CHAP. XXIX.--31. These things, brethren, I would have you retain as the basis of your action and preaching with untiring gentleness: love men, while you destroy errors; take of the truth without pride; strive for the truth without cruelty. Pray for those whom you refute and convince of error. For the prophet prays to God for mercy upon such as these, saying, "Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Thy name, O Lord."[682] And this, indeed, the Lord has done already, so as to fill the faces of the followers of Maximianus with shame in the sight of all mankind: it only remains that they should learn how to blush to their soul's health. For so they will be able to seek the name of the Lord, from which they are turned away to their utter destruction, whilst they exalt their own name in the place of that of Christ. May ye live and persevere in Christ, and be multiplied, and abound in the love of God, and in love towards one another, and towards all men, brethren well beloved. FOOTNOTES: [639] Ps. cxx. 7. [640] Ps. cxviii. 8. [641] Jer. xvii. 5. [642] Ps. iii. 8. [643] Ps. lx. 11. [644] 1 Cor. i. 13. [645] Rom. iv. 5. [646] 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7. [647] John xv. 5. [648] Rom. xii. 5. [649] Matt. xxiii. 3. [650] Rom. iv. 25, 5. [651] Matt. vii. 17, 16. [652] Matt. xii. 35. [653] See below, Book II. vi. 12. [654] So the Donatists commonly quoted Ecclus. xxxiv. 25, which is more correctly rendered in our version, "He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body, if he touch it again, what availeth his washing?" Augustine (_Retract._ i. 21, sec. 3) says that the misapplication was rendered possible by the omission in many African Mss. of the second clause, "and touches it again." [655] Rom. vi. 9. [656] John i. 33. [657] Cp. _Contra Cresconium_, Book II. xxv. 30: "Ita mortui sunt, ut neque super terras, neque in requie sanctorum sint." [658] Migne suggests as an emendation, "quod Deus illi comes erat," as in II. xxiii. 53, xxxvii. 87, etc. [659] 1 Sam. xvii. 51. [660] That of Bagai. See on _de Bapt._ I. v. 7. [661] Ore latissimo acclamaverunt. The Louvain edition has "lætissimo," both here and _Contra Crescon._ IV. xli. 48. [662] Num. xvi. 31-35. [663] Ps. lxxii. 8. [664] Ps. ii. 8. [665] Qui talia facientes quamvis improbent. A comparison of the explanation of this passage in _Contra Crescon._ III. xli. 45, shows the probability of Migne's conjecture, "quamvis improbe," "who endure the men that act in such a way, however monstrous their conduct may be." [666] Nec in se agnoscunt. The reading of the Louvain edition gives better sense, "Et in se agnoscunt," "and discover in themselves." [667] Matt. xxiii. 34. [668] Isa. lviii. 1. [669] Ps. lxiii. 11. [670] Ps. xiv. 5-7, from the LXX. only. [671] Matt. vii. 15. [672] Matt. vii. 16. [673] "Obmutescatis" is the most probable conjecture of Migne for "obtumescatis," which could only mean, "you should swell with confusion."