Chapter 25.—46. Sedatus of Tuburbo1681
| 1681 Tuburbo (Thuburbo) was in the ecclesiastical province of Zeugitana. Sedatus is not unlikely the same as the one mentioned in Cypr. Epp. iv., lxvii., lxx.
|
said: "Inasmuch as
water, sanctified by the prayer of the
priest in the
Church,
washes away
sins, just so much does it multiply
sins when infected, as by a cancer, with the words of
heretics. Wherefore one must
strive, with all such efforts as conduce to
peace, that no one who has been infected and tainted by
heretical error should refuse to receive the one true
baptism, with which whosoever is not
baptized shall not
inherit the
kingdom of
heaven."
1682
| 1682 Conc. Carth sec. 18.
|
47. To this we answer, that if the water is not sanctified, when through want of skill the priest who prays utters some words of error, many, not only of the bad, but of the good brethren in the Church itself, fail to sanctify the water. For the prayers of many are corrected every day on being recited to men of greater learning, and many things are found in them contrary to the Catholic faith. Supposing, then, that it were shown that some persons were
baptized when these prayers had been uttered over the water, will they be bidden to be baptized afresh? Why not? Because generally the fault in the prayer is more than counterbalanced by the intent of him who offers it; and those fixed words of the gospel, without which baptism cannot be consecrated, are of such efficacy, that, by their virtue, anything faulty that is uttered in the prayer contrary to the rule of faith is made of no effect, just as the devil is excluded by the name of
Christ. For it is clear that if a heretic utters a faulty prayer, he has no good intent of love whereby that want of skill may be compensated, and therefore he is like any envious or spiteful person in the Catholic Church itself, such as Cyprian proves to exist within the Church. Or one might offer some prayer, as not unfrequently happens, in which he should speak against the rule of faith, since many rush into the use of prayers which are composed not only by unskillful men who love to talk,
but even by heretics, and in the simplicity of ignorance, not being able to discern their true character, use them, thinking they are good; and yet what is erroneous in them does not vitiate what is right, but rather it is rendered null thereby, just as in the man of good hope and approved faith, who yet is but a man, if in anything he be otherwise minded, what he holds aright is not thereby vitiated until God reveal to him also that in which he is otherwise minded.
1683
But supposing that the man himself is
wicked and
perverse, then, if he should offer an upright prayer, in no part contrary to the Catholic
faith, it does not follow that because the prayer is right the man himself is also right; and if over some he offer an erroneous prayer,
God is present to uphold the words of His
gospel, without which the
baptism of
Christ cannot be
consecrated, and He Himself consecrates His sacrament, that in the recipient, either before he is
baptized, or when he is
baptized, or at some future time when he turns in
truth to
God, that very sacrament may be profitable to
salvation, which, were he not to be
converted, would be
powerful to his
destruction. But who is there who does not know that there is no
baptism of
Christ, if the words of the
gospel in which consists the outward visible sign be not forthcoming? But you will more easily find
heretics who do not
baptize at all, than any who
baptize without those words. And therefore
we say, not that every
baptism (for in many of the blasphemous rites of
idols men are said to be
baptized), but that the
baptism of
Christ, that is, every
baptism consecrated in the words of the
gospel, is everywhere the same, and cannot be vitiated by any perversity on the part of any men.
1684
| 1684 See above, III. cc. 14, 15.
|
48. We must certainly not lightly pass over in this judgment that he here inserted a clause, and says, "Wherefore we must strive, with all such efforts as conduce to peace, that no one who has been infected," etc. For he had regard to those words of the blessed Cyprian in his opening speech, "Judging no man, nor depriving any of the right of communion if he entertain a different view." See of what power is the love of unity and peace in the good sons of the
Church, that they should choose rather to show tolerance towards those whom they called sacrilegious and profane, being admitted, as they thought, without the sacrament of baptism, if they could not correct them as they thought was right, than on their account to break that holy bond, lest on account of the tares the wheat also should be rooted out,1685
—permitting, so
far as
rested with them, as in that noblest
judgment of
Solomon, that the
infant body should rather be nourished by the false mother than be
cut in pieces.
1686
But this was the opinion both of those who held the truer view about the sacrament of
baptism, and of those to whom God, in consideration of their great love, was purposing to reveal any point in which they were otherwise minded.
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