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| Of the Death Which the Unbaptized Suffer for the Confession of Christ.
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Chapter 7.—Of the Death Which the
Unbaptized585
| 585 Literally,
unregenerate. | Suffer for
the Confession of Christ.
For whatever unbaptized persons die
confessing Christ, this confession is of the same efficacy for the
remission of sins as if they were washed in the sacred font of
baptism. For He who said, “Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,”586
made also an
exception in their favor, in that other sentence where He no less
absolutely said, “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will
I confess also before my Father which is in heaven;”587
and in
another place, “Whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall
find it.”588
And this
explains the verse, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints.”589
For what is more precious than a
death by which a man’s sins are all forgiven, and his merits
increased an hundredfold? For those who have been baptized when
they could no longer escape death, and have departed this life with
all their sins blotted out have not equal merit with those who did
not defer death, though it was in their power to do so, but
preferred to end their life by confessing Christ, rather than by
denying Him to secure an opportunity of baptism. And even had
they denied Him under pressure of the fear of death, this too would
have been forgiven them in that baptism, in which was remitted even
the enormous wickedness of those who had slain Christ. But how
abundant in these men must have been the grace of the Spirit, who
breathes where He listeth, seeing that they so dearly loved Christ
as to be unable to deny Him even in so sore an emergency, and with
so sure a hope of pardon! Precious, therefore, is the death of
the saints, to whom the grace of Christ has been applied with such
gracious effects, that they do not hesitate to meet death
themselves, if so be they might meet Him. And precious is it,
also, because it has proved that what was originally ordained for
the punishment of the sinner, has been used for the production of a
richer harvest of righteousness. But not on this account should
we look upon death as a good thing, for it is diverted to such
useful purposes, not by any virtue of its own, but by the divine
interference. Death was originally proposed as an object of
dread, that sin might not be committed; now it must be undergone
that sin may not be committed, or, if committed, be remitted, and
the award of righteousness bestowed on him whose victory has earned
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