2) Chapters 6 and 11 describe beautifully
how baptism confers upon man adoption to sonship and stamps upon his soul God’s
image and likeness:
He has renewed us by the remission of
our sins and has made us another type that we should have the soul of children
as though he were creating us afresh. For thus the scripture says concerning us
where it introduces the Father speaking to the Son, ‘let us make man after your
image’ (6, 11-12).
3) Baptism makes God’s creatures
temples of the Holy Ghost:
It remains yet that I speak to you concerning
the temple; how those miserable men (the Jews) erred by putting their trust in
the house, and not in God himself who made them; as if it were the habitation of
God. For much after the same manner as the Gentiles, they consecrated him in
the temple. But learn how the Lord speaks, rendering the temple vain: ‘Who has
measured the heaven with a span, and the earth with his hand? Is it not I? Thus
saith the Lord: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What is
the house that ye will build me?’ Know therefore that all their hope is vain.
And again he says: ‘Behold, they who destroyed his temple, they shall again
build it up.’ And so it came to pass; for through their wars it was destroyed
by the enemies; and the servants of their enemies build it up at present. . . .
Let us inquire, therefore, whether
there can be any temple of God. yes, there is; and that, there where he himself
declares that he would both make and perfect it. For it is written: ‘And it
shall be, that as soon as the week shall be completed, the temple of the Lord
shall be gloriously built in the name of the Lord.’ I find then that there is a
temple. But how shall it be built in the name of the Lord? I will show you.
Before we believed in God, the habitation of our heart was corruptible and
weak, as a temple really built with hands. For it was a house full of idolatry ,
a house of devils, inasmuch as there was done in it whatsoever was contrary
unto God. but it shall be built in the name of the Lord. Consider that the
temple of the Lord may be gloriously built; and by what means that shall be,
learn. Having received remission of our sins, and trusting in the name of the
Lord, we become renewed, being again created from the beginning. Wherefore God
truly dwells in our house, that is, in us (16, 1-8, 9) (Johannes Quasten, Patrology,
4 vols. [Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, Inc., 1992], 1:87-88)
