Chapter 109.—246. Petilianus said: "Come therefore to the Church, all ye people, and flee the company of traditors, if you would not also perish with them. For that you may the more readily know that, while they are themselves guilty, they yet entertain an excellent opinion of our faith, let me inform you that I baptize their polluted ones; they, though may God never grant them such an opportunity,
receive those who are made mine by baptism,—which certainly they would not do if they recognized any defects in our baptism. See therefore how holy that is which we give, when even our sacrilegious enemy fears to destroy it."
247. Augustin answered: Against this error I have said much already, both in this work and elsewhere. But since you think that in this sentence you have so strong a confirmation of your vain opinions, that you deemed it right to end your epistle with these words, that they might remain as it were the fresher in the minds of your readers, I think it well to make a short reply. We recognize in heretics that
baptism, which belongs not to the heretics but to Christ, in such sort as in fornicators, in unclean persons or effeminate, in idolaters, in poisoners, in those who retain enmity, in those who are fond of contention, in the credulous, in the proud, given to seditions, in the envious, in drunkards, in revellers; and in men like these we hold valid the baptism which is not theirs but Christ’s. For of men like these, and among them are included heretics also, none, as the apostle says, shall
inherit the kingdom of heaven.2313
Nor are they to be considered as being in the body of
Christ, which is the
Church, simply because they are materially partakers of the sacraments. For the sacraments indeed are holy, even in such men as these, and shall be of force in them to greater condemnation, because they handle and partake of them
unworthily. But the men themselves are not within the constitution of the
Church, which increases in the increase of
God in its members through connection and contact
with
Christ. For that
Church is founded on a
rock, as the
Lord says, "Upon this
rock I will build my
Church."
2314
But they build on the
sand, as the same
Lord says, "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his
house upon the
sand."
2315
But that you may not suppose that the
Church which is upon a
rock is in one part only of the
earth, and does not extend even to its furthest boundaries, hear her voice groaning from the psalm, amid the evils of her pilgrimage. For she says, "From the end of the
earth have I
cried unto Thee; when my
heart was
distressed Thou didst lift me up upon the
rock; Thou hast led me, Thou, my
hope, hast become a
tower of
courage from the face of the
enemy."
2316
See how she
cries from the end of the
earth. She is not therefore in Africa alone, nor only among the Africans, who send a
bishop from Africa to
Rome to a few Montenses,
2317
| 2317 That the Donatists were called at Rome Montenses, is observed by Augustin, de Hæresibus, c. lxix., and Epist. liii. 2; and before him by Optatus, Book II. c. iv. That they were also called Cutzupitani, or Cutzupitæ, we learn from the same epistle, and from his treatise de Unitate Ecclesiæ, c. iii. 6.
|
and into
Spain to the
house of one lady.
2318
See how she is exalted on a
rock. All, therefore, are not to be deemed to be in her which build upon the
sand, that is, which hear the words of
Christ and do them not, even though both among us and among you they have and transmit the sacrament of
baptism. See how her
hope is in
God the
Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost,—not in Peter or in
Paul, still less in Donatus or Petilianus. What we
fear, therefore, to
destroy, is not yours, but
Christ’s; and it is holy of
itself, even in sacrilegious
hands. For we cannot receive those who come from you, unless we
destroy in them whatsoever appertains to you. For we
destroy the treachery of the deserter, not the stamp of the sovereign. Accordingly, do you yourself consider and annul what you said: "I," say you, "
baptize their polluted ones; they, though may
God never grant them such an opportunity, receive those who are made mine by
baptism." For you do not
baptize men who are infected, but you rebaptize
them, so as to infect them with the
fraud of your error. But we do not receive men who are made yours by
baptism; but we
destroy that error of yours whereby they are made yours, and we receive the
baptism of
Christ, by which they are
baptized. Therefore it is not without significance that you introduce the words, "Though may
God never grant them such an opportunity." For you said, "They, though may
God never grant them such an opportunity, receive those who are made mine by
baptism." For
while you in your
fear that we may receive your followers desire to be understood, "may
God never give them the opportunity of receiving such as are mine," I suppose that, without knowing what it meant, you said, "May
God never make them mine that you should receive them." For we
pray that those may not be really yours who come over at the present moment to the Catholic
Church. Nor do they come over so as to be ours by right of
baptism, but by
fellowship with us, and that with us they may
belong to Christ, in virtue of their baptism.
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