Writings in Connection with the Donatist ControversyAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Donatists; Donatists -- Controversial literature
CHAP. L.--98. It is indeed worth while to consider the whole of the
passage in the aforesaid letter to Magnus, which he has put together
as follows: "Not dwelling," he says, "in the house of God--that is to
say, in the Church of Christ--in which none dwell save those that are
of one heart and of one mind, as the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms,
speaking of 'God that maketh men to be of one mind in an house.'[615]
Finally, the very sacrifices of the Lord declare that Christians are
united among themselves by a firm and inseparable love for one another.
For when the Lord calls bread, which is compacted together by the union
of many grains, His body,[616] He is signifying one people, whom He
bore, compacted into one body; and when He calls wine, which is pressed
out from a multitude of branches and clusters and brought together
into one, His blood,[617] He also signifies one flock joined together
by the mingling of a multitude united into one." These words of the
blessed Cyprian show that he both understood and loved the glory of the
house of God, which house he asserted to consist of those who are of
one heart and of one mind, proving it by the testimony of the prophets
and the meaning of the sacraments, and in which house certainly were
not found those envious persons, those malevolent without charity,
who nevertheless used to baptize. From whence it is clear that the
sacrament of Christ can both be in and be administered by those who are
not in the Church of Christ, in which Cyprian himself bears witness
that there are none dwelling save those who are of one heart and of one
mind. Nor can it indeed be said that they are allowed to baptize so
long as they are undetected, seeing that the Apostle Paul did not fail
to detect those of whose ministry he bears unquestionable testimony in
his epistle, saying that he rejoices that they also were proclaiming
Christ. For he says of them, "Whether in pretence or in truth, Christ
is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."[618]
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