Care must be taken for good conduct before men.
There is another thing in these words; which can not be understood absurdly. There are men who think that a good conscience is sufficient for living well and do not care much about what others think of them, unaware that when a person sees a person of good conscience living carelessly, associating freely with anyone and everywhere, knowing that an idol is nothing, and yet reclining in an idol temple, that person's conscience, being weak, is built up not to what it examines, but to what it suspects. For your peer, your brother, cannot enter into your conscience, which God knows. Your conscience is before God, your behavior is before your brother. If he, suspecting something bad about you, is disturbed and built up to do something he thinks you are doing, while you live like that, what good is it that the stomach of your conscience drew pure water, and he has a disturbed behavior from your negligence?
Sometimes nothing remains to be sought except the testimony of conscience.
And you hear such people, when they are reproached not to do these things, respond to us and say: "The Apostle said: If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ." And here you stir the water, trample the pastures. Consider better, lest you also stir the water for yourself, what the Apostle says: If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. I accept it excellently, I gladly acknowledge the apostolic sentiment. But have you not read something else in the Apostle? Please all men in all things, even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking that which is profitable for myself, but for many, that they may be saved. Have you not heard the same Apostle again? Be without offense to Jews and Gentiles, and to the Church of God. Have you not heard the same Apostle a third time? For we provide good things, not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men. Therefore, he says: "Explain to me, then, how I should understand different and contrary things, with the Apostle saying: If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ; saying: Please all men in all things, even as I also please all men in all things; saying: This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience; saying: We provide good things not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men." If you listen calmly, if you do not disturb the water of your mind, as much as I can, perhaps I will explain. There are rash judges, detractors, whisperers, murmurers, seeking to suspect what they do not see, even seeking to spread what they do not even suspect: what remains against such, but the testimony of our conscience? For indeed, Brothers, even in those we wish to please, we do not seek our glory, nor should we seek our glory, but their salvation, so that if we walk well, by following us they may not err. Let them be imitators of us if we are of Christ; but if we are not of Christ, let them be imitators of Christ. For he feeds his flock, and with all good pastors, he alone is, because all are in him. Therefore, we do not seek our own profit when we wish to please men, but we wish them to rejoice, and we rejoice to please them in what is good, for their benefit, not for our dignity. Against whom the Apostle said: If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ, is clear. And for whom he said: Please all men in all things, even as I also please all men in all things, is clear. Both things are clear, both things are tranquil, both things are pure, both things are undisturbed. You only feed and drink, do not trample and disturb.
Let us not place the end of good works in the praise of men.
For you have surely heard the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the teacher of the Apostles: "Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven," that is, who made you as you are. For we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hands. Therefore, let Him be praised who made you good if you are good, not yourself who by yourself could only be evil. Why then do you want to drive truth in the opposite direction, so that when you do something good, you want to be praised, but when you do something bad, you want the Lord to be blamed? For the one who said, "Let your works shine before men," also said in the same sermon, "Do not do your righteousness before men." Just as these seemed contradictory to you in the Apostle, so too in the Gospel. But if you do not disturb the water of your heart, here too you will recognize the peace of the Scriptures, and with them you will have peace. If, however, you do not want to have peace with them, you are complicating your own argument; they will not lose their peace. For because of those who commend themselves by boasting to men, and thus flaunt their good works so as to place the end of their good works in the praise of men, and consider the praise of men as a kind of reward for their good works, it is said of them: "Amen I say to you, they have received their reward." Against them it is said: "Beware of doing your righteousness before men." Consequently, it follows: "to be seen by them." He does not extend his intention further; here he ends. Do not do any good thing before men in such a way that you may be seen by them, so that the seeing by them is the end of your good work. Therefore, do not act so that you may be seen by them. But he does not end there, but he wants our good deeds to be seen by men, about which he says: "Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good works." He did not pause, nor did he remain here, but he led you upward from here and took you away from yourself—for you would fall if you were in yourself—and placed you where you would be safe. "Let them see," he says, "your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Do not be angry, for He is glorified. Be with Him, and you will be glorified in Him. So that no flesh might boast before Him, the Apostle says. Will we then remain without glory? No. For he himself says, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." For the witness of our conscience is glory to us because it is in Him. For if our glory is such that we are pleased with ourselves and become pleasing to ourselves, a very foolish man is pleased with himself.
Therefore, let us care, Brothers, not only to live well, but also to behave well before men, and not only to strive to have a good conscience but, as much as our weakness can, as much as human frailty's vigilance allows, let us care also to do nothing that would come into evil suspicion by a weak brother, lest by eating pure herbs and drinking pure waters, we trample the pastures of God, and the weak sheep eat what is trampled and drink what is troubled. And woe to him on account of this who says: I judge between sheep and sheep.
The goats will be separated from the sheep at the end.
For these things the Lord God says to them: Behold, I judge between the strong sheep and the weak sheep. Let something else be said. We have already heard about those who trample the grass and disturb the waters. Let us hear another kind of evil, and a great kind of evil. Afterwards he makes no mention of the goats. He mentioned them once, so that we would know they exist. For he knows them well. Afterwards he speaks as though all are sheep. First, how he himself sees, then how we see, he has spoken. For the goats are present, and because in the end they will be separated, let it be known to the sheep: now I am discerning between sheep and sheep. Only he who could predestine, who could foresee, knows by predestination and foreknowledge the sheep and the goats. Now, because all are under the sign of Christ and all come to the grace of God, you think you are a sheep, perhaps God knows you are a goat. But listen as a sheep to what you hear: Behold, I judge between the strong sheep and the weak sheep.
Heretics scatter the sheep of God.
Since you thrust with sides and shoulders, and butted with your horns, and scattered all the weak ones, until you drove them away. Who does not understand this? Who does not shudder at it? If there are no sheep outside, the deed has not been done. But if we lament that many sheep are wandering outside, woe to those by whose sides and shoulders and horns it was done. For they would not have done these things if they were not strong sheep. Who are the strong? Those who presume on their own strength. Who are the strong? Those who glory in their own righteousness. They did not scatter the sheep, they did not send them outside except those who said they were righteous. Bold with their shoulders to thrust, because they do not bear the burden of God; wicked at the sides, conspiring friends, a company of stubbornness; horns lifted high, elevated pride. Thrust with sides and shoulders, scatter with horns, send outside what you did not gather. Indeed, the whole reason is because you are righteous and others are unrighteous, and it was unworthy for the righteous to be with the unrighteous, plainly unworthy for the wheat to be among the tares, unworthy for the sheep to graze among the goats, until the shepherd comes who will not err in separating. Are you then an angel rooting out the tares? I would not recognize you as an angel rooting out the tares, not even if the harvest had already come. Before the harvest, it is not you, but whosoever it might be, is not true. He who designated the reapers also designated the time. Men might also call themselves angels. We may perhaps find in Scriptures that men have been called angels, but I still look to the time of harvest. You can call yourself an angel, but you cannot shorten the time of the harvest. Therefore, you falsely claim that you are, because the time has not yet come when you are. Hence, when it comes, and the true reapers have been sent, I do not know where they will find you, whether to be gathered into the barn or to be bound and cast into the fire. Therefore, I say “perhaps”, because I do not dare to judge. Now I grieve for you being outside. Whether you will be inside in the future, I do not know.
The pride of the Donatists must be condemned.
Listen instead to another testimony of Scripture, written about you while you live, and do not desire to uproot the weeds when it is not the time, but you yourself return inward when the time is right. Another Scripture of God says: "A wicked son declares himself righteous." These are your shoulders and flanks and horns. Wickedly strong, how much better you would be if you were weak. Wickedly strong, but not healthy. Wickedly strong, the frenzied man strikes and kills even the doctor. You say you are perfect in order to create an imperfection. How much better, how much more useful you would be if you were weak so that He who knows the imperfect may perfect you. The Apostle Paul, the chosen vessel, lest he be too elated by revelations - which we would not dare to say unless we believed him saying it - said, "To prevent me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me." He said that he was buffeted so that he would not lift up horns. Therefore, he said, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' So then, how much more useful is the weakness which is perfected than that strength which drives away and excludes the sheep. You are a wicked son, you declare yourself righteous. A wicked son declares himself righteous but does not cleanse his departure.
Take heed, my brothers, to a brief sentence in number of words, but immense in weight of truth. He declares himself righteous in order to depart and exclude. He declares himself righteous, but he is wicked: therefore, he does not cleanse his departure. What does it mean that he does not cleanse? He does not purify, he does not defend, he does not excuse. Why did you separate? Why did you leave? Why does your heart tremble when you hear from the divine books: "They went out from us, but they were not of us," if indeed that wicked strength by which you push, strike, and scatter the sheep of God allows trembling to reach your heart?
For certainly, when you hear: "They went out from us, but they were not of us," he was speaking who was in the Church. The Church is spread throughout the whole world; what are you doing outside? For not I, but the prophets, the apostles, and the Lord Himself announced the Church spread throughout the whole world. Just now, when a Psalm was being read, we heard: "The Lord will not reject His people" - as if being asked - "for the ends of the earth are in His hand." He does not reject them, and you drive them away. You push, you scatter, you exclude. You accuse traitors but do not prove it. These are the horns of one who scatters, not the meekness of one who tends.
Behold, the people of God at the ends of the earth. Behold, the people of God groaning and weeping before God who made them, saying in the Psalm to the Lord before whom they weep: "From the ends of the earth I cried to You when my heart was anguished." See how he humbles himself in the anguish of his heart. And what does he say has been done for him? "You have exalted me on the rock." You have exalted me on Christ the Rock, not cast me down from Mount Donatus.
Go now, and toss your horns, spread your flanks, inflate your shoulders and push the sheep, and say: "I am righteous." The Scripture will answer you: "Wicked, not righteous. A wicked son declares himself righteous." If you are righteous, why do you go outside? Why do you throw out others? What do you do with those you throw outside? Did you flee the goats like a sheep? It is better to be separated to the right by the shepherd than to be confuted on the left with them. They were goats, you were a sheep, you would graze with the goats. What did the pastures, the waters offend you? Finally, what did the shepherd himself offend you, who for a time mingled both flocks, who, even when He does good to each at will, has reserved separation for the end?
Even if He were to separate now, He would not err. He defers separation to the end, you separate before the time. You do not await the end, not knowing when your end shall be. Why is this unless that those you accused as goats, you falsely accused? For if you had truly accused, you would not have separated. Your separation is their purification. They were weeds, why did you want to separate them before the time? Being mixed with them, you would be wheat, rooted in the same field, watered by the same rain. Why did you leave then? Do you find a reason?
Whom you accuse, you do not convict. By going out before the time and separating yourself, you convict yourself. See that you are a wicked son. You declare yourself righteous, but you do not cleanse your departure. I do not say to you: You are rather a traitor. If I say it, I can easily prove it. Yet I refuse to say it because your actions, not you, did it. I do not attribute to you the deeds of others, even of your people. I look at your deed. I accuse that you are outside; I accuse your departure. I remove all other things that can be said against you. I omit your drunkenness, usury, and interest upon interest. I omit the throngs and furies of the Circumcelliones. I omit all these and whatever other things I cannot enumerate. Not all among you may do these things. Let him who does not do these there, who disapproves of what is done there come forward, let him speak. I do not impute to him the crime of another; let him cleanse his departure. You see rightly that you are told: "A wicked son declares himself righteous." For the Lord says, who speaks the truth: "A wicked son declares himself righteous." Not I, but He. However, does He want me to call you righteous? Let him come, let him bring forth good fruits in the peace of the Catholic Church, let him keep them in the peace of the Catholic Church, because also...
There is no fruit where there is no endurance. And, he says, they will bear fruit with endurance. Do you want to see how you have been struck by hail? Listen from another place: Woe to those who have lost endurance.
The true marks of the Church of Christ are not found among the Donatists.
Just imagine someone thinking, as it often happens, where a Christian might be. He is moved to be a Christian, he notices that humankind converges upon the name of Christ. Proposing no temporal benefit, he wishes to be a Christian, not to gain a greater friend, not to obtain the wife he desires, not to escape some worldly pressure, although many even entering for such reasons are corrected once they enter. But let us consider someone thinking about his soul, and wanting to be a Christian. He notices where he sees two parties, he inquires the reasons why they have separated themselves from the others. They respond: "We have separated ourselves as the righteous from sinners," as if speaking to a blind man, hearing what they say, not seeing what they do. So if, observing their behavior, and those things I mentioned just a moment ago, he says to them: "I ask you, you call yourselves righteous, and therefore you contend that you rightly separated yourselves. Why are such and such people among you?" And they perhaps because they do not dare to deny, because those things are pointed out which are visible to the eyes say: "Indeed, there are such people among us, but are we all like that?"
Excellent. Therefore I see you outside with sinners. Why not inside? For the reward of your separation was to not live with a sinner. If you were outside in such a way that you did not have those you claim to have fled from, I would bear your separation in some way. Therefore, let him who desires to be a Christian take heed where he is a Christian. He sees those separated as if from sinners, yet full of sinners. Again, let him take heed to the Church of Christ according to the commendable life of human morals, according to which morals he can even, coming from the world, somewhat judge. Let him see here some sober, some drunken, some patient poor, some eager for the plunder of other people's goods, and other such things. He sees this here, he sees that there. Let him now attend to God, what He says about His Church. He finds the Lord saying through all nations His Church. He also finds God in that parable of the tares saying: The field is this world. Not the field is Africa, but this world. Throughout the whole world is the wheat, throughout the whole world are the tares - yet the field is the world, the sower is the Son of Man, the reapers are angels, not the leaders of the Circumcellions - both to grow until the harvest, not the tares to grow and the wheat to decrease, but both to grow until the harvest. What harvest? Listen to him: The harvest is the end of the world. Hearing these things clearly, and rightly judging, what does he say? "I will not be in that division. I will be here, and I will be good in the name of him to whom I belong. And I will be good, not making myself good, but expecting to be made so by Him, not calling myself good and just, but desiring to be called so by Him." He enters, becomes Catholic. Behold, he washes away his entrance, you also wash away your exit. You cannot: for the evil son himself calls himself just, yet does not wash away his exit.
The bridegroom is in heaven, the bride in the whole earth.
You pushed with side and shoulder, and with your horns you struck, and you scattered all that was weak, until you had driven them away. And I will save my sheep. Just as their wickedness and cruelty are detestable, so is the mercy of our shepherd, truly our God, praiseworthy: He will save His sheep. Perhaps, my Brethren, although through his least servants, perhaps through unworthy ones, He does this, when we say this: Let Him save His sheep, let them hear the voice of their shepherd and follow Him. Do not seek the Church from the mouth of men. Seek it from the mouth of God, seek it from the mouth of Christ. He who says that someone is impious is impious, he who says that someone is just is just, he who says that someone is a sheep is a sheep, he who says that someone is a goat is a goat. He is the truth, let Him speak, let the Church be sought from Him. Tell us, Lord, where is your Church? And He to all: "You know where I am." Let all respond: "In heaven at the right hand of the Father." "Whole faith: this I taught, this I sowed, but I sowed through the world. When you, He says, confess me in heaven, that Psalm surely comes into your mind: Be exalted above the heavens, O God. Are you seeking the Church? Read what follows: And your glory above all the earth." There, Brethren, where it is said: Be exalted above the heavens, God, concerning Christ rising and ascending, there it immediately follows: And your glory above all the earth. The bridegroom is in heaven, the bride is on earth. He is above all the heavens, she is above all the earth. O heretic, you believe what you do not see in heaven, you deny what you see on earth! Therefore, let this be said, let this be heard: Let Him save His sheep. And I will save, He says, my sheep, and they shall no longer be a prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep.