13. For any one of us will hold it necessary, that whatever is the last thing to be found in a man in this respect, is that whereby he must be judged, all those things which he has previously done being wiped away and obliterated.40    [Ezek. xxxiii. 12. On the principle that what is deepest in man’s heart proves, finally, the character; Phil. ii. 12. A very solemn consideration in human accountability (1 Pet. i. 17), but not to be disjoined from 2 Cor. vi. 10.] And therefore, although in martyrdom there is so great a change of things in a moment of time, that in a very rapid case all things may be changed; let nobody flatter himself who has lost the occasion of a glorious salvation, if by chance he has excluded himself therefrom by his own fault; even as that wife of Lot,41    [Vol. i. p. 505, note 12, this series.] who in a similar manner in time of trouble only, contrary to the angel’s command, looked behind her, and she became a pillar of salt. On which principle also, that heretic who, by confessing Christ’s name, is put to death, can subsequently correct nothing, if he should have thought anything erroneously of God or of Christ, although by believing on another God or on another Christ he has deceived himself: he is not a confessor of Christ, but in the name only of Christ; since also the apostle goes on to say, “And if I shall give up my body so that I may be burnt up with fire, but have not love, I profit nothing.”42    1 Cor. xiii. 3. Because by this deed he profits nothing who has not the love of that God and Christ who is announced by the law and the prophets and in the Gospel in this manner:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy thought; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. For on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets;”43    Matt. xxii. 37.—even as John the evangelist said, “And every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God; for God is love;”44    John iv. 7, 8. even as God also says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that every one that believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,”45    John iii. 16.—as it manifestly appears that he who has not in him this love, of loving us and of being loved by us, profits nothing by an empty confession and passion, except that thereby it appears and is plain that he is a heretic who believes on another God, or receives another Christ than Him whom the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament manifestly declare, which announce without any obscurity the Father omnipotent, Creator of all things, and His Son. For it shall happen to them as to one who expects salvation from another God. Then, finally, contrary to their notion, they are condemned to eternal punishment by Christ, the Son of God the Father omnipotent, the Creator whom they have blasphemed, when God shall begin to judge the hidden things of men according to the Gospel by Christ Jesus, because they did not believe in Him, although they were washed in His name.

XIII. Quodcumque enim in homine ultimum in hac specie deprehensum fuerit, in illo quis nostrum judicari necesse habebit, abolitis et obliteratis 1197D omnibus quae prius gessit. Et ideo cum in martyrio tanta sit mutatio rerum in momento temporis, ut in re perquam veloci possint mutari universa; nemo sibi blandiatur qui occasionem amiserit gloriosae salutis, si forte se ab ea excluserit propria sua culpa: sicuti et illa uxor Loth, quae similiter in angustiis rerum contra praeceptum Angelorum 1198A tantummodo post se respexit, et tumulus salis facta est. Qua ratione etiam ille haereticus qui confitendo Christi nomen trucidatur, nihil postea potest corrigere, si quid de Deo aut de Christo male senserit, cum in alium Deum vel in alium Christum credendo semetipsum fefellit, confessor non Christi, sed solitario Christi nomine; quando et Apostolus consequenter dicat: Et si corpus meum tradidero, ita ut exurar igni, dilectionem autem non habeam, nihil proficio (I Cor. XIII, 3). Quia hoc facto nihil proficit qui non habet dilectionem ejus Dei et Christi, qui per Legem et Prophetas et in Evangelio in hoc modo praedicatur: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum in toto corde tuo et in tota anima tua et in tota cogitatione tua, et diliges proximum tibi tamquam te. In his enim duobus praeceptis tota Lex 1198B pendet et Prophetae (Deut. VI, 5; Matth. XXII, 37-40). Sicut et Joannes Evangelista dicit: Et omnis qui diligit, ex Deo natus est, et cognoscit Deum; quia Deus dilectio est (I Joan. IV, 7-8). Sicuti et Deus ait: Ita enim dilexit Deus mundum ut Filium suum unicum daret, ut omnis qui in eum crederet non periret, sed haberet vitam aeternam (Joan. III, 16). Ut manifeste appareret eum qui hanc diligendi nos et diligendi a nobis dilectionem in se non habeat, inani confessione et passione nihil proficere quam ut ipsa apparet et constat haereticum esse qui in alium deum credat sive Christum alium accipiat, quam quem Scripturae Novi et Veteris Testamenti manifeste praedicant, quae Patrem omnipotentem creatorem omnium et Filium ejus sine obscuritate 1198C annuntiant. Eveniet enim eis ut alii ab alio Deo salutem exspectanti: tunc demum contra opinionem suam a Christo Dei Patris omnipotentis creatoris Filio quem blasphemaverunt, in poenam aeternam damnentur, cum judicare Deus coeperit absconsa hominum secundum Evangelium per Christum Jesum; eo quod in ipsum non crediderint, licet ipsius nomine abluti sint.