Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Against those who assert that the baptism in the name of the Father alone is sufficient. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XII.
Against those who assert that the baptism in the name of
the Father alone is sufficient.
28. Let no one be
misled by the fact of the apostle’s frequently omitting the name
of the Father and of the Holy Spirit when making mention of baptism, or
on this account imagine that the invocation of the names is not
observed. “As many of you,” he says, “as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ;”944 and again, “As many of you as were
baptized into Christ were baptized into his death.”945 For the naming of Christ is the
confession of the whole,946 shewing forth as
it does the God who gave, the Son who received, and the Spirit who
is, the unction.947
947
“ἡ τοῦ
Χριστοῦ
προσηγορία
…δηλοῖ τόν τε
Χρίσαντα
Θεὸν καὶ τὸν
Χρισθέντα
Υἱ& 232·ν καὶ τὸ
Χρίσμα τὸ
Πνεῦμα.” | So we have
learned from Peter, in the Acts, of “Jesus of Nazareth whom
God anointed with the Holy Ghost;”948
and in Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the
Lord hath anointed me;”949 and the
Psalmist, “Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”950 Scripture, however, in the case of
baptism, sometimes plainly mentions the Spirit alone.951
951 No subject
occurs in the original, but “Scripture” seems better
than “the Apostle” of the Bened. Tr.
“Videtur fecisse mentionem,” moreover, is not the
Latin for φαίνεται
μνημονεύσας,
but for φαίνεται
μνημονεῦσαι. |
“For into one Spirit,”952 it says, “we were all baptized
in953 one body.”954
And in harmony with this are the passages: “You shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost,”955 and “He
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.”956 But no one on this account would be
justified in calling that baptism a perfect baptism wherein only the
name of the Spirit was invoked. For the tradition that has
been given us by the quickening grace must remain for ever
inviolate. He who redeemed our life from destruction957 gave us power of renewal, whereof the
cause is ineffable and hidden in mystery, but bringing great
salvation to our souls, so that to add or to take away
anything958 involves
manifestly a falling away from the life everlasting. If then
in baptism the separation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son
is perilous to the baptizer, and of no advantage to the baptized,
how can the rending asunder of the Spirit from Father and from Son
be safe for us?959 Faith and
baptism are two kindred and inseparable ways of salvation:
faith is perfected through baptism, baptism is established through
faith, and both are completed by the same names. For as we
believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, so are we also
baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost; first comes the confession, introducing us to salvation, and
baptism follows, setting the seal upon our
assent.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|