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should go on, teaching people to lean on those merits, in a way unauthorised by God. Since then assuredly we have no Scriptural authority for such views, it may be useful, in order to remove some of the prejudice which lies against a forgotten doctrine, to adduce some passages of other Fathers, men who loved and reverenced their Saviour, who were engaged in defending the truth of the Gospel, and the first of whom was one of the greatest instruments whom God ever raised up for its pure and holy transmission. St. Athanasius^[1] then says on this same passage: "The Apostle saith not 'it is impossible to repent;' but impossible on the ground of repentance to renew us. And these are very different. For he who repenteth, ceaseth indeed from sinning, but retaineth the scars of his wounds: but he who is baptized, puts off the old man, and is renewed, having been born again by the grace of the Spirit." St. Cyril of Jerusalem has the same metaphor and the same doctrine. In opposition to the heretics, who spoke of the body as of a mere outward garment, whose defilements affect not ourselves, he says^[2], "As a wound which has made deep progress in the body, though it be healed, yet the scar remains, so sin also wounds the soul and body, and the marks of the scars remain in all: they are removed wholly from those only who receive the 'bath.' Former wounds then of soul and body God heals through Baptism, but as to the future let us keep ourselves with all diligence; that having preserved this garment of the body pure, we may not, by a little defilement and self-indulgence, or any other sin, forfeit everlasting salvation." And in like manner Epiphanius^[3], even when writing against the error of the Novatians, still insists, "In truth it is impossible to renew those who have been once renewed and have fallen away. For neither can Christ be born again that He may be crucified for us, nor may any one crucify again the Son of God, who is not again to be crucified, nor can any one receive a second Baptism, for there is one Baptism and one renewal. But immediately afterwards the

1. Ep. 4. ad Serapion. § 13. t ii. p. 705. ed. Bened.
2. Cateches. 18. de Ecclesia Catholica, § 20.
3. Hæres. 59. §2.