The young sailor at sea is inspired with great confidence if the master of the ship has been preserved in a shipwreck. For he will not consider that it is from the master’s inexperience that he is exposed to the storm, but from the nature of things, and this has no little effect upon his mind. In war also the captain, who sees his general wounded and recovered again, is much encouraged. And thus it produces some consolation to the faithful that the apostle should have been exposed to great sufferings and not been rendered weak by the utmost of them. . . . For if I, Paul, endure these things, much more ought you to bear them. If the master much, more the disciple. And this exhortation he introduces with much affection, calling him son, and not only so, but my son. If you are a son, he implies, imitate your father.

Now what is this commandment, and what is this charge?^[1] From the preceding and the succeeding contexts, it will be manifest that there is no mysterious hint darkly suggested in this expression about some farfetched doctrine. A warning is rather being given against receiving any other doctrine than that which Timothy had heard from Paul, as I take it, publicly: Before many witnesses is his phrase.

As if he had said: You have not heard in secret, nor apart, but in the presence of many, with all openness of speech.

One does not speak of the Spirit and of angels as if they were equals. The Spirit is the Lord of life. The angels are our helpers, our fellow servants, faithful witnesses of the truth. It is customary for the saints to deliver God’s commandments in the presence of witnesses. St. Paul says to Timothy: what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men. He asks the angels to testify with him, because he knows that angels will be present when the Lord comes in the glory of his father to judge the world in righteousness.

Either with many persons present I gave you mandates such as you should teach, or what I said I have confirmed with many examples and testimonies from the prophets.

[Only] see that you do not give these scriptural teachings over to unbelieving and blasphemous tongues, for that is a danger greatly to be avoided. But impart them to pious and faithful men who desire to live in a holy way and righteously with fear. For it is not to no purpose that the blessed apostle exhorts Timothy, and says, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith.^[1] And again, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me in many exhortations,^[2] the same you should commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. The blessed apostle delivered these things with a pious caution, aware that they could be easily known and distorted by anyone who does not have faith.^[3] How much greater will be our danger, if, rashly and without thought, we commit the revelations of God to profane and unworthy men.

I am aware of the excuses by which we color our insatiable carnal appetites. Our pretexts are: the necessities of props to lean on; a house to be managed; a family to be governed; chests and keys to be guarded; the wool-spinning to be dispensed; food to be attended to; cares to be generally lessened. Of course, the houses of none but married men fare well! The families of celibates, the estates of eunuchs, the fortunes of military men or of such as travel without wives have gone to rack and ruin! For are not we, too, soldiers? Soldiers, indeed, subject to all the stricter discipline, since we are subject to so great a General?

The true soldiers of Christ must, in every way, form a fortification for truth and nowhere permit an opening for persuasive falsehood, so far as they are able.

You therefore must endure rough times as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. . . . Observe the kings on earth, how great an honor it is esteemed to serve under them. If therefore the soldier of the king ought to endure hardness, not to endure hardness is not the part of any soldier.

No one can serve two masters. Since business affairs often involve the exercise of greed, the faithful churchman must be separate from these.

How can the clergy be managers and stewards of other men’s households and estates when they are bidden to disregard even their own interests?

You are a spiritual soldier. This kind of soldier does not sleep on an ivory bed but on the ground. He is not anointed with perfumed oils. These are the concern of those corrupt men who dally with courtesans, of those who act on the stage, of those who live carelessly. You must not smell of perfumes but of virtue.

We are not anxious about the necessities of life, because, when we can perform these labors, he feeds and clothes us as men in general are fed and clothed. When, however, we are not able to work, then he feeds and clothes us just as the birds are fed and the lilies clothed, since we are of more value than they. Therefore, in this warfare of ours, we give no thought to the morrow, because it is not by temporal concerns pertaining to the morrow but by eternal matters, the concern of the everlasting today, that we have proved ourselves to him whom we cannot please if we are entangled in worldly affairs.

He who is enrolled in God’s army must not be bound to others, lest any obligatory ties call him away from the Lord’s camp, where his name is inscribed.

Pay attention to the bishop so that God will pay attention to you. I give my life as a sacrifice (poor as it is) for those who are obedient to the bishop, the presbyters and the deacons. Along with them may I get my share of God’s reward! Share your hard training together—wrestle together, run together, suffer together, retire together, get up together, as God’s stewards, assessors and assistants. Give satisfaction to him in whose ranks you serve and from whom you get your pay. Let none of you be a deserter. Let your baptism be your arms; your faith, your helmet; your love, your spear; your endurance, your armor.^[1]

If you have understood how either an animal or a vessel or a garment is called holy, understand too that a person is also called holy by these observances and laws. For if anyone should devote himself to God, if anyone should not entangle himself in secular affairs, in order to please him who appointed him, if anyone was separated and set apart from the rest of men who live carnally and are bound with mundane affairs and does not seek things which are upon the earth but which are in heaven,^[1] that person is deservedly called holy.

Where is Christ, the King? In heaven, to be sure. In this direction it behooves you, soldier of Christ, to direct your course. Forget all earthly delights. A soldier does not build a house. He does not aspire to the possession of lands. He does not concern himself with devious, coin-purveying trade. . . . The soldier enjoys a sustenance provided by the king. He need not furnish his own nor vex himself in this regard.

Clerics do not seem to be on military service in the world, yet they are nonetheless soldiers for God and the Lord. As the apostle says, No one soldiering for God involves himself in secular affairs. We seem, I say, not to be soldiers in our loose and flowing tunics, but we have our military belt, by which we are bound to an interior purity.

What is the world but an arena full of fighting? Therefore the Lord says in the Apocalypse, To the victor I shall give the crown of life,^[1] and Paul says, I have fought the good fight,^[2] and elsewhere, No one is crowned unless he has competed according to the rules. He who initiated the contest is actually almighty God. When one initiates a contest in this world, does he not prepare all that is necessary for the contest, and only after he has made ready the wreaths for rewards call those who are to contend for the crown, so that the winner may not meet with delay but depart after being given his reward? The rewards of man are the fruits of the earth and the lights of heaven. The former are for his use in the present life; the latter, for his hope of life eternal. Like an athlete, then, he comes last into the arena. . . . It is he who poises the blow, it is Christ who strikes; he lifts his heel, Christ directs it to the wound. . . . In preaching Christ he deals wounds to all those spiritual evils which are his enemies. Not undeservedly, then, does man enter the stadium last, and a crown is prepared for him so that heaven might go before him as being his reward.

We who are concerned with the business of our Creator will live according to the laws of God. We have no desire to serve the laws of sin. . . . If necessary, we will also partake of the joys of this life and endure the appointed evils as trials of the soul. . . . In them the soul of the man who is being tested, like gold in the fire, is either convicted of failure or is manifested as reliable. . . . Moreover, no one is crowned unless he strives lawfully even here upon earth with the body of humiliation.

What is meant by lawfully? It is not enough that he enters into the lists, that he is anointed, and even engages, unless he comply with all the laws of the exercise. This includes those that pertain to diet, to temperance and sobriety, and all the rules of the wrestling school. Unless, in short, he goes through all that is befitting for a wrestler, he is not crowned.

You say that her clothes are shabby, but virginity resides not in clothing nor in one’s complexion but in the body and soul. Is it not strange that we have different standards? We will not judge the philosopher by his hair or his staff or his tunic but by his way of life, his character and soul. The soldier too we will not approve for his mantle or belt but for his strength and manliness. Yet the virgin, who represents a state so admirable and superior to all others, we will simply and offhandedly assume practices her virtue because of the squalor of her hair, her dejected look and gray cloak. We do not strip her soul bare and scrutinize closely its inner state. But he who has drawn up the rules for this contest does not permit this. He orders that those who have entered not be judged by their clothing but by the convictions of their souls. Athletes, Paul says, deny themselves all sorts of things,^[1] anything that would trouble the health of the soul. If one takes part in an athletic contest, he cannot receive the winner’s crown unless he has kept the rules. What, then, are the laws of this contest? Hear again his words, or rather Christ himself, who has established the contest: The virgin is concerned with things of the Lord, in pursuit of holiness in body and spirit.^[2]

In a word, it is absolutely necessary for one who hopes to please God and to be acceptable and pure, not to pursue a relaxed and slippery and dissolute life, but a laborious life, groaning with much toil and sweat. For no one is crowned, Paul says, unless he competes according to the rules.

But, if you place yourself in the hands of a man rich in virtue, you will become the heir of the good qualities he possesses and you will be supremely blessed with God and men. On the other hand, if, to spare the body, you seek a master who will condescend or, rather, degrade himself to the level of your vices, all in vain did you endure the struggle of renunciation, since you have surrendered yourself to a life of gratifying your passions by choosing a blind guide who will lead you into the pit.

How can there be a lawful contest if there is no opponent? If there is no opponent, there is no crown. Victory does not exist by itself, without there being a defeated party.

Christ’s athlete is not crowned unless he has competed according to the rules, unless he has accepted and sustained the challenge, unless his face is black and blue from the fray and bathed in blood. It is the discolored bruises that deserve a crown, and suffering and pain that merit joy.

One who wants to extinguish the natural desires of the flesh should first hasten to overcome those vices whose ground is contrary to our nature. For if we desire to test out the force of the apostle’s counsel, we ought first to learn what are the laws and what the discipline of the world’s contest. This is so that finally by a comparison with these, we may be able to know what the blessed apostle meant to teach to us who are striving in the spiritual contest.

Why is this mentioned? It is directed chiefly against the heretics, at the same time to encourage Timothy, by underscoring the divine blessings accompanying sufferings, since Christ, our Master, himself overcame death by suffering. . . . For upon this point many had already begun to subvert God’s providence, being ashamed at the immensity of God’s love for humanity. For of such a nature are the benefits which God has conferred upon us that we were embarrassed to ascribe them to God and could not believe he had so far condescended.

Some were teaching that it was merely the assumed body which came from the seed of David. Paul taught this to combat Simon’s Docetic heresy, by which the resurrection is emptied of meaning.

Paul discusses here only the human nature of Christ because he is responding to Simon’s heresy, where the true enfleshment of the Savior is denied.

Let us believe in Christ crucified; but in him as the one who rose again on the third day. That’s the faith that distinguishes us from them, distinguishes us from the pagans, distinguishes us from the Jews—the faith by which we believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. The apostle says to Timothy, Remember that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel. And again the same apostle, Because if you believe in your heart, he says, that Jesus is Lord, and confess with your lips that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.^[1] This is the salvation, the well-being, the safety and the soundness, which I discussed yesterday. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.^[2] I know that you believe; you will be saved. Hold firmly in your hearts, profess it with your lips, that Christ has risen from the dead.

For just as it is not possible to bind a sunbeam or to shut it up within the house, so neither can the preaching of the word be bound. And what was much more, when the teacher was bound, the word flew abroad. He inhabited the prison, and yet his teaching winged its way everywhere throughout the world!

Out of his own story he once again brings consolation and encouragement. He prepares his hearer’s mind in two phases: First that he should be ready to endure hard times. Second, he does this for a useful purpose, gaining though he suffers harm.

But now God has made us such that nothing can subdue us. For our hands are bound but not our tongue, since nothing can bind the tongue but cowardice and unbelief. Where these are not, though you fasten chains upon us, the preaching of the gospel is not bound.

Any cloud passing over our skies may from time to time make us gloomy. But Paul’s heart had no such storms sweeping over it. Or better, there did sweep over him, and often, many storms, but his day was not darkened. Rather in the midst of the temptations and dangers the light shone out. Thus when bound with his chain he kept exclaiming, The word of God is not bound. Thus continually by means of that tongue the Word was sending forth its rays.

On this account also it is said to the soul, Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle’s.^[1] For the psalmist spoke to the soul and said, Bless the Lord, O my soul.^[2] And therefore the soul hastens to the Word and asks that she be drawn to him, so that she may not, perhaps, be left behind, for the Word of God runs and is not bound.

Behold another incentive. I endure these things, he says, not for myself but for the salvation of others. It was in my power to have lived free from danger; to have suffered none of these things, if I had consulted my own interest. On what account then do I suffer these things? For the good of others, that others may obtain eternal life.

The Savior, too, first granted you this very thing—that you should fall. You were a Gentile. Let the Gentile in you fall. You loved prostitutes. Let the lover of prostitutes in you perish first. You were a sinner. Let the sinner in you fall. Then you can rise again and say, If we have died with him, we shall also live with him, and, If we have been made like him in death, we shall also be like him in resurrection.^[1]

But how are we dead with him? This death refers to both that in the Laver^[1] and that in sufferings.

So also you are yourself made king and priest and prophet in the washing of baptism. You are a king by having dashed to earth all the deeds of wickedness and slain your sins. You are a priest in that you offer yourself to God, having sacrificed your body and being yourself slain also, for if we died with him, says he, we shall also live with him. You are a prophet, knowing what shall be, being inspired of God and sealed.

The apostle says that even we shall reign together with Christ in the kingdom of Christ. If we are dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him. But we by adoption, he by power; we live by grace, he by nature.

Let us honor the spirit of Christ, that we may receive grace from him. Let us be strangers to the world,^[1] even as Christ was not of it. Let us be humble and mild, that we may inherit the land of life. Let us be unflagging in his service, that he may cause us to serve in the abode of the saints. Let us pray his prayer in purity, that it may have access to the Lord of majesty. Let us be partakers in his suffering, so that we may also rise up in his resurrection. Let us bear his sign upon our bodies, that we may be delivered from the wrath to come.

Having been planted with him in the likeness of his death, we will assuredly be raised up together with Christ (for the planting implies this eventuality). But in the present life, we are formed in the inner man according to the measure of the incarnation in newness of life and obedience unto death, fully persuaded of the truth of his words, so that we may become worthy to say with truth, And I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.^[1] That this obtains also for the future life. The same apostle has strongly affirmed this in these words: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.

We ought to be humble of heart out of the sincerest devotion during the whole time of this wandering exile, in which we are living in the midst of trials and temptations. If so, how much more should we be so during these days, when as well as spending this time of humility by living it, we are also signifying it by our liturgical celebration of it. The lowliness of Christ has taught us to be lowly, because by dying he yielded to the godless. Christ’s highness makes us exalted, because by rising again he has led the way for the godly. . . . We celebrate one of these things now, when his passion is, so to say, drawing near. We celebrate the other after Easter with appropriate devotion, when his resurrection, so to say, has been accomplished.

We must believe both his passion according to the flesh and his impassibility inasmuch as he was God. . . . Let us confess our oneness with Christ, lest we be separated from him. In the words of the apostle, If we have died with him, we shall also live with him.

Accordingly, I beseech you, let us so perform all our actions that we may not fail to obtain such glory as this. To obtain it is by no means difficult, if we desire it, or arduous, if we apply ourselves to it. For, If we endure, we shall also reign. What is the meaning of If we endure? If we patiently bear tribulations and persecutions; if we walk the narrow path. The narrow path is unattractive by nature but becomes easy when we choose to follow it, because of our hope for the future.

In him therefore is our hope of eternal life, and in him also is the pattern of our patience. If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him, since, as the apostle says, those who claim that they remain in Christ ought themselves to walk just as Christ walked.^[1] Otherwise we are appearing under the likeness of a false profession if we do not follow the commands of him in whose name we glory. And these would indeed not be burdensome to us and would free us from all dangers, if we would only love what he commands us to love.

Therefore, He can do nothing of himself^[1] means nothing else than that he can do nothing in opposition to his Father, nothing different, nothing foreign. This is an attribute especially belonging to one who is giving proof of his equality with the Father and of complete agreement as well. But why does he not say, He does nothing in opposition instead of He cannot? It was in order that he might show from this once more that his equality is undeviating and complete. This statement does not imply any weakness in him but testifies to his great power. Besides, Paul says elsewhere of the Father, That by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to deceive; and again, If we disown him, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. Now this word cannot is not, of course, indicative of weakness but of strength; indeed, ineffable strength.

Now the so-called gods of the Greeks, unworthy of the name, are faithful neither in their essence nor in their promises. They do not abide everywhere. The local deities come to nought in the course of time and undergo a natural dissolution. . . . But the God of all, being one really and indeed and true, is faithful, who is ever the same. . . . He is ever the same and unchanging, deceiving neither in his essence nor in his promise. As again says the apostle writing to the Thessalonians, Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it;^[1] for in doing what he promises, he is faithful to his words. And he thus writes to the Hebrews^[2] as to the word’s meaning unchangeable: If we believe not, yet he abides faithful; he cannot deny himself.

The only thing the Almighty cannot do is what he does not will, in case anybody should consider it was very rash of me to say that the Almighty cannot do something. The blessed apostle said it too, If we do not believe, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. But it is because he does not wish to that he cannot do it, because he cannot even have the will to. Justice, after all, cannot have the will to do what is unjust, or wisdom will what is foolish, or truth will what is false.

God is all-powerful, and, since he is all-powerful, he cannot die, he cannot be deceived, he cannot lie, and, as the apostle says, he cannot disown himself. Very much he cannot do, yet he is all-powerful. It is because he cannot do these things for the very reason that he is all-powerful. If he could die, he would not be all-powerful. If he could lie, if he could be deceived, if he could deceive, if it were possible for him to do an injustice, he would not be omnipotent. If it were in him to do any of this, such acts would not be worthy of the Almighty. Absolutely omnipotent, our Father cannot sin.

And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first fruits [of their labors], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this any new thing, since indeed many ages before it was written concerning bishops and deacons. . . . Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, since they had obtained a perfect foreknowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry.

And when I had come to Rome I remained there until Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherius. And Anicetus was succeeded by Soter, and he by Eleutherius. In every succession, and in every city, that is held which is preached by the law and the prophets and the Lord.

It is within the power of all, in every church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the Tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were instituted bishops in the churches by the apostles, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew anything these [heretics] rave about.

Since, however, it would be very tedious . . . to reckon up the successions of all the churches, we put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vanity, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings, by indicating that Tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every church agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, because the apostolic Tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.

But Polycarp was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, he gloriously and most nobly suffered martyrdom, departing this life, having always taught the things he had learned from the apostles, and that the Church has handed down, and that alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time.

Since therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth from others that is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth: so that every man who will can draw from her the water of life [Rv 22:17]. For she is the entrance to life; all others are thieves and robbers. On this account we are bound to avoid them, but to choose the thing pertaining to the Church with the utmost diligence, and to lay hold of the Tradition of the truth. For how stands the case? Suppose there arises a dispute relative to some important question among us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches with which the apostles held constant intercourse, and learn from them what is certain and clear regarding the present question?

[I]t is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church—those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But [it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, [looking upon them] either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of money and vanity. For all these have fallen from the truth.

True knowledge is [consists in] the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church that exists everywhere.

[The apostles] then in like manner founded churches in every city, from which all the other churches, one after another, derived the Tradition of the faith, and the seeds of doctrine, and are everyday deriving them, that they may become churches. Indeed, it is only on this account that they will be able to deem themselves apostolic, the offspring of apostolic churches. Everything must necessarily revert to its original for its classification. Therefore the churches, although they are so many and so great, comprise but one primitive Church, (founded) by the apostles, from which they all [spring]. In this way all are primitive, and all are apostolic, while they are all proved to be one, in (unbroken) unity.

[W]hat Christ revealed to them [the apostles] can, as I must here prescribe, properly be proved in no other way than by those very churches the apostles founded in person, by declaring the gospel to them directly themselves. . . . If, then, these things are so, it is also manifest that all doctrine that agrees with the apostolic churches—those molds and original sources of the faith—must be reckoned for truth, as undoubtedly containing what the (said) churches received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God. All doctrine must be prejudged as false that savors of incompatibility with the truth of the churches and apostles of Christ and God. It remains, then, to demonstrate whether this doctrine of ours, of which we have now given the rule, has its origin in the Tradition of the apostles, and whether all other doctrines do not ipso facto proceed from falsehood.

But if there be any (heresies) that are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst of the Apostolic Age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in succession from the beginning, in such a way that [that first bishop of theirs] shall be able to show as his ordainer and predecessor one of the apostles or apostolic men—a man, moreover, who continued steadfast with the apostles. For this is the manner in which the apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained by Peter. In exactly the same way the other churches also exhibit [their several worthies], whom, as having been appointed to their episcopal places by apostles, they regard as transmitters of the apostolic seed. Let the heretics contrive something of the same kind. For after their blasphemy, what is unlawful for them [to attempt]? But should they even try to do so, they will not advance a step. For their very doctrine, after comparison with that of the apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and contrariness, that it had as its author neither an apostle nor an apostolic man; because, as the apostles would never have taught things that were self-contradictory, so the apostolic men would not have taught anything different from the apostles, unless they who received their instruction from the apostles went and preached in a contrary manner. To this test, therefore, will they be submitted for proof by those churches, who, although they don’t derive their founder from apostles or apostolic men (as being of much later date, for they are in fact being founded daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are accounted as not less apostolic because they are akin in doctrine. Then let all the heresies, when challenged with these two tests by our apostolic Church, offer proof of how they deem themselves to be apostolic. But in truth they are not, nor are they able to prove themselves to be what they are not. Nor are they admitted to peaceful relations and communion by such churches as are connected with apostles, as they are in no sense themselves apostolic because of their diverse opinions about the mysteries of the faith.

[T]he Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without. For if she is with Novatian, she was not with Cornelius. But if she was with Cornelius, who succeeded the bishop Fabian by lawful ordination, and whom, beside the honor of the priesthood, the Lord glorified also with martyrdom, Novatian is not in the Church; nor can he be reckoned as a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic Tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any way.

Far be it from me to censure the successors of the apostles, who with holy words consecrate the body of Christ, and who make us Christians.

For in the Catholic Church, not to speak of the purest wisdom, the knowledge of which a few spiritual men attain in this life, so as to know it, in the scantiest measure, indeed, because they are but men, still without any uncertainty (since the rest of the multitude derive their entire security not from acuteness of intellect, but from simplicity of faith)—not to speak of this wisdom, which you do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, there are many other things that most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after his Resurrection, gave it in charge to feed his sheep, down to the present episcopate. And so, lastly, does the name itself of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house. Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name that keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should, though from the slowness of our understanding, or the small attainment of our life, the truth may not yet fully disclose itself. But with you, where there are none of these things to attract or keep me, the promise of truth is the only thing that comes into play. Now if the truth is so clearly proved as to leave no possibility of doubt, it must be set before all the things that keep me in the Catholic Church; but if there is only a promise without any fulfillment, no one shall move me from the faith that binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion.

You must not make your phylacteries broad^[1] in eagerness for empty repute. The Christian Knower is satisfied with finding an audience of one.

Do not manipulate Scripture testimonies. This kind of argument does not edify but does damage to one’s hearers, who come to think that a certain sharpness and subtlety of mind is everything. Or: Don’t try to win with words but with deeds.

A good teacher chooses a good life in such a way that he does not also neglect good repute but provides what may be good not only before God but also before men^[1] insofar as he is able by fearing God and caring for men. In his speech itself he should prefer to please more with the meanings expressed than with the words used to speak them. Nor should he think that anything may be said better than that which is said truthfully. Nor should the teacher serve the words but the words the teacher.

But it is God’s work to dwell invisibly by his spirit and by the Spirit of Christ in those whom he judges it right to dwell. Whereas it is our task, since we try to confirm faith by arguments and treatises, to do all in our power that we may be called workmen who need not to be ashamed, handling rightly the word of truth.

This he has well said. For many distort the text of Scripture and pervert it in every way, and many additions are made to it. He has not said directing but rightly dividing, that is, cutting away what is spurious, with much vehemence assailing it and extirpating it. With the sword of the Spirit cut off from your preaching, as from a thong, whatever is superfluous and foreign to it.

Paul’s intent here is to urge Timothy to teach with a correct purpose, so that the word is not undermined.

Good teachers are like farmers who plow straight furrows, thus presenting the rule of Scripture in a correct manner.

To teach the word of truth rightly is to speak it to men who wish to hear it and are peaceful in their hearing.

It is correct living that confirms the word and that interprets it rightly.

From such men come those who, without divine appointment, set themselves over their rash associates, make themselves prelates without any lawful ordination and call themselves bishops though no one gives them a bishopric. The Holy Spirit portrays them in the Psalms sitting in the seat of pestilence,^[1] plagues and blights to faith, snake-mouthed traitors, scheming to pervert truth, spewing deadly poisons from their pestiferous tongues. Their words spread like a canker. Their teaching pours fatal venom into men’s hearts and breasts.

And what they now write proceeds not from any regard for the truth, as I said before, but rather they do it as in mockery and by a subterfuge, for the purpose of deceiving others. They hope that by sending about their letters they may engage the ears of the people to listen to these notions and so put off the time when they will be brought to trial. By concealing their impiety from observation, they try to make room to extend their heresy, which, like a gangrene, eats its way everywhere.

Let the wickedness of sinners be brought to nought.^[1] He who says this prayer is obviously a disciple of the evangelical precepts. He prays for those who treat him maliciously, asking that the wickedness of the sinners be circumscribed by a definite limit and boundary. Just as if someone, when praying for those who are suffering in body, would say, Let the disease of those who are suffering come to an end. In order that the sin slowly creeping farther may not spread like cancer, since he loves his enemy and wishes to do good to those who hate him, and for this reason prays for those who treat him maliciously, he begs of God that the further outpouring of sin may cease and have definite bounds.

That kind of wound is called a suppurating sore, which begins in the female breasts and then grows quickly into the abdominal region. When it finally becomes a poison that permeates the heart, there is no remedy. In just such a way the discussions of heretics are to be avoided, lest through the ears they reach the mind with an irremediable wound.

To deceive the first human beings, the devil claimed the serpent as his tool.^[1] So to seduce the hearts of orthodox, he armed the tongues of these with the poison of his falsehood. With pastoral care, however, we oppose these snares, dearly beloved, to the extent that the Lord helps us. To prevent any of the holy flock from perishing, we advise you with fatherly admonitions to turn away from wicked lips and treacherous tongue, from which the prophet asks that his soul be kept free,^[2] since their talk crawls like a crab, as the blessed apostle said. They creep in low to the ground, take hold softly, squeeze gently and kill undetected.

Similarly Paul touches those who said that the resurrection had already happened. The Valentinians affirm this of themselves.^[1]

These heretics deny that Christians shall rise in a future life and insist that the resurrection happens in the natural birth of children.

If the resurrection is already past, not only do we suffer loss in being deprived of that great glory, but because judgment is taken away and retribution also. For if the resurrection is past, retribution also is past. The good therefore have reaped persecutions and afflictions, and the wicked have not been punished. On the contrary, they live in great pleasure. It would be better to say that there is no resurrection than that it is already past.

Hymenaeus and Alexander and their fellows^[1] were confused about time—ahead of time—when they said that the resurrection had already occurred. The Galatians misunderstood the dispensations by making so much of circumcision now.

The heretical teaching about the resurrection is that it happens in the process of natural procreation, by which our children succeed us.

The successions that happen through the procreation of children they unhappily call the resurrection.

The resurrection has happened, according to them, either in children or in Ezekiel’s reference to the revivified bones of the people of Israel in captivity.

Therefore, all who have established a sect of some religion, even a false one, wishing that they be believed, have not been able to deny this resurrection of human souls. All have agreed on that, but many have denied the resurrection of the flesh and have said that resurrection has already taken place in faith. . . . They said that resurrection had already taken place but in such a way that another was not to be hoped for; and they reproached those who hoped for the resurrection of the flesh, as though the resurrection which had been promised was already fulfilled in the human soul by believing.

It is the elect who are meant in the letter to Timothy, where, after mention of the attempts of Hymenaeus and Philetus to undermine the faith, the text goes on, But the sure foundation of God stands firm, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows who are his.’ The faith of these latter, which works through charity, either does not ever fail, or, if it fail in some, the loss is repaired before death, the sin that intervened is blotted out and perseverance to the end is granted. On the other hand, those who are not to persevere to the end, those who are to fall from Christian faith and conduct, in such a way that the end of this life will find them thus fallen—these men are certainly not to be counted in the number of the elect, not even at the time during which they are living in goodness and piety.

You are human, and so you know other people only from the outside. You think as you see, and you see only what your eyes let you see. But the eyes of the Lord are lofty.^[1] Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart.^[2] So the Lord knows those who are his. He roots up the plant which he has not planted in his garden. He shows the last to be first. He carries a fan in his hand to purge his floor. Let the chaff of cheap faith fly away as it pleases before every wind of temptation. So much the purer is the heap of wheat which the Lord will gather into his barn.

God ignores those who are alienated from him. . . . We say these things, however, not thinking anything blasphemous about God . . . not ascribing ignorance to him, but thus we understand that these whose activity is considered unworthy of God are also considered to be unworthy of knowledge of God. For God does not deign to know him who has turned away from him and does not know him.

Those who have been made one with and united with something know that with which they have been made one and have been united. Yet before such unity and participation, even if they objectively grasp something of the explanations given about a thing, they still do not know it. . . . For, in our view, the Lord has known those who are his because he has been made one with them and has given them a share of his own divinity and has taken them up, as the language of the Gospel says, into his own hand, since those who have believed in the Savior are in the Father’s hand. For this reason also, unless they fall from his hand—thereby removing themselves from the hand of God, they will not be snatched away, for no one snatches anyone from the Father’s hand.

The Lord considered and knew who were his, and he drew his saints to himself. And those whom he did not choose he did not draw to himself.

And if there is some disturbance here, lift up the footstep of your spirit to the things which are to be, and you will discover that the wicked whom you believed to be here will not be there. For one who is nothing is not. Indeed, the Lord knows those who are his. He does not recognize those who are not, because they have not recognized him who is.

The abundance of bad people in the world is the big heap of stuff needed for refining the good. Although the good can’t be seen, mixed up in the vast multitude of the bad, the Lord knows who are his own. Under the hand of such a great craftsman, the speck of gold cannot get lost in the huge pile of straw. How much straw is there, how little gold! But have no fear the craftsman is so great that he can refine it and cannot lose it.

Something is always going on in this olive press. The world is the press; there is no end to its pressures. Be oil, not dregs. Let each of you be converted to God and change your manner of life. The oil goes by hidden channels to its own secluded vats. Others sin, mock, blaspheme, make loud accusations in the streets—the dregs are oozing out. Yet the Lord of the press does not cease from operating it through his workmen, the holy angels. He knows his oil; he knows how much it can take, the exact pressure needed to squeeze it out. The Lord knows, you see, who are his own. Avoid the dregs. They are murky, out in the open for all to see.

This statement of the Lord^[1] . . . can also be understood mystically with regard to the choosing of the spiritual Israel, that is, the Christian people, since the Lord mercifully deigned to see them when they did not yet see him, when they had not yet been called by his apostles to the grace of faith, but they were still concealed under the covering of oppressing sin. . . . And sometimes in the Scriptures, to be sure, the fig tree suggests the sweetness of divine love. . . . Those placed under it can be his elect even when they do not yet recognize the grace of their election—just as the Lord saw Nathanael when he was situated under the fig tree though Nathanael did not see him. For the Lord knows who are his, and the very name Nathanael is most suitably appropriate to their salvation. For Nathanael is interpreted gift of God.

Faith and godliness, you see, are so closely allied that they can be considered sisters. Anyone who believes in the Lord is godly, and the person who is godly believes all the more. On the other hand, one who is in a state of wrong relationships will certainly wander from the faith, and one who falls from godliness falls from the true faith. Paul, recognizing this, advised his disciples: Avoid profane conversations, for they lead people further into ungodliness. That is why the Ariomaniacs,^[1] being enemies of Christ, have left the church. They have dug a pit of unbelief into which they themselves have fallen. . . . The apostle Paul’s words against Philetus and Hymenaeus stand as a warning against ungodliness such as that of the Arians: God’s foundation is firm, bearing this seed: ‘The Lord knows his own people’ and ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’

These are the distinguishing marks of the foundation. A foundation is firm. The letters are inscribed upon the stone so that the letters may be seen. But these letters are shown by works, Having, he says, this seal fixed thereon, let every one that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Thus if any one is unrighteous, he is not of the foundation. So it belongs to the seal not to do wrong.

And we know that the apostle said of the vessels placed in the great house, If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and ready for the Master’s use, and prepared for every good work.^[1] But in what manner each man ought to purge himself from these he shows a little above, saying, Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. This is so that he may not in the last day be blown away with the chaff from the threshing floor. Nor may he be separated at the last by hearing the command, Depart from me, you that work iniquity.^[2]

He therefore will attain life who keeps the commandments. But who keeps the divine commandments except the one who, converted to God before the end of this present life, has departed from his earlier sins? So the blessed Peter^[1] warns us, Let everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord avoid evil. He said this, knowing that penance is done fruitfully in this present world in which forgiveness is given to penitents. But in the future world the penitence of the wicked will bear no fruit because there will be no conversion of the wicked. They will be sent into the exterior darkness where there will be wailing and the gnashing of teeth.

God who from the beginning felt it just to arrange his creation according to merit gathered the diversities of minds into the harmony of a single world, so as to furnish, as it were, out of these diverse vessels or souls or minds one house. In this house there must be not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some unto honor and some unto dishonor.

Paul indicates that the church has diverse members, who are at differing levels of maturity. The heretic Novatian believes that this passage applies to the world, since he defends the general truth and holiness of his church. But this is wrong.

As in a great house it is likely there should be a great difference of vessels, so here also, in the whole world. He speaks here not of the church only but of the world at large. For do not think, I pray, that he means it of the church. For there he would not have any vessels of wood or of earth but all of gold or silver, which is the body of Christ, which is that pure virgin, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.^[1]

Paul applies the image of the great house to the world, where the golden vessels are persons of faith and virtue, the silver those who embrace civil life virtuously and righteously and the wooden those who live irreverent and disgraceful lives.

The house described by Paul cannot be the church, which is pure, but must be the world with its mixture of wheat and tares.

For although there seem to be tares in the church, yet neither our faith nor our love ought to be hindered, so that, because we see that there are tares in the church, we ourselves should withdraw from the church. We must labor only that we may become wheat, so that when the wheat has begun to be gathered into the barns of the Lord, we may receive the reward for our work and labor.

Then, finally, what a great swelling of avarice it is, what a great forgetfulness of humility and meekness, what a great boasting of his own arrogance that anyone should either dare or think he is able to do what the Lord did not allow to the apostles, that he should think that he can discern the tares from the grain, or, as if it were granted to him to bear the spade and to purge the threshing floor, he should attempt to separate the chaff from the wheat and, although the apostle says, But in a great house there are vessels not only of gold and silver but of wood and clay, he should seem to chose the gold and silver vessels and to despise, indeed, to cast away, to condemn those of wood and clay. It is only in the day of the Lord that wooden vessels are to be burned by the fire of divine flame, and those of clay are to be broken by him to whom is given the rod of iron.

Here the house is the church, where different persons are not at all equal, yet each serves his or her use.

Every one of us, indeed, who is instructed in the holy Scripture is the administrator of some one of those gifts which, according to the gospel, have been apportioned to us. In this great household of the church not only are there vessels of every kind—gold, silver, wooden and earthen—but also a great variety of pursuits. HOMILY ON THE WORDS:

Cyprian argued against those who, under the pretext of avoiding the society of wicked men, had severed themselves from the unity of the church. By the great house of which the apostle spoke—in which there were not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth—Paul understood nothing else but the church. In the church there should be good and bad, till at the last day it should be cleansed as a threshing floor by the winnowing fan.

That law of charity was pronounced by the lips of the Lord Christ, for those parables are his about the cockle scattered through the world in the unity of the field until the time of the harvest and about the bad fishes which are to be left in the same net until the time for landing on the shore.^[1]

Noah’s ark was a type of the church. . . . As in the ark there were all kinds of animals, so also in the church there are men of all races and characters. As in the one there was the leopard with the kids, the wolf with the lambs, so in the other there are found the righteous and sinners, that is, vessels of gold and silver with those of wood and earth.

But in the Christian community, as far as sharing and communion in the sacraments goes, they have been multiplied beyond number.^[1] So number is one thing; beyond number is something else. Number is those of whom the apostle says, The Lord knows who are his. There are some beyond number, though, because in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also ones of wood and earthenware; some for noble, others for ignoble use. Number, then, applies to vessels for noble use; beyond number are vessels for ignoble use.

A brother asked Abba Poemen saying, Why do the demons persuade my soul to look up to him who is superior to me and make me despise him who is my inferior? The old man replied, About that, the apostle has this to say: ‘In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware; and if anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work.’

Whoever purges himself when placed in this life will be prepared for every good work in the future.

The infinite God, remaining changeless, assumed flesh and fought with death, freeing us from suffering by his own suffering! . . . He himself has bound the strong man and plundered his goods^[1]—that is, us, who had been abased in every manner of evil—and made us vessels fit for the Master’s use, the use of our free will being made ready for any good work.^[2]

It is clear that this cleansing is done freely, for he says, if any man shall cleanse himself, the converse of which rejoins that, if he does not cleanse himself, he will be a vessel unto dishonor, of no use to the Lord and only fit to be broken.

But it happens by the practice of presumption and of insolence that each one defends more his own depraved and false views than he consents to the rights and truths of another. Foreseeing this matter, the blessed apostle Paul writes to Timothy and warns that the bishop ought not to be quarrelsome or contentious but gentle and teachable. One who is meek and mild in the patience of learning is teachable. For bishops ought not only to teach but also to learn because he who grows daily and profits by learning better things teaches better.

Since there are so many deceptions and errors of wicked and perverse men clamoring against wisdom, how great is the need of a clean and single eye in order to find the path to wisdom! To escape all of these is the same as to reach the utmost security of peace and the unchangeable abode of wisdom. The noise of wranglers is of little account unless a man becomes a hindrance even to himself. But this can be seen only by a few, and there is great danger that no one may see it in the midst of contention and strife. . . . Therefore, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.^[1]

Therefore, let us not be provoked with these men, let us not use anger as an excuse, but let us talk with them gently and with kindness. Nothing is more forceful and effective than treatment which is gentle and kind. This is why Paul told us to hold fast to such conduct with all the earnestness of our hearts when he said, The servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome but must be kindly toward all. He did not say only to your brothers but toward all. And again, when he said, Let your gentleness be known,^[1] he did not say to your brothers but to all men. What good does it do you, he means, if you love those who love you.

But then in the correction and repression of other men’s sins, one must take heed that in rebuking another he does not lift up himself. The sentence of the apostle must be remembered: Let one who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.^[1] Let the voice of chiding sound outwardly in tones of terror, let the spirit of love and gentleness be maintained within. . . . So then you must neither consent to evil, so as to approve of it, nor be negligent, so as not to reprove it, nor be proud, so as to reprove it in a tone of insult.

The superior should not administer a rebuke to wrongdoers when his own passions are aroused. By admonishing a brother with anger and indignation, he does not free him from his faults but involves himself in the error. . . . Nor should he become vehemently angry even when he himself is treated with contempt. When he sees such treatment inflicted upon another, he should again show himself indulgent toward the sinner; but more than that, he ought, in the latter case, to manifest displeasure at the wrong done.

The shepherd of sheep has the flock following him wherever he leads; or if some turn aside from the direct path and leave the good pasture to graze in barren and precipitous places, it is enough for him to call more loudly, lead them back again and restore to the flock those that were separated. But if a man wanders away from the right path, the shepherd needs a lot of concentration, perseverance and patience. He cannot drag by force or constrain by fear but must by persuasion lead him back to the true beginning from which he has fallen away. He needs, therefore, a heroic spirit, not to grow despondent or neglect the salvation of wanderers but to keep on thinking and saying, God perhaps may give them the knowledge of the truth and they may be freed from the snare of the devil.

Now, penance itself is often omitted because of weakness, even when in church custom there is an adequate reason why it should be performed. For shame is the fear of displeasing men, when one loves good opinion more than he regards judgment, which would make him humble in penitence. Thus not only for one to repent but also in order that he may be enabled to do so, the mercy of God is prerequisite. Otherwise, the apostle would not say of some, In case God gives them repentance.

Let Pelagius confess that pardon is granted to the repentant according to the grace and mercy of God, not according to his merits. It is that very repentance which the apostle called the gift of God when he said of certain ones, Lest God perhaps may grant them repentance.