Chapter XV.—The Same Subject Continued.

If you hammer out the sequel of that Epistle to illustrate the meaning of the apostle, neither will that sequel be found to square with the obliteration of incest; lest even here the apostle be put to the blush by the incongruity of his later meanings.  For what kind (of hypothesis) is it, that the very moment after making a largess of restoration to the privileges of ecclesiastical peace to an incestuous fornicator, he should forthwith have proceeded to accumulate exhortations about turning away from impurities, about pruning away of blemishes, about exhortations to deeds of sanctity, as if he had decreed nothing of a contrary nature just before?  Compare, in short, (and see) whether it be his province to say, “Wherefore, having this ministration, in accordance with (the fact) that we have obtained mercy, we faint not; but renounce the secret things of disgrace,”156    2 Cor. iv. 1, 2. who has just released from condemnation one manifestly convicted of, not “disgrace” merely, but crime too:  whether it be province, again, to excuse a conspicuous immodesty, who, among the counts of his own labours, after “straits and pressures,” after “fasts and vigils,” has named “chastity” also:157    Ib. vi. 5, 6.  whether it be, once more, his province to receive back into communion whatsoever reprobates, who writes, “For what society (is there) between righteousness and iniquity? what communion, moreover, between light and darkness? what consonance between Christ and Belial? or what part for a believer with an unbeliever? or what agreement between the temple of God and idols?”  Will he not deserve to hear constantly (the reply); “And in what manner do you make a separation between things which, in the former part of your Epistle, by restitution of the incestuous one, you have joined?  For by his restoration to concorporate unity with the Church, righteousness is made to have fellowship with iniquity, darkness has communion with light, Belial is consonant with Christ, and believer shares the sacraments with unbeliever.  And idols may see to themselves:  the very vitiator of the temple of God is converted into a temple of God:  for here, too, he says, ‘For ye are a temple of the living God.  For He saith, That I will dwell in you, and will walk in (you), and will be their God, and they shall be to Me a people.  Wherefore depart from the midst of them, be separate, and touch not the unclean.’158    2 Cor. vi. 16–18.  This (thread of discourse) also you spin out, O apostle, when at the very moment you yourself are offering your hand to so huge a whirlpool of impurities; nay, you superadd yet further, ‘Having therefore this promise, beloved, cleanse we ourselves out from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting chastity in God’s fear.’”159    2 Cor. vii. 1, not accurately given.  I pray you, had he who fixes such (exhortations) in our minds been recalling some notorious fornicator into the Church? or is his reason for writing it, to prevent himself from appearing to you in the present day to have so recalled him?  These (words of his) will be in duty bound alike to serve as a prescriptive rule for the foregone, and a prejudgment for the following, (parts of the Epistle).  For in saying, toward the end of the Epistle, “Lest, when I shall have come, God humble me, and I bewail many of those who have formerly sinned, and have not repented of the impurity which they have committed, the fornication, and the vileness,”160    2 Cor. xii. 21, again inexactly given. he did not, of course, determine that they were to be received back (by him into the Church) if they should have entered (the path of) repentance, whom he was to find in the Church, but that they were to be bewailed, and indubitably ejected, that they might lose (the benefit of) repentance.  And, besides, it is not congruous that he, who had above asserted that there was no communion between light and darkness, righteousness and iniquity, should in this place have been indicating somewhat touching communion.  But all such are ignorant of the apostle as understand anything in a sense contrary to the nature and design of the man himself, contrary to the norm and rule of his doctrines; so as to presume that he, a teacher of every sanctity, even by his own example, an execrator and expiator of every impurity, and universally consistent with himself in these points, restored ecclesiastical privileges to an incestuous person sooner than to some more mild offender.

CAPUT XV.

1009B

Si etiam sequentia illius Epistolae ad intentationem Apostoli extendas, nec ipsa comparabuntur ad obliterationem incesti, ne et hic suffundatur Apostolus posteriorum incongruentia sensuum. Quale est enim ut cum maxime incesto fornicatori postliminium largitus ecclesiasticae pacis, statim ingesserit de aversatione immunditiarum, de amputatione macularum, de exhortatione sanctimoniarum, quasi nihil contrarium Paulo ante decreverit? Compara denique an ejus sit dicere: Propterea habentes ministrationem istam, secundum quod misericordiam consecuti sumus, non deficimus, sed abdicamus occulta dedecoris (II Cor., IV, 1, 2); qui non dedecoris tantum, sed et sceleris manifestum dedamnaverit : an ejusdem sit excusare 1009C aliquam impudicitiam qui inter titulos laborum suorum, post angustias atque pressuras, post jejunia et vigilias, castimoniam quoque praedicarit (II Cor., VI, 5, seqq.); an ejusdem sit recipere in communicationem reprobos quosque, qui scribat: Quae enim societas justitiae et iniquitati? quae autem communicatio luci et tenebris? Quae consonantia Christo et Belial; aut quae pars fideli cum infideli? Aut quis consensus templo Dei et idolis (Ibid. 14-16)? Nonne constanter audire debebit: Et quomodo discernis quae supra incesti restitutione junxisti? illo enim concorporato rursus Ecclesiae, et justitia cum iniquitate sociatur, et tenebrae cum luce communicant, et Belial consonat Christo, et infidelis cum fideli sacramenta participat. Et viderint idola, ipse templi Dei vitiator 1009D in templum Dei convenit. Nam et hic: Vos enim, inquit, estis templum Dei vivi; dicit enim: 1010A Quia inhabitabo in vobis, et inambulabo, et ego Deus illorum, et illi erunt mihi populus. Propter quod discedite de medio eorum, separamini, et immundum ne attigeritis (Ibid. 1, 17). Hoc quoque evolvis, o Apostole, ut cum maxime ipse tanto immunditiarum gurgiti manum tradis, et adhuc superdicis: Habentes igitur promissionem istam, dilecti, emundemus nos ab omni inquinamento carnis et spiritus, perficientes castimoniam in Dei timore (II Cor., VII, 1). Oro te, qui talia infigit mentibus nostris, revocaverat aliquem fornicatorem in Ecclesiam? an ideo scribit, ne tibi nunc revocasse videatur? Haec, sicuti et praeteritis praescribere, ita et sequentibus praejudicare debebunt; in finem enim Epistolae dicens: Ne rursus cum venero humiliet me Deus, et lugeam multos eorum qui ante 1010B deliquerunt, et poenitentiam non egerunt super immunditia quam admiserunt, fornicatione et vilitate (II Cor., XII, 21); non utique recipiendos constituit, si poenitentiam inissent, quos in Ecclesia inventurus erat, sed fugendos et sine dubio ejiciendos, ut poenitentiam perderent. Et caeterum non competit eum de communicatione aliquid hic ostendisse, qui eam supra luci et tenebris, justitiae et iniquitati negarat. Sed ignorant Apostolum omnes isti, qui aliquid contra naturam atque propositum hominis ipsius, contra formam et regulam doctrinam ejus intelligunt ut sanctitatis omnis etiam ex semetipso magistrum, impuritatis omnis exsecratorem et expiatorem, et ubique talem, citius incesto, quam alicui humaniori reo Ecclesiam reddidisse praesumat.