9. But if there be among us, most beloved brother, the fear of God, if the maintenance of the faith prevail, if we keep the precepts of Christ, if we guard the incorrupt and inviolate sanctity of His spouse, if the words of the Lord abide in our thoughts and hearts, when he says, "Thinkest thou, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" [2905] then, because we are God's faithful soldiers, who war for the faith and sincere religion of God, let us keep the camp entrusted to us by God with faithful valour. Nor ought custom, which had crept in among some, to prevent the truth from prevailing and conquering; for custom without truth is the antiquity of error. [2906] On which account, let us forsake the error and follow the truth, knowing that in Esdras also the truth conquers, as it is written: "Truth endureth and grows strong to eternity, and lives and prevails for ever and ever. With her there is no accepting of persons or distinctions; but what is just she does: nor in her judgments is there unrighteousness, but the strength, and the kingdom, and the majesty, and the power of all ages. Blessed be the Lord God of truth!" [2907] This truth Christ showed to us in His Gospel, and said, "I am the truth." [2908] Wherefore, if we are in Christ, and have Christ in us, if we abide in the truth, and the truth abides in us, let us keep fast those things which are true.
10. But it happens, by a love of presumption and of obstinacy, that one would rather maintain his own evil and false position, than agree in the right and true which belongs to another. Looking forward to which, the blessed Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, and warns him that a bishop must not be "litigious, nor contentious, but gentle and teachable." [2909] Now he is teachable who is meek and gentle to the patience of learning. For it behoves a bishop not only to teach, but also to learn; because he also teaches better who daily increases and advances by learning better; which very thing, moreover, the same Apostle Paul teaches, when he admonishes, "that if anything better be revealed to one sitting by, the first should hold his peace." [2910] But there is a brief way for religious and simple minds, both to put away error, and to find and to elicit truth. For if we return to the head and source of divine tradition, human error ceases; and having seen the reason of the heavenly sacraments, whatever lay hid in obscurity under the gloom and cloud of darkness, is opened into the light of the truth. If a channel supplying water, which formerly flowed plentifully and freely, suddenly fail, do we not go to the fountain, that there the reason of the failure may be ascertained, whether from the drying up of the springs the water has failed at the fountainhead, or whether, flowing thence free and full, it has failed in the midst of its course; that so, if it has been caused by the fault of an interrupted or leaky channel, that the constant stream does not flow uninterruptedly and continuously, then the channel being repaired and strengthened, the water collected may be supplied for the use and drink of the city, with the same fertility and plenty with which it issues from the spring? And this it behoves the priests of God to do now, if they would keep the divine precepts, that if in any respect the truth have wavered and vacillated, we should return to our original and Lord, and to the evangelical and apostolical tradition; and thence may arise the ground of our action, whence has taken rise both our order and our origin. [2911]
11. For it has been delivered to us, that there is one God, and one Christ, and one hope, and one faith, and one Church, and one baptism ordained only in the one Church, from which unity whosoever will depart must needs be found with heretics; and while he upholds them against the Church, he impugns the sacrament of the divine tradition. The sacrament of which unity we see expressed also in the Canticles, in the person of Christ, who says, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a fountain sealed, a well of living water, a garden with the fruit of apples." [2912] But if His Church is a garden enclosed, and a fountain sealed, how can he who is not in the Church enter into the same garden, or drink from its fountain? Moreover, Peter himself, showing and vindicating the unity, has commanded and warned us that we cannot be saved, except by the one only baptism of one Church. "In the ark," says he, "of Noah, few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water, as also baptism shall in like manner save you." [2913] In how short and spiritual a summary has he set forth the sacrament of unity! For as, in that baptism of the world in which its ancient iniquity was purged away, he who was not in the ark of Noah could not be saved by water, so neither can he appear to be saved by baptism who has not been baptized in the Church which is established in the unity [2914] of the Lord according to the sacrament of the one ark.
12. Therefore, dearest brother, having explored and seen the truth; it is observed and held by us, that all who are converted from any heresy whatever to the Church must be baptized by the only and lawful baptism of the Church, with the exception of those who had previously been baptized in the Church, and so had passed over to the heretics. [2915] For it behoves these, when they return, having repented, to be received by the imposition of hands only, and to be restored by the shepherd to the sheep-fold whence they had strayed. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell.
[2887] Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxiv.
[2888] On which subject, again, in chap. 25: "I will not now reconsider what he angrily uttered against Stephen, because there is no necessity for it. The very same things are indeed said which have already been sufficiently discussed, and it is better to pass by what suggested the risk of a mischievous dissension. Stephen, for his part, had thought that they who endeavoured to annul the old custom about receiving heretics were to be excommunicated; but the other, moved with the difficulty of that very question, and very largely endowed with a sacred charity, thought that unity might be maintained with them who thought differently. Thus, although there was a great deal of keenness, yet it was always in a spirit of brotherhood; and at length the peace of Christ conquered in their hearts, so that in such a dispute none of the mischief of schism arose between them" (Migne). [Ed. Migne adds, assuming the mediæval system to have been known to Cyprian, as follows]: "Thus far Augustine, whom we have quoted at length, because the passage is opposed to those who strive from this to assert his schism from the Roman pontiff."
[2889] [It will be seen, more and more, that this entire conviction of Cyprian as to Stephen's absolute equality with himself, results from the Ante-Nicene system, and accords with his theory of the divine organization of the Church. So Augustine, as quoted in the "Argument."]
[2890] Meaning, probably, heretics with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity, Stephen not regarding the Novatians as "properly" heretics. [See Oxford translator, note m, p. 261.]
[2891] Josh. i. 8.
[2892] [Tit. iii. 11.]
[2893] Isa. xxix. 13.
[2894] Mark vii. 13.
[2895] 1 Tim. vi. 3-5.
[2896] [This "unity" consisted not at all in agreeing with Stephen, according to our author. See good note (l) Oxford edition, p. 260.]
[2897] Gal. iii. 27.
[2898] [Cyprian does not believe in the mere opus operatum of the water. And one fears that Stephen's position in this matter bore its fruit long after in that pernicious dogma of the schoolmen.]
[2899] Tit. iii. 5.
[2900] Eph. v. 25, 26.
[2901] [Allowing the premisses admitted alike by Stephen and Cyprian (of which it is not my place to speak), the logic of our author appears to me irresistible. Practically, how wise the inspired maxim, Rom. xiv. 1.]
[2902] Mal. ii. 1, 2. [Compare Tertullian, vol. iv. p. 122.]
[2903] [A terrible indictment, indeed, of his brother Stephen; provoked, however, by conduct less warranted. See Ep. lxxiv. infra.]
[2904] [Stephen's presumption in this step is the dark spot in his record. It was a brutum fulmen, however, even in his own province. See Augustine's testimony, Oxf. ed. (note l) p. 258.]
[2905] Luke xviii. 8.
[2906] [Another of Cyprian's striking aphorisms: "Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas erroris est."]
[2907] Esdras iv. 38-40.
[2908] John xiv. 6.
[2909] Original, "docibilis." 2 Tim. ii. 24.
[2910] 1 Cor. xiv. 30.
[2911] [Elucidation XVIII. See pp. 380 (note 1) and 322 (note 2).]
[2912] Cant. iv. 12, 13.
[2913] 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21.
[2914] [It is obvious that the Cyprianic theory of unity has not the least connection with a theory depending on communion with a particular See. But this calculates the maxim, p. 384, note 7.]
[2915] [See letter lxxi. p. 378, supra.]