|
|
 |
Other Topics:
|
- "'I have heard, sir,' said I, 'from some teacher, that there
is no other repentance except that which took place when we went
down into the water and obtained the remission of our former
sins.' He said to me, 'You have heard rightly, for so it is'"
The Shepherd ofHermas (80 AD), 4:3:1
- "...from the instant we are baptized, grace is hidden
in the depths of the intellect, concealing its presence even
from the perception of the intellect itself. When someone
begins, however, to love God with full resolve, then in a
mysterious way, by means of intellectual perception, grace
communicates something of its riches to his soul. Then, if he
really wants to hold fast to this discovery, he joyfully starts
longing to be rid of all his temporal goods, so as to acquire
the field in which he has found the hidden treasure of life (cf.
Matt. 13:44). This is because, when someone rids himself of all
worldly riches, he discovers the place where the grace of God is
hidden. For as the soul advances, divine grace more and more
reveals itself to the intellect." St.
Diadochos of Photiki (On Spiritual Knowledge no. 77)
- "...since man is of twofold nature, soul and body, the
purification [of baptism] also is two-fold, the one incorporeal
for the incorporeal part, and the other bodily for the body: the
water cleanses the body, and the Spirit seals the soul; that we
may draw near unto God, 'having our heart sprinkled' by the
Spirit, 'and our body washed with pure water' (Heb. 10:22). When
going down, therefore, into the water, think not of the bare
element, but look for salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit:
for without both you cannot possibly be made perfect. It is not
I that say this, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who has the power in
this matter: for He says, 'Except a man be born anew', and He
adds these words, 'of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God'." St. Cyril of
Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures: Lecture 3 no. 4)
- "...when a wound has gone deep into the body, even if there
has been a healing, the scar remains, so sin wounds soul and
body, and the marks of its scars remain in all; and they are
removed only from those who receive the washing of Baptism. The
past wounds therefore of soul and body God heals by Baptism;
against future ones let us one and all jointly guard ourselves,
that we may keep this vestment of the body pure, and may not for
practicing fornication and sensual indulgence or any other sin
for a short season, lose the salvation of heaven, but may
inherit the eternal kingdom of God; of which may God, of His own
grace, deem all of you worthy." St. Cyril
of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures: Lecture 18 no. 20)
- "Cyprian of Carthage "[I]t behooves those to be baptized ...
so that they are prepared, in the lawful and true and only
baptism of the holy Church, by divine regeneration, for the
kingdom of God . . . because it is written `Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God'" St Cyprian of Carthage (253
AD)72[73]:21).
- "Abba Gregory said, 'These three things God requires of all
the baptized: right faith in the heart, truth on the tongue,
temperance in the body.'" Gregory the
Theologian in The Desert Christian
- "After His resurrection He promises in a pledge to His
disciples that He will send them the promise of His Father; and
lastly, He commands them to baptize into the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost, not into a unipersonal God. And indeed it is
not once only, but three times, that we are immersed into the
Three Persons, at each several mention of Their names"
211 AD Tertullian Against Praxeas 26
- "After the foregoing instructions, baptize in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living
[running] water. If you have no living water, then baptize in
other water, and if you are not able in cold, then in warm. If
you have neither, pour water three times on the head, in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Before baptism, let the one baptizing and the one to be baptized
fast, as also any others who are able. Command the one who is to
be baptized to fast beforehand for one or two days"
Didache 7:1 (1st Century)
- "After the world had been hereupon set in order through its
elements, when inhabitants were given it, 'the waters' were the
first to receive the precept 'to bring forth living creatures.'
Water was the first to produce that which had life, that it
might be no wonder in baptism if waters know how to give life."
Tertullian (140-230 AD), "On Baptism,"
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, page 670
- "And [Naaman] dipped himself . . . seven times in the
Jordan' [2 Kgs. 5:14]. It was not for nothing that Naaman of
old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being
baptized, but [this served] as an indication to us. For as we
are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred
water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old
transgressions, being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes,
even as the Lord has declared: `Except a man be born again
through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven'" St. Irenaeus of Lyons
(190 AD), Fragment 34
|
|
