Chapter XVIII.—Answer to a Psychical Objection.

“But these (passages),” says (our opponent), “will pertain to the interdiction of all immodesty, and the enforcing of all modesty, yet without prejudice to the place of pardon; which (pardon) is not forthwith quite denied when sins are condemned, since the time of the pardon is concurrent with the condemnation which it excludes.”

This piece of shrewdness on the part of the Psychics was (naturally) sequent; and accordingly we have reserved for this place the cautions which, even in the times of antiquity, were openly taken with a view to the refusing of ecclesiastical communion to cases of this kind.

For even in the Proverbs, which we call Parœmiæ, Solomon specially (treats) of the adulterer (as being) nowhere admissible to expiation.  “But the adulterer,” he says, “through indigence of senses acquireth perdition to his own soul; sustaineth dolors and disgraces.  His ignominy, moreover, shall not be wiped away for the age.  For indignation, full of jealousy, will not spare the man in the day of judgment.”211    Prov. vi. 32–34.  If you think this said about a heathen, at all events about believers you have already heard (it said) through Isaiah:  “Go out from the midst of them, and be separate, and touch not the impure.”212    Isa. lii. 11, quoted in 2 Cor. vi. 17.  You have at the very outset of the Psalms, “Blessed the man who hath not gone astray in the counsel of the impious, nor stood in the way of sinners, and sat in the state-chair of pestilence;”213    Ps. i. 1 in LXX. whose voice,214    i.e., the voice of this “blessed man,” this true “Asher.” withal, (is heard) subsequently:  “I have not sat with the conclave of vanity; and with them who act iniquitously will I not enter”—this (has to do with “the church” of such as act ill—“and with the impious will I not sit;”215    Ps. xxvi. 4, 5 (in LXX. xxv. 4, 5). and, “I will wash with the innocent mine hands, and Thine altar will I surround, Lord”216    Ps. xxvi. (xxv. in LXX.) 6, not quite exactly.—as being “a host in himself”—inasmuch as indeed “With an holy (man), holy Thou wilt be; and with an innocent man, innocent Thou wilt be; and with an elect, elect Thou wilt be; and with a perverse, perverse Thou wilt be.”217    Ps. xviii. 25, 26 (in LXX. Ps. xviii. 26, 27), nearly.  And elsewhere:  “But to the sinner saith the Lord, Why expoundest thou my righteous acts, and takest up my testament through thy mouth?  If thou sawest a thief, thou rannest with him; and with adulterers thy portion thou madest.”218    Ps. l. (xlix. in LXX.) 16, 18.  Deriving his instructions, therefore, from hence, the apostle too says:  “I wrote to you in the Epistle, not to be mingled up with fornicators:  not, of course, with the fornicators of this world”—and so forth—“else it behoved you to go out from the world.  But now I write to you, if any is named a brother among you, (being) a fornicator, or an idolater” (for what so intimately joined?), “or a defrauder” (for what so near akin?), and so on, “with such to take no food even,”219    1 Cor. v. 9–11. not to say the Eucharist:  because, to wit, withal “a little leaven spoileth the flavour of the whole lump.”220    Ver. 6.  Again to Timotheus:  “Lay hands on no one hastily, nor communicate with others’ sins.”221    1 Tim. v. 22.  Again to the Ephesians:  “Be not, then, partners with them:  for ye were at one time darkness.”222    Eph. v. 7, 8 ad init.  And yet more earnestly:  “Communicate not with the unfruitful works of darkness; nay rather withal convict them.  For (the things) which are done by them in secrecy it is disgraceful even to utter.”223    Vers. 11, 12.  What more disgraceful than immodesties?  If, moreover, even from a “brother” who “walketh idly”224    2 Thess. iii. 6. he warns the Thessalonians to withdraw themselves, how much more withal from a fornicator!  For these are the deliberate judgments of Christ, “loving the Church,” who “hath delivered Himself up for her, that He may sanctify her (purifying her utterly by the laver of water) in the word, that He may present the Church to Himself glorious, not having stain or wrinkle”—of course after the laver—“but (that) she may be holy and without reproach;”225    Eph. v. 26, 27. thereafter, to wit, being “without wrinkle” as a virgin, “without stain” (of fornication) as a spouse, “without disgrace” (of vileness), as having been “utterly purified.”

What if, even here, you should conceive to reply that communion is indeed denied to sinners, very especially such as had been “polluted by the flesh,”226    Comp. Jude 23 ad fin. but (only) for the present; to be restored, to wit, as the result of penitential suing:  in accordance with that clemency of God which prefers a sinner’s repentance to his death?227    Comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 11, etc.; and see cc. ii., xxii.—for this fundamental ground of your opinion must be universally attacked.  We say, accordingly, that if it had been competent to the Divine clemency to have guaranteed the demonstration of itself even to the post-baptismally lapsed, the apostle would have said thus:  “Communicate not with the works of darkness, unless they shall have repented;” and, “With such take not food even, unless after they shall have wiped, with rolling at their feet, the shoes of the brethren;” and, “Him who shall have marred the temple of God, shall God mar, unless he shall have shaken off from his head in the church the ashes of all hearths.”  For it had been his duty, in the case of those things which he had condemned, to have equally determined the extent to which he had (and that conditionally) condemned them—whether he had condemned them with a temporary and conditional, and not a perpetual, severity.  However, since in all Epistles he both prohibits such a character, (so sinning) after believing, from being admitted (to the society of believers); and, if admitted, detrudes him from communion, without hope of any condition or time; he sides more with our opinion, pointing out that the repentance which the Lord prefers is that which before believing, before baptism, is esteemed better than the death of the sinner,—(the sinner, I say,) once for all to be washed through the grace of Christ, who once for all has suffered death for our sins.  For this (rule), even in his own person, the apostle has laid down.  For, when affirming that Christ came for this end, that He might save sinners,228    See 1 Tim. i. 15. of whom himself had been the “first,” what does he add?  “And I obtained mercy, because I did (so) ignorantly in unbelief.”229    1 Tim. i. 13, 16.  Thus that clemency of God, preferring the repentance of a sinner to his death, looks at such as are ignorant still, and still unbelieving, for the sake of whose liberation Christ came; not (at such) as already know God, and have learnt the sacrament of the faith.  But if the clemency of God is applicable to such as are ignorant still, and unbelieving, of course it follows that repentance invites clemency to itself; without prejudice to that species of repentance after believing, which either, for lighter sins, will be able to obtain pardon from the bishop, or else, for greater and irremissible ones, from God only.230    See cc. iii. and xi., above.

CAPUT XVIII.

Sed haec, inquit, ad interdictionem pertinebunt omnis impudicitiae et addictionem omnis pudicitiae, salvo tamen loco veniae, quae non statim denegatur, si delicta damnantur, quando veniae tempus cum damnatione concurrat quam excludit. Sequebatur et hoc Psychicos sapere, et ideo reservavimus huic loco, quae aperte ad communicationem ecclesiasticam caussis ejusmodi negandam etiam antiquitus caussa sunt. Nam et in Proverbiis Salomon, quae Paroemias dicimus, specialiter de moecho nusquam expiabili: Moechus autem, inquit, per indigentiam sensuum perditionem animae suae acquirit, dolores et 1015B dehonestationes sustinet. Ignominia autem ejus non abolebitur in aevum. Plena enim zeli indignatio viro non parcet in die judicii (Prov., VI, 32-36). Hoc si de ethnico putaveris dictum, certe de fidelibus jam audisti per cassum : Excedite de medio eorum, et separamini, et immundum ne tetigeritis (II Cor., VI, 17). Habes statim in Psalmis beatum virum qui non abierit in concilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non steterit, et in cathedra pestilentiae non sederit (Psal. I, 1). Cujus et postea vox: Non sedi cum consessu vanitatis, et cum inique agentibus non introibo (hoc de ecclesia male agentium) et cum impiis non sedebo: et, lavabo cum innocentibus manus meas, et altare tuum circumdabo, Domine (Psal. XXX, 4, 5), ut solus plures , quoniam quidem, cum sancto sanctus eris 1015C et cum electo electus eris, et cum perverso perversus eris (Psal., XVII, 26). Et alibi: Peccatori autem dicit Dominus: Ut quid tu exponis justificationes meas, et assumis testamentum meum per os tuum? Si videbas furem, currebas cum eo, et cum adulteris portionem tuam ponebas (Psal. XLIX, 16, seq.). Hinc igitur informatus et Apostolus: Scripsi, inquit, vobis in Epistola, non commisceri fornicatoribus, non utique fornicatoribus hujus mundi, et reliqua: Caeterum, oportebat vos exire de mundo: nunc autem scribo vobis, si qui frater nominatur in vobis fornicator, aut idololatra (quid 1016A enim tam conjunctum?), aut fraudator (quid enim tam propinquum?), et caetera, cum talibus ne cibum quidem sumere, nedum Eucharistiam. Modicum scilicet fermentum totam desipit conspersionem (I Cor., V, 9, seq.). Item ad Timotheum: Manus nemini cito imponas, neque communices delictis alienis (I Tim., V, 22). Item ad Ephesios: Nolite ergo participes esse eorum; fuistis enim aliquando tenebrae (Eph., V, 7, 8). Et adhuc pressius: Nolite communicare operibus infructuosis tenebrarum, imo et revincite eo: quae enim in occulto ab eis fiunt, turpe est edicere (Ibid., 11), Quid turpius impudicitiis? Si autem et ab otiose incedente fratre denuntiat subduci Thessalonicensibus (II Thess., III, 6), quanto magis et a fornicatore? Haec enim consultata sunt Christi Ecclesiam diligentis, 1016B qui se pro ea tradidit uti eam sanctificet, emundans lavacro aquae in verbo, ut sistat sibi Ecclesiam gloriosam, non habentem maculam aut rugam, utique post lavacrum, sed sit sancta et sine opprobrio (Eph., V, 25-27), exinde scilicet sine ruga vetustatis , ut virgo, sine macula fornicationis, ut sponsa, sine probro vilitatis, ut emundata. Quid si et hic respondere concipias adimi quidem peccatoribus, vel maxime carne pollutis, communicationem, sed ad praesens restituendam, scilicet ex poenitentiae ambitu, secundum illam clementiam Dei qua mavult peccatoris poenitentiam quam mortem (Ezech., XXXIII, 11)? hoc enim fundamentum opinionis vestrae usquequaque pulsandum est. Dicimus itaque, clementiae divinae si ita esse competisset demonstrationem 1016C sui etiam post fidem lapsis, ita Apostolus diceret: Nolite communicare operibus tenebrarum, nisi poenitentiam egerint; et: Cum talibus ne cibum quidem sumere, nisi posteaquam caligas fratrum volutando deterserint; et: Qui templum Dei vitiaverit, vitiabit illum Deus, nisi omnium focorum cineres in Ecclesia de capite suo excusserit: debuerat enim quae damnaverat proinde determinasse, quoniam usque et sub conditione damnasset, si temporali et conditionali, et non perpetua severitate damnasset. Porro, cum in omnibus Epistolis et post fidem talem prohibeat 1017A admitti, et admissum a communicatione detrudat, sine spe conditionis ullius aut temporis, nostrae magis sententiae adsistit eam poenitentiam ostendens Dominum malle, quae ante fidem, quae ante baptisma morte peccatoris potior habeatur, semel diluendi per Christi gratiam, semel pro peccatis nostris morte functi. Nam hoc etiam in sua persona Apostolus statuit. Adfirmans enim Christum ad hoc venisse, ut peccatores salvos faceret, quorum primus ipse fuisset, quid adjicit? Et misericordiam sum consecutus, quoniam ignorans feci incredulitate (I Tim., I, 16). Ita clementia illa Dei, malentis poenitentiam peccatoris quam mortem, ad ignorantes adhuc et adhuc incredulos spectat, quorum caussa liberandorum venerit Christus, non qui jam Deum norint, et 1017B sacramentum didicerint fidei. Quod si clementia Dei ignorantibus adhuc et infidelibus competit, utique et poenitentia ad se clementiam invitat, salva illa poenitentiae specie post fidem, quae aut levioribus delictis veniam ab episcopo consequi poterit, aut majoribus et irremissibilibus a Deo solo.