Chapter 4 [IV.]—Pelagians and Manicheans on the Praise of the Creature.

These things being so, what advantage is it to new heretics, enemies of the cross of Christ and opposers of divine grace, that they seem sound from the error of the Manicheans, if they are dying by another pestilence of their own? What advantage is it to them, that in the praise of the creature they say “that the good God is the maker of those that are born, by whom all things were made, and that the children of men are His work,” whom the Manicheans say are the work of the prince of darkness; when between them both, or among them both, God’s creation, which is in infants, is perishing? For both of them refuse to have it delivered by Christ’s flesh and blood,—the one, because they destroy that very flesh and blood, as if He did not take upon Him these at all in man or of man; and the other, because they assert that there is no evil in infants from which they should be delivered by the sacrament of this flesh and blood. Between them lies the human creature in infants, with a good origination, with a corrupted propagation, confessing for its goods a most excellent Creator, seeking for its evils a most merciful Redeemer, having the Manicheans as disparagers of its benefits, having the Pelagians as deniers of its evils, and both as persecutors. And although in infancy there is no power to speak, yet with its silent look and its hidden weakness it addresses the impious vanity of both, saying to the one, “Believe that I am created by Him who creates good things;” and saying to the other, “Suffer me to be healed by Him who created me.” The Manicheans say, “There is nothing of this infant save the good soul to be delivered; the rest,” which belongs not to the good God, but to the prince of darkness, “is to be rejected.” The Pelagians say, “Certainly there is nothing of this infant to be delivered, because we have shown the whole to be safe.” Both lie; but now the accuser of the flesh alone is more bearable than the praiser, who is convicted of cruelty against the whole. But neither does the Manichean help the human soul by blaspheming God, the Author of the entire man; nor does the Pelagian permit the divine grace to come to the help of human infancy by denying original sin. Therefore it is by the catholic faith that God has mercy, seeing that by condemning both mischievous doctrines it comes to the help of the infant for salvation. It says to the Manicheans, “Hear the apostle crying, ‘Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost in you?’256    1 Cor. vi. 19. and believe that the good God is the Creator of bodies, because the temple of the Holy Ghost cannot be the work of the prince of darkness.” It says to the Pelagians, “The infant that you look upon ‘was conceived in iniquity, and in sin its mother nourished it in the womb.’257    Ps. li. 5. Why, as if in defending it as free from all mischief, do you not permit it to be delivered by mercy? No one is pure from uncleanness, not even the infant whose life is of one day upon the earth.258    Job xiv. 4, 5. See LXX. Allow the wretched creatures to receive remission of sins, through Him who alone neither as small nor great could have any sin.”

CAPUT IV.

De laude creaturae, Pelagiani, Manichaei. His ita se habentibus, quid prodest novellis haereticis, inimicis crucis Christi et divinae oppugnatoribus gratiae, quod a Manichaeorum errore sani videntur, et alia sua pestilentia moriuntur? Quid eis prodest, quod in laude 0612 creaturae dicunt, «Deum bonum nascentium conditorem, per quem facta sunt omnia, ejusque opus esse filios hominum,» quos Manichaei dicunt opus esse principis tenebrarum; cum inter utrosque, vel apud utrosque Dei creatura, quae est in infantibus pereat? Utrique enim nolunt eam Christi carne et sanguine liberari: illi quia ipsam carnem et sanguinem Christi, tanquam haec omnino in homine vel ex homine non susceperit, destruunt; isti autem, quia nullum malum inesse infantibus asserunt, unde per Sacramentum carnis hujus et sanguinis liberentur. Jacet inter illos in parvulis humana creatura institutione bona, propagatione vitiata; bonis suis confitens optimum conditorem, malis suis quaerens misericordissimum redemptorem; Manichaeos habens bonorum suorum vituperatores, Pelagianos habens malorum suorum negatores, utrosque persecutores. Et quamvis per infantiam loqui non valeat, specie tamen tacita et infirmitate abdita impiam vanitatem utrorumque compellat, et illis dicens, Ab eo qui bona creat, credite me creari; et istis dicens, Ab eo qui me creavit, sinite me sanari. Manichaeus dicit: Nihil est hujus infantis, nisi anima bona liberanda; caetera non ad Deum bonum, sed ad principem tenebrarum pertinentia respuenda . Pelagianus dicit: Imo hujus infantis nihil est liberandum, quia totum ostendimus salvum. Ambo mentiuntur: sed jam mitior est carnis solius accusator, quam qui in universum convincitur saevire laudator. Sed nec Manichaeus humanae animae subvenit, blasphemando auctorem totius hominis Deum; nec Pelagianus humanae infantiae divinam gratiam subvenire permittit, negando originale peccatum. Deus ergo miseretur per catholicam fidem, quae utramque redarguendo perniciem, infanti subvenit ad salutem; Manichaeis dicens, Audite Apostolum clamantem, Nescitis quia corpus vestrum templum est in vobis Spiritus sancti (I Cor. VI, 19)? et Deum bonum creatorem credite corporum, quia non potest esse templum Spiritus sancti opus principis tenebrarum: Pelagianis dicens, In iniquitatibus conceptus est, et in peccatis eum mater ejus in utero aluit (Psal. L, 7), quem conspicitis parvulum. Quid eum tanquam ab omni noxa liberum defendendo, non permittitis per indulgentiam liberari? Nemo mundus a sorde, nec infans cujus est diei unius vita super terram (Job XIV, 5, sec. LXX). Sinite miserum remissionem accipere peccatorum, per eum qui solus nec parvus nec magnus potuit habere peccatum.