Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p><span class=\"smcap\">Chap. xxvii.</span>—32. But this is not what we are now inquiring.\r\nLet him rather answer (what he wanders off into the\r\nmost irrelevant matter in order to avoid answering) by what\r\nmeans the conscience of the recipient is cleansed who is unacquainted\r\nwith the stain on the conscience of the giver, if the\r\nconscience of one that gives in holiness is what we look for\r\nto cleanse the conscience of the recipient? and from what source\r\nhe receives faith who is unwittingly baptized by one that is\r\nfaithless, if he that has wittingly received his faith from one\r\nthat is faithless, receives not faith but guilt? Omitting, therefore,\r\nhis revilings, which he has cast at me without any sound\r\nconsideration, let us still notice that he does not say what\r\nwe demand in what follows. But I should like to look at\r\nthe garrulous mode in which he has set this forth, as though<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_435\">[Pg 435]</a></span>\r\nhe were sure to overwhelm us with confusion. \"But let us\r\nreturn,\" he says, \"to that argument of your fancy, whereby\r\nyou seem to have represented to yourself in a form of words\r\nthe persons you baptize. For since you do not see the truth,\r\nit would have been more seemly to have imagined what was\r\nprobable.\" These words of his own, Petilianus put forth by\r\nway of preface, being about to state the words that I had\r\nused. Then he went on to quote: \"Behold, you say, the\r\nfaithless man stands ready to baptize, but he who is to be\r\nbaptized knows nothing of his faithlessness.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1090_1090\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1090_1090\">[1090]</a> He has not\r\nquoted the whole of my proposition and question; and presently\r\nhe begins to ask me in his turn, saying, \"Who is the\r\nman, and from what corner has he started up, that you propose\r\nto us? Why do you seem to see a man who is the produce\r\nof your imagination, in order to avoid seeing one whom you\r\nare bound to see, and to examine and test most carefully?\r\nBut since I see that you are unacquainted with the order of\r\nthe sacrament, I tell you this as shortly as I can: you were\r\nbound both to examine your baptizer, and to be examined by\r\nhim.\" What is it, then, that we were waiting for? That he\r\nshould tell us by what means the conscience of the recipient\r\nis to be cleansed, who is unacquainted with the stain on the\r\nconscience of him that gives but not in holiness, and whence\r\nthe man is to receive not guilt but faith, who has received\r\nbaptism unwittingly from one that is faithless. All that we\r\nhave heard is that the baptizer ought most diligently to be\r\nexamined by him who wishes to receive not guilt but faith,\r\nthat the latter may make himself acquainted with the conscience\r\nof him that gives in holiness, which is to cleanse the\r\nconscience of the recipient. For the man that has failed to\r\nmake this examination, and has unwittingly received baptism\r\nfrom one that is faithless, from the very fact that he did not\r\nmake the examination, and therefore did not know of the stain\r\non the conscience of the giver, was incapacitated from receiving\r\nfaith instead of guilt. Why therefore did he add what\r\nhe made so much of adding,—the word <i>wittingly</i>, which he\r\ncalumniously accused me of having suppressed? For in his\r\nunwillingness that the sentence should run, \"He who has<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_436\">[Pg 436]</a></span>\r\nreceived his faith from one that is faithless, receives not\r\nfaith but guilt,\" he seems to have left some hope to the\r\nman that acts unwittingly. But now, when he is asked\r\nwhence that man is to receive faith who is baptized unwittingly\r\nby one that is faithless, he has answered that he\r\nought to have examined his baptizer; so that, beyond all\r\ndoubt, he refuses the wretched man permission even to be\r\nignorant, by not finding out from what source he may receive\r\nfaith, unless he has placed his trust in the man that is\r\nbaptizing him.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK THIRD."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-710"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e06e57226c258239b825ee515aa1b636678e9c5deddddb48e8f737eb4a0f4d2f","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_1090_1090","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Title leaves identify J. R. King, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1872; catalog identifies translator John Richard King (1835-1907). Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/American Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1090_1090","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1090_1090\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1090_1090\"><span class=\"label\">[1090]</span></a> See Book <span class=\"smcap\">I.</span> c. ii. sec. 3.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_1090_1090","text_sha256":"8c88c61386adf4504b491adf0aa5924b0259ae4cbb83b234efb9ac51498efc63","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_1090_1090