the danger around thee, how many unexpected accidents may destroy thee!" St. Gregory had then to exhort persons[1] to trust their old age at least with this purifying (of Baptism). Why fearest thou the sins of youth, in advanced age and at thy last gasp? or waitest thou to be washed as a corpse (then not an object of pity, more than of disgust)? or longest thou after the relics of pleasure, thyself a relic of life?" And do men, who have fallen into the devil's snares in the one way, think that they should have escaped them in the other? that they, who have sinned against the means of grace, should, without those means of grace, have recovered from sin? that they who have broken the Covenant, which God would have enabled them to keep, would, if they had not been brought into it, have willingly put themselves under its yoke? They may see the result, either in these cases of the antient Church, or, in this very day, among that sect, which delays Baptism. How many among those who are educated in this sect, (for I speak not of those, who, having been baptized as infants, join it in mere ignorance,) how many still delay Baptism year by year, until they die, still strangers to the covenant of promise, and so, as they were "by nature, children of wrath[2]!" St. Ambrose[3] well and concisely speaks upon this point: "Repentance then is a blessing, and but for it, all would put off the grace of Baptismal washing to old age, to whom it were a sufficient answer, that it is better to have what I may repair than not to have wherewith I may be
- ↑ Orat. 40 in S. Baptismo, § 16.
- ↑ "If Christ himself, which giveth salvation, do require Baptism, it is not for us, that look for salvation, to sound and examine Him, whether unbaptized man may be saved, but seriously to do that which is required, and religiously to fear the danger which may grow by the want thereof. Had Christ only declared His will to have all men baptized, and not acquainted us with any cause why Baptism is necessary, our ignorance in the reason of that He enjoineth, might perhaps have hindered somewhat the forwardness of our obedience thereunto; whereas now being taught that Baptism is necessary to take away sin, how have we the fear of God in our hearts, if care of delivering men's souls from sin do not move us to use all means for their Baptism?" Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. § 60.
- ↑ De Pœnitentia L. ii. c. 11.
