Chapter 39.—92. Petilianus said: "But there is no fellowship of darkness with light, nor any fellowship of bitterness with the sweet of honey; there is no fellowship of life with death, of innocence with guilt, of water with blood; the lees have no fellowship with oil though they are related to it as being its dregs, but everything that is reprobate will flow away. It is the very sink of iniquity; according
to the saying of John, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.’2103
There is no
gold among their
pollution: all that is precious has been
purged away. For it is written, ‘As
gold is tried in the
furnace, so also are the just tried by the harassing of
tribulation.’
2104
Cruelty is not a part of
gentleness, nor
religion a part of
sacrilege; nor can the party of Macarius
2105
| 2105 Macarius acted as imperial commissioner with Paulus, c. 348, to settle the disputes between Donatists and Catholics, but only to the further exasperation of the former, who accused him of intrusion and murder, and thereafter called their opponents Macarians.
|
in any way be part of us, because he pollutes the likeness of our rite. For the
enemy’s line, which fills up an
enemy’s name, is no part of the force to which it is opposed; but if it is truly to be called a part, it will find a suitable motto in the
judgment of
Solomon, ‘Let their part be
cut off from the
earth.’"
2106
93. Augustin answered: What is it but sheer madness to utter these taunts without proving anything? You look at the tares throughout the world, and pay no heed to the wheat, although both have been bidden to grow together throughout the whole of it. You look at the seed sown by the wicked one, which shall be separated in the time of harvest,2107
and you pay no heed to the
seed of
Abraham, in which all
nations of the
earth shall be
blessed.
2108
Just as though you were already a
purged mass, and
virgin honey, and
refined oil, and pure
gold, or rather the very similitude of a whited wall. For, to say nothing of your other faults, do the
drunken form a portion of the sober, or are the covetous reckoned among the portion of the
wise? If men of
gentle temper appropriate the term of
light, where shall the madness of the Circumcelliones be esteemed to be, excepting in the
darkness? Why then is
baptism, given by men
like these, held valid among you, and the same
baptism of
Christ not held valid, by whatsoever men it may be
administered throughout the
world? You see, in fact, that you are separated from the
communion of the whole
world in so
far as this, that you are not indeed all drunk, nor all of you covetous, nor all men of
violence, but that you are all
heretics, and, in
virtue of this, are all impious and all sacrilegious.
94. But as to your saying that the whole world that rejoices in Christian communion is the party of Macarius, who with any remnant of sanity in his brain could make such a statement? But because we say that you are of the party of Donatus, you therefore seek for a man of whose party you may say we are; and, being in a great strait, you mention the name of some obscure person, who, if he is known in Africa, is certainly unknown in any other quarter of the globe. And
therefore hearken to the answer made to you by all the seed of Abraham from every corner of the earth: Of that Macarius, to whose party you assert us to belong, we know absolutely nothing. Can you reply in turn that you know nothing of Donatus? But even if we were to say that you are the party of Optatus, which of you can say that he is unacquainted with Optatus, unless in the sense that he does not know him personally, as perhaps he does not know Donatus either? But you acknowledge that
you rejoice in the name of Donatus, do you also take any pleasure in the name of Optatus? What then can the name of Donatus profit you, when all of you alike are polluted by Optatus? What advantage can you derive from the sobriety of Donatus, when you are defiled by the drunkenness of the Circumcelliones? What, according to your views, are you profited by the innocence of Donatus, when you are stained by the rapacity of Optatus? For this is your mistake, that you think that the
unrighteousness of a man has more power in infecting his neighbor than the righteousness of a man has in purifying those around him. Therefore, if two share in common the sacraments of God, the one a just man, the other an unrighteous one, but so that neither the former should imitate the unrighteousness of the latter, nor the latter the righteousness of the former, you say that the result is not that both are made just, but that both are made unrighteous; so that also that
holy thing, which both receive in common, becomes unclean and loses its original holiness. When does unrighteousness find for herself such advocates as these, through whose madness she is esteemed victorious? How comes it then that, in the midst of such mistaken perversity, you congratulate yourselves upon the name of Donatus, when it shows not that Petilianus deserves to be what Donatus is, but that Donatus is compelled to be what Optatus is? But let the house of Israel say, "God is my
portion for ever;"2109
let the
seed of
Abraham say in all
nations "The
Lord is the portion of mine inheritance."
2110
For they know how to speak through the
gospel of the
glory of the
blessed God. For you, too, through the sacrament which is in you, like Caiaphas the persecutor of the
Lord, prophesy without being aware of it.
2111
For what in
Greek is expressed by the word
Μαχάριος is in our
language simply "
Blessed;" and in this way certainly we are of the party of Macarius, the
Blessed One. For what is more
blessed than
Christ, of whose party we are, after whom all the ends of the
earth are called, and to whom they all are turned, and in whose sight all the
countries of the
nations worship? Therefore the party of this Macarius, that is to say, of
this
Blessed One, feels no apprehension at your last
curse, distorted from the words of
Solomon, lest it should
perish from the
earth. For what is said by him of the impious you endeavor to apply to the inheritance of
Christ, and you
strive to
prove that this has been achieved with inexpressible impiety; for when he was speaking of the impious, he says, "Let their portion
perish from off the
earth."
2112
But when you say, with reference to the words of Scripture, "I shall give Thee the
heathen for Thine inheritance,"
2113
and "all the ends of the
world shall remember and turn unto the
Lord,"
2114
that the
promise contained in them has already
perished from the
earth, you are seeking to turn against the inheritance of
Christ what was foretold about the lot of the impious; but so long as the inheritance of
Christ endures and increases, you are perishing in saying such things. For you are not in every case prophesying through the sacrament of
God, since in this case you are merely uttering
evil wishes through your own madness. But the
prophecy of the true prophets
is more powerful than the evil speaking of the false prophets.
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