Chapter 21.—29. With regard to the objection brought against Cyprian, that the catechumens who were seized in martyrdom, and slain for Christ’s name’s sake, received a crown even without baptism, I do not quite see what it has to do with the matter, unless, indeed, they urged that heretics could much more be admitted with baptism to Christ’s kingdom, to which catechumens were admitted without it, since He Himself has said,
"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."1453
Now, in this matter I do not hesitate for a moment to place the Catholic catechumen, who is burning with
love for
God, before the
baptized heretic; nor yet do we thereby do
dishonor to the sacrament of
baptism which the latter has already received, the former not as yet; nor do we consider that the sacrament of the catechumen
1454
| 1454 Another reading, of less authority, is, "Aut catechumeno sacramentum baptismi præferendum putamus." This does not suit the sense of the passage, and probably sprung from want of knowledge of the meaning of the "catechumen’s sacrament." It is mentioned in the Council of Carthage, A.D. 397, as "the sacrament of salt" (cap. 5). Augustin (de Peccat. Meritis, ii. c. 26), says that "what the catechumens receive, though
it be not the body of Christ, yet is holy, more holy than the food whereby our bodies are sustained, because it is a sacrament."—Cp. de Catech. Rudibus, c. 26 [Bened.]. It appears to have been only a taste of salt, given them as the emblem of purity and incorruption. See Bingham, Orig. Eccles. Book x. c. ii. 16.
|
is to be preferred to the sacrament of
baptism, when we acknowledge that some catechumens are better and more
faithful than some
baptized persons. For the
centurion Cornelius, before
baptism, was better than
Simon, who had been
baptized. For
Cornelius, even before his
baptism, was filled with the
Holy Spirit;
1455
Simon, even after
baptism, was puffed up with an
unclean spirit.
1456
| 1456 Acts viii. 13, 18, 19.
|
Cornelius, however, would have been
convicted of contempt for so holy a sacrament, if, even after he had received the Holy
Ghost, he had refused to be
baptized. But when he was
baptized, he received in no
wise a better sacrament than
Simon; but the different merits of the men were made manifest under the equal
holiness of the same sacrament—so true is it that the good or
ill deserving of the recipient does not increase or diminish the
holiness of
baptism. But as
baptism
is wanting to a good catechumen to his receiving the
kingdom of
heaven, so true conversion is wanting to a bad man though
baptized. For He who said, "Except a man be
born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of
God," said also Himself, "except your
righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the
scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of
heaven."
1457
For that the
righteousness of the catechumens might not feel
secure, it is written, "Except a man be
born again of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of
God." And again, that the
unrighteousness of the
baptized might not feel
secure because they had received
baptism, it is written, "Except your
righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the
scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of
heaven." The one were too little
without the other; the two make
perfect the heir of that inheritance. As, then, we ought not to depreciate a man’s
righteousness, which begins to exist before he is joined to the
Church, as the
righteousness of
Cornelius began to exist before he was in the body of
Christian men,—which
righteousness was not thought worthless, or the
angel would not have said to him, "Thy prayers and thine
alms are come up as a
memorial before
God;" nor did it yet suffice for his obtaining the
kingdom of
heaven,
or he would not have been told to send to Peter,
1458
—so neither ought we to depreciate the sacrament of
baptism, even though it has been received outside the
Church. But since it is of no avail for
salvation unless he who has
baptism indeed in full
perfection be incorporated into the Church, correcting also his own depravity, let us therefore correct the error of the heretics, that we may recognize what in them is not their own but Christ’s.
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