'With such as these not even to take food,' nor 'say "God speed you"' to him, 'for their speech creepeth on like a spreading sore.'
This was said of heretics, whose teaching at that time began to be full of errors, for through the subtle seductiveness of their speech, they introduced diseases, |190 creeping along in the darkness, to corrupt the soundness of the Faith. Such a one was Marcion, who from a Bishop became an Apostate, and. brought in two Gods and two Christs; such was Ebion, who argued that not the Son but the Father had suffered; such Valentinus, who strove to take away from Christ His Flesh.
This is that speech which had a cancer to torment the members of the Faith. This has been said also of the heretic Scorpian, who maintained that there ought to be no martyrdom. |191
But let them keep their poisons for themselves, and let no discourse with them be allowed, lest by listening to them simple minds be troubled, however slightly.
Wherefore these are they whose speech has to be avoided, lest it creep in, like a spreading sore.
This was said too of Arius, who endeavoured to teach that the Son of God was made out of non-existing substances, and not born of God----whose teaching, had it not been driven away by three hundred and eighteen Bishops in the Nicene Council, would, like a cancer, have entered the breasts of many.
This was said also of Photinus, a heretic of the present time, who has dared to say that the Son of God was merely a man, not God.
It may have been said of you as well, since your word has introduced no small cancer into the ears and minds of some. This is your word, which you address to the sons of Peace, when you say:
'You have perished. Look behind you. Your soul will be lost. How long do you hang back? '
In this way have you made Penitents of the Faithful; thus have you destroyed the honours due to Priests. Behold! It is your word also, which to-day creeps on as a spreading sore, so that you forbid us the greetings and ordinary intercourse of life. |192
But how could our teaching have produced any such result? We guard the sons of Peace with pure teaching; we lead no strangers astray; we ruin no man. It is therefore clear that you daily 'lay scandals against' us, and it would be a long matter to go through all the ways in which you slander us, and all the kinds of scandal which you 'lay against' us.
VI. That the Donatists are thieves and on what ground.
For also when God says:
'Thou didst see a thief and didst run with him,'
concerning what kind of thievery think you that this has been said? Was it perhaps on account of some stolen article of clothing, or some pocket that had been picked, or about goods the stealing of which brings loss and gain to men?
Yes, without doubt such thefts as these are forbidden; but in this passage God rebukes those which are made from Himself. Do you ask what thefts are made from God? They are to be found amongst you! God's possession is the mass of the Faithful, from which that thief the Devil tries every day to steal something, striving to corrupt in some way or other the morals of a Christian man or woman, and thus to snatch away, if not the whole man----at any rate something or other from the man. |193
Since you saw this Thief bringing force to bear against us, you have helped him by your deeds. For none are unaware, that everyone who is born (even though he may be born of Christian parents) cannot be without the unclean spirit, who must of necessity be driven out and separated from a man before the saving layer. This is effected by the exorcism, through which the unclean spirit is cast forth and driven, in flight, to desert places.
The house in the heart of the Believer is made empty, the house is made clean. God enters and dwells therein, even as says the Apostle:
'You are the Temple of God, and God dwells in you.'
Whereas then each [baptised] man is full of God, and that Thief the Devil is endeavouring to steal something away from him, you exorcise that faithful man by rebaptising him, and say to God, who dwells within him:
'Go forth, O cursed one,'
that there may be fulfilled what was spoken by Ezekiel the Prophet:
'And they spoke evil things to Me amongst My people for the sake of a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, that they might kill souls which ought not to die, whilst they announce to My people empty deceits.'
So God hears wrongful insults, which are not His due, and departs from such a dwelling as this; and the man who, when he entered the church, was full of God, goes out an empty vessel.
The Devil, who wished, like a thief, to steal something, sees that the whole, from which he was striving to snatch some little thing, has become his by your assistance. Wherefore, of you God said: