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
19. But if they should say that in the man who has approached the
sacrament in deceit, his sins are indeed removed by the holy power of
so great a sacrament at the moment when he received it, but return
immediately in consequence of his deceit: so that the Holy Spirit
has both been present with him at his baptism for the removal of his
sins, and has also fled before his perseverance in deceit so that they
should return: so that both declarations prove true,--both, "As many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ;" and also,
"The holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit;"--that is to say,
that both the holiness of baptism clothes him with Christ, and the
sinfulness of deceit strips him of Christ; like the case of a man who
passes from darkness through light into darkness again, his eyes being
always directed towards darkness, though the light cannot but penetrate
them as he passes;--if they should say this, let them understand that
this is also the case with those who are baptized without the pale of
the Church, but yet with the baptism of the Church, which is holy in
itself, wherever it may be; and which therefore belongs not to those
who separate themselves, but to the body from which they are separated;
while yet it avails even among them so far, that they pass through its
light back to their own darkness, their sins, which in that moment had
been dispelled by the holiness of baptism, returning immediately upon
them, as though it were the darkness returning which the light had
dispelled while they were passing through it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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