32 Baptism cleanses from even the greatest sins. LECT. the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spiri descending, and remaining upon Him, the same is He. III. And if thou hast seriousness unfeigned, the Holy Ghost is coming down on thee likewise, and upon thee, the Father's voice shal sound from on high, not," He is my son," but," He hath now John 1, become My son." For "is" belongs to Him alone; since In 1. 17. the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. To Him belongs that word, “ Is;" since at all times He is the Son of God; but to thee belongs, “Is now become;" since thou hast not the Sonship by nature, but receivest it by adoption: He is Son eternally; thou re ceivest this grace by advancement. (11.) 15. Therefore, make ready the vessel of thy soul, that thou Rom. 8, mayest become a Son of God, an Heir of God, and Joint heir with Christ; if thou preparest thyself, that thou mayest also receive; if thou by faith drawest near, that thou mayest be made a faithful man; if thou of thine own set purpose put away the old man. For every thing that thou hast committed shall be forgiven thee, even fornication, or adultery, or any other sort of licentiousness What is greater than crucifying Christ? Yet even of this is Baptism a purification. For thus spake Peter to the three thousand who came to him; and they the crucifiers of the Lord, when they asked and Acts 2, said, Men and brethren, what shall we do? for great is our 37, &c. wound; thou hast turned our thoughts, O Peter, to our fall, in saying, Ye have killed the Prince of life. What salve is there for so great a wound? What cleansing for so great pollution? What salvation for so great a death? to them, I say, Peter saith, Repent, and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord for the remission of sins, and (12.) ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. O unspeakable loving-kindness of God! they look not for salvation, and they are vouchsafed the Holy Ghost. Behold the power of Baptism! If any of you hath by blasphemous words crucified Christ; if any of you hath through ignorance denied Him before men; if any of you, through wicked works, hath led to the doctrine's being evil spoken of, let him be of good hope in repenting, for the same grace is also present now. 16. Be of good courage, Jerusalem, the Lord will take away all thine iniquities. The Lord shall wash away the Zeph. 3, 14, 15. Sept. Is. 4, 4. 36, 25. 1. 2. The Water conveys one gift, the Spirit another. 33 filth of His sons and daughters, by the Spirit of judgment and Ezek. By the Spirit of burning: He shall sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be cleansed from all your sin. Angels in heir choirs shall surround you, and shall say, Who is this Cant. 8, that cometh up in white apparel, leaning on her near of kin? 5. Sept. For the soul that was before a servant, hath now professed her Master to be her kindred, and He, favourably allowing her sincere purpose, will cry out in response, Behold thou art Cant. 4, fair, my love; behold thou art fair; thy teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep, because of her true-hearted confession; and farther, All of them bearing twins, because of the twofold gift, that, I mean, perfected by water and the Spirit", or that announced in the Old and the New Testaments. And may all of you, having finished the course of fasting, remembering what hath been said, bearing fruit in good works, standing blameless before the Invisible Bridegroom, obtain the remission of sins at God's hand: to whom be glory with the Son and the Holy Ghost, for ever. Amen. d The Fathers sometimes speak as if Baptism was primarily the Sacrament of remission of sins, and upon that came the gift of the Spirit, which notwithstanding was but begun in Baptism and completed in Confirmation. Vid. Tertullian. de Bapt. 7. 8. supr. i. 5 fin. Hence, as in the text, Baptism may be said to be made up of two gifts, Water which is Christ's blood, and the Spirit. There is no real difference between this and the ordinary way -conveys of speaking on the subject;-Water, D LECTURE IV. ON THE TEN POINTS OF FAITHa. LECT. IV. COLOSSIANS ii. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 1. WICKEDNESS imitates goodness: and the tares strive to be taken for wheat, being like it in appearance, but detected 2 Cor. in their taste by the discerning. Even the devil transformeth 11, 14. himself into an angel of light: not that he may reascend to 15. where he was; for being in heart like an anvil, incapable of all impression, he has now and for ever an impenitent will; but that he may environ in the darkness of blindness, and amid the pestilence of unbelief, those who are living an Mat. 7, Angel's life. Many wolves are ranging about in sheep's clothing, in the clothing, I say, of sheep, but with claws and fangs too. Enveloped in the skin of a gentle animal, and by their appearance deceiving the guileless, they shed on them from their jaws the deadly poison of impiety. Need have we then of Divine grace, and of an abstinent spirit, and of seeing eyes: lest eating tares as wheat, we out of ignorance come to harm; lest taking the wolf for a sheep, we be made his prey; lest imagining the Devil, the Destroyer, to be an Angel of 8. 1 Pet. 5, mercy, we be devoured; for he goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, according to the Scriptures. For this cause the Church admonisheth; for this cause are the present classes; for this, the reading of lessons. a This title is taken from Theodoret. The number is variously made out. Some MSS. say eleven for ten. An enumeration is here made somewhat different both from that in Mills' and in the Benedictine Edd. Religion consists of doctrines and works. 35 2. For the course of godliness is made up of these two; (2.) pious doctrines, and good works: neither are the doctrines without good works acceptable to God; nor are works allowable works done apart from pious doctrines. For what boots it, to know excellently the doctrines concerning God, and to commit vile fornication? or what again avails it to possess an excellent self-command, and to blaspheme impiously? An exceeding great gain then is learning in doctrines; and we have need of sobriety of mind, since many are they who would spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. And the Greeks Col. 2.8. by their smooth tongues draw you aside, for honey distils Prov. 5, from the lips of a strange woman; but they of the circumcision by means of the Holy Scriptures, which they miserably wrest from their meaning, deceive those who come to them, versed in them from childhood to age, and growing old in ignorance. And the sons of the Heretics, by good words and Rom. fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple, disguising with 16, 18. the name of Christ, as with honey, the envenomed darts of their irreligious doctrines: concerning all of whom together, the Lord saith, Beware lest any deceive you. This gives Mat. 24, occasion to the teaching of the Faith, and expositions upon it. 4. 3. But before making this tradition of the Faith, it seems to me fitting, to make at this time a short summary of necessary doctrines: lest the multitude of things to be spoken, and the lengthening out of the sacred season of Lent, be too much for the memories of the more simple among you: and that having now strewn some seeds in a general way, we may retain the same things, when provided in a larger crop afterwards. And let those here who are more practised in these things, and have their senses now exercised to discern Heb. 5, both good and evil, bear with things rather fitted for children, 14. and to a course (as it were) of milk: so that while they who Heb. 5, stand in need of Catechising receive benefit, they who have 13. knowledge, may now freshen the remembrance of what they knew before. I. OF GOD. 4. Lay then in your souls as a sure foundation the doctrine (3.) concerning God: That God is only one, unbegotten, unorigi IV. 36 God is One and Selfdependent. LICT. nated, unchangeable, unalterable: neither by another begotten, nor having another to succeed Him in His being: who neither began in time to be, nor shall ever have an end. And that He is also good and just: so that, if ever thou hear a heretic saying, that the Just God is one and the Good God another, being put on thy guard, thou mayest at once detect the poisoned dart of heresy. For some have dared impiously to divide the One God in their teaching. Again, some have said that the Artificer and Lord of the soul was one, and of the body another, a doctrine at once absurd and blasi ay- phemous. For how should man become the one servant of γελίοις. two masters, when the Lord saith in the Gospel, No man can Mat. 6, serve two masters? There is then One Only God, the Maker 24. both of souls and bodies: there is One the Artificer of heaven and earth, the Maker both of Angels and Archangels, the Artificer of many things, but the Father of One only before the worlds, even of His One Only-begotten Son our Lord Joh.1, 3. Jesus Christ, by whom He made all things, visible and inviCol. 1, 16. sible. Is. 40, 5. He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is not confined Ps. 8, 3. to any place'; nor is He less than the heavens: but the 12. heavens are the work of His fingers, and the whole earth is holden in the hollow of His hand. He is in and around all things. Think not that the sun is brighter than He, or is equal to Him for He who formed the sun in the beginning, must needs be without comparison far greater and brighter. He foresees the future: He is mightier than all things: He knows all things, and does what He wills; not subjected to antecedents or consequents, or to nativities, or chance, or fate; in all things perfect, and possessing in Himself the absolute form of every excellence; neither waning, nor increasing, but in mode and circumstance ever the same; who hath prepared chastisement for the sinners, and a crown for the righteous. (4.) 6. Seeing then that many have in divers ways gone astray from the One God,—some having deified the sun, and so forsooth, when he went down, abiding during the night-season b This was the doctrine of Marcion, Iren. iii. 25. §. 2. 3. and the Manichees. < These were the Manichees. Epiph. Hær. lxvi. 8. d As the Manichees held. Theodor. Hær. i. 26. |