Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Donatist Controversy/On Baptism/Book IV/Chapter 18

26.&#160; Nor indeed, is it of heresies alone that the apostle says "that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."&#160; But it may be worth while to look for a moment at the things which he groups together.&#160; "The works of the flesh," he says "are manifest, which are these; fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:&#160; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." &#160; Let us suppose some one, therefore, chaste, continent, free from covetousness, no idolater, hospitable, charitable to the needy, no man&#8217;s enemy, not contentious, patient, quiet, jealous of none, envying none, sober, frugal, but a heretic; it is of course clear to all that for this one fault only, that he is a heretic, he will fail to inherit the kingdom of God.&#160; Let us suppose another, a fornicator, unclean, lascivious, covetous, or even more openly given to idolatry, a student of witchcraft, a lover of strife and contention, envious, hot-tempered, seditious, jealous, drunken, and a reveller, but a Catholic; can it be that for this sole merit, that he is a Catholic, he will inherit the kingdom of God, though his deeds are of the kind of which the apostle thus concludes:&#160; "Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God?"&#160; If we say this, we lead ourselves astray.&#160; For the word of God does not lead us astray, which is neither silent, nor lenient, nor deceptive through any flattery.&#160; Indeed, it speaks to the same effect elsewhere:&#160; "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.&#160; Let no man deceive you with vain words." &#160; We have no reason, therefore, to complain of the word of God.&#160; It certainly says, and says openly and freely, that those who live a wicked life have no part in the kingdom of God.