21.

But this impenitence or impenitent heart may not be pronounced ¹ upon, as long as a man lives in the flesh. For we are not to despair of any so long as "the patience of God leadeth the ungodly to repentance," and doth not hurry him out of this life; "God, who willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he should return from his ways and live." ² He is a heathen today; but how knowest thou whether he may not be a Christian to-morrow? He is a heretic to-day; but what if to-morrow he follow the Catholic truth? He is a schismatic to-day; but what if to-morrow he embrace Catholic peace? What if they, whom thou observest now in any kind of error that can be, and whom thou condemnest as in most desperate case, what if before they end this life, they repent and find the true life in that which is to come? Wherefore, Brethren, let also what the Apostle says urge you to this. "Judge nothing before the time." ³ For this blasphemy of the Spirit, for which there is no forgiveness (which I have understood to be not every kind of blasphemy, but a particular sort, and that as I have said or discovered, or even as I think clearly shown to be the case, the persevering hardness of an impenitent heart), cannot be taken hold of in any one, I repeat it, as long as he is still in this life.