Chapter X.

St. John did not absolutely forbid that prayer should be made for those who “sin unto death,” since he knew that Moses, Jeremiah, and Stephen had so prayed, and he himself implies that forgiveness is not to be denied them.

44. Such intercessors, then, must be sought for after very grievous sins, for if any ordinary persons pray they are not heard.

45. So that point of yours will have no weight, which you take from the Epistle of John, where he says: “He who knows that his brother sinneth a sin not unto death, let him ask, and God will give him life, because he sinned not unto death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning it do I say, let him ask.”72    1 John v. 16. He was not speaking to Moses and Jeremiah, but to the people, who must seek another intercessor for their sins; the people, for whom it is sufficient they entreat God for their lighter faults, and consider that pardon for weightier sins must be reserved for the prayers of the just. For how could John say that graver sins should not be prayed for, when he had read that Moses prayed and obtained his request, where there had been wilful casting off of faith, and knew that Jeremiah also had entreated?

46. How could John say that we should not pray for the sin unto death, who himself in the Apocalypse wrote the message to the angel of the Church of Pergamos? “Thou hast there those that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to put a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrines of the Nicolaitans. Repent likewise, or else I will come to thee quickly.”73    Rev. ii. 14, 15, 16. Do you see that the same God Who requires repentance promises forgiveness? And then He says: “He that hath ears let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.”74    Rev. ii. 17.

47. Did not John himself know that Stephen prayed for his persecutors, who had not been able even to listen to the Name of Christ, when he said of those very men by whom he was being stoned: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”?75    Acts vii. 60. And we see the result of this prayer in the case of the Apostle, for Paul, who kept the garments of those who were stoning Stephen, not long after became an apostle by the grace of God, having before been a persecutor.

CAPUT X.

Joannem non absolute ac simpliciter prohibuisse ne pro sontibus peccati ad mortem fieret oratio; cum pro similibus Moysen, Jeremiam ac Stephanum orasse non ignoraverit; et ipse quoque iisdem veniam significaverit non denegandam.

44. [Alias cap. IX.] Tales igitur deprecatores in delictis maximis sunt requirendi; nam si quicumque de populo orent, non exaudiuntur.

45. Unde nec illa quaestio vestra quidquam poterit afferre ponderis, quam sumitis de epistola Joannis dicentis: Qui scit fratrem suum peccare peccatum non ad mortem, petat, et dabit illi vitam Deus; quia 0480C non peccat ad mortem. Est peccatum ad mortem, non de illo dico, ut oret (I Joan. V, 16); non enim ad Moysen et Hieremiam loquebatur, sed ad populum, qui suorum peccatorum alium precatorem deberet adhibere: cui satis est si pro levioribus delictis Deum precetur, graviorum veniam justorum orationibus reservandam putet. Nam (De Poenit. dist. 1, c. Si sacerdos, § Nam quomodo) quomodo Joannes diceret 403 non orandum pro delicto graviore, qui legisset Moysen rogasse et impetrasse; ubi erat praevaricatio voluntaria: qui sciret etiam Hieremiam rogasse (Jerem. XIV, 13).

0481A 46. Quomodo Joannes diceret non orandum pro peccato quod esset ad mortem, qui ipse in Apocalypsi scripsit mandatum Angelo Ecclesiae Pergami (Apoc. II, 12)? Habes illic tenentes doctrinam Balaam, qui docebat Balaac mittere scandalum coram filiis Israel, manducare immolata, et fornicari; ita et tu habes tenentes doctrinam Nicolaitarum, similiter age poenitentiam: caeterum venio tibi cito. Vides quod Deus qui poenitentiam exigit, veniam polliceatur! Denique et ibi dicit: Qui habet aures, audiat quid Spiritus dicat Ecclesiis: Vincenti dabo manducare manna absconditum (Apoc. II, 7).

47. Nonne ipse Joannes cognoverat Stephanum pro persecutoribus suis, qui Christi nomen audire non poterant, deprecatum; cum de ipsis a quibus 0481B lapidabatur diceret: Domine, ne statuas illis hoc peccatum (Act. VII, 59)? Cujus precationis effectum in Apostolo videmus; Paulus enim qui lapidantium Stephanum vestimenta servabat (Act. IX, 15), non multo postea per gratiam Christi factus est apostolus, qui fuerat ante persecutor.