Chapter 26.—Further Appeals to Cyprian’s Teaching.

Does that holy and so memorable instructor of the Churches in the word of truth, deny that there is free will in men, because he attributes to God the whole of your righteous living? Does he reproach God’s law, because he intimates that man is not justified by it, seeing that he declares that what that law commands must be obtained from the Lord God by prayers? Does he assert fate under the name of grace, by saying that we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own? Does he, like these, believe that the Holy Spirit is in such wise the aider of virtue, as if that very virtue which it assists springs from ourselves, when, asserting that nothing is our own, he mentions in this respect that the apostle said, “For what hast thou that thou hast not received?” and says that the most excellent virtue, that is, patience, does not begin from us, and afterwards receive aid by the Spirit of God, but from Him Himself takes its source, from Him takes its origin? Finally, he confesses that neither good purpose, nor desire of virtue, nor good dispositions, begin to be in men without God’s grace, when he says that “we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own.” What is so established in free will as what the law says, that we must not worship an idol, must not commit adultery, must do no murder? Nay, these crimes, and such like, are of such a kind that, if any one should commit them, he is removed from the communion of the body of Christ. And yet, if the blessed Cyprian thought that our own will was sufficient for not committing these crimes, he would not in such wise understand what we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” as that he should assert that we ask “that we may not by the interposition of some heinous sin—by being prevented as abstaining, and not communicating, from partaking of the heavenly bread—be separated from Christ’s body.” Let these new heretics answer of a surety what good merit precedes, in men who are enemies of the name of Christ? For not only have they no good merit, but they have, moreover, the very worst merit. And yet, Cyprian even thus understands what we say in the prayer, “Thy will be done in heaven, and in earth:” that we pray also for those very persons who in this respect are called earth. We pray, therefore, not only for the unwilling, but also for the objecting and resisting. What, then, do we ask, but that from unwilling they may be made willing; from objecting, consenting; from resisting, loving? And by whom, but by Him of whom it is written, “The will is prepared by God”?337    Prov. viii. 36. Let them, then, who disdain, if they do not do any evil and if they do any good, to glory, not in themselves, but in the Lord, learn to be catholics.

26. Numquid iste sanctus tam memorabilis Ecclesiarum in verbo veritatis instructor, liberum arbitrium negat esse in hominibus, quia Deo totum tribuit quod recte vivimus? Numquid legem Dei culpat, quia non ex ipsa justificari hominem significat; quandoquidem quod illa jubet, a Domino Deo precibus impetrandum esse declarat? Numquid sub nomine gratiae fatum asserit, quamvis dicat, in nullo gloriandum, quando nostrum nihil sit? Numquid, sicut isti, Spiritum sanctum adjutorem ita credit esse virtutis, tanquam ipsa virtus quae ab hoc adjuvatur, oriatur ex nobis, quando nostrum nihil esse asserens, propter hoc Apostolum dixisse commemorat, Quid enim habes, quod non accepisti? virtutemque excellentissimam, hoc est, patientiam, non a nobis dicit incipere, ac deinde adjuvari Spiritu Dei; sed ab ipso caput, ab ipso originem sumere? Postremo nec propositum bonum, nec studium virtutis, nec mentes bonas sine gratia Dei incipere esse in hominibus confitetur, cum dicit, in nullo gloriandum, quando nostrum nihil sit. Quid tam in libero arbitrio constitutum, quam quod lex dicit, non adorandum idolum, non moechandum, non homicidium perpetrandum? Ista autem sunt atque hujusmodi crimina, quae si quisquam commiserit, a corporis Christi communione removetur. Et tamen si beatissimus Cyprianus his non committendis existimaret nostram sufficere voluntatem, non sic intelligeret quod in oratione dominica dicimus, Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie; ut hoc nos petere asseveraret, ne intercedente aliquo graviore delicto, dum abstenti et non communicantes a coelesti pane prohibemur, a Christi corpore separemur. Respondeant certe haeretici novi, quid bonorum meritorum praecedat in hominibus inimicis nomini christiano. Non solum enim non habent bonum, sed habent etiam pessimum meritum. Et tamen etiam sic Cyprianus intelligit, quod in oratione dicimus, Fiat voluntas tua in coelo et in terra: ut et pro ipsis, qui propter hoc terra intelliguntur , oremus. Oramus ergo non solum pro nolentibus, verum etiam pro repugnantibus et oppugnantibus. Quid ergo petimus, nisi ut fiant ex nolentibus volentes, ex repugnantibus consentientes, ex oppugnantibus amantes? A quo, nisi ab illo de quo scriptum est, Praeparatur voluntas a Domino (Prov. VIII, sec. LXX)? Discant ergo esse catholici, qui dedignantur, si quid mali non faciunt, et si quid boni faciunt, non in se ipsis, sed in Domino gloriari.