Chapter 34.—39. Petilianus quotes also the warning of the Apostle John, that we should not believe every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God,2396
as though this care should be bestowed in order that the
wheat should be separated from the
chaff in this present
world before its time, and not rather for
fear that the
wheat should be
deceived by the
chaff; or as though, even if the
lying spirit should have said something that was true, it was to be denied, because the spirit whom we should abominate had said it. But if any one thinks this, he is
mad enough to
contend that Peter ought not to
have said, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living
God,"
2397
because the
devils had already said something to the same effect.
2398
| 2398 Matt. viii. 29; Mark i. 24; Luke viii. 28.
|
Seeing, therefore, that the
baptism of
Christ, whether
administered by an
unrighteous or a
righteous man, is nothing but the
baptism of
Christ what a cautious man and
faithful Christian should do is to
avoid the
unrighteousness of man, not to
condemn the sacraments of
God.
40. Assuredly in all these things Petilianus gives no answer to the question, If the conscience of one that gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient, by what means is he to be cleansed who receives baptism, when the conscience of the giver is polluted without the knowledge of the proposed recipient? A certain Cyprian, a colleague of his from Thubursicubur, was caught in a brothel with a woman of most abandoned character, and
was brought before Primianus of Carthage, and condemned. Now, when this man baptized before he was detected and condemned, it is manifest that he had not the conscience of one that gives in holiness, so as to cleanse the conscience of the recipient. By what means then have they been cleansed who at this day, after he has been condemned, are certainly not washed again? It was not necessary to name the man save only to prevent Petilianus from repeating, "Who is the man, and from what corner
has he started up, that you propose to us?" Why did not your party examine that baptizer, as John, in the opinion of Petilianus, was examined? Or was the real fact this, that they examined him so far as man can examine man, but were unable to find him out, as he long lay hid with cunning falseness?
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