{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>235. <span class=\"smcap\">Augustine</span> answered: Any one that hears these words,\r\nwithout being acquainted with the Scriptures, and who does\r\nnot believe that you are either so far astray as not to know\r\nwhat you are saying, or deceiving in such wise that he whom\r\nyou have deceived should not know what he says, would believe\r\nthat the prophet Jeremiah, wishing to be baptized, had\r\ntaken precautions not to be baptized by impious men, and had\r\nused these words with this intent. For what was your object\r\nin saying, previous to your quotation of this passage, \"Imitate\r\nindeed the prophets, who feared to have their holy souls\r\ndeceived with false baptism?\" Just as though, in the days of\r\nJeremiah, any one were washed with the sacrament of baptism,\r\nexcept so far as the Pharisees almost every moment bathed\r\nthemselves, and their couches and cups and platters, with the\r\nwashings which the Lord condemned, as we read in the gospel.<a id=\"FNanchor_993_993\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_993_993\">[993]</a>\r\nHow then could Jeremiah have said this, as though he desired\r\nto be baptized, and sought to avoid being baptized by impious\r\nmen? He said it, then, when he was complaining of a faithless\r\npeople, by the corruption of whose morals he was vexed,\r\nnot wishing to associate with their deeds; and yet he did not\r\nseparate himself bodily from their congregation, nor seek other\r\nsacraments than those which the people received as suitable<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_393\">[Pg 393]</a></span>\r\nto that time, according to the law of Moses. To this people,\r\ntherefore, in their evil mode of life, he gave the name of \"a\r\nwound,\" with which the heart of the righteous man was\r\ngrievously smitten, whether speaking thus of himself, or foreshadowing\r\nin himself what he foresaw would come to pass.\r\nFor he speaks as follows: \"O Lord, remember me, and visit\r\nme; make clear my innocence before those who persecute me\r\nin no spirit of long-suffering: know that for Thy sake I have\r\nsuffered rebuke from those that scorn Thy words. Make their\r\nportion complete; and Thy word shall be unto me the joy\r\nand rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O\r\nLord God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers,\r\nbut was afraid of the presence of Thy hand; I sat alone, because\r\nI was filled with bitterness. Why do those who make\r\nme sad prevail against me? My wound is grievous; whence\r\nshall I be healed? It is become unto me as lying water, that\r\nhas no faith.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_994_994\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_994_994\">[994]</a> In all this it is manifest what the prophet\r\nwished to be understood, but manifest only to those who do\r\nnot wish to distort to their own perverse cause the meaning of\r\nwhat they read. For Jeremiah says that his wound has become\r\nunto him as lying water, which cannot inspire faith;\r\nbut he wished that by his wound those should be understood\r\nwho made him sad by the evil conduct of their lives. Whence\r\nalso the apostle says, \"Without were fightings, within were\r\nfears;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_995_995\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_995_995\">[995]</a> and again, \"Who is weak, and I am not weak? who\r\nis offended, and I burn not?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_996_996\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_996_996\">[996]</a> And because he had no hopes\r\nthat they could be reformed, therefore he said, \"Whence shall\r\nI be healed?\" as though his own pain must needs continue\r\nso long as those among whom he was compelled to live continued\r\nwhat they were. But that a people is commonly understood\r\nunder the appellation of water is shown in the Apocalypse,\r\nwhere we understand \"many waters\" to mean \"many\r\npeoples,\" not by any conjecture of our own, but by an express\r\nexplanation in the place itself.<a id=\"FNanchor_997_997\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_997_997\">[997]</a> Abstain then from blaspheming\r\nthe sacrament of baptism from any misunderstanding,\r\nor rather error, even when found in a man of most abandoned\r\ncharacter; for not even in the lying Simon was the baptism<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_394\">[Pg 394]</a></span>\r\nwhich he received a lying water,<a id=\"FNanchor_998_998\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_998_998\">[998]</a> nor do all the liars of your\r\nparty administer a lying water when they baptize in the name\r\nof the Trinity. For neither do they begin to be liars only\r\nwhen they are betrayed and convicted, and so forced to acknowledge\r\ntheir misdeeds; but rather they were already liars, when,\r\nbeing adulterers and accursed, they pretended to be chaste and\r\ninnocent.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK SECOND."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-664"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"091cd36ac06b9ca3627e9ebeec291310850045f8cb2f484ef86913a5fb019a34","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"REV","chapter":17,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Rev. xvii. 15","verse":15,"verse_end":15}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_997_997","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_997_997","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_997_997\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_997_997\"><span class=\"label\">[997]</span></a> Rev. xvii. 15.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_997_997","text_sha256":"82ed1533e7ee7c3b63a4d88d17cbff1c106ec73d0bd39c2ce56fb6113662bf68","verified":false,"work_id":null}