Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 49 part 4/10

Since He is the splendour of His glory and the very figure of His substance, upholding all things by the word of His power, having accomplished the cleansing of sins by Himself, He sits at the right hand of Majesty on high. And a little later: For if the word spoken through angels became binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And in another place: Therefore, because the children shared in blood and flesh, He too in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might set free those who through fear of death were all their life long subject to the bondage of guilt. And a little after that:

Wherefore, he says, He had in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in those things which pertain to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. And elsewhere: Let us hold fast, he says, our confession; for we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who was in all points tried according to our likeness, yet without sin. And in another place: He has, he says, an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost those who come through Him unto God, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.

For such a High Priest was fitting for us to have: holy, without malice, undefiled, separated from sinners, made higher than the heavens; who has not, like the high priests, daily need to offer sacrifice, first for His own sins and then for the people's; for this He did once for all, when He offered Himself. And in another place: For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, to appear now before the face of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with the blood of another.

Otherwise He would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once, at the end of the ages, He has been manifested for the remission of sins through His own sacrifice. And as it is appointed unto men once only to die, and after this the judgment, so also Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and a second time He shall appear without sin unto those who wait for Him unto salvation. The Apocalypse of John also bears witness that these praises are offered to Christ in a new song: Worthy art Thou to receive the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God in Thy blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles the apostle Peter said that the Lord Jesus was the Author of life, rebuking the Jews for having slain Him, thus speaking: But you loaded the Holy and Just One, and denied Him, and demanded that a murderer be granted to live and be given to you; for you slew the Author of life. And in another place: This is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And elsewhere: The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew, hanging Him on a tree. Him God exalted with His glory to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins in Him. Likewise in another place:

To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives remission of sins through His hand. Likewise in the same book the apostle Paul says: Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this One remission of sins is proclaimed to you; and from all those things from which you could not be justified in the law of Moses, in Him everyone that believes is justified. Whose lifting up against the truth of God would not be crushed under so vast a rampart of testimonies? And indeed many other things could be found; yet the care of bringing this work to a close must not be negligently neglected.

From the books of the Old Testament also I have thought it superfluous to adduce many attestations of the divine oracles to this effect, since indeed what is there concealed under the veil, as it were, of earthly promises is revealed in the preaching of the New Testament. And the Lord Himself briefly demonstrated and defined the usefulness of the old books, saying that all things must be fulfilled which were written of Him in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, and that these very things were: that it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And Peter says—as I mentioned a little before—that all the prophets bear witness to Him, that everyone who believes in Him receives remission of sins through His hand. Nevertheless it is more fitting to bring forth a few testimonies even from the Old Testament itself, which ought to serve as a supplement, or rather as a crowning addition. The Lord Himself, speaking through the prophet in the Psalm, says: To the saints who are in His land He has made wonderful all my wills in them—not their merits, but my wills. For what of theirs is there, except that which follows? Their infirmities were multiplied beyond what they were in weakness. To this end also the law entered in, that offence might abound. But what does he add? Afterwards they made haste.

Their infirmities being multiplied—that is, offence abounding—they sought the physician more eagerly, so that where sin abounded, grace might much more abound. Then: I will not, He says, gather together their assemblies out of bloods; because with the many bloods of sacrifices, when formerly they were gathered into the tabernacle or into the temple, they were rather convicted as sinners than cleansed. "Not therefore any longer," He says, "will I gather their assemblies out of bloods"; for one blood was given for many, by which they might be truly cleansed. Then it follows: Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips—as of the cleansed, as of the renewed. For their names were formerly: sons of the flesh, sons of the world, sons of wrath, sons of the devil, unclean.

sinners, ungodly; but afterwards "sons of God," to the new man singing a new song a new name, through the new covenant. Let not men be ungrateful to the grace of God, the small with the great, from the lesser even to the greater. It is the voice of the whole Church: I have gone astray like a lost sheep; it is the voice of all the members of Christ: We all like sheep have gone astray, and He was delivered up for our sins. This whole passage of prophecy in Isaiah—which, when expounded to him by Philip, that eunuch of Queen Candace believed on Him—see how often it commends this very thing, and repeatedly drives it home, as it were, against certain proud or contentious persons, I know not whom.

A man, he says, under a blow, and one who knows how to bear infirmities; for which cause His face is turned away, it was dishonoured and esteemed of no account. He bears our infirmities and is in sorrows for us. And we esteemed Him to be in sorrows, and under a blow, and in affliction. But He was wounded for our sins and made weak for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; by His bruise we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord delivered Him up for our sins. And He, because He was evilly treated, opened not His mouth; He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer was without voice, so He opened not His mouth.

In His humiliation His judgment was taken away. Who shall declare His generation? For His life shall be taken from the earth. From the iniquities of my people was He led to death. I will therefore give the wicked for His burial and the rich for His death, because He did no iniquity, nor was guile in His mouth. The Lord wills to cleanse Him from the blow. If you give your soul for your offences, you shall see a seed of very long life. And the Lord wills to take away His soul from sorrows, to show Him light and to form Him by understanding, to justify the just One who serves many well; and He Himself shall bear their sins.

Therefore He Himself shall inherit many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong, because His soul was delivered up to death, and He was reckoned among the wicked; and He Himself bore the sins of many, and for their iniquities was delivered up. Attend also to that saying of the same prophet, which He read aloud in the synagogue concerning Himself as fulfilled, even discharging the office of reader: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the lowly; He has sent me that those who are in distress of heart may be refreshed, to proclaim to the captives remission, and to the blind sight.

Let us all, then, acknowledge Him—and let none of us be excepted, we who wish to cleave to His body, to enter through Him into His fold, to belong to the everlasting life and salvation which He has promised to His own—let us all, I say, acknowledge Him who did no sin and yet bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, that being set free from sins we might live with righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed, we who were sick like wandering cattle. Since these things are so, sound faith and sound doctrine have never held that any of those who have come to Christ through baptism is excepted from the grace of the remission of sins, nor that eternal salvation can belong to anyone apart from His kingdom.

For this salvation is prepared to be revealed in the last time, that is, in the resurrection of the dead who pertain not to eternal death, which is called the second death, but to eternal life, which God who does not lie has promised to His saints and faithful ones. Of which life none are made partakers except they be made alive in Christ, just as in Adam all die. For just as absolutely all who pertain to the generation of the will of the flesh do not die except in Adam, in whom all have sinned, so of these, absolutely all who pertain to the regeneration of the will of the Spirit are not made alive except in Christ, in whom all are justified; for as through one all unto condemnation, so through one all unto justification.

Nor is there any middle place for anyone, so that he could be anywhere but with the devil, who is not with Christ. Hence the Lord Himself, wishing to remove from the hearts of those who believe wrongly that certain middle state, I know not what, which some try to assign to unbaptized infants—so that as though by the merit of innocence they should be in eternal life, but, because they are not baptized, should not be with Christ in His kingdom—pronounced a definitive sentence to stop these mouths, where He says: He who is not with me is against me. Set down, then, any infant you please: if he is already with Christ, to what end is he baptized?

But if, as the truth holds, he is baptized for this reason, that he may be with Christ, then assuredly the unbaptized is not with Christ; and because he is not with Christ, he is against Christ; for we neither ought nor are able to weaken or alter His so manifest a sentence. Whence, then, is he against Christ, if not from sin? For it is not from body and soul, both of which are God's creation. Further, if from sin, what sin at that age except original and ancient sin? For there is indeed one flesh of sin, in which all are born unto damnation, and there is one flesh in the likeness of the flesh of sin, through which all are freed from damnation.

Nor is it so said "all" as though whoever are born in the flesh of sin should be understood to be the very same ones all cleansed through flesh like the flesh of sin—for faith is not of all—but all who pertain to the generation of carnal wedlock are not born except in the flesh of sin, and all who pertain to the generation of spiritual wedlock are not cleansed except through flesh like the flesh of sin; that is: the former through Adam unto condemnation, the latter through Christ unto justification. As if, for the sake of example, we should say: "There is one midwife in this city, who receives all, and one teacher of letters here, who teaches all"; neither there can "all" be understood except those who are born, nor here "all" except those who learn;

yet not all who are born learn letters. But it is clear to anyone that both there it was rightly said, "She receives all, apart from whose hands no one is born," and here it was rightly said, "He teaches all, apart from whose instruction no one learns."

Now, having considered all the divine testimonies which I have recalled—whether discussing each singly, or heaping up many together in a mass—and whatever similar ones I have not recalled, nothing is found except what the universal Church holds, which ought to keep watch against all profane novelties: that every man is separated from God, save he who is reconciled to God through the Mediator Christ; and that no one can be separated except by sins intervening; and therefore that none is reconciled except by the remission of sins through the one grace of the most merciful Saviour, through the one victim of the most true Priest; and thus that all the children of the woman who believed the serpent, so as to be corrupted by lust, are not delivered from the body of this death except through the Son of the Virgin, who believed the angel, so as to conceive without lust.

The good of marriage, therefore, is not the fervour of concupiscence, but a certain lawful and honourable mode of using that fervour, adapted to the propagation of offspring, not to the satisfying of lust. This is the will proper to marriage, not that pleasure. What therefore is moved disobediently in the members of this body of death, and tries to draw the whole mind, cast down into itself, unto itself, and neither rises up when the mind is unwilling nor rests when the mind is willing—this is the evil of sin, with which every man is born. But when it is bridled from unlawful corruptions and permitted only for the orderly propagation of the human race's supplement, this is the good of marriage, through which by an ordered fellowship man is born.

But no one is reborn in the body of Christ unless he is first born in the body of sin. And just as to use a good thing badly is evil, so to use an evil thing well is good. These two, then, good and evil, and two others, good use and bad use, joined together, make four distinctions. He uses a good thing well who dedicates continence to God; he uses a good thing badly who dedicates continence to an idol; he uses an evil thing badly who loosens concupiscence unto adultery; he uses an evil thing well who restrains concupiscence within marriage. As, therefore, it is better to use a good thing well than to use an evil thing well, since both are good, so he who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who gives her not does better.

On which question I have discoursed much more copiously and much more sufficiently, as far as the Lord granted, in two books—one On the Good of Marriage, the other On Holy Virginity—according to the smallness of my powers. Let them not, therefore, by the good of marriage defend the evil of concupiscence, who exalt the flesh and blood of the transgressor against the flesh and blood of the Redeemer; let them not be lifted up in the pride of another's error, from whose infant age the Lord has given us an example of humility. He alone was born without sin, whom the Virgin conceived without a man's embrace, not by the concupiscence of the flesh but by the obedience of the mind; she alone could bring forth medicine for our wound, who put forth the shoot of holy offspring not from the wound of sin.

Now, then, let us examine more diligently, as far as the Lord helps, that very chapter of the Gospel where He says: Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God. If these people were not moved by this sentence, they would judge that infants ought not to be baptized at all. But because He does not say, they claim, "Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he shall not have salvation or eternal life," but only said, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God, for this reason infants are to be baptized, that they too may be with Christ in the kingdom of God, where they will not be if they are not baptized—although even without baptism, if infants die, they will have salvation and eternal life, since they are bound by no bond of sin.

In saying these things, these people in the first place never explain by what justice an image of God having no sin should be separated from the kingdom of God. Next, let us see whether the Lord Jesus, the one and only good Master, in this very Gospel reading has not signified and shown that only through the remission of sins does it come about that the baptized attain to the kingdom of God—although for those who understand rightly it ought to have sufficed that it was said: Unless a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God; and: Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. For why should he be born anew, unless to be renewed? Whence renewed, unless from oldness?

From what oldness, save that in which our old man was crucified together with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed? Or whence does the image of God not enter into the kingdom of God, unless the hindrance of sin prevents it? Nevertheless, as we proposed, let us attentively and, as far as we can, diligently examine that whole context of the Gospel reading which pertains to the matter in hand. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, it says, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Him by night and said to Him: Rabbi, we know that Thou art come a teacher from God; for no one can do these signs that Thou doest, unless God be with him. Jesus answered and said to him: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus says to Him: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said to thee: You must be born anew. The Spirit breathes where it wills, and thou hearest its voice; but thou knowest not whence it comes and whither it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to Him: How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him: Thou art a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?

Amen, amen I say to thee, that we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you have not believed, how, if I tell you heavenly things, will you believe? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe is already judged, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works be reproved; but he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are wrought in God. Thus far the whole connected discourse pertains to the matter about which we are inquiring; thenceforth the narrator departs into another subject. Since, then, Nicodemus did not understand what was being said, he asked of the Lord how these things could come to be. Let us see what the Lord answers to this.

For assuredly, if He deigns to answer the question "How can these things be?", He is going to say this: how can the spiritual regeneration of men coming from carnal generation come to be. Having therefore lightly noted the ignorance of him who preferred himself to others in the matter of teaching, and having reproved the unbelief of all such, in that they would not receive the testimony of the truth, He added also that He had told them earthly things and they had not believed, asking or marvelling how they would believe heavenly things. Yet He follows on and answers—since others believe, though these do not—to that which He was asked, how these things could be:

No one, He says, has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. "Thus," He says, "shall the spiritual generation come to be, so that there may be heavenly men out of earthly ones, which they will not be able to attain unless they be made my members, so that He who descended may ascend, since no one ascends except He who descended." Unless, therefore, all who are to be changed and raised up run together into the unity of Christ, so that Christ who descended may Himself ascend, reckoning His body—that is, His Church—no other than Himself; for of Christ and the Church it is more truly understood, They shall be two in one flesh, concerning which He Himself said:

So then now not two, but one flesh—they will not be able to ascend at all, because no one ascends into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. For although the Son of Man was made on earth, yet He did not deem His divinity, by which remaining in heaven He descended to earth, unworthy of the name of Son of Man, just as He deigned His flesh worthy of the name of Son of God, lest as it were two Christs be received, one God and the other man, but one and the same God and man: God, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God; man, because the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And through this, by the distinction of divinity and infirmity, the Son of God remained in heaven, the Son of Man walked on earth;

but through the unity of person, by which each substance is one Christ, both the Son of God walked on earth and that same Son of Man remained in heaven. Thus faith in the more credible things arises out of the less credible things being believed.

For if the divine substance, far more distant and by an incomparable diversity more sublime, could for our sake so take up the human substance that one person came to be, and thus the Son of Man, who was on earth through the infirmity of the flesh, was the very same who was in heaven through the divinity shared with the flesh—how much more credibly do other men, holy and faithful, become with the man Christ one Christ, so that, as all ascend through this His grace and fellowship, that one Christ may ascend into heaven who descended from heaven! So also the apostle says: As in one body we have many members, but all the members of the body, though they be many, are one body, so also is Christ. He did not say:

"so also are Christ's," that is, the body of Christ or the members of Christ, but: so also is Christ, calling head and body one Christ. Great and wonderful is this condescension! And since this cannot come to be except through the remission of sins, it follows and says: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. What was then done in the wilderness we know: many were dying of the serpents' bites. Then the people, confessing their sins, entreated the Lord through Moses that He would take away this venom from them.

And so Moses, at the Lord's command, lifted up in the wilderness a bronze serpent, and admonished the people that whoever was bitten by a serpent should look upon that uplifted one; and doing this they were immediately healed. What is the uplifted serpent but the death of Christ, by that mode of signifying whereby through the effecting cause that which is effected is signified? For from the serpent came death, who persuaded man to the sin whereby he deserved to die. But the Lord transferred into His flesh not sin, as it were the venom of the serpent, yet He did transfer death, that in the likeness of the flesh of sin there might be punishment without guilt, whence in the flesh of sin both guilt and punishment might be dissolved.

As therefore then he who looked upon the uplifted serpent was both healed from the venom and freed from death, so now he who is conformed to the likeness of Christ's death through faith and His baptism is both freed from sin through justification and from death through resurrection. For this is what He says: that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. What need is there, therefore, that an infant be conformed to Christ's death through baptism, if he is not at all envenomed by the serpent's bite? Then, if—as He consequently says—God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life:

then the infant was going to perish and not to have eternal life, if through the sacrament of baptism he did not believe in the only-begotten Son of God; especially since meanwhile He came thus, not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him—above all because it follows and says: He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe is already judged, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. Where, then, do we place baptized infants but among the faithful, as the authority of the universal Church everywhere proclaims? Therefore among those who have believed—for this is acquired for them through the power of the sacrament and the response of those who present them—and through this those who are not baptized among those who have not believed.

Further, if those who are baptized are not judged, these, because they lack baptism, are judged. But what He adds: And this is the judgment, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light—whence has light come into the world, unless He speaks of His own advent? Without the sacrament of whose advent, how are infants said to be in the light? Or how do they too not have this in their love of darkness, who, just as they themselves do not believe, so also judge that their own infants are not to be baptized, when they fear for them the death of the body? But he says that the works of him who comes to the light are wrought in God, because he understands that his justification pertains not to his own merits but to the grace of God.