Chapter 40.—77. Also another Felix of Ammacura1736
| 1736 Ammacura (Bamacorra) in ecclesiastical province of Numidia.
|
said: "I too, following the
authority of the holy Scriptures, give my
judgment that
heretics should be
baptized, and with them those also who maintain that they have been
baptized among schismatics. For if, according to the warning of
Christ, our
fountain is sealed to ourselves,
1737
let all the
enemies of our
Church understand that it cannot
belong to others; nor can He who is the
Shepherd of our
flock give the
water unto
salvation to two different peoples. And therefore it is clear that neither
heretics nor schismatics can receive anything heavenly, who
dare to accept from men that are
sinners and aliens from the
Church. When the
giver has no ground to stand upon, surely neither can the receiver derive any
profit."
1738
| 1738 Conc. Carth. sec. 33.
|
78. To him we answer, that the holy Scriptures nowhere have enjoined that heretics baptized among heretics should be baptized afresh, but that they have shown in many places that all are aliens from the Church who are not on the rock, nor belong to the members of the dove, and yet that they baptize and are baptized and have the sacrament of salvation without salvation. But how our fountain is like the fountain of Paradise, in that, like it, it flows forth even
beyond the bounds of Paradise, has been sufficiently set forth above;1739
and that "He who is the
Shepherd of our
flock cannot give the
water unto
salvation to two different peoples," that is, to one that is His own, and to another that is
alien, I fully agree in admitting. But does it follow that because the
water is not unto
salvation it is not the identical
water? For the
water of the deluge was for
salvation unto those who were placed within the
ark, but it brought
death to those without, and yet it was the same
water. And many aliens,
that is to say, envious persons, whom Cyprian declares and
proves from Scripture to be of the party of the
devil, seem as it were to be within, and yet, if they were not without the
ark, they would not
perish by
water. For such men are slain by
baptism, as the sweet
savor of
Christ was unto
death to those of whom the
apostle speaks.
1740
Why then do not either
heretics or schismatics receive anything heavenly, just as
thorns or tares, like those who were without the
ark received indeed the rain from the
floods of
heaven, but to
destruction, not to
salvation? And so I do not take the pains to refute what he said in conclusion: "When the
giver has no ground to stand upon, surely neither can the receiver derive any
profit," since we also say that it does not
profit the receivers while
they receive it in
heresy, consenting with the
heretics; and therefore they come to Catholic peace and unity, not that they may receive baptism, but that what they had received may begin to profit them.
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