57. On Count Boniface, see p. 121, n. 63. (continued)
Against the Donatists 273 cy and the one returns to his service, while the other begins a service which he had not yet undertaken, the mark is not erased in either of them. In fact, is it not rather recognized in both of them and accorded due honor since it is the king's mark? As the Donatists cannot prove that what they are forced to is evil, they claim that they ought not to be forced into good. But we have shown that Paul was forced by Christ; therefore, the Church imitates her Lord in forcing them, although in her early days she did not expect to have to compel anyone in order to fulfill the prophetic utterance.
(24) Indeed, this is not an unreasonable deduction from that statement of the Apostle, where blessed Paul says: "Having in readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience shall be fulfilled" (2 Cor 10:6). In the same way, the Lord Himself commands the guest first to be brought in to His great supper, but afterward to be compelled, for, when the servant answered the king: "Lord, it is done as you have commanded, and yet there is room," he said: "Go out into the highways and hedges, and whomsoever you find, compel them to come in" (Lk 14:16–23). Thus, the obedience was first fulfilled in those who were first brought in gently, but the disobedience is put under restraint in those who are compelled. That is the purpose of that: "Compel them to come in," after he had first said: "Bring them in," and had been answered: "It is done as you have commanded, and yet there is room." If He meant us to understand that they are to be compelled by the fear engendered by miracles, many more divine miracles were wrought for those who were invited first, especially the Jews of whom it is said: "The Jews require signs" (1 Cor 1:22). Among the Gentiles, too, in the time of the Apostles, such miracles won faith in the Gospel so that, if the command was given to compel them by such means, it is more reasonable to believe that the first guests were compelled to come. Consequently, if the Church in the era of kings exercises, as she ought, the power which she has received by a divine gift, together with religion and faith, and if those who are found in the highways and hedges, that is, in heresies and schisms, are compelled to come in, she is not to be blamed for compelling them, but they [are to be blamed] for waiting to be compelled. The banquet of the Lord is the unity of the Body of Christ, not only in the sacrament of the altar, but also in "the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3). But of the Donatists we can say with absolute truth that they compel no one to what is good; whomsoever they compel, they compel only to evil.58
58. Ep. 185.22–24 (CSEL 57:20–23); trans. Parsons, FOTC 30:163–65. Augustine thought of this more as a treatise than a letter, entitling it, De correctione Donatistarum (retr. 2.48 [75]).