Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>78. <span class=\"smcap\">Augustine</span> answered: Certainly you had proposed\r\nthoroughly to investigate the baptism in the name of the\r\nTrinity, and you had set us to listen with much attention;\r\nbut following, as it would seem, what is the easiest course to\r\nyou, how soon have you returned to your customary abuse!\r\nThis you carry out with genuine fluency. For you set before\r\nyourself what victims you please, against whom to inveigh with\r\nwhatsoever bitterness you please: in the midst of which vast\r\nlatitude of discourse you are driven into the greatest straits if\r\nany one does but use the little word, Prove it. For this is what\r\nis said to you by the seed of Abraham; and since in him all\r\nnations of the earth are blessed, they care but little when\r\nthey are cursed by you. But yet, since you are treating of\r\nbaptism, which you consider to be true when it is found in a\r\njust man, but false when it is found in the unjust, see how\r\nI too, if I were to investigate baptism in the name of the\r\nTrinity according to your rule, might say, with great fulness,\r\nas it seems to me, that he has not God for his father who\r\nin a Count has God for his companion,<a id=\"FNanchor_798_798\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_798_798\">[798]</a> nor believes that\r\nany is his Christ, save him for whose sake he has endured\r\nsuffering; and that he has not the Holy Ghost who burned\r\nthe wretched Africa in so very different a fashion with tongues\r\nof fire. How then can they have baptism, or how can they\r\nadminister it in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and\r\nof the Holy Ghost? Surely you must now perceive that\r\nbaptism can exist in an unrighteous man, and be administered\r\nby an unrighteous man, and that no unrighteous baptism, but\r\nsuch as is just and true,—not because it belongs to the\r\nunrighteous man, but because it is of God. And herein I\r\nam uttering no calumny against you, as you never cease to\r\ndo, on some pretence or other, against the whole world; and,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_302\">[Pg 302]</a></span>\r\nwhat is even more intolerable, you do not even bring any\r\nproof about the very points on which you found your\r\ncalumnies. But I know not how this can possibly be\r\nendured, because you not only bring calumnies against holy\r\nmen about unrighteous men, but you even bring a charge\r\nagainst the holy baptism itself, which must needs be holy in\r\nany man, however unrighteous he may be, from a comparison\r\nwith the infection arising from the sins of wicked men, so\r\nthat you say that baptism partakes of the character of him\r\nby whom it is possessed, or administered, or received. Furthermore,\r\nif a man partakes of the character of him in whose\r\ncompany he approaches sacred mysteries, and if the sacraments\r\nthemselves partake of the character of the men in\r\nwhom they are, holy men may well be satisfied to find consolation\r\nin the thought that they only fare like holy baptism\r\nitself in hearing false accusations from your lips. But it would\r\nbe well for you to see how you are condemned out of your own\r\nmouths, if both the sober among you are counted as drunken\r\nfrom the infection of the drunken in your ranks, and the\r\nmerciful among you become robbers from the infection of the\r\nrobbers, and whatever evil is found among you in the persons\r\nof wicked men is perforce shared by those who are not\r\nwicked; and if baptism itself is unclean in all of you who\r\nare unclean, and if it is of different kinds according to the\r\nvarying character of uncleanness itself, as it must be if it is\r\nperforce of the same character as the man by whom it is\r\npossessed or administered. These suppositions most undoubtedly\r\nare false; and accordingly they in no wise injure us,\r\nwhen you bring them forward against us without looking back\r\nupon yourselves. But they do injure you, because, when you\r\nbring them forward falsely, they do not fall on us; but, since\r\nyou imagine them to be true, they recoil upon yourselves.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK SECOND."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-507"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"487f35dc7ec0ac02d701b46eafcd44222eefdfb5ab903a54cf237d2c2d0c8bd3","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_798_798","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_798_798","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_798_798\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_798_798\"><span class=\"label\">[798]</span></a> See above, xxiii. 53.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_798_798","text_sha256":"bfa4ac741628c321ae5f998173563d487e363fff23fc05c34a7cd853ff2fce1c","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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