Sermon XL. [XC. Ben.] On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 2, etc., about the marriage of the king’s son; against the Donatists, on charity. Delivered at Carthage in the Restituta.2985 1. All the faithful2986 know the marriage of the king’s son, and his feast, and the spreading2987 of the Lord’s Table is open to them all2988 who will. But it is of importance to each one to see how he approaches, even when he is not forbidden to approach It. For the Holy Scriptures teach us that there are two feasts of the Lord; one to which the good and evil come, the other to which the evil come not. So then the feast, of which we have just now heard when the Gospel was being read, has both good and evil guests. All who excused themselves from this feast are evil; but not all those who entered in are good. You therefore who are the good guests at this feast do I address, who have in your minds the words, “He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself.”2989 All you who are such do I address, that ye look not for the good without, that ye bear with the evil within. 2. I do not doubt that ye wish to hear, Beloved, who they are of whom I have spoken in my address, that they should not look for the good without, and should bear with the evil within. If all within are evil, whom do I address? If all within are good, whom did I advise them to bear with being evil? Let me first then with the Lord’s assistance get out of this dif- ficulty as best I can. If you consider good perfectly and strictly2990 speaking, none is good but God Alone. Ye have the Lord saying most plainly, “Why callest thou Me good? there is none Good but One, that is, God.”2991 How then can that marriage feast have good and bad guests, if “none is good but God Alone”? In the first place ye ought to know, that after a certain sort we are all evil. Yes, doubtless after a certain sort are we all evil; but after no sort are we all good. For can we compare ourselves with the Apostles, to whom the Lord Himself said, “If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children?”2992 If we con- sider the Scriptures, there was but one evil one among the twelve Apostles, with reference to whom the Lord said in a certain place, “And ye are clean, but not all.”2993 But yet in ad- 2985 The great Church in Carthage where the bodies of the Martyr Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas lay. See Ben. ed. in Sermon xix. note. 2986 Baptized fideles. 2987 Apparatus. 2988 Voluntati omnium. 2989 1 Cor. xi. 29. 2990 Liquido. 2991 Matt. xix. 17. 2992 Matt. vii. 11. 2993 John xiii. 10. On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 2, etc., about the marriage of the king’s son; against the Donatists, on charity. Delivered at Carthage in the Restituta. 818 On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 2, etc., about the marriage of the…