175. in Sacramento erraverant.
176. exclusum fuerat.
177. post mandata divina, sc. de Baptismate.
178. legibus (sc. Baptismatis) debuerant ire in regnum.
179. non per violentiam.
180. Matt. xi, 12.
181. nolite vobis blandiri.
182. At Ephesus.
183. non post personam operarii interrogavit, sed post rem (cf. v, 3). St. Paul did not enquire as to the character of him who had administered the Sacrament, but as to the fact whether its recipients had received the Holy Ghost.
184. non ipsum, sc. Baptisma Salvatoris.
185. res. With a reference to that which he has just written of St. Paul enquiring not about the persona, but about the res.
186. si tamen de lege aliquid feceritis. By the law is here still meant Christ's Law concerning Baptism. If the Donatists had put right any baptisms, which had not been validly administered, they had done well; e.g. if they had baptised any persons who had received a baptism, but not in the Name of the Trinity. Such, however, was not the case.
187. Acts xix, 3.
188. In their Baptism.
189. Parmenian had urged that Baptism given outside the Church was null and must be repeated, because those baptised by the Baptist were baptised anew by the Apostles. Optatus answers that the cases are not parallel. The same reply is given by Augustine, con. Petil. ii, 37, iii, 56; De Bapt. v, 9, 10 etc.
190. vox est de vico conlecta, non de libro lecta. A mere catchword without any real authority. It is impossible to express in English the verbal antithesis between conlecta and lecta.
191. 1 Cor. i, 13.
192. gaudetis.
193. cui creditur ipse dat, quod creditur, non per quem creditur.
194. infinita.
195. illo operante.
196. humana sunt opera, sed Dei sunt munera.
197. hoc munus baptismatis esse dantis, non accipientis.
198. qui huius rei dator est.
199. et nos et vos teneamus singulos gentiles. Cf. i, 8: nihil interesset inter fideles et unumquemque gentilem.