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We confess one baptism for the remission of sins and for life eternal.
For baptism declares the Lord's death. We are indeed "buried with
the Lord through baptism," as saith the divine Apostle. So then,
as our Lord died once for all, we also must be baptized once for all,
and baptized according to the Word of the Lord, In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, being taught the
confession in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those, then, who,
after having been baptized into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and
having been taught that there is one divine nature in three
subsistences, are rebaptized, these, as the divine Apostle says,
crucify the Christ afresh. For it is impossible, he saith, for
those who were once enlightened, &c., to renew them again unto
repentance: seeing they crucify to themselves the Christ afresh, and
put Him to an open shame. But those who were not baptized into the
Holy Trinity, these must be baptized again. For although the divine
ApoStle says: Into Christ and into His death were we baptized, he
does not mean that the invocation of baptism must be in these words,
but that baptism is an image of the death of Christ. For by the three
immersions, baptism signifies the three days of our Lord's
entombment. The baptism then into Christ means that believers are
baptized into Him. We could not believe in Christ if we were not
taught confession in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For Christ
is the Son of the Living God, Whom the Father anointed with the
Holy Spirit: in the words of the divine David, Therefore God,
thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows. And Isaiah also speaking in the person of the Lord says,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me.
Christ, however, taught His own disciples the invocation and said,
Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. For since Christ made us for incorruption, and we
transgressed His saving command. He condemned us to the corruption of
death in order that that which is evil should not be immortal, and when
in His compassion He stooped to His servants and became like us, He
redeemed us from corruption through His own passion. He caused the
fountain of remission to well forth for us out of His holy and
immaculate side, water for our regeneration, and the washing away of
sin and corruption; and blood to drink as the hostage of life eternal.
And He laid on us the command to be born again of water and of the
Spirit, through prayer and invocation, the Holy Spirit drawing nigh
unto the water. For since man's nature is twofold, consisting of
soul and body, He bestowed on us a twofold purification, of water and
of the Spirit the Spirit renewing that part in us which is after His
image and likeness, and the water by the grace of the Spirit cleansing
the body from sin and delivering it from corruption, the water indeed
expressing the image of death, but the Spirit affording the earnest of
life.
For from the beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters, and anew the Scripture witnesseth that water has the power of
purification. In the time of Noah God washed away the sin of the
world by water. By water every impure person is purified, according
to the law, even the very garments being washed with water. Elias
shewed forth the grace of the Spirit mingled with the water when he
burned the holocaust by pouring on water. And almost everything is
purified by water according to the law: for the things of sight are
symbols of the things of thought. The regeneration, however, takes
place in the spirit: for faith has the power of making us sons (of
God), creatures as we are, by the Spirit, and of leading us into
our original blessedness.
The remission of sins, therefore, is granted alike to all through
baptism: but the grace of the Spirit is proportional to the faith and
previous purification. Now, indeed, we receive the firstfruits of
the Holy Spirit through baptism, and the second birth is for us the
beginning and seal and security and illumination s of another life.
It behoves as, then, with all our strength to steadfastly keep
ourselves pure from filthy works, that we may not, like the dog
returning to his vomit, make ourselves again the slaves of sin. For
faith apart from works is dead, and so likewise are works apart from
faith. For the true faith is attested by works.
Now we are baptized into the Holy Trinity because those things which
are baptized have need of the Holy Trinity for their maintenance and
continuance, and the three subsistences cannot be otherwise than
present, the one with the other. For the Holy Trinity is
indivisible.
The first baptism was that of the flood for the eradication of sin.
The second was through the sea and the cloud: for the cloud is the
symbol of the Spirit and the sea of the water. The third baptism was
that of the Law: for every impure person washed himself with water,
and even washed his garments, and so entered into the camp. The
fourth was that of John, being preliminary and leading those who were
baptized to repent-once, that they might believe in Christ:
Ego enim, inquit, baptizo vos aqua: qui autem post me veniet, ipse vos baptizabit Spiritu sancto et
igne. Itaque Joannes ad Spiritum suscipiendum ante per aquam purgabat. Quintum, Domini
baptisma, quo ipse baptizatus fuit. Baptizatus est autem, non quod ipse purgatione indigeret; sed
meam sibi purgationem asciscens, ut capita draconum in aquis contereret; ut peccatum obrueret,
ac totum veterem Adamum in aqua sepeliret; ut baptismum sanctificaret; ut legem impleret; ut
Trinitatis mysterium aperiret; ut semel tandem suscipiendi baptismi formam et exemplum
praeberet. Baptizamur autem et nos quoque perfecto Domini baptismo, per aquam videlicet et
Spiritum. Porro Christus idcirco igne baptizare dicitur, quia Spiritus gratiam in sanctos apostolos
effudit, quemadmodum Dominus ipse dixerat: Joannes quidem baptizavit aqua, vos autem
baptizabimini Spiritu sanclo et igne, non post multos hos dies: vel etiam ob castigatorium ignis futuri
baptismum. Sextum baptisma, in poenitentia et lacrymis versatur: estque sane grave et molestum.
Septimum, est quod sanguinis profusione ac martyrio perficitur, quo et Christus ipse nostri causa
defunctus est. Estque illud perquam augustum ac beatum, quod nullis posthac sordibus inquinetur.
Octavum denique et postremum illud est, non jam salutiferum, verum ita malitiam auferens, quando
suus jam malitiae et peccato locus non erit, tat tamen sempiternum excruciet ac puniat.
Spiritus Sanctus columbae specie et ignis. Porro Spiritus sanctus corporali specie, sicut Columba
ad Dominum descendit, sicque tum baptismi nostri primitias subindicabat, tum corpus
cohonestabat: quoniam et hoc quoque per deificationern Deus erat. Adde, quod columba
cessasse diluvium olim nuntiaverit. Ignis vero specie in sanctos apostolos descendit, eo quod Deus
esset. Deus enim ignis consumens est.
Olei unctio. At vero oleum idcirco ad baptismum adhibetur, quia unctionem nostram significat,
nosque christos facit, insuper Dei misericordiam per Spiritum sanctum nobis pollicetur. Nam et
columba illis qui incolumes a diluvio evaserant, oleae ramum praeter omnem spent olim attulit.
Joannes, ut baptizatus. Joannes imposita divino Domini capiti manu, et cruore proprio baptizatus
fuit.
Caeterum baptismum diutius prorogare non oportet dum accedentium fidem contestantur actiones.
Si quis dolo ad baptismum accesserit, tantum abest ut hinc utilitatis quid piam capiat, ut
condemnationem potius accersat sibi.
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