Chapter 88.—192. Petilianus said: "We advise you, therefore, if so be that you will hear it willingly, and even though you do not willingly receive it, yet we warn you that the Lord Christ instituted for Christians, not any form of slaying, but one of dying only. For if He loved men who thus delight in battle, He would not have consented to be slain for us."
193. Augustin answered: Would that your martyrs would follow the form that He prescribed! they would not throw themselves over precipices, which He refused to do at the bidding of the devil.2213
But when you
persecute our ancestors with false witness even now that they are dead, whence have you received this form? In that you endeavor to stain us with the
crimes of men we never knew, while you are
unwilling that the most notorious misdeeds of your own party should be reckoned against you, whence have you received this form? But we are too much yielding to our own
conceit if we find fault about ourselves, when we see that you utter false
testimony against the
Lord Himself, since He Himself both
promised and made manifest that His
Church should extend throughout all
nations, and you maintain the contrary. This form, therefore, you did not receive even from the
Jewish persecutors themselves, for they
persecuted His body while He was walking on the
earth: you
persecute His
gospel as He is seated in
heaven. Which
gospel endured more meekly the
flames of furious kings than it can possibly
endure your
tongues; for while they blazed,
unity remained, and
this it cannot do amid your words. They who desired that the word of
God should
perish in the
flames did not believe that it could be
despised if read. They would not, therefore, set their
flames to
work upon the
gospel, if you would let them use your
tongues against the
gospel. In the earlier persecution the
gospel of
Christ was sought by some in their
rage, it was
betrayed by others in their
fear; it was
burned by some in their
rage, it was hidden by others in their
love; it was attacked, but none were found to speak against its
truth. The more accursed share of persecution was reserved for you when the persecution of the
heathen was exhausted. Those who
persecuted the name of
Christ believed in Christ: now those who are honored for the name of Christ are found to speak against His truth.
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