13. Or haply is it so, that
he who plots in this way to find out Priscillianists, denies not
Christ, forasmuch as with his mouth he utters what with his heart
he believes not? As if truly (which I also said a little above)
when it was said, “With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness,” it was added to no purpose, “with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation?”23982398 Is it not so that almost all who
have denied Christ before the persecutors, held in their heart what
they believed of Him? And yet, by not confessing with the mouth
unto salvation, they perished, save they which through penitence
have lived again? Who can be so vain,23992399 as to think that the Apostle Peter
had that in his heart which he had on his lips when he denied
Christ? Surely in that denial he held the truth within and uttered
the lie without. Why then did he wash away with tears the denial
which he uttered with his mouth, if that sufficed for salvation
that with the heart he believed? Why, speaking the truth in his
heart, did he punish with so bitter weeping the lie which he
brought forth with his mouth, unless because he saw it to be a
great and deadly evil, that while with his heart he believed unto
righteousness, with his mouth he made not confession unto
salvation?