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THE CHURCH
heed to the popular mode of speech and the popular notion of the militant church. Hence it was stated above that St. Augustine said [Dist. 4: 8, de Pen.; Friedberg, 1: 1232]: "If they have not perseverance, that is, if they do not abide in that for which they started out to be, then they are not truly called what they are called, and they are not what they are called. For these things do not exist for Him who knows what they will be in the future, that is, evil persons who have proceeded from being good"—ex bonis mali. This saying of Augustine should stand against all objections wherein ambiguity is to be noted.
