PROOEMIUM. Concerning the Judgment of God.
1. A By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, I was delivered from the false tradition and teaching of the Gentiles, and being instructed from my early origin and from the very beginning by Christian parents, even as a child I learned from them the Holy Scriptures, which brought me to the knowledge of the truth. But when I reached man’s estate, I travelled often, and as is natural, became involved in many affairs; and in other arts and sciences, I observed the greatest harmony among those who diligently practiced each of them. But in the Church of God alone, for which Christ died and upon which the Holy Spirit poured out His gifts so abundantly, B I saw great and exceeding dissension among many, both with one another and regarding the divine Scriptures. And, most horrific of all, I found that the very rulers of the Church, while established in such a difference of opinion and thought among themselves, and in such opposition to the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ, were pitilessly tearing the Church of God asunder and ruthlessly disturbing His flock, so that there was fulfilled in them now, if ever, the saying regarding the rise of the Anomoeans: *From among yourselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them*.
2. C When I contemplated these and other things of this nature, and was further perplexed as to what and whence was the cause of such great evil, at first, as it were, I lived in deep darkness; and I was as one on a balance, leaning now this way, now that, as one person or another tried to draw me to himself on account of the long-standing custom of men, or, conversely, as another repelled me on account of the truth which I had recognized in the Holy Scriptures. And as I suffered greatly from this, and—
having engaged in deep inquiry, I recalled the Book of Judges, which relates that everyone did what was right in his own eyes, and which also declares the cause of this in the words A: In those days there was no king in Israel. When these things came into my mind, I reflected also on the present state of affairs: a thought which is perhaps shocking and strange to utter, but nevertheless, if understood, is most true. For might it not be that even now, on account of the rejection of the one, great, true, and only King and God of all, so much discord and strife arises in the Church, while each man abandons the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and claims for himself, by his own authority, certain private reasonings and rules, preferring to rule against the Lord rather than to be ruled by the Lord? Having pondered B this, and being struck by the magnitude of the impiety, and continuing to investigate further, I was no less persuaded that the cause I have mentioned above is true and genuine, even from the events that occur in life. For I saw that all order and concord of peoples survives only so long as all obey one common leader, but that all discord and sedition, and likewise the rule of many, arise from the lack of a leader and prince. I have seen myself a swarm of bees led by a kind of natural law, following their own king while maintaining order. I have seen many such things myself, and I have heard many; and those who have concerned themselves with these matters know even more, so that from these things too it is shown that what we say is true. For if the mark of those who look to one nod and use one king is their own orderly and concordant state, then without doubt every dissension and sedition is a sign of anarchy. C By the same reasoning, such discord and disagreement, both toward the commandments of the Lord and toward each other, being found even among us, would be an indictment either of our withdrawal from the true King, according to the words: *Only he who now holds, until he be taken out of the way*; or of our denying Him, according to the words: *The fool has said in his heart: There is no God*. Of which thing, as it were a sign or proof, he subjoins: *They are corrupt and have become abominable in their ways*.
3. Here, then, the Scripture shows as if a sign of that wickedness which lurks latently in the soul, to be the evil which becomes manifest. But the blessed apostle Paul, intending to lead those who are lost in their heart more vehemently to the fear D of the judgments of God, established this in place of punishment, that those who have neglected the true knowledge of God, [thus...]
should be condemned. For what does He say? "And even as they did not approve of having God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, malice, covetousness, wickedness, full of envy," etc. Although I think that the Apostle did not contrive this judgment of himself (for he had Christ speaking within him), but was led by that voice of His where He says that He speaks to the crowds in parables for this reason, that they might not understand the divine mysteries of the Gospel, because they themselves had previously closed their eyes, and had heard heavily with their ears, and their foolish heart was hardened: that, in place of punishment, they might endure a greater blindness—they who, having previously and voluntarily blinded B the eye of their soul, had become darkened—which David, fearing to suffer, said: "Lighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death." From these things, therefore, and similar ones, I judged it clear that, in general, a reprobate and evil knowledge is created through the ignorance of God and the depravity of vices; but that, specifically, the mutual dissension of many arises from this: that we render ourselves unworthy to be governed by the Lord. And had I at any time resolved to set myself to consider a life of this kind, I could neither measure the magnitude of such stupor, or inconsideration, or madness, or—what is the excess of malice—by what other name I should call it, I do not know. For if we perceive that mutual harmony is preserved among even the brute animals for no other reason than that they obey their leader, what can we say, who are found to dissent so much among ourselves C and to be so much at variance with the commandments of the Lord? Should we not think that all these things are now set forth by the benevolent God for our instruction and conversion, but that on that great and fearful day of judgment they will be brought forward, for the shame and condemnation of those who have not been instructed and amended, by Him who has already spoken and who always says: "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib: but Israel has not known Me, and the people have not understood Me," and many other things of the same kind? Also that which was said by the Apostle: "And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it." Also that: "That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another," D as those moved by one indwelling soul. Wherefore has it finally been ordained
A that this order and discipline should be observed much more in the Church of God, to which it is said: "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular"? For the one and only true Head, which is Christ, contains and connects each one with the other in concord. But among those in whom concord does not exist, the bond of peace is not preserved, nor is the gentleness of the Spirit guarded; rather, dissension and strife and envy are found. It would certainly be a matter of great audacity and rashness for such persons to be called members of Christ, or to say that they are ruled by Him; but it would be the sign of an honest mind to affirm confidently that there the affection of the flesh dominates and reigns, according to this saying of the Apostle, who speaks in a decisive manner: "To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey." He recounts, moreover, the properties of this affection clearly, when he thus speaks: "For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal?" And at the same time, he teaches with assertion that the end of these vices is grievous and that they have nothing in common with piety, in these words: "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be." For this reason, the Lord says, "No man can serve two masters."
4. Seeing that the only begotten Son of God, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made, cries out: "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, the Father"; and: "I do nothing of myself"; and: "I have received a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak"; likewise, since the Holy Spirit distributes great and wondrous gifts, and works all in all, and speaks nothing of Himself, but whatever He hears from the Lord, that He speaks; how, I ask, is it not much more necessary that the whole Church of God, striving to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, should fulfill what is said in the Acts: "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul"? For no one was setting forth his own will to be done, but all together in one Holy Spirit were seeking the will of the only Lord Jesus Christ, who says: "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, the Father"; to whom He says: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which believe on me through their word; that they all may be one"
A On these counts, and on more which I have passed over in silence, having so clearly and irrefutably become convinced that the harmony in the whole Church of God, according to the will of Christ, in the Holy Spirit, is necessary, and that, on the contrary, contumacy against God—especially if it be joined with mutual discord—is dangerous and destructive (for "he that is contumacious against the Son," He says, "shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide upon him"), I considered it a logical next step to examine: what manner of sins can, then, obtain pardon from God, and how many or how great are the sins for which one becomes liable to the judgment of contumacy. I find, therefore, having taken up the divine Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments, that it is not in the multitude nor in the greatness of sins, but in the single violation of any commandment whatsoever, that contumacy against God is clearly judged, and that a common sentence is brought by God upon every disobedience. For in the Old Testament I read of that fearful end of Achar B or the history of him who gathered wood on the Sabbath; neither of whom is found ever to have sinned against God in any other way, nor to have done injury to any man in any matter, great or small. Yet the one, for the sole and first act of gathering wood, pays the inescapable penalty, finding no room for repentance; for by the commandment of God he is immediately stoned by all the people. The other, because he merely had taken something of the devoted things not yet brought into the tabernacle, nor yet accepted by those who were appointed for such things, became the cause of destruction—not only for himself, but for his wife, his children, and even for the tabernacle itself, together with all his own. And soon the evil of the sin was about to consume the whole people like fire, and this even though they did not know what had happened, nor were they accomplices to the sinner, had not the people, feeling the wrath of God, been quickly broken by the fall of the men who were put to death; and had not Joshua, the son of Nun, cast dust upon himself and fallen down, together with the elders, and thus, by the casting of lots, the guilty man was discovered and paid the aforementioned penalty. C 5. But perhaps someone will say that these might rightly be considered to have been bound by other crimes as well, for which they were also caught in these; and that the holy Scripture only made mention of these specific acts because they were more grievous and worthy of death. But besides the fact that whoever adds to or takes away from the holy Scriptures is very bold and rash, will such a person, I ask, also accuse Mary, the sister of Moses, of a multitude of sins, whose virtue I believe is unknown to none of the faithful? She, D because [alt-version omitted]
she had said only one thing by way of condemnation, and that true (for, it says, "She took an Ethiopian woman to herself"), experienced such indignation from God that not even when Moses himself prayed was the punishment for her sin remitted. A Since, then, I see Moses himself, the servant of God, that great man, distinguished by God with so many and such great honors, and so often confirmed by His own testimony, as to have heard: "I know you above all, and you have found favor before me"; when I see him at the water of contradiction, for no other reason than that he merely said to the people murmuring because of the lack of water, "Shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?"—receiving on account of this alone an immediate threat that he would not enter into the land of promise, which was then the culmination of all the promises given to the Jews; when I see him pleading, and not obtaining pardon; when I see those few words being the cause that so many right actions did not merit forgiveness, I truly, according to the Apostle, perceive the severity B of God, and am thus persuaded that this is indeed true: "If the righteous person is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" And why do I recall these things? When I hear that dreadful sentence of God, which is pronounced even against one who violates one commandment out of ignorance, I have no way to fear its magnitude as it deserves. For it is written: "And if a soul should sin, and do one of all the commandments of the Lord which ought not to be done, and does not know it, and commits an offense, and takes on sin, he shall bring a ram without blemish from the sheep, of the price of silver, for a trespass offering to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him, for his ignorance, C which he was ignorant of, and he himself did not know, and it shall be forgiven him. For he has committed an offense before the Lord." But if against offenses committed out of ignorance so severe a judgment is pronounced, and for their expiation so necessary is the sacrifice, which even the righteous Job testifies to have offered for his sons, what would one say regarding those who sin with knowledge, or those who, while others sin, maintain silence? And that we may not seem to collect the indignation which is moved against such men from mere probable conjectures, it is again necessary to remember the divine Scripture, since it can place the judgment of such men before our eyes through the narration of even one history. "And the sons," it says, "of Eli the priest, were pestilent sons." D When they were such, because their father did not inveigh against them more vehemently, he incited such wrath by the lenity of God that, when the foreigners made an incursion, those very sons of his were killed in one day
A in the battle, and the whole people were routed, not a few of them falling. Moreover, such things happened regarding the ark of the holy covenant of God as had never even been heard of before: so that the ark, which neither the Israelites, nor the priests themselves, nor anyone at any time was permitted to touch, and which was not kept just anywhere, was carried off from one place to another by impious hands and placed in a den of idols instead of a holy shrine. From this one may conjecture how much the very name of God was held in derision and scorn by those foreigners. Furthermore, it is recorded in the scriptures that Eli himself ended his life with a most miserable finish, after he had heard this threat, that his seed would be removed from the priestly dignity; which also B befell him.
6. So many and so great were the things that happened to the people. Such things did the father suffer due to the iniquity of his sons, though he himself was never accused of any crime regarding his own life. Indeed, he did not even silently endure their flagrant sins, but had admonished them much, so that they might no longer persist in such transgressions. For he said: "Be it far from you, my sons; the reports which I hear about you are not good." And, magnifying the magnitude of the sin, he placed the danger before their eyes more fearsomely. "For if," he says, "a man sins against a man, they shall pray for him to the Lord. But if he sins against God, who shall intercede for him?" Because, however, as I said, he did not show the C zeal that was fitting against them, those things which I have mentioned came to pass.
I find, then, very many such judgments in the Old Testament against every form of disobedience; but again, when I come to the New, in which our Lord Jesus Christ did not even absolve from punishment those offenses committed in ignorance, but nevertheless intensified the threat against those committed knowingly, through the words He speaks: "But that servant who knew his master's will, and did not make himself ready, nor acted according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he who did not know, yet did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few." As often, therefore, as I consider such sentences of the only-begotten Son of God Himself, and contemplate the indignation of the holy apostles against those who sin; and when I D ponder the calamities of those who have committed even a single sin, and that they are such and so great—not less than those which I recounted from the Old [Testament], but rather even greater—I then understand the severity of the judgment. For to whom they have entrusted much, of him shall they require more. Behold, therefore, the blessed Paul, showing forth at once the dignity of the calling and the
A indignation against every sin, as he says: *For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience* (II Cor. x, 4-6). If one were to weigh each of these things mentioned more diligently, one could know the intent of divine Scripture more accurately, in that it has by no means permitted the soul of each one of us to wander through the errors of certain false opinions and slip into the lubricity of sin, mistakenly thinking that some sins are punished, while others are left unpunished. But what does he say? *Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God*; as if every sin, because of the contempt shown for a divine precept, were called a *high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God*—which is declared even more clearly in the book of Numbers. For since God, after having enumerated sins which are not voluntary and having prescribed sacrifices to expiate them, B now willed also to sanction suitable laws for the people concerning voluntary sins, he begins thus: *And the soul that doeth it in the hand of pride* (calling the boldness of those who sin voluntarily the 'hand of pride,' which the Apostle terms a *high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God*), *that soul*, he says, *that doeth it in the hand of pride, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth God: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandments: that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him* (Num. xv, 30, 31).
7. It must be observed here that if that soul has not been cut off by destruction, its sin does not remain in it alone, but extends C even to those who have not shown a proper zeal, as is written in many places and has often occurred. And that we may learn to fear in greater matters from the lesser, let us consider with what indignation He is moved in Deuteronomy against those who have not been obedient to the word of the priest or judge. He says, therefore: *And the man that will do presumptuously* (or *in pride*), *so as not to hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, whoever he shall be in those days, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously* (Deut. xvii, 12, 13). It is fitting to regard these things, so that whoever, D
A moved by the dignity of the matter, may be seized with greater horror. Then he says: *And leading captive every thought into the obedience of Christ* (II Cor. x, 5). *Every* thought, not this one or that one. *And having in readiness to revenge* (ibid. 6)—and here again, not this or that [disobedience], but *Every disobedience* (ibid. 6). B Assuredly, the basest custom has deceived us; assuredly, the perverted tradition of men has been the cause of great evils for us, in that it has shunned some sins while indifferently admitting others; and while it pretends to be vehemently indignant against some—such as murder, adultery, and things of that kind—it judges others not even worthy of simple reproof—such as anger, or railing, or drunkenness, or avarice, and whatever is similar to these, against all of which Paul, speaking in Christ, uttered C the same sentence elsewhere, saying: *That they who do such things are worthy of death* (Rom. i, 32). But where every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God is cast down, and every thought is led captive to the obedience of Christ, and every disobedience is equally punished, there nothing remains that is not cast down, nothing is let pass without punishment, nothing is left excluded from the obedience of Christ. For the apostle Paul showed that a common and most great impiety D is situated in all disobedience, when he said: *You that make your boast in the law, by transgression of the law you dishonour God* (Rom. ii, 23). But are these words only, without reality? Behold, therefore: he who in Corinth had his father’s wife—who, that one fault excepted, was accused of no other crime—is not only handed over himself to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, until he should have amended the sin with fruits worthy of repentance, but he made the entire Church simultaneously 221 guilty of the same crime because it had not avenged that wickedness. *What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod?* (I Cor. iv, 21). And a little later: *And you are puffed up; and have not rather mourned, that he might be taken away from among you, that hath done this deed* (I Cor. v, 2). But what, then, of Ananias, in the Acts? What other evil is he found to have committed, except that very one? Where, therefore, does it appear that he was worthy of such great wrath? Having sold his own property, he brought the money, and laid it at the feet of the apostles; yet, because he had kept back a part of the price, for that reason he is punished with death in that same hour, together with his wife, not deemed worthy even to hear any words concerning repentance for the committed sin, nor having found a moment to feel compunction, nor having received a delay to repent. And the servant of such a judgment, of such great [original-script column: see facsimile]
A wrath of God upon him who has sinned, the blessed Peter—he who was chosen above all the disciples, and who alone was testified to and blessed more than the others, he to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven were entrusted—when he hears from the Lord, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me," what kind of heart, I ask, however stony it may be, would it not strike with fear and trembling at the judgments of God? And this, although he gave no indication of any sin or any contempt, nay rather, he showed great honor to his own Lord, and revered Him as it behooved a servant and disciple to do. For having seen his own and all men’s God and Lord, and King, and Master, and Teacher, and Savior, and altogether everything, girded with a linen cloth in the guise of a servant, and willing to wash his feet, immediately, as if coming to a realization of his own unworthiness, and stunned by the dignity of the One approaching him, he cried out: "Lord, do You wash my feet?" And again: "You shall never wash my feet." Because of this, such great threats are directed at him, that had he not, upon again recognizing the truth of the Lord’s words, hastened to correct his contradiction through obedience, nothing of his past good deeds, nor the virtues with which he was endowed, nor the testimonies of the Lord declaring him blessed and fortunate, nor the gifts, nor the promises, nor the very revelation of that kindness, such and so great, which God and Father had B toward His only-begotten Son, could have sufficed to heal his present disobedience and stubbornness.
8. But to recount all the things that I find in the Old and New Testament, time would perhaps fail me to tell. But now, when I come even to the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ which are in the Gospel, and attend to the words of Him who is about to judge the living and the dead, to which greater authority is attributed by the faithful than to any history or any other argument, I perceive in them, so to speak, a great necessity of obeying God in all things: but I find absolutely no pardon left for those who do not repent C of their disobedience, when it comes to the commandments, unless, perhaps, one should dare something else, and conceive it even in thought, contrary to such open, clear, and absolute sentences. D "Heaven," He says, "and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." There is here no difference, there is no division, there is no...
A thing whatsoever left out. He did not say, "These or those," but, "My words"—all of them together, clearly—"will not pass away." For it is written, "The Lord is faithful in all His words," whether He forbids anything, or commands, or promises, or threatens, and whether it concerns the doing of things forbidden or the omission of things commanded. For that the omission of good works is punished just as equally as the energy of evil ones, the aforementioned judgment upon Peter was sufficient, to those whose souls are not suffering from the disease of complete B unbelief, to prove and convince them. For he, having done nothing forbidden, nor having omitted any such command—which would accuse the person omitting it of either sloth or contempt—but having only hesitated to accept a ministry and honor from the Lord out of reverence, received such a threat as he would not have escaped had he not, as was said before, anticipated the wrath by the swiftness and severity of his correction. But since the good and compassionate God has willed to be patient and gentle with us, and often to show the same thing to us through many examples, in order that C the soul, stirred and aroused at last with difficulty by the multitude and constancy of these examples, might be able to erase the long-standing habit of iniquity, it is necessary for the present to make mention only of those who, in the great and terrible day of judgment, shall stand at the left hand of our Lord Jesus Christ—to whom He will speak, He who has received all authority to judge from the Father, He who is coming to "bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and to make manifest the counsels of the hearts": "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." And He added the reason, not saying: D "Because you murdered," or, "you committed fornication," or, "you lied," or, "you did injury to anyone," or, "you did anything else of those things which are forbidden," even the most trivial; but what? "Because you neglected good works." For, "I was hungry," He says, "and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you did not gather me in; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me." Having learned these things and those like them by the grace of the good God, who "wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," and who teaches man knowledge—having pondered them in the divinely inspired Scriptures, and having recognized the most dreadful cause of such dissension among many, both towards one another and towards the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, and having been instructed in that terrible judgment of such iniquity, and having been taught also every disobedience of every judgment
A equal to be punished; and knowing also that terrible judgment which is pronounced against those who, though they themselves have not sinned, yet because they did not show a good zeal against those who had sinned, became partakers of the wrath, and that too, when they were often not even conscious of the sin committed: I deemed it necessary, though late in the season, because I had always expected those who had undertaken the same struggle of piety, and did not have so much confidence in myself alone—yet perhaps not unseasonably—to admonish those who are exercising themselves in this struggle of piety. I thought it therefore necessary, now at least, according to my ability and in accordance with the common prayers of all, to bring forward from the divine Scriptures what is displeasing to God and what is pleasing to Him, that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we might depart from the habit of our own wills and from the observance of human traditions; B and walking according to the Gospel of the blessed God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and living during this present time in a way pleasing to Him, by both more earnestly avoiding those things which are forbidden and more diligently performing those which are approved, we may be deemed worthy in the coming age of immortality to flee from the wrath which is to come upon the children of disobedience, and be found worthy of eternal life and of the heavenly kingdom promised by the Lord Jesus Christ to all who keep His testament and remember His commandments to do them. And since I remember the Apostle who says: In Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works through love; I deemed it consistent and at the same time necessary to set forth first the sound faith and pious opinion concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, C and thus finally to subjoin the moral teachings.
OF THE SAME ON FAITH
1. When I had learned of the command of your piety—a command worthy of that love toward God in Christ, for the sake of which you requested from us a confession of pious faith inscribed in writing—at first, conscious of my own lowliness and infirmity, I was afraid to answer. But as soon as I remembered the Apostle who said: Bearing with one another in love; and again: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; D I judged it dangerous if I should not gratify you and should pass over in silence the saving confession, having confidence through Christ in God, as it is written: Not that we are sufficient to think anything from ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who…