Ishmael playing with Isaac, persecutes : 175 with their brethren. As therefore in the case of the sons of JOHN III.8.4. Jacob, to those born of the bond-women, it was no let to their possessing the kingdom, and receiving the land of promise upon equal terms with their brethren; their having birth of bond-women was no let to them, but the seed of the father prevailed: so whoever are baptized by evil men, seem as it were born of bond-women; but yet, because they are born of the seed of the Word of God, which is figured in Jacob, let them not be saddened, they shall possess the inheritance together with their brethren. Let him then be without care who is born of good seed; only let him not imitate the bond-woman if he be born of bond-woman. A bond-woman, evil, overweening, imitate thou not. For whence came it that the sons of Jacob, born of bond-women, possessed the land of promise with their brethren, whereas Ishmael, born of a bond-woman, was cast out from the inheritance? How, but because he was overweening, they lowly? He stretched forth his neck and wished to seduce his brother, playing with him. 12. A great mystery there! They were playing together, Ishmael and Isaac. Sarah saw them playing, and said to Abraham, Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the Gen. 21, son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. 9-12. And when Abraham was sorrowful, the Lord confirmed to him the saying of his wife. It is manifest that there is a mystery here, that the occurrence was pregnant with somewhat future. She saw them playing, and saith, Cast out the bond-woman and her son. What is this, brethren? What ill had Ishmael done to the boy Isaac by playing with him? Nay, but that playing, was a playing upon him, an illusion; that playing signified deception. For attend, my beloved, to this great mystery. The Apostle calls it persecution; that same playing, that same play, he calls persecution. He saith, namely, But as then he that was born after the flesh Gal. 4, a S. Aug. Serm. 3. Lusum illum Paulus persecutionem vocat: quia lusio illa illusio erat. Si illusio, seductio et deceptio est. Omnis lusus puerorum simulacrum est negotii majoris: et quando major ludit cum minore, quasi ut seducatur, sciens se habere negotia alia quæ intendit, et simulat quædam puero, id est, infirmo, ludens cum illo. Anim 29. 30. 176 Donatists persecute, by deluding. HOMIL. persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so now : XI. that is, they which are born after the flesh persecute them which are born after the Spirit. Who are born after the flesh? Lovers of the world, men enamoured of the present. Who born after the Spirit? They that are enamoured of the kingdom of heaven, lovers of Christ, they which long for life eternal, they which worship God freely. They play, and the Apostle calls it persecution. For, after the Apostle had said these words, And as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so now, he went on, and shewed of what persecution he spake: But what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond-woman and her son, for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. We ask where the Scripture saith this, that we may see whether any persecution on Ishmael's part towards Isaac went before this: and we find that this was said by Sarah when she saw the boys playing together. The playing which the Scripture saith that Sarah saw, this the Apostle calls persecution. Well then; they persecute you more, who by playing upon you seduce you: 'Come, come: be baptized here, here hast thou true baptism.' Play not thou: one is the true baptism, the other is play: thou wilt be seduced, and that will be to thee a grievous persecution. Better for thee it were, that thou shouldest gain Ishmael unto the kingdom; but Ishmael has not the will, because his will is to play. Hold thou the inheritance of the Father, and hear the saying: Cast out the bond-woman and her son, for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. 13. These men even dare to say that they use to suffer persecution from Catholic kings or from Catholic princes. What persecution do they endure? Affliction of the body: yet whether they have at any time suffered, or how they have suffered, let themselves know and settle it with their consciences; yet afflictions of the body let them have suffered the persecution which they practise is more grievous. Beware when Ishmael wants to play with Isaac, when he woos thee with blandishments, when he offers another baptism: answer thou, I have Baptism already. For if this baptism be true, he who wants to give thee Agar's duty is, "Return to thy Mistress.” 177 Gen. 16, 6: another, wants to cheat thee. Beware of the persecutor of JOHN III.3,4. the soul. For if the party of Donatus hath at any time suffered ought from Catholic princes, it suffered in regard of the body, not in regard of a cheating of the spirit. Hear, and see in the very facts of the Old Testament, how all were signs and indications of things to come. Sarah is found to have afflicted Agar the bondmaid: when the bondmaid began to be proud, Sarah complained to Abraham, and said, Cast out the bondwoman, she hath stretched out her Comp. And the woman complained of Abraham 5; 21,10. neck against me. as if it were Abraham's doing. But Abraham, as he was not bound to the bondmaid by lust of enjoying her, but by duty of begetting seed, as Sarah had given her to him to raise offspring by her, said to her, Behold, she is thy handmaid, Gen. 16, do with her as thou wilt. And Sarah afflicted her grievously, and she fled from her face. Lo, the free afflicted the bondwoman, and the Apostle calls not that persecution; the slave plays with his lord, and he calls it persecution; this affliction is not called persecution, and that playing is called persecution. What think ye, brethren? Do ye not understand what is signified? So therefore, when God will raise up the powers against heretics, against schismatics, against them which scatter the Church, against them which exsufflate Christ, against them which blaspheme Baptism, let them not marvel: for God raises them up, that Agar may be beaten by Sarah. Let Agar know herself, let her bow the neck for when she went humbled from the presence of her mistress, the Angel met her, and said, What aileth thee, Gen. 16, Agar, Sarah's maid? When she had complained of her mistress, what was said to her by the Angel? Return to thy Serm. 3. mistress. To this end, therefore, is she afflicted, that she de Agar с Alluding to the ceremony of exsufflation (Gr. insufflation, upúonua) in the exorcism preparatory to Baptism. S. Cyrill. Procatech. §. 9. S. Aug. Op. imperf. c. Julian iii. 144. calls this a rite universæ antiquissimæ Ecclesiæ' even in the baptism of infants; and ibid. 182. answers the question' cur baptizandi et exsufflentur et exorcismo mundentur' by referring to the text Col 1, 13. In the 7th Canon of the first Council of Constantinople the following rule is given for the treatment of converts from the blasphemous heresies, Eunomian, Sabellian, N &c. "These we receive as heathens: S. Aug. et Is maele. 178 Christian Powers must repress heresy and schism. HOMIL. may return. And would that she may return! for her offspring, like as the sons of Jacob, shall hold the inheritance with their brethren. XI. 14. But they marvel that Christian Powers are moved against detestable scatterers of the Church. And should they not be moved? Else how should they give account of their rule to God? Mark, beloved, what I say, that it appertaineth to Christian kings of this present world, that they should wish their Mother the Church, of whom they are spiritually born, to have peace in their times. We read Daniel, Daniel's visions and prophetical histories. The three children chap. 3. in the fire praised the Lord: king Nebuchadnezzar marvelled at the children praising God, and around them the fire doing them no hurt: and when he had marvelled, what said king Nebuchadnezzar, he who was not even a Jew or circumcised, he who had set up his own image, and had compelled all people to worship it; yet, moved by the praises of the three children, when he saw the Majesty of God Who was present in the fire, what saith he? And I will make a decree to all tribes and tongues in all the earth. What decree? Whoso shall speak blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall perish, and their houses shall be brought to destruction. Lo, what severity is shewn by this alien king, that the God of Israel should not be blasphemed, because He was able to deliver three children from the fire! And they would not that Christian kings should use severity when men exsufflate Christ, by Whom, not three children, but the whole world with its kings is delivered from hell-fire! For those three children, my brethren, were delivered from temporal fire. Is not the Same the God of the Maccabees, Who was the God of the three children? These He delivered from the fire: those in the fiery torments sunk indeed in body, but in mind they stood firm in the commandments of the Law. 2 Macc. These were openly delivered, those in secret crowned. It is chap. 7. more, to be delivered from the flame of hell than from a furnace of a human Power. If then Nebuchadnezzar praised and proclaimed and gave glory to God, by sending a decree throughout his kingdom, Whoso shall speak blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall perish, and their houses shall be brought to destruction: how The pretended martyrs' of the Donatists, 179 can these kings but be moved, who mark the deliverance not JOHN of three children from the flame, but of their own selves from III.3.4. hell, when they see Christ, by Whom they are delivered, exsufflated in Christians, when they hear it said to a Christian, 'Say that thou art not a Christian?' These people wish to do the like, and yet they do not wish to suffer, not, at any rate, the like punishment. 15. For see what they do, and what they suffer. They murder souls, they are afflicted in the body. They inflict eternal deaths, and complain that they suffer temporal deaths. And yet what deaths do they suffer? They put forth to us, I know not what martyrs of their own in persecution. 'Lo, Marculus was thrown headlong from a rock: lo, Donatus of Bagaia was cast into a well.' d 6 S. Optatus iii. 4 ff. relates, that Donatus, bishop of Bagaia (or Vagaia in Numidia) and Marculus, another Donatist bishop, were slain in (or in consequence of) an encounter with the soldiery, while in obedience to the instructions of Donatus (of Carthage) they, with a band of Circumcelliones, were opposing the imperial commissioners Paulus and Macarius. (The date is A.D. 347, or 348.) He remarks that the death of these men furnished their party, ever after, with matter of crimination against the Catholic Church: inde invidiam unitati factam,' and, aliqui accusandam vel fugiendam æstimant unitatem, quod Marculus et Donatus dicantur occisi et mortui !' so S. Augustine c. Litt. Petil. 2, 46. illi de quibus_maximam invidiam facere soletis.' For the Donatists honoured them as martyrs with a yearly celebration, which kept alive their passions against the Church. An instance occurs in the Gesta Collat. Carthag. 1, 187. where Dativus, donat. bishop of Nova-petra, where Marculus was said to have suffered, exclaims: 'Adversarium non habeo, quia illic est domnus Marculus, cujus sanguinem Deus exiget in die judicii.' The don. Acts of Martyrdom of this Marculus are extant: published by Mabillon Analect. t. iv. Du Pin Monum. hist. Donat. p. 303. (In the Martyrology which is falsely attributed to Bede, this same Marculus is represented, at 6 Kal. Dec., as a Catholic martyr, qui in Nicomedia [by mistake for Numidia] temp. Constantis tyr. perse. cutiones maximas pertulit, ad extremum ab alta rupe præcipitatus:' as When have Roman Powers in the Acta above mentioned. The |