Chapter 4.—5. Further, if any one fails to understand how it can be that we assert that the sacrament is not rightly conferred among the Donatists, while we confess that it exists among them, let him observe that we also deny that it exists rightly among them, just as they deny that it exists rightly among those who quit their communion. Let him also consider the analogy of the military mark, which, though it can both be retained, as
by deserters, and, also be received by those who are not in the army, yet ought not to be either received or retained outside its ranks; and, at the same time, it is not changed or renewed when a man is enlisted or brought back to his service. However, we must distinguish between the case of those who unwittingly join the ranks of these heretics, under the impression that they are entering the true Church of Christ, and those who know that there is no other Catholic Church save that which,
according to the promise, is spread abroad throughout the whole world, and extends even to the utmost limits of the earth; which, rising amid tares, and seeking rest in the future from the weariness of offenses, says in the Book of Psalms, "From the end of the earth I cried unto Thee, while my heart was in weariness: Thou didst exalt me on a rock."1151
But the
rock was
Christ, in whom the
apostle says that we are now
raised up, and set together in heavenly places, though not yet actually, but only in
hope.
1152
And so the psalm goes on to say, "Thou wast my
guide, because Thou art become my
hope, a
tower of
strength from the face of the
enemy."
1153
By means of His
promises, which are like
spears and javelins stored up in a strongly fortified place, the
enemy is not only
guarded against, but
overthrown, as he
clothes his
wolves in
sheep’s
clothing,
1154
that they may say, "Lo, here is
Christ, or there;"
1155
and that they may separate many from the Catholic city which is built upon a
hill, and bring them down to the isolation of their own
snares, so as utterly to
destroy them. And these men, knowing this, choose to receive the
baptism of
Christ without the limits of the
communion of the
unity of
Christ’s body, though they intend afterwards, with the sacrament which they have received elsewhere, to pass into that very
communion. For they propose to receive
Christ’s
baptism in
antagonism to the
Church of
Christ, well knowing that it is so even on the very day on which they receive it. And if this is a
sin, who is the man that will say, Grant that for a single day I may
commit sin? For if he proposes to pass over to the Catholic
Church, I would fain ask why. What other answer can he give, but that it is
ill to
belong to the party of Donatus, and not to the
unity of the Catholic
Church? Just so many days, then, as you
commit this
ill, of so many days’
sin are you
going to be
guilty. And it may be said that there is greater
sin in more days’ commission of it, and less in fewer; but in no
wise can it be said that no
sin is committed at all. But what is the need of allowing this accursed wrong for a single day, or a single hour? For the man who wishes this license to be granted him, might as well ask of the Church, or of God Himself, that for a single day he should be permitted to apostatize. For there is no reason why he should fear to be an apostate
for a day, if he does not shrink from being for that time a schismatic or a heretic.
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