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having a right life of faith. But if one has faith, but does evil things, and doubts about this very thing, and insults the teaching; we will rightly call him a babe, having run back to the beginning. So that even if we have ten thousand years in the faith, and are not firm in it, we are babes, when we display a life not consistent with it, when we are still laying a foundation. And to these, besides their life, he adds another charge, as being shaken, and needing to lay a foundation of repentance from dead works. For he who is transferring from one thing to another, leaving the one and choosing the other, must first condemn the former, and stand off from it in his disposition, and then come to the other; but if he is going to hold to the former again, 63.78 how will he take hold of the second? What then, he says, about the Law? We have condemned it, and we run back to it again. This is not a transfer; for here too we have a law. Do we then, he says, abolish the law through faith? God forbid, but we establish the law. But I was speaking of evil things. For he who is about to pursue virtue must first condemn vice, and then pursue it; for repentance did not have the power to show them clean. For this reason they were immediately baptized, so that what they were unable to accomplish by themselves, this might be done by the grace of Christ. Therefore neither is repentance sufficient for cleansing, but one must receive baptism. At any rate, one must come to baptism, having first condemned and voted against his sins. And what is, ‘Of the doctrine of baptisms’? Not as if there were many baptisms, but one. Why then did he say it in the plural? Because he had said, ‘Not laying again a foundation of repentance.’ For if he baptized them again, and catechized them from the beginning, and again being baptized from the start they were taught what to do and what not to do, they would continually remain uncorrected. And of the laying on of hands. For so they received the Spirit. For when Paul laid his hands on them, he says, the Holy Spirit came. And of the resurrection of the dead. For this happens both in baptism, and is confirmed in the confession. And of eternal judgment. And why does he say these things? Because it was likely that they, having already believed, were either being shaken, or were living badly and slothfully. So he says: Be sober. Therefore, drawing them away from such sloth, and making them more attentive, he makes this argument. For it is not possible to say, that if we now live slothfully, we will be baptized again, we will be catechized again, and we will receive the Spirit again; or, that if we now fall away from the faith, we will again be able, by being baptized, to wash away our sins, and to receive the same things as before. You are mistaken, he says, in thinking these things. For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put him to an open shame. And see how he begins with reproof and prohibition: Impossible, he says; that is, Do not expect what is not possible. For he did not say, It is not proper, nor expedient, nor permitted, but, Impossible; so as to cast them into despair, if you were enlightened once for all. 3. Then he adds, ‘and have tasted the heavenly gift;’ that is, of the remission. And ‘have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God.’ He means the teaching here. And ‘the powers of the age to come.’ What powers do you mean? Either the performing of miracles, or the earnest of the Spirit. And ‘have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify to themselves the 63.79 Son of God, and put him to an open shame.’ ‘To renew,’ he says, ‘to repentance;’ that is, by means of repentance; what then? Is repentance cast out? Not repentance, God forbid, but the renewal again by the font. For he did not say, ‘It is impossible to be renewed to repentance,’ and stop there; but after saying, ‘Impossible,’ he added, ‘since they crucify.’ To be renewed; that is,

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πίστεως βίον ἔχοντα ὀρθόν. Ἐὰν δέ τις πίστιν μὲν ἔχῃ, πράττῃ δὲ πονηρὰ, καὶ περὶ αὐτῆς δὲ ταύτης ἀμφιβάλλῃ, καὶ ὑβρίζῃ τὴν διδασκαλίαν· εἰκότως αὐτὸν φήσομεν νήπιον, ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀναδραμόντα. Ὥστε κἂν μυρία ἔτη ἐν τῇ πίστει ἔχωμεν, καὶ μὴ βέβαιοι ὦμεν ἐν αὐτῇ, νήπιοί ἐσμεν, ὅταν βίον αὐτῇ μὴ συμβαίνοντα ἐπιδεικνυώμεθα, ὅταν ἔτι θεμέλιον καταβαλλώμεθα. Τούτοις δὲ μετὰ τοῦ βίου καὶ ἄλλο καλεῖ, ὡς παρασαλευθεῖσι, καὶ δεομένοις θεμέλιον καταβάλλειν μετανοίας ἀπὸ νεκρῶν ἔργων. Τὸν γὰρ ἀπό τινος εἰς ἕτερον μετατιθέμενον, καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀφιέντα, τοῦτο δὲ αἱρούμενον, πρότερον αὐτοῦ καταγνῶναι χρὴ, καὶ ἀποστῆναι τῇ διαθέσει, καὶ τότε ἐλθεῖν ἐφ' ἕτερον· εἰ δὲ τοῦ προτέρου πάλιν ἔχεσθαι μέλλοι, 63.78 πῶς τοῦ δευτέρου ἅψεται; Τί οὖν, φησὶ, περὶ τοῦ νόμου; Κατέγνωμεν αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάλιν ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἀνατρέχομεν. Τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστι μετάθεσις· καὶ γὰρ ἐνταῦθα ἔχομεν νόμον. Νόμον οὖν, φησὶ, καταργοῦμεν διὰ τῆς πίστεως; Μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ νόμον ἱστῶμεν. Ἐγὼ δὲ περὶ πονηρῶν εἶπον πραγμάτων. Ὁ γὰρ μέλλων ἐπ' ἀρετὴν μετιέναι, πρότερον τῆς κακίας καταγνῶναι ὀφείλει, καὶ τότε αὐτὴν μετελθεῖν· οὐ γὰρ ἴσχυεν ἡ μετάνοια καθαροὺς αὐτοὺς δεῖξαι. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο εὐθέως ἐβαπτίζοντο, ἵν', ὅπερ ἀδυνάτως εἶχον ἐργάσασθαι δι' ἑαυτῶν, τοῦτο διὰ τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ γένηται χάριτος. Οὔτε οὖν μετάνοια ἀρκεῖ πρὸς τὸν καθαρισμὸν, ἀλλὰ δεῖ τὸ βάπτισμα παραλαβεῖν. Ἐπὶ γοῦν τὸ βάπτισμα ἔρχεσθαι δεῖ, πρότερον καταγνόντα τῶν ἡμαρτημένων αὐτῷ, καὶ καταψηφισάμενον. Τί δέ ἐστι, Βαπτισμῶν διδαχῆς; Οὐχ ὡς πολλῶν ὄντων τῶν βαπτισμῶν, ἀλλ' ἑνός. Τί οὖν αὐτὸ πληθυντικῶς εἶπε; ∆ιὰ τὸ εἰπεῖν, Μὴ πάλιν θεμέλιον καταβαλλόμενοι μετανοίας. Εἰ γὰρ πάλιν αὐτοὺς ἐβάπτισε, καὶ ἄνωθεν κατήχησε, καὶ πάλιν ἐξ ἀρχῆς βαπτισθέντες ἐδιδάσκοντο τὰ πρακτέα, καὶ τὰ μὴ πρακτέα, διηνεκῶς ἔμελλον ἀδιόρθωτοι μένειν. Καὶ ἐπιθέσεως χειρῶν. Οὕτω γὰρ τὸ Πνεῦμα ἐλάμβανον. Ἐπιθέντος γὰρ αὐτοῖς τοῦ Παύλου τὰς χεῖρας, φησὶν, ἦλθε τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. Ἀναστάσεώς τε νεκρῶν. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἔν τε τῷ βαπτίσματι γίνεται, καὶ ἐν τῇ ὁμολογίᾳ βεβαιοῦται. Καὶ κρίματος αἰωνίου. ∆ιὰ τί δὲ ταῦτά φησιν; Ἐπειδὴ εἰκὸς ἦν αὐτοὺς ἢ παρασαλεύεσθαι ἤδη πεπιστευκότας, ἢ κακῶς βιοῦν καὶ ῥᾳθύμως. Λέγει οὖν· Νήψατε. Ἀπάγων οὖν αὐτοὺς τῆς τοιαύτης ῥᾳθυμίας, καὶ προσεκτικωτέρους ποιῶν, τοῦτον τὸν λόγον κινεῖ. Οὐκ ἔνι γὰρ εἰπεῖν, ὅτι Ἂν νῦν ῥᾳθύμως ζήσωμεν, πάλιν βαπτισθησόμεθα, πάλιν κατηχηθησόμεθα, καὶ πάλιν ληψόμεθα τὸ Πνεῦμα· ἢ, ὅτι Ἂν νῦν τῆς πίστεως ἐκπέσωμεν, πάλιν δυνησόμεθα βαπτιζόμενοι τὰ ἁμαρτήματα ἀπολούσασθαι, καὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τυχεῖν ὧνπερ καὶ πρότερον. Σφάλλεσθε, φησὶ, ταῦτα νομίζοντες. Ἀδύνατον γὰρ τοὺς ἅπαξ φωτισθέντας, γευσαμένους τε τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς ἐπουρανίου, καὶ μετόχους γενηθέντας Πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ καλὸν γευσαμένους Θεοῦ ῥῆμα, δυνάμεις τε μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, καὶ παραπεσόντας, πάλιν ἀνακαινίζειν εἰς μετάνοιαν, ἀνασταυροῦντας ἑαυτοῖς τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ παραδειγματίζοντας. Καὶ ὅρα πῶς ἐντρεπτικῶς καὶ ἀπαγορευτικῶς ἄρχεται· Ἀδύνατον, φησί· τουτέστι, Μηκέτι προσδόκα τὸ μὴ δυνατόν. Οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν, Οὐ πρέπει, οὐδὲ συμφέρει, οὐδὲ ἔξεστιν, ἀλλ', Ἀδύνατον· ὥστε εἰς ἀπόγνωσιν ἐμβαλεῖν, εἰ ὅλως ἐφωτίσθητε ἅπαξ. γʹ. Εἶτα ἐπάγει, Γευσαμένους τε τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς ἐπουρανίου· τουτέστι, τῆς ἀφέσεως. Καὶ μετόχους γενηθέντας Πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ καλὸν γευσαμένους Θεοῦ ῥῆμα. Τὴν διδασκαλίαν ἐνταῦθα λέγει. ∆υνάμεις τε μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. Τίνας λέγεις δυνάμεις; Ἢ τὸ θαύματα ἐπιτελεῖν, ἢ τὸν ἀῤῥαβῶνα τοῦ Πνεύματος. Καὶ παραπεσόντας, πάλιν ἀνακαινίζειν εἰς μετάνοιαν, ἀνασταυροῦντας ἑαυτοῖς τὸν 63.79 Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ παραδειγματίζοντας. Ἀνακαινίζειν, φησὶν, εἰς μετάνοιαν· τουτέστι, διὰ μετανοίας· τί οὖν; ἐκβέβληται ἡ μετάνοια; Οὐχ ἡ μετάνοια, μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλ' ὁ διὰ λουτροῦ πάλιν ἀνακαινισμός. Οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν, Ἀδύνατον ἀνακαινισθῆναι εἰς μετάνοιαν, καὶ ἐσίγησεν· ἀλλ' εἰπὼν, Ἀδύνατον ἐπήγαγεν, Ἀνασταυροῦντας. Ἀνακαινισθῆναι· τουτέστι,