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Against the Donatists

St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917

Book 5, An Answer to the Argument, that a Man Cannot Give that Which He Has Not

I return now to that question of yours:
‘How is he, who has not anything to give, able to give?’

Whence comes this saying? Where can it be found? It has not been read in a book, but has been brought in from the street.¹

‘How is he, who has not anything to give, able to give?’

These words have not been written in the Law, for if (as you will have it) it is man who gives, God does nothing----and if God does nothing, and if everything that has to be given is in your hands, then [the baptised] are converted to you. Let those whom you baptise be washed in your name. Blush at the most blessed Paul, who cries out and expresses his thanksgiving:
‘Have you been baptised in my name?’²

He rejoices that he baptised only two persons and one household, but you strive to rebaptise whole peoples, and are contented³ both to have sinned in the past, and to go on sinning, saying:
‘What does he give, who has not anything to give?’

He, in whom we believe, is Himself the giver of that in which we believe, not another through whose instrumentality we are brought to believe.⁴ Besides, under John a vast⁵ multitude of men were baptised. Prove (if you can) that John either received, or possessed, anything to give.

He was the ‘Minister’⁶; the gift was from God, who does not fail in giving. And now whilst we all are Ministers of Baptism, the works are man’s, but the gifts are from God.⁷

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