14.
L. I beseech you lay aside the methods of the philosophers and let us talk with Christian simplicity; that is, if you are willing to follow not the logicians, but the Galilean fishermen. Does it seem right to you that an Arian should be a bishop?
O. You prove him a bishop because you receive those he has baptized. And it is here that you are to blame:—Why are there walls of separation between us when we are at one in faith and in receiving Arians?
L. I asked you before not to talk like a philosopher, but like a Christian.
O. Do you wish to learn, or to argue?
L. Of course I argue because I want to know the reason for what you do.
O. If you argue, you have already had an answer. I receive an Arian bishop for the same reason that you receive a person who is only baptized. If you wish to learn, come over to my side: for an opponent must be overcome, it is only a disciple who can be taught.
L. Before I can be a disciple, I must hear one preach whom I feel to be my master.
O. You are not dealing quite fairly: you wish me to be your teacher on the terms that you may treat me as an opponent whenever you please. I will teach you therefore in the same spirit. We agree in faith, we agree in receiving heretics, let us also be at one in our terms of communion.
L. That is not teaching, but arguing.
O. As you ask for peace with a shield in your hand, I also must carry my olive branch with a sword grafted in it.
L. I drop my hands in token of submission. You are conqueror. But in laying down my arms, I ask the meaning of the oath you force me to take.
O. Certainly, but first I congratulate you, and thank Christ my God for your good dispositions which have made you turn from the P. 327 unsavoury teaching of the 1 Sardinians to that which the whole world approves as true; and no longer say as some do, 2“Help, Lord; for the godly man teaseth.” By their impious words they make of none effect the cross of Christ, subject the Son of God to the devil, and would have us now understand the Lord’s lamentation over sinners to apply to all men, 3“What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?” But God forbid that our Lord should have died in vain. 4 The strong man is bound, and his goods are spoiled. What the Father says is fulfilled, 5“Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” 6“Then the channels of water appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare.” 7“In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” The Psalmist fully possessed by God sings, 8“The swords of the enemy are come to an end, and the cities which thou hast overthrown.”
That is the followers of Lucifer, whose see was in Sardinia. ↩
Ps. xii. 1 . The Luciferians believed that few or none outside their own sect could be saved. ↩
Ps. xxx. 9 . ↩
Mark iii. 27 . ↩
Ps. ii. 8 . ↩
Ps. xviii. 15 . ↩
Lit. In the sun hath he placed his tabernacle, and there is none who can hide himself from the heat thereof. Ps. xix. 6 . ↩
Ps. ix. 6 . Sept. Vulg. Syr. ↩
