Chapter 27 [X.]—Cyprian’s Testimonies Concerning the Imperfection of Our Own Righteousness.

Let us, then, see that third point, which in these men is not less shocking to every member of Christ and to His whole body,—that they contend that there are in this life, or that there have been, righteous men having absolutely no sin.338    This assertion of the Pelagians was condemned in an African Council in 418. In which presumption they most manifestly contradict the Lord’s Prayer, wherein, with truthful heart and with daily words, all the members of Christ cry aloud, “Forgive us our debts.” Let us see, then, what Cyprian, most glorious in the Lord, thought of this,—what he not only said for the instruction of the Churches, not, of course, of the Manicheans, but of the catholics, but also committed to letters and to memory. In the epistle on “Works and Alms,” he says: “Let us then acknowledge, beloved brethren, the wholesome gift of the divine mercy, and let us who cannot be without some wound of conscience heal our wounds by the spiritual remedies for the cleansing and purging of our sins. Nor let any one so flatter himself with the notion of a pure and immaculate heart, as, in dependence on his own innocence, to think that the medicine needs not to be applied to his wounds; since it is written, ‘Who shall boast that he hath a clean heart, or who shall boast that he is pure from sins?’339    Prov. xx. 9. And again, in his epistle, John lays it down and says, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’340    1 John i. 8. But if no one can be without sin, and whoever should say that he is without fault is either proud or foolish, how needful, how kind is the divine mercy, which, knowing that there are still found some wounds in those that have been healed, has given even after their healing wholesome remedies for the curing and healing of their wounds anew!”341    Cyprian, work cited, ch. 2; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. v. p. 476. Again, in the same treatise he says: “And since there cannot fail daily to be sins committed in the sight of God, there failed not daily sacrifices wherewith the sins might be cleansed away.”342    Ibid., p. 480. Also, in the treatise on the Mortality, he says: “Our warfare is with avarice, with immodesty, with anger, with ambition; our trying and toilsome wrestling with carnal vices, with the enticements of the world. The mind of man besieged, and on every hand invested with the onsets of the devil, scarcely meets the repeated attacks, scarcely resists them. If avarice is prostrated, lust springs up. If lust is overcome, ambition takes its place. If ambition is despised, anger exasperates, pride puffs up, wine-bibbing entices; envy breaks concord; jealousy cuts friendship; you are constrained to curse, which the divine law forbids; you are compelled to swear, which is not lawful. So many persecutions the soul suffers daily, with so many risks is the heart wearied; and yet it delights to abide here long among the devil’s weapons, although it should rather be our craving and wish to hasten to Christ by the aid of a quicker death.”343    Ibid. work cited, chs. 3, 4, p. 470. Again, in the same treatise he says: “The blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle lays it down, saying, ‘To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain;’344    Phil. i. 21. counting it the greatest gain no longer to be held by the snares of this world, no longer to be liable to the sins and vices of the flesh.”345    Cyprian, ibid. Moreover, on the Lord’s Prayer, explaining what it is we ask when we say, “Hallowed be thy name,” he says, among other matters: “For we have need of daily sanctification, that we, who daily fall away, may wash out our sins by continual sanctification.”346    Cyprian, work cited, ch. 9, p. 450. Again, in the same treatise, when he would explain our saying, “Forgive us our debts,” he says: “And how necessarily, how providently and salutarily, are we admonished that we are sinners, since we are compelled to entreat for our sins; and while pardon is asked for from God, the soul recalls its own consciousness of guilt. Lest any one should flatter himself as being innocent, and by exalting himself should more deeply perish, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden to entreat daily for his sins. Thus, moreover, John also in his epistle warns us, and says: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.’”347    Cyprian, ibid. ch. 16 (xxii.), p. 453. Rightly, also, he proposed in his letter to Quirinus his own most absolute judgment on this subject, to which he subjoined the divine testimonies, “That no one is without filth and without sin.”348    Cyprian, Testimonies, iii. 54; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. p. 529. There also he set down those testimonies by which original sin is confirmed, which these men endeavour to twist into I know not what new and evil meanings, whether what the holy Job says, “No one is pure from filth, not one even if his life be of one day upon the earth,”349    Job xiv. 4, 5. or what is read in the Psalm, “Behold, I was conceived in iniquity; and in sins hath my mother nourished me in the womb.”350    Ps. li. 5. To which testimonies, on account of those also who are already holy in mature age, since even they are not without filth and sin, he added also that word of the most blessed John, which he often mentions in many other places besides, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves;”351    1 John i. 8. and other passages of the same sentiment, which are asserted by all catholics, by way of opposing those “who deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them.”

CAPUT X.

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27. Cypriani testimonia de justitiae nostrae imperfectione. Illud jam tertium videamus, quod non minus in istis omne Christi membrum et totum ejus corpus exhorret, quia contendunt esse in hac vita, vel fuisse justos, nullum habentes omnino peccatum . Qua praesumptione apertissime orationi dominicae contradicunt, in qua omnia membra Christi, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, veraci corde et quotidianis vocibus clamant. Videamus ergo quid etiam ex hoc Cyprianus in Domino gloriosissimus senserit; quid ad instruendas Ecclesias, non utique Manichaeorum, sed Catholicorum, non solum dixerit, verum etiam litteris, memoriaeque mandaverit. In epistola de Opere et Eleemosynis: «Agnoscamus itaque, fratres,» inquit, «dilectissimi, divinae indulgentiae salubre munus, et emundandis purgandisque peccatis nostris, qui sine aliquo conscientiae vulnere esse non possumus, medelis spiritualibus vulnera nostra curemus. Nec quisquam sic sibi de puro atque de immaculato pectore blandiatur, ut innocentia sua fretus medicinam non putet adhibendam esse vulneribus: cum scriptum sit, Quis gloriabitur castum se habere cor? aut quis gloriabitur mundum se esse a peccatis (Prov. XX, 9)? et iterum in Epistola sua Joannes ponat et dicat, Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos decipimus, et veritas in nobis non est (I Joan. I, 8). Si autem nemo esse sine peccato potest, et quisquis se inculpatum dixerit, aut superbus aut stultus est: quam necessaria, quam benigna est divina clementia; quae cum sciat non deesse sanatis quaedam postmodum vulnera, dedit curandis denuo sanandisque vulneribus remedia salutaria?» Rursus in eadem: «Et quoniam quotidie,» inquit, «deesse non potest quod peccetur in conspectu Dei; sacrificia quotidiana non deerant , quibus possent peccata tergi.» Item in epistola de Mortalitate: «Cum avaritia,» inquit, «nobis, cum impudicitia, cum ira, cum ambitione congressio est; cum carnalibus vitiis, cum illecebris saecularibus assidua et molesta luctatio est: obsessa mens hominis, et undique diaboli infestatione vallata, vix occurrit singulis, vix resistit. Si avaritia prostrata est, exsurgit libido; si libido compressa est, succedit ambitio; si ambitio contempta est, ira exasperat, inflat superbia, vinolentia invitat, invidia concordiam rumpit, amicitiam zelus abscindit: cogeris maledicere, quod divina lex prohibet; compelleris jurare, quod non licet. Tot persecutiones animus quotidie patitur, 0630 tot periculis pectus urgetur , et delectat hic inter diaboli gladios diu stare; cum magis concupiscendum sit et optandum, ad Christum subveniente velocius morte properare.» Item in ipsa: «Beatus,» inquit. «apostolus Paulus in Epistola sua ponit et dicit, Mihi vivere Christus est, et mori lucrum (Philipp. I, 21): lucrum maximum computans jam saecularibus laqueis non teneri, jam nullis peccatis et vitiis carnis obnoxium fieri.» Item de oratione dominica, exponens quod petimus dicentes, Sanctificetur nomen tuum; ait inter caetera: «Opus est enim nobis quotidiana sanctificatione, ut qui quotidie delinquimus, delicta nostra sanctificatione assidua repurgemus.» Rursus in eadem, cum exponeret quod dicimus, Dimitte nobis debita nostra (Matth. VI, 9, 12): «Quam necessarie autem,» inquit, «quam providenter et salubriter admonemur, quod peccatores sumus, qui pro peccatis rogare compellimur; ut dum indulgentia de Deo petitur, conscientiae suae animus recordetur! Ne quis sibi quasi innocens placeat, et se extollendo plus pereat, instruitur et docetur peccare se quotidie, dum quotidie pro peccatis jubetur orare. Sic denique et Joannes in Epistola sua monet dicens, Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos decipimus, et veritas in nobis non est. Si autem confessi fuerimus peccata nostra, fidelis et justus est qui nobis peccata dimittat» (I Joan. I, 8 et 9). Merito et ad Quirinum de hac re absolutissimam sententiam suam proposuit, cui testimonia divina subjungeret, «Neminem sine sorde et sine peccato esse» (Lib. 3, cap. 54): ubi etiam illa testimonia posuit, quibus confirmatur originale peccatum, quae conantur isti in nescio quos alios novos sensus pravosque convertere: sive quod ait sanctus Job, Neminem esse sine sorde, nec cujus sit vita diei unius super terram (Job XIV, 5, sec. LXX); sive quod in Psalmo legitur, In facinore conceptus sum, et in peccatis me mater mea in utero aluit (Psal. L, 7). Quibus testimoniis, propter eos etiam qui jam in aetate majori sunt sancti, quia nec ipsi sunt sine sorde atque peccato, adjunxit etiam illud beatissimi Joannis, quod multis et aliis locis saepe commemorat: Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus; et caetera ejusdem sententiae, quae ab omnibus Catholicis non tacentur adversus istos, qui se ipsos decipiunt, et in eis veritas non est.