{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>237. <span class=\"smcap\">Augustine</span> answered: As representing the body of\r\nChrist, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and\r\nmainstay of the truth, dispersed throughout the world, on\r\naccount of the gospel which was preached, according to the\r\nwords of the apostle, \"to every creature which is under\r\nheaven:\"<a id=\"FNanchor_999_999\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_999_999\">[999]</a> as representing the whole world, of which David,\r\nwhose words you cannot understand, has said, \"The world also\r\nis stablished, that it cannot be moved;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1000_1000\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1000_1000\">[1000]</a> whereas you contend\r\nthat it not only has been moved, but has been utterly destroyed:\r\nas representing this, I answer, I do not persecute the\r\ninnocent. But David said, \"The oil of the sinner,\" not of the\r\n<i>traditor</i>; not of him who offers incense, not of the persecutor,\r\nbut \"of the sinner.\" What then will you make of your interpretation?\r\nSee first whether you are not yourself a sinner.\r\nIt is nothing to the point if you should say, I am not a <i>traditor</i>,\r\nI am not an offerer of incense, I am not a persecutor.\r\nI myself, by the grace of God, am none of these, nor is the\r\nworld, which cannot be moved. But say, if you dare, I am\r\nnot a sinner. For David says, \"The oil of the sinner.\" For\r\nso long as any sin, however light, be found in you, what\r\nground have you for maintaining that you are not concerned\r\nin the expression that is used, \"The oil of the sinner?\" For I\r\nwould ask whether you use the Lord's prayer in your devotions?\r\nFor if you do not use that prayer, which our Lord\r\ntaught His disciples for their use, where have you learned\r\nanother, proportioned to your merits, as exceeding the merits of<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_395\">[Pg 395]</a></span>\r\nthe apostles? But if you pray, as our great Master deigned\r\nto teach us, how do you say, \"Forgive us our trespasses, as\r\nwe forgive them that trespass against us?\" For in this petition\r\nwe are not referring to those sins which have already\r\nbeen forgiven us in baptism. Therefore these words in the\r\nprayer either exclude you from being a petitioner to God, or\r\nelse they make it manifest that you too are a sinner. Let\r\nthose then come and kiss your head who have been baptized\r\nby you, whose heads have perished through your oil. But see\r\nto yourself, both what you are and what you think about\r\nyourself. Is it really true that Optatus, whom pagans, Jews,\r\nChristians, men of our party, men of your party, all proclaim\r\nthroughout the whole of Africa to have been a thief, a traitor,\r\nan oppressor, a contriver of schism; not a friend, not a client,\r\nbut a tool of him<a id=\"FNanchor_1001_1001\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1001_1001\">[1001]</a> whom one of your party declared to have\r\nbeen his count, companion, and god,—is it true that he was not\r\na sinner in any conceivable interpretation of the term? What\r\nthen will they do whose heads were anointed by one guilty of\r\na capital offence? Do not those very men kiss your heads,\r\non whose heads you pass so serious a judgment by this interpretation\r\nwhich you place upon the passage? Truly I would\r\nbid you bring them forth, and admonish them to heal themselves.\r\nOr is it rather your heads which should be healed,\r\nwho run so grievously astray? What then, you will ask, did\r\nDavid really say? Why do you ask me? rather ask himself.\r\nHe answers you in the verse above: \"The righteous shall\r\nsmite me in kindness, and shall reprove me; but let not the\r\noil of the sinner anoint my head.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1002_1002\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1002_1002\">[1002]</a> What could be plainer?\r\nwhat more manifest? I had rather, he says, be healed by a\r\nrebuke administered in kindness, than be deceived and led\r\nastray by smooth flattery, coming on me as an ointment on\r\nmy head. The self-same sentiment is found elsewhere in\r\nScripture under other words: \"Better are the wounds of a\r\nfriend than the proffered kisses of an enemy.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1003_1003\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1003_1003\">[1003]</a></p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK SECOND."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-666"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"59d97827ba14066f806a8e9b517a2906b275195d7227a5b6cc75835a788903a8","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PSA","chapter":93,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ps. xciii. 1","verse":1,"verse_end":1}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_1000_1000","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_1000_1000","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1000_1000\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1000_1000\"><span class=\"label\">[1000]</span></a> Ps. xciii. 1.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_1000_1000","text_sha256":"4929ce4bb6c16f2682d55c96a47c9d23be898f8fd30a2a0e4fbd727b04e2cdbd","verified":false,"work_id":null}