{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>20. Among the many other expressions in your invective,\r\nyou said: \"If you were to burn with fire the testament of a\r\ndead man, would you not be punished as the falsifier of a\r\nwill? What therefore is likely to become of you who have\r\nburned the most holy law of our God and Judge?\" In these\r\nwords you have paid no attention to what certainly ought to\r\nhave moved you, to the question of how it might be that we\r\nshould burn the testament, and yet stand fast in the inheritance\r\nwhich was described in that testament; but it is marvellous\r\nthat you have preserved the testament and lost the\r\ninheritance. Is it not written in that testament, \"Ask of\r\nme, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,\r\nand the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_705_705\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_705_705\">[705]</a>\r\nTake part in this inheritance, and you may bring what charges\r\nyou will against me about the testament. For what madness\r\nis it, that while you shrank from committing the testament to\r\nthe flames, you should yet strive against the words of the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_264\">[Pg 264]</a></span>\r\ntestator! We, on the other hand, though we hold in our\r\nhands the records of the Church and of the State, in which we\r\nread that those who ordained a rival bishop<a id=\"FNanchor_706_706\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_706_706\">[706]</a> in opposition to\r\nCæcilianus were rather the betrayers of the sacred books, yet\r\ndo not on this account insult you, or pursue you with invectives,\r\nor mourn over the ashes of the sacred pages in your\r\nhands, or contrast the burning torments of the Maccabees\r\nwith the sacrilege of your fear, saying, \"You should deliver\r\nyour own limbs to the flames rather than the utterances of God.\"\r\nFor we are unwilling to be so absurd as to excite an empty uproar\r\nagainst you on account of the deeds of others, which you\r\neither know nothing of, or else repudiate. But in that we\r\nsee you separated from the communion of the whole world\r\n(a sin both of the greatest magnitude, and manifest to all\r\nmankind, and common to you all), if I were desirous of exaggerating,\r\nI should find time failing me sooner than words.\r\nAnd if you should seek to defend yourself on this charge, it\r\ncould only be by bringing accusations against the whole world,\r\nof such a kind that, if they could be maintained, you would\r\nsimply be furnishing matter for further accusation against\r\nyourself; if they could not be maintained, there is in them no\r\ndefence for you. Why therefore do you puff yourself up\r\nagainst me about the betrayal of the sacred books, which concerns\r\nneither you nor me if we abide by the agreement not to\r\ncharge each other with the sins of other men, and which, if\r\nthat agreement does not stand, affects you rather than me?\r\nAnd yet, even without any violation of that agreement, I\r\nthink I may say with perfect justice that he should be\r\ndeemed a partner with him who delivered up Christ who has\r\nnot delivered himself up to Christ in company with the whole\r\nworld. \"Then,\" says the apostle, \"then are ye Abraham's\r\nseed, and heirs according to the promise.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_707_707\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_707_707\">[707]</a> And again he\r\nsays, \"Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_708_708\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_708_708\">[708]</a> And the\r\nsame apostle shows that the seed of Abraham belongs to all\r\nnations, from the promise which was given to Abraham, \"In\r\nthy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_709_709\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_709_709\">[709]</a>\r\nWherefore I consider that I am only making a fair demand<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_265\">[Pg 265]</a></span>\r\nin asking that we should for a moment consider the testament\r\nof God, which has already long been opened, and that we\r\nshould consider every one to be himself an heir of the traitor\r\nwhom we do not find to be a joint-heir with Him whom he\r\nbetrayed; that every one should belong to him who sold\r\nChrist who denies that Christ has bought the whole world.\r\nFor when He showed Himself after His resurrection to His\r\ndisciples, and gave His limbs to those who doubted, that they\r\nshould handle them, He says this to them, \"For thus it is\r\nwritten, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise\r\nagain from the dead the third day: and that repentance and\r\nremission of sins should be preached in His name among all\r\nnations, beginning at Jerusalem.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_710_710\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_710_710\">[710]</a> See from what an inheritance\r\nyou estrange yourselves! see what an Heir you\r\nresist! Can it really be that a man would spare Christ if\r\nHe were walking here on earth who speaks against Him while\r\nHe sits in heaven? Do you not yet understand that whatever\r\nyou allege against us you allege against His words?\r\nA Christian world is promised and believed in: the promise\r\nis fulfilled, and it is denied. Consider, I entreat of you, what\r\nyou ought to suffer for such impiety. And yet, if I know\r\nnot what you have suffered,—if I have not seen it, have not\r\nwrought it,—then do you to-day, who do not suffer the violence\r\nof my persecution, render to me an account of your\r\nseparation. But you are likely to say over and over again\r\nwhat, unless you prove it, can affect no one, and if you prove\r\nit, has no bearing upon me.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK SECOND."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-449"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"3f0abf4bd786ac74032bbacb83d83554a266e20c94c9cc4bd22aa430d2fb1d21","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"LUK","chapter":24,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Luke xxiv. 46","verse":46,"verse_end":46}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_710_710","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_710_710","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_710_710\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_710_710\"><span class=\"label\">[710]</span></a> Luke xxiv. 46, 47.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_710_710","text_sha256":"a2d47f93ffcdcb637116ebc6b6289ecfb55f279130e3800aead45c211177603a","verified":false,"work_id":null}