11. For it has been delivered to us,
that there is one God, and one Christ, and one hope, and one faith, and one
Church, and one baptism ordained only in the one Church, from which unity
whosoever will depart must needs be found with heretics; and while he upholds
them against the Church, he impugns the sacrament of the divine tradition. The
sacrament of which unity we see expressed also in the Canticles, in the person
of Christ, who says, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a fountain
sealed, a well of living water, a garden with the fruit of apples.” But if His
Church is a garden enclosed, and a fountain sealed, how can he who is not in
the Church enter into the same garden, or drink from its fountain? Moreover,
Peter himself, showing and vindicating the unity, has commanded and warned us
that we cannot be saved, except by the one only baptism of one Church. “In the
ark,” says he, “of Noah, few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water, as
also baptism shall in like manner save you.” In how short and spiritual a
summary has he set forth the sacrament of unity! For as, in that baptism of the
world in which its ancient iniquity was purged away, he who was not in the ark
of Noah could not be saved by water, so neither can he appear to be saved by
baptism who has not been baptized in the Church which is established in the
unity of the Lord according to the sacrament of the one ark.
12. Therefore, dearest brother, having
explored and seen the truth; it is observed and held by us, that all who are
converted from any heresy whatever to the Church must be baptized by the only
and lawful baptism of the Church with the exception of those who had previously
been baptized in the Church, and so had passed over to the heretics. For it
behoves these, when they return, having repented, to be received by the
imposition of hands only, and to be restored by the shepherd to the sheep-fold
whence they had strayed. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell.
(Cyprian, Epistle LXXIII [ANF 5:389-90])
15. But neither must we pass over what
has been necessarily remarked by you, that the Church, according to the Song of
Songs, is a garden enclosed, and a fountain sealed, a paradise with the fruit
of apples. They who have never entered into this garden, and have not seen the
paradise planted by God the Creator, how shall they be able to afford to
another the living water of the saving lava from the fountain which is enclosed
within, and sealed with a divine seal? And as the ark of Noah was nothing else than
the sacrament of the Church of Christ, which then, when all without were
perishing, kept those only safe who were within the ark, we are manifestly
instructed to look to the unity of the Church. Even as also the Apostle Peter
laid down, saying, “Thus also shall baptism in like manner make you safe;”
showing that as they who were not in the ark with Noah not only were not purged
and saved by water, but at once perished in that deluge; so now also, whoever
are not in the Church with Christ will perish outside, unless they are
converted by penitence to the only and saving lava of the Church. (Cyprian,
Epistle LXXIV [ANF 5:394])
2. But that the Church is one, the
Holy Spirit declares in the Song of Songs, saying, in the person of Christ, “My
dove, my undefiled, is one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the
choice one of her that bare her.” Concerning which also He says again, “A
garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring sealed up, a well of living
water.” But if the spouse of Christ, which is the Church, is a garden enclosed;
a thing that is closed up cannot lie open to strangers and profane persons. And
if it is a fountain sealed, he who, being placed without has no access to the
spring, can neither drink thence nor be sealed. And the well also of living
water, if it is one and the same within, he who is placed without cannot be
quickened and sanctified from that water of which it is only granted to those
who are within to make any use, or to drink. Peter also, showing this, set
forth that the Church is one, and that only they who are in the Church can be
baptized; and said, “In the ark of Noah, few, that is, eight souls, were saved
by water; the like figure where-unto even baptism shall save you;” proving and
attesting that the one ark of Noah was a type of the one Church. If, then, in
that baptism of the world thus expiated and purified, he who was not in the ark
of Noah could be saved by water, he who is not in the Church to which alone
baptism is granted, can also now be quickened by baptism. Moreover, too, the Apostle Paul, more openly
and clearly still manifesting this same thing, writes to the Ephesians, and says,
“Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water.” But if the Church is one which is loved
by Christ, and is alone cleansed by His washing, how can he who is not in the
Church be either loved by Christ, or washed and cleansed by His washing?
(Cyprian, Epistle LXXV [ANF 5:397-98])
12. It is true, the ungodly may
partake in the visible sacraments of godliness, as we read that Simon Magus
received holy baptism. Such are they of whom the apostle says that "they
have the form of godliness, but deny the power of it." The power of
godliness is the end of the commandment, that is, love out of a pure heart, and
of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. So the Apostle Peter, speaking of
the sacrament of the ark, in which the family of Noah was saved from the
deluge, says, "So by a similar figure baptism also saves you." And
lest they should rest content with the visible sacrament, by which they had the
form of godliness, and should deny its power in their lives by profligate
conduct, he immediately adds, "Not the putting away of the filth of the
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience." (Augustine, Reply to Faustus
Manichean, Book XIX [NPNF1 4:243-44])
The Christians of Carthage have an
excellent name for the sacraments, when they say that baptism is nothing else
than "salvation," and the sacrament of the body of Christ nothing
else than "life." Whence, however, was this derived, but from that
primitive, as I suppose, and apostolic tradition, by which the Churches of
Christ maintain it to be an inherent principle, that without baptism and
partaking of the supper of the Lord it is impossible for any man to attain
either to the kingdom of God or to salvation and everlasting life? So much also
does Scripture testify, according to the words which we already quoted. For
wherein does their opinion, who designate baptism by the term salvation, differ
from what is written: "He saved us by the washing of regeneration?"
or from Peter's statement: "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth
also now save us?" And what else do they say who call the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper life, than that which is written: "I am the living bread
which came down from heaven;" and "The bread that I shall give is my
flesh, for the life of the world;" and "Except ye eat the flesh of
the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you?" If,
therefore, as so many and such divine witnesses agree, neither salvation nor
eternal life can be hoped for by any man without baptism and the Lord's body
and blood, it is vain to promise these blessings to infants without them.
Moreover, if it be only sins that separate man from salvation and eternal life,
there is nothing else in infants which these sacraments can be the means of
removing, but the guilt of sin,--respecting which guilty nature it is written,
that "no one is clean, not even if his life be only that of a day."
Whence also that exclamation of the Psalmist: "Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me!" This is either said in
the person of our common humanity, or if of himself only David speaks, it does
not imply that he was born of fornication, but in lawful wedlock. We therefore
ought not to doubt that even for infants yet to be baptized was that precious
blood shed, which previous to its actual effusion was so given, and applied in
the sacrament, that it was said, "This is my blood, which shall be shed
for many for the remission of sins." Now they who will not allow that they
are under sin, deny that there is any liberation. For what is there that men
are liberated from, if they are held to be bound by no bondage of sin?
(Augustine, A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and the Baptism
of Infants, Book 1, Chapter 33 [NPNF1 5:28])
See with what earnestness the apostles
declare this doctrine, when they received it. Peter, in his first Epistle,
says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according
to His abundant mercy, who hath regenerated us unto the hope of eternal life,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance immortal, and undefiled,
flourishing, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." And
a little afterwards he adds: "May ye be found unto the praise and honour
of Jesus Christ: of whom ye were ignorant; but in whom ye believe, though now
ye see Him not; and in whom also ye shall rejoice, when ye shall see Him, with
joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls." Again, in another place he says: "But ye
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvellous light." Once more he says: "Christ hath once
suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to
God:" and, after mentioning the fact of eight persons having been saved in
Noah's ark, he adds: "And by the like figure baptism saveth you." Now
infants are strangers to this salvation and light, and will remain in perdition
and darkness, unless they are joined to the people of God by adoption, holding
to Christ who suffered the just for the unjust, to bring them unto God.
(Augustine, A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and the Baptism
of Infants, Chapter 41 [NPNF1 5:31])
1. Ye have heard the holy Gospel, how
the Lord Jesus in that which He said to the Pharisees, conveyed doubtless a
lesson to His own disciples, that they should not think that righteousness
consists in the cleansing of the body. For every day did the Pharisees wash
themselves in water before they dined; as if a daily washing could be a
cleansing of the heart. Then He showed what sort of persons they were. He told
them who saw them; for He saw not their faces only but their inward parts. For
that ye may know this, that Pharisee, to whom Christ made answer, thought
within himself, he uttered nothing aloud, yet the Lord heard him. For within
himself he blamed the Lord Christ, because He had so come to his feast without
having washed. He was thinking, the Lord heard, therefore He answered. What
then did He answer? "Now do ye Pharisees wash the outside of the platter;
but within ye are full of guile and ravening." What! is this to come to a
feast! how did He not spare the man by whom He had been invited? Yea rather by
rebuking He did spare him, that being reformed He might spare him in the
judgment. And what is it that He showeth to us? That Baptism also which is
conferred once for all, cleanses by faith. Now faith is within, not without.
Wherefore it is said and read in the Acts of the Apostles, "Cleansing
their hearts by faith." And the Apostle Peter thus speaks in his Epistle;
"So too hath He given you a similitude from Noah's ark, how that eight
souls were saved by water." And then he added, "So also in a like figure
will baptism save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the
answer of a good conscience." "This answer of a good conscience"
did the Pharisees despise, and washed "that which was without;"
within they continued full of pollution. (Augustine, Sermon LVI [NPNF1
6:435])
3. "Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. Why does He not say, Ye are clean through
the baptism wherewith ye have been washed, but "through the word which I
have spoken unto you," save only that in the water also it is the word
that cleanseth? Take away the word, and the water is neither more nor less than
water. The word is added to the element, and there results the Sacrament, as if
itself also a kind of visible word. For He had said also to the same effect, when
washing the disciples' feet, "He that is washed needeth not, save to wash
his feet, but is clean every whit." And whence has water so great an
efficacy, as in touching the body to cleanse the soul, save by the operation of
the word; and that not because it is uttered, but because it is believed? For
even in the word itself the passing sound is one thing, the abiding efficacy
another. "This is the word of faith which we preach," says the
apostle, "that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the
Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Accordingly, we read in
the Acts of the Apostles, "Purifying their hearts by faith;"8 and,
says the blessed Peter in his epistle, "Even as baptism doth also now save
us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer1 of a good
conscience." "This is the word of faith which we preach,"
whereby baptism, doubtless, is also consecrated, in order to its possession of
the power to cleanse. For Christ, who is the vine with us, and the husbandman
with the Father, "loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." And
then read the apostle, and see what he adds: "That He might sanctify it,
cleansing it with the washing of water by the word." The cleansing,
therefore, would on no account be attributed to the fleeting and perishable
element, were it not for that which is added, "by the word." This
word of faith possesses such virtue in the Church of God, that through the
medium of him who in faith presents, and blesses, and sprinkles it, He
cleanseth even the tiny infant, although itself unable as yet with the heart to
believe unto righteousness, and to make confession with the mouth unto
salvation. All this is done by means of the word, whereof the Lord saith,
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."
(Augustine, Tractate LXXX [NPNF1 7:344-45])
34. What more? Verily, our opponents
are well equipped with arguments. We are baptized, they urge, into water, and
of course we shall not honour the water above all creation, or give it a share
of the honour of the Father and of the Son. The arguments of these men are such
as might be expected from angry disputants, leaving no means untried in their
attack on him who has offended them, because their reason is clouded over by
their feelings. We will not, however, shrink from the discussion even of these points.
If we do not teach the ignorant, at least we shall not turn away before evil
doers. But let us for a moment retrace our steps.
35. The dispensation of our God and
Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall and a return from the
alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the
reason for the sojourn of Christ in the flesh, the pattern life described in
the Gospels, the sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection; so that the
man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives that old adoption.
For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the
example of gentleness, lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but
also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ says, "being
made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead." How then are we made in the likeness of His
death? In that we were buried with Him by baptism. What then is the manner of
the burial? And what is the advantage resulting from the imitation? First of
all, it is necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut. And this is
impossible less a man be born again, according to the Lord's word; for the
regeneration, as indeed the name shews, is a beginning of a second life. So
before beginning the second, it is necessary to put an end to the first. For
just as in the case of runners who turn and take the second course, a kind of
halt and pause intervenes between the movements in the opposite direction, so
also in making a change in lives it seemed necessary for death to come as
mediator between the two, ending all that goes before, and beginning all that
comes after. How then do we achieve the descent into hell? By imitating,
through baptism, the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized are, as
it were, buried in the water. Baptism then symbolically signifies the putting
off of the works of the flesh; as the apostle says, ye were "circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism."
And there is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the filth that has grown
on it from the carnal mind, as it is written, "Thou shalt wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow." On this account we do not, as is the fashion
of the Jews, wash ourselves at each defilement, but own the baptism of
salvation to be one. For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one
the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the
Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism,
containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the image of death,
and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer
to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit is clear: the
reason is because in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the
destroying of the body of sin, that it may never bear fruit unto death; on the
other hand, our living unto the Spirit, and having our fruit in holiness; the
water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death, while the Spirit pours in
the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their
original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the
Spirit, the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is
wrought in us through the Spirit. In three immersions, then, and with three
invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to the end that the
type of death may be fully figured, and that by the tradition of the divine
knowledge the baptized may have their souls enlightened. It follows that if
there is any grace in the water, it is not of the nature of the water, but of
the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is "not the putting away of the
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God." So
in training us for the life that follows on the resurrection the Lord sets out
all the manner of life required by the Gospel, laying down for us the law of
gentleness, of endurance of wrong, of freedom from the defilement that comes of
the love of pleasure, and from covetousness, to the end that we may of set
purpose win beforehand and achieve all that the life to come of its inherent
nature possesses. If therefore any one in attempting a definition were to
describe the gospel as a forecast of the life that follows on the resurrection,
he would not seem to me to go beyond what is meet and right. Let us now return
to our main topic.
36. Through the Holy Spirit comes our
restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return
to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made
partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our
sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all
"fulness of blessing," both in this world and in the world to come,
of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through
faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already
present, we await the full enjoyment. If such is the earnest, what the
perfection? If such the first fruits, what the complete fulfilment?
Furthermore, from this too may be apprehended the difference between the grace
that comes from the Spirit and the baptism by water: in that John indeed
baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. "I
indeed," he says, "baptize you with water unto repentance; but he
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Here He calls the
trial at the judgment the baptism of fire, as the apostle says, "The fire
shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." And again, "The day
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." And ere now there
have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the
death for Christ's sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so
have needed none of the outward signs of water for their salvation, because
they were baptized in their own blood. Thus I write not to disparage the
baptism by water, but to overthrow the arguments1 of those who exalt themselves
against the Spirit; who confound things that are distinct from one another, and
compare those which admit of no comparison. (Basil, De Spirito Sancto, Chapter
15 [NPNF2 8:21-23])
