Chapter 18.—24. Whence Cyprian himself1517
| 1517 In this and the following chapter, Augustin is examining the seventy-first epistle of Cyprian to his brother Quintas, bishop in Mauritania. Here LXXI. 1.
|
again
admonishes us with the greatest fullness, that many who were dead in their trespasses and
sins, although they did not
belong to the body of
Christ, and the members of that
innocent and guileless
dove (so that if she alone
baptized, they certainly could not
baptize), yet to all
appearance seemed both to be
baptized and to
baptize within the
Church. And among them, however dead they are, their
baptism nevertheless lives, which is not dead, and
death shall have no more
dominion over it. Since, therefore, there be dead men within the
Church, nor are they concealed, for else Cyprian would not have spoken of them so much, who either do not
belong at all to that living
dove, or at least do not as yet
belong to her; and since there be dead men without, who yet more clearly do not
belong to her at all, or not as yet; and since it is true that "another man cannot be quickened by one who himself liveth not,"—it is therefore clear that those who within are
baptized
by such persons, if they approach the sacrament with true conversion of
heart, are quickened by Him whose
baptism it is. But if they
renounce the
world in word and not in
deed, as Cyprian declares to be the case with some who are within, it is then manifest that they are not themselves quickened unless they be
converted, and yet that they have true
baptism even though they be not
converted. Whence also it is likewise clear that those who are dead without, although they neither "
live
themselves, nor
quicken others," yet have the living
baptism, which would profit them unto life so soon as they should be converted unto peace.
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