Chapter 15.—23. To go on to the point which he pursues at great length, that "they who blaspheme the Father of Christ cannot be baptized in Christ,"1435
since it is clear that they
blaspheme through error (for he who comes to the
baptism of
Christ will not openly
blaspheme the
Father of
Christ, but he is led to
blaspheme by holding a view contrary to the teaching of the
truth about the
Father of
Christ), we have already shown at sufficient length that
baptism,
consecrated in the words of the
gospel, is not affected by the error of any man, whether ministrant or recipient, whether he hold views
contrary to the revelation of
divine teaching on the subject of the
Father, or the Son, or the Holy
Ghost. For many
carnal and
natural men are
baptized even within the
Church, as the
apostle expressly says: "The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God;"
1436
and after they had received
baptism, he says that they "are yet
carnal."
1437
But according to it
carnal sense, a
soul given up to fleshly appetites cannot
entertain but fleshly
wisdom about
God. Wherefore many, progressing after
baptism, and especially those who have been
baptized in infancy or early
youth, in proportion as their intellect becomes clearer and brighter, while "the inward man is
renewed day by day,"
1438
throw away their former opinions which they held about
God while they were mocked with
vain imaginings, with
scorn and horror and confession of their mistake. And yet they are not therefore considered not to have received
baptism, or to have received
baptism of a
kind corresponding to their error; but in them both the
perfection of the sacrament is
honored and the delusion of their
mind is corrected, even though it had become inveterate through long confirmation, or been,
perhaps, maintained in many controversies. Wherefore even the heretic, who is manifestly without, if he has there received
baptism as
ordained in the
gospel, has certainly not received
baptism of a
kind corresponding to the error which blinds him. And therefore, in returning into the way of
wisdom he perceives that he ought to relinquish what he has held
amiss, he must not at the same time give up the good which he had received; nor because his error is to be
condemned, is the
baptism of
Christ in him to be therefore extinguished. For it is already sufficiently clear, from the case of those who happen to be
baptized within the
Church with false views about
God, that the
truth of the sacrament is to be distinguished from the error of him who believes
amiss, although both may be found in the same man. And therefore, when any one grounded in any error, even outside the
Church, has yet been
baptized with the true sacrament, when he is restored to the
unity of the
Church, a true
baptism cannot take the place of a true
baptism, as a true
faith takes the place of a false one, because a thing cannot take the place of itself, since neither can it give place. Heretics therefore join the Catholic Church to this end, that what they have evil of themselves may be corrected, not that what they have good of God should be repeated.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
