Of the Benefit, Virtue, and Operation of Baptism

Chrysostom on Philippians, chapter 3, page 405, says: "Christ has given or ordained baptism as a purgative, and so we have spewed out all wickedness, and by it have been made free from all our sins. The heat has abated, the fever is checked, all impurities have departed, and through the Spirit all other evil things have been purged out—those springing from fornication as well as those having their origin in the vanity of the mind."

Again, on Hebrews 7: "Therefore God gives baptism, so that it may wash away sin and not increase it.

Again, on Colossians 3: "Truly, before baptism we were very impure, but after it we become golden."

Again, on Hebrews 11: "What then constitutes brotherhood, if not the washing of regeneration (that is, baptism)?"

Who does not see from these passages of Chrysostom that the baptism he speaks of applies in no way to infants, but only and exclusively to rational persons? For when he first says to those who wished to receive baptism that they should (spiritually) take hold of the feet of Christ, and wash them with their tears, and then says that Christ has given or ordained baptism as a purgative, and that they had thus spewed out all wickedness (that is, sin), he sufficiently indicates by this that he is not speaking of the baptism of infants, since these cannot do the things which he describes as belonging to baptism.

All these things are established still more clearly by the following passages from his writings, as we shall show.

In Bapt. Hist., page 406, Chrysostom, on First Corinthians 10, says: [n234-1] "The passage of the Jews through the Red Sea was a type of the baptism to come." A little further on he explains this, saying: "For there it was water, here it is also water; indeed, here it is the washing, and there it was the sea; here they all go into the water, there they did the same. But do you want to know the truth of the matter? There they were delivered from Egypt, but here from idolatry; there Pharaoh was drowned, but here the devil; there Egyptians perished, but here the old man of sin is buried."

Again, on John 3, Homily 27: "We have committed many and grievous sins, and from youth to old age have not refrained from staining our souls with them; yet God does not require an account from us, but absolves us from them through the washing of regeneration (that is, baptism), and has freely given us righteousness and holiness:"

How could anyone speak more plainly and clearly of the true baptism of believers? For when in the first passage he says that in being baptized we are delivered from idolatry, and that in or through baptism the old man of sin is buried; and in the second passage declares that they, having committed many and grievous sins from youth to old age, are absolved from them through the washing of regeneration, that is, baptism; it is again very evident that this does not apply at all to children, since they, never having lived in idolatry, cannot forsake idolatry; neither can they who, being still in their infancy, have never lived according to the old man, much less died to it, bury the old man of sin in or through baptism; finally, they who, being still infants, have not reached old age, cannot or need not be absolved through the washing of regeneration (that is, by baptism) from the sins which they have not committed in this life.

Bapt. Hist., page 410. That baptism ought not to be deferred, Chrysostom (Homily 1, on Acts) explains with these words: "If anyone says: I am afraid, I answer: If you are afraid, you should have received and observed baptism. But you will say: For that very reason I do not receive it, because I am afraid. But are you not afraid to die in this condition? You say: Ah! God is gracious. Well then, therefore receive baptism, seeing He is so gracious and helps you." He says finally: "It is impossible. I say impossible, that he who on such a hope defers baptism can do anything good or commendable."

Bapt. Hist., page 420. The teachers of the church sometimes call baptism a consecration; regarding this Chrysostom says (Homily 1, on Acts)

"Who will fully believe me, how it pains me to the heart when someone dies who has not been consecrated," that is, baptized. And a little further on he writes: "What anguish of soul I feel, when I see how others do not hasten to baptism until their breath is about to leave them," that is, when they must die.

These passages of Chrysostom show how exceedingly sorry he was that some deferred their baptism to the end of life, who ought to have received it in time; yet not before the time of faith or repentance, much less in infancy, since he speaks only of those persons who had voluntarily, and no less presumptuously, neglected their baptism. Hence it sometimes happened that persons desired to be baptized in their sickness, indeed, on their deathbed, which this good man opposed with conclusive arguments. Bapt. Hist., page 412, Chrysostom says: "The mysteries are glorious and greatly to be desired, but let no soul that is about to die receive the washing; for that is not the time for the mysteries (baptism), but to make a will; the time for the mysteries (baptism) is when the mind is sound and the soul purified."

Finally, Chrysostom here again brings forward two things which do not apply to infant baptism. First, his saying that "the mysteries" (namely, of baptism), "are glorious and greatly to be desired;" for such a desire cannot exist in infants. Secondly, his declaration that "the time for the mysteries (or, for baptism) is when the mind is sound and the soul purified;" for infants neither have nor know unsoundness of mind or impurity of soul. Hence neither the soundness of their minds nor the purification of their souls can be promoted or kept in view, and baptism can, for this very reason, have no place with them.