'Seek peace, and thou shalt obtain it.'
Thou hast rejected peace. Is not this to despise discipline? |186
In the Gospel we read:
'On earth peace to men of good will.'
Thou wilt have neither peace nor good will. Is not this to despise discipline?
Moreover, we read in the hundred and thirty-second Psalm:
'Behold how good and pleasant it is to dwell together in unity.'
Thou wilt not dwell in unity with thy brethren. Is not this to despise discipline?
Christ says in the Gospel:
'He who has once been cleansed, has no need to be cleansed anew.'
Thou by rebaptising dost cleanse anew. Is not this to despise discipline? God says:
'Touch not Mine anointed, and lay not thy hand upon My Prophets.'
You have stripped so many priests of God of their dignities. Is not this to despise discipline?
Christ says:
'From this I know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.'
You hold in hatred us, who are surely your brethren; |187 nor have you been willing to imitate the Apostles, by whom Peter was beloved, though he denied his Lord. Is not this to despise discipline?
Thou declarest the commandments of God, and takest His covenant in thy mouth. How dost thou exhort: 'Seek peace,' though thou dost not possess peace? Thou recitest the covenant, and dost not obey the covenant, in which has been set forth discipline.
V. That the Donatists are slanderers and have propagated scandals.
You have been chosen to sit and teach the people, and you slander us who are your brethren. As I have said above, one Mother Church has given us birth, one God the Father has received us, and yet you 'lay scandals against' us by forbidding each of your followers to salute us, or receive from us the customary signs of courtesy. |188
Consider your haughty words, consider your discourses, consider the commands that you have given, turn over your actions in your minds, and you will then find out why the man who formerly asked you for the Sacraments, has feared to receive them at your hands.
There is not one of you who does not mingle abuse of us with his discourses; not one of you who does not begin in one manner and continue in another. You begin the sacred readings on the Lord's Day, and unfold your comments in such a way as to do us wrong; you bring forth the Gospel, and heap abuse upon your brother in his absence; you pour hatred into the minds of those who listen to you, and by your teaching persuade men to live at enmity with one another. By all your discourses you 'lay scandals against' us. Therefore, to each one of you has it been said:
'Sitting thou didst speak against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thy mother's son.'
When God reproves the sinner and chides him that sits, it is clear that His words are addressed specially |189 to you, not to the people who have no permission to sit in the church. You see therefore that without a doubt to you should be referred the Divine Words:
'Sitting thou didst lay a scandal against thy mother's son.'
I have so many times proved that we have one mother, nor can you deny this----you who 'lay scandals against' us----though some of your party allege texts which they have not understood, in order to take away from us even what is usually shared by all men----the courtesy of salutation. For some of you refuse us the embraces that are customary in everyday life, and many are taught not to say 'God speed you' to any one of us, and think that this is commanded by what they have read without understanding it, through not knowing of whom it was that an Apostle has said: