Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A26211
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The judgment of the learned and pious St. Augustine concerning penal lavves against conventicles : and for vnity in religion : deliver'd in his 48th epistle to Vincentius.; Epistolae. Number 48. English
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Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing A4210; ESTC R4058
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8,337
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19
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their own have not submitted to the Righteousness of God For What do you else but establsh your own Righteousness when you say None can be Godly but those of your own Pâ—rty you are altogether alike except those amongst you who know the Truth and yet out of Stomack and Crossness fight against the Plain truth the wickedness of these perhaps is worse then Idolatry But this cannot easily be prov'd for this lodges in their own breast therefore all are Prosecuted with the like gentle Correction You who are called Donatists from Donatus seem milder then some other Sects for you do not Rage and Range about with Troops of Cruel Souldiers plundering But no Beast is called tame if he hurts no body because he wants Teeth or Clawes You say You would not hurt I think you cannot you dare not with your small numbers attempt the strength of your Adversaries I am sure that Sect which you were of formerly have severely executed the Lawes of the Emperours against Schismaticks and Hereticks against you and other Sectaries this we can prove upon Record Nay you were not separated from them when in their Petition to Julian they said That with him nothing but Justice prevail'd whom yet they knew to be an Apostate and Idolater so that they must confess that either they did shamefully Lye in saying so or else that Idolatry was Justice But suppose there was a Mistake in the word What think you of the Fact if nothing which you call unjust must be desired of Princes Why did you then ask of Julian that which the World counted unjust But you may say you Petition the Emperour for the recovery of your own you must not accuse any or desire to restrain their Liberty because we find no Example amongst the Apostles for this And Where do you find any President amongst them for the former When your Predecessors Accused Caecilian Bishop of Carthage as a Criminous Person before the Emperour you did not then Petâ—tion for your lost Goods but you slander'd an Innocent as we think and the event proved Then this What could be more wicked but if you did deliver a Criminal indeed to be Punish'd by the Secular Powers Why do you blame us for doing that which you your selves did before and we doe not blame you for doing it but for doing it Malitiously to ruine an Innocent not to Correct a Guilty one We justly complain of you who account it a Crime in us to Complain to a Christian Emperour of the Enemies of our Communion when as your Predecessors put in a Libel to the Emperour Constantine against Caecilian and contrary to the Canons of the Church You Complain'd of him to the Emperour before he had been Convicted by his Collegues The Emperour proceeding more Regularly Remitted the Cause back to the Bishops but you would not then submit but appeal'd to the Emperour again accusing not Caecilian only but all the Bishops whom the Emperour had appointed Judges of the Cause and when the Emperor had determined ye would not then yield to Truth and Peace What could Constantine determine against Caecilian and his Party had they been Convicted by their Accusers but the same that he did determine against those his Accusers who fail'd in the Proof of their Accusations He determined in the Cause That the Goods of those who were Convicted of False Accusation should be Confiscate If this Sentence had been past against Caecilian upon your Accusation and Proof of of the Crimes laid against him you would have been call'd Friends of the Church Defenders of Peace and Unity but when this Sentence is past against you who falsly accus'd the Bishop and would not be entreated to submit to the Unity of the Church you cryed out of Persecution You Contend That no man ought to be Compel'd to the Communion of the Church We must not return evil for evil Was it not well said of you long since What we Will is good and holy It is not unreasonable to believe That Constantines Decree against your Ancestors is of force against you and that all Princes especially the Christian ought to follow that Pattern when ever your Obstinacy compells them to it It is better to be urged to the Embracing of the Truth by the fear of losing your Earthly Possessions then to be suffer'd by the Temptation of Vain-glory to resist the Truth It is no Persecution to be Compel'd to that which is good It is true no man can be made good against his will but the fear of Suffering may make him leave off his Animosity against the Truth or make him willing to receive the Truth which he formerly knew not and persist in it when he knowes it This would perhaps be said to you in vain if we could not make it evident by many examples We know many not single persons only but whole Citties that were Donatists and Separatists now become good Catholick Christians heartily Detesting their Devillish Schisme and as heartily loving the Unity and Communion of the Church All which were made such Converts through the fear which you dislike of the Emperours Lawes made by Constantine and continued even to our present Emperour These Examples propounded to me by my Collegues made me to change my Opinion for I was first of that Opinion That no man ought to be Compel'd to the Unity of Christ That this was to be done only by Argument and Force of Disputation That Men were to be Convict by Reason not Compel'd by Lawes for this I thought could do nothing but make open Hereticks or Schismaticks Hypocritical and Counterfeit Catholicks but this Opinion I was Convinced to be an Error not so much by strength of Argument as by Experience and Example Mine own City which was formerly wholly Schismatical of Donatus Party is now Converted to the Unity of the Church by the fear of the Imperial Lawes and do so perfectly detest their former stubborness that you can hardly believe them ever to have been guilty Many other Cities more I knew so Converted that I found by experience in this Cause the truth of that which is written Prov. 9. Give Instruction to a Wise Man and he will be yet wiser For How many do we know who had a mind to return to the Churches Vnity being sufficiently satisfied of their duty but deferr'd their return onely out of fear of displeasing their own Party How many are hardened against the Truth by long Custome and Continuance in Error How many have therefore thought their Party to be the True Church because Security hath made them slothful and careless to know the Truth How many have been hindered from Communion with the Church by false Reports and Slanders of the Holy Service and our Governours How many continue in their several Schismes upon this Opinion That it is indifferent of what Party they be so long as they Profess Christianity if they were born and bred up in Donatus Party there they continued and thought that they ought not to be compell'd to the Unity of the Church To all these the Terror of the Imperial Lawes hath been so profitable that now some ingeniously confess We had a mind to return to the Church before God be thanked for these Lawes which have given us occasion to do it speedily and cut off all our former delayes Others say We believed the Church to have the Truth but old Custom detained us in our Error God be thanked who hath thus broken those Bonds and brought us to the Bond of Peace Others say We knew not the Truth nor had we any mind to learn it but the fear of these Laws hath made us inquisitive after it least by a foolish perseverance in our errors we should lose our Temporal estates without any recompence in another World God be thanked who hath thus quickned our negligence by the Terror of the Law and made us sollicitous to seek what formerly we did not care to find Others say We were Affrighted by false Rumours from entring into the Church which we should never have known to be false if we had not come to Church and we should never have come to Church if we had not been compell'd God be thanked who hath cast out this Fear by the fear of the Law and taught us by experience to see what foolish and vain stories LYING FAME Casts out upon the CHURCH Hencâ— we believe That what the Authors of this Sect Accused the Church of was false since we see their Posterity hath Feigned Things more False and VVorse Others say VVe thought it had been no matter where we Profest the Faith of Christ but God be Thanked that we have been Compell'd to the Unity of the Church and brought from our Schism to serve the one God in Vnity Should I oppose the Execution of these Good Laws and deprive the VVorld of so much Benefit and Advantage No Let the Kings of the Earth serve Christ by making LAVVES for Christ The Terror of Temporal Powers when it Opposes the Truth is to the Patient Sufferer a Glorious Tryal to the VVeak a dangerous Temptation but when it Presses the Truth upon those who are in Error it is to the VVife and Sincere a Profitable Admonition to the Senceless and Regardless an unprofitable Affliction CONSTANTINE the first Christian Emperor finding the Church Disturbed by several Schismes made a LAVV against all CONVENTICLES by which LAVV the Memory of Hereticks and Schismaticks was Destroyed Historiae tripartitae lib. 3. c. 11. Sozomen Eut. Histor lib. 2. c. 30. GRATIAN the Emperour gave LIBERTY to all to Communicate in what RELIGION they pleas'd which divided the Churches again which he could not Quiet but by a Law against Hereticks and those who Divided from the Church Hist Tripart l. 9. cap. 5. 7. FINIS