Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow XXXIV.: ST. AUSTIN'S WORDS Letter 166,152 to the Donatists. - A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, 'Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full'

Return to Title Page for A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’

Search this Title:

XXXIV.: ST. AUSTIN’S WORDS Letter 166,152 to the Donatists. - Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’ [1686]

Edition used:

A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’, edited, with an Introduction by John Kilcullen and Chandran Kukathas (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


XXXIV.

ST. AUSTIN’S WORDS

Letter 166,152 to the Donatists.

Must not he be abandon’d to all shame, who won’t submit to what Truth ordains by the Voice of the Sovereign?

ANSWER

I own, he must be abandon’d, that refuses submitting to a Sovereign when persuaded he enjoins nothing but the Truth: yet, if I may presume to say it, he exposes himself on the other hand to the Laughter of all reasonable Men, who censures, as abandon’d to shame, such as refuse to submit to what Emperors, in his opinion Enemys to the Truth, ordain against the Light of his Conscience. Now this is the case of all the Persecuted; it’s therefore ridiculous to tell ’em, they refuse submitting to the Truth, speaking by the mouth of the Sovereign. This can properly reach only those who, persuaded of its being the Truth, refuse obstinately to submit to it.

[152. ]In the modern numbering, Letter 105.