Chapter 104.—236. Petilianus said: "David also said, ‘The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head.’ Who is it, therefore, that he calls a sinner? Is it I who suffer your violence, or you who persecute the innocent?"
237. Augustin answered: As representing the body of Christ, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and mainstay of the truth, dispersed throughout the world, on account of the gospel which was preached, according to the words of the apostle, "to every creature which is under heaven:"2288
as representing the whole
world, of which
David, whose words you cannot understand, has said, "The
world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved;"
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whereas you
contend that it not only has been moved, but has been utterly
destroyed: as representing this, I answer, I do not
persecute the
innocent. But
David said, "The
oil of the
sinner," not of the
traditor; not of him who offers
incense, not of the persecutor, but "of the
sinner." What then will you make of your interpretation? See first whether you are not yourself a
sinner. It is nothing to the point if you should say, I am not a
traditor, I am
not an offerer of
incense, I am not a persecutor. I myself, by the
grace of
God, am none of these, nor is the
world, which cannot be moved. But say, if you
dare, I am not a
sinner. For
David says, "The
oil of the
sinner." For so long as any
sin, however
light, be found in you, what ground have you for maintaining that you are not concerned in the expression that is used, "The
oil of the
sinner"? For I would ask whether you use the
Lord’s prayer in your
devotions? For if you do not use
that prayer, which our
Lord taught His
disciples for their use, where have you
learned another, proportioned to your merits, as exceeding the merits of the
apostles? But if you
pray, as our great Master deigned to
teach us, how do you say, "
Forgive us our trespasses, as we
forgive them that
trespass against us?" For in this petition we are not referring to those
sins which have already been
forgiven us in
baptism. Therefore these words in the prayer either exclude you from being a petitioner
to
God, or else they make it manifest that you too are a
sinner. Let those then come and
kiss your head who have been
baptized by you, whose heads have
perished through your
oil. But see to yourself, both what you are and what you think about yourself. Is it really true that Optatus, whom pagans,
Jews,
Christians, men of our party, men of your party, all
proclaim throughout the whole of Africa to have been a
thief, a
traitor, an oppressor, a contriver of
schism; not a
friend, not a client,
but a tool of him
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whom one of your party declared to have been his
count, companion, and
god,—is it true that he was not a
sinner in any conceivable interpretation of the term? What then will they do whose heads were
anointed by one
guilty of a capital offense? Do not those very men
kiss your heads, on whose heads you pass so serious a
judgment by this interpretation which you place upon the passage? Truly I would bid you bring them forth, and
admonish them to
heal themselves. Or is it
rather your heads which should be
healed, who
run so grievously
astray? What then, you will ask, did
David really say: Why do you ask me: rather ask himself. He answers you in the verse above: "The
righteous shall
smite me in
kindness, and shall reprove me; but let not the
oil of the
sinner anoint my head."
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What could be plainer? what more manifest? I had rather, he says, be
healed by a
rebuke administered in
kindness, than be
deceived and led
astray by smooth
flattery, coming on me as an
ointment on my head. The self-same sentiment is found elsewhere in Scripture under other words: "Better are the wounds of a friend than the proffered kisses of an enemy."
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