Chapter 13.—29. Petilianus said: Over and over again He reproaches the false speakers and liars in such terms as these: ‘Ye are the children of the devil, for he also was a slanderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth.’"
30. Augustin answered: We are not wont to say, "He was a slanderer," but "He was a murderer."1999
But we ask how it was that the
devil was a murderer from the beginning; and we find that he slew the first man, not by drawing a
sword, nor by applying to him any bodily
violence, but by persuading him to
sin, and thus driving him from the
happiness of
Paradise. What, then, was
Paradise is now represented by the
Church. Therefore those are the sons of the
devil who
slay men by withdrawing them from the
Church. But as by the words of
God we know what
was the situation of
Paradise, so now by the words of
Christ we have
learned where the
Church is to be found: "Throughout all
nations," He says, "beginning at
Jerusalem." Whosoever, therefore, separates a man from that complete whole to place him in any single part, is
proved to be a son of the
devil and a murderer. But see, further, what is the application of the expression which you yourself employed in saying of the
devil, "He was a
slanderer, and abode not in the
truth." For you bring
an
accusation against the whole
world on account of the
sins of others, though even those others themselves you were more able to
accuse than to
convict; and you abode not in the
truth of Christ. For He says that the Church is "throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" but ye say that it is in the party of Donatus.
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