On the Twelve Abuses of the World, with extracts from On the Soul and its Origin and On the Divination of Demons against the Pagans

take. For sons bear the corrections of discipline with patience and do not despair of being able to receive the inheritance at some time. Of which discipline Isaiah also speaks, preaching to the undisciplined people, saying: "Learn to do good, learn to do well." And to the same, the psalmist sings with a sonorous voice, saying: "Turn away from evil and do good." Unhappy, therefore, is he who casts aside discipline. For some soldiers dare to say that they did not rend the tunic of the Lord while crucifying Him, yet behold, they rend the discipline of Christ. For just as the tunic covers the whole body except the head, so discipline covers and adorns the whole church, except for Christ, who is the head of the church and is not under discipline. That same tunic, indeed, was woven from the top throughout, which is that same discipline of the church given to it by the Lord from heaven, and it is whole. Oh, the Lord, when He had ascended to the Father, after He had risen from the dead, spoke to His apostles: "But you sit here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." The tunic of Christ, therefore, is the discipline of the church. But he who is outside of discipline is outside the body of Christ. Let me not rend it, therefore, for we are joined to Him by it; let me not loosen it, whatever is of the commands of the Lord, but let everyone, in whatever state he is called, remain in it before God.

¶ The twelfth degree of abuse: A people without law.

The twelfth degree of abuse is a people without law, which, while it fears neither the judgment of God nor the words of the laws, rushes headlong through the various paths of error into the snare of perdition. Of whom, under the person of the transgressors of the people, the human race laments thus: "We have all gone astray like sheep, everyone has turned aside into his own way." Of whom also the same Wisdom speaks through Solomon: "There are ways that seem right to men, but the ends thereof lead to death." For you, O man, who are preaching, the ways are failing, since the one royal way—the law of God, namely, which declines neither to the right nor to the left—is deserted through negligence. Concerning which way the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law for justice to everyone who believes, announces: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me." Concerning this way, He invites all who are weary, saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." For there is no acceptance of persons before God, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, servant nor free, barbarian and Scythian, but Christ is all in all. For all are one in Christ Jesus. When, therefore, Christ is the end of the law, those who are without the law are without Christ. Therefore, a people without law is a people without Christ.