Chapter 9.—10. Again, when he hears, "He that is washed by one dead, his washing profiteth him nought,"1936
| 1936 So the Donatists commonly quoted Ecclus. xxiv. 25, which is more correctly rendered in our version, "He that washeth himself after touching of a dead body, if he touch it again, what availeth his washing?" Augustin (Retractt. i. 21, 3) says that the misapplication was rendered possible by the omission in many African Mss. of the second clause, "and touches it again." Cp. Hieron, Ecclus. xxxiv.
30.
|
he will answer, "
Christ, being
raised from the dead, dieth no more;
death hath no more
dominion over Him:"
1937
of whom it is said, "The same is He which baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost."
1938
But they are
baptized by the dead, who are
baptized in the
temples of
idols. For even they themselves do not suppose that they receive the
sanctification which they look for from their
priests, but from their gods; and since these were men, and are dead in such sort as to be now neither upon
earth nor in the
rest of
heaven,
1939
| 1939 Cp. Contra Cresconium, Book II. 25-30: "Ita mortui sunt, ut neque super terras, neque in requie sanctorum vivant."
|
they are truly
baptized by the dead: and the same answer will hold good if there be any other way in which these words of holy Scripture may be
examined, and profitably discussed and understood. For if in this place I understand a baptizer who is a
sinner, the same absurdity will follow, that whosoever has been
baptized by an
ungodly man, even though his
ungodliness be undiscovered, is yet
washed in
vain, as though
baptized by one dead. For he
does not say, He that is
baptized by one manifestly dead, but absolutely, "by one dead." And if they consider any man to be dead whom they know to be a
sinner, but any one in their
communion to be alive, even though he manages most adroitly to conceal a
life of
wickedness, in the first place with accursed
pride they claim more for themselves than they ascribe to
God, that when a
sinner is unveiled to them he should be called dead, but when he is known by
God he is held to be alive. In the
next place, if that
sinner is to be called dead who is known to be such by men, what answer will they make about Optatus, whom they were afraid to
condemn though they had long known his
wickedness? Why are those who were
baptized by him not said to have been
baptized by one dead? Did he
live because the
Count was his
faith?
1940
| 1940 Benedictines suggest as an emendation "quod Deus illi comes erat," as in II. 23, 53; 37, 88, 103, 237.
|
—an elegant and well-turned saying of some early colleagues of their own, which they themselves are wont to quote with pride, not understanding that at the death of the haughty Goliath it was his own sword by which his head was cut off.
1941
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