Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Donatist Controversy/Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist/Book II/Chapter 80

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Chapter 79
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Donatist Controversy/Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist/Book II
Philip Schaff et al.
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
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Chapter 80.—175.  Petilianus said:  "Lastly, what is the justification of persecution?  I ask you, you wretched men, if it so be that you think that your sin rests on any authority of law."

176.  Augustin answered:  He who sins, sins not on the authority of the law, but against the authority of the law.  But since you ask what is the justification of persecution, I ask you in turn whose voice it is that says in the psalm, "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off."[1]  Seek therefore the reason or the measure of the persecution, and do not display your gross ignorance by finding fault in general terms with those who persecute the unrighteous.


Footnotes

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  1. ↑ Ps. ci. 5.
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