Chapter 32.—72. Petilianus said: "For although there is only one baptism, yet it is consecrated in three several grades. John gave water without the name of the Trinity, as he declared himself, saying, ‘I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and
with fire.’2070
Christ gave the
Holy Spirit, as it is written, ‘He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy
Ghost,’
2071
And the Comforter Himself came on the
apostles as a
fire burning with rustling
flames. O true
divinity, which seemed to blaze, not to
burn! as it is written, ‘And suddenly there came a sound from
heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the
house where the
apostles were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues, like as of
fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance.’
2072
But you, O persecutor, have not even the
water of repentance, seeing that you hold the
power not of the
murdered John, but of the murderer
Herod. You therefore, O
traditor, have not the
Holy Spirit of
Christ; for
Christ did not
betray others to
death, but was Himself
betrayed. For you, therefore, the
fire in the spirit in
Hades is full of
life,—that
fire which, surging with hungry
tongues of
flame, will be able to
burn your limbs to all
eternity without consuming
them, as it is written of the
punishment of the
guilty in
hell, ‘Neither shall their
fire be quenched.’"
2073
73. Augustin answered: You are the calumnious slanderer, not the truthful arguer. Will you not at length cease to make assertions of a kind which, if you do not prove them, can apply to nobody; and even if you prove them, certainly cannot apply to the unity of the whole world, which is in the saints as in the wheat of God? If we too were pleased to return calumnies for calumnies, we too might possibly be able to give vent to eloquent
slanderers. We too might use the expression, "With rustling flames;" but to me an expression never sounds in any way eloquent which is inappropriate in its use. We too might say, "Surging with hungry tongues of flame;" but we do not wish that the tongues of flame in our writings, when they are read by any one in his senses, should be judged hungry for want of the sap of weightiness, or that the reader himself, while he finds in them no food of useful sentiments, should be left to suffer from
the hunger of excessive emptiness. See, I declare that your Circumcelliones are burning, not with rustling but with headlong flames. If you answer, What is that to us? why do not you, when you reproach with any one whom you will, not listen in turn to our answer, We too know nothing of it? If you answer, You do not prove the fact, why may not the whole world answer you in turn, Neither do you prove it? Let us agree, therefore, if you please, that you should not charge us with the guilt of
the wicked men whom you consider to belong to us, and that we should abstain from similar charges against you. So you will see, by this just agreement, confirmed and ratified, that you have no charge which you can bring against the seed of Abraham, as found in all the nations of the earth. But I find without difficulty a grievous charge to bring against you: Why have you impiously separated yourselves from the seed of Abraham, which is in all nations of the earth? Against this charge you
certainly have no means whereby you may defend yourselves. For we each of us clear ourselves of the sins of other men; but this, that you do not hold communion with all the nations of the earth, which are blessed in the seed of Abraham, is a very grievous crime, of which not some but all of you are guilty.
74. And yet you know, as you prove by your quotation, that the Holy Spirit descended in such wise, that those who were then filled with it spake with divers tongues: what was the meaning of that sign and prodigy? Why then is the Holy Spirit given now in such wise, that no one to whom it is given speaks with divers tongues, except because that miracle then prefigured that all nations of the earth should believe, and that thus the gospel should be found to be
in every tongue? Just as it was foretold in the psalm so long before: "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." This was said with reference to those men who were destined, after receiving the Holy Spirit, to speak with every kind of tongue. But because this passage itself signified that the gospel should be found hereafter in all nations and languages, and that the body of Christ should sound forth throughout all the world in every tongue, therefore he goes on to
say, "Their sound is gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." Hence it is that the true Church is hidden from no one. And hence comes that which the Lord Himself says in the gospel, "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."2074
And therefore
David continues in the same psalm, "In the sun hath He placed His
tabernacle," that is, in the open
light of day; as we read in the Book of Kings, "For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all
Israel, and before the sun."
2075
And He Himself is "as a bridegroom coming out of His
chamber, and rejoiceth as a
giant to
run His race. His going forth is from the end of
heaven:" here you have the coming of the
Lord in the
flesh. "And His
circuit unto the ends of it:" here you have His resurrection and ascension. "And there is nothing hid from the
heat thereof:"
2076
here you have the coming of the
Holy Spirit, whom He sent in
tongues of
fire, that He might make manifest the glowing
heat of
charity, which he certainly cannot have who does not keep the
unity of the Spirit in the
bond of
peace with the
Church, which is throughout all
languages.
75. Next, however, with regard to your statement that there is indeed one baptism,2077
but that it is
consecrated in three several grades, and to your having distributed the three forms of it to three persons after such fashion, that you ascribe the
water to John, the
Holy Spirit to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and, in the third place, the
fire to the Comforter sent down from above,—consider for a moment in how great an error you are involved. For you were brought to
entertain such an opinion simply from the words of John: "I indeed
baptize you with
water: but
He that cometh after me is mightier than I: He shall
baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with
fire."
2078
Nor were you willing to take into consideration that the three things are not attributed to three persons taken one by one,—
water to John, the
Holy Spirit to
Christ,
fire to the Comforter,—but that the three should rather be referred to two persons—one of them to John, the other two to our
Lord. For neither is it said, I indeed
baptize you with
water: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall
baptize you with the Holy
Ghost: and the Comforter, who is to come after Him, He shall
baptize you with
fire; but "I indeed," He says, "with
water: but He that cometh after me with the Holy
Ghost, and with
fire." One he attributes to himself, two to Him that cometh after him. You see, therefore, how you have been
deceived in the number. Listen further. You said that there was one
baptism consecrated in three stages—
water, the
Holy Spirit, and
fire; and you assigned three persons to the three stages severally—John
to the
water,
Christ to the Spirit, the Comforter to the
fire. If, therefore, the
water of John bears reference to the same
baptism which is commended as being one, it was not right that those should have been
baptized a second time by the command of the
Apostle Paul whom he found to have been
baptized by John. For they already had
water, belonging, as you say, to the same
baptism; so that it remained that they should receive the
Holy Spirit and
fire, because these were wanting in the
baptism
of John, that their
baptism might be completed, being
consecrated, as you assert, in three stages. But since they were ordered to be
baptized by the
authority of an
apostle, it is sufficiently made manifest that that
water with which John
baptized had no reference to the
baptism of
Christ, but belonged to another dispensation suited to the exigencies of the times.
76. Lastly, when you wished to prove that the Holy Spirit was given by Christ, and had brought forward as a proof from the gospel, that Jesus on rising from the dead breathed into the face of His disciples, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;"2079
and when you wished to
prove that that last
fire which was named in connection with
baptism was found in the
tongues of
fire which were displayed on the coming of the Holy
Ghost, how came it into your head to say, "And the Comforter Himself came upon the
apostles as a
fire burning with rustling
flames," as though there were one
Holy Spirit whom He gave by breathing on the face of His
disciples, and another who, after His ascension, came on the
apostles? Are we to suppose,
therefore, that there are two Holy Spirits? Who will be found so utterly
mad as to assert this?
Christ therefore Himself gave the same
Holy Spirit, whether by breathing on the face of the
disciples, or by sending Him down from
heaven on the day of
Pentecost, with undoubted commendation of His holy sacrament. Accordingly it was not that
Christ gave the
Holy Spirit, and the Comforter gave the
fire, that the saying might be fulfilled, "With the
Holy Spirit, and with
fire;" but the same
Christ
Himself gave the
Holy Spirit in both cases, making it manifest while He was yet on
earth by His breathing, and when He was ascended into
heaven by the
tongues of
flame. For that you may know that the words of John, "He shall
baptize you with the Holy
Ghost," were not fulfilled at the time when He breathed on His
disciples face, so that they should require to be
baptized, when the Comforter should come, not with the Spirit any longer, but with
fire, I would have you remember the most outspoken
words of Scripture, and see what the
Lord Himself said to them when He ascended into
heaven: "John truly
baptized you with
water; but ye shall be
baptized with the Holy
Ghost, whom ye shall receive not many days hence at
Pentecost."
2080
What could be plainer than this
testimony? But according to your interpretation, what He should have said was this: John verily
baptized you with
water; but ye were
baptized with the
Holy Spirit when I breathed on your faces; and next in due order shall ye be
baptized with
fire, which ye shall receive not many days hence;—in order that by this means the three stages should be completed, in which you say that the one
baptism was
consecrated. And so it
proves to be the
case that you are still ignorant of the meaning of the words, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire;" and you are rash enough to be williing to teach what you do not know yourselves.
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