- THE CITY OF GOD - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO - "HERE is a book that written over fifteen hundred years ago by a mystic in North Africa. Yet to those who have ears to hear, it has a great deal to say to many of us who are mystic, today in America... THE CITY OF GOD is the autobiography of the Church written by the most CATHOLIC of her GREAT SAINTS....... THE CITY OF GOD, FOR THOSE WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT CONTAINS THE SECRET OF DEATH AND LIFE, WAR AND PEACE, HEAVEN AND EARTH." -
- Whether those who received heretical baptism, and have afterwards fallen away to wickedness of life; or those who have received catholic baptism but have afterwards passed over to heresy and schism; or those who have remained in the catholic Church in which they were baptised but have continued to live immorally - may hope through the virtue of the sacraments for the remission of eternal punishment - P A G E 7 -
But let us now reply to those who promise deliverance from eternal fire, not to the devil and his angels (as neither do they of whom we have been speaking) nor even to all men whatever but only to those who have been washed by the baptism of Christ and have become partakers of His body and blood, no matter how they have lived, no matter what heresy or impiety they have fallen into. But they are contradicted by the apostle, where he says, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft hatred, variances, emulations, wraths, strife, heresies, envy, drunkenness, revellings and the like: of the which I tell you before, shall not inherit the kingdom of God." - Galatians 19:21 - Certainly this sentence of the apostle is false, if such person shall be delivered after any lapse of time and shall then inherit the kingdom of God. But as it is not false, they shall certainly never inherit the kingdom of God. And if they shall never enter that kingdom, then they shall always be retained in eternal punishment; for there is no middle place where he/she may live unpunished who has not been admitted into that kingdom.
And therefore we may reasonably inquire how we are to understand these words of the Lord Jesus: "This is the bread which come down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man/woman eat of this bread, he/she shall live forever." - John 6:50-51 - And those indeed, whom we are now answering, are refuted in their interpretation of this passage by whom we are shortly to answer and who do not promise this deliverance to all who have received the sacraments of baptism and the Lord Jesus Christ body but only to the Catholics, however, wickedly they live; for these, say they, have eaten the Lord Jesus body not only sacramentally but really, being constituted members of His body of which the apostle says, "We being many are one bread, one body." - 1 Corinthians 10:17 - He/She then who is in the unity of Christ's body (that is to say, in the Catholic Christian membership) of which body the faithful have been wont to receive the sacrament at the altar, that person is truly said to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. Consequently, heretics and schismatics being separate from the unity of this body are able to receive the same sacrament but with no profit to themselves - nay, rather to their own hurt, so that they are rather more severely judged than liberated after sometime. For they are not in that bond of peace which is symbolized by that 'Sacrament.'
But again, even those who sufficiently understand that he/she who is not in the body of Christ Jesus cannot be said to eat the body of Christ, are in error when they promise liberation from the fire of eternal punishment to persons who fall away from the unity of that body into heresy or even into heathenish superstition. For in the first place, they ought to consider how intolerable it is and how discordant with sound doctrine, to suppose that many, indeed, or almost all, who have forsaken the Universal/Catholic Church and have originated impious heresies and become heresiarchs, should enjoy a destiny superior to those who never were Catholics but have fallen into the snares of these others; that is to say, if the fact of their Catholic baptism and original reception of the sacrament of the body of Christ in the true body of Christ Jesus is sufficient to deliver these heresiarchs from eternal punishment. For certainly he/she who deserts the faith and from a deserted becomes an assailant, is worse than he/she who has not deserted the faith he/she never held. And in the second place, they are contradicted by the apostle, who after enumerating the works of the flesh, says with reference to heresies, "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
And therefore neither ought such persons as lead an abandoned and damnable life to be confident of salvation, though they persevere to the end in the communion of the Catholic Church and comfort themselves with the words: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." By the iniquity of their life they abandon that very righteousness of life which Christ Jesus is to them, whether it be by fornication or by perpetrating in their body the other unclean which the apostle would not so much as mention or by a dissolute luxury or by doing anyone of those things of which he says: "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Consequently, they who do such things shall not exist anywhere but in eternal punishment since they cannot be in the kingdom of God. While they continue in such things to the very end of life, they cannot be said to abide in Christ Jesus to the end; for to abide in Him is to abide in the faith of Christ Jesus. And this faith, according to the apostle's definition of it - Galatians 5:6 - And "love" as he elsewhere says: do no evil. - Romans 13:10 - Neither can these persons be said to eat the body of Christ, for they cannot even be reckoned among His members. For not to mention other reasons, they cannot be at once the members of Christ and the members of a harlot. In fine, He Himself, when He says: He/She who eat my flesh and drink my blood, dwell in me and I in him/her. - John 6:56 - Accordingly, they who are not baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in other words: They who make themselves members of a harlot, are not members of Christ unless they have penitently abandoned that evil and have returned to this good and to be reconciled to God.
- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function, so the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
