But the Lord, teaching the way of humility, deigned to receive the sacraments of His own foretelling which He here found — not as a help to His own purification, but as an example of our piety, that He might show us, namely, with how great devotion we ought to receive those things which testify that He has already come, when He Himself did not disdain to receive those things by which He was prefigured as about to come. And John therefore, although nearest and within one year a contemporary, yet when he baptized went before Christ who was coming. On account of this it was said of him: Behold, I send my angel before your face, who shall prepare your way; and he himself preached, saying: There comes One mightier than I after me.
Thus, then, the circumcision of the eighth day, which was given to the fathers, foretold our justification in the stripping away of carnal concupiscences through the resurrection of the Lord, which took place after the seventh day, that is, after the Sabbath, on the eighth day, that is, on the Lord's Day, which day falls as the third after His burial; yet the infant Christ received that same circumcision of the flesh which was itself the foretelling. And just as the Passover, which was celebrated by the Jews in the slaying of the lamb, foretold the Passion of the Lord and His passing out of this world to the Father, so the same Lord Himself, together with His disciples, celebrated that very Passover which existed within that same foretelling, when they suggested to Him, saying: 'Where wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee the Passover?'
So also He Himself received the baptism of John, which lay in the foretelling nearest to Him. But just as the circumcision of the flesh among the Jews is one thing, and the circumcision of the eighth day which we who are baptized celebrate is another, and the Passover which they still keep with the sheep is one thing, while that which we receive in the body and blood of the Lord is another, so the baptism of John was one thing, and the baptism of Christ is another. For to those men these things were foretold as yet to come, while to us those things are proclaimed as already fulfilled; and although Christ received them, yet they are not necessary for us, because we have received the very One who was announced through them. But at the recent coming of the Lord, whoever had received those former things had need to be steeped in these as well;
but whoever had been steeped in these had no need to be driven back to those former things. Wherefore, do not cast a fog over the baptism of John. Whether its cause and reason be the one I have set forth, or some better and more certain one be given, this at least is manifest: that the baptism of John was one thing, and that of Christ another; and that the former was called the baptism of John, as both the reply of those men you have mentioned declares, and the word of the Lord Himself, where He says to the Jews: 'Is the baptism of John from heaven, or of men?' But this baptism is not called that of Caecilianus, nor of Donatus, nor of Augustine, nor of Petilian, but the baptism of Christ.
For if you think us shameless because we wish no one to be baptized after us, seeing that we observe that men were baptized after John—who is beyond all comparison greater than we are—can it be, perchance, that John and Optatus are equals? It seems ridiculous; and yet I think you believe them to be, not equals, but Optatus the greater: for after John an apostle baptized, whereas you dare to baptize no one after Optatus. Or is it because Optatus was in your unity? By what heart this can now be borne I know not, if the friend of the count, whose companion was God, is said to have been within unity, while the friend of the Bridegroom is said to have been outside unity.
But if John was in the highest degree within unity, and was far more excellent and greater not only than Optatus but than all of you and all of us, and nevertheless after him the apostle Paul baptized, why do you not baptize after Optatus? Unless perhaps your blindness cramps you into these straits, so that you say Optatus could give the Holy Spirit, but John could not.
But if you do not say this—lest your madness be laughed at even by those madmen of yours—what will you answer as to why men had to be baptized after John, while after Optatus no one is to be baptized, except that those men had been baptized with the baptism of John, whereas all who are baptized with the baptism of Christ, whether they be baptized through Paul or through Optatus, differ in no way between their baptism and the other's, since there is so great a difference between Paul and Optatus? Return therefore, transgressors, to your heart, and do not weigh the divine sacraments by the manners and deeds of men. For those sacraments are holy through Him whose they are; but treated worthily they bring a reward, and treated unworthily a judgment.
And although those who have treated God's sacrament worthily and those who have treated it unworthily are not one, yet that sacrament is one, whether it be treated worthily or unworthily—not so that it becomes better or worse in itself, but so that it works toward the life or the death of those who treat it. As for what you said, that in those whom Paul baptized after John he washed away what had already been done, you surely would not have said it, had you considered a little what you were saying. For if the baptism of John needed to be washed away, without doubt it was filthy. Why then should I press you further? Recall, or read, and see whence John received this: you will find against whom you have poured out this blasphemy. And when you have found it, at least let the breast be beaten, if the tongue is not bridled. But now, as to what you seem to say elegantly:
'If we do this wickedly, why do you seek us?'—do you never remember that none are sought save those who have perished? Or does not to fail to see even this pertain to that very perdition? For that sheep too might just as absurdly say to the shepherd: 'If I do wrong in straying from the flock, why do you seek me?'—not understanding that this very reason for which it thinks it ought not to be sought is the one cause for which it is sought. But who seeks you, whether through His Scriptures, or through catholic and peaceable tongues, or through the scourges of temporal tribulations, save Him who dispenses this mercy to you in all things? We seek you, therefore, that we may find you; for so greatly
do we love you, that you may live, as greatly as we hate your error, that it may perish—that error which destroys you so long as it does not itself perish. And would that we might seek you in such a way that we may also find you, and joyfully say of each one of you: 'He was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found!' Petilian said: If you say you hold the Catholic Church, 'catholic' is what in Greek is called 'unique' or 'whole.' Behold, you are not in the whole, because you have withdrawn into a part. Augustine replied: I too, indeed, have grasped very little of the Greek tongue and almost nothing; yet I do not shamelessly say that I know 'holon' does not mean 'one' but 'whole,' and 'kath' holon' means 'according to the whole,' whence the Catholic Church took its name, the Lord Himself saying:
'It is not for you to know the times which the Father hath put in His own power; but ye shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and ye shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the whole earth.' Behold whence it is called catholic. But with eyes so closed you stumble against the mountain which, from a small stone according to the prophecy of Daniel, grew and filled the whole earth—so that you tell us that we have withdrawn into a part and are not in the whole, we whose communion is spread over the entire globe. But just as, if you were to tell me that I am Petilian, I should find no way to refute you save either to laugh at you as one jesting or to grieve at you as one raving, so I see must I now do;
but because I do not believe you are jesting, you see what remains. Petilian said: But there is no partnership of darkness with light, nor partnership of bitterness with honey; there is no partnership of life with death, no partnership of innocence with guilt, no partnership of water with blood, nor partnership of lees with oil, although there be a dreggy kinship; but all the reprobate shall flow away. This is the very bilge of vices, as John says: 'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us.' There is no gold with its dross; all precious things are purified; for it is written:
'As the furnace proves the gold, so also does the vexation of tribulation prove the just.' Cruelty has no share with gentleness, nor sacrilege with religion; nor can the party of Macarius in any wise be ours, because it defiles our rite by its likeness. For a hostile battle-line is no part, which fulfills the name of enemy. And if this be truly called a part, it shall incur the fitting sentence of Solomon: 'Let their part perish from the earth.' Augustine replied: To hurl forth these words and prove nothing—what is this but raving? You attend to the tares throughout the world, and you do not attend to the wheat, though both have been bidden to grow throughout the whole field. You attend to the seed of the evil one which at the time of harvest shall be separated, and you do not attend to the seed of Abraham in whom all nations are blessed.
As though, forsooth, you were now a purged lump, and pure honey, and clarified oil, and pure gold, or the very appearance of a whitewashed wall. For, to say nothing of the other vices, do the drunken form a party of the sober, or are the greedy reckoned in the party of the wise? If gentle men hold the title of light, where shall the fury of the Circumcellions be reckoned, save in darkness? Why then does baptism given among you through such men avail, while the same baptism of Christ given through any persons whatever throughout the world does not avail? You surely perceive that you are separated from the communion of the whole world for this reason: not indeed that you are all drunkards, nor all greedy, nor all violent, but all heretics, and thereby all impious and all sacrilegious.
But as for your calling the whole world—which rejoices in Christian fellowship—the party of Macarius, who with a sound brain would say this? But because we say that you are of the party of Donatus, you seek a man of whose party we may say you are, and in great straits you name some fellow, I know not who, perhaps known in Africa but unknown in the other parts of the world. Wherefore, behold, the whole seed of Abraham answers you from the whole earth: 'This Macarius, of whose party you say we are, we do not know at all.' Answer in turn that you do not know Donatus. But even if we should say that you are the party of Optatus, which of you can say that he does not know Optatus, save perhaps by face, as neither do you know Donatus? But you rejoice, of course, in the name of Donatus;
but do you also rejoice in the name of Optatus? What profit, then, is Donatus to you, when Optatus has befouled you all? What does the sobriety of Donatus profit you, when you are polluted by the drunkenness of the Circumcellions? What does the innocence of Donatus—by your own opinion—profit you, when you are stained by the rapacity of Optatus? For this is your error: that you think the iniquity of one man avails more to contaminate another, than the righteousness of one man avails to purify another.
And so, if two together partake of the divine sacraments, one just and the other unjust, but in such a way that neither does the one imitate the other's iniquity nor the other the one's righteousness, you do not say that from this both become just, but both unjust—so that even that holy thing which they take together becomes unclean and loses its proper holiness. Where has iniquity found for itself such advocates that, by their raving, it should thus be deemed victorious? Why then do you applaud yourselves over the name of Donatus, amid the error of so great perversity, where Petilian is not deemed worthy to be what Donatus is, but Donatus himself is forced to be what Optatus is? But let the house of Israel say: 'The Lord is my portion'; let the seed of Abraham among all nations say: 'The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.'
For she knows how Caiaphas spoke in the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. For you too, through the sacrament that is in you, like Caiaphas the persecutor of the Lord, prophesy without knowing it. For what in Greek is 'makarios,' in Latin is 'blessed.' Thus plainly we are of the party of Macarius. For what is more blessed than Christ, whose we are, unto whom all the ends of the earth are commemorated and turned, and in whose sight all the kindreds of the nations worship? And so the party of this Macarius—that is, of this 'blessed one'—does not fear your final curse, wrongly usurped from Solomon, that it should perish from the earth. For what was said of the impious, this you strive to turn against Christ's inheritance, and with unspeakable impiety you contend that it has come to pass.
For when he was speaking of the impious, he said: 'Let their part perish from the earth.' But when you say that what is written—'I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance,' and 'All the ends of the earth shall be commemorated and shall turn to the Lord'—that this promise has now perished from the earth, you wish to twist against Christ's inheritance what was foretold of the lot of the impious; yet while Christ's inheritance remains and grows, in saying these things you yourselves perish. For you do not everywhere prophesy through the sacrament of God, seeing that here through your madness you utter evil wishes ('male optatis'). But the foretelling of the prophets avails more than the cursing of the false prophets. Petilian said: The apostle Paul also cries out: 'Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers;
for what fellowship hath righteousness with iniquity, or what partnership hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath the believer with the unbeliever?' Augustine replied: I recognize the apostle's words, but how they help you I do not at all see. For which of us says that there is a fellowship of righteousness with iniquity, even if the just and the unjust—as Judas and Peter—together partake of the sacraments? For out of one and the same holy thing Judas took to himself judgment, and Peter salvation; just as you, if you were unlike him, took the sacrament together with Optatus and were not a plunderer as he was. Or is plunder not iniquity? Who would be so mad as to say this?
What fellowship, then, had your righteousness with his iniquity, when you approached one and the same altar? Petilian said: And again he taught, lest schisms should arise: 'Now I say this, that every one of you saith, I indeed am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?' Augustine replied: Remember, you who read these things: Petilian is recalling this from the apostle. For when would you believe that Paul spoke thus for us against himself? Petilian said: If Paul said these things to the untrained, to the just—I say them to us, the unjust: 'Is Christ divided,' that you should tear us away from the Church?
Augustine replied: I fear lest someone reading this work of mine may think that the copyist has erred and there put 'Petilian said' where he ought to have put 'Augustine replied.' But I see what you have done: you wished, as it were, to forestall us, lest we should say these things. But what have you done except that they be said twice? If, then, it so delights you to hear what is against you that these things be said, hear them, I pray, from me, Petilian: 'Is Christ divided,' that you should tear yourselves away from the Church? Petilian said: Was Judas the traitor put to death by his own noose for us, or are you dyed in his manners—whose deeds you follow when, having seized the treasures of the Church, you sell us, the heirs of Christ, to the powers of the world? Augustine replied:
Not Judas, but Christ died for us, to whom the Church spread throughout the whole world says: 'I shall answer a word to those who reproach me, for I have hoped in Thy words.' When therefore I hear the words of the Lord saying: 'Ye shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the whole earth,' and through the prophet: 'Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world,' the bodily intermingling of the wicked disturbs me not at all, if I have learned to say: 'Uphold Thy servant unto good; let not the proud calumniate me.' Therefore I care nothing for a vain calumniator, because I hold a trustworthy Promiser.
But if you complain about the ecclesiastical properties or places which you used to hold and no longer hold, the Jews too can call themselves just and cast iniquity upon us, because the place in which they impiously reigned Christians now possess. What, then, is unworthy, if what the heretics held the Catholics now hold according to the equal will of the Lord? For to all such—that is, to all the impious and unjust—that voice of the Lord avails: 'The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth righteousness.' Or was it written in vain: 'The just shall eat the labors of the impious'? Wherefore you ought rather to marvel that you still hold anything, than that you have lost anything. But do not marvel even at this; for little by little the whitewashed wall falls.
Yet look upon the Maximianists—what places they held, and by whom, acting and assailing them from within, they were driven out. And if to suffer these things is righteousness and to do them is iniquity, dare to say, if you can, first that you did it and they suffered it, then that according to the rule of this very righteousness you are found the inferior. For they were expelled from their ancient places by judges appointed by Catholic emperors, whereas you are not expelled from the basilicas of unity even by the commands of those same emperors. Whence is this, except that you are of less merit not only than your other colleagues, but even than those very men whom you certainly condemned as sacrilegious with the mouth of your plenary council? Petilian said:
For we, as it is written, in our baptism have put on Christ who was betrayed; you by your contagion put on Judas the betrayer. Augustine replied: I too could say: 'You by your contagion put on Optatus the betrayer, the plunderer, the oppressor, the divider.' But far be it that the desire of returning a curse should provoke me to any falsehood; for neither do you put on him nor we this one. And so, if anyone coming to us should answer that he was baptized in the name of Optatus, he will also be baptized in the name of Christ; and as for all whom you baptized when they came from us, if they had said they were baptized in the name of Judas the traitor, we do not reprehend what you did.
But if they had been baptized in the name of Christ, do you not see with what great error you suppose that the divine sacraments are varied by the variety of human vices, or polluted by the defilements of anyone's life? Petilian said: But if these are the parties, the names of the fellow-party in no way prejudice us. For there are two ways: one narrow, by which we proceed; the other is for the impious, by which they shall perish. And yet the mere sameness of a name is far distinguished, lest the way of righteousness be stained by the fellowship of a name. Augustine replied: You feared the multitude of the whole world compared with your multitude, and you wished to betake yourself to the praise of the fewness that walks by the narrow way. Would that you had betaken yourself not to its praise, but to the way itself!
You would surely perceive that this same fewness is in the Church of all nations, but that the just are called few in comparison with the many unjust—just as, in comparison with the chaff, the few grains of a most abundant harvest can be called few, which nevertheless, gathered by themselves into a heap, fill the barn. For as in the tribulations of the lost places, so also in fewness—if you think righteousness lies in these—the Maximianists themselves will surpass you. Petilian said: In the first psalm David separates the blessed from the impious, not indeed making parties, but separating holiness from all the impious:
'Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the impious, and hath not stood in the way of sinners'—let him who had erred unto perishing return to the way of righteousness—'and hath not sat in the chair of pestilence'—since it thus admonishes, O wretched ones, why do you sit?—'but his will is in the law of the Lord, and in the law of the Lord shall he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree which is planted beside the courses of the waters, which shall give its fruit in its season. And its leaf shall not fall, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Not so the impious, not so: but like the dust which the wind casteth forth from the face of the earth'—it fills the eyes, that it may blind—.
'Therefore the impious shall not rise in the judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the just; for the Lord knoweth the ways of the just, and the way of the impious shall perish.' Augustine replied: Who does not distinguish in the Scriptures these two kinds of men? But you slanderers cast the crimes of the chaff even upon the wheat, and, though you are chaff alone, you boast that you alone are the wheat. But the truthful prophets say that both these kinds are mingled throughout the whole world—that is, throughout the whole field of the Lord—before the winnowing which is to come on the day of judgment. Yet I admonish you to read this first psalm in Greek:
so you will not dare to cast up against the whole world, as a reproach, the party of Macarius, because perhaps you will understand of which Macarius there is a party in all the saints, who are blessed among all nations in the seed of Abraham. For what is written in Latin as 'blessed man' has in Greek 'makarios anēr.' But that Macarius who displeases you—if he was evil, he is neither in this lot nor does he harm this lot; but if good, let him prove his own work, that he may have glory in himself and not in another. Petilian said: But the same psalmist has sung the praises of our baptism: 'The Lord shepherds me, and nothing shall be wanting to me: in a place of pasture there hath He set me. Upon the water of refreshment hath He brought me up; He hath converted my soul.'
'He hath led me upon the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. For even if I shall walk in the midst of the shadow of death'—if, he says, a persecutor should slay me—'I will not fear evils, for Thou art with me, O Lord. Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me'—thence David, armed with the oil of anointing as with a breastplate, conquered Goliath—'Thou hast prepared a table in my sight against those who trouble me. Thou hast made fat my head with oil, and Thy inebriating cup, how excellent it is! And Thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days.' Augustine replied: This psalm speaks of those who receive baptism well and use the holy thing in a holy way.
For these words do not pertain even to Simon Magus, who nevertheless received the same holy baptism; and because he was unwilling to use it in a holy way, he did not on that account defile it, nor teach that it must be repeated for such persons. But since you made mention of Goliath, attend to that psalm about Goliath himself, and see that he was overcome in a new song—for there it is said: 'O God, I will sing to Thee a new song, upon a psaltery of ten strings will I sing to Thee'—see whether he who does not commune with the whole world pertains to this song. For elsewhere it is said: 'Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth.' All the earth, therefore, in whose unity you are not, sings the new song; and of all the earth are these words also:
'The Lord shepherds me, and nothing shall be wanting to me,' and the rest. These are not the words of the tares, although they are tolerated in one crop until the harvest; they are not the words of the chaff, but of the wheat, although they are nourished by the same rain and at the same time, threshed on the same floor and at the same time, until by the final winnowing-fan they are separated from one another—the two which certainly share one baptism in common, although they are not one. But even if your party were the Church of God, you would surely confess that this psalm does not there pertain to the raging bands of the Circumcellions.
Or if they too are led along the paths of righteousness, why do you deny that they are your companions, when they are cast up against you—although for the most part not the rod and staff of God, but their cudgels, comfort the fewness of your faction, by which cudgels you deem yourselves safe even against the Roman laws; and to fall in with these—what else is it than to walk in the midst of the shadow of death? But he fears no evils with whom the Lord is. Certainly, nevertheless, you will not dare to say that the words sung in this psalm belong even to those madmen; and yet you not only confess but even openly profess that they have baptism.
These words, therefore, are said by none save those who are refreshed with the holy water, as are all the just of God, not by those who by using it ill are overthrown, as was that magician baptized by Philip; and yet that same water is one and holy in both. These words are said by none save those who shall belong to the right hand; but nevertheless in the same pastures under one shepherd both the sheep and the goats are pastured, until they are separated to receive their dues. These words are said by none save those who take life from the Lord's table, as Peter, not judgment, as Judas; and yet that table was one for both, but did not avail both unto one end, because they themselves were not one.
These words are said by none save those who are made blessed by the holy oil even in the spirit, as David, not those who are consecrated in the body alone, as Saul; and yet, when both had received one and the same thing, the sacrament was not unequal for them, but the merit was unequal. These words are said by none save those who, with a changed mind, sigh for the Lord's cup unto life eternal, not those who eat and drink judgment to themselves, as the apostle says; and yet for both that one cup is not one and the same—inebriating the martyrs to lay hold of heavenly things, not inebriating the Circumcellions to plunge into deadly precipices.
Remember, therefore, that the manners of evil men do nothing to harm the sacraments of God, so as to make them either not to be at all or to be less holy; but they harm the evil men themselves, so that they have these things unto the testimony of their damnation, not unto the aid of their healing. At least you ought to have considered the very last words of this psalm, and, for the sake of those who apostatize after receiving baptism, to have understood that it cannot be said by all who receive holy baptism:
'that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days'; and yet, whether for those who persevere or those who fall, since they themselves are not one, the baptism is one; and although they are not both holy, the baptism is holy in both, because even apostates, if they return, are not baptized as though they had lost it, but are humbled because they have done injury to that which remains in them. Petilian said: And lest you should say that you are holy, first I assert this: that whoever has not been innocent has no holiness. Augustine replied: Show us the tribunal where you sat, that the whole world might stand before you, and with what eyes—I do not say the consciences of all, but even the acts—you inspected and examined, so as to judge that it had lost its innocence.