{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>82. <span class=\"smcap\">Augustine</span> answered: In these few words of yours\r\ntwo errors are involved; and one of them, indeed, has no\r\ngreat bearing on the question which is being discussed between\r\nus, but yet it helps to convict you of want of skill. For the\r\nHoly Spirit came upon a hundred and twenty men, without\r\nthe laying on of any person's hands, and again upon Cornelius\r\nthe centurion and those who were with him, even\r\nbefore they were baptized.<a id=\"FNanchor_799_799\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_799_799\">[799]</a> But the second error in these\r\nwords of yours entirely overthrows your whole case. For\r\nyou say that the water of a pure conscience must necessarily\r\nprecede to give new birth, before the Holy Spirit can follow on\r\nit. Accordingly, either all the water consecrated in the name\r\nof the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is water\r\nof a pure conscience, not for the merits of those by whom it\r\nis administered, or by whom it is received, but in virtue of\r\nthe stainless merits of Him who instituted this baptism; or\r\nelse, if only a pure conscience on the part both of the ministrant\r\nand the recipient can produce the water of a pure conscience,\r\nwhat do you make of those whom you find to have\r\nbeen baptized by men who bore a conscience stained with as\r\nyet undiscovered guilt, especially if there exist among the said\r\nbaptized persons any one who should confess that he at the\r\ntime when he was baptized had a bad conscience, in that he\r\nmight possibly have desired to use that opportunity for the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_304\">[Pg 304]</a></span>\r\naccomplishment of some sinful act? When, therefore, it shall\r\nbe made clear to you that neither the man who administered\r\nbaptism, nor the man who received it, had a pure conscience,\r\nwill you give your judgment that he ought to be baptized afresh?\r\nYou will assuredly neither say nor do anything of the sort.\r\nThe purity therefore of baptism is entirely unconnected with\r\nthe purity or impurity of the conscience either of the giver\r\nor the recipient. Will you therefore dare to say that the\r\ndeceiver, or the robber, or the oppressor of the fatherless and\r\nwidows, or the sunderer of marriages, or the betrayer, the\r\nseller, the divider of the patrimony of other men,<a id=\"FNanchor_800_800\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_800_800\">[800]</a> was a man\r\nof pure conscience? Or will you further dare to say that\r\nthose were men of pure conscience, whom it is hard to imagine\r\nwanting in such times,—men who made interest with the man\r\nI have described, that they might be baptized, not for the sake\r\nof Christ, nor for the sake of eternal life, but to conciliate\r\nearthly friendships, and to satisfy earthly desires? Further,\r\nif you do not venture to say that these were men of pure\r\nconscience, then if you find any of their number who have been\r\nbaptized, give to them the water of a pure conscience, which\r\nthey as yet have not received; and if you will not do this,\r\nthen leave off casting in our teeth a matter which you do not\r\nunderstand, lest you should be forced to answer in reply to us\r\nabout a matter which you know full well.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK SECOND."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-511"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"86c62cab65454256951805680bb2fbbe175a1e17cd896eca2f62e21a7c50fcac","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_800_800","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_800_800","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_800_800\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_800_800\"><span class=\"label\">[800]</span></a> Optatus Gildonianus.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_800_800","text_sha256":"de45b076011ca9f520d1385d574e8086a5a6cceef810737d8fa51fb0c71aedd9","verified":false,"work_id":null}