De baptismo
The tract On Baptism has a
strong anti-Messalian tendency and in a series of questions and answers, deals
with the effects of the sacrament of initiation. The exact title Responsio
ad eos qui de divino baptismate dubitant refers to those who doubt that sin
is actually taken away by baptism, since the Messalians maintained that even
after its reception sin remains in the soul and must be destroyed by our own
moral efforts. Mark declares against all such false doctrines that baptism not
only takes away all sin but confers the Holy Spirit. The words ‘I see another
law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind’ (Rom. 7, 23) are spoken
by the unbaptized, not by the baptized. Nevertheless, life after baptism
remains a continuous warfare because of the unending temptations from within
and without. But every sin is the result of our own free-will, not of our
corrupted nature. (Johannes Quasten, Patrology, 4 vols. [Westminster,
Md.: Christian Classics, Inc., 1992], 3:507)