Chapter 10.—13. But they think within themselves that they show very great subtlety in asking whether the baptism of Christ in the party of Donatus makes men sons or not; so that, if we allow that it does make them sons, they may assert that theirs is the Church, the mother which could give birth to sons in the baptism of Christ; and since the Church must be one, they may allege that ours is no Church. But if we say that it does not make
them sons, "Why then," say they, "do you not cause those who pass from us to you to be born again in baptism, after they have been baptized with us, if they are not thereby born as yet?"
14. Just as though their party gained the power of generation in virtue of what constitutes its division, and not from what causes its union with the Church. For it is severed from the bond of peace and charity, but it is joined in one baptism. And so there is one Church which alone is called Catholic; and whenever it has anything of its own in these communions of different bodies which are separate from itself, it is most certainly in virtue of
this which is its own in each of them that it, not they, has the power of generation. For neither is it their separation that generates, but what they have retained of the essence of the Church; and if they were to go on to abandon this, they would lose the power of generation. The generation, then, in each case proceeds from the Church, whose sacraments are retained, from which any such birth can alone in any case proceed,—although not all who receive its birth belong to its unity, which
shall save those who persevere even to the end. Nor is it those only that do not belong to it who are openly guilty of the manifest sacrilege of schism, but also those who, being outwardly joined to its unity, are yet separated by a life of sin. For the Church had herself given birth to Simon Magus through the sacrament of baptism; and yet it was declared to him that he had no part in the inheritance of Christ.1172
Did he lack anything in respect of
baptism, of the
gospel, of the sacraments? But in that he wanted
charity, he was
born in
vain; and perhaps it had been well for him that he had never been
born at all. Was anything wanting to their
birth to whom the
apostle says, "I have fed you with
milk, and not with
meat, even as
babes in
Christ"? Yet he recalls them from the
sacrilege of
schism, into which they were rushing, because they were
carnal: "I have fed you," he says,
"with
milk, and not with
meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet
carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and
strife, are ye not
carnal, and
walk as men? For while one saith, I am of
Paul; and another, I am of
Apollos; are ye not men?"
1173
For of these he says above: "Now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same
mind, and in the same
judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my
brethren, by them which are of the
house of Chlöe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of
Paul, and I of
Apollos, and I
of
Cephas, and I of
Christ. Is
Christ divided? was
Paul crucified for you? or were ye
baptized in the name of
Paul?"
1174
These, therefore, if they continued in the same
perverse obstinacy, were doubtless indeed
born, but yet would not
belong by the
bond of
peace and
unity to the very
Church in respect of which they were
born. Therefore she herself bears them in her own
womb and in the
womb of her
handmaids, by
virtue of the same sacraments, as though by
virtue of the
seed of her
husband. For it is not without meaning that the
apostle says that all these things were done by way of figure.
1175
| 1175 1 Cor. x. 11. In figura; τυπικῶς; A.V., "for ensamples."
|
But those who are too
proud, and are not joined to their
lawful mother, are like
Ishmael, of whom it is said, "Cast out this
bond-
woman and her Son: for the son of the
bond-
woman shall not be heir with my son, even with
Isaac."
1176
But those who peacefully
love the
lawful wife of their
father, whose sons they are by
lawful descent, are like the sons of
Jacob,
born indeed of
handmaids, but yet receiving the same inheritance.
1177
But those who are
born within the
family, of the
womb of the mother herself, and then neglect the
grace they have received, are like
Isaac’s son
Esau, who was
rejected,
God Himself bearing witness to it, and saying, "I
loved Jacob, and I
hated Esau;"
1178
and that though they were twin-brethren, the offspring of the same womb.
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