Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/395

Rh emboldened by your seal, (of Baptism,) 'I also am the image of, of the Glory on high; not as yet have I been cast down, like thee, for pride; I am clothed with , I am changed by Baptism into , 'worship thou me.' Well I know, he will depart defeated and ashamed, as from , the First Light, so also from those who have been enlightened by. Let us be baptized then that we may prevail." Again, "Whilst thou art a catechumen, thou art in the vestibule of holiness; thou must enter, pass the court, gaze on the Holy things, look into the Holy of Holies, .—Great are the things by which thou art besieged, great is the defence thou needest: he fears thee fighting armed: therefore he would strip thee of this grace that he may master thee the easier, unarmed, and unguarded."

The above is from a sermon on Baptism, a sermon, indeed, full of practical instruction. It may be yet more striking to observe the manner in which the blessings of Baptism are adverted to, when the writers are upon other subjects. Although such cases cannot furnish the same detail, yet, since "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," they testify the more how full the heart was of its Baptismal blessing, I will instance one case only. We are accustomed to refer to the form of baptism appointed by our Lord (Matt, xxviii. 19.), as a proof of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity: so also the ancients; yet not in our dry and abstract way, but as recalling to themselves the benefits thereby conferred on them. "The ," says St. Basil, arguing against the impugners of the Divinity of the , "the , when delivering the saving faith to those who were instructed in the word, joins the with the  and the . The power of the  then having been included with the  and the , in that life-creating power, whereby our nature is removed from mortal life to immortality," &c. And again —"Whence are we Christians? 'through the faith,' will every one say. And how are we saved? By having been regenerated by the