Chapter 38 [XXXIII.]—To Baptism Must Be Referred All Remission of Sins, and the Complete Healing of the Resurrection. Daily Cleansing.

Blessed, therefore, is the olive tree “whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;” blessed is it “to which the Lord hath not imputed sin.”132    Ps. xxxiii. 1, 2. But this, which has received the remission, the covering, and the acquittal, even up to the complete change into an eternal immortality, still retains a secret force which furnishes seed for a wild and bitter olive tree, unless the same tillage of God prunes it also, by remission, covering, and acquittal. There will, however, be left no corruption at all in even carnal seed, when the same regeneration, which is now effected through the sacred laver, purges and heals all man’s evil to the very end. By its means the very same flesh, through which the carnal mind was formed, shall become spiritual,—no longer having that carnal lust which resists the law of the mind, no longer emitting carnal seed. For in this sense must be understood that which the apostle whom we have so often quoted says elsewhere: “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word; that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”133    Eph. v. 25. It must, I say, be understood as implying, that by this laver of regeneration and word of sanctification all the evils of regenerate men of whatever kind are cleansed and healed,—not the sins only which are all now remitted in baptism, but those also which after baptism are committed by human ignorance and frailty; not, indeed, that baptism is to be repeated as often as sin is repeated, but that by its one only ministration it comes to pass that pardon is secured to the faithful of all their sins both before and after their regeneration. For of what use would repentance be, either before baptism, if baptism did not follow; or after it, if it did not precede? Nay, in the Lord’s Prayer itself, which is our daily cleansing, of what avail or advantage would it be for that petition to be uttered, “Forgive us our debts,”134    Matt. vi. 12. unless it be by such as have been baptized? And in like manner, how great soever be the liberality and kindness of a man’s alms, what, I ask, would they profit him towards the remission of his sins if he had not been baptized? In short, on whom but on the baptized shall be bestowed the very felicities of the kingdom of heaven; where the Church shall have no spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; where there shall be nothing blameworthy, nothing unreal; where there shall be not only no guilt for sin, but no concupiscence to excite it?

CAPUT XXXIII.

38. Baptismo omnis peccatorum remissio, plenaque in resurrectione sanatio, accepta referri debet. Quotidiana mundatio. Beata itaque olea, cujus remissae sunt iniquitates, et cujus tecta sunt peccata: beata, cui non imputavit Dominus peccatum (Psal. XXXI, 1, 2). Sed illud quod remissum et tectum est et non imputatur, donec fiat in aeternam immortalitatem plena mutatio, habet vim quamdam occultam, unde seminetur amarus oleaster, nisi et illic eadem Dei agricultura remittatur, tegatur, non imputetur. Non erit autem omnino aliquid vel in carnali semine vitiosum, cum eadem regeneratione, quae nunc fit per sacrum lavacrum, usque in finem cuncta mala hominis purgante atque sanante, eadem caro per quam facta est anima carnalis, fiet spiritualis etiam ipsa, nullam legi mentis resistentem concupiscentiam carnis habitura, nihil carnalis seminis emissura. Sic enim accipiendum est quod ait idem apostolus: Christus dilexit Ecclesiam, et se ipsum tradidit 0435 pro ea, ut eam sanctificaret, mundans eam lavacro aquae in verbo, ut exhiberet sibi ipse gloriosam Ecclesiam, non habentem maculam aut rugam, aut aliquid ejusmodi (Ephes. V, 25-27). Sic, inquam, hoc accipiendum est, ut eodem lavacro regenerationis et verbo sanctificationis omnia prorsus mala hominum regeneratorum mundentur atque sanentur; non solum peccata quae omnia nunc remittuntur in Baptismo, sed etiam quae posterius humana ignorantia vel infirmitate contrahuntur: non ut Baptisma quoties peccatur, toties repetatur; sed quia ipso quod semel datur, fit ut non solum antea, verum etiam postea quorumlibet peccatorum venia fidelibus impetretur. Quid enim prodesset vel ante Baptismum poenitentia, nisi Baptismus sequeretur; vel postea, nisi praecederet? In ipsa quoque oratione dominica, quae quotidiana est nostra mundatio, quo fructu, quo effectu diceretur, Dimitte nobis debita nostra (Matth. VI, 12), nisi ab eis qui baptizati sunt, diceretur? Itemque eleemosynarum largitas et beneficentia quantalibet, cui tandem ad dimittenda sua peccata prodesset, si baptizatus non esset? Postremo regni coelorum ipsa felicitas, ubi non habebit Ecclesia maculam aut rugam aut aliquid ejusmodi, ubi nihil reprehensionis, nihil simulationis erit, ubi non solum reatus, sed nec concupiscentia erit ulla peccati, quorum erit, nisi baptizatorum?