(That those who have once been washed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ought not to be baptized anew.) I observe that a question has been raised among the brethren as to what ought rather to be observed in the case of those who indeed in heresy, but in the name of our God Jesus Christ, have been washed, and afterward, departing thence and fleeing suppliantly to the Church of God, do penance with their whole heart, and, understanding at last the condemnation of their error, implore from her the aid of salvation—whether, according to the most ancient custom and ecclesiastical tradition, after that baptism which, outside indeed but in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, they received, it should suffice merely that the hand be laid upon them by the bishop to receive the Holy Spirit, and this imposition of hands afford them the sign of faith renewed and consummated; or whether indeed even a repeated baptism is necessary for them, as though they would have nothing unless they had obtained this too afresh, just as if they had never been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
And on this account it was being boasted that not a few things had been written or written back concerning this new question, by which each party strove with the utmost zeal to demolish the other's positions. In which kind of question, as it seems to me, no controversy or dispute at all could have arisen, if each one of us, content with the venerable authority of all the churches and with due humility, had not been eager to innovate anything, since he would perceive no ordinary occasion for contradiction.
For everything that is both doubtful and ambiguous and set among the diverse opinions of prudent and faithful men, if it is judged against the ancient and memorable and most solemn observance of all the deserving saints and faithful, ought assuredly to be condemned; since, in a matter once composed and ordered, whatever it be that is brought forth into the midst against the quiet and peace of the churches will bring nothing but discords and enmities and schisms:
where no other fruit is found but this alone: that one man, whoever he be, may be proclaimed among certain simple-minded men, out of empty glory, to be of great prudence and constancy, and, endowed with the stupor of heretics—whose one sole solace of perdition it is if they seem not to sin alone—may be celebrated among those most like himself and his equals as having corrected the errors and vices of all the churches. For this is the zeal and purpose of all heretics: to weave against our most holy mother the Church calumnies of this kind, and as many as they can, and to count it their highest glory if they have found something that could be charged to her as a crime, or even lightly imputed to her.
Which, since it is fitting that no faithful man of sound mind should hold it, and above all that no one at all set in any rank of the clergy, and much more no bishop, should dare it, it is monstrous that bishops themselves should devise such scandals, and, against the precept of the law and of all the Scriptures, should not fear, all too irreverently, to lay bare the shamefulness of mother Church—if they think there is any in this business—together with their own shamefulness and peril; although there is no shamefulness of the Church in this, save in the error of those very men.
And so it is offended against more grievously by men of this kind, if that which in the most ancient observance is done rightly is reprehended by them as if it were not rightly done—and by those who were before us, and also by us, it is plainly and strongly shown to have been rightly observed and to be observed—so that, even if we should contend with equal arguments on either side, nevertheless, because that which was being innovated could not stand without the dissension of the brethren and ecclesiastical damage, assuredly a blemish ought not to be rashly inflicted, contrary to what they call the right and against the sacrilege—that is, against the good and the equitable—upon mother Church; and to those who would attempt this, the ignominy of this audacity and impiety ought deservedly to be ascribed.
But since it is not in our power, according to the precept of the Apostle, that we all say the same thing and that there be no schisms among us, nevertheless, insofar as we are able, we strive to demonstrate the state of this treatise, and to persuade turbulent men that they may even now begin to mind their own business—it being of the greatest profit to us also, if in this too they should at last be willing to acquiesce in sound counsel.
And therefore, whatever chapters of the Holy Scriptures pertain to this matter, we shall of necessity gather into one, and those things which seem to be diverse or various we shall, as far as it can be done, plainly cement together among themselves, and shall examine, according to our mediocrity, the usefulness and profit of each, so that we may instil into all the brethren a form and custom of acting in the Church that is most wholesome and peaceable.
Therefore, to those approaching the treatise of the saving and new—that is, spiritual and evangelical—baptism, there first occurs the preaching most known to all, celebrated and begun by John the Baptist, who, departing somewhat from the law, that is, from Moses' most ancient baptism, and paving the way for the new and true grace, by the baptism which meanwhile he exercised, of water and of penance, gradually anticipated and occupied the ears of the Jews with the announcement of the spiritual baptism to come, exhorting them and saying: 'He who comes after me is stronger than I, whose sandal-strap I am not worthy to loose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.' Wherefore for us also the beginning of this discourse must needs begin from here.
For the Lord also, confirming this same word of John after his resurrection in the Acts of the Apostles, commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await 'that promise of the Father which you have heard from me; for John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not after these many days.' And likewise Peter recounted these same words of the Lord, rendering an account for himself before the apostles, saying: 'But when I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as also upon us in the beginning; and I remembered the word of the Lord, as he was saying: John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
'If then God gave them an equal gift as he did also to us who believe in the Lord Christ Jesus, who was I that I could withstand God?' And again: 'Men, brethren, you know that from ancient days God chose among us, that through my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe; and God, who knows the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit just as also to us.' And on this account we ought to consider what is the force and power of this sentence. For the Lord says to those who should afterward be baptized, because they believed, that they were to be baptized not, as by himself in water unto penance, but in the Holy Spirit.
Concerning which preaching, since assuredly no one of us can be in doubt, it is manifest by what reasoning men have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. For indeed they who believed were, properly speaking, baptized in the Holy Spirit alone, since John distinguished and said, declaring that he indeed baptized in water, but that one was to come who would baptize in the Holy Spirit. These things are by the grace and power of God, both bestowing and working even in secret; nonetheless, also in the baptism of Spirit and water; and moreover also in the baptism of the Spirit in each one's own blood, as the Holy Scriptures declare to us—of which, through each single one of the things we shall relate, we shall bring forward clear proofs.
To which perhaps you, who introduce something new, may straightway answer impatiently, as you are wont, that the Lord said in the gospel: 'Unless one be born anew of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven'; from which it manifestly appears that baptism profits only him in whom the Holy Spirit too can be present: for upon the Lord himself, when he was being baptized, the Holy Spirit descended, and his deed and his word alike agree, nor by any other reasoning can this mystery stand.
To this answer none of us is found so mad or so obstinate as to dare to gainsay what is lawful or what is true — that is, when matters are performed whole and in every way thus carried out in the Church, and are to be observed by us perpetually according to the order of discipline. But if in that same New Testament these things which in this affair we find united are sometimes found in a manner divided and separated, and so arranged as though they were single, let us consider whether they can at times even stand singly and alone, as if they were not maimed but rather entire and complete.
For when through the imposition of the bishop's hand the Holy Spirit is given to each believer — as the apostles did in the case of the Samaritans after Philip's baptism, by laying their hand upon them, and in this way conferred the Holy Spirit upon them; and that this might come to pass they themselves prayed for them, for as yet the Spirit had descended upon none of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord too, after the resurrection, when he had breathed and said to his apostles, 'Receive the Holy Spirit,' thus at last bestowed on them the Holy Spirit. Since it is thus found, what, brother, seems right to you?
If someone not baptized by a bishop — so that even if the hand were straightway laid upon him — should nevertheless have died before he received the Holy Spirit, would you judge that he has obtained salvation or not?
Seeing indeed that the apostles themselves and the disciples, who also baptized others, though baptized by the Lord did not at once receive the Holy Spirit, who was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified, but only after his resurrection — and not even a slight interval of time in which this was done intervened — just as also when the Samaritans were baptized by Philip, until the apostles, summoned from Jerusalem, came down to them at Samaria to lay their hand upon them and to confer the Holy Spirit upon them through the imposition of the hand; because even in that interval of time some one of them, not having obtained the Holy Spirit, could have been cut off by death, and, defrauded of the grace of the Holy Spirit, have died.
And this, even at the present day, cannot be doubted to be customary and wont to happen, that very many after baptism depart from the world without the imposition of the bishop's hand, and yet are held to be perfect believers. So the Ethiopian eunuch, when he was returning from Jerusalem and reading the prophet Isaiah and hesitating, at the prompting of the Spirit, once the truth had been heard from Philip the deacon, believed and was baptized; and when he had come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, for he went on his way rejoicing. And yet, as you observe, no hand was laid upon him by a bishop that he might receive the Holy Spirit.
But if you admit this and believe it to be salutary, and do not oppose the opinion of all the faithful, you must confess — and as this reasoning proceeds more broadly — that that other point too can more broadly stand: namely, that by the sole imposition of the bishop's hand, because baptism in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord has gone before, the Holy Spirit can be bestowed also upon another man who repents and believes; since Holy Scripture foretold that those who were to believe in Christ ought to be baptized in the Spirit, so that these too may seem to have nothing less than those who are perfect Christians, nor need it be asked of what kind that baptism was which they obtained in the name of Jesus Christ.
Unless perchance, in that earlier discussion too, concerning those who have been baptized only in the name of Christ Jesus, you should determine that they can be saved even without the Holy Spirit; or that not by this reason alone, but that the Holy Spirit is wont to be granted through the imposition of the bishop's hand, or even that one who is not a bishop is accustomed to bestow the Holy Spirit. And if this is so, and any of these events can happen without robbing the believing man of salvation, then you yourself also grant that the mystery of faith — only halved and not, as you contend, consummated — cannot, if some necessity intervenes, take away salvation from a believing and penitent man.
Or if you say that such a man cannot be saved, then we take salvation away from all the bishops, whom you thus bind by the most certain perils, so that they must, by their own selves, succor all the men who live under their care and who fall sick scattered here and there throughout their regions — because the other men, clerics of lesser rank who are in peril, cannot furnish this same thing — lest the blood of those who shall be seen to have gone out of the world empty must needs be required at the bishops' hand. Moreover, as you are not unaware, the Holy Spirit is found given by the Lord to believing men without the baptism of water, as it is contained in the Acts of the Apostles in this manner:
While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were hearing the word, and those of the circumcision who were believers, as many as had come with Peter, were amazed, because upon the Gentiles also the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out. For they heard them speaking in their tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter answered: Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit even as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. As also the same Peter afterward most fully taught us concerning these same Gentiles, saying: And he made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
And thus it will not be doubtful that men can be baptized in the Holy Spirit without water, as you observe that these were baptized before they were baptized with water, so that satisfaction might be made both to the preachings of John and of the Lord himself; since these too, without the imposition of the apostles' hands and without the washing which they afterward obtained, received the grace of the promise, and thus, their hearts having been cleansed a little before, God through their faith bestowed on them at the same time the remission of sins as well, so that the subsequent baptism furnished them this only — that they should also receive the invocation of the name of Jesus Christ — lest anything should seem lacking to them for the completeness of the ministry and of the faith.
And this too, from the opposite side of this discussion, those very disciples of our Lord attained; upon whom, already baptized long before, on the last day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came — by the will of God indeed, not gliding down from heaven of its own accord, but, poured out for this very office, resting upon each one of them — since, being righteous, they had, as we have said, long before been baptized with the baptism of the Lord, like the apostles themselves, who nevertheless are all found to have forsaken the Lord on the night when he was seized; and that very Peter, who boasted that he would persevere in his faith and most obstinately resisted the Lord's own prediction, at the last nevertheless denied him:
so that in this way it might be shown to us that the sins which in the meantime they had in whatever way contracted, these same sins, their faith being afterward sincere, were undoubtedly remitted in them through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Nor, as I think, for any other cause had the apostles commanded those whom they were addressing in the Holy Spirit to be baptized in the name of Christ Jesus, except that the power of the name of Jesus, invoked in baptism over any man whatsoever, could furnish to the one baptized no small prerogative for attaining salvation, as Peter relates in the Acts of the Apostles, saying: For there is no other name under heaven given to men, in which we must be saved.
As the apostle Paul too discloses, showing that God exalted Jesus our Lord and gave him a name to this end, that it should be above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things heavenly and earthly and infernal, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, in the glory of the Father — and that he over whom, when he was baptized, the name of Jesus had been invoked, even though he attained it in some error, is nevertheless at some time not forbidden to be rightly wise, and to correct his error, and to come to the Church and to the bishop, and sincerely to confess our Jesus before men, so that then, when the bishop's hand should be laid upon him, he might receive the Holy Spirit also, and might not lose that former invocation of the name of Jesus — which it is lawful for none of us to condemn — though this bare and single invocation, if it be set in error, could not suffice to furnish salvation, lest by this reasoning we should believe that even heathens and heretics, abusing the name of Jesus, can attain to salvation without the true and entire reality.
Yet it is exceedingly useful to believe that this invocation of the name of Jesus — duly accomplished by the mystery of God concerning such men, through the correction of error, the acknowledgment of the truth of the faith, and the cutting away of every stain of past conversation — obtains the place which it was not going to hold, and at last, in the right faith and for furnishing the integrity of the sign, does not stand in the way, since the supplement of what was lacking is added; and with good reason to acquiesce in the authority of so many years and of so many churches, and likewise of the apostles and the bishops; since it is the greatest inconvenience and loss to the most holy mother Church that, against ancient decrees, after so great a series of so many ages, one should now for the first time suddenly and without reason rise up.
For it was not for any other reason that Peter — who had already been baptized and had been asked by the Lord himself what he thought of the Lord, and, the truth of the revelation of the heavenly Father having been placed in him, had confessed that our Lord was not only Christ but also the Son of the living God — was afterward shown to have opposed the same Christ as he preached of his passion, and was therefore shown to be called Satan, except because it was to come to pass that certain men, though varying in their own opinion and at times halting in faith and doctrine, when they were baptized in the name of Jesus, yet, if within a certain interval of time they had been able to correct it, would not for that reason fall away from salvation, but, coming to their senses at some point, would by repenting obtain the entire hope of salvation — especially when they should receive the Holy Spirit, with which each man ought to be baptized — had they marked out some such thing; as we find that not only Peter suffered this in the Gospel, but all the disciples too, to whom, already baptized, the Lord afterward said: You shall all be offended in me.
Who all, as we observe, their faith being corrected, after the resurrection of the Lord were baptized in the Holy Spirit; so that not without reason we believe today also that men corrected from their former error can be baptized in the Holy Spirit — men who, when they were baptized with water in the name of the Lord, had once had a scabby faith; since it makes a great difference whether someone is not baptized at all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, or whether he halts in something when he is baptized with the baptism of water, which is the lesser thing, provided that afterward the faith stand firm in the sincere truth in the baptism of the Spirit, which is undoubtedly the greater. And do not reckon that what the Lord said is contrary to this discussion:
Go, teach the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For although this is true and right and in every way to be observed in the Church, and is wont also to be observed, yet it is fitting to consider that the invocation of the name of Jesus ought not to seem futile to us, on account of the veneration and power of the name itself, in which name all the mighty works are wont to be done, and sometimes some even by strangers. Furthermore, to what do those words of Christ pertain, who said that he would deny, and would not know, those who would say to him on the day of judgment:
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name do great mighty works? — answering them even with an oath: I never knew you; depart from me, you who work iniquity — unless it were being shown to us that sometimes even by those who work iniquity these things too can be done, through the exceeding power of the name of Jesus.
And therefore this invocation of the name of Jesus ought to be received as, so to speak, a certain beginning of the Lord's mystery, common to us and to all others, which can afterward be filled up by the remaining things; otherwise such an invocation, when it has remained alone, will not profit, because after the death of such a man nothing at all can be added to him or supplied, nor in any respect avail on the day of judgment, when the things we have mentioned above shall begin to be cast in his teeth by our Lord. Yet all these men today, that they may succor themselves by these means which we have shown above, cannot be forbidden by any of men so harshly and so cruelly.
But to this, as you are wont, you will object, setting against us that the disciples, when they were baptized, were baptized entirely and rightly, and not as these heretics. Which you must take from the person of themselves and of him who baptized them. And therefore we answer this proposition of yours not as accusers of the Lord's disciples, but as we are compelled, because it is necessary that we investigate by reasonings where and when and in what manner salvation has been furnished to each one of us.
For that our Lord was born and that he was the Christ seemed to be believed, not without reason, by his disciples, for many causes: because he had been born of the tribe of Judah, of the line of David, and in the city of Bethlehem; and because it had been announced to the shepherds by angels that a Savior was born to them, at the very moment when, his star having been seen in the east, he had been most anxiously sought out by the Magi and adored and honored with splendid gifts and remarkable presents; because as a mere boy, sitting in the temple with the doctors of the law, he had disputed prudently and to the admiration of all; because, when he was baptized — as had befallen no other — by the opening of the heavens, by the descent of the Holy Spirit and its abiding upon him, and by the testimony also of his own Father,
and likewise had been glorified by John the Baptist; because above human mediocrity he understood the hearts and thoughts of all; because he cured and healed sicknesses and infirmities and ailments with the greatest power; because he granted remissions of sins with evident proof; because he expelled demons by his command; because he cleansed lepers by a word; because, by turning water into wine, he enlarged a wedding feast with wondrous joy; because he restored or granted sight to the blind; because he asserted the Father's teaching with all confidence; because in a desert place he satisfied five thousand men from five loaves; because the leavings and fragments filled more than twelve baskets; because in his mercy he raised the dead here and there; because he commanded the winds and the sea to be still; because he walked upon the sea with his feet; because he accomplished absolutely all the mighty works.
By these things, and by many more of this kind done, pertaining to his glory, it seemed to follow that — just as the Jews think concerning the Christ (which, however, they do not believe concerning Jesus Christ our Lord) — his disciples too should suppose that one so great, having met no death, would endure forever, and would possess the kingdom of Israel and of the whole world in perpetuity, so that it should not be snatched away. Whence also the Jews dared to seize him and anoint him into the kingdom — which indeed he needs must escape by flight; and therefore his disciples thought that by no other means would he furnish them eternal life, unless first he himself had joined this temporal life with that eternal one in his own person.
Finally, when they were dwelling in Galilee, Jesus said to them: The Son of Man begins to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and after three days he will rise again. And they were exceedingly saddened, because, as we have said, they had previously conceived in their souls and minds something far different. Finally, this too was the word of the Jews' contradiction against him, when he indeed taught them and announced things to come, but they said: We have heard from the law that Christ remains forever; and how do you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? And so the disciples had this same presumption concerning the Christ, Peter himself, the leader and chief of the apostles, bursting forth into that word of his unbelief.
For when he had been asked by the Lord, together with the others, what he thought of him — that is, whom he supposed him to be — and had at first confessed the truth, saying that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and had therefore been judged blessed by him, because he had attained this not carnally but through the revelation of the heavenly Father — yet the same man, when Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and priests and scribes, and be killed and rise again after the third day, nonetheless — that true confessor of Christ — a few days later, taking him aside, began to rebuke him, saying: Be it far from you, this shall not be; so that on that account he deserved to hear from the Lord:
Get behind me, Satan; you are an offense to me — because he did not savor the things that are of God but the things that are of men. This rebuke against Peter shone forth more and more when the Lord was seized, when, terrified by a little maidservant, he said: I know not what you say, nor do I know you; and again when he said this same thing with an oath added; and a third time, cursing and swearing, he affirmed that he did not know the man, and denied him not once but often — which resolve, since it was going to persist in him until the passion of the Lord, was made plain by the Lord much beforehand, that we too might not be ignorant of it.
Finally, after the resurrection of the Lord, one of his disciples, Cleopas, being sorrowful according to the error of all his fellow disciples, relating to the Lord himself, as to some unknown person, what had happened, spoke thus, saying of Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deeds and words before God and all the people: how our priests and rulers delivered him to the condemnation of death and fixed him to the cross. But we were hoping that he was the one who would redeem Israel.
In accord with which all the disciples too judged even the assertion of the women, who after the resurrection had seen the Lord, to be ravings; and some of them, though they saw him, did not believe but doubted; and those who were then not present did not believe at all, until afterward they had been in every way chided and rebuked by the Lord himself — since death had so offended them that they thought he had not risen, whom they had implied ought not to have died, because, contrary to their opinion, he had once died.
And so, as far as the disciples themselves are concerned, they are found to have had neither an entire nor a perfect faith, in these ways which we have related; and, what is much graver, as it is written in the Gospel according to John, they even baptized others. Moreover, what will you say of those who are very often baptized by bishops of the worst conversation — who nevertheless at last, when God shall have willed, being convicted in their crimes, are deprived even of that very office, or utterly even of communion? Or what will you determine concerning those who have been baptized by bishops who think perversely or are rather unskilled?
when they have not spoken clearly and completely, or even otherwise than is fitting, in the handing down of the sacrament — when certainly they have either asked something, or, in asking, have heard from those answering something that by no means ought so to be asked or answered — which nevertheless does not greatly harm that right faith of ours; but these simpler men too deliver the mystery of faith, though not so elegantly and composedly as you. For you will surely say, in your singular diligence, that these too must be baptized anew — precisely when the reality is lacking to them, or hinders them, so that they cannot receive that inviolable divine mystery of faith undefiled.
But indeed, O best of men, let us render and grant to the heavenly powers their own strength, and to the condescension of the divine Majesty let us concede its proper operations; and, understanding how great the benefit in it is, let us gladly acquiesce in it. And therefore, since our salvation is established in the baptism of the Spirit, which is for the most part joined with the baptism of water — if baptism be handed down by us, let it be assigned entirely and solemnly and through all things that are written, and let it be delivered without any separation of anything; or if it have been handed down by the lower clergy through necessity, let us await the event, that it may either be supplied by us, or be reserved to be supplied by the Lord:
but if it have been handed down by strangers, let this matter be corrected as it can be and as it admits, because the Holy Spirit is not outside the Church, and faith too cannot be sound, not only among heretics but even among those who are set in schism; and therefore to those who do penance and have been corrected through the doctrine of the truth and through their own faith — which was afterward amended, their heart being purified — succor ought to be given only by spiritual baptism, that is, by the imposition of the bishop's hand and the ministration of the Holy Spirit.
The sign of faith too is with reason wont to be handed down entire in the Church, in this manner and by this reasoning, lest the invocation of the name of Jesus, which cannot be abolished, should seem to be held by us in contempt — which surely ought not to be — although such an invocation, if none of the things we have mentioned have followed, ceases and is void of the working of salvation. For, since the apostle says that baptism is one, then, the invocation of the name of Jesus persevering (because that which has once been invoked cannot be taken away by any man), it is necessary — if we have dared to double it, against the decree of the apostles, in an excess of bestowing, nay rather of superadding, baptism out of zeal —
if he who returns to the Church should be unwilling to be baptized anew, it will come to pass that we defraud of spiritual baptism the very man whom we suppose ought not to be defrauded of the baptism of water. But what will you determine in the case of the catechumen who, perhaps seized in the name of Christ, at once confessed, and before he was permitted to be baptized with water was put to death? Will you pronounce that he has perished because he was not baptized with water, or will you rather reckon that something from without pleads for him unto salvation, although he was not baptized with water? If you shall reckon that he has perished, the sentence of the Lord will come to meet you, saying: Whoever shall confess me before men, I too will confess him before my Father who is in heaven.
For it makes no difference whether he who confesses the Lord be a catechumen or a believer, provided that he confess the very Christ whom it behooves to confess; because the Lord, by confessing him in his turn likewise, adorns his confessor before the Father with the honor of his own martyrdom, as he has promised. Which surely ought not to be taken more broadly, as though it could be extended everywhere; for even some heretic can confess the name of Christ, who nevertheless denies Christ himself, because he believes in another Christ — while the true Christ confesses that it can in no way profit him, since indeed the Lord said that none but himself ought to be brought by us into confession before men, which cannot be done without him and without his venerable name.
And therefore both name and reality ought to stand entire and sincere and uncontaminated and inviolate for the one confessing, no distinction being made of the confessor himself, whether he be just or a sinner, and a perfect Christian or even now imperfect, who at his utmost peril did not fear to confess the Lord. Nor is this contrary to the earlier discussion: because there indeed time remained for correcting the things that are maimed or depraved, and because certain things have been granted to the name of our Lord only, whereas martyrdom cannot be consummated except in him and through the Lord himself; and therefore neither can anyone confess Christ without his name, nor can the name of Christ, without Christ himself, plead for anyone's confession.
Wherefore this whole discussion must be distinguished, that it may be able to become clearer. For the invocation of the name of Jesus can plead only if it be afterward duly supplemented, because both the prophets and the apostles so preached. For James says in the Acts of the Apostles: Men, brethren, hear me: Simon has set forth how first God visited to take from the Gentiles a people for his name; and to this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written: After these things I will return and will rebuild that tabernacle of David which is fallen, and the things of it that are demolished I will rebuild, and I will set it up again, that the residue of men may seek the Lord, and all the nations upon whom my name is invoked over them, says the Lord who does these things.
And so the residue of men — that is, certain of the Jews — and all the nations upon whom the name of the Lord has been invoked, can and must seek the Lord, because the very invocation of the name affords them the occasion, or even imposes on them the necessity, of seeking the Lord; with whom, by means of the holy Scriptures, whether all of them or some, one may nevertheless treat of the truth more boldly than with the Gentiles, upon whom the name of the Lord Jesus, the Son of the living God, has not been invoked, as neither upon the Jews, who receive only the old Scriptures. And therefore men of both these kinds — that is, Jews and Gentiles — when they believe fully as they ought, are baptized in equal manner.
But heretics, already baptized with water in the name of Jesus Christ, are to be baptized only in the Holy Spirit; and in Jesus — which is the only name given under heaven in which we must be saved — death is rightly despised, since, if they so persist, they cannot be saved, because they did not seek the Lord after the invocation of his name over them, like those too who refused to believe, of whom the Lord says: Beware lest anyone lead you into error. For many will come in my name, saying: I am Christ; and they will lead many into error. And again he says: Then if anyone shall say to you, Behold, here is Christ, or there, do not believe.
For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give great signs and wonders, so that, if it were possible, even the elect would go astray. These mighty works those men will then undoubtedly do under the name of Christ. In which name certain men are seen even now to do some mighty works and to prophesy falsely. But it is certain that they, because they are not Christ's, therefore do not belong to Christ; just as also, if anyone falls away from Christ, clinging to his name alone, he is not much helped — nay rather he is even burdened by this name — though he had before been most faithful, or most just, or honored with some distinction, or endowed with the dignity of confession.
For all these people, by denying the true Christ and introducing or following another—although there is no other at all—leave themselves no hope or salvation, no differently than those who denied Christ before men, whom Christ must of necessity deny, without any account being taken of their prior manner of life, or their disposition, or their rank; and so, inasmuch as they themselves have dared to abolish Christ—that is, their own salvation—they are condemned by a saying of this kind, because it was declared most plainly by the Lord: 'Whoever shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven.'
So that this word 'whoever,' even in the clause about confession, may show us most fully that no condition of the one confessing can be a hindrance—even though that former denier had earlier been either a heretic, or a catechumen, or one just beginning to hear the word, who is not yet baptized, or one converted from heresy to the truth of the faith, or one who had departed from the Church and afterward returned, and then, upon his return, before the bishop's hand had been laid upon him, was seized and compelled by necessity to confess Christ before men—just as, on the other hand, for one who denies Christ no former rank of his own can plead in his favor toward salvation.
For whatever last act is found in a man of this kind, in that each one of us will of necessity be judged, all that he did before being abolished and blotted out. And therefore, since in martyrdom there is so great a change of circumstances in a moment of time, so that in a most swift instant all things can be altered, let no one flatter himself who has lost the occasion of a glorious salvation, if perchance he has excluded himself from it by his own fault—just as did that wife of Lot, who likewise, in the straits of circumstance and against the command of the angels, merely looked back behind her and was turned into a pillar of salt.
By the same reasoning, that heretic also who is slaughtered while confessing the name of Christ can afterward correct nothing, if he has thought wrongly about God or about Christ, since by believing in another God or another Christ he has deceived himself, being a confessor not of Christ, but of Christ's name only; seeing that the apostle consequently says: 'Even if I deliver up my body so as to be burned by fire, but have not love, I gain nothing.' For by such a deed he gains nothing who does not have the love of that God and Christ who through the Law and the Prophets and in the Gospel is proclaimed in this manner: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind,' and 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
For upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets, as also John the evangelist says: 'And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, for God is love.' Just as God also says: 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believed in him should not perish, but should have eternal life.'
So that it might plainly appear that the one who does not have within himself this love, of loving us and of being loved by us, gains nothing by an empty confession and suffering—since it is evident and established that he is a heretic who believes in another God or receives another Christ than the one whom the Scriptures of the New and Old Testament plainly proclaim, which without obscurity announce the Almighty Father, Creator of all things, and his Son.
For it will befall them—those who look for salvation from one God after another—that then at last, contrary to their own opinion, they will be condemned to eternal punishment by Christ, the Son of God the Father Almighty, the Creator, whom they blasphemed, when God shall begin to judge the hidden things of men according to the Gospel through Christ Jesus, because they did not believe in him, even though they were washed in his name. And to such a degree can all that baptism of the heretics be corrected, an interval of time intervening, if someone survives and corrects his faith—as our God said in the Gospel according to Luke, speaking to his disciples: 'But I have another baptism to be baptized with.' Likewise according to Mark, by the same reasoning, he said to the sons of Zebedee:
'Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?'—because he knew that men are to be baptized not only with water but also with their own blood, so that even those baptized with this baptism alone can attain an entire faith and a sincere worthiness of the laver, and those baptized in both ways nonetheless obtain equally and alike the one baptism of salvation and honor. For what was said by the Lord, 'I have another baptism to be baptized with,' does not in this place signify a second baptism, as though there were two baptisms, but shows that a baptism of another kind also, concurring toward the same salvation, has been granted to us.
Both of which kinds it was fitting should first be instituted and sanctified by our Lord himself, so that to us also either one or both kinds might furnish one, not double, saving and honorable baptism; and that certain paths of the one baptism might be so opened to us that sometimes one or another of them might be absent without harm—just as, for the martyrs who suffer for the word, the baptism of water is absent without harm (though we are certain that these too, if they have any respite, are accustomed to be baptized also with water); and likewise, for those who have been lawfully made faithful, the baptism of their own blood is absent without harm, because, being baptized in the name of Christ, they have been redeemed by the most precious blood of the Lord—since both these rivers proceed from one and the same fountain of the Lord's baptism, so that everyone who thirsts may come and drink, as the Scripture says:
'Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' These rivers first appeared in the Lord's passion, when from his pierced side, by the soldier's lance, there flowed blood and water, so as to send forth two rivers of different kind, yet from the same single side—so that whoever, believing, shall drink from both rivers may be filled with the Holy Spirit. For speaking of these rivers the Lord was showing this, signifying the Holy Spirit whom they were to receive who were to believe in him. But the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Therefore, in saying in what manner that baptism can be brought forth which the apostle proclaims to be one, it is surely manifest, by that reasoning, that there are different kinds of one and the same baptism flowing from one wound into water and blood—though there are in that case two baptisms of which we have spoken, that is, of one and the same kind, since the baptism of each kind ought to be one, as we have more fully explained. And since we seem to have divided all spiritual baptism into three parts, let us come also to the proof of the account we have set forth, lest we seem to have done this by our own private judgment and rashly. For John, teaching us about our Lord, says in his epistle:
'This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ—not in water only, but in water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth: for there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three are one.' So that from these we may gather that the water too is wont to furnish the Spirit, and that one's own blood is wont to furnish the Spirit to men, and that the Spirit itself likewise furnishes the Spirit. For when the water is poured out, as also the blood, the Spirit too has been poured out by the Lord upon all who have believed: assuredly, then, by water and no less by their own blood, and then thereafter by the Holy Spirit, men can be baptized. For Peter says: 'But this is that which was spoken through the prophet:'
'It shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and their sons and their daughters shall prophesy, and the young men shall see visions and the old men shall dream dreams. And indeed upon my servants and upon my handmaidens I will pour out of my Spirit.' This Spirit in the Old Testament we find, not indeed everywhere nor abundantly, but shared with others, or even leaping of its own accord upon certain men, or clothing them, or being upon them—just as we observe it was said by the Lord to Moses concerning the seventy elders: 'And I will take away of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put it upon them.'
On which account also, according to his promise, God from another source—from the Spirit that had been upon Moses—placed it upon them, and they prophesied in the camp; at which Moses, as a spiritual man, rejoiced that it had so happened, although he was urged, against his will, by Joshua the son of Nun, to intervene in this matter, and for that reason he was not to be moved. Furthermore, in the book of Judges, and likewise in the books of Kingdoms, we observe that the Spirit of the Lord was upon very many, or leaped into them—as upon Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, Saul, David, and various others. Which is so much the case that the Lord has most manifestly taught us the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit to come of its own accord upon them, saying:
'The Spirit breathes where it wills, and you hear its voice, but you know not whence it comes or whither it goes.' So that this same Spirit is sometimes found to be even upon those unworthy of it—not indeed idly nor without reason, but for the sake of some necessary working:
As it was upon Saul, upon whom the Spirit of God came and he prophesied—although at a later time, after the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him and after an evil spirit from the Lord vexed him, since he had then come last of all, following the messengers whom he had continually sent ahead to kill David, who for that reason fell in among the band of prophets and prophesied, so that they could not, or would not, accomplish what they had been ordered to do; which by a wonderful reasoning, through the will of God, we believe the Spirit that was upon them all to have wrought. This Spirit also filled John the Baptist while still from his mother's womb, and rested upon those who were with Cornelius the centurion before they were baptized with water.
Thus, since the Spirit clings to the baptism of men, whether it precedes or follows, or, when the baptism of water is lacking, rests upon those who believe, it gives us the counsel that we ought either to preserve baptism duly performed in its entirety, or, in the case of a baptism perhaps given by anyone in the name of Jesus Christ, to supply what is wanting—the most holy invocation of the name of Jesus Christ being preserved, as we have most fully expounded, and preserved besides the venerable custom and authority of so long a time and of so many men.
But since the first part of this discussion seems to have been unfolded, we ought also, on account of the heretics, to take up what follows; because it is exceedingly necessary not to pass over that treatise which has once fallen into our hands, lest perchance some heretic, by his cunning, should dare to assail those of the brethren who are simpler. For because John said that we are to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and in fire—inasmuch as he added, saying, 'and in fire'—for that reason certain desperate men have dared to extend their depravity in every direction, and therefore men of the keenest scent seek how they may so corrupt and violate the baptism of holiness as even to make it void:
who derive their origin from thence, from Simon Magus, exercising it with manifold perversity through various errors. To this Simon, Peter said in the Acts of the Apostles: 'Your money be with you unto perdition, because you thought that the grace of God could be possessed for money. You have no part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.' And these men do all these things while they desire to deceive those who are simpler or more curious, and some of them attempt to hand down a baptism whole and perfect—handled by themselves alone—not, like ours, mutilated and cut short; which they are said to administer in such a way that as soon as men have gone down into the water, at once fire appears above the water.
But if this can be brought about by some trick—as very many tricks of this kind are affirmed to be Anaxilaus'—or whether there be something natural whereby this can happen, or whether they think they perceive this, or whether it be the work of the malign one and a magical poison that can produce fire in water: they nevertheless proclaim such deceit and trickery to be a perfect baptism; and if faithful men have been compelled to receive it, assuredly it will not be doubted that they have lost what they had—just as if some soldier, having sworn the oath of allegiance, deserting his own camp, should wish to swear a wholly different oath in the utterly opposed camp of the enemy: by this reasoning it is established that he has been discharged from his former oath.
Likewise, if a man of this kind should return again to you, you will surely be in doubt whether he has baptism or not; and yet you ought, in whatever ways you can, to come to the aid of this man too when he does penance. Now there is, if any other, an author of this adulterous—nay rather, deadly—baptism, and also a certain book, forged for this very error by these same heretics, which is entitled 'The Preaching of Paul.'
In which book, contrary to all the Scriptures, you will find Christ confessing his own sin—Christ who alone committed no sin whatever—and being compelled, almost against his will, by his mother Mary to receive John's baptism; likewise that, when he was baptized, fire was seen above the water, which is written in no Gospel; and that, after such long times, Peter and Paul—after conferring about the Gospel in Jerusalem, and their mutual deliberation and disputation and arrangement of matters to be done—at last, in the city, as though then for the first time, came to know one another; and certain other things of this sort, absurdly and shamefully fabricated, all of which you will find heaped together in that book.
But those who are not ignorant of the nature of the Holy Spirit understand that what was said about fire was said concerning the Spirit itself. For in the Acts of the Apostles, according to this same promise of our Lord, on the very day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had descended upon the disciples so that they might be baptized in it, there were seen resting upon each of them tongues as it were of fire, so that it was established that they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and in fire—that is, in that Spirit which was either fire or as it were fire, such fire as was that which burned in the bush and did not consume the bush, and such as is that fire which is the spirit of the angels, as the Scripture says: 'Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire.'
To which fire, when you have become like or a fellow or a partaker, you will be able to fear no fire—not even that fire which, going before the Lord on the day of judgment, shall consume the whole globe of the earth, except for those who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and in fire. And to men, indeed, the Spirit remains invisible today, as the Lord says: 'The Spirit breathes where it wills, and you know not whence it comes or whither it goes.' But at the beginning of the mystery of faith and of spiritual baptism, this same Spirit was manifestly seen both to have settled upon the disciples as it were fire, and likewise, when the heavens were opened, to have descended upon the Lord in the likeness of a dove—since very many things, indeed almost all things that were to be, were made manifest:
which things, though they be in their manner nonetheless invisible, are now also, either in part or at times or in a figure, shown to the eyes and to the unbelief of men, for the strengthening and confirming of our faith. But neither would I omit that which the Gospel rightly proclaims. For our Lord says to the paralytic: 'Be of good cheer, son, your sins are forgiven you'—that he might show that hearts are cleansed by faith unto the obtaining of the remission of sins. Which remission of sins that woman also obtained who was a sinner in the city, to whom the Lord said: 'Your sins are forgiven you.' And when those who were reclining together began to say among themselves: 'Who is this who forgives sins?'—
just as also concerning the paralytic the scribes and Pharisees had murmured more bitterly—the Lord said to the woman: 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.' From all which it is shown that hearts are cleansed by faith, but souls are washed by the Spirit; furthermore, that bodies are washed by water, and that by blood too one arrives more speedily, by a shortcut, at the rewards of salvation. I think we have fully carried through the preaching of John the Baptist, from which we took the beginning of our discourse, who said to the Jews: 'I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he who comes after me is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.'
But I judge that we have not ineptly set forth the teaching of the apostle John, who says: 'For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three are one.' And unless I am mistaken, we have also explained that which our Lord said: 'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' Besides, I think we have rendered no weak account of the reason for the custom. Yet let us defend it—even though we do so in the last place—lest anyone should suppose that we are raising the present dispute upon a single point. And yet this custom alone ought, among men who fear God and are humble, to hold the chief place.