1. Rom. xiii. 2-4.
190 ST. AUGUSTINE
Jewish people, and from communion in partaking along with them of the sacraments then appointed.
B. Later View: Compel Them to Come In
*To His Brother Emeritus, Beloved and Longed
For, Augustine sends greetings.
I know that it is not on the possession of good talents and a liberal education that the salvation of the soul depends; but when I hear of anyone who is thus endowed holding a different view from that which truth imperatively insists upon on a point which admits of very easy examination, the more I wonder at such a man, the more I burn with desire to make his acquaintance, and to converse with him; or if that be impossible, I long to bring his mind and mine into contact by exchanging letters, which wing their flight even between places far apart. . . . The civil powers defend their conduct in persecuting schismatics by the rule which the apostle laid down: "Whoso resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." ^ The whole question therefore is, whether schism be not an evil work, or whether you have not caused schism, so that your resistance of the powers that be is in a good cause a. Letters, LXXXVII, 1, 7-9.
1. Rom. xiii. 2-4.