BAPT. VIII.6. 1 in restored 262 Man re-created in God's image now, in His likeness eternally. DE of ill health watched for him: for whosoever first stepped down thither, after washing ceased to complain. This figure of bodily medicine spake of a spiritual medicine, according to that rule whereby carnal things ever go before as the figures of spiritual. Wherefore, when the grace of God increased among' men, more was added to the waters and to the Angel. They that did cure the ills of the body, now heal the spirit: they that did work out the temporal health, now frame anew the eternal: they that did deliver one man once in the year', now save whole nations every day, death being abolished through the washing away of sins. For the guilt being taken away, the punishment is taken away also. Thus man, who aforetime had been in the image of God, will be* 2 restitu- restored to God after His likeness. The image is conetur sidered to be in his form, the likeness in his eternity: for he Gen. 1, receiveth again that Spirit of God, which he had then Wisd. 2, received by His breathing upon him, but had afterwards lost 23. by sin'. restored 26. 27. Gen. 2, 7. m VI. Not that we obtain the Holy Spirit in the water, but c. 4, "medicatis quodammodo aquis i so narà xaigon (Joh. 5, 4.) is ex- note 1. It may be that T. uses the future to mark that the restoration is but commenced here, to be perfected in eternity, as he says, "the likeness is his eternity." Thus Orig. de Princ. iii. 6 init. "Moses in that he thus relates the first creation of man, And God said, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness,' and then adds, And God made man, in the image of God made He him in that he said, 'In the image of God made He him,' but is silent as to the likeness,' indicates nothing else, than that at his first creation he received the dignity of the 'image,' but that the perfection of the likeness is reserved for the consummation; but the Apostle John defines this much more clearly, We do not yet know what we shall be-we shall be like Him.' Whereby he most certainly points both to the end of all things, which he saith is yet unknown to him, and that a likeness of God is to be looked for, which shall be bestowed according to the perfectness of deserts;" and S. Aug. de Trin. xv. §. 24. quoting also 1 Joh. 3, 2. "hence it appears that in that image of God (Col. 3, 9.) the full likeness' of Him will then take place, when it shall receive the full vision of Him-That image of which it is said, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness,' since it is not said My' or Thy' [but 'Our'] we believe that man was made in the image of the Trinity. And therefore thus also will that rather be to be understood, which the Apostle John says, shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,' because he said it of him of whom he had said, we are sons of God." we I see the Fathers cited by Bp. Bull in his Discourse 5. "The state of man before the fall," espec. p. 82 sqq. 99-111. ed. Burton. mi. e. not fully; His complete gifts being bestowed through the Anointing c. 7. and imposition of hands as part of Baptism, (see Scriptural Views, p. 153. note.) For since Tertullian (with all other Fathers) believed Baptism to be The Trinity witnesses of faith, sureties of salvation. 263 Matt. 3, being cleansed in the water, under the Angel", we are prepared for the Holy Spirit. Here also hath a figure gone before. For thus was John aforetime the forerunner of the Lord, preparing His way: and so also for the Holy Spirit, Mal. 3, about to come upon us, doth the Angel, the witness of1 Baptism, make the paths straight, by the washing away of Is. 40, 3. sins, which Faith obtaineth, being sealed in the Father, and 3. in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. For if in three Mat. 28 witnesses every word shall be established, how much more 2 Cor. doth the Number also of the Divine Names suffice for the assurance of our hope, when we have, through the blessing pronounced, the same for witnesses of our faith, whom we have also as sureties for our salvation! But since both the testimony of faith and the promise of salvation is pledged under three, there is necessarily a mention made besides of the Church, seeing that where three are, that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, there is the Church, which comp! is a body of three". the birth" of water and the Spirit," those so born could not be without the Spirit, see below, c. 13. and de Anima c. 41. "re-formed by the second birth of water and the power from above," de Pudic. c. 6. "whatsoever flesh hath in Christ put off its former defilements, is now wholly another thing; it cometh up [out of the water] new, born of pure water aud the cleansing Spirit." In like way, Pam. remarks that S. Cyprian says Ep. 62. ad Cæcil. §. 5. "By Baptism the Holy Spirit is received,' and yet Ep. 69. ad Januar." Whoso has been baptized must also needs be anointed, that having received the Chrism, i. e. the anointing, he may be the anointed of God, and have within him the grace of God." n see above, p. 261. note h. The mention of an Angel of Baptism is evidently in part suggested by the ministry of an Angel at the pool of Bethesda, which is spoken of as a type of Baptism by S. Chrys. ad loc. adv. ebr. et de Res. §. 4. 5. in Paral. et de Christi Divin. c. anom. xii. §. 1. S. Cyril Alex. ad loc. S. Ambrose de Myst. c. 4. de Sacr. ii. c. 2. S. Greg. Naz. Orat. xli. 33. see Scriptural Views, p. 349 sqq. Tertullian speaks also of an angel of prayer, (de Orat. c. 12.) the angel who calleth forth the soul" at death, (de Anim. c. 53 i. e. both "under three" witnesses, P i. e. When our Lord promises His presence to "two or three gathered together in His Name," and so consti. tutes them in some sense a Church, He had, (Tert. supposes) reference to the mystery of the Trinity into Whose Name the Church is baptized. This passage has been looked upon as a token of Montanism. The error, however, did not lay in this statement, but in its abuse. T. uses the argument rightly de Poenit. c. 10.; after his fall, he on this ground claimed for the laity, in cases of emergency, priestly functions, (de fuga in Pers. c. 14. de exhort. Cast. c. 7.) and at last maintained that three spiritual persons constituted the Church, even over-against the Church, (de Pudic. c. 21.) an abuse, which S. Cyprian refutes, de Unit. Eccl. c. 11. The text is quoted as a blessing of our Lord upon unity by S. Hil. in S. Matt. 18. §. 9. and by S. Ambrose de Cain et Ab. c. 2. and de Myst. c. 5. especially of the priesthood. But for the correspondence 13, 1. Mat. 18, 17.20. DE ВАРТ. 4, 27. 4, 27. 264 Unction and laying-on of hands, bodily in act, spiritual in effect. VII. After this, having come out from the bath, we are anointed thoroughly with a blessed unction", according to the ancient rule', by which they were wont to be anointed for the priesthood with oil out of an horn. Wherefore Aaron was anointed by Moses; whence Christ" is named from Chrism, which is "anointing," which, being made spiritual, furnished a name for the Lord, because He was anointed with the Spirit by God the Father": as it is said in the Acts, For of a truth against Thy Holy Child, Whom Thou hast anointed, they were gathered together in that city. So in us also the anointing runneth over us bodily, but profiteth spiritually, as likewise in Baptism itself the act is carnal, that we are dipped in the water, the effect spiritual, that we are delivered from our sins. VIII. Next to this, the hand is laid upon us, calling upon and inviting the Holy Spirit, through the blessing. Shall the wit of man forsooth be allowed to summon a spirit into water, and, by adjusting his hands above, to animate the compound of the two with another spirit of such dulcet sound, and shall not God be allowed, by means of holy hands, to tune on his own instrument the lofty strains of the Spirit? But this also cometh of an ancient mystery, wherein Jacob blessed his grandsons born of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, his hands being laid upon their heads, and interchanged, and turned indeed crosswise, the one over the other, so that, representing Christ in a figure', they might even then foreshew the blessing to be accomplished in Christ'. Then that most Holy Spirit cometh of this language, (Ecclesiam, quam k see Bingham, 12. 1. i. e. the Old Testament. The Cross; in part also the Greek X. The mystical meaning of this action of the Patriarch is spoken of, S. Aug. Conf. x. §. 52. Novatian de Trin. c. 27. fin. "jam tunc portenderent benedictionem in Christum futuram;" one should have expected" in Christo;" Types of the Flood and the Red Sea. 265 16. down willingly from the Father upon the bodies that have been cleansed and blessed, and resteth upon the waters of Baptism, as though remembering His ancient abiding place, Who in the form of a dove descended upon the Lord, that the nature of the Holy Spirit might be shewn forth by a creature of simplicity and innocence. For the dove wanteth the very gall' even in the body: and therefore He saith, Be ye harmless as doves. And even this was not without Mat. 10, the token of a figure which had gone before. For as, after the waters of the flood, whereby the former iniquity was purged, after the baptism (so to speak) of the world, the herald dove" sent forth from the ark, and returning with an olive branch,-a sign, which even among the Gentiles foretokeneth peace,-announced to the world the appeasement of the wrath of Heaven; by the same ordering of spiritual effect, doth the Dove of the Holy Spirit fly down upon our earth, that is, our flesh, when it cometh forth from the laver after its former sins, bringing to us the peace of God, sent forth from the Heavens, wherein is the Church, the prefigured ark. But the world sinneth a second time, (wherein Baptism can ill be compared to the flood): and therefore it is reserved unto fire, as is also the man, who, 2 Pet. 3, 7. after Baptism, reneweth his sins, so that this also ought to be received as a token of warning to us. IX. How many pleas therefore of nature in its behalf, how many privileges of grace, how many rites of religious discipline, figures, preparatory forms, prayers, have ordained the religious use of water! First indeed when the people being at large' and set free from Egypt, escaped the violence' libere of the king of Egypt by passing over the water, the water restored utterly destroyed the king with all his armies. What figure more manifest in the Sacrament of Baptism? The nations are delivered from the world, to wit by water, and leave the ВАРТ. VIII. 10. 15, 25. 10, 4. ib. 266 Water honoured in O. and N. T. for confirming of Baptism. DE devil, their former master, overwhelmed in the water. Likewise was the water cured of its fault of bitterness, unto its Exod. own good state' of sweetness, by the wood of Moses'. That wood was Christ, curing, to wit, through His own Self, the streams of nature once poisoned and bitter, unto the most wholesome waters of Baptism. This is the water which 1 Cor. flowed for the people from that rock that followed them. For if that rock was Christ, without doubt we see Baptism blessed by the water in Christ. How great, for the confirming of Baptism, is the grace of water in the sight of God and of His Christ! Never is Christ without water. ForasJohn 2, much as He Himself is baptized in water: called to the marriage, He commenceth the first beginnings of His power in water. When He discourseth, He inviteth the thirsty to John 7, His everlasting water: when He teacheth concerning charity, He approveth among the works of love, a cup of water Mat. 10, offered to a poor man : He refresheth His strength at a well : John 4, He walketh upon the water: readily passeth over the sea: ministereth water to His disciples. The testimony to Baptism continueth even to His Passion. When He is John 13, delivered to be crucified, water cometh in between: witness Mat. 27, the hands of Pilate: when He is wounded, water breaketh forth from His Side: witness the spear of the soldier. 2. 37. 42. 6. Mat. 14, 25. 5. 24. John19, 34. X. I have spoken, as far as to my poor wit hath been permitted, concerning those things in general which lay the foundation of the Sacrament of Baptism. I shall now proceed equally, as I may be able, to treat of certain particular questions respecting what remains to be said of its character. Acts 10, The baptism which John preached", was, even in those days, the subject of a question, proposed indeed by the Lord Mat.21, Himself to the Pharisees, whether it were a baptism from heaven or of the earth. About which they were not able to answer consistently, as not understanding because not be 37. 25. |