again, * "The following book in such wise teaches the mystery of the Divine Generation, that they who are to be baptized in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, should not be ignorant of the truth of those names, nor under the words confound the meaning; but so conceive the meaning of each, as it is, and is called; acknowledging most fully that neither is the Name without the corresponding truth, nor is the truth unexpressed by the Name." And in this way we may much more appreciate the force of the argument, which the Ancients, when vindicating the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, drew from the words of Baptism, but which to us has been much weakened and obscured; for if by these words were only meant that we thereby acknowledged "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," the co-equality and co-essentiality of the three Divine Persons will not thence be so evident, since in different ways we might believe in and acknowledge the underived authority of the Creator, and the derived authority of a created; but since the words (as Christian Antiquity understood them) further denote the power of Those in whose Name we are baptized, as manifested in that Baptism, then the argument appears clear, that in this work of power He would not have joined the Creator with the created. "For neither did He conjoin (argues St. Athanasiust) an angel with the Godhead, nor did He unite us with Himself and the Father in one created, but in the Holy Spirit." And again, "They (the Arians) risk the very fulness of the mystery-Baptism. For since this perfecting is conferred into the Name of the Father and the Son, but these acknowledge not the true Father because they deny Him Who is derived of Him, and His con-substantiality; and deny again the true Son, and feign to themselves another, created out of things which were not, and name Him; how should not what they administer be wholly vain and profitless, having a semblance but nothing real as an aid to holiness; for the Arians impart not Raptism into the Father and the Son, but into a Creator and a creature, a Maker and a made. But as their 'created' is different from the Son, so would that which they are thought to give, be from the reality, although they affect to name the Name of the Father and the Son."t And this is throughout a remarkable difference between the ancient and modern way of viewing this text: the modern school sees only that three Persons or Beings are united therein, and infer that they would not be so united, were there any such disparity between them, as between the Creator and the created, or a mere energy or power. To this it has been answered,‡ that in Holy Scripture other *L. 1. § 4. † Ep. 1. ad Serapion. c. 11. p. 660. Orat. 2. c. Ariann. c. 42. p. 510. Wolzogen. ad loc. F. Socinus Fratr. Polon. t. ii. p. 438. names are united with those of Persons without implying that what is so united is a Person. As when it is written "I commend you to God and to the word of His grace,' or when our Lord says, “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem-and My new Name." Or, again, "My son, fear thou the Lord and the King." But this, which would not be satisfactorily answered by such, as see herein only an acknowledgment, on the part of the baptized, and of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, has no weight whatever against the argument of the ancient Church, who saw that not only were there three Beings mentioned and acknowledged, but that they were named as co-operating equally in the same Divine work of our re-creation, the imparting to fallen man the Divine Nature, and that this was wrought by Them, as One. "Leave off," says S. Gregory of Nyssa, "your controversy with men, and resist, if thou canst, the words of the Lord, which laid down for men the invocation in Baptism. But what says the Lord's command: 'baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost? How 'into the Name of the Father?" because He is the Beginning of all things. How into the Son?' because He is the author of creation. How 'into the Holy Ghost!' because he perfecteth all things. We immerse them to the Father' that we may be sanctified; we immerse 'to the Son' also for this same end; we immerse also 'to the Holy Ghost' that we may be that which He is and is called. There is no difference in the sanctification, as if the Father sanctified more, the Son less, and the Holy Spirit less than those two. Why then dissect the three Persons into different Natures, and make three Gods, unlike each other, when thou hast received one and the same grace from all?” "If," says S. Gregory of Nazianzum,¶ "He be not adorable, how does he deify, (eo) me through Baptism? and if adorable, how not to be adored ?** And if to be adored, how not God? The one hangs on to the other, and forms a truly golden and saving chain. And from the Spirit, then, have we our re-generation; and from our regeneration, our re-formation; and from our re-formation, the knowledge of the dignity of Him, who re-formed us ;" and, would I prefer the Son to the Spirit, as being the Son, but Baptism permits me not, hallowing me through the Spirit." Or St. Hilary, not in an appeal to his flock, but laying out the plan of his work,‡‡ "Nothing will then be wanting to the completion of the whole faith, inasmuch as removing the irreligiousnesses of faulty modes of speaking of the Prov: xx. 21. § 2 Pet. i. 4. * Acts xx. 32. + Rev. iii. 12. VOL. II.-3 De Trin. 1. i. 36. doctrine of the Holy Spirit also, the Apostolic and Evangelic authority comprises within that saving definition the mystery of the regenerating Trinity; nor would any one then dare, following the devices of human reason, to rank the Spirit of God among created beings, seeing that we receive him as the earnest of immortality, and for the participation of the Divine and incorruptible nature." They could not speak coldly and abstractedly of what they felt so really; they could not abstract themselves from their faith, or the ordinance of God from the blessings they had received in it. Thus St. Hilary spoke of "the regenerating Trinity," and St. Irenæus, speaking of this same commission, says, " And again, committing to His disciples the power of regeneration to God, He said to them, 'Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.' It is good to see this same truth, presented on different sides, both in contrast to modern formalism, which can repeat it only in one way, and as exhibiting how vividly it was appreciated in those days, when it was looked upon, not as a "Baptismal form" only, but as a reality, and as efficacious through Their might, Whose Name it bore. Let any consider this concluding address of S. Gregory to the Candidates of Baptism, and if he would not spontaneously have used the like words, let him lay to heart wherein the difference con sists. "Last of all, and above all, keep, I beseech thee, that good deposit, for which I live and act, and which may I take with me, when parting from this world, wherewith also I bear all sorrows, despise all pleasures, the confession of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. With this I entrust thee this day; with this I shall immerse thee, and bring thee up; this I give thee as the partner and presider over thy whole life, the One Godhead and Power, existing in Unity in the Three, and comprehending the Three severally; neither unequal in essences, or natures, nor receiving increase or diminution, by excess or subtraction; every way equal, the same every way, (as there is one beauty and greatness of the heaven) the infinite Connaturality of the Three Infinites; each contemplated by Himself, God; as the Father, so the Son, as the Son so the Holy Ghost, preserving to each what is His own; the Three contemplated together, God;--the former on account of the Unity of Essence, the latter on account of the Unity of Origin." The very anxiety to be kept steadfast in the faith of the Holy Trinity, thus received in Baptism, for which modern schools would probably, in practice, substitute a confession of "justification by faith," implies that the Ancient Church had fuller notions of the requisites and fulness of that belief: it is to be feared that moderns, *L. 3. c. 19. ed. Grabe. † Orat. 40. de S. Bapt. § 41. i who have disparaged that Ordinance, which, at its solemn and perpetual appointment, was made also the depository and guardian of that Doctrine, have been, unconsciously to themselves, undermining. their own faith, which they think that they retain. Very observable, then, is the earnestness of the prayer," wherewith St. Hilary closes his defence of that Doctrine, still, in connection with his Baptism, and the baptismal words, "keep, I beseech thee, this holiness of my Faith undefiled; and, unto the departure of my spirit, grant me thus from my conscience, to confess, that what I professed in the Creed of my regeneration, being baptized in the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, I may ever retain, worshipping Thee our Father, and together with Thee, Thy Son; so mayest Thou vouchsafe to me Thy Holy Spirit, Who is of Thee, through Thine Only-Begotten; for He is a sufficient guarantee of my Faith, Who saith, Father, all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine,' my Lord Jesus Christ, who abideth in Thee and of Thee, and with Thee, everlasting God, Who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen." Such then is the way in which the Ancient Church looked upon our Lord's parting commission, "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." It is, as was said, by virtue of this promise that we still exist, and know that His Church will exist to the end, for that He will be with it to the end; it is by virtue of these words,† (which none but avowed heretics have ever dared to change,) that we still venture upon the discipling of the nations, or admit little ones into His kingdom, and name His Name upon them; believing that, whether in the conversion of the Heathen, or the carrying on of His kingdom among ourselves by admitting * De Trin. 1. xii. ult. † Hence this commission is in several ancient Liturgies (as in our own) rehearsed before God in the prayer for the consecration of the Baptismal Font; as in the ancient Latin, Gelasius, (Ass. ii. p. 4, retained in modern Roman, p. 33,) the Gallican (p. 37,) the Armenian (p. 198.) Coptic (166.) It occurs in an exhortation in the Malabar Liturgy (ib. i. 178.) There is also an allusion to it in the Gothic (ii. 35.) In the old Gallican (p. 37) there is also a prayer for the "presence of the Triune Majesty to accomplish the most holy Regeneration." Arian Baptism was consequently accounted invalid, even where other heretical baptism was admitted. "Inasmuch as man, baptized in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, becomes a temple of God, where the ancient temple, having been destroyed, the new temple of the Trinity is built, how sayest thou, 'that sins can be forgiven among the Arians without the coming of the Holy Spirit?"" Jerome adv. Lucif. § 6. See also above 64. From this same belief is derived the question in our Office of Private Baptism, "With what words was this child baptized ?" implying that they are absolutely essential to valid Baptism. into it "the generations which shall be born," He "will be with us alway." Whereas then moderns, taking the words in their insulated way, find herein a direction to use a certain formula in baptizing, and also a promise of Christ to be present with some faithful few who shall be His true Church, so that a remnant of true believers never should be wanting, the Ancient Church combined the whole teaching; and so found the promise that Christ would ever, indeed, be present with His whole Church, guiding, chastening, correcting, purifying her, leading her through fire and water, and bringing her out at length into a wealthy place; but, and as an instance of this, that He would be specially present in the Sacrament which he thus made the entrance into that Church, and the very means of her continuance; that having bade them to "disciple all nations," by "baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost," and added that He "would be with them alway, even to the end of the world," He would be with them when so obeying His word, and be present with them, when baptizing in His Name. "Believe," says S. Ambrose," that the Lord Jesus, invoked by the prayers of the priests, is there, Who saith, where two or three shall be, there am I also;' how much more where the Church is, where His own mysteries are, doth he deign to impart His presence There was then more reality in the ancient view; they dwelt on the words, in which he gave them their commission to baptize, as containing His meaning in that commission; they combined their whole purport; they realized more their Saviour's Presence; they believed that the invocation of the Holy Trinity in words given by Christ Himself, was "with power," as being accompanied by His Presence through His Spirit. The analogy traced by Origen,t between this miracle and the relation which our Lord's miraculous cures of bodily diseases bore to those of the soul, in itself very striking, may sum up their meaning, "You must know that as the wonderful miracles in the cures wrought by the Saviour, being symbols of those who were continually, by the word of God, being freed from all sickness and infirmity, nevertheless were profitable when they took place in the body, inviting to faith those so benefited, so also the washing through water, being a symbol of the cleansing of the soul washed from all stain of sin, is in itself also, to him who yieldeth himself to the Divinity of the power of the invocation of the adorable Trinity, nothing less than the beginning and fountain of "Divine gifts." As, then, the invocation of our Lord's Name was efficacious in casting out devils, so they believed that spiritually also devils should be cast out in His Name; that "the invocation of the Name of the adorable Trinity" was efficacious, not in itself, but because He willed it. * De Myst. § 27. † Comm. in Joh. tom. 6. § 17. p. 133. ed. de la Rue. Mark xvi. 7. |