[2541] The clause of "the Three Heavenly Witnesses," v. 7, appears to be wholly unknown to St. Augustin: a circumstance left unexplained by Mill, who asserts that copies which had the clause "abounded in Africa" in the interval between St. Cyprian and the close of the fifth century.
[2542] Sacramenta.
[2543] John xix. 30, 34.
[2544] John iv. 24.
[2545] John i. 14.
[2546] John vii. 39.
[2547] John viii. 18.
[2548] John xv. 26.
[2549] Matt. xxviii. 19.
De Sermone Domini in Monte, lib. i. 22, § 73.
1 Joann. v. 16. Si quis scit peccare fratrem suum peccatum non ad mortem, postulabit, et dabit illi Dominus vitam qui peccat non ad mortem; est autem peccatum ad mortem; non pro illo dico ut roget.
But what presses harder upon the present question [in the Lord's command of praying for enemies and persecutors] is that saying of the apostle John, "If any man know that his brother sinneth a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and the Lord will give life to that man who sinneth not unto death: but there is a sin unto death: not for that do I say that he should ask." For it manifestly shows that there are some "brethren" whom we are not commanded to pray for, whereas the Lord bids us pray even for our persecutors. Nor can this question be solved except we acknowledge, that there are some sins in brethren that are worse than the sin of enemies in persecuting. That "brethren" mean Christians, may be proved by many texts of Holy Writ; the plainest, however, is that of the apostle which he puts thus: "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother." [2550] For he has not added our; but thought it plain enough, when by the term brother he spake of the Christian that should have an unbelieving wife. And accordingly he says just afterwards, "But if the unbelieving depart, let her depart: but a brother or sister is not put under servitude in a matter of this sort." The "sin," therefore, of a brother, "unto death," I suppose to be when, after the acknowledging of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, one fights against the brotherhood, and is set on by the fire-brands of hatred [2551] against the very grace through which he was reconciled to God. [2552] But "a sin not unto death" is when a person, not having alienated his love from his brother, yet through some infirmity of mind may have failed to exhibit the due offices of brotherhood. Wherefore, on the one hand, the Lord on the cross said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," [2553] since they had not yet, by being made partakers of the grace of the Holy Spirit, entered into the fellowship of holy brotherhood; and blessed Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles prays for them who are stoning him; [2554] because they had not yet believed Christ, and were not fighting against that grace of communion. On the other hand, the apostle Paul does not pray for Alexander, and the reason I suppose, is, that this man was a brother, and had sinned "unto death," i.e. by opposing the brotherhood in a spirit of hatred. [2555] Whereas for such as had not broken off the bonds of love, but had given way through fear, he prays that they may be forgiven. For so he says: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words." [2556] Then he subjoins for whom he prays, saying, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge." This difference of sins it is that distinguishes Judas with his treason from Peter with his denial. Not that to him who repenteth there is to be no forgiveness: lest we go against that sentence of the Lord, in which He commands always to forgive the brother who asks his brother's forgiveness: [2557] but that the mischief of that sin is, that the man cannot submit to the humiliation of begging for pardon, even when he is forced by his evil conscience both to acknowledge and to publish his sin. For when Judas had said, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood," [2558] he went and hanged himself in desperation, rather than pray for forgiveness in humiliation. Wherefore it makes a great difference, what sort of repentance God forgives. For many are much quicker than others to confess that they have sinned, and are angry with themselves in such sort that they vehemently wish they had not sinned, while yet they cannot lay down their pride, and submit to have the heart humbled and broken so as to implore pardon: a state of mind which one may well believe to be, for the greatness of their sin, a part of their already begun damnation.
And this, perhaps, it is "to sin against the Holy Ghost:" [2559] i.e. through malice and envy to fight against brotherly charity after receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit: that sin which the Lord saith hath no forgiveness, either here or in the world to come. . . . For the Lord in saying to the Pharisees, "Whosoever shall speak an evil word against the Son of Man," [2560] &c., may have meant to warn them to come to the grace of God, and having received it, not to sin as they have now sinned. For now they have spoken an evil word against the Son of Man, and it may be forgiven them, if they be converted and believe and receive the Holy Spirit: which when they have received, if they will then have ill-will against the brotherhood and oppose the grace they have received, there is no forgiveness for them, either in this world or in the world to come.
[2550] 1 Cor. vii. 14, 15.
[2551] Invidentiæ.
[2552] In the Retractations, i. 7, he remarks on this passage: "I have not positively affirmed it to be so, for I have said, I suppose:' still it should have been added, if in this so wicked perversity of mind he departs this life:' since we have certainly no right to despair of any ever so wicked man so long as he is in this life, and it cannot be unwise to pray for that man of whom we do not despair." Comp. Serm. lxxi. 21.
[2553] Luke xxiii. 34.
[2554] Acts vii. 59.
[2555] So the traditional interpretation of the Greeks in OEcumenius. "This alone' is the sin unto death,' viz. sin which has no thought of repentance: which sin Judas being diseased withal, was brought to eternal death." Especially (he adds) the sin of an unforgiving spirit, impenitently persisted in: "For the ways of the resentful are unto death," saith Solomon (Prov. xii. 28, LXX ). So Theophylact.--The Scholia ap Matthäi, p. 146, 230: " The sin unto death' is, when a person having sinned is callous in impenitence." Comp. S. Hilar. Tr. in Ps. cxl. sec. 8.
[2556] 2 Tim. iv. 14-16.
[2557] Luke xvii. 3.
[2558] Matt. xxvii. 4, 5.
[2559] Comp. Serm. lxxi. Scholl. ap Matthäi, p. 230. "By the sin unto death,' he means the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, i.e., against the Godhead," p. 147. "Some say that it is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the sin of misbelief (kakopistias)."
[2560] Matt. xii. 24-33.
Liber de Correptione et Gratia, § 35.
By this grace such is the liberty they receive, that although as long as they live here they have to fight against the lusts of sins, and are overtaken by some sins for which they must daily pray, "Forgive us our debts," yet they no longer serve the sin which is unto death, of which the apostle John saith, "There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall ask for that." Concerning which sin (since it is not expressed) many different opinions may be formed: but I affirm that sin to be the forsaking until death [2561] the "faith which worketh by love."
[2561] So in the Retractations, supra, note b. Si in hac tam scelerata mentis perversitate finierit hanc vitam: "unto death," in the sense, "until death."
Contra Maximinum. lib. ii. c. 14, § 2, 3.
1 Joann. v. 20. "Ut simus in vero Filio ejus Jesu Christo; ipse est verus Deus et vita æterna." [2562]
When ye read, "That we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ," think of the "true Son" of God. But this Son ye in no wise think to be the true Son of God, if ye deny Him to be begotten of the substance of the Father. For was He already Son of Man and by gift of God became Son of God, begotten indeed of God, but by grace, not by nature? Or, though not Son of Man, yet was He some sort of creature which, by God's changing it, was converted into Son of God? If you mean nothing of this sort, then was He either begotten of nothing, or of some substance. But thou hast relieved us from all fear of having to suppose that you affirm the Son of God to be of nothing, for thou hast declared that this is not your meaning. Therefore, He is of some substance. If not of the substance of the Father, then of what? Tell me. But ye cannot find any other . . . Consequently, the Father and the Son are of one and the same substance. This is the Homöusion . . . . In the Scriptures both you and we read, "That we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ; He is the true God and Eternal Life." Let both parties yield to such weighty evidence. Tell us then, whether this "true Son" of God, discriminated as He is by the property of this name from those who are sons by grace, [2563] be of no substance or of some substance. Thou sayest, "I do not say that He is of no substance, lest I should say that He is of nothing." He is therefore of some substance: I ask, of what? If not of the substance of the Father, seek another. If thou findest not another, as indeed thou canst find none at all, then acknowledge it to be the Father's, and confess the Son Homöusios, "of one substance with the Father." Flesh is begotten of flesh, the Son of flesh is begotten of the substance of the flesh. Set aside corruption, reject from the eye of the mind all carnal passions, and behold "the invisible things of God understood by the means of the things that are made." [2564] Believe that the Creator who hath given flesh power to beget flesh, who hath given parents power of the substance of the flesh to generate "true sons" of flesh, much more had power to beget a "true Son" of His own substance, and to have one substance with the true Son, the spiritual incorruption remaining and carnal corruption being altogether alien therefrom. [2565]
[2562] St. Hilary de Trin. vi. 43, cites the passage with additions, of which there are no traces in the mss. and other authorities; Quia scimus quod Filius Dei venit et concarnatus est propter nos, et, passus est, et resurgens de mortuis assumpsit nos, et dedit nobis intellectum optimum, ut intelligamus verum, et simus in vero filio ejus Jesu Christo: hic est verus [Deus om.], et vita æterna, et resurrectio nostra: and it is remarkable that his contemporary Faustinus (the Luciferian) in his work de Trinitate, gives the passage totidem verbis, except that it is doubtful whether he read verus Deus, and that after resurrectio nostra he adds in ipso.--Vulg. et simus in vero Filio ejus. Hic est verus Deus, et vita æterna. In the Greek the second en to is omitted by St Cyril, Alex. St. Basil, adv. Eunom. and others; and this is the received reading of the Latins.--There is no certain evidence to show how the text was interpreted by the ante-Nicene Fathers. St. Athanasius Orat. c. Arian. iii. 24, sec. 4; 25, sec. 16; iv. 9, init. and St. Basil adv. Eunom. iv. p. 294, unhesitatingly refer the houtos to the nearest antecedent: "And we are in Him the True," (even) "in His Son Jesus Christ: this" (Jesus Christ) "is the True God and eternal Life:" and the Latin Fathers from St. Hilary and St. Ambrose downward allege the text as an explicit declaration of the true Godhead of the Son.--St. Epiphanius Ancorat c. 4, seems to have read in his copy, houtos estin ho alethinos kai zoe aionios, omitting Theos (as Hilary): for he says: "And though the epithet Very God' (theos alethinos) is not added," i.e. though this houtos, meaning Jesus Christ, is not expressly called the true God (as in v. 20, where he seems to have had in his copy the reading alethinon Theon), "we do but accumulate madness if we dare to blaspheme and to say that the Son is not Very God. For it is enough that in the One [who is so called] we take in the whole Trinity, and from the Father [as Very God] understand the Son also to be Very God."