O PRINCETON, N. J. <f' 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Agueiv Coll. on Baptism, No. 
 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/scripturalviews1840puse 
 
SCRIPTURAL VIEWS 
 
 OF 
 
 HOLY BAPTISM, 
 
 AS ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 
 CONSENT OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH, 
 
 AND CONTRASTED WITH THE 
 
 SYSTEMS OF MODERN SCHOOLS. 
 
 REV. E. Br PUSEY, D. D., 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, 
 RECilUS rUQFESSOR OF HEBREW, AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 CHARLES HENRY, 142 FULTON STREET. 
 
 1840. 
 

 
 o- -^i ^ 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Iln the English edition this was placed before No. 47, with which the 2nd 
 Volume of that edition commenced.] 
 
 In completing the second volume of a publication, to which the 
 circumstances of the day have given rise, it may be right to allude 
 to a change which has taken place in them since the date of its com- 
 mencement. At that time, in consequence of long security, the at- 
 tention of members of our Church had been but partially engaged 
 in ascertaining the grounds of their adherence to it ; but the immi- 
 nent peril to which all that is dear to them has since been exposed, 
 has naturally turned their thoughts that way, and obliged them to de- 
 fend it on one or other of the principles which are usually put for- 
 ward on its behalf. Discussions have thus been renewed in various 
 quarters, on points which had long remained undisturbed ; and, 
 though numbers continue undecided in opinion, or take up a tempo- 
 rary position in some one of the hundred middle points which may 
 be assumed between the two main theories in which the question 
 issues, and others again, have deliberately entrenched themselves in 
 the modern or ultra-protestant alternative, yet, on the whole, there 
 has been much hearty and intelligent adoption, and much respectful 
 study, of those more primitive views maintained by our great Di- 
 vines. As the altered state of public information and opinion has a 
 necessary bearing on the efforts of those who desire to excite atten- 
 tion to the subject, (in which number the writers of these Tracts 
 are to be included,) it will not be inappropriate briefly to state in this 
 place, what it is conceived is the present position of the great body 
 of Churchmen with reference to it. 
 
 While we have cause to be thankful for the sounder and more ac- 
 curate language which is now very generally adopted among well- 
 judging men on ecclesiastical subjects, we must beware of over-es- 
 timating what has been done, and so becoming sanguine in our hopes 
 
of success, or slackening our exertions to secure it. Many nnore per- 
 sons, doubtless, have taken up a profession of the main doctrine 
 in question, that, namely, of the One Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
 than fully enter into it. This is to be expected, it being the pecu- 
 liarity of all religious teaching, that words are imparted before ideas, 
 A child learns his Creed or Catechism before he understands it ; 
 and in beginning any deep subject we are all but children to the end 
 of our lives. The instinctive perception of a rightly instructed mind, 
 the prima facie force of the argument, or the authority of our cele- 
 brated writers, have all had their due and extensive infiuence in fur- 
 thering the reception of the doctrine, when once it was openly main- 
 tained ; to which must be added the prospect of the loss of state 
 protection, which made it necessary to look out for other reasons for 
 adherence to the Church besides that of obedience to a civil ma- 
 gistrate. Nothing which has spread quickly, has been received tho- 
 roughly. Doubtless there are a number of seriously-minded per- 
 sons, who think they admit the doctrine in question much more fully 
 than they do, and who would be startled at seeing that reahzed in 
 particulars, which they confess in an abstract form. Many there are 
 who do not at all feel that it is capable of a practical application : and, 
 while they bring it forward on special occasions, in formal expositions 
 of faith, or in answer to a direct interrogatory, let it slip from their 
 minds almost entirely in their daily conduct or their religious teach- 
 ing, from the long and inveterate habit of thinking and acting without 
 it. We must not then at all be surprised at finding that to modify 
 the principles and motives on which men act is not the work of a day ; 
 nor at undergoing disappointments, at witnessing relapses, miscon- 
 ceptions, sudden disgusts, and on the other hand, abuses and per- 
 versions of the true doctrine, in the case of those who have taken it 
 up with greater warmth than discernment. 
 
 And in the next place, it will be found that much more has been 
 done in awakening Churchmen to the truth of the Apostolic Com- 
 mission as a fact, and to the admission of it as a duty, than to the 
 enjoyment of it as a privilege. If asked what is the use of adher- 
 ing to the Church, they will commonly answer that it is commanded, 
 that all acts of obedience meet w^ith their reward from Almighty 
 God, and this in the number ; but the notion of the Church as the 
 storehouse and direct channel of grace, as a Divine Ordinance, not 
 merely to be maintained for order's sake, or because schism is a sin, 
 but to be approached joyfully and expectantly as a definite instni- 
 ment, or rather the appointed means, of spiritual blessings, — as an 
 Ordinance which conveys secret strength and life to every one who 
 shares in it, unless there be some actual moral impediment in his 
 own mind, — this is a doctrine which as yet is but faintly understood 
 among us. Nay, our subtle Enemy has so contrived, that by aflfix- 
 
ing to this blessed truth the stigma of Popery, numbers among us 
 are effectually deterred from profiting by a gracious provision, in- 
 tended for the comfort of our faith, but in their case wasted. 
 
 The particular deficiency here alluded to, may also be described 
 by referring to another form under which it shows itself, viz. the 
 a priori reluctance in those who beheve the Apostolical Commission, 
 to appropriate to it the power of consecrating the Lord's Supper ; 
 as if there were some antecedent improbability in God's gifts being 
 lodged in particular observances, and distributed in a particular way ; 
 and as if the strong wish, or moral worth, of the individual could 
 create in the outward ceremony a virtue which it had not received 
 from above. Rationalistic, or (as they may more properly be called) 
 carnal notions concerning the Sacraments, and on the other hand, a 
 superstitious apprehension of resting in them, and a slowness to be- 
 lieve the possibility of God's having literally blessed ordinances with 
 invisible power, have, alas ! infected a large mass of men in our com- 
 munion. There are those whose " word will eat as doth a canker ;" 
 and it is to be feared, that we have been over-near certain celebrated 
 Protestant teachers, Puritan or Latitudinarian, and have suffered in 
 consequence. Hence we have almost embraced the doctrine, that 
 God conveys grace only through the instrumentality of the mental 
 energies, that is, through faith, prayer, active spiritual contempla- 
 tions or [what is called] communion with God, in contradiction to 
 the primitive view, according to which the Church and her Sacra- 
 ments are the ordained and direct visible means of conveying to the 
 soul what is in itself supernatural and unseen. For example, would 
 not most men maintain, on the first view of the subject, that to ad- 
 minister the Lord's Supper to infants, or to the dying and apparently 
 insensible, however consistently pious and believing in their past 
 lives, must be, under all circumstances, and in every conceivable 
 case, a superstition ? and yet neither practice is without the sanction 
 of primitive usage. And does not this account for the prevailing 
 indisposition to admit that Baptism conveys regeneration ? Indeed, 
 this may even be set down as the essence of Sectarian Doctrine, 
 (however its mischief m.ay be restrained or compensated, in the case 
 of individuals,) to consider faith and not the Sacraments, as the pro- 
 per instrument of justification and other gospel gifts ; instead of 
 holding, that the grace of Christ comes to us altogether from with- 
 out, (as from Him, so through externals of His ordaining,) faith be- 
 ing but the sine qua ncn, the necessary condition on our parts for 
 duly receiving it. 
 
 It has been with a view of meeting this cardinal deficiency (as it 
 may be termed) in the religion of the day, that the Tract on Baptism, 
 contained in the latter half of this volume, has been inserted ; which 
 
is to be regarded, not as an inquiry into one single or isolated doc- 
 trine, but as a delineation, and serious examination of a modern sys- 
 tem of theology, of extensive popularity and great speciousness, in 
 its elementary and characteristic principles. 
 
 Note. The Treatise on Baptism with which this volume begins, is printed 
 from the second English edition, revised and enlarged by the Author. — Ame- 
 rican Editor. 
 
TRACTS FOR THE TIMES, 
 ' No. 67, 
 
 (Ad Clerum,) 
 SCRIPTURAL VIEWS OF HOLY BAPTISM, 
 
 AS ESTABLISHED BY THE CONSENT OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH, AND 
 COJSTTRASTED WITH THE SYSTEMS ©F MODERN SCHOOLS. 
 
 WTiat sparkles in that lucid flood 
 
 Is water, by gross mortals ey'd : 
 But seen by Faith, 'tis Blood 
 
 Out of a dear Friend's side. 
 
 Christian Year. Hol^ Baptism, 
 
 PART L 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 ON THE PRm'CIPLES NECESSARY FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF SCRIP- 
 TURAL TRUTH, AND SOME OBSTACLES WHICH OF LATE HAVE PRE- 
 VENTED MEN FROM RECEIVING THAT OF BAPTISMAL REGENERA- 
 TION. 
 
 Every pious and well instructed member of our Church will in 
 'the abstract acknowledge, that in examining whether any doctrine be 
 a portion of revealed truth, the one subject of inquiry must be, wheth- 
 er it be contained in Holy Scripture ; and that in this investigation, 
 while, in proportion to the fulness of the evidence, he defers to the 
 interpretations haraied down to us through the early Church, so also 
 must he lay aside all reference to the supposed influence of such 
 doctrine, the supposed religious character of those who held it at any 
 given time, and the like. 
 
 Any right-minded person, I say, will readily acknowledge this in 
 the abstract ; for to judge of doctrines by their supposed influence 
 upon men's hearts, would imply that we know much more of our own 
 nature, and what is necessary or conducive to its restoration, than we 
 
8 
 
 do : it would be like setting about to heal ourselves, instead of re- 
 ceiving with implicit faith and confidence whatever the Great Physi- 
 cian of our souls has provided for us. The real state of the case is 
 indeed just the contrary of what this habit would imply. We can, 
 in truth, know little or nothing of the efficacy of any doctrine but 
 what we have ourselves believed and experienced. Even in matters 
 of our own experience we may easily deceive ourselves, and ascribe 
 our spiritual progress exclusively to the reception of the one or the 
 other truth, whereas it has depended upon a number of combining 
 causes which God has ordered for our good, upon a great variety af 
 means, by which God has been drawing us to Himself, whereof we 
 have seized upon one or two of the principal only. In other cases we 
 may be altogether mistaken. Thus, to take a published instance; a 
 person now living has said of himself that " he read himself into un- 
 belief, and afterwards read himself back into belief." As if mere 
 diligent study could restore any one who had fallen from the faith ! 
 Whereas, without considering what circumstances, beside the read- 
 ing of infidel books, led him to infidelity, or what commencing un- 
 soundness led him to follow up the reading of infidel books, on which 
 he was not competent to judge ; — the very fact of reading at one 
 time infidel, at another Christian, writings, implies that the frame of 
 mind was different at each time ; so that by his own account, other 
 causes must have combined both to his fall, and his restoration. 
 Again, he himself incidentally shows that, though a sceptic, he still 
 continued to exercise considerable self-denial, for the welfare of 
 others : so that among the instruments of his restored faith, may 
 have been one which he omitted, that his benevolence, like that of 
 Cornelius, and the prayers of those, whom he benefitted, went up as 
 a memorial before God.* But if we can be mistaken, even as to the 
 influence of what we have tried, much more assuredly must we, in 
 spiritual matters, be in ignorance of what we have not tried. We 
 may have some intimation with regard to such questions, whether of 
 doctrine or of practice, from the experience of good men ; but so far 
 from being judges about them, it will often happen that precisely 
 what we are most inclined to disparage, will be that which is most 
 needful for us. For, since all religious truth or practice is a correc- 
 tive or purifier of our natural tendencies, we shall generally be in ig- 
 norance beforehand, what will so correct or purify them. Our own 
 palate is disordered, our own eye dimmed : until God then has re- 
 stored, by His means, our spiritual taste, or our spiritual vision, we 
 should select for ourselves very blindly or undistinguishingly. In 
 matter of fact, the Cliristian creed has been repeatedly pared down, 
 
 * Knox's Correspondence, t. ii. p. 586, 7. " It has often struck me that 
 probably this good man was rewarded for his fraternal piety by his providen- 
 tial conversion to Christianity." 
 
as every one knows, in consequence of men's expunging beforehand, 
 what they thought prejudicial to the effect of the other portions of 
 Scripture truth. Thus, early Heretics objected to the truth of the 
 human nature of Christ : against the Reformers it was urged that 
 the doctrine of "justification by faith only" was opposed to sanctifi- 
 cation and holiness : Luther, (although he afterwards repented,) ex- 
 cepted against God's teaching by St. James, and called his Epistle 
 an "Epistle of straw ;" fanatics of all ages have rejected the use of 
 both Sacraments : stated or premeditated prayer has been regarded 
 as mere formality, and the like. And in these or similar cases, 
 when at a distance, we can readily see how some wrong tendency 
 of mind suggested all these objections, and how the very truth or 
 practice objected to, would have furnished the antidote which the 
 case needed. We can see e. g. how stated or fixed prayer would 
 have disciplined the mind, how a form would have tended to make 
 the subjects of prayer more complete : for we ourselves have felt, 
 how, by the prayers which the Church has put into our mouths, we 
 have been taught to pray for blessings, our need of which we might 
 not have perceived, or which we might have thought it presumption 
 to pray for. And ihis is a sort of witness placed in our hands, to tes- 
 tify to us, how in other cases also we ought with thankful deference 
 to endeavor to incorporate into the frame of our own minds each por- 
 tion of the system which God has ordained for us, not daring to call 
 any thing of little moment, which He has allowed to enter into it ; 
 much less presuming to "call that common, which God hath 
 cleansed," or to imagine that, because we cannot see its effects or 
 should think it likely to be injurious, it may not be both healthful 
 and essential. 
 
 The doctrine, then, of Baptismal Regeneration (rightly understood) 
 may have a very important station in God's scheme of salvation, 
 although many of us may not understand its relation to the rest of 
 that dispensation, and those who do not believe it, ca77??oi understand 
 it. For thus is the method of God's teaching throughont; "first, be- 
 lieve and then ye shall understand."* And this may be said, in Christ- 
 ian warning, against those hard words, in which Christians sometimes 
 allow lliemselves ; as, " the deadening doctrine of Baptismal Re- 
 generation ;" language which can only serve to darken the truth to 
 those who use it, and which is by so much the more dangerous, since 
 all Christians believe that Regeneration sometimes accompanies 
 Baptism. Since, also Baptismal Regeneration was the doctrine of 
 
 * "We are not therefore ashamed of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 because miscreants in scorn have upbraided us, that the highest point of our 
 wisdom is. Believe. That which is true, and neither can be discerned by 
 sense nor concluded by mere natural principles, must have principles of re- 
 vealed truth whereupon to build itself, and an habit of Faith in us, where- 
 with principles of that kind are apprehended." — Hooker, L. v. ^ 63. 
 
10 
 
 the Universal Church of Christ in its hoHest ages, and our o\vn re- 
 formers (to whom, on other points, men are wont to appeal as having 
 been highly gifted with God's Holy Spirit) retained this doctrine, it 
 would seem to require but little modesty in a private Christian, not 
 to feel so confident in his own judgment, as to denounce, in terms so 
 unmeasured, w-hat may after all be the teaching of God ; " lest haply 
 he be found to fight against God." 
 
 Others again, holding rightly the necessity of Regeneration for 
 every one descended of Adam, would strongly set forth this neces- 
 sity ; but whether God have ordinarily annexed this gift to Baptism, 
 this they would have passed over as a difl[icult or curious question. 
 They bid men to examine themselves whether they have the fruits of 
 regeneration ; if not, to pray that they be regenerate. " This abso- 
 lute necessity of regeneration," they say, "is the cai'dinal point ; this 
 is wliat we practically want for rousing men to the sense of their 
 danger, and for the saving of their souls : what privileges may have 
 been bestowed upon them in Baptism, or, in a happier state of the 
 Christian Chrich, might not only be then universally bestowed, but 
 be realized in life, is of lesser moment : regeneration, and the 
 necessity thereof, is the kernel ; these and other questions about 
 outw'ard ordinances, are but the husk only : regeneration and 'jus- 
 tification by faith only' are the key-stones of the whole fabric." I 
 would, by the way, protest against such illustrations, whereby men, 
 too commonly, embolden themselves to call any portion of God's in- 
 stitution for our salvation, " husk," or *' shell," or the like : let it 
 seem to us never so external, it can in no stage of the Christian 
 course be dispensed with, which these similitudes would imply. 
 Rather, if we use any image, we might better speak of the whole 
 Gospel as an elixir of immortality, whereof some ingredients may be 
 more powerful than the rest, but the efficacy of the whole depends 
 upon the attemperament of the several portions ; and we, who formed 
 neither our own souls, nor this cure for them, dare not speak slight- 
 ingly of the necessity of anjj- portion. Doubtless there are truths, 
 which in one sense (comparatively speaking) may be called the great 
 truths of Christianity, as embodying in them a larger portion of the 
 counsel of God, and exhibiting more fully His attributes of holiness 
 and love. Better perhaps, and more Scripturally might we speak of 
 the truth, — the Gospel itself ; yet there is no evil in that other ex- 
 pression, if intended solely as the language of thankfulness for the 
 great instances of His mercy therein conveyed. If used, on the other 
 hand, — I will not say disparagingly, but — as in any way conveying 
 an impression that other doctrines are not in their place essential, or 
 that we can assign to each truth its class or place in the Divine eco- 
 nomy, or weigh its value, or measure its importance, then are we 
 again forgetting our own relation to God, and from the corner of His 
 world in which we are placed, would fain judge of the order and cor- 
 
11 
 
 respondencies and harmonies of things, which can only be seen or 
 judged of, from the centre, which is God Himself. We cannot, 
 without great danger, speak of lesser, or less essential, truths, and 
 doctrines, and ordinances, both because the passage from " less es- 
 sential," to " unessential," is unhappily but too easy, and because al- 
 though these truths may appear to relate to subjects further lemoved 
 from what ive think the centre of Christianity, the mode in which we 
 hold them, or our neglect of them, may very vitally affect those which 
 we consider more primary truths. We can readily see this in cases 
 in which we are not immediately involved. Thus we can see how 
 a person's whole views of Sanctification by the Holy Ghost will be 
 affected by Hoadly's low notions of the Lord's Supper ; or how the 
 error of Transubstantiation has modified other true doctrines so as to 
 cast into the shade the one oblation once offered upon the Cross ; 
 or how the addition of the single practice of " soliciting the Saint? 
 to pray for men," has in the Romish Church obscured the primary 
 articles of Justification and of the Intercession of our Blessed Lord ; 
 and yet Transubstantiation was at first connected with high reveren- 
 tial feeling for our Lord, and no one could have anticipated before- 
 hand, that this one eiTor would have had effects so tremendous. If 
 then wrong notions about the one Sacrament, among both Romanists 
 and Pseudo-Protestants, have had an influence so extensive, why 
 should we think error with regard to the other, of slight moment ? 
 Rather, should we not more safely argue, that since Baptism is a 
 Sacrament ordained by Christ Himself, a low, or inadequate, or un- 
 worthy conception of His institution, must, of necessity, almost, be 
 very injurious to the whole of our belief and practice ? Does not our 
 very reverence to our Saviour require that we should think any thing, 
 which He deigned to institute, of very primary moment, — not (as 
 some seem now to think) simply to be obeyed or complied with, but 
 to be embraced with a glad and thankful recognition of its importance, 
 because He instituted it ? 
 
 The other point, which was mentioned as important to be borne in 
 mind, in the enquiry whether any doctrine be a Scriptural truth, was 
 that we should not allow ourselves to be influenced by the supposed 
 religious character of those whom we happen to know of, as holding 
 it, on the contrary. This we should again see to be a very delusive 
 criterion, in a case where we have no temptation to apply it : we 
 should at once admit that Pascal and Nicole were holy men, nay, 
 that whole bodies of men in the Church of Rome had arrived at a 
 height of holiness, and devotion, and self-denial, and love of God, 
 which in this our day is rarely to be seen in our Apostolic Church : 
 yet we should not for a moment doubt that our Church is the pure 
 Church, although her sons seem of late but rarely to have grown up 
 to that degree of Christian maturity, which might have been hoped 
 from the nurture of such a mother: we should not think the compa- 
 
12 
 
 rative holiness of these men of God any test as to the truth of any- 
 one characteristic doctrine of the Church of Rome. We should 
 rightly see that the holiness of these men was not owing to the dis- 
 tinctive doctrines of their Church ; but that God had ripened the 
 seed of life which he had sown in their hearts, notwithstanding the 
 corrupt mixture with which our Enemy had hoped to choke it : we 
 should rightly attribute the apparent comparative failure among 
 ourselves in these times, not to our not possessing the truth, but to 
 our slothful use of the abundant treasures which God has bestowed 
 upon us. They hold the great Catholic truths of our Creeds, and 
 much of the self-discipline (as fasting), or means of grace (as more 
 frequent prayer), which modern habits have relinquished ; and these 
 have brought their fruit : yet we should not infer that all which they 
 held was true, because they were holy. Holiness, (whether pro- 
 duced in the teacher or the taught) proves the presence of some 
 truth, not of the whole truth, nor the purity of that truth. And so 
 also, with regard to any doctrine in which persons either within or 
 without our Church may depart from her ; no one can say with confi- 
 dence, that the superior holiness of any who do not accept it, is 
 attributable to their not accepting it. Since it may be only that by 
 their rejection of this one truth, they have not forfeited the blessing 
 of God upon the other truths, which they yet hold : while others who 
 do hold it, may be holding it in name only, and may never have ex- 
 amined the treasure committed to them, or stirred up the gift that is 
 in them. It may be (to speak plainly) that many who deny or doubt 
 about Baptismal Regeneration, have been made holy and good men, 
 and yet have sustained a loss in not holding this truth : and again, 
 that others may nominallv have held it, and yet never have thought 
 of the greatness or significance of what they professed to hold. If, 
 again, right practice were a test of doctrine, then could there be no 
 such tiling as ' holding'* the truth in unrighteousness, for which hovv- 
 
 * Or " hold down the truth," Rom. i. 18, but Karcyr.) is used without empha- 
 sisj Luke xiv. 9. for " take," " hold ;" &nd 2 Thess. ii. 6. it signifies " hinder ;" 
 Luke iv. 42. " detain," not " keep dov/n." The doubt was not alluded to (Ed. 
 i.,) because it does not in the least affect the argument. In either case the 
 truth is i7i the persons, whether they keep it for a time, and then at last lose it, 
 or forcibly keep it down, and repress it from rising up, and being present to their 
 minds and influencing them. And so St. Paul, verse 19, directly asserts that 
 " that which might be known of God was manifest in them, for God hath showed 
 it unto them ;" and this is e.Kplained, verse 20, to be, " His invisible power and 
 Godhead ;" and, verse 21, he says, " they knew God." Their condemnation 
 was not that they knew not God, for then, in comparison, " they had had no 
 sin," (John ix. 41.,) but that they knew Him and yet acted against their know- 
 ledge by " changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made 
 like unto corruptible man," and so at last God gave them up unto an undis- 
 tinguishing (a(idf i^o?) mind ; so that, at last, they lost the knowledge also. And 
 so it is with individuals ; men act at first against the light and truth in them, 
 and afterwards, and at length only, is the light withdrawn. See St. August. 
 Tract, 2. in Joann. § 4. 
 
13 
 
 ever the Apostle pronounces the condemnation of the heathen. Fur- 
 ther, if the comparison were any test at all, it must manifestly be 
 made not at one period only, but throughout the time that such doc- 
 trine has been held by the Church ; one must compare, not the men 
 of our own day only, but those of all former times, Confessors, Saints, 
 and Martyrs, which were impossible ! This is not said, as if we were 
 competent judges even as to our own times, or as if any could be, 
 but God alone, who searcheth the hearts ; for if the number of those 
 who being earnest-minded and zealous men, do not hold Baptismal 
 Regeneration, were increased an hundred fold, or if those who im- 
 agining that they hold Baptismal Regeneration, do in fact use it as 
 a screen to hide from themselves the necessity of the complete actual 
 change of mind and disposition necessary to them, were many more 
 than they are, — still, who can tell to how many thousands, or tens of 
 thousands, this same doctrine has been the blessed means of a con- 
 tinued child-like growth in grace, who have been silently growing up, 
 supported by the inestimable privilege of having been made God's 
 children, before they themselves knew good or evil ; who have on 
 the whole been uniformly, kept within Christ's fold, and are now 
 " heartily thanking their heavenly Father for having called them" 
 thus early to this state of salvation, into which, had it been left to 
 their frail choice, they had never entered ; who rejoice with " joy 
 unspeakable and full of glory," that they were placed in the Ark of 
 Christ's Church, and not first called, of themselves to take refuge in 
 it out of the ruins of a lost world.* 
 
 Most of this, people will in the abstract readily acknowledge ; 
 even if they are not conscious of the full value of the Church, as an 
 Interpreter of Holy Scriptures, still they will confess that Scripture 
 is the only ultimate authority in matters of Faith, and that in search- 
 ing it they ought not to be biassed by any questions of expediency, 
 or grounds distinct from the obvious meaning of the Inspired word : 
 and yet they will probably find on examination that some of these 
 irrelevant grounds have occasioned them to hold Baptismal Regene- 
 ration to be an unscriptural doctrine. If they examined Scripture 
 at all, yet still the supposed effects of this, and of a contrary doctrine, 
 the supposed character of those who hold it, or the reverse, were in 
 
 * " They with whom we contend are no enemies to the Baptism of infants; 
 it is not their desire that the Church should hazard so many souls by letting 
 them run on till they come to ripeness of understanding, that so they may be 
 converted and then baptized, as Infidels heretofore have been ; they bear not 
 towards God so unthankful minds as not to acknowledge it even among the 
 greatest of His endless mercies, that by making us His own possession so soon 
 many advantages which Satan otherwise might take are prevented, and (which 
 should be esteemed a part of no small happiness) the first thing whereof we 
 have occasion to take notice is, how much hath been done already to our good, 
 though altogether without our knowledge." — Hooker, b. v. J 64. p. 287. 
 
14 
 
 fact their rule for interpreting Scripture ; or perhaps wearied with 
 the controversy (which is and must be in itself an evil) they came 
 to the conclusion that, if we but hold the necessity of Regeneration, 
 it matters not when we suppose it to take place ; thus assuming, in 
 fact, the unscripturalness of the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, 
 since if God has connected Regeneration with Baptism, it must be 
 of importance. 
 
 This is very natural ; for men must lean upon something. Our 
 Reformers, in their interpretation of Scripture, besides the divine 
 means of prayer, leant on the consent and agreement of the " old holy 
 Catholic Doctors," who had received their doctrine immediately, or 
 but at a little interval, from the Apostles, when every link almost in 
 the chain was a saint and martyr. The agreement of the Church was 
 to them the evidence of God's speaking in the Church. But now 
 that men have forgotten these maxims, and the blessed dead who re- 
 sisted unto blood Heathen malice, and established and fixed for us 
 the Creeds wherein we find rest, and look upon deference to the 
 Church almost as a relic of Papal errors, man, since he is not made 
 to be independent, leans upon his fellows ; and the supposed spiritual 
 character of individuals is made the test of truth. Man cannot es- 
 cape from authority : the question only, in religious truth, as in civil 
 society or in private life, is, whose authority he will follow. 
 
 This aaode of judging is indeed a tacit recognition of external au- 
 thority; those who adopt it have virtually renounced the narrow and 
 cold notion of individual judgment, and taken refuge from it in that 
 of a body of Christians ; they adopt and imitate the principles of our 
 Church, which refers us to the agreement of Catholic antiquity, only 
 that unhappily they take as a test moderns instead of ancients ; those 
 who arose after the waters had been polluted, instead of those who 
 lived near the source ; a section of the Church, instead of the Church 
 itself. They are thereby necessarily much narrowed in their choice, 
 substituting a sort of Ultra-Protestant Popery of one or more individ- 
 uals, for the Catholic unity of all times and Churches. 
 
 The several controversies with individuals, again have led to some 
 false maxims as to the tests of truth : for, instead of setting forth 
 against these despisers, the power of the Gospel of Christ as a whole 
 — that it is *' the power of God unto salvation to every one that be- 
 lieveth," that "the truth," i.e. the t«^oZe Gospel, "will set free" 
 those who receive it, men have dwelt too much upon its natural ten- 
 dency, as they deem it, to produce such or such effects, upon the 
 efficacy of particular doctrines, or its contrast in such or such points 
 with other religions; thereby fostering the conviction that we are 
 much more judges in these matters than we are. These men, how- 
 ever, were contented with contrasting Christianity, or parts thereof, 
 with that which was out of the pale of the Gospel ; and for this hap- 
 pily, a more general and superficial view and statement of doctrine 
 
15 
 
 sufficed : others have arisen, who have applied this same test within 
 the compass of Christianity, contrasted the supposed efficacy of one 
 doctrine with another ; and thus we have made ourselves judges in 
 matters yet more beyond our grasp. Undoubtedly faithful and sound 
 preaching is likely, by God's blessing, to produce a harvest : the 
 holy and earnest life of a religious pastor is a yet more powerful ser- 
 mon ; his performance of his weekly duties, his greater watchful- 
 ness over the right dispensation of the Sacraments, his more earnest 
 prayers are also means of promoting God's kingdom. Obviously, 
 then, the blessed effects of a v/hole ministry cannot be made a test 
 of the truth of each doctrine preached ; and yet more obviously per- 
 haps on this ground, that there is not complete agreement in the doc- 
 trines, the preaching of which is attended with these apparent effects : 
 add also, that even in this way, one must judge not by the preaching of 
 those, who being already full of fervor preached these doctrines, but 
 by that of their disciples ;* for it may be that that influence was 
 owing to the fervor of the individuals, not to the entire truth of their 
 system. For since we do not think that incidental error will mar 
 the benefit of a whole ministry, or that fallible man, though richly 
 endowed by God's Spirit, is yet rendered infallible, we cannot infer 
 that because his teaching is blessed, therefore every portion of it 
 must be sound. Rather one might infer from the fact that the same 
 doctrines when preached by a less gifted follower, have not the same 
 efficacy, that the former efficacy was not to be referred to the truth 
 of each doctrine, which was preached, but to the Spirit of God, 
 with which each faithful minister is endowed. Had the effect been 
 the result of the whole doctrine, and of that only, the effects had 
 been more uniform. Lastly, we must look not to immediate only 
 but to lasting effects, not only to the foundation but to the super- 
 structure. This arguing from the supposed effects of a system, as 
 it is at this day the plea for every irregularity, so is it most used by 
 a body where the good effects are the least lasting, and subsequently 
 are fearfully neutralized ; and it is in great part owing to the absence 
 of this doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, that while a foundation 
 is so often laid, the edifice of Christian piety among us still bears 
 such low and meagre proportions, and still further, that there is not 
 more of early Christianity among us. As of course, if it is a Scrip- 
 tural truth, the neglect of preaching it must be a loss as well as a 
 neghgence. 
 
 These observationsf are not made under any idea that they who 
 
 ♦ Thus the early Pietists in Germany, whose system and practice much re- 
 sembled that of the body here alluded to, liad, from their personal character, 
 a great, and for the time a blessed influence ; but they shook the Lutheran 
 body, and prepared the way for its downfall : tlieir successors with the same 
 system had no weight. 
 
 t The following remarks are made reluctantly now, (Ed. ii.) because, in a 
 controversal M'riting, what had been said above has been construed into an ad- 
 
16 
 
 oppose the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration are more zealous and 
 earnest than they who preach it ; quite the contrary ; they who be- 
 heve and reaUze the height of the gift of God in Baptism must, in 
 the behef of the great things which God has done for them and His 
 whole Ciiurch, have a source of solemn responsibility and deep awe, 
 and humble amazement of God's graciousness, peculiar to them- 
 selves : and in proportion as they are penetrated with it, their preach- 
 ing must be also raised. One may appeal safely on this point to 
 the solid, subdued, but sublime eloquence of the early Church, or to 
 those of our own who in older times most realized their Baptismal 
 gifts. Baptismal Regeneration, as connected with the Incarnation of 
 our Blessed Lord, gives a depth to our Christian existence, an actu- 
 alness to our union with Christ, a reality to our sonship to God, an 
 int rest in the presence of our Lord's glorified Body at God's right 
 hand, a joyousness amid the subduing of the flesh, an overwhelming- 
 ness to the dignity conferred on human nature, a solemnity to the 
 communion of saints, who are the fulness of Him who filleth all in 
 all, a substantiality to the indwelling of Christ, that to those who re- 
 lain this truth, the school which abandoned it must needs appear to 
 have sold its birthright. But it is one thing to hold Baptismal Re- 
 generation, and another to hold merely that there is no regeneration 
 subsequent to Baptism. A mere negative view must always be a 
 cold one. Any careless person may hold Baptismal Regeneration 
 negatively ; they only can hold it positively and in its depth, who 
 have endeavored to realize it. Yet as well might we urge the case 
 of the Antinomian, i. e. of him who holds justification by faith nega- 
 tively, in opposition to the necessity of good works, against that holy 
 doctrine, as the case of him who should in like way abuse the doc- 
 trine of Baptismal Regeneration, to lower the greatness of subsequent 
 holiness. Both may be abused to men's own destruction ; both may 
 be blasphemed in consequence of their being held in name only ; 
 both may be held imperfectly, and inadequately; nay, both in this life 
 must be so held; yet one would not select those v/ho hold either, and 
 therewith other truths, most imperfectly, as the specimens of the ef- 
 fects of the doctrine in itself. Let those who would remonstrate 
 against any such injustice, in the case which they make their own, 
 beware how they be themselves guilty of the like injustice. 
 
 But, again, it might very well be, that a body of men, having much 
 zeal for religion, and very active in promoting it, might yet for a time 
 be in error upon some one or more points ; nay, in circumstances such 
 as the present are represented to be, it is probable that it would be so. 
 It is professed that they who now oppose Baptismal Regeneration, 
 arrived at their present views by a sort of reaction ; the Church, it 
 
 mission of the superiority of those who oppose the doctrine of Baptismal Re- 
 generation. The author wished, while he might, to avoid everything directly 
 bearing on modern controversy. 
 
IT 
 
 is represented, was in a state of lethargy and coldness, preaching 
 moral discourses, and forgetful of her office as teacher of the truth, 
 when certain individuals were aroused, and preached faithfully the 
 leading truths of the Gospel, of which our generation is reaping the 
 fruits. In hke manner individuals who oppose the same doctrine, 
 are wont to refer to the time when they suppose they held it, as a 
 period of religious apathy, during which they lulled their consciences 
 with the notion that, having by Baptism been made children of God, 
 they had nothing further to do.* In either case (whether of individ- 
 uals or bodies,) it is probable that they would arrive at a portion only 
 of the truth. It is not in these sudden reactions that God generally 
 imparts a consistent enlarged view of truth. To such he gives w^hat 
 is most needful for them, and they are often energetic preachers of 
 conversion; but the deeper, calmer, insight into truth, He usually 
 reserves for those (whether bodies or individuals) whom he has gently 
 led, and who have on the whole equably followed his leading. Un- 
 der the elder dispensation, scAooZsof the prophets were formed, so soon 
 as God purposed to raise up a succession of teachers for His Church; 
 from very youth were they to be traiiied to the service of the Lord, 
 Samuel himself, who was appointed to form them, was before his 
 birth consecrated to the Lord, and formed in His temple ; the forerun 
 ner of the Lord was sanctified from his mother's womb ; and of the 
 Apostles whom He chose, the saintly disciple whom He loved, who 
 loved most early, steadily, boldly, alone by the Cross, was chosen 
 further that he should 
 
 *' Armed in his station wait, 
 Till his Lord be at the gate ;" 
 
 forming and carrying on the Church when the rest v/ere removed, 
 . and (through his disciple St. Polycai'p) the author of the earliest 
 school of Christian doctors for the transmission of sound doctrine. 
 So also in later times, they to whom, in her hour of need, the Church 
 of Christ has been most indebted for the maintenance of purity of 
 life and doctrine, St. Basil,t St. Gregory of Nazianzum, St, Athana- 
 
 * Hence such persons persist in calling the doctrine of Baptismal Regene- 
 oration " deadening," and ^' soul-destroying," because tkey held it amiss, and 
 •so it became deadening to them ; e. g. " A Tract for the Times in Reply to 
 the Oxford Tracts," p. 1. & 13, notes. 
 
 t St. Basil, chiefly by his grandmother Macrina, a confessor of the Catholic 
 Faith, and a disciple of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus ; St. Gregory of Nazian- 
 zum, by the excellent Nonna, who, like Hannah, dedicated her son to God 
 from the womb, and soon after his birth, placing the Gospel in his hand, de- 
 voted him at the Altar to the service of the Lord, as was St. Ephraim also, 
 the son of Confessors -, St. Athanasius, by very pious parents, and then by the 
 •saintly Alexander the Bishop ; St. Ambrose, by his sister Marcellina, who 
 "devoted herself to celibacy, that she might the more " care for the things of 
 ■the Lord ;" St. Chrisostom, by his mother Anthusa who lived a widow irom 
 her twentieth year, retiring from the world, wherewith she was connected, to 
 «ievote herself to educate her son. 
 
sius the Great, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St. Epliraim, were, 
 by pious mothers, sisters, grandmothers, bishops, piously trained, 
 and grew up in that ripening piety ; or else, as St. Hilary and St, 
 Cyprian, born healhens, faithfully followed God's earliest guidance 
 to the truth. St. Augustine, on the other hand, — although his wan- 
 derings were before he received the seal of Baptism, and through 
 subsequent steadfastness he became, as it were, a guardian angel to 
 the Church, standing in the gap against Pelagianism, — yet propagat- 
 ed or introduced error into the Church along with the good seed, 
 was the author of a stern theory of predestination, and through his 
 statements, a chief promoter of the belief in Purgatory. 
 
 It is, then, even probable, on the very view of the cas€ set forth 
 by the adherents of this system, that men or parties, so circum- 
 stanced, should in this sudden recovery have seized hold of certain 
 prominent truths, applied them forcibly, but have forgotten others, 
 "which still are essential to their perfect use and truth. They have 
 re-erected the temple of God, but it has no longer Aaron's rod that 
 budded, nor the Manna, nor the Shechtnah — the full truth of the in- 
 dwelling of the Lord in His Church. It was so in the Swiss refor- 
 mation, whose traditions of doctrine and exposition; of Scripture, those 
 of the school in question have engrafted upon the Church : and as in 
 the early reformation, many of the German Reformers, together with 
 the truths which they learned from St. Augustine, imbibed from him 
 also a rigid predestinarian theory, and subsequently relaxed it, so 
 now, together with the truths which Calvin, (the parent, as it were, 
 of their reformation,) intended to advocate, men have unwittingly 
 entertained also his deep disparagement of the Sacraments, whereby 
 he corrupted the truths which he held. They received boih together; 
 and because the doctrine of Baptismal regeneration must correct his 
 view of "justification by faith," they think it opposed to the doctrine 
 in itself. Their views then are defective, in that, arising (according 
 to their own statement,) in a cold period of the Church, they seized 
 upon certain principal truths,* as the means of restoring the energy 
 of the Church, or of rousing men from their lethargy ; but as men 
 
 * It ought to be borne in mind that Dr. Chalmers' testtmoTiy, so often allegecl 
 as decisive between two sorts ot' preaching, contrasts simply Christian preach- 
 ing, as a whole, and Heathenism. For what Dr. C speaks of is " pressing the 
 reformations of honor and truth and integrity, the virtues and proprieties of 
 social life" — " subordinate reformations." U'hy so might Cicero have preach- 
 ed. A mode of preaching " wherein Christ was scarcely iver spoken of, or 
 spoken of in such a way as s-tripped Him of all the importance of His character 
 and offices," has obviously nothing to do with any thing existing at the pre- 
 sent day, nor with the belief that Christ imparts His gift of the new birth 
 through Baptism. Bp. Suirmer, in quoting this passage, (Apost. Preaching, 
 c. v. end,) keeps the same contrast between Christianity and Heathenism, or 
 Christianity as a republication of the religion of nature. This is aeWom ob- 
 served by thoae who quote them. 
 
19 
 
 awaking from a slumber in alarm, look not round with full self-pos- 
 session, they let slip other truths. Without deciding as to the whole 
 extent of their allegations, the eighteenth century was comparatively 
 a stagnant period of the Church, — in England, owing to the violent 
 revolution, whereby so many of her best members, the Non-juring 
 Clergy, were ejected, and that at one time, the State set itself to cor- 
 rupt and degrade her, and her writers looked for strength in foreign 
 alliances ; — abroad through the developement of the principles of the 
 ultra-reformation, and the influence of degraded England and corrupt- 
 ed France, But this very fact, while it accounts for the weight at- 
 taching to any energetic, though partial, statement of truth, affords a 
 presumption, that persons vehemently aroused at that period, and 
 connectmg themselves with a defective reformation, would not see 
 the whole ; their influence was blessed as far as they were faithful, 
 fell short, where their system was defective. 
 
 A happier time, we trust, is dawning, when with tiie energy for 
 conversion which now exists, shall be combined care for the young, 
 such as the belief in God's gift through Baptism brings with it, and 
 the holy calmness of a complete faith. 
 
 It has seemed necessary to premise thus much, both because the 
 habits of mind referred to, have an evil tendency, far beyond even 
 this one important subject, and also because the difficulties raised 
 against Baptismal regeneration seem to lie entirely in these collateral 
 question.s, not in the defect of Scripture evidence for its truth. They 
 are made, however, more in the hope of removing difficulties from 
 the minds of such as have not yet taken any decided, line against the 
 doctrines of the Church, than of convincing such as have : and to the 
 former only will the evidence proposed be addressed. But let not 
 others think, that because the evidence does not persuade them, this 
 is owing to its want of validity : for Scripture evidence is through- 
 out proposed to those who believe, not to those who believe not ; it 
 will be enough for tliose who " continue in the things which they have 
 learned, and have been assured of, knowing of whom they have learn- 
 ed them ;" (2 Tim. iii. 14.) but there is no promise that any, be they 
 nations, sects or individuals, who have failed to hold fast to tiiem, 
 should be enabled to see their truth. God has provided an institu- 
 tion, the Church, to " hold fast," and to convey " the faithful word as 
 they had been taught." (Tit. ii. 2.) He ordered that the immediate 
 successors of the Apostles should "commit the things which they 
 had heard of them to faithful men, who should be able to teach others 
 also." (2 Tim. ii. 2.) Whoever, then, neglects this ordinance of 
 God, and so seeks truth in any other way than God has directed it 
 to be sought, has no ground to look to obtain it ; nay, it appears to 
 be a penalty annexed to departure from this channel of truth, both 
 in individuals and bodies, that they not only lose all insight into the 
 Scripture evidence for that truth, but gradually decline furthei from 
 
20 
 
 it, and but seldom, and not without extraordinary effort, recover. 
 The first misgivings, and restrictions, and Umitations, are forgotten ; 
 what was originally an exception is made a rule and a principle : and 
 departures, which were at first timidly ventured upon, and excused 
 upon the necessity of the case, (as that of Calvin upon the episcopal 
 ordination, or the license with regard to the authority and extent of 
 the Canon of Scripture among several denominations of Christians,) 
 are by their followers looked upon as matters of glory and of boast, 
 and as distinctive marks of Protestantism. For, on the one hand, 
 the dissatisfaction generated by a state of doubt leads us to prefer 
 even wrong decision to suspense or misgiving ; we " force ourselves 
 to do this" unbidden " sacrifice :" on the other, our natural listless- 
 ness and dislike of exertion tempts us to make an arbitrary selection 
 of such portions of the vast compass of Divine Truth as is most con- 
 genial to ourselves, (since to enter equally into all its parts costs 
 much efifort,) and this done, we acquire a positive distaste for such 
 truth as we have not adopted into what is practically our religious 
 creed : we dislike having our religious notions disturbed ; and since 
 no truth can be without its influence upon the rest, the adoption of 
 any forsaken truth involves not only the admission of a foreign and 
 unaccustomed ingredient, but threatens to compel us to modify much 
 at least of our actual system. 
 
 My object, then, in the following pages is partly to help, by God's 
 blessing, to relieve the minds of such persons as, being in the sacred 
 ministry of the Church, or Candidates for the same, have difficulty 
 in reconciling with their ideas of scripture truth what appears even 
 to them to be the obvious meaning of our Baptismal and other* For- 
 mularies, as to the privileges of Baptism ; partly (and that more 
 especially) to afford persons a test of their own views of their Sav- 
 iour's ordinance, by comparing them with the language and feelings 
 of Scripture. And this, because a due sense of the blessings which 
 He has bestowed upon us must tend to increase our love for Him ; 
 as also, because I know not what ground of hope the Church has to 
 look for a full blessing upon its ministry from its Head, so long as a 
 main channel of His grace be, in comparison, lightly esteemed. 
 
 * Persons often forget that Baptismal Regeneration is taught in the Cate- 
 chism as well, as undoubtingly, and as warmly, as in the services of Baptism 
 and Confirmation ; for when the child is taught to say tliat it was " in its Bap- 
 tism made a member of Christ and a child of Cod," that " being by nature born 
 in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby (by the spiritual grace of Bap- 
 tism) made the children of grace ;" what is this but to say that there were born 
 of God, i.e. regenerated and every child is taught to "thank its Heavenly 
 Father for having called it into this state of salvation through Jesus Clirist our 
 Saviour," and humbly to pray — not that it be brought into any other state, but 
 «— ■' that it might continue in the same to its life's end." 
 
CHAPTER II. '^ 
 
 ON THE MEANING OF BAPTISMAL IlEGENERATION, AND THE PAS- 
 SAGES OF HOLY SCRIPTURE WHICH SPEAK OF OR IMPLY THE 
 GREATNESS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 The passages of Holy Scripture, which refer to Baptism, may 
 naturally be divided under two heads ; those which directly connect 
 regeneration with it (John iii. 5. Tit. iii. 5.,) and those which speak 
 of its privileges, in high indeed and glorious terms, but without the 
 same precision and definiteness. Each class, in a different way, 
 strengthens our faith ; the one telling us what our privilege is, the 
 other raising or illustrating our notions of that privilege, by speaking 
 of its accompaniments or results. 
 
 Before entering upon the consideration of these passages, how- 
 ever, some may wish to know the meaning here attached to the Scrip- 
 ture words " regeneration," or " new birth," and " birth from above." 
 This were easy for practical purposes, by way of description, so as 
 to set before ourselves the greatness of the gift by Baptism bestowed 
 on us ; but it is not so easy by way of a technical definition. This 
 arises from the very nature of the subject ; for we can only accurately 
 define that which we understand, not in its effects only but its cause. 
 Things divine, even by describing, we are apt to circumscribe ; 
 much more, if we attempt strictly to define them : the depth of things 
 divine cannot be contained within the shallowness of human words. 
 The more carefully we express ourselves in the one way, the more 
 escapes us in another. Thus, in the doctrine of justification by faith, 
 a mind which should mainly fix itself on our being " accounted right- 
 eous," would by degrees lose sight of that other portion of it, the 
 "having righteousness, actually imparted, the being made righteous ;" 
 as on the other hand one* who recently attempted to recover this last 
 portion of the truth, became so intent thereon, as to do away the vi- 
 yidness of that former truth, that we are "judicially pronounced 
 righteous or absolved for Christ's sake :" what Christ worketh in us 
 cast a shade over what He did and suffered fw us. So again, in 
 many good persons, the desire to uphold (as they think) the doctrine 
 of justification by faith, practically obliterates the truth, that our jus- 
 tification is imputed to us, not through the feelings, but throvgh 
 Baptism ; as on the other hand, there m^y be also a cold and exclu- 
 •sive recognition of the gift of God in Baptism, without any vivid per- 
 ception that by abiding faith only can that gift be retained. In all 
 
 * Knox's Remains- 
 
22 
 
 these cases, a portion of the truth has been taken for the whole, and 
 has narrowed the whole. Neither again sufficelh it often, that the 
 whole truth should be really involved in the definition given. Thus 
 in the words "justification by faith," all the Christian privileges and 
 gifts are indeed included, since they are all a part of the faith, be- 
 stowed on one who embraces the mercies of God in Christ, and is 
 through the Sacraments made a member of Him. It is justification 
 by God's free grace in the Gospel, as opposed to every thing out of 
 the Gospel ; yet when a person comes to look upon this as a defi- 
 nition, not as exhibiting the truth vividly upon one side only, he an- 
 nexes restraining senses to the words, and goes on to substitute or op- 
 pose one portion of the truth — that most familiar to his own mind — to 
 other portions, likewise contained in it. Thus "justification by 
 faith" came to be opposed* in men's minds to Baptism, the means 
 ordained by Christ Himself for the remission of sin or for justification. 
 The like has happened with regard to Baptism. Hence also it 
 may be in part that the early Church has not fixed the language on 
 this subject beyond the statement of the Nicene Creed, (that there is 
 " one Baptism for the remission of sins,") and her teachers have, a? 
 occasion suggested, dwelt at different times upon the one or other 
 portion of its blessings, but left no fixed form of speaking thereon. 
 They have described not defined the gifts of God in Baptism. Thus 
 Baptism may obviously be looked upon either with reference to the 
 past or the future ; as a passage /row death, or to life ; as a deliverance 
 from sin, or a renewal to holiness ; a death unto sin, or a new birth 
 unto righteousness ; and men's minds might from circumstances be 
 directed prominently to the one or other view. Again, they might 
 look upon Baptism as it was a channel of these blessings, in that the 
 person baptized becomes thereby "a member of Christ," (which one 
 saying comprehends more than all which men's or angels' thoughts 
 can conceive of blessedness ;) or they might look at the blessings of 
 which it is the channel. Thus the Greek Fathers (who were harass- 
 ed by no controversies connected with it) spoke principally of the 
 blessedness whereof it makes us partakers. So St, Chrysostom :t 
 " Blessed be God, who alone doeth wonders ; who made all things, 
 and changeth all. Behold, they enjoy the calm of freedom who a lit- 
 tle before were held capthves, they are denizens of the Church who 
 were wandering in error, and they have the lot of righteousness who 
 were in the confusion of sin. For they are not only free but holy; 
 not holy only, but righteous ; not righteous only, but sons ; not sons 
 
 * Papers from the " Record," p. 31, 33, &c. 
 
 f Oral, ad Neophytos, ap. Augustin. c. Julian. I. i. { 21. It is plain (as St. 
 Augustine remarks) that since St. Chrysostom speaks of children being free 
 from sins, he means actual sins, since original sin must always be spoken of in 
 the singular ; so the Pelagian^r, to make the passage serve their end, substituted 
 the singular for the plural which St. Chrysostom used. 
 
83 
 
 only, but heirs ; not heirs only, but brethren of Christ ; not brethren 
 of Christ only, but co-heirs ; not only co-heirs, but members ; not 
 members only, but a temple ; not a temple only, but instruments of 
 the Spirit. See how many are the largesses of Baptism ; and where- 
 as some think that the heavenly grace consists only in the remis 
 sion of sins, lo, we have recounted ten glories thereof. Wherefore 
 we baptize infants, although they have no sins, that holiness, right- 
 eousness, adoption, inheritance, brotherhood with Christ, may be 
 added to them ; that they may become His members." It appears 
 from this that some already had begun to restrict themselves too ri- 
 gidly to the words of the description given in the Creed of Constan- 
 tinople, St. Augustine, on the other hand, living in the midst of the 
 Pelagian heresy, was compelled to take prominently this very line, 
 which St. Chrysostom regards as cold, when taken exclusively ; 
 since the Pelagians denied all sin in infants, he was obliged very 
 principally to insist upon Baptism as the remission of original sin. 
 In like manner, our Church at first, in her Catechism, used the warm 
 undefined language of the Eastern Churches, " wherein I was made 
 a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the king- 
 dom of heaven ;" and after waixls defined the benefits of Baptism 
 more after the maimer of St, Augustine, " a death unto sin, and a 
 new birth unto righteousness ; for being by nature born in sin, and 
 the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace." 
 The two views, as above said, do in fact coincide, and are only the 
 same great truth looked upon on different sides ; for neither did St. 
 Augustine regard the remission of original or actual sin as taking place 
 in any other way than through the union with Christ, nor doubted he 
 that this union infused actual righteousness and holiness, the seed of 
 immortality, and gifts in Christ far more than had been lost in Adam. 
 On the other hand the Greek Churches, though chiefly dwelling 
 upon the blessings acquired, yet acknowledged Baptism to be for the 
 remission of original, as well as actual sin. 
 
 The difficulty of explaining Baptismal Regeneration is two-fold ; 
 First, from its being a mystery; Secondly, from men being in these 
 •days inclined to lower that mystery. Thus one should prefer speak- 
 ing of it with our Catechism, as that whereby we were made ^'mem- 
 bers of Christ;" but then, when people explain "members of Christ" 
 to be ** members of Christ's Church," and that, to mean "members 
 of His visible Church, or of the society of men called Christians," 
 a description in itself the highest and most glorious, and the source 
 of every other blessing, is made equivalent to " a mere outward ad- 
 mission into a mere outward assemblage of men." In either case, 
 however, man is the author of his own difficulties ; in the one, by 
 lowering the fulness of Scripture truth ; in the other, by carnally 
 inquiring into the mode of the Divine working. For a mystery pre- 
 sents no difficulty to belief ; it becomes difficult only when we ask 
 
24 
 
 about the mode of its being. Nicodemus asked, " How can these 
 things be ?" and most of our questions about Baptismal Regeneration 
 are Nicodemus-questions. We know it in its author, God ; in its 
 instrument, Baptism ; in its end, salvation, union with Christ, son- 
 ship to God, "resurrection from the dead, and the life of the world to 
 come." We only know it not, where it does not concern us to 
 know it, in the mode of its operation. But this is just what man 
 would know, and so he passes over all those glorious privileges, and 
 stops at the threshold to ask how it can be ? He would fain know 
 how an unconscious infant can he born of God ? hoio it can spirit- 
 ually live ? wherein this spiritual life consists ? how Baptism can be 
 the same to the infant and to the adult convert ? and if it be not in its 
 visible, and immediate, and tangible effects, hoiv it can be the same 
 at all ? Yet Scripture makes no difference ; the gift is tlie same, al- 
 though it vary in its application ; to the infant it is the remission of 
 original guilty to the adult of his actual sins also ; but to both by 
 their being made members of Christ, and thereby partakers of His 
 "wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption;" by be- 
 ing made branches of the True Vine, and so, as long as they abide 
 in Him, receiving from Him, each according to their capacities-, 
 and necessities, and willingness, nourishment and life ; but if they 
 abide not in Him, they are cast forth like a branch, and withered. 
 We can then, after all, find no belter exposition than that incidentally 
 given in our Catechism, — "my Baplism,^ wherein I was made a 
 member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom 
 of heaven ;" and with this statement we may well be content, as it 
 expresses most our union with our Redeemer, the fountain of our 
 gifts, and the ground of our hopes. One may then define Regen- 
 eration to be, " that act whereby God takes us out of our relation to 
 Adam, and makes us actual members of His Son, and so' His son&, 
 as being members of His Ever-blessed Son, and if sons, ihen heirs 
 of God through Christ," — (Gal. iv, 7.) This is our new birth, an 
 actual birth of God, of water, and the Spirit, as we were actually 
 born of our natural parents ; herein then also are we justified, or both 
 accounted and made righteous, since we are made members of Him 
 who is alone righteous ; freed from past sin, whether origin at or 
 actual; have a new principle of life imparted to us, since having been 
 made members of Christ, we have a portion of His life, or of Hira 
 who is our Life ; herein we have also the hope of the resurrection 
 and of immortality, because we have been made partakers of His re- 
 surrection, have risen again with Him. (Col. ii. 12.) 
 
 The view, then, here held of Baptism, following the ancient 
 Church and our own, is that we be engrafted into Christ, and there- 
 by receive a principle of life, afterwards to be developed and en^ 
 larged by the fuller influxes of His grace ; so that neither is Bap- 
 tism looked upon as an infusion of grace distinct from the incorpora- 
 
25 
 
 tion into Christ, nor is that incorporation conceived of as separate 
 from its attendant blessings. 
 
 The following sentences of Hooker express, in that great master's 
 way, the view here meant to be taken : — " This* is the necessity of 
 Sacraments, That saving grace which Christ originally is, or hath 
 for the general good of His whole Church, by Sacraments He sever- 
 ally deriveth into every member thereof. Byt Baptism therefore we 
 receive Christ Jesus, and from Him the saving grace which is proper 
 unto Baptism. — Baptism^ is a Sacrament which God hath instituted 
 in His Church, to the end that they which receive the same might 
 be incorporated into Christ, and so through His most precious 
 merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh 
 away all former guiltiness, as also that infused divine virtue of the 
 Holy Ghost, which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispo- 
 sition towards future newness of life." 
 
 Two more observations must be premised on the Scripture evi- 
 dence itself: First, Whereas, confessedly. Regeneration is in Scrip- 
 ture connected w^ith Baptism, there is nothing in Scripture to sever 
 it therefrom. The evidence all goes one way. This, in itself, is of 
 great moment. For if God, in two places only, assigns the means 
 of His operations, and then in other places were to mention those ope- 
 rations apart from the means, we are not (as the manner of some is) 
 to take these texts separately, as if they did not come from the same 
 Giver, but to fill up what is not expressed in the one by what He 
 teaches plainly in the other. Thus, when we have learnt that the 
 " new birth," or " birth from above," is " of water and the Spirit," 
 (John iii. 5.) then, where it is said, " who were born not of blood, 
 nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," (John 
 i. 13,) we should, with the ancient Church, recognise here also the 
 gift of God in Baptism to " such as receive Him." 
 
 But, Secondly, not only is there nothing in Scripture to sever Re- 
 generation from Baptism, but Baptism is spoken of as the source of 
 our spiritual birth, as no other cause is, save God : we are not said, 
 namely, to be born again of faith, or love, or prayer, or any grace 
 which God worketh in us, but to be born q/"* water " and the 
 Spirit, in contrast to our birth of^ the flesh ; in like manner as we 
 are said to be born of 3 God : and in order to express that this our 
 new^ birth of God is, as being of God, a deathless birth, it is de- 
 scribed as a birth o/"^ seed incorruptible, in contrast with our birth af- 
 
 * Eccl. Pol. b. v. c. Ivii. } 5. ed. Keble. f lb. { 6. t lb. c Ix. { 2. 
 
 1 ycvvridtj 'ES vSaroi Koi nvcifiaros. John iii. 5. 
 
 2 TO ycycvvTifiivov 'EK rrjf aapKds. ib. V. 6. 
 
 3 ot OVK 'EE alitoLToyv — dXX' 'EK 0£oi> cycvvridr](Tav . 1. 13. 
 
 4 avaytyivvii)iivoi ovk 'EK* trropdi (pBaprrj;, d\Xa <t>9dapT0v, 
 
 * It has been a careless habit of interpretation which has here confounded 
 Words so distinct aa « and dta, andth en proceeded to identify >} <"ropa here with 
 
26 
 
 ler the flesh, of corruptible seed through our earthly parents. The 
 immediate causes of our birth are not here spoken of ; only we are 
 taught that it is of God, and in itself immortal, if men will but not 
 part with it, or occasion God to withdraw it. Holy Scripture, in- 
 deed, connects other causes besides Baptism with the new birili, or 
 rather that one comprehensive cause, the whole dispensation of mercy 
 in the Gospel, (for this, not the written or spoken word, is meant by 
 the "word," the " word of truth ;") but it at once marks, by the very 
 difference of language, that these are only more remote instruments : 
 we are not said to be born of them as of parents, but by or through 
 them. They have their appointed place, and order, and instrumen- 
 tality, towards our new birth, but we are not said to be born o/them. 
 Thus we are said to be "born" (as was noticed) " o/" seed incorrup- 
 tible," I. e. of an immortal birth, but only ^' through^ the word of 
 God, which liveth and abideth for ever ;" " in Jesus Christ have 
 I begotten you /7<ro!<o-A 2 the Gospel ;" "of His own will begat He 
 us by^ the word of truth ;" no other instrument being spoken of 
 as having the same relation to our heavenly birth as this of Water.* 
 Had it even been otherwise, tiie mention of any other instrument in 
 our Regeneration could not of course have excluded the operation of 
 Baptism : as indeed in Baptism itself, two very different causes are 
 combined, the one, God Himself, the other a creature which He has 
 thought fit to hallow to this end. For then, as Giirist's merits, and 
 the workings of the Holy Spirit, and faith, and obedience, operate, 
 though in different ways, to the final salvation of our souls, and yet 
 the one excludes not the necessity of the rest ; so also the mention 
 of faith, or of the preaching of the Gospel, as means towards our 
 Regeneration, would not have excluded the necessity of Baptism 
 thereto, although mentioned in but one passage of Holy Scripture. 
 But now, as if to exclude all idea of human agency in this our spiri- 
 tual creation, to shut out all human co-operation or boasting, as though 
 we had in any way contributed to our own birth, and were not wholly 
 
 1 AIA \6yov ^MiTOi 0£oC Kai [icvovto( us tov alcZvu. 1 Pet. i. 23. 
 
 2 h Xj3i(rr(5 'lijcr'jv AIA rov evayye^iov tyCo vfias eyivvrica. 1 Cor. iv, 16. 
 
 3 Pov'XrideU d-n-CKinatv fifias \6yu d\7}0e(a{. James i. 18. 
 
 4 •' Unless as the Spirit is a necessary inward cause, so water were a neces- 
 sary outward mean to our regeneration, what construction should we give 
 unto those words wherein we are said to be new born, and that t^ vSaros, even 
 of water V^ — Hooker, b. v. c. 59. 
 
 the (rrcpiia in our Lord's parable ; and so, by this double mistake, inferred 
 that St. Peter declared that " the incorruptible seed, of which we are re-born," 
 is the "preaching of the word." The two metaphors are quite distinct. St. 
 Jerome rightly translates (adv. Jovin. 1. i. } 39.) '■ renati non ex coitu corrup- 
 tibili sed ex incorruptione, per verbum viventis Dei et permanentis," and so 
 Cajetan. ad loc. clearly explains it, " quae natura generat, generat per semen, 
 et illud corruptibile ; vos quidem renati estis per semen, sed incorruptibile." 
 
27 
 
 the creatures of His hands, no loop-hole has been left us, no other 
 instrument named ; our birth (when its direct means are spoken of,) 
 is attributed to the Baptism of Water and of the Spirit, and to that 
 only. Had our new birth, in one passage only, been connected with 
 Baptism, and iiad it in five hundred passages been spoken of in con- 
 nection with other causes, still, because it was in that one place so 
 connected with Baptism, no one who looked faithfully for intimations 
 of God's will, would have ventured to neglect that one passage ; the 
 truth contained in Holy Scripture is not less God's truth because con- 
 tained in one passage only ; but now, besides this, God has so order- 
 ed His word that it does speak of the connection of Baptism with 
 our new birth, and does not speak of any other cause, in the like close 
 union with it. 
 
 These circumstances alone, thoughtfully weighed, would lead a 
 teachable disposition readily to incline his faith whither God seems 
 to point. For although the privileges annexed to Regeneration are 
 elsewhere spoken of, and the character of mind thereto conformable, 
 — our sonship and the mind which we should have as sons, our new 
 creation, — yet these are spoken of, as already belonging to, or to be 
 cultivated in, us, not as to be begun anew in any once received into 
 the body of Christ. There are tests afforded whether we are acting ( 
 up to our privilege of Regeneration, and cherishing the Spirit there- | 
 in given us, but there is no hint that Regeneration can be obtained in ^ 
 any way but by Baptism, or if totally lost, could be restored. We 
 are warned that having been " saved by Baptism through the resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ, we should no longer live the rest of our 
 time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God," (1 Pet. 
 iii. 21. iv. 2.) that, "having been born of incorruptible seed, we 
 should put off all malice, and like new-born infants desire the sin- 
 cere milk of the word," (1 Pet. i. 23. ii. 1 — 3.) that "having been 
 saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost, we should be careful to maintain good works," (Tit. iii. 1 — 8.) 
 and again, those who had fallen in any way are exhorted to repent- 
 ance ; but men are not taught to seek for regeneration, to pray that 
 they may be regenerate ; it is nowhere implied that any Christian 
 had not been regenerated, or could hereafter be so. The very error 
 of the Novatians, that none who fell away after Baptism could 
 be renewed to repentance, will approach nearer to the truth of the 
 Gospel, than the supposition that persons could be admitted as dead 
 members into Christ, and then afterwards, for the first time, quick- 
 ened. Our life in Christ is, throughout, represented as commencing 
 when we are by Baptism made members of Christ and children of 
 God. That life may through our negligence afterwards decay, or be 
 choked, or smothered, or well nigh extinguished, and by God's mer- 
 cy again be renewed and refreshed ; but a commencement of life in 
 Christ after Baptism, a death unto sin and a new birth unto righte- 
 
28 
 
 ousness, at any other period than at that one first introduction into 
 God's covenant, as is little consonant with the general representations 
 of Holy Scripture, as a commencement of physical life long after 
 our natural birth is with the order of His Providence. Those mira- 
 cles of God's mercy, whereby He from time to lime aivakens souls 
 from their lethargy, to see the reality of things unseen, and the ex- 
 tent of their own wanderings from the right way, no more indicate 
 that they had had no life imparted to them before, than a man awak- 
 ing from an unnatural slumber would that he had been physically 
 dead. These analogies go but a little way ; but the very terms "quick- 
 ened," " awakened," " roused," and the like, wherewith men natu- 
 rally designate the powerful interposition of God's Holy Spirit upon 
 the hearts of men hitherto careless, convey the notion that the life 
 was there before, although sunk in torpor, the gift tliere, although not 
 stirred up, the powers implanted, although suffered to lie idle. 
 
 The evidence, however, arising from a general consideration of 
 God's declarations in Holy Scripture, obtains fresh strength from the 
 examination of the passages themselves : only we must not look up- 
 on them as a dead letter,* susceptible of various meanings, and 
 which may be made to bear the one or the other indifferently, but 
 as the living Word of God ; particularly we should regard, with 
 especial reverence any words which fell from our Saviour's lips, and 
 see that we consider, not what they may mean, but what is their ob- 
 vious untorturcd meaning. We should not argue, therefore, as some 
 have done, that it is "improbable that Christ, discoursing with a 
 carnal Jew, should lay so much weight upon the outward sign ;" (for 
 this teaching was not for Nicodemus only, but for His Church ; and 
 of all oiir Saviour's teaching we can know this only, that it would 
 be far different and far deeper than what we should have expected, 
 and that it would baffle all our rules and measures ;) nor, again, 
 would he say with Zuingli,t Calvin, Grotius, and the Socinians,t 
 that the " water" may be a mere metaphor, a mei'e emblem of the 
 Spirit; and so, that being "born again of water and the Spirit," 
 means nothing more than " being born of the Spirit" without water.^ 
 
 * " Now, then," says even Zuingli, vindicating Matt, xxviii. 19. from the 
 common Anabaptist cavil, " see whether we also cannot weigh the sense and 
 order of wordsi if indeed this strife about words {>~oyoixn)('in) ought to have any 
 avail, uhen they are the words of Christ. For although I am by no means ad- 
 dicted to the bare letter of words, yet sometimes it needeth to weigh them ac- 
 cording to the letter, yet in a due and right way, lest perchance the letter 
 should kill."— De Baptismo, 0pp. t. 2. f. 65. 
 
 t De Baptismo. 0pp. t. ii. f. 70. v. 
 
 X See Faust. Socinus de Baptismo, c. 4. 0pp. Fratr. Polon. t. i. p. 718. 
 Slichtingius, ad loc. ib. t. vi. p. 26. agrees to the letter almost with Calvin. See 
 Note P. at the end. 
 
 ^ " I do not think they are to be heard, who hold that under ' water', in this 
 place, not water, but the Holy Spirit is to be understood ; as if the Lord meant 
 
29 
 
 For Hooker* well says, " I hold it for a most infallible rule in expo- 
 sitions of sacred Scripture, that where a literal construction will 
 stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst. There is 
 nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art, which 
 changeth the meaning of words, as alchemy doth, or would do, the 
 substance of metals, makethof any thing what it listeth, and bringeth 
 in the end all truth to nothing. Or however such voluntary exercise 
 of wit might be borne with otherwise ; yet in places which usually 
 serve, as this doth, concerning regeneration by water and the Holy 
 Ghost, to be alleged for grounds and principles, less is permitted. 
 To hide the general consent of antiquity, agreeing in the literal in- 
 terpretation, they cunningly affirm, that certain have taken those 
 words as meant of material water, when they know that of all 
 
 THE ANCIENTS THERE IS NOT ONE TO BE NAMED THAT EVER DID 
 OTHERWISE EITHER EXPOUND OR ALLEGE THE PLACE, THAN AS 
 IMPLYING EXTERNAL BaPTISM." 
 
 Rather, as the prophecy which these same persons alleged, that 
 Christ namely shall "baptize with the Holy Ghost, and with fire," 
 received its hteral fulfilment at the day of Pentecost, and in this the later 
 Baptism of the Apostles, we find, " as well a visible! descent of fire, 
 as a secret miraculous infusion of the Spirit : if on us He accom- 
 plish likewise, the heavenly work of our new birth, not with the 
 Spirit alone, but with water thereunto adjoined, saith the faithfullest 
 expounders of His words are His own deeds, let that, which His hand 
 hath manifestly wrought, declare what his speech did doubtfully utter." 
 
 to make mention of the Holy Spirit twice, and to say, ' WTiosoever is not born 
 of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit,' or 'whosoever is not born of water 
 ■which is the Holy Spirit.' " — Bucer de vi et efficacia Baptismi. Script. Angli- 
 can, p. 596. 
 
 * " When the letter of the Law hath two things plainly and expressly spe- 
 cified, water and the Spirit ; water as a duty required on our parts, the Spirit 
 as a gift which God bestoweth ; there is danger in presuming so to interpret 
 it, as if the clause which concerneth ourselves were more than needeth. We 
 may by such rare expositions attain perhaps in the end to be thought witty, 
 but with ill advice." — Hooker, L. v. c. 59. 
 
 " That we may be thus born of the Spirit we must be bom also of water, 
 which our Saviour here puts in the first place. Not as if there were any such 
 virtue in water, whereby it could regenerate us ; but because this is the rite 
 or ordinance appointed by Christ, wherein He regenerates us by His Holy 
 Spirit; our regeneration is wholly the act of the Spirit of Christ. — Seeing 
 this [Baptism! is instituted by Christ Himself, as we cannot be born of 
 water without the Spirit, so neither can we in an ordinary way be born of the 
 Spirit without water, used or applied in obedience and conformity to His in- 
 stitution. Christ hath joined them together, and it is not in our power to part 
 them ; he that would be born of the Spirit, must be born of water also." — Bev~ 
 ■erage's Sermons, vol 1. p. 304. 
 
 I Hooker, 1. c. See note A. at the end. 
 
30 
 
 To name individuals* in this universal consent is to disguise the 
 extent of the evidence ; it is to point to a few single luminaries in 
 the nightly sky, vvlien the whole heavens are lighted and thickly set 
 with the " stars which He has ordained." For those who, in their 
 extant writings, were not led to explain this text of St. John, yet in 
 their other language bear ample and imphcit witness that they un- 
 derstood it in the same sense as the rest of the Christian Church. Ev- 
 ery vestige of exposition of IScripture, every statement of Christian 
 doctrine which can bear this way, implies the same. Thus, when 
 one explains! the words, " He shall lead me to the waters of refresh- 
 ment," of "the water of regeneration, whereby whoso is desirous of 
 the Divine Grace, being baptized, layeth aside the old age of sin, 
 and whereas he was decayed, hath his youth renewed ;" or again, 
 when David speaketh of the " blessedness of him to whom the Lord 
 impuleth no sin," saith,| foreseeing with prophetic eyes the grace of 
 the " New Testament, and that remission which through the all-holy 
 Baptism is beslovfed upon believers, he pronouncelh them blessed, 
 inasmuch as they received free remission of sin," no one could doubt 
 how he would explain the words of St. John. No one could doubt 
 that they who so expounded, had their minds filled with the benefits 
 of Baptism, so that the very mention of forgiveness brought to their 
 thoughts that full remission, whereby they were admitted into the 
 kingdom of heaven ; the very name of "waters of refreshment" re- 
 
 • yazquez, in 3 Part. S. Thomae Disp- 131. n. 22, refers to Justin Apol. 2. 
 Tertulhan de Baptisrao, c. 11. n. 89. Cyprian, L. 3. ad Quirin. c. 25. Am- 
 brose, L. 3- de Spirilu Sancto, c. 11. Jerome in c. 16, Ezek. Basil and Greg- 
 ory of Nyssa de Baptismo. Gregory Nazianzen, Oral. 40, in S. Bapt. and 
 he adds "all the commentators, whom he omits as superfluous." Such are» 
 to name the older, not only St. Chrysostome, St. Augustine, St. Cyril, of AU 
 exandria, Nonnus, but Theodoras of Mopsueslia, Apolinarius, Amonius, Seve- 
 rus, (ap. Corderius Caten. in Joann. Evangel.) To these may be added, Re- 
 cognit. Clem. vi. 9. [Hom. xi. c. 26. Epit c. 17, 18.] Origen'xn Ep. ad Rom. 
 L. V. c. 8. p. 561, ed. de la Rue. Nemesianus in Concil, Carthag. ap. Cyjjrian 
 p. 338. [ed. Bened.] Auctor Lib. de rebaptismale, apud. eund. p. 355. Eusebius, 
 ad Is. 3, 2, [Montfaucon Coll. Nov. t. ii. p. 368.] St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. 
 xi. c. 9. Constilt. Apostol. L. vi. c. 15. Hilary of Aries, [Combefis. Bibl. Patr. 
 V. 22.] Leo the Great, Ep. ad Demetriad. c. 11. Quaest. ad Antioch c. v, 
 H<;sychius in Ps. 103, [Catena Corderii.] A late writer in the " Record" [I 
 am toldj ventured the assertion that St. Chrysostome was the frsl who inter- 
 preted the text of Baptism ! Of the witnesses here quoted he is the twentieth; 
 snd this without taking into account the manifest allusions to the text in S. 
 HenaaSt [L iii- c. 16.] <S. Irencsus, [iii. 17. 2.] S. Dionysius of Alex. [c. Sa- 
 mu&aten. L. iv. p. 230.] &. Optatus, [de Schism. Donatist. v. 5.] Let any 
 one disposed to disparage this evidence, think how he would appreciate it, if 
 it supported any point in the system which he has made his own. 
 
 t Theodoret, in Ps. xxii. 23, with whom St.Athanasius agrees, although not 
 speaking quite so strongly. These are two, in whose extant works we happen 
 to liive no interpretation of the text of St. John. 
 
 X Theodoret and St. Athanasius, in Ps. xli. 42, both alike positively. 
 
81 
 
 called that health-giving stream, the Baptism of water and the Spirit, 
 which had cleansed them of all sins, and given them a fresh life, the 
 life from above. All such expositions are an a fortiori evidence that 
 such writers must have understood, in like manner, the words of 
 their Lord. Not only did they understand the words " water and 
 the Spirit" of Baptism, but they regarded them as a sort of key to 
 the rest of Holy Scripture, which any way bore upon the same sub- 
 jects. Thence they inferred, that wherever, under the law, free re- 
 mission of sins was set forth, there was an intimation of that gift of 
 Christ in the Gospel, without w Inch a man could not " enter into the 
 kingdom of Heaven ;" thence, also, that when water was spoken of 
 as cheering, cleansing, refreshing, there was a secret reference to 
 that great mystery, wherein our Lord, by condescending to be Bap- 
 tized, should " sanctify water to the mystical washing away of sin," 
 and to the imparling of His holiness. And so of those words, (St. 
 John i. 12, 13.) " As many as received Him, to them gave he pow- 
 er to become the sons of God, to them that believe on his name, 
 which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
 the will of man, but of God ;" whoso should explain them of the 
 gift of God in Baptism, could not hesitate so to understand the 
 words of our Lord. For this exposition is founded on the very no- 
 tion, that the partaking of the Incarnation and the Christian relation 
 of sonship to God, is imparted through Baptism, and is not imparted 
 without it. Yet even Pelagius* understood the gift here spoken of 
 to be realized through Baptism ; and among the Christian fathers, 
 allusions to this text are frequent, even where our Lord's words are 
 not quoted ; because this declares more positively the Christian's 
 rivilege of the birth of God: our Lord's words are spoken negative- 
 ly, that no one shall see the kingdom of heaven without that birth. — 
 Controversy and error have driven us into narrower bounds, where 
 our forefathers used to " feed freely in a large pasture." 
 
 The force of the appeal to this text is much disguised again by 
 mere reference to those who allege it. For beyond tlie simple fact 
 of the unity of the whole Church, by whom one and one only sense 
 is found in it, there is something very impressive in the very way in 
 which it is quoted. It is impressive from very contrast, amid our 
 strifes of words, to see the undoubtingness with which the whole 
 Church embraced one meaning, alluded to, drew inferences from it, 
 as having the nature of an axiom in religious trutli. There is, how- 
 ever, yet another test. 'I'he very first author who names it, Justin 
 Martyr, in a public document, written not forty years after the death 
 of St. John, speaks of it as a recognized ground of Christian Bap- 
 
 • His comment is, " Through Faith they are bom of Him, through the re- 
 Tiewal of Baptism and grace of tlie Holy Spirit." — App. ad Uieron. t. xi. 
 p. 774. 
 
 I 
 
32 
 
 tism. He speaks not in his own name, but in that of the whole 
 Church.* 
 
 " Whoever are persuaded and beheve that what we teach and say 
 is true, and undertake to Uve accordingly, are taught, with prayer and 
 fasting, to beg of God the remission of their former sins, we also 
 praying and fasting with them. Then they are led by us to a place 
 where is water, and after the manner of new birth, that we also were 
 new born, are they new born. For they are bathed in the water in 
 the name of God the Father and Lord of all, and of our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost. For Christ said, ' Except ye 
 be born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.' But 
 that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter into 
 the wombs of those who bare them is manifest to all." 
 
 And not less Tertullian,t arguing the very point, whether, because 
 faith sufficed to Abraham without Baptism, therefore it sufficed 
 now. 
 
 " Be it that in past times, before the Passion and Resurrection of 
 the Lord, salvation was through bare faith. But when faith was 
 enlarged by the belief in His Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection, 
 there was added the sealing of Baptism, a clothing, as it w^ere, of 
 faith, which heretofore was bare, but which now avails not without 
 the law annexed to it. For a law of Baptism, has been prescribed, 
 and its form ordained. ' Go,' He saith, ' teach all nations, baptizing 
 them,' &c. And that strict rule, ' Except a man,' &c. blended with 
 this law, obliged faith to Baptism as a thing essential ; so thence- 
 forth all who believed were baptized." 
 
 In both these writers alike it is spoken of as a known fact, that 
 Christians had ever been baptized, in obedience to these words of 
 our Lord ; and so it is assumed, as having been undoubted by the 
 whole Church, from the Apostles downwards, that our Lord in those 
 words spoke of His Baptism, that Faith, without the Baptism of 
 Faith, did not regenerate. In St. Basil's clear and eloquent words,t 
 ** Faith and Baptism are two modes of salvation, akin and indivisi- 
 ble, for Faith is perfected by Baptism, and Baptism is founded by 
 Faith, and both are accomplished through the same Names. For 
 as we believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so are we also bap- 
 tized into the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
 Spirit." 
 
 Thus, then, we have not only the universal consent of the early 
 Church, but we have, in the very earliest writers, an appeal to the 
 then practice, as resting upon the plain meaning of these words of 
 Scripture, and implying an Apostolic tradition. 
 
 * Apol. 1. t De Baptisrao, c. 13. 
 
 % De Spiritu. S., c. 12. fin. 
 
33 
 
 Again, if we must have recourse to the admissions of heretics, 
 (since people will trust them rather than the Church,) there was no 
 text by which the Pelagians were more pressed than this. Nothing 
 but sin could exclude any from the kingdom of Heaven ; but infants 
 were baptized, because our Lord had said, " Except one be born 
 of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of hea- 
 ven." This showed (the Catholics argued) that infants had sm, and 
 since not actual, original sin. The Pelagians answered not, (as mo- 
 derns would,) by cutting short the question, denying that the text 
 had anything to do with Baptism, or that infants could need baptism ; 
 but they answered (also in a modern way,) by keeping close to the 
 letter of Scripture, and disregarding its spirit, that " they did enter 
 into life eternal, although " not into the kingdom of Heaven."* — 
 Here, then, we have a heresy requiring the attention of the whole 
 Church ; the Church appealing to the Apostolical custom of infant 
 baptism, and our Lord's words, as the ground of that custom ; the 
 adversaries admitting both, but escaping the result of their admis- 
 sion by an expedient which attests into how great straits they were 
 reduced. Now, let any one imagine the controversy transferred 
 from that day to this, would the Pelagians have the same dilHiculty 
 now ? and can this difficulty be otherwise explained than through 
 the fixed and rooted persuasion in the whole Church, that our Lord, 
 when speaking of the " birth of water and the Spirit," spoke of the 
 privileges of Baptism ? 
 
 The Catholicity of this interpretation of our Lord's words, "Except 
 a man be born of water and the Spirit," is still further ilhistrated by the 
 use of them in the Baptismal Liturgies of the whole ancient Church. 
 There is not a Liturgy, from Britian to India, which does not in some 
 way incorporate it : the Eastern Liturgies rehearse it as the Gospel ;t 
 
 * " These [the Pelagiansl are alarmed at the words of the Lord, ' Unless a 
 man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God,' which he explains, 
 ' Unless a person be born again of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into 
 the kingdom of Heaven.' And so they would fain give unbaptized infants sal- 
 vation and eternal life, as the deserts of their innocency,but make them aliens 
 from the kingdom of Heaven, as not having been baptized; a new and 
 strange assumption, as if there could be salvation and life eternal out of the 
 inheritance of Christ, out of the kingdom of Heaven ! They seek, namely, a 
 lurking-place therein, that our Lord does not say, ' Unless a man be reborn 
 of water and the Spirit, he shall not have life, but he shall not enter into the 
 kingdom of God.' " — S. Aug. de Peccat. Merit, et. Remis. i. ^ 26. 
 
 f John iii. 1 — 9. is a lesson in the Armenian Baptismal service, [see Assem. 
 Cod. Liturg. t. ii. p. 196—206 ;] in that of MaZaiar, Johnii. 25. — iii. 8. ib.t. i. 
 p. 188; that of Antioch, c 3, 1— U, ib. p. 229; that of St. James of Edessa, 
 from the Greek, c 3, 1 — 6, p- 248 ; and the Apostolic Liturgy, revised by Se- 
 verus, t. ii. p. 274, c. 3, 1 — 21, Coptic and ^'Ethiopic, [t ii. p. 154.] Iri the 
 Western Church, part of the beginning of each of the four Gospels was read 
 in the service for the Catechumens, yet not simply as the beginning, but be- 
 cause each contained something suited thereto. The portions read were St. 
 
 VOL. II. — 2. 
 
34 
 
 the Western have some corresponding passages in the place of the 
 Gospel ; but both East and West, the Churches of St. James, St. 
 Mark, St. Peter, and St. Paul, St. John, St. Thomas, and those 
 whose human founders are not known, — the Church of Egypt, of 
 Antioch, of Armenia, of Ethiopia, of Malabar, of Constantinople, 
 Rome, Gaul, Milan, the Goths, all not new or of yesterday but 
 from remote antiquity, attest that their forefathers understood the 
 words of our Lord in no other sense. The truth so contained in 
 the text recurs in every form ; it occurs in the prayer for the 
 hallowing* of the Baptismal Fountain, or (as in our own Liturgy) 
 
 Matt. i. 18 — 21, " The birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise," to " He shall 
 save his people from their sins" St. Marki.l — 8. to " He shall baptize you 
 with the Holy Ghost" St. Luke i. 5 — 17. to " make ready a people prepared 
 for the Lord." St. John i. 1 — 14. the Incarnation of the Eternal Word to 
 " who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
 man, but of God." These Gospels occur in the Sacramentary of Gelasius, 
 [ap. Assem. t. i. p. 9, 10, from a MS. of the seventh century] of Gregory, [lb. 
 p. 22. MS. of ninth century ;] Gothic and Galilean Missal (early part of eighth 
 century) p. 35 ; Galilean Sacramentary (end of seventh century,) p 40 ; Mis- 
 sal of (iJellone, pp. 57, 58 ; Poictiers (end of ninth century,) p 63» 64i 68, 69 ; 
 Vietri, Naples, p. 75 ; Vienne, pp. 77, 78, 79, 80; Liege, pp. 83, 84. 
 
 * Old Roman Sacramentary of Gelasius, (Ass. ii. 4;) Gregory, ib. p. 8; 
 Apameain Syria, (fourteenth century) p. 75 ; GaUican, Colbert, ninth century, 
 p. 63 ; Moisac, ninth century, p. 68. 
 
 " Let the power of Thy Spirit descend into the fulness of this fountain, and 
 impart to the whole substance of this water the power of regenerating. Here 
 be all stains of sins blotted out. Be the nature here formed in Thy imageand 
 restored to the glory of its first estate, cleansed from all defilements of the 
 old man ; that every one who cometh to this sacrament of regeneration may 
 be born again to the new infancy of a real innocence.'' 
 
 Old Gothic (ib. p. 34.) 
 
 " O Lord, who sanctifiedst the river Jordan for the salvation of souls, let 
 the angel of Thy blessing descend upon these waters, that thy servants be- 
 ing bedewed with them, may receive remission of sins, and being born of wa- 
 ter and the Spirit, may serve Thee devotedly for ever. Through our Lord, &c." 
 
 Old GaUican (ib. p. 38.) 
 
 •' Let us, with one mind and humble prayer, beseech the God of everlasting 
 gifts and healthful graces, that through His Word, Wisdom and Power, His 
 Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, He would grant to His people, coming to the 
 health-giving Baptism, the grace of the new birth ; and wholly removing 
 hence all approach of any evil, pour His Holy Spirit into the life-giving 
 Bath ; that when the people, thirsting after righteousness, entereth the health- 
 giving waters, they may truly (as is written) be ' born again of water and 
 the Spirit,' and being buried with their Redeemer in the Bath, after the like- 
 ness of the Holy and Divine mystery, and dying with Him in Baptism, may 
 rise with Him in His kingdom. Through, &c." 
 
35 
 
 as the ground* why the port of Baptism was sought after ; in prayer 
 
 "And again, — ' Sanctify this fountain, Thou Sanctifier of the human race; 
 fit this place for the influence of Thy Holy Spirit; let the old Adam be buried 
 here, &c.' " (as in our Liturgy.) 
 
 Constantinople and Greek Church (ib. p. 138.) 
 
 "Thou hast said, O Lord, ' wash and become ye clean, put away iniqui- 
 ties from your souls.' (Is. i. 16.) Thou hast bestowed on us the new birth 
 from above, through 'water and the Spirit.' Manifest Thyself, O Lord, over 
 this [water,] and grant that whoso is baptised therein may be transformed, so 
 as to 'put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 
 and put on the new man, which is renewed after the image of Him who created 
 him,' that 'having been planted through Baptism in the likeness of His death, 
 he may be a partaker also of the resurrection,' &c." 
 
 Church of Jerusalem and Antioch, {Syriac) (ib. pp. 220, 231.) Apostolic, as 
 arranged by Severus, patriarch of Antioch, p. 291. 
 
 " Do Thou, O Lord of all, make these waters, waters of comfort, waters of 
 joy and gladness, &c. For Thou hast said, 'Wash ye, be ye clean, put away 
 iniquities from your hearts.' Thou hast given regeneration ' by water and the 
 Spirit,' and to Thee we uplift glory and thanksgiving, and to Thy Only Begot- 
 ten Son, and to Thy Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen." 
 
 Coptic and Ethiopic (t. ii. pp. 166 — 7.) 
 
 " Since Thy Only-Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, descending 
 into the Jordan, cleansed its waters, bare witness, saying, ' Unless a man be 
 born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven' — O Lord, upon this water, and by it and by Thy Holy Spirit, through 
 Thy Divine Power, regenerate Thy servant, who hath offered himself to 
 Thee." 
 
 * Maronite, (arranged by St. James of Sarug, fifth century.) Address by 
 Deacon (ib. t. ii. p. 344.) 
 
 " Nor doth he receive the heavenly kingdom who is not baptised and cleans- 
 ed. Come, my beloved, become children of the Church and of Baptism, which 
 reneweth what is decayed in you, and healeth your wounds. Put off what is 
 old, by the waters of Baptism, and put on the robe of glory through the Holy 
 Spirit from the water, &c." 
 
 Armenian (t. ii. p. 198.) 
 
 "Moreover, Thou hast decreed, through Thy unfailing Word, that they 
 'who are not regenerated of water and the Spirit shall not see eternal life ;' 
 wherefore, this Thy servant, affrighted, desiring eternal life, cometh willingly 
 to the spiritual Baptism of this water. Send forth, we beseech Thee, Lord, 
 Thy Holy Spirit into this water, as Thou sanctifiedst Jordan, &c." 
 
36 
 
 to God* to make them fit to receive it ; in thanksgiving! to Him for 
 
 * Old Roman Church. Gdasius, t. i. p. 21. (in eight MSS. oi eighth century, 
 Gellone, Rheims, Anglican in Monastery of Jumiege, Noyon, Poictiers, 
 MSS. of Royal and Colbertine Libraries, Moisac near Thoulouse, Mar- 
 tene de Antiq. Eccl. Rit. L. i. c. i. p. 38.) Prayer on admitting a hea- 
 then as a Catechumen. 
 
 " Deign to hear him, who boweth his neck before Thee ; let him come to 
 the fountain of the washing, that being 'born again of water and the Holy 
 Spirit,' and ' being freed from the old man, he may put on the new man, which 
 is created after Thee ;' let him receive the incorrupt and spotless clothing, and 
 be accounted worthy to serve Thee our Lord, through the Lord, &c." 
 
 Church of Antioch, i. 220 ; Apostolic, by Severus, t. ii. p. 266. (For Cate- 
 chumens.) 
 
 " Write Thy fear in their hearts, that they may know the emptiness of this 
 world, and tliat putting from them all ungodliness and worldly lusts, they 
 may be made meet for the regeneration, which is from above, of water and the 
 Spirit, &c." 
 
 Apostolic, by Severus (t. ii. p. 267.) 
 
 " God, who out of His love was in an incomprehensible manner made man, 
 of the Holy Virgin, with a human body, yet born without generation, that 
 He might bring the sons of men to the adoption of sons of His Father, and 
 might make them sons of God by water and the Spirit : do Thou, O Lord, 
 cover with the right hand of Thy mercy this Thy servant, who is prepared for 
 Holy Baptism, and sanctify, cleanse, and wash him with Thy holy hyssop, and 
 unite him with Thy spiritual and holy sheep, &c." 
 
 A short form by Severus (t. ii. p. 302.) 
 
 " And grant him by Thy mercy, the new birth by ' water and the Spirit,' and 
 make him|[meet for the good things which are from Thee, through the goodness 
 and mercy of Thy Christ, &c." 
 
 Antioch revised (t. i. pp. 224, 225.) 
 
 " Do thou perfect by ' water and the Spirit,' and make them sons of the new 
 birth for the remission of sins and the clothing of incorruption ; put off from them 
 the old man, which is corrupted through the deceitful lusts, and clothe them with 
 the new clothing, which is renewed in knowledge in the likeness of Thee, O 
 Creator ; where there is neither Jew nor Syrian, neither circumcision nor un- 
 circumcision, but in all and in each is Thy dwelling-place. For Thou hast said 
 in Thy illumining and living doctrine, ' Except a man be born of water and the 
 Spirit,' he cannot see Thy kingdom. Wherefore, O Lord, make them meet for 
 Thy heavenly kingdom." 
 
 Also the prayer, " Write Thy fear, &c." 
 
 t Gelasius, (Ass. ii- 5;) Gregory, (ib. 9, 10;) Modern Roman, (pp. 18, 19 — 
 30;) Old Gallican, (p. 39, from MS. of seventh century, p. 42;) Ambrosian^ 
 Milan, (pp. 47 — 51 ;) Gellone, (p- 55;) Colbertine MS. ninth century, p. 66 ; 
 Moisac, Isle of France, ninth century p. 68; Anghcan, from Norman MS. p. 
 70 ; Cologne, p. 73 ; Apamea in Syria, p. 76 ; Paris and Lodi in Italy, p. 67 ; 
 Vienne, p. 61. 
 
37 
 
 liaving Ibestowed it, and prayer to Him to keep this His gift in them 
 ^0 the end. It occurs also in the prayer of the minister that he may 
 
 Western Church (prayer at the Chrism after Baptism.) 
 
 " Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath regenerated 
 'thee by water and the Holy Spirit, and hath given thee remission of all sins, 
 He anoints thee with the unction of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord to life 
 eternal." 
 
 Gelasius, (Ass. ii. 7;) Gellone, (p. 58;) Rheims, (MS. of eighth century, 
 p. 59 ;) Chelle Diocese of Paris, ninth century, p. 63 ;) Colder tin, MS. ninth 
 century, (p. 66;) Moisac, (ninth century, p. 70 ;) Anglican, (p. 71 ;) Cologne, 
 (p. 74.) 
 
 " Almighty everlasting God, who hast regenerated Thy servant by ' water 
 and the Holy Spirit,' and hast given him remission of all sins, grant him con- 
 tinual health to acknowledge the truth of Thy Unity through the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 Gothic (p. 36.) 
 
 " Let us pray, dearly beloved brethren, our Lord and God for these His 
 regenerate, who have now been baptised, that when the Saviour shall come in 
 His majesty. He may clothe them with salvation, whom He has born again ' of 
 water and the Holy Spirit.' " (Collect after giving the white vestment.) 
 
 Old Gallican, (MS. of seventh century, ib. p. 43.) 
 
 " O Lord God Almighty, do Thou, in these Thy servants whom Thou hast 
 appointed to be born again ' of water and the Holy Spirit,' preserve that holy 
 Baptism which they have received, and be pleased to perfect it to the hallow- 
 ing of Thy Holy Name ; that thy grace may ever avail to them, and that what 
 they have received by Thy free gift they may keep by the integrity of their 
 life." 
 
 Church of Jerusalem (p. 254.) (Prayer with offering of incense.) 
 
 " God, the Word, Begotten from everlasting, — who, by thy life-giving dis- 
 pensation, breaking down the barrier of the ancient enmity, hast given to the 
 human race a second birth ' of water and the Spirit,' the bright robe of 
 Baptism, and the heavenly gift of adoption, and kindred with the Father and 
 the Spirit, — grant that we may stand in fear and trembling before Thee, stand- 
 ing pure and without falling, until our last breath, clothed with the royal robe 
 of holy Baptism, which Thou hast wrought for us through Thy Divine good- 
 ness, and which, by an unfeigned faith, is kept whole, &.c." 
 
 Church of Antioch. (Apostolic by Severus, on raising the Baptized from the 
 Water, a hymn, t. ii. p. 300.) 
 
 " Spread thy wings, Holy Church, and receive the gentle lamb, which the 
 Holy Spirit hath begotten of the waters of Baptism. Hail, thou new lamb, 
 son, begotten of Baptism, whom I have begotten of the waters, in the Name 
 of the Trinity." 
 
 In the order by Severus himself, p. 266, note, there occurs : 
 
 " The filth of our sins, and the stains which come from the enemy, we wash 
 off this day, in the laver which is of water and the Spirit." 
 
38 
 
 be made worthy* to administer so high a mystery. And now let any 
 one, who wishes to see the truth, labor to lay aside prejudice, and 
 without bias to review this evidence. It relates to no insulated 
 point, no bye or incidental question, which may be laid aside or as- 
 sumed without affecting the rest. It lies, as is confessed, at the 
 root of the whole system ; as some say, a deadening doctrine ; as 
 the old Church found it, full of life ; but, in either case, it is the point 
 from which the two opposite systems, which divide the Church, 
 diverge. Let a person, then, consider what the evidence is. Every 
 vestige of Christian writing which God has preserved to us from the 
 ancient Cluirch, that explains the words, " Except a man be born of 
 water and the Spirit," assumes, that they declare that in Baptism 
 we are born from above, through our Saviour's gift : every passage, 
 which speaks of the privileges of Baptism at all, implies the same ; 
 their whole system of theology presupposes it ; every branch of the 
 whole Church, independent as they may have been in their origin, 
 ingraft upon their Baptismal Liturgies, (and in this sense,) our Lord's 
 words, *' Except a man be born of water and the Spirit." The doc- 
 trine seems to militate against predestinarian views, yet St. Augus- 
 tine, the author of those views, and his disciples, maintained and 
 urged it : heretics, whose interest it was aforetime to deny it, retain- 
 ed, in their own sense, their belief in this ; until, at last, after the 
 Church had borne witness to it for fifteen centuries, one man arose 
 and denied it. Now, let any one find any other instance in which 
 the whole Church has thus uniformly held any doctrine, which can 
 be proved to be an error ; if he cannot, let him ask himself what 
 ground he has for supposing them to be in error on this, for setting 
 a modern novelty against the consent of the whole Church, or how 
 the supposition of such an error is consistent with his Saviour's pro- 
 mise, never to forsake His Church. 
 
 But, combining this consent with our Lord's words, the argument 
 becomes so strong, that with one who loves his Saviour, and is not 
 hindered by a long contrary bias, I would gladly rest the whole ques- 
 tion of Baptismal Regeneration upon this one consideration. How- 
 ever men may think that the words do not require this interpretation, 
 
 * Greek and Syriac. Apostolic Liturgy translated from the Greek by James 
 of Edessa. (Prayer in offering the incense. T. i. p. 256.) 
 
 " Giver of Holiness and Saviour of the human race, Thou who hast transform- 
 earthly things into a good and heavenly order, and hast renewed the way of 
 salvation ' through water and the Spirit,' and hast by the love of Thy Christ 
 brought us to that life, and hast set us miserable sinners as Thy servants in the 
 presence of Thy glory — fill us with the might of thy Holy Spirit and the grace 
 of Thy Only-Begotten Son, and make us able to be ministers of Thy New 
 Testament, and that with knowledge, and faith and repentance » we may be fit 
 now also to minister to Thy all-glorious name." 
 
 Also in the Apostolic form arranged by Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, t. ii. 
 p. 286. 
 
39 
 
 ihey will readily admit that it is an obvious, perhaps (apart from 
 other considerations) the more obvious meaning ; add, then, to this, 
 that the Christian Church uniformly, for fifteen centuries, interpreted 
 these His words of Baptism ; that on the ground of this text alone, 
 they urged the necessity of Baptism ; that upon it, mainly, they 
 identified* regeneration with Baptism. If, then, this be an error, 
 w^ould our Saviour have used words which (since water was already 
 used in the Jews' and John's Baptism) must inevitably, and did lead 
 His Church into error ? and which He, who knew all things, must, 
 at the time have known, would lead His Church into error ; and that, 
 when, according to Zuingli's or Calvin's interpretation, His meaning 
 had been as fully expressed, had it stood, " born of the Spirit," only. 
 Rather, if one may argue from the result, one should think, that our 
 Saviour added the words, *' of water," (upon which, in His immedi- 
 ate converse with Nicodemus, He does not dwell,) with the very 
 view, that His Church should thence learn the truth, which she has 
 transmitted, — that ^' regeneration" is the gift of God, bestowed by 
 Him, in this life, in Baptism only. Indeed the opposite exposition, 
 invented by the Swiss teachers, was so manifestly a mere weapon, 
 by which to demolish a Papal argument for the absolute necessity of 
 Baptism, that it had hardly been worth commenting upon, but that 
 no error ever stops at its first stage ; mere repetition hardens as well 
 as emboldens ; what is first adopted as an expedient, is afterwards 
 justified as being alone the truth — the mantle, which was assumed to 
 cover shame, cleaves to us, like that in the fable, until it have sucked 
 out the very life and marrow of our whole system. One text, mis- 
 quoted in order to disprove the absolute necessity of Baptism, has 
 ended in the scarcely disguised indifference or contempt of an ordi- 
 nance of our Saviour. 
 
 Not less peremptorily, however, do our Blessed Saviour's words 
 refuse to be bound down to any mere outward change of state, t or 
 
 * I say, identified, because, so convinced were they of the connection of" re- 
 generation" with Baptism, that they use it, unexplained, when the ordinary 
 sense of " regeneration" were manifestly incorrect. Thus Jerome uses it of 
 the Baptism of our Saviour, (L. 1. c. Jovinian. circa med. quoted by Wall, In- 
 fant Baptism, p. 19. :) as also do others, where, if it have any sense but that of 
 "being baptized," it can only mean, was "declared to be the Son of God," 
 (as Ps. ii. 7. is sometimes applied to His Baptism ;) but they never could have 
 used " re-natus" in this sense, had they not been accustomed to use it as iden- 
 tical with Baptism. In like manner, in our own Articles " renatis," in the 
 Latin copy (Art. 9,) is Englished by " baptized." As in the Ancient Church, 
 St. Hilary, on the confession of Faith in Baptism, " Didst thou not, when thou 
 wast re-born (renascens,) confess that the Son of God was born of Mary V — 
 Be Trin. L. ix. c. 49. 
 
 f Whitaker de Sacr. q. iv. c. 2. ad test. 1. ex Concil. Nic. 1. ap. Gataker, 
 p. 123. " The Fathers did not mean to be understood to the letter, (that there 
 *' was one Baptism for the remission of sins ; but the Council thus speaks be- 
 cause Baptism designates a new state." I cannot but think, tooi that Water- 
 
40 
 
 circumstances, or relation, however glorious the privileges of that 
 new condition may be. For this were the very opposite error ; and 
 whereas the former interpretation " dried* up" the water of Baptism, 
 so does this quench the Spirit therein. One may, indeed, rightly in- 
 fer, that since the Jews regarded the baptized proselyte as a new- 
 born child, t our Saviour would not have connected the mention of 
 water with the new birth, unless the new birth, which He bestowed, 
 had been bestowed through Baptism : but who would so fetter down 
 the fulness of our Saviour's promises, as that His words should mean 
 nothing more than they would in the mouth of the dry and unspirit- 
 ual Jewish legalists ? or, because they, proud of the covenant with 
 Abraham, deemed that the passing of a proselyte into the outward 
 covenant, was a new creation, who would infer that our Saviour 
 spoke only of an outward change ? Even some among the Jews had 
 higher notions, and figured^ that a new soul descended from the re- 
 gion of spirits, upon the admitted proselyte. And if it were merely 
 an outward change — a change of condition only, wherein were the 
 solemnity of this declaration, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, ex- 
 cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," ? 
 for the " seeing" or " entering into" the kingdom of God, i. e. 
 the Church of Christ, (first militant on earth, and then triumphant in 
 heaven,) was itself a change of state, so that the two sentences 
 would have had nearly the same meaning. And who could endure 
 the paraphrase, " unless a man be brought into a stale outwardly dif- 
 ferent, he cannot enter into the kingdom ?" But our Saviour Him- 
 self has explained His own words. To be " born of the Spirit," 
 stands opposed to the being " born of the flesh." As the one birth 
 is real, so must the other be ; the agents, truly, are different, and so 
 also the character of life produced by each : in the one case, physi- 
 cal agents, and so piiysical life, desires, powers ; and, since from a 
 corrupted author, powers weakened and corrupted : in the other, the 
 Holy Spirit of God, and so spiritual life, strength, faculties, energies ; 
 still, in either case, a real existence ; and, to the Christian, a new, 
 real, though not merely physical beginning — an existence real, though 
 invisible — and, though worked by an unseen Agent, yet (when not 
 stifled) felt in its effects, like the energy of the viewless winds. § 
 
 land's statements lead to too outward a view, at least in the case of infants, 
 an outward admission to privileges which may afterwards become inward. In 
 saying this, however, I mean not to depreciate the services, which on this, as 
 on other subjects, Waterland has rendered to the Church. 
 
 * Hooker, 1. c. 
 
 t See Lightfoot, ad loc. Archbishop Laurence's Doctrine of Baptismal Re- 
 generation, p. 28. See note AA. at the end. 
 
 1 Archbisliop Laurence, 1. c. pp. 31, 32. See note AA. 
 
 \ The two births, the natural and the baptismal, are eloquently contrasted 
 by St. Augustine : — " One is of the earth, the other of heaven ; one of the 
 flesh, the other of the Spirit ; one of mortality, the other of eternity ; one of 
 man and womani the other of God and the Church." — In Joann. Tract. li. 
 
41 
 
 This birth " of the water and the Spirit" our Blessed Saviour de- 
 clared to be afwesp, I. e. (as seems probable) not simply that we must 
 be born again, (for this is implied by the very saying that one now 
 living must be born,) but "from above," as the word ai/(o0£c is al- 
 ways used by St. John, and indeed throughout the Old and New 
 Testaments. Nicodemus, namely, had (in the name of himself and 
 others) confessed that our Lord " was come from God," and then 
 made a sort of inquiring pause, (as it would appear,) as to the signs 
 of His coming, or the mode of His manifestation.* Carnal notions 
 of our Lord's kingdom were probably at the root of his error ; he 
 thought that the kingdom of God would come with observation, and 
 awaited its coming. Our Lord, seeing the love of trutb mixed with 
 his natural fearfulness, graciously prepared him for the contrary, 
 and connected the discovery of the spiritual nature of His Itingdom 
 with the confession of Nicodemus. As if He had said, " I am, in- 
 deed, come down from God {and Qeov,) and he can only see My 
 kingdom, who is horn from above, ox from God. The children only 
 of the kingdom can know the mysteries of the kingdom, the children 
 of God tlie things of God." " Nicodemus," says St. Chryscstom, 
 "thought that he had made some great confession of Christ when he 
 had so spoken. But what saith Christ ? He showeth that he had 
 not reached the very threshold or vestibule of the true knowledge ; 
 but that he, and all who spake thus, were yet straying without the pa- 
 lace, and had not even caught a glimpse of the true knowledge, who 
 had such thoughts of the Only-Begotten. What said He ? * Verily, 
 verily,'&c., i. e. 'unless thou be born from above, and receivest the 
 truth, thou wanderest without, and art far from the kingdom of God ;' 
 only to make the words less grievous. He speaketh not plainly but 
 indefinitely, ' unless a man,' — all but saying, ' whether thou or any 
 other thinkest this of Me, he is without the kingdom — ' What He 
 says then is of this sort, ' Unless thou be born again, unless thou re- 
 ceive the Spirit through the bath of regeneration, thou canst not re- 
 ceive the fitting conception of Me. For this conception [that He was 
 a teacher only] is not spiritual, but carnal. For it is impossible for 
 him who is not so born to see the kingdom of God ;' Christ here 
 pointing to Himself, and showing that He is not that only which was 
 seen, but that we have need of other eyes to see the Christ." 
 
 So then our Lord declares here the mystery, not only of a new 
 
 no. 6. See a similar passage against the Pelagians, de peccat. meritis et re- 
 miss. L. 3. c. 2. 
 
 * This connection has been suggested by Lightfoot ad loc, and others from 
 him ; " Since then there was so earnest an expectation among the Jews of the 
 coming and kingdom of the Messiah, and Nicodemus appears to have thought 
 the miracles of Christ an indication and specimen thereof, Christ instructs him, 
 how he may be fit to see and enter into that kingdom, and enjoy the blessings 
 •of those times." 
 
42 
 
 birth, but of a birth " from above,"* " from God," as the beloved 
 
 * Besides vv. 3. 7. it occurs in St. John v. 31. " He who cometh/rom above ;" 
 xix. 11. "given thee from above;'" and xix. 23. St. Matt, xxvii. 51. Mark xv. 
 38, "woven from above." So in St. James i. 17. "is/rom above, coming down 
 from the Father;" iii. 15. ^'' coming down from above ;" iii. 17. " the wisdom 
 from above. ''^ In the only other cases in which it occurs in St. Luke and St. 
 Paul it signifies " from above" of time, St. Lukei. 3. Acts xxvi. 5. Gal. iv. 9. 
 In the LXX. it occurs seventeen times, always in the sense of " above" and 
 " from above ;" nine times answering to nSpn'^n, which word our Lord may 
 have here used, (Nyv'?n). The authority of Antiquity goes the same way. 
 S. Crysostome gives the two renderings, ad loc, "the word avwdtv some say 
 ' from heaven,' others, ' again,' " but does not decide ; yet his language leads 
 one to think that he took that sense which he placed fiirst, and so his Benedic- 
 tine editors have translated him throughout, " desuper." And so (which has 
 much weight,) Theophylact manifestly understood him ; for in his commentary, 
 which is here a sort of paraphrase of St. Chrysostom, he says, " Since Nico- 
 demus had a low notion of Christ, that he was a teacher, and God was with 
 Him, the Lord says to him, it was to be expected that he should have such 
 conceptions of Me ; for not as yet have you been hoxn from above ; i. e. the 
 spiritual birth of God (w Qcoi). — But I say unto thee, that thou, or whosoever 
 is not born from above and of God," &c. (where the « Qeov is inserted to ex- 
 plain the avudcv, which Chrysostom uses in this same sentence.) '' For the 
 birth through Baptism, illumining the soul, enables a person to see, i. e. to 
 perceive, the kingdom of God, i.e. His Only-Begotten Son." And before 
 Chrysostom, Origen (lib. v. in Ep. ad Rom. ^8.) " avuQev signifies both ' again' 
 and ' from above.' But here, since he who is baptized by Jesus, is baptized 
 in the Holy Spirit, it must be understood not as ' again,' but ' from above ;' 
 for we say ' again' when the same things are repeated ; but here the same 
 birth is not repeated, but setting aside this earthly birth, a new birth is 
 received from above, and so we should read more correctly in the Gospel, 
 'unless a man be born from above,' for this it is to be born of the Holy 
 Spirit." (This last paragraph, " and so we should read more correctly," fee- 
 must be the translator's Ruffinus, making Origen's interpretation his own, since 
 in Latin only could there be any question about the reading ; in the original 
 avbidcv expressed both ; so we have here the authority of Ruffinus also.) St. 
 Cyril of Alexandria (whose explanation is like Chrysostom's) compares (ad loc.) 
 the use of w tmv avw, "I am from above," John viii. 23, and at the end of this 
 eh. V. 31. avwQtv ipxopicvos, "he that cometh from above," and explains it 
 thus : " it is the will of the Father that man should be made partaker of the Holy 
 Spirit, being born to an unwonted and foreign life, and that man, being of 
 the earth should be a citizen of heaven. But in that He says that the new 
 birth through the Spirit is ' from above,' He showeth plainly that the Spirit is 
 of the essence of the God and Father, and of Himself He says, ' I am of 
 ' above.' Ammonius (Catena Corderi) explains also ' from above,' and 
 argues in the same way the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. St. Cyril of Jerusalem 
 seems to take it in the same way, since he compares and contrasts our birth " of 
 water and the Spiiit" with that of Christ of the Father, and with St. John i. 
 12, and it is adopted in the Greek liturgy, (Ass. ii. 138.) "thou hast grant- 
 ed us the regeneration from al)ove {rhv aui^dcv dvaycwrtaii') through water 
 and the Spirit," (where the avwOev would be superfluous except in this sense) 
 Nonnus (a. d. 410) alone of the Greek writers (as far aslam aware) interprets 
 avwQev 'again;' and this, in a question of Greek interpretation, has great 
 weight ; and with it, the fact that St. John uses it elsewhere only in this sense. 
 The translations (Syriac,Vulgate, Coptic) have given perhaps the general sense 
 
43 
 
 disciple from his mouth repeats it, " born of God" (John i. 13.) and 
 inhis Epistle dwells so longingly on the words, "born of Him" (1 John 
 ii. 29.) " born of God" (iii. 9. iv. 7. v. 1. 4. 18.) " of God"(« ^"^ Q'"") 
 (iii. 10. iv. 1, 2, 3, 4. 6. v. 19.) " children of God" (iii. 2. 10. v, 2.) 
 which he so intertwines as being identical one with another. No 
 change of heart, then, or of the affections, no repentance, however 
 radical, no faith, no life, no love, come up to the idea of this "birth 
 from above ;" it takes them all in, and comprehends them all, but 
 itself is more than all ; it is not only the creation of a new heart, new 
 affections, new desires, and as it were a new birth, but is an actual 
 birth from above or from God, a gift coming down from God, and 
 given to faith, through Baptism; yet not the work of faith, but the 
 operation of " water and the Holy Spirit," the Holy Spirit giving us 
 a new life, in the fountain opened by Him, and we being born there- 
 in of Him, even as our Blessed and Incarnate Lord was, according 
 to the flesh, born q/"Him in the Virgin's womb. Faith and repent- 
 ance are the conditions on which God gives it ; water, sanctified by 
 our Lord's Baptism, the womb of our new birth ; love, good works, 
 increasing faith, renovated affections, heavenly aspirations, conquest 
 over the flesh, its fruits in those who persevere ; but it itself is the 
 gift of God, a gift incomprehensible, and not to be confounded with or 
 restrained to any of its fruits, (as a change of heart, or conversion,) 
 but illimitable and incomprehensible, as that great mystery from 
 which it flows, the incarnation of our Redeemer, the Ever-Blessed 
 Son of God. 
 
 only in that they have rendered " again," (Euthymius certainly, who is com- 
 monly quoted for this rendering, really expresses himself neither way) and it 
 is remarkable that a trace of the other interpretation occurs in their Liturgies. 
 as in the Syriac, " the new birth, which is from above,'''' (Ass. i. 220. sup. p. 38;) 
 and in another (t. ii. p. 255.) "the gift from above of adoption" (sup. p. 39;) 
 and so perhaps also the Latin in the ninth century, ''the everlasting benediction 
 of the heavenly washing." (Ass. i. 24.) 
 
 The only apparent grounds for the rendering " born again" are, first, the use 
 of the word "regeneration" in Tit. iii. 5; Secondly, that Nicodemus has been 
 thought so to understand it. But (as has been observed) Nicodemus's answer 
 is, *' Can a man be born [not "born again"] when he is old V — "Can he enter 
 a second time into his mother's womb, and be born V wherein the second 
 sentence is an inference from the first, and the stress is not upon the being 
 "born again" but on the Sevrepov datXMv, so that the words are in no way a com- 
 mentary on our Lord's words. And any birth of one already born must be a 
 second birth, so that Nicodemus's words, if they applied ever so strictly, would 
 apply just as well in the one case as in the other. The same may be said of 
 the passage of St. Paul ; it is an evil mode ofinterpretation, which would so inter- 
 pret one Scripture by another as to restrain the larger by the limits of the 
 less. St. Paul declares the mystery " of regeneration and renewing of the 
 HolyGhost ;" the Son of God speaks more fully of our sonship to God, our be- 
 ing " born" not •' again" only, but " from above," "of God." One should 
 look also for explanation rather to our Lord's own words than to those of Nico- 
 demus ; and h3 explains " being born avwOcv'''' by " being born ofwater and the 
 Spirit," v. 5, whereof He names " the Spirit" only, vv. 6. 8, 
 
44 
 
 Thus, then, we are sons of God, because He, in Whom and of 
 Whom we are made, is the Son of God, not by any figure or hke- 
 ness, but actually, — parts of the Second Adam, as we were by nature 
 of the first ; by nature, of the earthy, by grace, of the Lord from 
 heaven, God Blessed for ever ; — and thus being made sons of God, 
 we have " our fellowship (>fO'>'">"'a) with the Father and the Son" (St. 
 John i. 3.,) because we are made "partakers ('"'icwvo;) of the Divine 
 nature." (2. Pet. i. 4.) This overwhelming mystery the Ancient 
 Church would in a measure express when she spake of our being 
 " Christophori," " Theophori ;" and however strange these words 
 may seem to our degenerate Theology, so cold and heedless of its 
 highest privileges and the highest doctrines, she spake and could 
 speak no more than the Holy Ghost had in the written word set 
 down. 
 
 The words of our Lord, then, " birth /row above of water and the 
 Spirit," are a key to other Scripture ; they are in themselves a high 
 revelation, not to be closed up when we come to read other Scripture, 
 and their fulness restrainedwithin themselves, (as if, like the heretics 
 of old, we looked upon different portions of Scripture as the work of 
 another God,) but flowing over into other parts, and imparting to them 
 the light which they contain concentrated within them. Thus when 
 we read the words "to them that received Him gave He power to 
 become the sons of God, to them that believe in His name, who 
 were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
 man, but of God," we are not to take this in a figurative way, as if 
 it were a distinct statement, that through faith we are accounted as 
 it were sons of God, but as it stands, in connection with the Incar- 
 nation ; as it there follows, " and the Word was made flesh, and 
 dwelt among us ;" and both in union with that mystery, whereby we 
 are made partakers of the Incarnation, being " baptised into one 
 Body," the body of our Incarnate Lord, being actually " born from 
 above of water and the Spirit of God." 
 
 It is instructive to see how the old Church combined this declara- 
 tion of St. John (i. 12 — H.) with the teaching (iii. 5.) and ordinance 
 of his Lord, the Sacrament of Baptism, and both with the Incarna- 
 tion ; and so, in consequence, how much more they seem to' have 
 felt that mystery. They then contemplated God's majesty in all 
 the mysteries which he had revealed ; we have made them all so 
 systematically to bear upon one, the Death on the Cross, as well 
 nigh to efface out of our minds the rest, except in so far as they 
 have this bearing. 
 
 To take one instance only out of an ancient sermon on our Lord's 
 nativity.* 
 ; " The earthly birth neither added to nor diminished the majesty of 
 
 * Leo, Serm. 7 de Natio. Dom. 
 
45 
 
 the Son of God; for an unchangeable Substance can neither be di- 
 minished nor increased. For that ' the Word was made flesh' signi- 
 fieth not that the nature of God was changed into flesh, but that flesh 
 was taken by the Word into an unity of Person, and therein the 
 whole man was taken, with whom (within the bowels of the Virgin, 
 quickened by the Holy Spirit and ever-virgin) the Son of God is so 
 inseparably united, that He who, before time was, was begotten of 
 the Essence of the Father, now, in time, is born of the Virgin's 
 womb. For no otherwise could we be freed from the chains of eter- 
 nal death, than by His becoming humbled among us, who with His 
 own was abiding Almighty. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, being 
 born very man, but ceasing not to be very God, made in Himself the 
 commencement of a new creation, and in the mould of His birth gave 
 to the human race a spiritual beginning, so that, to abolish the infec- 
 tion of a carnal generation, they who were to be re-born might have 
 an origin without any seed of sin ; of whom it is said, ' who were 
 born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of men, 
 but of God.' What mind can comprehend this mystery? what 
 tongue declare this grace ? Unrighteousness restored to innocence ; 
 decay to freshness ; aliens adopted ; foreigners made heirs ! The 
 ungodly righteous ; the covetous bountiful ; the incontinent chaste ; 
 from earthly they begin to be heavenly. What is this change, but 
 the rio-ht hand of the Most Hiffh? Since the Son of God came to 
 destroy the works of the devil, and bo incorporated us into Himself, 
 and Himself into us, that the descent of God to the things of man, 
 shall be the advance of man to the things of God." 
 
 In this passage, Leo, as the holy festival led him, dwelt on the 
 connection of our privilege of sonship to God, and this declaration 
 of it by St. John, with the Incarnation; in others on that of both with 
 Baptism. Thus he says in another place :* 
 
 "All things then, which the Son of God did and taught for the 
 reconciling of the world, we not only know in the history of past 
 actions, but we feel in the power of present deeds. He it is, who, 
 born of the Holy Spiiitfrom a virgin-mother, quickens his undefiled 
 Church with the same infused Spirit, that so by the birth of Baptism 
 an innumerable multitude of sons of God may be bom, of whom it 
 is spoken, 'who are born not of blood,' " &c. 
 
 And again, in a treatise on Christian Hurailityt (against the Pela- 
 gians :) 
 
 " Although all the portions of the same mystery meet together in 
 one, what is enacted visibly is one thing, what is realized invisibly is 
 another ; nor in the Sacrament are the form and the power the same, 
 for the form is ministered by the obedience of human agency, the 
 
 * Serm. 63. de Passione Dom, c. 6. 
 
 f Epist. ad Demetriad. c. 11. He quotes it again of Baptism, Ep. 16. c 6 
 
46 
 
 power is operated by the efFectualness of the Divine working. For 
 to His miglit alone is it to be referred that while the outward man is 
 washed, the inward man is changed ; and of the old a new creature 
 is formed; vessels of wrath are transformed into vessels of mercy; 
 and the siiiful flesh is changed into the body of Christ ; for unholy, 
 they are made holy ; for captives free ; for sons of men, sons of God, 
 ' who are born not of blood, &c., but of God.'" 
 
 This was the general interpretation of the Ancient Church : those 
 who quote the text,* of Baptism, go not about to prove its reference 
 to it ; they assvime it, see it ; others, again, though they name not 
 Baptism, speak of these privileges! iu terms which they elsewhere 
 use of Baptism : both on the same ground ; the one need not prove it, 
 the other need not express it, because in those days men knew of no 
 other way whereby a man might become a son of God, than by being 
 born in Baptism of the Holy iSpirit, who is God. Hence St. Atha- 
 nasius and others employ the fact as a proof of the Divinity of the 
 Holy Spirit. Having quoted the words " who were born not, &c., 
 but of God," he infers,* " as many then as were born of the Holy 
 
 * e. g. S. Clem- Alex. Strom. ii.l3. p. 460. St. Chrysostome, ad loc. St. 
 Athanasius, sup. St. Cyril of Jerus. (in connection with St. John iii. 5.) Cat. 
 xi. ^9. S. Cyril of Alex, ad loc. and the other Greek Commentators. 
 
 t e. g. St. Augustine, Serm. 121. de verb. Ev. Joh. 1. ^5. uses language the 
 same as he had employed in Joann. Tract, xi. n. 6. on our Lord's words, " Ex- 
 cept a man be bora of water and the Spirit," see above, p. 44. n. 1. He also, 
 as well as Turtullian, de Orat. c. 2. explains the text of that relation of God as 
 our Fatlier, in which "the Church is our mother ;" " The first birth is of male 
 and female ; the second of God and the Church ;" and this is notoriously Bap- 
 tism : Theodoret, as describing our "regeneration in Christ," (ad Ep. 1. ad 
 Cor. c. i. ult.;) Jerome (adv. Jovinian,ii. 29,) as members of the body ofChrist ; 
 but again, they conceive of us as in Christ, members of Christ's body, by Bap- 
 tism, and by that only. " Seest thou," says St. Jerome, " that our being taken 
 into the participation of His substance, is not of nature but of grace ; and He 
 therefore loves us, because the Father loved the Son ; and the members are 
 loved, namely in the body. ' For as many as received Him,' &c. The Word 
 was made flesh, that we from the flesh might pass into the Word." And so 
 St. Augustine at length. The connection with the following words he thus 
 points out ; " So when he had said ' born of God,' lest we should marvel, 
 and shrink from favor so great, so that it should seem incredible to us, that men 
 are ' born of God,' as if to reassure them, he adds, ' and the Word was made 
 flesh.' Why then marvellest thou, that men are born of God 1 Hearken, that 
 God Himself was born of men. ' And the Word was made flesh.' " St. Iren- 
 (Bus (v. 18. 2.) connects it with the Incarnation, (as St. Aug. above, and St. 
 Chrys.) and so likewise Origen (Fragm. in Joann. Opp- t. iv. p. 99.) and St. 
 Hilary, de Trin. 1. i. c. 10. Origen again (de Orat. ^ 22.) and Euselius speak 
 of it, as something distinct from Jewish privileges. 
 
 * De Incarnat. et cont. Arian. t. i. p. 880, he quotes the text also, after the 
 manner of Leo, ib. ^ 8. p. 876, and(in connection with the Incarnation) Orat. i. 
 c. Arian. ^ 43. p. 447. Orat. ii. ^ 59. p. 527. " These are they, who, having 
 received the Word, received power to become the children of God ; for no 
 otherwise could they, being by nature creatures, become sons, unless by re- 
 
47 
 
 Spirit were born of God ; and as nnany as were baptized into Christ, 
 were baptized into the Father and the Holy Spirit." The very ar- 
 gument imphes the complete identification of the two passages, (St. 
 John i. 13. iii. 5.); for in the one Christians are said to be born in 
 Baptism " of the Spirit," in the other " of God;" therefore, St.Atha- 
 nasius argues, the Holy Spirit is God.* Not only also are St. John's 
 words so interpreted by the several Fathers of the Greek and Latin 
 Church ; they are (as was stated)! read as the Gospel in the several 
 branches of the Latin Church, and incorporated into the exposition 
 of the Creed in a very ancient Baptismal Liturgy. J 
 
 " Ye, then, dearly beloved, are to be re-created from the old into 
 the new man ; and for carnal begin to be spiritual, for earthly to be 
 heavenly ; believe with a firm and unshaken faith that the resurrec- 
 tion which took place in Christ, shall be fulfilled in all of us ; and 
 that what went before in the Head, shall follow in the whole body. 
 Inasmuch as this very Sacrament of Baptism, which you are about 
 to receive, furnishes an emblem of this hope. For there a soit of 
 death and resurrection are enacted. The old man is laid aside, the 
 new taken. He entereth a sinner, he ariseth justified ; he who drag 
 ged us to death is cast aside ; He received, who brought us back to 
 life ; through whose free grace it is granted you, that ye should be 
 sons of God, not born by the will of the flesh, but begotten by the 
 power of the Holy Spirit." Such was the exposition of the ancient 
 Church ; the difference is, radical, essential ; it relates not to the ex- 
 position of a text, but to the insight, the depth; the harmony of Scrip- 
 ture, the greatness of what God has wrought, the unutterableness of 
 His condescension. They formed no system, and so received every 
 thing as it fell into that which God had ordained ; moderns have 
 formed theirs ; yet will even they venture to think that they have not 
 lost as to all these things ? "''?tS 
 
 Our blessed Saviour's words declare the greatness of the mystery 
 in itself. He who never ceased to be in the bosom of the Father an- 
 nounces the exceeding and hidden mystery of our actual birth of God : 
 the disciple who lay in His bosom inculcates and draws out to us the 
 yet " dark saying." Our Lord, who is Love Eternal, takes on Him 
 (what even after he has declared it, we still shrink from echoing, 
 otherwise than as He has said it) the absolute necessity of regenera- 
 tion, for the entrance into the kingdom of heaven, or our state of grace 
 and glory, in which we live in His Church, and in which we hope 
 to live with Him for ever ; and that this regeneration is the being 
 
 ceiving the Spirit of Him who is by nature and indeed The Son." Add Grat. 
 iii. ^ 19. p. 569. 
 
 * The sort of argument is the same as we are wont to use from Acts v. 3, 
 which follows here in St. Athanasius. 
 
 I See above, p. 33. n. |. 
 
 i Sacrameutary of Gelasius, from MS. of the seventh century. (Ass. ii. 13. 
 
48 
 
 " born of water and the Spirit," or by God's Spirit again moving on 
 the face of the waters, and sanctifying them for our cleansing, and 
 cleansing us thereby. He who died for us,* took upon Him to scare 
 us, or our parents for our sakes, to seek refuge in the ark, by the 
 words, " Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see 
 the kingdom of God :" His disciple, St. Paul, had only to dwell on 
 the greatness of the love herein displayed, the unmeritedness and 
 irrespectiveness of our calling and election to this grace of Baptism 
 and privilege of sonship. " But when the kindness and love of God 
 our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, 
 which we had done, but according to His mercy. He saved us, by the 
 washing of regeneration, and of the renewing of the Holy Ghost, 
 which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Sav- 
 iourt." Our Lord, Himself the First Cause, declares the cause of 
 our regeneration, "water and the Spirit ;" the servant, (who of God's 
 free mercy had been called, and experienced the transcendantness of 
 the change thereby wrought, from the persecutor to the persecuted, 
 from the wolf to the lamb) speaks of it chiefly in its effects, the re- 
 newal of that, which by man's disobedience was decayed. In this 
 language, also, as a comment on that of our Lord, we should observe 
 how closely the gift is connected with the Sacrament ; as our Lord 
 speaks of "being born of water and the Spirit," so, here. His Apos- 
 tle, of the "washing of regeneration ;" — not, (as a modern school| has 
 paraphrased it,) "regeneration, which is 05 a bath," or "baptism, 
 which attests, ox signifies regeneration," or "is a seal of regenera- 
 tion before given," or in whatever other way men have tortured the 
 plain words of Holy Scripture, but "the luashing of regeneration, 
 and of the renewing of the Holy Ghost," i. e. a Baptizing, accompa- 
 nied by, or conveying a re-production, a second birth, a restoration of 
 our decayed nature, by the new and fresh life, im^parted by the Holy 
 Ghost. As, before, our Blessed Saviour had respect unto the con- 
 trary tendencies of our nature, the neglect, as well as the bare acqui- 
 escence in the outward ordinance ; so here, also, the Apostle has 
 been directed both to limit the imparting of the inward grace by the 
 mention of the outward washing, and to raise our conceptions of the 
 greatness of this second birth, by the addition of the spiritual grace. 
 The gift, moreover, is the gift of God in and by Baptism ; every 
 thing but God's free mercy is excluded — "not by works of righteous- 
 ness which we have done" — they only who believe will come to the 
 washing of regeneration ; yet not belief alone, but "God, according 
 
 * This contrast was suggested by a like distinction in the Lyra Apostolica, 
 number Ixxxii. which ends — 
 
 The Fount of Love His servants sends to tell 
 Love's deeds ; Himself reveals the sinner's hell. 
 
 t Tit. iii. 5. t See Note P. at the end. 
 
49 
 
 to His mercy, saves them by the washing of regeneration ;" by faith 
 are we saved, not by works ; and by baptism we are saved, not by 
 faith only ; for so God hath said; not the necessity of preparation, 
 but its efficiency in itself is excluded ; baptism comes neither as 
 " grace of congruity," nor as an outward seal of benefits before con- 
 veyed ; we are saved neither by faith only, nor by Baptism only ; but 
 faith bringing us to Baptism, and "by Baptism God saves us." They 
 are the words of God himself. As our Lord said negatively, that 
 without the birth of water and the Spirit, or Baptism, man " could 
 not see the kingdom of God," so St. Paul, that "by it we are saved ;" 
 saved out of the world, and brought into the ark, if we but abide 
 there, and become not reprobates. Lastly, as our Lord had placed 
 " the birth of water and the Spirit" at the threshhold oi His kingdom, 
 without which men could neither enter in nor see it : so Saint Paul 
 speaks of the manifestation of the love of God therein, as distinct 
 from and higher than all other, as what men had waited for, longed 
 for, — and at last it dawned ; "but when the kindness and love of God 
 our Saviour toward man appeared" [c.m(pavin)^ shone, arose upon 
 him.* The privileges, then, of Baptism, the new birth, and renewal 
 of the Holy Ghost therein imparted, are something different in kind, 
 from what had been before made known ; they were part of the hid- 
 den mystery, which in times past was not made known, but now at 
 length God's goodness therein " shone upon us ;" accordingly, it 
 must, on this ground, be something, which conversion, or change of 
 heart, such as were known under the old dispensation, could not ex- 
 haust ; and the relation of Israel, as the child of God, could but 
 shadow forth, not reahze, the privilege of our sonship. " Butt per- 
 haps one will ask, wherein consists the eminence of believers in 
 Christ above Israel, since he too is said to have been born of God, as 
 is said, ' I have begotten and brought up children, and they have de- 
 spised ME.' (Is. i.) To this must be answered, I think,t that the 
 law had a shadow of the good things which were to come, not the 
 
 * I observe that Cassian makes the like remarks ; (de Incarn. Christi, L. 2. 
 c. 2.) "When he says 'appeared,' he expresses the dawn of this new grace 
 and nativity; for the gifts of this new grace thenceforward began to 'appear,' 
 when God ' appeared' born in the world. So, then, by the very correspondence 
 of the term he pointed out, as it were, this 'dawning' of a new grace. For 
 that is most properly said to have ' appeared,' which suddenly, as by a sort of 
 apparition, flashes upon us. As, in the Gospels we read that the star 'appear- 
 ed' to the Eastern Magi, and in Exodus 'the angel appeared to Moses in the 
 flame in the bush.' In all these, and other sacred visions. Scripture thought 
 right especially to use this word, speaking of those things as having ' appear- 
 ed,' which shone with unwonted brightness. So then the Apostle also, know- 
 ing the coming of the heavenly grace, which appeared at the dawn of the Holy 
 Nativity, expressed it by the term of 'bright apparition ;' using, namely, the 
 term ' appeared,' of that which beamed with the glory of a new light." 
 
 t St. Cyril of Alexandr. ad. loc. 
 
50 
 
 very image of the things ; neither then did He give this to Israel in 
 real and full possession, but sketched in them, as in an image and 
 figure, 'until the time of restoration,' as is written (Heb.. ix.), 
 when there should be a visible display of such as should in a truer 
 and more corresponding 'sense call God Father, on account of the 
 Spirit of the Only-Begotten dwelling in them. For Israel 'had the 
 spirit of bondage to fear, but these the spirit of adoption to freedom, 
 whereb}'- we cry Abba Father.' Wherefore the people, which was 
 through faith in Christ to be advanced to adoption, was described, as 
 in outhne, by that former people, much as we see our spiritual cir- 
 cumcision [Baptism] imaged by that in their flesh ; and, in a word, 
 all we have was shadowed out in them. Moreover, we say that 
 Israel was called to adoption, as in an image, by a mediator Moses, 
 wherefore they were baptized unto him, as St. Paul saith, in the cloud 
 and in the sea." 
 
 St. Chrysostom well gives the context of the whole passage, and 
 brings out the greatness of the mystery therein declared, and the ap- 
 plication of the context to such of us as, having been made Christians 
 from the eighth day, have persevered. " Reproach no one," he says, 
 " for thou wast such an one thyself." " ' For we likewise,' he says, 
 ' were sometimes disobedient,' &c. Let no one boast, for all have 
 sinned. For if from thy earliest youth thou hast lived virtuously, 
 yet must thou have many sins ; but if thou hast not, as thou think- 
 est, consider that this was not the result of thy excellence, but of the 
 grace of God. For had he not called thy forefathers, thou also hadst 
 been an unbeliever. Observe how he enumerates every sort of 
 wickedness. Did not God order innumerable ways for us by the 
 prophets ; did we obey ? — ' For we,' he says, ' were sometimes de- 
 ceived.' ' But when the love and kindness of God our Saviour to- 
 ward man appeared.' How ? ' not from works of righteousness which 
 we had done, &c., but — by the washing of regeneration and renewal 
 of the Holy Ghost.' Oh ! how were we plunged in wickedness, so 
 that we could not be cleansed, but required to be born again ; for 
 such is regeneration. For as when a house is decayed, no one under- 
 props it, nor binds together the old ruins, but taking it down to the 
 foundation, raises it up again, and restores it from the very beginning, 
 so did He ; He raised us not up on what we were : but he razed us 
 to the ground. This is what is meant by * renewal of the Holy 
 Ghost :' He made us new from the very core : how ? ' through the 
 Spirit.' And again pointing out, in another way, our great need, he 
 says, ' which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour :' so much mercy did we need, ' that having been justified by 
 His grace' — again, 'grace,' not 'debt,' — 'we might be heirs, according 
 to hope, of eternal life.' Here is both an exhortation to humility, and 
 hope for the future. For if when our case was so desperate, that we 
 
51 
 
 must be wholly born again, be saved by gi-ace, had no good in us, He 
 saved us, much more will He do this in the time to come." 
 
 One is almost ashamed to go about to prove that a text so plain 
 applies to baptism, or that the Holy Church Universal always so 
 held it. The proof which one person can bring, can be but a sam- 
 ple of what remains behind. The proof is the same in kind as be- 
 fore ; and may be useful to those who, (because they have never 
 examined,) doubt even whether there be such a thing as Catholic 
 consent and agreeing interpretation in Christian antiquity. First, 
 then, no passage from any Father can, or has been pretended to be 
 adduced, which should imply any other explanation ; next, there is 
 the large body of Fathers* from every Church, who do interpret the 
 text as a matter of course, of baptism ; thirdly, all the Liturgies, in 
 all the different ways in which it is possible to apply it. 
 
 Some of them again recitef this Scripture in their service ; or they 
 use its language in the consecration^ of the baptismal font ; or in 
 
 * In Note B, are quoted Origen, S. Cyprian, S. Basil, S. Gregory of Nyssa, 
 S. Ambrose, S. Jerome, S. Augustine, S. Chrysostome, and Theodoret ; and 
 even Pelagius admits the same ; add to these Justin M«rtyr (Apol. i. ^ 61.) 
 <S. Irenaus (v. 15 3.), -S. Theophilus (ad Autol. L. ii. ^ 16.) S. Athanasius 
 (de Sabb. et Circumcis. ^ 5.), St. Cyril of Jems. (Cat. xviii. 35.), S. Epipha- 
 mw* (Haer. i. 4.), The Apostolical Constitutions, (L. 8. c. 6.) S. Gregory of 
 Naziamzum {de Baptismo.) 
 
 X Latin, Gelasius (ii. 3.), Gellon (53),Chelle (62), Colbertin (65),Moisac (68) 
 
 Apamea (75). 
 
 " Be it a living, regenerating fountain of water, a purifying stream, that all 
 who are to be washed in this health-giving stream, by the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit within them, may obtain a free grant of perfect cleansing." 
 
 Gothic and Gallican- 
 
 "Pray we our Lord and God to sanctify this fountain, and to make iturUo 
 all who descend therein, a laver of most blessed regeneration for the remission 
 of all sins, through the Lord, &c." (ii. 34.) 
 
 " Give place (O army of Satan) to the Holy Spirit ; that to all who descend 
 into this fountain, it may be a laver of the Baptism of regeneration in the re- 
 mission of all sins." (ib. 35.) 
 
 Alexandrian, Coptic^ and JEthiopic. 
 
 " Sanctify this water and this oil, that they may be a bath of regeneration 
 (Amen) to eternal life (Amen), for a clothing of immortality (Amen), for the 
 adoption of sons (Amen), for the renovation of the Holy Spirit (Amen), &c. 
 (ib ii. 165.) Grant to it power to become life-giving water (Amen), sanctify- 
 ing water (Amen), water cleansing sin (Amen), water of the bath of regenera- 
 tion (Amen), water of tjje adoption of sons (Amen) &c." (ib. 173.) 
 
52 
 
 their prayers for those about* to be admitted to Holy Baptism, or 
 aftert the Baptism has been completed. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 *' But Thou, Lord of all, make this a water of redemption, water of sanctifi- 
 cation, purifying of flesh and spirit, loosing of bonds, remission of sins, en- 
 lightening of souls, bath of regeneration, renovation by the Spirit, gift of adop- 
 tion, clothing of immortality, fountain of life, &c." (ib. p. 138.) 
 
 Ancient Antiochian, Jerusalem (bis) Apostolic, by Severus,from Greek. 
 
 " But Thou, Lord of all, make these waters waters of comfort, waters of joy 
 and gladness, waters betokened in the death and resurrection of thy Only Be- 
 gotten Son, waters of redemption, purifying of defilements of flesh and spirit, 
 loosing of bonds, remission of sins, enlightening of souls, bath of regeneration, 
 gift of adoption, clothing of immortality, renovation of Thy Holy Spirit, waters 
 cleansing every stain of soul and body, &c." [ib. ii. pp. 220 — 231 — 259 — 291.] 
 
 Revised Syriac, Apostolic from Greek [ih. 233 — 259]. 
 
 ''The waters are sanctified to be a divine ' bath of regeneration,' in the 
 name of the Living Father to life [Amen[, in the name of the Living Son to life 
 [Amen], in the name of the Living and Holy Spirit to life for ever and ever 
 [Amen]." 
 
 * Latin, Gothic, and Old Gallican' 
 
 On making a Catechumen [ib. i. 29.] 
 
 " Grant him Thy mercy and loving-kindness through the ' washing of regen- 
 eration ;' bring him to the spiritual grace ; that, together with us, he may re- 
 turn praise and thanksgiving to thee. Lord God Father Almighty ; lead him 
 into the way of truth ; teach him Thy righteousness, through our Lord, &c." 
 
 "Mighty is our God ; and may he bring to the ' bath of the water of regene- 
 ration' you who are fleeing to the faith ; and us also, who deliver to you the 
 mystery of the Catholic Faith, may He bring with you to the heavenly king- 
 doms, through the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and do- 
 minion for ever and ever. Amen." [Ib. i, 36.) 
 
 Gallican, [ib. 39.] 
 " O God, to whom flee thirsty souls, longing for the draught of immortality ; 
 
 t Western. Old Gallican [ii. 42.] 
 
 "God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath regenerated thee by 
 water and the Holy Spirit, and who hath given thee remission of sins by the 
 'washing of regeneration' and (His) blood." «&;c. [The Sacramentary of 
 Gelasius omits the words " by the washing of regeneration ;" and of the other 
 Latin rituals, it is not generally expressed whether they used the longer or the 
 shorter form] 
 
 Coptic, &c. [ii. 182.] 
 
 " Thou, Thyself, our Lord, by the grace of thy Christ, and by the de- 
 scent of Thy Holy Spirit, hast consecrated this water, whence it has been made 
 to Thy servant baptized therein a ' washing of regeneration, and a renewal' 
 after his ancient error, whereby he has been enlightened by the light of Thy 
 Divinity," &c. 
 
53 
 
 They carry their own evidence, and they are evidence for the 
 whole Christian Churcli, and this evidence becomes the stronger if 
 
 grant to these, Thy suppliant servants, to find the gift which they long for ; to 
 obtain the grace which they claim ;" let them enter ' the fountain, the source 
 of regeneration ;' there to lay aside that death-bringing offence of our first pa- 
 rent, the frailness of perishing flesh being changed into a new man. Through 
 the Lord, &c." 
 
 Ambrosian, [ib. 45.] 
 
 "0 God, to dedicate to whom no littleness unfits, who graciously admittest 
 every age, and every sex to the worship of Thy Majesty, to Thee we dedicate 
 these beginnings of a new man, and rudiments of infant life : grant that the sign 
 of the Holy Cross of Thy Only-Begotten, inscribed upon this little one, may 
 protect him, as yet ignorant of ill : Thine may he be ; to Thee may he grow 
 up; Thee may he fear; Tlieelove; Thee his Creator ever acknowledge ; and, 
 brought by Thee, arrive at the holy 'washing of regeneration.' Through the 
 same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth," &c. 
 
 Alexandrian, Coptic, JEthiopic. 
 
 " Search the lurking recesses of their hearts Thou who ' searchest Jerusa- 
 lem with lanterns' [Zeph. i. 12] and permit not the malignant spirit to lurk in 
 them ; but grant them purity and health, grant them eternal salvation, regener- 
 ate them with the 'washing of regeneration' and of remission of sins ; make 
 them a temple for Thy Holy Spirit, through Thy Only Begotten Son, our Lord, 
 God, and Saviour, Jesus Christ, through whom," &c. [ib. 153, 154] 
 
 " Dispose his soul to receive the Holy Spirit, and that he may be accounted 
 worthy to obtain the 'washing of regeneration,' and the clothing of immortality, 
 and the remission of his sins," &c. [ib. 162, I63-] 
 
 Armenian. [After the 25th, 26th, and 51st Psalms.] 
 
 " Pray we also the most merciful God for this Catechumen, that, according 
 to His great mercy, He would have compassion upon him, and vouchsafe to 
 him the divine ' washing of regeneration,' and the garment of immortality ; and 
 number him with the faithful, called after His name, and save him by His free 
 mercy." [pp. 169, 170.] 
 
 " Fill him with heavenly grace, and gladden him with thy most excel- 
 lent name ; that he may be called a Christian, and at the fitting season be ac- 
 counted worthy to receive the Holy Spirit in the Baptism of regeneration* 
 May he become of the body, and a member of Thy Holy Church," &c. 
 [pp. 171, 172.] 
 
 Greek. 
 
 " In the peace of God pray we, — for him, who is now coming to the holy 
 Knlightening, and for his salvation : that he may be made a child of light, and 
 heir of all good things ; that he may be planted with, and be a partaker of the 
 death and the resurrection of Christ our God ; that the robe of Baptism, and 
 the earnest of the Spirit, may be preserved to him throughout, unstained and 
 undefiled in the terrible day of Christ our God ; that this water may be to him 
 a ' washing of regeneration' to the remission of sins, and a garment ofimmor- 
 tahty." [ib. ii. 130—133.] 
 
 SyriaC' Apostolic by James of Edessa. 
 '* Christ our God, make this child Thy servant meet for the gift of the 
 
64 
 
 we remark, that (as before) they relate only to one single text ; not 
 all the passages in the Liturgies, which bore upon the doctrine, nor 
 even all which bore upon the text, have been admitted ; bat those 
 only which directly quote and apply it ; and from these some notion 
 may be formed . of the full extent of the whole evidence. 2ndly, 
 The mode in which the several liturgies employ the text, evinces 
 their independence of each other ; e. g. some only, use it as a les- 
 son ; some only, after Baptism ; and this renders the agreement the 
 more conspicuous, in that all employ it, in the consecration of the 
 water of Baptism, and (as in our own) in the prayer for those about 
 to be baptized. Even this, however, is but a broad correspondence ; 
 the detail implies the existence of distinct models embodying the 
 same principle : the Eastern and Western are manifestly distinct; 
 and even amid the mutual corres|)ondence of the Eastern Churches 
 in the accumulation of the titles of Baptism there is no identity. It 
 is the free following out of a pattern which had been given, iaiplying 
 at once the original correspondence of the pattern, and the indepen- 
 dence of the execution. The antiquity of these titles is implied and 
 illustrated by the like accumulations in the several fathers, especially 
 of the Greek Church*. This evidence meets a lonmnff which has 
 been felt ; " how are we to know that the fathers, now extant, rep- 
 resent the doctrines of their several Churches, and so the voice 
 of the whole Chnrch?" This might be met in another way, viz. ; 
 that as soon as lists of authorities began to be made, the same fa- 
 thers whose works we now possess f were appealed to, as chief 
 witnesses. But, over and above, we have their testimony confirmed 
 in another way ; these Liturgies were not taken out of their wri- 
 tings, not composed by them, prior in their component parts to most 
 of them, and yet they contain precisely the same doctrine, and do 
 
 ' bath of regeneration,' and prepare him for good and pure works at all times." 
 &c. [i. 258, by Severus, ii. 288.] 
 
 " The good Shepherd, who came forth to seek the lost sheep, [which through 
 the craft of the rebellious serpent had lost its place among things endued with 
 reason,] and lighted a candle, His Holy Flesh, and swept the house of this 
 world from sin, and found the lost coin, the royal image, encrusted with pas- 
 sions, and rusted through sin, and purged it and cleansed it in the furnace of 
 Holy Baptism and in the ' washing of regeneration,' and imparted to it the 
 beauty of its first creation. Now also, O God, for Thy goodness and themani- 
 foldness of Thy tender mercy, free and redeem all our souls from all filth and 
 rust of sin," &c. [Hymn, ib. 273, 274.] 
 
 Revised Liturgy. 
 
 " preparing them for the reception of Thy Holy Spirit, that they may 
 
 be made meet for the 'washing of regeneration.'" [i. 232.] 
 
 * See below, ch. 8. Extracts from the Fathers. 
 
 t As has been noticed to me in the dialogues of Theodoret ; so also in the 
 Pelagian controversy in St. Augustine. 
 
55 
 
 not teach but imply it, as the only doctrine known to the Church, 
 and in that most solemn way, prayer to Almighty God. We should, 
 take a man's prayers as evidence of his faith ; we appeal to our own 
 Liturgy as embodying that of our Church ; why not then to the Lit- 
 urgies of the Universal Church for the faith of the "Holy Church 
 Universal throughout the world ?" Thus, then, we have two dis- 
 tinct bodies of evidence, both solidly establishing the same result, 
 and each confirming the other. First, the works of the several Fa- 
 thers, as individual witnesses of the faith of their several Churches, 
 and so ultimately of the whole Church ; and, secondly, in the Litur- 
 gies, the collective doctrine of each Church as a whole. They will 
 supply an answer to a question which not unnaturally arises from 
 this text, now that people undertake to solve all points of Scripture 
 for themselves ; " do all the promises and descriptions of Baptism 
 apply to Infant Baptism ?" Certainly, unless they did in effect, 
 Lifant Baptism were wrong ; for so we should be depriving our 
 children of whatever benefits it were supposed that Adult Baptism 
 conferred, and Infant Baptism was incapable of. But, since Infant 
 Baptism is right, then must it confer, in effect and in the rudiments, 
 all the benefits of Adult Baptism, to be developed hereafter. More- 
 over, where the language of Holy Scripture is unlimited, we are not ' 
 to restrain it. But Holy Scripture speaks universally ; it says, " the 
 washing of regeneration and of the renewing of the Holy Ghost," 
 " born of the water and the Spirit ;" how, then, are we to say, that 
 because our infants are not in like way decayed, through actual sin, 
 as were those adults to whom St. Paul wrote, therefore they are not 
 regenerated and renewed ? This would involve the very error of 
 Pelagius, that they needed no renewal, no " new birth," having no 
 " birth sin." Holy Scripture speaks indeed incidentally of some 
 effects of " the washing of regeneration, and of the renewal of the 
 "Holy Ghost," relatively to particular adults ; since the greater the 
 decay, the greater the renewal thereby effected : not the seed only 
 of corruption, which, (if no remedy were applied,) would surely 
 spread decay through the whole living being, but the decayed and 
 corrupted wreck, wherein the disease had wrought its full work, was 
 thereby made sound. Yet is the remedy the same, the cure the 
 same, although in one the actual corruption be remedied, in the other 
 checked ; in the one the healing antidote is infused, when the poison 
 has spread through the whole frame, and through the whole frame 
 arrests ; in the other, it is imparted, ere yet the latent poison has 
 begun to work. But the same Scripture pronounces Baptism abso- 
 lutely to be " the w^ashing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy 
 Ghost;" and what Scripture calls it, it must remain, at all times, 
 and however applied, to infants as to aduUs. In all, their Maker's 
 image was defaced ; all are renewed after that image in Him, and 
 by being in Him, who is the brightness of His Father's glory, and 
 
56 
 
 the express image of His Person, God blessed forever. " He came," 
 are the well-known and weighty words of St. Irenaeus,* " sanctify- 
 ing every age by its relation to Himself. For He came to save 
 all by Himself ; all, who by Him are reborn to God : infants, and 
 little ones, and children, and youths, and elders. So He came in 
 every age ; and to infants was made an infant, sanctifying infants ; 
 among little children a little child, sanctifying those of this age, 
 and made also to them an example of piety, and righteousness, 
 and subjection ; among young men, a young man, becoming an 
 example to young men, and sanctifying them to the Lord." But 
 now, in these Liturgies we have not our private judgment only, 
 but the voice of the Church, applying to our infants particularly, the 
 promises, which God annexes to Baptism, and which, since He has 
 not restrained, we should have thought beforehand were not to be 
 limited. The combined Liturgies are an authoritative because a 
 Catholic exposition ; how should they. East and West, be thus com- 
 bined, except by a true and separate tradition ? 
 
 These, then, (St. John iii. 5. Tit. iii. 4 — 6.) are the only passa- 
 ges of the Holy Scriptures in which the first origin of regeneration 
 (so to speak) is marked out, and the circumstances under which it 
 takes place are at all hinted at. And surely this ought, to any care- 
 ful Christian to be of great moment ; and, instead of longing, as the 
 habit of some is, for more evidence, he will thank God, that the evi- 
 dence is so clear, that all Christians of old times confidently relied 
 upon it, and transmitted it to us. 
 
 For this is the way of God's dealing throughout Scripture : He 
 gives us, whether as a rule of life or doctrine, certain plain state- 
 ments ; and then, in His other communications, intersperses allu- 
 sions to these same truths, not in themselves perhaps altogether 
 definite, certainly not satisfying to a captious or unwilling hearer, but 
 blending and harmonizing with those broader statements. And 
 when persons are disposed to believe, they often appeal to these in- 
 cidental allusions, as more forcible even than direct statements. 
 For tlie very fact of repeatedly introducing one subject, when we 
 are mainly employed in speaking upon or inculcating others, shows 
 how deeply the subject, which we so introduce, is impressed upon 
 our own minds. And so also (as far as it has pleased God to con- 
 vey His inspired wisdom after the manner of human thoughts) we 
 infer, and rightly, from similar appearances in Holy Scripture, how 
 deeply He had impressed upon the souls of His Apostles the truths 
 which thus, as it were, burst forth in the midst of other teaching. 
 Thus, when St. Paul wishelh himself accursed for his kinsmen, and 
 enumerates all which God had done for them, and the marks of His 
 love, " the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giv- 
 
 • ii. 22, 24. 
 
57 
 
 ing of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, and the 
 " fathers," we should not, amidst this catalogue of the glories of the 
 Old Testament, have expected beforehand, to find the Divinity of 
 our Lord ; and so we are the more impressed when the rising list of 
 God's loving-kindnesses at last ends m, " of whom, as concerning 
 the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God Blessed forever." 
 We continue to be awed, as often as we read it ; for the feeling 
 abides or increases, " how awfully must he have thought of the Di- 
 vinity of our Lord, who thus wrote." This and the like unexpected 
 references- seem to us the more to indicate what was the mind of 
 God, because they are unexpected ; they bring their own impression 
 of Divinity, because they are not human ; they are not what the 
 mind of man would have conceived. I mean not that we should ar- 
 gue in this way, as if we were judges of the matter, for we are not ; 
 but that these flashes, so to speak, out of the cloud, impress us often 
 even more with God's Presence than the noon-day brightness. Of 
 course, a very perverted use might be made of this feeling, if per- 
 sons were to look out for passages which should thus strike them, or 
 so prefer them as to lose out of sight the depth of God's direct teach- 
 ing ; if, e. g. one were to look out for these scattered notices of the 
 Divinity of our Lord, and neglect to meditate on the enunciation of 
 St. John, before which all Christian Antiquity bowed, " in the be- 
 ginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God." And this is rather the defect of our age, in 
 those doctrines or views which it wishes to have proved. Still this 
 very perversion is a witness to the inherent feeling of our nature. 
 Here, then, so far from regarding it as a diminution to the evidence 
 of a doctrine, that it is incidentally mentioned, we are even the more 
 impressed with it. And if others are not, (as we know that the 
 unhappy persons, who dispute against our Blessed Lord's Divinity, 
 would, on that very account, explain one text away, or declare the 
 stress laid upon another to be fanciful,) this disturbs us not ; they 
 see not, because they have not eyes to see. Apply we this to the 
 present case; the "doctrine of Baptism" (Heb. vi. 2.) is declared 
 as explicitly, as incidentally, and as variously, as that of our Blessed 
 Lord's Divmity or the saving truth of the Holy Trinity, with which 
 its administration is inseparably blended, the belief in which it very 
 chiefly upholds. For both, we have the same uniform testimony of 
 the Church Catholic ; in both cases alike, those who have refused 
 to listen to the Church, have failed to find the truth in Holy Scrip- 
 ture ; there is then as little reason to be moved, that others do not 
 see what we see, in the one case as in the other ; and if any see not 
 the Church's doctrine of Baptism in Scripture, they have no reason 
 thence to conclude that it is not there, because they see it not. The 
 force done to Scripture, has not been in any way greater in one case 
 than in the other. They who say that " water and the Spirit" means 
 
58 
 
 " the Spirit only," or that " the washing of regeneration" means 
 " spiritual regeneration" independent of any actual " washing," how- 
 ever they may commiserate the misguided people, who assail other 
 Catholic truth, have nothing assuredly to allege against them for 
 forced interpretations of Holy Scripture. It was in tiieir own school 
 that those systems of interpretation were learnt. 
 
 The object then in producing some other chief passages of Holy 
 Scripture, wherein Baptism is mentioned or alluded to, is not to 
 prove any thing further with respect to that Sacrament, or to increase 
 the evidence for what has been alleged ; for our Lord's words, when 
 rightly unfolded, of course contain all ; and they who hear not Him 
 as His Church has from the first transmitted the meaning of His 
 words, will not hear his disciples. " The servant is not greater than 
 his Lord." (St. John, xv. 20.) The object will be, not to prove 
 any thing, but from the mode in which Baptism is spoken of in Holy 
 Scripture, to illustrate the wide difference between the character of 
 mind which that teaching implies and would foster, and that which 
 modern notions imply and reproduce. Each text is only an item, 
 an indication of a difference existing between modern habits of mind 
 and Scripture-teaching. And this, one would fain hope, might startle 
 some, who, because they have never seen the Catholic system, or 
 its bearings upon Scripture developed, at present oppose it. It 
 seems to us strange how any errors which we do not share should 
 prevail about Scriptural doctrine. We marvel how the Jewish doc- 
 tors could have reconciled with the plain letter of the law, their per- 
 mission to a child to dedicate to God what its parent needed ; we 
 marvel how the Romanist can reconcile his inculcation of image- 
 worship, with the same law ; in either case men have thus far 
 " made the word of God of none effect through their traditions ;" in 
 either case, through traditions not " delivered to their fathers," but 
 the " inventions of men ;" let those then, who, with respect to Bap- 
 tism, embrace a tradition, whose origin is but as it were of yester- 
 day, consider earnestly whether they may not be in a like case ; 
 whether their traditional exposition of the Gospel, derived from the 
 one or other individual in these " latter days," may not be as little 
 consonant with the real meaning of Holy Scripture, as those by 
 which the Pharisees justified their abuse of the " Corban," or the 
 Romanists their image-worship ; whether they too may not be 
 " making the word of God of none effect through their traditions ;" 
 whether they may not " have left the fountain of living waters, to 
 hew out broken cisterns which will hold no water." 
 
 At least, their conviction of the contrary is no more argument in 
 their behalf, than the persuasion of the Jewish Rabbis, the Roman- 
 ist, the Socinian, or any sectarian, in favor of their traditions ; all - 
 alike have taken and handed down a modern, opposed to the ancient, 
 way of explaining the Word of God ; and " they are their own wit- 
 
59 
 
 nesses. "The ancient system, while it claims to be consonant to 
 that Word, appeals not to one school, but to the whole Church, 
 " from all times, in all places, and in all its teachers," as long as it 
 spake one language, and until a new Babel arose, 
 
 Theie is yet another and a distinct point which it is important to 
 remark. They who depreciate Baptism, appeal to their own infer- 
 ences from passages, in which Holy Scripture is not speaking of 
 Baptism ; e, g. when St. Paul is speaking of justification ; and from 
 these they form a system, whereby they depreciate Baptism. The 
 appeal is here made, on the contrary, after the example of the Fa- 
 thers, to places where Scripture is speaking on Baptism : and this, 
 surely, will seem the dirccler way toward the truth. May God 
 guide us all into that truth which He has promised to His Apostles 
 and His collective Church, and teach us to read Holy Scripture as 
 the living Word of the Living God ! 
 
 In considering then this part of the subject, — the impression 
 which Scripture-teaching has a tendency to make, — I would again 
 put in the first place our blessed Saviour's v/ords, His parting 
 words, the only direct teaching preserved to us of those mysterious 
 forty days after his resurrection ; words on which our very commis- 
 sion to teach, the very security of our existence, depends ; words, 
 the very title-deeds of our inheritance, and wherein the doctrine of 
 the Holy Trinity is by Him imparted ; and yet with these, bound 
 up with them and the very perpetuity of the Church and the privi- 
 lege of disciphng the nations, is "Baptism in the Name of the Fa- 
 ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ;" so that thenceforth 
 Baptism is the embodying of our creed,* a living creed, and the safe- 
 guard against every heresy as to the Ever-blessed Trinity in whom 
 we believe ;t which whatsoever Church retaineth, hath the promise 
 of the Saviour of the Church, and should any body of Christians 
 reject, they cut themselves oflf from that Church. Baptism hi the 
 Name of the Holy Trinity, and that saving belief, have been indis- 
 solubly conjoined by our Lord ; " what then God hath joined, let 
 not man put asunder." Yet even this view, so familiar and so sacred 
 to the ancient Church, is unfamiliar to us ; and men appeal at most 
 
 *"He commandeth them to pour themselves over the whole world, giving into 
 their hands a summary of their teaching, that, namely, through Baptism. 
 Then, since He had given them a mighty task, lifting up their thoughts. He 
 says, ' Behold I am with you always, to the end of the world,' not with them 
 only, but with all who through them should believe ; for the Apostles were not 
 to abide always : but he addresses the faithful as one body." — St. Chrys. ad loc. 
 t Hence in the Roman ritual, our collect for Trinity Sunday, forms part of 
 the Baptismal service ; only that the connection of the latter part with the for- 
 mer is somewhat more visible ; it there is, " We beseech Thee, that by the 
 firmness of that faith we may ever be defended from all adversities." (Ass. ii. 
 21.) The primer published by authority under Queen Elizabeth retains the 
 same form. 
 
60 
 
 to the words wherein the doctrine is conveyed, when that belief was 
 dehvered over and sealed to themselves ; as if they had for themselves 
 acquired or learnt it, instead of being baptized into it. And so, 
 again, an outward conception of Baptism leads to an outward view 
 of faith. Even this might prepare us to find in our Lord's words 
 more than the Zuinglian school has taught men to find in them. 
 They have more reality. They convey then, not simply that the 
 minister of Baptism baptizeth not to himself but to Christ, that 
 Christians are to bear no other Name than that of the Holy Trinity, 
 or of Christ, " in wdiom the whole fulness of the Godhead dwelt," 
 and " was manifested to us ;" nor, again, that Christians are to pro- 
 fess and to hold the belief in the Ever-blessed Trinity, to bind 
 themselves to obedience to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — they con- 
 vey this, but much more, not merely what man must do, but the 
 power w^iich God gives to do it. The " Name" of Almighty God 
 means not only the outward name by which we poor mortals are 
 empowered to call Him, but His attributes and power, that which 
 His Name designates. His Essential Self. Let any one but consider 
 what varied powers, attributes, what intrinsic majesty and efliciency 
 is ascribed in Holy Scripture to the " Name" of God — not to His 
 Name independent of Himself, but yet to His Name as that wherein 
 Himself is manifested — and then again, what reverence is there said 
 to be due to It, not simply in uttering It, but to It in Itself, as express- 
 ing Himself. " The Name of the God of Jacob defends us," (Psa. 
 XX. L) ; " the Name of God is a strong tower, the righteous runneth 
 into it, and is safe," (Prov. xviii. 10.) ; " save me by Thy Name," 
 (Psa. liv. L): " through Thy Name will we tread them under," 
 (Psa. xliv. 5.); " for that Thy Name is near. Thy wondrous works 
 declare," (Psa. Ixxv. 1.); "I will wait on Thy Name," (Psa. lii. 
 9.) ; " keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast 
 given me, (John xvii. 11.) The strength of these and the hke 
 passages is manifestly not to be expounded out of them ; it must 
 mean something that it is said, " by Thy Name," not " by Thy- 
 self;" " the Name of God," and not " God" only. Holy Scripture 
 useth not to employ paraphrases thus superfluously ; and modern 
 criticism, with its common-place substitutions, fosters in us a habit 
 which is depriving men of all deeper insight into the word of God. 
 How much of the language of Scripture, which by its very unusual- 
 ness would invite our thoughtfulness, do men thus accustom them- 
 selves to disregard. But now, besides this, God saith of the Angel, 
 " Beware of Him, and obey His voice ; provoke Him not ; for He 
 will not pardon your transgressions ; for My Name is in Him,^^ (Ex. 
 xxiii, 21.) " By what power or Name have ye done this," are the 
 Apostles asked. (Actsiv. 7.) " If (the answer is) we be examined 
 of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what C^" '"''") this 
 man hath been saved («vwffro(')^ be it known unto you all, that by (^O 
 
61' 
 
 the Name of Jesus Clirist of Nazareth, whom ye crucijfied, whom 
 God raised from the dead, by this i^" rovra) (Jqi^ ihjg j^an stand be- 
 fore you whole. Neither is there salvation (<rwrr/piu) {fi {h) any other, 
 for neither is there any other Name under heaven given among men, 
 whereby {iv w) we must be saved." (V. 9-12.) It is very striiiing at 
 the first superficial glance, how much is here attributed to the 
 Name of Christ ; how the bodily cure effected on this poor man by 
 His Name, was an emblem of the spiritual, and how completely 
 identified the Name of our Blessed Lord is with Himself and His 
 power ; so that one might, at first sight, have thought that St. Peter 
 was speaking of Himself, when he is declaring the eflficacy of His 
 Name. And so the council determines to " threaten them that they 
 speak henceforth to no man in this Name, (v. 17.), and commands 
 them "not to speak at all in the Name of Jesus," (v. 18.), and they 
 on their return pray that " wonders may be done by the Name of 
 Jesus," (v. 30.) These things occur in one history only ; but it is 
 not a peculiarity of that one story. Not " through our own power 
 and holiness, — His Name, through faith in His Name, hath made 
 this man strong,'''' (iii. 16.) ; and St. John wrote his Gospel, "that 
 believing ye might have life in (") His Name,"(c. 20. 31.) Again, 
 how mysteriously is it said, " He had a Name written, that no man 
 knew but He Himself," (Rev. xix. 12.) ; "His Name is called the 
 Word of God," (v. 13.) " He hath on His vesture and His thigh a 
 Name written, King of kings and Lord of lords," (v. 14.) ; and 
 this Name is an object of religious reverence and worship ; " God 
 hath given Him a Name which is above every Name, that at the 
 Name of Jesus every knew should bow," &c. (Phil. ii. 9.) There 
 appears then (to go no further) on the very face of Scripture lan- 
 guage, a reality belonging to the very " Name," a power ascribed to 
 it, a stress laid upon it, a reverence due to it, which requires some 
 corresponding meaning. For this is only to say, that if there occur 
 throughout Scripture some peculiarity, there must be some reason 
 (whether we know it or not, or in part only) why it is there. Thus 
 much even the Jews saw, from the Old Testament only ; whence 
 one* says, " ' How surpassing is Thy Name' is all one with ' How 
 surpassing art Thou,' for His Name is He, and He is His Name ;" 
 and this saying of theirs supplies precisely what moderns miss ; they 
 will admit that by " the Name of God" is meant God, but they see 
 not that "God is," in some way in, and is, " His Name ;" that His 
 Name is " excellent," " to be feared," " loved," " blessed," " holy," 
 " glorious," " great," " terrible," that it has the attributes belonging 
 to Him, that it is the object of the same affections as He, that it has 
 the same power jis He ; " that Thou mayest/eor," Scripture saith, 
 ^* that glorious and awful Name, the Lord thy God," (Deut. rxviii. 
 
 * Kimchi on Ps. viii. 2. 
 
58.) ; and in repeating the first petition of the prayer our Lord 
 taught us, " Hallowed be Thy Name," we pray, surely, not merely 
 that His Name be not in words blasphemed, but, as Bishop Taylor* 
 paraphrases it, " Let Thy name, Thy essence, and glorious attri- 
 butes be honored and adored in all the w^orld, believed by faith, loved 
 by charity, celebrated with praises, thanked with eucharist ; and let 
 
 Thy Name be hallowed in us, as it is in itself. The name 
 
 of God is representative of God Himself, and it signifies, be Thou 
 worshipped and adored, be Thou thanked and celebrated with honor 
 and eucharist." And St. Cyprian,! in like way, "After this we say, 
 ' Hallowed be Thy Name,' not that we wish fo7- God, that He may 
 be hallowed by our prayers, but that we ask of Him, that His Name 
 may be hallowed in us — we ask and pray, that we who have been 
 sanctified in Baptism, may persevere therein, wherein we have be- 
 gun to be." In which words it appears how St. Cyprian felt the 
 " Name of God" to be God Himself ; and how he connected the 
 indwelling of God and the hallowing of His Name within us, with our 
 Baptism into His Name, wherein It was first named upon us, and He 
 dwelt within us. Of a truth, the extreme reverence of the Jews, 
 whereby they shrunk from uttering the incommunicable Name, is 
 far nearer the right feeling, than the careless way in which modern 
 criticism has treated all these indications of a mystery lying con- 
 cealed under that Name. There is a depth therein, which these 
 new lines fathom not. When then we find our Lord's direction to 
 " baptize all nations into the Name (not Names) of the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost," a very little thoughtfulness, one should 
 think, would lead men to connect it with that Name, which is " a 
 tower of strength," which safely defends, wherein we have life, 
 wherein we are safe, " wherewith the Father keeps those whom He 
 hath given to the Son, that they may be one as the Father and the 
 Son are one ;" — accordingly, that being " baptized into the Name" 
 of the Three Persons of the undivided Trinity, is no mere profession 
 of obedience, sovereignty, belief, but (if one may so speak) a real 
 appropriation of the person baptized to the Holy Trinity, a transfer 
 of him from the dominion of Satan to Them, an insertion of him 
 within Their blessed Name, and a casting the shield (to speak hu- 
 manly) of that Almighty Name, over him ; that Name, at which 
 devils tremble and are cast out thereby, " into which a man runneth 
 and is safe." And this so much the more, since Scripture elsewhere 
 attribute the efficacy of Baptism to His all-prevailing Name, " but 
 ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in 
 (") the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by C^") the Spirit of our God," 
 (1 Cor. vi. IL;) v/here " the Name of our Lord Jesus" and "the 
 
 • Life and Death of the Holy Jesus, Disc. 12. On Prayer. 
 t De Orat. Domin. c. 3. 
 
63 
 
 Spirit of our God" are mentioned, as in the like way the efficacious 
 causes of the hohness and righteousness inaparted in Baptism. For 
 where His Name is so named there is He. Or, since " the devils 
 were cast out through His Name," (Mark ix. 33,) why should it 
 appear a strange or (as men call it) a superstitious thing to believe 
 that now also a power or virtue has been annexed to the Name of the 
 Blessed Trinity, when " that Name is called upon the heathen," (Acts 
 xiv. 37,) or on our children on whom it has not yet been named? 
 As says an ancient writer,* " Whereas this, which the Lord said, 
 ' Go, teach all nations, and baptize them in the Name of the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost,' is true and right, and by all means to 
 be observed, and has been observed in the Church ; yet we must 
 not consider that the invocation of the Name of Jesus [only, in those 
 so baptized by heretics] is altogether useless, and that on account of 
 the majesty and might of the Name Itself ; in which Name all 
 works of might (miracles) were wont to be wrought, and sometimes 
 some even by aliens." It was not then mere glowing language, 
 when the fathers spoke of the baptized being " fenced round by the 
 Trinity," or the like ; they would hereby only express the literal 
 truth ; and surely, in that they press the force of " being baptized 
 into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," as something 
 real,t something efficient, an actual communion with the Blessed 
 Trinity, they adhere more to the analogy of the faith, and the usage 
 of other Scripture, and the literal meaning of the text, than they who 
 would interpret it of the mere commission given to the minister of 
 Baptism, and are withal at a loss to say what " to baptize into the 
 Name of" can literally mean, or how they obtain the sense, which 
 they vaguely attach to it. Of this efficiency St. Hilary speaks, 
 when employing this text as the foundation-stone of orthodox doc- 
 trine on the Trinity ;t " To those who believe, that word of God 
 were sufficient, which was poured into our ears by the testimony of 
 the Evangelist, together with the very power of His truth, [sc. at 
 Baptism,] when the Lord saith, ' Go now teach all nations, baptizing 
 them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost, teaching them to keep all things whatsoever I command you, 
 and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world.' For what 
 of the mystery of man's salvation is not therein contained ? or what 
 is omitted or left obscure? All things are full, as from Him who is 
 Fulness, and perfect, as from Perfection. For they comprise both 
 the significance of words, and the efficiency of the things, and the 
 order of the offices, and the understanding of Their Nature." And 
 
 * De llebaptismate ap. Cyprian, p. 358. 
 
 t Hence St. Hilary, in the prayer quoted below, p. 66, and p. 63, and Jerome, 
 p. 67 note, use the strong form, baptizatus in Patre et Fillio et Spiritu Sancto, 
 " baptized in the F." 
 
 X De Trin. L. ii. init. 
 
64 
 
 again, * " The following book in such wise teaches the mystery of the 
 Divine Generation, that they who are to be baptized in the Father, 
 and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, should not be ignorant of the truth 
 of those names, nor under the words confound the meaning ; but so 
 conceive the meaning of each, as it is, and is called ; acknowledging 
 most fully that neither is the Name without the corresponding truth, 
 nor is the truth unexpressed by the Name." 
 
 And in this way we may much more appreciate the force of the 
 argument, which the Ancients, when vindicating the Catholic doc- 
 trine of the Trinity, drew from the words of Baptism, but which to 
 us has been much weakened and obscured ; for if by these words 
 were only meant that we thereby acknowledged " the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost," the co-equality and co-essentiality of ihe 
 three Divine Persons will not thence be so evident, since in different 
 ways we might believe in and acknowledge the underived autliority 
 of the Creator, and the derived authority of a created ; but since ihe 
 words (as Christian Antiquity understood ihem) further denote the 
 power of Those in whose Name we are baptized, as manifested in 
 that Baptism, then the argument appears clear, that in this work of 
 power He would not have joined the Creator with the created. 
 " For neither did He conjoin (argues St. Athanasiusf) an angel with 
 the Godhead, nor did He unite us with Himself and the Father in 
 one created, but in the Holy Spirit." And again, " They (the Ari- 
 ans) risk the very fulness of the mystery — Baptism. For since 
 this perfecting is conferred ' into the Name of the Father and the 
 Son,' but these acknowledge not the true Father because they deny 
 Him Who is derived of Him, and His con-substantiality ; and deny 
 again the true Son, and feign lo themselves another, created out of 
 things which were not, and name Him ; how should not what they 
 administer be wholly vain and profitless, having a semblance but 
 nothing real as an aid to holiness ; for the Arians impart not Bap- 
 tism into the Father and the Son, but into a Creator and a creature, 
 a Maker and a made. But as their ' created ' is different from tlie 
 Son, so would that which they are thought to give, be from the 
 reality, although they affect to name the Name of the Father and the 
 Son."t 
 
 And this is throughout a remarkable difference between the an- 
 cient and modern way of viewing this text : the modern school sees 
 only that three Persons or Beings are united therein, and infer that 
 they would not be so united, were there any such disparity between 
 them, as between the Creator and the created, or a mere energy or 
 power. To this it has been answered,t that in Holy Scripture other 
 
 •L. 1.^. 
 
 + Ep. 1. ad Serapion. c. 11. p. 660. % Orat. 2. c. Ariann. c. 42. p. 510. 
 
 X Wolzogen. ad loc. F. Socinus Fratr. Polon. t. ii. p. 438. 
 
65 
 
 names are united with those of Persons without implying that what 
 is so united is a Person. As when it is written " 1 commend you 
 to God and to the word of His grace,"* or when our Lord says, " I 
 will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city 
 of my God, which is New Jerusalem — and My new Name."t Or, 
 again, " My son, fear thou the Lord and the King."| But this, 
 which would not be satisfactorily answered by such, as see herein 
 only an acknowledgment, on the part of the baptized, and of the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, has no weight whatever against the 
 argument of the ancient Church, who saw that not only were there 
 three Beings mentioned and acknowledged, but that they were nam- 
 ed as co-operating equally in the same Divine work of our re-crea- 
 tion, the imparting to fallen man the Divine Nature,^ and that this 
 was wrought by Them, as One. 
 
 *' Leave off," says S. Gregory of Nyssa,|| "}^our controversy with 
 men, and resist, if thou canst, the words of the Lord, which laid 
 down for men the invocation in Baptism. But what says the Lord's 
 command : ' baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost ?' How ' into the Name of the Father V 
 because He is the Beginning of all things. How * into the Son V 
 because He is the author of creation. How ' into the Holy Ghost !' 
 because he perfecteth all things. We immerse them * to the Father' 
 that we may be sanctified ; we immerse ' to the Son' also for 
 this same end ; we immerse also ' to the Holy Ghost' that we 
 may be that which He is and is called. There is no difference in 
 the sanctification, as if the Father sanctified more, the Son less, and 
 the Holy Spirit less than those two. Why then dissect the three 
 Persons into different Natures, and make three Gods, unlike each 
 other, when thou hast received one and the same grace from all ?" 
 " If," says S. Gregory of Nazianzum,!^ " He be not adorable, how 
 does he deify, (9"0 me through Baptism? and if adorable, how not 
 to be adored ?** And if to be adored, how not God ? The one hangs 
 on to the other, and forms a truly golden and saving chain. And 
 from the Spirit, then, have we our re-generation ; and from our re- 
 generation, our re-formation ; and from our re-formation, the knowl- 
 edge of the dignity of Him, who re-formed us ;" and, v/ould I prefer 
 the Son to the Spirit, as being the Son, but Baptism permits me 
 not, hallowing me through the Spirit."tt Or St, Hilary, not in an 
 appeal to his flock, but laying out the plan of his work,t| " Nothing 
 will then be wanting to the completion of the whole faith, inasmuch 
 as removing the irreligiousnesses of faulty modes of speaking of the 
 
 * Acts XX. 32. t Rev. iii. 12. % Prov, xx. 21. ^2 Pet.i. 4. 
 
 II Greg. Nyss. in Bapt. Xti. t. iii- p. 372. 
 t Orat. 31. Theol. 4. de Sp. 8. ^ 28. p. 574.; 
 
 ** £1 ii TrpocKVvrjTdv, iroij oi afKT6v ; 
 
 tt Orat. 40. de S. Bapt. ^3. H De Trin. 1. i. § 36. 
 
 vox*. II. — 3 
 
66 
 
 doctrine of the Holy Spirit also, the Apostolic and Evangelic author- 
 ity comprises within that saving definition the mystery of the regen- 
 erating Trinity ; nor would any one then dare, following the devices 
 of human reason, to rank the Spirit of God among created beings, 
 seeing that we receive him as the earnest of immortality, and for 
 the participation of ihe Divine and incorruptible nature." They 
 could not speak coldly and abstractedly of what they felt so really ; 
 they could not abstract themselves from their faith, or the ordinance 
 of (xod from the blessings they had received in it. Thus St. Hilary 
 spoke of " the regeneratmg Trinity," and St. Irenaeus, speaking of 
 this same commission, says,* " And again, committing to His disci- 
 ples the potver of regeneration to God, He said to them, ' Go ye 
 and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and 
 the Son and the Holy Spirit.'" 
 
 It is good to see this same truth, presented on different sides, both 
 in contrast to modern formalism, which can repeat it only in one 
 way, and as exhibiting how vividly it was appreciated in those days, 
 when it was looked upon, not as a " Baptismal form" only, but as a 
 reality, and as efficacious through Their might, Whose Name it 
 bore. Let any consider this concluding address of S. Gregory! to 
 the Candidates of Baptism, and if he would not spontaneously have 
 used the like words, let him lay to heart wherein the difference con- 
 sists. 
 
 " Last of all, and above all, keep, I beseech thee, that good depo- 
 sit, for which I live and act, and which may I take with me, when 
 parting from this world, wherewith also I bear all sorrows, despise 
 all pleasures, the confession of the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost. With this I entrust thee this day ; with this I shall 
 immerse thee, and bring thee up ; this I give thee as the partner and 
 presider over thy whole life, the One Godhead and Power, existing 
 in Unity in the Three, and comprehending the Three severally ; 
 neither unequal in essences, or natures, nor receiving increase or 
 diminution, by excess or subtraction ; every way equal, the same 
 every way, (as there is one beauty and greatness of the heaven) the 
 infinite Connaturality of the Three Infinites ; each contemplated by 
 Himself, God ; as the Father, so the Son, as the Son so the Holy 
 Ghost, preserving to each what is His own ; the Three contemplated 
 together, God ; — the former on account of the Unity of Essence, the 
 latter on account of the Unity of Origin." 
 
 The very anxiety to be kept steadfast in the faith of the Holy 
 Trinity, thus received in Baptism, for which modern schools would 
 probably, in practice, substitute a confession of "justification by 
 faith," imphes that the Ancient Church had fuller notions of the re- 
 quisites and fulness of that behef : it is to be feared that moderns, 
 
 ♦ L. 3. c. 19. ed. Grab©. f Orat. 40. de S. Bapt- ^ 41. 
 
67 
 
 who have disparaged that Ordinance, which, at its solemn and per- 
 petual appointment, was made also the depository and guardian of 
 that Doctrine, have been, unconsciously to themselves, undermining 
 their own faith, which they think that they retain. Very observable, 
 then, is the earnestness of the prayer,* wherewith St. Hilary closes 
 his defence of that Doctrine, still, in connection with his Baptism, 
 and the baptismal words, " keep, I beseech thee, this holiness of my 
 Faith undefiled ; and, unto the departure of my spirit, grant me thus 
 from my conscience, to confess, that what I professed in the Creed 
 of my regeneration, being baptized in the Father, and Son, and Holy 
 Spirit, I may ever retain, worshipping Thee our Father, and together 
 with Thee, Thy Son ; so mayest Thou vouchsafe to me Thy Holy 
 Spirit, Who is of Thee, tlurough Thine Only-Begotten ; for He is a 
 sufficient guarantee of my Faith, Who sailh, ' Father, all Mine are 
 Thine, and Thine are Mine,' my Lord Jesus Christ, who abideth in 
 Thee and of Thee, and with Thee, everlasting God, Who is blessed 
 for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 Such then is the way in which the Ancient Church looked upon 
 our Lord's parting commission, " Go ye, therefore, a^jd make disci- 
 ples of all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all 
 things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo ! I am with you 
 always, even unto the end of the world." It is, as was said, by vir- 
 tue of this promise that we still exist, and know that His Church 
 will exist to the end, for that He will be wioh it to the end ; it is by 
 virtue of these words,t (which none but avowed heretics have ever ^ 
 dared to change,) that we still venture upon the discipling of the na- 
 tions, or admit little ones into His kingdom, and name His Name 
 upon them ; believing that, whether m the conversion of the Heathen, 
 or the carrying on of His kingdom among ourselves by admitting 
 
 *DeTrin. l.xii.ult. 
 
 t Hence this commission is in several ancient Liturgies (as in our own) re- 
 hearsed before God in the prayer for the consecration of the Baptismal Font; 
 as in the ancient Latin, Gelasias, (Ass. ii. p. 4, retained in modern Roman, p. 
 33,) the Gallican (p. 37,) the Armenian (p. 198,) Coptic (166.) It occurs in 
 an exhortation in the Malabar Liturgy (ib. i. 178.) There is also an allusion 
 to it in the Gothic (ii. 35.) In the old GalUcan (p. 37) there is also a prayer for 
 the " presence of the Triure Majesty to accomphsh the most holy Regenera- 
 tion." Arian Baptism W3.i consequently accounted invalid, even where other 
 heretical baptism was ar'mitted. " Inasmuch as man, baptized in the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost, becomes a temple of God, where the ancient temple, 
 having been destroyed, the new temple of the Trinity is built, how sayest thou, 
 ' that sins can be forgiven among the Arians without the coming of the Holy 
 Spirit V " Jerome a<iv. Lucif. § 6. See also above 64. From this same be- 
 lief is derived the question in our Office of Private Baptism, " With what words 
 was this child baptized V implying that they are absolutely essential to valid 
 Baptism. 
 
68 
 
 into it " the generations which shall be born," He " will be with us 
 alway." Whereas then moderns, taking the words in their insulated 
 way, find herein a direction to use a certain formula in baptizing, 
 and also a promise of Christ to be present with some faithful few 
 who shall be His true Church, so that a remnant of true believers 
 never should be wanting, the Ancient Church combined the whole 
 teaching ; and so found the promise that Christ would ever, indeed, 
 be present with His whole Church, guiding, chastening, correcting, 
 purifying her, leading her through fire and water, and bringing her 
 out at length into a wealthy place ; but, and as an instance of this, 
 that He would be specially present in the Sacrament which he thus 
 made the entrance into that Church, and the very means of her con- 
 tinuance ; that having bade them to "disciple all nations," by "bap- 
 tizing them in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost," and added that He "would be with them alway, even to the 
 end of the world," He would be with them when so obeying His 
 word, and be present with them, when baptizing in His Name. 
 " Believe," bays S. Ambrose,* " that the Lord Jesus, invoked by the 
 prayers of the priests, is there. Who saith, ' where two or three 
 shall be, there am I also ;' how much more where the Church is, 
 where His own mysteries are, doth he deign to impart His presence f 
 There was then more reahty in the ancient view; they dwelt on the 
 words, in which he gave them their commission to baptize, as con- 
 taining His meaning in tVat commission ; they combined their whole 
 purport ; they reahzed more their Saviour's Presence ; they be- 
 lieved that the invocation of the Holy Trinity in words given by 
 Christ Himself, was " with power," as being accompanied by His 
 Presence through His Spirit. The analogy traced by Origen.t be- 
 tween this miracle and the relation which our Lord's miraculous 
 cures of bodily diseases bore to those of the soul, in itself very 
 striking, may sum up their meaning, " You must know that as the 
 wonderful miracles in the cures wrought by the Saviour, being 
 symbols of those who were continually, by the word of God, being 
 freed from all sickness and infirmity, nevertheless were profita- 
 ble when they took place in the body, inviting to faith those so ben- 
 efited, so also the washing through water being a symbol of the 
 cleansing of the soul washed from all stain of sin, is in itself also, 
 to him who yieldeth himself to the Divinity ^f the power of the in- 
 vocation of the adorable Trinity, nothing less than the beginning 
 and fountain of " Divine gifts." As, then, ftie invocation of our 
 Lord's Name was efficacious in casting out deviis, so they believed 
 that spiritually also devils should be cast out in His Name ;| that 
 " the invocation of the Name of the adorable Trinity" was effica- 
 cious, not in itself, but because He willed it. 
 
 * De Myst. ^ 27. f Comm. in Joh. torn. 6. ^ 17. p. 133. ed. de la Rue. 
 X Mark xvi. 7. 
 
69 
 
 St. Matthew records the words of the commission given through 
 the Apostles to the Church ; St. Mark adds the awful sanction under 
 which it was given. " He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
 saved ; and he that believeth not shall be damned." Our Lord thus 
 states, positively, what he had before to Nicodemus said negatively. 
 Through Nicodemus, He warned us that without Baptism there was 
 no entrance into His kingdom ; here He tells us, that whoso believeth 
 in Him shall then have the blessings, which are in Him, imparted 
 to him, if he be baptized. He places two conditions of salvation 
 before us ; one required on our part, the other promised on His : 
 One, a requisite in us, though His gift in us, the other His gift to 
 us ; Faith, whereby we desire to be healed, and His gift, whereby 
 He healeth us. And as in His bodily miracles, He could not do 
 many mighty works among His countrymen, because of their unbe- 
 lief, and He required in them who would be healed, Faith in Him 
 the Saviour of all, and telleth them, " Thy Faith hath saved thee," 
 yet was it not Faith alone, which healed them, but rather His " Vir- 
 tue," which "went out of Him," and Faith was only a necessary 
 condition which, in the fitness of things, He required in those upon 
 whom he should exercise His goodness ; so, in this His spiritual 
 miracle of our new-birth, faith removes the obstacle which sin pre- 
 sents to our receiving the Divine Influence ; it turns us to God, who 
 by Adam's fall were turned away from Him ; it replaces us in a posi- 
 tion of dependence upon Him ; it presents us wilhngly before Him 
 to receive that life, which He is and communicates (according to 
 their measure) to all His creatures, who depend upon Him. By one 
 universal law, from the highest Angel, or Dominion, or Power, who 
 " always beholdeth the face of our Father which is in Heaven," to 
 the "young ravens* which cry unto Him," or the "young lions, "f 
 who, " roaring after their prey, do seek their meat from God ;" (yea, 
 and the " thirsty land," which gapeth for the dew and rain from 
 heaven, expresses the same law,) He hath appointed dependence 
 upon Him to be a condition of receiving His gifts. Yet is not our 
 dependance the gift for which we depend upon Him ; the raven's 
 cry is not the raven's food ; the Archangel's fixed, unvarying gaze 
 on our Father's countenance is not "the Tjight which in His light he 
 seeth ;" our Faith is not our Baptism, nor God's gift in it. It is then, 
 of course, right that we should be jealous that our faith be of the right 
 sort, (in whatever way this is to be ascertained, which is another 
 question,) but it is mere egotism, self disguising itself under the form 
 of zeal for purity of faith which would look upon this as all or as the 
 chief thing ; which would confound the cleansing of the cup and plat- 
 ter, for the rich wine which he poureth into it, the setting our man- 
 sion in order, for its Celestial Visitant, who, though we be unworthy, 
 
 * Job xxxviii. 41. f Ps. civ. 21. cxlv. 15. cxlvii. 9. Joel i. 20. 
 
70 
 
 comes under our roof ; or rather, what is our's is not even so much 
 as this, but rather it is the wish that He would fill our empty vessels, 
 and by filling, cleanse them ; that He would repair the walls of our 
 mansion, which is broken down, and repairing, make it His habita- 
 tion, or by so making it repair it. It is then a grievous fault in our 
 habit of mind, if any venture to make that which is required in us, as 
 of chief moment, and God's gift secondary ; would place a quality or 
 qualification in us, above that for which it qualifieth us ; and, when 
 our Lord has said, " he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved," 
 should dissect and sever what He has thus conjoined, and hold that 
 we were in such sense " saved by faith only," as that Baptism was 
 of secondary account, an outward exhibition of what had already 
 taken place inwardly. And yet this will be found by many (if they 
 would be honest to themselves) to be their habit of mind, and they 
 regard Baptism as of no moment, except as any other act of obedi- 
 ence, having no virtue annexed to it, but a sort of incmnbrance, 
 which must be taken, and taken thankfully, because it has been en- 
 joined, but still is just as much a burthen, and as outward, as any rite 
 of the Jewish law was ever held to be. They look upon it as a mere 
 outward duty to be performed, not as an inestimable privilege to be 
 received, — as an appendage to faith, which they only dare not say 
 may be dispensed with. 
 
 It is not then for us to establish any comparison between the two 
 conditions to which our Lord has here annexed salvation ; they are 
 plainly incommensurables ; any quality in us can have no proportion 
 to God's gift to us ; there can be none between our desire to have our 
 sins remitted and His remission of them : our belief, that "if He will, 
 He can make us clean" and will, if we will it earnestly, and His 
 cleansing us ; our desire to be conformed to Him, and His conform- 
 ing us to Himself. 
 
 There is, indeed, a strange gloss, which, because, our Lord having 
 first limited salvation to those " who believe and are baptized," then 
 adds only, " he that believeth not shall be damned," would infer that 
 He also would thereby disparage the Sacrament, which he had just 
 placed at the tlu-eshold, and as the very door of salvation. For a very 
 little thought would have shown, that, though our Saviour annexed 
 the reception of the Sacrament of regeneration, to belief in Him, as 
 a condition of salvation, there was no occasion to mention it in the 
 case of unbelief: unbehevers would not be "baptized in Christ's 
 name, for the remission of sins :" since they believed not, the " wrath 
 of God abode upon them." (John iii. 36.) Baptism, without faith, 
 undoubtedly would save none : as faith, also, without charity, profit- 
 eth nothing (1 Cor. xiii.) : yet no one would think this was said in 
 disparagement of faith ; much less, then, the omission of Baptism, 
 in the other case, when our Saviour had just ordained it, without 
 any limitation, as necessary for all who believe. 
 
71 
 
 Can then, (to insist again on the end for which these passages are 
 here adduced, the comparison of our mind with the " mind of Christ" 
 in Holy Scripture,) can then they who, out of this teaching, in which 
 our Lord inculcates the necessity of Baptism, fix their minds only 
 on the one sentence in which mention of it is omitted, think that they 
 are listening teachably to Him ? or that, when they speak dispara- 
 gingly of that, which He enjoined wherever He should be believed 
 on, they are like-minded with Him ? Does the Sacrament of B^- 
 tism acquire no awfulness of value from being commanded by our 
 ascending Lord, just as He was establishing His everlasting king- 
 dom upon earth, and about to assume His heavenly kingdom above 
 all things ? " So then after the Lord had spoken unto them. He was 
 received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God ?"* Rather, 
 every thing here invests it with solemnity ; His foundation of His 
 Church thereon ; His bestowing it as His parting gift ; His annex- 
 ing to it our salvation ; His binding up with it, and imparting to us 
 by it, and reserving for this moment at which to impart it, the full 
 and distinct revelation of the doctrine of the Ever Blessed Trinity ; 
 His commanding this act alone in the whole Christian life, to be done 
 in Their Name ; His promise that Their Name shall herein be effi- 
 cacious. In St. Chrysostom'sf words, " the holy angels stand by, 
 doing nothing, they only look on what is done ; but the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, effect all. Let us, then, obey the declara- 
 tion of God, for this is more credible than sight ; for sight is, yea 
 and oftentimes, deceived ; but that can never fail. Obey we then it." 
 
 Our Lord annexed salvation to Baptism, in that He said, " Whoso 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved," and it is accordingly the 
 same truth, only directly enunciated, when His Apostles say, "Bap- 
 tism saves us," (1 Pet. iii. 21.) " He saved us through the wash- 
 ing of regeneration." (Tit. iii. 5.) Of these two statements, it is 
 remarkable that St. Paul leaves his wholly unguarded ; he contrasts 
 Baptism with any works which we had done ; but while he contrasts 
 our works with God's free mercy, he declares unhesitatingly and un- 
 qualifiedly, " He saved us by the washing of regeneration." St. 
 Peter (writing to Jewish converts, who had been " chosen" out of 
 " the Dispersion,"^: their brethren in Asia Minor, " to obedience and 
 the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,") accompanies his state- 
 ment of the benefits of Baptism with a contrast with those " divers 
 washings" to which as Jews they had been accustomed, and reminds 
 them that this was not, as theijs, an outward, but an inward washing; 
 not merely a putting off of the filth of the flesh, such as " those pu- 
 rifications of the flesh,!^ imposed upon them until the time of refor- 
 
 * Mark xvi. 19. f Horn. 25. al. 24. in Johan. ^ 2. 
 
 J " Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect sojourners of the disper- 
 sion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." 1 Pet. i. 1. 
 
 ^ iiKaiMjiara aapKoi, i. e. " camal commandments, cleansing the flesh, and so 
 
72 
 
 mation." (Heb. ix. 10.) In like way, St. Paul, when writing to 
 the same class of persons, speaks to them as "having had their hearts 
 sprinkled from an evil conscience," as well as *' their bodies washed 
 will) pure (i. e, purifying*) water," not, as under their law, having 
 been outwardly cleansed only. But this, as every gift of God, could 
 only be received by those who came in "an honest and true heart," 
 not feignedly ; wherefore he adds, " not the putting away of the filth 
 of the flesh, but the enquiry into a good conscience towards God," 
 i. e. Baptism, received not hypocritically, but with a good conscience ; 
 the candidate for Baptism, with integrity of heart, renouncing Satan, 
 engaging to obedience, and confessing unto salvation the truths of 
 the creed delivered to him ; (for it is certain that in this word "en- 
 quiry" allusion is made to the interrogations in Baptism, which were 
 to be answered by a " faith unfeigned,"*) Thus, then, St. Peter 
 declares precisely the truth delivered to him by his Lord, that " he 
 that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," or, " Baptism saves 
 us," approaching it with " a good conscience towards God." This 
 truth the Church, in the simplicity of ancient faith, readily received, 
 and accordingly adopted it in her creed, " I acknowledge one bap- 
 tism for the remission of sins," i. e. one Baptism only, the effect and 
 end of which is that remission. The differen«;e of a modern habit of 
 mind shows itself here in two ways : (1.) as, before, it seized on the 
 omission of Baptism in our Lord's words, " He that believeth not," 
 &c. to make use of it as an argument against His meaning where He 
 had just mentioned it, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
 saved ;" so when His disciple says, " Baptism saves us, not the put- 
 ting away the filth of the flesh," &c, they w^ould forget entirely his 
 positive statement that " Baptism does save us," in their anxiety to 
 point out how it does not. Identifying Baptism, in itself, with " the 
 putting away the filth of the flesh" they give, almost unavoidably, a 
 Pelagian sense to the words, that " the answer of a good conscience 
 towards God saves us." It surely implies a very altered state of 
 mind, if, when the Apostle of Christ dwells chiefly on God's good- 
 ness to us in His Sacrament, " Baptism saves us," and, subordinately, 
 distinguishes it from Jewish washings, and states the requisites to its 
 healthful reception, a certain class of modern interpretation scarcely 
 recurs to the text, except for the sake of proving in what case Bap- 
 justifying according to the flesh, those who, according to the flesh, were ac- 
 counted unclean." Theophyl. ad loc. 
 
 * " i. 6. of Baptism. ' Pure' is that which makes men pure, (or that which 
 has not blood mingled with it, as that of old was with ashes.) For although 
 the grace of the Spirit in Baptism purifies the soul only, yet here Paul has con- 
 joined visible [in the N. T.] with visible [in the Old.] And in the very act of 
 Baptism, water is conjoined for the sake of the body. For we being twofold, 
 the cleansing also is twofold." Theoph. ad loc. 
 
 t See Note H, at the end. 
 
73 
 
 tism would not save, or rather that in no case Baptism saves, but 
 only what it esteems faith. It glides away from the truth, " Baptism 
 saves us," recurs not to it for comfort, believes it not as a privilege, 
 reahzes it not as God's gift, but employs the qualifications with which 
 it must be received, as an argument to disparage it, to make the gift 
 subordinate to the qualification. (2.) This same class of interpreta- 
 tion would unhesitatingly say, "we are saved by faith" (though the 
 phrase no where exactly occurs in Holy Scripture, and St. James 
 says, in a certain case, " Can faith save him?") and yet it will not 
 say any how, that " Baptism saves us," although two Apostles say so, 
 and St. Paul exalts it, without any limitation, as the great proof of the 
 free mercy of God, St. Peter, with an explanation, adapted to the state 
 of his converts. Thus, would not many shrink, if they heard it de- 
 clared to their flocks that they had been "saved by Baptism," and be 
 very apprehensive, lest it shall plunge them into a carnal security, lest 
 they should presume upon their privileges, and because they had been 
 saved once, think they would any how be saved eternally, and so 
 sleep on ? And, however they will at once cast aside such fleshly 
 misapprehensions of doctrines, in which themselves believe, will they 
 not dread the eflfects of such teaching, and seek not only to explain it 
 but to qualify it? But what else is this than to be jealous, in a way 
 in which Scripture has not, been ; to set one part of Divine truth 
 against another, or rather (as it must be) men's own interpretation of 
 the one against what is plainly declared in another ? Justification bi/ 
 faith does not exclude justification through, or by Baptism, any more 
 than salvation iy grace excludes salvation throvgh faith, which the 
 Apostle in one sentence unites, "ye are saved by grace through 
 faith ;" they who can distinguish God's free grace as the cause of 
 salvation, and faith as the channel whereby it is received, might also 
 distinguish Baptism as the channel through which God bestows it, 
 and faith as the quality through which we receive it. And yet if 
 men would analyze their own feelings, many would find that this 
 saying, " Baptism saves us," sounds foreign or (if they dared to think 
 it) repulsive to them ; that it finds no place in their system ; that 
 they dismiss such an expression from their thoughts, as one requir- 
 ing explanation to give it a sound sense, instead of conveying, of 
 NECESSITY, DOCTRINAL TRUTH. And if this bc SO, havc we not lost 
 a portion of our inheritance ? 
 
 Contrast, herewith, St. Augustine's unhesitating faith, " Most ex- 
 cellently," saith he, writing against the Pelagians,* " do the Punic 
 Christians entitle Baptism itself no other than Salvation, and the 
 Sacrament of the Body of Christ no other than Life. Whence, ex- 
 cept from an old, as I deem, and Apostolical tradition, by which 
 they hold it to be implanted into the church of Christ, that, without 
 
 * De peccat. merit, et remiss. L. 1. ^ 34. 
 
74 
 
 Baptism, and the participation of the Lord's Table, no man can ar. 
 rive, either at ihe kingdom of God, or salvation and life eternal ?* 
 This, as we have said, is what Scripture testifies. For what do 
 they who entitle Baptism, Salvation, hold other than what is writ- 
 ten, ' He hath saved us by the washing of regeneration ;' and what 
 Peier saith, ' The like figure whereunto Baptism doth now save 
 you V " 
 
 And yet is it no privilege that we have been saved, have been 
 taken out of the state in which we by nature were, without any de- 
 serts of our own, before we knew, of ourselves, good or evil, but 
 had the evil of our fallen nature adhering to us, that not by any frail 
 will, or purpose, or faith of our ov/n, but by God's strong hand, we 
 were plucked out of the depth of misery in which we lay, and out of 
 the deep mire of sin, and our " foot set upon the Rock," "in a large," 
 free, disentangled " place," where " our goings are ordered?" Is it 
 no cause of thankfulness to our Heavenly Father, to have to look 
 back upon a definite Act of God, whereby He " placed us in a state 
 of salvation,"! there by His grace to continue ; that, independently 
 of any feelings of ours, which may not be so vivid as they once 
 were, antecedently to all of error infirmity and sin, which there may 
 have been in our course hitherto, and the imperfections which have 
 cleaved, and (it is to be feared) do cleave to all our acts, marring our 
 repentances, our faith, our works of love, there is still one bright 
 spot whereon to look back, when God the Father chose us to be his 
 sons in His Son, and the Holy Ghost sanctified us and sealed us as 
 His ? Is it nothing to bear His mark upon us, which His mercy 
 has been more powerful to retain, we trust, than our sins to efface ? 
 Would not the faithful among the Israelites, in their wanderings 
 through the wilderness, look back often to the Red Sea strand, 
 where " the waters overwhelmed their enemies, and there was not 
 one of them left, and He saved them from the hand of him that hat- 
 ed them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy ?"J And 
 shall not we in our pilgi'image through our wilderness, look back 
 with a thankful yearning to that day, which the deliverance of Israel 
 but shadowed out, when we were " saved from the hand of him who 
 hates us, and redeemed out of the hand of the enemy," and " believ- 
 ing His words, sing His praise?"^ We are formed to look back and 
 forward, and from looking to the past to derive strength for the fu- 
 
 * The Pelagians, in order to avoid the argument from St. Johniii. 5. feigned 
 that a person might, without the new birth, come to the life eternal, but not to 
 the kingdom of God. See above, p. 33. 
 
 t " And I heartily thank our Heavenly Father, that He hath called me to 
 this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto 
 God to give me his grace that I may continue in the same unto my life's end." 
 Church Catechism. 
 
 JPs. cvi. 10, 11. § lb. V. 13. 
 
75 
 
 ture. Those whose natural feelings have not been spoiled by subse- 
 quent artificial habits, look back with an inexpressible longing to the 
 bright days of childhood and of youth, and God's guardian arm 
 around them, and the peaceful home, which, perhaps, knows them 
 no more, and the comparative innocence which intercourse with the 
 world and life's downward course has in whatever degree defiled ; 
 and the bright visions of that past cheer them on amid life's sorrows 
 and strifes. It is not then in vain, surely, that throughout His 
 whole Church He has blended with that early past, one brighter 
 spot which sheds its lustre over all, and from which the light of their 
 suns shines seven-fold,* our Baptismal morn ; an Oasis, it may be, 
 in a wilderness, but a spot, on which our memory may, without mis- 
 giving, repose, because all its brightness comes directly from Him, 
 and in it " the hght of His countenance" shone, and still shines upon 
 us, if we look back for it. No ! our Baptism is of inexpressible 
 Talue and comfort, even because it is the act of God ; it has nothing 
 earthly mingled with it ; it was simply His, who chose us accord- 
 ing to His eternal purpose, "lo the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus 
 Christ,"! and " predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Je- 
 sus Christ unto Himself,"| making us " in the Beloved, "§ His own 
 sons, members of His Christ, heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Our 
 comfort, our joy, our peace, our consolation, our glory, is, to have, 
 what we have, purely from Him, to have the foundation of our hopes 
 out of ourselves, and conveyed by a formal act of His, whereby 
 not according to works of righteousness which we did, but according 
 to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration 
 and of the renewal of the Holy Ghost," that " Baptism saves us, 
 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Who is on the right hand 
 of God." 
 
 It might have sufficed, perhaps, to have noticed one passage, in 
 which through our depreciation of our Blessed Saviour's ordinance, 
 we have lost the support, the strength, the cheering hope, which He 
 provided for us. For our mode of understanding any passage of 
 Holy Scripture is not to be considered as something insulated : re- 
 sulting, as it does, from our general frame of mind, our habits of 
 thought and feeling, and the character of our religious belief. Our 
 insight into Scripture, as it is an instrument in forming our minds, so 
 is it in part the result of the mind formed within us : our character of 
 mind is a condition of understanding God's word : according to what 
 we ourselves are become, does that word appear to us : it is given to 
 us according as we have : our present, is in proportion to our past, 
 profit. No misunderstanding then of any portion of Holy Scripture ; 
 (I speak — not, of course, of words or expressions, but — of the gene- 
 ral tenor of passages of Scripture ;) no shallowness of conception ; 
 
 * Is. XXX. 26. t 1 Pet. i. 2. % Eph. i. 5. ^ Ver. 6. 
 
76 
 
 no false spiritualism, or sluggish resting in the letter of any place, can 
 stand singly; for, whatever be the defect which dims our sight in the 
 one place, it will obscure our understanding of other passages also. 
 This, as before said, we readily admit in gross and palpable cases : 
 we know, indeed, from authority, of the veil on the hearts of the 
 Jews, and of the god of this world, who blindeth the understandings 
 of the unbelieving : we readily admit that one who has, practically, 
 vague notions of justification by faith will understand but little of St. 
 Paul ; but we fail often to apply the test to our own case, and thor- 
 oughly to examine what is wanting to our own mental character, and 
 how that deficiency prevents our more fully understanding God's 
 word. What owr dull eyes see in large and flagrant instances, exists, 
 we may be sure, where they are too heavy to penetrate ; so that no 
 one wrong habit of mind, or faulty principle can exist, in however 
 slight a degree, without affecting our views of Scripture truth. 
 
 To examine, then, the other passages wherein Baptism is spoken of, 
 may have uses even beyond the immediate purpose of impressing 
 upon ourselves the greatness of God's gift iheiein; for these will, in 
 their turn, open to us the meaning of other Scriptures also, which the 
 failure to apprehend these has closed to us. A right understanding 
 of Baptism, as the entrance into the kingdom of heaven, is essential 
 to the understanding of the nature of the kingdom of grace, its duties, 
 its comforts, and its privileges ; and a faithful apprehension of the 
 fulness of one Scripture sets the mind in the frame, to which God 
 discloses the meaning of others. 
 
 The passages of Scripture, then, relating to Holy Baptism, may 
 be considered under the following heads. 1. Passages in which 
 Scripture speaks of high privileges and Divine gifts, involving duty 
 as the ancient Church saw, but in which moderns have lost sight of 
 the privileges and gifts, and see only duties, 2. Passages in which 
 moderns have appropriated to themselves the privileges, without 
 thought of the means whereby they are conveyed. 3. Passages, in 
 which moderns see that Baptism is mentioned, but without attaching 
 any especial notion to it. In all, it is remarkable to see, how for the 
 most part we have lost not only the original meaning of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, but even all suspicion that we are in error. 
 
 1 . Passages in ivhich Holy Scripture speaks of gifts of God, 
 moderns see only duties of man. 
 
 In these passages the question is, not whether they enjoin not du- 
 ties conformable to our ^calling, but whether they contain not more 
 than duties, — God's gifts actually conferred upon us, whereby we 
 are enabled to perform those duties ; whether they be a mere 
 setting forth of persuasive motives to influence our will, or whether 
 they contain also an account of God's Power imparted to us, where- 
 by that will has been influenced, and a free will has been given us ; 
 whether they only put our duties in connection with our Saviour's 
 
77 
 
 Life, Death, or Resurrection, and show the Hght cast upon them 
 from His Cross, or Grave, or whether they state that the virtue of 
 that Cross, precious Death, and glorious Resurrection, has been 
 communicated to us,, and that hght infused into our own hearts, "ac- 
 cording to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in 
 Christ, when He raised Him from the dead ;"* whether, in a word, 
 they be outward motives, or inward power. The difference is very 
 essential ; for if it be found that Holy Scripture speaks uniformly of 
 a power imparted to us, then, when for this, men would substitute 
 " influential motives," and the like ; they are, in fact, unconsciously 
 substituting " Gospel motives" for the Gospel, man's will for 
 Christ's Power, the tendency of truths to excite love, for " the love 
 of Christ constraining us," persuasiveness of man's preaching for the 
 " demonstration of the Spirit, and of power ;" and as soon as they 
 trust in the inherent power of Gospel truths to work their effects upon 
 the soul, they do in fact make an idol, substituting a statement of 
 truth for Him who is " the Life" as well as " the Truth." Such a 
 procedure may readily degenerate into a practical Pelagianism ; for 
 extolling the efficacy of certain motives!, when faithfully set forth, to 
 move and win men's affections, may easily be, and is frequently,taken 
 to imply the power of the unrenewed will to act upon those motives. 
 It matters not whether the motive so proposed be in itself the very 
 highest or the lowest ; the deficiency in man's condition before the 
 Gospel was not the lack of motives, but of power to act upon them ; 
 it matters not whether it be present comfort, or the Elysian fields, or 
 the beauty of virtue, or the love of God, or thankfulness to the Incar- 
 nate Son ; so long as it be an external motive proposed to the will, the 
 will is as little, rather it is less able to appreciate or act upon that, 
 which, to a purified spirit, were the most persuasive, than upon the 
 most carnal. The more carnal, the more fitted for it; the brighter 
 the sun's rays, the less fitted is the weak and disordered eye to be- 
 hold them. So, then, under the older dispensation, carnal ordinances 
 and carnal promises harmonized together, and that which was evan- 
 gelic gleaming through both ; in the Gospel, spiritual and life-giving 
 Ordinances, and spiritual promises and motives, 
 
 * Eph. i. 19. 
 + Hence the unconscious tendency to Rationalism among many of our evi- 
 dence-writers, who set forth the inherent efficacy of the great Christian doc- 
 trines, and thereby teach o^Aer^ to substitute the doctrines of the Gospel for 
 the operations of the Holy Spirit. To take a passage of this kind from a 
 popular American work, " A knowledge of the death of Christ, with the expla- 
 nation of it given in the Scripturesi touches men's Iiearts ; it shows the nature 
 and tendencies of sin ; it produces fear of God's displeasure, and resolution 
 to return to duty ; and thus produces effects hy which justice is satisfied, y — 
 Mr. Abbott's Corner Stone, p. 174. See further the Tract whence this ex- 
 tract is taken, ''On the Introductionof Rationalistic Principles into Religion," 
 Tracts, No. 73, 
 
78 
 
 To the unconverted the Apostles set forth judgment to come*, re- 
 pentance from dead works, remission of sins througli baptism upon 
 faith in Christ Jesus ; then on conversion followed baptism, convey- 
 ing remission of sins, uniting them with Christ, imparting to them the 
 Spirit ; and then those baptized they urge to use the power thus im- 
 parted to them ; to them they apply the Gospel motives, because 
 they had received the strength of the Gospel : tliey bid them " walk 
 worthy of the vocation, wherewith they had been called," having first 
 bid them, " in the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk." 
 
 This, which is perceptible in all the teaching of 8t. Paul's Epis- 
 tles, is so in that Epistle to which men liave strongly appealed, as 
 containing the doctrine of justification by faith to the exclusion of or- 
 dinances : 
 
 1.1. "Knowfyenot, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, 
 were baptized into His death ? Tiierelbre we were buried with Him by Bap- 
 tism into death ; that Uke as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of 
 the Father, even so also we should walk in newness of life For, if we have 
 been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also of His 
 resurrection : knowinfj this, that our old man was crucitied with Him, that the 
 body of sin might be destroyed." 
 
 Now all, unquestionably, that a large number of Christians, at the 
 present day, find, in this passage, is that Baptism represents (as it 
 does) to us our profession, that we, having been baptized, and having 
 acknowledged Christ as our Jjord, are boundX to lead a new and 
 godly life, and to be crucified to sin and the world, as he was cruci- 
 fied for om- sin ; and if so, that we shall rise with Him. This is 
 very true, and is certainly in the passage ; but the question is, whe- 
 ther this be all ? whether St. Paul speaks only of duties entailed 
 upon, and not also of strength imparted to, us? The Fathers certainly 
 of tlie Christian Church, educated in holy gratitude for their Bap- 
 tismal privileges, saw herein, not only the death unto sin, which we 
 were to die, but that also which in Christ we had died, the actual 
 weakening of our corrupt propensities by our having been baptized 
 and incorporated into Christ ; not the life only which we are to live, 
 but the actual life which, by Baptism, was infused in us,§ and by 
 
 * St. Peter, Acts ii. 20, 21, 38. iii. 19. x. 42, 47, (op. xi. 14, 16, 18.) St. 
 Paul, ib. xvii. 31. xxiv. 25. 
 
 t Rom. vi. 3—6. 
 
 X Zuingli Fid. Christian® Expos; 0pp. t. ii. f. 551. v. "Baptism signifies 
 that Christ has washed us with His blood ; and that we, as St. Paul teaches, 
 ought to put Him on, i. e. live after His pattern." See note P. at the end, 
 ad loc. 
 
 \ Hence this text is incorporated into the prayers of several ancient Liturgies, 
 whence it was taken into our own in the Thanksgiving which the reformers of 
 our Liturgy added to it in the 2d book of Edward VL and which yet remains. 
 Galilean, "that so the ancient hand writing may, by a secret mystery, be blotted 
 out under the waters ; and the debtors being buried together with Christ 
 
79 
 
 virtue of which it is, that many of us are now " walking in newness 
 of hfe," are Hving in Christ. St. Paul speaks throughout of actual 
 facts, which have taken place in us, and duties consequent upon 
 them ; he sets, side by side, means of grace, which we have received, 
 and the holiness which we are thereby to strive to attain unto. "We 
 were all baptized into Christ," i. e. into a participation of Christ, and 
 His most precious Death, and union with Him; " we," i. e. our old 
 man, our corrupted selves, " were buried with Him by Baptism into 
 death, that we also may walk in newness of life." Again, " we were 
 planted in the likeness of his death" — that we may ie " of His resur- 
 rection." Again, " our old man v)as crucified with Him" — " that 
 the whole body of sin might he destroyed." 
 
 Now, in these pairs (so to speak) of gifts and duties, two things 
 are, at first sight, observable: 1. That, (as indeed we shall have oc- 
 casion to point out more extensively,) St. Paul speaks throughout of 
 these gifts as having taken place at a definite past time. Not only 
 we " were baptized," but we " loere buried," " were planted," ^'were 
 crucified ;" those acts are in their fruits to live in us, but in them- 
 selves they are past, just as much as our Baptism is, in which they 
 took place, and wherein they were contained ; he speaks not here of 
 a present crucifixion, or even (as elsewhere) of a past crucifixion, con- 
 tinuing on to the present, " whereby the world has been crucified 
 (eirraupurat) to mc, and I unto the world,"* but of one wholly past, 
 " our old man was crucified with Him ['^vvecravp^en),'^ 2. That a 
 most intimate communion w^ith these same acts in our Lord's own 
 holy Life and Death is, by the original language, conveyed. It were 
 
 through Baptism, the likeness of His Death may so take place here, that the 
 loss [sustained in Adam] of those saved may be felt only here on earth," i. e. 
 only in their temporal not in their eternal death. (Ass.ii.37.) and, "that having 
 been buried in the bath together with his Redeemer, after the likeness of the 
 holy and divine mystery, together with WTiom he dies (commoritur) through 
 Baptism, together with the Same he may rise (cowresurgat) in the kingdom. 
 Through," &c. (lb. p. 38.) Greek, (a bidding prayer) "In the peace of the Lord, 
 let us pray — that he may be planted together, and be a partaker of the Death 
 and Resurrection of Christ our God." (lb. ii-p. 132.) "Grant, O Lord, whoso 
 is to be baptized in it may be transformed, so as to put off the old man, which 
 is corrupted according to the deceitful lusts, and be clothed with the new man, 
 renewed after the image of Him Who created him, that having been planted 
 together in the likeness of His Death through Baptism, he may be partaker 
 also of the Resurrection," &c. (ib. p. 139.) This latter part of the prayer, 
 with what follows, is found also in the Syriac liturgy translated by S. James 
 of Edessa (ib. i. p. 248, 260.) and Xhzt o{ Jerusalem (ib. ii. 250.) subjoined to 
 a private prayer of the priest for liimself, in that of Antioch (ib. ii p. 222,) and 
 of Severus, (p. 250,) which have the former part also. It occurs as a Baptis- 
 mal lesson, (6. 1 — 8) in the Syriac Liturgy, revised by Severus, (ib. ii. 273,) 
 and in the Church of Jerusalem, (Cyril, Catech. iii. 1. xx. 1.) and of Milan, 
 Ambr. de Sacram. L. ii. ^ 23, see below, on ii. 3. 
 • GaL vi. 14. 
 
80 
 
 much, to be buried, to be crucified, with Him, hke Him ; but it is 
 more to become partakers of His Burial and Crucifixion ; to be (so 
 to speak) co-interred*, co-crucified ; to be included in, wrapt round, 
 as it were, in His Burial and Crucifixion, and gathered into His very 
 tomb ; and this, he says, we were by Baptism : transfused into His 
 Death, (TW£rd^'?/'£>') implanted or engrafted into it (<^"/'^'"-'"), our old 
 man was thereby nailed to His very cross (awccxTavpcier,). There is a 
 marked identification with our Lord ; and so, also, our walking in 
 newness of life, is not the result of any motive, however persuasive, 
 but " the power of His Resurrection." "We were buried with Him 
 by Baptism unto death, that, like as Christ was raised up from the 
 dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also," having died with 
 Him, died through Baptism in His death, having been buried with 
 Him, and so (else were we not living) having been raised again with 
 Him, having been reborn to a new life, should live in His new Life 
 imparted to us, " should walk in newness of life." The Apostle 
 needed not then to express in words that we had actually been made 
 partakers of His Resurrection ; he conveys more, in that he does 
 not express it, for so he identifies it more "with His Resurrection 
 through the glory of the father." 
 
 And this, as already implied, throws light on other Scriptures, as 
 when St. Peter less explicitly parallels our death with that of Christ ; 
 " Christ,! then, having suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves 
 likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh 
 has ceased from sin," conveying that we had not only had the benefit 
 of his sufferings imputed to us, but in some mysterious way been 
 joined in them; for the words "he that hath suffered in the flesh," 
 clearly belong to us, and in this context they belong to us through our 
 being joined with Christ, i. e. "we have suffered in the flesh," because 
 "He suffered for us in the flesh," and we have been engrafted into 
 Him. And St. Paul again,| " The love of Christ constraineth us, 
 having thus judged, that if One died for all, then have all died, and 
 He died for all, that they who live might not any more live unto 
 themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again," i. e. 
 by His dying for all, all have died, with and in Him ; and that, that 
 the new life, which through that death they live, " they might not live 
 to themselves, but to Him Avho died for them, and rose again," and 
 with whom, (it is again implied) they have been raised. For such 
 seems to be the very end with which St. Paul adds the words, " and 
 rose again." 
 
 * The Latin retains this, " consepeliuntur in Christo ;" " veterem hominem 
 conftxum esse Christo." (Test, de resurr. Carnis, 1. c. and de Pudicit.) "com- 
 plantati" " coexcitamur. "Hil. de Trin. i. 13. 
 
 t 1 Pet. iv. 9. X2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 
 
81 
 
 In these events we are spoken of as passive* only ; we did no- 
 thing for ourselves ; we were baptized, buried, planted, crucified; 
 the very language marks that all this was God's doing in us, and for 
 us. We had no more to do with it, than a man hath with burying 
 or crucifying himself, much less could we join ourselves in our Sa- 
 viour's Death, or include ourselves in His Cross : but we gave up 
 ourselves only to God, for Him to work this in us ; and He "by 
 Baptism," the apostle says, wrought it. Hitherto we were passive 
 only ; the apostle assigns us our own part, but subsequently ; in our 
 old life we could only have struggled impotently ; though " the 
 angel troubled the waters," yet had we lain like the infirm man who 
 " had no one to put him into the pool ;" we had lain within sight of 
 our remedy, but unable to apply it to ourselves ; our part begins 
 with our new life in Christ, which we have received in Baptism ; 
 when in Him we have died, then begins that other death, which 
 through Him we must continually die. Sin has once been remitted, 
 slain, crucified ; we must, henceforth, watch that it live not again in 
 us, that we extirpate all the roots thereof, that we serve it not again, 
 that we live through its death. These points were prominently in 
 the thoughts of the ancient Church, when dwelling on the text ; the 
 close connection of what Christ had done for us on the Cross, with 
 what He worketh in us by His Spirit in Baptism : that this union 
 with Him is the power of Baptism, and that from this union so 
 imparted is all the Christian's strength to realize Christian duty.t 
 " It is not here," says St. Chrysostom,! " as in the other Epistles, 
 which St. Paul divides into two, appropriating the first part to doc- 
 trine, the latter to moral instruction ; but he here, throughout, min- 
 gles the two. He saith here, then, that there are two puttings to 
 death, and two deaths : that the one was wrought by Christ, in Bap- 
 tism ; but that the other must take place through our subsequent 
 diligence. For that our former sins were buried, was of His gift ; 
 
 * So even the ancient Calvinistic Divines, in their sense, " In the very be- 
 ginning of regeneration, the seal whereof is Baptism, man is merely passive ; 
 whence, also, no outward act is required of a man who was to be circumcised 
 or baptized, as there is in other Sacraments, but only passively to receive it. 
 Infants, therefore, are equally capable of this Sacrament, in regard to its main 
 use, as adults." Ames Medull. Theol. L. i. c. 40. Thes. xiii. quoted by Sur- 
 ges, pp. 52, 3. and Bp. Taylor, Life of Christ. Of Baptizing Infants, ^ 16. t. ii. 
 p. 275. " If it be objected, that to the new birth are required dispositions of 
 our own, which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of reason : 
 besides that this is wholly against the analogy of a new birth, in which the per- 
 son to be born is wholly a passive, and hath put into him the principle, that in 
 time will produce its proper actions," &c. 
 
 f Whence in the Syriac Church, where this passage is read as a lesson in 
 the office of Baptism, in thankfulness for the heart-uplifting privileges, they 
 closed it with " Halleluia." — Assem. t. ii. p. 273, add t. i. p. 247. 
 
 X Ad loc. Horn. xi. ^ 1, 2. t. ix. p. 530, ed. Bened. 
 
82 
 
 but that we, after Baptism, should remain dead to sin, must be the 
 work of our diligence, although here also our very chief and great 
 support comes from God. For Baptism not only availeth to efface 
 our former offences, but secures us also against future. Seest thou 
 how he animateth his hearer, taking him at once to his Lord, and 
 striving to show him how like he has been made to Him ? He saith 
 not also, if we have been made partakers of the likeness of His 
 death, but if we have been planted ; hinting, by the name planting, 
 at the fruit derived to us therefrom. For as His body, buried in 
 the earth, bore for fruit the salvation of the world ; so ours, also, 
 buried in Baptism, bore fruit, righteousness, sanctification, adoption, 
 unnumbered blessings, and, last of all, shall bear that of the resur- 
 rection. Since, then, we were buried in water. He in the earth, and 
 we in respect to sin. He in regard to the body : therefore he saith not, 
 ' planted with Him in death,' but ' in the likeness of death.' For 
 each was death, but not of the same object. Nor doth he say merely 
 (v. 6.) our old man was crucified, but was 'crucified together,' 
 bringing Baptism in close union with the Cross. He saith this of 
 every man (v. 7.), that ' he who is dead is thenceforth freed from 
 sinning,' abiding dead ; so also he who ascendeth from Baptism ; 
 for since he hath then once died, he ought to remain throughout dead 
 to sin. If then thou hast died in Baptism, remain dead," And so 
 again,* " ' We who have died to sin, how shall we live any longer in 
 it ?' What is diis ' have died ?'g,ils it, that as far as it is concerned, 
 we have all renounced it ?t or, rather, that having believed and been 
 enlightened," [received the true light, — been baptized,] " we have 
 heeome actually dead to it ? which the sequel shows. But what is 
 to be dead to it ? to obey it no longer. For this Baptism hath done 
 for us once ; it deadened us to it ; but for the rest, by our own earnest 
 zeal we must realize this constantly. So that, though it issue ten 
 thousand commands, we should obey it no longer, but remain mo- 
 tionless as the dead. Elsewhere, indeed, he says that sin itself 
 died ; and that, to show how easy goodness becometh ; but here, 
 wishing to rouse the hearer, he speaks of him as having died. As 
 the Death of Christ in the flesh was real, so is ours to sin real ; but 
 although it is real, we must for the future contribute our part." St. 
 Basil also speaks at large, how for this end, not mere imitation will 
 suffice, but actual conformation, a conformation whereby our old life, 
 which we inherited from Adam, should be broken through, and a new 
 life, derived from Christ, implanted, whereby we should be actually 
 severed from our old stock in Adam, and engrafted into a new one in 
 Christ. And that such is the Christian's privilege, and bestowed 
 
 * Horn. X. in Rom. p. 525. 
 
 t Alluding to the universal rite of " renunciation of Satan, the world, and 
 the flesh," in Baptism. 
 
upon him through Baptism, he proves from this saying of the apos- 
 tle,* " The dispensation of our God and Saviour in behalf of man is a 
 calhng him upward from his fall, a return to familiar intercourse with 
 God from that ahenalion which took place through the disobedience. 
 To this end was the Presence of Christ in the flesh ; the patterns of 
 evangehcal life ; the Passion ; the Cross ; the Burial ; the Resur- 
 rection ; so that man being saved by the imitation of Christ, might 
 receive again that ancient adoption of sons. To the perfection then 
 of life, there is needed the imitation of Christ, not only of the gentle- 
 ness, and humility, and long-suffering, displayed in His Life, but 
 also of His very Death ; as St. Paul saith — he, the imitator of 
 Christ — ' being conformed to His death, if by any means I may 
 attain unto the resurrection of the dead.' How then are we made in 
 the likeness of His death ? ' Having been buried with Him through 
 Baptism.' What then is the mode of burial, or what the benefit of 
 the imitation ? First, it is necessary that the course of the former 
 life should be broken through. But this is impossible, unless a man 
 be born again, as the Lord said. For the re-generation (as the name 
 also itself implies,) is the beginning of a second life ; so that be- 
 fore we begin the second, an end must be put to the preceding. 
 Wherefore the Lord, who dispenseth life to us, gave us the cove- 
 nant of Baptism, containing an image of death and life — the water 
 fulfilling the image of death, and the Spirit giving the earnest of life. 
 This then is ' to be born again of water and the Spirit,' our death 
 being effected in the water, and our life worked in us by the Spirit. 
 So that whatever grace there is in the water is nol from the nature 
 of the water, but from the presence of the Spirit." 
 
 In the union also with Christ, in whose Death and Life they were 
 through Baptism engraffed, the elder Christians saw with the Apos- 
 tle the pledge of their resurrection. " Hast thou believed," says 
 Chrysostom,t " that Christ died and rose again, believed then thine 
 own. For this is like to it, since the Cross and the Burial is thine 
 also ; for if thou hast shared with Him in the Death and the Burial, 
 much more shalt thou in the Resurrection and the Life. For since 
 the greater, that is, sin, has been destroyed, we may not hesitate 
 about that which is lesser, the destruction of death." And St. Am- 
 brose, J: " Naaman, the Syrian, dipped seven times under the law, 
 but thou wert baptized in the name of the Trinity. Thou confess- 
 edst the Father, recollect what thou diddest ; thou confessedst the 
 Son ; thou confessedst the Holy Ghost. Hold fast the order of 
 things in this Faith. Thou diedst to sin, and rosest again to God. 
 And, as though co-interred with Him in that element of the world, 
 having died to sin, thou wert raised again to hfe eternal." They 
 were not accustomed, in our lax way, to look upon the resurrection 
 
 * De Spiritu. S. c. 15. { 35. fHom. 10. in Rom. ^ i. J De Myst. ^ 21. c. 2. 
 
84 
 
 to life, as one might almost say, the mere natural consequence of 
 our escaping condemnation, that since our natures were immortal, 
 we must live on in some way, and since we were rescued from mis- 
 ery, therefore in bliss. Eternal life was, with tlicm, not the mere 
 alternative of death, or the necessary result of forgiveness ; nor was 
 His Resurrection the mere making known of God's acceptance of 
 His Sacrifice, a confirmation of our faith, an outward attestation to 
 the fact of our immortality, an evidence or earnest of our Resurrec- 
 tion. It was to them all these, but it was more ; it was the cause of 
 our resurrection. " The rocks were rent," when the atoning Sacri- 
 fice was finished ; the bars were loosed, and they seemed to hold 
 their prisoners no longer ; yet it was not until " after* the resurrec- 
 tion^'' that " many bodies of the saints, which slept, arose and came 
 out of the graves, and went into the holy city." The sacrifice on 
 the Cross perfected our redemption to Godward, bvit there was a fur- 
 ther act to complete it toward, and in us. " He was delivered for 
 our offences,"! and so completed the atonement ; but " He was 
 raised again for our justification," to communicate its fruits to us. 
 The Resurrection contains a ground of hope, even beyond the 
 Cross ;| " It is God thatjustifieth ; who is he that condemncth? It 
 is Christ that died ; yea rather that is risen again.'''' ^ Our incarnate 
 Lord imparted to our decayed nature, by His indwelling in it, that 
 principle of life which, through Adam's fal], it had lost ; and when 
 " by the Spirit of Holiness," which resided in Christ, He raised it 
 from the dead, he made it not only " the first fruits," but the source 
 of our resurrection, by communicating to our nature His own inhe- 
 rent Life. And hence, after His Resurrection, His Body, though 
 still made present to His disciples, for the confirmation of their faith, 
 was already of aspiritual nature, notrecognized by His own disciples,|| 
 appearing in different forms,^ so showing that this outward form 
 was but an accident to it ; appearing or vanishing out of sight, with- 
 out reference to material obstacles ; and whereas, before. He show- 
 ed indeed by His miracles that He was the Lord of nature, yet sub- 
 jected Himself to His own laws, which He had given it, now His 
 Life was wholly independent of them. " I," He saith," " /am the 
 Resurrection and the Life ;" He not only has obtained, purchased, 
 wills, bestows, is the meritorious cause of, our Resurrection ; He 
 
 * Matt, xxvii. 52, 53. f Rom. iv. 25. 
 
 X " It had not been enough to be delivered by His death, except by His Re- 
 surrection we had been endowed with righteousness. Thus hath His resur- 
 rection wrought for us hfe and righteousness. He died to destroy the rule of 
 the devil in us, and He rose again to send down His Holy Spirit to rule in our 
 hearts ; to endow us with perfect righteousness." — Homily on the Resurrec- 
 tion. See a valuable Commentary on this Homily in Mr. Newman's Lectures 
 on Justification, note on Lect. vi. 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 34. I Luke xxiv. 16. John xx. 14. xxi. 24. If Mark xvi. 12. 
 
85 
 
 Himself is it ; He gives it us not, as it were, from without, as a 
 possession, as something of our own, but Himself is it to us ; He 
 look our flesh, that He might vivify it ; He dwelt in it, and obeyed 
 in it, that He might sanctify it ; He raised it from death by His 
 quickening Spirit that He might give it immortality. The " first 
 Adam"* was " a living soul ;" and that life being by sin lost, " the 
 last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." And we in His Church 
 being incorporated into Him, being made members of His Body, 
 flesh of His Flesh, and bone of His Bone, through His Sacraments, 
 partake of His Life and Immortality, because we partake of Him ; 
 we are made members of Him, He dwelleth in us, and is our Life ; 
 " Because I live, ye shall live also."! As in His transfiguration, 
 that inward glory which dwelt in Him, but veiled from man's sight, 
 shone through and illumined His countenance, and penetrated the 
 very raiment which He wore, so that His earthly form was changed, 
 so " are we," His Apostle says, transformed or " transfigured]: from 
 glory to glory as by the Lord, the Spirit." It is through the commu- 
 nication of that life, and so by belonging to Him, beingjoined on to 
 Him, that as many as live, have and shall have their life, "/n^ Christ 
 shall all be made alive." " Christ the first-fruits, afterwards they that 
 are Christ's [belong to Christ] at His coming." And "that|i I might 
 be found in Him, so to know Him, and the power of His Resurrec- 
 tion, and the participation of His sufferings, being conformed to His 
 Death, if by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the 
 dead.'''' And this power of His Resurrection is imparted to us 
 through Baptism. " Baptismal saves us, through the Resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ," as applying its power and efficacy. " Having 
 been** buried [co-interred] with Him in Baptism, wherein also ye 
 were raised together with Him," made partakers of, joined in. His 
 Resurrection. " Inasmuch, ft then, as ye were raised together with 
 Christ ;" and so again in our passage, " If we were planted in the 
 likeness of His death, we shall be also of His Resurrection." And 
 so, after the confession of " the one Baptism for the remission of 
 sins," there follows in the Creed of the Universal Church, " And I 
 look for the Resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to 
 come." Nor is it without significance that the title of Regeneration, 
 which denotes the gift in our Baptism, or our second birth, is used 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 25. 
 
 t John xiv. 19. | ^£ra^op(/)ot'/<£9a (the same word.) 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. XV. 22, 23. || Phil. iii. 9—11. 
 
 •[f 1 Pet. iii. 21. comp. i. 3. "Who according to His abundant mercy be- 
 gat us again [gave us a second birth] to a hving hope, through the Resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not away." 
 
 ** Col. ii. 13. ft lb. iii. I. 
 
86 
 
 once more in Holy Scripture, by our Lord,* to designate our last 
 perfected birth to immortality, when " death shall be swallowed up 
 in victory," whereof this, " ourf second, or rather our first birth in 
 Christ," is the seed, to be matured in this life, and in the next to be 
 developed in glory. 
 
 This connection of Baptism with our Lord's Resurrection, and that 
 of our resurrection from sin, then, with our participation in His Re- 
 surrection, and again to the future resurrection of the saints to glory, 
 with all these, — with His Resurrection as the cause, and our Bap- 
 tism as the means, and our resurrection from sin as the earnest, — 
 is often dwelt upon by the ancient Church, (as contained in this 
 teaching of St. Paid,) especially in reference to Easter, as the 
 solemn season of Baptism. And the very selection of this period 
 for Baptism shows how the whole Church looked upon it, not as a 
 mere outward representation or correspondence, but as a reality ; 
 that they wished to bring this our resurrection from sin as closely 
 as they might with the Resurrection of our Lord, the "power"! 
 whereof it was to transfuse into the new members of His spiritual 
 body. Thus St. Chrysostom,^ " In Christ there was but one death ; 
 for He sinned not, and that one death was for us ; for He owed no 
 death, since he was not subject to sin, and so neither to death ; 
 wherefore He arose from the one death ; but we, having died a 
 double death, arise by a double resurrection ; one at that time from 
 sin, for ' we were buried with Him in Baptism,' and ' raised with 
 Him' by Baptism. This is one resurrection, the delivery from sin; 
 the second resurrection is of the body. He hath given the greater; 
 await we the less also ; for this is far greater than that ; for it is far 
 greater to be freed from sins, than to see a body raised. The body 
 therefore fell, because it sinned : if then the beginning of falhng be 
 sin, the beginning of rising again is to be freed from sin. We have 
 risen the greater resurrection, having cast away the sharp death of 
 sin, and stripped off the old garment ; despair we then not of the 
 less. This resurrection we too long since rose, when we were bap- 
 tized ; and they who yesterday had baptism vouchsafed to them. 
 Two days past was Christ crucified, but in the night past He arose; 
 and these also two days past were held by sin, but with Him rose 
 again ; He died in the body, and rose again in the body ; but these 
 were dead through sins, but having been freed from sins rose again." 
 And St. Basil, II " What can be more akin to Baptism than this day 
 of Easter ? For the day is the day of the Resurrection, and Bap- 
 tism is a power to resurrection. On the day then of the Resurrec- 
 
 * Matt. xix. 28. " In the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the 
 throne of His glory." 
 
 t Jerome Ep. ad Oceon. J Phil. iii. 10. ^ Adv. ebrios. et de resurr. ^ 4. 
 II Horn. 13. in S. Bapt. § 1, 2. t. ii. pp. 114, 115. 
 
87 
 
 tion let us receive the grace of the Resurrection. Dost thou wor- 
 ship Him who died for tliee ? Allow thyself then to be buried with 
 Him in Baptism. For if thou be not planted in the likeness of His 
 death, how shalt thou be partaker of His Resurrection ?" St. Leo* 
 again, assigning the ground of the administration of Baptism at 
 Easier : " Although the things which relate to the humiliation of 
 Christ and those which pertain to His glory, meet alike in One and 
 the same Person ; and the whole as well of Divine Power, as of 
 human weakliness, which was in Him, tend to work out our resto- 
 ration ; yet it is peculiarly in the death of Christ crucified, and His 
 Resurrection when dead, that the power of Baptism maketh the 
 ' new creature' out of the old, so that in those re-born, as well the 
 Death of Christ worketh as His Life. For thus the blessed Apos- 
 tle saith, 'Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into 
 Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death ? For we were buried 
 with Him by Baptism unto Death, thai like as Christ rose from the 
 dead, through the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in 
 newness of lite. For if we have been planted with Him into the 
 likeness of His Death, we shall be also of His Resurrection ;' as 
 well as what the Apostle of the Gentiles further enlargeth on, to set 
 forth the Sacrament of Baptism ; so that it appears, from the spirit 
 of this doctrine, that for regenerating the sons of men, and adopting 
 them for sons of God, that day and that time was chosen, wherein 
 through the very likeness and form of the mystery those things 
 which are wrought in the members, might agree with those which 
 took place in the Head ; in that, according to the prescribed form 
 of Baptism, a death intervenes, by the putting to death of sin, and 
 the threefold immersion copies the three days burial, and the raising 
 from the waters was a copy of Him rising from the tomb." 
 
 And not only as instruction to the Church, but against the heretics 
 who denied "the resurrection of the flesh," a cogent argument was 
 furnished by that, wherein because it takes place also in the flesh, 
 some can see only a cardinal ordinance. Since the flesh also had its 
 share in Baptism, and the Apostle said, " we," our whole selves, 
 *' were therein buried in the Death of our Lord, that we might be 
 partakers of His Resurrection," then will our flesh also partake of 
 that Resurrection ; and thus in the goodness and wisdom of God, 
 not only was our flesh restored, but we had an earnest and pledge 
 of its full restitution. "Thus," says Turtullian,t " throughout this 
 whole series of sayings, while he scparateth our members from un- 
 righteousness and offence, and joineth them, to righteousness and holi- 
 ness, and transfers them from the ways of sin to the gift of eternal life, 
 he holds out to the flesh also the recompense of salvation ; for it had 
 been no way s consistent, to enjoin it its own peculiar discipline of righte- 
 
 * Epist. 16. c. 3. f De Resurr. Carnis, c. 47. 
 
88 
 
 ousness and holiness, unless it had also in store a reward for that dis- 
 cipline ; no, nor might Baptism itself have been bestowed upon it, 
 unless by regeneration it also were inaugurated to restoration ; which 
 also the Apostle impresses, " Know ye not that all we who have been 
 baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death.' There- 
 fore we are buried with him by baptism into death : that, like as 
 Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
 so we also should walk in newness of life.' " 
 
 The same text, which, pressed on the one side, yielded an argu- 
 ment against these, when examined with the same strictness, on an- 
 other, refuted the Pelagian heretics ; showing how right exposition is 
 at variance with all heresy, and a fuller and more literal apprehension 
 of Scripture is at the same time a shield against doctrinal error. St. 
 Augustine continually cites this passage against the Pelagians, in proof 
 that *' infants are cleansed from original sin by regeneration," (ab 
 originali peccato parvulos regeneratione mundari,) and that because 
 St. Paul asserts, that all, without exception, who have been baptized 
 in Christ, have been baptized in his Death, i. e. have died an actual 
 death to sin : all infants, therefore, must have died to sin ; otherwise 
 Christ had not died for them, which no one would say. " After* the 
 Apostle had spoken of the punishment through one, and the free 
 grace through One, as much as he thought sufficient for that part of 
 his epistle, he then recom.mended the great mystery of holy Baptism 
 in the Cross of Christ in this way, that we should understand that 
 Baptism in Christ is nothing else than the likeness of the Death of 
 Christ, and the Death of Christ crucified nothing else than the like- 
 ness of the remission of sins ; that as in Him there was a real Death, 
 so in us a real remission of sins ; and as in Him a real Resurrection, 
 so in us a real justification. — If then we are proved to be dead to sin, 
 because we are baptized in the Death of Christ, then do the little 
 ones also, who are baptized in Christ, die to sin, because they are 
 baptized in His Death. For it is said without exception, ' so many 
 of us as are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His Death.' 
 And this is said, to prove that we are ' dead to sin.' Yet to what sin 
 do the little ones die, by being born again, but to that which they con- 
 tracted by being born ? And thereby also pertains to them what follows 
 (vv. 4 — 11.) 'that their old man is crucified with Him — that they are 
 dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord.' — He saith then to those baptized in the Death of Christ, in 
 which not the elder only, but the little ones also are baptized, ' So do 
 ye,' — i. e. so as Christ, — ' so do ye think that ye are dead unto sin, and 
 alive to God in Christ Jesus.' " 
 
 It will have appeared incidentally, that these appeals to Baptism 
 contained in them the appeal to Christian newness of hfe, (which 
 alone moderns have seen in this passage,) and that the more forcibly, 
 
 * Encheirid. c. 52. t. vi. pp.215, 216. See further (C) at the end. 
 
89 
 
 since they were founded upon what had been done for each Christian, 
 and in him; Christians were exhorted to the carrying on of "the 
 good work, which had been begun (not by them, but) in them." — 
 " What," saith St. Basil,* " belongeth to him who hath been born of 
 water ?" That as Christ died to sin once, so he also should be dead 
 and motionless towards all sin; as it is written, 'as many as have been 
 baptized into Jesus Christ have been baptized into his death.'" " The 
 very mystery of Baptism," says Theodoret,t "taught thee to flee from 
 sin. For Baptism hath an image of the Death of the Lord ; for in it 
 hadst thou communion with Christ, both of Death and Resurrec- 
 tion. It beseems thee then to live a new kind of life, and conform- 
 able to Him, with whom thou hast shared the Resurrection. | Thou 
 deniedst sin, and becamest dead to it, and wast buried with Clurist, 
 how then shouldest thou admit again that sin?" Nay, this appeal be- 
 comes the more forcible, just on the ground upon which moderns 
 shrink from the reception of the doctrine, that all had received, and 
 that, therefore, all had somewhat to lose.§ They were not in the po- 
 sition of men called for the first time to take upon them a certain 
 course, and promised an ulterior reward ; rather, they had received 
 already an inestimable gift, and this gift they were to keep and guard. 
 We speak familiarly of "having a stake," as giving a person a greater 
 interest in things ; we look upon a person being born already with 
 certain temporal advantages, as birth, station, ancient family, repu- 
 tation of parents, well-conducted ancestry, as a ground the more why 
 he should be diligent to keep them ; much more, when a person has 
 any thing of his own, a good name, an even course of life, or the 
 like. This instinctive feeling of watching the more heedfully over 
 that which they had, was seen by the ancient Church to be called 
 into action by St. Paul, only heightened by the inestimable greatness 
 of that gift, and purified by its awful holiness. " It is plain," says 
 St. Ambrose, II "that this" [that 'no unclean person, nor covetous 
 
 * Moralia, Reg. 80. c. 22. t. ii. p. 317. f Ad loc v. 4. |ib. v. 3, 
 ^ In the Homily on the Resurrection, this line of appeal, from v^hich moderns 
 shrink, is forcibly used, " WHiat a shame were it for us, being thus so freely 
 and clearly washed from our sins, to return to the filthiness thereof again ! — 
 What a folly were it, thus endowed with righteousness, to lose it again ! What 
 madness were it to lose the inheritance, that we be now set in, for the vile and 
 transitory pleasure of sin ! What unkindness should it be, when our Saviour, 
 Christ of His mercy is come to us, to dwell within us as our guest, to drive 
 Him from us, and to banish Him violently out of our souls ; and instead of 
 Him in Whom is all grace and virtue, to receive the ungracious spirit of the 
 devil, the founder of all naughtiness and mischief! How can we find in 
 our hearts to show such extreme unkindness to Christ, which hath so gently 
 called to mercy, and offered Himself unto us, and He now entered within 
 us T Yea, how dare we be so bold to renounce the Presence of the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost, (for where One is, there is God all whole in 
 Majesty, together with all His power, wisdom and goodness,) and fear not, I 
 say, the danger and peril of so traitorous a defiance and departure ]" 
 II Ep. 63. Eccl. Vercell. ^ 11, 12. t. ii. p, 1025. 
 
00^ 
 
 man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of 
 Christ, and of God,'] " is said of baptized persons ; for they receive 
 the inheritance, who are baptized in the death of Christ, and are buried 
 with Him, that they may rise with him. Therefore, they are ' heirs 
 of God, joint-heirs with Christ ;' * heirs of God,' because the grace of 
 God is transcribed into them; 'co-heirs with Christ,' because they 
 are renewed into His Life ; heirs also of Christ, because through 
 His Death, as of a testator, the inheritance is given them. They then 
 ought more to take heed to themselves, who have ivhat they may lose, 
 than they who have it not. They must act with greater watchfulness, 
 must avoid the inticements of vices, the provocations to sins, espe- 
 cially such as arise from meat and drink. Lastly, ' the people sat 
 down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.' " " Recollect," says St. 
 Jerome, " that day of thy commencing warfare, wherein ' buried with 
 Christ in baptism,' thou swarest into that words of that sacramental 
 oath." 
 
 We need no testimony from later writers ; yet it is remarkable 
 that even Calvin, as a commentator, forgetting, for a while, his dread, 
 lest men should rest in their Baptism, says, " St. Paul proves what 
 he had just said, namely, that ' Christ slays sin in those who are His,' 
 from the effect of Baptism. Know we then that the Apostle does 
 not here merely exhort us to imitate Christ, as if he said, that the 
 death of Christ was a pattern which all Christians should imitate. 
 Assuredly he goes deeper ; and brings forward a doctrine, on which 
 afterwards to found exhortation ; and this is, that the death of Christ 
 has power to extinguish and abolish the corruption of our flesh, 
 and His resurrection, to raise up in us the newness of a better life ; 
 and that by Baptism we are brought into the participation of this 
 grace." And again, on the word " planted," he observes, — " Great 
 IS the emphasis of this word, and it clearly shows, that the Apostle 
 is not merely exhorting, but is rather teaching us of the goodness of 
 Christ. For he is not requiring any thing of us, which may be done 
 by our zeal or industry, but sets forth a grafl5ng-in, effected by the 
 hand of God. For graffing-in implies not merely a conformity of 
 life, but a secret union, whereby we become one with Him ; so that 
 quickening us by His Spirit, He transfuses His power into us. So 
 then, as the graft shares life and death with the tree into which it is 
 graffed, so are we partakers of the Life no less than the Death of 
 Christ." 
 
 L 2. St. Paul tells the Galatians (iii. 27, 28.) 
 
 " For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. 
 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither 
 male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's 
 then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.*" 
 
 * The section containing this passage, Gal. iii. 24 — fin. is a lesson in the 
 
9\ 
 
 Here again what most Christians would now learn from the passage 
 would be the necessity of being conformed to Christ's life, of living 
 consistently with our Christian profession. And the like words are, 
 indeed, elsewhere used in a Christian law; " Put* ye on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts 
 thereof." And so in other places of Scripture, we are bid to do that, 
 perseveringly, which has been done for us. " Lighten mine eyes, 
 O Lord, that I sleep not in death," prays the Psalmist,! "Awake, 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from death, and Christ shall give thee 
 light," comes as an answer.^ And so, what in the Galatians we are 
 told has been in Baptism done for us, the Romans, who had been 
 baptized, he bids do for themselves. We are first clothed upon by 
 Him, and when we have been thus clothed, the blessing^ is pro- 
 nounced upon " him that watcheth, and keepeth his garments lest he 
 
 Armenian Baptismal service, and closed with Halleluia. (Ass. ii. 196, 206,) 
 and v. 23 — fin. in the Syriac Liturgy oi Jerusalem. (lb. ii. 249.) Allusion to 
 it is made in a Syriac hymn, used in the Liturgy of Severus (lb. 299.) see be- 
 low, p. 113,) and the words aiechaunted in the Greek. (lb. ii. 148.) And in 
 the Armenian again, it seems a sort of Hymn, in which it is recited during the 
 washing of the infant's body in water after Baptism, " ' Ye who have been 
 baptized in Christ have put on Christ,' Alleluia. Ye who have been enlight- 
 ened in the Father, the Holy Spirit shall rejoice in you." (lb. ii. 201, 20.) 
 Reference also is made to it in the Latin, in that the following verse, which de- 
 pends upon it, is alluded to in the prayer for the consecration of the font. (Sa- 
 cramentary of Gelassius) — " that a heavenly progeny may arise (out of the 
 font,) conceived through sanctitication from the immaculate womb of the Di- 
 vine fountain, re-born into a new creature, and that those whom sex distin- 
 guished in a body, or, in time, age, Grace riiay, as a mother, give birth to all 
 into one infant state ;" [" there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in 
 Christ Jesus." v. 28.] In the old GaZZican consecration of the font, it is directly 
 quoted, (ib. ii. 3. Sacramentary of Gellon ib. p. 53.) " let those who are defiled 
 by sins, be unclothed of them ; and, by their departure, be there put on a gar- 
 ment of light, and clothing of immortality ; " whosoever shall be baptized in 
 Christ, let them put on Christ.' " (Ib. ii. 38.) The same text is doubtless the 
 origin of the rite in the old Gallican, Gothic, Roman, Ambrosian, Syrian, 
 Greek Liturgies, and in our own previous to the alteration in Edward VI. 2d 
 book, of putting on a white vestment after Baptism (a rite which is still re- 
 tained, though in a disguised form, in that children are baptized in white.) — 
 With this text an allusion to the wedding-garment was combined, as in the 
 Syriac hymn above, where there follows, "be united with His kindred — for 
 He is of great kindred, as it is said in His parable." The text is referred to 
 in another Syriac hymn, just preceding the Baptism, "In the faith of the 
 Trinity, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, are ye anointed, ye spiritual 
 lambs : that from the water ye may put on the robe of glory." (Ib. ii. 225.) 
 TurtuUian incorporates it remarkably in his language : " Yea, since Paul 
 alone of them [the Apostles] put on the Baptism of Christ." De Bapt. c. 12. 
 p. 228. 
 
 * Rom. xiii. 14. f Ps. xiii. 3. 
 
 X Quoted Eph. v. 14. These are so united by Bishop Cosins, Devotions, p 
 10, 11. ed. xi. 
 
 j Rev. xvi. 15. 
 
92 
 
 walk naked." Our shame wliich'we contracted in Adam's fall is first 
 hidden, and our garment of immortality* and righteousness more than 
 restored by being made members of Christ, and then we are bidden, 
 "buy of Me white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that 
 the shame of thy nakedness do not appear."! Yet this does not 
 hinder that the gift which is to be retained by our diligence and 
 dependence upon the Giver, was originally given. A gift of God 
 implies, that we should keep it, use it, not waste it : and so Chris- 
 tian duty is implied here, but only because such ought never to be 
 the result of Christian grace.X The main great truth again relates 
 to our privileges. For St. Paul is proving that Christians are " no 
 longer under the law." And this he shews, in that the law was " a 
 schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ." But now they were no 
 longer under a schoolmaster, for they had been freed from the bon- 
 dage of the law, in that they had been made children of God; 
 " We are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus," (as 
 he elsewhere more explicitly contrasts the bondage of the law, and 
 the liberty of the sons of God, "For ye have not received the spirit 
 of bondage again to fear ; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, 
 whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Rom. viii. 15.) And this our 
 sonship to God, again, he proves through our Baptism : '^for,"^ he 
 says, " as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put 
 on Christ." Not only the words, but the argument ought to be 
 heeded : it is not only to be accounted for, that the Apostle says, 
 " as many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ," 
 but that he says, "for as many as have ;" so that the "having put on 
 Christ by Baptism" is the means whereby they had become the sons 
 
 * See Bishop Bull, on the State of Man before the Fall. Newman on Jus- 
 tification : Lect. 7. 
 
 t Rev. iii. 8. 
 
 J Hence the Fathers often argue from Rom. xiii. 14, as containing altogether 
 the same doctrine ; and rightly, since the Apostle could not have bid them, 
 "put on Christ" of themselves, nor unless they had previously been clad with 
 Him, by an act of God. Thus St. Jerome '' The ' clothing of kings' sons, and 
 the garment of princes,' is Christ, which we receive in Baptism, according to 
 that, 'Put ye on Christ Jesus,' (Rom. xiii. 14.) and ' Put ye on the bowels of 
 mercy, goodness, humbleness, meekness, patience,' &c. wherein we are en- 
 joined to be clothed with the new man from heaven, after our Creator. When 
 then we ought to be clothed with such garments, for mercy we are clothed 
 with cruelty ; for patience with impatience ; for righteousness with iniquity ; 
 in a word, for virtues with vices ; i. e. for Christ with antichrist ; whence it is 
 said of such an one, "he clothed himself with cursing as with a garment." In 
 Soph. i. 9. 
 
 ^ Even Pelagius saw, and expressed warmly, because truly, this connection 
 of the argument with Baptism, " Being clothed with the Son of God, and being 
 wholly made members of Him, ye must needs be sons of God ; what then have 
 ye to do with the law, which was given to slaves and sinners, you to whom by 
 Baptism sins have been remitted V — Ad loc. 
 
93 
 
 of God, or contains in itself the privilege of being such ; and this 
 might alone show, that the being clothed with Christ is the gift of 
 God, and not any quality in man, (except as His gift involves qualities 
 as its consequence ;) for no quality in man can make him a son of 
 God. He only can be a son of God whom God adopts as such; nor 
 does God regard any as His sons, in consequence of any thing in 
 them ; but first makes them His sons, that as His sons they may do 
 things well-pleasing to Him. But the words thus acquire a very- 
 awful meaning ; for if the having put on Christ, the being clothed 
 with Him, makes us sons of God, then it makes us so, in that we are 
 made " members of Christ :" and " sons of God," because members 
 of His Ever-Blessed Son ; i. e. whoever of us has been baptized, was 
 thereby incorporated into Christ, and so being made a portion and 
 member of the Son of God, partakes of that sonship, and is himself a 
 child of God : so that henceforth the Father looks upon him, not as 
 what he is in himself, but as in, and a part of His Well-beloved Son, 
 and loves him with a portion of that ineffable love with which He 
 loves His Son. 
 
 Theodoret concisely explains the Apostle's argument, "having 
 said that ' ye are all sons of God,' he teaches also how they obtained 
 this, and says, ' ye have put on Christ,' Him who is truly the Son of 
 God ; but having put Him on, well may ye be called sons of God." 
 And so St. Chrysostom,* " And now he shows that they are sons not of 
 Abraham only, but of God also ; 'for ye are all sons of God through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus' — through faith, not through the law. 
 And then, since this is a great and wonderful thing, he names also 
 the mode of their adoption, ' for as many of you as have been bap- 
 tized into Christ, have put on Christ.' And why saith he not, 'for as 
 many as have been baptized into Christ have been born of God ?' for 
 so had he proved more directly that they were sons. He saith this 
 in a way much more awfully great. For since Christ is the Son of 
 God, and thou has put Him on, having the Son in thyself, and being 
 transformed into His likeness, thou hast been brought into one kin- 
 dred and one species with him." " Descend," it is said in a Syriac 
 baptismal hymn,t " descend, our brother, who art sealed, and be 
 clothed with our Lord ; and be united with His kindred." St. Paul 
 speaks then not of duties, (though every privilege involves a duty 
 corresponding,) but of privileges, inestimable, inconceivable, which 
 no thought can reach unto, but which all thoughts should aim at em- 
 bracing, — our union with God in Christ, wherein we were joined in 
 Holy Baptism. And so again we may see how the foolishness of 
 God, in what men call carnal ordinances, is wiser than man ; and 
 how a false spirituality, by disparaging the outward ordinance, loses 
 
 * Ad loc. t. X. p. 704. ed. Ben. 
 t Assem. cod. Lit. T. 2. p. 237. 
 
94 
 
 sight of the immensity of the inward grace ; and holding hghtly by 
 God's appointment, as being " legal," does thereby fall back into 
 mere legality. God gave adoption and union with Himself in Christ 
 through the Spirit ; men disregarding His ordmance, have found but 
 a law. 
 
 The succeeding verse carries on the argument, at the same 
 time that it joins on with other Scripture ; " There is in him i"'^" '"') 
 neither Jew nor Greek ; there is in Him neither slave nor free ; 
 there is in Him neither male nor female ; for ye are all one (one 
 being, ^'0 in Christ Jesus." For it brings out the more clearly how 
 the " being clothed with Christ," is the same as being " in Christ 
 Jesus ;" and it connects both with that His mystical body, His 
 Church, wherein all differences of nation or circumstance or sex dis- 
 appear, in so far as all are made one through the indwelling of Christ 
 by His Spirit, by Whom all are " one i'^"), as the Father in the 
 Son, and the Son in the Father, so they are one in the Father and 
 the Son," through the Spirit. (John xvii. 21.) So, then, now it ap- 
 pears, that they who are baptized into Christ, are made members of 
 the body of Christ ; are joined on by a m.ystical union with Him 
 their Head; are one mystical body, one with another, by being in 
 Him ; are in Him, by being clothed upon by Him ; and so are sons 
 of God by being members of Him. And thus the several expressions 
 give reality one to another, and what is figurative, and its meaning 
 at first sight might be doubtful, (as the " putting on Christ") is seen 
 to be a reality : for, seeing we are in Him, then the " putting on 
 Christ" is a spiritual reality, the being encompassed, surrounded, 
 invested with Him (as a body is with a garment ;*) and it is, again, 
 the more real, in that it is the source of a blessed reality, the being 
 sons of God, by being in Him, or members of Him, in His Divine 
 nature, God the Son. And so, also, it appears how " by faith in 
 Christ Jesus" (v. 26.) we become sons of God, in that through that 
 faith we are admitted to that Sacrament, wherein He makes us 
 members of Himself. And so again we see the more, the force of 
 those words by which St. Paul so frequently describes our Christian 
 privileges, the being " m Christ." " Who were in Christ before 
 me," (Rom. xvi. 7.) " we, being many, are one body in Christ," (ib, 
 xii. 5.) "alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord," (ib. vi, 11.) 
 " there is' therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ 
 
 * ^' Christ Himself is the garment and robe, floating in the water, which 
 clothes many, and tarries for a countless multitude, and fails not. But lest 
 any say that I do rashly in calling the Son of God a garment, let him read the 
 Apostle saying, ' Whoever of you have been baptized in the Name of Christ 
 have put on Christ.' Robe ! ever one and unchanging ; which clothes 
 becomingly all ages and forms, fits itself to the stature of infants, yet unfolds 
 full-grown men, nor is changed to array females." — Optat. de Schism. Donat. 
 L. 5. V. fin. 
 
95 
 
 Jesus," (viii. 1.) "to them who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus," 
 (1 Cor. i. 2.) *'ye are of Him in Christ Jesus," (ver. 30.) " I could 
 not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, as babes, in 
 Christ," (ib. iii. 1.) "m Christ Jesus have I begotten you through 
 the Gospel," (ib. iv. 15.) "those who have fallen asleep in Christ," 
 (xv. 18.) " as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive," 
 (ver. 22.) " so then if any be in Christ, he is a new creature," (2 Cor. 
 V. 17.) "I knew a man in Christ," (xii. 2.) "I was unknown by 
 face to the Churches of Judea, which are in Christ," (Gal. i. 22.) 
 " the liberty which we have in Christ Jesus," (ii. 4.) " but if seeking 
 to be justified in Christ," (ii. 17.) "2/2 Christ Jesus, neither circum- 
 cision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision," (Gal. v. 6. vi. 15.) 
 " to the faithful in Christ Jesus," (Eph. i. 1.) " Who blessed us in 
 all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, according as He 
 chose us in Him, — having predestinated us to the adoption of sons, 
 through Jesus Christ unto Himself — to the praise of the glory of 
 His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved ; in 
 whom we have redemption — according to His good pleasure, which 
 He purposed in Him — to gather under one head all things in Christ, 
 both those in heaven, and those in earth, in Him, in Whom also we 
 w^ere chosen, in Whom ye also, having believed also, were sealed," 
 (i. 3-13.) " having raised Him from the dead, and placed Him on 
 His own right hand in heavenly places, — and as, being dead in sins, 
 did He quicken together with Christ, and raised together, and placed 
 together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," (i. 20. ii 5.) " we are 
 His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus," (ver. 10.) 
 "but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who before were afar oif have been 
 made nigh," (ver. 13.) "to the saints in Christ Jesus," (Phil. i. 1.) 
 " I can do all things in Christ, Who strengtheneth me," (iv. 13.) 
 " my God shall fulfil all your needs, acccording to His riches in glory 
 in Christ Jesus," (ver. 19.) " to the faithful brethren in Christ," (Col. 
 i. 2.) "that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus," 
 (ver. 28.) " the Churches of God, which are in Judea in Christ 
 Jesus," (I Thess. ii. 14.) "the dead in Christ," (iv. 16.) "all who 
 will five godly in Christ Jesus," (2 Tim. iii. 12.) "my fellow-prisoner 
 in Christ Jesus," (Philem. 23.) ; and not St. Paul only, but St. Peter 
 and St. John, or rather the Holy Ghost in all, declares, as by one 
 mouth, in the same way, our awful privilege ; for so St. Peter also, 
 " the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory in 
 Christ Jesus," (1 Pet. v. 10.) and " Peace be with you all who are 
 in Christ Jesus ;" (ver. 14.) and St. John, " We are in Him that is 
 true, in His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John v. 20.) 
 
 If in the one or other of these passages, taken by themselves, the 
 force of this language would have been less distinct, yet in these, as 
 also in others which might be added, it is determined by the evidence 
 
96 
 
 of the plainer passages, and by the hght, which they all collectively, 
 mutually cast upon and received from each other. 
 
 It is not in vain that this language recurs so frequently,* on so 
 many difi'erent occasions, with different modifications of meaning or 
 of application, sometimes bringing more prominently the relation to 
 our Lord Himself; at olhei's, our individual connection with Him 
 tlu'ough His Church ; at others, our relation through Him to the 
 Father ; at others, His gifts in us, or the degree in which we sever- 
 ally continue in Him, as we have profited by His gifts, and are ruled 
 by His Spirit ; but still one and the same fundamental doctrine in 
 all, that we are " in Him ;" of course in some unearthly way, but 
 still really and mystically. No mere external relation, (as the being 
 members of the visible body, called by His Name) exhausts the in- 
 wardness of the words " in Clirist ;" nor, though a meaning could 
 be given here and there to a passage, by substituting "by," "through," 
 or the like, may this be done, now that the frequency of the recur- 
 rence of the language marks out its use as designed ; it stands there 
 in deep simplicity, at first sight hardly seeming to convey more than 
 that these our blessings came to us through Him, yet opening a 
 greater fulness of mystery to those who would penetrate below the 
 surface, and would wish to see what they may see — the hidden mys- 
 tery of union with Christ, and of the reality of our dwelling in Him, 
 and He in us. It is not any unity of will, though worked by Him ; 
 no mere conformity of mind, though by Him "wrought ; no act of 
 faith, casting itself upon His mercy ; no outward imputation of right- 
 eousness ; no mere ascription of His perfect obedience in our stead ; 
 no being clothed upon (as people speak) Avith His righteousness ; 
 not being looked upon by the Father as in Him ; none of these things 
 come up to the reality of being "zn Him :" and why, when Scrip- 
 ture speaks of being "in Him ;" speak of "being tegarded as in 
 Him ?" why when Scripture speaks of being " clothed with Him," 
 speak of having His righteousness cast around us to interpose be- 
 tween our sins and the sight of God ? Why when Scripture speaks 
 of realities, talk of figures ? No, there is a reality in this Scripture 
 language, which is not to be exchanged away for any of these substi- 
 tutions. As we are in Adam, not merely by the imputation of Ad- 
 
 * It were trifling with the truth, to say, that in some cases iv is equivalent to 
 Sta ; or to speak of the Hebraisms of the N. T. ; for this is only throwing the 
 question further back as to what is meant by that very Hebrew usage ; and 
 certainly that Hebrew idiom itself expresses that the agent employed is not a 
 mere instrument, but that God, e.g. "spoke m Hosea," as well as 6y Him 
 (Hos. i. 2. ;) and the Holy Ghost, for some end, directed the adoption of this 
 idiom in the N. T. Again, it were a mere assumption to say, that " created 
 in the image of God," is simply equivalent to " created after, according to ;" 
 there is some reason why what is written, is written ; much more in the N. T. 
 does the great frequency of this usage (and passages have been accumulated, 
 in order to impress this fact,) imply that there is some special meaning in it. 
 
97 
 
 am's sin, but by an actual community of a corrupt nature, derived to 
 us from him by our natural descent from him, and because all man- 
 kind " were in his loins," in and after his fall ; so that we have a sad 
 share in him, as having been in him, and being from him, and of 
 him, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh ; and tliis stream of bit- 
 terness, which flows into, and spoils all man's natural actions, was 
 derived from him as its fountain head ; so, on the other hand, are 
 we in Christ, not merely by tlic imputation of His righteousness, but 
 by an actual, real, spiritual origin from Him, not physical, but still 
 as real as our descent from Adam. And that, our actual descent 
 from Adam is cut ofl" by this our new lineage in Christ ; our biitli 
 in Adam is corrected and replaced by our birth of God in Christ ; 
 as we are really sons of man by physical birth, so are we as really 
 and as actually " sons of God," by spiritual birth ; sons of man, by 
 being born of Adam, sons of God by being members of Him who is 
 the Son of God. 
 
 This actualness of our birth by Baptism is well realized in the 
 language of St. Hilary,* when refuting the Arians, who interpreted 
 our Lord's words, " I and the Father arc One," of an unity of will 
 only. The acknowledged actualness of the unity of Christians, — 
 the one nature, through one Baptism, pervading and giving unity to 
 the whole Body, as contained in this saying of the Apostle, is forci- 
 bly assumed as the ground work of the argument, that the Unity of 
 the Father and the Son is an Unity of Nature, not of will only. 
 " Setting aside then, for tiie present, that property of Unity, which there 
 is in God the Father, and in God the Son, they are to be refuted out of 
 those things whereof themselves partake. For they whose soul and 
 heart was one (unum,) I ask whether it was one through faith in God ? 
 By faith, surely ; for by it was ' the soul and heart of all, one.'t And 
 I ask. Was faith one or more ? One, assuredly ; on the authority 
 of the Apostle himself, setting forth ' one faith,' as well as ' one 
 Lord, and one baptism, and one hope, and one God,' If then by 
 faith, that is, by the nature of one faith, all were one, how can you 
 understand other than an unity of nature in those, who by the na- 
 ture of one faith are one 1 For all were re-born to innocence, to im- 
 mortality, to the knowledge of God, to the faith of hope. And if 
 these severally cannot be more than one, since there is both ' one 
 hope, and one God,' just as the Lord is one, and the Baptism of re- 
 generation one, if these things are one by harmony, and not by 
 nature, then to them also, who are re-born to them, ascribe an unity 
 of will only ! But if they were re-generated into the nature of one 
 life and eternity, whereby ' their soid and heart is one,' then there 
 is no more an unity of harmony only, in them who are one in the 
 nature of the same regeneration. We do not herein speak our 
 
 * De Trin. viii. 7—9. f Acts iii, 32. 
 
 VOL. II. — 4 
 
98 
 
 own words, nor are any of these things feigned, put together by us, 
 corrupting the meaning of words, to deceive the ears of the hearers ; 
 but ' holding tlie form of sound doctrine,' we savor of and speak 
 things uncorrupt. For the Apostle teaches that this unity of the 
 faithful is from the nature of Sacraments, in that he writes to the 
 Galatians, ' As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have 
 put on Christ. There is in Him (non inest) neither Jew, nor Greek, 
 there is in Him neither slave nor free, there is in Him neither male 
 nor female ; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.' For, that amid such 
 diversity of nations, conditions, sexes, they are one, is this from the 
 assent of the will, or rather from the unity of the Sacrament, because 
 there was to all ' one Baptisn,' and all were ' clothed with' one 
 Christ ? What then has mere harmony of wills to do here, when 
 they are one thereby, that by the nature of one Baptism, they are 
 clothed with One Christ ? Or when ' he who planteth and he who 
 watereth are one,' are they not thereby one, because being re-born 
 in one Baptism, they are the means of dispensing (dispensatio) 
 one regenerating Baptism ? Do they not the same 1 Are they not 
 one in One ? Therefore they who are one by the same thing, are 
 one also by nature, not by will only, because they have both been 
 themselves made the same thing, and are ministers of the same 
 thing, and of the same efficacy. 
 
 Such then was the doctrine seen by the ancient Church in these 
 words of St. Paul ; such the privileges which the ancient Church 
 felt that they enjoyed ; an imparted union with Christ ; an actual 
 sonship to God ; a partaking of the holiness of Christ, by being par- 
 takers of Himself ; a separation from the lineage of Adam : a resto- 
 ration, yea a more than restoration of that bright garment, wherewith 
 Adam was in his innocence invested, stripped whereof he found him- 
 self naked ; a more than restoration of the image of God, in which 
 man was created, in that he was now re-created in Him, who is 
 " the Image of the invisible God." And for incentives to holiness, 
 or brotherly kindness, or contempt of the world, — whether they would 
 persuade men to zeal in keeping themselves holy, in retaining the 
 garment with which they had been invested, or to love for those who 
 having, with them, " put on Christ," were, with them, one in Christ, 
 or to despise things transitory, as having things eternal, the truth 
 thus realized gave a spring to high Christian action, which we must 
 now feel to be unstrung. If one member then suffered, every other 
 member suffered with it, because they felt themselves to be mem- 
 bers of one Body, having been baptized into One. It was not then 
 simply that they had been redeemed by the same precious Blood, 
 bought by the same price, and had the same hopes, but that they 
 were actually one, being in One ; and so Christian sympathy vibrat- 
 ed through every member of the whole Church, and what we should 
 gcarcely acknowledge as a conclusion of the intellect, they felt. 
 
99 
 
 Thus St. Cyprian,* sending in the name of " his brotherhood, a 
 large sum, which all had promptly, largely, and liberally contribut- 
 ed," for the redemption of some Christian captives, writes, " Where- 
 fore, now both the captivity of our brethren is to be accounted by us 
 our own captivity, and the sorrow of those endangered our own sor- 
 row, since our body, being united, is one ; and not feeling only, but 
 religion ought to instigate and strengthen us to redeem the members 
 of our brothers. — For since the Apostle Paul says, ' As many of you 
 as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,' in our captive 
 brethren Christ is to be contemplated, and redeemed from the peril 
 of captivity. Who redeemed us from the peril of death ; that so He 
 Who drew us out of the jaws of the devil, and now remainetli and 
 dwelleth in us, may be withdrawn out of the hands of the barbarians, 
 and He be redeemed by a sum of money. Who redeemed us by 
 His Cross and Blood." Or as to the ordinary cases of every-day 
 charity, St. Gregory! of Nazianzum, in the midst of similar applica- 
 tions of Baptismal privileges, " Is there any sick and full of sores ? 
 respect thy own health, and the wounds from which Christ has freed 
 thee. Seest thou one naked ? clothe him, reverencing thy own gar- 
 ment of immortality — and that is Christ, 'for as many as have been 
 baptized into Christ, have put on Christ,' " or as to content amid out- 
 ward privation, " Let us not continue," says St. Chrysostom| to the 
 candidate for Baptism, "to gape after the things of this life, the lux- 
 ury of the table, or the splendor of dress ; for thou hast a most glori- 
 ous garment : thou hast a spiritual table : thou hast the glory which 
 is on high ; and Christ becometh every thing to thee, table and gar- 
 ment, and dwelling-place, and head and root ; ' for as many as have 
 been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.' " And again, as to 
 the petty infirmities of our nature, " When§ the poor man sees the 
 wealthy clad in a sumptuous garment, he is cast down, and thinks 
 himself of all men most unhappy. Here is this want also removed ; 
 for there is one garment for all, saving Baptism ; for he saith, ' As 
 many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.' 
 .... Let us then not shame this festival by excess," 
 
 So far was the vivid sense of this truth from encouraging listless- 
 ness, (as some now dread,) that it was the strongest incentive to vig- 
 ilance, since the gift was so great, yet might be lost ; "Let us then," 
 says St. Ambrose, II "preserve the garment, wherewith the Lord 
 clothed us, ascending from the sacred font. Soon is the garment 
 rent, if our deeds agree not ; soon is it moth-eaten by the flesh, and 
 stained by sins of the old man. Essay not then here to join new and 
 old : for we are forbidden by the Apostle, to clad ourselves with the 
 
 * Ep. 59, ad Episc. Numidas. f Orat. 40 in S. Bapt. \ 29. 
 X Ad Illuminandos Catech. 2. t. ii- p. 237. 
 \ Chrys. c. ebrios. et de Res. \ 3. 
 II Expos. Evang. sec. Luc. L. v. \ 25. 
 
100 
 
 old above the new, but are 'to put off the old,' and 'put on the new/ 
 that being 'unclothed we may not be found naked,' For we arc said 
 to be 'unclothed,' to receive a better raiment ; but to be stripped 
 ' naked,' when our raiment is taken off from us through the wrong 
 of others, and not laid aside at our own pleasure." And with this 
 join on St. Basil's* solemn words, " For from us also He strippeth 
 off the glory of our garment, if we be found to use it unwortliily, 
 trampling it under foot, and filling it with the defilements of the flesh. 
 But what else is that garment, than the clothing of the saints, our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ? ' for as many of you as have been baptized into 
 Christ have put on Christ,' which the Lord strippeth off from those 
 who 'trample upon the Body by sinning,' and 'count the blood of the 
 Covenant an unholy thing.' Of this garment, the ' garments of Israel 
 which waxed not old,' were types." Or how does St. Gregory of 
 Nyssat gives it as a shield against the assaults of Satan ! " Such [as 
 in St. Paul] should regeneration be ; so efface all intimacy with sin ; 
 such should be the life of the sons of God. For His sons are we 
 called after the grace [of Baptism]. Wherefore it becomes us to ex- 
 amine accurately the properties of our Father, that forming and fash- 
 ioning ourselves after the likeness of our Father, we may appear to 
 be genuine sons of Him Who hath called us to the adoption accord- 
 ing to grace. For to be called a spurious and suppositious son is a 
 heavy reproach, belying in deeds his noble parentage. — Wherefore 
 after the adoption of sons, the Devil besets us the more vehemently. 
 But when we feel his assaults, we should repeat to ourselves the 
 Apostolic saying, ' As many as have been baptized into Christ, have 
 been baptized into His Death ;' but if we have been made conform- 
 ed to His Death, sin must be for the future wholly dead in us, pier- 
 ced through by the lance of Baptism, as that fornicator was by Phin- 
 eas in his jealousy for the Lord. Flee then from us, accursed one ; 
 would St thou strip the dead 1 A dead man loveth not the flesh ; a 
 dead man is not captivated by wealth ; a dead man bears not false 
 witness ; a dead man lies not, steals not, reviles not. No, with me 
 mortal (o 0ioi) has been moulded into another life (fw»/i') . I have been 
 instructed to despise the things of this world, to pass beyond things 
 of earth, and to hasten to those of heaven, as Paul also expressly tes- 
 tifies that ' the world is crucified to him, and he unto the world.'" 
 
 Such was the ancient view : and it is satisfactory to find in the 
 founder of that branch of the foreign Reformation, which retained 
 the ancient doctrine of Baptism, the clear perception that the putting 
 on of Christ, v/hich is His gift in Baptism, must precede the put- 
 ting Him on in life, that we must first be by Him conformed to 
 Himself, that we may afterwards seek to imitate Him. Would that 
 they who extol Luther's clearness on the doctrine of justification by 
 
 * Coram, in Es. 3. 18, p. 466 f I>e Bapt. Christi, p. 380 
 
101 
 
 faith, would lay to heart their master's teaching as to justification 
 through Baptism ! Luther's comment on this passage, is, " ' To 
 put on Christ' is two-fold; legal and evangelical. Legal, (Rom. 
 xiii.) * imitate the example and excellencies of Christ,' do 
 and suffer what lie has done and suffered : so, 1 Peter ii., ' Christ 
 suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His 
 steps.' But we see in Christ infinite patience, gentleness, and love, 
 and a wonderful moderation in all things. This ornament of Christ 
 we ought to put on, i. e. imitate these His excellencies. So also we 
 may imitate other Saints, But to put on Christ evangelically is not 
 a matter of imitation, but of birth and new creation ; when, namely, 
 I am clothed with Christ Himself, i. e. His innocence, justice, wis- 
 dom, power, salvation, life, spirit, &c. We are clothed with Adam, 
 clothes of skins, mortal clothes, and a garment of sin. This raiment, 
 i. c. this corrupt and sinful nature, we contracted by our descent 
 from Adam, which St. Paul calls the old man, and which is to be 
 * put off with its deeds,' (Eph. iv. Coloss. iii ) that out of sons of 
 Adam we may be made sons of God. This is not done by any 
 change of vestment, not by any laws or works, but by the new birth 
 and renewal which takes place at Baptism ; as St. Paul says, * who- 
 ever of you arc baptized have put on Ciirist ;' ' according to His 
 mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration,' &c. For there 
 is kindled in the baptized a new life and flame, there arise 
 new and holy feelings, fear, trust in God, hope, &c. there ariseth a 
 new will. This, then, is properly, truly, and Evangelically to ' put 
 on Christ.' Therefore in Baptism there is not given us a clothing of 
 legal righteousness, or our own works, but Christ is our raiment. But 
 He is not law, nor legislator, nor work, but a Divine and unspeaka- 
 ble gift, which the Father gave us, to be our Justificr, Life-giver and 
 Redeemer. Wherefore, Evangelically to put on Christ is not to put 
 on a law or works, but an inestimable gift, viz : remission of sins, 
 righteousness, peace, consolation, joy in the Holy Ghost, salvation, 
 life, and Christ Himself. This place is to be carefully noted against 
 Fanatic spirits, wiio depreciate the majesty of Baptism, and speak 
 wickedly thereof. St. Paul on the contrary sets it forth with mag- 
 nificent titles, calling it the ' washing of regeneration and of tlie re- 
 newal by the Holy (xhost ;' and here he says, that all baptized per- 
 sons have put on Christ ; speaking, as I said, of a ' putting on,' 
 which should be not by imitating, but by being born. He says not 
 — Yc have received in Baptism a token, whereby ye are enrolled 
 among Christians, as the sectaries dream, who make of Baptism a 
 mere token, i. e. a trivial and empty sign ; but he says, ' As many 
 as iiave been baptized have put on Christ,' i. c. have been borne 
 away out of the law into a new birth, which took place in Baptism. 
 Therefore ye are no longer under the law, but are clothed with a 
 new garment, the righteousness of Christ. St. Paul then teaches 
 
102 
 
 that Baptism is not a sign, but the putting on of Christ — yea, that 
 Christ himself is our clothing. Wherefore Baptism is a thing most 
 powerful and efficacious. But when we are clothed with Christ, the 
 clothing of our righteousness and salvation, then also shall we be 
 clothed with Christ, the clothing of imitating Him." 
 
 I. 3. " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and ye are 
 complete in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power ; in Whom also 
 ye were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting 
 clean off the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 
 having been buried together with him in Baptism, in Wliom also ye were 
 together raised, through the faith of the operation of God, Who raised Him 
 from the dead. And you being dead in trespasses and sins, did He quicken 
 together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses."* Col. ii. 10 — 13. 
 
 It were impossible in this whole passage, thus viewed together, 
 not to see that it contains an account of great gifts bestowed upon us 
 in Christ, however outwardly those gifts may have been by many 
 conceived of, even by those who deemed themselves spiritual, and 
 been resolved into communication of knowledge, manifestation of the 
 
 * The title, "circumcision without hands," is applied to Baptism in the 
 Chaldee and Malabar Liturgy (Ass. i. 196,) where that which is typical, and 
 figurative and instructive, is remarkably contrasted with that M'hich is a means 
 of grace. " The holy oil which Thou gavest to those of old as the seal and in- 
 vestment of a temporal priesthood and a transitory kingdom, Thou hast now 
 committed to the priests of the Church, to be a sign and figure of those who 
 pass from things earthly to things heavenly, with an immortal body and a soul 
 unchangeable, and are circumcised with the circumcision without hands, put- 
 ting otf the body of sin in the circumcision of Christ." The context above 
 explained (Col. iii. 9 — 17,) was read as a Baptismal lesson in several ancient 
 Latin liturgies, as in that of Gellon (Ass. i. 57,) of Poictiers (ib. 68,) of Wertin 
 (ib. 74,) and from ancient sources in the Roman ritual by S. Severini(ib. 94.) 
 The portion, 9 — 11, is formed into a prayer before baptism in the Syriac 
 (ib. 824,) incorporating an expression from Eph. iv. 22, Take away from 
 them the old man which is corrupt by deceitful lusts, and clothe them with 
 the new clothing which is renewed in knowledge, in Thy image, O Creator, 
 where is neither Jew, nor Greek, neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision, 
 but in all and each is Thy habitation." It occurs also in the Greek (ib. ii. 138, 
 gee above, p. 94,) in that of Antioch (ib. 222,) o[ Jerusalem (ib. 230,) of Seve- 
 rus (ib. 293,) and more briefly in the Coptic (ib. 151,) "grant that being strip- 
 ped of the old man he be regenerated to life eternal." In the Chaldee and 
 Ma/a^ar Liturgy the corresponding passage in the Ep. to the Eph. (iv. 22 — 24,) 
 is used in the same reference to Baptism. "Let us all pray, that in sin-remit- 
 ting Baptism they may put off the old man which is corrupt through deceit- 
 ful lusts, and may put on, in the bath of the holy waters, the new man, which 
 in God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (ib. i. 183.) And in the 
 Maronite liturgy, by St. James of Sarug, " Let us pray Him, who is a hyssop, 
 cleansing and making white, that He will remove and cast from us the old 
 man, which is decayed and corrupted, and clothe us with a new vestment, 
 which is renewed and made excellent and holy through pure Baptism." (Ib. 
 ii. 329.) 
 
103 
 
 Divine will, and the like. The whole remarkably connects the ful- 
 ness of the Godhead in our Lord with the fulness of His Church in. 
 Him ; and that derived fiJness with the channel through which it was 
 poured into her and her members, the spiritual antitype of Circum- 
 cision, Baptism in Him. And so, while inculcating the same fruits 
 of Baptism as to the Romans, St. Paul here ascends higher, and 
 speaks of the source of their greatness, that He, in whom we are 
 baptized, with whom co-interred, with and in whom raised, is God 
 as well as man; whence those baptized in Him, " are filled with 
 all the fulness of God." " He saith not dwelleth spiritually, but 
 bodily,'''' says St. Leo,* against Eutyches, " that we may understand 
 thereby a real substance of Flesh, wherein is the corporeal indwell- 
 ing of the fulness of the Deity ; with which same fulness is the 
 Church filled ; which, adhering to the Head, is the body of Christ, 
 who liveth and reigneth with the Father, and tlie Holy Spirit, God 
 for ever." And again,! " Holding fast then, dearly beloved, the sin- 
 gle pledge of the Christian faith, be we not separated from the bands 
 of the body of Christ, 'in whom,' as the Apostle saith, ' dwelleth all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are in Him filled.' For 
 since the substance of God is incorporeal, how should He dwell cor- 
 poreally in Christ, except that the flesh of our race is made the flesh 
 of Godhead ; and we are in that God filled, in whom we have been 
 crucified, in whom also raised again, so that we can say with the 
 Apostle, ' but our conversation is in heaven, whence also we expect 
 the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall re-form our vile body, 
 to be conformed to His glorious Body.' " 
 
 Moderns, however, have habitually separated these ; the Incarna- 
 tion is now very commonly looked upon in reference only to the 
 Passion of our Lord, and as a means of His vicarious suffering ; 
 not as if it had any reference to us, to the sanctification of our nature, 
 becaiase He had " taken the manhood into God." And so they take 
 what is said of Baptism, as teaching only, as if it inculcated the same 
 as Circumcision, and imparted a lesson rather than a grace. They 
 only think of the circumcision of the heart which we ought to have, 
 of the complete extinction of all sinful tendencies, at which we ought 
 to aim, of the power of the faith which we ought to cherish. Yet this 
 again is but a portion of the truth : it tells us of the end which we 
 are to arrive at, but not of the means, whereby God gives us strength 
 on our way thitherward : it speaks of the height of God's holy hill, 
 but not of the power by which we are caught up thither. Not so St. 
 Paul. He is persuading the Colossians to abide in the state in 
 which they had been placed ; to rest upon the foundation on which 
 they had been laid ; to root themselves in the soil in which they 
 
 * Serm. 28, [al. 27.] in Nativ. Dom. 8. fin. 
 
 t Serm. 65, [al. 64,] de passione Dom. 1. 4. fin. 
 
104 
 
 had been planted ; to be content willi the fulness which they had 
 received from Him by whom they had been filled, and in whom 
 dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; to abide in Him whom 
 they had received. For he feared lest they should be taught by the 
 vain deceit of a false philosophy to take other stays than their Sa- 
 viour, or to lean on the now abolished tradition of circumcision. To 
 this end he reminds them that they needed nothing out of Christ ; 
 for they had been filled with Him, " who filleth all in all," " the 
 Head of all rule and all power ;" therefore they needed no other 
 power, but only His — they had received the true circumcision, and 
 so could require no other ; they had been disencumbered of the sinful 
 mass, with which they were naturally encumbered, " the body of 
 the sins of the flesh," bj^ the circumcision which Christ bestowed ; 
 their old man had been buried with Him in Baptism ; they had been 
 raised with Him, (whereof the ascending out of the water was a 
 figure) b}^ a power as mighty as that which raised Him from the 
 dead ; and, by that participation in His death and resurrection, had 
 received the earnest of the resurrection which was yet future, and 
 of the life to come.* All their old sins had been forgiven, and they 
 themselves re-born from the dead, and been made partakers of the 
 life of Clirist, " quickened with Him;" the powers of darkness had 
 been spoiled of their authority over them, and exhibited as captives 
 and dethroned. All these things had been bestowed upon them by 
 Baptism ; the mercies of God had been there appropriated to them ; 
 sins blotted out ; their sinful nature dead, buried in Christ's tomb ; 
 death changed into life ; and therefore, as they had no need, so 
 neither were they to make void these gifts by trusting in any other 
 ordinances, or looking to an)?- other Mediator. St. Paul dreads that 
 through false teaching and a false self-abasement, they should not 
 hold to the Head. (ver. 18.) But does he depreciate their baptismal 
 privileges ? or, because they were tempted to lean on circumcision, 
 does he disparage outward ordinances ? or dread that the exaltation 
 of the ordinance should lead to a depreciation of Christ ? Rather, 
 he shows them how every thing which they sought, or could need, 
 was comprised, and had been already bestowed upon them in their 
 Saviour's gift, in His ordinance : that this ordinance was no mere 
 significant rite, but contained within itself the stripping off of the 
 
 * " By the ' stripping off of the body of the sins of the flesh,' he means Bap- 
 tism. For therein have we the defiled garment of sin stripped ofl^. But all- 
 holy Baptism is a type of things to come : that in the life to come the body hav- 
 ing become immortal and incorruptible, shall no longer admit the defilement 
 of sin. And that he spake this of Baptism, what follows attests, ' having been 
 buried with Him in Baptism.' But having called Saving Baptism an image 
 of death (in that he said ' having been buried with Him') he announces the 
 good tidings of the resurrection, 'In Whom also ye were raised together.'" — 
 Theodoret ad loo. 
 
105 
 
 body of sin, death, resurrection, new life, forgiveness, annulment 
 of the hand-writing against us, despoiling of the strong one, triumph 
 over the powers of darkness. We also have been thus circumcised, 
 have been buried, raised, quickened, pardoned, filled with Christ : 
 all this God has done for us, and are we not to prize it? not to thank 
 God for it, " stablished in the faith which we have been taught, and 
 abounding therein with thanksgiving ?" (ver. 7.) and are we, for fear 
 men should rest in outward privileges, to make the Lord's sacrament 
 a mere outward gift, deny His bounty, and empty His fulness? or 
 rather ought we not, with the Apostle, to tell men of the greatness 
 of what they have received, and repeat to them His bidding, 
 " since then ye ivere raised together with Christ, seek what is 
 above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God ;" (iii. 1.) ye 
 did die ;* slay then your earthly members ; (ver. 5.) ye were 
 stripped of the old man,t and ivere clothed with the new, and that, 
 made new in its Creator's image, which has now again been restored 
 to you : (ver. 9, 10.) " put ye on then, as having been chosen and 
 loved of God," the ornaments befitting this new creation in you, mer- 
 cy, gentleness, and the other graces, (ver. 11.) : ye have been for- 
 given, forgive, (ver. 13.) Thus does St. Paul obviate the resting in 
 outward ordinances, by showing namely thaf the Christian ordi- 
 nances are not outward ; that they are full of life and honor and 
 immortality, for that they are full of Christ ; since " Christ is all 
 things, and in all." (ver. 11.) Is there not danger of our losing our 
 treasures also by a " voluntary humility ?" Is not our dread of 
 the consequences of exalting Christ's ordinances, " after the rudi- 
 ments of the world," (an earthly wisdom) " and not after Christ ?" 
 
 It is melancholy, but instructive, to contrast the poverty of the 
 interpretation of Calvin's school, with the richness of that of the 
 ancient Church. Calvin, for instance, says, " The sum total is, 
 that God in Christ exhihitedX Himself wholly and fully. The word 
 
 * " We therefore who in Baptism have died and been buried, as relates to 
 the carnal sins of the old man, we who have risen with Christ by a new-birth 
 from heaven, let us think and do the things of Clirist." St. Cyprian on Col. 
 iii. 1. De Zelo et Livore, c. 7. 
 
 f " AVhen we are renewed by the washing of Baptism through the power of 
 the word, we are separated from the sins and authors of our birth, and cut off 
 by a sort of excision of the Word of God, are separated from the dispositions 
 of our parents, and putting off the old man with his sins and unbelief, and re- 
 newed in mind and body by the Spirit, we must needs hate the habits of our 
 inborn and old deeds." Hilary in S. Matt. c. x. \ 24. 
 
 J Ad loc- " It might be objected that the figure [Circumcision] was not there- 
 fore to be despised, because they had the substance, since among the Fathers 
 also was there that ' laying aside of the old man,' whereof he spake, yet still 
 the outward circumcision was not superfluous with them. This objection he 
 meets by adding, that the Colossians had been ' buried with Christ by Baptism.' 
 Whereby he signifies that Baptism in these days is the same thing which Cir- 
 
106 
 
 * bodily,' I doubt not is put for * substantially.' For he opposes this 
 manifestation of God which we have in Christ to all others which 
 ever were. For God often exhibited Himself to men, but in part ; 
 in Christ He communicates [i. e. in Calvin's sense, exhibited] Him- 
 self wholly. At other times also He manifested Himself but in 
 figures, or by His power and grace, but in Christ He appeared to us 
 essentially :" and of Baptism, wherein St. Paul says, they " had 
 been buried together with Christ, and in Him had risen also toge- 
 ther," Calvin says, " Christ works the spiritual circumcision in us, 
 not with the intervention of that ancient sign, which had place under 
 Moses, but of Baptism. Baptism then is the sign of the thing exhi- 
 bited, which Circumcision figured being absent." Baptism is to 
 him, just as outward in the flesh as Circumcision. Or, take another 
 eminent writer of the same school,* who says, " that ' whole fulness 
 of the Godhead' means here nothing else than the whole will of 
 God, and Majesty also, as far as it was discovered in the Word ; 
 then, by the ' indwelling' is meant that same manifestation, but 
 which shall last for ever, and never hereafter be changed ; lastly, by 
 the adverb ' bodily,' is meant the solid and perfect disclosure of the 
 Godhead, as opposed to the shadows of the law, and other obscure 
 and imperfect revelations. This is proved by the scope and connec- 
 tion of the whole discourse, which is, that we may know that in the 
 Gospel of Christ, we have all things most fully disclosed, which we 
 have need to know of this Godhead — that the whole knowledge of 
 divine things is, as it were, laid up in Christ and His Gospel. Since 
 filso we are said to be therefore completed or consummated in 
 Christ, because ' the whole fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him 
 bodily,' it would follow that that Godhead was in some way commu- 
 nicated to us, or that we in some degree were made partakers of that 
 fulness. Since then it is certain that neither the whole, nor any part 
 of the Divine Essence is really communicated to us, it follows that 
 that ' whole Godhead' is immediately in itself, and in this context, to 
 be understood not of the Essence, but of the will and glory of God — 
 Under the name 'Christ,' ['not according to Christ, for in Him 
 dwelleth,' &c.] is meant not so much properly the person of Christ, 
 as, by a metonymy, the Gospel and teaching of Christ. Lastly, 
 the same appears from the comparison of the like passage, Eph. iii. 
 19., where the Apostle wishes that ' they may be filled with all the 
 fulness of God,' which is nothing else than to be filled with a solid 
 knowledge oi the Divine wisdom and majesty." 
 
 Of a truth, a meagre conception of the actualness of our Re- 
 
 cumcision was to the ancients, and that Circumcision, therefore, could not be 
 enjoined to Christians without disparaging it." — Inst. 4, 14, 24. 
 
 * Vorstius ad loc His Scholia and Loci communes, which go over the 
 same ground, have been blended together. 
 
107 
 
 deemer's gifts in His Sacraments, whereby He makes men "par- 
 takers of the Divine Nature," has produced a meagre theology, sub- 
 stituting His teaching for His Person, disclosures of God for the 
 mystery of the Incarnation, " knowledge of the Godhead," for " be- 
 ing perfected in Christ," " the revealed will and glory of God," for 
 the " whole fulness of the Godhead." One would have thought that 
 it was rather some Arian or Socinian exposition, emptying the word 
 of God of His Word. It needed not such a foil to set off the solemn 
 exposition of St. Hilary, in which he shows how the Apostle com- 
 bines the reality of the indwelling of the Eternal Son in the Man 
 Christ Jesus, with the reality of His communication of Himself to 
 us, the reality of the mystery of Holy Baptism, and our being there- 
 by in Him, with the reality of His Holy Incarnation,* " Having 
 set forth the ' fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily,' he 
 immediately subjoined the mystery of His assumption of us, saying, 
 
 * Ye are filled in Him.' For as in Him is the fulness of the God- 
 head, so are we ' filled in Him,' Nor does he say, ' are filled,' but 
 ' are filled in Him,' because through the hope of faith, all who have 
 been, or shall be regenerated to life eternal, remain now in the 
 Body of Christ. Now then we ' are filled in Him,' i, e, by the as- 
 sumption of His flesh, wherein the 'fulness of the Godhead dwell- 
 eth bodily.' And the might of our hope herein is not slight. For 
 that we are filled in Him, this is the head and origin of all might, 
 according to that, ' That at His Name every knee shall bow, and 
 every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord in the glory of God the 
 Father,' The confession then will be this, ' Jesus in the glory of 
 God the Father ;' and that He, who was born in man, abides now 
 not in the weakness of our body, but in * the glory of God.' And 
 when things in heaven, and in earth, bow the knee, this is the head 
 of all principahty and might, that all things bowing the knee are 
 subjected to Him, ' in whom we are filled, and who, through the 
 
 * fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily,' is to be ' confessed 
 in the glory of God the Father,' 
 
 " But having set forth the mystery both of His Nature and of His 
 assumption of ours, whereby 'the fulness of the Godhead abiding in 
 Him,' we are thereby ' filled in Him' that He was born as man, He 
 pursueth the rest of the dispensation of man's salvation, * In whom 
 ye were circumcised,' &c. We are circumcised then not by a carnal 
 circumcision, but by the circumcision of Christ, i. e. being re-born 
 into a new man. For when we are buried with Him in His Bap- 
 tism, we must needs die as to the old man, because the Regeneration 
 of Baptism is the power of the Resurrection. And this is the ' cir- 
 cumcision of Christ,' not to be despoiled of the flesh of the foreskin, 
 but to die wholly with Him [commori,] and thereby afterwards wholly 
 
 * De Trin. ix. 8—10. 
 
108 
 
 to 'live to Him.' For *in Him we rise again, through faith of that 
 God who raised Him from the dead.'" And then having quoted 
 the next verse, " And )'ou being dead," &c., as containing the con- 
 summation of the whole mystery of the assumption of man, he pro- 
 ceeds with his comment : — 
 
 " The man of the world receiveth not the Apostolic faith, and no 
 language but his own explains the expressions of his meaning. God 
 raiseth Christ from the dead, Christ, 'in whom the fulness of the 
 Godhead dwells bodily.' But He quickened us together with Him, 
 forgiving our sins, and blotting out the hand-writing of the law of 
 sin, which by the former sentence was contrary to us, taking it out of 
 the way, and nailing it to the cross, by the law of death, despoil- 
 ing Himself of the flesh, making open show of the Powers, triumph- 
 ing over them in Himself. But who shall comprehend or utter this 
 mystery ? The operation of God raises Christ from the dead, and 
 this same operation of God quickens us w'itii Christ, and this same 
 operation forgives sins, destroys the handwriting, and nails to the 
 cross, despoils Himself of the flesh, makes open show of the Pow- 
 ers, and triumphs over them in Himself." 
 
 In another place* the connection of the passage is, perhaps, still 
 more drawn out, on account of the exceeding closeness of the para- 
 phrase, as of one who felt that in such high mysteries there was 
 danger in parting far from the Apostle's language. 
 
 " A constant faith rejects the captious and useless questions of 
 philosophy, nor, yielding to the deceits of human folhes, does truth 
 give itself as a spoil to falsehood ; not retaining God, according to 
 the conceptions of ordinary understanding, nor conceiving of Christ 
 according to the elements of the world, in whom the fulness of God- 
 head dwelleth bodily ; so that since in Him is the Infinity of Eter- 
 nal Power, the Power of Eternal Infinity must needs surpass all 
 comprehension of an earthly mind ; who, drawling us over to the Na- 
 ture of His own Divinity, no longer binds us by the corporeal ob- 
 servation of ordinances ; nor through the shadows of the law does 
 He consecrate us by rites of cutting off" of the flesh, but so, that cir- 
 cumcised from the faults of the spirit, through the cleansing of sins 
 He might purify us as to all the natural requirements of the body ; 
 in whose death we are co-interred in Baptism, that so we might 
 return to the life of Eternity ; inasmuch as regeneration to life is 
 death from life, and dying to sins, we are born to immortality ; He 
 from immortality dying for us, that we together with Him might be 
 raised from death to immortality. But He took the flesh of sin, 
 [flesh which in us was sinful,] that by the taking of our flesh He 
 might forgive offences, in that He partook of it by taking it, not by 
 sin ; destroying through death the sentence of death, so as by a new 
 
 * De Trin. i. 13. 
 
109 
 
 creation of our race in Himself, to abolish what was established by 
 the former decree, suffering Himself to be nailed to the cross, that 
 by the curse of the cross He might transfix and blot out all the curses 
 of the sentence which condemned our earthly nature : lastly, suffer- 
 ing in man, that He might degrade the Powers, in that, though God, 
 dying according to the Scriptures, He thereby triumphed over them 
 also, having in Himself the confidence of a Conqueror, while Him- 
 self undying and unassailable by Death, he died to obtain eternity 
 for the dying." " These things, then," St. Hilary subjoins to this 
 energetic paraphrase, " being enacted by God, beyond the under- 
 standing of human nature, are not subject to our mind's natural sense, 
 because the operation of Infinite Eternity requires Infinite concep- 
 tion to measure it ; so that when God was man. Immortality dies, 
 the Eternal was buried, it is matter not for reasonings of the under- 
 standing, but for the reception of His Power ; so again, on the con- 
 trary, it is to be measured not by the senses, but by the [Divine] 
 power, when for man there is (jJod ; for one dead, Immortal ; of 
 buried, Eternal. We then are co-raised by God in Christ through 
 His Death. But since in Christ is the fulness of Godhead, we at 
 once have an intimation of G od the Father, co-raising us in Him 
 when dead, and that Christ Jesus is to be confessed as no other than 
 God in the fulness of Divinity." 
 
 So do doctrines, when formed into no system around any one 
 selected doctrine, harmonize together, and so closely has He blended 
 together His Sacraments with His own eternal glory, as with His 
 humiliation, constituting them effluences of both conjointly, as in 
 outward form they represent His lowliness, in inward grace they 
 communicate His " Virtue." 
 
 II. — Passages in which moderns have appropriated to themselves 
 the privileges of Holy Baptism, without thought of the means 
 through which they are conveyed. 
 
 In the above passages we have deprived ourselves of the strength 
 which God purposed to impart through them to His Church ; and, 
 yet more, have robbed oiurselves and our flocks of the knowledge of 
 the greatness of the gift vouchsafed to them by God in Baptism. 
 In another class, we have appropriated to ourselves the gift, inde- 
 pendently of the channel through which it is conveyed. And since 
 Baptism, as the means of our union with Christ, is the act which 
 conveys to us, either in immediate possession, or as an earnest, all 
 our subsequent spiritual blessings, transfers us from being children 
 of wrath, to be children of grace in Him, it could not but be, that it 
 would often be alluded to by the Apostles, writing to Christian 
 Churches, even when it was not distinctly mentioned ; and that the 
 neglect of it must cause much wrong interpretation of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. This misinterpretation is, indeed, far wider than would at first 
 
110^ 
 
 be suspected even by those who are, in some measure alive to it. 
 This sliall nov7 be pointed out, first, in some more specific instances, 
 and then in its influence upon our interpretation of all those passages 
 of Scripture which speak of our justification, and all other spiritual 
 blessings therein summed up and contained. 
 
 We are, in different passages of Holy Scripture, said to have been 
 " sealed by God," or " by the Holy Spirit of God ;" to " have re- 
 ceived an anointing from the Holy One ;" to " have been anointed 
 by God ;" and these passages, persons at once, without doubt or 
 misgiving, interpret of the inward and daily graces of God's Holy 
 Spirit, (which are also undoubtedly involved in them, though as the 
 result of that first gift, the having been made members of Him, who 
 sends the Comforter to His Church;) so that, if any one were to 
 propose to explain these passages of Baptism, as containing the first 
 pledge and earnest of the Spirit, I fear he would be looked upon as 
 a cold and lifeless interpreter, perhaps as a mere formalist. It will, 
 doubtless, startle such to know that this was, in some passages at 
 least, the interpretation of all Christian antiquity ;* and it may serve 
 as an index of our altered state of religious belief, that most of us, 
 perhaps, would at first regard as cold and formal, the interpretation 
 which to them spoke of the fulness of their Saviour's gift. This 
 would, itself, be sufiicient for our piurpose ; for it is not so much 
 abstract proof of the value and greatness of our Lord's Sacraments, 
 that we need, as, rather, to be convinced that our feelings have 
 undergone a change, that we fall very far short of the love and 
 respect which the Fathers of the Christian Church bore to them. 
 And then let us consider within ourselves, whether, since those holy 
 men realized in their lives the ordinances which they loved, we must 
 not confess that our lessened esteem for our Saviour's gift, betokens 
 a less humble afFectionateness, fnad, whether as the result of pride 
 and self-will, it is not likely to end in unreverential feelings towards 
 the Giver. We aim at receiving every thing directly from God's 
 hand, from His Spirit to ours, and so either disparage His Sacra- 
 ments, or else would make them means only, by which our faith 
 might be kindled, to "ascend into heaven," and " bring down Christ 
 from above," instead of being content diligently to cleanse our own 
 hearts, and " keep His words," that so His gracious promise may 
 be fulfilled — " My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
 and make our abode with him." (John xiv. 23.) 
 
 This had been an important consideration, quite independent of the 
 question, which were the right interpretation of the passages in ques- 
 tion ; for, as there could be no doubt which loved his Saviour most, 
 the interpreter who found Him every where in Old Testament pro- 
 phecy, or he who found him no where ; so, also, could there be little, 
 
 • See Note (D) at the end. 
 
Ill 
 
 probably, between the character of mind, which looked joyously to 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost, through his Saviour's ordinance, and that 
 which regarded any reference to that ordinance, lifeless and cold. 
 There could be no doubt, I think, of this generally ; although, as was 
 before said, individuals xm^X either " hold the truth in unrighteous- 
 ness," or being in error, might still derive food for their piety, from 
 other truth in God's rich storehouse. 
 
 ii. 1. " He Who establisheth us vpith you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; 
 Who, also, is He Who sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in our 
 hearts," (2 Cor. i. 22 :) " in Whom ye also, having heard the v^^ord of truth, 
 the gospel of your salvation — in whom having believed also, ye were sealed 
 by the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance, until the 
 redemption of the purchased possession." (Eph. i. 13, 14.) " Grieve not the 
 Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye were sealed unto the day of redemption." 
 (Eph. iv. 30.) 
 
 Now, 1, in all these passages St. Paul speaks of this " sealing" as 
 as a past action, which had taken place at a certain definite time. 
 To the Corinthians, he says, " Who also is he who sealed us (^ *«■' 
 cifpayi<Taixevos) and gttve (^°^s) us." To the Ephesians, in both places, 
 ye " ivere* sealed" {tc^payiaQnTc) ^ 2. In one passage (Eph. i.) this 
 sealing is mentioned, as immediately following upon the belief of the 
 Gospel — " having believed, ye were sealed ;" in a second (Eph, iv.) 
 it stands opposed to subsequent performance of duty — " ye loere 
 sealed by the Holy Spirit, grieve Him not ;" in the third (2 Cor. i.) 
 it stands opposed! to God's subsequent establishing them in Christ, 
 to their being maintained in this state into which they had been brought 
 — " who establishefA you, who also anointet^ and sealec? you." 3. The 
 word *' sealed" was already in use among the Jews,} and is recog- 
 nized by St. Paul, as designating the act by which men were brought 
 into covenant with God, and received its privileges. Now, it would, 
 indeed, be a very perverted mode of arguing, to infer, either that the 
 seal in the Christian Covenant only attested the faith which already 
 existed (as in the case of Abraham,) or that the seal of the Jewish 
 
 * E. V, in Eph. iv. 30. " are sealed," in Eph. i. 13. "havebeeh sealed." 
 The context, as well as the word, is the same. 
 
 \ There is the like contrast between the original gift, and the looked-for 
 continuance of it, in 1 Cor. i. 5 — 8, quoted by Bode, as an use of the same me- 
 taphor, in the matter of faith and sanctification — " as the witness of Christ was 
 confirmed {iPtPaidieri) among you, so that ye came behind in no gift, waiting for 
 the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who also shall confirm (Seffaitiirei) you." 
 But the gifts spoken of here also were bestowed at the commencement of the 
 Christian life. See further below, ii. 3. 
 
 JTalm. Hieros, Berachoth. f. 13. 1. ap. Lightf. ad Mt. 28, 19. " Blessed 
 be He who hath sanctified His beloved from the womb, and placed the sign 
 in his fllesh, and has sealed (onn) His offspring with the sign of the cove- 
 nant." 
 
113 
 
 covenant conveyed the same privileges as the Christian ; for this 
 would be to identify the earlier with the later dispensation ; and as 
 one exposition unduly derogates from the Clmstian Sacrament, so 
 does the other exalt the seal of the Jewish covenant beyond what we 
 have any certain warrant for, or even intimation of, from Holy Scrip- 
 ture. Still, one should suppose, that St, Paul, when employing 
 terms, already in use among the Jews, would apply them to the cor- 
 responding portion of the Christian dispensation. Since, then, cir- 
 cumcision, by which the covenant was ratified to the Jew, was spoken 
 of as a " seal," and that by St. Paul also (Rom. iv. 11.), St Paul, if 
 he used the word " seal" with reference to the Christian, would obvi- 
 ously use it of that by which each person was brought within the 
 Christian covenant — the Sacrament of Baptism. But it were the 
 very error of the rationalists to suppose, that God's Holy Spirit, 
 when He took the words used in Jewish Theology, and employed 
 them to express Christian Truth, conveyed nothing more by them, 
 than they would have meant in the mouth of any ordinary Jew ; and 
 did not rather, when receiving them into the service of the sanctuary, 
 stamp them anew, and impress upon them His own living image. 
 And this is so ; for since Baptism is not a mere initiatory or signifi- 
 cant rite, but is an appointed means for conveying the Holy Spirit, 
 the language has been actually conformed to our higher privileges. 
 It is not merely an outward admission to an inward covenant, an ad- 
 mission to privileges afterwards to be bestowed; it is not simply any 
 admission to any covenant at all ; it is an admission, an incorporation 
 into the spiritual body of Christ, and so a spiritual act, wherein 
 Christ by His Spirit takes the baptized into Himself. So then in- 
 stead of the covenant being said to be sealed to us, loe are declared 
 to be " sealed by the Holy Spirit ;" being taken out of our state of 
 nature, and marked, guarded, conformed to our Lord ; — marked, by 
 the sprinkling of His blood, that the destroyer may pass over us, and 
 SatanJ have no power upon us ; guarded, as His purchased posses- 
 sion and peculiar treasure, whereon He has affixed his seal ; con- 
 formed, in that it places again upon us the Creator's image, renewing 
 us after His likeness, and impressing His cast, and, to speak the 
 high truth. His features upon our souls, as a seal gives its stamp to 
 the body, whereon it is impressed. And not a present gift only, but 
 an earnest also of larger gifts, proportioned to our growth, since the 
 Holy Spirit was then first imparted to us as Christians, and as His 
 Temple, and the " earnest" then given us is a pledge, that unless we 
 wilfully break off the seal, we shall be carried on to eternal life, with 
 larger instalments of our promised possession, until " the possession, 
 purchased" for us, by Christ's precious blood-shedding, shall be fully 
 bestowed upon us, and God's pledge be altogether "redeemed." 
 4. The Christian fathers have, from Apostolic times, used the word 
 ** seal," as a title of Christian Baptism ; a relic whereof we have in 
 
113 
 
 the doctrine of our Church, that " the promises of forgiveness of 
 sins, and our adoption to be the sons of God, by the Holy Ghost, are 
 therein visibly signed and seaUd.''^ (Art. XXVII.) Thus 8t. Hermas 
 (about A. D. 65 — 81): — "They must needs go up through the 
 water, that they may rest. For they could not otherwise enter into 
 the kingdom of God, than by laying aside the deathliness of their 
 former life. Those departed then were sealed with the seal of the 
 Son of God, and entered into the kingdom of God. Before* a person 
 receive the Name of the Son of God, he is doomed to death ; but 
 when he receives that seal, he is freed from death, and made over to 
 life. But that seal is water, into which men go down bound over to 
 death, but arise, being assigned over to life. That seal, then, was 
 preached to them also, and they made use of it, to enter into the 
 kingdom of God." The least which this would shew, is that such 
 was the received usage of the word, " seal," in the time of St. Paul : 
 but no one, admitting this, will readily suppose, that St. Paul would 
 have used the term with regard to Christians, unless he had meant it 
 to be understood of the Sacrament of Baptism. And this usage of the 
 word, to which we have such early testimony, is found in all Churches, 
 from that time onwards ; and their use of it plainly agrees with, and 
 is derived from St. Paul's use of it in these places in which he is 
 speaking of Christian privileges, (sometimes the passages are directly 
 quoted,) not from that in the Epistle to the Romans, wherein he is 
 speaking of the covenant with Abraham. For the Fathers uniformly 
 speak of Baptism as sealing, and so keeping, guardmg, preserving 
 us, as it were a seal placed upon us,\ marking us as His, giving us 
 His image. The school of Calvin calls it a seal, ratification, or out- 
 ward mark, not of us, but of God's covenant only. The two meta- 
 phors are essentially distinct ; the modern usage is borrowed from 
 St. Paul's description of the older covenant, whereof circumcision was 
 the seal, but was no Sacrament ; that of the Fathers agrees with 
 this reference to Baptism, which, being a Sacrament, seals, guards, 
 preserves us,X and so is an earnest to us of the fuller mercies yet in 
 store. 
 
 * L. 3. simil. 9. no. 16, quoted by Binp^ham, Christian Antiq. b. xi. c. I. 
 
 t Bellarmine (de Sacram. L. i. c. 17.) remarking, that Scripture saith, 
 Abraham " received the sign (CT^z/^eroi/) of circumcision, the seal ((r^payWu) of 
 the faith which he had," &c. infers that circumcision was a sign to the Jews, 
 a seal to Abraham only : he remarks, also, that, often as St. Paul speaks of 
 circumcision, he does not, even when directly speaking of its benefits to the 
 Jews, (Rom. iii.) mention its being a seal of faith. J. Gerhard (de Sacram. 
 387.) contends, in answer, that there is no difference between sign and seal. 
 But the difference remains between Abraham's case and that of any Jew, that 
 to Abraham circumcision was a seal of God's approval of his previous faith, 
 to his descendants it was a sign only of their being taken into the covenant, 
 in which a like faith was to be exercised. 
 
 X See Note (E) at the end. Coteler (on the Apostol. Const, ii. 39. "When 
 
 4* 
 
114 
 
 " Again," says St. Chrysostom, " the being sealed is a mark of 
 great Providence ; that we are not ' set apart' only, not ' taken by 
 lot' only {K^np^e i>a) but ' sealed.' For as one who would make mani- 
 fest those who fell to him, so also God set us apart that we should 
 believe, sealed us, that we might inherit the things to come," "Again 
 through the things past he establishes those to come. For if it is 
 He, Who establisheth us to Christ, (i. e. Who suffereth us not to 
 be broken from the faith toward Christ,) and ' He also who anointed 
 us, and gave the Spirit in our hearts,' how shall He not give us the 
 things to come ? for if He gave the beginnings and the foundations, 
 and the root and the fountain, i. e. the true knowledge of Himself, 
 the participation of the Spirit, how shall He not give the result thereof? 
 For if these things are given for the sake of the other, much more 
 shall he Who gave them, give those also ; and if he gave these 
 things to us being enemies, much more shall He bestow those upon 
 us having become friends. Wherefore He does not simply say, ' the 
 Spirit,' but calls it ' the earnest,' that having the earnest, you may be 
 of good cheer as to the whole. For unless he had purposed to give 
 the whole. He would not have given the earnest ; to be in vain and 
 fruitless !" 
 
 This testimony of the Fathers is again borne out by the Liturgies 
 of the universal Church. East and West agree in calling Baptism a 
 seal, an impress, a guardian mark to those baptized ; the baptized 
 themselves, (in the language of the Revelations,) " the sealed." The 
 Liturgies, variously as they use the term, still harmonize wholly 
 with the Fathers, using it in exactly the same references, and thus 
 the more evince how Christian Antiquity was of one mind, the agree- 
 ment of the Fathers attesting the antiquity of the liturgies, the con- 
 sent of the liturgies proving the more that we have, in this consent of 
 the Fathers, not an accidental agreement of the opinions of individuals, 
 but the voice of their respective Churches, The Liturgies use the 
 word " seal," or " sealed," chiefly of the great sacramental act of 
 
 the Gentiles would repent, we receive them into the Church, that they may 
 hear the word, but do not communicate with them, until, having received the 
 seal, they are consecrated,'''') says, " both words mean Baptism. For the Greek 
 Fathers call ' the washing of regeneration,' ' the seal,^ ''the seal of the Gospel,'' 
 the Master's, or the Lord's seal, or in the Lord, or in Christ, the seal of the 
 faith, the impress of the truth, the seal of the second life, the seal of the Names of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the saving impress, the 
 Divine, holy, mystical, spiritual, heavenly, royal, immortalizing, inviolable, in- 
 dissoluble, unassailable seal, &c. to seal, to seal by Baptis?n ; the baptized they 
 call the sealed, the unbaptized. the unsealed. The Latins call it the mark (sig- 
 num,) the mark of Faith, the mark of Christ, the seal (sigillum,) the impress 
 (signaculum,) the impress of Faith, the sealing up (obsignatio,) of Faith, or of 
 Baptism. They say, to mark (signare,) to seal up (obsignare,) to seal surely 
 (consignare,) by Baptism ^ 
 
115 
 
 Baptism itself ;* but they regard that great mystery, as casting a 
 portion of its radiance before and behind, and giving efficacy to other 
 
 * In the following extracts the word " seal," has been kept for the Syriac 
 j ID^, or ^K£) /N^^ y " mark," for | VO<n n •, but this has been for the 
 sake of precision only ; the meaning is the same ; only that jVQ(g> n • is 
 rather the " impress " of the seal, the image impressed upon the soul, and so 
 corresponding to the " character" of Latin Theology. In Bar Bahlulitis ex- 
 plained by JU-AA/ and ^\a,, the same word in Arabic, which occurs also in the 
 form fVAA/^ In Assem. Bibl. or. t. i. p. 31. S. Ephraem is related to have re- 
 ceived, when 28, the y VQ ig\ n» j^JO^Xvo: "seal of Baptism," 1. e. 
 Baptism itself. 
 
 The three words are joined, as synonymous, and as belonging to Baptism, 
 in a hymn of S. Ephraem, on the oil, " Dear is the oil of the Holy Spirit, and 
 as His minister and disciple, cleaveth it unto Him, wherewith he mar/^rerf priests 
 and Christs : for the Holy Spirit with oil impresses His mark upon His sheep; 
 for as the seal-ring impresseth its mark on the wax, so is the hidden seal 
 (ib^OlS.^ of the Spiht stamped (^Ci^lSj^) by oil upon the bodies of 
 those anointed in Baptism, and in Baptism they are marked" () VO > a *. 
 Ass. ib. p. 94. 
 
 Old Gallican. 
 Consecration of Font. (Ass. ii. 40.) 
 
 " that whosoever is baptized in it, may become a temple of the living 
 
 God, through the remission of sins, in the name of God the Father Almighty, 
 and Christ Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit, (who will judge the world by 
 fire) through this seal which abideth for ever and ever." 
 
 Milan. 
 (4th cent.) 
 
 In the Church of Milan, at least, in the time of St. Ambrose, a portion con- 
 taining 2 Cor. i. 22. was read as a baptismal lesson. See the end of Note E. 
 
 Old Gothic. 
 Blessing of the People, (i. 37.) 
 
 " Let the heavenly seal which Thou hast vouchsafed to bestow upon them, 
 Lord, continue in them f , that, protected by the Holy Spirit, they may be 
 thought worthy to receive increase of Faith, protection of soul, health of bodies. 
 Grant then the riches of an unspotted life, &c." 
 
 Coptic. 
 Prayer for Catechumen, (i. 164.) 
 
 " make him fit to receive, pure and without spot, the light and seal of 
 
 Thy Christ, and the gift of Thy Holy and Consubstantial Spirit. 
 
lie 
 
 acts connected with it. The Church, whose doctrines they express, 
 regards our Lord, as "favorably allowing this charitable work of" 
 
 GreeJc. 
 (i. 337.) 
 
 " — make him a reason-endowed sheep of the flock of Thy Christ, an honor- 
 able member of Thy Church, a son and heir of Thy kingdom, that walking 
 according to Thy commandments, and keeping the seal unbroken, and to the 
 end preserving the garment undefiled, he may attain to the blessedness of the 
 saints in Thy kingdom." 
 
 Coptic. 
 (i. 166, 7.) 
 
 " Make him a sheep of the Holy flock of Thy Christ, an elect member of 
 the Church Catholic, a clean vessel, a child of light, an heir of Thy kingdom, 
 that he may strive, according to the commands of Christ, and keep the seal 
 immovable, and preserve the garment incorruptible, and obtain the felicity of 
 Thy chosen, through Jesus Christ our Lord, through Whom, &c." 
 
 Revised Syriac. 
 (i. 220.) 
 
 After part quoted above, p. 38. " to the end that they may be sheep 
 
 of the true Shepherd, sealed with the seal of Thy Holy Spirit, and honora- 
 ble members in the body of Thy Holy Church, that they may be worthy of the 
 blessed hope, and of the appearing of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 
 Preface to Prayer, (i. 221.) 
 
 "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, the King 
 of Heaven, undefilable, invisible, the only wise God, in Whom the whole fami- 
 ly in heaven and on earth is named ; through Whom we have received ac- 
 cess ; in Whom we have been sealed unto the day of Redemption, Who in 
 Unity is conceived, and in Trinity is known, and beheved, and adored, and 
 glorified." 
 
 Prayer, (i. 223.) 
 
 " Now then, O Lord, lover of man, keep these Thy servants and Thy 
 
 maidens, who have known Thy truth, and approach to receive the mark of 
 adoption of sons." 
 
 Jb. i. 227, 8. Apostolic, by Severus, ii. 272. Maronite, by James ofSarug, ii.335. 
 
 " these Thy servants who are prepared for Holy Baptism, that in Thee 
 
 they may be marked to life, and born to spirituality, and be written in the 
 kindred of Thy promises, and so all the hurtfulness of the Adversary may de- 
 part far from their life, and Thy seal may be to them a cleansing and a pre- 
 servative." 
 
 Chaldee-Malalar. 
 Bidding Prayer by Deacon, (i. 178, 9.) 
 
 " — He delivered this Sacrament of Holy Baptism to the holy Apostles when 
 He sent them to call the people, and to the conversion of men ; and com- 
 manded them to make it the beginning of the faith, — and the sign of them who 
 were converted from error to the acknowledgment of the truth. But the 
 
117 
 
 theirs, in bringing new members to Him, and so, believing that He 
 anticipated a portion of His grace, to preserve them during the inter- 
 Apostles handed down this form to the priests and rulers of the flock of Christ, 
 to be to them a mark* and an instruction in all generations. And now be- 
 hold ! many are prepared to receive the gift of Baptism for the confession of 
 the precious Passion of our Saviour, their soul in faith and love conformable 
 to Him, who by regeneration renewed our nature, and remitted our sin, and 
 raised our fall, and they wait for the holy seal, and through the Baptism of 
 remission to become members, and conformed to Him who is the Head of the 
 Church, and first-born from the dead." 
 
 Thanksgiving for Baptism and Intercessory, ib. i. 183. 
 
 " Let us pray for these our sons and daughters, who are about to receive 
 the mark of life, renouncing Satan and all his works." 
 
 Prayer for Infants, Eight Days' Old. Greek, i. 121. Antioch, ib. i. 203. 
 
 " let the light of Thy countenance be marked upon this Thy servant, 
 
 and let the Cross of Thy Only-Begotten Son be marked upon his heart and 
 thoughts, that he may flee the vanity of the world, &c." 
 
 " Grant that Thy holy Name may abide upon him, that at the fitting hour 
 he may come to Thy Holy Cathohc, and Apostohc Church, and be perfected 
 by the awful Sacraments of Thy Clirist, and walk according to thy precepts, 
 and preserve unhurt the seal, and obtain the blessedness of thy chosen, through 
 the goodness, and loving-kindness towards man of Tliy Only-Begotten Son, 
 with whom Blessed art Thou, with Thy All-Holy, Good, and Life-giving 
 Spirit, now, &c." 
 
 Apostolic Syriac from Gre^A, by James ofEdessa. 
 (i. 263.) 
 
 " — Thou, Lord God, stretch forth the right hand of Thy mercy over this 
 Thy maid-servant, who is prepared for Holy Baptism, and sanctify and cleanse, 
 and brighten her by Thy sin-remitting hyssop, and bless and keep Thy people 
 and Thy heritage ; and as by Thy Baptism Thou hast clothed us with the robe 
 of glory, and the mark of the Holy Life-giving Spirit, &c." 
 
 Antioch, hy Severus. 
 (ii. 282, 3.) 
 
 " O Lord God, who entrustedst this spiritual ministry of Holy Baptism to 
 the godly Apostles, perfect now by us, Thy defiled and sinful servants, this 
 soul, which is prepared for Holy Baptism, that it may be adorned by the gifts 
 of the Holy Spirit, Who is given to it from Thee, that by Him it may be 
 marked unto life, and written among the children of grace, and raise to Thee 
 befitting praise, and to Thy Father, and to Thy Holy Spirit." 
 
 Maronite, by James, Bishop of Sarug. 
 Blessing, (ii. 316.) 
 
 "God, who hath called thee by His grace, and brought thee by His mercy 
 
 * " This hath made us a royal flock." Chrys. ad Eph. iv. " Through the 
 all -holy Spirit we have been made a divine flock." Theod. ad Eph. iv. See 
 also Note C- 
 
118 
 
 val until they are fully prepared for Baptism, they ventured to affix 
 His *' seal" on the Catechumens ;* or, after Baptism,! they again 
 
 to receive the holy marlt, He fit thee for the garment of redemption from the 
 waters of Baptism, that thou mayest be clothed with the robe of glory, through 
 the descent of the Holy Spirit, and be made meet for the adoption of sons 
 through Holy Baptism for ever." 
 
 Chaldee-Malabar. 
 
 Prayer on the Consecration of Oil to be mingled with the Water of Baptism. 
 
 (ii. 196, 7.) 
 
 " Now then also, Lord, let that great and divine Sacrament be perfected 
 through Thy grace, and may grace from the gift of Thy Holy Spirit come and 
 dwell and abide upon this oil, and bless it, and seal it, and sanctify it, in the 
 Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and let this oil of anoint- 
 ing be, by the power of Thy grace, such, that it may impart to those who are 
 anointed therewith in the life-giving impress, given in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, perfect and true holiness, and the 
 high participation in the kingdom of Heaven, in this Baptism, wherewith he is 
 baptized in the likeness of the Passion, and Death and Resurrection of our 
 Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ." 
 
 On pouring the Oil into the Font. (ib. 201.) 
 
 " These waters are signed and sanctified with the holy oil, that they may 
 become a new womb, bearing a spiritual birth through sin-remitting Baptism 
 in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and oftheHolyGhost, forever and 
 ever." 
 
 Syriac Hymn in Liturgy of Severus. (ii. 299.) Jerusalem, (ii. 237, 243, 260.) 
 "Descend, our brother who art sealed." 
 
 * Old Ambrosian. 
 Signing with Cross after Exorcism, (ii. 45, 50.) 
 
 " Receive the sign of the cross, keep the Divine commands ; to-day thou art 
 re-born by the word of God, and formed by heavenly light. Now, then, look 
 for the heavenly promises, and the coming of God Almighty, that thou mayest 
 hope for the coming of the Word incarnate, born of a Virgin, announced to 
 believers, by invocation of Whom thou art illuminated, and by whose seal 
 thou art marked in the forehead by this mark which shall not be effaced, 
 in the Name of f God the Father Almighty, and in the Name of f Jesus 
 Christ, His Son, who shall come to judge quick and dead, and the world by 
 fire. Amen. 
 
 " Grant that the inscription of the mark of the holy t cross of Thy Only-Be- 
 gotten, may protect this little one, ignorant of ill, &c." See further p. 60- 
 
 Old Roman. 
 
 Sacramentary of Gelassius (MS. of 7th cent. Ass. i- 4, 5.) Gregorian (ib. p.23,) 
 Tours (9th cent. ib. p. 44.) Beauvais (10th cent. p. 47.) Others, p. 49, 
 
 t See p. 122. 
 
119 
 
 visibly and formally affixed it, thereby representing to the mind what 
 has just been worked invisibly by the Holy Spirit. And since this 
 
 50, 52, 53. Poictiers (9th cent. i. 61, ii. 59.) Roman Ordo Bapt. Parvul. 
 (ii. 15.) Gellon (ii. 56.) Chelle (9th cent. ii. 61.) S. Germain (9th cent, 
 ii. 64.) Moisac (9th cent. ii. 67.) Gladbach (ii. 73.) Lodi (ii. 77.) Old 
 Limoges (ii. 84.) 
 
 Prayer in making Catechumens. 
 
 " Open to them the gate of Thy righteousness, that being endued with the 
 mark (signo) of Thy wisdom, they may be freed from the foulness of all evil 
 desires, and in the sweet savour of Thy commands, may serve Thee joyfully 
 in the Church, and profit from day to day, that they may be made meet to 
 approach to the grace of Thy Baptism, receiving the medicine." [^Grego- 
 rian. The same till " day to day," then " signed (signati) by the promises of 
 Thy grace, through Jesus Christ Thy Son, who will come to judge," &c. i. 
 23.] 
 
 " Lord, we beseech Thee, mercifully hear our prayers, and keep these Thy 
 elect by the virtue of the Cross of the Lord, with whose impress we mark 
 them, that retaining the rudiments of the greatness of glory, by the keeping 
 of Thy commandments, they may be accounted worthy to come to the glory 
 of the regeneration." 
 
 Exorcism. 
 
 Sacram. of Gelassius (i. 6.) Gregorian (i. 24.) Tours (i. 45.) Beauvais 
 (i. 46.) Remiremont (i. 47.) Others p. 50, 51, 52. Liege (i. 82.) Severinus 
 (i. 90.) Roman Ordo Bapt. Parvul. (ii. 16.) Chelle (ii. 61.) S. Germain 
 (ii. 64.) Moisac (ii. 67.) Limoges (ii- 85, 86.) 
 
 " By this holy mark of the Cross, which we place upon their foreheads, thou 
 accursed Devil, dare not to injure [them]" or, " This holy mark — dare not to 
 injure." (Liege, Limoges.) 
 
 Gothic and Old Gallican. 
 For an Infant. (Ass. i. 29.) 
 
 " Let them, Lord, before they know good or evil, be signed with the seal 
 of Thy Cross. 
 
 " Receive the seal of Christ ; take the words of God ; be enlightened by the 
 word of the Lord ; for this day hast thou been confessed by Christ. 
 
 " I sign* thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 
 * This form is found with variations in several of the Gallican forms : — 
 In MS. of Remiremont of 11th cent. — " Receive the seal of God the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (Gladbach, ii. 72.) I sign thee in 
 the forehead in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest trust in 
 Him ; I bless thine eyes, that thou mayest see His brightness ; ears, that thou 
 mayest hear the word of His truth ; nose, that thou mayest perceive the savour 
 of His sweetness ; breast, that thou mayest believe in Him ; shoulders, that 
 thou mayest take the yoke of His service ; mouth, that thou mayest confess 
 Him, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth for ever 
 and ever, Amen. (Ass. i. 47.) I sign thee with the seal of faith, in the Name 
 
120 
 
 was done in the form of the Saviour's cross, and the term " seal" ap- 
 pHed to that act of impressing the cross, and it is in itself the more 
 probable that the word " sealing" was connected with a correspond- 
 
 Ghost, that thou mayest be a Christian ; thine eyes, that thou mayest see the 
 brightness of God ; ears, that thou mayest hear the voice of the Lord ; nose, 
 that thou mayest smell the sweet savour of Christ ; speech, that thou mayest 
 confess Father, Son and Holy Ghost ; heart, that thou mayest believe the in- 
 divisible Trinity. Peace be with thee, through Jesus Christ." 
 
 Collect, (ib. 35.) 
 
 " — that the Enemy recognizing the impress (character) of the Divine in- 
 scription, may confess that what has now begun to be Thine, is alien from 
 him through the sign of the cross." 
 
 Greeh. 
 (i. 126.) 
 
 " Bless this child ; driving from him every power of the enemy through the 
 marking of the form of Thy Cross ; for Thou art the guardian of children, that, 
 having Holy Baptism vouchsafed to him, he may obtain a share with the Elect 
 of Thy kingdom, being guarded with us, by the grace of the Holy, and Con- 
 substantial, and undivided Trinity." 
 
 Apostolic by Severus. (ii. 278.) Revised Syriac. (i. 232.) Church of 
 Jerusalem, (ii. 250, 253.) 
 
 Before Abrenunciation. 
 
 " He is sealed in the Name of the Father, Amen f, and of the Son, Amen f, 
 and of the Living and Holy Spirit, Amen f, to life everlasting. Amen, 
 
 of, &c. I place the sign of the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, on thy fore- 
 head, &c." (Soissons, ib, 51. and others, p. 49, 53.) 
 
 " I sign thine eyes with the seal of God the Father, &c." (Jumiege, beg. of 
 11th cent. ii. 70.) 
 
 " The seal of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, keep thee 
 sound all thy life, that the Devil may have no power over thee, but the Divine 
 Trinity may reign in thee to life eternal, for ever and ever. Amen." (Ju- 
 miege, ii. 70.) 
 
 " I give thee the seal of our Lord Jesus Christ in thy right hand, that thou 
 mayest sign thyself, and defend thee from the adversary, and remain in the 
 Catholic Faith, and have eternal life, and live with the Lord for ever, world 
 without end." (Jumiege, ii. 70.) 
 
 " I sign thy forehead that Thou mayest receive the Cross of the Lord ; I 
 sign thy ears, that thou mayest hear the Divine commands ; I sign thine eyes, 
 that thou mayest see the brightness of God ; I sign thy mouth, that thou mayest 
 speak the words of life ; I sign thy breast, that thou mayest believe in God. 
 I sign thee altogether in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost, that thou mayest have eternal life, and live for ever and ever. 
 Amen." — (Modern Roman, ii. 23.) " Receive the seal of God the Father 
 Almighty, as well in thy forehead as in thy heart, that thou mayest be able to 
 fulfil the precepts of his law." (Id. ii. 92.) 
 
121 
 
 ing outward act, and such an outward act, " the seahng of the fore- 
 head" is actually spoken of by St. John, it is far the most likely that 
 
 Shorter form by Severus, in caise of Danger, ii. 301. 
 
 " He is sealed f to the glory of God the Father, f, to the acknowledgment 
 of the Only-Begotten Son, f, and to the worship of the All-holy Spirit." 
 
 Maronite. 
 ii. 316. 
 " N. is sealed as a lamb in the flock of Christ, who hath come to Holy Bap- 
 tism in the Name of the Father," &c. 
 
 Revised Syriac. (i. 234.) Apost. hy Severus, (ii. 279.) 
 JSxorcism. 
 " We call on Thee, Lord God, Creator of all visible and invisible ; and 
 placing our hands on this Thy creature, and sealing him in Thy Name, O 
 Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, &c." 
 
 Prayer, Short form by Severus, ii. 301. 
 " O God, lover of mankind, expel from this soul, which comes to approach 
 to Thy H0I5' Baptism, all spirits of wickedness by the mark of the Cross of 
 Thy Only-Begotten Son." 
 
 Maro7iite. 
 
 ii. 327. 
 
 After Exorcism. 
 
 " Now then I seal him, and protect him from all power of demons, in the 
 Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 Maronite. 
 ii. 330. 
 
 Benediction of Oil. 
 " Holy and Glorious, who by the anointing of His mysteries anointed to 
 Himself Prophets and Priests, that it might be a mark to the sheep of His 
 pasture ; Lord, let Thy Virtue come from the highest heights, and dwell in 
 this oil, that in it may be figured the mysteries of Thy Christ, and that it may 
 be a mark to the sheep of Thy flock, and a purifying Hyssop, and a pledge of 
 holiness to the bodies of Thy faithful." 
 
 Maronite. 
 
 ii. 332, 348. 
 
 " He is marked as a lamb in the flock of Christ with the living oil of the 
 
 Divine Anointing in the Name of the Living Father, to life, Amen ; In the 
 
 Name of the Living Only-Begotten Son to life. Amen ; In the Name of the 
 
 Holy Spirit to life everlasting. Amen." 
 
 ii. 334. 
 
 " O Lord, let Thy Living and Holy Spirit come, and dwell, and rest on the 
 head of this Thy servant, and let him be marked ixiThy Name, Li vin-j Father, 
 in the Name of Thy Only-Begotten Son, and of Thy Spiiit, the Comforter, 
 who remitteth our sins now, &c. And be the body of Thy servant and the 
 soul of Thy marked one, sanctified." 
 
122 
 
 St. Paul, when using this same word of the Corinthian and Ephesian 
 Churches, alluded to such an act, and that the use of the cross at 
 Baptism was coeval with Christian Baptism itself, which inserts us 
 into His Cross and Passion, and imparts to us its saving virtue. It 
 was plainly also a more pious act, which marked the first approaches 
 to Christian Baptism, in the admission to be Catechumens of the 
 Church, by the solemn impress of the Cross, and so brought them 
 in, as it were, within the outer court, and fenced them round by it, 
 than to leave them stray sheep as before, calling them only by the 
 voice of human shepherds, but in no solemn way of devotion, conse- 
 crating these beginnings of their return to the true fold, and to the 
 Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. 
 
 It would appear then, that the interpretation which perhaps most 
 among us would in the first instance have looked upon as cold and 
 formal, is certainly true ; and if so, it may well be a warning how we 
 
 Greek. 
 Anointing just before Baptism. (Rubric, ii. 143.) 
 
 " And he makes the mark of a cross on the forehead, chest and back, say- 
 ing, ' The servant of God , is anointed with the oil of gladness, in the 
 
 Name of, &c.' And he seals his chest, back, &c." 
 
 Maronite. 
 ii. 347. 
 " O Good Shepherd, and Finder of the lost, who with the mark of the Trin- 
 ity didst mark Thy flock, that they may be kept from fierce wolves, keep them 
 by Thy glorious Name." 
 
 j^ntioch hy Severus. 
 Hymn. (li. 297.) 
 " This is the oil which outwardly anoints the reason-endowed lamb, which 
 Cometh to Baptism. But the Holy Spirit seals it secretly, and Divinely in- 
 dwelleth and sanctifieth." 
 
 Brief form by Severus. (ii- 302.) 
 " He is sealed with the oil of gladness, that he may become worthy of the 
 adoption of sons through regeneration, in the name of the Father, Amen, and 
 of the Son, Amen, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen, to life everlasting. 
 
 After Baptism. Latin. (Gellon, ii. 55.) 
 " Afterwards he marks him in the forehead with a cross with Chrism say- 
 ing, ' The sign of Christ to life eternal. Peace be with you.' " 
 
 See further Note M, Baptismal Liturgies, signing with the Cross. 
 
 Syriac. 
 
 Short form by Severus. (ii. 305.) 
 
 " With holy Chrism the sweet savour of Christ, God, the seal of true faith, 
 
 and the completion of the gift of the Holy Spirit he is sealed in the Name 
 
 of the Father, Amen, and of the Son, Amen, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." 
 
123 
 
 hold any thing, which ties us down (as men speak) to Christ's Sacra- 
 ments, to be cold or formal ; for in this case it will be God's Holy 
 Spirit, which we have ignorantly suspected of teaching coldly and 
 lifelessly. Not as though the Ancient Church supposed the Apostle 
 here to speak of a sealing, which, having taken place once for all, 
 would then remain, as it were, on a lifeless mass of goods, or keep 
 us safe without any effort, self-denial or prayer ; but rather, that as a 
 living seal stamped upon our souls by the Spirit of life, and bearing 
 with it the impress of the Divine Nature, it would renew continually 
 in our souls the image of Him who created us, our Father, our Re- 
 deemer, our Sanctilier, make us more and more wholly His, more 
 partakers of that Nature ; and that we, having that " seal of God upon 
 our foreheads" (Rev. ix. 4.) and our hearts, the Angel of the bottom- 
 less pit should not have any power to hurt us, unless we allow it to be 
 obliterated. The difference between the two interpretations, as before 
 said, is this — the one would date this sealing from the time when any 
 man ceases to oppose the workings of God's Holy Spirit (which 
 might unobjectionably be spoken of under the name " conversion," if 
 the term were confined to denote the actual change of such a man, 
 not used to exclude the belief of previous gifts in Baptism) ; the 
 other would look upon it as our Saviour's gift in His Sacrament of 
 Baptism, wherein all the gracious influences of God's Holy Spirit, 
 as well those which any of us contumaciously reject as those which 
 we at last admit, are pledged to us in the " earnest" then given. 
 
 We may learn very much by all such instances, in which our own 
 (as we suppose Christian) views differ from the teaching of God's 
 word ; and were we to watch, and so correct also, all the instances 
 in which (with a but half-acknowledged repugnance or distate) we 
 glide over statements of doctrine, or practice, or history, which are 
 not in accordance with our state of feeling, we should learn far more, 
 and become far completer Christians, than we now are. For then 
 we should be indeed God's scholars, which we can hardly call our- 
 selves, as long as we make these self-willed selections of what we 
 will learn. Thus one, who looks upon the Lord's Supper as little 
 more than a commemorative sign of an absent thing, passes lightly 
 over our Saviour's words, " This is My Body." A former period 
 used to gloss over the doctrine of justification by faith. In these 
 days we seem almost to have lost sight of the truth, that we shall be 
 judged according to our works. Others omit passages bearing upon 
 the "godly consideration of predestination, and our election in 
 Christ," (Art. xvii.); others, the possibihty of our falling from God, 
 and its great danger ; and so again, the injunctions as to unceasing 
 prayer, self-denial, non-requital of injuries, vain ostentation, or the 
 glorifying of our Heavenly Father, are dispensed with without re- 
 morse, and read with what, if men examined it, they would find to 
 be the very spirit of unbelief. 
 
124 
 
 ii. 2. " And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and know all things. 
 Ye, then, let that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you ; for 
 if that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide 
 in the Son, and in the Father. — These things I have written unto you con- 
 cerning those who would lead you astray. And ye, the anointing which 
 ye received from Him, abideth in you, and ye have no need that any should 
 teach you, but as that same anointing teacheih you concerning all things, and 
 is true, and is no lie, and as it taught you, so abide in Him." (1 John ii. 20 
 —27.) 
 
 This mention by St. John of the " anointing" which Christians 
 had received from Christ, remarkably connects with the teaching of 
 St. Paul just dwelt upon ; and the argument is the same. In each 
 verse St. John speaks of it as abiding in its effects ; but in the latter 
 (ver. 27.) as having been received of Christ at some former time. 
 Here again, then, it might be natural to infer that a gift, whose ope- 
 ration continued, but which is spoken of as having been formerly 
 received, was first communicated at some particular time, and that 
 having been received from Christ, it was received through some in- 
 stitution of Christ. In like manner also the very term " anointing" 
 would lead one to think of an act in part outward ; and since it was 
 employed under the Jewish law to consecrate things or persons to 
 the service of God, it might the more obviously be used for the con- 
 secration of " lay-priesthood,"* as Baptism is called ; and that the 
 more, since our Blessed Saviour was actually consecrated and anointed 
 (comp. Luke iii. 21, 22 ; iv. 1, 14, 16.) by the descent and abiding 
 of the Holy Ghost at His Baptism, and then became the Christ ; 
 since, moreover, the same " sevenfold gifts" of the Holy Spirit, 
 which were bestowed upon the Christ at His Baptism (Is. xi. 2 ; Ixi. 
 1. Luke iv. 18.) are here spoken of by St. John, as having been in 
 their measure imparted to Christians ; and a past " anointing" (as we 
 saw was above) is by St. Paul (2 Cor. i. 21, 22,) united with the 
 past " sealing" of Baptism. This coincidence of expression in the 
 two Apostles is the more remarkable, in that these are the only pla- 
 ces in which they speak of the " anointing" of Christians. A more 
 close examination also of St. John's context brings his words very 
 strikingly in connection with our Saviour's commission to His disci- 
 ples, " to baptize all nations in the Name of the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost," since this " anointing" imparled saving knowl- 
 edge also,! the knowledge of the " truth" as opposed to Anlichris- 
 tian " falsehood," (ver. 21.) and that knowledge the confession of the 
 
 * Jerome adv. Lucif. c. 2. quoted by Bingham, b. xi. c. 1. 
 f A remarkable comment on this text, " as that anointing teacheth you," is 
 furnished by the words used in anointing, in the Coptic liturgy, " We anoint 
 thee in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God. 
 We anoint thee with the oil of instruction in the one holy Catholic and Apos- 
 tolic Church of God.. Amen." Ass. i. 148. 
 
125 
 
 Fathef and the Son ; " Whoso confesseth the Son hath the Father 
 also." (ver. 23.) 'I'he " truth" and the " chrism,''^ or " anointing," 
 whereby they knew Jesus to be the " Christ,'''' or "anointed," are 
 closely blended together, and are spoken of as almost identical, 
 "Let that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you," says 
 St. John, for so " shall ye abide in the Son, and in the Father ;" and 
 then immediately, " and ye, the Chrism which ye received of Him, 
 abideth in you," and as the consequence of this, " ye shall abide in 
 Him — that when He shall appear, we may not be ashamed at His 
 coming." So then by the " abiding" of the " chrism," which they 
 had formerly " received," there abode also in them truth which they 
 had at that same time heard, at the very " beginning," namely, of their 
 Christian life ; which truth, in whomsoever it abode, he " abode in 
 the Father and the Son," and " had the promise which He promised, 
 even eternal life." The words could hardly be more plainly shown 
 to belong to that period, when, in the language of the Fathers, that 
 good deposit was confided to them, thenceforth the partner and guide 
 of their life, and their companion in their passage out of it, the Con- 
 fession of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, wherewith 
 they were baptized, and brought up from Baptism."* 
 
 But besides this internal evidence from the comparison of Scrip- 
 ture itself, we have the authority of Christian antiquity to guide us in 
 interpreting it, in the very use of the name " the anointing" to des- 
 ignate Baptism ; and the early and general use of Chrism or anoint- 
 ing, as a holy and significant act thereat, and since it was part of 
 Baptism, a Sacramental act also.t And, as the language of St. John 
 
 * Greg. Naz. See above, p. 66, 67. 
 
 f See Note (G) at the end. The close connection of Confirmation vpith Bap- 
 tism is remarkably attested by the very fact of the extension of the word " seal" 
 to the gifts of the Holy Ghost in Confirmation. For it is unquestionable that 
 the primary use of the word " seal," both among the Fathers, (see above, p. 
 113- and Note E.) and the Liturgies, (see above, p. 141, sqq.) relates to Bap- 
 tism. In the Greek Liturgies also, Confirmation continues, as it originally 
 was, embodied in the Baptismal service, so that a part of the Baptismal ser- 
 vice is sung after the Confirmation has been bestowed. For upon the thanks- 
 giving for Regeneration, and prayer for " the seal of the gift of the Holy, and 
 Almighty, and Adorable Spirit," and that God would " confirm him in the true 
 faith," there follows the marking with the Cross with the words, " The seal of 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen ;" and then follow the Baptismal hymn, "All 
 ye, who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, Alleluia ;" and the 
 Baptismal lesson, (Rom. vi. 3 — 11.) and another from St. Matthew, xxviii. 16 
 — 20. (Goar. Eucholog. p. 355, 6. In two other arrangements of this office, 
 this " sealing" takes place during the Baptismal hymn, " All ye who have 
 been, &c." and there follows the 32d Psalm, " Blessed are they whose iniqui- 
 ties are forgiven," which was by the Ancient Church universally understood 
 of Baptism, (ib. 358, 9- and 362.) as also in a third in which the " seahng" is 
 performed by the priest, (p. 360.) In like manner in a Gallone Sacramentary 
 (Martene de Eccl. Rit. i. 1, 18. ordo 6.) that of Rheims, (ib. ord. 8.) Chelle, 
 (ord. 10. p. 70.) St. Germain's (ord. 11,) Moisac, (ord. 12,) Jumiege, (ord.13,) 
 
126 
 
 and St. Paul is connected, and St. Paul himself connects the " anoint- 
 ing" and the " sealing" in Baptism, so does Christian Antiquity (as 
 was shown) continually use the word " seal" of the several acts of 
 " anointing, which took place during that Sacrament. But whether 
 St. John (as seems to me most probable referred to a specific act at 
 Baptism, or to Baptism itself, as "making us kings and priests to 
 God," thus far makes no difference. What I would now advert to 
 is this, that Christian Antiquity interpreted these passages of Holy 
 Baptism, as being the source of our illumination, as of our sanctifi- 
 
 the Confirmation, (administered with the words, " the mark of Christ to eter- 
 nal hfe,") is inchaded in the Baptismal Office. Jt is to be remarked, that these 
 passages (which have been carefully brought together in a valuable series of 
 papers in the Brit. Mag. vol. xi. p. 421, 543, xii. 56, 663-) are altogether dis- 
 tinct from those in which the name " seal" is applied to the immediate rite of 
 Baptism ; but as Baptism, as a whole, is " the seal," so actions preparing for 
 it, or confirming it, are included under it, as in their degree, also " seals." — 
 This is confirmed by those fathers who speak most strongly of confii-mation, 
 and whom Romanists most employ in proving it to be a proper Sacrament. 
 For when St. Cyprian says, that imposition of hands is not sufficient for those 
 who have received heretical baptism, but that they " will then only be fully 
 sanctified, and be the sons of God, if they be born of each sacrament," (Ep. 
 72. ad Steph.) it is plain that he regards Confirmation as a part of Baptism, 
 since the new birth is the gift of God in Baptism, and was never thought to be 
 conferred by confirmation. (The same language is used by Nemesianus, Con- 
 cil. Carth. ap. Cyprian, quoted by Bingham, 12. 1. 4.) In like manner, but 
 yet further, Tertullian de Resurr. Carnis, c. 8, separates the sealing from the 
 anointing, as well as from the imposition of hands, " Caro ungitur, ut anima 
 consecretur ; caro signatur, ut et anima muniatur ; caro manus impositione ad- 
 umbratur, ut et anima Spiritu illuminetur ;" and yet no one would argue from 
 this, that he regarded the anointing, the marking with the cross, and the impo- 
 sition of hands, as, strictly speaking, three different sacraments, though they 
 are three different sacramental rites. So that whereas Bellarmine (de Sacr. 
 Confirm, c. 6.) argues from this description occurring between that of the act 
 of Baptism and the participation of the Holy Eucharist, that Confirmation is a 
 distinct Sacrament, equal to the two great Sacraments, it would better prove 
 five distinct Sacraments. See further, Bingham, 1. c. where he shows in like 
 way, that Optatus, so interpreted, would make three sacraments of Baptism, 
 Unction, and imposition of hands, and Pacian, of Baptism, Chrism, and the 
 words of the Priest. Other expressions, whereby Confirmation is most fre- 
 quently entitled, as " the complement of Baptism," imply the same, since no 
 one would call a distinct Sacrament the complement, filling up, perfecting, of 
 that of which it is not a part. No one ever, for instance, called the Holy Eu- 
 charist so. The above view is, I see, stated in so many words by Haimo, (ap. 
 Bingham, 1. c.) " The gift of the Holy Spirit is given in Baptism by the im- 
 position of the Bishop's hands." It is plain also that those passages of the 
 fathers, which speak of the gift of the Spirit, as belonging peculiarly to Con- 
 firmation, are to be understood (as indeed their words convey) of an especial 
 strengthening and confirming grace, (which our Church holds) not as though 
 Baptism conferred simply remission of sins, and the gift of the Spirit were 
 altogetlier reserved for confirmation ; both because they hold Baptism to 
 be " the birth of water and the Spirit," and themselves repeatedly affirm 
 the Spirit to be given in Baptism. See above, p. 22, 30,34, &c. and (on the 
 passages of St Cyprian) Bp. Bethell on Bapt. Regen. c. 6. p. 85, note ed. 2. 
 
127 
 
 cation ; while moderns find, under the term " anointing," the gifts of 
 the Holy Spirit, or grace, or wisdom, or the Blessed Spirit Himself, 
 as anointing Christians either immediately, or mediately through the 
 ministry of the word, — any thing in short rather than the institution 
 of our Blessed Saviour. And I would wish persons to consider 
 whether this do not imply a changed feeling, a less vivid recognition 
 of the value of the " means of grace," and an independence of ordi- 
 nances which is less humble than the frame of mind of the early 
 Christians. 
 
 ii. 3. It was remarked on the above passages, wherein mention is 
 made of our "sealing" and "anointing," that they are spoken of as 
 having taken place at a definite past time. This would obviously be 
 the mode of speaking of privileges or gifts solemnly bestowed at one 
 period of the Christian life, however their effects may and ought sub- 
 sequently to endure. Birth is one gift, though it would not profit us 
 to have been born, unless the being, thus bestowed, were afterwards 
 upheld by His Fatherly care ; there is but one commencement of 
 life, although that life must afterwards be matured, sustained, guard- 
 ed, strengthened ; one engrafting of the weak and sickly scion into 
 the health-giving stock, although it must ever after " abide in the 
 vine," if it is to " bear fruit," and not " be cast forth as a branch and 
 withered ;" one adoption into the family, though it be by His mercy 
 that any is enabled to walk worthy of that adoption, and is retained 
 in it ; one fountain of life, though, unless it flow on, our life will be 
 dried up ; one rising of the sun, although His rays must continually 
 lighten our path, else should we walk on in darkness. And so, while 
 we bear in mind the continued gifts of His goodness, in the life 
 which He upholds ; the fatness of the olive-tree, which He imparts ; 
 the membership of the family, which He continues ; the stream, or 
 the light, which He pours within us ; still there is eminently one 
 date, from which all these present blessings are derived, differing 
 from them in so far as it is one, the sun-rising, the engrafting, the 
 adoption, the birth ; one act, transitory as an act, athough abiding 
 in its effects. Now this is precisely the mode of speaking which 
 Scripture uses in making mention of our Christian privileges. When 
 it speaks to individuals, it uniformly refers them back to that act, 
 from which their present privileges were derived ; it speaks of the 
 gifts, as having been conferred in the past, though they are continued 
 on to the present to such as have not forfeited them. But this is 
 not the way in which the school of Calvin, having unlearned the val- 
 ue of the Sacraments, would speak. To them, Justification must of 
 necessity be simply present ; it cannot have any date, except in the 
 opinion of such as hold that every real Christian must be able to as- 
 sign the precise moment of his conversion ; and these are now com- 
 paratively few. For since they reject justification through the Sa- 
 crament of Baptism, and hold it to be simply the result of the act of 
 
128 
 
 faith apprehending Christ, laying hold of His merits, and applying 
 them to Itself, this justification must necessarily consist in a number 
 of repeated acts, each separately wrought in the soul by the agency 
 of the Holy Spirit, but none differing in kind from another, so that 
 the one should be the cause, the rest the result. Justification then 
 must be to them continually and simply present ; not as the result 
 of any thing past,* but as consequent upon their present act of casting 
 themselves on the Redeemers merits ; they have been, they trust, 
 and are, justified ; but their present justification is the result, they 
 think, simply of their present faith ; and so at each former time their 
 then act of reliance on His merits M^as the means of their justi- 
 fication, it was then to them the present source of justification ; 
 and, in like manner, in such as persevere, to the end. These would 
 take up the words of St. Paul, as they stand in our English Bibles, 
 and would be interpreted according to our present idiom, t " There- 
 fore being justified by faith, we have peace with God ;" '* much 
 more then, being now justified by His blood ;" " but ye are wash- 
 ed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the 
 TiOrd Jesus ;" as exactly expressing their meaning. It is then very 
 remarkable, in contrast with these views, that Holy Scripture never 
 speaks of justification with regard to individuals, simply as present ; 
 
 * This is the more remarlcably illustrated in a recent A'ery popular work of a 
 Dissenting missionary, in that the writer, when called upon to minister, in a 
 case of extreme distress, seems to have had no notion that Baptism made 
 any difference at all in a person's state. A mother sent to him in great agony 
 on her death-bed, on account of the infanticides of which she had been guilty, 
 when a heathen. " I began to reason with her, and urged the consideration, 
 that she had done this when a heathen, and ' during the times of ignorance, 
 which God winked at ;' but this afforded her no consolation. I then directed 
 her to the ' faithful saying, which is worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Je- 
 sus came into the world to save sinners.' This imparted a little comfort ; and 
 after visiting her frequently, and directing her thoughts to that Blood, which 
 cleansei/t from all sin, I succeeded, by the blessing of God, in tranquillizing 
 her troubled spirit ; and she died about eight days after my first interview, 
 animated with the hope, that 'her sins, though many, would all be forgiven 
 her.' And what but the gospel could have brought such consolation'?" — 
 Williams's S. Sea Islands, p. 480, 1. Consolation is not the main object of the 
 Gospel, yet the Gospel would have brought much more consolation, had this 
 teacher known it all, and could have told her of the " one Baptism for the re- 
 mission of sins," that "she had been washed, had been cleansed;" and so could 
 he have declared authoritatively, without altering our Lord's own words, 
 "Thy sins are forgiven." 
 
 t The words, " being justified," meant according to the translators, " being 
 in a justified state," just as in the Collect for Christmas Day, they translated 
 " renati," " being regenerate," meaning " being persons regenerated or re- 
 born," which is equivalent to "having been regenerate-" The controversy 
 some years back, which would interpret this as a prayer for regeneration, is a 
 curious illustration of the effect of modern notions in altering the meaning of 
 ancient language. 
 
139 
 
 it never says strictly, '* ye being justified," but uniformly " ye hav- 
 ing been justified," and so refers to a past act, whereby they were 
 justified once for all, or placed *' in a state of salvation" or justifica- 
 tion, wherein they were to abide or to be kept. And this usage is 
 the more remarkable in that the other form '' being justified" is used 
 as often as Scripture would speak of God's method of grace in the 
 abstract, without reference to individuals. Thus St. Paul to the Ro- 
 mans, " Therefore having been justified {iiKaioyQtvTa) by faith, we 
 have i^xoh'^") peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
 whom also we have received {i<'x'"^ai'ci') access into this grace, and re- 
 joice (.Kavx'^fcda) [yi hopc, &c," So again, (ver. 9.) " Much more then 
 having now been justified (^S'xatuidivTes") by His Blood, we shall be 
 saved.' " If being enemies we were reconciled {"arnWdYriiicv) much 
 more having been reconciled* (faraXXaytvrej) shall we be saved." (ver. 
 10.) " By whom we have ?iow received (£Ad/?j//ei') the atonement." 
 (ver. 11.) Bat as soon as St. Paul has to declare this as a general 
 statement of God's dealings with regard to His whole purpose of 
 mercy, and without respect to individuals, the present is used. 
 Thus in ver. 17. " they which receive {^^ajidavovrcs'^ tbe abundance of 
 grace — shall reign in life." "It is God which justifietK^ (Jncaiwi';) 
 ** all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified 
 (SiKaioijitvoi,'^ &c. And so in like manner to the Galatians, " a man is 
 not justified (<5"catoCra<) by the works of the law ;" (ii. 16.) " the 
 Scripture foreseeing that God justifie^^ (Ji/coior ) the heathen through 
 faith ;" (iii. 8.) " that no man is justified ('5"f<MoS'-a') by the law ;" (iii. 
 11.) but when he speaks of individuals, he again uses the past, 
 " Sucht were some of you ; but ye were washed {aKcXoiaaa&c,^ but ye 
 were sanctified (^yacfli",) but ye were justified (j^'fiiweurt,) ^ the 
 Name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God ;" "He sav- 
 ed (£<7t<'<r«>') us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost — that having been justified (<5<'(aiwe£Vr«) by His grace, we 
 may become heirs." (Tit. iii, 5 — 7.) And so both St. James and 
 St. Paul, speaking of the specific act of faith involving obedience, 
 whereby Abraham was justified, say, the one, " if Abraham were 
 justified;'''' the other ^^loas not Abraham our Yd^ihev justified? (both 
 i6tKaii:>dn) 5 but the general proposition which each derives from this 
 example, they express in the present ; (iv. 5.) St. Paul, " to him 
 that worketh not, but believeth {T^ordovTi^ on Him that justifieth (''"^a'- 
 ovira) the ungodly ;" St. James, " Ye see, then, how that by works 
 a man is justified (<5<taioCra<,) and not by faith only." And so it is uni- 
 versally true, that there is no one place in Holy Scripture, in which 
 individuals are spoken of otherwise than as having been justified, 
 while the use of the other form, whenever individuals are not spoken 
 
 * E. V. " being justified" (throughout,) " have access," " being reconciled." 
 t 1 Cor. vi. 11. *^ are washed; are sanctified — are justified. — E. V. 
 VOL, II 5 
 
 ) 
 
130 
 
 of, shows the more that there was some reason for relinquishmg that 
 form, and adopting this, so soon as they are. And this is, that the 
 justiticalion of individuals is not simply the result of their present 
 belief, (in which case it would be most natural as moderns do, but 
 as Holy Scripture never does, to speak of it in the present,) but was 
 conferred upon them through the " one Baptism for the remission of 
 sins ;" which being a past act, so must the justification thereby con- 
 ferred be spoken of, as having taken place in past time. 
 
 And this characteristic mode of speaking is not confined to the 
 word "justified" only; it runs through the whole Apostolic Epis- 
 tles, as being written to baptized persons ; so that, while the fruits 
 of the gifts of Baptism, as victory over the world, being temples of 
 the Holy Ghost, are spoken of as present, ("yea in all these things 
 we are more than conquerors," vvcpviKUfau, Rom. viii. 37., " ye are (''"■0 
 the temple of the Holy Ghost :" 1 Cor. iii. 16.) the gift is uniformly 
 spoken of as past. More than this, the gift is spoken of as having been 
 conferred once for all, (it is expressed by a tense which denotes 
 what has been done once for all,) and just as our Saviour's Death is 
 spoken of as having taken place once for all, although the fruits of 
 that precious death continue, and shall continue for ever ; so also its 
 atoning, justifying, sanctifying influences are spoken of as having 
 been imparted to us through Baptism, which took place once for 
 all ; though to the faithful they be afterwards continued, and enlarged 
 in them. Thus, in addition to the passages already adduced out of 
 the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul says, "we died* with Christ," 
 (in Baptism, to which the context refers;) "but having been wade 
 free from sin {i'^tvBcpoiOivTei) ye were made servants {iiovXwQnrt) xo right- 
 eousness."t The act whereby they were made free, is as much 
 past as their former slavery. " Thanks be to God that ye were 
 C?") the servants of sin, but ye obeyed {i^riKovaaTc) that form of doc- 
 trine into which ye were delivered," or cast, as in a mould i^apMenTc.) 
 " Ye were slaves to sin," " were free from righteousness ;" but now 
 having been made free from sin, and having been made servants 
 {tKivQcpt^QivTEi, iov\<jiQivTti) to God, yc havc," &c. (^V"-) " So then, my 
 brethren, ye also loere deadened^ ieOavardenre) to the law through the 
 body of Christ." " But now, having died (dToOdvovra)^ vve were made 
 free {.xarnpyfiOni'i^i') from the law." And so after describing in the 
 seventh chapter the slavery of the unregenerate, St. Paul proceeds 
 in the eighth to speak of the freedom which, by a past act, had been 
 
 * dTrcBavojicv. Rom. vi. 8. E. V. " be dead." 
 
 f Rom. vi. 18, 22. " being mdide free, he became." E.V. ver. 18, "and be- 
 come." ver. 22, " have obeyed." ver. 17. 
 
 t Rom. vii. 4, 6. " are become dead," " that being dead," " are delivered." 
 
 § Griesbach's and Scholz's reading. The other reading, dKoQavovroi, is, as 
 to the argument, the same. 
 
1^' 
 
 given him, " The law of the Spirit of life freed me"* (^>^«0£><j'^« ;) and 
 this is spoken of just as much as past, as the Atonement of which it 
 was the application ; " for what the law could not do, — God having 
 sent (T£>'/'aO His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, 
 condemned (-""■£>"£) sin in the flesh ;" while the fruits of both are 
 spoken of in the present, " that the righteousness of the law might 
 be fulfilled in us, who walk (^tp'TuroCan.) not after the flesh," Again, 
 " ye received not (iXn/Jt") the spirit of bondage, — but ye received\ 
 (iXaffcre) the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry {"p^o^icv) Abba, Father." 
 " We ourselves, having (£%'»'"?) the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan 
 within ourselves ; — for in hope wereX we saved" (tawdniicv. ) Again, 
 as to the failure of Israel to attain justification, "the Gentiles a^^aiw- 
 ed ("artXaPe) rightcousness ; but Israel attained (^(pda^c) not to the law 
 of righteousness ; for they stumbled {-^pootKoxpav) at that stone ;" — they 
 submitted themselves {y^^raXnaw) not to the righteousness of God." 
 And in the same way is their faith spoken of as one past act. " Now 
 is our salvation nearer than when we believed"^ {iTTt(TT€v<Ta^cv ;) i, e. not 
 simply as moderns paraphrase it, " when we Jirst believed," but 
 that first and single act, which made us faithful and believers, our 
 Baptism. 
 
 To examine the next Epistle. — In the first Epistle to the Corinth- 
 ians, St. Paul, at the very outset, gives thanks that " ye tvere\\ made 
 rich ( i-TXovriaOrjTt) in Christ, even as the testimony of Christ was con- 
 firmed (£/?£^aiw0»)) in you ; so that ye come behind {-v^Ttpuaeai) in no 
 gift ;" their present fulness of gifts was the result of that past en- 
 riching, which was the earnest also of the future — " waiting (d'T^v^f- 
 xoiiivovi) the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who also ivill con- 
 firm you i^cPaiuxrei) {q tho end unblameable in the day of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Faithful is God, by whom ye were called (wX/j9»;r£) to 
 the communion of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." In like man- 
 ner, of their justification, " Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who be- 
 came to us i^Y^vfidt)) wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sancti- 
 fication, and redemption." Again, as before in the Epistle to the 
 Romans, *' We received {iXaHo^ev) not the spirit of the world, but the 
 Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which were 
 freely given (x<^pt<rOcvTa) us of God."1[ And " ministers, through 
 whom ye believed''''** (£Ti<rr£war£;)and this act is spoken of as being as 
 much past as the sacrifice of Christ — " Christ, our Passover, was 
 sacrificedtt C^"'*'") for us ;" " know ye not that your body is the tem- 
 
 * Ver. 3. " hath made me free." E. V. f Ver. 15. " have received." E. V. 
 
 I Ver. 24. "We are saved by hope." E. V. ^ Chap. xiii. 11. 
 
 II 1 Cor. i- 5. "are enriched." E. V. 
 
 ■|[ 1 Cor. ii, 12. " have received — art given." E. V. 
 
 ** iii. 5. 
 
 ft V. 7. " is sacrificed." E. Y. Such a case as this show^s the meaning of 
 the E. V. and that " is sacrificed," is, in its language, equivalent to "has been 
 sacrificed," being, perhaps, a Latinism from " sacrificatus est-^'' 
 
133 
 
 pie of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and 
 ye are not your own, for ye were bought inyopdiretiTc) with a price."* 
 " Wert thou called as a servant— ^he that ivas called (fAueaj) as a ser- 
 vant, is the Lord's freeman ; likewise also he that was called as a 
 freeman, is the servant of Christ ; ye ivere bought with a price, be- 
 come not servants of men. Let each wherein he was called, bre- 
 thren, therein abide with God."t And in the same way exactly is 
 the act of Baptism itself spoken of ; "for in One Spirit were we all 
 baptized {tPaTTTiaenixsp) into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whe- 
 ther bond or free ; and were all made to drink (tToi-iVen/i") into One 
 Spirit.":}: Lastly,^ " I declare unto you the Gospel, which I 
 preached unto you, which also ye received (^aptXiffcTt,) and wherein 
 ye stand, by which also ye are saved, [or are in a state of salva- 
 tion,] if ye holdfast the word I preached unto you, unless ye believ- 
 ed (i-^'i^rcioaTe) in Vaiu." 
 
 It would be a dry way of handling Holy Scripture, to pursue this 
 examination through every Epistle ; and the object is attained when 
 this peculiarity of Scripture language has once been set before our 
 eyes : any one can, with the original text, observe it for himself 
 throughout. Yet may it be worth while to present the results as to 
 those two of St. Paul's Epistles, which first gave occasion to these 
 remarks, in that they speak of the past " sealing" of Christians : the 
 2d to the Corinthians, and that to the Ephesians. The instances in 
 that to the Corinthians are also comparatively few, in that that Epis- 
 tle is more occupied with subjects relating to the subsequent beha- 
 viour and relations of his converts ; in that to the Ephesians, on the 
 other hand, they are extremely condensed, on account of the fulness 
 wherewith St. Paul sets forth to this spiritual Church the mysteries 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 The earliest instance in the Epistle to the Corinthians has already 
 been dwelt upon at large ;1! and the Apostle uses the same language, 
 in part, in another place, where in the midst of speaking, in present 
 time, of his then condition, " we who are in this tabernacle groan, 
 being burthened, {Papoijuvot,,) not that we wish (fi'^o/^t*') to be unclothed," 
 &c., he inserts the mention of that act of God, whereby he was 
 qualified thus to " long to be clothed upon, that mortality might be 
 swallowed up of life ;" and in so doing he immediately reverts to 
 the past, as speaking of a past act ; " but He that wrought us% 
 {xaTtpyacanevoi, mouldcd US,) for this samc thing is God, who also gave 
 
 * vi. 20. " are bought." E. V. 
 
 t vii. 17 — 24, " hath distributed — hath called ;" E. V. and then " is any call- 
 ed — art thou called — he that is called — are bought — is called." 
 1 xii. 13. " are baptized ;" E.V. " but have been all made." 
 \ XV. 1. 2. 
 I See p. Ill, sqq. 
 •|12 Cor. v. 3 — 8. "hath wrought us— hath given us." E. V. 
 
133 
 
 us (^ »<»' ^»*0 the earnest of the Spirit." This having been done, the 
 Apostle reverts to the account of his present state ; " we then, being 
 confident (Oappowrss.) and knowing that, being present in the body, we 
 are absent [are in a state of absence] from the Lord, for we walk 
 [are walking] by faith, not by sight, we are confident, {dappaviiev) I say, 
 and choose rather {^vioKSfiev,)"* &c. 
 
 The second passage in the Epistlef furnishes an instance of that 
 accuracy of language, which our modern languages cannot fully pre- 
 serve, in distinguishing between an act which has taken place once 
 for all, and one which continues, not in its effect only, but in itself, 
 up to the present time ; " Ye are our Epistle, known and read" [in 
 present time] " of all men, being made manifest that ye are the Epis- 
 tle of Christ, which was ministered (StaKovnOcTaa) by us, having been 
 written {tyyeypannivn) not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living 
 God." Here the transient act of the Apostle, in bringing them to 
 Christ, and writing His letter, as His servant and scribe as it were, 
 within them, is distinguished from the abiding operation of the Holy 
 Spirit, which continued to engrave in their hearts His holy teaching, 
 now as heretofore. At the end of the same chapter, a course of 
 action continually in progress, (as this also was,) but in that case 
 spoken of without reference to any earlier special date in the Chris- 
 tion Hfe, is expressed in a different way, in present time ; " but we 
 all, with unveiled face, contemplating, as in a glass, the glory of the 
 Lord, are being tr ansformed (pcTaitopcpoipsda) from glory to glory, as by 
 the Spirit of the Lord;" i. e. while the Jews having the veil upon their 
 hearts, could not see through the shadows of the Mosaic law, or 
 "to the end of that dispensation which had an end," Christians, gaz- 
 ing, with unveiled face, as in a mirror, on His glory, caught on their 
 own countenances the reflection of that glory, and ever, as they gazed 
 more intently upon Him, " the Author and Finisher of their faith," 
 that they might receive His impress upon themselves, they " receiv- 
 ino" grace for grace," were daily in the course of being transformed 
 from one degree of inward glory to another, or became daily more 
 partakers of His glory. 
 
 In the next verse,| the Apostle speaking of himself, opposes, in 
 like manner, as cause and effect, God's fi7'st act of mercy towards 
 him, and his own first renunciation of what was contrary to His will, 
 to his subsequent conduct : he says not simply, " as we have ob- 
 tained mercy," but " as we obtained mercy," iji>^ti}dnpi:v, gg -we were 
 compassionated, once for all,) " we faint not, but we renounced 
 {diTUJTipeda, bade farewell to) the hidden things of shame, not tvalking" 
 (jtpiTrarovi^Tei,) &c. ; and of Christians generally, " for God who bade 
 {dnw) light to shine out of darkness, is He who shone ii>^(ippcy) in our 
 
 * See p. 111. sqq. 
 
 t C. iii. 2, 3. 
 
 X 2 Cor. iv. 1. *' have received mercy— have renounced." E. V. 
 
134 
 
 hearts ;"* where God's first pouring of hght into the Christian's soul 
 is compared to that transient Creative act, whereby He said, " Let 
 there be Hght, and there was hght." Of the same kind, lastly, as 
 that passage in which St. Paul spoke of himself as the scribe of 
 Christ, is that wherein he speaks of his present jealousy over the 
 conduct of the Corinthian Church, as the result of his having had the 
 ministry of betrothing that Church to Him. " / am jealous] i^n^^) 
 over with you with a godly jealousy ; for I espoused (hpfoaifin^) you to 
 One Husband — but / fear lest as the serpent deceived (^n^^maev) 
 Eve, — For if he who cometh preach another Gospel which we 
 preached {iKipi^afcv) not, or ye receive (^"^/'""'^'■O another Spirit, which 
 ye received not (£Xa/?£r£,) or another Gospel, which ye obtained not 
 (miacOeV^ — where the first preaching of St. Paul, and their first receiv- 
 ing of the Spirit, are spoken of acts which equally took place once 
 for all ; as afterwards he says, " being crafty, I caughtX you Ct^a/^oi/) 
 with guile." 
 
 In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the instances of this mode of 
 speaking lie very close together : to mention them is almost to tran- 
 scribe the beginning of the Epistle : " Blessed^ be God, who blessed 
 us U<'^oyit<,ai) -with all spiritual blessings in Christ," [i. e. who by en- 
 grafting us in Christ, blessed us with all blessing,] " as He chose 
 us out m^y<^k'^ro) in Him before the foundation of the world, having 
 predestinated us (fpoop.vas) to the adoption of sons, through Jesus 
 Christ unto Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, where- 
 by He made us acceptable (.ixH'^ri^atv) u^io Himself in the Beloved, 
 in whom we have'^ [as a present possession,] " redemption through 
 His Blood, according to the riches of His grace, wherewith he 
 abounded {.ivcpwaevctv) unto us, having made knoiun (yviopiirai) to us 
 the mystery of His will, according to His own good pleasure, which 
 He purposed {^poiQero) in Himself, for the dispensation of the fulness 
 of times, to gather together all things in Christ, in whom we also 
 were chosen to an inheritance, having been predestinated (tKUp<idiine)> 
 jrpoofiia9£Vr«) accordiug to His purpose, who tvorketh (^^''epyovi'TOi'^ all 
 things after the counsel of His will ;" whereupon follows the 
 passage already dwelt upon.|| And yet in all this exalted descrip- 
 tion of our Christian privileges, wherein he carries us into the inner 
 shrine of God's purposes of mercy, and of our election and predes- 
 tination in Him, all is spoken of as past, except the treasure which 
 we have of being redeemed, and His might working and completing 
 all things ; He did " bless," " made us acceptable," " abounded 
 
 * Ver. 6. " hath shined." E. V. 
 
 t 2 Cor. xi. 2—4. t ^ii- 16. 
 
 ^ Eph. i. 3 — 11. " Hath blessed — hath chosen — hath made us accepted — 
 hath abounded — hath purposed— have obtained an inheritance, JeiTijg' predesti- 
 nated." E. V. 
 
 I See p. HI. sqq. 
 
135 
 
 toward us," " made known to us the mystery of His will," " chose 
 us to an inheritance," " sealed us" in time past ; just as, before time 
 was. He "predestinated," " chose us out to be adopted as sons," 
 " purposed His good pleasure towards us in Christ," or as, in time 
 past, they thus spoken of had " heard {'^'^oiuavrci) the word of truth, the 
 good tidings of salvation ; had believed in Christ," <,^i<^rti<!avTei.) 
 
 In this place St. Paul speaks chiefly of God's eternal purpose of 
 mercy, and sets forth, as an effect of this, the past realizing of that 
 mercy to them by that act, whereby they " were sealed ;" in the 
 next chapter he contrasts that same completed act of mercy with 
 their past disobedience, and with the past meritorious act of His 
 saving Cross, and His Resurrection and Ascension, whereof he 
 maketh His Church, as His Body, to partake. " And you, being 
 {Svrai) dead in tresspass and sins, in which ye formerly walked ('r£p'«'f«- 
 Tfiaart,) accordiug to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who 
 now worketh (t'-tpyCiroO in the children of disobedience, among whom 
 we all also had our conversation (<i''«<f'-pd<^n/is^) in the lusts of our flesh, 
 and were (^f «") by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, but God 
 being rich in mercy, through His great love, wherewith He loved us 
 (nydTTnaev)^ quickened together with Christ {'rvci^^onoint'c) us, even when 
 dead in trespasses (by grace have ye been and are ye saved, f""« 
 (re<T(j<rnivot) and raised us together, and placed us together with Him in 
 heavenly places in Christ Jesus," (i, e. made us partakers of His 
 Life, His Resurrection, His Ascension into Heaven, in that he made 
 us members of Him, who is the Life, and as having life, rose again, 
 and ascended into Heaven, and we were made " in Him.^'' The very 
 language (besides the immediate connection of this passage) carries 
 us back to the doctrine of the Epistle to the Romans, wherein we 
 are declared to be made by Baptism partakers of His Resurrection. 
 St. Paul proceeds, " For by grace are ye, and were ye saved through 
 Faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, 
 lest any should boast, for we are His workmanship, having been 
 created {KTiaQivTa) in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before 
 prepared (.nponToiiia(Tev,) that we should walk in them ;" i. e. God first 
 re-created us in Christ (the very words in Christ lead us to Baptism, 
 whereby we were made members of Him) not for any works of our 
 own, but of his own free-grace, that having been so re-created, we 
 might walk in those works, which He had prepared for us to walk 
 in. " Wherefore, remember," he proceeds, " that ye formerly, 
 Gentiles in the flesh, were ("J") at that time without Christ ; but now 
 in Christ Jesus, ye once being afar off, have been made near'''' (}ytvn- 
 Onrc.) And then having spoken of the past acts of our redemption, 
 that He had broken down the wall of partition, had destroyed the 
 law of commandments in ordinances, had slain the enmity in His 
 Cross, had by-ought the good tidings of peace (^'5<raf, xarapyfiaas, avoKTHvas^ 
 tinyyeXiaaro,) he says, " Yc then are now — fellow-citizens of the saints, 
 
136 
 
 and of the household of God, having been built (<5Touo5o^»,9£m{) upon 
 the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself 
 being the chief corner-stone, in Whom the whole building being Jitly 
 framed together, groweth (^<^v''apfio>.oyevfiivn aii^ci) into a holy temple, in 
 the Lord, in Whom ye are being built up together ((^"voi/to^o/iticrtfe) for 
 an habitation of God through the Spirit ; where there is the same 
 blending, and yet distinction between the former acts of our Lord for 
 us, either in his own Person, or in us, and His continued operation 
 in us, as having thus been made in Him through the Spirit for the 
 fuller indwelling of the Spirit. 
 
 It may be useful to point out briefly, in conclusion, that the same 
 is the case with regard to some texts, which are often alleged in a 
 popular way : thus St. Paul says, " I through the law" [not " am 
 dead," but] " died" [diriOavo,''^ to the law, that I might live to God. I 
 have been and am crucified with Christ [(rvvtaraipoyjiat,^ yet I live (f^;) 
 yet not I, but Christ liveth {^'i) in me ; and what I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave 
 himself {ayairrjaavTOi Ku.mapaidvTOi'^ for mc." Thc passago remarkably and 
 accurately expresses i\\epast act of Christ's love, in giving Himself 
 for him, and St. Paul's past act of dying to the law, when he was 
 made partaker of the Death of Christ, and " was buried with Him 
 by Baptism into death," (Rom. vi. 3.) and, again, a past act when he 
 was " made fpartaker of His Cross," (as St. Chrysostom says^ " by 
 Baptism,") but this last still continued on, inasmuch as he not only 
 professed the doctrine of the Cross, but bore his Saviour's Cross 
 after Him, and so the old man, having been crucified with Him, re- 
 mained crucified ; and lastly, there is the new and^esenHife, which 
 is the result of that death in Baptism : and so he says, strictly and 
 carefully, " I died" " I have been crucified," yet " I live" or rather 
 " Christ liveth in me." And so, at the close of the Epistle,* he dis- 
 tinguishes these two last, '^ God forbid that I should glory save in 
 the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world has been 
 crucified unto me, and I unto the world," (not assuredly by the mere 
 preaching of the Cross, as if, at the hearing of the preaching of the 
 Cross, he had been persuaded to " crucify himself ;" St. Paul says 
 rather, " he had beeii crucified," not by his own power or strength, 
 but in Baptism he had been crucified with his Lord, and so had, by 
 the power given him, remained,) " for in Christ Jesus neither is cir- 
 cumcision any thing, nor uncircumcision, but the new creation ;" i. e. 
 it matters not, as he elsewhere says,t whether any one were called, 
 being circumcised or un circumcised ("for circumcision is nothing, 
 and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping the commandments 
 of God,") these were but outward distinctions, now abohshed; and 
 though his own circumcision had been a privilege, it was so no longer ; 
 
 • Gal. vi. 14, 15. f 1 Cor. vii. 18, 19. 
 
137 
 
 God forbid that he should glory in it, now that the shadows have been 
 done away by the reahty ; no ! his boast was now his new creation 
 in Christ, wherel)y the world had been crucified to him, and he to 
 the world. The world was around him, in his sight, but he had no 
 hands to grasp it, nor feet to follow after it ; his hands and feet were 
 nailed to his Saviour's Cross ; and himself new created and removed 
 into a new creation, looked on it, as we on the toys of our childhood: 
 it belonged to a state of things, from which he had passed away. 
 But here again we have the same two points marked ; past, though 
 enduring, crucifixion, and present life, in a new state of being. 
 
 To sum up, then, we have here a remarkable peculiarity, apparent 
 throughout the Divine language, in all the Epistles to which men 
 appeal as setting forth f^eiV notions of "justification," and "faith;" 
 uniform in its principles, and precise and definite in its application. 
 Whenever the justification of individuals is spoken of, it is expressed 
 that that justification was bestowed upon them in time past, by one 
 act, once for all ; it is spoken of as passive on their part, and as com- 
 plete ; " they were justified;" and so in like way it is not said, " we 
 are freed from sin ;" but, " Christ /reec/ us,"* "freed me,"t " having 
 been made free ;"| as, before it came to pass. He said, " the Truth 
 shall make you free,"§ or as it remains that " the creature" be " freed 
 from the bondage of corruption,"! at the end of all things. In like way 
 Christians are never said to " be called," to " receive a call," as is 
 common in certain modern language, but it is said "God caWed us,"ir 
 or hath "called us,"** "thou, he, ye, were called ;"tt so much so, 
 that in four places only is the present time used of the " calling" of 
 Christians ; and in these four it is a title of God, " He who calleth;"J| 
 just as in the former instance, " He who justifieth." So also Chris- 
 tians are entitled " the called," i. e. from the very force of the 
 word, " those who have been called,"^^ or " the chosen,"|||| i. e. " who 
 have been chosen," as Scripture says, again, " God chose us,"1[T[ just 
 as it says that " He chose the fathers,"*** or the Apostles as the wit- 
 
 *Gal. V. 1. t^om. viii. 2. | lb. vi. 18, 22. § John viii. 32, 36. 
 
 II Horn, viii- 21. These are all the cases in which e\evetf)6iA occurs. 
 
 i[ iKa\t(Tev. Rom. viii. 30 ; ix. 24; 1 Thess. iv. 7. 2 Thess. ii. 14. KoKiaai 
 Gal. i. 6. 15, 2 Tim. i. 9, 1 Pet. i. 15 ; ii. 9 ; v. 10, 2 Pet. i. 3. 
 
 ** <fE/fXi)K£i/, 1 Cor. vii. 15, 17. ol kckXtjiicvoi Heb. ix. 15, Rev. xix. 9. 
 
 tt «X.-,9^, iAndvrc, 1 Cor. i. 9 ; vii. 18, 20. 21, 22, 24. Gal. v. 13. Eph. iv. 
 1, 4. Col. iii. 15. 1 Tim. vi. 12. 1 Pet. ii. 21, iii. 9. KUdd;, 1 Cor. vii. 22. 
 
 Xt '•»'' xa\ovvTOf, Rom. ix. 12. Gal. v. 8. 1 Thess. ii. 12. (where a good many 
 important authorities read KaXiaavros, which, though a gloss, shows how xaXoiiroj 
 was understood. See Griesbach. 5, 24. In 1 Thess. ii. 12. the E. V. gives 
 the sense, remarkably enough, " Who hath called you." 
 
 ^^ vXr/roi Rom. i. 6, 7; viii. 28. 1 Cor. i. 2, 24. Jude 1. Rev. xvii. 14. 
 
 III! £a«rof, tKXtKToi, Rom. viii. 33; xvi. 13. Col. iii. 12. 2 Tim. ii. 10. Tit. 
 i. 1. 1 Pet. i. 1 ; ii. 9. 2 John i. 13. Rev. xvii. 14. (tbw-cXwt^, i Pet. v. 13. 
 
 '1F1 d'^^i"^": 1 Cor. i. 27, bis 28. Eph. i. 4. James ii. 5. 
 
 *** Acts xiii. 17. 
 
138 
 
 nesses of the Resurrection,* or St. Peter as the first preacher of the 
 Gentiles,! or Matthias^ to succeed to the place of the traitor Judas. 
 In like way, with regard to our sanctification, the common title of 
 Christians, (as often remarked,) is "saints," or "holy;" and since 
 this is an abiding quality, it is the more remarkable that Scripture 
 never says, " ye are sanctified," as of something simply present, but 
 "ye were sanctified ;"|| and they are called strictly, " those who have 
 been sanctified ;"^ and this is, again, the more remarkable, in that, 
 so soon as sanctification is spoken of as a quality in itself, without 
 reference to definite individuals who are sanctified, the present is 
 used, as " The Sanctifier and the sanctifiedl are all of one." " By 
 one offering hath He perfectly expiated for ever the sanctified,"** 
 i. e. those whom He sanctifies, in the abstract. This same distinc- 
 tion occurred before, as to our justification. So, further, and as con- 
 nected with this, the " receiving of the Holy Spirit, Which sanctifieth 
 us; it also is spoken of as past. ft Now the modern school have 
 seen the inadequateness of that cold exposition, which explained this 
 by reference to the miraculous gifts which often accompanied the 
 laying on of hands, but they have failed to see, that they have them- 
 selves left unexplained the propriety of language, of which this was 
 meant as an explanation ; and so, when they paraphrase it in the pre- 
 sent,!]: they, as well as the others, lose one part of the meaning of the 
 Holy Ghost. The present is used by St. Paul only of another spirit, 
 which was to come from another Gospel, and another Saviour ; "For 
 if he who cometh preacheth another Gospel, which we preached not, 
 or ye receive {>^anPdveTi) another Gospel, which ye received (eXa/?£«; not;" 
 — so connecting the more closely the gift of the Spirit with the first 
 admission into the Gospel, in that he unites the reception of this 
 other spirit with the preaching of another Jesus. In like way, with 
 regard to salvation ; in one way it is spoken of as &i]\[ future, in that 
 
 * lb. i. 2. t XV. 7. X i. 24. 
 
 II 1 Cor. vi. 11. Heb. x. 29. hyiaa)iivoi loniv. Heb. x. 10. 
 ^ fiyiaajtivoi, Acts XX. 32 ; xxvi. 18 ; 1 Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Tim. ii. 21 ; Jude 1. 
 •|[ ayia^oiv itaX o'l ayiai,6ficvoi (in Correspondence with each Other.) Heb. ii. 11. 
 ** Heb. X. 14, where there just precedes, verse 10, hyiaafiivoi taiiiv, " we have 
 been sanctified," and there follows, verse 29. " whereby he was sanctified." 
 
 ijYiaadri. 
 
 ft Rom. viii. 15. "ye receive^il the Spirit of adoption," 1 Cor. ii. 12. (so iv. 
 7. what hast thou which thonreceiwedst nof? cXa/Seg.) Gal. iii.2 ; 1 John ii. 27. 
 
 XX So e. g- Vorstius on 1 Cor. ii. 12. " The Spirit the faithful only receive, 
 i. e. those who have, by the grace of God, already, in some degree, devoted 
 themselves to Christ, and received His Gospel (see John xiv. 15—26) Where- 
 fore, we must pray God, that He would cleanse our hearts by faith, and so 
 infuse into them the Holy Spirit, that by Him we may be led into all truth." 
 So on Rom. viii. 15. The error in this, and the like passages, is briefly, that 
 which runs through the whole system, that, neglecting Baptism, he regards 
 Christians as heathen, and that as to take place for the first time, which, St. 
 Paul says, has taken place. 
 
139 
 
 not all who have been saved once, shall be saved finally, but they 
 only " who endure to the end, the same shall be saved ;"* but in the 
 present, Holy Scripture speaks of it only as to the act of Baptism ; 
 " Baptism saves us,"t and of Christians as " the saved,"! (or in a 
 state of salvation,) or of the continuance of our salvation, " whereby 
 also ye are [yet] sacved,^ if ye hold fast ;" or in the abstract, " if the 
 righteous scarcely be saved ;"|| but of the act of God it says, " Who 
 savec^lF us," " we loere saved,"** " have been saved."tt Lastly, all 
 the words which express most closely our union with our Lord, and 
 all which He has wrought out for us, His Cross, His Death, His 
 Burial, His Resurrection, His Life, His Ascension, His sitting at 
 God's right hand, are expressed in this same way, as having taken 
 place in past time, (and, as before said, the language conveying a 
 closeness of union, which our language can hardly come up to,) " we 
 co-died," " were co-crucified," " were co-interred," " were co-im- 
 planted in His Death," " God co-raised us with Christ." " He co- 
 vivified us," " He co-seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."j::j: 
 No words occur expressive of our present union with our Lord, ex- 
 cept as derived from these past actions, save those which speak of 
 participation of His sufferings : there is thus expressed only past 
 union with Christ, wrought (as the language shews) for us, and con- 
 tinued on in the participation of present sufferings, and to be crowned 
 by the participation of His future glory. " The world remains co- 
 crucified with Him to me, and I unto the world ;" " if we co-suffer 
 that we may be glorified. "^^ " And that I may be found in Him, that 
 I may know Him, and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellow- 
 ship of his sufferings, being conformed to His Death, "Hi whereon 
 follows,1[1[ " Who shall transform our vile body, con-formqd to His 
 glorious body." "Since we died with Christ, we believe that we 
 shall also co-live with Him."*** "It is a faithful saying, for if we 
 co-died, we shall also co-live; if we endure, we shall also co-reign ."ttt 
 
 * Matt. xxiv. 13. ' 1 1 Pet. iii. 21. cdi^a. 
 
 J 01 aoi^dfievoi, Acts ii. 27 ; 1 Cor. i. 18 ; 2 Cor. ii. 15 ; Rev. xxi. 24. 
 
 ^ (Twt^e(Tde, 1 Cor. XV. 2. 
 
 II 1 Pet. iv. 13, and Heb. vii. 25. " Wherefore He is able to save," od^tiv. 
 ^ idbioiv, Tit. iii. 5. ailxravToi, 2 Tim. i. 9. 
 ** £<rw9r(f<£i/, Rom. viii. 24. 
 
 •|"j' £0T« atauxT^iivoi, Eph. ii. 5. 8. 
 
 tt avvairtQavoiiev, 2 Tim. ii. 11. crvve(TTavp(idri, Rom. vi. 6. avve<TTavpo)iia, Gal. 11. 
 20. o-vi/£Tdi/'»;/ifi', Rom. vi. 4. <TVVTa(ptvTts, Col. ii. 12. tnjt^vToi ycyivajicv, Rom. vi. 5. 
 awy/jytips, Eph. ii. 6. ovvnyipQiTc, Col. ii. 12 ; iii. 1. awe^uonotnae, Eph. ii. 6. Col. ii, 13. 
 avveKadiacv, Eph. ii. 6. 
 
 §§ <TvyK\ripov6iioi—e^Trep <jVfn!a<3')(opLtv, Iva Koi oi)vSo^aa6CJi>ev, Rom. Till. 17. 
 
 mi Phil. iii. 10. ivufiopipovficvos. 
 
 ^"H lb. iv. 21. avimop^ov. 
 *** Rom. vi. 8. cvl,fiaojiev. 
 
 ttt 2 Tim. 11. comp. Rom. vi 8. The first words are nearly the same.— 
 
140 
 
 This same principle, which has now been shown to apply 
 to the several words which express our Christian privileges, 
 was above shown to run through whole Epistles, and long 
 passages in the Epistles : and all who take on ihem to explain 
 Holy Scripture are bound to give some account of it, and if 
 they depart from it in their own practice, to examine the ground 
 of that departure. A peculiarity so uniform, so extensive, is obvi- 
 ously not to be glossed over, but should be very earnestly weighed 
 by any who would reverence Holy Scripture, and not have its mean- 
 ing closed to him. To the ancient Church, and those who have 
 followed her teaching, it is exactly what was to have been expected ; 
 for since Baptism is the instrument whereby God communicated to 
 us the remission of sins, justification, holiness, life, communion with 
 the Son and with the Father through the Spirit, the earnest of the 
 Spirit, adoption of sons, inheritance of heaven, all which our Lord 
 obtained for us through His Incarnation and precious Blood-shed- 
 ding, it is obvious that all these gifts, and whatever else is included 
 in the gift of being made a " member of Christ," must be spoken of 
 as having been bestowed upon Christians, once for all, in past time 
 at their Baptism. It remains for those who have ceased to regard 
 Baptism as the instrument of conferring these blessings, to account 
 for the Apostle's language upon their views. 
 
 Instances have been above given, which show what reality this 
 faithful adherence to Scripture gave to the teaching of the Ancient 
 Church ; two more may be added, not selected with care, but such 
 as occur : " If we unhesitatingly believe in our heart," says S. Leo,* 
 " what we profess with our mouth, we were crucified in Christ, we 
 died, we were buried, we also ivere raised again on that very third 
 day. Whence the Apostle saith, ' If ye rose again with Christ, 
 seek,' &c," And St. Ambrose,! on St. Paul's words, already 
 dwell upon, " The Apostle crieth aloud, as ye have heard in the pre- 
 sent lesson, ' For whosoever is baptized, is baptized in the death of 
 Christ.' What meaneth, ' in the death ?' That as Christ died, so 
 thou also tastedst death ; as Christ died to sin, and liveth to God, 
 so thou also diedst by Baptism to the former enticements of sins, 
 and didst rise by the grace of Christ. For the death i«, not in the 
 truth of a bodily death, but in the likeness ; for when thou art im- 
 mersed, thou receivest the likeness of death and burial ; thou re- 
 ceivest the mysterious efficacy [sacramentum] of His Cross, that 
 Christ hung on the Cross, and His Body was fastened through with 
 nails. Thou, then, xohen thou art crucified, cleavest to Christ; 
 
 The latter passage bears a strong likelihood of having been a received saying, 
 and a sort of primitive hymn, as is suggested by Mr. Keble, Primitive Tradi- 
 tion recognized in Holy Scripture., p. 15. 
 
 * Serm. II. de Res. Dom. i. c. 3. This vivid sense of the community of 
 Christians with their Lord characterizes his writings. 
 
 t De Sacram. 1. 2. } 23. 
 
141 
 
 thou cleavest to the nails of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the devil 
 may not be able to take thee away. Let the nail of Christ hold 
 thee, whom the iveakness of human nature calls back againJ" 
 
 Such was the teaching of the ancient Church ; so did every thing 
 bind them on to their JiOrd ; the hours of their daily solemn wor- 
 ship spoke to them, and filled them with thoughts of His being con- 
 tented to receive the bitter sentence of death for them ; of His being 
 nailed to the Cross, of His naihng our sins with His own Body 
 there ; of His tasting death for our sins and commending His Bless- 
 ed Spirit into the hands of His heavenly Father ;* their going to 
 rest, of His being laid in the grave for them ; their awakening, of 
 His Resurrection ; and so each weekly fast bound them more close- 
 ly to their Saviour's Cross, that they should not start from it ; each 
 Lord's Day they rose with Him ; and thus " day unto day uttered 
 speech, and night unto night showed knowledge ;" and as the year 
 flowed on, the Festivals of our Lord did not simply commemorate 
 (in modern phrase) " events which took place 1800 years ago," but 
 showed Him to their purified hearts, as even then coming into the 
 world, born, suffering, dying, rising, ascending :t they longed for 
 
 * The third, sixth, ninth hours of prayer. 
 
 t " The King, the Lord, Who is about to come, Come let us worship." In- 
 vitat. first Lord's day in Advent. R. " We are looking for our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, Who shall re-form our vile body, con-formed to His glorious body. 
 V. Let us live soberly, and righteously, and holily, in this world, looking for the 
 blessed hope and Coming of the glory of the great God." lb. R. " Christ, Son 
 of the Living God, have mercy upon us." V. Thou who art about to come into 
 the world, have luercy upon us." lb. " Now is the Lord near; come let us 
 worship." Invit. from third Lord's day to Advent Eve. " His time is near to 
 come, and His days shall not be prolonged. The Lord will have mercy upon 
 Jacob, and Israel shall be saved." Resp. ib. " Behold the Lord shall come^ 
 the Prince of the kings of the earth ; Blessed are they, who are prepared, to 
 meet Him." Ant. " When the Son of Man shall come, shall he find faith on 
 the earth 1" " Behold the fulness of time is come, in which God sent His Son 
 into the world." " Ye shall draw waters with joy out of the wells of salvation." 
 "The Lord shall come forth out of His place ; He shall come to save His peo- 
 ple." Antiphone, second day in third week. " The Lord Almighty shall come 
 from Zion to save His people." " Turn, O Lord, at the last, and delay not to 
 come to Thy servants." " The Lord who shall reign shall come from Sion; 
 Enunanuel is His great Name." "Behold my God, and 1 will honor Him; 
 my Father's God, and I will exalt Him." "The Lord is our Lawgiver; the 
 Lord is our King; He will come and save us." Fifth day, R. " He Who is 
 coming will come, and will not tarry ; and there shall be no more fear in our 
 borders; for He is our Saviour. V. He shall subdue all our iniquities, and 
 cast our sins into the depth of the sea; for He is," &c. Ib. second day. R. 
 "Come to save us, Lord God of Hosts ; V. Show Thy countenance, and we shall 
 be saved." lb. " Watch ye in mind, for the Lord our God is at hand." Antiph. 
 fifth day. " The Lord is nigh, come let us worship." Antiph. fourth Lord's day. 
 V. " My salvation is near at hand, and my righteousness to be revealed." Ib, 
 " Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, for the day of the Lord is at hand ; He will come 
 to save us. Allel. Allel," " Behold the Desire of all nations shall come, and 
 
142 
 
 His coming, they suffered in His Passion; they rose with Him from 
 the tomb ; they followed His ascension ; they awaited His return to 
 judge the quick and dead, and to receive them to His kingdom. 
 And so in His Sacraments also, He was with them ; He fed them 
 in the Eucharist; He washed away their sins in Baptism: and 
 Baptism v/as to them Salvation, and the Cross, and the Resurrection, 
 because He opened their eyes to see not only the visible minister, 
 but Himself working invisibly ; not only the water, but the Blood ; 
 and the Holy Spirit, the third witness, applying the Blood, through 
 the water, to the cleansing of the soul. 
 
 ii. 4. " If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things above, 
 where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set you affections on the things 
 above, not on the things on the earth. For ye died, and your life hath been 
 hid with Christ in God."— Col. iii. 1. 
 
 The comparison of other Scripture, as well as the propriety of 
 speech just explained, leave no question that St. Paul here refers to 
 Baptism. For already in this Epistle he had used the very word, 
 
 the house of the Lord shall be filled with glory. Alleluia." " The crooked 
 shall be made straight, and the rough places plain ; come, Lord, and linger 
 not. Alleluia." " The Lord shall come ; meet Him, saying, ' Mighty rule, and 
 of His kingdom shall be no end ; God, mighty Lord, Prince of peace, Alleluia, 
 Alleluia." "Thy Almighty Word, O Lord, shall come forth from the royal seats, 
 AUeluia." Antiphones, ib. R. " Sanctify yourselves to-day, and be ye ready, be- 
 cause on the morrow ye shall see the Majesty of God among you. V. To-day 
 ye shall know, that the Lord shall come, and to-morrow ye shall see the Majes- 
 ty, &c." Christmas Eve. R. " Be still, ye shall see the salvation of the Lord 
 upon you ; Judea and Jerusalem, fear not, to-morrow ye shall go forth, and the 
 Lord shall be with you^ R. " Sanctify yourselves, sons of Israel, saith the 
 Lord ; for to-morrow the Lord shall come down, and take away all diseases 
 from you." V. " To-morrow shall the iniquity of the earth be done away, 
 and the Saviour of the world shall reign over us." " To-morrow shall there 
 be salvation to you, saith the Lord God of Hosts." Ant. ib. " Christ is bom 
 to us to-day ; come let us worship." Ant. Christmas day. R. " To-day the 
 King of heaven deigned to be born of a Virgin, that He might restore lost man 
 to the heavenly kingdoms ; the host of Angels rejoices, because eternal salva- 
 tion has appeared to the human race." The above is a selection only for a 
 single season. Of the same kind are the longer Antiphones of the same sea- 
 son, recognized in our Calendar, beginning, "O Sapientia." So also at other 
 seasons. " In peace I would lay me down and rest in Him." Antiphone in 
 Easter eve. " Alleluia, the stone is rolled away from the door of the tomb, al- 
 leluia, alleluia." V. " The Lord is risen from the tomb, alleluia." R. " AVho 
 for us hung upon the tree, alleluia." Antiph. Vers. Resp. on Easter day. V. 
 " The Lord has risen indeed, alleluia." R. " And has appeared unto Simon." 
 (Ib. and as a salutation in Greek Church.) " Alleluia, Christ our Lord, ascend- 
 ing into heaven, come let us worship." Invitatory, Ascension Day. V. " God 
 is gone up with a shout, alleluia. R. And the Lord with the sound of the 
 trump." Vers, and Resp. ib. " Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy 
 upon us, alleluia, alleluia. Christ, Son of God, who ascendest above the stars, 
 alleluia, alleluia." Ascension day. 
 
143 
 
 that they "were raised together with Christ in Baptism." And 
 here (as is so frequent in his Epistles) he is beginning to urge upon 
 them a series of Christian duties, entailed upon them by their Chris- 
 tian privileges, v/hich he had set forth to them. These then he be- 
 gins by an appeal to his past doctrine, " ye were raised together with 
 Christ ;" " if then," or (as the word means in this context,) " since 
 then ye were raised together with Christ," live where Christ is, in 
 heaven. The words then are the direct application of the former. 
 St. Paul had also taught the same to the Romans ;* nor does the 
 Scripture know of any other way whereby we first became partakers 
 of His Death than by His Baptism. It is then the more remarkable 
 that interpreters should be found, nay, that the common habit of mind 
 of this day should be able to see here, a mere moral exhortation to 
 conformity to Christ, without a suspicion of any allusion to the hid- 
 den spring of such action, our union with Him, and the power of 
 His Resurrection, derived into us from Him, through the fount of 
 Baptism. Remarkable is the contrast of the glowing appeal of the 
 ancient Church : — " Strange !t whither hath he uplifted our mind T 
 how hath he filled them with mighty thoughts ! It sufficed not to 
 say ' the things above,' nor ' where Christ is,' but he adds, ' sitting 
 at ihe right hand of God.' And from thence he prepares them not 
 even to see the world — This, he says, is not your life ; your life is of 
 another sort ; he strains already to lift them up thither, and is ur- 
 gent in showing that they are seated above, and are dead, preparing 
 through both to teach them not to seek the things here : for whether 
 ye are dead, ye ought not to seek : or whether ye are above, ye 
 ought not to seek. Doth Christ not appear ? then neither doth your 
 life ; it is above in God. What then ? when shall we live ? When 
 Christ, your life, is manifested, then seek for glory, then for life, then 
 for enjoyment. — * Then shall ye also be manifested,' so then now ye 
 appear not. Behold, how he hath lifted them up to the very heaven. 
 For, as I said, he continually strives, throughout all his Epistles, to 
 show that they have the same which Christ hath, and share with 
 Him in all things, — If this life then is not life, but it is hid, we ought 
 to live this life, as being dead. — Whether then we be reviled, or 
 whatever we suffer, let us not be grieved. For this life is not our 
 life ; for we are strangers and sojourners ; * for ye died,' he says. 
 
 * See above, p. 78. sqq. 
 
 t Chrys. ad. loc. Horn, vii, 1. 2. 3. Theodoret thus paraphrases, " Yepar- 
 took with Christ of the Resurrection, But He is far above all things, seated 
 in the Heavenly places with the Father ; imitate then life above. Ye became 
 dead to the present life ; for ye were co-interred in Baptism with Christ and 
 received the hope of the Resurrection. For this is the meaning of ' Your life 
 hath been hid with Christ in God.' For when He rose, we were all raised; 
 but as yet we see not the result ; for the mystery of our Resurrection hath 
 been hidden in Him." 
 
144 
 
 Who so senseless as to buy servants, or costly apparel for a corpse ? 
 No one ! so then neither let us. — Our first man was buried, buried 
 not in earth but in water ; dissolved not by death, but by Him Who 
 dissolved death, and buried him not by the law of nature, but by the 
 command of Authority mightier than nature. For what hath been 
 wrought by nature may be undone ; what by His command, not. 
 Nothing is more blessed than this burial, whereat all rejoice, both 
 angels and men, and the Lord of the angels. For this burial there 
 needeth not garments, or coffin, or the like. Would you see a sign 
 thereof ! I will show you a pool, wherein one was buried, another 
 rose. The Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, and the Israel- 
 ites arose out of it. And the same thing buries the one, produceth 
 the other. Marvel not that there is both birth and destruction in 
 Baptism. Fire melts and destroys wax, smelts the ore and makes it 
 gold ; so here also the power of fire having destroyed the figure of 
 wax, substituted gold. For we were, in truth, of clay, before Bap- 
 tism, but, after it, now of gold. How so ? hear himself say, ' the 
 first man was of the earth, earthy, the second man heavenly, from 
 heaven.' There is not so much difference between clay and gold, as 
 between earthly and heavenly." So also in the Western Church. 
 '* If we are the sons of God," says St. Cyprian,* " if we have al- 
 ready begun to be His temples, if, having received the Holy Ghost, 
 we live holily and spiritually, if we have raised our eyes from earth 
 to heaven, if we have lifted up our breast, full of God and Christ to 
 things above and Divine, let us do only things worthy of God and 
 Christ, as the Apostle urges and exhorts, ' If ye have risen again 
 with Christ, seek,' &c. We then who have both died and been bu- 
 ried in Baptism, as to the carnal sins of the old man, who have risen 
 together with Christ by a heavenly re-generation, let us both speak 
 and do the things of Christ, as the same Apostle again teacheth and 
 exhorteth, ' The first man is of the earth, earthy, the second Man 
 from heaven.' As is the earthy, so are they also who are of the 
 earth ; and as is the Heavenly, such are the heavenly. As we have 
 borne the image of the earthy, let us bear also His image, Who is 
 * from heaven.' But we cannot bear the heavenly image, unless we 
 realize the likeness of Christ in that which we have begun to be. 
 For this is it, to have changed what thou wast, and begun to be what 
 thou wast not, that thy Divine birth may shine forth in thee, so that 
 a Divine life may correspond to a Divine Father, and through the 
 honor and praise of thy life, God in man may be glorified." And 
 St. Ambrose,! " Lastly, what hast thou to do with the earth, who 
 didst rise with Christ ? Seek those things which are above, where 
 Christ is ; set your affections on the things above, not on those on 
 
 * De Zelo et Livore, p. 359, 60. ed. St. Maur. 
 t In Ps. cxviii. $ 37. 
 
145 
 
 ihe earth. We died to the earth ; we hid our hfe with Christ in our 
 God ; now, not we hve, but Christ liveth in us. Why return we 
 again to earthly things ?" 
 
 And so, when St. Paul continues, (ver. 9 — 11.) — 
 
 " Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his 
 deeds, and have put on [or been clothed with] the new man, which is renewed 
 after the image of Him Who created Him, where there is neither Jew nor 
 Greek ; circumcision nor uncircumcision ; barbarian, Scythian; bond nor free; 
 but Christ is all and in all ;" 
 
 the modern interpretation finds a description of " conversion* con- 
 tained in these two parts — the putting off of the old, and the putting 
 on of the new man, whereof the former comprises the acknowledge- 
 ment, hatred of, and fleeing from sin, the latter the earnest seeking 
 after righteousness ;" and " the image of God or Christ, peculiar 
 to saints, consists in righteousness and true holiness, whereby we in a 
 manner express the character of God our Father and Saviour;" or hav- 
 ing " put off the old and put on the new man," means "having solemn- 
 ly professed to do the one, and declared it as your resolution to do the 
 other, or to put on all the branches of that contrary temper and dis- 
 position which constitute the Christian character :"t and " Christ 
 being all and in all," signifies that " Christ alone, received in true 
 faith, in this respect supplies every thing," according to the common 
 meaning of the lerm, "to be all in all to one ;"t or " Christ" means 
 " the spiritual rigrhteousness of Christ,"^ or the "new man, or image 
 of Christ," or (in the downward course of such expositions,) that 
 " our restoration to the Divine image is all in all."l! True, as far as 
 it goes, but remarkable in this, that as they lose sight of Baptism, to 
 which the correspondence with the like language to the Galatians 
 should have guided them, they lose also the reality and depth of 
 Christ's gifts. The ancient Church, which saw that this stripping 
 off the old man, and putting on the new, took place through " all- 
 holy Baptism, "TI saw also not only that Christ is " all in all" to us, 
 but His indwelling in us. " Behold a third excellence of this new 
 
 * Vorst, ad loc f Doddridge, ad loc. 
 
 J Vorst adds,irt explanation, " Christus — quod dici solet, utramque jjaginam 
 facit ;" Calvin, " Christus solus proram et puppim (ut aiunt) principium et 
 finem tenet." 
 
 ^ Calv. ad loc. 
 
 11 Mr. Simeon, Horse Homil. ad loc. " It seems that to interpret the word 
 ' Christ' as meaning the image of Christ, or the New Man, is to take a great 
 and ahnost an unwarrantable liberty with Scripture. Nevertheless, if we 
 compare some other passages with the text, we shall find that we are fully 
 authorized to put this construction upon it. The meaning then is simply this : 
 we should be daily putting off our old and corrupt nature, and be putting on 
 a new and holy nature ; because nothing else will be at all regarded by God." 
 
 T[ Theodoret ad loc. 
 
 5* 
 
146 
 
 man," says St. Chrysostom,* " that no distinction of race, or dignity; 
 or ancestry, enters here ; and he who hath none of these outward 
 things needeth them not. For all these are outward things, circum- 
 cision or uncircumcision ; slave, free ; Greek, i. e. proselyte or Jcw^, 
 by birth. If you only have Him, you will oblain the same as those 
 who have them ; ' but Christ is all and in all, i. e. Christ will be all 
 things to you, both dignity and race ; and He, One and the Same 
 in you all ; i. e. not all in all to us by any outward relation, but be- 
 cause dwelling in all. St. Paul says not only " all in all," but 
 (which this interpretation overlooks,) " Christ is all things, a7id in 
 all ;" He is all things, and in all His members ; as the Father is all 
 in all, being One God with Him. It was not again, "righteousness 
 and true holiness"! alone, that we have put on, but as St. Ambrose:}: 
 says, " Christ Himself;" " We have then put on Christ, as also it 
 is elsewhere said, (Gal iii. 27.) 'Ye have put on Christ.'" And 
 thus " the renewal after the image of Him Who created us," is not 
 simply "a new and spiritual nature, obtained through faith in 
 Christ,"^ wrought, as it were, from without, nor " a conformity or 
 likeness with God,"|| — these speak of the results, not of the cause — 
 nor simply a re-creation, as Aclam was created by the will of God — 
 it is more than all these ; it is a re-creation within, it is the restora- 
 tion of the image of God, in that we are in Him, Who is " the Im- 
 age of the invisible God ;" it is His Image, in Whom we are, and 
 Who is in us, developing Itself, absorbing and converting into Itself, 
 though imperfectly in this life, all which is other than It, and mak- 
 ing us an image of God, not by virtue only of " a rectitude and puri- 
 ty, whereby we are consecrated to God,"|i but hv virtue of that com- 
 munity with our Lord, which we have through His Incarnation, and 
 His consequent interchange with man ; He " taking our human na- 
 ture into God,"^[ and imparting the Divine** to man. 
 
 Thus St. Hilary, having shown that the subjection of the Son, 
 spoken of by St. Paul, that " God might be all in all," implied not 
 an inferiority of the Son, but the complete glorification of the Man 
 Christ Jesus, in that, asft we are subjected to Christ, by becoming 
 partakers of that glory wherein He reigns in the Body, so Christ to 
 God, through the perfect communication of the Divine glory to His 
 human nature, thus concludes, |J " This ' subjection' then is our gain, 
 
 * Ad loc. f Vorst Loci Comm. ad loc. 
 
 t In Ps. cxviii. 17. 
 
 § Vorst. Schol. ad loc. and " This creation is nothing else than the spiritual 
 re-formation of men tlirough the preaching of the word, and the efficacy of the 
 Holy Ghost, vi^hereby we are gradually more and more renewed after the im- 
 age of Christ, so that we are not undeservedly called new creatures, or new 
 men." — Loc. Comm. ib. 
 
 II Calv. ad Eph. iv. 24. ^ Athan. Creed. ** 2 Pet. i. 4. 
 
 it De Trin. 1. xi. c. 36. 1% Ib. c. 49. 
 
147 
 
 vur advance, in that we are made conformed to the glory of the Body* 
 of God. But the Only Begotten, God, although He be also born as 
 man, yet is He ' all in all,' no otherwise than as God. For that sub 
 jection of the Body, whereby what He hatli of the flesh is absorbed 
 into the nature of spirit, will cause Him to be, as God, ' all in all,' 
 Who besides God is also man ; but that our Manf is advancing 
 thereto. But we shall advance toward a glory conformable to that 
 of our Man, and having been renewed to the knowledge of God, shall 
 be re-formed after the Image of the Creator according to that of the 
 Apostle, ' Being stripped oi the old man with his deeds, and clothed 
 with tlie new man, wiio is renewed to the knowledge of God, after 
 the Image of Him Who created him. Man, therefore, hath his con- 
 summation as the image of God. For having been made ' conform- 
 ed to the glory of the Body of God, he passes forth into the Image 
 of the Creator, according to that type which was ordained in the 
 first man. And after sin and the old man, having been made a new 
 man for the knowledge of God, he attains the perfection of what he 
 has been made, acknowledging his God, and thereby His image ; 
 and through reverential worship advancing to eternity, and through 
 eternity to remain the image of His Creator." Of a truth the an- 
 cient Catholic system, ever contemplating the Redeemer, not only as 
 the Saviour of sinners, but as " Very God, of Very God, Who for 
 us men, and for our salvation, was Incarnate of the Holy Ghost," 
 possessed an awful intensity of Divine truth, which the modern, ever 
 contemplating man and his sins, and groping amid the defilements 
 of his fallen nature, has lost all power of beholding, and could scarce- 
 ly bear to look on, or contemplate reverentially, being but so partially 
 conformed to that ineffable Glory, the means of Whose communi- 
 cation to us, the Sacraments of our Lord, it so shrinks fromconfess- 
 
 St. Ambrose gives the same exposition 4 and it may be useful to 
 see, in this instance also, how this more literal interpretation of Holy 
 Scripture, besides removing a difficulty, illustrates the co-equality 
 of the Persons of the Ever-Blessed Trinity. " But since the Father, 
 and Son, and Holy Spirit, are of one Nature, the father will not be 
 subjected to Himself. And, therefore, the Son will not be subjected 
 in that, wherein He is One with the Father, lest through the Unity 
 of the Godhead, the Father also should seem to be subjected to 
 the Son, As then in the Cross, not the fulness of Godhead, but 
 our weakness was made subject, so hereafter also shall the Son be 
 subjected to the Father, in the participation of our nature, so that the 
 enticements of the flesh being made subject, riches, ambition, plea- 
 
 * Phil.iii. 21. 
 
 f " The human nature taken by Christ." — Bened. note. 
 X De Fide. L. 5. c. 14. \ 175—177. 
 
148 
 
 sure, should no longer be loved, but God be all to us, if, as far as we 
 are capable, we live in all things after His Image and likeness. The 
 benefit then passed from the individual to the whole ; because in His 
 own flesh he subdued the nature of all human flesh. And, therefore, 
 according to the Apostle, 'As we have borne the image of this earthly, 
 let us bear the image of this heavenly.' And that you may know 
 that w^here he says, ' that God may be all, and in all,' he does not 
 separate Christ also from God the Father, himself says to the Col- 
 lossians, 'where is neither male and female, Jew and Greek, Barba- 
 rian and Scythian, bond and free, but Christ is all, and in all.' So 
 then, w^hen he says to the Corinthians, 'that God may be all, and in 
 all,' he comprehendeth also the unity and equality of Christ with God 
 the Father, since neither is the Son separate from the Father. And, 
 in like manner as the Father is all and in all, so also doth Christ a/50 
 ivork oil in all. If then Christ also worketh all in all, it was not in 
 the majesty of the Godhead, but in us that He was subjected." And 
 in another place he shows that the <;o-equality of the Holy Ghost 
 is also herein involved, " For* neither did he make any differ- 
 ence of power or virtue, when he said, ' there are diversities of 
 graces, but the same spirit : and diversities of ministrations, but the 
 same Lord ; and diversities of operations, but the same God who 
 Avorketh all in all.' For the Son worketh all and in all, as you have 
 elsewhere, that Christ is all and in all." And the Holy Spirit work- 
 eth, because ' all things worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing 
 to each as He wills.' There then is no difference of operations, 
 no distinction, when, whether in the Father, or the Son, or the Holy 
 Spirit, there is the fulness of Virtue, inferior to none." 
 
 In like way S. Gregory of Nazianzum,t " But God will be ' all in 
 all' at the time of the restitution, — not the father, the Son being 
 wholly resolved into Him, as a brand snatched for a time, and then 
 kindled in a great burning pile — but God wholly, when we no 
 longer shall be many, as now in our emotions and passions, bearing 
 about in us nothing at all, or very little of God, but wholly Deiform, 
 capacious of God wholly and alone. For this is the consummation, 
 whereto we are hastening. And Paul himself attests this, for what 
 he says undefinedly of God, he elsewhere clearly defines of Christ, 
 saying, ' where there is neither Jew nor Greek, but Clirist is all and 
 in all.'" 
 
 ii. 5 " Having then (c'xovTes) freedom to enter into the hoHest through the 
 Blood of Christ, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, 
 through the veil, that is, his flesh, and having an High Priest over the house of 
 God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having had 
 our hearts sprinkled {ti^avTi(rfum() from an evil conscience, and the body washed 
 (\eXoviiii.oi) with pure water." — Heb. x. 19 — 22. 
 
 * Expos. Evang. sec. Luc. Prolog. { 5. t Orat. 30. Theol. 4, c. 6. 
 
149 
 
 St. Paul has been contrasting at length the realities of the Gospel 
 with the shadows of the law ; " he had shown," says St. Chrysostom,* 
 " the utter difference between High Priest, and sacrifices, and tab- 
 ernacle, and promise, the one being temporal, the other eternal ; the 
 one ready to vanish away, the other abiding ; the one weak, the 
 other perfect ; the one types, the other the truths ; — the one new, 
 and having remission of sins, the other having nothing such ; the 
 one made with hands, the other made without hands ; the one having 
 the blood of goats, the other of the Lord ; the one a priest standing, 
 the other sitting. All these things being inferior in the one, superior 
 in the other, therefore he says, ' having then freedom.' " In this 
 close contrast then of realities and figures, it is plainly required to 
 look for some corresponding reality to the " sprinklings,'' and " ablu- 
 tions" of the law, which St. Paul says Christians had received ; and 
 this reality plainly had an outward part, since he says, their "bodies 
 had been washed with pure water," and an inward, in that their 
 " hearts had been sprinkled from an evil conscience." This "sprink- 
 ling" also, and " v/ashing," had taken place in lime past, although 
 their effects endured ; they " had been washed," " had been sprink- 
 led."! Holy Baptism could then hardly be more plainly pointed 
 out, as the reality corresponding to these temporary figia-es, as giving 
 us access to our Holy of Holies, into which nothing profane or de- 
 filed may enter : and the relation between the law and the Gospel is 
 thus preserved, in that the law by its "divers washings," continually 
 shadowed forth the purity necessary for the worshipper of the Holy 
 God ; the Gospel gives it ; and as the One Sacrifice was portrayed 
 in the many sacrifices, " which could never make the comers there- 
 unto perfect ;" so the one application of that Sacrifice through the 
 " one Baptism for the remission of sins," by the many baptisms or 
 washings, which taught the Jew to long earnestly to be " washed 
 throughly from his wickedness, and cleansed from his sins." It 
 might seem also that the two modes of administering Baptism, sprink- 
 ling and immersion, were here authorized. The letter also of Scrip- 
 ture is, in this way, carefully regarded, no other exposition accounting 
 for the mention of the washing of the body at a]l,| or for St. Paul's 
 
 * Ad loc. 
 
 f Neglecting this, and supposing St. Paul to speak of the present time, 
 Ribera argues that Baptism could not be meant, " because the Hebrew Chris- 
 tians had been already baptized," and so he admits that, had his view been 
 true, the present would have been used, and that the past, which is used, would 
 apply to Baptism. 
 
 j " I agree not with those who, confessing that the Apostle alludes to water 
 of expiation or purification, understand a mystical or spiritual water" [an ex- 
 pression of Zuingli, see note P. ad loc] " of which David says, ' thou shall 
 wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.' But these acute persons do not see 
 that David does not even name the body ; but Paul speaks not onlj' of an evil 
 conscience, but also of the body, to which that mystical [metaphorical] water 
 
150 
 
 referring to a past washing. Were inward purification, without the 
 intervention of any outward means, alone intended, the mention of 
 the body at all is unaccounted for.* Accordingly Christian Anti- 
 quityt saw undoubtingly that St. Paul did here speak of our Baptism. 
 " They," paraphrases St. Chrysostom, " were sprinkled as to the 
 body, we as to the conscience ; so that now also we may be sprink- 
 led, but by the very Virtue and Power itself; ' and having had our 
 bodies washed with pure water ;' he here speaks of the batb, ivhich 
 is a cleanser not [as among the Jews] of the bodies but of the soul." 
 He hath " placed these things again as parallels," says Theodoret, 
 " for they used ' sprinklings,' in the law also, and washed the body 
 continually. But they Avho live after the new covenant, are purified 
 as to the soul by all-holy Baptism, and make the conscience free 
 from its former stains. He calls Divine Baptism then ' sprinkling' 
 and ' pure water,' but ' the confession of our hope' belief in the good 
 things to come." 
 
 It was then, as having been hallowed by Baptism, (and that, as 
 connected with the Incarnation of our Lord, " through the veil, that 
 is to say, His Flesh,") that St. Paul taught, that we might venture to 
 draw near towards those heavens, where our ascended Lord now is, 
 and which he had " opened to all believers." He had consecrated 
 the way by entering thither first Himself, and we have access thither 
 through the veil, or the paiticipation of His Flesh ; but the opening 
 of the way did not at once enable us to follow : our nature was atoned 
 for, our nature had been raised from the dead, had been sanctified, 
 but not we ourselves ; for us then it was further necessary that we 
 
 does not belong ; and the Apostle's words, ' The heart sprinkled from an evil 
 conscience.' sufficiently explain the power of that spiritual and mystical 
 water, and so, when he adds, ' and having had the body washed with pure 
 water,' he indicates something else, or rather explains what he had said, as 
 though indicating, that the spiritual water, whereby the conscience is sprinkled, 
 is united with corporeal water, wherewith the body is sprinkled, as is the case 
 in Baptism." — Justinian, ad loc. 
 
 * Piscator, accordingly, in paraphrasing the passage, omits all mention of 
 this clause, "As they who, of old, were about to approach the outward [1] 
 worship of God, washed the body with pure water, out of the laver placed for 
 this end before the tabernacle, so, that the faithful may rightly approach to the 
 spiritual worship of Cod, they must have their hearts washed by the Blood of 
 Christ, i.e. that they may have remission of sins by His Blood." (Ad loc.) 
 But St. Paul says not, that Christians have had their souls washed as the Jews 
 had their bodies, which this explanation would require, but that Christians 
 might approach to their Holy of Holies, having had their bodies washed. 
 Parous admits the allusion to Baptism, hut as " a symbol" only, i. e. when St. 
 Paul speaks of our having realities, he says, we have the shadows. 
 
 f " ' Pure water,' the water of Baptism ; for of it, Chrysostom, Theodoret, 
 Theophylact, CEcumenius, Ambrose, explain this passage ; it ' so toucheth the 
 body,' as, in Augustine's words, ' to wash the heart' — There is then no reason 
 to depart from the common sentiment of the Fathers." Justinian, ad loc. 
 Calvin admits " most understand this of Baptism." Ad loc. 
 
151 
 
 should be individually made partakers of that cleansing, and this St. 
 Paul says had been done for them ; their hearts Jiad been cleansed 
 from an evil conscience, as their bodies cleansed by pure water. 
 Baptism had joined them on to Christ, and made them partakers of 
 His holiness, and fitted them to appear before Him. And thus 
 cleansed, they vi^ere to remain clean (" with a true heart,") and draw 
 near with faith in Him, looking upon Him their High Priest. It is 
 characteristic that the ancient interpretation, recognizing herein our 
 Lord's Sacrament, taught men to look to their Lord, and what He 
 had done for them, modern, which sees not the sacrament to look to 
 themselves.* " He of necessity added," says Theodoret,t " ' in full 
 assurance of faith,' since all are invisible, the Holy of Holies, and 
 the Sacrifice, and the High Priest, and are contemplated by faith 
 alone. The meaning then is this, since the things of grace have 
 been shown to be far greater than those of the law, and heaven has 
 been opened to us, and the way is comely, and our Lord Christ first 
 trod it, let us draw near with a sincere affection, believing these 
 things to be so, and casting all doubting out of the soul. For this 
 he calls a full assurance." And after the passage already quoted, J 
 " This he subjoins, ' for faithful is He who promised.' True is He, 
 Who gave the promise. From the quality of the Person he shoios 
 the firmness of the promise.''^ So the ancients ; but the moderns :^ 
 *"full assurance of faith,' i. e. a filial confidence, and certain per- 
 suasion of the fatherly favor of God towards us. And this faith, 
 or confidence, he explains by setting forth of its producing cause, 
 that through faith our hearts are sprinkled by the blood of Christ, 
 and so washed and cleansed from an evil conscience, that we are no 
 more conscious to ourselves of sins." The ancient Church looked 
 *^ with a full and sound || faith," careful to believe all which God had 
 revealed, and to lose nothing of the objects of faith : the modern 
 school looks to that which is unrevealed, " a certain persuasion of 
 God's fatherly favor to ?«." 
 
 iii. The chief doctrinal texts concerning Baptism have naturally 
 been considered under the former heads ; it remains to point out as 
 to other places in Holy Scriptvire, in which there is mention of, or 
 allusion to, this Sacrament, how much higher dignity is thereby as- 
 cribed, or implied to belong to it, or how much more essential an 
 oflSce it holds in God's way of justifying man ; or how much more 
 large a place it occupies in His hints and notices of His mercies 
 towards us, than most, who in these days most highly esteem of it, 
 are probably accustomed to think. This shall be done by (1) re- 
 
 * See Mr. Newman on Justification, Lee. 13. On preaching the gospel ; and 
 Sermons, vol. ii. Serm. 15. " Self-contemplation." 
 f Ad loc. t P. 185. 
 
 ^ Piscator, ad loc- f Chrys. ad loc. 
 
152 
 
 viewing some few texts in which Baptism seems to be incidentally 
 mentioned ; (2) the mode in which Scripture history speaks of it, 
 when actually conferred upon individuals. (3) Indications of its 
 dignit)^, arising from circumstances connected with our blessed Sa- 
 viour's Person, or prophetic declarations or types of Baptism recog- 
 nized by Scripture, by the ancient Church, or, as derived from it, by 
 our own. 
 
 iii. 1. Incide7ital mention of Baptism i 
 
 a) " Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and gave 
 Himself for it ; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it with the washing 
 of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, 
 not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that he should be holy and 
 without blemish." — Eph. v. 25-27. 
 
 This text is in many ways very remarkable. It occurs in the 
 practical portion of the Epistle, where St. Paul is giving plain pre- 
 cepts, as it would seem, on the duties of wives and husbands, chil- 
 dren and parents, servants and masters ; and to these, in the corres- 
 ponding part of the Epistle to the Colossians, he confines himself; 
 to the Ephesians, — as being a Church, it appears, in the most spi- 
 ritual state of any to whom he wrote, — he gives hints of mysteries, 
 which cannot be exhausted,* bearing upon, and deepening the char- 
 acter of one of those dvities ; with w^hich again he binds up the Sa- 
 crament of Baptism. And as it is consequently a melancholy mark 
 of our times, that a portion of " the world" has already begun to 
 shrink from tliis comparison between the relations of marriage, and 
 those of Christ to His Church, so it is, undoubtedly, not unconnected 
 with it, but a part of the same state of feeling, which depreciates 
 Baptism, thus connected by St. Paul with it. And in the one case, 
 we can feel that it is a degradation of our moral and religious tone, 
 which makes men thus start at having a relation, about which their 
 
 * " Because all mysteries are not equal, but one greater, another less, there- 
 fore he now saith, ' this is a great mystery ;' at the same time it is expressive 
 of his humility that he subjoins, 'but I speak it of Christ and the Church.' 
 Gregory of Nazianzum, a man very eloquent, and especially learned in the 
 Scriptures, in treating of this place with me, used to say, ' See how great the 
 mystery of this section, that the Apostle interpreting it with reference to 
 Christ and the Church, does not say that he had expressed himself, as the dig- 
 nity of the citation called for ; but in a manner said, ' I know that this place 
 is full of unspeakable mysteries, and requires a Divine mind to interpret it; 
 but I, according to the finiteness of my perception, think it is to be understood 
 of Christ and the Church ; not that any thing is greater than Christ and the 
 Church, but that all which is said of Adam and Eve can, with diflficulty only, 
 be interpreted of Christ and the Church." Jer. ad Eph. v. 32. " But let us» 
 following the Apostolic authority, who professed that it was a great mystery, 
 but that he understood it of Christ and the Church, leave this place as it is ua- 
 touched."— Hil. in Matt. c. 19. \ 2. 
 
153 
 
 notions are so earthly, and irreverent, and common-place, brought 
 into close connection with the very Person of our own Lord, as the God 
 and Saviour of the Church. They start from it riglitly, and by a 
 moral instinct ; only, would that instead of lowering the teaching of 
 Holy Scripture to their own standard, or in any other way " hating 
 the light," men would but once lay to heart, how different should be 
 the whole tone, wherewith marriage should be spoken of, thought of, 
 encompassed, realized, lived in, if it is in any way to furnish 
 a type of the relation of Christ to His Church. How should 
 it be a type of that relation, when all our language concern- 
 ing it is unspiritual, hovers around this earth, and the things 
 and forms of earth, and what would fain speak of it in the purest 
 and most elevated way, is, strictly speaking, the language of idola- 
 try? But since this is so as to "the mystery," is it likely to be other- 
 wise as to " the Sacrament ?" when men are profane about the less, 
 are they likely to be able to appreciate the greater; if they under- 
 stand not earthly things, and their relation to heavenly, how should 
 they understand the heavenly things themselves ? Man cannot be, 
 thus, two distinct selves ; he cannot be at one time, and on one sub- 
 ject, carnal, and upon another, spiritual : at one while " of this 
 world," at another, " not of this world;" at one while, with "the 
 beasts that perish," at another, in " the third heaven ;" at one while, 
 speaking " idle words," and then hoping to " hear unspeakable 
 words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter ;" ordinarily, common- 
 place, and then, at will, exalted and spiritual ; or else it will be a 
 fictitious and perverted elevation, like his who would " set his 
 throne among the stars, and would be like the Most High ;" an ele- 
 vation produced by the inflation of human vanity, not the lifting up of 
 the spirit, upborne by the Spirit of God. Man's tone of mind upon 
 each several subject is the result of that with which he has approach- 
 ed or engaged in every other. Not only in confirmed cases, as of 
 a buffoon or a jester, who cannot, when he would, be serious, but 
 in each shade, between the ,'^ommon-place product of a self-indul- 
 gent age, and him who, foi and with His Lord, " died daily," is that 
 saying verified, " the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
 Spirit of God, neither can he perceive them, because they are spi- 
 ritually discerned." All see and receive in their several degrees ; 
 " the pure in heart shall see God ;" and in proportion to the purity 
 of each, shall each see more of that which none can see fully, but 
 He who seeth infinitely, God Himself, within Himself, Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost. It is not then incidental, or lightly to be passed 
 over, that this age, at best, shrinks from Scripture language as to 
 these outskirts, so to say, of the real Divine Sacraments, which the 
 ancient Church following the Apostle, called " mysteries."* An 
 
 * The title " mystery" in this place is generally referred by the Fathers to 
 the words of Genesis immediately preceding, " Tiierefore a man shall leave his 
 
154 
 
 age which finds no mystery, and nothing Divine in that which Scrip- 
 ture has declared to be so, and has shown to bear the image of our 
 Lord, must by a moral necessity find nothing but " carnal ordi- 
 nances" in life-giving Sacraments. 
 
 Further, as elsewhere, in addressing a Church as composed of 
 individuals, the Apostle uniformly spoke to them, in terms the most 
 unlimited, as having been universally made partakers of the benefits 
 conferred through Baptism, so here, where he delivers the doctrine 
 generally, he speaks of those benefits as bestowed upon the Church, 
 and through and in her derived to her several members. It is " the 
 Church" which our Lord " loved ;" the Church, for which " He 
 gave Himself;" the Church which He " cleansed," by the "washing 
 of the water by the word," that he might afterwards " sanctify her," 
 and so " present her to Himself holy and without blemish ;" the 
 Church which He " feedeth and cherisheth," while yet a wayfarer 
 here, " given her" (as the ancient Church here saw the allusion of 
 her privileges) " giving her His own Body and Blood."* And yet 
 he so speaks of the whole Church, that it has been doubted whether 
 he be speaking of her purity in her militant, and not rather in her 
 triumphant state ;t but at all events, to whatever period belongs that 
 
 father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they tw^o shall be one flesh ;" 
 and St. Augustine (in Joh. Tract. 9. <^ 10) expressly says, that St Paul added 
 these words, "but I say it as to Christ and His Church," to show that the 
 " mystery," was not exhausted in human marriage ; rather that the words had 
 a greater depth of mysterious meaning, which he applied to Christ and His 
 Church. (See S. Greg, of Naz. above, p. 188, note.) So then the words be- 
 long to human marriage as a type ; but as to the antitype they designate that 
 which marriage also designates, the relation of Christ to His Church. Mar- 
 riage then is a mystery, as shadowing out that Union, and having been, in 
 the first instance, a hidden prophecy of it, and now being an image and reflec- 
 tion of it- Theophylact concisely expresses the sense of the Fathers. " The 
 blessed Moses mysteriously conveyed a great and wonderous thing ; for in 
 truth it is a mystery that one should leave those who begat him, who endured 
 hardship for him, who did him good, and cleave to one whom he had never 
 seen, nor had been a benefactress. Truly a great mystery ; meanwhile ' by 
 me this is referred,' he says, ' to Christ,' as having been spoken prophetically 
 of Him. For He also left His Father, not by any local removal, but by con- 
 descending to take flesh, and He came to the bride, before wholly ignorant 
 of Him, and became One Spirit with her- For he that ' cleaveth unto the 
 Lord is one Spirit.' How then is marriage blamed, when Paul sets it forth as 
 a pattern of the mystery of Christ, and calls it a mystery." Marriage is a 
 mystery as pourtraying the union of the Church with Christ ; is not a sacra- 
 ment, as not conveying it. 
 
 * Theodoret ad loc- so Chrys. ad loc. "how are we of His Flesh "? ye know 
 as many of you as partake of the mysteries ;" and Jerome ad loc. " coelesti 
 saginans pane et Christi sanguine irrigans." 
 
 t Justinian quotes St. Jerome on Jerem. xxxi. end ; Augustine de perf just. 
 c. 15. [and so elsewhere] as interpreting the words of the Church triumphant ; 
 the Apost. Const. 2. 61-, Chrysost. ad loc, Jerome (1), and the 6th Council 
 
155 
 
 ulterior purity, he speaks of her, as having been wholly cleansed, 
 " having cleansed her, that He anight sanctify her," ("y'«<'n. xadafwai.) 
 The end of the cleansing was, that she might abide sanctified, spot- 
 less, unblemished ; but He had, (it is spoken of as an actual past 
 fact,) wholly cleansed her once, and, accordingly, all her members. 
 And thus we have the two doctrines combined, first, that it is 
 through the Church that individuals have their cleansing ;* second- 
 ly, that they were all cleansed once, because she v/as wholly 
 cleansed. 
 
 Again, this washing is absolutely essential to her cleansing, and 
 so on to her sanctification, her spotlessness, her being present- 
 ed to Him by Himself in glory. Such is the order of his dealings ; 
 He lays the " washing with water," as the foundation of all his other 
 goodness, does not pass by His own institutions, does not anticipate 
 sanctifijcation, and annex Baptism as an outward seal of what He 
 had before given, but on the contrary, bestows Baptism as the ear- 
 nest of the future continued sanctification " He had cleansed her 
 with the washing of water, that He might sanctify her." 
 
 Then also, Baptism, it appears, is not the work of the human 
 agent, through whom it is conferred, as men now speak of it, as 
 though it were a human rite, because, outwardly on the body, admin- 
 istered by man. In one sense, indeed, the Apostles, or their suc- 
 cessors, baptize, because He gave them the commission to " baptize 
 all nations ;" but then also He who promised, " Lo, I am with you 
 always, even to the end of the world," accompanies their act, and is, 
 in reality and truth, the only Baptizer. It is His Baptism, not theirs; 
 they baptize as the servants, He, as the Lord ; they with water. 
 He " with the Holy Ghost, and with fire ;" they touch the body. He 
 applies it to the soul ; they visibly, He invisibly ; they in obedience 
 to Him, He accepts the obedience of His Church, and " cleanseth" 
 each new member, which she presents unto Him, " with the wash- 
 ing of water by the word." " It is He who cleanseth." And this 
 amid the imperfections of His ministers is our comfort, that our 
 Baptism, though " by man," is not " of man ;" that to whomsover 
 
 of Toledo, as understanding the Church militant ; and so apparently Theodo- 
 ret, to judge from his words, " and to remove her old decayed state''' to iraXaiov 
 airij? airo^iaai yripaq) which are especially used of Baptism. 
 
 * " If regeneration is in the washing, i. e. in Baptism, how can heresy, not 
 being the bride of Christ, bear children to God through Christ 1 For it is the 
 Church alone, which, conjoined and united to Christ, spritually bears sons, 
 the same Apostle again saying, ' Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself 
 for her, that He might sanctify her, cleansing her with the washing of water.' 
 If she then be the beloved and the bride, which alone is sanctified by Christ, 
 and alone is cleansed by His washing, it is manifest that heresy, which is not 
 the bride of Christ, can neither be cleansed nor sanctified by His washing, 
 nor can bear sons to God." — Cyprian, Ep. 74. p. 140. ed. St. Maur, comp. 
 Ep. 76. p. 152. 
 
156 
 
 He may have committed the ministry of His Sacrament, Himself 
 retaineth and sendeth forth its Power. " Baptism," says St. Augus- 
 tine* often in the Donatist controversy, "Baptism in the Name of 
 the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, hath Christ for its Au- 
 thor, not any man ; and Christ is the Truth, not any man." '"Uponf 
 whom thou seest the Spirit descending like a dove, and abiding upon 
 Him, He it is who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.' He sailh not 
 ' He is the Lord ;' He saith not ' He is the Christ ;' He saith not 
 * He is God ;' He saith not ' He is Jesus ;' He saith not ' it is He 
 who was born of the Virgin Mary, after thee, and before thee ;' He 
 saith not this, for this John already knew. But what knew he not? 
 That the Lord Himself would hold and retain so wholly the power of 
 Baptism, (whether present on earth, or in Body absent in heaven, and 
 present in Majesty,) that Paul should not say, ' my Baptism,' nor 
 Peter, 'my Baptism.' See then, observe the words of the Apos- 
 tles. No one of them has said, ' my Baptism.' Although they had 
 all one Gospel, yet you find that they said, 'my Gospel ;' but that 
 they said, ' my Baptism,' you find not." " So then.t we find it said 
 by the Apostles, as well ' my glory,' (though indeed ' in the Lord,') 
 and ' my ministry,' and ' my skill,' and ' my Gospel,''^ (although in- 
 deed imparted and given by the Lord;) but ' my Baptism,' none of 
 them hath ever said. For the ' glory' of all is not equal, nor do 
 all ' minister' equally, nor are all gifted with equal ' skill,' and, in 
 ' preaching the Gospel,' one worketh better than another, and so one 
 may be said to be better taught than another in the saving doctrine 
 itself: but one cannot be said to be more baptized than another, 
 whether he be baptized by a greater or by a less." " The Baptism, || 
 which Peter gave, was not Peter's but Christ's ; and that which 
 Paul gave, was not Paul's but Christ's ; and that wdiich they gave, 
 who in the Apostle's time announced Christ not purely, but out of 
 envy, was not theirs but Christs; and that which they gave, who in 
 Cyprian's time, seized on lands by fraud, increased their gains by 
 manifold usuries, was not theirs but Christ's. And because it was 
 Christ's, therefore, though given through persons unequal, yet it 
 equally profited those to whom it was given." " LetTI not any one be 
 alarmed that they [the Donatists] are wont to say, that then is it the 
 true Baptism of Christ, when given by a righteous man, whereas the 
 whole world holds that most evident and evangelic truth, in that John 
 says, ' He who sent me to baptize with water, said unto me, ' Upon 
 whom thou seest the Spirit descending — He it is who baptizeth 
 
 * C. litt. Petil. L. 2. 5 57. f In Joh. Ev. Tract. 5. 5 9. 
 
 X De Bapt. c Donatist. L. 5. c. 14. 
 
 6 1 Thess. ii. 20. Rom. xi. 13. Eph. iii. 4. 2 Tim. ii. 8. 
 
 11 Ep. 93. ad Vincent. Donat. { 47. 
 
 1 Ep. 89. [al. 167.] ad Festum, 5 5. 
 
157 
 
 ■with the Holy Ghost.' Whence the Church, freed from all anxiety, 
 placelh not her hope in man, lest she should fall into that sentence, 
 ' Cursed is every one who putteth his hope in man,' but puttelh her 
 hope in Christ, who in such wise, ' took the form of a servant,' as 
 not to lose ' the Form of God,' of whom it is said, ' He it is who 
 baptizeth.'" " Since,* then, John had received a Baptism, properly 
 entitled ' the Baptism of John,' bm. the Lord Jesus Christ would not 
 give His Baptism to another, — not that no one was to baptize with 
 the Baptism of the Lord, but that it should always be the Lord Him- 
 self who baptized, — it was so, that the Lord baptized through min- 
 isters, [' Howbeit Jesus himself baptized not, but His disciples,'] 
 i. e. that those whom the ministers of the Lord should afterwards 
 baptize, the Lord shoidd baptize, not they. For it is one thing to 
 baptize, as a minister, another to baptize with power. For the Bap- 
 tism takes its nature from him, in whose power it is given, not from him, 
 through whose ministry. 'The Baptism of John,' was such as John ; 
 a righteous Baptism as of one righteous, yet a man ; but of such a 
 man as had received of the Lord that grace, and so great grace, as 
 to be held worthy to go before the Judge, and point to Him, and ful- 
 fil the words of that prophecy, ' The voice of one crying in the wil- 
 derness. Prepare the way of the Lord.' But the Baptism of the 
 Lord is such as the Lord : therefore the Baptism of the Lord is Di- 
 vine, because the Lord is God. The Lord Jesus Christ could, had 
 He so pleased, have given the ' power' to any of His servants, to 
 confer Baptism, as it were, in His stead, and transfer from Himself 
 the power of baptizing, and deposit it with His servant, and give to 
 the Baptism so transferred to His servant the same efficacy, as had 
 the Baptism given by the Lord. This He therefore would not do, 
 that the hope of the baptized might rest in Him, by whom they ac- 
 knowledged themselves to be baptized- He would not have the ser- 
 vant put his hope in a servant." And with reference to our passage, f 
 " That baptism alone, which John gave, was called the Baptism of 
 John. That great man received this as the chief office of his dis- 
 pensation, that the precursory sacrament of the bath should be called 
 his also, by whom it was administered ; but the Baptism in which 
 the disciples ministered, was never said to be any of theirs, that 
 it might be understood to be His, of whom it is said, ' Christ loved 
 the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it, 
 cleansing it with the washing of water in the word.' " Thus much 
 may the rather be said, because the Donatist heresy (being, like all 
 others, a corrupt tendency of our nature) re-appears in different forms, 
 its peculiar feature being to look to the servant, and not to the Lord ; 
 to man's comparative or reputed sanciit)% not to His Sanctifying 
 Presence ; to things visible, not to those invisible. It is one and the 
 
 * In Job. Tract, v. {6, 7. f C litt. Petil. L. 3. \ 68. 
 
158 
 
 same, whether it make vaUd Baptism, according to the error direct- 
 ly condemned by our Churcli,* to depend on the sanctity of the ad- 
 ministering priest, supposing the grace of our Lord's Sacraments to 
 depend upon the ciiaracter of the channel! through which it is con- 
 ducted, and vainly purposing to guard its purity, and raise its great- 
 ness through the personal qualities of sintul man ; or whether look- 
 ing to it as administered by sinful man, it depreciate the Sacra- 
 ment, which He has retained in His own keeping. In either case 
 it looks to man, and " in its heart departeth from the Lord ;" in either, 
 it creeps among things of sense, instead of seeing Him who is invisi- 
 ble, the Lord of the Church, " Who loved her, and gave Himself 
 for her, that having cleansed, He might sanctify her." 
 
 * " Neither is the effect of Christ's ordinance taken away by their wicked- 
 ness [that of evil Ministers], nor the grace of God's f,n/i(5 diminished from such 
 as, by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered unto them; 
 which be effectual, Because of Christ^s institution and promise, although they 
 be ministered by evil men." — Art. XXVI. 
 
 f " A proud minister is accounted like Satan ; but the gift of Christ, which 
 flows through him, is not defiled. That which passes through him, is pure ; 
 it comes I'resh to the fertile earth; be it that he is of stone, he cannot, through 
 that stream, bear fruit. Through the pipe of stone, the water passes to 
 the ridges ; in the stone pipe it produceth not, yet the garden bringeth much 
 fruit. For the spiritual virtue of the Sacrament is like light ; it is both re- 
 ceived pure by those to be enlightened, and although it pass through the un- 
 clean is not defiled." Aug. in Joh. Tr. 5. J 15. " Tlie Baptism of Christ, con- 
 secrated by the words of the Gospel, is holy even in and through adulterers, 
 since its holiness cannot be defiled, although they are unchaste and unclean, 
 and the power of God ascompanieth His Sacrament, either to the salvation of 
 those who use it aright, or their destruction who use it amiss. Doth then the 
 light of the sun, or even of a lantern, contract no defilement, when diffused 
 tlirough marshy places, and is the Baptism of of Christ defiled by the guilt of 
 any V De Bapt. c, Donat. 3. c. 10. "As if what a faithless husbandman plant- 
 ed, for his faithlessness did not put forth his vital powers, and the fruitfulness 
 of the earth and genialness of the heaven did not receive such efficacy from 
 God, that they need only the laborer to plant and water, unconcerned with 
 what end he doeth it, wliether he faithfully love the Lord of the field or seek 
 his own, not his Master's gain." C Cresc. L. 3. c. 8. " Through the ear are 
 the grains carried to be cleansed on the floor, and though the chaff be useless, 
 yet doth it benefit the wheat ; so the failings of the ministers injure not Christ's 
 faithful ones, so that the Sacraments, by them administered, should become 
 inefficacious." Aug. Ep. ad Hieron. and St. Gregory of Nazianzum, in an- 
 swer to those who practically preferred one minister to another ; " Be there 
 two seals, one of gold, the other iron, but each engraved with the same royal 
 image, and be they stamped upon wax, what will tlie one seal differ from the 
 other] Nothing. Siiill'ul if thou art, recognize the material in the wax ! Tell 
 me which is the impress of the iron, which of the gold, and how it is one. For 
 the difference is in the material, not in the mould. So be baptized by whoso- 
 ever it may be. Whether in life one excel, still the power of the Baptism is 
 the same, and any will equally perfect you, if himself be cast in the same Faith" 
 [against Arain Baptism]. Orat. 40. De S. Bapt. \ 26. The above references 
 are brought together by Vossius de Bapt. Disp. 9. Thes. 13. 
 
159 
 
 Further, Baptism is the communication of our Lord's Passion, 
 and the proof of His love to the Church. " He loved her, and gave 
 Himself for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by 
 the washing of water." *' He gave Himself for her," but this was 
 yet something external to her ; He died for all mankind ; yet are not 
 all partakers of that Precious Death ; but beyond this, " He cleans- 
 ed her, that He might sanctify her." He applied to her the merits 
 of His Passion, made them her own, through the washing of water 
 He cleansed her with His own Blood, washed away every defilement, 
 each spot and wrinkle, became the Saviour of the body, that she 
 might be subject to Him here in holiness and spotlessness, and reign 
 with Him in glory. And so, in more faithful times, they felt that 
 Baptism was identified with His Passion, having its own efficacy 
 from It, and communicating It's virtue to us. " In like sort," says 
 Bp. Jewel, "S. Chrypostome writeth*of the Sacrament of Baptism," 
 " ' St. Paul showeth that the Blood and the water are one.' For 
 Christ's Baptism is Christ's Passion also," or, as he says again,t 
 " What the cross and grave was to Christ, that has Baptism been 
 made to us." " The sacrifice of our Lord's passion every man then 
 offers for Himself, when he is dedicated in the faith of His Passion," 
 says St. Augustine :J and again, " The sacrifice of the Lord is then 
 in a manner offered for each, when by being baptized he is sealed in 
 His name ;" and again, § " No man may in any wise doubt, that 
 each of the faithful then becomes a partaker of the Body and Blood 
 of the Lord, when in Baptism he is made a member of Christ." 
 *' Well are washed in the passion of the Lord," says Tertullian. "In 
 Baptism," again says St. Chrysostome,T[ " we are incorporate into 
 Christ, and made flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone." The 
 body of the regenerated (i, e. by Baptism) becomes " the flesh of the 
 crucified," saith St. Leo ;** and again, ft " Thou art bedewed with the 
 blood of Christ when thou art baptized into His death." " Let us 
 be washed in his blood," saith St. Bernard.!! " By these few it may 
 appeare," says Bishop Jewel,^v) " that Christ is present at the Sacra- 
 ment of Baptisme, even as He is present at the Holy Supper : un- 
 lesss ye will say, we may bee made flesh of Christ's flesh, and bee 
 washt in His blood, and bee partakers of Him, and have him ' pres- 
 ent,' without His ' presence.' Therefore Chrysostome, when he had 
 
 * Ep. ad Hebr. Horn. 16. quoted by Bp. Jewel, Replie to Harding, p. 285. 
 
 t lb. 287. 
 
 X l'',xpos. Inchoat. ad Romanos, ib. p. 422. 
 
 § Serm. ad Infant, ib. p. 21, 239, 292, 449. 
 
 II De Baptismo, ib. p. 287. "H" In Ep. ad Ephes. ib. 292. 
 
 ** De passione Domini, S. 4. ap- Jewel, Defence of Apologie, p. 221. 
 
 If In Serm. de 4ta feria, c 1. ib- p. 20. 
 
 XX Bern. Super Missus est Horn. 3. ibid. ^§ L. c. 
 
160 
 
 spoken vehemently of the Sacrament of the Supper, hee concludeth 
 thus, Even so is it also in Baptisme." 
 
 And so, we may see why St. Paul, in this place, speaks in two 
 words only, of Christ's precious Blood-sliedding, or rather of His 
 whole Life and Death for the Church, and then dwells on the value 
 of the gift of Baptism, and of the sanctification of the Church thereby 
 conveyed. He does so because it is Baptism, which makes that 
 precious Blood-shedding our's. 
 
 Lastly, it may be observed that St. Paul mentions no other instru- 
 ment but Baptism ; for in that he says, " with the washing of water 
 hy the ivord,^'' he means, (as appears both by the force of the term, and 
 the authority of the ancient Church*) the Divine word which renders 
 the element of water efficacious to our regeneration, our Blessed 
 Saviour's "word" of Consecration. " By what word?" " In the 
 Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," says 
 St. Chrysostom ; and so Theodoret, " That saying, ' having cleansed 
 in the washing of water by the word,' stands for, ' In the Name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' " The original 
 word, moreover, here employed Vpw'^,) is used of the " command"! 
 of God, or of His '* promise, "| or of a specific revelation, " the word 
 of the Lord came to,"'^ but not in the sense, which would be required 
 by the modern interpretation, || of revelation, written or unwritten, 
 not of the word preached or written. For this there is used the plu- 
 ral pw'^-ra*^ or -^"/"^^ and so, as elsewhere, the observation of the pecu- 
 liarity of Scripture language, and the authority of the ancient Church, 
 coincide in their results. 
 
 And thus in a passage, which modern habits pass over so slightly, 
 there are contained, it appears, the doctrines that Christ's special 
 love to the Church is manifested in His two Sacraments ; that Bap- 
 tism is essential to her sanctification ; that it is an abiding blessing 
 to her, preparing her, through her state militant, for eternal glory, 
 and for His Presence and complete Union with Him ; that it is 
 through, and in her, that individuals partake of these blessings ; that 
 it is He, not man, who baptizeth ; that Baptism is the communica- 
 tion of His Passion. 
 
 And this concentration of doctrine in this place is the more re- 
 markable, inasmuch as the Apostle draws no inference whatever 
 from this description which he gives of the purity of the Church, 
 
 * See Note (F) at the end. 
 
 t Matt. iv. 4 ; Heb. 13; xi. 3 ; Rom. x. 8. (from the LXX.) 
 
 X Heb. vi. 5 ; 1 Pet. i. 25. ^ 1 Pet. iii. 2. 
 
 II •' The instrument, by which this grace is conveyed to the soul, is the word 
 of God. The word, both written and preached, is that whereby we are begot- 
 ten of Him." Mr. Simeon ad loc. The words, " the instrument," have the 
 more force, since Mr. S. had just spoken of the baptismal washing, as an ex- 
 ternal sign only. 
 
 1 John V. 47; vi. 63, 68 ; viii. 20, 47, &c. 
 
161 
 
 but simply concludes as he began, " so ought men to love their wives 
 as their own bodies,-^even as the Lord the Church." The only- 
 point of comparison which he insists on, is the fostering love of 
 Christ, which the husband was, in his relation, to imitate : and 
 threfore, since St. Paul thus singled out and dwelt upon the gift of 
 Baptism, he must have had most exalted notions of that Sacrament, 
 as a proof of the love of the Saviour of the Church, " in nourishing 
 and cherishing it." For neither does man launch out into such a fer- 
 vid description as this, without strong emotions as to the value and 
 excellency of what he so describes. And so one may say, that the 
 Holy Spirit, in filling the Apostle's mind with such high notions of 
 the continual love and Providence of Christ for His Church, as man- 
 ifested in the efficacy which he gave to the water of Baptism to sanc- 
 tify and cleanse it, and in causing him to dwell in such glowing terms 
 on the purity thereby to be effected, must have intended to work a 
 corresponding love in us, and to correct the cold and unloving so- 
 phisms of sense and reason about the power of our Lord's institution. 
 And yet I would confidently appeal to a large number of persons in 
 the present day, whether, often as they have dwelt upon this animat- 
 ing description of the sanctification and spotlessness of Christ's 
 Church, they have not (with a tacit feeling of not entering into them) 
 pass by, almost unnoticed, the words " with the washing of water," 
 to which, however, the Apostle throughout refers in his subsequent 
 picture of the Church's unblemishedness ? And if so, is it not time 
 mat we seek to correct this variance between the Apostle's feelings 
 and our own V* 
 
 iii. I. P. " There is one body, and One Spirit, even as ye were called in one 
 hope of your calling, One Lord, one Faith, One Baptism, One God and Fa- 
 ther of all, Wht) is above all, and through all, and in you all." — Eph. iv. 4. 
 
 * It is painful to see Calvin's continual anxiety lest too much should be at- 
 tributed to the Sacrament, even while he rightly vindicates it. " It is as if he 
 said that a pledge of that sanctification was given in Baptism. Altliough we 
 need a sound exposition here, lest men make themselves an idol out of the Sa- 
 crament, (as often happens) through a perverse superstition, &c." and soon; 
 and yet even he had to speak against others, who " toiled (sudant) in paring 
 down and weakening this panegyric upon Baptism, lest too much should be 
 assinged to the symbol, if it were called the bath of the soul." Ad loc. Of 
 such is Vorst, who even denies that the passage has any reference to the Sa- 
 crament of Baptism at all. " It is to be observed, moreover, that they griev- 
 ously err, who suppose that in this place the power of sanctifying, and washing 
 away sins, is ascribed in this place to the outward baptism with water ; nay 
 who build upon it the doctrine of the ' opus operatum ;' whereas in truth, not 
 that outward baptism, but the inward and spiritual washing of the soul, (where- 
 of that is only the sign and seal,) is here spoken of." Ad loc This is followed 
 by more recent writers, e. g. Mr. Simeon, ad loc. " The washing of water in 
 baptism was only the external sign of that spiritual grace which it is the de- 
 light of His soul to bestow." 
 VOL, 11.-^6 
 
162 
 
 Such are the grounds upon which St. Paul exhorts to Christran 
 unity. Christians were to abide at one, because they had been made 
 one. " One Body," the Church, vivified by " One Spirit," though 
 manifesting Himself in divers ways ; " one ho|-e in which they had 
 been called," of life everlasting, in the Holy Presence and fruition of 
 God ; " one Lord ;" " one Faith" in Him ; " one Baptism" into Him, 
 and so into " God* the Father, Who is ' above all,' the Author of ally 
 God the Son, Who is ' through all,' as having been by Him created ; 
 God ihe Holy Ghost, Who is ' in all,' for He is given to believers, 
 and we are the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Father and the 
 Son dwell in us." Well might St. Chrysostome say,t " When the 
 Blessed Paul exhorts to some greater effort, being very understand- 
 ing and spiritual, he founds his exhortation on things in heaven, hav- 
 ing learnt this from the Lord." But to this end, he appeals to the 
 gifts, the high heavenly gifts which they had all received ; " He:}; 
 seeheth of us no ordinary charity, but one which should glue and join 
 us indissolubly to each other, and have the same unitedness as of 
 limb with limb," and "ye| were called in one hope of your calling, 
 i. e. God hath called you to the same things. He hath not given to 
 one more than to another ; freely hath He bestowed on all, immortal- 
 ity — on all, eternal life — on all, undying glory — on all, brotherhood 
 — on all, inheritance. He became the common hope of all, co-raised 
 all, and seated them with Himself," These He hath bestowed up- 
 on all; other gifts have been given "according to the measure of 
 the gift of Christ," but continues St. Chrysostome, " The very head 
 and chief things are common to all. Baptism, to be saved by Faith, 
 to have God for our Father, all to partake of the same Spirit." As 
 has been well said, " all are things inward, belonging to the Church 
 and to its several members." Our " one regeneration and engraffing 
 into Christ," may well occupy its place among our most glorious 
 privileges, for it is the basis of all the rest ; the earnest of the Spir- 
 it, the ground of our hope, the gift or confirmation of our faith, the 
 union with Christ, and thereby with His Father and our Father, how 
 should it not be a thing most inward ? and how should we be asham- 
 ed, if we think only of the outward symbol under which it is made 
 visible to us, as separate from its inward grace ; and of that which 
 
 * "Quidara" ap. Hieron. ad loc. His own interpretation differs only, in that 
 he says, " per omnes Filrus, quia cuncia transcurrit vaditque per omnia," and 
 in the last more concisely " in omnibus Spiritus Sanctus, quia nihil absque 
 ipso est." St. Athanasius in the same way, " The Trinity is holy and perfect, 
 equal within Itself, indivisible in Nature, It's operation One. For the Father 
 doth all things through the Word in the Holy Spirit ; and thus the Unity of 
 the Holy Trinity is preserved. And thus One God is preached in the Church, 
 Which is ' above all, and through all, and in all ;' ' above all,' as the Father, 
 and Origin and Fountain ; 'through all,' through the Word; ' in all,' in the 
 Holy Ghost." Ep. ad Serapion. c. 28. p. 676, 7. ed Ben. 
 
 t Horn. X. in Eph. iv. init. J Hom. xi. init. 
 
163 
 
 St. Paul places among God's chief gifts, yea with His gift of His 
 Son our Lord, and His Holy Spirit, make but a lifeless carcass with- 
 out a soul ! 
 
 It may yet be remarked, how sound faith and Baptism are thus 
 again blended together, as before in the holy words of Baptism,* 
 Baptism being the depository, as it were, and guardian and perpetu- 
 ator of sound faith in the Church. For so, having named one com- 
 mon hope, the Apostle goes on to speak of our one source of hope, 
 our " One Lord," and thence of the " One Faith," which was de- 
 linered to the saints, the " One Faith," as having One object 
 of Faith ; and thence of the " One Baptism," wherein this 
 Faith was delivered to us, to be retained through life and death ; 
 and thence of the Holy Trinity in Unity, " One God and Father, 
 Who is above all, and through all, and in all." It is not then as an 
 outward form that Baptism is here named, but as " in power," seal- 
 ing us, and sealing up our Faith in us, which in it was named up- 
 on us, and in which we were baptized, our Faith in the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And so among the ancient fathers, 
 St. Gregory of Nazianzum, after a full and sound confession of the 
 Holy Trinity, t " whosoever this day threatens let him grant me to 
 retain these words, and all beside take who will ! The Father en- 
 dureth not to be deprived of the Son, nor the Son of the Holy Ghost; 
 but He is deprived, if ever they were not, if they are creatures. For 
 that which is created is not God. Nor can even I endure to be de- 
 prived of that which perfected me. ' One Lord, one Faith, one 
 Baptism.' If this be made invalid, from whom shall I receive a sec- 
 ond ? What say ye, ye destructive-baptists, and anabaptists 1% Can 
 one be spiritual without the Spirit ? or partaketh he of the Spirit, 
 who honoreth not the Spirit 1 or honoreth he who is baptized into 
 one created and a fellow-servant ? Not so, not so. I will not belie 
 Thee, Unoriginated Father ; I will not belie Thee, Only-Begotten 
 Word ; I will not belie Thee, Holy Spirit. I know Whom I have 
 confessed. Whom renounced, with Wliom been imited. I endure 
 not, having been taught the words of the faithful, to learn infidel ; to 
 have confessed the truth, and follow after falsehood ; to go down 
 [into the water] to be perfected, and return more imperfect; to be 
 baptized as for life, and be stifled in the water — Why make me at 
 once blessed and wretched, new-enlightened and unenlightened, Di- 
 vine and Godless, that I may suffer shipwreck of the hope of my re- 
 formation." And St. Athanasius,^ in the same way, so characteristic 
 of the ancient Church, while he blends the passage of St. Paul with 
 
 * See above p. 74. sqq. 
 
 t Oral. 33. adv. Arian. c. 17. p. 614, 15. ed. Ben. 
 
 j The Eunomians who re-baptized " in the name of the Father uncreated, 
 and the Son created, andtlie Holy Ghost created by the created Son." — Epiph. 
 ap. Bened. 
 
 ^ Ep. 3. ad Scrapion. c. 6. p. 695. ed. Ben. 
 
164 
 
 our TiOrd's commission to baptize, connects the confession of tlie true 
 Faith with the grace and blessings of Baptism. "For this cause the 
 Lord Himself united His own JName with the Name of the Father, 
 to show that the Holy Trinity consisted not of different Beings, i. e. 
 of a Creator and a creature, but that It is One Godhead. This, Paul 
 liaving learnt, taught that the grace given therein was one, saying, 
 ' One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.' As there is one Baptism, so 
 also one Faith. For whoso believeth in the Father, in the Father 
 knoweth the Son, and the Spirit not out of the Son. And, tberefore, 
 he believeth in the Son also, and in the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as 
 the Godhead of the Trinity is also One, being known from the One 
 Father." And so also Hilary, in his solemn way, developes the con- 
 nection of the mention of " One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism^ 
 One God and Father of all."* " The Apostle, manifoldly treating of 
 the entire and perfect mystery of the Evangelic Faith, among other 
 precepts also of Divine knowledge, uttered this also to the Ephesians, 
 ' like also as ye were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, 
 one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, and through all, 
 and in us all.' For he did not leave us to the uncertain and erratic 
 search after an undefined doctrine, nor abandoned the human intel- 
 lect to uncertain opinions, but closed up the liberty of the under- 
 standing and will by opposed bars, not allowing us to be wise, except 
 to that which he had preached ; the definite settling of an immutable 
 Faith not permitting belief to wander to and fro. Preaching, there- 
 fore, to us One Lord, he mentions one Faith ; then mentioning one 
 Faith in One Lord, he points out also one Baptism, that since there 
 was one Faith in One Lord, there might be also one Baptism in the 
 Faith, which being in One Lord was one. And because every Sa- 
 crament, whether of Baptism or Faith, as it is in ' One Lord,' so also 
 is in ' One God,' he closes up the consummation of our hope by the 
 profession of One God, that there was one Baptism and one faith, a? 
 in One Lord, so also in One God, Each then is one, not by Union, 
 but by Personality, since it both Personally belongs to each to be 
 One, (whether to the Father, because He is the Father, or to the 
 Son, because He is the Son,) and what Each is in His own Person- 
 ality, the mystery of Unity is to Both ; inasmuch as neither doth 
 there being ' One Lord,' Christ, take away from God the Father that 
 He is Lord, nor doth there being One God the Father deny of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ that He is God : since, if thereby that there is 
 ' One God,' it should seem not to belong to Christ to be God, it must 
 also be that since there is ' One Lord,' Christ, it should not belong 
 to ' God,' to be ' Lord,' i. e. if the being 'One,' be understood not as 
 indicative of the mystery of the Personality of each, but as exclusive 
 of Their Unity. There is then both ' one Baptism,' and 'one Faith/ 
 
 * De Trin. L. xi. c. 1, 2. 
 
165 
 
 of ' One Lord,' as also of ' One God the Father.' But this Faith is 
 no longer one, if it shall not retain in the profession of conscience, 
 
 * One Lord, and One God the Father.' But how doth a 'Faith,' 
 which is not ' one,' confess ' One Lord and One God the Father V 
 But one it will not be, amid such a diversity of assertions, if one 
 shall believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, when the nails pierced his 
 hands, groaned through the pang of our infirmity, and destitute of 
 the Virtue of His own Nature and power, feared at the terrors of His 
 now approaching Death ; if moreover he shall deny That which was 
 
 * the Beginning' to have been born, and assert rather that He was 
 created : if he shall rather call Him, than understand Him to he 
 God ; since we may without impiety speak of'gods,^ but to understand 
 but One ' God,^ is the consciousness of the Divine Nature implanted 
 in us. But Christ is no longer One Lord, if to one He grieves not, 
 as God, to another he fears as being weak ; to one He be God by 
 Nature, to another by title ; and to one be a Son by Generation, to 
 another by appellation. And so neither is God the Father One in the 
 Faith, if by some He be believed to be the Father through power, 
 (inasmuch as God is the universal Father,) by others, through Gen- 
 eration. Further, who would doubt that to be out of the Faith which 
 is without the ' one Faith ?' for in the ' one Faith' there is both '' One 
 Lord,' Christ, and ' One God the Father.' But the ' One Lord,' 
 Christ, is then only not in name but in faith One Son, if He be 
 God, if He be unchangeable, if He never cease to be either God or 
 the Son. Whoso then shall preach Christ, other than He is, i. e. 
 neither as the Son, nor as God, will preach another Christ. But 
 neither is he comprehended in the one faith of the one Baptism, be- 
 cause according to the Apostolic doctrine, that is the one Faith of the 
 one Baptism, whose One Lord is Christ, both Son of God and God." 
 
 Defective as any extract from a work of such close thought must 
 needs be, this may serve to indicate how the deeper value for the 
 *' one Baptism" was bound up with a deeper and more settled appre- 
 hension of the " one Faith," more alive to the testimonies which 
 Scripture yields to that one Saving Faith in the Holy Trinity, which 
 they had in Baptism received, as well as with a deeper adoration of 
 the " One Lord and One God." Where moderns see only a general 
 argument for what they think Christian unity, and unity of will, the 
 Ancients saw actual union through " the one Baptism in the one 
 Faith, in One Lord and One God ;" where moderns see only the 
 general tenor of what lies on the surface, the Ancients searched 
 deeply into the words of Holy Scripture ; and where moderns find 
 rather a difficulty, as if the " One Lord" were different from the 
 " One God," the Ancients saw the proof that He who was by Person 
 One Lord, was by His Unity with the Father One God ; they saw 
 and adored. 
 
166 
 
 iii. 1. y. " As the body is one, and hath many members, but all the members 
 of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ ; for in One Spirit 
 were we all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond 
 or free, and were all made to drink into one Spirit." — 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. 
 
 To the Galatians St. Paul inculcated their actual unity as derived 
 from having been baptized into One Christ ; so here again, to the 
 Corinthians, from their having been " baptized in One Spirit ;" there- 
 by shewing that to be baptized into Christ is to be baptized in the 
 One Spirit; and neither is the Baptism of Christ without the Spirit, 
 nor is there a Baptism of the Spirit without the Baptism instituted 
 by Christ. " The naming of Christ," says St Basil,* " is the con- 
 fession of the whole Trinity ; for it declares God Who anointed, and 
 the Son Who was anointed, and the Spirit the Anointing, as we have 
 learnt of Peter in the Acts, ' Jesus of Nazareth, Whom God anointed 
 with the Holy Ghost,' and in Isaiah, ' the Spirit of the Lord is upon 
 Me, wherefore He anointed Me;' and the Psalmist, 'wherefore God, 
 Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the Oil of gladness above Thy 
 fellows ;' and sometimes he seems to make mention of the Spirit only 
 in Baptism," quoting this place — And these two passages bear the 
 more remarkably upon each other, in that the Holy Spirit has so 
 ordered, that, however different the argument upon which they im- 
 mediately bear, the same illustration of the oneness of the body of 
 Christ is used in both. " All you who were baptized into Christ, 
 put on Christ. There is in Him («'»") neither Jew nor Greek ; there 
 is in Him neither bond nor free ; there is in Him neither male nor 
 female ; for ye are all one («'«) in Christ Jesus ;" and so here, all, 
 however many, are one, because "we all, whether Jews or Greeks, 
 bond or free, were all baptized into one body in One Spirit;" as 
 tliough by this identity of illustration, the more closely to identify 
 the Baptism into Christ with the Baptism in the Spirit. For in 
 Baptism the Spirit is the Agent. It is not any outward or visible 
 incorporation into any mere visible body, (since for a mere visible 
 union there needed not an Invisible Agent,) but an invisible engraffing 
 into Christ, by the invisible working of the Spirit. We are no oth- 
 erwise, the Apostle says, " baptized into the one body," than " in the 
 One Spirit." There is no distinction, as if some were baptized into 
 the " outward body of professing believers," as men speak, others into 
 the invisible and mystical body of Christ, the true Church ; some 
 baptized with water, others with the Spirit ; " we were a//," St. 
 Paul says, " baptized into one body in One Spirit ;" so then, if any 
 had not been baptized in the One Spirit, neither would they have 
 been of the one body. "What he says is this," says St. Chrysostom,t 
 
 * De Spir. S. c. 12. " against those who said Baptism into the Lord alone,, 
 sufficed." 
 t Horn. 30. in Ep. 1. ad Cor. ^ 1. 2. 
 
167 
 
 *' that which caused us to be one body, and regenerated us, is One 
 Spirit ; for the one was not baptized in the One Spirit, the other in 
 another ; and not only was That which baptized us, One, but that 
 also into which, i. e, for which He baptized was one. For we were 
 baptized, not to become different bodies, but that we might all pre- 
 serve towards each other the close adherence of one body, i. e. we 
 were baptized that we might all become one body. So then He who 
 formed us, and that which he formed, is one." But further still, St. 
 Paul insists on this as having actually taken place, and that no longer, 
 as when writing to the Ephesians, to a very spiritual, but to a very 
 carnal Church, "Ye* are yet carnal ; for where there is envying and 
 strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk after the manner of 
 men ?" and yet it was to this carnal Church, thus actually walking 
 after the flesh, and after the manner of men, and not after the Spirit, 
 that he says, " we were all baptized into one body in One Spirit, 
 and loere all made to drink into One Spirilf." He does not denjr 
 that they had received these gifts, however unworthily of them they 
 were now walking ; rather, he bids them " stir up the gift of God," 
 which they had received, and " which was in them ;" he claims 
 them by what they had received, and had been made, however they 
 might be in danger of losing it (since " the| Holy Spirit of discipline 
 will not abide, where unrighteousness cometh in ; for wisdom is a 
 loving Spirit ;") he says " in One Spirit were ye baptized into one 
 body," ye were made One body by one indwelling Spirit, Which re- 
 generated you, and remade you into one ; remain one, lest if ye cease 
 to be of the same body, ye lose also that Spirit whereby ye were 
 made one. And this body into which they jiad all been baptized was 
 so spiritual, that he doubts not to call it " Christ" Himself; he speaks 
 of the Church, not only, as elsewhere, as "the body of Christ," but 
 he substitutes the Name of " Christ" for the Church ;§ not as though 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 3. oi-x} B'apKiKo'i iart Kal Kara ai/Spoirov mpnraTurc, exactly the Oppo- 
 site of St. Paul's description of a Christian walk (Rom. viii. 1.) "there is then 
 no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," i^h kotu aapKu TrepmaTovaiv 
 AXKa Kara irvtvua. Just what St. Paul 3sserts of the one he denies of the other. 
 
 f On account of this reference to a definite past act, it seems probable that 
 these words also refer to the same act of Baptism, and not, as might seem at 
 first sight, to the other Sacrament. St. Chrysostom gives both senses, but 
 thinks Baptism rather referred to ; " we come to the same mystical consecra- 
 tion, we enjoy the same Table. And why said he not, ' we are nourished 
 with the same Body, and we drink the same Blood ''' Because, naming the 
 Spirit, he pointed to both, both the Blood and the Flesh, for by both are we 
 ' given to drink the same Spirit.' But he seems to me now to speak of that 
 descent of the Spirit which takes place within us through Baptism, and be- 
 fore partaking of the mysteries." 
 
 X Wisd. i. 5, 6. 
 
 § " ' So also is Christ,' whereas he should naturally have said, ' so also is 
 the Church,' for this it was, whicli followed on what he said, he doth not say 
 
168 
 
 " Christ" meant only " the body of Christians ;" but, by virtue of the 
 union of tlie members with the Head, he speaks of them as included 
 in the Head ; he passes over the Church's visible existence, and con- 
 ceives of it only as in its Lord, in Whom it had its life. How awfully 
 must he have thought of the actualness of the union of the Church 
 with Christ, who could speak of her, only as existing in her Lord, 
 and under the Name of her Lord, as lost in Him, as in the rays of 
 the Sun of Righteousness, wherewith she was clothed,* and her 
 form, and substance, and character, altogether changed as the cold 
 black iron by the heat which invisibly penetrates it, and transforms 
 it into itself, so long as it abides in it. How greatly must he have 
 thought of Baptism, whereby in One Spirit we were all baptized, 
 (bathed, as it were, in the Spirit,) into one body, which was Christ. 
 " Here also again," says even a modern,! who so far retained 
 faithfully the ancient doctrine, " there is ascribed to Baptism an in- 
 corporation into Christ the Lord, and a con-corporation in that Christ 
 with all saints, and that by the same Spirit." 
 
 And thence it follows at once, that the gift of Baptism was to him 
 above all other spiritual gifts ; whence in this Epistle as well as that 
 to the Ephesians, he can the more strongly urge them to be content 
 with whatever had been allotted to them, since they had what was 
 of all the greatest, they were "in Christ." It mattered not what 
 office they had in the body, whether they were foot, or hand, or eye ; 
 this was altogether secondary ; they were in the Body, this was 
 their hope and their glory, and this would, if realized, be their crown ; 
 other gifts brought with them only an additional burthen of responsi- 
 bility, and they who had them not, might well be contented to forego 
 them, since they had that which alone is of ultimate moment. " We:|: 
 were all new-made by One Spirit, we all enjoyed the same Gift in 
 Baptism, we alike received remission of sins, we alike partake of 
 the Divine mysteries. We are become then one body, though we 
 have different members." " Well,^ said he, ' we all,' joining in him- 
 self also. For neither I, saith he, who am an Apostle, have thus far 
 any thing above you. For thou art the body as I, and I as you, and 
 we all have the same Head, and were born by the same birth. Where- 
 
 this, but for the ' Church' puts ' Christ,' raising his speech on high, and the 
 more shaming his hearer. For what he means is, ' so also is the body of 
 Christ, which is tlie Church.' For as the body and the head are one man, so 
 he said the Church and Christ were one (f"), wherefore he put ' Christ' for 
 'the Cliurch,' so naming His body." Chrys. ad loc. "He calls ' Christ' the 
 whole body of the Church, since the Lord Christ is the head of the body." 
 Theod. ad loc. Contrast with this the meagreness of modern views — " The 
 name ' Clirist' means the Society who belong to Him." — Mr. Simeon ad loc. 
 
 * " And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the 
 sun." — Rev. xii. 1. f De vi Bapt. 0pp. Angl. i. p. 597. 
 
 X Theodoret, ad loc. ^ Chrys. ad loc. Horn. 30. { 2. 
 
169 
 
 fore also we are one body. And why say I the ' Jews V for He 
 hath brought the Greeks, so far removed from us, into the frame of 
 one body. Wherefore, havincr said, ' we all,' he paused not here, 
 but added, 'whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free.' For if, 
 being aforetime so far severed, we were united and became one, 
 much more after we have become one, should we not grieve, or be 
 dejected. If then One Spirit formed us, and brought us all into one 
 body, for this is ' we were all baptized into one body,' and gave us 
 one Table, and watered all with the same stream, for this is ' we 
 were made to drink into One Spirit,'* and made us one who were so 
 far separated, and the many then become a body, when they become 
 one, why continually think on the difference ?" In like way, S. 
 Chrysostome developes the argument to the Ephesians (iv. 7.,) " we 
 have all the great and chief things in common ;t if then the one has 
 more in gifts, grieve not, since his toil is more also, and of him who 
 had received five talents, were five required, but he who had the two 
 brought only two, and was no less accepted than the other." And 
 to the same end, S. Clement of Alexandria combines these two pas- 
 sages, to show that " God is no respecter of persons," but bestoweth 
 His grace equally upon all through holy Baptism. " These bonds are 
 quickly loosed,| through human faith, but grace divine ; all sins being 
 forgiven through that one all-healing medicine. Baptism in the Word 
 (Aoyuw paTTT'iafiaTi.) "We wash away then all sins, and forthwith are no 
 longer evil. This is the one grace of the EUghtening, that the cha- 
 racter is not the same as before. But since true knowledge dawneth 
 with that enlightening, flashing around the mind, and we before un- 
 disciplined (o' diAudcis) ape now called disciples (/^a^'yai) is this perchance 
 when that discipline is added ? You cannot say certainly ; for the 
 instruction leadeth to faith ; but faith, with Holy Baptism, is disci- 
 plined by the Spirit. For that the Faith is the one universal salva- 
 tion of mankind, and that there is an equal participation of the just 
 God, the lover of mankind, the Apostle most plainly declared, (GaL 
 iii. 28-25.,) Hear ye not, that we are no longer under the law, which 
 had fear, but under the Word, the Instructor of the will ? then he 
 addeth these words, declaring the absence of all partiality, ' For ye are 
 all sons, &c.' (ib. 26-28.) so then being in the Word Himself, it is 
 not so that some are endued with knowledge, others mere carnal men 
 (ipvxiKoi,) but all, having put olEf the lusts of the flesh, are equal and 
 spiritual with the Lord, as he again writes, ' For in One Spirit were 
 
 *S. Chrys. explains this a little before : "he said, 'were made to drink,' 
 since this metaphor harmonized exceedingly with his subject, as if he were 
 speaking of a plants and a garden, that the trees are watered from the same 
 fountain, from the same water, thus here also we have all drunk the same 
 Spirit, we have all enjoyed the same grace." 
 
 t See above, ad loc. p. 168. 
 
 X Clem. Alex. Paedag, i. 6. ed. Potter, p. 116. 
 
170 
 
 we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether 
 bond or free, and have all drunk of one cup.' " 
 
 iii. 2. Indications of the ijnportance of BapHsm, arising from 
 the mode in ivhich Holy Scripture speaks of it, when conferred on 
 individuals. 
 
 Such being the doctrine of Baptism, as delivered by our Lord, and 
 involved in his words of institution, and set forth by the Apostles, 
 when writing to Christian Churches, i. e. to those who had been bap- 
 tized into Christ, it is natural to look for something corresponding in 
 the history of the Apostolic conversions. Not, of course, that we are 
 entitled to make any requisitions as to what we should find in Holy 
 Scripture, and believe or disbelieve, be satisfied or dissatisfied, ac- 
 cording as such requisiiions are realized or no ; but that it certainly 
 would be in harmony with this teaching of the Apostolic Epistles, if 
 we found that the narrative of the first founding of the Church, when 
 speaking of the actual admission of converts to the Church, ascribed 
 or implied a high value to attach to this Sacrament. And this is so. 
 And if men would observe all the indications in the Acts, they would 
 find a stress laid upon Baptism which would surprise them, and 
 thereby evince that there was something faulty in their previous 
 notions. 
 
 And thus it has been observed of old ;* " In this Book of the 
 Acts of the Apostles, whoever will search, may discover many things 
 commendatory of the use of Baptism with water." 
 
 Thus, Baptism is not urged upon the converts, as we might sup- 
 pose, as a proof of sincerity, or a test of faith, in embracing openly 
 the worship of the Crucified, and so being prepared, literally as well 
 as in spirit, to " take up the cross and follow Him," but for its own 
 benefits, in and for itself. Let any one think what, according to his 
 views of Christian truth, would have been his answer to the multi- 
 tude, who, "pricked in their hearts, asked Peter and the rest. Men 
 and brethren, what shall we do?" I doubt that their answer would 
 not have been, '^ Repentf and be baptized every one of you, in the 
 Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost." And thereupon follows immediately 
 that further exhortation, "withf many other words did he testify and 
 
 * Didymus on Acts viii. 36. ap. Caten. in Actt. ed. Cramer, p. 146. 
 
 t Acts ii. 38. Calvin, according to his views, is obliged to guard St. Peter 
 from misconception, by reversing his words and meaning, " Although Baptism 
 here precedes remission of sin in the order of words, ('he baptised for the re- 
 mission of sins,') in the order (of things) it follows, since it is nothing else 
 than a sealing of those good things, which we obtain in Christ, that they may 
 be assured in our consciences :" i. e. whereas St. Peter directs the Jews to 
 repent and be baptized, for the remission of sins," he, in fact, meant, " repent 
 and receive Baptism, that your consciences may be set at ease, and that you 
 may know that God has forgiven you !" 
 
171 
 
 exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation," i. e. 
 save yourselves by the only way in which man could " save him- 
 self," by fleeing for refuge to Christ's ark, which would be the only 
 shelter when God "should again bring in the flood upon the world of 
 the ungodly."* They were to save themselves, as Noah and his 
 family were saved from temporal death, by fleeing from out of the un- 
 toward generation," " upon whom the flood came and destroyed them 
 all." And thus the teaching corresponds in form, as in substance, with 
 those other words of St. Peter, the " antitype whereunto. Baptism, 
 doth now save us." I cannot but think that very many of us would 
 have omitted all mention of Baptism, and insisted prominently on 
 some other portion of the Gospel message ; i. e. our notions of the 
 relative value of Gospel Truths and Ordinances differ from those of 
 the inspired Apostles. 
 
 Such was the first conversion ; and so, at the very outset of the 
 history, care is taken to point out that the disciples fulfilled their 
 Lord's command, that it was by Baptism that they enlarged their 
 Lord's Church :t that it was by Baptism that men were saved. — - 
 " Then| they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the 
 same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." 
 "Andi^ the Lord added to the Church daily those that were saved." 
 They were saved for the time being, by being " added to the 
 Church," as St. Peter had exhorted them to " save themselves," 
 and they were " added to the Church" by Baptism. And this con- 
 tinues to be the marked character of the Acts throughout, so that 
 (with the exception of Sergius Paulus) there is not one account of 
 any remarkable conversion, in which it is not expressly mentioned 
 also, that the individual so converted was baptized. Thus, of the 
 ^Ethiopian eunuch, whom Philip was sent to teach, it is related, 
 " As they went on their way, they came to a certain water, and the 
 eunuch said. See, water; what doth hinder me to be baptized ?"|| 
 "In th ewilderness did water break out, and streams in the desert ;"1[ 
 and for joy at the mercy thus placed within his reach, the eunuch 
 cried out, " See, water." " These are words," subjoins St. Chry- 
 sostom,** ^' of a soul set on fire — ' what hindereth me to be baptiz- 
 ed V See his longing ! He saith not ' baptize me,' nor is he silent, 
 but he saith something intermediate, expressing both longing and reve- 
 
 * 2 Pet. ii. 5. 
 
 t After the Resurrection, He sends the Apostles to the Gentiles, and com- 
 mands them to baptize them in the mystery of the Trinity. The people of the 
 Jews repent of their deed, and forthwith is sent by Peter to Baptism. Before 
 she travails, Zion brings forth, and a nation is born at once. Jer. Ep. 69. ad 
 Ocean. 5 6. 
 
 t Acts ii. 40. ^ Ver. 47. I| Acts viii. 36. 
 
 T[ Is. XXXV. 6. " Arise, and go towards the south — which is desert," Acts 
 viii. 26. 
 
 ** Ad loc. Horn. xJx. in Actt. ^ 2. 
 
172 
 
 rence ; ' what hindereth me to be baptized V See how well he appre- 
 hended tlie doctrines ; for the prophet contained all, — the Incarna- 
 tion, til ; Passion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the future Judg- 
 ment, which things especially infused into him an exceeding longing. 
 Be ye .-ishamed, whosoever of you are unenlightened," [unbaptized.] 
 And, ill like way, St. Basil;* "for when they met with water, 
 'behok',' he saith * water ;' — words arising from exceeding joy; see 
 here wuat I looked for, what hinders me to be baptized ?" 
 
 The sixteenth chapter contains the history of two remarkable con- 
 versions ; that of " Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened," and of 
 the jailor of Philippi ; they are striking instances of the grace of 
 God ; :ind it is right that we should have them in remembrance, as 
 such ; iiid how, of all the converts at Philippi, whose hearts He 
 opened, Ho has singled out for record a foreign purple-seller,t and a 
 jailor. Yet, without doubt, to correct our narrow views of His deal- 
 ings, and lest we should, in these His extraordinary works, forget or 
 despise His ordinary gifts, (as we do continually forget the daily mir- 
 acles o! His Providence, looking out for things which are extra-ordi- 
 nary, i. 0. out of that course which He has ordered as being usually 
 the mo-t fitting,:}:) to correct this habit of mind, He has had it record- 
 ed, tha: neither conversion completed His purpose of mercy towards 
 those Avhose hearts He opened and turned. Neither that con- 
 version, which he wrought by the more powerful influences of His 
 inward grace, nor that which was a fruit of His outward miracles, 
 the earUiquake which shook the foundations of the prison, or the 
 loosing of the prisoners' bands, was in itself perfect. They were 
 but tile preparations for the gift which was to follow ; " The Lord 
 was not in the earthquake ;" it but announced his coming. And so 
 Lydia regarded the first act of His grace as preparatory only, she 
 thouglit not herself worthy to receive even the servants of the Most 
 High ( fod, until " she and her household" had, by Baptism, been 
 made " a temple of the Holy Ghost." " And, when she was baptized 
 and her household, she besought us, saying, ' If ye have judged me 
 
 * Horn, in S. Bapt. \ 6. T. 2. p. 119. ed. Ben. 
 
 t " Lylia, of the city of Thyatira," ver. 14 ; the other converts are only in- 
 cidental: y mentioned, ver. 40. " when they had seen the brethren." 
 
 I " TliR sources of bread were in the hands of the Lord. No marvel. For 
 He of five loaves formed much bread to satisfy so many thousands, who daily 
 of a few o-rains forms in the earth vast harvests. For these ai-e the miracles 
 of the Lord; only from their continualness they are little esteemed." Aug. 
 inPs. M . Serm. 2. 5 6. " He reservethto fit seasons unusual miracles, which 
 the mind of man, intent on novelty, may remember, whereas His daily miracles 
 are grenrer. He createth so many trees throughout the whole earth, and no 
 one mar .els ; with a word He dried up one, and the hearts of men were as- 
 tonished." — Id. in Ps. ex. ^ 6. 
 
173 
 
 faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there.' " " See," 
 says St. Chrysostome,* " how she persuaded all [her family.] Then 
 observe her prudence, how she constrains the Apostles, what humi- 
 lity in her words, what wisdom ! ' If ye have judged me,' slie says, 
 ' faithful to the Lord.' Nothing could be more moving ; see how 
 immediately she bears fruit, and thinks her calling a great gain. But 
 that ye have judged me faithful, is manifest from your haMng en- 
 trusted me with so great mysteries, wherewith ye had not ei trusted 
 me, unless ye had judged me such. And before this she ventured 
 not to invite them, but ' when she was baptized ;' showing thereby 
 that she should not otherwise have persuaded them." " Lo,t she ia 
 baptized, and receives the Apostles with so much entreaty, with 
 more than Abraham used. She appeals to no other evidence than 
 that whereby she had been saved ; she saith not, ' if ye have judged 
 me great,' if ' devout,' but ' faithful to the Lord ;' if to tho Lord, 
 how much more to you !" So again, with regard to the jailor, in 
 answer to his anxious question, " What shall I do to be saved ?" St. 
 Paul says, " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved, and thy whole house ;" but a part of that belief was Lis Bap- 
 tism, without which his belief had been dead, for it follows, " And 
 he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes ; 
 and was baptized, he and all his, straightivay .'''' St. Paulpr mised, 
 that if he would believe, " he and all his should be saved ;" " they 
 spake the word of the Lord unto him, and to all that were in his 
 house ;" and then, "he and all his were baptized straightway." Baptism 
 then, as appears from the very tenor of the narrative, w^as the end of 
 "the speaking the word of the Lord;" it was part of "belief," it was the 
 means of " salvation." " He washed them," says St. Chrysostome,^ 
 " and was washed ; them he washed from their stripes, himself was 
 washed from sins ; he nourished them, and was nourished ; ' and he 
 rejoiced,' it is said ; and yet there had been nothing but words and 
 fair hopes. This was a proof that he believed that all had been for 
 given him." " It was of necessity," says another, § inculcating the 
 duty of previous instruction, "that Baptism followed immediately 
 then upon instruction ; this must needs be, lest he who had the 
 power of baptizing being expelled, the other, though wishing, should 
 remain excluded from life, there being no one to bestow this." 
 
 The same is the character, and in part more conspicuously so, 
 in those other prominent narratives,! the conversion of St. Paul him^ 
 
 * Ad loc. Horn. 35. in Actt. iiiit. f lb. ^ 1 fin. 
 
 t Horn. 36. in Actt. \ 2. 
 
 \ Ammonius in Cramer's Catena, ad loc. 
 
 II Besides these, on the conversion of " Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue," 
 at Corinth, " with his whole house," " many of the Corinthians," it is added, 
 " hearing, believed, and were baptized." 
 
174 
 
 self, and of Cornelius, or the Baptism of the disciples who had re- 
 ceived John's Baptism only ; nor in the remaining remarkable in- 
 stance, the Baptism of Simon Magus, will his perverseness be 
 found to involve any disparagement of Baptism. These instances 
 may be treated of separately, on account as well of the intrinsic im- 
 portance of the narrations, as of the questions which have been raised 
 upon some of them. 
 
 iii. 2. a. Baptism cf St. Paul. 
 
 It is commonly thought that he, having been miraculously con- 
 verted, was regenerated, justified by faith, pardoned, had received 
 the Holy Ghost, before he was baptized. Not so, however. Holy 
 Scripture, if we consider it attentively : before his Baptism he ap- 
 pears neither to have been pardoned, regenerated, justified, nor en- 
 lightened. Our Lord had checked him at once in his course ; 
 shown him that in persecuting His members upon earth, he was per- 
 secuting their ascended Lord and their God ; in soul as well as 
 body, he was cast down to the earth ; and, humbled, asked, " Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me to do ?" But our Lord tells him not: He 
 raises him not up at once ; He neither immediately pronounces his 
 forgiveness, nor teaches him how it may be obtained, but informs 
 him solely that He has a work for him to perform, that he is now 
 simply to obey, and what he is to do he shall know hereafter. Thus 
 He sends Him, his bodily blindness an emblem of that of his mind, 
 to tarry the Lord's leisure. (Acts ix. 6 ; xxii. 10.) What took place 
 during those three days and nights of bodily and mental darkness, 
 during which, doubtless, in intense anxiety, (through which he " did 
 neither eat nor drink," " his heart was smitten, so that he forgot to 
 eat his bread,"*) with one only cheering look into the future,! he 
 reviewed the course of his past life, God's guidance, and his own 
 wilfulness, we are not told ; nor how this probation of acute suffer- 
 ing was necessary for the framing of this " chosen vessel :" but it is 
 at least implied that, as yet, in answer to his prayers, there had been 
 conveyed only a general intimation of God's good intentions toward 
 him, of His purpose to remove the outward sign of His displeasure : 
 " Behold, he prayeth, and hath seen, in a vision, a man named Ana- 
 nias, coming and putting his hand upon him, that he might receive 
 his sight." But as yet neither were his sins forgiven, nor had he 
 received the Holy Ghost ; much less then was he born again of the 
 Spirit, before it was conveyed to him through his Saviour's Sacrament. 
 " And now, wh}' tarriest thou ?" says Ananias ; " arise, and be bap- 
 tized, and wash away thy sins."|(Acts xxii. 16.) " The Lord Jesus, 
 
 *Ps. cii. 4. 
 
 t See Note (I) at the end. 
 
 J Calvin, according to his view of sacraments, could not but paraphrase 
 this — " That you may be assured, Paul, that your sins are remitted, be bap- 
 tized. For the Lord promises remission of sins in baptism ; receive it, and 
 
175 
 
 that appeared imlo thee in the way, as thou earnest, hath sent me, 
 that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy 
 Ghost." And this was done; for " there fell from his eyes as it had 
 been scales, and he received sight forthwith, arose, and was bap- 
 tized." The account of the fulfilment is obviously commensurate 
 with the promise. As then by the falling of the scales, his outward 
 darkness was removed, and he received sight ; so by baptism was 
 the inward, and he was filled with the Holy Ghost. But if even to 
 St. Paul, for whose conversion our Saviour Himself vouchsafed 
 again to become visible to human sight, regeneration and the other 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit were not imparted wtthout the appointed 
 Sacrament of grace, why should this be expected or looked for by 
 others ? 
 
 This view of St. Paul's case, which was the result of the ex - 
 nation of the words of Holy Scripture in their plain meaning, it is 
 very satisfactory to find altogether anticipated by St. Chrysostome.* 
 •" We cannot, cannot, entertain grace without vigilance. Not even 
 upon Paul did grace come immediately ; but three days intervened, 
 in which he was blind, being purified and prepared for its reception, 
 by fear. For as the purple-dyers first prepare, by other means, that 
 which is to receive the dye, that its richness may not fade : thus, 
 here also, God first prepares the soul, by filling it with trouble, and 
 then pours forth His grace ;" and again, f " Why did he neither eat 
 nor drink? he was condemning himself for what he had done ; he 
 was confessing all ; he was praying ; he was calling upon God ;"J 
 and " Ananias taught him nothing, but only baptized him. But, as 
 soon as he was baptized, he drew down on himself a great grace from 
 the Spirit, through his zeal and great earnestness." — And " why did 
 not God blind his eyes themselves ? this was much more w^onderful. 
 They were open, but he saw not ; ivhich also had happened unto 
 him, as to the law, until the name of Jesus was putupon him (i. e. until 
 he was baptized.) ' And having taken meat, he was strengthened :' 
 he had been exhausted, then, by the journey, his terror, hunger, and 
 despondency. God then wishing to increase his despondency, al- 
 lowed him to remain blind till Ananias came." 
 
 In hke manner St. Augustine ;^ " Beware we of those most proud 
 and most dangerous temptations," [looking for immediate revelations 
 
 be assured." And this is in answer to the objection, " Wliy did Ananias tell 
 Paul to wash away his sins by baptism, if sins are not washed away by virtue 
 of baptism ?" Instit. iv. 15, de Baptismo, 5 15. Such an answer will scarcely 
 satisfy any one. Contrast this with Bucer's simple inference, " In these words, 
 then, there is ascribed to baptism the effect of remitting or washing away of 
 sins." 
 
 • Horn. 1. in Actt. 5 6. T. 9. p. 10. ed. Bened. 
 
 t Horn. 19. on Acts ix. 9. p. 157. | Horn. 20. init. 
 
 ^ De Doct. Christian. Prolog. 5 6. 
 
176 
 
 of God, independently of the ordinances of the Church,] " and let us 
 rather think that the Apostle Paul himself, although cast to the earth, 
 and instructed by a Divine and Heavenly voice, w^as yet sent to a 
 man that he might receive the Sacraments, and be united to the 
 Church." And Tertulhan,* " Then Paul also, when he believed, 
 was baptized. And this it was, which the Lord had enjoined him 
 saying, ' Arise and enter into Damascus ; there it shall be shown thee 
 what thou oughtest to do ;' namely, to be baptized, which alone was 
 wanting to him. For he had suificiently learned and believed that 
 the Nazarene was the Lord, the Son of God." And anotherf infers, 
 " Then not all baptism, but only that into the Lord Jesus effects the 
 cleansing away of sin." 
 
 iii. 2. b. Baptisin of Cornelius, 
 
 The case of CorneUus is very remarkable, as indeed one should 
 expect the calling of the father of the Gentile Church to liave in it 
 somelhing peculiar, as well as that of the father of the first people of 
 God. Two different points in his history have accordingly been 
 seized upon, and made the Scriptural basis of distinct theories : his 
 previous holiness — of the school-notion of grace of congruity — the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost previous to his Baptism — of the separa- 
 tion of the grace of the Sacrament from the ordinance. | Each rests 
 (upon a two-fold false assumption l,)that the works done by Cornelius 
 were done in his own strength, "before" and independently of " the 
 inspiration of Gods's Holy Spirit," (Art. 13;) since otherwise there 
 were no question, on the part of the Schoolmen, of "grace of con- 
 gruity ;" for as the prayers, the almsgivmg, the fasting of Cornelius 
 were the fruit of faith in God, and of the guidance of His Spirit, the 
 imparting " of grace after grace," has nothing to do with the question 
 of human fitness. It is but God's ordinary method of dealing with 
 us, to proportion His subsequent gifts to the use which we have made 
 of those before bestowed. " Take from him the pound and give it 
 unto him who hath ten pounds. And they said unto him. Lord ! he 
 hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, that unto every one who hath 
 shall be given." (Luke xix. 24, 25.) " Unto you who have, there 
 shall be added ; for he who hath, to him shall be given." (Mark iv. 
 24, 25.) On the other hand, Cornelius was not then first sanctified, 
 
 * De Baptismo, c. 13. 
 
 t Ammonius in Cramer's Catena ad Actt. xxii. 16. 
 
 j P. Martyr ad Rom. vi. "Nor are regeneration and renovation offered to 
 us in Baptism, as though we had them not in any wise before. For it cannot 
 be denied, that adult believers have justification also, before they are bap- 
 tized." In proof whereof, he instances Abraham (Rom. iv.) and Cornelius> 
 as, indeed, the case of Cornelius is brought forward by every one of this 
 school, who whould make the Sacraments into outward ordinances) ; and he 
 himself hence infers, that by Baptism we are visibly (and only visibly) en- 
 grafted into the Church. 
 
177 
 
 when "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word," but 
 when he before time " feared God with all his house, gave much alms 
 to the people, and prayed to God alway." For through Him alone 
 could he have prayed acceptably. He alone putteth the spirit of 
 holy fear into man's heart. He was, then, as a Heathen, sanctified ; 
 but because the sanctification of a Heathen who feared God, fell far 
 short of the holiness following upon the Christian birth, God, by a 
 succession of visions, prepared the Centurion to "hear all the things 
 commanded of God," and the Apostle to preach them : and the first 
 fruits of the Heathen world was one, whom God had already, in a 
 high measure, hallowed, that the pre-eminence of the kingdom of 
 Heaven might be the more manifest, in that it was one universal 
 kingdom, wherein all should receive remission of sins through the 
 Blood of Christ, wherein not " the publicans and harlots" only might 
 be cleansed and purified, but also " those who feared God and worked 
 righteousness" might find their " acceptance." Cornelius was al- 
 ready, in a measure, sanctified ; and therefore God, who limiteth not 
 His blessed workings, either to one nation, or to one kind of moral 
 disposition or of moral evil, but absorbs all the countless varieties of 
 things in heaven and things in earth, animateth them all, and fashion- 
 €th them " according to the working, whereby He is able to subdue 
 all things unto Himself;" so He received into His universal kingdom 
 all, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, wise or foolish, obedient or 
 disobedient, whoever would now hear His voice and follow Him. 
 And though His Gospel was, and is still, principally received in its 
 fulness and its simphcity by " the foolish, and the weak, and the 
 base things of the world, and things which are despised," yet has it 
 shown its power in giving the true wisdom, and might, and nobleness 
 to those who, in man's school, were already " wise, and mighty, and 
 noble ;" and as the first Jewish disciples of the Saviour of the world 
 were those who already followed the austere and self-denying Baptist, 
 — the virgin St. John, and St. Andrew, — so was the first convert 
 from the Gentiles one, who, in prayer, in alms-giving, in subduing 
 of the flesh, had already made some progress ; that so all might see, 
 that neither the abyss of sin was too deep for God's arm to rescue 
 thence the foulest sinner, nor any holiness, which even He had im- 
 parted, suflSced to admit to the glories of His kingdom, without the 
 " birth of water and the Spirit." Cornelius was already, in a mea- 
 sure sanctified ; and therefore He, who " giveth more grace," trans- 
 lated him into the kingdom of His dear Son, chose him first of the 
 Gentile world to be a member of Christ, re-generated him and then 
 sanctified him wholly ; that " all who glory, might" henceforth "glory 
 in the Lord." Cornehus had faith (for " without faith, it is impossi- 
 ble to please God ;") he had love ; he had self-denial ; he had had 
 the power to pray given to him ; but he had not Christian faith, 
 nor love, nor self-denial, nor prayer ; for as yet he knew not Christ : 
 
 6* 
 
178 
 
 he could not call God Father, for as yet, he knew not the Son. Faith 
 and repentance, in adults, are necessary to the new birth, but they 
 are not the new birth. That, God imparteth as it pleaseth Him, 
 according to the depths of His wisdom ; it dependeth not, as faith 
 and repentance, in some measure, may, upon the will of man, but of 
 God, who calleth into His Church whom He will. 
 
 St. Augustine simply and strikingly expresses this view : " We 
 onght not," he says,* "to disparage the righteousness of a man, 
 which began before he was joined to the Church, as the righteousness 
 of Cornelius had begun before he was one of the Christian people ; 
 which, had it been disapproved of, the angel had not said, ' Thy alms 
 are accepted,' &c.; nor, if it had sufficed to obtain the Mngdom of 
 Heaven, had he been admonished to send to Peter :" and in the very 
 passage! generally alleged to disparage what are called " outward 
 ordinances," " Thus, in Cornelius, there preceded a spiritual sanc- 
 tification in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Sacrament of regen- 
 eration was added in the washing of Baptism." For St. Augustine 
 does not look upon Baptism as an outward sign even to Cornelius, 
 or to be received only as an act of obedience. For, having instanced 
 the pardoned thief, as a case wherein Baptism had, from necessity, 
 been dispensed with, he adds,^ " much more in Cornelius and his 
 friends might it seem superfluous, that they should be bedewed with 
 water, in whom the gift of the Holy Spirit, (which Holy Scripture 
 testifies, that no others received, unless baptized,) had appeared con- 
 spicuously by that sure token (in conformity with that period,) viz., 
 that they spake with tongues. Yet they were baptized, and in this 
 event we have apostolic sanction for the like. So surely ought no 
 one, in whatever advanced state of the inner man, (yea, if haply, be- 
 fore Baptism, he should have advanced through a pious heart to a 
 spiritual understanding,) to despise the Sacrament which is adminis- 
 tered in the body by the work of the ministers, but thereby God spir- 
 itually operates the consecration of the man ;" and^ " this man's 
 accepted alms had, in a degree, cleansed him, it remained that he, 
 as * clean food' should, be incorporated into the Church, i. e. into the 
 body of the Lord." 
 
 But then, secondly, the case of Cornelius does indeed commend 
 the greatness of Baptism, while that which is peculiar to itself fur- 
 nishes no ground of argument as to God's ordinary dealings with His 
 Church. For whereas the school of Calvin would infer that because 
 God once anticipated His Sacrament by the outpouring of His Spirit, 
 therefore (as they speak) the grace of the Sacrament is not in such 
 wise " tied to the Sacrament," but that He bestows it then, or before, 
 
 * De T5apt. c Donat. L. 4. \ 28. 
 
 I De Bapt. c. Donat. L. 4. j 31. J lb. {29. 
 
 \ Serm. 149. [al. de Diversis, 24] J 7. 
 
179 
 
 or afterwards, just as He wills, and, (as they would imply,) as fre- 
 quently, long afterwards and independently of the Sacrament, as 
 through it, — they themselves, when arguing against those who dis- 
 paraged it more deeply than themselves, have seen the error of gen- 
 eralizing upon this single case.* Yet it is not simply as being a single 
 case, that it may not be drawn into a precedent ; but that it was, of 
 its very nature, an insulated case. It was a miracle wrought for a 
 specific end, an end accomplished once for all, and consequently no 
 more to be again expected than that, to which it corresponded, the 
 visible descent of the Holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost, and the 
 visible dwelling of the fiery tongues upon the Apostles, And they 
 who would claim it as a precedent for the Christian gift of the Spirit 
 independently of Baptism, must, if they follow Scripture, support 
 that claim by the same evidence which was then given, the gilt of 
 tongues, which attested His Presence. But now they neither pre- 
 tend to show any occasion for such departure from God's ordinary 
 rules, nor adduce any evidence that he does so depart from them ; 
 but simply infer that what He did once. He may do again, and that 
 what He may do again, He does continually again ; and yet they 
 cannot withal show, that He does the same, or rather more commonly 
 they argue from this instance, that He does the reverse ; and whereas 
 He once poured out the Spirit upon the first fruits of the Gentiles 
 before their Baptism, they would infer that, therefore He may and 
 So does now, bestow regeneration, not before, but long after Baptism, 
 upon the majority of such Christians, as according to them, are ever 
 regenerated at all. In a word, the only inference which they draw 
 from the case is, that God did once separate His Grace from His 
 Sacrament, and bestowed it upon preaching,! and so that He does 
 
 * Calvin does so against Servetus. Servetus had objected to Infant Bap- 
 tism, that " Cornelius was baptized after he had received the Holy Spirit." 
 Calvin answers rightly, " how wrongly he dravi^s a general rule from one in- 
 stance, appears from the Eunuch and the Samaritans, in whom God observed 
 a different order, so that Baptism preceded the gifts of the Spirit." (Inst. 4. 
 16,31. Arg. 14.) yet having asserted that " Cornelius was baptized, having 
 had remission of sins, and the visible gifts of the Holy Spirit, already before 
 this, bestowed upon him, not looking for a fuller remission from Baptism, but 
 a more certain exercise of faith, yea, an increase of confidence from that 
 pledge ;" he gives this as a proof of his position, that Baptism is, in no case, 
 " for remission of sins," but for confirmation only. Peter Martyr argues in 
 like way from the case of Cornelius to that of any adult heathen convert, or 
 elect infant, that Baptism is only the outward attestation of what had been be- 
 fore bestowed. — Loci, 4. 8. 17. 
 
 t " There is here set forth an image of the operation of the Holy Spirit 
 through the preaching of the Gospel. For as by the preaching of Peter, the 
 Holy Spirit, as to the gift of speaking with tongues and prophesying, fell up- 
 on Cornelius and those assembled with him, so, as to the gift of faith, charity, 
 and hope, does He, through the preaching of any pastor of the Church, preach- 
 ing Christ, fall upon the hearts of any of the elect who hear the discourse." — 
 Piscator, ad loo. 
 
180 
 
 so now ; every other part of the history they discard. But whereas 
 what is pecuhar to this history, does not, in that it is pecuHar, coun- 
 tenance our separating the gifts from the Sacrament of Baptism, on 
 the other hand, the end, for which it tooii place, greatly exalts its 
 necessity. For it was a miracle, or rather there were a series of visions 
 and miracles wrought for this one end, to obtain Baptism for the first 
 Gentile convert, and in him for the Gentile Church. 
 
 The miraculous imparting of the Holy Ghost, whereby they (not 
 Cornelius only)," spake with tongues, and magnified God," does not 
 appear (one must speak reverentially, but still it does not appear) to 
 have been imparled for the sake of Cornelius, but of the Church ; or 
 rather for Cornelius' and all our sakes, that it might hence be testified 
 that from that time there was in Him neither Jew nor Greek, but 
 that the " kingdom of Heaven was opsned to all believers." And 
 so the Gentile Church, in the house of Cornelius, was inaugurated 
 in the same solemn way wherein the Apostles themselves had " re- 
 ceived the promise of the Father ;" and it was signified, that " to the 
 Gentiles also was given repentance unto life," that among the Gen- 
 tiles, also, and through the Gentiles, in every speech, and nation, and 
 language, men " should magnify God." And since the visible de- 
 scent of the Holy Ghost, and the speaking with tongues and magni- 
 fying God, had, for its immediate object, to convince St. Peter, and 
 the rest of the Apostles, that "no man should forbid water, that 
 these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost, 
 as well as we ;" what are we, that we should venture, on that ground, 
 to disparage the Sacrament of Baptism, when conferred upon our- 
 selves or our children, since it was our very admittance to Baptism, 
 and the formation of our Gentile Church thereby, which God chose 
 in this way to secure ? He Himself once visibly consecrated the 
 first fruits, that it might be apparent that thenceforth the lump also 
 might be hallowed and presented vmto Him ; He sanctified the root 
 that thenceforth the branches being grafted in, might be holy. In 
 one sense, then, we were all consecrated in Cornelius ; but since, in 
 order to partake of Christ, we must be all severally made members 
 of Him, the very end of his extraordinary consecration was to obtain 
 for us admission to that Sacrament, wherel>y we are so made. Since 
 also the end is greater than the means. Baptism is so much the more 
 extolled, in that it was the end of so many miracles ; and the daily 
 miracle which He workethin the Baptismal fountain of our Christian 
 Church receives the more glory, in that the first opening of that 
 " fountain for sin and for uncleanness" was so solemnized ; and the 
 daily gift " of the new-birth of vv^ater and the Spirit" in our Gentile 
 Church is greater than that miraculous shedding of the Holy Ghost, 
 which ushered it in, and secured it to us. 
 
 It is then a question of no moment, and one which we are not 
 perhaps qualified to determine, whether the miraculous gift of the 
 
181 
 
 Holy Ghost to Cornelius and his friends conveyed to them the com- 
 plete gift of the new-birth, so that their Baptism, as has been said, 
 was for the body only,* to confer on that a principle of immortality. 
 The language of Scripture is undecided ; on the one hand, since it 
 is inferred from this miracle, wrought to justify their admission to 
 Baptism, " thent hath God to the Gentiles also granted repentance 
 unto life," it might be thought that to them also Baptism was given 
 "for remission of sins ;" on the other, it has been inferred, that where 
 Scripture says, that " God had purified their hearts by faith"| it 
 meant, that in their case also, as well as that of the father of the 
 faithful, a simple faith had been accepted by God, and that He there- 
 upon "purified their hearts" by the direct, unmediated, gift of the 
 Spirit. And, as the language of Holy Scripture is doubtful, so nei- 
 ther do we know enough of the mode of the Presence of the Holy 
 Spirit, to be able to say, whether His descent with these miraculous 
 gifts involved also His sanctifying Presence ; or, whether again, that - 
 sanctifying Presence did in their case involve the gift of adoption in 
 Christ. But since a distinction was so far made between them and 
 the Apostles, (however like their history as to the miraculous gift of 
 the Spirit,) that the Apostles were after our Lord's ascension only 
 " baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire," but in the case of 
 these, the Baptism of water was added, it seems probable that Bap- 
 tism conferred its share of benefit also, and made them partakers of 
 the adoption as sons of God in Christ, making them members of 
 Him, and of His one body. This question, however, is wholly 
 secondary ; the great teaching of the whole history is drawn 
 out for us by Holy Scripture, "Can any man forbid water 
 that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost, 
 even as we ? And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name 
 
 * S. Cyril of Jerus. Lect. 3. 5 4. " Yet after the gift of the Spirit, Scripture 
 saith, that Peter commanded them to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, 
 that the soul having been regenerated through their faith, the body also, by 
 means of the water, might share the gift." 
 
 t Acts xi. 18. St. Ambrose, perhaps, took this view, in that he speaks of the 
 remission of sins in connection with Cornelius' Baptism. (De Tobia, c. 18. 
 5 61.) " 'And he commanded them to be baptized.' And thus was it said to 
 him, 'thou shalt lend on usury to the Gentiles' (Deut. xxviii. 12,) by remitting 
 their sins, by taking away their debts ;" and St. Ambrose seems to speak of 
 this Baptism of Cornelius, just as of those imparted by the other Apostles in 
 their ordinary ministry ; for there follows, " It is said to Paul, who was sent to 
 the Gentiles, ' Thou shalt lend to the Gentiles ;' it is said to John, ' Thou 
 shalt lend to the Gentiles ;' it is said to James and the rest, ' Ye shall lend 
 to the Gentiles,' it being said to them, 'Go baptize the Gentiles.' " (Matt, 
 xxviii. 29.) 
 
 J Acts XV. 9. St. Cyril refers to this text (note p. 225,) and the author of the 
 Lib de rebaptismate ap. Cypr. p. 356. ed St. Maur, " and thus their hearts, 
 having been a little before cleansed, ' God,' by their i^aith, ' gave them' also at 
 the same time, ' remission of sins,' so that the Baptism, which followed, only 
 
182 
 
 of the Lord."* Forasmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift 
 even as to us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I 
 that could withstand God? But they, having heard these things, 
 were quiet, and glorified God, saying, ' Then to the Gentiles also 
 hath God given repentance unto life.' "f It was, as we see from the 
 subsequent history, to overcome the great difficuhies of the Church, 
 in admitting the Gentiles into the one fold by Baptism only and with- 
 out the shadows of the law, that God worked these miracles, and 
 thereby He the more signally set His seal to His ordinance of Bap- 
 tism, and gave it a dignity proportioned to the miracles, whereby 
 He had accompanied its first bestowal upon the Gentiles. 
 
 This which is so strongly marked, as the teaching of this history, 
 the fathers agree in insisting upon, (whether or no they vary as to 
 the amount of the immediate gift to Cornelius.) " Even Peter," 
 says S. Irenaeus,! " although he was sent to instruct them, and 
 warned by such a vision, yet spake with much fear unto them, say- 
 ing, * Ye yourselves know that it is not lawful for a man that is a Jew 
 to join himself, or have intercourse with an alien, but God hath 
 shewed me not to call any man common or unclean ; wherefore I am 
 come without gainsaying,' signifying by these words, that he should 
 not have come unto them, unless he had been commanded. So also 
 neither would he have given them Baptism so readily, unless he had 
 heard them prophesying, the Holy Spirit resting upon them. And, 
 therefore, he said, ' Can any one forbid water, that these should not 
 be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost, even as we ?' at 
 once persuading those present with him, and signifying that unless 
 the Holy Ghost had rested upon them, there would have been, who 
 would have hindered them from Baptism." And St. Cyprian, § in 
 proof of the necessity of receiving the Church's Baptism., '" We find in 
 the Acts of the Apostles, that this was carefully observed by the Apos- 
 tles, and adhered to in the truth of ihe saving faith, so that v/hen in 
 the house of Cornelius the centurion, the Holy Spirii had descended 
 upon the Gentiles who were there, kindled with the glow of faith, 
 and believing in the Lord with the whole heart, filled with Whom 
 they blessed God in divers tongues, still nevertheless the blessed 
 Apostle Peter, mindful of the Divine and evangelic command, com- 
 manded those same persons to be baptized who had already been 
 filled with the Holy Ghost, that nothing might seem to be omitted^ 
 or the Apostolic authorities to have failed of keeping universally the 
 law of the Divine command and of the Gospel." And St. Chrysos- 
 
 bestowed upon them this, that they should have the name of Jesus Christ call- 
 ed upon them, lest any thing should seem to be wanting to the completeness 
 of the ministry and of the Faith." 
 
 * Acts X. 47, 48. t Acts xi. 17, 18. t L- 3. c. 13- \ 15. ed. Massuet. 
 
 ^ Ep. 72. ad Steph, de Concil. 
 
tome*, " See the dispensation of God. He allowed not the dis- 
 course to be finished, nor the Baptism to take place at the command 
 of Peter ; but seeing they had evinced an admirable character of 
 mind, and the foundation of the teaching had been laid, and they be- 
 lieved fully that Baptism is the remission of sins, then came the 
 Spirit upon them. And this happened, in that God prepared before- 
 hand a strong defence for Peter. And they did not simply receive 
 the Spirit, but spake with tongues, which astonished also those who 
 had come together. To what end is the matter so ordered 1 For 
 the sake of the Jews. For they were exceedingly averse to it. 
 Wherefore the whole throughout is wrought of God. And Peter is 
 present, as it were almost simply to be instructed, that for the future 
 they were to have intercourse with the Gentiles, and this was to 
 take place through these persons. And no marvel. For when, after 
 miracles so great, a questioning arose both at Cesarea and at Jeru- 
 salem, what had been the case, had these things not taken place ? 
 Wherefore they do take place, yea, beyond measure." And St. Cy- 
 ril,! " This was a peculiar dispensation (o'Vo""/"'" "j) on account of the 
 great scruples of those of the Circumcision who believed, that the 
 Spirit would be vouchsafed to Cornelius and his friends before Bap- 
 tism, so to quell the objection of those who were indignant ; whence 
 also it is said of them who spake against it, ' and having heard, they 
 were quiet.' " Lastly, St. Augustine,| " Peter feared to deliver the 
 Gospel to the Gentiles, because they of the circumcision who had 
 believed, objected to the Apostles delivering the Christian faith to 
 men uncircumcised. That vessel then removed all doubt. For 
 Cornelius, and they who were with him, were accounted as of those 
 ^ animals,' pointed out in that vessel, whom yet God had now cleans- 
 ed, in that he had ' accepted their alms.' They were then to be 
 "* slain and eaten,' i, e. their forepassed life, wherein they had not 
 known Christ, was to be destroyed, and they were to pass into His 
 body, as it were into the new life of the society of the Church." So 
 little did the Ancients think of the admission into the Church as a 
 thing outward. 
 
 *HGm. 24. in Actt. (x. 44.) f In Cramer's Catena on Acts xi. 23. 
 
 I Serm. 149. 5 7. 8. The account is given more simply historically in Ps. 
 xcvi. 5 13. and in Serm. 99. de verbis Evang. Luc. 7. 5 12 In Serm. 269, in 
 cliem Pentec. he remarks on it, " as the one instance of the Holy Spirit being 
 given before Baptism," and having instanced St. Paul, as one baptized by man, 
 though taught of God, he adds the case of Cornelius (De Doct. Christiana. 
 Prol. § 6.) as an additional ground why the ministry of man should not be 
 despised, " that after an angel had announced to him that his prayers were 
 heaid, and his alms accepted, he was delivered over to Peter, not only to re- 
 ceive the sacraments from him, but also to hear what he was to believe, what 
 to hope, what to love ;" in so many ways does this history show the dignity of 
 the Christian Sacraments ! 
 
184 
 
 iii. 3. Baptism of Simon Magus. 
 
 The Baptism of Simon Magas has been looked upon as the exact 
 reverse of that of Cornehiis ; as if Cornehus had not only before, but 
 independently of, Baptism, received it's full benefits, Simon Magus 
 had received the Sacrament, but not it's grace, nor any influence 
 from it. And from the case of Simon Magus, they took occasion, in 
 ancient times, to warn Candidates for Baptism of the risk of unw^or- 
 thily receiving that holy Sacrament ; in modern, they have employed 
 this instance, in combination with that of Cornelius, as a proof that 
 God has not made His Sacraments the vehicles of His grace, but 
 either bestows it without them, or restrains it from them, as He 
 wills. And this case is so far of a different kind from that of Cor- 
 nelius, that it does seem inserted as an ensample ; it has not, like 
 the dispensation as to Cornelius, any reference to further purposes 
 of God ; it stands complete in itself, the exhibition of a bad man, 
 who, whatever Baptism may have been to him, shortly after returned 
 to his former sins, and wallowed in his former mire. It stands, 
 (like the history of the Corinthians who were punished for their pro- 
 faneness as to the other Sacrament,) as a sort of fence around Bap- 
 tism, warning people how they venture " to* break through unto 
 the Lord," unsanctified " to gaze, and many of them perish." Tt is 
 a brand-mark, also, on heresy, that the first heretic either came to 
 Baptism, altogether feignedly, or, at least, shortly afterwards, was 
 " in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity ;" either never having 
 been loosed from it, or having forthwith bound it again yet closer 
 around himself. Holy Scripture, perhaps, does not absolutely de- 
 cide either way. On the one hand, in that it says,t " then Simon 
 himself believed also ; and when he was baptized, continued con- 
 stantly with Philip," it would appear, that he did "for a while believe, 
 though in time of temptation he fell away ;" thus, at least, every ex- 
 pression in the Scripture narrative is taken to the letter ; and, in this 
 view, Simon Magus, like the Magicians of Egypt, for a while, bow- 
 ed before the Presence of a Power mightier than his own, and ac- 
 knowledged " this is the finger of God." "Now I know, "J: he might 
 say, " that the Lord is greater than all gods ; for in the thing where- 
 in they dealt proudly. He was above them :" he had " given himself 
 out to be some great one," and had " bewitched the people of Sama- 
 ria," and now he witnessed reality take the place of deceit, holiness 
 of unholinesss, the kingdom of God of the power of Satan ; he saw 
 the bands, which he had wound round the people, fall off, " like a 
 thread of tow, when it toucheth the fire ;" and himself, apparently, 
 was carried along with the common impulse, and " when they be- 
 lieved Philip — they were baptized, both men and women ; then Si- 
 mon himself believed also." And the further notice of the history^ 
 
 *Ex. six. 21. fActsviii. 13. |Ex. xviii. 11. 
 
185 
 
 that "when he was baptized, he continued withPhihp, and ivonder- 
 ed beholding the miracles and signs that were done," seems just to 
 fall in with this frame of mind. Though his belief was of the low- 
 est kind, still there appears no ground for questioning it's sincerity ; 
 " for a while, he behoved," awe-struck and amazed, and " continued, 
 with Phihp," so long as nothing happened to try his unstable faith, or 
 require any sacrifice to it ; he was converted by Philip, and with 
 him continued ; and it was not until the arrival of St. Peter furnish- 
 ed the temptation especially adapted to him, of desiring to exercise 
 again as a Christian, by corrupt means, the influence which he had 
 as a Pagan, that he fell. His history then is, alas ! nothing so in- 
 sulated in that of mankind : it is the type of that common, though 
 fearful occurrence, when men, struck by some awful event around 
 them or in their own lives, or by some imposing act of God's Provi- 
 dence, for a while abandon their evil courses, and then when their 
 besetting temptation recurs, fall back into it, and, for the most part, 
 sink deeper and more miserably. Simon, the sorcerer, but entered 
 the Christian pale to become Simon the arch-heretic, the first sedu- 
 cer of the brethren, the first-born of Satan. And this supposition 
 that a real, though but transitory impression was made upon him, 
 agrees with his subsequent conduct on the terrible denunciation of 
 St. Peter ; he stands awe-struck and abased ; he trusts not in his 
 own prayers ;* he humbles himself openly before the Apostles, 
 " Pray ye unto the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye 
 have spoken come upon me." We know that this, too, lasted but 
 for a while ; and that the wretched man died opposing the Apostle, 
 whose prayers he now sought ; yet, when spoken, it bears the char- 
 acter of sincerity, though but the sincerity of a slavish fear ; he 
 seems to speak ignorantly and vaguely, as with but a rude and con- 
 fused apprehension of what he was deprecating,—" that none of 
 these things which ye have spoken ;" still as far as such an one 
 could apprehend spiritual danger, he seems to have felt it, and by 
 shrinking from it, acknowledged its reality. Much this view of the 
 
 * So Athanasius contra Catharos, Serm. 3. ap. Cramer, Catena, ad Actt. 8, 
 33. " And of such avail was the exhortation to repentance by this great Apos- 
 tle, even to so great a sorcerer, and one so full of gall and bitterness, and so 
 replete with so great evils, that he showed signs of repentance, as Scripture 
 testifies of him, ' Pray ye to the Lor.l for me,' for I have no boldness to ap- 
 proach Him, ' that none of these things come upon me ;' nor did the Divine 
 Apostle reject or deny him ; for how should he who had suggested it ; but this 
 very person, being so great a sorcerer, was so far benefitted by the hope of re- 
 pentance, that he was so far turned from his wickedness and bitterness, as to 
 say, ' I am not worthy to pray for myself, but do ye pray to the Lord for me.' " 
 — Chrys. ad loc Hom. 18. in Actt. iji 3. "In that he says, 'pray ye for me,' 
 these are the words of one confessing and showing his deeds. Lo ! how, though 
 a bad man, yet when he was reproved, then he believed, and moreover he 
 became humble, when he was again reproved." 
 
186 
 
 case of Simon Magus seems to result from the combination of seve- 
 ral passages of St. Augustine, who has considered it more in detail 
 than any other Father. " When* that Simon Magus, being baptized 
 by Phihp, clave unto him, believing the Divine miracles vi^rought in 
 his presence, the Apostles came to Samaria, where the sorcerer 
 [Magus] himself also had believed, and where he was baptized, and 
 the Apostles laid their hands on the men who were baptized, and 
 they began to speak with tongues, he wondered and was astonished 
 at so great and Divine a miracle, that upon the imposition of men's 
 hands, the Holy Spirit came and filled men ; and he longed, not for 
 the grace, but for the power, not to be made free, but to be uplifted ; 
 but when he longed for this, and pride filled his heart, and Satanic 
 impiety, and a haughtiness, which was to be brought down, the Apos- 
 tle said," &c. " Ast that Simon Magus wished to enter on things 
 too high for him, and so took 7nore pleasure in the poive?' of Apostles, 
 than in the righteousness of Christians. But when he saw that by 
 the imposition of the Apostle's hands, and through their prayers, 
 God gave the Holy Spirit to the faithful, and because the coming of 
 the Holy Spirit Avas then attested by a miracle, in that they spake 
 with tongues, — Simon seeing this, wished to work such things, not 
 himself to be such. — The Lord cast out of the temple those who 
 sold doves ; but the dove denotes the Holy Spirit ; Simon then 
 wished to purchase the Dove, and to sell the Dove ; the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, Who dwelt in Peter, came, and with a scourge, cast out of 
 the temple the wicked trafficker." " Was| that Simon Magus bap- 
 tized with Christ's Baptism ? They will answer, yes ! for they are 
 compelled by the authority of Holy Scripture. I ask, then, wheth- 
 er they confess that his sins were forgiven him ? They will confess 
 it. I ask again, why did Peter say to him that he had no part in the 
 lot of the saints ? Because, they say, he afterwards sinned, wish- 
 ing to purchase with money the gift of God, whereof he thought the 
 Apostles were sellers." " For^ that Simon Magus was born of 
 water and the Spirit, and yet did not enter into the kingdom of heav- 
 en." " — all II good gifts of God, no one denies ; but see with whom 
 they are shared. Consider the gifts of the Church herself. The 
 gift of the Sacraments in Baptism, in the Eucharist, in the other holy 
 mysteries, what a gift it is ! Yet this gift Simon Magus also obtain- 
 ed." In like manner, TertullianlF speaks of him as a Christian, 
 " Thence also Simon, when now one of the faithful,** because he 
 yet thought on the mountebank sect, and would fain in union with 
 
 * In Ps. XXX. Enarr. 3. fin. f InPs. 130. ^ 5. 
 
 } De Bapt. c. Donatist. L. 4. ^ 17. 
 
 \ De Bapt. c. Donatist. L. 6. 5 19. | In Ps. 103. Serm. 1. } 9. 
 
 1 De Idol. c. 9. 
 
 ** Fidelis, a faithful, a baptized Christian. 
 
187 
 
 the wonders of his own art, sell the Holy Spirit by the imposition of 
 hands, cursed by the Apostles, was cast out of the faith."* 
 
 On the other hand, perhaps, on account of the form of the Scrip- 
 tm'e narrative, " when they believed Philip, — they were baptized, 
 both men and women, then Simon himself believed," it has been 
 more commonly! supposed that Scripture means that his belief was 
 consequent, not on ihe miracles wrought by Philip, but on the belief 
 of the multitudes who had formerly given heed to him ; and that 
 finding himself deserted by his followers, he joined them, feigning 
 belief, and waiting his opportunity to recover within the Church the 
 ascendancy which he had possessed out of it. Thus he would be 
 the type of such as come to Baptism hypocritically, and his first 
 entrance into the Church would be a sort of premeditation of the sin 
 upon which his name has been stamped, the employing secular 
 means to obtain the gifts of God, in order to abuse the gifts of God 
 to secular ends.:|: But of whichsoever class he be the representa- 
 tive, whether of those who receive the gifts of God, and forthwith 
 fall away, or of such, as coming hypocritically, receive nothing, but 
 what they look for, and " have tlieir reward" from the god of this 
 world, in whose name and service they come, and whose wages they 
 seek, either way the example is evidently not to be extended beyond 
 what the case immediately warrants ; it is no proof that God withholds 
 His grace from his Sacraments, except when man disqualifies him- 
 self from receiving it. It furnishes an awful warning to those who 
 approach in unbelief and hypocrisy, but it gives no disclosure as to 
 God's general dealings in his Sacraments, It is an excepted case, 
 in which God restrains the overflowings of His goodness, and not to 
 be stretched beyond the marks which he has pointed out ; yet it is 
 manifestly only by such undue extension that from the case of one, 
 who closes his own soul against God's gift, any inference can be 
 made as to God's dealings with the majority of baptized Christians, 
 who, being baptized when they know neither good nor evil, would 
 not be shut out (if they were so) by any act or character of their 
 own, but by the inscrutable decree of God. In a word, a case in 
 which man excludes himself, furnishes no presumption that God ex- 
 
 * Calvin also supposes Simon's belief to have been real, though he after- 
 wards modifies his statement in conformity with his system. " In that faith is 
 ascribed to him, we do not imderstand with some that he pretended a faith 
 which he had not ; but rather that overcome by the majesty of the Gospel he 
 believed it after a manner, and so acknowledged Christ to be the author of life 
 and salvation, as gladly to subject himself to Him." — Institt. 3, 2, 10. 
 
 f This view is taken by S. Irenaeus, (1. 23. [al. 20] 1.) Epiphanius (Haer. 
 21. init.) Eusebius (H. E. 2. 1.) Jerome (in Ezek. L. 4. c 16. p. 146. ed. 
 Vail.) St. Chrysostome, and ad loc. St. Cyril- Introd. Lect. 5 2- and xvii.35. 
 S. Gregory (in Ps. v. Poenitent. \ 13. t. 3. p. 2. col. 518.) Corn, a Lapide ad 
 loc. alleges also S. Ambrose de Pcenit. 2. 2. but wrongly. 
 
 X Nullus jam inter eos iniquus, Spiritum volens emere, dumcogitat vendere. 
 Aug. in Ps. ex. } 8. 
 
188 
 
 eludes others ; the casting out of the man who refused the wedding- 
 garnaeiit, yields no ground for thinking that God would not invest 
 those with it, who by reason of their age, could not put it from them. 
 It is, accordingly, to the case of adults alone that this exception is ap- 
 plied by the ancient Church, as it is by its own nature limited to 
 them. Thus St. Jerome,* commenting on the words, 'Thou wast 
 not washed in water to thy health,' says, " there are many washings, 
 which the heathen in their mysteries, and the heretics hold out, who 
 wash all, but ' wash not to health,' wherefore, it is added, ' and thou 
 wast not washed in water to health.' Which indeed may be under- 
 stood, not only of heretics, but of those attached to the Church (Ec- 
 clesiastici) who do not in full faith receive health-giving Baptism. — 
 Of whom it must be said, that they received the water, but received not 
 the Spirit, as that Simon Magus also, who wished to purchase with mo- 
 ney the gift of God, was baptized indeed in water, and * was not bap- 
 tized to health ;' " and St. Cyril, t " Even Simon Magus once came 
 to the door of Baptism ; he was baptized, but not enlightened. His 
 body he dipped in water, but admitted not the Spirit to illuminate his 
 heart ; his body went down, and came up ; but his soul was not 
 buried with Christ, nor with Him raised. I mention such instances 
 of falls, that thou mayest not fail." 
 
 Limited then to the case to which alone it can belong, that of the 
 adult, the case of Simon Magus does give very awful admonition, 
 and that the more needed in any Church, as Infant Baptism comes 
 to be neglected. In his life, as Ananias in his death, he stands as a 
 monument, admonishing all how they dare trifle with the gifts of the 
 Holy Ghost. The invitation to repentance comes with an uncer- 
 tainty and (so to speak) a misgiving^ very different from the ordi- 
 
 * 1. c. 
 
 f Introd. Lect. J 2. p. 1. Oxf. Transl. 
 
 t " And the Apostle having spoken thus straightly and rightly to him, re- 
 garded none of these things incurable by repentance ; rather judging them 
 curable, he added, ' repent of thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if, perhaps, 
 the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee ;' he says, ' perhaps,' not as 
 questioning it, but because diseases ill-curable, are not yet incurable, but ill- 
 eurable ; for had it been incurable, it had been superfluous to say, ' repent, 
 and pray the Lord !' but because repentance avails even in these cases, but 
 that those weighed down in sin have need of much repentance and concern, 
 he added, ' if perhaps,' " &c. Athanasius, 1. c. " It is evinced that repentance 
 suffices to overcome all sin, through the mercy of God, Who rejoiceth in re- 
 pentance ; but the addition of ' perhaps,' shews that repentance is with diffi- 
 culty realized by such as sin against the Divinity Itself, as did Simon, in that 
 he thought that the Holy Spirit would exert His influences out of regard for 
 money." Anon. ib. on v. 22. "Wherefore he said, 'if perhaps,' in order to 
 alarm him by the doubt, that he might seek God with earnestness and tears." 
 — Ammonius Presbyter, ib. on v. 17. who however also gives the more alarm- 
 ing view, " nevertheless it may be conjectured also, that Peter so spake, be- 
 cause Simon seemed to have sinned beyond forgiveness, as having blasphemed 
 against the Holy Ghost, in that he thought that God would yield to money, or 
 
189 
 
 nary tenor of Holy Scripture ; " {{perhaps the thought of thine heart 
 may be forgiven thee." God smote him not at once, hke Ananias, 
 offered him repentance, warned him of its difficulty ; and he repented 
 not ; and so he lived on, the father of all heretics,* the first who 
 wrought Satan's work on earth, as the seducer of the brethren, and, 
 at last, having been suffered, so long as God saw good, was cut off" 
 in the crowning act of impiety, cast down to the earth, while he 
 would ascend towards heaven, t at the prayer (together with St. 
 Paul) of the same Apostle, who once had bade him '* repent." 
 
 The fearfulness of the subsequent history makes it probable that, 
 whether he profaned the Sacrament of Baptism at the time, by coming 
 to it in hypocrisy, or by admitting so soon after, " seven other spirits, 
 more wicked" than he which had been " cast out," he made it a 
 curse to him, instead of a blessing. And this awfulness, so far from 
 being in any way diminished by the view which the modern school 
 has used to sever off the grace of the Sacrament, is increased by it. 
 For if he came to Baptism in hypocrisy, then it could not be doubted 
 that his subsequent abandonment to the power of Satan, as of one 
 " sold to work wickedness," was a judgment upon that previous sin. 
 And as, after receiving the Body of the Lord, Satan entered into 
 Judas, and took final possession of him, so, after the unworthy re- 
 ceiving of Baptism, came he into Simon Magus, and wrought him 
 into a more signal instrument of his kingdom and his blasphemies, 
 and made him, who had so tempted Christ, the first Antichrist ; the 
 first emblem of " the man of sin." And thus, combined with the 
 analogy of the other Sacrament, it would open a very awful view of 
 the case of adults who receive Baptism wickedly, from worldly motives, 
 and with contempt of God's ordinance. For as they " who eat and 
 drink unworthily, eat and drink judgment to themselves, not discern- 
 ing the Lord's Body," so there seems much reason to fear that they 
 who receive Baptism unworthily, receive it not merely without be- 
 nefit, but to their hurt, discerning not the Presence of the Holy Tri- 
 nity, and despising what God hath sanctified. I speak not of parti- 
 cular cases, for God has in a wonderful manner, for His own glory, 
 made Baptism effectual, when administered in mockeryl by hea- 
 
 that he supposed that the Apostles, being full of the Holy Ghost, could be 
 slaves to money, and so through them insulted the Spirit, supposing the Di- 
 vine Spirit to dwell in such men enslaved to money." S. Chrysostome sup- 
 poses the sin to have been remissible, ad loc. 
 
 * Iran. 1. c L. 2. Praef. 1. L. 3. Prsef. 1. Epiph. Hser. 21. 
 
 t See St. Cyril, vi. 10. Oxf Transl. and note. 
 
 X The history and authorities are given at length by Tillemont, Memm. 
 Eccles. t. iv. p. 173 : and it bears the evidence of truth : the fact that the 
 Christian Sacrament of Baptism at least was acted upon the heathen stage, is 
 implied by St. Augustine, who incidentally inquires, whether Baptism ad- 
 ministered without any serious intention or in a play (in mimo) is valid 1 (de 
 Bapt. c. Donat. L. 7. \ 151.) He puts also the case, ' if so be, one suddenly 
 
ihens on a heathen stage, to interest the curiosity of a profane audi- 
 ence, and a pagan emperor ; and God has put forth His power to 
 vindicate His own ordinances, by making the poor buffoon a convert, 
 and enduing the convert of Baptism with strength for instant mar- 
 tyrdom. God can vindicate His ordinances, by making them all- 
 powerful either to save or to destroy. But when there is no such 
 signal end to be attained, one would tear that they would be perni- 
 cious to the profane recipient. St. Augustine* argues thus, in part 
 from the very case of tSimon Magus : " What ! although the Lord 
 Himself say of His Body and Blood, the only Sacrifice for our salva- 
 tion, ' unless a man eat my Flesh, and drink my Blood, he hath no 
 life in him,' doth not the same Apostle teach that this also becomes 
 hurtful to those who abuse it, for he says, ' Whosoever eateth the 
 bread and drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of 
 the Body and Blood of the Lord ?' See then Divine and Holy things 
 are pernicious to those who abuse them ; why not then Baptism ]" 
 And again :t " The Church bore Simon Magus by Baptism, to 
 whom however it was said, that he had no part in the inheritance of 
 Christ. Was Baptism, was the (xospel, were the Sacraments, want- 
 ing to him ? But since love was wanting, he was born in vain, and 
 perhaps it had been better fur him not to have been born ;" andj 
 "God sanctifies His Sacrament, so that it may avail to a man who 
 should be truly converted to Him whether before Baptism, or while 
 being baptized, or afterwards ; as unless he were converted it would 
 avail to his destruction :" and again he appeals to the Donatists :^ 
 " Ye yourselves have virtually pronounced your judgment that Bap- 
 tism depends not on their merits, by whom, nor upon theirs, to whom, 
 it is admniistered, but upon its own holiness and verity, for His sake 
 hy whom it was instituted, to the destruction of those who use it 
 amiss, to salvation to those who use it rightly." In like way, ano- 
 ther ancient writer, || still from this same case, " For as he who eateth 
 
 kindled should receive it faithfully,' which exactly corresponds with the facts 
 of the history. And he proceeds to contrast " one who in the farce believed," 
 with "one who in the Church mocked." The history is briefly this, that the 
 player, when baptized, saw a vision, was converted, and when led, (as the 
 custom was, when the mock baptism was concluded,) before the Emperor, 
 confessed himself converted, and to have become indeed a Christian, and seal- 
 ed his newly-bestowed faith by immediate martyrdom. The previous pro- 
 faneness is (it may be remarked) one instance of the necessity, under which 
 the ancient Church was placed, of concealing the mysteries of her faith, 
 which moderns, under the name of the " disciplina arcani," have so ignorantly 
 blamed. 
 
 * C, Crescon. Donatist. L. 1. 5 30, 31. 
 
 t De Baptismo c. Donatist. L. 1. { 14. 
 
 i lb. L. 6 \ 47. § Ibid. L. 4. \ 19. 
 
 11 Auct. lib. cent. Fulgent. Donat. c. 6. ap. S. Aug. 0pp. T, 8. App. p. 6. 
 ed. Ben. 
 
191 
 
 and (irinketh the Blood of the Lord unworthily, eateth and drinketh 
 judgment to himself, so he also who receiveth Baptism unworthily, 
 receiveth judgment, not salvation. For both Judas the traitor receiv- 
 ed the body of Christ, being good, and Simon Magus the Baptism of 
 Christ, being good, but because they did not use well that which was 
 good, being evil, by using evilly they were destroyed. Baptism is 
 a good ; the Body and Blood of Christ is a good : the law is good, 
 but only if a man use it lawfully." 
 
 The same view is found in other early Fathers, as a general prin- 
 ciple, not built at all upon this case. Thus Tertullian* gives as one 
 meaning of the words, " Who shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and 
 with fire," " because a true and stable faith is baptized in water to 
 salvation, but an hypocritical and unstable is baptized with fire to 
 judgment." And Origen,! " Whereas the four say that John con- 
 fessed that he came to baptize with water, Matthew alone added 
 thereto, ' unto repentance,' teaching that the benefit from Baptism 
 depends upon the purpose of him who is baptized, being imparled to 
 him who repenteth, but to him who cometh without repentance, it 
 will be to the greater damnation ;" and St. Athanasius,| " 'Blessed 
 is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin,' for he is truly bless- 
 ed who with his whole heart approacheth to Holy Baptism. But 
 whoso is baptized in hypocrisy, (/^''■« ^"^<>^) besides that he obtaineth 
 not remission, shall also receive damnation." And so Damascene,^ 
 as a collector of more ancient opinions, " He who cometh in hypo- 
 crisy, shall be condemned, rather than benefitted." 
 
 The history of Simon Magus would, if it may be viewed as hypo- 
 critical Baptism, be a testimony that even this did not put a person 
 beyond the mercies of God. It would show it to be reparable al- 
 though in his case it was not repaired. For St. Peter exhorts him 
 to repentance ; and so shows that repentance, though very difficult, 
 was open to him. This were very comforting ; for otherwise the 
 painful question must have forced itself upon us, whether (since 
 there is no other appointed means whereby the new birth is bestow- 
 ed,) one who had received the Sacrament of Regeneration in unbe- 
 lief had not precluded himself for ever from being born again ? Such 
 a case is not elsewhere provided for in Holy Scripture ; and it would 
 imply, for the most part, such profane contempt of God's institution, 
 such a servitude to the god of this world, that one should almost 
 dread to argue from general declarations of Holy Scripture, or to 
 speak where God in His word had been silent. Where God indeed 
 gives repentance, we are safe in concluding that he is ready to par- 
 don the offence, however in its own nature it may seem to put a per- 
 son out of the covenant of grace and repentance, and at the same 
 
 * De Bapt. c. 10. 
 t In Joann, T. 6. { 17. 
 
 \ In Ps. xxxi. 2. T. 2. p. 1050. Supp. Comm. ap. Mont. Coli. Nov. T. 2. p. 
 90. ^ De Fide, 4, 5. 
 
192 
 
 time to preclude his entering again into it ; and to any person who, 
 having thus sinned, is concerned about his salvation, that very con- 
 cern is a proof that God, in his case, has not withdrawn his Spirit. 
 Or, again, since those tempted to commit it, are either heathen, or 
 members of a sect, which grievously disparages the Sacrament of 
 Baptism, one may hope that they in some measure have done it 
 "ignorantly, in unbelief," through ignorance, not altogether their own 
 sin, but in part the sin of those who have taken upon themselves the 
 care of their souls. Otherwise it seems sinning with so high a hand, 
 and so to cut off the very means of pardon and pledge of grace, that 
 one should be horribly afraid for any one who thought of, or had 
 committed it. 
 
 One portion, however, of the ancient Church (the African) seems 
 to have held decisively, not only that this sin of receiving Baptism 
 unworthily would be forgiven upon repentance, but that it did not 
 hinder repentance, St. Augustine, namely, uses this case* as an 
 argument against the Donatists, why the Church did not re-baptize 
 those who sought to be restored to her out of a schismatic commu- 
 nion, although she held the Baptism administered in that communion 
 to be useless while men remained in it. " If they say that sins are 
 not forgiven to one who comes hypocritically t to Baptism, I ask, if he 
 aftervvards confess his hypocrisy with a contrite heart and true grief, 
 is he to be baptized again ? If it be most insane to affirm this, let them 
 confess that a man may be baptized with the Baptism of Christ, and 
 yet his heart, persevering in malice and sacrilege, would not allow 
 his sins to be done away : and thus let them understand that in com- 
 munions separated from the Church men may be baptized, (when 
 the Baptism of Christ is given and received, the Sacrament being 
 administered in the same way ;) which yet is then first of avail to the 
 remission of sins, when the person being reconciled to the unity of 
 the Church, is freed from the sacrilege of dissent, whereby his sins 
 were retained, and precluded from being forgiven. For as he who 
 had come hypocritically, is not baptized again ; but what without 
 Baptism could not be cleansed, is cleansed by that pious correction 
 (of life) and true confession, so that what was before given, then 
 begins to avail to salvation, when that hypocrisy is removed by a 
 true confession ; so also the enemy of the love and peace of Christ," 
 &c. St. Augustine frequently repeats this illustration, and speaks 
 confidently as if it were a known fact ; as does also another writerj 
 of the African Church. It is a little remarkable that the schoolmen 
 and their commentators, although deeply read in the Fathers, or at 
 
 * De Baptismo c. Donatist. L. 1. 5 18. 
 
 t This hypocrisy St. Augustine explains, ib. L. 5. c. 18, 19. to be "renounc- 
 ing the world in words not in deeds, and coming so to baptism," 
 
 I The author of the sermon on the Passion of Christ in the appendix to Cy- 
 prian, quoted by Vazquez in 3 Part. Disp. 159. c. 1. 
 
193 
 
 least with a considerable traditional knowledge of them, when treat- 
 ing expressly on this subject* produce only those two authors, and 
 thatoutof this same Church. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, on the other 
 hand, speaks of the loss as absolutely irreparable. " If thou feign- 
 est," he addresses the catechumen,! " now do men baptize thee, but 
 the Spirit will not baptize thee, Thou art come to a great examina- 
 tion, and enlisting, in this single hour ; which if thou losest, the evil 
 is irreparable, but if thou art thought worthy of the grace, thy soul is 
 enlightened; thou receivest a power which thouhadst not; thou re- 
 ceivest weapons at which the demons tremble ; and if thou castest . 
 not away thy armor, but kcepest the seal upon thy soul, the demon 
 approacheth not ; for he is afraid : for by the Spirit of God are dev- 
 ils cast out." It may be that St. Cyril may have meant, as is said 
 also of all impairing of baptismal purity, that it cannot be wholly re- 
 paired, since there is no second Baptism, as he says,| " The bath 
 cannot be received twice or thrice ; else might a man say, ' Though 
 I fail once, I shall succeed a second time ;' but if thou failest the 
 * once,' it cannot be repaired. For ' there is one Lord, and one 
 Faith, and one Baptism.' " The question is very awful : as, what is 
 not, which concerns our souls ? It may suffice to have said thus 
 much upon it, if by any means persons might see that subjects of 
 which they speak lightly, are indeed very fearful. 
 
 And thus the case of Simon Magus, so far from lowering the sa- 
 crament of Baptism, does, while it points out one case in which men 
 may shut out its grace from themselves, cast a very awful dignity 
 around it, showing how reverentially it must be approached^ and re- 
 ceived, and carefully guarded, else might" that which should be for 
 their welfare, become a snare,"! aiid that which was ordained as " a 
 savourTI of life unto life, in them that are saved," be, " in them that 
 perish, a savour of death unto death." 
 
 iii. 4. The Baptism of John. 
 
 The inferiority of the Baptism of John to Christian Baptism is 
 declared by the holy Baptist himself. " I** indeed baptize you with 
 water unto repentance ; but He that cometh after me is mightier than 
 
 * " Whether Baptism, which on account of the hypocrisy of the Catechu- 
 men had not the effect of justifying, have that effect on the removal of that 
 hypocrisy V Comp. Vazquez, 1. c. 
 
 t Catch. 17. n. 36. % Procateches. n. 7. 
 
 ^ Hence our Church kindly requires in adult Baptism that " timely notice 
 be given to the Bishop, or whom he shall appoint for that purpose, a week 
 before at the least, that so due care may be taken for their examination, 
 whether they be sufficiently instructed in the principles of the Christian reli- 
 gion ; and that they be duly exhorted to prepare themselves with prayers and 
 fasting for the receiving the Holy Sacrament.'''' — Rubric prefixed to office of 
 Baptism of those of riper years. 
 
 I Ps. Ixix. 22. 1 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. 
 
 ** Mat^iii. 11. 
 
 VOL. II. — 7 
 
194 
 
 I ; whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with 
 the Holy Ghost and with fire." And this difference of the two Bap- 
 tisms he alleges as the proof of his own inferiority to his Lord, and 
 as resulting from that inferiority. It was when " the people were in 
 expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he 
 were the Christ or no,"* that he so " answered." The difference of 
 their Baptisms is the very proof that " He who was coming" was 
 " mightier than" John, and one to whom the holy John was unworthy 
 to perform the very lowest service ; their Baptisms were their own } 
 and such as they were, such was the might and efficacy of their Bap- 
 tisms. The Baptism of John instructive, and significant, and prepa- 
 ratory, as from a holy man, a preacher of repentance, and the fore- 
 runner of the Lord ; the Baptism of Christ sin-remitting, sanctifying, 
 and life-giving, as being from the Lord, the Redeemer, to whom, as 
 man, the Spirit was without measure given ; who, as God, shed forth 
 abundantly that Spirit, which had again in His sacred person re- 
 sumed His dwelling in man. " 'I baptize you with water.' Soon," 
 says St. Ambrose,! " has he proved that he is not the Christ, in that 
 he hath only a visible office. For man, consisting of two natures, 
 soul and body, the visible is consecrated by things visible, the invisi- 
 ble by the invisible mystery. For the body is washed with water, 
 the sins of the soul are cleansed by the Spirit. It is one thing we do, 
 another we pray for ; although in the very font the hallowing of the 
 Divinity be at hand. For not all water cleanses, but these cannot be 
 separated ; and therefore the Baptism of repentance was one thing, 
 that of grace another. This consists of both, that of one only; for 
 since the sins of mind and body are common, so ought also to be the 
 purification. And well did the holy John, signifying that he under- 
 stood what they thought ' in their hearts,' not by word, but by deed, 
 declare that he was ' not the Christ.' For it is the work of men to 
 bear repentance of sins ; it is the gift of God to fulfil the grace of 
 the mystery." And so St. Chrysostome,:}: " Having first laid down 
 the lowliness of his own Baptism, and shown that it hath no more 
 power than to lead man to repentance ; for he saith not, ' with water 
 of remission,' but ' of repentance ;' then he sets forth His, full of the 
 unspeakable gift. For lest when you hear that He ' cometh after 
 me,' you should despise Him, learn the might of His gift, and you 
 will know clearly that I have said nothing worthy or great when I 
 say that I ' am not worthy to unloose the latchet of His shoe.' So 
 when you hear that He is ' mightier than I,' think not that I say this 
 by comparison. For I am not even worthy to be ranked among 
 His slaves, nay not his meanest slaves, nor to obtain the lowest office 
 of ministry ; wherefore he says not simply ' shoes,' but not even the 
 
 * Luke iii. 15. 
 
 I In Luc. L. 2. 5 79. J Horn. xi. in Matt. 5 4. p. 154. ed Ben. 
 
195 
 
 *latchet,' which is the meanest of all. Then, lest you should think 
 his words the mere words of humility, he adds the proof /rom tJie 
 facts ; for He, saith he, shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and 
 with fireT 
 
 This difference our Lord also inculcated, at the same time 
 that He instituted His own Baptism, " John indeed baptized with 
 water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days 
 hence."* 
 
 Having thus our Lord's own words, no further proof can be neces- 
 sary ; but here again the teaching of Holy Scripture, in its plain 
 meaning, is attested by one remarkable history in the Acts, that of 
 the twelve disciples at Ephesus, who had been "baptized into John's 
 baptism."t The fact that St. Paul requiied Christian Baptism to be 
 given, as necessary to them, who had already received the Baptism of 
 John, at once separates altogether the two Baptisms, and shows in- 
 controvertibly their essential difference, and the imperfection of that 
 of John, There is but " one Baptism," any more than " one God," 
 and " one Lord." Had then these men laefore received Christian 
 Baptism, or had the Baptism of John been the same with the Bap- 
 tism of Christ, St, Paul had not had been baptized. And this, 
 which is contained in the very fact of St. Paul's causing them to be 
 baptized, appears also in the terms employed. As the authors of the 
 Baptisms were different, so also were the objects. The baptism of 
 John was " into John's Baptism," though with the belief in Him who 
 should come after ; the Baptism of Christ is into the Holy Trinity, 
 These men had been baptized unto John, as Israel was " baptized 
 unto Moses."! John Baptist and Moses both pointed on "to Him who 
 was to come ;" Moses to the " Prophet like unto himself, to whom 
 they were to hearken," John to Him " who was among them, whom 
 they knew not." Both appealed to this Prophet as higher than them- 
 selves, (" to Him"!' were they to " hearken," and to Moses no longer, 
 except as "speaking of Him;") yet both kept those baptized unto 
 them for the while detained with themselves, their belief in suspense, 
 as it were, and undefined, until He that was " coming should come." 
 The Jewish people, or those whom John baptized, were, for the 
 time, disciples of Moses and of John, to whom they had been bap- 
 tized, not of Christ. But when the Redemption was accomplished, 
 and Christ had "ascended" into heaven to " give gifts unto men," 
 then it became part of the faith in Him, to be baptized into 
 Him ; and being baptized into Him, they became partakers of 
 the Holy Ghost, into whom, with Him and the Father, they were 
 baptized. " Vnto what (^'^ '"0 were ye baptized ? They said, Unto 
 ("0 John's Baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with a 
 Baptism of repentance, saying to the people, that they should believe 
 on Him who was coming after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When 
 
 * Acts i. 11. t Acts xix. 1. \\ Cor. x. 2. 
 
196 
 
 they heard this, they were baptized into (^'O the Name of the Lord 
 Jesus." They had previously been baptized unto John by " a Bap- 
 tisna of repentance :" and were sharers with the austere Baptist, the 
 type and model of repentance, and with him looked on to "Him who 
 should come," whom as yet they knew not ; now they were baptized 
 into the Lord, and became sharers with the Lord, and were baptized 
 not with a " baptism of repentance" only, bu.t of life, as being bap- 
 tized unto and made partakers of the life-giving Spirit. So then the 
 two Baptisms could scarcely be made more distinct ; the one, the 
 Baptism of John ; the other, by whatsoever human agent adminis- 
 tered, uniformly and equally, the Baptism of the Lord : the one, the 
 Baptism of repentance, looking onward only to One coming, who 
 should remit sins ; the other, the Baptism into Him, who remitteth 
 them, into His own saving, all prevailing Name : the one, the Bap- 
 tism to John's Baptism ; the other, the Baptism into the Holy Tri- 
 nity : the one, a Baptism, in which they " knew not whether there 
 be any Holy Ghost ;" the other, a Baptism, in which " the Holy 
 Ghost came upon them," and dwelt in them, and manifested His pre- 
 sence within them. 
 
 This absence of any spiritual gift in John's Baptism coincides 
 also with other declarations of our Lord, and with the order of the 
 Divine dispensation, whereby the descent of the Hply Ghost is seen 
 to be dependent upon the completion of our Redemption and the 
 Ascension of our redeeming Lord. " The* Holy Ghost was not 
 yet [given,] because that Jesus was not yet glorified." 
 
 The Baptism of John, then, could not impart the Holy Ghost, 
 even on that ground, that it was administered while our Lord was 
 yet in the flesh, before the Atonement had been made or the world 
 cleansed for His indwelling. As yet He dwelt in our Lord's human 
 natiure alone, veiled there, though giving indications of His measmre- 
 less Presence to those nearest to Him : thence to expand, after the 
 Ascension, and to dwell in His whole body, the Church. And so 
 whether we are considering the greatness of our Saviour's gifts, or 
 the inferiority of those ordinances which prepared for Him, stood 
 even at the very threshold of His coming, yea, evened the way for 
 His feet, made man's rugged heart plain, and his crooked ways 
 straight, and, by the hard and shattering preaching of repentance, 
 *' prepared in the desert a high way for our God," we are brought 
 every way to the same result, to see how all our gifts derive their 
 fulness from His Licamation and meritorious Cross and Passion, 
 how that precious Death infuses life into every thing, as into us, 
 leaving them no longer to be beggarly elements, but changing rites 
 into sacraments, shadows into substance, significance into power, 
 
 * John vii. 39' 
 
197 
 
 the washing of the body into the cleansing of soul and body in 
 Him. 
 
 This was vividly felt by the ancient Church. Thus Tertullian, 
 who touches also in his nervous way upon the several points which 
 mark the inferiority of John's Baptism.* " Whether the Baptism 
 of John was from heaven or of earth, the Pharisees could give no 
 certain answer, as understanding not, because they believed not. — 
 We, for our small portion of understanding proportioned to our small 
 faith, may account, that that Baptism was Divine, but by command, 
 not in power, in that we read that John was sent by the Lord for this 
 office, in its condition it was human. Foi it imparted nothing hea- 
 venly, but foreministered to heavenly things, appointed to preside 
 over repentance, which is in man's power. — But if repentance be 
 something human, the Baptism of repentance must needs be the 
 same ; or, had it been heavenly, it would give both the Holy Spirit 
 and remission of sins. But no one either remits sins, or bestows 
 the Holy Spirit but God only. Even the Lord Himself said that 
 the Holy Spirit would not descend, unless he first ascended to the 
 Father. What the Lord bestowed not as yet, should a servant be 
 able to bestow ? So then afterwards, in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 we find that they wdio had the Baptism of John, had not received the 
 Holy Spirit, whom they knew not of even by hearsay. That then was 
 not heavenly, which gave not things heavenly. — It was then a Bap- 
 tism of repentance, as it were a candidate for remission and sanctifi- 
 cation, which was to follow in Christ. For that he ' preached a Bap- 
 tism of repentance for the remission of sins,' this means ' for a re- 
 mission to come.' Liasniuch as repentance goes before, remission 
 follows after ; and this is to 'prepare the way ;' but he who prepar- 
 eth, does not also perfect, but ministers in what is to be perfected by 
 another. Himself professes that not his, but Christ's, were the hea 
 venly things, in that he says, ' He who is of the earth, speaketh of 
 the earth ; He who cometh from above, is above all.' Also that he 
 baptized to repentance only, that He should soon come who should 
 ' baptize with the Spirit and with fire.' Let it not disturb any, that 
 He Himself baptized not. For whereto should He baptize ? To 
 repentance ? To what end then His forerunner ? To remission of 
 sins ? which He gave with a word ! to Himself ? Whom in humility 
 He concealed ? To the Holy Spirit ? Who had not yei descended 
 from the Father ! Into the Church ? which the Apostles had not yet 
 founded ! So then His disciples baptized, as ministers, as did John 
 before as forerunner, with the same Baptism of John, and no other, 
 since there is no other but that afterwardsof Christ, which could not yet 
 be given by the disciples, inasmuch as the glory of the Lord was 
 not yet completed, nor the efficacy of the batli provided through the 
 
 * De Bapt. c. 10, 11. p. 227, ed Prior. 
 
198 
 
 Passion and Resurrectio?!, because neither could our deatli be de- 
 stroyed but by the Passion of the Lord, nor Hfe be restored without 
 His Resvirrection." In hke way also Firmilian ;* " Let them con- 
 sider and understand that there cannot be a spiritual birth without 
 the Spirit ; and so the blessed Apostle Paul baptized anew with a 
 spiritual Baptism those who had been baptized by John before the 
 Spirit was sent by the Lord ; and not till then did he lay his hands 
 upon them that they might receive the Holy Spirit." And St. Hil- 
 ary connects the peculiarity of the Baptism of Christ with His power 
 to save.f " And because the operation of the law was now ineffec- 
 tual to salvation, and John had been a messenger to them, who were 
 to be baptized to repentance, (for it ivas the office of the Prophets to 
 recal from sins, but it loas peculiar to Christ to save those who be- 
 lieve,) he saith that he indeed baptized to repentance, but that One 
 mightier was to come, of the office of bearing whose shoe he was 
 unworthy, leaving the glory of bearing about that preaching to the 
 Apostles, to whose ' beautiful feet' it was allotted to ' bear the tidings 
 of the peace' of God." St. Jerome likewise accounts for the imper- 
 fectness of John's Baptism, in that it was unconnected with the Pas- 
 sion and Resurrection of the Lord. " Hear| what the Scriptures 
 teach. The Baptism of John did not so much remit sins as was a 
 Baptism of repentance to the remission of sins, i. e. to a future re- 
 mission which vv^as to follow through the sanctification of Christ. — 
 For as he before w^as the precursor of the Lord, so was his Baptism 
 also preparatory to the Baptism of the Lord. 'He who is of the 
 earth,' he said, ' speaketh earthly things ; He who cometh from 
 above is above all.' And again, ' I baptize you in water ; He 
 shall baptize in the Spirit.' But if John, as himself confesses, did 
 not ' baptize in the Spirit,' neither, consequently, did he remit sins, 
 because sins are remitted to none without the Holy Spirit. Or if 
 you argue contentiously that John's Baptism therefore remitted sins, 
 because it was from heaven, tell me what more we obtain from the 
 Baptism of Christ ? That which remits sins, frees from hell ; what 
 frees from hell is perfect. But no other can be called perfect Bap- 
 tism than that which is in the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. 
 Thus, whereas John himself says, ' He must increase, but I must 
 decrease ;' thou, with a perverse reverence, ascribing to the Bap- 
 tism of the servant more than it had, destroyest that of the Lord, 
 leaving nothing especial to it. — But the Baptism of John was in such 
 degree imperfect that it is certain that they who had been baptized 
 by him were afterwards baptized with the Baptism of Christ, For 
 so the history relates, (Acts xix, 1, &c.") 
 
 * Ep. 75. ap. Cyprian, p. 145. ed. St. Maur, asan argument for re-baptizing 
 heretics. 
 
 t Jn Matt. c. 3. { 4- X Adv. Lucif. } 7. 
 
199 
 
 The Ancient Church then assigned to the baptism of John a place, 
 corresponding to the rest of his office, partaking of the character of 
 the law, nay, in one sense, a personification and embodying of the 
 law, in that by the stern preaching of repentance he " was their 
 schoolmaster to lead them to Christ," to Whom he pointed, but, like 
 the law, " unable to make any thing perfect." The baptism of John 
 then was preparatory, the Baptism of Christ perfective ; the baptism 
 of John invited to repentance, the Baptism of Christ gave grace 
 upon repentance ; the baptism of John stood on the confines of the 
 promised land, was allowed to see it, led men to the borders of it, 
 guided them to it, but itself brought them not into it ; higher than 
 the law, as he whose baptism it was, was greater than any born of 
 the sons of men, yet less also than the least in the kingdom of hea- 
 ven ;* greater than the Baptisms of the law, as being nearer to the 
 Redeemer, but yet restrained within the precursorial office, still a 
 shadow of the good things to come, not the reality itself, though 
 brought so near to the Sun of Righteousness, as all but to be kindled 
 with His beams ; as all but to convey that which could only be con- 
 veyed by Him, in whom alone, as being God as well as man, we 
 could be re-born as sons of God ; who alone shed His precious 
 Blood for the sins of the whole world, and in Baptism washes and 
 cleanses His Church with it. 
 
 The following passages from the Fathers contain and enforce the 
 several portions of the above view : for the sake of distinctness they 
 may be classified under difierent heads, but all agree in the same 
 general result, and indeed, though classed according as they use 
 prominently the one or other argument, speak often the same 
 things. 
 
 Baptism of John a carrying on of the Office of the Law. 
 
 " Neither! repentance avails without grace, nor grace without 
 repentance ; for repentance must first condemn sin, that grace may 
 blot it out. So then John, becoming a type of the Law, baptized to 
 repentance, Christ to grace." 
 
 " Yet have heard it read this day, that ' John baptized in ^Enon, 
 near Salim.' ^Enon signifies ' the eye of punishment ;' Salim, ' as- 
 
 * " He shows that they had now become greater than John, in that they also 
 should baptize with the Spirit." — Chrys. in Actt. Horn. 1. 5 5. p. 9. 
 
 " Lo here is specially fulfilled that ' the least in the kingdom of heaven is 
 greater than he.' For lo ! the last called of the Apostles, Paul, from his hands 
 the baptized received what John in his baptism gave not." — Scholion ap. 
 Cramer's Catena on Acts xix. 6. 
 
 t St. Ambrose, Ep. 26. 5 7. col. 895. ed Ben. 
 
 X Id. Prajf. in Ps. 37, add in Ps. 118 \ 19, and Jerome, Ep. fi9, ad. Ocean. 
 •'■ The forerunner of the Lord, in tlie waters of the fountains near Salim, which 
 is interpreted 'peace' or ' perfection,' prepares a people for Christ." 
 
200 
 
 cending ;' so it is interpreted. Whoso, then, chooses to be baptiz- 
 ed, doth it, foreseeing punishment, and therefore flees to the Sacra- 
 ment of Baptism, that he may lay aside all sin, and so not be ob- 
 noxious to punishment. And perchance he too foresees punishment 
 who is baptized with the ' Baptism of repentance ;' but he looks to 
 grace who is baptized in Christ. The Baptism then of John is the 
 * eye of punishment;' the Baptism of Christ 'the eye of grace,' — 
 Although John baptized in vEnon, he baptized near the ' ascending' 
 [Salim ;] he was then very near to Christ, who announced his 
 coming. For the Son of man who ' descended from heaven, He it 
 is also who ascended into heaven that He might fill all things.' But 
 because ' as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly,' he also as- 
 cendeth into heaven, who, laying aside things earthly, is buried to- 
 gether m Christ, (in Baptism, Rom. vi.,) that with Christ he may rise 
 again from the death of sin to newness of life and participation 
 of the inheritance, as it is written, ' heir of God, joint heir with 
 Christ.' " 
 
 "The* discourse with Nicodemus being now ended, the Divine 
 Evangelist joins on another most useful relation. For, led by the 
 light of the Divine Spirit to relate the things whereof was chiefest 
 need, he knew that it would be exceedingly useful that the readers 
 should know clearly, how great was the superiority of the Baptism 
 of Christ above that of John. For it was not to be expected but that 
 some would arise, who, for lack of wisdom, should venture to say 
 either that there was no difference between them, but that each must 
 be honored alike, or gliding into a yet more boorish ignorance, take 
 away the superiority from that of Christ, and shamelessly ascribe it 
 to that of water. — In that he baptized not in the same fountains as 
 Christ, but near Salim, and in some of the neighboring fountains 
 around, he pointed out in a way the difference of the Baptisms, 
 showing, as in a figure, that his Baptism is not the same as that from 
 our Saviour Christ, yet was near it, and around it, bringing in a sort 
 of preparation and introduction of the more perfect. As then the 
 law also by Moses is said to ' have a shadow of the good things to 
 come, not the very image of the things' (for the Mosaic letter is a 
 sort of previous exercise and instruction introductory to the worship 
 in spirit, and travailing with the truth which lay secretly within,) so 
 also you will perceive in the Baptism to repentance." 
 
 Baptism of John higher than Jewish rites, hut imperfect. 
 
 " Thet Apostle says, ' Whosoever of us have been baptized in 
 Christ Jesus.' He saith then that our' Baptism is in Christ Jesus. 
 But Christ Himself is related to have been baptized by Jolin, no3 
 
 * Cyril. Alex, in Joh. iii. 22. 
 
 t Orig. in Ep. ad Rom. L. 5. \ 8. p. 561. 
 
201 
 
 with that Baptism which is in Christ, but with that which is in the 
 law. For so Himself also says to John, ' Suffer now, for so it be- 
 cometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' Wherein He shows that the 
 Baptism of John is the completion of the old, not the beginning of 
 the new." 
 
 " The* multitude went out, not to hear what he said, but for 
 what ? ' To be baptized, confessing their sins.' But, when come, 
 they were taught the things of Christ, and the differences of the 
 Baptism. Yet was it more solemn than the Jewish Baptism, and 
 therefore all pressed to it ; yet even thus it was imperfect." 
 
 " Het said not the Baptism of John is nothing, but that it is imper- 
 fect ; nor did he add this without reason, but in order to teach and 
 persuade them to be baptized unto the Name of Jesus, which also 
 they do, and receive the Spirit through the laying on of Paul's hands.'* 
 
 "Mosesj: baptized, but with water, and before this, in the cloud 
 and in the sea ; but this was typically, as Paul also pronounces the 
 sea a type of the water ; the cloud, of the Spirit ; the manna, of the 
 bread of life ; the drnik, of the Divine draught. John also baptized, 
 and he no longer Judaically, for he baptized not with water only, but 
 'to repentance ;' but not as yet altogether spiritually, for it addeth 
 not 'with the Spirit.' Jesus also baptizeth, but with the Spirit. This 
 is its perfection." 
 
 " But^ since your piety hath demanded of us an account of the 
 most amazing Baptism of the Gospel, I think it in harmony with 
 what has been above said on the ' kingdom of heaven,' that we 
 should observe briefly the difference between Moses' baptism and 
 that of John, and then, by the grace of God, we shall be fit to per- 
 ceive the surpassing wondrousness in the Baptism of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, in the incomparable exceedingnes? of glory. For the Only- 
 Begotten Son of the Living God declared that there was here what 
 was ' greater than the temple,' ' greater than Solomon,' ' greater than 
 Jonas.' And the Apostle having related the glory of Moses in the 
 ministry of the law, to the Jews inapproachable, testifieth subjoin- 
 ing, ' for that which was glorified had no glory in this respect, on ac- 
 count of the glory which excelleth ;' and John the Baptist, than 
 whom ' no one was greater among those born of v/oman,' testifieth, 
 saying, at one time, that ' He must increase, and I must decrease,' 
 at another, ' I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, 
 but He baptizeth you with the Holy Ghost and with fire,' and 
 many like things. For by how much the Holy Ghost is more 
 excellent than water, by so much plainly is He who baptizeth 
 
 * Chrys. Horn- 17. (al. 16.) in Joh. 5 2. p. 98. 
 
 t Id. Horn. 40. in Actt. 5 1. 
 
 + Greg. Naz. Orat. 39 (in S. Lumina,) 5 17. p. 688. ed. Ben. 
 
 ^ Auct. de Bapt. L. 1. c. 5. ap. S. Basil. 0pp. t. 2. p. 633. ed. Ben. 
 
202 
 
 with the Holy Spirit than he who baptizeth with water, and the 
 Baptism itself; so that John himself being such and so great, and 
 having such witness from the Lord, said unashamed, ' 1 am not 
 worthy to unloose the latchet of His shoe.' From all this the ex- 
 ceeding excellence of the Baptism according to the Gospel of 
 Christ is plain, which, though it is impossible to conceive of as 
 it deserves, it is pious and useful to speak of, as one is able and 
 enabled by God, out of Scripture itself. The baptism then de- 
 livered by Moses, first of all recognized a difference of sins, for 
 all sins had not the gift of remission ; then it required divers sac- 
 rifices ; was very precise about purifying ; separated for a time 
 him who was in defilement ; observed times and seasons ; and 
 then received baptisn), as a seal of cleansing. But the baptism 
 of John had manifold more. For it made no distinction of sins, 
 required no difference of sacrifices, no accuracy of purification, no 
 observance of days or seasons ; but without any delay a man came 
 to the grace of God and His Christ, confessing his sins, of whatever 
 kind and magnitude they might be, and immediately received remis- 
 sion of sins. But the Baptism of the Lord hath a value far above all 
 human [baptism,] and a glory high above all human desire and 
 prayer, and an exceedingness of grace and power more than the sun 
 is superior to the stars." 
 
 " As* we enter upon the consideration of the saving and new, i. e, 
 the spiritual and evangelical Baptism, the first presents itself the 
 well-known preaching begun by John the Baptist, who departing a 
 little from the law, i. e. from the oldest baptism of Moses, and pav- 
 ing the way for the new and true grace, by the baptism which mean- 
 time he used of water and repentance gradually prepared and accus- 
 tomed the Jews to hear of the future spiritual Baptism which he an- 
 nounced, 'He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.' 
 — The Lord alsoconfirmed these same words of John after His Re- 
 surrection (Acts i.) And Peter also rehearsed these same words of 
 the Lord, giving account of himself in presence of the Apostles 
 (Acts vi.,) and again (Acts xv.") 
 
 Preparatory and Initiatory to the Gospel. 
 
 " ' It baptize you with water unto repentance,' as it were cleans- 
 ing and turning you from evil things, and inviting you to repentance, 
 for I am come ' to make ready for the Lord a prepared people,' and, 
 through the baptism of repentance, to make ready a place for Him 
 Who shall ' come after me,' and therefore shall benefit you much 
 more mightily and excellently than I can, for His Baptism is not 
 for the body only, but the Holy Spirit filleth the repentant, and a 
 
 * Lib. de Rebapt- ap. Cypr. p. 354. 
 t Orig. in Job. t. 6. \ 17. p. 132. 
 
203 
 
 diviner fire consumeth all material and exhausteth all earthly, not 
 only from him who has received it, but also from him who heareth 
 those who have it," [i. e. not the first disciples only, but their suc- 
 cessors.] 
 
 " Purposing* to baptize in the Holy Ghost and fire, He, by 
 John, sent before Him the mysterious images [sacramenta] of His 
 Baptism." 
 
 " Johnf preached the baptism of repentance, and all Judea went 
 out to him. The Lord preacheth the Baptism of adoption of sons, 
 and which of those that hope in him will not obey ? That baptism 
 was introductory ; this perfective : that, departure from sins ; this, 
 union with God." 
 
 " IfX any ask whether the Baptism of the disciples" [while our 
 Lord was on earth] " had any thing more than that of John, I would 
 say nothing ; for both of them were destitute of the grace of the 
 Spirit, and both had one object in baptizing, to bring the baptized to 
 Christ. 
 
 "Immediately^ on Baptism, they [the 12 at Antioch] prophesied. 
 This the baptism of John had not, wherefore also it was imperfect. 
 But that they might be fitted for such things, his office rather was to 
 prepare them beforehand. So that this was the very object of John 
 in baptizing, ' that they should believe in'Him Who is coming after 
 him.' Hence appears that great doctrine, that they who are baptiz- 
 ed are perfectly purified from sins. For if they were not purified, 
 they could not have received the Spirit, nor had the gifts forthwith 
 vouchsafed to them. Consider, too, that the gift was two-fold, both 
 tongues and prophesying. And well did he call John's baptism * a 
 baptism of repentance,' and not ' of remission,' leading them on and 
 persuading them that it was destitute of it. For remission was the 
 operation of that subsequently given." 
 
 " The! Baptism of John was the introduction to the Gospel [good 
 tidings] of grace ; wherefore also it was not above the law ; since 
 neither could those who had sinned against the law, in this receive 
 forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith in Christ." 
 
 " TheyTF were not born again who were baptized with the baptism 
 of John, by whom Christ also was baptized, but by a sort of precur- 
 sory office of him who said, ' Prepare ye the way of the Lord,' they 
 were prepared for Hira in Whom Alone they could be re-born. 
 For His Baptism was not ' in water' only, as was John's, but also 
 ' in the Holy Spirit :' that whosoever believeth in Christ may be re- 
 
 * Ambr. de Poenit. c 8. 5 34. 
 
 t S. Bas. in S. Bapt. 5 1. T. 2. p. 114. 
 
 t Chrys. in Joh. 29. al. 28. 5 1. p. 165. 
 
 ^ Id. in Actt. Horn. 40. J 2. p. 304. 
 
 !| Quasst. et respons. ad Orth. ap. Justin. M. Resp. 37. 
 
 •il S. Aug. J'lnchirid. c. 49. 
 
204 
 
 born of that Spirit, of Whom Christ being born, needed not to be re- 
 born." 
 
 " Those* who have been baptized with the Baptism of John were 
 baptized by Paul on no other ground than that the baptism of 
 John was not the Baptism of Christ, but given to John by Christ, 
 so as properly to be called John's baptism. John received, by a 
 certain dispensation, not to abide, but so far as was necessary, 
 to prepare the way for the Lord, Whose precursor he was to be. 
 To none of the Prophets, to no man do we read in the Divine 
 Scriptures was it given to baptize with water of repentance to re- 
 mission of sin, which was given to John, that from the wondrous 
 grace, the hearts of the people hanging upon him, he might pre- 
 pare in them a way for Him, Whom he declared to be so much 
 greater than himself. But the Lord Jesus Christ ' cleanses the 
 Church' with a Baptism of such sort, as that after it has been 
 received, no other should be required ; but John fore-baptized with 
 one of such sort, that after it had been received, the Baptism of the 
 Lord was also necessary ; not that it should be repeated, but that to 
 those who had received the baptism of John should be given the 
 Baptism of Christ also, for Whom he prepared the way. Except to 
 show forth the humility of Christ [in receiving it,] the baptism of 
 John had not been needed : again, had the end been in John, then 
 after John's baptism had been no need of the Baptism of Christ. 
 But because ' Christ is the end of the law to every one that believ- 
 eth,' John pointed out to Whom they must go ; there to abide, when 
 arrived at Him. Had John baptized only Christ, John had been 
 thought the dispenser of a better Baptism (in that Christ Himself 
 alone was baptized with it) than Christ's wherewith Christians are 
 baptized : and again, must all be baptized first with the baptism 
 of John and then with Christ's, the Baptism of Christ had of ne- 
 cessity appeared less full and perfect, as not sufficing alone to sal- 
 vation." 
 
 " Knowf they that the grace and the ground of John's baptism 
 was other [than the Christian,] nor did it appertain to that virtue, 
 whereby, through the Holy Spirit, they are re-born, of whom it is 
 said ' who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
 the will of man, but of God.' For as the Old Testament is an attes- 
 tation of the New, and ' the law was given by Moses, but grace and 
 truth were wrought by Jesus Christ,' as divers sacrifices prefigured 
 One Victim, and the slaying of many lambs was ended by His immo- 
 lation, of Whom it is said ' behold the Lamb of God, behold Him 
 Who taketh away the sin of the world,' so also John being not 
 Christ, but the precursor of Christ ; not ' the Bridegroom,' but ' the 
 
 * Id. de Bapt. c. Donat. v. 9. 
 
 t Leo. Ep. 16. [al. 4.] ad Episc. Sic. c. 6, 
 
205 
 
 friend of the Bridegroom,' was so faithful, * seeking not his own, but 
 the things of Jesus Christ,' as to profess himself * unworthy to loose 
 the shoes of His feet,' since he ' baptized in water to repentance,' 
 but He should baptize in the Holy Ghost and fire. Who by a two- 
 fold power, should both restore life and consume sin." 
 
 " John* baptizeth not with the Spirit, but with water ; because, 
 imable to remit sins, he washes the bodies of the baptized with 
 water, but not their minds with forgiveness. Why then doth he 
 baptize, who by baptism frees not from sin, except that maintaining 
 the order of his precursorial office, he, who by his birth had gone 
 before His Birth, should by baptizing also go before the Baptism of 
 the Lord ? And he who by preaching had been made the precursor 
 of Christ, should by baptizing also be His precursor through the im- 
 age of His Sacrament." 
 
 Itt is evident to all readers, that John not only preached the bap- 
 tism of repentance, but even gave it to some ; yet could he not give 
 his own baptism ' to the remission of sins.' For remission of sins 
 is given us only in the Baptism of Christ. That then is to be ob- 
 sen'ed which is said, ' preaching the baptism of repentance to the 
 remission of sins,' because, being unable to give a baptism ' to the 
 remission of sins,' he ' preached' it : that as he was the precursor of 
 the Incarnate Word of the Father by the word of preaching, so by 
 his baptism, whereby sins cannot be remitted, he might be the pre- 
 cursor of that Baptism of repentance, whereby sins are remitted ; 
 that so, inasmuch as his word went before the Presence of the Re- 
 deemer, his very baptism also might go before, and become a shad- 
 ow of the truth." 
 
 " The| fourth sort of baptism was that of John, being introducto- 
 ry, and leading to repentance those baptized, that they might believe 
 in Christ. ' For I,' he saith, ' baptize you with water, but He 
 Who Cometh after me. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
 and fire.' John then by the water cleanses, preparatory for the 
 Spirit." 
 
 Several points are observable in these passages; 1st, as to the 
 relation of this teaching of the Fathers to the text of Scripture ; 2nd, 
 as to their sense of the dignity of their Lord's Baptism ; 3rd, as to 
 their agreement among themselves and the points whereon they 
 differ. 
 
 1st, then, they keep close to the simple meaning of Holy 
 Scripture. Their view is founded not on any conclusions of human 
 
 * Greg. Horn. 7. in Evang. { 3. t Id. Horn. 20. in Evang. 5 2. 
 
 % Joh. Damascen. de Fide, L. 5. c. 9. The same division of Baptism, and 
 the same distinction, derived from Greek sources, occurs in Barhebraeus' work 
 on Christian doctrine. See the Author's analysis of it in Dr. NicoH'a Catal. 
 MSS. Arab. Bibl. Bodl. ed Pusey, p. 460, n. b. 
 
206 
 
 reasoning, but on the plain facts and words of Scripture. They 
 dwell chiefly on the fact that those baptized with John's baptism 
 were by St. Paul commanded to be baptized with that of Christ, 
 therefore the two baptisms could not be the same, or of equal value,* 
 — or on John's own words, that his baptism was with water, Christ's 
 with the Spirit. They felt the difficulties which moderns have urg- 
 ed, as, " if John's baptism were imperfect, had the Apostles only an 
 imperfect baptism ?" but they preferred to say, " they knew not, 
 what they did not know," than to bend what was said plainly, in or- 
 der to fit in with what was left obscure. 
 
 2. The high dignity of the Baptism of Christ, and its spiritual 
 character follows, in that its very characteristic is that it is " with 
 the Spirit." A " water-baptism" (as people now speak) is no other 
 than the baptism of the forerunner ; that which makes the Baptism 
 of Christ to bo what it is, is that it is "■ the Baptism of the Spir- 
 it." The luiworthy recipient may, like Simon Magus, exclude the 
 Spirit, or receive Him to destruction ; but in Christianity there is no 
 two-fold Baptism, no separation, except in thought, between the out- 
 ward form and the inward substance ; as if the body were washed 
 at one time with water, the soul, at another, purified by the Spirit ; 
 or as if the water-baptism were but an outward symbol of what had 
 been previously, or might be subsequently, bestowed ; " water-bap- 
 tism" was but around the Saviour, was but a shadow of the substance 
 which He had and gave, sent before his face to prepare the way be- 
 fore Him, a type and image of His gift. " Water-baptism" was in- 
 deed (as moderns speak) an emblem of the Baptism of the Spirit, 
 but it w so no more ; "the shadowsf fled away when" the "day 
 broke :" the baptism of John was an image of the Baptism of their 
 Lord, of Him who was to come ; but, now that He is come, and hath 
 left His Spirit with the Church, their Lord's Baptism is no empty 
 unsubstantial shadow of something still future and distinct from it, as 
 though He also baptized to One " who should come after," or as if 
 the dispensation of the Spirit were different from His. 
 
 * " Paul gave the Baptism of Christ to men, because they had not the Bap- 
 tism of Christ, but the baptism of John, (as themselves answered,) which does 
 not pertain to the Baptism of Christ, nor is any part or degree of it ; otherwise, 
 either the water of Christ's Baptism was then repeated, or if the Baptism of 
 Christ was then perfected by two baptizings in water, it is less perfect now, 
 because that which was given by John is not given; either of which were im- 
 pious and profane to think. Paul then gave the Baptism of Christ to those 
 who had not the Baptism of Christ, but of John. But why the Baptism of 
 John was then necessary, which now is not, does not belong to this question, 
 except only that it appears that the Baptism of John was one, that of Christ 
 another ; as was that baptism another, in which the Apostle says, 'our fathers 
 were baptized in the cloud and in the sea,' when by Moses they passed through 
 the Red Sea."— Aug. in litt. Petil. L. 2. c. 37. 
 
 t Cant. 2. 17. 
 
207 
 
 " This Baptism," says St. Chrysosteme,* " alone has the grace of 
 the Spirit ; that of John was void of the gift." 
 
 " The difference between the grace of the Spirit, and the baptism 
 of water," says St. Basil,! " may be understood from this also, that 
 John Baptized with water to repentance, but our Lord Jesus Christ 
 with the Holy Spirit ; ' I indeed,' he saith, ' baptize you with water,' 
 &c." 
 
 " John," says St. Ambrose,^ " baptized with water, Christ with 
 the Spirit." 
 
 And Origen,^ " This also must be noted, that the baptism of John 
 was inferior to the Baptism of Jesus given by His disciples. Thus 
 they who in the Acts were ' baptized unto the baptism of John,' not 
 having even ' heard whether there be any Holy Ghost,' are baptized 
 a second time by the Apostle. For regeneration took place not with 
 John, but with Jesus, through His disciples, and that which is called 
 * the bath of regeneration,' which takes place with ' renewal of the 
 Spirit,' Who now also is ' borne above the water,' being from God, 
 ' though He doth not enter into all after the water," [i. e. not upon 
 such as come hypocritically.] 
 
 And St. Jerome, II " They who had received John's baptism, be- 
 cause they knew not the Holy Spirit, are baptized again, lest any 
 should think that the water, without the Holy Spirit, could suffice to 
 Jews and Gentiles to salvation." 
 
 This peculiar gift of the Spirit in Christian Baptism again was in 
 their minds connected with their Lord's commission to baptize ; and 
 the baptism of John must needs be defective, because he had receiv- 
 ed no title to baptize in the Name of the Trinity. Thus St. Jerome, TT 
 " Whosoever saith that he believeth in Christ, not believing in the 
 Holy Spirit, hath not the eyes of a perfect faith. Whence also in 
 the Acts, they who had been baptized with the baptism of John to 
 Him who was to come, i. e. in the Name of the Lord Jesus, because 
 they answered Paul's inquiry, ' We do not even know whether there 
 be any Holy Ghost,' are baptized again ; rather, receive then the 
 true Baptism, because, without the Holy Ghost, and the mystery of 
 the Trinity, whatever is received into Either Person is imperfect." 
 And Ammonius,** " So then the baptism of John contained an invi- 
 tation to repentance only, not to remission of sin also — so that the 
 difference of the baptism of John and that of believers is this, that 
 that of believers gives remission of sins also. John when baptizing 
 said, ' I baptize thee to Him who cometh after me, and require thee 
 to believe in Him, that He is the Lamb of God,' but he who baptiz- 
 
 * In Matt. Horn. 12. 5 3. p. 164. 
 
 t De Sp. S. c. 15. X In Luc. Lib. 10. 5 Ul . 
 
 & In Joh. t. 6. 5 17. p. 133-4. 
 
 II Ep. 69. ad Ocean. 5 6. ^ In Joel, c 2. v. 28. 
 
 ** In Cramer's Catena on Acts xix. 5. 
 
208 
 
 eth according to the Faith says, ' I baptize thee into the Name of the 
 Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, 'to beheve in the Con- 
 substantial Trinity, both cleansing and stripping him of his former 
 way of worship, and clothing him anew into Christ, and clearly 
 enouncing the Faith." 
 
 3. This case illustrates how, amid subordinate difference of opi- 
 nion there may be and is substantial agreement in the ancient 
 Church. All agree in this, that the Baptism of their Lord was unut- 
 terably greater than that of St. John, and that, because Scripture had 
 set the Baptism of the Lord so far above that of the servant ; all 
 agree that one was " in water," the other was " with the Spirit," be- 
 cause the letter of Scripture so testified ; what further consequences 
 this involved, was matter of human judgment, and each decided as 
 he thought the tenor of Scripture led, yet without interfering with this 
 first principle, which Scripture had clearly stated. Thus the one 
 who thought that without the Spirit there could be no remission of 
 sins, understood the words, " the Baptism of repentance to the re- 
 mission of sins," of a future remission,* which they were to obtain in 
 Him to whom this " Baptism of repentance" guided them, and so 
 denied that the Baptism of John had any gift of grace : anoiherf 
 thought that it gave remission, but suspended and " in hope" only, 
 until the atoning Sacrifice was completed, and themselves made 
 partakers of it : others, | on the contrary, considering that the 
 words, " to remission of sins," went more naturally to express 
 
 * See TurtuUian above, p. 197, 8, Jerome, p. 248. Gregory, p. 257. So 
 Theophylact also with great clearness, in Marc. 1. " The baptism of John had 
 no remission of sins, but only brought in repentance to men ; how then saith 
 Mark here 'to the remission of sins'?' We say then that he 'preached the 
 baptism of repentance ;' but this preaching of repentance, whither led it ? to 
 the ' remission of sins,' i. e. to Christ's Baptism ; as when we say, ' There 
 came an attendant on the king proclaiming the preparation of food for the 
 benefit of those preparing them,' we do not mean that ' the attendant is to 
 benefit those who prepare the royal food,' but that he proclaimed the prepa- 
 ration of the food, that they who had prepared it, having received the king, 
 might be benefited by him. So then here also the precursor proclaimed the 
 baptism of repentance, that they who repented, having received Christ, might 
 obtain remission of sins." 
 
 t S. Aug. de Bapt. c. Donat. v. 10. " Wherefore though I believe that John 
 in such wise baptized ' in water of repentance to remission of sins,' that sins 
 were * in hope' remitted to those baptized by him, in like manner as the resur- 
 rection which is looked for at the end is wrought in us in hope, as the Apos- 
 tle saith, ' because He hath raised us together, and hath made us sit together 
 in heavenly places,' and yet he also says, ' for in hope we have been saved.' 
 For John himself also, when he saith, ' I indeed baptize you in water to re- 
 pentance, to remis.sion of sins,' seeing the Lord, saith, ' Behold the Lamb of 
 God, behold Him who taketh away the sins of the world.' " 
 
 X This way is taken by the author of the De Rebaptismate ap. Cypr. (above 
 p. 202.) of the De Rebaptismo ap. Basil, (ab. p. 201.) S. Gregory Nyss. in 
 laud. Basil, t. 3. p. 482, as well as St. Cyril below. 
 
209 
 
 that " remission of sins" was the direct end of St. John's " Bap- 
 tism of repentance," supposed that it was bestowed upon all 
 who came sincerely to it, and yet were they at no loss to see the 
 excellences of Christian Baptism, which still set it far above that of 
 John's, even if this privilege were conceded to his. Christian Bap- 
 tism still had peculiarly its own, the adoption of sons, the union with 
 the Incarnate Word ; it had not only " forgiveness of sins, and re- 
 moval of punishment ;" but, to use St. Chrysostome's words on this 
 very subject, " righteousness also, and sanctification, and redemp- 
 tion, and adoption, and brotherhood, and participation of the heritage 
 and abundant ministration of the Holy Spirit, for all these things he 
 implied when he said, ' He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
 and with fire ;' by the very metaphor showing the abundance of the 
 gift, for he does not say, ' He shall give you the Holy Ghost,' but, 
 ' He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost ;' and by the addition of 
 ' fire,' he points out the vehemence and efficacy of the grace." Thus 
 St. Cyril, who did think that remission of sins was given by John's 
 Baptism,* adds, " Thou hast, as the glory of Baptism, the Son of 
 God Himself, the Only-Begotten. For why should I henceforth 
 speak of man? John was great, but what was he to the Lord? 
 Loud was that voice, but what is it to the Word ? Most glorious 
 was the herald, but what to the king ? Glorious was he who bap- 
 tized with water, but what to Him who baptizeth with the Holy 
 Ghost and with fire :" so likewise another, above quoted,! added 
 that the exceedingness of its grace and power was more than the sun 
 above the stars, yea, the recorded sayings of the saints more mightily 
 establish its incomparable superiority." And St. Augustine, when 
 refraining from pressing his own view,| inasmuch as some might 
 argue that sins were remitted in John's Baptism while some further 
 sanctification was, through the Baptism of Christ, bestowed upon 
 those whom Paul commanded to be again baptized," does iiot con- 
 template any other alternative, than that the Baptism of our Lord 
 should have conferred some further grace. Remarkable in this way 
 
 * Catech. Lect. 3. } 7—9. p. 29. 30. Oxf. Transl. f ?• 202. 
 
 X 1. c. This passage has been often alleged (as by Chemnitz Exam. Cone. 
 Trid. de Bapt.) as if St. Augustine had no very decided view on the subject, 
 but it is plain from the context that he simply drops this part of the argument, 
 as not essential to the point he had in view, for he proceeds (c. 11 :) " For 
 that ought to be kept mainly in view which most effects this question (what- 
 ever be the case of John's baptism since he evidently belonged to the unity of 
 Christ,) why persons must needs be baptized after the Baptism of Saint John, 
 and not after that of covetous bishops. What reason can there be then that 
 the Baptism which Paul commanded them to receive, was not the same which 
 was given by John 1^ But neither indeed was the baptism of John himself re^- 
 peated, when the Apostle Paul bade those baptized by him to be baptized in 
 Christ. For what tliey had not received from the friend of the Bridegroom,, 
 that they were to receive from the Bridegroom Himself, of V.T:iom that friend 
 said, ' This is He Who baptizeth in the Holy Ghost.' " 
 
 7* 
 
2t0 
 
 is the comment of one, not of the most eminent of the Fathers, on 
 the testimony of Holy Scripture to Apollos, that he was " fervent in 
 spirit," although he then " knew only the Baptism of John/' This 
 writer does not go about to lower the witness of Scripture, as if a 
 man could be " fervent in spirit" without the Spirit ; rather he exalts 
 this testimony to him, and yet shows that our Christian privilege is 
 higher, in that we not only may be kindled hy the Spirit, as from 
 without, but have Him dwelling in us, and are His temple, are not 
 only guided and led by Him, as by an Angel, but are the living 
 creatures of Ezekiel's vision, living through His life within us, "when 
 those went, these went ; and when those stood, they stood ; for the 
 spirit of the living creature was in the wheels," propelling them by 
 an inward principle of vitality, not by outward impulse. " Again it 
 must be noted, says Ammonius,* "that after the Baptism of Christ, 
 through the laying on of the hands of the baptizer, the Holy Ghost 
 descends on the baptized; and that they who were baptized with 
 John's Baptism had not the Holy Ghost. How, then, was Apollos^ 
 being only baptized into John's Baptism, ' fervent in Spirit V 
 Though it is said that Apollos was ' fervent in Spirit,' it is not said 
 that he ' had the Spirit ;' accordingly, he neither spake with tongues 
 nor prophesied. It is one thing then to be ' fervent in Spirit,' another 
 to ' have the Holy Spirit ;' he who ' hath the Holy Spirit' hath it in- 
 dwelling in him, and the Spirit Himself spake from within, many of 
 which instances have occurred ; how He * spake to Philip,' to Pe- 
 ter, to the Apostles, to Paul and his companions, forbidding them to 
 speak the word, or to speak it in certain cities : but he who is ' fer- 
 vent in Spirit,' did things through illumination and impulse from 
 without, being guided by the Spirit, as if he were guided or guarded 
 by an Angel. And say not, how could he be ' fervent in Spirit* 
 who was not partaker of the Spirit? for you may infer things invisi- 
 ble from those visible. If the sun, being without, and fire, by 
 being near, or, as in the case of fire, at a little distance from bodies, 
 warmeth our bodies, what must we say of the Divine Spirit, which 
 is indeed the most vehement fire, kindling the inner man, although 
 It dwell not within, but be without ? It is possible then, in that all 
 things are possible to God, that one maybe warmed, although that 
 which warmeth him be not in himself." 
 
 Scarcely less instructive, in its w^ay, than this agreement of the 
 ancient Church as to the inferiority of the Baptism of John to that 
 of our Lord, is the agreement of the school of Calvin (with whom 
 the later Lutherans! coincided,) as to its identity and equality, the 
 o-rounds upon which those built it, from whom this traditional agree- 
 ment was derived, or the incongruity of the mode in which they 
 
 * In Cramer's Catena, xix. 5. 
 
 t Luther himself at an earlier period (1520) laid down, that "John had only 
 a baptism of repentance, Christ, a Baptism of grace ; that Christ's Baptism 
 alone was a Sacrament ; that the Baptism of John was preparatory only, that 
 
211 
 
 explained away tlie Scriptures opposed to them. The author of this, 
 as of all other depravations of the doctrine of the Sacraments, was 
 Zuingli ; the ground, which the rest repealed after him, was the 
 denial of the inward grace or mystic efhcacy of the Sacrament, — 
 "The Baptism of John worked nothing," says Zuingli: — "(I 
 speak here," he adds,* " of the Baptism of water, not of the in- 
 ternal bedewing, which takes place through the Holy Spirit;) the 
 Baptism of Christ works nothing, for Christ was content with the 
 Baptism of John, both for Himself (!) and for His disciples ; where- 
 as, had His Baptism had any thing fuller. He would have baptized 
 the disciples a second time, and not allowed Himself to be baptized 
 with the Baptism of John."(!) It being settled, on such grounds, 
 that the Baptism of our Lord has no inward grace, the Baptisms 
 could not but be the same; i. e. alike empty in themselves, and but 
 appendages of the same teaching. " John baptized to initiate to re- 
 pentance, and promised that there should be salvation in Him who 
 should come after him, for that He was the Lamb, who alone took 
 away sin, in whom also he taught to trust. The Baptism then of 
 John required a new life, and pointed to hope in Christ. And this 
 was the Baptism of doctrine (for both equally baptized with water,) 
 the Baptism of Christ required nothing else, for He began to preach 
 no otherwise than John, ' Repent ye.' For, that Christ Himself is 
 the hope, and John was not the hope, since ' he was not the light,' 
 but sent to Christ, this made no difference in the Baptism : for both 
 tended to Christ, i. e. required a new life, to be formed after the 
 pattern of Christ. Since then John taught that the life was to be 
 changed, and formed after the pattern of Christ, and Christ taught 
 no otherwise, (for what does all Christ's teaching require other than 
 a new life to be formed according to the will of God, and to trust 
 unshakenly in Christ?) it follows that if the Baptism of doctrine was 
 the same, that of the water was the same alsoJ^ The promise then 
 that they should be " baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire," 
 was, according to this writer, a mere outward thing, confined to the 
 Apostles, " as outward," he says,t " as the Baptism of water ;" the 
 
 it had no grace [did not remit sin,] but rather brought despair, until it ended 
 in Christ ; and that those so baptized needed to be again baptized." (Disp- 
 de Bapt. Leg. Joh. et Cliristi. 0pp. t. 1. p. 373.) In 1541 he held that " it did 
 not much differ from the Baptism of Christ," (Sermons on Infant Bapt. 0pp. 
 Germ. t. 7. f. 460. ap. Gerh. Loc. de Bapt. c 3. s. 5. 5 55. ;) in 1546, "that 
 the penitent obtained by it remission of sins ;" (Serm. 1, on the Bapt. of Christ, 
 0pp. Germ. t. 8. f. 301. ap. Gerh. 1. c.) which however does not go beyond 
 some of the Fathers. Melancthon also varied ; he contrasted the two baptisms 
 in the Loci ed. 1520 ; identified them in the ed. 1558; and was the channel 
 through which the reformed theory came among the Lutherans ; thenceforth 
 it became a regular part of their traditional system. 
 
 * De nova et falsa Relig. cap. de Baptismo, t. 2. f 200. 1. 
 
 t lb. f. 199. v. He admits another " baptism of the Holy Spirit, wherewith 
 aU are bedewed internally who believe in Christ," and this baptism, according 
 
212 
 
 invocation of the Name of the Holy Trinity was also outward ; " it is 
 cm outward thi7ig, xhsil when they are baptized, there concur ihe sacred 
 words, ' In the Name of, &c.,' and a sign of the real substance and 
 a ceremonyT* In like way Calvin, t " It is most certain that the 
 ministry [Baptism] of John was altogether the same as that after- 
 wards delegated to the Apostles. For its being administered by dif- 
 ferent hands does not make the Baptism different, but the identity of 
 doctrine shows it to be identical. John and the Apostles agreed in 
 the same doctrine ; both baptized ' to repentance,! to the remission 
 of sins ;' both into the Name of Christ, from whom was repentance 
 and remission of sins. John said that ' He was the Lamb of God, 
 by whom the sins of the world were taken away :' thereby declaring 
 Him to be a Victim accepted by the Father, the Propitiator of jus- 
 tice and Author of salvation. What could the Apostles add to this 
 confession ?" And even the later Lutherans allowed themselves to 
 be misled by the modern theory, that Sacraments were seals of 
 the word preached, whence even Brentius^ asserts, that " the Bap- 
 tism of John and the Apostles and the whole Christian Church was 
 not only altogether the same, but that John was the fix'st who admin- 
 istered that Baptism, which the Church uses to this day, and shall 
 use to the end of the world ;" and as the ground of this, alleges, 
 " For the Baptism of John is such as is his teaching and his word. 
 For since the sacraments depend upon the word, and are constituted 
 hy the word, they must be compared with the word, and be judged of 
 according to the nature of the word whence they derive their hallow- 
 ing. But we have shown that there is no difference between the 
 teaching and word of John and of the Apostles. How then should 
 their Baptisms differ ?" 
 
 Such being the d priori and theoretic way in which men came ta 
 assert the identity of the baptism of St. John with that of our Lord, 
 it is instructive to observe its effect on the interpretation of the two 
 passages, on which A ntiquity chiefly rested their disparity ; the dec- 
 
 to him, consists in teaching, for he assi'^ns as its ground, only the texts, " No 
 one can come unto Me, except whom the Father draws," and " They shall all 
 be taught of God." 
 
 * lb. f. 202. 
 
 f Inst. 4. 15. 7. 
 
 X This is not true , the Apostles baptized upon repentance, but not " to re- 
 pentance ;" John " preached the baptism of repentance to the remission of 
 sins" [i. e. with the view to their ulterior remission :] the Apostles baptized 
 not " to repentance," but directly " to the remission of sins." Acts ii. 38. — 
 Neither does it appear that John baptized plainly " unto Christ," or indeed 
 to Him that was coming" at all, (though some have so understood St. Paul's 
 words,) but rather St. Paul says, he " baptized to repentance, that so they 
 might believe in Him who should come :" certainly he did not baptize into 
 the Name of the Trinity. 
 
 ^ Hom. 21. in Ev. Luc. 
 
213 
 
 laration of the Baptist himself, and the act of St. Paul. For the 
 first, whereas the Baptist says, " I baptize with water, but He shall 
 baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire," they said that he 
 meant that " he was only the outward minister of the outward ele- 
 ment, but that it was Christ who gave the Spirit, and that the mira- 
 cle of the day of Pentecost would attest this ;" so that when he said 
 that he " baptized with water," he did not mean that his baptism was 
 only in water, that it was any more a mere " baptism with water" 
 than that of our Lord ; rather that it was, equally with His, " with 
 the Holy Ghost ;" only that himself, as being a mere man, did not 
 give to the baptism its power and efficacy,* that he being man had 
 no power to bestow the Presence of God ; and that when he said 
 " He shall baptize you," he meant, " He is now baptizing you in- 
 visibly, of which the proof is that hereafter He sliall baptize you vis- 
 ibly." As to the history in the Acts, the interpretation is more 
 varied. When these disciples said, " we have not so much as heard 
 whether there be any Holy Ghost, then said Paul unto what then 
 were ye baptized? and they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said 
 Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, &;c. 
 When they heard this, they were baptized into the Name of the Tiord 
 Jesus." Now, since John baptized with water, and speaks of his 
 baptism as a baptism of water, nothing could seem plainer, than that 
 the baptism here spoken of was, at all events, a baptism with water, 
 that the word " baptism" or " baptized" is to be, throughout the pas- 
 sage, taken in the same sense, and that ihe baptism into the Name 
 of the Lord Jesus, was a Baptism which these disciples theii receiv- 
 ed in obedience to St. Paul's instruction. Nothing less ! according 
 to these interpreters, although they agree only that its obvious mean- 
 ing is not its meaning ; what else it can mean, becomes matter 
 for conjecture. Thus they say, l,t St. Paul when he asked, "unto 
 what were ye baptized ?" meant, " what were ye taught ?" that they 
 by " John's baptism" meant "John's teaching;" that St. Paul, by 
 saying, " John baptized," meant, " John preached," and that Scrip- 
 ture when it relates finally, that " they were baptized into the Name, 
 &c." meant that they were " taught" more correctly, and " led by 
 Paul to Christ ;" and so, whereas Scripture speaks four times of 
 baptism it means every where not "baptism" but " preaching or 
 teaching." This at least is consistent. Or, 2,t " that they had re- 
 ally been baptized with water by John, but now were not baptized 
 
 * CaW. Inst. 4. 15. 8. So Brentius, Horn. 29. in Luc. 
 
 t Zuingli de vera et falsa Relig. 1- c. 
 
 X Calvin Inst. 4. 15. 18. Brent. Horn. 29. in Luc. Quidam ap. Chemnitz. 
 Exam. Cone. Trid. P. 2. ad Can. 1. de Bapt. Vatablus. Osiander, paraphr. 
 Franzius, ap. Calov. Loss, in Joh. 1. " Interpretes fere omnes," ap. Loss, 
 ad Act. xiss. 
 
214 
 
 with water, but received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit,'* 
 So that when Scripture says, " When they heard this, they were 
 baptized into the Name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul had laid 
 his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them," it means, "they 
 were baptized, i. e.* Paul laid his hands upon them," that their bap- 
 tism consisted in Paul's so laying his hands, or rather not therein, 
 but in the gifts of the Holy Ghost which accompanied it. Or, 3,t 
 having been really baptized by John, they were not baptized, but 
 being taught the object of John's baptism (faith in Jesus,) acknowl- 
 edge that they were so baptized before ; i. e. when Scripture says, 
 " when they heard this, they were baptized," it means, " they were 
 not baptized then when they heard it, but they knew that they had 
 been baptized long before." Or, 4:,\ they were not baptized with 
 water by John, but " taughC only by him, and were really baptized 
 by St. Paul." Or, 5,§ they take criticism to aid, and, by the force 
 of /"«" and ''^discover that the words were spoken by St. Paul, and 
 mean, that " when the people heard John the Baptist, they were bap- 
 tized by him into the Name of the Lord Jesus." So that when Scrip- 
 ture says, " they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus. 
 And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came on 
 them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the 
 men were about twelve :" " they" in the first place means all who 
 in Judea received John's baptism, and in the second, the twelve only 
 who v/ere at Ephesus ; so that Scripture does not mean that St. 
 Paul laid his hands on the same persons who had been baptized, for 
 these were, according to this exposition, all John's disciples, but that 
 it does mean, that St. Paul laid his hands upon these twelve, as hav- 
 ing been some of those formerl}'- baptized by John ; and this though 
 Scripture adds, " And all the men were about twelve." Or, lastly, 
 having themselves raised this cloud, they content themselves with 
 saying, that the meaning of the passage is obscure, and tiiat which- 
 
 * Calvin says, it is a Hebraism, that the same thing- is first related compen- 
 diously (viz. that they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus,) then, 
 more fully, that Paul laid his hands upon them and they received the Holy 
 Ghost. Gerhard, that it is an epexegesis. 
 
 t Lightfoot Chron. adloc. So nearly, " some," ap. Chemnitz. 1. c. "upon 
 hearing this declaration, the baptism of John was to them Baptism into the 
 Name of the Lord Jesus ;" to this Chemnitz inclines. 
 
 X Bullinger ad loc. professing to derive it mainly from Zuingli. Quidam ap. 
 Chemnitz. 1. c. "perhaps so." Loss- 
 
 ^ This strange perversion was invented by one named Marnix, adopted from 
 him, with great panegyric, by Beza, and then became a received traditional 
 exposition of both reformed and Lutheran writers. It occurs in Aretius ad 
 loc. Drusius ad 1. Gataker ad 1. Selneccer (Paedag. P. 2. de Bapt.,) Loss, 
 ad Actt. 19- Glass. Gr. 3. 7. 14. can. 610. Konig.ap. Calov., Gerhard (Loci.) 
 &c. Vossius says that it was somewhat modern, being born after himself, 
 " admodum est novella, quippe nata me nato." 
 
215 
 
 ever* of these contradictory ways you take it, it neither favors Ana- 
 baptism, nor proves "certainly, evidently, and of necessary conse- 
 quence, that there was no efficacy in John's baptism, and that those 
 who believed received neither grace nor remission of sins ;" i. e. 
 Scripture had no certain meaning, because men had invented all sorts 
 of questions about it, and the sun shone not clearly on the Church, 
 because men had raised mists about the dwelling-place which they 
 had chosen for themselves. And amid this discordance of interpre- 
 tation, each admits the harshness of those expositions which himself 
 does not adopt,! and avows the object of them all to be, to meet the 
 objections of Anabaptists on the one hand without conceding to the 
 Church of Rome, that the baptism of John was different from that 
 of Christ. And this is the boasted critical exposition, freed from all 
 tradition, except that of their own school, and from all authority, ex- 
 cept that of its masters. 
 
 Such then are the two views of John's baptism ; the one that of 
 the Church, the other that of an individual, and from him of a school ; 
 the one looking to the letter of Scripture, the other to a theory of its 
 own ; the one to the efficacy of man's preaching, the other to the 
 Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection of their Lord ; the one to what 
 can be seen with the eye of flesh, the other realizing the things in- 
 visible ; the one to " beggarly elements," the other to " the Spirit of 
 God, brooding upon the face of the waters ;" the one magnifying 
 man, the other looking away in all things from man, and seeing only 
 
 * Chemnitz, 1. c. Bellarmine, who, with some mistakes, gives the above va- 
 riations, adds two others (which do no violence to the text,) 1, which seems 
 tilso to have been St. Ambrose's view of this case (de Sp. S. i, 3.,) that they 
 had received the baptism of John wrongly in some way, (wherein St. Ambrose 
 however still maintains the difference between the Baptisms of John and of 
 Christ, " for although /o/m baptized not in the Spirit, yet he preached both of 
 Christ and the Spirit ;") as though John's Baptism would ordinarily have suf- 
 ficed, and needed only the imposition of hands, but that in their case it had 
 been administered wrongly, (so Aretius and Piscator, ad loc. Musculus, Loci, 
 de Bapt. ;) or, 2, which is altogether a modern way, that they had received it 
 in a wrong frame of mind, (which had been no ground for re-baptizing.) Brun- 
 fels ad loc. Neither exposition found much favor in this school. This doubt 
 ■of St. Ambrose is alluded to by St. Augustine de unico Bapt. c. 7. — " To 
 these men was given a Baptism which they had not, not that which they had, 
 disapproved, whether, as some think, they said untruly that they had the bap- 
 tism of John, or that the baptism of John was not the Baptism of Christ, but 
 only ministered to Christ, as the ancient sacraments of the law discharged a 
 certain precursory and prefigurative office." 
 
 f Thus Aretius says of the two first, "quibus simplicitas verborum recla- 
 mat." Chemnitz, that " they [the 3rd and 4th] have both something forced, 
 and do notthroughout preserve the simplicity and perspicuity of the text;" in 
 like way Piscator, Vossius, and Musculus as to the 5th. Calvin again, on 
 Acts 19, summarily rejects the notion that they were not genuine disciples of 
 the Baptist, (see above note,) as also the 1st and 3rd, that Baptism meant in- 
 struction. This last he says " as it is forced, so it savors of being a shift." 
 
216 
 
 in all, and in all glorifying their Lord, *' John Baptist and Paul the 
 Apostle," says St. Augustine,* " were one, both being friends of the 
 Bridegroom, yet because it was not one Baptism which was given 
 by John and by Paul, Paul bade those be baptized with the Baptism 
 of Christ who had been baptized with the baptism of John. So then 
 the one baptism was called the baptism of John ; but that given by 
 Paul was not called Paul's baptism ; but ' he commanded them,' it 
 saith, ' to be baptized in Christ.' So John and Paul are one, 
 and give not what is one ; so Peter and Judas are not one, but give 
 what is one ; but Peter and Paul are both one, and give what is one." 
 
 iii. 3. Indications of the dignity of Baptism arising from cir- 
 cumstances connected ivith our Blessed Saviour's Person, and from 
 prophetic declarations and types of it recognized by Scripture, by 
 the Ancient Church, or, as derived from it, by our own. 
 
 In the view of the Ancient Church, no event recorded in Holy 
 Scripture stands insulated and alone. All have bearings every way ; 
 all belong to a vast system of which we have some glimpses, which 
 we cannot construct as a whole, nor, consequently, tell all the bear- 
 ings of the several parts ; yet, by reason of this oneness of the whole 
 system, all its parts, as being parts of one, have some relation to 
 each other, and we, she believed, have principles enough given us, 
 to enable us to understand and interpret some of these relations. 
 But, chiefly, they all bear, she was persuaded, in some way upon 
 Him, the Sun and centre of the system, our Incarnate Lord ; and so 
 again, the events of His history gleam with His own effulgence upon 
 His body, the Church. In that He had deigned to become her 
 Head, it could not but be, that He had instituted a mysterious rela- 
 tion between Himself and His body, so that she should, in a manner, 
 and as a whole, reflect Him, and His acts concern her. Of these 
 His holy actions, the Ancient Church had her eye specially fixed up- 
 on such as related to His Sacraments, the means whereby He orig- 
 inally united her to Himself, or still nourished her, and cherished her, 
 and maintained her in that union. In this way, incidents, which up- 
 on a modern system would be termed mere casualties, things which 
 must take place somehow, and so, it is supposed, did take place as 
 they did, events which, according to moderns, terminate in them- 
 selves, these same incidents had, according to the ancients, a mean- 
 ing, even on that ground alone, that they belong to His history. It 
 is a principle with the ancients, that whether they see the right ap- 
 plication or no, or only one or more of many right applications, still 
 nothing in His history was accidental, nothing without its meaning. 
 This, if exhibited in detail, will appear to moderns, at first sight, 
 strained and fanciful ; we have habituated ourselves to look upon 
 those things as unmeaning ; they would be so in common-place histo- 
 
 *De unit. Eccl. c. 21. (al. 18.) 
 
217 
 
 ry ; and so we accustom ourselves to pass them by in a common- 
 sense way, as if they could have no deeper meaning when brought 
 near to His Person. There must have been, we should say, a cer- 
 tain number of water-pots in the miracle of turning the water into 
 wine ; a certain number of loaves which were multiplied ; a certain 
 number of baskets in which their fragments were gathered up : these 
 things, it is supposed, belong only to the reality and truth of the 
 history ; and, according to our respective characters, moderns find 
 evidences of the truth of the narrators, where the ancients saw doctrine 
 and Divine wisdom. We cannot get ourselves over and above to 
 entertain the thought, that these outward circumstances should have 
 a meaning, and be the vehicles of spiritual truth ; and so they who 
 see such meaning, must to us seem, of necessity, to see more than 
 there is, i. e. to be fanciful. Either we must see too little, or they 
 too much ; and we have taken upon ourselves to decide in our own 
 favor. And yet, it must be confessed, on reflection, that the ancient 
 view is the more reverential ; it is more respectful, surely, to think 
 that every thing, down to His shoe-latchet, which St. John felt un- 
 Avorthy to unloose, should derive a portion of dignity from its prox- 
 imity to Him ; it is more credible, that when God became man, and 
 visited us, and went about among us, nothing should have been acci- 
 dental, or without meaning, which encompassed Him, nothing with- 
 out purpose, which the Holy Ghost caused to be recorded in con- 
 nection with Him ; it is more in harmony with His Providence, 
 vi^ithout Whom not a sparrow falleth to the ground, that when He 
 sent his Only-Begotten Son into the world. He should have disposed 
 every thing, small or, as to us seems, great, — (yet how carnal is it 
 to speak of any earthly thing as being great in connection with Him, 
 their Creator) — that He should have so disposed all, that all should 
 admit of receiving a meaning from His nearness. Thus, His earthly 
 sun, as it draws and disposes our clouds around himself, and gives 
 to each their due form, and a portion of his own brightness, imparts 
 to each tiny speck the richness of his glory, and most often bathes 
 and envelopes these with his lustre, while those earthboin masses, 
 which would claim to themselves more of solidity, and a more dis- 
 tinct existence, can receive but a slighter tinge, and in their outskirts 
 only, testify his presence. In like way, it may be, that those hu- 
 man things, which have a more substantial existence, are less fitted 
 to be symbolical of Him, while the mean things of the world, and 
 things despised in man's eyes, may be made the vehicles of His 
 mysteries, or point to them. This extent of significance were also 
 in harmony with the Old Testament, in which every thing relating 
 to the Representative High Priest of the Law, even the very hem of 
 His garment, was appointed by God, and the very streaming of the 
 sacred and fragrant oil from His head to those skirts was significant; 
 — in which the very size of the court of the Lord's house, and the 
 
218 
 
 hangings, and. hooks, and fillets, by which it was bound into one, 
 were appointed ; its minutest details were to be made " according 
 to the pattern shown to Moses in the mount."* So also as to our 
 Blessed Saviour's Person, the very seamlessness of His coat was 
 prophesied of in the Psalm which spoke of the lots being cast upon 
 it, and pointed out by Evangelists : surely then it were truer, and 
 even more philosophical, to believe (which in this instance, indeed, 
 people for the most part are willing to do) that there is some further 
 meaning in that seamlessness — the unity of His Church — than to 
 look upon that which was so prophesied of, and fulfilled, as in itself 
 a thing indifferent and unmeaning. 
 
 But whether it appear to us philosophical or fanciful, such was 
 the view of the ancient Church ; and it is right to bear in mind that 
 it was the view of the universal Church, and implied the greatest 
 reverence for the letter of Holy Scripture, and for Him to whom the 
 Scripture testified. The very principle whereon it rested, was the 
 conviction of the extreme sacredness and significance of every jot 
 and tittle of God's Word, as partaking of His fulness ; and, on the 
 other hand, the vivid sense of His Presence every where in it, ani- 
 mating it with His Spirit, and bringing the whole into connection 
 with Himself, as its Author and its End. This system should then, 
 at least, be approached seriously, not judged of in an off-hand way, 
 nor decided on at once, because at variance with our notions of dignity 
 or fitness ; and they who do so approach it, will be startled very 
 likely at first, as men brought into a new world ; but when their 
 eyes are accustomed to it, they will learn gradually to admire, at 
 least in some respects, its beauty, and unity, and harmony. The 
 principle, in regard to Baptism, is stated simply in the striking 
 words of St. Cyprian :t " As often as water is mentioned alone in 
 Holy Scripture, so often is Baptism extolled." Strong as this state- 
 ment seems, it is meant, not as a mere vivid assertion, but as the 
 plain and simple truth. For thus Tertullian,| in his concise way, 
 touches on the mention of water in the New Testament, as purposed 
 to confer honor upon Baptism : — " In how great favor with God and 
 His Christ is water, to the sanctioning of Baptism ! Every where 
 Christ appeareth with water. Forasmuch as Himself is baptized 
 with water. The first beginnings of His power, when called to the 
 marriage, He consecrateth with water. When he uttereth His dis- 
 course, He inviteth the thirsty to His everlasting water. When He 
 teacheth of love, He commends, among the works of love, the cup 
 of water given to the poor. He recruits His strength by the well. — 
 He walketh on the water. He willeth often to cross the water. He 
 
 * Ex. XXV. 9. 40. xxvi. 30 ; xxvii. 8. Numb. viii. 4. Acts vii. 44. Heb. 
 viii. .5. 
 
 t Ep. 63. ad Ccecilium. % ^^ Bapt. c. 9. 
 
219 
 
 giveth water to His disciples. This testimony to water endureth 
 even to His Passion. When He is given over to the cross, water 
 comes in ; witness Pilate's hands ; when He is wounded, water 
 bursts from His side ; witness the soldier's spear." 
 
 Of these instances, two chiefly are dwelt upon by the ancient 
 Church, the one from the beginning, the other from the close of His 
 public life for us, His Baptism, and the water which burst from His 
 sacred side. These same two instances have, very remarkably, been 
 recognized by our own Church ; and that the more so, since the 
 prayer in which reference is made to His Baptism formed no por- 
 tion of our ancient baptismal service, but was incorporated into it at 
 the Reformation, from an ancient ritual of Germany. On the other 
 hand, it may be noticed that the Lutheran bodies, remaining faithful 
 to the ancient doctrine of Baptism, retained the allusion to the Bap- 
 tism of our Lord, as " hallowing water to the mystical washing 
 away of sins ;" the Reformed or Zuingli-Calvinistic bodies omitted 
 it.* Even this might suggest that the recognition of a mysterious 
 relation between our Lord's Baptism and the sacramental efficacy of 
 water as the element of ours, is not a mere insulated opinion, but is 
 in some way bound up with the habit of mind, which receives faith- 
 fully the doctrine of Baptism itself. The same habit which regard- 
 ed as fanciful this connection, accredited by a constant tradition, 
 rejected also, under the title mystical, the mysterious efficacy of the 
 Sacraments. 
 
 The belief of the ancient Church on these two mysterious acts, 
 is thus embodied then in our Baptismal Service : of our Lord's 
 Baptism our Church prays to God, "Who by the Baptism of His 
 well-beloved Son Jesus did sanctify water to the mystical washing 
 away of sin." The issuing of the water and Blood from His sacred 
 side, she unites with His command to His disciples to baptize all 
 nations, as containing also a sanction of Baptism, and a hallowing 
 of water to that end. " Almighty, Ever-living God, whose most 
 dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, 
 did slied out of His most precious side both water and blood, and 
 gave commandment to His disciples, &c., regard, we beseech Thee, 
 the supplication of Thy congregation ; sanctify this water to the 
 mystical washing away of sin." In the Litany she reverts to the 
 Baptism of our Lord, as a special instance of His mercy ; and, amid 
 other chief acts of His life and death for us, implores Him " by His 
 Baptism," to " deliver us." 
 
 Of both these acts, it is remarkable that this meaning, upon 
 which the Church has dwelt, is no where alluded to in Holy Scrip- 
 ture. The issuing of the water and blood from His side St. John 
 records, and manifests His sense of the mystery by the solemn as- 
 
 * See Comparison of Baptismal Liturgies in Note (M) at the end. 
 
220 
 
 sertion, wherewith He stops to dwell upon it :* " And he that saw 
 it bare record, and his record is true ; and he knoweth that he saith 
 true, that ye might believe." But what meaning it had, or whether 
 it had many meanings, he hints not, neither here, nor where he refers 
 to it as a fact containing doctrine ;t " There are three that bear wit- 
 ness on earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these 
 three agree in one." So also with regard to the Baptism of our Lord. 
 One purport of it our Lord Himself mentions, in order to satisfy the 
 scruples of the reluctant Baptist; "Suffer now; for thus it be- 
 cometh us to fulfil all righteousness ;" but how much was contained 
 in these words ; what was the extent of the principle contained in 
 them ; whether it be a part of the "righteousness" thus " fulfilled," 
 that our human nature should be sanctified in this Baptism of our 
 Lord, is not to be collected from the passage itself. Its first and ob- 
 vious sense is, that since " the Baptism of John" was " of God," it 
 became Him, as being born in the people to whom God had given 
 it, to submit Himself to it as the Ordinance of God.:]: But then 
 other grounds might be included in this, as involved in the character 
 and person of Him who did thus submit Himself. The words may 
 have been left, of purpose, undefined, in order to comprehend the 
 more. " He added not," says St. Jerome, " the righteousness of 
 the law, or of nature, that we might understand both." The " right- 
 eousness fulfilled" was in Him humility,'^ surpassing all thought, in 
 
 * c. xix. 35. 
 
 t 1 Ep. v. 8. 
 
 I See Newman's Sermons, vol. ii. Serm. 7. on this text. 
 
 ^ " What meaneth ' fulfil all righteousness V I came to die for men, should 
 I not be baptized for men ^ What meaneth ' fulfil all righteousness V fulfil 
 all humility. Should not He receive Baptism from a good servant, Wlio re- 
 ceived His Passion at the hands of evil servants V — Aug. Tr. 4. in Joh. 5 14. 
 " If He were to show the way of humility, and to make Himself the very way 
 of humility, in all things humility was to be fulfilled by Him." — Id. Tr. 5. 5 3. 
 & } 8. " That the Lord might give us an example of humility, to receive the 
 saving grace of Baptism, Christ received what He needed not, but what was 
 needed for our sakes." — lb. 5 5- " He did not say simply ' suffer,' but added 
 *now.' For it shall not ever be so, but thou shalt see Me in that state thou 
 longest for, but now await it. Then further he shows how this is ' fitting;' 
 because. He saith, I fulfil the whole law, (for this is meant by all righteous- 
 ness, for righteousness is the fulfilling of the commandments.) ' Since then 
 I have fulfilled the other commandments, and this alone remains, it also must 
 be added. For I came to undo the curse, appointed for the transgression of 
 the law. I must then remove it, by first fulfilling it wholly, and taking you 
 from under the curse. It becometh me then to fulfil the whole law, since it 
 is becoming that I should undo the curse written against you in the law; 
 for, therefore, also did I take flesh, and am come.'" — Chrys. Hom. 12. in 
 Matt. 5 1. " Lastly, John would fain not baptize Him, as God, and so He 
 teaches that as man it should take place in Him. WTience there follows, but 
 Jesus answering, said to him, ' Suffer now.' Well said He ' now,' show- 
 ing that Christ was to be baptized by John in water, John by Christ in the 
 
221 
 
 that, while God, He received the Baptism of the sinners whose na- 
 ture He had taken ; in Him it was " love,"* which is the " fulfilling 
 of the law," in that He received that which He needed not, that 
 they who need it, might the gladlier receive it ; and so it may be 
 also, that He was baptized not only to give an example of obedi- 
 ence, or healthfully to shame those who to their destruction would 
 have disdained it,t but in it to " fulfil all righteousness," by cleans- 
 ing the sinful nature, in the hkeness whereof He had come, and to 
 impart to it, as a whole, the righteousness^ which He should after- 
 Spirit. Or else, ' suffer now,' that since I have taken the form of a servant, 
 I may fulfil his humility also ; else, know that in the day of judgment, you 
 must be baptised with My Baptism; ' Suffer now,' saith the Lord, I have also 
 another Baptism wherewith also I am to be baptized. Thou baptizest me 
 with water, that I may baptize thee for Myself in thy own blood." Jer. ad loc. 
 
 * "The cause of the Baptism of our Lord, the Lord Himself declares, say- 
 ing, ' Thus becometh it to fulfil all righteousness V What is righteousness 
 else than that what thou wiliest another should do for thee, thou shouldest 
 thyself first do, and exhort by thy example ] Let no one then decline the 
 Baptism of grace, since Christ declined not the Baptism of repentance." — 
 Ambr. Expos. Ev. sec. Luc. L. 2. 5 83, 90, 91. abridged by Aquin. Cat. Aur. 
 ad Matt. 
 
 fThis is a frequent topic with St. Augustine, in consequence of the Dona- 
 tist controversy, e, g. " He deigned to give authority to His own Baptism, 
 that the servants might know with what alacrity they should haste to the Bap- 
 tism of the Lord, when Himself disdained not to receive the Baptism of a 
 servant." — Aug. in Joh. Tr. 5. 5 3. " Needed the Lord to be baptized 1 I 
 answer, needed the Lord to be born ? needed the Lord to be crucified ? needed 
 the Lord to die 1 needed the Lord to be buiied ? If then He took on Him so 
 much lowliness for us, should He not Baptism also 1 And what profited it, 
 to receive the Baptism of the servant? that thou mayest not disdain to receive 
 the Baptism of the Lord." — Id. Tract. 4. 5 13. " The Lord came also to re- 
 commend humility in Baptism, to consecrate his own sacrament. For He so 
 received it, now adult, as, when an infant, circumcision. He received not the 
 wounds, but the medicines to sanction them." — Aug. Serm. 293. in Nat. Joh. 
 Bapt. 7. 5 12. " That if God received Baptism of man, no one should disdain 
 to receive it of a fellow servant." — Jerome in Matt. 
 
 I " The Lord was baptized then, not seeking to be cleansed, but to cleanse 
 the waters, that being washed by the Flesh of Christ, which knew no sin, they 
 might have the privilege of washing. And, therefore, doth he who cometh to 
 the laver of Christ, put away all sin." — Ambr. Exp. Ev. sec. Luc. L. ii. J 83. 
 " All water healeth not, but water healeth which hath the grace of Christ. 
 Water healeth not, unless the Spirit descend, and consecrate that water, as 
 thou hast read, that when our Lord Jesus Christ gave the form of Baptism, he 
 came to John, and — He answered — so it becometh us to fulfil all righteous- 
 ness.' Lo ! how all righteousness is deposited in Baptism. Why then did 
 Christ go down, save that that flesh might be cleansed, the flesh which He 
 took of our creation?" — Id. de Sacr. L. i. c. 5. 5 15, 16. " If Christ washed 
 Himself for us, yea washed us in His body, how much more ought we to wash 
 away our sins ! By what deed then, by what mystery, is He (although in all 
 God) more proved to be God than by this, when throughout the whole world, 
 where the creation of the human race is spread abroad, through the several 
 tracts of far distant countries, in one moment, in One Body, God destroyed 
 
222 
 
 wards communicate, one by one, to those who came to the Baptism 
 which He had thus consecrated. And again, " all righteousness" 
 may thereby have been " fulfilled" in it, in that an " everlasting 
 righteousness" was thereby brought in, and the element consecrated, 
 whereby the justifying efficacy of His meritorious Cross and Pas- 
 sion were to be conveyed to all believers. The one sense will not 
 exclude the other ; as of all our blessed Saviour's actions and w^ords, 
 it is to be believed that they have a manifold depth and meaning, of 
 which each application brings out but one portion ; these gifts are a 
 "precious stone," "whithersoever it turneth, itprospereth," 
 
 But however much may lie wrapt up in these words of our Lord, 
 it is obvious that this belief of the ancient Church, which our own 
 has so solemnly adopted, that by His " Baptism He sanctified water 
 to the mystical washing away of sin," was not derived from them. 
 It no way appears in them, or in any other passage of Holy Scrip- 
 ture ; whether really contained or no, it could not have been in the 
 first instance obtained from them. And yet it is taught positively 
 and unhesitatingly, not as a conjecture, but as a doctrine whereof 
 they were fully assured; not in the way only of eloquent or pious con- 
 trast between His Baptism and ours, but as a practical truth ; not in 
 order to account for the strangeness of His receiving Baptism at the 
 
 the evil of the primeval fall, poured forth the grace of the heavenly kingdom 1 
 For One went down, but raised up all ; One descended, that we might all as- 
 cend ; One took on Him the sins of all, that in Him the sins of all might die. 
 Purify yourselves, then, as saith the Apostle, for He purified Himself for us, 
 Who needed not purifying." — Ambr. Exp. Ev. sec. Luc. L. ii. { 91. "The 
 Lord came to Baptism ; for He was made all things for thee." — L. iv. 5 6. 
 " By the Baptism of Christ were we baptized, not we only, but the whole 
 world, and is baptized to the end." — Aug. Tr. 4. in Joh. 5 14. " If He could 
 be baptized on other grounds than all others, i. e. not on account of sinful flesh 
 which He had not, but on account of the likeness of sinful flesh, which He 
 had taken to free flesh from sin." — Id. lib. Imp. c. Juhan. iv. 63. " By being 
 baptized He is in correspondence with (congruit) the penitent, washing away 
 nothing to be repented of. For those things became the likeness of sinful 
 flesh, which sinful flesh needed." — lb. The whole human race was in Christ 
 Jesus, and, therefore, the body being taken as the organ of the Spirit, fulfilled 
 in itself every mystery of our salvation. He came then to John, born of a 
 woman, placed under the law, and through the Word made flesh. Himself 
 needed not that washing, for of Him it is said, ' He did no sin,' and where 
 there is no sin, there remission thereof is superfluous. But He had assumed 
 both the body and the name of our created being, and thus not He had any 
 need of cleansing, but by Him was the cleansing of our washing in water to 
 be sanctified. Lastly, John would fain forbid Him to be baptized, as God, 
 and so He teaches that, as man, it should take place in Him. For all righte- 
 ousness was to be fulfilled by Him, by Whom alone the law could be fulfilled. 
 And thus, both by the testimony of the prophet He needed not Baptism, and 
 by the example of His authority He perfects the mysteries of man's salvation, 
 sanctifying man both by taking him into Himself and by Baptism." — Hil. c. 2. 
 in Matt. 5 5. 
 
223 
 
 hands of His creature, but as doctrine relating to us, as a benefit 
 conveyed thereby to His Church, And we must feel that they were 
 herein superior to us, in that they so looked to every action of our 
 Lord, contemplated each with so much reverence, carried with them 
 every where the vivid consciousness that He whose actions or 
 words they were handling or beholding, was God. Hence they 
 were penetrated with awe and amazement, where moderns drily 
 find an abstract evidence of His Deity, but fall not down at His 
 footstool, who could so humble Himself for them, as, sinless Him- 
 self, to receive from His fallen creature the Baptism of sinners. — 
 The ancients dwelt also on the revelation of the Trinity therein, but 
 adored them for the work of mercy, in hallowing our Baptism, and 
 cleansing our defilements,* They humbled themselves at His feet, 
 and what modems regard almost as a thing of course, they felt to be 
 an exceeding mystery ; they were never weary of going over the 
 facts of this amazing condescension, contrasting His greatness with 
 our lowliness, and with His own voluntary lowliness in so stooping to 
 us who lay thus low. "The Lord," says St. Chrysostome,t "cometh 
 to be baptized with the slaves, the Judge with the criminals. But 
 be not troubled. For in these lowlinesses doth His greatness most 
 shine forth. For He who endured so long to be borne in the Vir- 
 gin's womb, and to issue thence with our nature, and to be bufieted, 
 to be crucified, and to suffer all the rest which He suffered, why 
 marvel that He endured to be baptized, and with the rest to come to 
 His slave ? For that was the amazing act, that being God he willed 
 to become man, but all the rest followed, as it were, in order." And 
 St. Augustine,! " John baptizeth Christ, the servant the Jjord, the 
 voice the Word, the creature the Creator, the shining light the sun, 
 but the Sun who made this sun, the Sun of whom it is written, 
 ' The Sun of Righteousness ariseth, and healing is in His wings.' 
 He so great would be baptized by one so low, in a word the Saviour 
 by him He was to save." Again, St, Hilary,^ " The Only-Begot- 
 ten God, the Remitter of sins, the Lord of the everlasting kingdom, 
 demands to be baptized as a sinner. The Baptist refused the office, 
 acknowledging Him rather as the Remitter of his sins. But He 
 fulfilled the righteousness of the man whom He had taken into 
 
 * E. g. Syriac Hymn. Apostolic Liturgy, Ass. i. 257. Severus, ii. 287. 
 " A fountain of life is opened, Baptism ; and the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Spirit by His mercy sanctified it. The Father by His voice, This is 
 My Beloved Son ; and the Son, Who bowed His Head, and was baptized 
 therein; and the Holy Ghost, who, in the form of a dove, lighted upon it. Ho- 
 ly Trinity, by Whom the worlds live, Halleluia, cleanse our defilements." 
 
 f Hom. xii. in Matt. init. 
 
 i Serm. 292. de Nat. Joh. Bapt. 6- ,H- 
 
 \ In Ps. 138. 5 6. The same characterruns through the hymns in the Syriac 
 liturgies. 
 
224 
 
 Himself, ill the sacrament of Baptism also, and, Himself knowing 
 no sin, refuses not to become partaker of our sin ; and taking all 
 the lowliness of our frail flesh upon Him, enters the Jordan, mixed 
 with the crowds of sinners." 
 
 And this awe at our Saviour's condescension was connected with 
 the appreciation of their own Baptism ; the vivid sense of it, as the 
 appointed " fountain for the cleansing of sin, and of uncleanness," 
 made it the more amazing that He should have submitted to it at the 
 hands of the sinners He came to cleanse. On the other hand, 
 their own Baptism became the more precious to them, because He 
 had not only instituted, but consecrated it by Himself receiving it. 
 They viewed their own Baptism in the light shed on it by their Sa' 
 viour's ; felt assured of its greatness, because He also had received 
 Baptism, and they were therein partakers with Him ; doubted not 
 that the very element had, by its contact with Him in this His con- 
 descension, received a degree of sanctity and fitness to be a vehicle 
 of spiritual gifts ; believed that the Holy Ghost descended therein 
 upon themselves and their children, because He therein " descend- 
 ed* upon the Son of God, become the Son of man, accustoming 
 Himself in Him to dwell in the human race, and to abide in man, 
 and to dwell in the work of God, working the will of the Father in 
 them, and renewing them from their decay to the newness of 
 Christ." " Thef voice spake from heaven, that from the things re- 
 alized in Christ we might know that after the washing in water, 
 the Holy Spirit lights upon us also, that we are bedewed with the 
 anointing of heavenly glory, and by the adoption of the voice of the 
 Father become sons of God, since the Truth thus, in the very 
 things wrought as to Him, formed beforehand an image of the mys- 
 tery ordained for us." They believed the rather that they were then 
 made sons of God, because he was then declared to be the well-be- 
 loved Son of God. And thus were we indeed brought near to Christ, 
 bathed in the same element, visited by the same Spirit which dwelt 
 in Him, and which He received for us, made sons in Him, whose 
 
 *Iren. 3. 17. 1. In like vi^ay St. Augustine : — "It w^ere most absurd to 
 think, that when thirty years old He had not received the Holy Spirit. But 
 He came to Baptism, as without sin, so not without the Holy Spirit. For if 
 it is written of John, ' he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's 
 womb,' what must we believe of the man Christ, whose very earthly concep- 
 tion was not carnal but spiritual ! So that He prefigured His body, i. e. the 
 Church, in which the baptized especially receive the Holy Spirit." (De 
 Trin. xv. \ 46. abridged by Aquinas) and Jerome ad loc. " On three grounds 
 did the Saviour receive Baptism from John. First. That since He was born 
 as man, He might fulfil all the righteousness and humility of the law. Second' 
 ly. That by His Baptism He might ratify the Baptism of John. Thirdly, 
 That sanctifying the waters of Jordan, by the descent of the Dove, He might 
 set forth the coming of the Holy Spirit in the laver of believers." 
 
 t Hil. c. 2. inMatt. 5 6. 
 
225 
 
 eternal Sonship was then set forth, whose human nature was, per- 
 haps, then visibly taken as the Son of God ;* and the heavens, so 
 long closed by Adam's transgression, were indeed in Him opened to 
 us and all believers, " Thent the heavens were opened, and the 
 Spirit descended. For He transplants us from our old life to the 
 new, having both opened the doors above to us, and sending the 
 Spirit thence, calling us to our country there, and not simply calling, 
 but also with the highest dignity. For He made us not angels and 
 archangels, but having constituted us sons of God and beloved, so 
 doth He draw us to that inheritance." They saw herein not mere 
 types, images, interesting and beautiful resemblances and approxi- 
 mations, but a mutual relation between our Lord's Baptism and 
 ours, so that the rites of ours were formed upon His,| were a re- 
 flection of it ; His received the gifts, which were bestowed upon 
 ours, and was to us the pledge and first channel of those gifts. " To 
 wash^ away His own sins was not needed for Christ, who did no sin, 
 but for us it was needed, who abide .liable to sin. If then He re- 
 ceived Baptism for us, a form is set forth for us, and is proposed to 
 our faith. Christ descended ; John, who baptized, stood by, and 
 lo ! the Holy Spirit descended, as it were a dove. Christ descend- 
 ed, the Holy Spirit also descended. Why did Christ first descend, 
 the Holy Spirit afterwards, whereas the form and rite of Baptism is 
 so ordered, that the font is first consecrated, and then he who is to 
 be baptized descends therein ? For the priest, as soon as he enters, 
 makes the exorcism upon the creature, water, afterwards offers the 
 invocation and prayer, that the font may be sanctified, and there 
 may come down the Presence of the Eternal Trinity ; but Christ 
 
 * " He Who was born man of the Virgin, was then also the Son of God, but 
 He who is the Son of Man was also the Son of God. But He was again born 
 of Baptism, and then was He the Son of God, so as to be born to be the very 
 same, and yet another. But it is written, when He had gone up out of the 
 water, ' Thou art My Son, This day have I begotten Thee.' But in confor- 
 mity to the generation of man when re-born. Himself also there was re-born 
 to be perfectly a Son, that as He had taken upon Him to be son of man, so 
 to become in Baptism the Son of God." — Hil. in Ps. 2. 5 29. 
 
 t St. Chrys. in Matt. Hom. xii. and again, — " Why were the heavens open- 
 ed 1 that thou mayst know that this takes place also when thou art baptized^ 
 God calling thee to the country above, and persuading thee to have nothing to 
 do with the earth. But if thou seest it not, be not therefore unbelieving ; for 
 in the beginnings of amazing and spiritual things there are always exhibited 
 sensible sights, and such signs, for their sakes who cannot entertain any 
 conception of an incorporeal nature, that, if they do not take place afterwards, 
 men may believe from those things which were done once." So Bede in Marc, 
 ad loc. " That Christ saw the heavens opened after Baptism was done for 
 our sake, to whom the gate of the kingdom of heaven is opened by the bath 
 of the regenerating water." 
 
 % " Cluist was baptized in Jordan, when He instituted the form of saving 
 Baptism." — Ambr. de interpell. David, c. 4. { 14. 
 
 § Ambr. de Sacram. L. 1. c. 5. } 16 — 19. 
 VOL. II. 8 
 
226 
 
 first descended, then followed the Spirit. Why ? That it might 
 not seem as though the Lord Jesus Himself needed the mystery of 
 sanctification, but Himself sanctified, the Spirit also sanctified. — ■ 
 Christ then descended into the water ; the Holy Spirit also descend- 
 ed, as it were, a dove. God the Father also spake from heaven. 
 Thou hast the presence of the Trinity," 
 
 The feelings of the universal Church are again attested by its 
 liturgies; every baptismal hturgy of the ancient Church adverts to 
 the Baptism of our Lord, as their title and plea for praying that the 
 water might be consecrated " to the mystical washing away of sin," 
 i. e. they plead this to the Father, as they plead His Institution for 
 the consecration of the sacred elements in His other Sacrament; other 
 points they dwell upon more or less according to their relative ful- 
 ness. His holiness, His condescension, the awfulness of man baptiz- 
 ing Him who is His God, His Deity, His Incarnation, the Voice of 
 the Father, the descent of the Holy Ghost, the opening of the hea- 
 vens, the adoration of the Church, her sanctification, the image of our 
 Baptism, its consecration, the pledge of our Resurrection, our son- 
 ship to the Father, the Presence of the Trinity. She seems to 
 linger by her Saviour's Baptism, to revolve it again and again, un- 
 willing to be parted from the gracious act, so full of mystery on every 
 side, of ineffable condescension, and consolation.* 
 
 * LATIN.l 
 
 Gelasjus (Ass. ii. 4,) probably Gregorian (ib. 8,) Roman (33,) Chelle, &c. 53. sqq. 
 
 Consecration. 
 •' I bless thee through Jesus Christ, His Son our LorJ, Who was baptized in thee by 
 John in Jordan." 
 
 1 The Roman Baptismal Liturgy is altogether much briefer than the Eastern ; what 
 is wanting to it in fulness on this subject is however supplied by the service for the 
 Epiphanj . 
 
 Hymn. — " The heavenly Lamb touched the waters of the pure stream ; the sins, 
 which He brought not, by washing us He removed. R. To-day to the Lord baptized 
 in Jordan were the heavens opened, and, as a dove, the Spirit abode upon Him, and the 
 voice of the Father thundered, ' This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased, 
 V. The Holy Spirit in a bodily shape like a dove, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, 
 and there was a voice from heaven, 'This, &c.' 
 
 R. " In the form of a dove the Holy Spirit was seen, the voice of the Father was 
 heard, ' This, &c.' V. The heavens were opened over Him, and the voice of the Fa- 
 ther thundered, ' This, &c.' 
 
 Antiph. — " To-day the Church was united to the Heavenly Bridegroom, because in 
 Jordan Christ washed away her sins ; the magi haste with gifts to the royal nuptials, 
 and the guests are gladdened by wine made from water. Alleluia." 
 
 Another. — " We reverence the holy day honored with three miracles : to-day the star 
 led the magi to the manger ; today wine was made from water for the nuptials ; to-day 
 Christ willed to be baptized by John in Jordan, that He might save us. Allel." 
 
 Lesson from S. Maximus. — "They tell, that Christ our Lord was to-day worshipped 
 by the Gentiles, the star guiding, and invited to the nuptials, turned the water into wine, 
 and receiving Baptism of John, sanctified the streams of Jordan, and at the same time 
 
227 
 
 GOTHIC. 
 
 ii. 34. 35. 
 
 " O God, Who sanctifiedst the font of Jordan for the salvation of souls. — Thou, Who 
 ihrough the condescension of Christ, Thy Son, sanctifiest the streams of Jordan, Sanc- 
 tify, O Lord ! the waters of this fountain, that they who descend therein, in the Name 
 tjf the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, may be thought worthy to obtain for- 
 giveness o[ sins, and the infusion of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 GREEK. 
 
 Intercessory Prayer. 
 
 ii. 132. 
 
 '* That this water may be sanctified by the power, and operation, and coming of the 
 Holy Spirit, pray we the Lord. That there be sent down into it, the grace of redemp- 
 tion, the blessmg of Jordan." 
 
 Consecration. 
 if. 136, 7. and abridged, 148. 
 
 " Thou art our God, wert seen on earth, and wentest about among men. Thou didst 
 doth sanctify the waters of Jordan, having sent down Thy Holy Spirit from heaven, and 
 didst ' break in pieces the heads of the dragons' which lurked there. Be present then 
 now Thyself, merciful King, by the commg of Thy Holy Spirit, and bless this water ; 
 (Thrice) and give it the grace of redemption, the blessing of Jordan. Make it a fount of 
 immortality, gift of sanctiiication, &c." 
 
 ARMENIAN, 
 
 Intercessory Prayer. 
 
 ii. 197. 
 
 " That this present water may, by the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, be sanctified, 
 pray we the Lord. That it may receive the blessings of the Jordan, [' through the grace 
 of the Only Begotten, pray we,' &c. 206.] and be to the health of body and soul, pray 
 we the Lord," 
 
 Consecration. 
 ii. 199. 
 
 '* Send forth, we pray Thee, Lord, Thy Holy Spirit into this water, and sanctify it, 
 as Thou sanctifiedst the Jordan, descending into it, most clean from sins, O Lord Jesus 
 Christ, to consecrate this fount of Baptism for all men." 
 
 purified his baptizer. We must believe, that whatever took place, took place for us. — 
 For in that the Lamb of God was baptized, the saving gift of regenerating Baptism was 
 consecrated for us." 
 
 from S. Gregory, of Nazianzum. — " Christ is Baptized, let us also descend 
 
 with Him, that with Him we may likewise ascend. John baptizeth, and Christ ap- 
 proacheth, sanctifying him also who baptizeth, but chiefly to bury the old Adam in the 
 waters, and above all, that thereby the waters of Jordan might be sanctified, that as he- 
 was Spirit and flesh, so on those, hereafter to be baptized, sanctification in ' water and 
 the Spirit' might be successively bestowed. The Baptist declines : Jesus urges ; ' I,' 
 saith He, ' hath need to be baptized of Thee." The burning light speaketh to the Sun, 
 and the voice to the Word," 
 
2^8 
 
 Another Jorm. 
 
 ii. 207. 
 
 " We beseech Thy immense loving-kindness, look upon Thy creatures, and this water, 
 and send Thy gifts and blessing, as Thou sentest upon Jordan, the great, mighty, health' 
 ful salvation, and the most gracious might of Thy cross." 
 
 COPTIC; 
 
 Consecration. 
 
 ii. 166. 
 
 " Since Thy Only-Begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, Who descending into Jordan, 
 cleansed its streams, dec." 
 
 Hymn. 
 ii. 167 and 180. 
 
 " Lo ! John Baptist bare witness, saying, I indeed baptized my Saviour in the wat era 
 of Jordan, and heard the voice of the Father, saying, This is My Beloved Son, in Wh om 
 I am well pleased ; Wh® hath fulfilled all My will ; hear Him, for He is the Giver of 
 life. 
 
 " Thou, Who wert baptized in the water of the river Jordan, forgive our sins." 
 
 168. 
 
 " Now then, Our Lord, Lord of hosts. King of the armies of heaven, look down, 
 ' Thou that sittest above the cherubim, show Thyself,' and behold this water Thy crea- 
 ture, and give it the grace of the Jordan, and power and heavenly strength, and by Thy 
 Holy Spirit descending upon it, give it the blessing of the Jordan, Amen : Give it strength 
 to become a life-giving water, Amen : a sanctifying water, Amen, &c." 
 
 SYRIAC. 
 
 'Apostolic, i. 262. by Severus, ii. 268. 
 " God, Who through His love became man, needing not to come to Baptism, but that 
 He might sanctify the waters of Jordan by His mercy — Son of Majesty, Who of his own 
 will, in His mercy, bowed His head before the hands of the Baptist, and the Father, 
 Who from above spake, ' This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased ;' and 
 the Holy Spirit in bodily shape as of a dove, descended and abode on His head. Do 
 Thou, Lord, as by Thy Baptism Thou clothedst us with the robe of glory, and the im- 
 press of the Holy and life-giving Spirit — " 
 
 [" by His Baptism from the waters of Jordan sanctify us," ii. 268.] 
 
 Consecration of Font. 
 
 Antioch and Jerus. ii. 218 & 228. 
 
 " Thou by Thy might settest fast the sea ; Thou bruisedst the heads of the dragons 
 
 upon the waters ; Thou art terrible ; who shall resist Thee 1 Behold Thou these waters. 
 
 Thy creature, and give them the grace of redemption t, the blessing of Jordan t , the 
 
 sanctification of the Spirit." 
 
 lb. ii. 223 & 232. 
 " Thou Who upon Thy Only-Begotten Son, God and the Word, Who on earth ful- 
 filled the dispensation of Baptism, sentest thy Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove, and 
 sanctifiedst the streams of Jordan." 
 
 Jerusalem, ii. 226, 7. 258. Apostolic by Severus, 290. 
 " Thou gavest us a fount of true cleansing, which cleanseth us from all sin, the waters 
 
229 
 
 which are sanctified by the invocation of Thy Holy Spirit, whereby we receive that 
 cleansing which was given us by the Baptism of Thy Christ." 
 
 Apostolic by Severus, ii. 291. 
 Invocation of Holy Spirii. 
 " How awful is this hour, how fearful this time, beloved, wherein the living and Holy 
 Spirit moveth, and descendeth, and broodeth, and abideth upon the waters, and sancti- 
 fieth them, as the streams of Jordan were sanctified." 
 
 lb. ii. 295. 
 
 " Thou, Who upon Thy Only-Begotten Son, God the Word, Who made on earth the 
 ordinance of Baptism, sentest Thy Holy Spirit," &c. 
 
 lb. ii. 302, 
 
 " O good God, lover of mankind, merciful Lord, abundant in mercy and compassion, 
 Who sanctifiedst by Thy descent the waters of Jordan, and by the coming of Thy Holy 
 Spirit." 
 
 Maronite, James of Sarug. ii. 314. 
 
 " Thou, Who didst dawn from the Father, and openedst to us Baptism, Thou Most 
 High, Who earnest down, and consecratedst water by Thy Baptism. 
 
 " In the heaven Thy glory thundereth from the angels, sons of fire ; and the sons of 
 men on earth rejoice in the day of Thy Baptism." 
 
 lb. ii. 316. 
 
 " What is that which of water beareth servants, who descend therein old men, and 
 become again little children ; which remitteth debts, and forgiveth sins ; which maketh 
 men sons of God T It is the Baptism of truth ; which John preached, and Christ went 
 down and was baptized therein for the forgiveness of the world. Halleluia. Forgive us, 
 O Lord." 
 
 lb. ii. 328, 9. 
 
 " Glory to Thee, our Lord, Who becamest our Shepherd, and gatheredst us, wert 
 baptized and cleansedst us. Thy mercies, our Lord, inclined Thee, Thy goodness 
 constrained Thee, to be clad in our flesh, and baptized by John in Jordan, and sanctify 
 to us this holy Baptism by Thy holy Baptism. Pray we the Lord, Who came from the 
 highest heavens, that He might remit the debt of the sons of Adam by the holy Baptism 
 of the Glorious Deity." 
 
 lb. ii. 338. 
 
 " Wholly He abode with Thee, and wholly He came to us. And having no need, and 
 no deficiency. He was baptized in the river Jordan, and sanctified to us this womb of 
 Baptism." 
 
 Malabar. 
 
 i. 178. 
 
 " But the holy first fruits, which he took of our race, He brought to Baptism in the 
 
 river Jordan by John the preacher ; and as in an image. He depicted and showed tous 
 
 in His holy Baptism, the true Resurrection and renewal which shall in deed be given to 
 
 us at the end of this world." 
 
 i. 188. 
 ** The Friend of the Bridegroom, seeing amid the crowds the Living Lamb coming to 
 
530 
 
 be baptized, exclaimed with awe, ' I have need to be baptized of Thee.' And the crowds 
 with fear gazed on the living mystery of Baptism." 
 
 i. 192. 
 
 "Thy Baptism in water sanctified our souls, and announced our resurrection. The 
 spiritual with John stood with great astonishment. He who sanctifies the people with 
 His Baptism, Himself received Baptism from His servant that He might redeem the 
 human race." 
 
 Antioch revised, i. 226. Apostolic by Severus, ii. 286. 
 
 Hymn. 
 
 "John mingled the waters of Baptism, and Christ sanctified them, and descended, 
 
 aid was baptized in them. When He ascended out of the waters, heaven and earth paid 
 
 Him reverence. The sun bowed his rays, and worshipped before Him, Who hallowed 
 
 all streams and fountains. Hallel. Hallel." 
 
 Apostolic by James of Edessa, i. 241. 3. 
 Part of Hymn. 
 " Then the Bridegroom revealed Hrmself, and descended to John to the river ; the 
 herald feared, and said to the bride, ' This is He in Whom I bid thee trust.' ' Son of 
 the Father, why should I baptize Thee, Who art in Thy Father, and Thy Father in 
 Thee ? Thou givest to priests holy things, and why askest Thou for mere water 1' — 
 ' The sons of Adam look to Me, that by Me they may become new sons. O son of 
 the barren, baptize me ; therefore came I into the world.' ' High Priests are sanctified 
 by Thee, and Priests by Thee obtain pardon ; Thou makest Christs and kings ; and 
 what should Baptism profit TheeV The bride, whom I have betrothed, awaiteth 
 Me, that I should descend, be baptized and sanctify her. Friend of the Bridegroom, 
 excuse not thyself from the appointed bath.' ' I, a poor man, cannot hold fire in my 
 hands. Behold Thy legions are flames of fire ; bid one of the watchers that they baptize 
 Thee.'" 
 
 lb. i. 246. 
 Part of Hymn. 
 » " I heard the voice of John saying to the Jordan, * Cleanse thyself, and wash away 
 the defilement which is in thee, for the Lord of heaven and earth is come to be baptized. 
 Halleluia. And to sanctify all.' Lamb of God, who earnest to John, and by Thy Bap- 
 tism sanctifiedst waters, make Thv peace and Thy repose to dwell in the four quarters 
 of the world, and keep thy Church and her sons, Halleluia, from ill." 
 
 lb. i. 259, 60. 
 Part of Hymn. 
 
 " Thou Who by Thy Baptism sanctifiedst Baptism to us, which cleanseth us from all 
 filth of sin, God have mercy on us. 
 
 " Thou Who by Thy Baptism rejoicedst heaven and earth, gladden Thy Church,, and 
 keep her sons by Thy Cross. God, &c. 
 
 "Thou Who by Thy Baptism sanctifiedst Baptism, the mother which beareth new 
 sons for the kingdom. God, &c. 
 
 " Thou Whom the Church saw, as Thou wert baptized and ascendest out of the wa- 
 ters, and adored and said, ' Blessed be He who sent Thee.' God, &c. 
 
 " Thou W^ho wert baptized and ascendedst out of the waters, Creator of all creatures, 
 and the Father spake aloud, ' This is My Beloved Son.' God, &c. 
 
 " Thou Who humblest Thyself through Thy love, and wert baptized by the hands of 
 Thy servant, and redeemedst our race from the slavery of sin. God, «&c. 
 
 " Church, sing glory this day to the Son of the Kings, Who went down and was 
 baptized of John in Jordan. God, &c." 
 
231 
 
 lb. i. 264. 
 
 Part of Hymn. 
 
 " The Church saw Christ in the river Jordan, and fell down and worshipped Him, 
 and said unto Him, ' Blessed be He Who sent Thee, Heavenly Bridegroom, Who 
 hast clothed us with the robe of glory, which the Spirit wove in Baptism.' " 
 
 lb. i. 265. 
 Psalm. 
 
 " Glory to Him Who liveth, M''ho was baptized in Jordan, and clothed u» with His 
 glory and sanctified us with His Baptism. 
 
 " The voice of the Lord, Who was baptized in Jordan ; the Lord is on many waters, 
 Who sanctified us by His Baptism. 
 
 " Blessed be He, who gave us waters for atonement, through Baptism, sanctifying the 
 Jjenitenl." 
 
 •Hymn. 
 Antioch and Jerus. ii. 215. 
 
 " Good was our Saviour's word which He spake to John, ' Place thy right hand on 
 My head and baptize Me.' John feared and shrunk back, seeing the river burning with 
 a flame of fire abiding in it, and held back his hand trembling, and cried aloud, ' I have 
 need, Lord, to be baptized of Thee ;' and He said to him, 'Suffer now, and fulfil all right- 
 eousness.' Come, place thy hand, and I am baptized. And with the voice of the 
 Father from above, the Holy Spirit descended from on high, Halleluia, and rested on 
 His head. 
 
 " Good was the word of John which he spake to Christ, ' I fear. Lord, to approach to 
 Thee. I am chaff, 1 dare not hold flame in my hands. If I approach, Lord, I burn. Lo! 
 the waters are still and hushed.' 'Place thy hand upon My head and be still,' Halleluia, 
 ' and I am baptized.' " 
 
 Jerus. ii. 244, 5. 
 
 " The watchers above feared and were amazed, what time the Lord aproached to be 
 baptized of His servant. God have mercy upon us. 
 
 " The servant said to his Lord ; 1 have need, O our Sariour, to be baptized of Thee, 
 for Thou art He who atonest for sinners. God, &c. 
 
 " The Lord said to His servant, Suffer now, John, for thus it becometh us to fulfil 
 all righteousness. God, &c. 
 
 " The Creator of all creatures was baptized, and ascended out of the waters, and the 
 Father spake, This is My Son, This is My Beloved. God, &c. 
 
 " The Holy Spirit, in the likeness of a dove, flew, lighted upon His head, and the 
 crowds knew the Only-begotten, Whose Son He was. God, &c. 
 
 " Blessed be He, Who for His love humbled Himself, and was baptized by the hands 
 of His servant, and redeemed our race, and took it up with Himself lo heaven. God, &c. 
 
 " The highest heavens gave a sound, when our Lord was baptized, and the Seraphim 
 flapped their wings. God, &c. 
 
 " Who would not be amazed, seeing vile dust touch fire, and baptize It in the waters 
 of the stream 1 God, &c. 
 
 " Glory to Thee, our Lord, Who wert baptized, and by Thy Baptism redeemedst the 
 Church, and her sons, and freedst it from error. God, &c." 
 
 Jerusalem, ii. 247. 
 
 '' Relate to us, O John, that awful sight, which thou sawest over the waters of Jor- 
 dan." "I saw the Holy Spirit standing above His head, and the Father proclaiming, 
 ' This is My Son,' Halleluia." Blessed be He, who consecrated expiating Baptism for 
 the sons of men ! 
 
 " The awful hosts of the seraphim, who cry Holy to Thy Godhead, wondered at Thy 
 
232 
 
 Baptism, Lord of all, Who for Thy lovo humblest Thyself to Baptism, and sanctifiedst 
 water to the remission of debis, Halleluia. Glory to Thee, and to Him who sent Thee, 
 Jesus, Saviour of the world ! 
 
 "The lofty watchers called John blessed, Who so sufficed [to this office] For the 
 awful lightning was baptized by him. and he put his hand upon the flame, and feared not 
 Its might. Glory be to the Might Which strengthened Him ! Halleluia. Blessed be 
 He Who sanctified us by His Baptism, Jesus, Saviour of the world ! 
 
 " Blessed be He, Who bowed His Majesty, and was baptized by the hands of His ser- 
 vant, and typified to us in His Baptism the mystery of His Death and Resurrection, and 
 made us meet for Baptism, and to be sons of the Father I Halleluia. Blessed be He 
 Who cleansed hs by His Baptism, Jesus, Saviour of the world !" 
 
 ii. 256. 
 
 " The voice of the Lord on the waters, Halleluia. Our Lord approached to John to 
 be baptized of him, and sanctify Baptism for repentant sinners. John saw Him, and 
 thus spake, ' I have need to be baptized of Thee, and Thou the great High Priest, how 
 comest Thou to Baptism ?' And He said, ' suffer now, that righteousness may be ful- 
 filled.' Halleluia, Sanctify the baptized. 
 
 " Thou gavest gifts to men, Halleluia. The Son of God was washed, and ascended 
 from the waters, and the heavens and heaven of heavens opened to honor Him. The 
 Father spake aloud, This is My Beloved Son, and the Spirit descended, and abode up- 
 on His head ; and the holy angels, clothed in light, cried aloud. Holy, Holy, Holy, art 
 Thou Lord, receive our supplication. 
 
 " The holy Church was invited by John, and adorned with repentance, and stood by 
 Jordan. She heard the Father proclaim, ' This is My Son,' and she saw the Son Bap- 
 tized by His servant, and the Holy Ghost in the likeness of a dove rest upon His head, 
 and she believed in the Triune mystery, whereby the world stands. Halleluia, forgive 
 us our trespasses." 
 
 Apostolic by Severus, ri. 263, 5. 
 
 "He, who by His Baptism, sanctified to us Baptism, which cleanseth us from defile- 
 ment of sins. God have mercv upon us. 
 
 " By Thy holy Baptism, by Thy descent into the waters fhou turnedst the people from 
 the eiror of idols. God, &c. 
 
 " The Father above spake aloud, and John on the earth proclaims, 'This is the Lamb, 
 this is the living Son of God.' God, &c. 
 
 "Thou, Who in the river Jordan wert baptized by John, wash us from the filth of our 
 sins. God,&c. 
 
 "To Thee, Lord, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit in the likeness of s 
 dove, flew, lighted, dwelt, abode on Thy head. God, &c. 
 
 " Thou art Christ our Lord, Who in the form of one in need, wert baptized for us. 
 Free us. Lord, from the error of idols. God, &c. 
 
 " Adam, who was corrupted. He formed anew in the streams of Jordan. (Broken was 
 the head of the cunning dragon, who lay wait in the waters.) He, Who took flesh of the 
 virgin ; for glorious is He." 
 
 ii. 269—71. 
 
 " I heard the voice of John, saying to the Jordan, purify thyself, and wash away the 
 defilement in thee, for the Lord of earth and heaven cometh to be baptized, Halleluia, 
 and to sanctify all. 
 
 " The Church laid hold on John amid the crowds, and said to him, ' Thou art the 
 Bridegroom.' And he said to her, ' After me cometh He, and before me is He, and I 
 prepare the way before Him. 
 
 " Lamb of God, who earnest to John, and sanctifiedst waters by Thy Baptism, make 
 Thy peace and quiet to rest upon the holy Church, and keep her sons by Thy Cross, 
 Halleluia, from harm." 
 
233 
 
 Water and Blood from the Redeemer's side. 
 
 ' The other solemn event, the issuing of water and blood from His 
 sacred side, has more obscurity, as neither being explained in Holy- 
 Scripture, nor being visibly connected with any other act. Moderns 
 have contented themselves with finding in it, against the unbeliever, 
 a proof of His actual death. This is very doubtful.* The ancients 
 alleged it as a proof of the reality of His human flesh, against the 
 unbehevers, who denied the truth of His Incarnation.! This is in- 
 deed proved by the issuing of the Blood, but does not account for 
 the mention of the water,| upon which the beloved disciple dwells, 
 with equal solemnity in his threefold affirmation of its truth, and to 
 which he recurs in his first epistle. The place also which it occu- 
 pies, at the awful moment, when man's redemption was just accom- 
 plished, the very fact that water as well as Blood did issue from 
 His sacred side, (which was probably something preternatural, §) 
 and the solemnity of Scripture in speaking of it, seem to claim fur- 
 ther meaning for it ; and imply that there was a treasure laid up for 
 the affections of the Church to dwell upon, not simply an evidence 
 against a short-lived race of heretics. || One should think that what 
 then took place must be of perpetual importance, a bequest to the 
 Church during her whole existence. And herein the Ancient 
 Church was agreed, however, in the absence of any certain com- 
 mnet, there may have been variations as to the details. Nor again 
 
 * See Dr. Burton, Bampton Lectures, Lect. 6. p. 172, and note 70 and 71, 
 and Ritter de aqua ex Christi Latere profluente. Thes. Theol. Phil, in Cri- 
 tici S. 
 
 t Iren. 3. 2. 2. p. 219. 4. 33. (al. 37.) 2. p. 371. Novatian. c. 10. Orig. in Ep. 
 ad Gal. T. iv. p. 691. Athanas. c. Apoll. 1. 18. p. 937. ap. Waterland's Im- 
 portance of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Works, 5. p. 191, or Dr. Burton, 
 1. c. p. 471. Leo Ep. quoted by Ritter, 5 56. Testim. de Adv. dom. ap. Greg. 
 Nyss. T. 2. p. 161. 
 
 X Accordingly Dr. Burton, who supposes this to be the sole object of the 
 narrative, omits, in his application, all notice of it. lb. p. 173. 
 
 ^ Such was the opinion of Hippolytus de 2. latronibus, vol. i. p. 181. Orig. 
 c. Gels. ii. 36. p. 416. Auct. de dupl. Martyr, ap. Cypr. Op. p. cclvii. quoted 
 by Dr. Burton,!, c. note 70, p, 469, 70. add also Ambrose, L. x. in Luc. 5 135. 
 quoted by Quenstedt de vuln. Christi, ib. iv. 1 ; see below. Prudentius ap. 
 Basnage, Euthymius, and Theophylact, ad loc. Photii Amphiloch. ad calc. 
 Wolf. Curae ad Epp. Cath. Auct. row Xoiordf Triaxf^n ap. Greg. Naz. Elias Cre- 
 tens. in Comm. Orat. Naz. de Sp. S. quoted by Ritter. The first who ques- 
 tioned the received belief appears here again to have been Calvin, see Ritter, 
 $ 30. Quenstedt, iv. 1. The Lutherans retained the belief of the ancient 
 Church. Ib. and some even of the Reformed, as Basnage, Annal. A. D. 33. 
 5 126. 
 
 II S. Chrys. ad loc, I observe, so unites these objects. " The Evangelist, 
 closing the mouths oflieretics, and announcing beforehand the future mysteries, 
 and contemplating the treasure laid up therein, relates minutely what took 
 place.". 
 
234 
 
 is it necessary that this mystery should have one meaning only ; 
 nay, it is more probable that it should have many ;* and meanings, 
 
 * Thus St. Cyril of Jerusalem having given several meanings, Lect. xiii. 21. 
 adds, 5 22. " VVhoever will enquire, will find other reasons also." Moderns, 
 omitting to notice this, have much confused the interpretations of the Fathers. 
 Thus even Card. Bellarmine, in order to elude the argument hence drawn, for 
 the superiority of the two sacraments, opposes to this, which he admits to be 
 the " exposition of almost all the Greeks," other explanations, which he thinks 
 to be at variance with it, as that found in S. Cyril of Jerus. Lect. iii. 10. and S. 
 Jerome, Ep. 69- ad Ocean. 5 6. T. i. p. 418. of the two baptisms, one in blood, 
 i. e. martyrdom, the other in water ; as also that in Ambrose, Leo, Augustine, 
 and Bede, which regards the blood as a symbol of the Redemption. Yet these, 
 so far from being at variance, are frequently found in the same writer. Thus 
 Turtullian, who in his de Pudicit. c. 22. p. 575. gives the exposition of the two 
 baptisms, in the de Baptism. 16. p. 230. blends all three. These two baptisms 
 He put forth from the wound of His pierced side, in order that they who be- 
 lieved in His blood should be washed with water ; and that they who were 
 washed with water, should also drink His blood." And in this he is partly 
 followed by the author of the de rebaptismate ap. Cypr. 0pp. p. 364. who 
 chiefly dwelling on the two baptisms, (as being severally efficacious) uses the 
 words, " that whoso believing should drink of both streams, should be filled 
 with the Holy Spirit," which seems to include both Sacraments. And Euthy- 
 mius, ad loc. expressly gives both these explanations. In like way, S. Am- 
 brose, in the place alleged by Bellarmine, explains indeed the " Blood" of the 
 price of our redemption, but blends with it with the allusion to the Holy Eucha- 
 rist (L. X. in Luc. 5 135 ) " For water and blood issued ; the one to cleanse, the 
 other to redeem. Drink we then our ransom, that by drinking we may be re- 
 deemed ;" for so speaks S. Augustine of the Holy Eucharist, ' I eat, drink, 
 dispense my ransom" (Conf. x. fin.) calling it also "the sacrament of our ran- 
 som." (lb. ix. ult.) The word is the same which he uses on this very subject. 
 Serm. v. de lucta Jacob, T. 5. p. 30. " There gushed forth blood and water. 
 Behold thy ransom (pretium.) For what gushed from the side but the sacra- 
 ment, which the faithful receive V (In the sequel of the passage he speaks 
 also of Baptism.) The reception of the Holy Eucharist is the communication 
 of our Redemption. So then he also refers, and that chiefly to the two sacra- 
 ments. This language of St. Ambrose may show that the de Pass, et Cruce 
 Dom. 5 25. ap. Athanas. T. ii. p. 101. "redemption by His blood, and purifi- 
 cation by the water," refers equally to the two sacraments. So again they 
 are alluded to in the dupl. Mart. I.e., water being said to be poured forth, 
 " that we might be washed ;" the blood, " that we might be strengthened ;" 
 the " strengthening" plainly applying to the Holy Eucharist. St. Augustine 
 again in the place alleged by Bellarmine, exactly agrees with St. Ambrose, 
 adding only the reference to the mingling of the water with the wine in the 
 Holy Eucharist. A door of life was then, in a manner, opened, whence the 
 sacraments of the Church flowed, without which is no entrance to the life, 
 which is the true life. That blood was shed for the remission of sins ; that 
 water tempers the cup of salvation ; it supplies both the laver and the cup." 
 — Tract, ex. in Joh. J 2. Elsewhere he speaks only of " the sacraments of the 
 Church flowing from His pierced side." — lb. Tract, ix. J 10. xv. 5 8. de Civ. 
 Dei, XV. 26. xxii. 17. c. Faust, xii. 39. and of Baptism only, c. Faust, xii. 16. 
 against the Manichees who derided it ; as on the other hand, (an authority 
 which Romanists will admit,) the Friday prayer in the Prneparatio ad missam. 
 at the end of the Breviary, and the last collect but one after the communion, 
 give the application to the other Sacrament only ; and so indeed St. Augus- 
 
235 
 
 apparently different, meet again in one. Ami3 this partial variation 
 also, it is the more remarkable, that the reference to Baptism, pre- 
 
 tine himself, c Faust, xii. 21. Bede ad loc. is but an extract from St. Augus- 
 tine, whom he probably also follows in 1 Joh. v. 6. where he combines the 
 doctrine of the Passion with the two sacraments. S. Leo also, in his epistle to 
 Flavianus against Eutyches (Ep. 28. al. 24.) explains it of the two sacraments, 
 " let him consider what Nature it was, which, transfixed with nails, hung upon 
 the Cross, and when the side of the Crucified was opened by the soldier's 
 lance, let him understand whence flowed the blood and water, that the Church 
 of God might be refreshed with the laver and the cup." Yet a few lines after 
 in applying 1 Joh. v. 7. he speaks in the same way as S. Ambrose of the Spirit 
 of sanctification, and the blood of redemption, and the water of Baptism ;" 
 and combines both with the proof of His real humanity, " which three are one, 
 and remain inseparable, and no one of them is severed from their conjunction ; 
 since the Catholic Church lives and grows upon this faith, that neither should 
 His manhood be believed apart from the true Godhead, nor the Godhead apart 
 from the true manhood." In another epistle (16. c 6.) [Ep. 4. ap. Bellarm.] 
 where he had occasion only to speak of Baptism, he says, " He then conse- 
 crated the power of regeneration, when there flowed from His side the blood 
 of redemption and the water of Baptism," without indicating whether he al- 
 luded to Baptism only, as applying the virtue of that blood, or to both sacra- 
 ments. In like way our own liturgy, together with that of Gelasius (Ass. ii. 
 4.,) Gregory and the modern Roman (ib. 33.) rehearses the fact, without de- 
 termining what the application of the blood is, " Whose most dearly beloved 
 Son Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins did shed out of His most 
 precious side both water and blood ;" and in the words " for the forgiveness, 
 &c." has the same allusion to the Redemption as S. Ambrose, S. Augustine, 
 and S. Leo. And so again S. Pauhnus of Nola (Ep. 42. ad Florentium, 5 4.) 
 " that Rock, which, the side being pierced by the lance, streamed with water 
 and blood,^ to pour forth to us alike the health-giving sacraments, the water 
 of forgiveness, and the blood of the sacrament. Who, the Same, is the foun- 
 tain of our salvation, and our Ransom." The two sacraments alone are like- 
 wise named by the authors of the L. 2. de Symbolo, c. 6. and the de Cataclys- 
 mo, c. 4. ap. Aug. 0pp. T. 6. by St. Chrysostome, ad loc; by St. Cyril of 
 Alexandria, ad loc. ; probably Apollinarius ad loc. ap. Corderii Caten. ; the 
 author of Testim. de adv. Dom. ap. Greg. Nyss. ; Joh. Damascen. (as a col- 
 lector of older opinions) de fid. Orthod. L. iv. c. 9. Theophylact ad loc. 
 follows St. Chrysostome, but combines St. Augustine's allusion to the ming- 
 ling of the water with the wine in the Holy Eucharist, and uses it as an argu- 
 ment against the Armenians, who had not that rite. He also with St. Leo 
 regards the blood as the symbol of the manhood, the water of the Godhead. 
 It might then as well be argued that they who (as Ambrose, below, and Greg- 
 ory xiii. ap. Ritter, 5 41.) apply this act to the mingling of water with the wine, 
 mean, against all antiquity, to exclude the allusion to Baptism, as that they 
 who happen to mention the two baptisms only of water and martyrdom (as St. 
 Cyril of Jerusalem in one place, iii. 10. St. Jerome, Photius Aniphiloch. 1. c.) 
 exclude the reference to the Holy Eucharist. Some verses ascribed to Pru- 
 dentius ap. Ritter, 5 28. contain only an illusion to Baptism, to which he again 
 refers. Dipt. 165, 6. " the blood is victory ; water the bath." And S. Am- 
 brose, in another place, directly treating on Baptism, mentions this only, (de 
 Myst. 5 20.) "Thou hast read that the three witnesses in Baptism are one, 
 water, blood, and the Spirit, whereof if one be withdrawn, the sacrament of 
 Baptism ceases. For what is water without the Cross of Christ 1 A common 
 element without any sacramental efl&cacy. Nor again does the mystery of 
 
236 
 
 served in our liturgy, is found almost throughout, the difference re- 
 lating mostly to the " Blood," whether It refer to the other Sacra- 
 ment, or to the Baptism of martyrdom, as being a Baptism in their 
 own blood, sanctified by His. The reference to the Sacraments is 
 
 regeneration take place without water ; for ' unless a man be born of water 
 and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' For the catechumen 
 also believes in the Cross of the Lord Jesus, wherewith also he is marked ; 
 but unless he be ' baptized in the Name of the Father, and Son, and Holy- 
 Spirit,' he cannot receive remission of sins, nor obtain the gift of spiritual 
 grace." In another, (de Sacr. v. 1. fin.) he also applies it to the mingling of 
 the water and wine in the Cup. He there adds, " Water to cleanse, Blood 
 to redeem," referring at once to the Passion ; to the sacraments as its applica- 
 tion ; and the symbolical rite at the Holy Eucharist. He proceeds to speak 
 of the Redemption : " Why from the side ? because whence was the sin, 
 thence the grace ; sin through the woman, grace through the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." So little did he esteem one meaning to exclude another. 
 
 The sacred act is referred to in the Maronite liturgy (Ass. ii- 341.) as in our 
 own, in the consecration of the font : "Let the Holy Spirit sanctify, bless, and 
 make them [the waters] like to those which flowed from the side of the Only- 
 Begotten on the cross." 
 
 This complete consent of antiquity, that the "water" was connected with 
 our Baptism, makes it probable that it is also alluded to in a passage of S. 
 Apollinaris Hierop., where he speaks of His " pouring forth from His side 
 the two instruments of cleansing (Kaedpcna) Blood and water," although his ad- 
 ditional explanation " Word and Spirit" is, from its conciseness, obscure. 
 (See Routh's Opusc T. 4. p. 151. and note.) The allusion to the sacraments 
 is doubtless intended by S. Hippolytus, where he says, de 2. latronibus, vol. i. 
 p. 281. " Both did the body of the Lord yield to the world, the holy Blood 
 and the holy water. For His Body being dead after the manner of men. had 
 in It a great Power of Life. For what are not poured forth from dead bodies, 
 these were poured forth from His, both water and Blood, that we might know 
 how availing was the Power indwelling in His Body, to life, in that death was 
 not to It the same as to the rest, but It could yet pour forth to us the laver of 
 life." S. Epiphanius refers at least to Baptism by His expression, Hser. 46. 
 fin. "to the water poured forth to signify the cleansing of the filth of our sins," 
 whether or no he refer to the other sacrament, as the means of restoring the 
 soul upon repentance, in His words, " to show to us the sprinkling of His 
 Blood, to the cleansing of our defilement and of the repentant soul." S. Clem- 
 ent of Alexandria refers to Baptism, "the Spirit which is Life, and water, 
 which is regeneration and faith," although his other explanation, " Blood 
 which is knowledge," seems to differ from any elsewhere given. He adds, 
 however, " For in the Saviour are those saving powers, and life itself is in 
 His Son ;" thus bringing their efficacy to the Person of our Lord, (Adumbra- 
 tiones ad loc T. 2. p. 1011. ed. Potter.) St. Chrysostome, who ad loc. gives 
 his own meaning fully, says in Ep- ad Eph. c. 5. Hom. 20. 5 3. fin. " from the 
 side of Christ there gushed forth life." He had shortly before spoken of our 
 birth in Baptism. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be again observed, how much this apparent variation 
 with respect to the meaning of the Blood illustrates the uniform consent of all 
 Antiquity in interpreting the " water" of Baptism. Even among the Reform- 
 ed, Beza and Calvin still recognize, in a way, the reference to the two sacra- 
 ments (adopting S. Augustine's words ;) but only to lead people away from 
 the sacraments themselves, as they think, to their Author. Of the Romanists, 
 
1537 
 
 preserved either way ; as again, if " the Blood" were the actual 
 embodying and visible representation of the truth, that " by His 
 Blood we have redemption, even the remission of sins," the water 
 denoted Baptism, as the means, whereby His Blood is applied to 
 the cleansing and sanctifying of our souls. There is no reason why 
 these should not be each contained in that mysterious event, each 
 express a portion of that truth which it contained. Gushing out im- 
 mediately upon the completion of our Redemption, they seem to 
 speak that by water and blood is that Redemption applied to us, in 
 all the ways wherein they may, in God's will be applied. 
 
 The distinct mention, however, of the two substances poured from 
 His side guides us most naturally to two distinct means, whereby 
 that virtue is apphed ; and so the view, most commonly dwelt upon 
 by the Ancients, that the two Christian Sacraments were thereby de- 
 noted, appears to correspond most fully with the sacred act itself. 
 And this seems again to be borne out by the words, which offer 
 themselves as an explanation of it, St. John's declaration of the 
 *' three which bear witness" to Him, " the Spirit, and the water, and 
 the blood." For, considering the solemn way in which St. John 
 insists upon the history of the issuing of the blood and water, it can 
 scarcely be thought that when he again insists, doctrinally, in the 
 same solemn way, on the " water and blood" as witnesses to Him, 
 he is not bearing in mind that same sight, which was impressed so 
 deeply upon his spirit. The words, " this is He which cometh* by 
 water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood, and the 
 Spirit is it which beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth ; there 
 are three which bear witness — the Spirit, and the water, and the 
 blood, "t seem to contain at once an allusion to that sight, and to be 
 an explanation of the main truth which it contained. There are 
 these two witnesses, and a third, the Holy Spirit, cooperating with 
 them ; they are witnesses which continue to bear witness ; which 
 He has left to bear witness ; (St. John says not, "which bore wit- 
 ness," but which "bear witness," "' faprvpoUvTcs ;) which bear witness 
 now, continually, and which shall continue to the end to bear an ever 
 present witness ; they are witnesses to Him, "whereby He cometh," 
 which testify to His Presence, and through which He is present. 
 But the act upon the Cross is past ; the actual shedding of the water 
 and the blood took place, and is not ; the Cross Itself, and Passion, 
 
 Jansen, in Cone. c. 143. Maldonat. in Matt. 27. Alph. Salmeron, T. 10. tr. 48. 
 (quoted by Ritter, 1. c.) retain the old doctrine, though Jansen. and Maldonat. 
 insert the words, " the two chief sacraments," no where used in antiquity. 
 
 * imiv. For the past, " who came," St. John uses tX/jXvJajf , i Ep. iv. 2, 3. 
 
 f The omission of ver 7. is not meant to express any opinion as to its 
 genuineness ; those verses only are taken which bear upon the immediate ar- 
 gument. 
 
233 
 
 the Precious Death, are borne witness to, but bear not witness now ; 
 They are ever-present with the Father, to whom they were offered ; 
 they are the meritorious causes of all our blessings and acceptable- 
 ness with Him, but themselves are hid from sight ; He has " enter- 
 ed within the veil," " now to appear in the presence of God for us," 
 and there He presenteth " His own blood ;" with them He appear- 
 eth before the Father, but cometh not to us ; to us He cometh in 
 His Sacraments ; they are the visible tokens of his invisible Pres- 
 ence ; the means of our adoption ;* the pledges of His love ;" the 
 witnesses that He " is come in the flesh ;" the continual memorials 
 of His Death and Resurrection ; the channels of " the Life" which 
 we have " in Him ;"t the foretaste of eternal life ;t the witness " in 
 us"§ also, as the means of His indwelling ;|| the witness to us, " that 
 we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of His Son ;Tf 
 whereby "we have power and strength to have victory,** and to tri- 
 umph against the devil, the world, and the flesh ;" the " New Tes- 
 tamenttt in His Blood," which He has bequeathed to the Church ; 
 the witness to the Church " that He will be with her always even 
 to the end of the world."|| By both doth He come to us ; in Baptism 
 cleansing us with " water," not mere water, but water purified, and 
 purifying by the efficacy of that Blood, where " the Spirit" also is 
 present, in the birth of *' water and the Spirit ;" in the Holy Eucha- 
 rist giving us to " drink of His Blood," and " quickening us by His 
 Spirit,"§^ and " making us to drink into One Spirit."|||| 
 
 This exposition again harmonizes with the true doctrine of the sa- 
 craments, in that it separates the two great Sacraments of the Gos- 
 pel from every tiling else which God has made a means of grace ;ini 
 
 * CEcumenius so gives the connection of this verse with the preceding, 
 " Having made mention of the generation and birth from God, in that he said, 
 ' every thing born of God,' since this is obtained to us through Holy Baptism, 
 therefore He says, ' tliis is He which cometh by water and blood, Jesus Christ ;' 
 And wherefore came He \ regenerating us, and making us sons of God. For 
 it follows upon what was said, that, ' Every thing born of God overcometh the 
 world.' And how was it born 1 ' by water,' he saith, ' and blood.' For Jesus 
 Christ, Who cometh, regenerates by water and blood." The same passage 
 occurs in Theophylact in Joh. v. 5. whence, perhaps, it is probable that both 
 derived it from St. Clirysostorae. 
 
 t In Joh. V. 11. Joh. vi. 27. t lb. vi. 54. 
 
 ^ 1 Ep. V. 10. II Joh. vi. 56. 
 
 •[[ Thanksgiving after Communion. 
 
 ** Baptismal Service, comp. 1 John v. 4, 5. 
 
 ft Luke xxii. 20. tj John vi. 53, 54, 56. 
 
 4^ lb. ver. 63. Jl 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 %^ Hence, remarkably enough, Card. iBellarmine rejects this allusion (de 
 Effect. Sacrara. L. 2. c. 27.) and argues against it from the position of the 
 words " blood and water," as though, had the two sacraments been intended, 
 it sliould have stood " water and blood," in the order in which they are be- 
 stowed upon us. S. Thomas Aquinas, (who retains the ancient interpretation, 
 P. 3. qu. 66. art. 3. ad 3. " From the side of Christ flowed water to cleanse, 
 
23«^ 
 
 and as these two communicate Christ to the soul, so these two flow- 
 ed from His sacred Side immediately on His atoning Death. There 
 is more affectionateness also surely in the view, which, in the Sa- 
 craments, brings us close to our Redeemer's Side. " Not casually," 
 says St. Chrysostome,* " nor by chance, did these fountains issue, 
 but because on these two does the Church subsist. And this the 
 partakers of the mysteries know ; regenerated by water, and by 
 Blood and flesh nourished. The mysteries take hence their rise ; 
 that when thou approachest the awful cup, thou mayest so approach, 
 as drinking from that very Side." " God," says St. Cyril,t " made 
 what took place an image and first-fruit of the mystic blessed Food 
 (eulogia, the Eucharist) and of Holy Baptism. For Holy Baptism is 
 indeed Christ's, and from Christ ; and the might of the Holy Eucha- 
 rist had its source for us in His Holy Flesh." 
 
 The Flood. 
 
 From the Old Testament two of the most striking types among 
 those directly pointed out in the New, are partially alluded to in an 
 ancient collect in our liturgy ; the flood, and the passage of the Red 
 Sea. An address to God could hardly dwell upon all the points of 
 resemblance ; one should rather look, that it would allude to such 
 events as instances of God's mercy, and plead them before Him, as 
 grounds why He should bestow on us the blessing, which was hinted 
 at and laid up in them. This is the character of our collect : — "Al- 
 mighty and everlasting God, Who of Thy great mercy didst save 
 Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water, and also 
 didst safely lead the children of Israel Thy people through the Red 
 Sea, figuring thereby Thy Holy Baptism." It is remarkable, accord- 
 ingly, that of the history of the Flood, that part of the type is taken 
 which most plainly pictures man's deliverance, their being saved in the 
 
 blood to redeem, and so blood corresponds to the sacrament of the Eucharist, 
 water to the sacrament of Baptism") has also a remarkable protest against 
 the power of the Church to place any other sacraments on a level with those 
 two. " The Apostles and their successors are the vicars of God, as far as 
 relates to the government of the Church instituted by God tlirough faith and 
 the sacraments of faith ; wherefore, as they may not establish another Church, 
 so neither may they deliver another faith, nor institute other sacraments ; but 
 the Church is said to be built tlirough those sacraments, which flowed from 
 the side of Christ." (P. 3. qu. 64. art. 2. quoted by Gerhard Loci de circum- 
 cis. &c. c. 4. s. 1. \ 54. T. iv. p. 399. The last words he took from S. Au- 
 gustine.) Gerhard quotes another passage from him, connecting the sacra- 
 ments as the means of remission with the Passion of our Lord, as did S. Aug. 
 and others. " The virtue which remitteth sins, belongeth in a special kind of 
 way to the Passion of the Lord ; therefore, that the virtue of the sacraments is 
 ordained to take away sins, is chiefly from faith in the Passion of Christ." 
 * Ad loc. t L. 12. in Joh- ad loc. 
 
240 
 
 ark, whereas that part which is apphed in Holy Scripture (probably as 
 not being so obvious) is omitted, that they were " saved bv water."* 
 And in our modern habits, probably, for the most part, the ark is 
 alone thought of as being an emblem of Christ's Church ; the com- 
 parison of Baptism to the flood is tacitly passed over as a difficulty, 
 since the Flood destroyed life. Baptism saves it. The ancients, fol- 
 lowing Holy Scripture more faithfully, and trusting more to the 
 power of Baptism, saw in the flood of waters, the Baptism of the ex- 
 piated, and cleansed, and restored world ;"t wherein " with all the 
 
 * The ancient form of the collect differed in this ; it %vas, " Who didst con- 
 demn the unbelieving world through the flood, and didst preserve faithful 
 Noah, the eighth person, of Thy great mercy," which, though independent, 
 resembles that of Gelasius, " Who, washing away the sins of the world by wa- 
 ter, didst, in the very outpourings of the deluge, stamp a figure of regenera- 
 tion ; so that througli the mystery of one and the same element, there was both 
 an end put to sins, and a source of excellences." (Ass. ii. 3. also Gellone, 
 ib. 53. &c.) The mention of the ark was first introduced in Edward VI's first 
 book, "didst destroy by floods of water the whole world for sin, except eight 
 persons, whom of Thy mercy (the same time) Thou didst save in the ark." It 
 was not in the Cologne formulary. See note M at the end ; " Baptismal 
 Liturgies compared." 
 
 f " lUo expiati et purificati mundi Baptismo." S. Cyprian (Ep. 76. adMag- 
 num init.) " instaurato mundo." Jerome (L. iii. in Zach. xi. 8, 9.) Matt. xix. 
 28. Hence S. Clement of Rome, says, that " Noah preached regeneration," 
 1 Ep. \ 9. having reference to this double meaning of iraXiyytvcaia ; and <S. Clem- 
 ent of Alexandria (Strom, v. p. 650. ed Potter.) and Origen, c. c. Cels. iv. 20.) 
 refer the heathen to the traditions among themselves (in Plato) of periodical 
 restorations either through fire or water. Tertullian also speaks of the " Bap- 
 tism of the world," and " the ancient iniquity being purged away." De Bapt. 
 c. 8. 8. Cyprian follows Tertullian, and besides the passage quoted, speaks 
 of" that baptism of the world, whereby the ancient iniquity was purged away;" 
 (Ep. 74. ad Pompeium, fin. below, note.) Firmilian of those, " who not being 
 in the ark with Noah, were not purged and saved by water." (ap. Cypr. Ep. 
 75. p. 148. ed. St. Maur.) -S^. Chrysostome, i^cKXiaOn h yn (de terra mot. et 
 Laz. vi. 7.) " the world needs cleansing," {Kddapaiv, Hom. 24- in Gen. 7. 5 4.) 
 and "the flood was a rest," (alluding to the name of Noah) "because it cut off 
 man's wickedness." Serm. 9. in Gen. J 6. and, (in contrast with Baptism,) 
 "Then also, when things were desperate, they were remedied and restored; 
 but then, through punishment, now, through grace and a gift unspeakable." 
 — Horn- xii. in Matt. 5 3. St. Gregory of Nazianzum speaks of " the cleans- 
 ing in the time of Noah." (fi em Nwe Kidapcn) Hom. xxviii. 28. " Christ," says 
 St. Hiliary, "washed away with a deluge the first sins of the world." (in Ps. 
 63. 5 10.) St. Jerome, " the world sins, and is not cleansed, but by a flood of 
 waters." Ep. 69. ad Ocean. { 6. T. i. p. 417.) Eusebius Hom. de mandat. 
 Dom. Opusc. p. 252. " Whom He ' knew not,' He destroyed, that He might 
 cleanse the earth." And p. 254. " God should be praised, Who with water 
 washed the earth from the defilements of its inhabitants." In like way, a 
 sermon perhaps of Maximus. Serm. 145. in App. 0pp. Aug. T. 5. S. Ambrose 
 (de Myst. c. 3. \ 10.) " All flesh was corrupted through its iniquities. ' My Spirit,' 
 saith God, 'shall not abide in man, for they are flesh,' whereby God showeth 
 that tlurough carnal uncleanness, and the stain of more grievous sin, spiritual 
 grace is removed. Whence God, willing to restore what was lacking, sent 
 
341 
 
 authors of sins, all sins also were abolished ;"* so that " the sinners 
 being destroyed, the family of the just might be delivered by the del- 
 uge."! " The end of all flesh was come before" God ; the whole 
 " earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way before God.":j: 
 It needed an expiation to be saved from destruction ; it needed 
 cleansing, to endure the holiness of God's presence ; it required to be 
 purified from sin, that " the Holy Spirit" might again " abide with 
 man ;"^ the destruction of the old world was the condition of its ren- 
 ovation ; the deluge was judgment tempered with mercy. This 
 view deepened the meaning of every other portion of this mysterious 
 history. Its great lesson was, that " destruction was the source of 
 life" — destruction of the power of Satan, destruction of evil, of evil 
 within or without us ; of sin, or of the Evil One ; and so it prophesi- 
 ed, in the first instance, of the "death unto sin, and the birth unto 
 righteousness," which is wrought by God in Baptism, the slaying of 
 the old man, and the life of the new. The burial of the old world 
 spake of our cointerment with Christ ; the bursting forth of the new 
 through the waters, and out of the waters, of our resurrection with 
 Him .-ll but it spake also of that second and final restoration of things 
 to be accomplished through the last Baptism of fire, whereof our 
 Lord speaks under the same name with Baptism ; — " the regenera- 
 tion" yet to come, whereof this restoration was an image, when these 
 " heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
 melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein 
 
 the deluge, and bade just Noah go up into the ark." Optatus de Schism. Do- 
 nat. V. 1. " the flood was an image of Baptism, that the whole defiled world, 
 the sinners being drowned, might, through the intervention of the laver, be 
 cleansed to its former estate." S. Irenceus, in the same way as the liturgies, 
 unites the two subjects, destruction and restoration ; (iv. 36. 4. ed. Mass.) 
 " in the times of Noah, bringing in the deluge, that he might extinguish that 
 most wretched race of men, which then was, who could no longer yield fruit 
 unto God, and to allay their sins, but preserve the ark, a type ; the Adam 
 whom He had formed." And again, he regards it as a type of the future de- 
 struction and restoration, v. 29. 2, where, speaking of Antichrist, he says, 
 " Wherefore in him will be concentrated all unrighteousness and all deceit, 
 that the whole apostatic spirit flowing together, and shut up in him, may be 
 cast into the furnace of fire ; concentrating in himself all the evil which was 
 before the flood ; — the flood came upon the earth to efface {c^iXsiipn') the sin of 
 the earth, on account of that wicked generation in the times of Noah. He 
 then, concentrating in himself all the idolatry since the flood, and slaying of 
 the prophets and burning of the righteous ; — in whom are concentrated all the 
 apostacy, and unrighteousness, and wickedness, and false-prophesying, and 
 deceit of the six thousand years ; for which things' sake also shall the deluge 
 of fire come upon them." Origen also regards the flood as typical of that at 
 the end of the world. Horn, in Gen. 2. 5 3. and <S. Augustine de catech. rud. 
 §32. 
 
 * Jerome, L. iv. in Is. 54. } 10. 
 
 t Aug. de unit. Eccl. { 9. % G^en. vi. 12, 13. 
 
 ^ Gen. vi. 3. | See above, p. 80. sqq. 
 
 8* 
 
242 
 
 shall be burned up," and " the new heavens and new eai'th, wherein 
 dwelletli righteousness"* shall succeed. The flood was thus a type 
 of a two-fold restoration — (1) of all the real life of the world, in 
 those for whose sake the world was preserved, those reborn in 
 the Church through Baptism. (2) Of the world itself, to be iden- 
 tical with the Church, when every thing corrupt sliall be effaced, 
 and the Church enter into His glory. In the first " it is the be- 
 ginning of the new creation ;"t in the second its completion. And 
 as these two regenerations are part of one and the same restora- 
 tion, in the progress of the Cliurch to its triumphant state ; so 
 the destruction, whether more or less complete, is part of one and 
 the same ; " the destruction of all flesh" by water is the emblem 
 of the washing away of all carnal sin ; the destruction of the evil, 
 of that of the Evil One, whose ministers they are : and so the interpre- 
 tations, that the flood was the abolition of sin, J or the destruction 
 of Satan, ^ are but parts of the same truth. In Baptism our sins 
 are washed away, and Satan's kingdom is so far destroyed. 
 
 The symbol of the ark, however, has also its place ; its typical 
 character is asserted by St. Peter, though not explained, " ivhf-:rein 
 Noah was saved ;" it chiefly denotes the Church, upborne by the 
 waters of Baptism, wherein sin was drowned ; by the same waters, 
 which destroyed those who entered not therein ; a refuge for those 
 who listen to Him who is greater than Noah, "repent and be bap- 
 tized." Yet neither was thereby excluded that other meaning, how- 
 ever unfamiliar to moderns, tliat the wood of the ark v/as the symbol 
 of the Cross, and so that Baptism availed through the Cross, whose 
 saving merits Baptism applied ; that, (in ancient language) " by 
 
 , * 2 Pet. iii. 10—13. 
 
 t S. Cyril of Jerus. Cat. xvii. J 10. Theodoret, ad loc. calls it " a begin- 
 ning of new life." 
 
 I " It is water then," says St. Ambrose, 1. c. " wherein flesh is immersed, 
 " that all carnal sin may be washed away. All wickedness is buried there." 
 And de Sacr. L. ii. c. 1. "What is the deluge but that wherein the righteous 
 is preserved for a stock of righteousness, sin dies ■? Therefore the Lord, when 
 He saw the offences of men multiply, preserved only the righteous man with 
 his offspring, and bade the waters go forth above the mountains. And there- 
 fore in that deluge all the corruption of the flesh perished ; the stock and pat- 
 tern of the righteous man alone remained. Is not the deluge the same as 
 Baptism, whereby all sins are washed away ; the righteous mind and grace 
 alone are brought back to life V And de Off. Min. iii. 18. "All flesh died, 
 the righteous man alone, with his offspring, was preserved. Is not man con- 
 sumed, ' when that mortal is swallowed up of life]' Lastly, ' the outward man 
 is wasted but the inward renewed.' And not in Baptism only, but in repent- 
 ance also, is there 'a destruction of the flesh to the profiting of the spirit.' " — 
 1 Cor. V. 5. 
 
 ^ So Theophylact and fficumenius, ad loc. " This (the water of Baptism) 
 destroys the rebellious daemons, but saves those who enter the ark, i. e. the 
 Church." And St. Jerome above unites both ; " with all the authors of sins, 
 the sins." 
 
243 
 
 water and wood, salvation came to man."* Nay, these two meanings 
 were so blended together, that " Noah and his family, wandenng, a 
 stranger as it were in the evil world, exhibited the Church, which is 
 saved by that wood, whereon hung the ' Mediator between God and 
 man, the Man Christ Jesus.' "t " Noali and liis were freed by wa- 
 ter and wood, as the family of Christ by Baptism, dyed with the 
 Passion of the Lord."| " Christ,^ the tirsl-begotten of all creation, 
 became again the Beginning of another race, born again through 
 Him by water and faith and that wood which contains the mystery 
 of the Cross ; in like way as Noah was saved, borne with his, upon 
 the water;" "borne|| on the wood, they escape the deluge." So, 
 then, it is not as a mere outward body, but because the Church is 
 His institution, vipborne by His Cross, that they read in this history 
 the further warning, tliat in the Church only is the appointed method 
 of salvation. All who were not in the ark perisiied, whether tiiey 
 wilfully would not enter into it, II or having been in it, were like 
 the raven,** tempted back, and would not abide in it. 
 
 * Cyril, Jer. Lect. xvii. ^ 10. 
 
 t Aug, de Civ. Dei, xv. 26. comp. de catecli. rudib. ^ 32. 
 
 i Aug. c. Faust, xii. 14. 
 
 I Just. M. Dial. c. Tryph. ^ 138. 
 
 II Aug. Tr. xi. in Joh. p. 378. 
 
 •Jf Hence the saying, "if any be not in the ark of Noah, he shall perish, 
 when the deluge prevaileth." Jerome, Ep. 15. ad Damas. 5 2. Of this (S. Cy» 
 prian's is only a specific application. " If tlien in that Baptism of this expi- 
 ated and purified world, he could be saved by water, who was not in the ark 
 of Noah, he also can receive life through Baptism, who is not in the Church, 
 to which alone Baptism was granted." Ep. 76. ad Magnum, init. And again, 
 on 1 Pet. iii. " In how brief and spiritual a compendium did the apostle de- 
 clare the mystery of unity. For as in that Baptism of the world, he who was 
 not in the ark of Noah could not be saved by water, so neither now doth it 
 seem can he be saved by Baptism, who is not baptized in the Church, which 
 was founded in the unity of the Lord after the mystery of the one ark." Ep. 
 74. ad Pompeium : and Firmilian, ''As the apostle Peter laid down, saying, 
 'in like way also shall Baptism save you,' showing that as they who were not 
 in the ark with Noah, were not only not cleansed and saved by water, but 
 perished forthwith in that deluge, so now also whoever are not in the Church 
 with Christ, shall perish without, unless they turn through repentance to the 
 one and saving laver of the Church." Ep. ap. Cyprian. Ep. 75. The max- 
 im is alike held by S. Augustine, the application only differing. " That out of 
 the ark, all flesh which the earth supported, was destroyed by the deluge, be- 
 cause, out of the communion of the Church, the water of Baptism, though the 
 same, not only avails not to salvation, but rather avails to destruction." c. 
 Faust, xii. 17. and "Placed by thee out of the ark, i. e. out of the Church, he 
 is drowned in the deluge, not cleansed." c. Advers. leg. et proph. i. 45. 
 Bishop Pearson applies the type in the same way. On the Creed, Art. The 
 Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 ** " Since the ark was an image of the Church, the sinner who forsakes the 
 Church, inasmuch as he has no other resting place, hath Iris image in him, in 
 that having no other rest in the world than that of the Church, he yet prefiers 
 to linger in the emptinesses of the world." — S. Hil. in Ps 146.512. "The 
 
241 
 
 As the history thus furnishes a warning against a sinful careless- 
 ness and inditference to God's institution, so does another part of 
 it against that self-willed rigorousness and discontent at its state, 
 such as God has allowed it to be, mingled of the evil and the good, 
 which seduces men to attempt to construct another Church, or form 
 Churches within the Church, from which all evil is to be excluded. 
 The admission of the clean and unclean into the saving ark was 
 to the Jew a hidden prophecy, that " to the Gentiles also was grant- 
 ed repentance vmto life," such as was authoritatively revealed in the 
 vision of St. Peter ; to the Donatists it forbad any narrowing of the 
 communion of the Church by a self-erected standard of purity. " All 
 kinds of animals," says St. Augustine,* " are inclosed in the ark, as 
 the Church contains all nations, which were signified also in the 
 sheet shown to St. Peter. Clean and unclean animals are there, as 
 in the sacraments of the Church are found both good and bad." — 
 " The ark of Noah," says St. Jerome,! " was a type of the Church, 
 as saith the Apostle Peter. As in that were all kinds of animals, so 
 in this are men of all nations and characters. As pard and goats, 
 wolf and lambs were there, so here also the righteous and sinners, 
 i. e. vessels of gold and silver are hard by those of wood and clay. 
 The ark has its stories ; the Church has many mansions." 
 
 It could not be, but that in a history so momentous, other points 
 also, though not touched upon in Holy Scripture, would also bear a 
 hidden meaning. The ancient Church believed that all was signifi- 
 cant ? that it was full of mysteries,| " some things referring to 
 
 raven returned not, either intercepted by the waters, or enticed by isome float- 
 ing corpse, fciignifying how men, defiled by the uncleanness of desire, and so, 
 too intent on the things without in this world, are either rebaptized, or are 
 seduced and held by those whom, without the ark, i. e. out of the Church, 
 Baptism slays." — Aug. c. Faust, xii. 20. S. Hilary has the same reference to 
 the "corpse." 1. c. 5 11. 
 
 * c. Faust, xii. 15. The first part of this S. Augustine repeats in Joh. Tr. ix. 
 11. de Civ. D. xvi. fin. Orig. in Gen. Horn. 2. { 5. and St. Cyril of Jerus. xvii. 
 10. 
 
 t Adv. Lucif. } 22. add adv. Jovin. i. 17. ii. 22. Ep. 123. ad Ageruch. } 9. 
 St. Augustine mentions the like interpretation of the stories of the ark, de Civ. 
 D. 1. c. and Origen, Hom. 2. in Gen, 5 3. " The people saved in the Church 
 are compared with all those, men or animals, saved in the ark. But because 
 all make not the same progress in the faith, nor have equal merits, therefore 
 that ark also hath not one mansion only for all, but there are lower, second and 
 third stories above; to show, that although all in the Church are held together 
 within one faith, and are cleansed by one Baptism, yet all make not the same 
 advances, but every one in his own order." — Add 5 5. 
 
 % E. g. S. Chrysostome speaks of its •' mysteries." Hom. de terra, mot. et 
 Laz. vi. 7. and so S. Ambrose (below.) S. Jerome of its " sacraments," adv. 
 Lucif. 22. and St. Augustine, c. adv. leg. etproph. i. 45. Africanus, " Each of 
 these details signifieth something especial." — Chronic- ap. Routh, Reliq. S. ii. 
 129. The facts there mentioned, werei if any understand them, also prophe- 
 cies."— Aug. 1. c. 
 
245 
 
 Christ, some to the Church, and thus the whole to Christ."* Spe- 
 cially it is observable how, with the Scriptural reference to Baptism, 
 they love to dwell on the doctrine of the Trinity ; the Son, as reveal- 
 ed in the Cross ; the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him, and 
 through Him to believers, as already shadowed forth in the coming 
 down of the Dove to the One Righteous Man.f " Forthwith" [on 
 the cleansing of the world by the flood] " the Dove of the Holy Spi- 
 rit (that foul bird being first removed) flies down to Noah, as to 
 Christ in Jordan, and with the branch of refreshment and of light 
 announces peace to the world."t "Thou seest the water," sa s 
 St. Ambrose,^ " seest the wood, beholdest the Dove, and doubtes 
 thou of the mystery ?" " The wood is that whereon the Lord Jesus 
 was nailed when He suffered for us. The Dove is that in whose 
 form the Holy Spirit descended, who inspiretii thee with peace ot 
 soul, tranquillity of mind." " Noah," says St. Chrysostome,|| " was 
 Christ, the Dove, the Holy Spirit ; the olive branch, the loving 
 kindness of God." Tertullian gives the same, with an earnest warn 
 ing against relapse. " For^ as after the waters of the' deluge, 
 whereby the ancient iniquity was purged away, after the Baptism 
 (so to speak) of the world, the herald dove, sent out from the ark, 
 and returning with the olive-branch, announced to the earth peace 
 from the Divine wrath ; by the same ordinance of a spiritual wash- 
 ing, does the dove of the Holy Spirit fly to the earth, i. e. to our 
 flesh, as it emergeth from the laver after its ancient offences, bearing 
 the peace of God, sent forth from the heavens, where the Church is 
 the ark portrayed. But the world again sins, whence Baptism 
 should so far ill correspond with the deluge. Therefore is it des- 
 tined to fire, as also is that man, who after Baptism renews his 
 sins, so that this also is to be taken as significant for our instruction." 
 And S. Ambrose adds the like:** "The raven is the type of sin, 
 which goeth forth, and returneth not, if thou also keep thyself after 
 the pattern of the righteous man." 
 
 And so, doubtless, our redemption, and the means of its application 
 to ourselves, are portrayed in the minuter details of this great dispen- 
 sation. The unity of the Church may well be thought to be desig- 
 
 * " Quodtotum Christiis est." — Aug. c. Faust, xii. 39. 
 
 t In another point of view then Noah is the type of Christ, as St. Aug. 
 says, " Christ also was typified in Noah, and in that ark of the universe." — 
 Tr. ix. in Joh. J 11- so S. Chrys. inf. Orig. Horn. 2. in Gen. J 3. 
 
 J S. Jerome, Ep. 69. ad Ocean. 5 6. The " raven" he regards as an em- 
 blem of Satan, as he says, adv. Lucif. 23. '' In the Baptism of the Church, 
 that most foul bird being expelled, i. e. the devil, the dove of the Holy Spirit 
 announces peace to our earth." 
 
 ^De Myst. c. 3. 5 10, 11. 
 
 II 1. c. Greg. Naz. Or. 39. 5 16. " Of old, long before, the dove was practised 
 to announce the close of the flood." And others, ap. S. Cyril, xvii. 10. 
 
 t De Bapt. c. 8. ** 1. c. 
 
246 
 
 nated by the anointing of the ark within and without, so that it was 
 " compact together, and at unity with itself;" the "fervent charity," 
 whereby it is so held, by the mateiials recorded ; for *' bitumen* is 
 the most burning and vehement cement, signifying the ardor of love, 
 through the force of its great might 'enduring all things to hold' to- 
 getlier the spiritual community ; " for notf with asphaltus and pitch, 
 but with the Holy Spirit, are its planks anointed :" its " being finish- 
 ed in one, above," that the Church, the body of Christ, " gathered 
 into unity, is raised on high and perfected"! i" Him : the seven clean 
 animals, " the seven-fold'^ operations of the Holy Spirit;" the enter 
 ing the ark on the seventh day, " that we are baptized in hope of that 
 rest yet in store, which is signified by the seventh day ;"|| the resting 
 of the ark on the seventh month, the type of that rest ;•[ the return 
 of the dove, that "rest is notprom.ised in the N. T.to the saints in this 
 world ;"** its not returning after seven days, " the** end of the world, 
 when there shall be a rest for the saints, not now in the sacrament of 
 hope, whereby the Church is held together in this world, so long as 
 that is drunk which flowed from the side of Christ, but in the very per- 
 fectness of eternal salvation, when the kingdom shall be delivered to 
 God and the Father ; when in the clear contemplation of unchangea- 
 ble truth we shall not need the embodying thereof in mysteries." — 
 And amid this and other significance of numbers, it may the rather be 
 supposed that that of eight, which St. Peter insists upon, "wherein 
 few, that is, eight souls," had also reference to the day of the Resur- 
 rection, "through whichtt Baptism saves us," " because:}:! in Christ 
 
 * Aug.c. Faust, xii. 14. add. de Unit. Eccl. 5 9. in Ps. 103. S. 3. 5 2. 
 
 f S. Chrys. Horn 1. de laud. Ap. Paul. The concord is insisted on also 
 by S. Clement of Rome. "The Lord, through Noah, saved all the living 
 creatures who in concord entered the ark." — Kp. i. 59. 
 
 I Aug. c. Faust, xii. 16. Orig. Hom. 2. in Gen. 5 5. " The whole fabric is 
 brought together into one, because there is ' One God the Father, of Whom 
 are all things, and One Lord, and one Faith of the Church, one Baptism, one 
 body, and one Spirit,' and all things are hastening to one end of being perfect- 
 ed in God." 
 
 ^ Aug. c. Faust, xii. 5 15. || lb. 5 17, comp. Heb. iii. iv. 
 
 lib. 519- **Ib;5 20. 
 
 ft 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 
 tX Aug. c Faust, xii. 15. adv. leg. et Proph. add i. 5 45. and de Civ. D. xvi. 
 26. So Justin M. " The number eight was a symbol of the eighth day, where- 
 on our Christ appeared, having risen from the dead, which yet in dignity ever 
 was the first." — Dial- c. Tryph. 5 138. p. 229. The number eight was accord- 
 ingly, throughout all Christian antiquity, regarded as symbolical of our Lord's 
 resurrection, of the complete remission of sins, of perfection, of the new dis- 
 pensation of eternity. See Coteler on S. Barn. Ep. Patr. Ap. T. i. 45 — 48. 
 Clem. Al. Strom. L. 6. 5 16. p. 810. ed. Pott. Origen, Hom. 23. in Num. 5 10. 
 11. Jerome L. xii. in Ezek c. xl. 24 — 29. Basil in Hexaem. Hom. 2 fin. 
 Athanas. in Ps. 6- Ambros. Ep. 44. ad Horontian. 5 14, 15. ; in Ps. 118. Prol.; 
 Expos. Ev. sec. Luc L. 5. 5 49. L. 7. 5 6. and 173. Aug. in Ps. 6. et 1 1. Chrys- 
 ostome de compunct. ad Stelech. L. 2. 5 4. Hilary in Ps. 118. Prolog. Greg. 
 
247 
 
 dawned the hope of our resurrection, who on the eighth day, i.e. the 
 first after the seventh of the sabbath, rose again from the dead, which 
 day was the third from the Passion, but in the number of the days, as 
 they revolve throughout all time, is both the eighth and the first." 
 
 The more any one can realize these details, the more He must ob- 
 viously admire the unity and harmony of God's dispensations ; but let 
 any narrow the correspondence as closely as he can, yet if he think 
 lightly of Water Baptism, he must surely, if he compare his mind 
 with that of St. Peter, find himself reproved, in that the Apostle held 
 the flood, which covered the face of the whole earth, and the tops of 
 the highest mountains, and prevailed upwards, to be but a shadow 
 and type* of the baptismal stream, which each of our little ones enters 
 as " a child of wrath," and arises "a child of God, a member of Christ, 
 an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 Passage of the Red Sea. 
 
 The contrast of destruction and preservation, which is contained in 
 the type of the deluge, is brought out more prominently in that of the 
 passage of the Red Sea ;t and that, both because the destruction is in 
 this case related to have been the means of the preservation, and 
 because one enemy of God and of His redeemed, stands forth most 
 conspicuously. The reference of this type to Baptism (being so 
 distinctly asserted by St. Paul|) could not of course be questioned 
 by any Christian ; and as little that of the manna to the Holy Eu- 
 charist ; yet, in modern days, neither has the whole of its instruct- 
 iveness been realized, nor the light thrown upon the sacramental 
 character of the history. Its special teaching, as dwelt upon by 
 St. Paul himself, is this ; the completeness and universality of our 
 deliverance, through Baptism, and the subsequent peril of losing its 
 fruits ; and that, although once delivered, we may yet not reach the 
 promised inheritance. The flood portrays the Church, as a small 
 portion only of the world ; " wherein few, that is, eight souls, were 
 
 Naz. Orat. xli. in Pentec. 5 2. (quoting elder writers) xliv. in Nov.Domin. 5 5. 
 Greg. Nyss. de inser. Ps. c. 5. and in Ps. 6. Maximus Capp. Theol. Cent. i. 
 5 51. sqq. Hence churches and fonts were built octagonally, App. ad Paulin. 
 Op. p. 65. in memory of the Resurrection. 
 
 * " Baptism is a greater deluge than that described by Moses, since more are 
 baptized than were drowned by the deluge." — Luther, Serm.de Baptismo, ap. 
 Gerhard, loci de S. Bapt. 5 9. " The water," says S. Aug-ustine, " prevailed 
 fifteen cubits upwards above the height of the mountains," i. e. this sacra- 
 ment trancsends all the wisdom of the proud." — c. Faust, xii. 19. 
 
 t This was expressed in the old Latin form, which was followed in Edward 
 "VTs first book ; " and did'st drown in the Red sea obstinate (wicked, Eng.) 
 king Pharaoh with all his, and leddest Thy people through, that this laver of 
 Thy holy Baptism hereafter might be signified." — See Note M. 
 
 X 1 Cor. X. 
 
248 
 
 saved by water ;" the passage of the Red Sea, and the history de- 
 pendent on it, that, even of the Church, who had been so saved 
 once, a portion only, — it is to be feared (without insisting on the ac- 
 tual proportions) a small portion only — should enter into their rest. 
 However this may be, the alarming portion of the history is that set 
 forth by St. Paul. He had just inculcated the necessity of earnest- 
 ness, diligence, temperance, self-discipline, that we may not forfeit 
 " the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus ;" and this he had 
 exemplified both in the rules which men observe in earthly rewards, 
 and in his own case. Then, lest any should think themselves se- 
 cure in the privileges they had received, he shows how their fathers 
 had all received the corresponding privileges, but, displeasing God, 
 the most had perished. Some had fallen by one sin, some by an- 
 other ; some had been spared for a while, some taken ; some had 
 reached almost the borders of the promised land, and then, " at the 
 last hour, had fallen from"* Him : all had been saved, yet at last, 
 in despite of every past and present mercy, the past deliverance, 
 the sea, the cloud, the manna, the spiritual meat, the spiritual rock, 
 and God's long forbearance, the most, one after the other, perished. 
 St. Paul (as any one must observe) lays great stress on the universali- 
 ty of these gifts; "«// our fathers were under the cloud, and a// pass- 
 ed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud 
 and in the sea, and did oil eat the same spiritual meat, and did all 
 drink the same spiritual drink, — but with the most of them God was 
 not well-pleased." It is a fearful picture, how all had, up to a certain 
 point, been brought safe ; all had been " saved from their enemies, 
 and from the hand of them that hated them ;" all had been placed 
 safely on the opposite shore ; but then a nev,' scene of trial began; 
 and it is a heavy sight to watch how each different trial seduced 
 *' some of them,"t and " they were destroyed :" it is an earnest 
 warning, which closes the list, " all these things happened to them, 
 as types, and they are written for our admonition." St. Paul, then, 
 recognizes the risk, that men, having received privileges, should 
 rest satisfied therewith, and become slothful and careless ; his very 
 object here is to meet this case ; but how does he meet it ? by de- 
 nying that they had received them, and bidding them seek to ob- 
 tain them ? No ! His argument pre-supposes in the strongest 
 way that all had had them, — but that this would not alone suffice ; 
 they must use them, be watchful in keeping them, or, like their fore- 
 fathers, peiish. " ThinkJ not, he says, that because ye have believ- 
 ed, this sufficeth to your salvation. As it profited them not, to have 
 enjoyed gifts so great, so neither will it you to have obtained Bap- 
 tism, and been admitted to the spiritual mysteries, unless ye shall 
 
 * Burial Service. t ^er. 7, 8, 9, 10. 
 
 % Horn. 23. ad 1 Cor. 10. } 2, 3. 
 
249 
 
 exhibit a life worthy of such grace. Wherefore he introduces men- 
 tion of the types of Baptism and the Mysteries. He who gave 
 them these things, He also prepared this table ; and the same led 
 them through the sea, and you through Baptism, and gave them man- 
 na and water, thee the Body and Blood. Such was His gifts ; but 
 did He spare them, showing themselves unworthy ? — Yea, though 
 He so honored them, it profitted them nothing, but the most perish- 
 ed. And yet they were numberless; but their number availed no- 
 thing : and all tliese were proofs of love ; but neither did this profit 
 them, since they showed not the proofs of love. For since the many 
 disbelieve what we are told of hell, as not being present nor visible, 
 he shows from actual facts, that God punishes sinners, though He 
 have heaped on them countless benefits. If ye will not believe the 
 things to come, he would say, yet surely ye will not disbelieve the 
 past. Consider, then, what He bestowed upon them. He freed 
 them from Egypt and its bondage, subdued the sea, from heaven 
 sent down manna, from beneath sent up strange and marvellous 
 fountains of water ; He was with them every where doing wonders, 
 and walling them in on all sides; and yet, since they yielded nothing 
 worthy of this gift, He spared them not, but destroyed them all. — 
 And all this is for thee ; — for as the gifts were types, so also are the 
 punishments types ; and as Baptism and the Table were foresha- 
 dowed, so also by what subsequently happened, was it for our sakes 
 proclaimed, that they who are unworthy of this gift shall be punish- 
 ed ; that we may by those examples be brought a better mind. 
 For as in the benefits, the types preceded, the truth followed, so 
 also shall it follow in the vengeance. See how he shows that not 
 only shall they be punished, but even more than those former ; for if 
 the one be the type, the other the reality, it must needs be that the 
 vengeance shall greatly exceed, as well as the gifts." 
 
 The very object, then, of the Apostle's warning, and the mode in 
 which he urges this type, presuppose that Christians do receive in 
 Baptism great and real gifts ; gifts, compared with which, God's 
 mightiest workings in the physical creation, the " making the sea to 
 stand on an heap," as though it were solid earth, and " bringing water 
 out of the flinty rock," were but as shadows of the real body, images 
 and outlines of the true substance — but that having received, they 
 may forfeit them, so that it had been better had they never had 
 them. So far then from arguing, as modern schools have done, that 
 because any live not worthy of his new-birth, therefore he had not 
 been so born ; the Apostle implies most fully that all had been so 
 born, though for some it "had been better, had they," thus also, 
 " never been born," The type, if one may so speak, seems pur- 
 posely so ordered, as to convey the universality of the gift ; the his- 
 tory, as well as the application, insists upon it. All their enemies 
 were destroyed, all themselves saved ; " the Egyptians whom ye 
 
250 
 
 have seen to-day, " ye shall see them again no more ;" " the wa- 
 ters returned and covered — all the hosts of Pharaoh, that came into 
 the sea after them : there remained not so much as one of tliem ;" 
 "but the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the 
 sea ; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and 
 on their left" (the same waters were their protection and the de- 
 struction of their enemies.) " Thus the Lord saved Israel that day 
 out of the hands of the Egyptians."* " Hef saved them from 
 the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand 
 of the enemy : and the waters covered their enemies : there was not 
 one of them left." Theyt " all passed through the sea." 
 
 The correspondence of the figure and the reality are every way 
 most complete, and have ever been felt so to be. Delivered from a 
 land of bondage and hard service in mud and clay,§ under One 
 Head, bearing the rod of God, the emblem of the cross, H pursued 
 by one chief enemy, to whom they had been enslaved, and by his 
 instruments and servants, TI to the very water whereby they were de- 
 livered ; then buried, as it w^ere, in the tomb, and arising again ; 
 and then their enemies destroyed to the very last ; then, entering on 
 a new scene of trial, in what is yet a wilderness, though relieved by 
 the shadow of the cloud, and guided by the pillar of fire, and supported 
 by unearthly food, not yet arrived at their rest, yet on their way thi- 
 ther, but with the risk of falUng short of it, — Israel has been ever 
 acknowledged to be our representative. His very trials are, in detail, 
 a picture of ours. His deliverance was real, from a real bondage; it 
 was wrought without exception, for them all, from all their enemies; 
 why then doubt that ours is also real, although, as being spiritual, 
 
 * Ex. xiv. 28—30. f Ps- cvi- 10, 11. Xl Cor. x. 1. 
 
 ^ " The Apostle so speaking, no believer can doubt that the passage of that 
 people through the Red sea was a figure of our Baptism, that we being by- 
 Baptism, under the guidance of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom Moses then 
 was a figure, freed from the devil and his angels, who, like Pharaoh and the 
 Egyptians, wore us down, bound to the mire of the flesh, as to the works in 
 brick, we might " sing to the Lord, for He hath done gloriously.' " — Aug. Serm. 
 363. de cant. Exod. Add- S. Cyril, Alex, in Joh. iv. p. 437. 
 
 II Justin M. Dial. c. Tryph. \ 86. Theodoret sums up concisely : " ' Those 
 things,' says the apostle, ' were the types of ours.' For the sea was an image 
 of the laver ; the cloud, of the gift of the Spirit ; Moses, of the Priest ; the rod, 
 of the Cross ; Israel passing through, of the baptized ; the Egyptians pursu- 
 ing, of the demons ; Pharaoh himself was an image of the devil. For after 
 they had passed through, the Israelites were freed from the power of the 
 Egyptians, and as in a sort of type, they received manna also from heaven ; 
 and the rock was after the pattern of the side of the Lord. For, unlooked for, 
 it sent forth streams." — Ad loc. 
 
 T[ " They are dead to us, who can no longer lord it over us ; since those our 
 offences, which made us subject to him, were, when we were set free by the 
 laver of the holy grace, drowned, as it were in the sea, and destroyed." — 
 Aug. 1. c. 
 
251 
 
 it is invisible ? Why speak of " outward covenants," " outward 
 visible signs," " dedications to God," instead of benefits imparted? 
 Had Israel's deliverance been inward, it had not been the type, but 
 the substance ; had it not been real it had been nothing ^ it could 
 be outward and yet real, because bodily; the Christian's, as being 
 spiritual, is, unless inward, not real ; i. e. it is nothing. 
 
 The ancient Church, faithful to Holy Scripture, especially in- 
 sists upon this entireness and reality of her deliverance, as portray- 
 ed in this type. " As soon," says Tertullian,* " as the people 
 marching out of Egypt passing through the water, escapes the might 
 of the king of Egypt, the water destroyed the king himself with all 
 his hosts. What more manifest figure of the sacrament of Baptism? 
 The nations are freed from the world, namely by water ; and the 
 devil, their former ruler, they leave overwhelmed in the sea." " Is 
 any perplexed," asks S. Cyprian,! as to a peculiar and painful case, 
 " because some who are baptized when sick, are still assaulted by 
 unclean spirits, let him know that the pertinacious wickedness of 
 the devil has power up to the saving water, but in Baptism loses all its 
 venomous influence. A type whereof we see in king Pharaoh, who 
 long struggling, and treacherously delaying, could resist and prevail, 
 until he came to the water ; having come thither he was conquered 
 and destroyed. But that sea the Apostle Paul declares to be the 
 mysterious image of our Baptism, where he says, ' I would not 
 have you ignorant, &c.,' and he subjoins, ' All these things were 
 images of us.'" "The J passage of the people through the sea sig- 
 nified in type nothing else than the passage of the faithful through 
 Baptism, as the Apostle testifieth. The passage through the sea 
 signified, then, no other than the sacrament of the baptized ; the 
 Egyptians pursuing, nothing else than the multitude of past oflences. 
 Ye behold how evident the mystery ! the Egyptians press, urge ; 
 the sins then follow hard, but only to the water. Why fearest 
 thou, then, who hast not come, to come to the Baptism of Christ, to 
 pass through the Red Sea? Why fearest thou? Does the con- 
 sciousness of some exceeding transgressions harass and torment thy 
 mind ? If any Egyptians lived, then fear lest any sins remain in 
 thee.''^ And for the sequel, i^ "But the way is perilous ; for when I 
 
 * De Bapt. c. 9. f Ep- 76. ad Magn. v. fin. 
 
 X Aug. in Ps. 80. \ 8. 
 
 ^ Serm. 352. de Pcenit. 2. \ 6- The previous part is much the same as 
 that on Ps. 80. In like vi^ay St. Basil, de Sp. S. c. 14. " Who is wise and 
 he shall understand this, how the sea, typically Baptism, severed from Pha- 
 raoh, as our laver does from the tyranny of the devil. The sea slew in him- 
 self the enemy ; and here also our enmity to God dies. The people went forth 
 scathless ; and we ascend from the water, as alive from the dead, saved by the 
 grace of Him Who called us." And S. Gregory of Nyssa, de Bapt. Christi, 
 T. 3. p. 375. " The people passed through, and the Egyptian king, with his 
 army, was drowned, and the history prophesied of this mystery. For now 
 
252 
 
 shall have passed the Red Sea, I shall not yet be in the land of pro- 
 mise ; that people was led through long desert tracts. Yet at least 
 be freed from Egypt. Thinkest thou, He will fail thee in the way, 
 who freed thee from thy ancient captivity ? Will He not restrain 
 thy new adversaries who freed thee from thy ancient enemies ? 
 Only pass through fearlessly, walk fearlessly, be obedient." 
 
 The other point of instruction from this type, adverted to, may 
 be spoken of more briefly, since it is not so much matter of doc- 
 trine as of impression, a tone of feeling derived from this and similar 
 images. But certainly it seems a striking instance of the sacra- 
 mental character of the Old Testament, — how God prepared men 
 beforehand for the prominence in the Christian life, which He has 
 assigned to His mysteries, — that the type of Baptism seems placed, 
 as it were, on purpose to transmit Israel to the type of the Holy 
 Eucharist. The typical people is once for all freed from his ene- 
 mies, and then he is received by the other mystery, whose outward 
 inadequacy to sustain life, its uniformity, and its simplicity, form 
 thenceforth great part of his trial, whether he will receive it as God 
 ordained it, or no ; and this accompanies him through his whole 
 pilgrimage until he enter into his rest. " Thou* shalt remember all 
 the way, which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the 
 wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know v/hat was in 
 thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments or no : 
 and He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with 
 manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that 
 He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but 
 by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man 
 live." "Andf the manna ceased on the morrow; — neither had the 
 children of Israel manna any more." The prominence assigned to 
 
 also when the people, fleeing Egypt, i. e. hateful sin, cometh to the water of 
 regeneration, it is freed and saved, but the devil with his ministers, I mean the 
 spirits of evil, is choked with grief and destroyed, accounting man's salvation 
 his calamity," Jerome, Ep. 69. ad Ocean. " Pharaoh with his army, who 
 would hinder the people of God from going forth out of Egypt, is drowned — 
 the type of Baptism ; and of his destruction is it written in the Psalms, ' Thou 
 bruisedst the heads of the dragons in the waters ; Thou didst crush the 
 heads of the great dragon.'" St. Hilary in Ps. 134. 5l9. " Pharaoh, i. e. the 
 devil, is slain when the people is baptized, overwhelmed himself with his 
 army. Thereupon were ' many nations destroyed ;' countless vices, which 
 dwelt in us, were extinguished, ' mighty kings' were slain ; of a truth 'mighty.'" 
 S. Ambrose de Myst. c. 3. " Observe how even then in that passage of the 
 Hebrews there was a figure of holy Baptism, wherein the Egyptian perished, 
 the Hebrew escaped. For what else are we taught daily in this sacrament 
 than that offences are buried, and error abolished, but piety and innocence 
 abide safe 1" Add. de Off. Min. iii. 18. " The Egyptian is sunk, the Hebrew 
 rises up, renewed by the Holy Spirit, whereby also he passed the Red Sea, 
 with sure tread." And St. Cyril of Jerus. iii. 5. xix. 2, 3. Oxf. Transl. 
 * Deut. viii. 2, 3. f Josh. v. 12. 
 
253 
 
 these types of the two sacraments mutually illustrates the eminence 
 of both ; and while they are again separated from all other ordinan- 
 ces, in that two only are thus conspicuous, they are also pointed out 
 as the ordained means, the one of saving life, the other of preserving 
 it.* The passage of the Red Sea leads to the manna, Baptism to 
 the Holy Eucharist, and the manna is given only to those who have 
 been thus led through ; miraculous sustenance of life is given to 
 those only who had in a figure received life from the dead. " When," 
 says St. Augustine,! " thou shalt have passed the Red Sea, when 
 thou shalt have been ' brought out' of thine offences with a mighty 
 hand and strong arm,' then shalt thou share mysteries, which thou 
 hast not known." *' Whenj: did the people of Israel eat manna ? 
 When they had passed the Red Sea. And what the Red sea sig- 
 nifies, hear from the Apostle. If then the type of the sea availed so 
 much, how much more the form of Baptism ! If what took place 
 as a type led to the manna the people, when brought over, what will 
 Christ, in the reality of His Baptism, bestow upon His people, 
 whom He has brought over ? By His Baptism, He bringelh over 
 believers, having slain all sins, as it were enemies pursuing, as in 
 that sea all the Egyptians perished. Whither doth Jesus, of whom 
 Moses then, bringing Israel over the sea, was a type, bring us over 
 by Baptism? To the manna. What is manna? 'I,' He saith, 
 ' am the living Bread, who came down from heaven.' The faithful, 
 when now brought over the Red Sea, receive the manna. Be cate- 
 chumens ashamed, that they know not what Christians receive; let 
 them pass the Red Sea ; let them eat the manna ; that, as they 
 have trusted in the Name of Jesus, so Jesus may entrust Himself 
 to them." " Israel," says St. Basil,^ "had not drunk of the spirit- 
 ual rock, unless he had been typically baptized ; nor will any one 
 give thee the true cup, unless thou receive the true Baptism. After 
 Baptism he ate the bread of angels ; and how shalt thou eat * the 
 true Bread,' unless thou first receive Baptism ?" 
 
 * See above p. 74. The typical character of this history is certain from 
 Holy Scripture ; the Exodus is perhaps the most remarkable (certainly it is 
 the most visible) instance of a long unbroken series of types, representing fu- 
 ture truth not only separately, but as a connected whole ; its significance 
 recommends itself to every one ; the closeness of the parallel is as remarkable 
 as its vividness ; it is for those then, who accept it in the main, to consider 
 with themselves, why they pass over some of its most pointed teaching, and 
 whereon the apostle most insists. 
 
 t In Ps. 80. 5 8. t Id. in Joh. c. 3. Tr. xi. { 4. 
 
 ^ Horn, in S. Baptism. } 2. 
 
254 
 
 Circumcision. 
 
 Scarcely less remarkable than this selection of scriptural types 
 of Baptism, or of events in the life of our Blessed Saviour bear- 
 ing upon it, is the omission of another type, equally sanctioned by 
 Holy Scripture, to which the school of Calvin gave a remarkable 
 prominence — Circumcision. It seems to have been omitted by 
 the ancient liturgies, and not introduced into our own, under the 
 same feehng with which the others were inserted, viz : that in 
 prayer to God, men naturally appeal to those things which He 
 has done for them, as the ground of imploring future mercies. 
 " We have heard with our ears, O God, and our fathers have told 
 us, the mighty works that Thou didst in their times, and in the 
 old times before them." Whereupon there follows, as there pre- 
 cedes, the petition, that " God will arise, help us, and deliver us, 
 for His Name's sake, and for His honor." The deliverance by 
 the flood and the Red Sea were eminent interpositions of this 
 sort ; they not only signified God's mercy, but, as far as this life 
 is concerned, they conferred it ; they were actual and most sig- 
 nal temporal mercies, figuring the spiritual, yet to come : Cir- 
 cumcision also figured spiritual mercies ; it figured also spiritual 
 duties ; but it conferred not the one, nor the strength to perform 
 the other. The flood and the Red Sea typified the washing away 
 of past sin ; Circumcision, the cutting ofl" " the sinful lusts of the 
 flesh," which had wrought it, and would re-produce it. It was 
 also obviously a great mark of God's favor, that He condescend- 
 ed to bring any to a nearer approach to Him, and to give them a visi- 
 ble and distinctive mark ; it was, (what so many now make the 
 Christian Sacrament to be,) an outward introduction to the privileg- 
 es comprised in being His people. Yet itself conferred nothing ; it 
 was no mean nor channel of spiritual grace. Scripture has no 
 where the slightest hint of what moderns so often assume, that it 
 imparled any spiritual benefit : the Old Testament names it but lit- 
 tle ; it alludes but three times to its spiritual meaning ; twice,* to 
 bid men themselves do for themselves, (as far as under the old dis- 
 pensation they were enabled,) that which it signified, — put away 
 their sins from them ; in the remaining placet it is a prophecy, that 
 after the Captivity God would restore them to their own land, and 
 there "circumcise their heart, and the heart of their seed, to love the 
 Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their soul, that they 
 
 * Deut. X. 16. Jer. iv. 4. 
 
 t Deut. XXX. 6. St. Cyprian quotes this and Jer. iv. as prophecies of the 
 cessation of the carnal circumcision, and the bringing in of the spiritual. 
 Testim. c. Jud. i. 8 and Justin M. who quotes Jer. iv. Dial. c. Tryph. 5 28. 
 Orig. Horn. 5. in Jerem. 5 14. Greg. Nyss. Testim. de adv. Dom. T. 2. p. 157. 
 
255 
 
 might live ," a promise accomplished in the Gospel. In the New 
 Testament it is spoken of, at best, as a thing indifferent,* neither 
 good nor bad, neither to be effaced by those who had it, nor sought 
 by those who had it not ; but, for the most part, to disparage it, in 
 the case of those who would yet stay themselves on the shadow, 
 when the substance was come : in the one place, where it is men- 
 tioned as typical of our Christian circumcision, they are carefully 
 distinguished. Baptism is not called simply by the name of this 
 type of it (probably lest the Jews, already overvaluing and proud of 
 the figure, should confound it with the substance.) In the case of 
 the passage of the Red Sea, or the water from the rock, type and an- 
 titype are blended together ; in the one, their fathers arc said to have 
 been " baptized ;"t in the other to have drunk " spiritual drink ;" but 
 Circumcision the Apostle expressly separates from Baptism, and 
 contrasts the sacrament with its type, in that he calls it " a circum- 
 cision made without hands."| As well then might we with the Jew- 
 ish false-accusers, identify that " temple made without hands," which 
 our Lord raised up after three days, with the material Jewish tem- 
 ple ; as well, that " building of God, that house made without hands, ^ 
 eternal in the heavens," wherewith the faithful "long to be clothed," 
 and "groan after," with this our corruptible clay, our "earthly 
 house ;" as confound the " Circumcision made without hands," with 
 the "Circumcision made with hands," "the Circumcision of Christ," 
 with the Circumcision of the law. "Since," says Theodoret,|| 
 " having been led away, they embraced the observance of the law, 
 he again teaches the difference of the Circumcision. For, he says, 
 it is not carnal, but spiritual ; not made with hands, but divine ; not 
 the taking away of a little flesh, but the freeing from all corruption. 
 And of these things the source is, not the law, but the Lord Christ, 
 the lawgiver of the law ; for this he means by ' in Whom ye were 
 circumcised,' and again 'in the circumcision of Christ.' " And St. 
 Chrysostome,1[ " Circumcision," he says, "is no longer with the 
 knife, but in Christ Himself. For not, as before, doth the hand 
 effect this circumcision, but the Spirit. It circumciseth not a part, 
 but the whole man. The one is a body, the other also is a body^ 
 but the one is circumcised in the flesh, the other spiritually. It is 
 not then as with the Jews. For ye have not stripped off the flesh, 
 but sins. When and how ? in Baptism. And what he calls ' cir- 
 cumcision,' again he calls a tomb. He speaketh of what is greater 
 than circumcision, for they did not merely cast away what was cir- 
 cumcised, but they destroyed it, they effaced it." 
 
 Thus also did the whole of Antiquity understand Holy Scripture. 
 
 * 1 Cor. vii. 13. t lb. X. a, 4. 
 
 tCol. ii. 11. ^ iCor. V. 1. 
 
 II Ad loc. 1 Ad loc. 
 
256 
 
 They thought not of comparing the shadows with the substance, the 
 symbols with the reahty, the image with the truth, the introductory 
 rites with the witnesses of His Presence. The reformed school con- 
 founded them, partly, in seeking over-anxiously for some scriptural 
 justification of Infant Baptism, since they debarred themselves from 
 appealing to the authority of the Church ; partly, from having lost 
 sight of the characteristic of the Christian Sacraments, — the union 
 with Christ. Denying them to be means of grace, they could not 
 but esteem them equivalent to the signs of the Old Testament. Both 
 are significant rites ; the Ancient Church believed, that the rites of 
 the law signified "the good things to come," but could not convey 
 them, because He in Whom they were to be bestowed upon us, was 
 not yet come ; while it is by virtue of that coming in our flesh, that 
 the Christian Sacraments do convey them. The modern school held, 
 in fact, that those gifts were conveyed by neither ; that the symbols 
 of tlie Old Testament, and the Sacraments of the New, were alike 
 signs of God's grace, not its channels ; that where the sign w^as giv- 
 en, the substance also was given, although independently, and with- 
 out connection with the sign ; and that, consequently, regeneration 
 (which is signified by circumcision) was bestowed upon those to 
 whom was given the sign of circumcision ;* and that Baptism in the 
 Name of the Holy Trinity was only a sign like those of the older 
 dispensation.! 
 
 The traces of this system are found, even where it is not strictly 
 received. It may be well then, as a corrective, to exhibit the mark- 
 ed way in which the fathers contrast circumcision with its antitype, 
 our Baptism in Christ. " This circumcision," says S. Justin, M.J 
 is not necessary to all, but to you only — For neither that unprofitable 
 baptism of * cisterns' do we receive. For it is nothing to this Bap- 
 tism of life. Wherefore also God cried aloud, that ' ye left Him the 
 living Fountain, and dug for yourselves broken cisterns,' which can 
 hold no water. And ye, the circumcised in the flesh, need our cir- 
 
 * Ainsvporth's Censure upon a Dialogue of the Anabaptists, p. 49. " They 
 to whom God giveth the signe and seale of righteousness by faith, and of re- 
 generation, they have faith and regeneration ; for God giveth no lying signe ; 
 Hee sealeth no vaine or false Covenant. But God gave to infants circumcis- 
 ion, which was the signe and seale of the righteousnesse of faith and regene- 
 ration. Gen. xvii. 12; Rom. iv. 11, and ii. 28, 29 ; Col. ii. 11. Therefore in- 
 fants had (and, consequently, now have) faith and regeneration, though not 
 in the crop and harvest by declaration, yet in the bud and beginning of all 
 Christian graces. They that deny this reason, must either make God the 
 author of a lying signe and seale of the Covenant to Abraham and his infants, 
 or they must hold, that infants had those graces then, but not now ; both which 
 are wicked and absurd to affirme. Or they must say, that circumcision was 
 not the signe and seale of the righteousness of faith, and then they openly con 
 tradict the Scripture. Rom. iv. 11." Comp. Calv. Instit. iv. 16. 4. 
 
 t See note K. at the end. % Dial c. Tryph. § 19- 
 
257 
 
 cumcision ; but we, having this, have no need of the other." 
 Whereupon S. Justin proceeds to argue that had circumcision been 
 necessary, God would not have accepted Abel, or Enoch, or Lot, or 
 Noah, being uncircumcised, or Melchisedech, to whom, although un- 
 circumcised, Abraham, who first received circumcision in the flesh, 
 paid tithes. Afterwards,* he insists on what St. Paul said, that 
 " Abraham received circumcision for a sign, not for justification, as 
 the Scriptures and the very fact compel us to confess," in tacit con- 
 trast with Baptism as the means of justification ; and that women 
 could not receive the circumcision in the flesh" [as they do Baptism] 
 " showing that circumcision is given for a sign, not to work right- 
 eousness." " I cry aloud," he adds,t " the blood of that circumcis- 
 ion hath been done away; and we have behaved in the saving Blood; 
 now there is another covenant, and another ' law' has ' gone forth 
 from Zion.' Christ, the true Joshua, circumcises all who will, as 
 was preached beforehand, with knives of stone, that there may be a 
 righteous nation." " See ye," he observes,! " how God rejects this 
 circumcision, which was given as a sig.i ? for it profits neither the 
 Egyptians, nor the children of Moab, nor of Edom. But be any- 
 even a Scythian or Persian, and have the knowledge of God and of 
 His Christ, and keep he the everlasting righteousness, he is circum- 
 cised with the excellent and helpful circumcision, and is a friend of 
 God ; and God is pleased with his gifts and oblations." " What^ 
 account of circumcision to me, who have this testimony of God ? or 
 what need of that Baptism, who have been baptized by the Holy 
 Ghost ?" " Thatll command that children should be circumcised on 
 the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision, wherewith we 
 Avere circumcised from error and wickedness through Him Who 
 rose from the dead, on the first day of the week, Jesus Christ our 
 
 * Dial. c. Tryph. 5 23. 
 
 t lb. } 24. St. Ambrose, i-i like way, considers the shedding of blood in cir- 
 cumcision as belonging tP the typical character of the old dispensation, and no 
 longer necessary, when "by the shedding of the Blood of the Lord, the price 
 was paid to ransom us all." — Ep. 72. ad Constantium, 5 9. So Orig. in Rom. 
 L. 11. { 13. p. 495. ed. de la Rue. 
 
 t lb. 5 28. on Jer. ix. 25. ^ lb. ^ 29. 
 
 II Dial. c. Tryp^- } 41. Justin M. refers to this again { 24. It occurs also 
 in S. Cyprian (below, p. 259.) S. Cyril Alex. Glaph. in Gen. L. 3. p. 80. in 
 Joan L. iv. c. 7. pp. 432 [ex err. 424] and 438. Aug. de nupt. et concup. ii. 
 c. 11. de pecc. orig. c. 31. Op. Imp. c. Julian, ii. 151 ; iv. 134. Ep. 157. ad. 
 Hilar. { 14. Ambrose de Abr. c. xi. J 79. Origin refers the eighth day to the 
 ♦'world to come," (which comes indeed to the same, as being opened to us by 
 His resurrection.) Horn. 8. in Lev. { 4. (see above, p. 246.) The de sabb. et 
 circ. (c. 5.) " that the regeneration of all should be after the seventh day. For 
 circumcision signified nothing else than the putting off of the birth. For we 
 are stripped of him who died on the sixth day" (Adam's fall on the Friday) 
 and are renewed on the Lord's day, when the old man being stripped off was 
 born again through the Resurrection." 
 
 VOL. II. — 9 
 
258 
 
 Lord." " And we* who through Him have approached to God, have 
 received the circumcision, not in the flesh, but the spiritual, which 
 Enoch, and those Hke him, kept. But we, having become sinners, 
 received it through Baptism, by the mercy of God ; and all may 
 alike receive it." Such are the chief contrasts, which Justin M. 
 draws between Circumcision and Baptism ; the one the type, the 
 other the substance ; the one a " broken cistern," the other a living 
 fountain ; the one circumcision in the flesh, the other in the Spirit ; 
 the one a mere mark of one people, rejected by God, unprofitable, 
 incapable of justifying, the other a '* Baptism to life," " excellent," 
 *' helpful," " wrought by Christ Himself" " to justification," making 
 our persons and oblations acceptable to Him, " to the end that we 
 may be a righteous nation ;" a " Baptism in the Holy Ghost, through 
 the Resurrection of our Lord." S. Irenaeusf uses the same argu- 
 ment as Justin M., as to the patriarchs who pleased God, being un- 
 circumcised, regarding also circumcision as a mere intermediate or- 
 dinance, and looking upon the patriarchs who pleased God without 
 it, as a sort of anticipation of Christian holiness. " This faith amid 
 uncircumcision, as joining the end to the beginning, was made the 
 first and the last. For it existed in Abraham and the other saints, 
 who pleased God, before circumcision ; and again in the last times, 
 it sprung up in the human race, through the coming of the Lord. 
 But circumcision and the law occupied the intermediate period." 
 The imperfection of circumcision he derives from Holy Scripture.^ 
 " But that God gave circumcision, not as a perfecter of righteousness, 
 but as a sign whereby the race of Abraham might remain distin- 
 guished, we learn from Holy Scripture itself (Gen. xvii, 9. sqq.) 
 These things" (Circumcision and the Sabbath) "were given for a 
 sign, but they were not without a symbolical meaning, nor superflu- 
 ous, as having been given by a wise Aitificer ; but the circumcision 
 after the flesh signified the spiritual Circumcision." S. Irenseus pro- 
 ceeds, "that man was not justified by the&«» things, but that they 
 were given as a sign to the people." Tertullian refers to the patri- 
 archs, as did Justin M. and Irenaeus, as a proof against the inherent 
 necessity of Circumcision ; denies that it cleanses man ;"6 says that 
 Abrahamll received it, as a sign for those times, not for any saving 
 privilege in it ; that the case of Zipporah shows that it had no saving 
 efficacy, else had not Moses neglected it ;" but that " God foreseeing 
 that He should give this circumcision as a sign, not for salvation, to 
 the people of Israel, therefore suggested the circumcision of the son 
 of Moses their future leader, lest they should despise it. For cir- 
 cumcision was to be given ; but as a sign whereby Israel might be 
 
 ♦ lb, { 43. t iv. 25. (al. 42.) 
 
 I iv. 16, (sj. 30.) L 2. i Adv. Jud. c. 2. 
 
 II lb. c. 3. 
 
259 
 
 distinguished." Elsewhere* he calls circumcision " the badge of 
 servitude." S. Cyprian puts down against the Jewsf the same 
 heads of argument as Justin M., the case of the patriarchs, and " that 
 that seal avails not to women, whereas " by the mark of the Lord all 
 are sealed ;"t and hence, and from prophecy he would show " that 
 the first carnal circumcision is made void, a second spiritual one 
 promised." So again as to the type contained in the eighth day. 
 " The§ observation of the eighth day in the Jewish carnal circum- 
 cision, is a sacrament premised before in shadow and image, but fill- 
 ed up in reality, when Christ came. For since the eighth day, i. e. 
 the first day after the sabbath, was to be that whereon the Lord 
 should rise again, and give us life and the spiritual circumcision, this 
 eighth day, i. e. the first after the sabbath, and the ]iOrd's day, pre- 
 ceded in the image ; which image afterwards ceased when the truth 
 supervened, and the spiritual circumcision w^as given." Origen con- 
 trasts in the same way, " the carnal circumcision," with the spiritu- 
 al, of which he says, " we are instructedll by the Apostle Paul that 
 it was a type, as many other things took place as figures and images 
 of the future truth," (quoting Phil. iii. 2, 3. Rom. ii. 28, 29. ;) he con- 
 trasts it with our *' Baptismal in water and the Spirit ;" " the spiritual 
 circumcision of mind, and that which our^Lord gave us ;"** says that 
 circumcision is not a good in itself, otherwise it would not have been 
 omitted in the wilderness, ft but only of use for a time as a mark; 
 that " nolXt Jesus son of Nun, but Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour 
 circumcised with the true and perfect circumcision ;" for that " He 
 it was. Who truly took away and cut off" from us the pollution of the 
 flesh, and cleansed qur heart and soul from the defilement of sin ;" 
 that " the circumcision in the flesh purifieth not the soul -"^^ and 
 sums up, by placing it among all the other figures of the law :|||| "As 
 
 * Adv. Marcioiiv v. 4. f Testira. adv. Jud. i. 8. 
 
 1 See above, p. 114. sqq. ^ Ep. 59. ad Fid. 
 
 I Horn. 3. in Gen. { 4. and Comm. in Matt. Tom. xii. 5 3. He compares it 
 to the gestures of Zacharias,as in itself a mere dumb picture and work. Horn. 
 5. in Luc. 
 
 T[ Horn. 7. in Exod. { 1. 
 
 ** Select, in Jos. 5- 2. 
 
 ft The same argument is used in the Testim. de Adv. Dom. adv. Jud. ap. 
 Greg. Nyss. T. 2. p. 157. St. Jerome refers to it, in Gal. iii. 7. St. Ciirysos- 
 tome,Hom. 6. in Rom. (ii. 25.) Anastasius, Bp. of Nice, Quaest.18. in Script. 
 Biblioth. S. T. 6. ap. Justinian, ad Rom. iv. 9. 
 
 %X Hom. 6. in Jos. init. The typical nature of the circumcision by Joshua 
 is again pointed out by Origen, Ep. ad Rom. L. 2. J 13. Sel. in Jos. v. 2. " the 
 knife of stone signifies our Lord, Who gave us the spiritual circumcision of 
 mind and heart." Justin M. ab. p. 257. S. Cyprian, Testim. i. 8. (Atha- 
 nasius) de Sabb. et circ. { 6. S. Jerome, adv. Jovin. {21. S. Cyril Alex. 
 in Joh. L. iv. p. 438. S. Aug. de pecc. orig. c. 31. Serm. 168. de verb. Ap. 1 
 Cor. i. 5 4. and other places. 
 
 ^^ In Ep. ad Rom. L. 2. } 13. p. 493. ed. de la Rue. m lb. p. 496. 
 
260 
 
 many baptisms were necessary before the Baptism of Christ, and 
 many purify ings before there was the purifying through ihe Holy 
 Spirit, and many sacrifices, before that One Sacrifice, the Lamb 
 without spot, Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice to the Father ; so 
 were there needed many circumcisions, until in Christ one circum- 
 cision was given to all; and the blood of many was shed beforehand,* 
 until, through the Blood of One, was wrought the redemption of all." 
 It ceased not (as Calvin taught) because it was superseded by an- 
 other sign equally arbitrary and unsubstantial : but, because the sub- 
 stance was given, the shadow ceased of course ; the King Himself 
 was come, and to what end His representative ? Thus ihe ancient 
 authort of the treatise on circumcision, if not S. Athanasius himself, 
 " For circumcision Was a type of the putting off the old man in Bap- 
 tism. Abraham having believed, received circumcision, being a sign 
 of the regeneration through Baptism. Wherefore when the thing 
 signified came, the sign ceased. For circumcision was the sigtT, the 
 washing of regeneration the thing signified. For when the old man 
 was put off, that which signified this in part, was superfluous. And 
 as the Lord's day is the beginning of the creation, and makes the 
 sabbath to cease, so this, having regenerated the man, caused cir- 
 cumcision to cease ; and as the sacrifices were shadows of the things 
 to come, so was the partial circumcision a shadow of the entire. 
 This took place then for a type of Baptism through Chiist. For 
 then it took place in part, as in a shadow ; but now, as the Apostle 
 said, we put off the whole of our earthly birth, being reborn through 
 ' the laver,' that we may no more die according to our first birth, but 
 may live according to that circumcision of ' the putting off of ihe 
 body,' which we do put off through the laver : and as the Lord said 
 to Joshua, 'to-day have I removed the reproach of Egypt from you,* 
 so, and much more, may it be said to each of those now baptized, 
 this day, the same day have I taken away the reproach of your 
 earthly birth, and the reproach of the corruption of death from you." 
 So again, St. Gregory of Nazianzum terms it a " typical seal ;"| Eu- 
 sebius^ " a sort of seal to distinguish the posterity of Abraham." 
 St. Cyril of Jerusalemll speaks of it as a type, contrasted with our 
 " spiritual circumcision in Baptism ;" as does St. Jeromel" of the cir- 
 cumcision by Joshua. St. Basil** contrasts it, in St. Paul's words^ 
 with "the circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the 
 flesh, perfected in Baptism. In the one was pain and a sore ; here 
 
 * See above, p. 257, n. 2. 
 
 t De Sabb. et Circ. c. 5, 6. ap. Athanas. 0pp. T. 2. p. 58, 9. The Bene- 
 dictines say " there is no means of deciding whether it be his or no ; but at 
 least, it is the work of some pious and learned man." 
 
 t Orat. xl. 27. ^ Dem. Ev. i. 6. 
 
 I Lect. v. 6. Tf In Gal. iii. 7. 
 
 ** Horn, in S. Bapt. J 2. 
 
261 
 
 we liave the dew of the soul, and a cure of the sore of the heart." 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria, with " the spiritual and divine circumcis- 
 ion,"* " from the living Word ;"t which suffereth us not to be defil- 
 ed with the pleasures of the flesh, nor to be steeped in this world's 
 toils, but frees us from death and corruption, and makes us ' partak- 
 ers of the Divine Nature,' through the participation of our Saviour 
 Christ ;" " the purifying^ through the Spirit, in the faith and Res- 
 urrection of Christ, which casteth out all sin, destroyeth death and 
 corruption, and obtaineth sanctification^and union with Christ, is the 
 image of freedom, the way and door to friendship with God." St. 
 Epiphanus<j speaks of it as imperfect, and given as a sign only and 
 memorial to them afterwards, and as a type of that great Circumcis- 
 ion, which accomplisheth every thing equally in all to whom it is 
 vouchsafed, which now He had come and fulfilled, having given the 
 perfect Circumcision of His own Mysteries, not in one member only, 
 but sealing the whole body and circumcising it from sin ; and not 
 saving a portion of the people, i. e. not men only, but sealing in truth 
 the whole Christian people, and giving them abundantly the inheri- 
 tance of the kingdom of Heaven, giving the seal, not, for its weak- 
 ness, confined to the one order, men only, but laying open the king- 
 dom of heaven to the whole people, through the seal and command- 
 ments, and wholesome instruction." And again, || " The carnal 
 circumcision served for a time, until the great Circumcision, i. e. 
 Baptism, which circumcisethus from sin, and sealeth us to the Name 
 of God." Prosper^! calls it " a corporeal sign of the promise, which 
 lasted to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and passed into the 
 spiritual sacrament of the true circumcision of the heart ;" a con- 
 temporary,** " a sign figuring, that circumcision of the heart which 
 shines forth in the New Testament ;" Primasius,tt " a sign, not an 
 augmentation of righteousness." St. Hilary It asks, " What will that 
 circumcision, which was instituted as a sign only, now profit the 
 Jews, not having the Author of the spiritual circumcision ?" S. 
 Gregory of Nyssa,§^ Anastasius, B. of Nice,||i| and TheodoretlH say, 
 " it justifieth none ;" S. Jerome,*** " it is utterly nothing," that it was 
 
 * In Mich. T. 3. p. 470. t In Job. L. iv. p. 437. 
 
 X lb. 438. comp. p. 432. ^ Hser. xxx. 33, 34. 
 
 II Hser. viii. 6. add Hser. xxviii. 4. Again he calls circumcision " a visible 
 seal, given as a type of the true and invisible." — Haer. xxx. 27. 
 
 ^ Chronic. Abram. 
 
 ** Auct. lib. de Promiss. et Praed. Dei. i. 14. ap. Prosper, -T. 2. p. 70. 
 
 tt Ad Rom. iv. " signum est justitise non augmentum." His commentary is 
 from older fathers. 
 
 I+In Ps. 118. lit. 13. H-P- 131, 2. 
 
 <^\ Testim. 1. c. ||I| 1. c. 
 
 T[t Qu. 68. in Gen. *** In Gal. v. 2. 
 
262 
 
 "given for a sign ;"* S. Chrysostomef and Epiphanins,t "it is ut- 
 terly of no avail ;" Archelaus,^ " it can save none." St. Ambrosell 
 argues from the apostle's words, " the sign of circumcision ;" but 
 the sign is of something else, and not the thing itself, i. e. not the 
 truth, but pointing to the truth. Whence we understand rightly, that 
 carnal circumcision is a sign of the spiritual. The sign then remain- 
 ed until the truth should come. The Lord Jesus came, Who saith, 
 I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, For He circumciseth, not 
 a small portion of the body, as a sign, but the whole man in truth ; 
 because ' after that which is perfect is come, that which was in part 
 is done away;' and therefore the partial circumcision ceased, when 
 the circumcision of the whole dawned. For now, not in part, but 
 the whole man is saved in body, is saved in soul." " The seal and 
 form of circumcision itself was not superfluous, in that the people of 
 God, marked, as it were, by a seal on the body, was distinguished 
 from all other nations. But now, having the name of Christ vouch- 
 safed him, he no longer needs any bodily mark, on whom has been 
 bestowed the privilege to be named with the Name of God."1[ St. 
 Ambrose also, though giving many spiritual applications of the Chris- 
 tian circumcision, identifies it wiih Baptism as its channel, as with 
 the Passion as the source of its efficacy. " As** many sorts of bap- 
 tisms were premised, because there was to follow that one true Sa- 
 crament of Baptism ' in the Spirit and water,' whereby the whole 
 man is redeemed, so the circumcision of many was to be premised, 
 because there was to follow the circumcision of the Passion of the 
 Lord, which Jesus suffered as the Lamb of God, that He might take 
 away the sins of the world." To close this list with the contrast of 
 S. Chrysostome,tt which may illustrate how the Church felt her priv- 
 ileges and the duties consequent. " Consider now, beloved, the 
 loving-kindnesses of God, and His unspeakable goodness towards 
 us. In circumcision, there was both pain and trouble from it at the 
 time, and no oiher benefit than only this, that they were distinguish- 
 able by this sign, and separated from all other nations. But our cir- 
 cumcision, the grace, I mean, of Baptism, brings a cure without 
 pain, and procureth for us countless goods, and fills us with the 
 grace of the Spirit, and is not restrained to a definite time, (as was 
 
 * In Jerem. L. 2. c. 9. ult. 
 
 t " St. Paul might have said that the prophets call the Jews uncircumcised, 
 but this had been no disparagement of circumcision, only of those who used it 
 amiss. But his object is to show that it hath no value whatever, even with the 
 very best life." — Horn. 6. in Rom. (ii. 25.) 
 
 I Ha3r. XXX. 33. 
 
 \ Ep. ad Diodor. ap. Routh, Reliq. T. iv. p. 241. 
 
 II De Abr. i. 4. 5 29. Add. Ep. 72. ad Constantium, 5 15. 23. 
 1 Ep. 72. 5 10. ** lb. } 18. 
 
 tt Horn. 40. in Gen. 17. 5 4. 
 
circumcision,) but any, whether in early or middle life, or in old 
 age itself, may receive the ' circumcision made without hands,' 
 wherein there is no pain to be undergone, but the burthen of sin is 
 laid aside, and forgiveness found for all transgressions of all the past. 
 For the all-gracious God, knowing our exceeding weakness, and that 
 being incurably sick, we need a mighty medicine and ineffable lov- 
 ing kindness, compassing our salvation, gave us the 'renovation' 
 through * the washing of regeneration,' that * having laid aside the 
 old man,' i. e. our evil actions, and * put on the new man,' we may 
 walk on the way of goodness. Be we not then worse, I entreat, 
 than the ungrateful and insensate Jews." 
 
 Such then was the Catholic view of the relation of circumcision 
 to Baptism ; the witnesses adduced are from well nigh every 
 Church, and from the earliest times ; from Palestine, Antioch, Asia 
 Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Atrica Proper, Gaul, N. & S. Italy ; nor 
 is there any contradicting voice. In the later ]jatin Church, how- 
 ever, a somewhat different view prevailed, traceable to the influence 
 of one powerful mind, and, as being so traceable, of no moment in 
 ascertaining the view of the Church. It is the result of the work- 
 ings of one mind, not the property of the Church. The view of St. 
 Augustine was inherited on his authority through S. Thomas* by 
 the schoolmen ; and through Pope Gregory,! by the later adherents 
 of Rome ;| but it is the view of one man, opposed, in its degree, to 
 that of the Church. St. Augustine came to his view in the course of 
 his controversy with the Pelagians. And in this way, other fathers 
 had noticed the temporal deliverances connected with circumcision, 
 as that the passage of Jordan was connected with the renewal of 
 circumcision, § or that the destroying angel departed when Zipporahi 
 
 • 3 part, qu, 62. ar^ 6. ap. Feurdent 1. c. 
 
 t Moral, iv. 2. 
 
 X This appears from Feaurdent. on IrenaBUs,iv. 30. who is himself evident- 
 ly determined by this view having been taken by Popes. In like way Jus- 
 tinian in Rom. iv. 16. very learnedly defends the opposite side, but at the end 
 embraces the " common opinion of Catholics, which is not readily to be aban- 
 doned, although these most weighty testimonies of so many Fathers may free 
 the other opinion from all sus[)icion- or dangerousness." Some of the less 
 obvious of the above authorities were furnished by Justinian. 
 
 ^ Perhaps S. Irenaeus refers to this, iii. 12. 11. " Who called Abraham's 
 seed out of Egypt, manifestly preserved by circumcision (for He gave it for a 
 sign, that they might not be like the Egyptians.") S. Augustine himself does 
 (Ep. 23. ad Maximin. 5 4.) " This mystery also withheld the river Jordan, 
 and sent it back to its source." 
 
 II It appears from TertuUian (adv. Jud. c. 3.) that the Jews urged the case of 
 Zipporahas a proof of the continued necessity of circumcision. St. Jerome 
 appeals to it in proof that there was a degree of temporal benefit connected 
 with, though not conveyed by, circumcision, proportioned to that dispensa- 
 tion, before our Lord came. " * Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep 
 the law.' It was then of use to thoss who lived under the law, not because 
 
264 
 
 circumcised her son, or that death was the penalty of its omission, and 
 
 so escaped by its fulfilment ;* " the uncircumcised, whose flesh of 
 his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his 
 people ; he hath broken my covenant." S. Basil had noticed the 
 correspondence of this heavy sanction with the words of our Lord 
 as to Baptism, its antitype : " Except a man be born of water and 
 
 they we7-e circumcised,hui because ' they were entrusted with the oracles of 
 God,' which, if they turned into action, they were not alien from salvation. 
 Nor let it disturb us, that Zipporah takino; the stone, circumcised her son, and 
 withheld the destroying angel from her husband (or as this is differently re- 
 lated in the Hebrew) because to say that their circumcision was as utterly of 
 no avail as the Apostle testifieth it to be in Christ Jesus, from the time that 
 the Gospel has shone through the whole world, were a needless censure of 
 circumcision. Like the rest of the law, it was of avail then, when earthly 
 blessings were promised to those who kept the law, that, if they fulfilled it, 
 they should be blessed in the city, blessed in the field, have full stores, and 
 many like promises. But we would be strong and strengthen in Christ Je- 
 su.s, i. e. in the true circumcision, not in the Jewish concision." in Gal. v, 4. 
 St- Augustine himself looks upon this as a temporal deliverance only, Ep. 23. 
 ad Maximin. " Which seal of the righteousness of faith was of so much 
 avail then, before it was emptied by the coming of the Lord, that the angel 
 would have destroyed the infant son of Moses, had not its mother, seizing a 
 stone, circumcised the child, and by the sacrament removed the impending 
 destruction." The more common opinion among the ancients was, that Mo- 
 ses himself, not his child, was threatened with death ; as in S. Jerome 
 (above ;) Theodoret, Qu. 14. in Ex. ; C^sarius, Serm. 18. de Moyse, 1. ap. 
 Aug. T. 5. App. ; S. Cyril Alex, in Joh- iv. p. 432 [ex. err. 424;] Isidor. Pe- 
 lu3. Euseb. Cees. and Emess., Diodorus, in Catena, quoted by Bonfrer. in 
 Pentateuch ad loc. St. Augustine himself (Quaest. in Exod. ii. 11.) doubts 
 whether it were not Moses whom the angel so'.ight to slay, but in either case 
 assigns as the only reason " the sanction of the command of circumcision, 
 through the severity of the penalty." 
 
 * S. Basil, Hom, in S. Bapt. \ 2. " The Jew delays not circumcision, on 
 account of the threat, tliat ' every soul which shall not be circumcised on the 
 eighth day, shall be destroyed from its people,' and dost thou delay the 
 ' circumcision made without hands in the putting off of the flesh,' which is 
 accomplished in Baptism, when thou hearest the Lord Himself, ' Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, unless a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he shall 
 not enter into the kingdom of God V St. Augustine, in applying this pas- 
 sage (c- Julian. Pel. ii. 6. \ 18.) says, " Seest thou how this man, imbued 
 with ecclesiastical learning, compared circumcision with circumcison, threat 
 with threat. Not to be ' circumcised on the eighth day,' answers to not 
 being baptized in Christ ; and to ' perish from his people,' to ' not entering 
 into the kingdom of heaven.' And yet ye deny that in infant baptism there is 
 any 'putting off of the flesh,' i. e. a 'circumcision not made with hands,' 
 inasmuch as ye contend that they have nothing which needs to be put off. 
 For we confess that they are dead in the foreskin of their flesh, whereby 
 sin is signified, especially that which is derived by our origin." (St. 
 Augustine, in the same place, refers, as an authority, to the Martyr Cy- 
 prian, speaking of the circumcision in the flesh, as enjoined for a sign of Bap- 
 tism." See above, p. 259-) S. Cyril of Alexandria, Glaph. in Gen. 1. iii, p. 
 80, apparently uses the same parallel as S. Basil ; as also does Gregory, Mo- 
 ralia, iv. 3. 
 
265 
 
 the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," Circumci- 
 sion then was again a type of Baptism, in that it was the condition, 
 — in the case of Moses' son, the means, — of escaping temporal, 
 as Baptism is the appointed means of rescuing from eternal, death. 
 S. Augustine pressed the comparison further ; he urged what he 
 thought the letter of Holy Scripture, and contended (as his is alto- 
 gether a sterner theology) that the death threatened to the uncircum- 
 cised male was not temporal, but eternal; and thence inferred further, 
 that since the "male child" (of whom he interpreted it) could not "have 
 broken the covenant" by any act of his own, therefore the covenant 
 spoken of was that with Adam ; that it was for the covenant broken 
 in him, in other words, original sin, for which the child was sentenced 
 to death ; and that consequently this law proved original sin, and 
 that it was remitted by means of circumcision, as well as by Baptism. 
 " What ill," he asks,* " has the little one committed of his own will, 
 that for the neglect of another who failed to circumcise him, himself 
 should be condemned by a condemnation so severe, that " that soul 
 should perish from his people V For neither is it temporal death, 
 which is threatened thus terribly, since of the righteous, when they 
 die, it were rather said, ' and he was gathered to his people,' or ' to 
 his fathers,' inasmuch as henceforth he hath no temptation? to fear, 
 which may separate him from ' his people,' if so be his people is the 
 people of God." "If," he infers, "question be made of the righteous- 
 ness of this horrible punishment, is not all that arguing about free- 
 will, and the praiseworthy purity and soundness of our nature, toss- 
 ed back and shivered ?" This was (as was said) no Catholic opin- 
 ion ; and so it remains free to us to think, and is the more Catholic 
 view, that temporal death only was threatened to the uncircumcised, 
 that the type of Baptism saved from the type of eternal death, as 
 real Baptism from the reality. His argument, moreover, rests en- 
 tirely on the supposition that the death is threatened to the uncir- 
 cumcised child, and not rather to the adult,! who, by remaining un- 
 circumcised contumaciously, broke the covenant. For death is de- 
 nounced in the same terms, for the breach of other laws, where yet 
 no especial reward followed upon keeping them. The peculiarity 
 of this case would have arisen from its involving original sin. It is, 
 however, much to be remarked, that although St. Augustine here 
 (as in some other cases) was led, through the energy of his mind, to 
 take up a peculiar and untenable argument, and to lay much stress 
 
 * De pecc. orig. c. Pelag. c. 30. add. c. Julian. Pel. iii. 18. 5 34. de nupt. et 
 concup. ii. 11. &c. 
 f Our version so far agrees with St. Augustine by rendering *°)^f, Gen.xvii. 
 
 14. "manchild." It were better throughout to render it "male," ver. 10. 12. 
 14 ; and in v. 12. the addition " he hath broken my covenant," applies more 
 
266 
 
 upon it,* he still keeps to Catholic truth in the main ; and even 
 when urging the benefits of circumcision, is very far from identify- 
 ing it with Baptism. It is very observable how, not only else- 
 where, but in the very places in which he is urging its efficacy thus 
 far, he still calls it but the " signf of the Baptism of Christ," says, 
 " that it, among the other sacraments" [mysterious and significant 
 acts] " of the ancients, prophesied of Christ,"^ that " it^ so availed 
 to signify the cleansing of the original and primeval sin in infants 
 also, as Baptism to the renewal of the man ;" that it " prefiguredl 
 our Baptism," or "the regeneration in Christ,"T[ and "His grace,"*'' 
 and " His resurrection,"tt" the renewal of our nature, by the putting 
 off of the old,"|t "the putting off of the flesh,"^^ "the putting off of the 
 carnal life through the resurrection of Christ "|1|| " the putting off of 
 the mortality which we have from our birth after the flesh,"in[ "that 
 through Christ, the Author of regeneration, original sin was taken 
 away,"*** "our justification, iff to the putting off of carnal concupi- 
 scences through the resurrection of the Lord," " the putting off car- 
 nal desires from the heart, "J|| " the future circumcision§^§ of the 
 heart which the Jews bore in the flesh, in the heart rejected ;" " that 
 it was a sacramental symbol of the circumcisionlHH of the heart, as 
 the temple of Jerusalem was of the Body of the Lord, the land of 
 promise, of the kingdom of heaven, the many sacrifices of the One 
 Sacrifice." He contrasts it elsewhere, as " a shadow,"^ " an empty 
 shadow,"^ with the reality; " the sign,"' with the "thing signified ;" 
 as a thing " imposed' upon men, when slaves, understood by them 
 when set free," says that "it was changed for what was better ;"1[1[1[ 
 
 naturally to the adult. St. Augustine himself felt that it was an unusual ex- 
 pression as to a child which " knew neither good nor evil." 
 
 * " There is no need to go along way about to try to prove to me what I 
 grant ; but answ«r this, if thou canst, Why, unless Isaac himself had been cir- 
 cumcised on the eighth day with the sign of the Baptism of Christ, his soul 
 would have perished from his people. Go not off amid a number of obscure, 
 perplexed, superflous points ; answer this one, clear, simple, and essential." 
 — c. Julian., Pel. iii. 18. \ 34. 
 
 f c. Julian. Pel. 1. c. JDe pecc. orig. c. 31. 
 
 } De nupt. et concup. ii. 11. 
 
 II De anima et ej. orig. ii. 11. c. Cresc. Donat. i. 31. 
 
 ^ Op. Imp. c. Julian, i. 50. de Civ. Dei, xvi. 27. 
 
 ** Op, Imp. G. Julian, ii. 151. 
 
 ft Op. Imp. c. Jul. iv. 134. c. Faust, xix. 9. Ep. 157. ad Hilar. } 14. 
 
 \\ De Civ. Dei xvi. 26. ^^ c. Faust, xxv. tin. 
 
 Ijj Serm. 231. in dieb. Pasch. 2. } 3. 
 
 irir c. Faust, xvi. 29. *** Op. Imp. c. Jul. ii. 73. 
 
 ttt c. litt. Petil. ii. 87. \\\ Tr. 30. in Ev. Joh. \ 5. 
 
 \\\ Serm. 149, de verb. Act. 10. &c. c. 3. 
 
 Illjjl In Ps. 74. \ 12. Circumcisio carnis magni sacramenti vis est, et tntelli- 
 gitur inde circumcisio cordis. Templum illud Jerusalem magni sacramenti 
 res est, et intelligitur ex eo corpus Domini. 
 
 ' c. Adimant. c. 16. \ 2. 3. c. Faust, vi. 2. Serm. 169. de verb. Ap. Phil. 3. 
 TniTI c. Faust, xix. 9. Ep. 23. ad Maximin. } 4. 
 
267 
 
 that " were he a Jew in the times of the ancient people, he would 
 receive circumcision, since he could have nothing belter ;"* that 
 " it was abolished by our Lord's first coming, as Baptism shall be by 
 His second," (Baptism being also a type of the future resurrection ;) 
 that it was a sign of the same sort as the cross in our foreheads ;t 
 that it "belonged to aso7'tt of seal of deliverance." 
 
 This is not the way in which St. Augustine speaks of our Chris- 
 tian Baptism, however it may accord with much modern language 
 respecting it. St. Augustine, speaking of it, does not linger among 
 the shadows of the Old Testament, nor speak of his Baptism, as be- 
 ing a sign, or figure, or shadow, but the blessed substance, and real- 
 ity, and truth, foresignified in the shadows of the law. Baptism he 
 calls, not " a sort of seal of deliverance," but " deliverance, salva- 
 tion"^ itself. " God forbid," says he,|| " that I should term the grace 
 of that laver empty, wherein I was re-born of ' water and the Spirit,' 
 whereby I was freed from the guilt of all sins, which I brought with 
 me by my birth, or on me by ill life ; whereby I am freed so as to 
 know not to ' enter into temptation,' drawn away and enticed by my 
 own concupiscence, and so as to be heard, when saying with all who 
 share it, 'forgive us our debts ;' whereby I shall be freed, as I hope, 
 for ever, when no law in my members shall resist the law of my 
 mind :" — wherein, he says, we have a perfect cleansing,^! such as 
 John's Baptism had not, " are cleansed"** every " whit ;" our " lit- 
 tle ones are renewed by the grace of Christ ;"tt " all the weight of 
 ancient sin laid aside, the former offences of the ancient ignorance 
 effaced, and the old man with the inborn guilt put oif,"tt wherein 
 also, he doubted not, our " little ones were not only engrafted into 
 His Body," but " the most hidden grace of the Spirit," was " se- 
 cretly poured into them ;"^^ whereby " they who receive it 
 rightly, are washed both in flesh and Spirit ;"|||| and our very 
 "evil desireSjIFH so long as they be not consented to, even though 
 they remain, are still all "cleansed." He does not so speak of 
 that gift, whereby he says we are " re-born in Christ," "made mem- 
 bers of Christ ;" " If ye would think what ye have been made, all 
 your bones will say, * Lord, who is like unto thee V For that con- 
 descension of God cannot be adequately conceived, and all human 
 language and understanding fails."*** 
 
 * Ep. ad Max. 1. c. f Serm. 160. de verb. Ap. 1 Cor. xi. } 4. 
 
 X Signaculum aliquod salutis. Tr. 30. in Ev. Job. \ 4. 
 
 $ See above p. 74. 
 
 II c. Julian. Pelag. vi. 44. 1" Ep. 44. ad Eleus. &c. $ 10. 
 
 •* Tract. 56 and 57, in Ev. Job. 
 
 ft Op. Imp. c. Julian, i. 55. 
 
 jJReticius, Bishop of Augustodunutti, alleged by S. Aug. lb. 
 
 4^ De pecc. mer. et rem. i. \ 10. 
 
 llll Quaest. in Numer. iv. 35. { 11. 
 
 il"^ De pecc. orig. } 44. 
 
 *** Serm. 224. in die Pasch. i. init. 
 
268 
 
 All this language is in perfect harmony with his well-known dis- 
 tinction, that •' neither* the sacraments, nor the promises of the two 
 Testaments are the same ; for that the sacraments of the New-Tes- 
 tament give salvation ; the sacraments of the Old promise the Sa- 
 viour," or when he says (especially including circumcision) that "thef 
 ancient sacraments were neither good, in that men are not justified 
 by them ; for they are shadows, for eannouncing the grace xoherehy 
 we are justified, — nor yet bad, because enjoined by God, and con- 
 formable to the time and persons ;" and that they were to be ob- 
 served at first by Jews who believed, " to sett forth their Divine ori- 
 gin and prophetic sanctity, not from those sacraments to obtain salva- 
 tion, which was now being revealed in Christ, and ministered through 
 the sacrament of Baptism." It is not incidentally, but of set pur- 
 pose, that he every where so carefully uses the words, " signs," 
 " signify," " prefigured," "foreshadowed;" and in his strongest pas- 
 sage attributes to circumcision the office of " signifying^^^ only 
 " the cleansing of original sin," to "Baptism, the renewal of the man." 
 However he may have been led to ascribe more to circumcision than 
 Scripture warrants, he yet neither exalts the shadow into the sub- 
 stance, nor contracts the substance, vouchsafed to us, once more 
 into its shadow. 
 
 Of the relation of circumcision to Baptism, then, St. Augustine 
 thinks no otherwise than any other father ; he looks, || indeed, upon 
 the history of Abraham and Isaac, whose faith was accepted re- 
 spectively in uncircumcision, and in circumcision, as analogous to 
 the cases of Cornelius, " in whom spiritual sanctification preceded 
 in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and there followed the sacrament of 
 regeneration in the laver of Baptism," and of our " baptized infants," 
 in whom " the sacrament of regeneration precedes ; and if they hold 
 fast Christian piety, there will follow also that conversion*^ in the 
 heart, whereof the sacrament preceded in the body ;" but he does 
 not herein ascribe any efficacy to circumcision, nor derogate from 
 that of Baptism ; he uses it simply as an illustration, as a "private 
 conjecture;"** nor again does he identify the giant faith of Abraham, 
 nor Isaac's holy " imitation of his father's faith," with the case of 
 
 * In Ps. 73. 5 2. t Ep. 82. (ol. 19.) ad Hieron. 5 14. 
 
 t lb. 5 9. 5 De nupt. et concup. ii. 11. seep. 335, 6. 
 
 II De Bapt. c. Don. v. 24. 
 
 "![ On this passage of St. Augustine see further c. 7. below. 
 
 ** " Veraciter conjicere possumus ;" his own explanation of the benefits of 
 infant-baptism he gives as a conjecture, in contrast to the fact, that they do 
 derive some benefit, which, as being " held in the urfversal Church," he re- 
 gards as of divine authority. " And if any seek for divine authority in this 
 matter, although what the universal Church holds, not having been instituted 
 by Councils, but having ever been retained, is most rightly believed to have 
 been delivered down by no other than apostolical authority, yet we may with 
 truth conjecture." &c. 
 
269 
 
 any ordinary Jew. The holy patriarchs form a distinct head in the 
 history of man. 
 
 Circumcision, however weak and unprofitable in itself, signifying 
 what it could not realize^ was yet the shadow of great things. " It 
 typified* and preached beforehand the grace and power of Baptism. 
 For as he who was circumcised was through that seal accounted 
 among the people of God, so he who is baptized, haA'ing the seal of 
 Christ formed in him, is enrolled in the adoption of the sons of God." 
 *' It was a symbol also of the faithful, placed in the grace of the Gos- 
 pel, who, through the sharp word of faith and by ascetic exercises, 
 cut off and kill the uprisings of fleshly pleasures and passions, not 
 cutting ihe body but the heart, and being circumcised in spirit, not 
 in letter." It cherished the expectation of the things hereafter to be 
 revealed, which it could not bestow : what it could not do, " being 
 weak through the flesh," it foretold of. " What else does circum- 
 cision signify," says St. Augustine, f " than nature renewed, — its 
 old decay put off"? And what else doth that eighth day than Christ, 
 who rose again when the seven were completed, i. e. on the day 
 after the Sabbath ? The names of the parents [Abraham and Sa- 
 rah] also are changed ; every thing speaks of ' renewal ;' and in 
 the Old Testament is shadowed out the New. For what 
 else is the Old Testament called than the veiling of the New ? 
 What the New than the revealing of the Old ?" And were 
 these shadows, and signs, and expectations, and longing voices of 
 the Old Testament never to have their fulfilment? Is Bap- 
 tism still to be a mere type, because circumcision was ? Has it no 
 power communicated " througii the resurrection of Jesus Christ,":j: 
 which the eighth day shadowed forth ? Is it nothing that our name 
 is changed, and that we now bear that of the Son of God ? Is our ad op 
 tion still only to be a temporal people of God? Or has not rather 
 the Incarnation of the Son of God united heaven with earth, filled 
 earthly symbols with spiritual Life, which is Himself, converted the 
 letter into the Spirit, and exchanged the types for the Truth ? Cir- 
 cumcision, then, surely held out that the heart should one day be 
 circumcised for God's people; and as the Jewish little one received 
 the symbol, so may we trust that we and our children received the 
 reality, if we and they but hold on " according to that beginning," 
 and become not again " uncircumcised." 
 
 Levitical Washings. 
 
 As the prominence of circumcision, the indispensable means of 
 admission into the chosen people, set forth the greatness of Baptism, 
 so did the frequency of the Levitical Baptisms. Ever renewed, on 
 
 * Photius, Ep. ccv. p. 302. quoted by Suicer, v. ircptroii^. 
 t De Civ. Dei, xvi. 26. \ 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 
97» 
 
 account of their inadequacy, they, by their very continual repetition, 
 created the longing for that great cleansing which was to be here- 
 after, the need whereof they so feelingly inculcated. The typical 
 character of their " divers washings or baptisms,"* as well as their 
 insufficiency, is authenticated by St. Paiil ; the very name under 
 which he comprehends them, ("baptisms,") guides us the rather to 
 the one act of cleansing, wherein the Blood of Christ is applied to 
 wash away sins. They were of divers kinds; and, beyond the one 
 general notion of cleansing, in order to fit men to appear in the pre- 
 sence of God, they had their subordinate meanings. The brazen 
 laver itself was a type of Baptism.f Placed by God " between the 
 altar and the tabernacle of the congregation, "t it stood, as it were, a 
 baptistery, without which the atoning blood did not avail for man to 
 approach to God, " that they die not." Before Aaron and his sons- 
 might enter the tabernacle, (the emblem of the Church,) ihey must 
 " wash with water."^ The priestly character|| of the Christian 
 Church, as a whole, may be betokened, in that this laver was espe- 
 cially appointed for Aaron and his sons. Further, in the cleansing 
 of the leper (to the minute account of which St. Paul's words 
 would naturallylF direct) there is the remarkable connection of the 
 "blood" and the " living water ;" again pointing to the source 
 whence Baptism derives its efficacy to cleanse our " leprous huma- 
 nity,"** the loathsome, and by man incurable, leprosy of sin. "As," 
 says Theodoret,tt " the blood of the slain bird was mingled with 
 pure water through cedar wood and hyssop; and the leper, sprinkled 
 therewith, was declared pure and clean, so also doth he who believ- 
 eth in Christ the Saviour, and is cleansed with the water of all-holy 
 Baptism, lay aside the spots of sin. — Wherefore those who are bap- 
 tized, are by these freed from the leprosy of the soul." Again, J:{: 
 '* The type corresponds with the shaJdow, the truth with the aub- 
 
 ♦• Heb. ix. 10. f Cyril, J^rus. Lect. iii. 6, 
 
 X Ex. XXX. 18 ; xl. 7. { lb. xxx. 20, 21. 
 
 I " The high-priest first bathes, and then burns incense ; for Aaron first 
 bathed, and then was made high-priest ; for how might he intercede for the 
 rest, who had not yet been cleansed by water 1" — Cyril, Jerus. 1. c. and S. 
 Cyril, Alex, on the consecration of the Levites ; " The old law figured this 
 cleansing by shadows, and foreannounced the grace through holy Baptism 
 (quoting Num. vii.,) and what this water of purifying is, the most wise Paul 
 teacheth; If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprink- 
 ling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more the 
 Blood of Christ! Wherefore the laver effected a cleansing of the flesh 
 through the water of purification ; but Christ through Baptism melts away all 
 the defilements of our soul."— ^ In Is. li. i. Or. i. p. 17. 
 
 II 1 Pet. ii. 5. 9. 
 
 •|f Lev. xiv. Theodoret (on Heb. ix.) especially refers to this and c. xv. 
 
 *• Theodoret, Qu. xix. in Levit. ft !• c« 
 
 tt On Heb. ix. 
 
871 
 
 stance. For the water was the type of Baptism ; the Blood of ani- 
 mals, of the saving Blood ; — the ashes of the heifer, of the Passion 
 of the Manhood." And St. Chrysostome, on Heb. ix,* where the 
 same instruments of the typical purification are mentioned. " Was 
 not that Blood, and the rest, a sort of type, sketched long before, 
 of the Precious Blood ? — And what is the water ? It also marketh 
 the cleansing by water — he showeth here that the water and the 
 Blood are the same. For Baptism is the symbol of the Passion 
 itself. ^^ " Consider here again," says St. Cyril of Alexandria,! 
 " the whole mystery of our Saviour, and the purification by Holy 
 Baptism. The participation of the very mystic Eucharist contains 
 in it the announcement of the Death and Resurrection of Christ 
 Himself. Which having first induced believers to confess, we 
 bring them lo Holy Baptism, and consecrate them in the Blood of 
 the everlasting covenant." " The laver again shows that the Jew- 
 ish synagogue" [represented by the leprous house] " could not be 
 otherwise cleansed from the defilement of disobedience, and lay 
 aside the stains of their varied offences, except only through the 
 blessing from Christ, and confession and faith in Him, perfected and 
 sanctified through Holy Baptism. For observe how, by what is 
 said, Christ is wholly depicted to us, and faith in Him, and confes- 
 sion of Him signified. For by the * living bird,' you may under- 
 stand the ever-living, and life-giving, and heavenly Word ; by the 
 * slain,' the Precious Blood of the Temple of His Body which suffer- 
 ed, — and by the ' incorruptible wood,' His incorruptible Humanity ; 
 by the ' hyssop,' the Spirit ; by the * scarlet,' the confession of the 
 Blood of the New Testament ; by the ' living water,' the life-giving 
 grace of Baptism, which, in the very Passion, the side of our Sa- 
 viour excellently indicated, sending forth together blood and water ; 
 wherewith, he says, the house must be sprinkled, that it may be puri-- 
 fied, according to that ' I will pour clean water upon you, and ye 
 
 * Horn. 16. } 2. The parallel with our baptism is pursued at length by St. 
 Cyril of Alexandria, Glaph. in Lev. L. 1. p. 356, 7. •'Observe how the leper 
 is brought to the priest, when come ' without the gate,' and aloof from the camp 
 For Ciirist having our likeness, visited us, outcasts as it were, and abiding 
 without the holy and Sacred city. And having looked upon us, he made us 
 clean through floly Baptism and His Body. For He was sacrificed for us. 
 The hyssop may be a type of the Holy Spirit, fervent in His operation — for 
 of such nature is hyssop — wherefore this sort of herb is fitly employed with 
 the living water ; for we are ' baptized in the Holy Ghost and fire,' as is writ- 
 ten. — The leper having been sprinkled seven times, was then freed from all 
 charge of leprosy. And Christ also makes us clean, sanctifying us through 
 Holy Baptism. For this I think is meant by the ' seven times.' And so the 
 blessed Paul, ' where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.' Wherefore 
 the largeness of the grace, and, so to sayi its perfectness in cleansing, is sig- 
 miied by the 'seven times.' " 
 
 1 1. c. p. 358—68^ 
 
272 
 
 shall be cleansed.'" St. Augustine adds another purification,* 
 "Whoso is rightly washed by the sacrament of Baptism, which 
 vas figured by that water sprinkled, is cleansed both spiritually, i.e. 
 invisibly, both in flesh and soul, that he may be clean both in body 
 and spirit." " The Jews," says St. Ambrose,! "had many baptisms, 
 some superfluous,! some as a figure. And the figure itself profiteth 
 us, because it is the herald of the truth." 
 
 As then circumcision pointed out the cutting ofl* of sin itself, and 
 the impeding of its subsequent growth, so did these many washings, 
 the cleansing of its guilt and stains ; and in that they were thus in- 
 corporated with the life of the Hebrew,^ they served the more to 
 fix his mind on that grace which was to come, and which God the 
 more blended with these heralds of it, in that when it came, He made 
 water the vehicle of it, as before its symbol. 
 
 Further Types implied hy Analogy with those which Holy Scrip- 
 ture authenticates, and guar a?iteed to us by the ancient Church. 
 
 Such are the types of the Old Testament positively authenticated 
 in the New : the flood ; the passage of the Red Sea ; circumcision ; 
 the Levitical washings. It were, however, an arbitrary and un- 
 philosophical proceeding to stop short here, and to refuse to see any 
 other types of Baptism, because Scripture compels us to acknowledge 
 no more ; it is a cold, stifl", and lifeless system, so to bind ourselves 
 to take the letter of Holy Scripture, as to refuse to stir hand or foot, 
 even when that Scripture seems to beckon and invite us, and to point 
 the way. If these histories were prophetic, and (as, from the analo- 
 gy of other Scripture, is probable, minutely prophetic, it is certain 
 beforehand that others were so too ; God, who made the end answer 
 to the beginning, and the beginning a harbinger of the end, in the 
 one case, did not surely leave " Himself without witness" in others : 
 He, doubtless, sowed seeds of futurity every where, if we but dili- 
 gently collect them. If the waters of the flood reflected His image, 
 and the dove was a herald of His purpose of mercy, would the Pre- 
 sence of the Holy Spirit Himself, condescending to brood over the 
 
 * Qu. 33. in Num. 5 11. add c. Adv. leg. et proph. ii. 6. fin. 
 
 f De Sacram. ii. 1. fin. see also above, p. 148, sqq. and add, on the same type, 
 S. Greg. Naz. Oral. 40. in S. Bapt. 5 10. " Be we baptized, that we may con- 
 quer ; partake we of the cleansing waters, more purifying than hyssop, purer 
 than the blood of the bird, holier than the ashes of the heifer sprinkling the 
 unclean, and bringing a temporary cleansing of the body, not a complete remo- 
 val of sin." 
 
 X Those spoken of Mark vii. 8. 
 
 { "The daily sprinklings of the Hebrews, which were about to be hidden, a 
 little after, by the perfect and wondrous Baptism." — Greg. Nyss. in Bapt. 
 Christi, T. 3. p. 375. 
 
273 
 
 shapeless mass of waters, and thence to produce order and life, have 
 nothing significant? Or, since the passage of 1 he Red Sea figured 
 our Baptism, why should we restrain that of the Jordan, which trans- 
 mitted the people of Israel from the wilderness into the promised 
 land, still, indeed, with fresh enemies to subdue, yet guided by Je- 
 sus, the Conqueror ?* The land of Canaan was a rest from the 
 fruitless, hopeless toils and wanderings up and down in the wilder- 
 ness ; and the Church is a rest from the rewardless, unprofitable 
 struggles of the world ; both are comparatively a rest ; although the 
 rest, which both in their degrees foreshadow, is yet future, laid up 
 '* for the people of God."t Or since by our Lord's Baptism in Jor- 
 dan, *' water was sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin," is 
 there nothing remarkable that the Jordan should have been connect- 
 ed with so many miracles, and men's minds fixed upon it before- 
 hand, and ''the way prepared," as it were, for that sacred Presence, 
 and the water received a sort of preliminary honor and distinction, by 
 being subjected to the Divine workings ? Is it nothing that the leprous 
 Naaman was cleansed in Jordan, "both| by the use of water gene- 
 rally, and by the Baptism in that river specially, evidently foresigni- 
 fying what was to be ? For Jordan alone, of all rivers, having re- 
 ceived in itself the first fruits of sanctification, and of blessing" [in 
 the Baptism of our Lord,] " became the channel, as it were, to con- 
 vey, in figure, from the fountain, the grace of Baptism to the whole 
 world," Or does it contain no instructive warning against any self- 
 willed choice of the " Abanas and Pharpars" of people's own Damas- 
 cus V Further, it is remarkable surely, that the Jordan was again 
 divided before Elijah's ascent into heaven, when the miracle was 
 wrought, not, as before, in the sight of all Israel, to strengthen the 
 hearts of a whole people, at the commencement of their warfare, 
 and to strike terror into their enemies ; but in the presence only of 
 *the prophet's solitary successor, and " the fifty men of the sons of 
 the prophets."^ The mysteriousness of that ascent (typical, as it also 
 is, of the ascent of our Lord ; and the " two-fold portion of His Spi- 
 
 * See below, Addenda. 
 
 t " The Hebrew people having (as we have been taught) undergone much, 
 and accomplished the toilsome wanderings in the wilderness, did not attain 
 the land of promise, before, Jesus guiding them, and ordering their life, they 
 were conveyed over Jordan. And it is plain that Jesus, depositing the twelve 
 stones in the stream, ordered the twelve disciples the ministers of Baptism." 
 — S. Greg. Nyss. 1. c. p- .375^ 6. " When he [Joshua] began his government 
 of the people, he began at Jordan ; whence Christ also, after Baptism, began 
 His Gospel." — S. Cyril, Lect. x. 11. See also Coptic Liturgy, below, p. 288. 
 
 J S. Greg. Nyss. in Bapt. Christi, torn. iii. 376,7. — " Having been cleans- 
 ed he forthwith understood that the cleansing of any is not of the water but of 
 grace." Ambr. de Myst. c. 3. \ 17. add de Sacr. 1. c. 5. S. August. Serra. 
 vol. V. 1154. S. Chrysostom (below,) and Coptic Liturgy, (below, p. 288.) 
 
 \ 2 Kings ii. 9. 
 
 9* 
 
274 
 
 rit,"* which descended upon Elisha, of His " gifts,"t which, after 
 His Ascension, " He gave unto men,") surely gives a corresponding 
 impressiveness to the miracle of the Jordan, as that miracle illus- 
 trates His ascent. " Elias| is received up, but not without water ; 
 for first he crosses Jordan, then horses carry Him to heaven." 
 " And§ wilt not thou, who art, not with chariots of fire, but by ' wa- 
 ter and the Spirit,' to mount up unto heaven, hasten at thy call ?" 
 Lastly, combined with these miracles, it will surely appear to be 
 significant, that the substance, of itself heavy and motionless, the 
 iron axe, which sunk, and lay at the bottom, was, in the Jordan, rais- 
 ed to the surface, touched by the rod of the prophet-tl It would be 
 said, on modern principles, that these miracles must have taken 
 place somewhere ; that the Jordan was the chief river of Canaan ; 
 that they would be more likely to have happened there than else- 
 where ; and the like : but one may surely dwell on the fact, that the 
 Jordan alone is named ; that " that ancient river, the river Kishon," 
 might have been the scene of some of them, as well as the Jordan ; 
 and though the general meaning would have been the same in that 
 case too, yet surely there is some distinct intimation intended, in 
 that God's Providence concentrated these miracles about the Jor- 
 dan, and that His Holy Spirit caused it to be recorded that they took 
 place there. In tracing, reverentially, the ways of Providence, it is 
 our very privilege not to be held down to the subordinate means 
 which he employed ; we have to do with the results, not with the 
 apparent slightness or greatness, the obviousness or the remoteness^ 
 of the means, whereby they were brought about. He willed that 
 His people should enter the promised land through the Jordan, 
 though not the obvious way; or He raised the axe's head, though 
 (as people would now often speak) it "chanced" that it was by the 
 Jordan that the sons of the prophets had, by Ehsha's permission, 
 gone to make them a dwelling. The " common sense view, that 
 such things were " by chance" so and so, is a naked Epicureism ; 
 
 * 2 Kings ii. 9. 
 
 t Eph. iv. 8. 
 
 t Cyril Jer. Cat. iit, 5. add. xiv. 25. 
 
 § S. Basil in S. Bapt. 5 3. T. 2. p. 115. In like way St. Ambrose, (de Elia 
 et jejunio, fin.) " Lastly Elijah was home to heaYen- It again closed," [hav- 
 ing already been closed and opened by his prayer, Jam. v. 17, 18.1 " ^^ ^1*** 
 Elijah opened it, who was carried up in a chariot of ftre. And ye also may 
 ascend if ye obtain the grace of the Sacrament." In reference to the same 
 type, " a chariot to heaven" is one of the titles of Baptism in S. Basil, p. 117. 
 S. Gregory Naz. Orat. de Bapt. init. S. Cyril of Jerus. Procat. } 16. St. Am- 
 brose again, on the same type, Exp. Ev. sec. Luc. i. 37. " That flowing back 
 of the river-waters to the source, when the stream was divided by Elias, (as 
 Scripture says ' Jordan was driven back,') signifies the future mysteries of the 
 saving laver, whereby the little ones, who are baptized, are reformed from 
 their evil state to the original of theii nature." 
 
 il 2 Kings vi. 1—6. 
 
275 
 
 enough for us that they were so ; and if so, were designed to be so, 
 i. e. they had a meaning. Separately, each may have had other 
 meanings and objects ; and while these were severally subserved, 
 yet may all have been tending to the one further end, to illustrate 
 the place where our Lord deigned to be baptized for us. And, as if to 
 withdraw our minds from notions of " chance," other circumstances 
 are blended therewith, plainly arbitrary, and so chosen, we must the 
 more suppose, for some end. Thus it was in itself altogether arbi- 
 trary, that, in the raising of the iron axe (as in the miracles of Mo- 
 ses) wood was the means employed ; it might have been raised as 
 well by the prophet's word ; and this very arbitrariness (combined 
 with other instances of the like selection*) the rather authorizes or 
 compels us to think that there was reference herein to the mystery 
 of the Cross ; that it is from the Cross that Baptism obtains its 
 efficacy. " Elisha," remarks St. Ambrose,! " invoked the Name 
 of the Lord, and the iron of the axe, which was sunk, arose from the 
 w^ater. Behold another kind of Baptism. Why? Because, before 
 Baptism, every man is weighed down and sunk like iron; when he 
 has been baptized, no longer like iron, but now like some light sort 
 of fruit-bearing wood, he is raised. TiO, then, another figure ! It 
 was an axe, wherewith wood was being cut. The handle fell from 
 the axe, i. e. the iron was sunk. The son of the prophet knew not 
 what to do^ this only he knew, to ask the Prophet Elisha, and pray 
 for a remedy. Then he cast in the wood, and the iron was raised. 
 Seest thou then that in the cross of Christ all human weakness is 
 raised ?" " The priest," he subjoins,:}: " comes, says a prayer at the 
 font, invokes the Name of the Father, the Presence of the Son and 
 of the Holy Spirit ; uses heavenly words. What are these ? They 
 are Christ s ; that we ' baptize in the Name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' If, then, at the words and the in- 
 vocation of a holy man, the Trinity were present, how much more 
 when the Eternal Word operates !" And S. Justin,^ '* Elisha bar- 
 ing cast wood into the river Jordan, brought up the iron of the axe, 
 wherewith the sons of the prophets had gone to cut wood, to build 
 
 • Justin M. Dial. 86. enumerates the following combinations r " Moses' rod 
 dividing the Red sea; Jacob's rods by the gutters ;" (on which S. Greg. Nysa. 
 says, " From what time Jacob placed the three rods by the fountain, the poly- 
 theist, Laban, became poor, and Jacob wealthy and rich in lambs. Be Laban 
 in allegory referred t» the devil, Jacob, to Christ. For after Baptism Christ 
 took away also the troop of the devil, and Himself became rich." 1. c. p. 375.) 
 *' Jacob's passing the Jordan with his staff; the twelve wells, and seventy palm- 
 trees after the passage of the Red sea ; the curing of the waters of Mara, and 
 Elisha's making the iron to swim (as above ;) the tree planted by the rivers of 
 water, which thereupon yield* fruit." Ps. i. 
 
 fDe Sacr. ii. 4. } U- 
 
 tDeSacr. c. 5. { 14. 
 
 5 Dial, J 86. add also S. Chrysoatome (below, p. 291.) 
 
276 
 
 a house, wherein they purposed to speak of and meditate on the 
 law and commandments ot God ; and us, being sunk by the great 
 weight of sins which we had committed, our Christ, by being cruci- 
 fied upon the wood, and purifying us with water, hath redeemed, 
 and made a house of prayer and worship." Again, the Holy Spirit 
 has caused it to be recorded, that Jacob " with his staff crossed this 
 Jordan," and, thereupon, was multiplied, and "became two bands ;" 
 the two symbols, " water" (and that, the Jordan,) and " wood," are 
 again united, and the enlargement of him who had the blessing of 
 Abraham, is consequent thereon.* 
 
 If, again, the cleansing of the leprous Naaman in the Jordan was 
 typical of the cleansing through Baptism, it will hardly be doubted 
 but that our Lord, when He sent the blind man to wash in the pool 
 of Siloam, gave an intimation of the operation of the Spirit therein, 
 in enlightening our blindness.f St. John, by pausing to comment, 
 *' which is by interpretation, ' sent,' " plainly indicates the connec- 
 tion of that washing with our Lord ; it must be owned that the act 
 was symbolical of some washing, actual or figurative ; and our 
 Lord, in that He annexed an actual washing, as the condition of re- 
 covery of sight, directs us rather to an actual washing in Baptism 
 (which is also a washing in His Blood) than to one which should be 
 merely figurative, without the intervention of the element which He 
 required. 
 
 And if this restoration and cure through the washing in Siloam 
 represented ours through Baptism, then may we the readier think 
 that the annual cure at the pool of Bethesda, when one from above 
 moved the waters, was to prepare the Jews to believe what they 
 could not see, that the diseases, not of the body, but of the soul, 
 should be cured by the same element, in itself so weak and power- 
 less. It stood, as St. Chrysostom:{: observes, as intermediate be- 
 
 * See Justin M. p. 275, note *. 
 
 t " He washed his eyes in that pool, which is interpreted ' sent,' i. e. he was 
 baptized in Christ."— Aug. Tr. 44. in Joh. 5 2. So also Cyril Alex, ad loc L. 
 6. in Joh. and Severusad loc. ap. Corder. Caten. '*the pool of 'Siloa, which 
 is, sent,' foresignifies the spiritual re-formation which was to take place 
 through Baptism." 
 
 X Ad. loc. Horn. 36. (al. 35.) 1. " What is this mode of cure ? What mys- 
 tery is here hinted to us? For it was not written without good ground, but 
 depicts to us, as an image and outline, what was to be, so that its exceeding 
 strangeness and unwontedness, when it came to pass, might not injure in the 
 many the power of faith. — A Baptism there was to be given, having great 
 power and a mighty gift; a Baptism cleansing all sins, and giving life to the 
 dead. This then is foreshadowed in the pool, and many other things, as in an 
 image ; and, first, water was given, purifying only bodily stains, and unreal 
 defilements, and apparent only, as from a funeral, or leprosy, or the like. 
 And many such may one observe wrought by water under the Old Testament 
 for this purpose. First, then. He removed bodily defilements by water, then 
 divers infirmities. For God, willing to bring us nearer the gift of Baptism, 
 
277 
 
 tween the images of the law, which cleansed only unreal impurities, 
 and the full reality. It cured actual, though but corporeal diseases ; 
 they incorporeal, but only figurative ; other miraculous cures, Naa- 
 man's and that in the pool of Siloam, were transient only, single acts 
 of healing power put forth, and then withdrawn ; this was perma- 
 nent, though still circumscribed in its operation;* Baptism united all, 
 cleansing incorporeal, but still real, diseases ; a power, not tempo- 
 rary, but abiding ; and inexhaustible. " The figure,! the bodily 
 
 now cures not defilements only, but diseases. For the images, whether of 
 Baptism, or the Passion, or any other, as they come nearer the truth, are 
 more transparent than the older. — And an angel descending troubled the water, 
 and deposited therein a healing power, that the Jews might learn, that much 
 more could the Lord of the angels heal all the diseases of the soul. But as 
 then the waters did not heal by any virtue of their own, (for then would it 
 have taken place continually,) but through the operation of the angel, so with 
 us also, the water simply does not effect it, but when it has received the grace 
 of the Spirit, then it i'rees from all sin. — This was done, that they who had 
 learnt that the diseases of the body could be healed in water, and had been 
 long inured to this, might the more readily believe that the diseases of the soul 
 also could be healed. 
 
 * The fathers understood by Kara Kaipdv, Joh. v. 4. " yearly ;" and it was 
 thought that the annual cure was at Pentecost. The one annual cure is dwelt 
 upon by Tertullian : (see below.) S. Cyril Alex, ad loc. ; S. Ambrose de Myst. 
 c 4. 5 22. " That pool was in Jerusalem, wherein one was cured; but no one 
 was cured before the angel had descended." "Then one was cured, now all ; 
 or rather, only the one Christian people. — That pool, then, was a figure, that 
 you may believe that the Divine power descends into this fount." lb. and S. 
 Chrysostome, adv. ebrios. et de Res. ^ 4, 5. T. i. p. 444. " After the troub- 
 ling of the water, one sick person went in and was healed ; one only was cured 
 in the year, and the grace was foi-thwith exhausted ; not from the poverty of 
 the giver, but the weakness of the receivers. The angel ' then went down in- 
 to the pool and troubled the waters,' and one was healed ; the Lord of the 
 angels went down into the Jordan, and troubled the water, and healed the 
 whole world. In the former case, then, the second who went down was not 
 healed ; for that grace was given to the Jews, the poor and weak ; but now 
 after the first a second, after the second a third, after the third a fourth, nay, 
 were you to cast into this pool, ten, twenty, a hundred, tens of thousands, yea 
 the whole world, the grace is not exhausted, the gift not expended, the streams 
 not defiled, A new mode of cleansing, not corporeal ; for of bodies the more 
 the streams cleanse, the more they are defiled; but here, the more they wash 
 the purer they become. Seest thou the greatness of the gift ■? Guard then, O 
 man, its greatness." And again, "That was a servile grace. So great the 
 difference between the power of servants and the self-agency of the Lord. — 
 That healed one, this the whole world ; that descending and troubling the 
 water, this not so ; but it suffices amply to invoke His Name upon the waters, 
 and to deposite in them the whole matter of healing; that cured bodily defects, 
 this tlm evil of the soul also." — Hom. in Paral. et de Christi Divinit. c Anom. 
 xii. 5 1. T. i. p. 548,9. 
 
 t TertuU. de Bapt. c .3. It is referred to in the Gothic Liturgy ; see below, 
 p. 288. These pools being typical, so again was that of the fuller's field, near 
 which deliverance was promised to Judah, and that in connection with the 
 birth of" the Virgin."— See Cyril Alex. L. 1. in Es. Orat. 4. T. ii. p. 117. 
 
278 
 
 remedy, foretold the spiritual remedy, in that proportion in which 
 carnal things ever precede, and figure, the spiritual. As the grace 
 of God was enlarged among men, the angel and the waters had in- 
 creased efficacy ; they which removed bodily defects, now cure the 
 spirit ; they which worked bodily health nov; restore the spirit- 
 ual ; they which delivered one but once in the year, now daily give 
 life to nations, abolishing death by the washing away of sins." It 
 may be interesting to observe how the typical interpretations of the 
 Church centered in their Lord ; and the paralytic's confession, after 
 lying for *' thirty and eight years," " Lord, I have no man," was to 
 them an acknowledgment, that human nature must lie helpless, with- 
 in sight of its cure, but powerless to obtain it, until He the second 
 Adam should come, Who being the seed of the woman, was also 
 *' the Lord from heaven."'^ 
 
 The Christian miracle is increased, not diminished, by the sim- 
 plicity of the outward sign. Outward miracles were for a carnal 
 generation, which " unless they saw signs and wonders, would not 
 believe." " For a sign that the angel had descended," says St. 
 Ambrose,! " the water was moved, for the sake of the unbelieving. 
 For them was a sign, for thee faith ; to them the angel descended, 
 of thee the Holy Spirit ; for them the creature was moved, for thee 
 Christ Himself operateth, the Lord of the creature." *' Sayesl| 
 thou, perhaps, ' Why is it not moved now ?' Hear why. Signs 
 are for the unbelieving, faith for the believing." " Then"^ [at the 
 day of Pentecost] " there was a manifest witness of His coming ; 
 but on us now is bestowed the prerogative of faith ; because in the 
 
 * Ambr. de Myst. c. 4. 5 22, 23. " Lastly, that paralytic waited for a man. 
 For whotni but the Lord Jesus, born of a Virgin, at whose coming the shadow 
 was no longer to cure one, but the Truth, all V And de Sacr. ii. 6. 7. "How 
 much greater is the grace of the Church, in which all are saved, whosoever go 
 down ! But see the mystery. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to the Pool, many 
 sick lay there. Then He saith to that paralytic, ' Go down ;' he saith, ' I 
 have no man.' See wherein thou art baptised. Whence is Baptism but frora 
 the Cross of Christ, from the Death of Christ 1 The whole mystery is therein 
 contained, that He suffered for thee. In Him shalt thou be redeemed ; in Him 
 shalt thou be saved. ' I have,' he saith, ' no man,' i. e. ' because by man is 
 death, and by man the resurrection from the dead.' He could not go down, 
 could not be saved, who did not believe that our Lord Jesus had taken the 
 flesh of the Virgin. But he who waited for the Mediator between God and 
 man, the Man Christ Jesus, expecting Him, of Wliom it was said, ' and the 
 Lord shall send a Man who shall save them,' said, ' 1 have no man,' and there- 
 fore it was vouchsafed him to attain a cure, because he believed in Him to 
 come." And S. Greg. Naz. Orat. xli. 33. " Yesterday thou layest, paralytic 
 and helpless on thy couch, and hadst no man to cast thee into the pool, when 
 the water was troubled ; to-day thou hast found a Man, Who is also God, or, 
 to speak more truly, God and Man." 
 
 t De Myst. 1. c. % De Sacr. ii. 2. { 4. 
 
 ^ lb. ii. 5. fin. 
 
279 
 
 beginning signs were wrought for the unbelieTers ; by us in the fulness 
 of the Church, the truth is to be collected not by signs but by faith." 
 
 In another way ; since all our Lord's actions had an object, it 
 may not seem improbable, that if He had reference to His sacrament 
 of Baptism in giving to the pool of Siloam a^^ miraculous power to 
 heal, so also, when He chose water for the " beginning of His mira- 
 cles,"* (whatever else He may have thereby intended,) He purposed 
 to sanction and impart a dignity to the element of water ; and that 
 the more, since He also closed His human life and office vr ith it, 
 pouring it out miraculously from His side, when dead;t and with it 
 concluded also His dispensation upon the earth,:]: bidding His disci- 
 ples, " Go, baptize all nations." It may, further, even to us, seem 
 in harmony therewith, that other of His miracles were wrought in 
 connection with it ; that He appeared upon it to His disciples ;§ 
 showing at once His power over it, its subserviency to Him, out of 
 its ordinary use, His Presence with it, and His saving arm to those 
 toiling and in jeopardy, as consequent on that Presence. 
 
 Again, the history of Agar is by Scripture declared to be minutely 
 typical ; Agar herself, to represent the Jewish Church, her outcast 
 condition, the rejection of that portion of it which clave to the flesh, 
 and the bondage of the law. When then we find the outcast in her 
 despondency crying to God, and heard from heaven, and her eyes 
 opened, and herself directed to a fountain of living water in the wil- 
 derness,! whereby she and her son lived, it is surely the most natural 
 to think of the grace of Baptism,1[ wherewith St. Peter exhorted those 
 who were " pricked in heart," to " be baptized in the Name of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ to the remission of sins," and " ye shall receive," 
 he adds, " the gift of the Holy Ghost," and thereby were they sav- 
 ed,"** and " added to the Lord," and " the Lord was with them," and 
 '* made them a great nation."tt " Agar," says St. Gregory of Nys- 
 sa,tt "whom Paul also shows to be an allegory, was brought desolate 
 to a desolate land, and was nigh to death, and before her the child. 
 The angel appears unlocked for, and showeth her a well of liv- 
 ing water, and having drawn thence she saves Ishmael. See 
 then the mystic type, how, from the very beginning, deliverance 
 came to the perishing by the * living water.' 
 
 And so, further, to a thoughtful reader, it will seem remarkable 
 
 * See Tertullian above, p. 118. " He wrought His first miracle from water." 
 Jerome, ad loc. See Liturgies, below, p. 291. 
 
 t See Tertull. 1. c. *» Because He had begun with water, He ended with 
 water." Jerome, 1. c. See Liturgies, below. 
 
 I " After His Resurrection, He sendeth the Apostles to the nations, and com- 
 mands them to baptize in the mystery of the Trinity." Jerome, ad loc. 
 
 ft Tertull. 1. c. Liturgies, below. 
 
 ij Cen. xxi. 16, 20. T[ Acts ii. 37- sqq. 
 
 ■** vv. 40, 47. ft Gen. xxi, 18, 20. 
 
 it L c. p. 374. 
 
280 
 
 how much is said of "wells" in the history of the patriarchs ; that it 
 was by a well that the servant of Abraham found Rebecca, and "the 
 marriage whence was to issue the line of Christ took its beginning 
 and first covenant by water ;"* that the well furnished the very sign 
 by v/hich the servant grayed the Lord that he might recognize the 
 bride of him, in whom all the nations of the world were to be bless- 
 ed ; that, again, Jacob, when seeking his wife of the righteous 
 seed, and not of the children of the land, found the well-beloved wife 
 by a well ;t that Abraham and Isaac had much contention with the 
 Philistines or aliens, in that these stopped the wells which they had 
 digged for the refreslnnent of the flock in the desert ;| yet did the 
 patriarchs in the end prevail, and the waters sprung up in the thirsty 
 ground. "At the opened well does Moses rescue from oppression 
 the daughters of the pries>t of Midian."§ And in connection with 
 these, it is remarkable that our Lord refreshes his own strength by 
 Jacob's well, II and by that well discourses to the woman of Samaria 
 of the " living water" which He had to give,1[ and whereby He 
 showed Himself to be greater than their father Jacob, the type of 
 Him. 
 
 The "rock," which "was Christ," yielded also, what we know 
 was a "spiritual,"!, e. an unearthly "drink," prophetic of the spir- 
 itual blessing of Baptism.** When then, in the same desert, the nat- 
 
 * S. Greg. Nyss. 1. c. " Rebecca is found by the well." Jerome, ad loc. 
 
 f " And according to the sa«ie power of the word, Jacob also, hasting to the 
 espousals, unexpectedly met with Rachel by the well, and a great stone lay 
 wpon the well, which the company of shepherds met together, and rolled 
 awav ; then so they drew water for themselves and their flocks; but Jacob 
 alone rolls away the stone, and gives the flocks of his espoused to drink. — 
 The thing was an enigma, a hint, a shadow of what was to be. For what was 
 the stone which lay thereon than Christ Himself? (Esaias xxviii. Dan. viii.) 
 Christ, then, the spiritual stone, lay upon the well, liiding, in the depth, 
 and in mystery, the laver of regeneration, which needed much time, as it 
 were a long cord, to bring it to light. And no one rolled away the stone but 
 Israel, i. e. the mind which seeth God. He also draweth water, and waters 
 the flocks of Rachel, i- e. having laid open the hidden mystery, gives ' living 
 water' to the flock of the Church." — Greg. Nyss. 1. c. p. 374, 5. add Jerome, 
 1. c. 
 
 J " Isaac also, when set over the herds, every where in the desert dug wells, 
 which the aliens closed and choked up, for a type of the ungodly afterwards, 
 who hindered and stopped up the grace of Baptism. Yet the martyrs and 
 priests, digging wells prevailed, and the gift of Baptism overflows the world." 
 Greg. Nyss. 1. c p. 374. and S. Jerome, Ep. ad Oc. " Abraham and Isaac dig 
 wells ; the aliens oppose." 
 
 ^ Jerome, 1. c. " Beersheba also is the city of the oath, and the kingdom 
 of Solomon takes its name from the fountains" [wells.] Id. ib. 
 
 II TertuUian above, p. 118. 
 
 ^ See below, p. 303. sqq. 
 
 ** u 'pi^jg jg l]■^Q vvater which flow^ed to the people from the accompanying 
 rock. For if the rock is Christ, doubtless we see the water blessed for Bap- 
 tism in Christ." TertuU. 1. c. 5 9. 
 
281 
 
 ural properties of water were changed, and what had no power to re- 
 fresh, but rather partook of the unsatisfactoriness of all earthly- 
 things, was, through the wood cast in by the Lawgiver, changed in- 
 to a source of refreshment and life ; what is this, but that through 
 the Cross, the unprofitable element receives a power not its own, 
 and then becomes capable of refreshment ?* What does it bid us 
 other than not to look at the natural power of the element, but to 
 His " Who commandeth the waters ;" not to the things seen, but to 
 the unseen ? 
 
 The same instruction is also therein contained, that when the 
 might of the Lord was, at the prayer of His single prophet, put forth 
 to shame the prophets of Baal, and bring back the wavering people, 
 the sign was with fire mingled with water ; the water lost its own 
 power, and was wholly absorbed and turned into fire, emblematic of 
 the Baptism of " water and the Spirit," which is also a Baptism 
 " with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."t To hear the fervent words 
 of S. Gregory of Nyssa,| " That wondrous sacrifice of the aged 
 Tishbite, surpassing all thought of man, what else does it than in ac- 
 tion foresignify the faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and 
 redemption ? He did not simply by prayer bring down fire from 
 heaven upon the dry wood, but having thrice poured the barrels of 
 water upon the divided wood, by prayer he kindled fire out of 
 water, that from the physical opposition of the elements, which thus 
 strangely met together in unity and co-operation, he might show the 
 
 * Thus Justin, M. (among other instances,) having cast wood into the water 
 of Mara, which was bitter, he made it sweet." — Dial. § 86. "Water also is 
 by the wood of Moses cured from its vitiated bitterness to a wholesome use 
 and sweetness. That wood was Christ, curing by Himself the veins of nature, 
 heretofore empoisoned and bitter, into the most wholesome water of Baptism." 
 — Tert. 1. c. 5 9. "Mara was a most bitter fountain ; Moses cast the wood 
 into it, and it became sweet. For water, without the preaching of the Cross 
 of the Lord, is of no benefit towards salvation, but when followed by the mys- 
 tery of the healthful Cross, then it is tempered to the use of the spiritual laver 
 and the healthful cup." — Ambrose de Myst. 5X4. When they first drank it, 
 they perceived its bitterness, and were unable to drink it ; therefore Moses 
 cast wood into the fountain, and the water, which before was bitter, began to 
 grow sweet. What signifies this, but that all created nature, subject to cor- 
 ruption, is to all a bitter water 1 Be it for the time sweet and pleasant, yet it 
 is bitter, since it cannot take away sin. When thou hast drunk, thou wilt be 
 thirsty ; when thou hast tasted the sweetness of the draught, thou wilt in turn 
 feel its bitterness. The water then is bitter ; but when thou hast tasted the 
 Cross of Christ, hast received the heavenly sacrament, it begins to become sweet 
 and pleasant; and rightly so, since therein sin is removed. If then figurative 
 baptisms were of such avail, how muclimore Baptisms in truth!" — Id.deSacr. 
 ii. 4. 5 13, 13. " Mara is changed by the mystery of the Cross ; and the sev- 
 enty palm-trees of the apostles are watered by the streams of the law, now 
 turned to sweetness." — Jer. ad Ocean, add ad Ezek. xlvii. 1. 
 
 t See note A. at the end. 
 
 1 1. c p. 376. 
 
282 
 
 exceeding might of his own God. Thus did Ehjah, through that 
 his wondrous sacrifice, evidently proclaim to us beforehand the mys- 
 terious consecration by Baptism, which was afterward to be. for 
 the fire was kindled, when the water had been thrice poured over, 
 so as to show that where the mystic water is, there also is the kind- 
 ling, glowing, fiery Spirit, Which burneth up the ungodly, and en- 
 lighteneth the faithful." And St. Basil,* Elijah showed the might of 
 Baptism at the altar of the whole burnt-offering, consuming the sac- 
 rifice, not by fire but by water. For when the water had been pour- 
 ed over the altar thrice, in a mystery, then was it the source of fire, 
 and kindled the flame as though it were oil. The word showing 
 that whoso cometh is by Baptism made a friend of God, and that a 
 pure and heavenly light shines in the souls of those who approach 
 through the faith in the Trinity." Again, S. Ambrose,t " In the 
 time also of Elias, fire came down when he challenged the prophets 
 of the Gentiles to kindle the altar without fire, which when they could 
 not do, himself, the third time drenched his sacrifice, and the water 
 ran around the altar, and he called aloud, and fire fell from the Lord 
 from heaven, and consumed the whole burnt-offering. That offering 
 art thou. Thinkest thou it is not consumed, when in the sacrament 
 of Baptism the whole outward man perishes ? ' Our old man was 
 co-nailed to the cross,' crieth the apostle." 
 
 It will have appeared in the above instances how especially any 
 intimation of the doctrine of the Trinity rivetted the attention of the 
 Ancient Church ; on it turned all their thoughts, as does man's sal- 
 vation ; and so they recognized it vividly. The slightest hint suffi- 
 ces for affection to bring before its eyes the whole train of thought it 
 loves to dwell upon. Especially does the Latin Church appear to 
 have been drawn to the history of the Creation, both as in itself shad- 
 owing forth our re-creation, and because it contains the earliest no- 
 tice of the doctrine, on which their souls hung. As the picture of 
 man's innocency, and the type oFour Paradise, it was not without 
 interest, that this primeval Paradise was watered by a stream, which 
 becoming four heads refreshed the whole world (and that the more 
 since this type seems carried out in Ezekiel's vision of the waters, 
 which issuing from the temple bring healing to the whole world ;:|:) 
 
 ♦In S. Bapt. 1. c. p. 115. 
 
 t De Off. Min. iii. 18. } 106,7. add Damasc. de Fid. Orthod. iv. 10. " Elijah 
 showed the grace of the Spirit mingled with water, when he with water con- 
 sumed the burnt offering." Comp. also the Coptic Liturgy, below, p. 288. 
 
 X Ezek. xlvii. 1. sqq. It is interpreted of Baptism by S. Jerome, Ep. ad 
 
 Ocean. 1. c. and in Zech. xiii. 1. and ad loc. " signifying the sins of 
 
 men. which are forgiven us when we enter the waters of the Lord, and show 
 the salutary grace of Baptism, and are the beginnings of further advances, yet 
 themselves high and exalted." And Theodoret ad loc. " He seeth the water 
 going forth from the doors of the house, and passing by the altar, and going 
 through the more Northern parts Eastward. For from the Jews salvation 
 
283 
 
 that there are waters even above the heavens, whence, in the prophet 
 Ezekiel, the firmament above the Cherubim, was as a chrystal sea ; 
 that waters were the first source of Hfe,* and that the things thus 
 born of water, first received a blessing from God.f But chiefly they 
 
 came to the Gentiles ; and Christ, (Who was from David according to the 
 flesh, of the Virgin's womb, as from a holy vestibule,) 'by water and the Spirit,' 
 imparted regeneration to the world. Of this same does the blessed Isaiah 
 (xliv. 3.) prophesy, ' I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods 
 upon the dry ground.' And Zechariah, 'In sununer and in spring shall it be 
 thus,' for so saith the Lord to the Samaritan woman, John iv. 14. And again 
 c. vii. This water the divine Ezekiel saw flowing from the vestibule of the 
 house (for our blessings were foretold through the law and the prophets,) and 
 passing by the altar, because it had its passage only through the Jews ; for 
 since, unbelieving, they would not yield the fruits of faith, they went to the 
 Gentiles, and water that most spacious and beautiful paradise of the Churches. 
 And on each bank were there trees, for this water caused to spring forth not 
 only faith in God, but action according to God." 
 
 * These are thus brought together by St. Jerome, 1. c. " Mid heaven and 
 earth the firmament is formed ; and the ' waters which are above the heavens,' 
 are set apait for the glory of God. (Ps. cxlviii. 4. comp. St. August. Confess.) 
 Whence also in the prophet Ezekiel, outstretched over the Cherubim, is seen 
 the crystal, i. e. the compact and denser waters. From waters springeth the 
 first living thing, and lifts from earth to heaven the winged faithful. [The 
 birds flying to heaven, emblematic of the baptized dwelling on things above.] 
 A paradise is planted in Eden, and one source is divided into four heads, 
 which afterwards, going forth from the temple, and going toward the rising of 
 the sun, (Ezek. xlvii. 1.) gives life to the bitter and dead waters." And Ter- 
 tullian (de Bapt. c 3.) " What that thereupon [on the brooding of the Holy 
 Spirit] waters became, in a manner, a plastic instrument to order the world 
 to Godward 1 For to hang the heavenly firmament. He separated the waters 
 from the waters ; and the balance of the dry land, He wrought by the removal 
 of the waters. When further, the world being ordered in its elements, had its 
 inhabitants assigned, waters first were bidden to bring forth the living thing. 
 Water first yielded what had life, lest it should be a strange thing that in Bap- 
 tism water should impart life." S. Cyril of Jerus. Lect. iii. 5. " Heaven is the 
 abode of angels, and the heavens are of the waters ; earth is the place of men, 
 and the earth is of the waters." So Liturgies below, Note p. 287. sqq. So also 
 in the Clementine writings, " that thou mayest know thy extraction, and having 
 been re-born by water, which first gave birth to life," [or "the first-produced," 
 as in the Recog.] " mayest also be made heir of the parents, who begat thee 
 to incorruption." Clem, xi- 24. — " mayest acknowledge His will, that by the 
 waters which were first created, thou mayest be re-created." Recogn. vi. 8. 
 " For there is, what from the beginning was merciful, borne above the water, 
 Who acknowledges those who are baptized with the invocation of the Blessed 
 Trinity, and saves them from future punishment, offering as gifts to God the 
 good deeds of the baptized after their Baptism." [" — the souls consecrated 
 in Baptism.]" Recog. Clem. xi. 26. 
 
 f " Besides, the things produced from the waters were blessed by God, that 
 even this might be a sign, that men should receive repentance and remission 
 of sins through water and the washing of regeneration, as many as came in 
 truth, and were re-born and received blessing from God." Theoph. ad Autol. 
 ii. 16. p. 361. ed. Ben. " Ye say," urges Optatus upon the Donatists, who re- 
 garded all Baptism but their own, invalid, " that the Trinity availeth not unless 
 
284 
 
 dwelt on that in which the Presence of the Trinity was manifested, 
 when "by the Word of God were the heavens made, and all the 
 host of them, by the Spirit of His mouth ;"* and the Holy Spirit 
 gave an earnest of His future condescension in re-moulding our dis- 
 ordered and wasted condition, in that He brooded over, and fostered 
 the waste and formless deep, " Water," says Tertullian,t " was 
 the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, more favored even then than 
 the other elements. For all was darkness, shapeless, undecked with 
 stars, a gloomy abyss, an unprepared earth, an unformed sky ; water 
 alone ever perfect matter, joyous, simple, pure in itself, yielded itself 
 as an appropriate chariot to God. By the very position was it fore- 
 shown that the Spirit of God, Which from the beginning was ' borne 
 above the waters,' would abide upon them as the Baptizer. Holy 
 then He was borne above the holy ; or from That which was borne 
 above, that which bore, borrowed holiness." " Consider," says St. 
 Ambrose, J " how old the mystery is, prefigured in the origin of the 
 very world. In the very beginning, when God made heaven and 
 earth, He says. The Spirit was borne upon the waters. He Who 
 was borne upon the waters, did He not operate upon the waters ? — 
 Know that He did in that formation of the world, since the prophet 
 says, ' By the Word,' &c. Moses testifies His presence, David 
 His operation." " The§ waste world, visited neither by the bright- 
 ness -of the sun, nor the pale light of the moon, nor gleaming of stars, 
 was a formless and viewless matter, vast abysses covered with 
 fearful darkness. The Spirit of God was seated and borne over the 
 
 ye also be present. If you hold us of no account, yet, at least, reverence the 
 Lord, who is first in the Trinity, Who, with His Son, and Holy Spirit, 
 worketh and filleth all things, even where there is no human agent. But thou 
 hast said, in praise of water, out of the history of the creation, that the waters 
 first produced living creatures. Could they by themselves produce them? 
 Was not the whole Trinity there ] Inasmuch as God the Father was there, 
 Who deigned to bid, ' let the waters bring forth ;' for had what was made, 
 been made without One operating, God had said, ' Waters, bring forth ;' there 
 was the Son of God Who operated ; there was the Holy Spirit, as is read, 
 ' and the Spirit of God was borne above the waters.' " L. v. c. 2. " The Spirit 
 of God was borne above the waters, as the Creator, by virtue of His power 
 holding together the creature, thence to produce every thing living, and to im- 
 part the genial influence of fire to the unformed elements, and that even then 
 the mystery of Baptism gleaming through, the nature of that fluid might receive 
 the power of sanctification, and first of all bring forth animate bodies to life." 
 Victor Utic. L. 2. extracted by Causaubon, ad Opt. 1. c. And St. Ambrose (de 
 Sacr. v. 1. 5 3.) " These things were in the beginning of the creation, but i'or 
 thee it is reserved that water should re-generate thee to grace, as that other 
 generated to life ;" and John Damasc. quotes " the great Basil," as saying the 
 like, that " God bade the water first produce the living soul, because through 
 water and the Holy Spirit, borne in the beginning above the water, God pur- 
 posed to regenerate man." De Fid. orthod. ii. 9. 
 
 * Ps. xxxiii. 6. t T)e Bapt. c. 3, 4. 
 
 t De Myst. c. 3-5 9. ^ Jerome ad Oc. Ep. 69. 
 
285 
 
 waters, guiding and controlling them, and, with a likeness to Bap- 
 tism, in its birth, gave life to the world." In like way, also in the 
 Greek Church, " before all the six days of the creation, the Spirit of 
 God moved on the face of the waters. Waterwas the heginning of 
 the world ; the Jordan luas the beginning of Gospel preaching^'* 
 And St. Hippolytus,! " This is the Spirit which from the beginning 
 was borne above the waters, whereby the world is moved, the crea- 
 tion subsists, and all things are quickened ; which operated in the 
 prophets, and lighted upon Christ. This David sought, when he 
 said. Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a right spirit 
 within me. This is the Spirit the Paraclete sent for thy sake, to 
 show thee to be a Son of God."* 
 
 The parallel is remarkable certainly ; in either case it is at the be- 
 ginning of the respective dispensations ; in either, a chaos, of itself 
 inert, waste, void, and helpless ; in either, a rude, and disharmoniz- 
 ing and darkened world, brought into order and beauty ; in both, the 
 enlightening follows : in both, life ; in both, the self-same Spirit 
 presides over and gives efficacy to the waters ; in both is the Pres- 
 ence of the Trinity. And for those, who in " the Spirit of God 
 moving upon the face- of the waters," readily recognize the Third 
 Person of the Blessed Trinity, and to whom the interpretation of 
 *' a mighty wind" would justly seem degrading and profane, yet are 
 disinclined to acknowledge in that mysterious working any prepara- 
 tion for the mystery of Baptism, it may be instructive to know that 
 the two interpretations went together ; that they only among the an- 
 cients omitted to recognize the reference to Baptism, who, in the 
 " Spirit of God," imagine only a created agency ;t that all who be- 
 lieved that God the Holy Spirit personally operated at the creation, 
 looked upon these His earlier workings as an earnest of His greater 
 operations in man's re-creation. 
 
 On the other hand, it may be remarked (and misapprehension may 
 
 * Cyril of Jerus. iii. 5. and " some," ap. Procopius. 
 
 t In Theoph. { 9. 
 
 j " Some think, the all-holy Spirit giving life to the nature of water, and 
 depicting the grace of Baptism. I think the truer explanation, that he here 
 calls the air spirit." Theodoret ad loc. In the Latin Church, S. Augustine 
 is perhaps, not so much noticing an existing doubt, as removing a. possible mis- 
 interpretation, when, in answer to those, who thought " the Spirit of God," 
 did not necessarily mean the Holy Spirit, he says on this passage : — " I know 
 not what should hinder our understanding the Spirit of God, especially when 
 that expression, as is the wont of those Scriptures, sounds as though it had a 
 prophetic meaning, and prefigures the mystery of the future Baptism of the 
 people to be born of water and the Holy Spirit." De div. quaest. ad Simplic. 
 ii. 5 5- In the Confessions (xiii. 12.) he gives without doubt this same in- 
 terpretation. It may be noticed, by the way, how much more these interpre- 
 tations involve than may at first sight appear. The interpretation which 
 explains it of the " Holy Spirit," appears to be the older and traditionary.— 
 See Addenda. 
 
2S6 
 
 thereby be saved, and our own Liturgy illustrated) that in this his- 
 tory, and elsewhere, there is in the Ancient Church what by moderns 
 would be condemned as Realism, or MateriaUsm, or Mysticism. 
 Their view seems to have been of this sort. Since' God had appoint- 
 ed the use of water for Baptism, there must have been an appropri- 
 ateness in it, which there was in no other element ; that there was 
 an analogy between His physical and moral Creation, and that not 
 only imaginative but real ; that in forming the Physical, He had re- 
 spect also to the purposes which He designed in His Moral creation, 
 and imparted to the physical agent properties corresponding to its 
 moral uses ; that in His earlier dispensations He had regard to the 
 latter, and not only taught man beforehand what should be, but in a 
 manner, by employing His creature in the subordinate offices of the 
 former, imparted to it a fitness to serve in the latter and greater. — 
 Something of this sort, as derived from the Ancient Church, is ac- 
 knowledged by our own, that the Baptism of our Lord ** sanctified 
 water to the washing away of sin," i. e. at the least, our Lord's Bap- 
 tism in Jordan imparted to the whole element of water a capacity of 
 becoming the instrument of washing away sin, which, apart from 
 His Baptism, it would not have had. In the Ancient Church this 
 same view is apparent, as well as in this same instance, as in the 
 mode in which they rehearse together its implanted property of 
 cleansing, refreshing, and its analogous spiritual offices. Thus S. 
 Theophilus, in a passage just preceding that quoted, " Therefore I 
 proclaim, come all tribes of the nations to the immortality of Bap- 
 tism. Come to freedom from slavery, to a kingdom from a tyranny, 
 to incorruption from corruption. ' And how,' say they, ' shall we 
 come V How ? by ' water and the Holy Spirit.' This is the water 
 partaking of the Spirit, whereby paradise is watered, whereby the 
 earth is made fruitful, whereby the plants grow, whereby living 
 things increase, and, in a word, whereby man born again is quickened 
 wherein Christ also was Baptized, wherein the Spirit also descended, 
 in the form of a dove." In like manner, Tertullian,* " Were I to 
 pursue in order all, or the greater part of, the things which I could 
 mention in sanction of this element, how great its force, or accepta- 
 bleness, how varied the characters, ofllices, services, it discharges in 
 the world, I fear I should seem to be bringing together panegyrics 
 of water, rather than grounds for Baptism. And yet I should there- 
 by show more fully, that we may not doubt thereof, if God have 
 made to be the source of life in His own sacraments, that substance, 
 which he has disposed throughout all things and all His works ; if 
 that which presides over earthly life, be the minister also of heaven- 
 ly. — Thus then [from the presence of the Holy Spirit at the creation] 
 the nature of waters having been hallowed by the Holy One, itself 
 
 * In Theoph. { 8. It immediately precedes that quoted, p. 285. 
 
287 
 
 also received the power to hallow. Let no one say, Are we then 
 baptized in the same waters which were then in the beginning ? Not 
 in tiie same, except so far as different species are included under the 
 same genus. But what is assigned to the genus passes over to the 
 species. So then there is no difference whether one be baptized in 
 sea or lake, stream or fountain ; nor is there [so far] any difference 
 between those whom John baptized in Jordan, Peter in the Tyber. 
 Unless, indeed that Eunuch, whom Philip baptized in some chance 
 water by the way, was more or less saved. So then all waters, 
 when God has been invoked, from that first prerogative at their very 
 origin, obtain the sacramental power of sanctifying. For immedi- 
 ately the Spirit cometh upon them from heaven, and is upon the 
 waters, sanctifying them from Himself, and so sanctified they imbibe 
 the power of sanctifying." The same view is apparent, not in indi- 
 vidual fathers only, but in Liturgies. 
 
 The old Latin Liturgy has a prayer exactly corresponding with 
 this view of TertuUian : " O God, whose Holy Spirit was, in the 
 very rudiments of the world, borne above the waters, that the nature 
 of waters might even then receive the power of sanctifying ;" and all 
 the liturgies have this in common, that they combine God's wonder- 
 ful disposition of waters in His creation, with His miraculous uses 
 of them in His Providence, and plead both before God as grounds 
 why He should deign to give a sanctifying power to the very waters, 
 to dwell in them or upon them by His Spirit ; and this they do in 
 the same way as, for the consecration of the other sacrament, all 
 liturgies rehearse our Lord's words of institution.* 
 
 * In the Gelasian Liturgy, after the instances cited below, there follow 
 words exactly corresponding to those used in the other sacrament. " With us, 
 observing these precepts, be Thou, Almighty God, graciously present," unless 
 indeed they apply to our Lord's command only, " Go, baptize all nations," 
 which had immediately preceded. There follow, however, words connecting 
 the natural and spiritual uses — " Do Thou bless with Thy mouth these mere 
 watery, that besides the natural power of cleansing, which they can exert for 
 the washing of bodies, they may be efficacious also for purifying souls." So 
 also in the Sacramentary of Gellone (ii. 53. ;) Chelle (ii. 62. ;) Poictiers (ii. 
 65.) So also in the Liturgies generally, as in our own, these references to 
 God's former mighty worlis, occur in the consecration of the font. Thus in 
 another form in the liturgy of Gelasius (ii. 6. ;) " I exorcise thee, creature of 
 water by the living God, by the Holy God, by God, author of all sweetness. 
 Who in the beginning by His word separated thee from the earth, and di- 
 viding thee in four streams commanded thee to water the whole earth. I adjure 
 thee by Jesus Christ, His only Son. our Lord, that in Him, who is to be bap- 
 tized in thee, thou be made a fount of water, springing up to life eternal, re- 
 generating him to God, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, who is to come in 
 the Holy Ghost to judge quick and dead, and the whole world, by fire." And 
 in the Old Gallican, " I exorcise thee, Fount of never- failing water, by the 
 Holy God, and the true God, Who, &c. (as in the Gelasian.) Be thou a 
 holy water, a blessed water, washing away filth and remitting sins. I eror- 
 
288 
 
 It is not to be expected that all will at once see the harmony and 
 beauty of all these types ; nor have the details, naturally, the same 
 authority as the principle. It would seem that any one, ever so lit- 
 tle capable of seeing the analogies of things, must (unless he be un- 
 der a strong bias, such as the dread of giving scope to the imagina- 
 tion, fancifulness, and the like,) recognize the bearings of the several 
 parts of God's dispensation upon each other, beyond what the New 
 Testament has absolutely laid down for him. He would see that the 
 New Testament was a guide to him to go onward, not a barrier to 
 withhold him ; that so far from binding him down to the precise 
 cases, with which it provided him, it rather furnished him with a 
 principle and a rule, whereby to judge of the like. The types au- 
 thenticated in the N. T. are not of one kind, nor drawn from one 
 
 cise thee in His Name, Who gave to His disciples a new sacrament, saying, 
 ' Go among the nations, baptizing them in the Name,' &c. Through the Fa- 
 ther, and His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who is to come with the Holy 
 Ghost to judge the world by fire." (lb. ii. 37.) In the Gothic, Holy Lord, 
 Almighty Father, Eternal God, Hallower of the Saints, Source of Anointing, 
 and Giver of a new Sacrament, tlirough Thine Only Son our Lord and God, 
 Who gavest Thy Holy Spirit to be borne upon the waters before the beginning 
 of the world, Who, through an Angel, gavest to the waters of Bethesda power 
 to heal," &c. as in p. 227. " Look, Lord, upon these waters," &c. (Ass. ii. 
 35.) In the Greek : " Lord God Almighty, Framer of all creation, visible and 
 invisible. Who ' madest heaven and earth, the sea and all things in them,' 
 and ' gatheredst the waters into one,' and shuttest up the deep,' (Job xxxviii. 
 8.) and sealedst it with Thy terrible and glorious Name ; who suspendest 
 'the waters above the heavens.' 'Thou establishedst the earth above the 
 waters.' (Ps. cxxxvi. 6.) 'Thou breakest in pieces the heads of the dragons 
 in the waters.' (Ps. Ixxiv. 13.) Thou art terrible, and who shall resist TheeT 
 Look, O Lord, upon this Thy creature, and upon this water," &c. (Ass. ii. 
 146, 7.) And more at length in the Coptic, ' Who createdst the waters which 
 are above the heavens, Who foundest the earth upon the waters,' ' Who gath- 
 eredst the waters into one place,' and barredst up the abyss, and sealedst 
 them with Thy holy and most glorious Name. — Thou, our Lord, by Thy 
 power settest fast the sea ;' ' Thou breakest the heads of the dragons upon the 
 waters.' Thou breakest up the fountains and torrents, and madest paths for 
 the waters. ' The waters saw Thee, O God, and were afraid ; the depths also 
 were troubled' at the voice of many waters. At sight of Thee the waters of 
 the Red sea ' stood on an heap,' and Thou ' leddest forth Israel,' and baptiz- 
 edst them all by Moses.' — Thou 'commandedst the hard rock,' and forthwith 
 it gave forth waters for Thy people ; Thou turnedst the bitter waters into 
 sweet. Thou also by Joshua, son of Nun, turnedst back the rivers. For 
 who can stand before Thy aweful face ? Tliou likewise receivedstthe burnt- 
 offering of Elijah drenched with water, consumed with heavenly fire. Thou 
 also, our Lord, by Elisha Thy Prophet, foresignifiedst the water of the life- 
 giving birth, and cleansedst Naaman the Syrian by the waters of Jordan. For 
 Thou art Almighty, and nothing is impossible with Thee. — Now then, our 
 Lord — Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, shov/ Thyself, and look upon this 
 water. Thy creature," &c. (Ass. ii. 170—3. The Armenian again, though 
 more briefly, " Thou, Lord, by Thy great power madest the sea and dry land, 
 and all creatures in them. Thou separatedst and settest fast the waters which 
 are above the heavens, for a dwelling of Thy shining Angels, who ever stand 
 
source. Samples, so to speak, of different kinds liave been given 
 us ; and others closely akin to those given, have been passed over; 
 -and so each type authorized is the representative of a kindred class; 
 and the authority of Inspiration may be regarded as affixed, not to 
 •the individual instance only, but -to the class. The Church, upon 
 "whom the New Testament, was bestowed, already recognized the 
 •typical character of the Old Testament ; and so must continue to 
 ^o, the rather because while so much was authorized, so much which 
 she recognized as typical was vir4;ually sanctioned. The typical 
 •character of these further types would seem matter of instinct and 
 perception, for which some reasons may be given (as has been 
 -above -attempted,) but which in itself require none. Such reasons in- 
 fluenced, doubtless, the ancient Church-, yet (it is more probable) 
 only imperceptibly; the types are mentioned (where they occur) 
 naturally, as by persons who had a vivid perception of the relation of 
 the Old to the New Testament, and of things visible to theinvisible; and 
 who see them, not reason upon them ; the recurrence of any recog- 
 nized symbol, much more the combination of two or more, at once 
 -suggests to them the reality. Nothing, they are persuaded, is ac- 
 ■cidental in Holy Scripture : so then, neither the frequent mention of 
 Water, nor that the fountain of " living water" was covered over by 
 a *•' stone," which they knew to be a symbol of their Lord ; nor, — 
 ^since " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," was to 
 •offer Himself upon the tree, the Son of man to be lifted up upon 
 •the cross, — that wood wa^ brought into connection with the element, 
 wherein they were baptized ; nor that the Presence of the Trinity, 
 Whose invocation over themselves in Baptism was their stay and their 
 liope, seemed any where to be intimated. 
 
 The details may safely be left to be accepted by every one as he 
 is able to bear them : to judge from experience, they will, to any 
 one who does not rudely reject them, gradually recommend them- 
 selves more and more ; but it is the principle, rather than the details, 
 probably, which, for the most part, has the sanction of Catholic con- 
 sent. The certainty,however, of the principle is even the more esta- 
 blished by any variations as to details; for we have not simply a giv- 
 
 by, and glorify Thee. Thou sentest also Thy Holy Apostles, commanding 
 nhem to preach and baptize all nations in the Name of," &c. (lb. 198, and 
 fuller and moTe like the Greek, ib. 206, 7.) The Antioch-Jerusalem Liturgy, 
 '{ib. 2iS.,) the Jerusalem, (ib. 227.,) the Apostolic by Severus, (ib. 290-) are 
 formed upon the same model, though verbally differing. The Maronite refers 
 in the same way to the " brooding upon the waters." " As the Holy Spirit at 
 the creation of the world brooded upon the waters, and they produced living 
 and creeping things of every kind, so, O Lord God, let the Holy Spirit brood 
 upon this Baptism, which is a spiritual womb, and may He abide therein, 
 and sanctify it, that for the earthy Adam it may produce the heavenly Adam." 
 <Ib. 340.) 
 
 VOL. II, — 10> 
 
290 
 
 en number of types, the knowledge whereof may have been secured 
 by a general tradition ; (although with regard to some types, there 
 seems doubtless to have been such a tradition) but we have also the 
 principle, universally felt, that certain symbols, whenever they occur- 
 red, contained a hidden intimation of Baptism. In consequence, each 
 father selected out of the rich abundance, such types as at the time 
 recommended themselves, not doubting that the rest, which he omit- 
 ted, bore the same reference, but rather implying that they did so, 
 because the same principle which justified those which he selected, 
 justified the others also. And this themselves also state ; thus S. Gre- 
 gory of Nyssa having given one of the fullest selections, breaks off,* 
 " But as to the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, I must here 
 close, for the discourse would be imbounded, were any lo wish 
 to collect all, and put them in one book." And vS. Ambrose,! "An- 
 other (type) although not in order ; for who, as the Apostle said, can 
 comprise all the acts of Christ?" Yet even as to the details, 
 it will have been already observed that there is, in some cases, 
 much coincidence ; that the Fathers, who in general adhered most 
 to die literal interpretation, and its moral meanings, (as St. Chrysos- 
 tome) yet, when occasion offers, insist upon the same types as do 
 others ; and so little has this perception of sacramental types to do 
 with any abuse of allegorical interpretation, that it will, perhaps, be 
 found that those, ever reputed to be over fond of the allegorical in- 
 terpretation (as Origin) have less of the sacramental, while those of 
 a literal school (as Theodoret) have much more of it. Thus, through- 
 out the history of Genesis, St. Chrysostome insists on the ethical 
 meaning of the same histories, whose typical import was insisted on 
 (as we have seen above) by other writers, speaking directly on Holy 
 Baptism ; yet when he has to explain our Lord's appeal to Nicode- 
 mus, " Art thou a master of I&rael, and knowest not these things ?" 
 he understands him not in our modern way, as referring Nicodemus 
 to certain baptisms of proselytes, but,— as to the " birth," to such 
 histories of births in the Old Testament, as were above the laws of 
 nature, — as to the means of that birth " of water and the Spirit," to 
 the prophetic intimations of Baptism, in the typical cleansing by wa- 
 ter, therein contained. And for these last he adduces types of the 
 same sort, as do others, and some even of the more recondite -.X 
 " The first formation of man, and the women produced from his side^ 
 and the barren women ; and what was wrought through water, 
 (such as the fountain whence Elisha raised the iron ; the Red Sea, 
 which the Jews passed over ; the pool which the angel moved ; the 
 history of Naman the Syrian, purified in the Jordan ;) all these 
 
 * 1. c. iii. p. 178. 
 
 t De Sacr. ii. 4. 5 12. 
 
 t Chjys. Horn. 26. (al. 25.) in Joanw, 
 
291 
 
 tilings proclaimed before, as in type, the birth and purification which 
 Was to be ; and the things spoken by the prophets hint at the man- 
 ner of the birth, as ' the generation to come shall be declared to the 
 Lord,' and ' they shall declare His righteousness to a people which 
 shall be born, whom the Lord hath made,'* that ' thy youth shall be 
 renewed as an eagle's,^! that ' be enlightened:}: Jerusalem,' ' behold 
 thy King cometh,''^ and ' blessedU are they whose iniquities are for- 
 given.' Isaac also was a type of this birth. For say, O Nicode- 
 mus, how was he born? By the law of nature? No." Some- 
 thing moreover of a consent as to details also, may be seen in the 
 types dwelt upon in the ancient liturgies. The earliest of our west- 
 ern Church recognize a considerable number, which is the more 
 remarkable on account of their great brevity. Thus, in that of Ge- 
 lasius, water is consecrated in the Name of the Father, Who had giv- 
 en these earnests of it in the Old Testament, and of the Son, Who 
 by His miracles had consecrated it in the New. " I bless thee, O 
 creature of water, through the Living God, through the Holy God, 
 through God, Who, in the beginning, by a word, separated thee from 
 the dry ground, T[ and in four streams commanded thee to water the 
 whole earth : Who, by an infused sweetness, made thee, when bitter 
 in the desert, fit to drink ; and for the parched people brought thee 
 out of the rock. I bless thee, also, through Jesus Christ, His Only 
 Son, our Lord : Who in Cana of Galilee, by His wondrous power 
 miraculously changed thee into wine : Who with His feet walked on 
 thee ; and in thee was by John baptized in Jordan ; Who, out of His 
 own side, together with Blood, brought thee forth ; and commanded 
 His disciples, that they who believed should be baptized in thee, 
 saying, ' Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. '^** 
 
 These types, moreover, are evidently alleged in the Liturgies, as 
 instances only ; and it is remarkable how, of the history of the Cre- 
 ation, different parts of the whole are alleged : in the Latin, " the 
 brooding of the Holy Spirit," and the separation from the diy land ; 
 in the Greek, the former is omitted, but there are added " the wa- 
 ters above the heavens,'^ as the dwelling place of the heavenly spi- 
 Tits ; the " founding of the earth upon the waters," as our clay de- 
 
 * Ps. xxii. 32. t Ps. ciii. 5. 
 
 t Is. Ix. 1. ^ Zech. ix. 9. 
 
 f Ps. xxxii. 1. 
 
 •[[ The Roman Missal inserts, " Whose Spirit was borne above thee ; Who 
 caused thee to flow from the fount of Paradise, add," &c. Ass. ii. 4. n. 
 
 *'^ Ass. ii. 3, 4. and less fully, p. 6. Gregorian, p. 8. Roman, p. 33. (with 
 the addition note ^,) and the verbal difference "thee, being bitter in the desert, 
 made, by wood, sweet and fit to drink ; Who brought thee out of the rock, 
 that He might refresh, when faint with thirst, the people, whom He had freed 
 from Egypt." 
 
292 
 
 rives its spiritual life from the waters of Baptism ; in the Maronite, 
 the presence of the Holy Spirit is also dwelt upon ; and so on, in 
 slighter variations ; thereby showing, the more, the universal con- 
 viction of the typical character of the whole history of the waters in; 
 the Creation, so that the striking of one note sufficed to bring out 
 the harmon)^ of ihe whole. It is remarkable too how some of the 
 less obvious types occur when one should least expect them,^ and 
 where they yield most independent evidence } as the sacrifice of 
 Elijah in the Coptic Liturgy, where it is altogether distinct from the 
 Greek. Typical histories, again, are selected as lessons, and in this 
 way also are formally adopted in the respective Churches.* 
 
 The same principle which requires us not t« restrain the types of 
 things, to such as have been laid down for us in the New Testament^ 
 will apply yet more forcibly to the verbal allusions to those types. 
 Since the flood, and the passage of the Red Sea, and the Levitical 
 washings, or sprinklings, were (as we know) types of Baptism, then 
 the passages of the Prophets, which relate to these, must relate also 
 to Baptism. The words wherein they are spoken of, must bear the 
 same relation as the things of which they speak. The words are au- 
 thentic interpretations given by the prophets to the typical actions y 
 the actions set before the eyes the teaching of the words. It were^ 
 then, obviously inconsistent in any one, who accepts the typical 
 meaning, given by Holy Scriptui'e to certain acts or events, to in- 
 terpret, without any reference to this authenticated meaning, other 
 language of the Divine Record, framed upon those same events. — 
 Having the comment supplied to us in the one case, we are no 
 longer at liberty, (if we would,) to disregard it in the other. Thus,, 
 since the passage of the Red Sea is typical of Baptism, the over- 
 whelming of the enemy in the sea, of the effacing of sin and the de- 
 liverance from Satan, then, when the Prophet Micah (after the man- 
 ner of the prophets,) para-llels the future deliverance with the past, 
 the days of the Gospel with " the days of their coming out of the 
 land of Egypt ;"t and then prophesies that God would " cast^ all 
 their iniquities into the depths of ihe sea ;" on no consistent system 
 of interpretation can he be understood otherwise than he was in the 
 ancient Church, as prophesying of the remission of sin in Baptism. §■ 
 
 * Thus St. Ambrose mentions that the history of Naaman was used as a 
 Baptismal lesson in his Church (Milan.) De Myster. ^ 16. de Sacram. i. 5. 
 and the cure at Bethesda ; "what was read yesterday." De Sacram. ii. 2.- 
 The argument from the lessons generally was appreciated in the ancient 
 Church. S. Optatus appeals to the "unity of the life in the Church, the com- 
 mon lessons, the one Faith, the same sacrament of Faith, the same myste- 
 ries." v. 1. 
 
 + vii. 15. J ver. 19. 
 
 ^ " Micah prophesies of the grace of Baptism." Jer. ad Oe. So also S, 
 
293 
 
 Inwliat way Baptism may be available to the baptized for sins af- 
 terwards Goramitted, what further privileges it may introduce them 
 to, is obviously a further and secondary question. Whatever privi- 
 leges may be wrapt up in Baptism, the primary meaning of the pro- 
 phet's declaration must be the plenary destruction of our enemies 
 through that which the passage of the Red Sea denoted, i, e. as we 
 know from Holy Scripture itself, the sacrament of Baptism, Yet it 
 is fiom neglecting so obvious a rule, that the modern unsacramental 
 theory, without compunction, effaces from the Old Testament the 
 predictions of our Lord's ordinances ; claims, without hesitation, for 
 the older dispensation, the privileges of the New ; and then for itself, 
 under the New, these same full privileges, without any reference to 
 1;he ordinances to which they are annexed. Thus, when Ezekiel, 
 a priest, prophesies, " Then* will I sprinkle clean water upon you, 
 and ye shall be clean ; a new heart also will I give you, and a 
 new spirit will I put witliin you ; and I will put my Spirit within 
 yon," he is plainly to be understood, (as antiquity understood him,) 
 to be foretelling the birth " of water and of the Spirit," which ef- 
 faces in us the stains of our old nature, and " renews us in the image 
 of Him who created us.'" Thus each part of this prophecy has its 
 'fulfilment : he plainly refers to the Levitical washings, whereof he 
 Avas a minister, and so points to some act corresponding with them ; 
 t)ut foretells that it shall not be, like these, — unprofitable ; but that 
 when bedewed with the water, their " consciences" should be 
 '*' sprinkled" also ; that they should be sprinkled not with the water 
 only, but with water accompanied by the Spirit. The prophet thus 
 provided a remedy for the difficulties of Nicodemus ; and masters in 
 Israel, who with Nicodemus, might otherwise have stumbled at the 
 birth of " water and the Spirit," had its meaning laid up for them in 
 their own prophets; St. Jeromet gives the connection of the passage 
 very clearly ; " Which when I had seen, not for their sakes, but for 
 ■my Holy Name (for I am Creator of all) I spared them, and sancti- 
 fied them, aud restored them to their former glory, so as to 'pour 
 upon^ those who believed, and were converted from erring, the ' clean 
 water^ of saving Baptism, and cleanse them from their abominations, 
 and all their errors, and to give them a ' new heart,' that they should 
 Relieve on the Son of God, and a 'new spirit,' whereof David speaks.| 
 
 Basil in Ps. 28. \ 8. "And their" [the Jews'] '* sins the Lord cast into the 
 depth of the sea, but ours He effaces through the holy and Divine bath, where- 
 of the Red sea, according to the Divine apostle was a type, passing through' 
 which, they were freed from the Egyptian bondage. According to that type 
 let us also, freed from the tyranny of the devil, through the holy bath, be 
 ^careful for our salvation," &c. Theodoret ad loc. Its language is used in an 
 ■ancient MS, of the Greek liturgy- (Ass. ii. 131.) See also S. Ambrose, be- 
 iow, p. 299. 
 
 * xxxvi. 25—27. f Ad loc. 
 
 -J Ps. li. 12. 
 
294 
 
 And it is to be considered, that the ' new heart/ and ' new spirit,' 
 are given through the affusion and aspersion of water. But when a 
 'new heart,' and ' new spirit,' shall have been given, then shall all 
 hardness, which is compared to a stone, be taken away from the 
 heart of the Jew, that for a ' stony heart,' there should be a ' heart of 
 flesh,' tender and soft, which can receive the Spirit of God within it, 
 and be inscribed with wholesome words. Then shall they walk in 
 the commands of the Lord, and keep His judgments, and dwell," 
 &c. And Theodoret,* ' Pure water,' he calls the water of regene- 
 ration, wherein being baptized, we received remission of sins ; and 
 what follows confirms this : ' And I will give you a new heart,' 
 hereby denoting the change of mind ; for the mind shall incline to 
 the better, not, according to the former wont, to the worse." 
 
 On the same ground, since the many Levitical baptisms for the 
 cleansing of the flesh shadowed forth the one, which " cleansed both 
 flesh and spirit," David's prayer " wash me thoroughly from my 
 "wickedness, and cleanse me from my sin," and his prophecy of 
 God's future blessing, " Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I 
 shall be clean ; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than 
 snow," being in the language of the symbols of the law, are plainly 
 to be understood of that which those symbols foretold. The Ancient 
 Church, then, doubted not at all, but that David meant the same as 
 St. Paul, and finding no remedy under the law for his grievous sins, 
 but " knowingt that the New Testament has a perfect remission of 
 sins, desiring to be most speedily and perfectly freed from sins, and 
 
 * Ad loc. The passage is quoted by the Council under S. Cyprian, Ep. 70, 
 (69,) and alleged by S. Cyprian himself, in proof of the validity of aspersion, 
 Ep. 76 (75,) " Nor ought it to trouble any, that the sick, when they obtain the 
 grace of the Lord, are seen to receive it by aspersion or affusion ; sines 
 Holy Scripture by the prophet Ezekiel says, ' I will sprinkle clean v/ater upon 
 you,' [combining the passage with the Levitical aspersions, Numb. xix. 12,13 ; 
 viii. 6, 7 ; xix. 9.] " Whence," he adds, " it appears that water when sprinkled 
 also, suffices for the saving laver." S. Gregory of Nyssa, speaking of Bap- 
 tism, says, Ezekiel writing more clearly and perspicuously than either, (Is. i. 
 Ps. xxxii.) promises that excellent promise." (de Bapt. Christi, p. 377.) St. 
 Jerome (ad Ocean.) cites it in proof of the completeness of the remission in 
 Baptism, " Let us hear Ezekiel, the son of man, how he speaks of His virtue. 
 Who was to be the Son of Man — In that he saith, ' I will cleanse you from all 
 sins,' none is excluded." It is quoted by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Lect. iii. 16; 
 xvi. 30 ; and S. Cyril of Alexandria, in connection with the Levitical washings 
 (Glaph. in Levit. i. 368.) Ezek. xxxvi. 25. is used as an antiphone in the Rod- 
 man Baptismal Office (Ass. ii. 21. ;) in the Gellone ritual an antiphone is 
 formed out of ver. 23 — 26 ; and ver. 25 — 28. are read as a lesson (ib. 54, 55.) 
 as they are also in the Armenian (ib. 195, 6. 206. ;) ver. 23—28. in that for 
 Catechumens in an old Office of Poictiers (ib. i. 65.,) and Viete (ib. 70. ;) ver. 
 25. seq. in another service in the same MS. (ib. 73.,) and the ritual of Liege 
 (ib. 83. ;) ver. 25 — 29. are also a lesson in that of Card. Severini formed from 
 ancient sources, (ib. 91.) 
 
 t Theodoret in Ps. 50. fin. 
 
295 
 
 himself also to receive that compendious and bounteous cleansing, 
 speaks thus, ' Thou* shall sprinkle me with hyssop,' &c. for the gift 
 of Baptism alone can effect this cleansing, and the Lord of the Uni- 
 verse promised by the prophet Isaiah that He would give it ; for 
 having said, 'wash you, make you clean, put away the wickedness 
 from your hearts ;' a little after he says, ' though your sins be as 
 scarlet, I will make thee white as snow ;' and this the great David 
 himself also foretels, in the 67th [68th] Psalm, ' When the Most 
 High disperseth kings, they shall be made like snow in Salmon.' 
 This then he says here also, that I need the grace which shall be 
 given to all men. For that only can ' thoroughly wash me,' and give 
 me the whiteness of snow. And, that hyssop eifected no remission 
 of sins, may be easily learnt from the Mosaic writings. For the 
 murderer, and the adulterous despoiler, the law purified not with 
 sprinklings, but subjected to the -extremest punishment. The hys- 
 sop, then, is a figure of somewhat else. For in Egypt, having 
 sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the door-posts, they escaped the 
 hands of the destroyer^ But those things were types of the saving 
 Passion. For then also was Blood, and the saving wood, and sal- 
 vation bestowed on those who approach with faith." " Holy David, 
 tlie prophet," says St. Ambrose,! " saw this grace in a figure, and 
 
 * Id. on ver. 8. 
 
 t De Sacr. iv. 1. § 6. Again, Apol. David § 59. " He maketh not void the sacra- 
 ments of tlie Old Testament, and he teaches that the Evangelic mysteries are to be 
 preferred ; he prays to be cleansed with hyssop according to the law, he longs to be 
 washed according to the Gospel, and looks, if he be washed, to be made ' whiter than 
 snow.' Whoso wished to be cleansed by the typical baptism, was sprinkled with the 
 blood of a lamb by means of a bunch of hyssop ; he is ' washed,' who is cleansed in the 
 stream of the eternal fountain ; and he is made 'whiter than snow' whose sins are forgiven 
 him." And (§ 64.) " There follows ' create in me a clean heart.' Elsewhere he had 
 pjayed to be ' cleansed from secret faults ;' here he prays that he may have ' a clean 
 heart' created in him, which is wrought for him who is renewed in spirit ; for in the 
 new man there is a clean heart, the filthy horde of ancient sins having been effaced, and 
 no image of sin remaining impressed thereon." Comp. de Myst. c. 7. § 34. The 
 Psalm is interpreted in this same way by Origen or Eusebius, ad loc. (the same words 
 are given to both,) "Observe, again, the mystery of Christ. For the power of baptism 
 exceeding the purification in the law, effecteth the cleansing of the soul also." St. 
 Athanasius, *' He introduces a prophecy of the universal remission of sins through 
 Holy Baptism, and the teaching of the worship in the Spirit." (ap. Caten. Corderii.) 
 And " He mentions also the redemption through Baptism, in that he says, ' Thou shalt 
 sprinkle me.' " (ap. Montfauc. Coll. Nov. t. 2. p. 65.) And St. Cyril of Ahxandrta, 
 " When he says, * wash me more,' he again probably refers to the mystery in Christ. 
 For the law also had a cleansing by water, which the a 11- wise Paul mentions, ' for if the 
 blood of bulls,' &c. But the type wasinsuflicient for the washing a^ray of sin, and was 
 practised only for the cleansing of the flesh ; but that power which we have of Christ 
 and through Holy Baptism, far excelling the cleansing in the law, washeth yet more, or 
 rather effects an entire cleansing.'^ (ap. Corder.) and Hesychius (ibid.) "As we also in 
 the gift of Baptism are washed with water, but made bright through the Spirit." Add 
 Jerome in Zach. siii. 1. Hyppolyhis in Theoph. (see above, p. 284.) In the Liturgies, 
 ver. 2. occurs as an Antiphone in an ancient MS. of the Sacramentary of Gelasius 
 (Ass. ii. 8. not.) ; and ver. 8 — 10. are repeated in the Coptic (ib. 179.) -, the whole 
 Psalm at the beginning of the Armenian (ib. 202.) ; and the Coptic (ib. i. 143.) ; as 
 
1 Be- 
 longed for it. Wliy ? because snow though white, soon blackens- 
 and is spoiled by any defilement ; that grace which thou hast receiv- 
 ed, if thou hold fast what thou hast received, will be lasting and eter- 
 nal." 
 
 It is remarkable that this same Psalm^ so deeply expressive of 
 David's own contrition for his great personal sins, also contains one 
 of the most exact confessions of original sin, and its hereditary taint,* 
 and then a prophecy of the cleansing of sin, both original and actual 
 through Baptism, as applying the Blood of the Great Sacrifice ;• and 
 the prayer for re-creation or re-generation, and for the building up 
 of the Church, and of individuals in it ;t so that it is not only a most 
 deep penitential Psalm, but a history (so to say) of the scheme of 
 man's redemption; the account of his fallen state and restoration. 
 As was said, it may (and does,, in our way,) include under it the ease 
 of the individual penitent under the Gospel, as it did that of David 
 before it ;. it may also ulteriorly refer to the great and final cleansing 
 at the great Day, of all who shall be " found in Him ;" but, prima- 
 rily, it is the account of the foil and entire remission of all sins^ 
 " through the laver of regeneration and of the renewal by the Holy 
 Ghost." It is only through overlooking the sacramental character 
 of the types, that the appropriateness of its language has been neg- 
 lected, and its promises been appropriated primarily -to a forgiveness 
 mdependent of ordinances. 
 
 Sa again the prophet Isaiah, when, in the name of God, rejecting 
 the polluted services of Judah, he points to- them a new way, "wash 
 you, I make you clean," and promises them an entire cleansing,., 
 " though^ your s-ins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; 
 though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," what CISC' 
 does he than prophecy of that which these services foreshadowed T 
 " Having,"" says St. Cyril of Alexandria, |1 "brought their ungodli- 
 
 also ver. lO — 12. in a- prayer at the close (H. 193.) ; ver. 7. in the Syriac (Apost. by 
 Severus, ii. 274.) ; and the words, '' sanctify, cleanse, purge him with Thy holy 
 hyssop," are taken from it: (ib. 268, " with thy ain-reinitting hyssop." Apost. from 
 Greek, by Jamesof Ede9sa,ib. i. 263.) In the JViisro?ii<e, our Lord Himself is ''prayed" 
 as "the Hyssop, cleansing and whitening all stains" (ib. ii. 329) ; and St. Cyril of Je- 
 rusalem, in like way alludes to the Psalm CLect. iii. 1.) " 'Let the heavens rejoice, and 
 I'et the earth be glad' for those who are to be sprinkled with hyssop, to be cleansed witb 
 the inTisible hyssop, by His power. Who at His Passion received the hyssop and the 
 reed." Ver. 10. is inserted in the prayer i'or Catechumen.^i in the ritual in the Apos- 
 tolic Constitutions : " Almighty God, unbegotten and unapproachable, the only true 
 God, look upon Thy servants instructed in the Gospel of Thy Christ, and give them ' a 
 new heart, and renew a right spirit within' them, that they may knov? and do Tliy will, 
 <&c." L. viii. c. ff. And ver. .12. in the prayer just before baptism, "that God who- 
 loveth mankind, having graciously received their prayers, may ' restore' to them ' the 
 joy of salvation, and establish them with a princely spirit,' that they may never agaiabe 
 shaken." (ib. c. %.) 
 
 * Ver. 5. t Ver. 18, 19. 
 
 t Is. i. 16. § Ver, Ift. 
 
 U Ad loc. 
 
297 
 
 ness to their recollection, he will not have them despair, and does 
 not exclude them from the gift of Christ set forth through the whole 
 world ; he bids them cast away their sins, justified freely, and not 
 by the works of the law, but rather through faith and holy Baptism. 
 Therefore, he says, 'wash you,' i. e. wash away your stains, He 
 Whom you reviled, justifying you tlirough his greatness and good- 
 ness." And Theodoret,* in connection with the 51st Psalm, " As 
 by the mouth of David, rejecting sacrifices of this sort, He bade 
 them " offer the sacrifice of praise,' so here also casting away all 
 these rites, He points out to them the Baptism of incorruption and 
 regeneration, saying, 'wash you, make you clean ;' and that they may 
 not think that He enjoined them the use of their wonted sprinklings, 
 He added, of necessity, ' Put away,' &;c. ; which words obviously 
 hint at the gifts of all-holy Baptism." 
 
 * Be cur. Graec. aff. Disp. 7. See also above on Ps. 51. and ad loc, he paraphra- 
 ses, "Therefore cleanse your souls thoroughly by the laver of regeneration, and cease 
 to do evil ; for having laid aside the former thev must avoid doing the like." It is quo- 
 ted also by Justin Martyr, Apol. i. § 61. and Dial. c. Tryph. § 13. " Isaiah sent not 
 you (the Jews] to the bath, there to wash away murder and other sins, which not the 
 whole water of the sea would suffice to cleanse ; but, of old, it was this same saving 
 bath, which be preached to those who repent, and who are no longer cleansed by the 
 blood of bulls and goats, but by faith in the Blood of Christ, and in His Death." St. 
 Ambrose, de Myst. § 34. (speaking of Baptism), " He is whitened more than snow 
 whose sins are forgiven, wherefore also the Lord says by Esaias," &c. Jerome, ad, loc. 
 " In lieu of the former victims, and whole-burnt-offering, and fat of fed beasts, and 
 blood of bulls and goats, and incense, and new moons, sabbath, festival, and fasts, I 
 delight in the service of the Gospel, that ye should be baptized in My Blood, through 
 ' the laver of regeneration,' which alone can remit sins. For ' unless a man be born of 
 water and the Spirit,' &c. The Lord Himself also, when ascending to the Father, 
 saith, ' Go teach all nations, baptizing them,' " &c. In like way Eusebius (ad loc. 
 Montfauc. Coll. Nov. T. 2. p. 360.) He yet intiteth them to good hopes, if laying 
 aside wickedness, and departing from the will-worship in the carnal law, they would be- 
 come obedient to the new covenant, and the new law, and word. Wherefore, having 
 glanced at the things in the Old Covenant, he introduces the Mysteries of the New. 
 Which himself also delivered in the Gospel, saying, ' Except a man be born again of 
 water and the Spirit," &c. And <S'. Hyp-polytus having quoted it (Hom. in Theoph. 
 § 9.), thus comments, " See, beloved, how the prophet foretold the cleansing of Bap- 
 tism. For whoso descends with faith into the ' laver of regeneration, renounces the 
 evil one, and is placed on the side of Christ, denies the Enemy, and confesses that 
 Chri.st is God ; jiuts off slavery, and puts on adoption ; returns from Baptism, bright 
 as the sun, gleaming with the rays of righteousness ; and, what is most, ascends a son of 
 God, and ' joint-heir with Christ.' " It is quoted also by S. Gregory Nyss. de Bapt. 
 Christi.T. 3. p 377.; is the text of .S'. Cyril of Jeriisalem''s first C&lechet.D'tsc; whence 
 it was probably a Baptismal lesson in the Church of Jerusalem, as it certainly was in that 
 of Si. Basil (Hom. de S. Bapt. T. ii. p. 114.), who appeals to its having been " read." 
 It occurs also as a lesson in the service for Catechumens, MS. of Vietri (Ass. i. 70.), 
 and Liege (ib. 83.) It is quoted, as a ground for Baptism, in the prayer just preceding 
 Baptism in the Apostol. Consit. viii. 8. "Thou, Who didst by Thy holy prophets de- 
 clare beforehand to such as should be baptized, ' wash ye, become clean,' and didst by 
 Christ, ordain spiritual regeneration." And so in the Greek (Ass. ii. 138.), and Syriac 
 (Antioch and Jerus. Ass. ii. 220. Jerusalem, ib. 231. and 259. and Apostolic by Seve- 
 rus, ib. 291.) and in a distinct prayer for Catechumens in the revised Syriac, (i. 223.) 
 '• And when Thou broughtest us to the streams of redemption, and fount of life, and 
 thence madest us of Thy household and beloved^ Thou saidst, ' Wash ye,' " &c. ' 
 
298 
 
 It obviously belongs to the same system of interpretation, that the 
 imfigurative words of the Psalmist, " Blessed is the man whose ini- 
 quity is forgiven," are, by the Ancient Church, interpreted of the 
 remission of sins in Baptism.* The interpretation is suggested and 
 authorized by the plain declarations of the New Testament, " Be 
 baptized for the remission of sins," as the former were by the typi- 
 cal ; and while they are respectively borne out by the New Testa- 
 ment, they mutually confirm each other ; and together exhibit the 
 more clearly, the system of the Ancient Church : how she looked 
 upon all full declarations of the remission of sin, as prophetic of the 
 Gospel, and the means whereby it was there to be bestowed. The 
 longing of the Old Testament, " Blessed is the man whose iniquity 
 is forgiven ;" the promise of the N"ew, " Be baptized for the remis- 
 sion of sins ;" St. Paul's declaration, that the Psalmist's words be- 
 long to the Gospel, and not to the law : and the belief of the Church, 
 " I believe one Baptism for the remission of sins ;" mutually harmo- 
 nize with, and explain each other. 
 
 It may be observed also, however foreign this interpretation of the 
 Church, which supposes the patriarch David to look forward to the 
 remission in Baptism, may to any, at first sight, seem, yet it agrees 
 most with the very letter of St. Paul, " David also describeth the 
 blessedness of the man unto w^homthe Lord imputeth righteousness 
 without works." " He confessed his sin," says S. Ambrose,! " he 
 acknowledged his iniquity; he saw the laver, and he saw and be- 
 lieved. He loved much, so as by exceeding love he might hide any 
 sins." 
 
 * The Psalm is sung in the Greek Liturgy, as a thanksgiving immediately after Bap- 
 tism (Ass. ii. 145.) and ver. 1. is thrice repeated in the same place, in that of Antioch 
 and Jerusalem (ib. 226.) ; ver. 1, 2. are sung in the Coptic (ib. 154). This use of the 
 psalm is probably alluded to by >S. Athanasius, " When thou seest persons baptized, and 
 redeemed from their corniptible birth, and admirest the love of God for man, sing for 
 :hem the 3lst [32ndl. " Ep. ad MarccUin, § 18. (on the use of the Psalms) ; and by 
 iS. Cyril^ of Jerus. "long for that glorious sound, which, after your salvation, the an- 
 gels shall chant over you, ' Blessed are they,' " &c. (Procatech. § 15.) and again, 
 "that the company of angels may chant over you." (Lect. i. 1.) It is quoted by S. 
 Gregory of Naziamum, Oral. xl. § 32. S. Jerome, ad Oc. § 7. and c. Pelag. iii. 15. 
 " Arising out of the fount of Baptism, and having been regenerate to the Lord, the Sa- 
 viour, and that having been fulfilled, which was written of them, ' Blessed are they,' " 
 &c. and ver. 6. by S. Basil, de S. Bapt. T. i. p. 123. Zeno, Serm. 2. ad Neoph. Bibl. 
 Patr. T. iii. col. 395. S. Chrysostome, above, p. 291. See also Note below and p. 2J9. 
 
 t (S. Ambrose, Apol. David, § 40. " David having afflicted himself much for 
 his oflfence, and having uttered the words in the 30th [31st] Psalm, meditating 
 on, and dreading the judgment of God for the things whereof he was conscious, 
 then knowing, through the Holy Ghost and the prophetic power, the remission 
 of sins which there was to be for all men, and that the idolaters and ungodly 
 from among the heathen, entangled with countless sins, should obtain a full 
 remission, through the washing of regeneration, pronounces them thrice blessed. 
 For I, he says, wasted with groans, and frequent tears for sin, and falling into 
 troubles of all kinds, for it, pronounce them happy and enviable, who tlirough 
 
299 
 
 This full conviction of the Ancient Church is the more illustrated 
 by a degree of difference* as to the details, as showing that their 
 agreement to be independent. Their interpretation was not borrow- 
 ed from each other, else had it been altogether uniform ; it was not 
 incidental, but must have proceeded at least from the vdo; of the 
 Church, if not from actual tradition, else had not its characteristic 
 features been the same. 
 
 Since, again, the water which issued from His Side was, (as our 
 Church confesses) a symbol of our cleansing Baptism, and connected 
 with it, then, when Zechariah, having prophesied of that piercing of 
 
 the loving kindness of God obtain without suffering, forgiveness of sins. For 
 so bounteous is He to them, as not only to forgive, but to cover their sins, 
 and not leave even the trace of them." JEusebius, ad loc. ap. Montf. Coll. Nov. 
 The last words, " For I," &c. occur also in Theodoret, ad loc. who, in like 
 way, looks upon the psalm as predictive, " This psalm also was uttered amid 
 those troubles, and foreseeing with prophetic eyes, the grace of the New Tes- 
 tament, and the remission bestowed upon believers through all-holy Baptism, 
 he pronounces them blessed, as receiving freedom from sin without troubles." 
 Eusebius adds on ver. 2. " But because every one who cometh to the forgive- 
 ness given through Baptism shall obtain it through confession of the Saviour, 
 and faith in the God of all, and sincere confession, it is added very accurately, 
 ' and in whose mouth there is no guile.' For he is blessed, who, with a pure 
 spirit and true mouth maketh the confession, and uttereth the words at the 
 washing of regeneration." 
 
 * The variation relates to this, whether the psalm contains also a reference 
 to forgiveness upon repentance, and if so, in which part of it. For the most 
 part it is used without distinction of Baptism (see notes on page 298.) some, 
 however, refer the first clause, '' Blessed are they whose iniquities are for- 
 given," to Baptism ; the latter, "and whose sins are covered," to remission up- 
 on subsequent repentance ; otliers apply the first verse to Baptism, the second, 
 " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute sin," to repentance. 
 The former way is taken by Origen (ad loc. T. 2.) " Iniquities are remitted 
 through Holy Baptism, and sins are covered by the bitter repentance from 
 sins." (The same is given to S. Athanasius, T. i. p. 1050, and in Corderius' 
 Catena, as the opinion of others, reported by Origen.) And S. Ambrose, Ep. 
 70. \ 23. " As thou didst drown all our iniquities in the sea, like the lead of 
 Egypt (Ex. XV. 20.,) — and hast freely turned to mercy, which Thou hast be- 
 stowed by a two-fold gift, ' forgiving sins,' and ' covering' them, according to 
 what is written, ' Blessed,' &c. For some Thou grantest us to be washed 
 away in the Blood of Thy Son, others Thou remittest to us, hiding our errors 
 by good deeds and confessions." And de Pojnit. ii. § 35. " He pronounces 
 both happy, both him whose iniquity is remitted by the laver, and whose sin 
 is covered by good works. For whoso repents must not only wash away his 
 sin with tears, but also by amended deeds cover and hide his former offences, 
 that sin may not be imputed to him." Again, Apol. David, \ 49, 50. where 
 he mentions the other interpretation, " Iniquity (which is the most grievous) 
 is remitted by the laver ; sin is covered by good deeds, and overshadowed as 
 it were by other works. For ' charity' concealeth error, and ' hideth a multi- 
 tude of sins.' Charity also remitteth many even of sins, as is written of the 
 woman, who poured ointment on the Lord, ' Her sins, which are many, are 
 forgiven ; for she loved much.' But there are also who interpret the first 
 verse of the laver, the second of repentance.." 
 
300 
 
 His Side,* goes onf to say, " In that day there shall be a fountain 
 open to the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin 
 and for uncleanness," it is plain that he prophesies not of a remission 
 of sins, generally, but of one to be obtained through the Sacrament, 
 which issued from that Side. Thus S. Cyril of Alexandria,:}: " But 
 to her dwellers in the spiritual Jerusalem, i. e. the city of Judah, 
 that is, of Christ, there shall be in every place a fountain, springing 
 up with the water of purification, i. e. plainly. Holy Baptism, chang- 
 ing the Jews from the law to the life in Christ, from the type and 
 the letter to a spiritual service ; the Greek from unbelief to belief in 
 Christ, from the greatest darkness to the clear knowledge of the true 
 God, from darkness to light ; and both together from the things of 
 the llesh to live holily and purely and walk in the Spirit — from re- 
 garding the things of the world to love those above the world. But 
 that when we receive Holy Baptism, we are sprinkled with the 
 Blood of Christ, to the cleansing of sin, how can any doubt ?" And 
 St. Jerome, § " Of this fountain which proceedeth out of the house of 
 David, is written in the prophet Ezekiel|| also, that a fountain spring- 
 eth up in the house of G od, and increaseth to a river, and goeth forth 
 to the desert, and to the sea now called the Dead Sea, and maketh 
 all the fish to live," &c. " This fountain," he adds, " is referred to 
 the Church, and the knowledge of the Scripture, that we be all re- 
 born in Christ, and in the water of Baptism our sins be forgiven us." 
 Hence also the Ancients doubt not but that when our Lord speaks 
 of " a fountain of living water," "springing up unto everlasting life,T[" 
 He means not only the gift of the Spirit, but the Spirit, as He had 
 " not yet been given," but should be given, after Himself was " glo- 
 rified,"** the special gift of the Indwelling Spirit to those " born of 
 water, and of the Spirit." " That it may be the plainer, says St. 
 Cyprian, comparing the two sacraments, that He speaks not of the 
 
 * xii. 10. t xiii. 1. 
 
 X Ad loc. p. 787. 
 
 ^ Ad loc. The prophecy of Zechariah is quoted or referred to in the Sac- 
 ramentary of Gelasius ; "And Who ' openest the fountain' of Baptism for the 
 renewal of the nations throughout the whole world" (Ass. ii 3. ;) the Grego- 
 rian (ib. 8.;) that of Gellone (ib. 53.;) Chelle (ib. 62. ;) S. Germain des Pres 
 (ib. 65.) Also in the Syriac (Apostolic from Greek by James of Edessa,) 
 " A fountain of life hath been opened to us, Baptism" (ib. i. 257. ;) that of 
 Jerusalem (ii. 226. ;) and the Apostolic by Severus (ii. 289.,) " Thou hast 
 given us a ixDuntain of true cleansing, which cleanseth us from all sin, these 
 waters, which by invocation of Thy Holy Spirit are sanctified ;" and probably 
 the Maronite (ii. 334.,) " Eternal glory — to the Son, Who hath opened to us 
 Baptism for the remission of debts, and pardon of sins." 
 
 II Ezek. xlvii. I — 12. add Joel iii. 18. of the coming of our Lord, "in that 
 day — shall all the rivers of Judah flow with waters, and a fountain shall come 
 forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water," &c. It is quoted by Greg. 
 Naz. Or. xl. § 27. and explained by Theodoret. 
 
 1 John iv. 14 ; vii- 38. ** John vii. 39. 
 
301 
 
 Cup" [mingling water therein] "but of Baptism, Scripture adds, 
 ' This spake He of the Spirit, Which they who beheved in Him 
 should receive.' For by Baptism the Holy Spirit is received, and 
 so do they who have been baptized, and obtained the Holy Spirit, 
 attain to drink of the Cup of the Lord ;" and on John iv., " Whereby 
 Baptism in the health-giving water is signified, as being once receiv- 
 ed, and not repeated, whereas the Cup of the Lord in the Church is 
 ever both thirsted for and drunk."* And so then the words of Isaiah, 
 which our Lord identifies with Himself, " Hot every one that thirst- 
 eih, come ye to the waters," were a prophecy of the same grace ; as 
 were the Psalmist's, | " He shall lead me by still waters, He shaU 
 
 * S. Cyprian, Ep. 62. ad Csecil. Theodoret (ad Ezek. xlvii. 1.) quotes both 
 passages together, as do S. Greg. Nyss. I.e. p. 377. and S. Jerome on Is. Iv. 
 1. S. Greg. Naz. quotes Joh. iv. (Orat. xl. 5 27. :) S. Augustine, Joh. vii. (c. 
 Crescon. ii. 13.) The two passages are blended (the word "living" being 
 taken from Joh. vii.) in the Sacramentary of Gelasius, " Be it" [the font] " a 
 regenerating ' fountain of living water,' a purifying stream ; (Ass. ii. 3. and so 
 in the Gregorian, &c.) Joh. iv. again, " let it be a ' fountain of water, spring- 
 ing up unto life eternal' " (ib. 7. ;) and " that thou mayest be made in him, 
 who is to be baptized in thee, a fountain of water springing up to life eternal, 
 regenerating him to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." (ib. 
 6.) So (only in the third person) in the Roman (ib. 33. ;) and Gothic (ib. 36.;) 
 and Old Galilean (ib. 41.) Again in the Old Gallican, " that to those to be 
 baptized therein, it may be a fountain of healthful water in the remission of 
 former sins (through Thy gift, O Lord,) to life eternal." (ib. 38.) The old 
 Gothic and Gallican also remarkably blend together the gift of Baptism with 
 its Author, (referring also to Jerem. ii. 13.) " Baptism is a fountain of living 
 water and of life, because its Author is Creator of all, Lord, and Fountain of 
 living water, Who, by the laver of Baptism, blottest out their sins," &c. (i. 
 29.) The words are probably alluded to in the Greek (though less distinctly) 
 in the prayer that the water may become " a fountain of life." (ib. 139. 
 
 t Is. Iv. 1. quoted by S. Greg. Xaz. Orat. xl. $ 27. S. Jerome (ad Oc.) com- 
 bines them with Joh. iv. "The Samaritan woman is called at the well; thirsty, 
 she is invited to drink," and (ad loc.) with Joh. vii. also ; Ps. xlii. 2 ; xxxvi. 
 9 ; Jerem. ii. 13. He mentions also, as founded upon them, the Western cus- 
 tom of giving to the new-baptized, wine and milk ; so strongly attesting the 
 tradition of the Western Church ; " to buy not wine only but milk, which sig- 
 nifies the innocence of the little ones ; which custom and type is to this day 
 preserved in the Churches of the West, that wine and milk should be given to 
 those re-born in Christ." Ver. 1 — 7. is directed to be read in the liturgy of 
 Poictiers (Ass. i. 67. ;) 3 — 7. in that of Gellone (ib. 57.,) in which ver. 1. is 
 used as an xlntiphone ; ver. 3. as a versicle (ib. ;) ver. 1. sqq. are sung in the 
 liturgy of Liege (ib. 83.) It occurs also in the Roman service for the Epiph- 
 any. Hence also the title " thirsty'' given to the candidates for Baptism, as 
 in the Old Gallican, " thirsting for the faith." " O God, to 'Whom hasten the 
 souls athirst, and longing to drink immortality" (Ass. ii. 38, 39. ;) and the ap- 
 plication of our Lord's words, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness," to Baptism. S. Cyprian, Ep. 62. ad Csecil. See also 
 note X page 302. 
 
 t Ps. xxiii. is explained by Theodoret and S. Athanasius, ad loc. See above, 
 p. 30. It is used in the Armenian Baptismal Service (Ass. ii. 196.;) hence 
 also the prayer in the Syriac liturgies, " Lord of all, make these waters 
 
302 
 
 lead me forth by the waters of comfort ;" or the"^ stream v;hich mak- 
 6th glad the city of God ;" or that " inf the wilderness shall waters 
 break out, and streams in the desert," i. e. says S. Jerome,| "that 
 which before was thirsty and trackless, not having the living water, 
 and the Lord did not walk through it ;" and " the parched ground 
 shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water ;" or that 
 God would do a new thing." " I will make a way in the wilder- 
 ness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people. My cho- 
 sen ; I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the 
 dry ground ; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed ;"^ or that " with 
 Godii is the fountain of life ;" or that Himself is " theH Fountain of 
 
 waters of rest." (Antioch and Jerus. ii. 220. Jerus. ii. 230 and 259. Apost. 
 by Severus, ii. 291.) See also Cassiodor, ad loc. ap. Gerhard. With the same 
 feeling of the rest given by Baptism, the section, Matt. xi. 25 — 30. " I thank 
 Thee, O Father — My burden is light," is a lesson in the rituals of Gellone 
 (Ass. i. 55.;) Poictiers (ib. 66.;) Wertin (ib. 73.;) S. Severini (ib. 91-;) S.Basil 
 quotes Matt. xi. 28. as having been read in connection with Baptism. Horn, 
 de S. Bapt. T. ii. p. 114. It may be on the same ground, that our Church 
 directs that Baptism should take place after the second lesson, i. e. before the 
 hymn, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." 
 
 * Sacramentary of Gelasius, " Look upon the face of Thy Church, and mul- 
 tiply in her the births of Thee, Thou, Who with the force of Thy streaming 
 grace makest glad Thy city," (Ass. ii. 3.;) also in the Gregorian, as well as 
 in those of Gellone, ii. 53.;) Poictiers (ii. 65.,) &c. It is quoted by S. Jerome 
 in Is. Iv.; iii. 45. and S. Aug. c. Cresc. ii. 14. 
 
 f Is. XXXV. 6. 
 
 i Ad loc. and further, (showing the connection with what went before,) 
 "Therefore shall the eyes be opened, the ears hear, the lame leap, and the 
 tongue of the dumb be loosed, because there have been opened, or have burst 
 forth, in what was a desert Church, the streams of saving Baptism, and tor- 
 rents and rivers in the wilderness, namely, dilferent spiritual graces." And 
 S. Greg. Nyss. (p. 377.) on ver. 2. " And where shall we place that pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah, calling to the desert to rejoice 1 For it is plain that he does 
 not announce joy to places without life and sense ; but by the desert he alle- 
 gorically denotes the parched and neglected soul ; as David also when he says, 
 ' My soul thirsteth for God,' " &c. (Ps. xlii. 2.) And again, the Lord in the 
 Gospels (John vii.;) and to the Samaritan (Joh. iv.:) and Eusebius (ad loc.;) 
 " It is prophetic of John Baptist ; and that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
 set His seal to the Baptism of John by being baptized of him, and in His 
 own Person established the mystery of regeneration." And Theodoret (ad 
 loc.,) "He calls it thirsty, as not having received the prophetic watering; 
 and barren, as not having received the divine culture. Her he bids rejoice ; 
 and imitate the flower of the lily, the purity coming from the Holy Spirit 
 through Baptism. 
 
 § is. xliii. 19, 20 ; xliv. 3. The section xliii. 18 — xliv. 5. is a lesson in the Poictiers 
 ritual (Ass. i. 66.) ; as is Is. xlij. 8 — 15, including the words " hy the springs of water 
 shall he guide them," (ib. 67.); Is. xliii. 18 — 21. is placed by S. Cyprian, Testim. i, 
 12. under ihe head " That the Old Baptism was to cease, and a new begin;" as is Is. 
 xlviii. 21, " He will cause the waters to flow out of the rock for them," &c. He quotes 
 both also Ep. 63. ad Caecil. See also Theod. p. 357. 
 
 II Ps. XXXV. 10, quoted by Jerome, ad Is. Iv. 
 
 ^ Jerem. ii. 13. see Jerome, i. c. and Gothic and Galilean Liturgies above. 
 
303 
 
 living waters ;" or that other, " As the hart panteth after the water- 
 brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, God ;"* was a longing af^ 
 ter it. To " sow beside all waters," was to unite instruction in the 
 word with all-holy Baptism.! 
 
 To take a different sort of type ; in the New Testament our Bap- 
 tism is spoken of, in an image as restoring to us the robe of innocen- 
 cy,:]: which Adam, by his transgression, lost, as clothing, our shame, 
 giving us a garment of holiness for our mantle of fig leaves, " strip- 
 ping off our old man," and " putting on the new," removing our de- 
 filements, and clothing us with Christ. When then, in the vision of 
 Zechariah,^ " Satan stands at the right hand" of " Joshua the high- 
 priest," " clothed with filthy garments ;" and " the filthy garments," 
 are " taken from him," and He saith unto him. Behold I have caused 
 thine iniquity to pass from thee, " and I will clothe thee with change 
 of raiment," doubtless there is a primary reference to Him, our 
 High-Priest, Who "bore our sins," and "in Whom the prince of 
 this world could find nothing ;"|| but then also to us, who by Bap- 
 tism are engraffed in Him, and are thus clothed with His purity as 
 He with our defilements, and become partakers of His holiness, 
 which He in our nature obtained for us. "Most manifestly," says St. 
 Gregory of Nyssa,1I " doth Zechariah prophecy of Jesus clothed 
 
 * Ps. xlii. It is one of the Psalms used at the beginning of the Roman liturgy in the 
 Baptism of adults (Ass. ii. 21.) in that of Milan (discretionally) in going towards the 
 font (ii. 46.) : the first verse is interwoven in a prayer in that of the Maronite Syrians, 
 (ii. 334.) It is quoted by S. Greg. Naz. Oral. xl. § 24. S. Gieg. Nyss. 1. c. p. 378, and 
 S. Ambrose de Interpeil. Dav. c. 1. fin. and so interpreted by Hesychius (ad loc. ap. 
 Corder. Cat.) and S. Athanasius, ib. on ver. 7. S. Augustine mentions its being sung 
 in the Western Church, in the Baptismal service, though he rightly would not have its 
 meaning confined to that sacrament ; rather, as he says, it increases the longing, which 
 it, in part, fulfils. " This is not ill understood to be the words of those, who being cate- 
 chumens, hasten to the grace of the holy laver. Whence al.so this psalm is wont to be 
 suhg, that they may so long for the fount of remission of sins, ' as the hart for the founts 
 of water.' Be it so ; and let this meaning have its true and wonted place in the Church. 
 Yet, my brethren, such longing seems to me not to be satisfied in the faithful even in 
 Baptism ; but, perchance, if they know where they are pilgrims, and whither their jour- 
 ney lies, they are kindled yet more ardently." Ad loc. § I. 
 
 t Is. xxxii. 20. " By ' water' he designates the abolishing of sin, and cleansing of 
 the soul, all-holy Baptism ; by seed the word of instruction." Theodoret, ad loc. add 
 S. Cyril, Alex, ad loc. T. iii. p. 451. S. Greg. Naz. Or. xl. § 27. 
 t See above, p. 90. sqq. § c. iii. 
 
 II John xiv. 30. 
 
 IT De Bapt. Christi, T. iii. p. 377. In like way, St. Jerome (ad loc.) " This Jesus 
 was clothed with filthy garments. Who having done no sin, was made sin for us ; all 
 which are called filthy garments; and will be taken away from Him, when He shall 
 have done away our sins ; that because He was clothed in filthy garments, we, rising 
 again in Him, may hear after our Bapti.sm, ' Be thy garments always white,' (Eccl. ix. 
 8.) ; and the whole Church of believers hears through Isaiah, ' Wash you, make you 
 clean.' " (i. 16.) And St. Ambrose (de Myst. c. 7. § 37.), " Christ seeing His Church 
 in white raiment, for which Himself (as you have in the prophet Zechariah) had taken 
 filthy garments ; or seeing the soul washed and clean, through the laver of regenera- 
 tion, saith, ' Behold thou art fair.' " (Cant. iv. 1.) 
 
304 
 
 with the filthy garment, our slavish flesh, and stripping Him of His 
 mournful vest adorns Him with a pure garment, teaching us through 
 this image and likeness, that in the baptism of Jesus, we all, strip- 
 ped of sins, as a beggarly and many-shredded garment, are, in lieu, 
 clothed with the sacred and most beautiful garment of regeneration." 
 To the prophet is set forth in act, in the vision imparted to him, the 
 same truth which St. Paul declares in figurative words ; both are 
 figures, but both declare realities, corresponding to the figures. 
 
 Such are among the most important doctrinal passages of the Old 
 Testament, which the modern unsacramental theory has rent from 
 their connection with God's preparatory teaching, and from their 
 place in His system. It may, however, not be uninstructive to ob" 
 serve, how, in other passages not immediately involving important 
 doctrine, the Ancients saw the same reference to the sacrament, 
 whereby they had been regenerated. Thus, since Baptism is the 
 washing of renovation by the Holy Ghost, (as well as of regenera- 
 tion,) " ye are eagles," says S. Ambrose,* " renewed by the washing 
 dway of sin :" since it is our enlightening, to it they believed that the 
 Psalmist invited, " Come and be enlightened,"! and the'more, since 
 there followed, " taste and see that the Lord is good." " HavingI 
 said, ' Come unto Him and be enlightened,' he exhorts, ' and taste.' 
 The meaning hidden in the depth of the letter, hints secretly at the 
 grace of the Divine mysteries ; for through all-holy Baptism is the 
 true enlightening bestowed on those who come to it ; and the ' tast- 
 ing' of the life-giving food shows plainly the goodness of the Saviour. 
 For what so clearly shows His love for man, as the Cross, and Pas- 
 sion, and Death, for us, and that He is at once the food and the foun- 
 tain for His own sheep." 
 
 Witli their vivid sense of the value of our Lord's Baptism to us, 
 the words, " The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters,"^ was a 
 prophecy of the sacred words, " This is My Beloved Son," uttered 
 thereat. 
 
 * De Sacr. iv. 2. fin. from Ps. ciii. 5. add S. Basil, de Sp. S. c. 15. 
 
 + Ps. xxxiv. 6.8. S. Gregory of Nazianzum, Orat. 40. § 24 ; and S. Basil (Horn, 
 de S. Bapt. T. ii. p. 114.) mention its being read in connection with Baptism. It is so 
 interpreted by Theodoret, ad loc. and Greg. Nyss. 1. c. iii. 377. It occurs in the Cop- 
 tic Baptismal Service. (Ass. ii. 178.) And on the same ground in part in the Arme- 
 nian, Ps. xxvii. " The Lord is my light and salvation." 
 
 t Theodoret, ad loc. 
 
 § Ps. xxix., " The Divine David, prophesying before of that voice, which the Father 
 sent from Heaven upon the Son when baptized, to guide to the dignity of the Godhead, 
 which He by nature had, the hearers who hitherto looked to the visible lowliness of His 
 human estate, inserted that ' The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the voice of the 
 Lord is in Majesty.' " S. Greg. Nyss. (1. c. 378.) and S. Basil ; " Perhaps, also, in a 
 more mystical way, ' the voice of God' was ' upon the waters,' when the, voice came 
 from above to Jesus, when baptized, ' This is my beloved Son.' For then ' the Lord 
 was upon many waters,' sanctifying the waters through Baptism. And ' the God of 
 glory thundered' from above, with the loud voice of His testimony ; and the voice be- 
 queathed by the Lord is still pronounced over the baptized, ' Go ye, baptizing in the 
 
305 
 
 Since the passage of the Red Sea and the Jordan was a type of 
 Baptism, the words, " What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fled- 
 dest ? thou Jordan, that thou wert driven back ?" and " the waters 
 saw Thee, God, tlie waters saw Thee ; they were afraid ; the 
 depths also were troubled ;"* were not only reminiscences of past 
 miracles, but a description of mercies to them, as also of the amaze- 
 ment of nature, that our Lord could condescend to be baptized there- 
 in ; the song of Moses was a thanksgiving for their own blessings, 
 "when God brought them in and planted them in. the mountain of 
 His inheritance ;" " in the habitation which he had prepared, the 
 sanctuary, which His hands had formed ;"t the words, "Thou break- 
 est the heads of the dragons upon the waters,"! to them chiefly spake 
 
 Name,' &c. ' The voice of the Lord' then is ' upon the waters.' " Ad loc. T. i. p. 
 218, and Theodoret, " He predicts the voice which came from heaven at the Jordan, 
 ' This is My beloved Son,' &c. ; He calleth it thunder, as, through the holy Gospels, 
 reaching through the world. ' The Lord is on many waters. For not the Jordan only 
 received that grace, but every where, in land and sea, is the mystery of Baptism per- 
 formed, the invocation of God sanctifymg the nature of waters." (ad loc.) And S. 
 Hippolytus, "Why [came the Holy Spirit upon our Lord] ^ That the voice of the 
 Father might be known assuredly, and the prophetic prediction of times long since be 
 confirmed. What'' 'The voice of the Lord upon the waters, the God of glory thun- 
 dered, the Lord upon many waters.' " (in Theoph. § 7.) It is quoted also by S. Jerome 
 (ad Oc.) ; and S. .Ithanasius (ad loc.) gives it as one exposition. The entire psalm is 
 used in the Armenian (ii. 206.) ; and at least ver. 1 — 4. in the revised Syriac (i. 221.); 
 the Jerusalem (ii- 246.) ; the Apostolic by Severus (li. 267) ; by James of Edessa. (i. 
 243.) It is one of the psalms used in the Roman Office for Adult-Baptism (Ass. ii. 
 21.) ; ver. 3, 4. are used in the Coptic (ii. 178.) ; ver. 3. as an antiphone in the Arme- 
 nian (». 195. 206); it occurs in the Malabar (i. 186.); Apost. by James of Ed. (i. 
 248. 257. 274.) ; combined with Ps. Ixxvii. 16. in the Apost. by Severus (ii. 295.), and 
 alpne. (ii. 313.) In that by James Ed. it is indistinct reference to our Lord's Baptism, 
 «'The voice of the Lord is on the waters. Who was baptized in Jordan ; the Loid upon 
 many waters. Who sanctified us by His Baptism." (i. 265.) It is used also in the Ro- 
 man Service for the Epiphany. 
 
 * Ps. cxiv. 5 ; Ixxvii. 16. The two psalms are blended together in the Syriac Apos- 
 tolic by James of Edessa (Ass. i. 247.) ; Jerusalem (ib. ii. 248, 9.) ; Maronite (ii. 312.) 
 Ps. cxiv. recurs also in the Apost. by Ser. (ii. 272.) Ps. Ixxvii. 16. is used as an anti- 
 phone by the revised Syriac (Ass. i. 229.) ; Jerusalem (ib. ii. 223 ) as a verse in the 
 Apostolic by Severus (ib. i. 266.); it is inserted in a prayer with direct reference 
 to the " Voice of the Father" in the Maronite (ii. 329.) "Let as cry aloud with 
 the prophet David, ' The waters saw Thee,' &c. Let us cry aloud again with the 
 Father, Who with a mighty voice spake from the highest heavens," &c. ; and also in 
 the very brief form by Philoxenus, for cases of imminent death, " The waters saw Thee, 
 O God ; the waters saw Thee, O Lord, and trembled ; Thy power was moved from the 
 heights above, its virtue dwelt in the depths beneath ; and Thou gavest Baptism to the 
 peoples ; to be the mother of spiritual sons." 
 
 t Syriac revised Liturgy (Ass. i. 225.) The part of the prayer immediately pre- 
 ceding, is " Lord, make them worthy of Thy heavenly kingdom, which Thou hast 
 promised and prepared for them that love Thee, and for the blessed and goodly mansions 
 of the house of Thy Father, wherein dwell the fathers, and patriarchs, prophets, and 
 apostles, and martyrs, and confessors, which Thou hast promised and prepared for them, 
 and bring," &c. 
 
 \ Ps. Ixxiv. 13. " 'The heads of the dragons,' the pride of the demons, by whom 
 the Gentiles were possessed, ' Thou bruisedst upon the water,' because those whom 
 they possessed Thou by Baptism didst set free." Aug. ad loc. § 15. " 'The head of 
 the dragon,' What dragon 1 By the dragons we understand all the demons warring 
 
 10* 
 
306 
 
 of the destruction, at Baptism, of his power over them, to whom 
 they had been enslaved, and of whom Pharaoh was a type — " the 
 great Dragon, that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan ;"* and 
 when they read, "He turned the sea into the dry land; through 
 the river shall they pass through on foot ; there rejoice we in Him ;"t they 
 rejoiced in the thought of those waters of life, through which they 
 had " passed, not with the foot of the flesh, but by faith :" and when 
 there followed, " we went through fire and water, and thou brought- 
 est us out into a broad place, "| they thought of their safe and happy 
 place, the Church, into which they had thereby been brought : Isa- 
 iah's§ description of God's subsequent care of them through the wil- 
 derness, " which are borne by Me from the belly, which are carried 
 by Me from the womb," described to them their lot. " Thou sittest 
 upon the water-floods,"|l spake to them of God's effacing and utterly 
 abolishing their sins. 
 
 under the Devil ; by the one dragon, then, whose head was broken, what must we un- 
 derstand but the Devil himself ? The head it was whicb received the curse." lb. § 18. 
 "The heads of these [adverse powers] Christ bruised in the water, being both Himself 
 baptized, and delivering Baptism to men." Hesychius (ap. Corder.) " As amongst ihe 
 Jews, water was the beginning of freedom, so also to us, through Divine Baptism ; there 
 the dragons, here the demons were crushed." Apollinarius (ap Corder.) " He de- 
 signates also the devil, whom the Lawgiver bound and destroyed by His voluntary 
 death." Theodoret. It is quoted also by S. Jerome (ad Oc), and by Damascene (iv. 
 9.), in connection with our Lord's Baptism. See also the Liturgies above. On the 
 same ground, the drowning of swine, into whom the devils had entered, is referred to by 
 S. Greg. Naz. xl. 35. " He is choked by the purification, as the legion by the sea." 
 
 » Rev. xii. 9. 
 
 + Ps. Ixv. 6. " He saith not ' passed through,' that you may not suppose that He is 
 speaking of the Jews going on foot through Jordan, but ' shall pass through ;' prophe- 
 sying the future mystery, and predicting Baptism, which we pass through not with \he 
 foot of the flesh, but by faith, where the unbelieving cannot pass through it." (Anot 
 given to Theodoret ap. Corder.) And Theodoret, " This same God, who of old divided 
 the sea and rivers, is He Who giveth us also salvation, granting a passage to the Gen- 
 tiles also, which having made ' through the washing of regeneration,' they are re-formed. 
 For as then by the hand of the great Moses, He divided the Red sea hither and thither, 
 thus here also by the hand of the priests ; and renews the people who believe in Christ, 
 and overwhelms the spiritual Pharaoh with his chariots, i. e. the devil with his lusts. 
 'There shall we rejoice thereof,' i. e. by the Jordan, as they of the Gentiles also by the 
 Divine Baptistery. For then also Jordan was divided for the people ; and now Jordan, 
 . having received the Maker and Author, receiveth the salvation of Man. For by entering 
 into the Laver for us, our God and Saviour regenerated us all ' by water and the Spirit.' " 
 (ad loc.) Theodorus also refers the passage to the miracles of the New Testament, 
 (ap. Corder.) 
 
 t Ver. 13. repeated in the Coptic Liturgy. (Ass. ii. 178.) 
 
 § Is. xlvi. 3. repeated in the Poictiers ritual (Ass. i. 65.), comp. Ex. xix. 4. Deut. i. 
 31 ; xxxii. 11. 
 
 II Ps. xxxii. 6. " A flood is an overflow of water, concealing every thing under it, 
 and purifying every thing defiled. Wherefore, he calls the grace of Baptism a ' flood ;' 
 80 that the soul having been washed from sin, and cleansed from the old man, might be 
 fit for an habitation of God through the Spirit. And with this agrees what is said in the 
 31st [32nd] Psalm ; for after having said, ' I have acknowledged my transgression, and 
 ray sin have I not hid,' he added, ' but in the flood of many waters they shall not ' come 
 nigh him,' for sins shall not 'come nigh him,' who has received the Baptism of the remission 
 of transgressions through ' water and the Spirit:' and akin to this is what is said in the 
 prophet Micah." (vii. 19.) S. Basil, ad loc. add Theodoret, ad loc. and S. Jerome, ad Oc. 
 
307 
 
 Such are some specimens of the typical system of the Ancient 
 Church ; they must be seen to disadvantage, as it was necessary 
 here to exhibit them, artificially arranged, instead of being naturally 
 grouped together, as they thronged into the thoughts of those, who 
 were in possession of the system, which we are attempting to recov- 
 er, and saw intuitively what we attain to by a process of argument. 
 We are obliged to detect, by analysis, what was to them transpa- 
 rent ; and such " demonstrations," as compared with their percep- 
 tion, are much what the operation of the anatomist, in detaching the 
 several sinews and muscles, is to their action in life. We lose also 
 the moral influence of the character of truth resulting from their full, 
 unlabored persuasion ; and the impressiveness of their conviction. 
 Still, even under these disadvantages, it will probably be felt, that 
 this system of the Ancient Church does perceive a harmony in holy 
 scripture, to which we are strangers ; that there is a beauty in this 
 universal relation of the most distant and the minutest things and words 
 of Holy Scripture with the most central and greatest, even those of 
 Him, our Lord ; that this system allows no word of God to " fall to 
 the ground," but gathers up all diligently, that " nothing be lost ;" 
 that it is analogous to His scheme of Creation, in which the lowest 
 things bear a certain relation to the highest, attesting the unity of 
 their Author ; that it is agreeable to the connection of His Word 
 with His word, that this should, even in what seems the most inci- 
 dental and insignificant detail of it, speak of Him, Who spoke it, be 
 penetrated with Him, Who is it's and our Life. 
 
 Nor is the whole office of the types concluded, although their pre- 
 paratory ministry is at an end ; our eyes still need their mitigated 
 light, that we may contemplate the Eternal Light under more varied 
 aspects ; and having its rays subjected to our eyes, one by one, may 
 the better appreciate what, as a whole, we cannot realize; and meet- 
 ing with it wherever we turn, mirrored in the histories and sayings 
 of Holy Scripture, may dwell the more continually upon it, and God's 
 love therein ; not depending upon our own efforts to fix our minds 
 upon the substance. Certainly, a gradual abandonment of the types,* 
 
 * The learned Lutheran, Gerhard (LocLde S. Bapt.), still recognized the following 
 as the ^'' chief types of Baptism;" — Gen. i. 3. Spirit of God brooding upon the face of 
 the water, iii. 21. Goats of skins, vi. vii. Deluge, xxvii. Circumcision, xxiv. 43. Re- 
 becca by the well, typifying the Church as the bride of Christ. Exod. xiii. The cloud, 
 xiv. The Red Sea. xv. 5. Mara (coll. Apoc. xxii. 2.) xvii. 6. Water from the rock. 
 XXX. 18 ; xxxviii. 8 ; xl. 7. The laver. Lev. xiv. 6. Hyssop, &c. xv. Levitical wash- 
 ings, xix. 2. Ashes of the heifer, &c. Josh. iii. Passage of Jordan. 1 Kings vii. 23. 
 Brazen sea. xvii. 34. Sacrifice of Elijah. 2 Kings v. Naaman. And in the New 
 Testament, John v. Pool of Bethesda. xix. 34. The Blood and water. Rev. iv. 6. 
 The sea of glass, xxii. 1. River of pure water. He names also the following as " cAte/ 
 sayings'' relating to it : — Ps. xxiii ; xxix. 10 ; xlvi. 4 ; ciii. 5. Is. xliv. 3, 4 ; xlix. 
 22 ; Iii. 15. (quoting Luther on Gen. xlix. "to be baptized is nothing else than to be 
 absolved in the Blood, or by virtue of the blood of the Son of God) ;" Ixi. 10. Ezek. 
 xvi. 39. Ps. xli. 16. Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26; xlvii. 1. Joel iii. 18. Mic. vii. 19. Zech. 
 xiii. 1. 
 
308 
 
 and a less reverential and thoughtful appreciation of the reality, have 
 gone together. In both we have declined, step by step, from the 
 Ancient Church. 
 
 With regard to the immediate subject of Baptism, it must, of 
 course, raise our notions of it, that God had thus prepared the way 
 for it.* " I find," says S. Gregory of Nyssa,"! " that not only did 
 the Gospel, after the Crucifixion, preach the grace of Baptism, but 
 that before the Incarnation of the Lord also, the old Scripture every 
 where foreshadowed the image of our regeneration ; not manifesting 
 its form plainly, but, under dark hints, gently foreshowing the love 
 of God to man : and as the Lamb was dimly seen, and the Cross 
 was foretold, so was Baptism also foresignified in action." It must, 
 of course, be a great dispensation, which God so ushered in, depos- 
 iting the first intimations of it in the very history of the foundation 
 of the world ; ordering as well the acts as the records of His Provi- 
 dence, so as to interweave therein continual hints of it ; giving to 
 the emblems and instruments of it a primary place in His mightiest 
 dealings with our race, or with His chosen people, and directing the 
 minds of His prophets to speak of the future mercies in reference to 
 those deahngs ; Iniking it on to the mightiest, and the rarest, and yet 
 stooping to blend it with the things of most frequent occurrence ; 
 making it the chief instrument of His wonders, or inserting the men- 
 tion of it, for the mere sake (so to speak) of keeping it ever before 
 our eyes : connecting it with the longings for forgiveness, or His 
 promises of refreshment and renewal, and of the gifts of the Spirit, 
 in the Old Testament ; clearing off the shadows and unveiling its 
 form, as the dawn of the" Sun of righteousness" approached ; and 
 at last bringing forth the emblem of it from the very Side of the In- 
 carnate Son, and sanctifying it in the Jordan by the sensible Pres- 
 ence of the Trinity. " Now then," asks S. Ambrose, after naming 
 some of these preparations, "I would ask thee, whether thou must 
 not believe that thou hast the Presence of the Trinity in that Bap- 
 tism, wherewith they are baptized in the Church ?" 
 
 If these things were shadows, what is the reality ? For it were a 
 perverted way, (with moderns, and some ancient heretics,) to com- 
 pare the type with the reality, otherwise than in contrast. " What 
 then?" asks S. Basil,:}: " because they were typically baptized to 
 Moses, is the grace of Baptism therefore slight ? So should noth- 
 ing else bestowed upon us be great, were we to employ the types to 
 disparage what is exalted in each. For neither would the love of 
 God to man be any thing great and surpassing, in that He gave His 
 Only-Begotten Son for our sins ; inasmuch as Abraham also spared 
 
 • " Types show forth the majesty of Baptism." Luth. T. iv, 0pp. Lat. f 115. Ap 
 Gerhard de S. Bapt. c. 2. 
 
 t 1. c. p. 373. 
 X De Sp. S. c. 14. 4 32. 
 
309 
 
 not his own son. Nor were the Passion of the Lord glorious ; inas- 
 much as the ram in heu of Isaac fulfilled the type of the Oblation. 
 Nor were the descent into hell awful ; inasmuch as Jonah, during 
 three days and as many nights, fore-fulfilled the type of the Death. 
 He then doth the same, whoso as to Baptism also, estimates the truth 
 by a shadow, and from the types judges of the things signified by 
 them, and essays by means of ' Moses and the sea,' to disparage at 
 once the whole dispensation of the Gospel. For what remission of 
 sins was there ? what renewing of life in the sea ? what spiritual gift 
 through Moses ? what destroying of sin there ? They died not toge- 
 ther with Christ ; wherefore neither were they co-raised. They 
 bore not the image of the Heavenly ; they bore not about in the 
 body the dying of Jesus ; they put not off the old man ; they put not 
 on the new, which is renewed to knowledge, after the image of Him 
 Who created him. Why then comparest thou the baptisms, which 
 have the title only in common ? but the substance differs, as doth a 
 dream from the reality, and a shadow and images from things having 
 a substantive existence."* " So then," he subjoins a little after,t in 
 answer to those, who disparaged Baptism, in order to elude the argu- 
 ment in proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, " speaking of the le- 
 gal baptism, he said 'they were baptized unto Moses,' why then 
 would they, who by the aid of the shadow and types, calumniate the 
 truth, cast contempt upon the boast of our hope, and the rich gift of 
 our God and Saviour, Who through regeneration, ' reneweth our 
 youth like an eagle V This is altogether the part of an infant mind, 
 and of a child "Vvhich hath indeed need of milk, to be ignorant of the 
 great mystery of our salvation, because, after the manner of all ele- 
 mentary teaching, we are, in the school of godliness, led step by step 
 to perfection, being first instructed in what is easier and proportioned 
 to our knowledge ; He, Who disposeth our concerns, practising our 
 eyes, which were inured to darkness, and leading us upward to the 
 great light of truth. For He spareth our weakness in the depth of 
 the riches of His wisdom ; and in the inscrutable judgments of His 
 understanding. He adopted this easy guidance, well adapted to us, 
 accustoming us to see the shadows before the bodies, and to see the 
 sun in the water, that we might not be blinded, by coming at once to 
 the sight of the unmingled light. In like way, both the law, having 
 a shadow of the good things to come, and the outlines of the proph- 
 ets, being a dark likeness of the truth, were devised to exercise our 
 eyes ; that from these we might the more readily pass to the 
 wisdom hidden in mystery." 
 
 * Comp. S. Jerome in Zach. xiii. " because we pass from the law to the Gospel, 
 from the letter to the Spirit, from the shadow to the truth ; and for things shortlived 
 and present, there succeed things future and eternal." 
 
 t De Sp. S. c. 15. fin. 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 Page 30. 
 
 To the testimonies to the Catholic Interpretation of Joh. iii. 5. may be added S. Hip- 
 polytus in Theophan. § 8. and Pseudo-Martial Ep. ad Bnrdegalenses, Bibl. Patr. T. iv. 
 p. 108. Ep. ad Tolosanos, c. 4. and 8. (quoteil by Mr. Harcourt, Doctrine of the 
 Deluge.) Origen quotes it again, Horn. 14. in Luc. iii. p. 948. 
 
 Page 33. 
 
 Joh. iii. 5. is admitted by the Pelagians even in their confessions of faith, in proof of 
 the necessity of infant-baptism. Rufinus (Lib. Fid. c. vii. § 48. ap. Gamier, Diss, de 
 lib. fid. ed. a Pelag. p. 303.,) and Pelagius, Ep. ad Innocent, ap. Aug. de Pecc. orig. 
 c. xix. § 21. 
 
 Page 46. 
 
 " Joh. i. was read as a baptismal lesson m the African Church, as appears from S, 
 Augustine, Serm. 119, 120." Admon. in Serm. 8. App. ad S. Leon. T. i. p. 4l8. ed. 
 Ven. see above, p. 33. note t. In the sermon itself, the text (Joh. i. 13.) is explained 
 of the birth in Bapti.sm, " Ye then have now been born, not of the conception of the 
 flesh, but begotten of God the Father. It remains that by a holy life and conversation, 
 ye preserve the dignity of that holy origen." It is quoted also in the exposition of the 
 Lord's prayer in the Office for Catechumens in the Liturgy of Gelasius, " Wherefore, 
 most beloved, show yourselves worthy of the Divine adoption, since it is written, 
 ' Whoso believeth in Him, to them gave lie power to become the sons of God.' " — 
 (Ass. i. 15.) 
 
 Page 51. note t. 
 
 To the witnesses to the Catholic Interpretation of Tit. iii. 5. may be added Hijipolytus 
 in Theoph. § 9. Methodius Conv. Virg. which I first met with in Mr. Harcourt, 1. c. 
 
 Page 80. 
 S.Ambrose de Sacr. vi. 2. § 8. uses the word " concrucifigeris." 
 
 Page 86. 
 
 The connection of our Baptism with the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord is 
 again illustrated by Tertullian, (see below, p. 198.) and by S. Leo, in the same context, 
 " To confirm which" [the peculiar fitness of Easter] " it has much weight, that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ Himself, after He rose from the dead, gave to His disciples, (teaching 
 in them the Bishops of all Churches,) both the form and power of baptizing, saying. 
 
212 
 
 ' Go, teach all nations, baptizing them, &.c. For in this He might equally have instruct- 
 ed them before His Passion, unless He had especially intended it to be understood that 
 the grace of regeneration took its rise from His own resurrection." Ep. 16. c. 3. 
 
 Page 124. 
 
 See S. Athanasins below, quoted on p. 221. St. Jerome also in Abac. L. ii. c. iii. 13. 
 refers the unction to Baptism. 
 
 Page 148. 
 
 The section Heb. X. 16 — 18. and 19 — 24. is a Baptismal Lesson in the Jerusalem 
 Liturgy. (Ass. ii. 228, 9.) 
 
 Page 161. 
 
 The section Ep. iv. 1 — 6. is a Baptismal Lesson in the Maronite Liturgy, by James 
 of Sarug. (Ass. ii. 312.) 
 
 Page 163. 
 Even Pelagius connects the unity of Baptism with the unity of the Trinity, in Whom 
 we are baptized, "because they who are baptized in the name of the Father, and Son, 
 and Holy Spirit, are baptized in One Substance." (Ad loc. 1 Cor. xii. 13.) 
 
 Page 170. 
 
 Acts ii. 38. was read in connection with Baptismal service. Basil, Hom. de S. Bapt. 
 T. ii.p. 114. 
 
 Page 171. 
 
 S. Jerome places the exhortation of S. Peter, and the Baptism of the Eunuch, among 
 his panegyrics of Baptism. (Ep. ad Oc.) "The people of the Jews repent them of 
 their deed, and forthwith is sent by Peter to Baptism, ' Before she travaileth, Zion 
 beareth, and a nation is born at once.'" (Ts. Ixvi. 7.) "The Eunuch of Candace, 
 queen of Ethiopia, is prepared by the reading of the prophet for the Baptism of Christ. 
 Against nature, ' the Ethiopian changeth his skin, and the leopard his spots.' " — Jer. 
 xiii. 23. 
 
 Page 221. 
 
 On the efficacy of our Lord's Baptism were omitted S. Athanasius, who gives an ad- 
 ditional testimony on the interpretation of 1 Cor. i. 22. I Joh. ii. 20 — 27. " But if 
 for our sakes he sanctifies Himself, and doth this when He became man, it is plain, that 
 the descent of the Spirit upon Him in Jordan, was upon us (fi d; avTon h tu 'lop'oivri tov 
 JlveiiJiaTos ytvo^dvri KaOoioi el; (i^iTs ijv yivo/jti/ij) because He bore our body ; and it was not 
 to amend the Word, but again for oursanctification, that wa might partake of His anoint- 
 ing, and of us it might be said, ' know ye not that ye are the temples of God, and the 
 Spirit of God dwelleth in youl' for when the Lord, as man, was washed in Jordan, it 
 was we who in Him, and by Him were washed ; and when He received the Spirit, it 
 was we, who from Him, became capable of receiving It. Thence did we also begin 
 to receive the unction and the seal, John saying, ' and ye have an unction from the Holy 
 One,' and the apostle, 'and ye were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.' This then 
 was said on our account, and for us." Orat. 1. c. Arian. § 47, p. 451. Lactantius, Inst. 
 
313 
 
 iv. 15. " He was baptized in the river Jordan to abolish by the spiritual washing, not 
 His own sins which He had not, but those of the flesh which He bore, that as He saved 
 the Jews by receiving circumcision, so He might the Gentiles by Baptism, i. e. the 
 pouring forth of the purifying dew." S. Jerome, " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was not 
 so much cleansed by the Baptism, as by His Baptism cleansed all waters." Adv. Lucif. 
 § 6. and ad Oc. "The Saviour Himself, after He was baptized, and by His Baptism 
 had sanctified the waters of Jordan, begins to preach the kingdom of heaven." S. Epi' 
 pkanius, " Coming to the Jordan, baptized by John, Christ not needing the bath, but in 
 conformity to His incarnation under the law, not disturbing what was righteous, that as 
 He saith, ' all righteousness might be fulfilled,' that He might show that He had assum- 
 ed real flesh, and real incarnation : descending to the waters, giving rather than receiv- 
 ing, bestowing rather than needing, enlightening them, empowering them as a type of 
 those who should be perfected in Him, that they who believe in Him in truth, and have 
 the true faith, might learn that He was truly incarnate ; truly baptized ; and thus they 
 also, comhig through His compliance might receive the power of His condescension, 
 and be illumined by the light He brought." Anaceph. § 7. T. 3. p. 153. And S. Leo, 
 Ep. xvi. 6. " He founded the sacrament of His Baptism in Himself, because ' in all 
 things having the pre-eminence,' He showed that He was the Beginning." In the 
 same view of the connection of our Baptism with our Lord's, the baptistery is in the Cop- 
 tic ritual termed "the Jordan;" (Ass. ii. 163.) and the section, Luke iii. 15 — 22. is a 
 Baptismal lesson in the Maronite liturgy by James of Sarug (Ass. ii. 312.,) as in Matt, 
 iii. 13— end, in the Armenian (ib. ii. 201.) Mark i. 1—11. in the Apostolic Syriac, by 
 James Ed. (ib. i. 266.,) and John iii. 22—27. in the Jerusalem, (ii. 249.) 
 
 Page 225, Note *. 
 
 Add from S. Ambrose de Sp. S. c. lO. § 65. " inasmuch as the Lord Jesus 
 
 Christ Himself was both born of the Holy Spirit and re-born. Whom if, because ye 
 cannot deny, he confessed to be born of the Holy Spirit, but deny Him to be re-born, 
 it were great lack of wisdom to confess what is the saving dispensation of God, and 
 deny what is common to man." S. Jerome also uses the word re-natus of our Lord. 
 See above, p. 39. note. 
 
 Add to page 230, second extract. 
 •' Great was the wonder when the priest stretched forth his arm, and prepared Bap- 
 tism for Him, and the Watchers above wondered. Dust stood over the Flame and 
 called the Spirit, and It came from above. Forthwith He heard and performed his 
 desire, and gave life to the dead, and hope to the faithful. Halleluia. Halleluia." 
 
 Page 245. 
 
 Add S. Ambrose de Myst. c. 4. § 24. " The Holy Spirit descended as a Dove — that 
 you might dck» vvfted^c [ia^h*", F.., ad} the type of the Sacrament." The Greek Litur- 
 gy also flw-: !lfi /f^ri";v* f^'O L 'ni^ our ImtA and God of our Fathers, Who to those in 
 the Ark of ''.oaii ..; -.test the drffl?, bearing in its mouth the olive-branch, the symbol of 
 reconciliation An& of (ieiivera^qe from the deluge, and through both, foresignifying the 
 mystery of grace." (Ass. ii. 140.) 
 
 Add to page 231, after the second extract. 
 
 Ib. i. 275. '■ 'The Voice of the Lord on the waters.' Halleluia. Thinking on the 
 Baptism of the Son of God, I am amazed ; how He came to Baptism, Who had done 
 
314 
 
 no sin. He was baptized, having done no sin, and justified sinners. He was washed, wlio 
 needed not, and cleansed debtors. Praise to Him Who did all these things for us, and 
 sanctified us by His Baptism for the remission of debts. 
 
 " ' Thou gavest gifts unto men.' Halleluia. Holy and Son of the Holy. Pure and 
 undefiled, Who in the beginning was God the Word, came to Baptism to cleanse us, 
 and sanctified water to justify us. And being by His Nature, and the Forgiver of debts, 
 He was baptized by John in Jordan. Praise to His humility." 
 
 Page 247. 
 1 Cor. X. 1. sqq. is a Baptismal Lesson in the Malabar Liturgy. (Ass. i. 187.) It is re- 
 ferred to in the revised Syriac, " Perfect them by the gift of Holy Baptism, which was 
 typically expressed by Moses Thy servant, when He baptized the people in the sea and 
 the cloud ; and by dark hints and types, typified these our perfect and Divine things." 
 
 Page 273. 
 This and several other types are comprised in a passage (Juoted by Gerhard from S. 
 Cyril. Alex. The reference is wrong, but the passage, whether Cyril's or some other's 
 is, in spirit, ancient. "Let not the ordinance of the laver of Baptism be thought novel 
 and arbitrary, which was prefigured by many figures of the Old Testament, and testimo- 
 nies of prophets. For by the waters of the deluge, the sins of the whole world were ex- 
 piated, and they who were laid up in the ark were saved by water, this was a type of 
 Baptism, whereby all the defilements of sins are laid aside, and the decayed condition of 
 life removed. Further, the people of Israel, led by Moses, passeth the Red sea dry-shod, 
 the Egy[)tians being overwhelmed there, which conveyed to us, that through the recep- 
 tion of Baptism, the whole legion of diabolic pravity is removed and expelled from 
 us, and we being regenerated in Christ, are by the grace of God, freed from his most 
 hard oppression. What, moreover, did the people ef Israel, conducted over the Jordan 
 by the guidance of Joshua, where the waters stood on either side motionless, and yields 
 ed a road between, to the land of promise, signify other than that whoever, led by Christ, 
 rightly receive the laver of Baptism, shall, at length, arrive at the land of the living 1 
 W'hat that Naaman the Syrian, washed seven times in Jordan, was cleansed from his 
 leprosy, other than that they who are washed by the Baptism of Christ, are forthwith 
 cleansed from all leprosy of the soul, and from sinl What, lastly, does the water of 
 expiation, and of sprinkling according to the rite of the ancient law, taking away un- 
 cleannesBl This same water the Lord promised in Ezekiel (c. xxxvi.,) ' I will pour 
 clean water upon you.' This water of Baptism the prophet saw (c. xlvii.,) ' I saw the 
 waters going forth from the temple,' &c. This the side of Christ poured forth ; this the 
 pool of Bethesda foresignified." 
 
 Page 285. 
 The following passage of S. Basil is quoted by Lipomann, " Whether by ' spirit' he 
 mean, the air spread all around, which is breathed ; or (which is the truer, and approved 
 by our forefathers,) the ' Spirit of God' is the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as it hath been ob- 
 served that Scripture speaks of Him eminently and chiefly, and calleth nothing else ' the 
 Spirit of God' but the Holy Spirit, Who completeth the number of the Divine and 
 Blessed Trinity. If you admit this meaning, you will obtain more fruit from the pas- 
 sage. « But in what way,' sayest thou, ' was He borne above the waters 1' I will give 
 you, not my own explanation, but that of a Syrian, removed from the wisdom of the 
 world, in proportion to his nearness to the knowledge of truth. He said, then, that 
 ' the Syriac was more expressive, and on account of its affinity to Hebrew, came closer 
 
315 
 
 to the meaning of Scripture.' The meaning then was this, "fhe word 'was borne,' 
 the Syriac interprets, ' fostered, imparted to the waters a life-giving fruitfuiness, after 
 the image of a bird brooding, and imparting a certain force of life to the things fostered 
 by it.' Such we assert to be the meaning of the words, that the ' Spirit of God was 
 borne above the waters,' i. e. that the Holy Spirit prepared the nature of water for a 
 life-giving fruitfuiness. Whence what some wish to know, sufficiently appears, viz. 
 that neither is the Holy Spirit without a share in the act of creating." 
 
 END OF PART 1. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 On the Principles necessary for the attainment of Scriptural Truth, 
 and some of the obstacles which of late have prevented men from 
 receiving that of baptismal regeneration. p. 7 20. 
 
 Man no judge beforehand of the etfect of divine truth — danger of speak- 
 ing of essential and unessential truths in the Gospel, p. 7 — 11. Individual 
 holiness no test of religious truth — holding the truth in unrighteousness — 
 blessing of being placed in Christ's Church — use of private judgment im- 
 aginary — ministry not infallible because blessed — p. 11 — 15. — Greatness 
 of Baptismal regeneration if held positively — who serves earliest serves 
 best — p. 15 — 18. All restorations at first partial — recovery hitherto par- 
 tial — Scripture evidence is for those who beUeve — object of the present 
 work, p. 18—20. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 On the MEANING OF BAPTISMAL REGENERATION, AND THE PASSAGES OF HoLY 
 
 Scripture which speak of, or imply the greatness of Baptism, p. 21 — 
 315. 
 
 Meaning of Regeneration, p. 21 — 25. Preliminary observations, p. 25 
 — 28. Position of John iii. 5. as a key to other Scripture, compared with 
 other passages and with primitive interpretation, p. 29 — 76. 
 
 (I.) Passages in which Holy Scripture speaks of God, moderns see only 
 duties of man, p. 76 — 109. 
 
 (n.) Passages in which moderns have appropriated to themselves the 
 privileges of Holy Baptism, without thought of the means through which 
 they are conveyed, p. 109 — 151. 
 
 (H.) Passages implying the high dignity, essential office and large 
 place of Baptism in the Divine scheme of Redemption, 151, sqq. (iii. 1.) 
 Incidental mention of Baptism, p. 152 — 170. (iii. 2.) Indications of the 
 importance of Baptism, arising from the mode in which Holy Scripture 
 speaks of it, when conferred on individuals. The Ethiopian Eunuch — 
 Lydia — The Jailor — St. Paul — Cornelius — Simon Magus — John's Bap- 
 tism, p. 170 — 216. (iii. 3.) Indications of the dignity of Baptism arising 
 from circumstances connected with our Blessed Saviour's Person, and 
 from prophetic declarations and types of it recognized by Scripture, by 
 the Ancient Church, or as derived from it by our own, p. 216—309. 
 
 Addenda, p. 311 — 315.