Accordingly, that water might make us called and blood make us chosen, He sent forth these two baptisms from the wound of His pierced side, so that those who believed in His blood should be washed with water, and those who had washed with water should also be steeped in blood. This is the baptism which both stands in place of the washing when it has not been received, and restores it when it has been lost. Chapter 17. It remains, for the concluding of this little treatise, to give some reminder also concerning the observance of giving and receiving baptism. Of giving, the supreme right belongs to the high priest, if there be such — that is, the bishop; then to the presbyters and deacons, yet not without the bishop's authority, on account of the honour of the Church, in the safeguarding of which peace is safe. Otherwise, laymen too have the right: 'for what is received on equal terms can be given on equal terms.'
'unless the disciples of the Lord are now to be called bishops or presbyters or deacons — that is, just as the word ought not to be hidden by anyone, so too baptism, which is likewise God's endowment, may be administered by all.' But how much more does the discipline of modesty and restraint press upon laymen, since these things belong to their betters, that they should not arrogate to themselves the office assigned to the bishop! Rivalry for the episcopate is the mother of schisms. The most holy apostle said that all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient. It suffices, of course, that in cases of necessity you make use of it, wherever the condition of place, or of time, or of person compels;
for then the steadfastness of one who comes to the rescue is welcome when the circumstance of one in peril presses hard, since he will be guilty of a man's perdition if he refrains from providing what he could freely have provided. But the boldness of a woman who has usurped the right to teach will not, of course, seize for herself also the right of baptizing — unless perhaps some new beast should come, like the former one, so that just as she abolished baptism, so another should of herself confer it. But if certain persons, on the authority of the Acts of Paul — which are falsely written — cite the example of Thecla to license women to teach and baptize, let them know that in Asia the presbyter who put together that writing, as though heaping it up out of his own store under Paul's title, was convicted, and, having confessed that he did it out of love for Paul, was deposed from his office.
For how close to the faith does it seem that He should give a woman the power of teaching and baptizing, who did not even steadfastly permit a woman to learn? 'Let them be silent,' He says, 'and consult their own husbands at home.' Chapter 18. As for the rest, they know whose office it is that baptism is not to be entrusted rashly. 'Give to everyone who asks you' has its own heading, belonging properly to almsgiving. Rather, that other saying is to be regarded: 'Do not give what is holy to the dogs, and do not cast your pearl before swine,' and, 'Lay not hands hastily on anyone, nor share in the sins of others.' But if, because Philip so easily baptized the eunuch, someone objects, let us reflect that a manifest and express approval of the Lord had intervened. The Spirit had commanded Philip to set out upon that road;
the eunuch himself too was found not idle, nor one who suddenly craved to be baptized, but one who had gone up to the temple for the sake of prayer, absorbed in the divine Scripture. Thus it was fitting that he should be found to whom God had of His own accord sent an apostle, whom again the Spirit bade join himself to the eunuch's chariot. The Scripture of his very faith met him at the right time, he is exhorted and taken up, the Lord is set before him, faith does not delay, the water is not waited for, and, the business being completed, the apostle is snatched away. And Paul too was in truth quickly baptized: for quickly had Simon his host recognized him to be a vessel appointed of election. God's approval sends its prerogatives before it: every request both can deceive and can be deceived.
And so, according to the condition and disposition, and even the age, of each person, the deferring of baptism is more useful — especially, however, in the case of little children. For what need is there, if there be no such need, that the sponsors too should be brought into peril, who by their own mortality may fail to keep their promises, and may be disappointed by the growth of an evil disposition? The Lord indeed says, 'Do not forbid them to come to Me.' Let them come, then, while they are growing up, while they are learning, while they are being taught whither they come; let them become Christians when they have been able to know Christ. Why does the innocent age hasten to the remission of sins? Men act more cautiously in worldly matters, so that divine things should not be entrusted to one to whom earthly substance is not entrusted. Let them learn to ask for salvation, that you may seem to have given to one who asks.
With no less cause the unmarried too should be postponed, in whom temptation is prepared — for virgins through their ripeness, and for widows through their roving — until they either marry or are strengthened in continence. Whoever understand the weight of baptism will fear its attainment more than its delay. An entire faith is secure of salvation. Chapter 19. Passover affords a more solemn day for baptism, since the Lord's passion, in which we are baptized, was fulfilled then. And it will not be inappropriate to interpret it as a figure that, when the Lord was about to keep the last Passover and sent His disciples to prepare it, He said, 'You will meet a man carrying water': by the sign of water He indicated the place for celebrating the Passover.
After that, Pentecost is a most joyful span for arranging baptisms, in which both the Lord's resurrection was frequently made known among the disciples, and the grace of the Holy Spirit was dedicated, and the hope of the Lord's coming was intimated — because at that time, when He had been received back into the heavens, the angels said to the apostles that He would so come as He had also ascended into the heavens, namely at Pentecost. Moreover, when Jeremiah says, 'And I will gather them together from the ends of the earth on the feast-day of the Passover,' he signifies also the day of Pentecost, which is properly a feast-day. But for the rest, every day is the Lord's; every hour, every season is fit for baptism. If there be a difference as to solemnity, as to grace there is none. Chapter 20.
Those about to enter baptism ought to pray with frequent prayers, with fasts and kneelings and vigils, and with the confession of all their past offences, so as to set forth even the baptism of John: 'They were baptized,' it says, 'confessing their sins' — and we are to be congratulated if we do not confess our iniquities or shameful deeds publicly. For at the same time we make satisfaction for former sins by the mortification of flesh and spirit, and we build up beforehand defences against the temptations to follow. 'Watch and pray,' He says, 'lest you fall into temptation.' And therefore, I believe, they were tempted because they had fallen asleep, so that they abandoned the Lord when He was seized, and he who had stood by Him and used the sword even denied Him three times.
For it had also been said beforehand that no one would attain the heavenly kingdoms untempted. The Lord Himself, immediately after His baptism, was beset by temptations when He had performed forty days of fasting. 'Therefore we too,' someone will say, 'ought rather to fast after our baptism.' And indeed who forbids it — unless the necessity of joy, the gladness for salvation? But the Lord, as I reckon in some small measure, turned back a reproach against Israel itself, drawn from a figure. For the people, having crossed the sea and been carried into the wilderness, though for forty years they were nourished there with divine provisions, nonetheless were more mindful of their belly and gullet than of God.
Then the Lord, after the water, having withdrawn into the desert and passed through forty days of fasting, showed that the man of God lives not by bread but by the word of God, and that the temptations set beside the fullness and immoderation of the belly are shattered by abstinence. Therefore, blessed ones, whom the grace of God awaits, when you ascend from that most holy washing of the new birth and open your first hands with the brethren in your Mother's house, ask of the Father, ask of the Lord, that special endowments of grace, distributions of gifts, may be granted. 'Ask, and you shall receive,' He says. Indeed you have sought, and you have found; you have knocked, and it has been opened to you. Only this I pray, that when you ask you may also remember Tertullian the sinner. HERE ENDS THE BOOK OF TERTULLIAN ON BAPTISM.