stowed sufficient labour and attention on the exposition of this Sacrament. Besides the great festivals of Easter and Pentecost, festivals on which the Church celebrated this Sacrament with the greatest solemnity and devotion, and on which particularly, according to ancient practice, its divine mysteries are to be explained; the pastor should, also, take occasion, at other times, to make it the subject matter of his instructions. [1]
For this purpose, a most convenient opportunity would seem to present itself, whenever the pastor, when about to administer this Sacrament, finds himself surrounded by a considerale number of the faithful: on such occasions, it is true, his exposition cannot embrace every thing that regards baptism; but he can develope one or two points with greater facility, whilst the faithful see them expressed, and contemplate them with devout attention, in the sacred ceremonies which he is performing. Thus each person, reading a lesson of admonition in the person of him who is receiving baptism, calls to mind the promises by which he had bound himself to the service of God when initiated by baptism, and reflects whether his life and morals evince that fidelity to which every one pledges himself, by professing the name of Christian.
To render what we have to say, on this subject, perspicuous, we shall explain the nature and substance of the Sacrament; premising, however, an explication of the word Baptism. The word Baptism, as is well known, is of Greek derivation. Although used in Scripture to express not only that ablution which forms part of the Sacrament, but also every species of ablution, [2] and sometimes, figuratively, to express sufferings; yet it is employed, by ecclesiastical writers, to designate not every sort of ablution, but that which forms part of the Sacrament, and is administered with the prescribed sacramental form. In this sense, the Apostles very frequently make use of the word, in accordance with the institution of Christ. [3]
This Sacrament, the Holy Fathers designate also by other names. St. Augustine informs us that it was sometimes called the Sacrament of Faith; because, by receiving it, we profess our faith in all the doctrines of Christianity: [4] by others it was denominated "Illumination," because by the faith which we profess in baptism, the heart is illumined: " Call to mind," says the Apostle, alluding to the time of baptism, " the former days, wherein being illumined, you endured a great fight of afflictions." [5] St. Chrysostom, in his sermon to the baptized, calls it a purgation, through which "we purge away the old leaven, that we may become a new paste:" [6] he, also, calls it a burial, a planting, and the cross of Jesus Christ: [7] the reasons for all these appellations may be gathered from the epistle of St. Paul
