Chapter 8.—9. Wherefore, as the apostle said of the law, "The law is good, if a man use it lawfully,"1476
so we may fairly say of
baptism,
Baptism is good, if a man use it lawfully. And as they who used the
law unlawfully could not in that case cause that it should not be in itself good, or make it null and
void, so any one who uses
baptism unlawfully, either because he lives in
heresy, or because he lives the worst of lives, yet cannot cause that the
baptism should be otherwise than good, or altogether null and
void. And so, when he is
converted either to Catholic
unity, or
to a mode of living worthy of so great a sacrament, he begins to have not another and a
lawful baptism, but that same
baptism in a
lawful manner. Nor does the
remission of irrevocable
sins follow on
baptism, unless a man not only have
lawful baptism, but have it lawfully; and yet it does not follow that if a man have it not lawfully, so that his
sins are either not remitted, or, being remitted, are brought on him again, therefore the sacrament of
baptism should be in the
baptized person either
bad or null and
void. For as
Judas, to whom the
Lord gave a morsel, gave a place within himself of the
devil, not by receiving what was bad, but by receiving it badly,
1477
so each person, on receiving the sacrament of the
Lord, does not cause that it is bad because he is bad himself, or that he has received nothing because he has not received it to
salvation. For it was none the less the body of the
Lord and the
blood of the
Lord, even in those to whom the
apostle said, "He that eateth
unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself."
1478
Let the
heretics therefore
seek in the Catholic
Church not what they have, but what they have not,—that is, the end of the
commandment, without which many holy things may be
possessed, but they cannot
profit. "Now, the end of the
commandment is
charity out of a pure
heart, and of a good conscience, and of
faith unfeigned."
1479
Let them therefore hasten to the
unity and
truth of the Catholic Church, not that they may have the sacrament of washing, if they have been already bathed in it, although in heresy, but that they may have it to their health.
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