12 Wherefore, my brethren, by the simplicity of the dove did John learn that “This is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost,” unless to show that these are not doves who have scattered the Church? Hawks they were, and kites. The dove does not tear. And you see that they hold us up to hatred, for the persecutions, as they call them, which they have suffered. Bodily persecutions, indeed, if they are to be so called, they have suffered, since these were the scourges of the Lord, plainly administering temporal correction, lest He should have to condemn them eternally, if they did not acknowledge it and amend themselves.
They truly persecute the Church who persecute by means of deceit; they strike the heart more heavily who strike with the sword of the tongue; they shed blood more bitterly who, as far as they can, slay Christ in man. They seem to be in fear, as it were, of the judgment of the authorities. What does the authority do to you if you are good? But if you are evil, fear the authority; “For he bears not the sword in vain,” says the apostle. Draw not the sword wherewith you strike Christ.
Christian, what do you persecute in a Christian? What did the Emperor persecute in you? He persecuted the flesh; you in a Christian persecute the Spirit. You do not slay the flesh. And, nevertheless, they do not spare the flesh; as many as they were able, they slew with the sword; they spared neither their own nor strangers. This is known to all. The authority is hated because it is legitimate; he acts in a hated manner who acts according to the law; he acts without incurring hatred who acts contrary to the laws.
Give heed, each one of you, my brethren, to what the Christian possesses. His humanity he has in common with many, his Christianity distinguishes him from many, and his Christianity belongs to him more strictly than his humanity. For, as a Christian, he is renewed after the image of God, by whom man was made after the image of God; but as a man he might be bad, he might be a pagan, he might be an idolater. This you persecute in the Christian, which is his better part; for this by which he lives you wish to take away from him.
For he lives tempo rally according to the spirit of life, by which his body is animated, but he lives for eternity according to the baptism which he received from the Lord; you wish to take this away from him which he received from the Lord, this you wish to take away from him by which he lives. Robbers, with regard to those whom they wish to despoil, have the purpose to enrich themselves and to deprive their victims of all that they have; but you take from him, and with you there will not be anything more, for there does not accrue more to you because you take from him. But, truly, they do the same as those who take away the natural life: they take it away from another, and yet they themselves have not two lives.
Source: Tractates on the Gospel of John (New Advent)