§ 71. INTERNAL UISTOET OF DONATISM. 367
in the l^ew Testament, ■which has spread over all tht ftoild, and which is connected through the unbroken succestion of bishops with the apostles and with Christ. This alone can be the true church. It is impossible that she should all at once disappear from the earth, or should exist only in the African sect of the Donatists.' What is all that they may say of their little heap, in comparison with the great catholic Christendom of all lands ? Thus even numerical preponderance here enters as an argument ; though under other circumstances it may prove too much, and would place the primitive church at a clear disadvantage in comparison with the prevailing Jewish and heathen masses, and the Evangelical church in its controversy with the Roman Catholic.
From the objective character of the church as a divine institution flows, according to the catholic view, the efficacy of all her functions, the sacraments in particular. "When Petilian, at the Collatio cum Donatistis, said : " He who receives the faith from a faithless priest, receives not faith, but guilt," Augustine answered : " B-ut Christ is not unfaithful {^erjidus), from whom I receive faith (Jldem), not guilt (reatum). Christ, therefore, is properly the functionary, and the priest is simply his organ." " My origin," said Augustine on the same occasion, " is Christ, my root is Christ, my head is Christ. The seed, of which I was born, is the word of God, which I mus obey even though the preacher himself practise not what he preaches. I believe not in the minister by whom I am baptized, but in Christ, who alone justifies the sinner and can forgive guilt." '
' Augustine, ad Catholicos Epistola contra Donatistas, usually quoted under the Bhortor title, De unitate ecclesia!, c. 12 (Bened. ed. torn. ix. p. 360) : " Quomodo co?ptum sit ab Jerusalem, et deinde proccssum in Judgeam et Samariam, et inde in totam terrain, ubi adhuc crescit ecclesia, donee usque in finem etiam reliquas gentes, ubi adhuc non est, obtineat, scripturis Sanctis testibiia consequenter ostenditur ; quisquis aliud evangelizaverit, anathema sit. Aliud autem evangelizat, qui periisse dicit de cjetero mundo ecclesiam ct in parte Donati in sola Africa remansisse dicit. Ergo anathema sit. Aut legat niihi hoc in scripturis Sanctis, et non sit anathema."
=" Contra literas Petiliani, 1. i. c. 1 (Opera, torn. ix. p. 209) : " Origo mea Christu8 est, radix mea Christus est, caput meum Christus est." ... In the same place: "Me innocentem non facit, nisi qui mortuus est rropter delicta nostra el
368 TniED PERIOD. A.T). 311-590.
Lastly, in regard to cliurch disciplijie, the opponents of the Donatists agreed with them in considering it wholesome and necessary, but would keep it within the limits fixed for it by the circumstaTices of the time and the fallibility of men. A perfect separation of sinners from saints is impracticable befoie the final judgment. Many things must be patiently borne, that greater evil may be averted, and that those still capable of improvement may be improved, especially where the offender has too many adherents. " Man," says Augustine, "should punish in the spirit of love, until either the discipline and correction come from above, or the tares are pidled up in the universal harvest." ' In support of this view appeal wag made to the Lord's parables of the tares among the wheat, and of the net which gathered together of every kind (Matt. xiii.). These two parables were the chief exegetical battle ground of the two parties. The Donatists understood by the field, not the church, but the world, according to the Saviour's own exposition of the parable of the tares ; * the Catholics replied that it was the kingdom of heaven or the church to which tlie parable referred as a whole, and pressed especially the warning of the Saviour not to gather up the tares before the final liarvest, lest they root up also the wheat with them. The Donatists, moreover, made a distinction between unknown ofi'enders, to whom alone the parable of the net referred, and notorious sinners. But this did not gain them much ; for if the church compromises her character for holiness by contact with unworthy persons at all, it matters not whether they be openly unworthy before men or not, and no church whatever would be left on earth.
On the other hand, however, Augustine, who, no more
resurrcxit propter justificationein nostram. Non enim in ministrum, per quern bapti Eor, credo; sed in eura qui justificat impium, ut deputetur mihi fides in justitiam."
' Aug. Contra Epistolam Parmeniani, 1. iii. c. 2, § 10-15 (Opera, torn. ix. p. 62-66).
" Breviculus CoUat. c. Don. Dies tert. c. 8, § 10 (Opera, ix. p. 559): "Zizania inter triticum non in ecclesia, sed in ipso mundo permixta dixerunt, quoninm Doniinu8 ait, Agcr est mundus" (Matt. xiii. 38). As to the exegetical merits of the controversy see Trench'a "Notes on the Parables," p. 83 sqq. (9th Lond. edition, 1863), and Lange's Commentary on Matt. xiii. (Amer. ed. by Schaff, p. 244 sqq.).