Chapter 56.—68. And if this is rightly said of the gospel, with how much greater certainty should it be said of baptism, which belongs to the gospel in such wise, that without it no one can reach the kingdom of heaven, and with it only if to the sacrament be added righteousness? For He who said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,"2457
said Himself also, "Except your
righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the
scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of
heaven."
2458
The form of the sacrament is given through
baptism, the form of
righteousness through the
gospel. Neither one without the other leads to the
kingdom of
heaven. Yet even men of inferior learning can
baptize perfectly, but to
preach the
gospel perfectly is a task of much greater difficulty and rarity. Therefore the
teacher of the Gentiles, that was superior in excellence to the majority, was sent to
preach the
gospel, not to
baptize; because the latter could be done by
many, the former only by a few, of whom he was
chief. And yet we read that he said in certain places, "My
gospel;"
2459
but he never called
baptism either his, or any one’s else by whom it was
administered. For that
baptism alone which John gave is called John’s
baptism.
2460
This that man received as the special pledge of his ministry, that the preparatory sacrament of washing should even be called by the name of him by whom it was
administered; whereas the
baptism which the
disciples of
Christ administered was never called by the name of any one of them, that it should be understood to be His alone of whom it is said, "
Christ loved the
Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the
word."
2461
If, therefore, the
gospel, which is
Christ’s, but so that a
minister also may call it his in
virtue of his
office of administering it, can be received by a man even at the
hands of an
evil minister without
danger to himself, if he does according to what he says, and not after the example of what he does, how much more may any one who comes in good
faith to
Christ receive without
fear of contagion from an
evil minister the
baptism of Christ, which none of the apostles so
administered as to dare to call it his own?
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