Place concerning bodily separation wrongly understood by the Donatists.
Behold, they say, the prophet says: Depart, go out from there, and touch no unclean thing: how then shall we endure the wicked for the sake of peace, from whom we are ordered to depart and go out, that we may not touch the unclean thing? We understand this separation spiritually, they understand it physically. For I also cry out with the prophet, and whatever kind of vessels we may be, God uses us in your dispensation: we also cry out and say to you: Depart, go out from there, and touch no unclean thing; but by the contact of the heart, not of the body. For what is it to touch the unclean thing, if not to consent to sins? But what is it to go out from there, except to do what pertains to the correction of the wicked, as much as can be done with the peace of each individual being maintained according to their rank and person? It displeased you that someone sinned; you did not touch the unclean thing. You reproved, you corrected, you admonished, you also applied, if the situation demanded it, appropriate discipline that does not violate unity; you went out from there. Attend to the deeds of the saints, lest perhaps our interpretation should seem personal. As the saints understood these words, so indeed they must be understood. Depart from there, says the prophet. First, by the customary use of the very word, I assert this meaning, and afterward show that it is not my own. Often people are accused; and when they have been accused, they defend themselves: but when the man who is accused has reasonably and justly defended himself, those who hear say: He went out from there. Where did he go out from? Remaining in place, he went out from there. How did he go out from there? By giving a reason and a most just defense. This is what the saints did when they shook the dust off their feet against those who did not accept the peace proclaimed to them. That watchman went out from there, to whom it was said: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. For it is said to him: If you warn the wicked man, and he does not turn from his wickedness and from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your soul. If he does this, he goes out from there, not by separation of the body, but by the defense of his work. For he did what needed to be done: even if the other did not obey, who was supposed to obey. This is: Depart from there.
The prophets reproached the people's vices, nor did they depart from that.
Moses cried out, Isaiah cried out, Jeremiah cried out, Ezekiel cried out. Let us see if they themselves did this, if they abandoned the people of God and transferred themselves to other nations. How many times and how vehemently did Jeremiah rebuke the sinners and wicked people of his own! Yet among them he was, entering the same temple with them, celebrating the same sacraments: he lived in that congregation of wicked men, but by crying out, he separated himself from them. This is to separate oneself from them, this is to not touch the unclean, and to not agree in will, and to not spare with the mouth. What shall I say about Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and the other prophets who did not withdraw from the wicked people, lest they forsake the good ones mingled with those people, where they themselves could have been such? Moses himself, brothers, when he was receiving the law on the mountain, the people below made an idol. The people of God, the people led through the parting waves of the Red Sea, which had overwhelmed their pursuing enemies, after so many signs and miracles in the plagues upon the Egyptians leading to death, and in their own protection leading to salvation, nevertheless demanded, forced, made, worshipped an idol, and sacrificed to an idol. God communicates the act of the people to His servant, and says He will destroy them from His face. Moses intercedes on behalf of that very people to return to them: and he had the opportunity to withdraw and go out from them, as these understand, so as not to touch the unclean, so as not to live among such; yet he did not. And lest it seem that he did this more out of necessity than out of love, God offered him another people: "I will make you," He says, "into a great nation," so that He may destroy the others. But he did not accept this, instead he clung to the sinners, he prayed for the sinners. And how did he pray? Great is the proof of love, brothers. How did he pray? See that motherly love that we have often spoken about. When God threatened the sacrilegious people, the compassionate heart of Moses trembled, he interposed himself on their behalf against the wrath of God. "Lord," he said, "if You forgive their sin, forgive: but if not, blot me out of Your book which You have written." How fatherly and motherly his heart was, how confidently he said this, contemplating the justice and mercy of God! So that, because He is just, He would not destroy the just, and because He is merciful, He would forgive the sinners.
One must withdraw from evils with the heart, not with the body.
Certainly it is now evident to your prudence how all such testimonies of the Scriptures must be received: so that when Scripture sounds, we ought to withdraw from evil, we should not be commanded to understand anything else, but rather to withdraw with the heart; lest we commit a greater evil in the separation from the good than we flee from in the association with the wicked, as the Donatists themselves have done. If they truly rebuked the wicked and not rather defamed the good, they would tolerate whatsoever kinds for the sake of peace, who received the Maximianists as intact, whom they had formerly condemned as lost. Certainly the prophet openly said: "Depart and go out from there, and do not touch what is unclean." For me to understand what he said, I consider what he did. By his action he explains his statement to me. He said: "Depart." To whom did he say it? Certainly to the just. From whom did he say they should depart? Certainly from sinners and the wicked. I ask whether he himself departed from such people? I find that he did not depart. Therefore he understood it differently. For surely he would first do what he commanded. He departed in heart, he reproved and rebuked. By restraining himself from agreement he did not touch the unclean: but by rebuking he went out freely in the sight of God; to whom God imputes neither his own sins, because he did not commit them, nor those of others, because he did not approve them; nor negligence, because he did not keep silent; nor pride, because he remained in unity. Thus, my brothers, as many of you as have among you those who are still weighed down by the love of the world, the greedy, perjurers, adulterers, spectators of trifles, consultors of astrologers, soothsayers, augurs, drunkards, the lustful, whatever evils you know to be among you; as much as you can, disapprove them, so that you may withdraw with the heart; that you may rebuke, and depart from there; and do not consent, so that you do not touch the unclean.