Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Donatist Controversy/Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist/Book II/Chapter 46

107.&#160; said:&#160; "In the first Psalm David separates the blessed from the impious, not indeed making them into parties, but excluding all the impious from holiness.&#160; &#8216;Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners.&#8217;&#160; Let him who had strayed from the path of righteousness, so that he should perish, return to it again.&#160; &#8216;Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.&#8217; &#160; When he gives this warning, O ye miserable men, why do you sit in that seat?&#160; &#8216;But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.&#160; And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season:&#160; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.&#160; The ungodly are not so:&#160; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.&#8217;&#160; He blindeth their eyes, so that they should not see.&#160; &#8216;Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.&#160; For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous:&#160; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.&#8217;"

108.&#160; answered:&#160; Who is there in the Scriptures that would not distinguish between these two classes of men?&#160; But you slanderously charge the corn with the offenses of the chaff; and being yourselves mere chaff, you boast yourselves to be the only corn.&#160; But the true prophets declare that both these classes have been mingled together throughout the whole world, that is, throughout the whole corn-field of the Lord, until the winnowing which is to take place on the day of judgment.&#160; But I advise you to read that first Psalm in the Greek version, and then you will not venture to reproach the whole world with being of the party of Macarius; because you will perhaps come to understand of what Macarius there is a party among all the saints, who throughout all nations are blessed in the seed of Abraham.&#160; For what stands in our language as "Blessed is the man," is in Greek &#924;&#945;&#967;&#8049;&#961;&#953;&#959;&#962; &#7936;&#957;&#8053;&#961;. &#160;But that Macarius who offends you, if he is a bad man, neither belongs to this division, nor is to its prejudice.&#160; But if he is a good man, let him prove his own work, that he may have glory in himself alone, and not in another.