Chapter 49.—96. Cyprian of Carthage said: "My opinion has been set forth with the greatest fullness in the letter which has been written to our colleague Jubaianus,1892
that
heretics being called
enemies of
Christ and
antichrists according to the
testimony of the
gospel and the
apostles, should, when they come to the
Church, be
baptized with the one
baptism of the
Church, that from
enemies they may be made
friends, and that from
antichrists they may be made
Christians."
1893
| 1893 Conc. Carth. sec. 87.
|
97. What need is there of further disputation here, seeing that we have already handled with the utmost care that very epistle to Jubaianus of which he has made mention? And as to what he has said here, let us not forget that it might be said of all unrighteous men who, as he himself bears witness, are in the Catholic Church, and whose power of possessing and of conferring baptism is not questioned by any of us. For they come to the Church, who pass to Christ
from the party of the devil, and build upon the rock, and are incorporated with the Dove, and are placed in security in the garden enclosed and fountain sealed; where none of those are found who live contrary to the precepts of Christ, wherever they may seem to be. For in the epistle which he wrote to Magnus, while discussing this very question, he himself warned us at sufficient length, and in no ambiguous terms, of what kind of society we should understand that the Church consists. For he
says, in speaking of a certain man, "Let him become an alien and profane, an enemy to the peace and unity of the Lord, not dwelling in the house of God, that is to say, in the Church of Christ, in which none dwell save those who are of one heart and of one mind."1894
Let those, therefore, who would lay injunctions on us on the
authority of Cyprian, pay attention for a time to what we here say. For if only those who are of one
heart and of one
mind dwell in the
Church of
Christ, beyond all
question those were not dwelling in the
Church of
Christ, however much they might appear to be within, who of
envy and
contention were announcing
Christ without
charity; by whom he understands, not the
heretics and schismatics who are mentioned by
the
Apostle Paul,
1895
but false
brethren holding conversation with him within, who certainly ought not to have
baptized, because they were not dwelling in the
Church, in which he himself says that none dwell
save those who are of one
heart and of one
mind: unless, indeed, any one be so
far removed from the
truth as to say that those were of one
heart and of one
mind who were envious and malevolent, and contentious without charity; and yet they used to baptize: nor did the detestable
waywardness which they displayed in any degree violate or diminish from the sacrament of Christ, which was handled and dispensed by them.
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