Bernard saith: 'Let us be washed in His blood.' By the authorities of thus many Ancient Fathers it is plaine, that in the Sacrament of Baptisme, by the sensible signe of water the invisible grace of God is given unto us." And again, in his treatise on the Sacraments[1]: "Wee are not washed from our sinnes by the water, wee are not fed to eternall life by the bread and wine, but by the precious bloud of our Saviour Christ, that lieth hid in these Sacraments. Chrysostome saith: 'Plaine or bare water worketh not in us, but when it hath received the grace of the Holy Ghost, it washeth away all our sinnes.' So saith Ambrose also: 'The Holie Ghost cometh downe, and halloweth the water.' And, 'There is the presence of the Trinity.' So saith Cyril: 'As water thorowly heat with fire, burneth as well as the fire: so the waters which wash the body of him that is baptized, are changed into Divine power, by the working of the Holy Ghost.' So said Leo, sometime a Bishop of Rome: 'Christ hath given like pre-eminence to the water of Baptisme, as Hee gave to his mother. For that power of the Highest, and that overshadowing of the Holy Ghost which brought to passe, that Mary should bring forth the Saviour of the world, hath also brought to passe, that the water should beare anew, or regenerate him that believeth.' Such opinion had the ancient learned Fathers, and such reverend words they used when they intreated of the Sacraments. For, it is not man, but God which worketh by them."
Or, again let us consider the high and glowing titles which they give to this Sacrament, and see whether they furnish inducements to rest therein, or not rather exhortations to hold onward in the strength so imparted. "This illumination (Baptism) then," says St. Gregory of Nazianzum[2], "is the brightness of
- ↑ P. 263.
- ↑ Orat. de Baptismo init. St. Basil sets forth the benefits of Baptism with the like accumulation of titles; Homil. 13. Exhortatoria ad S. Baptismum § 5. p. 117. ed. Bened. And so also Gregory of Nyssa in Bapt. Christi. init. p. 368. Bishop Jeremy Taylor refers for the same purpose to Theodoret also, Epiphanius, Cyril Hieros., Dionys. Areop., Augustine c. Crescon. Gram. L. ii. c. 13. (Life and death of the Holy Jesus. Of Baptism
