Circumcision a type, not a rule, of Baptism. 197 tism. ought any of us to shrink from that which God hath vouchsafed to make". For although an infant is yet fresh from its birth, yet it is not such that any one should shrink from kissing it in bestowing grace and in making peace; 'in Bapfor that, in the kiss of an infant, each of us should, for very piety, think of the recent Hands of God, which we in a manner kiss, in the lately formed and recently born man, when we embrace that which God has made. For in that in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh the eighth day was observed, a mystery was given beforehand in a shadow and in a figure; but, when Christ came, it was accomplished in reality. For because the eighth day, that is, the first after the sabbath, was to be that, whereon our Lord would rise again and quicken us and give us the spiritual circumcision, this eighth day, that is, the first after the sabbath, and the Lord's day, was promised in a figure. Which figure ceased, when the reality afterwards came, and when the spiritual circumcision was given to us. On which account we think that no one should by that law which was before ordained be hindered from obtaining grace; nor should the spiritual circumcision be hindered by the circumcision in the flesh, but every one is by all means to be admitted to the grace of Christ, inasmuch as Peter also in the Acts of the Apostles speaks and says, The Lord hath Acts 10, shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 5. But if any thing could hinder men from obtaining grace, much more might the more grievous sins hinder the adult and grown and elder men. If then even to the most grievous offenders, and who had before sinned much against God, when they afterwards believe, remission of sins is granted, and no one is debarred from Baptism and grace, how much more ought not an infant to be debarred, P Certainly Christ loved that human being in its defilements-for him He came down from heaven; for him He preached; for him He humbled Himself to death and that the death of the Cross. He must have loved whom he purchased at an exceeding price. With man He loved His birth also, His flesh also.-Wilt thou make 4 See S. Justin dial. c. Tryph. §. 24. note 1. 28. LXV. A. 253. 198 Adults not shut out by actual sins, much less infants by original. EPIST. Who being newly born has in no way sinned, except that -being born after Adam in the flesh, he has by his first birth contracted the contagion of the old death; who is on this very account more easily admitted to receive remission of sins, in that not his own but another's sins are remitted to him'. And therefore, dearest brother, this was our opinion in council, that no one should by us be debarred from Baptism and the grace of God Who is merciful and gracious and loving to all. Which as it is to be observed and maintained towards all, much more do we think it to be observed towards infants and the newly born, who on this very account the more deserve our aid and the Divine mercy, that, immediately on the very dawn of their birth, lamenting and weeping, they do nothing else but entreat for pardon. We bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell. EPISTLE LXV. Cyprian to his brother Epictetus, and to the laity abiding at 1. Heavily and grievously was I troubled, dearest brethren, on hearing that Fortunatianus, formerly Bishop amongst you, had now after his grievous fall desired to act as though all had been well, and had begun to claim the Episcopate to himself. Which thing saddened me, in the first instance on account of the unhappy man himself, who, being either utterly blinded by the mists of Satan, or deceived by the sacrilegious persuasion of certain persons, when he ought to make satisfaction and give himself day and night to tears and prayers and supplications, that so the Lord might be entreated for him, dares yet to claim to himself the priesthood which he betrayed; as if from the altars of the devil it were lawful to approach S. Aug. remarks, Serm. 294. c. 20. with what simple confidence St. C. alleges the doctrine of original sin. "Of original sin there was no question, and so from that, of which there was no question, was solved the question which did arise." "See how, in no wise doubting of this, he solves that of which there was doubt. He took this out of the foundation of the Church-to strengthen the stone which was tottering." The passage is quoted also by S. Jerome c. Pelag. iii. fin. S A town in Africa Zeugitana. Victor appears as its Bishop, Conc. Carth. 68. Priests, in mortal sin, not to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice. 199 22, 20. the Altar of God: or as if he would not provoke the greater wrath and indignation of the Lord against himself in the Day of Judgment; who, unable to be a guide to the brethren to faith and virtue, becometh an instructor in faithlessness, and boldness, and temerity; and he who taught not the brethren to stand bravely in the battle, teaches those who have been vanquished and overthrown, not even to entreat for pardon. Whereas the Lord says, To them ye have poured a drink Is.57,6. offering, and to them ye have offered a meat offering; should I not be angry for these things? saith the Lord. And in another place, He that sacrificeth unto any God, save unto Exod. the Lord only, shall be utterly destroyed. Moreover the Lord again speaks and says, They worship those whom their Is.2,8.9. own fingers have made; and the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself, therefore I will not forgive them. In the Revelations also we read the anger of the Lord threatening and saying, If any man Rev. 14, worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, mixed in the cup of His indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment shall ascend up for ever and ever: and they shall have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image. 9-11. 2. Since then the Lord threatens these torments, this punishment in the Day of Judgment, to those who obey the devil, and sacrifice to idols: how does he think that he can act as a Priest of God, who has obeyed and served the priests of the devil? or how does he think that his hand can be transferred to the Sacrifice of God and the prayer of the Lord, which has been in bondage to sacrilege and crime? Whereas God in the holy Scriptures forbids priests who are even in lighter guilt, to approach the Sacrifice, and says in Leviticus, The man in whom there shall be any Levit. blemish or stain, shall not approach to offer gifts to God. 21, 17. Likewise in Exodus, And let the priests, which come near Exod. 19, 22. to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord forsake them. And again, When they come near unto the altar to minister Exod. at the holy place, they shall not bring sin upon them, lest 28, 43. 200 Overt sins God's judgment upon secret. EPIST. they die. They therefore who have brought grievous sins A. 253. upon them, that is, who by sacrificing to idols, have offered LXV. 31. sacrilegious sacrifices, cannot claim to themselves the priest hood of God, nor offer any prayer in His sight for their John 9, brethren; for that it is written in the Gospel, God heareth not a sinner; but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. And yet the deep gloom of gathering darkness has so blinded the breasts of some, that they admit no light from the saving precepts, but having once turned from the straight path of the true way, they are hurried headlong down the precipice, through the might and mazes of their sins. Nor is it strange, if they now reject our counsels or the Lord's precepts, who have before denied the Lord. 3. They desire stipends and oblations and lucre, for which aforetime they hankered insatiably; for suppers also, and banquets, whose excess, amid indigestion enduring to the day, they lately breathed out, are they still eager; now most plainly evincing, that neither before was it godliness, Rom. but rather their own belly and gain, which, with profane 16, 18. covetousness, they served. Whence also we perceive and believe that this very censure has come by the searching judgments of God, that so they should no longer continue to stand at the Altar, and handle things chaste, themselves impure; faith, themselves faithless; religion, themselves profane; Divine, themselves earthly; holy, themselves sacrilegious. 4. That such return not again to this profanation of the Altar and the corrupting of the brethren, we must keep watch, and with all energy strive, that as far as we can, we may keep them back from their boldness and their wickedness: that they attempt not still to act as priests, who, cast down to the lowest depths of death, have by the weight of their heavier fall, gone headlong deeper than the lapsed laity. But if the madness of these phrenzied persons shall continue incurable, and the Holy Spirit withdrawing from them, the blindness that has begun shall abide in its own darkness, our counsel must be to separate the brethren individually from their snares, and, lest any fall into the meshes of their error, to separate them from their contagion; Satan's arts to withdraw men from penitence and the Church. 201 since neither can the Oblation be consecrated where the Holy Spirit is not, nor does the Lord grant grace to any through the prayers and supplications of one who has himself done violence to the Lord. But if Fortunatianus, either forgetful of his own crime through blindness from the devil, or having become a minister and servant of the devil, to deceive the brotherhood, shall persevere in this his madness, do ye labour as far as ye are able, and, amid this darkness of Satan's rage, recall the minds of the brethren from error, that they consent not easily to another's phrenzy, nor make themselves partakers of the sins of desperate men; but being whole, let them maintain the even course of their salvation, and the enduring vigour of that soundness, which they have preserved and guarded. 5. But let the lapsed, conscious of the greatness of their sin, cease not from imploring the Lord, nor leave the Catholic Church, which one and alone hath been established by the Lord; but enduring in their amends, and entreating the mercy of the Lord, let them knock at the door of the Church, that they may be received there where once they were, and return to Christ from Whom they departed. Nor let them listen to those who deceive them with a treacherous and deadly seduction, in that it is written, Let Eph. 5, no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these 6. things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. The contumacious then, and such as fear not God and withdraw entirely from the Church, let no one accompany. But if any be impatient of entreating his offended Lord, and obey not us, but shall follow the desperate and lost, he must impute it to himself, when the Day of Judgment shall come. For how will he be able to entreat the Lord in that Day, who has both aforetime denied Christ, and now the Church also of Christ, and not obeying Bishops, sound and stedfast and having life, has given himself over as a companion and partaker with the dying? I bid you, dearest brethren and much longed for, ever heartily farewell. Salutis suæ tenorem et integritatis- perpetuum vigorem Bal. in note from cod. S. 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