Psalms 60:3

28. We, however, are certain that no one could ever have been warranted in separating himself from the communion of all nations, because every one of us looks for the marks of the Church not in his own righteousness, but in the Divine Scriptures, and beholds it actually in existence, according to the promises. For it is of the Church that it is said,“As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters;” which could be called on the one hand “thorns” only by reason of the wickedness of their manners, and on the other hand “daughters” by reason of their participation in the same sacraments. …

247. Augustin answered: Against this error I have said much already, both in this work and elsewhere. But since you think that in this sentence you have so strong a confirmation of your vain opinions, that you deemed it right to end your epistle with these words, that they might remain as it were the fresher in the minds of your readers, I think it well to make a short reply. We recognize in heretics that baptism, which belongs not to the heretics but to Christ, in such sort as in fornicators, in unclean persons or effeminate, in idolaters, in poisoners, in those who retain enmity, in those who are fond of contention, in the credulous, in the proud, given to seditions, in the envious, in drunkards, in revellers; and in men like these we hold valid the baptism which is not theirs but Christ’s. …

13. “And the Heaven shall declare His righteousness” ( ver. 6 ). Truly this righteousness of God to us the “heavens have declared,” the Evangelists have foretold. Through them we have heard that some will be on the right hand, to whom the Householder saith, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive.” Receive what? “A kingdom.” In return for what thing? “I was an hungred, and ye gave Me to eat.” What so valueless, what so earthly, as to break bread to the hungry? At so much is valued the kingdom of heaven. “Break thy bread to the hungry, and the needy without covering bring into thy house; if thou seest one naked, clothe him.” If thou hast not the means of breaking bread, hast not house into which thou mayest bring, hast not garment wherewith thou mayest cover: give a cup of cold water, cast two mites into the treasury. …

16. “Therefore to the Lord I have cried out” ( ver. 16 ). The Body of Christ and the oneness of Christ in anguish, in weariness, in uneasiness, in the tribulation of its exercise, that One Man, Oneness in One Body set, when He was wearying His soul in crying out from the ends of the earth; saith, “From the ends of the earth to Thee I have cried out, when My heart was being vexed.” Himself one, but a oneness that One! and Himself one, not in one place one, but from the ends of the earth is crying as one. How from the ends of the earth should there cry one, except there were one? “I to the Lord have cried out.” Rightly do thou cry out to the Lord, cry not to Donatus: lest for thee he be instead of the Lord a lord, that under the Lord would not be a fellow-servant.

2. “Hearken, O God, to my supplication, give heed to my prayer” ( ver. 1 ). Who saith? He, as if One. See whether one: “From the ends of the earth to Thee I have cried, while my heart was being vexed” ( ver. 2 ). Now therefore not one: but for this reason one, because Christ is One, of whom all we are the members. For what one man crieth from the ends of the earth? There crieth not from the ends of the earth any but that inheritance, of which hath been said to the Son Himself, “Demand of Me, and I will give to Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and for Thy possession the boundaries of the earth.” This therefore Christ’s possession, this Christ’s inheritance, this Christ’s Body, this Christ’s one Church, this the Unity which we are, is crying from the ends of the earth.…But wherefore have I cried this thing? “While my heart was being vexed.” He showeth himself to be throughout all na …

4. “Preserve Thou My Soul, for I am holy” ( ver. 2 ). I know not whether any one could say this, “I am holy,” but He who was in the world without sin: He by whom all sins were not committed but remitted. We own it to be His voice saying, “Preserve Thou My Soul, for I am holy;” of course in that form of a servant which He had assumed. For in that was flesh, in that, was also a Soul. For He was not, as some have said, only Flesh and the Word: but Flesh and Soul also, and the Word, and all this, One Son of God, One Christ, One Saviour; in the form of God equal to the Father, in the form of a servant the Head of the Church. When therefore I hear, “for I am holy,” I recognise His voice: yet do I exclude my own? Surely He speaks inseparably from His body when He speaks thus. …

2. Let him add poverty then to poverty: let Him transfigure unto Himself our humble body: let Him be our Head, we His limbs, let there be two in one flesh.…For He hath deigned to hold even us as His limbs. The penitent also are among His limbs. For they are not shut out, nor separated from His Church: nor would He make the Church His spouse, unless by words like these: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Let us then hear what the head and the body prayeth, the bridegroom and bride, Christ and the Church, both one Person; but the Word and the flesh are not both one thing; the Father and the Word are both one thing; Christ and the Church are both one Person, one perfect man in the form of His own fulness.…Let us hear therefore Christ, poor within us and with us, and for our sakes. For the title itself indicates the poor one. …

6. But what he saith, “My pilgrimage hath been made distant,” are the words of those, that is, of the Church herself, who toileth on this earth. It is her voice, which crieth out from the ends of the earth in another Psalm, saying, “From the ends of the earth have I cried unto Thee.…Where then doth he groan, and among whom doth he dwell? “I have had my habitation among the tents of Kedar.” Since this is a Hebrew word, beyond doubt ye have not understood it. What meaneth, “I have had my habitation among the tents of Kedar”? “Kedar,” as far as we remember of the interpretation of Hebrew words, signifieth darkness. “Kedar” rendered into Latin is called tenebræ . Now ye know that Abraham had two sons, whom indeed the Apostle mentioneth, and declareth them to have been types of the two covenants…Ishmael therefore was in darkness, Isaac in light. …