Opuscula 4.0

Since some say that holy baptism is perfect, relying on the Scripture that says, “Rise, be baptized, and wash away your sins,” and, “Wash yourselves and become clean,” and again, “But you were washed, but you were sanctified,” and bringing forward many such testimonies; while others say that the old sin is destroyed by struggles, they too bringing the testimony of Scripture that says, “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit,” and at the same time finding in themselves the very working of sin after baptism: what shall we say to this, or whom shall we believe? Answer. We must believe the apostolic preaching and abide by our own confessions, and not test the power of God by human suspicions, nor again submit willingly to a yoke of slavery, but hold fast to freedom through the practice of the commandments, through which all truth is found in proportion; and we must know clearly that it is through the lack of these that we are worked upon by sin in proportion. But since we have reckoned the preaching vain, trusting curiosity rather than the word of God, our faith too is vain, and for this reason we are still in our sins. Question. We do not say the preaching is vain, but we seek to learn the truth. Answer. If then we hold the preaching to be true, let us fulfil all the commandments, and then we shall see whether we are worked upon by sin. For holy baptism is perfect, but it does not perfect the one who does not keep the commandments. Let us not, then, trust human suspicions, but rather the divine Scripture: that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”; and that “we were buried with him through baptism”; and, “whoever has died has been justified from sin”; and that “sin will not have dominion over us,” if we do his commandments; but if we do not, we are unbelievers and are held by sin. For faith is not only being baptized into Christ, but also doing his commandments. That, buried with him mystically through baptism, he also raised us with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places, according to Scripture, is clear; yet he gave commandments, so that by doing them we might find the perfection given us; and if we do not, we show ourselves voluntarily worked upon by sin. If we say that sin is destroyed by works, then “Christ died for nothing,” and all that has been said is false; and if baptism is not perfect, but they say they have perfection from struggles, the law of liberty is vain in their eyes, and the whole legislation of the New Covenant is abolished. They also make Christ unjust, as commanding works of freedom to the baptized who, as they say, are still enslaved to sin against their will; and the grace of God is no longer grace but a repayment of our struggles. “For if by works, it is no longer by grace; but if by grace,” the work is not a work but a commandment of the one who set us free, and a work of freedom and of faith. Such things holy Paul wrote beforehand, by design, to the Galatians, admonishing them, who also disbelieved in similar ways. We, however, do not so disbelieve the grace of God, far from it! Nor do we deny faith in the preaching; but if after baptism we are held by sin, it is not because baptism is imperfect, but because we neglect the commandment and are given over by choice to pleasures, as the divine Scripture reproves us, saying, “As a dog returning to its own vomit,” so is a person returning to his own sin by free choice. For neither God nor Satan forces the will, or baptism. Have they not heard, then, that the commandments of Christ given after baptism are a law of liberty, as Scripture says: “So act and so speak as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty”? And again holy Peter: “Supply virtue in your faith,” and, after saying what follows, he adds, “For whoever lacks these things is blind and short-sighted, having forgotten the cleansing of his old sins.” Understand through what has been said that the cleansing through baptism takes place mystically but is found actively through the commandments. If, when baptized, we were not freed from ancestral sin, clearly we cannot do the works of freedom either; but if we can do them, it is plain that we were mystically freed from slavery to sin, as it is written: “The law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and of death.” But through neglect of the commandments of him who cleansed us, we are worked upon by sin. Either, then, show me that the baptized are unable to practise the commandments of liberty, and that for this reason baptism is not perfect; or, when we show that they have received such power, let them confess that they are freed by the grace of Christ, but have handed themselves over to slavery to evils by not fulfilling all the commandments, and for this reason have again become subject. Let them take the refutation from their own testimonies: “Let us cleanse ourselves, brothers, from every defilement of flesh and spirit.” How, then, can the slave of sin cleanse himself from every defilement of flesh and spirit, if he does not have such freedom and power but is held by sin? And if you have the mastery over the passions, know that you are not held by force but by a cause in your will. Whatever the divine Scripture says about cleansing, it says to free people; it exhorts them as free people not to remain in such thoughts but to love freedom, since we have the power to incline to whichever we wish, whether good or evil. Question. If we were set free in baptism, why do we not know the air of freedom as those who struggle see it? Answer. The pleasures we choose and our neglect of the commandments darken us, which they have corrected. For we have said already that a person is set free according to the gift of Christ; but according to his own will he remains wherever he loves, even if he has been baptized, because of his free will. So when it says, “The violent take the kingdom of heaven by force,” it speaks of one's own will, so that each of us may force himself, in keeping with baptism, not to turn to evil but to remain in good. For if a person were subject to force from the powers, God could certainly have freed us and made us unchangeable by force. But now it is not so; rather, he himself led us out of forced slavery through baptism, having abolished sin through the cross, and laid down commandments of freedom; but to remain or not to remain in the commandments he left to our free will. So the commandments, in so far as they are cared for, signify love for the one who set us free; in so far as they are neglected or lacking, they show indulgence in pleasures. But some fall into their own reasonings, saying, “We want to do the commandments and cannot, being held by sin by force; so we must first struggle and wipe out sin, so that we may be able to fulfil the commandments of liberty,” not understanding what they say or what they affirm. For if you have no freedom at all and cannot fulfil the commandments, by what struggles do you say you wipe out sin? The struggles of the faithful are commandments. You say, “I cannot do the commandments unless I am first cleansed through struggles.” Show me the struggles you speak of apart from the commandments, and I will be persuaded by your opinion. For if you speak of prayer, it is a commandment; if of fasting, if of vigil, it is a commandment; if of sharing, if of denial of one's soul, it is a commandment; if of casting down thoughts, it is a commandment; if you speak of death, the cross, or any work of virtue whatever, all are commandments. That is why he commands those who have received the power of the commandments, as faithful people, to struggle further so as not to turn back; not as though wiping out sin through these, but so as no longer to turn back. And the commandments themselves do not cut out sin (for this has been done through the cross alone), but guard the bounds of the freedom given us. For tell me, if you cut out Adam's sin by works, how did “Christ die for our sins according to the Scriptures”? But to this they have nothing to say in reply; they only ask inconsistent questions, inclining everything toward their own suspicions and not obeying the truth of Scripture. For they say, “If sin is destroyed in baptism, why does it work again in the heart?” We have often said the cause: it does not work after baptism as something left behind (for baptism gives complete release); but to bind ourselves again through attachment to what has been loosed through the practice of the commandments belongs to the choice of free will. For a thought that lingers over some pleasure or anger is proof not of sin left behind but of freely chosen attachment. For we have the power to cast down reasonings and every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God, according to Scripture. So an evil thought in those who cast it down within them is a sign of love for God, not of sin. For it is not the provocation of the thought that is a sign of sin, but the mind's friendly converse with it. If we do not love it, why do we linger with it? For it is impossible for what is hated from the heart to keep company with the heart continually, without our own wrongdoing. And if even a hated thought holds the mind by force (for it happens, and I do not deny it), this is still not a remnant of Adam's sin, but of godlessness after baptism. For when after holy baptism, though able to do all the commandments, we do not do them, then even against our will we are held by sin, until through repentance we entreat God, setting ourselves right in all the commandments, and he wipes out our sin of godlessness. For there are two causes of the working of evil, and both are from us: one works in proportion to our lack of the commandments; the other holds us inexorably because of our wrongdoing after baptism, which God alone removes when entreated through almsgiving, prayer, and patience in what comes; and these too the perfect grace given us through baptism secretly supplies. Question. Then did Paul sin after baptism, since he was worked upon voluntarily? For he says, “I see another law warring against the law of my mind.” Answer. In this way those who understand badly twist the other Scriptures too, and go astray. Take up this chapter from the beginning, and you will find that holy Paul does not speak of himself after baptism, but takes the role of the unbelieving Jews, persuading them that without the grace of Christ given through baptism it is impossible to overcome sin. Having said, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” he adds, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, for the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and of death.” That is why he says, “The law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.” Hence all the things of the law, of the temple, and of the sacrifices are fulfilled in us, who have received the grace of the Spirit mystically from baptism. For he has said that we are a temple of the Spirit, and urges us to offer spiritual sacrifices, speaking of Jews inwardly and not outwardly, and of circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; and Christ, the heavenly lawgiver, has written the spiritual law itself on the faithful through the Spirit, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. As he has said these things are inward, so understand also each of the things said figuratively. But since we have not believed Christ so firmly, we have not reckoned ourselves debtors to all his commandments, nor denied ourselves according to his word. For this reason, though we have received the mysteries mentioned from baptism, we do not know them. But when we condemn our little faith and believe him sincerely through all his commandments, then, gaining experience of these things in ourselves, we shall confess truly that holy baptism is perfect, and that the grace of Christ is invisibly hidden, waiting for our obedience and our practice of the commandments, whose power we have already received through it. Therefore, those of us who have not yet practised the commandments of liberty have not yet reached the free Jerusalem (“for the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother,” regenerating us through the washing of regeneration); but we are still on the way of Cain, and wander, travelling by trackless paths. For to quarrel in ignorance and to contradict the truth are deviations from the road, not straight cutting. That is why blessed Paul, seeing us slow toward the perfect ascent, says, “So run that you may obtain.” If we have not yet reached the city, when shall we see the temple, and, entering within, obtain access to the altar? And why do I speak of faith, the temple, and the altar, when we have not even got past the beasts of the reed? The prophet prayed that God would rebuke them, so that the firstborn of the victims, which the Jew who is one inwardly is commanded to offer, might not become the prey of beasts. If, according to you, there is a Jew inwardly, according to Paul's word, but the temple has not yet been built by the son of David, nor the mercy seat made by him (for this is what is loudly proclaimed by the one who says that Adam's sin is destroyed by struggles, and not through the grace of God, which is in us hiddenly through baptism; but it will be seen when, having well completed the road of the commandments, we offer the thoughts of our nature to Christ the high priest like a sacrifice, sound and not mauled by beasts). For most become the prey of beasts, all who turn aside from the commandments, I mean from patience in painful things; and leaping off the straight way, they walk by trackless paths, blaming others rather than themselves for the causes. Scarcely a few of them travel by the straight way, and that guarded by prayer, bound by hopes, beaten by temptations; and so they reach the city and the temple, and bring their offering. The city is bright and lawful discernment in Christ, which, when it administers affairs piously, is at peace and prospers, but when it goes wrong is handed over to the enemies for its destruction. The temple is the God-built precinct of soul and body; the altar is the foundation of hope in this temple, on which the first-born thought of every occurrence, offered by the mind like a first-born animal, is sacrificed for the propitiation of the one who offers it, if indeed he offers it to him without blemish. This temple also has the place within the veil, where Jesus entered as forerunner on our behalf and dwells in us, unless indeed you are unapproved: this is the innermost, hidden, and pure chamber of the heart, which unless it is opened by God and by rational and spiritual hope, one cannot surely recognize the one who dwells there, nor know whether our rational sacrifices have been accepted or not. For as at first in Israel fire consumed the remains, so it happens here too: when the faithful heart is opened through the hope mentioned, the heavenly high priest receives the first-born thoughts of the mind and consumes them with the divine fire, of which he said, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and what do I wish, if it is already kindled?” He called first-born thoughts those not produced by second thoughts of the heart, but offered at once to Christ from the first provocation and arising; for those offered to him after much thinking Scripture called lame, blind, and monstrous, and for this reason not tithes for the heavenly high priest, the Master Christ. That even after baptism we are the cause of every evil thought has now been shown through the testimonies of Scripture. And if this must also be made plain through the natural sequence of things, it will be said again: O man, you who say that after baptism you are worked upon without cause by Adam's sin, and promise to cut it out through struggles, know exactly that you have contradicted yourself and fallen into your own words. For if you say evil thoughts are Adam's sin, learn from holy Paul that, having put on Christ through baptism, you have power and weapons to cast them down. “For the weapons of our warfare,” he says, “are not fleshly but powerful for God for the destruction of strongholds, casting down reasonings and every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God.” But if, having the power against them, you do not cast them down at the provocation, clearly you love pleasure out of unbelief and couple with them; and you are the author of such working, not Adam. Question. How can one who has shut himself in a cell, fasting daily, self-controlled, poor, living as a stranger, praying, and enduring many such afflictions, love pleasure out of unbelief or couple with thoughts? Answer. You have spoken well, that in doing such things he endures many afflictions. For if we performed the visible virtues mentioned without affliction, with joy and love of labour, we would not be pleasure-lovers in mind. For it is impossible for one pained by bodily labours not to converse proportionately with the provocations and console himself for the unpleasantness of the labours. If such a person did not want this, he would not be afflicted by the labours. We suffer this because we endure hardship not from longing for the good things to come but from fear of the temptations now coming upon us. Hence we consider the evil deed our own sin, but call the thought before it another's working. And it is impossible for those who consider this working not their own but another's to turn away from it. There is indeed a thought, without coupling, that is unpleasant and hated, which like a robber falls upon us unexpectedly and holds the mind by force to itself. Yet learn exactly that this too has its occasions from us. For either after baptism we gave ourselves over to some evil thought as far as action, and for this reason have become liable even against our will; or we deliberately keep some seeds of evil, and for this reason the evil one is entrenched. The one who holds us through seeds does not withdraw until we cast them out; the one who remains through the evil action is put to flight when we offer God fitting labours. For this reason I do not call this Adam's sin either, but rather the sin of the one who did the evil and keeps the seeds. And if thoughts (for thoughts preceded these two) and some robber are the cause of them, I too say to you that the cause is the one who had the power to cleanse himself of it at the provocation and did not, but conversed with it as far as action. And if before the action he could not overthrow it at all because of the mind's weakness, how does he promise to cut it out after the action? Understand that even before the action, if you had wished, God would have helped you. And when you see help coming to you through your heart, understand exactly that grace did not come from outside by passing over to you; rather the grace given you secretly through baptism has now worked to the extent that you hated the thought and turned away. And for this reason Christ, having loosed us from all force, has stopped the provocation of thoughts from compelling the heart, so that those hated from the heart vanish at once, while those loved remain as long as they are loved; so that both the grace of God and the will of the person may be shown, what it loves: labours for the sake of grace, or thoughts for the sake of pleasure. And let us not be surprised that we are worked upon forcibly not only by what we love; for as their kinship is something evil, so the provocations work together with one another on our desires, and each hands over its own worker, once he has lingered, to the next, so that he is carried off by the second, perhaps against his judgment, dragged forcibly by his habit with the first. For who, filled with vainglory, can escape pride? Or who, having enjoyed luxury, will not be overcome by a thought of sexual immorality? Or who that has given himself to greed is not gripped by mercilessness? And how will those deprived of all these against their will not be angered and terribly driven? Therefore we must understand that by our own cause we are worked upon by sin, but by the Spirit we are freed from forced slavery. “For the law of the Spirit of life,” he says, “has set me free from the law of sin and of death.” And it remains in our power, who have heard and learned the commands of the Spirit, either “to walk according to the flesh, or according to the Spirit.” It is impossible for those who have loved human praise or bodily ease to walk according to the Spirit; and it is impossible for those who heartily prefer the things to come to the present to live according to the flesh. Therefore we, who have strayed much, must henceforth hate human praise and bodily ease, through which evil thoughts spring up even against our will; and say to the Lord from the heart the prophet's words: “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and pine away over your enemies? I hated them with a perfect hatred; they became my enemies.” And truly evil thoughts are enemies of God, preventing his will from being done; since he wills all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, while they lead us astray through attachment and keep us from salvation. Of these the Lord said that they come out not from Adam but from the heart, and for this reason defile the person; and clearly not from faith, but from vainglory. “For how can you believe,” he says, “when you receive glory from people and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” When, then, we hate vainglory and believe him in everything, dashing every thought to the ground before him with the hope of the heart that keeps to a single thought, then, just as at the beginning of faith through baptism the body of Christ became the food of the faithful, so in spiritual hope and denial of thoughts the firmly believing and pure mind becomes the food of Jesus, who said, “My food is to do the will of my Father”: that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, according to Paul's word. He speaks of truth found in spiritual faith according to hope, as we said before, which is no longer believed from hearing but from the working of the all-holy Spirit, which is “the substance of things hoped for,” according to Scripture; for there is faith from hearing, and there is faith that is the substance of things hoped for. The unbaptized or the vainglorious cannot come to the knowledge of this truth. For first one will be baptized in the catholic church, and through baptism grace is given mystically and dwells hiddenly. Then, in proportion to the practice of the commandments and spiritual hope, it is revealed to those who so believe the Lord, who said, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” This he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive. Therefore we believe that we have received freedom and cleansing mystically through baptism, according to him who says, “But now you were washed, now you were justified, now you were cleansed.” And he writes such things to the Corinthians, who had not yet been cleansed in spiritual hope through the denial of thoughts, nor sanctified through the working of the Spirit in the heart, but were still evil, doing wrong and defrauding, and that their brothers; to show that the baptized have received cleansing mystically according to the gift of Christ, but that according to his own little faith each is worked upon, drawn away and enticed by his own desire, as it is written: “Then desire, having conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” So sin in thought comes from one's own desire, and from it the outcome of the action that follows it, which Scripture called death. That the grace of the Spirit is in us from baptism, teaching us all truth according to the Lord's word, learn again from Scripture and from the facts. See what blessed Peter says to the crowd in the Acts: “Repent,” he says, “and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” But to the extent that someone disbelieves, he is at once held by sin. See also how the apostle reproaches the twelve men in Ephesus who had been baptized without faith, and says, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said to him, “We have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” He said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” Hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; and when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. Are you persuaded, even now, that the Holy Spirit is given at once from baptism to those firm in faith, but is not given to the unbelieving, to those of false belief, and to the unbaptized? And that it is we who grieve him and quench him in ourselves, learn from the apostle who says, “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies”; and again, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” We bring forward these testimonies not as saying that every baptized person who has received grace is henceforth unchangeable and no longer needs repentance, but that from baptism, according to the gift of Christ, the grace of God has been given us perfect for the fulfilment of all the commandments. But thereafter each who has received it mystically and does not fulfil the commandments is worked upon by sin in proportion to his lack; and that sin is not Adam's but the negligent person's, since having received the power for the work, he does not carry out the work. The lack comes from unbelief; and unbelief is not another's sin but that of the one who disbelieved, and it then becomes the mother and entrance of every sin. Whether, then, we wish to be perfected quickly or slowly, we are debtors to believe Christ perfectly and to practise all his commandments, having received from him the power for such practice; and then not as owing it to work one commandment alone, partially, but to grasp the particular ones comprehensively, and so to fulfil them all in short. For there are more principal commandments, containing within them a great number of the others. This is the only struggle we owe: to fight down our own unbelief and not to neglect the comprehensive commandments, through which the grace given us is clearly revealed. This holy Paul prays may happen to us, saying, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the Lord may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,” with all full assurance and perception. It would be time, as we said before, to confirm this testimony also through the facts. For see: to the extent that, believing, we practise the commandments, the Holy Spirit works his own fruits in us. And the fruits of the Spirit, according to holy Paul, are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Who, then, after baptism is wholly uninitiated in these workings, so as to deny it, saying he did not receive the grace of the Spirit from baptism? And who, again, is worked upon daily and without ceasing by these fruits, before he has fulfilled the commandments, so as to say, “I am perfect and unchangeable”? Hence it is plain that just as grace is perfect, but we are not perfect because of our lack in the commandments, so too holy baptism is perfect toward us, but we are imperfect toward it. You, then, O man baptized in Christ, only give the work for which you have received the power, and prepare yourself for the manifestation of the one who dwells in you; and so the Lord will manifest himself to you spiritually according to his promise, as he himself knows. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” And then you will understand the saying, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” And this too must necessarily be known: that particular commandments are parts of other commandments and are fulfilled by them, and these are also called single. Those who practise the commandments partially enter the kingdom in proportion; but those who wish to reach perfection must practise all the commandments comprehensively. The comprehensive commandment of all is the denial of one's soul, which is death. And just as while living in the flesh one falls short of this completion, so until one's departure one cannot be free of provocation, because of this lack. If, then, any of the faithful who has lived well through the commandments finds some spiritual working in proportion, let him believe that he had already received its power, since he received through baptism the grace of the Spirit, the cause of all good things; I mean the source not only of hidden and spiritual virtues but also of visible ones. And let none of the virtuous suppose he has done any good thing by his own power alone. “For the good man,” says the Word, not from himself, but “out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good,” calling treasure the Holy Spirit hidden in the heart of the faithful. For “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and went and sold everything and bought that field.” This fits very well with what has been said. For whoever has understood exactly that from baptism he has Christ hidden within himself, according to the apostle, throws away all the affairs of this world and remains in his own heart, keeping it with all watchfulness and seeking the outcome of life, according to the Proverb. Therefore one must not suppose that Adam's sin is cut out through struggles, nor even one's own sins committed after baptism, except through Christ. “For it is he who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” By adding “for his good pleasure,” he shows that being well pleased in the virtues is in our power. And the sayings “Apart from me you can do nothing” and “You did not choose me, but I chose you” tend to the same meaning. Perhaps we should also understand in this way “All things came into being through him, and without him nothing came into being that has come into being,” since our own things too are among all things; and “No one comes to the Father except through me.” That is why the prophet did not say, “From Jerusalem to your temple kings will bring you gifts,” but the opposite: “From your temple to Jerusalem kings will bring you gifts,” because each person's most kingly mind first receives fair and good themes from the hidden temple of the heart, from Christ who dwells there, and leads them to the virtuous way of life, which he called Jerusalem; and again offers them through good thought to Christ who gave them in advance. We have said this not excluding the things to come, but confessing that we have received the power of the commandments and have been loosed from the bonds of death. We are, then, debtors of the work; and if we do not practise the commandments of God, the grace given us is not revealed. For how could we, who were dead in sin, do good of ourselves, unless the Lord himself had made us alive through the washing of regeneration and given us the grace of the Spirit? Hence we shall understand that the grace of the Spirit has been given us perfect for the fulfilment of all the commandments, giving increase of growth in Christ, empowering its workers until death, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” according to the order of the fathers, which we described before. Question. Whom, then, does the baptized person receive mystically: Christ, or the Holy Spirit? For sometimes you have said that Christ dwells within, sometimes the Holy Spirit. Answer. We receive the Holy Spirit through baptism. But since he is called both Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ, for this reason through the Spirit we receive the Father and the Son. Question. Is the Spirit, then, the Trinity? Answer. We do not say the Trinity is single in person in this way; but since he is not separated from the Father and the Son, for this reason we confess the Trinity in him according to his Godhead. For as the Son and the Spirit are in the Father, and again the Father and the Spirit in the Son, so the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, not by confusion of the three hypostases, but by the union of the same one will and Godhead. So we too, whether we name the Father alone, or the Son, or the Spirit, name the Trinity in the one name, according to the account we have now given.