Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/397

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TO BAPTISM IN CONTROVERSY.
187

again[1]—"Believe also in the Holy Spirit, and think of Him, as thou hast received concerning the Father and the Son. Learn that this Holy Spirit is one, indivisible, with various powers; working manifold gifts, but Himself not divided,—who operated through the law and the prophets,—who now also sealeth thy soul at the time of Baptism,—of whose holiness all reasonable nature hath received." Or, again, St. Athanasius, (although it is almost doing injustice to these Fathers, to give such brief extracts in a foreign tongue; and be it remembered, that they are produced for one object only,—to show that they, when arguing from the baptismal words, did it not in our cold and disputatious way, but as men, who were thereby reminded of the blessings which they had received in holy Baptism), St. Athanasius, then, thus argues[2]:—"The sum of our faith He made to point to this, for He bade that We should be baptized not into the name of One not-made, and one made, of One Uncreate, and of a creature, but into the name of the Father, and Son, and the Holy Ghost. For thus, being perfected, we also are made truly sons; and when we pronounce the name of the Father, we learn also from that name the Word also, who is in the Father." And again[3]—"For God, not as if He wanted any thing, but as the Father, founded the earth by His own Wisdom, and made all things by the Word, who is from Himself, and establisheth the holy washing in the Son. For where the Father is, there is the Son also; as where the light is, there also is the radiance: and as what the Father doeth. He doeth by the Son, as the Lord Himself saith (John v. 19.); so when Baptism is given, whom the Father baptizeth, him the Son baptizeth; and whom the Son baptizeth, he by the Holy Ghost is perfected." And yet again[4]:—"Moreover, holy Baptism, wherein the whole constitution of our faith centres, is not given in the name of the Word, but of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

  1. Cat. 4. de decem dogmatibus, § 16.
  2. De decretis Nic. Synod, t. i. p. 237. ed. Bened.
  3. Orat. ii. c. Ariann. Ib. p. 509.
  4. Orat. iv. c. Ariann. p. 633.