I  do this of mine own will, I have a
reward: but if not of mine own will, I have a steward-ship intrusted to me.
What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may make the
gospel without charge, so as not to use to the full my right in the gospel.
For though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all,
that I might gain the more." You surely cannot say that men commit sin by
living by the Gospel, and partaking of the sacrifices. Of course not. The
Lord himself made the rule that they who preach the Gospel, should live by
the Gospel. But an Apostle who does not abuse this freedom, but labours
with his hands that he may not be a burden to anyone, and toils night and
day and ministers to his companions, of course does this, that for his
greater toil he may receive a greater reward.

   23. Let us hasten to what remains. [2]"There are diversities of gifts,
but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations, and the
same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God who
worketh all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of
the Spirit to profit withal." And again: [3] "As the body is one, and hath
many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one' body:
so also is Christ." But he precludes you from saying that the different
members of the one body have the same rank; for he immediately describes
the orders of the Church, and says: [4]"And God hath set some in the
Church, first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; then
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of
tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all
workers of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues?
do all interpret? But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still more
excellent way shew I unto you." And after discoursing more in detail of the
graces of charity, he added: [1] "Whether there be prophecies, they shall
be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in
part: but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part
shall be done away." And afterwards we read: [2] "But now abideth faith,
hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. Follow after
love; yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may
prophesy." And again: [3] "I would have you all speak with tongues, but
rather that ye should prophesy: and greater is he that prophesieth than he
that speaketh with tongues." And again: [4] "I thank God, I speak with
tongues more than you all." Where there are different gifts, and one man is
greater, another less, and all are called spiritual, they are all certainly
sheep, and they stand on the right hand; but there is a difference between
one sheep and another. It is humility that leads the Apostle Paul to say:
[5]" I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an
apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I
am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain:
but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of
God which was with me." But the very fact of his thus humbling himself
shows the possibility of there being apostles of higher or lower rank, and
God is not unjust that lie will forget the work of him who is called the
chosen vessel of election, and who laboured more abundantly than they all,
or assign equal rewards to unequal deserts. Afterwards we read, [6] "As in
Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be now alive. But each in his own
order." If each is to rise in his own order, it follows that those who rise
are of different degrees of merit. [7] "All flesh is not the same flesh;
but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another
flesh of birds, and another of fishes. There are also celestial bodies, and
bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of
the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another
glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth
from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." Like
a learned commentator, you have explained this passage by saying that the
spiritual differ from the carnal. It follows that in heaven there will be
both spiritual and carnal persons, and not only will the sheep climb
thither, but your goats also. "One star," he says, "differeth from another
star in glory ": this is not the distinction of sheep and goat, but of
sheep and sheep, star and star. Lastly, he says, "there is one glory of the
sun, and another glory of the moon." But for this, you might maintain that
the phrase one star from another star covers the whole human race; but he
introduces the sun and moon, and you cannot possibly reckon them among the
goats. "So," says he, "is also the resurrection of the dead "-the just will
shine with the brightness of the sun, and those of the next rank will glow
with the splendour of the moon, so that one will be a Lucifer, another an
Arcturus, a third an Orion, another Mazzaroth, or some other of the stars
whose names are hollowed in the book of Job. [1] [2]" For we all," he says,
"must be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one
may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done,
whether it be good or bad." And you cannot say that the mode of our
manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ is such that the good
receive good things, the bad evil things; for he [3] teaches us in the same
epistle that he who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that
soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Surely he who sows more and
he who sows less are both on the right side. And although they belong to
the same class, that of the sower, yet they differ in respect of measure
and number. The same Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says: [4] "to the
intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly
places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God."
You observe that it is a varied and manifold wisdom of God which is spoken
of as existing in the different ranks of the church. Arid in the same
epistle we read, [5]"Unto each one of us was the grace given according to
the measure of the grace of Christ": not that Christ's measure varies, but
only that so much of His grace is poured out as we can receive.

   24. In vain, therefore, do you multiply instances of sheep and goats,
of the five wise and five foolish virgins, of Egyptians and Israelites, and
so forth, because retribution is not in the present, but will be in the
future. Hence we find that the day of judgment is promised at the end of
all things, because the judgment is not now. For it would be absurd to call
the last day the day of judgment, if God were judging at the present time.
Now we sail the ship, wrestle, and fight, that at last we may reach the
haven, be crowned, and triumph. But you, with no less adroitness than
perversity, make the life of this world illustrate that of the world to
come, although we know full well that here unrighteousness prevails, there,
righteousness: [1] "until we go into the sanctuary of God, and understand
the end of those men." The saint does not die one way, the sinner another.
Those who sail the same sea have the same calm and storm. A violent death
is not one thing to the robber, another to the martyr. Children are not
born one way of adultery and prostitution, in another of pure marriage.
Certainly our Lord and the robbers incurred the same penalty of
crucifixion. If the judgment of this world and of that which is to come be
the same, it follows that they who were here crucified side by side, will
also be esteemed of equal rank hereafter. Paul and they who bound him,
sailed together, endured the same storm, escaped together to the shore when
the ship was broken with the waves. You cannot deny that the prisoner and
the keepers were of unequal merit. And what were the circumstances of that
same shipwreck of the Apostle  and the soldiers? The Apostle Paul
afterwards [2] related a vision, and said that they who were with him in
the ship had been given to him by the Lord. Are we to suppose that he to
whom they were given, and they who were given to him, were of one degree of
merit? Ten righteous men can save a sinful city. Lot together with his
daughters was delivered from the fire: his sons-in-law would also have been
saved, had they been willing to leave the city. Now there was surely a
great difference between Lot and his sons-in-law. One city out of the five,
[3] Zoar, was saved, and a place which lay under the same sentence as
Sodom, Gomorrha, Admah, and Zeboiim, was preserved by the prayers of a holy
man. Lot and Zoar were of different merit, but both of them escaped the
fire. [4]The robbers who in the absence of David had laid waste Ziklag, and
made a prey of the wives and children of the inhabitants were slain on the
third day in the plain, but forty men mounted on camels fled. Will you
maintain that there was some difference between those who were slain and
those who made good their escape? We read in the [6] Gospel that the tower
of Siloam fell upon eighteen men who perished in the ruins. Certainly our
Saviour did not regard them as the only sinners: but they were punished to
terrify the rest: it was like scourging a pestilent fellow to teach fools
wisdom. If all sinners are punished alike, it is unjust for one to be slain
while another is admonished by his comrade's death.

   25. You raise the objection that all Israelites had the same measure of
manna, an homer, and were alike in respect of dress, and hair, and beard,
and shoes; as though we did not all alike partake of the body of Christ. In
the Christian mysteries there is one means of sanctification for the master
and the servant, the noble and the low-born, for the king and his soldiers,
and yet, that which is one varies according to the merits of those who
receive it. [1]" Whosoever shall eat or drink unworthily shall be guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord." Does it follow that because Judas drank of
the same cup as the rest. of the apostles, that he and they are of equal
merit? But suppose that we do not choose to receive the sacrament, at all
events we all have the same life, breathe the same air, have the same blood
in our veins, are fed on the same food. Moreover, if our viands are
improved by culinary skill and are made more palatable for the consumer,
food of this kind does not satisfy nature, but tickles the appetite. We are
all alike subject to hunger, all alike suffer with cold: we alike are
shrivelled with the frost, or melted with the broiling heat. The sun and
the moon, and all the company of the stars, the showers, the whole world
run their course for us all alike, and, as the Gospel tells us, the same
refreshing rain falls upon all, good and bad, just and unjust. If the
present is a picture of the future, then the Sun of Righteousness will rise
upon sinners as well as upon the righteous, upon the wicked and the holy,
upon the heathen as well as upon Jews and Christians, though the Scripture
says, [2] "Unto you that fear the Lord shall the Sun of Righteousness
arise." If He will rise to those that fear, He will set to the despisers
and the false prophets. The sheep which stand on the right hand will be
brought into the kingdom of heaven, the goats will be thrust down to hell.
The parable does not contrast the sheep one with another, or on the other
hand the goats, but merely makes a difference between sheep and goats. The
whole truth is not taught in a single passage: we must always bear in mind
the exact point of an illustration. For instance, the ten virgins are not
examples of the whole human race, but of the careful and the slothful: the
former are ever anticipating the advent of our Lord, the latter abandon
themselves to idle slumber without a thought of future judgment. And so at
the end of the parable it is said, [3] "Watch, for ye know not the day, nor
the hour." If at the deluge Noah was delivered, and the whole world
perished, all men were flesh, and therefore were destroyed. You must either
say that the sons of Noah and Noah for whose sake they were delivered were
of unequal merit, or you must place the accursed Ham in the same rank as
his father because he was delivered with him from the flood. At the passion
of Christ all wavered, all were unprofitable together: there was none that
did good, no not one. Will you therefore dare to say that Peter and the
rest of the Apostles who fled denied the Saviour in the same sense as
Caiaphas and the Pharisees and the people who cried out, [1] "Crucify him,
crucify him"? And, to say no more about the Apostles, do you think Annas
add Caiaphas, and Judas the traitor guilty of no greater crime than Pilate
who was compelled against his will to give sentence against our Lord? The
guilt of Judas is proportioned to his former merit, and the greater the
guilt, the greater the penalty too. [2] "For the mighty shall mightily
suffer torment." An evil tree does not bear good fruit, nor a good tree
evil fruit. If this be so, tell me how it was that Paul though he was an
evil tree and persecuted the Church of Christ, afterwards bore good fruit?
And Judas, though he was a good tree and wrought miracles like the other
Apostles, afterwards turned traitor and brought forth evil fruit? The truth
is that a good tree does not bear evil fruit, nor an evil tree good fruit,
so long as they continue in their goodness, or badness. And if we read that
every Hebrew keeps the same Passover, and that in [3] the seventh year
every prisoner is set free, and that at Jubilee, that is the fiftieth year,
[4] every possession returns to its owner, all this refers not to the
present, but to the future; for being in bondage during the six days of
this world, on the seventh day, the true and eternal Sabbath, we shall be
free, at any rate if we wish to be free while still in bondage in the
world. If, however, we do not desire it, our ear will be bored in token of
our disobedience, and together with our wives and children, whom we
preferred to liberty, that is, with the flesh and its works, we shall be in
perpetual slavery.

   26. As for the parable of the sower which makes both good and bad
ground bear a triple crop, and the passage from the apostle in which upon
Christ as the foundation one man builds gold, silver, costly stones,
another wood, hay, stubble, the meaning is perfectly clear. We know that in
a great house there are different vessels, and to wish to contradict so
plain a truth would be sheer impudence. Yet that Jovinianus may not triumph
in a lie and quote the instance of the apostles by way of discrediting the
hundred fold, sixty fold, and thirty fold, let me inform him that in [1]
Matthew and Mark a hundred fold is promised to the apostles who had left
all. And I would tell him further, that in the Gospel of Luke we find much
more, that is polu' plei'ona, and that there is absolutely no instance in
the Gospels of a hundred standing for seven; and that he is convicted
either of forgery, or of ignorance; and that our cause is not prejudiced by
the fact that in one Gospel the enumeration begins at a hundred, in another
at thirty, since it is a rule with all Scripture, and especially with the
older writings, to put the lowest number first and so ascend by degrees to
the higher. For instance, suppose one to say that so-and-so lived five and
seventy and a hundred years, it does not follow that five and seventy are
more than a hundred because they were first mentioned. If you do not on the
side of good admit the difference between a hundred, sixty, and thirty,
neither will you do so on the side of evil, and the seed which fell by the
wayside, upon the rock, and among thorns, will be equally faulty. But if
the former three, or the latter three, on the side of good, or on the side
of evil respectively, are one and the same, it was foolish instead of
speaking of two things to enumerate six kinds, and all the more because
according to the account of the parable in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the
Saviour always added: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Where
there is no deep inner meaning, it is useless to draw our attention to the
mystic sense.

   27. You give it as your opinion that, since the Father and the Son make
their abode with the faithful, and since Christ is their guest, nothing is
lacking. I suppose, however, that Christ's abiding with the Corinthians was
one thing, with the Ephesians another: it was one thing, I say, for Him to
abide with those whom Paul blamed for many sins, another for Him to dwell
with those to whom the apostle revealed mysteries hidden from the beginning
of the world; one thing for Him to be in Titus and Timothy, another in
Paul. Certainly amongst them that have been born of women, there has not
arisen a greater than John the Baptist. But the term greater implies others
who are less. And [2] "he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he." You see then that in heaven one is greatest and another is least,
and that among the angels and the invisible creation there is a manifold
and infinite diversity. Why do the apostles say: [1]"Lord, increase our
faith," if there is one measure for all? And why did our Lord rebuke His
disciple, saying: [[2] "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt?"  In Jeremiah also we read concerning the future kingdom: [3]
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers." And soon after: [4] "I will put
my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I
will be their God and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more
every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of
them." The context of this passage clearly shows that the prophet is
describing the future kingdom, and how can there possibly be in it a least
or greatest, if all are to be equal? The secret is disclosed in the Gospel:
[5] "Whosoever shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven: but whosoever shall teach, and not do, shall be least." [6] The
Saviour taught us at a feast to take the lowest place, lest, when one
greater than us came, we should be thrust with disgrace from the higher
place. If we cannot fall, but only raise ourselves by penitence, what is
the meaning of the ladder at Bethel, on which the angels come from heaven
to earth and descend as well as ascend? Surely while on that ladder they
are reckoned among the sheep and stand on the right hand. There are angels
who descend from heaven; but Jovinianus is sure that they retain their
inheritance.

   28. But when Jovinianus supposes that the many mansions in our Father's
house are churches scattered throughout the world, who can refrain from
laughing; since Scripture plainly teaches in John's Gospel that our Lord
was discoursing not of the number of the churches, but of the heavenly
mansions, and the eternal tabernacles for which the prophet longed? [7] "In
my Father's house," He says, "are many mansions: if it were not so, I would
have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also." The place and the mansions which Christ
says He would prepare for the apostles are of course in the Father's house,
that is, in the kingdom of heaven, not on earth, where for the present He
was leading the apostles. And at the same time regard must be had to the
sense of Scripture: "1 might tell you," He says," that I go to prepare a
place for you, if there were not many mansions in my Father's house, that
is to say, if each individual did not prepare for himself a mansion through
his own works rather than receive it through the bounty of God. The
preparation is therefore not mine, but yours." This view is supported by
the fact that it profiled Judas nothing to have a place prepared, since he
lost it by his own fault. And we must interpret in the same way what our
Lord says to the sons of Zebedee, one of whom wished to sit on His left
hand, the other on His right: [1] "My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit
on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give, but it is for
them for whom it hath been prepared of my Father." It is not the Son's to
give; how then is it the Father's to prepare? There are, He says, prepared
in heaven, many different mansions, destined for many different virtues,
and they will be awarded not to persons, but to persons' works. In vain
therefore do you ask of me what rests with yourselves, a reward which my
Father has prepared for those whose virtues will entitle them to rise to
such dignity. Again when He says: [2] "I will come again, and will receive
you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also," He is speaking
especially to the apostles, concerning whom it is elsewhere written, "That
as I and thou, Father, are one, so they also may be one in us," inasmuch as
they have believed, have been perfected, and can say, [3] "the Lord is my
portion." If, however, there are not many mansions, how is it taught in the
Old Testament correspondingly with the New, that the chief priest has one
rank, the priests another, the Levites another, the door- keepers another,
the sacristans another? How is it that in the [4] book of Ezekiel, where a
description is given of the future Church and of the heavenly Jerusalem.
the priests who have sinned are degraded to the rank of sacristans and
doorkeepers, and although they are in the temple of God, that is on the
right hand, they are not among the rams, but among the poorest of the
sheep? How again is it that in the river which flows from the temple. and
replenishes the salt sea, and gives new life to everything, we read there
are many kinds of fish? Why do we read that in the kingdom of heaven there
are Archangels, Angels, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim,
and every name which is named, not only in this present world, but also
that which is to come? A difference of name is meaningless where there is
not a difference of rank. An Archangel is of course an Archangel to other
inferior angels, and Powers, and Dominions have other spheres over which
they exercise authority. This is what we find in heaven and in the
administration of God. You must not therefore smile and sneer at us, as is
your wont, for making a graduated series of emperors, praefects and counts,
tribunes and centurions, companies, and all the other steps in the service.

   29. It is mere trifling to quote the passage: [1] "Know ye not that
your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost," for it is customary in Holy
Scripture to speak of a single object as though it were many, and of many
as though they were one. And Jovinianus himself should know that even in a
temple there are many divisions--the outer and the inner courts, the
vestibules, the holy place, and the Holy of Holies. There are also in a
temple kitchens, pantries, oil-cellars, and cupboards for the vessels. And
so in the temple of our body there are different degrees of merit. God does
not dwell in all alike, nor does He impart Himself to all in the same
degree. A portion of the spirit of Moses was taken and given to the seventy
elders. I suppose there is a difference between the abundance of the river,
and that of the rivulets. [2] Elijah's spirit was given in double measure
to Elisha, and thus double grace wrought greater miracles. Elijah while
living restored a dead man to life; Elisha after death did the same. Elijah
invoked famine on the people; Elisha in a single day put the enemy's forces
in the power of the city which they besieged. No doubt the words, "Know ye
not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost," refer to the whole
assembly of the faithful, who, joined together, make up the one body of
Christ. But the question now is, who in the body is worthy to be the feet
of Christ, and who the head? who is His eye, and who His hand? --a
distinction indicated by the[3] two women in the Gospel, the penitent and
the holy woman, one of whom held His feet, the other His head. Some
authorities. however, think there was only one woman, and that she who
began at His feet gradually advanced to His head. Jovinianus further urges
against us our Lord's words, [4] "I pray not for these only, but also for
those who shall believe on me through their word: that as I, Father, in
thee and thou in me are one, so they all may be one in us," and reminds us
that the whole Christian people is one in God, and, as His well-beloved
sons, are [5]" partakers of the divine nature." We have already said, and
the truth must now be inculcated more in detail, that we are not one in the
Father and the Son according to nature, but according to grace. For the
essence of the human soul and the essence of God are not the same, as the
Manichaeans constantly assert. But, says our Lord: [1] "Thou hast loved
them as thou hast loved me." You see, then, that we are privileged to
partake of His essence, not in the realm of nature, but of grace, and the
reason why we are beloved of the Father is that He has loved the Son; and
the members are loved, those namely of the body. [2] "For as many as
received Christ, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name: which were born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The Word was made flesh
that we might pass from the flesh into the Word. The Word did not cease to
be what He had been; nor did the human nature lose that which it was by
birth. The glory was increased, the nature was not changed. Do you ask how
we are made one body with Christ? Your creator shall be your instructor:
[3] "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in
him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he
that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which
came down out of heaven." But the Evangelist John, who had drunk in wisdom
from the breast of Christ, agrees herewith, and says: [4] "Hereby know we
that we abide in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him,
and he in God." If you believe in Christ, as the apostles believed, you
shall be made one body with them in Christ. But, if it is rash for you to
claim for yourself a faith and works like theirs when you have not the same
faith and works, you cannot have the same place.

   30. You repeat the words bride, sister, mother, and affirm that all
these are titles of the one Church and names applied to all believers. The
fact goes against you. For if the Church admits but one rank, and has not
many members in one body, what necessity is there for calling her bride,
sister, mother? It must be that she is the bride of some, the sister of
others, the mother of others. All indeed stand on the right hand, but one
stands as a bridegroom, another as a brother, a third as a son. [5] "My
little children" says the Apostle, "of whom I am again in travail until
Christ be formed in you." Do you think that the children who are being born
and the apostle who is in travail are of equal rank? And the folly of your
contention that we love all the members alike, and do not prefer the eye to
the finger, nor the hand to the ear, but that if one be lost all mourn, is
proved by the lesson which the apostle teaches the Corinthians: [1] "Some
members are more honourable, others excite the sense of shame: and those
parts to which shame attaches are clothed with more abundant honour;
whereas our comely parts have no need of our care." Do you think that the
mouth and the belly, the eyes and the outlets of the body are to be classed
together as of equal merit? [2] "The lamp of thy body," he says, "is thine
eye. If thine eye be blinded, thy whole body is in darkness." If you cut
off a finger, or the tip of the ear, there is indeed pain, but the loss is
not so great, nor is the disfigurement attended by so much pain as it would
be were you to take out the eyes, mutilate the nose, or saw through a bone.
Some members we can dispense with and yet live: without others life is an
impossibility. Some offences are light, some heavy. It is one thing to owe
ten thousand talents, another to owe a farthing. We shall have to give
account of the idle word no less than of adultery; but it is not the same
thing to be put to the blush, and to be put upon the rack, to grow red in
the face and to ensure lasting torment. Do you think I am merely expressing
my own views? Hear what the Apostle John says: [3] "He who knows that his
brother sinneth a sin not unto death, let him ask, and he shall give him
life, even to him that sinneth not unto death. But he that hath sinned unto
death, who shall pray for him? "You observe that if we entreat for smaller
offences, we obtain pardon: if for greater ones, it is difficult to obtain
our request: and that there is a great difference between sins. And so with
respect to the people of Israel who had sinned a sin unto death, it is said
to Jeremiah: [4] "Pray not thou for this people, neither entreat for them,
and do not withstand me, for I will not hear thee." Moreover, if it be true
that we all alike enter the world and all alike leave it, and this is a
precedent for the world to come, it follows that whether righteous or
sinners we shall all be equally esteemed by God, because the conditions of
our birth and death are now the same. And if you contend that there are two
Adorns, the one of the earth, the other from heaven; and that they who were
in the earthly Adam stand on the left hand, those who were in the heavenly
are on the right hand, before we go further, let me ask you a question
concerning two brothers: Was Esau in the earthly Adam, or in the heavenly?
No one doubts that you will reply, he was in the earthly. In which was
Jacob? Without hesitation you will say, in the heavenly. How then was he in
the heavenly when Christ had not yet come in the flesh--Christ who is
called the second Adam from heaven? You must either reckon all before the
incarnation of Christ in the old Adam, and even the just in the man from
the earth, and then they will be on the left among your goats; or, if it be
impious to give Isaac the same place as Ishmael, Jacob as Esau, the saints
as sinners, the last Adam will date from the time when Christ was born of a
Virgin, and your argument from the two Adams will not benefit your sheep
and goats, because we have proved that in the first Adam there were both
sheep and goats, and that of those who were in one and the same man, some
stood on the right hand of God, others on the left: [1]"For from Adam even
until Moses death reigned over all, even over them that had not sinned
after the likeness of Adam's transgression."

   31. As regards your attempt to show that railing and murder, the use of
the expression rata and adultery, the idle word and godlessness, are
rewarded with the same punishment, I have already given you my reply, and
will now briefly repeat it. You must either deny that you are a sinner if
you are not to be in danger of Gehenna: or, if you are a sinner you will be
sent to hell for even a light offence: [2]"The mouth that lieth," says one,
"kills the soul." I suspect that you, like other men, have occasionally
told a lie: [3] for all men are liars, that God alone may be true, [4] and
that He may be justified in His words, and may prevail when He judges. It
follows either that you will not be a man lest you be found a liar: or if
you are a man and are consequently a liar, you will be punished with
parricides and adulterers. For you admit no difference between sins, and
the gratitude of those whom you raise from the mire and set on high will
not equal the rage against you of those whom for the trifling offences of
daily life you have thrust into utter darkness. And if it be so that in a
persecution one is stifled, another beheaded, another floes, or the fourth
dies within the walls of a prison, and one crown of victory awaits various
kinds of struggle, the fact tells in our favour. For in martyrdom it is the
will, which gives occasion to the death, that is crowned. My duty is to
resist the frenzy of the heathen, and not deny the Lord. It rests with them
either to behead, or to burn, or to shut up in prison, or enforce various
other penalties. But if I escape, and die in solitude. there will not at my
death be the same crown for me as for them, because the confession of
Christ will not have been to me as to them the cause of death. As for your
remark that absolutely no difference was made between the brother who had
always been with his father, and him who was afterwards welcomed as a
penitent, I am willing to add, if you like, that the one drachma which was
lost and was found was put with the others, and that the one sheep which
the good shepherd, leaving the ninety and nine, sought and brought back,
made up the full tale of a hundred. But it is one thing to be a penitent,
and with tears sue for pardon, another to be always with the father. And so
both the shepherd and the father say by the mouth of Ezekiel to the sheep
that was carried back, and to the son that was lost, [1] "And I will
establish my covenant with thee; and thou shall know that I am the Lord:
that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth ever
more, because of thy shame, when I have forgiven thee all that thou hast
done." That penitents may have their due it is enough for them to feel
shame instead of all other punishment. Hence in another place it is said to
them, [2] "Then shall ye remember your evil ways, and all the crimes
wherewith ye were defiled, and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight
for all the wickedness that ye have done; and ye shall know that I am the
Lord, when I shall have done you good for my name's sake, and not according
to your evil ways, nor according to your evil doings." The son, moreover,
was reproved by his father for envying his brother's deliverance, and for
being tormented by jealousy while the angels in heaven were rejoicing. The
parallel, however, is not to be drawn between the merits of the two sons
(one of whom was temperate, the other a prodigal) and those of the whole
human race, but the characters depicted are either Jews and Christians, or
saints and penitents. In the lifetime of Bishop Damasus I dedicated to him
a small treatise upon this parable. [3]

   32. And if a penny was given to all the labourers, those of the first,
the third, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh hours, and they came
first for the reward who were the last to work in the vineyard, even here
the persons described do not belong to one time or one age, but from the
beginning of the world to the end of it there are different calls and a
special meaning attaches to each. Abel and Seth were called at the first
hour: Enoch and Noah at the third: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the sixth:
Moses and the prophets at the ninth: at the eleventh the Gentiles, to whom
the recompense was first given because they believed on the crucified Lord,
and inasmuch as it was hard for them to believe they earned a great reward.
Many kings and prophets have desired to see the things that we see, and
have not seen them. But the one penny does not represent one reward, but
one life, and one deliverance from Gehenna. And as by the favour of the
sovereign those guilty of various crimes are released from prison, and each
one, according to his toil and exertions, is in this or that condition of
life, so too the penny, as it were by the favour of our Sovereign, is the
discharge from prison of us all  by baptism. Now our work is, according to
our different virtues, to prepare for ourselves a different future.

   33. So far I have replied to the separate portions of his argument; I
shall now address myself to the general question. Our Lord says to his
disciples, [1] "Whosoever would become great among you, let him be least of
all." If we are all to be equal in heaven, in vain do we humble ourselves
here that we may be greater there. Of the two debtors who owed, one five
hundred pence, the other fifty, he to whom most was forgiven loved most.
And so the Saviour says, [2]" I say to you, her sins which are many are
forgiven her, for she hath loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the
same loveth little." He who loves little, and has little forgiven, he will
of coarse be of inferior rank. [3] The householder when he set out
delivered to his servants his goods, to one five talents, to another two,
to another one, to each according to his ability. Just as in another Gospel
it is written that a nobleman setting out for a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom and return, called the servants, and gave them each a sum
of money, with which one gained ten pounds, another five, and they, each
according to his ability and the gain he had made, received ten or five
cities. But one who had received a talent, or a pound, buried it in the
ground, or tied it up in a napkin, and kept it until his master's return.
Our first thought is that if, according to the modern Zeno, the righteous
do not toil in hope of reward, but to avoid the loss of what they already
have. he who buried his pound or talent that he might not lose it, did no
wrong,  and the caution of him who kept his money is worthy of more praise
than the fruitless toil of those who wore themselves out and yet received
no reward for their labour. Then observe that the very talent which was
taken from the timid or negligent servant, was not I  given to him who had
the smaller profit, but to him who had gained the most, that is, to him who
had been placed over ten cities. If difference of rank is not constituted
by the difference in number, why did our Lord say, "He gave to everyone
according to his ability"? If the gain of five talents and ten talents is
the same, why were not ten cities given to him who gained the least, and
five to him who gained the most? But that our Lord is not satisfied with
what we have, but always desires more, He himself shows by saying,
"Wherefore didst thou not give my money to the money-changers, that so when
I came I might have received it with usury?" The Apostle Paul understood
this, and [1] forgetting those things which were behind, reached forward to
those things which were in front, that is, he made daily progress, and did
not keep the grace given to him carefully wrapped up in a napkin, but his
spirit, like the capital of a keen man of business, was renewed from day to
day, and if he were not always growing larger, he thought himself growing
less. Six cities of refuge are mentioned in the law, provided for fugitives
who were involuntary homicides, and the cities themselves belonged to the
priests. I should like to ask whether you would put those fugitives among
your goats, or among our sheep. If they were goats, they would be slain
like other homicides, and would not enter the cities of God's ministers. If
you say they were sheep, they will not possibly be such sheep as can enjoy
full liberty and feed without fear of wolves. And it will be plain to you
that sheep indeed they are, but wandering sheep: that they are on the right
hand, but do not stand there: they flee until the High Priest dies and
descending into hell liberates their souls. The Gibeonites met the children
of Israel, and although other nations were slaughtered, they were kept [2]
for hewers of wood and drawers of water. [3] And of such value were they in
God's eyes, that the family of Saul was destroyed for the wrong done to
them. Where would you put them? Among the goats? But they were not slain,
and they were avenged by the determination of God. Among the sheep? But
holy Scripture says they were not of the same merit as the Israelites. You
see then that they do indeed stand on the right hand, but are of a far
inferior grade. Jonathan came between David, the holy man, and Saul, the
worst of kings, and we can neither place him among the kids because he was
worthy of a prophet's love, nor amongst the rams test we make him equal to
David, and particularly when we know that he was slain. He will, therefore,
be among the sheep, but low down. And just as in the case of David and
Jonathan, you will be bound to recognize differences between sheep and
sheep. [1]"That servant, which knew his lord's will, and made not ready,
nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he
that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few
stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required:
and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more." Lo! more or
less is committed to different servants, and according to the nature of the
trust, as well as of the sin, is the number of stripes inflicted.

   34. The whole account of the land of Judah and of the tribes is typical
of the church in heaven. Let us read Joshua. the son of Nun, or the
concluding portions of Ezekiel, and we shall see that the historical
division of the land as related by the one finds a counterpart in the
spiritual and heavenly promises of the other. What is the meaning of the
seven and eight steps in the description of the temple? or again, what
significance attaches to the fact that in the Psalter, after being taught
the mystic alphabet by the zone hundred and eighteenth psalm we arrive by
fifteen steps at the point where we can sing: [3] "Behold, now bless the
Lord, all ye servants of the Lord: ye who stand in the house of the Lord,
in the courts of the house of our God." Why did [4] two tribes and a half
dwelt on the other side of Jordan, a district abounding in cattle, while
the remaining nine tribes and a half either drove out the old inhabitants
from their possessions, or dwelt with them? Why did the tribe of Levi [5]
receive no portion in the land, but have the Lord for their portion? And
how is it that of the priests and Levites, themselves, the [6] high priest
alone entered the Holy of Holies where were the cherubim and the mercy-
seat? Why did the other priests wear [7] linen raiment only, and not have
their clothing of wrought gold, blue, scarlet, purple, and fine cloth? The
priests and [1]Levites of the lower order took care of the oxen and wains:
those of the higher order carried the ark of the Lord on their shoulders.
If you do away with the gradations of the tabernacle, the temple, the
Church, if, to use a common military phrase, all upon the right hand are to
be "up to the same standard," bishops are to no purpose, priests in vain,
deacons useless. Why do virgins persevere? widows toil? Why  do married
women practise continence? Let us all sin, and when once we have repented,
we shall be on the same footing as the apostles.

   35. But now we have just sighted land: the foaming billows have been
rolling mountain-high: our ship has been borne aloft, or has rushed
headlong into the depths beneath: little by little the haven opens to the
view of the weary and exhausted sailors. We have discussed the married,
widows, and virgins. We have preferred virginity to widowhood, widow-hood
to marriage. The passage of the apostle, in which he treats questions of
this kind, has been expounded, and particular objections have been met. We
also took a survey of secular literature, and inquired what was thought of
virgins, and what of those who had one husband; and by way of contrast we
pointed out the cares which sometimes attend wedlock. Then we passed to the
second division, in which our opponent denies the possibility of sinning to
those who have been baptized with complete faith. And we showed that God
alone is faultless, and every creature is at fault, not because all have
sinned, but because all may sin, and those who stand have cause to fear
when they see the fall of men like themselves. In the third place we came
to fasting, and inasmuch as our opponent's argument fell under two heads,
and he appealed either to philosophy, or to Holy Scripture, we also
furnished a several reply. In the fourth, that is the last section, the
sheep and goats on the right hand and the left, the righteous and the
wicked, were distributed into two classes, the intention being to show that
there is no difference between one just man and another, or between one
sinner and another. To prove the point Jovinianus had accumulated countless
instances from Scripture  which apparently favoured his view, and  this
contention we rebutted both by arguments and illustrations from Scripture,
and  pulverized Zeno's old opinion no less with  common sense than with the
words of inspiration.

36. I must in conclusion say a few words to our modern Epicurus wantoning
in his gardens with his favourites of both sexes. On your side are the fat
and the sleek in their festal attire. If I may mock like Socrates, add if
you please, all swine and dogs, and, since you like flesh so well, vultures
too, eagles, hawks, and owls. We shall never be afraid of the host of [1]
Aristippus. If ever I see a fine fellow, or a man who is no stranger to the
curling-irons, with his hair nicely done and his cheeks all aglow, he
belongs to your herd, or rather grunts in concert with your pigs. To our
flock belong the sad, the pale, the meanly clad, who, like strangers in
this world, though their tongues are silent, yet speak by their dress and
bearing. [2] "Woe is me," say they, "that my sojourning is prolonged! that
I dwell among the tents of Kedar!" that is to say, in the darkness of this
world, for the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not. Boast not of having many disciples. The Son of God taught in
Judaea, and only twelve apostles followed Him. (3) "I have trodden the
wine-press alone," He says, "and of the peoples there was no man with me."
At the passion He was left alone, and even Peter's fidelity to Him wavered:
on the other hand all the people applauded the doctrine of the Pharisees,
saying, (4) "Crucify him, crucify him. We have no king but Caesar," that is
in effect, we follow vice, not virtue; Epicurns, not Christ; Jovinianus,
not the Apostle Paul. If many assent to' your views, that only indicates
voluptuousness; for they do not so much approve your utterances, as favour
their own vices. in our crowded thoroughfares a false prophet may be seen
any day stick in hand belabouring the fools about him, and knocking out the
teeth of those who offend him, and yet he never lacks constant followers.
And do you regard it as a mark of great wisdom if you have a following of
many pigs, whom you are feeding to make pork for hell? Since you published
your views, and set the mark of your approval on baths in which the sexes
bathe together, the impatience which once threw over burning lust the
semblance of a robe of modesty has been laid bare and exposed. What was
once hidden is now open to the gaze of all. You have revealed your
disciples, such as they are, not made them. One result of your teaching is
that sin is no longer even repented Of. Your virgins whom, with a depth of
wisdom never found before in speech or writing, you have taught the
apostle's maxim that it is better to marry than to burn, have turned secret
adulterers into acknowledged husbands.[1] It was not the apostle, the
chosen vessel, who gave this advice; it was Virgil's widow:

   [2]"She calls it wedlock; thus she veils her fault."

   37. About four hundred years have passed since the preaching of Christ
flashed upon the world, and during that time in which His robe has been
torn by countless heresies, almost the whole body of error has been derived
from the Chaldaean, Syriac, and Greek languages. Basilides, the master of
licentiousness and the grossest sensuality, after the lapse of so many
years, and like a second[3] Euphorbus, was changed by transmigration into
Jovinian, so that the Latin tongue might have a heresy of its own. Was
there no other province in the whole world to receive the gospel of
pleasure, and into which the serpent might insinuate itself, except that
which was founded by the teaching of Peter, upon the rock Christ? Idol
temples had fallen before the standard of the Cross and the severity of the
Gospel: now on the contrary lust and gluttony endeavour to overthrow the
solid structure of the Cross. And so God says by Isaiah,[4]" O my people,
they which bless you cause you to err, and trouble the paths of your feet."
Also by Jeremiah,[5]" Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man
his life, and believe not the false prophets which say, Peace, peace, and
there is no peace;" who are always repeating,[6]"The temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord." "Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish
things; they have not laid bare thine iniquity that they might call thee to
repentance: who devour God's people like bread: they have not called upon
God." Jeremiah announced the captivity and was stoned by the people.[7]
Hananiah, the son of Azzur, broke the bars of wood for the present, but was
preparing bars of iron for the future. False prophets always promise
pleasant things, and please for a thee. Truth is bitter, and they who
preach it are filled with bitterness. For with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth the Lord's passover is kept, and it is eaten with
bitter herbs. Admirable are your utterances and worthy of the ears of the
bride of Christ standing in the midst of her virgins, and widows, and
celibates! (their very name is[8]derived from the fact that they who
abstain from intercourse are fit for heaven). This is what you say: "Fast
seldom, marry often. You cannot do the work of marriage unless you take
mead, and flesh, and solid food. For lust strength is required. Flesh is
soon spent and enervated. You need not be afraid of fornication. He who has
been once baptized into Christ cannot fall, for he has the consolation of
marriage to slake his lust. And if you do fall, repentance will restore
you, and you who were hypocrites at baptism may have a firm faith in your
repentance. Be not disturbed by the thought of a difference between the
righteous and the penitent, and do not imagine that pardon even gives a
lower place; rather believe that it takes away your crown. For there is one
reward: he who stands on the right hand shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven." Through counsels such as these your swine-herds are richer than
our shepherds, and the he-goats draw after them many of the other sex:[1]
"They were as fed horses: they were mad after women": they no sooner see a
woman than they neigh after her, and, shame to say! find scriptural
authority for the consolation of their incontinence. But the very women,
unhappy creatures! though they deserve no pity, who chant the words of
their instructor (for what does God require of them but to become
mothers?), have lost not only their chastity, but all sense of shame, and
defend their licentious practices with an access of impudence. You have,
moreover, in your army many subalterns, you have your guardsmen and your
skirmishers at the outposts, the round-bellied, the well- dressed, the
exquisites, and noisy orators, to defend you with tooth and nail. The noble
make way for you, the wealthy print kisses on your face. For unless you had
come, the drunkard and the glutton could not have entered paradise. All
honor to your virtue, or rather to your vices! You have in your camp, even
amazons with uncovered breasts, bare arms and knees, who challenge the men
who come against them to a battle of lust. Your household is a large one,
and so in your aviaries not only turtle-doves, but hoopoes are fed, which
may wing their flight over the whole field of rank debauchery. Pull me to
pieces and scatter me to the winds: tax me with what offences you please:
accuse me of luxurious and delicate living: you would like me better if I
were guilty, for I should belong to your herd.

   38. But I will now address myself to you, great Rome, who with the
confession of Christ have blotted out the blasphemy written on your
forehead. Mighty city, mistress- city of the world, city of the Apostle's
praises, shew the meaning of your name. Rome is either strength in Greek,
or height in Hebrew. Lose not the excellence your name implies: let virtue
lift you up on high, let not voluptuousness bring you low. By repentance.
as the history of Nineveh proves, you may escape the curse wherewith the
Saviour threatened you in the Apocalypse. Beware of the name of Jovinianus.
It is derived from that of an idol.[1] The Capitol is in ruins: the temples
of Jove with their ceremonies have perished. Why should his name and vices
flourish now in the midst of you, when even in the time of Numa Pompilius,
even under the sway of kings, your ancestors gave a heartier welcome to the
self-restraint of Pythagoras than they did under the consuls to the
debauchery of Epicurus?


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. (LNPF II/VI, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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