-- 25. Wherefore, as regards those who received the persons who came from heresy in the same baptism of Christ with which they had been baptized outside the Church, and said "that they followed ancient custom," as indeed the Church now receives such, it i26. But I cannot see what show of reason there is in this, that the name of "erring sheep" [1519] should be denied to one whose lot it has been that, while seeking the salvation which is in Christ, he has fallen into the error of heretics, and been baptized in their body; while he is held to have become a sheep already within the body of the Catholic Church herself, who has renounced the world in words and not in deeds, and has received baptism in such falseness of heart as this. Or if such an one also does not become a sheep unless after turning to God with a true heart, then, as he is not baptized at the time when he becomes a sheep, if he had been already baptized, but was not yet a sheep; so he too, who comes from the heretics that he may become a sheep, is not then to be baptized if he had been already baptized with the same baptism, though he was not yet a sheep. Wherefore, since even all the bad that are within -- the covetous, the envious, the drunkards, and those that live contrary to the discipline of Christ -- may be deservedly called liars, and in darkness, and dead, and antichrists, do they yet therefore not baptize, on the ground that "there can be nothing common between truth and falsehood, between light and darkness, between death and immortality, between Antichrist and Christ?" [1520] 27. He makes an assumption, then, not "of mere custom," but "of the reason of truth itself," [1521] when he says that the sacrament of God cannot be turned to error by the error of any men, since it is declared to exist even in those who have erred. Assuredly the Apostle John says most plainly, "He that hateth his brother is in darkness even until now;" [1522] and again, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer;" [1523] and why, therefore, do they baptize those within the Church whom Cyprian himself declares to be in the envy of malice? [1524] Footnotes: [1518] Apud veteres hæreses et schismata prima adhuc fuisse initia; that among the ancients heresies and schisms were yet in their very infancy. Benedictines suggest: "hæresis et schismatum." Hartel reads: apud veteres hæreseos et schismatum prima adhuc fuerint initia. [1519] Cypr. Ep. 71. 2. [1520] Cypr. Ep. 71. 2. [1521] Cypr. Ep. 71. 3. [1522] 1 John 2:9. [1523] 1 John 3:15. [1524] Cypr. Ep. 73. 14. |
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