{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>23. There are many things to be considered in these words,\r\nwherein the brightness of Christian charity shines forth in\r\nthis man, who \"loved the beauty of the Lord's house, and the\r\nplace of the tabernacle of His habitation.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_345_345\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_345_345\">[345]</a> First, that he did\r\nnot conceal what he felt; then, that he set it forth so gently\r\nand peacefully, in that he maintained the peace of the Church\r\nwith those who thought otherwise, because he understood how\r\ngreat healthfulness was bound up in the bond of peace, loving\r\nit so much, and maintaining it with sobriety, seeing and feeling\r\nthat even men who think differently may entertain their several\r\nsentiments without breach of Christian charity. For he would\r\nnot say that he could maintain divine concord or the peace of<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_134\">[Pg 134]</a></span>\r\nthe Lord with evil men; for the good man can observe peace\r\ntowards wicked men, but he cannot be united with them in\r\nthe peace which they have not. Lastly, that prescribing to no\r\none, and prejudging no one, lest each bishop should not do\r\nwhat he thinks right in the free exercise of his own will, he\r\nhas left for us also, whatsoever we may be, a place for treating\r\npeacefully of those things with him. For he is present, not\r\nonly in his letters, but by that very charity which existed in\r\nso extraordinary a degree in him, and which can never die.\r\nLonging, therefore, with the aid of his prayers, to cling to and\r\nbe in union with him, if I be not hindered by the unmeetness\r\nof my sins, I will learn if I can through his letters with\r\nhow great peace and comfort the Lord administered His Church\r\nthrough him; and, putting on the bowels of humility through\r\nthe moving influence of his discourse, if, in common with the\r\nChurch at large, I entertain any doctrine more true than\r\nhis, I will not prefer my heart to his, even in the point in\r\nwhich he, though holding different views, was yet not severed\r\nfrom the Church throughout the world. For in that, when that\r\nquestion was yet undecided for want of full discussion, though\r\nhis sentiments differed from those of many of his colleagues,\r\nyet he observed so great moderation, that he would not mutilate\r\nthe sacred fellowship of the Church of God by any stain\r\nof schism, a greater strength of excellence appeared in him\r\nthan would have been shown if, without that virtue, he had\r\nheld views on every point not only true, but coinciding with\r\ntheir own. Nor should I be acting as he would wish, if I\r\nwere to pretend to prefer his talent and his fluency of discourse\r\nand copiousness of learning to the holy Council of all nations,\r\nwhereat he was assuredly present through the unity of his\r\nspirit, especially as he is now placed in such full light of truth\r\nas to see with perfect certainty what he was here seeking in\r\nthe spirit of perfect peace. For out of that rich abundance\r\nhe smiles at all that here seems eloquence in us, as though it\r\nwere the first essay of infancy; there he sees by what rule of\r\npiety he acted here, that nothing should be dearer in the\r\nChurch to him than unity. There, too, with unspeakable delight\r\nhe beholds with what prescient and most merciful providence\r\nthe Lord, that He might heal our swellings, \"chose<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_135\">[Pg 135]</a></span>\r\nthe foolish things of the world to confound the wise,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_346_346\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_346_346\">[346]</a> and, in\r\nthe ordering of the members of His Church, placed all things\r\nin such healthful wise, that men should not say that they were\r\nchosen to the help of the gospel for their own talent or learning,\r\nof whose source they yet were ignorant, and so be puffed up\r\nwith deadly pride. Oh, how Cyprian rejoices! With how\r\nmuch more perfect calmness does he behold how greatly it\r\nconduces to the health of the human race, that in the writings\r\neven of Christian and pious orators there should be found\r\nwhat merits blame, and in the writings of the fishermen there\r\nshould nothing of the sort be found! And so I, being fully\r\nassured of this joy of that holy soul, neither in any way venture\r\nto think or say that my writings are free from every kind\r\nof error, nor, in opposing that opinion of his, wherein it\r\nseemed to him that those who came from among heretics were\r\nto be received otherwise than either they had been in former\r\ndays, as he himself bears witness, or are now received, as is\r\nthe reasonable custom, confirmed by a general Council of the\r\nwhole Christian world, do I set against him my own view,\r\nbut that of the holy Catholic Church, which he so loved and\r\nloves, in which he brought forth such abundant fruit with\r\ntolerance, whose entirety he himself was not, but in whose\r\nunity he remained; whose root he never left, but, though he\r\nalready brought forth fruit from its root, he was purged by\r\nthe heavenly Husbandman that he should bring forth more\r\nfruit;<a id=\"FNanchor_347_347\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_347_347\">[347]</a> for whose peace and safety, that the wheat might not be\r\nrooted out together with the tares, he both reproved with the\r\nfreedom of truth, and endured with the grace of charity, so\r\nmany evils on the part of men who were placed in unity with\r\nhimself.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK FIFTH."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-183"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"479b3d25375fbba8f3f2f984c9aa2e39b78da273479ea82264a47881592d1be8","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PSA","chapter":26,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ps. xxvi. 8","verse":8,"verse_end":8}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_345_345","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_345_345","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_345_345\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_345_345\"><span class=\"label\">[345]</span></a> Ps. xxvi. 8.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_345_345","text_sha256":"d78d64c0375fcfe6e1218dff631ec651a81a0439a04ae75696783d3da46c2f56","verified":false,"work_id":null}