While, apart from the baptism of heretics, you speak of one and another, although you tried to show them as different, you cannot deny that they are two; from which, while you try to remove one, you labored to seem, as it were, to make the first out of the second. But circumcision, before the coming of baptism, was sent ahead as a figure, and it was treated by you that among Christians there are two waters; therefore among the Jews also show two circumcisions, one better, the other worse. If you seek this, you will not be able to find it. The lineage of Abraham, by which the Jews are reckoned, glories that it is marked by this seal. Therefore such a truth ought to follow as the image of it that was sent ahead.
For God too, who wished to show that a singular thing afterwards ought to be, with truth following, willed that something be removed not from the ear, not from the finger, but that part of the body was chosen from which, the foreskin once removed, He might make in them a saving sign, which cannot be done again. For done once, it preserves salvation; if it be done again, it can bring ruin. So also the baptism of Christians, accomplished by the Trinity, confers grace; if it be repeated, it works the loss of life. What therefore pleased you, brother Parmenianus, to propose a singular thing and to compare against it two baptisms, albeit different—one true, the other false?
For so afterwards you argued that there are two waters, claiming for yourselves the one true, you wished to ascribe to us the other as false. After this you also made mention of the cataclysm; it was indeed an image of baptism, that the whole world, defiled, with the sinners drowned, by the intervening washing, might be cleansed to its former face. But you, who were afterwards going to say that, apart from the diseased fountains of the heretics, there is also another water, that is, a false one against the true: why did you wish to recall the cataclysm, which happened once? If it is so, first show two arks, even if not alike, and two unlike doves carrying in their mouths different branches, if you are to prove a true water and a false one.
The water therefore that is alone and true is that which has been constituted not from place, not from person, but from the Trinity. And since you said there is also a false water, learn this too, where you can find it: among Praxeas the Patripassian, who altogether denies the Son and contends that the Father suffered. And since the Son of God is Truth, as He Himself testifies, saying: 'I am the door and the way and the truth'—therefore if the Son of God is Truth, where He Himself is not, there is falsehood. Since among the Patripassian there is no Son, there is also no truth, and where truth is not, there is false water. Therefore cease at last, even late, to feign crimes, and what was said against the Patripassians do not transfer to the Catholics.
Now since it has been manifestly shown by us that what you said about the Flood and circumcision could be said on our behalf, it follows to show how you praised baptism in such a way that in that praise there are many things on our behalf and on yours, yet something against you. For both of us that is which is common both to us and to us, and therefore to you also, because you have come forth from us. Indeed both among you and among us there is one ecclesiastical way of life, common lessons, the same faith, the very sacraments of faith, the same mysteries. Well therefore did you praise baptism;
for what believer would not know that the singular baptism is the life of virtues, the death of crimes, an immortal birth, the acquisition of the heavenly kingdom, the harbor of innocence, and, as you yourself said, the shipwreck of sins? These things, to each believer, not the workman of the same matter, but the believer's faith and the Trinity bestow. Then you ask what, in the praise of baptism, I said against you. Hear; but first you must confess what you all can by no means deny. For you say that the Trinity is held for nothing where your presence has not been involved. If you disparage us, at least revere God, who is first in the Trinity, who with His Son and the Holy Spirit works and accomplishes all things, even there where there has been no human person.
But you indeed, brother Parmenianus, in praise of water, said from the lesson of Genesis that the waters first brought forth living souls. Could they have generated them of their own accord? Was not the whole Trinity also there? Surely there too was God the Father, who deigned to command, who said: 'Let the waters bring forth swimming creatures, flying things,' and the rest. But if what was done were done without one operating, God would have said: 'Bring forth, O waters.' There therefore was the Son of God, who was operating; there was the Holy Spirit, as it was read: 'And the Spirit of God was borne over the waters.' I see nothing there a fourth, nothing less than three, and yet that was born which the Trinity wrought, and you were not there;
or if without you nothing ought to be permitted to the Trinity, recall the fishes to their origin; now plunge the flying birds beneath the waves, if in your absence the Trinity ought to do nothing. Since therefore you said that there was one Flood and that circumcision cannot be repeated, and we have taught that the heavenly gift is conferred upon each believer by the Trinity, not by man: how did it seem right to you to double baptism not after us, but after the Trinity? Concerning the sacrament of which no slight contest has arisen, and it is doubted whether, after the Trinity, in the same Trinity, this may be done again. You say: 'It is permitted'; we say: 'It is not permitted.' Between your 'it is permitted' and our 'it is not permitted,' the souls of the peoples waver and row to and fro. Let no one believe you, let no one believe us:
We are all contentious men. Judges must be sought: if Christians, they cannot be appointed from either side, since the truth is hindered by partisan zeal. A judge must be sought from outside: if a pagan, he cannot know the Christian mysteries; if a Jew, he is an enemy of Christian baptism. Therefore on earth no judgment in this matter will be able to be found: a judge must be sought from heaven. But why do we knock at heaven, when we have here in the Gospel a testament? Because in this place earthly things can rightly be compared with heavenly ones. It is just as when any man having numerous sons, as long as the father is present, the father himself commands each one; a testament is not yet necessary:
So also Christ, as long as He was present on earth, although even now He is not absent, commanded the apostles whatever was necessary for the time. But just as an earthly father, when he perceives himself on the border of death, fearing lest after his death his sons should quarrel and break the peace, with witnesses summoned transfers his will from his dying breast into tablets that will long endure; and if a dispute arises among the brothers, they do not go to the tomb, but seek the testament, and he who rests in the tomb speaks silently from the tablets: the living one, whose the testament is, is in heaven; therefore let his will, as in a testament, so be sought in the Gospel. For indeed Christ had already foreseen, by His foreknowledge, the things that you are now doing.
Finally, when He was washing the feet of His disciples, the Son of God said thus to Peter: 'What I do, you do not know; but you shall know hereafter.' By saying 'you shall know hereafter' He was designating these times; therefore among the other articles of the testament He established this article concerning water. When He was washing the feet of His disciples, if while the rest were silent Peter too had been silent, He would have made only a pattern of humility; He would have proclaimed nothing about the sacrament of baptism. But when Peter refuses and does not permit his feet to be washed, Christ denies him the kingdom unless he had received this service. But when mention was made of the heavenly kingdom, for which a part of the body was sought for service, he offered his whole body to the washing. Now be present, all you crowds and every Christian people; learn what is permitted.
While Peter provokes, Christ teaches. Let him who doubts learn; for it is the voice of Christ: 'He who has once been washed has no need to be washed again, for he is wholly clean.' And He pronounced this concerning that washing which He had commanded to be celebrated in the Trinity, not concerning the washing of the Jews or of the heretics, who, while they wash, defile, but concerning the holy water which overflows from the fountains of the three Names. For thus the Lord Himself commanded, saying: 'Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' Concerning this washing He said: 'He who has once been washed has no need to be washed again.' He who said 'once' forbade it to be done a second time, and He spoke of the thing, not of the person. For if there were any distinction, He would say:
'He who has once been well washed'; but since He did not add the word 'well,' He indicates that whatever has been done in the Trinity is well done. Hence it is that we receive in simplicity those who come from you. When He says: 'he has no need to be washed again,' this statement is general, not particular; for if these things were said to Peter, Christ would say: 'because you have been once washed, you have no need to be washed again.' Therefore, as often as anyone baptized by you wishes to make the passage over to us, we receive him as he comes, with all simplicity, by this teaching and example.
For far be it from us ever to exorcize one who is sound in the faith; far be it that we should call back to the font one already washed; far be it that we should sin against the Holy Spirit, for which crime pardon is denied both in this present age and in the age to come; far be it that we should repeat what is once for all, or double what is one. For so it is written, the Apostle saying: 'One God, one Christ, one faith, one washing.' Finally, you who strive to double baptism as though gladly: if you give a second baptism, give a second faith; if you give a second faith, give also a second Christ; if you give a second Christ, give a second God. You cannot deny that God is one, lest you fall into the pits of Marcion. Therefore God is one; from one God there is one Christ.
He who is rebaptized had already been a Christian; how can he be said to be a Christian a second time? 'One faith' in this place is set apart, as the one and only faith, from the errors of the heretics and from their varied faith. It is also prescribed against us, who after 'once' do it 'again,' placing everything in the endowments, nothing in the sacraments, since this name of 'faith' belongs to the believer, not to the worker. For whoever is questioned, he who has believed in God has believed, and after his one 'I believe' you demand a second 'I believe.' Then follows 'one baptism,' so that, because what is one is holy, through that which is one it may be separated not only from the profane and sacrilegious baptisms of the heretics, but also that what is one may not be doubled, nor what is once may be repeated.
In the celebration of this sacrament of baptism it is established that there are three components, which you can neither increase nor diminish nor pass over: the first component is in the Trinity, the second in the one who believes, the third in the one who performs it. But the several components are not to be weighed in equal balance. For I see two as necessary and one as quasi-necessary. The Trinity holds the principal place, without which the matter itself cannot be carried out; this is followed by the faith of the believer; then the person of the worker is next, which cannot be of equal authority. The two former remain always unchangeable and unmoved; for the Trinity is always itself, the faith in each is one, and both always retain their own force.
But the person of the worker is understood not to be able to be equal to the two former components, in that it alone seems to be changeable. Between us and you, you wish there to be a distinction of the same person, and esteeming yourselves holier, you do not hesitate to set your pride before the Trinity, although the person of the worker can be changed, while the Trinity cannot be changed. And whereas baptism ought to be desired by those who receive it, you propose that you yourselves should be desired; whereas you are workers among others, show what place you have in the same mystery and whether you can be of the same body. Baptism has a single name, beneath which lies its proper body, to which body there are fixed members, to which nothing can be added or taken away;
and if among these members a worker is to be chosen, the whole body pertains to the worker. All these members of this body are always and once for all together with it and cannot be changed; but workers are changed daily, in places and times and persons. For it is not one man who always or everywhere baptizes. In this work some were of old, others now, and others are yet to come hereafter: the workers can be changed, the sacraments cannot be changed. Since therefore you see that all who baptize are workers, not lords, and that the sacraments are holy in themselves, not through men, what is it that you claim only for yourselves? What is it that you strive to exclude God from His own gifts? Allow God to bestow what is His own.
For that gift which is divine cannot be given by man. If you think so, you strive to make void the voices of the prophets and the promises of God, by which it is proved that God washes, not man. David the prophet stands against you, who says in Psalm 50: 'You shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.' Likewise in the same psalm: 'O God, wash me from my unrighteousness, and cleanse me from my sin.' He said 'wash me'; he did not say: 'choose by whom I may be washed.' And Isaiah the prophet spoke thus: 'For the Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion' — that Zion is the Church we proved in the third book: therefore God washes the sons and daughters of the Church — he did not say: 'these shall wash, who think themselves holy.' Deign at least to let the prophets vanquish you, or else.
Acknowledge thus that it is not man who washes, but God. As long as you say: 'He who has not what he may give, how does he give?' — see that the Lord is the giver, see that God cleanses each one; for the filth and stains of the mind cannot be washed except by God, who is the maker of that same mind. Or if you think that the washing is yours, say what the mind itself is which is washed through the body, or what form it has, or in what place in man it dwells: this it has been denied to man to know. How then do you suppose that you wash, you who do not know of what sort is that which you wash? It belongs to God to cleanse, not to man; for He Himself promised through the prophet Isaiah that He would wash, when He says: 'And if your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.'
He said 'I will make white,' not 'I will cause it to be made white.' If God promised this, why do you wish to render what you are not allowed to promise, nor to render, nor to possess? Behold, in Isaiah God promised to whiten those afflicted with sins — not through man. Return to the Gospel; see what Christ promised for the salvation of the human race. When the Samaritan woman refused Him water, then it was said by the Son of God — which contradicts your presumptions: 'The water,' He says, 'that I give, whoever drinks of it shall never thirst.' 'The water that I give,' He says; He did not say: 'which they shall give who think themselves holy,' as you seem to yourselves, but He said that He Himself would give it. He therefore is the one who gives; His it is, that which is given.
What is it that you strive with all importunity to claim for yourselves? Since John the Baptist, who had come as forerunner of the Savior, fills out this matter; when he was baptizing many in penitence and the remission of sins, he announced that the Son of God was to come; whose words are these: 'Behold, He comes who will baptize you.' And yet we do not read that after John, Christ rebaptized anyone; therefore what he said: 'who will baptize you' — Christ, coming at that time after John, dipped no one. It had been promised for our times that He Himself should give what today is given, according to what He says: 'The water that I give, whoever drinks of it shall never thirst.' For when the disciples of John said to their master: 'Behold, He whom you baptized is baptizing':
He was indeed baptizing, but through the hands of the apostles, to whom He had given the laws of baptism. Finally, it is read in another place: 'For He Himself baptized no one, but His disciples did.' In this matter we are all His disciples, that we may work, that He may give, who promised that He would give. And yet, when John was baptizing countless thousands of men, already with Christ present the servant was working and the Lord was at leisure, before He gave the form of baptizing. Through this act, over no small time, thousands of men were dipped in penitence and the remission of sins. But no one had been dipped in the Trinity, no one yet knew Christ, no one had heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
But when the fullness of time came, at a fixed time the Son of God gave the laws of baptism and gave the way by which one might go to the kingdoms of heaven, even then commanding, saying: 'Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' From that day what was commanded had to be done: before the time He did not wish to amend what had been done, lest He give license for rebaptizing, although the baptism of John was one thing and that of Christ another. He willed the baptism of John, before the law, to count as full though it was not full; and yet the aforementioned thousands of men, because they had believed in God, although they were ignorant of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, He could not deny the kingdom of heaven to them. Hence is the voice of the Son of God saying:
'From the days of John until this present day the kingdom of God suffers violence; and those who use violence seize it.' Therefore He said: 'they use violence,' because John was still baptizing. Finally, because there was one time before the precepts and another after the precepts, those who after the precepts were baptized in the name of the Savior entered the kingdom by the laws; those who before the precepts used violence without the law, but were not shut out. Therefore before the precepts, when the baptism of John was imperfect, it was judged as perfect by Him whom no one judges, and because a kind of boundary of the command had been fixed between the preceding and the following times.
When at Ephesus some were baptized in the baptism of John after the precepts, the most blessed Paul, seeing them, asked whether they had received the Holy Spirit. They said to him that they did not know whether there was a Holy Spirit, and he told them that after the baptism of John they should receive the Holy Spirit. For they had been baptized just as many had been baptized by John. But those who were baptized before the law belonged to indulgence, because He was present who would give indulgence; they were not wholly guilty who had not been bound by the laws.
But these who are read to have been baptized at Ephesus with the baptism of John after the law, had erred in the sacrament after the law, because the baptism of the Lord had already been introduced and that of the servant had been excluded. And therefore, because after the divine commandments they ought to have entered the kingdom by the laws, not by violence: for Christ had already fixed the limit of the time by saying: 'From the days of John until this present day.' After 'this present day' what was lawful yesterday was no longer lawful. Wherefore do not flatter yourselves on the saying of the apostle Paul, who asked not after the person of the worker, but after the thing, by which the thing, not the person, was displeasing. Finally, he commanded the baptism of the Savior, that those who did not know might learn that they had received not it, but something else. But you — what do you change?
If you were able to change the thing, you would do rightly — if indeed you did something from the law. Paul said: 'In what baptism were you baptized?' And they said to him: 'John's'; he persuaded them to receive the baptism of Christ. But you do not say: what did you receive, but: from whom did you receive it; and you pursue the persons of men and wish to repeat what is once for all. Those who had been baptized at Ephesus had believed in penitence and the remission of sins; rightly was it said to them that they should be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But you — what do you change in men who have already said that they believed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?
Whether you question them about the thing itself or about something else, you must necessarily be convicted of sinning — whether you ask about that which is not commanded, or whether you wish to do this which has already been done. I now return to that saying of yours, which you keep repeating: 'He who has not what he may give, how does he give?' Whence is this saying, from what reading can it be recited? It is a saying gathered up from the village, not read from a book: 'He who has not what he may give, how does he give?' These words are not written in the law; for if, as you wish, man gives, then God is idle; and if God is idle, and with you is all that is to be given, then let the conversion be turned to you; let those whom you baptize be dipped in your name. Be ashamed before the most blessed Paul who cries out and professes his own thanksgiving:
'Were you baptized in my name?' He rejoices that he baptized only two and one household; and you strive to rebaptize whole peoples, and you rejoice both that you have sinned and that you sin, saying: 'What does he give who has not what he may give?' He in whom one believes, He Himself gives what is believed, not he through whom one believes. Finally, under John a countless multitude of men was baptized; prove that John either received or possessed what he gave. But while he worked, God was giving, who in giving does not fail; and now, while all are working, the works are human, but the gifts are God's. And how ridiculous is that which is always heard from you as though to your own glory: 'This gift of baptism belongs to the giver, not to the receiver.'
And would that you said this of God, who is the giver of this thing! But, what is foolish, you say that you yourselves are the givers. If it is so, let both we and you take hold of individual gentiles: you, who call yourselves holy, ask him whom you hold whether he renounces the devil and believes in the Lord; and let him say: 'I will not.' Against this, let us sinners, as you wish, question another gentile whether he renounces the devil and believes in God, and the rest, and let him say: 'I renounce and I believe,' and the rest. Since you dip the unwilling, and we the willing, let it be said which of them can attain to the grace of God. Surely without doubt he attains it who believes, not he for whose will, as you say, your holiness substitutes.
Recognize, even if late, that you are workers; or if the thing itself is in the worker and not in itself, let certain men claim this for themselves in their crafts — since you so provoke us, let us even compare human arts to divine things. When a precious dye is applied, nature is often transformed, while by the preparation a white fleece is made purple. Thus white wool passes into royal purple, just as a catechumen into one of the faithful. Surely, while it begins to be what it was not, it ceases to be what it was. The wool changes both its color and its name; and the man changes both his name and his mind. The effects are to be considered; the efficient causes are to be re-examined. You say that what the faithful man has been made was given by you.
If this is all yours, let the workman craftsman of purple also say that he has the precious color in his own hands and does not procure precious pigments from the Ocean, unknown to many, by which the dyed fleeces are advanced through color into admirable dignity; let him produce the purple by touch alone, without the blood of the fish being mixed in. If therefore that workman cannot give the color by touch alone, so neither can the worker of baptism give anything of himself without the Trinity. Such too is this, about which there is now contention. For in what name the nations are to be baptized was commanded by the Savior; but through whom they are to be baptized was distinguished by no exception. He did not say to the apostles:
'You do it, let others not do it'; whoever has baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit has fulfilled the work of the apostles. Finally, it is read in the Gospel, John saying: 'Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he does not follow with us.' So Christ says: 'Do not forbid; for he who is not against you is for you.' For to them too it was commanded thus, that their work should be the sanctification of the Trinity; nor should they dip in their own name, but in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: therefore it is the Name that sanctifies, not the work. Understand, even if late, that you are workers, not lords.
And if the Church is a vineyard and the vines are men and the cultivators are appointed, why do you burst into the lordship of the father of the household? Why do you claim for yourselves what is God's? Why do you wish the whole to be yours, where you cannot even have a part? For because of your swelling pride, with which you swell up against us, the most blessed Paul rebukes the Corinthians: in himself and Apollos he shapes the conduct of our time: 'lest one,' he says, 'be puffed up against another.' That he might show that this whole sacrament of baptism is God's, so that the worker may claim nothing therein for himself, he says thus: 'I indeed planted' — that is: I made a catechumen out of a pagan — 'Apollos watered' — that is: he baptized the catechumen. But that what was planted or watered might grow, God did it.
For anyone today wishing to trench his vineyard hires a worker at an agreed wage, who with bent back and sweating sides makes hollows in the earth where he may set down the chosen plantings, and pours water over the trodden trenches. He can dig the trench and set the plantings; he can lead in the water; but to command that it take root, he cannot; for this belongs to God alone — to bring forth from the marrow of the shoots roots that grow together into the earth, and eyes that bud, and to call forth the increase of foliage. Finally, the blessed apostle Paul, that he might curb your presumption and swelling pride, lest the worker of baptism suppose that he has lordship or claims for himself some little portion of so great a gift, indicating that the whole is God's, says thus:
'Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who brings to the increase.' You are workers among others; when the sun enters — that is, when the age is ended — you can contend with us about the wage on the day of recompense. Do not claim for yourselves the lordship of majesty. For if it were so, let the ministers too claim it for themselves, who serve the Lord's table, that thanksgiving may be rendered to them by the guests for the kindness shown. It is the voice of Christ inviting: 'Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' The nations come to grace; He provides who deigned to invite; the crowd of servants performs the ministry; thanks are to be rendered not to those who serve, but to Him who feeds.