{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050356.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050356.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050356.htm","text":"Chapter IX.\u2014(20.) Who May Be Said to Walk Without Spot; Damnable and Venial Sins.\nHaving premised these remarks, let us carefully attend to the passages which he whom we are answering has produced, as if we ourselves had quoted them. \u201cIn Deuteronomy, \u2018Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God.\u2019 1428 Again, in the same book, \u2018There shall be not an imperfect man 1429 among the sons of Israel.\u2019 1430 In like manner the Saviour says in the Gospel, Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.\u2019 1431 So the apostle, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, says: \u2018Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect.\u2019 1432 Again, to the Colossians he writes: \u2018Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.\u2019 1433 And so to the Philippians: \u2018Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless, and harmless, as the immaculate sons of God.\u2019 1434 In like manner to the Ephesians he writes: \u2018Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.\u2019 1435 Then again to the Colossians he says in another passage: \u2018And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death; present yourselves holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.\u2019 1436 In the same strain, he says to the Ephesians: \u2018That He might present to Himself a glorious Church, p. 166 not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish.\u2019 1437 So in his first Epistle to the Corinthians he says \u2018Be ye sober, and righteous, and sin not.\u2019 1438 So again in the Epistle of St. Peter it is written: \u2018Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is offered to you: . . . as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, 1439 Be ye holy; for I am holy.\u2019 1440 Whence blessed David likewise says: \u2018O Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest on Thy holy mountain? He that walketh without blame, and worketh righteousness.\u2019 1441 And in another passage: \u2018I shall be blameless with Him.\u2019 1442 And yet again: \u2018Blessed are the blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.\u2019 1443 To the same effect it is written in Solomon: \u2018The Lord loveth holy hearts, and all they that are blameless are acceptable unto Him.\u2019\u201d 1444 Now some of these passages exhort men who are running their course that they run perfectly; others refer to the end thereof, that men may reach forward to it as they run. He, however, is not unreasonably said to walk blamelessly, not who has already reached the end of his journey, but who is pressing on towards the end in a blameless manner, free from damnable sins, and at the same time not neglecting to cleanse by almsgiving such sins as are venial. For the way in which we walk, that is, the road by which we reach perfection, is cleansed by clean prayer. That, however, is a clean prayer in which we say in truth, \u201cForgive us, as we ourselves forgive.\u201d 1445 So that, as there is nothing censured when blame is not imputed, we may hold on our course to perfection without censure, in a word, blamelessly; and in this perfect state, when we arrive at it at last, we shall find that there is absolutely nothing which requires cleansing by forgiveness.\nAugustin\u2019s word is inconsummatus. The Septuagint term \u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b9\u03c3\u03ba\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 (which properly signifies complete, perfect) comes to mean one initiated into the mysteries of idolatrous worship.\n165:1430 165:1431 165:1432 165:1433 165:1434\nPhil. 2:14, 15.\n165:1435 165:1436 166:1437 166:1438 166:1439 166:1440 166:1441 166:1442 166:1443 166:1444 166:1445","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise Concer...","type":"page"}