The Apostasy against the Mysteries

Should they be thought to possess anything of a Christian, denying this, without any danger of having denied the honor cast upon them? For all the mysteries of the Christians hang upon this; even if you speak of churches, or Scriptures, or catechisms, or baptism, or an altar, or the body itself, without the blood there is nothing; for a body without blood is dead, and no one offers a dead thing for an altar.

For one finds everywhere in the Old Testament blood being offered, and almost everything is cleansed in blood according to the law. How much more does the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience from dead works (Hebrews 9:14), says the apostle; and again: Therefore, having, brothers, confidence for the entrance into the holy places in the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:19), which He made a new and living way (Hebrews 10:20).

It has shown you everywhere the power of the Christian mysteries, that it is not possible to escape sin, nor the devil himself, nor to enter the entrance into the holy places, which He made for us a new and living way, to be made known by the king as not bearing the seal. For if soldiers, struggling in wars and contending for its very safety, guard the symbol and through this demonstrate their goodwill toward the king, calculating that if they lose this, they will no longer be able to behold the face of the king, what will they do, having lost not an insensate sign, but having been plundered of the blood of Christ itself?

But if anyone examines accurately, those having been led astray by every man are more to be pitied and are worthy of many wailings, those having been led astray in these heresies. For so much the evil one has prevailed over them and has darkened their foolish heart, so that they do not recognize what they have suffered. For it is necessary for them to wail and weep, having been deprived of so many and such great good things and of life itself.

They suffer the opposite; they call themselves righteous and higher than all men; and what shall I say of them being more holy than all men and of the blood of Christ. For if the devil were to seize any of them and cast them out of the church, one would see from that time such a person speaking injustice to the height thoughtlessly.

No longer knowing either the baptizing priest, or the spiritual mother, the church, the generation that bore and nurtured him, or the altar from which he was fed and watered as a child, or the holy things themselves being offered. But immediately, a first progress and a great error is deemed by them to be the denial and the blasphemy against the mysteries; for such a person begins to speak, but rather it is the devil speaking in him: 'What is a church? What is baptism? And is that the blood of Christ? May it never enter my mouth.'

Woe! If you kept your heart with all vigilance, if you cried out heavily until the last breath, the fortress would remain to you. If you did not give entrance to the devil into your heart, you would not have been snatched away by him according to his will. Self-control and renunciation led you to this progress, and it taught nothing else but to renounce only the holy things.

Is the blood of Christ unclean and you clean? I thought you had a renunciation of another kind, concerning which the Lord said: 'If anyone does not renounce all that he has, he is not my disciple' (Luke 14:33), and 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor' (Matthew 19:21), and he did not add: 'If anyone does not renounce my church or my mysteries, he is not my disciple.' For it is clear that he taught us through his incarnate economy first to renounce the devil and his idols and all his plan, and to be arranged with him alone through his church and his mysteries.

Did I renounce the first renunciation or the second? The first is an avoidance of idols, the second is a disdain for possessions and a contempt for all fleshly pleasure. Let us see then what kind of renunciation you speak of, the one of possessions. And who is so given to the passion of avarice as the heretics? For they not only hold securely the money falling to them, but they also become stewards and treasurers of others' things as if they were their own, and they gather interest and profits, and they provide money to others, but they themselves gain iniquities, only so that they may increase the passion of greed. For no one has ever heard that a heretic, having sold all his...