{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p><span class=\"smcap\">Chap. xliii.</span>—52. These things, I think, I put with clearness\r\nand truth in my former epistle, when I made answer to\r\nPetilianus. These things I have also now quoted, intimating\r\nand commending to you the truth that our faith rests on\r\nsomething else altogether than man, and that we believe that\r\nthe Lord Christ is the cleanser and the justifier of men that\r\nbelieve in Him that justifieth the ungodly, that their faith\r\nmay be counted unto them for righteousness, whether the man\r\nwho administers the baptism be righteous, or such an impious\r\nand deceitful man as the Holy Spirit flees. Then I went on\r\nto point out what absurdity would follow were it otherwise,\r\nand I said, as I say now: \"Otherwise, if each man is born again\r\nin spiritual grace of the same sort as he by whom he is baptized,\r\nand if, when he who baptizes him is manifestly a good\r\nman, then he himself gives faith, he is himself the origin and\r\nroot and head of him who is being born; whilst, when the\r\nbaptizer is faithless without its being known, then the baptized\r\nperson receives faith from Christ, then he derives his\r\norigin from Christ, then he is rooted in Christ, then he boasts\r\nin Christ as his head; in that case all who are baptized should<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_455\">[Pg 455]</a></span>\r\nwish that they might have faithless baptizers, and be ignorant\r\nof their faithlessness. For however good their baptizers might\r\nhave been, Christ is certainly beyond comparison better still,\r\nand He will then be the Head of the baptized if the faithlessness\r\nof the baptizer shall escape detection. But if it be perfect\r\nmadness to hold such a view (for it is Christ always that\r\njustifieth the ungodly, by changing his ungodliness into Christianity;\r\nit is from Christ always that faith is received; Christ\r\nis always the origin of the regenerate, and the Head of the\r\nChurch), what weight then will those words have, which\r\nthoughtless readers value by their sound, without inquiring\r\nwhat their inner meaning is?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1121_1121\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1121_1121\">[1121]</a> This much I said at that\r\ntime; this is written in my epistle.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK THIRD."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-731"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"6b03bdb28a2b402aa4f691f790d5bafa6a0e45c63fb8cde867a956fa3aacf9f7","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_1121_1121","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_1121_1121","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1121_1121\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1121_1121\"><span class=\"label\">[1121]</span></a> Book <span class=\"smcap\">I.</span> c. vi. secs. 6, 7.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_1121_1121","text_sha256":"6d35661b335cd31fdd7b261d985f7a1a54921875b352143d9560365c7e0533e4","verified":false,"work_id":null}