Answer to Letters of Petilian, Bishop of Cirta

¹⁵⁷ Petilianus said: "To you the prophet says, ‘Peace, peace; and where is there peace?'"

158. Augustine answered: It is you that say this to us, not the prophet. We therefore answer you: If you ask where peace is to be found, open your eyes, and see of whom it is said, "He makes wars to cease in all the world." If you ask where peace is to be found, open your eyes to see that city which cannot be hidden, because it is built upon a hill; open your eyes to see the mountain itself, and let Daniel show it to you, growing out of a small stone, and filling the whole earth. But when the prophet says to you, "Peace, peace; and where is there peace?" what will you show? Will you show the party of Donatus, unknown to the countless nations to whom Christ is known? It is surely not the city which cannot be hid; and whence is this, except that it is not founded on the mountain? "For He is our peace, who has made both one," — not Donatus, who has made one into two.