Chapter 3.—4. These comparisons of the gospel you doubtless recognize. Nor can we suppose them given for any other purpose, except that no one should make his boast in man, and that no one should be puffed up for one against another, or divided one against another, saying, "I am of Paul," when certainly Paul was not crucified for you, nor were you baptized in the name of Paul, much less in that of Cæcilianus, or of any one of us,
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that you may
learn, that so long as the
chaff is being
bruised with the corn, so long as the bad fishes
swim together with the good in the nets of the
Lord, till the time of separation shall come, it is your
duty rather to
endure the admixture of the bad out of consideration for the good, than to violate the principle of
brotherly love towards the good from any consideration of the bad. For this admixture is not for
eternity, but for time alone; nor is it
spiritual, but
corporal. And in this the
angels will not be liable to err, when they shall collect the bad from the midst of the good, and
commit them to the burning
fiery furnace. For the
Lord knoweth those which are His. And if a man cannot depart bodily from those who practise
iniquity so long as time shall last, at any rate, let every one that nameth the name of
Christ depart from
iniquity itself.
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For in the meantime he may separate himself from the
wicked in
life, and in
morals, and in
heart and will, and in the same respects depart from his society; and separation such as this should always be maintained. But let the separation in the body be waited for till the end of time, faithfully, patiently, bravely. In consideration of which expectation it is said, "Wait on the
Lord; be of good
courage, and He shall strengthen thine
heart; wait, I say, upon the
Lord."
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For the greatest
palm of toleration is won by those who, among false
brethren that have crept in unawares, seeking their own, and not the things of
Jesus Christ, yet show that they on their part
seek not to disturb the
love which is not their own, but
Jesus Christ’s, by any turbulent or rash
dissension, nor to
break the
unity of the
Lord’s net, in which are gathered together
fish of every
kind; till it is drawn to the
shore, that is, till the end of time, by any
wicked
strife fostered in the spirit of
pride: whilst each might think himself to be something, being really nothing, and so might lead himself
astray, and wish that sufficient reason might be found for the separation of
Christian peoples in the
judgment of himself or of his
friends, who declare that they know beyond all
question certain
wicked men unworthy of
communion in the sacraments of the
Christian religion: though whatever it may be that they know of them, they cannot
persuade the universal
Church, which, as it was foretold, is spread abroad throughout all
nations, to give credit to their tale. And when they refuse
communion with these men, as men whose character they know, they
desert the
unity of the
Church; whereas they ought rather, if there really were in them that
charity which endureth all things, themselves to bear what they know in one
nation, lest they should separate themselves from the good whom they were unable throughout all
nations to fill with the teaching of
evil
alien to them. Whence even, without discussing the case, in which they are
convicted by the weightiest
proofs of having uttered calumnies against the
innocent, they are believed with greater probability to have
invented false charges of giving up the
sacred books, when they are found to have themselves
committed the
far more heinous
crime of
wicked division in the
Church. For even, if whatever imputations they have cast of giving up the sacred books were true, yet they in no wise ought to
have abandoned the society of Christians, who are commended by holy Scripture even to the ends of the world, on considerations which they have been familiar with, while these men showed that they were not acquainted with them.
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