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
13. But yet because "by the envy of the devil death entered into the
world, and they that do hold of his side do find it,"[226] not because
they are created by God, but because they go astray of themselves,
as Cyprian also says himself, seeing that the devil, before he was a
devil, was an angel, and good, how can it be that they who are of the
devil's side are in the unity of Christ? Beyond all doubt, as the Lord
Himself says, "an enemy hath done this," who "sowed tares among the
wheat."[227] As therefore what is of the devil within the fold must be
convicted, so what is of Christ without must be recognised. Has the
devil what is his within the unity of the Church, and shall Christ not
have what is His without? This, perhaps, might be said of individual
men, that as the devil has none that are his among the holy angels,
so God has none that are His outside the communion of the Church. But
though it may be allowed to the devil to mingle tares, that is, wicked
men, with this Church which still wears the mortal nature of flesh,
so long as it is wandering far from God, he being allowed this just
because of the pilgrimage of the Church herself, that men may desire
more ardently the rest of that country which the angels enjoy, yet
this cannot be said of the sacraments. For, as the tares within the
Church can have and handle them, though not for salvation, but for the
destruction to which they are destined in the fire, so also can the
tares without, which received them from seceders from within; for they
did not lose them by seceding. This, indeed, is made plain from the
fact that baptism is not conferred again on their return, when any of
the very men who seceded happen to come back again. And let not any one
say, Why, what fruit hath the tares? For if this be so, their condition
is the same, so far as this goes, both inside and without. For it
surely cannot be that grains of corn are found in the tares inside,
and not in those without. But when the question is of the sacrament,
we do not consider whether the tares bear any fruit, but whether they
have any share of heaven; for the tares, both within and without, share
the rain with the wheat itself, which rain is in itself heavenly and
sweet, even though under its influence the tares grow up in barrenness.
And so the sacrament, according to the gospel of Christ, is divine and
pleasant; nor is it to be esteemed as naught because of the barrenness
of those on whom its dew falls even without.
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