Chapter 28.—39. Hence, therefore, we have now set before us an easier and more simple consideration of that ark of which Noah was the builder and pilot. For Peter says that in the ark of Noah, "few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God)." 1580
Wherefore, if those appear to men to be
baptized in Catholic
unity who
renounce the
world in words only and not in
deeds, how do they
belong to the
mystery of this
ark in whom there is not the answer of a good conscience? Or how are they
saved by
water, who, making a bad use of holy
baptism, though they seem to be within, yet persevere to the end of their days in a
wicked and abandoned course of
life? Or how can they
fail to be
saved by
water, of whom Cyprian himself
records that they were in time past simply admitted to the
Church with the
baptism which they had received in
heresy? For the same
unity of the
ark saved them, in which no one has been
saved except by
water. For Cyprian himself says, "The
Lord is able of His
mercy to grant pardon, and not to sever from the
gifts of His
Church those who, being in all simplicity admitted to the
Church, have fallen
asleep within her pale."
1581
| 1581 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 23.
|
If not by
water, how in the
ark? If not in the
ark, how in the
Church? But if in the
Church, certainly in the
ark; and if in the
ark, certainly by
water. It is therefore possible that some who have been
baptized without may be considered, through the foreknowledge of
God, to have been really
baptized within, because within the
water begins to be profitable to them unto
salvation; nor can they be said to have been otherwise
saved in the
ark except by
water. And again, some who seemed to have been
baptized within may be considered, through the same foreknowledge of
God, more truly to have been
baptized without, since, by making a bad use of
baptism, they
die by
water, which then happened to no one who was not outside the
ark. Certainly it is clear that, when we speak of within and without in relation to the
Church, it is the position of the
heart that we must consider, not that of the body, since all who are within in
heart are
saved in
the
unity of the
ark through the same
water, through which all who are in
heart without, whether they are also in body without or not,
die as
enemies of
unity. As therefore it was not another but the same
water that
saved those who were placed within the
ark, and
destroyed those who were left without the
ark, so it is not by different
baptisms, but by the same, that good Catholics are
saved, and bad Catholics or
heretics perish. But what the most
blessed Cyprian thinks of the Catholic
Church,
and how the
heretics are utterly
crushed by his authority; notwithstanding the much I have already said, I have yet determined to set forth by itself, if God will, with somewhat greater fullness and perspicuity, so soon as I shall have first said about his Council what I think is due from me, which, in God’s will, I shall attempt in the following book.
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