[3098] Describing in few words the ambition and dissimulation of Novatian in invading the episcopate of Rome, he argues at length, that neither on the one hand is the passage in Matthew xviii. of any avail to compensate for their fewness as against the Church: "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name," etc.; nor, on the other, could martyrdom be of any benefit to them outside the Church. Then he tells them that they need not marvel that heresies flourished, since they had been foretold by Christ; nor that certain Roman confessors acquiesced in the schism, because before one's death no one is blessed, and the traitor Judas was found in the very company of the apostles. Yet he charges them to shun the association of schismatics and heretics, and finally exhorts them by the Scriptures to peace and unanimity.
[3099] Matt. v. 13.
[3100] The creeping, stealing thing.
[3101] Or, "living."
[3102] Matt. xix. 17.
[3103] John xiv. 15.
[3104] Matt. vii. 24.
[3105] [Here note that our author's entire ignorance of any Centre of Unity, of any one See as the test of communion; in short, of any one bishop as having more of Peter's authority than others,--is a sufficient disproof of the existence of any such things. Otherwise, how could they have been overlooked in a treatise devoted to the subject of unity, its nature and its criteria? The effort to foist into the text something of the kind, by corruption, demonstrates how entirely unsatisfactory to the Middle-Age theorists and dogmatists is the unadulterated work, which they could not let alone.]
[3106] [On the falsifying of the text by Romish editors, see Elucidation II.]
[3107] Matt. xvi. 18, 19.
[3108] John xxi. 15. [Here is interpolated]: "Upon him, being one, He builds His Church, and commits His sheep to be fed."
[3109] John xx. 21.
[3110] [Here is interpolated]: "And the primacy is given to Peter, that there might be shown one Church of Christ and one See; and they are all shepherds, and the Rock is one, which is fed by all the apostles with unanimous consent." This passage, as well as the one a few lines before, is beyond all question spurious.
[3111] Cant. vi. 9.
[3112] [Here is interpolated]: "Who deserts the chair of Peter, upon whom the Church is founded." This passage also is undoubtedly spurious.
[3113] Eph. iv. 4.
[3114] [i.e., the universal episcopate is the chair of Peter.]
[3115] [This maxim is the essence of the treatise; i.e., "Ecclesia in Episcopo." Compare p. 333, note 9, supra.]
[3116] Matt. xii. 30.
[3117] John x. 30.
[3118] 1 John v. 7.
[3119] The above reading of this passage seems hopelessly obscure; and it is not much mended apparently by substituting "ipsam" for Christum, unless "potius" be omitted, as in some editions, in which case we should read, "who should put it on."
[3120] John xix. 23, 24.
[3121] 1 Kings xi. 31.
[3122] John x. 16.
[3123] 1 Cor. i. 10.
[3124] Eph. iv. 3.
[3125] Josh. ii. 19.
[3126] Ex. xii. 46.
[3127] "Hospitium."
[3128] Ps. lxviii. 6.
[3129] 1 John ii. 19.
[3130] 1 Cor. xi. 19.
[3131] Jer. xxiii. 16-21.
[3132] Jer. ii. 13.
[3133] Matt. xviii. 20.
[3134] Matt. xviii. 19, 20. [Compare John xx. 26-29.]
[3135] Mark xi. 25. [Freeman, Principles, etc. vol. i. 417.]
[3136] 1 Cor. xiii. 2-5, 7, 8.
[3137] John xv. 12.
[3138] According to some readings, "to Christ," or "to the rewards of Christ."
[3139] 1 John iv. 16.
[3140] Mark xiii. 6.
[3141] Matt. vii. 22.
[3142] Mark xii. 29-31.
[3143] Deformationem religionis.
[3144] Some introduce, "men corrupted in feeling, reprobate concerning the faith."
[3145] 2 Tim. iii. 1-9. [Vol. iv. p. 521, this series.]
[3146] Mark xiii. 23.
[3147] Ecclus. xxviii. 24, Vulg.
[3148] 1 Cor. xv. 33.
[3149] Matt. xv. 14.
[3150] According to some, "does not deign," or "disdains to know."
[3151] Mark vii. 9.
[3152] Some read, "As it is written, And the Lord stirred up the adversary (Satan) against Solomon; and therefore in the Apocalypse the Lord solemnly warns John."
[3153] Apoc. iii. 11.
[3154] Matt. x. 22.
[3155] Luke xii. 48.
[3156] Luke xviii. 14.
[3157] Rom. iii. 3.
[3158] 2 Thess. iii. 6.
[3159] Eph. v. 6.
[3160] "is one."
[3161] Ps. xxxiv. 12, 13.
[3162] John xiv. 27.
[3163] Matt. v. 9.
[3164] Acts iv. 32. [Bernard., Epist. ccxxxviii., Opp. i. 502.]
[3165] Acts i. 14.
[3166] Some interpolate "because."
[3167] Luke xviii. 8.
[3168] Some read, "in your hands."
[3169] Luke xii. 35.
Treatise II. [3170]
On the Dress of Virgins.
Argument.--Cyprian Celebrates the Praises of Discipline, and Proves Its Usefulness from Scripture. Then, Describing the Glory, Honour, and Merits of Virginity, and of Those Who Had Vowed and Dedicated Their Virginity to Christ, He Teaches that Continence Not Only Consists in Fleshly Purity, But Also in Seemliness of Dress and Ornament, and that Even Wealth Did Not Excuse Superfluous Care for Dress on the Part of Those Who Had Already Renounced the World. Rather, Since the Apostle Prescribes Even to Married Women a Dress to Be Regulated by Fitting Limits, Moderation Ought Even More to Be Observed by a Virgin. Therefore, Even If She Be Wealthy, She Should Consider Certainly How to Use Wealth, But for Good Purposes, for Those Things Which God Has Commanded, to Wit, for Being Spent on the Poor. [3171] Moreover, Also, He Forbids to Virgins Those Things Which Had Negligently Come into Use, as Being Present at Weddings, as Well as Going to Promiscuous Bathing-Places. Finally, in a Brief Epilogue, [3172] Declaring What Benefit the Virtue of Continency Affords, and What Evil It is Without, He Concludes the Book.
1. Discipline, the safeguard of hope, the bond of faith, the guide of the way of salvation, the stimulus and nourishment of good dispositions, the teacher of virtue, causes us to abide always in Christ, and to live continually for God, and to attain to the heavenly promises and to the divine rewards. To follow her is wholesome, and to turn away from her and neglect her is deadly. The Holy Spirit says in the Psalms, "Keep discipline, lest perchance the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when His wrath is quickly kindled against you." [3173] And again: "But unto the ungodly saith God, "Why dost thou preach my laws, and takest my covenant into thy mouth? Whereas thou hatest discipline, and hast cast my words behind thee." [3174] And again we read: "He that casteth away discipline is miserable." [3175] And from Solomon we have received the mandates of wisdom, warning us: "My son, despise not thou the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth." [3176] But if God rebukes whom He loves, and rebukes him for the very purpose of amending him, brethren also, and especially priests, do not hate, but love those whom they rebuke, that they may mend them; since God also before predicted by Jeremiah, and pointed to our times, when he said, "And I will give you shepherds according to my heart: and they shall feed you with the food of discipline." [3177]
2. But if in Holy Scripture discipline is frequently and everywhere prescribed, and the whole foundation of religion and of faith proceeds from obedience and fear; what is more fitting for us urgently to desire, what more to wish for and to hold fast, than to stand with roots strongly fixed, and with our houses based with solid mass upon the rock unshaken by the storms and whirlwinds of the world, so that we may come by the divine precepts to the rewards of God? considering as well as knowing that our members, when purged from all the filth of the old contagion by the sanctification of the laver of life, are God's temples, and must not be violated nor polluted, since he who does violence to them is himself injured. We are the worshippers and priests of those temples; let us obey Him whose we have already begun to be. Paul tells us in his epistles, in which he has formed us to a course of living by divine teaching, "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a great price; glorify and bear God in your body." [3178] Let us glorify and bear God in a pure and chaste body, and with a more complete obedience; and since we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, let us obey and give furtherance to the empire of our Redeemer by all the obedience of service, that nothing impure or profane may be brought into the temple of God, lest He should be offended, and forsake the temple which He inhabits. The words of the Lord giving health and teaching, as well curing as warning, are: "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." [3179] He gives the course of life, He gives the law of innocency after He has conferred health, nor suffers the man afterwards to wander with free and unchecked reins, but more severely threatens him who is again enslaved by those same things of which he had been healed, because it is doubtless a smaller fault to have sinned before, while as yet you had not known God's discipline; but there is no further pardon for sinning after you have begun to know God. And, indeed, let as well men as women, as well boys as girls; let each sex and every age observe this, and take care in this respect, according to the religion and faith which they owe to God, that what is received holy and pure from the condescension of the Lord be preserved with a no less anxious fear.
3. My address is now to virgins, whose glory, as it is more eminent, excites the greater interest. This is the flower of the ecclesiastical seed, [3181] the grace and ornament of spiritual endowment, a joyous disposition, the wholesome and uncorrupted work of praise and honour, God's image answering to the holiness of the Lord, the more illustrious portion of Christ's flock. The glorious fruitfulness of Mother Church rejoices by their means, and in them abundantly flourishes; and in proportion as a copious virginity is added to her number, so much the more it increases the joy of the Mother. To these I speak, these I exhort with affection rather than with power; not that I would claim--last and least, and very conscious of my lowliness as I am--any right to censure, but because, being unceasingly careful even to solicitude, I fear more from the onset of Satan.
4. For that is not an empty carefulness nor a vain fear, which takes counsel for the way of salvation, which guards the commandments of the Lord and of life; so that they who have dedicated themselves to Christ, and who depart from carnal concupiscence, and have vowed themselves to God as well in the flesh as in the spirit, may consummate their work, destined as it is to a great reward, and may not study any longer to be adorned or to please anybody but their Lord, from whom also they expect the reward of virginity; as He Himself says: "All men cannot receive this word, but they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men; and there are eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." [3182] Again, also by this word of the angel the gift of continency is set forth, and virginity is preached: "These are they which have not defiled themselves with women, for they have remained virgins; these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." [3183] For not only thus does the Lord promise the grace of continency to men, and pass over women; but since the woman is a portion of the man, and is taken and formed from him, God in Scripture almost always speaks to the Protoplast, the first formed, because they are two in one flesh, and in the male is at the same time signified the woman also.
5. But if continency follows Christ, and virginity is destined for the kingdom of God, what have they to do with earthly dress, and with ornaments, wherewith while they are striving to please men they offend God? Not considering that it is declared, "They who please men are put to confusion, because God hath despised them;" [3184] and that Paul also has gloriously and sublimely uttered, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." [3185] But continence and modesty consist not alone in purity of the flesh, but also in seemliness, as well as in modesty of dress and adornment; so that, according to the apostle, she who is unmarried may be holy both in body and in spirit. Paul instructs and teaches us, saying, "He that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord, how he may please God: but he who has contracted marriage careth for the things which are of this world, how he may please his wife. So both the virgin and the unmarried woman consider those things which are the Lord's, that they may be holy both in body and spirit." [3186] A virgin ought not only to be so, but also to be perceived and believed to be so: no one on seeing a virgin should be in any doubt as to whether she is one. Perfectness should show itself equal in all things; nor should the dress of the body discredit the good of the mind. Why should she walk out adorned? Why with dressed hair, as if she either had or sought for a husband? Rather let her dread to please if she is a virgin; and let her not invite her own risk, if she is keeping herself for better and divine things. They who have not a husband whom they profess that they please, should persevere, sound and pure not only in body, but also in spirit. For it is not right that a virgin should have her hair braided for the appearance of her beauty, or boast of her flesh and of its beauty, when she has no struggle greater than that against her flesh, and no contest more obstinate than that of conquering and subduing the body.