Commenting on John 1:12-13, Edward Pusey wrote that early Christians:
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 subjects. Thence they
inferred, that wherever, under the law, free remission of sins was set forth,
there was an intimation of that gift of Christ in the Gospel, without which 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 Baptized, should " sanctify water to the mystical washing away of
sin," and to the imparting of His holiness. And so of those words, (St, John
i. 12. 13 " As many as received Him, to them gave he power 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 notion,
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
Pelagians" 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 privilege of the birth of God: our Lord's words are
spoken negatively, 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." (E. B. Pusey, Scriptural
Views of Holy Baptism, As Established by the Consent of the Ancient Church, and
Contrasted with the Systems of Modern Schools [New York: Charles Henry,
1840], 31)
Examples of this “Baptism”
reading of John 1:12-13 include:
Divine
Adoption Through the Son of God. Basil the Great: When the
soul has been clothed with the Son of God, it becomes worthy of the final and
perfect stage and is baptized in the name of the Father himself of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who, according to the testimony of John, gave the power to be
made the sons of God. Concerning Baptism 1.2.
The
Baptismal Seal of Sonship. Chrysostom: Why, then, did he not say
that “he made them sons of God,” instead of “he gave them power to become sons
of God”? He did so to show how much zeal is needed to keep the image of sonship
that was impressed on us at baptism and to keep it all the way through without
spot or soiling. At the same time, he also wanted to show that no one will be
able to take this power from us, unless we first deprive ourselves of it.… For
even in these mystical blessings, it is, on the one hand, God’s part, to give the
grace, on the other, a person’s to supply faith. What follows needs much
perseverance. In order to preserve our purity, it is not sufficient for us
merely to have been baptized and to have believed; we must display a life
worthy of it if we want to continually enjoy this brightness. This then is
God’s work in us. Homilies on the Gospel of John 10.2–3. (John
1-10, ed. Joel C. Elowsky [Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; Downers
Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2006], 37)
But those who rise to divine sonship through faith in
Christ are baptized not into anything originate but into the holy Trinity
itself through the Word who is the mediator. He joins what is human to himself
through the flesh that was united to him, and he is joined by nature to the
Father since he is by nature God. In this way, the slaves ascend to sonship
through participation in the true Son since they are called and so to speak
raised to the honor that is in the Son by nature. Therefore, we who received the
new birth through the Spirit by faith are called born of God, and that is what
we are. (Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, 2 vols. [trans. David
R. Maxwell; Ancient Chrisitan Texts; Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2013],
1:61)
Pusey also provides some
other examples in his own work from Leo the Great:
Leo, Serm. 7 de Natio. Dom:
“The earthly birth neither added to nor diminished the
majesty of the Son of God; for an unchangeable Substance can neither be diminished
nor increased. For that 'the Word was made flesh' signifieth 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 eternal 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 infection 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 right hand of
the Most High? Since the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil, and
so 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." (E.
B. Pusey, Scriptural Views of Holy Baptism, As Established by the Consent of
the Ancient Church, and Contrasted with the Systems of Modern Schools [New
York: Charles Henry, 1840], 45-46)
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 both with Baptism. (Ibid.,
45)
Leo, Serm. 63. de Passione
Dom. c. 6
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
Spirit from 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 born, of whom it is spoken, 'who are born not of blood,'
" &c. (E. B. Pusey, Scriptural Views of Holy Baptism, As
Established by the Consent of the Ancient Church, and Contrasted with the
Systems of Modern Schools [New York: Charles Henry, 1840], 45)
Leo, Epist. ad Demetriad. c.
11
“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 power is
operated by the effectualness of the Divine working. For to His might 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 sinful 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.’” (E. B. Pusey, Scriptural
Views of Holy Baptism, As Established by the Consent of the Ancient Church, and
Contrasted with the Systems of Modern Schools [New York: Charles Henry,
1840], 45-46)
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