Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 04: 24.01.13 VII Modesty Part 3

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Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 04: 24.01.13 VII Modesty Part 3



TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 04 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 24.01.13 VII Modesty Part 3

Other Subjects in this Topic:

Chapter XIV.-The Same Subject Continued.

And-these intervening points having accordingly been got rid of-I return to the second of Corinthians; in order to prove that this saying also of the apostle, "Sufficient to such a man be this rebuke which (is administered) by many," is not suitable to the person of the fornicator. For if he had sentenced him "to be surrendered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh," of course he had condemned rather than rebuked him. Some other, then, it was to whom he willed the "rebuke" to be sufficient; if, that is, the fornicator had incurred not "rebuke" from his sentence, but "condemnation." For I offer you withal, for your investigation, this very question: Whether there were in the first Epistle others, too, who "wholly saddened" the apostle by "acting disorderly,"hyperlink and "were wholly saddened" by him, through incurring (his) "rebuke," according to the sense of the second Epistle; of whom some particular one may in that (second Epistle) have received pardon. Direct we, moreover, our attention to the entire first Epistle, written (that I may so say) as a whole, not with ink, but with gall; swelling, indignant, disdainful, comminatory, invidious, and shaped through (a series of) individual charges, with an eye to certain individuals who were, as it were, the proprietors of those charges? For so had schisms, and emulations, and discussions, and presumptions, and elations, and contentions required, that they should be laden with invidiousness, and rebuffed with curt reproof, and filed down by haughtiness, and deterred by austerity. And what kind of invidiousness is the pungency of humility? "To God I give thanks that I have baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, lest any say that I have baptized in mine own name."hyperlink "For neither did I judge to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."hyperlink And, "(I think) God hath selected us the apostles (as) hindmost, like men appointed to fight with wild beasts; since we have been made a spectacle to this world, both to angels and to men: "And, "We have been made the offscourings of this world, the refuse of all: "And, "Am I not free? am I not an apostle? have I not seen Christ Jesus our Lord? "hyperlink With what kind of superciliousness, on the contrary, was he compelled to declare, "But to me it is of small moment that I be interrogated by you, or by a human court-day; for neither am I conscious to myself (of any guilt); "and, "My glory none shall make empty."hyperlink "Know ye not that we are to judge angels? "hyperlink Again, of how open censure (does) the free expression (find utterance), how manifest the edge of the spiritual sword, (in words like these): "Ye are already enriched! ye are already satiated! ye are already reigning!"hyperlink and, "If any thinks himself to know, he knoweth not yet how it behaves him to know I"hyperlink Is he not even then "smiting some one's face,"hyperlink in saying, "For who maketh thee to differ? What, moreover, hast thou which thou hast not received? Why gloriest thou as if thou have not received? "hyperlink Is he not withal "smiting them upon the mouth,"hyperlink (in saying): "But some, in (their) conscience, even until now eat (it) as if (it were) an idol-sacrifice. But, so sinning, by shocking the weak consciences of the brethren thoroughly, they will sin against Christ."hyperlink By this time, indeed, (he mentions individuals) by name: "Or have we not a power of eating., and of drinking, and of leading about women, just as the other apostles withal, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? "and, "If others attain to (a share) in power over you, (may) not we rather? "In like manner he pricks them, too, with an individualizing pen: "Wherefore, let him who thinketh himself to be standing, see lest he fall; "and, "If any seemeth to be contentious, we have not such a custom, nor (has) the Church of the Lord." With such a final clause (as the following), wound up with a malediction, "If any loveth not the Lord Jesus, be he anathema maranatha," he is, of course, striking some particular individual through.

But I will rather take my stand at that point where the apostle is more fervent, where the fornicator himself has troubled others also. "As if I be not about to come unto you, some are inflated. But I will come with more speed, if the Lord shall have permitted, and will learn not the speech of those who are inflated, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power. And what will ye? shall I come unto you in a rod, or in a spirit of lenity? "For what was to succeed? "There is heard among you generally fornication, and such fornication as (is) not (heard) even among the Gentiles, that one should have his own father's wife. And are ye inflated, and have ye not rather mourned, that he who hath committed such a deed may be taken away from the midst of you? "For whom were they to "mourn? "Of course, for one dead. To whom were they to mourn? Of course, to the Lord, in order that in some way or other he may be "taken away from the midst of them; "not, of course in order that he may be put outside the Church. For a thing would not have been requested of God which came within the official province of the president (of the Church); but (what would be requested of Him was), that through death-not only this death common to all, but one specially appropriate to that very flesh which was already a corpse, a tomb leprous with irremediable uncleanness-he might more fully (than by simple excommunication) incur the penalty of being "taken away" from the Church. And accordingly, in so far as it was meantime possible for him to be "taken away," he "adjudged such an one to be surrendered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." For it followed that flesh which was being cast forth to the devil should be accursed, in order that it might be discarded from the sacrament of blessing, never to return into the camp of the Church.

And thus we see in this place the apostle's severity divided, against one who was "inflated," and one who was "incestuous: "(we see the apostle) armed against the one with "a rod," against the other with a sentence,-a "rod," which he was threatening; a sentence, which he was executing: the former (we see) still brandishing, the latter instantaneously hurtling; (the one) wherewith he was rebuking, and (the other) wherewith he was condemning. And certain it is, that forthwith thereafter the rebuked one indeed trembled beneath the menace of the uplifted rod, but the condemned perished under the instant infliction of the penalty. Immediately the former retreated fearing the blow, the latter paying the penalty. When a letter of the self-same apostle is sent a second time to the Corinthians, pardon is granted plainly; but it is uncertain to whom, because neither person nor cause is advertised. I will compare the cases with the senses. If the "incestuous" man is set before us, on the same platform will be the "inflated" man too. Surely the analogy, of the case is sufficiently maintained, when the "inflated" is rebuked, but the "incestuous" is condemned. To the "inflated" pardon is granted, but after rebuke; to the "incestuous" no pardon seems to have been granted, as under condemnation. If it was to him for whom it was feared that he might be "devoured by mourning" that pardon was being granted, the "rebuked" one was still in danger of being devoured, losing heart on account of the commination, and mourning on account of the rebuke. The "condemned" one, however, was permanently accounted as already devoured, alike by his fault and by his sentence; (accounted, that is, as one) who had not to "mourn," but to suffer that which, before suffering it, he might have mourned. If the reason why pardon was being granted was "lest we should be defrauded by Satan," the loss against which precaution was being taken had to do with that which had not yet perished. No precaution is taken in the use of a thing finally despatched, but in the case of a thing still safe. But the condemned one-condemned, too, to the possession of Satan-had already perished from the Church at the moment when he had committed such a deed, not to say withal at the moment of being forsworn by the Church itself. How should (the Church) fear to suffer a fraudulent loss of him whom she had already lost on his ereption, and whom, after condemnation, she could not have held? Lastly, to what will it be becoming for a judge to grant indulgence? to that which by a formal pronouncement he has decisively settled, or to that which by an interlocutory sentence he has left in suspense? And, of course, (I am speaking of) that judge who is not wont "to rebuild those things which he has destroyed, lest he be held a transgressor."hyperlink

Come, now, if he had not "wholly saddened" so many persons in the first Epistle; if he had "rebuked" none, had "terrified"hyperlink none; if he had "smitten" the incestuous man alone; if, for his cause, he had sent none into panic, had struck (no) "inflated" one with consternation,-would it not be better for you to suspect, and more believing for you to argue, that rather some one far different had been in the same predicament at that time among the Corinthians; so that, rebuked, and terrified, and already wounded with mourning, he therefore-the moderate nature of his fault permitting it-subsequently received pardon, than that you should interpret that (pardon as granted) to an incestuous fornicator? For this you had been bound to read, even if not in an Epistle, yet impressed upon the very character of the apostle, by (his) modesty more clearly than by the instrumentality of a pen: not to steep, to wit, Paul, the "apostle of Christ,"hyperlink the "teacher of the nations in faith and verity,"hyperlink the "vessel of election,"hyperlink the founder of Churches, the censor of discipline, (in the guilt of) levity so great as that he should either have condemned rashly one whom he was presently to absolve, or else rashly absolved one whom he had not rashly condemned, albeit on the ground of that fornication which is the result of simple immodesty, not to say on the ground of incestuous nuptials and impious voluptuousness and parricidal lust,-(lust) which he had refused to compare even with (the lusts of) the nations, for fear it should be set down to the account of custom; (lust) on which he would sit in judgment though absent, for fear the culprit should "gain the time; "hyperlink (lust) which he had condemned after calling to his aid even "the Lord's power," for fear the sentence should seem human. Therefore he has trifled both with his own "spirit,"hyperlink and with "the angel of the Church,"hyperlink and with "the power of the Lord," if he rescinded what by their counsel he had formally pronounced.

Chapter XV.-The Same Subject Continued.

If you hammer out the sequel of that Epistle to illustrate the meaning of the apostle, neither will that sequel be found to square with the obliteration of incest; lest even here the apostle be put to the blush by the incongruity of his later meanings. For what kind (of hypothesis) is it, that the very moment after making a largess of restoration to the privileges of ecclesiastical peace to an incestuous fornicator, he should forthwith have proceeded to accumulate exhortations about turning away from impurities, about pruning away of blemishes, about exhortations to deeds of sanctity, as if he had decreed nothing of a contrary nature just before? Compare, in short, (and see) whether it be his province to say, "Wherefore, having this ministration, in accordance with (the fact) that we have obtained mercy, we faint not; but renounce the secret things of disgrace,"hyperlink who has just released from condemnation one manifestly convicted of, not "disgrace" merely, but crime too: whether it be province, again, to excuse a conspicuous immodesty, who, among the counts of his own labours, after" straits and pressures," after" fasts and vigils," has named "chastity" also:hyperlink whether it be, once more, his province to receive back into communion whatsoever reprobates, who writes, "For what society (is there) between righteousness and iniquity? what communion, moreover, between light and darkness? what consonance between Christ and Belial? or what part for a believer with an unbeliever? or what agreement between the temple of God and idols? "Will he not deserve to hear constantly (the reply); "And in what manner do you make a separation between things which, in the former part of your Epistle, by restitution of the incestuous one, you have joined? For by his restoration to concorporate unity with the Church, righteousness is made to have fellowship with iniquity, darkness has communion with light, Belial is consonant with Christ, and believer shares the sacraments with unbeliever. And idols may see to themselves: the very vitiator of the temple of God is converted into a temple of God: for here, too, he sap, `For ye are a temple of the living God. For He saith, That I will dwell in you, and will walk in (you), and will be their God, and they shall be to Me a people. Wherefore depart from the midst of them, be separate, and touch not the unclean.'hyperlink This (thread of discourse) also you spin out, O apostle, when at the very moment you yourself are offering your hand to so huge a whirlpool of impurities; nay, you superadd yet further, 'Having therefore this promise, beloved, cleanse we ourselves out from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting chastity in God's fear.'"hyperlink I pray you, had he who fixes such (exhortations) in our minds been recalling some notorious fornicator into the Church? or is his reason for writing it, to prevent himself from appearing to you in the present day to have so recalled him? These (words of his) will be in duty bound alike to serve as a prescriptive rule for the foregone, and a prejudgment for the following, (parts of the Epistle). For in saying, toward the end of the Epistle, "Lest, when I shall have come, God humble me, and I bewail many of those who have formerly sinned, and have not repented of the impurity which they have committed, the fornication, and the vileness,"hyperlink he did not, of course, determine that they were to be received hack (by him into the Church) if they should have entered (the path of) repentance, whom he was to find in the Church, but that they were to be bewailed, and indubitably ejected, that they might lose (the benefit of) repentance. And, besides, it is not congruous that he, who had above asserted that there was no communion between light and darkness, righteousness and iniquity, should in this place have been indicating somewhat touching communion. But all such are ignorant of the apostle as understand anything in a sense contrary to the nature and design of the man himself, contrary to the norm and rule of his docrines; so as to presume that he, a teacher of every sanctity, even by his own example, an execrator and expiator of every impurity, and universally consistent with himself in these points, restored ecclesiastical privileges to an incestuous person sooner than to some more mild offender.

Chapter XVI.-General Consistency of the Apostle.

Necessary it is, therefore, that the (character of the) apostle should be continuously pointed out to them; whom I will maintain to be such in the second of Corinthians withal, as I know (him to be) in all his letters. (He it is) who even in the first (Epistle) was the first of all (the apostles) to dedicate the temple of God: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that in you the Lord dwells? "hyperlink -who likewise, for the consecrating and purifying (of) that temple, wrote the law pertaining to the temple-keepers: "If any shall have marred the temple of God, him shall God mar; for the temple of God is holy, which (temple) are ye."hyperlink Come, now; who in the world has (ever) redintegrated one who has been "marred" by God (that is, delivered to Satan with a view to destruction of the flesh), after subjoining for that reason, "Let none seduce himself; "hyperlink that is, let none presume that one "marred" by God can possibly be redintegrated anew? Just as, again, among all other crimes-nay, even before all others-when affirming that "adulterers, and fornicators, and effeminates, and co-habitors with males, will not attain the kingdom of God," he premised, "Do not err"hyperlink -to wit, if you think they will attain it. But to them from whom "the kingdom" is taken away, of course the life which exists in the kingdom is not permitted either. Moreover, by superadding, "But such indeed ye have been; but ye have received ablution, but ye have been sanctified, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God; "hyperlink in as far as he puts on the paid side of the account such sins before baptism, in so far after baptism he determines them irremissible, if it is true, (as it is), that they are not allowed to "receive ablution" anew. Recognise, too, in what follows, Paul (in the character of) an immoveable column of discipline and its rules: "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: God maketh a full end both of the one and of the others; but the body (is) not for fornication, but for God: "hyperlink for "Let Us make man," said God, "(conformable) to Our image and likeness." "And God made man; (conformable) to the image and likeness of God made He him."hyperlink "The Lord for the body: "yes; for "the Word was made flesh."hyperlink "Moreover, God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us through His own power; "hyperlink on account, to wit, of the union of our body with Him. And accordingly, "Know ye not your bodies (to be) members of Christ? "because Christ, too, is God's temple. "Overturn this temple, and I will in three days' space resuscitate it."hyperlink "Taking away the members of Christ, shall I make (them) members of an harlot? Know ye not, that whoever is agglutinated to an harlot is made one body? (for the two shall be (made) into one flesh): but whoever is agglutinated to the Lord is one spirit? Flee fornication."hyperlink If revocable by pardon, in what sense am I to flee it, to turn adulterer anew? I shall gain nothing if I do flee it: I shall be "one body," to which by communion I shall be agglutinated. "Every sin which a human being may have committed is extraneous to the body; but whoever fornicateth, sinneth against his own body."hyperlink And, for fear you should fly to that statement for a licence to fornication, on the ground that you will be sinning against a thing which is yours, not the Lord's, he takes you away from yourself, and awards you, according to his previous disposition, to Christ: "And ye are not your own; "immediately opposing (thereto), "for bought ye are with a price"-the blood, to wit, of the Lord:hyperlink "glorify and extol the Lord in your body."hyperlink See whether he who gives this injunction be likely to have pardoned one who has disgraced the Lord, and who has cast Him down from (the empire of) his body, and this indeed through incest. If you wish to imbibe to the utmost all knowledge of the apostle, in order to understand with what an axe of censorship he lops, and eradicates, and extirpates, every forest of lusts, for fear of permitting aught to regain strength and sprout again; behold him desiring souls to keep a fast from the legitimate fruit of nature-the apple, I mean, of marriage: "But with regard to what ye wrote, good it is for a man to have no contact with a woman; but, on account of fornication, let each one have his own wife: let husband to wife, and wife to husband, render what is due."hyperlink Who but must know that it was against his will that he relaxed the bond of this "good," in order to prevent fornication? But if he either has granted, or does grant, indulgence to fornication, of course he has frustrated the design of his own remedy. and will be bound forthwith to put the curb upon the nuptials of continence, if the fornication for the sake of which those nuptials are permitted shall cease to be feared. For (a fornication) which has indulgence granted it will not be feared. And yet he professes that he has granted the use of marriage "by way of indulgence, not of command."hyperlink For he "wills" all to be on a level with himself. But when things lawful are (only) granted by way of indulgence, who hope for things unlawful? "To the unmarried" also, "and widows," he says, "It is good, by his example, to persevere" (in their present state); "but if they were too weak, to marry; because it is preferable to marry than to bum."hyperlink With what fires, I pray you, is it preferable to "burn"-(the fires) of concupiscence, or (the fires) of penalty? Nay, but if fornication is pardonable, it will not be an object of concupiscence. But it is more (the manner) of an apostle to take forethought for the fires of penalty. Wherefore, if it is penalty which "burns," it follows that fornication, which penalty awaits, is not pardonable. Meantime withal, while prohibiting divorce, he uses the Lord's precept against adultery as an instrument for providing, in place of divorce, either perseverance in widowhood, or else a reconciliation of peace: inasmuch as "whoever shall have dismissed a wife (for any cause) except the cause of adultery, maketh her commit adultery; and he who marrieth one dismissed by a husband committeth adultery."hyperlink What powerful remedies does the Holy Spirit furnish, to prevent, to wit, the commission anew of that which He wills not should anew be pardoned!

Now, if in all cases he says it is best for a man thus to be; "Thou art joined to a wife seek not loosing" (that you may give no occasion to adultery); "thou art loosed from a wife, seek not a wife," that you may reserve an opportunity for yourself: "but withal, if thou shalt have married a wife, and if a virgin shall have married, she sinneth not; pressure, however, of the flesh such shall have,"-even here he is granting a permission by way of "sparing them."hyperlink On the other hand, he lays it down that "the time is wound up," in order that even "they who have wives may be as if they had them not." "For the fashion of this world is passing away,"-(this world) no longer, to wit, requiting (the command), "Grow and multiply." Thus he wills us to pass our life "without anxiety," because "the unmarried care about the Lord, how they may please God; the married, however, muse about the world,hyperlink how they may please their spouse."hyperlink Thus he pronounces that the "preserver of a virgin" doeth" better" than her "giver in marriage."hyperlink Thus, too, he discriminatingly judges her to be more blessed, who, after losing her husband subsequently to her entrance into the faith, lovingly embraces the opportunity of widowhood.hyperlink Thus he commends as Divine all these counsels of continence: "I think,"hyperlink he says, "I too have the Spirit of God."hyperlink

Who is this your most audacious asserter of all immodesty, plainly a "most faithful" advocate of the adulterous, and fornicators, and incestuous, in whose honour he has undertaken this cause against the Holy Spirit, so that he recites a false testimony from (the writings of) His apostle? No such indulgence granted Paul, who endeavours to obliterate "necessity of the flesh" wholly from (the list of) even honourable pretexts (for marriage unions). He does grant "indulgence," I allow;-not to adulteries, but to nuptials. He does "spare," I allow;-marriages, not harlotries. He tries to avoid giving pardon even to nature, for fear he may flatter guilt. He is studious to put restraints upon the union which is heir to blessing, for fear that which is heir to curse be excused. This (one possibility) was left him-to purge the flesh from (natural) dregs, for (cleanse it) from (foul) stains he cannot. But this is the usual way with perverse and ignorant heretics; yes, and by this time even with Psychics universally: to arm themselves with the opportune support of some one ambiguous passage, in opposition to the disciplined host of sentences of the entire document:

Chapter XVII.-Consistency of the Apostle in His Other Epistles.

Challenge me to front the apostolic line of battle; look at his Epistles: they all keep guard in defence of modesty, of chastity, of sanctity; they all aim their missiles against the interests of luxury, and lasciviousness, and lust. What, in short, does he write to the Thessalonians withal? "For our consolationhyperlink (originated) not of seduction, nor of impurity: "and, "This is the will of God, your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication; that each one know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the lust of concupiscence, as (do) the nations which are ignorant of God."hyperlink What do the Galatians read? "Manifest are the works of the flesh." What are these? Among the first he has set "fornication, impurity, lasciviousness: "" (concerning) which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that whoever do such acts are not to attain by inheritance the kingdom of God."hyperlink The Romans, moreover,-what learning is more impressed upon them than that there must be no dereliction of the Lord after believing? "What, then, say we? Do we persevere in sin, in order that grace may superabound? Far be it. We, who are dead to sin, how shall we live in it still? Are ye ignorant that we who have been baptized in Christ have been baptized into His death? Buried with Him, then, we have been, through the baptism into the death, in order that, as Christ hath risen again from the dead, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been buried together in the likeness of His death, why, we shall be (in that) of (His) resurrection too; knowing this, that our old man hath been crucified together with Him. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall live, too, with Him; knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, no more dieth, (that) death no more hath domination over Him. For in that He died to sin, He died once for all; but in that He liveth, to God He liveth. Thus, too, repute ye yourselves dead indeed to sin, but living to God through Christ Jesus."hyperlink Therefore, Christ being once for all dead, none who, subsequently to Christ, has died, can live again to sin, and especially to so heinous a sin. Else, if fornication and adultery may by possibility be anew admissible, Christ withal will be able anew to die. Moreover, the apostle is urgent in prohibiting" sin from reigning in our mortal body,"hyperlink whose "infirmity of the flesh" he knew. "For as ye have tendered your members to servile impurity and iniquity, so too now tender them servants to righteousness unto holiness." For even if he has affirmed that "good dwelleth not in his flesh,"hyperlink yet (he means) according to "the law of the letter,"hyperlink in which he "was: "but according to "the law of the Spirit,"hyperlink to which he annexes us, he frees us from the "infirmity of the flesh." "For the law," he says, "of the Spirit of life hath manumitted thee from the law of sin and of death."hyperlink For albeit he may appear to be partly disputing from the standpoint of Judaism, yet it is to us that he is directing the integrity and plenitude of the rules of discipline,-(us), for whose sake soever, labouring (as we were) in the law, "God hath sent, through flesh, His own Son, in similitude of flesh of sin; and, became of sin, hath condemned sin in the flesh; in order that the righteousness of the law," he says, "might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to flesh, but according to (the) Spirit. For they who walk according to flesh are sensible as to those things which are the flesh's, and they who (walk) according to (the) Spirit those which (are) the Spirit's."hyperlink Moreover, he has affirmed the "sense of the flesh" to be "death; "hyperlink hence too, "enmity," and enmity toward God;hyperlink and that "they who are in the flesh," that is, in the sense of the flesh, "cannot please God: "hyperlink and, "If ye live according to flesh," he says, "it will come to pass that ye die."hyperlink But what do we understand "the sense of the flesh" and "the life of the flesh" (to mean), except whatever "it shames (one) to pronounce? "hyperlink for the other (works) of the flesh even an apostle would have named.hyperlink Similarly, too, (when writing) to the Ephesians, while recalling past (deeds), he warns (them) concerning the future: "In which we too had our conversation, doing the concupiscences and pleasures of the flesh."hyperlink Branding, in fine, such as had denied themselves-Christians, to wit-on the score of having "delivered themselves up to the working of every impunity,"hyperlink "But ye," he says, "not so have learnt Christ." And again he says thus: "Let him who was wont to steal, steal no more."hyperlink But, similarly, let him who was wont to commit adultery hitherto, not commit adultery; and he who was wont to fornicate hitherto, not fornicate: for he would have added these (admonitions) too, had he been in the habit of extending pardon to such, or at all willed it to be extended-(he) who, not willing pollution to be contracted even by a word, says, "Let no base speech proceed out of your mouth."hyperlink Again: "But let fornication and every impurity not be even named among you, as becometh saints,"hyperlink -so far is it from being excused,-"knowing this, that every fornicator or impure (person) hath not God's kingdom. Let none seduce you with empty words: on this account cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of unbelief."hyperlink Who "seduces with empty words" but he who states in a public harangue that adultery is remissible? not seeing into the fact that its very foundations have been dug out by the apostle, when he puts restraints upon drunkennesses and revellings, as withal here: "And be not inebriated with wine, in which is voluptuousness."hyperlink He demonstrates, too, to the Colossians what "members" they are to"mortify" upon earth: "fornication, impurity, lust, evil concupiscence," and "base talk."hyperlink Yield up, by this time, to so many and such sentences, the one (passage) to which you cling. Paucity is cast into the shade by multitude, doubt by certainty, obscurity by plainness. Even if, for certain, the apostle had granted pardon of fornication to that Corinthian, it would be another instance of his once for all contravening his own practice to meet the requirement of the time. He circumcised Timotheus alone, and yet did away with circumcision.hyperlink

Chapter XVIII.-Answer to a Psychical Objection.

"But these (passages)," says (our opponent), "will pertain to the interdiction of all immodesty, and the enforcing of all modesty, yet without prejudice to the place of pardon; which (pardon) is not forthwith quite denied when sins are condemned, since the time of the pardon is concurrent with the condemnation which it excludes."

This piece of shrewdness on the part of the Psychics was (naturally) sequent; and accordingly we have reserved for this place the cautions which, even in the times of antiquity, were openly taken with a view to the refusing of ecclesiastical communion to cases of this kind.

For even in the Proverbs, which we call Paroemiae, Solomon specially (treats) of the adulterer (as being) nowhere admissible to expiation. "But the adulterer," he says, "through indigence of senses acquireth perdition to his own soul; sustaineth dolors and disgraces. His ignominy, moreover, shall not be wiped away for the age. For indignation, full of jealousy, will not spare the man in the day of judgment."hyperlink If you think this said about a heathen, at all events about believers you have already heard (it said) through Isaiah: "Go out from the midst of them, and be separate, and touch not the impure."hyperlink You have at the very outset of the Psalms, "Blessed the man who hath not gone astray in the counsel of the impious, nor stood in the way of sinners, and sat in the state-chair of pestilence; "hyperlink whose voice,hyperlink withal, (is heard) subsequently: "I have not sat with the conclave of vanity; and with them who act iniquitously will I not enter"-this (has to do with "the church" of such as act ill-"and with the impious will I not sit; "hyperlink and, "I will wash with the innocent mine hands, and Thine altar will I surround, Lord"hyperlink -as being" a host in himself"-inasmuch as indeed "With an holy (man), holy Thou wilt be; and with an innocent man, innocent Thou wilt be; and with an elect, elect Thou wilt be; and with a perverse, perverse Thou wilt be."hyperlink And elsewhere: "But to the sinner saith the Lord, Why expoundest thou my righteous acts, and takest up my testament through thy mouth? If thou sawest a thief, thou rannest with him; and with adulterers thy portion thou madest."hyperlink Deriving his instructions, therefore, from hence, the apostle too says: "I wrote to you in the Epistle, not to be mingled up with fornicators: not, of course, with the fornicators of this world"-and so forth-" else it behoved you to go out from the world. But now I write to you, if any is named a brother among you, (being) a fornicator, or an idolater" (for what so intimately joined?), "or a defrauder" (for what so near akin?), and so on, "with such to take no food even,"hyperlink not to say the Eucharist: because, to wit, withal "a little leaven spoileth the flavour of the whole lump."hyperlink Again to Timotheus: "Lay hands on no one hastily, nor communicate with others' sins."hyperlink Again to the Ephesians: "Be not, then, partners with them: for ye were at one time darkness."hyperlink And yet more earnestly: "Communicate not with the unfruitful works of darkness; nay rather withal convict them. For (the things) which are done by them in secrecy it is disgraceful even to utter."hyperlink What more disgraceful than immodesties? If, moreover, even from a "brother" who "walketh idly"hyperlink he warns the Thessalonians to withdraw themselves, how much more withal from a fornicator! For these are the deliberate judgments of Christ, "loving the Church," who "hath delivered Him self up for her, that He may sanctify her (purifying her utterly by the layer of water) in the word, that He may present the Church to Him self glorious, not having stain or wrinkle"-of course after the laver-"but (that) she may be holy and without reproach; "hyperlink thereafter, to wit, being "without wrinkle" as a virgin, "without stain" (of fornication) as a spouse, "without disgrace" (of vileness), as having been "utterly purified."

What if, even here, you should conceive to reply that communion is indeed denied to sinners, very especially such as had been "polluted by the flesh,"hyperlink but (only) for the present; to be restored, to wit, as the result of penitential suing: in accordance with that clemency of God which prefers a sinner's repentance to his death?hyperlink -for this fundamental ground of your opinion must be universally attacked. We say, accordingly, that if it had been competent to the Divine clemency to have guaranteed the demonstration of itself even to the post-baptismally lapsed, the apostle would have said thus: "Communicate not with the works of darkness, unless they shall have repented; "and, "With such take not food even, unless after they shall have wiped, with rolling at their feet, the shoes of the brethren; "and, "Him who shall have marred the temple of God, shall God mar, unless he shall have shaken off from his head in the church the ashes of all hearths." For it had been his duty, in the case of those things which he had condemned, to have equally determined the extent to which he had (and that conditionally) condemned them-whether he had condemned them with a temporary and conditional, and not a perpetual, seventy. However, since in all Epistles he both prohibits such a character, (so sinning) after believing, from being admitted (to the society of believers); and, if admitted, detrudes him from communion, without hope of any condition or time; he sides more with our opinion, pointing out that the repentance which the Lord prefers is that which before believing, before baptism, is esteemed better than the death of the sinner,-(the sinner, I say,) once for all to be washed through the grace of Christ, who once for all has suffered death for our sins. For this (rule), even in his own person, the apostle has laid down. For, when affirming that Christ came for this end, that He might save sinners,hyperlink of whom himself had been the "first," what does he add? "And I obtained mercy, because I did (so) ignorantly in unbelief."hyperlink Thus that clemency of God, preferring the repentance of a sinner to his death, looks at such as are ignorant still, and still unbelieving, for the sake of whose liberation Christ came; not (at such) as already know God, and have learnt the sacrament of the faith. But if the clemency of God is applicable to such as are ignorant still, and unbelieving, of course it follows that repentance invites clemency to itself; without prejudice to that species of repentance after believing, which either, for lighter sins, will be able to obtain pardon from the bishop, or else, for greater and irremissible ones, from God only.hyperlink



Footnotes



137 Comp. 2 Thess. iii. 6, 11.

138 1 Cor. i. 14, 15; but the Greek is, eij to emon onoma.

139 1 Cor. ii. 2.

140 1 Cor. ix. 1.

141 Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 15.

142 1 Cor. vi. 3.

143 1 Cor. iv. 8, inaccurately.

144 1 Cor. viii. 2, inaccurately.

145 See 2 Cor. xi. 20.

146 1 Cor. iv. 7, with some words omitted.

147 Comp. Acts xxiii. 2.

148 1 Cor. viii. 7, 12, inaccurately.

149 Comp. Gal. ii. 18.

150 Comp. 2 Cor. x. 9.

151 Comp. Rom. i. 1, and the beginnings of his Epp. passim.

152 1 Tim. ii. 7.

153 Acts ix. 15.

154 Comp. Dan. ii. 8.

155 Comp. 1 Cor. v. 3.

156 Comp. Rev. i. 20, ii. 1, 8, 12, 18, iii. 1, 7, 14.

157 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2.

158 Ib., vi. 5, 6.

159 2 Cor. vi. 16-18.

160 2 Cor. vii. 1, not accurately given.

161 2 Cor. xii. 21, again inexactly given.

162 1 Cor. iii. 16, inexactly.

163 Ver. 17, not quite correctly.

164 Ver. 18.

165 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.

166 Ver. 11, inexactly.

167 Ver. 13.

168 Comp. Gen. i. 26, 27.

169 John i. 14.

170 1 Cor. vi. 14.

171 John ii. 19.

172 1 Cor. vi. 15-17.

173 1 Cor. vi. 18.

174 Comp. 1 Pet. i. 19; and c. vi. above, ad fin.

175 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, not exactly.

176 1 Cor. vii. 1-3.

177 Ib., ver. 6.

178 1 Cor. vii. 8, 9.

179 Matt. v. 32.

180 1 Cor. vii. 26-28, constantly quoted in previous treatises.

181 Mundo.

182 Vers. 32, 33, loosely.

183 1 Cor. vii. 38.

184 Vers. 39, 40.

185 Puto: Gr. dokw.

186 Ver. 40 ad fin.

187 1 Thess. ii. 3, omitting the last clause.

188 1 Thess. iv. 3-5.

189 Gal. v. 19-21.

190 Rom. vi. 1-11.

191 Ver. 12.

192 See Rom. vii. 18.

193 This exact expression does not occur; but comp. 2 Cor. iii. 6.

194 Comp. the last reference and Rom. viii. 2.

195 Rom. viii. 2, omitting en Xristw Ihsou, and substituting (unless it be a misprint) "te" for me.

196 Rom. viii. 3-5.

197 Ver. 6.

198 Ver. 7.

199 Ver. 8.

200 Ver. 12.

201 See Eph. v. 12.

202 As he did to the Galatians: see Gal. v. 19-21.

203 Eph. ii. 3, briefly, and not literally.

204 Eph. iv. 17-20.

205 Ver. 28.

206 Ver. 29 ad init.

207 Eph. v. 3.

208 Vers. 5, 6, not accurately.

209 Ver. 18.

210 See Col. iii. 5, 8.

211 Comp. Acts xvi. 1-3 with Gal. v. 2-6, and similar passages.

212 Prov. vi. 32-34.

213 Isa. lii. 11, quoted in 2 Cor. vi. 17.

214 Ps. i. 1 in LXX.

215 i.e., the voice of this "blessed man," this true "Asher."

216 Ps. xxvi. 4, 5 (in LXX. xxv. 4, 5).

217 Ps. xxvi. (xxv. in LXX.) 6, not quite exactly.

218 Ps. xviii. 25, 26 (in LXX. Ps. xviii. 26, 27), nearly.

219 Ps. l. (xlix. in LXX.) 16, 18.

220 1 Cor. v. 9-11.

221 Ver. 6.

222 1 Tim. v. 22.

223 Eph. v. 7, 8 ad init.

224 Vers. 11, 12.

225 2 Thess. iii. 6.

226 Eph. v. 26, 27.

227 Comp. Jude 23 ad fin.

228 Comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 11, etc.; and see cc. ii., xxii.

229 See 1 Tim. i. 15.

230 1 Tim. i. 13, 16.

231 See cc. iii. and xi., above.