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De Paenitentia

VI.

[1] Quidquid ergo mediocritas nostra ad paenitentiam semel capessendam et perpetuo continendam suggerere conata est, omnes quidem debitos domino spectat ut omnes salutis in promerendo deo petitores, sed praecipue novitiolis istis inminet, qui cum maxime incipiunt divinis sermonibus aures rigare quique ut catuli infantiae adhuc recentis necdum perfectis luminibus incerta reptant et dicunt quidem pristinis renuntiare et paenitentiam adsumunt, sed includere eam neglegunt. [2] Interpellat enim illos ad desiderandum ex pristinis aliquid ipse finis desiderandi, velut poma, cum iam in acorem vel amaritudinem senescere incipiunt, ex parte aliqua tamen adhuc ipsi gratiae suae adulantur.

[3] Omne praeterea cunctationis et tergiversationis erga paenitentiam vitium praesumptio intinctionis inportat. Certi enim indubitatae veniae delictorum medium tempus interim furantur et commeatum sibi faciunt delinquendi quam eruditionem non delinquendi. [4] Quam porro ineptum, quam (perversum), paenitentiam non adimplere et veniam delictorum sustinere, hoc est pretium non exhibere et ad mercem manum emittere! Hoc enim pretio dominus veniam addicere instituit, hac paenitentiae conpensatione redimendam proponit inpunitatem. [5] Si ergo qui venditant prius nummum quo paciscuntur examinant, ne scalptus ne versus ne adulter, non etiam dominum credimus paenitentiae probationem prius inire tantam nobis mercedem, perennis scilicet vitae, concessurum ?

[6] Sed differamus tantisper paenitentiae veritatem: tunc opinor emendatos licebit, cum absolvimur'. Nullo pacto, sed cum pendente venia poena prospicitur, cum adhuc liberari non meremur, ut possimus mereri, cum deus comminatur, non cum ignoscit. [7] Quis enim servus, posteaquam libertate mutatus est, furta sua et fugas sibi inputat? quis miles, postquam castris suis emissus est, pro notis suis satagit? [8] Peccator ante veniam deflere se debet, quia tempus paenitentiae idem quod periculi et timoris. [9] Neque ego renuo divinum beneficium, id est abolitionem delictorum, inituris aquam omnimodo salvum esse; sed ut eo pervenire contingat elaborandum est. Quis enim tibi tam infidae paenitentiae viro asperginem unam cuiuslibet aquae commodabit? [10] Furto quidem adgredi et praepositum huius rei adseverationibus tuis circumduci facile est: sed deus thesauro suo providet, nec sinet obrepere indignos. Quid denique ait? Nihil occultum quod non revelabitur: quantascumque tenebras factis tuis superstruxeris, deus lumen est!

[11] Quidam autem sic opinantur, quasi deus necesse habeat praestare etiam indignis quod spopondit, et liberalitatem eius faciunt servitutem. [12] Quodsi necessitate nobis symbolum mortis indulget, ergo invitus facit; quis autem promittit permansurum et quod tribuerit invitus? [13] Non enim multi postea excidunt? non a multis donum illud auferetur? Hi sunt scilicet qui obrepunt, qui paenitentiae fidem adgressi super harenas domum ruituram conlocant!

[14] Nemo ergo sibi aduletur quia inter auditorum tirocinia deputatur, quasi eo etiamnunc sibi delinquere liceat: dominum simul cognoveris timeas, simul inspexeris reverearis! [15] Ceterum quid te cognovisse interest, cum isdem incubas quibus retro ignarus? Quid autem te a perfecto servo dei separat? An alius est intinctis Christus, alius audientibus? [16] Num alia spes uel merces, alia formido iudicii, alia necessitas paenitentiae ? Lavacrum illud obsignatio est fidei, quae fides a paenitentiae fide incipitur et commendatur. [17] Non ideo abluimur ut delinquere desinamus, sed quia desiimus, quoniam iam corde loti sumus: haec enim prima audientis intinctio est. Metus integer exinde quod dominum senserit; fides sana conscientia semel paenitentiam amplexata! [18] Ceterum si ab aquis peccare desistimus, necessitate, non sponte, innocentiam induimus. Quis ergo in bonitate praecellens ? cui non licet aut cui displicet malo esse ? qui iubetur an qui delectatur a crimine vacare ? [19] Ergo nec a furto manus avertamus, nisi claustrorum duritia repugnet, nec oculos a stupri concupiscentiis refrenemus, nisi a custodibus corporum obstructi, si nemo domino debitus delinquere desinet nisi intinctione alligatus. [20] Quodsi qui ita senserit, nescio an intinctus magis contristetur quod peccare desierit, quam laetetur quod evaserit! Itaque audientes optare intinctionem, non praesumere oportet. [21] Qui enim optat, honorat; qui praesumit, superbit; in illo verecundia, in isto autem petulantia apparet; ille satagit, hic neglegit; ille emerere cupit, at hic ut debitum sibi repromittit; ille sumit, hic invadit. [22] Quem censeas digniorem nisi emendatiorem? quem emendatiorem nisi timidiorem et idcirco vera paenitentia functum ? timuit enim adhuc delinquere, ne non mereretur accipere. [23] At ille praesumptor cum sibi repromitteret, securus scilicet, timere non potuit: sic nec paenitentiam implevit, quia instrumento paenitentiae, id est metu, caruit. [24] Praesumptio inverecundiae portio est: inflat petitorem, despicit datorem; itaque decipit nonnumquam. Ante enim quam debeatur repromittit, quo semper is qui est praestaturus offenditur.

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On Repentance

Chapter VI.--Baptism Not to Be Presumptously Received. It Requires Preceding Repentance, Manifested by Amendment of Life.

Whatever, then, our poor ability has attempted to suggest with reference to laying hold of repentance once for all, and perpetually retaining it, does indeed bear upon all who are given up to the Lord, as being all competitors for salvation in earning the favour of God; but is chiefly urgent in the case of those young novices who are only just beginning to bedew ¹ their ears with divine discourses, and who, as whelps in yet early infancy, and with eyes not yet perfect, creep about uncertainly, and say indeed that they renounce their former deed, and assume (the profession of) repentance, but neglect to complete it. ² For the very end of desiring importunes them to desire somewhat of their former deeds; just as fruits, when they are already beginning to turn into the sourness or bitterness of age, do yet still in some part flatter ³ their own loveliness. Moreover, a presumptuous confidence in baptism introduces all kind of vicious delay and tergiversation with regard to repentance; for, feeling sure of undoubted pardon of their sins, men meanwhile steal the intervening time, and make it for themselves into a holiday-time ⁴ for sinning, rather than a time for learning not to sin. Further, how inconsistent is it to expect pardon of sins (to be granted) to a repentance which they have not fulfilled! This is to hold out your hand for merchandise, but not produce the price. For repentance is the price at which the Lord has determined to award pardon: He proposes the redemption ⁵ of release from penalty at this compensating exchange of repentance. If, then, sellers first examine the coin with which they make their bargains, to see whether it be cut, or scraped, or adulterated, ⁶ we believe likewise that the Lord, when about to make us the grant of so costly merchandise, even of eternal life, first institutes a probation of our repentance. "But meanwhile let us defer the reality of our repentance: it will then, I suppose, be clear that we are amended when we are absolved." ⁷ By no means; (but our amendment should be manifested) while, pardon being in abeyance, there is still a prospect of penalty; while the penitent does not yet merit--so far as merit we can--his liberation; while God is threatening, not while He is forgiving. For what slave, after his position has been changed by reception of freedom, charges himself with his (past) thefts and desertions? What soldier, after his discharge, makes satisfaction for his (former) brands? A sinner is bound to bemoan himself before receiving pardon, because the time of repentance is coincident with that of peril and of fear. Not that I deny that the divine benefit--the putting away of sins, I mean--is in every way sure to such as are on the point of entering the (baptismal) water; but what we have to labour for is, that it may be granted us to attain that blessing. For who will grant to you, a man of so faithless repentance, one single sprinkling of any water whatever? To approach it by stealth, indeed, and to get the minister appointed over this business misled by your asseverations, is easy; but God takes foresight for His own treasure, and suffers not the unworthy to steal a march upon it. What, in fact, does He say? "Nothing hid which shall not be revealed." ⁸ Draw whatever (veil of) darkness you please over your deeds, "God is light." ⁹ But some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, ¹⁰ then He does so unwillingly. But who permits a gift to be permanently retained which he has granted unwillingly? For do not many afterward fall out of (grace)? is not this gift taken away from many? These, no doubt, are they who do steal a march upon (the treasure), who, after approaching to the faith of repentance, set up on the sands a house doomed to ruin. Let no one, then, flatter himself on the ground of being assigned to the "recruit-classes" of learners, as if on that account he have a licence even now to sin. As soon as you "know the Lord," ¹¹ you should fear Him; as soon as you have gazed on Him, you should reverence Him. But what difference does your "knowing" Him make, while you rest in the same practises as in days bygone, when you knew Him not? What, moreover, is it which distinguishes you from a perfected ¹² servant of God? Is there one Christ for the baptized, another for the learners? Have they some different hope or reward? some different dread of judgment? some different necessity for repentance? That baptismal washing is a sealing of faith, which faith is begun and is commended by the faith of repentance. We are not washed in order that we may cease sinning, but because we have ceased, since in heart we have been bathed ¹³ already. For the first baptism of a learner is this, a perfect fear; ¹⁴ thenceforward, in so far as you have understanding of the Lord faith is sound, the conscience having once for all embraced repentance. Otherwise, if it is (only) after the baptismal waters that we cease sinning, it is of necessity, not of free-will, that we put on innocence. Who, then, is pre-eminent in goodness? he who is not allowed, or he whom it displeases, to be evil? he who is bidden, or he whose pleasure it is, to be free from crime? Let us, then, neither keep our hands from theft unless the hardness of bars withstand us, nor refrain our eyes from the concupiscence of fornication unless we be withdrawn by guardians of our persons, if no one who has surrendered himself to the Lord is to cease sinning unless he be bound thereto by baptism. But if any entertain this sentiment, I know not whether he, after baptism, do not feel more sadness to think that he has ceased from sinning, than gladness that he hath escaped from it. And so it is becoming that learners desire baptism, but do not hastily receive it: for he who desires it, honours it; he who hastily receives it, disdains it: in the one appears modesty, in the other arrogance; the former satisfies, the latter neglects it; the former covets to merit it, but the latter promises it to himself as a due return; the former takes, the latter usurps it. Whom would you judge worthier, except one who is more amended? whom more amended, except one who is more timid, and on that account has fulfilled the duty of true repentance? for he has feared to continue still in sin, lest he should not merit the reception of baptism. But the hasty receiver, inasmuch as he promised it himself (as his due), being forsooth secure (of obtaining it), could not fear: thus he fulfilled not repentance either, because he lacked the instrumental agent of repentance, that is, fear. ¹⁵ Hasty reception is the portion of irreverence; it inflates the seeker, it despises the Giver. And thus it sometimes deceives, ¹⁶ for it promises to itself the gift before it be due; whereby He who is to furnish the gift is ever offended.