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Against the Donatists

St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917

Book 3, 11. It is Shown that the Donatists are Deceivers

And that no one might doubt as to the meaning of this, God has added these words:
‘The things which I speak concern not the clay¹ or the side² [of the wall] or the wall [itself], but false prophets who deceive³ My people.’⁴

Consider whom this word ‘deceive’ fits. All were in communion with us. You rushed in upon us in our absence,⁵ but, in order to possess those whom you coveted, you had to beguile them----and all men know what are your words of beguilement.

You are wont to say:
‘Look behind you.’⁶

You are wont to say:
‘Redeem your souls.’⁶

You are wont to say to Christian men----even to clerics:
‘Be ye Christians.’⁶

But in saying ‘Look behind you,’ you are acting against the gospel, in which it has been written:
‘No man who holds the handle of the plough and looks behind him shall enter the kingdom of heaven.’⁷

And do you wish to know what was the fate of the one who looked behind, and of the one who looked before? Remember those who escaped from Sodom ----Lot and his wife. She looked behind her and was changed into a pillar of salt, whilst he who looked before him escaped free.⁸ Why then do you say ‘Look behind you ‘? Moreover, when you say ‘Redeem your souls,’ I would ask from whom did you buy them, that you should sell them? Who is that angel who deals in souls as in the market-place?⁹ When you say ‘Redeem your souls’ you are renouncing the Redeemer, for Christ alone is the Redeemer of souls, which before His coming were possessed by the Devil. These Christ our Saviour redeemed in His Blood, as the Apostle says:
‘You have been bought at a great price.’¹⁰

For it is certain that we have been all redeemed by the Blood of Christ. Christ has not sold those whom He redeemed. Souls bought by Christ cannot be sold, to be redeemed again----as you would have it¹¹----by you.

Again, how can a soul have two Lords? Or, is there, perhaps, a second Redeemer? What prophets have announced that a second is to come? What Gabriel has spoken a second time to a second Mary? What Virgin has a second time given birth to a Child? Who has worked new or second deeds of power?¹²

If there is none, save One, who has redeemed the souls of all believers, what means it that you say ‘Redeem your souls ‘? What kind of thing is this that you say to Christian men----even to clerics----‘Be ye Christians’? And you dare to say to each one, as though you expected a miracle¹³:
‘Gaius Seius, or Gaia Seia,¹⁴ art thou still a pagan man or woman?’

You call him, who has acknowledged¹⁵ that he has been converted to God, a pagan----him you call a pagan, who has been washed by us or by you neither in our name, nor in yours, but in the Name of Christ (for some there are who have been baptised by you, and have afterwards passed over to our Communion)----him you call a pagan, who before the altar¹⁶ has prayed to God the Father through His Son. For whoever has believed, has believed in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, yet him you call a pagan after his Profession of Faith!

If----which God forbid----any Christian should fall away,¹⁷ he may be called a sinner; a pagan he cannot be a second time.¹⁸

But all these things you wish to be held of no account. And if he, whom you deceive, listens to you,¹⁹ then his consent alone, and the stretching forth of your hand,²⁰ and a few words spoken by you are enough in your sight²¹ to make a Christian out of a Christian,²² and he seems to you to be a Christian who has done what you want, rather than the man whom Faith has drawn [to Baptism].

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