Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/399

Rh had begun to wax weary of their profession, as a toilsome, unprofitable, insulted occupation; and, having put their hand to the plough, to look backward to the world. We, under the like circumstances, should, doubtless, recal to them their ordination vows, that they were no longer free, that they had bound themselves; or we might set forth the high dignity of their profession in the sight of, to be employed in tending sheep. This would also be doubtless true: but St. Ambrose goes deeper; he claims these weary soldiers by an earlier, higher, more comprehensive title,—not what they had promised to, but what had done for them:—"they had died with Christ in Baptism; now, therefore, we share His life (convivimus); they had received the light of life with , had been warmed by , had received the breath of life, and of the resurrection." And who would not feel, under the like temptation, how poor the reminiscence of any vows would be, compared with the thought, that the life we had was life, the breath we lived by,  Spirit, the breath of the resurrection. Yet, I would not compare the efficacy of different motives; for this is descending to low ground, as if we were judges of divine truth. I would only instance it, as a specimen how, in other days, and with other notions of Sacraments, the memory of them, and their benefits, was ever present to the soul. Once more: people still dread, lest, by telling our flocks, that they have all been born again, all once died to sin, and been born again unto righteousness, we should relax their diligence: yet St. Augustine, they will allow, knew well the heart of his fellowmen, and its corruptions and deceit, and was a faithful preacher of the cross of, as well as of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Let us hear, then, how he addresses even adults recently baptized, and in them, as he says, the rest of his flock —"To-day, let us address those who were baptized and re-born in, and you (the people generally) in them, and them in you. Behold, ye were made members of . If ye think what ye were made, 'all