Fire, Water, and Blood

And if a man of this kind should come back to you again, you will certainly hesitate over whether he may have baptism or not; and yet you will have to help even this man in whatever way you can, if he repents. For if this adulterous — indeed murderous — baptism has any other source at all, that source is certainly a book which these same heretics put together in support of this same error, a book titled The Preaching of Paul. [a]

In that book, against all the Scriptures, you will find Christ confessing his own sin — although he alone committed no sin at all — and almost forced against his will by his mother Mary to receive John’s baptism. You will find that when he was baptized, fire was seen upon the water, which is written in neither of the Gospels. And you will find that after so long a time Peter and Paul, once they had compared the good news at Jerusalem, and after all the weighing of it, the quarrel, and the final settlement of what was to be done, came to know one another as if for the first time. There are other things of the same sort, invented shamefully and absurdly. You will find the whole collection of them in that book.

But those who are not ignorant of the nature of the Holy Spirit understand that what is said about fire is said about the Spirit himself. For in the Acts of the Apostles, according to that same promise of our Lord, on the very day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had come down on the disciples so that they might be baptized in him, tongues as if of fire were seen sitting on each one of them, so that it would be plain that they had been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire — that is, with that Spirit which was either fire or like fire. It is the same as the fire that burned in the bush and did not consume the bush, and the same as the fire that is the Spirit of the angel, as the Scripture says, “Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire.” If you resemble that Spirit, or are his companion and share in him, you will have no fire to dread — not even the fire that will go before the Lord on the day of judgment and burn up the whole world, sparing only those who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and in fire.

And the Spirit does indeed remain invisible to people to this day, as the Lord says, “The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you do not know where he comes from or where he goes.” But at the beginning of the mystery of the faith and of spiritual baptism, the same Spirit was plainly seen sitting on the disciples as though it were fire; and, when the heavens were opened, coming down on the Lord like a dove. For many things, and nearly all the things that were still to come, are made known and yet in themselves remained unseen; now they are shown to people’s eyes and to their unbelief as well — in part, or at certain times, or in a figure — to strengthen and confirm our faith. [h]

And I should not leave out what the Gospel announces so well. For our Lord says to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven you,” and by that he showed that hearts had been cleansed by faith for the forgiveness of sins that was to follow. That woman in the city who was a sinner obtained this same release from sins, and to her the Lord said, “Your sins are forgiven you.” And when the others reclining at the table began to say among themselves, “Who is this who forgives sins?” (the scribes and the Pharisees had grumbled sourly over the paralyzed man), the Lord says to the woman, “Your faith has made you well; go in peace.” From all of this it is shown that hearts are cleansed by faith, that souls are washed by the Spirit, that bodies are washed by water, and further that by blood we may come at once, and more readily, to the rewards of salvation.

I think we have fully worked out the announcement of John the Baptist, which is where this discussion began, when he said to the Jews, “I baptize you with water for repentance; but the one who comes after me is greater than I, and I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” And I think we have also set out, and not unsuitably, the teaching of the apostle John, who says that “three bear witness — the Spirit, the water, and the blood — and these three are one.” And unless I am mistaken, we have explained as well what our Lord says: “John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” [n]

I think, too, that we have given no weak reason for the custom itself. Let us take care — though we take that up in a later place — that no one supposes we are stirring up the present debate over one point only; and yet this custom, even standing alone, ought to hold first place among people who fear God and are humble.