Chapter 5.—8. "Further," Cyprian goes on to say, "in vain do some, who are overcome by reason, oppose to us custom, as though custom
were superior to truth, or that were not to be followed in spiritual things which has been revealed by the Holy Spirit, as
the better way."13581358
This is clearly true, since reason and truth are to be preferred to custom. But when truth supports custom, nothing should
be more strongly maintained. Then he proceeds as follows: "For one may pardon a man who merely errs, as the Apostle Paul
says of himself, ‘Who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly;’13591359
but he who, after inspiration and revelation given, perseveres advisedly and knowingly in his former error, sins without
hope of pardon on the ground of ignorance. For he rests on a kind of presumption and obstinacy, when he is overcome by reason."
This is most true, that his sin is much more grievous who has sinned wittingly than his who has sinned through ignorance.
And so in the case of the holy Cyprian, who was not only learned, but also patient of instruction,
which he so fully himself understood to be a part of the praise of the bishop whom the apostle describes,13601360
that he said, "This also should be approved in a bishop, that he not only teach with knowledge, but also learn with patience."13611361
I do not doubt that if he had had the opportunity of discussing this question, which has been so long and so much disputed
in the Church, with the pious and learned men to whom we owe it that subsequently that ancient custom was confirmed by the
authority of a plenary Council, he would have shown, without hesitation, not only how learned he was in those things which
he had grasped with all the security of truth, but also how ready he was to receive instruction in what he
had failed to perceive. And yet, since it is so clear that it is much more grievous to sin wittingly than in ignorance, I
should be glad if any one would tell me which is the worse,—the man who falls into heresy, not knowing how great a sin it
is, or the man who refuses to abandon his covetousness, knowing its enormity? I might even put the question thus: If one
man unwittingly fall into heresy, and another knowingly refuse to depart from idolatry, since the apostle himself says, "The
covetous man, which is an idolater;" and Cyprian too understood the same passage in just the same way, when he says, in his
letter to Antonianus, "Nor let the new heretics flatter themselves in this, that they say they do not communicate with idolaters,
whereas there are amongst them both adulterers and covetous persons, who are held guilty of the sin of idolatry; ‘for know
this, and understand, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and of God;’13621362
and again, ‘Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.’"13631363
I ask, therefore, which sins more deeply,—he who ignorantly has fallen into heresy, or he who wittingly has refused to abandon
covetousness, that is idolatry? According to that rule by which the sins of those who sin wittingly are placed before those
of the ignorant, the man who is covetous with knowledge takes the first place in sin. But as it is possible that the greatness
of the actual sin should produce the same effect in the case of heresy that the witting
commission of the sin produces in that of covetousness, let us suppose the ignorant heretic to be on 450a par in guilt with the consciously covetous man, although the evidence which Cyprian himself has advanced from the apostle
does not seem to prove this. For what is it that we abominate in heretics except their blasphemies? But when he wished to
show that ignorance of the sin may conduce to ease in obtaining pardon, he advanced a proof from the case of the apostle,
when he says, "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly."13641364
But if possible, as I said before, let the sins of the two men—the blasphemy of the unconscious, and the idolatry of the
conscious sinner—be esteemed of equal weight; and let them be judged by the same sentence,—he who, in seeking for Christ,
falls into a truth-like setting forth of what is false, and he who wittingly resists Christ speaking through His apostle,
"seeing that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and of God,"13651365
—and then I would ask why baptism and the words of the gospel are held as naught in the former case, and accounted valid in
the latter, when each is alike found to be estranged from the members of the dove. Is it because the former is an open combatant
outside, that he should not be admitted, the latter a cunning assenter within the fold, that he may not be expelled?